School Tours: A visit to Massachusetts

In April, 2011, I had the priviledge of visiting schools in Cambridge and Acton, Massachussetts on behalf of Regina Public Schools.

View Massachusetts School Visits in a larger map

(L-R) Blair, Simone,
Courtney and Joanna

Our team was comprised of representatives from two schools:


École Wilfrid Walker School: Simone Verville, Principal and Joanna Sanders Bobiash, Teacher Librarian and Specialist Teacher

École W.S. Hawrylak School: Blair Gullickson, Principal and Courtney Cornelisse, Learning Resource Teacher

Purpose of our visit:

First, a little background about the purpose of our visit. Regina Public Schools is currently undergoing a process called structural innovation in all of its schools (key innovations include: flexible teaching arrangements and instructional groupings, teacher collaboration, interdisciplinary and inquiry-based teaching and learning, and inclusive practices). I previously wrote about what we are doing at Wilfrid Walker in April 2011 and May 2009. 

As part of this process, the division asked its schools to undertake an inquiry process of its own. We were tasked with the challenge of researching and visiting schools somewhere in North America who were practicing some of the key innovations themselves and then bring back ideas and proposals for our own schools after seeing them in action. What a wonderful learning opportunity.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

On the first day, we visited two schools; Graham and Parks Elementary and Haggerty Elementary in the Cambridge School District.

What we learned about the Cambridge School District:

There are 12 elementary schools in Cambridge. Students are admitted to the schools using a lottery system at the Kindergarten level called “controlled choice”. After a series of tours and meetings, parents select their top five choices. Priority points are given for location and family considerations, but it is rare to have students attend the school in their neighbourhood. The lottery system was developed to encourage desegregation and mix students based on socio-economics. As a result of the lottery system, students are bussed all over Cambridge to attend their selected school. This results in a staggered start for all schools so that buses can pick up students in waves depending on where they live and what school they attend. Schools in Cambridge offer very individualized programs but use state curriculum and stardized testing in all schools called MCAS in Grades 4, 8 and 10 in English Language Arts, Mathematics and Science & Technology. The district's funding per student in 2009 was $26,337. (Source: CPS)

Next year, elementary schools in Cambridge will change their structures to allow for four junior high schools that will be co-located in elementary schools. Students will attend elementary school from Pre-Kindergarten/Kindergarten to Grade 5 and junior high school for Grades 6-8. This decision was made due to small co-horts of students at these grade levels at some schools and will allow for students to be taught in subject groupings.

Graham and Parks Elementary School

What we learned about Graham and Parks Elementary:

No bells rang to mark the change of classes. There was no hustle and bustle in the hallways. These were my initial thoughts as I entered Graham and Parks Elementary School. 

The old building was welcoming and full of light in its entry. Student artwork was displayed and the few students who were in the hallway smiled and welcomed us to their school. The school is built around a central court-yard that contains a community/student maintained garden and compost bins that are maintained through a school composting program.

The school layout itself is organized into classrooms, library, cafeteria, gymnasium, auditorium, administrative offices and computer lab. As a tech enthusiast, I was keen to observe a number of Smartboards and a couple of mobile laptop carts in addition to the computer lab. There were also computers in the library.

Graham and Parks has traditionally been a JK-8 school and is considered to be an "alternative school" because it was founded by a partnership between parents and teachers in 1981 to provide a student-centered learning environment in multi-graded classrooms. It's first principal of the school, Len Solo, authored a book entitled "Making an Extraordinary School: The Work of Ordinary People" about the creation of Graham and Parks. Solo served as Principal of the school for its first 20 years.

Parent involvement in the school was quite evident. While we were there, parents and grandparents were busy volunteering by reading with students or helping out in the classrooms. The parent council plays an active role in the hiring of the Principal and other staff, although the final decision is done by administration. They also provide input into school organization and programing through a  steering committee which has elected representatives from parents and teachers.

Their 430 JK-8 students are organized into JK/K, Grade 1/2, Grade 3/4 (looped with same teacher), Grade 5, Grade 6. Grades 7 & 8 are organized into a junior high structure. They also have a sheltered English Immersion program (SEI) organized into 3 classes (1/2, 3/4, 5/6). Their  classroom teachers are staffed by the school. Their specialist teachers are staffed at a district level (Music, Art, Library, Gym). Because the teachers are staffed at the school-level, they tend to spend their entire career at the school. Discretionary budget money used to hire assistants for every class. Teachers have weekly collaborative planning time (45 minutes once a week) for individual grades. Assistants take care of class or specialist times are scheduled in common

Due to the size of the playground, recess is done in rotation. Lunch is also served in rotation in a cafeteria. The menu is set by the district and some students bring their own lunch. There is also the option for some students to receive subsidised/free lunch but are not identified as everyone receives tickets. 

There is an extended school day for SEI and students who failed the MCAS as extra tutoring time. Students are included through “special invitation” and are transported home at a later time. There are also Harvard students who volunteer their time 1:1 during this tutoring time.

Other programing notes include French as a second language in Grades 5-8 (5/6 – 60 mins/week & 7/8-135 mins/week). They also have a Band program which is mandatory in Grade 5 where everyone plays the same instrument and after Grade 6, the band period is mandatory, but students can belong to the chorus or play an instrument. 

One evaluation piece that I found interesting was the use of portfolios at the Grades 7/8 level. The portfolios are developed by students and then are presented at the end of Grade 8 year to parents and teachers. This takes the place of report cards. 

Haggerty Elementary School

What we learned about Haggerty Elementary:

Haggerty is PK-6 and has approximately 250 students. They run an inclusion model and many of their classes are team taught with a general educator and a special educator with one assistant per class. Class PTR is 1:20 (PK/K) and 25 (1-6) under teacher contract.They have a full day Kindergarten that is a looped class for Kindergarten and Junior Kindergarten.

Upon arriving at the school, we received a very warm welcome. Our visit was short, but very interesting. We began our visit with a tour. We observed classrooms that were very structured and expectations and rules were posted around the classroom and on desks. Students's desks were organized into groups or teams.

We also observed co-teaching in action in two different classrooms. One educator took the lead on the lesson while the other educator supported the lesson by adding in during the discussion and explanations and circulated to ensure students remained focused. Both teachers were in charge and did not focus their attention on any student in particular. They were both there to help all students. We later learned, during our meeting with the staff who was the general educator and who was the special educator. 

In addition to the teams of  teachers (general and special educators) at the school, they also have a principal, an assistant-principal, a literacy coach, a math coach, an English coach and an inclusion coach, a tech specialist, an art specialist and a gym specialist. They also have a site-based substitute teacher in the school for the year who is reassigned to help in classrooms if not needed. 

• Literacy Coach: does reading recovery, work with students who are below grade level, works with students who are not on Ed. Plans but create interventions, works with kids who are struggling but not on Special Ed. Program.
• Math Coach: is helping teachers assess what the math challenges are in their classrooms and how to address them.

One teacher shared her experience with a program offered in her district called the Aspiring Leaders Program. It a volunteer group of approximately 15 teachers who are working together and talking about teaching. They discuss problems of practice and discuss solutions. They then observe a teacher in action and propose solutions. The teacher found it to be a very rewarding experience. They meet monthly to observe a teacher in the classroom and discuss issues of concern that they want to work on.  The administrators are supportive of the program and offer coverage to ensure the teacher can be released to participate.

Friday, April 8, 2011

On the second day, we visited two schools; Merriam Elementary and McCarthy-Towne Elementary in the Acton Public School District. These schools are unique because they share the same building, yet maintain separate programs and philosophies. 

This building was designed to house both Merriam (right)
and McCarthy-Towne (left) Elementary Schools.

What we learned about the Acton Public School District:

There are 5 elementary schools in the district. Each one has their own philosophy and practice. There is also a junior high school and a senior high school. The school district uses “School Choice” lottery system to determine what school student will attend Kindergarten. Process consists of parent tours/information evenings/meetings and then ranking their choice (1-5) of the 5 schools in Acton. 90% get first choice. When a new family moves into the district, they are sent to the school with the lowest number of students in that grade and that is where they stay. Staffing is done by the school district and school. The control of hiring practices makes it difficult to move between schools and districts. Under contract, there is a cap on PTR – 22 in primary and 25 (Grades 3-8). The PTR is higher in high school. The district uses standardized testing, MCAS and under "No Child Left Behind", each school must have a report card that shares testing results with parents. These report cards are available on the district website: Merriam and McCarthy-Towne. In Acton Public Schools, funding was $11,256 per student in 2009-10. (Source: APS)


The two schools we visited were located in one building designed to accommodate the two schools. They share a gym, library, and cafetorium but maintain separate computer labs and meeting rooms which are all located in the central/middle part of the school. Classrooms are located in hallways branched off the main part of the building. They share an assistant principal who splits his time between both schools as required.

Coordinating the departure of over

1000 students by bus every day can be

a challenge for the two schools. We 

observed two different systems that 

both worked well for coordinating

this complex task. 

The two schools may be located in the same building, but maintain their own programs and philosophies. It was really interesting to see how unique two schools can be, yet they are located under one roof. We received a very warm welcome from both schools during our visit and enjoyed our day immensely with everyone.

What we learned about Merriam Elementary School:

Merriam is a K-6 elementary school with approximately 550 students. Programs of note at Merriam include a project-based curriculum with looped classes. They have ELL and a Before and After School enrichment program. They also feature a community service learning program. More information can be found in their School Handbook: Merriam School Handbook. They also have an explanation of their unique programs listed on their website.

To help build a sense of community in the school, there are approximately 40 “Family Groups” in the school with about 15 students in them (K-6). They meet regularly and stay together the whole time students are at the school (same group starting in Kindergarten until done Grade 6). They also meet every Monday morning, at an assembly in the cafetorium to establish a sense of community. There is also an end of day assembly on Friday afternoon during the first three months of the year and during the last three months of the year. This allows students to have a positive start and end to the school week and usually allows opportunities for students to perform in front of an audience.

There is a paid Educational Assistant in each classroom that is funded through fundraising money provided by the parents.Kindergarten is half days with an option for parents to have an additional half day at their expense. There is a Teacher Council comprised of an elected representative from each collaborative cohort that meets with the Principal every other Tuesday morning for an hour before school.

They have looping in Grades 1-6. The students spend two years together as a class with the same teacher. During a meeting with teachers, we heard about the pros and cons/challenges of looping:

Pros of looping classes:

• Great relationships and connections with students and parents.
• No start-up at the beginning of the second year because you already know your students
• Can make links from previous year when teaching new material.
• Less stress because if you don’t finish everything before June, you have one more year to get it all covered.

Cons/Challenges of looping classes:

• Some students can be challenging to have for two years straight
• Knowing two years of the curriculum.
• Long-term projects that last both years can pose a problem for a new student entering the school.

Merriam has also divided its staff into collaborative teams (1/2, 3/4, 5/6). They meet for 1.5 hours on Fridays and briefly throughout the week over lunch to plan and discuss issues together. While they are not in their classrooms for these meetings, the classroom assistant covers the classroom. During their team meetings, they follow a TRIAD model where they have a chosen facilitator for their meetings that rotates week-to-week. They spend part of the time meeting in a grade specific meeting and the other half meeting as a cohort. They find it an advantage that there are others who have taught the grade the previous year whom they can consult with. Just because the staff/classes are organized into cohorts, they don't always do the same things in individual classes. Sometimes they mix the themes. Sometimes they do the same projects, sometimes they do different projects. When asked what this looks like, they said that sometimes they share a project idea during the meeting but then everyone returns to their individual room and rolls it out in their own way. Other times they all do the same project and work together to get it done. During their meetings, they also map the curriculum out in the spring for the fall ahead and sometimes they benchmark student work or compare results to plan for student success.

What we learned about McCarthy-Towne Elementary School:

McCathy-Towne is a Kindergarten to Grade 6 elementary school with approximately 500 students. Programs of note at the school include ELL, an integrated arts program called SLOYD, a before and after school enrichment program, and two Concord Area Special Education (C.A.S.E.) classes. More information can be found in the McCarthy-Towne School Handbook: School Handbook

Currently, classrooms are straight grades located throughout the school. At the end of this year, staff will be voting on clustering grade groups together to allow for better collaboration next year. They have the SLOYD art program in place at their school and an art inclusion specialist that works with teachers to integrate art into instruction. The artwork around the school was spectacular. From original works of art displayed near the art room to the intricate and creative projects displayed near classrooms that integrated art into other subjects. The integration of art was evident and well displayed around the school.

Teacher collaboration continues to pose a challenge for staff. They do their best to meet on their own time and currently use sub release time to allow for groups to meet for 1.5 hours every other week. This is under review for next year. Their principal prided himself on having a dedicated staff who are in constant evaluation and reflection mode to find out how to service the learning needs of their students and to allow for more collaboration time. They are looking at the schedule for next year to increase collaborative prep time when common grades are with specialists to allow for meeting time in grade specific groupings. They are also considering establishing a block of instructional time where there is no pull-out because constant pull-out is a problem (30-40 times/week/class) at their school.

There is one mandated staff meeting a month after school. Common prep-time not mandated (3 x 45 minutes prep periods a week/teacher) but staff feel working collaboratively is important so they often try to meet on their prep time. There is also early release in their districts on Thursdays for PD (School ends at 1:00 and teachers have PD until 3:30) where one a month is local PD others done by district. To accommodate this in their schedule, the district increased length of time other 4 days so that instruction time is not missed.
Not driven by MCAS for instruction. They teach test writing skills but do not teach to the test. They are an inquiry driven and project based school.

We had an interesting discussion about assessment with staff representatives. McCarthy-Towne does not issue traditional report cards, rather they use a skills checklist with portfolios for evaluation. They have 3-way conferences twice a year and celebration of learning evenings. Goal setting by students starts at 3rd grade. Assessments are typically done using rubrics, comments and checklists. There are some grades given on certain assignments at the 5/6 level to prepare for Junior High School. Checklists for year-end assessment are grade specific and help indicate if child is at grade level. They are presented at the end of year conference and are attached to the student portfolio. They are not sent home prior to the meeting with the parents.

Final thoughts for potential ideas to implement in Regina Public Schools based on our school visits:

• Evaluation: I found it very interesting, that despite the use of high-stakes testing at these schools, there was more emphasis on the use of portfolios and skills assessment than on test scores. It could be that because their students have higher than average test-scores, there is no need to focus on these tests. However, as we change the way we teach in our own division, I have begun to realize more and more the need to develop other forms of reporting to parents than the traditional report card. I am a big fan of portfolios and believe that this method could be used by schools here in Regina to demonstrate students learning. Paired with student led conferences, presentations and teacher completed checklists of skills at the end of the year, this type of assessment would be a more accurate and informative for teachers and parents. It will be challenging to implement, as many parents will have a hard time accepting an assessment report that doesn't contain letter grades. Moving beyond traditional report cards is an important step in the implementation of new ways of teaching in our division.
• Looping: I liked the idea of implementing this practice. Having experienced first hand the ability to work with the same group of students over a number of years, I know first-hand how beneficial it is to the students and the teacher to know the needs and abilities of the students to support them on their learning journey. Being able to see them grow and learn in a supported way is a reward for the teacher. The sense of belonging and team dynamic that develops amongst the students in the group is important and contributes to a positive learning environment.
• Teacher PD and team support: In both districts, there was supported learning for teachers in some form both inside and outside of the classroom. I really like the idea of the formation of groups of teachers who work and learn together. Whether it is the district-wide version described in Cambridge or the collaborative-team support observed in Merriam, I believe that a version that works for Regina Public should be developed. Giving the chance for teachers to see each other in action in the classroom is some of the best professional development an educator could experience. Working collaboratively to solve problems and reflect on practice would be a great opportunity for teachers of any level of experience to have. I also liked the model in place in Acton for weekly PD opportunities. There was a mix of local, district and teacher choice PD opportunities available on a weekly basis. This wasn't offered after school or on weekends, but during the day on a regular basis. Implementing this for the division would allow the opportunity for all teachers to receive the regular in-servicing required to remain current in their practice.
• Inclusion: We observed very similar practices for diagnosing and identifying special needs in particular students in Massachusetts, that we already have implemented in our own division. A tiered approach to intervention was used there and here. Supporting student success is just as important to us as it was evident in the schools we visited. A big difference in the level of support is the number of human resources available to the students in both Cambridge and Acton. From district funded support staff in the form of classroom assistants, school counselors, school psychologists, literacy and math coaches, and special educators teamed with general educators, it was rare to see only one adult in a room with 25 students. This is a big ticket item for our division and for our province who is looking at cutting the number of educational assistants in the classroom. If we want full inclusion to work, we need to put the human resources in place to ensure its success.

Being able to visit and learn from other educators was a very rewarding experience. I am very grateful to my division for allowing us this opportunity. This visit gave me the opportunity to see other teachers in action, learn about their challenges and reflect upon my own practice. I have also turned into a much "bigger picture" thinker after these visits. I am now constantly thinking and brainstorming new ideas not only for my school but for my division as a whole. Knowing that we are all experiencing similar challenges was important for me to see. We all have student improvement and learning at heart. How we approach that job is perhaps a bit different, but we are all doing our best to meet the individual needs of our students with the tools and resources we have at hand. We left Massachusetts with the hope that some of the relationships we built while we were there will continue. We still have a lot to learn and share with each other.

Using Google Sites in Second Language Instruction (Guest Blog Post)

This post is cross-posted from Free Technology for Teachers where I appeared as a guest blogger this weekend.

I am a Canadian French Immersion Educator at École Wilfrid Walker School in Regina, Saskatchewan. That means that I teach students whose first language is English, in French. Students in a French Immersion program are taught all subjects in French starting in Kindergarten. By the time they reach middle years, they have strong oral, reading and writting skills in both languages.

As a second language instructor, I often find it a challenge to find relevant resources for my students that are both at their reading level and at their interest level. I teach Social Studies and Science to students in Grades 6/7/8. These subject areas are often a challenge at this grade level in French Immersion as most resources for middle years in French are written for first language readers in Quebec which means that the vocabulary and verb tense can be difficult to understand. Having students read a text and fully comprehend it can be a frustrating experience. Being a small market, publishers who create fantastic materials in English to support our provincial curriculum often ignore the Saskatchewan French Immersion market, as it is not profitable for them to produce the same resources in French. As a result, I have come to rely on online resources to support my instruction of our curriculum. How to present, share and utilise these online resources with my students is always a challenge.

As an avid user of technology in my classroom, my students and I have experimented with numerous sites and applications over the years to enhance our learning experience and to showcase our deeper understanding of curricular outcomes.

Our school division uses Google Apps for Education. All of my students have their own accounts that I can control. This has revolutionized how I teach and interact with my students. Through one platform, my students can access their work at school or at home. I can share documents and presentations and decide if they are public or private. They can email me their questions and comments and I can reply anytime I choose from my computer or even my phone. They can also build collaborative documents and presentations with their classmates. We have also cut back on printing costs because my students simply share their assignments with me for evaluation. No need to waste paper in my classroom.

Google Sites has become an easy way for me to share links and resources with my students. This year we have used this platform in numerous ways in both Social Studies and Science. Being able to easily create a site and have numerous editors has empowered my students to become responsible authors who are excited to learn about the world around them and share their knowledge in a second language. Knowing their site has the potential to reach a global audience adds an extra level of engagement.

My first experiment with Google Sites was to create a site to frame a project my Grade 8 students were working on about the ownership of water. Le GRAND Débat  linked resources and presented the steps each group had to follow to prepare for our class debate. It was easy for me to embed video tutorials and explanations into the site. Groups also created podcasts using their iPod Touch and Sonic Pics to introduce their arguments. Using Google sites for this project was very well received by my students. It was easy for me to create a site, use a template and add resources.

Other ways I have used Google Sites in my classroom include:

• Building sites to showcase student projects: Grade 7 Mining project and Grade 6 First Nations Legends and Constellations project. 
• Coordinating virtual literacy and numeracy centres where Grade 6 and 7 students work with Grade 1 and 2 students on different skills: Centres 1 and Centres 2
• Students building their own sites to present their Science projects (modelled after Google Virtual Science Fair): La Foire de sciences virtuelle
• Building collaborative inquiry driven projects. My students wanted to learn more about the recent disaster in Japan. We built this site in groups (Une catastrophe au Japon) based on questions we had about the disaster in Japan and making connections to our lives in Canada. We then used the site to promote our student council's efforts to raise money for the relief effort in Japan and to educate other students in the school about the disaster. They were rewarded by raising over $1000 for their charities of choice in a school with less than 250 students in two weeks. 

The more I use Google Sites in my classroom, the more I love it. I would be interested to learn how other educators are using this tool in their classroom with their students.

Joanna Sanders Bobiash is a French Immersion Middle Years Educator and Teacher Librarian in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Joanna maintains a blog entitled My Adventures in Educational Technology. Joanna is also on Twitter.

Cool Tools for Successful Collaboration

This morning, I had the pleasure of co-presenting with Erik Van Dusen to high school teachers from Winston Knoll, Balfour and Thom about ways that we can use online tools to share resources and collaborate.

Despite working for the same school division, Erik and I have only met a few times in person. We have had many interesting discussions and shared many resources online through Twitter. In the expanse of a few short months, he has become a valuable member of my PLN. Our presentation itself is a great of example of how the tools we presented today can easily be used for online collaboration by anyone. In fact, our entire presentation was built online using Google Presentations and discussions were had using Twitter to finalize what we were going to say and how we were going to present it.

We gave the same presentation three times as the teachers from the three schools were organized into similar subject groupings. It was really interesting as an outsider from the elementary level to hear about some of the innovative ways teachers at these three schools are integrating technology into the classroom.

Unfortunately, if you didn't attend our presentation live, you missed out on our witty dialogue. But fortunately, if you would like to view our online slide-deck and see what we talked about, please check out one of two options:

A link to our presentation built using Google apps with easy to follow links: http://bit.ly/iejumk

An embedded version of the presentation here for your viewing pleasure:

Cool Tools for Successful Collaboration

View more presentations from Joanna Sanders Bobiash

Talking about Google Sites

On Monday, April 4, I will be sharing some of my experience with Google Sites with the Teacher Librarians in my division. Here's the guiding presentation I will be using, however, most of it will be hands-on and live demo from my sites' menu. There are some good links here if you want to learn more about Google Sites.

Link to the presentation in Google Presentation Format (easier to follow hyperlinks): http://bit.ly/hzYnYd 

I'm also embeding it here from Slide Share if you just want to view the slides without leaving my blog: 

TL Session on Google Sites 04-04-2011

View more presentations from Joanna Sanders Bobiash.

Cross Post - A New Structure for Learning

Over the past few weeks, I have been participating in an online book study being hosted by the Calgary Science School (CSS). The book we have been studying is called: Making Learning Whole: How Seven Principles of Teaching can Transform Education by David Perkins.

I had the pleasure of being the guest blogger for Chapter Six, "Learn From the Team". In my post, I decided to talk about my own school's structure and weave in the concepts discussed in Perkins' chapter. I believe that it is an example of inquiry in action!

To read all of the discussion about this book, please visit the book inquiry study site at CSS. If you get the chance to read this book, I strongly recommend it. It is a great read.

Here is a cross post of what I posted about Chapter Six from the CSS professional blog:

Chapter 6: Learn from the Team

Guest Blogger: Joanna Sanders Bobiash

I am a French Immersion Middle Years Educator and Teacher Librarian in Regina, Saskatchewan. I received my B.Ed. from the University of Regina. I am passionate about the integration of technology into the classroom to enable students to think and work together in new ways. I have documented my journey through my blog entitled “My Adventures in Educational Technology” . In 2009, I won the $20,000 “Best in Class” award from Best Buy for the use of technology in my classroom. This award enabled me to purchase many new tools for my classroom, including iPod touches and netbooks, which have allowed my students to learn in new ways.

You can follow Joanna on Twitter here.

I chose this chapter to write about because of its title, “Learn from the Team”. Collaborative learning is a key component to the current environment in my classroom and in my school. Many aspects of this book really resonated well with me because I’m fortunate to work at a structurally innovative school that allows me the opportunity to put many of the seven principles in this book into practice. In fact, after reading Perkins book, I felt that it will be a useful tool to help explain some of the structural changes and practices we are currently implementing at my school. Please indulge me as I share a bit more about the structure I have helped develop at my school while reflecting on Chapter 6 of Perkins book.

First off, let me tell you a bit about my school and our structure, as it is far from traditional. École Wilfrid Walker School is a public, K-8 French Immersion Centre in the suburbs of east Regina. All instruction and interaction occurs in French, which is the second language for the majority of our students. Other than a couple of hours a week devoted to English Language Arts instruction, our entire curriculum is in French. In fact, students don’t receive any instruction in English until they are in Grade 3.

In this chapter, Perkins begins by explaining the importance of the “Social View of Learning”. In French Immersion instruction, social interaction is crucial to second language acquisition. The premise of this practice is to “immerse” the learner in a new language environment. Students come into the program with no knowledge of the language, but are actually forced to learn and interact using the language before they fully understand it. They rarely receive translations for what they are learning, but instead their comprehension is supported through images, gestures and social interaction to learn new vocabulary and grammar.

French Immersion students in fact explore the same concepts other learners in the same grade are learning in English at other schools. In a short amount of time, they become fluent in the language as they are challenged to think and learn in new ways. Perkins begins this chapter by talking about Vygotsky insights into concepts like “social scaffolding” and the “activity theory” and their impact on internalized learning.

I believe that learning in French Immersion is successful because students are learning through physical actions and conversations that help internalize the new language that they are encountering. I believe that students would not experience the same successes if they were not exposed to the social aspect of learning through a “social scaffolding” of supports from their peers.

What makes my school different from other French Immersion schools across Canada? Social learning is not a new practice and has been important to the success of French Immersion since the beginning of the program more than 30 years ago. The difference at our school is that we have taken social learning to the next level.

In 2009, Wilfrid Walker was one of the first schools in Regina Public to experiment with a new structure under our division’s initiative called “Structural Innovation”. Our structure is founded on the principles of flexible groupings, team teaching, student choice, inquiry and project based learning. It is rare to walk through our school and see students sitting in rows listening attentively to a single speaker in front of the room. Usually you see students working together in pairs or in groups on hands on learning tasks or projects. From the early days of Kindergarten, students are “playing the whole game” when it comes to learning French.

At Wilfrid Walker, most teachers teach only a few subjects, which is rare in elementary school. This focus allows teachers to become masters at what they do and allow the students the benefit of receiving quality learning experiences from educators who are specialized in the subjects that they teach. Our student body of approximately 250 has been divided up into three grade specific pods (1-2, 3-5, 6-8). Students have a homeroom, but are otherwise grouped and re-grouped during the day depending on the subject that they are studying. These groupings change throughout the year as our calendar has been organized into eight, six week blocks.

Although our schedule is blocked into more traditional subject headings, teachers plan as teams to ensure that similar themes are covered through many subjects at once, ensuring students work in cross-curricular situations. They are able to solve problems and apply language skills in math class then later use those same skills to investigate world issues and propose solutions to today’s problems in social studies, science and health.

Ideally, students would have exposure and opportunities to work with real experts in their fields. Just like how most educators in Saskatchewan learn to be teachers by doing lengthy internships, we learn best by observing and working alongside veterans in their field. Education students get to apply their knowledge by practicing their skills in the real world and learn to reflect and try again. That is how they become master learners.

I think that the next level of Perkins’ described “Communities of Practice” in this chapter would be in the form of team teaching at my school. Not only do we host and mentor our share of university students but being able to plan and teach alongside our colleagues in the same room allows us the ability to see each other in action, to reflect on our own practice and to have opportunity to become better educators.

This brings me to the section of the chapter devoted to “Studio Learning.” I feel a particular attachment to this part of the chapter because my classroom does not actually have a number like most others in our school. Its “room number” is actually a name and is called “Studio 1”. It is a place where I spend most mornings teaching social studies and science in mixed grade groupings of students in 6/7/8. Students in my classroom follow the studio model explained in this chapter (demonstration-lecture, students-at-work, process of sharing and critique) to learn about the required curricular outcomes in social studies and science for their grade level.

But what does this look like? I start each block modelling and demonstrating what we will be learning about to give students an idea of what it “actually looks like”. Students then use problem solving methods similar to the “Pair Problem Solving” method described in this chapter to work on specific learning tasks to get more familiar with the topic at hand. They collaboratively draft questions and propose hypothesises about the topic.

Finally, students choose to work independently, in pairs or as teams to attack larger problems, which are either student or teacher constructed, through lengthy project-based learning periods or student focused work periods, culminating in a peer critiqued sharing event or presentation at the end of the block.

The culture of constant feedback and reflection are woven through my classroom. Students have been taught how to give constructive feedback to each other and how to effectively reflect on their own learning. They teach each other how to approach problems in different ways. They also mentor each other to see past what is happening in the classroom and to try to apply their ideas in a real world context. Their journey is documented through learning journals, exit cards and block end reflections. This is my form of “Extreme Team Learning” and is evolving every day and we re-evaluate and try new ways of learning at our school.

This type of learning wouldn’t happen if we hadn’t already developed a culture of understanding at our school where students feel supported and listened to, not only by the teachers, but by their peers as well. An open and caring environment is necessary for students to experience success.

Finally, my latest experiment is the concept of “Cross Age Tutoring”. Traditionally, this method is used in our school in the form of “Reading Buddies”, a time where older students read to younger students or vice versa. As we focus more and more on the acquisition of 21st century skills, I have developed literacy and numeracy centres where older students work with primary students on acquiring new skills through the use of ipods, laptops and Smart Board.

Nothing is more rewarding then hearing older students give feedback or instruction to younger students using the terminology they have learned to use in the “Studio”. The older students often comment in their reflections that they really enjoy teaching younger students new things. This experience gives them confidence knowing that even if they are struggling with concepts and skills at their own grade level, they have come a long way since Grade 1. They also say that they have become better learners themselves watching how younger students learn.

I’m not sharing our school’s journey to say that we are the best out there. We have come a long way and have a long way to go. We are constantly learning and growing along with our structure and make changes and improvements all the time. We have developed a structure that works for our students and their needs. As their needs evolve, so will our structure.

I’m curious to hear how you interpret “social learning” or “learning from the team”. I hope by sharing a bit about my school, you will share a bit about yours. I am always looking for new ways to approach learning in my classroom and in my school.

I look forward to hearing more from you.

Joanna

Learning and the Brain Conference 2011 in San Francisco, CA

San Francisco as seen from Alcatraz

From February 17-19, 2011, I was given the wonderful opportunity to attend the Learning and the Brain Conference in San Francisco, CA, on behalf of my school division. As an avid reader, it was fantastic to be able to hear first-hand from many of the authors that I have learned so much from through their books. I hope that some of the speakers I was able to hear from at this conference will come to my province in the future as I believe that their thoughts and ideas are important messages all educators need to hear and consider.

I have posted something from all of the sessions that I was able to attend. They are written in the form of notes taken during the sessions, rather than reflections on what was said so that you can see some of the ideas discussed at the conference. I have tried to include book links, videos and websites as much as possible.

The Golden Gate Bridge as seen from Alcatraz

For those of you who are reading this blog and are are in my school division, I have ordered the sessions on MP3/synced Power Points so that we can watch and learn from all the wonderful presenters at the conference at a later point in time. Let me know if you are interested in viewing any of these presentations.

Before leaving San Francisco, I had half a day to visit the island of Alcatraz. During my tour of the island and former prison, I couldn't help but feel sorry for those who were sentenced to serve their time on the island. The city sparkled against the blue water. After spending three days walking to and from the conference in the rain, we finally had a beautiful, sunny day to enjoy.

As I enjoyed the view of the cityscape from the island, I couldn't help but wonder if students might be feeling trapped in schools where they are only learning by traditional means. They might also feel somewhat unengaged and isolated at school from the more advanced world that they are living outside of the school day. Increased efforts need to be made by all educators to improve our own skills and teach content and skills in new ways that are relevant to the students of today and prepare them for their futures.

Like the prisoners who spent time on Alcatraz, our students will eventually leave the island known to them as school. They will need to solve real-world problems and demonstrate that they possess the collaborative and communication skills necessary to gain employment in the future. The experts who presented at this conference left the participants with a lot of food for thought. It is now up to the participants to help lead the way to help make the changes necessary so that learning in the 21st century will be effective and engaging for all students. If not, we will become obsolete as a profession.

Here are my notes from the sessions I attended:

Thursday, February 17, 2011

• Keynote #2 - Gary Small
• Keynote #3 - James Paul Gee
• Breakout session (PM) #1 - Don Massaro
• Breakout session (PM) #2 - Linda Jackson

Friday, February 18, 2011

• Keynote #1 - Tony Wagner
• Keynote #2 - Linda Darling-Hammond
• Keynote #3 - Marc Prensky
• Breakout Session #1 (PM) - Kenneth Kossick (coming)
• Breakout Session #2 (PM) - Kurt Fisher (coming)

Saturday, February 20, 2011

• Keynote #1 - Gerald N. Tironzzi
• Keynote #2 - Jane M. Healy
• Keynote #3 - John J. Ratey

http://www.learningandthebrain.com/Event/iGeneration/Program

Learning and the Brain 2011 - John J. Ratey

Keynote III: Countering the Cyber Life: Getting in Touch with Our Hunter-Gatherer Genes
John J. Ratey, MD
sparkinglife.org - author of Spark

Plato: we need a meeting of educational and physical self

Hunter Gathers - If you did not run, you did not eat
These are activities that we need to force or think about now.

Evolution teaches: sitting, sitting, - the person at the computer

Adaptation, Moving, Learning - the front part of the brain grew to help us move. The evolution movement - that which we call thinking is the evolutionary internalization of movement.

Our genes made us do it - they drive us to load up on calories and take it easy - they want us to only use what we need and conserve the rest for later.

Children who are normal weight, are 30 points smarter when they are older than children who are obese at 4 years old

Resilience is just a silly word - helicopter parents take care of everything for their children - they blame or excuse everything for their children.

You are 7% smarter when you stand up.

You can get that resilience next year - parents who blame play time or physical activity time and excuse them from participating.

Imagination playgrounds that promotes active play at recess

In schools with more fixed playground equipment, children were less active.
In schools with more portable equipment, i.e. balls and tricycles, children were more active because children have to be more creative and come up with their own games.

Everyone gets a trophy - just for showing up - You need to learn how to fail, to learn from your mistakes, adjust the rules, solve the problem and get up and play again

Stuart Brown's book  - Play

Play and Exercise a way to develop resilience, tenacity, persistence and commitment.

brain chemistry - exercise is like a mix of Ritalin and Prozac at the same time.

PE4Life - mandated PE and are to become more physically fit to help get the brain working - 45 minutes a day of fitness driven PE


For more information and presentation slides visit:
johnratey.com
sparkinglife.org

Learning and the Brain 2011 - Jane M. Healy

Keynote II: Different Brains, Different Learners: Rethinking "Intelligence" and "Learning Disability" for the 21st Century
Jane M. Healy, PhD

Author of Different Learners - Identifying, Preventing, and Helping your Children's Learning Problems

Learning and the Brain Conference
San Francisco, CA
Saturday, February 19, 2011

There is a misfit between the learning style of the child and the evaluation of the student's learning. (i.e. standardized testing)


Points to Ponder:
Brain Crisis: Culture, kids and schools - the mismatch

Learning Difference the pain, the potential

The Educator's Response

Are we teaching kids to be masters of their tools or tools of their tools?

We need to put students in the position where they can rise above computer intelligence and in control - master of tools or tools of tools?

But some things don't change:
-Physical health issues
-Developmental stages (waves) - is it right for every age group for the cognitive development stage that they are at? How do we know?
-Individual differences - collaborative problem solving needs of future careers - there needs to be room to allow for individuals to work by themselves if they work better that way. (Behavioural needs)
(Learning style, temperament, rate of maturation)
-Need for human connections (F2F, teacher as leader, mentor, etc)

Brain crisis - a child being born today in the US has a 30% chance of being diagnosed with some type of learning problem.

Learning problems may include:
academic skills - reading, math
behavioural skills - ADHD
Social-emotional skills - Asperger's, NVLD, etc.

Pop Quiz -
1. 60% of the most popular educational apps for the iPhone are for preschoolers - what kind of effects will they have on them when they reach school - how will it change their brain?

2. Kids 8-18 spend 8.5-23.5 hrs/day with some sort of media, of which are .5 hrs with books (Kaisers Foundation stat)

3. New research shows that background TV in preschoolers' home impairs their own inner-speech (that helps them speak) and to manage and plan their own play activities and manage their own behaviours.

4. A new and fast-growing learning disorder diagnosis is executive function (hint: think frontal lobes)

Who's brain is really in charge? This child's or the programmers? (Cover of the New Yorker)

5. A recent study of highly successful entrepreneurs found that close to 50% of them were dyslexics.

6. Michael Barry, the financial whiz who read the financial statements and sold short the sub-prime mortgage market has Aspbergers.

Take-away - the environment of childhood has changed, and it has significant effects on growing brains. These effects may exacerbate certain learning challenges.

Human evolution may have preserved certain neurobilogical differences for reasons that are as yet unknown.

Our challenge: Honour the talents but ease the learning process.

All students need reflective teaching to become masters of their teaching to become the tools of their tools.

• Learning difference
• The pain
• The potential

Cerebrodiversity - No two brains are alike and no one has a perfect brain

The Brain Thinking - If everybody was the same and someone had a thought and it was wrong then everybody would be wrong. Isn't it better to have different thoughts? - A disproportionate number of CEOs are dyslexic. Thinking differently creates opportunities.

Dyslexia - Talent or Liability?

The ability of Dyslexics to interpret impossible figures makes them good at visual requirements for future careers.

A.S.D. - Talent or Liability?
-we see a different reaction of young children's exposure to electronic faces (which don't react the same as a human face)- this could exacerbate A.S.D. because they lacked the ability to see details in human contact (facial features and details that show human emotion)

A.D.H.D. - Talent or Liability?
Impulsive response - not being able to manage their own mind, they are just stimulus bound - some video games train this kind of response.


It is not nature or nurture but it is nature and nurture.

Epigenetics changes to the genome as a result of experience - environments shape genes and brains.

The dance of nature and nurture.

Culture Changes Brains - The Dyslexic Brain Changed by Teaching (showed brain scans)

Brain Disruptor - Stress - We need balance between technology and playing in the environment with others face to face.

Intelligence for a digital age - an educator's response
-time uninterrupted, concentrated thought may prove to be most important skill that one can hone - John Brockman
Are we doing this in school? It might be the only place to get it.

What is worth preserving?

• life in the real world
• nature
• interpersonal skills
• childhood

intelligence for a digital age
symbolic reaction
....

Tools of the Mind - self regulation that needs to be taught or implemented in schools

What is right for a 16 year old is probably not right for a 6 year old. Consider that difference can be an asset so don't neglect the brain builders...

Learning and the Brain 2011 - Gerald N.Tirozzi

Keynote I: Faulty Connections: How School Reform Ignores How the Brain Works
Gerald N. Tirozzi, PhD

Saturday, February 19, 2011
San Francisco, CA
Learning and the Brain Conference

The Brain Rule - a book to check out

It is important to understand how the brain works before you make decisions about how school works. Why does school start at age 5 when the brain is developing the most prior to this.

Educational taxidermist - stuffing students uniformly with little or no understanding of how children learn.

Why does the day end at 3:00? Is that when the brain stops working? Why does school not happen in the summer? Poor students do not have access to summer programing that give wealthier students rich experiences that help them when they come back to school.

Why do high school teachers mostly lecture? Students need to see images, graphics, etc to learn from a lecture. We do not see with our eyes, we see with out brains.

Why do we offer foreign language in high school when it is best to start in elementary?

Why do we start high school at 7:30 AM when adolescents learn better at 9 or 10 AM? This is simply to accommodate bus schedules and coaches' schedules not in the interest of learning.

Waiting for Superman - depicts charter schools as the holy grail of education reform. We want a level playing field for all students (ELL and Special Education students, access, etc.)

Standardized testing does not recognize the different learning styles or background knowledge or learning context. They are marked on how well they fill out a bubble. Students are marked incorrect when they are actually giving correct answers. They are just not giving the answer we want to hear.

Gardner - the bell shape curve should be 3 dimensional to reflect the 8 multiple intelligences. Students are failing because they excel in areas that are simply not assessed.

Point: Parenting programs, voluntary school for 4 year olds, voluntary all-day kindergarten programs. Extend the school day and the school year doing things differently (not if we are doing the same thing). National childhood literacy policy - make sure they are reading before they are leaving the 3rd grade.

"If we teach students today how we did yesterday, then we are robbing them of their tomorrows." - John Dewey

Learning and the Brain Conference 2011 - Marc Prensky

Teaching Digital Natives - Partnering for Real Learning
Marc Prensky, MBA
http://marcprensky.com/
Games to Train (Develops software)
Author of Teaching Digital Natives
Keynote #3 - Learning and the Brain Conference 2011
February 18, 2011
San Francisco, CA

Look at life from the perspective of students - what do they want and need?

"Brain Based" Learning? - Learning vs Teaching

Neuroscience - has potential to steer educators in wrong directions. What is the right mix of learning strategies and the Right Motivation to learn? The context of education has changed - don't try to bring back what has worked in the past. Previously, for students, the past was similar to the future. Now, for students, the future is different from the past.

"The perfect storm of change"
In our student's lifetime, technology will become one 1 trillion times more powerful.

groenbrothers.com - The Multi Uses for a Cell Phone


Verbs vs Nouns = Skills vs Tools

Presenting - Powerpoint
Communicating - email
Learning- wikipedia

Verbs stay the same but the nouns change rapidly.

The digitally wise person requires digital tools because there are things our brains do well but that machines do better. Wisdom in the 21st century is a combination of both.

Where we share the work
- Students do what they do well: use tech, create, finding content
-21st Century teacher is the coach, guide, partner by being able to ask good questions

Better pedagogy is needed in the form of partnering between students and teachers. Teachers are tools in education. We need to implement 21st century tools by focussing professional development on changing pedagogy first. We need to create an environment where students are teaching themselves with their teachers guiding and coaching them along the way. Leturing and technology as a combination does not make sense. It is like a runway crossing a highway. (airport in Gibraltar)

Final point: We need to change how we teach and what we teach because the context around the kids is changing.

Learning and the Brain Conference 2011 - Linda Darling-Hammond

Linda Darling-Hammond
Transforming Teaching Learning and Assessment
How Can We Prepare Learners for a Flat World?

Morning Keynote #2
Learning and the Brain Conference 2011 - San Francisco, CA

Author of The Flat World and Education

Key points: This keynote was very interesting but mostly spoke about the need for reforms in the American education system. She used PISA scores and spoke about the need to evaluate 21st century learning skills through task-type/problem solving type assessments as opposed to testing based on memorization. Used Australian examples of assessment.

The Need for More Powerful Teaching - Loved the clip from Ferris Buller's Day Off. Anyone? Anyone?


More knowledge has been created between 1999-2003 than in the history of mankind preceding it.

Expectations for Learning are Changing:

The new context means new expectations. Most studies include:
communicate, change teams, problem solving, etc. list by Chris Wardlaw (Improving on Being First in PISA)

A Rich Task: Science and Ethics Confer (Queensland, Australia)
an example of an assessment requiring the skills in the above list.

Worldwide Reform Initiative Generally Seek to "Teach less and learn more" giving the time for the analysis of problems, develop critical thinking, etc.

Tests for learning, not high-stakes "punishments"

What does the score mean and what are we measuring?

Learning and the Brain Conference 2011 - Tony Wagner

Overcoming the Global Achievement Gap: Learning, Leading and Teaching in the 21st Century
Tony Wagner, ED.D.
Innovation Education Fellow
Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard
tony_wagner@harvard.edu
www.changeleadershipgroup.org
Author of: The Global Achievement Gap

Learning and the Brain Conference 2011, San Francisco, CA
Morning Keynote #1 - February 18, 2011

What is the "crisis" in American education really all about - what's the "problem"?

The rock: New Skills for work, continuous Learning and Citizenship in a "knowledge society" for All Students

They are skills we don't teach and don't assess

This Net generation is differently motivated to learn

Reform vs. Reinvention
- we need new structures, different ways of teaching and testing and new ways of evaluating (reinvention)

-The seven survival skills for careers, college and citizenship
1. Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving - demands of employers today for its employees to be able to do. The ability to ask really good questions and the right questions.
2. Collaboration Across Networks and Leading by Influence - lead by peers.
3. Agility and Adaptability
4. Initiative and Entrepreneurship
5. Effective Oral and Written Communication - kids can write because they don't know how to think and they don't know how to write with voice. This makes them not very persuasive.
6. Accessing and Analyzing Information - question curriculum that requires memorization. Move beyond textbooks.
7. Curiosity and Imagination - 70% of US Economy is consumer driven and the savings rate was -2% - People are spending money they do not have on items that they do not need. We need young people who are going to be innovative and solve the worlds problems.

Learning walks - see how people are teaching and propose change (evaluation of practice - spend as much time debriefing as you spend observing)

The only curriculum in American schools is test prep.

What is the Global Achievement Gap - it is the gap between what even our best schools are teaching and testing versus the skills all students will need for careers, college and citizenship in the 21st century.

What motivates the Net Generation- accustomed to instant gratification and always-on connection
use the web for:

1. extending friendships, 
2. interest-driven, self-directed learning and as a tool for self-expression, 
3. constantly connected,
4. creating and multitasking in a multimedia world-everywhere except in school

The Net Generation has less fear and respect for authority accustomed to learning from peers wants coaching but only from adults who: don't talk but do, want to make a difference and do interesting things.

Rigor - guess who?
- not content driven but give them the 21st century skills - need to know how to write, research and form an effective study group (peer group learning)

Focus on Timeless learning that has stood the test of time:

• Rigor is content mastery (getting more right answers)
• studying existing content by disciplines
• learners working alone and in competition
• motivated mainly by extrinsic rewards (grades)
• taught by isolated content experts through memorization/recall
• assessed mainly by multiple choice, computer scored tests

Focus on using content to master the competencies of "Just-in-Time Learning"

Rigor is figuring out the right question/problem to be solved, exploring questions and new problems within and across disciplines

Habits of Mind - learning to ask the right questions - copied and re-posted from www.missionhillschool.org - Habits of Mind section of their website:

Five Habits of Mind

The Mission Hill Habits of Mind are an approach to both the traditional academic disciplines (math, science, literature and history) and the interdisciplinary stuff of ordinary life. They are what lead us to ask good questions and seek solid answers. They are our definition of a well-educated person.

1. Evidence: How do we know what’s true and false? What evidence counts? How sure can we be? What makes it credible to us? This includes using the scientific method, and more.

2. Viewpoint: How else might this look like if we stepped into other shoes? If we were looking at it from a different direction? If we had a different history or expectation? This requires the exercise of informed “empathy” and imagination. It requires flexibility of mind.

3. Connections/Cause and Effect: Is there a pattern? Have we seen something like this before? What are the possible consequences?

4. Conjecture: Could it have been otherwise? Supposing that? What if...? This habit requires use of the imagination as well as knowledge of alternative possibilities. It includes the habits described above.

5. Relevance: Does it matter? Who cares?

None of these five habits stand separately. And the way we use such habits differ if we are studying a mathematical proof, a scientific hypothesis, an historical dispute, a debate over economics, the appreciation of a piece of art, a critique of a novel, the telling of a myth or narrative, or the settling of a playground dispute.

The Mission Hill Habits of Mind are supplemented by Habits of Work: the habit of meeting deadlines, being on time, sticking to a task, not getting frustrated quickly, hearing out what others say, and more.

Both sets of “habits” are developed in the process of gathering appropriate knowledge and skill in school and out. The best test is whether students use such habits in the course of their work. And again, not just in school. Knowing “how-to” is no substitute for having good habits. Who cares if you could drive well, if you’re not in the habit of doing so? Who cares if you could be on time, if you never are?

Redefining District Organizational Excellence: Accountability
Hold ourselves accountable for What matters Most (AYP vs Attainment)
Track cohort graduation rate and how well students do once they are in College (www.studentclearinghouse.org)

1. Use the College and Work Readiness Assessment to assess analytic reasoning, critical thinking, problem-solving and writing www.cae.org

2. Academics - Doing the New Work: teaching and assessing the skills that matter most - the 3 Cs (Critical and Creative Thinking, Communication and Collaboration) in every class and at all grade levels. Pilot interdisciplinary courses around essential questions that require all students to have digital portfolios, work internships and a service internship project

3. Collaboration: Doing the New Work in New Ways
-every student has an adult advocate
-every teacher on teams for collaborative inquiry looking at student and teacher work
-Transparency: videotape teaching, supervision and meetings (lesson study vs. evaluation)
-Digital portfolios for teachers and leaders

4. Policy implications for REAL Innovation
Accountability 2.0 Systems: Tracing read grad rate
School based Research and Development - creating lab schools - pictures of what 21st century schooling can be like New Tech High and High Tech High; videotape exemplary lessons and teacher team meetings.

5. Performance standards to license and re-license educators.

Learning and the Brain Conference 2011 - Linda Jackson

Linda Jackson
Learning and the Brain Conference 2011 - Breakout Session (PM)
Internet, Video Games and Children: Relationships with Academic Performance and Creativity
https://www.msu.edu/~jackso67/
https://www.msu.edu/user/jackso67/CT/children/index.htm - Children and Technology Project

What is IT doing to our children? Is it helping, hurting or having no effect on a multitude of developmental outcomes?

Academic Outcomes?

HomeNetToo Project 90 Families in Michigan were given computers and Internet for 16 months.

Frequency of Children's Internet Use - Mostly spent on websites and playing games.


No effects on psychological well-being
no effects on social involvement
positive effects on academic performance (GPA and MEAP reading scores)

By using the Internet, they were reading to figure out where to go. They weren't hanging out with their friends at the mall or doing other activities that wouldn't require reading (testing out this hypothesis right now).

Summary: (finding on the Effects of IT Use, 2005)
Internet use: suggestive evidence of benefits to reading scores and GPAs of under achieving children. Children Claim it is important to school performance

Communication Using the Internet: Mixed in the larger literature, there is evidence of positive and negative effects (e-mail, Instant Messaging) on social connections.

Cell phone use: very little research, especially on children's cell phone use.
Videogame Playing: Evidence that playing violent video games is also related to lower GPAs and in adults, to better visual-spatial skills.

Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory of Development Applied to IT Use:
Person & Context (graphic to look up online but took photo)

Children and Technology Project:
482 children from 20 middle schools in Michigan

Results:
Internet use predicted reading skills
communication using the Internet predicted nothing
Cell phone use predicted nothing
video game playing predicted visual-spatial and negatively predicted GPA.

Students who are low benefit the most from video game use and Internet access.

Conclusions:
Internet use increases reading skills but this relationship may be limited to children who are initially low in reading skills.
Video game playing increases visual-spatial skills but this relationship maybe be limited to children who are initially average in school performance.
Cellphone use increase reading skills but the nature of this relationship is unclear. Cell phone use was infrequent in this sample of 12 year olds.

Communication using the Internet has no effect on any gender.

Learning and the Brain Conference 2011: Don Massaro

Universal Literacy: The Digital Age Engages the Learning Brain
Dom Massaro
University of California, Santa Cruz
http://mambo.ucsc.edu/dwm.html
Learning and the Brain breakout session (PM) - February 17, 2011

Late Intervention
Multi-sensory Pattern Recognition = Speech
Perceiving Talking Faces: Value of the Face importance in vocal recognition


Baldi - See What I'm Saying
(http://mambo.ucsc.edu/psl/svs.mpg)


Vocabulary Knowledge is important to understand what we are teaching. Baldi was developed to help teach vocabulary.

Used to teach students that are hard of hearing to learn vocabulary successfully because he shows face movements, not just hearing a voice. The articulation is important.
Early Intervention:

Cost of illiteracy is $240 Billion because 75% people on welfare don't know how to read.

Goal is to have universal literacy at an affordable cost.
Theory that Reading can be learned just as naturally as speech. The current dogma is that speech is naturally learned and reading is learned artificially.

Critical Periods:
Auditory System
Visual System
Language System(s) (Speech, Sign, Reading)

What's Needed for Literacy? Written Language (See Things, Signal analysis, learn categories)

Have words projected as the caregiver speaks (incorporating a virtual learning environment) similar to closed captioning on TV. So that reading becomes natural from an early age.

Funding for early childhood literacy would help offset the literacy deficit.

Learning and the Brain Conference 2011: James Paul Gee

Keynote#3 - Language and Learning: From the Age of Literacy to the Digital Age
James Paul Gee, PhD
Learning and the Brain Conference 2011
San Francisco, CA


Next book to be released soon: Language and Learning in the Digital Age on Amazon

Also author of Good Video Games and Good Learning (2007) and a few more: List on Amazon

Good learning and teaching consists of the following:

• Emotion
• Goals
• Reflection on Action
• Copious Feedback
• Cognitive Load
• Interactive - Inside and Outside
• Experiences

Video Games are very good teaching/learning tools because they can incorporate all of these things.

Good teachers design good opportunities for learning and allow for social interaction. This is a well designed activity or program.

Language is what we learn first - being able to cope what the language is going to be to learn in a formal educative setting.

Humans learn from experience. To learn the language necessary for learning, they need to learn it from experience.

Video games allow images and experiences to be connected to language and makes it memorable. It puts words into action.

YuGiOh (Card and Video Game) - It teaches language that is highly technical because each word is connected to an image, action or dialogue.

Learning and video games:

• Problem solving
• Clear Goals
• Copious Feedback
• Well Designed Experience
• Mentoring In game and in Meta-Game
• Performance Before Competence
• Failure
• Well-Ordered problems
• Cycle of Expertise
• SMART tools

Teaching through problems lets people to be good at what you are teaching because they work on all the skills necessary to solve the problem.

It has got to be challenging but doable.

Assessment: integrate learning and assessment, copious information, multiple variables, growth across time, trajectories across time, preparation for future learning, informative=evaluative

Gamers purposely submit their data to compare themselves to other gamers. A very complex form of assessment because it is multi variable.

Learning and the Brain Conference 2011 - Dr.Gary Small

Dr. Gary Small, MD
Director, UCLA Center on Aging
Cornell Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior
Co-Author of iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind

Keynote- iBrain Technological Alteration of the Student Mind
Learning and the Brain Conference
San Francisco, CA
February 17, 2011



Relationship with Technology:

• It's Personal
• Let's do an experiment
• Turn on your cell phone

When you turn it on, you feel connected and excited to find out what is going on. Now swap with a stranger. You are likely feeling anxious right now.

We need to find time to disconnect.

Network Organization - Specialized Brain
Perception of Image or sensation. Intense emotional reaction, connection or memory.

Our brains our very plastic. They are very much like a computer.Our brains have neural circuits/synapses that will strengthen as we use them.

Malleable Young Brains

When you are young, learning is fast (language and instruments)

Our brains adapt based on the environment we live in.

Is the environment really changing. Young people between age 8 and 18 total of how much tech time each day - 11.5 hours. A lot of this time is multi-tasking.

Digital Natives:
Born into technology.
24/7 use and access
Instant gratification - wants the newest technology as soon as it is developed.
More technology, less direct, face-to-face social interaction

Brains still developing
Empathy, complex reasoning skills

Technology and Addiction- When does it become a problem?
Email follows an exercise in operand conditioning. You keep checking and checking in order to get that one "happy face" email in amidst all the spam.

Does Technology Affect Face-to-Face Social Skills?
Study of 197 students, aged 17-23 years.
One study suggests that playing games, removes the ability to recognize face expression.

Everyone loves to be connected and kids who text feel the connection.

Learning to listen and maintain eye contact.
Usually the conversation is back and forth so it is hard for the listener not to respond.

Technology and Attention Deficit

Computer use is associated with ADHD in elementary school children. Some pediatricians have recommended that very young children not have access to technology.

Is Technology making us Less Productive? Search engines, social networking, etc.

Components of creativity:

Predictors of creativity
Tendency to be open to new ideas

Positive and a Negative
Pros:
improved reaction time
instantaneous access to information and communication

collaboration, online discussion

cons: disconnected and interact in person less

Learn technology later in life
older brains may be slower
resistance to innovation

Do you Remember?
Colour TV
first mobile phones
typewriters

Use of computer technology according to age:

Less than a third of 75 year olds use technology

Is Google Making us "Stoopid"?
Study comparing those over 60 who were Tech Savvy and those who had never searched online

When the Internet savvy people searched online, use all parts of their brain. Their brains are more active.

Healthy Lifestyle Strategies Associated with a Lower risk for Dementia

You can train the brain to remember things better using a healthy lifestyle program.

You see the big picture more quickly and have the ability to solve problems.

Look - SNAP - CONNECT
Activity observe what you want to learn, Take a mental picture of it and make a connection

Video - WHoDUNIT? Did you notice the 21 changes?


It is easy to miss details - you can train the brain to be more perceptive to remember things because you make visual connections to help us remember.

Technology can Train our Brains
-surgeons who play video games make fewer errors because you can develop better peripheral vision and better motor skills

The Future Brain
Computer Interface Technology
Thoughts will be wirelessly transmitted to other devices.

Is Search the end of Memory or is it the opportunity for Collective Wisdom?

Action items:
Reach consensus on nature and extent of problems
Be aware of multitasking and make time offline
Twitter: @DrGarySmall
www.DrGarySmall.com
www.aging.ucla.edu

iBrain: Surviving the technological alteration of the modern mind