Teachers Teaching Teachers #277 Hacking Classrooms and Congress with Chad Sansing, Brian Ingram, Pam Moran, Adam Mackie 12.21.11

Post-Show description: 

After hearing about a teacher from Ft. Worth, Texas, Brian Ingram at the end of a couple of recent “Best of the Left” episodes http://www.bestoftheleftpodcast.com we decided to invite him to join us on this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers http://teachersteachingteachers.org/?feed=rss2 . Brian is a teacher who recently made a decision to Walk Out and to Walk On into an electoral campaign. The Occupy movement has inspired him to consider a run for Congress. Talk about Inspiring!

Brian joins the teachers listed here in an ongoing a conversation about Margaret WheatlTeachers277ey and Deborah Frieze’s book, Walk Out Walk On http://walkoutwalkon.net :






Pam Moran, and


Like on earlier episodes in December, we talk about our work in classrooms, schools and beyond through some of the the lenses provided in Walk Out Walk On. (See http://edtechtalk.com/node/5057 and http://edtechtalk.com/node/5053 )

We also look to learn from the Occupy movements. Recently we have been having discussions around the book http://walkoutwalkon.net which was published earlier this year by Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze of The Berkana Institute. We’ve been noticing the convergence between the school change movements that many of us connected to Teachers Teaching Teachers are involved with and this book. We have also taken note of the convergence between the Occupation movements and Walk Out Walk On.

As it says in the book:

Walk Outs are people who bravely choose to leave behind a world of unsolvable problems, scarce resources, limiting beliefs and destructive individualism. They walk on to the ideas, beliefs and practices that enable them to give birth to new systems that serve community. This is the story of an emerging movement of pioneering leaders and communities around the world who are self-organizing to create healthy and resilient communities.

On Teachers Teaching Teachers, we have been talking to teachers involved with their local Occupy Wall Street movements, and we are looking for what we can learn from both that movement andWalk Out Walk On to further our commitments and understanding of change in education.

Enjoy! And join us in upcoming shows when we plan to continue this conversation.

Click Read more to see a copy of the chat that was happening during the webcast.


20:26:23 Paul Allison: https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/102348327409046706063/10234832740904670606...
20:26:31 Paul Allison: http://www.walkoutwalkon.net/
20:26:40 Paul Allison: http://digitalis.nwp.org/
20:49:36 Paul Allison: Getting ready.
20:58:11 Peggy George: Hi Paul and Jeff-great to see you!
20:58:28 Peggy George: where are you streaming?
20:58:56 Paul Allison: livestream... not up yet... well it now
20:59:26 Peggy George: strange-I guess I'm only logged into chat. I'll go to ETT LIVE.
21:01:09 Peggy George: that's better! now I have both chat and stream :-)
21:01:49 Paul Allison: good
21:02:42 Peggy George: audio is good for me
21:03:20 Peggy George: last week's show cost me a lot of money--but I'm not complaining! I bought all of Liam's graphic novels for my grandson for Christmas. :-) Amazing books!
21:04:07 Peggy George: Hi MaryAnn and Monika
21:04:39 Peggy George: @Monika-just read Bud Hunt's blog post about you and your students :-)
21:08:55 Peggy George: are you talking about Walk Out Walk On?
21:09:44 Peggy George: here we go!! :-) so glad to be here with you!
21:11:00 Peggy George: congrats on your Masters and new job Adam!
21:11:12 Peggy George: Great to meet Brian!
21:11:45 Peggy George: http://paulallison.tumblr.com
21:12:36 Peggy George: Jackie is in the dark :-)
21:12:46 Peggy George: the famous Jackie Gerstein!!
21:12:59 Peggy George: always great to hear from MaryAnn!
21:14:19 Peggy George: so sad to hear your school is closing down Paul!
21:18:30 Peggy George: Lost my connection just when Brian was explaining about entering politics and run for Congress!
21:19:00 Peggy George: can't imagine anyone wanting to do that right now! even though we desperately need good congressmen/women!
21:20:31 Peggy George: good for you Brian!! taking a stand about that Occupy disaster is very important!
21:21:25 Peggy George: Congress seems to have the lowest rating ever in history!! about 3% support!
21:23:49 Peggy George: can't see anything in the group chat in Google hangout
21:24:23 Peggy George: problem is that you can't copy/paste into this chat from the other room
21:25:02 Peggy George: Hi MaryAnn! Great to have you here to share in this chat too!
21:26:11 MaryAnnReilly: From Ira Socol: universal health care, living wages, a right to transit, family time, equitable ed opportunity, access to communication, a right to housing
21:26:14 Peggy George: I just purchased the book on iTunes but haven't had a chance to read it yet
21:26:21 MaryAnnReilly: Thanks Peggy
21:26:27 Peggy George: great points from Ira!!
21:26:49 Peggy George: Hi Monika-thanks for joining this chat too :-)
21:27:32 Peggy George: I mentioned earlier (but I was talking to myself I think) that I just finished reading Bud Hunt's blog post about you. :-)
21:28:07 Peggy George: what a great point Chad!
21:30:52 Peggy George: that is such a sad story and it happens all too often!!
21:31:05 Peggy George: standardized tests don't begin to measure student learning!
21:31:50 Peggy George: applauding loudly for Brian!
21:34:26 Peggy George: how do we encourage students to believe that they can influence change in the current system?
21:35:57 csansing: Berkana Two-Loop video http://vimeo.com/17907928
21:35:59 Peggy George: we can talk to people and everyone agrees that something needs to change and Occupy movements are trying to make that point--but how do we change the words into action?
21:36:06 Peggy George: thanks csansing!!
21:38:42 Peggy George: well expressed MaryAnn!!!
21:40:12 Peggy George: love that point! the gift is in the learning that can never be tested (dyslexic student so talented with woodburning as an art form)
21:41:11 csansing: NM teacher shares how it is in the comment thread here: http://coopcatalyst.wordpress.com/2011/11/21/permission-to-speak
21:41:32 Peggy George: there is a push for STEM/STEAM right now--will that make a difference?
21:41:58 Peggy George: Thanks Chad! Can't wait to read that post!
21:45:58 Peggy George: that's an important point! what the kids are interested in isn't necessarily what's in the prescribed curriculum
21:46:01 monika: margaretwheatley.com
21:46:09 Peggy George: thanks Monika
21:46:38 Peggy George: I just purchased her ebook on iTunes and can't wait to read it
21:46:42 monika: her life to schools post
21:48:02 Peggy George: is her post under articles on her site?
21:49:44 Peggy George: found it
21:50:37 Peggy George: http://margaretwheatley.com/articles/lifetoschools.html
21:51:02 Peggy George: even things we think are "made in America" often aren't if you read the fine print
21:52:58 Peggy George: I remember those statistics about the cost of testing!!!
21:53:27 Peggy George: did it include time lost on instruction to prepare for and take the tests? how do you assign a monetary value to that?
21:53:44 Peggy George: I should say time lost on learning, not just instruction
21:54:57 Peggy George: we need to broaden the ways learning is measured in a huge way!!
21:57:02 Peggy George: politicians think that their stakeholders are demanding accountability from our schools and the measure is the standardized testing results. I don't think that is what stakeholders/parents are demanding at all.
21:59:21 Peggy George: is there ONE mantra that everyone is advocating? how do we know we're all working towards the same goal?
22:01:03 Peggy George: thanks for that question Paul
22:01:53 Peggy George: Monika???? other themes from the book?
22:02:44 Peggy George: how do you sell upcycles?
22:03:58 Peggy George: was there a theme in that Monika? ignore unimportant things to keep from being distracted from the important mission?
22:04:51 Peggy George: could you repeat what Pam's question is?
22:05:33 Peggy George: how awesome @Bryan!! that was a lot of effort to participate in this conversation!
22:07:43 Peggy George: hackjam! :-) how funny!
22:10:14 Peggy George: we can change what we're currently doing, but it isn't just change for the sake of change--we have to know what we're changing to and how it's going to be better
22:11:00 csansing: NWP EduCon Hackjam, 1/29/12, 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM, SLA, Philadelphia, PA; should be Skypecasted & on a Google Hangout.
22:11:53 Peggy George: great to know! will there be a link to tune in?
22:12:23 csansing: Eventually; follow @chadsasning and/or @mrami2 on Twitter, esp. towards the end of January :)
22:12:53 Peggy George: so hackjam is a real word :-)
22:13:04 Peggy George: googling it now :-)
22:13:21 MaryAnnReilly: Thanks Paul!
22:13:47 Peggy George: is that going to be part of Educon 2.4 in Philly?
22:13:59 csansing: Yes - during Session 4.
22:14:08 Peggy George: fantastic!! I'll be watching!
22:14:19 Peggy George: everything will be streamed from there
22:14:34 Peggy George: great to hear from all of you!