What a year! 2013 in Review

What a year it has been, huh? From going to my first #edcamps to wearing a pair of Glass, this year in edtech has been something of a whirlwind. It all started last January at the annual Techspo presentation, where I was able to present and meet some great folks, including +Jeffrey Bradbury. I will be presenting again this year and I can't wait to see how that helps me kick off 2014 with a bang. 

I want to thank all of those who made a difference in my life this year and helped me grow as a educator and a person. Even though I was on Twitter for a few years, this year took it to a whole other level. Never in my life did I think that I could make friends, colleagues, and compatriots on the twitter-verse, but I did and many of them I can truly call friends now. Heck, I even ran a 5K with some of my #njed friends, most of whom I had never met face-to-face before. 

To cap off the year, I was promoted to Supervisor of Instruction in my district! A honor and one that is certainly humbling. While my primary mission to serve our district with the best technology will not change, my aim and focus will become more precise. I will work even more with my teachers and students! That is something I can't wait for! I will be able to visit even MORE classrooms. 2014 is shaping up to be a pretty good year so far. 

As for resolutions, I resolve to follow my mantra:

Be attentive, vocal, and present. Be willing to be there for those who need you. Help in any way you can. 

Be an #agentofchange in anything that you do. 

BYOD and a tale of being connected...

Last night, I held my first summit meeting for the Bring Your Own Device initiative at my school district, Green Brook Township Public Schools. The summit was created to invite parents, students, staff, and community members in to learn more about what BYOD was, why we wanted to go to it, and what it could do for our students and teachers. It was also a chance for people to ask questions, give their thoughts, and express their hopes, fears, and joys. The summit was the first in a series of meetings that are dedicated to the BYOD push. 

I have been planning BYOD for over a year now and our pilot only encompasses the 8th grade to start with. I am going SLOW for a reason. I want people to truly understand what we are doing. I want them to be a part of it. I want to be able to plan, plan, and plan. I want this to succeed. 

When I created the event, I knew in my mind that I wanted some help from people who have blazed the trails already. From Twitter and other social media sites, I have connected with so many of those educators. These are people who I consider colleagues but there is a stronger bond that connects us. While I have never met some of these people in person, I trust them, respect them, and would do anything at the drop of the hat for them if they needed it. 

I let the public know about what our plans were and I then I turned it over to some great educators:

+Alex Podchaski 

+Sharon Plante 

+Elissa Malespina 

+JD Ferries-Rowe 

+Sandra Paul 

They gave their testimonials, answered questions, and debated why BYOD is the right push for their schools. They were awesome! +Alex Podchaski even showed up IN PERSON to help me out. I was floored. Shocked even. 

Driving home that night, telling my wife how the event went, I told her I couldn't have been happier. These people stepped up, some on short notice, the others with wrong Google Hangout invites (that one's on me!), and helped me out. 

One thing I learned from doing this - don't stop because of fear. Just because some people may have opposition to what you want to accomplish doesn't mean you shouldn't go out and try. I WANT to bring in those naysayers and have a conversation with them. I WANT them to engage in discussion. The only way to do that is to bring them in.

#edcampNJ: Why I love Education.

Education has a bright future.

If November 23rd, 2013 is any indication of the state of education, we are in excellent hands. It was a day I won't forget anytime soon. #edcampNJ rocked Central Jersey, with nearly 300 educators. I have been fortunate to attend a few edcamps before (#edcampSTEAM and #edcampLeadership being two of them) but yesterday was something special. Yesterday, I felt what I #Ehad known for quite some time, that there isn't something wrong with education and that there doesn't need to be major overhaul in what educators do. Yesterday, I felt PASSION. I felt it as soon as I walked in. 

Opening remarks of #edcampnj from Linwood MS in North Brunswick, New Jersey.

When I walked in, I was greeted by +Cassie Gorombey and a few others, who gave us some free swag and let us know how the day would go. Then it was over to the Big Board and the photobooth (yeah, they pulled out all the stops!) to see what sessions were coming and what I could look forward to. To be 100% honest, there could have been nothing put on that board and I would have been fine. Not to say the sessions were terrible but my primary goal yesterday was to meet and talk, face-to-face, with some people in my PLN who I had established these online relationships. It was a strange feeling, looking for people based on a 150x150 picture, but I was determined.

Learning about Standards Based Grading.

After the opening remarks, which were awesome and led by +Bill Krakower, +Scott Rocco, +Dana Sirotiak, +Jeffrey Bradbury and a few others, it was off to the first session. What is always great about the Edcamp model is that if the doesn't pertain to you or it wasn't what you thought, you can leave! (The rule of two feet, thank you very much!) I didn't find myself leaving because the sessions were not what I thought but I wanted to see SO MANY great educators that I found myself walking from session to session just to get a feel of what was going on.

The morning went by in a blur. By the time the second session had come to a close, my head was spinning (and that is a good thing.) Another great thing about #edcamp is that if you are sitting in on a session and the people in the room are on a device, that is a POSITIVE sign that they are engaged. Just like I was, there were many people who were tweeting, taking pictures, and writing down notes. Of course, I had my trusty analog tablet along for the ride (yellow legal pad, anyone?) but most participants had a digital device of choice. WiFi was free and abundant, as was the breakfast and coffee. As +Jay Eitner always says, if you feed them, they will come!

(Another thing I noticed? That some of the best conversations happened AFTER the sessions ended. After one session led by +Bruce Arcurio, a few of us stayed behind to talk about where education was going and the differences some states have. There was someone there all the way from Virginia. We continued the conversation right into the lunchroom!)

An emphatic Jay Eitner speaking passionately about education and new teachers.

After lunch, I have made sure to meet up with all of my fellow twitter tweeps that I had formed professional relationships with. Whether it was the #edtechchat crew of +Tom Murray, +Alex Podchaski, and +Sharon Plante, or it was finally talking to and meeting +Sandra Paul, I was happy to extend a hand, or outstretched arms, to these people I hold in such high regards.

I mean, I talk to these people a few times a week, lean on them for some advice and truly consider them colleagues. I think out of all of the things I will take from #edcampnj, it will be the impact that these people have on me and the continued relationships I will have with my #PLN. 

Overall, I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that yesterday was about the best professional development I have ever attended. And do you know what made it even better? That it was FREE and I got to choose what I did. I would gladly give up another Saturday every month if there was something like this. It was unlike any conference I have ever attended. It was authentic, passionate and organic.

When you hear people talk or write about the negative state of education and how we are lagging behind and blah, blah, blah... do yourself a favor and ask them come out to one of these unconferences. I KNOW that their tune will change and that they will see and feel exactly how I do:


Education has a bright, bright future.

Some of my fellow edheroes - Tom Murray and Sharon Plante, along with Alex Podchaski, make up some of the #edtechchat team. Alex and Sharon met Tom for the first time yesterday as well!

When you need to get over the case of the Mondays...

I found this kid a year or so ago, and let me tell you, he has it! He is charismatic, energetic, and hilarious to boot! His videos are viral and have a great message. 

Here is one to start your week off right, all of you teachers and students - 

Tech Tips from David Pogue

I saw David Pogue back in early 2013 give an excellent keynote at a convention in New Jersey. If you don't know who David is, you have to check him out. As a tech guru and humorist, he has been mentioned and a part of PBS's Nova series, NY Times weekly tech articles, and conferences all over the globe. He is also the author of the Missing Manuscripts, which illustrate some of the problems that computers have had with the general public over the last decades. To that point, this video shows some great tips and tricks to make your life easier when on your phone or computer.

#Techspo 2013 Interview with @teachercast and @MrCsays

So while lurking on youtube...

Found this "gem" from Techspo last year. First time meeting +TeacherCast and +Jeffrey Bradbury. Great guy and site! Go visit the site at http://teachercast.net/.

GBTPS 2013-2014 - The Trailer

If you haven't checked this out year, please do. Green Brook Township Public Schools are busy learning, teaching, and growing.

Learning In Burlington: Connected Educator Profile (Day 18) - Timothy Char...

Learning In Burlington: Connected Educator Profile (Day 18) - Timothy Char...:   The United State Department of Education has declared the month of October Connected  The United State Department of Education has declare...

iPads for Starters Follow Up

As a follow up to my post yesterday, I say a great article on Edudemic about iPads, starters, and failures.

Here is a clip:

Allow for Failure

Your classroom should be a hot mess at first. Enjoy this, even relish it. Every time someone makes a mistake or something goes wrong, celebrate it like they did at the Apple Distinguished Educator Institute with an arm-raising “Woo Hoo!” Let kids know that failure is okay, and not everything will be perfect. Have fun with failure and messiness that might come from trying something new – it really is the fun part of the process. Another great article to read: Failure is Mandatory – Creating a culture of innovation

Here is the rest of the article that I highly recommend - http://www.edudemic.com/teachers-ipad-guide/

Why I Fail.

Have you ever had a day when everything went right and you just patted yourself on the back when it was over?

Yeah, those days are few and far between. Often, if you are like me, your days are filled with a roller coaster of emotion as you hit each peak and valley. Some hours are filled with elation and you reach a goal and hit your mark, while others are filled with dread and contempt. 

Yesterday, I experienced something that I had not felt in a long time. FAILURE. 

Here is the set up: 

I was trying to teach a group of fifth graders about two software programs on iPads. One was a cloud service that enables classrooms to go paperless. The other, well, is Google Apps. I have prepared and I know my stuff, or at least I thought I did. As a teacher for over five years, I knew how to interact with students and help them out but for some reason, the wheels came off.

The kids got the tech, knew how to use the iPads, but when I tried to open a document in one app from the other, it stalled and they couldn't edit it. The kids lost it. Rather, I lost the kids at this point. Well, that was the whole point of the process. I saw the teachers face and after a bunch of kids tried and it wouldn't work, she pulled the plug and decided to do it with pencil and paper. As a sullenly walked about to my office, I felt something that I hadn't felt in sometime - utter FAILURE.

This failure felt like a jab in the stomach. I saw the teacher later, apologized that it didn't go as planned and thanked her for letting me try. I know why she puled the plug, and I don't blame her one bit. This was the second time she tried it. It didn't go well both times.

Teachers today don't have time to experiment and fail. They have SGO's they need to hit. The have new standards that need to be taught and mastered. They have new tests to get their students prepared for. They have 1001 things they are working on that to deviate from the plan and try things is hard. There is just no time at times and many districts don't allow for that flexibility because there is so much pressure on testing.

My failure to make that tech work or to make that class period successful was painful but I am determined not to give up. Real learning happens when you buckle down, figure out what went wrong, and TRY AGAIN. If Edison had given up on making the light bulb, well then I guess we would be reading this blogs in candlelight.

I saw that teacher in the hallway today and let her know that while that tech and ideas maybe didn't work, that she shouldn't give up faith on Google Apps and Ebackpack individually yet. They are great products that can really save you time. I let her know that I will work hard to find something that works well in her class and for her students. And you know what? She came back to me at the end of the day and let me know that she wanted some iPads in her room to help with leaning.

Why do I fail?

I fail because I love to succeed.

I fail because I know that it is the FIRST ACTION IN LEARNING.

I fail because I am human.

Check up time - First two weeks

Well. That was a whirlwind. 

The fact that two weeks of school are already over is mind boggling. I feel as if I just read 10000 books back to back to back. 

In any event, it has been an up and down few weeks. While the students and teachers are learning, we are hard at work, keeping the infrastructure up-to-date and making sure everyone has what they need. Even when we do room checks over the summer, there are always a bunch of little things that we need to fix - and that is okay with us. 

The media centers are bustling with students at all times of the day. Since our office resides right in one of the media centers, we get to hear and listen to the learning and excitement that is going on. We have over 50 iPads in the Media Center and students are always using them. They are using them to take Accelerated Reader quizzes, access their Ebackpacks, check out information, or just play a game or two. It is really quite something and it makes me feel great that we are going to embark on a BYOD initiative pilot program later on this year (but more on that later).

We held two, really great training's this week for our staff as well. One for OnCourse and the other for E-Backpack, which has been in our district for now going on three years. 

I love the team over at https://www.ebackpack.com/ . They are helpful and always willing to lend a hand when it comes to how to use the program. 

Our students love using the iPads with eBackpack and the integration with Google Drive and Dropbox make it so that students can truly access their items anywhere, at anytime. 

Finally, there are some really good conferences (or unconferences) coming up. One such is:

This PD event will be held on October 12th - more information can be found at http://www.edtechnj.com/

Check it out! Really great keynotes by +Jeffrey Bradbury of Teachercast and +Angela Maiers of the Passion Driven classroom are planned, so make it a priority to come!

The return of the blog! (2013 Edition)

After taking the summer off to relax and work on other projects (such as grad courses, raising baby, and you know, going to the beach), the blog is back and better than ever.

School started two weeks ago now (wow, where did the time go) and thinks have gotten off to a heinous pace. After a rocky start in which some things went down the night before the first day of school - because really, why wouldn't they - we rebounded and are making sure the students, teachers, and classrooms have what they need to succeed.

Another year under the belt means something else to me though - knowledge. Last year, we were working in new territory. We understood what needed to get done but not necessarily the best way to do it. Somethings we got it done quickly, other times it was a pain. But we learned. We failed. We grew.

I am happy to report that we have grown a lot. So much so, that we are rolling out a lot of new projects and products this year. Not only are we going to pilot a Bring your own Device initiative at our 5-8 Middle School, but we are also going to prepare for a PARCC test pilot, 1:1 pilot at the lower grades, and an expanded network to handle the load. It is going to be a crazy year.

That is why I came up with the GBTPS Technology Institute for the 2013-2014 school year.
I will be running, with hopefully many special guests from within and outside our district, a bunch of great workshops that are aimed at truly bridging the gap for EDTECH in our schools.

GBTPS Technology Institute 2013-2014

Take a look and let me know what you all think! If you want to be a part of a day, I would love to have you be a part of it and share what you do in your classrooms or schools. Please hit me up here or on twitter @MrCsays

Until next time, Carpe Diem folks.

App-O-Da-Week #10

With only a few weeks of school left, now is a PRIME TIME to learn about some primo apps! 

Many of you have heard of Brain POP. If you haven't, it's a fantastic, educational site that contains a plethora of content and curriculum. From videos, activities, and quizzes, if you can't find the topic on Brain POP, then the topic just may not exist. Brain POP has a few sites too - including one for K-3, 4-8, ESL, and Espanol!

The drag is that you need to pay for this program but that hasn't stopped them from putting out there Featured Movie App. The App can be found in the Apple iTunes Store, the Google Play Store, and the Chrome Web Store. When you can find an app in more than one place, you know it is something that can be  all teachers and students can enjoy.

Brain POP summarizes there app:
"The BrainPOP Featured Movie and BrainPOP Jr. Movie of the Week apps regularly deliver fresh movies, quizzes, and bonus features right to your handheld device. They cover a breadth of relevant topics including current events, historical figures and milestones, holidays, curricular subjects, and more."


Commonsensemedia.org lays it out pretty well what students can learn in 3 minutes: 
"Kids can learn the main points about a range of different topics -- science, math, social studies, art and music, language, and more -- through brief videos. For example, there's a three-minute video on how digital animation is made. The app features one video every day (although kids can browse topically to watch others anytime), and kids can take a quiz after each video. Quizzes are designed to help kids not only retain the content in the videos but also practice vocabulary and reasoning skills. BrainPOP Featured Movie provides well-presented material on many topics that kids learn about in school."

So there you have it! Two apps for you to digest this week. Please share these with any and all students, teachers, and educators that you know! And remember, same App time, same App channel next week!

iPad Summit Recap

"I don't know how to do this, I never received Professional Development on it" - said No Student, Ever. (Thanks +Tom Murray for the great quote)

iPad SUMMIT 2013

I recently held two summits in our district. These summits were designed to focus on learning and best practices with iPads, iOS, apps, and technology in general.

Many a twitter chat, blog post, and podcast as of late has been about a call to arms to actively take back PD (professional development) from the one hour, one day, one time slate of PD that has been given and change it into something more authentic and useful for teachers. This call to arms has also put its cross hairs on technology PD and the problems there within.

Technology has been one of the biggest criminals when it came to the one hour, one time sort of PD. I, myself, have been the victim and a suspect with receiving and giving this sort of tech PD. I'm not proud of it and of course, hindsight is 20/20; but now our foresight should encompass this as well. We shouldn't give PD about a what a tech is. Rather, we should be giving them all the time on WHY the tech is essential to unlocking learning and engagement in students and HOW it is transforming our culture, schools, and the way we teach/learn. My good friends at #edtechchat and #edchat have spoken about this at length with  +Tom Whitby and +Nancy Blair speaking about this specific change in their podcast.

If educators stop learning and trying new things, what message does that send to our students? Thankfully, I have some great educators in my district that are always willing to learn.

How can we make school look more like life? Summits like these help us mix the paints together. 

I wanted to take that model and truly help out my teachers. I wanted to make the technology less about the technology and more about the learning, engagement, and excitement that can come from it. I wanted to make this iPad summit about not just apps, but about the collaboration, creation, and communication that can happen with them and the transformation of student learning that can come from using them.

Using my trusty brain, my resources, and my PLN, here is the presentation:

We focused on three areas - function, purpose, and apps. This tiered strategy helped those who needed some basics with the iPad and gave those with experience some purpose: they helped out their colleagues who needed it, just like I would have my students do. 

To show off how to get to certain parts, I used AirServer via AirPlay. If you don't know what that is, take a look at my prior post about it - http://tinyurl.com/m64ptnj

We shared tips and tricks, looked at how to import and export and even talked about how the iPad can be used to help learners with disabilities by going through the accessibility functions within the device. We used the iPad as a document camera and shared what we were working on (we were all connected at once!) with the rest of the groups and some fantastic education ideas came out of just that. Imagine you students working on a document and then sharing it with the class. Have multiple students to this would truly bring communication and innovation to the forefront. Finally, we stopped at guided access, which really was a fantastic area for some teachers when it came to locking the iOS in a certain app to use during centers or the like. 

Finally, we looked at just a few apps that were really high on the SAMR scale. These included:

• Explain Everything
• E-Backpack
• Class Dojo
• Google Drive
• PuppetPals HD
• BrainPOP
• Google Maps
• and more... 

But it wasn't about the apps. It wasn't even about iPads. It was still about learning and the students. Shedding the light on why technology has failed in the past and where we need to go as a population of educators to prevent those pitfalls from happening in the future. I had teachers and educators of all content levels, backgrounds, and grades. Experience with tech, teaching, or iPads was not necessary and I had teachers that were vets and those who were new share ideas with each other. And that is the true purpose of PD. It's not about learning something once and never talking about it again, its about learning something, talking about it with your peers, and taking it and making it your own so that your students benefit from it. 

Truth be told, I didn't know how it was going to go. I thought the summits may have bomb.

After three minutes in each one, the educators in them let me know - they want more, they want to learn, and they are eager. 

App-O-Da-Week #9

After nearly two months of posting this column, I have realized something very real and very important.


Educators LOVE free stuff. They love the f-word (no! not that one).

I have been posted about paid apps over the last few weeks and while they aren't the most expensive things in the world (think of them like a grande cup of Starbucks Hazelnut Frappe Mocha-chino) they are still $$$. And when it comes to $$$, people can get nutty. 

That's why I decided to focus on an app that promotes FREE APPS. This post is like picture inside of a picture inside.. well you get it. 

The app is called AppsGoneFree - which is pretty self explanitory. You can download it for free and it is a great tool. With over 700,000 apps in the iTunes store and over 50 Billion downloaded (lucky person who was the 50 billionth download got a $10,000 iTunes giftcard! They do not need this app) it can be hard to sort through apps that are worthwhile and that are free. 

This app does just that. It posts daily apps that are free. They pick between 5-10 apps that have been reduced to the sultry price of ZERO and let you know all about them. They also post their ratings as well. 

Don't believe me? Here is their description:

Find great apps without spending a dime! Get high quality paid apps for free each day. Unlike other apps, we offer no paid listings - these are expert-picked top-ranked apps, for FREE! 

** 2012 Best App Ever Award Winner

Every day hundreds of apps reduce their price to free for a limited time to try to stimulate excitement. AppsGoneFree finds ONLY the apps worth owning:

* Our AppAdvice.com app experts personally handpick ONLY the best apps. If it's on the list, it's worth owning. 

* These same experts write a quick summary to tell you about the app, and why you need it (or if you don't).  Not PR, honest personal advice.

* We filter out the junk. Don't waste your time looking at all the free apps generated by robots, scouring through them to find something worth downloading, let us do the work for you. 

* It's an honest to goodness human-curated list of the best free apps each day (about 5-10 each day). 

There are dozens of apps that provide long tedious lists of every single app that ever goes free or short lists of apps that paid a lot of money to be included.  But only AppsGoneFree gives you authored, handpicked recommendations from an AppAdvice.com app expert of apps that belong on your device.  

Unfortunately, free apps don't last forever and when they do go back up in price, the app will let you know that the deal has expired. Some of these apps are worth over $10 each. It is a great investment and a way to find new apps for you to use in your classroom and for personal use. 

Shifting Gears... and getting stuck in neutral. PART II

You got all that?

Common Core is about reforming standards, AchieveNJ is about reforming evaluations and tenure, and PARCC is about reforming test taking/assessments.

Wait, you don't? Well neither do a lot of other people. Their are many proponents and opponents To clear the air (and to better clarify why in the world they want to do all three of these at once), the NJ Department of Education held a seminar on all three of these. The crux of the meeting was devoted to how great all three of these things were and how they were all inter-related; and more specifically, how you couldn't have one without the other... and the other. 

They were, as Chris Cerf so aptly put it:

1. 
   

   Tim Charleston@MrCsays

   Cerf - parcc and common core are two sides of the coin. But the third side is educator evaluation tools. #shiftgears What??!!

   3 DAYS AGO
   

   REPLYRETWEETFAVORITE

To be clear. I am not against changing standards. I do like the fact that these are about mastery instead of coverage and I do like the fact that they are vertically aligned from K-12. As for changing assessments and test taking, I am in agreement with the folks who say that we need to test using online assessments. In the next decade or so, many tests will be online and it just makes common sense to change it. And as for the evaluation system, yes, it does need changing as well. Some teachers have only been visited once a year by administrators and that is not enough. What the DOE are proposing and have been are decent changes.

But let's be clear. It's not about doing these. It's about doing these NOW and all at ONCE! +Eric Sheninger had  many great tweets about this, but he summed it up best by stating:

1. 
   

   Eric Sheninger@NMHS_Principal

   NJDOE moving much too fast on numerous initiatives simultaneously; I am fearful that this is a recipe for disaster#shiftgears #njed

   3 DAYS AGO
   

   REPLYRETWEETFAVORITE

We need time. We need to focus. We need to understand what is coming at us. If we truly decide to do all three at once, our teachers, students, and admins are truly going to be stretched thin. We are racing to get all of these things in, like we are perpetually stuck in the month of June trying to cram things in at the end of the year. 

While worrying to get students to understand all new concepts and standards, teachers will also be worried new test assessments which are tied to their overall evaluations. 

There is still too much unknown. We don't push our students through to the next concept unless they have truly learned the one before. Shouldn't we get the same treatment? The DOE treated this seminar like a giant PEP rally for these three things. And that stuck out. I felt bad for educators. I felt bad for students. Where were their voices? Did anyone ask them what they wanted? While more and more businesses (and some schools) are moving to 80/20 time, why are we focused on THREE monumental pieces of legislation?


My good friend, +Jay Eitner, had spoken about all three of these things as a TIDAL wave crashing down on educators. 

We need to FOCUS. 

If we focus on one of these things a year, it would have a much better outcome. It would give everyone a chance to catch their breath, at least for a minute or two. 

I have faith in our teachers. I have even more faith in our students. The NJDOE should share in that faith and give us time to get it right. 

1. 
   

   Eric Sheninger@NMHS_Principal

   Cerf - "Change is hard" - yes, need 2 focus on 1 initiative at a time, get it right, then move 4ward if goal is sustainability #shiftgears

   3 DAYS AGO
   

   REPLYRETWEETFAVORITE

Let's focus on the most important thing here: helping students grow as individuals. Helping them reach their passions. Helping them through the formative years of their lives. 

WE ARE EDUCATORS. And we need to be there for them. So, let's shift the focus.

Shifting Gears... and getting stuck in neutral. PART I

This was originally intended to be one post. But as I wrote it, there was a clear break in what I was writing. Part II will be unveiled next week.

I am an educator. 

No matter what my job is now or what it may become in the future, my job is an educator. My passion is helping students grow up, learn and understand, and find their own passions in life, whatever they may be.

Since jumping to the "other side" of education, I have not been that intimately familiar with items such as the Common Core (though in our district, we have talking about it for years) and the new evaluation system in New Jersey, called AchieveNJ. I knew they were both coming, but as a former Social Studies teacher, we were usually one of the last involved. I have been very intimate with PARCC, though.

As a casual reader, or for those with their heads in the sand, most states around the USA are going through a paradigm shift in how the evaluate students and how they, therefore, evaluate teachers.

For a basic understanding, here is what all three are:

Common Core (taken from their website)

The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a state-led effort that established a single set of clear educational standards for kindergarten through 12th grade in English language arts and mathematics that states voluntarily adopt. The standards are designed to ensure that students graduating from high school are prepared to enter credit bearing entry courses in two or four year college programs or enter the workforce. The standards are clear and concise to ensure that parents, teachers, and students have a clear understanding of the expectations in reading, writing, speaking and listening, language and mathematics in school.


AchieveNJ (taken from their website)

There are many differences between AchieveNJ and the old evaluation system. After two years of piloting in 30 districts that contain over 14,000 educators, AchieveNJ has been created to better align educator evaluation with best practices that lead to improved student outcomes. Our new AchieveNJ evaluation and support system is structured around several guiding principles; each one describes improvements from the previous system.

Educator effectiveness can and should be measured to ensure our students have the best teachers in the classroom. 

Evaluations should always be based on multiple measures that include both learning outcomes and effective practice. 

Tenure and other forms of recognition should be based on effectiveness. 



PARCC (taken from their website)

The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) is a consortium of 22 states plus the U.S. Virgin Islands working together to develop a common set of K-12 assessments in English and math anchored in what it takes to be ready for college and careers. These new K-12 assessments will build a pathway to college and career readiness by the end of high school, mark students’ progress toward this goal from 3rd grade up, and provide teachers with timely information to inform instruction and provide student support. The PARCC assessments will be ready for states to administer during the 2014-15 school year.

The PARCC Vision
Builds a pathway to college and career readiness for all students,
Creates high-quality assessments that measure the full range of the Common Core State Standards,
Supports educators in the classroom,
Makes better use of technology in assessments, and
Advances accountability at all levels.

You have all that? 

All three about talking about college and career readiness and accountability  which on the surface, no one can really complain or go against. OF COURSE we want to prepare our students to become life long learners and leaders in this world by going off to college or into the work force. And of course, we want to make sure that our teachers help our students get there. 

So, how is the NJ DOE trying to rally us around? ... just wait for part II.