Hack Your Classroom - Holiday Reading and Viewing

It would be hard to capture in one post all the fabulous readings and videos I want to share, but here are a few potted highlights to whet your appetite in the lead up to the Hacking your classroom - the Term 2 challenge!

Short Readings

A Rich Seam: How New Pedagogies Find Deep Learning
Authors: Michael Fullan and Maria Langworthy
Michael Fullan and Sir Michael Barber, chief education advisor to Pearson, former head of McKinsey’s Global Education Practice and UK government advisor, will lead the launch of A Rich Seam at Pearson’s London office on September 22nd. The speakers will unveil the findings of the report to a selected audience of educationists, academics, policy advisors and media commentators, before leading a live Q&A, which will be live-streamed to a global audience.
The report by Michael Fullan and Maria Langworthy is the first in a new series of publications published by Pearson. It addresses the challenges encountered when trying to implement new pedagogies on a large scale as well as providing examples of changes happening in classrooms, in schools and across a few education systems.
This publication describes a rich seam of insight into how education systems are beginning to change. The “new pedagogies” are not just instructional strategies – they are powerful models of teaching and learning, enabled and accelerated by increasingly pervasive digital tools and resources and support deep learning at all levels of the education system. “Deep learning” develops the learning, creating and ‘doing’ dispositions that youth need to thrive now and in their futures.
Source: http://www.michaelfullan.ca/a-rich-seam-how-new-pedagogies-find-deep-learning/

Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching - a New Zealand perspective
Author(s):  Rachel Bolstad and Jane Gilbert, with Sue McDowall, Ally Bull, Sally Boyd and Rosemary Hipkins
This research report draws together findings from new data and more than 10 years of research on current practice and futures-thinking in education. It was commissioned by the Ministry of Education to support its programme of work to develop a vision of what future-oriented education could look like for New Zealand learners. The report has a foreword by the Minister of Education Hekia Parata and a message from Anthony Mackay, Co-Director of the Global Education Leaders’ Program.
Source: http://www.nzcer.org.nz/research/publications/supporting-future-oriented-learning-and-teaching-new-zealand-perspective

Recommended Viewing

Hackschooling makes me happy: Logan LaPlante at TEDxUniversityofNevada
When 13 year-old Logan LaPlante grows up, he wants to be happy and healthy. He discusses how hacking his education is helping him achieve this goal.



TEDxNYED - Dennis Littky
Dennis Littky is the co-founder and co-director of Big Picture Learning and the Met Center in Providence. He is nationally known for his extensive work in secondary education in urban, suburban, and rural settings, spanning over 40 years. As an educator, Dennis has a reputation for working up against the edge of convention and out of the box, turning tradition on its head and delivering concrete results.



What 60 Schools Can Tell Us About Teaching 21st Century Skills: Grant Lichtman at TEDxDenverTeachers
The rate of change in the world demands that we re-imagine and restructure the foundational learning relationship among students, teachers, and knowledge. In September 2012, pursuing a decades-long passion for transformational education, Grant packed up his Prius and set off on a solo, nationwide research tour to discover what schools are doing to prepare students for an evolving future. Find out what he learned from three months on the road visiting 21 states, 64 schools, and the great ideas of 500 educators. Presented by Grant Lichtman, Author and Educational Consultant.



Books worth buying

The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything 
by Ken Robinson
The Element is the point at which natural talent meets personal passion. When people arrive at the Element, they feel most themselves and most inspired and achieve at their highest levels. With a wry sense of humor, Ken Robinson looks at the conditions that enable us to find ourselves in the Element and those that stifle that possibility. Drawing on the stories of a wide range of people, including Paul McCartney, Matt Groening, Richard Branson, Arianna Huffington, and Bart Conner, he shows that age and occupation are no barrier and that this is the essential strategy for transform­ing education, business, and communities in the twenty-first century.

A breakthrough book about talent, passion, and achievement from one of the world's leading thinkers on creativity and self-fulfillment.
Source: http://www.amazon.com/The-Element-Finding-Passion-Everything/dp/0143116738

Leaving to Learn: How Out-of-School Learning Increases Student Engagement and Reduces Dropout Rates 
by Elliot Washor  & Charles Mojkowski 
"We have a bold strategy for revitalizing schools and for graduating and preparing young people for success in their future learning and work. This "leaving to learn" strategy is driven by our image of that future. Our goal is not merely to graduate every student but to prepare graduates who are uncommonly ready for success in their workplaces and their communities."
-Elliot Washor and Charles Mojkowski

It's an alarming fact: in the U.S., one student drops out of school every 12 seconds. Elliot Washor and Charles Mojkowski, both of Big Picture Learning, have a proven, innovative solution for stemming the flow of drop-outs and breaking the cycle of disengagement that leads up to it. It's called leaving to learn. Leaving to Learn helps us deeply understand the real reasons kids drop out and the essential conditions for productive learning that today's adolescents require. The authors then make a compelling argument: in order to retain students through to graduation, schools must offer experiences where students do some of their learning outside of school.

With common sense "rules of the road," the authors offer nuts and bolts guidelines for implementing a high-quality Leaving to Learn program, including:

examples of the many forms of out-of-school learning: internships, travel, community service, independent projects, and more
seamlessly integrating students' outside learning with in-school curriculum
assigning academic credit for out-of-school accomplishments.
Isn't it time to try more innovative ways to address the challenges of our nation's dropout rate? We can keep kids in school and prepare them for life after graduation by delivering authentic learning experiences that matter to them. The first step is taking down the barriers between school and the outside world. The first step is letting them leave, to learn.
Source: http://www.amazon.com/Leaving-Learn-Out-School-Engagement/dp/0325046042

The Big Picture: Education Is Everyone's Business 
by Dennis Littky
What is the purpose of education? What kind of people do we want our children to grow up to be? How can we design schools so that students will acquire the skills they'll need to live fulfilled and productive lives?
These are just a few of the questions that renowned educator Dennis Littky explores in The Big Picture: Education Is Everyone's Business. The schools Littky has created and led over the past 35 years are models for reformers everywhere: small, public schools where the curriculum is rich and meaningful, expectations are high, student progress is measured against real-world standards, and families and communities are actively engaged in the educational process.

This book is for both big "E" and small "e" educators:
* For principals and district administrators who want to change the way schools are run.
* For teachers who want students to learn passionately.
* For college admissions officers who want diverse applicants with real-world learning experiences.
* For business leaders who want a motivated and talented workforce.
* For parents who want their children to be prepared for college and for life.
* For students who want to take control over their learning . . . and want a school that is interesting, safe, respectful, and fun.
* For anyone who cares about kids.

Here, you'll find a moving account of just what is possible in education, with many of the examples drawn from the Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center ("The Met") in Providence, Rhode Island--a diverse public high school with the highest rates of attendance and college acceptance in the state and a dropout rate of less than five percent. The Met exemplifies personalized learning, one student at a time.

The Big Picture is a book to re-energize educators, inspire teachers in training, and start a new conversation about kids and schools, what we want for both, and how to make it happen.
Source: http://www.amazon.com/The-Big-Picture-Education-Everyones/dp/0871209713

On my 'To Read' List!

Stratosphere: Integrating Technology, Pedagogy, and Change Knowledge Paperback
by Michael Fullan
"It's time to take the lid off learning."
In Stratosphere, Michael Fullan takes a close look at the fast-paced world of emerging technologies and argues that the inevitable influence of technology on teaching and learning must not be resisted, but rather embraced and applied in meaningful ways to positively impact school classrooms.
Examines connections–and disconnections– between pedagogy, technology, and change knowledge in education
Creates a vision for improving education by escaping the content-focused teaching of the past and embracing “the new pedagogy” of higher-order skills
Focuses on the harnessing of fast and innovative technologies to bring about change in classrooms, districts, states, and provinces
Identifies four critical elements that, at scale, have the ability to make large-scale change a reality– and easier!
Source: http://www.amazon.com/Stratosphere-Integrating-Technology-Pedagogy-Knowledge/dp/0132483149

The Falconer: What We Wish We Had Learned in School 
by Grant Lichtman
"A significant contribution to our search for true 21st Century education." -Bo Adams, Principal, Westminster Schools "We would all trade a lot of knowledge for a little bit of wisdom." -Aaron Butler, Falconer Class of 1998 "School prepares us to be successful. We aspire to be happy." -Robert Landis, Falconer Class of 2001 If we want to achieve elegant results we have to teach the tools of elegant thinking. We want our young people to develop the traits of our heroes: courage, compassion, creativity, leadership, invention, vision. We need our students and employees to learn the skills that will give them a competitive advantage in an interdependent world. Yet our schools and training centers are stuck in a 19th century model that ignores this fundamental goal. Geared toward the teacher and student in all of us, The Falconer provides a simple model for making the leap from passive learner of previous knowledge to an active creator of new ideas. Based on a five-year classroom trial, and now used by forward-looking educators to help build a 21st Century educational model, The Falconer adapts a novel interpretation of the classic book of strategy, The Art of War, to new goals of educational creativity and personal fulfillment. Grant Lichtman is the Chief Operating Officer of Francis Parker School in San Diego, California. He earned a bachelor's and master's degree from Stanford University and has founded and managed companies involved in education, energy, and the geosciences. Lichtman, his wife Julie, and two children live in Poway, California.
Source: http://www.amazon.com/The-Falconer-What-Learned-School/dp/1450231268

Would love to hear your recommended reading/viewing list as well! Please share here or on Twitter #hackyrclass #holidayreading #holidayviewing

Comments

  1. If you haven't already read them - top of the list is Keri Facer's, Learning Futures. Then "Open" by David Price.

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