Parent Engagement

I was encouraged by the participation in our last parent meeting. We discussed what we can do to promote our school and to live up to our vision of learning. I did not get a chance to demonstrate strategies learned in the classroom, but I was able to show a couple of videos. The first one showed a vision of K-12 students today, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8 and the other demonstrated an introduction to project based learning, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFySmS9_y_0 Both videos generated questions and discussion.

Today, I had a conversation with Bill Hoppins, a coordinator for a school leadership course I am taking. We also talked about parent engagement. I was asked what percentage of our parents are engaged and what does that engagement look like.

I was unable to give Bill a percentage, so we discussed how I could find out. We developed a rubric together of that the following criteria would be important to measure: support in the way of getting kids to school and doing work with them at home or at school, communication between home and school either face to face, phone calls, or notes in the agenda; and being an informed parent. We decided that we would use the measures we use in our outcomes based reporting with 4 being excellent, 3 being proficient, 2 being basic, and 1 being insufficient. Then I would give the rubric to each of the teachers and they would score the parents of their students. I could then take the 4s and 3s and count that as engagement. I would be able to come up with a percentage of parents that are engaged in their child's learning.

We could discuss how we could target those that fell short of the standard to increase parent engagement. All in all this was a very productive meeting. I will take this rubric to my next PLC and get my teachers to give me a percentage. We will discuss how we can make improvements in the new year.

This is the first time I've been able to see a connection between the data that we could collect and how we could use that data to improve a situation with relative ease. Before now, I've always thought this process to be quite complicated. Thank you, Bill for helping me see this in a simpler, more manageable way. :-)

What are you teaching our kids?

This Wednesday, I have invited parents to come and take part in a presentation entitled, "What are you teaching our kids? And Why?" I'm still debating as to how to introduce the topic.

I would like to let parents know that, as teachers, we are also learning how to motivate, increase achievement, and teach students to better apply and retain what they do learn.

We are teaching the students to be independent, critical thinkers who can confidently communicate and collaborate with each other. We are also teaching them to be ethical and moral citizens who will take care of the world we live in.

I'm hoping to show the parents some strategies I use in the classroom and with the teachers to illustrate how we are teaching their kids and in the process demonstrate the 'why' we are doing it.

If anyone out there has some ideas, feel free to send them my way. And stay tuned for a report on how it went.

Personal Learning Networks

In Richardson & Mancabelli's Personal Learning Networks 2011, we are being told that we need to change our way of looking at learning and teaching. Because our schools have opened up to the world through networks, "we now have two billion potential teachers, and soon, the sum of human knowledge will be at our fingertips." We can try to stem the tide by limiting our students' access to that world, but if we put a barrier in front of them, they will find a way around it. That characteristic of human nature has not changed.

The more I read and the more I study how the world is changing, the more I realize I know very little. I certainly do not feel technologically literate. So, what am I going to do about it? In the old adage, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em", I feel I must create my own personal learning network.

It is time to reach out beyond the walls of my school, my district to connect with other teachers and learners. It is important to be in control of my own learning. I don't think it will be easy. How do I actually connect with people that have the same learning goals as I do?

First, I believe that I need to know myself and what my learning goals actually are. It is also critical that I am confident in the principles I base my daily work in. If I cannot measure what I find out in the world against a vision of who I am or aspire to be, the choices become much more difficult. I have some ideas of how I want to go about this and what connections I would actually like to make.

Secondly, I need to know more about how to navigate the networks, how to establish a space of my own. I think this blog is a good start. I also have been reading Will Richardson's Wikis, Blogs, and Podcasts and Personal Learning Networks by Richardson and Mancabelli. I've also been following a few blogs and doing a little exploring.

Finally, it is a matter of just getting out there.

Learn by doing, right?

Learning using the Internet

I just watched a video posted on the Khan Academy website, a tribute to their free education using video. A man who never really succeeded in anything in high school, took a music degree because he felt he wasn't any good at anything else, went back to university after using the Khan Academy videos and after his first year in electrical engineering, is earning a 4.0 average, getting perfect scores on his exams. He says that the main reason for his achievement is that he could watch the videos 30 or 40 times. He says that he doesn't know of any teacher that would sit down beside him and explain the same concept that many times without becoming judgemental about his ability as a student.

Success story? This man says that the true impact of the Khan Academy's work in his life will be seen over the next 30 or 40 years.

So, I went to the Khan Academy's website after seeing a link on the Will Richardson blog and checked it out. Yes, it is free. The videos (ones I saw) were high quality. I checked out who was behind the website and who is on the team: high quality learned people with various degrees from recognized institutes and various life experiences. These were just the paid people. There are many others who volunteer as coaches, mentors, and contributors.

The set up allows participants to register as students, teachers or coaches, or principals of schools or other learning institutions as pilot projects. The learning is self-paced and if you need incentives, you can earn badges of learning, some are easy to get and others are very rare and involve copious amounts of work and research.

I checked out who could register and what the cost was: respectively, anyone and at no cost. If you are 13 years of age or older you can register yourself through Google or Facebook. If you are under 13, you need your parents to set up accounts for you.

After checking out this web site, I have so many questions. What implications does this have for our students? Can our students be presented with learning in this way as a differentiated mode of learning in our own schools? What kind of learning is this exactly? Could a 13 year old student get a degree in Mathematics through Khan academy? Are there other web sites like this? Should we be advocating our students to get on the Internet and learn what they need to know through organizations like this?