Category: schoolreform

  • Killing Classen SAS in Oklahoma City Public Schools

    (Also see part 2 in this blog post series, “Discussing ClassenSAS Future at Northeast Academy in OKCPS.”) This past Tuesday evening, January 22, 2019, the superintendent of Oklahoma City Public Schools gave an important and divisive presentation to the OKCPS board and community. I was not able to attend in person, but did view the…

  • Podcast463: Reflections on The Florida Project Movie

    Welcome to Episode 463 of the Moving at the Speed of Creativity podcast, a show by Dr. Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) focusing on digital creativity, media literacy, digital literacy, digital citizenship, instructional technology integration and engaged learning both inside and outside the classroom. This episode features an interview with Shelly Fryer (@sfryer) about the 2017 movie,…

  • Innovating in the Fast Lane: The Role for Technology Leaders in the Coming Decade

    These are my notes, tweets and re-tweets from Donna Orem’s opening keynote at the 2018 ATLIS Conference in Washington D.C. The title of her keynote was “Innovating in the Fast Lane: The Role for Technology Leaders in the Coming Decade.” Donna is the President of the National Association of Independent Schools. The description of her keynote was: Accelerated…

  • Reflections on Learning from the OU Innovation Hub

    This past Wednesday, December 6, 2017, I had an opportunity to participate in a “mini-retreat” with colleagues from Casady School (@casadyschoolokc) at the Innovation Hub at the University of Oklahoma (@ouinnovationhub).This is a group of both faculty and staff, involved in supporting and teaching coding and computer science at different levels at our school. This morning on…

  • Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin Misunderstands Testing and School Quality

    On May 4, 2017, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin (@GovMaryFallin) was interviewed by NewsOK.com capitol reporter Dale Denwalt (@denwalt) about the current Oklahoma budget crisis. The full interview is 18.5 minutes long. Near the end of the interview, Dale asked Governor Fallin about her reasons for vetoing a bill which would have eliminated the U.S. history…

  • Oklahoma Education Budget Cuts Affecting Classen School of Advanced Studies

    We are facing drastic budget cuts for public education in the state of Oklahoma this year. These cuts are not caused exclusively by declining global prices for oil and gas. Tax cuts and tax credits sustained and increased by our legislators have and continue to play a major role in this crisis. When the price of…

  • Furniture Quest for a Collaborative Classroom

    I’m in the Dallas, Texas, area this weekend (in Allen, specifically) serving as a chauffeur for my in-laws, who are visiting family. I’m also, however, on a furniture quest for my wife, as she seeks to create more spaces in her elementary classroom for collaboration and engaged learning. Yesterday I spent a couple hours at…

  • Cognitive Dissonance and Segregated Oklahoma Schools

    Last Friday was a holiday for students and staff in Yukon Public Schools, where I teach 4th and 5th grade STEM full time. Thanks to Andre Daughty, Friday afternoon I was able to visit three of our local, neighborhood schools in Oklahoma City Public Schools near our house. Prior to Friday, I had visited John Marshall…

  • Thanks OKeducationTruths (Rick Cobb) For Your Courage & Leadership

    Tonight was a momentous evening for Oklahoma education. Not only was it one of the most lively #OklaEd twitter chats in which I’ve participated to date, it also was the evening the author of the extremely important and influential blog, OKeducationTruths revealed his true identity. Tailgating before the big reveal #oklaed pic.twitter.com/Rn3n0dTjIx — okeducationtruths (@okeducation) January 19,…

  • #WhatIf My Ideas on School Reform Become Reality?

    Thanks to Valerie Strauss’ post today on the #whatif Twitter meme responses to Arne Duncan, I realized something surprising and was encouraged to tweet some of the ideas for CONSTRUCTIVE education/school reform that have been marinating in my mind for many months.    by  stevegarfield  First of all, when viewing the lively #whatif twitter stream, I saw…