Texas HB 400 - The Final Stand Thursday, May 12th

Well, today is it! It is the last day that HB 400, legislation which would make PERMANENT changes to Texas law in response to what should be a TEMPORARY budget crisis.

Instead of addressing the real issues - including a structural deficit that has been well documented - legislators are attempting to remove class size caps,weaken the very few contract rights that Texas teachers have, and do away with the state minimum salary scale. All of these moves are detrimental to the quality of education Texas students receive and the caliber of educators that Texas will be able to retain and recruit in the future.

I used this convenient tool from Texas Can Do Better to send an email to my representative on Tuesday, when HB 400 last came up. I customized the email, although you do not have to do that. It is important that you contact your representative TODAY. The Texas Can Do Better tool makes it very easy. You have no excuse for not acting!

Here is my previous post on HB 400 which outlines many concerns (information on the Phillips amendment is no longer pertinent, as sadly, it has been defeated), and the text of the email I sent Tuesday is below.

Please join me in letting our legislators know we want the REAL problems of the budget and deficits dealt with instead of "work-arounds" that wind up hurting public education in Texas. Now, go write and call without delay!

Subject Line: Vote no on HB 400: A temporary revenue crisis is no excuse for permanent repeal of all these educational quality standards and employee safeguards

Dear Representative Gonzales,

I am writing once again to urge you to vote NO on HB 400. I was extremely disappointed to hear that the Phillips Amendment, written by your fellow Republican and which made the provisions of HB 400 temporary, was tabled yesterday. I hope it comes back up for consideration.

I understand you are a co-author of this bill. I do not understand why you believe permanent changes to law that fall heavily on students and teachers are necessary for what should be a temporary budget crisis.

HB 400 permanently eliminates the 22-to-1 cap on the size of K-4 classrooms, by changing the standard to a district-wide average. Both this average and a new 25-to-1 cap for individual classrooms also would be subject to waiver. The bill also wipes out special requirements of smaller class sizes for students at risk of failing standardized state tests.

HB 400 permanently eliminates the state minimum salary schedule for teachers, counselors, nurses, and librarians, replacing salary floors with a mandate to districts to institute test-driven “performance pay.”

A "performance pay" driven salary system is unfair in many aspects, not the least of which is the fact that not all teachers teach subjects which are tested by the state testing system, and teachers who do teach those subjects teach vastly different populations of students. The teacher of GT students will have little trouble earning "performance pay", while a teacher who has dedicated himself or herself to working with students who struggle academically will have much greater challenges. Why institute a system which potentially punishes teachers who are working with the neediest students?

HB 400 kills teachers’ contract safeguards. It takes away the right to an independent hearing before an impartial hearing examiner for a teacher faced with a mid-contract termination. It deprives term-contract teachers of timely notice of proposed non-renewal, shifting the notice date to the last day of instruction, so teachers must wait five extra, anxious weeks before they know if they are employed for the coming year. Teachers on continuing contracts meanwhile lose one of the main benefits of those contracts: seniority protection in case of layoffs. In a financial crisis, districts might be tempted to release veteran teachers with the highest salaries for layoffs first. Losing experienced teachers is detrimental to our children's education and leaves no one behind to mentor teachers new to the profession.

A temporary revenue crisis is no excuse for permanent repeal of all these educational quality standards and employee safeguards. I urge you to block HB 400 and work instead on limited, temporary measures like emergency class-size waivers based on undue financial hardship and temporary salary adjustments as a substitute for layoffs. Above all, I urge you to work for adequate funding of our public schools to avoid the need for such measures.

Thank you for your time in reading my concerns and considering them as you vote on HB 400.

YouTube's Google Search Stories Creation Tool

Update March 2013 - It appears the Google Search Stories Creation Tool has gone offline and is no longer being supported as of January 2013. Bummer! More information here.

You know how you open up your Internet browser intending to accomplish something, then you click on a link that takes you on a slight rabbit trail and before you know it you are headed in a completely different direction?

Well, that happened to me this morning. But I'm glad it did, because I discovered YouTube's Google Search Stories Creation Tool, and after viewing a sample story I played around with it to create my own search story. I've embedded it below, but scroll on below it too, because it led me to begin brainstorming ways this tool could be used with students, and it might even trick them into learning some useful search techniques!

So, as I was creating this story, and after viewing a few other stories found at the SearchStories site, I came up with a few ideas for using this tool with students.

• After finishing a literature study, create a search story for one of the characters that helps trace the character's development
• During a literature study, create a search story a character might engage in to resolve a dilemma
• Create a search story depicting what searches a famous historical figure might have done if he/she had had access to Google during his/her period of history
• Create a search story that depicts the essence of a scientific or historical topic you recently studied
• Create a search story which shows a possible educational/career path you are considering
• Use as a culminating activity for a unit/lesson on research techniques as an assessment - have the students generate a question or research topic and let them demonstrate how they would use Google search to investigate
• Create a search story for use as PR, like this one from The Mary Louis Academy
• Create a search story for use as an introductory or summary video for a presentation (this would work well for staff development creators, too!)
• Whatever kind of search story your students create, require them to use at least three different types of searches, some of which can be chosen in the creation tool itself, but many of which you will have to know the proper Google syntax to use.

The SearchStories Creation Tool only allows seven search phrases and makes a 35 second video, which I think makes it a brilliant tool for asking students to focus on the heart of a topic, whatever they might be depicting. I encourage you to try it out, and as it causes you to brainstorm even more ideas, please share them below in the comments!

Successes & Challenges of a Bring Your Own Device Initiative

Photo Courtesy of User Denharsh on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/denharsh/5436123852/

Today at ESC Region XIII's ViTaL (Visionaries in Technology and Learning) spring meeting, Joe Griffin, Executive Director of Technology for Keller ISD, spoke about Keller's Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Initiative. Even though he feels like his district isn't very far into this, it sounded to me like they've hit the ground running!

With budget cuts looming/towering/impending over public education in Texas, we need to start getting creative to get more technology learning devices into the hands of teachers and students. I enjoyed Joe's presentation and learned a great deal from it. I thought others could glean from Keller's experiences, too, so I am posting my notes from his presentation below.

Thanks to @cteitelman for arranging to have Joe speak to us today!

Keller ISD Website

http://www.kellerisd.net/Pages/default.aspx

Everyone has to be invested and involved for the initiative to succeed.

Started initially with Verizon wireless devices in a 5^th grade classroom. Whole district now has wireless access capability.

Most of the content used in BYOD is web based or web enabled so students access content as if they were at home via internet.

Two vlans – one for teachers and one for students.

Next year going to use authentication so they can log in through LDAP and access network resources.

Before rolling out BYOD they revised their AUP. Had teachers involved. Whole model of instruction had to change.

Biggest challenge for instruction is multiple types of devices that the students bring.

No teacher is required to participate. Teacher has final decision making authority as to whether or not they will use devices in their classrooms.

Timberview Middle School – open concept school built with teaching collaboratively in mind. One challenge is what do they do with devices so they aren’t stolen? Parents sign a release, but still expect school to do things to prevent theft. They have had to make arrangements for device storage when students go to PE, electives, etc.

Timberview Website

http://campus.kellerisd.net/SCHOOLS/TMS-046/Pages/default.aspx

When they first started BYOD at Timberview, they did not involve parents enough. You need a good strong philosophy and have parents engaged in the initiative from the start. Parents wished they had known before school started exactly the types of activities teachers would be doing with the devices. There was a misconception that the students would just be doing a lot of texting. Bring parents in early – PTA and maybe some others involved in school. Be transparent. Let parents know when you are working through issues. Let them know everything  students access through district wireless goes through their filtered proxy.

Cell phones are not filtered if they are using their cell service. This is incorporated through the AUP – teachers spent a lot of time going over the AUP and making students aware they are responsible for the content they access whether via school wireless or via their own cell signal.

AUP: Overarching philosophy that technology will be used to empower. Up until now, students were not allowed to use cell phones at school at all. Not all Keller schools are choosing to participate in bring your own device at this time.

AUP will be posted on their website in the next two weeks. Looked at Columbine as one of their models.

Start small – start with a campus and teachers that are instructionally strong and willing to take risks because it is not going to go smoothly.

Five other campuses have adopted the model in addition to Timberview. Seems to work best at middle school and high school.

Philosophy cannot be “everyone doing the same thing at the same time”. Research and inquiry seems to work well. Skill and drill does not work as well.

Keller ISD would like to create a group in Project Share with other districts who are doing BYOD in order to share ideas.

Worked with Keller ISD Education Foundation to get MyFi cards for students to check out and use at home if they do not have Internet access.

Because students are using district wireless, they should not incur additional data plan charges.

Keller just signed an agreement with Dell on a BYOD initiative. Some campuses will have optional bundled lists of technology that students can purchase from Dell on payment plans.

Keller ISD Technology Initiatives

http://www.kellerisd.net/community/technology/Pages/default.aspx

NOTE: If you were interested in this post, you might also be interested in my February 8, 2011 post Bring Your Own Devices - How Do You Do It or How Do You Get There?