The Register reports that DARPA (Defense Advance Research Projects Agency) is currently researching how to create robots that are “like some self-aware computer systems capable of “meta-reasoning” and “introspection…”  Their goal is to “Provide machines with an ability to reason about their own reasoning.”

Um, is anybody else seeing the irony of these objectives?  We are funding the creation of synthetic brains that are able to reflect and have insight, yet we are still unwilling as an educational system to support, teach, or assess our children towards these same goals.

Our current student assessment system doesn’t even acknowledge the importance of thinking, but bubbling, on the other hand, ranks really high up there in the skills that students desperately need to know.

The students of today will, theoretically, be the scientists of our future generations; yet they will not have had the cranium training that their garbage disposals will be privy to.  

Perhaps we should just start training our Tech-Com human resistance now.  

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Post tags: curriculum design, curriculum development, ELA, Language Arts, metacognition, Title I, TLN, tween, UCI, Writers Project, writing

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So, CATE (the California Association of Teachers of English) just came to an end.  The hotel was lovely.  All ran smoothly.  We were greeted with smiles aplenty, and everything ran on time.  Sheridan Blau, Kelly Gallagher, Carol Booth Olson, Taylor Mali, Jim Burke.  They all presented there.

But despite it all, CATE is clearly a conference (along with others) that is struggling for breath amidst budget cuts.(...)
Read the rest of The Death of Teacher Conferences or I Can’t Believe I Miss My Canvas Bag (479 words)

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Post tags: achievement gap, blog, cate, collaboration, Curriculum, curriculum design, curriculum development, fundraising, podcasting, professional development, technology, test, test prep, TLN, Writers Project

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A couple of colleagues brought some concerns to my attention and I thought I’d put it out here for some input.  (...)
Read the rest of “I Statements” in Expository Writing (194 words)

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Post tags: curriculum design, curriculum development, Ed Tech, essay, k-12, k12, Language Arts, metacognition, middle school, new teachers, peer teaching, teaching, technology, Title I, TLN, Writers Project, writing

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I recently heard Judy Willis (of “syn-naps” fame) speak at a conference.  In her pre-teaching life, she was a neurologist and she brings her knowledge to the classroom and to her lectures.  (See my recently published article in Teacher Magazine, “My Brilliant Second-Career”).  Willis mentioned that she had just gotten back from Dubai where her charge was to teach new teaching program students about brain development and how it relates to education.

Questions she tackled with these candidates were:

How do children and adolescents learn?

What actually happens in the brain in order to hear and retain information?

What are proven strategies that help information to become embedded into long-term memory?

(...)
Read the rest of Starting from scratch in teacher training (169 words)

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OK, so my first period’s “Advanced” group went up 40% between their 1st district assessment and their 2nd. Another period went up 37%.  Even my Honors class went from 81% Advanced to 97% Advanced, with only 1 student found in the Proficient category.  So why don’t I believe that my metal should be judged on test scores?  Because I have one class, my 7th Grade ELA class that went down; and through careful reflection I’ve been analyzing why.

And these whys are the elements of teaching that are beyond my control. (...)
Read the rest of Here’s why test scores shouldn’t be the only criteria… (740 words)

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Post tags: achievement gap, assessments, blog, classroom management, collaboration, commentary, common language, curriculum design, curriculum development, ELA, k-12, k12, Language Arts, merit pay, middle school, performance pay, school accountability, school funding, standardized testing

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Science Daily is reporting that there has been a shift in how students are thinking as a result of their use of technology.  They believe it possibly lowers critical thinking skills and analysis.  Additionally, they wonder just how much schools should be catering to this change.

The important thing to remember is that when we talk about differentiation, we have to include all forms of teaching, from traditional pencil and paper to the use of technology.  But if we were to ignore the evolution that is occurring, that of the transition our brains our making as a result of society’s onslaught of daily technology, we would not be doing our job.

(...)
Read the rest of Is EdTech changing how students think or is it addressing the changes in student thinking? (437 words)

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That’s a little of what my relationship is like with my new Interactive Whiteboard.

I wouldn’t give it up for the world.  I have come to depend on the tools it provides me.  I love it.

But I am consistently re-calibrating, re-starting, re-booting, and it so far won’t read the kids remotes.  I have come to intimately know the board representative.  We have each other’s cell phone numbers and my husband is starting to raise an eyebrow.  I have also had tremendous support from our Director of Technology and the few other district pilot teachers.   

But the bottom line is that the board has become a daily joy even while I have daily frustrations.  And like that puppy that you automatically fall in love with because of the joy it brings you the minute it comes into your room, I am going to do everything I can to make it work.

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I was reading this great article from Slate Magazine about the cheese that is Billy Joel.  And I thought back to many a car trip singing his “Themes from an Italian Restaurant.”  I also remembered just how many times I’d fast-forwarded through some of his more heavy-handed, political-themed songs set to rapid rhyme scheme.

I’ll even one-up Slate’s insolent trashing of the Piano Man. I’ll go so far as to say I’m not an Elton John fan. 

Don’t freak.  I’m allowed.  Remember, this is my website.

But this got me thinking about opinions, criticism, persuasion, and choice, and their place in the classroom.  

In a collaborative classroom, students are not only given choice, they are given the ability to disagree with grace, with each other, and even with (dare I say) the teacher.

I’m still getting crazy responses to my Breaking Dawn Book review.  I can’t tell you how many comments I’ve deleted with X-rated words or threats.  It’s not that I’m looking over my shoulder, but if the majority of these comments are from tweens, there’s clearly a lesson not being taught to these kids.  How does one disagree appropriately?  Yes, I slammed the book.  But the theme of the post is to Discuss over Censor.  They just couldn’t see it through our disagreement.   

Students should be allowed to choose in a classroom.  It’s a true form of differentiation.  Choice could be given on reading texts, assessments, projects, partnerships, etc…But with choice, also comes opinion, hand-in-hand.  And with opinion comes disagreement.  

This shouldn’t be scary; it should be embraced.  Choice is empowering for a student.  But a teacher must teach how to disagree appropriately, how to criticize appropriately, and how to move on from there.  

It is a new form of pre-teaching.  There are skills involved in teaching Reaching a Consensus.  There are skills involved in Criticism Etiquette.  These are worthwhile – arguably more so than the skills involved in How to Bubble Accurately.  

These are lessons that would not only be reflected in blog comments, but in how our students, as adults, would make choices, form opinions, and have disagreements in the world.

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Post tags: collaboration, commentary, critical thinking, curriculum design, curriculum development, differentiation, How To, k-12, k12, life long learners, metacognition, technology, Title I, TLN, websites, Writers Project, writing

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Here’s a great metacognitive lesson that integrates poetry.  Or is it a poetry lesson that is metacognitive?  (Shrug)  I believe that good writing and great structure can be taught through mimicking great authors.  Using this philosophy as my guide, my 8th graders mimicked the poetic style of Jay Leeming in “Man Writes Poem,”  a piece first introduced to me at the UCI Writing Project this summer.(...)
Read the rest of Metacognitive Poetry: Writing About Thinking While Writing Lesson (215 words)

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Many of us use these terms interchangably, yet there are differences.  After our meeting last night, the crowd nodded knowingly.  I joined them in a brief nod or two as well.  I must admit, however, that I faked it.

I have posed the question to my wonderful colleagues at The Teacher Leaders Network and have gotten some great answers, but a blog’s purpose is not only for readers to comment but to also advise; so here I am, asking for your take on this great debate:

What’s the difference between skills and strategies?

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Post tags: achievement gap, blog, common language, curriculum development, Ed Tech, education, education policy, ELA, Language Arts, technology, TLN, tween, UCI, Writers Project

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