Teens have always thought that adults just don't understand them.  Today's teens are growing up in a world which is so totally different than what we adults had, this age-old truism may be an even bigger divide today than ever.  I spend quite a bit of time interacting with students, teachers, administrators and parents and being charged with technology leadership in the district, my conversations are always about this difference.  The struggle to understand and connect is at the core of these conversations and sometimes I find it helpful to use an old language arts activity to bridge the gap: similes.  By comparing something you don't understand with something you do, it is possible to gain an insight that you would otherwise miss.  Here are a few I've recently come across in speaking today's youth:

"Not having text messaging today is like growing up without a bike in the 20th Century."  For us, the bicycle was the means of socialization.  If you had a bike, you could meetup with your friends and participate...

I just got a tip that the next TIMMS (Trends in International Mathmatics and Science Study) report is due out next week and will tell some compelling stories...

On our visit to China last spring, we stopped at a beautiful high school in Tianjin city.  This blog posting is for our friends at Haihe High School!

In this first video of my school visits with Briggs, we see how Field Elementary School is exploring the mimio interactive white board...

Fileway is our web-front end for network files. Using this tool, you can login to a web page and access the file folders we provide on our network. I've posted an email from a staff member who has just set up Fileway access for elementary students...

I'd like to share with you a great bit of blogging by 5th grade students at East Elementary school...

In the coming weeks, I will post a series of videos made on school visits with our ETC Chair...

In this post, a student from one of our schools makes the argument for discontinuing the practice of textbooks to her principal...

While increasing our Windows computer count by only about 130 stations, we've increased student access by over 1,000 seats...

It is well known that schools facing budget cuts tend to look at the librarian position for a staff cut... paradoxically, we also know that strong libraries in schools are correlated to high student achievement. I have a suggestion on resolving this and it begins with a name...