Teachers’ Letters to Obama Online Tonight

An update from Nancy Flanagan, PLP Community Leader and one of the organizers of Facebook’s Teachers’ Letters to Obama:

Here is your link to the virtual Roundtable, TONIGHT, hosted by Teachers’ Letters to Obama (TLO). We are looking forward to a great dialogue and hearing from some wonderful teacher guests, discussing their experiences with public schools that work with our poorest children: Chuck Olynyk (whose school in Los Angeles was reconstituted); a group of teachers from Detroit Public Schools who were “invited” to start a teacher-led school as a transformation model; Nikki Barnes, a National Board Certified Teacher whose career has led her from a policy job at the NEA to teaching in a KIPP charter school; and Sabrina Stevens Shupe, author of Failing Schools blog, and the kind of teacher that the US Department of Education says that we need most right now.

The meeting is TONIGHT, Tuesday, August 31 at 8:30 p.m. EDT (7:30 CDT/6:30 MDT/5:30 PDT). Please log in to the meeting room between 8:15 and 8:30 EDT–no more than 15 minutes prior to the start of the meeting. The Roundtable will last about 90 minutes. We are limited to 100 seats for the meeting, but we still have a few seats available, so feel free to urge interested friends, policymakers or parents to register @http://www.surveymonkey.com/Home_Landing.aspx?sm=DZ%2fB7zbmph4IXOF9yY70KFU8ou%2bfi%2bCRWmeHcIbTNx0%3d

Our thanks to Powerful Learning Practice for letting us use their Elluminate virtual meeting system. You will not be using the phone tonight. Once you click on the link below, you will be taken through a series of screens. If asked to download a bit of Java script to give you access to the platform, click “OK” or “run.” Please log in using your first and last name. Once you have reached the Elluminate platform, other TLO members will greet you and give you further guidance in using the platform tools.

Before you log in, make sure your speakers are turned on. If you wish to speak, you’ll also need a microphone (either an external mic or the one built in to your laptop). You can still see and hear everything without a microphone, and participate by typing into the chat box.

Thanks for being part of this exciting, grass-roots effort to elevate the voices of teachers!

The link to Tuesday’s meeting:

https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2007122&password=M.E4B4FFD6A069F92A216829E414AAE0

**You may need to copy and paste the link into your browser.**

Don’t forget to check the TLO Facebook page regularly for updates and resources!

Boot Camp Goes Overseas

By Susan Carter Morgan

PLP Boot Camp will be traveling this fall—all the way to Norway.

Ann Michaelsen, a teacher who has been providing new opportunities to learn for her own teachers, has now also arranged the November 17 Boot Camp for administrators in Norway and Sweden.

“We’ve all been using technology for a long time,” she said. “But we hope this Boot Camp will give people a reason to think about what they are doing and why.”

Teachers in Norway are conservative in teaching and learning, she said. However, the curriculum is not set, and teachers are “at liberty to choose more than teachers in the US.”

Yet, even with that freedom, she said, “Students are basically using computers to take notes.” She hopes this conference will help people see the possibilities for more collaborative, online work. She wants the pedagogy to match the instruction; having administrators all work together for three days on this will help that focus.

Ann looks forward to seeing her colleagues embrace some of ideas she’s been sharing. She is a teacher at heart, saying planning lessons is her favorite part of teaching. And, as classes are taught for a full day once a week rather than hourly each day, teachers have many opportunities to use projects, online collaborations, and time for reflection.

“Teaching has gone from the closed system to sharing work on the net and getting responses from other teachers,” she said. Recently students worked on Facebook, sharing a post-it notes project on various topics. And her recent blog post indicates she is looking for some global collaboration!

“I want the principals to be aware of all the possibilities and to be able to support the teachers,” Ann said. “And I want for the teachers to see all the possibilities and not be afraid. It’s too easy to do the same old things. They need to think beyond that.”

Slight Shifts and Tweaks

By SCM

Clarity often comes in moments when a word, an insight, or a thought connects with another and moves us to a new place. Things have been a little muddy for me lately. But conversations I had over the last two days with Sheryl and Amber, our new marketing guru, made me pause, tilt my head, and say, “Yes, that’s it.”

I’ve been struggling in my role as “social media strategist” for PLP. Some days I didn’t even know what that meant. Was I a community builder on Facebook? Was Twitter where I should spend all my time? And that newsletter….not happy with that.

So for two days, we talked, kicked ideas around, and pondered–mostly about what matters to us, to the company, and what, we hope, to you. I’m excited. One, Amber’s going to offer us lots of creative support. She’s got a great eye for design, and she knows her marketing stuff. Two, we now have a plan. Plans are good.

What you’ll see here soon– is more. Our blog will be the repository of all our solid PLP work–stories about PLPeeps, announcements about the company, and just cool ideas we’re thinking about. The newsletter will change, too. But more on that later.

For now, know that we are going to continue talking and learning with you. This work enriches us, makes us better teacher leaders, and gives us all opportunities to grow and change.

For me, it doesn’t get much better than this.

flickr image: By antonychammond

Accessing Your Ning

You may have noticed when you log onto ning.com, you no longer get a list of all the nings you belong to. Remember you can always access your ning with the direct URL. Or you can find a list of current nings on this page on the bottom left. Please let us know if you have any trouble!

PLP Open Mic, Where Sharing Happens

By Susan Carter Morgan

How does the role of teaching have to change? Does it?

Last night’s PLP open mic discussion rocked! Will Richardson challenged the group of assembled educators at the second Open Mic session to discuss the role of teaching. And assisted by @teachpaperless Shelley Blake-Plock and many PLPeeps, the conversations exploded.

The topics ranged from testing to fear, to empowering teachers and students and more. Do we need to redefine the profession? Where does technology fit into the picture? And though these comments lose something without the audio, here’s a sampling:

@ChristianLong: Not sure the ‘role’ of teaching must change.  The real focus — I think — is for the ‘focus’ of the work and the importance of the audience/evaluators to direct the role(s) of the teacher.  Does that make sense?

@dlaufenberg: I also would like to see a more nuanced conversation in the reform world about the challenges of urban/suburban/rural… as not as though one size fits all for reform.

@Ann L: In the urban schools, test scores determine if school will remain open or be shut down and re-structured. Admin are under great pressure

@LauraDeisley: kind of to the argument of what are the characteristics of an excellent teacher? Less content-experts (as we find in indep schs) and more highly skilled connectors, researchers, creators, innovators, adapters…sherpas

@cfisher: I often talk about teacher as network admin. My job is to connect kids to info and people

@EricSheninger: Forcing mandates upon staff can often be counterproductive; empowerment better route

and even more questions:

@mrsenorhill: How strong is your modeling when all other teachers in your school model the opposite?

PLP hosts and supports these conversations, much as we do during the Powerful Learning Practice model of professional development. The practice of introducing educators to the transformative online technologies that are challenging the traditional view of teaching and learning will help us all answer the questions and create the kinds of classrooms that work. Please join us again next Thursday, same time, same place.

Archives of both chats

image: Uploaded on May 16, 2010
by dkuropatwa

PLP Lends Support to Teachers’ Voices

By Susan Carter Morgan

Community building and developing teacher leaders matter to PLP. And once again, we were happy to provide a resource for teachers to have a voice.
Diane Ravitch, author and professor of education and Congresswoman Judy Chu spoke to a group of teachers gathered from Facebook’s Teachers’ Letters to Obama last night, focusing on getting teachers’ voices out in opposition to current educational policies. The Elluminate gathering, hosted by PLP’s room, was the third such event to gather grassroots support in fighting testing and school-closing practices.

PLP Community Leader Nancy Flanagan was a host and many PLP members joined the discussion, including Community Leader Lani Hall. Voices from around the country have met three times in PLP’s Elluminate room to share ideas and promote ways to organize. Last night’s discussion is archived here if you missed the live version.

Anthony Cody, one of the administrators for Teachers’ Letters, said this earlier this summer:

We are determined to break through the facade that covers Race to the Top and the ESEA Blueprint. Teachers do NOT support these policies, and we must be heard now, before NCLB is renewed.

Powerful Learning Practice shares with educators around the world the desire and hope that teachers will be heard in policy-making decisions.

Celebrating Our Winners

By Susan Carter Morgan
You won if you are Michael Twigg of Waller, Texas! Congratulations for winning a 4-session (90 seats each) Virtual Institute for your school. This is a customized PD experience around 21st Century teaching, learning and change and is a $5,000.00 value.

and…

You won if you are Patricia O’Donnell from Harford County Public Schools, who won a free team of five to participate in PLP cohort! Your team will join others in a year of job-embedded professional development–a value of $7,500

and finally….

You won if you are Diane Coggins of Arlington Public Schools, PLP Winner of the drawing for a free spot in the Global Cohort of her choice–a value of $995.

Thanks PLPeeps for coming by our ISTE booth, sharing your experiences, and continuing to do the good work you do.

We really love being a part of your community

Looking for more photos

By Susan Carter Morgan
Did you know we have a Flickr group for PLP? Check it out…and while you are there, why not join and upload some of your photos from the PLP booth at ISTE?

One of Our Own at TEDxDenverEd

By Susan Carter Morgan
We know we have great Community Leaders.

And we love it even more when the world knows it.

Brian Crosby, CL for the Bryan cohort and Experienced Voice for many others, has been chosen to present at TEDxDenverEd.Brian, an elementary teacher from Nevada, has been blogging here about his teaching for a long time. He has been asked to speak about the innovative ways he works with his students.

“I subtly point out that current education models and reform attempts are rooted in old ways, and I try to make the case for investing in REAL innovative approaches,” he said about the upcoming talk. His title is “Back to the Future?” and will stream live Monday, June 28.

Brian often makes the point that teachers’ voices aren’t heard enough, especially in discussions of educational policy. He is excited to be able to share a national stage to talk about the good work he does.

We are too.

Teachers: Let Your Voices Be Heard

We are determined to break through the facade that covers Race to the Top and the ESEA Blueprint. Teachers do NOT support these policies, and we must be heard now, before NCLB is renewed.

The Summer of Teacher Discontent is under way! We hit the ground running with a fantastic Teach-in last Monday. Yong Zhao, Monty Neill and Doug Christensen brought some much-needed clarity to the issues we face. You can hear the recorded session here.

The energy is building for our first Teachers’ Round Table forum, coming up this Monday, June 28, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm Pacific Time, 8:30 to 10:30 pm Eastern time. We will hear from a powerful group of educators, sharing the hard-won wisdom of the classroom teacher. It will be sharp, focused and constructive. You can register here:

And there are even a couple of slots open for speakers, so if YOU want the be heard yourself, join the discussions here, and send me a note telling me of your interest.

Summer is here, and it is time to recharge, relax, and re-focus. But keep a bit of fire lit, so we can make sure our public schools do not go down the tubes. Join us in making sure our voices are heard.