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. 

Summer Challenge

So I've had my last day at Jardine and cleaned out my office yet I still can't bring myself to take those boxes to my new classroom at Truesdell. I've gone to some trainings for the new program I'll be teaching, I get along really well with my partner teacher next year and the new curriculum looks really exciting. Yet those boxes are still in my car. I can't believe how incredibly hard it has been for me to let go of a school where I only worked for one year. I am usually one to embrace change and take charge of a new situation, but I am really struggling this time with moving forward. The students at Jardine are such awesome kids and the staff was so incredibly welcoming that I'm just plain afraid to leave. In a month I'll be completing two weeks of training for the Project Lead the Way program that I'll be teaching next year and I really hope that I will have been able to bring myself to get those boxes out of my car. I am certain some of this fear stems from having lost my job last year and then being told that I won't be returning to Jardine due to restructuring. I have been forced to take a long hard look at how I go about doing business and reflect on my own practices. I really feel that I try my best to do what is best for kids and improving our flawed education system, yet I continue to be moved about in our district. I work in the education system because I believe I truly can make a difference, but I must admit that my fear of the unknown is making me leery of moving forward in my usual "all in" way. I'm afraid that if I jump in with both feet the way I usually do that I will once again be shuffled along, but I know that if I start pulling my punches in order to walk a safer line I will not be able to look at myself in the mirror each day. So here I am, with a car full of moving boxes but unable to take that next step.

Image courtesy of http://sincerelypaige.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/moving-forward.jpg

Back to My Roots (again)

This year has been all about adapting to change for me. My position was cut at the end of the school year last year due to budget cuts so I went on the job hunt and found a science teaching position at Jardine to move into this year. Well long story short I ended up getting moved into the assessment coordinator and site technology specialist position before the school year ever even got started. Then to make an even longer story short, there ended up not being a coordinator for the assessment coordinators this year, so I kind of had to start “winging it” from the get go. No training or PD available left me feeling like I was a day late and a dollar short pretty much all year but I do feel like I’ve kept my head above water most of the time. But to add to all of this, Jardine is going through restructuring this year due to not making AYP for a number of years. (Although this year’s scores look like we will make it this year – yea!) We’ll have a new principal next year and almost 50% of the staff will not be returning, including me. So now I wait to find out where I’ll be placed next year. This means I’m heading “back to my roots” by teaching kids next year. I’m getting pretty excited about it as I feel that I have learned so much in the last four years in the various roles I’ve filled (technology integration specialist, assessment coordinator, DEN Leadership Council member, site technology specialist, Glogster EDU embassador and others) that I will be such a better teacher than I was. It will be really great to share first hand all the new knowledge I’ve gained directly with students to see their reactions and growth for myself.

Going Back to Move Forward

About a week and a half ago I was told that due to budget cuts, my position was "being recommended for elimination to the BOE" and the following Monday the BOE approved that recommendation. If you have ever met me or read any posts on this blog you know that I LOVE my job. I love the opportunity to help other educators grow and improve the educational environment in their classrooms. When I lost my job I was at least able to apply for any open teaching positions within the district and have taken a position at a middle school teaching sixth grade science.

So in August I'm "going back" to the classroom.

It's still hard for me to fully grasp that idea, that I've lost the job that I love and it has nothing to do with my job performance or capabilities. In a time where there are entire schools being restructured by having all employees re-interview for their jobs, the only part that factored into selecting my position was that I was the last person hired. Some days I feel like I'm progressing through the stages of grieving, and other days I feel like I'm just going to wake up tomorrow and it will all have been a very long nightmare. And yes, it is a grieving process. I have lost something which I love and had no choice or say in the matter.

This weekend I was starting to see a light and begin to be excited about some of the possibilities with this new job. When I left the classroom blogs had only been approved for use in our district for a couple of months, the only wiki anyone had ever heard of was Wikipedia and the tools like Glogster and Voicethread hadn't even started yet. When I think about all that I have learned in the last three years as an instructional technology specialist, and pair that with all of the technology I will have available to me in the classroom, I really do start to get excited. I know that my experience as an ITS has made me a better teacher and that I will be able to more strongly impact students when I have that daily, face-to-face interaction with them, but I'm still struggling with the whole idea. 

Leaving the classroom to take this position was the hardest thing I had ever done in my professional life at the time as I love teaching, and now I'll be "going back" with a new perspective and new skills.  

Image courtesy of ManojVasanth and Flickr.

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

An Awakening Failure

I have a confession to make...

I failed the second semester of my junior year of high school. 

I had chosen Ralph Waldo Emerson as a topic for my junior research paper, which was the majority of the semester's grade. I painstakingly created 25 note cards documenting my research and wrote my rough and final drafts. But when it cam time to turn in my paper, I had lost my note cards. And since I have been a procrastinator since birth, I didn't complete the assignment until the night before it was due. This meant that I didn't have time to re-make those note cards and received an F on my research paper and an F for the semester.


To this day I have no idea what I learned from that experience. As I am scouring my action research paper for APA errors, I am having flashbacks to that time of failure in my life. I still wonder why it wasn't enough she had already given me the points for completing the note cards on time earlier in the semester. I don't know if I ever told my parents the real reason I failed that assignment. I don't even remember if I had enough guts to ask for extended time to create a new set. I wonder now as I did then, what the educational value failing a student for losing a stack of cards was. I still enjoy Emerson's work and remember some of what I had learned from the research. But what I remember most is crying while digging through my closet, locker and car looking for those cards because I knew that without them I would fail. 


So I guess I did learn from that experience, although it wasn't what my teacher had intended. I still lose paper almost as soon as I put it down (so thank goodness I can take notes on my laptop.) And I still have no idea how to properly document my resources in MLA or APA. What I learned was that was one thing that I never wanted to do to my students, even though at the time I didn't know I was going to be an educator. All I knew was that I never wanted to another person to feel the way I had because of something I had done. 


Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Glogster EDU - Newly Improved

This summer Glogster launched Glogster EDU, which was totally awesome because the EDU version is completely safe and filtered so teachers don’t have to worry about students viewing inappropriate content. For those that don’t know what Glogster EDU is, it’s basically an virtual poster creator. But it is so much more! Users can upload or link to images, video and that help convey their messages. Text and titles can be added and be linked to external website. There are also a number of graphics that can be added to “spice up” your virtual poster.
Well now Glogster has done it again! They’ve added a whole slew of education themed graphics that will enable both students and teachers to more easily and quickly create Glogs for their classrooms. Graphics such as school supplies, chemical symbols, math symbols, and safety signs have been added to improve the usability in an educational setting. The best part about Glogster is that you don’t have to worry about account creation for students. As an educator you create an account and can add up to 200 students to your account. Then you simply give your students their usernames and passwords and send them to the computer. The teacher has the ability to see all students’ glog, even unfinished glogs, and can make sure those glogs are set to private. The teacher can also retrieve an embed code for the student glogs and embed them into the class blog, wiki, or website.
Since all glogs can be set as private, it’s okay to use DE content on your glogs - as long as you’re not posting those glogs on public facing websites that is. As a teacher you can create an informative poster about cells or create a whole project sending your students all over the web from your glog. Or students can create a glog demonstrating their knowledge about the Civil War or even a presentation of their science project, all without using a single glue stick or printing out a single sheet of paper. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and get your kids glogging today!

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.

What's the "Right Answer"?

This morning I read a post on David Freeburg's blog Epic Epoch about differentiating and his thoughts about whether the process or the product was the most important component of the learning experience. This of course got me thinking about our students today. One of the comments left was that his students are more concerned about getting the "right answer" than they are learning from the process. But how did they get that way? Are we born that way? Or have years of education where you must have the correct answers on the test in order to pass made students that way? I've even been in professional development sessions where teachers have asked "You've shown us a lot of ways to teach this concept. Which is the best way?" That to me leads me to think that the problem is not with students, but that the problem is with the system.

If you give a group of primary aged students some "crafts" supplies and tell them to build a model of a house, they'll dive right in and start building. They won't even think about how their teacher thinks it should look nor will they worry about "right way" to build it. They'll simply dump the supplies out and start working to build a house. But, if you give those same supplies to a secondary level student and tell them to build a model of a house, it is almost guaranteed that they'll start asking questions. "How many points is this worth?" "How big does it have to be?" "Is there an example I can look at so I can get it right?" 
What happens between those early elementary years and middle school that students are becoming disconnected from the fun of learning? Even further, what will happen to those same students when a grade is no longer attached to a product? As educators we need to recognize the fact that learning is much more than "getting the right answer." It is about learning to learn. If we as educators do not start to focus on the process, students won't either and we'll have no one to blame but ourselves when our students fail. We've got to acknowledge that we are the ones that need to implement change, and only when that happens will our students' enthusiasm for learning grow. Only then will our students truly become life-long learners. 

Image courtesy of Flickr and jason03yingling.

Please Step Away from the Textbook!

Textbooks are a staple in most classrooms and can be a great resource for teachers. The problem I find (not that I am even close to the first person to realize this) is that a large number of teachers use their textbook and accompanying teacher's guide as the ONLY resource for teaching. This is prominent from kindergarten all the way to post-secondary education. The problem with this is that teaching from the textbook shuts the door in the faces of students and locks them into their classrooms. Our world holds so many resources for educators - all we have to do is open our eyes and minds and look for them. 

Students today are collaborative, communicate with their peers on a highly frequent basis, create, explore, adapt, and design - except when they are in school. Often times when students enter school they are asked to “power down” their phones, computers, and themselves. On their own, students use technology to explore their world and communicate with others. But in their classrooms, many times the option to use those tools is not available to them. In a large portion of these classrooms, the reason isn’t a lack of access, but rather teachers simply aren’t allowing the students to use the tools available to them.  This lack of use is usually born out of one thing - fear. A fear that the technology may not work properly, a fear that things may not "go as planned," a fear that the students might abuse the technology, and probably mostly a fear of not being the expert in front of students. While it is okay to be afraid, it is not acceptable to allow that fear to prevent you from creating a more appropriate learning environment for students. Even if nothing works they way you plan and the students end up having to show you how to use the tools, the learning that will occur in that time will be completely worth it. The experience may even allow you to see strengths in your students that you may have never before seen.

If you are reading this post you are probably not tied to your textbook, but I'm willing to bet that you know someone that is. So why not offer up a few ideas to that person that will help them expand a learning environment beyond their classroom walls, or at least beyond the covers of the textbook? Introduce someone to the power of the internet for not only creating more engaging learning environment, but also as a way to extend their own learning network. If you're just starting to explore your options outside of your textbook, seek out another person to either explore with you or someone who could act as a mentor and guide in your journey. Trust me, whether you enter the partnership as a guide or "student" you will find yourself learning from the experience and eager to do more learning and exploring.

A couple of days ago someone on Twitter posted a link to David Warlick's article If you can't use technology get out of teaching! which inspired this post, so thanks to my PLN in Twitter (and David Warlick of course.)

Image courtesy of  joewhk and Flickr.

Exciting New Opportunity

Well I'm very excited about a new project that I've been able to undertake this semester. I have the privilege to be able work with a local middle school's instructional coaches to not only embed technology use into their weekly professional development sessions, but also to add technology integration ideas into their actually delivery to the teachers. Meaning for every topic and concept they're covering in PD this semester, I'm going to add ways to embed technology into specific curricular areas. I'm very excited about this because this school already has a good amount of technology in the classrooms, but the teachers still aren't using the tools to their potential - some aren't even using them at all. In my experiences, there is a large portion of the educator population that will embed technology and 21st century skills into their instruction if they are simply taught the skills to do so. Most technology PD is simply teaching participants how to use the tool. I firmly believe that if you follow that instruction will curriculum specific ways to integrate the tools and skills teachers are much more likely to do so.

I have also offered to the entire staff to personally come into their classrooms and help them plan technology rich instructional units, help them deliver the lessons, or even to teach a lesson their classroom. I really feel that most educators would are willing to integrate more technology into their instruction, thereby greatly enriching their students' learning environments, but they are simply not equipped with the skills to do so or afraid that "things might not go right." It is my hope that by giving them the skills and impressing upon them the importance of allowing the students to lead the way (even if things to always go according to plan) that their students' engagement and achievement will increase. When this happens the job of being the teacher becomes less "work" and more of a learning experience for everyone involved.

Image courtesy of tinaylin and Flickr

What Are We Blocking?

Our district, like most, has an Internet filter and guidelines for what gets filtered. And, like most educators that work in districts with filters, I hit that filter a minimum of once a day, most days it much more than that if I'm reading and researching. There are a number of sites that I use as an educator and technology specialist professionally that are blocked within our district, Twitter being the most frustrating block for me (although I do find access to it through a couple of widgets). I use Twitter as a professional in a number of ways, from learning from others, to share my learning, as well as the occasional "Help, I'm looking for _____ resources." And my Twitter network never fails to deliver when I need it. The latest frustration is with image sharing sites. We've got a large number of teachers starting to implement blogging into their classrooms and are wanting to use a template from the Internet. The problem is that the images for those templates are hosted on image sharing sites that are blocked in the district, which means the templates can't be properly viewed within the district. The worst part is that teachers and students have the same filtering levels, so teachers don't even have the ability to evaluate a website for classroom appropriateness if it does happen to be blocked for the students.

I understand the concept for blocking, that we're keeping students from viewing inappropriate content and materials. But I am often left wondering what we're really teaching students (and teachers) when we block so much of the Internet. How can we fully teach Internet safety if we block so much of its content? How can we convince teachers that we trust their judgement to select appropriate resources and content for their classrooms if they have to rely on someone else to evaluate whether or not a site should be blocked? How can we teach our students to collaborate in our global society if we block so many of the social networking and media sites that exist today? These are questions that are often spinning around in my head.

I read about others using social networking, media, and bookmarking sites all the time in their classrooms and district, but as we not only filter but do not supply our students with email addresses OR allow them to use their personal emails, we are not able to use a large number of these tools as they are intended. As I'm not in a position to actually make the decisions as to what types of access students have, I often find myself spinning my wheels when I hit that filter searching for a tool to use in the classroom. Some day surely we will be able to give our students safe access to all of the tools that are available out there, and surely if we all keep trying and promoting the incredible advantages to the massive number of tools that are available to us on the Internet. Considering our students (and teachers) are using a large number of social networking and media sites at while they are at home, we won't have to spend much time teaching the tools. We'll actually be able to teach our students (and teachers) how to use these tools appropriately and how to harness their power in the classroom in order to become responsible citizens in today's global society.

Image thanks to Flickr and epmd.

Blurring the Lines

I am an Instructional Technology Specialist (ITS). It is my job to help teachers to integrate technology into their instruction in order to improve the learning experience for students. When I grappled with the decision of whether or not to leave the classroom I finally decided that I can impact the learning of far more students in this role and took the leap, and I truly love my job. I get the opportunity to lead PD sessions, co-teach lessons with other teachers, and offer one-on-one sessions all in the hopes that more students will be impacted by an improved and more appropriate learning environment.

All that being said, the line between "ITS" and "Help Desk" are often blurred. During my training sessions I hand out my card to anyone who wants it and offer my continued support for helping participants integrate technology into their instruction. But because I hand out my card so readily, I also get a number of calls from people wanting me to fix their computer or hardware. This is where the lines start to blur. Because I am fluent a number of software and internet applications, I have by default learned to trouble-shoot computers and a number of different types of hardware. So the teacher in me want to teach others how to trouble-shoot themselves so they don't have to make more pleas for help, but the ITS in me wants to tell people that it isn't my job to fix their computer and that they need to call their building's tech or the Help Desk. Of course I usually end up teaching them to fix it and then I end up getting more calls and emails for hardware issues.

Another reason the lines are blurred is because I manage the accounts, usernames, and a variety of other "technical support" types of functions for a variety of applications in the district. For example, because I am the website administrator/trainer for our district, I also inherited the job of managing the web server. This further leads people to call me to help them when they need both instructional and technical help with technology. And again, the teacher in me usually wins out and I end up teaching more people how to trouble-shoot and fix their hardware issues.

The reason I let my inner teacher come out in these instances is that I want the issues to be taken care of quickly so that the teachers can get back to teaching and the students can be more positively impacted.The fact is if they have to wait until their building tech can come check on their problem, the learning utilizing that tool will be put on hold and students will be negatively impacted. I also feel that the more teachers know how to do on their own for technical support, the more I will get to do on the instructional side of technology integration. I feel that if I just teach this teacher to be a little more confident in his/her abilities his/her comfort level with technology will increase and the integration will happen more readily. The problem is that there are just so many teachers out there and I get stuck in this vicious cycle that just seems to keep going around and around. The solution for now seems to be keep plowing forward and try to help as many people as possible.

Image courtesy of Flickr and Philou.cn.

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.

Personal Paradigm Shift

I've been reading a number of blog posts lately about the term "Web 2.0" being a completely useless term and I must admit that I have felt this way for quite some time. The term does nothing to describe its meaning to those that don't understand it, is already getting quite "old" to those of us that do, and is meaningless to today's students because the web has always been interactive to them. With all that being said, I find myself using the term "web 2.0" anyway, mostly out of laziness. I have a wiki site that I often use as a resource for training, and it has a (web 2.0) page called "Internet Resources," but I don't feel this really explains the nature of these tools either. I'm looking for a term that says "interactive, dynamic, user-friendly, engaging, free internet websites" but is catchy and fun.
My struggle with the term is not only that it doesn't describe or indicate in any way the power or application of the tools, but it also seems automatically throw up a barrier between the "tech literate" and the "not so literate" folks. This is a problem for me because it will automatically prevent people from listening if they don't understand the terminology being used. I've always felt that when people use a lot of technical jargon in their presentations and explanations that all they really want to do is prove to the audience how smart they are. After I've completed a class or PD session, if the exit surveys indicate that "Erin was really patient when participants needed additional help or explanations" or that "Erin was able to break down the concepts into easy to understand terms," then I feel that I've done my job. If the survey reflects thoughts such as "I am completely overwhelmed and don't know how to use anything from this session," then I have not done my job and that I have probably hindered the progress of those participants, rather than furthered it.
I suppose that the fact still remains that no matter how frustrated I am with the term, it is here to stay - at least for a while. The only solace I can find is that as the internet and its tools continue to evolve, surely the nomenclature will do the same and we won't have to live with the term "forever."

Image courtesy of Flickr and Leo Reynolds

Real Heroes

Events of late have left me thinking and reflecting about heroes and their roles in our lives. When I was growing up my mother was my hero. She is a strong, intelligent, motivated woman that is always there for her family. She was also a full-time nurse in an intensive care unit, highly admired by her co-workers and supervisors, and even won bedside nurse of the year. (I say was because she completed her master's degree a few years ago an is now a nurse anesthetist.) With all of these fantastic atributes, how could she not be my hero, right?
When I was classroom teacher, we always did an activity at the beginning of the year in which, among other things, I asked my students who their heroes were and what they wanted to be when they grow up. An overwhelming number of students would say that their hero was some kind of sports figure and that they wanted to be a professional athlete. Now, I'm not one to crush a child's dreams and aspirations, so I always tried to work at the angle that the students needed to be successful in school in order to get a scholarship into a D1 school and get drafted/selected for their desired professional sport. But this is also when I started really thinking about how professional athletes size-up as role models and heroes.
Don't get me wrong, there are a number of pros out there that lead admirable lives. In fact, I used to work with an amazing teacher that had been a professional soccer player and now as a coach requires his students have passing grades to continue to play. But by and large, the athletes that make it into the news are also those that are being arrested or are in some other kind of trouble. It is this that I find troubling for children, not only my own but for all children. I feel like that if children see professional athletes making massive amounts of money and getting deals from Nike at the same time that those athletes are in the news about DUIs and being arrested on gun/drug charges it sends a terrible message to children. It says that breaking the law and immorality are excusable if you happen to know how to throw or catch a ball really well. It says that people will look the other way if do bad things to yourself and your family if you are also talented enough to help a professional sports team win championships. The same issues arise when we look to t.v. and movie stars as role models.
So, what can we do as educators and parents? Try to be the best possible role models ourselves. Let our children know that we are human and are flawed but show that we learn from our mistakes, that we are life-long learners and continue to grow every day. We need to continue to support our children and encourage them in their education and outside interests. We need to let them be OUR heroes, as they are already our future.

Image courtesy of Flickr and father09.

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.

Reflect Upon "New" Learning

Last month finished up another semester of my master's degree program. The classes all ended with the obligatory final project and final exam. Each of these teachers posed the same basic question on the final exam: "How has your new learning this semester influenced the way you will create lessons and teach in the future?" This of course got me thinking, but not necessarily about what the teacher intended.
I started thinking about the insane number of teachers, including myself, that have asked this question of their students in some way or another. I know that as teachers we are hoping to teach new concepts and that we are enlightening our students at all times, but there are times when that just doesn't happen. So then when the question is asked of students "What did you learn?" we as teachers are assuming that we have indeed enlightened and inspired our students in some way, and that this is a justified question. But what happens if we really haven't imparted any new wisdom upon our students, or they simply haven't obtained any new information or skills? What happens if a student answers "I haven't learned anything new." How do we as teachers react? I would be willing to bet a number of teachers would raise their eyebrows at said student's answer and award zero points to the student for that question and then move on with teaching.
But what would have happened if in my master's level course I had answered that nothing I learned from the instructor was new to me? What if I had said the class I had just paid $700 for really had not taught me much of anything that will influence the way I teach? Because, this in fact for one of my courses, was the case. Not to say I didn't learn and grow as a result of this class, but almost all of my learning and growth came from interactions with my fellow students and the ideas that they brought to the class. I wish that could tell you that I had the nerve to say exactly that in response to this question, but I did not. So for me, for now, this question will remain unanswered and I am left to wonder "What if?"
At least I can now reflect upon this question for my own teaching and whether or not this is an appropriate question to ask of my students. Maybe a more appropriate question would be "Have you learned new information or skills that will change the way you go about business?" or "If you have learned new skills or ideas, what are they?" And then follow up with the question of "If you haven't learned new skills or information, what could be added to this class (or lesson) that would help you?"

Image courtesy of Flickr and The Library of Congress