All Are Invited to RISE on November 7th!

I would like to personally invite you to the third annual Iowa Student Learning Institute RISE Conference on November 7th from 10 am- 4 pm at Waukee High School. Formerly the ISLI Fall Conference, RISE will be filled with many opportunities for students to learn and grow. RISE is unique it that it is organized by students, for students. Our organization firmly believes that students can do much more than sit in a desk and “receive” an education. We are asking students to rise to the challenge of creating change on issues they are truly passionate about. The conference will kick off with keynotes featuring local students from the Dowling High School walkout that embraced their right to free speech, the inspiring story of Yesenia Ayala who traveled across the country to pursue her dream of a quality education, and Benjamin and Amanda Yao from Kids Change The World who are working to empower students globally. For the remainder of the day, students will attend breakout sessions led by students and bootcamp workshops led by professionals. These sessions will enable students to collaboratively explore their passions and gain practical skills about how to be agents of change in their schools and communities. After the conference, we will also host the first screening in Iowa of the debut film Most Likely To Succeed, a documentary about the potential schools hold. These stories will push thinking, tug on heartstrings, and encourage students to take action! Best of all, the day is free and includes complimentary lunch and giveaways for all attendees. So, what are you waiting for? Register a group of students from your school today, check us out online at iowasli.org, and feel free to contact me with any questions you may have. Hope to see you on November 7th! Remember, the world needs you! Ian Coon Co-Founder & President iancoon@iowasli.org 515.822.8834 @iancoon

Back At School...

I've been doing a lot of thinking this Summer on how school is setup to serve the majority of students and prepare them to be workers and doers, not thinkers and innovators. There are students that are not being given the attention they need and deserve because of large teacher to student ratios. Nearly all students go to school just to get through it: many of them are successful in that and many are not. Tavion confirmed some of my thoughts in the rap he posted to Facebook I included below.

Back at school I was a fool the loner stoner who just wanted to be cool but then I opened my eyes and realized the true lies that occupies the young minds which reminds me there is no prize at the end of the line see those kids at school weren't actually cool they just over ruled with their pools jewels and ridicules and you're fed up but you gotta keep you're head up cause when we grow up they blow up. To non-existent in an instant this generations flooded with infants young minds who are stuck in the blinds who have the potential to change the world but their too busy chasin girls this says a lot about us no wonder why our parents fuss were not becoming anybody we're just a bunch of living silly putty and it's funny cause we act as if we got it figured out but we don't and we won't. see they say schools supposed to fuel us for tomorrow's life but tomorrow's strife wasn't part of the lesson plan so we began to see it was all a lie so why do we try? So we need to spread our wings and fly become our own kings and strive cause when the time arrives you'll realize to survive you gotta revive your mind, let go and grind...-Tavion Lashley

Homeless in Des Moines

The flowing riverwalk, scenic skyline views, a cheering crowd after the crack of the bat, and the bustling avenues of bars. What could be wrong here? Life is perfect in Des Moines.

But there is a lurking secret. A hidden layer left unpeeled. The agenda thrown to the back of the pile only to be dealt with later. Every city has it: impoverished people.

“It’s their fault they got there. Maybe they should have worked harder”

It is not though. Many times it is not the direct fault of the person that lands them in a homeless shelter, street corner, or camping in tents by the river.

This fault lives in all of us.

Des Moines homeless resident's last day before their camp
is destroyed by the city. Photo courtesy of WHOTV.

It is our fault for not helping them get better: mentally, physically, emotionally, and socially.

It is our fault for being a country founded with discriminatory and unjust prejudices more than two centuries ago.

It is our fault for starting segregation and purposely impoverishing an entire race, and in turn, portions of our city.

It is our fault for holding prejudice still today against these people we have disregarded as members of our society.

It’s your fault.

The time is now, and we have the power to fix it today. There are many ways to help this issue, but one organization in Des Moines, specifically, has had such an enormous influence in the community that attaching numbers to their work is hard to do.

Central Iowa Shelter and Services (CISS) was founded in 1992 by a group of local churches after five men froze to death one cold, wintery night when they were turned away from another jampacked shelter.

The decision of those churches sparked a revolution locally. CISS is now the state’s largest shelter serving approximately

250 residents an evening

69,322 overnight stays just in 2014

2,385 unique clients

115,355 meals

4,703 people with clothing

2,347 from their food pantry

They are making a difference in the lives of many.

St. Boniface youth feed & visit with clients at CISS. Photo courtesy of Mike Nass.

The new building that opened recently allows CISS to assist more in the community, and most notably, enabled clients to be able to stay in the building during the day where they would not be exposed to the addictions or conditions of the street that disregarded them. It truly is rehab for the homeless.

Along with their 50 women’s and 100 men’s emergency beds and around 100 people in overflow nightly, the shelter also offers housing solutions for 19 Veterans and 38 clients who are able to pay for a portion of a low income apartment. This is accompanied by access to three meals a day, a computer lab for career readiness, basic hygiene facilities, case workers if wanted, a greenhouse dome and food pantry, clothing closet, and medical observations.

St. Boniface youth feed & visit with clients at CISS.
Photo courtesy of Mike Nass.

Central Iowa Shelter and Services is a helping hand to all, but they are just one. What if we all held out our hands? Lifted one another up during their struggle and tugged, pulled, and dragged them behind us for a little while; just until we left them in a better place than they started.  The shelter can do a lot, but no matter what way you look at it, they are just one. There are people in Des Moines that are being missed and the numbers are only growing. We need to change our perception “that just because I don’t have today, don’t mean I’m not a benefit tomorrow” says resident Elliott.

#IAStuChat: Why Do Students Have to go to School?

I haven't published anything in nearly an entire year but am excited to be writing (more like ranting) a little to start off the first ever #IAStuChat being hosted all day on Friday, May 1st 2015. Iowa Student Chat will be one of the first of it's kind for students to discuss their passions and vision with other students. Be sure to follow @IaStuChat for news and join in the conversation using #IAStuChat. I attempted to answer the first question, "Why do students have to go to school?", from my perspective below. 

The all encompassing and never easily answered question, “why do we have to go to school?” It seems like it would be a great life without it, and think of all the free time not being stuck in four brick walls covered with a metal roof and internet that blocks all outside exposure from leaking in and contaminating young brains. But seriously, why?

An average adult and any college spokesperson would spit out instantly that it is to “Become a well rounded person”, but I thought Michelle Obama didn’t support obesity. #badumpshh. A kindergarten teacher herself would exclaim that it teaches social skills that all students need for any job. And the history teacher says that it’s so we can learn from other’s past mistakes without repeating them again. All are right, but what is the true reasoning that schools were created? I once heard it was for creating compliant children able to be overtaken by any future dictator in desperate times.

School is for learning. As a student, I see school as being able to be done in a much better way though. In a way that promotes thinking outside of the box, embraces changing the world, and creates problem solvers by putting students in a situation to be solution creators. As students, school today should be designed, and is generally in the right path, to do more than just consumption of information. The missing piece is action and agency, and that is what I believe will tie together the passion gap of the true spirit of learning and the education received from schooling. Though the first step, it is not the final step for students to just talk and be voices of what should happen but to be change-makers of that talk.

I am by no means saying that consuming and learning information is bad, it is definitely essential, but the way about doing this can be changed a lot. We should go to school to learn information, and once an interest in that is sparked, have flexibility to start taking passionate action steps concerning that topic. Even when performing the action oriented component, there is no stop of consuming information because humans are always taking in everything around them and experiences that are had. By molding the system to be flexible and intertwined like so, a fixed mindset is impossible to maintain because students no longer attend school for nearly 20 years of their life to get an education and THEN go into the workforce to utilize it. To make school relevant, that timeline is accelerated and twisted around to include a life of that.

The part that failure plays in all of this: enormous! Learning can fail and failing is learning, and the faster and more often a student fails, the better off they will be in any endeavor as long as a growth mindset is encompassed alongside. Today’s schools are what they used to be, and that is exactly the problem I have. Students, society, and businesses today are demanding more than ever at a faster rate than ever that within the confines of the current system cannot be met. The true solution can be found simply by truly listening to and working hand-in-hand with students, merging business and industry thinking with the school environment, and surrounding everyone with networks that care. When it all comes down to it, “Learning is life. Education is a system.” and students stand at the diverging forefront of these two opposites.

Embracing a Culture of Student Voice

The largest stakeholders of education, students, are the least involved in that very same education. There is a passion gap in students of how exciting learning can be and how exciting reality is. There are decisions being made that affect the lives of students deeply, and they are not consulted at all. And the worst part of this is that adults try to involve students and just miss the target and end up with an arrow through the wall instead. To truly involve student voice, an entire culture must change, responsibilities must be delegated, and voices must not only be heard, but listened to.

To involve student voice in the classroom, the whole school must change and embrace this ideology that students have valuable opinions and knowledge to share. The simplest, yet most challenging for many teachers, way to start student voice in their classroom is including student voice and student choice. Let them choose what they do, how they do it, and what they do. Students will learn and be engaged much more once they are handed the responsibility to make their own decisions and not get an education, but make their own education. This simple change, if looking at it vertically where the teacher is at the top and students are at the bottom, will equal them both to the middle. Students will be brought up from the bottom of this ladder by being given choices and the right to have opinions. Teachers will step aside and come down from the podium once students are given control. This shift in classroom leadership in an individual classroom is not a revolution of students overturning the entire school, but simply being brought up to a closer level of collaboration with the adults that hold all the power to their future.

Student empowerment cannot stop at the classroom level. To truly create a culture of student voice the school building and even district needs to invest in students by allowing them leadership roles across the schools. When visitors walk into Bettendorf High School, the first person they see is a student working as a liaison in the office. How powerful that message is to have a student be the first person seen in the office. This builds a culture of excellence across all parts of the school. The world has enough average and by putting students in leadership roles across the building they are being brought up and learning to do more and better themselves as individuals. If you look district wide, there is literally nothing that can be lost by giving students representation in a school board, district leadership team, hiring committees, and any other public positions. Students are not asking for the world, but ways to better the world they live in and will adopt. The decisions being made by adults will affect today’s students that will be forced to live with the consequences of them.

As students, we are not trying to start a revolution even though students possess the tools to do so. The Mubarak Regime that reigned in Egypt for 40 years was brought down by people using devices to voice their opinion, gather to represent them, and share the results with those around the world. Even the government with guns, missiles, and nuclear bombs could not make their citizens stand down. Students are not in anyway attempting anything this large, but are simply demanding to have a say in affairs that affect all students. As an adult, realize the power students possess and have to offer, and work to unleash that in all of the students in the class you lead. It all starts with students knowing that they matter, can make a difference, and being empowered to stand up and do so. You Matter, and your students do too!

"How Much More Real Do You Want?!"

Today was a great day. The only class I went to was PE in the morning and then served food at our Student Council Senior Picnic and after that had the pleasure to be able to visit one of our middle schools and one of our elementary schools today in my district. Observing students that were ecstatic to have graduated yesterday all the way to kindergarteners that can't wait to come to school the next morning within such a short time span presented the opportunity for some sociology.

Our last stop of the day was Walnut Hills Elementary to view students Passion Fair Projects. This building has such a close knit family connection between teachers, students, and administrators. Heck, the principal was the one that gave us visitor badges when we walked in instead of being back in her office. We stopped in and talked with Ali Locker who was in a 1st grade room today and upon even the door handle opening they all turned, stared, and waved. The 5th graders eagerly shared with us their philanthropy-based Passion Projects they've been working on. The idea was designed along Angela Maiers' Genius Hour concept. 5th Graders presented to us and never hesitated on any of the questions we threw out at them. When I was in 5th grade I don't even think we knew what trifold stands were!

"I like to go on vacation but I don't like to see the people without homes. It takes a long time for that to get out of my mind and I just want to fix it." -Student

Topics for these ranged from recycling to littering to animal abuse to
homelessness to special needs students and many more! 

Before that we visited the middle school and talked with Mrs. Reinhold, who was helping kids in the library as they came in from study halls and various classes. Mr. Goerend's students were creating business plans of their own choice to argue that one bakery is needed more than a Javascript coding app that all gets trumped by the necessity for a new sports store on the block. And, the best part, they were all able to answer why they were doing this and how it related to English, and that we got different answers from every group. These students were working in their own spaces, corners, desks, groups, and with the technology that they needed to work. There wasn't an "Okay kids, let's all go to the computer lab and sit in rows and work as individuals on this project that you have to present" feel about it at all.

Walking into 7th grade math students recognized me from Instagram and said hi before they went back to their test. Let me remind you that there is a difference in age of 4 years, 3 grade levels, and 2 school buildings between these students and myself. Wouldn't you have cringed if a high schooler walked into your class in middle school?

Throughout the building the Speech and Drama class was writing plays in groups taking over their room and the hallway while 8th graders were practicing their job interview skills with our district Superintendent, the Executive Director of the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners, and the Director of the Department of Education in the lunchroom. It was hard to think that that morning they had a BMX bike show come as a prize from the Fall fundraiser.

Now, we come to the post-seniors, the one that are so thankful that over 12 years of school are over and they get to enter the "real world" now. Even as a sophomore I'm guilty of this as I opened the post with "what a great day of skipping school". :)

But I question...

• Will these same students in elementary and middle school think the same thing when they become high schoolers?
• Is all the work I just described not a part of the "real world"?
• Where does this gap between love and hate of school happen?
• Where did the fun in learning go?
• Why did learning become separated from the real world as students got closer to entering into it? 

Education has changed so much in the past four years I've followed it from when I entered middle school to today. Not only has it changed within my district but in the state, country, and world; no matter what people may say. The real world is only a stones throw away and our students are already yearning and reaching for it if we haven't already opened up the classroom door and told them to go find it.

You Matter: Own It, Embrace It, Share It

This past week, being only 2.5 days of school, has been one of the most inspiring of the entire school
year. Not because of the constant snow days or double the amount of sleep, but because of the transformed atmosphere within the building. Created by and for students, over 1,500 inspirational messages were masterminded and plastered onto every locker in the school in one day. I spear headed a similar project last year [video below] done with merely 700 signs and two months of prep work at a junior high
building within the district but putting quantities aside, each project has had the same effect. Each project has brightened someones mood, averted a mind from negative thoughts even if just for a second, and I don't think anyone would argue that they dislike the messages seen across campus. This is the most organic, passionate, and selfless work I have witnessed from high school students. Keep on keeping on because everyone should know and share that they truly matter. Trust me, it's an amazing feeling.

Not In School These Days

I'm not here to bash common core, demand different forms of assessments, redefine the instructional strategies of teachers, or nag about the lack of technology use, or anything else one can find argued about on Twitter. I'm just sharing some food for thought today on how I see students view their own learning everyday.

Teacher: "You need the sheet back in order to get any points back."

Student: "Yeah, the most important part."

Teacher: "No, learning is the most important part."

Student: "Not in school these days."

The real question is, is learning the most important thing happening in your classroom? Your school? Your district?

Blogging Burrito: People Come First

I haven't blogged in over two months but there have been six events in particular this week that all revolve around one theme so I'm throwing them into one post and calling it a blogging burrito, so here goes nothing.

Event #1:

Banner many students signed

Quote that was circulated by students

A Junior at my high school took his own life two weeks ago. It was a very sudden and unexpected thing, even to his closest friends. This was the very same friend who I had driven around the neighborhood in plastic Power Wheels cars, played laser tag with at 9:00 at night thinking we were so cool, and who showed me how to Bluetooth on a flip phone (yes, back when everyone carried a Motorola Razor). It was a serious wake up call to me on how much I share with people that they are important and matter, especially with my sarcastic personality. The school had so much outpouring of support after the incident but I kept thinking that The Band Perry really did sum it up with the line of, "Funny when you're dead how people start listenin'". I have taken a personal oath now to make sure everyone knows they do matter and that someone is always there for you. Angela Maiers is coming to speak to all 1,500 students of within the next month to share the same message with everyone.

Event #2:
A member of our marching band sent me a direct message on Twitter about how they think sports are starting to overpower the school. This is usually the cliche case at many high schools, but Waukee is different. In this case, we decided on a video showcasing the volunteer groups, academic clubs, and extracurricular things besides our sports program.

Event #3:
On Friday, I donated blood at our bi-annual school drive. The nurse told me I was saving three lives promptly before shoving a needle in my arm almost making me faint. I was not any happier than when they took that needle back out of me after five minutes. Disclaimer: I did black out when they took the needle out. It is pretty funny now but I thought I was dying when it happened. Even after that, I plan on doing it again next Spring because those three people somewhere are counting on me.

Event #4:
My best friend -- an understatement -- is a grade younger than me. One year, six months, and 26 days younger in age. And two inches taller in height -- He likes to remind me about that frequently. For being younger, he has shaped me as a person more than anyone else ever has. This last week he told me I was his "Biggest role model, and it means so much to know you support me. But, when you don't support me, it honestly makes me feel terrible". WOW. If that doesn't show you how much relationships between people truly matter then I don't know what will. 

Event #5:
A teacher told my girlfriend that "Since you and Ian started dating, you've been a lot happier and productive". How much more data do teachers and the world need that people are happier, livelier, more outgoing, and learn easier when they know they matter. Geez! I knew I had people that constantly looked to me as a role model and as a friend, but that I could affect someone and their life so much was outstanding.

Event #6:
My math teacher, out of the blue, asked me what I wanted to do with my life. I told him I wanted to be an english teacher. He asked why instantly, in a negative connotation. I told him that
"I can't think of any other job where I don't have to work in an office, don't officially work during the summer, can share my passion of reading, writing and talking, and inspire so many young lives every day I come to work". His response was something along the lines of "True 'dat" but I have noticed he's been a little nicer ever since. :)

People matter most.

Others come first.

Choose to care.

However you say it, don't forget to share with a coworker that their outlook in a meeting made you think differently, your kids that their text message during work made you laugh, or your neighbor that you appreciate when they pull your garbage cans up from the middle of the street after a snow storm. It doesn't have to be something big, just something authentic. Trust me, it makes a difference. Save a life, brighten a mood, share the kindness. You matter.

School Shouldn't Suck - Support #SBAR

You learned to read. To write. To speak. To stick up for yourself. But, when you entered high school you had to start waking up at 6:30 five days a week. Going to school after relentless studying, cramming, and assignments from the night before. Having to take standardized tests to prove that you are competent of basic skills.

Where did the learning end up at in this evolving school scene? Where did you end up?

Standards Based Grading is a compilation of “I can…” statements that give students a guide to the expectations of their teachers and their courses. Standards Based Grading should be incorporated throughout all of our education system because students know what they have learned, successful motivation does not come from a grade, and students are prepared for a life full of learning outside of their primary educational institute.

Students know where they stand on what they have learned and what’s ahead of them to learn. Each standard is a different skill that should be understood and, at a point in time, be able to be demonstrated. Students knowing the skills they are being taught by doing work in critical thinking problems, reading, and writing to get rid of the “I don’t do anything in that class” phrase students often use. Oh, and the infamous dinner question when your parents ask “What’d you learn today” and you reply “Nothing…” Standards Based Grading allows you to know exactly what you know, accurately, not just based off of one test score.

Along with enabling students to see their own learning, Standards Based Grading allows for more learning to occur. A teacher giving a student a zero on an assignment is not going to motivate that student to try harder. It’s going to show them that a number matters more than their learning does. It won’t make them try to re-do and relearn the content, it will make them give up. If the teacher doesn’t believe in the student, why should the student believe in themselves? It is not the numbers that matter but the people and ideas that associate them. Therefore, grades being used as an ineffective motivator would be eliminated in a Standards Based environment.

Chiefly, Standards Based Grading is the most opportune system in preparing students for life. A student will very rarely ever be given a grade with an A, B, C, D, F in the working world. They will be given a task, points, or standards, to cover in a project, presentation, or paper. Upon completion, they won’t be given a score. They will get all kinds of feedback: constructive, negative, positive all based upon whether it met the original outlined standards. The performance of that employee is not only clear to the teacher, but the employee and other supervisors.

Because Standards Based Grading enables students to know their position in what they have learned, motivation does not exist in letter grades, and it prepares students for a life enriched with constant learning it should be implemented throughout our entire education system. It is based on people, not in numbers. Don’t become a letter or a number. We are not a world of synonymous robots performing laborious tasks in uniform. Standards Based Grading is the future of our nation and workforce. The numbers don’t matter; it’s you that matters.

Student Voice Opportunity - Iowa Student Learning Institute

School is changing. With No Child Left Behind and Common Core combining with new types of standardized testing and the integration of technology, straight row school is no longer a viable option. With all this change shouldn't we be listening to the voices that are affected most by change?

We are proud to announce the Iowa Student Learning Institute. Designed to give a stage to the voice of our students with the support of our educators. ISLI will be a combination of a variety of sessions. A keynote from Duane Magee and Scott Mcleod along with breakout sessions in the morning with a time for face to face collaboration carried out by students throughout the afternoon. We welcome students of all ages across Iowa to come and make your voice heard in this 1st annual student education conference.*

Register to attend with your students on Eventbrite.

View more details on our Smore website.

*Composed for the ISLI campaign by Dane Barner.

Consider...

Consider....

1. Teachers learn to teach the same way.
2. Students perform and learn in different ways naturally.
3. Where did these two get mixed and lost?

Dogs are individuals and different beings. We get it. Then why does our education system not treat our own students like this?! Our work and life are self-paced and "real" but our schools that lead us up to that point are not "real".

All the dogs and your students do have one thing in common: they all had guidance from their instructor. As a teacher, you have the power to change. I urge you to do so because we have a serious epidemic to solve here.

*This video is creative commons licensed, so please, use it to your needs in spreading the word!*

Top 10 Reasons that GPA's Suck

Though not endorsed by David Letterman, grade point averages do suck (really).

10. It shouldn't matter what number you or everyone else is. It's all a part of your own personal growth.

9. Someone who was not great at a required selective course is seen as a bad student even though they are excelling in every other class.

8. Assessments don't always know what I know.

7. Numbers are passionless. People aren't.

6.  Inaccurate until the semester ends. Feedback twice a year doesn't help continuous learning.

5. It should be considered a form of bullying by unfairly comparing students to one another.

4. It's completely irrelevant when left standing by itself. What does it represent: A sneaky cheater, a well behaved studier, or a 5 minute study crammer? It's an assessment taking score, not one of learning.

3. It takes the natural learning out of school. If it truly matters, you will know. A number won't.

2. Where is the data to even back up this number? Stored in more numbers ranging from 0-100%?

1. "It's not the number that matters, but what got you there" -Angela Maiers.

That Excuse is Invalid

I went on a tour of the John Deere ISG facilities this past Thursday and noticed a drastic difference in the way we think of jobs and the reality there. The office buildings were filled with programmers, developers and testers. These are the jobs of the future we try to prepare students for today.

Collaboration stations: These individuals don't work in square cubicles with high walls in rows with no windows. This is a thing of the past. They work in no wall environments with desks and tables pushed to the edges so that collaborative tables can be in the middle.

So, why do our students sit in separated rows?

Brain vomit walls*: Every interior wall they had was covered in Wink Wall Whiteboard paint. It's a product that allows you to paint a wall whatever color you choose then use the Wink clear coat over top to make it a whiteboard surface. They also utilize the outer sides of cubicles to stick all kinds of post-its on progress through various stages.

So, why do our students use lined paper?

Minimal Mass-Audiences: There were little to no conference rooms or large meeting rooms. I counted 3-4 projectors in total on our tour. They collaborate personally not in mass consumption PowerPoints.

So, why do our students "learn" from lectures?

Comfortable: There were all kinds of chairs and conversation areas throughout the building. The tables lifted from sitting height to standing ability which you could change in a matter of seconds based on your preference. They had a break room with ping pong tables and a cafe style food area, not a lunchroom.

So, why do our students function in factories?

The excuse of preparation for "the working world" is no longer valid.

Let Them Learn... For Pete's Sake!

This picture speaks a thousand words but here are five key points I got from it.

1. Physical Space: It's not a rectangle room* with tan walls and 30 desks oriented in rows facing a whiteboard. There is overwhelming space to create, craft, discovery and work with their hands. The room is comfortable, green** and personalized. How we work as educators and life long learners not in factory schools.

2. Eager Smiles: Do you see the excitement and focus in their face? It's not compliance driven. Enough said.

3. Use of technology: It doesn't overwhelm and take over their life. The importance of crafting and creating is stressed just as much online as in "the real world". The Chromebook was used when she felt it necessary and let go of when it wasn't important. It doesn't consume her. May I also point out that she found it on the desk on her own, turned it on and found the website all by herself. And she's in 1st grade. Can this be stressed enough? These kids will out learn all of us and that's awesome!

4. Information Consumption: The books are open. Being read, analyzed and then used. Drawing cats from them and planning their future art projects. Where does this dreaming get lost in our system?

5. Let them create: A majority of the desk is covered in paper and markers and fun stuff. This is HUGE metaphorically. Nowhere is there lined paper and #2 testing pencils. These girls come down to this desk all the time and create***. They work towards their future career goals, not towards their future high school and college. They are architects when drawing houses, fashionistas making American Girl Doll outfits online and CEO's when they run Target and various other companies. But, most importantly, they are teachers sharing their passions with pretend students because the opportunity to share isn't present in school.

Presentation from Jeff Utecht.
Photo reused with permission
from Kristina Peters.

The divide between school and life is too big. A student said today****, "I don't learn in school. I memorize stuff. And then I forget it all after the test because there's more to learn after this." This isn't life and it shouldn't be school. Not even close.


*Okay, it really is physically, but not mentally.
**The color of learning.
***I don't do anything but monitor the use of glue and glitter.
****Perfectly quoted because I wrote it down today.

Questions are the Basis of Progress

Upon submitting an application to be a part of the student shark tank answering questions from teachers, I had to compose a brief essay on the two questions below. The Bacon Wrapped Lesson conference is a great professional development tool, leaving you with over 60 new lesson plans at the end of two days. Considering registering for the event here.

What do you think makes for a good and engaging class in school? Why do you want to be a part of this?

The role of educators in and out of the classroom has shifted recently from containing all of the information in the classroom to being guiders of knowledge in our 21st century global community. The physical space needs to enable students to gather, collaborate, research and then create at their own level and pace. When you allow the students to guide their own personal learning, differentiation and assessments come naturally. Teachers are still leaders and students will take after how they compose and function their own learning as educators.

I have witnessed the change of teachers handing over the reigns to students and have only seen success stories. My blog is focused on “Live to learn, learn to live, then teach others” (Horton) by sharing my stories and daily observations. If one does not apply or do anything with the knowledge they contain there is no meaning in even possessing it.

As our system becomes more dynamic than ever, I challenge educators to not only question and accelerate their students, but question themselves on how they empower students in their room and curriculum.

It is important for everyone to make time to reflect and change because “the power to question is the basis of all human progress” (Gandhi). The future of thousands of lives are in your control and the power lies within everyone of us to make that difference. I am asking to be a leader at the forefront of this revolution in the name of lifelong learning.

A Kind Word is Never Wasted

Last night I pondered upon this post that absolutely outraged me. After a night of sleeping it off it still bothers me but I am going to view it as a teachable moment.

Why would you post something negative about another person online?* Yes, you did not tag him in your post but that does not make it okay. How many people have now seen this and think differently of you? It's not cool and it never will be. Businesses will not hire you for treating others like that. Do you realize the real influence your voice has in person and online? It is not just your life being affected here either, think of the kid you are making fun of. Your stupidity has a much more serious effect on him. Think of the humiliation he felt when people commented about this event to him in person and now, you have the nerve to post it online and keep the situation going!? Of all people, a school ambassador, representing more than yourself, posted this online to torment someone forever. Is it not bad enough this student is teased and ignored everyday in person? I'm not sure about you but I do not take this lightly. I know how it feels and no one else should have to also.


The next time this situation comes up, view it as a teaching moment with your students. Don't ban or block it, teach them appropriate use. I could not be the bystander in this situation. Make sure they understand the true power of their words and the influential power everyone of us holds so dearly. Our world will get nowhere with the attitude, actions and consequences of bullying one another. Choose to care and choose to matter about yourself and others.

*And No, Facebook is NOT fair game. It's online and will be kept forever.

Technology: Help or Hindrance to Communication

This is an essay I wrote two months ago in my speech class, now publicly publishing* it.

Communication is extremely different than even a decade ago (Frenkel). The integration of email and social networking sites has benefited and prohibited effective communication by providing instantaneous feedback, disallowing one to study their kinesics, and taking time to reflect and ponder what they just received. Habitual reevaluation is necessary to see the benefits and downfalls of each channel of communication we use (Frenkel).

Some wonder why this is a dilemma now. Before the deep integration of email the use of letter writing was much larger. Humans are used to the joyous feeling of getting mail. Standing by the mailbox on a summer afternoon opening cards from your friends and family. When you run inside and are enthused to respond right away to their letter, you get in the right mood and reflect a little before you start writing (Rosen). Unlike this rare event of the past “we are living in an age of electronic intimacy” and for most people “this is new emotional terrain” (Rosen). Very seldom do people take time to write letters. Their replacement has been the introduction of email. The encoding process of typing an email differs greatly from that of the emotional rush before writing a letter. “I do notice that emails are often fired off without any real consideration” and have been subject to great variance in the receiver's decoding because of their purpose (Rees-Mogg).

Contrary to the popular belief of most, emails and communication using new channels of technology do have benefits. The acquaintances formed using pen and paper can now be accessed by your fingertips in real time online (Rosen). Using email allows for time to think and reflect before responding (Cellan-Jones). One also gets a dopamine, stimulant that makes one happy, high when you get new emails, texts and interactions. (Rosen). Much of the communication we now do is non-verbal and carries into every part of our lives. A day of work consists of using many channels, which can be but are not limited to calling, texting, emailing, instant messaging, blogging, tweeting, and participating in webinars (Frenkel). The ease of sharing and resharing emails is a much simpler way of communicating without needing to re-encode a message each time. An AT&T commercial portrays effective communication as businessmen sit in a coffee shop emailing into a meeting (Rosen). An account from an English writer, Roy Cellan-Jones, sums up that “I can’t imagine how I would do my job without tools like Twitter” (Cellan-Jones). Various technologies available to us benefit, not hinder our communication. We have become smarter because of technology. It has improved some’s self perception by allowing them to be social without face-to-face impromptu conversations. Some types of people need time to think before relaying their feedback and technology grants that to them. “Technology is a massive aid to communication” by gaining the opportunity of instantaneous feedback and the constant development of new forms that grant us the use of paralanguage and kinesics. The ever changing “communication technologies provide an addition, not a replacement, for traditional means” of communicating (Cellan-Jones).

New communication also has many downsides (Frenkel). The use of email has a defined purpose of efficiency, not human feelings (Rosen). It was not intended for the purpose of entertaining but to exert control and inform. Email as it was designed, could have devastating impacts on our businesses and society. The enhancements to technology is driving us to be lazier about talking with one another. Administrators writing emails that are encoded with frustration could be decoded as anger and rejection which could lead to contracts or business being missed out on. That business decision will be regretted in the future because of a moment not taken to check for an encoding error (Cellan-Jones). Your words permanently stay in writing and attached to your name so the take the time to make sure they are beneficial for you (Frenkel).

Old, one-way communication.

If not used with a formal purpose, email could become an addictive habit (Cellan-Jones). It has evolved into the lazy way of communicating (Price). Executives have viewed it as the ruder form of communicating with someone because very little effort is involved. Getting hooked online is dangerous to the art of talking face to face but the large amounts of tweets, facebook messages, and phone calls every day are overwhelming. Overwhelming, but appreciated because you are able to use photos and voice to encode and decode a message allowing for more effective feedback that email does not provide (Cellan-Jones). One advancement in our society that has caused this revolution of ditching email is our smart phones giving us the happiness of being connected and receiving feedback much faster than an email provides it (Rosen).

Email has come under fire because of it’s ancient years in technology time. The foundation it laid for online communication has transformed us into data hungry creatures. It has turned private friendships into a mass spectator sport where everyone watches and participates while companies like Facebook collect from our profits. Our society demands us to publicize our feelings and relationships frequently. It has caused our self perception to change dramatically by creating more self conscious human beings. Many people suffer from society anxiety when they do not receive any new messages. The more friends one tends to have on Facebook increased their chance of saying others lived happier lives than them (Rosen). Ones online presence and digital footprint “often lays the foundation for your reputation long before you can shape it yourself” (Frenkel). A majority of people perceive “themselves rather than their appliances as being ‘plugged in’” (Rosen).

Using technology as a channel extremely limits your ability to send and receive information effectively. Sarcasm cannot be interpreted through “words on a screen” and leads to ineffective communication and possibly a communication breakdown. There are many numerous ways you can understand one simple sentence. As human communicators, one should be able to recognize where the error occurred and know how to go about fixing it with feedback and clarification. It is normal for one to make assumptions when encoding because “the fact that you know how you intend for your message to be received biases you even more to believe that’s the way your message will be read” (Frenkel). Many times when reading someones post or email it can be misinterpreted because of a lack of background and purpose. The feedback that follows is the most important piece in being an effective communicator (Frenkel).

Crucial steps in avoiding ineffective communication are not difficult at all. The first item to check for is your purpose. Use the channel appropriate to the event and purpose of your communication. Are you entertaining, exerting control, informing, sharing feelings, entertaining or simply being a conformist of following social rules because everyone else uses that channel of communication? If you have received an email in all caps with an encoding of excitement, you probably decoded it as being yelled at. If the sender would have sent you a text, the informality would have suggested something more fun (Frenkel). Email is best for relaying information to one person, not many who have no meaning behind why they were included in your email chain. Some companies, such as Atos, have banned email as a form of communicating within the company. Volkswagen has also prohibited its Blackberry servers from sending email to an employee 30 minutes after their shift is over. These companies are “not rejecting modern communication but recognizing that a new generation already thinks email is old hat” (Cellan-Jones). The second piece to check for is if you are assuming and taking the shortcut. This can greatly hinder effective communication as well. It is okay to assume as long as you are aware of when you are doing it and ready to defend yourself from the receiver. Train yourself to make the assumption that many people will be reading your words. Consider the many possibilities that next message has in their decoding process (Frenkel). If “you can do the count to ten rule and think a bit before you respond” all should be fine (Bulger). Adding into the equation everything happening around you, do not let the distractions affect the cognitive load in your mind (Cellan-Jones).

Talking is important (Cellan-Jones). As more people realize this there will tend to be more migratory friendships, connections that started online that form into face-to-face, real world relationships. By having access and constant feedback will humans become unable to demonstrate the feeling of longing for one another? (Rosen). “We used to simply drop in on people or bump into them in the street”. We were “able to visualize the ‘whites of their eyes’ when making direct contact (Cellan-Jones). The use of kinesics has been forgotten in many forms of communication besides personal confrontation. This is a very important part of communication because we miss 75% of what we hear each day. If we are able to watch and connect ones actions over their words we receive a verbal and nonverbal message to decode correctly. This is a big improvement in having effective communication without interference. As a group of college students summarized best, “you use social networking and modern technology to arrange meeting face to face” (Cellan-Jones).

It has come time to “Rethink Possible” and reexamine our world and how we communicate between cultures, species and even ideas (AT&T). Before, “ a closed door usually stayed closed forever. No longer” is this the case (Rosen). Integrating email and social networking into our lives has benefited and prohibited effective communication over forms of talking and letter writing by providing constant feedback, blocking one from studying their kinesics and taking time to reflect and think before sending our feedback. We live in a constantly changing world but humans adapt. We have previously and we can again. The question though is will it be for the better? (Rosen).

Works Cited

Cellan-Jones, Rory. "We Don't Talk Any More - Is Technology Harming Communication?" BBC News Technology. BBC, 29 Dec. 2011. Web. 12 Feb. 2013. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16313832>.

Frenkel, Stephen. "Communication 2.0: The Perils of Communicating Through Technology." Harvard Negotiation Law Review. Harvard Negotiation Law Review, 5 Apr. 2009. Web. 12 Feb. 2013. <http://www.hnlr.org/2009/04/communication-20-the-perils-of-communicating-through-technology/>.

Rosen, Christine. "Electronic Intimacy." Wilson Quarterly 36.2 (2012): 48-51. Literary Reference Center. Web. 11 Feb. 2013.

*While creating reduntant alliterated introduction phrases.

Creating Creatively: What I've been up to

I haven't taken time to write formally on my own and it really does make me feel bad. I have been doing much more creating lately though. Everything from posters, logos, presentations, documents, videos and photo organizing. I thought I would share some of what I have done. Anyways, why does it matter if you can't share it with someone?

Here are the PDF downloads (in Dropbox) of inspirational quote signs I made. Feel free to use them however you would like to.

I have made logos, dance tickets, posters and numerous planning for the Student Ambassador groups at the middle school and my current building.

I am currently working on a presentation on volunteering to present to Becky Goerend's 5th grade students along with many more in my speech class.

You can check up some of the other recent videos I have worked on at my YouTube channel or in this 9th grade playlist. My featured and favorite works are collected in this playlist.

Most of my daily time has been shifting through the thousands of photos I have taken. Here is an album I've collected so far of my favorites and publishing worthy photos.

I have been drafting blog posts (on paper!) that I hope to sit down and publish soon.