April 1st was the opening of our community and the introduction to "The Matrix of a Learner".  The concept of transitioning our current model of education to one that is learner based has been well received.  

Before we can turn it over with confidence there will be the resources and supports to do so successfully, we need to grow our membership and our library.  When membership grows, the resources in the library grow which will bring in more members.  It's called crowd-sourcing with quality control.  

It can happen very quickly but to meet the "tipping point" it takes you all to spread the word and gather members.  

As of the writing of this post we have: 48 members and 115 lessons.

Our goal for next Sunday, April 13 is:  150 members, 150 lessons.

Can you help us reach this goal?

nggematrix

T-3 days before NGGE2000 Community Opens

Talk is increasingly negative when it's about education.  Whether through discussions, blogs, conferences, webinars, workshops; it's happening all over the world.  Learners are demanding change and we need to listen.
Next Generation Global Education has talked about switching the roles in education, creating a resource, the Universal Library for Learning, that could support personalized learning and most recently designed "The Matrix of a Learner".
Now it is time to put thoughts, ideas, dreams, visions in motion.  We come together to learn from and with each other.  This is how.

Log into ngge2000.ning.com
This is what you see:

Click on the right corner where it says "Click here to join".  That takes you to the sign up page.

Fill out the short form, click Sign Up at the bottom left.

Now it's time to stop the talk and look at how it can be changed.  

NGGE2000 Ning Community comes live on the 1st of April.  At that time  our new " Matrix of a Learner", as well as the seed of the Universal Library for Learning will become visible.
But you can join now, meet other members , start a discussion,  enter your class or register an "after school club".  

To the many professionals who have mentored NGGE through the years to those just joining one of our groups - Thank you and welcome. Don't miss out on  the opportunity to share your learning with the world.

Take a few minutes to join the NGGE2000 Community and help to transition education back to the learners.

Thank you,

Tracy Hanson, CEO

Next Generation Global Education

Giving Back

There are 5 pieces to our learning. Once we begin to master concepts we are learning we can create and in fact, give back or share with others the learning you accomplished.  Learning from and with peers is a very powerful form of education.

This example of the "give back" learning was sent to me by a fellow educator.  This is presentation done by a high school student for is video productions class.  It's not perfect but it's pretty darn good. Don't you think this would grab a learners attention more then just opening to a textbook page?
Our Story in Two Minutes

Have you done any learning you would like to share.  Visit us - Next Generation Global Education

Power of community

“Teachers unions shouldn’t be surprised the implementation was botched,” said Lindsey Burke, the Will Skillman Fellow in Education at The Heritage Foundation. “This is what happens with one-size-fits-all bureaucratic initiatives.”

No truer words have not been spoken up front.  We gone though open classrooms, whole language, Reading First, to many to list over the past 40 years.  They may have been some advantages to the approach but it wouldn't matter- it would fail and so will the Common Core Standards.  Why?  Because the system will not change HOW education is delivered to learners.  

At NGGE, we look at the HOW!

Insanity = Continuing to use a teach to test system

We have a teach to test educational system that is killing the curiosity and motivation to seek out answers.  Children are born curious and motivated to learn about and interact with their environment.   It doesn't shut down when they reach the age of 5 or 6.  Our school system turns it off.   And did they have to take a test to see if they had mastered drumming on pots, cruising the furniture, drinking from a cup?

We will get what we ask for if we don't make some changes now.  Failure is getting to be to costly.

What lessons could look like

A Belated Happy Valentine's Day

Early, VERY early yesterday morning I received a Valentine email from the children I work with in Nairobi, Kenya.  What I see first is all the smiling faces, eyes filled with anticipation for what we might do next...eager, motivated learners.  There are 30 children packed into a room that is not much bigger then a typical US living room.  It is hot.  They have limited supplies and only one computer.  The walls of the "classrooms" are falling apart.  We would never allow our children to try to learn under such conditions. Soon they'll have other lessons to teach us.

You would never see that here!

Can you imagine teaching in a classroom like this?  What skills must you have to keep such a group motivate and loving learning.  What type of educational background would be important to work in this environment?  What training and preparation do you suggest?

Put yourself up in the front of that room.  Tell us what you would do.

Cartoon of the Day

Ever since PL94-142 was passed back in the '70's children have been left behind.  I spent 8 years teaching medically fragile, multiple handicapped children ages 6-14.  They were accountable to the state standards but could have a portfolio rather then take the tests.  We were writing objectives such as : Albert will be able to show recognition of the state by glance at the picture 3 our of 5 times.  We ended up spending most of their time "in school" testing their objectives rather then allowing them the pleasures of explore the sites, sounds, textures, motion around them.  They had so little time.

Those that don't get left behind get run over for being ahead of the bus.

Cartoon for the Day

Recently I was reviewing a lesson plan to see if it was worth developing.  The lesson was teaching number families.  The teacher wrote that she get the children to see the relationship between addition and subtraction.  (I'm also thinking multiplication and division!)

Cartoon for the Day

Why write a book when a picture can say the same thing?

Cartoon of the Day

Being a very visual person, I decided to see what public opinions were being shared regarding our current flailing education system and the adoption of the Common Core Standards.  I had had enough of the TV and radio reports.  Most of it I don't agree with anyway.
So I have decided that I am going to let a cartoon do the speaking for me.  A few times a week I will post a cartoon along with a comment.  I hope you will respond with you thoughts as well.

Cartoon for today:

Is our educational system supporting independent thinking and creativity or creating robots to do their bidding?

Images From My Past

"Report cards were sent out recently and their issuance always serve as a reminder of the following situation from a couple of years ago and how destructive grades can be to a kid's motivation. "
This article took me back to my first year of teaching, 1979, and with it all the pain, anger and frustrations I felt then blistered up once more.
The title of the blog is, "Why Are You Crying? Your Grades?"
Reflection:
My first year of teaching.  I had a multi-grade 1-3.  A wonderful group that came together more as a family then a class.
Two boys in the grade that found reading very, very HARD!  Just after Christmas break, the light bulbs went on and they began to put things together.  At "level"? No.  But excited and happy about what they were doing. No doubt they would be on or above "level" next year.
April hits - the Iowa Basic Skills test time (Yup, that's what they were back then.)
Directions are read to the students: "It should take about 20–30 minutes to read the passages in this book and answer the 6 questions in the Answer Section. "  You may begin.
Story 1:

"Saturday is our day to clean, but Grandpa turns work into fun. We like to sing when we dust. We like to dance when we mop. We clean the car together. We do the wash together. We both wear our caps. When we are done, we hurry to the store. We shop for food. Grandpa lets me pick the fruits that I like best. We carry the food home. Grandpa tells stories while we walk. At night, our work is done. Friends come over. We cook dinner. We sing and dance. Saturday is our day to clean, but Grandpa turns work into fun!"

Now this may look like a simple passage to you but to those boys, motivated and excited, it was "the kiss of death".  They sat there for 20 long minutes silently crying (so as not to disturb the others).  All efforts to help them regain confidence that year failed.

I cry with them as I continue to cry for our children.  Whether it's grades or standard tests, we drain the excitement and motivation out of our children.  We have to stop putting them up to a systems yard stick.  Let them draw their own lines on the wall.

You can help put an end to it.  What to learn how? Become a member of NGGE or email me and I will show you.  Your students, your children and you will be much happier.

What do contemporary American Parents Want?

According to a post in the New York Times by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, they tend to want" their boys smart and their girls skinny".  Not happy?  Excited about learning?  Is it because parents tend to compare their child(ren) to their neighbors, friends, co-workers...?  Why must we burden children with our out-dated measuring stick.
At NGGE we want to allow each individual learner to have choices and take charge of who they hope to be.

Search Engines for Kids

When you ask kids, "What do you like to do most?" many will tell you about their latest learning portable learning device.

Our children begin to use these devices at a very early age.   It is important to  teach them safe and responsible. 

EmergingEdTech recently posted a story, "8 Safe Search Engines and Tools for Kid"

• KidzSearch  Powered by Google -Searched "How to use Pythagorean Theorem" (About 106,000 results (0.27 seconds)")  Good variety of materials to explore.
• Searchy Pants   Must register with name and email. Categorizes search by type of materials. (About 105,000 results (0.40 seconds)
• KidRex  Also Google powered.  Much like first site.  (About 105,000 results (0.29 seconds))
• KidsClick  Offers many good sites.  No results returned on the above search.
• Yahoo Kids    Did not find this kid safe as I could search for subjects not appropriate for young learners.
• Aga-Kids   Search by text or visual icons.  One result returned on above search.
• Mymunka  By subject or tag.  (About 276,000 results (2.87 seconds))

As I visited each I could see a difference in the sophistication of each search engine.  Check them out and comment back on which engine you like most and why.

Guiding and coaching our children as learners starts at "birth".  

This is what today's plans look like. It is the first of 15, all fairly much the same aimed to teach to the group.

 Here's the group:

This is the same information with the same objectives, meeting the same standards.

Which would you rather use as a learner?  Which would you rather create as an educator.
We are preparing to build the Universal Library for Learning.  Come and Join US.