List of resources for parents, teachers and students
How to use this list
The twitter and blogs are for “getting new ideas” and doing “lifelong learning” and
The PROJECTS section is for students. Let students explore and look at these posts
The Digital Portfolios (DPs) section is a list of links to remarkable portfolios. Some are by students, others by teachers. There should be a clearinghouse or warehouse of links and actual downloads of DPs so that future generations can look at high quality. These websites and blogs have content that define standards of high and medium quality.
Websites
www.ConnectedPrincipals.com they have a good summary of Dan Pink’s book, Drive (about what motivates us and how to motivate each other without money)
SethGodin.com His blog features short pieces. His website includes links to free ebooks. Making a bad powerpoint is helpful for improving our presentations.
https://seths.blog/2007/01/really_bad_powe/
The typical person speaks 10 or 12 sentences a minute.
The atomic method requires you to create a slide for each sentence. For a five minute talk, that's 50 slides.
Each slide must have either a single word, a single image or a single idea.
Make all 50 slides. Force yourself to break each concept into the smallest possible atom. If it's not worthy of a slide, don't say it.
Don’t kill the dreams of students. Tough to read. He shows what’s holding kids back and provides hope for what each of us can do to undo some of the damage.
https://sethgodinwrites.medium.com/stop-stealing-dreams-4116c7dbff7b
https://seths.blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/stop-stealing-dreams6print.pdf
Book list https://www.thisisbroken.co.uk/
“IT’S NOT AN ACCIDENT THAT SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE READ MORE BOOKS.”
Seth Godin is a marketing guy, a bestselling author, entrepreneur, agent of change, thought-leader and daily blogger. The books he has written consistently change the landscape of marketing and business. He believes that books remain the tool of choice for changing the discussion and for impacting the way people think – and he loves to recommend books to his fans. His popular, but irregular, reading list blog posts share an insight into his thinking, and his book recommendations are always superb.
This site is a complete list of Seth Godin’s book recommendations.
Mark Cuben’s Maverick blog has a remarkable post from 20212. Don’t follow your passion. Follow your effort. Worth a read to undo the myth of”follow your passion” that Steve Jobs supported.
Let me make this as clear as possible
1. When you work hard at something you become good at it.
2. When you become good at doing something, you will enjoy it more.
3. When you enjoy doing something, there is a very good chance you will become passionate or more passionate about it
4. When you are good at something, passionate and work even harder to excel and be the best at it, good things happen.
Don’t follow your passions, follow your effort. It will lead you to your passions and to success, however you define it.
Click here: https://blogmaverick.com/2012/03/18/dont-follow-your-passion-follow-your-effort/
Danpink.com His ebook The Flip manifesto supports the theme mentioned by Cuban.
Mastery.org The effort to develop a better high school transcript. This was founded by Scott Looney, a person who might be worth following on Twitter.
Clearly there are more websites, but this short list gets you going.-- as with any category on this list, if you have a recommendation of something remarkable on the Internet, send it to mynewmethods@gmail.com (curator)
These images will help you connect with people who are on the leading edge
Videos to expand our minds
Mastery.org
www.TINYURL.com/nogradesvideo: Focus on Grades? How about a focus on skills? What if we earned “badges? In boy Scouts, does it matter if we learned how to tie knots and demonstrated a level of competence, ability capability and “mastery”? Sure. Does it matter WHEN we show we can do it? No. If we made two tries or got it on the first attempt, does it matter? At the end of the year we have 4 badges.
www.TINYURL.com/nogradesScott worth a look at the document. Not a video but you can make the slides move. Scott Looney’s presentation in 2017 to a New York association of independent schools. His quotes of Alfie Kohn expose some of the foundation of his school’s focus on skills. His organization, Mastery.org, has obtained agreements from more than 60 colleges to accept a “spidergram” instead of or in addition to a high school transcript. The spider diagram shows the strengths of the student and “tells their story” better than GA of 3.4 or 4.0 and SAT or 1050 or 1600. (2400 with the essay).
Earth from Space HD nova. Worth a look. Look for the “salt fall” (like a waterfall) around Minute 43. www.TINYURL.com/EarthFromSpaceHD
Projects
Ben Staley’s project about his family’s journey from Europe. https://sites.google.com/a/hightechhigh.org/bsdp/projects/family-history-project
www.TINYURL.com/benstaleyproject Built on Google Sites.
High Tech High in California www.hightechhigh.org Click on “Student projects”
https://www.hightechhigh.org/hth/projects/ Student work from the Main campus
https://www.hightechhigh.org/student-work/student-projects/ student work from other schools in the HTH system.
National History Day. Wander around this site. Get some ideas. Many of these projects should be downloaded and archived for the next 200 years. www.nhd.org
See “The man who saved the world.” Stunning. Convincing argument by Luke Chang and Danny Yu, two teenagers from Shanghai. www.TINYURL.com/sunnhd http://61538490.weebly.com/
Matt Blazek’s list of projects www.TINYURL.com/blazekprojects His explanation and tour of the site www.tinyurl.com/mattblazek
Dennis Yuzenas has a program called “Four of 17” where students select four projects after evaluating 17 possible assignments. Good practice for selecting laundry soap or cars. Learn more at www.WhatDoYaKnow.com +1 (561) 358-6884 TEXT please. Or djyuzenas@gmail.com (preferred).
High tech high examples of projects https://www.hightechhigh.org/student-work/student-projects/
Digital Portfolios
www.TINYURL.com/ExampleDP Ben Staley’s “everything including the kitchen sink” approach is remarkable. What an effort. His project on his family’s journey from Europe is worth a look.
Abel Thon’s DP was built on Weebly. www.TINYURL.com/abelsite His essay has some errors. Who cares? He had average scores and GPA, but four colleges offered him scholarships based on this DP.
New Tech High in California
See their examples of portfolios at www.newtechhigh.org/portfolio
High tech high DPs by teachers https://www.hightechhigh.org/hth/staff-directory/
Go to their staff directory to see digital portfolios and websites of the teachers. Humorous, filled with helpful downloadable documents (see Dan Aguirre’s site)
http://mraguirresdp.weebly.com/
His list of “how to” documents should be in teacher-training workbooks.
http://mraguirresdp.weebly.com/how-to.html
Amilio Aviles https://amilio.weebly.com/ a science teacher with a knack for social media and interesting content.
Focus on Skills
Did you catch the reference to a “new high school transcript”? This information is repeated here in case you didn’t take time to click on these links:
Mastery.org
www.TINYURL.com/nogradesvideo: Focus on Grades? How about a focus on skills?
www.TINYURL.com/nogradesScott worth a look at the document. Not a video but you can make the slides move. Scott Looney’s presentation in 2017 to a New York association of independent schools.
