Scott McLeod - Different Schools for a Different World

Solutions for Creating the Learning Spaces Students Deserve

Different Schools for a Different World

Scott McLeod Dean Shareski

Copyright 2018 by Solution Tree Press

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction of this book in whole or in part in any form.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: McLeod, Scott, 1968- author. | Shareski, Dean, author.

Title: Different schools for a different world / Scott McLeod and Dean Shareski.

Description: Bloomington, IN : Solution Tree Press, 2017. | Series: Solutions series | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017016974 | ISBN 9781943874101 (perfect bound)

Subjects: LCSH: Educational change--United States. | Education--Aims and objectives--United States. | Educational accountability--United States. | Comparative education.

Classification: LCC LA217.2 .M3996 2017 | DDC 370.973--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017016974

Solution Tree

Jeffrey C. Jones, CEO

Edmund M. Ackerman, President

Solution Tree Press

President and Publisher: Douglas M. Rife

Editorial Director: Sarah Payne-Mills

Managing Production Editor: Caroline Cascio

Senior Production Editor: Tara Perkins

Senior Editor: Amy Rubenstein

Proofreader: Evie Madsen

Text Designer: Rian Anderson

Compositor: Laura Cox

Cover Designer: Laura Cox

Editorial Assistants: Jessi Finn and Kendra Slayton

To Betsy, Isabel, Lucas, and Colin, who put up with my shenanigans and without whom everything would be meaningless.

Scott

To Paula and all those kids and their mates, who still dont know exactly what their husband and father does for a living.

Dean

Acknowledgments

Solution Tree Press would like to thank the following reviewers:

Kevin Doerfler

Assistant Principal

Portage West Middle School

Portage, Michigan

Michael Roberts

Principal

Desert View Elementary School

Hermiston, Oregon

Bo Ryan

Principal

Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts Magnet Middle School

Hartford, Connecticut

Kristy Venne

Assistant Principal

Dublin Jerome High School

Dublin, Ohio

Table of Contents

About the Authors

Scott McLeod, an associate professor of educational leadership at the University of Colorado Denver, is widely recognized as one of the United States leading experts in preK12 school technology leadership. He is the founding director of the University Council for Educational Administrations Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education, the only U.S. university center dedicated to the technology needs of school administrators. He is co-creator of the Did You Know? (Shift Happens) video series and the trudacot (technology-rich unit design and classroom observation template) technology integration discussion protocol.

Scott has worked with several hundred schools, districts, universities, and other organizations and has received numerous awards for his technology leadership work, including the 2016 Award for Outstanding Leadership from the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). In 2015, he was one of three finalists to be the director of the Iowa Department of Education. In 2011, he was a visiting faculty fellow at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Scott was one of the pivotal figures in Iowas grassroots one-to-one computing movement, which has resulted in more than 220 school districts providing their students with powerful learning devices, and founded the annual Iowa one-to-one Institute and EdCampIowa.

Scott blogs regularly about technology leadership and shares numerous resources through his Digital Leadership Daily SMS service. Scott is a frequent keynote speaker and workshop facilitator at regional, state, national, and international conferences. He has written 170 articles and other publications and is the co-editor of What School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media.

To learn more about Scotts work, visit his blog, Dangerously Irrelevant (http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org), or follow @mcleod on Twitter.

Dean Shareski is the community manager for Discovery Education Canada. He taught grades 18 for fourteen years and spent nine years as a digital learning consultant for Prairie South School Division in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. In addition, he has taught and designed courses both at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan and at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania.

Deans blog, Ideas and Thoughts, consistently ranks among the top educational blogs. He also blogs for Tech and Learning and The Huffington Post. In 2010, he won the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Award for Outstanding Leader of the Year.

Dean has had the opportunity to speak to a variety of education audiences within the United States and Canada as well as outside North America. He believes humor and humility go a long way in supporting and advocating transformational practices in teaching and learning. More important, his efforts to promote joyful learning and working environments remain his greatest passion.

He holds a masters degree in educational technology from the University of Saskatchewan. Dean has been married to his wife Paula for more than thirty years, and together they celebrate their four children and their families. When not teaching and sharing, you might find Dean on a golf course.

To learn more about Deans work, visit his blog, Ideas and Thoughts http://ideasandthoughts.org), or follow @shareski on Twitter.

To book Scott McLeod or Dean Shareski for professional development, contact .

Foreword

By William M. Ferriter

Can I ask you a tough question? How many students in your classrooms are truly satisfied with the learning spaces you have created for them? If your kids reflect the national average, the answer is bound to be discouraging. Fewer than four in ten high schoolers report being engaged in their classes, and students often list boredom as the primary reason for dropping out of school (Busteed, 2013). Over 70 percent of students who dont graduate report having lost interest by ninth grade and, worse yet, the majority of dropouts are convinced that motivation is all that prevented them from earning a diploma (Azzam, 2007).

These numbers are troubling for anyone passionate about schools. They indicate systemic failure on the part of practitioners to inspire learners and warn us of the immediate need to transform educationa warning that school leadership expert and series contributor Scott McLeod (2014) issues: