Continuing to empower students

Wow! I feel honored to be mentioned on Vicki Davis' Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

Empower - To equip or supply with an ability; enable: "Computers ... empower students to become intellectual explorers" (Edward B. Fiske).
empower. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved December 09, 2008, from Dictionary.com website:http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/empower

I believe empowering students is what we should all do. In the real world, people learn from us, with us, in spite of us, or just because of what we do, whether you are a parent, an educator by career choice, a Sunday school teacher, a teacher of any topic or subject at a community center or a member of a community. So what do you do with the new knowledge, skill, attribute, or information? Do our students just hoard everything they learn then celebrate their 18th birthday and announce they are legally empowered?

A few years ago, I remember a debate amongst my own classmates (non traditional adult students). We were analyzing information gathered from a variety of stakeholders...and I brought up students. I stood my ground and will continue to support students as stakeholders in a school system because they are the primary mandated users. Teachers, administrators, counselors, and support staff...they will come and go...but without students...there is no need for the teachers, administrators, counselors, support staff and teams.

We have three top rated magnet schools in the Richmond County School district. People rent apartments in the district just to have their students apply to these top rated schools. At Thursday's monthly RCBoEd meeting recognition will be given to the following schools:

A. R. Johnson Magnet School will be presented awards for the following: Improvement in Biology on the End-of-Course Test, Achievement in Algebra I on the End-of-Course Test, Achievement in Biology on the End-of-Course Test, Achievement in Language Arts and Reading on the Georgia High School Graduation Test, Achievement in Mathematics on the Georgia High School Graduation Test, Achievement in Science on the Georgia High School Graduation Test

Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School named in US News & World Report's Best High Schools-Gold Medal List #89 out of 100. A.R. Johnson makes the Silver list of the US News & World Report

Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School is named 2008 School of Excellence

C.T. Walker Traditional Magnet School is awarded the 2008 Single Statewide Accountability System's Highest Performance Silver Award for Outstanding Student Achievement

A.R. Johnson Magnet School is awarded the 2008 Single Statewide Accountability System's Highest Performance Platinum Award for Outstanding Student Achievement

Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School is awarded the 2008 Single Statewide Accountability System's Highest Performance Platinum Award for Outstanding Student Achievement

Lake Forest Hills Elementary School is awarded the 2008 Single Statewide Accountability System's Greatest Gain Platinum Award for Outstanding Student Achievement

These schools deserve the recognition, accolades, and awards and should be recognized publicly...but when a sex scandal breaks out involving a principal, teachers, former public safety officer, graduation coach...no one remembers the awards, the good stuff, the proud moments of our students. Why not teach the students to empower themselves? To be better than those in the bad news of their school system?

Dr. Dana Bedden apologized to the students of Spirit Creek and the community. Thanks for the apology Dr. B...but you inherited this district. Parents, educators, students, and community partners have attempted to inform you of the additional issues that you are uncovering and will discover as you work to improve this district. We know that you cannot do it alone but there is a breach of trust and a restrictive filters in the effective communication process.

The former public safety officer in this investigation had been assigned to my daughter's high school prior to being reassigned to Spirit Creek MS. WRDW reports and tweets on Twitter: Inside the Spirit Creek Sex Scandal Investigation Spirit Creek sex investigation closed, 7 implicated From the Augusta Chronicle: School's staff implicated in sex scandal From the Metro Spirit: Spirit Creek Scandal

Butler High School went through sex scandal when the Band teacher was arrested and then in June 2008 when Mr. Shelton was indicted by a grand jury.

As we explain to our students...bad news sells...to people who buy it. We have to teach our students that it is OK to make their own news. With Internet access and smart phones students have the capability to send a news clip to any media outlet, including starting their own blog, website, or piece of cyberspace. If their club or out of school organization is doing something great...people do want to know about it and the media release doubles as an external document of the community efforts.

Whose future is it any way? It is OK for them to be involved, to be the practitioners, to be the decision makers. You can rest easier when your students learn to make decisions in a timely manner, take the responsibility for their actions, learn from their actions or inactions and apply it to their life's folder of lessons learned.

Don't wait until the new year to make a resolution...start today, have your digiteen share something they have done on the web, a new technical skill, or community project...eventually we will all be replaced...it is the circle of life. Do you need a visual reminder? Watch the Lion King.

So to all the Cool Cat Teachers and the digiteens and digitweens...keep up the great work. We know you will incorporate lessons learned from your experiences and continue to improve the world, whether it is in the edublogosphere, connecting globally, and continuing to take the high road and the path less traveled.

Empowering students

Vicki Davis aka Cool Cat Teacher blogged about Empowering students...Is it wrong to let students try? Is empowering kids the WRONG thing to do?

Empowering students is a responsibility that adults have to our students, or anyone in a generational gap. Vicki's students have been working with Lively, blogging about their actions, what they have learned, mentoring elementary students, and now conducting a virtual protest to get Google to keep Lively alive. They are conducting themselves professionally along with providing solutions rather than posting complaints.

Vicki posted a simple request on Twitter requesting some comments to the Digiteen Dream Team blog to incorporate into the classroom discussion. Today she posted some responses from adults who only read one post or just skimmed the surface of the blog.

Check out her blog post where Vicki addresses some comments which I have heard mentioned by high school educators, administrators, and parents. These students also mentored elementary students, "Using Woogi world we taught fourth grade children the importance of safety, balance, and respect on the internet".

Regardless of how parents, teachers, and administrators feel about the Internet, they need to be involved, listening to their students, and learning something new every day.

I hear requests about incorporating teacher training...I am all for it but the educators need to be participative and partake in some independent learning. Even FBI agents have been "schooled" by teens when they were learning about chat room language and behavior (June 28, 2005). The FBI agents claimed they were stumped by the tests given by the teens.

I see too many students, teachers, and parents who are involved, learning independently, learning in virtual groups...while it is not the majority there are programs that work...but that is a topic for another post.

I support what Vicki is doing with her students and the Digiteen project as well as the Flat Classroom project and the many other projects she is involved in. She is an inspiration and many of us wonder how does she do it all....because she cares. When you care about something...when you are passionate about something...you work tirelessly to support our students.

I don't know her students personally, but out of the four states my daughter has attended school in...I can tell you she has not had the opportunity to be a digiteen with a school group. She has a mother who was technical in the Army (Telecommunications and Spectrum Management) and now back working with Network Managers. Rather than sitting on the sideline griping and complaining about the lack of opportunities I decided to do something about it. There has always been a computer in the home to today when gadgets are much a part of life that it is painful to revert to paper and pencil. Granted there is always room for paper and pencil...even during hurricane season. If I don't teach my daughter and her friends about empowerment....when do they learn?

When the students graduate...if they do graduate...they don't inherently become "real world" smart. We are all humans...we only know what we know...so why not challenge yourself and learn something new today...and for the rest of your life. Use the brain like you do your heart...the more you use it...the less likely you are to lose it. If you have a special skill to share and the school networks are filtered and blocked...check your nearest library.

For all of the critics of Vicki Davis' Digiteen Dream Team project, I have to defer to Abraham Lincoln's quote, "He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.”

Just because you didn't grow up with the Internet in your school is not an acceptable excuse on restricting information to your children or students on becoming digital citizens.

You might want to start with reviewing your ISP's Terms of Service (TOS) and Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). How ready for the real world are they when they are using networks that restrict and block everything in the real world. Error management should be incorporated for all users, so computer users maintain a coolness under stress and realize everything can be overcome in the world of data.

For those of you who question what Vicki is doing, she is a passionate, caring teacher who states, "Yes - we talk about terms of service and have discussed it. I stand behind what we're doing and to them, this is important. I will certainly take any blame for problems that happen, however, putting kids in super sanitary environments teaches kids that things always go right and computers always work, and that certainly, isn't the real world of struggles and problems that I'm preparing them for.

Vicki...keep doing what you are doing and don't sweat the small stuff. Your students are incorporating ISTE standards where some students do not even know or have ever heard of ISTE and why they have standards. They understand the components of being a responsible digital citizen and will end up being the leaders in their fields, whatever field that maybe.

Continue to empower your students and encouraging them to try, they are the future leaders.

Thanks WRDW and Workshop follow up

The scholarship workshop in the computer lab went well. Parents, grandparents, and students were in attendance.

WRDW, the only local news station that also uses Twitter (@WRDW) sent out a reporter and a camera man.

I still cannot break the stigma that these workshops are for everyone who can maneuver through the Internet and not just for juniors, seniors, and adult or non traditional students. Scholarship searches and applications must start at a younger age.

Even the FAFSA site has a site dedicated for middle school students . As they state, "Sure, you can wait for your parents or teachers to provide this info. But why wait on others to learn what’s best for YOUR future?"

The shared document and presentation can be accessed by anyone on the net reading this blog. Just click on the links in the previous sentence. The documents were created with Google Docs and Presentations.

One example of a scholarship open to students with a minimum age of 13 from DoSomething. DoSomething.org has teamed up with Mountain Dew to offer six $5000.00 scholarships. Applications are due December 12, 2008 and winners announced in January.

For more information visit the DoSomething.org website to see some awesome opportunities for our youth from grants to support their cause to

Apply For Your $5,000 Scholarship!
Eligibility
All applicants must be 13 years old or over to enter, a U.S. Citizen, and, most importantly, awesome.
The scholarship money can be used for any advanced education, be it college, graduate or vocational. Applications will remain open until December 12th and winners will be announced in January.

The students checked their Internet impression by conducting a Google search of their name and viewing the News, Images, Maps and the search results. After the Google search, they entered their names in cvgadget.com and saw how their piece of cyberspace can be viewed by others. The point was made that if they apply for a job, a scholarship, an internship the pictures they put on MySpace or anywhere else on the net can be found even by library patrons.

We discussed a few social networking apps, everyone acknowledge hearing or participating in MySpace...but Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn had the heads shaking in a negative fashion.

Everyone was encouraged to apply for their free credit report through the Federal Trade Commission's site. You do not have to be an adult to be a victim of identity theft.

We discussed resumes, scholarship application letters, finding a minimum of 3 adults outside of family and friends that can write a valid letter of recommendation.

Then we stepped out of the computer lab and ventured over to the Reference section where the paper copies of the FAFSA applications and the many reference books about scholarships and colleges are available for those who want to read books that did not leave the library. Then over to the aisle with the 370 series of books where they can get books to check out which ranged from how to study, how to survive your freshman year, scholarships, PSAT, SAT, MCAT, LSAT study guides.

Back to the computer lab for more practical application, accessing GAcollege411 and searching for your Internet appearance.

I look forward to next week's workshop. I challenge our students to spread the word about what they learned to their friends, younger brothers and sisters, and yes, even their parents.

When a student has to fill out a FAFSA, parental information about taxes is required and many students have never filed taxes and may not be sure how to discuss the subject with their parents.

Other topics discussed encouraged the students to empower themselves, look into dual or joint enrollment while they are still in high school, qualifying for free and reduced lunches qualifies the student for free or reduced SAT fees and allows the student to apply up to 5 colleges with fee waivers.

I reminded them not to by into the media hype, they can Do It! I asked them all to spend as much time as they do surfing the net, working on their MySpace page, and invest a little time in themselves by registering for GACollege411, checking out the many links compiled in the shared document and if they needed assistance they knew where I would be for the next 3 Wednesdays.

If we do not invest time, interest, and concern in our youth...Who will be rocking your rocking chair in the future?