I promise you I have not been ignoring my blogging duties. Our server got invaded from Russia! Well to be more precise we got hit by a malware attack. It took some time to clean and restore the server but we are now back up and running
It has been a busy couple of weeks. I have much to share. I am working on several stories. Watch soon for stories on some of my school visits, student election speeches, committee updates, proposed state amendments and more
Thanks for your support and patience while we were down.
“Yes students will text, and students will learn!”
Our history is filled with examples of persons saying, “Oh no if you allow that… this terrible thing will happen…” When Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press people feared that oral-tradition would die. When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone people feared that people would not visit one another and have one to one conversations. When Henry Ford produced the Model “T” people feared that quiet walks were gone for good. We have survived, lived up to the challenges and arguably excelled those moments in our history. Technology and even more particularly technology in education is another of those moments.
When talking about technology use in the classroom and schools let me begin by again sharing the question, “Are we educating our children from the world we came from or the world they will enter”? If we are preparing them to be successes then I firmly believe we must be doing the latter.
Over the last several years in education this issue has been examined. Around the world, our country, our states and our communities, the issue of student use of individual electronic mobile devices in school has been debated and researched. As an example is a pilot project in 2008 funded by Qualcomm to Project K-Nect, in rural North Carolina. (Click here to read the article.) In the pilot high school students received supplemental algebra problem sets on smartphones. The class using the smartphones consistently achieved significantly higher proficiency rates on their end of course exams. The overall proficiency rates of the students increased by 30 percent. In the best case, one class using the devices had 50 percent more students finishing the year had a higher proficiency than a class learning the same material from the same teacher during the same school year, but without the cell phones. Study after study shows students engagement and students learning gains have significantly increased by the use of individual electronic mobile devices.
It is my belief that over the last 100 years in education, teaching methods by in large have not changed dramatically. I further believe that when history looks back 100 years from now they will point back to the integration of one-to-one individual electronic mobile devices as the time when education of our students successfully changed from an “assembly line” approach to an interactive individualized instruction.
In Walter Isaacson’s book Steve Jobs, Isaacson shares Jobs observation of the educational system. “Jobs also criticized America’s Education System, saying that it was hopelessly antiquated… It was absurd, he added, that American classrooms were still based on teachers standing at a board and using textbooks. All books, learning materials, and assessments should be digital and interactive, tailored to each student and providing feedback in real time.”
Steve Jobs major competitor and colleague was Bill Gates. Gates also has been working to make changes in education through the use of his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Isaacson further shares in his book that during one of Gate’s last meetings with Jobs prior to his death, Jobs and Gates spoke about the educational system together, “They agreed that computers had, so far, made surprisingly little impact on schools—far less than on other realms of society such as media and medicine and law. For that to change, Gates said, computers and mobile devices would have to focus on delivering more personalized lessons and providing motivational feedback.”
I fully support and agree with Jobs and Gates and that of furthering the vast research on the importance of transitioning from print to digital learning.
In the 2011 legislative session Florida Legislators revised the law to require that Florida Statue 1006.29, “State instructional materials” to require a transition from print to a digital curriculum. Florida Statue 1006.29 (1) (c) (3), now requires, “Beginning in the 2015-2016 academic year, all adopted instructional materials for students in kindergarten through grade 12 must be provided in an electronic or digital format.” This statue now requires that by 2016-2017 districts will have to implement in grades K-12 a digital device (One-to-One) such as an iPad to deliver the 2015-2016 adopted instructional materials requirement.
How is Citrus County School System Meeting this Transition?
First, it is important for our school system to have a policy that will govern the rules and expectations of our students. With that in mind, Citrus County School Board’s “Student Code of Conduct” policy for “Possession/Use of Cell Phones” changed in June 2011. For the 2011-2012 school year and now for the 2012-2013 school year the code reads, “Cell phones/wireless communication devices may be in a students’ possession; however, they must be turned off and cannot be displayed/utilized during the school day or on the school bus when being transported to or from school without permission from school personnel.” (Prior to the 2011 change the policy read, “Cell phones/wireless communication devices must be turned off and cannot be displayed/utilized during the school day or on the school bus when being transported to or from school.”) The 2011 change provided flexibility for principals and educators as we then began working towards students’ use of electronic devices in school, often referred to as “Bring You Own Technology” (BYOT).
The Citrus County School System made an important commitment by its approach to meeting this digital instructional materials mandate by its use of the “Race to the Top” (RttT) grant funds. The district’s plan first was to install a wall-to-wall wireless student internet access at all middle and high schools in Citrus County using the grant funds. This was completed in May 2012. Next, Citrus County Schools set aside $150,000 to fund a One-to-One school pilot initiative in which students would take home a one-to-one device. In April of 2012, after a comprehensive and competitive submission process, Citrus Springs Middle School (CSMS) was selected as the school to receive the One-to-One pilot program.
As Citrus and the rest of school districts in Florida work towards meeting the 2015-2016 “all digital” requirement it is critical that educators and students begin transitioning curriculum and learning now. Until districts implement the “all digital” requirement BYOT allows students to use devices they currently have and teachers to begin developing curriculum which can, but not require, the use of technology.
In order to properly allow students to use the student wireless internet access with their BYOT it was imperative to develop new policies for students’ use of the internet and BYOT. After a great deal of development the currently proposed “Student Internet Use Policy” has been developed. (Click here to read the original proposed but that is being revised.)
I am encouraged about this exciting time regarding the use of instructional technology and I encourage you to contact me with any thoughts and/or questions you may have.
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At the detention facility right now 7 college students!
Thursday I attended one of my newest School Advisory Enhancement Council (SAEC) school assignments which is held at the Cypress Creek Academy. Cypress Creek Academy (CCA) is a maximum-risk, residential male juvenile detention facility in Lecanto. The anticipated length of stay is 18 to 36 months. Yes, that is correct, we have a SAEC at the “teen jail”. Not many SAEC meetings begin with entering through a razor wire- topped security fence gate and passing through a metal detector, only to then be escorted in by staff through two more sets of security gates before you reach the chapel where the meetings are held.
During the SAEC meeting some very positive success stories of the students were shared. Currently the CCA has 7 students that are taking college courses. This past month 5 out of 8 students that took the General Education Diploma (G.E.D.) passed the test. What is important to understand is that a person who earns his high school diploma or G.E.D. is 70% less likely to re-offend; of those that do not, 70% will re-enter prison for reoffenses. All of those serving at CCA are required by law, regardless of their age, to be enrolled in school. Since the students at CCA have been sentenced to 18 to 36 months, it is conceivable that the majority of students will be at the facility during their entire high school career. If the students do not work diligently on their schooling they are demonstrating that they are not being successful in their sentence and, if that occurs, the maximum time may be required. This consequence helps to keep students motivated.
One of the programs that was explained during the meeting was CCA’s own “Boys to Men” (later renamed “Team of One”) Peer Mentoring Program. This program selects positive peer leaders from the student body to be trained in peer mentoring to help and support other students at CCA. As the coordinator of the program shared, if he was to tell the students to, “tuck in your shirt, watch your language, or be respectful”, they would listen but it doesn’t have as strong an effect as it does if one of the other peer- mentoring students tells their peers the same thing. During the first mentor graduation they had 8 students graduate from the training program to become mentors. Through donations those graduates received a new pair of dress pants, a white collared shirt and neck tie to wear to the graduation, and a dinner from Applebee’s. For many of these young men this might be the nicest outfit they have ever owned and it represents a new beginning for many of them.
In attendance at the SAEC meeting were three students from the peer mentoring program. These young men were impressive. Two of the students were inaugural graduates of the “Boys to Men” Mentoring Program and one of the students had just been chosen to begin mentoring training to become a mentor. If someone introduced you to these three boys outside of this location and asked you which educational program you thought they attended, you would likely think they were from our gifted program or from one of our other high academically- achieving programs. These young men were smart, determined, articulate and well-groomed. I told these boys before I left that I was most impressed by them and I encouraged them to keep up the positive work they were doing.
The next “Boys to Men” graduation is quickly approaching. They are in need of donations to outfit this next graduating class for their upcoming graduation. If you are interested in donating, please contact the Program Accounting Manager at (352) 527-3091 x104 or by email at Sharon.facto@us.securicor.com
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As I understand it at this time this basically means that the performance measure for educators known as the “Value Added Model” (VAM) which represents 50% of the educators evaluation will need to be redeveloped. Based on SB-736 the additional 50% of a teacher evaluation is based on student’s scores and as I understand it has not changed as it was not part of this lawsuit.
I am pleased with the court’s decision and hopefully this decision will result in more local control and flexibility in developing the teacher evaluation system.
I am not a supporter of “teacher’s merit pay” where teachers evaluations and pay raises are directly tied to student scores and performance. Therefore it may seem strange that I am somewhat thankful for the teacher’s merit pay section involving the VAM in SB-736 that was just invalidated by the court. The reason is that in the initial architecture of the Bill was to have 100% of a teachers evaluation based on students’ scores . If the VAM was not part of the Bill then we might never have this opportunity to impact locally deciding on 50% performance measure section. As a result the FEA was able to suit based on the VAM being part of the Bill.
I am encourage that while we will have to begin developing a new evaluation system that in the end this will be positive. I still have concerns but it is a new place to start.
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“The of the best learning events for Educators in all of Florida!”
Only two months away until EdCamp Citrus 2012. ECC will take place this year on October 20, 2012 at Citrus High School in Inverness. This will be ECC’s third annual event and is one fo the largest in the country.
EdCamp again will offer teachers an outstanding opportunity to learn how to incorporate some of the best teaching strategies in their classrooms. While the use of technology to deliver curriculum is a big part of EdCamp it is not exclusively a technology conference.
What is EdCamp?
EdCamp Citrus 2012 is an unconference, inspired by similar events being organized around the country. The goal of edcamp Citrus is to bring educators together to discuss technology that works. It’s a conference for educators, by educators, and the presenters are the people that show up to the event. If you want to present, you just write your name on the board and you present for an hour. If people get something out of it, that’s great. If not, participants are encouraged to vote with their feet. So the event is as good as the people that show up to participate.
While there will be organizers for this event, we only provide the basic framework. Teachers and educators like you show up and decide what is going to be discussed. No longer are you stuck with sessions that have been determined months ahead of time in which you have no input. If you do not see something that is helpful, create your own session and share what you know best.
Four Citrus Schools Get Free Solar Power Generating Systems
Some Bay area schools that also serve as emergency shelters are getting free solar installations and battery backup systems.
The new systems are from a $200,000 grant from Progress Energy Florida (PEF) and is part of a program called SunSense® that has a goal of increasing renewable energy education. The SunSense® schools program helps schools in the PEF service territory to manage energy costs while promoting energy education. The program provides new solar photovoltaic (PV) systems to schools designated as Enhanced Hurricane Protection Area (EHPA) shelters, at no cost to our schools. The program supports renewable energy education, energy efficiency and environmental stewardship by providing teachers and students with interactive learning experiences and training materials.
Our schools were chosen based on their commitment to energy efficiency and renewable energy education, number of students, the shelter’s capacity and the school’s location.
Citrus High and Inverness Primary School are two of the four schools that will receive the new solar technology.
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We’re Back
