The 1:1 laptop initiative will put a laptop in the hands of every student to use 24/7 from the first day of school in the fall to the last day of school in the spring. This will open up a multitude of possibilities to extend learning beyond the textbook; beyond the 8:30-3:15 school day and beyond the limits and scope of MFL MarMac HS.
Almost all of the MFL MarMac HS teachers have gone on a visit to a school that has a 1:1 initiative. Here is a partial list of what they have seen;
1) More student engagement
2) More students creating projects instead of absorbing lectures.
3) Students communicating with "experts" through e-mail, blogs, skype and other digital methods.
4) More students doing research, doing much more writing, and doing many more presentations.
Many of the schools that started this have changed the way that learning takes place. Excitement at every school that I have seen is very high. Teachers are changing the way that they do business and students are more of a "partner" in learning than a vessel to "pour" knowledge in and hope that it stays.
We have many computers in the high school now. We have 3 full blown computer labs, 2 portable laptop carts, and 7 mini-labs in the school. All of these need to be maintained and periodically replaced. We have to choose whether to continue spending this money to replace these labs or to shift the cost to a laptop for every student.
We are now getting cost estimates form both Apple and PC companies. I will know more about the cost then, but I do know that before the School Board decides to do this or not, our Superintendent will make sure that the school can afford this.
Area schools that have already started this initiative are Clayton Ridge, South Winneshiek, North Winneshiek, And Valley. Planning to start next year are Ed-Co and Allamakee. Postville is starting a discussion. Many schools across the nation have done this including the state of Maine that has this mandated for all schools.
Once again, I invite all students, parents and community members to go to my blog; berryedblog.blogspot.com. Feel free to leave comments. I would also be very happy to come and discuss this with any group that is interested in learning more.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Sir Kenneth Robinson
This a very engaging u-tube video. The creativity is very captivating, but I hope that the message comes across. This has been one of my themes with our staff this year:
Are we teaching our Millennial children how to survive in the Industrial Age?
Watch this and leave a comment:
Are we teaching our Millennial children how to survive in the Industrial Age?
Watch this and leave a comment:
Friday, October 1, 2010
1-1 Computing Part 1
1-1 Computing
As most of the MFL MarMac High School staff knows, I am a big supporter and advocate for 1-1 computing. Several of us were at a webinar the other day and the comment was made, “What do you mean by 1-1?” I thought about this and decided that I have been assuming that all staff members understand this. I decided that I had better back up and answer a few questions.
1) What is 1-1 computing?
This term basically means that every student will be given a laptop computer to use both at home and at school for the entire school year.
2) What are the expectations of students and teachers?
I expect that all teachers will use this “tool” in their classrooms in different ways. All of our teachers now teach differently. That is good. The 1-1 will not change this. I taught math for 25 years. When the graphing calculator came along, it totally transformed not only the way I taught, but the way students learned and grasped mathematical concepts. I expect that this will have the potential to do the same for all curriculum areas. Some teachers will start with having the students take out their laptops to take notes instead of paper and pencil. Some teachers will send the notes to the students and spend more time analyzing and discussing the general concepts. All teachers will have access to a computer “lab” every day in their classroom instead of picking up and moving to a lab and hoping that it is not being used by another teacher. I expect that this will allow our teachers and students to focus more on analyzing and creating instead of remembering facts and spitting them back on a test.
We have focused our professional development on higher order thinking skills for many years. This is the best initiative to allow teachers and students to focus on this area. Some teachers will totally revamp the way that they conduct business. Some will only change a little. I expect that all of our good teachers will remain good teachers whether they change or not.
In the future, I will discuss:
2) What have we been doing to help make this decision?
3) What will it “possibly” look like?
4) Why do I want to do this?
5) How will we fund this?
In the meantime, I would be willing to talk to anybody at any time about this. I will post this on my educational blog; berryedblog.blogspot.com, where you can leave any comments.
As most of the MFL MarMac High School staff knows, I am a big supporter and advocate for 1-1 computing. Several of us were at a webinar the other day and the comment was made, “What do you mean by 1-1?” I thought about this and decided that I have been assuming that all staff members understand this. I decided that I had better back up and answer a few questions.
1) What is 1-1 computing?
This term basically means that every student will be given a laptop computer to use both at home and at school for the entire school year.
2) What are the expectations of students and teachers?
I expect that all teachers will use this “tool” in their classrooms in different ways. All of our teachers now teach differently. That is good. The 1-1 will not change this. I taught math for 25 years. When the graphing calculator came along, it totally transformed not only the way I taught, but the way students learned and grasped mathematical concepts. I expect that this will have the potential to do the same for all curriculum areas. Some teachers will start with having the students take out their laptops to take notes instead of paper and pencil. Some teachers will send the notes to the students and spend more time analyzing and discussing the general concepts. All teachers will have access to a computer “lab” every day in their classroom instead of picking up and moving to a lab and hoping that it is not being used by another teacher. I expect that this will allow our teachers and students to focus more on analyzing and creating instead of remembering facts and spitting them back on a test.
We have focused our professional development on higher order thinking skills for many years. This is the best initiative to allow teachers and students to focus on this area. Some teachers will totally revamp the way that they conduct business. Some will only change a little. I expect that all of our good teachers will remain good teachers whether they change or not.
In the future, I will discuss:
2) What have we been doing to help make this decision?
3) What will it “possibly” look like?
4) Why do I want to do this?
5) How will we fund this?
In the meantime, I would be willing to talk to anybody at any time about this. I will post this on my educational blog; berryedblog.blogspot.com, where you can leave any comments.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Why I Play Golf
For our pre-service this school year, we had Dr. Harold Blatt and Gloria Klinefelter from Community Circle of Care give a presentation called Bridges Out of Poverty. This was a very good presentation. Our data has shown a disparity between our low Social economic status students and the rest of the population. The district professional development committee which is made up of administrators and teachers decided to try this in-service. It gave a very good representation of the difference in thought processes for people in both generational and situational poverty. We have a high per cent of free and reduced lunch students and this in-service was very timely. We hope to have a follow up on this later in the year.
I was discussing this with some of our teachers. A few of us could relate to this and realized that our thinking when we grew up was like the people of poverty that were represented in the presentation. I never realized that I grew up in poverty, but now I realize that my family really was poor. I always felt that, as much as I wanted to, I never fit in with the "middle class" students around me. There was a culture of thinking that I did not fit in. I realize that now. It really hurt and bewildered me at the time.
Mom and Dad went to work after 8th grade. Neither of my sisters went to college.I went to college mostly because a football coach asked me to come play community college football. I stayed in college because I worked in different factories in summer and during the school year to pay for expenses. I knew that I really did not want to work in a factory for the rest of my life. Good decision. I also admired many of my high school and college coaches and thought that profession would be a good one to enter. For 25 years, my wife and I and two children survived on one teacher/coach salary and what my wife made working in daycare, and taking our younger daughter to preschool. She did a great job of raising our two girls. The trade off was that our children could not have the material possessions that their friends had.
Twelve years ago, I made the switch to administration. My salary now is much higher than I ever dreamed it would be when I grew up. I take nothing for granted. We have worked very hard to get to the point that we are in our lives.
When I left teaching and coaching which took up most nights and weekends for twenty five years, I actually had the time to golf. With the administrator salary, I also could afford to play golf. I never dreamed about playing this game when I grew up. That was something that the "other people" did.
So now I play golf and really enjoy the game. So, back to the title of this blog, I now play golf......because I can.
I was discussing this with some of our teachers. A few of us could relate to this and realized that our thinking when we grew up was like the people of poverty that were represented in the presentation. I never realized that I grew up in poverty, but now I realize that my family really was poor. I always felt that, as much as I wanted to, I never fit in with the "middle class" students around me. There was a culture of thinking that I did not fit in. I realize that now. It really hurt and bewildered me at the time.
Mom and Dad went to work after 8th grade. Neither of my sisters went to college.I went to college mostly because a football coach asked me to come play community college football. I stayed in college because I worked in different factories in summer and during the school year to pay for expenses. I knew that I really did not want to work in a factory for the rest of my life. Good decision. I also admired many of my high school and college coaches and thought that profession would be a good one to enter. For 25 years, my wife and I and two children survived on one teacher/coach salary and what my wife made working in daycare, and taking our younger daughter to preschool. She did a great job of raising our two girls. The trade off was that our children could not have the material possessions that their friends had.
Twelve years ago, I made the switch to administration. My salary now is much higher than I ever dreamed it would be when I grew up. I take nothing for granted. We have worked very hard to get to the point that we are in our lives.
When I left teaching and coaching which took up most nights and weekends for twenty five years, I actually had the time to golf. With the administrator salary, I also could afford to play golf. I never dreamed about playing this game when I grew up. That was something that the "other people" did.
So now I play golf and really enjoy the game. So, back to the title of this blog, I now play golf......because I can.
Friday, August 13, 2010
2010-11 # 2
Well, here we are, back to work for about a week. I started back on August 2. This was after 3 weeks of vacation which consisted of one week in Chicago with kids and grandkids, followed by 2 weeks in Florida with kids and grandkids and family.
August 2nd, I worked 8 hours. Wow!! A “normal” day which consisted mostly of calendar items and planning for the year. We did start our summer school today. We have 8 students working on credit recovery. This will last for 2 weeks from 9:00 AM until Noon. I hope that students take advantage of this time and make up these credits. If not, they will have to retake these classes for 85 minutes a day for 9 weeks.
August 3rd, my wife and I left for Des Moines at 5:30 AM for the School Administrators of Iowa annual convention. This is a very good convention! 1 day of golf and networking. 1 ½ days of very good speakers. 8 hours of travel time to Des Moines and back. What a price we pay to live in the most beautiful part of Iowa.
August 5th , we detoured to Iowa City on the way back and stayed with relatives. Friday, the 6th, we stopped at Grant Wood AEA in Cedar Rapids. We had several students and 2 teachers involved in a virtual reality workshop. This workshop was covered in the Cedar Rapids Gazette and by the CR TV stations. VR is being pushed by Rockwell Collins, John Deere, the Mayo Clinic, the Iowa Workforce Development and many others. We feel very fortunate to be involved in this at the ground level. It will be one of my jobs to make sure that we continue to have students involved in this and to offer and build this opportunity for students
After being gone most of the week, it was necessary to work at school for 2 hours on Sunday, August 8. I mostly worked at catching up on e-mail and planning for the upcoming week.
About 52 hours logged this week. Not counting time thinking about the job, checking e-mails, and texting with fellow administrators to keep in touch.
August 2nd, I worked 8 hours. Wow!! A “normal” day which consisted mostly of calendar items and planning for the year. We did start our summer school today. We have 8 students working on credit recovery. This will last for 2 weeks from 9:00 AM until Noon. I hope that students take advantage of this time and make up these credits. If not, they will have to retake these classes for 85 minutes a day for 9 weeks.
August 3rd, my wife and I left for Des Moines at 5:30 AM for the School Administrators of Iowa annual convention. This is a very good convention! 1 day of golf and networking. 1 ½ days of very good speakers. 8 hours of travel time to Des Moines and back. What a price we pay to live in the most beautiful part of Iowa.
August 5th , we detoured to Iowa City on the way back and stayed with relatives. Friday, the 6th, we stopped at Grant Wood AEA in Cedar Rapids. We had several students and 2 teachers involved in a virtual reality workshop. This workshop was covered in the Cedar Rapids Gazette and by the CR TV stations. VR is being pushed by Rockwell Collins, John Deere, the Mayo Clinic, the Iowa Workforce Development and many others. We feel very fortunate to be involved in this at the ground level. It will be one of my jobs to make sure that we continue to have students involved in this and to offer and build this opportunity for students
After being gone most of the week, it was necessary to work at school for 2 hours on Sunday, August 8. I mostly worked at catching up on e-mail and planning for the upcoming week.
About 52 hours logged this week. Not counting time thinking about the job, checking e-mails, and texting with fellow administrators to keep in touch.
2010-11 Year #1
Hi! My name is Ed Berry. I have been the high school Principal at MFL MarMac for the last 12 years. This is my 13th year. Retirement is in the (sometime) near future. My purpose of this Blog is to record the 2011-12 school year from an administrator’s point of view.
MFL Mar Mac is quiet school district of about 850 students in Northeast Iowa. The name comes from the 5 towns that make up our district; Monona, Farmersburg, Luana, Marquette and McGregor. I find it very interesting that the western end of the district, MFL is very quiet and mostly agricultural in nature, but the eastern part of the district, MarMac is on the Mississippi river and has a large amount of tourism, with a casino, several Bed & Breakfasts and several antique and other specialty shops. Each of the five towns, at one point, was their own school district. They are now combined into one district and enrollment is still declining.
MFL MarMac is a relatively quiet school district but, like all districts, has no day that is predictable and exactly like the day before. I plan to Blog the events of this school year for all interested parties. I will, of course, need to be extremely careful and maintain individual rights and privacy.
I hope to be able to give some insight into the complexity, intensity, frustration and satisfaction that goes along with this job. As you follow this Blog, feel free to comment, add to what I say, ask questions and make any other comments (within reason and privacy) that you wish.
This is my personal commentary, but I hope that it becomes an interactive forum for those interested in education from an administrator’s viewpoint.
MFL Mar Mac is quiet school district of about 850 students in Northeast Iowa. The name comes from the 5 towns that make up our district; Monona, Farmersburg, Luana, Marquette and McGregor. I find it very interesting that the western end of the district, MFL is very quiet and mostly agricultural in nature, but the eastern part of the district, MarMac is on the Mississippi river and has a large amount of tourism, with a casino, several Bed & Breakfasts and several antique and other specialty shops. Each of the five towns, at one point, was their own school district. They are now combined into one district and enrollment is still declining.
MFL MarMac is a relatively quiet school district but, like all districts, has no day that is predictable and exactly like the day before. I plan to Blog the events of this school year for all interested parties. I will, of course, need to be extremely careful and maintain individual rights and privacy.
I hope to be able to give some insight into the complexity, intensity, frustration and satisfaction that goes along with this job. As you follow this Blog, feel free to comment, add to what I say, ask questions and make any other comments (within reason and privacy) that you wish.
This is my personal commentary, but I hope that it becomes an interactive forum for those interested in education from an administrator’s viewpoint.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
SAI HS Principal of the Year
I have been very deeply honored to be selected as the NE Iowa Seconday Principal of the Year. Many people have contributed to the success of MFL MarMac HS. I have had the privilege of working with very many wonderful people. I want to thank them all for having had the opportunity to be a part of our accomplishments. Part of the application process for Seconday Principal of the Year for the state of Iowa was to write an essay. Following is what I wrote for that essay:
The job of being a secondary Principal is a very lonely job. It is also a job that causes the Principal to wear too many “hats”. The multitude of roles that a Principal must take on is enormous, time consuming, and exhausting. Most HS Principals that I know work countless hours, many times from sunup to past sundown and on weekends. These are some of the roles that a HS Principal must play: 1) Attendance and disciplinarian; 2) Master schedule and individual schedule builder; 3) Director of PSEO, concurrent classes and Sr. Year Plus; 4) Iowa Core Curriculum manager; 5) Prepare for site and equity visits; 6) Activities director; 7) Organizer of scholarships and graduation; 8) Director of the budget; 9) Manager of grades; 10) Personnel director in charge of hiring and firing. This needs to change. The Principal must be the instructional leader of the school. All of the above get in the way of planning for quality professional development, classroom visits and developing good conversations about what good teaching looks like. Some of this load needs to be delegated. All of these roles taken on by one individual are too much. It can be overwhelming.
We are seeing a change in the role of the teachers. We are moving from a lecture based instruction to a more student based, inquiry based and project based instruction. The teacher role is changing from the “Sage on the Stage” to more of a facilitator of project based learning. The Principal needs to follow this lead. We need to move from being a lonely generalist in charge of all of the above to more of a facilitator. We need to move from managing from crisis to crisis to being a leader for your school. All decisions at a school need to be based on what is best for the students. The busy work and paperwork often times get in the way of this focus on the students.
We need to develop teacher/leaders that we can trust to delegate some of the many “hats” of this job. If you develop the right climate, teacher/leaders will be ready, willing and able to take on these roles. Two things happen when you do this. The obvious result is more time to be focused on being the instructional leader of your school. A less obvious, but very powerful result is that teachers see how difficult it is to do some of these jobs. You need to be ready to support them and anticipate the problems that arise, but give them the autonomy to make decisions.
Using the building leadership team to build this trusting relationship can be very powerful. Good teachers want to be leaders. They want to take on responsibility. Above all, they want to do what is best for the students. They also have some very keen and insightful ideas on how to make the environment and instruction better for the students.
I was a teacher for twenty five years before I became a Principal. I was very frustrated by “top down” management. I had ideas on how to make the school better. I loved the classroom, but became a Principal so that I could actually have more affect on the whole school rather than only the 25 students in my class. Keeping this in mind, the leadership team and participatory management have lead to many ideas that I alone could not have come up with. We have created an environment where teachers can express ideas and are given the freedom to follow through on these ideas. Teachers have created and lead the way on many initiatives. It is very gratifying to step back and let this happen.
The many “hats” of this job can be very frustrating, but also is one of the things that I like about the job. No day is just like the day before. It is never a boring job.
The job of being a secondary Principal is a very lonely job. It is also a job that causes the Principal to wear too many “hats”. The multitude of roles that a Principal must take on is enormous, time consuming, and exhausting. Most HS Principals that I know work countless hours, many times from sunup to past sundown and on weekends. These are some of the roles that a HS Principal must play: 1) Attendance and disciplinarian; 2) Master schedule and individual schedule builder; 3) Director of PSEO, concurrent classes and Sr. Year Plus; 4) Iowa Core Curriculum manager; 5) Prepare for site and equity visits; 6) Activities director; 7) Organizer of scholarships and graduation; 8) Director of the budget; 9) Manager of grades; 10) Personnel director in charge of hiring and firing. This needs to change. The Principal must be the instructional leader of the school. All of the above get in the way of planning for quality professional development, classroom visits and developing good conversations about what good teaching looks like. Some of this load needs to be delegated. All of these roles taken on by one individual are too much. It can be overwhelming.
We are seeing a change in the role of the teachers. We are moving from a lecture based instruction to a more student based, inquiry based and project based instruction. The teacher role is changing from the “Sage on the Stage” to more of a facilitator of project based learning. The Principal needs to follow this lead. We need to move from being a lonely generalist in charge of all of the above to more of a facilitator. We need to move from managing from crisis to crisis to being a leader for your school. All decisions at a school need to be based on what is best for the students. The busy work and paperwork often times get in the way of this focus on the students.
We need to develop teacher/leaders that we can trust to delegate some of the many “hats” of this job. If you develop the right climate, teacher/leaders will be ready, willing and able to take on these roles. Two things happen when you do this. The obvious result is more time to be focused on being the instructional leader of your school. A less obvious, but very powerful result is that teachers see how difficult it is to do some of these jobs. You need to be ready to support them and anticipate the problems that arise, but give them the autonomy to make decisions.
Using the building leadership team to build this trusting relationship can be very powerful. Good teachers want to be leaders. They want to take on responsibility. Above all, they want to do what is best for the students. They also have some very keen and insightful ideas on how to make the environment and instruction better for the students.
I was a teacher for twenty five years before I became a Principal. I was very frustrated by “top down” management. I had ideas on how to make the school better. I loved the classroom, but became a Principal so that I could actually have more affect on the whole school rather than only the 25 students in my class. Keeping this in mind, the leadership team and participatory management have lead to many ideas that I alone could not have come up with. We have created an environment where teachers can express ideas and are given the freedom to follow through on these ideas. Teachers have created and lead the way on many initiatives. It is very gratifying to step back and let this happen.
The many “hats” of this job can be very frustrating, but also is one of the things that I like about the job. No day is just like the day before. It is never a boring job.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Chapters
I have a list (somewhere) with the titles of the 10 chapters in this book. I have not been able to find this list for 3 years. I know it is somewhere!
Don't Take It Personal
I have threatened to write a book when I retire. This blog will be the start of this book.
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