Professional Learning in Your Pajamas!

Welcome to the final week of July.  Hope you are staying cool, enjoying the summer, and getting a bit of a rest.

I'd like to invite you to join me and thousands of others for a free worldwide online e-conference dubbed RSCON3 on Education Reform.  It takes place from Friday, July 29 to Sunday, July 31.  It's my kind of conference because you can attend it in your pajamas

, swimsuit, or whatever suit you choose to wear right in the comfort of your home.

There are more than 65 presentations and 12 keynote speakers throughout the three days, representing some of the best education reform thinkers around the world. You can browse through the flyer at
http://www.scribd.com/doc/56689278/The-Reform-Symposium-Free-Online-Conference-Flyer-for-Schools

Registration and additional information is at http://tinyurl.com/2ftmgsz.

Browse through the schedule and select a session or two you feel might be interesting, or just attend any session to experience your first ever online. e-conference.  Remember when reading the session schedule (Google Doc) you have to select the time zone (select New York - UTC-4) since this is a world-wide program, or you will get the wrong times for each session.

I'm honored to be part of a panel presentation on Friday, July 29, from 2:30-3:30 pm (times are 24-hour military format in the schedule). I'll be online live from up here at Camp Greenwood, somewhere west of Greenville, Michigan, in between cleaning up from lunch and helping in the kitchen prepare supper for a bunch of hungry Rebel band campers. Here's hoping my internet connection out here in the sticks holds up well on Friday, especially if the expected thundershowers appear.

Anyway, the entire weekend has an awesome lineup and you won't be disappointed by any of the sessions.  And if you are, simply "leave the room" when you please and few, if any, will notice.  Just another great advantage to an e-conference.

Here's a couple of links from Shelly Terrell to get you thinking about RSCON3:

9 Reasons to Attend The Reform Symposium Free Worldwide Online Conference

10+ Tips for Getting the Most Out of #RSCON3 | Teacher Reboot Camp

As Kids, We Knew How to Beat the Heat

I don't recall any of my friends having air conditioning back in the 60's and early 70's while growing up in Wyoming, Michigan.  But we sure had some hot summers!

This week's 100+ degree (heat index) days have given me pause to remember many of the things we did back then as kids to beat the heat:

• Made popsicles out of kool aid or on rare occasions, bought one from the push-cart vendors that roamed our streets.
• Ran through sprinklers and played on the occasional slip-n-slide which first came out in 1961.
• Swam in small backyard pools that often fell apart flooding the entire backyard because there were too many of us creating a ruckus.
• Spent the day down by the creek at the base of Daredevil Hill (the creek is now underground because the muck farm adjacent to it at the time became a crowded housing development).
• Rode our bikes to Palmer Park to play on the shaded trails and wade in Buck Creek (signs posted there now warn against contact with the water).
• Walked to Rogers Plaza (the first indoor mall in this area and only one at that time) and wandered through it for awhile (we never had any money to spend).
• Slept in the basement at night (as opposed to second floor bedrooms that turned into ovens during summers).
• Combed the streets looking for enough empty pop bottles to trade in for an ice cold Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper or Mountain Dew in real bottles (we got 3 cents per bottle and needed 5 of them).
• Ate cold or grilled (no gas grills back then) food and watermelon (lots of watermelon) because it was too hot for mom to cook.
• Spent many days swimming and sunning at Battjes and Lamar Park, neither of which allow swimming anymore.
• Found big shade trees to sit under and talk about the things junior high kids talked about, sometimes for hours on end.
• Rode our bikes to John Ball Zoo to walk in the shade and look at the animals (they always looked more miserable in the heat than we did).
• Built our own go-carts and skate boards out of spare parts (only rich people bought these things back then).
• Went to a one-screen movie house and watched an old Elvis Presley or some other movie two or three times for the same 25 cent ticket.
• Played baseball barefoot wearing just cutoff shorts until the stone dust, sticking to our sweaty skin, gave us a gray appearance (we'd find a sprinkler on the way home and shower off).
• Sometimes we'd explore the old Wyoming storm sewer systems that used to empty into the swamp at Alexander Park (now called Jackson Park).
• At night when it would cool down a little, we often walked up to one of the traveling carnivals at Rogers Plaza if we had a spare dollar (ride tickets were ten for buck back then). On other nights, we'd be at Kimble Stadium taking in a baseball game under the lights.
• We'd wake up the next morning, gulp down whatever was on the table for breakfast, and run out the door as fast as we could ready to do it all again.

What didn't we do? 

• We didn't sit inside a house watching TV (except for a half hour in the afternoon when Dark Shadows came on).
• We never said we were bored in front of our parents, because they'd find us something to do and it usually involved a rake, lawnmower, broom, paint scraper, or dirty dishes.
• We didn't ask for money from our parents (ok, we probably did but to no avail). We figured out how to make money on the fly (and it was always legal).
• We didn't wait for someone to drive us somewhere, because we'd still be waiting to this day if we did. We got their on our own two feet, pedaling a bike, or scraping together a dime for the city bus.
• We didn't walk around with a cellphone glued to our ear and our parents knew it was useless to give us a dime for the pay phone, because all we needed was a couple of empty bottles for that next ice cold pop.

I loved long, hot summers!

ACT Test Not All It's Cracked Up to Be - Riding a Dead Horse?

A recent study has concluded that 2 out of 4 tests within the ACT are not accurate predictors of college success. ACT has staked its reputation as an off-the-shelf college readiness assessment and Michigan is one of the states that has bought into this hype.

According to the Washington Post:

The Stanford and University of Chicago scholars who wrote the report, recently published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), say scores from the other two ACT subject tests, Mathematics and English, “are much more tightly correlated with college success than are Reading and Science scores. In fact, after controlling for Mathematics and English scores, Reading and Science provide essentially no predictive power regarding college outcomes.”

Of course, ACT, Inc. is disputing the conclusions.  What would you expect from one of the growing number of companies riding the billion-dollar, high-stakes assessment industry created by NCLB and reinforced by non-educators wearing the mask of "educational reformer?"

Even in Michigan, Governor Snyder has drunk this kool-aid along with at least one educational reporter: Gov. Rick Snyder: Some Michigan test scores 'startling and scary,' vows measurement-driven changes.  And now many schools, at the urging of education department leaders and state politicians, are taking on the added expense of administering the ACT Explore and Plan to students in grades 8-10 as indicators of readiness for the actual ACT test given to all 11th graders.

Don't expect the politicians, main-stream media, and boy-billionaires to abandon their high-stakes testing horse, even as it continues to become ever more apparent the horse they're riding is dead.

As an added note, I urge everyone to read Professor Yong Zhao's 5-part blog titled Ditch Testing: Lessons from the Cheating Scandal in Atlanta

Yong Zhao and the Atlanta Test Cheating Scandal

One of my favorite ed reformers is ex-MSU professor Yong Zhao whose 2009 ASCD book, "Catching Up or Leading the Way" contains one of the best and most revealing look at how the United States public education reformers are trying to emulate China and other nations, while they are trying to be more like us. It's one of those convicting tomes conveniently ignored by the politicos and boy billionaires attempting to take down public education and pump billions into the testing arena.

Professor Zhao has chimed in on the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal with a three-part (the fourth is on the way) essay that points out the wrong-headedness of the investigations: let's just blame the teachers (and administrators).

While laying blame on these educators, we must understand the root cause of cheating is not the bad nature of these “cheaters.” But rather it is the unreasonable policy, its unrealistic expectations, and blind faith in test scores as an indicator of education quality. This scandal should serve as a wake-up call to proponents of test-driven reform policies: it’s time to abandon high stakes testing in our schools. Decades of high-stakes testing has not brought improvement but has corrupted our schools. The cost is too high.  ~ Introduction to Ditch Testing: Lessons from the Cheating Scandal in Atlanta (Part 1) 

Professor Zhao's postings are a must-read for educators and policymakers looking to seriously improve teaching and learning and prepare our students for the 21st century world they live in. Here are the links to the first three parts of this insightful post:

Ditch Testing: Lessons from the Cheating Scandal in Atlanta (Part 1)  Zhao analyzes the reaction by Secretary Arne Duncan

Ditch Testing: Lessons from the Atlanta Cheating Scandal (Part 2): Not An Anomaly  In this post, Zhao takes a big swing at the systemic ills created by test-based accountability citing a number of reports about cheating that go well beyond Atlanta.  He also includes teaching to the test and test prep as a form of cheating in that it robs students "of a real valuable education and cause as much damage, if not more, to our children as the behaviors we label cheating."

Ditch Testing: Lessons from the Atlanta Scandal (Part 3): Human Nature?  Zhao begins by taking Chester E. Finn's assertion that cheating is just human nature to task, pointing out that the evidence leads to the conclusion of a concerted, systemic, on-going practice in the Atlanta Public Schools.  He goes into some of the key motivators for cheating in the test-based accountability system spawned by NCLB.

I understand that Zhao's fourth installment will look at the reasons technical fixes alone will not stop cheating. Systemic change is necessary.

The Third Michigan and First Bull Run

The Third Michigan Infantry, organized at Grand Rapids, Michigan, and accepted into state service on May 21, 1861, was mustered into federal service on June 10 and left for the seat of the war.

 

By Wednesday, July 16, 1861, the Third Michigan had been in Washington, DC for a month camped in the vicinity of the Chain Bridge as part of the capitol's defenses. The men were getting restless to get things underway, get it done, and get home.  They were losing respect for the senior officers, as Lieutenant Lowing of Company I reports:

These big officers keep caged in Washington week after week at Government expense. And 50,000 men to watch them. The whole pile of them are a curse to the country. This war is not got up for fighting, but for the purpose of making officers of old favorites. If we do come to war, many a poor fellow will be sacrificed to the folly and ignorance of these mushroom Generals.

Finally, a hesitant Brigadier General Irvin McDowell who had no real field experience, moved his Union Army of the Potomac westward for what would become the first major clash of the Civil War. One of the Third's soldiers, a George Vanderpool of Muskegon serving in Company H, summed up the regiment's initial experience:

...at 3 o’clock p.m., we joined the Briggade (sic) consisting of the Michigan 2nd, 3rd & Mass 1st & the New York 12th Regiments, all under [the] command of Colonel Richardson of Detroit; we crossed the Chain Bridge into Virginia at 4 p.m. and marched in the direction of Mannases (sic) Junction via Vienna, Fair Fax, Bull-Run; we reached Vienna at 8 p.m., where we joined General McDowell’s Army; lay down in the open field

It began as a reconnaissance in force towards Blackburn's Ford along Bull Run:

Our regiment had the lead that day and after letting one company of cavalry and six small field cannons pass ahead of us, the brass band struck up Dixie. And the four regiments of us followed as it was only about one mile to the Run. We soon got to about eighty rods of it; they opened on us and the very first shell struck right behind our brass band. They got out of there in a hurry and we didn’t see anything of them any more for a week.

 

[We] soon found out that the cavalry had “struck ile.” They dash back faster than they went.

 

It was delightful to lie there in the hot sun, while the cannon balls were flying & whistling over our heads. The first ball struck about four feet from the men on our right. Soon the enemy’s cannon ceased firing. We laid there in suspence, not knowing what would be the next orders. All the boys were perfectly cool & picked berries, cracked jokes about the war, etc. Soon were were told to advance into the woods and thicket to find the enemy.

 

Fall in boys, is the order of our gallant Colonel McConnell, as he dashes up on his beautiful charger. Falling in, the order, double quick, is given, and down through the streets of Centerville we go, and cross Bull Run creek at Blackburn’s Ford, where we smell the enemy’s powder for the first time . . . We get behind a battery to support it, and lie down to watch the rebel shells burst in the woods beyond. Nothing is accomplished by this battle, but to find out the position of the enemy . . . Thus ends our first day’s fight, the battle of Blackburn’s ford.

Having had their first taste of what was to come, for the next three days the men of the Third would prepare themselves for battle. 

______

Quoted selections are from Britten, David G. Lieutenant Colonel, Retired. Courage without Fear: The Story of the Grand Rapids Guard. Xlibris 2004.  A free e-edition is available on Scribd

The Third Michigan and First Bull Run

The Third Michigan Infantry, organized at Grand Rapids, Michigan, and accepted into state service on May 21, 1861, was mustered into federal service on June 10 and left for the seat of the war.

 

By Wednesday, July 16, 1861, the Third Michigan had been in Washington, DC for a month camped in the vicinity of the Chain Bridge as part of the capitol's defenses. The men were getting restless to get things underway, get it done, and get home.  They were losing respect for the senior officers, as Lieutenant Lowing of Company I reports:

These big officers keep caged in Washington week after week at Government expense. And 50,000 men to watch them. The whole pile of them are a curse to the country. This war is not got up for fighting, but for the purpose of making officers of old favorites. If we do come to war, many a poor fellow will be sacrificed to the folly and ignorance of these mushroom Generals.

Finally, a hesitant Brigadier General Irvin McDowell who had no real field experience, moved his Union Army of the Potomac westward for what would become the first major clash of the Civil War. One of the Third's soldiers, a George Vanderpool of Muskegon serving in Company H, summed up the regiment's initial experience:

...at 3 o’clock p.m., we joined the Briggade (sic) consisting of the Michigan 2nd, 3rd & Mass 1st & the New York 12th Regiments, all under [the] command of Colonel Richardson of Detroit; we crossed the Chain Bridge into Virginia at 4 p.m. and marched in the direction of Mannases (sic) Junction via Vienna, Fair Fax, Bull-Run; we reached Vienna at 8 p.m., where we joined General McDowell’s Army; lay down in the open field

It began as a reconnaissance in force towards Blackburn's Ford along Bull Run:

Our regiment had the lead that day and after letting one company of cavalry and six small field cannons pass ahead of us, the brass band struck up Dixie. And the four regiments of us followed as it was only about one mile to the Run. We soon got to about eighty rods of it; they opened on us and the very first shell struck right behind our brass band. They got out of there in a hurry and we didn’t see anything of them any more for a week.

 

[We] soon found out that the cavalry had “struck ile.” They dash back faster than they went.

 

It was delightful to lie there in the hot sun, while the cannon balls were flying & whistling over our heads. The first ball struck about four feet from the men on our right. Soon the enemy’s cannon ceased firing. We laid there in suspence, not knowing what would be the next orders. All the boys were perfectly cool & picked berries, cracked jokes about the war, etc. Soon were were told to advance into the woods and thicket to find the enemy.

 

Fall in boys, is the order of our gallant Colonel McConnell, as he dashes up on his beautiful charger. Falling in, the order, double quick, is given, and down through the streets of Centerville we go, and cross Bull Run creek at Blackburn’s Ford, where we smell the enemy’s powder for the first time . . . We get behind a battery to support it, and lie down to watch the rebel shells burst in the woods beyond. Nothing is accomplished by this battle, but to find out the position of the enemy . . . Thus ends our first day’s fight, the battle of Blackburn’s ford.

Having had their first taste of what was to come, for the next three days the men of the Third would prepare themselves for battle. 

______

Quoted selections are from Britten, David G. Lieutenant Colonel, Retired. Courage without Fear: The Story of the Grand Rapids Guard. Xlibris 2004.  A free e-edition is available on Scribd

Superintendents on Twitter

While still relatively rare, there's a growing number of state and school district superintendents coming out of the closet on Twitter. We need their voice and "out-loud leadership" in the school reform and funding debates.

Here's a list that hopefully keeps growing:

@suptflanagan 

@clindhol 

@edubrew 

@colonelb 

@principalspage 

@SuperScot 

@gormang 

@BobMiller146 

@scusdsupt 

@canyonsdave 

@TDOttawa 

@DanielLFrazier 

@suptsmith 

@ewilliams65 

@chrkennedy 

@acrozier22 

@pammoran 

@tebotweets 

@HTSSupt 

@JRonneberg 

@paulgausman 

@johnccarver 

@ndcardinal 

@DrMelSmith 

@POUSDSupt 

@mikelubelfeld 

@wbsuperintendent
@bradfordgs
@SOMSDsuper 

Google+: New Car Smell or Valuable Force Multiplier?

Pardon my initial skepticism but I live on the "battlefield of life" where time is a scarce resource and consequently I tend to budget it tightly when it comes to testing new technology tools. My typical method of inquiry includes questions such as: Is it the "new car smell" that's caught my attention? Could it be the different gizmos and gadgets that give it a "shiny penny" appearance? Or does it have real potential to be a force multiplier on a fluid battlefield, overcoming the scarcity of time and leveraging what it takes to accomplish my mission and achieve our vision?

You see, twenty-two years of military training in mission analysis leads me to make quick on-the-fly evaluations of new ideas, tossing down any that don't readily appear on the outset to be of value in overcoming MODD (things that make our day difficult), as I traverse the avenue of approach to the objective.

Twitter proved quickly to be a valuable force multiplier.  It's leveraged my ever-shrinking time resources to provide me with a "drive-thru" personal learning network (PLN), helping me defeat the MODD and close on the objective. The old way of reading every journal or new professional book, attending lengthy conferences, or taking more graduate-level courses was an inefficient time consumer. Twitter has compacted that learning and even made it mobile.

Facebook has proven to be a force multiplier, too, although I sometimes question the overall value. It certainly allows me to maintain professional and personal relationships with a relatively small investment of time. Let's face it (no pun intended), relationships are inherently time consuming and while Facebook is no substitute for face-to-face relationships, it's the next best thing when time resources have become thin. And you have to admit that compared to a hundred years ago, when communications meant writing a letter and waiting weeks for a reply, both Twitter and Facebook have certainly been force multipliers in speeding up communications and make battlefield decisions.

Other Google attempts at social networking have proven a bust, at least to me. They took far too much time in setting up, learning the ropes and building networks, especially if an extensive, suitable network has already been established via Twitter or Facebook. Now comes Google+ and once again I'm naturally curious while skeptical that it will prove any more valuable as a force multiplier. In the meantime, the daily disruptions of the battlefield demand attention and results. There is little time to enjoy that new car smell.

Time will tell but then again, time is a limited resource.

"Uh, Miss, is that on the test?" - The Death of "Why?"

From The Death of "Why?": The Decline of Questioning and the Future of Democracy by Andrea Batista Schlesinger (Kindle Edition)

Our schools send the message to children that the answer is all that counts.  We test students to death, conveying the idea that correctly filling in the bubbles is the same as learning. Our classrooms become dedicated to the cause of test preparation, as science and its guiding philosophy - that we must discover, ask questions, accumulate evidence, make determinations - become optional.

This addiction to answers affects our democracy, too. We have the mistaken belief that even the most pressing challenges facing our country...are problems to be "fixed" once and for all, if only we can find the right solution and the right person to implement them.

Could this be why our political leaders in Washington, DC, and state capitols can't work out solutions to some of our biggest problems? Are they too busy "filling in the bubbles" instead of spending time working together to ask the critical questions, explore the evidence, and discover new solutions? Is their narrow focus only on a pre-determined solution, the so-called "right answer?" Have we finally created a culture that only values the "correct result?"

If we continue the emphasis on bubble-like testing, are we doomed?  Is it too late to change?  Are any of these questions on the test?

Technology, not test scores, will point students toward the future... #edreform

For most children, the key to success will continue to be sharp critical skills, strong connections, effective communication and the nerve to be creative and entrepreneurial. The difference is that we are living at a time in which all of those skills are defined by one's proficiency in connected media. Furthermore, for students facing poverty, violence and disability, online learning networks can provide empowering educational experiences that transcend the circumstances of the classroom.

In Digital Age, schools that succeed are schools that connect 

By Shelly Blake-Plock

The Baltimore Sun, July 12, 2011 

Lee Middle School Teachers Learn this Summer

Teachers at Lee Middle School took a short break from their summer recess to learn how to use technology in the classroom, and how to make use of creative learning spaces to better engage their students.  Godfrey-Lee's own Sarah Wood, technology integration specialist, and Kelly McGee, media specialist, planned and led the sessions that began this morning.

The training is part of our district's vision for 1:1 technology that emphasizes an "anytime, anywhere, any device" culture of teaching and learning.  It also demonstrates that to effectively utilize a vast array of technology tools in the classroom, teachers must be learners, too.

Godfrey-Lee is entering the second year of our five-year plan to provide 1:1 technology in grades 6-12 and make mobile learning carts along with other devices available to grades K-5.  Students entering our 6th Grade Campus at Lee Middle & High School receive a mobile digital device (this year they will again be Dell 2100 netbooks) they'll use throughout their experience at Lee.  When the new school year begins, our middle school will be approximately 80% equipped with mobile technology.  Next year, we'll complete the implementation at the middle school level and include the 9th grade at Lee High School.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Westley Field and the Future of Schooling - #ISTE11

It appears that I saved the best for the last. Westley Field spoke on the Future of Schooling Wednesday afternoon and although my brain had about all it could take from this fantastic conference in Philadelphia, I was certainly glad I hung around to the finish.

Westley is Director of Online Learning and IT Manager for the MLC School in Sydney, Australia.  A private school for girls in grades K-12, MLC is a future-focused school utilizing 1:1 technology tools for blended learning and collaboration.  The school's website proclaims that "...students need to be able to learn in teams, collaboratively, as a class, a section, a whole community or alone...in the city, in the outback and around the world,...anywhere and anytime."  Westley is one of the key leaders in making that happen and his philosophy of 21st century learning is out front in transforming K-12 education.

Last fall, Westley made a trip to San Diego where he presented to a group of technology directors from that area. The 99-minute video of that presentation mirrored what he had to say to us at ISTE this summer.  Titled: Emerging Technologies to Transform Learning in School, it's well-worth watching by school leaders and teachers everywhere.

Westley's philosophy of technology in education can be summed up by a response he makes to a frequently asked question:  Is this (1:1 technology) an integral part of the whole teaching process?

Absolutely. We are preparing students for both their working lives and their personal lives. Many current vocations include the integrated use of technology and it could be argued that technology has become integral to everyday communication. Restricting access to technology would be creating a false environment limiting the development of those skills required for 21st century living and learning. The technology is not as significant as the skills of communication, collaboration, research, independent learning, networking etc.

He also has a great response for those who might question technology in the classroom as a negative change that risks inappropriate behavior or wasting of time by students:

This is not a technology question it is a behavioral question. We have one rule for the use of technology in the school - it must be used to improve your educational outcomes. If students choose to use it in other ways then we regard that as a behavior issue not a technology issue. Limiting access to technology reduces the students skills in learning how to keep safe when using technology.

While much of his presentation focused on the steps schools and districts should take when implementing (or deciding to implement) a 1:1 tech plan and his school's Broken Hill and other real-world learning experiences, I found Westley's down-to-earth philosophy about 21st century learning both entertaining and inspiring. My favorite take-away was a simple yet profound statement of advice: Question everything. Is it helping move toward the future? If not, get rid of it.

Right on, mate!

Third Michigan at Gettysburg

One hundred-forty-eight years ago, the Third Michigan, made up of men primarily from the Grand Rapids and surrounding areas, marched into Gettysburg on July 2 deploying as skirmishers, holding the line from the Peach Orchard to east of the woods.  Colonel Byron R. Pierce was in command but was wounded below the left knee that day and replaced by his brother, Lieutenant Colone Edwin S. Pierce.  The Third eventually took up a position in the Peach Orchard.

Colonel De Trobriand positioned the 5th Michigan and 110th Pennsylvania on the southern edge of a wooded ridge just west of the Wheatfield, with the 3rd Michigan on his western front, the right portion of the regiment being extended to the Peach Orchard, and deployed as a skirmish line at the Emmitsburg Road, connecting with the skirmish line of the 5th Michigan near the Rose house, a little east of the road. The 40th New York and 17th Maine, also in the same woods, De Trobriand held as a second line of reserve, with the 40th on the left and the 17th had its right at the northern edge of the woods about one hundred yards from the Peach Orchard, in the rear of the 3rd Michigan. At about 3:00 a.m. the Third Michigan broke camp and marched off, passing through Emmitsburg and crossing into Pennsylvania at 6:00 a.m. The distance, noted Colonel De Trobriand, was only seven or eight miles, but it had rained, and the roads were terrible.

The Third Michigan came up to the front at the line of battle near Gettysburg sometime between 9:00 and 10:00 a.m. joining the rest of Birney’s First Division. The regiment rested briefly in the Third Corps area, somewhere along the slope of the high ground near Little Round Top. The Michiganders found Birney’s division with its left near Little Round Top and its right in a direct line toward the cemetery, “connecting on the right with the 2nd division of this corps.” The division’s “picket line was in the Emmitsburg road, with sharpshooters some 300 yards in advance.” By mid-afternoon, the Union line of defense ran roughly along the eastern side of the Emmitsburg Road to the Peach Orchard, where Birney’s First division held the line.

At about 2:00 p.m. De Trobriand’s “woefully under strength” Third Brigade, consisting of the 3rd and 5th Michigan regiments, “both small but of the best kind,” and the 17th Maine, the 40th New York, “the largest in the brigade,” and the 110th Pennsylvania, which was the smallest in the brigade with only six companies, was put in the fight.

Expecting an attack on the left General Birney assigned De Trobriand’s Third Brigade to a wooded area at the edge of the “Wheatfield,” in the center of his division’s line.

Source: http://thirdmichigan.blogspot.com/2008/07/in-peach-orchard-at-gettysburg-july-2.html 

Years later, on June 12, 1889, a delegation of Michigan soldiers and political leaders gathered at Gettysburg to dedicate monuments to the Michigan regiments, including the old Third. General Byron R. Pierce led the delegation honoring the Third.  A.S. Shattuck delivered the address which can and should be read at http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924030924736#page/76/mode/2up.