“Stop Stealing Dreams” is a series on IowaTransformED designed to initiate conversation in our community around educational transformation. Each excerpt is used by permission from the manifesto by  Seth Godin  entitled “Stop Stealing Dreams (what is school for?). Written in blog format, we will post segments several times a week and ask for community members to comment and [...]

“Stop Stealing Dreams” is a series on IowaTransformED designed to initiate conversation in our community around educational transformation. Each excerpt is used by permission from the manifesto by Seth Godin  entitled “Stop Stealing Dreams (what is school for?). Written in blog format, we will post segments several times a week and ask for community members to comment and [...]

Today, some argue high schools have gotten worse and we need to offer choice, retain students and base teacher pay on performance; others for a “return to the basics;” still others call for a complete transformation to meet the new demands our children face. All of this led us to several questions, one of which [...]

This week the Cedar Rapids Gazette and KCRG-TV 9 – and papers and television stations across the state – issued stories in the wake of Education Director Jason Glass’ announcement of statewide ACT scores. Since tests of this nature are easy to misinterpret, the following is designed to provide more context and information about the ACT. See [...]

Iowa Transform Ed, a SourceMedia Group (Gazette, KCRG) brand, is looking for a crack team of interested persons to help develop the stories that need to be told about key education issues. This month we’re focusing on the question:  “How can classroom assessment be more useful to parents, students, teachers, and policy makers?” We’re looking to build [...]

Like many of our area school districts, Linn-Mar is continuously working to meet the needs of all its children through on-going innovation and change. As one of 12 area school districts engaged in learning effective approaches to engaging the community and staff in important educational conversation and action, Superintendent Katie Muhlholland turned to the talented students [...]

Linn-Mar high school student, Sam Fathallah, is quite an amazing filmmaker. Sam was instrumental in helping IowaTransformED’s “Student Voice Video Contest” last fall. In this video, he asks students to step up and express their dream for the world. Much of the talk around educational transformation is about unleashing student innovation and creativity. Sam is [...]

My friend and colleague, anthropologist Ben Smith, is always pushing my thinking in positive ways. Just today he emailed the following thoughts (I’ve edited to shorten): “In fact a big part of community building is about mapping and understanding the forms of capital/resources within a system. This includes financial capital (dollars), social capital (connections), human capital [...]

by Trace Pickering, Director of Community Building Yesterday I attended a luncheon in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in which  Diversity Focus , whose vision is: “that the Corridor community be the model of inclusion that values, nurtures, attracts, and retains people of diverse backgrounds, cultures, and beliefs” brought Geoffrey Canada to speak.  For those unaware, Mr. Canada has led the Harlem [...]

The following video and list was found at TechLearning.com here. If you don’t want to watch the 5 minute IGNITE video, the list is below. Forget open book / phone tests. Let’s have open network assessments where students can use the tools they own and love for learning. School should not be a place where we force [...]

Yong Zhao, a leading writer and speaker on transformative and 21st century education, has a great commentary (with some evaluation of research he’s done) that speaks to a central point of conflict in education discussions today: the creativity/testing conflict.

The link to the Education Week article is here:

By Andrea Thomson Viner While the old joke goes, “What are the three best reasons for teaching? June, July, and August,” 120 area educators challenged that punch line last week by working to improve their practice through the successful implementation of technology and passionate, student-centered learning. Mid-Prairie Community Schools hosted the Learning for the 21 st Century Conference [...]

Mid-Prairie Community School District, in Wellman, Iowa, is sponsoring a 5 day teacher in-service session focused on integration of technology. Superintendent Mark Schneider said, “We’ve seen very successful technology implementations and very poor ones across the state and nation. Giving kids access to cutting-edge technology is critical, but without its effective use by the adults we [...]

SourceMedia Group and IowaTransformED.com sponsored the first Standards-Based Grading (SBG) Meet-Up on June 7th in Cedar Rapids. 23 area teachers and administrators met for the afternoon to share their stories of implementing SBG. The meet-up serves as one way to support and connect passionate educators interested in advancing 21st century learning classrooms and schools. Many [...]

Since 1997, Grant Wood Area Education Agency’s “Contemporary School Leadership” (CSL) program has helped to develop leadership and systems-level skill in over 500 educators in the Creative Corridor. The program features Dr. Susan Leddick as the primary instructor and facilitator. Dr. Leddick is a nationally renowned educational and systems consultant. CSL focuses on understanding the implications [...]

Patrick Hogan, the Cedar Rapids Gazette’s outstanding education reporter, posted this on his daily “Homeroom Period” and it is worthy of the “Museum of Awesomeness.”  Highly creative, fun, collaborative, and positive, this is an example of bringing passion, creativity, and fun into the school. Consider the logistics and planning involved in pulling this off – [...]

Unfortunately, this cartoon reflects a reality in most school across Iowa and the nation. Not only do students anxiously await the day that they don’t have to go to school for awhile, teachers and administrators often share that excitement. I know, I spent 11 years in the classroom as a teacher or administrator and, I must [...]

  As I watched the recent legislative session unfold with both the Senate and House trying to deal with the Governors “blueprint” I wondered why it made me so angry and disappointed at various times. During this time my friend and brilliant systems and organizational thinker, Tom Persoon, sent me a little ditty helping me to better [...]

As a follow up to our Co-Creators Camp and our efforts to continue to build community conversation and action around education as a part of http://www.iowatransformed.com, we’re hosting a “meet-up” on June 7 from 12 to 4.  Here are the details: Purpose: to welcome in any teachers, administrators, and other involved in Standards-Based Grading/Classrooms to come together to [...]