Todd Whitaker at Spirit Lake

Notes from the Todd Whitaker's "What Great Teachers Do Differently" speech at the Sami Center at Spirit Lake schools.

• "What Great Teachers Do Differently" on Amazon Books.
• Follow Todd Whitaker on Twitter.
• To know what the great people do differently, we have to study both the effective and ineffective people.
• There is no relationship between teacher perception of principal effectiveness and principal self-impression of effectiveness.
• Every teacher thinks they're good - and the good ones are correct.
• Good lecturers explain better than the instructional materials.
• Teachers, students and parents all do the best they know how.
• We can either teach and model it, or we can whine about it.
• The problem with treating people as if they're bad is that bad people like it and it makes good people uncomfortable.
• You can't mandate effectiveness and you can't control a weirdo.
• The great ones do it, and the crummy ones don't; there's a difference between intention and action.
• "Shift the monkey" - make the good people comfortable and the bad people uncomfortable.
• The best teachers have an unlimited ability to ignore.
• People are the problem; people are the solution.
• It's people, not programs.
• When a school hires a new teacher, the goal is for the school to become more like the new teachers, not for the new teacher to become more like the school.
• "Sorry I couldn't get your car fixed, but we've got a tough group of cars this year."
• Let's put up signs for the 99%, not for the idiots.
• Principals need to be in classroom every day; the good teachers love it, and the bad teachers hate it.
• Great teachers compare themselves to perfection, that's why they're so insecure. Poor teachers compare everybody else to perfection, that's why they're so confident.
• Treat every student with respect and dignity every day, all the time.
• You don't have to like the kids, you just have to act like they like the kids.
• Three things that should never take place: We should never argue; We should never yell; We should never use sarcasm.
• In a great teacher's classroom, the kids don't know that the teachers even HAVE buttons.
• Setting consequences in advance takes pressure OFF of bad-behaving students. One of the most powerful tools we have is fear of the unknown.
• Poor teachers have rules; great teachers have expectations.
• Poor teachers want kids to leave the room mad; great teachers want them leaving different.
• Raise the Praise - Minimize the Criticize
• Praise should be: Authentic, Specific, Immediate, Clean (no ulterior motive), Private.

Welcome back to 2011-12!

Welcome back to the 2011-12 school year at Newell-Fonda! Here are some of the exciting things going on in our technology program:

• We're entering Year 4 of our 1:1 laptop program, providing a technology-rich learning environment for our students and teachers. Our staff constantly works to improve the use of technology to improve student learning and achievement.
• We're expanding our use of handheld devices. We've purchased an additional 34 Apple iPod Touches, an additional 8 Apple iPads, and 36 Mimio tablets. We've also purchased a number of document cameras and handheld video cameras. This should make it easier for students and teachers to get their hands on these useful devices.
• We're implementing Google Apps for Education in all grades. This should improve collaboration and communication for our students and staff.
• We're improving the ability of our staff in grades 5-12 to monitor student laptop use, by implementing the LANschool program on our 1:1 laptops. This allows teachers to continually monitor the screens of student computers to help ensure that they are on task.
• We're in the final stages of redesigning the school's web page. The new one should be more attractive and easier to navigate. We're hoping that this will improve communication between our students, staff and community.
• Don't forget to check the Newell-Fonda Daily Tweet. This is an online newspaper that brings together articles mentioned on Twitter by N-F teachers and the people they follow on Twitter. Also, check in on the Newell-Fonda Twitter feed.

YouTube - Progressive Education in the 1940s.

So.... have things changed much?

VREP Showcase

Notes from the Virtual Reality Education Pathfinders conference at Prairie Meadows in Altoona.

• 9:30 am - Curt Carlson of BodyViz software speaking on the potential of virtual reality in education. Demonstrating BodyViz software with 3D visualizations of CT scans. - http://www.bodyviz.com/
• The Human-Computer Interaction group at ISU's Engineering department will be looking at VR implementations in schools to assess educational impact and help develop best practices.
• Matthew Spegal of Sigourney high school presents on his game development using Blender.
• Austin Kingery of Easy Marshall high school talking about how VR development changes his outlook on education, and motivated him to learn new things.
• Jacob Meade from Starmont high school demon!strates his use of Blender effects and animations.
• Joe Wallace (teacher) from Mount Vernon high school presents on his students' use of Vizard in their VREP program.
• Nick Bragg and Holly Baiotto from Van Meter high school presenting on their VR program, bringing SketchUp models into Blender (I wanna know how to do this!).
• Boone high school students showing their Blender projects made into videos. Also showing using FPS Creator software to make games.
• Dave Harrison of Design Alliance speaks about digital advances in the field of architecture.
• David Wehr from Sigourney high school presents on his use of Python and C programming to create games in Blender. Great stuff!

Good Links:

• VREP website.
• BCLUW schools Python programming wiki.
• BCLUW schools VREP program wiki.
• Blender application website.
• Python programming language website.
• BodyViz software website.
• WorldViz Vizard website.
• AutoDesk Maya software website.
• Google SketchUp.

Bullying Prevention Videos

Does Fun Matter?

Watch this video, then think about how it might relate to how we run our schools and classrooms. (This came to me via Jo Vetter, one of our high school English teachers.)

Best Tweets of the Day 1-7-11

• QuietWrite - A peaceful place to write.
• Taylor Mali - What Teachers Make.
• Arduino - Open-source electronics prototyping platform.
• Baby Edward's Amazing Brain.
• PurpleMath.
• 11 Social Studies resources to try in 2011.
• Changing norms in student communication.

Best Tweets of the Day 1-5-11

• Buckyballs - build stuff with tiny magnets.
• KhanAcademy app for iPhone, Touch, Android.
• Spur more technology use in your classroom.
• 6 important lessons from Maine's student laptop program.
• The case for the virtual classroom.
• Less is more. Teach less, learn more.
• Bloom's Taxonomy.
• 3 reasons why students should be using DropBox.

Best Tweets of the Day 12-16-10

• Teacher uses YouTube as venue for singing science lessons.
• TimeGlider: Web-based timeline software.
• Google Demo Slam: Epic Docs animation.
• How different generations use the internet.
• Daniel Pink: There are two kinds of people in the world...

Best Tweets of the Day 12-15-10

• 10 tips for starting an education blog.
• 10 alternatives to PowerPoint.
• A Symbaloo of classroom Web 2.0 tools.
• StoryJumper.
• No-Facebook experiment yields dramatic results.
• High-tech school bus teachers students on the road.
• How to help students use social media effectively.
• Welcoming mobile technology.
• iPod Touch becomes learning tool.
• 60 iPad apps in 60 minutes.
• 30+ ways to use Foursquare in education.
• Mapping America: Every city, every block.
• iPods and iPads in the classroom.
• Kids' top tools for the classroom.