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Dangerously Irrelevant | @mcleod - Education & Personal Development
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ISTE Community Leaders: The Edge | @mcleod
I have been involved with the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) for over two decades. ISTE was a major supporter of our School Technology Leadership Initiative (STLI) at the University of Minnesota, a $2.5 million federally-funded project which, among other things, created the first graduate program designed to prepare a technology-savvy school leader.…
Books I read in April 2024 | @mcleod
Books I finished reading (or rereading) in April 2024... The A.I. Roadmap, John Spencer (education) The AI Infused Classroom, Holly Clark (education) The AI Classroom, Dan Fitzpatrick, Amanda Fox, & Brad Weinstein (education) The Generative Age, Alanna Winnick (education) AI for Educators, Matt Miller (education) Learning Evolution, Carl Hooker (education) Active Learning with AI, Stephen…
Books I read in March 2024 | @mcleod
Books I finished reading (or rereading) in March 2024... Never Enough, Jennifer Breheny Wallace (education) The Grand Conspiracy, J. N. Chaney & Terry Mixon (science fiction) Shield of Humanity, J. N. Chaney & Terry Mixon (science fiction) Fog of War, J. N. Chaney & Terry Mixon (science fiction) Ships of the Line, J. N. Chaney…
Books I read in February 2024 | @mcleod
Books I finished reading (or rereading) in February 2024... The Baseball 100, Joe Posnanski (baseball) Alias Emma, Ava Glass (thriller) 1000 Ultimate Adventures, Lonely Planet (travel) The Blade Itself, Joe Abercrombie (fantasy) Before They Are Hanged, Joe Abercrombie (fantasy) Bowlful, Norman Musa (cookbook) The Last Hunter, J. N. Chaney & Terry Mixon (science fiction) Bonds of…
Featured interview in K-12 EdTech Magazine | @mcleod
I had the honor of being the featured interview in the Winter 2024 issue of K-12 EdTech Magazine. Here are a couple of quotes from the article: Keep asking the question, technology for the purpose of what? How you answer that question depends on your learning model. If your learning model is about teachers transmitting…
Books I read in January 2024 | @mcleod
Books I finished reading (or rereading) in January 2024... Ultimate Travel, Lonely Planet (travel) The Helsinki Affair, Anna Pitoniak (thriller) Heat Lightning, John Sandford (thriller) Embers of War, Gareth Powell (science fiction) Fleet of Knives, Gareth Powell (science fiction) The Toll, Neal Shusterman (science fiction) Gleanings, Neal Shusterman (science fiction) Crucible of Fortune, Andy Peloquin…
Where are new tasks, work, and jobs emerging? | @mcleod
I ran across this working paper from Dr. David Autor, a labor economist at MIT: Autor, D., Chin, C., Salomons, A., & Seegmiller, B. (2023). New frontiers: The origins and content of new work, 1940-2018. Quarterly Journal of Economics (forthcoming). Autor et al. defined new work as "the introduction of new job tasks or job…
Students don’t need agency | @mcleod
I’m going to leave these screenshots here so I don’t forget them… [sigh] Text is underneath each one. ME: It would be a terrible, terrible thing if students ever got to learn about things THEY wanted, not just what WE wanted? THEM: Adult discernment and responsibility doesn’t end at the schoolhouse door. We decide what…
Schools can feel totalitarian to many students | @mcleod
I participated in a Twitter conversation yesterday that bounced around a bit. I believe that most of the folks I conversed with were from the United Kingdom. I also believe that many of them were in favor of what we might call ‘strict discipline’ in schools. One of the advantages of having a blog is…
Books I read in December 2023 | @mcleod
Books I finished reading (or rereading) in December 2023... The Power of Moments, Chip Heath & Dan Heath (leadership) Atomic Habits, James Clear (productivity) In the Spirit of the Studio, Lella Gandini, Lynne Hill, Louise Cadwell, and Charles Schwall (education) Deschooling Society, Ivan Illich (education) Frontera, Julio Anta & Jacoby Salcedo (graphic novel) Thunderhead, Neal…
Extinguishing students’ curiosity in learning | @mcleod
When we subject young people to 13 years of 'just tell me what to do' schooling that emphasizes giving teachers 'the right answer’ instead of exploration and risk-taking, we shouldn't be surprised that their 'curiosity in learning' has been extinguished. Download this file. See also my other slides.
Books I read in November 2023 | @mcleod
Books I finished reading (or rereading) in November 2023... TED Talks, Chris Anderson (public speaking) Resurrection Walk, Michael Connelly (thriller) The Final Detail, Harlen Coben (thriller) City Under One Roof, Iris Yamashita (thriller) Illborn, Daniel Jackson (fantasy) Aiduel’s Sin, Daniel Jackson (fantasy) Crooked Kingdom, Leigh Bardugo (fantasy) All Systems Red, Martha Wells (science fiction) Artificial…
Real problems versus test problems | @mcleod
Robert Sternberg said: The characteristics of real-world problems are entirely different from the characteristics of problems on standardized tests. Standardized test problems are mostly multiple choice or short answer and have a right or wrong answer. Real problems require extended answers; there is no perfect answer, and sometimes, not even a very good one. Standardized…
Books I read in October 2023 | @mcleod
Books I finished reading (or rereading) in October 2023... Fix Injustice, Not Kids and Other Principles for Transformative Equity Leadership, Paul Gorski & Katy Swalwell (education) Scythe, Neal Shusterman (science fiction) Judgment Prey, John Sandford (thriller) Shadow and Bone, Leigh Bardugo (fantasy) Siege and Storm, Leigh Bardugo (fantasy) Ruin and Rising, Leigh Bardugo (fantasy) Six of…
Schools give encouragement to producers, not thinkers | @mcleod
Schools give every encouragement to producers, the kids whose idea is to get "right answers" by any and all means. In a system that runs on "right answers," they can hardly help it. And these schools are often very discouraging places for thinkers. (Holt, How Children Fail, p. 40) Download this slide View some of…
A feeling that they must please the grownups at all costs | @mcleod
What hampers their thinking, what drives them into these narrow and defensive strategies, is a feeling that they must please the grownups at all costs. The really able thinkers in our class turn out to be, without exception, children who don't feel so strongly the need to please grownups. Some of them are good students,…
Producers v. thinkers | @mcleod
[We used the word producer to describe the student who was only interested in getting right answers, and who made more or less uncritical use of rules and formulae to get them; we called thinker the student who tried to think about the meaning, the reality, of whatever it was he was working on.] (Holt,…
Books I read in September 2023 | @mcleod
Books I finished reading (or rereading) in September 2023... The Moonsteel Crown, Stephen Deas (fantasy) Ever In a Pirate’s Eye, Chloe Garner (fantasy) The Legend of Black Jack, A. R. Witham (fantasy) Extinction Reversed, J. S. Morin (science fiction) Oath of Gold, Elizabeth Moon (fantasy) In the Orbit of Sirens, T. A. Bruno (science fiction)…
How about a Social Impact elective? (part 2) | @mcleod
Back in August I proposed the idea of a Social Impact elective course, a student-driven learning experience that leaned heavily into the Contribution item in Section B of the 4 Shifts Protocol. Since then I’ve heard from a couple of schools that are doing this... Junipero Serra High School Junipero Serra High School in San…
For children, the central business of school is not learning | @mcleod
The valiant and resolute band of travelers I thought I was leading toward a much-hoped-for destination turned out instead to be more like convicts in a chain gang, forced under threat of punishment to move along a rough path leading nobody knew where and down which they could see hardly more than a few steps…
Let’s double down on math and reading! | @mcleod
If a certain kind of teaching failed to produce learning the first time, why will it suddenly produce it the second time? In many cases the children, now ashamed and angry as well as bored and confused, will do even worse than before… (Holt, How Children Fail, p. 3) Let’s double down on math and…
Books I read in August 2023 | @mcleod
Books I finished reading (or rereading) in August 2023... How Children Learn, John Holt (education) Recoding America, Jennifer Pahlka (technology) The Queen’s Chair, Chloe Garner (fantasy) The Faerie’s Secret, Chloe Garner (fantasy) The Rogue’s Bargain, Chloe Garner (fantasy) The Queen’s Seal, Chloe Garner (fantasy) The Terran Menace, J.R. Robertson (science fiction) Shockwave, Lindsay Buroker (science…
Students fail because they are afraid, bored, or confused | @mcleod
[Students] fail because they are afraid, bored, and confused. They are afraid, above all else, of failing, of disappointing or displeasing the many anxious adults around them, whose limitless hopes and expectations for them hang over their heads like a cloud. They are bored because the things they are given and told to do in…
Time to flip the ‘majority minority’ terminology in schools? | @mcleod
[et_pb_section fb_built="1" admin_label="section" _builder_version="4.16" global_colors_info="{}"][et_pb_row admin_label="row" _builder_version="4.16" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" global_colors_info="{}"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="4.16" custom_padding="|||" global_colors_info="{}" custom_padding__hover="|||"][et_pb_text admin_label="Text" _builder_version="4.17.1" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" hover_enabled="0" global_colors_info="{}" sticky_enabled="0"]You may have missed it but, back in June, the U.S. Department of Education released a report called The State of School Diversity in the United States. Page 6 of the report…
Why do we assume the worst of children? | @mcleod
I’m going to start posting some quotes here from John Holt’s How Children Fail, which is a classic education text about student learning (that most educators have never read?)... The bad things we assume about other people tend to become true, become "self-fulfilling prophecies." Many people seem to think that the way to take care…
Books I read in May 2023 | @mcleod
Books I finished reading (or rereading) in May 2023... Leaders of Their Own Learning, Ron Berger (education) Defiant, Dave Bara (science fiction) A Million Open Doors, John Barnes (science fiction) Earth Made of Glass, John Barnes (science fiction) Tress of the Emerald Sea, Brandon Sanderson (science fiction) Crossover, Joel Shepherd (science fiction) Rockslide, Michael Wisehart…
How about a Social Impact elective? | @mcleod
One class that I always thought would be meaningful, impactful, and highly visible to the community would be a Social Impact elective course. This would basically be a student-driven genius hour but focused heavily on the Contribution item in Section B of the 4 Shifts Protocol to include a community impact focus. We could integrate…
Books I read in April 2023 | @mcleod
Books I finished reading (or rereading) in March 2023... The EduProtocol Field Guide, Marlena Hebern & Jon Corippo (education) The EduProtocol Field Guide Book 2, Marlena Hebern & Jon Corippo (education) Deploying EduProtocols, Kimberly Voge, Marlena Hebern, & Jon Corippo (education) Desert Star, Michael Connelly (thriller) The Fireballer, Mark Stevens (baseball) Starbound, Dave Bara (science…
Books I read in July 2023 | @mcleod
Books I finished reading (or rereading) in July 2023... Assessment of Higher Order Thinking Skills, Gregory Schraw and Daniel Robinson (Eds.) (psychology) The Future of Smart, Ulcca Joshi Hansen (education) Critical Thinking, Jonathan Haber (education) The Song of Significance, Seth Godin (leadership) Recalibrate the Culture, Jimmy Casas (education) The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch…
If you want to graduate, pass the test or grovel to the school board | @mcleod
About ten years ago when I was in Iowa, a middle school principal decided that her students weren’t trying hard enough on the state tests. So she set up a fun end-of-year field trip to the amusement park and told the students that whomever didn’t do their best during assessment season couldn’t go. I asked…
Books I read in June 2023 | @mcleod
Books I finished reading (or rereading) in June 2023... Lead From Where You Are, Joe Sanfelippo (education) The Collapsing Empire, John Scalzi (science fiction) The Consuming Fire, John Scalzi (science fiction) The Last Emperox, John Scalzi (science fiction) The Poppy War, R. F. Kuang (fantasy) The Dragon Republic, R. F. Kuang (fantasy) The Book of…
Review: The Coach, Eduro Learning | @mcleod
[Disclaimer: Kim Cofino is a friend of mine and I highly respect her work!] Over the past months I have had the incredible privilege of spending a lot of time with Kim Cofino and her instructional coaching team at Eduro Learning. Not in person - Kim is in Bangkok, Thailand, and her team is all…
Books I read in December 2022 | @mcleod
Books I finished reading (or rereading) in December 2022... AI 2041, Chen Qiufan & Kai-Fu Lee (technology, sci fi) The Investigator, John Sandford (thriller) The Dark Hours, Michael Connelly (thriller) Bottom of the 33rd, Dan Barry (baseball) Nightfall and Other Stories, Isaac Asimov (sci fi) The Ghost Brigades, John Scalzi (sci fi) The Last Colony,…
Pretending at support for technology integration | @mcleod
I saw this post a while back in an educational technology forum: I have been given roughly an hour for PD on January 4th to work with teachers on anything that I'd like. I rotate between 7 sites pre-k to 12th grade, but I will be working with 4th grade-12th grade teachers on this date.…
Playing around with ChatGPT from OpenAI | @mcleod
I’ve been playing around with ChatGPT from OpenAI. Below are a few prompts and the responses generated by the artificial intelligence (AI) of ChatGPT. Be sure to see the last question below! Your thoughts? --- Can Holden Caulfield be considered a tragic hero? Holden Caulfield, the main character in J.D. Salinger's novel "The Catcher in the…