21st Century Learning

21st Century Workforce Readiness

I had the opportunity recently to facilitate a group of business, education, political and community leaders in a discussion about developing a workforce ready group of graduates in the 21st Century.

I was given the task of relaying the experience. I have decided to share with you to see if you agree or disagree with these leaders' ideas and action steps and why. I encourage you to read and weigh in in the comment section below. I look forward to your responses.

Executive Summary

Newport News Public Schools is moving quickly to address learning in the 21^st century, its barriers and its possibilities, and kicked things off for 2009 with a 21^st Century Leading and Learning Conference.

As a precursor to the conference, held Jan. 9-10, 2009 at Heritage High School, global and regional leaders in education, business and religious organizations met to brainstorm together 21^st century learning concepts in a Global ThinkTank. 

An electronic global panel discussion kicked off the day’s events with an impressive group of thought leaders from Scotland, Thailand, and the U.S. logging in to Elluminate, a webinar software platform, to share their ideas and answer questions. Bios of the guest speakers can be found here. An archive of the conversation that took place can be found here.

In the following facilitated discussions, leaders were given a chance to voice their opinions about what they saw as barriers to implementation of 21^st Century workforce readiness and a re-culturing of our curriculum to meet the needs of today’s changing student.

Through the economic lens, business leaders expressed a need for 21^st century students to not only be prepared for the technology of the changing world, but to still grasp soft skills needed in the workforce, such as problem solving and leadership skills.

Education leaders saw disconnect between teacher preparation programs and the changing learning environment. High stakes testing was seen as another barrier to learning in the 21^st century.

“That accountability hinders the changes in curriculum and teaching practices needed to impact instruction, problem solving, literacy…”

“If pass rates are high, teachers/students feel a certain sense of fulfillment, but the SOLs are a minimum competency assessment. They are not enough to prepare kids for the future.”

A major theme from the breakout sessions was the disconnect between education and relevance.

“Students need to have the tie in – that what they are learning has relevance to the career they choose.”  

“When kids fall in love with learning it’s because they see the relevance.”

Leaders in the sessions admitted fear as a big barrier to 21^st century learning – the fear of change, of trying something new. This fear hinders the modeling necessary in 21^st century learning.

“Everyone needs to model from top down. . . .Principals model to teachers, teachers model to students, etc.”

After the facilitated discussions, leaders were asked to come up with proactive recommendations to the barriers addressed. From this long list, leaders filtered and organized their recommendations under different categories and then ranked the categories by the most important in their opinion. Some of the top ranked categories included leadership development, cultural awareness, professional/teacher development, partnerships/community involvement and student curriculum.

Empowering educators through leadership development, building relationships and cultural awareness, training and modeling were some of the most recommended steps to overcoming the barriers.

Out of the discussions recommended action statements emerged:

- Inventory the technological skills already available in the division to identify and address gaps. 

- Ask students to teach the teachers how they use technology and how they see these tools being used in a classroom.

- Allow teacher experts to train other teachers so there is no additional cost involved in the training. The business community can also provide in-kind support by providing training in these technologies.

- Build cultural awareness and infuse relevance into our instruction by teaching educators and students the facts of our global economy and community. 

- Teach educators the importance of and how to build their own online personal learning networks as a 21^st Century networking literacy leveraged for student growth.

- Teach students how to develop their own personal learning networks and discriminate information value and organization.

- Use technology to access and examine current events from various world perspectives through original sources and global connections.

- Teach the whole child by using inquiry driven approaches that reexamine curriculum through a 21^st Century lens.

- Work on belief systems, so that they produce citizens who can meet the challenges of this world with confidence and embrace all its people with compassion.

- Develop leadership networks that collaboratively function as professional learning communities to address and solve barriers to learning. These networks would include administrators, teachers, school staff, community and business leaders, and student leaders in the district, state and world.

Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Lead a Group
In addition to the facilitated focus groups that addressed 21^st Century issues, one group of community leaders also had the privilege of interviewing a special guest and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Rebiya Kadeer. A copy of the transcript of her interview can be found in Appendix E.

To review all data collected at the Global ThinkTank please refer to the following appendices:

Appendix A – Participants List- Removed

Appendix B – Round Robin Discussions

Appendix C – Categorization of Ideas

Appendix D – Crafts of Recommendations

Appendix E – Interview with Rebiya Kadeer

Appendix F – Panel Discussion Archive

Appendix B – Round Robin Discussions 

After breaking down into groups, participants engaged in round robin discussions of the barriers to 21^st century learning. They responded to the question, “Thinking in terms of the skills, knowledge, abilities and opportunities needed to prepare today’s students for the 21^st century workforce – what are the barriers that are currently keeping this from happening in our classroom and community?” One participant acted as scribe for the group, recording responses, while another facilitated the discussion. The notes from these discussions are reprinted below.

Group A

Round Robin Notes:

Financial Constraints are a barrier especially when we look at the technology budget. 

 There is not enough investment from all of our organizations.  Exposure and experiences are another part of 21^st century that our students are not getting.  Critical and Creative thinking is a big part of children’s learning.

We got away from the basic skills.  We still need to be able to read, write and do multiplication tables.  Attitudes start at home and are nurtured at school regarding the importance of learning. No matter whether their disposition is to go to college or not, these skills are important and you are not a failure if you don’t go to college.  And students ought not be stigmatized because they want to be a carpenter.  We ought to help kids know what they want to do and then help them do it and not stigmatize them if that means they don’t go to college. 

We are only allowing kids that can’t do to go to vocational classes. 

NNPS has the burden of raising children because of societal issues.  So now schools have to be responsible for social development too. 

Skills, Attitude and Disposition don’t cost a lot of money.

We underestimate kids’ ability to learn.  Expectations build the attitude that is needed. 

There needs to be a better cultural awareness across schools and business and finances need to be available.  Students need to be geared towards their interests not just college.  Tools to help students know their interests are needed and the finances to provide them need to be there.  

You can’t just work with the students and then send them back out in the community.  It needs to be a community effort. 

Young people have built their own community through technology.  Social networking, texting, etc.   We need to pick up on the skills our kids have and build on that with kids. 

As an instructor and parent, I am dealing with fear, not knowing what the kids are doing.  Amazement at kids’ ability to write a report, listen to iTunes and  text all at the same time.  How uncomfortable are educators and parents. 

Importance of educating our community…

Money is a problem.  We don’t have enough equipment.  Teachers are afraid that they are going to break the equipment.  They have to have critical thinking skills.  We are bad about the SOL’s but they have to be able to think.  It is more than rote memorization. 

 Consensus Issues:  Money issues, Critical Thinking, Tapping into the knowledge base of students around technology.

Group B

 I asked the question in the classroom of how our bureaucracy hinders us.  “Every school should be looked at as an independent franchise.”  So students and staff in the building has a sense of ownership.  Mediocre has become acceptable in this country.  I’m a stickler for more independent in the public structure.  Empower the individual school.

The current structure is interrupting the learning potential.

I’m coming from a different background.  I’m new to education.  “My insight is four years out of high school.  I wish I had this in my high school.  Why didn’t we have smart boards in high school or college?”  A lot of school board members are stuck in how school s use to be.  If we focus on that point that people are still involved in this process.  Teachers and students will be more willing to learn. A fear of learning something new seems to prevent the progression of the 21^st century concept.  A Student’s perspective.

Kids who start of in school are excited in the elementary level and by the time they get to high school they are brain dead.  “Why am I learning this?” Teachers have technology in front of them, but they don’t have the role models to know how to use it in the workforce arena because the have nothing to relate to. “We have to train our teachers to learn and teach in a different way.”  Relationship, relevance and investment.  When kids fall in love with learning it’s because they see the relevance.

A lot of what kids learn in the old way of learning is not relevant to what is happening in the real world.  It doesn’t mean necessary learning technology it means teaching kids so it’s meaningful. “We tend to teach kids how we were taught.”  Change is feared. Our perspective is what limits our growth.  One of the largest bearers is not teaching kids collaboratively. 

“For us to see this type of education is amazing.  We do not sit and discuss education in China.  In US a child can study any subject they chose.  That is not the case in China.   The Chinese education system only praises the Chinese government.”  Embrace change! American students should understand how fortunate they are and become global citizens to see how they can make the world a better place.  Later I was in prison for speaking about lack of human rights in education.  It is very important for me to let the children know in America how fortunate they are.

Besides the global competitive gap we need to get our kids to understand the global haves and have-nots.  We have to compete and support in service projects, awareness projects, etc.

Change is the wall that we need to overcome. “If we introduce it the right way it enables one to overcome the obstacles.”  Everyone needs to model from top down. . . .Principals model to teachers, teachers model to students, etc.

What points of consensus emerged in the discussion? The need to learn, teach, train and communicate not only within our community but throughout the world.

On which points were the participants’ responses divided?  none

On which points did participants reveal a wide range of responses?  Student learning, cultural awareness, exposure and appropriate modeling, best practices

Group C

In the classroom, too much emphasis on lower levels of learning due to standardized testing occurring- incredible peer pressure for kids to fit in instead of being individuals. “Kids need knowledge” but we teach facts, but not how they connect to their world.”

A barrier for SPED pop is transition. I like European out of the box thinking. “Keep the bar up, but we know were the students is heading.” Look at the child’s ability and go that track. Train them so they are vocationally sound by the time they exit school (rather than pushing them to be college bound – when we know they may not be). 

A barrier I see is a conformative mentality. We have lost the sense of being an individual. It is not sportsmanship or working as a team. WE have lost a sense of civility. We are not working in teams or offering assistance. Emphasis on SOLs, NCLB, - schools, teachers, principals are evaluated on how kids score on a mc test – critical thinking skills is missing. “The soft-skills of team-work and problem solving need to be part of our education to be ready for the work force.  We need situational leaders in addition to supervisors, etc. Know when to lead, when to step back, be cross-functional”

Barriers:  homelife – a major part for students who don’t have the support structures at home = community issue

School issue = playing the blame game on parents/community

Not all children learn the same way – we teach like they only learn one way. We teach in the same classroom environment as the one from the civil war. We need to convert the methodology of teaching to using the tools kids use today. = relevance!

Kids don’t believe their teachers care about them. So many distractions/baggage in the classroom. Teachers need to be thoughtful and think in terms to being able to relate to a particular student who is different or struggling…the teacher is influential –one of the most influential people in children’s lives. Engagement between teacher and student is critical piece. All the kids aren’t likeable – but they are all human beings, need to have a future. I am not casting aspersions on all teachers, but teachers need to get into the lives of kids – go beyond the content.

Kids cannot relate what they are doing in the classroom that day to the future. There needs to be a connection – this is why dropouts occur. Serious systemic challenges

Serious concern with the SOLs being the end all, be all of education. And it shouldn’t be.  If pass rates are high – teachers/students feel a certain sense of fulfillment – but the SOLs are a minimum competency assessment – they are not enough to prepare kids for the future.

Not enough articulation between colleges and public schools – teacher prep programs. 1^st year teachers often enter the teaching field ill prepared for the reality of teaching and learning in the 21^st century. There is also a disconnect in the classroom in the classroom to the real world = relevance.  There is no questions about the fact that we have different societal practices as before but we cannot let community “situations” interfere with teaching kids.

Global, 21^st century is exciting, but we have to pedal furiously like ducks on a pond.

Lack of training, experiences and connectedness between teacher prep training and teaching reality.

From a SPED perspective, one of the barriers is isolation. If you are the only teacher certified in a certain disability in a building, it can be very isolating.   The emulation exercise could be an interesting way to connect people via technology.

Lost sight of vocational side of education (for SPED students). Unrealistic expectations for students based on their abilities.

The preparation of elementary school teacher = 20 hours of elementary ed. We only test knowledge, not can the teach the knowledge. Does that teacher know how to communicate to that kid and teach him?

Deficit model – we cannot give up on the children, let them drop out and it becomes a community problem.

 Teacher quality is critical – do they know the content? Do they know the pedagogy?

Key barriers

“Trust, communication, team work, caring and vision are missing”.  Issues: “we can’t give up on kids”

We can predict a roadmap of a student (in school, in community) – we see it coming – there needs to be something we can do to prevent it from happening.

Prisons predict future jail population based on 3^rd grade reading pass rates of the SOL.

Most issues were agreed upon by all----

Group D

Barriers to 21st Century Learning

 Guiding Question: Thinking in terms of the skills, knowledge, abilities and the opportunities needed to prepared today’s student for the 21^st century workforce, what are the barriers that are currently keeping this from happening in our classrooms and community?

Respondent 1:

Part of barrier in our community – most of the businesses in our community are not global minded at this time – fear if school system goes ahead, businesses are not going to be ready for the students when they come out of school, her company builds buildings and the global market doesn’t impact what they do on a daily basis – is a progressive student going to be satisfied with what her company has to offer,” I can see there being problems”, students coming out today seeing everything as flexible time as opposed to working standard hours – doesn’t feel there is currently a demand for a supply of technologically advanced students – are they going to be more attracted outside the city of NN – not opposed to what the education system is doing just afraid of the outcomes

Respondent 2:

Colleges and university teaching 1950’s education – works with leadership and universities to redesign teacher and leadership programs – colleges and universities not training teachers to teach in 21^st cent mindset – works with school division leaders as well – just redesigned the principal leadership program – school districts are far ahead of colleges and universities – until we get colleges and univ.’s in line with school divisions, were not going to get there

Respondent 3:

One barrier is our history and educational bureaucracy – not preparing teachers as we are preparing students – 21^st cent. Learning is larger than just the tools – values and work ethic – that is part of the 21^st century skill set as soft skills – schools are still subscribing to minimum competency based standards that is scary concept– economy is a barrier to the success of 21 c learning over the net few years

Respondent 4:

– this area loosing many of its best and brightest – the numbers support that concept that there isn’t as much of a demand – we loose a percentage of our brightest college candidates to other states because the jobs aren’t here – while we focus so much on the tools of technology, there is a loss of values, social skills, personal interactions, teaching respect, but we can’t loose sight of trying to help our students learn how to get along – the heart of how we learn to move our schools forward

Respondent 5:

Education is critical to him – rapid technological advances – cultural lag in applicants that come forward, technology advances exponentially and inversely with students who can use them, analytical abilities not there, lack of motivation – problem with work ethic – no long term goal setting – need to have desire to excel and overcome learning shortfalls, lack of emphasis on why a solid education is important, students need to have the tie in of what they are learning has relevance to the career they choose, need to have long term goals and objectives instilled in kids early, HS diploma doesn’t guarantee students have the skill sets to perform the tasks, students having difficulty passing national exams, goes back to elementary school and the parental support system – we need to look globally, technology is just a small sliver – more emphasis needs to be placed on the soft and human skills – need to have long term objectives and goals, need to realize that college is not a universal goal

Respondent 6:

-emphasis on values and work ethic cant be overstated, starts in preschool with the early education and early intervention, spend years trying to catch up, in many cases they don’t have parents who are educated and realize the importance of all of these skills, reading comprehension and math are critically important need to have other skills before you can really use the technology, people who don’t have the confidence to learn the technology are always playing catch up need to be able to play catch up through self-directed learning, we need to be teaching are children make sure you have enough money to make good decision

Respondent 7:

Key barriers – high stakes accountability testing, when you look at needed competencies that accountability hinders the changes in curriculum and teaching practices needed to impact instruction, problem solving, literacy numeracy, people are beginning to see the importance of that

What about the children who are not going to need 21^st century learning sk

Appendix C – Categorization

After a round robin discussion of barriers to 21^st century learning, participants tackled the task of coming up with proactive solutions and steps to addressing those barriers. They were asked to think in terms of the questions: What’s working now? What’s missing? What can individuals/organizations do? And other innovative ideas not related to overcoming barriers.

Participants then paired up to discuss their steps and find common ideas. After sharing in pairs, participants organized their ideas with sticky notes under different categories, from leadership development to finance and budget issues, among others. After the steps were categorized, participants voted which categories were most important or pressing. These ideas and categories, as well as the weight each category received, are reprinted below.

Leadership Development - 16 Dots

·         Empowerment

·         Great leadership team

·         What about kids who won’t need the tech (21^st) skills to make it in life?

·         Basic skill sets missing: 1. Reading comprehension 2. Math skills 3. Analytical capability

How to motivate students? Need to have desire to overcome

·         Communicate, trust, teamwork

·         Leaders should be able to identify with subordinated as peers

·         Rapid technological advances- cultural log to utilize the advances need to have students

Cultural Awareness - 26 Dots

·         Relationship building

·         Give students an understanding of world

·         Cultural awareness between teachers and students who all “other”

·         Involvement in local and global community

·         Engage stakeholders in global conversations with other cultures to learn from each other

·         Solutions: 1. Create pen-pals in other countries 2. Websites/email/chat with foreign students live under dictatorship countries 3. Teach students about the unfortunate situation of children in other countries 4. Invite representative of foreign student groups to speak on campus 5. Visit the countries of less fortunate children 6.create a textbook on the lives of third world children

Professional Development/ Teacher Development - 27 Dots

·         Training

·         Professional development is learning differently

·         Individuals do- pair with each other to learn new strategies

·         Missing- knowledge of new ways of teaching

·         Teacher internships in business

·         Professional development that is on-going

·         Continue to focus on ways to develop good teachers

·         Teach adults how to be willing to accept empowerment

·         Top-down modeling

·         Overcoming barriers bring higher ed teacher prep programs into 21^st century

·         Teacher training that models that “one size does not fit all”

·         Create teacher candidate residencies in classes of highly effective teachers known for 21^st century skill teaching

·         Must start with the teachers

·         Professional development commit to lifelong learning

·         Develop appropriate professional learning programs for educators

Partnerships/ Community Involvement - 15 Dots

·         Effectively integrating community based programs into schools (mentors)

·         Community participation in schools- let students know what employers expect

·         Higher ed partnering with school districts to solve problems through data collection, analysis and research. Using college students in a clinical model and fieldwork based learning.

·         Increase utilization of social workers and community workers in collaboration with educators

·         Community partnerships are working

·         Invite community members to solution focused meetings

·         Increase community partnerships

·         Build more business partnerships

Student Curriculum - 18 Dots

·         Reprioritize education goals- career goals. Focus on students interests, abilities vs. only “college” goals

·         More class time

·         School-wide global awareness projects

·         Use other tools of assessments (e.g. something different from SOLs) that don’t bog down actual creative teaching- make classroom learning fascinating not repetitive.

·         Basic computer classes in elementary schools

·         Allow students to “educate” students

·         Development of career pathways

·         Expose our students to the human network by giving them a chance to interact with others and the world around them including the use of technology of course but also giving them the chance to see the outside world physically not only on a screen

·         Continue efforts toward differentiation of technological learning

·         Distribute lap tops to students

·         Let kids finish course as they learn it and do something more

Critical Thinking - 10 Dots

·         We need to teach critical thinking skills

·         Focus on lifelong vs. finite/terminal degrees

Engagement of Legislators/ Policy Makers - 9 Dots

·         Work with state legislators and policy makers to change ideas and needs of schools to prepare students

Parents - 8 Dots

·         Increase parental involvement

·         As individuals- learn what’s new- pay attention engage in the unknown

·         Encourage parents to keep in touch with teachers all of time when things are going right or not

·         Telephone call from each teacher to each parent at the beginning of the year

·         Parent involvement

Data Driven Decision Making - 5 Dots

·         Collection of data- not good at analyzing the data

·         Missing- assessments that truly measure what’s important- critical thinking

·         Allow more “independence” for schools

Collaboration - 7 Dots

·         Organizations, educators and community leaders must be open to what works for individuals

·         Teach openness-be open to new ideas

·         Business leaders to help contribute to school computers

·         Create action plans centered around skills needed for success in a society

Finance/Budget - 4 Dots

·         To look at the budget differently

·         Rally public support for our public school initiatives for 21^st century technology

External Resources - 4 Dots

·         Apprentice programs

·         Get rid of textbooks

·         Lap tops to be signed out just like books

Character Development (Soft Skills) - 2 Dots

·         Missing: Soft skills, etc, needed in place? Early development and continued emphasis

·         What’s needed? Etiquette classes as a “required” elective

Early Childhood Education - 2 Dots

·         More early childhood education

Set the Stage-Defining

·         Acceptance of change

·         “21^st century learning” needs to be defined so that everyone can understand exactly what it is without misunderstanding. Misunderstanding=fear=conflict=not productive. Must understand in order to implement and be successful.

·         Reduce the fear by giving a global definition of 21^st century learning

Relevance - 15 Dots

·         Real world education. Relating curriculum to jobs.

·         Organizations make their needs as employers known- join the conversation- help shape the education of their future work force

·         Establish a career emersion program to highlight career opportunities in a non college career path- i.e. Fire Cadet Program

·         Making teaching relevant to today’s learner. i.e. technology/flexible schedules

·         What do/will business need? Now and for the next 100 years!

Communication - 11 Dots

·         Explore learning through collaboration with and without use of technology

·         Effort of teachers/administrators

·         School districts are working together and sharing ideas

·         Open line of communication parent/teacher

·         Now? Kids can “text” 24/7 and think it is the best way to communicate

·         Proliferation of virtual schools

·         Communication between the community and school

·         Home visits

Appendix D – Crafting of Recommendations

 As a final activity, participants again formed their groups to craft specific recommendations for the school system to address barriers to 21^st century learning. Each group’s notes and recommendations from this discussion are reprinted below. Group B interviewed Rebiya Kadeer at the conference and their notes are included in Appendix E.

Group A

Inventory the technological skills already available in the division so that you can then identify the gaps. 

Have students teach the teachers how they use technologies and how they see these tools used in a classroom.

Allow teacher experts to train other teachers so that there is no additional cost involved in the training.  Also, the business community can provide in kind support by providing training in these technologies.

Group C

Cultural Awareness:

Build cultural awareness by teaching educators and students the facts of our global economy/community and infuse relevance into our instruction.

Teach teachers understand how to build their own personal learning online networks so it can them be disseminated to the students.

Teach students how to develop their own personal learning networks – discriminate information

Use current technology to examine current events from various world perspectives.  – ie. Change up the URLs to see what other countries’ perspectives are about the same issue.

Clash of values – disenfranchisement – look beneath the jacket – from disadvantaged to ‘different”

Teach the whole child….

Work on belief systems – can every child learn

Group D

Leadership network,

recognizing leadership qualities

community leadership

educational leadership

Objective

Develop leadership network that includes administrators, teachers, school staff, community and business leaders, and student leaders; that collaboratively function as professional learning communities to address and solve barriers to learning

Action Steps – Option I

Research current models of PLC’s and compare information             

Develop a school and/or district leadership team

Develop a clear communication system to share information, etc. with all stakeholders

Empower leadership team members and distribute leadership responsibilities

Build capacity within the school/district that encourages and ensures sustainability

Action Steps – Option I

Identify the stakeholders in the school community who should be invited to participate in the network.

Identify barriers to the target

Empower members of the network to lead data collection analyze the results to network and all stakeholders

Provide recommendations/approaches to solve the problem or remove the barrier

Appendix E – Rebiya Kadeer

Rebiya Kadeer, Chinese businesswoman and political activist, attended the conference and participants had a chance to work with her in a small group. Participants interviewed Kadeer, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, about her life, which included being tried and imprisoned in 1999 until 2005 when the United States pressured for her release. The following are notes from that discussion.

Concept: Reform

We would die for freedom in China.  I think that’s why your people take things for granted.  We take nothing for grant in my culture.  It’s a very unique culture.  We have our own music.  In our culture women are trained to cook.  We have respect for animals and we have stories related to these animals imbedded in our culture. 

The Chinese government could wipe us all out.  People would be detained if they learned a foreign language.  By being multi-cultural students can learn about any cultural.  They have the opportunity and privilege.  There are less then 1,000 Uyghurs in this country.  The government separated their people throughout China to keep them from forming strength.  Her two sons are in prison because of what she is doing in this country.  All her grandchildren were kicked out of school.  In China the entire family is punished when one family member does something wrong. 

Were you limited because of tracking or because you are a female?  I was limited because of my families’ social class. 

The government strips you naked of your freedom, your religion, your rights to force you to become Chinese.  The Chinese government is trying to wipe out our language.

Professors, teachers, professionals were fired and forced to become janitors or unemployed because they could not speak or teach in Chinese.

How was she able to create a business?  When the former Chinese president was in place he allowed for a few lower class citizens become business owners in an attempt to become wealthy.

Appendix F – Panel Discussion

 An electronic global panel discussion kicked off the day’s events with an impressive group of thought leaders from Scotland, Thailand, and the U.S. logging in to Elluminate, a webinar software platform, to share their ideas and answer questions.

 Biographies of the guest speakers can be found here:

http://21stcenturylearning.wikispaces.com/NNPS+Symposium

An archive of the Elluminate session can be found here

https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/recording/playback/link/meeting.jnlp?suid=M.B35EA4F8E3D03B8032D6C429C65CB0

Good Day Mate

Sheryl's excellent adventure started in Australia! I was invited to keynote the ELH conference in Victoria, Australia.  As I was preparing to go an amazing thing happened that shows the power of the network. I had announced on Twitter I was going and lo and behold the most wonderful direct message came through, "Hi Sheryl are you interested in staying over at our place in Portarlington during your visit http://snurl.com/3hdn0?" John Pearce / mrpbps. John is an amazing author, presenter, and scientist. His wisdom about flora and fauna just blew me away and made my trip so much more valuable on a personal level.

Well if you clicked on the link you can see John's place is just north of heaven. We had such a wonderful time with John and his wife. He took us to the zoo and gave us the grand tour around Melbourne. It turns out his wife was also a bike enthusiast so we got to see the bike shops and David (David and his daughter Maegan went with me as a surprise for her 18th birthday and high school grad gift) even went for a ride. Their home was simply lovely and they were the most gracious of hosts.

The highlight of the evening was attending a blogger's dinner and meeting so many people I had come to respect through their writing. The Melbourne part of my journey started with meeting Jenny Luca f2f. I got off the plane and Jenny picked me up at my hotel and whisked me away to present at her beautiful school. I swear it was like being in Harry Potter. It was a pleasure meeting Jenny as she is an important part of the work I am doing with Will through PLP. Jenny is the Australian host school leader.

Take a look at the pictures and I will describe the next leg of the adventure in the next post.

John Pearce and I meet and tour the zoo.

Maegan, John Pearce, Sheryl and David at the zoo in Melbourne, Australia

 

 

 

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This guy's rear end was like cotton candy!

Melbourne at night.

Vicki and John Pearce with Lauren O Grady http://ogrady.globalteacher.org.au/

It was fun seeing Sue Tapp again. We met the first time at NECC. http://andanotherthing-sue.blogspot.com/

John telling the story about the one that got away!

Pam Arvanitakis http://pamelarvo.blogspot.com/

Lauren and Jo McLeay http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/

The Melbourne Bloggers- Darren Murphy, Sue Tapp, Me, Lauren OGrady, Pam and Jenny Luca

Biking with Vicky near her home.

 

Sitting at John's home surfing the Web.

Learning to Learn

My life has been a whirlwind of activity since NECC and I have found it hard to keep up with blogging. I don't know why, but I feel guilty blogging when I have other deadlines looming. Do any of you experience that? Is it illogical? Should I blog anyway, much like we still get the day to day things done at work or home, even when we have extra tasks on our "to do" lists. Or should I put 100% of my attention toward the deadlines and follow Grandmas' rule of "work before play"?

I'd love to hear your take.

Disclaimer: Blogging is like play for me- sheer enjoyment. Not necessarily the writing, as for me the writing doesn't come easy, but the thrill of the hits and conversation that follows does.

Community Driven System
The purpose of stealing moments away from my already full agenda this morning though to share my experiences of the last week. I came to realized more than ever that I am a community driven woman. I believe in the power of the community, the wisdom of the crowd, that the network is more powerful than the node and that none of us are as good as all of us. I believe that School 2.0 means moving from a classroom system to a community system. And now more than ever I also believe that about PD and I mean all PD- conferences(e.g. K12Online08), workshops (e.g. most recently CABOCES Summer Instititue), ongoing, job embedded sync and asysn (e.g. PLP) and as a result I am going to change my keynotes even more to flow from a community model as well. As I reflected over the last week, I realized even my family operates as a community. I am no loan wolf.

CABOCES Summer Institute
One week ago I landed in Buffalo and was greeted by Rick Weinberg who took me to Selemanca where I would be spending the next week working with educators from the surrounding area. When the day drew closer to the conference Rick shared that unexpectedly numbers were down. I gave him the opportunity to cancel rather than bring me out for just a few people, (I am knee deep in buying my first home in Va and could have used the time) but Rick was firm that they wanted to move forward. I am so glad he made that decision because this week was an incredible week of learning for me personally.

Here are my take aways...

1. When you are focused on educational reform from a community perspective- more is not always better.

 Monday- I had 10 administrators who were with me for one day. The small number enabled me to spend time personally getting to know each attendee. I invited Karen Richardson, Chris Lehmann, and Jon Becker to attend a panel discussion answering their concerns and questions. You can listen to the panel discussion here. The strength of intimacy because of such a small number of participants in the room made me realize that relationship is a more powerful tool when trying to leverage change than having large numbers of people in a room who are passively listening to you talk.

John Norton's wine glass metaphor rings true here- (He was drinking a glass of wine when it occurred to him- hence the name) that it is better to have small numbers of highly engaged people when influencing school reform than hundreds of folks who show up but walk away unchanged by the experience.

Also, on Friday when we knew our numbers would be minimal and we had such brilliant panel members coming from the community (Darren Kuropatwa, Kevin Honeycutt, Allanah King, and Mark Clemente) we made it a teachable moment. We spontaneously opened the Elluminate session up to the world (and the world indeed showed up) and we used Ustream and a chat channel as well to show if you offer quality the community will come to you- no matter how rural or small you are.

2. My belief was reinforced that for most newbies, teaching tools in isolation is too overwhelming and a waste of time.

Tuesday I tried to lay the foundation and set the context. I also wanted to help attendees understand today's digital learner. Wes Fryer (Oklahoma), Laura Deisley (Atlanta), Meg Ormiston (Illinois), and Sue Waters (Australia) talked about personal learning networks and the tools that support them (listen in here) on Wednesday. On Thursday my plan was to look more closely at tools and their pedagogy and how they best relate to various instructional activities and then on Friday to create inquiry based instruction with an interactive model of building a PBL mini-unit. For the most part things went according to plan, but Thursday's tools, tools, and more tools left me feeling overwhelmed and tense. I know if I had been a newbie in that audience not having been given the opportunity to use the tools in a meaningful application, I would have been frustrated. The idea was to create an awareness of the tools, not mastery, so that on Friday when we created lessons using the TPCK model we would have a web 2.0 list of applications from which to choose. The result though was painful, at least for me.

I brainstormed with Rick Weinberg and Tim Clarke afterward and what we felt would have worked better was to have four tables- with one of us at each table presenting a tool. Our presentations would include the tool, an activity using the tool, and a chance to reflect on best uses of the tool. Then after 45 minutes we would break for 15 and then could present another tool. We would do that three times (12 tools) and participants could choose which tools they wanted to learn.

I really believe that the best examples of tool instruction are within the context of what you are learning. Like our heating and cooling system they should be invisible. The only time we focus on our heating and cooling is when they aren't working properly. Then we have to focus on the tool itself and decide why it isn't working.

Even Bill Fitzgerald (Funny Monkey) after his discussion on Open Source tools left the attendees with the idea of forgetting the tool- focusing instead on what you want kids to know and be able to do- then figuring out the right task and tool for the job to help kids achieve their goal.

3. What is most important to 21st Century educational reform is to listen to kids.

On Tuesday, I decided to create a panel of kids from 11th grade to college juniors and talk to them about their reflections on technology. It was the most inspiring part of my week long work. I am still learning from all they taught me during that hour. Meet Gracie, Maegan, Ryan, Jay, Danny, Christian, Thomas, Will and Jesse. You won't be sorry you did.

4. Teachers need time to reflect, explore, and build in the safety net of your workshop.

Teachers, like kids, need you to model and then let them explore authentic use with you there to help. They need to understand how to create lesson plans that use the tools in meaningful ways, but then they need to actually collaborate together to build activities that they can use in school; activities that leverage the potential of these new mediums for connecting and collaborating.

Typically, in my workshops I only have time to present the shift and the tools- never to actually jump to the most important step of helping teachers contextualize what they are learning. I walked away from this week realizing that this step is what is missing in school reform and is why in my opinion, that change is happening so slowly.

The most exciting time of the conference for me personally was to watch the groups choose a topic- create a concept web, a curriculum web, choose appropriate standards, an essential pedagogy, an appropriate tool and develop several lessons that all integrated not only core disciplines but fell together under a theme, project or problem. The creative juices really began to flow as we constructed together a killer initiating activity that would usher in our year long project and the lessons we would use to teach state mandated content from a passion-based perspective. The tools made sense because they were merely a means to an end- helping students learn about things that interested them from the perspective of a scientist, historian or author.

I am thankful to CABOCES for being willing to invest the time that allowed their educators to not only gain an awareness but to deeply reflect, discuss, and wrestle with the concepts- while facilitators and their newly formed PLN stood by to help them make informed choices about change.

Powerful Learning Practice- Powerful Indeed

This post may be premature as I have only seen 2/3s of the PLP Independent Schools' team presentations of their impact journey through PLP and team projects- but I must say, Will and I were more than impressed. It was more on the level of WOW.

From extensive summer institutes with a Web 2.0 registration process for other schools to attend (all taught by the team members) to an 8th grade project that will utilize the best that Web 2.0 has to offer in a project based format implemented by all 8th grade teachers next year to a creative Lunch 2.0 project or school-based wikis with all digital curriculum shared and more, we found ourselves renewed in the faith that schools can make principled changes in the way we "do" school as a way to remain relevant in the lives of the students we teach. Independent school culture is such that teachers need to make certain they build on the rich heritage of what works and yet make room to rethink delivery of AP courses and such so that these kids not only get into some of the most prestigious colleges around, but they are fluent in the new literacies when they arrive.

All the project plans will be shared on the Independent School wiki after the remaining 1/3 of the teams present next week.

Cohorts are forming for next year's Powerful Learning Practice opportunity. If you are interested in learning more visit http://plpnetwork.com

Looking for New Voices?

Quite a few teacher leaders have been joining the blogosphere as of late. Looking for some provocative new bloggers to add to your aggregator? These thought provoking practitioners will NOT let you down.

Teacher Leaders Nerwork BLOGS

Bill Ferriter - The Tempered Radical
http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical/

Nancy Flanagan - Teacher in a Strange Land
http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/teacher_in_a_strange_land/

Renee Moore - TeachMoore
http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/teachmoore/

TLN Teacher Voices (excerpts from our daily conversation - group blog)
http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/tln_teacher_voices/

Teacher Leadership Today
(A newsy blog by John Norton)
http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/teacher_leadership_today/

TLN-RELATED BLOGS

Susan Graham - A Place at the Table (Teacher Magazine)
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/place_at_the_table/

Betsy Rogers - Brighton's Hope (we help with it)
http://tln.typepad.com/tln_betsyrogers/

Barnett Berry - Building the Teaching Profession (at CTQ website)
http://teachingquality.typepad.com/building_the_profession/

OTHER TLNer BLOGS

Emmet Rosenfeld - Eduholic (Teacher Magazine)
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/eduholic/

Teaching in the 408
http://roomd2.blogspot.com/
 
John Holland - Circle Time
http://circle-time.blogspot.com/

Dayle Timmons - Timmons Times
http://timmonstimes.blogspot.com/

Cossondra George - Middle School Day by Day
http://cossondra.blogspot.com/

Jennifer Barnett - Reflect to Redirect
http://jenniferbarnett.edublogs.org/

Marsha Ratzel - Reflections of a Techie
http://teachingtechie.typepad.com/learning/

Anne Jolly (new) - Learning Spot
http://jollylearningspot.blogspot.com/

Kitty Boitnott - Her campaign blog for VEA president
http://kittyboitnott.blogspot.com/

Brenda Dyck - Brenda's Blog (Education World)
http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/columnists/dyck/dyck.shtml

Anne Davis: The Voice of Experience

Tech Enhanced Learning
Anne Davis is an amazing teacher and woman. Yesterday my students had the priviledge of spending 50 minutes with her chatting as though we were having tea around the kitchen table. Anne style is so natural and relaxed that she makes you feel like all of this is really doable. The students loved her.

I first met Anne through another precious Web friend, Darren Kurpatowa, who is a secondary math teacher in Canada. I met Darren through his blog. Anne and I also worked together during the K12Online Conference where she gave one of our keynote presentations. When I was putting together this course I asked Anne if she would be willing to speak at one of our Virtual Monday sessions and she graciously agreed. She shared her experiences about blogging with elementary students and as all of these students are starting to blog themselves, she gave some general tips for professional blogging as a teacher. If you would like to watch the archive of the session click here.

Virtual Mondays
The course is Tech Enhanced Learning and it is for preservice elementary teachers at the College of William and Mary where I serve as an Instructor.  I have the unruly task of teaching this course on Mondays and Wednesdays in 50 minute periods in a classroom with laptops that have to be taken out, set-up, and booted and then taken back down as part of the 50 minutes.  It has challenged me to be very concise in the information I choose to share and be quite creative in delivery.

On Monday, we meet in Elluminate.  In an attempt to model networking and illuminate the possibilities of collaborating with others from around the world, I have asked various guest teachers experts to meet with us on Mondays and share their ideas and enthusiasm for different 21st Century teaching strategies. You can view the lined up speakers on the wiki.

As a solution to being able to engage the students more with the concepts of the course I decided to meet f2f on Wednesdays and online on Mondays. In addition, we are using a class wiki and Tapped In to organize, collaborate, and build networks throughout the course.

F2F Wednesdays
On Wednesday, I typically arrive 45 minutes early to class and find most of the students there waiting! I use the time to answer questions and troubleshoot. It is so humbling and inspiring to see these students in their seats so soon before class. Then when everyone arrives at the official start time of the class, I teach like a wild person for 45/50 minutes  (to allow take down time of the laptops). It is very intense.

E-Mentoring
The students are also collaborating with many talented educators, another W&M class (secondary preservice) and other tech using educational stakeholders from around the world in our electronic mentorship experience in Tapped In. The conversations taking place there are lively to say the least.
The differing global perspectives are making this a learning experience for me as well. If you would like to be part of a virtual mentorship experience just comment here and let me know.

A big virtual thank you to the following mentors:

Secondary
Barbara Besal- Virginia
Chris Craft- SC
Vicki Davis- Georgia
Randy Fullington- Alabama
Joseph Papaleo- Australia
Bud Hunt- Colorado
Vinnie Vrotny- Illinois
Marsha Ratzel- Kansas
Crystal Wright- Alabama
Mark Clemente- Virginia
Art Lader- South Carolina

Elementary
Connie Stigler- Alabama
Jon Hanbury- Virginia
Paul Harrington- Wales
Lynn Holland- Alabama
Allanah King- New Zealand
John Holland- Virginia
Jeff Utech- China

Past Teacher - Or Edc Specialist
April Chamberlain-Alabama
Jonathan Messer-Virginia
Emily Kornblut-NY
Mark Wagner-California
Anne Davis- Georgia
Karen Janowski- Massachusetts
Aimee Smith- Alabama

Special Guest Preservice Teacher:
Christine Papaleo- Australia

Cluster Map

Ok. I have a question. So two days ago I finally added a cluster map to my blog. I was able to track world visitors in my site counter, but it isnt public. So I decided to follow the lead of many of you and add one for public viewing. But I am confused. Here is a tracking map of the last 100 hits. I average about 40 hits per day, but since I posted the cluster map it only is showing US hits. Yet, the map below shows several hits outside of the US. Is it a setting I am missing?

If Not Us, Then Who?

I was over at  Around the Corner where Miguel Guhlin posts, reading his latest Girls and their Gadgets

I was moved. I so identified with the ideas and feelings he expressed.

I'm sorry, I see the benefits, but it appears that giving kids access to  the Read/Write web is like putting a loaded pistol in their hands without education. And, how many kids have to be bullied online before everyone wakes up (no, not you edubloggers...the other people who haven't read your blogs) and realizes that digital citizenship, that       education is the only way?

I remember I watched a documentary on automobile safety once. It emphasized the problems this innovation had in the beginning before they had figured out the rules and regulations of driving. Lots of people died and were hurt. Because this was a new technology (cars) they had to figure out what to do to keep folks safe as things happened. Mistakes were made. Rules were rethought. Lives were saved.

I have four kids. The youngest is 18. I have taught them all to drive. As they showed responsibility, I let them have their own car. I also let schools help educate them about driving and to practice driving with them. But I never relinquished my primary responsibility in determine when they were ready. For one of my children that was at 16 and for another it wasn’t until 18. And now, I still ride with them occasionally and gently coach from the side. Because like the Web, cars can be dangerous places.

The point being, as a society we didn’t just say-- look this car thing, yeah it has great potential, but at what cost? Folks who championed the cause saw it through and did what they could to protect and educate along the way until they got it worked out.

My Space. What a mess. I have one daughter there who is 24 and we have an ongoing conversation about what is appropriate and why online. She is an adult, but I still coach her through this Wild West Web.  I have a My Space account. So should you. I model responsible use. And those  who I am trying to influence think I am cool to be there.  It  serves as a cultural identifier that let's me have a place at their table and enter into their conversations.

My second daughter and son have bailed from My Space and they are using Facebook, this in some ways is much better. At least many of the pictures of past students I am finding are less sensual and the conversations are usually about their studies in college. There are abuses there too, but it seems to be less.

My youngest daughter, 18 who still lives at home, has chosen to avoid both. She blogs on Live Journal and not as often. However, she can text message and uses her Ipod like there is no tomorrow.  It was her choice not mine, and her friends rag her for it all the time. I am so proud of her for taking a stand.

Miguel thoughts continued to resonate...

As an ed-tech admin, I can sympathize...I want to turn off the Web at school and home. I have to fight that urge. It's too simplistic a response...it's too late to do that. We have to move forward, painful as the journey is and will become.

I also wish at times we could just turn it all off. Just as I wished they never had to drive. As parents and educators it is natural and right to want to protect our children and students. But rather, our job is to teach them to use the tools they need to survive in society in the safety net of our homes and schools, so that when they step out to use these tools unsupervised they will be discerning.

It is mentally overwhelming. I remember when they placed that first child in my arms thinking, “How will I ever do this all right?” I had a similar reaction my first day in the classroom. But if not us, as their parents and mentors, then who? We cannot simply give up. We have to go where they are and model and coach. We have to be consistent. We have to care deeply and remember that for some of the students we teach, we are the only significant adult with which they will ever have meaningful conversations around this topic.

We teach students to not run with scissors, to not talk to strangers, and to travel safely in a 5000lb lethal weapon. We can teach them to be safe and healthy on the Web.

Thank you fellow educators for all you are doing to help make this realty. Working together we can each make a huge difference for the students on our watch. And who knows? We just might hit the "Tipping Point" in our lifetime. In the meantime, we are helping to champion the rules of the road, much like they did at the onset of the automobile.

Comes so Easy

Creativity has always come easy for me. I love problem solving, brainstorming, and idea sharing. I remember watching Bewitched as a kid and wanting to grow up and do her husband Darrin Stephen's job. He was a rising young advertising executive who worked at the New York firm of McMahon and Tate. The shows where he had to come up with a clever idea for a product were my favorite.

When I started teaching I put as much of my creativity into my delivery and assignments as possible. I would take whole walls and turn them into creative displays that tied to what we were studying to capture my student's interest.   
The kids in my classes thrived. I thrived. By attaching standards-based curriculum to highly creative tasks of the student's own choosing--retention was improved.

Netgenrs learn best this way. It really is all they have ever known in terms of the way they process information. My favorite example of this is the new hp personal computer ad campaign.

Check this...Shaun White  This is who they are. I know. I have lived with four of them.

All my kids blog. I didnt teach them to blog. They never called it blogging. They called it "my live journal account" -- they didnt think about it as a "have to" task. Rather it was like breathing. It came natural and in rhythmic patterns.

Most of what they post is amazing to me. Of course it would be--I am their biggest fan. However, I dont agree with everything they post and I use those posts as teachable moments. We sit and talk about why and what they posted. Sometimes I explain that the Web is forever-- and future employers will check them out via a Google search and those posts will be there. I explain that as they grow, they will change. Sometimes drastically-- political views will change, values will mature and that they need to think about what they write. Sometimes it is paradigm views  we discuss from their posts-- why something is ethically wrong or harmful to others. Sometimes I use their posts to parent -- I discover something they have done, thought, or said that maybe needs some "mom" coaching from the sidelines. And sometimes they have posted something that has personal information showing up on a search. (I search them regularly)

A real advantage of the Web 2.0-- My Space included-- is that parents can really get to know their kids. Know what they think and feel and how they are wanting to be preceived. If used constructively, this is a huge plus for parents. My generation didnt talk to our parents. My mom had no idea who I really was. This generation-- they not only talk, they post it online. It is a powerful relationship building tool. And they love the fact that I am reading. I cant count the number of times my daughters were indignant that I didnt know something they had watched or felt --as they had posted it...why hadnt I read it?

As educators we need to teach our parents how to use the Read Write Web to become truly engaged with their children on their turf. To speak in a love language that they understand. If we can get parents involved on that level we will have bridged the generation gap. There is so much to learn from our kids. They are activists by nature. They care deeply. I am a better person from having been a regular reader of my children's postings. They in return have given more thought to what they post.
It is a win-win.

Want to check out my kid's blogs? Please do. But be forewarned-- they are kids and while there are moments of brilliance-- there are just as many that are a bit typical of kids their age.

Amber is 24 and a graphic designer

Heidi is 22 and works in an oncology unit at the hospital. She is working on her Physican Assistant's degree and has just begun this blog.

Noah is 20 (in less than a month) and has taken a temporary rest from posting as his online time is spent gaming.

Grace is 18 and pursuing a degree in theatre.

House Overwhelmingly Passes DOPA

Andy Carvin posts about DOPA on his site. Wesley Fryer did a great post on this topic too.

Here is Andy's take,

Last night the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the
Deleting Online Predators Act, 410 to 15. It would seem that educators
had little to no impact on the outcome. Perhaps this is by lack of
numbers, or because the MySpace panic that's overtaken this country is
so overwhelming that no amount of rational pleas from educators would
have stopped it.

If you haven't been following DOPA just click here and catch up---
I had been following David Warlick's take pretty closely and comments from Jim O'Hagan caught my eye. It begins...

I posted this the other night and feel there some misleading tendacies in your post about the bill. It isn’t that big of a bill to read, and I will preface this with saying that I am actually against the bill, but want to have a realistic view of this bill if it becomes law.

Let’s look at the bill objectively... 

... Have you read the bill yet? Have you broken it down without relying on the opinion of another blogger? Blogging isn't banned. Learning Blogmeister will not go away. The commercial sites will be filtered in schools. Commercial chat services will be filtered. The list of sites will be provided to schools and libraries.

The back and forth is interesting. The tag on Technorati is http://www.technorati.com/tag/dopa
if you want to read more about this bill.

The part that struck a chord with me though was the statement "...Without relying on the opinion of another blogger." I read something lately on Robert Berkman's blog Intelligent Agent in his post Verify, Verify, Verify he blogs about Jay Rosen's session at BloggerConIV. In his discussion of the current role of citizen journalism in “Users Know More Than We Do Journalism: My Session at BloggerCon IV, June 24”, NYU Professor Jay Rosen discussed the challenge he has had when discussing using citizen journalists to do original research and gather and report information.

He shares the following which I found valuable.

And so it does seem that knowing how to verifiy is now becoming important not just for reporters, but for all of us when we get our information from blogs, citizen journalists, or consumer generated media (CGM).

Trust is nice when you have it in a particular source: we all do come to know those handful of writers or bloggers who have the most insightful, significant, and valuable things to say, and come to generally trust them… But verification of an unknown source is another matter. We'’re all our own editors now and need to know what it means to verify for accuracy.

So simple but so true... as responsible educational bloggers it is important that we not only check for  accuracy but teach our students to do so as well. We all know it. It is common sense. But we need to be reminded. His post goes on...

Starting with the fundamentals, I think that these are the three fundamental rules reporters'’ follow when trying to verify some claim or statement:

1. Going to any original source and checking yourself. You need to go to the primary material, original report, broadcast, document, etc and view it. Admittedly, the concept of "“original"” changes on the Internet: —for example, is a digital copy of a document an original? Not technically, but assuming that the document itself is authentic (another discussion altogether) then it is much preferred that you read this than relying on someone'’s own discussion, summary or interpretation of it.


2. Get a confirming source-- or two--if possible. Remember that our best estimate of truth generally occurs via probability: when it becomes increasingly likely that what you found out is accurate. The more sources or people that say the same thing, the higher the probability is that it is accurate.

3. Understanding the motivations and background of the person making the statement or claim. Although the culture of blogs is transparency and honesty, in some ways, this can make a blogger with a hidden agenda even harder to detect, since we may assume that the blogger is stating his or her views openly.

Now I am not saying that what many of us have been saying about DOPA isn't true. If nothing else, this legislation, while well meaning, opens a can of worms in ways it could be interpreted in court. What I am saying is that I am guilty of jumping on the bandwagon without having read the entire bill myself. Jim's statements to David were a timely reminder to me that I need to make sure I always do just that. We all do-- if we are going to bring the credibility to the power of this medium it deserves we need to check originial sources. I know most of you who are posting about DOPA did-- I am just admitting --I didnt. Thanks Jim, for the reminder.

Thanks to blogging I continue to grow as a human.