The Deputy Head

the new website

2008-02-26T21:41:00.003-05:00

Please change your bookmarks and rss feeds. The Deputy Head has moved: http://www.thedeputyhead.com
This will be the last post at this url. I've linked back from the new site via an archives button.

public school in Pakistan

2008-02-25T18:21:00.005-05:00

As I drove to Harrisonburg this morning to recruit teachers, I heard a Morning Edition story by Bilal Qureshi on Pakistani schools. When schools don't work and 60% of Pakistanis are under 18, we've got to wonder what the immediate future looks like for Pakistan. Who's teaching them to lead? The story made me think of one of my close friends who serves as head legal counsel to Afghanistan's Ministry of Finance. Asiyah, if you're reading give us your take on the story.

migrating blog

2008-02-24T11:35:00.003-05:00

I'm currently working on the redesign and migration of this blog. I'm going through the natural frustrations/excitement of learning something new, but the new site will be more aesthetically pleasing, elegant, and--most important--accessible to you. Until I move, continue to follow me here.

choosing between getting to school and breakfast

2008-02-23T10:28:00.005-05:00

I told some colleagues the other day that kids in my former district either walked or rode the metro to school--and that metro was free for kids. It turns out I was wrong. An article in the February 22-28 Washington City Paper discusses how rising metro costs affect whether or not kids get to school. From there you can link to an assortment of new metro-area ed-related articles, including one on the (in)famous H.D. Woodson SHS (RIP soon).

the other diplo

2008-02-22T21:25:00.003-05:00

Edulicious and the principal were in my office today poking a little fun at the diplodocus post, so this is for them. I've blogged about MIA before. Here's an NPR story about how her colleague's work was inspired by 12 year old school kids in Philadelphia and the favelas of Rio.

diplodocus of pittsburgh

2008-02-22T13:25:00.004-05:00

Last night on Newshour I heard about this crazy dinosaur exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh (if you're looking for the other diplodocus, you're in the wrong place).

closed

2008-02-22T08:30:00.003-05:00

Go back to bed: FCCPS (and just about everyone else around here, excepting my former employer) is closed today (February 22, 2008) due to inclement weather.

mehms ideas blog

2008-02-21T18:43:00.002-05:00

From edulicious via email this evening:
You better update your blog to tell people your "blogowhine" paid off.
That means I'll be a co-author on the new mehms ideas blog.

meh multi-authored blog

2008-02-21T15:32:00.002-05:00

There's been a lot of blogobuzz at meh lately. Edulicious started an ideas blog for a multi-author forum on all things mary ellen henderson. I'm feeling kind of left out...maybe I'll start my own edublog clique like In Practice.

MIT for free

2008-02-19T09:55:00.003-05:00

An article in the February 6 Education Week tells us about an open source initiative at MIT. The university has been compiling courses/lessons online since 2001. You can sit at home and download lesson plans, browse syllabi, watch video lectures...basically take the courses for free. There are specific resources for K-12 students and teachers. Again, it's all open source: they want you to use it in your classroom.

answer from Cairo

2008-02-18T12:33:00.003-05:00

Re: yesterday's post on pangea day
**********

thedeputyhead to Todd Lester (freeDimensional in Cairo, Egypt):
I'm sure you know about pangea day. I noticed an event in Cairo. Are you doing anything?

Todd:
yep, we are also doing something in nyc .. see www.artincommunity.org

**********
How could you/MEH/Falls Church participate?

save the date

2008-02-17T14:06:00.004-05:00

How did we miss this one? Pangea Day is a global film/learning event on May 10, 2008. I wonder if freeDimensional is involved...

what do you think?

2008-02-17T14:02:00.000-05:00

returned

2008-02-15T20:00:00.001-05:00

I'm back in town from Charlottesville where I was recruiting new teachers.

just published by the journal of the international society for educational planning

2008-02-13T08:33:00.002-05:00

Baxter, V.P. (2008). A communitarian framework for planning educational leadership preparation programs. Educational Planning, 17(1).

crossing route 7: deeper understanding

2008-02-12T08:54:00.000-05:00

Ms. Barry asked her 6th grade students to compose informative booklets about the Bill of Rights. One of the criteria for a successful project was that it be accessible to a 3rd grade reader. Students sent drafts to Mr. Frei's 3rd grade class at TJ for constructive criticism. Comments from the editors came back today and students began to rework their ideas (Edulicious, The Principal, and I stopped by). Colleagues: What lessons on community are implicit to students in this activity? How does this lesson fit within this sort of curricular framework? Or this? MEH Students: What were the challenges in writing for a specific audience? TJ Students: How would you explain something you're studying to 6th graders?

research network

2008-02-07T10:54:00.001-05:00

I came across the research network citeulike the other day. Students, teachers (scholars, professors...) can organize research articles into categories using tags. It works kind of like del.icio.us or flickr for academic information. It's a great way to keep up with the most current empirical work in whichever field you may have interest (education, technology, learning, counseling, child psychology, etc...).

Edulicious had this idea months ago. We could have all been very wealthy...

edublog of all edublogs

2008-02-06T10:23:00.000-05:00

In the Twin Cities, they call the Mall of America The Mall of Them All. Edulicious just turned me on to what's probably the edublog of all edublogs.

preparing bilingual kids

2008-02-01T14:12:00.000-05:00

I admit that sometimes I drive a car to work. I heard this on the radio this morning. Public schools in AZ are empowering bilingual students by highlighting the importance of and need for skilled translators in the modern American workforce.

Did you know that...

2008-01-31T21:17:00.000-05:00

...3/4 (76.7%) of the time future school principals spend in educational leadership preparation coursework is dedicated to learning management (budgeting, finance, personnel, number crunching) skills (Hess & Kelly, 2007. Learning to lead: What gets taught in principal prep. programs. Teachers College Record)?

What does that mean for instructional leadership, social justice, community development...or just plain learning about learning?

Typical Central African Classroom

2008-01-31T11:02:00.000-05:00

All this talk about travel made me think of my first classroom in Cameroon. It looked a lot like this (w/ uniforms, of course). How is it different from MEH? How is it the same?

Darren Reed

2008-01-30T18:14:00.000-05:00

I just posted a link to Darren Reed's dissertation blog. He's principal of Cora Kelly School for Math, Science, and Technology in Alexandria City Schools. He's really in to Paulo Freire, too.

traveling without leaving home

2008-01-30T18:02:00.000-05:00

The principal and I were looking at this. How can we take our students to Paris (or anywhere else) without leaving the classroom? The philosophy behind the project described in this presentation is simple yet powerful: each of us have a valuable perspective to contribute. In this case, perspective is tangible in the form of digital photographs. In the Davos project, it's opinion. How do we bring a healthy variety of perspectives to our classrooms (teaching, learning, etc...)?

Davos Question

2008-01-29T14:19:00.000-05:00

Davos, Switzerland hosts the annual World Economic Forum. This year, they partnered w/ YouTube to ask all of us what we think should be done to make the world a better place. The video submissions POUR in and are insightful, engaging, and wide-ranging (a variety of opinion from a variety of people: politicians, activists, students, people on the street, people speaking many languages). I wonder how our students might respond.

IBO

2008-01-27T21:33:00.000-05:00

Learn more about PYP and MYP.

Howard Zinn Movie

2008-01-22T19:11:00.000-05:00

New-classic (yet highly controversial) history text A People's History of the United States is being made into a movie. Learn more.

this speaks for itself

2008-01-22T13:54:00.000-05:00

Mr. Sparrgrove left unique plans for his substitute teacher. How are you using technology in your classroom/in your projects?

Stuff like this exists

2008-01-22T09:15:00.000-05:00

Edulicious (who's on vacation) asked me to comment on his most recent post. This photo is from the Detroit (MI) City Public School's book depository (here's a photovoice slide show tour through the book wasteland).

As I look at these photos, I think of the school library I ran out of a spare room in my house in Grand Batanga, Cameroon. Libraries in the US and France would send us old books. My students didn't care what the books were about--for someone who doesn't have a book in their home, any text is a window on a new world. These books could have gone to someone.

How did we become so wasteful? It's easy to be appalled looking through these photos, but think of the perfectly reusable or recyclable things that many of us throw away each day. Where do our students see this sort of waste in the popular media? How do our practices at school fuel/fight the issue? How can we mindfully affect paradigm shift in terms of student perceptions on consumption? How do we get each other to look at the issue in a new way?

communities school

2008-01-17T20:43:00.000-05:00

While walking through MEH this morning, I was thinking about the term community school. A more ideal and inclusive term might be communities school. Communities sends two distinct messages:

that there are a multiplicity of sub-communities within a school, and
that we expect students to realize their place within an array of communities (i.e. family, friends, school, clubs, boys, girls, Spanish speakers, sports, Falls Church, Virginia, our nation, the world, etc...).

podcasting for a more diverse conception of community

2008-01-08T08:48:00.000-05:00

Early in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Stephen Dedalus opened his geography textbook and looks where he has made notes in the flyleaf:

Stephen Dedalus
Class of Elements
Clongowes Wood College
Sallins
County Kildare
Ireland
Europe
The World
The Universe

The student has situated himself in an assortment of communities: as a member of an academic class; a particular school; a county; a nation; the world, etc...

Our project at MEH is to prepare students towards this sort of worldview--to help students situate themselves as conscious, reflective, and active members of various communities.

A podcast where students, parents, teachers, and school administrators discuss school, city, national, and international issues would be an exciting way to activate these notions of community.

I know there are parents and students who frequently read this blog. I invite you to contact me via school email if you are interested in collaborating on a pilot podcast project. We certainly have the necessary hardware (microphones, etc...). We just need to take an active step.

educating leaders in Ghana

2008-01-04T17:40:00.000-05:00

In this TED presentation, Patrick Awuah talks about the university he's founded in Ghana to educate a new generation of leaders. I'm wondering when they'll launch a department of education leadership...

Newton

2008-01-04T08:35:00.000-05:00

Today is the birthday of Sir Isaac Newton, who said of his mentors, "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants."

videothread

2008-01-03T14:00:00.000-05:00

Edulicious knows that I'm exploring how video might enhance learning/teaching/research/etc... He turned me on to videothread. The concept is simple. A photo/bit of media is posted to the videothread site, and people log in and comment on it. Check out the "what's a voicethread?" demo to see what it's all about. CAN YOU IMAGINE students accessing the perspectives of their classmates on a given issue? I'd be interested to hear if/when any of you use this in the classroom or on assignments.

Midwest to East

2008-01-02T15:54:00.000-05:00

We're back in school. Minnesota looked kind of like this the whole time I was there. My paper on Communitarianism was accepted for publication in the Journal of the International Society for Educational Planning. I've been thinking a lot on how ethnographic film methods can help us improve pedagogic practices. More specifically: how can we use film to reflect on "what we do in the classroom?" Apologies for the short entry--we're getting back into the swing of things at MEH.

urban youth art learning space

2007-12-21T07:52:00.001-05:00

My friend Todd Lester from Peace Corps Cameroon is an urban/public policy doctoral student at The New School and founder of freeDimensional "linking artistic communities to international social justice." He's in Cairo right now opening an office. This video is from an open youth studio sponsored by their partner in Cairo--the townhouse gallery. freeDimensional's work in Cairo will promote social cohesion among forced migrants living with Egyptian citizens. Todd has been giving me some direction on documentary film ethics for the dissertation.

whoa...

2007-12-20T15:16:00.001-05:00

The Deputy Head's former employer just made a huge announcement at three elementary schools. Barnard, Noyes, and Tyler ES made 20%+ gains on last year's test. Staff at these schools were rewarded monetarily (a few thousand for custodians and teacher aides...up to $10,000 for principals and assistant principals). Are corporate-style bonuses really a good idea? Is that the best way to professionalize what we do? Do any of us deserve monetary rewards for public service? Just a few points for reflection.

Eagle Rock

2007-12-19T09:04:00.000-05:00

Dr. Travis Wright sparked my interest in Eagle Rock School (where he once taught). ERS was a gift from the Honda Corporation to our country. Its purpose is twofold:

To educate students who have struggled to find success in typical secondary school settings, and
To train educators in the pedagogic methodology specific to this Colorado school.

It's purposefully small (about 90 students), purposefully diverse, and tuition free (100% scholarship).

At a first glance, the fundamental project of ERS is communitarian in nature: to help kids and teachers realize that individualism is defined only through an appreciation of greater community (and vice/versa).

...

2007-12-18T10:57:00.000-05:00

A Great Mentor

the library at home

2007-12-13T14:24:00.000-05:00

My brother the librarian conducted a study on undergraduate library usage. He's found, basically, that college kids are accessing resources electronically from home rather than actually going to the library. He's into the concept of library as place. I guess the next logical question is: if kids are excited about electronic learning, what do schools and libraries (brick-and-mortar "places") need to do to create that kind of excitement? How can the internet--the ways it works--inspire what we do here? On the other hand, what sorts of things can we do that the internet can't?

Cave Schooooooooooooooo...

2007-12-11T15:45:00.000-05:00

Edulicious blogged about a Chinese village school built into a natural cave. The Reuters photos are vivid, and remind me of Collège des Études Secondaire de Grand Batanga where I taught for two years in Cameroon.

1,2,3,4,5...

2007-12-09T21:20:00.000-05:00

Stuart and I were watching some You Tube today. My wife's mom told me that when she was a kid, this was her favorite part of Sesame Street. Stuart was enthralled with the clip. What does Children's Television Workshop do that we can replicate in our teaching to make academic content relevant to kids? How do we start to re-think the vehicles (lesson design) we use in our teaching?

PBWiki

2007-12-07T08:24:00.000-05:00

PBWiki is a tool that can help you collaborate remotely. Anyone can login to view and edit a community document through a web browser. You can do basically anything you would do to a word document: insert files, type outlines, track changes, insert links, etc... I've been using it to work on a group presentation for graduate school. Teachers: how could you use this to promote home/school links? Students: in what ways could a wiki document enhance your learning or help you work with classmates?

The Two Cultures

2007-12-04T08:20:00.000-05:00

I have to admit outright that edulicious turned me on to C.P. Snow and The Two Cultures. The text is a 1959 lecture Snow delivered at Cambridge. His thesis is simple, but deep: there is a rift between the humanities and the sciences which hinders collaboration and innovation. As a successful physicist and novelist, Snow lived in both of these cultures. Both worlds, essentially, have the same goals: to understand and to know through empirical study--through a systematic experiential/reflective approach. In a science lab, how do we know? Well, simply put, we propose a hypothesis, methodically try it out, and then reflect on the results. The same is true in, say, Algebra. We test the truth--the validity--in mathematical formulas through application. The scientific method and the practical application of mathematical concepts are experience-based: we learn through doing. Isn't learning in the arts/humanities classroom experience-based? How do we understand a novel, a poem, a play, a work of visual art? We relate to it through our own experience. How do we express ourselves using the written word, or clay, or the trumpet? We use our hands and learn as we go along. Snow's point, I think, is that when we compartmentalize these ways of knowing--these ways of learning--from one another, we severely limit the ways in which we are able to improve our world. How do we do more to open these sorts of conversations with teachers? How do we design learning experiences for students where they are at once engaged in two, or three, or more cultures?

observing

2007-11-30T14:15:00.000-05:00

If blog entries have dropped off the radar this week, it's because I've been in and out of classrooms observing instruction. As I've reflected in earlier posts, the instructional observation/evaluation is my favorite part of leading teachers. We all know that reflection is essential to finding understanding and happiness in the world--at least that's what research and literature tells us. We all also know that the reality of keeping up with professional reflections in a black and white composition book is--at the end of a day of teaching--unrealistic. After expending a full day's dose of creative energy, the last thing anyone wants to do is sit down and think about it. The qualitative instructional observation gives us a window--or a mirror, if you prefer--on how we teach. On what teaching means to each of us.

birds of a feather

2007-11-19T11:06:00.000-05:00

here's a collaborative teacher blog from Littleton, CO I came across after our superintendent and a school board member forwarded a video (which was produced by members of this CO collective):
http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com
There's some deep reflection going on here.

Using community art as a lens for school leadership

2007-11-15T14:09:00.001-05:00

I've been reading/thinking a bit about language and culture in the classroom. I know that when I left Cameroon to teach in a DC public school, I thought teaching would be easier than it had been in the village--I thought I was moving towards a culture I identified with and understood. I found, though, that I spoke a very different language from my students and their families in downtown DC. In an ostensible sense, we all spoke English--but culturally and dialectically we were linguistically disparate.
How do we prepare principals and teachers for this? How do we teach sensitivity to languages that don't exist in the ways that we're accustomed to experiencing them (i.e. the Spanish textbook).
I think it may have something to do with broadening our definition of language. Consider, for example, community art--group art. What does graffiti tell us about a community (the above example is from a bathroom in Finland--not MEH!)? What does it tell us that a community has parades on holidays? What do playground games tell us? Or, the songs that children sing? By noticing these things, we can take a step towards understanding the people who have produced them--towards understanding their language--towards understanding how best to engage them in learning.

Rivers and Tides and Reflective Thinking

2007-11-10T07:12:00.000-05:00

After we put Stuart to bed last night, Gina and I re-watched the Andy Goldsworthy documentary Rivers and Tides (excerpt clip above, Goldsworthy working, conversing, and reflecting on the sublime). I wonder, where does video voice end and documentary begin? Are they the same thing?
At any rate, this level of self-awareness and reflection (consciously documenting work through video, photography, conversation, journaling, etc...) is how we become better students and teachers--by purposefully thinking about the processes and meanings of what we're doing and how we're living.

How to Save the World

2007-11-08T15:15:00.000-05:00

I was writing a blurb for this month's school newsletter (somehow merging ideas from 1916 Dewey and 1980 Lennon) when I came across a great quote from Jonas Salk:

Edward R. Murrow: Who owns the patent on this vaccine?

Jonas Salk: Well, the people, I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?

So, How to save the world? Sharing might be a start.

Video Voice

2007-11-07T13:14:00.000-05:00

I uncovered this project and post it here as an example of the video voice method for qualitative research. Video voice allows the research subject to provide a more accurate--perhaps a more honest--empirically based narrative. A central concept in all of this is that we're given brief experiential glimpses into what our subjects see and hear. In this particular project rural nurses in Zambia were trained in documentary research ethics, trained to use the digital camera, and encouraged to document their professional lives (struggles, realities, etc...). What emerges is powerful stuff. Imagine the potential: this could be used to give legislators/policy makers a more rounded view of Zambian health care.
How can this make schools/school principals/the programs that prepare educators/educational leaders better?

video voice?

2007-11-05T13:59:00.000-05:00

After completing a research project/short (4 minutes) documentary film project, I started thinking about photo voice and video voice as possible research methodologies for a dissertation.

Wallace Stevens

2007-11-02T12:58:00.000-05:00

This excerpt from Wallace Stevens' "Six Significant Landscapes" made me think about how we most frequently present ideas to our students from a singular perspective--in a singular medium. Why not express your answer in a painting? Through a debate? By designing a website? By writing a play or by arranging a piece of music?
Rationalists, wearing square hats,
Think in square rooms,
Looking at the floor,
Looking at the ceiling.
They confine themselves
To right-angled triangles.
If they tried rhomboids,
Cones, waving lines, ellipses--
As, for example, the ellipse of the half-moon--
Rationalists would wear sombreros.
Wallace Stevens, The Collected Poems (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1964), p. 75.

"The Artistic-Aesthetic and Curriculum"

2007-10-30T17:10:00.000-05:00

"Curriculum, to me, ought to be a means of providing opportunities for the seizing of a range of meanings by persons open to the world . . ." Maxine Greene, Landscapes of Learning, p. 168.

Thursday New Teacher Meeting

2007-10-29T06:45:00.001-05:00

I gave the following reflective prompt to our new teachers in preparation for a short meeting this later this week:

Please read, re-read, and ponder this paragraph for our Thursday meeting. Think about how the photo connects with the paragraph, and; Think about the compromises you make (ideological, ethical, pedagogical, personal, etc...) in your work at MEH as you reflect on both texts:

Consider . . . the life-style of beginning teachers. Beginning teachers often enter the school with strong aspirations acquired during their professional training or on their own. Most new teachers soon realize that their aspirations must be significantly changed to fit the school. For some teachers, the compromise is such a difficult ethical problem that they choose to leave teaching rather than alter their core educational values. After a few years of teaching, those who choose to remain adapt to the institutional press and eliminate the sharp corners of professional idiosyncrasy. They become a well-rounded lot, a more homogenous and adaptive group that does what it must to survive (Eisner, 2002, p. 377).

Eisner, E. (2002). The educational imagination: On the design and evaluation of school programs (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall.

Community Quilt

2007-10-26T14:03:00.000-05:00

Students worked in teams to contribute patches to a school quilt project designed to raise substance abuse awareness.

Return from The Twin Cities and Educational Criticism

2007-10-24T10:14:00.000-05:00

The presentation was well received. I'm trying to figure out how to best share the paper and power point (the aesthetics of which I borrowed from Mr. Sparrgrove) via this blog.

I'm reading this great book by Eliot Eisner about design and evaluation of educational research. I'm very eager to get into the classroom observations on the heels of reading this text. It presupposes that teaching is performance art, and the observation/evaluation is art criticism.

Minneapolis

2007-10-16T17:09:00.001-05:00

I'll be out of the building Thursday/Friday at the International Society for Educational Planning meeting in The Twin Cities. The communitarian paper is finally finished. I'll post it after the presentation.

Wm. Morris

2007-10-12T09:13:00.000-05:00

Before I was so publicly disrespected, I had planned to share this quote from arts & crafts movement pioneer William Morris. When I feel like I have too much stuff, I try to look at it all again through these words: Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.

ouch...

2007-10-12T08:36:00.001-05:00

I have a really good sense of humor, I guess, to endure this variety of sling and arrow. Every Friday I send out an email reminder to teachers to rendezvous in the back of the school so that we can wave goodbye to our students. It's become an MEH tradition where we remind our students and each other that we're all part of a broader community. One of my colleagues beat me to it today. I think he's still stinging as a result of my announcement from last week.

Paulo Freire in Portuguese

2007-10-09T13:22:00.001-05:00

This is a clip of Freire discussing ideas ideas from Pedagogy of the Oppressed in his last interview. I've left it untranslated from Portuguese. If you want to hear his ideas in English, that's easy enough to find. I'm more interested in illustrating how passionate he was about education through his body language...and Portuguese is pleasing to my ear.

all teachers should read this book

2007-10-05T10:06:00.000-05:00

New Links

2007-10-04T07:52:00.000-05:00

Rory Dippold, John Levock, and Kristin White offer MEH insight (...and/or homework updates).

The State We Are In

2007-09-30T17:42:00.000-05:00

I've discovered an amazing radio show which is co-produced by American University Radio and Radio Netherlands Worldwide called The State We Are In. Today's show presented an array of educational philosophies.

more info

2007-09-28T10:06:00.000-05:00

http://www.nick.com/shows/lets_just_play/wwdop.jhtml

Nick Play Day

2007-09-28T07:44:00.000-05:00

Morning Edition ran a story this morning about Nickelodeon's Fourth Annual Day of Play. I was definitely intrigued, having put in my fair share of Nick time as a kid w/ You Can't Do That on Television, Double Dare, Belle and Sebastian (show, not band), The Cities of Gold, etc... For three hours tomorrow (Sept 29) Nickelodeon will broadcast a blank screen. The idea is for kids to play outside. When programming resumes, the shows will focus on kids who make healthy and cooperative lifestyle choices. As some of you know I spend a lot of time thinking about communitarianism, or the balance between individual rights and an individual's responsibility to community. The Day of Play is a responsible event--Nick encourages kids to explore the world outside the television screen...basically to balance themselves socially. The question, then, is three hours enough to make a difference?

Principal Preparation

2007-09-25T13:48:00.000-05:00

There was a sizable pull-out section on changing educational leadership prep. programs in the September 12, 2007 Education Week. I'm currently finishing a paper on a communitarian framework for preparing school leaders that I'll present at a conference in October.

international education prize

2007-09-24T10:24:00.000-05:00

Dr. Guba just forwarded this announcement for a prize in elementary/middle school international education excellence: http://www.internationaled.org/prizes/

alternative research methods

2007-09-20T08:34:00.000-05:00

Part of the anxiety of writing a dissertation is figuring out the research methodology for the project. I found this posted in the main hall of the George Washington Graduate School of Education, right outside Dr. Roach's door. Nicholas Paley (see description w/ poster) has co-authored a book called "Daredevil Research" that explores alternative research models.

something to do with your kids this weekend

2007-09-20T08:33:00.001-05:00

practically preparing neighbors, teammates, and leaders

2007-09-18T12:27:00.000-05:00

These 7th Graders worked together in Ms. Johnson's class to solve a complex problem.

Democracy and Education

2007-09-13T18:24:00.000-05:00

An electronic copy of Dewey's Democracy and Education.

Mrs. McCann Blog

2007-09-13T16:12:00.000-05:00

Sarah Shaw just forwarded a link to Layton's 5th Grade Blog. I'll add it to the list. Anyone else...?
http://www.mrsmccann.blogspot.com/

puttin' people on the map that never seen a map

2007-09-13T09:13:00.000-05:00

For those of you who have been keeping up with this blog, you'll know that I've been listening to the new album from Sri Lanka via London artist MIA (Arulpragasam). On the track Mango Pickle Down River she features some 12 year old aboriginal kids from Wilcannia (pop 759), New South Wales, Australia. The kids just rhyme about what they do for fun (walk around on stilts, catch fish, jump off the bridge, play the didge(ridoo), watch Jackie Chan). It makes me wonder what MEH kids would sing about...and how we could produce these sorts of projects in Language Arts/Music/Tech classes.

Tangible language aquisition

2007-09-12T06:48:00.000-05:00

This American Sign Language (ASL) 6th grade student from Becca Winner's class shows me how to ask "What's up?" and "Are you learning sign language?" Ignore the incorrect translation from a classmate.

Standards as floor, not the ceiling

2007-09-11T16:06:00.000-05:00

This is an excerpt from an essay on democratic schooling in a vocational high school which eloquently addresses the integration of instructional standards:
We should "assume that the first challenge is to engage students in work worth doing, and then to 'reverse engineer' that work back into state standards, SAT requirements, and those elements expected by the world outside of the school."
(Beyond the Shop: Reinventing Vocational Education by Rosenstock & Steinberg in Apple & Beane's Democratic Schools).

Huskies Serving the Community

2007-09-10T06:39:00.001-05:00

On Saturday morning my wife and I were hiking along the Potomac from the northern section of Great Falls National Park to Riverbend Park. We were on the path for about five minutes when we found MEH 5th Grade teacher Megan Coulter repairing and maintaining the trail with a team of volunteers. What a great example for students and colleagues alike. Keep up the positive work. I'd be interested to hear about any other community service that is happening. Drop me an email and I'll share it here.

I read it on the metro this morning

2007-09-05T06:40:00.001-05:00

"The ideals of education, whether men are taught to teach or plow, to weave or to write, must not be allowed to sink into sordid utilitarianism. Education must keep broad ideals before it, and never forget that it is dealing with Souls and not with Dollars."
From The Negro Artisan by W.E.B. DuBois, 1902, pg. 82.

Day 1

2007-09-04T09:58:00.001-05:00

Ann and I met with each class this morning in their pods to revisit expectations (respect for self, for others, and for our shared environment). It's good to see everyone so comfortable in the building and so excited for school start. We must be doing something right. These 7th graders listen attentively as Mr. Werkman describes the importance of positive attitude in school.

Fire Safety

2007-08-29T09:41:00.000-05:00

Officer Rau gave us a short course in putting out flames with a fire extinguisher this morning. Teachers, custodians, and office staff had to battle over who would be the first to don the goggles. The photos Show MEH faculty alum/GM math teacher Breanne Smith and MEH custodian Syda Chansombat pulling the trigger.

word up

2007-08-24T12:02:00.001-05:00

Brett Sparrgrove just stopped by my office with a poster he made using MS Word. He's planning a presentation for next week where our teachers will explore the versatility of the program. This is a poster which highlights student artwork from last year.

Hello 07/08

2007-08-23T11:08:00.001-05:00

I really meant to get back to the blog this summer, but we were swept up in scheduling and planning for the new school year. I also took a couple of classes (quantitative research methods and critical review of literature) and finished the literature review for my dissertation (which turned into an invitation to present a theoretical paper on the intersection of communitarianism and school leadership preparation programs at a conference in October). Somewhere in there my wife, my son, and I also fit in some hiking in New Mexico.
What else has happened...? Kathleen Taylor led an amazing team of teachers and students through a successful MEH Summer School and some of our faculty facilitated a short (but exciting) math camp for about 50 rising fifth grade students. Math camp parents were really excited that their kids had the chance to meet some teachers and learn a little about our building. We're anxiously awaiting (only about one more week) the arrival of our newest Huskies. This coming Tuesday is Open Locker Day for the rising fifth graders and Wednesday evening we're hosting a back to school social (check out the website for more details).
We're also really psyched about our four newest teachers: John Andrews, sixth grade; Lauren Glass, music; Brian Jackson, Special Education; and Liz Stigall, Spanish. The photo (above) is from the door of Mr. Andrew's classroom.

Summer Break Begins

2007-07-03T13:18:00.001-05:00

Ann and I are busy planning for the fall. I just realized it's been a month since my last update. The closing weeks of school were full of events (i.e. awards assemblies, moving up ceremony, field day, evening meetings). Now our kids and teachers are relaxing at home, and it's just the office staff and Mary Ellen Henderson (see photo) around here. Check the website for information about summer school and other upcoming MEH programs.

MEH Field Day

2007-06-08T11:54:00.000-05:00

I just spent a couple of hours feeding baseballs to students as they participated in Mr. Mendenhall's fast pitch station at our field day. This was one of the most organized events I've ever seen at a school. Ms. Atkinson gets some serious husky paws on the back for orchestrating this. She really thought of just about everything. Ms. Winner was making the rounds with coolers full of water, Mr. Ginty blew a boat horn every fifteen minutes for teams to rotate, there was a break tent with smoothies, etc... Thanks to all the parents and siblings who volunteered--you made this a great culminating activity for our students. Thanks, also, to Ms. Kenney for dive-rolling through the obstacle course--I thought they were filming MacGuyver or something.

Rising 5th Grade Parent Night

2007-06-07T07:01:00.000-05:00

We had a great time last night meeting the parents of our rising 5th grade students. Matt Sowers gave a great presentation on the anxieties that students might experience during their first year at MEH. Ann demystified the block schedule. The 5th Grade team set parents at ease--Sarah Shaw, in particular drew a vivid analogy of academic development:riding a bike. I think parents had a nice introduction to the MEH family (Officer Rau and Judy Becker talked about student services, Susan Earman talked about the PTA, Janae Rittenhouse talked about some extra-curricular activities, etc...). I hope this made families more comfortable with the our school.

For families that could not attend, I will have the .ppt available on this site asap!

E.W.E or Coffren in a Button Down Shirt

2007-06-01T12:25:00.000-05:00

It's not every day that you see the gym teacher all dressed up. I knew when I saw this that Evening with Encore was a big deal. Our Encore team (the arts, p.e., languages, tech, etc...) worked together with their students to plan an evening to showcase all the projects they have been working on this school year.

Teams of students sold baked goods prepared by kids in the Family Consumer Science (home ec.) lab. The walls were full of original student art work (some was auctioned). Performances included the Husky Jazz Band, 5th Grade excerpts from Cinderella, 6th Grade excerpts from the Jungle Book, scenes from Annie, Jr., and a chorus from Sra. Barry's Spanish class, and Mr. Sparrgrove trying to get the sound just right.

Parent volunteers spent at least two days decorating our main corridor with student art work. All EWE proceeds went to support the arts program at MEH. Congratulations and thanks to all who participated. This was an amazing demonstration of the holistic learning that happens here.

Observations and Evaluations Complete: Mission Accomplie

2007-05-31T12:59:00.000-05:00

Earlier today I completed the most enriching professional experience of the year, to date. I had the privilege of observing and evaluating close to fifty amazing lessons in fifteen classrooms over the course of the school year.

My approach to this ongoing project is based on the research of Carl Glickman who examines instructional observation and evaluation as professional development. The basic idea is that through clinical observation we gain unbiased perspective into classroom practice.

I try to take a fairly accurate narrative of everything that I experience in the classroom (e.g. dialogue, information posted on walls/boards), a map of teacher movement around the classroom, a tally of which students are being called on (boys/girls/front of class/back of class/etc...), an average of seconds waited between posing a question and selecting a student to answer, etc...

I then use that body of data to look for areas of instructional strength and challenge. Feedback from instructors has been very positive. They are fascinated to revisit the narrative from their lesson. I try to present areas for improvement in the form of a question to encourage reflection (research on teacher preparation and school leadership preparation tells us that reflection is a key component to effective university programs).

The "Public" in Public Schools

2007-05-24T10:31:00.000-05:00

My most current large scale projects are a 5 month old son and a literature review which examines communitarianism in the preparation of public school leaders. I recently came across this article published in The Journal of Educational Administration (44)3 239-249. In "Preparing educational leaders to embrace the 'public' in public schools," Hoff, Yoder, and Hoff (2006) present findings from an empirical study which examined a principal preparation program in New England (Maine). They found, basically, that programs which prepare leaders to serve in culturally homogeneous schools do not focus explicitly on diversity or social justice issues. Graduates of this program typically responded that diversity and social justice awareness were very important in other schools, in other parts of the country, but that it was not important in their racially homogeneous school community.

As a public leader/public servant, I find it is essential to remember that there are as many perspectives on an issue as there are people in a school community. Even when school communities are monochromatic in one sense, they are diverse in many other ways (i.e. socio-economic, gender, religion).

Public Service

2007-05-23T21:37:00.000-05:00

Our 7th Graders have been on fire with their public service efforts in May. Here's the mascot crew at the dedication of the new wing at Mt. Daniel Elementary. The primary school kids loved it when these 5 showed up dressed as Danny the Mt. Daniel Purple Hippo, the TJ Tiger, and the mighty Henderson Husky.

The Falls Church Business in Education (BIE) liaison, Marybeth Connelly, emailed me on Monday with one more great example: there was another school event last weekend at Upton Hill Park where 30 7th Graders showed up to volunteer. 30! This is school community at its best. When younger students, parents, and Falls Church community members see Huskies engaged in positive activities we are all reminded of the depth of learning that happens at our school.

Public education is not just about what we learn with paper and pencils, but how we learn to work, play, and live together.

Cameras to Communicate

2007-05-21T07:08:00.000-05:00

My assistant, John, took photos of two testing boxes after the first day of standardized exams to show us how to organize materials for the counseling office.