The Annenberg Foundation has created a non-profit, multi-media organization called explore.org, which features over 200 short, educational videos that make great educational aids in the classroom. The site offers a wide range of topics—from animal rights, health and human services, and poverty to the environment, education, and spirituality. Delivered in short, digestible bites, Explore films appeal to viewers of all ages, from children learning about other cultures for the first time to adults looking for a fresh perspective on the world around them.
When you click to watch a video or view a photo, there are icons below that bring you to related interviews, photos, research and a map. Videos and photos can be downloaded and the links shared, though videos can not be embedded. Included with the resources are related web sites and full-length films, books and articles.
You can search by keyword, or choose a country and/or a cause. There are 20 countries listed and 12 causes including, animals, children, disabilities, environment, music and spirituality.
Here is one where a man driving a camel along a rural road in India shares the secret to living a happy life. A transcript is available for this one too:
SOUND UP
00:00:03
Explore – India
00:00:09
CHARLIE: This is the way to travel through India. (INDISCERNIBLE BACKGROUND TALK)
00:00:12
[GRAPHIC - JAIPUR]
00:00:21
CHARLIE: You strike me as a very intelligent man.
00:00:23
INDIAN MAN: I’m an illiterate man. I don’t know what to say. I know how to eat my bread and drive this camel; that’s all I know.
00:00:32
CHARLIE: What’s the key to leading a happy life? Huh?
00:00:37
INDIAN MAN: The key to happiness is to choose happiness. [MUSIC PLAYS]
00:00:56
END OF FILM
There's a discussion area (login required) with a Question of the Month, general questions and threads. Participants are encouraged to give advice and engage in conversations about philanthropy and film-making.
During this time of year, when many classrooms will be studying holidays around the world and comparing cultural differences, this site offers some great resources in easy bite-size chunks for all grade levels. The only thing I see missing is lesson plans.
I had an opportunity to meet Philippe Cousteau last week as part of a series of events recognizing our district's outstanding achievement in being on the forefront of using technology for instructional integration and for reaching the milestone of one million digital educational videos on Discovery Streaming. The School District of Palm Beach County is one of only a handful of school systems in the nation, and the first school system in Florida, to reach this milestone. Listening to Mr. Cousteau speak is truly a pleasure as he is engaging and his message of environmental defense is inspiring.
Mr. Cousteau is the 29 year old grandson of Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau. He continues his grandfather's legacy by openly speaking and acting on behalf of the environment.
He was kind enough to pose for pictures and sign an autograph for the boys and girls in my 4th grade classes. I was excited to see that wrote "Mrs. Kolbert's Class, You are the hope of the future. Philippe Cousteau" because we've recently learned about ecosystems and the food web, with particular focus on how humans often negatively impact the environment, disrupting the ecosystem and the food web.
Over at my class blog, where I crossposted this blog entry, I pose this question to my students (and readers):
Can you explain what he means by "You are the hope of the future?"
My favorite quote from a parent speaking at the school board meeting, "This would make a great business school case study on how not to implement change."
There was an unprecedented school board meeting last Wednesday night at which over 1000 parents and teachers showed up to protest the top-down implementation of our new Academic Improvement Plan which includes (among many other things) a one-size-fits-all curriculum, constant assessing of the students, mandatory departmentalization of grades 3-5 (optional K-2), a long list of "highly suggested" classroom configurations such as Word Walls, daily items on the white boards, anchor charts, and scripted lesson plans. This year, highly-qualified, outstanding and award-winning teachers are doubting their ability to do a good job.
Here's an example of a 4th grade scripted lesson plan for writing:
This all came to be with the hiring of our new Chief Academic Officer who, in April presented to the board a plan that would be implemented the following school year. This plan caused business as usual in our district to come to a screeching halt as our new CAO collected information from every department and scrutinized what was being done before he made his "recommendations" as to what should be done differently "by Friday."
Newly created to help support this program were the Capacity Development and School Reform Teams. These teams responsibilities include (you can read more here):
Conduct regularly scheduled meetings of teachers to review lesson and unit plans for the purpose of supporting colleagues throughout the initial implementation.
Identify designated times for the curriculum committee to receive implementation feedback from teachers.
Examine assessment results in the aggregate by the curriculum committee to identify any realignment that may need to occur.
Prepare an Initial Implementation Report outlining suggestions for research-based professional development and/or realignment of curriculum.
WALK-THROUGH classrooms looking for key indicators of effective teaching. What is being "said" is that during these walk-throughs, these teams are looking for these items (however the checklist they use is embedded below. Click on the "Full" button to view the page full screen.):
Classroom Environment is Conducive to Teaching and Learning
Materials Support a High Level of Teaching and Learning
Higher Order Questioning and Thinking is Evident
Instruction Effectively Engages Students
Reading and Writing Activities are Evident Across the Curriculum
Data Analysis is Used to Redirect Instructional Focus and Students’ Instructional Needs
School and District Leadership and Coaching is Evident
Establishing the strategies for school improvement and monitoring classroom teacher effectiveness used to be the role of the school-based administrators. However, with this Top-Down MicroManagement, even our principals have felt powerless to empower teachers with the flexibility we need to creatively meet each students' individual needs. Just when a principal would make a decision, something would change that would cause a ripple effect and a renege on the message previously issued. It's been an extremely distracting environment in which to teach.
Many parents (thousands) are irate and have been very vocal. This caused an uproar and it all came to a head at our last school board meeting. (If you want to watch it, click here and type 10/21/09 in the search field. Don't miss the last 20 or so minutes of the meeting when the board members begin to speak.) Among other things, parents are unhappy about all the testing. They know its a numbers game and that for their kids, it's wasted instructional time. They also see the negative impact on their kids' enjoyment of school and unfortunately, somatic symptoms are starting to emerge in many younger students as well.
In addition to the constant testing, there's the issue of the frameworks, or scope, where all students will learn the same benchmarks within the same 3-week window. 5 days ago, we, teachers of the gifted, were informed that this would no longer be necessary for all gifted students as we can now use what is called "Curriculum Compacting." With (more) testing, if a student has mastered a standard (mastery = 90%) then that student can skip the instruction for that standard and move on. It was unclear to all of us whether that meant we can enrich and/or if necessary, advance the student to the next grade level of standards. Truth be told, it's what we are already doing (and what all teachers across the board have been trying to do - before their hands got tied), except with this plan we are required to test repeatedly on an individual basis and keep meticulous records on the data for each student's mastery of each standard in order to report on the progress. Isn't there something called a Report Card for that? Just 'sayin!
The last thing I want to mention is the departmentalization. At the elementary level, students in grades K-5 typically had one teacher all day (except for fine arts). In some cases, departmentalization for certain subjects takes place. But until this year, it has always been a school-based decision. This year, it was mandatory for all elementary schools that grades 3-5 would departmentalize. Included in that mandate were these PollyAnna "suggestions:"
Students backbacks should be extremely light carrying ONLY a "take home" folder and their planners. Students would not carry home textbooks (they can get them online) or supplies (we would collect those purchased by parents and keep them in buckets on the tables for students to share).- Students backpacks are heavier than ever with one teacher not knowing what the other is assigning for HW, and the students can NOT all get to the online textbooks, nor is that an effective way for ALL students to read/study. As you can guess, the parents are not thrilled with having purchased supplies for their children that are now sitting in communal buckets.
Conferences would include the team of teachers. What used to be a 20 minute conference between me and my student's parent, is now a 45+ minute conference between me, the student's parent and 2 other teachers. Plus, instead of conferencing with my 22 students, I have potentially 65 opportunities to have these 45 minutes conferences. Middle and High School parents don't require all these conferences. IT IS NOT THE SAME THING; WE ARE ELEMENTARY!!Added benefit for parents? They have to wait to schedule until all 3 of us can be there. Or, they can come in 3 different times.
Students will share a desk where all their notebooks, textbooks and folders will reside. We don't, after all, have lockers. Three students can't fit all their stuff inside one desk, Mr. CAO!Additionally, these kids need a space they can call their own. Every day I deal with Sally telling me that Johnny accidentally wrote in her notebook or took home her folder, or left garbage in her desk that she now has to clean out. Johnny tells me he didn't do it so it must be Betty who also shares the desk!
So, now that everyone is clearly upset, our superintendent is speaking on behalf of our CAO and has issued this letter to principals. Principals will now be allowed to clean up the mess.
Our school has made no decisions and will not until some careful thought and discussion has taken place; as it should be. Personally, I'm most thrilled that our principal has regained the authority to make some decisions confidently.
The topic of presentations is on my mind lately because I've sat through a series of them recently.
I've given a few presentations over the years. I'd say I've improved a lot, but I'm definitely not great at it and I've got a long way to go before I'm where I want to be "when I grow up." We all have our insecurities and one of mine is my reaching for vocabulary when I'm trying to say something. I've got it in my head, but my mind is already farther along then my mouth. The word I'm searching for as since jogged along a different path and my brain is not looking back.
The other insecurity is that I always want to engage the participants and I know one of the ways to do that is with good visuals on the slides.
I wish I could create presentations as simple and as powerful as this one. A Teacher's Guide to Web 2.0 at School by Sacha Chua.
The whole stick-figure thing just appeals to me which is probably why I love the CommonCraft videos so much.
My presentations are definitely image-driven. If there are words, there are really just a few. The words come from me, the presenter in the room; which is why I usually don't mind sharing my presentations online. (You can't steal my presentation by stealing my slideshow.) It's just that it takes so long to find just the right image and then to tweak it and all. If I could be as creative as Sacha or the folks at CommonCraft, life in PresentationVille would be so much better. I guess.
This all comes to mind because over the last few weeks, our faculty has sat through a series of workshops. Each one has merit and I don't blame the presenters because as the "One Size Fits All" mandate filters through our district, it has not only hit the classrooms, but has also hit the departments that are presenting workshops. They are handed the slideshows from which to present.
These slideshows have so many words on the slides, that nobody, not even the presenters can read them. Unfortunately, the presenters seem to need to read them as well, because when you don't create them yourself, you don't own them and are therefore uncomfortable with either the content or sequence. It's sort of like following someone else's lesson plans.
And yet, I wonder if the folks who are presenting to us, here in my district, are struggling with these issues at all!
If you're ever looking for a slick, easy to use video conferencing program that's FREE, I highly recommend TokBox. With ToxBox, you can send video greeting cards and have videochats (with up to 20 people) and you can bring in tools to your videochats that I've not seen with other services. Here I am demonstrating TokBox. What are your thoughts?
Now that I'm back in the classroom, I'm seeing how much has not really changed. The good news is that 10 year olds are still 10 year olds. Pokemon and YuGiYo is now whatever (haven't figured out yet what is the latest fad). My students are bright and happy, though a bit stressed (typical for Gifted).
Unfortunately, what also has not changed is that each day is rush-rush and now, more than ever, there is less time to build in the creative lessons that take more time than traditional "I Do-We Do-You Do-Done" lessons that can be done, from start to finish, in 40 minutes. Every day I pass the same teachers making oodles of copies of worksheets at the copiers. (They haven't even planned their lessons yet, but they've got tons of pages copied from their resource books.) Lunch is 30 minutes long and most of the talk is regarding the recent controversy in our district. I've yet to learn about my co-teachers' families or what they do for fun. They certainly know nothing about me, nor have any expressed much interest.
Additionally, I can probably count on one hand the number of teachers in my school who use their projectors, a digital or video camera, Interwrite tablets, document cameras, or can name even 5 of the online instructional resources that our district provides for teacher use. My best guess on why is that they are overwhelmed with too many resources being thrown at them and not enough training and time.
This year, our district is providing "suggested" scripted lesson plans for teachers to follow. Most teachers are using these out of concern that if they don't, they will not be preparing their students properly for state testing (at least this is what we've been told so many times we're all starting to believe it). Previously outstanding and award-winning teachers are now doubting their skills and abilities to adequately help their students learn; not to mention their fear of the scheduled teams of district-level administrators that walk through classrooms unannounced to be sure we are teaching the same benchmarks as everyone else in the district at the same time and have the same word-walls up and all the other mandated strategies in place. It's all quite distracting.
I'm feeling very discouraged with not only what I can NOT accomplish with my own students but also because I'm not seeing much potential for a PLN in my school building. I've often thought about how great it would be if my online PLN created it's own district and/or school.
A SCHOOL FULL OF PEOPLE WHO "GET IT."
It would not have to be geographically centralized, since it could possibly be all online. Personally, I like the idea of both. That would certainly allow more of my PLN to join in. My thoughts immediately drew a picture of what the classrooms would look like. I envisioned a teaching hospital where the operating rooms have observation areas (do they really? or was that only on Seinfeld?). There would be a constant flow of visitors; pre-service teachers, teachers from other schools, parents, tutors, etc. Students would be used to that and there would even be a group of students that facilitates these visits.
As a matter of fact, students would be involved in every part of the running the school; from making budget decisions, hiring teachers, to serving the lunches. Students would even be involved with reviewing (overall) test scores and making choices on how the school improvement plans should be written.
Additionally, there would be days built into the calendar where our school would be closed. On these days, every person on staff would be required to go off campus and train others. The dates would coincide with conferences, but attending conferences would not be a requirement. Staff members could meet up with a group of teachers from a nearby school and do some hands-on staff development or provide an online workshop. (There would be laptop mini labs for traveling workshops, of course.) Students would be expected to participate in some of these trainings and staff members would be encouraged to get parents involved as well.
And we will train each other. There will be time built in for our own PLN to nurture itself.
I figured that since I'm now creating new jobs for my PLN, I should probably ask them what they'd like to do. The responses I got were very interesting. First, let me say that I got A LOT of responses which makes me think that I'm not the only one who would jump on this if it could actually happen. The names you see below are from Twitter.
One thing became immediately apparent. As @chrischampion pointed out, there would be no need for technology integration specialists because "we would all be "technology integrators" - teachers, principals, aides, janitors..."
@stevebarkley said, "in my school design there'd be no jobs. Just staff constantly using skills and interests to respond to learner needs and interest" (Note: I could be wrong, but I think he meant instead of "jobs" there would be no specific roles. I can't imagine anyone, even us, working completely for free. Either way, I think that is an interesting concept. Would that be a Jack of All Trades type of situation though?)
Most of the responses were from people who wanted to keep doing what they were currently doing with or without some modifications. They just wanted to be in the presence of great teachers. I tend to agree. I don't think I would care what my role was, as long as I could be there and participate.
A few current technology specialists seemed relieved that they might be able to focus on other things, finally. Then there were those who came up with their own job titles (at least I think they made them up). Some seem humorous, but if you think about them, you can see where each suggested role would have a place in our PLN school.
Social Media and Communications Director (@iteachag)
Innovation Integration Designer (@raventech)
Facilitator of Applied Math Mathematics(@scottelias)
Cultivator of Curiousity (@Librarybeth)
Instigator of Inquiry (@turrean)
Music Technology Integrationist (@cwebbtech)
3D Virtual Immersive Learning space facilitator (@tjmeister)
Facilitator of Outdoor Learning, Marine Biology Department (@stardiverr)
Early Adolescent Learning Experience Coordinator (@twilliamson15)
Social Convener (@shareski)
Cook (@ljohnpederson)
Manager of the "idea shop" where students build and create the answers to the problems posed in the curriculum (@tyyost)
So dream with me here. What role would you play and how would this school look?
By the way, only one person offered to be our superintendent (@canyonsdave). Since Dave is currently filling that role where he lives and he obviously has lots of experience, Dave is hired and can start the ball rolling. Thanks, Dave. My resume is in your InBox.
A good friend sent this to me today and it was just what I needed for a good laugh. Having grown up in a Jewish home, I can honestly say there is money to be made if anyone were to start up a real Twitteleh. Watch and enjoy; even if you aren't Jewish.
I know I should stop being amazed but I can't help it. I'm always surprised when I speak to teachers who only know Google as a search engine. It's almost like they've been at a salad bar and have only been eating the lettuce. Google has really done a lot to provide teachers with resources to make using their online tools specific for the classroom.
Here I am giving an overview of Google for Educators. Keep watching as Lee Keller explains PuzzleMaker.
Mr. Cousteau is the 29 year old grandson of 
Posts
