Nocking the Arrow

What is the purpose of school? Some will say schools are necessary to prepare students for subsequent life stages. For some, this is additional formal education, for others, it may be launching a career. Others will argue schools are essential for creating educated contributors to democracy. Sadly, many families regard schools as daycare centers. When I asked students, "what is the purpose of school?", The most common responses were " I don't know " and " to prepare students for something." These seemingly uninspired responses are actually rather insightful. We live in an era of exponentially accelerating change. How can educators be expected to know what the future holds? Are traditional school structures and curricula preparing students for their " something "? Media is brimming with reports, many contradicting, about job automation , machine learning, and the changing nature of work. We are also seeing numerous reports of people earn...

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” -   Alvin Toffler Bruce Dixon , from Modern Learners , says, " ... no matter who you are, this time, right now, is a truly awesome time to be a learner.   "  While I agree with Bruce, his observation makes me wonder, "if this is such an awesome time to be a learner, why aren't we seeing numerous, wide-spread examples of awesome learning in schools?" Where is learning happening most readily and effectively? What does it mean to be educated? How and when are modern learners becoming educated? The key to advancing our education, and creating innovative, relevant schools may rely on our willingness and ability to unlearn. How do we unlearn? In his recent post, " The Urgency to Unlearn ",  Will Richardson  acknowledges, " educators have learned through personal experience what constitu...

"There is an opportunity to use design to craft a new invitation and journey for education and for learning." - David Jakes It seems like yesterday, but it was actually two years ago when educator-now-consultant, David Jakes , led our district level workshop about designing meaningful spaces for the modern learner . After considering school climate and culture, Mr. Jakes's driving questions were, "What types of learning experiences do you want for your students? Can you design spaces that serve as invitations to inquiry and learning?"  Those early conversations sparked discussions with faculty and staff, with students and their parents, and with members of our communities. In our high schools, the fruits of those conversations are becoming realities. "Make it new - look at your space with 21st-century eyes: Does it work for what we know about learning today, or just for what we knew about learning in the past?" - The Third Teacher: 79 Ways...

Thanks to the holiday generosity of my sons, I have entered the world of wearable technology. Each of the past four days has been marked by at least eight thousand steps, at least thirty minutes of vigorous exercise, and at least seven hours of restful sleep. With the accompanying mobile app, my Fitbit Charge HR monitors my daily steps, heart rate, calories burned, and length and quality of sleep. I can increase the breadth and depth of my wellness program by logging food and water consumption, body weight, and types of exercise. The Fitbit dashboard provides detailed, real-time feedback that is personalized to my wellness targets. What does wearable technology have to do with putting students in a position to win in the classroom? Drive - ( Daniel Pink ) The general well-wishes for winter break include rest and relaxation; it's easy to become unmotivated with more free time on hand. Daniel Pink's research shines a light on factors that feed our motivation; auto...

“Life without community has produced, for many, a life style consisting mainly of a home-to-work-and-back-again shuttle. Social well-being and psychological health depend upon community.  Third places are informal gathering places.  They are the heart of a community’s social vitality, the grassroots of democracy, but sadly, they constitute a diminishing aspect of the social landscape." - Ray Oldenburg Who remembers " Cheers "?  The television third place of libated conversation and humor, where everyone knows your name. Are we creating school-based places where climate and community become positively established?   Left to their own devices, students and staff will build segregated hangout bubbles in hallways, offices, and nooks beneath stairwells.  Third places are comfortable confines between the private life of home and the prearranged areas of school and work. Informal and inviting, Oldenburg says third places offer tremendous opportun...

Attending school open house events always leaves me emotionally conflicted because there are many times when I can't, or don't want to, believe what I'm hearing. I have trouble understanding many of the rules that some teachers include in their syllabus. I feel the need to challenge published grading policies and procedures that are clearly unfair to students. But I keep my parent hat on and keep my educator card in my pocket as I search for more understanding. Maybe I'm just getting old and losing perspective about classroom management and student evaluation. Regardless if you are a teacher, student, or parent, you can help me with the writing of a more balanced and informed post by sharing your thoughts in the following five-question survey. The policies and procedures included in this short form are from documents distributed to parents during last month's open house season. Loading... I will share results and comments in a follow-up post. Th...

Should current students learn how to use email?   As someone who celebrates a clean email inbox about once every five years, I found it interesting that the topic of student email usage was on the agenda of our recent high school leadership meeting. The focus of this brief conversation concentrated on these questions. How can we get students to utilize their school email account better?  Should we be teaching students how to communicate with email? When and where should email usage skills be taught?  Who's responsibility is this? Why do we want kids to check their email? Those around the conference room table agreed with the importance of students checking their email to stay informed about upcoming events and opportunities. Others mentioned it as being an important part of "digital executive functioning." Time was running short when someone said, " Kids don't use email. " This brief statement sent my mind scurrying in several simultaneo...

Comedian and entertainer  Howie Mandel uses fist taps instead of hand shakes as a coping strategy for his mysophobia . Years before this became a popular greeting method, I was using fist taps to connect with my G343 Psychology students. Early in the course, we would use our hands as models when learning about human brain anatomy. The hemispheres and lobes of the brain were represented by both hands and the position of the fingers and knuckles. To promote our psychology learning club, or learning community, we would touch fists when entering or exiting the classroom, and to acknowledge each other when outside the classroom. This gesture became a symbol of connection for a few hundred psychology students. This year, I am using a similar theme to promote connected learning at our school. During our summer institute day, I introduced my fist, specifically the four knuckles, as symbols for improving learning at our school. Knuckle of index finger - put learning first . 9 out o...

Credit Dr. Jackie Gerstein with creating a chart that is getting a lot of attention in social media this week, particularly Twitter. There are some educators whom I follow for their interesting perspective and expression. There are other educators whom I follow because I am consistently learning from them. Jackie is at the top of my list of educators who help advance learning. Simple chart that says so much! via @jackiegerstein "21st Century Pedagogy; What's Hot, What's Not" #edchat pic.twitter.com/pIO6MIL1Dw — Robert Schuetz (@robert_schuetz) July 14, 2014 Related Reading Educators Need to be 21st Century Learners Too - Amy Heavin, Fractus Learning photo credit: the_junes via photopin cc

With technology changing so rapidly, there is always something new to learn. We are bombarded with stimuli radiating from our mobile devices. How much of this we actually attend to is uncertain. We do know, thanks to the research of  Dr. Gary Small and others, that web based information is changing the development and functioning of our brains. Since our clocks and calendars are remaining constant while the amount of information we are exposed to keeps doubling every twelve months , something has got to give. Either double the number of hours in a day, or allow us to scrape some obsolete scraps from our learning plates. In order to make additional room for modern learning, here are some things that I would like to remove from my personal learning platter. Cursive handwriting - I took a drafting class in junior high school, that was almost forty years ago. That also marked the end of my days writing in cursive. As my family will attest, my ability to write using pe...

December 9 - December 15 is Computer Science Education Week . "Hour of Code" is a cornerstone initiative to raise an awareness, and appreciation for programming. The premise is to give all students the opportunity to spend at least one hour this week learning to write programming code. I have long been interested in learning another language. In the past, I assumed that this would involve brushing up on my Spanish, or learning German. Now, I clearly see a benefit to becoming bi-lingual with coding as a second language. (CSL) Students in the United Kingdom are immersed in coding as part of their regular curriculum from early elementary grades on up. This experience will certainly give their students a competitive advantage in a rapidly changing, technology-rich, world economy. Here are some resources to help you learn more about " Hour of Code ". You and your students can get start writing lines of code today! Computer Science Education Week - Getting...