Big+Ideas+and+Questions

=**Big Ideas**=

Ethan Newlin, teacher at Washington Heights Elementary School

 * Have kids do research in their communities about what means the most to them.
 * Ethan based his fellowship based on "What do my students and the world not know?

Al Solis, Buck Institute for Education

 * Education at an open-ended place: having a driving question to a place where there's multiple answers.
 * Give students a voice and choice to be innovative.
 * Giving students an environment to make something happen.
 * Larry Bock wanted students to do a project at San Diego Festival in Balboa Park.
 * Important for kids to make their work public.
 * Leadership: Document what we're doing.
 * If you're going to be a leader, make it easy to follow.
 * To promote innovation, give opportunity to fail.
 * Are you an American or an American't
 * You can get away with a lot if kids own the culture and feel special.

Cady Staff, High Tech High Middle School-Chula Vista

 * Four design principles of school: Adult/world connection; Personalization (try to meet each child where they are and push from that point); Common intellectual mission; Teacher as designer (get opp to be leader and innovator)
 * How are you going to share with other teachers what you've learned in a meaningful way?
 * Teacher leadership has to do a lot with leading by example, asking for help, and teaching students to be leaders.
 * Teacher as coach (by sharing your curriculum in a digital portfolio, you help coach peers) v. Teacher as designer (design your own curriculum bc have no curriculum)
 * Social entrepreneurship
 * Quietly Coup (create a positive revolution from within)

Jessica Chan, Campbell Hall School

 * [|Process Oriented Guided Inquirty Learning] enables not starting from scratch, but looking around at what's being doing and construct something different
 * [|Jessica's Blog], with link to Bug Counter blog from FFT fellowship
 * [|ChemThink] - Online interactive homework, using Password: Sara

Rachel Swick,

 * [|Kidblog.org]
 * [|Voicethread.com]
 * Relationships: If you don't have relationships with people, change doesn't seem to happen. When you have relationships with people, you can talk, collaborate and problem solve.
 * How can we make every level be like Kindergarten: problem solve, relationship skills, teach anything.

**Sam Seidel, Author, Hip Hop Genius**

 * [|Link to Hip Hop Video]
 * How does education replicate Hip Hop and flip something out of nothing?
 * Hip Hop's premium on freshness must permeate our schools
 * Hip Hop Genius not just about teachers using Hip Hop, about possibilities that occur whe students are engaged not as consumers, but creators
 * If it's been done before, it's no longer Hip Hop
 * Not how we foster innovation, but how we keep from breaking it? Meredith
 * Main tenet of Hip Hop is keeping it real. Don't try to act as an authority about something they're not.
 * Swagger (or hutzpuh) lack of fear to change things. David C.C. Ellis, principal and [|High School of Recording Arts] in Minneapolis. Started school at 10 a.m. and saw attendance sky rocket.

**Angela Maiers, Educational Speaker and Consultant**

 * Learning and leadership are verbs. Flip the conversation from the "To Do" list to "To Be" list.
 * Be real, confident, flexible, fresh, courageous, honest, humble.
 * Spend time obessing about becoming and let that drive your to do list.
 * Active power script language of classrooms = Habitudes. A daily practice. You don't BECOME a good dancer. You devote your life to becoming a better dancer.
 * Habit + Attitude is the To Be List
 * Million Dollar Conversations: People who achieve has some person in their life who sat them down and said, "I believe the world needs your genius" and they acted as if.
 * One step, obessively implemented, can change an entire industry. Positioning that with passion (what you do when the fun is over).
 * Our challenge is not about creating a new curriculum or agenda. 98% of 5 year olds have every single genius trait; When 8, 70% is gone.
 * We forget power of what we say to our students; all teachers need to be aware of what our voices carry.

**Lisa Wing, Principal, Genessee Community Charter School**

 * When you combine a fence and manure, you get innovation.
 * Fences (guidelines that are standard for the school); Manure (fertilization)
 * Manure=staff culture (pay a lot of attention to nurturing relationships); staff guiding principals; mandatory fun
 * Time=3 weeks of PD in August. Kids leave at 1 and staff stays until 5. Plus 12 days during the year. Teachers can't teach all day and then be energetic planners and collaborators when kids leave. We give teachers time to learn, think, refine and plan.
 * What would it be like if every school in the country had an FFT grant: Look at Genessee Charter School.

James Ruiz, Apache Corporation

 * Expose you to every environment associated with petroleum engineering, including 2-3 months of PD
 * Student's job: prove you are valuable and share your learning with others
 * Most important part of development process is in selection. Taking successful students and turning them into successful engineers. Students are leaders before they join Apache. Apache finds them through paid internships.
 * Comes down to how quickly adapt to learning curve. Company tries to enable you to climb learning curve as quickly as possible, investing $350-400K in PD.
 * Apache gives new employees autonomy. Give you a road map saying, "You are here, I want you to end up here. Don't care how you get there, but just get there as quickly and safely as you can." Don't tell us the WAY to solve the problem, but asks each person to venture on their own to arrive at a solution. End up with various answers that benefit the corporation. Creates a culture where everyone feels they can make a difference.
 * Quality of new enginners can't exceed quality of those who are training them: get six mentors
 * 120 hours a year of PD: broadens knowledge base, reinforces training; strengthens learning curve
 * Judgment Day every six months and prove your value. Show what you've learned from the program and demonstrate that you understand the material you're delivering.

Paula Harris, President-Houston Independant School District

 * What do you wish great teachers would do to help school board be more effective? Wish teachers would stand up for what is RIGHT in the district.
 * It's never the school, it's always the teacher. The school leader sets the culture.
 * As a teacher, ask what the corporation wants when seeking $$ for a project. What are their needs?
 * Cold calling is fine, but need to document. Email, letters, etc. to make it as easy on the partner as possible.
 * Look up Skype a Scientist; Skype a doctor.
 * Bringing people into the schools to say "Hey this is great" or "Hey, this could be better." Likes to bring in partners to show us off or show us what we could be doing better.

Merredith Portsmore, Tufts University's Center for Engineering Education and Outreach
Children are budding engineers Teachers are integral to the process (dynamic professionals using live data (the students) The learning environment is important Cool technologies "coolified" lab view for LEGO Mindstorms (take it apart, do it again) URAPI (Universal Robotics API (programming language) SAM Animation (stop action moving making software) Digital workbook - Education ResearchContent Knowledge Gains - Outreach (centers)
 * Integrating math and science to solve problems -- Messy problems
 * Engineering Design Process: Identify problem, Research, Brainstorm, Choose & Plan, Create, Test, Redesign, Share
 * Mission: improving education through engineering
 * Basic principals: based off of what is productive
 * How? Engineering Research:
 * "Well, we are doing what we think" - keep them thinking
 * Q: How is language used to develop learning and meaning, so you're not just creating a pipeline but it affects kids across all curriculum. And what are does "tools fading into the background mean?" A: We gather more support for the data that the teachers see and the data that the students see. We don't want it to be about the tool. Want the tool to be easy. This is ongoing work that takes time. How do you support teachers? By integrating engineering into literacy.

Mo Stenger, Daniel Carter Beard Elementary

 * Went to Australia on her fellowship to study trend of kitchen gardens (180 schools nationwide and government funded) Learned how to effectively utilize gardening and cooking to address core curriculum and social emotional skills
 * Impact on Innovation: Jump started me as a teacher. Tried something new and dynamic for students and renewed personal passion to explore, design, and implement a dynamic approach to learning
 * Learned to modify and adapt
 * Continued to write grants and now have a greenhouse for year-round gardening in Chicago
 * Able to adapt to new circumstances
 * Founded district-wide study group grant
 * Learned that failing is ok
 * Learned recycling sharing and learning along with the kids
 * When kids are invested in it, they are more willing to try.


 * Our Findings **
 * Compelling Professional Development: **
 * Recognizes, and builds on, the different personality/learning styles of participants and equips teachers to use that with students and their diverse styles
 * Supports “restoration education” and a sustainable world
 * Allows teachers to be immersed in learning
 * Equips teachers to be agents of positive change
 * Allows teachers to encounter, and be inspired by, great art
 * Equips teachers to use art to build pride, confidence and positive identity in students
 * Gives teachers confidence and skills to engage their students in fieldwork outside of the school building
 * Engages teachers in using professional tools
 * Allows teachers to “Get lost and find their voice”
 * Support teachers to use art to “enchant” rather than “illustrate”
 * Encourages staff to consider what they don’t do well – what they’d like to improve on – and build from there
 * Helps teachers find meaning
 * Transforms a teacher as a person
 * Impels staff to be reflective about their learning and growth
 * Frames teachers as “dynamic professionals interacting with live data”
 * Celebrates and models inquiry and multiple trials and drafts to solve problems and create things
 * Commits extensive time (e.g. 3 years) to allow staff to deeply adopt and sustain practices
 * Provides technical skills and content to a teacher as he/she needs it for a particular purpose
 * Supports staff with the knowledge and skills to create the right CULTURE in their classroom or school
 * Ignites a movement
 * Connects teachers with real-world experts
 * Supports teachers with strategies to put students in charge of important work
 * Equips teachers to contribute, with their students, in service to the real world
 * Centered in co-construction of new strategies, not getting “buy in” for strategies
 * Equips staff to collect, analyze and use data to improve teaching and learning
 * Allows staff to encounter and study important and beautiful things in the world – natural and manmade
 * Helps teachers understand and connect with the cultures and backgrounds of their students and their families
 * Reconnects staff with their core values and spirit, and renews and revitalizes them
 * Exposes you to a wide range of the people you need to count on, and who need to count on you – in multiple environments
 * Demonstrably invests generous, serious time and resources – compelling and inspiring staff to prove they are a worthy investment
 * Requires staff to demonstrate publicly what they’ve learned
 * Teaches or sharpens technology skills that empower teacher/student communication, work and innovation
 * Builds better relationships among staff and builds collaboration skills
 * Connects teachers to personal passion and mission
 * Driven by a question posed by a teacher
 * Allows teachers to conduct authentic learning
 * Inherently messy, because its real world and reminds teachers that learning is messy
 * Teaches or sharpens technology skills that empower teacher/student work and innovation
 * Builds better relationships among staff and builds collaboration skills
 * Allows teachers to take risks, fail, revise, and improve
 * Makes teachers feel special and important
 * Puts teachers in the role of designer
 * Combines graduate work with real-time classroom teaching, where teachers study, teach students, and teach graduate peers contemporaneously
 * Allows teachers to pose and solve problems
 * Compels teachers to be innovators and leaders
 * Involves teachers in creating real work for real world audiences
 * Teachers make their learning public (through authentic work, on line portfolios, etc)….
 * Builds and affirms staff norms, guidelines, relationships and culture
 * Gives staff genuine power to make important decisions about their work and their school
 * Models enjoyment in learning and is FUN
 * Requires the teacher to be the student and a teacher, spreading what one learns with colleagues
 * Puts teachers in the role of creators, rather than consumers
 * Helps teachers recognize and support youth innovation as manifest in youth culture (e.g. Hip Hop Genius)
 * Supports the courage in teachers – to be bold, to take risks
 * Focuses not on what teachers need to DO but what they can BE
 * Recognizes and addresses the varied roles on staff, and points in people’s career paths
 * Ignites passion
 * Gives staff access to strong models that they clone in whole or part to fit their settings
 * Encourages teachers to assume audacious goals for their students and imagine great possibilities

=**Questions to Ponder**=