Learn about readings by Neil Postman, Lois Hetland, Howard Gardner, Dennis Yuzenas, Abe Fischler, Dan Pink, Thomas Friedman, John Corlette, Will Sutherland, Tom vander Ark, Marshall Thurber and other innovative educators.
If you were given the job of preparing students for a history lesson, what would you do? My friend Mario suggested the Thirteen Arguments that we in the USA should be having. The Great Debates ... The author is Howard Fineman
Thanks to Mario Llorente, the following photo shows that a poster is in the teachers' room of a foreign languages department in Havana. It's called the "It Sounds Like" system.
Years ago I had small groups of students think of new uses for everyday things (fork, pencil, etc.) They then had to name the product and create a logo. Then they made a print advertisement and created the script for a TV commercial...Tons of learning and very fun. For the logos--you could have them snap photos of different logos over a 24-hour period and send them all to one address--then review them as a class...talking about who found them and where and why the students thought they were good (or not good) logos. I started my class on this with the swoosh from Nike...they had no idea Nike was a goddess and the swoosh represented her wings. :)) -- Leslie Lott http://www.eslpartyland.com/esl-lesson-plans-online Here's another way to get students to start talking..
Here's a comment by Social Media expert and consultant, Bob Finch
I'm not for "banning." The reasonable solution is to begin early in teaching children - as a part of what is 'safe' and 'not safe' - that social media is part of the 'how to handle strangers' rules. I'm sending Katie on a trip to Indiana to stay for week with my nephew. She's 10. The Delta agent I spoke with (for more than an hour) went into great detail about what Katie should wear, how she should handle strangers, what she should and should not talk about (regarding herself) and a host of other 'tips.'
What we are really transmitting when we explain what 'improper touching' and other potential child abuses is a definition of 'personal space' and how it should be guarded from potential untrustworthy others. With social media being a broadcast medium, we need to instill in children (very early!) notions of personal 'thought space' or 'mind space' and how it should be guarded with equal prudence and diligence.
Let's spread this phrase "personal thought space" and use that phrase with parents.
Try it: "Has anyone attempted to touch your personal thought space today?"
Parents often object if a paroled pedophile is found to live within two miles of their child's school. Those same parents might not know the privacy setting on their child's twitter and facebook accounts... their child could be sharing information with "friends" made over Facebook. Bob Finch adds: It really should encompass a new way of thought about teaching kids how to guard their privacy whether it is personal space or thought space. Rumors used to get passed from person to person verbally... now there is an electronic trail. Rumors are now immortal. The old way was transient. Perhaps the language needs to be more explicit? Perhaps the following:
As a high school teacher, my role is to intrude into a student's thought space... but it's so much more successful if the student is chasing the idea rather than trying to block the door. This campaign that Bob Finch is advocating is more about strangers and educators who are going beyond the limits of their professional duty.
An interview is an opportunity for me to learn more about your school.
Are you open to using these procedures?
projectsportfolios
digital portfolios team teaching
cross-discipline planning (one project for several classes)
The flipped classroom (lectures on video, class time for discussion and elaboration of the themes in the lectures)
controlled / limited / careful use of social media for academic purposes
smart use of the Internet
Do you have teachers who used to be in business or other professions?
Penpals with other schools
peer mentoring by teachers (Finnish style "open door" observation)
internships and mentors (links with community for mentoring and volunteers)
after school hours? The "community school"
Are your students asked to help keep the school clean and organized? (some schools have extra brooms available to sweep and dust the classrooms)
Do any of these authors inform your procedures?
Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 hours (Outliers)
Blink
Dan Pink: Drive (autonomy, mastery, purpose, Fedex day)
To Sell is Human (the new elevator pitch)
A Whole New Mind (Conceptual age, Automation, Asia, Abundance)
Thomas Friedman The World is Flat
Seth Godin Purple Cow
Let's clean our school
Students serve the food
It's lunchtime
Food is cooked in a central kitchen and delivered to schools. The students distribute the food, plates and silverware
Add caption
time to eat
clean the dishes
recycling
brush teeth after lunch
Kids rate their own performance
slippers when you go into the restroom (so the germs in the restroom stay on the soles of the shared slippers) ... It's better to share slippers than to bring the germs from the restroom into the rest of the school
Put on slippers to walk around the inside of the school
I am a taxpayer and I believe that teachers, students, principals and parents need descriptions of a new way of teaching. I wake up every morning with Dr. Fischler's question in my head: "How do you become a visible change agent in this environment?" and "Time is a variable" and "The Student is the Class." The words of Daniel H. Pink, Will Sutherland, John Corlette, Eliot Levine, Elliot Washor, Charles Mojkowski and Dennis Littky inform my daily work.
John Oliver Rich saw Hitler and Mussolini meet in 1938.
I'm not for "banning." The reasonable solution is to begin early in teaching children - as a part of what is 'safe' and 'not safe' - that social media is part of the 'how to handle strangers' rules. I'm sending Katie on a trip to Indiana to stay for week with my nephew. She's 10. The Delta agent I spoke with (for more than an hour) went into great detail about what Katie should wear, how she should handle strangers, what she should and should not talk about (regarding herself) and a host of other 'tips.' 
