Vote for me!

Although I've been incredibly critical of Ed in '08, they are giving out awards for education bloggers next week in Washington D.C. Wouldn't it be ironic if someone so critical of Bill Gates and Eli Broad turning schools into Dickensian sweatshops won an award from that organization?

C'mon friends, Romans and twitterers! Can we do it? Yes, We Can!

Go to http://edin08.com/bloggersummit/bloggerpoll.aspx

and vote for any or all of the following blogs:

http://districtadministration.com/pulse/resultpage.aspx?bloggerid=5
http://blogs.districtadministration.com/thepulse
http://www.districtadministration.com/pulse/commentpost.aspx?news=no&postid=48233
http://www.stager.org/blog

I thank you!

I Hit the Big Time!

Big news!

I could not be more thrilled to have been invited to be a contributor to The Huffington Post. I have read The Huffington Post since the day it launched and am extremely honored to be associated with this ground-breaking publication.

My first article just went live on the Politics page of The Huffington Post. The article is called, "The Surge Against First Graders."

If the article is pushed off the main (politics) page, it may be found here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-stager/the-surge-against-first-g_b_100456.html

My page for future articles is: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-stager/ This is in addition to my own blog at http://www.stager.org/blog and http://www.districtadministration.com

While checking out my article, feel free to share the love and leave a comment or Buzz-Me-Up! Education needs more critical analysis and reportage. I am humbled that the Huffington Post has given me this opportunity to reach such a large audience.

Gary

Check out Constructing Modern Knowledge
July 28-31, 2008 - Manchester, NH
www.constructingmodernknowledge.com

Isn't it Ironic?

Many of the most popular, hired and prolific members of the EduBlogosphere (particularly the edtech bloggers) spend a great deal of time, word count and airplane mileage talking about the importance of literacy - old literacy, new literacy, media literacy, superdooper 21st Century Web 2.0 literacy and "literacies" yet to be invented.

Literacy dominates my esteemed colleague's thoughts about education. Therefore, I find it shocking that there is so little [read: none] discussion of the news that the federal Department of Education has concluded that Reading First, the $6 billion shock and awe approach to literacy education at the core of No Child Left Behind, has FAILED to improve the reading comprehension of American students.

Why the silence among EduBloggers? Is this issue unimportant? Should we ignore the calamity created by Reading First just because it doesn't mention Twitter, Apture, Ning or other made-up words?

Or, are you waiting to be told what to think by Tom Friedman or Daniel Pink?

Too bad the self-proclaimed prophets of the information and media literacy "revolution" have nothing to offer the educators who will need to cleanup this mess created by the Bush Administration and perpetuated by those who remained silent when they knew better.

For the record, I've been writing about this issue for four years. An anthology of this work may be found here. I hope to have a more substantive piece published for a larger audience sometime this week. Stay tuned.

I Told You So!

In 2004, I wrote an article about President Bush's half-baked ideas regarding reading instruction. Gary Stager on Direct Instruction exposed the Bush Administration's cozy relationship with publishers destined to profit from Reading First. To say that my publisher and owner of District Administration hated the article would be an understatement. He took the unprecedented step of apologizing for the article in the very next issue, before any reader would have had time to object. In fact, the mail received was incredibly supportive of my opinion and the facts were checked prior to publication.

In 2006 I wrote an article, Shocked! Shocked! Reading First Plagued by Corporate Welfare, Cronyism and Demonization, as a response to the revelations that Reading First was indeed a patronage program that had a lot more to do with ideology than helping children learn to read.

A couple of days ago, the Bush Department of Education released the results of a research study (you know how they LOVE research) on the efficacy of Reading First, a cornerstone of No Child Left Behind.

“Reading First did not improve students’ reading comprehension,” concluded the report, which was mandated by Congress and carried out by the Department of Education’s research arm, the Institute of Education Sciences. “The program did not increase the percentages of students in grades one, two or three whose reading comprehension scores were at or above grade level.”

Can you imagine how bad the results truly were if the spinmeisters in D.C. released conclusions this devastating to their phonics fixation?

Secretary Spelling's spokesperson said that the Secretary "planned to look at the study 'to inform our efforts,' and would 'look forward to reviewing the final report.'"

Spellings should resign and the President of the United States should apologize to every teacher and student for the bogus war of terror they reigned on America's public schools.

Announcing Constructing Modern Knowledge 2008

I'd like to invite you to a very special event this summer. Some of my fondest memories of teaching and learning come from summer camp and much of what I know about effective teacher professional development was gained working with Dan and Molly Watt at their summer Logo Institutes in the 1980s. It has long been a dream to create a 21st learning environment in which educators spend long periods of time immersed in creative computer-rich projects collaborating with world-class practitioners.

My dream continues....
In addition to hands-on activities, leading education thinkers would shape provocative discussions about the nature of learning, creativity and school reform in order to help participants sustain the constructive use of technology back in their schools and districts. Informal learning and conversations will occur during meals, walks and fantastic social events.

These goals led me to create Constructing Modern Knowledge, a minds-on summer institute for educators July 28-31, 2008 at the Radisson Hotel in Manchester, NH. In addition to four days full of computer-rich learning adventures for creative educators, Constructing Modern Knowledge features amazing guest speakers, a BBQ at a minor league baseball game and a night on the town in nearby Boston.

Since knowledge is a consequence of experience, Constructing Modern Knowledge, is designed to create a context for remarkable learning experiences. Instead of spending a conference listening to an endless series of speakers, Constructing Modern Knowledge, enables participants to spend time interacting with educational pioneers and colleagues from around the world.

Please take a few moments to browse the web site and read the bios of our institute faculty. Alfie Kohn is one of education's most provocative speakers and bestselling authors. Bob Tinker and Cynthia Solomon are pioneers who invented some of the educational technology we use every day. Peter Reynolds is a beloved artist, software designer and children's book author. The rest of our team has expertise in creativity, multimedia authoring, student empowerment, programming, robotics and a whole lot more.

Hotel accommodation is affordable and Manchester, NH has one of the most convenient and affordable airports in the United States. Constructing Modern Knowledge is also within a reasonable drive of most cities in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern states.

Don't miss the learning adventure of the year! Space is limited, so register today!

I can't wait to learn with you in Manchester this July 28-31.

Teach for America Marked Absent

Here is a link to my most recent blog about Teach for America failing to prepare teacher candidates at even the most fundamental level.

Read, One Lesson Teach for America Missed.

Spring Travel at 9 Degrees Fahrenheit

I usually spend about 1/3 of each year on the road speaking and consulting with schools, governments or corporations. So far, 2008 has been no exception.

Over the past month or so I was a featured speaker at MACUL, made three presentations at the COSN Annual Conference, delivered two keynotes for Toshiba about 1:1 computing in education, led a STEM keynote in Potsdam, NY, was the closing keynote for the Texas Distance Learning Association Conference and in the spare time began teaching a computer programming class for K-5 kids once or twice a week in a Long Beach, CA school as a volunteer.

Just as Spring blooms and I mourn the fact that I only got to ski two days this winter, I'm off in a few hours to lead my "10 Things to Do with a Laptop: Learning and Powerful Ideas" presentation in Calgary, Alberta where it may be as cold as 9 degrees Fahrenheit! Time to schlep the parka! Ah, the glamourous life!

I won't be there long enough to enjoy the weather or the scenery because immediately after the day-long Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation's 1:1 Computing Leadership Summit, I fly to Seattle to participate in a similar event. The following day I will teaching my class in Long Beach. I will also be doing more work with the One Laptop Per Child Foundation over the next month.

If you want to catch me live and in-person over the next few months. Here are some of the places where I'll be speaking:

• April 30 - Featured Speaker: Penn State One-to-One Computing Conference. An Educational Vision Worth Sustaining


• May 3 - Keynote Speaker - Annual CHILD Conference, West Palm Beach, FL Young Tom Edison and the Ballerina's Gopher


• May 7-9 - Keynote Speaker - Eastern Townships Technology Showcase, Quebec.


• May 16-17 - Speaker - NYSCATE Metro Conference, Rye, NY. Multiple sessions


• June 29 - Organizer & Keynote Speaker - The Constructivist Celebration, San Antonio, TX


• June 30 - July 2 - Speaker - National Educational Computing Conference, San Antonio, TX


• July 13-15 - Keynote Speaker - Laussane Laptop Institute, Memphis, TN

I will probably be working across Australia in August.

Stay tuned for the announcement of an exciting summer event for educators over the next few days.

Gotta go find my ski gloves and scarf. Brrrrrrr!