A Big Day for Many People

Yesterday was a big one! Not only was it a great day. One I will remember or a long time, but it was also a big day in the number of people who attended. But I am getting ahead of myself, excitement can do that to a person. I'll start at the beginning since January is the official month for admitting guilt. I am guilty of starting something for selfish reasons, but I am not completely selfish because I knew it would help other people too. Last summer, when a couple of collegues and I were talking at a meeting about our laptop initiatives, I said "I wish we could just get together to compare notes about what we are all doing in our schools since we are all going through the same things. We could be each other's support group. We could each stand up and admit 'I am a computer addict, and I want to learn from the rest of you computer addicts to do things better.' And they agreed with me that there was no place to serve donuts and coffee for us computer addicts, there was so place for that intervention to take place."

When one of the group I was talking to said, "well, why don't you arrange it?" I thought why not. In that very moment, with the blessing of the others, I emailed the ESUs and asked them to host a Laptop Initiative Support Community meeting. I explained we had no money. We had no written agenda, and no invitation list. We had nothing, other than the desire to meet, and we wanted them to give us a place to sit together and talk - and they did!

Our first meeting was in July - about 2 weeks after this first "wish." About 8 schools, 3 ESU representatives, a Nebraska Department of Ed representative, and a couple of vendors showed up. We created our own agenda as we went. We talked about our immediate needs for roll out night, acceptable use policies, professional development ideas, and much more. And when we drove home that day I can only say that it was the most well spent day (at a meeting) that I have attended in couple of years. It was great, but afterwards, the hard part came. How do we find a way to do this again?

To create a follow-up day, I asked the Nebraska Educational Technology Association to give us $500 to help pay for a room and the lunch so this group could meet again in January, and hopefully con a few more schools to join us. AND THEN... BOOM!

When we advertised this meeting, that those 20 people would grow so quickly. We had no idea that we would grow exponentially from 8 schools. We had no idea that we would create a laptop professional network to post discussion forum ideas, blogs about common topics, share lessons and links, and that it would continue daily. We had no idea that we would outgrow the room (which holds about 50) and have to move to another town. We had no idea that we would outgrow the second room either (which holds about 75). We had no idea that we would cause 2 other workshops to move to different rooms, we could take down the air walls to create one massive room that would hold all 132 of us. (I was even jokingly asked if we would move to the tri-city arena next if the registration kept going up.)

It was a joy to see so many interested schools, teachers, and administrators. It was a joy to be able to answer questions from the audience and to share information. What the real joy was in sharing with each other again. The joy of networking with others and making contacts with people who are passionate about the same topics. I have so many new ideas, both for the classroom and for the management of our laptop initiative.

Of course, at the end of the day, I was asked several times, where do we go now? We head off to NETA. This association has planned a full strand of sessions at the conference directed toward laptop initiatives, getting ready, lesson planning, technical question, financing, budgeting, etc. Hope to see you all there on April 23-24, 2009.
(You may read the meeting minutes for January 23 here or here.)

"Extend a Hand to Open a Fist"

Better late than never. I know the inauguration was on January 20th, and that I am late in publishing this column, but I can’t help but write about something so historic. People are probably getting tired of hearing the same old cliché statements, but they are so true. So I will try to quickly repeat some of those clichés – in one sentence and get them out of the way - so I can get to what I really want to say. "Many thought this day would never come," but “it was a historic day” in which we can all "take pride in our country" which was a “giant step forward for the African American community” and for our “country as a whole,” that we elected an African American; this should “unite our country” and allow to move forward “leaving racism behind” and "repair our nation."

Before I took my juniors in to the gym to watch the inauguration ceremony, we were reading “Coming of Age in Mississippi,” a nonfiction account written by a woman directly involved in a protest during the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s. She told her story about sitting at the lunch counter and being squirted with ketchup and mustard, drug out the door of the diner while there was rioting in the streets and massive violence. We talked in class that we have come a long way since the 60s. In just over 40 years, we have an African American President – and most people thought they would “never live to see that happen in their lifetime.” We talked about Martin Luther King Jr – since his day was January 19th, and his famous “I Have a Dream” speech and how that one speech called to unity a massive movement of nonviolent protestors who made a real difference in the world. We wondered as a group if Obama’s speech would have an “I Have Dream” quality. I asked my students, immediately after watching the inauguration ceremony what one thing stood out in their minds as the “phrase of the day” and they each had something to say. I was relieved that they paid enough attention to have such a wide variety of phrases they remembered.

A couple of things stood out in my mind as I listened. My favorite line was when he said, “Extend a hand, to open a fist.” The metaphor and the mental imagery really caught my fancy. The more I think about that statement, the more I like it, and the more I can connect to so much of what is going on in the world politically; so much of what is going on in the country economically; so much of what is going on in the state; and so much of what should be going on in our schools. And – surprise of all surprises – we can use technology to extend our hands, create bonds, solve problems, collaborate for solutions and inventions, and open the fists of our adversaries both large and small.

Funny enough, later in Obama’s speech he point blank said, “Schools, colleges and universities must prepare for the demands of the future… for the future, we must recommit to every child.” I don’t think he was making direct reference to technology because he also mentioned pencils in the next sentence, so I prefer to turn his phrase to read, “teachers say take out your laptops – begin.”

In the 80s it was “Just say no”… now, in the new millennium it is … “yes we can!”

Beyond New Year's Resolutions

I have read many times about how this new presidency will change education. How with this new leadership we will see positive changes for our schools, students and teachers. But what baffles me, is that every article I read really doesn’t say much. I can’t really find specifics of how Obama (or any other newly elected politician in Nebraska) is going to create positive change. They don’t say much. Even the NEA Today magazine didn’t say much. All I could really find is that “they” want to reduce the overemphasis on standardized tests, find a way for every student willing to work hard to go to college, and close achievement gaps. But this seems too obvious and simplistic. There are no concrete steps of how this will be accomplished, they can’t articulate a vision of what great public schools will look like, or what results they hope to see. People like me want to write about change, and how things will be so much better because we are optimists. However I am troubled. It is difficult to feel optimistic or to believe that change can really be achieved when the economy is in horrible condition, we are a country at war, and our politicians are overly busy fighting amongst themselves. And just when I thought this post was taking a negative post (so I actually quit writing it for a few days), I read NSEA President Jess Wolf’s column, which said “we must provide a new system designed to achieve new, loftier goals.” I agree – ah – can you hear my sign of relief as I have a new sense of optimism and hope.

It is a new year. We are going into new leadership, both at the national and state levels. It’s time we made some new year’s resolutions. Not the kind of resolutions that get broken, like the vow to eat healthier when you know there are empty McDonald’s wrappers on the floorboard of your car. And not the resolutions that say I vow to exercise every day, but there are aren’t enough hours in the day now, and not enough drive to give up the fun activities to find time to sweat. The resolutions have to be real. They have to be short, easy to understand, with an end goal in mind, with a measurable outcome to know when you have reached that “lofty goal,” and they have to be important. These resolutions can’t be written in just a couple of minutes. These resolutions take some time and consideration and planning. So I asked myself, what goals should I have for my classroom and for my school?

My goals have to be different from what someone would plan in a larger school, in a larger district, in an urban area, in a diverse community. We have “different fish to fry,” so to speak. Everything we do has to be different from the rest of the country, because I have to think about “my kids” and “my teachers” and their immediate needs, not what others need or should need. The only way to move forward is in our own way, because every step forward turns into several steps forward. And all those steps forward create forward motion, and once that momentum starts you never know where it will slow or stop. So my goals have to begin that effort to move forward, actually to keep the forward motion going – kind of like a scooter, I just need to balance on one foot, and give another big push forward with my other foot and hope each foot moves in the same direction without a wreck.

1. We have a laptop initiative. We are integrating technology into our lessons through project-based learning. My new goal has to be center around: How do I change my planning to ensure that am asking the most for my students in reading skills, writing skills and quality, and problem solving that will involve synthesizing information?
2. We have a laptop initiative so we have the capability to individualize learning, but that takes a lot of work. My new goal has to center around: How do I plan, record, and distribute individualized lessons, that the students can choose from when they “test out” of a unit, and still push students forward?
3. I am the technology coordinator, as well as a teacher, so to improve that half of my job my goal has to center around: How do I improvement my relationships with other teachers in our district so that I can assist them to improve their classrooms, their lessons, and their professional growth?

I realize as I write these goals, that some of them area not measureable, so I have to decide a plan of action to try to reach these goals. Those steps will be a lot more measureable – “mini goals” that I will have to achieve. Tomorrow, I will share with you some of my new ideas, and maybe down the road a few months, I can update you on my progress toward those goals.