Dangerously Irrelevant

The University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA) has started a new podcast channel and will be interviewing top educational leadership scholars from around the world about school administrator research and/or preparation.

The first live podcast will occur tomorrow and will feature Dr. Karen Seashore, who holds the Rodney Wallace Professorship for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning at the University of Minnesota. Karen will be discussing the linkages between P-12 school leadership and student academic learning outcomes. As a former faculty colleague of Karen’s, I know her well and anticipate that this will be a great conversation.

• Listen live to the interview with Dr. Karen Seashore
• Download the interview afterward
• Learn more about UCEA’s interview series

We here at CASTLE have been working with UCEA to get this up and running. CASTLE is one of several UCEA centers; I also serve as UCEA’s Associate Director of Communications. Stay tuned to the podcast channel to hear future interviews and, while you’re at it, sign up for UCEA’s Twitter feed if you’re interested in more school leadership resources.

Happy listening!

I took a couple of days off from THE PUSH - guess I was tired! We only identified 1 excellent P-12 athletics / extracurricular activities blog. As we head into the home stretch (only 8 more days!), we’re doing okay in most other areas but could use some help with these:

• agricultural education blogs (only have 3),
• drama / theater education blogs (only have 1),
• family / consumer sciences education blogs (only have 2),
• physical / health education blogs (only have 6), and
• school counseling / college and career counseling / career education / school psychology blogs (only have 3),
• vocational / applied / industrial technology education blogs (only have 2).

Today we focus on BUSINESS / COMPUTER SCIENCE EDUCATION. What are some excellent business / computer science education blogs that P-12 educators should be reading? We need both elementary and secondary examples. If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki.

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent subject-oriented educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, two weeks from now we should have a bevy of excellent subject-specific blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

Sometimes THE PUSH has a tough day. Yesterday we only identified 2 excellent school counseling / college and career counseling / school psychology education blogs. We’re doing okay in most other areas but could use some help with these:

• agricultural education (only have 3),
• family / consumer sciences education blogs (only have 2),
• drama / theater education blogs (only have 1),
• vocational / applied / industrial technology education blogs (only have 2), and
• physical / health education blogs (only have 6).

Today we focus on ATHLETICS AND EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES. Who's doing a great job of using a blog to publicize their athletic and/or extracurricular programs? We need both elementary and secondary examples. If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki.

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent subject-oriented educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, two weeks from now we should have a bevy of excellent subject-specific blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

Yesterday was a good day for THE PUSH! We identified 7 excellent gifted education blogs. We’re doing okay in most other areas but could use some help with these:

• agricultural education (only have 3),
• family / consumer sciences education blogs (only have 2),
• drama / theater education blogs (only have 1),
• vocational / applied / industrial technology education blogs (only have 2), and
• physical / health education blogs (only have 6).

Today we focus on SCHOOL COUNSELING, SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY, and/or CAREER EDUCATION. What are some excellent blogs that P-12 counselors, school psychologists, and/or career educators should be reading? We need both elementary and secondary examples. If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki.

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent subject-oriented educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, two weeks from now we should have a bevy of excellent subject-specific blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

Yesterday was another great day for THE PUSH! We identified 11 excellent English as a second language (ESL) education blogs. We’re doing okay in most other areas but could use some help with these:

• agricultural education (only have 3),
• family / consumer sciences education blogs (only have 2),
• drama / theater education blogs (only have 1),
• vocational / applied / industrial technology education blogs (only have 2), and
• physical / health education blogs (only have 6).

Today we focus on GIFTED EDUCATION. What are some excellent Gifted and Talented education blogs that P-12 educators should be reading? We need both elementary and secondary examples. If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki.

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent subject-oriented educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, two weeks from now we should have a bevy of excellent subject-specific blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

Here are two quotes from Education and Learning to Think, an interesting little research-based book published by the National Research Council way back in 1987!

Higher order thinking is nonalgorithmic. That is, the path of action is not fully specified in advance.

Higher order thinking tends to be complex. The total path is not “visible” (mentally speaking) from any single vantage point.

Higher order thinking often yields multiple solutions, each with costs and benefits, rather than unique solutions.

Higher order thinking involves nuanced judgment and interpretation.

Higher order thinking involves the application of multiple criteria, which sometimes conflict with one another.

Higher order thinking often involves uncertainty. Not everything that bears on the task at hand is known.

Higher order thinking involves self-regulation of the thinking process. We do not recognize higher order thinking in an individual when someone else “calls the plays” at every step.

Higher order thinking involves imposing meaning, finding structure in apparent disorder.

Higher order thinking is effortful. There is considerable mental work involved in the kinds of elaborations and judgments required. (p. 3)

The seventh item on the list, self-regulation, is one that I think is particularly lacking in many K-12 schools because the teachers “call the plays” so much of the time…

Here’s what I think is the money quote:

The goals of increasing thinking and reasoning ability are old ones for educators. . . . But these goals were part of the high literacy tradition; they did not, by and large, apply to the more recent schools for the masses. Although it is not new to include thinking, problem solving, and reasoning in someone’s school curriculum, it is new to include it in everyone’s curriculum. It is new to take seriously the aspiration of making thinking and problem solving a regular part of a school program for all of the population . . . It is a new challenge to develop educational programs that assume that all individuals, not just an elite, can become competent thinkers. (p. 7)

I liked this book. It's very short, but it made me think. I give it 4 highlighters.

Yesterday was a better day for THE PUSH. We identified 8 excellent preschool / early childhood education blogs. We’re doing okay in most other areas but could use some help with these:

• agricultural education (only have 3),
• family / consumer sciences education blogs (only have 2),
• drama / theater education blogs (only have 1),
• vocational / applied / industrial technology education blogs (only have 2), and
• physical / health education blogs (only have 6).

Today we focus on ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE (ESL) EDUCATION. What are some excellent ESL education blogs that P-12 ESL educators should be reading? We need both elementary and secondary examples. If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki.

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent subject-oriented educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, two weeks from now we should have a bevy of excellent subject-specific blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

This past Saturday was Dangerously Irrelevant’s third birthday. Wow. So much for an experiment that I thought I’d try for a few months!

Today this blog tipped over the 6,000 subscriber mark. Along with the folks who go straight to the web page each day and those who subscribe via e-mail, I believe that roughly 7,000 people read this blog’s content daily. Double wow.

Should you be reading this blog? Maybe, maybe not. Please know that I am extremely appreciative of those of you who choose to spend some of your valuable time participating in this community. Together we do amazing things. Thanks.

For those of you who are interested, below is a chart of what my subscriber totals have looked like over the past 3 years (I think the momentary steep drop-offs have been Feedburner stat glitches but I’m not sure).

Photo credit: Soapylove’s Third Birthday!

THE PUSH is struggling a bit right now. The past few categories have been tough. Yesterday we only identified 3 excellent agricultural education blogs. We’re doing okay in most other areas but could use some help with these:

• family / consumer sciences education blogs (only have 2)
• drama / theater education blogs (only have 1),
• vocational / applied / industrial technology education blogs (only have 2), and
• physical / health education blogs (only have 6).

Today we focus on PRESCHOOL / EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION. What are some excellent early childhood education blogs that preschool educators should be reading? If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki.

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent subject-oriented educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, two weeks from now we should have a bevy of excellent subject-specific blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

Seth Godin is one of my favorite thinkers. I’ve learned a ton from him. Here are a couple of quotes from his post today on education.

School was the big thing for a long time. School is tests and credits and notetaking and meeting standards. Learning, on the other hand, is ‘getting it’. It’s the conceptual breakthrough that permits the student to understand it then move on to something else. Learning doesn’t care about workbooks or long checklists.

For a while, smart people thought that school was organized to encourage learning. For a long time, though, people in the know have realized that they are fundamentally different activities.

and

If you think the fallout in the newspaper business was dramatic, wait until you see what happens to education.

Happy reading!