I've mentioned before how much I love getting e-mails from teachers with follow-ups to the stories we cover on Classroom Close-up, NJ. Today I got one of those e-mails from music teacher Carl Botti at Frank R. Conwell Middle School #4 in Jersey City. You might remember Carl from my post, I Didn’t Get a Slushy in the Face, but I Did Hear a Great Band, about the story we taped with his students. Here's the note he sent me:

Hi Adam, If you get a minute please check out the band's recent performance on VH1 "Big Morning Buzz". Is it something for your blog? A followup? NJN show helped us get the gig! Thanks Carl Botti Music Teacher MS4 Jersey City

You bet it is! So without further ado, here's the KYBD Band's VH1 debut with their cover of Rebecca Black's "Friday".

How freakin' awesome is that! Really happy for these students and thrilled to hear that our story helped them land this sweet gig. Way to go gang! And just in case you missed it, here's the KYBD Band story from this season:

And then it happened again on Saturday when this flash mob broke out at Communiversity!

Another crowd? Another flashmob? How can the same gig  happen to the same guy twice?

Alright, I confess, this wasn't some John-McClane-in-Die-Hard-2-style coincidence. I was actually tipped off about both of these flash mobs by Greta Cuyler, editor of the recently launched Princeton Patch. About a week earlier, I contacted the Patch about possibly contributing to the site in hopes of getting some more opportunities to polish my news gathering skills. These were the first two assignments they sent me on and they were a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to doing more with the Patch.

And just when I thought I had a monopoly on Princeton flash mobs, I find out there was a third flashmob that I wasn't at! Next year I'm getting them all!

It's M3 Challenge time again!

Today I'm in NYC to cover the 2011 Moody's Mega Math Challenge Finals. We're going to be taping all the presentations and talking to all the people involved so we can make some more awesome videos about applied mathematics.

New this year, we're broadcasting the entire event live on USTREAM, which you can watch in the window below (I hope). If you're tuning into this post before 1:30PM EST, you'll probably just see a recap of last year's event. Between 1:30PM and 6:00PM you should see the event as it takes place, along with some of my interviews. After that, you should still be able to watch the archived clips.

Video streaming by Ustream

If you don't know anything about the M3 Challenge, check out a few of my other posts on the contest. You might also want to read up on this year's challenge problem so you have at least an inkling of what everyone's talking about.

I recently started working on a video about a new device that could help millions of patients confined to hospital beds by preventing the formation of pressure ulcers, more commonly known as bedsores. During the taping, I met and interviewed the four co-founders of the company behind the invention, No Gadget Too Complicated, LLC.

I can hear what you're thinking. "Adam’s producing one of those pharmaceutical or medical training videos he takes on to pay the bills when he's not working on cool stories about public education."

Nope.

"Well, surely Adam was at one of those neat e-patient conferences where they talk about all the latest innovations in Health 2.0 and online patient communities."

Wrong again.

On location at High Point Regional High School

I was actually on assignment for Classroom Close-up, NJ doing another story about the great things happening in New Jersey's public schools. This time I was at High Point Regional High School in Sussex and the four partners were all under the age of 20 (two of them still in high school). The students designed the device as part of a high school engineering project and are currently seeking a patent for their invention.

The device, known as the Pressure Sore Relief System (PSRS), uses sensors and special motors placed under a mattress to stimulate blood flow to different parts of a patient's body. PSRS has several advantages over other systems currently used to prevent bedsores, some of which still rely on nurses to physically move patients or simply work on timed intervals with no intelligence behind them. PSRS is also cost effective because it can be used with a standard hospital bed mattress.

After the project took first place in the electronic research and experimentation category at the 2009 National Technology Student Association Conference, the students were encouraged to patent their device by one of the judges who since has mentored the group and donated to their fledgling company. The students have also received guidance and help from their teachers, the community, and local legislators.

I think this story is just another example of how much public education has intensified in the last few decades. The engineering program at High Point is impressive and is providing students with a huge head start on their careers. Think about it, here are four teenagers that are on the verge of patenting a medical device. Their success and subsequent journey has also influenced High Point’s curriculum as the school plans to add lessons about business development and the patent process to guide future students that find themselves in similar positions.

I probably won't touch on this angle in the show, but another important theme in this story is the selflessness it takes to be a teacher. How many future business ventures will the faculty I interviewed at High Point directly or indirectly contribute to? No doubt many, and I know that none of the teachers or the school will try to claim a stake in those achievements or any subsequent financial rewards. Even when they put in hours of their own personal time and energy to help students achieve that success. Selflessness just comes with the territory when you're a teacher. (Just be clear, the school will brag to the world and hang plaques everywhere, but it will always be about the students.)

You could say that's not much different than the corporate world. Smart managers give the credit to the team. Sure they do, but the managers usually take home the fat checks and the companies take home the fatter profits. Of course, now that I've said that, I'm a little worried that some clever education reformer will demand schools like High Point cling to IP rights so the profits from student inventions can be used to offset property taxes.

I generally think that trying to treat education as a business is a flawed concept. However, with all the recent debate about how to best evaluate teacher effectiveness, maybe what we really need is to develop some kind of formula that can measure the true ROI of teachers? Do they have a standardized test that measures regional economic impact, new business developments, and relative health of a population?

What do you think? What other variables would we need to include in a teacher ROI formula? Would you support public schools profiting from the work of students if it meant lower taxes?

If you're interested in public education, visit the Classroom Close-up, NJ Facebook page and click the 'Like' button! To find out where I'm headed next, subscribe to my blog or follow me on Twitter.

Archers at Oxford Central School.

At least that was my initial impression when I met him last month while covering a story for Classroom Close-up, NJ. The story (airing next season) is about the National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) which helps bring the sport of target archery to millions of students in schools across the United States by providing a detailed curriculum, training to teachers, and affordable access to equipment.

More specifically, the story is about the archery program at Oxford Central School where Rob teaches. Oxford was able to start its archery program with grant assistance from the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife that helped to purchase the equipment. Now, in addition to giving every student in grades 4 through 8 a chance to learn the sport, Oxford boasts an archery team that recently won its fifth consecutive state title.

The "Drive for Five"

Now, I'm not here to knock sending/receiving relationships, it's what small towns all over NJ do to make their school budgets work. However, I do think every town likes to have something to call its own. To "put-it-on-the-map" so to speak. In many places, that ends up being the local high school sports teams. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure the Blue Streaks have a ton of fans in Oxford, but there's something different about having your town's name on the uniform.

So it was really wasn't that surprising to learn how much the people of Oxford love their five-time champion middle school archery team. It's the only game in town. One of the great stories I heard was about the return from their first trip to nationals, when their late night bus pulled into Oxford. Not only were they met by parents and families, they were met with a police and fire department escort.

What else did I witness in Oxford? 

I saw middle schoolers shooting bows and arrows with amazing accuracy. An archery scrimmage with a visiting school. A shoot-off to decide both the individual male and female state champions... with all five participants from Oxford. Lot's of awesome "thrill of victory" stuff.

Shoot-off in Oxford.

So I think my initial impression was pretty accurate. Rob Causton is strong.

He's a strong teacher who's mastered the art of teaching to the point that he can use it to lift up a student, a class, and an entire school. With the help of his students and colleagues, he's even able to lift up an entire town.

If you're interested in New Jersey's public schools, visit the Classroom Close-up, NJ Facebook page and click the 'Like' button! To find out where I'm headed next, feel free to subscribe to my blog or follow me on Twitter.

My friends over at Kru Research have been busy distributing the many TED Talk-style videos Bauser Media put together from the two days of footage we taped at last year's e-Patient Connections. Today they released this talk from Ben Rubin, CTO and co-founder of Zeo, about the Zeo Personal Sleep Coach device.

This talk definitely caught my attention because even though I don't suffer from a sleep disorder, I am definitely guilty of not getting enough sleep. I'm always looking for better ways to sleep and sometimes resort to using sleep masks and ear-plugs. I was definitely envious of all the attendees who received a Zeo in their conference swag bag and have been thinking about picking one up for myself ever since.

On the video geek side, I really like how these videos came together from the two cameras we had running in the conference hall, a Sony PDW 700 XDCAM working from a riser and a Sony PMW-EX3 with the most energetic camera op I know running around the ball room to get nice cutaways. A great looking venue and quality staging didn't hurt either.

Here's another (shorter) video I found about the Zeo on YouTube which shows it in action.

What do you think? Would you sleep with one of these on your head?

If you're interested in all things e-Patient and health 2.0, be sure to follow Kru Research's blog, The Patient Will See You Now. And while you're here feel free to subscribe to my blog or follow me on Twitter.

Guest reader, Dr. Lesley Morrow, visits Bradley Elementary Shool in Asbury Park, NJ for Read Across America

March 2 was Dr. Seuss's birthday which is the date NEA chose to coincide with Read Across America, an annual reading and motivation awareness program that calls for every child in every community to celebrate reading.

Read Across America is a pretty big deal and Classroom Close-up, NJ covers the event at one or more schools every year. So last week, I headed down the shore to check out the festivities at Bradley Elementary School in Asbury Park. Amid a seaof red and white striped hats, a rally of guest readers and educators had no problem getting the students excited about reading.

I'm not going go on and on about the importance of developing early reading skills. You can Google up all the details later if you want, but the summary is this:

A child that isn't reading at level by fourth grade, probably never will. This will greatly reduce the odds of that child achieving a successful and happy life.

Story book village was just one of the fun activities going on at Bradley E.S. last week.

A few weeks ago, I was feeling a bit guilty about not always teaching while I read with my kids. Last week I sat across from a teacher whose voice cracked a little when he told me about children who had never had a book read to them at home. About children that had no books at home. About children who couldn't name a favorite book.

Now if that sounds like some kind of attempt to put blame on parents for struggling schools, believe me it's not. I don't know every family's situation and Asbury Park is a complicated place faced with a lot of challenges. It was what I saw in the face of some of those challenges that really stuck with me.

I like to ask about the schools I visit on location. How old is this building? How many elementary schools do you have? How many kids in this school? I'm not keeping a record, I'm just curious. It was during one of these casual chats near the end of last week's shoot that I learned that the district was in the midst of deciding whether or not to close one of it's three elementary schools,  Barack H. Obama Elementary School, the first school named after the current president. The final decision, whether it's closure or reorganization will have a tremendous impact on the students, the staff, and community.

I've never worked in a school, but I do know from my own experiences what it's like when a company reorganizes, closes its offices, and let's people go. What happens when they move the cheese all over the place. The mice run around like crazy. They  freak out. They get distracted. Things don't get done or at least they don't get done well. Last week at Bradley, I never would have known anything like this was going on. All I saw was educators getting kids excited about reading and a community proud of their school.

Who doesn't?

I try hard not to delve too deeply into the politics of public education when I write about Classroom Close-up. It's not what the show is about. But this simple little story about a reading celebration suddenly has my mind turning about things like the value of programs such as Head Start and current socioeconomic policies. Thinking crazy ideas like maybe it would be better to cut out twelfth grade so we could spend that money on universal preschool. That maybe if we stopped calling it "pre" school, people wouldn't devalue it so much. I mean, when my four-year-old and I talk about it, we just call it "school" because that's what it is.

Before I started this post, I hunted around for some memorable Dr. Seuss quotes to sprinkle around. This was one of the first I found:

"Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple." 

"Great!" I thought. "I can definitely make this work."

Then I realized that in this case, Dr. Seuss was only right about the complicated part.

If you're interested in New Jersey's public schools, please head on over to the Classroom Close-up, NJ Facebook page and click the 'Like' button! You can also follow the show on Twitter.  And to find out where I'm headed next, feel free to subscribe to my blog or follow me on Twitter.

More than once, I've considered starting a blog dedicated to the awesomeness that is robots. If I had to choose my favorite (fictional) robot, I'd probably pick Voltron. I'm especially partial to vehicle Voltron. Maybe because it seems like no one else likes him. (I feel the same way about the Southern Cross chapter of Robotech.) Anyway, enough with the 80's anime nostalgia. Let's talk about some real robot action.

So this weekend is your chance to see some competitive robotics up close and personal. The event is FREE and open to the public (free parking too). All the info you need is on the NJ FIRST website.

...and I really want to see that.

My trip to Reading-Fleming Intermediate School on Wednesday to tape the "Mural Club" story for Classroom Close-up, NJ marked a first for me. It was the first time since I started working on the show that I'd been back to a school I had visited for a previous episode. I was at Reading-Fleming last season to the tape the "Guitar Program" for show 9. (Wait, can a second be a first?)

Anyway, one of the first things you learn about making television is that sometimes it's better to show than to tell. So rather than go on and on about how art teachers like Cate Sewall have built a stellar interdisciplinary approach to art instruction that also teaches team building and group project skills (I'll save that for the actual episode premiering on May 2), here are some of the awesome murals the fifth and sixth graders at the school are creating.

A gnome sits among the flowers in the mural near the doors to the Garden Club

Our solar system, a work in progress near the science classrooms.

Jupiter and Saturn are just around the corner.

A pirate ship will be part of the newest mural about the oceans.

Students do research and sketches prior to "getting on the wall" to ensure their undersea dwellers are scientifically accurate.

S.A.I.L. alumnus, Alysha, works with pre-school students while being taped for an upcoming episode of Classroom Close-up, NJ

I know that I received one. I know that the political, social, and financial issues involving public education are intense, complicated, and oft-debated. And I know that even though I'm more than half-way through my fifth season with Classroom Close-up, NJ, a show about public education, that hanging out with teachers and students a few days a month hasn't made me any sort of expert on the topic. Still, the story we taped in Piscataway last week got me thinking about the things that a lot of people probably don't realize the public education systems provides.

S.A.I.L (Students Achieving Independent Life Skills) is a program that helps students with cognitive disabilities ages 18-21 transition from the traditional school environment to the world of work. A key component of the program is a vocations course that helps students learn how to achieve gainful employment through a combination of class work and actual work site experiences. On the day of taping we spent some time in the classroom as well as on the job with the students and faculty from the program.

Now, I do believe that anyone even remotely touched by the public education system is aware that it provides programs for students with special needs. In fact, special education is probably the single greatest differentiator between private and public education. But I also think that unless you're an educator, individual, or family directly touched by this piece of the system, you probably don't know much about what really goes on or what it takes to make it happen. You might not even know that programs like S.A.I.L. existed. Based on what I learned while taping the story, it's a complicated mix of government mandates, financial issues, and teaching resources. I also learned that Piscataway is a best-practice example of how a district is providing better services though the public education system, than are often available through the private sector (and at lower cost to taxpayers).

Yesterday, my seven-year-old daughter, Emily, was in my office asking me questions about what I was working on. I told her about the S.A.I.L story and in particular about Alysha, a young woman I met who was an alumnus of the program, now employed as an aide at a pre-school. As I tried to explain the story to her in a way she could grasp, I mentioned how it was great because schools didn't always have programs like this, how it helped these students be a part of the community, etc.

I could tell Emily got it, but then she said, "What did they used to do?"

I didn't know how to answer this. I knew that special education was a relatively modern concept. I knew that in the past, we marginalized people with disabilities. I'm sure a Google search would have turned up a thorough history of atrocities and injustices to share. Instead, I gave her a simple answer about how people with special needs used to be ignored or sent away to different schools or to live in special homes and hospitals.

Maybe I could have given a better answer, but I figured it was more important tell her how we're doing the right things now. She should know that. We all should. I hope the S.A.I.L. story will help show it to more people.