Reading Material
Here’s a couple blog posts I found interesting this week…
Actively Opposing Creativity Fatigue
Six Degrees of Separation in Instant Messaging
Shopping for a Wiki Tool?
Audio Transcript from “The Evolving Federal Role in Education”
March 31st, 2008 at 10:07 am
Actively Opposing Creative Fatigue was a terrific conversation. I know Phil Schlechty from many years back. And after reading Dan Pink’s book, I can understand why we might want to get teachers drawing. Actually Rodrica Tilley, local artist, is teaching a class on drawing in the fall term of the adult school. Maybe we could get Act 48 credit!
March 31st, 2008 at 1:09 pm
I really want to read Schlechty’s work, but just haven’t had the time. I understand the gist of the “Working the Work” is to refocus our efforts away from making our instruction better and focus more on making the types of work we give student more fulfilling and meaningful. I completely agree with this and think its a core problem in many classrooms - kids just aren’t motivated because the work is BOOOORRRRIIIINNNNNGGGGG and has no personal relevance.
Pinks book I have read and also agree with you Mary Lee - we need to refocus on that right brain. Its a little hard to do when our national focus and accountability systems (a la NCLB) remains mired in the left brain.
I don’t see why we couldn’t make participation in these classes yeild Act 48. I’ll talk to the superintendent about it. Great idea!
April 1st, 2008 at 1:51 pm
You know, Craig, I would have given anything to have you on my staff when I was a superintendent of schools. Actually I think there’s alot you can do with NCLB. As I recall, the basic rule is ‘test’ and show results. And at least the fed govt insisted on disaggregating scores. In the past, places like New Trier and Bedford, NY and Princeton could get away with reporting their average scores for the school…and with 95% white and affluent, you got a very high percentile. The dirty little secret was that the 5% not so affluent minority group or the kids needing special attention were doing very poorly…but the school got high marks anyway. NCLB leaves alot of decisions to the states. Here’s where the whole thing broke down. Since I was a commissioner of education I can attest to the fact that people making hugely important decisions for school districts and teachers and parents are hard core bureaucrats who rarely leave their offices and even less rarely think through the ramifications for this or that new regulation. And, to mute any criticism of their not very intelligent mandates they tend to respond as rehearsed ‘parrots’…’we are required to do this’…when in fact, they had a great deal of flexibility in setting some of this up. In the district where I was the supt in NJ we had ’schools of choice’ (actually we were under a state mandate to desegregate…and maybe 45% of the kids were African American)….so we got into voluntary bussing. The incentives for getting kids out of their neighborhood schools (all segregated) and to get on a bus to go across town, was to create some highly imaginative choices and market them like crazy…and to give the teachers a great deal of autonomy over what and how they were teaching. Now the parents were totally in support of this program; they would have marched on the state capitol if they had been told they had to teach/test/teach test. We had ‘gifted and talented’ schools, a science/tech school, a Montessori (public) school, an international school (foreign language in the elementary grades), a Family magnet with an environmental focus, etc. etc. Frankly, I think alot of the backlash is a cop-out. But you have got to have the ‘visionary leadership’ to figure out how to do what’s right…even if there are quotable mandates for you to follow.
That’s my soapbox. I think it’s a crime what many public schools have become…in the name of ‘higher standards’.
April 9th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Mary Lee - I really enjoy reading your comments. I completely agree in the over-politicization of education. Very distastful. Actually, in the most recent copy of the PDK jounal, Schlechty has a GREAT article that’s particularly relevant to this discussion. In it, he suggests that the real problem with NCLB is that it has served to further remove the control of schools from local communities - subsequently fundamentally harming the social fabric of our country. I’ll post about it soon.