Watertown Public Schools

30 Common Street, Watertown MA 02472

Teaching the Net Generation

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Welcome Back Slide Opening Day Welcome Back to Faculty

It’s with great pleasure that I welcome you back to school today. It’s very exciting for me to have you all here, poised to begin. It’s very unusual that a new superintendent actually knows everyone in the room on opening day. I feel very fortunate for this and I’ve been looking forward to opening day all summer. Today represents a new start and a transition, but at the same time it’s a continuation of so much that is wonderful in our schools. The slideshow that is running behind me captures teaching and learning moments from last school year. This morning we will have the opportunity to demonstrate and celebrate the innovative teaching practices that we have begun to cultivate in our classrooms. I’m very proud and fortunate to be superintendent, working with you in a town that supports its teachers' creative and forward-thinking use of new technologies.

This Morning's Plan

I promise this will be a memorable opening day. We have a full agenda, with some surprises. Today and tomorrow were made possible by many people. The Professional Development Council and various Task Forces planned all the professional development activities. Mena Ciarlone, Elizabeth Kaplan, and the TIP presenters created the TIP Fair. Vera Ventura designed the slideshow with photos and images contributed by many of you. Graphic Connections helped us go green with H2g0 bottles for the faculty. The Central Office team followed through with all the details it takes to make a day like this run smoothly. Finally, the Rockn’ Raiders, the WPS teacher band, will perform a song specially written for the new school year by Linda Picceri.

For me, this summer went by very quickly, but a lot was accomplished.  The summer was filled with preparation.  Many of you continued your own learning, and planned new programming. The Professional Development Council finalized this year’s program; Elementary Task Forces investigated new educational resources and designed curriculum websites; and almost half of you participated in conferences, seminars, online workshops, and took graduate courses. A team of eighteen of us attended a three day international conference in Boston, called Building Learning Communities. I applaud your continuous pursuit of learning. I hope your summer was refreshing and you are invigorated to begin the school year.

We have done a lot of work to be ready to welcome our students back to school on Tuesday. The buildings are ready.  Thank you to the custodial staff led by Jay Francione for repairing and refreshing our buildings and classrooms. You will get refurbished fobs and keys, if you haven’t already received them. During the past week I had the chance to walk through the schools, and most of you were well underway setting up your classrooms. They look terrific. 

Thank you to the technical staff led by George Skuse for expanding and renovating our wireless network. Last year we had an exciting opening day because you received laptops and we had new laptop carts and computers for students. This year we are continuing to add student laptop carts, projectors, and other devices like flip videos, probes, drawing tablets, and netbooks. You can also look forward to a variety of newly available online curriculum resources.  We are making sure that our network runs quickly and smoothly. Our new technology isn't as obviously visible as last year, but it's just as significant and a major step forward. 

In addition to this hardware and software, we also have new “warmware”. By this I mean new faculty. Over the summer, as a result of several maternity leaves, people moving away, and the start of new special education programming, we hired about twenty new faculty members. We are starting an Autism program at the Middle School, and have several new special education teachers at the High School. We are very fortunate to have Dr. Jean Fitzgerald as our new Assistant Superintendent. Jean comes to us from Northborough-Southborough, where she was a High School Assistant Principal, Math Department Director, and then most recently an elementary school Principal. Jean is quickly becoming acclimated to Watertown and I am thrilled to have her working closely with me.

WPS Faculty Slide

Along with our new faculty we also continue to have a lot of Watertown wisdom on our teaching force. Let’s see. Please stand up if you have been here more than 20 years. Stand up if you have been here 15 years or more,10 years or more, 5 years or more - look around, this is Watertown wisdom. You can all sit, thank you. Now stand up if you have been here less then 5 years – There are a lot of you, and you are a vibrant group. It's amazing that there are as many faculty new to the profession as there are faculty with 5 or more years. Our experienced administration is the strong foundation leading the district. Administrative Council, please stand up. 

I would like to recognize our school committee for their leadership, commitment, and never-ending support. Tony Paolilo, Chair of the School Committee, has a few welcoming remarks; then Deb King, new president of the WEA, will greet you and introduce the WEA Board. After that we will explore teaching the net generation.

Growing Up Digital Slide

Our children are "bathed in bits". They are at home with digital devices. Watch closely. This Youtube video is quick. [PLAY] This precocious and adorable little boy is a digital native. About half of us in this auditorium are digital immigrants.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CndUbfSafGU&feature=email

 

Grown Up Digital Statistics Slide

All of you know many young people between the ages of twelve and thirty-two. You've seen them doing five things at once: texting friends, downloading music, uploading videos, watching a movie on a two-inch screen, and doing their thing on Facebook or MySpace. Don Tapscott has conducted a $4M research project and written two sociological studies on the Net Generation. He has surveyed more than 11,000 young people. In 2004 he wrote a book called "Growing Up Digital" and over the next five years he extended this research with another book, "Grown Up Digital". Tapscott says that if you are a baby boomer or GenXer, Growing Up Digital is your field guide. It is about how the net generation is changing your world. These books have inspired me because I'm a baby boomer who wants to understand how children learn so we can teach better. On this chart of the demographic breakdown of the U.S. population by generation, you can see which generation you are in.

About 45% of the population in the United States are children growing up, or who have grown up, surrounded by digital media. Almost 14 % are our preschoolers and elementary school age children, referred to as the “Next Generation.” Almost 30% are the “Net Generation”. These “Net Geners” are 12 to 32 years old. (By the way, we have 83 Net Genertion teachers in Watertown.) Tapscott describes the net generation as the smartest generation ever and a powerful force for change. As students they are going to transform education because they are having an incredible impact on classroom practice.

Grown Up Digital Research Slide

Tapscott’s research shows that:

  • Net Geners prize freedom and freedom of choice.
  • Net Geners want to customize things, make themtheir own.
  • Net Geners are natural collaborators, who enjoy conversation, not a lecture.
  • Net Geners want to have fun, at school and at work.
  • To Net Geners, speed is normal.
  • For Net Geners, innovation is part of life.

The research also shows that children ages 7 to 19 spend their time online learning, communicating, and exploring. There are media trade-offs; they watch a lot less television than Boomers. He reports that children who use the Internet spend 37% less time watching television – and 16% more time with friends and family. Children and parents influence each other’s usage and interests, and both are influenced by schools and are influencing schooling. Tapscott contends that "if you understand the Net Generation, you will understand the future." He says, “Today’s kids are so bathed in bits that they think it’s all part of the natural landscape…and as technology relentlessly advances each month, young people just breathe it in, like improvements in the atmosphere.” (Grown Up Digital, D. Tapscott, 2009)

It’s exciting to be teaching a generation of children who are different from any other generation because they are the first to grow up surrounded by digital media. We are learning with them, about how to change and improve teaching and learning to meet their needs and expectations. Our challenge is to continue to learn and discover how best to teach the net generation. How will we engage them? How will we teach them so that we meet them where they are? How do we do all this in the evolving digital atmosphere?

We know that just deploying hardware into classrooms, making our schools wireless, and ensuring 1 to 1 access, is not all it takes. Over the previous three years we have been committed to bringing technology to education, as well as changing classroom practice, and improving assessment. We value educator-to-educator collaboration, and you have pursued professional development in order to devise new learning environments and strategies. In Watertown we are on the learning edge.  All the answers are not out there, simply to be downloaded. We will continue to share what we know about effectively teaching our students in this evolving digital atmosphere.

Constellation Slide

Many of us have worked together to be very thoughtful about our district's aspirations and our teaching and learning goals. We know that devising 21st century learning will require a constellation of ingredients. We have identified this constellation and are working on how it all fits together. All of these ingredients are embedded in our goals. Teaching for the 21st century includes:




  • Problem solving and critical thinking
  • Oral and written communication
  • Team work and collaboration
  • Content standards
  • Citizenship and ethics
  • Technology literacy
  • Information literacy
  • Global literacy
  • Numeracy
  • Career preparation
  • Work ethic and self-direction
  • Creativity and innovation

My message to you today, as always, is that teaching for the 21st century requires teacher expertise with new tools and strategies. Twenty-first century teachers, ensure twenty-first century learning and twenty-first century schools. This message is simple, but the implementation is daunting. We don’t yet know how to carefully teach self-direction, collaboration, creativity, and innovation the way we know how to teach phonics or long division. We also don’t know how or if we can really measure some of the ingredients in this constellation. However, I am confident that together we'll be creative problem solvers. We'll need to try new ideas, some of which will be wonderful successes and some of which won't work as well as we hoped. We'll share our successes and challenges along the way, and learn as we go forward.

This school year will be both challenging and exciting. We have a very tight budget and we will be figuring out how to work smarter together-- while continuing to ensure the best education possible for all our students. We have no other choice but to unlock the future for our learners who are “bathed in bits”.

Learning Journey Slide

Today we'll start this year's learning journey with the TIP Fair where you can see what learning looks like with various technologies in many of our own classrooms. There are 28 showcases for you to explore and learn a few new "tips". The TIP Fair helps to tell our story about teaching the net generation in Watertown Public Schools. Use the brochure and the map at your seat to choose your path for today. Find the projects that seem most interesting and relevant to you and your teaching. Reach outside your comfort zone; explore some that are completely new to you. Ask our TIP presenters a lot of questions.

T-I-P Fair Slide

The Rockn' Raiders are going to set you off on your journey with a song in your head. When they finish, grab your new H2gO water bottle and some trail mix, and hit the road. Learn more and have some fun. Hosmer faculty begin the trail in the Main Entrance Foyer. All others pick up the trail downstairs. The High School faculty begin in the Faculty Cafe. Middle School begins in the Cafeteria.  Lowell in the alcove gym. Cunniff in the Cafeteria Bump. IAs in the Lecture Hall.

 


Thank you and have a happy and HEALTHY great year. Sources Slide
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