Angela Maiers Educational Services

Is Comprehension a Commodity?

Apples are.  Clothes are.  Shoes are.  Even blog posts are a commodity, but....COMPREHENSION is NOT a commodity! More to come!

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The Grapes of Wrath (Class)

Big thanks to Karl Fish for recently highlighting these magnificent poets. This one touched my heart most-Enjoy!

Teachers Must
by Joe Mills
North Carolina School of the Arts.

Each fall when the new grapes arrive,
we sift and evaluate them,
trying to determine how best
to help them be what they can be.

Some are thin-skinned and delicate,
others gruff and independent.
Some need oak, others stainless steel.

No single process works for all,
so first we must identify
the grapes for what they are, not what
we wish they were.

We also must
believe that careful attention,
time, and the right environment,
can help develop character,
complexity, balance, and depth.

But, most of all, we must have faith
that even when we can’t see them
fundamental transformations
bordering on miraculous
are bubbling under the surface.

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From Classroom to BoardRoom: Reflections on Literacy Institute, Day One

What a day! With Day One of the Midwest Literacy Institute complete, we're just getting started.

We examined the "elephant" in our rooms and found what we're really looking at in the journey from the Classroom to the Boardroom.  So much to discuss...and we'll be sharing the discussion here later this week.  Here's a quick snapshot of some of the keywords and images of the day:

Once again, thanks to Wordle for the word/art work. More to come...

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Literacy Institute Lineup: 21st Century Citizen Panel

The Opening Session of the Midwest Literacy Institute on Monday features a mix of business and education thought leaders as we discuss the skill set of a 21st Century citizen.

I have a few exercises planned that will engage both the panel and the attendees. I think the perceived discrepancies between what's going on in schools and what's necessary in the workforce or more a language gap than a void in practice -- but we'll see. 

Here's the lineup for Monday morning:

Kelly Boon is the founder and Executive Director of partners Unlimited, a non-profit organization that transforms lives through the creative arts. partners Unlimited is designed to be an international model for building inclusion and promoting cultural respect and peace through reducing fears and building relationship through the arts.

Andy Drish writes about Marketing, Millennials, and Technology at AndyDrish.com.  He’s currently doing at Leadership Development Rotation at Principal Financial and he also runs minternships, where he helps connect small businesses with college students.  In his spare time, Andy loves traveling, speaking, and playing with his dog Zoey.

Eric Martin is the Director of Outreach at the Institute for Character Development (ICD) at Drake University.  The ICD works to mobilize character development initiatives across the state of Iowa to create an environment of civility and principled decision making. The ICD works with schools, agencies, communities and businesses to illustrate that character counts, everywhere all the time.

Dan Meyer is the Principal at Urbandale Middle School and was recently named Iowa's Middle School Principal of the Year. Prior to his work at Urbandale, Dan served in similar capacity at Lewis Central Middle School. Dan has also spent many years in education as a footrball and basketball coach.

Deb Olson serves as the Director of Curriculum at Clinton Community School District. She also serves on the Board of Junior Achievement of Heartland, a partnership of business and education leaders to promote the understanding of economics.

Denny Presnall serves as the Executive Director and Secretary-Treasurer of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation and Senior Vice President-Secretary of Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company and Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company. He is past-President and current member of the Ankeny school board, and a member and former chairman of the Iowa High School Athletic Association board of control, and a member of the board of directors for Valley Bank.

Adam Steen Until recently, Adam has spent the last four years as an Intrapreneur with Transition Capital Management.  As of May 1st, he has taking the leap into entrepreneurship and created a company called 25Connections.  His company has been built to act as an out-sourced business development firm for companies that need to increase sales.

We have a handful of seats still remaining, so if you're in the area - drop in. We'll not turn any learner away. It's going to be a phenomenal week!

Image on Flickr by MikeSansone via Wordle

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Chalk Talk - 6/20/08

Chalk Talk Friday represents conversations and brilliance I've discovered traversing my way through the Blogosphere.  From professional to personal development, these  are the posts and links have in some way touched my head or my heart.

• Pygmalion: What 21st Century Literacies Does John Need to Learn?: Johnny Can Read (If we let him use Web 2.0) Tools!
• Trailer for New Film on Teachers: 'An Inconvenient Truth' type of impact, but for education?
• Looky, Looky, right online we can read this Booky: A great collection of children's books you can read online. You can even embed them in your blog or wiki. More on this soon.
• Young Minds, Fast Times: The 21st Century Digital Learner: I've been part of discussions on if, how, and to what extent our students should have input into the design of their own education. This article provides some interesting insight.

Keep on learning.  We can sooo do this!

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Literacy Institute Lineup: Patty Coppess

Patty Coppess is the Student Achievement Coordinator at Urbandale Middle School.  She has taught middle school students for the past 20 years in all the core subject areas.  For the past several years she has been collaborating with the teachers in her building by developing strong core curriculum that incorporates critical reading strategies across all subject areas. 

She works closely with her colleagues to ensure that the district’s professional development is focused on increasing student achievement.  One of her most important responsibilities is to manage and develop the middle school’s TARGET program.  It is a revolutionary program that provides supplemental learning opportunities for students who have tested less than proficient in reading and math.

Patty is family oriented and enjoys spending time attending Casey’s vocal concerts, show choir performances and drama productions and cheering Kirby on at the Urbandale High School baseball, wrestling or cross country events.  She and her husband, Brian, the associate principal at Urbandale High School, still find time for their favorite leisure activity, “Ridin’ the Harley

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Literacy Institute Lineup: Nancy Ward

Nancy Ward is entering her 21st year as a teacher for the Des Moines Public Schools. This past school year she taught 2nd grade at Windsor Elementary. Her prior experiences include Reading Recovery, in-class reading support teacher, building literacy coach, and district literacy trainer. Nancy has taught courses in balanced literacy and writing workshop.

Nancy has a passion for children’s literature, roller coasters, historical fiction novels and movies at the Fleur. She loves anything literacy, but has a special place in her heart for emergent and early readers and writers. There is joy in seeing students discover the power of reading and writing.

Being part of the Institute team is a first for Nancy. She is looking forward to challenging her own current thinking about literacy and leading colleagues on their journey through the week and into the fall.

The Ward family includes Bob(25), and Becky(20), Nancy and Jim. They live in Des Moines. The Wards express their support for Nancy’s ever changing education career by keeping their comments about the contents of the garage at a minimum.

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Wordle - A Digital Storyteller & Analytic Exercise

Several people have shared their Wordle, a weighted word cloud giving us an idea of what they write about or bookmark most often.

Here's mine. I quickly noticed the shape was almost like a talk cloud ... no wait, it's a brain! No accidents or coincidences, right?

When I first began looking at Wordle, I thought of it as a "cool" new tool, some new bling for my blog. But doing this exercise serves as a powerful reflection on what matters most in my work and in my life. Seeing the "brain" emerge, and TEACHING and LEARNING stand out strong made me sit back and smile.

Try this: Before you create your "Wordle", make a prediction...

What words will be most prominent? Is this who you are and what you are about? (What great self-branding exercise -yes?)

Enjoy and make sure to share!

Ben Wildeboer @ Sustainably Digital has a great list of other ed-xamples

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Literacy Institute Lineup: Denise Wood

We're getting down to the last few days before the Midwest Literacy Institute, so I thought I'd introduce some of the breakout team.

Next up, my friend and colleague, Denise Wood:

Denise Wood is the Coordinator of Instructional Support for Urbandale Schools.  Her teaching background includes K-5 classroom teaching, reading support, and teacher of gifted and talented in both rural and suburban school districts. 

Denise's personal educational interests involve improving literacy instruction via quality teacher professional development and curriculum development across content areas for all pK-12 students. She also works as an advocate for gifted children and their families. 

Denise prides herself on modeling for teachers the classroom application of educational research and teaching adults how to gain important instructional time within an already packed school day.

Denise's greatest joy is spending time with her husband, Tom (an elementary principal) and daughters Grace (6) and Maggie (4).  Their family enjoys playing ball in the yard and watching Grace and Maggie twirl their batons!

The Midwest Literacy Institute is one of Denise's favorite learning opportunities every year.  It is an amazing time to collaborate, see old friends, and make new ones! 

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Go Ahead-Color Outside the Lines!

Just scanning my RSS feeds this morning, and this little post caught my eye:

Let's modify and adapt this quote a bit, shall we?

What if we were to tweak it to this:

"When teachers defy the traditional, when they 'color outside the lines,' students often receive exceptional education."

Or how about this:

"When administrators defy the traditional, when they 'color outside the lines,' teachers receive exceptional leadership (and become exceptional educators)."

Thanks to InspireUX for this quote. I absolutely love the InspireUX site. How would you SCAMPER this one on problem solving?

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