The subject of kids and media - how much they consume, what's "good" for them, what parents' role should be - is a broad and complicated topic. This is a collection of articles wide range of advice and information.

What is EduCon? "...not a technology conference. It is an education conference. It is, hopefully, an innovation conference where we can come together ... to discuss the future of schools. Every session will be an opportunity to discuss and debate ideas - from the very practical to the big dreams."

Option to attend either in person or virtually

OK...I have been trying to avoid the incessant Steve Jobs idolatry. But, it is hard to not admire his thought processes. So, here is a quick read of one of the many inspirational pieces that are out there.

Master the message. You can have the greatest idea in the world, but if you can't communicate your ideas, it doesn't matter.

See genius in your craziness, believe in yourself, believe in your vision, and be constantly prepared to defend those ideas.

Article based on The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the 5 Skills of Disruptive Innovators Focus on concluding three chapters, People, Processes, and Philosophies, which draw on and offers 15 takeaways for Principals and School-Leaders.

What You Can Do to Become Stronger Innovation Leaders in Your School: 1. Own as Principal the role of Innovator-in-Chief: You can't delegate innovation. 2. Make your practice of "active innovation" visible. 3. Create complementary teams in school leadership. 4 . Observe closely what other principals and schools are doing. 5. Arrange for employee swaps. 6. Ask "Why?" 7. Seek people who had invented something, held deep expertise in a particular knowledge area, and demonstrated a passion to change the world. 8. Remember that innovators want to work with and for other innovators. 9. Embed innovation as an explicit, consistent element of performance reviews. 10. Develop formal and informal processes to facilitate knowledge exchanges. 11. Network externally. 12. Practice Beta testing and Prototyping. 13. Build many small, diverse teams. 14. Communicate and reinforce that Innovation is everyone's job. 15. Make innovation an explicit core value of your school. 16. Give more time for innovation. 17. Create "a safe space for others to innovate. 18. Model your risk taking and your learning from failure.

The book is framed around the Five Core Skills of Innovators, a framework highly valuable for ourselves and our students: What are we doing to do more of and become better at *Associating, *Questioning, *Observing, *Networking, *Experimenting.

15th Annual NEASCD Conference in Boston, MA on Dec 1- 3 at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel. This year's Conference, Leading and Learning: What's Next? Presenters: Heidi Hayes Jacobs Rick and Becky DuFour Alan November John D'Auria Kim Marshall Brian Mull Will Richardson

"Student voice" is talked about a lot in education, but what does it actually mean? Does it mean listening to students' opinions? Does it mean involving students in decisions about their learning? Does it mean students should have an equal say in decisions made about their entire educational experience, including decisions made at the level of school management and governance?

"This working paper describes a series of recent 'student voice' projects … varied in … specific contexts and processes. …Elicit(s) young people's perspectives about learning, education and/or other aspects of their lives…"

When presented with the statement there is too much emphasis on 'student voice' and similar ideas nowadays, teachers were almost divided in thirds: 26 percent agreed or strongly agreed, 34 percent were unsure, and 39 percent disagreed or strongly disagreed (See p. 89 of this report). Why did these teachers have such divergent opinions? More importantly, how exactly did each teacher interpret the term "student voice"?

"How have your best teachers inspired, engaged, encouraged and challenged you?" Teens on the staff of New Youth Connections magazine were asked to think this over - then they gathered for a group discussion about the best learning experiences they've had.

Top 10 Pieces of Advice from Students for Teachers 1. Be pushy. 2. Make the lesson relevant to our lives. 3. Be relatable, but please don't say: "It's time to dip, y'all!" 4. Teach us with words, sights, and sounds. 5. Be consistent and firm. 6. Believe in us. 7. Explain, explain, explain. 8. Use our time wisely. 9. Have clear objectives, clearly communicated.

Video of keynote address by Sir Ken Robinson at the 2011 Rowland Foundation Conference on High School Transformation. Worth a second listen.

Paraphrasing here... "What we call alternative education… * Personalized curriculum * Small class sizes * Customized programs * Strong connections with communities * Connecting education with student interests The reason that we call this 'alternative education' is because mainstream education isn't like this…but it should be."

Hello Karen and others looking for the SKR video, We will be putting that video back up this week. We will also be posting that password for all Rowland Diigo members. We will also be looking to suss a few key points from the keynote. These will then be posted as short 4 to 5 minute clips.

Burlington - December 7th Part 1: Attitudes for Success with Challenging StudentsPart 2: Secrets of Promoting Responsibility for Learning and BehavingPart 3: Can't Miss Strategies to Motivate Students Every DayPart 4: Handle Difficult Student Behavior with Proven InterventionsPart 5: Build a Values Based Classroom

"At the core of the project is building collaborations among schools, businesses, and nonprofit organizations as a means to get everyone working together."

"The report argues that our national strategy for education and youth development has been too narrowly focused on an academic, classroom-based approach.Other advanced industrial nations are succeeding with an approach that places greater emphasis on career and technical education and work-based learning. Pathways to Prosperity contends that in order to regain the educational leadership we held for more than a century, the United States must build a more comprehensive network of pathways to serve youth in high school and beyond."

"This thoughtful paper makes a strong case for the development of multiple pathways leading from high school to post-secondary education or career training. Those of us who support a single-track system through high school need to carefully consider the questions raised in this provocative report." Phil Bredesen, Governor of Tennessee (2003-2011)

A truly transformed school. Could be tweaked to include non-curriculars. Interesting collection. Video, article, slideshow.

Research by Richard Light, the author and Harvard University scholar, and others indicates that when students are asked to write for one another, they write more effectively. This is perhaps counterintuitive. Wouldn't students do their best work for those grading their work? But students aren't eager to be seen as poor writers by their peers, so they step up their game when writing for other students. Also, they know that their peers don't understand the course content as well as their instructors do, so they tend to provide better explanations when writing for peers.

This manual contains an introduction, three training sections, and an appendix with supplemental materials: I. How Students Benefit from Parent Involvement II. Understanding Your School III. How ... Parents Become Involved IV. Appendix

To provide an overview of the key elements of parent involvement from...

To provide a suggested format for training...

The "Collaborating for Success" Parent Engagement Toolkit is designed to provide parents with practical strategies for getting engaged in schools, and to offer schools research-based approaches to overcoming barriers to parental engagement. Parents will find strategies and information that will encourage their future or current involvement with their children's schools. The school-related approaches will support the development of new parent programs or the enhancement of existing ones.

The Institute on Thailand and its Cultures is a study abroad program for Vermont educators and teachers in Thailand. The program, which includes three instate planning session and three weeks overseas, provides participants with the opportunity to study various aspects of Thai culture such as economic development, education, and women's social status, and minority cultures in Thailand.

In my humble opinion, the best way to think out of the box is to actually get out of the box. What a better way to do that than something like this?

"What capacity do we need as leaders to demonstrate authenticity and build credibility and trust? One of the most critical is our ability and willingness to engage in challenging, sensitive - in a word, courageous - conversations."

"If we are leading for improvement, we are inevitably leading for change and can expect some degree of discomfort, disagreement or resistance along the way - whether on the level of the individual, or the organization."

"Leadership often involves challenging people to live up to their words, to close the gap between their espoused values and their actual behaviour. It may mean pointing out the elephant sitting on the table at a meeting - the unspoken issue that everyone sees but no one wants to mention."

"It takes people with big ideas - and smart ways to implement them - to make any progress. And that's the point of the Big Ideas Fest, held December 4-7 in Half Moon Bay, Calif., a gathering of leaders and innovators who will share their thoughts and tactics with educators and all those interested in education innovation."

"When you issue an open invitation and gather together a large group of self-nominated passionate stakeholders from a broad cross-section across a system or organization and ask them to vision your shared ideal future, anything can happen."

16 crucial reasons why students need teachers

Long-term transformational change has four primary aspects: scale (the change affects all or most of the school), magnitude (the degree to which it challenges the status quo), duration (the change is incremental at first and then moves to exponential), and strategic importance (how ready the culture is for adapting to change). Yet schools will only see significant change when the change occurs first at the level of the individual educational leader- be that principal, superintendent, or teacher. Real change, transformational change happens when there is personal ownership of the new technologies and concepts. Today's new economy is all about human capital, which starts with the educators in a school and then extends outward to all members of the school community.

Principles for Managing Change 1. People before Things (or test scores) 2. Start at the Top 3. Everyone is a Player in the Change Game 4. Garner Buy-in 5. Can't Give Away What You Do Not Own 6. Communicate and Often 7. Know Your Culture and Predict Possible Impact 8. Expect the Unexpected 9. As the Individual Grows so Will the Collective Wisdom of the Community