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Dear TNLI National:

Please welcome our February moderator TNLI Mason MetLife Fellow Megan Garnett who will be discussing, "How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century," from TIME magazine.

You can find the article attached as Microsoft Word document or you can click on the link below:

How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century By Claudia Wallis and Sonja Steptoe. Time Magazine. Dec. 10, 2006. Available as an attached Word document or online at: http://teachersnetwork.org/tnli/readings/time.htm

Thanks so much. We look forward to a lively February conversation led by Megan and the Mason Fellows.

Ellen, Peter, and Jenn

Hello!

The Mason TNLI group had a thought-provoking discussion on this TIME cover story! As an educator and an enthusiastic learner I find it disturbing to hear that we may not be adequately preparing our students for the 21st century and the growing global economy. The article gave my colleagues where I teach a great deal to talk about and much of it centered around NCLB. Here are some of the questions we pondered:

*To what extent is instruction driven by standardized tests that do not adequately assess the "portable skills" (e.g. "crticial thinking, making connections between ideas, and knowing how to keep learning") the article mentions? And, how do we, as teachers satisfy our state standards, while holding true to the ideals of teaching/reinforcing life skills with our students?

*Much has been published over the years comparing the way businesses are run and the way education has been run, and yet, we still do not see many of these great partnerships such as the one mentioned in the article. The question is, is this to be the future of education and if so, is this the appropriate direction to take? Clearly, it is beneficial to have the future employers of our students provide some feedback on what skills students will need to keep the US competitive, so how do we create functional partnerships between business and education? And, where do teacher education programs fit into the picture?

*With so many different stakeholders offering opinions and/or directing the future of education, how do we make sense of and then implement what is truly best for our students, both presently and for their future?

*The bottom line is this: what do we think our students need in order to move out of the 20th century and into the 21st century?

I look forward to reading what you all have to say about the article and the questions we have posed!

--Megan Garnett
Mason, VA
2/4/07

From Chris Clark of Tempe, Arizona (recently of the University of Delaware):

Consider this radical yet humbling take on the Time Magazine thesis that teachers are not preparing students adequately for success in the 21st century:

Imagine that our students are "preparing themselves" for adult life, success, and socially responsible behavior in the 21st century. We who are teachers are setting the table as best we can. But the students themselves choose what to take, what to ignore, how to interpret our offerings, and how to combine school-offered learnings with lessons learned in many other venues. Furthermore, schooling is at best a brief encounter, more characterized by forgetting than by remembering the contents of our curriculum.

If we entertain this learner-centered, neo-Dewian definition of the situation, what follows for teachers, leaders and designers of learning environments? Here is my short list of imperatives for teachers and teacher educators:

Feed the imagination.
Teach teamwork by example and immersion.
Experiment with using tools of all kinds, ancient and modern.
Make things. Then use the things. Then make them better.
Practice taking the points of view of others.
Put students in the role of teacher often.
Learn how to find things out in as many ways as you can imagine. Also learn how
to check the validity of things found out.
Write autobiographies every year.
Encourage mistake-making. Teach ways of recovering from mistake-making.
Get wet, dirty, tired and elated by working with and in nature.
Practice making our shared space beautiful and comfortable.
Read and portray the biographies of cultural heroes and leaders.
Memorize ten powerful poems and ten moving songs.
Treat standardized tests as a game.

This could be fun.

Chris Clark
Arizona
2/4/07

Just a comment - while I love the ideas given ... Feed the imagination. Teach teamwork by example and immersion...Memorize ten powerful poems and ten moving songs. Treat standardized tests as a game.

I cannot get past the fact that for high school students in NY, standardized tests are required for a HS diploma.  For my students, many of whom will take these tests multiple times before passing, these tests cannot be a game, it is more like a depressing, cruel rite of passage.  Has anyone out there had success with getting students up to grade level, passing these tests, and having a great powerful class in mathematics or science?  Please let me know.

Tara Redican
NYC
2/5/07

Hi Tara,

Standardized tests are still a game, even when the consequences of winning or losing are high. What I was trying to get at is that high school kids are really good at playing and winning games. But if we teachers fail to tip them off to the fact that their "game playing smarts" are relevant to beating the testers, most will do far less well than they might.

You too as a teacher are in a game-like situation. The students who show up (or fail to show up) in your classes are your teams, and you are their coach. As in competitive team sports, your lineup may seem to lack the depth and natural talent that you wish they had. Nevertheless, your task is to enlist them in a conspiracy to help one another learn and perform on tests as well as they possibly can. The "help one another" bit is important, because the rule-setters in the game of testing prefer individual competition over teamwork. And unless you too are accepted as a member of the team, a player-coach, this gambit won't work at all. You will be perceived by your students either as a cat's paw for "the system" that actually depends on poor kids failing, or perceived as a team-leader who genuinely wants them to succeed.

Only after you have reached agreement with your students on a conspiracy for success will you be able to make the most of good ideas from colleagues around the country about sound science and math curricula, generative learning activities, etc. More importantly, only then will you yourself be open to being surprised, even floored, by how well your kids can learn, in spite of their scholastic histories.

I hope this helps.

Chris Clark
Arizona
2/5/07

In preparing our students for their adult lives and bring them to the 21st century we need to consider what technologies we are using with them. Are we adequately integrating and exposing them to technologies they will encounter in the workforce? Are we integrating technology in a way that is interactive (maybe game like sometimes) and effectively using these tools to assist students in acquiring knowledge and skills and meeting standards? I have always wondered this. I found a very interesting powerpoint on the advancement of technology. We have a great challenge as educators to keep our students current and prepared for the future. Check out this Powerpoint file on Technology advancements. It has information about a specific high school but then goes into the more global  items. I re-created this powerpoint specific to my school and used it at a staff development. Very eye opening to my staff.  http://www.lps.k12.co.us/schools/arapahoe/fisch/didyouknow/didyouknow.ppt For nformation on the content of this powerpoint can be found here: http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2006/08/did-you-know.html

Michelle Crabill
Fairfax County, VA
2/6/07

Hi - I found what you said very interesting- just today at my staff meeting, we discussed this idea of how students define success.  This idea of creating a conspiracy for success is compelling - but I am still unsure what to do - what it looks like. For example, a problem at my school is that students do not necessarily care about immediate success - passing tests or courses can wait - usually until senior year comes along. 
How do you create a conspiracy for success?

Tara Redican
New York City
2/6/07

This link was posted on another listserv I belong to--click on the photo to download very poignant footage of a 4th grade class including a home-bound student (suffering from leukemia) by using Skype and a webcam.  Anybody out there done this sort of thing?

http://learningismessy.com/blog/?p=196 

At our most recent TNLI meeting (this Saturday), we talked again about the TIME article and 21st century schooling.  Those of us who had been to the Holmes Partnership Conference really enjoyed the NCATE presentation comparing schools of the 1950's and life in the 1950's with schools and life today.  Examples from popular culture:  In the "olden days" Dr. Kildare and Marcus Welby, MD were the solo "wunderkind" doctors; now we have teams of doctors a la "ER" and "Grey's Anatomy."  In the "olden days" we had "Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law" and "Perry Mason;" now we have "Boston Legal."  Going it alone is OUT, collaboration is IN.

We also talked about soliciting business partnerships, as discussed in the TIME article.  We are preparing "talking points" regarding the student impact of our AR that we hope to use in a presentation to the Chamber of Commerce or Rotary Club.  Perhaps we could even use these points with policymakers.

Happy almost-Valentine's Day!
Gail Ritchie
Fairfax County, VA
2/11/07

Dear TNLI National:

TNLI NYC Fellows recently discussed the February listserve reading, “How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century” by Claudia Wallis and Sonja Steptoe, at our February meeting and the fellows wanted to share the discussion with you.  TNLI Advisor David Kirkland broke NYC Fellows into teams to design schools based on “How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century.”  Teams were asked to create standards for learning/curriculum design teams, lesson plans using the “new literacy” approach, and content planning teams.

Below are the ideas the fellows came up with, along with our responses of what would be useful with a school designed for the 21st century and what didn’t work.  Check out their ideas below!

Here’s the link to the article: How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century By Claudia Wallis and Sonja Steptoe.  Time Magazine.  Dec. 10, 2006.  Available online at: http://teachersnetwork.org/tnli/readings/time.htm

Standards for the 21st Century (according to Wallis and Steptoe)

1. Students study and learn through interdisciplinary thematic units.
2. Students will become proficient in using technology in all of their learning.
3. Students will become orally proficient in a minimum of two languages.
4. Students will learn how to work as part of a team.
5. Courses will be designed for depth rather than breadth.
6. Materials will be examined from multiple perspectives.
7. Students will be able to communicate orally and through written work.
8. Students will participate in community service projects.
9. Course work will include project-based and real world activities.
10. Schools will use the community as a learning environment.

Standards:

1. Students read a wide range of Literature from many periods in many genres from many cultures, places, and viewpoints to build an understanding of human experience.
2. All students will learn to speak and write a second language
3. Students will work cooperatively to facilitate, and respect diversity, interpersonal skills (EQ).
4. Students use a variety of tech. resources to gather/synthesize information and to create and common knowledge (media Literacy)
5. Students will learn to relate content knowledge to real world application and current events.

21st Century Skills (according to Wallis and Steptoe)

1. Knowing more about the world
2. Thinking outside the boxes.
3. Becoming smarter about new sources of info.
4. People skills.
5. Become discerning consumers of info.

Math-

• Person/ Foresman
• (TERC)
• E-pals
• Stock Market Game
• Globe

Language-

• Asia Society curriculum (language learning series)
• Learning more languages
• Goldman-EQ online database of Journals
• Globe

Social studies-

• Stock Market Game
• Goldman- EQ online DB of journals
• Globe
• More inquiry research projects

Science-

• Globe
• More inquiry research projects

BOOK LIST for a 21st Century School:
“Global Poverty” by Richard Rothstein
“Ghetto Schooling” by Jean Anjon
“Collapsed”
“Guns, Germs and Steel”
“Power of Mindful Thinking” by Jared Diamond
“The History of US (series)”- by Joy Hakim
“Critical/ Lateral Thinking” – DeBono
“Math in the Real World”- integrated series

LESSON 1: 10th Global age of Exploration
Enduring understandings:

1. Perspective taking on

Essential Question:

2. Why Explore beyond borders

Lesson: Role play of cultures meeting
Material: 1492(Petosis) Encounter (Jane Yolen)
Procedure: Split into two groups without them knowing others reading
Future Lessons: Walking Trip

LESSON 2
Objective: Students will be able to differentiate between credible and unreliable sources of information.
Materials: Websites, Newspaper articles, Advertisements, old textbooks, primary source documents, TV News, Podcast, Statistics, Wikipedia, Blogs, etc.  
Procedures:  

1. List of above materials posted ask students to rank reliability of sources.
2. Leads to discussion of and list of characteristics of reliable sources and unreliable sources.
3. In small groups, students are given a position that they will research and defend using evidence.

Possible option: Argue position twice- once with reliable sources and once with mostly unreliable. 

WHAT TNLI NYC FELLOWS FOUND USEFUL WITH 21ST CENTURY SCHOOLS according to Wallis & Stepoe:

• Students learn more than 1 language
• Global perspective
• Collaboration
• Technology
• Multiple perspective
• Discerning
• Ownership
• Experience
• Social Curriculum/Skills
• Respects
• Depth over breath
• Cultural sensitivity
• Interdisciplinary project
• Real world context
• Connection with business world

WHAT TNLI NYC FELLOWS DID NOT LIKE WITH 21ST CENTURY SCHOOLS according to Wallis & Stepoe:

• Does not respond to real world
• Implies that all schools are archaic
• More testing
• Disrespect for local situations
• Business perspective
• Public schools are problems
• Views children empty vessels
• Elitist
• Anti- environment
• Locks individuality
• Does not problematize their solutions
• Mainstream perspective

TNLI Fellows
New York City
2/23/07