Tech Tapas

We'll be serving up some tech tapas to Ohio's English language arts supervisors during Thursday's fall meeting at the Ohio Resource Center. Tapas are appetizers, designed to encourage conversation. Legend has it that originally tapas were salty, to provoke thirst. We're hoping that some of the tech tapas served will make our colleagues thirsty to learn more.

On the menu board (all FREE or very low cost)
Delicious: share you bookmarks, browse others by friend or topic
Voicethread: interactive way to teach with images and audio
Wallwisher: collect feedback
Jing: capture whatever's on your screen
Skype: use free audio and video conferencing
Twitter:  microblog (keepin' it concise) to learn, share, network
Ning: network securely and share resources
Google Docs: collaborate on all kinds of documents
Bit.ly: shorten those long URLs
Blogspot: blog from an easy-to-us template
Animoto: create video from your images

Buen Provecho!

21C Skills for the Arts: Customizing to Our Circumstances

"If you're doing a thing that you're passionate about, time takes a different turn entirely," said Sir Ken Robinson in his 2010 TED Talk. We'll begin our K-8 Fine Arts professional learning day with Robinson's talk, "Bring on the Learning Revolution!"



Robinson urges us to examine what we take for granted and to consider what we need to leave behind to teach and learn in a new century. He invites us to change our metaphor of education from an industrial model (one size for all) to an agricultural one (organic and adapting). He goes on to talk about customizing to our circumstances, quoting Lincoln: "Let us not rise to the occasion. Rather, let us rise with the occasion."

Rising with the occasion, our K-5 Fine Arts teachers began their 21C Skills conversation* on our September 1 professional learning day. We used the Skills Map for the Arts created by P21, Partnership for 21st Century Skills. We'll be joined September 24 by our middle school arts teachers as we continue our exploration.

As we gather again on Friday we will focus on two of Robinson's themes: sharing our talents and collaborating on lessons that customize to our circumstances.

We'll enjoy the morning with our teacher showcase—sharing our diversity of talent. On deck so far: Tim Kloth will debut his newly completed composition, Mark Messerly will play a piece from his Thursday night gig at Grammers, Jennifer Witsken will share her pattern designs for knitting, and Pam Hall will show her favorite jewelry creations.

Then we'll follow Robinson's second charge—to customize to our circumstances. We'll play, experiment, innovate, and adapt to redesign a current lesson plan or unit, customizing with two or more 21C Skills:

• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
• Communication
• Collaboration
• Creativity
• Innovation
• Information Literacy
• Media Literacy
• Information, Communications, and Technology Literacy
• Flexibility and Adaptability
• Initiative and Self-Direction
• Social and Cross-Cultural Skills
• Productivity and Accountability
• Leadership and Responsibility

We'll end the day collaborating and sharing our unit makeovers. Stay tuned for a showcase of lessons!
________________________________
*About 21C Skills and our September 1 Arts conversation, what's the word? See for yourself:

Not Your Granny's Open House

Amelia Middle School's 7th and 8th grade open house let parents meets their students' teachers and their classrooms' technology tools. Parents got a chance to sign in on interactive white boards and practice texting responses to teachers' questions. Classes across the district and across the country adapt to 21st Century teaching and learning. Take a look!

Class of 2014: No Wristwatches, No Email

Yearly since 1998 two profs at Beloit College, Wisconsin, have created a Mindset List to help faculty better understand the incoming class. For those of us talking 21st Century Skills, this list is a powerful reminder.

Meet the CLASS of 2014, for whom...

1.  Few in the class write in cursive.
2.  Email is just too slow, and they seldom (if ever) use snail mail.
3.  Buffy has always been a vampire slayer at Hemery High.
4.  “Venti half-caf vanilla latte” has always been lingo.
5.  Clint Eastwood is known as a director, not as Dirty Harry.
6.  DNA fingerprinting and human genome maps have always existed.
7.  Korean cars have always been a staple on American highways.
8.  Their first computer's an Apple II. It’s now in a museum.
9.  Czechoslovakia never existed.
10. Second-hand smoke has always been an official carcinogen.
11. Bud Selig has always been the Commissioner of MLB.
12. Russians & Americans have always lived together in space.
13. Food’s always been irradiated.
14. Fergie is a pop singer, not a princess.
15. Nirvana is on the classic oldies station.
16. Rock bands have always played at presidential inaugural parties.
17. Michelangelo was just a computer virus.
18. Beethoven has always been a dog.
19. With cell phones to tell time, there’s no need for a wrist watch.

Source: Beloit College 2014 Mindset List. See the complete list here.

Image by Simon Peckham Flickr Creative Commons

The Writing is on the Screen

"The writing is on the screen" author Bill Kist reminds us about the new media age as he invites teachers to use Web 2.0 and social media technologies to reach 21st Century kids. Kist, author of The Socially Networked Classroom: Teaching in the New Media Age (2009), will join West Clermont for two interactive workshops Tuesday, August 17.  Location: Union Township Civic Center, Cincinnati, OH.

For teachers 5-12: 8:30 to 11:30 am: Teaching in the socially networked classroom.

For administrators: 12:30 to 3:30 pm: The new literacies: 21st century skills in our classrooms.

To learn more about Kist's book, see this great glogster review by Kevin Hodgson.

For information about registration: steele_m@westcler.org.

Did You Know? 4.0

Many of us have seen the original Did You Know video by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod. This is the most recent version, updated in September 2009. I'm looking forward to the 2010 data, but still find this a powerful reminder as we enter a new school year. As adults, we can choose whether or not to use technology. Our children will not have that option. So our district's and schools' improvement plans this year include 21st Century Skills, for students and for staff. In the next month before our students return what new skills and technologies can we explore, try out, or just play with, to move us towards a 21st Century teaching & learning experience?

M.E.

PS For me, I'm learning Prezi this summer, reading Drive by Daniel Pink, and taking part in an online book study.

On Track for Graduation

This guest blog post was written by Dennis Ashworth, who retired as Glen Este High School principal July 2010. It was inspired by the Cincinnati Enquirer's questions on preventing high school drop outs.
________________________

West Clermont School District has developed intervention programs aimed at increasing our student graduation rate, and deterring teens from dropping out of school. Research shows that the two most critical years for high school students are the 9th and 10th grades. If students have little success and fall behind in those early years, the drop out rate increases dramatically.

Amelia and Glen Este High Schools have programs in place designed to help 9th and 10th grade students stay on track for graduation. We also have programs for juniors and seniors who need extra support during their last years of school.

9th Grade Transition Teams:
Each high school creates incoming 9th grade students' schedules so they are with a team of teachers each day. Transition team teachers develop a common academic plan, and they meet once a week to discuss student progress. The school day is designed to allow each student a sense of structure: what their day will look like, goals, objectives, activities, and expectations. Students get a sense of what to expect each day to organize and prepare for their daily routine. Each 9th grade student is given a Reading Comprehension Assessment and a Learning Style Inventory. Beginning in the fall of 2010, each 9th grader will take the PLAN test from ACT©. Each of these assessments allows the team to generate lessons, activities and assessments that best fit each student. Teachers get to know their students and have an increased opportunity for communication with parents. During parent-teacher conferences the parent can meet with the entire team and get a better picture of how their student works though out the entire day.

10th Grade Level Teams:
These teams operate on the same principle as the 9th grade teams but are designed to help students begin to use the skills from their 9th grade year as a basis for independent work, self motivation, and increased expectations. The Ohio curriculum is standards-based and is developed to give each student the best opportunity to pass the OGT (Ohio Graduation Test) on their first attempt.

Virtual School:
West Clermont has developed a Virtual School Program open to juniors and seniors who have credit deficiencies and are in danger of not graduating, or not graduating with their class. This on-campus program allows students to complete course work using an online high school program approved by the Ohio Department of Education. Students can access their courses both at school and at home which allows them to complete their needed credit requirements. This helps students catch up without overloading them with additional classes in their schedule. It gives them immediate feedback about their progress and allows them the opportunity to work at their own pace. Admittance policies for the Virtual School are stringent and students must maintain specific academic goals to remain in the program. An additional student benefit: the program operates through the summer allowing students to continue the path towards graduation.

Credit Recovery Program:
Credit Recovery operates in the same way as the Virtual Program but is designed for students who need only a few credits. Students maintain their regular daily schedules but have the opportunity to be placed in online courses that they have previously failed. Each student reports to the credit recovery site on campus one hour a day to work, plus they can access the class from home. Both semester work and yearlong work can be recovered this way.

OGT Intervention:
All 11th and 12th graders who have not passed the OGT are placed in OGT Intervention sessions. Students are given specific help in the content area that they must pass on the OGT, with practice tests and online access for additional support. West Clermont also offers Summer OGT Intervention for upperclass students who want to retake the test in July.

All Students:
All high school students have access to several intervention/support programs. West Clermont has developed an active study table program that operates after school three days a week. This 90-minute help session is opened to all students and has teacher support in all core areas. We also offer after school tutoring for any core subject area.

Our goal is to make sure that each student progresses in a way that allows them the opportunity to graduate with their class. Waiting until the senior year does not help the student, the parents, the community, or the district.