Multi-faceted Refractions

I am really looking forward to the new adventures that I will be engaging in in 2012. I am not sure what all of them will be but I am certain and excited what I am seeing in this upcoming year.

As has been the theme this year of the webcast I co-host, 21st Century Learning with Alex Ragone and arvind grover, I think that distance and online learning are going to continue to be huge. From the release of the National Association of Independent School’s (NAIS) Online Learning Guide to the white paper from the Online School for Girls, our conversations this fall have been very fruitful. It is to the end that I am personally venturing and modeling by taking online learning courses from the American School of Bombay and looking to finally pursuing my masters at one of the online programs this spring/summer. I believe that the scales are tipping and that this is an area that all K12.

I am also looking forward to all of the new professional and personal challenges which are going to be coming my way.

And one of my children has her golden birthday on the last day of the Mayan calendar. l definitely plan on celebrating at the party like there is no tomorrow.

So 2012 is shaping up to be a quite a year.

On the eve of returning back to school after winter break, I have had the chance to reflect back on 2011. While others did this last week, I am taking the opportunity to do so now, as I spent most of the break off-line, enjoying my family and the holiday.

2011 was a very good year for my family and I professionally and personally. The issues which presented challenges over the past four years seem to be in our rear-view mirror. My eldest daughter is striking off on her own and beginning her own journey. I am happy she seems to be healthy and she is traveling down an alternative route which will be good for her. My wife’s music program at her school seems to be flourishing.

For me, I am pleased with all that I have been able to accomplish. I have returned to the classroom and am loving the daily interactions with my pre-Algebra students. I have begun introducing more project based work in class and have slowly begun flipping the classroom. The second semester promises to be exciting. I was able to run a week-long workshop in design thinking. I also have been able to spend this fall helping teachers get comfortable with their newly transformed learning spaces.

While I have not been as active in my PLN as I have been previously, I continued to webcast with Alex Ragone and arvind grover on 21st Century Learning. I led two Google Webinars and did one presentation at the Global Educational Conference. I led workshops at the National Association of Independent Schools conference (NAIS), the Illinois Computer Educators Conference, the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference, and the Laptop Institute. One of my workshops at the ISTE conference was selected “best of the best” for which I am honored. I was selected to the ISTE Independent School Special Interest Group Executive Board.

So all and all, a very successful year. Tomorrow’s post will look forward to 2012.

For the past two nights, my daughters aged 20 and 15 have been having “reading” parties as a regular part of their holiday routine. Around 11:00 – 11:30 p.m., when my wife and I are getting tired and ready for bed, the girls go into their rooms to read the new books (a holiday gift tradition as well). This winter, my eldest is reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and my youngest is reading book 4 from the Pretty Little Liars series, Twisted.

As a parent in the age of screens, it is refreshing to know that I have instilled a love of reading in my children and a love for books, although soon, electronic readers may replace them.

This winter break, however, my youngest is struggling with a dilemma, whether to read the first 80 pages of an assigned school reading, A Brave New World, complete with quote logs with explanations as to why they were chosen, or to read a book of her pleasure. I am really sad that she has been made to make a choice. Instead of being able to enjoy a guilty little pleasure and enjoy the story-telling, she is being made to analyze and the writing.

In my opinion, a break should be treated as a time to set aside the academic work and immerse oneself in family. For us, it is sharing stories and laughter while baking or decorating cookies, sharing family meals without the pressure to hurry back to work, to play old fashioned board games, such as Scrabble, Risk, Life, and new ones like Sort-It, Catch-Phrase, to plug in the video game system to play Mario Kart or Guitar Hero. To have reading parties into the night, sharing the stories. These represent learning opportunities that our busy, hectic schedules do not allow for during the school year. As with the Race to Nowhere’s philosophy, let’s try to carve out some time just to be together.

More on the background later, but I ask you to consider the following action:

Act Now!!!

Ask your senators to pass S. Res.199 to establish Crohn’s and Colitis Awareness Week!

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) introduced the resolution on May 25, 2011 to support the establishment of “Crohn’s and Colitis Awareness Week” from December 1, 2011 to December 7, 2011.

Goals of having a “Crohn’s and Colitis Awareness Week” include:

• Encouraging more government and public involvement in the effort to find a cure for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)
• Raising awareness among the general public and health care professionals about IBD
• Promoting biomedical research to find better treatments and a cure for patients with IBD

Take Action! Encourage your senators pass S. Res. 199!

Please use the form below to email your two senators and ask them to pass S. Res.199 to establish Crohn’s and Colitis Awareness Week!  There are instructions to call as well!

You have two senators that represent your entire state.  You can identify your two senators at www.congress.org.  Put your zip code in the box labeled “your zip code here” under the “Get Involved” section, and then select the “Go” button.  From there, you can click on the name of your legislator; his or her picture will appear, and you will select      the “contact” tab to find his or her information.

When calling your two senators:

1)  Identify yourself as a constituent and ask to speak with the legislator’s Health Care Legislative Assistant.  If they are not available, request to leave a voicemail.

2)  Tell the aide that you are affiliated with the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America.

3)  Ask that YOUR senators pass S. Res.199 to establish Crohn’s and Colitis Awareness Week! S. Res. 199 would:

• Encourage more government and public involvement in the effort to find a cure for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)
• Raise awareness among the general public and health care professionals about IBD
• Promote biomedical research to find better treatments and a cure for patients with IBD

4)  Give the aide your contact information and ask to be informed about the actions the legislator takes in response to your request.

We had a great day today in our first day of our Interim Week project where we are using the Design Thinking principles to solve a local problem or issue. I had over planned the day (which is significantly better than under planning). Where we spent more time than I expected was determining what project(s) to work on.

In the end, the students decided to work on two projects, one to deal with the number of backpacks which are piled up when we go to a community gathering and to begin to rethink the flow in our cafeteria service area. The students did a great job identifying problems and narrowing them down.

Tomorrow, we begin to research and idealize the problem before beginning to prototype on Wednesday.

You can follow our progress, our process, and our reflections at the blog we set up to document the project at Innovate, Tinker and Design (innovatetinkerdesign.blogspot.com/)