Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer

The Natives Are Restless by Deneen Frazier Bowen

These are my notes from “The Natives Are Restless” by Deneen Frazier Bowen at the 2010 METC Conference on February 10th. MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. This session is being live-streamed, and that archived video will be published later on the METC website.

“The Internet and Your Kids” in 1995 was published by Deneen

INTERESTING TO SEE DENEEN’S INTRO: SHE PROVIDED A WRITTEN INTRO, BUT INTERRUPTED AND CAME IN ROLE-PLAYING “DR PRISCILLA NORMAL, Ed.ID., P.Dq, LoL, R.F.Q., QofQ3”

Has everyone had coffee? Have more?

Do you know our schools are being invaded? That is a real question. Students are taking over. If we don’t stop the insurgents, education will cease to exist. If they get away with it, our classrooms will become ghost towns.

Today I will present data to compel us to take away their weapons.

Does someone have my “polar pint” presentation?

Nancy was surfing the Internet last night and found something on Deneen’s website which upset her…

phrase “student wisdom” is on her website… very subversive

students come armed to our classroom
– they are not digital natives, they are digital savages
– they come to our classrooms armed, with these weapons

Data: what percentage of students know more of their friends’ screen names than home phone numbers: 58%

NOW PLAYING A VIDEO OF AN AOL IM EXCHANGE

My polar client has been hijacked
– I need to find the “it people”

Now showing video “Belle Epiphanie” (from Digitales workshop by Bernajean Porter)

This is the video description on YouTube:

Belle Epiphanie by Cybil, age 16. Cybil tells her heart wrenching story about the influence her best friend had in helping her decide to do whatever it takes to change her life and make a difference in the world. She shares her defining moment of finding her personal passion to choose and commit to the work of being a student at Eagle Rock in order to have a chance at making his life work! Cybil is a new student (ER35) just returning from her group’s 25-day wilderness trip that is the first part of entering Eagle Rock School, an American Hondo Education Corporation initiative. Eagle Rock School is located in Estes Park, CO. The school funds full scholarships for students nationally who have not experienced successful in traditional academic programs as a part of their national staff development effort to help educators step up to doing whatever it takes to make learning work for ALL kids. Visit www.eaglerockschool.org. See more DigiTales Storytelling at www.DigiTales.us under StoryKeepers Gallery

DENEEN HAS CHANGED OUTFITS DURING THE VIDEO, NOW SHE IS DRESSED IN BLACK, BLACK BOOTS, BALL CAP, TALKING GHETTO / INNER CITY ENGLISH (NOT SURE WHAT THE BEST TERM FOR THIS IS)

That girl was keeping it real
– in 2 1/2 minutes she was talking from her heart

Want to see my blog?
– I am “Saran Rapper”
http://txwalrus.blogspot.com

shared quotations from this blog

UNFORTUNATELY THE POSTS SHE IS SHARING VIA SCREENSHOTS, POSTED IN 2004 AND 2005 ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE ON THE ABOVE SITE

sharing quotation from her principal, saying our district is great because 95% of our students scored “proficient” last year – why should we use technology to fix our system that isn’t broken?

my point: you need to fix it for the 5% it’s not working for!

NOW DENEEN IS ROLE PLAYING A CONVERSATION WITH HER STUDENT CHARACTER AND HER PRINCIPAL, WHO INSISTED THAT SHE REMOVE HER BLOG POST ABOUT HER SCHOOL, OR ELSE SHE WOULD GET SUSPENDED. RESULT: SHE DROPPED OUT OF THAT SCHOOL

“We’re always talking….

I am no one’s fate, I am my own future

I got on the Internet and found myself a school
– now I go to a virtual school, I don’t check in with my body, I check in with my mind

they made me a teacher, I help a 5th grade student write

NEXT DENEEN PLAYED A VIDEO OF A 4TH GRADER’S DIGITAL STORY, ABOUT HER BABY DAUGHTER WHO WAS BORN WITH A SMALL HOLE IN HER HEART
– DENEEN HAS WHEELIES ON, PIG TAILS, IS TALKING VERY FAST LIKE AN EXCITED 4TH GRADER

My friend had an idea for “Student Speak Up Day
– let students share their ideas
– backwards: students are all talking, teachers are all listening

Now showing a video created by a teacher, a reflective digital story
– “I used to see myself as a great teacher”
– my teaching became not about me leading students, but about sending them places far beyond where I had been, teaching was not about me
– I see my students as great learners.

Now talking about MMORPGs

Showing “Taking It Global

Asking teachers to come out of the closet and share their gaming fetishes…

DANEEN JUST CAME OUT AS HERSELF

All of these student stories come from national research
– come from interviews I do around the country, research like “Speak Up Day”
– interpreting data with student help

It is myopic to just look at these stats from the adult perspectives
– youth conclusions about why data is there are different from mine as an older person

data gives us insights, to make actions and instructional change, youth have to be a part of the conversation

Ask with students
– don’t ask OF your students
– don’t ask students
– ask WITH students

students help write the questions on the surveys in National Speak Up Day
– example: student who did have a computer at home, but his brothers never let him use it
– this shows why student voices are so critical

We need to listen with students to data
– I try to just listen to them talk about data about themselves
– they are fascinated with themselves
– I don’t take notes, I use an audio recorder

there are other ways students are expressing themselves outside our school walls
– lots of emerging tools

percentage of students “doing blogging” is the same as for adults
– sometimes we make false assumptions, like “every student is going to want to blog”

We need to ACT with students
– Joanne’s Story
– we have too many schools that do surveys, and we never come back to students and share those results, how those results affected decisions

ASK, LISTEN, ACT
– this feedback loop is critical

best quote by Jake: “I get my assignments at school. I learn at home. It’s easier that way.”

Many students see school as they place they come to get assignments.
– many students won’t tell you this because they don’t think it would be safe to say this

Daneen’s website:
www.actwith.com

I didn’t make anything up that you heard today, except Eddy’s blog

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