The Innovative Educator

Are schools making our children illiterate to make a profit?

2012-01-20T04:20:00.000-08:00

Professional writer and filmmaker Peter Kowalke didn't start reading until he was 11 which wasn't a problem for him because he didn't go to school. He explained it to me this way.

In school you read about doing things. I preferred to spend my early childhood doing things rather than reading about doing things.

He shared that this wasn't even something he thought about much. When learning to read independently became more of a priority for him, he began picking up reading and from that point on there was no turning back. Peter is not unusual. Dr. Peter Gray studies young people who were never schooled because they were unschooled or attended a Democratic school. The age these children learned to read has a wide range from about 4 - 14 years old. He found that when not coerced or forced, EVERY child learns to read well and by age 15 it is nearly impossible to tell the difference between a child who began reading at 4 and one who began in later years. (Note: This did not include children with severe cognitive impairment or those who don't speak English.) For those unfamiliar with unschooling or Democratic schooling, it provides children with a natural learning environment where they have access to plenty of resources and support, but learning is not forced and children are given the freedom to learn what they choose when they choose.

From Students First

There is plenty of information, research, and numerous case studies that point to the fact learning to read and write will come as naturally to children as learning to walk and talk if provided a literate and supportive environment where passions are honored. Unfortunately, school was not designed this way. In school all children are expected to learn at the same rate and in the same way and if they don't, they are labeled, left back, and left out. What's more, in today's accountability climate, the same is happening to many of their teachers.

Most recently, we've been led to believe the cure to the literacy problem in our country can be solved by testing even more. It is thought that this will enable us to figure out where the problems lie within each student and determine who the "bad teachers" are so we can replace them with others who are good at getting the mandated results. But does obsessively dissecting what a student is doing really help them get better? Imagine if we did this while children were learning to walk or talk? Can't all this lab rat analysis take the joy out of what the child is doing? We also need to ask ourselves, are our best teachers really those who can produce good test takers? Ironically, there is new research coming out that indicates that standardized testing leads to a dramatic decrease in the joy of reading. Perhaps even more importantly, education expert Alfie Kohn explain how teachers are killing students motivation to read by relying on coercion and extrinsic inducements.

Could this all be on purpose? All this focus on testing and forcing has resulted in a nation where an alarming 67% of 4th grade students are being identified as not being able to read proficiently by the arbitrary time government officials say they should be. Could it be that the government is wrong about when it is that students should be proficient and by forcing a factory model of learning they are actually keeping students behind? Could it be that Americans are being purposely mislead to feed the money-hungry testing and publishing companies that are now literally pulling in billions of dollars? After all, like it or not, this is huge business! These are companies that are backing and supporting politicians. These are the companies who came together and stood arm in arm with the politicians from each state in the creation of the Common Core standards and now stand to make billions in profits . Are American schools actually causing the illiteracy issue because it results in a tremendous amount of money for big business rather than useful resources for children?

And, come on! Let's face it. Teachers were trained to develop materials for teaching and they are experts at assessment. Why on earth do we need to pay someone else to do the work teachers were hired to do?

If 2/3rds of children aren't reading on level, isn't it clear that perhaps it is not the children or the teachers that are the issue??? Maybe the developmental level identified is wrong or maybe there is purposely a curriculum in place that makes us want to do more testing, test-prepping, and publishing of materials to meet a "crisis" that is non-existent for those who venture to learn to read and write without the benefit of school.

Perhaps this chart below explains the impetus to do this to children. With 5.3 billion dollars out there for the taking, there is a significant incentive to perpetuate the problem.

A little less coercion, force, and mandating that every person achieves by date of manufacture can go a long way in saving our children and saving dollars for our education system. Will this happen? Probably not. There are too many people who stand to profit off our children.

You can keep the conversation about this going on my Facebook page here or in my learning group here.

Reasons an innovative educator likes the Google Chromebook and some things I'd like improved

2012-01-19T03:31:00.000-08:00

I have been using Google’s Chromebook for the couple months, and while there were some things I don’t like, overall, it has moved up as my top recommendation for a learning device for a number of reasons. Schools will love that it eliminates the need to purchase software licenses, servers, costly security solutions, and maintenance plans.

The total cost of owning a Chromebook is up to 70% lower than the ownership costs for a traditional PC. After 3 years, schools receive a whole new set of Chromebooks and can keep their original set (without cloud management or ongoing support) at no charge. Currently Chromebooks go for $449 per device with service for one year ($519 with 3G) or $20 per month per device with an optional $3 per month cost for 3G. Schools should have some of these on hand for students without internet at home. The monthly option includes the hardware and operating system, updates, cloud-based management, and complete support. The one time purchase provides this for one year. This eliminates the time-consuming maintenance tasks like imaging, installing patches, and data recovery which schools often are not equipped to handle.

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THE DEVICE

It’s fast!

If you’re like me, you don’t like to waste time. My previous laptop took 8 minutes to start up. Not with the Chromebook where you can enjoy “instant on.” You open it, it's on. You close it, it’s off. Additionally, the Chrome browser is faster than any other I’ve used.

A production machine

Provided you're comfortable working in the cloud (and you should be), creating content is quick and easy with Chromebook.

The production apps I use most often include the following:

Word Processing and Spreadsheets - Google apps
Presentations - Prezi or Google Presentation
Video upload and editing - YouTube
Blogging - Blogger
Social media: Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus
Working offline: Scratchpad

Because of speed and ease of use, I find the Chromebook my go to device surpassing my iPad, iTouch, or traditional laptop.

Google App Marketplace

The Google App Marketplace has a ton of free apps that are great for productivity and education. You can see which ones I like best at The Innovative Educator's Picks for the Google Chrome Extensions in The App Marketplace.

You don’t have to go to a search engine to search. You just type what you’re searching for right in the box where you typically type in a URL.

Worry Elimination

Bugs and viruses
Because the device is in the cloud, you don’t worry about bugs or viruses and you don’t get those annoying McAfee Antivirus warnings and advertisements.
Machine won’t slow down
On a traditional device, before you know it, it has been slowed down with a bunch of software that you never wanted permanently and slows down your device. For the truly sophisticated user you can engage in re-installing the operating system, updating your registry, clearing your cache, etc.
Image
You never have to worry about updating your image. It’s tied to your Google Account and you or your administrator can customize it to your liking.

Device interchangeability and indestructibility
For those who’ve been responsible for one-to-one deployments, it isn’t uncommon to hear it isn’t quite the panacea it is touted to be. Today, what’s important is that students can access “their” work anytime, anywhere. Providing ubiquitous access with Chromebooks rather than the traditional one-to-one not only eliminates imaging issues, but now, customizing a device is no longer a problem since you log on with your Google account. As a result, the devices become nearly indestructible. Additionally, many of the inventory issues that have become a nightmare and burden for some one-to-one schools are virtually eliminated.

Battery Life

The Chromebook lasts a full day. That’s right. You can go 8 hours straight. This means you don’t have to worry about powercords and having outlets available all around the room. I love having a device that doesn’t require me to travel with a clunky and weighty powercord.

WHAT I DON’T LIKE OR IS HARD GETTING USED TO

Crashing

I was surprised to find that the browser crashes a lot. When this happens you have the option to “kill pages” or “wait." My advice: always choose "kill." If you don't the machine typically freezes up and you have to restart...though with the quick start up time, that's not so bad. What I don’t like is that there is no ctrl alt delete / force quit. The device seems to crash about once every three hours even after following troubleshooting directions for extensive crashing. I am hoping this is an issue that Google is working on.

Thing you can’t do

There are several programs that I use often that I can’t access with the Chromebook. These include the following:

Skype
While there are alternatives to Skype like Google Video and Google Hangout, Skype has become the standard that most people want to use to connect.
Webinars
I hosted two webinars and was surprised to find neither webinar provider runs on Chrome. I had to get another device.
iTunes
I think it is ridiculous that iTunes is not a cloud-only service. I believe it is moving in that direction but Apple doesn’t play nice with Google, so we’ll have to wait-and-see if this will become available for Chromebooks.
USB for Wireless InternetThere may be a way to make my wireless usb work, but I haven't figured it out. If it can be activated, it is not intuitive, and my hunch is that it can not. A MiFi card however, does work.
No Java or Silverlight supportThis means I can't do things like screencasts. This will be a big issue for some educators.

Keyboard

Google has decided to reconfigure parts of a keyboard which I don’t appreciate. Here is what’s missing.

Caps lock
In place of caps lock is a search button. I hate this as I keep forgetting and then get launched into a search in which I had no interest. You can achieve caps lock by holding down both shift keys.
Delete
I love my delete key. In it’s place is power off. I hate this as well because I forget and inadvertently shut the device off. Fortunately it comes back on quickly. You can achieve the delete function by using alt and backspace which is okay, but I prefer the one-finger option of the delete key.

Right Click

I want my right click button back. I hate the two-finger touch. It’s awkward and glitchy. Additionally, scrolling is a nightmare because it is easy to accidently engage unwanted menus and commands.

Pen Functionality

I miss the pen functionality of my HP Tablet.

Because of it’s speed, ease in maintentance, and functionality as a great production device, Google Chromebooks are the device I recommend for primary use by students and professionals. However, whether used in the school or office, you will want access to other devices for the times you want to engage in activities unsupported such as Skype, webinars, iTunes, and sophisticated video editing (you can do basic editing in the cloud using YouTube).

You can keep the Google Chromebook conversation going at Chromebook Central - The Official Group for Chromebooks.

The Gifted/ADHD Connection

2012-01-18T03:53:00.000-08:00

Guest post by Dori Staehle | Cross posted at Next Stage Educational Consulting

It reads like something from a science fiction novel: Millions of schoolchildren lining up everyday for the medication that will make them sit still, pay attention – and behave! Orwell’s1984 or Kurt Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron perhaps?

This is life imitating art. We’ve become so convinced that children need to be medicated in order to learn that we’ve completely ignored what’s really causing their inattention and hyperactivity in the first place.

As an educational consultant and private tutor, I’ve seen children medicated needlessly. I’ve seen the prevalent side effects, I’ve heard from frantic Moms after their sons were rushed to the emergency room. The sad fact is that the majority of children who are diagnosed as ADD or ADHD (often by their teachers!), are actually highly gifted, talented, and creative kids. The problem is: No one was looking for that.

Like they say, if all you have is a hammer, then everything looks like a nail. Since most teacher training programs and even graduate programs don’t cover this, let me explain what giftedness is. Giftedness is a complex phenomenon which encompasses high IQ and creativity, along with heightened sensitivities, and uneven development (combined definition from Dr. Linda Silverman, The Columbus Group, and this writer).

At many of my workshops, I outline the symptoms of ADD/ADHD taken from the psychologist’s “bible”, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). Then, I add to the right side of the screen the traits of giftedness, as per The Gifted Development Center in Denver. Yes folks, both lists are exactly the same (you can seen this chart here).People who are super-talented, creative, or bright tend to be hyper. They space out when they’re bored or when they’re trying to figure something out. They tend to hyper-focus on areas of interest.

In addition, there are literally hundreds of medical conditions that can produce hyperactivity and inattentiveness (The Hyperactivity Hoax, Dr. Sydney Walker, http://amzn.to/z1djaQ). Within my student population, 100% were right-brained, 95% were gifted, 90% were highly gifted with IQ’s in the 150-200 range (average IQ is 100), and all of them had allergies, asthma, hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), food sensitivities, or a combination of all four.

In 2000, I spoke at a gifted education conference and posited that a huge percentage of students that are being labeled as ADD/ADHD are actually right-brained gifted, talented, and/or creative students. We are, in fact, medicating brilliance. We are also ignoring the underlying medical conditions and not accounting for the biggest trigger: stress.

Schools are left-brained institutions taught by predominantly left-brained individuals (Right-Brained Children in a Left-Brained World: Unlocking the Potential of Your ADD Child, Jeff Freed). They don’t understand those of us who are right-brained and creative, who think in pictures and tend to be random, not sequential. So, they medicate what they don’t like or don’t understand. Surely, there must be something wrong with these kids’ brains! In fact, ADD used to be known as a brain disorder – even though most of these kids have high IQ’s! You can almost call it a “left-brained conspiracy”. No wonder these kids are stressed out – they’re not allowed to be themselves!

Therefore, it is no surprise that there is a huge incidence of gifted, talented, and creative kids within the homeschooling population (www.hoagiesgifted.org). They can learn in ways that work for them and be with others like them. They can spend a great deal of time on their passions and take breaks or blow off steam when needed. This is their version of normal. Maybe it’s time to accept that and not try to change it.

Dori Staehle has close to 20 years of tutoring and consulting experience and has worked with public, private, and homeschooled students and their families. She holds a BA in French and German from Wagner College in NY, and an MBA in finance from Fairleigh Dickinson University in NJ. In addition, she has done both graduate and post-graduate work in gifted education and gifted psychology while in CO.

Dori has written and published several articles on gifted education and homeschooling and developed the theory known as The Gifted/ADHD Connection. She is currently writing a book which is tentatively titled Hearing the Music: Why We Chose Homeschooling Instead of Ritalin.

Get On-Demand Support for Your Writing for Free with PaperRater.Com

2012-01-17T03:38:00.000-08:00

I recently discovered PaperRater.com, a paper grading and feedback resource that is free and does not require a download. Developed and maintained by linguistics professionals, subject matter experts, and graduate students, PaperRater.com does this by combining the power of natural language processing (NLP), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, information retrieval (IR), computational linguistics, data mining, and advanced pattern matching (APM). The program is used by schools and universities in over 46 countries to help authors improve their writing.

PaperRater.com provides helpful feedback on grammar, spelling, word choice, and style, but not the author's arguments, logic, organization, and ideas. There is also an Auto Grader rates the grammar, spelling, word choice, and style and has been found to be nearly as accurate as human graders for that part of the work, for most papers. At the end of your paper rating, you get a professional looking PaperRater Printable Summary Analysis that gives you an overview of your paper.

Here’s why I love this for writers.
It’s always great to get instant feedback on your writing and added bonus is not having to bug anyone for it. I ran some of my blog posts through PaperRater and received useful suggestion on things like using active of active voice, spelling, grammar, and vocabulary.

Here’s why I love this for teachers.
For teachers who are grading student work, it is terrific to have your students get this sort of feedback before handing in their papers. This means less time focusing on grammar, spelling, style, and vocabulary, and more time focusing on content. There is also a plagiarism detector (though most innovative educators don’t give work that can be plagiarised).

If we really want to empower writers to work independently, it is ideal to combine PaperRater with a tool like SWoRD, the free web-based, system that uses peer review as its backbone.

A Dream to Be Free At Last From State Standardized Tests

2012-01-16T00:26:00.000-08:00

Parents and educators across the nation are fed up with a government sucking data out of our students like a vampire who needs their blood to survive. Fortunately, the jig is up. Parents have caught on to the fact that not only does all this ineffective, inaccurate, and outdated testing and prepping do nothing to help their children, but the reality is that it is harming them. Schools are literally turning parent’s once vibrant, playful, smart, and creative young treasures into student zombies who must memorize, regurgitate, and do what they’re told. If they don’t they are all too happy to drug into submission children who resist such efforts. They even have pharma-funded research and doctors telling them to do this though few schools share with parents the harmful effects that experts not paid for by pharma companies want you to know.

Meanwhile, while everyone is profiting off our children, who are being used as pawns, the public realizes that something has gone seriously wrong. Our government has quietly and quickly stolen from parents control of their own children forcing them to be subjected to a test-prep-to-death curriculum that they know is wrong. Without their data, these young people are of no use to the system. Failure to comply can lead to serious consequences such as refusal to allow children to graduate as well as kicking them out of school.

Our vampire zombie children and their parents know there is a better way, but they feel their hands are tied. Public school parents who don’t comply, not only face risks to their children, but are also often subjected to bullying by education employees and administrators. Non public schools who don’t comply are faced with loss of accreditation. Home educators, who often have made this choice to escape harmful mandates, are threatened with child protective services. As a result organizations like HSLDA are getting action to fight for parental rights.

Fortunately, the social-media marketplace of the 21st century does not have to apply solely to consumer outrage against banks and phone companies. Parents of all children can come together to stand up and unite against the government’s attempt to control their children despite the harmful effects it is causing. In order to take back the right to give our children the freedom to learn, parents, all parents, regardless of public education choice, can mobilize, opt out and stand up to the monolith institution driven by politicians, agendas, egos, and of course we waste a hefty sum of money when we “hire testing companies to create and score tests, third person companies to evaluate the reliability of the tests, test security companies to make sure the test is secure, statisticians who know nothing about teaching but create value-added statistical formulas to evaluate them based on data-- all on the tax payer dime (-via Mr. Fitz).”

How will this work? Well, first we need to look at the issues and then identify a solution. Fortunately, in the chart below, I’ve done just that.

ISSUE	SOLUTION
It’s hard to get the facts The government have no impetus to supply parents with the facts. Instead they make it very difficult to find information	Opt Out of Test Wiki With the help of wonderful students, educators, and parents, we have put together an “Opt Out of State Standardized Tests” wiki. The beauty of a wiki is that anyone from that state can contribute information as they find it. Join us here.
There isn’t a system to connect with other parents, educators and concerned citizens in your state There is currently no easy way for ALL parents to connect within a state. This makes mobilizing and acting difficult. Fortunately, with social media that’s all about to change.	Join your state’s Opt Out of Standardized State Test Group on Facebook Concerned educators and parents have come together to create brand-new, easy-to-find, state-by-state groups on Facebook where parents, educators, and anyone who cares, can come together to mobilize and take back control of their children’s freedom to learn. You can join others interested in opting out in your state in two ways:1) Type in the search: Opt out of State Standardized Tests - Your State i.e. Opt Out of State Standardized Tests - Ohio2) Go to the page url: https://www.facebook.com/groups/OptOutYourState i.e. https://www.facebook.com/groups/OptOutOhio
The government is working to get parents to succumb to their bullying The government is throwing all sorts of threats parents' way about what they will do if you don’t hand your children over to comply with their demands. Additionally they are threatening schools with losing funding if parents don’t follow their orders. Everyone is panicking that if they don’t comply with demand, despite the fact that children are being hurt, they will suffer grave consequences.	It takes a few strong parents to lead the way and stand up and make a difference Renowned anthropologist Margaret Mead once said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Parents, stand up to these bullies. Challenge their threats. Band together. Know your rights. Be aware that you can opt your child out of school if school is forcing your child to be harmed. Parents are pulling children out of school in great numbers due to the demise of our system and have been pleasantly surprised when they learn the many college and career opportunities available to children who don’t choose school.
Teachers are being told they’ll be fired for sharing the truth Teachers know that excessive testing of their students is wrong. Not only does it demean the teacher as a professional it takes all that was good, fun, exciting, and inspiration out of teaching. Unfortunately, in many states, teachers are told they are mandated testers and that they are not “allowed” the freedom of speech to let parents know their children do not have to take the tests. They are being threatened with job loss if the do.	Teachers must unite and stand up for children It will take some brave teachers to stand up to this bullying by the state and local politicians and administrators. We need some brave teachers to stand up for what is right for our students and take on the system. Teachers are being threatened with their jobs. Some teachers will do what is right for kids even if it will cost them their jobs. Perhaps first any teacher planning to leave due to a number of reasons can be encouraged to take this on. Have parent meetings. Send literature home with children. If you are threatened or fired, contact the media. Ask your local politicians if they’ll get on board to support you.
The test-prep curriculum is dumbed down and leaving ALL children behind More and more great teachers are leaving a school system that has dumbed down the curriculum to a point that no child is prepared for success in college or career. (50% leave within five years). Teachers got in this profession to make a difference and this is not the way to do it. Our best teachers are no longer able to engage in practices that harm children. They are leaving the system and looking for alternatives, unwillingly and helplessly, leaving our children behind.	Support your children and your teachers in pursuing meaningful learning Unfortunately, many working parents see no alternative to sending their children off to government schools. Despite the fact that our taxes are being used to support the institution, the institution is attempting to take away the right of parents and their children to learn meaningfully. Tell your children they do not have to do test prep. Provide your child with resources that allow them to discover and develop their passions if test prep is being imposed upon the teacher. Inform your teachers that your child’s right to learn things that will make him a success in the world come before test prep. Ask that you hope she understands. Schools today value data and research over common sense. That’s okay. There’s plenty of research out there to point to that says test prep doesn’t work.
There is a focus on saving schools rather than students. Several groups have come together to help parents opt out of testing. Unfortunately some of these groups are more focused on saving their schools and their jobs than supporting ALL children. In fact in some of these groups they have gone as far as banning, blocking, and censoring any parent or supporter of those who have made non-public school education for choices for their children. Such activities divide, rather than unite concerned citizens in our effort to help all children regardless of their political, religious, or school choices. Discrimination and support for only “some children” is not the message these groups should be promoting.	We are all in this together If you belong to a group that discriminates against those who support the freedom of choice in education options, let these members know that intolerance and discrimination is the wrong message to stand behind. Be careful of groups that are known for engaging in the very behaviors most of us don’t wish to see from our schools or government i.e. bullying, bashing, banning, censorship. Work to bring all those concerned about the well being of others together. If you find you are in a group that only accepts “some” consider joining groups that except “all.” Here is a list of some of those: Opt Out of State Standardized Tests - National group Note local groups can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/OptOutYourState i.e https://www.facebook.com/groups/OptOutOhio Parents and Kids Against Standardized Testing page Parents and Kids Against Standardized Testing group OPT OUT of State Tests: Parent/Student Support against Standardized Testing group

Getting started is as easy!
Here are ten things you can do now.

Join the Opt Out of State Standardized Tests Wiki. Read and contribute information about your state.
Find the Opt Out of State Standardized Tests group for your state and invite others to join.
Inform appropriate parties that your child won’t be taking the test.
If the school insists your child come to class and take the test, inform him/her that they can join kids across the nation in an act of civic dissent and write “I prefer not to take your test” across the front of their test. Join the Facebook group and if your child is a teen, let them know they can to here.
Exempt your child from mindless test prep. Provide him or her with resources to meaningful activities to do at that time.
Volunteer to host your state’s opt out page by signing up at http://tinyurl.com/optouthost
Share this article with others via email, Facebook, Twitter, or print out.
Tell your kids they are more than just data and that we need to Fix the Schools, Not the Child.
Let your teens know that if school is not serving their needs they can opt out and embrace the freedom to learn to learn without school.
Know that if school is hurting your child, you can pull him or her out temporarily or permanently, and there are ways to do this even if parents are working.

Congratulations to you for being one of the pioneers that will not only save our schools, but are MOST importantly working to save our children. I look forward to your contributions on the wiki, comments to this post, and conversations online.

The Hottest Posts of the Week on The Innovative Educator

2012-01-14T04:10:00.000-08:00

Wowza! Looks like this week there's been a lot of attention to the dangers of medicating kids diagnosed with ADD / ADHD. As I share in these articles, if teachers and parents don't know and haven't explored the other options before drugging their children, they are being neglectful and possibly condemning children to a life with irreversible damage.

You can read those stories and more in this week's roundup of what's popular on The Innovative Educator blog. Below you’ll see the top weekly posts along with the number of pageviews. I hope there's something that looks of interest to you. If it does, check it out. If you’re inspired, share it with others and/or leave a comment.

How Ritalin ruined my childhood
Jan 10, 2012, 10 comments                              1907 Pageviews
What the doctors & teachers may not tell about ADHD Meds...
Jan 9, 2012                                                     1841 Pageviews
Cure ADHD without Drugs with These Resources ...
Feb 5, 2011, 22 comments                                1757 Pageviews
Concerned about College & Career Success? Homeschool...
Jan 6, 2012, 3 comments                                   1664 Pageviews
You can never replace the teacher. Or can you? ...
Jan 3, 2012, 11 comments                                 1599 Pageviews
Dispelling Popular Myths about Learning to Read and Write...
Jan 5, 2012, 4 comments                                   1578 Pageviews
10 Reasons Cell Phones Should Be Allowed In School...
Aug 24, 2010, 20 comments                              1473 Pageviews
Learn how you can homeschool even if you work...
Jan 8, 2012, 8 comments                                   1424 Pageviews
Why and Innovative Educator cares about homeschooling...
Jan 11, 2012, 4 comments                                 1364 Pageviews
The Ten No Nos of Teaching with a Projector or Smartboard...
May 10, 2010, 37 comments                              1229 Pageviews

The Innovative Educator’s Guide to Getting Started with Unschooling

2012-01-13T03:03:00.000-08:00

I was introduced to the idea of unschooling by grown unschooler and writer Kate Fridkis who contacted me about submitting a guest post on my blog. Before that, I had never heard the term.

It wasn’t long before my fascination with unschooling became an obsession. Learning without school? People did this? How’d they turn out? What did they do all day? How did they learn stuff? Didn’t they need school to learn? If they didn’t learn things in the order and way schools said they should, how would they be prepared for life or college?

I had to know more! I bought book books, read blogs, joined discussion groups, went to meetings, listened to podcasts, and started writing about what I was learning. To date, I have written more than 70 unschooling articles which you can read at this link.

What was most fascinating to me is that learning without school shattered every myth I’d been told was true about school. In fact I learned that you could learn to read without school, write without school, and ultimately pursue any interest imaginable all without school. As I researched and studied what happened to grown unschoolers I found that these individuals had very desirable characteristics in common that schooled children often did not have the opportunity to gain. For instance, they seemed to have a more clear sense of their passions and seemed happy and satisfied with their life path. They also knew if they didn’t know something, it wasn’t a big deal. They could figure out how to learn anything.

If unschooling is something you or someone you know would like to know more about, I share below some of the resources I used on my learning journey.

An overview of unschooling
Idzie Desmarais gives a comprehensive overview of unschooling in her blog http://yes-i-can-write.blogspot.com/p/new-to-this-blog-new-to-unschooling.html

Grown unschooler’s blog
Kate Fridkis Berring, the person who got me excited about unschooling and introduced me to the idea that people can learn without school is a grown unschooler and has a terrific blog on the topic called Skipping School which can be found at http://un-schooled.net.

Teen unschooler’s blog

Brycen R. R. Couture is an unschooled teen who is a child advocate / activist pursuing his passion of being a heavy metal rock star.You can like his page on Facebook here. His blog, which you can visit at http://brycenrrcouture.blogspot.com, provides a teen’s insight into life without school.

Blogs from unschooling parents
Many unschoolers are blogging about their lives. Reading these blogs is a great way to learn about unschooling. I have collected a compilation of several blogs here. Find the ones you relate to and you’ll learn a lot from these families. Some of my favorites not mentioned in other categories here include the following:

Demand Euphoria: This unschooling mom unhappy with the current state of education, shares why that is and how she achieves a mission to provide a life for her family is not just one where there is happiness, but instead is one where she not only expects, but Demands Euphoria.

The Mahogany Way: This is Darcel Harmon’s blog. She is a wife and Stay at Home Mama to three children. She and her husband are a Christian Attachment Parenting Unschooling family.

Penelope Trunk Homeschool: Penelope Trunk provides a raw and provocative look into what it is like for a mother new to home education. She’s not afraid to share her vulnerabilities and insecurities. Her blog inspires and enrages those considering, engaging in, and experienced in home educators.

Books

Sandra Dodd has a book I love and recommend and a terrific website. Here is her website http://sandradodd.com/unschooling. Her book is called “The Big Book of Unschooling” which you can find at this link http://sandradodd.com/bigbook

Clark Aldrich is the author of Unschooling Rules. He also has a terrific blog http://unschoolingrules.blogspot.com. Clark, Kate Fridkis Berring, and I did a podcast on a show called The Future of Education about unschooling which you can listen to here.

Guides

Teenage Homeschoolers: College or Not

Teen Guide to Opting Out of School

Articles

If the School Won’t Customize, Take Your Kid Out

Mom's Story: When School Left My Child Behind...He Was Finally Able to Learn

15 Key Facts about Homeschool Kids in College

How “Socialization” Happens in Homeschooling

What Happens with Home Educated Adults?

Websites

Laurie A Couture is an unschooling mom, author, parenting coach and much more. Her book, "Instead of Medicating and Punishing" has influenced numerous parents and helped them live much better lives with their children. Her site is http://www.laurieacouture.com/. You can find her book and blog there as well.

Dayna Martin has a great website with a lot of informative videos at http://daynamartin.com/. She also was featured on the Dr. Phil show to explain more about unschooling.

Wendy Priesnitz has written a ton of insightful books and articles on the topic and is a big thinker on how families, community and the planet intersect and positively affect life and learning. Here website is http://www.wendypriesnitz.com/

Linda Dobson is the Parent at The Helm. Her site can be found at http://parentatthehelm.com/ . Linda is not afraid to speak her mind and does so intelligently and articulately. Here is one of my favorite posts from Linda http://www.parentatthehelm.com/6533/high-stakes-tests-everyone-has-had-enough/

Peter Kowalke’s site, The Unschooler Experiment focuses on the stories and experiences of grown unschoolers themselves, instead of parents, and seeks to share information that's interesting and relevant to both grown unschoolers. parents of unschoolers.

Podcasts

Unplugged Mom
The Unplugged Mom podcasts are a great way to get started in getting a deeper insight into the folks behind home ed and unschooling. Laurette Lynn has done interviews with most of the folks mentioned above as well as people like John Taylor Gatto and Peter Gray. Here is a link to the podcasts.

School Sucks
The public school system sucks off the productive capacity of hard-working people. The system is coercively funded through taxation. In other words, whether public education succeeds or fails (spoiler alert: it fails) at providing real education to the public, the cost goes up every year. There are no refunds. Above all, this is a show about what one might do about the problems of school...

Unschooling thought leaders

Click each name for a collection of their works.

Unschooling conferences

The unschooling conference I am most familiar with is The Alternative Education Resource Organization Conference (AERO). The AERO conference provides a platform for dialog, movement building, and learning.
Sandra Dodd lists her upcoming speaking engagements here http://sandradodd.com/speaking.
Here is a listing of Conferences & Gatherings from the Unschooling Life site.

Keep the conversation going

If you want to keep the conversation going, I invite you to join my online group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/homeschoolingunschooling. This is a place where parents, students, teens, and teachers frustrated with traditional schooling can come together to discuss the more effective options they are interested in pursuing. The group is comprised of unschooling experts and authors as well as those new to, considering, or experienced with unschooling, homeschooling, uncollege or any DIY education.

Why an innovative educator cares about homeschooling / unschooling and why you might too

2012-01-12T03:23:00.000-08:00

I’ve been a public school educator and administrator for more than a decade and have loved my work for most of my career. I have a passion for making learning real, relevant, engaging, fun and meaningful for learners. I have had wonderful opportunities to bring that to life in my work such as with the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, Joe Renzulli’s Schoolwide Enrichment Model, and the programs I’ve lead to integrate technology into learning like this one.*

So, some may wonder why I’m interested in homeschooling. Let me start by explaining there are different types of homeschooling. I see it as sort of a continuum that goes from "doing school at home" to "life without school." The "school at home" works for many families, but that was not what really struck my interest. I was more interested in how a "life without school" works. Some people call this unschooling, some call it natural living, some call it organic learning or life learning. For purposes of this article, I’ll call it unschooling.

The reason unschooling was so fascinating to me is because I’ve spent a good portion of my life learning about how people learn and supporting children and adults in their learning. I was trained in various techniques, learned various methods and models, and I believed that people learned from being taught in school. What's strange is that I believed this even though, when I look back, I realize I never learned that way.

Unschooling shattered every myth I held to be true and made me question everything I’d been taught about learning. Not only that, but upon studying how unschooling works, I discovered people that seemed to be really smart, passionate, successful, and satisfied with their lives. All that and they never had to be tortured in an Algebra, History, Science, or English class! They learned a lot even though they were never forced to take a test. They didn’t have to be at school every day at some ungodly hour. They learned to read and write without classes or teacher, when they were ready, which may be as early as 2 or 3 or as late as 11 or 12. I learned there was a whole world of peaceful living and learning where the parents and children and grown children seemed quite happy.

This was of great interest to someone whose passion is to support learning that is real, relevant, engaging, fun, and meaningful. I also felt kind of cheated and angry. Cheated that I had been forced to do all these things that I didn’t really need to do, rather than discover and explore my passions, talents, and interests. Angry that kids, like those featured in Race to Nowhere, were being forced to do the same. In many cases this leads to detrimental effects that include mental, physical, and emotional distress and even attempted and successful suicide. There were cases where schools were bullying parents and their children for not wanting to comply with their demands even though it was making the child sick. The school system I worked in moved from being one where "children were first" to one where "data comes first" and it was the school’s role to extract it.

When I would see or hear about such things I wanted others to know that school is a choice, but it is not a necessity. In fact many people are living lives without school and then moving on to great success in career OR college. To share this message I wrote The Teen’s Guide to Opting Out of School and The Working Home Educator’s Guide to Success.

I also started a group specifically created for parents, students, teens, and teachers frustrated with traditional schooling to come together to discuss the more effective options they are pursuing. This is a wonderful group that I encourage anyone interested in pursuing this path to join by visiting this link. If you do, we have a weekly live chat and you will find discussions about topics like the ones below.

Learning without Teachers

Tips and tricks for making online learning work

Video games for learning

Learning to read and write without school

Opportunities available for home/unschoolers i.e. college, sports, music

Getting your partner / spouse on board with a life without school

Getting your parents / in laws on board with a life without school

Interesting data about homeschool families

Type of home education we practice

Opt Out of Tests

Talking back to those who want to Save Our Schools but not Our Kids

Advice for children with Asperger's and in the Autism spectrum

Ironically after all the years I’ve spent being schooled on how to learn, in the end I discover that for many, learning can be best achieved without a school or a teacher. If you want to learn how, I hope you’ll take a look at some of the material I've shared and keep the conversation going in our group.

____________________________________________

*Unfortunately there has been a recent shift in educational priorities where I work, but that's fodder for another post.

10 Important Points to Keep in Mind When Addressing a Global Audience

2012-01-11T03:52:00.000-08:00

Editor’s Note: Jose Popoff was an audience member of a webinar I conducted to a global audience. While Jose enjoyed the webinar, he felt I could do a better job in addressing such audience. He is right. When speaking to international audience, you need to do things differently. I asked Jose if he could share his advice. Here it is.

Whether you are writing an article, book, blog post or addressing an audience live, online i.e. via webinar, television, or radio, there are things you should consider if you are delivering your message to an international crowd. In the 21st century more and more speakers and writers are addressing global audiences and when doing so, it is helpful to be sensitive to differences in such a heterogeneous audience. Not only is this good advice for those addressing these audiences, it has the added benefit of modeling for viewers, listeners, or readers, how they can adjust their work as well.

10 points to keep in mind when you are speaking to the world

1. We don’t all measure the same
Sometimes you want to share what the climate in your zone is like, or what is the distance from the MIT to your house, or the average heights of your students, or your weight (if you’re confident enough to do so). When doing so, please consider that we do not all think on the same units of measurement. While Americans think of Fahrenheit, miles, and feet most of non-US citizens think in Celsius, kilometers and meters. So, when you tell your audience something like: “It´s 55 out here, so I´m wearing two coats..”, keep in mind that to Latin Americans for example, 55 is actually very hot! A very versatile site I recommend to instantly convert units of measurement is http://www.wolframalpha.com/. All you have to do is type something like: “Convert 55 degrees Fahrenheit to Celsius” and the site will do the rest.

2. Avoid abbreviations
When reporting your location, avoid using state, city or district abbreviations such as PA, CA, TX, etc. Not everyone in the world is familiar with them. When you mention abbreviations of your particular location, it gives the impression you are only introducing yourself to your own co-citizens.

3. Acknowledge and appreciate time zones
If you are hosting a webinar, it would be nice if you had a list of the different time zones of your audience. This might require you to check your registration list ahead of time. Now, to do this, you should use a webinar software that provides a dropdown of countries instead of only US states and “other”. I must confess I find it a bit baffling when I have to register as “other” since the droplist only includes US states; for a webinar intended for anyone in the world...or not(?). Thank and flatter those who are listening to you at difficult schedules for them. To have an idea on different timezones and convert them, this site: http://www.timezoneconverter.com/cgi-bin/tzc.tzc may come in handy. Now, I want to point out that I have never conducted a webinar myself, so my opinion here comes out as an international attendee, which I believe you will find as useful. It does require a little effort, but it is one that will pay off as you will make your crowd feel welcome and truly invited.

4. Know your geography and world culture
You might want to enrich your geographic and cultural knowledge. This way you will know the exact location of an unexpected visitor from Jakarta, Indonesia for instance. Try to find out important and unique facts about other countries. Did you know, for instance, that Australia has the world´s largest coral reef barrier? or that Brazil is now the 6th world´s economical power? or that Honduras is geographically located in the exact middle of the whole American continent? Sites like http://www.chacha.com/ might help you in this department. If geography is not your strong suit, pull up a map. http://maps.google.com/ is a great option for finding a location.

5. Know where tools work and alternatives around the world
Remember when presenting that a tool you use in your country, may not work in another country, especially if some services include phone voice and sms.. Before you present, find out what other people from around the world are using by tapping into your personal learning network. Simply, build a matrix on a Google spreadsheet. Indicate the various tools across the top and countries across the sides. Reach out to your PLN with a Tweet or an update and have them fill in with alternatives in their countries.

6. Poll your audience with global tools
If you are in the middle of a presentation and want feedback from your audience in the form of a poll, use services that allow Twitter or provide a simple URL for voting. Poll services such as polleverywhere or wiffiti allow this feature. Sms services are mostly only allowed for US providers and selected countries. Those who allow international sms require some extra expense from your non-US listeners (international sms); expense that you cannot expect from your receptors. Allow sms polling only when you have targeted every country from your audience and know that the service applies to them. Using sms service alone for an international crowd might make some feel unwanted.

7. Avoid the usage of jargon and/or idioms
Not everyone is familiar with them. If you encounter yourself in the necessity of using them, explain their meaning. Some jokes or puns might be applicable or understandable in some places and some might even be found offensive. Try to pretend that the Dalai Lama is part of your audience. Ok, that is just an idea.

8. Use plain English
As you probably know, English is the world´s second language. Even webinars from places like Netherlands are held in English. Consider then that this is not mother language in all countries. Don´t assume everyone can catch up with you when you are speaking very fast. Pace, elaborate, and speak plain English avoiding pompous terms. Devoted listeners will try to go to a translator to try to keep up with your terms but then they might lose track of your presentation.

9. Explain terms that may be geographically specific
Consider that educational systems vary among countries. Terms like “Common Core Standards” are not used in every country. This does not mean they do not exist but that they are dubbed differently. But don`t worry, nobody expects you to be aware of all the intricacies of educational systems around the world! However, think global!

10. Be mindful of acronyms
USA is a country that particularly loves to use many acronyms. This does not mean everyone in the world is familiar with them. Always tell what an acronym stands for, no matter how obvious it might sound to you. Trust me, not everyone knows what PLN stands for, including American teachers! I have come across acronyms such as MLK, IRL, SM, STEM, PBL; can you tell the meaning of all of them? Not everyone knows.

Biography
José Popoff is an innovative Physics and Chemistry teacher in Honduras, C.A. You can find him on http://about.me/josepopoff.

How Ritalin ruined my childhood

2012-01-10T03:58:00.000-08:00

Guest post from Peter Jung @peter_d_jung | Cross posted at EduPeter.

I like Adderall. I don't take it often at all, but I have a prescription that I can get filled whenever. When I need to write a 20 page paper in a few days, I take a pill, drink a caffeine drink, and turn into a robot for a while. Normally, I don't need to take pills to succeed in a class- I pay attention well enough, keep up on the reading, and take decent notes. If I lapse in any of these things, it's not something that can be attributed to any deficits in my ability to pay attention, but another source, such as frustration with the teacher's lecturing style, exhaustion from sleep deprivation, or something of the sort.

I don't have ADD, at least not in a way that impedes my learning in any real way. So, then, why can I get Adderall?

When I was 6, ADHD was a big thing. Everybody's kid had it, which explained any number of frustrating behaviors that their kids would engage in. I was a kid that engaged in frustrating behaviors, who also had a bit of neurological damage thrown in there. The neurological damage caused a speech impediment and gross motor dysfunction, which led to me going through physical and speech therapy for many years, but caused no apparent cognitive deficits.

What my parents and first grade teacher saw was a kid who would wander off, get frustrated easily, cry when faced with math homework, and had a hard time paying attention, preferring to draw constantly instead. My parents and teacher had a lot of frustrations with me concerning math homework around this time, and finally decided they needed to see a doctor about me. After taking a test that involved me staring at a computer monitor, trying to determine which orientation a blip of light was facing, I was diagnosed with ADD.

From my perspective, first grade was a really hard time for me. I loved to read and draw, but didn't really get along with any of the other kids. They were often mean to me, and I found I preferred to be alone with my drawings. My teacher would force the entire class to do these idiotic 'two minute timings' that involved 200 basic math problems, and a two minute time limit.

Of course, most kids blew through these. I looked at the seemingly endless pile of problems, and the two minute time limit, and had the first grade equivalent of a mental breakdown. I mean, two minutes? Who can do two HUNDRED problems in TWO MINUTES?! Two minutes is not a lot of time! 200 is a VERY LARGE NUMBER. NOBODY IN THEIR RIGHT MIND SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO THIS. I DON'T LIKE THIS SCHOOL PLACE ANYMORE.

So, while such thoughts flew around my head, the unfinished two minute timings piled up, and my teacher decided that I needed to stay in during lunch and recess every day to finish them. I would just stare at them, occasionally attempt to finish one and get discouraged, then just draw. So, I missed recess for a good chunk of my first grade year, which led to me spending every recess inside with the teacher after that. Part of it was I liked to draw more than I liked being outside, but another part of it was that I was very shy, and didn't really like how the other kids treated me. Having missed that year made me feel like an outsider, and I was too introverted to try to make friends.

Of course, that led to me going to the emotional counseling support group with all the junior sociopaths in the school. I would just talk about my collection of toy robots, or stay quiet.

Anyway, Ritalin happened around the beginning of second grade. I was given a time release pill that I was supposed to swallow so it would dissolve slowly over the day. Well, that didn't happen, as I had a gag reflex. I chewed it, and got a day's worth of Ritalin in a very short period of time.

I really don't remember much else from that point on. I have pretty vivid memories of my childhood up until taking Ritalin, and then... nothing. I have seen reports of my behavior that are pretty disturbing, and found artifacts from that time period that seem to imply some degree of massive depression, although my memories are a haze. What I do remember is being a complete loner who was content to sit in the back and draw or read all day. I also remember being able to see the logical circuits for traffic lights, and other patterns.

In 5th grade, my mom became so tired of hearing all these problems with me, and had the district give me an IQ test. The next day I was placed in the highly capable program, although I still tended to prefer to disengage and draw, as I was still pretty introverted.

Somehow, I managed to skate through elementary school, but in 6th grade, by month three, I was doing terribly. I was failing one class, and doing badly in all the rest. I didn't know what was going on, but I started to get scared, as no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't do well. They apparently made an IEP for me that involved me sitting at the front of the classroom so I would pay attention better, and the teacher could keep track of me. It was all very frustrating for everyone involved.

Finally, a math teacher asked me if I could see what she was writing.

I told her I could, and then she asked me what she was writing. I told her the wrong answer.

Within weeks, I had glasses and my grades went from Fs to Bs. I was still on Ritalin, which made me very socially awkward and led to a lot of bullying, which made my entire middle school experience a horrible mess of bruises and cuts.

By 8th grade, my parents took me off the Ritalin, and I began making actual friends with the nerdy kids. I'm still friends with some of them today, and hang out with one on a weekly basis. I slowly learned how to socialize, and became more like a normal person that wasn't stoned out of their mind.

By 12th grade, I was pretty much normal. I had been in the IB program for the first two years of high school, then switched over to Running Start, which allowed me to take a few classes at the community college to knock out high school credits, and get free college credit. I still took a few classes at the high school, but they were all classes I was interested in- Calculus, Advanced Biology, Weight Training, Art, etc. I had a good group of geeky friends, and could make friends easily. I was really awkward around girls, but not in an unusual way. I was a pretty stereotypical nerd.

One day, I got pulled out of class to talk with the school psychologist. He asks me to sit down and tells me I have an IEP. I ask what that is, and he tells me that it's something that has to do with my mental health issues. At that point, I had begun conversing with the ceiling about how this man was not to be trusted, and the psychologist just laughed. So, I asked what this was all about, and he describes the IEP to me- I am to sit in front of the class and the teacher is to make sure I'm paying attention. Now, I had forgotten about this IEP thing, and generally sat in the front of the class because I was a teacher's pet, but I was rather shocked. He told me I had Static Encephalopathy, which explained why I needed physical therapy and speech therapy, but didn't really explain why I had to sit in front.

I ask him when this IEP was made. He tells me, beginning of 6th grade. I take off my glasses and gesture with them, "I got these a few months into 6th grade."

He chuckles, and shreds the document.

I think most of my problems with Ritalin could have been avoided with two simple things. If the teacher had just sat down with me and really talked with me about the two minute timings, and offered to let me do 10 problems instead of 200, I could have shown her I was competent. Also, if someone had given me a vision test earlier, I would have avoided being consistently high and losing so much of my childhood.

Even so, I think I did okay. I am largely self educated, having read the entire time-life science series of books my dad found at a garage sale in a summer, and spending so much time in the corner reading. I have no difficulty with math, social skills, or academic ability. I just think it is very important that a kid is consulted when dealing with medication, as often, kids know exactly what's up. Sometimes, yes, medications are necessary, but the application of them is so often done as a blunt weapon rather than a precise tool. With me, the problems were easily solvable, not based on any neurological deficit. As such, I feel that the psychologist's diagnosis was most certainly wrong.

Although, I must say, it is nice being able to get Adderall legally. And I use it honestly, only when I need to really cram or finish a project. Still, the feeling I have while on it is incredibly potent, and the idea that I was on this stuff for years frightens me greatly, just from the possibility that it might have impeded my brain's development. Thus far, I think I've developed normally, but I can't really tell.

In any case, I just thought I'd throw that out there, as a story of someone who went through elementary and middle school in a drugged out haze because he needed glasses.

----------------------------------------

Peter Jung is a graduate student interested in information technology and DIY Education. http://www.linkedin.com/pub/peter-jung/13/6/5a6

What the doctors and teachers may not tell you when recommending medicating your ADD / ADHD child

2012-01-09T03:10:00.000-08:00

I'm pissed off! I am pissed off because parents and educators are hurting children and they may not even realize it. This post is written to change that.

If you are a parent or educator who is allowing a child you know to be drugged because they have an ADD / ADHD "disorder" you could be responsible for receiving short-term gains in exchange for long-term detrimental effects.

Drugging children has well-known risks which I share below, but now there's another to add to list as a parent / friend just informed me. Schools had convinced her to drug her son providing all sorts of evidence from doctors and others that this was best for her child. The risks were not presented. Fortunately, she eventually realized something was very wrong with the path down which schools were leading her child and she pulled him out of school so he could own his learning and have a happy and successful life.

Unfortunately, the damage may already have been done.

I was not given a list of this as a side effect and I may have condemned him to an adulthood of trials and pain. Doctors play down rare side effects just as well as educators. Children are statistics not people.

This mother shared what she just learned.

Did you know that a study last year indicated that there is a possible correlation between stimulant use (including ritalin and adderal) and parkinson's disease. Why is this important? My barely 20 year old son was given a tentative diagnosis yesterday of early onset Parkinson's disease (onset under 50). His only known risk factor having been prescribed Ritalin and risperdal before the age of 10. We will look for an early onset doctor and PUSH for more research to save other children from this debilitating disease. My focus changed yesterday!

Fortunately, there is at least one group that is trying to get information to parents. It is the responsibility of parents and teachers to deeply research this decision. Once they do it will be crystal clear that if you allow children to be drugged without standing up and sharing the numerous alternatives that can pursued instead, you may very well be condemning that child to serious long term effects which not only include Parkinsons but also include:

Effect on the developing brain — Some researchers are concerned that the use of drugs such as Ritalin in children and teens interferes with normal brain development.

Psychiatric problems — Stimulants for ADD/ADHD can trigger or exacerbate symptoms of hostility, aggression, anxiety, depression, and paranoia. People with a personal or family history of suicide, depression, or bipolar disorder are at a particularly high risk, and should be carefully monitored when taking stimulants.

Potential for abuse — Stimulant abuse is a growing problem, particularly among teens and young adults. College students take them for a boost when cramming for exams or pulling all-nighters. Others abuse stimulant meds for their weight-loss properties. If your child is taking stimulants, make sure he or she isn’t sharing the pills or selling them.

Heart-related problems — ADD/ADHD stimulant medications have been found to cause sudden death in children and adults with heart conditions. The American Heart Association recommends that all individuals, including children, have a cardiac evaluation prior to starting a stimulant. An electrocardiogram is recommended if the person has a history of heart problems. Unfortunately that didn’t happen in the case of this child:

The day after Christmas 2010, a grandfather discovered his 8 year old grandson dead in bed. The child was on Adderall, the prescribing physician missed an underlying heart murmur, the parents and grandparents under informed on proper use, the school and classroom teacher pushed for the child to remain on drugs after the father's resistance, when he became the primary caregiver. Evidence indicates that children on Medicaid are more likely to be prescribed than otherwise. This was also the case.

Parents or educators who do not intervene are responsible for hurting children if they are not trying options that don’t involve medicating first. Pediatrician Lawrence Diller says that non-drug interventions value engagement with the child; they require more time, more involvement by adults and initially cost more money. Medical and educational systems value efficiency. Parents generally value engagement but if the treating systems only offer pills, parents will surely take them over no treatment.

Parents and teachers if your not sure what you can do instead of drugging children, here are some ideas.

There are health and wellness coaches like Heather Jones DeGeorge that can help guide families to find the food and lifestyle choices that best support them.
There are parenting coaches like Laurie A Couture who help children live drug-free lives and empowers them with healthy alternatives.
There are guides like “Fix the School, Not the Child,” and books like “Instead of Medicating and Punishing” that offer numerous alternatives to drugs for children.
If school is causing your child’s ADD / ADHD you can remove him or her.
If you are misinformed to believe ADD / ADHD is real, you can read information from these doctors, educators, and parents who disagree. They don’t disagree that children have behavior associated with ADD / ADHD they disagree that this is a disorder that should be medicated out of children.

As with most things in America, money factors rule. But a society that chooses to cope by using drugs, in the long term, does so at its own peril.
-Lawrence Diller, M.D., Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrician, Author, UCSF Clinical Faculty

If you know a child who is being drugged, they and their parents should know the risks. If you don't want to tell them, just give them this article and save a child.

If you want to join the conversation you can do so here on my Facebook page or here on my page for parents, educators, and students interested in discussing innovative learning opportunities that provide a brand new type of learning environment outside of traditional school options.

Learn how you can homeschool / unschool even if you have to work

2012-01-08T03:57:00.000-08:00

Many parents are becoming frustrated with an educational system with an agenda that does not put the well-being of children first. These parents realize that for many children, school is not the best option when it comes to raising a healthy, happy, child who loves learning. At the same time, more and more parents are sharing their positive experiences with home education through blogs, social media such as Facebook and Yahoo groups, podcasts, and more. While many parents are convinced that learning this way is the best for children, working parents often have a hard time imagining how they could do this. The reality though is that they can! For parents who work and want to un/homeschool their children, there is “The Working Home Educator’s Guide to Success,” created for any parent who is considering home educating their chid(ren) but isn’t sure how this can be managed while also holding a job. The guide opens by making the case for home education with an introduction from author, parenting coach, child trauma specialist, mental health counselor and working single mom Laurie A. Couture. She explains why the decision to home educate is an important one and provide guidelines to keep in mind as you get started. The heart of the guide is the words of wisdom from actual home educating moms and dads who share their stories and advice. The guide concludes with ideas to get parents started on their journey to homeschooling success.
If you or someone you know is considering home education, this is a guide you’ll want to read.

Free guides are available to anyone who
1) Comments below about why they’re interested in reading (or sharing) the guide,
AND
2) Agrees to Tweet or Blog about the guide.

Order your guide here.
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Click this link to sign up for your free guide by commenting and blogging / tweeting. You will receive your guide within 30 days.

The Hottest Stories Of The Week On The Innovative Educator

2012-01-07T03:46:00.000-08:00

Here’s the roundup of what's been popular on The Innovative Educator blog this week. Below you’ll see the top weekly posts along with the number of pageviews. I hope there's something that looks of interest to you. If it does, check it out. If you’re inspired, share it with others and/or leave a comment.

20 Quotes About Learning That Inspired Me in 2011 ...

Jan 1, 2012, 5 comments 2,869 Pageviews

You can never replace the teacher. Or can you?...

Jan 3, 2012, 9 comments 2,254 Pageviews

12 Most Useful Ways Kids Can Learn With Cell Phone...

Dec 29, 2011, 1 comment 1992 Pageviews

Cell Phones Enrich Learning for Studentswith Special Needs...

Jan 2, 2012, 2 comments 1715 Pageviews

Leveraging the iPad for School Announcements

Jan 4, 2012, 5 comments 1515 Pageviews

Cure ADHD without Drugs with These Resources ...

Feb 5, 2011, 22 comments 1494 Pageviews

Dispelling Myths about Learning toRead & Write...

Jan 5, 2012, 2 comments 1349 Pageviews

The Ten No Nos of Teaching with a Projector or Interactive Whiteboard...

May 10, 2010, 37 comments 1241 Pageviews

Prepare students with math they’ll need in the real world with Yummy Math...

Dec 28, 2011, 7 comments 1137 Pageviews

Concerned about Your Child’s College and Career Success? Leave School.

2012-01-06T15:30:00.000-08:00

When parents frustrated with school consider homeschooling, one of their first concerns is often this:

Will homeschooling limit my child’s opportunities when it comes to college, career, and pursuing passions such as music and sports?

The answer in a word is:

“No.”

Despite the fact that much of society has been conditioned to believe that learning and success happen as a result of teachers in school buildings, those who are living life without school know the opportunities for those who don’t follow the traditional school path are unlimited.

First, it is important to understand that you don’t need to go to school to get into a great college should that be of interest. In fact many colleges actively recruit homeschoolers. For example Harvard specifically mentions that they have never required a high school diploma for admission. Stanford University makes clear to home learning applicants that a high school diploma is not necessary for admission. Furthermore, when it comes to college, homschoolers generally fare better than their schooled peers and many of the top colleges seek out homeschooled students.

Here are examples.

MIT
MIT has a long history of admitting homeschooled students, and these students are successful and vibrant members of our community. Please note that we do not require a high school diploma or GED from our applicants.

Princeton
Princeton welcomes applications from home schooled students. Among the home schooled students admitted in recent years was a student who graduated as valedictorian of the Class of 2002.

Harvard
Homeschooling is an educational asset that Harvard considers favorably when making its admissions decisions. One often sees a self-reliance and independence, as well as intellectual curiosity in people with unusual educational experiences. Homeschooled students do just as well as most all students who come here do. -Dean of Admissions William J. Fitzsimmons

When it comes to career, we all know folks like Michael Dell, Bill Gates (who has done homeschooling with his own kids), Steve Jobs, Marc Zuckerberg, and Richard Branson achieved great financial success without the benefit of a college degree. However, there are many people who achieved this success without pursuing the traditional school path in K - 12 as well.

Below is a sampling of the types of careers non-traditionally educated individuals (i.e. they have homeschooled, unschooled, opted out, etc.) have held. Following this sampling are resources where you’ll find thousands more.

Careers of Successful Individuals Who Did Not Follow a Traditional School Path

Presidents

George Washington

Theodore Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Thomas Jefferson

Abraham Lincoln There are many others!

Scientists

Erik Demaine - Born 1981. Popular Science Mag: One of the Most Brilliant Scientists in America

Dr. Williard S. Boyle - Physicist who won the Nobel prize in 2009

Benjamin Franklin

George Washington Carver

Albert Einstein

Medical practitioners

Clara Barton - started the Red Cross

John Locke - Medical researcher and physician

Florence Nightingale - Nurse

Susan La Flesche Picotte - first American Indian woman physician

Francis Collins - American physician-geneticist, noted for his discoveries of disease genes and his leadership of the Human Genome Project (HGP)

Business Leaders / CEOs / Entrepreneurs

Andrew Carnegie, industrialist and philanthropist, and one of the first mega-billionaires in the US.

Amadeo Peter Giannini, multimillionaire founder of Bank of America.

Joseph Pulitzer - newspaper publisher; established Pulitzer Prize

Anne Beiler, multimillionaire co-founder of Auntie Anne’s Pretzels

Barbara Lynch, chef, owner of a group of restaurants, worth over $10 million.

Athletes

Michelle Kwan - Olympic medalist figureskater

Bode Miller - American alpine skier

Timothy "Tim" Tebow - football player, Heisman Trophy winner

Venus and Serena Williams - tennis star sisters

Jason Taylor - Miami Dolphin football star

Musicians

Louis Armstrong - king of jazz

Michael Bolton - singer, french horn

Lennon Aldort - pianist

Hilary Hahn - classical violin virtuoso

Oliver Aldort - cellist, pianist

Resources used to compile this list

Autodidatic Hall of Fame

Famous Homeschoolers - Bridgeway Academy

A to Z’s Cool Homeschooling Success Stories

http://www.famoushomeschoolers.net

Famous High School Dropouts

100 Top Entrepreneurs Who Succeeded Without A College Degree

College Dropout Hall of Fame

Top 10 Famous Historical Characters Who Were Not Schooled

Interesting stories of homeschooler success

Winner of 2009 Nobel Prize Dr. Willard S. Boyle homeschooled by mother

15-Year Old Homeschooler is a Hedge Fund CEO in His Spare Time

Learn how James Marcus Bach found success in a highly technical field without the benefit or burden of a conventional education.

Wondering what life of those who homeschool / unschool is like? Eli Gerson has compiled this collection and I have compiled this one.

Note: You’ll find a lot of these unschoolers pursue fields like writing, travel tours, photography, film making, as well work that deeply considers the environment like Sean Ritchey who designs and builds energy efficient and environmentally friend buildings and homes.

Read about The

Unschooled Colfaxes (summary from Rebecca Smith taken from this site) -

Grant the oldest, and the original news-making graduate of Harvard, is an M.D. working as the Director of AIDS Research for the city of San Francisco with an Adjunct Professorship at the University of California at San Francisco. He is currently testing vaccines for AIDS.Drew, the second oldest Colfax son, is a death-row appeals attorney in Montgomery, AL. As part of his work, he reviewcols cases of “railroaded” convictions. These are inmates on death row who have been unjustly convicted – and often proven innocent! If this weren’t enough to keep him busy, Drew is also a full-time student at Harvard Medical School!The third-oldest Colfax son, Reed, is a housing-discrimination attorney in Washington, D.C. He is the lead attorney for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights. His wife is an environmental attorney in D.C. They have 2 children, a daughter, Bailey, 4 and a boy Justice, 1-1/2.Garth Colfax, the youngest, is working with the developmentally-disabled in Sacramento. He is also an all-around computer expert, being able to repair the computers themselves and also design websites. Garth has been married 7 years and has a little boy, Jared, who is 7 months old."
Read more about the Colfaxes in this article: Homeschoolers are Home at Harvard

Insights from homeschooling parents in response to alleviating parents concerns about homeschooling and children’s opportunities for success.

Melody Templeton - A lot of us would like to know that we are not ELIMINATING options by homeschooling. I think it is a legitimate concern.

Sandra Dodd - Ask how many people in prison went to school, or how many impoverished failures went to school. School creates certified failures. Without some people failing, the "successes" won't seem so glorious. It's not a design flaw of school, that a consistent percentage of people fail; it's a design feature. It is planned and maintained.

Teri Reed Davis - It's important to remember that there is going to be a gap of homeschoolers. During MY childhood, it was a fringe thing and was illegal if not just unaddressed by the law. It's a lot more common now and colleges are very open to homeschoolers. Also, many athletes and performers are home educated because schools will not work with them.

Cathy Earle - In my little homeschool group of maybe 20-25 kids who have already grown up enough to have graduated from college, there is one lawyer, one student who is med-school bound this fall (passed MCATs and has been admitted to several med schools), one physical therapist with her doctorate, one college professor, one graduate of Princeton (BA) and Cambridge (MA) who is successfully living and working in England in something like computer programming, one scientist who works at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, one CEO of his own (small) company of video or computer games, one guy who works for Lego and has appeared on Mythbusters and attended Obama's inauguration as Lego's rep.

Linda Dobson - Your query inspired this Parent at the Helm post. (Wrote this book because what really matters is how life turns out for the grown child.)

What Do Homeschooled Adults Have to Say? | PARENT AT THE HELM

Want to keep the conversation going?

Join my group where we discuss non traditional learning options at https://www.facebook.com/groups/homeschoolingunschooling.

Follow comment threads where these resources and ideas came from.

The Innovative Educator Dispels Popular Myths about Learning to Read and Write

2012-01-05T03:23:00.000-08:00

"The little learning machines who learn to walk by walking and talk by talking also learn to read by reading and write by writing." Linda Dobson

You know that license plate, “If you can read this, thank a teacher.”? What if the truth was you didn’t need a teacher to learn to read or write? What if in fact you might be able to read and write more effectively without one? There are many young people who are doing just that...learning to read and write without the benefit of schools or teachers.

Don’t believe it or want to know more?

Read on.

Only Half of Pupils Like to Read
Standardized testing leads to a dramatic decrease in the joy of reading.
How to create non readers - Alfie Kohn
Kohn explains how teachers are killing students motivation to read by relying on coercion and extrinsic inducements..
Learning to read without school
The Innovative Educator (that’s me) shares her experiences about learning to read without school.
Children Teach Themselves to Read
Research Psychology Professor and author, Dr. Peter Gray explains how children learn to read naturally without school.
How I Learned to Read and Write
Grown unschooler Idzie and author of I'm Unschooled. Yes, I Can Write provides her own story about learning to read and write without school as well as smart insights into ideas such as forced reading often results in a future dislike of reading and how an awful lot of money is wasted in an industry built around teaching people to read even though it doesn't need any "teaching.”
Mom's Story: When School Left My Child Behind...He Was Finally Able to Learn
This is the story of a child who school gave up on so his mother took him out. As she was feverishly working to figure out how to find the best way to teach him to read, she discovered all that was necessary, and with her support he could learn to rad naturally.
How My Children Learned to ReadPam Sorooshian provides wonderful insights about her experience watching three daughters learn to read.
Growing Without School on Older ReadersThe articles below are from the Growing Without School magazine that John Holt founded. There are articles archived from the magazine that specifically focus on learning to read beginning at age.

GWS 44: "Starting to read at 12"; "Understanding When He Needs To"
GWS 55: "2 Hours of Tutoring"; "Stress of Early School"; "School Hurts Reading"; "Reading at 10"; "Another Older Reader;" "Not Yet Reading at 8."
GWS 76: "Overcame Difficulty"; "Poor Reader Loves to Read"; "Learning at 10"; Concentrating on Two Things"; "Outside Pressures."
GWS 77: "Feeling OK About Being An Older Reader"; "Older Readers."
GWS 91: "Reading at 10 and 11"

The story of how I learned to read and write without school
Grown unschooler Kate Fridkis who writes professionally about being a young woman at Eat the Damn Cake and alternative education at Un-schooled explains how she learned to read, write, and use proper grammar without school or teachers.
Eye-Opener Changing my perspective on the importance of reading By Pauline Mary Curley
This article reveals that people who lack interest in reading and writing often see the world in a whole different and meaningful way and that being passionate about the written word may actually close off parts of the world.
Seth Godin on how schools teach kids to aim low
In this video Seth Godin explains why the reason many people are not good writers is largely a result of how they were schooled to write.
http://sandradodd.com/reading
Sandra Dodd provides a slew of stories about how children learned to read naturally.
From Joyce Feterol’s, Joyfully Rejoicing site come these gems about learning to read.

"Schools place emphasis on [early] reading not because it's the best way to learn but because it's the most efficient way to run assembly line learning." —Joyce Fetteroll

Despite what many of us have been schooled to believe, in many cases learning is a result of the activity of learners; it is not necessarily a result of teaching. When it comes to reading and writing, it will come as naturally as learning to walk and talk provided that it is not forced and the child is given a supportive environment that includes positive experiences with print. What’s more, for many young people, forcing them to learn to read before they are ready is detrimental to their future ability to read well. In other words, grouping students by date of birth and putting them on the reading assembly line, may very well be the reason some students have trouble reading.

Want to keep the conversation going? Join others interested in discussing this topic here.

Leveraging the iPad for School Announcements

2012-01-04T03:30:00.000-08:00

Guest post by Matthew Dillon

The iPad and YouTube serve as the tools for the daily announcements to the staff, students and community at a public elementary school in Ohio with 1,100 students in grades K-5. The process of how this endeavor began, what we considered other than the iPad and YouTube, and how we put things into place can be viewed here.

There have been many successes and challenges using these technologies in the past five months. This is an example of outcome of this work.

Here are a few things we have learned, and a few things to consider as you explore using the iPad and an online video site such as YouTube to conduct school-wide announcements.

Consider Privacy
It is crucial to make sure that you've considered privacy with regards to showing videos of students on the Internet. We consider the privacy of students and families very important. To protect students and allow families to prevent having their students highlighted in the announcements if they do not want them to be shown, we distribute a media opt-out form at the beginning of the school year. The media opt-out form requires a parent or guardian signature to prevent students from being displayed on the announcements. The opt-out form does not focus simply on the daily YouTube announcements, but rather all digital media where a student might be pictured. It was much easier to have parents opt-out on the form rather than obtaining permission from all families to have their students be shown on the announcements. While every effort is made to respect the privacy of our families, the photo opt-out form does state that students may be pictured in candid group shots such as class activities or assemblies.

Signed opt-out forms are submitted to the district office and the superintendent's administrative assistant enters the information into a shared Google Document. The document is shared with office staff so that we can easily check to ensure which students do not have permission to be featured on the announcements. The document contains the names, grades and guardians of students who are not permitted to be individually shown in digital media. The opt-out document is important as it helps us respect the privacy of families and students.

Comment Control
The daily announcements are a one-way stream of information. The goal of the announcements is to share what is happening in the school with stakeholders. To prevent YouTube from becoming a public forum, we lock the YouTube channel so nobody is able to leave comments. The only thing we do allow on the channel is for others to subscribe if they wish. Other than that, we limit all feedback and comments on the actual YouTube page.

We decided that we did want to share our announcements publicly with all of our stakeholders such as parents, community members, other schools, etc. An alternative to sharing videos publicly is to consider sharing videos only among staff and keep them unlisted from the web. It is possible and relatively easy to share videos privately or unlisted. Unlisted videos can be accessed by anyone that has the URL, and unlisted videos do not publicly appear on the YouTube channel.

Time
I dedicate at least 20 minutes each night to putting the finishing touches on the daily announcements. I could technically do this in the morning before school, but meetings, managerial tasks, and technical difficulties often make that impossible. It is much easier to cross off the task list if the video is published to YouTube the night before it will be shared. The link to our YouTube channel is included in our daily announcement email to staff members. Teachers click on the link and display the announcements to their students via the projectors in their classrooms.

Sharing announcements in this manner provides teachers greater flexibility. Unlike an announcement via the old-fashioned PA system, teachers can incorporate the daily announcements into their classroom's morning routine. They can easily pause and rewatch parts if needed.

Connecting
Feedback regarding the daily video announcements has been generally positive. Students love seeing their teachers in a medium that they often use daily. Students can access the announcements on their home computer and share them with their families. The announcements not only provide daily updates, they also provide a means of establishing a positive school culture. They have been an outstanding tool to recognize students for their achievements.

Parents have been appreciative that we are relying on technology that they use on a daily basis as well. Rather than request that parents adapt to our method of communication, we have attempted to share our message in places that they already frequent. There have been some who express concern about using YouTube, but people (specifically our students) are using these technologies daily inside and outside the walls of our school. It is much better to embrace these technologies in positive ways rather than avoid them completely. We must model appropriate use for our students if we want them to learn appropriate use.

Additional Information
Check out this link for more details about how we got started and the technology we use: http://tumblr.com/ZUCenx9M7V6L

Matt Dillon serves as the assistant principal of a large K-5 elementary school in Ohio. Prior to working as a school administrator, he worked as a high school language arts teacher and professional school counselor. He is passionate about finding ways to improve learning and engage students with technology. Feel free to contact Matt on Twitter if you have any comments or questions.

You can never replace the teacher. Or can you? 10 ways to learn without teachers.

2012-01-03T03:08:00.000-08:00

I learned nothing in school that was meaningful to me or that I used for success in life. All that just-in-case stuff was a 12-year-sentence that was wasted on me. Instead of being introduced to subjects in which I might be interested, I was turned off from them and was left without the opportunity to discover, develop, or enjoy my passions. Not only that, although I was at the top of my class, I never learned anything I was tested on. After I was forced to memorize and regurgitate onto the paper, the uninteresting, disconnected facts, stayed on the test.

It is an embarrassment that I graduated high school retaining nothing I learned from my classes in science, social studies, English, math, or having the ability to speak a foreign language. I don’t blame myself though. I did as I was told and I excelled in the game of school. I graduated high school with honors at age 16 and graduated college with honors at 19. I was left on the other side of my diploma and degree with little knowledge, completely unprepared for a successful career, and no idea what I was truly passionate about.

What’s worse, it took years for me to re/discover the joy of reading (about topics "I" cared about), writing (for a "real" audience), public speaking (My teacher told me I sucked), sports (The coaches said I was too small) and getting in touch with my creativity (there'd be none of that in school). Anything that I learned that was meaningful, I did not learn via someone who was paid to teach me. Instead, I learned outside of school by watching others do it, doing it, reading about it, and connecting with my personal learning network. The reality for me is that I would have been much better off without the teachers in my life weighing me down and wasting my time.

I’m not saying no one likes or learns well in traditional school. Ed leadership professor and blogger Jon Becker loved it. My good friend Carla loved school too. She genuinely loved tests and couldn’t wait to get to school on testing days. She loved showing off her grades and couldn’t understand why others did poorly. She enjoys reading textbooks and is a trivia wiz (she holds a Cash Cab win to her list of accolades). This method of learning works for her. Ironically this school-loving superstar earns her living today as a supermodel.

Unlike Jon and my friend though, many of us learn more effectively without teachers and there are more and more ways to do just that. If learning was customized to allow the Jons and Carlas of the world to learn in a traditional environment and gave students like me the freedom to learn in the way that works best for us, we could certainly better allocate resources for students. So how would we learn if there were no teachers? Here are some of the ways I’ve come across recently that students are, or could be, learning without school or teachers.

TEN WAYS TO LEARN WITHOUT TEACHERS

1) The hologram that is playing to sold out audiences of thousands in Japan.
Could rock-star teachers be turned into holograms scheduled to come to a livingroom or classroom near you?
2) Five Ways to Give Yourself an Education That Kicks the Crap Out of the One You Got in School
We live in a world where knowledge and information are at our finger tips like never before. Technology has leveled the playing field so that anybody with an interest and an internet connection can receive a world class education. Read about how people everywhere are learning through books, blogs, videos, podcasts, and quality online curricula.

3) M.I.T. Expands Its Free Online Courses
MIT will be allowing anyone anywhere to take M.I.T. courses online free of charge — and for the first time earn official certificates for demonstrating mastery of the subjects taught.

4) Opening Learning Initiative
The Open Learning Initiative (OLI) is an open educational resources project uses knowledge from learning science and the affordances of the web to transform instruction, significantly improve learning outcomes and to achieve significant increases in productivity in post secondary education.

5) Twelve Dozen Places to Learn Online for Free
If you’re interested in learning something new, this article is for you. Broken down by subject and/or category, there are several top-notch self-education resources bookmarked.

6) Sugata Mitra shows how kids teach themselves
In this provocative video Sugata Mitra challenges the notion that children need adults to learn. He suggests rather than a schooling system of indoctrination, when we accept the truth that children are quite capable of learning on their own we can focus on providing a culture of outdoctrination.
7) Educators Can Save Time When They Stop Reinventing the Wheel with OER
OER which stands for Open Educational Resources is the name of a movement working toward a common goal of providing quality courses for learning for free. At the heart of the movement toward Open Educational Resources is the simple and powerful idea that the world’s knowledge is a public good and that technology in general, and the Worldwide Web in particular, provide an extraordinary opportunity for everyone to share, use, and re-use knowledge. This knowledge provides links to many OER materials.

8) e-Learning for Kids
e-Learning for Kids is a global, nonprofit foundation dedicated to fun and free learning on the Internet for children ages 5 - 12. They offer free, best-in-class courseware in math, science, reading and keyboarding; and they’re building a community for parents and educators to share innovations and insights in childhood education.

9) Life Hacker University
A list of courses available from schools like Yale, MIT, Stanford, and UC Berkeley that will inspire, challenge, open doors, and give you the tools to improve your life.

10) Parents explain how their children learn on their own free of schools or teachers
Here are some excerpts:

My son learned to read completely on his own without me sitting there telling him what to do or how to do it. He learned to read by doing the things he loves.

Replicating science experiments that she watched on YouTube, writing stories on textnovel, and staying home from school to do these things became my second grade daughter's answer to her own learning needs (when her public school situation was boring her to tears). She felt she just wasted all day at school waiting to get home and start learning.

Note: You can join the conversation at our group on Facebook where we discuss learning without school here.

What Next?
As hard as it might be for some to acknowledge, when it comes to learning, teachers are not for everyone. If we are not afraid to accept this as a fact, how might we change the learning environments we provide for 21st century students?

3 Ways to Use Cell Phones to Enrich Learning for Students with Special Needs

2012-01-02T03:48:00.000-08:00

Guest post by Willyn Webb | Cross posted at Teaching Generation Text

Cell phones open a new world of tools that can be accessed and used for adaptations required by students with special needs. Simple voice mail messages using Google Voice, texting, WeTxt notes, pictures to Flickr, Voki, GoogleSMS translator and any other tool depending on the phone are ways to assist students orally, visually, physically without any negative stigma. Students love their phones. They are an acceptable, even cool, device offering a variety of input and output capabilities. Students and staff are already familiar with cell phone functions and how to use them. This is adaptive aid with little or no cost to the school. Not only for school use, but outside of school and into the world of work, cell phones can be used by students to serve special needs.

Here are 3 ways to support special needs with cell phones.

1. Classroom Story- Texting
Gerald is a twenty year old student with cerbral palsy and hearing loss. Gerald has a reading and math level of 5th grade. With one arm not fully functional, he uses a word processor or scribe as needed. He does not want either one of those options. He was down to only needing to finish his Civics class to graduate, but he was stalling out and not making any progress. He was in my counseling office continually upset over social issues, many of which involved text messages back and forth with peers. I watched a couple of texts get sent while I took a phone call and he waited. I realized that he could text one handed at an amazing speed. So I talked to his Civics instructor and got it approved that he text in the answers to the review questions at the end of each chapter. This resulted in an amazing transformation. Gerald's depressed state became positive, hopeful and outgoing. His progress through the remainder of the Civics class was steady. He was able to complete the class on time and graduate, all thanks to texting.

He just sent the notes to my email, but since we have used notebook features through wetxt and celly that create a record of students’ texted notes that can be organized and searched.

2. Classroom Story - Voki
A student suffering from extreme shyness was struggling in my Freshman English class. We were doing oral reports and I knew she would be terrified. Because she was an English language learner, the language barrier itself would make the assignment extremely challenging. However, I wanted her confidence to grow and her oral language skills to be practiced and improved. So, I set her up with a Voki and let her start calling the Voki number on her cell phone and saying her oral report, then listening to the Avatar say it back, and re-recording as needed. She practiced her language skills repeatedly, made edits, and improved her report each night. After about a week, she told me she was ready. Her Voki gave her report to the class (and was shared with her parents and on the school wiki). By the next oral presentation unit, after practicing on her voki, she gave her report to the class herself. She gained practice, repetition, learning, confidence, pride, success, etc, all thanks to calling her Voki on her cell phone. The ESL teachers jumped on this and all of their students are using their phones to practice their oral language skills, listening skills, and improving!

3. Classroom Story - Flickr
We have limited electives at Delta Opportunity School, a new alternative high school. Art is the only “elective” class we offer as most students earn their elective credits through work study. Alex loved art, but was unable to do any of the projects due to some fine motor problems. However, he wanted to take the class. We thought about having him do art with pictures, find art in the community that were examples of the projects and create a slide show. However, the family did not own a camera and we were nervous to let him use the school camera because we have no budget to replace it if something were to happen. But, he did have a cell phone provided to him by our Student Work Alliance Program (SWAP-a program for SPED students through voc-rehab money). The phone had a camera and we taught him how to take pictures and then send them to the Flickr address for the account he set up for art. The subject of the message became the picture’s title and the message became the caption. He could create a slide show through his phone (his one hand was able to text-a feat he had achieved on his own due to a strong desire to communicate with friends). His final project was just as wonderful as all the others and he was very proud.

For more ideas about effective ways to use cell phones for learning, including research-based strategies, lessons, and more order Teaching Generation Text.

20 Quotes About Learning That Inspired Me in 2011 From My Personal Learning Network

2012-01-01T03:00:00.000-08:00

A well formed quote, like a picture, is a great method for painting detailed concepts.

Each year I do my best to capture quotes that were impactful to me that year.

In 2010 I shared my Top Ten Quotes for Teaching Generation Text.
In 2009 I shared My Top 20 Education Quotes from 2009.
In 2008 I shared these Ten 21st Century Education Quotes I Carry With Me.

This year I am sharing another compilation of quotes and concepts I have collected over the past year from my personal learning network. These are people that I have had direct contact with either face-to-face or through the use of social media. I feel fortunate and am grateful to be inspired by so many people that are in my world, so this year, I share with you, quotes from these remarkable individuals.

Teaching is listening, learning is talking. -@DebMeier Deborah Meier
The little learning machines who learn to walk by walking and talk by talking also learn to read by reading and write by writing.
-Linda Dobson
If it wasn't for the last minute, nothing would get done.
-@Rmart73 Robert Martinez
It is nature's intent that children of all ages live and learn in freedom and joy, through play and by following their own interests and passions.-@LaurieACouture Laurie A. Couture
Being "Schooled" and being "Educated" are not the same thing.
-@mbteach Mary Beth Hertz
We can do so much better than 'no child left behind' - we can get to EVERY child shines!
-Mariaemma Pelullo-Willis
The simple fact that a learning achievement is measurable doesn't make it relevant.
-@lexhupe Lex Hupe
Don't look for errors in your learning, look for learning in your errors.
-inspired by @mrmacraild Ryan MacRaild
What I want from my kids’ school is to help me identify what they love, what their strengths are, and then help them create their own paths to mastery of their passions. Stop spending so much time focusing on subjects or courses that 'they need for college' but don’t interest them in the least. Help them become learners who will be able to find and make good use of the knowledge that they need when they need it, whether that means finding an answer online or taking a college course to deepen their understanding. And finally, prepare them to create their own credentials that will powerfully display their capabilities, passions and potentials.
-@WillRich Will Richardson
It continues to amaze me that many folks are still blindly handing over their children, with absolute trust and without pause, to a system that doesn't even pretend to provide a beneficial educational experience anymore.-@TheUnpluggedMom Laurette Lynn
Textbooks invariably include a little bit of everything and a thoughtful treatment of nothing. It can safely be said that any course consisting mostly of reading a textbook, chapter by chapter, is a course worth avoiding.
-@alfiekohn Alfie Kohn
Home-based education is not an experiment. It's how people learned to function in the world for centuries. And there is no reason to think people today can't do the same thing. School is the experiment, not the lack of it, and the experiment is in trouble.
-Wendy Priesnitz
Whats been really interesting to me... is seeing how much animosity I have gotten from students. Essentially I am telling students that they bought a new car and it's crap. And they don't want to hear that. It's like everyone is fine with being in prison, as long as everybody else is in prison too. But as soon as someone stages the jailbreak, everyone freaks out. And that's precisely what is happening right now.
-@DaleJStephens Dale Stephens
Let’s admit the real reason that we ban cell phones is that, given the opportunity to use them, students would vote with their attention, just as adults would ‘vote with their feet’ by leaving the room when a presentation is not compelling.-@MarcPrensky Marc Prensky
There's only one kind of kid. The kind that is different from all other kids. Let's design our schools around that.-Lisa Cooley
We should not keep students prisoners of their teacher's past by blocking and banning them from using the tools and sites they need to succeed in the real world.
-@InnovativeEdu Lisa Nielsen
School is torture because I am required to spend all my time doing menial tasks, worksheets, and rote memorization. This takes too much time away from being able to discover my hobbies, interests, or passions. I’m in 10th grade and I don’t foresee having the ability to do that before I graduate high school.
-Adam Ritter
Your life, time, and brain should belong to you, not to an institution.
-Grace Llewellyn
It's time to change the conversation from "how can the student meet the school's needs" TO "how can the school meet the student needs."-@clarkaldrich Clark Aldrich
We need everyone in the effort to transform education. If you are for the well-being of kids and have visions of a more just and sustainable future, you are an ally. We need to start reaching out to all groups! Parents, students, teachers, policy makers, home educators, public, private, interdependent schools, community or alternative educators, and any one that cares.This effort will take everyone reaching out to each other and pushing forward based on the 40% we agree on. We have spent enough time fighting among ourselves, now is the time for action!
-Listen to this as a song here.
-David Loitz

These are some of the words of wisdom from my personal learning network that have motivated, inspired, and made me think. I invite you to share what you been saying to inspire those in your personal learning network.

The Hottest Posts of 2011 on the Innovative Educator

2011-12-31T04:29:00.000-08:00

Well another year comes to an end. I am grateful to all of you have chosen to spend time here on my blog thinking and learning with me. Here’s the roundup of the top five hottest posts on The Innovative Educator blog this past year and the top three from last year.

The hot topics of the year include listening to student voice, keeping kids engaged, Google+, and ADHD/ADD. Last years hottest posts included using Facebook in elementary school, what not to do with interactive whiteboards and strategies to break the ban on tech where you teach.

I hope there's something that looks of interest to you. If it does, check it out, share it, and if you’re inspired, leave a comment.

The top five hottestposts of 2011

20 Things Students Want the Nation toKnow About Ed...

Sep28, 2011, 49 comments 19,746 Pageviews

Google+, Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs - When and W...

Jul17, 2011, 16 comments 12,577 Pageviews

Cure ADHD without Drugs with These Resources ...

Feb5, 2011, 22 comments 8,791 Pageviews

7 Solutions for Educators Who Want 21st Century Studentsto Tune in...

Apr25, 2011, 20 comments 5,996 Pageviews

What Does Google+ Mean for Education

Jul10, 2011, 32 comments 5,839 Pageviews

The top three hottestposts of 2010

10 No Nos ofTeaching with a Projector or Smartboard...

May 10, 2010, 37 comments 8,336 Pageviews

8 Real WaysFacebook Enriched Ms. Schoening’s 1st Grade Class...

Jul 15, 2010, 20 comments 6,109 Pageviews

10 ProvenStrategies to Break the Ban...

Nov 3, 2010, 7 comments 5,593 Pageviews

12 Most Useful Ways Kids Can Learn With Cell Phones

2011-12-29T03:56:00.000-08:00

This article is cross posted in full at The 12 Most... site. If you'd like to read the entire article there, go here.

By Lisa Nielsen and Willyn Webb, authors - Teaching Generation Text.

We live in a world that is increasingly mobile. In order for adults to connect with our kids and students, we need to mobilize. Kids love their phones, they are highly motivated to use them (constantly), and they always have them right there with them (if they’re allowed). What a strong basis for an educational tool: empower students to use tools they already own as a means for better education!

The Disney Mobile Cell and Tell survey of more than 1,500 10-17 year-old cell phone users found that teens and tweens like their cell phones perhaps more than other luxuries in their lives.
“If they had to choose between their phone or something else:
● One-third would give up listening to the radio, playing video games or going to the mall.
● Nearly one-fourth would give up their MP3 players.
● One in five would give up TV” (2007)

As a parent, imagine having the opportunity to help your child with their homework by encouraging them to text for help while waiting at the dentist office or on the way to dance class. As a teacher, imagine having a student respond quickly to a reflection-type question from the day’s lecture while checking their texts during a water break at basketball practice. For both, imagine having a mother learning through a text about the vocabulary test in her son’s biology class tomorrow so she can review with him as they drive to karate lessons.

Today’s phones can alert students to study, serve as a smart vehicle to take notes, provide instant, on-demand answers and research, and even provide a great way to record and capture student oral reports or responses to polls and quizzes. The family dinner table is fading, the homework hour is constantly challenged, and we are out and about (with our phones) more than ever.

Parents may need to take the lead in allowing their children to use their phones for learning and in educating their teachers and administrators of the value in working toward acceptable use policies. There are numerous ways educators and parents can empower students with the freedom to learn with a device they love using.

We want to share the ways you can start using cell phones to enhance learning. To follow are 12 of the most useful ways to support learning as adapted from the newly released book on the topic Teaching Generation Text (www.TeachingGenerationText.com). These ideas will help adults discover how to engage youth with fun, free, safe, and easy methods using nothing more than a basic, text-enabled cell phone.

1. Pictures make it real with Flickr

When cell phones have cameras, a new world is opened. Your kids can take pictures of homework projects, research material, field work, activities, etc. for their own use or to share with others. Encouraging students to take pictures of discussion material shared on the board, on handouts if they are going to be doing homework in route, or just to make sure the material does not get lost and stays handy is a great use of the cell phone camera. Flickr provides a free, easy and efficient way to share pictures taken on your cell phone and group them into slideshows based on topic. www.flickr.com/

2. Use an online cell phone notebook with WeTxt

Most cell phones have a notepad tool themselves, but when you want to be able to print notes, organize notes, and keep a running record on your computer, a service like WeTxt offers a free way to add your online notebook and notebook sections to your contacts and you and your kids can text in notes anywhere, anyplace, anytime.www.wetxt.com

3. Capture oral assignments and thoughts with Google Voice

Google voice enables educators to capture voice messages from students without providing them with their direct phone number. The power of this kicks in when you realize that what Google Voice does is actually become a repository for oral reports, assignments, or sound bites. Not only is it a repository, but parents and teachers can write notes on each clip, share, and post them. This is obviously an effective tool for auditory learners. www.google/voice.com

4. Have an expert in your pocket with ChaCha

Imagine having an expert to turn to at any time for information, advice, guidance…for free! That’s ChaCha, an amazing service that will become invaluable to students and parents alike, works on any cell phone with every provider and enables students to ask any question and receive an accurate answer as a text message in just a few minutes.

You may want to caution students/parents that there may be advertising as part of the ChaCha message and teach them to be aware users by disregarding unnecessary inclusions. www.chacha.com or text 242242

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To discover eight more useful ways to use cell phones for learning check out the original article at The 12 Most... site.