guest written by Tracy Schutz 

As probably many veteran educators do, I dream of the perfect school — the precise balance between properly aligned curriculum to meet the needs of every child, parents who are supportive and involved, and a faculty properly resourced and always eager to challenge and ask “what if…?”

So, what does The Utopian School (herein called U.S.) look like?  I’ve arranged these rose-colored visions into the ABC’s of course.  Naturally — how else would a teacher organize her thoughts?

Academics, Books, Curriculum — Oh my:

Ah, the thoughts of old social studies books come to mind.  “Why do these books only show 13 stars on the flag, Ms. Teacher?”  Ok, I’m exaggerating, I know!   Our new U.S. will have all it desires to meet the needs of all students.  Our academics are structured around students’ interests with ties to real life and are not cookie-cutter in design.  (Think: online memberships for virtual fieldtrips, science experiments, nature walks, reading and writing cafés…) Textbooks will be available in multiple formats (online, audio, large print, etc.) and will also help students understand the value of the subject — not simply regurgitated information.  Students in today’s society need a clear understanding of why their learning is important and how this will help them be successful in life.  Students cannot compete as adults with explanations such as “because it’s in the curriculum.”  Children are inquisitive by nature and need to know why.

Discipline, Families, Guidance — Yes, please:

The U.S. will discipline students swiftly, fairly, and without regard to academic standing, parent complaints, or special needs (not related to behavior).  Discipline will also follow a strict matrix of increasing consequences so that students understand that their actions are not acceptable and it will not be tolerated.  We all know that, as great as our administration may be, there are certain students who are catered to… (Think: the squeaky wheel gets the grease).  Next up, parents will be REQUIRED to be involved in their child’s education.  Consequences and fines shall be in place for those who repeatedly bring their students to school tardy, promote truancy, and those who generally skip out on any school-to-parent contacts.  In addition, this U.S. will have guidance counselors who will, in fact, provide guidance.  I don’t mean the occasional personal hygiene story, but true lessons about respect, the importance of an education, and proper school conduct.

Money, Omniscience, Politics — Take away the “ugh” factor:

The U.S. will have the foresight to see where the budget can flex and advocate dollars where necessary.  Teacher supplies will flow from the district office like rain on a spring day.  Politics will not be an issue since everyone is FOR the greater good of students’ and teachers’ needs.  Those involved with the school board will have distinguished knowledge and a genuine interest in education and how the community can be further engaged — and not an interest in how to skim a buck or two at the cost of our students’ futures or how to further their campaign.

Resources, Special education, Technology — Absolutely:

The U.S. will provide ample resources for parents, teachers, and students.  Professional Development will be designed around teachers and administration working together to decide what is best for the school.  Afterwards, there will be workshops and communication with parents about these new school trainings and initiatives.  Special education students will be given access to support for continued success outside of school (Think: external academic support, coping strategies, behavior assessment and management tools, etc.)  All students and teachers will have access to current technology, including  student laptops, Smart Boards, smart phone app’s (Think: BYOD—“Bring Your Own Device” ), and other electronic devices that help engage students in the 21^st century.

UDL, Virtual, Worldly — Yes, and this too:

The U.S. focuses on the individual student, yet with a global approach.  Education at U.S. follows a Universal Design for Learning model (Think: one size does NOT fit all) and offers scaffolding and multiple levels of engagement along with online courses to better reach all learning styles.  There is a worldly feel at U.S. to help students understand life on a global level and to help students grow up appreciating and understanding what living in America means.

Zeal — Can’t leave this out:

With all The Utopian School has to offer, of course all of our students, parents, and school staff have a passion and drive to challenge and say “What’s next?”   The U.S. recognizes the need to strive for perfection in education to help our students become competing members in the world economy.  Finally, U.S. educators know that mediocrity in American schools is not the answer and to consistently raise the bar in academics for our future’s sake.

Hooray for Utopia!  How do YOU envision a perfect school?

About the author: Tracy Schutz is a veteran middle school educator currently transitioning from brick and mortar to online education and Social Media Management.  She is passionate about at-risk and online students, ed technology, and Social Media.  Chat with her here: http://dedication2education.com, Twitter, Facebook, or on LinkedIn.

guest written by Justin Ballou

Earlier this week, I had some time to catch up on current happenings in the business sector while waiting for an appointment to begin. From time to time, I find some really good links between the so-called “Real-World” and the one that is currently the standard for education.

While reading, I came across a great article entitled: Netflix’s Unlimited Employee Vacation Policy: Why It Works and was pretty impressed with what I saw! Looking at major business models, perks to employees, and keeping productivity and responsibility high, Netflix went to UNLIMITED VACATION!

Yes, you read right….UNLIMITED! Meaning….um…..no limits on the amount of time that one can take “off” from work. As I read the article, it became apparent that with strong guidelines and staff responsibility, Netflix, (along with some other companies that are pushing the limits on workplace expectations) are taking more of a cavalier approach to how the employees are responsible for their actions.

I got to thinking about this, and as an effective practice, it makes sense! Give your employees freedom and the ability to be motivated and self-directed, and they will get the job done. Heck, with an unlimited vacation policy, I would imagine with the personal responsibility factor that some employees continue to work, (albeit in short spans) while on vacation to make sure they are pulling their own weight.

So, the question is…..why not the classroom? Why do we force kids, (especially at the high school level) to sit in a classroom, at a desk for ninety minutes at a time, moving from class to class and calling that education? What would happen if we, as educators said, “Here is the expectation…..I will be here to assist you in this if needed…” and then allowed for students to rise to the level of expectation, personal responsibility, or rigor?

Some states, (New Hampshire for example) has done away with seat time and moved to a competency based model. Students prove proficiency in their education and can, within reason, pace their education according to strengths and weaknesses. And, in this transition, we have seen some good, bad, and ugly results.

For the positives, it can be clean cut and a high motivator for students. When they are responsible for their own education and have a “choice and voice” in what they do, more often than not, there is authentic learning that occurs; both structured and implied lessons alike, as failure can be just as strong if not a stronger influence on education than success.

We do see some issues emerge as well. One is that there is ALWAYS a learning curve to any action. It is part of human nature to want to manipulate and our environment for gain, and students are no different. What we found is that with teacher consensus, organization, and careful implementation, the change can alleviate some of the transitional pain if the bar is set and understood.

As for the “ugly,” there may be instances where the old system is so ingrained into the community that the scrapping of seat time is seen as a “dumbing down” of education… which then, in turn, can be used against the teachers. Also, with terms/semesters/quarters still the “go-to” for assessment practices, what do we do with those that complete the work in half the time? How about a quarter? Theoretically, we could have 30 different students in 30 different locations….a NIGHTMARE for any educator.

Either way, if planned out and supported….we may be onto something that can benefit students. What are your thoughts on possible successes and pitfalls?

About the author: Justin Ballou is a high-school Social Studies teacher in New Hampshire. Besides teaching, he is active running an education startup called EduTech and enjoys spending time with his beautiful wife. With edtech and authentic learning as his go-to topics, you can reach him at jballouteaches@gmail.com to ask questions or leave comments and follow him on twitter (@nhjbteach).

guest written by Karen Greenhaus

There are a lot of resources and advice out there these days to support teacher’s use of social media in their classroom.  From creating classroom blogs, wiki’s, Facebook accounts, and podcasts, to how to incorporate Twitter into formative assessment – you name it, you can probably find it. However, for many teachers, the thought of using social media is an overwhelming task, especially trying to incorporate it effectively into instructional practice, particularly with the controversy surrounding student safety and privacy issues. What I think is more prevalent, (keeping in mind my only proof is my personal observations and anecdotal evidence), is that there are a handful of teachers in any given school that might be using social media in some form in their classroom, but for the most part, teachers are not using social media in any consistent, pervasive way.

Is this a bad thing? My feeling is yes, because social media offers so many opportunities for students and teachers to collaborate with others, learn and connect globally, and instill communication and creativity into learning. Which leads to another question – how do we get teachers using social media as an instructional tool? There are, of course, probably several answers to that question, but one thing that won’t work is simply telling them they must use social media and offering a day or two of training on specific social media tools and expecting them to change their practice. That doesn’t work with anything (if you haven’t already figured that out). My suggestions – start small and start personally.  This means make social media a learning tool for the teacher first, allowing them to see and experience the power of the medium for them personally, and then build from there into classroom integration and use with students.

What do I mean by making social media a learning tool for the teacher first? As in any profession, teachers must and should be continuing to learn – learn more about content, new technologies to improve instruction, new instructional strategies.  Teacher professional development is a requirement for recertification but also an obligation of any teacher to improve their practice for the benefit of their students. Just as we wouldn’t want a doctor using an outdated method of surgery when there are new and better methods, we shouldn’t want our teachers using outdated instructional tools and strategies when there are new and better ones available. Teacher professional development is an important need for all teachers, but unfortunately, especially in this era of budget woes, professional development is one of the first things eliminated or reduced. My suggestion therefore is to use social media as a tool for providing teachers with professional development to improve their own knowledge about their craft. This will allow them exposure to the power of social media while providing a cost-efficient resource to support continuous teacher learning – learning about their content, their practice, and how to enhance their practice to help their students.

How to start? Start small and start personally. Choose only one thing (start small) – i.e. a blog, a Twitter account, department wiki, etc. to begin. Make it personal for the teachers (start personally) – relevant to their needs (content, instructional, time) and relevant to their technical ability and interests.  Below are some of my suggestions from both an administrative view, for leaders who are trying to get social media into your school as a whole, and from a teacher view, for individual teachers who want to get started in social media but are not quite sure where to begin. (Note: My suggestions are not necessarily recommending specific tools or services, but more from an overall perspective, focusing on trying to create a culture of use and a beginning point.  Any specific social media I do name is based on my own personal experience with social media, which is still in its infancy – I am a novice, starting small and finding my own personal meanings as well).

Getting Social – School Wide/Administrative Suggestions

1. Start a school blog (or Facebook or wiki). Post events that are happening at the school or great things you are seeing in classrooms.  Have each department contribute a post each week or assign a week to each department where they post what topics are being covered or things that students will be learning in the next unit.  Ask specific teachers who are doing interesting or innovative activities with their students to share, including pictures of the classroom.  The blog can be a place where parents and students go to find out what’s happening at the school but also a place for teachers to share what’s going on, develop a culture of celebrating and valuing the great things that are occurring in your school.  It will encourage teachers to support and be interested in their school and colleagues.
2. Start a school Twitter and ask all school personnel to create a twitter account and follow the school.  Create a school hashtag so that all postings by anyone use the hashtag and it creates a record of activity specific to your school.  Much like the blog, post daily events happening at the school.  Tweet about classrooms you observe – mention your teachers.  Again, ask each department to post a weekly tweet or two about what’s happening in that department. Encourage teachers to tweet on a weekly basis about what’s happening in their classroom.  Make this be a place for sharing with teachers and the community – connecting the school, teachers, parents, and students.
3. Encourage each teacher to create a Twitter account and provide each department with a specific hashtag to follow relevant to their content (i.e #mathchat, #sciencechat…there are most likely hashtags specific to each content area). Encourage each department to check in with the hashtag at least once before the department meetings and bring an interesting article/blog/posting to discuss to their department meeting.  This sharing and reflecting on content related topics will foster collaboration, reflection on practice, bring new ideas or create topics for debate to help teachers learn and grow in their knowledge and support each other.
4. Find relevant webinars or live conferences or live tweet chats and provide the time for teachers to meet and participate in these. Everyone could be on their own computer and participate and respond or you could have them in smaller groups with a designated computer person who responds (usually these live events provide avenues for responding via chat panels, twitter responses, etc.)
5. Create an online community, such as Moodle, where resources are shared, discussion topics are posted and teachers can respond and reflect, ask questions.  Post a weekly discussion and give teachers time to respond asynchronously. Provide ‘live chat’ times where you or another teacher leads a topic of discussion relevant to content or education or strategies or new tools, etc.  This provides a non-threatening forum for participation and collaboration.

Getting Social – Teacher Suggestions

1. Start a Twitter account and choose one hashtag relevant to what you teach (for example, #mathchat, #edtech, #edchat, #science)  Once you do, simply read posts and click on links and read the articles/blogs that the links direct you to.  If all you do is read some interesting things related to your topic of interest, even if you never tweet yourself, you are learning.  And, as you read you will notice some of the same folks posting really interesting information on a regular basis, and these then become the people you start following.  Once you find some interesting, relevant people to follow, look at who they follow and slowly build your network.  Eventually, start tweeting yourself – reply to someone’s interesting comment, or thank them for providing the link, or ask a question.  You will begin to find more people with great ideas.  If nothing else, you will be informing yourself and learning and getting ideas. Eventually, try to participate in a live tweet chat (times and topics for these are usually posted by hashtags you follow – for example, #edchat has a live tweet chat every Tuesday at 11 pm Central).  The first time is a little overwhelming, but reading the reflections and thoughts of everyone participating really gives you ideas, things to think about, relevant links and posts, and when you start contributing to the conversation, you then make connections and find others who can become part of your learning network.
2. Find some relevant content-related blogs to follow.  Do content blog searches – read some posts.  Set aside time every day, even if it’s only 10 minutes, to read one post. Eventually start responding and leaving comments – participate in the discussions.  It provides again, links to others who can support your own professional learning and in turn, connect you to others.
3. Join a community forum, such as Linked In, or The Math Forum, or Learning without Frontiers.  Within a forum, there are usually group discussions – find a discussion of interest and read what people are saying.  Contribute your thoughts and ideas to the discussion.  Begin a discussion topic yourself.  This will again, let others out there hear and see your ideas and provide you with a network of peers who can challenge you, provide you with strategies, and help you with struggles.
4. Start your own blog. For professional learning, you want to focus on posting ideas relevant to what you are teaching – so content, strategies, technology, etc.  Start small and just post maybe what’s happening in your classroom.  Or, perhaps after reading an interesting article or viewing a great video on YouTube, write a reflection on that.  Comment on something happening in the educational arena, like teacher layoffs or the Common Core standards. Any article/video/blog you reference, link to it and let whoever wrote it know you are mentioning them – this begins a relationship and connections and helps get other followers.  If you respond to someone else’s blog posts, reference your blog so they can find you. It’s about building a community and networking.  But, even if you don’t have a single person following your blog (which, if you post consistently, you will eventually have folks reading you), if you are posting reflections about what’s happening in your classroom, or thoughts on things you have read or tried or seen related to your teaching or content, you are learning.  You are reflecting and considering your approaches and strategies and beginning a process of improving your practice.

Clearly, this is only a few suggestions on how to get started – I know there are so many other things that someone can do to start using social media.  The key is to start – start small and personal. You will find it leads to some amazing learning opportunities and connections.  Those of you out there with other suggestions please share them – I want to learn myself, as I am still just beginning this journey of being social.

About the author: Karen Greenhaus is currently the Director of Education Technology Outreach for Key Curriculum (http://keypress.com), a math technology company that sells The Geometer’s Sketchpad (http://keypress.com/gsp), TinkerPlots (http://keypress.com/tinkerplots) and Fathom (http://keypress.com/fathom).  She provides professional development for teachers all over the country via face-to-face workshops, blended learning, webinars, and online courses. Karen taught in public schools for over 17 years as a math teacher and math administrator at the middle and high school levels.  She has a BA in math from Virginia Tech, MA in Curriculum & Education from Virginia Commonwealth, and is currently working on her Ed. D. dissertation on professional development in education technology at The College of William & Mary.  Her passion is helping teachers integrate technology effectively into classroom instruction. Karen blogs at http://greenhauseducation.blogspot.com

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed the pattern yet, but I’ve started collecting guest blog posts from all the interesting people that I meet in #edchat each week. We’ve already heard from Mike Vigilant and Justin Baumgartner. This week, I’m continuing the trend, but in a slightly different way.

Debra Finger, The Incidental Techie, writes this week’s contribution on her own blog, and instead of simply reposting the entire thing here I will post up a little teaser and then point you towards it. Hopefully by now you trust me when I say that this post is worth the couple minutes it should take you to read it.

Teacher Debra (to use her Twitter handle), writes this week about the student narrative, i.e. “what parents want to know that grades don’t tell them.” A student’s achievement and involvement in school is a complex thing, and the occasional report card doesn’t even come close to explaining it.

What does? Well, here’s an example from her school:

I am fortunate enough to work in a school that values the whole child and as such, twice a year tries to capture that child in the form of narrative reports about each child’s strengths, weaknesses and efforts in a particular curricular area, including a social emotional picture of each child. These narratives, though extremely time-consuming (did I mention these take weeks and weeks to write?) offer the parent or guardian what letter grades alone cannot: a lens through which they can see their child as the teacher sees him. These narratives can show the parent that after 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, 38 weeks a year this teacher knows that child as a person and a learner.

That was the teaser. But the post goes on from there to talk about other ways of showing parents what their child is doing: student portfolios. So please, by all means, go read it.

Next week’s guest post will come to us from another teacher (that I met in #edchat, of course) that has already been down the student portfolio path in her classroom. Look forward to it.

guest written by Mark Molloy of My Town Tutors