#Socialnomics 2014 by Erik Qualman

By now you've all seen the video that discusses how quickly the world has changed. Here is an updated version for your enjoyment.

Podcast: Themes of Romeo & Juliet

Check this out. One of our 8th Graders completed this podcast with the iMovie app ($4) on her iPad:
 

How Are Students Using Their Smartphones

I found another infographic I thought you might like on how students are using their smartphones. Some warnings on this particular study:

1. It was administered by STUDYBLUE, a mobile and online study service, so there is some self-interest involved. 
2. Despite #1, they did collect data from over a million users of their app and website. 
3. There is still a lot of "other" things students are doing with their Smartphones during the study time, but an interesting conclusion that studying is happening more, overall with mobile technology. 

An Hour in the Life of the Middle School

So I've started tweeting this year to showcase all the incredible teaching and learning that is happening at Canterbury School. Each day I try to get into classrooms and find some cool piece of education that is happening and do a quick tweet about it. I've found this to be an incredible way to not only to get into a bunch of classrooms, but also to document in real time the learning of our students. I primarily tweet pictures which has meant I can show objective benchmarks of what is happening in the middle school. Plus, people love to see what we're up to. 

This morning, I was so proud of the work going on in Armfield that I sent out a flurry of tweets to showcase the kind of 21st century teaching and learning our middle vision demands. You can follow me on Twitter @MSDirectorSkeen. Below is the series of tweets from this morning. Enjoy!

David Skeen ‏@MSDirectorSkeen15m

5th grade read aloud of Holes by Louis Sachar. Critical piece of reading fluency. pic.twitter.com/a09q6CouOB

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David Skeen ‏@MSDirectorSkeen20m

Factor games in 5th grade math. Classic. pic.twitter.com/le7rh4HWh4

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David Skeen ‏@MSDirectorSkeen18m

Precision bridge building in 8th grade. The design process at work. No extraneous chatter. All business! pic.twitter.com/LdhxYbAECQ

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David Skeen ‏@MSDirectorSkeen17m

Pretty cool move: the tablet as document camera with a $10 USB cord to projector. pic.twitter.com/2lbZWcimDN

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David Skeen ‏@MSDirectorSkeen14m

Here is a bridge in progress. Notice the pins as forms for glue drying on bridge spans. pic.twitter.com/j5xxOImJON

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David Skeen ‏@MSDirectorSkeen10m

Character studies for Wonder in 7th grade on Pic Collage app. Student found this-student engagement at its finest. pic.twitter.com/SxxTgdZOA0

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David Skeen ‏@MSDirectorSkeen9m

"Hey, can I get that picture from you?" Sure, I'll 'beam' it to you...sweet! pic.twitter.com/THvqZ2ziZV

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Grit: The Secret Ingredient to 21st Century Student Success

Angela Lee Duckworth discusses "grit," the determination/motivation to push through difficulty to accomplish a goal.

Student Council Elections in a Digital Age

Check out this video from one of our 7th graders:

Servant Leadership at Canterbury Kicks Off

Anne-Barton Carter

This year we have embedded Service Learning into the schedule. Anne Barton Carter, formerly of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, has come on to teach a class directed at middle school age children.

Inherent in this is the on-going task of identifying our own God-given gifts through spiritual practice and discernment (the connection to theology and faith explored with Fr. Finnin) and employing those gifts in service to the world (the connection to the skills and understandings developed in Leadership with Tricia Fisher, our point person on leadership at Canterbury). This class is active, hands-on learning that encourages both the exploration of different spiritual practices and the application of personal gifts and call to challenges in our community (the service learning projects).  In part, we will be using the principles of and adapting materials from the Servant Leadership School.

Anne-Barton has organized a series of speakers at our Middle School Chapels (Phillips Chapel, 8:10am - 8:35am) to kick off the work of our students. Our students will be developing their own service projects around the work that these four speakers do with their respective institutions. It is exciting to see the students take on such important work with such unreserved enthusiasm. Here is the schedule for Servant Leadership Speaker Series in the Middle School:

October 2 

Don Milholin

Founder and Executive Director of the Out of the Garden Project 

The Out of the Garden Project addresses food insecurity/hunger primarily through Guilford County elementary schools.  Our 8th grade Servant Leadership group is addressing hunger and food insecurity in a variety of ways.

October 16 

Rev. David Fraccaro

Executive Director of Faith Action International House 

Faith Action International House is a non-profit which addresses the needs of immigrants and refugees in our community.  Our 7th grade Servant Leadership group will be partnering with McNair Elementary ESL 1st grade students.

October 30 

Liz Seymour

Executive Director of the Interactive Resource Center 

The Interactive Resource Center offers a host of day services to the homeless in Greensboro. Our 6th grade Servant Leadership group will be addressing homelessness and visiting the IRC.

November 13

Rev. Buch Cochran

Executive Director of PeaceHaven Farm

PeaceHaven Farm is a soon-to-be residential sustainable farm project designed to provide meaningful work and supportive group housing for adults with disabilities.  Our 5th graders are investigating service learning projects with those who have different abilities.

Digital Citizenship: What To Do With A Picture

A great infographic from CommonSenseMedia.org

Resilience: How Skateboarding Can Teach Us How to Learn

I found this video on Twitter and thought it was a great way to think about how important resilience is to learning. Struggle and failure are GOOD things!

Hackschooling

I found this video of a 13 year old named Logan LaPlante which outlines his approach to his own education. He bases his approach to schooling on his pursuit of happiness, which, as he outlines, needs to fill eight buckets*:

1. Recreation
2. Time in Nature
3. Religion/Spiritual
4. Diet & Nutrition
5. Exercise
6. Stress Management & Relaxation
7. Service & Contribution
8. Relationships

The best part of this talk is that without knowing it, Logan has made the case simultaneously for The Big Shift and the way Canterbury provides a whole child education. Check it out:

*"Lifestyle and Mental Health" by Dr. Roger Walsh

Future of Learning?

I Mean...This is What it is All About

Creativity, problem-solving, ingenuity, entrepreneurship - these are all 21st century skills we hope to enable in our students. In this video I found on Daniel Pink's blog, it is all there and more - in Caine, a 9 year old boy in East LA.

Check it out: Caine's Arcade

Game Changer

www.apple.com

Not only is Apple coming out with textbooks, but now they have an App for the mac which will let us create our own - for free.

iBooks Author for the Mac

Big Ideas

One of the things that educators have been talking about for some time is how creative thinking can change the way we teach and learn. Engaging the right side of the brain in ways that allow us to think outside of the box as we develop lessons and units for our students.

I found this conference on the web and thought it hit exactly what we're trying to do when we put these ideas into action. The Big Ideas Fest is a place where teachers can meet and greet with like-minded educators and practice the kind of thinking that can foster Big Ideas from our students.

Check it out

Big Ideas Fest

The iPad Creeps In...

John Schoultz came into my office this morning and told me to check out the science room "right now." Usually this is not a good sign, so I took a deep breath, a long swig of coffee and headed out to the science room and, in my mind, a certain downturn in my holiday cheer.

What I found was a section of 7th graders - almost all on their iPads - reading Alice in Wonderland in preparation for their Literature test. We had just finished training the students on the use of the e-reader function in iBooks and many were taking advantage of the resource.

So, I went from preparing to be the Grinch to feeling like Jimmy Stewart running through the streets of Bedford Falls wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. Can you tell I'm excited about the possibilities of the iPad in the classroom?

iPad Pilot Program 2012

We are excited to announce an iPad Pilot Program in the 7th grade beginning in the new calendar year. Students will be utilizing the iPads in a comprehensive way. Our ultimate goal in this experiment is to gather enough information to weigh the benefits of a one-to-one tablet model in our 7th and 8th grades. This program will provide us with the data to make an informed decision in the best interest of our students. Check out a summary of the program at the link below:


iPad Pilot Summary

Just Wiki It

Karen Niegelsky, our 6th grade Humanities and 8th grade Composition teacher, has developed an intriguing 21st Century unit based around the principles of Heidi Hayes-Jacobs' Innovators' Challenge. She describes it below:

Students are usually cautioned about using Wikipedia as a source for academic papers, but when doing “real world” research, many of us head to this popular website to find information to everyday questions. Rather than simply dismissing it as an unreliable resource for “real” research, Canterbury eighth graders will spend the second trimester exploring its virtues and producing their own contributions to an actual Wikipedia article.

Each eighth grader will choose a topic to research thoroughly and then produce a Wikipedia-style article that is fluent, reliable, and non-biased. In completing this project, students will gain experience in writing for a real audience and in dealing with criticism and suggestions that may come from readers other than fellow students or their teachers.  Finally, they will get the thrill of seeing their work online. (Their privacy is protected; Wikipedia authors are anonymous.)

Students should be able to use much of their work to meet the requirements of the Canterbury portfolio project including

·  Develop a fundamental understanding of emerging ethical issues and dilemmas regarding new media and technologies.

·  Respond to an experience of failure in a way that acknowledges that innovation involves small successes and frequent mistakes.

What is the Purpose of School? - Your Chance to Weigh In

I found this project via Karl Fisch's blog. A couple of grad students at Harvard have developed this project and are looking for global responses to the question, "What is the purpose of school?" While it may seem like a straightforward question, I'm sure (as Karl is) that the guys will get some great responses. Take a look at the site and please contribute!

Elective Choices: Second Trimester

electiveselection.com

As you might remember, we began a new Electives Program this year based on three tracks: The Arts, A 21st Century World, and Leadership. We have just completed our first trimester classes and it is time to enroll in our second trimester classes.

Today we will have our teachers explain what it is that they will be offering in their classes, and our 7th and 8th grade students will receive the Selection Sheet which is linked below to take home and make their choices. Take a moment and check out what it is we have to offer students.

Electives Description 2011: Second Trimester

Leadership: Traits and Skills

dvdtrainingvideo.com

As part of the Action in Leadership elective that Tricia Fisher teaches, I have been able to work with her students on the explicit instruction on leadership. We are nearing the end of our time together and the group has taken on a number of leadership tasks around campus. They have had to lead peers and younger students.

With this experience behind them, I challenge them to identify traits and skills that leaders need to be successful. Here is what they came up with:

Traits

• Calmness
• Engagement
• Understanding
• Honesty
• Integrity

Skills

• Identify strengths & weaknesses in the group
• Give precise encouragement
• Read people's characteristics
• Persuading through framing the task
• Delegate
• Identify the early adopters
• Communication - public speaking and honest communication