Several weeks ago, a friend sent me a link to The Fischbowl, the blog of Karl Fisch, a technology coordinator and former teacher at Arapohoe High School in Colorado. Back in September, he was asked by his principal to create an opening day presentation to engage their thinking. The result was "Did You Know", a simple powerpoint set to music with a great deal of facts and ideas, echoing from Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat as well as other concepts. This video was well received, and in the words of Mr. Fisch, "went viral". (The Fischbowl Post, Friday March 30, 2007) Over two million people have viewed this video on YouTube and the Blogosphere.
I teach as an adjunct at a local university and I shared this video with my class. I used it as a nice jumping off point for discussion about what skills an content students will need to know to compete in the 21st century. The class really liked it and the discussion was great. They tended to focus on media literacy and a greater sense of the world as two imperatives for kids. At the same time they were engaged by the video and agreed that some things needed to change, one thing that kept being repeated was "We don't have enough time as it is", " "There's not enough time in the school year". Or "We do too much already, how can we do more?". We talked with them about abandonment of traditional curriculum and lots of other topics. When I got home I got to think about how many of the 180 days of school are used for true instruction. Were their claims right? Do we really not have enough time, or is the time being used for things that don't lead to good instruction but have become "acceptable" or rather an "acceptable loss" in school culture.
In response to their thoughts and the inspiration I got from watching Karl Fisch's videos (he has several more on his site too), I made my own, called 180 days. See below.
I showed it to the class and reactions were mixed. All were engaged. Some said they wanted to share it with colleagues. Some said that the items mentioned were a necessary part of school. (Some shared that they show movies when they need a "break" or to "reward" kids.) I certainly over-emphasized the issue, but to make a point about how we use out time in school and how the "180 days" is thrown around quite loosely. I'm curious as to your thoughts. Is it accurate? Do you see similar issues with some at your school? How should we look at the 180 days?
Fairy sparkles
45 minutes ago
10 comments:
Barry,
I was pointed here through Karl's blog post about this presentation. Great stuff. My staff often leave my workshops completely frustrated--at the possibilities before them leveraged against the time they have to develop them. This would definitely be a conversation starter, no doubt.
See you next week at NJECC.
Barry - I agree that instructional time for specific content is no where near the 180 days, or 150 hour requirement for a specific secondary credit. On the other hand, a good portion of the activities that consume the 150 hours is legitimate learning time. We often bring in artists through Performing Arts - many of these art venues our students have never been exposed to - we talk about them through our advisement groups so that students know what to expect, what to look for as they watch, and how to evaluate - all learning activities. Students practice how to be appropriate audience members.
The statewide testing takes up another good chunk of the 150 hours as well. However, those days are not completely lost. They do not last the entire day. In fact, as a school, we use the remaining 2 hours following testing to have students work on grade level projects. My 9th grade students work on their digital portfolio projects and videos that they share with parents at student led confrencing. The juniors and seniors who are not testing have scheduled seminar days at the UF so that they are off campus during testing (a space issue) but still recieving quality learning opportunities.
We have 6 scheduled fire drills each year. These drills take and average of 15-20 minutes to complete - two hours of time.
I agree with you that specific instructional time is at a premium. However, short of extending the day or increasing the days in the academic year, this will continue to be a dilemma that has to be worked around as best as we can within the constraints of school structure. Knowing the key big ideas (essential questions) that students need to know and basing instruction on those big ideas, should be the direction that teachers and administrators set their sights on. If quality and instruction and engaged learning is happening, not only do test scores fall into place, but students learn much more than any standardized test can purport to assess.
This is a very nice post, and I want to see how others react to this.
Teachers should work 210 days and students 200. And this concept that schools should begin at 7am and end at 3:00pm also needs to go. Great presentation I hope my school board gets to see it.
I am an ex-educator (I taught middle school science for 10 years). Your video is a great conversation starter.
During my days of teaching (and even now) I wanted folks to consider going to a *decompressed* school year, rather than going to year-round school. If we could decompress the year into longer units of time, I believe there'd be more time for actual instruction. There's hardly a reason left for kids to be off all summer anymore. 100 year-old models are challenging to change, but things take time!
Regards,
Mark Palmer
We accuse family, and society in general of lessening the importance of school. Kids extend vacations so they can leave on trips early or come back late. There are a million excuses why someone misses school, misses deadlines for assignments, etc.
But I think we, the education community it just as guilty. We ourselves send the message that learning is not not the top priority. Power goes out? Send them home. Heat doesn't work? Send them home. Here in Maine, if the roads are slippery send em home or let them stay home. Despite the fact that a school bus is about the safest thing on the road (and the kids, told to stay home for their safety, put on the skis, get on the snowmobile, or ATV. All more dangerous than getting on the bus and going to school.
Teachers balk at risking their own safety on snowy days. Name another profession that shuts down when it snows. I am no longer a teacher, I work in the IT department. When school is called due to snow, I am expected to go to work by the very same people who told the kids and teachers to stay home.
Ten years ago I worked in a district that wanted to cut some in-school rec programs because there wasn't enough instructional time. That year, the northeast suffered from a massive ice storm. My district was closed for a week. As soon as the local school board learned that they could apply for a waiver that would allow them to not have to make up the five days, they went for it.
I worked far longer in business than I have in education and I am appalled at how schools treat "time".
Take these issues and combine it with this excellent presentation on 180 days. We only have ourselves to blame.
I'm inspired. I'm going to make my own video about how my school spends its time for instruction.
Oh, right. I also found this video through Karl Fisch's website. I'm wondering what the reaction will be to this video at my school.
So, as I said... I made my own video, and posted it to YouTube. Part of me feels like this is a bigger risk for me than for you. I have no way of knowing how it's going to be treated by outsiders to my school, or insiders (assuming that the insiders ever find it.)
But I think it's an important part of the conversation here. We need to communicate that these things are going on in schools, or we won't be able to effect change in our public or private schools at all.
You can find my video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HAZtM9PuQ0
Andrew- I saw your video-- nicely done. I had that idea of the way we use days of school bouncing in my head for years. It took me seeing Karl's famous "Did You Know" movie to see a simplistic yet compelling way to enumerate and share the idea via a movie. In my original cut, I used Crosby Still and Nash's "Time We Have Wasted on The Way" as a background song. (I had to remove it because of YouTube rules, but if you own the song, plug it in and listen; the song is frighteningly well connected.)
Much of what you and I both write is steeped in school tradition. For example, yearbooks or picture day. Certainly they are fun, if not memorable days for kids, yet is there any substantial educating going on? Probably not. Is that a bad thing? It probably depends on how all the other days are used. I think that if you are a teacher who uses every instructional day you have to its fullest potential, with rich discussion, inquiry, poignant questions, and engaging activities, then a "day off" once in a while for the list of activities is fine. However, if you are a marginal teacher whose classes are not those things on a regular basis, kids will suffer even more. Here is the analogy. If you eat a great diet of low fat meats, fruit, vegetables, and whole grains most of the time, an occasional slice of pizza or an ice cream is a nice treat and won;t do you much harm. However, if every day is burgers and fries, soda, and pizza, then an extra day of donuts will just increase the obesity and fat.
I think the larger issue is not wasted days, but how we use the days we have.
I really liked your perspective from a private boarding school. One would often think that would be a place where less time is "wasted".
What platform did you use to make your movie?
Again, nice job. I look forward to continuing this conversation.
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