This Week’s Challenge: #AltEd Conference Presentation

A news blog I write/edit for the IAAE as part of my duties as a board member. Other duties include presenting at the annual conference.

I finished comprehensive exams and moved on to the next professional challenge: preparing to present at the Iowa Association of Alternative Education’s next state conference.  This will be the third year I’ve presented, and each time I do it gets a little easier to stand up in front of my peers; but it gets a little more intense to prepare.

I fully intended to write my usual post for today…but ran out of time because I’ve been working on two Google Presentations to use this week. I will be presenting two separate break-out sessions: one about Social Media in Education, and one about Blogging.  If you have time to look through my presentations and offer feedback, it would be much appreciated! My conference presentation skills are a work in progress…I can use all the help I can get.

To see my presentations, visit the Google Site I created for the conference  and click on either of the Subpages, “Beginner’s Guide to Social Media for Educators”  or “Blogging 101.”

Why these topics? Many of my colleagues in Alternative Education are very creative thinkers when it comes to differentiating instruction and finding new ways to motivate kids. They are passionate and caring people who spend a lot of time helping kids. As a result, many of them don’t have much time to learn about new technology.  I’m hoping that my presentations will make it easier for them to sign up for Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites so that they can connect with each other and find new ways to reach out to their students.

I’ll let you know how it goes next week….

var addthis_config = {“data_track_clickback”:true};

Creating an Alternative Education PLN

This past week I attended the Iowa Association of Alternative Education’s annual state conference. Like every conference, a lot of information was presented and it is the job of all attendees to sort through the information to decide what is useful.  David Warlick (@dwarlick on Twitter) described 21st century literacy as a process that involves more than reading and writing–it is the process of asking questions and sorting through vast amounts of information. As a teacher, I am constantly bombarded with information, but the most valuable information doesn’t come from websites, textbooks, or news stories; it comes from my colleagues!

Because there is so much value in networking with other alternative educators, our conference planned for one room to be dedicated to the sharing of ideas in a roundtable format. As an earlier post mentions, I am interested in starting up and Alternative Education PLN on Twitter, but I haven’t had much luck in finding many alternative educators on Twitter! The IAAE conference was the perfect opportunity to help my colleagues learn the value of Twitter as a resource. There is no longer a need to wait until next year’s conference to get new ideas about lesson plans, ask for feedback on strategies, or to ask questions about how other educators are doing things. We can do all of that and more instantly–on Twitter!

But how do I get my colleagues to learn about the power of Twitter? I tried to spread the word at the IAAE State Conference by facilitating the technology roundtable. Conference attendees came in and sat at laptops. They directed their own learning (much in the same way they teach their students!) and asked for help if they needed it. Below is the document I used to get them started. Please feel free to share it–comment if you want me to send you a link to the original Google Doc so that you can edit it for your own purposes. Spread the word to your Alternative Education colleagues…let’s get an #AltEd PLN started!

PLN Resources for Alternative Educators

If you’re on Facebook, then you know how amazing it is to connect with old friends and chat with family members who live far away. What if you could have the same kinds of chats with colleagues in alternative education? Many alternative educators feel isolated. Many of us work in rural one-room school houses or in small schools with very few colleagues. Many of us love what we do, but don’t feel that we have colleagues nearby who really understand what our jobs are like. Through the Internet, we can join together! Here are some ways to start a Professional Learning Network (PLN) for Alternative Educators!

Some rights reserved by Brajeshwar from flickr

Twitter: twitter.com

Have brief chats, post links to news articles, and meet new colleagues on Twitter!

How to use Twitter: http://onceateacher.wordpress.com/2009/02/18/a-teachers-guide-to-twitter/

http://www.scribd.com/doc/14062777/Twitter-Handbook-for-Teachers

Hashtags for Alternative Educators on Twitter:

#AltEd #atrisk #edchat #education #IowaEd #IowaSchools #IAAE

Apps that make Twitter easy (on Android, iPhone, or computer):

tweetdeck: allows you to create a home column for your Twitter feed and additional columns with Twitter filters for specific hashtags (conversations). Also allows you to view your Facebook wall in the same app! www.tweetdeck.com/

HootSuite: like tweetdeck, HootSuite allows you to monitor multiple platforms and keywords at once. You can also schedule tweets to be posted at a later date and track your followers. hootsuite.com/

To post links, you’ll need a URL shortener. These services take long web addresses and shorten them so that they fit in a 140 character tweet! Here are some suggestions:

bit.ly

tinyurl.com

ow.ly 

Need help? Check out Sue Waters’ helpful blogs at http://theedublogger.com/tag/twitter/  She has information about Twitter, how to set up a blog, and how to set up/use Skype in your classroom. Still stuck? You can DM (direct message) me on Twitter @jenmardunc, contact me on my blog jenmardunc.blogspot.com, or ask for my business card so that you can email me directly.  Be sure to use the #IAAE hashtag so that I know you are from the IAAE conference!

  

Blogs

3 public sites for blogging

Blogger.com is Google’s blog engine

WordPress.com is favored by many (including our new Department of Education chief, Jason Glass! Visit his blog at http://educationelements.wordpress.com/about-jason-glass/)

Tumblr is another blog hosting platform

There are other blog platforms specifically for educators and their students

edublogs.org is specifically for educational purposes. It is a “safe” space for students to blog because only other students and teachers are a part of the blog system.

For help on how to start a blog, visit this WikiHow site  http://www.wikihow.com/Start-a-Blog

Need help deciding which blogging platform to use? See this comparison in Google Docs or type in this shortened version of the link http://bit.ly/gX7CTX

Examples of blogs

• Our new IAAE Newsletter Blog http://iaae-news.blogspot.com
• The Innovative Educator Blog theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/ includes lots of posts (articles) about being innovative in the classroom. Many topics relating to alternative education and self-directed learning are discussed on this blog.
• The Tempered Radical– a blog that discusses Educational Policy and 21st Century skills http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical/
• Our keynoter, David Warlick’s blog  http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/

There are many, many more blogs! To find them, do a Google Blog Search by going to http://blogsearch.google.com

If you find some blogs you want to follow, you can usually do so in a few ways:

1. Use your Twitter handle to log in and follow (if the blog allows

2. Use your Google Account to log in and follow

3. Use an RSS feeder, like Google Reader. www.reader.google.com

You can set up Google Reader to “feed” you news stories from websites and blogs all over the world! News reader/feeder apps let you customize your own “newspaper” each day. Want to read about alternative education around the world? Search for the phrase “alternative education” in the Google Reader search page and subscribe to the feed. It will filter out every story with the phrase “alternative education” in it that is posted on the web. Then read away–on your computer or on your SmartPhone.

What does all of this look like in an alternative classroom? Here is the blog I created for use in my classroom this year. Feel free to visit and/or borrow anything on our blog: http://ndaltschool.blogspot.com  

Links to blogs created by alternative students are at the bottom of the page.

var addthis_config = {“data_track_clickback”:true};

How do we Create an Alternative Education PLN?

I’ve been fortunate enough to have some planning time this week. It comes just in time to prepare for the IAAE 2011 Spring Conference, where I will be facilitating a technology round table discussion. I don’t know how many people, if any, will come to the discussion; but I’ve still been trying to plan things to share with anyone who stops by. It is difficult, though! There is so much out there in terms of technology that it is hard to narrow down what is most important for alternative educators. In the end, what I’ve considered is what has most impacted my life as an educator and therefore my students’ learning. That impact comes from my newfound ability to communicate with other like-minded educator from across the globe through Twitter and blogs.

In Iowa (and in other places) alternative educators are often isolated. We teach in one-room schoolhouses or in small programs with very few colleagues. District-wide inservices rarely cover topics that relate to what we do in our classrooms. We don’t fit into any other department in the district. For professional development purposes, I’m often left unassigned to group meetings or lumped in with special educators or guidance counselors. On a day to day basis, I miss having colleagues with whom I can brainstorm and share stories. The Iowa Association of Alternative Education’s annual State Conference is the first place where I made connections with colleagues who do what I do. Each year when I attend the conference it feels like I’m going home.

But the conference only comes once a year–what about some daily interaction?

That’s where Twitter comes in! Through Twitter, I’ve met a few more alternative educators from across the U.S. and I’ve met some traditional educators who think alternatively. It is wonderful to exchange ideas with these people! Our interactions make me strongly believe that my IAAE colleagues should try to join in on the conversation. I would love to see more alternative educators on Twitter! I’ve advertised on #edchat and joined the Educator’s PLN at-risk/alternative group to look for other alternative educators; but so far only one more person has joined me… How do I find more alternative educators? Are they out there? Are alternative educators nationwide lagging behind when it comes to having an online presence? or are they just too busy to interact with each other?

If you were looking to start an online PLN of alternative educators, where would you start?

var addthis_config = {“data_track_clickback”:true};

The Best Way to Teach: Alternatively

Earlier this week I read Lisa Nielsen’s blogpost, The College Myth: Why College Isn’t Worth The Cost For Many Careers Today and I was confused. Not because I disagree, but because I really thought this was common knowledge. Of course college isn’t worth the cost for many careers! Why does anyone need to blog about that topic?  Soon after my moment of confusion, links to the article flowed through my Twitter stream, with several of the people I follow tweeting about how this “new” idea needs to be shared so that education can be reformed. In my world, the world of alternative education, the notion that there are different goals for each student, that college isn’t always a worthwhile goal, isn’t a new or innovative idea at all.  Alternative educators realize that there are many worthwhile careers that don’t require college but do benefit humanity and provide a decent wage. I thought about how many of my former students lead productive lives despite the fact that they never attended college. And that’s when it hit me: I am an alternative educator, and like my students (and many other students), I an outsider who doesn’t quite fit into the traditional education system. 

Alternative education, which originated as a protest to the industrial model of education, has a rich history (see the Alternative Education Resource Organization’s excellent “Brief History”.) Alternative programs, schools and teachers have evolved since the 19th century, but one thing has remained the same: alternative education is still about accepting and nurturing the individuality  of our nation’s young people. 


Our educational system is constantly evolving–sometimes re-volving back to earlier models. Current calls for educational reform seem to mirror the past, but one constant remains: the battle between the education reformers and education classicists. It is sometimes difficult to tell the two sides apart (see this Wikipedia article about Education Reform for examples of progressive models supported by conservatives.) It is especially difficult for those who work in alternative education. Why? Because no matter what happens in the traditional education world, we never seem to fit in. That’s not because we rebelliously refuse to follow current educational trends, waging wars against mainstream school culture no matter what the philosophy. Rather, it is because we adhere to our alternative school cultural tradition by always putting the student first.  

When you always put the student first, each educational trend becomes a tool for your tool belt, stored away until a student walks through your classroom door in need of it. Over the years I’ve attended many inservices where the school district pays an expert to come in and teach the staff the best way to teach our students. Each year there is a new “best way” and traditional school teachers complain about redoing their lesson plans (or refusing to redo their lesson plans) so that their teaching is up-to-date (or stuck in a rut.) Alternative educators tuck those “best way” trends into our tool belts and pull them out when needed–because you never know when it might come in handy. In one classroom, you can have a student who learns best by skill and drill/rote memorization and one who learns best by answering open-ended questions/critical thinking. Why should one student struggle to learn in an uncomfortable style when both strategies are available to the teacher?

Putting the student first means that you acknowledge each individual in your classroom and do whatever it takes to help them learn. Even if that means teaching the same thing five different ways in an hour. Even if that means using an “out-of-date” and unaccepted strategy that your colleagues will criticize. Even if that means working a lot of hours without seeing or talking to another teacher-friend for days at a time.  Here’s the real kicker: it means talking to your students and getting to know them well enough to decide which strategy might work for their learning style. It means finding out about their lives outside of school and talking to them about their hopes for the future. It means helping them achieve their dreams even if you don’t think it’s the right dream for them. Nowadays this is called being an innovative or  passion-driven educator. In my experience the name for these kinds of teachers hasn’t evolved or changed in at least half a century: they are alternative educators. Alternative educators are not many, but we are here; and we know what our students can accomplish when we don’t judge any strategy too time-consuming, too progressive, too conservative. Nor do we judge any student unworthy of the time it takes to develop and use so many strategies effectively.  Alternative educators know that if we fill our tool belt and take the time to learn to use all of the tools, what our students can accomplish is miraculous. We just have to give them the right tools to get the job of learning done.

——————————————————————————————————————-

For more information about alternative education, visit the Iowa Association of Alternative Education’s website and click on the links on the left side of the page. See the IAAE’s Framework for Alternative Learning Environments for information about student-centered classrooms and standard practices in alternative education. Do you think your school or classroom qualifies as an alternative learning environment? Use this checklist of quality indicators to see what you can improve to make sure that education is available to all students.

var addthis_config = {“data_track_clickback”:true};