BRAD NEUENSWANDER DEPUTY COMMISSIONER KANSAS STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Technology Rich Classroom Celebration

KSBE Mission To prepare Kansas students for lifelong success through rigorous academic instruction, 21 st century career training, and character development according to each student’s gifts and talents.

TRC Program Goals 21 st Century Learning Tools Improving Teacher Technology Skills Enrich Standards-Based Instruction Engage Students Encourage Higher Order Thinking Engage School Leaders Self-Sustaining Technology Rich Learning Environment

Whether students and teachers think of a school as a Factory or a Family will have powerful implications for day to day behavior.

The Future of Schools Students deserve the best schools we can give them – schools full of heart, soul, and ample opportunities to learn and grow. Reforms that bring new technologies or higher standards won’t succeed without being embedded in supportive, spirit-filled cultures. Schools won’t become what students deserve until cultural patterns and ways are shaped to support learning.

Understanding Passion You can’t manufacture passion or “motivate” people to feel passionate. You can only discover what ignites your passion and the passions of those around you. “I feel that I was just born to be doing this.” “I get paid to do this? Am I dreaming?” “I look forward to getting up and throwing myself into my daily work, and I really believe in what I’m doing.”

“If you’ve taught it five times the same way and they still don’t get it, who’s not learning?”

Humboldt Middle School Character Exploration Creativity Acting Community Involvement Group Collaboration

Neosho Rapids and Olpe Courage, Heart AND Brains 21 st Century Learners Adventure Tech Fairs

Washington Elementary Journey Different Styles Cross-Curricular Construction Experts Members of the Community

Technology as Accelerator Technology by itself is never a primary cause of either greatness or decline. When used right, technology becomes an accelerator of momentum, not a creator of it. People, YOU, with the right technologies and initiatives will create greatness.

Things Everybody Needs to Understand About People: 1.Everybody Wants to be Somebody – There isn’t a person in the world who doesn’t have the desire to be someone, to have significance. Even the least ambitious and unassuming person wants to be regarded highly by others. Things Everyone Needs to Understand About People:

2.Nobody Cares How Much You Know Until He Knows How Much You Care – The moment that people know that you care about them, the way they feel about you changes. Showing others that you care isn’t always easy. 3.Your greatest times and fondest memories will come because of people, but so will your more difficult, hurting and tragic times. 4.People are your greatest assets and your greatest liabilities. The challenge is to keep caring about them no matter what.

Always remember that your goal is not to get people to think more highly of you. It’s to get them to think more highly of themselves. Have faith in them, and they will begin to do exactly that.

“Brick walls were not built to stop us, they were built to see how determined we are.” - Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

You can change your plans through the year, but you never change what you measure yourself against.

Laboratory Rat #1: Placed in a jar of water in total darkness to see how long it would swim for survival. Lasted a little more than 3 minutes. Laboratory Rat #2: Placed in the same jar of water with just a ray of light, and it kept swimming for over thirty-six hours. Because the rat could see, it continued to have hope. A Ray of Light

The reality is that difficulties seldom defeat people; lack of faith and hope usually does it.

“We all live under the same sky, but we don’t all have the same horizon.” Make it your goal to help others see beyond today and their current circumstances and dream big dreams.