A Juggler, Some Knives, and My Shoulders; The things I do for kids!

Today, the Millville Seniors got a treat as the Renaissance Fair came to visit. Last year teacher of the year, Ms. Tara Cotton, organized the entire event through an innovation grant. I wanted to support the event, so when I was asked to be in 'one small little act' I agreed. I don't think I realized the knives were real and she was actually going to juggle them over my head until it was too late to turn back. I enjoyed watching our Seniors eyes light up with enthusiasm during the performance. It was a great way to bring the curriculum to life. At the end of the day, when my family asks "so how was work today" I am sure they will be blown away when I put this video on to show them. The greatest job in the world, and the greatest profession ever - we get to hang out with kids all day long. Enjoy the video!

Thank You! Teacher Appreciation Week

The Most Irritating Book Ever; 40 Alternatives to College by James Altucher

For all of James Altucher's fans, slow down before you begin to chastise me for the title of this post. While I absolutely found this book to be annoying, infuriating, and down right irritating I had a tough time arguing with the author's overall point - which I believe is, we need to seriously reconsider our belief system around education in the 21st century instead of simply repeating what we've always done.

If you have not heard of this book, I highly recommend that you download it (99 cents) so that you can also be irritated, and perhaps in the process of being annoyed you will be enlightened as well. Enlightened enough to at least consider some of the author's difficult questions. For instance, is college a scam? According to the author, college is one big scam. He asserts there are a multitude of agendas at work to convince young people that if they do not attend college they are worthless. [I told you up front it is an annoying book, but stay with me]. According to Altucher, kids convince each other to go because they are going, parents convince their children to go because they went, colleges want you to go up for the all mighty dollar (FACT - tuition has gone up 10 times since 1977 as compared to inflation which has gone up only 3 times), the Government wants kids to go to college because they own the debt in Government backed loans. Whether or not he is correct, it should make us think a bit...we encourage students to go on to college despite the growing number of unemployed college graduates. Debt is skyrocketing to all time new highs, perhaps we need to reconsider.

Early on in the book, Altucher answers a few questions that you may be thinking right now:
1. James, you went to college, so how can you tell your kids not to? His answer is: It's precisely because I went to college that I am most qualified. None of my jobs afterwards made use of anything I learned in college. My professors were boring and none of them were people I wanted to look up to or mentor me. And I saw exactly what was going on in college while thousands of kids parents were paying up to $40k [now $70k] a year when you include room, board, books, travel etc...

2. James, what about the statistic that was PROVEN in study after study that kids who went to college make more money 20 years later than their counterparts that did not go to college? His answer is: First off, the study is completely fake and anyone who took statistics 101 in college knows that but I'll get to that in a second. Think about 20 years ago, college was cheaper, there weren't as many reasons NOT to go. And there weren't as many alternatives as there are now. So what did smart, ambitious kids do? They went to college. What did kids who did not feel as ambitious do? They didn't go to college. So the study has what is called selection bias. They assumed they had one audience in their group that they were testing (people who went to college) but, in fact, they really had a completely different group (smart, ambitious kids versus not-as-ambitious kids). A true test would be to take 2000 kids accepted by a wide variety of colleges. Then say to half the kids "you can NEVER go to college". And then 20 years see who made more income. My guess is the group that did not go to college. How come? Because they would have a five year head start. They would not be required to take a bunch of classes they didn't want to take in the first place and would never remember, and they would have the enormous gift of not having hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. 

So again, is James Altucher correct? Up to each of us to reflect upon his point of view. I found myself annoyed for the duration of the book, and I initially told myself that was because he is so clearly wrong - and college is a great path for young people. But the more I read, the more annoyed I got, I had to admit that perhaps I was annoyed because some of what he wrote had merit. Please understand that this blog is my way of making sense of the world in real time and I am NOT saying college is bad. I am merely allowing myself to consider an alternative point of view.

The author addresses some common reasons people give when they say all kids should go to college. First, people say kids learn to be socialized at college. J.A. retorts, "are you kidding me? I'm going to spend $100-200k per year so my kids can learn how to make friends with other people their own age?
He then describes what he believes college socialization is really all about - sex and parties. Next, he says people will say you should go to college to learn how to think. He argues that college is a way to avoid learning how to think. If I want to learn how to play tennis, the best thing to do is go out on a tennis court and play tennis. If I want to learn how to live and how to think, then the best thing to do is begin living my life and thinking my thoughts instead of still having my parents pay for my life and my professors giving me my thoughts. (see his book for the full list)

So, after reading this book I am not convinced that a college education is the great evil the author describes. Maybe it is for everyone but not at 18 years old. Perhaps, our 18 year old graduates need to experience freedom that comes with adulthood for a few years, work a few different part-time jobs, volunteer at a hospital or food shelter, travel to strange places to see how different cultures live, start a business and in the process find out exactly what their passionate about - and then, pursue the course work that will give them the credentials to pursue their passion. Truth be told, my three degrees did only that - they gave me the certificates [permission] that made me elligible to apply for a teaching job, then an administrative position - I learned each of my jobs ON the job. There is little that can substitute for actually doing a job.

"Dear James Altucher, your book made me uncomfortable - I disliked it as a result, but I thank you anyway for sharing an alternative point of view. I am reflecting deeply on your thoughts."

Be open to a different point of view -

"Complete Freak'n Noise" Test Scores & Teacher Effectiveness

Hello all, some of you may know - i broke the 'radial head' in my elbow, on a skateboard - yes i realize i am too old to be on a skateboard - not the point right now. the point is i only have one hand for typing so let me get right to it. bruce baker video above is a must watch if you are a human being. now more than ever, everyone wants to condemn educators and their tool is a new teacher evaluation system that takes into account student learning (or so the rhetoric leads you to believe) listen here as bruce explains the problem with nj"s model. follow his blog for great insights into testing &evaluation. wish i hadnt broken my elbow, i have so much i want to say and share on the issue of teacher effectiveness and evaluation. 4-6 weeks of one handed typing ahead. great opportunity for me to "listen" to my PLN'S wisdom!

What if?

This interview with Finnish Education Guru, Pasi Sahlberg, is very enlightening and started me asking what if...

Imagine an education system that is not driven by 'high stakes assessment' yet scores at the top of any 'national assessment'...

In Finland, the word accountability does not exist - yet they are very accountable to their students, parents, and country. Instead, they use the word 'responsible' - he explains that each educator is responsible for giving all students equal access to a high quality education. They value discovery, play, and the arts.

I wonder what education in NJ would look like if we did not have the NJASK or HSPA...if we were free to determine what the truly important learning experiences are for our students, and we were free to determine how we will measure success...if we could focus on allowing students more freedom to study topics they find interesting within a given subject, if we focused on asking big questions, if instead of a multiple choice or open response test - students could connect their own passions and interests to efforts to change local and global communities for the better, students could do real work for real audiences for real purposes, if we allowed technology in (and gave all students access), if we valued the connections that can be made through social media outlets and actually taught students how to use these tools for good, what if we valued innovation more than memorization...

What if...we simply could begin a conversation that outlines what we feel is truly important for students to learn rather than simply accepting the Common Core as the answer. Our students' needs and values are changing whether we want to admit it or not. In order to meet these needs, we need to ask big questions like "What is the purpose of schools in an era of abundance?"

I speak with teachers all the time and they would love to explore questions about the future but the overwhelming mandates from the DOE - new evaluation systems, new assessments, common core...extinguishes their excitement. What if we didn't let that happen? What if parents, students, and educators joined together to voice our concerns to the policy making machine? What if we were so loud they had to listen? I read today, that the Texas Legislature voted 145-2 to reduce high stakes testing. TEXAS

Below is a link for a newsletter that my idle Will Richardson is spearheading. Please sign up for the free newsletter and join the conversation.
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Implementation Woes

Seems like it should be simple right? Your wife asks you to get the kids ready for school and drop them off since she isn't feeling well. She handles this task every other day - how hard can it be, right? She made a checklist for me:

1. Breakfast
2. Wash their faces
3. Brush hair and teeth
4. Get them dressed (with the clothes I've laid out for you)
5. Put their bagged lunches from the refrigerator into their lunch-boxes (again, the lunches that I already prepared for you)
6. Get their backpacks (that I have searched, reviewed, signed papers for return for you)
7. Put both kids in their car seats
8. Deploy - take to school A (for David) and school B (for Grace)

All of which should take an hour from start to finish. "Do you think you can handle it, Daddy?" Of course I can, and I will shave off a few minutes from your routine to boot. The night before I was in charge was rough, my wife runs a fever, both kids have trouble sleeping as they both of terrible colds, not to mention my son is due to have his tonsils removed next week as he has chronic swollen glands. None of us slept. The alarm goes off, I drag myself up and begin the check list. Within 20 minutes, I realized I was in big - big trouble. Do I dare wake the Mrs. up and admit defeat, no-way, I plug along trying to pick up speed - I mean how difficult can it be - I know what to do...I know the consequences of being late...

The kids were late to school. My daughter had her pants on backwards (did not notice until I got home and picked her up) - my son was dressed properly, minus his socks (are they important). In the end, I realized something, simply knowing what to do isn't enough.

Implementation in our school improvement efforts is extremely similar. Recently, I was fortunate to travel to Chicago to attend ASCD2013. I presented with colleagues during the conference and got to attend several amazing presentations. One, conducted by Bryan Goodwin, spoke to the problems with implementation. Below I will share his insights:

Five Implementation Fallacies:

1, The truth shall set you free (when people know what to do they'll do it)
2.Talking slower and louder will do it (fear, facts & force will overcome resistance)
3.Shock and Awe (doing more does more)
4.Running before walking (ignore improvement progressions)
5.Focusing on what and not who (ignoring the culture is a huge mistake)

These five fallacies can cripple school improvement efforts. There is a process and method to address these fallacies to drive deep - significant change.

And the secret sauce to success, according to Bryan Goodwin (McRel COO)

Knowing how to embrace the culture, while influencing it to embrace change is key. Thinking back to my nightmare of trying to get my kids ready and off to school, you can ask yourself, "why is my wife so successful?" Mainly because she has done the what often, she has practiced, she has mastered it by putting in her 10,000 hours of work at getting the kids ready. You should see her, its like a magic show, school or organizational change is similar. We need to not only communicate the what, we need to show the how, and then we need to coach people until they have put in their hours and it becomes second nature. Lastly, for organizational change to really happen - we must connect people to the "why". Simon Sinek's book "Start with Why" is helpful in understanding how to connect people to the vision. Once connected to the why, people are able to go above and beyond.

Pi Day Fun; Memorial High School

Pi Day is celebrated on March 14th (3/14) around the world. Pi (Greek letter “π”) is the symbol used in mathematics to represent a constant — the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter — which is approximately 3.14159.

Pi has been calculated to over one trillion digits beyond its decimal point. As an irrational and transcendental number, it will continue infinitely without repetition or pattern. While only a handful of digits are needed for typical calculations, Pi’s infinite nature makes it a fun challenge to memorize, and to computationally calculate more and more digits.

I am not sure what happened next, sometimes it is best to just let the pictures do the talking.

"You are going to adhere to the line on the floor? Right?"

"I guess that is a no on the line, huh?"