So, if you're just arriving here as a result of this, nice to meet you. You can probably find out more than you ever wanted to know about the presentation on the wiki, including this page which has links to posts that take you through the history of the presentation. The particular version that the Huffington Post featured is discussed here.

If you're at all interested in what this blog is about, then here are some other posts you might investigate:

• About This Blog
• The Best(?) of The Fischbowl 2008
• The Best(?) of The Fischbowl 2007
• The Best(?) of The Fischbowl 2006

(Note: This post is personal and a departure from the regularly scheduled content for this blog.)

Today is Gotcha Day in my house - nine years ago today we adopted our daughter Abby in China. We traveled with six other families and tonight four of them were able to come over for dinner. As I was gathering some memories this morning I tweeted out a story and a few pictures and videos, so I thought I would share them here as well. (After all, the 'P' in PLN stands for Personal, right?)

First, a then and now picture.

Then: Now:
Then the famous "red couch" picture from the White Swan Hotel (Abby is on the far right).


Then I found the amazingly Web 1.0 website we created that told the story of our trip to get Abby, I was a little surprised it was still active.

Then, just because I like to make my PLN cry, here's a link to the first iMovie I ever created, Our Trip To Get Abby (.mov, 21 MB). (Fair warning: it's a tear jerker.) For the techies out there (you know who you are), I'm pretty sure that movie was created in iMovie 2 and the camera we purchased for the trip - our first digital camera - was a Sony Mavica CD1000 (partially because the mini-CD's were the cheapest and easiest form of removable storage to take on a two-week trip to China).

Finally, here's a picture of the girls from tonight (five from our travel group plus one older sister).

Nine years ago. Hmm, nine years from now they'll be freshmen in college . . .

Anne Smith’s English Literature class recently discussed Act III of Hamlet with Debi Ohayon’s AP class. Not that unusual, perhaps, except that Anne’s class is here at Arapahoe in Centennial, Colorado, and Debi’s class is at The Lovett School in Atlanta, Georgia.

Anne tweeted out that she was looking for classes that might be interested in interacting with her class around Hamlet, and Laura Deisley – who’s the Director of 21st Century Learning at Lovett (great job title, btw) – responded that she knew a teacher that might be interested. Anne’s students are pretty comfortable using the fishbowl with live blogging method of discussing a book, but we wondered if we could make it work with two inner circles, one in Anne’s classroom and one in Debi’s classroom in Atlanta. As Laura writes:
after some traditional back and forth emailing and a Skype conference call, Anne, Karl, Upper School English Department Chair Debi Ohayon and I settled on a collaboration: two joint classroom Skype and live blog sessions on Hamlet.So, one inner circle of discussers in Anne’s classroom, and an outer circle of live bloggers. One inner circle of discussers in Debi’s classroom, and an outer circle of live bloggers. One Skype connection so the two classes could see (sort of) and hear (most of the time) each other and have an oral discussion. One CoverItLive blog so that the outer circles could discuss via live blogging. While the technology wasn’t perfect (pretty wide shot with the webcams and at times the audio broke up a little, but the students just asked each other to repeat what they said), it worked pretty well (see Anne's post for pictures from her classroom). As Anne writes:
Debi’s students rose to the challenge that the technology and new discussion method presented, and my students didn’t back down when discussing Hamlet with an advanced placement class. Both sides walked away commenting about how great it was to hear different points of view than from the students in their own class.And, on Laura’s blog, Debi reflects that:
Boy, am I glad my curiosity or sense of duty or both propelled me forward, as it has been a thrill to watch this pilot project become reality, despite the time commitment, logistical challenges, and alterations of my syllabus. The excitement that both my students and I have felt being pioneers as well as participants in a joint classroom experience across the country has been enormous. As Laura suggested, just the concept of kids in the 21st century talking in different time zones about an early 17th century text is intriguing. It's certainly not just about the fun (though it is really fun); the students agree that the Skype/LiveBlog shared classroom has enriched their learning experience. Meredith captured this sentiment today in class during our feedback session when she said, "We got to branch out beyond our own classroom and discuss similar ideas as well as gain insight about other ideas from students we didn't know." Furthermore, Mark said, "It was not only a blast, but a highly intellectual experience that I will always remember." I know many educators fear technology being pushed for the wrong reasons, but I'm quite convinced this was an example of technology enhancing pedagogical goals.We’re going to do this again on December 9th (over the entire play) and it will be interesting to see if it goes even better. I expect it will, as we’ll probably position the microphones a little better and certainly the students will have more experience under their belts and should be more comfortable with the format.

I think this was not only a valuable experience in terms of students learning about Hamlet, but also because of the sense of community that it engenders. As Debi said:
I'm pretty certain that the something special was a uniquely communal learning environment. Since I also have a personal invested interest in character education, I would be remiss not to note as a bonus what a delight it was to see teenagers from different parts of the country, representing both public and private schools, using literature to discuss timeless, universal moral issues.Yeah, it was a good day.

Lawrence Lessig (now at Harvard) has another thoughtful presentation regarding copyright that he gave at EDUCAUSE 2009. He makes a compelling case about how "things have changed" but that our copyright laws have not kept up with those changes. In the past, "copyright had a tiny role." He quotes Jessica Litman:

At the turn of the century [the last century, not this one], U.S. copyright law was technical, inconsistent, and difficult to understand, but it didn't apply to very many people or very many things. If one were an author or publisher of books, maps, charts, paintings, sculpture, photographs or sheet music, playwrite or producer of plays, or a printer, the copyright law bore on one's business. Booksellers, piano-roll and phonograph record publishers, motion picture producers, musicians, scholars, members of Congress, and ordinary consumers could go about their business without ever encountering a copyright problem.

Ninety years later, the U.S. copyright law is even more technical, inconsistent and difficult to understand; more importantly, it touches everyone and everything. In the intervening years, copyright has reached out to embrace much of the paraphernalia of modern society. The current copyright statute weighs in at 142 pages. Technology, heedless of law, has developed modes that insert multiple acts of reproduction and transmission - potentially actionable events under the copyright statute - into commonplace daily transactions. Most of us can no longer spend even an hour [emphasis Lessig's] without colliding with the copyright law.Please note that he is not arguing to abolish copyright in this presentation, but that it needs "to be radically changed in important ways."

It's a full sixty minutes, and the money part for educators is at the end, but I think it's well worth your time. He's said it before, but the part that always gets me the most is when he talks about how our students (children) are "living in an age of prohibitions" and that they "live life against the law," and what that will mean for how they grow and develop if we don't find a way to change that.

I had the opportunity last week to participate along with the amazing Jim Burke from English Companion in an Education Week/Teacher Magazine chat on Social Networking and Teacher Professional Development. I hope some people found it useful and I appreciate the folks at Education Week/Teacher Magazine that put this together. None of the rest of this post is meant to disparage those folks, but simply to ask the question: What makes a chat a chat?

We used CoverItLive for this and Jim and I were fed questions throughout the hour long chat. People in the chat submitted a question, the moderator decided which questions to put through, and Jim and I responded (toward the end of the chat a few comments/thoughts were approved, not just questions, but for most of the chat it was just questions). So this seemed to end up being more of a moderated "panel" discussion than what I think of as a "chat." For most of the hour it was just Jim and I responding to questions, which is not exactly what I think of when I think of chat. Some people on Twitter noted the same thing, expressing some frustration that their questions/comments/thoughts were not getting approved.

As it was happening, I felt myself becoming frustrated as well that it wasn't truly a "discussion" as I've come to expect it. As I was thinking about it later, however, I began wondering exactly how I would've structured it that it would've been any better. My natural inclination was to suggest that it should've just been an unmoderated chat, or at least a moderated chat where every on-topic comment was immediately approved. But, with a large audience (apparently over a thousand people at least asked for email reminders of the event), I'm thinking that wouldn't work so well. So I'm guessing that the format they chose was actually not a bad choice, but perhaps I would've chosen not to call it "chat."

Which brings me to the point(s) of this post:

• What exactly makes a chat a chat?
• How many people can be in a chat before it no longer works?
• What's the best format for these Education Week/Teacher Magazine "chats" that have large audiences? And is there a different tool than CoveritLive they could use that might work better?
• Are there ways to meet the needs of diverse participants - some of whom are used to very fast and furious chats and some of whom are not? Or do we simply have to create different events for different online learning styles (keeping in mind that people's styles might change with experience)?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

I'm pleased to announce that the 2010 Edition of Learning 2.0: A Colorado Conversation will be hosted by Loveland High School on February 20, 2010. Like the original in 2008 and the 2009 Edition, this year's get together is free.

What is Learning 2.0: A Colorado Conversation?
Learning 2.0: A Colorado Conversation is a one day conference/meetup for teachers, administrators, students, school board members, parents and anyone who is interested in education. It will be held on Saturday, February 20th, 2010, from 8:00 am until 3:30 pm at Loveland High School in Loveland, Colorado, USA (different location than last year - here's a map. We assume most folks will be from Colorado, but everyone is welcome to attend, and we are working on some ideas for virtual participation.
Education is conversation.

Conversation creates change.
The future of education does not exist in the isolated world of theory and abstract conference sessions. Instead, it exists in conversations. It exists in creating a robust learning network that is ever-expanding and just-in-time. Learning 2.0 is not the beginning of this conversation. It is merely a stopping point, a time to talk about the visible difference that we all seek.
We read. We reflect. We write. We share. We learn. Come join us for a day of conversation about learning and technology.

You can learn much more about the conference on the wiki, including information about registering. Here are some highlights:

Tentative Schedule
We're still working on the details so this will be updated before the conference. Also, this may expand if we have more folks register than we are anticipating. (To quote Bud Hunt, "This conference stuff is hard!"). We also need folks to submit proposals to facilitate conversations.

Registration
You must register so that we know how many folks to expect.

Cost
Free, baby. We also anticipate that lunch will be included as in previous years, however - with our various school district budgets being what they are this year - this is not for sure just yet. We're working on it.

Wireless
BYOL (that would be Bring Your Own Laptop) - we'll have wireless access to the Internet (filtered) - we may test our capacity to handle density of machines, but hopefully things will go swimmingly. If not, we have wired machines in various places you can access.

Invite Others
We strongly encourage you to invite other folks from your school, district, neighborhood, or learning network to attend as well. It would be great if everyone could bring at least one person with them that is perhaps new to this conversation.

Call for ConversationsHey, did you miss it above? We need folks to submit proposals to facilitate these conversations. This doesn't happen without you.

Questions?
Feel free to leave a comment on this post or on the FAQ page on the wiki.
Promote Learning 2.0
Did we mention that you should tell others? Blog about this. Link to the wiki or this blog post. Or use this nifty image.

I posted a couple of weeks ago asking how you used Diigo instructionally, and asking folks to complete a Google Form to share how they used it. Here’s a quick-and-dirty Google Site I created for a brief lunchtime staff development session on it. It includes the embedded results from the Google Form in that previous post. (Note: that Google Form is still active, so you can still add to the results.)

I blogged previously about some of the great stuff that Heritage High School, our sister high school – and rival – is doing. For the last three years Heritage has held MAD Week (Make A Difference), and raised money to help children in Sierra Leone. (Arapahoe, my high school, does similar things with both the Make A Wish foundation and Toys for Tots.)

Well, this week something even more special is happening – they are opening a school in Sierra Leone, the Heritage School of Kabala. They’ve raised almost $60,000 in the last three years and a delegation from Heritage High School is presently in Sierra Leone to celebrate the grand opening of the school and to strengthen the connection between these two schools.

You can read more about MAD week, read about the trip itself, check out some of the blog posts, or join in the live blog from Sierra Leone and Littleton, Colorado this Thursday, November 12th, from 8:00 to 10:00 am MST (UTC/GMT -7). (The live blog is dependent on the connectivity in Sierra Leone, as electricity – much less Internet connectivity – is not always reliable.)

Way to go Heritage Eagles, you make all of us proud.

I was part of an interesting discussion on Twitter Friday night and I wanted to share it here, as well as add a few final thoughts. Participants that I reference are Bud Hunt, Brian Crosby, Dean Shareski, Anne Van Meter, Barbara Barreda, and Karen Fasimpaur. Thanks to all of you for helping me think through these ideas.

The discussion started with a tweet from Bud Hunt where he shared some of what his school district is doing with Twitter. Here’s part of the tweet trail (I’m sure there were comments from other folks as well, but these are the ones I remembered and grabbed).





































I just want to add a few concluding thoughts. First, full disclosure, Bud called me on his way home from work and we talked for a while about this.

Second, I wasn’t arguing against what Bud’s district is doing. In fact, I really, really like what they’re doing, I was just trying to explore the ramifications and think through some of the issues.

Third, I wanted to “finish” my part of the discussion with Karen that was interrupted by my having to go make dinner. This is what I would’ve tweeted next (is this then a set of retroactive tweets?):

• @kfasimpaur It’s not so much the linking that I see as the problem.
• It’s the creation and the encouragement.
• By creating the Twitter list, @budtheteacher’s district has created something *new*, not just linked to something.
• I think the act of creation does imply some type of “ownership” and “responsibility”
• And when they publicize it & encourage folks both to add themselves to the list & to follow, that also blurs the lines.
• So, say a student in Bud’s district joins the Twitter list. Then he tweets that he’s . . .
• . . . planning on hurting himself or others. Is there some kind of monitoring in place? . . .
• . . . Should there be? Or say he tweets something offensive, then what?
• The fact the district has a disclaimer http://blogs.stvrain.k12.co.us/twitter/opt-in/ that they . . .
• . . . “reserve the right to determine the membership of the SVVSD’s Twitter Lists” implies some ownership . . .
• . . . and that some quasi-monitoring might be going on.
• So, again, I support what his district is doing and love the transparency and the community.
• But I do think it’s really complicated and there are many things we still need to think through.

Now, I actually might have tweeted something different because there probably would’ve been some replies in there that would have altered my thinking, but you get the idea.

Transparency and community building by teachers, schools and districts is something I very much support, and I think what St. Vrain is doing is very compelling and very interesting, but I also think it’s uncharted territory and there are some pretty complicated issues involved. This is a really important conversation to have, so I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

I asked a couple of weeks ago about Google Forms and the response was so great, I figured why not ask about Diigo?

Do you use Diigo instructionally? If so, I'd appreciate you sharing that information via this Google Form, it will only take a couple of minutes at most. Feel free to share a description of how you're using it, including any links to blog posts, wikis, etc. that demonstrate how you're using it. You can also optionally include your name and email address if you don't mind being contacted by folks having additional questions (I will be sharing the results on the web, so please keep that in mind before clicking submit).

You can, of course, also leave information in the comments to this post so that everyone can see it immediately as well (although it would be great if you would also add them to the Google Form so I have them in one place). Thanks in advance for anything you're willing to share.

Update from the comments: We are doing a show this Saturday on Classroom 2.0 LIVE about the new features on Diigo v. 4 with Maggie Tsai, Miguel Guhlin and Russ Goerend. The focus will be on using Diigo instructionally and I'm sure there will be lots of sharing in the chat room and via the mic in the Elluminate session. We will announce your survey during the session and invite people to contribute to it. We'd love to have you and your readers join us to participate in the conversation/presentation. Saturday, October 31, 9:00am PDT, http://live.classroom20.com for additional information and login link.

Do you use Google Forms instructionally? If so, I'd appreciate you sharing that information via this Google Form, it will only take a couple of minutes at most. Feel free to share a description of how you're using it, including any links to forms, blog posts, wikis, etc. that demonstrate how you're using it. You can also optionally include your name and email address if you don't mind being contacted by folks having additional questions. (It's possible I'll share this info out at some point beyond my staff, so keep that in mind before clicking submit on the form.)

You can, of course, also leave information in the comments to this post so that everyone can see it as well (although it would be great if you would also add them to the Google Form so I have them in one place). Thanks in advance for anything you're willing to share.

Update: Here are the results.

Maura Moritz's daughter just had her tonsils out. Being the good Mom that she is, she's staying home with her until she's feeling better. Being the good teacher that she is, she didn't want her class to lose out on valuable instructional time. They were scheduled to do a fishbowl with live blogging over Fahrenheit 451, so what to do?

Well, it's a fishbowl with live blogging. The first thing she can do is participate in the live blog (period 3, period 4). The second thing she can do is Skype into class so that she can see and hear the in-class fishbowl discussion.





Just one more example of how Skype is becoming more and more valuable in a school setting. Tell me again why Skype is blocked by so many school districts?

Some recent work from our students and teachers.

Michele asks:
In a complete paragraph, starting with a focused topic sentence, agree or disagree (or somewhere in the middle) with the following statement: The individual is more important than the group.Greg wonders:
Who is more heroic: Jason or Perseus?Who doesn’t want to know about:
A summary of ionic bonding and Lewis dot structures along with a summary of lattice energy.Lary asks for Thematic Thesis Statements from Whale Rider.

Jesse asks for reactions to the cadaver lab.

What are you views on Censorship?
1. Is it okay to have books on making bombs in the school library?
2. Will banning books keep people from reading them?
3. Television shows are censored, so are song lyrics—what makes books different?A little live blogging of a fishbowl discussion on Fahrenheit 451: Smith 2, Moritz 3,Moritz 4,Smith 5

I posted a couple of weeks ago asking folks how they used Google Forms instructionally. Several people asked if I would share the results, so here you go (a quick-and-dirty Google Site I used for a brief lunchtime staff development session on this).

Please note that the Google Form I used for this is still active, so you can still add to it if you wish (and please do). Since the results are embedded on that Google Site, they will automagically update if folks continue to add to it.

Today is the first (hopefully annual) National Day on Writing. It includes the National Gallery of Writing, a live webcast from 9 am to 8 pm EDT, a U.S. Senate Resolution supporting it and, most importantly, lots of writing and smart folks talking about writing.

One of the smartest folks I know talking about writing is Kylene Beers. She’s done a lot of thoughtful work around reading and writing and is currently serving as the President of NCTE. Now, in addition to her tireless efforts to help us all become better readers and writers, Kylene has launched a blog of her own. As she says in her first post:
I’ll be using this space for an on-going conversation about literacy in the twenty-first century.I really appreciate the fact that Kylene is not only talking the talk, but walking the walk. She is leading by example even though, and I think she would admit this, blogging does not come naturally to her. But see, that’s the thing, I don’t think blogging has to come “naturally” to any of us. It sure didn’t come naturally to me. But what does come naturally to Kylene is the ability to write thoughtfully about these issues, and blogging allows her to not only write about, but learn with, other really smart people thinking and working on literacy. As she says to conclude that first post:
We do write to be heard because it is in listening to one another that we do become a part of a community. Perhaps what this space is really about is community, a community of learners in the twenty-first century. Welcome!I couldn’t have blogged it better myself.

(This post is written by Anne Smith and cross-posted on Learning and Laptops. So the "I" in this post is referring to Anne.)

For the past three years, I have had my classes write their versions of National Public Radio’s “This I Believe” segment. I was introduced to this idea by a colleague and have been always impressed by what my students hold as their personal values and beliefs. Writing these essays has allowed for them to do something they don’t get to do all that often at school - express their heartfelt beliefs. After writing the essays the first year, we submitted them to NPR, but we also decided to podcast them ourselves – no need to wait to see if NPR might choose to broadcast them. The writing was good at expressing their values, but once their voice was added to their written expression, WOW, it simply transformed that personal essay. Instead of the words simply being words, the words conveyed deeply held emotions. Now, this is the standard.

Previous class examples:
Period 2 06-07
Period 5 06-07
Period 3 06-07
Period 2 07-08
Period 5 07-08
Period 3 07-08
Wiki 09-10

We are approaching that time of year, when I am going to start the kids on this writing adventure, but this year I wanted to invite you in the blog-o-sphere to join us again. I want “This I Believe” to go global. I want my students to benefit not only from knowing what their peers believe, or what the other AHS classes believe, but to hear and see what the world values. What do kids elsewhere in the U.S. believe in? What do kids elsewhere in the world believe in? What do some of the learned professionals that I know believe in? I want my students to walk away from this experience realizing the power they have as professional writers as well as connecting to other teenagers and adults from around the world. I want to see them exchange ideas, foster relationships, and appreciate the variety of perspectives. Maybe you can challenge your principal, your school board members, your local politicians, heck, maybe your entire school. Maybe we can even get our President to write his own “This I Believe.”

So, how do we accomplish this? Karl Fisch, of course, is willing to be my master facilitator. He has set up a wiki (still a work in progress) that will provide the guidelines for the classes to follow. I am making Maura Moritz’s classes join us again, so there will be four classes (ninth grade, 14 and 15 years old) from AHS writing and podcasting their essays: Moritz 3, Moritz 4, Smith 2, and Smith 5. We are hoping to attract at least three other classes from around the world, one each to pair up with each of our four classes. If we get more than four classes that are interested, then we will try to pair up any additional classes with another class somewhere in the world. If your class(es) are interested, please complete this Google Form with some basic information (your name, your email address, school name, location, grade level(s)/ages, how many classes, number of students in each class, and time frame that you’d like to do this) so we can setup those partnerships. (Our thinking is that pairing one class with one class will keep this from becoming too overwhelming for the students, although of course anyone can read/listen/comment to any of the essays on any of the wiki pages). We will create a wiki page for each set of paired classes and each student will upload their written essay as well as their podcast (the podcast can either be uploaded directly to the wiki, or you can use a variety of other services for that and then link to them). Each pair of classes will be in charge of their own wiki page and we’ll use the discussion tabs on each page to give feedback to the students. If you are an adult interested in writing a piece yourself, simply add them to the “adults” page on the wiki. I am hoping to get some notable edubloggers as well as my superintendent, CIO, and others to participate. It would also be helpful to include a brief bio so the kids can know who they are reading about. Obviously you don’t have to do this with us or on our wiki, you can create your own. But we thought it might be interesting and helpful to have one wiki that aggregated all these essays/podcasts, one place that students (and others) could visit to learn about beliefs all over the world.

Wondering where to start? NPR has a number of education friendly links to help you along the process:
For Educators
For Students
Essay writing tips
How to contribute an essay to NPR

Timeline: For our classes we are going to start writing our essays, November 6th with a final due date of November 13th for their essay. The following week they will begin podcasting their essays. The paired classes don’t have to match this timeline exactly (although that would be great), but we’re hoping they can have theirs completed by Thanksgiving so that the students can start commenting on each other’s essays/podcasts.But for other pairings you can set whatever time frame works best for you – that’s the beauty of the wiki, it’s a living document with no “end” to the assignment (although that’s why we need you to include your time frame when you email us so that we can try to match folks up). We would really appreciate any feedback (now or as this progresses) to make this an experience that is truly relevant and meaningful for these kids.

I often write on this blog about various things that teachers and students in my school are doing. But I find that I don’t always post as often as I could because I want to write a well-crafted, meaningful blog post to go along with each one. Since I can’t always find the time, or the necessary wisdom, to do that, many things that I could share end up not being shared.

While I still plan on writing those more meaningful posts when I can, I’m going to try to do a better job of just quickly sharing links in occasional “Warrior Work” posts like this one. So, here goes.

Anne Smith is wondering about writing conferences:
With increasing my student numbers in all my classes, this semester I have had student conferences at every single off hour plus before and after school, so I know that the conferences are meaningful. I am just wondering if I need to focus more on the preconference or post conference. Maybe I should let the kids pick which one works better for them?Students react to the poem “Invictus”:
Choose a line from it that captures the theme of the piece, makes you think about your life, America, our freedoms, etc.Breaking the Frozen Sea:
According to Franz Kafka, “a book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.” What you think this quotation means? Which short story or personal essay (“Lamb to the Slaughter,” "Born of Man and Woman," "The Lady or the Tiger," "The Utterly Perfect Murder," "Fish Eyes," "The Scarlet Ibis") has broken the most “frozen sea” inside of you?Post Puritanism:
Pretend you’re living in the decades following the Salem Witch Trials.

You’re well educated (obviously), and, as such, you have the power to recreate society.

What concerns would you have about the way the past decades were governed?

The way community was formed?

The way people were punished?

How people gained and maintained power, etc.?

What might you change?
Soldiers’ Bodies:
Should the U.S. military put soldiers in harm's way in order to rescue or recover other soldiers? Why or why not?Periodic Trends

The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a joint effort by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) in partnership with Achieve, ACT and the College Board. Governors and state commissioners of education from across the country committed to joining a state-led process to develop a common core of state standards in English-language arts and mathematics for grades K-12.As Tom Hoffman points out, we really need to take a closer look at the draft standards. Why? Here are his Top 10 Reasons:

1. Your state has probably already committed to using them.
2. The federal Department of Education is exerting heavy pressure on states to adopt the Common Standards.
3. An impressive and powerful list of partners and supporters are backing the Common Standards initiative.
4. These "college- and career-ready" standards, if implemented, will become the basis of all subsequent K-12 English Language Arts standards.
5. These standards, if implemented, will become the basis of all subsequent K-12 English Language Arts curriculum and assessments.
6. The results of those assessments will, if implemented, be used to evaluate not just schools and students, but the performance of individual teachers.
7. The creation of data systems to attach test scores to individual teachers is a basic requirement for federal Race to the Top grants and a top priority for the federal Department of Education and other powerful interests.
   
   But . . .
   
   
8. The Common Core State Standards Initiative English Language Arts Standards are not actually English Language Arts standards.
9. The Common Standards for English Language Arts are narrower, lower, and shallower than the Language Arts standards of high performing countries.
10. We are inviting testing companies to determine the future of our schools with virtually no accountability or public input.

Tom expands on these in his post, please go read it now. Tom’s also written many other posts about this (too many to link), so visit his blog and scroll down. Other folks have recently written about this, including Bud Hunt, Chris Lehmann, and David Warlick.

Now, since most if not all of those folks used to teach Language Arts, I’m not sure if I have much to add to their perspective. Instead, let me throw out some questions from a non-Language Arts teacher perspective. As always, I’m just thinking out loud here.

1. What’s Core?
   
   People use different buzzwords – some use core, some use essential learnings, your school or district may use something else, but I think this is a critical question for all of us. Tom is very concerned that these standards are too narrow and shallow and are not reflective of the fact that English Language Arts is a discipline. On the one hand, I agree with him. If you just read the list of standards in isolation, they do appear to be somewhat shallow, and I worry that the following observation from Tom might be accurate:
   the obvious interpretation is that they chose to define the standard as "support or challenge assertions" rather than "construct a response or interpretation," as every international example they cited did, because the former is much easier and cheaper to score reliably on a standardized test.When I explore the full document (pdf), I do feel a little bit better based on the examples they give, but certainly Tom makes his case that other international standards seem to go much deeper, and that it’s possible these standards are being tailored in a way that makes them easily assessed on a standardized instrument.
   
   But, on the other hand (and yes, I know, I always seem to have a lot of hands on hand), I worry about Tom’s suggestion to add more and more levels of detail into these standards. Because this runs into my own personal dilemma with standards, that in some respects they are too comprehensive, too overwhelming, too restrictive, and perhaps not wholly necessary.
   
   This is a real struggle for me, because I do think that students around the world need many of these skills, and much of this content, yet I can’t help but think that we all are so in love with our content areas that we lose sight of what’s truly essential. I say this from the perspective of a parent of a nine-and-a half-year old who wonders if “literacy criticism” or “the concept of genre” are essential. They may be, I’m not sure. But I can’t help but think of that study a few years back (sorry, can’t find a link at the moment) that indicated it would take something like 26 years to “cover” all the various standards in place at that time (and we have more now). Is this what education – and life – is supposed to be about? It just seems to me that, somehow, some way, what’s essential, what’s really core, should be a much shorter list.
   
   
2. Malleable or Inflexible?
   
   Chris makes a good point about national testing and the resultant depersonalization:
   Once there is a national curriculum and a national test, we will see a further blurring of the line between "education" and "training" where kids are given online instruction and online assessment that can be delivered to any student, regardless of geography.
   
   . . . It has the risk of the ultimate deprofessionalization of teachers and depersonalization of education.
   And the NCTE’s Definition of 21st Century Literacies state that
   These literacies . . . are multiple, dynamic, and malleable.So the literacies are malleable, yet standards are fixed and inflexible? We want all kids to flourish and live up to their individual potential, yet we’re going to achieve that by standardization? How do these things coexist?
   
   
3. Necessary, but not Sufficient?
   
   While the full pdf includes more examples that take this into account, the list of standards themselves seem to ignore the current technological world we live in. Only three of the standards (Reading #12 and #13, and Writing #12) seem to even come close to acknowledging that we live in a rapidly changing, technologically enabled, globally connected - and interconnected – world. These standards could’ve been written fifty years ago. That doesn’t make them bad, as many of these abilities are certainly still necessary, but are they sufficient?
   
   These standards don’t seem to address that reading, writing, speaking and listening are all very, very, very (did I mention very?) different in our current world than they were one hundred, fifty, twenty or even ten years ago. Yes, many of the standards apply in our world today, but I still don’t think that fully addresses how we read, write, speak and listen in a read/write, always on, always connected, participatory world.
   
   I think their definition of text is way too narrow, and way too limited. While one would hope that the more complete document would be taken into account, I could easily see the assessments targeted solely at the stripped down standards. Which then would mean instruction would be targeted only at the stripped down standards. Which then would mean our students would be perfectly prepared to graduate high school . . . in 1985.

So, as Bud points out:
The validation committee’s pretty light on language artists.I would add that the workgroup that developed the standards also seemed to be pretty light on actual practitioners, although testing companies were well represented. In fairness, the NGA points out in the FAQ (pdf) that teachers were consulted:
NGA and CCSSO have asked for and received feedback from national organizations representing educators, such as the National Education Association (NEA), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), and National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). These organizations each brought together groups of teachers to provide specific, constructive feedback on the standards. The feedback was used to inform the public draft of the college- and career-readiness standards. Numerous teacher organizations are also involved with the initiative through the National Policy Forum, which provides a means to share ideas, gather input, and inform the common core state standards initiative.I would strongly suggest that you take some time to review the standards and some of the thoughtful posts about them, and then provide your feedback. Particularly if you’re a Language Arts teacher, but even if you’re not because, as Tom points out, as they are currently worded all teachers will be responsible – and held accountable – for students meeting these standards. And, as he points out in another post, it appears as though the end goal just might be high school graduation requirements.

Where can you provide some feedback? NCTE has issued a statement and is soliciting feedback, and you can provide feedback directly to the validation committee by October 21st. If you’re a member of NEA or AFT, you might also consider letting them know what you like or dislike about these draft standards.

Congratulations to Arapahoe's very own Anne Smith for being named one of the National School Board Association's "20 to Watch" for 2009.
The National School Boards Association’s Technology Leadership Network (TLN) has named its annual list of “20 to Watch” emerging leaders in education technology. These individuals are recognized by the organization for championing technology initiatives that make a difference for students, teachers, school districts, and the greater education technology community.Anne is a remarkable Language Arts teacher in my building. Here's an excerpt from her nomination letter.
All [Anne's] students not only have the opportunity to demonstrate their thinking, but the expectation that they do so. I think that this is perhaps what is most striking: Anne's use of technology has created higher expectations for her students and herself. And those high expectations are indicative of her leadership. Congrats, Anne, you deserve it.

On another note, Chris Moore, a fabulous 5th grade teacher in my district, was also named as one of "20 to Watch". As far as we know, this is the first time that NSBA has named two folks from the same district in the same year. And that makes three from our district in the last three years. It seems to me that these are the kinds of things schools and districts should really "brag" about (especially given the tough budget climate we have in Colorado). Because I think all of our communities should know that, despite the difficult budget situation, we have many educators who are worth "watching."

For anyone interested, here's the ustream archive of Jason Shellen speaking with our students that I blogged about previously. He starts speaking right about the 5 minute mark. Ustream allowed me to "cut" the video so it should start at that point, but it appears to be inconsistent so you may have to fast forward to the 5 minute mark. (It appears that if you go to ustream and watch it there, it starts at the almost 5 minute mark. If you play it in the blog, it starts at the beginning.) My live tweets are below the ustream.



108. Starting ustream now. Class starts in about 5 minutes. http://bit.ly/13MP8H about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

107. Students are hearing from @shellen started with Pyra labs, bought by Google when they brought in Blogger, then prod manager 4 Google Reader about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

106. He's now at Thing Labs, makers of Brizzly. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck


105. He was an art major in college. Didn't think he would need any business knowledge. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

104. Graduated college in 96, web was just coming on the scene. He took a class called "web publishing" about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

103. He thought it was fantastic as an artist that he could put his work out there on the web and control the way it looked. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

102. http://bit.ly/16U1hw for the live stream about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

101. In 1999 started Blogger - a way to get yourself online easily about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

100. about five of them working together in a basement in San Francisco about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

99. He joined them and worked with them to build relationships with larger companies to try to make a little money with Blogger about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

98. In 2003 we had the opportunity to sell to Google - so we did. We had about a million users at that point. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

97. We could accept venture financing and see what happens, or we could join Google and hope that blogging explodes. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

96. We chose to join Google to raise awareness of blogging. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

95. Once he joined Google they though things were going well, but he wanted to find a better way to read and keep up with blogs about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

94. Built a prototype called Fusion (looked a lot like Facebook does now) with one other guy at Google about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

93. It then developed into a product called Google Reader. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

92. It's one of the best ways to subscribe to content on the web. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

91. Stayed at Google for about 4.5 years. 600 people when he joined, 16000 when he left. He liked working in small teams. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

90. He wanted to get back out there and solve problems with people, so he started Thing Labs in June of 2009 about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

89. In January they launched their first product. It's done okay, but he's not really excited about it. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

88. So now he created something he likes better. Brizzly. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

87. A social web reader. Twitter integration, coming out with Facebook support next week. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

86. Trying to streamline your interaction with Twitter, Facebook, etc. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

85. Also focused on the growing phenomenon. People are talking about current events on the web. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

84. Easier to get your news from real people now, not just CNN, MSNBC about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

83. Live stream at http://bit.ly/16U1hw about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

82. You're okay with hearing things through a status update, doesn't have to be highly polished. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

81. Tries out new things and see what sticks. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

80. None of these tools wouldn't be anything without the people involved with it. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

79. Now kids are going to ask questions. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

78. Q: What actually happens when a large company approached a small company and offers to buy it? What's the process? about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

77. They were approached by a friend of a friend. Sergie Brin approached them through a friend. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

76. He thought they were going to talk about a business deal, not buying them. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

75. .@shellen is speaking to a Business Principles class, so they're asking about how to run a business, startup issues, venture capital about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

74. Hard to value these things. Google wasn't a public company, so hard to value them. We said we think you're worth $1 billion, they came back about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

73. with we think we're worth $3 billion - hard to figure out what things are worth when no public share price. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

72. Q: Kylie asks: How does a product like Brizzly make money when you don't charge for it? about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

71. Difficult to make money from day 1. For any sight that deals with people, it's visually repellent if you ask for money up front. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

70. We do have a long range plan, a way to monetize something other than just visiting the web page. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

69. Try to build users first, then monetize it. Now talking about Twitter in relation to that. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

68. Facebook didn't turn ads on until they had 100 million users. The economics change when you have enough users. Can make large amount . . about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

67. of money from a small amount of ads. Not as intrusive. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

66. Most models are advertising based. Next model is subscription or pay for upgraded services. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

65. With Blogger they had a free offering, but you had to pay for more features (images, spell check) - sounds silly now, but it was new then. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

64. Q: Eric asks: What will Thing Labs work on after Brizzly? about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

63. They just launched Lets Be Trends dot com about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

62. It's an application interface. Brizzly shows lots of the trends on the web. Last night it was football as a trending topic. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

61. Lets Be Trends open up that data, and let Brizzly users explain what's trending on the web. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

60. We might develop Lets Be Trends into something else, but we're asking our users right now to make the data more attractive to other people. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

59. But it's too early to really tell what's going to happen with it. We're working hard, but things change quickly. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

58. Q from Ryan: If you want to setup a website for a group or club, but didn't want to use Blogger, what would you use? about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

57. Talking about weebly.com - met the guy at a ball game. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

56. Turns out Blogger is very bad at creating a group web site. He would suggest checking out weebly - his Mom is very happy with it. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

55. Lots of people are also using Facebook fan pages, but he's not a fan of having Facebook bradning on everything. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

54. Q from Shelby: Did you ever think of a product or service, but never tried to start it? about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

53. Yes, more good ideas than there is time to implement them. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

52. The execution is so important, doing it really well. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

51. When he has an idea, he thinks about how hard it would be to do well. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

50. Sometimes it's crazy to try to build your idea. So he thinks about the simplest possible thing he can do that people can use, about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

49. and is transformative for people, and that I can do really well. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

48. Save the good ideas, because sometimes they pop up again in unlikely places. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

47. 2nd Question: Do you ever have regrets over not going with an idea? about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

46. Not really. He has regrets over poor execution of ideas, or not seeing a different angle on his products. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

45. Q from Richard: How do you account/track for every action that a person can take on Brizzly? about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

44. He's now talking about Google Analytics in terms of analzying what's happening on your page/product. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

43. The trouble is there's too much data, so they aggregate all user data to see trends. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

42. Brizzly is a little different - it's javascript. So they are implementing some of their own, also using Kiss metrics (sp?) about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

41. There are always bugs in any software. But he hires the right people in the first place, tries to minimize that. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

40. They use "test driven development" - write some code, test it, make sure it should work, then try it themselves. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

39. Users are then pretty vocal about letting them know. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

38. Started working on Brizzly in May - it was part acquisition so he brought on a good engineer about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

37. Rolled it out to users in the beginning of August. So about 2 months - that was fast, and it wasn't ready for prime time about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

36. It's still in private Beta, but rolling it out to more folks every day. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

35. Q from Matt: How do you name your products? about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

34. There's a saying in computer science that naming is one of the hardest things. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

33. He wasn't particularly happy with the Google Reader name (he liked Fusion). about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

32. With Brizzly they came up with two terrible names. A new employee was joining them and he asked about it. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

31. They shared the names and they hated even saying what they had. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

30. Went to Brand Market (sp) dot com - found what was available. Really hard to find something not taken. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

29. Q: How do you advertise your products? about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

28. Started by talking to the press. After a a few thousand users, let their users give away Brizzly invites. So relied on their users to say about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

27. they liked the product and invite their friends. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

26. Some call it viral marketing, he prefers organic. Nobody wants a virus, everybody likes organic. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

25. Q from Katie: Did you ever think you'd be where you are when you were a kid? about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

24. I thoughts I was going to be a cartoonist, working on my drafting board each day. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

23. Q from Adam: Where did you get your inspiration to create Brizzly from. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

22. Talking about Evan Williams and Biz Stone. They left Google before him, they created Twitter. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

21. When they created Twitter, they invited a close group of friends, including him. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

20. By using that early version of Twitter, he got to thinking about all the ways Twitter could be better. (Facebook too). about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

19. He's always thinking about optimization, how to make thinks a little bit better. It's not revolutionary but evolutionary. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

18. When he thought about how to make Twitter/Facebook better, he thought about trends. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

17. The thing that would make this better is to have your friends with you on websites. That then moved to trends. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

16. Q: How do you find a domain that hasn't been used, then purchase and use it? about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

15. There's a huge market - he uses namecheap but there are others about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

14. You enter something in, search for it, see if it's taken. There's also an aftermarket - like Brizzly was already taken, he bought it. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

13. There are also word combiner tools, help you come up with permutations, then you see if it's available. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

12. Q from Alex: How difficult is it to create your applications? about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

11. (Sorry if this is too much - thought some folks might benefit from it) about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

10. Start out with a huge list of what you'd like to do, then figure out what you can actually do. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

09. IF you like sleep, then it was hard. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

08. People bring their ideas to me, because I'm sort of known for this. It's a great position to be in. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

07. Thanks @shellen, that was great. Archive should be on ustream a little bit later. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

06. .@shellen Well, did you think it went as well as when they do it on Oprah? From our end we thought it went great. Thanks again. 41 minutes ago from TweetDeck

05. Archive of the ustream with @shellen is available at http://bit.ly/lIL5N - starts about 5 minutes into the recording. 37 minutes ago from TweetDeck

04. Check that. Ustream now allows you to "cut" your video so I'm able to position it so it starts playing right before he starts speaking. Nice 31 minutes ago from TweetDeck

03. Apologies to everyone if it [the massive number of tweets] was annoying. 30 minutes ago from TweetDeck