educating for the journey

The shortest distance between two points is under construction.
- Noelie Altito

Spring break is over, it was fantastic; relaxing, sharing time with family, unplugging and the week was really marked by some pretty massive waves and some good wind (despite being off-season) - in short everybody wins!

When is the last time you truly unplugged? For how long? I had this discussion with a number of seniors last week and the results kinda scared me. Then i looked inward to see the time that i am spending looking at a screen every day - yikes. After a full week away i must say that the screen break was nice and needs to be scheduled more regularly.

Well we were off on the north coast relaxing the school engineer was overseeing the real beginning of our new media center’s construction. It is pretty exciting stuff to see the footprint start to take shape. It is going to be a tangible expression of the link we at CMS see between library and technology and the fact that the new building will be located at the physical heart of the campus couldn’t be scripted any better. So with construction back underway i return to a weekly image to share our progress with you:

March 27, 2008

So as i slowly work through a weeks worth of posts to get caught up on i found these two particularly thought provoking and thought that you might too:

Diligence on the School of Everything “Everyone has something to learn, everyone has something to teach”
Education 4 Well Being’s recent video on fear, original music, great quotes and the slick finish that is becoming synonymous with ED4WB’s postings.

Huge News!
Our Artist in residence program for 2008 is confirmed. It is one that is not going to be forgotten any time soon, Junot Diaz author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007) and Drown (1996) will be working with our students and staff on April 30th. The opportunity for our high school students to work with a writer of Junot’s caliber is nothing short of incredible. The hard work of deputy head Ernest Peterson to bring Mr. Diaz to Carol Morgan while the “buzz” surrounding him and his recent work is peaking is nothing short of incredible! It is work that will pay off ten fold in providing students (and their teachers) with a learning experience far beyond anything they could ever imagine. I am looking forward to seeing him at work and attending the evening teacher/parent session. If you haven’t read Oscar yet, i highly recommend it (goodreads).

img src: http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2007/10/10/amd_viva13.jpg

Semana Santa here.

I am unplugging for the week and praying for wind although the forecast doesn’t look good. Regardless family visiting will ensure a great time.

Take care all, and even more then usual -
GaDev

img from: http://images.bobvila.com/images/ContentImages/1917/_275.jpg

“Come to the edge, he said. They said: We are afraid. Come to the edge, he said. They came. He pushed them and they flew.”
- Guillaume Apollinaire

The original student response to our announcement that we would be streaming their oral defenses live through the internet was shock and panic. Simply put, no students wanted this event captured or shared. Four days into seven, the mood has completely changed. Grandparents, friends, cousins and strangers are watching, and commenting. Students have been asking how they can capture the footage for use on everything from FaceBook to college and job applications. I am receiving multiple calls everyday; family members preparing to see their son, brother, and/or friend shine (and they always end up watching more then one!). I feel strongly that the audience is part of the reason why so many of these oral presentations are so well rehearsed, and so well delivered.

See KaKui’s great work from today here.

Join us live until Friday here (schedule here)

Set high standards and few limitations for yourself.
- Anthony J. D’Angelo

Often reminders come to you when you least expect it. Today is the beginning of a celebration of seventy-five years of the Carol Morgan School. We had a long assembly which was classy, entertaining and a good reminder for us gringos about the bigger community which we are a part of. It made me proud to be a part of Carol Morgan. This however is not what this blog post is about.

It’s about something far simpler.

At the beginning of this year the band program at CMS was big. Class sizes were at or near to their maximum. This didn’t last long as the new director made it very clear that students would work for every grade that they received. Class sizes dropped, dramatically. Students rumbled about fairness and change but the experienced director had a vision and held the students that remained to it. He has worked tirelessly this year with his students and with his instruments towards that vision. Today i heard the band for the first time since early October and they blew my mind away. They were tight, they were focussed and they sounded great.

It’s a simple model really - but one proven time and time again: have a clear vision, expect lots, work tirelessly towards it and never settle. It’s also a model that is not only applicable at all levels - administrators with their teachers, teachers with their students, directors with their staff, students with their work - but its also highly contagious.

not much of a ed-tech post, but for certain this works here too. The reminder just hit me powerfully today and i wanted to write it down.

GaDeV
(gracias a dios es viernes)

I am like a snowball - the further I am rolled, the more I gain.
- Susan B. Anthony

like so many things ed-tech our oral defenses live on Ustream continue to stretch the learning experience. The parental response has been wonderful but now we have lots of viewers coming from the world over so with a couple of clicks we open a chat room and now invite all viewers (regardless of location) to get involved in the discussion and to take part in the Q & A period.

Schedule of topics is - here.

The new header image is from a road trip with a two year old last weekend - love rural DR (more pics here)

Those words jumped to my mind when i took this picture this summer in Marin County, California.

In fact i even included it in a personal blog post at the time. Then today i was presented with this blog entry - written by a fifth grader. It blew my mind - actually it still is blowing my mind. Make her day while extending her learning experience, drop her a comment or send her a reader.

The progress that has been seen in the writing of CMS fifth graders this year is nothing short of amazing. Huge thanks is due to four great teachers and a great writing specialist. However from where i sit everyone owes a huge thank you to Jeff Dungan the elementary tech facilitator who has worked and pushed hard to ensure that the computers which were placed in each fifth grade classroom as an experiment did not sit dormant and allowed to collect dust. He has taken old machines and given them new life; the teachers, students and parents have bought in and are on board. Thanks Jeff.

Bianna W. thank you for sharing your insightful writing with me.

Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous patience.
- Hyman Rickover

Ever wonder why we do all that we do? Why do i feel like i am constantly pushing people to a place they resist? Do you ever wonder if anyone appreciates it? I do, more then i care to admit. How many hours or days of my life have i spent getting something just right only to have it attended or noticed by a handful of people. It is frustrating for sure and sometimes leaves me wondering why?

Of course the obvious answer is that is that we believe in what we are doing - which i do - completely. However, a little payday like today helps too.

I am not going to go into what we have been through with Ustream, SmartBoards, Projector, Codecs, Mac v. PC, PolyCom, bandwidth - blah blah blah. Trust me it is more than i want to remember or you want to hear.
I spent all day running and chasing and tweaking and turning trying to get our live streaming of our seniors’ oral defenses just “so.” Just when you start wondering why? your headmaster pulls you aside to share a story with you:

“I just got an email from ___’s mother. She’s ecstatic! She wrote me the message from her office while watching her daughter’s oral defense - she is incredibly thankful for the opportunity we’ve allowed her. Then not two minutes later i receive an email from __’s father who is in the Miami Airport - away on business - he too had just finished watching his pride and joy’s oral defense on a break between meetings”

The real audience Ustream is providing for our seniors, the tools these videos become for current and future students and classes, the academic buzz in the High School hallways, classrooms and staff is one thing - but helping a father be “there” for the culminating event in his daughter’s high school career from Miami - that simply just feels good.

Join us tomorrow and for the rest of the week - here.
A schedule of times and topics can be found here.
(All local times - one hour ahead of NYC)

I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible.
- Mahatma Gandhi

COMPARSAS is an annual celebration of Dominican culture. The elementary school plays hosts and stars in the production which is a culminating activity in “Dominican month.” This year YOU are invited, yes i do mean you. All you need to do is go here: http://ustream.tv/channel/carol-morgan-school-comparsas on the 26th of February at 1:00pm in Santo Domingo.* Details on how to watch the performance after its conclusion will be shared here on the 27th.
Comparsas involves all students from third, fourth and fifth grades and the teacher centered finale is always a highlight of the year for students and their parents. The performance order can be found here and a brief explanation of performances is here.

Please join us!

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears
- Henry David Thoreau

Here is another sermon for the choir:

Last night it happened, its odd where things hit you; strangest places, strangest times.  Last night i went bowling with some friends; we were catching up, laughing and having a great time.  Like pretty much every bowling alley in the world there is an arcade in the corner. 

I turned and saw a young girl really going for it on Dance Dance Revolution (or something like it).  Now this is nothing earth shattering, the game isn’t new.  Our conversation went on to talk about the good old days, “kids these days”, and how graphics in video games are getting to be soo good that people may actually want to go out and actually dance, ski, play hockey, etc.  Laughter, more bowling then i looked back at the young girl - she did have very serious skills - i saw her through a different lens. 

She stood upright somewhat tilted forward, face 4 inches from the screen, loud dance music aggressive pounding into her, the lights and colored bonuses flashing across the screen, and stepped back to watch her “dance” - it looked more like a seizure then anything i had seen before.

There it was, i had been re-smacked in the face with it: if you don’t see these people in our classrooms as different and adjust the way you teach them, there is simply no way you are going to get through to them.  Showing number two of Growing Up Online was today, more teachers and another administrator in attendance - I will not stop.  I really feel that this piece clearly and powerfully shows what i try to say over and over and over.
We may see the students in our rooms as being different, even odd at times but the skills that they are developing are also amazing and different.  When we provide them with the opportunity to highlight these skills in the realm of education they will really blow your mind.

img 1 from:  http://www.nprinc.com/images/ell/iobd.jpg (one of my sons favorites)
img 2 from: http://www.ghostintheshell.ca/cpg/albums/upload/2005-12-04-1418-32/normal_DSCF0037.JPG
img 2 from:  http://www.srvop.org/images/Bookimages/03%20Tacky.jpg (another one of the OPP’s favorites)

Eighty percent of success is showing up.
- Woody Allen

Wednesday was the third annual Teaching with Technology showcase. It was a great opportunity for students to show off what they have been doing in their various classrooms. It included students from all school levels and highlighted the great work that is going on here. Visitors were introduced to blogs, wikis, an array of vernier labs, radio CMS, the popular and much anticipated release of the CMS film program’s second DVD, the ipod as teaching tool, digital stories, Destiny, Ableton Live, and much much more. It was pulled off thanks to lots of hard work by too many people to mention, however the student-centered displays allowed a low-stress environment for the teachers involved, they sat back and watched their students shine. My day was made when one of them said to me, “this is just what we do in my class.”

gracias a dios

this is where we need to get to; technology isn’t something added for a showcase or an observation, it is just there - always. When teachers and students stop seeing it as something added to a lesson but simply as a part of one then we will be moving forward. We are a long way from there now but we are facing in the right direction and moving forward. So until then we keep pushing, we keep praising and offering opportunities for teachers improve their skills and to showcase their ideas in hopes that they’re integrations are contagious.

January 25, 2008