At the start of the year last August, students at Mentorship Academy met for classes at LSU. “Start at college, end at college,” was the message executive director Brian Dixon was sending to his ninth- and 10th-graders.

Dixon began the school two years ago at the corner of Fourth and Florida streets downtown as a Type 1 charter school focused on technology and projects. Students have a choice of two technological directions: the digital arts, including creative filmmaking, website creation, graphic design and computer programming, or science, including engineering, chemistry and math. Projects trump lectures, says Dixon, because they foster critical thinking, problem solving and team building.

The son of a clergyman, Dixon grew up “all over,” living in California for seven years before he came to Baton Rouge. His original ambition of becoming a rock star morphed into sharing his creativity with kids. He spent eight years teaching English, theater arts, filmmaking and digital production, authored The Innovative School Leader’s Guide to Social Media, and still runs a website devoted to helping small businesses with social media marketing. brianjdixon.com —M.H.

Code Space — the next extracurricular activity for the gaming controller which sees it teaming up with smartphones and laptops to present information on a shared screen. — This could be revolutionary when it comes to classroom presentations. If we are to finally “Think Beyond the Ban“- how might we use mobile tech to share student created presentations? This could be a first step.

When we “simply digitize the current version of school” we are walking a dark path towards a cliff even after turning on the flashlight.

Tom Van Der Ark‘s wonderful book, “Getting Smart“, comes out soon. Here’s a clip from a great review from tom abeles, a member of Amazon’s innovative “Vine Program”:

Tom Vander Ark’s insightful volume basically declares that most of the early innovation in the arena of digital learning has either fallen by the way or is rapidly becoming the key to significant change in how we learn from PreK to gray, with the focus of this book being primarily in the K-12 schools. To ignore this or to treat it as “another technology” to be grafted onto the current lock-step, age-defined, cohorts of the traditional school is to mistake the fact that we are now, globally, turning the corner towards the rapid rise on the familiar sigmoid curve of digital learning environments. The innovation phase is passed and the early adoption period is rapidly ending as digital technology from smart phones and tablets to cloud computing become the “new normal”.

In summary:

The future could not be more clear. Soft skills: critical-thinking, problem-solving, innovation-based constructs are key to achievement in this age. Seth Godin recently wrote: “The biggest cultural shift that the Internet has amplified is the ability to make an impact on your own culture.” Student creation is the solution.

This picture says it all:

Never underestimate the power of the personal touch.

As a charter school leader, one of my top concerns is student enrollment.

I know that our school’s vision and mission is attractive.

I want our school to be THE CHOICE for all students.

The place that families dream to send their students.

I also know that we have a lot of work to do to get there.

School reform isn’t easy. It’s not for everybody. And there is no overnight solution.

But without students, we wouldn’t have a school.

Without engaged families, we wouldn’t have a caring school.

Without amazingly dedicated teachers, we wouldn’t have an exemplary school.

And every day we move one step closer.

Communicating that vision, sharing that hope, engaging those families begins with a personal touch.

An individual conversation. A phone call. A postcard. An in person conversation.

Establishing a relationship and building rapport.

Consider ways you can being to build relationships with your prospective students today.

In this episode of Learning ReDesigned, social media expert, innovative educator, and author Dr. Brian J. Dixon reflects on the book “Crucial Confrontations”.

Reflections on the differences between my first and second year teaching.

Waiting till the last minute?

If the photocopier breaking is going to ruin the lesson, then the teacher is probably waiting until the last minute.  There are situations, however, when copies do need to be made. This is a situation in which a document camera would be useful for displaying the questions in front of the whole class.   Another way to deal with this situation is to break students into groups, choose one as a representative to come up and write down the question or type it out on their laptops. Then, rotate the questions around to each group.  This empowers the students to collaborate on the activity, rather than just having them complete a worksheet on their own.

Low-tech solutions

If it is just a simple worksheet, the simplest solution is to read the questions off to the students and do the traditional low tech kind of assignment, with students writing their answers on notebook paper.  If it is a primary source or an interesting article that was going to be the meat of the lesson, then it gets to be a bit more difficult.  Some might try to do a large group reading.  Putting students on the spot like this can make things difficult, especially if the reading is a pivotal part of the lesson.  The students may be distracted by the fluidity of their classmates’ reading. Another route would be to split them into small groups, with one group reading together while the others work on other activities that are a part of the lesson.

The key is to be flexible. Photocopiers break. The Internet goes down. The sub doesn’t show up. But the truly great teacher is flexible and uses these mishaps as opportunities for learning.

Although there are countless strategies for effective classroom management, I have found that simplicity is the key.

Complicated systems don’t work.

complicated systems don't work

The key is to keep it simple. Choose three techniques that work for you and your class.

For example: stay on task, respect your surroundings, and ask first.

These simple sayings allow me to effectively communicate my classroom management plan to the entire class in very few words. Remember what it is like to be a high school student moving from class to class all day long. They have six different teachers with six different personalities and six different systems for getting attention, going to the restroom, asking a question. It can get confusing. The teacher who has Continue Reading…

Routines and systems

These disruptions can take many shapes: students leaving for appointments, school-wide assemblies, a note being delivered, or an administrator walking in. Each of these disruptions may be minimized through a classroom system.

Students leaving class: Have a sign-in pad where students document where they are going, when they left, and when they returned. Continue Reading…