This is a FRED Talk I’m giving at OETCx this week. OETCx is the unconference component of the Ohio Educational Technology Conference. The idea with this presentation is that it’s a five minute presentation with 20 slides, automatically advancing every 15 seconds. My name is John Schinker. I’m the Director of Technology for Brecksville-Broadview Heights Schools in Cuyahoga County. The school district I work in … Continue reading Why Middle School Sucks
I was in the superintendent’s office last week refining a plan for technology and media in our schools. We had a complicated diagram with circles and arrows and boxes all over it. It started with the district’s strategic vision, and specifically the goals of promoting next generation skills, integrating state of the art technology, and offering quality program options that include STEM. It included the technology … Continue reading Why?
Several years ago, a colleague was telling me about a recent conversation with his son. He’s a Roman Catholic, with two kids in college. His son had been home recently, and they were talking about the sexual abuse problems that the church had been dealing with. The magnitude of the abuse had been coming to light, and the reality that thousands of kids had been victimized by … Continue reading Condoning the System
I recently attended a talk given by a young lady from our church who hiked the Appalachian Trail last summer. She started in Georgia in March, walked 2100 miles northeast, and finished in Maine 180 days later. She spent months planning the trip. She had to carry everything she would need for half a year. She wanted to know where she was going to stay … Continue reading Planning Futility
You didn’t go to Grandma’s house without eating. There were always baked goods: cookies, coffee cake, donuts. As soon as you sat down, she’d put on a fresh pot of coffee and start cooking. What can I make you? Want a sandwich? Macaroni and cheese? She would start going through the icebox and pull out everything. Have some braciole while I fry up some zucchini. … Continue reading Feed the Hungry
It was fifth grade when my daughter decided that she didn’t like school. It was her first year in an intermediate school. In our community, learners go to the same primary school for grades K-4, and then switch to an intermediate school for 5-6 before moving on to middle school (7-8) and high school (9-12). It’s the intermediate school where things tend to change. We have … Continue reading Checking Out in the Middle Grades
When I was in high school, I joined an Explorers group of future teachers that met monthly to get experience and information about the teaching profession from teachers and university professors. One month, we had a high school English teacher from a neighboring school talk to us. I don’t remember very much about her. But her advice still stays with me, all these years later. … Continue reading Don’t Waste Their Time
It was five years ago today that I bid farewell to my family at a hotel in New York and boarded a shuttle to JFK airport to begin the adventure of a lifetime. In the 42 days that followed, I met some of the most amazing people I’ve ever encountered. I participated in a culture that was entirely foreign to me. I saw the real … Continue reading Five Years Later
“We don’t learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience.” — John Dewey The school year is over. Have you reflected on the year yet? You’re a learner, right? We believe in life-long learning. We work in educational institutions, where learning is the mission of the organization. Learning is what we do. And reflection is a key component of learning, right? We just finished … Continue reading Reflection
I’ve had several conversations recently about school libraries. As schools evolve to meet the needs of next generation students, the role of the library is increasingly unclear. If the model of textbooks and teachers as the source of all knowledge is outdated, then the idea that a school media center can contain all of the instructional resources the school could ever need is equally obsolete. … Continue reading 5 Reasons We Still Need School Libraries
It would be easy for a self-proclaimed educational technologist to claim that technology is an indispensable component of modern education. It’s not. What do you really need to teach a child how to read? You need a child. You need a willing teacher. It’s helpful to have a book. Everything else is superfluous. When I visited Remba Island in Lake Victoria five years ago, I … Continue reading The Role of Technology in Education
The teaching profession is under attack. The disgruntled parent is gossiping at the coffee house about some injustice done in the classroom. The taxpayer complains that the kids these days aren’t learning anything. Business leaders want to come in and tell the schools how everything should be done. Politicians simultaneously add more accountability measures from public schools while funneling more resources toward alternative education. And no … Continue reading 5 Things Teachers Can Do to Save Their Profession
Taste of Tech 