Digital Storytelling on Kaua’i…

Over the past year, Kaua’i Pacific School has worked to integrate Digital Storytelling into their elementary school program. Digital Storytelling makes sense on an island where the oral tradition of storytelling is losing ground to more modern forms. We wanted to help our students understand that storytelling is the oldest and perhaps most powerful form of both passing on knowledge and for helping us to make sense of the world around us. As we journeyed through the year, we learned many new things. Most significant for me is the reality that children come to school very well versed in the story format but we then hit them with lists and worksheets and disconnected curriculum that doesn’t fit with what they already know to be true about the world. The truth is that we are all connected, we all have stories and we can learn much about ourselves and others by listening to, creating and sharing stories. Stories are a wonderful information container and can help us to increase cognition and receptiveness in even the most reluctant of learners. Who doesn’t love a wonderful story?   The video here was created by Kelsey Matsu, on behalf of the Schools of the Future Project here in Hawaii. This is an ambitious five year program to transform practice in twenty schools across the islands into model schools of the future using the principles inherent in effective networked learning communities. Thank you to Kelsey, the Hawaii Association of Independent Schools, the Hawaii Community Foundation, Jason Ohler, Silvia Tolisano and others in our networked learning community for helping our vision come alive.

Please click here to see our Digital Storytelling Video!

Day 3 & 4 ISTE Reflections & New Questions

So my grand plan to blog each day at ISTE fell by the wayside. There is SO Much to learn, know and do here! You don’t want to miss a minute or opportunity so taking time to blog has taken a back seat to the chance to interact with some amazingly, inspirational people.  However, I did want to get some of thoughts that are swirling around in my head down. Trying to promote inquiry, I am now putting everything into question format…

1. Do I really understand the power of the global network? Am I ensuring that our teachers, parents and students do?

2. Am I promoting practices that encourage mindfulness?

3. Are I making sure that teachers are aware of the importance of teaching network awareness/detection skills?

4. Can I find a way to send someone to the DIGITALES Camp or bring Bernajean to us? 

5. Do I know enough about ePortfolios to help facilitate their implementation?

6. Am I using my PLN to it’s fullest advantage? Should I be using hashtags more?

7. How can I best help board members, parents, donors and teachers understand the need to get kids ready for the extreme future?

8. How can we bring students more into the conversation about norms regarding the use of digital tools in the classroom?

9. Should we start a Hawaii ISTE affiliate? I think I might make it my personal mission…


Lots to think about – good thing I have until August to distill all of this new thinking!

ISTE Day 1 Reflections

My first full day at ISTE was spent in three pretty diverse sessions. The morning was spent in a constructivist consortium with Dr. Gary Stager. It was a wonderful experience and I was happy to get to play in the sandbox with Microworlds and Animationish. Super awesome programs that encourage us to allow students to actually CREATE instead of just having them snap photos, drop them in a prefabbed program and record a script. This is more like programming and students get to have much more ownership and creativity.   

However, after Dr. Stager presented, two otherwise wonderful presenters casually referred to using these software programs to “sneak curriculum” to the students.  I found myself wondering why it has to be snuck in? It smacks of  Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious cookbook where you hide the pureed veggies in things like pancakes. The thing is pureed veggies are for babies. Our students aren’t babies and they can see right through this type of sham.  Why can’t learning be delicious on it’s own? Why does having students create a meaningful animated autobiography have to be viewed as “snuck in learning”?

Another thing both presenters did is talk about how these programs will help the at-risk learners. Why is there so much discussion about at risk learners vs. gifted/bright learners?  Who is deciding how these kids are classified? Viewing kids up front as at risk just adds an overlay of negativity. If we have to use the term “at risk” we should be honest and admit that EVERY child is at risk.  At risk of being bored or classified in a way that limits their potential. At risk of spending 8 hours a day non-engaged and not reaching their full potential.  At risk of drowning in a sea of worksheets, meaningless quizzes and tests. At risk of never encountering a teacher who inspires them by designing meaningful, creative projects….What I learned today is that more educators need to TRUST that a heck of a lot of learning will take place when kids are given great tasks and when the teachers step back and coach, when they prompt, question and clarify instead of directing every step that a child must take to be “learning” in the eyes of the teacher. 

Okay, I’m blabbering and on a soapbox but it seems like we are STILL trying to get people to understand that tasks must be redesigned in order to engage students. Oh and don’t get me started about all the time we are wasting on developing standards. I had to leave the room when that conversation started at my table. Come on people! 

Building Virtual Professional Learning Communities in Elluminate

This morning, I participated in another wonderful professional learning opportunity.  Ben Daley of High Tech High sent me an e-mail inviting me to participate in a virtual protocol session using Elluminate.  Elluminate serves as a virtual classroom and offers whiteboard, chat, video and audio capabilities. I first heard about Elluminate about a year ago when I attended an information session for Hawaii Technology Academy, a charter school here in Hawaii. I checked out the product then and found it intriguing. Over the course of the past year, I have attended a handful of professional development sessions in Elluminate offered by Classroom 2.0 and during the recent Educon events.  These attempts were a bit feeble as I was stuck on my six year old Dell with very limited video and audio capabilities. I admit it, I was a lurker with an occasional contribution or question via the chat feature. About two weeks ago, my brand new iMac arrived. Voila! Built in web-cam and the latest audio! Finally able to jump in the sandbox completely!

I was pretty excited about the session today for two reasons. One, I was eager to try out my new toy! Second, I was very curious about how a protocol would work in this virtual environment.  Over the past year, I have been exposed to and utilizing protocols more to develop the professional learning community at Kaua’i Pacific School. The school is part of a state-wide Schools of the Future initiative and the project leaders at each school have been given several opportunities to practice protocols. At the same time, I am researching 21st century teaching & learning, professional learning communities and networked learning communities as I develop the literature review for my dissertation. I am finding myself very interested in how participation in networked learning communities can transform teacher practice. 

The session was terrific and although there were a few initial glitches getting everyone set up with their audio/video, I was surprised at how quickly the group adjusted to the environment. We were able to make mid-stream adjustments to strengthen the dialogue and everyone seemed to quickly get the hang of how to take advantage of the built-in communication features such as the hand-raising, poll, chat and smiley face.  The ability of the moderator and facilitator to turn on and off the video and the microphones at appropriate times greatly enhanced the experience. The group was also able to generate a terrific list of ideas to make future sessions even better during the debrief on the process.

The online participants included educators from Israel, Hawaii, and San Diego. It was a small group of about 8 participants and our problem of practice centered around a 6th grade teacher  Bobby was wondering how to provide more meaningful and succinct feedback to student’s on their writing to foster growth in future drafts.  Over the course of the hour, moderator Mark Hines from Mid-Pac Institute in Honolulu and Facilitator Ben Daley from High Tech High in San Diego artfully led the group through the protocol.  Bobby presented his problem, we asked clarifying and then probing questions using the chat feature and then broke into two smaller groups in different Elluminate rooms to have group discussions while Bobby.  Bobby seemed to really benefit from the  protocol and it was clear to me that he walked away from the session with a deeper understanding of how to address his problem of practice.

As I logged off the session, I found my mind wandering like crazy! First of all, I can see many wonderful applications for the School of the Future project. It would be amazing to bring together teachers from different schools. We could also bring sub-groups together such as principals, tech coordinators, and/or SOTF project leaders to address role specific challenges. The experiences would not only strengthen our networked learning community but they would also strengthen the professional learning communities at each school.   

I could also begin to see how Elluminate might be utilized to create more dynamic interchanges in online classes. My big beef with virtual schools and teaching online (I am an online affiliate faculty at Regis University in a mostly asynchronous model) is the static nature of the models I have been exposed to so far. Although I have participated for years in synchronous discussions as a student at Pepperdine via TappedIn, I appreciate the features that Elluminate offers to provide for a more dynamic and less chaotic exchange.   

The whole experience was amazing.  In just an hour, my learning leaped on so many levels! I firmly believe that the framework provided by the protocol strengthened the nature of the learning for all of the participants. I can only begin to imagine how this type of experience can exponentially allow us to provide more meaningful professional learning opportunities for teachers and administrators.

Thanks Ben for the invite! 

What’s Wrong with Elementary Schools

A couple of days ago, I was asked what I thought was wrong in our nation’s elementary schools. Although I spend a great deal of time wondering about how to improve teaching and learning, I had never considered the question from that perspective. I guess I’m a glass half full kind of gal. Yet after thinking about this over the past few days, I think that many of the challenges facing our nation’s elementary schools are the same ones facing our secondary schools.

1. Teachers working in isolation – despite the apparent camaraderie in many elementary schools, teaching is in essence a solitary profession. You step across the threshold and get to be master of your own universe. More structures to promote authentic and learning based collaboration need to be implemented.
2. Teachers are generalists – elementary teachers usually have a liberal arts background with limited expertise in a variety of subjects. Most don’t consider themselves to be writing, math, history or science specialists. Most districts realize this and they mandate particular programs that are “foolproof” to implement. Some teachers even prefer/rely on these programs since they have so many different subjects to prepare for. The problem is that most of these programs are direct instruction oriented and one size fits all.
3. The permeating belief that skills must be taught in isolation before students apply the skills. I hear the “we have to teach them the basics before we can do projects” argument all the time. This results in the overuse of meaningless readers and super simple drill and kill types of assignments in math and other subjects. Project Based Learning can and should be implemented in elementary schools more often.
4. Confusion between thematic and interdisciplinary instruction – Many think that if you do a rainbow story, read the chapter on rainbows in the science book, make a rainbow in art class that they are “integrating” instruction. What is missing is relevance and rigor. Why do rainbows matter? Why should one study rainbows? What do we already know about rainbows? What are the essential scientific understandings that students should be able to discuss..interdisciplinary instruction uses essential understandings and questions to anchor units so that they include meaningful work across all the disciplines.
5. Lack of emphasis on the affective curriculum – if kids are shut down and they don’t feel safe, they don’t learn. Period. Teachers should spend several weeks building the classroom into a functioning learning community so that students feel a sense of ownership and a sense of peace that their ideas, words and actions matter. The Responsive Classroom Model or the Tribes approach provide good guidance in this area.
6. Casting aside of the arts – As Sir Ken Robinson points out, as children get older, we progressively educate from the neck up. The visual and performing arts allow us to educate the whole child while tapping into and strengthening their physical, spiritual and emotional intelligence.
7. One size fits all approach to both teaching and professional development – There is a perception that all third graders need to be taught the same skills and content. If a child has already mastered the skills and content, they aren’t challenged. If they haven’t mastered the skills and content, they feel inadequate. The direct instruction model perpetuates one delivery mode and makes it difficult to differentiate. This applies to drive by professional development as well.
8. Too many external demands – accreditation, NCLB, state testing, serving on committees, coaching, district mandates etc. all hang over the heads of our nation’s teachers and arguably serve as a distraction to improving teaching and learning.
9. Not enough emphasis on inquiry – we need to teach our students to be curious and to ask great questions. Students quickly figure out that the teacher is the only one allowed to ask questions and that there is usually one right answer. This is a tragedy as our nation needs students who can ask the right questions at the right time. We must simultaneously teach questioning skills and emphasize open-ended questioning in our thinking. The inquiry cycle approach to learning should be taught to all teachers and students.

Granted not all teachers and/or elementary schools are created equally and there are definitely exemplary exceptions in all of the above mentioned areas. However the sad truth is that the challenges outlined here are being faced by amazingly gifted educators across our country every day. It’s time to wake-up and realize that the answers to our nation’s educational challenges do not lie in more testing and more government intervention. It would be much more prudent to rely on what we know about how children learn best including the latest brain research and social learning theory. By leveraging teacher knowledge through the use of networked learning and trusting their expertise and instincts about how children learn best through the use of collaborative inquiry and protocols, we could radically transform the educational experience of millions of children so that they come home each day revitalized, engaged and inspired to learn more.

Takeaways from High Tech High

As mentioned, I had the chance to visit the cluster of charter schoo1s in San Diego known as High Tech High. Now that I have had a few days to reflect and to experience reentry into my own school, I wanted to share my thoughts on how to best integrate within and throughout the Kaua’i Pacific School community the most powerful ideas and concepts from the study tour.

Perhaps the most powerful “aha” was the realization that KPS is right on target with our emphasis on concepts over content, process over product and integrated projects over single subject assignments. However, there is much in place at High Tech High that we are still working on. I walked away with personal and specific commitments to make teaching and learning even better at KPS. Over the next several months, I commit to:

1. Encouraging & providing structures for review and refinement of projects through the use of a “project-tuning” protocol.
2. Starting a conversation about peace points.parties as classroom management tools. After hearing how Explorer Elementary organizes their community building using the Social Responsive Classroom Model (which we have some parts of in place), I wonder if having rewards and consequences might be counterproductive and confusing to children.
3. Sharing the Second Step Program as a process for working out conflicts between children.
4. Revisiting the conversation about what tech tools the teachers and students need at their fingertips.We have $8,000 left in this area this year in our grant and we need to spend it very thoughtfully and strategically. What will best enhance learning?
5. Thinking more about skills versus concepts. I don’t believe skills need to be taught before students can create complex projects. I think the skills are taught during the project work and that powerful differentiation can occur far more effectively with a project based approach.
6. Encouraging teachers to integrate their language arts and inquiry more often.
7. Reviewing the professional growth model to streamline it even more. Perhaps we can just have the self-assessment, walk-throughs with a simple checklist and reflection at the end of each unit of discovery.
8.Integrating and modeling structures for focused conversations about improving our practice.
9. Utilizing the NING more regularly to learn more from what other schools are doing.

As I think about moving forward and what our school can and should like in one, two, three and five years, I sense a personal renewal of both philosophy and vision to ensure that we continue to reflect on our practices and to work collaboratively towards improved teaching and learning against the backdrop of the KPS core values.

I am very grateful for the opportunity to visit High Tech High and look forward to returning soon for some “re” inspiration.

Musings on High Tech High

I have been fortunate enough to spend the past two days immersed in the workings of High Tech High, a cluster of innovative charter schools in San Diego, California. According to their web-site, “High Tech High now operates nine schools in San Diego County: one elementary school, three middle schools, and five high schools. All of these schools serve a diverse, lottery-selected student population; all embody the High Tech High design principles of personalization, adult world connection, common intellectual mission, and teacher as designer.”

I don’t think I’ve ever been so inspired. Sounds corny. It’s not. The schools are incredible. Visitors are first struck by the architectural design including transparent (literally) classrooms, common work spaces and walls plastered tastefully with student works of art. Next you encounter articulate and reflective teachers who truly serve as knowledge facilitators rather than knowledge dispensers. Most impressive, however, are the students. Bright-eyed, motivated, articulate and intellectually grounded, they are the antithesis to the apathetic teen stereotype. The kids are curious, passionate and respectful to peers and adults alike. Walking around the campus, I experienced extremely high levels of student engagement everywhere. In one corner, students work in small teams composing original music. In another, students sit on couches around a table discussing how to tackle their Oedipus project. In the classroom next door, students conduct a mock trial about the Burr-Hamilton Duel.Across the way, students enthusiastically & confidently demonstrate their casino games to complete strangers

Although there are a multitude of factors that synergistically create this magical learning community, a few stand out to me:

1. A flexible, learn as we go mentality among and between adults and students. As challenges arise among the faculty or in the classrooms, there is an optimistic solution-oriented response.
2. A commitment and consciousness to minimize bureaucracy. Rather than purchase orders, teachers are given debit cards so they can purchase what they need when they need it. Traditional teacher evaluations are replaced by continual self-reflection. Grade level, cross disciplinary teams make decisions for the students they are responsible for.
3. Project Based Learning – the criteria and methodology for project based learning is crystal clear to the teachers, the students and even the visitors. Steinberg’s 6 A’s form the framework for project design. One can clearly see academic rigor, authenticity, applied learning, active exploration, adult connections, and assessment practices in every classroom.
4. Technology is viewed as a means to an end. It is silent. Nothing is taught for technology’s sake. Rather, technology is viewed as just another resource to support projects
5. Culture of Collaboration – structures are in place to ensure that teachers are frequently talking to each other about student learning. Teachers begin each day in 45 minute grade level meetings. They spend eight days before school starts collaboratively planning and putting forth their projects for peer review. They use protocols to fine tune their projects. This collaborative spirit trickles down to the classroom at every level.
6. Teachers as Designers – as radical as it sounds, instructional design decisions are in the hands of the instructional experts, the teachers. The Design Cycle is infused at all levels from overall design of the school to the design of faculty collaboration to the design of student projects to the integration of design principles into the actual student projects.

What I’m wondering is why more people aren’t looking to the High Tech High Model to revitalize our nation’s high schools. The model is working. The results speak for themselves. I guess it would be too radical a notion to take something that actually works and replicate it….

Keeping the Learning Central with Digital Tools

Over the past eight weeks, we have embarked on a major undertaking to become a model School of the Future. Since our grant is anchored in digital storytelling, we have had staff development from Jason Ohler, Syliva Tolisano and our very own Mauli Ola Cook who is a Kennedy Center Teaching Fellow and our very own storytelling teacher. We have Skyped, Blogged, Tweeted, Flickrd, Photostoried and Vado’d. Teachers have embraced the new ideas and new tools and I have been thrilled to watch the initial projects emerge. Some of our first attempts have been easy and seamless but others have been a little messier. From all of them, we have learned invaluable lessons!

However, I have a nagging concern about the learning! Our curriculum has units of discovery at the core. Each grade has six integrated units of discovery with an essential understanding and 3-6 essential questions. I wonder if the essential questions and understandings are getting lost in the glitz of the projects. Speaking with our technology teacher today gave me much greater insight into the implementation challenges the teachers are facing across all grade levels. We both agreed that we need to better guide the teachers in long range planning so that she has time for students to be introduced to and practice with the new tools before they start the classroom driven projects. We are thrilled at all the communication and requests to use the digital tools, however, some lessons aren’t going so great because we haven’t helped the teacher think through a complete task analysis. What do the students need to know and be able to do to complete the project? What do they already know? How and who will teach what they need to know for this project? When will they do it?

Today at our faculty meeting, we will be planning for our second units of discovery. We typically do a round robin planning that includes 10-15 minute brainstorms with each of our specialty teachers in the areas of Hawaiian studies, visual arts, music, technology, marine science and storytelling. This time, I am adding myself into the rotation so that I can better understand and support the teachers as they develop their next units. Here are the questions that I will pose to everyone before we start the collaboration session.

Questions to Ponder When Planning

*To what degree to I consider the essential questions and essential understanding when planning my units of discovery?
*To what degree am I integrating language arts, science, social studies, the arts and technology to strengthen student learning during my units of discovery?
*To what degree am I planning on using our new digital tools to help strengthen student learning during my units of discovery?
*To what degree am I keeping student learning and reflection at the center of all that is happening in my classroom every day?
*To what degree do I consider formative and summative assessment strategies when planning my units of discovery?
*To what degree am I using rubrics to help crystallize my learning objectives, to support student mastery and to help improve student chances of success on major projects?

When teachers meet with me, I will ask them the following:

*What is your final project for this unit?
*What do the students need to know and be able to do to complete the final project?
*What do they already know?
*How and who will teach what they need to know for this project?
*When will they do it?

If you have any suggestions, ideas or other guiding questions, please share them! I’ll let you know how it goes.

Coming Together

Today I had a very inspiring meeting with Joel Guy about our School of the Future Digital Storytelling Grant. We had a wonderful meeting about how Joel could help us shape and reach our vision for this grant. As we talked, it became really clear that my preconceived idea about having one person serve as tech support and as a resource for the teachers in learning how to use Web 2.0 tools might work but that it would probably be better to have one person who is really savvy with Open Source, Web 2.0, Teaching and Troubleshooting work in collaboration with someone like Joel who is an expert in getting story ‘out there’. Joel has the background to help us with the project management piece and to help support teachers to make sure the tasks happen.

As we spoke it became clear that we need a TEAM! We need someone with the overall big picture and time frame in mind (me?), someone to inspire the children and teach them the content needed for the projects (the teachers), someone to teach the basics of tech, someone to troubleshoot for students and teachers (Donna?) and someone to serve as a resource in and out of the classroom (Joel?). We came up with this great idea to have Joel and Donna work as a teamand then to have them start out by meeting with each teacher to lay out a time frame for each project so that we have an overall yearly calendar and a clear delineation of who will help with what.

What is the point of this post? The point is that collaborative projects in schools need to be just that. COLLABORATIVE! Old notions of I’m in charge of this and you are in charge of that don’t work anymore. As we blend expertise to forge new roads, we need the experts to work and learn from each other. If we can do it at the macro level as teachers and administrators, we will be better able to model it and organize this for our children. The ideas are going to come together as we all come together!

So my conclusions today were:

1. This will be a COMING TOGETHER – a collaborative effort that will require a great deal of checking in and front end organization.
2. The project will morph as we move forward – strong vision and leadership will be required on my part to keep it moving. At the same time, I will have to provide space for the experts to “do their thing” without getting in the way. There is much to learn from others.
3. We should document the “story” of the grant itself and how we are changing/evolving in our practice. From initial vision to final projects, etc…what are we learning about teaching and learning?
4. Preconceived notions of silo based project organization should be rethought. For example, I should support the experts in coming together. I could pay Donna for teaching tech out of the specialty budget and pay her for troubleshooting out of the infrastructure budget (should allocate about $2,000 for that). I should pay Joel out of the Tech and Learning coordinator budget and call him a “Digital Media Resource Teacher” instead. He should spend about 10 hours a week mentoring teachers and working in the classroom with teachers & students on the projects. He can also teach a Digital Media class all year long in the elective program. I could also take about $2,000 from professional development to pay for him to teach teachers and work on collaboration meetings – another 75 hours or so throughout the year….since Donna gets Migraines both Paul and Joel can back her up. It would also be great if Donna could do the 3rd and 6th grade math!

Joel helped me learn so much! I was able to flush out some details and think differently and more effectively about how we can get this grant off the ground. I love the intersection of business and education….

Schedule as I see it today!

Trimester 1

• PSA’s on Ocean Conversation with Chris’ class
• Grade 5/6 – pick Wiki, brainstorm what to include in project, lay out timeline, start getting footage and having experiences with community members and groups..
• PKK1 – introduction to how to use voice thread
• Grade 2 – get EPals set up with Green School Bali
• Document garden project

Trimester 2

• Grade 5/6 – build wiki
• PKK1 – Record Stories on Voice Thread
• Grade 2 – continue withePals
• document garden project

Trimester 3

• Reflections on Wiki Project with Grade 5/6
• document garden project