From the About page of TeachSupport:

TeachSupport facilitates reflection and collaboration around practical issues in pedagogy.  Our mission is to support teacher development, particularly that of educators new to the profession, by supporting continuous improvement. We believe that the most meaningful professional development happens when teachers are (1) empowered to explore aspects of their own practice, (2) acquire new knowledge and resources, and (3) actively apply best practices within a supportive community of educators.  Based out of a charter network in San Diego, TeachSupport delivers quality professional development to support teachers and students alike.

Friday, May 30, 2003

Friendster: This is my topic of the day. I was invited to join this new concept by a friend of mine, hence the name friendster. At first I thought it was just some chat room similar to AOL instant messenger, so I really didn’t want to bother with it. However, with some idle time at work these days, I took the time and registered an account with this website. Instantly I was connected to my good friend and her friends. Wow, what a novel idea, a way to connect with friends and their friends. But during that same epiphany, I also realized this is kind of hoke, and that this application was just another concoction to display in a non-personal method, how cool and popular an individual can be? Is it really a public forum to show how many friends you have under your “friend’s box”? How superficial can this be? I will be the first to admit, that I was enamored and caught up with the idea of trying to claim as many friends. It almost sounds kind of surreal, as if your friends are possessions that belong in this so called “friend’s box”. I mean, this application really is not that new, we all have AOL and email accounts. Just email your friends if you want to talk to them, why use their “send a message” feature. Once again, I’ll be the first to admit that I was a victim of all this too. Does anyone really ask to hook them up with their friend’s friend using this application? That is what the real world is for, go out and meet up with your friends. Your friend will know if you are right for one of their other friends. You don’t need this hoke application to do that. Well, maybe I am just jealous because I only have 16 friends in my box, where some people have 50-500 friends. Maybe people are correct, they are cooler because they have more friends in their “friend’s box”. For me, it is not the number of friends, but rather the quality of that friendship.

But hey, I am just a critic, and probably will still check out the site once in awhile. Okay maybe a few times a week. One thing is for certain; I will view this site in a different light. I will no longer be caught up in this race of asking people to be my friend. If they are truly my friend, I certainly will not need friendster to tell me that.

As Dr. Yong Zhoa highlighted in his keynote, it is the rise of the creative class and people with unique specialized skills. The talented teachers I have met are as creative as anyone, and have unique skills of authentic teaching with the “entrepreneurial” spirit of sharing their skills in branded ways (whether driven by $ or not). He further describes in his keynote the need to move towards entrepreneurial-based education and that schooling needs to be product-oriented. From the many great PLN that I finally met face-to-face, I see educators who are truly modeling what Dr. Zhao has been preaching in his keynote and new book: World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students. The next layer is to bring this mindset and culture into our classrooms and students.

High School Technology Teacher 2012-2013 School Year

King-Chavez Community High School is seeking a high level technology teacher to come work with us in downtown San Diego. Our mission statement is “We are a local school with a global vision that empowers people through education and love.” Moving into our fourth year of operation, we are a charter high school seeking dedicated and passionate educators who are committed to providing our students with an innovative and outstanding education. We seek a technology teacher who can deliver a dynamic curriculum in an effective, innovative way. Teacher must have a current, valid California Single Subject teaching credential in Computer Science. Computer programming skills necessary include: Java, C++, scripting, SQL, multimedia skills including Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator and Final Cut Pro. Teachers at King-Chavez must have strong communication and interpersonal skills, classroom management skills, and the firm belief in the potential of all students to succeed and go to college.
Please send applications to vaquerojobs@kingchavez.org.

Kickstarter: The fastest growing site funding innovative projects (not just in education) is Kickstarter. Kickstarter’s mission is to provide a funding platform for any creative projects. This site has been used by artists, film directors, entrepreneurs, and educators to help raise money for projects like making documentaries, turning a bus into a mobile greenhouse, and tshirts. Here is a great example of a Kickstarter education project: The Food Lab at Walker Jones

DonorsChoose: The most well known site funding school and classroom projects is DonorsChoose. I was fortunate to have been funded by DonorsChoose 10 times when I use to teach my engineering class. Here is my DonorsChoose page as examples of projects that were funded: Mr. Chan’s DonorsChoose Page. Whenever I facilitate professional development on DonorsChoose, I always recommend the following 5 tips in writing your first grant proposal. 1. Keep it under $300. 2. Ask for hands-on type projects 3. Share it with all your friends and family. 4. Research what match donors are funding 5. Brand your project differently than the ones similar to yours.

Support Your Teacher: Every school year, the famous classroom supply list is given to parents in hopes to get enough materials to last the school year. While some are successful at the beginning, most don’t get all their supply needs fulfilled. Support Your Teacher is a site striving to not to have teachers spend any money out of their own pocket, and let the greater community fulfill those lists.

Adopt a Classroom: Similar to Support Your Teachers, Adopt a Classroom provides teachers the opportunity to fund classroom projects by having donors adopt their classroom. It is a simple five step process that includes the following: 1. Selecting a classroom 2. 100% Donations given to the classroom (No Fees) 3. Resources ordered 4. Impact report on teacher’s part 5. Interaction between donors and teachers such as student work. Through financial support from foundations and businesses, Adopt a Classroom doesn’t have to charge any admin fees like Kickstarter and DonorsChoose.

Teacher’s Wish List: Another website that started orginally for schools in Ashland, MA, but now has been made available for all teachers in the US to use as a connection between donor and teacher wish lists. Teacher’s Wish List is a no frills, simple and free database system for teacher’s to create wish lists and sharing with the greater community.

CNET gives it an Editor’s Rating of 3/5 stars. Here is the full review: Samsung Chromebox Series 3

Another in depth review of Chromebooks, Chromebox, and Chrome OS: Chrome OS Grows Up

We followed up the training by visiting several schools in Koforidua and Swedru and really experienced the environment that we hope to effectively integrate technology to enhance learning.

Here is the Edify blog post about the training: Teacher Training in Ghana

Here are some pictures from my trip:

It was pretty cool to see how the Ghanaians revere Barack Obama. His picture was on various notebooks and even on pencil boxes.

Sometimes you needed back up generators and prepaid electricity cards to power up the computer labs.

Students working on Khan Academy and other offline educational software.

The Engineering Design Process is a five step cycle where teachers create an inquiry-based learning environment that stimulates students to learn through questioning and doing. The five steps are the following: Ask, Imagine, Plan, Create and Improve. Within each of those steps, and transitions, there are teaching and learning strategies that help facilitate the process. Below describes the cycle in the context of K12 STEaM education.

Although the first step in the cycle is to ask the right questions before beginning any process, teachers often begin with step 3, the Plan. In K12 education, it is not uncommon to teach with the “plan” as the focus, and inadvertently bypass two important steps of what are we trying to do/learn, and giving students opportunities to imagine the topic/problem in question. When one skip steps 1 and 2, what often occurs is that teachers give away what we call the “formula” or “step-by-step” plans of solving problems. While understanding the steps are important skills, it is only one part of the process of learning. Students who are simply given the formula in the book are fixated on how to systematically solve an equation and not taught how to truly problem solve. Instead of developing critical thinking skills, the unfortunate outcome is that students are taught to memorize steps and practice rote techniques.

The first step in a solid STEaM program is to build a curriculum established on asking the right questions. Fundamentally, we are trying to provide insight on common questions found in STEaM studies, such as “why am I learning math?” And if you are in middle school math or above, why am I studying Algebra? It is important to build curriculum that puts Algebra or other mathematical concepts in context of real-world applications. In helping guide those questions, a well-thought out socratic seminar will put the context around Step 3 (Plan) and give opportunities for divergent thoughts around the same topic.

It is in Step 2 (Imagine), that teachers give students opportunities to ask questions that will guide them to formulate the problem that needs to be solved. In this context, students are discovering the learning, and not given the answer. Strategically, a teacher will guide the questions and divergent thoughts into converging ideas, ultimately leading to Step 3, the Plan. The work and effort to get to Step 3 gives students the foundations and context of the formula, rather than searching for the formula in the textbook.

The first 3 steps of the Engineering Design Process remain in the theoretical framework of learning. In order to provide experiential opportunities, a well-rounded STEaM program will need to integrate the application layers of the model, which are Steps 4 (Create), and Steps 5 (Improve). Once students have established theoretical proficiency of content, teachers can elevate the learning experience by introducing project-based activities around the content. It is in Step 4 that students experience STEaM in its fullest by providing opportunities to transform the theory into practical hands-on experiences. In this level, students are building, designing, creating, and experimenting with the content in ways textbooks could never provide. It is important to develop a strong project-based curriculum that strategically brings together the theoretical frameworks into practical design applications.

The last step of the Engineering Design Process is giving students opportunities to improve upon their creation. In a test taking culture, we often create an environment of a pass-fail mentality. Step five is the opposite of that mentality, where failure is looked upon as an opportunity to improve the design. The ideal EDP fosters a culture of trial-and-error and that improvement is a sign of self-direction and evaluation. When students are in the improvement level, rubrics and portfolio-based assessments help guide the evaluation process. If designed correctly, students would be documenting the process right from the beginning in a portfolio that can be referenced, improved, and edited along the way.

The culmination of the Engineering Design Process can lead to three desired outcomes for any given topic. The first outcome is referencing back to the original question that the project asked and determining if it was appropriately addressed. The second outcome is determining that the original question was just the beginning, and that one has to ask a higher level of questions to get to the desired outcome; therefore going through the EDP again. The last outcome is what engineers call innovation, the creation of something new that addresses a problem. In K12 education, an important last step of the EDP process is providing students a platform called Mountain Top to share all their hard work, no matter the outcome. The Mountain Top can present itself in many forms, such as digital portfolios, competitions, debates, showcases, science fairs, videos, and more.