Tech & kids

If you didn't think technology was a powerful tool for kids' learning, spend some time with a child with an iPad in his or her hands. My 7-year old nephew got his hands on my iPad yesterday and today and we spent time talking about constellations, music, and math. Of course, I don't have empirical evidence that he learned any of it, but he was engaged and excited. I know in the hands of a skilled teacher, technology is a great tool.

When graphing calculators first came out, there were those who didn't think students should be using them to graph equations, etc. It certainly saved me time as a math teacher to take a couple of days at the beginning of the year to explain and practice using the calculators, then use them to graph sometimes complex equations that would take much more time by hand. It only made sense to do that and get to the deeper concepts and understanding than to spend time on graphing by hand. It is the same with technology today. Engaging kids and getting them excited about learning through technology can only help improve learning overall. Because, in the end, its about the learning, and however we can get that to happen, we should.

Commit to Consistency

In part 3 of this I don't know how many parts post on consistency, I address a comment I received on yesterday's post. While consistency is a good thing, the fact that we could be doing something consistently wrong would not be taking us in the direction of our goals, unless our goal was to fail or not do the right thing.

It reminds me of my coaching days. We tried to get our players to be consistent in their fundamentals to be successful. Often, players who had grown up shooting a basketball a certain way or throwing with a certain motion would have a difficult time breaking the habits that had become ingrained in their actions. Many times, these players struggled to be consistently good, showing flashes of success, but unable to maintain that throughout a game or season.

We, too may find ourselves heading in the wrong direction, if we're not paying carful attention to what we're doing. The commitment to taking consistent action doesn't help much if we're not willing to always reflect and evaluate on where the action is taking us. It's a little like driving the car, flying a plane, or riding a bike. Rarely is the vehicle going in a perfectly straight line, but continuous micro adjustments get us to the intended destination. It's very similar in our daily lives, professionally and personally. If we are to arrive at our intended goal/destination, we must continually see where an action leads and make adjustments if it is not in the direction we are traveling.

Staying Consistent

Having posted on a consistency challenge yesterday, traveling most of today to spend time with family, and not having the skill or knowledge to post from my phone, I find myself up later than usual producing a post and catching up on work and email. I read a couple of items today that bear repeating and continues the conversation from yesterday. Not only did I challenge myself to be more consistent with yesterday's post, but I also sent an email to teachers about the benefits of consistency. One of the responses that came back to me was that consistency also had to begin with leadership.

I couldn't agree more.

If leaders aren't consistent, how can they expect their constituents to be? We tend to see that in our political leaders quite often - crafting speeches and responses that cater to the group to which they are talking - but it can certainly occur in leaders at all levels. One suggestion for leaders would be to ask the people you work with about your own consistency. Honest self-reflection can also help a person determine the level of consistent action he or she is taking. The following quote from Dave Kekich says it all: "Achievement comes from the sum of consistent small efforts, repeated daily.”

19 days

This is actually a shortened version of the 30-day trial I wrote about several years ago. Of course, one might think the reason to do "only" 19 days is I don't think I can make 30 days, but that is not the case. The reason I picked 19 days is . . . there are 19 days left in the month of October and I plan to start my next 30-day trial on November 1. Call me weird - as many people do - and yes, I realize some months have 31 days, but I've decided that is the best way I can think to make sure I'm focused for that amount of time. So maybe this is actually a one-month challenge, after this one of course.

So my goal for the rest of October is to write something every day. There are several reasons for this. First, I need to get into the practice of committing to doing something every day or my dissertation will never get done. Setting aside a certain amount of time each day to read and write will help me toward that end. And I know the question begs itself, "Why don't you just do the dissertation for the next 19 days? Wouldn't that make more sense?" Of course it would. Maybe that's why. Or maybe I'll do both, but the shorter challenge is something I don't or haven't done much recently. Of course, that is true of the dissertation.

Anyway, another reason for this is the fact that consistency has come up various readings the past week or two and I can't deny the synchronicity any longer. From Scott Ginsberg, who has consistently worn a name badge every day for the past 10 years, or something like that: "Consistency is far better than rare moments of greatness." From Harry Wong, who spoke at the Wyoming School Improvement Conference of consistently applying effective processes and processes (to) lead to the continual improvement that is necessary for growth." And Craig Ballantyne, editor of Early to Rise, wrote "as you gather momentum with simple efforts performed on a consistent basis, it will get easier and more rewarding as you see progress being made."

Let's get started and see where we go.

Common Core Changes?

Here is a link to an editorial in the Casper Star-Tribune on possible legislative changes to the State Board initiative to improve the Wyoming state Standards. The State Board is hearing comments toward adopting the Common Core Standards as part of the Wyoming state Standards in November. While the increased rigor the Common Core brings will certainly have districts working hard to help their students improve, I believe it is important to keep looking at getting better. One of the issues in the past with No Child Left Behind legislation was that states were allowed to create their own standards and assessments and were then compared on proficiency rates. Although NAEP provided a comparative measure, schools and teachers did not have criteria (other than sample questions) on which the assessment was based. The Common Core will provide districts and teachers a roadmap to higher levels of success.