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. I’ve met many legislators and they are good, caring, bright people. So what happens when they get to Des Moines? Now, I [...]

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 th 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 [...]

Tuesday, May 22, 2012 I had the privilege of spending the morning with Shawn Cornally, science teacher at Solon High School. Shawn is in his 7the semester of implementation of a standards-based classroom. This excerpt is from his Physics II class. As students were working on a series of projects and experiments to better understand [...]

It has been awhile since Dr. Jason Glass and Dr. Scott Mcleod sat through an ACT exam but I want to take some time to reflect on that event and what it says to me. It is worthwhile to read both Dr. Glass ‘ and Dr. Mcleod’s thoughts on their experiences. Here’s what I’ve been thinking about since hearing [...]

From November Learning Group: Popular Education Hashtags This education hashtag listing is a refined list based on the one available through Cybrary Man. Please visit his site for more hashtag options. Also, follow leading educators using many of these hashtags by visiting this page of the same site. You can easily reach this listing by visiting http://www.novemberlearning.com/twitterhashtags.

                            get-ready-iowa-schedule Website On June 14-15, the Delta Center and the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies will be hosting a two-day workshop called, “Get Ready Iowa: Partnering to enhance the school readiness of Iowa’s children”. This workshop will bring in some of the top [...]

David Hunter, a middle school teacher in Seattle, Washington, has created “Zombie-Based Learning” projects around geography standards. Students must deal with a Zombie outbreak by learning and applying key geography concepts and ideas. He is raising funds to make this a free project under the creative commons license.

VREP, which has grown exponentially in Iowa and across other states, has added a nifty social networking and sharing site to its efforts. To see it and join the conversation, go here.

With the publication of the annual “Top 500 High Schools” list a few weeks ago comes the annual debate about the merits and appropriate role for AP courses. In Iowa, Cedar Rapids is the focal point where two high schools are very focused on expanding AP for students. The district is also now opening up high [...]

On Thursday, May 3, Willowwind School had the pleasure of bringing speaker, educator and author , Rick Ackerly, to speak on “Learning, Mistakes and Failure: Crafting New Myths for Successful Kids and Better Schools.” His lecture was part of the 40th anniversary celebration at Willowwind. His talk at to the community at Willowwind School focused on what [...]

May 4, 2012 SecurityCoverage, a Cedar Rapids, Iowa based company released their 2012 Iowa 1:1 Survey Results today. This survey provides data and information related to the successes and challenges faced by districts who are actively implementing 1:1 student-to-computer programs. Robert O’Dell, SecurityCoverage President, summarizes the findings in the survey in his preface by saying, “Schools [...]

  SourceMedia Group and IowaTransformED are pleased to be partnering with Jamie Vollmer, author of “Schools Cannot Do It Alone” to provide resources and support to schools and communities embarking on “Great Conversations” to transform schools in their community. This is a short preview clip of the full video now available for pre-order. This video is [...]

This video shows how one school is using the game “Minecraft” to engage children in learning and design. Several Iowa school teachers utilize this software to do similar work. Our own Patrick Hogan is working on a story around Minecraft and the potential it holds for opening up learning opportunities for children. For more on [...]

I ran across this today as I was researching for the IowaTransformED resource and “explainer” library and the Museum of Awesomeness. I thought it tied nicely to the Co-Creators Camp and to the discussion about education going on in the Creative Corridor and across Iowa. It is from BeyondCurrentHorizons.org Watch. Engage. Discuss. MAKE THE FUTURE by [...]

Solon High School (Solon, Iowa)  has been a nexus for grading experiments. All investigations have been done with the ultimate goal of increasing student engagement, knowledge retention, and generally not being so boring. While several teachers are and have been engaged in bringing standards-based grading and, ultimately Competency-Based Education, to the school the teacher farthest [...]

Wednesday, May 2, 2012 Rick Ackerly , a nationally recognized educator and speaker with 45 years of experience working in and for schools will speak tomorrow night, Thursday, May 3rd, at the Willowwind  School at 950 Dover Street in Iowa City at 7pm. His speech tonight, “Learning, Mistakes and Failure: Crafting New Myths for Successful Kids and Better Schools” will [...]

A Next Step by Riley Eynon-Lynch, Co-Founder of ActiveGrade. On April 14th at the Co-Creators Camp for Transforming Education we spent our time dreaming about the future. Three things stuck out to me: ● Our dreaming was positive. We talked about what we might do more, not about what we should stop doing, so we identified fundamental [...]

“The great thing about today is that parents aren’t just talking to parents, business leaders aren’t just talking to business leaders, teachers aren’t just talking to teachers,” said Aaron Farnsworth, a Solon High School language arts teacher. In addition to a video presentation, an opportunity to speak with local representatives, and a chance to share their [...]