The Visual and Active Method (any comments?)

Features of the Visual and Active
Portfolio Method – Steve McCrea

VisualAndActive.com

I came to know that “there is another way” after trying to teach 6 classes of 20 kids, 45 minutes per class. The focus was on presenting the material efficiently and effectively. The Madeleine Hunter method of teaching is the standard of “good teaching.”

The research by Howard Gardner makes it clear that the Hunter method is effective in ensuring that more than one teaching method is used and more than one learning style is given a chance to “latch onto” the material.

However, most people who study Gardner have not gone one step farther. They didn’t read pages 161 and following about how to evaluate the learning.

Even we who have taking the RSA course for CELTA (teaching English to Adults) have a false sense of knowing what to do next after presenting the material of the day. We know we have to check understanding and then move on to connect the material to real examples in English for practice. The effort is designed to ensure that materials are presented to a variety of learning styles.

However, let’s take a moment to breathe and reflect on the purpose of the language school (and on any class): it is not to present an effective curriculum. The purpose of a school is to meet the needs of each individual student. The idea expressed by Gardner and put into action by Dennis Littky is to ensure that teaching changes to meet the needs of the individual student. The steps include:

Adding an element of relationship.
(mobile phone and email contacts, invitations to lunch or snacks outside the classroom)

Building the curriculum from relevance . (What does the student want to know or learn?)

Creating opportunities to learn through action, through performances of understanding and mentoring.

Evaluation is not through written tests but through recorded exhibition so that the student has to feel and see the gaps and know where the next step is. Through feedback from the teacher and (if the student isn’t shy) from the audience (and self evaluation after looking at the video), the student then knows the next layer of learning that needs to take place.

Independent Work Time takes up a larger part of the class schedule. Building a portfolio is more important than running through a check list of grammar and vocabulary (listen, speak, write, read). The expectations of the students are changed, because most people who go to Littky’s school have to be persuaded to see that studying only what you want to study will lead to a rigorous result.

How can effective teaching and “Teaching for Understanding” (the code phrase developed by Lois Hetland, Ed.D, a disciple of Howard Gardner) be accepted by students who have come to expect “traditional classrooms”?

Samples of a portfolio created by other students and standard “packages” showing what students have produced is a good example. Performances of Understanding can be produced at lower levels of proficiency, but this method is more obvious at advanced intermediate.

EVERY PART OF THE CLASS CAN BE VIDEOTAPED for later review (since some students find it difficult to take notes and pay attention). The videos can be converted to a video on CD at a rate of about 2 hours per 700 megabytes.

The key is found by making a parallel set of key standards. The Met Center, Littky’s group, does not teach Math, History, Science and English – they ask students to develop their own goals for qualitative and quantitative reasoning, empirical reasoning and communication. These areas can be supplemented with ESOL or EFL structure and the EFL teacher can restate what needs to be sought by the students. In the Visual and Active Method, the students learn skill areas or interest areas, not artificial "chapters" related to grammar and vocabulary.

(Some students will not accept this functional description of a language class, and they will need to pursue the making of a portfolio based on the structure of the textbook.)

We can see some similarities – and therefore the materials developed by Littky have some relevance to all methods of teaching. The Madeleine Hunter model remains in place (to support students who want structure) and the classes have a textbook and class time (as they do in the Littky school). The key focus is on asking the student to seek outside learning opportunities that are connected to their aspirations. An executive at a power plant in Japan should spend time touring a plant… but do more. He should sit and shadow the mentor. The chapter on Mentoring in Littky’s book shows that there is not always a burden of mentoring… there is a feeling of adding a dimension to the mentor’s job. “I get paid to show another person why I love my work.”

PORTFOLIO
The focus for teachers could be on pushing and guiding students to develop a portfolio to show that students have demonstrated or performed understanding by making presentations. The exit portfolio can be a CD with performances on video showing basic skills of pronunciation and grammar (with students teaching units to the camera). The teacher can then ask students to go out to the “real world” to video themselves in situations with shopkeepers and volunteer situations.

BAD EXAMPLE of mentoring
I was studying Spanish in a small program in Chalchihuites, Mexico near Zacatecas and the program offered an “experience in real Mexico” working side by side Mexican employees. I filed cards for 3 hours in the city hall (no interaction with the staff). After the initial hand signals I didn’t have to talk or listen for the next three hours, yet I was “immersed” in the culture of the work place.

GOOD EXAMPLE of mentoring
One of my students, Johana, said that she loves being corrected by young kids. “They tell you exactly the truth.” The EFL teacher (Mr. Mac) got her the volunteer sheet for Virginia Shuman Young Magnet school and she plans to volunteer two hours next week in a school. That’s using English in a real sense. A photo of that opportunity or a video camera on Johana can be part of her portfolio.

CLASSROOM NEEDS
Small cameras if the student doesn’t have a digital camera.
Burning software on a laptop in the school. It's best that the computer is NOT connected to the network.
Portfolio system (clear plastic sleeves with three punched holes for storage in a three ring binder) needs to be set up to engage the students.
List of potential mentoring and volunteering locations in the area of the school.

SUMMARY
Most students learn another language better in a classroom that is visual and active.
Students can be pushed to create portfolios to show their understanding. (See Gardner, Littky and Hedland)
Students can be pushed to find relationships outside the classroom to pursue interests and build their vocabulary through use in mentorships and volunteering positions.
Video equipment will allow students to bring back information that they want to practice.
Video equipment in their home allow them to practice pronunciation and listening on computers (see the series of CDs that I distribute to my students).

For more information, write to VisualAndActive@gmail.com

VisualAndActive.com

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Adding an element of relationship.
(mobile phone and email contacts, invitations to lunch or snacks outside the classroom)

Building the curriculum from relevance. (What does the student want to know or learn?)

Creating opportunities to learn through action, through performances of understanding and mentoring.

Evaluation is through recorded exhibition so that the student has to feel and see the gaps and know where the next step is.

Independent Work Time takes up a larger part of the class schedule. Building a portfolio is more important than running through a check list of grammar and vocabulary (listen, speak, write, read).

Short Quotes to Drive School Reform

What short quotes could help teachers focus on what they can do in their classrooms -- today -- to move along school reform?

The teacher of today is the GUIDE on the SIDE, not the sage on the stage.

- aphorism passed on by senior teachers

Education is NOT the filling of a pail, but rather the LIGHTING of a FIRE. -- W. B. Yeats

Most students might forget what you taught them, but they will always remember how you treated them. -- aphorism passed on by senior teachers

A big obstacle to bringing Computer Assisted instruction into the classroom is the teacher, because teachers love to perform. -- Dr. Abraham Fischler

Jack is a boy from Brooklyn who dropped out of school to avoid terminal boredom.

-- biography of an entrepreneur

I never let school get in the way of my education. -- Mark Twain

Drive out fear. -- W. Edwards Deming

Never do for a child what a child can do for himself. -- Maria Montessori

There are 2 billion children in the developing world. Instead of asking their teachers to "reinvent the wheel" every day, why not share lesson plans that work with those 59 million teachers? -- Gordon Dryden (Get his 1999 book as a digital book -- free -- thelearningweb.net)

Keep Teacher Talking Time to a minimum. -- CELTA training

The purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows. -- Dan Pink, Free Agent Nation

What other "pithy" and focused items can you quote? What short thoughts can transform a classroom? Send your suggestions to TheEbookman@gmail.com

Recommended perusing:

Danpink.com
Will Sutherland's Qualified ByExperience.com

Thomas Friedman's columns

WhatDoYaKnow.com by Dennis Yuzenas

ascd.org articles

EdReformer.com by Tom vander Ark

TheStudentisTheClass.com by Abraham S. Fischler

TheLearningWeb.net by Gordon Dryden and J. Vos

Someone to hunt down for a cup of coffee: ribbonfarms blog by vgururao@gmail.com

Or call me at +1 954 646 8246 and dictate your favorites. I'm ready.

EDD 9200 Comments about Trends CANTON (1)

Notes for discussions...

On the phone, several of us agreed that Canton likes to drop names....

... and he has decided that the future is about America. His link between "America" and "democracy" leads us to believe that no other country can protect individual freedoms or democratic political structures. His past as a consultant to companies (which he takes pleasure in listing) makes the book read like a list of powerpoint slides: here are the problems, here are possible futures, this is how we get to the future where we can shout "USA! Number one!"

Because Canton focuses so much on the USA, several of us have asked, "What is he missing?"

James Canton's book "The Extreme Future" mentions the following points

p. 104

The US will benefit from being an advocate of globalization but must continue to support innovation, global democracy and free trade.

(hmmm...Canton doesn't take time to describe the benefits ... or to describe the losses that hundreds of smaller U.S. cities have endured.

p. 345

America's top future challenges

Learn to collaborate more deeply with nations that hold different values

(Europe? Turkey? Brazil? Pakistan? China? Canton does not make it clear which countries' values differ from the US)

Recognize that globalization shapes global peace and prosperity.

(Globalizing forces have alienated some communities, in USA and in other countries. Could we state that globalization has distorted global peace?)

Canton reveals his bias: On page 346 the secition begins "Many Possible Futures for America" -- if he were serious about collaboration, if he were sincere about understanding other cultures, if he truly worried about the impact of globalization on other countries, his book would have had more chapters about other countries... and the last chapter would have included a discussion of "many possible futures for Europe / Middle East / Africa / Asia / Latin America."

Canton's book focuses largely on these topics

Future of China 31 pages

India 10 pages

Security lessons from South America (8 pages)

p. 325 "The central question of the future for the secuirty and stability of the planet is the extent to which America and CHina will cooperate." Is there literally nothing that Europe, Russia, Brazil and India can do if the US and China conflict?

The index reveals the lack of interest by Canton in exploring other futures

Canada: 3 references

Pakistan: nuclear crisis (is there nothing else to talk about besides nuclear issues?)

Saudi Arabia, 3 references

Singapore, 3 references

Europe 5 pages

Developing nations 5 pages

the following countries and organizations appear once in the index

Afghanistan

Denmark

Iceland

Tamil Tigers

UK

World Bank

WHO

WTO

The United Nations (with two references) appears as a separate entry in the index from

UN (one reference)

Canton's focus on innovations (p. 83) shows the strength of the book (and he leaves to the reader to sort out how these innovations will percolate through various cultures and national economies).

SUMMARY

In short, Canton's attempt to describe extreme futures is like describing the Milky Way from the vantage point of the Earth: it's a band of stars that surrounds us. Only by mentally taking the camera view millions of light years away from Earth do we see the shape of the Milky Way: a spiral galaxy. In the same way, when we want to see extreme futures for the USA, we need to see extreme futures of many other organizations and countries. Only then can we truly think about "many possible futures for America."

Thomas Friedman in an editorial column in the NYTimes 6 September 2010 wrote the following remarks: We have enjoyed a century in which we could have, in foreign policy terms, both what is vital and what is desirable.

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His point about "what is vital and what is desirable" is well-made. James Canton's approach appears to be "here's what we need to do to maintain our position of superpower." Canton does not distinguish between needs and wants ... Canton does not acknowledge the possibility that looking at extreme futures of Pakistan, Turkey, European Union, Mexico, Canada, Brazil and Korea could help us see better the extreme future of the USA. His focus on India and China leave out large segments of the planet's economic actors.

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For your reading convenience, the entire column appears below:

September 4, 2010

Superbroke, Superfrugal, Superpower?

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

In recent years, I have often said to European friends: So, you didn’t like a world of too much American power? See how you like a world of too little American power — because it is coming to a geopolitical theater near you. Yes, America has gone from being the supreme victor of World War II, with guns and butter for all, to one of two superpowers during the cold war, to the indispensable nation after winning the cold war, to “The Frugal Superpower” of today. Get used to it. That’s our new nickname. American pacifists need not worry any more about “wars of choice.” We’re not doing that again. We can’t afford to invade Grenada today.

Ever since the onset of the Great Recession of 2008, it has been clear that the nature of being a leader — political or corporate — was changing in America. During most of the post-World War II era, being a leader meant, on balance, giving things away to people. Today, and for the next decade at least, being a leader in America will mean, on balance, taking things away from people.

And there is simply no way that America’s leaders, as they have to take more things away from their own voters, are not going to look to save money on foreign policy and foreign wars. Foreign and defense policy is a lagging indicator. A lot of other things get cut first. But the cuts are coming — you can already hear the warnings from Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. And a frugal American superpower is sure to have ripple effects around the globe.

“The Frugal Superpower: America’s Global Leadership in a Cash-Strapped Era” is actually the title of a very timely new book by my tutor and friend Michael Mandelbaum, the Johns Hopkins University foreign policy expert. “In 2008,” Mandelbaum notes, “all forms of government-supplied pensions and health care (including Medicaid) constituted about 4 percent of total American output.” At present rates, and with the baby boomers soon starting to draw on Social Security and Medicare, by 2050 “they will account for a full 18 percent of everything the United States produces.”

This — on top of all the costs of bailing ourselves out of this recession — “will fundamentally transform the public life of the United States and therefore the country’s foreign policy.” For the past seven decades, in both foreign affairs and domestic policy, our defining watchword was “more,” argues Mandelbaum. “The defining fact of foreign policy in the second decade of the 21st century and beyond will be ‘less.’ ”

When the world’s only superpower gets weighed down with this much debt — to itself and other nations — everyone will feel it. How? Hard to predict. But all I know is that the most unique and important feature of U.S. foreign policy over the last century has been the degree to which America’s diplomats and naval, air and ground forces provided global public goods — from open seas to open trade and from containment to counterterrorism — that benefited many others besides us. U.S. power has been the key force maintaining global stability, and providing global governance, for the last 70 years. That role will not disappear, but it will almost certainly shrink.

Great powers have retrenched before: Britain for instance. But, as Mandelbaum notes, “When Britain could no longer provide global governance, the United States stepped in to replace it. No country now stands ready to replace the United States, so the loss to international peace and prosperity has the potential to be greater as America pulls back than when Britain did.”

After all, Europe is rich but wimpy. China is rich nationally but still dirt poor on a per capita basis and, therefore, will be compelled to remain focused inwardly and regionally. Russia, drunk on oil, can cause trouble but not project power. “Therefore, the world will be a more disorderly and dangerous place,” Mandelbaum predicts.

How to mitigate this trend? Mandelbaum argues for three things: First, we need to get ourselves back on a sustainable path to economic growth and reindustrialization, with whatever sacrifices, hard work and political consensus that requires. Second, we need to set priorities. We have enjoyed a century in which we could have, in foreign policy terms, both what is vital and what is desirable. For instance, I presume that with infinite men and money we can succeed in Afghanistan. But is it vital? I am sure it is desirable, but vital? Finally, we need to shore up our balance sheet and weaken that of our enemies, and the best way to do that in one move is with a much higher gasoline tax.

America is about to learn a very hard lesson: You can borrow your way to prosperity over the short run but not to geopolitical power over the long run. That requires a real and growing economic engine. And, for us, the short run is now over. There was a time when thinking seriously about American foreign policy did not require thinking seriously about economic policy. That time is also over.

An America in hock will have no hawks — or at least none that anyone will take seriously.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/opinion/05friedman.html?_r=1&ref=thomaslfriedman&pagewanted=print

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Advice from New Zealand (Edu-tainment entrepreneur Gordon Dryden)

Don’t have such a network, Steve.

Our original book, The Learning Revolution, sold 10.2 million copies there. But all sold by bookshops and at seminars by independent educational software companies.

So we don’t have a permanent record of their names and addresses (and, at the time rthe sales were made) no one ordered online and provides email and other physical addresses.

We have not launched “UNLIMITED: the new learning revolution and the seven keys to unlock it” we have decided to switch all our international editions and future ones to become digital, online touch-screen editions. We are working through that right now. Among other things, we will be launching a global competition to get the brightest students in the world to reinvent education. This will be launched through facebook (and its 500 million members) andf YouTube before the end of this year.

You’ve asked my opinion of your videos, and, from the tone of your email, I think you’re asking for genuine honest appraisal. And, to do that, I can only quote from my own experiences from both making presentations, running workshops and seminars around the world: and seeing some of the world’s best nvolvers in action at educational/learning conferences.

So my first genuine impression, of each of the first two videos: I found the opening of both so boring I couldn’t really go on:-)

So first I had better summarize my own strong beliefs (and my experience from many years as a national TV presenter):

1. Particularly with video or other online material: you have to start with a big “Wow!” Think of what I describe as the new 80-20 rule: Students today spend 80% of their waking hours in a year outside the school classroom (only 20% in it). For 80% of their time they are 21st-century citizens: using 21st-century instant-action digital tools .
   

I’ll demonstrate some ways I use or have seen used to actually involve entire audiences in immediately learning-the-message by acting it — and then I will leave you to draw your own conclusions . . .

2. You really have to (actively involve people from the first impact), and even before that. For example, as teachers or other seminar attendees are moving into a room or conference, I will always have some involving video/ music/montage etc on to set the entire theme. And then (if the theme is to convince teachers or students that the students – or teacher conference participants – should be in charge then put them in charge:

This is how we opened a one-day think tank of New Zealand entrepreneurs last year:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6MhAwQ64c0

That BEFORE anyone had spoken:-) (You’ll find thousands of similar great “ice breakers” on YouTube. In fact you will find dozens of adaptations of that one presentation. They set the scene for the entire proceedings. By the way, four of us came up with tht same idea, off the ingernet, well before the conference started.)

And immediately the conference chair, on his feet, immediately said: “Today we’ve got 580 of New Zealand’s most innovative entrepreneurs in this convention center. During the rest of this day we’re gong to come up with art least 580 incredible ideas to reinvent New Zealand. And together we’re going to boil those ideas into 20 great ones by the mid-morning break. Then we’re going to drilll them down into the 10 best ones by lunch. Then, by the mid-afternoon break, the Deputy Prime Minister of New Zeland will be here, and we’re going to present to him the one incredible idea that will make the difference. Entrepreneurs can change the world. Let’s start.”

Or look how, this year, during a five-day New Zealand sporting-tourism congress for 100 Australians, I had to run a two-hour interactive session on both New Zealand history and sporting history (bearing in mind that there is a three-hour, across-the-ocean flight to get from Sydney to Auckland). And then, by the end of the day together

1. The interactive multimedia session was announced with this title: “What every smart Australian should know about New Zealand since we drifted apart 65 million years ago”. Then: “Welcome to the Youngest Country on Earth” — with this video clip:
   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0YakVC8klI&feature=channel

Now Australia and New Zealand are great sporting rivals, especially in rugby union and rugby league football. Traditionally New Zealanders international sporting teams do a Maori (native Polynesian) war-dance challenge at the start of international sporting games [later, check YouTube + New Zealand rugby haka), in Maori, but Australians never know what the words mean: so, right after the video, we had all the Australian guests stand up and perform the welcoming-challenging haka in Maori and in English. Until 240 years ago, the Polynesians had no written language: they passed on their heritage by song and dance — so our Australian guests actually learned that by doing it

So that is the next point: a good involving opening (and throughout a seminar) to demonstrate (in all different learning styles) etc) the theme-of-the-day in action.

So let’s get back to your message: to prove that students themselves (or an audience of teachers) should really (and immediately) act out that theme, to prove it: with actions, movements, songs, dancing, fun, humor, involvement.

So over straight into that. My co-author, Dr Jeannette Vos, is fantastic with music and dance. So she often starts one of her seminars by getting everyone up, immediately to a vigorous dance to music to get through that you can only learn well if your brain is fully activated and oxygenated.

And then she say something like: “What an incredible volume of talent and brainpower exists in this room today. Imagine if we combined it all — right now. So let’s do that.” In front of each participant (or at the top of individual folders) has a US letter sheet of paper with a grid of 12 squares, four across and three down. And (depending on the seminar topic) you’ve have had typed along the bottom of each square such “experiences” as:

Plays a musical instrument
Speaks a foreign language
Loves public speaking
A great cook
Good photographer
Can do computer animations
Can edit video

Then (as you start playing the music theme “Getting to Know You . . . Getting to know all about you” you ask each person to find 12 different people who can perform one of those great achievements, each person has to find 12 people to match the squares: introduce each other and write down the person’s name to march each specialty. First to get a full set of 12 yells out “Bingo” (a game we play in the British commonwealth) and wins a prize.”

And then the seminar presenter may say something like: “I am reasonably good as three of those talents. But look how the big majority of you are much brighter, much more talented in your own way.” And that applies to every group, every class, every school, every company.”

Everyone has a talent to be highly competent art something. Combine your talent, your passion and your dream and you can become truly great. Then keep adding on skills (often by working with other people who are talented in different ways) you become multi-skilled. (we’ve got hundreds of examples of those in the photos and paragraph I our book). Use the photos to illustrate your slides.

(I happen to be designing a multimedia game on that subject at the moment: I have attached a pdf of the slides, but stress that the original Apple Keynote slides are very interactive. I have also attached the seminar board game I designed to teach British high school teachers how to teach “business innovation”- at ten one-day seminars around their country: on how to turn their talent into a great business plan.

Now I do this professionally for a living (I am NOT school teacher): teach creative business management – but using the same “involve them” principles that are the core of good teaching – and especially if teaching by videotape.

“If you want to learn it, do it.” . . . Don’t just talk about it. Get ‘em involved in different ways to embed the message naturally, in their own learning style or stmyles.

All I can say, mate: compare some of those “involvement methods” to starting with two lifeless fingers on a video, over the top of a one-color one dimensional long sentence . .. and then a closely-typed list of questions (with hand-writing under them) - thst telegraph a message of another boring lecture: “This is what I am going to tell you” . . Rather then involving them in “doing it – and thus learning it.”

Maybe you don’t fell like cribbing great live demos from the Internet (Peter Jackson’s Weta Digital team which won five Academy awards in a night for the digital effects they made for the movie Avatar, also made that “youngest country on earth” video. Steal only the best!)

So why not start off by asking (directly) for a show of hands from your participating audience:

“Let’s start today with a simple show of hands:

“How many of you first learned to talk in a school classroom?

“How many of you first learned to walk – in a school classroom?

“How many of you learned to ride a bike by first reading a textbook on riding a bike?”

“How many of you learned to speak by reading a book on speaking?”What none?

“So how many of you learned to talk by talking, and chuckling with your mum or dad? Wow, all of you.

“How many of you learned to walk by walking, by first creeping then crawling, then tottering up, holding a chair; then finally wwalking?” Great.

“And how many first learned to ride a bike by sitting on a tricycle? Etc.”

(Now, using a slide of our first graphic photo on page 1 of “Unlimited”: the plugged-in world.

“Now let’s take some of the things you do every day, in this age of the internet and the world is the touch of keyboard away: how many of you learned keyboard skills by first reading a book right through? None! How many of you learned to type by actually typing.”

So what is the main lesson we learn from this? Get some quick responses.

360 years ago (photo from our book), Comenius invented the so-called modern classroom: with backboard, chalk, slate, and children sitting in rows listening to a teacher talk, with chalk, 95% of the time.

“Now one of the finest research universities, in America, Carnegie-Mellon, has spent a fortune getting rid of boring lectures . “

Etc.

“Today we don’t just read about science, we actually become computer scientists - by making computers.”

Dinner time here. I feel a good wine coming on.

Hope that helps


END OF letter by Gordon Dryden

Let's talk about the points made by Dryden. This guy should be cloned. +1 954 646 8246

VisualandActive@gmail.com

Invitation to teachers -- do you want to be in a documentary?

This blog aims to attract teachers, students, principals, parents and taxpayers to pay attention to the research of educational pioneers. PsychologyToday.com has many articles on ways that people learn ... often better than through the lecture-and-take-notes (it might be on the final exam) method of transmission of information.

One of my students, Claudia Gonzalez, claudiagonzalez19@gmail.com (find her on Facebook), aims to capture some of these innovative/ignored teaching methods with a documentary about teachers who use these methods.

If you are an innovative teacher, remember that you are not alone and there are dozens of us who want to see what you're doing. Contact me at VisualandActive@gmail.com +1 954 646 8246. Let's do workshops for each other in each other's schools (so that our principals can see that it's not just you who uses these "off the wall / crazy / disorganized" techniques.

This is an invitation to connect with each other. Call. Please.

The Independent Educator's Creed

I believe in following the student. I believe in listening, not lecturing. If you pull 100 teachers, principals and union representatives into a room, no more than ten will want to stand with me. I believe that my ultimate boss is the parent, the person who can remove a student from my school, and the taxpayer (not the principal, not the school board); I believe my responsibility is less to do with the contents of a textbook and more to do with what's in the student's heart; I believe that there is great value in social media (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Orkut) and the use of email in teaching randomly. Electronic books are generally more flexible than textbooks -- and the money saved by using materials in the public domain can be shifted to other learning opportunities.

The topic today is the responsible use of online communities like Facebook. I have accounts on hyves.net, orkut, cyworld.com, sonico, tuenti, LinkedIn, Xing and others, but the richest way to interact is inside Facebook. I spend time in this community because research shows that students listen more closely to peers and near-peers than to adults. Since I'm over 50 and I have information that I'd like to convey in an edu-taining way, I find students who are in their 20s to help me share information with my teen-aged students in the US.

Let me give you an example of how I "troll" for interesting mentors in other countries (by using Facebook) for my U.S. high school students:

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hi from steve in florida. I teach math to teenagers and I hope that I can introduce them to you. Your comment about a math problem made me think, "That is clever fellow." I hope that many US people can reduce their worries by learning from people in other countries. Can my students send questions to you? my email address is freeenglishlessons@gmail.com what is your email address?

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What have I done with this message? I signal to the recipient that (1) I am not the stereotypical U.S. xenophobe, (2) I am a teacher who believes he can learn from others, (3) I am hip, because I use lowercase for much of the message, (4) I am ready to communicate efficiently (by providing my email address instead of waiting for a reply through Facebook) and (5) I value the opinions of people on Facebook.

How do I check the "goodness" of the person on the social media? If I found the person on a chatroom or interest group, I look at the person's comments to others. Does the person treat others in a respectful way? I visit the person's profile to see if the person receives thoughtful messages from other people (this feature is available in orkut, since you can view messages that others have posted).

In short, I put the target (a potential mentor) through a number of tests before I introduce him to my students. If my students are below the age of 18, I filter the first communications through my email account, checking that the students send appropriate questions and that the online mentor responds politely and appropriately.

For educators who are fixed on the idea of teaching through a curriculum and a textbook, you might find it helpful to read an article about "concrete/abstract, random/sequential" (use those search terms at floatingneutrinos.com). The learning styles described by Dr. Gregorc helped me see that learning takes place on social media sites and that I can surprise students by making course material more "relevant" when it is filtered through Facebook.

For more ideas about how to use the Internet in an edu-taining way, go to FreeEnglishLessons.com and scroll down to "Articles to Improve Our Teaching." I become a better teacher by listening to parents and students, so send me your comments.

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BIO at the bottom of the article

The Independent Educator is a teacher at a language school in Fort Lauderdale, FL. He tutors online (Skype: SteveEnglishTeacher) and gives seminars to teenagers about how to build a digital portfolio to get accepted into a great university. SteveMcCrea.com is his portal to his blogs about education and other websites. You can reach him at VisualAndActive@gmail.com (954-646-8246).

Steve McCrea Online SAT Tutor $20/hr

201 ebooks on one CD (free), I evaluate home

schools, VisualAndActive.com

Skype: SteveEnglishTeacher +1 954.646.8246

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The Independent Educator's Creed

I believe in following the student. I believe in listening, not lecturing. I believe that my ultimate boss is the parent (the person who can remove a student from my school) and the taxpayer (not the principal, not the school board). I believe my responsibility is less to do with the contents of a textbook and more to do with what's in the student's heart. I believe that there is great value in social media (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Orkut) and the use of email in teaching randomly.

I believe that spelling tests celebrate a skill that can be found in spellcheckers, and we should give more time and accolades to students who create something new or who memorize facts and connections related to geography, geology and the sciences, especially if they connect and document their studies to their passions. We should focus on projects, not the contents of textbooks. Passing a written test does not always demonstrate mastery; failing a written test does not always indicate a lack of mastery.

I believe in narratives, portfolios and alternative forms of assessment (exhibitions and stand-ups). I believe that schools should have walls of quotations to fill blank walls and many of those quotes could come from the Pink Team: Hetland, Postman, Steiner, Montessori, Dan Pink (danpink.com), Thomas Friedman, John Corlette (JohnCorlette.com), Dennis Littky (BigPicture.org), Dennis Yuzenas (WhatDoYaKnow.com), Gardner, Thomas Hoerr (newcityschool.org) and others found on VisualAndActive.com.

I believe that Rocks for Jocks, Physics for Poets and Literature for Rocket Scientists are courses that will be more valuable to most students because these courses are integrated and show connections that many students find fascinating. James Burke, the presenter and creator of the TV show Connections, ought to be my advisor in charge of curricula. A copy of Littky's book could be on the doorstep of every parent of a tweenager, with extracts fed to Twitter or Facebook walls from the time the parent has a two-year-old.

I believe more voters and politicians should read Abe Fischler's blog, The Student is the Class; more people would enjoy history if they started with Dennis Yuzenas' site (WhatDoYaKnow.com) and listened to the lectures of Timothy C. F. Stunt. More students will learn from youtube.com/freeenglishlessons and MentorsOnVideo.org than from lectures and textbooks.

I recruit mentors as teachers and I arrange Learning Through Internships. I don't want to be a lecturer or teacher, but rather an advisor and facilitator. I seek opportunities to "transfer responsibility for learning to our students gradually" (Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey).

I recommend this article:

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/nov08/vol66/num03/Releasing_Responsibility.aspx

Releasing Responsibility

by Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey

"We must transfer responsibility for learning to our students gradually—and offer support at every step."

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXJG4vvoPwk In case you want to see a video on Youtube about alternatives to gasoline...

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I invite you to visit IndependentEducator.com and to find venues for these observations. Yes, you, the reader, know some magazine or newsletter where this column could appear once a month. Become an agent of change and send a short message: (1+ 954) 646.8246 or VisualAndActive@gmail.com

Steve McCrea SteveMcCrea.com

Let's look at the Independent Educator TheIndependentEducator.blogspot.com

How to use SKYPE in the Classroom

By Steve McCrea Skype: SteveEnglishTeacher

Knowing how to use Skype is a skill that will grow in importance. This list of tips will help teachers use the program skillfully in the classroom.

1. Learn to use Skype by using it. Yes, you can take tutorials. Yes, you can get an account name and let your students do the talking to other students. But the way that opened the magic of “skype in the classroom” to me was using it regularly.

2. Leave the Skype bar “Available.” Who knows who will contact us when we leave the account “available for contact”?

3. I set my Skype account to “open” (not private) so that anyone who has a Skype account can find me.

4. Turn the volume UP. I've missed dozens of opportunities to connect with students and teachers because I forgot to turn up the volume. (One of the annoying parts of using Zamzar.com is the audio ads that come with a message that “your file is ready for downloading.” I usually want the computer to be quiet, so I turn down the volume when I use zamzar.com... but then I forget to turn it up again when I'm in the classroom.)

5. Allow Skype users to email your mobile phone with a short reminder: “Hey, are you there? We had an appointment for a skype talk at 9:30 am your time – Jair.” I don't know why I forget to turn up the volume. Jair in Florianopolis went through a a lot of effort to obtain permission to move his class into a classroom with a projection screen and intenret access – and then I forgot to bring my compuer to class. Another time I forgot to turn up the volume, so I didn't hear the “ping” reminder that tells the skype user that someone is trying to connect.

6. I include my email address in the “greeting” that appears on the message. This encourages people who can't reach me by Skype to ask their questions by email.

7. Sometimes it's better to make a call WITHOUT the video on. Leave the video OFF for better sound quality (at least it appears to be better quality when the video is off). In May 2008 the number of skype users at 10 am New york Time was about 54 million. In May 2009 the number of skype users was about 8 million, and a year later, the number was closer to 22 million.

8. Expect some connections to be broken or interrupted or lower quality.

9. Do you have a backup plan? Some people use Instant Messenger with Yahoo or Microsoft (MSN). It helps if you have a variety of ways to connect.

10. Learn how to send a file over Skype. Some countries don't have easy access to youtube videos. Skype users can send video files and help other students see educational parts of youtube.

11. Encourage your students who use SKYPE to type while they talk. It is a way of clarifying pronunciation and ensuring that information is clearly transferred. I was able to monitor a conversation by walking between pairs of students doing independent work in the classroom – and the pair that was on a skype call with my student Gongfu in China had the following interaction:

Example: The call started around 10 am in Florida, twelve hours behind Gongfu in Shandong province. Teachers can read the notes that I've added in italics. Students can learn how to make their communications clearer by typing key words or sentences. When talking to people who live in countries where it is difficult to use Facebook or Youtube, ask if it is okay to send a video over skype.

9:57:55 AM

gongfu: hi .are you there? are you in your class?

Steve: hi we are ready to talk

gongfu: okay

Steve: can i send you a file?

gongfu: ok

Steve posted file SANY0021.MP4 to members of this chat

I introduced Gongfu to my students Rashad and Andreas. They talked a bit and then started to type some of the words.

What time is it? (asked Andreas)

gongfu: 22.05PM

Steve: It is 10 a.m. here

What is your name?

gongfu: QIJIANLI

gongfu: Qi Jian li

gongfu: ch

Steve: How old are you?

Steve: Have you been to Paris before?

The student over in Florida wrote this sentence (which the teacher can follow up with a grammar review)

Steve: I was graduate in 2009

Andreas described himself as a construction worker and Gongfu had a problem with spelling “Builder”

gongfu: marking plan

gongfu: beuther?

Steve: builder

Steve: a man who makes buildings

Rashad asked, “What time is it?”

gongfu: 22.17pm

Then there was a discussion of songs

gongfu: apple

Steve: an apple

gongfu: big apple

gongfu: new york?

gongfu: song

gongfu: rock

gongfu: rock music

gongfu: hip pop?

gongfu: nirvana

gongfu: do you like his songs?

Steve: ac dc

Steve: yes i do

What is your skype address?

Steve: rashood919

The students started talking about pronunciation

gongfu: a e i o u long and short

gongfu: short oo long oo

gongfu: SHORT OO

gongfu: SHORT OO SOUND

gongfu: [SHORT OO]

gongfu: I find the sound short oo sound is qutie similar with the schwa sound

The teacher dropped in to add the following words that have the [oo] sound

Steve: foot book good about a in about

We wanted to continue the connection because the large video file was still being transferred (100 kb per minute, 64 MB, so it took 50 minutes)

gongfu: leave the window open

Steve: i will leave the window open

gongfu: thanks

gongfu: i enjoy your video very much.so nice. steve,i will go to bed.tomorrow i will write to you . and can you tell me your free time.

The skype call took about 40 minutes, plus the extra time to complete the transfer of the video. The students (Andreas and Rashad) spent this time creating questions for the student in China.

If you have suggestions and recommendations, please contact Steve at SteveEnglishTeacher on Skype or at FreeEnglishLessons@gmail.com.

A view of "what's needed in schools" in the UK (and around the world)

My partner Will Sutherland (www.QualifiedByExperience.com) heads a sailing school in England that is really a character training site (for teachers as well as students).

Here are some of his comments about school reform in England....

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We all agree that every child is different and their needs are different, so why do we think they are all going to fit into the same educational box?

I see a very big need for children to be taught the basics (a general Liberal Arts) and then taught how to learn and what to learn.

They need to understand there is no such thing as a free lunch. They also need to understand they have to be of use to society in order to fit into society, and to earn a living.

They can do anything they want to do provided it is going to lead to an income stream for themselves and their families.

They need mentoring from someone who cares about them and who can help them deal with family or their personal environment problems.

Talk to today’s students and they will tell you they do not understand the logic of their education or where they are going, but they know what interests them.

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My ongoing research into the effects of Aiglon college (and the philosophies of Kurt Hahn and John Corlette www.JohnCorlette.com) on the lives of the Alumni is revealing the basic student needs and ways of meeting them.

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In summary the reformers cannot get out of their minds the traditional image the word “School” conjures up every time they use it or hear it.

What the 21^st Century students need is a new concept education media centre: A resource for the whole community and everyone in it.

Within this there needs to be a core framework which provides a balance between academic learning and life skills, discipline, appreciation, respect and tolerance for others, sports and physical exercise etc.

We only know and are influenced by what we know. Therefore the programme should encourage enquiring minds, to develop innovation and experimentation.

Expeditions and cultural excursions have become extinct due to health and safety restraints. This problem needs to be overcome in one measure or another.

Above all, a path for future development, a light at the end of the tunnel, has to be presented to students and parents which satisfies their needs and aspirations.

A lot of what Tony Blair say is not actually happening in the UK and he introduced the most teacher-controlling regulations -- he has knocked the stuffing out of our good teachers and the new system leaves them totally disenfranchised. Central control and bureaucracy takes up more than half a teacher's working time and preparation hours have increased beyond any sensible measure. The results are lower standards and a weaker society.

Will Sutherland

Director

Learn more by going to www.QualifiedbyExperience.com

ws@QBEglobal.net

It's CONforming, not REforming schools. When will we truly change in a positive direction?

When we hear about school reform, we hear about these elements.

a) Standardized tests

b) Standards that all schools should meet

c) Standard curriculums for all students

d) Every student needs four years of math

e) Every 8th grader needs to be exposed to algebra in 8th grade, starting at age 13.

f) Send everyone to university.

g) Every teacher should have an advanced degree.


It doesn’t sound like REFORM, it sounds like “CON”form.

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Instead, we need to look at TRUE reshaping and retooling and reformatting our schools.

For example

a) Time is a variable. We don’t have to group kids by age. We don’t have to require students to advance at a set time together to the next level of the curriculum.

b) Let’s us computers to allow independent rates of learning. See Dr. Fischler’s TheStudentIsTheClass.com blog.

c) Arne Duncan calls for expanded schooling to support the community, 12 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week, 12 months a year: 12/7/12.

d) Relationships: Dennis Littky’s “three Rs” says Rigor, Relevance and Relationships. We need teachers who visit each kid's home,..."Teachers who know the kids, look out for them and push them to succeed" (from a speech by Bill Gates).

e) Relevance: Why does every child need to study biology? Robert Reich has a cogent observation about the

f) Move away from Compulsory Failure: very few of us are renaissance people – we can’t master every subject, so there will be some subjects that are difficult for us and not relevant to our lives. Why do we impose failure on children? Reform means “making school relevant to the child, fit the curriculum to the child, not the child to the curriculum.”

g) Teachers teach all subjects: Why does a teacher need to have an advanced degree in mathematics in order to teach math? Some of the best teachers are those who struggle with a subject. “I hated math when I was your age. Let’s work together to get through this…”

Those are elements of true reform.

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Dennis Yuzenas (www.WhatDoYaKnow.com) and I (VisualandActive.com) are talking about making a presentation about “It’s not school Reform, it’s school CONform.”



Tony Blair spoke in the right direction…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL-Vi3d9IPw&feature=related

Long speech but worth a listen.
Notes from Blair’s speech.
What works in a reformed school?

1. Independence -- Schools need to be independent, free to innovate and find the strategy that works for their community.

2. Community learning -- teaching adults, too. -- Continued adult learning is important becuas children who have parents with low levels of education tend to not go very far .

3. Community service: Our schools need to be more than academics and more than just for the child.

Breakfast clubs (to fill empty stomachs)

Afterschool clubs

Homework clubs

Let’s make education about the whole person and the whole community.

4. We need to remove bad teachers.

5. We need to think differently. We know what to do, we need to implement. It’s not hard to think up things to do differently – it’s difficult to IMPLEMENT. We need to focus on community interest, not about VESTED interests.

We know what works.

Well, that's what Blair said. Let's get to work. Contact me with your comments (954) 646 8246 or write to visualandactive@gmail.com