LeaderTalk

PhDo or PhDon't?

I am at a crossroads and I am conflicted.  Two close friends of mine have started in PhD programs, and I am feeling the pressure to do the same.  I know that my board of education has expectations of the district principals to pursue a PhD.  My superintendent has dropped hints, too.  So, why am I confused?  Just do it, right?

Well, first of all, I still do not know what I want to be when I "grow up."  I love being a principal too much to consider leaving this job for a district office job.  I can't imagine life as an educator without kids around.  Of course, I had similar thoughts 15 years ago when I was debating leaving the classroom for the school office.  If I am to remain a principal for the final 10 - 12 years of my career, why do I need the extra letters after my name? 

Then, there is the issue of family.  I have seen the sacrifices others have made to complete the rigors of doctoral programs.  The weekends away from home, the very late nights, the missed soccer games, school concerts, plays, and dance recitals, and the stress it adds to the rest of the family members. 

Finally, I am aware that there is so much knowledge to be gained while studying in a PhD program.  The high quality books I would read, and the educational discourse that takes place in a seminar with other educators in the program could be invaluable to me as a principal.  Yet, through the power of RSS and the Web 2.0, I have found plenty of professional development material to read.

Like many of you, If I committed to a PhD program, I would need to give it 110%.  I could not breeze through or do a half-baked job.  I would need to do it the right way, which of course is the hard way.  On top of that, I would find it difficult to ease up on the demands of my job or my home life, and I probably would have to give up blogging for a few years.  Yikes.  Something would have to give.

For those of you reading this who have accomplished the impressive task of successfully completing a doctoral program, was it worth it?  For those of you in the throes of such a program, are you glad you started it?

Do we really need the final degree to be better educational leaders?

The Day After...

In the 1972 movie "The Candidate," Robert Redford plays Bill McKay, a thirty-something Californian who couldn’t be further removed from politics. Despite being the son of former governor John J. McKay ( Played by Melvyn Douglas), Bill was never interested in politics and instead acts as a lawyer for liberal causes.  Yet, he is convinced by Marvin Lucas (played by Peter Boyle) and others to run for the U.S. Senate in a seemingly unwinnable race against a powerful incumbent senator.  Knowing full well that he will lose, McKay decides he can use this opportunity to speak to groups of people and spread his liberal values.  Well, he ends up winning the race. 

As the film nears the ending, McKay leaves the victory party, grabs Lucas, and pulls him aside.  In one of my very favorite movie lines of all time McKay looks at his campaign manager and asks: “Marvin ... What do we do now?”   He never receives an answer, and the movie ends.

Flash forward.  It is Wednesday, November 5, 2008. The day after what is arguably the most important election in United States history.  I sure hope that somewhere in Chicago, President-elect Obama is not looking at his people and asking the same question Bill McKay asked. Instead, I hope that he is saying, "Let's get started.  We have a l lot to do!"

The entire world is looking at Barack Obama. How can he possibly live up to the tremendous expectations that will be piled on him?  He is taking over a failed presidency.  The economy is spiraling downward, we are fighting two wars, too many people do not have adequate (if any) health care, banks are foreclosing on houses all over the country, Roe v. Wade is an emotional time bomb waiting to explode, and on and on.  Why would anyone want this job?

Interestingly, I did not include education in the above list.  I do not recall print, television or radio campaign ads that focused on education-related topics because education was not a major issue in this campaign. Yet, the new president will be faced with the reauthorization of NCLB. Will this issue, which is so important to the future of American education, stay buried underneath the issues du jour?  Who will push education to the front burner of American politics? 

I ask these questions as an educator who passionately believes that education is the cornerstone of our democratic society.  We educators must be the force that moves teaching and learning back into to its rightful place among the important issues of the day.  I hope President-elect Obama realizes this as well, and I hope he has what it takes to implement the changes he has promised.  I know I will be supporting him.

Scrap The Lab. It Doesn't Compute.

A few days ago, Scott McLeod, on his Dangerously Irrelevant blog, asked his readers to share what they think are the best designs for a computer lab.  As I was thinking about this and formulating a comment to write on this post, I received the Sept/Oct 2008 edition of Scholastic's "Administrator" Magazine.  Have you seen it yet?  The cover story is titled "One Laptop, One Child." After reading this article, I realized why I was having so much trouble formulating a new, better design for a computer lab.  I have come to believe that the best design is no design at all.  I would argue that we should be scrapping the traditional computer lab with 25 or 30 desktop machines that are networked to a couple of printers housed in one room in a school.  This has become an outdated use of our schools' very tight technology budgets. 

Why?  Because if our goal is to integrate technology into all aspects of the curriculum (well, that's my goal, anyway), then a computer lab that is shared by all of the classes in a school is not sufficient to accomplish that goal.  The typical use of a school's lab is for the teachers to sign up for a weekly time to bring their classes in to work on the computers. I am talking about elementary school teachers.  However, middle and high schools schedule students into computer classes in labs, and the same dicsonnect takes place.  When it is "computer time" the teachers will end a reading or math lesson, march the students to the lab, and assign some type of word processing or PowerPoint activity to accomplish during the 40 minute period.  Then, it's back to class to continue working on other lessons.  Effective, meaningful technology integration is much more difficult in this type of system.

Instead, we need to equip each classroom with a bank of six, eight, even ten or more laptop computers.  These machines would be available for students all day, every day, and teachers could plan lessons to include technology throughout the day.  Additionally, classrooms should be equipped with document cameras, LCD projectors, and interactive white boards.  This classroom-based technology will open up the classroom to the entire world, and instead of the standard teacher demonstration station, students will have much more hands-on experiences with technology.  They will be doing, not just watching how technology can be utilized for learning.

With a bank of laptops in a classroom, students can work independently or in groups on projects that connect them to others.  For example, imagine a literature circle discussion taking place among students in New York and San Diego via Skype.  Or, imagine a science experiment conducted with students in Chicago and Seattle.  How about a debate between students in Boston and London? Should they have thrown the tea overboard, or not?  Debate!  The students will learn more from each other than they would from their own classmates (and maybe from their teachers).  Sure, this can be accomplished in a computer lab on the other side of the school, but time would be the enemy, and the ability to extend the learning past 40 minutes would not exist.

Taking this a step further, imagine if every student had a laptop computer on his or her desk.  As Wayne D'orio argues in his Administrator article, a well-run 1:1 computing program is one where many more students have the "access to technology and use the tools in meaningful ways." This should be a goal for every school.

"It is instilling the idea that teachers will no longer be the dominant information delivery for each class.  If a school goes 1:1 but the students use the computers only as a better way of taking notes, the whole experiment will fail"

D'orio goes on to explain that "If used correctly, computers in more hands can help speed schools along the path to 21st century learning."  Students need to collaborate with others throughout the day and week, similar to what their parents are doing in the world of work.

The first and most obvious criticism of 1:1 computing in schools is cost, and I would agree.  However, there are computers now on the market that cost less than $500 and would serve the needs of most elementary and middle school students.  HP has one.  So does ASUS.  So does MPC (this looks like a cool one for kids).  And more are coming on to the market.  There also is Thin Client software and products like the X300 Terminal from NComputing that create access terminals without bulky computers in classrooms.

One final point is that we need to allow students to bring in their own laptops for use in classrooms.  I can hear the school district IT people screaming at me for this one!  "There is no way we will let kids connect to our network.  It's not safe for the network or for them." To that, I say "let it go!"  Let the educators teach the students the correct way to use the network, go ahead and scan their machines for viruses, and purchase classroom management software that allows teachers control of the machines if necessary to push out lessons or block inappropriate material.

Of course, this may become a moot point when the next generation of smart cell phones takes over the computing world.  One cell phone, one child?  Picture that in your classrooms.

Protect or Prepare: Which is Better for Children?

The natural instinct of parents is to protect their children from any harm they may encounter  while growing up.  Parents certainly do not want their children getting hurt, either physically or emotionally.  Conversely, parents do want their children to experience success, both in and out of school. But when does parental protection turn into over-protection that does more harm than good?

You may be asking "How can protecting a child be harmful?"  That is a legitimate question.  When we were growing up, we made mistakes and learned valuable lessons. Furthermore, situations will undoubtedly arise in a person's life where he or she will need to make a difficult choice or decision.  If parents overprotect their children from these situations when they are young, what will happen when they are older, and the parents are not there to protect them?  Will they be prepared with the skills and strategies to help themselves through a difficult, uncomfortable, or potentially dangerous situation?  Parents will not always be available to ride in on the white horse and save their kids from trouble or danger. 

So, this begs two questions. First, what can we as educators do to convince parents that it is alright for children to face some adversity, failure, and disappointment?  Second, what can parents do to help children navigate around the potholes of life?  Adults need to prepare children to take care of themselves when they are confronted with a problem or when they have to make a difficult choice.  The ability to solve a problem or avert trouble is a skill that needs to be taught.  This is not an inherited trait, nor do children attain this skill through osmosis.  You and I may know how to deal with potentially troubling situations, but I would guess that that is due to adult modeling, life-lessons taught to us by adults, and the experiences we have encountered from the time we were little.  Unfortunately, many adults (and some children) have not learned how to handle problems appropriately which is why our court systems are so clogged with cases of people who have gotten themselves into trouble.

When children come home from school and start crying because they were being teased, ignored, left out, or treated  disrespectfully by another person, their parents' natural instinct is to comfort them and then try to fix the problem for them.  Instead, I believe that parents should comfort their children, and then teach them ways to solve the problem for themselves.  This approach teaches children how to advocate for themselves, and it helps them become more self-confident. 

If children complain that they are being treated unfairly in school, the first, and most natural, parental reaction is to make a call to the teacher or principal in order to fix the problem.  Instead, I would argue that parents need to teach their children how to approach the person and explain what is bothering them. 

We know that children are confronted with choices all day long.  They often are presented with situations where the correct choice also is the more difficult choice.  Our responsibility as parents and educators is to prepare children for such moments through discussion, modeling, and role-playing.  Then, when they make a good choice, praise them and point out the positive consequences of their actions.  If they make a bad choice, teach them to take responsibility for their actions and accept the consequences of their poor choice. 

These are only a few examples of ways we can prepare our children for success in the big, bad world.  I am sure there are many other ways, and I know that there are a lot of great resources for parents and teachers to help prepare children for the potholes of life.  If you have some good resources for me or others, please share. 

 

Providing Feedback to Teachers

At the start of every school year I vow that I will do a much better job of getting into classrooms, observing teachers, checking student progress, and when appropriate, participating in lessons.  This is a noble goal, and I believe this should be a very important aspect of my job as a principal.  Much has been written about the importance of principal walk-throughs, and the benefits of instructional leaders visiting classrooms should be obvious. 

At the end of every school year, I vow that I will do a much better job the following year of getting into classrooms to observe teachers, check on student progress, and participate in lessons.  I have been stuck in this pattern of thinking for years.  Why?  Well, the simplest reason is that the demands of the position prevent me from visiting classrooms as much as I want.  There are meetings to attend, parents to call, emails to reply to, student discipline to deal with, buses to supervise, lunchroom issues, reports to create, evaluations to write, administrivia to administrate,  and so on...

But these are just excuses.  I certainly can (and will) change my daily routines and habits enough to open blocks of time in my calendar to walk through all of the classrooms and still complete the other required duties of my job.  I have, however, come to realize that there still are some unresolved issues for me in regards to the classroom walk-through. 

So I ask these questions:

1. What are some successful ways to provide feedback to teachers after the five or ten minute visit?
2. Does every walk-through require a follow-up comment, note, or similar feedback?
   
3. How can administrators praise teachers in ways that compliment people without offending others?

I have tried many ways to provide feedback that is valuable for the teachers and that I can create efficiently. I have left notes on desks and in mailboxes, I have sent emails, and I have sought out teachers at lunch or after school for a discussion.  I have made simple comments like "Wonderful job," or "Terrific lesson."  But these can become hollow if used too often.  I have written lengthy explanations of what I observed which can be helpful, but this can be extremely time consuming.  I have tried checklists, but they have been cumbersome to work with. 

I also have had the feeling that I do not praise teachers enough for the good work they do with their students.  Some people crave praise of any kind, and others shy away from positive feedback because it embarrasses them. Some people  like receiving praise in front of their peers, while others do not.  When we praise one teacher in front of her peers, we run the risk of offending others who believe they also did a good job but did not receive the public praise. 

As the new school year approaches, I am determined to find answers to these three questions.  How do you provide feedback and praise to teachers?

What's On Your Summer Reading List?

In her June 29 post on LeaderTalk, Reggie Engebritson encourages all of us to take some vacation time and get away from the stresses of work.  Well, I completely agree with Reggie.  So, we are packing the car and heading off to South Haven, Michigan for a week of R & R.  This is the type of vacation where we do a lot of nothing, and we love every minute of it!  Here is a typical vacation day in South Haven for the Sherman family:
Wake up whenever we wake up;
Eat breakfast;
Go down to the pool;
When hungry, go up and eat lunch;
Walk two blocks to the beach and hang out;
Walk home, clean up, go for dinner;
Go back to the beach for a classic Michigan sunset. 
After we watch the sun fall right into the lake, we go to Sherman's Dairy Bar (no relation to my family, unfortunately) for the best ice cream this side of Wisconsin.
Go to bed, and do the same thing the next day. 

I am planning to read at least two books this coming week in addition to the fun in the sun activities with my wife and kids.  I was planning to use this post to share some of my summer reading, and ask others to share their books for this summer.  So I was pleasantly surprised to read that I was "tagged" by Chris Lehmann who was asking for people to share their summer reading lists. 

In his July 3 post on his Practical Theory blog, Chris wrote about his summer reading list.  I must admit, it is quite an impressive and ambitious list of books for one person to read in the course of a short summer.

My list is much shorter than Chris's list.  It's not that I don't want to spend the entire summer reading, but I have been given quite an extensive "Honey-do" list of projects to complete over the summer!  A guy needs to put his priorities in order, right?  My goal is to read three professional books this summer and at least two novels before school starts up in the fall.  Here's my list.

My Professional Reads:

Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works by Howard Pitler, et al.  If you are a fan of Robert Marzano's incredibly powerful book Classroom Instruction that Works , then you should like this book as well.  The authors take Marzano's list of the nine most important instructional strategies that affect student achievement, and explain how technology can support and integrate these strategies.

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck. Dr. Dweck explains how our mindset shapes our goals, our attitudes toward work and relationships, and how we raise our kids.  Everyone has one of two basic mindsets:  a fixed or a growth mindset.  I am interested to learn more about my own mindset.

Schooling By Design by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe. There is a good chance you have read Understanding By Design, the authors' acclaimed framework for curriculum, instruction, and assessment.  In this book, they present a compelling argument for using the same approach to effective school improvement.

My Fictional Reads:

Once Upon a Fastball by Bob Mitchell. I am a huge baseball fan, and I enjoy reading history, so this is a perfect fit for me.  Mitchell incorporates baseball, history, poetry, family traditions, and noble values into his latest book.

Prince of Fire by Daniel Silva. This will be my fifth book by Silva, all of which have centered around a character named Gabriel Allon who makes his living as an art restorer in Europe, but who also is a secret agent for the Israeli government. He is tough and smart, and he is quite the man's man (if you know what I mean!).

Well, we're off to Michigan for the family vacation.  The books are packed, along with the sunscreen, beach towels, and a carload of other stuff, most of which we really don't need.  I just hope the weather cooperates.  I would love to see what others are reading this summer.  I hope you will share.

Hiring the Best Teachers

This past month has kept me quite busy, and I would imagine that it is the same with the rest of you.  I feel as if I am holding down two jobs:  Running a school and planning for the next school year.  One of the activities keeping me busy right now is interviewing candidates for open teaching positions at my school.  I take the hiring process very seriously because I believe it is the most important job I have as a principal.  As I like to say, "Your school is only as good as the teacher you have this year."  My job is to bring in the best and the brightest teachers I can possibly find.

The interview process is where it starts.  Over the last 14 years, I have been collecting interview questions for all types of teaching positions.  I have specific questions designed for kindergarten, music, PE, first grade, fifth grade, and everything in between.  When I interview a candidate, I focus on two different areas.  First, and foremost, I am looking for highly ethical, well-grounded, warm and caring people who have a child-centered approach to teaching.  These are the kinds of intrinsic qualities I can't teach to someone. I will ask a set of questions that tease these out.  The candidate either possesses these qualities or she does not.  If I am not satisfied that the person is truly child-centered,  I will end the interview after about 20 minutes.  However, when I find someone who does fit this definition, I will ask more specific questions about teaching reading, math, science, social studies, and about classroom management and assessment, and about teamwork.

Although I have been happy with this process, I am always looking for other methods of interviewing, and I would love to add to my growing list of interview questions.  How do you interview for teachers, and what are your favorite interview questions?

Is Teaching a Profession?

Today marks the beginning of Teacher Appreciation Week.  As I was writing a letter to my staff to tell them how much I appreciate all of their hard work this year, I found myself thanking them for their professionalism.  The use of the word "professionalism" reminded me of an opinion paper I was required to write in a philosophy of education class I took when I was working toward my Master's degree in educational administration.  The question I was asked to respond to was "Is teaching a profession?"  That was back in 1991, and I was teaching 5th grade at the time.

My first reaction to this question was "Of course teaching is a profession.  I am a teacher, and I am very professional in my daily work teaching children."  I had a college degree in elementary education which I received from a well-respected teacher preparatory program, and I was certified by the state of Illinois after passing two different exams.  Additionally, there is enough educational research published to fill a wing of the Library of Congress.  The data collected constitute a scientific knowledge base from which teachers and their students will benefit.  Teaching is a certainly a profession.

Then, as I thought about the question some more, I realized that there may be another side to the argument.  The fact that teachers are unionized is the most glaring argument that teaching is not a profession.  Teachers unions work hard to increase the salary and benefits of their members, and sometimes, they need to organize strikes or work slow-downs to get what they want.  Also, professionals are exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act which means they do not qualify for overtime. Conversely, non-exempt employees of a company typically do not require a college degree, and they receive overtime pay for hours worked in excess of their regular 40 hour week.  Under most teachers union contracts, administrators must pay teachers for their time after school or over the summer.  Try asking a teacher to stay after school or work through her duty-free lunch in order to complete a project.  You may get hit with a grievance.

Wikipedia considers teaching a profession.  The Merriam-Webster definition of profession is "a calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive academic preparation b: a principal calling, vocation, or employment c: the whole body of persons engaged in a calling."  Most of us would agree that medicine, law, and accounting are professions.  But what about education?   I think school administration is a profession.  The questions I pose are: Is teaching is a profession?  and Is there a difference between "profession" and "professionalism?"  I often hear that teachers feel slighted because they do not receive the respect of other professions.  If teachers work toward changing public perceptions, then maybe these would be moot questions.

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!

I was watching Nightline on ABC the other night, and they were doing a story about children lying.  It was fascinating because this is a topic I have been interested in for a long time, and it is something I deal with on occasion at school.  Sure, children lie, but so do adults.  I am wondering if lying is a natural born instinct or a learned behavior - a twist on the classic nature-nurture argument.

Researchers at McGill University in Montreal believe that lying is a natural milestone for children.  The essence of their work suggests that lying is part of their normal development, and it is a form of higher intelligence.  These researchers have conducted numerous experiments on this topic. The experiment highlighted on this show placed individual children seated in a room, facing the wall.  The children were told to guess what toy was sitting on the table behind them.  They were told not to look at the toy, just make a guess.  The researcher left the room and watched from outside.  80 percent of the children peaked at the toy.

Then, when the adult returned to the room and asked if the child turned around to look at the toy, the kids tended to lie.  In fact, the researchers found that 74 percent of kids ranging in age from 4 to 7 lied about it. 

"These are not bad children, these are very typical children," said Victoria Talwar, an assistant professor at Montreal's McGill University specializing in developmental psychology. "It is a natural, normal behavior that children will occasionally tell lies."

Lying is normal, natural? According to Talwar and her team of research assistants, lying is a positive developmental milestone. "It's a part of normal development and understanding the difference between what's true and convincing someone else of an altered truth — actually really takes a lot of intelligence to do that," said researcher Cindy Arruda.

The phrase "kids lying" instinctively sounds like a bad thing, but in the lab, the researchers view lying as an important part of social communication that builds empathy.  "The fact is that lying is not a good behavior. It's very clear in society that we don't want people to lie … on the other hand," Talwar continued, "lying is a good thing in that it is a by-product of a positive development in children. So when we see lying in children, it's actually a marker of this ability to understand someone else's perspective and what they're going through."

Dr. Talwar and her team present an interesting perspective, and one I had not considered until now.  So often, I have worked with children who have lied to me in an attempt to stay out of trouble.  21 years of experience as an educator have taught me how to recognize the signs that a child is lying, and my instincts are almost always correct.  I have said to children a thousand times to "tell me the truth now.  If you lie, it only makes it worse."  But, if the experts at McGill are correct, then I should expect children to lie to me about 75% of the time, and I should not be angry or disappointed in them.

However, I am wondering if three-fourths of all children are hard-wired at birth to lie automatically.  Can it be possible that lying is a learned behavior?  We know that adults lie (fib?) about things all the time.  We lie to children in order to keep them from doing something we perceive as rude (don't crack your knuckles, it will cause arthritis), to keep a secret from them (where do babies come from?), to help them believe in something that is not true (Santa Claus, the tooth fairy), or to keep them safe and healthy (I never even tasted beer until I was 21).

We also know that adults lie about more serious things as well.  Often, lying is the way people make money, stay out of trouble, cheat others, and spread harmful gossip or rumors.  Whether children are aware of the more serious adult lies, I am not sure.  But never underestimate the perceptiveness of kids.  They know much more than we think they know.

What do you think?  Are children natural born liars?  If so, then maybe we need to rethink the way we discipline them when they are caught in a lie.  Or do children learn to lie by watching and listening to us adults do it?  If that is the case, we need to work on our behavior.

By the way, for my next post, I will be writing about the huge fish I caught while vacationing in the Bahamas.

What Really Engages All Students?

Is it a fun, friendly, and entertaining teacher?  Sure, for a while that works, until the novelty wears off.  Is it a rigorous, competitive curriculum that is filled with academic challenges?  Absolutely, but not all students can succeed in such an environment.  Maybe it is the incorporation of a totally hands-on, manipulative-based classroom. Definitely.  Especially for those people who think in very concrete ways.  How about a classroom where singing, dancing, and drama are the focal points?  Have you ever heard me sing?  Enough said.

So what is the point of all these questions?  Simply, there is not one perfect teaching style or classroom environment for all students.  Yet, who would argue with the ideal that "no child should be left behind?" We are educators because we want to see all students learn, achieve, succeed, and grow.  I wish I could patent the way to incorporate all of the attributes listed above into one "super-teacher."

I believe that the typical classrooms of our youth have outlived their usefulness.  No longer can the teacher be the all-knowing giver of the information.  Teachers need to move past using lecture and rote memorization, and instead, they need to let students take ownership of their learning.  21st Century students need access to information and they need access to the tools for learning.  Our job as educators is to help them sort it all out correctly.

So how do we do that?  We need to incorporate much more authentic learning into our classrooms.  We need to provide students with work that has intrinsic meaning and adds value to their lives.  For students to be engaged, self-directed learners, they must create projects and solve problems that connect to the world beyond the classroom.  Working with our students to solve authentic problems is what will engage them in learning.  This is what will engage them in substantive conversations and whet their appetite for a depth of knowledge never before seen in our schools.

True authentic learning will engage all learners because the topics will be real for them.  The academically gifted student, the artist, the mechanically inclined child, and the highly dramatic kid all can find success in a problem-based environment in which they are expected to work together and use their individual strengths to solve real problems.

In a few weeks, my thirteen year old daughter will start her obligatory eighth grade "research paper," the completion of which is a requirement for "graduating" from her middle school.  She will be required to research a topic, complete and turn in the note cards for a grade, then write the paper, and turn it in for a grade.  If this sounds familiar, it should.  This is the classic type of reporting we all completed in middle and high school.  The students will go through the motions of looking up information on a topic that has no real meaning in their lives, and then regurgitating the information back to the teacher in a report that must be written in a format prescribed by the teacher . Knowing this teacher, I can accurately predict that she will mark up the final draft with a red pen (which my child will not pay any attention to), and the teacher will assign a grade which will weigh heavily in the child's final trimester grade.

Why does this bother me?  Because there is absolutely no relevance in this kind of work, and the rigor involved is artificial.  The students will be told what kinds of topics to research, precisely how to do the research, and exactly how the information should be reported back to the teacher, who has total ownership in the learning.  The students will not be invested in this project; they will not be fully engaged in this activity because it will have no meaning in their lives.

Teachers in the 21st Century must change and adapt to keep up with their students.  The time has come for teachers to move away from rote memorization, repetitive practice, silent study without conversation, and brief exposure to topics, and instead, move closer to authentic learning.