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Lutheran Education
Alan November Says.....

I was working on a number of project during the day today. While I was working I was monitoring the Twitter posts of those I follow from the world of educational technology. One of my favorite leaders in this field is educational technology futurist Alan November. Apparently he was giving a keynote speech this afternoon somewhere in California. As posts appeared I began gathering them in a single document to share with my colleagues at Shepherd of the Hills. Here are the quotes I collected from Alan November:

12/5/2009 5:48:57 PM

Lutheran Education
New Learning, Cont'd

In my last post I shared how I intended to keep the importance of new learning in front of our faculty in staff by sharing new things which I recently learned with the group and encouraging to share their new learning as well. It is hoped through this process that we build a culture of inquiry and personal professional development, modeling for our students what it means to be a life-long learner. My wife Gail, who is the music director at our church, took this challenge seriously, and shared the following item that was a part of her new learning: On Sunday morning, I learned that one of the musical traditions of All Saints' Day is to sing a Te Deum. If you read thru the Te Deum in the Matins service in Lutheran Service Book (that burgundy-brown hymnal thingy :-), you get yet another perspective on those verses. Very cool! It's on pp. 223-5. Canticles # 939, 940, and 941 are also based on the Te Deum. The second thing I learned is that the First Article to the Creed, the First Commandment, and the First Petition to the Lord's Prayer are all connected. I love how clever God is! Can you imagine how rich our experience as educators would be if we all took the time to intentionally learn and grow and then share what we've learned with our colleagues? What a blessing that would be! What new things have you recently learned? Share your new learning as a comment to this post!

11/4/2009 8:22:53 AM

Lutheran Education
Building a Culture of New Learning

I appreciate what David Warlick does when he begins a presentation by sharing something new he learned in the last 24 hours. What this does is create an atmosphere of constant learning and professional development among his audience. That same atmosphere is one which I want expanded within my school. To that end, I sent out an email today to the faculty and staff sharing two new things I learned in the last 24 hours and challenging others to engage in the same sort of sharing. I intend to being faculty meetings with some new learning as well. After all, if we expect our students to crave becoming life-long learners, we have the responsibility to model this ourselves. Here is the email I shared with the faculty and staff: Dear Colleagues:There is an educational technology futurist named David Warlick who begins every presentation he makes by sharing one or two new things he has learned in the past 24 hours. That is his way of building a culture of professional learning and growth within people. I thought that this might be a simple way to learn from each other and grow as professionals and as a staff without taking extra time during the day. Therefore, I'd like to challenge you to periodically share one or two new things you have learned. Not only will it help you build the discipline of professional learning and growth but it will also provide us with more resources as a staff. After all, if we want our students to be life-long learners, we should be modeling this aptitude as well. To that end, here is an interesting video about the history of Daylight Saving Time. I learned some new things about why we have it from this video:http://www.cbs.com/thunder/player/thunder.php?pid=hYbTBhKVW_ChXTYI0n_gHDt_aFMff_Gn I also learned that Inspiration is not the only mind mapping program available. There are many other pay and free options, both in software and with web services:http://mindmappingsoftwareblog.com/mmsb/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/index2.html I will try to keep the momentum going when I send out email. Please feel free to share your new learning as well. What about your school? How is new learning shared within your building? What steps have been taken to build a culture of continuous professional development in your school? Feel free to share your ideas and experiences as a comment to this post.

11/2/2009 10:34:54 PM

Lutheran Education
Google Survey and the Value of a PLN

Today I worked with my 7th grade World Civilizations class on an activity designed to connect their thoughts about the decline of the Roman Empire with what they see happening within our country today. As a result, the class designed a short survey to gauge the thoughts of others on this topic. While I am proud of the thought they put into this survey as the collaborated together, what amazed me is the value of a Personal Learning Network (PLN) in engaging others to complete this survey. I intentionally invited a few professional educators in my PLN whom I follow on Twitter, including a few people I have never met. Before long we were receiving responses from all over the nation and from three other countries, and that in just the first 12 hours since the survey was open. My daughter, who is in this 7th grade class, is amazed that so many people from different places would care enough to take a survey created by 7th graders. It is clear that this experience has already empowered her to understand that her ideas matter. The next challenge will be to lead the class in a process for interpreting and reporting the data they are collecting. Stay tuned for the next step in this adventure.

10/5/2009 10:18:21 PM

Lutheran Education
Back to Blogging

My keyboard has been silent. My attention has been elsewhere. My voice has been quiet. Yet, it is time to get back to blogging. It is time to blog once again not for you, dear reader (although I do hope you benefit from my thoughts), but for me. You see, I need to blog to build a daily discipline for my own learning and professional development. If I blog I feel as if I have a responsibility to share something of value with each of you, even if there is only one reader out there. If I am responsible for helping someone else along in their journey as an educator then I need to invest the time necessary to grow myself so I have something of value to share. So I'm back to blogging. I'm also back to blogging since there is so much that interests me and there is so much to explore. Lately I have been exploring iPod and iPhone apps, pondering how these tools might be used in education. The following video piqued my interest and fits with some of the thoughts I've been having about these devices as tools for education: How could these devices change the classroom? What empowerment for students might occur? The possibilities are both exciting and challenging. Of course, there will be those schools, administrators, and teachers who will be concerned about controlling the devices in the classroom and during the school day. Opening the door for such devices in education is a different model, so I can understand the concern. There would also be a lot of professional development needed to help educators design engaging curricular activities when utilizing these applications. Yet I would love to be in a position to further explore how we can use the tools which God has given us for the education of his children. What are your thoughts about these devices in education? Share a comment to this post and let the conversation begin!

9/29/2009 10:03:03 PM

Lutheran Education
Happy National Lutheran Schools Week

Happy National Lutheran Schools Week! Do you want to hear why our students love attending our school? Click here and follow the link to the first grade audiocast at the top of the page. Join our school in celebrating the blessings of Lutheran schools!

3/4/2009 2:15:31 PM

Lutheran Education
21st Century Skills Wiki

I would like to introduce you to our school 21st Century Skills wiki. This wiki has been created to document specific lessons and projects used with students at Shepherd of the Hills that connect to standards within the core curriculum but also build practical skills for a student's future. We have identified and defined eight specific 21st Century Skills, and now anyone may view the activities which serve to build these skills.

2/24/2009 2:29:43 PM

Lutheran Education
Learning 2.0 Reflections

Saturday I had the privilege of attending Learning 2.0: A Colorado Conversation -- a single day conference which drew over 200 participants, primarily public school teachers, to discuss technology and education. It was a fascinating and beneficial day. You may view some of the conversations here.

2/23/2009 4:19:26 PM

Lutheran Education
Monday Links List

Here is a list of links which may be of interest to teachers in Lutheran schools:

2/2/2009 12:19:38 PM

Lutheran Education
Using Worldle in the Classroom

I've been intrigued by the educational possibilities of Wordle, an online site which converts text into beautiful word clouds. The service works by pasting text or a link into the creation tools, and a word cloud will result. Here is a cloud from President Obama's inaugural address.

1/23/2009 1:59:35 PM