RTTT or RTTB?

Wow  Listen to Seth Godin challenge everyone to examine whether we are racing to the top or racing to the bottom.  As I listened to this award-winning idea guru, I couldn't help thinking that educators were like this.  Either we are racing to the top, teaching via an innovative, technology-rich, Bloom's higher level thought method--or we are racing to the bottom teaching to the test. 
CCSS are asking us to foster creativity and inspire lifelong learning in our students.  What a great idea to transfer to our classroom:  Encourage students to be risk-takers, innovators, believe in a great idea and create.  

I did not agree  with everything Seth Godin  espoused-- if everyone walked to his own drummer we'd have a nation of occupiers and an atmosphere of entropy.  But, we could also promote a little innovation in the classroom and life.     Forget RTTB and trying to just be "efficient" -- Incubate a novel idea today with your students! 

Link here for the video.  (It was here but made the page load slowly, so this was removed.)

Wanted Authentic Assessment

As the details of the RTTT assessment requirements are unveiled, dare we ask that the two major assessment options create authentic measurements for performance-based evaluations?   In a day-and-age where an employees' performance is measured by what we produce--the job we do--the things we create--the ways in which we perform-- dare we ask that the performance of students be measured the same way?   
The CCSS ask us to graduate students who are college and career ready, who know how to perform--not take tests.   If employers wanted good test-takers, then they would likely not get creative individuals.   For some reason, I see a disconnect.  
I love the Common Core.  The content is scaffolded, well-developed, rigorous and relevant.  The key anchor standards within the CCSS ask teachers to teach in an Inquiry based learning environment, challenging students to think, create, debate, conclude, investigate, synthesize, and problem solve.  This is all higher-order Bloom's taxonomy.  Good 'ole Blooms...Long live the King.  

Dare we speculate how computer-based assessment will ever graduate from the bottom floor of Blooms triangle?   Rote and recall, here we come.  The latest unveiling from the PARCC group doesn't inspire me to great confidence that we will move away from rote and recall.   Despite the threat of low-levels rote and recall testing, we need to teach at the top.  I refuse to stoop to teaching to the test. If good instruction is planned and student-directed research assignments are prevalent, research shows that students perform better on rote and recall tests.  Therefore, please encourage teachers to return to creative teaching, research-based investigations, Socratic questioning, debates, student-owned projects and more.  This is the only way we will graduate career-ready individuals who are ready to perform--regardless of what form the assessments take. 

See your librarian cybrarian today, and plan a student-centered inquiry investigation.  This is 21st Century Learning.  This is crafting instruction for the Common Core.  This is how to foster student-achievement.  This is real learning.  Long live the King.

When I Become a Teacher... Please stay away!

At a graduation party this past weekend, I asked a fellow adminstrator is she had seen this video. Thus, I post it here as her answer was "No".
     Everyone stuck in a rut, who received the NYSUT retirement incentive letter this past weekend, needs to watch this video and ask, "Is this you?" If you're reading this blog, you probably don't fit this profile.    When I Become a Teacher...

GoodBye B & W...Goodbye 2 Dimensional Reading... Goodbye Control

When I was a kid, back in the Neolithic Age,  TV was B & W.  That was only yesterday--it seems.  Yesterday, reading too was black and white, predictable, 2 dimensional, top-down, left-right and embellished with pictures if you were lucky. 

Just as television turned to color, so did the 5 color print process invade publishing and our world was a more exciting place to learn.  What we have experienced over the last ten years is a parallel evolution of print resources from paper --> electronic text and a metamorphosis of content.  It is more exciting to learn on the Internet, but we educators have abdicated control of reading in the process.  Reading is no longer: predictable, 2 dimensional, or even controllable.   Study the photos below, as a picture is worth a thousand words:

As educators, we need to infuse our instruction with web evaluation whenever possible.  Now more than ever do we need to train our students to read critically, evaluate content, detect bias, evaluate credibility and find meaning.  Otherwise we are embarking on assignments that mirror hide 'n seek --on the Internet. 
Here we go ready or not.
Here's a link to a great article from ASCD on creating real readers: http://tinyurl.com/yjvd57h

10 Minute Video on teaching for the 21st Century

Stick with this 10 minute video.  The last two minutes are poignant!
Teaching to the 21st Century Student - You Tube