"If your local public high school has empty seats, the district might lay off teachers. If it's operated by K12 Inc., the company will take out an ad on CNN, The Cartoon Network or VampireFreaks.com and fill those seats."

If you use Chrome, you need to add this. Super easy. Great tool to use!

"For 30 minutes a week, Borman Elementary School is opening its doors to toddlers and their parents . . . Principal Robert Gonzalez said he'd noticed a lot of 3-year-olds accompanying their parents to drop off their older siblings at school in the mornings . . .I want them to just explore."

Diane Ravitch is a prolific author, respected academic researcher and former assistant Secretary of Education who has been one of the most provocative big thinkers on education in America for decades. Watch online: Diane Ravitch from Overheard with Evan Smith. On demand, streaming video from KLRU

I saw the link to this 2 minute video on TexasISD.com. The theme of this video: frustrated by the status quo and failing schools, more and more parents are demanding a choice for their children. Do our teachers, counselors, etc. sense the atmosphere of competition & choice growing across the state and nation? Should we explore this angle on our next Early Release Day? Would it create a sense of urgency for further development of relationships and relevance? Of customization and choice? I'm interested in your perspective. Let me know. :-)

I think we can easily stay (and should stay) in the positive realm by looking at all the ways we customize, provide choice, establish relationships, etc. When we put our minds to it, I'm confident that we can out perform our charter school and private school competitors. This week, the Dallas Morning News reported that Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst named Sen. Dan Patrick to lead the Texas Senate's Education Committee, guaranteeing a battle over school choice - or vouchers - in the January session. It has been said that Dan Patrick built his political career around taking the "public" out of education and is the best ever example of "fox guarding the hen house." Both Dewhurst and Patrick, R-Houston, have said recently they want to push the idea of helping parents yank their children from failing public schools. Patrick has called school choice "the civil rights issue of our time." The 2 minute video may be a little strong, but it can certainly serve as an attention getter as we explore what it means to customize, provide choice, establish relationships, etc. I'm thinking that many of our district colleagues have heard the term 3C's and 3R's, but they can't name them. In fact, I was in a meeting earlier this week where the C's and R's couldn't be correctly identified. On the October Early Release Day, how will we process this year's Leading Indicator data?

With so much discussion about flipped instruction, it's important to distinguish between what 'flipped' is and what it is not. It is NOT watch a video at home, then come to school to work through packets on your own. It is, among other things, "a means to INCREASE interaction and personalized contact time between students and teachers". And it is "a blending of direct instruction with constructivist learning . . ."

Steven Johnson shows us that the question we need to ask is, "What kind of environment fosters the development of good ideas?" Johnson's conclusion is that with today's tools and environment, radical innovation is extraordinarily accessible to those who know how to cultivate it. What if we scanned or connected the 'comments' we are currently writing on Diigo? Are we leaving ourselves a trail of Good Ideas (or Hunches) that we value as a Success Team?

Applications for teaching and learning? for professional development sessions? faculty meetings?

Here's a short video for your Friday! :-)

In this article, you'll read that "Individualization of content and instruction is a Holy Grail in education."

The author asserts that "We know very little about what our students can actually do with what they know."

The student said, "You know Mr. Mac. It was early in the morning. I was hungry. I just couldn't think." Some 53 percent of the survey sample of more than 1,000 teachers in public schools in grades K-8 said they purchase food for hungry kids in their classrooms; one out of ten said they buy food for students every week.

The worst kind of clock ...is a clock that's wrong. Randomly fast or slow. If we know exactly how much it's wrong, then it's not so bad. If there's no clock, we go seeking the right time. But a wrong clock? We're going to be tempted to accept what it tells us. What are you measuring? Keeping track of the wrong data, or reading it wrong is worse than not keeping track at all.

Journalist John Hockenberry touches on the issue of design and intent. His message is clear, engaging, memorable, and inspiring.

An outstanding, profound daily entry that takes only a minute to read. . . but you'll think about it all day and, perhaps, even longer.

These look like terrific tools! :-)

Look for customization, digital learning, and assessment. Do you agree with the solutions proposed in this article?

New Dallas ISD Superintendent Mike Miles stars in a YouTube video asking parents to do their part to make sure their child does well in school. He wants parents to do three things: Make sure their child comes to school on time, make sure their homework is completed, and make sure they read everyday. Tell me what you think about this approach! :-)

Could the video format serve as a companion to the text-based Monday Message? Something to think about!

The first 3 1/2 minutes got my attention, then I had to watch the rest of it. Tell me what you think of it! :-)

Need some big ideas to transform our thinking about education? Here's a 5 minute crash course in innovative approaches for K-12 education.