Best of...

Innovate Education has quite a few new readers these days. You have no idea how much I appreciate the audience, and also how you all enable me to live in my educational dream.

Since the pick up in other educators interest... I thought that I would post some of my oldies. In my opinion, these are some of my best pieces... ones that I am proud of. As I reflect, I have seen how my writing has changed, and I want to get back to the "oldie" style. I have used these pieces as a source of self-reflection - I hope you will use them to tell someone else about this blog, or be inspired to begin you own.

Being the "D"

What Are We Doing?

Chivalry is Dead.

Respect.

Delivering Meaning

Standardi-Nation

Getting Left in the Chalk Dust

Hitting Refresh

Enjoy.

Mike Meechin, M. Ed.
mike.meechin@gmail.com
twitter.com/innovateed

Textbooks Schmextbooks

Been working some math lately. (Yes I have a headache.)

I am going for an interview later this week for a curriculum position at the district level. The job is overseeing the curriculum for social studies in middle and secondary schools in my district. Our district is fairly large, serving about 53,000 students.

In my interview prep, I wanted to be able to drop some bombs with regard to reforms in the interview. My big point is going to be about textbooks... getting rid of them. That's right I said it. Stop social studies textbook adoptions immediately and focus on bringing SS classrooms to a one to one. Here is my math that I have been using.

We enroll just over 24k (24,104) students in middle and high school. If we purchase textbooks for all of these students (we actually purchase more, since many students are enrolled in more than one SS classes) it would run the district about...

$1.6 million... based on a $70 textbook.

I say, textbooks schmextbooks!

We purchase texts for social studies every five years. Why? In the district's 163 social studies classrooms we could go one to one with netbooks for about...

$1.2 million... based on a $300 netbook. This is the bomb I am going to drop in my interview. We should stop textbook adoptions and put the capital into technology and professional development to implement that technology. The craziest part is that it would shave about $400k from the district budget.

Wow.

Any thoughts? Or any other ideas for the interview?

More to come...

Mike Meechin, M. Ed.
mike.meechin@gmail.com
twitter.com/innovateed

Real World Education

So, it's been a while... again. Trying not to make this a habit.

Have been working the past two weeks with a group of high schoolers, taking them on trips to local colleges and universities in the Central Florida area. This past Thursday we visited Full Sail University, a college for entertainment, media and arts. Their motto is powerful, yet simple.

Full Sail. Real World Education.

Their motto has inspired this post. The school is simple from the outside, basically looks like a large office building. But inside, the school is built for real world education. The interior of building, depending on whether you're in the film, music or animation production areas is an eclectic mix of wood and steel. Amazing designs are present throughout, Full Sail is after all an "art" school. Students find recording studios, a working backlot, concert venue, television studios and sound stages... all mixed among classrooms.

Why can't we replicate what Full Sail has, but in a high school setting? I am not talking the specifics, but the openness of the design of the school. Students work to help other programs, a true cross curricular learning environment. It is not about money, its about taking the time to demand a quality design for schools. Our schools already cost extraordinary amounts of money, but with not originality in design. (In fact, my current school district has built the last three high schools from the same plans. Ha!)

Full Sail has a lot to teach us about school design, openness and student driven learning. I will keep this in mind when I reach the big chair, hopefully in a role to design a new school.

Thanks Full Sail!

More to come...

Mike Meechin, M. Ed.

mike.meechin@gmail.com

twitter.com/innovateed

Welcome to the "Hood"

A long time ago Shelly Blake-Plock over at TeachPaperless posted a great blog about his classroom design. You know there is a lot that a classroom says about students, educators and what goes on in there. With regard to Shelly's class... well, I wish I could be a student there.

It's simple really. It's all about the student. It's all about the learning.

So, here is my "hood"... welcome. What does it say to you?

More to come...

Mike Meechin, M. Ed.
mike.meechin@gmail.com
twitter.com/innovateed

Hitting Refresh

Well tomorrow is the last day of final exams. That means that it is time to hit refresh and get ready for next year. There has been quite a bit happening the past few weeks, so it has been tough to write. It feels good though to get some thoughts out of the mind.

I have been keeping up with my reading on Google Reader, and lots has been going on. So much so, that I have been overwhelmed with ideas to incorporate into the classroom for next year. Much of my past month has also been in meetings and PLCs with colleagues... and I came to a realization. There are lots of educators teaching in 2010, that are just not willing to self-reflect and make changes to their teaching.

It has made me sad to see just how many out there do not self-reflect at the end of the year. Isn't this the key to adapting to meet the needs of your students?

Today's educators must be willing to be outside the box thinkers, who are creating dynamic lessons that are student driven. There are so many people out there giving us the resource to help us in this quest. Check my blogroll for just a few. Educators who are doing amazing things.

Me myself, I am giving my classes a facelift and tummy tuck... making major changes to assessment and also how I create syllabi (thanks to TeachPaperless). I am rethinking the exam process, and actually rethinking whether a multiple choice "traditional" exam has any business showing it's face in our classrooms. I am thinking not.

However, as I make these changes and reflect on the year, many more don't. I think that it is time that those of us on the fence to step up and become the catalyst for reform and self-reflection in our own schools.

It is time to hit refresh.

So, my question to you. What are your going to hit "refresh" on this summer?

More to come...

Mike Meechin, M. Ed
mike.meechin@gmail.com
twitter.com/innovateed

Holy Cow!

Today I was perusing my Google Reader, catching up from the past couple of days... and then it hit me, HOLY COW!

I had just watched a YouTube video on a post from Richard Byrne over at Free Tech for Teachers. (If you're not hooked into his RSS feed you are missing out!) The video came by way of another amazing edtech @AngelaMaiers. Before we continue, I must implore you to take the next 4 minutes and 25 seconds to view this vid... then commence reading this blog post.



Holy cow! Right? I mean, I have seen the Shift Happens vids, but this hit home more. We are missing out on a "teachable moment" with our students by way of social media. I have addressed this topic more and more recently. Maybe it has been part out of frustration, but I believe it is mainly about my belief in instructional technology that enhances our teaching.

Byrne points out in his post something he too has addressed prior... we are cheating these students by banning the technologies that they use the most. I mean it would be the equivalent of banning Suzie's pen and pencil back in the 1950s. That was an essential form of communication back then. Today though, we have banned all methods of communication that our students use on a daily, hourly, minutely (*not a word) basis. Schools are eliminating these tools, instead of teaching responsible use.

We wonder why our students do not email? The answer is simple. We never taught them how to. Schools did not embrace the email fad, now our students are void of this skill. Schools need to adapt their policies, and us our methods as we meet our students and collaborate with them in using these technologies that are changing the way they we "do" our lives.

Holy cow!

More to come...

Mike Meechin, M. Ed.
mike.meechin@gmail.com
twitter.com/innovateed

New Look!

Well the time has come for an overhaul of the Innovate Education blog. This is the first step in preparation to launching a few professional development workshops this summer. This will officially begin my trek into the world of educational consulting (part-time, of course).

It is an exciting time for me. I am looking forward to sharing even more of my ideas and experiences with all of those who read this blog. We are excited about our new look and even more excited about what is still yet to come.

Any advice to those in the field will be welcomed. Thanks.

More to come...

Mike Meechin, M. Ed.
mike.meechin@gmail.com
twitter.com/innovateed

Censorcation!

Nick Sauer recently posted a piece on his blog 1:1 Schools, asking a basic, but important question:

"How can we trust our teachers with our students, but not the Internet?"

Sauer's post really made me reflect on my own situation and the battles that a few of us have been fighting with the district. In my county and school we practice what I call Censorcation, with regards to Web 2.0 technologies. It really is a censorship that China would be proud of.

Let's see, gone are Facebook, GoogleDocs, Gmail, Google Chrome, Flickr, Google Images, Yahoo! Images, Twitterfall... and many, many more.

We are so afraid to let our students use these technologies in the classroom. However, the students are not the issue (well a few are). But rather, administrators and districts alike must hold educators and students accountable for their actions and abuses of the Acceptable Use Policies. Some educators get a laptop cart and just pass out the computers... with no structure, no lesson. Well, of course there are going to be abuses of the Internet. Is the problem the Internet, or the teachers who does a disservice to his/her students, with or without technology?

It is frustrating, especially after answering the call of educators such as those at TeachPaperless, of going paperless in the classroom. We cannot block the world through Censorcation from our students. Those who misuse these powerful learning tools (teacher or student) must be held accountable.

But most important... don't penalize the masses because of the actions of the few. Pretty please.

More to come...

Mike Meechin, M. Ed.
mike.meechin@gmail.com
twitter.com/innovateed

[Super] Earth Day

I finally have a bit of time to reflect on my Earth Day project that I completed with my students. I pledged to go paperless on Earth Day through Shelly Blake-Plock's edublog TeacherPaperless. It was an amazing idea and caught absolute fire with educators around the globe. Kudos to Shelly.

My 130 + students decided that we were not going to go paperless for just Earth Day, but rather the remainder of the year. We discussed a plan and then put that plan into action. My students and I were able to take a laptop cart that had been abandoned by most at the school due to the operating issue of the machines, which are about six years old. We spent the next few weeks leading up to Earth Day repairing and cleaning the machines up after school.

On April 22, we launched our own computer lab in my classroom. It was a project that all of us had a hand in. Now we are able to be 1:1 for the remainder of the school year, contributing our share through quite a few weeks of "paperless" education. I am proud of this endeavour and look forward to working in a 1:1 environment with my students.

More importantly I thank TeachPaperless and the movement that will hopefully become a long standing tradition. It was a super Earth Day for us. My students learned a great lesson and I am glad to have been a part of it.

More to come...

Mike Meechin, M. Ed.
mike.meechin@gmail.com
twitter.com/innovateed

50, the New Zero!

Usually I am not sure of opinion on educational reform movements. Well, I need some help on this one.

I am working on some research on the 50 point minimum grading scale. I am reluctant to tackle this because I am not really sure how I feel about this form of assessment. If you want to read more about it, you can do so here. Long story short, you use 50 points as the minimum (to replace the zero) as the lowest grade a student can earn.

I proposed this concept to my faculty and I now have a test group of about 25 teachers. This is representative of about 25% of the faculty at my school. We will be rolling this assessment out in the 2010-11 school year and will hit the ground running with the research.

So, wanted to ask this. There are so many "outside-the-box" thinkers in the edublogosphere and I really want to know your thoughts. Do you uses this system? What are your thoughts on this system? What are you doing for assessment in the form of grading?

Help me.

More to come...

Mike Meechin, M. Ed.
mike.meechin@gmail.com
twitter.com/innovateed.com