What happened to the Fall?

It seems that we were just in August a few days ago and suddenly it is November!  What happened?! 

A great deal has happened here at SAAS since this summer:

 Debut of Winter Tri 'paint job'

• Our Moodle site moved from our servers to Moodlerooms, a hosted site. Just as in any move we lost a few things, discovered new things, and are still moving the 'furniture and pictures' around to best suit our present needs!
• The great news is that we are current and up-to-date!
• Troubleshooting with the Moodlerooms support people has been a great help and they are awesome people!  
• We have many learning and teaching options for teachers and students to explore.
• and soon it will have a wonderful new 'paint job' just like a new house should!

We moved to Google Apps for Education! Collaboration, cooperation, creative exchange and creation of ideas, as well as global access is another step towards a holistic 21st century learning environment.  Google Docs, Google Sites, blogs..... the potential for learning and sharing learning will continue to keep us thoroughly immersed in the education adventure.

SAAStainability is becoming an integrated theme for our sustainability initiative across all departments and offices.  Check out our Google Site on Sustainability created for the PNAIS fall teacher conference in Portland:  Sustainability Resources (to share and contribute)  I am still awed by the Virtual Museum of the Origins created by Melinda's evolution seminar class last year.

The arrival of netbooks for some of the middle school math and English classes has increased our student to computer ratio to almost 1:1.  We now have full access carts in 10 classrooms, learning support, and enough to borrow for special projects.   The tech lab still serves as the Internet Cafe of Global Learning for classes and individuals. 

Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz we are moving along the yellow brick road of the future - "Podcasts! and Bloggers! and Tweets! Oh My!" with our collaborative friends Scarecrow, Tin Man, Lion, and Toto.  We have our tools at the ready, our content at our fingertips, and our capacity to create learning environments that prepare our students for college and life.

What happened to Fall?  Perhaps the more relevant question Where are we in our learning this fall? We've been learning, growing, creating and discovering the questions.

We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.  ~Lloyd Alexander

It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it.  ~Jacob Bronowski 

Technology and the 21st Century at SAAS!

Tech du Soleil ...


Tuesday evening in the Orvis Theater, Art Center Lobby, and three classrooms a creative choreography of teaching, learning, and discovery was gracefully danced by a passionate troupe of students and teachers. I am often privileged to see these individual interactive performances but to have such a repertoire of engagement happening at one time on several stages was inspiring and energizing.

From an academic tech perspective I saw engaging learning opportunities with content being the driving passion and the assorted technologies being the tool that provide the means.  Moodle, Skype and Pamela, Podcaster, Stella modeling, wikis, Google sites, film and animation, Wordle, Glogster, ElectricMath, Esperanto, Makerbots, Robots, Blogs, Smartlessons, Smart Music, Heart Monitors, Response Systems, and the list goes on.

The Parent Association's enrichment committee provided a variety resources for parents, a list of teacher created websites, answers to frequently asked questions, and an opportunity to meet for coffee on the Friday after for further discussion and questions.  To check out their resource links and handouts visit the Enrichment page at http://isaas.seattleacademy.org/technology-and-21st-century-learning.

In the broader global context, the correlation to rubrics for 21^st Century Learning prepared by The Partnership for 21^st Century gives us a guide as we move further into this adventuresome learning environment.  I had the opportunity to correspond with them as I gathered the appropriate permissions to use their images and information for this blog. It was again, another opportunity to see how easily connections and collaborations can occur as we engage in purposeful technology.

“The Partnership for 21st Century Skills is the leading advocacy organization focused on infusing 21st century skills into education. The organization brings together the business community, education leaders, and policy makers to define a powerful vision for 21st century education to ensure every child's success as citizens and workers in the 21st century by providing tools and resources to help facilitate and drive change.” (http://www.p21.org/)

Here is their ‘picture’ of learning and defined attributes of student outcomes in a 21^st century education:

Twenty-First Century Student Outcomes

The elements described in this section as “21st century student outcomes” (represented by the rainbow) are the skills, knowledge and expertise students should master to succeed in work and life in the 21st century.

1. Core Subjects and 21st Century Themes

2. Learning and Innovation Skills 

• Creativity and Innovation
• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
• Communication and Collaboration

3. Information, Media and Technology Skills

• Information Literacy
• Media Literacy
• ICT Literacy

4. Life and Career Skills 

 To paraphrase the infamous Dr. Seuss - Oh the places we will go!