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Will lifelong learning live on?

CC image from flickr via Rob Shenk

I hear the term “lifelong learning” a lot in the twittersphere, blogosphere, and many other spheres out there spinning around the education community. It is the buzziest of buzzwords and the go to phrase when we try and provoke change in our schools. We all want it, but what does it look like every day in the classroom, in the halls of our schools? What does it look like for a Superintendent? An Administrator? A Parent? How do we elicit this drive in our students? In our schools?  And then, how do we ensure that it endures?

When our students leave us for higher education, the work force, military, etc. we are left on the shore waving, hoping that we have provided them with everything they need for their future endeavors. One wish that I have for all of my students is to constantly question the world around them. I hope that when they encounter adversity they can question, adapt, and learn. I hope they understand that every hurdle will not be met with an immediate success, but that they will see the value in an occasional stumble.

So my question is how do we model our daily instruction to ensure that lifelong learning lives on in our students?

Please start the discussion here.
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The edcamp model as Summer Professional Development

Starting this Tuesday, July 5, Burlington High School in Burlington, MA will open its doors to edcamp Tuesdays. Every Tuesday from 8-12 educators, administrators, parents, etc can come together for free, participant driven conversations centered around best practices and innovations in education. Occasionally we will bring in specialists to work with us or attend remotely via Skype. All sessions will be accesible from afar via a global Google Doc note share. This feature will highlight and model the importance of collaborative notes and transparency in professional development.  


All are welcome to attend and we hope you can make it one Tuesday this summer and continue to spread the word about effective PD that is happening under the edcamp model.

If you have any questions please visit our website and fill out the help desk form. If you plan on attending there is an “I’m Attending” tab on our website sidebar for you to show others you are attending. There is also a board for posting session ideas and future session suggestions. Please use these forums so we can make edcamp Tuesdays the best experience for all involved.

Directions to Burlington HS can be found here


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Edcamp Impromptu

In the past year the edcamp movement has flourished around the globe. An unconference that started on a sunny day in Philadelphia in 2010, has made its way into the educational lexicon. While many of us have attended an edcamp, a lot have not. Today this changes. In the spirit of learning, sharing, and community I bring you edcamp impromptu.

edcamp impromptu is simply an open google doc that has a specific focus or theme for all to contribute. Starting…NOW…the Google Docs are launching. The documents will be open and available to all who have the link. Once you have access, start a thread. Post an idea or a lesson or a question. Invite others to join or possibly scrap your faculty meeting and watch as the documents fill up with ideas, links, and resources. Use the doc to facilitate a discussion. Tweet out the link to this post and share the Google Docs with everyone you know. Use these docs for further support of social media and connected, transparent learning in your district or school. There is no denying we are more powerful as a collective.

Once the edcamp impromptu docs launch, tweet out the links and use the hashtag #edcampi. Keep this column open in your twitter application and check back throughout the day. Like an edcamp, there will be several rooms available to present, share, etc. Each doc will be a numbered room. When you enter a room (doc) you may lurk, start a conversation, ask a question, etc. If you begin a conversation, post it at the top of the page in bold, underline it and either link it to another Google Doc or simply allow the conversation to unfold on the page. That’s it. Simple, productive learning happening in real-time. What is better than that?

At the top of each doc there will be a table for signing in. This will allow others to see who is in the room and posting. Also, when you post anything to the page leave your twitter handle after your post. This will allow for follow up and further conversation. 

Finally, edcamp impromptu technically never ends. However, I would like to see the conversation build throughout the weekend. Next week we can reflect on the experience and continue adding to the conversation. As a collective, we are creating a sustainable, breathing resource. You can check back next fall and glean something from the doc to use at the beginning of the school year or continue adding to a conversation. Edcamp impromptu is constant learning and sharing.
This is an idea I had after edcamp Boston. We have the ability to constantly share and spread ideas that work in education. Let’s take advantage of the technology and resources we have at the moment and make this type of learning contagious.

Edcamp Impromptu Rooms (Docs)

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They owned it

A few weeks ago started working with on a new approach to the five-paragraph essay with my English 101: College composition course. I detailed the new approach I took with my class in a post titled, “Own it”. I simply wanted to share what we were doing, get feedback for some of my students, and solicit suggestions for making this project better. Maybe someone would land on it and steal a piece of it or the whole thing and then remix it. That was pretty much it. 
The next morning I discovered this in my TweetDeck mentions column:

Let’s be honest, Will Richardson, much like Ron Burgundy, is kind of a big deal in the education community. When he tweets your post A LOT of people get to see it. The web of influence grows significantly. This was awesome. Throughout the day I watched as the post got retweeted and shared amongst my PLN and from some I had never met. Kathryn, the student who I profiled in the post, received lots of suggestions, links, resources, etc. on her Google Doc. That day in class she asked me, “What happened to my doc?” I asked her if she was happy with the responses and she returned with an emphatic, “Yes, this is awesome!”

Kathryn even connected with a student in Nebraska who was working on the same subject of gay teen bullying and suicide. I connected with her teacher and the connection was made between the two students. Kathryn and Kelli shared sources and videos that were right in line with their topics. Kelli shared her blog with Kathryn as well.

I continued to tweet out my students’ Google docs throughout the day for collaboration. Jason, another student in this class, went to bed with four bullet points about his topic and was struggling to find information. After sharing with my PLN he had two pages of links, resources, videos, and several twitter contacts for follow up. That day in class he was thrilled. He began digging through his doc and evaluating these sources. He asked me if it was okay to use what others had posted for his project. I said it was fine and told him to make sure he evaluated the information and made sure it was worth using.

It didn’t end there. Last Friday, I skyped with Dean Shareski as he was wrapping up a presentation with 150 high school teachers from Elk Island Public Schools on the subject of rethinking learning. We connected through my last post and I shared this concept with the teachers present at his presentation. Some of those teachers visited my blog, read the post, and left thoughtful comments.

It kept going…

Kathryn presenting her essay
This past Monday I wrote my latest post for Edutopia comparing the comedic idea process with the idea process in teaching. I reflected on the HBO series, Talking Funny, with Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Ricky Gervais, and Louis C.K. The final segment of the post presented a challenge for teachers to share their innovative or dynamic ideas with me and I would share the ideas in future posts. At this writing I have ten posts lined up with ideas to share. One of them is from a former colleague at Radnor High School.

I decided to share what I was doing and amazing connections flourished. It is that simple. I shared, created a transparent learning environment in my class, and made a typically boring assignment very dynamic and engaging for my students. I helped open up new learning avenues for my students and did my best to give them access to the most current learning tools. They have never been more excited and ready to write, create, demonstrate, present, search, listen, etc. Intrinsic motivation became contagious in my class. Students could not wait to see who was commenting on their Google docs. Our class time became a rich discussion about social media, the students’ topics, and how they could harness the power of social and digital media to empower their projects. To steal a line from Penny Lane in Almost Famous, “It was all happening”.

There is no denying we all encounter speed bumps in our teaching. Some of us are bludgeoned with testing while others cannot simply gain access to the most current learning tools out there. Incorporating this type of an assignment might seem like a far off dream, but don’t stop trying. I did not ask any of my supervisors for permission with this assignment. I just did it. And I knew if anything went wrong I would have happy, engaged students to plead my case. In fact, most of them said they had no idea they could enjoy English 101 this much.

Thanks to all of you who helped my students and joined in our learning. Thank you for the comments. Thank you for the tweets and the retweets. Thank you Will Richardson for putting this post out there.  And thank you all for showing my students the power of learning network.

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Own it

CC image via Flickr by mind on fire

Yesterday, I had one of those great moments in the classroom where I walked away with a slight skip in my step. Here’s why…
The course is English 101: College composition. It is your standard writing course offered by most colleges and universities. Students are required to produce five essays that total at least twenty pages. I still haven’t figured out why. I have never understood page length, so I challenged my students. From day one, I told them that if they could cover their topic in a concise, succinct essay, I would be more impressed than if they gave me ten pages of filler and 12.5 font. They took the challenge, and as a result,  have improved the clarity and focus of their writing. I have seen dramatic changes in syntax and word choice. Paragraphs are tighter and focused. Their thesis statements are articulate, concise statements that resonate throughout the entire paper. And above all, they seem relatively engaged in writing.

The students just finished their third essay. They have two more to complete. One of the two is the in-class final exam required to be conducted as an in-class essay. So, for their fourth essay I decided to eliminate the parameters, structure, and explicit directions that usually accompany an essay assignment.

Here is what I set up…

1. I gave them a writing prompt: “What do you want to learn?”

2. Open a Google Doc → Share it with me (You could also have them share with the entire class, but for this endeavor, I just had them share with me) → Begin outlining your project

3. For the outline, students are to gather links, images, videos, etc. that will contribute to their final presentation. Their essay is not a standard, written essay, but a focused collection of media that they will use to inform, to persuade, to challenge, or defend. Plus, they are creating a sustainable document. They are creating their own content.

4. Students must build upon this document daily. I reminded them that I would check in daily and provide comments along the way. I also encouraged them to use social media to glean information for their project. One student couldn’t come up with a subject, so he posted a call for ideas on his Facebook page.

5. Each class period we will be opening up a Google Doc and discussing the progress and the topic being covered. On occasion, I may use my own personal learning network to collect feedback for the students. So stay tuned!

I told them I did not want them to think of this endeavor as a project or an assignment. I simply wanted them to learn something about a topic they enjoyed. I wanted them to research, evaluate, and filter sources on their own. I wanted them to get excited about learning and researching. Meanwhile, I would reside in the margins of their Google Docs and facilitate the process when necessary. I am still teaching them and collaborating with them on this project, but I am making an attempt to harness all the great resources we have available at the moment. I feel it is my moral obligation as a teacher to open up all learning avenues to them, not hide them.

In class yesterday, I started showcasing student work. One of my students, Kathryn, came through with a great example of what I expected for this endeavor. She is covering LGBTQ bullying and suicides. More specifically, she is covering five bullying/suicide cases that happened last fall within the span of three weeks. On her doc, she posted photos of the teens, links to the news articles, and videos that surfaced during these events. She also collected links to sites that addressed this subject. Near the end of her doc, she started outlining her presentation. It is exactly the start I had envisioned. She took control of this endeavor and owned it.

You can see her doc here.

Not only did Kathryn successfully research her topic, she started creating a resource for others. She was thrilled to share with the class and allowed me to share her story and work with you through this post. Further, Kathryn’s work provoked an impromptu conversation on the subject yesterday in class. One student got out his iPhone and posted a question as his facebook status asking his network what they thought about the subject we were discussing. Needless to say, I walked away from that class yesterday with a slight skip in my step.

I have been teaching essay writing for nearly ten years. It can be a very banal subject to teach, but when you try to find new ways to approach the core concepts of a five paragraph essay, you can create some amazing learning opportunities for your students. Moreover, my students are evaluating sources for use. They are weaving cited content with their own thoughts and opinions. They are using critical thinking and critical analysis to evaluate and filter their sources. They are questioning the work of others along with their own work and using both to drive further inquiry. In the end, they will put it all together in an organized demonstration. They can present, make a video essay, photo essay, lip dub, musical, etc. It’s their call. They will own it.

Every semester my students purchase an overpriced text for this class and many others. This reader is full of well-written essays, but it may not be of interest to them. Plus, most of these essays can be found online for free. Instead, let them create their own reader. Simply have them open a Google Doc and start researching a subject that they want to learn about. Share that document with the class and build it from the ground up. Compile news articles, essays, videos, photos, etc. about the subject. Have the students cite their information correctly and show them how to find Creative Commons media. This way is more fun and engaging. It elicits intrinsic motivation and gives the student ownership of their learning. Let your students create their own content and build their own learning environments.  Trust that they will produce good work.

I hear a lot about how we need to innovate and change the educational landscape, but I rarely see educators putting those tweets and presentation buzz-slides into practice. The strong examples are few and far between, and more often than not, we hear “This is great, but I could never do anything like this at my school.” Stop making excuses. I didn’t ask permission either, but if my administration and supervisors have a problem with it, I have happy students and pertinent examples of their work that will defend my teaching in front of any jury. As educators, we must stop the platitude chat and start producing examples of innovative teaching practices (cue the more you know music). Further, what I am sharing with you today is not the pinnacle of classroom innovation. It is a start. It is an idea that I hope you steal, remix and make your own, for your own students. Don’t we owe them that?
Please leave comments for my students and also feel free to comment on Kathryn’s Google Doc. She is still in the early stages of collecting her resources, so any feedback you could present to her would be appreciated.
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A Simple, Succinct Lesson from Twitter

CC image via flickr by Jkonig

This morning, two tweets caught my eye. These two 140 character posts evolved into a simple lesson that I constructed for my students. First, Tim Calvin posted this piece from The New York Times Op-Ed titled “Teaching to the Text Message” by Andy Selsberg. This concise piece reiterated something I have been preaching to my students since the first day of class: Be concise and innovative with language. My essay assignments don’t carry a minimum page length requirement, but they do contain a challenge: If you can persuade your audience in one page, I will be impressed.

Soon after the tweet by Tim Calvin, I clicked on a video shared by Michael Wesch. The video was a midterm project from a communications student. The student’s objective was to “look into my life and what I see everyday”. I was impressed by the video and thought about taking on this challenge myself. What does my screen look like every day? What music would represent it best? I’m still thinking.

After reviewing both of these pieces, I decided to use them both later that day in my English 101: College Composition course. I uploaded the video to our classroom wikispace and added a new page title on the left hand navigation bar. The page title: “Be Concise”. This new page derives the lesson presented by Selsberg in the article and will now serve as a new writing assignment three times a week for my students. Each day I will post a new video, image, or passage for them to review. Their objective is to summarize or caption the media I select for the day in one or two sentences. My goal is that they start to experiment with language and write more succinctly. Similarly, I hope they find ways to express themselves more eloquently and devise innovative ways to articulate their ideas.

I developed this brief writing lesson because two people shared something today. I did not find it in a book or a classroom, but simply noticed it falling down in my tweet deck. This is why social media is amazing. It allows us to scan a table full of puzzle pieces and find two, or maybe more, that fit.

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This is your class

CC image via flickr by Jonathan Pobre

I have a late start class beginning tomorrow. The course is English 101: College Composition.  I decided to revise my syllabus introduction along with the class structure and attempt to practice what I preach. I welcome feedback and encourage you to follow along with our classroom wikispace. 
This course will be a collaborative effort that includes those sitting in this room, those that reside in the world of social media, and myself. We will focus on reading critically, thinking critically, evaluating information, and producing purposeful, grammatically sound writing. The goal of this course is to take our message beyond the classroom and engage with the connected world. We will be using the written word as our medium and covering a variety of domestic and world issues. The focus of this course is not the grade, but to become effective communicators in a world driven by connectivity. 
During this course you will not only be constructing essays for a grade, but engaging with a larger community. This community resides in the world of social media and will not only serve as an outlet for information and feedback, but allow for more than one deciding voice on submitted work.

This Wikispace will serve as the central meeting place for this course and allow us to analyze and critique each other’s work while constantly learning and adding to this site. Further, this site will be constantly evolving. Like Wikipedia, you will be reading, analyzing, and evaluating information and presenting your thoughts, ideas, and opinions in order to build a better place to exchange information.

This course is not my course; it is yours. I will not lecture at you and I will not give you a grade. Your voice will be the wheels of the course and I will try and serve as your GPS. Don’t think of me as the sage on the stage or the guy with the giant, glaring forehead full of knowledge, but see me as a collaborator. Challenge my points and always feel comfortable when presenting your opinion and constrictive feedback.

Finally, I would like you all to occasionally fail during this course. This is not to say I don’t want to see you succeed, but I want to see you take intelligent risks and think beyond the grade. Don’t settle for average or what you have always done, but go beyond your comfort zone. At the end of this course I hope you continue to think, read, and evaluate critically. I hope this course provokes your thinking in a new way, you continue learning beyond the grade you receive in this course, and thrive as an effective communicator.

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Resume and References Available Upon Request


Originally published in August 2010

I arrive at school for a meeting with our CEO. I assume it is a meeting about the upcoming conference that I am holding at his school, ntcamp. I sit down and he begins telling me that our budget is in disarray and that my instructional technology position that I created and began implementing into the school needs to be cut out of the budget. This is sad news, however, I assumed I could still work as an instructional technology coordinator throughout the school while teaching my classes. I had basically assumed the role as ITC for the past year; helping teachers integrate technology with their curriculum. So, I figured I would be teaching the AP English Language and Composition and returning to my regular teaching duties (NOTE: I just returned back from the AP conference in DC. The School paid for the ticket). I created the syllabus and was in the process of submitting it to the College Board for approval and had also set up a summer reading network via a wikispace and blogger. Students were reading, responding to prompts, and then blogging about them. All of the blogs were linked to the wikispace and it was a well-oiled machine.

I ask what classes I will be teaching next year along with the AP courses. He responds with, “We are getting someone else to teach AP.” Wait….WHAT!? Why? This makes no sense. I have the most teaching experience in the English Department and now you are telling me that I can’t teach the course I created? Plus, I can’t teach at all?

In short, the school’s budget did not include the contract I had signed. I leave the office confused, upset, and bewildered. In a few short minutes I went from having two dream teaching positions to having nothing. I could not make sense of this. I told several colleagues that were in school that day teaching and their facial expressions said it all. No one could make sense of it. A few hours later another colleague of mine encountered the same shock and awe conversation. She was the History Department Chair and in my opinion, and most of the students’ opinion, one of the most well-respected and well-liked teachers in our building.

In the span of an hour my school said good-bye to seventeen years of teaching experience. They preferred to have brand new Teach for America teachers replace us. In the sports world this makes sense. You go with youth over experience (Jamie Moyer being the exception), but not in education.

Moving on…

I have started moving on from my former school and am in the process of seeking out the next path. This journey began on Saturday when I hosted and organized my first unconference at the same school that had just let me go. Not only did I speak positively about the school throughout the entire day, but I promoted their efforts and accomplishments. I have nothing bad to say about my school. They provided so many opportunities for me to grow as an educator and I feel I made a valuable contribution to advancing their curriculum and highlighting ways in which students and teachers can integrate technology more efficiently. I did not want to bring this news with me to ntcamp because I wanted ntcamp to shine like no other. I put every ounce of my energy into making ntcamp the best conference for all in attendance and I am already working towards the next version. ntcamp became my only focus and a welcomed distraction from reality.

If you are going to lose your job it helps to have a Personal Learning Network behind you to pick you up and get you back on track. I recognize the fact that many people are struggling with joblessness in our country and this can happen to anyone. The value and support of a PLN will only make this occurrence easier and reinforce that we are never in this business of teaching alone. It also helps to have a conference waiting for you that weekend where the majority of your PLN will be in attendance. I made a lot of great connections at ntcamp and learned a lot throughout the day. I sit back and smile at all the great comments that have been circulating about ntcamp and am truly excited for more unconferences throughout the year. Thank you to everyone who made ntcamp a shining example of how professional development and personal learning networks can create valuable learning for teachers and in turn benefit all of our students.

Oh, one more thing, if you know of any open positions get in touch with me .
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Connect More

30th Street Station, Philadelphia 

As I said my goodbyes and left Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station I noticed a message on a banner above the door. I paused. The sign read, “Connect More”. While this was not the entire script on the banner, these words were in bold and immediately resonated with me. The remainder of the sign read, “Trains CONNECT MORE Than Cities”. I took a quick picture and was on my way.
This message lingered as I drove home. I sent out a tweet with the picture accompanied by the text “An enduring message from Educon”. This is the message we all must carry with us as we depart from EduCon.  We must connect more.
However, we must carry this message far beyond the “EduCon fraternity”. We get it. Those of us that have attended this past weekend, and in the past get that we must connect, share, etc., but what about those that did not attend? What about the colleagues that don’t get it? How do we delicately approach them and tell them about the weekend without sounding like an overzealous tween that just met Justin Bieber?
We start by opening up subversive connections within our disciplines and work places. Simply approaching a colleague and mentioning one small thing you learned this week is great start to connecting and encouraging a culture of sharing. Don’t bombard them with EduCon highlights, photos, blog posts, etc. but show them one thing you learned and walk away. Follow up in a few days, or maybe a week, or not at all. Just connect.  
As educators we must model these positive connections while empathizing with a hesitant colleague. We not only owe this to our hesitant colleagues, but our students. All of us must encourage building new relationships within our learning environments and promote transparent learning.  
Further, we need to bring new faces into the fold. Edcamps and ntcamps are happening monthly across the nation. There are plenty of free opportunities to introduce colleagues to these learning forums and create new connections.  Much like the train, we need to build more depots along the way so that we can continually bring new colleagues along for the ride.
EduCon is built on connections. It continues to grow because of the culture of sharing and connecting that it provokes. As I left the station yesterday, I promised myself that I would take the message of EduCon and make every attempt to cultivate new connections and reinforce old ones. We all must strive to connect more, to share more, and to constructively criticize each other.
It is our responsibility as educators.
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Reform Education From Within

CC image via flickr by bensonkua

Browse any education twitter feed and you are sure to see the word “reform” somewhere in the mix. While I believe serious reform is needed in the education sector, I also understand that I will…

A) …never work in a perfect educational system that is equitable for all and

B) …not see any serious education reform happen in the next few years.

Call me a cynic, but don’t call me a quitter. I am also aware that most State and Federal Governments are not taking time to listen to what educators have to say about education reform. Rather, they are paying attention to prominent voices in the entertainment, business, and music industry. The rhetoric continues to the talk show circuit and eventually finds its way to the educators. Our voice: small, full of static. Solution?

Teach the hell out of your classrooms and give your current students the best opportunity to question, think critically, and seek out new learning opportunities under our current education system.

A lot of energy is burning on ways to develop new reform structures and ideas for reform, but it’s not happening this year. It’s not happening any time soon. We need to give our current students the best opportunity under a system that most of us would like to see overhauled immediately. We must, for the sake of our students’ future, change the tone of reform and move towards innovating our best practices, sharing our best practices, with what we have while developing dynamic leaders. We all owe it to this generation of students.

There is no denying education is in a state of flux but let’s prove “them” wrong in the classroom every day rather than with redundant rhetoric. When we change the rhetoric from what we have to do, to what can we do, then we make progress. Let’s build great learners with what we have today, rather than what we hope for tomorrow. This is not to crush our hopes for a better educational system, but if we want the system to thrive we need to change the tone. This happens each day by creating dynamic learning environments where students can constantly question, analyze critically, search efficiently and safely, synthesize and create, and feel as though everything they are doing in your class is purposeful and necessary for the rest of their lives.

Every school has the right to emulate great school systems throughout the world, but many lack the leaders to push and provoke their teachers. A great school system starts with a great leader. Not simply a leader who follows the straight and narrow or who spends all hours of the night working at his or her desk, but a leader who has a clear vision for creating classrooms that are purposeful. A leader who gives his faculty autonomy and trusts they will yield engaging lessons.  I can only speak from a teacher’s point of view, but a dynamic, purposeful classroom starts with a leader that is willing to take a risk and listen to their faculty.

When you tie all of these elements together – dynamic classrooms, innovative leaders, engaged students – you create the classroom today’s students deserve. We need to work within what we can control. Educators need to stop getting frustrated and worrying about when and how the system will change. Rather, make an immediate impact on your classroom today, tomorrow, and throughout the rest of your career.

The educational system will always have flaws. So what are you doing today to instill the best learning practices in your students? What are you doing today to promote innovation within your classroom? What are you doing today to combat the notion that no matter how hard it feels to deal with the educational system, testing, etc to make sure your students are leaving your classroom with the ability to learn, question, analyze, and create? If you expect to see a Utopian vision of education in your lifetime you are dreaming. We need to focus on what we have today and thrive. We owe it to these students!