Cathy Nelson’s Professional Thoughts

One of my favorite edubloggers (who resides in a folder for Experts in my reader) has set up a new location for his blog. That’s right friends, David Jakes, expert at Digital Storytelling Guru (just to name a few of his many educational tech skills/expertise) has created a new web presence and moved his blog The Strength of Weak Ties to a new home. Gone is the unforgiving blogger tape across the top, as he is no longer using the blogger service. It’s now a Wordpress theme and hosted under his own domain. Quite impressive. Some of you know I’m looking to relocate too, so I’m especially watching others who are doing the same thing. I will get to talk shop with David Jakes, whom I consider a friend (right now only in the virtual sense, but soon–@Educon2.0 January 25-27–I’ll be able to say he is a friend in the truest sense.) W00T!! Jakes is coming to South Carolina in June for our Upstate Technology Conference in Greenville, SC, and I almost feel like I am the reason he is coming. Well not really just me but allow me to explain. You see, some of the organizers of that conference were at SC EdTech back in October, and they were asking for a presenter who might consider being their (Greenville, SC Upstate Technology Conference) keynote. Since I’m on the planning board for SC EdTech, I was at the information desk when that conversation took place. Knowing those folks fairly well, I joined in the conversation. Tim Van Huele and Jeff McCoy asked if anyone had an idea of who might would come, and I suggested David Jakes. I told them to research him, and that I knew for a fact that Jakes did keynotes and sessions at many educational technology conferences. Well what do you know, but Jakes is coming to SC! I don’t know how big a part I played in him coming this June, but I will take some of the credit. I hope to see him face to face there too. So now I’ll have at least three opportunities to hang out with Jakes: Chris Lehmann’s Educon2.0 in Philadelphia, Greenville’s Upstate Technology Conference, and NECC in San Antonio. Maybe I can get the goods on how to select a host for my online presence.

I first met Jakes at EdubloggerCon in Atlanta. He led some of the conversations, and really challenged my thinking about digital storytelling among other things. Then I befriended him in Twitter, and discovered he had worked early in his career less than a year here in SC, down in the lower state. I sort of rode on his coat tails virtually during Alan November’s Building Learning Communities Conference during the summer, blogging about it several times. I also blogged about joining him virtually at New York’s TechForum. You can read those posts here, here, and here.

You meet all kinds in the bloggospher and twitter. (See the screenshot of a few o my Twitter friends?) They could turn out to be life-long friends, some of ‘em, even if only in the virtual sense. Okay, so this one was too long too. I’m working on it. And it is still not Jan. 1 so I have another couple of days before I must adhere to my personal goal of shorter posts. Some things just can’t be shared in brief posts.

Attribution:

Image: ‘Down on the corner‘
www.flickr.com/photos/21787159@N00/324191327

Image: ‘Twitterfriends_dec07‘
www.flickr.com/photos/c_nelson/2149390049/

Since I’m considering a location change, I’m dabbling with the thought of changing the name of my blog too. I Googled TechnoTuesday, and found a rather comical but raunchy site (which i won’t link to here). My blog was born October 1, 2006 on Blogger[correction-July 2006], but I moved it to Edublogs October 31, 2006, for fear of it being blocked at my school. In researching the other TechnoTuesday, it was begun January 2006, but I think only in print format for magazines, which the blog author lists. It was launched as a web blog later, and the copyright at the bottom indicates 2007. I don’t know if that means the blog itself came to fruition sometime in 2007, or if the most recent rendition of the blog was created in 2007. Either way, I don’t want to be connected in any way, shape, or form to that material. I’m not saying the material is bad—just not representative of me or my personality/moral standards. And since the author of that blog has seen to it that a domain is named TechnoTuesday, I don’t think I “want” to be TechnoTuesday anymore. OUCH! So, I’m brainstorming for a name change before I make the jump to my own domain. Anyone have any suggestions?

Attribution
Image: ‘Rock of Change‘
www.flickr.com/photos/49503045963@N01/105546158

As I see others reflecting on the year 2007 as it draws to a close, I must as well. There have been several changes for me including a new job, a new living arrangement for my family, and new opportunities that are as a direct result of joining the blogosphere and interacting with a network (like Twitter.) I won’t bore you with my favorites, but instead make some goals:

• Brevity - In my own blog reading I find it difficult to read long posts. I know I’m guilty of writing long posts too. So I have a goal–be brief and get to the point! I am planning to reduce verbiage, and try to say it with far fewer words, and instead use more pictures, and maybe a video or two (stored sensibly on video and picture storing sites–hello, YouTube, TeacherTube, Photobucket, & Flickr.)

• Relocate - I am becoming ever increasingly unhappy with Edublogs. I dumped blogger a year and half ago, and jumped ship to Edublogs, primarily b/c I feared Blogger would be blocked at school (and I was not disappointed.) Edublogs was good for me, but as I have grown, my material requires more space. Since it is time to pay for more space to be allowed the service, I see it also as a good time to explore hosting it on my own space/domain. I don’t even know if I understand it, but I have been assured help from my friends Chris Craft, Jennifer Wagner, and perhaps even David Jakes. (Counting on you all, actually!) Timeline? I don’t know. I need to get bills from Christmas squared away before I decide. But in the meantime, my posts will probably be limited.

• Video - I’m going to seriously look at adding video to my mix here. I’ve created myself a YouTube and TeacherTube account, and want to begin playing in the green screen department. Dean Shareski is responsible for that! (Note to Dean–You inspire me!)

• Redesign - I have some presentations coming up, and I plan to redesign them. I’ve been reading a lot lately about the 10-20-30 rule for presenting. I’ve also come to understand that folks don’t want to read it, they want you to tell it-and what better way than in a story. So I’m going to be hitting Flickrcc hard, and trying add in the mix some videos (for commercial breaks, as I heard one blogger call them–wish i could credit that person!) And I’m going to rehearse my spill in the best storytelling format I can come up with. Along with that, I hope to add some kind of interactivity to my sessions–though I haven’t quite figured out how yet. Anyone have any suggestion? Look out SCASL, SCASA’s SLI, and SC Edtech.

Okay, I know, I know, still way too wordy. Give me a break, it’s not 2008 yet! Rag me about it after the first. Happy New Year everyone!

Attribution:
Image: ‘massive change‘
www.flickr.com/photos/20532289@N00/31219031

Ive been tagged by Diane–thanks. I am to list seven unknown facts about me.

• I am the fifth child of seven. Here we are together this past July–first time we had all been together in about five years.

• I was the first National Board Certified Librarian in my district.

• Every year my family waits until a week before Christmas to shop–what a mistake! But we always manage.

• I was scheduled for braces like two other siblings, and went all the way up to spacers–before begging and pleading NOT to get them and succeeding. Probably a mistake too.

• When I took my driver’s license road test at age 16, my accompanying policeman assessor placed his hand on my thigh, and I didn’t say a word. I passed. Go figure. (I told my Mom years later, and she nearly had a stroke.)

• I locked my keys in the car about an hour from home, only to have my husband bring me another set, and find a back door unlocked. I have never lived that down.

• I accidentally flushed my car keys down the toilet; they fell from my jacket’s pocket when I leaned over to flush. Ugggh. Never got them back.

Pass it on, New Jersey Tech Teacher, The Kneighborhood of Knowledge, Snapshots of Technology Integration, TeacherBytes, Technology in Education…Now What?, Library Goddess, and Martha’s Library Corner

Here are the rules:
- Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
- Share 7 random and or weird things about yourself.
- Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
- Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

As I prepare for my Christmas break, I am surprised at the number of teachers who drop by to ask my opinion about purchasing cameras for Christmas. So I have responded with the following information. Of course I am by no means an expert, so if you have knowledge above and beyond what I have to share, please feel free to comment, and I’ll pass on your tips.

Teachers, Several of you have inquired about cameras to purchase for Christmas.

VIDEO:

The flip cameras offer fine video quality for small home projects or taping kids in class, but not for LONGER projects. They are reasonably priced too, ranging from $125-$160. If you are considering one, I would ask the sales person to demonstrate getting video off the camera and judging the quality for your self. You might not be so impressed when you see the quality—I like to call it YouTube quality. But it’s decent enough.

There are many brands and types of video camera. I myself have been questioning whether a “hard drive” camera was a worthy investment. This website will talk about all the various types of cameras available to help you make a knowledgeable decision (even though it appears to be an instructional type site.) I confirmed what I had heard a good while back about the hard drive cameras, in that the video is not in a format that most “editors” can handle, and so must be converted first, which may degrade the quality of the film. If you don’t intend to edit any video, this is a fine purchase. These cameras have upwards of 30 to fifty gigabytes, and you will pay a pretty penny for them, anywhere from $450-$1000.

If I were buying a video camera, I would purchase one that takes mini-dv tapes. They are the least expensive for the QUALITY you get. The video file is in a format that can be recognized by most video editors, including the industry standard Apple program Final Cut Pro all the way down to the freebie on your Windows XP workstation (Windows Movie Maker) (NOTE: ALL the school videos shown on the news program have been created here at school with Windows moviemaker—and they were taped using a Sony mini-dv camera.) Yes, you’ll have to buy mini-dv tapes, but for the quality and considering most of us are “novice” videographers, you will be pleased as punch with this or other similar video cameras.

Another note about the mini-dv cameras—they will take still photos too, but check to make sure you are getting 3mp or higher. 2mp or less will not offer the quality to print out.

STILL PICTURE CAMERAS:

Still Image cameras—most of us want a point and shoot camera, as we are not necessarily interested in professional cameras that have lots of bells and whistles. There are many of these in the stores right now too. If you are considering a santa gift in the guise of a digital camera, Santa should look for this:

1) optical/digital zoom: You want the optical zoom to be higher than 3X. I typically disregard how high the digital zoom is, since all it does is crop and pixellate pictures—they will print out looking fuzzy and unfocused—that’s what the digital zoom does. Also, if you plan to use the digital zoom, get a tripod, because it is virtually impossible to be still enough to take pictures using digital zoom—no matter how still you think you are, camera shake will effect the pix –remember you breathe, therefore the camera will detect even this slightest movement.

2) Pixels. Get at least 3 –and in the stores right now, you almost cannot find a digital camera that does not at least have 5 megapixels. 3MP will print out great 8X10 pictures to frame and display. Also know that downloading the pictures from these cameras will require lots of memory, and you can absolutely fill up your harddrive with useless photos you will never use. Consider JUST downloading the ones that are good enough, or get an external drive (there are 160GB external harddrives for as low as $79, and they resemble an ipod. Small, portable. Cool.

3) LCD Display - if you have older eyes, you will want a fairly large LCD display. Many people don’t even look through the viewfinder anymore, but instead rely on the LCD Display to frame up a shot. You want menus to have readability too, so having a bigger LCD screen will help.

4) Memory cards. Cameras have almost stopped making the smaller ones, and lately the smallest I’ve seen is 512 mb, which translates to roughly 400 average pictures. WOW. (Remember you can fill up your harddrive—can anyone spell c-r-a-s-h?) Most memory cards available are now upwards of 1-2gb. 1600 pictures. Don’t forget you could crash your computer b/c you want to keep all those photos. If you like all your photos, get an external drive. Save pix to it.

If you want a quick and dirty tutorial on using your video camera or still camera, I don’t profess to know all, but I can offer some tips that will make you happier with your final product. Let me know.

Image Attributions:

Image: ‘untitled‘
www.flickr.com/photos/51035715376@N01/270680726

Image: ‘Anyone Have a Flip Video Camera?‘
www.flickr.com/photos/99291169@N00/2120710374

Image: ‘WD-H43 .7x wide angle lens‘
www.flickr.com/photos/86533050@N00/1342274233

What a difference a week makes! Saturday the Edublogger awards were announced, and I was so sure I did not win, I did not even go into Second Life to hear who did, nor did I tap into the many portals made available live (like Edtech Talk, Skype, and others…) You see, as I told all my friends, it was enough to be nominated. I even went out of town on a shopping spree Saturday, and around the time the awards ceremony began, my family was sitting down for a wonderful afternoon (early supper) at Carrabba’s. It was divine, and far more enjoyable. I had a few friends and family asking on Saturday, and they were shocked and dismayed that I wouldn’t stay home long enough to at least log in and see. I assured them my Twitter Network and RSS reader would keep me well informed, so well in fact that I need not worry about it all, but instead enjoy my family. I was not let down.

Congratulations to all the winners, and especially the library blog category, I’m especially pleased it is once again a school library blog. I need not have sour grapes, you see, I know what my authority and rank were in Technorati BEFORE the nominations, and I know what it is now after the nominations, and I know how many commenters I’ve had on my blog, and these statistics (which you can find out yourself with a little work) tell me a story that stands on its own, so there is no need for a pity party about the “loss.” My assistant, another colleague at school, and my sisters were all furious that I would not campaign to win, soliciting for votes from all my networks where I am plugged in and connected. But sorry folks–that is not how I operate. I’ll say it again. It was enough to be nominated. It filled me with immense pleasure and is rewarding all on its own. Wonder how I should put that on my resume?

So I returned to work Monday, doing my thing. I worked two basketball games this week, and made two keepsake memory videos for teachers to document and reflect on school performances. I included students in the second one, having them edit for me, select some pictures to go at the beginning and end, and pick out music to add. I think they learned a lot, and I teased them unmercifully, saying I didn’t like giving out all my secrets—pretty soon they would stop thinking I was amazing!

Anyway, to make this week so very jam up for me, yesterday I received an email invitation from Karl Fisch to participate in an exciting event he will be having at his school in January and February. I have not seen it twittered or posted on his blog, so I’m not sure I’m at liberty to say much else. But know that it is truly a reward for be connected to highly successful educators in the blogosphere. I suppose details about his project that I am joining in will be forthcoming soon, but I don’t mind saying it revolves around Dan Pink’s book A Whole New Mind. I am considering asking our 8th grade teachers to use it as a novel study to go along with Karl’s project. My brain is on OVERTIME! (Side Note: There was a cool DEN Webinar tonight w/ Daniel Pink that was AWESOME!!)

As an added bonus this week, today I get the pleasant (although somewhat embarrassing) surprise of getting mentioned in Doug Johnson’s Blue Skunk Blog where he is answering questions about a former blog post (where he had just opened his OLPC XO.) It is such a novelty, a lot of people are expressing their curiosity by asking questions via his comments. So Doug chose to answer them in another blog post, and what do you know but my DUMB comment is at the top—as I tease about his cat in the picture, and tell a gushy tale of how cute my cat is. <BLUSH> Okay, so not my best side, or even story. But Doug mentioned me none the less. W00t!

This evening I get the email from Joyce Valenza, exclaiming that our panel discussion session for NECC has been accepted! Joyce’s email began like this: “Good news, friends! We’re on for NECC.” Our session will have a panel of “experts” (I can’t believe I’m saying that!); our session title: Feed, Tag, Research: Remixing for School Library 2.5; session description: School librarians are leading learning and instructional change. Discover how we are re-visioning reading, research, and “library” for 21st century students on the Read/Write Web. And I can honestly say we collaborated for days on the topic and description alone. The group panel includes Joyce Valenza, Carolyn Foote, Diane Cordell, Kim Cofino, Anita Beaman, and me. After hearing from Twitter some of the big names who have been turned down, I feel amazed and honored to be with a session that was accepted.

Oooy, my head is getting so big. Don’t put a pin near me, or I might pop. Tomorrow is Friday, and I can’t imagine what kinds of good things it might bring. No time to be sad or depressed though, as I have so much to be thankful for in this week alone! I suddenly feel SO CONNECTED, not only on a local, state, and national level, but also a global level. Daunting, but exciting.

I don’t want to whoop too soon, so just let me end with a tee-tiny “w00t.”

Recently I traveled my 170 mile trip home (I work in a different town from my family, and only visit home on the weekends) and arrived only to be totally disgusted that I did not pack any jeans. Worse, not a single pair of pants! Now before I draw a pity party, let me say I do have a slim wardrobe in my closet at home, but most of it is dressy clothes, like what I might wear out for the evening or to church. Not clothes you would lay around in on Saturday.

So the plan was to get up the next morning and get myself some jeans to keep there. My husband and I left early, and hit the stores. Since I was looking for other things (I had a list) we went to Best Buy first. I needed an S video cord (I broke one at school) and I was to get a mini-dv video camera for another teacher at my school. I had a school procurement card, and so decided to do this in the same shopping trip. Before I knew it, we were home, it was lunchtime, and I still was wearing the pants I had worn at school the day before. I totally got sidetracked by gadgets, electronics, and fun stuff in Best Buy, and never even thought once about needing some pants. My husband and I did a little shopping for my boys’ Christmas too. Teenagers’ stuff comes in smaller packages but rack up in price! I left w/ sticker shock.

What drove this decision? I don’t know. I guess seeing all the stuff I wanted, and deciding that wearing a pair of pants two days in a row wasn’t so bad after all.

Next, I’ve been reflecting on my recent parent workshop (blogged here and here) on popular social networking sites, and decided that not only do parents need to hear the message, but educators as well. I’m by no means an expert, but I feel like I shared good content, and could be prepared to share more. I have even been invited to a neighboring district to present my information to their parents. So I set out to find venues where I could share. I am planning to propose my presentation at SCEdtech (October 2008), South Carolina Association of School Librarians Annual Conference (March 2009), Greenville’s Upstate Technology Conference (June 2008), and the South Carolina Association of School Administrators Summer Leadership Institute (June 2008). I am even dabbling with the thought of submitting it to ETV Streamline SC Teacher Technology Workshop (sponsored by SC DEN), and I’ve never presented or attended their workshops.

So what is driving this decision? My presentation may or may not get picked up, but that’s okay. It’s just a topic I feel strongly about, and want educators to have some basic knowledge too. Could it be pay? No, sadly none of these organizations pay presenters (though in years past the SCASA one has.) I was informed today by a person who would know that SLI will no longer pay stipends. I have presented numerous times at some of the above mentioned conferences, and the experience each time is very rewarding, and strokes my ego enough that I don’t have to have money to want to return. (Though money is nice.)

So what drives my decisions to do this? If I had to pinpoint a reason, I would have to say it is my passion for education and making sure educators realize the resource that may be in the school library.

I’ve been accused before of raising the bar on my fellow school teacher-librarians, but that is most definitely not my intent. My goal, rather, is to show all that our role is pivotal in the school, and we can address many needs, including educating our parents and teachers. So as I feel I have a message to share, I’ll send in a proposal to present, and see were it leads me.

So if I need to pinpoint what drives my decision-making, I would have to say it is my passion. Not always common sense either, since I wore a pair of pants two straight days in a row this weekend.

Attribution:

Image: ‘broken counterfeit jeans‘
www.flickr.com/photos/26813255@N00/4216355

Image: ‘Day 13 - Lazy Days‘
www.flickr.com/photos/98894117@N00/1950344471

Last night I conducted my parent workshop on Teen Social Networking sites (like MySpace, Facebook, Xanga, and more.) The plan was to have a general PTO meeting for the first fifteen minutes, followed by twenty minute sessions on an assortment of topics including:

• Social Networking & Teens (Mine)
• Lexiles
• How are We Doing? An informal roundtable discussion about school concerns
• Reading Our School Report Cards
• Life After Middle School

These were planned as a response to a survey on parent concerns and requests for more information. Upon arriving, parents “signed up” for three of the five sessions. After the parents arrived, all signed up for the session I was doing, and so my principal asked me to do an extended time with the large group, allow for questions and answers, and then the parents could go to one of their next session.

My session lasted 45 minutes, and focused on defining social networks, identifying positive and negative concerns with the sites, and showing a few examples of some of the more popular sites (screenshots since we do not have access to them at school.) I also explained that our school filters, or blocks these sites, and that we do not give instruction about these tools because the district has deemed then inappropriate for school. I explained that we as a school were aware though that many students (even those legally under age according to licensing by the sites standards) were using the tools, and therefore we were giving the session for that purpose. The presentation included tips and other information.

Murphy’s Law was at it for this presentation too, as my assigned location was the auditorium, which had speakers and sound system, mounted projector and electronic roll down screen, and plenty of good seating. I spent my afternoon before our parent workshops setting up the other teachers’ rooms for laptops, projectors, screens, and ensuring they had all their needs since all I needed was my laptop connected to the brand new state of the art auditorium connections. The evenings events were to begin at 5:30, so at 4:30 I went to take my laptop in to set up, only to discover the roll top for the power to everything was locked, and the ONE person with the key was gone for the day and unavailable. Of course you know I had to SCRAMBLE to get a projector, screen, speakers, and all ready. So at 5:15 I was soaking with sweat, but ready and frazzled. I need to remember to ALWAYS expect the unexpected.

The session went well, and I have decided to submit my presentation as a proposal to a couple of other conferences, including the South Carolina School Administrator’s Summer Leadership Institute, South Carolina’s EdTech Conference, and the South Carolina Association of School Librarian’s Annual Conference. I am also considering the Greenville (SC) Upstate Technology Conference. I feel that even though most schools block these tools, educators need to have familiarity with them, and be able to knowledgeably speak to parents as well. Even at my own school, the social networking sites bring issues into the building that guidance and administration have to deal with regularly, and more than likely classroom teachers too.

PowerPoint (on SlideShare)

The PowerPoint Discussion Guide (in Word)

Cyberbullying Video Talent Show (from YouTube)

Cyberbullying Video Kitchen (from YouTube)

What do the pictures on this post tell us about these students’ engagement? Can you tell who is “into” the lesson, and who is not? Sometimes engagement is painfully obvious, and other times it isn’t.

Can anyone tell I had a LOT of staff development in recent years on this?? As a staff we were encouraged to have our students assess their own level of engagement to use on our own as a way to assess our “work.” We literally took time at the end of a class to get feedback (mostly anonymous) from our students. A popular one I used was small stickies and a chart with the Levels–and as kids left they put their sticky on their level. Students were encouraged to make other comments on the sticky, and encouraged to put their name on it too, which was strictly optional. There was no punishment, as I explained all the time I’m trying to fine tune a lesson, and their feedback is important to me.

I haven’t used this at all this year–shame on me–but I think I will get it back out. This was a great way to let me know I was creating lessons and activities that either worked or didn’t work.

Descriptions of Each of the 5 Levels of Engagement

There are five levels of engagement that students might go in and out of during a lesson. The more compelling the lesson is and the work associated with it the higher the likelihood that students will stay engaged. There are other reasons why students will stick with a lesson and work assigned or abandon it. Dr. Schlechty has defined all five levels of engagement

Engagement – High attention and high commitment —Authentic, willing and purposeful attention and true commitment to the demands of quality work. Student engagement should be the central concern of all teachers so that student achievement will increase. The core business of teaching is to create challenging, engaging, and satisfying work for every student, every day; therefore, staff engagement is seen as attention and commitment to designing such work. Students who are engaged learn at high levels, retain what they learn, and can transfer what they learn to new contexts.

Strategic Compliance – High attention but low commitment. There is learning occurring but the reason for the work is not the reason the students do the work. When strategically compliant, the students substitute their own goals - such as grades, class rank, college acceptance, parental approval - for the goals of the work. Students who are strategically compliant learn at high levels but have only a superficial grasp of what they have learned, so they do not retain what they learn for very long and usually cannot transfer what they learn from one context to another.

Ritual Compliance – Low attention and low commitment. The work has very little meaning to students, but they will do just enough to get by. The ritually compliant students do the minimum amount of work in order to avoid confrontation and negative consequences. There are no substitute goals for them. Students who are ritually compliant learn only at low levels and do not retain what they learn, so seldom can these students transfer what they learn from one context to another.

Retreatism – No attention and no commitment. The students who are retreating are disengaged from current classroom activities and goals. They may feel unable to do what is being asked, may be thinking about other things, and/or may be emotionally withdrawn from the action of the classroom. Students who are in retreat do not participate as they see no relevance to the work and, therefore, learn little or nothing from the task or activity assigned.

Rebellion – Diverted attention. Negative learning occurs as rebellious students abandon the learning we offer them and replace it with their own agenda. These students learn little or nothing from the task or activity assigned. They may even bring others along in their diversion as they encourage others to rebel or they provide too much of a distraction.

Levels of Engagement

Students who are engaged:

• Learn at high levels and have a profound grasp of what they learn
• Retain what they learn
• Transfer what they learn to new contexts

Students who are strategically compliant:

• Learn at high levels but have a superficial grasp of what they learn
• Do not retain what they learn
• Usually cannot transfer what they learn from one context to another
• Substitute their own goals for learning (getting good grades, college acceptance, etc)

Students who are ritually compliant:

• Learn only at low levels and have a superficial grasp of what they learn
• Do not retain what they learn
• Seldom can transfer what they learn from one context to another
• Learn because they want to avoid negative consequences

Students who are in retreatism:

• Do not participate and therefore learn little or nothing from the task or activity assigned
• Find no relevance in the assigned activity or task.

Students who are in rebellion:

• Find no relevance in the assigned activity or task.
• Sometimes learn a great deal from what they elect to do (though rarely that which was expected)
• Develop poor work habits and sometimes develop negative attitudes toward intellectual tasks and formal education
• Often disrupt others from learning.

Attribution:

Image: ‘Bacha3‘
www.flickr.com/photos/51035751904@N01/4191055

Image: ‘untitled‘
www.flickr.com/photos/86603835@N00/1435154217

Image: ‘Ratinder‘
www.flickr.com/photos/30083883@N00/404731585

“The business of schools is to design, create, and invent high-quality, intellectually demanding schoolwork that students find engaging.”
- Phillip C. Schlechty

The key to school success is to be found in identifying or creating engaging schoolwork for students.
- Phillip C. Schlechty

The Working on the Work (WOW) framework is an outline for improving student performance by improving the quality of schoolwork.
- Phillip C. Schelecty

These are some quotes I have used before when talking to teachers about student work. I am once again trying to make teachers understand that having a class sit in rows and face the front for a 90 minute block is just not conducive to learning for all our students. My curriculum coordinator and I are trying ti find engaging lessons that we can document for future staff developments, and here is an interview we conducted Friday. We asked these students 3 questions:

• Describe the assignment your class is working on.
• How is it related to your class subject matter (in this case 7th grade Social Studies)?
• How would you rate this assignment on a scale of 1 -10? Why?

I am surprised at how well the students in this group answered. They spoke the TRUTH! The assignment was to create a VoiceThread about a Revolution. The teacher for this class had collaborated with me in the library to plan this project, and even completed most of it in the library. He is pleased as punch about the results, as I am too. But I want to focus on what an engaging lesson looks like. Here are the design qualities of an engaging assignment:

• Content and Substance: Educators, in collaboration with the community, identify the essential learnings and skills that students must master.
• Organization of Knowledge: Content is organized so that access to the material is clear and relatively easy for all students.
• Product Focus: Engaging work almost always focuses on a product or performance of value to students.
• Clear and Compelling Product Standards: The Standards for assessing the products or the performances are clear and important to students.
• Protection from Adverse Consequences for Initial Failures: Students receive feedback on their work and have opportunities to reach the standard throughout the process.
• Affirmation of Performance: Student products are observed by persons other than the teacher.
• Affiliation: The design of the work requires cooperative action among students and adults.
• Novelty and Variety: The work is varied in methods and format so that students use a variety of skills, media, and modes of analysis.
• Choice: Students are provided with choice in the ways of doing the work and the methods of presentation.
• Authenticity: The work has significance and is related to consequences in the present lives of students.

In no way do I think the assignment we collaborated on exhibited all these characteristics, but a good many of them were visible, even to the students who so innocently expressed as much in the video clip I shared. Comments (not all from the tape) that reaffirm to me that the kids felt it was an engaging lesson:

“We got to choose our own topic.”

“We didn’t just use a book to learn about Revolutions.”

“We made…a powerpoint with pictures to tell about a Revolution.”

“Oh I need to redo that b/c I sound dumb!”

“We learned that a revolution is not just about conflict, but about change.”

“My VoiceThread showed how the skateboard changed over time.”

For there to be learning, a lesson has to be engaging. I am happy to say I think this one accomplished its mission.

We asked some students Friday; trying to insert video here:

Download Video: Posted by cnelson at TeacherTube.com.