Krause's Blog

Defining Success

2010-08-24T09:17:00.005-06:00

I'm doing documentary projects with my American Lit (mostly juniors) students using Kodak Zi8 cameras (similar to a Flip camera). This 1st six weeks we're focusing on success. So, if you'd please give your answer, I'd greatly appreciate it. In addition to discussing the responses, I'm thinking I'll do a Wordle to see which words seem most prominant. Thanks for your help.

What is your personal definition of success?

The Possibility of More, Part IV - Student Responses

2009-09-09T08:05:00.004-06:00

By midnight Sunday, 9/13/09, there should be student responses explaining their projects and what they'll be committing to in class. So, instead of reading it from me, please go to my American Lit blog and see their wonderful ideas for yourself. I also attached the full version of my "The Possibility of More" essay.

The Possibility of More, Part III: Lighting the Spark

2009-09-06T14:27:00.002-06:00

My biggest fear is that the easiest part is now done (see Part I and Part II) and the difficult work lay ahead. I know I want to keep open communication between the students and myself. I’m planning to have the students write a memo to me this week via our class blog (the fourth week of class) giving their interpretation of what was decided in our one on one conference. That way, I can easily see if there’s a disconnect between what I’m hearing and what they’re hearing. Likewise, I want to keep an open dialogue about the project so that they feel comfortable about it and begin working toward putting it together – I don’t want them to look at the project as so overwhelming that they do not know where to start. For many, I can see this being their biggest hold-up. I’m asking them to do something that they have never been asked to do before. I’m asking them to look at themselves and their education in a new light. Some embrace this challenge and they have told me in their conferences they wish every class would be approached this way, they wish learning was the focus instead of grades, they are looking forward to taking some risks, and they love the freedom of learning without boundaries. Others, though, thrive on the structure of being told how an assignment should be done. I’m asking this type of student to take a big step out of their comfort zone in the hope they’ll realize the potential that lies within them if they listen to their own ideas and give themselves the freedom to take risks. I hope two more conferences with each student will make this easier for all of us. What has also been encouraging is the number of colleagues who have commented on how impressed they are with the depth of the conferences and the questions I’m asking my students to consider. No one else is giving all their students A’s yet, but at least I have them curious and pondering.

Another uncertainty I’m feeling is what to do with those students who have chosen not to set-up a conference? If I have no idea what their Final Project will look like, how will I know if it’s a stretch for them or if they’re merely going through the motions? Also, if a student has done little or nothing all semester, but cranks out a decent final, is that still an A? I think I’ll have a difficult time giving an A to someone who I see as taking advantage of the system – do I still have to give that A then? Will the parents and administration demand the A that was promised on the first day of class?

Additionally, I need to find the balance between focusing on American Literature as “normal” and making the Final Project the focus. What do I want them to take away from the class? How will I ensure that they’ll still be successful in more challenging upper-level classes? Am I making this too easy on them since they do not have to “earn” their grade?

Yeah, I feel overwhelmed, but it’s an excited overwhelmed. I don’t want to fall into the pattern of teaching as usual. I want to challenge my students to look beyond the four walls of the classroom and into a future only they can determine. I want them to make connections between literature and life by going out and actually living the life they choose (not the life chosen by their family or friends). I want them to begin seeing the connections that are made among all of their classes; see that there’s connectivity to their education and to realize that learning is not compartmentalized. I want them to embrace new challenges and be open to taking risks. I want them to be alive to the possibilities that surround them and for them to see themselves as unique contributors to the world. And, more than anything, I want to light a spark that encourages life-long learning and an inner search to figure out who they are and what they truly believe.

The Possibility of More, Part II: Go Big

2009-09-06T12:02:00.006-06:00

Now, I’m fully committed to this idea. If I’d have kept this to myself, I probably could have found a way to weasel out of this; but, fortunately, I shared the idea. I guess I’m looking at it as my grand experiment – can a group of high school juniors and a couple of seniors rise to this challenge? Can they recognize what kind of opportunity they’re being given? One huge benefit working in my favor is the fact that our school has a motivated student population. With American Lit being a college prep class and over 92% of our graduating students going on to colleges and universities, I don’t have to worry about many behavioral problems in this class.

Even with an inspired group, I knew if I wanted this to work, I would need to keep in contact with the students individually to help them talk through ideas, answer questions, ease concerns and stress, and monitor progress. So, after talking with my support team (see part I), I developed a worksheet and attached it to my webpage to give my students some things to think about. Concurrently, in the second class, I informed them that they need to meet with me once every six weeks (3 times during the semester). During the meetings, they needed to talk to me about their Final Project ideas; how they were going to show me they were “worthy” of an A grade while still thinking outside of the box; commitments and risks they were willing to take on; and contributions they would make to the class, the school, and eventually the world. I emphasized they needed to do more than just be a body in the classroom – they needed to leave a positive mark and begin to see themselves as important contributors. Likewise, I suggested they play to their strengths for the Final Project: do what they do well. (It took about 25 conferences before I began to see the error of this suggestion, but more on that later.) Moreover, I had to deal with week to week grades for sport eligibility and student/parent feedback. Karl Fisch and I played with this idea and figured the best way to go about this was to grade them as I normally would, using a traditional grading style and system. This would be a little bit of a game because they would still get an A for the semester. I would use traditional grading as feedback only – giving them an idea whether or not their quality of work matched my expectations. That way, by the end of the semester, they’d know the level of depth and craftsmanship I expected in their projects. Karl also helped me understand that these grades would help take pressure off of the Final Project because if a student does well all semester, but falls apart on the project he/she can still pass the class. Additionally, if a student does none of the assigned work over the course of the semester, but ultimately shows his/her learning in the final, then they will still get the A.

Conferences would occur before and after school and during off hours (we run a variable schedule and the students understand that off hours are to be used to meet with teachers, so this helps the conferencing process) beginning the next Monday and concluding Friday of the following week. Their responsibility was to look through the worksheet, schedule a conference that fit both our schedules, prepare their answers, and actually show up at their scheduled time (for many, if they can remember to make an appointment, showing up on time is the biggest challenge). With Back to School Night coming up on Wednesday of the second week of school, I knew I had to have conferences set-up and a plan of action in place. No one seems to worry quite as much as parents when their child is in the middle of a new process.

The best news, as I headed home Friday afternoon with one week of school completed, was how excited and positive I felt about American Lit and the new school year ahead (despite the fact that I have 210 students in all of my classes combined). I truly believed I was doing something beyond the normal classroom that would allow these students to grow not just as American Lit students, but, most importantly, as learners and human beings.

Also in class, we began by reading Emerson’s “Gifts” and “Self-Reliance” – two essays that invite the students to look at life differently. I challenged them with some of the most difficult reading they’ve ever done because I believe that Emerson (and later Thoreau) offers the perfect perspective to high school juniors – find your own unique place in the world, follow your personal dreams, and celebrate the fact that your own ideas are more important than anyone else’s. Once we discussed these in class and more people understood Emerson’s points, the students really seemed to enjoy the transcendental ideas – and a few recognized how well these ideas played into the overall idea of this semester-long experiment (even I’m not sure if this was pure coincidence or pure genius on my part).
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Right at 7:00 Monday morning, I had my first conference and it was good – the young man had written down ideas on what he’d do for the project and had obviously thought through how getting an A this semester would impact him personally and as a student. Needless to say, I was encouraged. But, as with everything else, the later conferences at the beginning of the week were up and down. Some people had thought through exactly what they wanted to do and how it would look and others seemed to have put in no thought whatsoever. I was also trying to figure out what I truly wanted to learn from these conferences. More than anything, it was a great opportunity to get to know these students on a more individual level. Instead of looking at a sea of 32 faces in each of my two sections, this was an opportunity to find out each student’s individual passions and strengths as well as a chance to alleviate some stress and fear while clarifying individual questions. At Ray Hawthorne’s suggestion, I had a 3x5 note card for each kid and jotted down notes as we talked. Likewise, I found myself refining the questions I asked: by the end of the first week of conferences, I was asking mostly about what they wanted to do for their final and how they wanted it to look; what commitments they would make for our class in terms of participation and work effort; and what risks they were willing to take since they knew they could not fail. It became obvious to me that most were not ready to answer the “bigger” questions about how this will impact their futures and what contributions they planned to make in the community and the world. Therefore, I’ll save those questions for later – probably the end of the semester.

For me, it was wonderful to see the excitement that came from many of these conferences; how many students seemed to embrace this opportunity to follow their passion and show their learning in their own way without a pre-set rubric or series of expectations. I have students planning to do everything from poetry to essays, from original artwork to photography to choreographing a dance, from making an original film to writing a play to putting together a documentary, from writing an original rap song to making a rock video of original music, to writing the music for and performing in a string quartet. And, more often than not, it’s a combination of several of these elements. Needless to say, I was impressed by wealth of talent these students bring to school every day that, unfortunately, we get to witness far too infrequently.

For most, how they wanted to put the project together (even if they weren’t sure if their idea was feasible) was much easier to figure out than what they wanted to say. So, along the way I helped them break down the topics into three areas: 1) expand on an over-riding idea for American Lit: What is the American Dream? Or, what does it mean to be an American? 2) Take an idea from something we read this semester and expand upon it: self-reliance, non-conformity, etc… from Emerson. 3) Show what you’ve learned and/or how you’ve grown throughout the semester (I suggest they keep a journal of their ideas so they’re not sitting at home in December wondering what they read in August). Ultimately, I just wanted to make sure they connected their ideas to the class in some way.
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My next challenge was Back to School night. Our school schedules it so that each class meets for 6 minutes before moving to the next class – eventually, over the course of 2 hours, a parent will make it to every one of their child’s teachers; making it a long day for teacher and parent alike. With only 6 minutes to convince parents I was experienced enough to handle the curriculum, serious about giving their student an A for the semester, and, at least somewhat sane. The parents from my 3rd hour class had several questions about how this would all work and one parent asked (not at all unkindly) if I was kind of flying by the seat of my pants with this experiment – I assured her I was. Others wondered if their kids would merely take advantage of this process and not learn anything along the way. This seemed to be the predominant theme until a father (who had previously remained silent) raised his hand and told the others that his daughter is typically a straight A student and she’s been talking about this American Lit class more than any others. Additionally, she’s planning to work harder in this class because she wants to be proud of her Final Project. I couldn’t have paid someone to do a better job of allaying the parents’ concerns (and if I had more than 6 minutes with this group, I would have found out who he was). My 5th hour American Lit parents were much less vocal and seemed to take things more in stride. I imagine by this time of night, most of them were on their last legs and just hoping for the night to end. My victory was that not a single parent saw this as a big negative. Surely, they have questions and concerns (though I’ve not received any emails so far), but not so much that they see no value in giving their student the freedom to take some risks.
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It wasn’t until the Wednesday of the second week of conferences that I had my greatest “aha” moment. As I mentioned above, I wanted my students to play into their strengths in giving their Final Presentation. Yet, as I talked with more and more students, I realized that the last thing in the world I wanted them to do was play it safe for their final. If I’ve already told them they couldn’t fail, why not make the final the biggest risk of all? Why not attempt something they’re not sure they can pull off? Why not ask them to shoot for the stars? And, that’s just what I began to do. I implored them to go big and stretch themselves. To find something they’ve always wanted to do and have the guts to go after it. They have the definitive educational safety net in place and I don’t want them to waste that opportunity. So, last Friday I gave the class a little pep talk about taking advantage of this opportunity because they’ll probably never be in another class where they’re virtually guaranteed an A (they’ll only fail if they put little or no effort into the Final Project). I also wondered what they would be telling themselves if they had a chance to risk and they played it safe – are they going to live their entire lives afraid of their own success? Finally, I informed them that I was going to send this out to the world (I’m not sure anyone beyond my wife is actually reading this, but don’t tell my students please, Anne) and that they could either prove the notion that most high school students are apathetic (some true pessimists would probably say just pathetic) or show the world that they will rise to meet any challenge placed in front of them.

The Possibility of More, part I

2009-09-03T19:28:00.004-06:00

As with all crazy ideas, it occurred at approximately 3 a.m. – the time when you can convince yourself that just about anything will work. Usually, these ideas, when they hit the light of day, are seen for the frauds they are; but this one seemed to stick in my brain like a bad commercial jingle. What, you ask, is this half (to fully)-crazed idea? Of course, it’s to give all of my American Lit students (mostly juniors) an A for the semester on the very first day of class.

This idea came about when my wife, Anne Smith, suggested I read The Art of Possibility (Zander and Zander, 2000) for a class I was taking to get more credits and bump myself up the pay scale. One of the chapters that captured my attention was titled, “Giving an A.” The basic premise of this is that students will feel free to take risks and be more willing to challenge themselves if they do not have to worry what grade they’ll receive. My first thought, like I imagine most of yours will be, was every high school junior in the world will take full advantage of this opportunity by accepting the A and doing little or nothing in return. I will look like a complete fool to these students as they don’t even have to try to con me into giving them a better grade – they already have it. By this time in their educational lives, they know exactly how to “play school” and, if they so desire, work the system to give themselves every opportunity around to cajole, demand, and manipulate their way to a better grade. Yet, the idea still festered in my brain as we returned to school for teacher work days. And, after teaching American Lit since 1991, I was looking for a new spark to keep me motivated after a few years where I felt I was merely going through the motions. I wanted to look at class differently and get the students to do the same. I’m not trying to crank out English majors here; I’m trying to get students to find a passion for literature and to begin asking the big, important questions in life: What matters? What can I contribute to this world? What is my purpose? How can I find my own path to happiness and success?

With the encouragement of my wife, I stepped into the abyss on the first day of class. Honestly, I hadn’t thought this through completely and I wasn’t 100% sure I was even going to present this to the class until those fateful words spilled forth from my lips: “I have this idea that’s true madness and it scares me to death: I’ve decided to give you an A for the semester.” Looking around the room, the predominant emotion appeared to be shock. Since I enjoy teasing students as often as possible, former students thought this was a big joke. And, truly, how could they not? I’m guessing that at no time in their educational career have they just been given an A. They were trying to find the catch, the teacher’s fall-back where they’d really just get a grade like any other class. Fortunately, I didn’t have one to give them. All I wanted was for them to provide some sort of final product at the end of the semester that showed to me and the class as a whole that they were indeed an A student. Several students were concerned about what this final would look like and if there would be a rubric they could follow; I assured them I had no rubric – I didn’t want to confine their ideas to fit my mold.

After I’d already opened Pandora’s Box, I decided I might want to talk to some people who might be able to clarify this idea in my head. The first person I discussed this with is Karl Fisch, mild-mannered IT director by day, educational guru always. Surprisingly (but not really), he thought it was a great idea and helped me figure some logistics like how to figure grades along the way, what to do if someone does nothing all semester until the end, and what happens if someone completely bombs the final project. I knew that if I had Karl and Anne’s support (two educators I respect to no end), I must be on to something. Karl also suggested I talk with Ray Hawthorne, the school’s instructional coach and former master teacher in the building. Likewise, Ray was excited about this project and encouraged me to include more student feedback in order to allay fears and clarify questions. Now I had three highly respected professionals in my corner – for me, that was more than enough.

Frustration Abating

2007-11-02T10:48:00.000-06:00

In my last blog I complained about my Film-Heroes students not following through with what I was trying to do. Happily, I've seen a change in the class!! The last student-led discussion we had, 22 of 28 students got involved in the hour. To me, that's an impressive amount. Even 2 of the students who did not get involved had their hand up at one time or another to answer a question, but someone else had a similar response. Likewise, the class blog has helped extend the conversation beyond the classroom walls and those students who did not participate in class did get on the blog and add their insights. Funny how 2 weeks (and a little talk with the class about how disappointed and disenfranchised I had become with the direction the class was taking) could change my (and hopefully their) perspective on what is possible in this class.

The other thing I wanted to comment upon was the overall generosity of the Arapahoe staff. Here's a group who gives and gives every day while not earning anywhere near top dollar. Yet, when I ask them to help me honor my dad by raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, close to 50% of the staff has contributed almost $1000 - I'm truly humbled by the outpouring of support. Likewise, I'm continually amazed by the caring and compassion demonstrated by the faculty and staff of our school - it's a blessing to work with people like this.

Time of Frustration

2007-10-17T14:29:00.000-06:00

I'm getting to the point of frustration with my Film - Heroes class. I've been trying very hard to be more constructivist - students in charge of discussing different films of their choosing, open dialogue on direction of class, variety of activities to demonstrate student understanding (blogs, reaction papers, option for creative response, discussion), and student choice on other films. However, I feel as though I'm only reaching about 1/3 of the class most of the time. In fact, in my class of 31 (all juniors and seniors), I have 12 students with D's and F's. I love the ideas behind constructivism and student-centered learning, but I fear apathy runs too rampant. Many of these students don't seem to care at all about film - they merely saw the class as an easy grade (but are learning they're wrong) instead of a place to learn. Likewise, I wish I could do without grades, but right now even I feel the grade is the only thing that will motivate some of these low achievers to try harder. My hope is that word will get out that this is NOT a slacker class and the students I do get will be more willing to put in effort and will truly love film. But, at this point, I can only dream of that day.

21C v. PLC - The Cage Match of the Year

2007-10-01T10:21:00.000-06:00

Ah, the frustration of it all. During our last PLC meeting (9/26), we sat down as a department to attempt to figure out where we wanted to go with PLCs - the thinking being we can't really decide what to do at each grade level if we don't know where we are as a department. So, the 20 of us sat down and tried to make some sense of it all. As usual, I couldn't sit idly by and listen to others' visions without putting in my own 2 cents. I tended to get people riled-up as I suggested we, in a sense, start over and figure out what we want seniors to know before they leave the school. Then, design our classes and essential learnings around those ideas. Needless to say (especially if you know anything about our department), this opened that big ol' worm can and the conversation went multiple directions from there. I think everyone left that part of the meeting extremely frustrated and confused. My frustration stems from the fact I want to change what the department looks like (not personal-wise (we all look pretty good), but core class-wise), but am unsure even how I want it to look. I feel strongly that we do very good things here, but feel we can do great things if we're willing to "think outside the box" and re-evaluate what is essential to take away from our classes. I tend to be a "big picture" guy and the details on how to get there our eluding me. In spite of the fact that people thanked me for opening the proverbial can, I'm almost to the point of conceding and just doing things the easy way - shaping what we have always done to fit into the PLC mold they want us to utilize.

Then, I was talking with Terry S. the next day and we decided/realized how much what "they" want us to do is in direct opposition to 21C ideas - especially the idea of all teachers having common assessments to measure student learning. Yes, I believe we need to be able to assess whether or not our students are learning, but I think the constructivist approach of making it more student-centered contradicts a common assessment. Maybe I'm thinking too narrowly about what a common assessment looks like, but it seems to me we could have 34 different types of assessments within a class if we're truly constructivist.

So, I'm struggling to break out of the old ruts while PLCs seem to encourage staying within them.

Interesting Discussion with Juniors

2007-09-14T14:22:00.000-06:00

About a week ago, while discussing Emerson's "Self Reliance", we started talking about students following their passions and not being afraid to break away from the norm. The discussion then turned to our school system and students realized they end up jumping through many hoops they see as unnecessary and irrelevant to their lives before they graduate. I tried to get them to come up with a solution to the problem, but they were pretty much stumped by this.

Next I brought up the idea of essential knowledge and asked them if they need to know "basic knowledge" anymore - I brought up the example of being able to do long division by hand when everyone can use a calculator. In other words, does my 6 year old son need to learn how to do that? Or, can he potentially reach a higher level of math in his academic career because he's not "wasting time" doing work that a calculator can easily perform? I asked the same question about subjects like geography - is it obsolete because anyone can quickly access that info on the web?

Surprisingly, most students defended the basics - they felt the process they went through in learning subjects was essential to them moving forward and will continue to be essential. I guess I see myself as moving the other direction (though I waver back and forth every few minutes) - why are we focusing on tasks a machine can perform instead of teaching them to think for themselves after they look at a wide variety of opinions on a given subject? Are my students merely falling back on the way they were taught? Or, am I glossing over the necessity of following the correct steps in order to learn a process? Like everything else, I'm guessing it's a balance, but I feel we need to push the envelope a bit to see how far we can go.

A New Hope

2007-08-31T10:47:00.000-06:00

I truly am enjoying the beginning of the school year, so far... Other than the terrible adjustment to actually having to get up and work after an busy summer, things seem to be going well.

My biggest change is having freshmen again after giving up on them 10 years ago - just got tired of the immaturity. Yes, you can argue Sophs don't show much more, but the difference is the the fact they actually showed a little maturity at times. This year's freshman crew seems very good - which is helpful. Especially my 2nd hour group who really seem to understand larger concepts and who seem, for the most part, to be excited about learning. They even laugh at my jokes (occasionally).

I'm also going to make a commitment to blogging with various classes. The first class I'm going to try this with is my Film Study - Heroes. The students will be in charge of scribing/reviewing the film we're watching and will be responsible for providing in-depth questions to which their classmates will respond. I also want to get blogs set-up in my American Lit and English 9 classes and utilize those instead of reaction papers.

One thing that was again emphasized to me after being in 21C last year is that I love the ideas and big picture of making changes, but am not good at going through the (as I see them) tedious steps in order to set-up those changes. I still don't have the blogs up and running, but feel there's truly hope for me this year

Mid-winter Blues

2007-02-16T12:40:00.000-07:00

As much as I agree with constructivism and realize it's the best way to approach my classes, I'm finding myself falling into the old "tried and true" ways I've always taught class. Too often I'm finding it much easier to use those assignments (whether they're relevant or not) I've used in the past. I just seem to be out of energy and too many of my students seem to be apathic and I can't get myself out of this funk. I realize part of my students' apathy is probably a direct result of my lack of enthusiasm and reliance on my "old" stuff - so I take responsibility for that. But, as Kristin has blogged about and other American Lit teachers have concurred with, the American Lit students seem to be largely apathic. A couple of weeks ago, I came to the realization that 1/2 of my Amer. Lit students were failing (at the same time I had one student with 100% and a few others in the mid 90% range - so I know the work was not impossible). They just didn't take the time to do quality work - or was it that the work wasn't relevant to them? I'm frustrated with myself because I know I can do better and I'm frustrated with my students (mostly Amer Lit) because many are not even trying to meet me 1/2 way.

Another stuggle I need help with is how to do group work in E-9 (the tiered classroom). I continually struggle with the "lecture hall" atmosphere. Any suggestions on how to make it more constructivist friendly?

Starting again

2006-09-22T14:23:00.000-06:00

OK, it's been about a month since I last blogged, so here goes something... I understand the importance of blogging, but, like Barb S., I tend to keep quiet about what I'm doing largely because I'm not sure if what I do is really any good and if it would work for anyone else. Plus, I like to do things my own way and largely do it off the cuff. I guess I'm good at reacting to what's going on in the classroom and adapting how I approach a discussion to how the students' react to questions I pose to them. I'm not sure how to pass that along (and am pretty sure it's not possible). Too often I think we as teachers get caught up in the "new approaches" and forget why we are doing them. As I said in the group discussion, I think we put too much emphasis on trying to do everything and and don't give ourselves permission to take our time and figure out what works for us. What I fear most in education is that at some point we'll be asked to be in lock-step with everyone else who teaches what we teach. The beauty of education is that we're all unique and different students will get different ideas from out classes. To me, that's what's great about 21st Century Learners - we're learning about new ideas that we CAN use if we chose to and if they fit into what we're trying to do. Likewise, i'm trying to do new and different things in my classes this year and I too feel like I'm treading as fast as I can, yet still am barely keeping my head above water. At the same time, this feeling of uncomfortability is good for me - it will make me a better teacher in the long run because I'm pushing the boundries of how I teach. I know in the long run I'll reach more students more effectively, but it's going to take me awhile to get there. I just need to be patient and believe positive results will be there in the end.

First Week

2006-08-18T14:31:00.000-06:00

Well, it hasn't even been close to a week and I'm already exhausted. I'm also coming to the realization that changing the way I teach is going to take a much more cognizant effort than I initially believed. I find myself slipping back so easily into the way I've always taught because I know what to expect and can more easily predict student outcomes. I'm going to have to put more time into my planning and more risk-taking into class. I didn't think I'd have difficulty changing my teaching because I consider myself to be pretty flexible in the classroom (insert your own joke here). Perhaps I'm not as flexible as I see myself. On the plus side, I see what's happening and can make a more concerted effort next week.

World is Flat

2006-08-09T15:17:00.000-06:00

The thing that fascinated me and terrified me the most is how oblivious I have been to all of the technological advances going on in places like India, China, and Russia. Of course I knew about outsourcing tech support and such, but had no idea how those areas were booming. To me, technology has always been a double edged sword - it's great the new things we can do now, but I fear what we're giving up on the other side. When the book started talking about education in America, it made me realize how far behind we are and how little money we receive to keep up with technological advances. As someone mentioned (perhaps Brad?), we're giving our kids a 1956 education in 2006 - that scares me. But more than the lack of technology, I believe it's the lack of imagination that's making our schools average. With CSAPs, other standardized tests, budget cuts, new curriculums every few years, fear of parental push-back, lawsuits, etc... we're not encouraged to try new things and get kids to really THINK in class. And, that's what's needed more than ever in the 21st century. We need to be making these kids thinkers instead of test takers.