The Mission - Future is Now

This post is all about the mission defined by our district, Littleton Public Schools, and how technology supports and helps make that mission possible. I have had a fair amount of experience with mission and vision statements. I'm a founder for a successful web-based start-up, I've led teams in quality-driven corporations where understanding the corporate mission is vital to success, and I've held numerous positions as 'leader' throughout my life.

As an employee of LPS and a proud parent of students here I believe in our Mission - stated below.

The District Mission is defined as:

To educate all students for the future by challenging every individual to
continuously learn, achieve, and act with purpose and compassion.

LPS' Information Technology Department's Mission is defined as:

To define the 21st Century Learning Space, to assure Universal Access to that space, for all learners to master new frontiers in communications, information and literacy.

and IT's vision is:

LPS will support the necessary technology for world-class student learning and professional practice.

I believe these missions and visions are in alignment. They are all forward-looking. They have great potential for everyone involved and "on board" with our Mission. These phrases aren't just words, they are a call to action to all staff and students. We are in a time of rapid change. We are embracing that change in a positive way if we execute our mission. It is my belief that everyone needs to be part of this mission or make way for those who are. The time is now!

The three statements are all forward looking as I mentioned earlier. They all have as their end-game a focus on the future. But as we are aware the future is just out of our reach, but it's the 'carrot' that is dangling outin front of us and it moves us forward. All we have is the present to grasp and deal with. We must focus our immediate energies towards in the present. So I ask you staff and students: What are you doing today to make the Mission as success?

How does the district ensure success? Our district leaders must "walk the talk". The mission must be communicated clearly. The district leaders (at all levels) must not just say the words. They must also embrace them in their actions and they must convey a sense of urgency to everyone.

Who are the leaders in a public school district? I answer this question by stating that everyone is a leader at some level.

• Naturally, we have a superintendent of schools and the school board who are leaders at the highest level.
• We have building principals and the administrative staff that establish school vision and lead the school to success.
• We have teachers who lead their students every day in the classroom.
• And we have students leaders as student-body presidents, classroom leaders and squad leaders on sporting teams.
• Each student must self-lead in their learning - -they are responsible to themselves for their learning too.

So what I'm saying is that everyone is a leader and a responsible team member in the Mission. I think this is THE most exciting time in our school district. The future is now!

Long Now Foundation, Time and a Book

I read the book Anathem by Neal Stephenson awhile back. It's long, very long at over 900 pages. Once I got a handle of the tweaked language he was using I found myself falling into the book and his writing style. I loved the story and concept of living in a "Mathic world" where one could devote their life to the study of math and philosophy. And I thought that would be the end of it, but then here's where fiction meets reality...

People here on Earth are actually doing and thinking about stuff like this. They have founded an organization to ponder life with long-term thinking in mind. Here's a piece of the real clock design being built in a remote area of Eastern Nevada. It is based upon the designs mentioned in the fictional world of the aforementioned book.



So I mentioned that there is an organization founded upon the principle of long-term thinking and its name is the Long Now Project. Much of what the book discusses is being thought about for this group and I think that's pretty cool. Reality meet Fiction meets Reality!

I just happen to have been interested in this artist Brian Eno for MANY years now and have followed his music, seen some of his art exhibits and enjoyed much of what he does. He has worked with U2, David Bowie and many music artists over the years. And not to my surprise he's involved in this foundation too. How weird is it when all these different pieces of one's life (some even fictional) meet together as one?

The Age of Composition

I don't think I can add much insight to this post by Jeff Utretch. If you have time read both his post and the NCTE article that is linked there/here. I think they both hit the target with what we're talking about at Euclid with writing, netbooks and our plans for 6th grade LA in the fall. BULLSEYE

We can talk about it more if you like, but it seems to combine where I think our vision is taking us WITH what we value at Euclid.



I love the notion of "The Age of Composition" in the 21st Century. It feels like a renaissance is taking place in our lifetime. Jump on board and enjoy the ride! I think this is going to be fun...

[Okay, so I did add a little]...

Language Arts 6th Grade

Yesterday was PLC day and I met with the 6th Grade Language Arts team to discuss some preliminary plans for next year. The district has a proposal that will be presented to the Board tonight. The proposal is called the Educational Technology and Information Literacy Plan (ETIL).

The plan calls for embedding netbooks (Asus eee PCs) in every 5th, 6th and 9th grade Language Arts class next fall with follow on plans for grades 7 & 8 in future years and the high school grades too.

The team seemed real excited with where this is going and very open to taking the next steps. We have arranged for a field trip next week to see the process in action at three elementary schools where the 5th grade class has been piloting this project this year. I know there have been successes at Hopkins and East and we will be visiting a third school too. It will be wonderful to see how classroom management is handeled, how productive the kids are and to tap into the teachers experiences after using the netbooks for the past year.

This is a great opportunity for our students and I feel encouraged with how our teachers are showing interest in how to tackle this new opportunity for next fall.

So teachers, how does this roll into your plans for next year and beyond as these netbook-enabled students (focused on writing) begin to fill your classes?

What follows are some links to the 5th grade pilot programs and samples of what they students have been producing.
East Elementary
Moody Elementary Class Blog
Hopkins Class Blog
Hopkins Class Web page

How Technology is Used in other Schools - Part 2

In this post I've listed two additional innovative uses of technology - both from Heritage. At Euclid we are not currently doing anything like this - it's neat to see how others are solving problems through the use of technology. The first example involves a conversational Spanish class at high school.

Unsatisfied with student performance on a written assignment involving students interviewing a famous person and asking them about their vacation, Miss Mary Kay Cummings Spanish Teacher for Heritage High showed the committee how she increased student proficiency and enthusiasm for learning by using the Eee-Pc webcam feature. Miss Cummings had students record and video tape conversational Spanish dialog in teams of two acting as famous people using puppets. The exercise was very entertaining and provided a great way for students to learn and have fun. Miss Cummings was able to upload the performances to her website and Wiki where students could view them giving them authorship. Student progress in conversational Spanish was notably improved.

This second example involves distance learing - I wonder if we'll ever have all our course content on-line and teach kids who are at home or in a remote location? My daughter was in this Physics classroom last semester. She didn't seem at all bothered by the fact that some students were watching the class and interacting via Skype.

Through Dim-Dim, a Smartboard and some Eee computers, Mr. Mike Rudolph Physics teacher showed how he can conduct a Physics class not just for students within the Heritage High School walls but also includes 5 students in Center Colorado who are distance learning with him. This method of communication is called Skype. The students in Center Colorado are able to see Mr. Rudolph as he conducts experiments and writes on the Smartboard. This is great way to fill out seats in a partially filled classroom and can be used to generate revenue.

How Technology is Used in other Schools - Part 1

I've decided to write a few posts about how technology is being used in other schools around the district. At Euclid I am keenly aware of the uses of technology, but I wanted to look outside the box and see what's going on elsewhere - maybe it will give us a few ideas to try there in addition to what we already do.

My first post is about the use of technology at HHS in their music department. Here's a quote from the ETAC presentation given back in Sept. 2008.

"Who thought technology could be used in so many clever ways to enhance H.S. marching bands and orchestral group participation! But Kevin Keena Band Director showed a number of ingenious ways technology has improved both the student learning curve and provided an integrated participation both in and outside the music classroom. Kevin embedded a beautiful audio of the wind ensemble band he conducted as background music on his website. For parents, the website contains announcements, schedules, answers to frequently asked questions and required forms. There are links to LHS and AHS high school band sites and links for every instrument used in the program to aid students who are having difficulty with fingering techniques, or rhythmic issue. Kevin makes use of an MP3 player to record band rehearsals, students upload the rehearsal, listen to themselves practice, and then provide feedback on how they thought they performed and what could be improved. Finally, Kevin incorporates a link that can illustrate animated drills for the marching band so students can more easily see where they need to be on the field and why.

I like that they use the HHS website for communicating to parents - we do this with our site too - our music teachers post all the upcoming evening performances for the year and provide a lot of additional detail for parents too - how to obtain instruments, expectation for students and much, much more.

Euclid's website

I've been scanning the use of our website by our staff. I'm pleased to point out that many (most) of the teachers have started using their own teacher page to communicate homework, project due dates and share general information with their students and parent community.

Isn't this a better way to communicate with students than using Homework Hotline? I'm wondering if by the fall that we couldn't do away with Homework Hotline? I know that some of you are still experimenting with using your webpage to announce your homework, but by next fall you'll probably be ready to "go live".

I think that parents would welcome this approach if you were to announce in Back to School night that this is the main method of communicating homework, field trips and other communications to them.

Good job everyone!

What do you think - should we do away with Homework Hotline next year?