Seeing the Final Product

Well I've "moved up" to high school this year as a data leader, which means I help staff members use classroom and assessment data to drive instruction (that's the hope anyway.) I have always worked in middle school so I've never been able to see "the end product" with my students. Until this year that is. I am at the high school right next door to the middle school where I had my first teaching job and this year's seniors are my last group of sixth graders from "across the lot." It has been very exciting for me to see so many of my former students these last few days and sad to see many of them not here because they have already decided school isn't "the way to go." When I taught "across the lot" I had all of the ESOL students as soon as they left the Newcomers' program. I have been impressed and awed by the development of so many of my former students' language skills - they ROCK! I've been really surprised and flattered by the number of students that not only remember my name but also have memories from my class that they've been wanting to tell me. These are SENIORS people and that was six years ago, which in "teen-aged years" is practically a lifetime! 

Some of my favorites have been memories of the hissing cockroaches I had in my classroom, the time that a student tried to pull the tail off of my leopard gecko, how much they loved "Science in a Box" days, using technology in class "almost every day" and various memories of my former partner teacher and I goofing off in the hallways. One story in particular stuck with me. A little girl that spoke very basic English in 6th grade (Vietnamese is her native language) walked up to me in the hallway and said "I remember you. You were my very first science teacher in the United States and your class was so interesting. You had those hissing bugs and gross lizards, but I loved your class anyway because we got to do the work with our hands, which helped because I didn't speak English very well yet. And my friends from that class were just talking the other day about how you said that when you got your diploma book at graduation there was a problem and no one got their diplomas that year. You had to go back to the school later to get them. Some of my friends are wondering if the same thing is going to happen to us. We think that would be funny if it did!" It was such a small story that I told to my students yet six years later there is a small group of students that remembers it. It's astounds me everyday the connections we make with our students and the impact on their lives we have. I don't know why they remembered that particular story, but it made me feel so very important that they would pay attention to such a little thing like that and reminds me again of the important role we as educators play in our students' lives. 

So with this in mind, remember that your students really are listening when you speak and that you play a HUGE role in their lives - both educationally and otherwise. 

Photo courtesy of iStock

Changing the World

I've had a crazy semester (thus the non-posting by Ms. M) but as it comes to a close I  inevitably reflect on my experiences, both with others and on my own. This is just a random collection of thoughts I've had in the last week or two.

• I still truly believe that teaching is the most important career (aside from being a parent) that anyone could choose to pursue. I love kids and am amazed on a daily basis by their perspectives on life - positive or otherwise. I tell my students that I change the world every day, as everything that happens in my classroom impacts them in some way and they will take that with them when they leave me. Thus, it is my goal to change the world in a positive way as much as I possibly can. Every day has to be a fresh start for every child that walks into my room, no matter what has happened in the past.
  
• I have to realize that I have no control over what happens in classrooms that aren't mine and that the best way to help students overcome adversity is to be a positive role model and support them even when they don't think they want or need it. Dwelling on negativity not only doesn't help anyone, it becomes a disease that will infect my classroom if I allow it. Not only do I need to give my students a fresh start every day, I need to allow myself that same privilege. Every morning I need to start over, forgetting whatever slip-ups I may have had. No one is perfect, so I should not expect perfection from myself. To be human is a beautiful thing - imperfections and all.
• It's time I start being an advocate again for technology integration and Project-based Learning. With changing schools and jobs this year I have let that slide, and it is unacceptable. I will start blogging again, I will start posting student projects to my class website and I will start offering to host PLCs in these areas. They are things which I truly believe will impact positive change in education (and face it, our education system is seriously damaged right now) and if I want it to change I've got to do my part to change it. Someone's got to be an impetus for change, why can't it be me?

I am incredibly grateful for my small collection of friends that have helped me through this very challenging semester and am going to try from this point forward to be the positive influence in the lives of both students and teachers that I know is needed. I can not control what others do, but I can control what I do and hope that it impacts others in a beneficial way. 

My Advice?

I was excited and flattered when an instructor emailed me to ask if she could interview me for a class she is teaching about being a technology integration specialist. Since it is a class early on in the program it mostly covers what it means to be an integration specialist - what skills are involved and such. So the questions were pretty much what I expected: What would you say are your major responsibilities? What is a typical day like as an integration specialist? (This was the hardest question to answer as no two days are alike.) What advice do you have for those looking to become technology integration specialists? It is this last question that was both the easiest and I feel most important question she could have asked. And these are the main points of my answer:

• Expand your Professional Learning Network (PLN) - I learn SO MUCH when I take time to read my RSS feeds and just "listen" to the education talk that occurs on sites like Twitter. 
• Be approachable, but not a door mat. - It is important that the educators and students you support know that you will help them when they need it, but don't do the work for them. If needs support keep your hands off of their computer if at all possible. This may possibly be one of the hardest things I had to learn because "I can do it faster." But, if you fix the problems for them, they will come back again expecting you to fix another problem and won't ever learn the skills themselves.
• Don't let your work take over your life. - It is so easy to sit down "for just a few minutes" with your computer in the evening and then realize that two hours have passed. One of my favorite aspects of my job is that I get to explore the internet for new tools and exciting ways to use them in the classroom. But this can be very time consuming and can cause you to feel overwhelmed if you are not careful.

There were of course a number of other things I could have said, but I felt these were some of the biggest ideas that I wanted to convey.  And of course as soon as I publish this post there will be even more that I wished I had added.


Image courtesy of Flickr and laughlin

2 1/2 Months Later...

It's been about two-and-a-half months now that I have going to a local middle school once a week to provide professional development sessions on integrating technology into their specific curricular areas and the district's new lesson structure model. This experience has definitely been eye-opening! As a whole, the staff was pretty comfortable with using technology for themselves but were not very comfortable allowing students to use technology, which is the intended goal for the massive amount of money spent on classroom technology. I am glad to report that both teacher comfort allowing students to use technology and actual student use of technology went up in this very short time frame! A few things to note:

1. While more teachers were allowing students to use technology in class, the number of classrooms using technology did not go up. In other words, the same amount of classrooms had technology use occurring, but more of if was student use rather than teacher use.
2. I feel a large part of this success is due to the fact that the instructional coaches jumped right in with both feet on integrating technology into ALL professional development.
3. While survey results would lead one to believe that student engagement went down, I don't believe that is actually the case. During the course of this semester, the definition "actively engaged" was clarified to the staff members. I believe this is why the results showed a drop in students that were actively engaged, as all conversations with staff members indicate that students were more engaged in the learning. 

Teacher Survey Results

View more presentations from Erin Misegadis.


Overall I think that the work done this semester was beneficial to all involved and I hope that the coaches will be able to continue to support technology integration into their professional development sessions and that the students will benefit from this experience.

Glass Half-empty or Half-full?

In my job I run into a large number of nay-sayers, negative Nancys (or Neds), glass-half-empties, or whatever it is you call a person that always sees the flaws and defects in something first. You know them. When you show them how to use a blog as an online journal for their classroom, the first thing they say is "my kids can't use the internet at home" or "no way I can get into the lab enough to make it worth the work." As soon as you show them an internet-based alternative to the "Inspiration" software they don't have in their new school, they're pointing out how this tool only saves as an image so you can't edit it later. When you show them how to create student usernames and passwords for their wiki or content management system, they're upset because they already know their students won't be able to remember the password. You know them.
And as much as I try, this can at times be a drain on me, both emotionally and physically. Just this week I was at a school helping teachers learn to use their new SMART boards and the complaints came in mountains. The vast number of pre-made lessons available on our website weren't exactly how they wanted and they don't have the time to learn a new tool. "Does the board really have to be re-oriented every time I move the projector?" "I've had that table there for three years and now I have to move it because someone put this board in my room. That table won't work anywhere else in my room." And this is only about a SMART board. I don't even want to get into the conversations that happened when teachers found out that our contract with Blackboard isn't going to be extended and that they'd have to learn a new tool if they wanted to keep their content online.
I have come to realize that it is part of my job to keep smiling and holding hands so that teachers don't lose faith, so that teachers will keep trying new ideas, and so that classrooms can take yet another step to being student-centered learning environments. This is the most difficult and important part of my job and it wasn't even in the job description when I applied. So after a couple of years, I've stumbled across some concepts that seem to help me do this, the most important part of my job.
To begin, I always try to let "Nancy" know that her opinion is valid. Even if I think it is an imagined hurdle or fear, in that person's mind it is real and therefore I need to listen and validate it. I also need to make sure I stay positive while I'm listening and responding so that "Nancy" will see that there really is a light at the end of that tunnel. It also helps to be a quick thinker and problem solver so that when a teacher comes across a hurdle, I/we can quickly come up with a solution for getting over that hurdle. The next part is something that I personally have to work really hard at doing, and that is checking back frequently to make sure the solution is still working. I have found this one to be important because so many times if there is one bump in the new road for that teacher, that bump will keep him/her from traveling that road at all. But I have found that if I check back with individuals, it seems to keep the motivation up and that they will eventually feel comfortable enough that they can contact me without waiting for my emails. Finally, I have to be continually looking for new ideas and ways for teaching "old" concepts. This is because technology is changing so rapidly and new hurdles and bumps show up in the road every day. This one is probably one of the best parts of my job, as it means I get to spend time surfing the net and learning from my PLN which always leaves me inspired to do more.

And just in case you're wondering, here's a few suggestions for the problems presented above. For blogging nay-sayers: suggest that maybe at first try using the blog as an extra-credit opportunity for journals to see how many students truly don't have access to internet at home. For those upset that free mind-mapping tools don't often allow for changes and updates, point out some of the great online image editing tools that will allow for later "additions" so that teachers can demonstrate to students how the learning process is continually changing and growing. And for the teacher that's worried her students won't remember passwords, well this is one I still don't have a fantastic response for so if you have one - help me out and leave it in the comments section.

Image courtesy of Flickr and livcheng.

Seven Free Teacher Tools

Just a quick post today. I got the following on Twitter today (via twitter.com/cathriving) and thought it was worth sharing.

#1 Top 15 service learning tools and resources are here:
http://www.educationreporting.com/#service

#2 Service, stewardship, and strategies updated weekly with hundreds of resources for classes or groups are here:
http://www.educationreporting.com/greenschool.xml

#3 Encourage student participation use Project Based Learning; there's the best over 25 top web resources here: http://www.educationreporting.com/#project

#4 Technology resources, over 100 top notch ideas and tools to fortify lessons and activities: http://www.educationreporting.com/#technology

#5 Use the finest: get peer and expert wisdom by choosing from over 100 blogs and wikis at http://www.educationreporting.com

#6 Rock your instruction and save time; use these highly rated curriculum resources for all content areas at http://www.educationreporting.com/curriculum.php

#7 Nail pedagogy and hone teacher skills; quality collection of excellent resources to use as a refresher or help design innovative lessons. http://www.educationreporting.com/globaled.php#ped

Tearing Down the Walls

I've been working this week with some secondary instructional coaches and teachers on learning to integrate technology into their coaching and instruction. We've been discussing using technology for research, creating content and presentations, problem solving, creating and completing assignments, and for communicating and collaboration.
In these conversations I have heard something that I hear all the time. There are so many educators that think that technology is great for research, creating and completing lessons, presenting materials, and reinforcing instruction, but when it comes to collaboration there is a wall thrown in the path. The objection is that texting, blogging, emailing, social networks, and other such types of tools aren't really collaboration because the participants aren't interacting face-to-face, hearing each others' voices, and reading each others' body language. And I hate to sound like I am biased, but it is usually the "veteran" teachers making these objections.
It is at this point I start my retort, and it usually goes something like this: "While it might be true that kids aren't interacting face-to-face, that doesn't mean they aren't collaborating. Texting, emailing, tweeting, and using Facebook is just a small part of what collaboration has become in today's society. Sure, we still want our children to be able to communicate with people face-to-face and be able to pick up on those little nuances of inter-personal communication, but we have to move beyond that. I personally send 800 - 1,000 text messages a month, use social networking tools daily, and send more email messages than I care to even know as a way to collaborate and communicate with others professionally. The nice part about these types of communication tools is that it allows us to get down to business when I finally do meet face-to-face with my fellow collaborators. We have already done the document exchanges, we've already taken care of the agenda and assigned roles, so when we actually meet we're getting so much more done. The world outside school is going to move forward with these types of tools, so we can either follow suit or be left in the dust - as we so often are in education."
Today when I gave this speech I had the most wonderful response. One coach spoke up to the group and said (paraphrasing here) "Guys, this is where our kids are. These are the things our kids are doing and the tools they're using. Nothing we do can change that, so we've got to meet them where they are and move forward. It doesn't matter how long we debate the use of these technologies in education, the rest of the world is using them and we've got to keep up so that we remain relevant in the eyes of our students."
I seriously wanted to shout "Amen!" when she said this. It is all about being relevant. If our students don't think that our teaching is relevant, they aren't going to learn. If they have to continue to "unplug" when they walk into classrooms, they will soon "tune out" altogether and that will be the real tragedy. Educators as a whole have got to "get with it" and keep up with the times, or in the end it's going to be our children that lose in the battle of life - not us.

From Teaching Students to Teaching Teachers

In my job I spend the majority of my time teaching adults how to integrate technology into their daily instruction. I love my job! That being said I have spent a lot of time lately thinking about the preparations that I do teaching adults compared to when I go into a classroom full of students and how different the two groups really are.

When I was in the classroom, I had learning outcomes, planned the activities (knowing full and well that some wouldn't get done and some would be modified for each class), and we would move forward. There would be weeks that all would go relatively close to how I had planned, and weeks that I would scrap it all ten minutes into the first lesson of the week. Either way, the students were always up for it. If I said to them, "Hey guys, I don't think what I had planned is going to work. How about we try something else?" They would follow me into the supply room and help me carry out all the new supplies for the day and we would all learn together - and we all loved it that way.

The first session I did on my own in this job was a total disaster. I tried to do a hands-on educaching session with middle school teachers. I basically went in, told them what geocaching and educaching is, showed them how to use the GPS units, and sent them on their way. It was a total disaster! I had complaints that there weren't enough hand-outs, complaints that I didn't explain enough about how GPS works, complaints that we didn't find enough caches together, and even more complaints that I can't even remember. On top of all that, someone complained to my boss and he told me he was already thinking that he had may have made the wrong choice in chosing me for the job. Needless to say, I was totally devastated. From then I went into planning overdrive for the next six months. Every time I had a training session, I spent hours planning, anticipating participant questions, creating hand-outs and "quick start" guides, and basically structuring every minute of the session. After six months I still had complaints that I didn't have enough hand-outs, or the right hand-outs, or didn't do enough step-by-step instruction. After a while, I realized that I wasn't enjoying teaching anymore. Not only that, but I was only teaching people how to use the tools. I wasn't modeling the kind of integration that I wanted others to do. In other words, I wasn't doing my job.

So I had to do some major self-reflection to get moving down the right path again. I knew that I was a good classroom teacher and I knew that I had things to share with teachers. I just had to figure out where the disconnect was. I realized that the reason my teachers weren't responding the way my students had was because they were of different generations. I had never really taken time to internalize the major differences between the education styles of "Generation Y" and previous generations. Teachers wanted step-by-step because that was the way they had been taught when they were in school. The only way to get teachers to move away from that model is to push them out of it, but support needs to be provided.

With this new "revalation" (which many, many, many before me had already experienced) I re-invented myself as an instructional technology specialist. I still spend large amounts of time planning training sessions, but my sessions are now almost exclusively hands-on and learner centered. I still make hand-outs, but they are more along the lines of a guided notes outline than the whole printed slide-shows from before. Additional support pages and references are posted to the web and participants are pointed to them if they feel the need to print them. I've also started implementing multiple types of resources and differentiation into sessions in order to catch all learning styles and allow learners to go where their needs take them.

In all, I think that I have become more effective and affective in my position and that I am still postively impacting students. I have come to really love my job and the continual learning and growing that comes with it. I find myself actually grateful for all those complaints in that first session. If it weren't for those complaints, who knows how long I would have wandered down that winding, inefficient, and ineffective path.

Image courtesy of Pablo Barra and Flickr