Skills Our Children Need for Careers, College and Citzenship

Most of us cannot believe how fast technology has advanced just in the last decade. Ten years ago we were still using film in cameras. Now, adults and children alike take thousands of digital photos without ever buying a roll of film. Look at how digital technology changed the photo industry. The largest film company in America, Kodak, did not adapt quickly enough to this dramatic shift.

Moreover, just 15 years ago, we stored music on a compact disc. During the time of the CD, we were all amazed at the quality and ease of playing and finding the tracks on the disc. Today, CD’s have pretty much gone to the wayside. Music is now stored and played in the hundreds and thousands on devices such as iPods, mp3 players or streamed over smartphones.

Also, 15 short years ago, most of us didn’t know about satellite radio. Today, we can access over 100 stations, most are commercial free, expanding our options from traditional radio.

Online sites, such as Pandora, and Jango, allow users to create their own personalized station that will only play music they like. This is done by the user clicking musical formats of interest, then as the station plays, the user can give thumbs up or thumbs down to any song. The site then remembers these tastes and continually adjusts and personalizes the station. For example, you can choose country, rock, pop, Christian, R&B or a mix of any of the above to play on your station. Within your station, you can customize what groups or types of songs will play. Or, you can simply ask "Alexa" or "Google" to stream any music you like!

Another advance in technology is touch. Nearly all cell phones and mobile computers (laptops, tablets) now offer touch screens and have very few buttons. The Apple iPhone, iPad, Samsung Galaxy and the Microsoft Surface Pro are examples of this technology. Users are able to be more ‘attached’ to the device if you will. Consumers can use stylus pens or fingers to activate features. The keyboard and mouse are quickly becoming things of the past.

Less than 10 years ago, Apple launched its App Store. Only 10 years! Mobile apps have created a huge shift in how society consumes media. 77% of adults own a smartphone with apps. This is up from 35% in 2011. While desktops and laptops remain the primary digital platforms, they won't be for long. The most common way people get news and updates on their favorite website is through mobile apps.

Children thrive in this technology-rich society in which we live. Maneuvering devices come much more naturally to them than it does to most adults. It's their world. They have never used an adding machine or a manual typewriter (or an electric typewriter for that matter). Yet in my lifetime these were valuable equipment in any business class. So, knowing the rapid rate of change, we need to be teaching technology more than ever or our children will fall behind, right?

The answer to that question is, "No."

Learning the use of technology is valuable, but it should be integrated throughout the student's daily learning. It shouldn't be separated out and taught as a stand-alone "class." Technology in education is a tool, just as it is in business and industry. We need to ensure that students have an opportunity to use those tools in a technology-rich environment. That they have access to the appropriate technology when it is needed and that they understand when and where different devices are useful in researching, learning, production, or creating works.

The reality is that the kids know how to use technology now better than most adults and we ask them to "power down" when they hit our school doors. It is us, the educators that need the classes so that we know how to use the available technology most effectively as an instructional tool.

Today, students have access in our schools to desktop computers, laptop computers, netbooks, and tablet computers. We are moving to students storing assignments, completing assignments and turning assignments into their teacher online using "the cloud." Many of these assignments can give them instant feedback and the teacher can watch each student working online and give feedback during assignment completion. Even when the student is working from home!

So, if not technology, then what do our children need to know to be successful in the new global economy of the 21st century, where seemingly every job can be automated, out-sourced or off-shored? Certainly, they need to be technology literate. More importantly, they need skills learned through our curriculum which are interdisciplinary, integrated, project-based, and more, include and are learned within a project-based curriculum by utilizing skills similar to those advocated by
Tony Wagner in his book, "The Global Achievement Gap" as the 7 Survival Skills for Careers, College, and Citizenship:

• Critical thinking and problem solving
• Collaboration across networks and leading by influence
• Agility and adaptability
• Initiative and entrepreneurialism
• Effective oral and written communication
• Accessing and analyzing information
• Curiosity and imagination

We need to use the academic content to teach the Seven Survival Skills in every class, every day. It is time to hold ourselves and all of our students to a new standard —one that is defined according to 21st-century criteria.

Teaching kids to memorize information should be a thing of the past. In the 21st century, mere memorization won’t get you very far. There’s too much information, and it’s changing and growing exponentially. Besides, most of the information we need is readily available on the nearest computer or PDA screen—provided we know how to access and analyze it. Where in the 20th century, rigor meant mastering more—and more complex—academic content, 21st-century rigor is about creating new knowledge and applying what you know to new problems and situations.

Red Ball Jets

I'm dating myself with this one......

The start of every school year gets me thinking back to my youth and getting ready for that first day of school.  Buying the school supplies.  The new lunch box and thermos.  And those new gym shoes!  I remember when I was in elementary we were required to have shoes just for Physical Education. Our "gym" shoes.  And there was nothing like having a pair of Red Ball Jets! 

Every kid wanted a pair of Red Ball Jets because of the advertisement. It showed kids leaping over wagons, hurtling tall bushes and outrunning big dogs. I still remember the tagline: “Red Ball Jets. They make you run faster and jump higher.” The shoes had supernatural powers. I had to have a pair!  The anticipation of school starting grew exponentially at thought of getting wear these shoes in gym class. I was going to be so cool!

Now I get to prepare for the start of school from a whole different vantage point, but no less exciting.  This school year marks our first as Alta-Aurelia Community Schools.  Ever since the start of the whole grade sharing, we have called ourselves Alta-Aurelia but in reality, there was no legal entity or school district named "Alta-Aurelia."  There was the Alta Community School District and the Aurelia Community School District. The two separate districts had simply agreed to share students and activities. 

Now, as of July 1st, we are Alta-Aurelia Community School District. A new, legal entity. Pretty exciting!  Not as flashy as a new pair of gym shoes, or a new backpack, or the latest trapper-keeper, but exciting none the less.  A big pat on the back goes to all involved in making this a smooth transition. Students, staff, parents, and school board members.  

From the very beginning of the sharing, the positives have far outweighed the few nay-sayers.  And even though, unlike the Red Ball Jet ad, we can't proclaim that this new school district will make us more successful, or provide a better education. But we can confidently state that the new opportunities this new reorganization allows for are only limited by ourselves and our imaginations.

I am looking forward to a great start of a new school year and the great start of a new, outstanding school district.  It's a great day to be an Alta-Aurelia Warrior!

Simple Ways to Improve Your Child's Reading Over the Summer

The end of a school year doesn't have to necessarily mean an end to learning and nothing is more important to academic achievement than being a good reader.

Over the summer months, parents can provide the one-on-one time and attention that will lead their children to success in reading. Below are a few fun and effective ways that you can try at home to help your children become better readers over the summer months. Implementing even a few of these ideas will have a positive impact on your child's education.

Set aside a regular time, each day, to read to your children.

Studies show that regularly reading out loud to children will produce gains in reading comprehension, vocabulary, and the decoding of words. No matter your child's age, it will increase their desire to read independently. 

Surround your child with age-appropriate reading material.

Children with available reading materials at home score higher on student achievement tests. Encourage your kids to read by having a large supply of books and magazines at their reading level. Put the reading materials in cars, bathrooms, bedrooms, family rooms, and even by the TV.  Books are less expensive than toys or video games and the pay off later in life is much larger.

Start at a family reading time.

Establish a daily time when everyone in the family reads together silently. Seeing you read will inspire your children to read. Just 15 minutes of each day is sufficient to increase a child's reading fluency.

Encourage a wide variety of reading activities.
Make reading an integral part of your children's lives. Have them read menus, roadside signs, game directions, weather reports, movie time listings, sports scores, and other practical everyday information. Also, make sure they always have something to read in their spare time such as waiting for appointments or riding in a car.

Show enthusiasm for your children's reading

How you react to your child's reading has a great influence on how hard they will try to become good readers. Be sure to give them genuine praise for their efforts.

Develop a library habit.

Take your children to the library every few weeks to borrow new reading materials. IT'S FREE! The library also offers summer programs for children of all ages that may appeal to your children and further increase their interest in reading.

It's Crunch Time for Iowa Public Schools!

Maybe you have been following the news in Iowa on the private school voucher bill (HSB 651), which they are calling Education Savings Accounts to deflect some of the criticism.  The bill passed through subcommittee on Tuesday and has been passed on to the House Education Committee. 

Private schools in Iowa have a very organized lobby right now and the few are making a louder noise.  We are also seeing more Representatives and Senators in Iowa sending their children to private school or homeschooling, than in the past so there is more sympathy for this discussion.

Please, contact your local House Representatives and/or Senators on this issue.  When you do so, remember to thank them for their work and always be respectful by beginning your email with Honorable Representative_________, or Honorable Senator_________.  It never does any good to attack or be negative. These are people elected to represent us on "The Hill" and they truly want to do a good job.  And it's a tough job, so express your respect for their work whenever you contact them.

Below are some talking points that I believe have some merit and are being supported by the Public School lobbying groups:

• $52 million of all our tax money already goes to support non-public education for various reasons. (private school transportation costs, private school textbooks, tuition and textbook tax credit, etc..just to name a few) 

• Special Educations services, AEA media services, and other AEA services that are going to support private schools are publicly funded. 

• Students participating in Competent Private Instruction can utilize the publicly funded Iowa Connections Academy and Iowa Virtual Academy.

• Home School Assistance Programs are publicly funded through local school districts. 

• Iowa public education has the 8th best education in the nation and rank #1 in high school graduation rates based on US News and World Report rankings. Yet we rank 40th in public school funding.

• If revenue is reduced through vouchers or private school savings credits, where will it be made up?  Through further reduced or restricted public school and AEA funding.

• Taxpayer rules and transparency must follow the child. Public schools are funded by Iowa taxpayers, whether they have children attending school or not. Taxpayers have the right to expect those who choose to accept public funding follow the same rules and transparency required of public schools.

• Iowa performs better than any state with Education Savings Accounts (ESAs, also known as vouchers). Governor Reynolds cited data with Iowa ranked 8th in the nation in education. The 6 states with ESAs rank between 21st and 49th. Why would we follow down a failed path? 

• ESAs do not address rural Iowans concerns. More than 76,000 Iowa students have NO private school option in their county to even use an ESA. They can't afford to have tax dollars taken away from their community schools to fund choice in other areas. 

Most Iowans just want to improve their community schools and prepare their children to work in a world that looks less like the one in which they grew up.  I highly doubt that the majority in the state want to see this bill passed. Unfortunately, many are probably not aware of the negative impact it will have because the bill's name does not indicate it's true purpose which is to divert public tax dollars to private entities.

I have been in conversation and will continue to hold conversations with our local Reps and Senators but if they hear from teachers, parents and board members it is far more impactful.  And the more contacts they get, the more it raises their awareness and right now the private school supporters are flooding some of them with contacts.  Public school supporters need to take up that same tactic, now.

Feel free to copy and paste any of the above info or re-word it for your own use. You can locate your local Representative or Senators and their contact information at https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislators/find

I suggest emailing your Representative or Senator, as it only takes a few minutes.  If you would like to call them, the House and Senate Switchboard is (515) 281-3221 If you call just ask for your senator or representative.