On Line Learning and the Catholic Secondary School

Technology is changing the world. There are still some pockets of resistance out there. I point to a local administrator who refuses to use email and sends all non verbal communications through the fax as an example. Most of us have accepted that technology has and will continue to radically change our daily experiences. The most recent Harvard Education letter chronicles the rise of on-line learning and its potential impact on bricks and mortar education. The Florida Virtual School is a noted example and forty four states tout online learning requirements. I would argue an online course or two is par for the course with most four year college experiences.

Many of our schools already utilize online learning as a way to supplement our own educational offerings. We have a handful of students taking advanced math courses through Stanford. We provide the computer and the time and they take the course. Critics are apt to point out that the experience of school: community, relationship, diversity of experience, can often be lost through an online learning environment. This is true perhaps in the sense of one to one teacher to student interaction only. Technology has advanced with break neck speed and the ability for groups of students to collaborate online through blogs, wikis, nings, and group skype calls is changing this isolated dynamic.

We are tinkering with the idea of offering a few "blended" electives for next year. What we mean by "blended" is a handful of our teachers will offer electives in an online plus face to face method. Course content will be made available online through the use of free content sharing services like slideshare and archive.org. A classroom wiki will provide the place to chronicle and share collaborative work. The teacher will be available for skype conferences at certain times each week and the students and teacher will share a working lunch (lunch + homeroom) once a week for further clarification and discussion. The students course schedule during the day would not be altered too much with the exception of a study hall period being added in some cases. Better is the study hall actually has access to the web. Cost wise the majority of everything in terms of software costs is virtually zero if you have instructors who understand web 2.0 technology. Trust me, some of them do.

Information is no longer scarce. The world of "Google" and being connected 24/7 has changed much of what we do. The sage on the stage model tied to a world of information scarcity is quickly being done away with. Clayton Christensen captures the shift in Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns "People will still go to a school building, but much of the learning will be offered online, and the role of the teacher in the physical classroom will change over time from sage on the stage to the guide on the side - to be a mentor, motivator, and coach....It will be a very different system, but it should be a much more rewarding system for everyone."

There are many different formats online learning can utilize. This "blended" approach does not usurp the brick mortar model but would free up some scheduling options for our students. In addition we'd have a form for testing new electives and make it easier to allow our teachers to experiment with electives they feel passionate about it. I'm personally interested in piloting one of these classes but picking a topic in line with my own interests and theirs may be a little difficult. I wonder how many takers we'd have for a class titled, Advanced Derivative Trading Strategies for Seasonal Grain Markets . But you never do know.

Kaplan University (for profit) has released some powerful ads that pay tribute to the shift online learning is causing. I've always taken issue with their ownership but hats off to the compelling advertisement. What do you think of the blended approach and what are you currently doing in your building with online learning initiatives?



I don't personally know much about Kaplan and their model. The sharing of the video is intended to reflect the scope of the change that is upon us not a recommendation for their individual model.

Putting the Fun in Fundraising

For most of us who hold leadership roles in secondary education our thoughts can often come to rest on financial matters. How do we finance the undertaking of Catholic education? Our lay staff demand competitive and just wages, our students deserve the latest and greatest in terms of technology, and our families shouldn't carry the full financial burden on their backs in terms of astronomical tuitions. We want our schools to be elite not elitist.

There is event driven fundraising (auctions, golf outings, socials, galas, etc.) and the myriad of development work (major gifts, annual giving, etc.) and a few of us our even brave enough to bridge over into the world of student based fundraising as well. Our charges sell wrapping paper, magazines, food, or some other highly desirable object. What if instead of treating our students as a budding door to door sales force we treat them as entrepreneurs capable of generating real returns?

A pastor in our diocese tried this with his own parishoners with great success. The Rev. Ric Schneider took $18,000 in donated funds and distributed in $100 lots to 1800 willing parish members with the marching orders of finding creative ways to return the original plus any earnings. Did it work? Absolutely. In the end the seed money was parlayed into $60,500. A percentage of the funds were distributed to a poor sister parish in the Appalachian mountains. Besides the impressive return of 236% the range of actions taken by the parish members is amazing.

What if we took Father Ric's idea and applied it to our own high schools? Would giving groups of hard working students some seed capital produce some big returns? I've got to believe with a little guidance and support Catholic high schools might find similar success. From the administrator's end this would be much more engaging than getting hit up for the annual Christmas wreath and cookie dough sales. Any thoughts or comments? Hats off to Father Ric and his parish for being so creative.

picture credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23065375@N05/2235525962/sizes/m/

7 Things and Pop-Tastic

I’ve been tagged for the “7” things meme by Ed Shepherd from Learning to Collaborate. The idea is to share "7" things about you that readers of your blog wouldn't know about you unless you told them.
1. I have a twin sister who is also religious sister. She is a Franciscan nun. I call her sister – sister. She likes that better than penguin. Even though we didn’t grow up in Peoria in a funny way we now live a few blocks apart. Her convent is around the corner in West Peoria a lovely town referred to by locals as the “Catholic Ghetto”.
2. In a former job I worked with a soybean option group on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade. I loved it but felt compelled to work in education. I still trade commodities on the side to make some extra scratch and I manage a handful of accounts for friends and family. I also teach our seniors every year about futures markets and how they work. We have a great time with the “PND futures project”.
3. I’ve driven a cab in the summers to make extra money. It’s a cash business and actually pays surprisingly well. The hours were a little rough 6 pm to 6 am and all but I did have a great time while doing it.
4. I love when telemarketers call I really do. I have so much fun with them. It cracks my wife up and makes my kids snort chocolate milk out their noses. I try to be nice as I play with them but it is a stitch to watch.
5. I attended Wabash College and changed my major four times. Biology to psychology to economics and finally theology. Wabash is a small liberal arts school in Crawfordsville Indiana and it is one of two all-male colleges left in the United States. Wabash also has the longest school song you’ve ever heard of. I played football and baseball there although “play” is a strong verb for my contribution to the team.
6. I’m only 31. People give me a hard time for being a principal at this age. They might be right. My hair is already turning white and I enjoy the endless parade of calls at home about non-important issues. I’m getting an unlisted number. But I love what I do and find it incredibly challenging and stimulating.
7. My kids are better dancers than me hands down. I’m a really, really, really, awful dancer. I agreed to dance the tango in last year’s spring musical play. In the second showing I fell on my ass and tried to sell it as if it was scripted. Thankfully it has been captured on video for all to see.
I’m supposed to pass this along and tag 7 others but to be honest I’m on the late end of the tagging and now that I’m it as I look around most the bloggers I can find have already been tagged. If you haven't been tagged then "tag" you're it.

WINNER OF THE POP TASTIC AWARD

That’s right I’ve been nominated by Paul for a pop-tastic award for having an intriguing blog with a small but growing audience. Thanks for the props and as part of being the receiver I will pass the award along to the following six bloggers who always keep me stimulated and coming back for more. I read a lot of great education blogs but part of pop-tastic is choosing blogs that you don’t find on everyone’s blog roll. They are:
Claire Thompson
Jan Borelli
Michael Parent
Mike Smith
Ed Shepherd
Bill Farren

How we dropped our student failure rate by 75%

We set a staff goal to decrease our student course failures by 50%. As the early numbers trickle in, we are on path to reduce the course failures by over 75% from this same time last year. We’re so excited that we wanted to share our success with other schools.

Part of being a principal involves worrying about our students. If we don’t worry we probably should find a different line of work. In terms of academic failure there are always a few names that come quickly to our mind.

Last year’s student support group spent a lot of time worrying. Every week seemed the same. A typical example is as follows: We’d open with a short prayer and then go over the academic failure list. The same names peppered the list every week and the explanation was usually the same. Billy struggles to turn in homework. Sally is a poor test taker and her teacher in that class has the majority of points coming from tests and quizzes. Jake is a good student and talented but doesn’t come to school very often and seems to have a finesse for missing Mondays. I’m sure your school has students similar to Billy, Sally, and Jake. We were great at identifying the issues and giving the warning talk but no changes really took place. Some students fell through the cracks and ended up at the local alternative school. Others fell off the path to on-time graduation and enrolled in the neighboring public school where graduation requirements are not as strict.

Our administrative team resolved to make the 2008-2009 results different. Over the summer we created a plan of action with our leadership team of establishing various student support teams. We divided the students into six groups by alphabet and created six teams consisting of an administrator, a counselor, and two teachers. The teams met a minimum of twice a month and monitored students assigned to their alphabetic group. Each meeting consisted of not only identifying the issue but also the plan for improvement with the requirement that the plan be tied to a measurable goal for improvement. The team would decide which individual member would follow up with the identified student and what the plan of action would be as well as the measurable goal. The teams would follow up in two weeks and if the student hadn’t met the goal, a new course of action would be set. Everything was logged in a google doc that team members could reference.

Here’s an example: In early October Billy presents on the weekly failure list as carrying an F average in two classes: Geometry and English. As the team meets they pull up his grades via our online grade network and see Billy is missing eight of ten homework assignments and is at a 69.5% in English due to a low test grade on the 1st half of “Brave New World” by Huxley. The team decides to set a goal for Billy of completing his missing homework by the next check in period and earning a C or better on the next exam. Billy’s English teacher offers a study session before and after school the day before any test. The teacher assigned to work with Billy goes over the plan and Billy agrees to it (freewill is important). After two weeks Billy has pulled up his English grade but is still failing Geometry and has only turned in two of the missing homework assignments. At the next meeting the team see’s Billy’s status and discusses with Billy and his parents (via phone) that Billy needs to finish the missing homework assignments and can attend morning peer-to-peer tutoring for help. Billy agrees… and on and on.

As the semester went on, the effectiveness of the interventions was tied to the strength of the relationship created between the team and their students. Parents were ecstatic about the help being offered their children. They were also impressed with how well our staff knew their child. Looking for the Friday afternoon’s failure list became an exciting event to see who had made progress and who hadn’t.

These teams also helped build a spirit of fellowship between the various administrators. Friendly competitions and side wagers took place between the various teams as they jockeyed to have the lowest failure rate. But in the end it was the students who benefitted the most. Seeing a student move from the failure list towards their potential is an exciting thing to watch.

What is more astounding is the number of creative collaborative ideas that have come out of these meetings. We are creating mini-courses on test taking skills for those students struggling with tests. We’ve formed a peer-tutoring program. We’re working on a homeroom plan for next year that creates a special study homeroom for students who are failing as well as Saturday homework days for those lagging behind.

I wish we could report 100% success with our student body but there still remains a handful of failures.

Here is a link to the google doc with names removed. link here