Author: sylviamartinez

Sylvia Libow Martinez is an education change agent, writer, speaker, consultant, engineer, maker, and mom.
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Constructivist Celebration @ NYSCATE

Well, it’s official, there will be a Constructivist Celebration in partnership with the annual NYSCATE (New York State Association for Computers and Technologies in Education) conference in Rochester, NY.

Strong National Museum of Play
Rochester, NY
Sunday, Nov 22, 2009
9AM-4PM

The Constructivist Celebration is an opportunity for you to let your creativity run free with the world’s best open-ended software tools and enthusiastic colleagues who share your commitment to children, computing, creativity and constructivism. You might think of this stimulating event as a spa day for your mind and soul!

Best of all, the Constructivist Celebration @ NYSCATE is being held at the Strong National Museum of Play, a great setting that should prove inspiring and fun.

The day kicks off with a keynote, by Gary Stager on “Creative Computing”. By the way, for you Stager fans, this will be the only chance to see Gary at NYSCATE this year.

Then you will enjoy five hours of creativity on your own laptop using open-ended creativity software provided by consortium members FableVision, Inspiration, LCSI, and Tech4Learning. Representatives of the Constructivist Consortium will be there to assist with your project development.

Plus you get to keep the software and have a fabulous lunch!

For more details and registration, see the Constructivist Consortium registration website. (If you want to register for BOTH the pre-conference celebration and NYSCATE at the same time, click here to go to the NYSCATE website. You will be asked to become a NYSCATE member, but this is free!)

I’ll be co-leading this event, so I hope to see you there!

Sylvia

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Say hello at T+L

Next week I’ll be in Denver at the T+L conference. T+L is the Technology + Learning conference of the National School Board Association. This year it’s in Denver, Colorado, October 27-29.

NSBA’s T+L conference is one of my favorite conferences of the year. It’s unique in the fact that school teams come to the conference, not just technology folks. This provides a terrific range of perspectives and experience that can’t be matched in conferences that focus on one job title or subject area.

Generation YES is a co-sponsor of the T+L conference, and we’ll be down in the co-sponsor booth area, number 118. I also have a session Wednesday afternoon: Engage Them! Project-based 21st Century Technology Literacy.

Hopefully there will be a T+L Tweetup too – if you’d like to connect, please follow me at smartinez.

See you in Denver!

Sylvia

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Choices for Children: Why and How to Let Students Decide

Choices for Children: Why and How to Let Students Decide

An oldie (1993) but a goodie from Alfie Kohn. What does it really mean when when students have the power of choice instead of being powerless? Why is it important, and what kinds of things can students really decide?

To be sure, there is nothing new about the idea that students should be able to participate, individually and collectively, in making decisions. This conviction has long played a role in schools designated as progressive, democratic, open, free, experimental, or alternative; in educational philosophies called developmental, constructivist, holistic, or learner-centered; in specific innovations such as whole-language learning, discovery-based science, or authentic assessment; and in the daily practice of teachers whose natural instinct is to treat children with respect.

But if the concept is not exactly novel, neither do we usually take the time to tease this element out of various traditions and examine it in its own right. Why is it so important that children have a chance to make decisions about their learning? How might this opportunity be provided with regard to academic matters as well as other aspects of school life? What limits on students’ right to choose are necessary, and what restrictions compromise the idea too deeply? Finally, what barriers might account for the fact that students so rarely feel a sense of self-determination today? A close inspection of these issues will reveal that the question of choice is both more complex and more compelling than many educators seem to assume.

The rest of the article is well worth reading!

Sylvia

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Why Creativity Now?

via ASCD Inservice: Why Creativity Now?

In “Why Creativity Now?” creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson dispels the myth that giving precedence to creativity in education will result in unstructured curriculum or initiatives targeted to a select content or students.

I like how the article emphasizes that creativity is about DOING, not just thinking.

Sylvia

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It’s Take Your Students To Conferences Month!

OK, not really. I just made that up.

But this is the time of year that many educational conferences ask for educators to submit ideas and proposals for sessions at state and regional conferences to be held next spring.

Going to conferences is a great professional development experience for educators. But why bring students?

Reason #1 – It’s good for the students. Students presenting and sharing their work is a great learning experience. Expanding the audience beyond their own teacher or parents can spur students to reflect on the needs of their audience, be a little more serious about their role, and put more energy into practicing and performing.

Reason #2 – It’s about walking the talk. If you are considering presenting a session where you talk about what your students do, how empowering that is, and the benefits of this, wouldn’t it be that much better if actual students were there to drive that message home?

Reason #3 – It’s about building your classroom learning community. Working with students on something that’s a stretch for you creates mutual respect, shared commitment, and purpose — all hallmarks of a vibrant learning community. You should see these attributes seep back into the classroom in unexpected ways.

If any of this sounds enticing to you, I hope you will download this PDF called, Sharing Student Voice: Students Presenting at Conferences. It includes:

  • Top Ten Tips for Student Presenters
  • Balancing the needs of the audience with the needs of students
  • Research on student voice, 21st Century skills and student empowerment
  • How to plan and submit sessions with student presenters
  • Maintaining student ownership and authentic student voice
  • Logistics tips for bigger conferences and exhibit halls
  • The crucial role of the teacher as part of the presentation

You’ll notice that this is not all happy talk about how precious the little darlings are and every word out of their mouths is a pearl of wisdom. It’s never fair to inflict amateurish, unfocused presentations on an audience not composed of adoring parents. Honoring student voice is a two-way commitment, and both sides have to contribute their best.

I hope you get something out of the article, Sharing Student Voice: Students Presenting at Conferences. And if you have some great student presentation advice, add comments below!

Sylvia

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Accept the Challenge to Learn and Serve

The National Service-Learning Partnership has announced a challenge to those interested in service learning. October 5-11, 2009 will be a week of special events and community outreach that will raise awareness and build support for service-learning across the United States.

Students involved in GenYES and TechYES programs across the country and around the world are providing service to their schools and communities, and this is a great way to show students that they are part of a growing movement of citizens stepping up and working for change.

Accept the 2009 Challenge here!

See what others did during the 2008 Challenge


Through the Challenge, you can:

  • Spotlight the value of service-learning to young people, schools, and communities.
  • Encourage others to launch service-learning activities
  • Build support for service-learning among decision-makers
  • Increase recognition of Learn and Serve America, the only federal program dedicated to service-learning

Happy challenging!

Sylvia

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Student Voice in Ontario, Canada

In Ontario, Canada, every school board is required to include representatives from the local Student Senate, which is composed of student trustees from each high school in the board. The student trustees represent students and ensure that students’ ideas and opinions are heard at the school board level. These student representatives have joined together to form the Student Trustee Organization which is, according to their website, “the largest student stakeholder in education and the voice for the student vision” and they act as consultants at the provincial Ministry of Education level. This is probably one of the most ambitious efforts in the world to listen to and heed “student voice” in the development of education policy, and over the years, they have impacted some major school reform efforts.

Read the whole blog post from Susan Einhorn, Anywhere, Anytime Learning Foundation (AALF) Executive Director, Student Voice, Democracy and 1-to-1.

Sylvia

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THE Journal: NAEP Gets It One-Third Right

Today the THE Journal editor Geoff Fletcher published an editorial, NAEP Gets It One-Third Right, which opens, “WATCH OUT, tech directors. A train wreck is coming your way and you’re sure to receive some collateral damage.” (Read the rest…)

I’m not going to comment on this right now and here’s why. For the past year, I’ve been on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Technology Literacy Assessment planning committee. (See my post NAEP Technology Assessment 2012.) The first phase of writing the framework (which is where my committee contributed) is almost complete. Our final meeting will be next week. Now others will take the framework and turn it into an assessment.

At the first meeting, I asked about blogging along the way, without revealing personal things or anything still in draft form. I was told that this would be detrimental to the process. After some discussion, I agreed not to do it. Although I felt (and still feel) that openness is the best policy, I also felt that this “was not the hill to die on.”

Last month, a discussion draft of the framework was released for public comment. This Ed Week article contains a link to the draft.

Like I said, I’m not going to comment on the draft framework or the THE Journal editorial right now. I made a promise to keep my thoughts and comments within the committee and I intend to keep that promise. However, when I can, I’ll share my thoughts more publicly.

Your comments are welcome.

Sylvia