Scot Graden's Blog

I recently was given a book called “Catching Up or Leading the Way – American Education in the Age of Globalization” by Dr.Young Zhao. I have not had a chance to get too deep into it, but the preface presents some interesting thoughts.  Here is one passage –

This book is about education in America but it began as a book about education in China. My original intention was to write about the mammoth challenges China faces in education to curb America’s surging enthusiasm for China’s education practices that seem to be an object of admiration, a model of excellence, or a source of competitive students who will threaten America’s future. I was going to write about China’s efforts to decentralize curriculum and textbooks, diversify assessment and testing, and encourage local autonomy and innovations in order to cultivate creativity and well-rounded talents. I was also going to write about China’s repeated failures and unwavering desire to undo the damages of testing and standardization. But while I was going through the reform policies, scholarly writings, and online discussion forums and blogs about education in China, I realized that what China wants is what America is eager to throw away-an education that respects individual talents, supports divergent thinking, tolerates deviation, and encourages creativity; a system in which the government does not dictate what students learn or how teachers teach; and culture that does not rank or judge the success of a school, a teacher, or a child based on only test scores in a few subjects determined by the government.

The book claims to explain why the perceived weaknesses of American education are actually its strengths.  I am looking forward to reading the rest of the book.  On a side note, Dr. Zhao is a Professor right up the road at Michigan State University and is speaking in Dexter on November 12^th as part of their Champion Learning Speaker Series.

I had the opportunity to attend a community forum this morning hosted by the Washtenaw Alliance for Children and Youth (WACY).  The mission of this group is to change how our community works together to ensure Washtenaw County school-aged children and youth reach their full potential.  It was great to see the room full of advocates for our children from throughout the county.

They shared a variety of data related to the indicators that have an impact on the lifelong success of our children.  The organization is built around the Ready for 21 approach which means children and youth receive the services, programs, and opportunities they need to be ready by age 21, for college, work and life.  WACY is currently developing an action plan to among other things, heighten community awareness of the needs of youth to fulfill their mission.

Click here to read an article on AnnnArbor.com about the forum.

If you would like more information please email wacyinfo@gmail.com.

This video has been around for a few years and I have viewed it several times, but I am still struck by some of his points regarding how public education hurts natural human creativity.  It also reminds me that it is a big misconception that only “special people” are creative.  Everyone has tremendous creative capacities.

Over the weekend I attended my 20^th Class Reunion for the Saline High School Class of ’89.  There were several events including a tailgate party at the football game on Friday night.  This included a quick tour of the “new” high school.  (Yes, we have a school pool now!) We also got together on Saturday night and spent the night catching up and talking about “the good ole” days. We had well over 100 alumni attend.  They came from Washington, Oregon, California, Georgia, Florida, Colorado, Oklahoma and several other states.  In addition, we have a large group of ’89 alums that have been fortunate to stay local and are raising our families in and around Saline.

The community of Saline has changed and grown in the last 20 years. We were a large class of 260 graduates and in 2009,  Saline graduated well over 400 students.  Throughout the night I was struck with how so many of my classmates are living happy, healthy and productive lives.  Businessmen, doctors, artists, farmers, welders, policeman, mechanics, business owners, teachers, builders – almost every career path possible has been taken.  Many spoke of the challenges of raising a family and managing a career in the current economic conditions, but all expressed how we felt prepared by our time in Saline Area Schools.

For the record, no one…. not one classmate…. ever thought I would be the Superintendent of Schools.  It just goes to show, you never really know how it is going to turn out.

I recently had the opportunity to read a few sections of the October, 1927 edition of “Normal Instructor and Primary Plans,” a magazine for “teachers of all the grades and rural schools.”  Just for your information the magazine cost was 25 cents per issue, or $2.00 for year’s subscription.

An article caught my eye that was written by E.E. Oberholtzer, the Superintendent of Schools in Houston, Texas.  He later served as the President of the University of Houston, until retiring in 1950.  The article is titled, “A New Emphasis in Primary Education.”

The discussion centered on recent developments in science and psychology that had brought about a reinterpretation of the learning process.  Dr. Oberholtzer wrote, “Pupil participation, laboratory schools, project teaching are all educational terms which have come into existence as a result of this new interpretation.”   The reason I find this interesting is that I can read the latest journal about education in the 21^st century and invariably the terms include “student driven” (pupil participation), “magnet school” (laboratory schools) and “project-based learning” (project teaching).   While these terms each have a little different twist in today’s world, the themes are very similar.

It seems the ideas and concepts of quality and “cutting edge” educational practices of the 21^st century have been around for 80+ years….

As many of you know, I have an iPhone and enjoy using it for taking pictures around the district, checking email, accessing PowerSchool and even reading news updates on the web (I also use it as a phone).  However, I still struggle to use it for functions that require a fair amount of typing and when given the choice, I would prefer to work off of my laptop.

According to internationally acclaimed University of Michigan Professor Elliot Soloway, I may be left behind in the near future if I can’t get used to using my mobile device for the majority of my work. I had the opportunity to meet Professor Soloway a few weeks ago and we had a great discussion about the future of mobile devices and their impact on public education.  His general position is that as the cellular network (3G) gets faster and faster (according to him 4G is being tested in metro areas around the country)  the function of mobile phones will become stronger and stronger. He spoke about the efforts of both Verizon and Sprint to create ways for schools to turn off voice and texting during certain times so students can use them for learning without the distraction of using them for communicating.

We discussed perhaps piloting some research in this area here in Saline to see what we could learn about the impact on the classroom.  He is currently working on an interface that would have students accessing a Moodle-like software from their phone to manage their classroom work.

The pace of technological advancement continues to amaze me….

Be sure to stop by and visit the Saline Area School booth at the Saline Community Fair. Various staff and Board of Education members will be present to discuss the district and say hello as the new school year gets underway.

The start of the school year is upon us. We have been able to spend the last few days as a faculty and staff together preparing for the new school year.  Now the focus of all of our attention and hard work will be arriving… the students.

One of my comments from my opening day address was “Remarkable is the desire to help all students realize their dreams.”  Saline Area Schools is a remarkable school district, however, we often times become wrapped up in percentile rankings, standardized tests, and numbers of students proficient. While these are very important (the data does need to be crunched and reviewed for improvement) it should not be the focus of our daily work. We need to look closely at each student in our classroom as individuals, with unique talents and needs.

It will be our task in the first few days of the school year to assess the current performance level for each student. We need this information in order to accomplish our greatest purpose – which is to help ALL students achieve growth. It does not matter near as much where a student is at when they start the year, but rather it is most important where they are at when we finish the year. It is our purpose and goal as educators to take each student for what they are as an individual and then each day ask ourselves did we help that student to grow, academically, socially, and personally.

If we all work hard to be able to answer that question with a “yes” each day for every student, then we will be successful in our work.

A recent article in Educational Leadership by Peter Cookson caught my eye.  He wrote, “Google has put the world at our fingertips, but speed ubiquity are not the same as knowing something.”

He fears that if we do not approach the contemporary knowledge explosion with Socratic-like inquiry, “the great knowledge and communication tsunami of the 21^st century may drown us in a sea of trivia instead of lifting us up on a rising tide of possibility and promise.”

The point is well made. For those of us in education, the struggle now is to develop and enhance learning opportunities when students “have all the answers” at their fingertips.  Traditional tests and assessments are becoming less valid and the need to inspire a desire for lifelong learning should be our goal.

One method, we are exploring in Saline, is project-based learning opportunities that allow students to collaborate and work on authentic problems.  Currently, like most districts, we are more effective at teaching long division than self-direction, collaboration, creativity, and innovation.  However, I am excited about how quickly we are transitioning from traditional whole-class instruction to student-centered methods.

I am very excited about the 2009-2010 school year.  The staff has enthusiastically embraced the technology integration efforts, and continues to inspire me to keep up with their desire to learn.  Like our students, the future is very bright here in Saline.