technology
Paragraph Six - On Making First the Scholar Speak
Here’s a quote on our recent theme of seeing, which I stumbled on since my last blog post: “The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will set off a revolution.” It was uttered by impressionist impresario Paul Cezanne. One of his methods was to look with both eyes, as it were. Instead of painting objects as resolved by the brain into one picture, he superimposed the two slightly varying perspectives of each eye, thus kicking off his own carotene revolution. Picasso and Matisse agreed with his innovator’s stature when they...
Elmore in the Bronx
“The best indicator of how strong a new teacher will be in 5 years is determined by what the other teachers in the building” said Dr. Elmore, when stressing how important professionalism, consistency and collaboration are to school culture and quality teachers. On May 20th, over 60 principals and assistant principals gathered at Manhattan College to see Richard Elmore speak on school improvement and his...
Our 'Creating A Culture of Innovation' Workshop Was a Tremendous Success
What does it look like when technology positively impacts the daily practice of a learning community? Participants gathered together with AUSSIE consultant Sandy Scragg to explore case studies of schools that have transformed their culture by integrating shared learning and communication innovations (e.g. Google Apps) and talk about ...
Paragraph Six - Testing - Do Not Disturb
“Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race,” exclaims Stephen Dedalus in James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. In my last blog, I suggested we let the question, “What is school?” guide us through the next decade. Following my own suggestion, ready to define the nature of education at every pass, I sallied forth to encounter for the umpteenth time the...
Paragraph Six - On Questions that Shouldn't be Answered
I ran out of space in my last post (last of the decade!) as I was turning to Neil Postman for perspective on the problem of questions that can’t be answered. His book The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School actually offers perspective on both questions that can and should be answered and those that can’t and shouldn’t. In the first category, he told the story of Elizabeth Eisenstein, author of a monumental two-volume study of the printing press as an agent of cultural change. After a speech, a member of her audience asked how she...
Paragraph Six - Beliefs Cont'd
In the ramblin’ spirit of Paragraph Six, I’m giving myself permission to postpone the post on pi yet again, and go further along the tangent of pedagogical belief. Call it a “dynamic digression” (a handy euphemism I picked up from the world of lit crit.) Sometimes stories demand to be told, and this is one of them, on the theme of belief.
Maximizing School Technology Investments through Sustained Professional Development
Over the past few decades, schools across the country have invested heavily in building their technology infrastructure, ranging from broadband connections and connected computer labs to 1:1 computing initiatives and interactive white boards in every classroom. But are our educators effectively leveraging these hefty technology investments to improve teaching and learning? As we travel from district to district, partnering with PreK-12 schools across the country, we are finding that many of our instructional leaders and classroom teachers are not...
Chancellor Klein Stopped by and Shared His Vision for the Future of Education
Last Saturday we at AUSSIE had the honor of being addressed by the New York City Chancellor of Education, Joel Klein, at the launch of our new school year.
Chancellor Klein spoke highly of our work and commended our commitment to student achievement and accountability. His personal, ongoing commitment to improving the quality of education for all students is driven by his...
