Saturday, September 8, 2018

How to find projects or internships for students to include and display in their Free Websites by ASKing THIS QUESTION: "How can my students help you with your business?"

Go to HUNDR.ED to see this project
Teachers are called "advisors" at the Met in the Big Picture Learning system.   Advisors look for mentors and opportunities for students to learn (a) through their interests (b) out in the city/out of the school.

Here's how a teacher in California (newtechhigh.org) explains in a blogpost






Go to HUNDR.ED to see this project
We often make the mistake, as educators, of going to community and industry partners with our hands out.  We ask, "What can industry do for my students? How can industry help"  It wasn't until I was talking with a team member at an Adobe field trip that I realized that I tend to swap that request around.
My first question, whenever I meet anyone in industry is, "How can my students help you with your business?"  
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL BLOGPOST
Go to HUNDR.ED to see this project

Teachers will do well if they learn from New Tech High.   Parents can go here, too, and download the documents that are displayed at HUNDR.ED (the site for sharing innovation). 

Monday, September 3, 2018

Lisa Gottfried and the New Tech High effort to put portfolios in practice deserve a Nobel Prize for education

Schools would do well to copy New Tech High.   GO HERE   I read tony Wagner's book about MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED where he discusses the Mastery.org transcript of skills (not g.p.a.) and he discusses digital portfolios.

NEW TECH HIGH put portfolios into action and they SHARE THEIR products.  You can actually see a student's portfolio.   GO TO THE PAGE ON HUNDR.ED    if you have a HUNDR.ED account, you are an outlier.
====================


Here's what I wrote to Lisa Gottfried.
Ms. Gottfried

I've just finished reading parts of Tony Wagner's book most Likely to Succeed and I like the parts about portfolios.  I found your school in Clarke and DiMartino's book about personalizing the high school experence.... and when I searched "portfolios new tech high" I was stunned to see the traiing materials that your school uses.  

a)  Are these materials available for any teacher or school to use (with appropriate attribution)?
b)  I'm putting together a free ebook to promote portfolios in my school district.   Can I post images of your Google Drive and suggest that teachers can download the documents?

I'm interested in the cost and time of training teachers and students to use your system.   Do you have some estimates of the time and cost?   Can you pass to your school director this request?

THANK YOU
============

To _____________________
School Director

RE:  The cost of training students in your school to use portfolios to display their work

Hello -- I’m a grad student.  I’m studying how schools introduce and encourage the use of digital portfolios.  

My dissertation includes a discussion of the cost of bringing an active portfolio system to a school. I am interested in the following areas:
1.  What do eportfolios look like at your school? (Can you show me some screenshots)?   I want to show my students what other students are doing.
2.  How long does it take usually to train students to use the system?
3. Who does the training?  (teachers or a non-teacher?)
4. How do the trainers get trained?
5.  How many "artifacts" (essays, photos and videos of projects, etc.) do student portfolios usually contain?
6.  What rubrics do you use to guide students?
7.  How did portfolios get started at your school?  Did the school board come up with the idea?
8. Is having a digital portfolio a requirement to graduate?



Thank you for your time.
========================
Here is her reply

Steve,
I'm super excited that the resources we've created might help you implement a useful blog portfolio program across your district! There are a variety of places you can get resources that are open-source and can help you build what you need for your teachers. 

There is a toolkit you can find at hundred.org, as we were featured at a top 100 Global innovator for our program: https://hundred.org/en/innovations/new-technology-high-school-blog-portfolio

You can also find my graduate work and supporting research which fed into our blog portfolio program and continues to be deepened by other staff members, also focusing on portfolio for their Master's work. You can start here: http://www.learninginnovationlab.com/gottfried-home.html

As for trainings, I'm going to include Aaron Eisberg in on this email reply. He heads up our Center for Excellence, which is a top notch training facility that is fully embedded on our campus and can definitely help you with your training needs.  I have given many talks to folks around the world who come for training about PBL and the portfolio process.

I would ask that if you do move to implement, that you report your successes and your implementation through the hundred.org site, as they keep track of when innovations are adopted across the globe and across the country.  We've got someone in FL who is implementing this innovation as well as someone in India, so far, (that we know of) and we'd like to know when others are also adopting the toolkit or trying to use the innovation.

You can contact Aaron to find out more about training and how we can support you!  We'd have to get permission from teachers and students before including their websites in your ebook and I would guess that Aaron would be the best person to talk with about that.

Hope that helps!

Sincerely, 
Lisa Gottfried
======================================

to the readers of this blog:
Do what Lisa did -- put your materials online and let others build on your progress.

Look at an example of an ePortfolio by Maureen Pratt Devlin,

Go to TINYURL.com/TeacherEPortfolio

Maureen Devlin has created a digital portfolio that could become a standard for teachers to emulate.    

See her blog Teach Children Well   teachWellNow.blogspot.com   


Here is an example of using Google Slides

She sets an example for her students to follow:  She blogs and reflects on her work.
Then she shares her ideas with an audience. 



Maureen is clearly an outlier in the sense that Tony Wagner is an outlier
See OUTLIERS for Better Schools at TINYURL.com/OutliersSchools

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Letter to PRINCIPALS and DIRECTORS of schools about the "Free Website Project" for students to show their school work

This is the site that the student created.
You can visit the site at
TINYURL.com/AbelSite

this is the student in California who
created a free website and
put his school work on the site

Please pass this letter to superintendents and principals

Hello

I have a free program that school districts can use.
This is the poster that
the Free Website Projects
uses to make the use of
Free Websites more popular
It's called the Free Website Project

Here is the blog (with additional articles)

here is the free ebook

here is the free step by step guide

free materials

The summary page

PRINCIPAL:
You can get these free materials - free professional development for teachers at TINYURL.com/ABCfreeWorkshop
=======================================

>>> TinyURL.com/FWPstart <<<  this page

[ 1 ] Ben Staley’s website TinyURL.com/exampledp

[ 2 ] Abel Thon’s website Tiny.cc/AbelSite

[ 3 ] The website of a teacher at High Tech High
TinyURL.com/
The list of websites created by High Tech High students
Perhaps those three sites will touch you.


Then you might go to the next three links:

[ 4 ] The video tour of High Tech High by Oprah Winfrey and Bill Gates

[ 5 ] The short video of “Digital Portfolios for Guidance Counselors”  (a short presentation of 24 slides)




Direct link to this video http://tinyurl.com/suncounselors 
[ 6 ] Perhaps you would like to learn how to make a free website using Google Sites
TinyURL.com/sunDP5   <<< Free EBOOK with instructions about how to make a free website


I'm offering this "free website project" modeled on the HIGH TECH HIGH approach to make Digital Portfolios in California.  Call +1 54) 646 8246 to get free over-the-phone tips.

Start by going to TINYURL.com/FWPStart