Education in Crisis - comparing low-performing schools

I was one of only eight educators in my school district who chose, of their own accord, to relocate to one of the lowest-performing schools within my state. Of those eight who applied for transfers to this crisis school, I was the only one hired. So, am I crazy or what?

The previous year concluded with an overstaffing of 62% of this school's 2009-2010 staff, including the former Technology Coordinator whom I replaced. By year's end, I was curious whether the replacement of all these teachers plus the three administrators equated to positive opinions about the restructuring taking place? And, I was still interested in keeping up with news of the school I had poured my heart and soul into for the previous two years.

This year, the TELL survey allows me to make those comparisons. See the TELL Kentucky survey for my current school here. Then, compare those stats to my previous school here.

What the survey doesn't tell you is that both schools listed are, in fact, two of the lowest-performing schools in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The middle school discussed actually feeds the selected high school. Having worked at both campuses, I have a unique viewpoint to contrast both facilities, the current administrations, most teachers and support staff.

In some circles of conversation, one survey reflects a positive administration, while the other paints a picture of a school struggling with its new administration. Regarding community relations, the parental influence and involvement is very low in both schools. Finally, teachers are viewed as respected contributors to a team in one school, while having no voice in the other. It appears, from the survey, that one school will rise from the ashes, while the second will continue as an educational facility in crisis.

Web 2.0 and beyond 2007

Did I mention that I'm at http://hamiltonontheweb.blogspot.com/

I haven't been using this blog since the previous post. Link up to catch up.

Wow, has it really been a whole year since I created the post below. My, goodness. Things sure have changed alot in one year. Come over and see at http://hamiltonontheweb.blogspot.com/

Imagining the Future of Learning: WOW! SBY was right on target with .....

Imagining the Future of Learning: WOW! SBY was right on target with .....

Kabuki at Halloween

Ok, I needed a break from the books. The wife and I decided to splurge on costumes this year. Normally, we would make our own. However, after reading "Memoirs of a Geisha", she knew the costume she wanted to wear this year. I decided that the Kabuki look might complement her look. Plus, it might turn out to be an interesting tax right-off.

After all, Arts of the Pacific Rim, including Kabuki theatre, are core content items in the Humanities course I teach. I'll wear this to school in case the auditors read my blog?

PowerPoint - a RE-emerging Technology

When someone scoffs because of my interest in PowerPoint, I raise a questioning eyebrow. Just because it's been around for 15 years (?) doesn't mean you're using it to its full potential. Think about it. Hasn't everyone been in the training, classroom, or session where PowerPoint was just a substitute for a handout.
Only recently did I start using the custom animation. Imagine my surprise when I produced my first "masterpiece" on the Windows version, complete with moving objects, only to discover that the Mac version doesn't offer this juicy tidbit. You have three options with Mac: the entrance, emphasis, and exit of a custom animation. Only on the PC can you complete the fourth and "definitely the most impressive" action: MOTION PATH or Custom Motion Path.
It seems that no matter how much of a Mac-prophet I become, I feel the need to scratch my head about things like this. Why would the Mac, so capable in the multimedia arena, lack little gems like PowerPoint custom motion paths? How about posting a reply to inform me of any other cross platform headaches I may discover as I strive to become proficient on both the Mac and Windows platform.?

Shame on GarageBand for no Tempo Changes!

Seems like yesterday I was creating my first posting to this site. Time flies when your tied to the assignments that make up the last semester of an Instructional Computer Technology degree. Anyway, over the past two months I've been preoccupied with many of the emerging technologies learned over the past two years. My teaching position requires that I produce several tracks of music, with piano accompaniment and multi-track vocals for a choral program. GarageBand has proven very useful. However, as a studied musician, I have to mention that the software absolutely fails in one key musical concept. You can't adjust tempo in a composition with GB. This truly "bites". I've found that going to my very old 386 (if you remember 1994) with Cakewalk Pro is useful. Having used that software for years, it's easy to record the accompaniment, convert the .wrk extension to .mid, and save it to 3.5 disk....email it to myself, and open it in GB. Lots of steps required to make up for something GB should have been designed to do. I know there are other products that are far better than my old version of Cakewalk Pro, but I don't have the time to check them out at this time. Don't get my wrong. Other than that, "major" problem in my composition needs, GarageBand kicks it! Any advice?

Backyard Oasis - Meditation after a day of Education

Seems as though the heavy rains around the Ohio River valley haven't stopped the pollinators from keeping busy. Whether it's the purple coneflowers or the numerous other clusters of flowering plants we've added to our hillside, the bees have been prolific this year.




Closer to the deck, we've noticed from six to ten of these winged beauties each day since the Royal Knight butterfly bush started blooming in May. I was told this is a variety of the hummingbird moth, though it doesn't have the hummingbird colorization.





Our back yard is an oasis for wildlife. This fawn thought it would be a good idea to check out the new landscaping I completed over the summer. His mom wasn't pleased with his wandering eyes and hurried him back to the quiet of the woods.





Schools opened two week ago. After a long day at of classes, there's nothing better than coming home to relax with nature. Gardening well is hard work, but it's easier than the farming I grew up with. Sure, it's not 635 acres, but it's my little bit of heaven.






This weekend I spied a mature Broad-Winged Hawk atop a Mammoth Russian Sunflower. I finally realized he was investigating the 6' Black Racer that was entangled in some erosion netting. I got the snake out, but the hawk missed his dinner. I would have gotten a picture, but my hands were full with the racer. What a pungent smell he emitted. Defense mechanism?







Maybe the hawk was checking out the landscaping I finished before the trip the Salt Lake City. I should have locked the Jacuzzi spa while we were out of town. It seems some teenagers had a "party" in it while we were gone :( How upset would you be if you found vomit in your spa? Spinal Tap thoughts of "11" on a scale of 1 to 10 come to mind. I guarantee the spa has been sanitized beyond factory standards since our return.



Holly couldn't wait to check out the new bird bath, though she thinks it's her private watering hole.







It's a shame that the red hot pokers were gone by the time of this posting, but I had to let you see how well they grow in the humidity of Kentucky.

e-Learning DevCon 2006 opened my eyes

As UofL is offering a new course called Emerging Technologies, I thought it a smart idea to join the wife for this eye-opening experience into the future of eLearning. We flew to Salt Lake City for the August 7-9 e-Learning DevCon2006 hosted by Rapid Intake. I was lucky to walk away from one of the evening drawings with a copy of the new FlashForm Rapid eLearning Studio. That almost balanced out the cost of the round-trip flight from Louisville.

Brent Schlenker was energizing, presenting "Learning 2.0 - The Revolution Has Begun", that highlighted all the things we can do NOW...FREE. He discussed Blogs, starting a WIKI, downloading an RSS aggregator, Podcasting and VideoCast. His insight into the youth culture and future employees (my high school pupils) was mind-blowing when it came to Second Life and similar virtual realities. It's a shame a family emergency resulted in his early departure. Brent maintains the Corporate Learning Development blog - elearndev.blogspot.com. Great personality, great guy. I hope you search out Brent. He has tremendous ideas.

More later on the wonderful people and sessions presented at this great conference.

Welcome all Life Long Learners!

I welcome feedback and discussion of future technology integration projects as I attempt to enrich my courses with the newest tools looming on the horizon of the education spectrum.

Throughout the next few months, I will be integrating several new technologies in my daily teachings with high school students. I am currently busy creating these educational materials:

• Core Content for online courses (Humanities and Vocal Music)
• iMovie videos to enhance core content
  
• GarageBand recordings of vocal warmups and vocal repertiore
• Podcasting of lectures
• PowerPoint presentations with custom animations
  
• Vlogs