Pacer Christmas

Here's wishing everyone in the Delta Secondary School community all the magic and joy of the holidays. Wishing you peace, good health, and happiness in the year ahead. Thank you for all you contribute to making DSS a caring community.

My Ten Favorite Videos from 2010

2010 has been a rich year for thought provoking and engaging digital content for educators. Here's a list of my favorite videos that were posted this year:

1. RSA Animate - Drive - The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (Daniel Pink)

Incentives and rewards don't work. Deep engagement requires autonomy, mastery, and purpose. DSS embedded staff collaboration time in to the schedule for this school year - will we see increases in innovation and creativity? Video also provokes discussion about common assessment practice.

2. RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms (Sir Ken Robinson)
We viewed this video during a staff meeting and invited staff to participate in a back-channel dialogue using Today's Meet. Convincing argument on why change is needed.

3. New Learning Institute - Project-Based Learning at High Tech High (Larry Rosenstock)
Really resonated with a second view at the BCSSA Conference in November. Love the focus on creativity, design, integration and relationships.

4. TEDxPuget Sound - How Great Leaders Inspire Action (Simon Sinek)
Sinek explains the importance of starting with "Why?" Purpose driven leadership ... "People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it?"  Law of diffusion of innovation explains change and the challenge of bringing innovation to scale.

5. TEDxKC - From Knowledgeable to Knowledge-Able (Michael Wesch)
Wesch, creator of 2007's A Vision of Students Today, explains the connection between media, relationships and culture. Era of new media requires us to go beyond critical thinking. Today's learners need to embrace real problems, collaborate, use relevant tools and create their own meaning.

6. First Follower: Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy (Derek Sivers)
Short video offers an entertaining and effective explanation of the change process and innovation. The first follower transforms the lone nut into a leader. Find a great idea and have the guts to join in! Sivers also gives a great speech to first year students at Berklee College of Music... a bonus must see! Click here.

7. TED2010 - Bring on the Learning Revolution (Sir Ken Robinson)
What top ten list could be complete without a TED Talk from education's rock star, Sir Ken Robinson? Shift learning to focus on talents and a personalized curriculum rather than standardized models. Hard to believe that it has been 4 years since Do Schools Kill Creativity?

8. TEDxUBC - Students Live!  Real World Learning at the 2010 Olympic/Paralympic Games (Chris Kennedy) One of many excellent presentations at TEDxUBC... how fortunate we are to have such impressive local talent. We used Chris' video as a conversation starter on project based learning at a recent department head meeting. Reassuring for most to note that good writing matters.

9. BBC Four - 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes - The Joy of Stats (Hans Rosling)
Rosling brings statistics and history alive with this engaging short piece. The power of technology and story-telling ... pretty neat, huh?

10. TED - Teaching Design for Change (Emily Pilloton)
Thanks to DSS teacher, Kelly Richter, for this one. Pilloton tells the story of Bertie County, NC and how innovative design and creativity can be a catalyst for learning and change.


Honourable Mentions :
TED - The Child Driven Education (Sugata Mitra)
New Learning Institute - The Myths and Opportunities of Technology in the Classroom (Alan November) ... one of my favorites but it came out in late 2009

The year 2010 also saw the release of three feature length films on education. Each are must sees :) Lot's of discussion points!
Waiting for Superman - both acclaimed and controversial, this film looks at the failures of the US public education system through the eyes of several students and their families.
We are the People We've Been Waiting For - an examination of education in the UK and how it may be done differently.
Schooling the World - a challenging look at the impact of our system of education on indigenous cultures.



What are your favorites videos of 2010? 

Video of the Week - Learning from Mistakes

Failure is a great teacher. For the last several years I've coached soccer and while I prefer it when the team wins, I've observed that many teams learn more when they lose. Our schools can take advantage of failure as wonderful learning tool, when we differentiate between formative and summative evaluations. Diana Laufenberg talks about changing from a culture of one right answer. When students are led to inquiry and permitted to make mistakes, learning becomes authentic, lasting, and engaging.

Thanks to last year's PAC chair, Marcia McCafferty for sending me the link to this video and to  Patrick Larkin, principal at Burlington High School in Burlington, MA for the Video of the Week idea.

TEDxUBC - Paul Cubbon - Engagement: the un-lecture

Paul Cubbon, UBC professor in the Faculty of Commerce, and architect of the "un-lecture" on why students are not engaged in their classes ... "Because they're bored."
In one of my favorite presentations at TEDxUBC, Cubbon encourages educators to challenge the status quo, focus on the students and develop mashups.
It's great to see new approaches applied to higher education.

Project Based Learning - Built to Learn

We've been talking about the value of project based learning. PBL has been described as learning that is purposeful and relevant with a deeper connection to the challenges of the real world. PBL can be used to develop key 21st century skills: critical thinking, collaboration, and communication. The BIE video is a helpful explanation.

One of my favorite examples of PBL is the Senior Construction Course at Delta Secondary School. Each year, the students in Wayne McKinnon's Construction Class build a house. That's right. The students build a house. Last year, they built a 2200 sq. foot, two-level vacation home. The home is built in a compound on the school grounds over a period of several months. In the spring, the home is dis-assembled, transported and then re-assembled on site. Last year's home found its way to a view property on the Sunshine Coast. The students typically spend 7-10 days on the job site fully immersed in the work. It's an incredible learning experience that they will likely never forget. Furthermore, it's the type experiential learning that they are able to transfer to the world of work. Recently, I had a conversation with one of the students from last year's project, who returned to the Sunshine Coast this fall to continue work on the home, but this time as paid staff. Talk about a seamless transition.

The Construction Project meets all the major tenets of PBL. The students learn to develop critical thinking and problem solving strategies throughout the construction process. They learn to adapt their plans to meet the specifications of the site, and the property owner. They learn to collaborate and function within and as a team in a variety of challenging settings. And finally they learn to communicate, and build trusting relationships with each other, their teacher and their clients.

What is really obvious is the pride that the students have in their work. The project provides them with tangible evidence that their efforts and workmanship really matter and when done well, provide great satisfaction to others. McKinnon happily describes the special bond that develops between the students and the homeowner.

Mr. McKinnon secures a major project for each school year. Sometimes its a bit of a scramble, other years he has his pick. But year after year, the projects keep coming and McKinnon's students are the benefactors. 

DSS Gives: Building Pride and Purpose

An enduring measure of success in a school community is its ability to develop a sense of pride and purpose in each of its students. This is a mission shared by caring and thoughtful educators, parents, and also students themselves.

The Pacer school community showed both pride and purpose through efforts to support more than 30 local families through the school's ChristmAssist campaign. The results were impressive, with participation and "buy in" that far exceeded past canned food drives and the traditional class competition to see which class could donate the most canned food items.

Here's how it happened:
Each Block B class appointed a student campaign leader(s). The leader(s) attended an organizational meeting where the class was assigned a description of a family for whom they would be providing "Christmas." For example: Family C: single mother, two children (boy 3, girl 7).
The class would then come up with a plan to provide food and age/gender appropriate gifts.

Armed with a purpose, each class set about the task of providing for a real family. The enthusiasm was measurable. Classes held meetings, they tapped into personal resources and family contacts. Some classes approached local businesses encouraging discounts and donation matching. The local business community came through as did teachers, parents, siblings and neighbours. But it was the students that lead the way. They took ownership of the campaign and when the donations were tallied on Friday, ChristmAssist had raised more than $4000 in gift certificates and gift cards, almost 1900 canned food items and more than 800 new or near new gifts (toys, toiletries, and sports equipment). On average, each local family will receive almost $150 in gift cards, 60 items of food, as well as gifts suited to both the children and the adults.

In his book, The Empathic Civilisation, Jeremy Rifkin writes of a "dawning realisation that we are a fundamentally empathic species" and that this has a "profound and far-reaching" effect on society. I believe that it also has a profound effect on the way we learn. Purposeful and relevant learning is more deeply engaging and honors the strengths and potential of our students. In a blog post titled, Competitive or Collaborative, John Abbott writes, "Those learning structures that are moving towards a new empathic approach to education show a marked improvement in mindfulness, communication skills, and critical thinking as youngsters become more inwardly looking, emotionally attuned and cognitively adept at comprehending and responding intelligently and compassionately to others."

Delta Secondary's ChristmAssist Campaign is a shining example of such a structure. Congratulations to the organizers, students, staff and to the entire Pacer community.

Working with community partner,  Deltassist

Jonathan Todd - Student Talent and Perspective

Jonathan Todd is a grade 11 student at DSS. He is also #1 on the Canadian Aboriginal charts for his recording "Moonshiner." I had the privilege to sit down with Jonathan Todd a few weeks back to talk about school. His reflections on our conversation are shared in an article published in the District's Aboriginal Newsletter. Jonathan is an impressive young man. An accomplished performer and recording artist, he is a deep thinker with thoughtful insight on many topics, including youth, school, and culture. My conversations with Jonathan have been a source of deep personal reflection. There a special moments in our careers when the student becomes the teacher. 

Here's an excerpt from his article:

I sat down with Mr. Terry Ainge, the principal of Delta Secondary School, and we discussed some of the questions that I took some time to ask him. In total, it was 10 questions that related to him as a Principal and also regarding the Aboriginal Program that goes on here at DSS.

I started out by asking him about his experience in high school himself, and his main interest was sports. He says that he played basketball, football and read Sports Illustrated a lot. His social life was put around physical activity, while he did his work in school; he was based on something else to keep him going. I then I asked him why he has become a Principal, and his answer was very surprising. Mr. Ainge says that he was first a teacher for many years teaching a grade 7 class, which he said was nice because he got to know all the students solely. After his job as an elementary school teacher he went on to become a high school teacher for English, Social Studies, and Physical Education and he also coached Basketball and Football, which was obviously good for him, because he did coach those two sports in high school. He then went on to be a VP for several years and now he is tackling the role of being a Principal. Mr. Ainge said that if he were to become a teacher again now, he would become an Alternate teacher for an Alternate Program. 

After that, I asked him about how he thought about the reputation of the school. The first thing that he said was “The school has character”. I totally agreed with that. He also said that the people in the school had soul, enjoyed relationships and have firm strengths that show very well. With that in mind, I brought up what a healthy strong school looks like. He talked a lot about positive energy. He also said that everyone needs to be working together and that will lead to improved learning and stronger relationships that help build a closer bond between teachers and their students. I then asked him about what he thought he could do alone as a principal to disperse of racism and bigotry. He said that was a big job for one person! He also said that the reason for racism was a lack of understanding and lack of education that kept it going. 

Mr. Ainge would love to see some more Native styled art in the hallways and not even just Native art, but also art from other cultures. He says that there is a greater sense of urgency within some students and some teachers to reach a goal of understanding. I highly disagree, since I don’t see it. I know when I see something, and I think students, and some teachers, must be educated on the different culture that surrounds our school on a daily basis. I then asked him if he was aware of the problems that Aboriginal students face on a daily basis. He said that he knows that there are challenges. When I asked him if there were any common mistakes among the school community (principals, teachers, executives, support workers etc.), he said, “I think all schools have challenges, and building relationships is key to developing greater understanding among all members of the school community. Too often we come to conclusions with too little information.” 

Mr. Ainge believes that the Aboriginal culture at DSS is proud but quiet. He says that he would like to see the culture have a higher profile at the school, starting small,  so people can learn over a period of time, and this is a positive way of showing the culture. 

I believe that this was a good interview, and besides the few things that I disagreed on, there is a common ground and in the end, everyone is striving and working for the same thing that everybody else is working for, and that is peace.

You can follow Jonathan's music career at http://www.jonathan-todd.com/index.htm

Our Place in the Revolution

Do you use social media? 

This morning a colleague was kind enough to share with me an opinion piece from the Los Angeles Times (Nov 28), titled The Zuckerberg Revolution. It was a interesting read that was consistent with some of the dialogue that has been happening around the water cooler and in the staff room. He suggested that I blog about the article to generate some conversation. 

In the piece, the author, Neal Gabler laments that while social media has increased the volume of our communication, it has also diminished the substance of it. According to Gabler, Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg's latest technological revolution, described as "a social inbox" is yet another example of social media that "may challenge the idea of serious ideas."

"The seamless, informal, immediate, personal, simple, minimal and short communication is not one that is likely to convey, let alone work out, ideas, great or not. Facebook, Twitter, Habbo, MyLife and just about every other social networking site pare everything down to noun and verb and not much more. The sites, and the information on them, billboard our personal blathering, the effluvium of our lives, and they wind up not expanding the world but shrinking it to our own dimensions. You could call this a metaphor for modern life, increasingly narcissistic and trivial, except that the sites and the posts are modern life for hundreds of millions of people."

Clearly, this is a domain that needs our influence!

With some estimates suggesting that more than 95% of our students are using social media (mostly Facebook, and YouTube, although a few are turning on to Twitter), more educators are recognizing the need to meet students where they are. Many are seeing the challenge, the opportunity, and the duty to teach students not only how to be safe when using social media but how to use social media in a way that is socially responsible and both powerful and supportive of deeper learning. With the support and guidance of thoughtful teachers, students are flourishing in these new environments; more fully engaged in their learning through experiences that stretch beyond the traditional boundaries of the classroom.

My own personal learning has been enhanced greatly through Twitter, YouTube and Edublogs. For me, Twitter has become a rich learning community that points me to powerful readings, inspirational video, and invites me to participate in a sustained dialogue on relevant education topics. The community is full of outstanding educators and thought leaders, who model citizenship, collaboration, and creativity. Since using Twitter, I'm reading more than ever and I'm reflecting on my learning through writing for a real audience. (thanks mom:)

Left alone, social media can be a shallow, mind-numbing, distraction for our students. However, with the involvement of caring educators, social media can be harnessed as a wonderful, collaborative learning tool that leads learners to a place that is both intellectually rich and engaging.