Reflections from Philadelphia: My Technology "Take-Away" From An Inspiring Conference

Beth Anne Brennan
Lower School Head

"But it's not about the tools. It's not about layering expensive technology on top of the traditional curriculum. Instead, it's about addressing the new needs of modern learners in entirely new ways. And once we understand that it's about learning, our questions reframe themselves in terms of the ecological shifts we need to make: What do we mean by learning? What does it mean to be literate in a networked, connected world? What does it mean to be educated? What do students need to know and be able to do to be successful in their futures? Educators must lead inclusive conversations in their communities around such questions to better inform decisions about technology and change."

 

~ Will Richardson Via ASCD and Educational Leadership Magazine

Recently, I traveled to Philadelphia to attend the annual conference for independent schools (NAIS).  The theme of this year’s conference was Think Big Think Great and for those of you who know me, as a leader and a learner, know that I love thinking BIG.  I found many of the presentations intriguing in the program and I was very excited to attend.  I wasn’t  disappointed.

If we are to consider and possibly embrace change, I decided to approach this conference along the lines that Will Richardson suggests above; my experience at this conference would be as a “modern learner” in hopes that  I might better share and inform our community when I returned to school the following week.  Going in, I felt inspired, empowered, knowledgeable and ready; I have been engaged in many discussions over the past several years, about preparing schools within the information age and now, the time had come for me to dive in.  I needed to start thinking, learning and living as a student in the 21st century.  

As I attended presentations, armed with my iPad, I sat up close to the speakers and took notes using the Note app. Later in the day, when I had a moment or two between workshops, I used the internet to look up the speakers’ bios, TED talks (if they had any), research, and opinions.  If I felt it was useful I forwarded the resources by email, along with my notes, images and thoughts regarding what I was taking in, to my colleagues back at EMS.  I also found that I could follow the Twitter posts of the other conference-goers (using #NAIS2013), which allowed me to know their thoughts about a given speaker or presentation, without having to have a personal conversation with the more than 5,000  participants (I found this aspect, the Twitter feed, to be the most interesting of all).  

When I returned home, I added some of the speakers’ blog sites to my favorites bar with the intention of checking in frequently to see what they are thinking and saying relative to education. I also decided that I would participate more frequently in social media and online learning networks that focus on teaching in the 21st Century.  

I have attended many conferences but I would have to say that this experience was among the most remarkable.  It is hard for me to fully describe how my learning was enhanced by the technology so readily and simply held in my hand.  If I needed a reference during a presentation, I quickly looked it up online; anything important I wanted to note or share, I could jot it down or capture it with the camera and forward to my colleagues.  The value of the iPad was clear to me, and as a professional educator of 25 years, I can not help but wonder about the possibilities for us in the classroom.  Should we push harder for technology in our classrooms at EMS?

One of the reasons I love EMS is that we provide a careful, whole-child education.  Where some schools or school districts place weight on grade-based assessments or test scores, I know that our teachers play a much broader role in our student’s development.  After all, things like focus, attending, social and emotional development, critical/abstract thinking skills still require great teachers who, perhaps, have learned from great teachers before them.  

Here’s the thing, though.  To my own children, to our EMS children, none of what I have just related about my conference experience is remarkable to them.  At all.  Where I am amazed, my children, along with the millions of other young people of their generation, are already living (fully) in an age where information is accessible and commonplace.  Experienced educators are in the middle of a paradigm shift but our children are living well within the paradigm.  There has always been differences between generations, but this time, it’s a bit different.  As Will Richardson noted at his NAIS presentation (similar TEDtalk here), unlike any time before, teachers are no longer the sole providers of our student’s core learning.  Children now have access to many teachers, for just about anything that interests them.  I realize that this may be a bit too simplified, but for us teachers the nature of the shift we have to understand is one that moves the focus away from knowledge and more toward guidance.

Taking this leap and making this commitment to “modern learning” has not been easy for me.  In fact, I have often found technology to be distracting, frustrating and time-consuming, but I am starting to get it.  I am starting to get the hang of it and understand it’s value.  Me and the 5000+ professional educators who attended NAIS, along with many more who took it all in through web feeds, simulcasts, and social media are starting to get a better idea of the potential it can offer for teaching in our time.  Of course, we still have an obligation to shape the development of our students (talents, knowledge and character) through the methodologies we feel are most effective:  Best of the Old and Best of the New as our informal motto goes. I still believe in this balance.  It’s just that now, considering how things have changed, we should reevaluate how we are going to proceed and then—borrowing from conference speaker Cathy Davidson, and Nike shoes—”just do it.”  Our goal is to prepare our children for the world in which they will grow.

Our Minecraft Curriculum Featured at Annual NAIS Conference

by Aaron Cooper

Head of School

Last week, a contingent from The Elisabeth Morrow School traveled to Philadelphia for the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) Annual Conference; a gathering of more than 5,000 educators from around the country. 

EMS Technology teacher Marianne Malmstrom and I were honored to be invited, along with seventeen other schools, to present specific educational innovations in a session called Speed Innovating.  Ms. Malmstrom and I offered a session titled Targeting the "Six C's" for the 21st Century Through the New Frontier of Minecraft, which detailed the "gaming" curriculum of our technology department. 

Some within our community are familiar with our Tech department's work with Minecraft.  If you are not, or are interested in taking a closer look, please consult the following links:

•  The information on our session at NAIS

•  This wiki space maintained to document the students’ work

•  Or, this article from the 2012 Appletree magazine.

NAIS President Pat Bassett referred to the session in his general remarks to the entire conference by saying that, "if [attendees] did not have the chance to see the Speed Innovation session, [they] need to do so next year, as it featured details of what education can and should be."  Mr. Bassett also had the chance to listen directly to our presentation and was quite impressed with the work going on at Elisabeth Morrow.  This is certainly high praise coming from an individual so knowledgeable about the independent school world. 

Ms. Malmstrom and the technology team have developed this program over the past five years and have worked tirelessly to tweak the curriculum and support the students’ work.  It is this sort of dedication and drive that we all appreciate and is a hallmark of our entire Elisabeth Morrow faculty.  

A Great Fall Season of After School Adventures!

Liza Jones Hards

Director of Auxiliary Programs

This fall the After School Adventures program filled The Elisabeth Morrow School with many interesting sights, sounds and smells during our eight weeks of classes.  Students were happy, engaged, creative and challenged. Beginning Chess students enjoyed learning the basics of chess while our Intermediate Chess class challenged their classmates in class tournaments.  Students were thrilled to participate in hands-on experiments and observations in Mad Science classes while Mrs. Milne’s “Science Alive” class also helped students learn more about our beautiful EMS Campus and lively animals in the Little School Science room.  Recipes from the “Simply Delicious” cookbook were mixed together and sampled in our Little School cooking class and fabulous t-shirt fashions were created in the “Fashion Design Stars” class. Sports in Little School and Intramurals in Morrow House kept our students active and moving and our Creative Dance class in Little School even got parents up and moving as part of an end of the session class share.  Students also had the opportunity to learn about the Chinese culture and language in our two Chinese language classes.  Other classes included “ Magical Mysteries”, “Friday Fun” and “Epic Adventures”.   The next session of After School Adventures will begin on February 4, 2013.  Class booklets and registration information will be available January 16.  We have many new and exciting offerings for our next session. For more information, please contact the Office of Auxiliary Programs at ext. 7150.  Thank you to our students and teachers for a great session of After School Adventures! 

The Value of Conversation

Beth Anne Brennan

Lower School Head

This Thanksgiving, after a vivacious and delicious meal, my friend Steve pulled me aside in the kitchen.  He smiled and said how reminiscent this holiday had been to his own childhood.  He delighted in hearing my father tell the family stories of past holiday celebrations, including the details of the “cast of characters” sitting around the table and the shows we put on as children for our very proud parents and relatives. 

“Hmm?” I thought. Nice to hear, of course, but I never really saw it this way.  For Steve, our lively discussion around the Thanksgiving table was a treasure. For me, time spent talking was a typical occurrence in our household.  As a family we have grown used to joining my father in the living room, sitting on the couches, engaging in conversation.  And my father is a pro:  he instinctively knows the right questions to ask and listens with genuine concern to all of the details and topics of interest in our lives.  He offers advice, shares a story from his life experience that adds substance and meaning to the conversation, and makes positive observations that encourages us all to want to stay engaged. 

Now, not everyone’s like my father, I realize.  He’s had years of practice.  Yet, given the time to reflect upon the festivities of this past weekend, the heartwarming union of family and friends, I think Steve has the right perspective.  Conversation is a treasure.  In this regard I consider myself lucky.  I grew up in a household that valued conversation and made it a priority.  Now, today, it is easy for me to see the gains of having parents who wanted to talk with me as a child.

You may be thinking “that was then,” right?  After all, these days it seems it’s tough to find the time.  Most of us have very scheduled and hectic lives, along with family-wide access to the various media channels that draw our attention.  It is a facet of the era in which we live, but we have to keep in mind that the time we spend disconnected or disengaged with the members of our family, with our children in particular, we not only miss those moments that enrich our lives and allow us to bond with our kids, we also lose the opportunities to develop their character through conversation.

Engaging your children in conversation not only expresses your love by showing interest in who they are and what they have to say, it also provides them with a model for listening, speaking, and asking.  Among other things, conversations also teach children to absorb or form opinions, frame perspectives, and develop empathy.  Although it may not be easy to initially connect with your children, perhaps provide them with a topic of mutual interest and encourage them to carry on lively discussions by sharing their ideas or asking questions.  And stick with it; try not to give in to any initial grumblings or indifference.  Try not to succumb to the “easy way” by handing/allowing them a device when they jump in the car or sit down for dinner. As an educator and as a mom, I can’t stress this enough: conversation is a critical social skill and part of child’s development that requires adult patience, modeling and practice.  So the next time you sit down for a holiday meal, or any meal in fact, seek to find this treasure.  I assure you, it’s worth it.

Cooking in the Curriculum @EMS: 7 Good Reasons

Cooking? Are you serious?  Yep!  Here's why:

A child putting the steps to make "The Besto Pesto"
 in sequential order. (later followed up as an
independent activity to make a mini "recipe book."

1.  Sequencing - Cooking helps children in understanding procedure and ordering events to reach desired outcomes.

2.  Leadership - Cooking is a simple/low-stress means for children to direct their peers through assigning duties (as part of the recipe) to other children and overseeing the production of the final product.

3. Followership: Cooking allows children to understand the responsibility of teamwork, of being an effective part of a group working toward a specific goal.  Also, once given a "job," a student then must follow both spoken and written direction to fulfill their assigned task.

4. Math:  calibrating required ingredients introduces units of measure (amounts and temperatures) and an understanding of proportion.

5.  Gross/Fine Motor Skills:  chopping, measuring, stirring, peeling (under careful supervision) all works on the large and small muscle groups along arm, as well as developing hand dexterity.  

Middle School Cooking Club:  often featuring guest chefs
and the exploration of culture through cuisine.

6.  Tangible Results:  completion of a recipe offers a tangible and real result for the children.  Engagement is usually there as well, as the children get to eat the tasty results.

7.  Eating Right:  learning to cook introduces children to healthier food options.  Plus, at EMS, we often cook with our own vegetables (grown on campus), and children are more likely to try new foods if they've participated in growing them.