Preparing students for success without tests and textbooks

In this TED Talk by South Bronx teacher Stephen Ritz we see how this innovative educator took a nontraditional route to lead his students to success. In his story, you will notice that when the focus is moved from subjects to students the results are amazing. You will also not see a single test or book report anywhere in sight.

As his recent TED Talk reveals, Ritz believes that students shouldn't have to leave their community to live, learn and earn in a better one. Ritz and his kids grow lush gardens for food, greenery -- and jobs. He is bringing generations of students successes they have never imagined while also reclaiming and rebuilding his community where they have grown more than 25,000 pounds of vegetables.

Rather than decorating class walls with the traditional carrots and sticks (grades and test scores) Ritz’s walls are edible generating enough produce to feed 450 students healthy meals. His students have gained the skills that have lead them to become the youngest nationally certified workforce in America traveling far and wide earning a wage and for some opening their family’s first bank account.

Watch the video below to discover out how one educator is growing a movement that is changing lives and rebuilding communities. Like what you see? Visit the student-run Green Bronx Machine Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/green.BX.machine

12 Reasons to Ditch the Pen - Why it's no longer mightiest against the sword

The time has come to mourn the death of the pen which is quickly being replaced with digital writing tools like laptops, cell phones, iTouches, iPads, etc. etc. etc. Just like those who mourn the paper we hear similar rumblings when it comes to the passing of the pen.

• But I love the feel of the pen on the page.
• Taking notes (an outdated skill) with a pen helps me understand what I’m hearing.
• I need a pen to capture my thoughts, the keyboard just isn’t the same.

My advice: Get over it and join the 21st century so you can be relevant to yourself, your colleagues, and most importantly your students.

Why? Because...

Ditching pens allows you to do more, do it faster, do it more efficiently / effectively, and most importantly share it with an audience.

12 Reasons Writing Digital is Mightier then Pen and Ink

Innovative Ideas for Beginning Your Paperless Pledge This Earth Day

I'm not a fan of "Days." Mother's "Day," Father's "Day," Valentine's "Day," Earth "Day." You get the picture. Be kind to your mother, your father, your love, your Earth...every"DAY." However, I suppose I do see the value in reminding folks of and celebrating what's important, so, this Earth Day my call to action is for educators to GO PAPERLESS!

I've been paperless for many years now. It's been easy and a huge improvement in moving past my former paper-trained existence. Here are some useful posts to help other innovative educators do the same.

• How I Lost 20 Pounds in One Month On a Paperless Diet - Read ten steps to a successful paperless diet.
• Ditch Paper and Get to the Thinking Faster - How going paperless makes for a more efficient and effective existence.
• Do More with Less by Going Paperless - Read how one teacher has created a more interactive, engaged classroom experience without paper.

I invite you to join me and hundreds of other educators in going paperless and saving an endless number of trees by the actions of you, your students and other educators you touch. You can take the paperless classroom pledge here.

Dropbox Offers Dynamic Collaboration (and Storage) for Format Intensive Documents

By Dana Lawit

Whether you're going green or going lean, paperless is the wave of the future. Both teachers and students can benefit from going digital. For learners, digital documents offer a dynamic tool that allows documents to change as rapidly as individuals can collaborate. For this sort of work, I'm a huge fan of GoogleDocs. But if you're finicky about tables, or want greater control over format there are limitations.

Enter Dropbox. Dropbox is an online file hosting service with a couple of neat features:

1. store your documents online
2. download Dropbox software to create a synchronized folder on your local hard drive that will connect to your online storage
3. the first 2gb of storage is free (50gb & 100gb are available for $99 & $199 annually)
   
4. you can share folders, that is invite others to share your virtual folder

I had read about Dropbox several months ago on Steve Hargadon's site, but hadn't gotten around to using it until recently when I was designing student materials that needed specific formatting.

Not sure I'll use this with students, but will definitely save any teacher or team time while supporting collaboration on more formatting intensive documents.

How are you using Dropbox?

Do More with Less by Going Paperless

InsideSchools recently reported on a teacher at Beacon High School in Manhattan who has created a ‘green’ classroom, where all work is accomplished online, on screen, and entirely without paper. This is possible in part thanks to a laptop, projector and, inexpensive flash drives for students to ‘carry’ assignments and projects back and forth, and a tech-literate student body (only one of 139 students lacked computer access at home; another who had a computer but no internet found ample ‘net resources at school, in libraries and internet cafes, and at the homes of relatives and friends). Books, readings, and other classroom materials are provided on line and via the school’s internet portal; so far, essays, tests, and homework have been assigned and returned electronically.

In the post, called, Doing more with less the teacher has noted a more interactive, engaged classroom experience reporting that kids are doing as well or better without paper, he says, even with the challenges of glitch-fixing. In a note to InsideSchools, he added, “I’ve not used a single handout or Xeroxed paper, or printed anything out other than college recommendations that had to be submitted in hard copy.” No copies, no printouts, no paper, no waste.

With the cost of laptops plummeting and more and more one-to-one initiatives springing up (more than two dozen in NYC), I hope this idea, touted as an “unusual classroom experiment,” becomes a lot more “usual” and a lot less “experimental” and takes ground in other schools. This is an idea that is not only good for the environment; it’s one that’s also good for preparing students for the 21^st Century.

For related posts visit:

Ditch Paper and Get to the Thinking Faster

How I Lost 20 Pounds in One Month On a Paperless Diet

Ditch Paper and Get to the Thinking Faster

Will Richardson recently wrote Get. Off. Paper where he asked readers, “Does anyone think most of the kids in our classes are going to be printing a bunch of paper in their grown up worlds? If you do, fine; keep servicing the Xerox machine. But if you don’t, which I hope is most of you, are you doing as much as you can to get off paper?” I ask the same question to many of those with whom I work. One of my first blog posts was written to address that question, “How I Lost 20 Pounds in One Month On A Paperless Diet. Going paperless not only helps the environment, it enables me to work much more efficiently and effectively. Of course trying to convince others to do so as well is not so easy as it requires a complete paradigm shift in the way people work and play.

Fortunately, as the manager of professional development services for the NYC DOE I am able to help many educators down that path. Despite some initial protesting from the paper-trained, our professional development went completely paperless about four years ago. Taking notes is never necessary. Everything is posted for participants at a wiki or our website which I show them how to download as class begins. There they will find a facilitator guide outlining all content presented, materials, links to resources, a participant agenda, a digital presentation (i.e. PowerPoint, Smart Notebook, etc.), and links to every single document we use or material we reference. Rather than engaging in the low level thinking task of copying down what the presenter shares, participants in our classes can get to the thinking faster and move beyond copying. Instead they go right to thinking about, commenting on, and begin producing, creating, and acting on it right there in the class.

The days of audience as a transcriber are gone. Instead when attending a class or presentation, participants are not required to regurgitate what they hear by copying it down (we provide this), but instead to think about concepts, post the thinking to discussion boards, carry on backchats at places like Skype or Chatzy, or since participants have freed up their time now that they’re not taking notes, they are producing work they can use back at schools i.e. action plans, videos, audio casts, Voice Threads, Vokis’s, etc. After the class, workshop, or presentations we usually write to participants encouraging them to keep the conversation going and stay connected on the discussion board, social network, blog etc. that we used in the class. I’m also looking into using http://wiffiti.com for larger audiences that may have cells, but not computers.

With the advent and availability of sublaptops it is clear that it’s time for this to go beyond the adults and into schools who can ditch the paper and copy machines in exchange for the more cost effective alternative--The $100 - $300 laptops that will last for years and eliminate the need for all paper, handouts, textbooks, and books, mags, newspapers in general. You can read about how one school is doing this by reading about, “The Power of 21st Century Teaching and Learning Brought to Life at Bronx Middle School CIS 339’s Open House."

Of course we’ll still have to account for the digital immigrants who are more set in there ways as I experienced a while back. When reviewing class materials following a PD, a participant called to say when she clicked on a particular link nothing happened. I walked her through the process a few times and she said it still didn’t work. When I asked her what browser she was using she sounded confused. After some digging I realized she had printed the materials out and was literally tapping her paper. True story.

How I Lost 20 Pounds in One Month On a Paperless Diet

I walked into my interview for a position at the Office of Instructional Technology with a huge blue wheelie bag containing 25 lbs of necessities for my literacy coach position. Inside my bag was the balanced literacy curriculum (in what was known as the big red binder), a bunch of notebooks containing the latest reading and writing workshop units of study, binders with notes on the work I was doing with teachers, and folders containing information that supported my coaching work. I was interviewed by Troy Fischer who looked up, pointed to my wheelie bag and said, "If we are to consider you for this position you'll have to get rid of that thing." I protested explaining I am the type of person who needs to have all resources at my fingertips wherever I am so I wasn't quite sure I could agree. Additionally, I explained that in my position I had no access to a laptop or digital material and though I had access to a desktop it was shared by numerous people making it difficult to reliably access. Mr. Fischer said, "Well, I'm looking to hire someone who’s ready to change all that."

A few interviews later I was offered the position and my first responsibility was to digitize all the literacy and math materials that coaches would need as part of an initiative to equip NYC Coaches with 21st Century Toolkits comprised of fully loaded Tablet laptops. I worked with all our partner organizations and was able to get a treasure trove of textbooks, resource materials, and even that big red binder in digital format. At the same time I was committed to going completely digital. It was surprisingly easy and was ultimately an absolute blessing because once I made the decision to do this I never had to worry about printing or locating a file again and I had all my work with me wherever I was.
Here are my ten steps to a successful paperless diet: