Design Wrong
Powerpointless
20 Signs That You are falling behind the times with technology
10 Ideas To Get Your Back-To-School Juices Flowing
30 Simple Ways To Connect With Students
21 Education Things That Will Be Obsolete by 2020
Rethink Remake
10 Steps To Tech Savviness This Summer
How Game-Based And Traditional Learning Are Different
The Unholy Trinity Of Classroom Technology
Ballpoint Pens Will Be The Ruin Of Education In Our Country
How Badges Are Being Used In K-12 Instruction
Technology As Teacher Or Babysitter?
Technology Through The Years
The Teacher's Guide To Technology And Learning
If Education Technology Was A Baseball Team
Social Media In The Classroom
What Is A Social Media Manager?
7 Habits Of Highly Effective Teachers Who Use Technology
The 10 Stages Of Twitter
How Teachers Can Sell The Love Of Learning To Students
Why Every Organization Needs Misfits
It's Not Technology, It's Literacy
Educating Americans For The 21st Century-Smithsonian
8 Characteristics Of A Great Teacher
Has Technology Changed The Way Children Play?
The Difference Between "Using Technology" and "Technology Integration"
15 Brutal Mistakes In The Development Of Public Schools
10 Ways To Spice Up Your Staff Meetings
10 Things To Stop Doing Right Now!
10 Tech Skills Every Educator Should Have
22 Digital Skills Every Teacher Should Have
When Students Create A BYOD Policy
Why Students Can't Write
Letting Go Of Homework And Worksheets
The Myth Of The Digital Native
Just Block Everything!
Alan November: How Teachers and Tech Can Let Students Take Control
29 Ways You Are Wasting Time Today!
Is It The iPad, The Apps or The User?
7 Essential Principles Of Innovative Learning
Making The Most Of Google Hangouts
8 Things To Look For In Today's Classroom
Searching Google By Reading Level
Taking Technology To Its Limits
How Thinking Changes Your Brain
Brain Power: From Neurons to Networks
10 Steps Technology Directors Can Take To Stay Relevant
44 Ways To Use Smart Phones In Class
How Improv Can Help Students Transfer Skills
Apple Puts Eye Into iDevices
15 Seconds To A Better Presentation
Dr. Seuss Quotes You Should Never Forget
New Pedagogies For The Digital Age
Why I Don't Assign Homework
What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning & Literacy
12 Things You Were Not Taught In School About Creative Thinking
Maine Schools Experimenting With Web-based Math Homework
10 Things That Should Be Obsolete In Schools
101 Teaching Tips, Secrets and Ideas For 2013
30 Surprising (And Controversial) Ways Students Learn
50 Things We Know Now That We Didn't Know Last Year
The Similarities Between Digital Learning and Montessori
Why It's Time To Eliminate Class Schedules
How An iPad Is A More Powerful Content-Creation Device Than A Laptop
The Future of Education (Videos)
Is Technology Really Rewiring Brains?
Facebook's Crazy Statistics
21 Reasons To Use Tablets
19 Google Tips You May Not Know About
Simple Tech Tips For Teachers
The Zombie Apocalypse Of Smart Devices
The Digital Learning Farm
Are Children With ADHD Gifted?
Gamification 101: Why A Badge Is Better Than An A
The 25 Most Used Mobile Apps In Education
Return To Sender
Steve Jobs, The $60 Lightbulb, And The Future Of Technology
18 Ways iPads Are Being Used In Classrooms
The 33 Digital Skills Every 21st Century Teacher should Have
Are You Really Engaging Your Students?
12 Trends Impacting The Evolution Of Digital Content
10 Reasons People Resist Change
Are You A Committed Sardine?
I found this story on the 21st Century Fluency Project's website. I absolutely love this story. Please enjoy.
"Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world - indeed it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead
First, an aside. A blue whale is the largest mammal on earth. An adult blue whale is the length of 2 1/2 Greyhound buses put end to end, weighs more than a fully loaded 737, has blood vessels large enough for an adult to swim down, a heart the size of a Volkswagon Beetle, a tongue 8' long and weighs 6000 lbs. A baby blue whale is estimated to gain more than 50 pounds an hour from birth to age one. The blue whale is not only the biggest, but the loudest animal. At 190 decibels, a blue whale's call is louder than a jet (140 decibels), and much louder than a person can shout (70 decibels).
A little known fact is that a blue whale is so large that when it decides to turn around, it can take 2 to 3 minutes to turn 180 degrees so that it can swim in the opposite direction. This slow mover reminds us of another slow mover, our school systems. It just seems to take forever for schools to turn things around. Our ability to adapt to changing times helps explain at least in part the rise in demand for vouchers, charter schools, home schooling and virtual schools. There are some people who just don't believe our school systems can change or don't want the public school system to turn things around.
But compare the way a blue whale turns around (slowly) to how a school of fish turns around - specifically a school of sardines - which can have the same or even a greater mass than the whale, does the same thing. A school of sardines can turn almost instantly. What's their secret? How do they know when to turn. Is it ESP? Do they use cell phones? Are the using the Internet
The answer is simultaneously a little simpler and quite a bit more complex. If you take a careful look at a school of sardines, you'll notice that although the fish all appear to be swimming in the same direction, in reality, at any time, there will be a small group of sardines swimming in a different direction, in an opposite direction, against the flow, against conventional wisdom. And as they swim in another direction, they cause conflict, they cause friction, and they causes discomfort for the rest of the school.
But finally, when a critical mass of truly committed sardines is reached - not a huge number like 50 percent or 80 percent of the school, but 15 to 20 percent who are truly committed to a new direction - the rest of the school suddenly turns and goes with them - almost instantaneously!
Isn't that what became of our feelings about smoking? Isn't that exactly what happened to the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union? Isn't that what caused the Internet to suddenly appear overnight. Each and every one of those events was an overnight success that took years in the making. Overnight successes that took a small group of people who were truly committed despite the obstacles, challenge, yabbuts, and TTWWADIs to make the necessary change.
That's why we're Committed Sardines.
"Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world - indeed it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead
First, an aside. A blue whale is the largest mammal on earth. An adult blue whale is the length of 2 1/2 Greyhound buses put end to end, weighs more than a fully loaded 737, has blood vessels large enough for an adult to swim down, a heart the size of a Volkswagon Beetle, a tongue 8' long and weighs 6000 lbs. A baby blue whale is estimated to gain more than 50 pounds an hour from birth to age one. The blue whale is not only the biggest, but the loudest animal. At 190 decibels, a blue whale's call is louder than a jet (140 decibels), and much louder than a person can shout (70 decibels).
A little known fact is that a blue whale is so large that when it decides to turn around, it can take 2 to 3 minutes to turn 180 degrees so that it can swim in the opposite direction. This slow mover reminds us of another slow mover, our school systems. It just seems to take forever for schools to turn things around. Our ability to adapt to changing times helps explain at least in part the rise in demand for vouchers, charter schools, home schooling and virtual schools. There are some people who just don't believe our school systems can change or don't want the public school system to turn things around.
But compare the way a blue whale turns around (slowly) to how a school of fish turns around - specifically a school of sardines - which can have the same or even a greater mass than the whale, does the same thing. A school of sardines can turn almost instantly. What's their secret? How do they know when to turn. Is it ESP? Do they use cell phones? Are the using the Internet
The answer is simultaneously a little simpler and quite a bit more complex. If you take a careful look at a school of sardines, you'll notice that although the fish all appear to be swimming in the same direction, in reality, at any time, there will be a small group of sardines swimming in a different direction, in an opposite direction, against the flow, against conventional wisdom. And as they swim in another direction, they cause conflict, they cause friction, and they causes discomfort for the rest of the school.
But finally, when a critical mass of truly committed sardines is reached - not a huge number like 50 percent or 80 percent of the school, but 15 to 20 percent who are truly committed to a new direction - the rest of the school suddenly turns and goes with them - almost instantaneously!
Isn't that what became of our feelings about smoking? Isn't that exactly what happened to the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union? Isn't that what caused the Internet to suddenly appear overnight. Each and every one of those events was an overnight success that took years in the making. Overnight successes that took a small group of people who were truly committed despite the obstacles, challenge, yabbuts, and TTWWADIs to make the necessary change.
That's why we're Committed Sardines.