On teaching people a lesson

  Love this blurb from this blog:

You're actually not teaching them a lesson, because the people who most need to learn a lesson haven't, and won't. What you're actually doing is diverting yourself from your path as well as ruining your day in a quixotic quest for fairness, fairness you're unlikely to find.

Sure, you can shut someone down, excoriate them, sue them or refuse to let them win, but odds are they're just going to go try their game on someone else.
When you fire a customer and politely ask them to move on, you are withdrawing yourself from their trollish dance. When, instead, you focus on the good student, the worthwhile investor, the delighted vendor, you improve things for both of you. The sooner you get back to work (your work), the sooner you can move toward your best outcome, which is achieving what you set out to achieve in the first place.
The real tragedy of the person who dumps on you is that you pay twice. The second time is when you get bent out of shape trying to get even.




Via: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2013/05/on-teaching-people-a-lesson.html?utm_source=Seth+Godin&utm_campaign=website&utm_source=sendgrid.com&utm_medium=email

Student Digital Portfolios for assessment and learning

Really enjoyed this blog post on Assessment using Student blog-portfolio's: http://plpnetwork.com/2013/05/30/digital-porfolios-thinking-assessment/

It is unfortunate that many schools don't have the capabilities to do this (not enough ipads, laptops, computers in classroom, bandwidth, wi-fi, money, etc.) but I do like the idea. I have used forums and such for independent novel studies and interactive class activities in the past, but I would love to use blog portfolio's for students. It would be interesting for them as well to have and be able to look back on.

The post explains:

Verbal explanations
I have always used formative assessment in my classroom, but our digital portfolios give me much richer information than our paper portfolios ever did. Because my young students are still beginning writers, it is often difficult for them to explain their learning through writing. They can, however, explain their learning verbally. There are lots of apps (including my current iPad favorites Educreations and Draw & Tell) that record voice over an image. These digital artifacts allow me to understand a child’s thinking in a much deeper way.

The beauty of digital portfolios is that as the children and I are constantly assessing their learning in a formative and summative way, the students are also demonstrating their growing knowledge for a wide audience and learning about digital citizenship and appropriate online behavior. What great by-products of the assessment process! 

Please check out the entire article here: http://plpnetwork.com/2013/05/30/digital-porfolios-thinking-assessment/

App: Haiku Deck - graphing feature

Haiku Deck is a great FREE app - I wrote about it briefly in a previous post here

If you are not familiar with Haiku Deck it is an app similar to Power Point that lets you create slick and simple slide shows. The best feature is the ability to search 1000's of creative commons pictures within the app that can be easily added to the presentation. I certainly suggest checking out all the app can do but for this post I am going to focus on the graph feature. (which is new!)

When you first open the app you will be given a brief tutorial and then land on a screen similar to the one below. Click the plus sign to get started with your first deck.

Here is how I used the app in my class to graph our favorite ice cream flavors. First, we made a list on the white board of different kinds of ice cream and from that list I picked five for our graph. As you can see in the image below I used the "Tt" (blue arrow) option so the first slide would have a format with a title and numbered choices. To edit the text on the slide all you have to do is touch the area you want to edit or type on. Once we had this slide complete I had my class vote for their favorite flavor and I collected that data on the whiteboard. Using that data we moved to the next step of showing the data in a graph and added a new slide to our deck using the plus sign (yellow arrow.)

For the next slide I picked the image option (red arrow below). Next select the graph option (orange arrow) and then pick the type of graph you want to use. We used the bar graph this week (green arrow) and will work with the pie graph next week. Last click the "Done" button to create the slide. Also want to point out that you can switch between the slide you are editing at the bottom of the screen (blue arrow)

After you finish the step above you will see a screen similar to the one below. Editing the data is super simple with Haiku Deck which is why I love this app. To add more columns to the graph click the plus sign (red arrow) and to delete a column press the red "x" (green arrow.) Editing the label for each column simply by clicking the word under each column (yellow arrow.) Changing the number or total for each column by dragging the dot at the top of each column (blue arrow.) I know it seems like a lot of steps but if you practice it once it is very simple to repeat. The last tip is to edit the units for the graph (orange arrow.) This will allow you to change the Y-axis units to better match the data in your graph.

Sharing the deck is also very easy by going back to the main menu (top left of the app) and then pressing the share button for your deck. When you choose share you will be given the options below. Click here to see the finished Haiku deck from this post.

 

This post is from http://www.technologytailgate.com/ by Matt Gomez. You can connect with him on mattBgomez.com, Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest.

Coquitlam Centre Anti-Bullying Flash Mob Video

Times Colonist Editorial:Ten-year deal no path to peace

 Times Colonist - Ten-year deal no path to peace:

Far from creating 10 years of peace, Premier Christy Clark’s insistence on a longer-term contract with B.C.’s teachers guarantees four more years of bitter wrangling. 

In January, Clark said she would seek a 10-year labour deal with teachers in which salary increases would be indexed to increases received by other public-sector employees, calling it a framework that would bring a decade of stability to classrooms. Teachers would still have the right to strike, but not over wages.
Predictably, the plan was quickly dismissed by the B.C. Teachers’ Federation as an election ploy.
Meanwhile, the BCTF and the B.C. Public School Employers Association went to work figuring out a mutually acceptable structure for contract negotiations, and appeared to have developed a respectful atmosphere. The two sides were scheduled to sit down for more talks this week, but Clark has poked a stick into the hornets’ nest by resurrecting the idea of a long-term agreement with teachers.
The premier claims she has a mandate to pursue the 10-year deal, but it was not an election issue. The B.C. Liberals’ platform was focused on the economy, holding the line on taxes and paying down the debt. Besides, how can anyone say British Columbians voted for a particular plank in a platform? It’s just as likely they were voting against the New Democrats as they were for anything in particular offered by the Liberals.
Far from fostering peace, Clark’s plan will only anger teachers further. The government already wields the big club — the ability to legislate the teachers back to work — and imposing an unpalatable and unworkable framework on the negotiations won’t smooth the rough relationship between government and teachers. It’s disrespectful and heavy-handed.
The Liberals’ strengthened majority might give Clark new muscle in telling government what to do, but she can’t tell teachers how to think and feel.
A 10-year agreement would be bad for both sides. No one knows what the economy and the demographics will be like 10 years down the road.
One of the main reasons for periodic negotiations is to work out an agreement that takes into consideration changing conditions.
Clark is not wrong in wanting labour peace for B.C.’s schools. Others want it, too — that’s what motivated the school boards and teachers to work out a new and respectful approach to bargaining. It would not have created an instant Shangri-La in which everyone was happy and everyone had everything they wanted, but it was a step in the right direction.
Clark should leave well enough alone. There’s no shame in proposing a new plan. The shame is in clinging to that plan long after it’s obvious the plan is unworkable.
The relationship between government and teachers has been strained for many years. If Clark wants 10 years of labour peace — and it’s a commendable goal — she should seek to build a trustful, respectful relationship with teachers, one in which hard bargaining can take place without acrimony. That can’t happen if she unilaterally imposes new rules on the negotiating process.
It’s disturbing that the premier thinks she can put out the fire by throwing gasoline on it.
 

http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/editorial-ten-year-deal-no-path-to-peace-1.306825

Teacher Resignation Video - Everything I love about teaching is extinct

Huffington Post shared this article about a teacher who was among several given involuntary transfers to other schools due to "poor climate"

"I was proud to say I was a teacher," Rubenstein tells the camera, after describing how she abandoned a career in public relations to "do something meaningful" with her life. "But over the past 15 years, I've experienced the depressing, gradual downfall and misdirection of communication that has slowly eaten away at my love of teaching." "Raising students' test scores on standardized tests is now the only goal, and in order to achieve it the creativity, flexibility and spontinaety that create authentic learning environments have been eliminated. ... Everything I love about teaching is extinct," she continues.

Teacher Resignation Video: Ellie Rubenstein Explains 'Everything I Love About Teaching Is Extinct'

Editorial: Education Issues

Education was hardly a burning issue in the provincial election, leaving many educators, trustees and administrators — not to mention parents — scratching their heads.

Cash-strapped school districts from Prince George to New Westminster, including School District 43, were expecting to hear something specific about a long-term vision for funding a 21st century education system. But whatever was in the political kit bags of the two party front-runners was lost in debates over who would better handle the economy.

Meanwhile, districts across the province are slashing budgets to keep spending in line with funding. SD43’s funding problems are magnified by revenue and expense miscalculations during last year’s budget process. But SD43 isn’t the only district cutting back and few would argue that the education system is awash in cash.

Rather, it is merely holding the line while expectations for smaller classes, support for special needs and help for children with learning disabilities, technology and other demands increase.

So where was the talk about building a sustainable funding system for schools? Where was the leadership given last year’s labour unrest that resulted in many clubs and sporting events being cancelled?

It was drowned out by political recriminations on both sides. Now though, Premier Christy Clark is re-floating an earlier trial balloon to seek a 10-year labour agreement with teachers. While it’s true that labour peace would surely benefit the education system, it’s hard to see how making the BCTF eat crow so soon after the election (many teachers thought they’d be dealing with a friendly NDP government) is going to bring this about. And because the issue hardly came up, it’s hard to argue the 10-year deal is part of her mandate.

For many people, what’s needed first is a new, more equitable funding formula that doesn’t pit urban school districts against rural districts for scarce cash. Once a long-term vision for funding is revealed, then Clark might be in a better position to work with teachers on the vaunted 10-year labour deal.

But until then, all she’ll accomplish with re-writing the teachers’ labour contract is more instability in schools.

So, um, good luck with that.


Via http://www.tricitynews.com/opinion/209560321.html