Powerful Learning Practice, LLC

Celebrations and News

PLPers in the News

Congratulations to Kristine Krajniak, a member of the PLP Ohio Consortium, and a teacher in Berea City Schools, Berea, Ohio. Kristine has earned National Board Certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards in the area of Generalist/Early Childhood.

From the NBPTS website:

“Teachers who achieve National Board Certification have met rigorous standards through intensive study, expert evaluation, self-assessment and peer review. In a Congressional-mandated study, National Board Certification was recently recognized by the National Research Council as having a positive impact on student achievement, teacher retention, and professional development.”

Additional congratulations go to Kristine on the birth of her son, Ryker, in November, 2009.

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Congratulations to Mandy Shulman, an Illinois-Ohio Cohort team member, for receiving the Larry Stilgebauer Award, given by the Illinois Computing Educators. Mandy and her second grade class received the award for their class blog. Mandy had these comments about the award:

“It is amazing how much my kids have grown this year, and the differences I have seen between this group of kids, who have previous experience with blogging, VoiceThread and other technology, and my previous classes who learned without as many experiences. Most obvious is the excitement about learning and the eagerness to be using technology.

“We are doing country research projects, word processing in Pages and finding images from Google, and my students actually ask to do the research during the indoor recess time. Another huge difference is that in the past, whenever we wanted to type our thoughts, we first needed to write them out on paper, then it took 20 minutes to type just a few sentences. Now, with no prewriting, most students are able to open the file server, find the correct file, type their thoughts in Comic Life (a program we don’t use very often), save and print in 20 minutes.

“By using a technology regularly, my students are learning how to use technology to help them learn. Technology enhances rather than impedes their success. Technology has increased my students’ interest and excitement in writing, reading, exploring and learning.”

Keith Wamsley, International Schools Cohort team member, recently co-authored a book with Bulent Atalay entitled “Leonardo’s Universe: The Renaissance World of Leonardo DaVinci”. The book, published by National Geographic Books, explores DaVinci’s “insights and synthesizes his relationship with art and science in a magnificently illustrated and informative style,” according to the publisher. Great work, Keith!

Members of the PEARLS Cohort, including Celine Azoulay-Lewin, were featured in this month’s issue of T.H.E. Journal. The article discusses the school system’s success using games to teach and generate enthusiasm around math classes. Students not only play the games in class, but compete against one another on their home computers, according to T.H.E. Journal.

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PLPers in the News

A number of PLP members have been featured in education blog rankings in recent weeks.

Last month Education Next, a journal published by the Hoover Institution, featured analysis of education blogs by Michael J. Petrilli of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. Petrilli ranked the top 10 education blogs and top 10 education policy blogs by their Technorati scores as of August 2008.

PLP co-founder and author Will Richardson took the number one spot for his blog Weblogg-ed. PLP Community Leader Karl Fisch and Expert Voices Wesley Fryer, Scott McLeod and Jeff Utecht also made the top 10 list of education blogs.

Read the full article online here.

The 2008 EduBlog Award winners were also announced last month. Judy O’Connell of St. Joseph’s College in Sydney, Australia, a PLP 21st Century Fellow, won the award for best librarian/library blog. Congrats, Judy!

Numerous PLP members were nominated, including our own Will Richardson for a lifetime achievement award. You can see the full list of nominees here. Our hats off to all the nominees!

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PLPLive Events Announces Upcoming Interviews

Please join us for two upcoming live interviews. We are pleased to invite you to join Will Richardson as he interviews Howard Rheingold (Jan. 6 at 11:30 noon EST ) and Carol Dweck (12noon EST on Feb. 16). T o attend either of these live events simply click on the link to our PLPLive Network and type in your PLPLive password.

HOWARD RHEINGOLD
(born July 7, 1947) is a critic and writer; his specialties are on the cultural, social and political implications of modern communication media such as the Internet, mobile telephony and virtual communities (a term he is credited with inventing).

A lifelong fascination with mind altering and its methods led Rheingold to the Institute of Noetic Sciences and Xerox PARC. There he worked on and wrote about the earliest personal computers. This led to his writing Tools for Thought in 1985, a history of the people behind the personal computer. Around that time he first logged on to The WELL – an influential early online community. He explored the experience in his seminal book, The Virtual Community.

In 1991, Rheingold wrote Virtual Reality: Exploring the Brave New Technologies of Artificial Experience and Interactive Worlds from Cyberspace to Teledildonics.

After a stint editing the Whole Earth Review, Rheingold served as editor in chief of the Millennium Whole Earth Catalog. Shortly thereafter, he was hired on as founding executive editor of HotWired, one of the first commercial content web sites published in 1994 by Wired magazine. Rheingold left HotWired and soon founded Electric Minds in 1996 to chronicle and promote the growth of community online. Despite accolades, the site was sold and scaled back in 1997.

In 2002, Rheingold published Smart Mobs, exploring the potential for technology to augment collective intelligence. Shortly thereafter, in conjunction with the Institute for the Future, Rheingold launched an effort to develop a broad-based literacy of cooperation. As of 2008, Rheingold was teaching courses at U.C. Berkeley and Stanford University.

Publications

CAROL S. DWECK
 (born October 17, 1946) is a professor at Stanford University and a social psychologist. She graduated from Barnard College in 1967 and earned a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1972. She taught at Columbia University, Harvard University, and the University of Illinois before joining the Stanford faculty in 2004.

Professor Dweck has primary research interests in motivation, personality, and development. She teaches courses in Personality and Social Development as well as Motivation. Her key contribution to social psychology relates to implicit theories of intelligence. This is present in her book entitled Mindset: The New Psychology of Success which was published in 2006. According to Dweck, individuals can be placed on a continuum according to their implicit views of where ability comes from. Some believe their success is based on innate ability; these are said to have a “fixed” theory of intelligence. Others, who believe their success is based on hard work and learning, are said to have a “growth” or an “incremental” theory of intelligence. Individuals may not necessarily be aware of their own mindset, but their mindset can still be discerned based on their behavior. It is especially evident in their reaction to failure. Fixed-mindset individuals dread failure because it is a negative statement on their basic abilities, while growth mindset individuals don’t mind failure as much because they realize their performance can be improved. These two mindsets play an important role in all aspects of a person’s life. Dweck argues that the growth mindset will allow a person to live a less stressful and more successful life.

Publications

  • Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Random House.
  • Dweck, C. S. (1999). Self-theories: Their role in motivation, personality and development. Philadelphia: Psychology Press.
  • Elliot, A. J., & Dweck, C. S. (Eds.). (2005). Handbook of competence and motivation. New York: Guilford.
  • Heckhausen, J., & Dweck, C. S. (Eds.). (1998). Motivation and self-regulation across the life span. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

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Independent Schools Cohort Fellow, Wendy Drexler Shares the Networked Student

Wendy Drexler as a grand finale for the Connectivism course she was taking has created this powerful video clip. In addition to being very powerful it is well on its way to becoming viral within the PLP cohorts.

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International Cohort’s 21st Century Fellow, Jenny Luca Wins Global Teacher Award!

World Teachers Every Day encouraged Victorian teachers to tell their own ‘world teacher’ stories by making a short video.

The videos were to show how each teacher was indeed a world teacher, committed to broadening student experience and their own professional development.

Jenny Luca, who glimpses into the future of teacher professional learning in a video story of global connection in which ICT brings teachers and students together in new and powerful ways. Jenny teaches at Toorak College, a PLP host school in Melbourne, Australia.

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PLP Community Leader Recognized at National Council of Teachers of English Conference

ADVIS Cohort community leader, Karl Fisch is being recognized at the 2008 NCTE conference in San Antonio this week for his eye-opening video clip Did You Know ; Shift Happens which correlates nicely with the conference theme Because Shift Happens: Teaching in the Twenty-First Century.

Karl will be presenting with Anne Smith at the conference, as well as presenting with others in NCTE’s New Media Gallery. Bud Hunt, community leader for PLP’s New Jersey state cohort, will also be active at the conference manning the Tech Kiosks- informal gathering places with a schedule of topics/presenters that will interact with participants.

Congrats!

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NSBA announces this year’s ‘20 to Watch’

Here are 20 movers and shakers in educational technology

At the National School Boards Association’s annual Technology + Learning (T+L) Conference in Seattle, NSBA introduced its 2008 list of “20 to Watch,” or 20 emerging leaders in educational technology. According to the organization, this list encompasses the most dynamic group of leaders they’ve ever recognized: from the director of technology for the Zuni Tribe’s school district to the first librarian to be mentioned on the list, all have helped students reach 21st-century educational goals.

Powerful Learning Practice is happy to announce that two of our 21st Century Fellows are part of this distinguished group:

  • Gail Soriano, Technology Facilitator, Avoca School District 37, in the Illinois/Ohio cohort
  • Celine Azoulay, Borough Instructional Technology Director from Staten Island, N.Y., in the PEARLS NYC cohort.

You can read the full write up about the ‘20 to Watch’ here.

Please join us in offering a warm round of applause to Celine and Gail! Way to go!

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Stories of Excellence

Join us in congratulating Jennifer, one of the International PLP Cohort team members, who has been chosen to be featured in NAIS’s Stories of Excellence. NAIS is developing the Stories of Excellence case studies booklet that will feature her case study. Click here to see her case study.

NAIS would also like to invite you to present your Stories of Excellence case study at an NAIS Annual Conference Innovation Area poster session. The Stories of Excellence poster session will take place on Friday, February 27, 2009 in Chicago. If you would like to present a poster session, you will be eligible for a special $300 discounted conference registration fee for the full conference.

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Community Leaders Announced

Powerful Learning Practice is pleased to announce the addition of our Cohort Community Leaders. They will partner with Will and Sheryl to oversee, organize and lead a cohort of teachers, administrators, and other educational leaders through a 21st century professional development experience. Please join us in welcoming…

Robin Ellis

Robin Ellis is the Instructional Technology Specialist in the Quakertown Community School District in Quakertown, PA. She is the Classroom for the Future coach, facilitating staff development for teachers who have chosen to participate in a statewide initiative focused on moving classroom practices toward 21st century learning environments . She designs and facilitates professional development opportunities for district faculty and is also a co facilitator of OpenPD, an online professional development opportunity available to anyone interested in learning about Web 2.0 tools and their use in education. She blogs at Connecting Through Conversations

Karl Fisch

ADVIS Cohort

Karl Fisch has been a teacher for twenty years. He has taught middle and high school math and is currently Director of Technology at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado, USA. He is the project leader of Arapahoe’s Curriculum Innovation Team, leading the staff development efforts for 21 st Century Learners, a group of teachers exploring constructivism and 21st century learning skills. He invites you to join the conversation at The Fischbowl.

Clarence Fisher

Archdiocese of Philadelphia Cohort

Clarence has been a classroom teacher for the past 13 years. He blogs professionally at remoteaccess.typepad.com, with his networked, thinwalled classroom at thinwalls.edublogs.org. He has spoken at conferences across North America. Clarence has won several awards, including one of Canada’ highest teaching awards, the Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching for his integration of technology into daily classroom life. Clarence’s innovative classroom practices have been featured online, in books, magazines, and newspaper articles. He is an advocate of classroom 2.0, learning spaces that take complete advantage of the tools that are available to learners in their quest to learn rather than having school be something that is done to them.

Bud Hunt

New Jersey State Cohort

Bud Hunt is an instructional technologist for the St. Vrain Valley School District in northern Colorado. Formerly, he taught high school language arts and journalism at Olde Columbine High School in Longmont, Colorado. He is a teacher-consultant with the Colorado State University Writing Project, an affiliate of the National Writing Project. A consumer of copious amounts of New Media, Bud blogs and podcasts at http://www.budtheteacher.com.

Darren Kuropatwa

International Cohort

Darren Kuropatwa is currently Department Head of Mathematics at Daniel McIntyre Collegiate Institute in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He is known internationally for his ability to weave the use of online social tools meaningfully and concretely into his pedagogical practice and for “child safe” blogging practices. He has more than 20 years experience in both formal and informal education and 13 years experience in team building and leadership training. Darren has been facilitating workshops for educators in groups of 4 to 300 for the last 10 years. Darren’s professional blog is called A Difference.

Karen Richardson

Independent School Consortium Cohort

Karen has been working as an educator for over 20 years, currently as an adjunct instructor in educational technology at The College of William and Mary, where she is also working on her doctorate in curriculum and educational technology. As a consultant, Karen has had a wide range of experiences in technology and leadership including developing and delivering professional development and writing case studies for CaseNEX, LLC.

Lani Ritter Hall

Illinois and Ohio Cohort

Lani Ritter Hall, a National Board Certified Teacher, cherishes her 35 years in classrooms in Canada and Ohio. She has designed and facilitated workshops for educators for over 15 years. Currently Lani serves as an e-mentor and instructional designer. She blogs at Possibilities Abound.

Dean Shareski

PEARLS New York City Cohort

Dean Shareski is a Digital Learning Consultant with the Prairie South School Division in Saskatchewan, Canada. He also teaches pre-service teachers at the University of Regina. He attained his Masters in Communication and Technology from the University of Saskatchewan in 2006. But enough of the formal stuff. Dean’s true passion is providing teachers with the opportunity to create relevant, engaging classrooms. The Read/Write Web offers provides unlimited resources. Dean’s work revolves around helping teachers use these resources effectively by connecting with others with similar passions. You can read about his perspectives at http://ideasandthoughts.org. He is involved in way too many other places to list.

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