Standardized Testing at AHS
We are also looking at moving to a more appropriate testing tool -- The CTP IV. This test is used by most independent schools in the country, is constructed by the folks who create the SSAT (the standard admissions test given by private schools) and is similar in format, thereby giving our students some familiarity and practice with that kind of test. Finally, the CTP IV is deigned specifically for high achieving students and will therefore give us a much better picture of where our students stand. You can learn more about the CTP by visiting their website.
As always let me know if you have any questions.
SUMMER READING FOR PARENTS
I am asking parents to participate in their own summer reading assignment this year. Faculty will be reading the recently published book, Talking Back to Facebook. The faculty and I will be discussing the book during our August faculty meetings. We would then like to engage in a discussion with parents about the book shortly after the school year begins.
I hope most of you will take the time to read the book and join us for our discussions in the Fall.
Talking Back to Facebook, is written by Jim Steyer, the founder and CEO of Common Sense Media (a key resource for parents that, on its website under the “Reviews & Advice” tab, offers kid-friendly and parent-helpful reviews and “grades” for appropriateness for children on TV series, films, music lyrics, apps, websites, and online games.)
Steyer’s book documents how children in “the vast, uncontrolled social experiment” of the Internet have become immersed in a powerfully attractive and in many ways useful technology that has potential for both great benefit and great harm, with “dramatic implications for our notions of childhood, learning, and human relationships.” As the book documents, by the time children are two, 90 percent “have an online history,” and many are taking pictures and watching cartoons on their parents’ smartphones. For pre-teens and teens, Facebook, in particular, provides a candy store of what kids seek most at that age: connectedness with other kids, and a platform for experimentation with trying on new “identities” that they choose.
Among the downsides, of course, are the dangers on many levels, including using the displaced connectedness as a substitute for real, face-to-face relationships, or worse, as a weapon to bully anonymously others or “settle scores,” facilitated by teen-popular apps like “Honesty Box” and “Compare People.” With Facebook’s population approaching 1 billion (and its recent high-profile IPO release), we’re not going to see either it, or sites like it, go away any time soon.
So what’s a parent to do? That book’s “this is real for me since I have a household of teens” approach Jim Steyer takes is balanced by his scholarship (a professor at Stanford lecturing on civil rights, civil liberties, and children’s issues). The book’s discussions on the critical topics of relationships (connection, intimacy, and self-image), privacy, and perils are invaluable for just the conversations teachers and parents need to have with our kids and students and each other. And the Appendix’s "Discussion Questions for Teachers and Parents" make preparing for those “book club” discussions a slam dunk.
Educational Directions
Harvard and M.I.T. Team Up to Offer Free Online Courses
By TAMAR LEWIN
The New York Times
Published: May 2, 2012
In what is shaping up as an academic Battle of the Titans — one that offers vast new learning opportunities for students around the world — Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Wednesday announced a new nonprofit partnership, known as edX, to offer free online courses from both universities.
Harvard’s involvement follows M.I.T.’s announcement in December that it was starting an open online learning project, MITx. Its first course, Circuits and Electronics, began in March, enrolling about 120,000 students, some 10,000 of whom made it through the recent midterm exam. Those who complete the course will get a certificate of mastery and a grade, but no official credit. Similarly, edX courses will offer a certificate but not credit.
But Harvard and M.I.T. have a rival — they are not the only elite universities planning to offer free massively open online courses, or MOOCs, as they are known. This month, Stanford, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan announced their partnership with a new commercial company, Coursera, with $16 million in venture capital.
Meanwhile, Sebastian Thrun, the Stanford professor who made headlines last fall when 160,000 students signed up for his Artificial Intelligence course, has attracted more than 200,000 students to the six courses offered at his new company, Udacity.
The technology for online education, with video lesson segments, embedded quizzes, immediate feedback and student-paced learning, is evolving so quickly that those in the new ventures say the offerings are still experimental.
“My guess is that what we end up doing five years from now will look very different from what we do now,” said Provost Alan M. Garber of Harvard, who will be in charge of the university’s involvement.
EdX, which is expected to offer its first five courses this fall, will be overseen by a nonprofit organization governed equally by the two universities, each of which has committed $30 million to the project. The first president of edX will be Anant Agarwal, director of M.I.T.’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, who has led the development of the MITx platform. At Harvard, Dr. Garber will direct the effort, with Michael D. Smith, dean of the faculty of arts and sciences, working with faculty members to develop and deliver courses. Eventually, they said, other universities will join them in offering courses on the platform.
M.I.T. and Harvard officials said they would use the new online platform not just to build a global community of online learners, but also to research teaching methods and technologies.
Education experts say that while the new online classes offer opportunities for students and researchers, they pose some threat to low-ranked colleges.
“Projects like this can impact lives around the world, for the next billion students from China and India,” said George Siemens, a MOOC pioneer who teaches at Athabasca University, a publicly supported online Canadian university. “But if I were president of a mid-tier university, I would be looking over my shoulder very nervously right now, because if a leading university offers a free circuits course, it becomes a real question whether other universities need to develop a circuits course.”
The edX project will include not only engineering courses, in which computer grading is relatively simple, but also humanities courses, in which essays might be graded through crowd-sourcing, or assessed with natural-language software. Coursera will also offer free humanities courses in which grading will be done by peers.
In some ways, the new partnerships reprise the failed online education ventures of a decade ago. Columbia University introduced Fathom, a 2001 commercial venture that involved the University of Chicago, the University of Michigan and others. It lost money and folded in 2003. Yale, Princeton and Stanford collaborated on AllLearn, a nonprofit effort that collapsed in 2006.
Many education experts are more hopeful about the new enterprises.
“Online education is here to stay, and it’s only going to get better,” said Lawrence S. Bacow, a past president of Tufts who is a member of the Harvard Corporation. Dr. Bacow, co-author of a new report on online learning, said it remained unclear how traditional universities would integrate the new technologies.
“What faculty don’t want to do is just take something off the shelf that’s somebody else’s and teach it, any more than they would take a textbook, start on Page 1, and end with the last chapter,” he said. “What’s still missing is an online platform that gives faculty the capacity to customize the content of their own highly interactive courses.”
AHS Director of Finance
Elizabeth is extraordinarily suited to this position as you can see from her letter and resume [ CLICK HERE ]. Elizabeth will be the go to person for all of your financial issues at the school. I am sure you will all take a moment when you are at school to help make her feel welcome. She will take up temporary quarters in the small library located on the lower school wing.
Darcie will be taking on new responsibilities as the Administrative Assistant to both Marjorie and Elizabeth.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
JUNIOR KINDERGARTEN
Middle School Latin/Classics
Anne LaMonica, our Middle School Latin/Classics teacher, will be on maternity leave through the rest of this year.
Because Anne is passionate about her teaching and committed to her students, she has graciously offered to continue teaching her classes through the use of various technologies. We see this as an excellent opportunity to advance our students’ understanding of technology as a learning tool and not simply as an instrument for gaming and social interaction. Furthermore, it gives our students a leg up on one of the Massachusetts state educational technology standards: Complete at least one online credit or non-credit course or tutorial; discuss the benefits and disadvantages of this method of learning.
The students will continue to meet as a class in the computer lab. They will supervised (at the moment by Mr. Haller) who will not be teaching the subject matter but who will be assisting students with the technology. The students will be interacting regularly with Mrs. LaMonica through a technology known as Voicethread as well as through her class website and the interactive materials provided by the textbook publisher.
Anne’s description of how the class will work is appended below.
NOTE WELL: We have no intention of transforming ourselves into a virtual school. This is not an environment that would work for every class. However, we do believe this may be a platform that offers some potential in some areas of enrichment that lie beyond our core disciplines. Furthermore, I am not sure we are fully “in the game,” compared to our independent school colleagues, as far as technology integration goes. Thus, my recent invitation (see earlier post) for parents to join a committee that will explore the role of technology at AHS in the years to come.
As always, please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions.
Here is Anne’s description:
Students will use Voicethread.com, an on-line multi-media educational discussion platform. They will also use an on-line interactive edition of their current text books (the whole book is accessible with better illustrations) on PearsonSuccessNet which includes additional practice exercises and audio clips for vocabulary and reading. Furthermore they will use Quia.com, a place to submit their written assignments and quizzes, and to review grammar and vocabulary.
On Voicethread.com, I will present topics from their texts in a discussion based format. I will start the discussion by asking a series of questions with appropriate visual aides (review sheets, study guides, whiteboard drawings). Students will pause the recording and post a comment, either by text or audio-recording. I will then post my replies and clear up any confusion with a short lecture that summarizes the results of the discussion (how to decline a noun, how to conjugate a verb). All students will be able to answer questions on their "own" time. I will also choose particular students to answer questions. I had 66 replies to one recording from the scholars...that's almost 3 comments per person for a thread that was originally 5-10 minutes in length. All threads are private to our group, and our students are unable to communicate with any other users on Voicethread outside of our group.
5th grade will read Famous Men of Ancient Rome and begin a timeline on Voicethread.
The 6th and 7th grade will also upload their long-term project, Roma Reviva, onto Voicethread.
The 7th grade will be writing a short play in Latin about the characters in our textbook, and they will present this on Voicethread-- they may upload video and pictures, which they may even doodle over for special effects.
8th grade will complete a presentation on Roman Britain.
If students have ipads, iphones, or ipods, there is an app that will allow them to upload/view comments/media.
PearsonSuccessNet will give students access to their textbook from any location with WiFi. They will read and complete exercises from the textbook and submit them for evaluation. They may ask questions via gmailchat, email, or preferably Voicethread. PearsonSuccessNet will have an improved application for ipads released soon.
Finally, students will eventually submit all work, one chapter at a time, on Quia.com. They may also complete additional practice exercises there and at tabney.com.
Most students in 7th and 8th grade work on Latin at their own pace, so this will give them the flexibility they need and more individualized learning than a traditional 25 minute class. I will be posting several threads over the weekend for the students that cover the topics in Ecce. I hope to add at least 20-25 threads by Sunday. This week was more or less a trial week.
We will also record back and forth live in real time periodically. I also thought about making a thread for each student for 1-1 interaction only. We can skype/gchat too. I have a webcam, so the students can see me. Chat could be held in my classroom on the bigger screen. Additionally they can even use the phone in my classroom and call my Google Voice # to have 1-1 conversations or speaker phone for the group. We can set up specific days to do this.
Educational Technology at AHS: Planning for the Future
This link will take you to the NAIS Technology Planning Guide which will give you some idea of the scope and nature of the work.
I am very much looking forward to having some of you join us in this critical planning process. Please get in touch if you are interested in participating or if you have any questions.
Why Champion Social and Emotional Learning?: Because It Helps Students Build Character
We have begun some initial research into developing a curriculum around health and social/emotional learning. We are in the very early stages of this research. Any parent interested in joining us in this project is warmly encouraged to contact me.
Here's some background from Edutopia:
It's not enough to simply fill students' brains with facts. A successful education demands that their character be developed as well. That's where social and emotional learning comes in. SEL is the process of helping students develops the skills to manage their emotions, resolve conflict nonviolently, and make responsible decisions.
Although family, community, and society are significant factors in fostering emotional intelligence and character development, educators must create a safe, supportive learning environment and integrate SEL into the curriculum.
Research shows that promoting social and emotional skills leads to reduced violence and aggression among children, higher academic achievement, and an improved ability to function in schools and in the workplace. Students who demonstrate respect for others and practice positive interactions, and whose respectful attitudes and productive communication skills are acknowledged and rewarded, are more likely to continue to demonstrate such behavior. Students who feel secure and respected can better apply themselves to learning. Students who are encouraged to practice the Golden Rule find it easier to thrive in educational environments and in the wider world.
In SEL, educators (and other students) coach children in conflict resolution and model how to negotiate, how to discuss differences in opinion without resorting to personal attacks, and how to accept others when their attitudes, beliefs, and values differ from one's own. SEL strives to educate children about the effects of harassment and bullying based on social standing, ethnic origin, or sexual orientation.
Teachers must lay the groundwork for successful SEL by establishing an environment of trust and respect in the classroom. Empathy is key. Before children can be expected to unite to achieve academic goals, they must be taught how to work together, and so it provides them with strategies and tools for cooperative learning.
You can check out Edutopia's video by clicking Here
On the Road to Becoming A 21st Century School
Sustainability: Creating 21st Century Sustainable Schools
NAIS (National Association of Independent Schools) believes that in order to survive and thrive in the 21st Century, schools should address sustainability on five dimensions.
Financial Sustainability: becoming more efficient and less costly
Environmental Sustainability: incorporating sustainability practices into teaching and practice; becoming more green and less wasteful
Global Sustainability: becoming more networked internationally and less parochial in outlook
Programmatic Sustainability: becoming more focused on the skills and values that the marketplace of the 21st Century will seek and reward and less narrowly isolated in a traditional disciplines approach to teaching and learning
Demographic Sustainability: becoming more inclusive and representative of the school-age population and less unapproachable financially and socially
NAIS Schools of the Future Initiative
In 2007, NAIS launched the Schools of the Future initiative to establish NAIS as the forum for conversations about schools of the future. In support of this goal, NAIS continues to:
- Promote initiatives in equity and justice, global perspectives, and educational technology so that these elements have an even greater profile in schools of the future.
- Research new approaches and develop capacity to access best thinking and practices.
- Project and predict new ways of teaching and learning.
- Capitalize on new technology for teaching, learning, and communicating in the digital commons.
- Seek out partnerships for experimentation in the arena of the schools of the future.
The Schools of the Future initiative's focus is on three of the five sustainability areas: global, environmental and programmatic.
Click here to read Making The Case for Schools of the Future
.
Project-Based Learning
Why Teach with Project-Based Learning?: Providing Students With a Well-Rounded Classroom Experience
Project-based learning helps students apply what they learn to real-life experiences and provides an all-around enriching education.
From Edutopia
For more detail and video examples visit Edutopia Project Learning
Because project-based learning is filled with active and engaged learning, it inspires students to obtain a deeper knowledge of the subjects they're studying. Research also indicates that students are more likely to retain the knowledge gained through this approach far more readily than through traditional textbook-centered learning. In addition, students develop confidence and self-direction as they move through both team-based and independent work.
In the process of completing their projects, students also hone their organizational and research skills, develop better communication with their peers and adults, and often work within their community while seeing the positive effect of their work.
Because students are evaluated on the basis of their projects, rather than on the comparatively narrow rubrics defined by exams, essays, and written reports, assessment of project-based work is often more meaningful to them. They quickly see how academic work can connect to real-life issues -- and may even be inspired to pursue a career or engage in activism that relates to the project they developed.
Students also thrive on the greater flexibility of project learning. In addition to participating in traditional assessment, they might be evaluated on presentations to a community audience they have assiduously prepared for, informative tours of a local historical site based on their recently acquired expertise, or screening of a scripted film they have painstakingly produced.
Project learning is also an effective way to integrate technology into the curriculum. A typical project can easily accommodate computers and the Internet, as well as interactive whiteboards, global-positioning-system (GPS) devices, digital still cameras, video cameras, and associated editing equipment.
Adopting a project-learning approach in your classroom or school can invigorate your learning environment, energizing the curriculum with a real-world relevance and sparking students' desire to explore, investigate, and understand their world.