Recent Changes

We have to teach students how to teach themselves; guide them to learn the proper way on-line. How to help them facilitate their own learning.
Technology en masse needs to be adopted. If they don’t adopt tech immediately they will falter.
19 of the top 20 employment opportunities are STEM in nature. Americans are innovative and creative. Its important that we teach students to be creative and innovative. Students need to have an innovative spirit.
Application of information. Using information in all different ways.
The gaming stuff was fascinating. Interested in exploring that further. The idea of collaboration on assessments.
The idea of being able to learn from a game. All the different applications can impact creativity, problem solving, etc. Makes learning more engaging.
We are not the keepers of information any more. We need to train students how to use the information. How do we make that access work for us.
In the education world we need topics that build off one another, and that there is a purpose.
Using technology, but not just for the sake of using it. Going beyond PowerPoint. We need to figure out how to use so that it is meaningful. We will struggle with this for a while.
Bully “type” exercise/questionnaire. What to do with those students in the classroom, how to configure the classroom/small groups to help with the dynamic. Allows you to train the bullied and work with the bullies.
Learning body language of the bullied.

Agree/Aspire
I agree with how completely out of the loop we are in terms of the lives of our students, since more than half of what the students do we are unaware of; we need to understand our ignorance in order to do things better
I am blown away by what activities people are engaged in outside of school; I agree that we need to become even more actively involved in our students lives
I agree that students need rules, especially through the “explain and train” method. I aspire to implement this in the Lower School
I aspire to implement exercises in the classroom to help students build connections in their brains
I agree that movement helps make connections and I aspire to implement these in my classroom
I aspire to implement more differentiated assessments in my classroom to complement the authentic assessments I use
I agreed with the information presented at the bullying workshops, particularly that the children need to be coached in order to prevent it
I agree we need to be adaptable and help our students learn how to do that
What does this mean for our work with students?
We need to be adaptable and need to teach our students how to be adaptable
Don’t pigeon-hole students in leadership roles; mix it up
Students need to learn how to see the bigger picture; they will have many different jobs within their lives
It was interesting to physically become a student again; it was difficult to sit still for a few hours at once
Good to put ourselves in the positions of our students
Made me think about how to make our classes more engaging, physically and mentally, for our students
Could we have students perform physical activities in class?

Group Agreements and Aspirations:
Aspire to make a book with lower schoolers; aspire to make my own rubrics in conjunction with kids; aspire to make more tools that kids can have to practice language outside of the classroom; agree that it's never too late to retire your brain, aspire to rethink the purpose of assessments; agree that we're all bait strange and learn to just roll with that rather than fight it; agree that we should look at diversity as deeply as possible and not get caught up in superficialities, aspire to convert kitchen byproducts to biodiesel within the Liggett environment; aspire to help students inculcate a sense of obligation to the Detroit community and not see their time here and their time in college as stepping stones to careers and endeavors beyond the community. In other words, encourage students not to put Detroit in their rear view mirror; agree that teaching is not a one- way flow of information
What does this mean for our work at Liggett with kids?
1. Never too late to rewire and improve practice - this leads to new ways of engaging students in worthwhile educational endeavors 2. That we, as teachers, are actually fellow learners, and it's important that students see us struggling, trying and perhaps failing rather than assuming that we are all finished intellectual products 3. Students seeing teachers go off to professional development should mean to students that their models value exploring new ideas and possibilities. Learning does not have a terminus.

What does this mean for our work with students?
Provide opportunities for students to realize that some work goes unfinished and continues to be a work-in-progress.
Utilize online resources that enable teachers to post a question or idea to get many different comments, ideas or resources in return.
Use opportunities like literature studies/author studies and technology to create connections and interactions with other classrooms or schools.
Implement specific moment course techniques, such as Brain Gym, into the classroom to help with brain development for children who struggle with handwriting, learning to read, occupying other people’s space and focusing. Provide teachers with proper training for these areas.
Explore the possibilities to include such activities as tai chi, yoga, drumming and labyrinth within the school day.
Think about creating an outside labyrinth in the gardens.
Aspire
Explore Performance Task Scenarios to allow for instructional differentiation and to give students opportunities to take learning to a deeper understanding.
Explore interest in creating a class or course outline of the skills/concepts that students will encounter and that students will use that outline to check what was covered/learned at the end of the class/year.
Build rubrics (e.g. holistic rubric for Academic Research Project) and define assignment/project/presentation expectations.
Explore technique used by Ann Novak, Explanation Across the Curriculum 21st Century presenter, in writing an effective paragraph and creating a description in how to effectively respond to a lesson. (Conference handouts can be found on the wiki.)
Explore 3-2-1 Innovations and using the strategy of noun correlation to a topic (e.g., camera and professional development). Look at the quality behind successful name brands and how can we can approach professional development and school issues. Include the critical evaluation of these popular ideas and create predictions of the consequences.
Enhance global learning opportunities. Time zone differences can hinder classroom connections; however, the Flat Classroom approach can counter this problem.
Build relationships. Get to know students first and finding opportunities to reach them. Flicker.com is a great online source for students to post responses to pictures or artwork and this information can be shared globally.

Agree or Aspire reflection statements AND What Does This Mean For Our Work With Students?
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David H. Teaching better not harder and more
David T. Prep School Negro film worth viewing as a whole school
Peter Pieces from Guy Kawasaki struck as interesting upon reflection, not initially. Session by Richardson dealing with literacy and themes of literacy in Prep School Negro film resulted in consideration of, “what literacy do we desire?” (e.g., cultural competence)
Kathryn Brain, behavior, and learning sessions helped keep effort for differentiated lessons at the forefront since not all students are “good at school”.
Peggy Higher Thinking session to actively engage students with the lesson’s content
Michele Jay McTigh’s assertion that the inherent scale in a rubric for alternative assessments need not be balanced and should reflect greater weight on content versus asthetics
Donna The need for movement to increase attention and focus and rewiring the brain to promote integration (e.g., brain gym/P.E.)
Julie Good reminder of brain development material and the importance of physical movement and repetition requiring 6 weeks to 3 months to rewire and how reflexes are used to compensate for learning disabilities
Lindsey Prep School Negro film promoted assimilation not because of one orientation being better, less, right, or wrong than another, but merely different. How can we convey this message and find a balance between where students are coming from and what our environments encourages? Also, athletes as leaders session and aspirations to develop a program at Liggett
Therese Use of ‘openers’ for developing effective communicators and establishment of mastery points (e.g., where should you stand when using Skype?). Going beyond mere use of technology tools to depth and meaning in activity. Honeycutt’s session with self-publishing to wider audience to instill value. Voiced frustration on limits of existing technology and expression of other attendees, “… on a Mac”.
Jay Sessions with on-line living focus. Considering, are we going to be engaged? Looking at more formal instruction to younger students. Interested in having Kevin Honeycutt speak at Liggett.

What did we take out of ISACS?
*The Prep School Negro – Why are we trying to protect these kids from discomfort but giving them ways to deal with it? If we avoid these discussions we’re protecting the majority.
*See the film
Multiple Skill Sets & Competencies
Will Richardson – inspired to aspire to use technology to stoke my own fires and bring them into the classroom. Cool quick clicks “curator” (Jen) – then students discussing them in forums. Teacher as filter.
Honeycutt – We are teaching our kids for the future – beyond what we’re doing right now. Collaboration and teamwork. Exposure to new technologies.
Richardson – Whether you like it or not you’re teaching on the cusp of a new reality and world. You have to teach kids to adapt, be comfortable with constantly adapting, jumping.
Kawasaki – Network and pull them all together > give an answer or resources and have them create a game or figure out the steps.
Bullying Session – Quiet, subtle, passive aggression rather than the overt bully. Have your antenna up for the kid that’s a little too good to be true.
“Prepare the child for the path, not the path for the child.” Fight the instinct to protect them or do things for them.
Active Learning – kinesthetic – keep kids up and moving. Brain gym exercises research (how legit is it?).
Physical movements connected with brain activity.
How do I adapt to what the kids are exposed to and how they are trained to learn? Creating chaos – building community bombarded with great ideas.
Curiosity and creativity (aspire to foster kids’ thirst). Aspire to create “controlled chaos” – flexibility and adaptability. Utilize every teacher moment.
Anne Zalone – Learn through movement. Only sit and lecture to a child for as long as their age + ten minutes (Brain Gym in LS).
Honeycutt – Interested in his blogs and twitter. Realized I need to start getting into that stuff. Be aware of what you put out there – digital citizenship. What our kids put out there online is out there.
Will Richardson – the student online portfolio – connecting kids with outside experts and “teachers.”
Games vs. the excitement – capture the gaming emotion, solving puzzles.
Jane – Reality is broken, mysteries we have to solve – take it to the next step
What does it mean for our students?
Difficult issues in literature (incest in A Thousand Acres); having meaningful difficult discussions that are productive.
Giving them the tools.
We need to define those skills. What are the important skills to have?
Access to technology - Computer labs becoming obsolete.
Kindle fine.

Group #2 ISACS reflection
Aspire to have a website for every class. Lucy Gray: Google forms work free and unlimited.
Aspire to build a compost pile. If we could create a compost pile it could unite all divisions working together; Pre-K 3-12th and all faculty and staff.
Aspire to be a peacemaker; not a peacekeeper. Speak up and take control. Change for the good.
Aspire to have work as Google works…20% of work time devoted to a person passion.
Aspire to use Lulu.com where students can publish their own work.
Aspire to make rubrics more clear and detailed; Jay McTighe’s session.
Agree and Aspire: Giving kids choices and having them more involved in topics. They need to be justified in their choices. They need to be accountable for why they chose it and invested in their research.
Agree that students need to align the right and left side of their brain to learn most effectively. braingym.org offers activities and brain exercises to assist students with this. Do we have time? Make time!
Aspire to have the entire school watch the movie Prep School Negro. Open our eyes to real life and real experiences that occur in environments that are similar to ours. Our diverse student body would benefit from discussions that would stem from viewing this film.
Agree: When students are the center of their learning, responsible for becoming “experts”, teaching what they now know to others, the stage is set for self-directed, life-long learning.
Ideas for our student body:
Create a compost pile near kitchen for snack/lunch scraps…possible garden club to unite students. It is an opportunity for Pre-K to be actively involved in a school-wide project.
Students are able to have personal passion time with our Curriculum for Understanding work.
Creating work on lulu.com they are creating a legacy of work.
Begin enhancing current rubrics by asking students for input in creating rubrics for assignment/project.
Asking students to be thoughtful in their topic choices and require them to respond to these choices so they are accountable and invested in their work.
SEED; can we get this film to have everyone view? Laurie is working on this J

Links, ideas, and related stuff we found at the ISACS conference:
Jane McGonigal - Gaming - http://janemcgonigal.com/
Ben Curran - Going Global - http://www.engagingeducators.com/blog/
Kevin Honeycutt - (living in an online world; are we engaged with our kids?) - http://kevinhoneycutt.org/
Will Richardson presented this definition of 21st Century Literacies as created by the National Council of Teachers of English:
Adopted by the NCTE Executive Committee, February 15, 2008Literacy has always been a collection of cultural and communicative practices shared among members of particular groups. As society and technology change, so does literacy. Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the twenty-first century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, many literacies. These literacies—from reading online newspapers to participating in virtual classrooms—are multiple, dynamic, and malleable. As in the past, they are inextricably linked with particular histories, life possibilities and social trajectories of individuals and groups. Twenty-first century readers and writers need to
Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts
Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments
Jane McGonigal - Gaming - http://janemcgonigal.com/
Ben Curran - Going Global - http://www.engagingeducators.com/blog/
Kevin Honeycutt - (living in an online world; are we engaged with our kids?) - http://kevinhoneycutt.org/
Will Richardson- Information Leadership (and more) - http://weblogged.wikispaces.com/Information+Literacy AND additional resources -
http://weblogged.wikispaces.com/

Links, ideas, and related stuff we found at the ISACS conference:
Will Richardson presented this definition of 21st Century Literacies as created by the National Council of Teachers of English:
February 15, 2008
Literacy2008Literacy has always
Develop proficiency with the tools of technology
Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally

Links, ideas, and related stuff we found at the ISACS conference:
Will Richardson presented this definition of 21st Century Literacies as created by the National Council of Teachers of English:
Adopted by the NCTE Executive Committee, February 15, 2008
Literacy has always been a collection of cultural and communicative practices shared among members of particular groups. As society and technology change, so does literacy. Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the twenty-first century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, many literacies. These literacies—from reading online newspapers to participating in virtual classrooms—are multiple, dynamic, and malleable. As in the past, they are inextricably linked with particular histories, life possibilities and social trajectories of individuals and groups. Twenty-first century readers and writers need to
Develop proficiency with the tools of technology
Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally
Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes
Manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information
Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts
Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments
Jane McGonigal - Gaming - http://janemcgonigal.com/
Ben Curran - Going Global - http://www.engagingeducators.com/blog/