educating for the journey

If I didn’t have my films as an outlet for all the different sides of me, I would probably be locked up.
- Angelina Jolie (1975 – )

I had to throw that quote in as i was in the Good Shepherd with Angie – for real. Look for me near the end.

So this is a fun post; the showcasing of three great projects completed by students here at CMS. Mr. Connoly has done an amazing job with students who had no experience at all and i am already looking forward to their next installments…

CMS Idol:

CMS Women’s Basketball Team; promotional video for CAISSA tournament:

International Television Star Borat, visits Carol Morgan

Great job Film students and Mr. Connoly!

Search more Carol Morgan videos on UthTV, google video and YouTube.

Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul what the water bath is to the body.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809 – 1894)

Music; i could begin to understate what it has, does and will forever mean to me but i won’t go there. It has been central to many good times, good friends, good places and my life thus far. While in Ecuador i inherited a 250GB collection of tunes. Yes, it is more music then i could listen to in a lifetime, but i listen to a LOT of music. Since then i have struggled to keep listening to somewhat “fresh” grooves. This site sent to me by a friend this morning is great.

The “teachables” in a site like this are almost endless, and its a great way to get that tuned out kid refusing to turn off her ipod engaged. Were you that kid not too long ago? If you were check this out!

As for my personal electronic music teacher, your big announcement has our house buzzing – can’t wait to see you this summer!

YackPack – seems to be scary. I put together a great group to chat about standards based assessment and PowerSchool…and i am the only one talking.

Jeff Dungan started my week off by having me watch this, good to stimulate the brain for a monday.

DON’T SKIP THE VIDEO ITS GREAT!

my folks are visiting and have been waiting for me for thirty-three minutes now so i must run…

A man thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things.
- Herman Melville

The words above are sometimes used inter-changeably but their meanings are very different. I really wish that people, especially those that deal with educators, better understood these terms and what they mean. For instance, many SISs say that they “do standards based reporting.” Well, in many cases, this just isn’t true. Your program may tie assignments to a state standard, but standards based reporting is a huge pedagogical shift requiring a far greater change from teachers as well as the programs that they use. As the Carol Morgan School begins to make this shift we have ran into problems that have reduced our SIS to a holding area that requires teachers to manually enter grades into an excel file in order to produce a standards based report card. A lot of time, a lot of money and the end result is: having the already overworked ES teachers^* manually enter thier grades into the report card – ouch. This shift in assessing and the understanding of assessment is not something driven by technology, but now our technology is creating further frustration thus holding back teacher progress which is something i can’t let happen. I believe the move towards grading to benchmarks and standards based assessment is the right one, we have made huge steps in the right direction (re-writing standards and benchmarks, professional development and educating students and parents) we must now ensure our technology supports not inhibits this shift.

This morning i talked with Jane E. Pollack (our benchmark gura) about this very subject (thank you skype). Luckily (i guess) we aren’t the only ones with this problem – she is working on similar situations with a variety of schools in a variety of places using various SISs. From my conversations with PowerSchool however it is clear that they do not have plans (at this point) to move towards scoring to benchmarks. We are examining our options, which could involve using a different program for grading (WebGrader was recommended) and then bridging the data into PowerSchool. JaneE.’s experience has been that SISs have resisted this option – feeling a threat toward their own grading program. I am hoping PowerSchool sees this as collaborating to provide its client with their desired result – nothing more. I will keep you posted.

I could be WAY off base with this post, indeed i kind of hope that i am. If you are successfully using PowerGrade to produce, track and report on standards based assessments please simplify my life and put me in my place!

*i honestly believe every ES classroom teacher i have ever met is overworked.
img from: http://www.subhub.com/custom/frustrated%20man.jpg

I find it refreshing to unplug from it for a while. You kind of forget how deeply you get embedded in it.
- Will Wright

Not a very good quote but there wasn’t a whole lot out there (taken from brainyquotes). Back at it here in Santo Domingo. Refreshed after a relaxing Semana Santa – ready to push through the final academic quarter. It’s amazing how difficult it can be to unplug for the week, but doing so was exactly what i needed. I love tech, but i also love unplugging – sitting on the beach, by the pool, reading a magazine and playing made up games with my son.

As always we hit the ground running and there is lots going on in the CMS tech world: another round of SumoBots, coding websites for the Optimal Learning Center, CAISSA season III tournament branding, and a course selection handbook, selecting the final two members of the ‘07-’08 technology team (HS Librarian and HS Technology Facilitator), finalizing and stretching budget dollars, planning for our PowerSchool data conversion and training, reflecting on goals made in September while at the same time looking to the horizon for new ways to improve. Never a dull moment.
Here is one thing on our horizon, AtomicLearning. This is a site of more then 25,000 tutorials. This would enable our school to continue providing basic software to our staff without dedicating the people hours to these basic skills, it seems its tracking features would enable us to see both the strengths and weaknesses of both our staff and students. If any of you have used AL and could comment on its effectiveness i would love to hear from you and would greatly appreciate any time you could afford me.

Finally, I will be representing TriAssociation schools at JOSTI2007 at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Washington, D.C. this June.  It is a great honor to take part in the World Virtual School discussion and to represent the American schools of Central America, Colombia, Caribbean and Mexico.  Talking about big global ideas with representative from around the world is an opportunity that i am really looking forward to and want to thank the Department of State for the generosity that is enabling me to go.

here is an old video about the joys of unplugging (shot in the fall)