I remember many conversations in my undergraduate program regarding “What makes a good teacher?”  – shoot, I think that conversation happened in both my undergraduate and graduate studies, not to mention the numerous conferences I’ve attended or in the countless books, articles, or blog posts I’ve read.  While everyone seems to have their own opinion of what a good teacher is, and plenty of research seems to suggest there are certain characteristics all good teachers share, I think the bottom line is this: teaching is an incredibly personal endeavour and, as such, the truly extra-ordinary teachers are those whose impact is measured in the changed lives of their students.

Those teacher’s who had a hand in changing my life – not just impacting it but changing it – are many.  Now I suppose in a theoretical sense every teacher changed my life, but I’m talking here not in that philosophical way but in that real, practical world in which we all live.  Here are some of the teachers whom I think of, and some of the lessons I learned from them:

• Mr. Wolterstroff – my high school chorus and English teacher, not to mention he was the musical director for many of my shows.  From him I learned the value of hard work, the importance of a personal faith, and the fact that information is not learned in isolation – he was the master of helping me connect what we studied in class with my life and with the other subjects I was studying.  Regarding his musical influence on me, I suppose there’s no more apt tribute to him than the fact every choir I have conducted in the past 10 years has sung music I learned under his leadership.  He also taught me to love Shakespeare
• Mr. Day, my high school drama teacher.  From him I learned the importance of stepping outside my comfort zone and being willing to take a risk.
• Mr. Rinsema, my Lit-G teacher in high school.  He taught me to examine everything I read through the lens of both my own beliefs and an author’s beliefs.  I still consider his class the best one I ever took in high school and will never forget the research paper I wrote on Stephen Crane.
• Mr. Harkema, my high school Latin (yes Latin) and photography teacher, I learned (among other things) that talent without integrity isn’t worth much at all.  A hard lesson to learn – and one I wish I had learned a lot sooner than I did.  But his influence on my life will be measured far beyond the years I spent as a student in his classroom.  I also learned from his photography class just how much of the world I miss because I’m not looking for it – and how often what we see is dictated by what people want us to see (for better or worse)
• Mrs. Granback, my first piano teacher and 5th & 6th grade teacher.  She taught me the importance of clearly articulating what I believe is right.
• Mr. Hepburn, my elementary principal and science teacher.  He set the bar so high for science teachers that, honestly, after him I hated the subject because the ones I had just didn’t measure up…  He made learning fun and taught me it’s okay to ask questions – lots of questions – even if you don’t know the answers (so all of you that sit in meetings with me and have to put up with my questions can thank/blame him for that!)  If my other science teachers had invested the time in me that he had I very well may have majored in something besides music education in college.
• Dr. Robinson, my collegiate choral director and mentor.  It would be impossible to write a one or two sentence summary of the influence this one man had on my life – suffice it to say that it is immeasurable.  If I ever wondered if it was possible for someone to go “above and beyond”, Dr. Robinson and his lovely wife Ruth proved to me that it was; they also taught me that education is about so much more than learning information – it’s about learning to live as a wise human being.  Their guidance and insight during my years in Florida will never be forgotten, and the debt I owe them can never be repaid.
• Paul Corbiere – Okay, he wasn’t one of my “teachers”, but he was a colleague when I worked in Florida and his support and insight into teaching revolutionized the way I taught.  He and the next person are the two most influential teachers I have ever had in terms of helping me understand how to teach.  Here’s a funny story about Paul…  When I first met him and we were chatting he told me it was his goal to be the kind of teacher that “no body wants to follow because people compare you to them.”  It wasn’t said in an arrogant way (at least I didn’t take it that way), just simply a desire to be that influential on kids’ lives (which he was).  When he left his school to go open a new one he actually called me and asked me to take his place (which I considered a great honor) because he felt I’d be great a the job – then when I reminded him of what he had told me earlier in my career he just laughed and understood why I turned him down!
• Brian Gibbs-Griffith – GG, as he was known by all of us, was my “partner in crime” when I taught at CM Eppes – he and I both developed the Bulldog Beat program together.  From him I learned the value of process and how to help teens (and now adults) struggle through a difficult process to learn a lesson.  He left CME when I did, but, as with Paul, had a tremendous influence on how I approach relationships, instruction, and team-building.  If I have any value as a leader and teacher today much of it can be traced back lessons I learned from GG.

Okay, there’s a short list of teachers who changed my life.  What about you – would you care to share?  Yes, there are plenty more teachers I could add to this list, and I know there are teachers on this list who have had struggles and aren’t as perfect as they may sound here.  But I guess that’s the point: teachers are human beings who influence other human beings.  We aren’t gods or saviors (which, too often, society expects us to be).  We are people.  As with every profession, some of us are better at our job than others, but none of us is any less valuable than anyone else.  Several months ago I actually wrote a thank-you letter to one of the schools I attended, and if you’ve never done that I encourage you to – or at least to one of the teachers who has changed your life.  You could even start by typing a reply at the end of this page and sharing the story of a teacher (or teachers) who has impacted you.

• Catered lunch provided on site for free every day (registration required)!
• Keynote sessions every morning to help frame and focus the content for the day
• Break-out sessions offered for every subject and every grade level that are receiving new curriculum guides this summer
• Work session every afternoon for teachers to network and plan together, providing an opportunity to leave every day with authentic lesson plans and assessments to use in the classroom beginning day 1.

Registration for all sessions will be handled via MyLearningPlan.  Session titles will not appear in MyLearningPlan until Tuesday, May 15.  However, you can review a list of session offerings by downloading the official Conference Catalog.  The catalog contains over 130 sessions, with more being added throughout the month.  Reserve these dates now before sessions fill up.

• Curtis Linton, Author and Vice-President of the School Improvement Network.  Mr. Linton has authored two books on diversity: Courageous Conversations about Race and Equity 101: The Equity Framework.  Mr. Linton will speak on Monday, August 13 on how the new Common Core State Standards help address equity for all students; he will also offer a break-out session in the afternoon for teachers to spend time looking at the new standards in-depth and discuss practical strategies for classroom implementation;
• Dr. Michael Schmoker, best selling author of the books Results Now and Focus, will offer a key-note presentation on Thursday, August 16 on the importance of “elevating the essentials to improve student learning”, which will include a clear focus (no pun intended!) on how PLCs play an integral role;
• Kevin Honeycutt, a nationally-known presenter, will offer both a keynote and break-out sessions on Wednesday, August 15 looking at the areas of student engagement and technology integration.  An arts-educator, Kevin facilitates the online Ning Art Snacks.

In addition to these fantastic key-note addresses, every day we will have sessions devoted to understanding the new curriculum guides and then additional work sessions where teachers can network and partner together to begin planning lessons, units, and assessments aligned to the new standards.  The goal is for teachers to not only feel ready to teach the new standards when they begin working with students on August 27 but to also have practical tools ready to use with their students – in essence, continuing the work that was begun on the March 2 and March 23 district-wide PD days.

Other topics for break-out training will include:

• Thinking Maps aligned to the common core
• Techniques for Working with Students with High-Functioning Autism
• Resources for the Common Core Classroom
• Highlighting School Innovations
• Technology Integration
• Critical Thinking Skills
• Professional Learning Communities
• Thinking Like a Core Mathematician
• Thinking Maps: Connections to the ELA Common Core
• Leading for the CC/ES (Admin)
• EVAAS for Administrators
• Language!
• TransMath
• Guided Reading
• Guided Math
• Rigor & Relevance Framework

And more sessions are being planned for as we speak!  Teachers will be able to attend trainings for full-day, half-day, or even 1.45 hours if they’d like.  CSI 2012 is offered to all Pitt County Schools employees for free and after an initial registration period it will be opened to educators from other districts/schools for a nominal cost (if there are spots available).  Watch for more information soon – and for registration information to appear in My Learning Plan by early May.  This is something you won’t want to miss!

Actions Speak Louder than Words

North Carolina legislators and DPI listen up: actions speak louder than words. At each of our general sessions we witnessed talented students perform for us in the form of a show choir from EE Smith High School (Monday night), a dance group from West Johnston High School (Tuesday afternoon), and an African Drum Ensemble from West Pine Middle School (Wednesday afternoon). I’ll just put this right out there at the beginning of this section: I’m probably going to offend some people, but sometimes the truth hurts.

Before I offend, though, let me first congratulate the students who participated in these performances. You all did an outstanding job, fully deserving of the standing ovations you received. It takes a lot of confidence to stand in front of hundreds of people and perform as you all did. And to your teachers who have obviously invested so much into your lives, you make sure you thank them because they certainly deserve it.

And, once again (see Day 3 for the first mention), West Pine Middle School – you absolutely made my week. As a music teacher who taught chorus, guitar, strings, handbells, music theory, and general music to every grade level K-12 in his career (and now conducts an adult choir), and one who’s work was published in Educational Leadership and in ASCD Express around the impact drumming groups can have on student engagement in school, I can not tell you how excited I was to witness you all on stage. The second I walked into that ballroom and saw you sitting up there I literally jumped in the air and, upon arriving at my table to meet my colleagues, exclaimed, “This is gonna be FUN!  Wait until you see THIS!” After you were finished I turned to the rest of my table and simply said, “Just try to tell me that if we could get kids involved in things like this at school that it wouldn’t make a difference in their lives.” Not a single person at the table was willing or able to disagree with me. The way you engaged the audience by having us participate by dancing (well, okay, I wasn’t one of the people dancing) and playing instruments (I did do that ) was absolutely miraculous. You made hundred of people all dressed in suits and wearing professional clothes just have some fun and remember what it isto live. There is so much I could talk about from a musical perspective – the listening skills you had to develop, the communication that was happening by the various drum patterns, the excitement caused by the on-going and sustained song, the balance of parts and the inter-related rhythms – but I will not digress into those areas because it’s not the focus of this post. Just please know that I know not only how much fun it was, but also, from personal experience, how much dedication and hard work you put into it. Many people seem to think that drumming isn’t really “music” because “all it has is a beat”. They couldn’t be farther from the truth because they fail to recognize how, when done correctly, drumming offers every component of music possible; they don’t hear the intricate melodies coming out of the instruments, or understand the teamwork required as you perform together, or recognize the hidden leadership that is going on as you all play. You deserve a great deal of honor and praise for what you pulled off, and I want everyone who reads this blog to know that.

Again, to all the students and teachers – way to go! Don’t you dare take anything else I’m going to say right now as a reflection on you, because it most certainly is not.

After the first group from EE Smith performed on Wednesday night, the speaker from DPI (whom I will not name here) made the comment, “This is a great reminder of why we are all here.”  It may be a reminder, but I certainly wasn’t encouraged. Why the heck does the state continue to cut funding to the arts if “this is why we are here?” Why in the world do we continue to perpetuate the myth that only certain subjects matter in the public school system and others are only “optional” (at best)? The students on the stage this week demonstrated more “21st Century Skills”, “Critical Thinking Skills”, and “Leadership Skills” than just about any other student I see on a regular basis in the schools. Actions speak louder than words. Your words may say “this is why we are here”, but the actions I’m seeing certainly don’t support it.

And while we’re on the subject of actions speaking louder than words, why where the first two groups that performed almost 100% racially segregated? If we’re trying to “close the achievement gap” and “include all races” why was one group entirely white girls while a second group was all black students (except for one white boy)? That really ticked me off – to the point I turned to a colleague at Tuesday’s lunch and actually asked if I was the only one who noticed it. The answer they gave me? “No, Tom, you’re not.” (Again, this is not directed at the students, so if any of them are reading this understand it’s not a reflection of you) One of the reasons I so enjoyed the performance on the final day was not only because it was a drum group, but because it was a beautiful example of how students from diverse cultures can work together towards a common goal (and isn’t that what the keynote on Tuesday was about? Understanding the impact of changing demographics on K-12 education?). The irony of Tuesday’s keynote was that after witnessing a black choir and a white dance group perform separately we were then lectured on the importance of understanding changing demographics and changing our ways.  Contrast that with Wednesday afternoon: a group of young people engaged an audience made up of citizens of just about every ethnicity in the state in a time of celebration and joy – and we did it together.  The power of music overcame the power of separation.  But if we were to judge the power of separation by what was seen on that stage over the previous 24 hours one would think we were stuck back in the 1960s. Thank goodness Wednesday offered us a glimpse of hope for change.   I will grant you that in looking at the three scheduled speakers you had a certain level of diversity, but those speakers weren’t representing the State – but the children were.  Again, actions speak louder than words.

A New Hope (cue Star Wars theme song)

For a very long time every educator I have ever spoken with at the school and district level – in my district and others – feels The Great Disconnect (cue Darth Vader’s Theme) between what happens in Raleigh and what goes on in local schools. I constantly hear people say (and, to my shame, have even said myself) “DPI doesn’t have a clue”. That was perhaps no more clearly illustrated than by the first session I attended Monday morning. I attended the session entitled “Next Generation Assessment and Accountability”. The program booklet summarized/advertised the session by saying,

“This session will provide a comprehensive overview of the READY Schools Accountability System, the Elementary and Secondary Act (ESEA) Flexibility Waiver Request submitted to the United States Department of Education (USED) by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, and the college and career readiness assessments that will comprise the North Carolina Testing Program. Topics such as online assessments, policies and procedures, and implementation timelines through 2014-2015 will also be discussed.” (underlines all mine)

Now here’s the issue…. At the beginning of the session there was literally standing room only – and the presenters had to make people leave because we were in violation of fire code. And they then made the absolutely incredible statement that, “Wow, we had no idea this many people would come!”

Really!?!?!? You couldn’t anticipate that in the climate educators are surviving through right now – a climate where teachers are worried about how Standard 6 will impact their evaluation, how new standards will or be assessed, how a waiver to NCLB might play out at the local level in terms of teacher allotments and transfers – that you would not be absolutely flooded with people seeking answers? How much greater disconnect could there disconnect be than that?

But here’s what happened next… The presenters offered an encore session on Monday afternoon for those who were turned away in the morning.  Read: They recognized a mistake and responded accordingly and changed and grew from it (cue: Victory Celebration Theme from The Empire Strikes Back).  That’s a really amazing thing.  See, we all make mistakes (some of us more than others ), but the question is how we deal with it.  The presenters at CCSA 2012 demonstrated a willingness to learn.  And then over the following two days I sat through session after session with people from DPI like Rebecca Garland (Chief Academic Officer), Lynne Johnson (Director, Educator Recruitment and Development), Yvette Stewart (Project Coordinator, RttT Professional Development), and Sarah McManus (Director, Learning Systems) and one message came through loud and clear: they want our feedback so they can make good decisions. Not only that, I spoke with other attendees who noticed the same thing. I realized that perhaps things are changing, and I walked away from the entire conference with the hope that perhaps people in Raleigh have started to listen.

Now, that’s not to say everything is perfect – because they have a long, long way to go. But perhaps, just perhaps, we are witnessing a shift in culture at DPI where they view at least part of their job as supporting the work of local school systems. For the briefest of moments this week I started to see where actions really were matching up with words. After all, if they involved over 800 teachers in the development of the MSLs then changes are obviously happening up there – they’re not trying to do it all by themselves and they really are wanting to hear from us so they can make better decisions.  I’m not sure whom to credit with that change, but it is a welcome one – now you just need to maintain it.

Closing Thought

DPI has asked for feedback, so let’s share some. Perhaps this blog post will be read by someone up there who has some influence, and (as long as they don’t get too offended by the first 1/2 of it), perhaps they will take a look at what they are doing and how they are doing it to make sure that it’s right. For the rest of us, we all need to be letting them know what we think and giving them feedback.  I can tell you from my experience working directly with several DPI people as the RttT Coordinator for our district that some of them really do want to listen to and help us. They are taking what we say and reflecting on it. Perhaps not as quickly as you or I would like, but they are doing it none-the-less. As I said earlier, while I entered the conference discouraged, frustrated, and worried, I left with a new sense of hope that maybe things really will get better.

And that in-and-of-itself was worth the three days away.

• An electronic copy of the Lesson/Unit Planning Guide (similar to the guide you used while developing your assessments) can be found by clicking this link.  This is the only resource you will need today.  As with the March 2 training, you will not need to turn this in and it is only for your use to help guide your discussion.
• The Post-Training survey to be completed at the end of the morning or the end of the day.  Please click here to offer feedback on the trainings this year, including suggestions for how to improve and sustain this work over the coming year.

Principals have until April 6 to submit the vision statement created by your staff on the Google Form provided via email.  These will then be forwarded on directly to Dr. Emory.

I want to take a few minutes to thank everyone who has been so instrumental to this process this year.  All the training documents and plans were developed by a team of teachers, ICs, administrators, and central office personnel over the last seven months.  In addition to those who have worked tirelessly to create resources there have also been key personnel scattered through the district who have served as advisors to me in terms of what is needed at the school level, what is practical to pull off, and what needs to be changed. All the people below (even those who don’t recognize it – but trust me, the conversations and insights you offered have been key to our successes this year) contributed in some integral way to create quality materials for the staff of Pitt County Schools – and without their support, advice, and hard work the trainings would not been successful.  I apologize in advance for anyone whom I may have left off because I know that with a group involving this many people I will inevitably leave someone off by accident (and if one of you notices a name missing, please email me ASAP so I can get it on the list! )  It has been my privilege to with you all this year, and an honor to serve the teachers and administrators of Pitt County Schools as we transition to the new standards in the 2012-2013 school.  Our work is not finished after today, and in a real sense has only just begun, but you have all worked very hard to make it successful so far and I have no doubt the transition to the new standards will go smoothly next year.

• Jane Austen Behan
• Jeff Bell
• Ann Borisoff
• Seth Brown
• Mary Carter
• Julie Cary
• Connie Cheston
• Dr. Emory
• Michael Flinchbaugh
• Joanna Gerakios
• Sandra Jones
• Burt Jenkins
• Cathy Keeter
• Marie Lee
• Valerie Neal
• Dr. Pokie Noland
• Cheryl Olmsted
• Denise Owens
• Pat Peoples
• Rhys Potts
• Karen Quick
• Mary Robinson
• Dawn Singleton
• Lisa Smith

Please check back to this blog regularly for ongoing information and updates on Race to the Top, the new standards, and upcoming PD opportunities for staff.  After school sessions to be held in April will be posted into MLP soon, and details about the 2012 Curriculum Summer Institute (with a massive emphasis on teaching with the new standards) will be released in early April.

Here you can see where four adults went up to play with the kids from West Pine Middle School (I've cropped out the students so all you can see are adults that came up). Right after this I got to play my solo

Today I attend two sessions, one on the new Social Studies Essential Standards and one on creating and facilitating blended professional development (meaning a mix of face to face and online) – and the latter one was perhaps the best session I attended all week.  But before I reflect on these sessions I want to share something that was a great reminder in regards to the new ELA standards.

In the social studies session we were discussing the importance of the new ELA Literacy standards that require all teachers to infuse literacy instruction into their class.  But they reminded us that this is not just about “reading in the content area”, it is more reading as a content specialist.  In other words, it’s about asking and answering the question in History class, “How would a historian read this document?”  Or in science class, “How would a scientist read this document?”  This may seem like simply arguing semantics, but it’s really not.  The ELA Literacy standards that are embedded across the curriculum are not about teaching reading by using relevant content examples.  Rather, the ELA Literacy standards are about teaching how to read those relevant content examples in that particular content area.  An article analyzing the Brahms’ German Requiem will be read and understood differently by a historian than by a choral conductor.  The ELA Literacy standards are about teaching that difference.

Remember in yesterday’s post I shared how important it is for students to have Contextual Intelligence and be able to adjust to various circumstances?  That’s what the ELA Literacy Standards are doing.

Another reminder during the SS session was the importance of deeply understanding Revised Blooms Taxonomy.  I know we’ve talked about this before, and I also know many teachers and administrators are tired of hearing about it (because I hear from them), but the importance of a deep understanding of RBT can not be overstated.  While we have spent some time in staff development this year looking at RBT, it’s largely been looking at only the cognitive processes (what we commonly refer to as the six levels, starting at Remembering and ending at Creating).  What we have not invested time in, however, is looking at the knowledge dimension and understanding the way these two dimensions intersect on the RBT Table/Matrix.  This will have to be a focus as we move into the 2012-2013 school year because we have only begun to scratch the surface of understanding RBT.

So now, on to Social Studies….

Social Studies Essential Standards

I’m not sure any content area is seeing quite the shift that social studies is seeing, particularly in grades 6-12.  And, to a certain extent, that’s probably been lost in the emphasis on the shifts taking place in ELA and Math.  But here’s what I’m talking about…. First, Social Studies is moving from a “fact based” curriculum to a “concept based” curriculum.  Now one could argue that SS has always, in one sense or another, been a “concept based” curriculum, but it is now very clearly articulated that way.  In a recent discussion with some social studies teachers we talked about the importance of drawing connections between historical time periods and events, to help students understand the connection between them.  The new standards reinforce this concept even more (and that’s what I mean by saying in one way SS has been a “concept based” curriculum – it’s just that we’ve gotten distracted and lost by all the details, that whole can’t see the forest for the trees thing).

In terms of the 6-12 classes, though, grades 6-8 are seeing a mammoth shift.  Under current standards the middle school curriculum is bound by geography: in one grade classes examine western history & culture, in another they look at eastern history & culture, and in another they look specifically at North Carolina history & culture.  But not so, anymore.  Now 6th grade will look at world history from from the emergence of civilization through around 1450; in 7th grade they will pickup with 1450 and come to the present age.  Then in 8th grade students will explore both US and NC history.  That’s quite a shift – especially considering textbooks in the middle school are written specifically for geographic areas and not the entire world.  Social Studies teachers of all levels are going to need a lot of support so they can work together to build a resource library to support these new standards.

Blended PD

I’m not going to spend a lot of time exploring this concept simply because it is something that over the next year I hope to implement more often.  Basically, Blended PD is blending (go figure) both Face to Face Professional Development and Online Professional Development.  While there are many ways to do this, I believe the way it will work it’s way out most often in Pitt County is by using online tools to help sustain PD in the long-run.  One piece of research I learned today is that any staff development, no matter how good, if not sustained for at least 4-6 months will have zero impact on teaching and learning.  That fact in-and-of-itself should cause us to stop dead in our tracks and evaluate what it is we are doing and how we are doing it in terms of PD.  I believe blended PD can assist us with this whole idea of sustaining PD.

One of the topics of discussion in this session was the Flipped Classroom, only we discussed it in terms of “Flipped PD”.  For those not familiar with the concept, a flipped classroom is where teachers create videos of them teaching and explaining concepts (short videos, perhaps 5-10 minutes in length).  Students then watch the videos on their own at home, and then class time is spent practicing the skill the teacher taught.  While watching at home students can re-watch, review, or accelerate their learning based on their individual needs, then when class time comes the teacher is able to more fully differentiate instruction for students.  Some of the research being done in this area is showing that in classes where traditionally 80-90% of time was spent on teacher lecture (teachers explaining and modeling a process), classes are now spending 80-90% engaged in higher-order activities that reinforce the concepts and processes the students were taught via video.  We obviously discussed this in terms of flipping PD and had a discussion about how much more teachers could get out of the PD if they came prepared.

Then I started thinking… Maybe this concept isn’t that new after-all.  I remember back in college that, particularly in history and literature classes, we were expected to read selections as homework so we could spend the vast majority of class time discussing together what we had read individually.  The professors didn’t lecture on it – they expected us to learn the content from the reading and then we engaged in high-quality discussions during class regarding what we read.  Obviously, if you didn’t read you didn’t get much out of the discussion.  Similarly, I’ve been part of many book studies as an educator where we were expected to “read chapter #…” or “read the article about….”  When we got together as a group we then engaged in a deep conversation regarding what we had learned and how to apply it to our classroom.  Again, if one didn’t read the selection before our meeting then that person didn’t get much out of the discussion.

And I think that was a form of a “flipped classroom” or “flipping PD” – the grunt, busy work was completed before we came to class so that the class time could be invested in high-quality, higher-order discussion/activity.  We just didn’t call it “flipping”, we called it “good learning.”

Concluding Thoughts

Tomorrow I will post some final summary thoughts on the conference, but I want to share something I heard today that was absolutely profound.  We were discussion characteristics of good teachers, and one of the participants shared a story where a group of students were asked by a researcher, “What is it that makes your teacher so good?”  One of the students raised their hands and said, “Because he knows when to be quiet.”  Now at first that sounds like the punchline of a bad, anti-teacher joke.  But it’s not – it’s the truth (and it’s partly the idea behind the flipped classroom).  So often we as educators ramble on and on and on that we never allow time for our students to process and reflect and struggle through a problem.  Yet those are the very activities that produce the results we so desperately desire and need.  Sometimes, it’s best just to “be quiet”.  Those who are wise know when.

Instructional Improvement System

Let me just say that if DPI can pull off the vision they have for the IIS it will be one very impressive system – a system that should truly make the work of educators in this state much more efficient.  The overall purpose of the system is to improve and personalize student learning, and that’s accomplished by providing a link between the learner, instruction, assessment, and educator professional development.  The IIS is not just designed for teachers but also students, parents, school administrators, and district personnel.  So let’s look at these individually.

For students, the system will offer access to school resources anytime and anywhere a live internet connection is present.  It will allow for online collaboration between students (not just at one school but from across the state at different schools), provide homework resources (including the ability to submit homework electronically), and even eTextbooks.  The North Carolina Virtual Public School (NCVPS) will also be integrated into the system.   Students will have the capability of designing and creating work portfolios which they can maintain over time (literally years) to demonstrate their own growth and learning.

Parents will be able to access the system to see progress reports and student grades, interact with teachers, view discipline and attendance data, and even find resources to assist their child with homework.  The IIS will not only make information available to parents but also serve as a communication portal between parents and teachers/schools.

But since most of the readers of this blog are educators, I should spend a minute describing some of the features the state hopes to make available for us.  For one, the IIS will serve as a clearinghouse of sorts where teachers can access lesson plans and assessment ideas (including test banks and formative assessment resources).  Teachers will also have student profile information that tracks not only test scores and grades but work portfolios and student academic histories – some of these portfolios may be created by teachers while others are managed by the students themselves.  It will serve as a place to participate in online professional development and even virtual PLCs (with real educators from across the state).  It will maintain a PD catalog and PD records, similar to what MyLearningPlan currently offers Pitt County teachers.  Use of the IIS will allow districts to collapse many of the programs we use into one single sign-on and house them in one place, so that teachers no longer have to access one program for PD, another for test data, another for benchmark creation, and another for student records.  It will all be in one location.

School administrators will have similar access to the system as teachers, but it will also include the teacher evaluation rubric and process within the system.  Again, this should help eliminate the number of sign-ons and resources administrators need to manage.  By house student information, teacher evaluation, test data, and even parent contact information in one location administrators will be able to stream-line their work so they can be more effective in their jobs.  They will have access to the PD resources that teachers see (including online courses) and have the ability to run progress reports and see school-wide testing data reported (including summative test scores from the EOGs and EOCs as well as EVAAS data).

As you can see, the IIS is a huge undertaking, but, if done correctly, should both empower teachers and make their jobs more efficient so they can spend less time taking care of some routine tasks and more time focusing on instructional design and delivery.  The system has been posted for vendors to begin bidding on, and DPI has a goal of awarding the contract in August of 2012, with a phased roll-out of the system in the 2013-2014 school year.  Now that’s exciting!

Measures of Student Learning (MSLs)

One of the sources of concern and frustration for many teachers and administrators is the new MSLs.  While I can’t give an exhaustive summary of everything the MSLs will mean for our students, let me hit some highlights.  First, let’s define what the MSLs are in their most basic form: MSLs are the assessments given to students in non-tested subjects that are meant to measure the impact individual teachers have had on student achievement.  With that in mind, MSLs are not for school accountability but are for teacher accountability.  That means results of MSLs will not be reported out to the public but will be considered private information in teacher personnel files.  It also means the results of the MSLs will not be included in public reporting of school results.  The MSLs have been designed by over 800 teachers from across the state for every subject area that is not currently tested as part of the state accountability model.  So here’s a simple chart of what MSLs are and what they are not:

Technology

The first session  want to reflect on a  was by Dr. Bobby Hobgood entitled The Digital Natives are Restless but Technology Isn’t the Answer.  He talked in general about the whole idea of digital natives, confirming some ideas and also addressing some misconceptions.  The biggest thing I took away from his session, though, was a reminder to consider the use of technology in instruction.

He started the presentation by sharing a quote from Donald Adams, author ofThe Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.  Here’s what Mr. Adams said about technology:

I suppose earlier generations had to sit through all this huffing and puffing with the invention of television, the phone, cinema, radio, the car, the bicycle, printing, the wheel and so on, but you would think we would learn the way these things work, which is this:

1) everything that’s already in the world when you’re born is just normal;

2) anything that gets invented between then and before you turn thirty is incredibly exciting and creative and with any luck you can make a career out of it;

3) anything that gets invented after you’re thirty is against the natural order of things and the beginning of the end of civilization as we know it until it’s been around for about ten years when it gradually turns out to be alright really.

As I reflected on this quote (or, as Dr. Hobgood suggested, let it “marinate” on me), I realized there’s quite a bit of truth to what he says – we are, by and large, often afraid of new technologies.  But I think this comes from an incorrect understanding of what technology is.  During the session we became engaged in a discussion/debate on the role of technology in the classroom in regards to lesson planning.  Without rehashing the entire conversation, I’ll just boil it down to this: technology needs to be driven by the learning goals and activities, not vice versa.  Read this again, because it’s important: learning goals and activities need to drive technology (including which technology, if any, is used); technology should not drive learning goals or activities.

This thought is actually offensive to some, as evidenced by the conversations during the discussion this afternoon.  But here’s the bottom line: technology is a tool.  And that’s it.  Let’s take the conversation away from technology and replace the word “technology” with something else to illustrate my point..  Think of a wood working class.  Here are some of the tools in that class: table saws, band saws, planers, hammers, circular saws, and drills.  Obviously every single one of those tools requires some instruction on how to use it (we can’t just hand someone a circular saw and expect them to use it safely, so we design a lesson on how to use it).  But the bulk of instruction over the entire course is not spent on learning how to use the circular saw (or table saw or… you get the idea).  The instruction culminates when the teacher says, “Okay, your project is to build a night stand/coffee table/book shelf using the tools you have in the room” and the student then decides which tools are most appropriate (often with teacher guidance).  Someone may want to make the table entirely “by hand”, so they use a hand-planer, hand saws, and pegs to put it together.  Another person uses power tools to cut and shape the wood, and another person uses a combination of both: power tools to cut the wood but hand chisels to shape it.  But their choice in tools is determined by the goal they have for the table.

What about photography?  If I’m in a photography class I need to have a lesson on when and how to use a flash, how to focus, when and how to use a telephoto lens, how to select which filter to put on the end of my lens, etc.  But then I have to create my portfolio and so I use my knowledge of what these tools can do to help me decide which tool is best.  If I’m shooting in low light but don’t want a flash to interfere with my picture I’m going to make sure I use a tripod so I can increase the exposure time, and if I’m creating a photograph that demonstrates my understanding of depth of field I’m going to make sure to select the correct aperture setting to get the look I want.  Again, the tools are determined by my goal and activity.  Not the other way around.

Allow me one more example just to make my point – and take it away from what are often considered “elective” courses.  Think of the tools in a science course: microscopes, burners, chemicals, and all sorts of tools used for dissection.  One would never (or should never) suggest to a science teacher “You need to use microscopes more, start designing lessons using microscopes.”  No, the microscope will be used if it is the right tool to teach the desired objective – not the other way around.

So let’s go back now to our discussion on technology.  Technology is a tool, and that’s all it is.  The specific technology I use in instruction needs to be driven by my goal.  I shouldn’t be designing a Smart Board lesson because I’m trying to integrate technology into my instruction, I should be using a Smart Board only if it helps me better teach the students in my classroom.

A great model for technology integration can be found by looking at the TPACK model.  TPACK stands for Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge, and it reinforces the concept that these three areas need to come together in the proper balance.  I encourage you to look at the website for more information.

Dr. Hobgood’s wiki contains a plethora of resources addressing what I’ve discussed here, so I encourage you to visit it for more detail regarding this entire concept.

Inspiration

The last session I want to mention was the opening session on Monday evening, which featured a brief presentation by Tyronna Hooker, the 2011 NC Teacher of the Year.  Ms. Hooker gave an amazing and inspirational speech about how education for all of us is a very personal endeavor, and the reason it is (or should be) personal for each of us is because of the impact we have on children.  I wish I could repeat everything she said, but I know I wouldn’t do it justice, so for now you’ll just have to visit her website or her blog, but hopefully we’ll be able to hear more from her in the future.

PLC Activity Facilitator’s Guide

• Power Point version – use this format if you prefer a self-paced PPT to a bullet/outline format, or if you would like further information on types of assessments and how to build specific assessments.
• Outline/Bullet Version – use this format if you prefer a guide in bullet/outline format to guide your discussion.  You can either view the document online or print it to have a hard copy.

PLC Planning Guide

• Group Guide – use this in conjunction with either of the above facilitator guides as a planning/worksheet for the activities today.  You can either view (but not enter information in) the document online or print out a hard copy for your PLC recorder to write on.  Please note that because the two facilitator’s guides work in a different order (though contain the same content), the questions on this guide may not go in the exact same order as the facilitators guides listed above.  This guide is just a resource for you as you work through the activity today.

Standards Documents

• Common Core Standards
• Common Core Unpacking Documents
• High School Math I Standards (8th Grade Math I and HS Math teachers use these documents instead of the Common Core documents)
• Essential Standards
• Essential Standards Unpacking Documents
• Extended Content Standards
• Extended Content Standards Crosswalk Documents

Assessment Ideas & Assessment Checklist

• PDF file – This is included in the bullet/outline facilitator’s guide (p5-6) and referred to by the PPT – you will need this file.

Understanding How to Read the New Standards (2-3 minute videos on how to understand the standards)

• Understanding how to read Common Core Math Standards
• Understanding how to read Common Core ELA Standards
• Understanding how to read NC Essential Standards

Unpacking Documents

• Common Core
• NC Essential Standards

Embedded Standards

• ITES Standards (you’ll need to select the appropriate grade span)
• Literacy Standards (look at pg 59-66)
• ESL Standards

Videos from the Faculty PPT – If you’d like to watch the video from the whole-group time again they are listed here:

• Elementary Version
• Secondary Version