Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wes Fryer

Category: schoolreform

  • 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…

  • Michael Wesch on Seymour Papert and Constructionism

    If you’re not familiar with the learning theory of “constructionism” advanced principally by Seymour Papert and now at the heart of the modern-day “maker movement,” the following video clip from Michael Wesch can help. In this May 2014 lecture at Pasadena City College, starting at 38:45, Wesch quotes Papert saying: “Nothing could be more absurd than an experiment…

  • Moving Students From Knowledgeable to Knowledge-ABLE: Michael Wesch at TEDxKC

    Four years ago, Michael Wesch shared the 18.5 minute presentation at TEDxKC, “From Knowledgeable to Knowledge-Able.” The official synopsis was: Today a new medium of communication emerges every time somebody creates a new web application. Yet these developments are not without disruption and peril. Familiar long-standing institutions, organizations and traditions disappear or transform beyond recognition.…

  • Why Oklahoma Needs Joy Not Janet as State Superintendent

    Update June 25: Joy Hofmeister won the Republican primary election! The Tulsa World published the video of the June 10th statements by Janet Barresi referenced below, and also posted a transcript. If you are an Oklahoma voter, and especially a registered Republican (since our state doesn’t have open primaries) it is EXTREMELY important that you…

  • What We Can Learn from Oklahoma’s Repeal of Common Core

    Today as I enjoyed learning and teaching in day two of the first STEM Seeds PD Camp in Yukon, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin signed House Bill 3399 repealing Common Core State Standards in our public schools. Instead of continuing to implement Common Core Standards, as our schools have been doing (at varying rates) for the…

  • Mapping Media, Cantilevers, and Remixing Lego Movie Tunes in Bethany, Oklahoma

    These are slides from my presentation on May 23, 2014, for teachers in Bethany Public Schools, Oklahoma. The session description was: Digital literacy today means much more than searching the Internet and using Microsoft Office. To be digitally literate, teachers as well as students need to be able to create and share online a variety…

  • Act Today to Encourage Teachers at Crutcho Public School

    I feel a lot like a member of the stringed quartet on the Titanic, playing away to soothe remaining passengers as the great ship sank. As I write posts (after school, of course) about my end-of-year student lessons launching water bottle rockets and completing a coordinate grid “orientation challenge” in MinecraftEDU, I’m confronted with multiple…

  • Why is Oklahoma Education Policy So Screwed Up?

    Oklahoma science teacher Lisa Seay, who I met at EdCampTulsa several weeks ago, asked a great question in a poignant post today titled, “Tattered, Torn and Tired.” She wrote: I have only been teaching 11 years. Maybe some of you can answer this: How did we get to this point? At what point in history…