tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52380038271604734812024-02-08T21:14:15.403-05:00Keep Moving Forward...A self-organizing system... the Tech Research Lab at Burr and Burton AcademyAdam Provosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09992131870735487690noreply@blogger.comBlogger116125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238003827160473481.post-37633563556727137892013-09-10T21:31:00.012-04:002022-02-08T11:15:35.068-05:00Keep Moving Forward...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">... the rLab, 2013.</td></tr>
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<span face="verdana, sans-serif">Moving forward is best done with some reflection.</span><br />
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<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">After a six-month sabbatical, I've decided it's time to move on to new challenges and to pursue promoting personalized learning plans and technology innovation in different venues.</span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">We did some groundbreaking work here in this lab from 2005 to 2013. Work that, as it turns out, was a pioneering effort in blended learning, personalized learning plans, and project-based education in Vermont and abroad. </span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">Here's a view below under the rLab (aka Tech Research) hood... the innovation, and the challenges to traditional school systems and to me personally.</span></div>
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<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">Work in the Lab over these nine years was individualized toward the needs of each student on how they approach learning at this time in their lives, and how that vision can evolve into the future. Each student created a personalized learning project here by choosing a project of their interest. Students pursued learning in <a href="https://bbatechresearch.blogspot.com/2005/08/innovative-study-projects.html">81 different categories and over 1000 projects</a>. Some worked solo, some in pairs, and some even in small groups. </span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">There were a lot of interdisciplinary elements we 'spiraled' into this work.</span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">We used the technology itself as a lens to explore the world, their place in it, and the goals of learning how to learn, or as I often said to students on the Lab, to "find out what makes you tick." What were students good at? What were their pitfalls in learning, their Achilles heel? How can those strengths be built upon? How can those struggles be analyzed and conquered?</span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">'Blended learning,' or my thoughts on 'Spiral Curriculum' (J. Bruner) stemmed out of these key areas:</span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">Improvement: Demonstrate that you are seeking strategies and resources to move your thinking and skill forward in the following areas below. Students identified their current skill levels as part of this and debated/collaborated (and sometimes argued) how to articulate these goals to move forward in building their own rubrics toward improvement. Without a doubt, this encouraged self-awareness and improvement.</span><br />
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<li><span face="verdana, sans-serif">Pursuing a project of your interest with interdisciplinary elements.</span></li>
<li><span face="verdana, sans-serif">Ideation/Design Thinking</span></li>
<li><span face="verdana, sans-serif">Project Management: Learning to move ideas, curiosities, and problems forward</span></li>
<li><span face="verdana, sans-serif">Collaboration/Consultation/Communication skills (seeking help/ideas/mentorship)</span></li>
<li><span face="verdana, sans-serif">Leadership</span></li>
<li><span face="verdana, sans-serif">Writing skill</span></li>
<li><span face="verdana, sans-serif">Research</span></li>
<li><span face="verdana, sans-serif">Graphic and Digital Design</span></li>
<li><span face="verdana, sans-serif">Personal voice</span></li>
<li><span face="verdana, sans-serif">For projects: Interdisciplinary thinking/learning: math, science, humanities, history, etc.</span></li>
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<span face="verdana, sans-serif">There are two other assessment areas, perhaps overarching, we discussed, too:</span></div>
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<li><span face="verdana, sans-serif">Building self-confidence</span></li>
<li><span face="verdana, sans-serif">Learning how to learn</span></li>
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<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">We explored three large class topics to introduce 'project-based education,' and collaboration: How technology has impacted the news, healthcare, and education. There's some soul searching involved in those topics, and potential for great philosophical and ethical debates - all relevant to the world now and into their future. Students were actively encouraged and prompted to debate these topics with their families and in class with each other. Guest speakers were introduced through video chat as well. Along the way, we built up folks research and collaboration skills, proficiencies in the tools we used, and presentation and public speaking skills. It also helped people look at the potential of technology, and the pitfalls.</span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">We had a series of smaller activities that reinforced certain aspects of this 'blended learning' approach. One example was our 'impromptu speeches' that helped develop research, prototyping, collaboration, and public speaking skills (and promoted self-confidence!). These speeches also exposed students to new things, new people, and helped them make connections to the richness of the world... so they told me. Students picked a random topic out of a box, had three to five minutes to research, and conjure a short and engaging speech. </span><span face="verdana, sans-serif">We discussed and recapped the research process, the prep/design cycle, framing up a speech, and introducing 'character' - how to present to engage, and ideas to engage an audience.</span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span><span face="verdana, sans-serif">Then we got to the salt of the course where students were asked to choose their own projects to explore. That's where things got interesting.</span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">Topic choice is a healthy practice and I've always thought it's one too rarely explored, especially in high schools, especially back in 2005. Students are often conditioned in traditional models in education to be great at being told what to do and how to do it. The rLab courses were placed philosophically and very intentionally far on the other side of that more traditional educational spectrum.</span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">Students pursued over 1000 individualized/self-designed projects here in nine </span><span face="verdana, sans-serif">years, covering an </span><a href="http://bbatechresearch.blogspot.com/2005/08/innovative-study-projects.html" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>incredibly diverse array</b></a><span face="verdana, sans-serif"> of topics. </span><span face="verdana, sans-serif">Focusing efforts on topic choice led to 55% female enrollment in 'tech classes' here in the Lab. Learning along with them was challenging and exhilarating at the same time. As a mentor to all these threads, I learned exponentially faster than at any time in my life.</span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">Each student project had to last a minimum of three weeks. It was a sufficient time frame to figure out if you liked what you were working on. It allowed some immersion, some tests to overcome some initial obstacles and to make some connections. Students often did one or two projects per semester, mostly one. Many projects extended over multiple semesters and even years. One student took the course five times during their high school career.</span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">I always thought, as these digital tools we use constantly increase our ability to communicate, then we must work on increasing collaboration and communication skills. </span><span face="verdana, sans-serif">Within those motions and in our media study, many explored how technology was impacting their lives, their learning and friendships. We discussed algorithms that were leading what we see, how that may influence our perceptions how that trend will increase in the future - and what the ills societally it could lead to on that path.</span><span face="verdana, sans-serif"> We actively discussed how to find the truth' in the news and the importance of viewing multiple sources. On the better side, </span><span face="verdana, sans-serif">Students were also asked to connect via social media in the field of study and with community consultants as part of their projects, professionals outside the school, who could help drive all this learning forward. Over 3000 professionals outside the school became mentors. We built a database of those people over time which made it easier for new students to make connections. </span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif"><span face="verdana, sans-serif">This was key: A transformation idea sparked by MIT OpenCourseWare... I chose to have students archive all their project growth, struggles, and contacts within them for their peers to build from and upon. If students chose a topic of study that had been done before they could use the work of their peers to move further. Seeing and hearing about the struggles other peers had in learning can pretty powerful. </span><span face="verdana, sans-serif">The good, bad, and ugly of every project could be used by peers to build upon. One project that took, say, 15 weeks the first time was used by a new student... who covered that same ground in 10. The next time 8. Almost every project went further each time as people built off their peers work. Students, so they told me, found immense value in this practice. Game changer, no doubt.</span></span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">To understand their own learning, students made inquiries into cognitive psychology (the 'isms', behaviorism - get some directions, cognitivism - understand thinking on complex problems, constructivism - doing and design thinking, and 'connectivism' - working with others, teaming and exploring collaboration and mentorships) and then how you use these tools and insights at hand and resources available to carve a path into the future.</span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">We explored and debated Gardner- Multiple Intelligences; Bruner- Spiral Curriculum; Reggio Emilia Children early childhood education - art focus, hands-on, and inquiry-based; Science Leadership Academy - Assessment and PBL; High Tech High - PBL; Bolman and Deal - Project Management; (and) MIT OpenCourseWare - Archiving and shared knowledge philosophies were all huge influences explored in this the rLab discourse.</span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif"><span face="verdana, sans-serif">For many students, it was the first time they looked at how they learned and could pursue something they were interested in. It was the first time many had not been told specifically 'what to do.' For some, learning how to learn and why they felt the way they do about education was the most important mission and ultimately the most rewarding. </span><span face="verdana, sans-serif">There's a phrase that floats out there I've always liked... "good learning is messy." </span><span face="verdana, sans-serif">I agree. </span><span face="verdana, sans-serif">Inquiry-based learning is most often the focus outside of school, and it takes practice.</span></span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif"><span face="verdana, sans-serif">Then came the challenges to the course structure, school, and personal struggles.</span></span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">Assessing so many individual projects and students individualized growth curves within them within them was a challenge... but I learned the chops to keep it moving and to provide individualized feedback. I experimented with spreadsheets, grade books, wikis, Google Docs, and eventually, a CRM system was the answer. Each student was challenged individually to make strides in their self-motivation, develop interdisciplinary learning ties, how they learned, their struggles, approached their work and to keep building something meaningful, document it, archive it, and develop it into a professional blog/website of some sort. </span><span face="verdana, sans-serif">Managing over 100 independent projects and learning plans within them each semester took... some trial and error, and I made a few mistakes. I botched grade entries for two students in the volume aka wrong entry on the wrong line. The reception to that error was, to say the least, surprisingly severe in administration. The school used narrative comments and frequently. In combination, each narrative run I wrote over 30 pages of feedback in total. Often 250-500 words per students for those who needed very focused feedback was common. Parents and students loved it. </span><span face="verdana, sans-serif">The writing style created challenges to the overall report card length I was told. Discussions started brewing about why some teachers wrote more than others and what was being written as in generic vs analytical comments across the school. The solution that was presented - was for me to cut back on the amount of feedback I gave. </span></div><div><br /></div><div>Then traditional structures of 'school' began to kick back.<br />
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<span face="verdana, sans-serif">Another system challenge: </span><span face="verdana, sans-serif">An essential element in the lab overall, as we developed systems and assignments in each course, I asked students to challenge them / revise them with me each semester. We all learned from one another. Like the top of the blog says here... "a self-organizing system." </span><span face="verdana, sans-serif">We wrapped up all presentations in the rLab 'before' exams. To prep for the final exam itself, students were asked to evaluate the course, the opportunities we explored, and refine and/or create proposals for new assignments. The feedback was thoughtful and led to incredible changes. I'd keep evidence of how assignments were refined each year to show students that their ideas made a difference. This exam practice in the rLab met with a significant amount of resistance internally from some teachers as "unfair" because I wasn't issuing 'traditional' exams. Debates on the topic evolved, practices of other teachers on how they approached exams came forward, and this debate, fortunately, moved forward. </span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">Another topic of debate about the Lab was 'personal days' I gave students as part of their work. The rationale... it's a project-based class, and helping students learn to plan, schedule, calendar, and prioritize is a core function. I issued and tracked three personal days per student per course to take as they needed to study other things with one exception: guest speaker days were mandatory participation. In a personalized learning construct, I felt these personal days made a lot of sense. If a student had an incredibly important test next period, if they were involved in a demanding after-school activity and needed some extra homework time, feedback on a paper, take some time and do the work you need to do, you could plan these days accordingly. It promoted long-range planning, communication, and overall, relieved stress. </span><span face="verdana, sans-serif">Students reported they valued these personal days immensely and so did parents/guardians in discussions.</span><span face="verdana, sans-serif"> </span><span face="verdana, sans-serif">In my own research, a lot of teachers made this part of their courses but didn't advertise and track it openly as I did. It was a strategy I used in the lab over seven years and surfaced as a controversial discussion in the school during the last two in regard to traditional class expectations, 'why', and 'noise it generates' in other areas of the school.</span></div><div>
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">Of course, this interdisciplinary focus created challenges to regular constructs of academia: Traditional course restrictions and complaints that I was 'teaching/mentoring out of my 'subject area' surfaced from some academic departments. Students desire to take on a subject self-paced and with professional mentors created enrollment issues for other departments. Over time, some students were not allowed to take on a subject in the Lab as an extension of work in another department. That decision proved debilitating in many ways, unfortunately. Students became locked in in some department to the traditional course offering in a particular time slot - and it's traditional absence of self-paced learning.</span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">Another item that surfaced was 'when' students entered a Lab course. On many occasions, as students were struggling in other classes, I was asked to enter/enroll students, sometimes as late as 3/4 of the way through the semester or year or even later. On one occasions I was asked to enroll a student and give them 'a project' with two weeks left in the semester - when we were actively involved in final presentations. It presented incredible challenges in course flow with this workload. As bookkeeping and narrative assessment goes and ramping up project-based skills... this also proved an immense challenge as it increased in frequency. I was too accommodating with it all in hindsight - an effort to help students, but to enable the school to dump students failing other courses in at the last minute. </span></div><div><br /></div><div>Then, complaints, according to administration, started to come in about some teachers who were coming into the Lab during their prep time to look at student projects and help them in their subject area with ideas / as mentors. "Out of contract hours" and "over the maximum number of student" discussions started.<br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">In all, these were timely and a necessary debates and issues in education, especially on the impact personalized learning plans can have, and one that continues to evolve globally I hope.</span><br /></div><div><span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span></div><div><span face="verdana, sans-serif">Growth work continued.</span></div><div>
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span><span face="verdana, sans-serif">Here's a link to some of these </span><a href="http://bbatechresearch.blogspot.com/2005/08/proposals.html" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">proposals</a><span face="verdana, sans-serif"> which</span><span face="verdana, sans-serif"> led to some great educational growth here at this school and many others. The Lab work also played an important part in the philosophical growth at the school to be <a href="http://bbatechresearch.blogspot.com/2010/10/path-from-past-to-present.html">much more student-centric</a> with technology.</span><br />
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<span face="verdana, sans-serif">Perhaps our largest class project, one that resulted from a discussion where students wanted to propose changes to the master schedule, was the '</span><a href="http://bbatechresearch.blogspot.com/2013/01/student-for-day-video.html" style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Student for a Day</a><span face="verdana, sans-serif">' (11-minute video documentary short). Teachers became 'students for a day' and explored the schedule from the student perspective. This class project was viewed over </span><span face="verdana, sans-serif">100,000 times and featured in many other blogs and journals like Dangerously Irrelevant, and MindShift. I've lost track of how many schools and individuals inquired about this project and how many we've passed the notes toward. It's well over 100 at this point, and that's encouraging. I've always felt that debate and exploration are essential to avoid stagnation and the train ride of 'business as usual,' especially in education. This project drove thoughtful changes to the schools master schedule (a couple years later), and also promoted these discussions in other places across the country.</span></div>
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<span face="verdana, sans-serif">Other courses in the rLab? e-Design was a popular graphic design course I designed with students that had students build design skills with their pictures and challenging design projects projects. We learned how to learn through the use of Photoshop, Gimp, and digital photography, research, and address digital archiving now and in the future. I readily promoted students to help other students who had 'figured something out.' This practice promoted peers to learn from each other, build confidence and skill to do so, and get to know their peers better. Building design skills, and addressing the challenge of building their own websites to highlight their personal voice, developing art skills, and interests was key.</span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span><span face="verdana, sans-serif">Another course, 'Social Media: Senior Seminar,' was a course designed by two students in an rLab project and promoted to the administration for approval. The course helped students explore the challenges emerging in the news, social media, and learning to communicate more effectively. Guest speakers were brought in on a wide variety of topics to help students build interviewing skills and to make professional connections. </span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">The Hardware and Networking course featured a Student Help Desk, building skills to manage home networks, security, devices, mobile phones, operating systems, and did equipment refurbs for students and families in need also was highly successful. </span></div><div><br /></div><div><div><span face="verdana, sans-serif"><b>Our discussions on how technology was shifting education and media revealed continued opportunities for students to look at 'school.' </b>Student project threads kept expanding. Many students continued interest in researching and </span><span face="verdana, sans-serif">drafting proposals to improve things at the school including increased interest in revising technology access and equipment, food service dietary and quality changes, and continued inquiries into school schedule changes. More faculty came forward to take part in the next 'Student for a Day' project we were planning.</span></div><div><span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span></div><div><span face="verdana, sans-serif">As I was preparing for my faculty nominated sabbatical, a six-month jaunt around the world to look at innovation in education and also what fosters and prohibits such innovation... the Head of School invited me in for a meeting "to discuss the sabbatical." Since there'd been no discussion on the subject since the award, I was excited to share more of the evolving details on the trip, locations and programs I was headed to see.</span></div><div><br /></div><div>The meeting was... something I didn't expect.</div><div><br /></div><div>"You invite too much student inquiry into the educational process."</div><div><br /></div><div>I thought it was a joke at first. Turns out it wasn't. </div><div><br /></div><div>Discussions, I was told, were underway to "eliminate the Tech Research class and its student driven inquiry." My teaching style, mentoring and inquiry driven was called into question because I was "not directly leading instruction." The Lab motion was "causing too many problems in the school." Suddenly, in this meeting, the use of 'student personal days' was being harshly ridiculed - even though the practice had been in place since 2005. The grading mistake mentioned earlier, placing two student grades in the wrong entry slot, was suddenly a large issue again. I was told my work with one student who entered the Lab with two weeks left in the semester, during full project presentations and the scheduled student course review during the exam was "insufficient." My "professionalism" was called into character by "involving student inquiry into school function."</div><div><br /></div><div>I attempted to reply and was reminded again, "this is not a discussion."</div><div><br /></div><div>The "new vision" explained to me in that meeting was "to move 'tech' back to a more traditional curriculum." The decision was made to move to a scripted learning environment for kids with online lessons to follow in just a few 'tech' subject areas. </div><div><br /></div><div>There are, of course, a lot of things I could say here. 'Blindsided' is one. But, it all comes down to one item: Sadly, as many things go in education, even though projects and motion had been approved, celebrated, replicated by others and rewarded internally by offering me such a progressive sabbatical... there was no discussion. No negotiating. Just harsh judgement from one traditionally minded administrator who never spoke to me about the methodology of the Lab, the purpose, never asked for adjustments... or cared to learn. Yes, this was all from the same administrator who approved and heralded the Student for a Day project. I was also informed, should I choose to come back, there would be "no further projects of that nature. Too many parents and students are asking questions about core school functions. Professional adults at the school set programs and initiatives and students follow them." </div><div><br /></div><div>One sided conversations are just that... ill informed. Odd... teaching student inquiry and then falling victim to a one sided evaluators discussion.</div><div><br /></div><div>So... perplexed, I was headed out on a six-month sabbatical while the celebrated program we'd built was on the verge of being dismantled. To say I was heartbroken would be an understatement. I was already planning to move toward more interdisciplinary work in the Lab, expanding resources, building a proposal for a new fabrication lab and integrated projects with other departments and other innovative explorations with student mentors globally. </div><div><br /></div><div>I had no interest in designing a 'scripted learning program' for limited subjects.</div><div><br /></div><div>It was time to move on.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, that said, here's to looking back on some more of the great work in the Lab...</div>
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">We hosted 49 visitors in the Lab from other schools. It was great to hear that many visitors have built upon our assignments, proposals, and spirit of inquiry to make shifts at their own schools. Making the work enduring and having an impact on other schools in this fashion is something I'm proud students here were a part of. This work here informed what became the Winooski iLab, Mt Abraham Horizons Program, and, with visits from legislators and VT Dept of Ed officials, also informed Vermont legislation called <a href="http://education.vermont.gov/student-learning/flexible-pathways">Act 77 - Flexible Pathways</a> so I'm told.</span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span><span face="verdana, sans-serif">It's my hope that the notes here, evolutions, innovations, and student accomplishments help schools and districts on their path to plps, interdisciplinary learning, and the challenges and opportunities they bring.</span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">In all, it was a great ride, and one in so many ways I'm going to miss. </span></div><div><span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span></div><div><span face="verdana, sans-serif">Innovative programs can be fragile, especially when leadership changes occur with nearly polar opposite philosophies.</span></div><div>
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">After having these concepts of interdisciplinary learning reinforced on my sabbatical, and some soul searching, I know it's time to move on. </span><span face="verdana, sans-serif">Hey, I have to do something with all that sabbatical research, right? </span><span face="verdana, sans-serif">Helping other schools explore the potential in this work is my goal. I decided a couple days ago to take a position at Burlington High School and District in Vermont in Technology Integration and to participate in the </span><a href="http://partnershipvt.org/" style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Partnership for Change Initiative</a><span face="verdana, sans-serif">, Statewide development work, and to dive into more consulting and Adjunct teaching opportunities. I'm setting my sights on new innovation positions in education, and community development.</span></div>
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<span face="verdana, sans-serif">We'll see where it all leads.</span></div>
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<span face="verdana, sans-serif">My sincere thanks to the incredible students I've worked with here, to Burr and Burton, Wendy and Barry Rowland, so many peers, the project consultants - the experts called on by the students in their project work, visitors to the Lab, and the incredibly supportive communities here. I'm truly privileged to carry so many lasting friendships into the future.</span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">As with all teachers, it's great to see your students go on and pursue their passions. Something I wished I'd tracked here more diligently is how many students pursued their project choice into a profession. I've lost count how many success stories there truly are as a result of this work.</span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">It likely wraps up over 20 years as a head coach in High School Baseball as well, the last six years here at Burr and Burton. It's time to watch and participate in my own children's athletics for the coming years. Assembling the help of many, we helped rebuild the youth programs in the town, repaired the relationship between the school and the town toward upkeep of the shared facility, built new training infrastructure, grinded out the most wins in school history over a six-year period - so I'm told, and evolved the program into making the State finals three times in the last six years. I had a lot of fun with a lot of great people doing this work.</span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">(<a href="http://creativestir.blogspot.com/2014/04/thinking-spring-differently.html">coaching update</a> added here in 2014)</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">rLab (II) 8/2005 - 8/2013</td></tr>
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<span face="verdana, sans-serif">I like this picture of the rLab above... a little rough around the edges, minimalist, modern, a super-hero cutout, student-designed diverse workspaces... truly a self-organizing system that constantly evolved based on student feedback and design (as it's always said on the top of the blog here since we started). We rocked a lot of projects there - and kept it minimalist and modern neat.</span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">We made the whole process transparent day-to-day here on this blog over eight years and readily gave the assignments, rubrics, and scaffolding away to many. I'll continue to do so as people request materials. It's been amazing to see how many people and schools have visited this lab over these eight years and then adopted personalized learning plans, and set up programs based on these ideas. I've lost track of how many schools have told us our class </span><a href="http://bbatechresearch.blogspot.com/2005/08/proposals.html" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">proposals</a><span face="verdana, sans-serif"> have helped them in their journeys as well. We took the motto at the top of the lab seriously... 'A self-organizing system.' Students were empowered to learn how to learn, to make connections to their passions, and inspire change. Students publishing real work to a live audience… we win. </span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span><span face="verdana, sans-serif">It's tough to close up shop sometimes... but it's also exciting. </span><span face="verdana, sans-serif">If I always preached "keep moving forward," to students, I guess I had to heed the same advice.</span></div>
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<span face="verdana, sans-serif">So keep learning, achieve new levels of collaboration, and please do keep in touch. I'm easy to find on the web ; ) </span><br />
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<b><span face="verdana, sans-serif"><span style="color: #93c47d;">If you want to talk about building opportunities like these or others</span>, </span><a href="http://bbatechresearch.blogspot.com/2005/08/contact-us.html" style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">let me know!</a></b><span face="verdana, sans-serif"> I love exploring and helping others build and explore these innovative personalized learning lab constructs and how they can help schools evolve systems. Sharing the good, bad, and ugly of it all has immense value. It was a learning process for all involved. It pushed the boundaries of traditional school and systems in thought-provoking ways. Pursuing more consulting opportunities to help build these ideas and promote growth in other places in these areas is one of my goals.</span><br />
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<span face="verdana, sans-serif">I always did love the iconic sign-off from the late CBS News Anchor Walter Cronkite. I always felt it was a fitting way to end the day and time here that now moves into history... </span></div><div><span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span></div><div><span face="verdana, sans-serif">"And that's the way it is," the close of my role in the rLab at BBA, Friday, August, 23rd, 2013...</span></div>
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<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">On to new and exciting challenges and to develop this work further in more places.</span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">To all the students and peers who dove in here to explore something different... we did something incredible and I hope, sincerely, that it helped you build your future.</span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">Thanks for tuning in,</span></div>
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<span face="verdana, sans-serif">Adam </span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span> <span face="verdana, sans-serif">(hereafter at <a href="http://creativestir.blogspot.com/">creativeStir.blogspot.com</a>)</span></div>
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Adam Provosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09992131870735487690noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238003827160473481.post-39099697109038132922013-01-18T11:17:00.001-05:002013-01-18T21:06:54.943-05:00To Boldly Go...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The first semester has flown by and it's time for me to head off on this exciting sabbatical trip.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>"The world is not in your books and maps… it's out there!"—Gandalf, The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And just that. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm off to see these great schools and educators I've chatted with and learned from over the years. I'll meet many new people, catch up with friends, and explore the world. I'll have some time to reflect, invent, and renew... in 8 countries. A fine recipe for the future. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And while I'm away...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Paul Molinelli steps in to work with folks here in the Lab, and I couldn't be more excited about that coming to fruition. Paul brings a wealth of experience to the mix and it's been great to get to know him better over the past month. Paul will be smithing this Lab blog here over the semester with students too. There are some great threads in motion already.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Tony Cirelli will step in to mentor the baseball program this Spring, and the players and families are in good hands. I've had the privilege of competing against Tony over the years when we coached at different schools and also to work with him to build this baseball program. Tony's a very competent and dedicated coach. This years Varsity team is a special group and it was a tough decision to step away from them this Spring. Ultimately though all those strengths and the tremendous character of the team made the decision easier. 'The Ship,' as in competing for a championship, is once again within reach.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My thanks to all the students, colleagues, and friends who have wished me luck and safe travels on this journey. Of course, this wouldn't have been possible without the generous support and visionary thinking of <a href="http://www.therowlandfoundation.org/">Barry and Wendy Rowland</a>. Words can't express the gratitude I have for the Rowland's support to send educators out into the world on adventures.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'll be blogging for <a href="http://www.edutopia.org/">Edutopia</a> as this trip unfolds, and posting updates on my personal blog, <a href="http://creativestir.blogspot.com/">CreativeStir</a>, as well (there's a bit more about the logistics of the trip posted there already). I'm looking forward to the challenges to smith these journeys into some good stories and all the personal reflection and deeper thinking it brings.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Gandalf: You'll have a tale or two to tell when you come back. </i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Bilbo: Can you promise that I will come back? </i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Gandalf: No, and if you do, you will not be the same.</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Step out your door...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Keep moving forward...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">AP</span><br />
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Adam Provosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09992131870735487690noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238003827160473481.post-72490496148597214372013-01-06T07:23:00.001-05:002018-06-02T12:08:22.243-04:00Student for a Day Video<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In a class discussion about 'how technology has shifted <i>school</i>,' the discussion got pretty heated.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Students thought 's</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">chool schedules are often organized by adults.'</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So...</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What is the school schedule like through the eyes of a student?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Do school schedules meet the needs of students educationally and socially?</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">How can the 'student experience' be improved?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">How does the school schedule effect families</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Five teachers became a 'Student for a Day' to find out. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Here are their thoughts on the experience (and some good humor) in the full video below.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Their experiences lead to some timely questions to answer in education. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject too. Feel free to <a href="https://creativestir.blogspot.com/p/contact.html">send me a note</a>.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thanks to all involved in this great project, especially our dedicated A block Tech Research class who conjured up this great idea. Special thanks to Meg Kenny, Assistant Headmaster (and also a 'Student for a Day' in the video).</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We had a blast working on it and hope you enjoy it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thanks for tuning in, AP</span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="451" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/56630790" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="670"></iframe> <br />
<a href="http://vimeo.com/56630790">BBA Student for a Day Project</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user9175212">Adam Provost</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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Adam Provosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09992131870735487690noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238003827160473481.post-81128248213292132752013-01-01T13:36:00.001-05:002013-01-01T19:13:00.520-05:00Student for a Day Project Video Trailer<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After <a href="http://bbatechresearch.blogspot.com/2012/10/teachers-being-student-for-day.html">proposing the project</a>, a <a href="http://bbatechresearch.blogspot.com/2012/11/ripple-effect.html">schedule delay</a> for Hurricane Sandy, editing, and a holiday break... at long last, h</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">ere's the trailer for the 'Student for a Day' project!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We'll post the full video in a day or two.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Stay tuned!</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="451" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/56590777" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="650"></iframe> <br />
<a href="http://vimeo.com/56590777">Trailer</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user9175212">Adam Provost</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</div>
Adam Provosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09992131870735487690noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238003827160473481.post-72201210774471501492012-11-01T11:56:00.001-04:002013-01-02T15:48:40.417-05:00Ripple Effect<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans', HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 18px;">Hurricane Sandy moves over the East Coast, United States. Image Credit: NASA GOES Project</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The threat of Hurricane Sandy making it's way to Vermont, especially in the wake of the devastation Hurricane Irene brought to the area last Fall, was a study in preparedness.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And justly so.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Preparing for disasters like this is key. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Reacting to such disasters is when things get very messy. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One look at what's going on in New York City and Atlantic City will show you why.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Looking at the news over the last few days, it looks like some folks planned to the best of their ability. Others simply went into denial about the coming storm. Some, the thrill seeking type, even went out for jogs, wake boarding, and went out to take pictures when the worst of the hurricane landed.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some others simply couldn't do anything about it. When the devastation is that large and wide spread, sometimes... you simply endure. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've heard many people on the news over the last few days saying things like 'I just can't believe it was this bad.'</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> It's a study of what went on here in Vermont last year.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now that the Hurricane has moved on from this area in Southern Vermont, it's easy to say 'we over prepared.' </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If the storm turned east toward Vermont though... my guess is we'd be singing a different tune.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My hope after watching Katrina years back overwhelm the Gulf Coast, Irene's tromp through New England, and now Hurricane Sandy... is that we'll lend some serious thought to how, where, and why we build things in the future. And how we can orchestrate disaster plans most effectively. Error on caution... good idea.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This event once again led to some great discussions in class, and we're all watching in hopes that the places rocked by Hurricane Sandy can dig out.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />With school canceled here Monday and a delayed opening Tuesday, we postponed our 'Student for a Day' project and rescheduled to next week. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We'll have updates soon.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Resting up. Preparing. Moving forward.</span><br />
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Adam Provosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09992131870735487690noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238003827160473481.post-33622182796723017452012-10-18T12:26:00.002-04:002012-10-19T14:26:09.759-04:00Teachers being a Student for a Day<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir0088K2mqwtCrD5ORQ-xpJJCR9u6H-WGCGArfBes33s0IjKIDKxwR50IT556376R1mFBEY8eOegRZkocYNFcGAKsyYeoYj_ammbwxVUYSQRcL95yK-u_VQJ8sDs6lrEiv0IfwZci0fxk/s1600/photo.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir0088K2mqwtCrD5ORQ-xpJJCR9u6H-WGCGArfBes33s0IjKIDKxwR50IT556376R1mFBEY8eOegRZkocYNFcGAKsyYeoYj_ammbwxVUYSQRcL95yK-u_VQJ8sDs6lrEiv0IfwZci0fxk/s640/photo.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We've been collecting books for our 'test subjects.'</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />In Tech Research class we stir up a project called 'Education Revisited' where we look at how technology has challenged and shifted learning, education... and schools.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">... and a discussion on 'what is it really like to be a student?' quickly </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">evolved into 'Teachers becoming students for couple of days.'</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://bbatechresearch.blogspot.com/2005/08/proposals.html">We've proposed some great things</a> over the years in the Lab to administration and this idea took off like a rocket in discussions.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We drafted up the idea that three teachers become a student over two days, along with with all appropriate expectations each student has placed upon them. We polished it up a bit and presented the idea to the administration. The school's Executive Team discussed the issue and approved a schedule where 5 teachers would participate for one day instead.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Modified... but approved!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Teachers were hand picked to reflect diverse subjects taught and at different stages of their teaching careers. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here's a list of of the teachers who will be 'Student for a Day.'</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Oct 30th:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Scott Clausen, English</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Meg Kenny, Administration</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mary-Rita Manley, Math</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pete Nicholson, English</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Oct 31st:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dave Miceli, Social Studies, Psychology</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Students in Tech Research designed full academic schedules for each participating teacher and also the following guidelines:</span></div>
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<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pick up their class schedule in the Lab the day before their assigned student day</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Teachers must negotiate getting the appropriate supplies for their classes</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Park in the assigned student parking lot in the morning</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Attend all classes and advisory as a regularly scheduled student</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Eat in the cafeteria with no special privileges aka cutting in line and must pay for their lunch before eating</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Attend an extra-curricular activity and participate in some way for the full duration</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Be assigned an equivalent amount of homework in each class and prepare it for the next day to hand in</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Report on their perceptions of the student day (see Project Goals below), and on the hours spent after school to complete tasks/work and balance home life to their peers</span></li>
</ul>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Project goals:</span></div>
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<ul>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Is the school schedule designed as effectively as it could be for learning?</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Are the duration of classes, transition times between classes, advisory time, and lunch time / scope structures appropriately meeting the needs of students?</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Open up discussions on the demands and expectations placed on students during the school day and also in their personal lives: Understanding the length of the overall 'school day'</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Encourage discussions on the purpose and role of homework</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Reminding teachers of the demands of 'having 4-5 different subjects (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">jobs / classes) per day,' and an extra-curricular activity, and homework of new material</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Encouraging reflective practice on teaching students and not just subjects</span></li>
</ul>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When we started to bounce the idea around on campus with teachers to get their feedback the idea spread VERY rapidly. Many teachers expressed disappointment they couldn't participate in this round and have already asked if they can be included in the next.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Also... MANY students and teachers have been dropping in with ideas to consider for the future... and they are all excellent.</span><br />
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<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Run the experiment for two days</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Run the experiment for a week</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Incorporate a 'game day' where an athletic team has a game where the demands of students participating are stretched further</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Build in a part-time job for a few participants after school</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Do this again in the Winter... which has a much more chaotic extra-curricular activity schedule</span></li>
</ul>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I think we're on to something ; )</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We'll be reporting how it all moves along.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">AP</span><br />
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Adam Provosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09992131870735487690noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238003827160473481.post-32576836097296464072012-09-20T09:08:00.000-04:002012-10-18T20:01:20.458-04:00The Way Things Work<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We took a break from our Education Revisited assignment in Tech Research A block class and dove into a recurring assignment here called 'The Way Things Work.'<br />
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The mission:<br />
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Bring in something that's broken or no longer used, dissect it, discover how it works, repair it (if applicable) and then put it back together, and then tell your peers what you discovered.<br />
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On occasion we need some parts to repair things. Makes me wish we had a 3D printer ; )<br />
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Discovering how things are manufactured, what's under the hood...<br />
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Who knows where those skills could lead.<br />
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A broken digital camera, photo printer, and dvd player were our first missions.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh37tnjW3a0LMrniN9Hu85cVdIGvXgRjfMqtHgOppoDs0If9goWHy3mQeR8Bh_v70B-z0qNHqxP_gG84wXNht-9CP59Ym4Xw-uit4e2K5PQRnjmGbrO6p48dqvhyIdyczt-5W6huBT1kqk/s1600/IMG_6539.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh37tnjW3a0LMrniN9Hu85cVdIGvXgRjfMqtHgOppoDs0If9goWHy3mQeR8Bh_v70B-z0qNHqxP_gG84wXNht-9CP59Ym4Xw-uit4e2K5PQRnjmGbrO6p48dqvhyIdyczt-5W6huBT1kqk/s640/IMG_6539.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Can we fix a digital camera? Erin dives in to find out.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8cB1759JS2CVO8YfvjKJESxEfHK5SrDorCbDq28WbY-T8Ve7ctESVYygJiyyRC0lMvpEqA5HosdUy0qUefvoRqerrYaGvQoJnrbaUkQl-sQpDTs6LDoVcq8koWiuz2uY030nam54e78o/s1600/IMG_6545.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8cB1759JS2CVO8YfvjKJESxEfHK5SrDorCbDq28WbY-T8Ve7ctESVYygJiyyRC0lMvpEqA5HosdUy0qUefvoRqerrYaGvQoJnrbaUkQl-sQpDTs6LDoVcq8koWiuz2uY030nam54e78o/s640/IMG_6545.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">James and Russell explore a DVD player that won't read discs that are slightly scratched.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFuc_PZBOJ4kOjgrm-oLgtrVqUEDWxUCFQk3gae8d6hl8rttVW43xDrYOqIvdXglH-DJvhZF2nYPy2vWYMLqN2-CngOV9gH3eE5ANykDoKKvRxdsFX3yDdPNLVzksOvOmWagd7vFOt3P0/s1600/IMG_6540.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFuc_PZBOJ4kOjgrm-oLgtrVqUEDWxUCFQk3gae8d6hl8rttVW43xDrYOqIvdXglH-DJvhZF2nYPy2vWYMLqN2-CngOV9gH3eE5ANykDoKKvRxdsFX3yDdPNLVzksOvOmWagd7vFOt3P0/s640/IMG_6540.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">A printer that won't feed paper? Andrew, David, and Matt begin testing.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Adam Provosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09992131870735487690noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238003827160473481.post-25828031000063964242012-09-18T11:15:00.000-04:002017-09-30T10:27:24.790-04:00Innovative Study Projects<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Here is a list of innovative projects students in the Research Lab have worked on to date. Each student chooses their own topic, sets their own time frame for the project and all material is archived for future students to use.<br />
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Each project must last a minimum of there weeks. Some do two projects per semester. Some do one project per semester. Some extend projects over multiple semesters and even years.<br />
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What skills can you learn by immersing yourself in something you love, something you want to pursue? What are the links to writing, research, history, math, science, and professional mentors that can be explored? What will you learn about collaboration, communication, and even learning itself?</div>
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<div>
3D Design: Unity Engine, Maya, Sculptris<br />
Acoustics<br />
Alternative Energy: Wind, Solar<br />
Anesthesiology</div>
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Animation</div>
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Amphibious Vehicle Technology</div>
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Architecture: Modern Design, Energy Efficiency, Open Housing Project </div>
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Astronomy<br />
Audio Editing / Engineering<br />
Aviation: piloting, mechanics<br />
Bass Guitar Engineering</div>
<div>
Blogs </div>
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CAD design: Google SketchUp (free) and Pro</div>
<div>
Claymation<br />
Deep Sea Diving</div>
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Digital design: Photoshop, Fireworks, GIMP, Paint.Net. Beginning, intermediate, advanced<br />
Digital Photography</div>
<div>
Digital Story Telling<br />
Domestic feline behavior</div>
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Education: Evolution, Online Ed, Technology, Theory</div>
<div>
Equine Technology </div>
<div>
Farming Technology </div>
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Fashion Design: Process, design, manufacturing<br />
Fish and Game Wildlife Management</div>
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Forensics</div>
<div>
Game Conversion</div>
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Game Design</div>
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Gaming History<br />
Geo-Engineering<br />
Golf Technology</div>
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Google Apps </div>
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Guitar Design: Pickup replacement</div>
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Hiking Technology</div>
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History of Computing</div>
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History of Sound Recording, Acoustics</div>
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Horse / Thoroughbred Management and Nutrition</div>
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Humanitarian Relief</div>
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Human Intelligence</div>
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Hybrid Vehicle Technology<br />
iPhone Technology<br />
iPod Technology</div>
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Language Studies: AP French, Italian, German, English</div>
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Machinima</div>
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Magnetics: Mag lev propulsion<br />
Mixed Media: Mashups, viral video<br />
Mountain Bike Manufacturing and Design<br />
Movie Making</div>
<div>
Movie Technology<br />
Music Genome Project<br />
Myth: Monsters and Legend<br />
Native American Reservation</div>
<div>
Networking: Security, Hardware: Routers, Switches, LAN/WAN Design</div>
<div>
Nutrition<br />
Observatory Refit</div>
<div>
One-to-One Laptop Project: One laptop per student</div>
<div>
Operating Systems: Windows (XP, Vista), Apple OSX, Linux, Edubuntu, Fedora<br />
Playing the Piano</div>
<div>
PC Hardware</div>
<div>
Podcasting</div>
<div>
Programming: Ajax, C, C++, Flash, Java, Visual Basic, Visual C</div>
<div>
Robotics: Scrap, Vexx</div>
<div>
Running Technology <br />
Schizophrenia</div>
<div>
Ski / Snowboard Technology: Manufacturing / Materials<br />
Small Business: LLC, Non-Profits, Taxes, Business Economy in VT vs other States.</div>
<div>
Snow Making Technology<br />
Snow Mobile Performance an Modification<br />
Social Media</div>
<div>
Sound engineering: Acoustics, recording techniques, principles<br />
Stem Cell Research<br />
Stock Trading: Market Analysis</div>
<div>
Stop Motion Animation <br />
Swimming Technology<br />
Survival Technology<br />
Tennis: Racquet construction, restringing, performance analysis</div>
<div>
Theatrical Lighting <br />
Tolkien</div>
<div>
Typing: 9 words per minute (in a second language) to 85 ; )</div>
<div>
Web Development: Basic web page construction, CSS<br />
Welding: MIG / TIG</div>
<div>
Wikis: Wikipedia / Collective Knowledge Editing / Contributions</div>
</div>
Adam Provosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09992131870735487690noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238003827160473481.post-52870097688106528832012-05-24T14:02:00.001-04:002012-10-18T19:57:56.807-04:00San Marzano Tomato Sauce Networking<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Who says you can't cook in a tech lab?</span><div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We tossed together some fresh pasta sauce today in Social Networking class.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Learning to cook... how it effects your health, how it can bring folks together... all worthy goals for learning how to leverage social networking tools.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here's a summary...</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We diced the garlic (showed folks how to peel cloves), and white onion. Chopping ingredients consistently... a finer art</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Used two cans of San Marzano tomatoes, and pureed them gently so the sauce had a a thick consistency</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In a hot pan we tossed in some extra virgin olive oil and then the garlic and onion. Sauteed until very slightly brown</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Added the tomatoes</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Brought to a boil, then simmered</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Added more garlic, salt, pepper, and about 4 pinches of sugar (it was a very large batch)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then we added fresh chopped basil</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Kept adding here and there, seasoning to taste.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We had to cook the sauce fast. Elapsed time to bring this sauce from start to eating was 40 minutes. Not too shabby.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Charlie Robbins (the BBA kitchen) helped us out by cooking our pasta. We picked it up hot and with some extra virgin olive oil mixed in (keeps it from sticking together).</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">... and the we ate!</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Many folks saw how to make their own fresh pasta sauce for the first time. We fed 16 in class, plus Neil Freeburn, Kevin Morrison, Bill Muench, myself... and a few others... 24 total for $28.01. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Many thanks again to everyone for making cooking, researching our ingredients on the web while we prepped, and cleaning up a social event too.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Good company and good cooking. A spice of life.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Engage...</span></div>
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Adam Provosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09992131870735487690noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238003827160473481.post-21512018564438808892012-05-17T12:59:00.002-04:002012-05-17T13:10:12.699-04:00Good tinkering<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We're shifting around classrooms here this Summer. I'll be moving down the hall to a room just like this one...</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The trick... lay the room out 'as is' or refit? </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm guessing it's time for a refit. We need more community discussion and worktable space. Meeting that need though, we may need to drop 'the pods' of computers we've had.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here's the current layout below, an arc... bit like the bridge of the Enterprise ; ) We move portable tables around the space in the middle to rip into things as needed (not pictured).</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We have 20 computers in the room... and there begins the challenge...</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's worked well over the years, but we're craving more community and project space.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here's one of the layouts we're giving a think...</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK355du0R1onWCMi5BOWqgQbLlTBOV7Jt3eox4H7Hyp9zbY48zuhvW5iqN8BVSvif5gYRuz317Kx38ZsVzrZdPAjiZw1vEUW_qWcMCLgZHGJjHKr4pLClHuYiWD2bVRlUbzs1VYeBBbNQ/s1600/rLabTinkering.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK355du0R1onWCMi5BOWqgQbLlTBOV7Jt3eox4H7Hyp9zbY48zuhvW5iqN8BVSvif5gYRuz317Kx38ZsVzrZdPAjiZw1vEUW_qWcMCLgZHGJjHKr4pLClHuYiWD2bVRlUbzs1VYeBBbNQ/s640/rLabTinkering.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The layout solves the needs of community conversations and workspace in the middle, and flow of guest speakers. But... its, for lack of a better term, a bit... 'labby.'</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The glass coffee table shown in the middle would actually be a work table. The work benches are a needed addition. I'll be writing up a framework for a new course that threads students deeply (at last) into professional development and tech support here at school and the benches are, like everything else in the room, a minimalist approach at meeting those needs. We'd project on the wall behind the desk, and add a giant whiteboard somewhere... we tend to use it a ton to draft ideas in groups.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We're kicking around designs and would love your help. I don't think were thinking deeply enough about it or seeing all our possibilities.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Submit ideas / comments here on the blog, on Facebook, or send messages to me directly. I can also send the Sketchup model too if that helps.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">#edchat</span></div>
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</div>Adam Provosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09992131870735487690noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238003827160473481.post-90150128470730614942012-05-10T11:02:00.001-04:002012-05-10T11:20:54.446-04:00Lime chicken tacos w/ fresh salsa<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<center><a href="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/10/1261.jpg"><br /><img border="0" height="400" src="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/10/s_1261.jpg" style="margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px; margin-top: 5px;" width="298" /></a></center><br />
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We whipped up some lime chicken tacos with fresh salsa, sour cream, mixed lettuce, fresh cilantro, and fresh lime squeezed on top today in class. We made everything, ate, and cleaned up in class. Easy work with so many contributors!<br />
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Cooking, fresh cooking, just takes a bit of planning, prep, some patience and time. Adding in some care, those little details like fresh lime squeezed on top (common in Mexico), and warming the tortillas makes all the difference. We fed 15 today with everyone having seconds for $23.76! We also had a over a half bowl of salsa left over.<br />
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Great tinkering for about 55 minutes. Many hands make light work!<br />
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<center><a href="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/05/10/1262.jpg"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/05/10/s_1262.jpg" style="margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px; margin-top: 5px;" width="298" /></a></center><br />
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Exploring healthy cooking, how to extend it into your life, seeking out new ideas, and getting people involved... a perfect use for social networking tools, and to explore in a Social Networking class. <br />
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There's no magic to cooking. It takes effort, time, and patience to build culinary skill.<br />
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Tastes good too ; )<br />
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Engage...<br />
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-- Posted from batphone<br />
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#edchat #education</div>Adam Provosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09992131870735487690noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238003827160473481.post-39000754486985750282012-04-26T10:35:00.001-04:002012-04-26T10:38:54.722-04:00Copter tests<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Robotics tinkering. <br />
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Experimenting with design, engineering, aerodynamics, lift to weight ratio, technical manuals, programming modules, accelerometers... And shipping problems ; )<br />
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-- Posted from batphone</div>Adam Provosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09992131870735487690noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238003827160473481.post-37360528707493755022012-02-10T12:49:00.001-05:002012-02-10T12:49:34.496-05:00Social Media Explained<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Saw this one on a few websites today. Pretty accurate site function summary actually ; )</span></div>
<br /></div>Adam Provosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09992131870735487690noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238003827160473481.post-85752719783677386192012-02-01T11:36:00.000-05:002012-02-01T11:38:53.166-05:00Lab tinkering<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3D modeling in Sculptris, some advanced Photoshop work, and dissecting an iPod touch. Just a few things going on in the Lab this morning.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Note: The slideshow has captions... click on the comment icon to activate.</span><br />
<br /></div>Adam Provosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09992131870735487690noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238003827160473481.post-80424258672173235642012-01-30T11:59:00.000-05:002012-02-01T12:38:27.234-05:00Character Animation: Andrew<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Andrew's building on some great work he did in <a href="http://vermont802.blogspot.com/">eDesign in the Fall semester</a> with a project in character animation. <a href="http://andrewgaydaportfolio.tumblr.com/">Here's what he's up to</a> this semester.<br />
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post from: <a href="http://andrewgaydaportfolio.tumblr.com/">http://andrewgaydaportfolio.tumblr.com</a><br />
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"My name is Andrew Gayda, I am currently doing an independent study for graphic design. Last year I took E-Design and wanted to continue in that same path. I have narrowed down my interests and have chosen to start doing logo design. I really wanted to design cartoon characters on the computer. I figuring that I could incorporate them into my logos. Some people may think that drawing cartoons is immediately drawing the finished product. There are many different steps that help you get that finished product. If you think that I drew this wolf without any steps you are mistaken. I did about 3-4 steps before the wolf was finish. Im going to walk you through what I did. The first step was I found a cartoon character that I liked and began to SKETCH out the shapes of the animal. I put “sketch” in all caps because it does not have to look pretty or anything like your picture. The sketching is just a guide line. Once I got all my shapes matted out I began to go over the sketching but with more detail. I really brought all those crazy lines together into one. That is when you will be able to really see your object. When you go over your outline dont trace those lines, have fun and give it real shape. As you can see on my wolf I didn’t draw a strait line for the back, I curved it and over lapped the lines to give it an arc. Overall it will look a lot better. The third step is all about color. Always do the color after you get the entire body assembled. The color is not as hard as people would imagine. It doesn’t have to been that complex, pick one color for the base. I picked a nice grey, not to light and not to dark. Use the Paint Bucket tool because if you were to draw it on there it would mess up your lines. After you have picked a color, find the darker version of it and lightly paint on the sides of the lines. A tip in doing that is when you use the Magic Wand tool it will highlight the body. After you have dont that turn down the opacity of the brush to about 45%. Paint the sides of your object but not all. The last step is refining your picture. Anything you see that does not look good try to fix it if you can. Some examples of things that I had to fix were color, thick or small lines, and shape. Dont stress in how your picture doesn’t look anything like the picture in the book, make it your own."</div>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238003827160473481.post-79195520940310883042012-01-18T17:44:00.003-05:002012-01-18T17:44:57.742-05:00SOPA, PIPA and 'The Blackout Protest'<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Browse around the internet today and you'll see 'blackout' protests on Wikipedia, Google, Wired, Wordpress, BoingBoing and, so CNN reports, thousands of others.<br />
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What's SOPA and PIPA all about?<br />
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Good question.<br />
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Here's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more">Wikipedia's explanation</a>, and what <a href="https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/">Google put up today</a>... and I'd encourage you to look at a few others.<br />
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I framed up a few discussions on this with a tale about something called 'Act 60' in Vermont education, a 'ready, fire, aim' sort of legislation which many of my long standing friends viewed as, well, let's just say 'less than than stellar.'<br />
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SOPA and PIPA as written would have a dramatic impact on the web as we know it. Some support it, some vehemently oppose it, and some are calling for it to be much more refined and by a wider audience before it's goes to vote... hence the 'ready, fire, aim' analogy.<br />
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Where do you stand on this?<br />
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Interesting questions indeed.<br />
<br /></div>Adam Provosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09992131870735487690noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238003827160473481.post-81591105634957107152011-12-22T08:03:00.001-05:002011-12-22T09:54:01.729-05:00Holiday Wishes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvEsJ87Yyz6x__fPGUdFeYAF_3Gxp6fJOIKWnt6fV4gI8TZJKsBaRYnkaxCs-1Gwq6A-aX4kcnhl0EG0Xn-7lw2nP8B8YqnHRNiTxiA95ZVPEVO5JYNhQQOhHrNR91-Kwr-uga2Lvsc38/s1600/familytable.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvEsJ87Yyz6x__fPGUdFeYAF_3Gxp6fJOIKWnt6fV4gI8TZJKsBaRYnkaxCs-1Gwq6A-aX4kcnhl0EG0Xn-7lw2nP8B8YqnHRNiTxiA95ZVPEVO5JYNhQQOhHrNR91-Kwr-uga2Lvsc38/s400/familytable.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Many moons ago I remember asking my Mother what she wanted for Christmas. I received an answer I didn't quite expect.</div>
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"What I'd like" she said, " is to sit around a table with all those folks who are no longer with me. I miss their voices, their quirks. I miss the way they laughed. All that time I spent going through the motions, the food, the wrapping, the gifts and how it all seemed stressful seems so foolish now. Too often, I guess I found myself wishing I could just get through the Holidays. I wish now that I spent more time talking to them about how they felt about Christmas, what their memories were, what did this day mean to them. I'd love to hear them tell some of the old stories again. I often wonder how many of those stories I never heard at all. I guess I wished I'd spent more time talking to them about who they were and what they felt when I had the chance. Sitting around the dinner table with all those folks again, that's what I want for Christmas."</div>
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Happy Holidays, AP</div>
</div>Adam Provosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09992131870735487690noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238003827160473481.post-88876223687867722112011-12-20T14:29:00.000-05:002011-12-20T14:29:34.403-05:00Exploring effort and self motivation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDQ_zaw2292Q3aLswvkKHfzoF2cn8KJnfGTxBTVRyiXUaRKYq46jauhg5DocJbS6oIZOf48r6wsfp9L6Kmncwyaw3QOZK2UpeTUIobKhzQaoOY67Ok2WBwsibbYbHutWkd26l5B-Xyozg/s1600/effort.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDQ_zaw2292Q3aLswvkKHfzoF2cn8KJnfGTxBTVRyiXUaRKYq46jauhg5DocJbS6oIZOf48r6wsfp9L6Kmncwyaw3QOZK2UpeTUIobKhzQaoOY67Ok2WBwsibbYbHutWkd26l5B-Xyozg/s1600/effort.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.3763833425473422" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #575859; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.3763833425473422" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #575859; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.3763833425473422" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #575859; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here are a few quotes from a post by Seth Godin called </span><a href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/05/self-directed-effort.html"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #2288bb; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Self Directed Effort is the Best Kind</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #575859; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that speaks volumes about the trials of education.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #575859; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b><br />
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #575859; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"There's an entire system organized around the idea that we're too weak to deliver effort without external rewards and punishment. If you only grow on demand, you're selling yourself short. If you're only as good as your current boss/trainer/sergeant, you've given over the most important thing you have to someone else."</span></b></blockquote>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #575859; font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #575859; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and...</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #575859; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b><br />
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #575859; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"The thing I care the most about: what do you do when no one is looking, what do you make when it's not an immediate part of your job... how many push ups do you do, just because you can?"</span></b></blockquote>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #575859; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What makes you tick?</span></b></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #575859; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What's holding you back?</span></b></div>
</div>Adam Provosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09992131870735487690noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238003827160473481.post-4579198073018554052011-12-04T12:40:00.001-05:002011-12-04T14:47:12.165-05:00Education Revisited: Homework<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We've started our exploration Tech Research called Education Revisited. We challenge the perception of school, learning, teacher and student roles, and best of all we ask each student to redesign education.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Surprisingly... the results are similar year-to-year when students redesign education.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here's one... Students want to 'do' homework differently. Here are a few that come up:</span><br />
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<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Many would like to see homework done in class, where there's more time to work on things, especially together. We discuss the 'flipped classroom'... where lectures go home and collaborative problem solving work is done in class.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">No homework over breaks. Here's a good video on this one:</span></li>
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<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some sort of guidelines for planning. Most often what frustrates students the most is the inability to plan day-to-day as to how much homework they'll have.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Homework load effects that classes they take. For students who are exceptionally busy after school, looking through the course descriptions and talking to peers about potential homework loads on classes is common practice.</span></li>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Education is changing. Are we changing with it, actively trying out new systems and ideas... or are we simply saying 'it's always been this way' and / or going on 'business as usual'?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Good questions, indeed.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Engage...</span></div>Adam Provosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09992131870735487690noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238003827160473481.post-76173255304221063082011-11-17T18:14:00.001-05:002011-11-17T18:14:38.877-05:00Sleep<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Force is with us. We were just discussing <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/30/opinion/greene-smart-phone-addiction/index.html?iref=obinsite">this</a> in class ; )</span><div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thoughts?</span></div>
</div>Adam Provosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09992131870735487690noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238003827160473481.post-60146410001249823082011-11-10T11:58:00.000-05:002013-02-10T11:25:15.569-05:00The Social Media Puzzle... it moves fast<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<img border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjajLR4SnmqfgBszDa_HAjc6ybHcCYkaHonINebwv40VjZsMWkRf4hNos_OM01arx8c7kG9FfMB1jkSE5x-uDpYCowBvQ_agKdXdHj-FP1iodlo6S-jwQ_H9EMahwFBCRPYnQ053oLGer0/s400/pir.jpg" width="400" /></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the Social Networking we've taken on a difficult issue in Assignment 20.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Social media has threaded itself into our society. For many, it's amplified struggles with long standing battles: our penchant to entertain ourselves, struggles in how we communicate, relevancy, learning, connecting, peer pressure, social cliques, harassment, stalking... you name it. People get scared, and in many cases, justly so.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With all those issues per se, Social Media has also opened up incredible opportunities in our world to make connections and to learn.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Each student in the class has been asked to dig deep and explore the feelings of the older generation, an adult on campus and also one (or both) of their parents and / or guardians on this issue. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These tools didn't exist 10 years ago... but every generation has had it's issues, it's distractions with gadgets, and struggled with the social issues around them. Here are a few to refresh the memory!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8f-9vKbusE3J8iKoix7DM3I7kOiGPYhF7e3cRy291nM1SzlRr1xm04sJZsfTBaJWYUGdFzP_ONG9XCEG1jldjxX-86CG5qaND-sxevgOzS0th3CcfQPDGrO-YB89fc40A2ze9TvI4_Ps/s1600/generations.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8f-9vKbusE3J8iKoix7DM3I7kOiGPYhF7e3cRy291nM1SzlRr1xm04sJZsfTBaJWYUGdFzP_ONG9XCEG1jldjxX-86CG5qaND-sxevgOzS0th3CcfQPDGrO-YB89fc40A2ze9TvI4_Ps/s400/generations.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Just ask someone who's over the age of 30 now what their parents thought of them 'spending so much time on that ridiculous telephone,' or how they 'could spend so much time watching television!'</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We were receivers back then primarily... we watched and listened for the most part. Now it's about creating, publishing and group conversations. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With the advancement of technology though, computers, the internet, mobile technology, the transition from what we term <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsNcjya56v8&feature=related">web 1.0 to web 2.0 (and 3.0 on the horizon)</a>... all those old traditional conversations are accelerated, they get magnified. If things are accelerating, than so must our resolve to teach communication and collaboration skills students need.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What does that mean for our future? Gaining some perspective of the past, present and future... we're hoping... will help ; )</span></div>
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Adam Provosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09992131870735487690noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238003827160473481.post-44790568373987428692011-11-06T17:11:00.000-05:002011-11-06T17:59:43.031-05:00Music and movies playing in a classroom?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Once we have our opening discussions in class, we play music or a movie in the background.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here's how.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The class often chooses, or I do, music or movies. Most often we choose to play music in the background while we do group project work. We choose movies during individual project work.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here's why.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've always thought it's relaxing for many students. It's a degree of civility in a classroom... treating it less like school and more like a home environment, a learning environment. <a href="http://bbatechresearch.blogspot.com/2005/08/classroom-refit.html">We started down this path seven years ago</a> now and never looked back. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After all, we don't often go home to do work and sit in uncomfortable furniture, under bright fluorescent lights, deprive ourselves of all food and water, have no complimentary music or the like, and then expect we'll do our best... do we? </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We seem to do this in school though, and all too often I think. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've always felt, if we put some effort into making school look, well, less like 'school,' less like an industrialized environment it'd be more civil... more inspirational. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Most often folks don't understand why we serve up movies on the classroom. First off, I ask people to focus on their work, and not on the movie. The movies, with low volume, play in the background. We'll spike the volume when we take a break for some great scenes... the Balrog on the bridge... that sort of stuff. Of course, much like a window, there are times you look up when something great is happening, or you just need a break. Bit like real life ; )</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Further, we pick movies we can learn from, ones that inspire people. Creative stuff. The ones that bring dreams to life and have great messages. Inspiration... is a good thing.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Third, it threads nicely into discussions and practices on learning to work in a different environment and to manage distractions. Many folks are used to listening to music when they work. Often times this is heavily frowned upon in school. Never really had anyone give me a good reason why. I've often said 'admitting you're easily distracted is the first step to recovery.' Do you need to reposition yourself in the room? Adjust the volume? I think it's safe to say that anyone who's worked out of the school environment has had to learn to deal with distractions and figure out how they work their best.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fourth, Almost all of the movies we choose carry great appendices... great documentary footage about how they are made. The Lord of the Rings trilogy, as an example, in the Extended Editions, carry heaps of material about crafting, problem solving, hard work, creativity, and fun. Far better to play it than just discuss it. It's too cumbersome in length to play and just watch... so, we play it while we work, stopping here and there when something great comes up.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We thread in clips too that we find about films, like this one, a look inside the new shooting of The Hobbit in 3D. New material that comes out revealing creativity, problem solving, skill development, and dedication... craft.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For some, it is distracting out of the gate, no doubt. Many have never experienced a classroom environment like we have here. I'm guessing many though will never experience a work environment like they have in a traditional school model. That statement... could lead to a lot of writing ; )</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This speech by Rogier van der Heide, speaks volumes to why it makes sense to change the concept of the classroom, from the colors used, to the lighting.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'd encourage you, if you've never done it to give it a try. Turn down some bright fluorescent lights, create an environment, and coax folks to learn from the experience. Never know what might turn up. It's worked great here.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What's next? Our work here continues to challenge the concepts of a 'master schedule' and the potential of internships. Many other schools, of course, have headed dow such paths already. Again... discussions for another post.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">#edchat</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">cross posted at: <a href="http://creativeStir.blogspot.com/">creativeStir.blogspot.com</a></span></div>Adam Provosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09992131870735487690noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238003827160473481.post-11986376932030184202011-10-27T22:22:00.003-04:002011-10-28T10:50:18.470-04:00eDesign Creativity<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Here's a glimpse at some of the great project work cooking in eDesign this semester. Check out some of the individual blogs listed below to see more.</div>
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<a href="http://bankedsgn.blogspot.com/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">bankedsgn</span></a><br />
<a href="http://xfallenangelscrybloodx.blogspot.com/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">xfallenangelscrybloodx</span></a><br />
<a href="http://roryedesign.blogspot.com/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">roryedesign</span></a><br />
<a href="http://edesignsbykatem.blogspot.com/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">edesignsbykatem</span></a><br />
<a href="http://cpearce13.blogspot.com/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">cpearce13</span></a><br />
<a href="http://built2win.blogspot.com/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">built2win</span></a><br />
<a href="http://jnunnikhoven.blogspot.com/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">jnunnikhoven</span></a><br />
<a href="http://e-connor.blogspot.com/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">e-connor</span></a><br />
<a href="http://omaeder.blogspot.com/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">omaeder</span></a><br />
<a href="http://david-edesign.blogspot.com/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">david-edesign</span></a><br />
<a href="http://carolin-barden.blogspot.com/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">carolin-barden</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </span><br />
<a href="http://chickenwingkids.blogspot.com/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">chickenwingkids</span></a><br />
<a href="http://vermont802.blogspot.com/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">vermont802</span></a><br />
<a href="http://2000circles.tumblr.com/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2000circles</span></a><br />
<a href="http://e-designcjishu.blogspot.com/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">e-designcjishu</span></a><br />
<a href="http://nfrench-jiberish.blogspot.com/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">nfrench-jiberish</span></a><br />
<a href="http://awesomestuff3.blogspot.com/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">awesomestuff3</span></a><br />
<a href="http://skitheeast23.blogspot.com/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">skitheeast23</span></a></div>
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</div>Adam Provosthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09992131870735487690noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238003827160473481.post-35990537397021240562011-10-25T10:50:00.000-04:002011-10-25T21:48:20.218-04:00SocialNet Guest Speaker Series: Mr. Pete Nicholson - The English Teacher Tale<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrjdksFddHLkz_MKgnCN0BwmA1wWK6FXigTciAlWpx3rEGcX1rM4h1qqS7FjSL8AjKNl_iqvH3EpROy9avZaJ8up1kxWwJJsLBXxC7NCsmA233_KpaqtBjP2qMlxRBqNsbTP0tmVrl0TI/s1600/Nic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrjdksFddHLkz_MKgnCN0BwmA1wWK6FXigTciAlWpx3rEGcX1rM4h1qqS7FjSL8AjKNl_iqvH3EpROy9avZaJ8up1kxWwJJsLBXxC7NCsmA233_KpaqtBjP2qMlxRBqNsbTP0tmVrl0TI/s400/Nic.jpg" width="400" /></a><span id="internal-source-marker_0.7733420284930617" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our second guest speaker, Mr. Pete, 'Mr. Nic,' Nicholson.</span><br />
<span id="internal-source-marker_0.7733420284930617" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span id="internal-source-marker_0.7733420284930617" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Topic: The transition from high school to today.</span><br />
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<span id="internal-source-marker_0.7733420284930617" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here are our cliff notes from the day.</span><br />
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<span id="internal-source-marker_0.7733420284930617" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span id="internal-source-marker_0.7733420284930617" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Communications major 'by default.' Unsure of what he wanted to do.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.7733420284930617" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.7733420284930617" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Internship on 10 o’clock News in Philly. F</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ound the career to be cynical. Looking for tragedy all the time.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Interviewed for sales postion. Door-to-door type thing. Couldn't really see himself doing it. He didn't want to be the most annoying man in the world.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span id="internal-source-marker_0.6988510398659855" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sister got him a gig at Nickelodeon in the c</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">opy room.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Worked up to being a production Assistant: “first real job.”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">MTV show ‘Unlimited.'</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘Show went too high brow to be successful. Should have been more trashy.’</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Overall, the PD job was a 3-yr gig.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Constantly praised for work ethic... and made him wonder just how bad other employees were who had his job previously.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Had a philosophy... get there before your boss and leave after.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">One day he had his existential moment where he asked himself, "is this it?" Decided that the current career path he was on wasn't working for him. So he saved up his money and decided to buy a used car and he followed Horace Greeley's advice and he went West. Started hoarding money. Packed up shop.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Traveled 8 months alone from Missoula, down the West coast, through New Mexico, and all the way back to his brother in Vermont.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Read ‘<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Alchemist_(novel)">The Alchemist</a>.' Book had a large impact on his thinking.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Started asking himself ‘what am I going to do when I get back?’</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Started daydreaming of teaching.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Took some classes in Albany to get English credits and then moved to Bristol and went to UVM to get his Masters in English. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">He and his then girlfriend, now wife, decided to move back to Manchester and it was after he moved back, he then interviewed for the teaching position at BBA which he obviously got and the rest, as they say, is history. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.6988510398659855" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As career went on... stopped thinking about perfection and more process.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.6988510398659855" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Life is not without battles. Self doubt and the like.</span></span></div>
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</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238003827160473481.post-61117728469207175462011-10-25T10:42:00.000-04:002011-11-13T16:45:50.353-05:00SocialNet Guest Speaker Series: Financial Do's Dont's and How. With Mrs. Lisa Souls<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span id="internal-source-marker_0.9728011896368116" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVd3B3Po8RaZyTijRsoidsoCgU9wb-AFgE9wZK3i_dL48qUR6WepVJIIx-_O471bVU5EhyZJW-TglZhYlrFhN42gug4gLXbqu6-SMQjHFdcIXBF-KmNB3FymhurpxQNWd6Zq3NRZAwsdE/s1600/roundtablechat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVd3B3Po8RaZyTijRsoidsoCgU9wb-AFgE9wZK3i_dL48qUR6WepVJIIx-_O471bVU5EhyZJW-TglZhYlrFhN42gug4gLXbqu6-SMQjHFdcIXBF-KmNB3FymhurpxQNWd6Zq3NRZAwsdE/s400/roundtablechat.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span id="internal-source-marker_0.9728011896368116" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span id="internal-source-marker_0.9728011896368116" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Many thanks to our first guest speaker in the Social Net class, Mrs. Lisa Souls.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirW6ljLInbiRwocY86QDwG97CEKRQiq4YUqrrhaSonHOhEU8lFxrLnjnEoyqvX4x_kID0ccYCkR3yhFr7hzkqmW9LlKhm3mcdcoKYEXy3YN6Gx7pguBGlIo2PfMkaLHSM5VsbBPieUjwg/s1600/ls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirW6ljLInbiRwocY86QDwG97CEKRQiq4YUqrrhaSonHOhEU8lFxrLnjnEoyqvX4x_kID0ccYCkR3yhFr7hzkqmW9LlKhm3mcdcoKYEXy3YN6Gx7pguBGlIo2PfMkaLHSM5VsbBPieUjwg/s400/ls.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span id="internal-source-marker_0.9728011896368116" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
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<div style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; white-space: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.7733420284930617" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Topic: Financial Do's and Don'ts. How to get started.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.7733420284930617" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.7733420284930617" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here are our cliff notes from the day.</span></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">___</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">What should you look for when your borrowing money? </span><br />
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<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Interest rates and the cost of funds. </span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Looking at interest rates, you need to look at late fees and the interest rates.</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Everything you spend money on goes to a credit report over time and it will follow you for seven to ten years. </span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The biggest form of debt is due to credit cards.</span></li>
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<span id="internal-source-marker_0.9728011896368116" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><u>Unsecured</u></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: Buying a t-shirt on credit, the bank won’t take it back</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><u>Secured</u></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: Mostly real estate, if you don’t pay, they will take it. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><u>Credit</u></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.9728011896368116" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are three major credit card bureaus. 300-850 worst to best credit. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You get three free credit reports a year.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Make sure, even if it seems like you're too young, get a credit report. </span><a href="http://myannuelcreditreport.com/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">myannualcreditreport.com</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is a free credit report.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Make sure you can pay off your monthly bill. The interest is sky high so don't use a credit card as a loan.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Get a credit card and pay it off each month. Don't spend what you can't afford. Credit cards themselves aren't bad... how we use them can be. Don't treat it as a loan. The interest is far too high. Don't feel 'entitled' to money you don't have.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Small purchases equal small payments and will help you to establish a credit rating.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Find a credit card that offers benefits that have value to you: money off at the pump, travel benefits, etc. They change all the time. keep up on it. There's no magic formula.</span></span></div>
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<div style="background-color: transparent;">
<span id="internal-source-marker_0.9728011896368116" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><u>Federal vs. Private loans</u></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">FHA (federal housing administration) is a conventional loan which guarantees the money. Since you don't have the money to put down on the loan they will put down more but they charge more as well. It is not the best program but it helps some people.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><u>Investing</u></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.9728011896368116" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Save money for a rainy day.” Set a budget. Save at least 10% or 5% if you can out of your income every check. Too many people who could save money don't. Most of them in that scenario end up paying for it later. Life throws obstacles at you.</span></span></span></div>
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<div style="background-color: transparent;">
<span id="internal-source-marker_0.9728011896368116" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">401k. Take a certain percentage of your salary out of your check directly, tax free, and employers will match it. Usually ranges from 3% on through 5%. This is only applicable if you work for a certain company. If you don't contribute, they wont pay. If they offer it, take it. It's free money!</span><br />
<span id="internal-source-marker_0.9728011896368116" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span id="internal-source-marker_0.9728011896368116" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">* Summarized by the class in collaborative editing and published by students.</span></div>
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</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0