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"iSchool: a closer look at Manhattan Beach Unified's iPad pilot program email Does Manhattan Beach Unified's iPad pilot program represent the future of education? Kindergarten students at Grand View Elementary School use iPads two times a week. Photo by Alene Tchekmedyian Kindergarten students at Grand View Elementary School use iPads two times a week. Photo by Alene Tchekmedyian Just before 8 a.m. one recent Tuesday, Andy Caine wheeled a waist-high cart into his second-floor history classroom at Mira Costa High School, as the Beach Boys' "I Get Around" played faintly in the background. On the syllabus for the day: the First Amendment. As the first period bell rang, Caine unlocked the cart. "Come and get 'em," Caine said to his class of seniors, and stood behind his podium, on which he's pasted a sticker reading, "Think for yourself. Question Authority." The students put aside their pens and notebooks and lined up at the cart to pick up an unconventional tool that school districts across the nation have been implementing into classrooms. Each student grabbed an iPad and returned to his or her seat. Caine is one of 43 Manhattan Beach Unified School District teachers chosen to try the $500,000 iPad pilot program, which started last fall. At Mira Costa, two English, math, science and social studies teachers use iPads, along with eight science teachers at Manhattan Beach Middle School and 27 teachers of different grade levels at each elementary school. The district purchased 560 student iPads (32 gigabytes and costing around $700 each), in addition to iPads for pilot teachers and administrators. A quarter of the pilot costs are grant funded, while the district supports the rest. Later this year, the School Board will decide whether, and in what capacity, to continue the pilot. Caine and pilot teachers implement iPads into their curricula two to three times a week, a total of 30 to 90 minutes. "I would use them every day if I had the po

"Real school change would mean changing high school curriculum" Yes I know blasphemy! But real school change would mean changing the high school curriculum. The high school curriculum has been part of what we believe schools must be for so long that we assume that it has to be that way. In fact our core curriculum has changed very little in 115 years. In 1892 [...] You may view the latest post at http://whatsbecomeclear.com/real-school-change-would-mean-changing-high-school-curriculum

"The American school year has been largely unchanged for decades, despite evolutions in culture, demographics, technology, and a wide range of other social and economic factors. In our increasingly global economy, this is starting to become a disadvantage, especially as students in many school districts are struggling to meet national standards and are simply unable to keep up with their international counterparts, many of whom spend many more hours in the classroom than they do. While there is no one magic solution to reforming schools, many districts around the nation have sought to level the playing field by adding more time to the school day or school year to more closely match those of other nations. While some changes have been more successful than others, what is clear is that the school year that worked for students decades ago simply isn't practical for today's students. Read on to find out some of the biggest reasons many are moving to extend or rearrange the school year for American students."

"Does your school or school district provide a moderated, interactive web platform for video sharing among students as well as teachers? While education-specific video sites like Edublogs.tv, SchoolTube, and TeacherTube can and are being used by learners around the world to share video interactively (as well as YouTube and YouTube EDU) there can be a number of benefits when schools provide "homegrown YouTube" video services. Often school district network administrators are loath to unblock / open access to YouTube. A homegrown video sharing site can be moderated and controlled (an extremely important word in the lexicon of IT directors) in ways a public video sharing website outside the school network cannot. Bandwidth limitations are often cited as the reason video sharing sites in schools are blocked. While software and hardware solutions exist to limit the percentage or total amount of bandwidth allocated to services like video streaming websites, many school networks are not presently configured to implement these types of imposed limits. "The fight to unblock YouTube" even for teacher access and use is an uphill struggle in many schools, but the case for a homegrown video sharing site can be less contentious."

Who is "Reber", anyway? David Reber, a.k.a. - "me". I am a native of Lawrence, Kansas. Alumnus of Hillcrest Elementary School, West Junior High School, Lawrence High School, and The University of Kansas. I hold a BS in Biology from KU, an MS in Science Education from Emporia State University, and a Kansas Teaching License for high school Biology and General Science. I began teaching in Lawrence Public Schools in 1996. After one year at Lawrence High School, I transferred to Free State High School for it's inaugural year in 1997 and have taught there ever since. Courses I've taught include Biology, Advanced Placement Biology, Applied Biology, Plant and Animal Biology, Ecology and Environmental Science, Human Anatomy and Physiology, Human Biology, General Chemistry, and Science Explorations.

"MyKidsTurn is about our kids -- yours and ours -- and how we're going to make sure that they have the best opportunity we can give them to succeed at school. As a parent, you want the best for your kids. You want them to enjoy learning, and to succeed at school. You want them to grow up excited and engaged with their teachers. The good news is that helping your kids succeed in school isn't just something the teachers and schools have control over -- there's a lot you can do, too! The MyKidsTurn shows are all created by parents and educators. They're about the things we can do with our kids -- games, exercises, strategies, and fun activities that will help them understand concepts and ideas that are going to be important for them in school."

"Ian Jukes, Ted McCain, and Lee Crockett write in their book Understanding the Digital Generation, "Schools have not recognized the changes that have occurred in the world around them and have continued to teach as if it were 1980." In the spirit of David Letterman, here's my "Top 10 Signs Your Schools Caught in a Time Warp." A list for school administrators. "

"Cell Phones for Learning Cell phones are rapidly becoming ubiquitous in many school communities, but their presence in the classroom is commonly viewed as disruptive and unwanted. Modern cell phones offer a variety of capabilities, which are being used effectively by educators in different schools to support curricular learning objectives and boost student achievement. Explore reasons some school districts are embracing the use of cell phones for learning both inside and outside the classroom and examine specific guidelines school districts are utilizing for student cell phones. Explore specific applications of cell phones for learning, including use as electronic response systems, data access, media recording, homework tracking and social networking. This session is also presented as: * Guidelines and Instructional Applications for Cell Phone Use at School * Cell Phone Digital Storytelling"

Educate, engage, and inspire your students with video! Sign up for YouTube for Schools to bring the power of video to your classrooms for free. Access thousands of free high quality educational videos on YouTube in a controlled environment. Learn more here. Are you logged-in with your school's Google account? If you don't have a Google account for your school, please sign up for free here. Please do not sign up for YouTube for Schools using your personal account.

"The debates about schools and social media are a subject of great public and policy interests. In reality, the debate has been shaped by one key fact: the almost universal decision by school administrators to block social media. Because social media is such a big part of many students social lives, cultural identities, and informal learning networks schools actually find themselves grappling with social media everyday but often from a defensive posture-reacting to student disputes that play out over social media or policing rather than engaging student's social media behaviors."

"the new Waverly Shell Rock Middle School, in Waverly, Iowa. Their school was devastated by flooding back in 2008. With the help from FEMA, state, and local resources, the school reopened in the fall of 2011 as a 5th grade thru 8th grade middle school featuring a 1:1 ipad rollout to all 600 students. "

Welcome to the iZone Schools page! These are the model schools that are seeking to innovate in core areas of school transformation

Comments on "Top 12 Tips to Create an Effective School Website" In today's Internet savvy society, sophisticated school websites are increasingly becoming the norm. To stand out from the masses, a school website should have compelling content and visual appeal, be engaging and informative, and reflect the spirit and activities at the school. "

Facing shrinking enrollment and in danger of closing its doors, in 2007, the Newton (KS) School District reestablished Newton as a public charter school. Bolstered by Charter School Program funds from the U.S. Department of Education, the Walton 21st Century Rural Life Center became the first public school in the nation to completely incorporate agriculture into its elementary classrooms and curricula.

"Education has certainly changed from when I was in school, but when one of my grandkids started pre-kindergarten this year, I realized just how different things were since my youngest child was in high school just seven years ago. Along with the usual school supplies of notebooks and pencils, wireless devices are quickly becoming indispensable learning aids in schools."

Schools turning from textbooks to more versatile technology More schools across the country are offering students laptops, e-readers and iPods rather than traditional textbooks. Schools are basing their decisions on the expected long-term savings of investing in technology that can be updated quickly with new information. "If we continue to prepare kids for their past, that's very expensive," a Harvard educator said. "Their future is largely going to be in new media. And textbooks are no longer preparing them for that future." ABC News

Upon becoming Principal of New Milford High School over three years ago, it was decided after a needs assessment that more resources and professional development had to go into the area of educational technology. I was fortunate enough to participate in two television shows that resulted in funds that normally don't just fall into the hands of a high school administrator. After researching and learning about how iPods and MacBooks were being utilized to engage learners, I quickly decided to purchase a mobile iPod learning lab.....

Read this blog post! What happens if you really begin to rethink what your school looks like? No, I'm not talking about rethink from a wildly radical viewpoint - like mine or say, Neil Postman's - but just if a dedicated set of educators stops "tinkering" with little changes and wonders what school might be like... "

Across the country, schools announce iPad pilots, bring the mobile devices into the classroom and rave about their new tools. "It's really the first version of the iPad, and there's a lot of bluster and a lot of sort of enthusiasm about iPads without a lot of concrete statistics and case studies to go by," said Sam Gliksman, educational technology director at New Community Jewish High School in West Hills, Calif.

"10 Steps To Be A Blogging School no10In this article, I would like to share the 10 steps for being a blogging school. This is the way I decided to follow based on my experiences as a teacher and blogger. Maybe, before writing this kind of a blog post, I should wait until the experience proves to be successful. So please remember: These are not proven success steps to be a blogging school but my ideas might help you generate your own. At the end of this academic year, I will write another blog post and evaluate the success of the way I followed."