Fall Update from TEL.A.VISION
Posted on 16. Dec, 2010 by Ringmaster in All Posts, Story of TEL.A.VISION, TEL.A.VISION News
Up With People
In October I visited Washington DC to watch the Up With People show, then followed the cast to Harrisonburg, Virginia to teach a select group of cast members and the management team about TEL.A.VISION. Up With People is a group of International students that travel the world bringing a message of peace, hope and possibility. They have been doing this since 1965.
In January I will be training their whole cast in TEL.A.VISION and beginning our vision of bringing vision videos to 6th grade students in communities they travel to. In addition to the 80 cast members we hope to work with the 20,000 alumni and have them bring TEL.A.VISION to their communities.
Spark.A.Vision
In November I participated in the Big Tent Conference in Houston. We created a new product called Spark.A.Vision. It is a combination of Dr. Peter Benson’s work on Sparks and TEL.A.VISION. Dr. Benson’s research has shown that what every young person needs for a successful upbringing is to find his/her spark in life and have three adults support them. TEL.A.VISION is a way to help a young person identify their spark and share it with the world. We had a fabulous response in Houston and look forward to collaborating to bring this to the world. W believe this work could be enhanced by proposed regulations to begin Career and College Preparedness with students in sixth grade.
Here is a video where students talk about their experience creating Spark.A.Vision videos.
TIES Conference
In December Bob Dockendorf, Gwen Toppe and I presented at the TIES Conference. Bob is the Principal of Big Lake High School. This fall Big Lake held “Transition Day” for all ninth graders on the first day of school. Every ninth grader began a TEL.A.VISION video on that day. Teachers created videos that they shared with the students. They talked to the students about the importance of having a vision for their lives. At the conference Bob shared stories of the difference the program has made with individual students and initial results from the vision videos. These results included a 2.6% increase in attendance and a 30% drop in the number of write ups for disciplinary problems.
Foundation Grants
This fall we received a Community Grant from the Best Buy Foundation to fund expansion of TEL.A.VISION in Twin Cities Schools. In 2011 we will be funding research on TEL.A.VISION’s effectiveness and a number of pilot programs for At Risk youth. With a grant from the Rothmann Family Foundation we have funded programs including the use of TEL.A.VISION by youth at the Mercy Center in Bangkok, http://www.mercycentre.org. Mercy Center is a hospital for children with AIDS. They will be creating vision videos to send to their sponsors.
If you know of any foundations or organizations you think would be interested in helping fund TEL.A.VISION please let us know.
Quotes from Nebraska High School Students
This fall we received testimonials from High School Students in Nebraska who had completed vision videos. In this blog post we share some of the quotes. Here is one of our favorites: “Thank you soooo much I was really having a tough time in my life and wasnt really paying attention to anything. I drank and I was even considering joining a gang but now this has really just set me back an my path and I can actually see wer im going so thank you.”
Quotes From High School Students on the Difference a TEL.A.VISION Video Made in Their Lives
Posted on 10. Nov, 2010 by Ringmaster in All Posts, Power of Vision, TEL.A.VISION Stories, Vision Videos
The following quotes are from students who recently completed TEL.A.VISION videos. They are unedited and in the students own words.
| “I cannot explain in words how truely grateful I am for the opportunities you gave us in making these accounts. The opportunity to show my peers my plans for the future really gave me the chance to undersdtand the imporrtance of everything I am doing now to my future. It has really put things into perspective for me and I have decided to clean up my act and really focus on what is important to ME! Thank you soooo much I was really having a tough time in my life and wasnt really paying attention to anything. I drank and I was even considering joining a gang but now this has really just set me back an my path and I can actually see wer im going so thank you.”
–Jade |
| “Hey, I’m Cheyanne.
Using the vision videos helped me alot. I never thought about my future in so many different ways. I realized that I only have one life and I will do everything in my power to make my life count for something. I am going to do my best to leave a legacy.” |
| Dear George,
“My tel-a-vision has helped me in so many ways. I’ve never thought about my future before. I’m thinking about who I want to be, and what i want to become. Most importantly, Im thinking about how im going to reach my goals. I have to start one step at a time, but im going to get there. No matter what it takes.I’ve started to think more about who i really am. Who i am on the inside. Now i know a lot more about me, and i love it. When out teacher, Mr. Fletcher, told us that we had to do this project, I thought that it would be just another school assingment, but it turned out ot be a whole lot more.Thank you for letting us do this project. I’ll always be grateful.” –Sincerely, Brice |
| Dear George,
“My name is Kiefer a few weeks ago I made a telavision video basically about what my goals are in life and some goals I have set for myself. Making this video made me really think hard about what I want my future to look like and it just made me feel like I can have endless goals set for mysellf. So thank you for making this program.” –Kiefer |
| “I would like to inform you about how much I really enjoyed getting to participate in the program and make a vision video. It really got me thinking about what I want for my future and how the decisions I make now can effect how my future plays out. I have made different life style choices after I made my vision, and have been getting better grades in school because I know that I want to be a doctor and I need to have good grades. I now know that I can do anything that I set my mind to and I know what I want my future to be like and that I need to make good decisions to make it happen.”
–McKenzie |
| George,
“My name is Jamie , and I am in Mr. Fletchers freshman panther lunch group. We were able to create our vision’s into a video. This experience has made me realize that I control my life, and can make it how I want it. What i choose to do now, will effect my future. It really made me think about what I want in my future, and how to accomplish it. Also it made me think about how important my school work is if i want to go to college and become successful in my future career. Goal making is a big thing to me now. I would like to thank you for allowing me and my classmates to try something new, and experience something truly amazing.” Thank you! Sincerely, Jamie |
| Hey George!
“I want to tell you how much of an impact doing these Telavision videos have made on the way I see things. I see myself doing everything I put into that video! I worked very hard on it and I am very excited for my future because I can see myself doing so much! Thank you for helping me see my future! This program is truly amazing and should be used throughout every school system! I know that I will be able to become what I want to be and nothing is going to get in my away!” –Katarina |
| “I would like to say that the telavision has really helped me and the people around me understand what my life is like. and what i mean by that is the fact that my step dad did and still does abuse me. now that i have made my video my friends have understood why i come to school some days crying. what i am trying to say is that this whole program has helped me stand up for what i believe.”
–Name Withheld |
| “hello my name is devon. where i was before i did this i think i had know idea what was ahead of my life know i have my life planned out and ready for each day of my life. it has helped me knowing that i already know what i want to do in life and what i want to achive thank you for letting us do this it is awsome!”
..!DéVóñ!.. |
| “I’ve been concentrating more on my school work, and I’ve been a lot happier. This project has helped me believe that i can really be what i want to be… My dream job is to become a drug councilor because of my mom and my father’s past… The vision videos have helped to let others know what i want to be as i get older”
–Kassie |
What Great Teachers Do
Posted on 10. Nov, 2010 by Ringmaster in All Posts
The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) recently released a study, “The Road Less Travelled, How Developmental Science Can Prepare Educator to Improve Student Achievement: Policy Recommendations.”
The emphasis of NCLB over the past 8 years, ESEA currently, and the Common Core standards is on student achievement: determining standards on assessing students based on those standards.
Data shows that teacher performance is the single most important school influence in improving student outcomes. The teachers who best influence student achievement:
1. Know their children as individuals, which may be even more important than knowing the content being taught, and makes students feel acknowledged and respected.
2. Provide an emotional foundation for learning for their students. As emotion affects cognition, students who feel safe and excited in the classroom are more motivated to learn.
3. Organize and manage their classrooms to be efficient learning environments. Students who are comfortable with classroom roles that are congruent with learning are better able to focus on the tasks of learning.
The significance of this for TEL.A.VISION is captured in the words of Ms. Kane “I can not think of any other activity that helps me get to know my students better than to do a vision video.” Mary Herr said “She learned more spending 10 minutes with a girl doing her TEL.A.VISION video than a year in the classroom.” And finally Eric Paquette said ” After finishing their vision video my Special Ed students behaviors were much more goal oriented.”
7th Graders realize ” I Can Make A Difference in the World”
Posted on 28. Dec, 2009 by Ringmaster in All Posts, Power of Vision
Mr Amaral, a Global Concepts teacher, is beginning his third year of bringing TEL.A.VISION to every 7th grader at Oakland Junior High. Here is what he had to say about TEL.A.VISION. “TEL.A.VISION makes my students think about themselves in the world. It helps them think about what they could be. It is an opportunity for them to take control of their lives and realize they can make a difference in the world.”
“I see past students in the hallways almost every day who tell me how cool the vision video assignment was and how they still watch it. One 9th grader told me she watched her video the other day and has decided not to be a lawyer but instead wants to become a teacher.”
Here are what some of Mr. Amaral’s students said in their blog posts:
“I learned I have the capability to do whatever I hope and dream for my life.”
“I was so proud of my telavision!! I encourage others to do this to, it is a great experience.”
“My mom and dad were very proud of me when I did my tel.a.vison project. My Mom’s eyes got a little teary.”
“This was our best homework assignment we did all year.”
“Now that I put it out there for everyone to see my goals and dreams there are more people who are believing me and cheering me on.”
And finally there was the girl who had not completed an assignment all year who completed her TEL.A.VISION. She wrote in her blog,”It’s about time that someone asked us what we think.“
TEL.A.VISION Forms Partnership with Minnesota TIES
Posted on 01. Dec, 2009 by Ringmaster in All Posts, Supporters, TEL.A.VISION News
Alliance Will Benefit TEL.A.VISION, TIES and Their Affiliates
MINNEAPOLIS (December 1, 2009) – TEL.A.VISION, the proven Web 2.0 online curriculum that inspires youth to create and share visions of hope and possibility through personal “vision videos” announced today their partnership with TIES, the Minnesota Education Technology Collaborative that brings together technology and education to create comprehensive, cutting-edge solutions for school administrators, educators and students.
TEL.A.VISION will support TIES’s growth and development by offering preferred services and discounts to TIES members. TIES will promote the benefits and savings of TEL.A.VISION’S curriculum that combines compelling words, images and music to create a vision video of their desired future.
TEL.A.VISION has proven to be successful with all students, but especially those at risk and those receiving special educations services. The program engages students in a meaningful way, allows their voices to be heard, has improved AYP and helps to decrease the dropout rate.
“We have seen what TEL.A.VISION has done for students in Minnesota. We know firsthand that this partnership holds great potential for the districts that we serve,” said Marla Davenport, Co-Director of Learning and Technology. “The TIES and TEL.A.VISION missions speak to increasing the availability of technology and improving learning outcomes for students. Together we can leverage our strengths to further these outcomes.”
“TIES is a leader in providing cutting edge technology and software solutions to schools in Minnesota. Both organizations know that if there ever was a time in history where we quickly need to plant and cultivate seeds of hope, imagination and vision, the time is now,” stated George Johnson of TEL.A.VISION. “We know that TIES is the right partner for us to reach more students that crave the opportunity to build connections to their communities and engage in academics.”
About TIES
TIES was created as Technology Information Education Services in 1967 to provide technology and information resources to school administrators, educators and students. It is now known solely by the acronym TIES. For more information go to: www.ties.k12.mn.us
Vision Videos Empower Students – District Administration
Posted on 12. Jul, 2009 by Ringmaster in All Posts, Media, Power of Vision, TEL.A.VISION News
A new Web-based tool, Tel.A.Vision, inspires young people to dream the possible dream.
By Mary Johnson Patt June 2009
District Administration Magazine, the magazine of School district Management, completed a three page article on TEL.A.VISION in its June/ July NECC issue. Here is an excerpt: 
In early March, as he addressed the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C., President Obama spoke at great length of the reforms he believes will give Americans “a complete and competitive education, from the cradle up through a career.” The proposals he laid out for improving early childhood education, K12 standards and assessments, graduation rates, teacher quality and college funding will be debated for months to come by thousands of school administrators, teachers, parents and politicians. It was the voice of a single teenager, however, that helped drive the president’s messages home that day.
At the end of his speech, Obama quoted Yvonne Boroquez, a California student whose high school class recently made a video exploring the impact of the economic crisis on their dreams of higher education and professional employment.
“It was heartbreaking that a girl so full of promise was so full of worry that she and her class titled their video ‘Is Anybody Listening?’” Obama said. “I am listening. We are listening. America is listening,” the president assured Boroquez and her classmates.
“We have a huge vision deficit in this country,” Johnson explains. “There is so much fear and negativity, especially in the media. I decided to start a movement about bringing more hope and possibility into the world, and to do it by helping kids create little three-minute visions of what they want their life to become.”
Enter Tel.A.Vision. Johnson’s free Web tool gives today’s tech-savvy youth everything they need to create and share “vision videos.” A Tel.A.Vision is essentially a highly personal montage combining a student’s written hopes and dreams with still photographs, music and computer animation—created with tools available online at www.telavision.tv.
Survey: Too many children fear end of Earth
Posted on 24. Apr, 2009 by Ringmaster in All Posts, Power of Vision
One out of three children, ages 6-11 years old, fear that the planet won’t exist when they grow up and more than half believe that the Earth will not be as good a place to live.
That’s according to a new telephone survey of 500 pre-teens commissioned by Habitat Heroes, the first global, social networking web site for young people, and conducted by CARAVAN Opinion Research Corporation.
The survey, conducted April 3-7, comprised 250 males and 250 females 6 to 11 years of age, living in private households in the continental United States.
Minority children worried the most with 75 percent of black children and 65 percent of Hispanic children fearing the planet was going to deteriorate before they grew up.
This is more evidence that TEL.A.VISION is needed to turn our children’s attention to hope vs. fear.
TEL.A.VISION and Minneapolis Public School Graduation Requirements
Posted on 08. Apr, 2009 by Ringmaster in All Posts, Media, TEL.A.VISION News
In a feature story in today’s Southwest Journal, TEL.A.VISION’s new relationship with the Minneapolis Public Schools is explained.
Tel.A.Vision will be incorporated into Minneapolis Public Schools My Life Plan, a post-college planning activity that is required for graduation beginning next school year. Creating a vision video will be one option for seniors to complete the My Life Plan requirements.
For Minneapolis Public School students, the vision videos they create using Tel.A.Vision will focus on post-high school college and career aspirations.
Southwest’s Jastrow said high school seniors would have the option of creating a vision video for their capstone project, the final step in completing My Life Plan. For their capstone project, seniors must produce something — such as an essay or art project — that both reflects on their high school career and also looks ahead to life after high school.
Jastrow said the district’s AchieveMpls coordinators and licensed school counselors recently were trained in using Tel.A.Vision. Several of the adults created their own videos within an hour or so of being introduced to the program, which means Tel.A.Vision should be a snap for today’s tech-savvy kids, she said.
Jastrow said students are drawn to interactive media. And like generations of teens long before the Internet Age, they crave control.
That’s exactly what Tel.A.Vision gives them, she said.
“They’re able to combine music and pictures [with] their thoughts and personality,” Jastrow said. “They can put their stamp on what it will be.
Educators Tout TEL.A.VISION in Today’s StarTribune
Posted on 20. Mar, 2009 by Ringmaster in All Posts, Media, TEL.A.VISION News
“It has had a profound effect on how they [students] treat each other in the hallway,” said Lake Elmo Elementary School principal Andy Fields during an interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune this week. Fields’ positive feedback is communicated throughout the TEL.A.VISION feature story in today’s Metro section. Additionally, Minneapolis Public Schools counselor Shelly Landry communicates her excitement about the fact that her students will have the opportunity to create TEL.A.VISION videos next fall.
While the story as a whole captures the progress TEL.A.VISION is making across the State of Minnesota, it’s the feedback from those in the field, those who’ve successfully incorporated TEL.A.VISION into their curriculum, that is especially rewarding to read.
Vision and Neuroplasticity
Posted on 06. Mar, 2009 by Steve Borsch in All Posts, Power of Vision
Facing a six hour adventure to get home to Minnesota from New York last year, I stopped in the LaGuardia airport bookstore to see if something caught my fancy and would be an immersive read. The book I chose was Norman Doidge’s The Brain That Changes Itself, and I can’t think of any recent book I’ve read that illustrates the power of TEL.A.VISION better than this one.
Doidge takes us on a journey into the latest developments in brain science which has led to what’s being termed “a revolution” in our understanding that the brain is truly “plastic” which can be molded, shaped, and rewired, “For years the doctrine of neuroscientists has been that the brain is a machine: break a part and you lose that function permanently. But more and more evidence is turning up to show that the brain can rewire itself, even in the face of catastrophic trauma: essentially, the functions of the brain can be strengthened just like a weak muscle.“
There were many aspects of this book that leapt out at me but one key point — specifically within the context of TEL.A.VISION — is that permanently imprinting and creating new neural pathways in the brain (i.e., permanent behavior changes, knowledge permanence, automatic responses and deep, intuitive understandings) only happen when a person is focused, paying close attention and directing ones thoughts.
The discovery of “neuroplasticity,” that our thoughts can change the structure and function of our brains — even in old age — is the most important breakthrough in neuroscience in four centuries.
That’s right. Thought. TEL.A.VISION is a movement that directs, focuses and ensures students are thinking positive thoughts and paying close attention to their dreams as they craft their story and a vision of a future all their own.
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