No Limits, No Mediocrity: Motivational Speakers Every Night

As I said earlier, the summer institute was packed with a nice combination of work, networking, thinking, socializing, and motivating. I particularly enjoyed the motivational speakers. I loved Jayson Whitmore’s personal branding keynote and Rebecca Stockley’s improv keynote, as I wrote about earlier. But in addition to Jayson and Rebecca, we also had the opportunity to hear Ray Zahab (http://rayzahab.com ) the cofounder of http://impossible2possible.com His talk mostly focused about the personal journey and pushing your limits. He thought everyone could benefit from setting purposeful goals, stopping feeling sorry for yourself and just get started on something new. He wanted us to “dump our negative baggage, do the best you can with every opportunity, and take pride of this is what I have done.” Fear stops us from ever trying and you have to push through and override. Sometimes you need to be pushed to your ultimate limit to really see what you can do. Those that say you can’t often push you a bit further and then you really can accomplish the impossible. Your mental talk and attitude will determine your success. When you reach that “push comes to shove” moment, you will talk positively to yourself and you will make that last leap. If you will have to live with the fact that you didn’t try hard enough because “you can trick other people into believing the excuses, but you can’t trick yourself… you will have to live with it.”

Though his expedition to run across Africa (50 miles a day for over 100 days straight) was one of personal challenge, he realized that “Once your eyes have been opened, you can’t close them.” You learn from the experience. You learn that you can’t take for granted being away from your family. You can’t forget the generosity and kindness of strangers. The stories along his journey were the indelible ink on his heart. It was their stories that pushed him forward to change his life once he reached his goal destination. He learned to appreciate water and that it is life sustaining beyond the body. It is also the sign of prosperity. If yu don’t have water, you spend the day gathering enough water to survive instead of going ot school, working on improvement projects, or building an economy.
Just as he was a victim of involuntary exfoliation by the sand storms, he is hoping that his message will you clean up your life as well. “We in North America live in the graveyards of the living. We are alone, and (other) people don’t necessarily want to be here… We should not be egocentric enough to believe that we can give people of other countries anything in comparison to what they can give each of us.”

How does this translate to my classroom and yours? That is for you to interpret… take the time and reach for his message.

Learning about the difference between project-based learning and personalized learning

As most of you already know, I have been using project-based learning in my classroom for many years and it has been a really great thing! In fact when I left home before this conference, I thought I was riding the wave of the cutting edge. In a way that is right, but with a little tweaking, I can get back in the big swells and really get moving!

What I, and many other teachers are doing is designing projects for students to work on and hopefully learn from. This is a big change from traditional teaching methods only in that we have moved from using paper, posterboard, markers, modeling clay, and other consumable supplies; to using hardware and software to accomplish the same tactics. To take this a step further, I thought I was moving forward at a rapid rate by providing a list of projects that the students could choose from to demonstrate that they are learning. This would allow me to provide projects from each of the multiple intelligence arenas, and it would give them choice. That is all well and good… but not really personalized. I have still made too many choices.

I have not personalized the learning unless I let the student take more control from the very beginning. They should be allowed to pick the novel they want to read. They should be able to choose the main ideas, and to delve deeper into learning the materials they don’t already know anything about. Why reteach something they already know? Why not let them determine their own path to new knowledge. (I can just hear the nay-sayers, if I don’t guide them, they will not choose a path, and they will just waste time. Here is my answer to that… DON’T LET THEM.)

For example, my curriculum says we have to read a Shakespearian play in the 9th grade. Why make them all read the same one? Why not let them choose one they are interested in? If you really think about it, the minilessons for introducing Shakespeare and dramatic elements, literary elements, etc. are basically the same for all plays. If they chose one they were interested it might not be torture! OOOOH, that would be different.

Another example, reading books from the different genres, or different decades, or eras, etc. Why not let them choose? Why not choose the myths you want to read, or the ones you have watched on the Disney channel, see in the movies. How about a myth that was alluded to in your Jodi Picoult novel that made you curious?

So they have to write a research paper, why does everyone have to do the same thing with only minor changes? Why not let them do research every day as they are studying subjects they want to learn about, have them write every day, cite their sources every day, develop their own opinions, and publish everyday?

Challenge Based Learning:

We were originally challenge by the Apple education team to think about how do we clean up the clutter of our schools? How do we design a high school? What are the design principles? How are 21st century skill outcomes (rubrics and expectations spelled out), relevant and applied curriculum (laser focus), informative assessments (give real info we can use), Culture of creativity and innovation (school reform guides, solving problems and modeling creative environments), social and emotional connection (advisories, every kid touched by someone in the school, someone nitices if they are gone, some semblance of relevance to what they are doing), 24-7 access to tech resources and tools (to do their own work) spelled out in our schools?
After explaining this they admitted that they were look ing for new examples to show us what this challenge based classroom (www.challengebasedlearning.org) would look like. To generate ideas, and get our group projects started they asked What do you do when you wake up with a challenge you are facing? How are we going to learn together? What do you do to try to find information before you go to the Internet? (talk to people, search the tv, etc) How do you get kids deeply involved? How to eliminate the long teacher hours? What motivates kids?

• Insert pic of the levels of CBL. Each of the steps in this process were discussed a bit: Let it be an adventure they discover together, let them divide up the work they don’t all have to do the same sections. Big idea. Big problems that need to be solved today.
• Essential question to understand the idea (why is water important depends on whether you are thirsty, dirty or on fire)
• Formulate a challenge to inspire action in your locality, school, community
• Guiding questions to meet the challenge (this is when the teacher steps in to help find out what we need to know to answer the question)
• Guiding activities (what do we need to do to answer those questions? Don’t try to over-engineer? Not solutions to the problem, but asking others what they think we should do to improve this situation, get photos of the problem, get floor plans, make lists of what is there, inventory lists, )
• Guiding resources collection (ask experts, web, iTunes U, etc.)
• Begin to craft a solution from actions
• Assessment: how did you work with yoru team? What were yoru strategies, citing sources, show me the script, how did you collaborate, show me emails, how well did they understand the content?
• Final phase
• Publish samples
• Student reflections (read a friend’s journal of notes and pick the best quotes, statements, ideas, or drawings) Document what happens: teacher reflections, student journals, etc. Collect data points, then create a video, results of the project

Having gone through these steps, it might sound easy, but it is a major pedagogical shift. We need to be able to simplify CBL, you need to be prepared to be wrong (you learn more). We need to keep in mind that we are educating them out of their creative capacities. It will feel a bit disorganized at first, but as the teacher you have to change it into controlled chaos, do extensive surveys, and be sure that you allow yourself as the teacher to get off the pedestal and work together. The students will guide their own learning, and you will guide them to make sure they are learning on their own what you would have taught them if you had stayed on the pedestal.

Networking at its Finest!

Before I left home, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I worried (sort of) about not knowing anyone, but cherishing the idea of meeting a lot of new people. I also worried that I would not fit in since I come from such a small town and such a small school. In fact after I got there, and as I talked to all these fascinating people, I wondered “why did they pick me?”

Now I am sure you are thinking, “Didn’t she know what she was getting herself into when she was asked to apply for this award?” Well, the answer is both yes and no. Yes I knew that I was being honored for doing something great with educational technology. I knew that I would have opportunities to help Apple and use my connections with Apple and this prestigious honor to help with my own career. But did I know the caliber of the people I would have a chance to network with or the friendships I would make? Did I know how quickly I would make friends, and how soon I would come to rely on them for assistance, advice and support? Did I know how much I could learn from these people in just the few short days since the institute ended? The answer would be NO to all of the above, and there are so many other questions that could be asked and the wonderful answer would be NO every time!

I have added a bunch of people to follow on Twitter, I have collected email links, I have gained a new appreciation for the ADE list serv and the fact that I can ask for help easily. I have learned patience by waiting for the Apple Learning Interchange to open up again, because I can’t wait to surf around some more and learn more from the people I have met. Advice to students: every meeting with someone is a opportunity to create your network. Every break during a meeting, every phone call, every email message, every web site interaction, every tweet you read/respond to, every blog response, and every person you are introduced to personally is a chance to add to your network and increase your visibility the world. You never know where your next job offer might come from, or your next big break! Pay attention to names, pay attention to what they do and where they are from, and you never know where your life might take you.

What does ADE mean… really?

I learned what it meant to be an Apple Distinguished Educator, beyond what I have been doing. We talked about the 4 pillars of the ADE program:

1. author (contributing to the ALI web site – lesson plans/stories, and authoring my own sites and materials)
2. advocate (being a resource for others, working for Apple, workshops, presenting, journaling, formal and informal working with other people, best practice sharing, some things I already do)
3. advisor (have people come to your school, work with software and try it to give feedback, data sharing for student improvement, working with other ADEs)
4. ambassador (subtle role, part of the face of apple education, enjoying my job publically)

When they said “it is better to be deserving of an award, and not getting it, than it is to be given an award and wasting the opportunity to improve from it.” I couldn’t agree more. You just don’t get this award, you earn it. And… you grow from it. It can almost be called a gift and curse. It was a gift to be awarded this honor. The accolades are wonderful, and the gifts are great, but some will consider it a curse as well. One of my fellow ADEs said, “look around at your class… this will be the last time you see some of these people. They won’t all enjoy this opportunity. Some will not appreciate the work, and others just won’t find the time to participate. But please try!” I guess that is where the curse part comes in. The curse is that I want to do everything. I want to get involved. I want to work hard! I want to continue, and I want to return. Not necessarily to benefit Apple, but to benefit my own learning and my classroom.

Practical Jokes and Lot of Fun:

Even educators whose students would think they are stuffy, boring, or regimented would be surprised at how much fun we can have as a group. We spent 5 days joking, laughing, taking pictures, and trying to catch our breath. There was a nice series of practical jokes taking place at the hotel, but all was in good fun, nothing damaging, or mean spirited. Even the “victims” of the joke thought they were fun. As someone watching from the outside of the jokes, I wouldn’t even have minded if the jokes were aimed at me. They were clever, and entertaining. For example, one ADE returned to the hotel to find that his entire hotel room, luggage, toiletries, clothing, and mess had been moved inot the lobby on display. And when he found his “room” had moved, he laid on the bed most of the night entertaining in his room. (They did eventually move his mattresses and other stuff back into his empty room for sleeping.)

Another joke was “aided and abetted” by the local FedEx company. This poor guy had his entire hotel room packaged for shipping. Everything was either wrapped in bubble wrap (headboard, desks, end tables, lamps, even the iron) or boxed for shipping (his pillows, the television, and the windows). But the real topper of the jokes was the fact that they took the vent register off the bathroom above the door and filled the bathtub, toilet, and the entire floor of the bathroom with packing peanuts. When he opened the door the peanuts came spilling out! Again the “victim” enjoyed the experience, reveled in it a bit, and then the hotel put his room back together for sleeping.

The final joke was turning a hotel room into a swimming pool. This victim returned to find that his room was filled with water filled baby pools and pool toys. Towels were everywhere and a good time was had by all!

Practical Lesson Plans from the ADE Summer Institute:

• Yes, And… activities and the story spines (click this link to read more about it)

• Personal branding lessons instead of internet safety lessons for high school students. This concept of personal branding is very interesting and I wonder how it can be used for scholarships and seniors selling themselves for schools, portfolios and scholarships. Instead of saying the negative of what they post on facebook instead focus on what you can do to promote yourself and put yourself out there as a brand. If Taylor Swift can use Facebook to create her career so can you.
• David Cornelius presented about his project where the university and high schoool programs from across the country have created an online journalism course. Their web site was amazing at: http://stardust.jmc.asu.edu/buckeye/buhshawk/the_hawk.html They focused on real world subjects and how they effect us in our small town, including world events. His presentation was just a teaser… afterwards, I spent quite bit of time during the break going through the site together. He suggested if you are interested in journalism you need to see the following links: the director’s chair, etc.
• Jim Harmon explained his project http://www.throughstudentseyes.org which discuces what is the purpose of school? What helps you succeed and what gets in the way of succeeding? What are the harsh realities of your life? Students were challenged to find one photo that encompasses your experiences and then write your voiceover. Not only can our students benefit from watching the examples posted here, by realizing their life is not so bad in comparison, but they can also benefit from analyzing their own obstacles.
• Writing assignment: the world is a tough place to grow up in. How is it tough for you? And how to get around these trouble time, situations, or people? What strategies do you use, or people do you rely on?
• Senior Assignment: create a motivation quotes video giving advice to younger to students – use pics and voices of your classmates.
• And one of my own ideas that I shared was the Grab a Kid concept. When you enter my school you can grab the first student you see, regardless of age or gender, etc. and ask them a question, ask them to show you a project they are working on with their laptops. Let them give you a presentation. Not one would shy away from it. In fact they relish the opportunity to show off a bit.
• Write your own declaration of independence from something. (Grammar, spelling, parents, bad habits, stereotypes, etc.
• Remixing information in your project study can be done in a whole new form. Remixing hybriding mediums frm various sources, to create something new and that has a new impact beyond each of the small pieces when they stood alone. Reflect, explore existing works, make it personal, ivent and reincorportate, exhibit and share. Give credit to where your ideas come from, and then take credit for what you turned it into. To see an example: http://Sites.google.com/site/remixitade2009
• Investigative reporting http://web.me.com/adrielgc/CBL/The_Big_Idea.html (on my itouch) like winning the lottery of family
• Fan Fiction : for my creative writing class
• http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg3w6gts_9dpkr2pgr&hl=en student publishing quicktopic instant discusson space,

“Yes, And…” and “Story Spines”

Rebecca Stockley (www.improvlady.com) was one of the most amazing speakers I have heard in a long time. She used her sense of humor to get our attention, give us time to look at ourselves, and to look at others. She wanted us to take a little time to get to know each other and not be uncomfortable. To get the “newbies” ready to join this massive group of over 1500 ADEs from across the globe, and more importantly to help us bond together as the Class of 2009, we went through some of her favorite improv activites to get to know each other, and to have a little fun and loosen up.

She talked a lot about the idea of opening ourselves up to others. To listen to what someone has to say, accept it by saying “Yes, and….” Then adding to their ideas. She reminded us that there is a huge difference between “yes, but…” or “no, however.” We as teachers tend to want to follow through on our own ideas, and the concept of “yes, and…” is often tough to honestly follow through with. The yes, and activities were interesting in that they would generate a funny story. If you begin with a partner or a group and begin with “remember that time when we…” the second speaker has to say “yes, and…” to begin the second round of the story. You can go for a minimum amount of time, or you can say you have to go a set number of rounds.

She also gave me some really great ideas to use with my Creative Writing class this fall.
She introduced the story spine, which we did out loud with partners, but could be done in writing. The basic premise of this activity was to alternate trying to build a story using the following format.

Once upon a time…
Every day…
But one day…
Because of that…
Because of that…
Because of that…
Until finally…
Ever since that day…

Afterward we discussed that it is often hard for creative people not to “plan ahead” the story as they talk, but when you work with someone else, or even a group, you have to roll with the punches, and adjust as you go since predicting the path of the others is impossible. We really concentrated on discussing: What made this easy? What made it hard? What did you personally struggle with?

And we came up with some interesting findings. I don’t want to give away too much information, since I plan on having my students read this blog entry and then try it in class, but we found that it is critical not to tell too much in the first line, or a story doesn’t evolve. You don’t leave enough room for creativity. We also found out that if you don’t move fast enough with the story through each line, you might not get a complete story by the end. Then she really threw us a curve and asked us to add a moral to the end of the story and then things go really interesting and entertaining. She also had us work the story spine backwards – aloud- and begin with the moral. This is really hard when you can’t write anything down. Because when you try to remember each step, and then when you tell it aloud backward it makes sense. When you reverse back and use the same lines and tell it forwards, it doesn’t make sense the same way, you find that you have to explain yourself more and change the story. What a concept for working in groups…

I Failed and It Was Worth It!

In this group, I was very aware of the fact that these people are really gifted, and that they are doing great things in education. I didn’t want to be the voice of my group, I simply wanted to listen their ideas, coop them for our school and my classroom, but they were also there for the same purpose. Now of course there were many there for the ego stroking and to be the center of attention, but I can learn from them just as much.

Rebecca Stockley advised us to “Leave your ego at the door and make a concerted effort to try something new and fail. This is not a competition, you are not a big fish in a small pond anymore, you are a big fish in an ocean…” Sometimes the fear of failure makes it really difficult for people who are used to leading and being good at their jobs and other aspects of their life to be willing to try to fail. It was very common to hear someone yell “I FAILED!” and see his or her hands straight up in the air in victory. Wouldn’t that be great for our students to be excited and accepting of the fact that they took a risk, they tried something new, they gambled and lost with an idea, a hypothesis, or a project, and that they were proud of themselves anyway? I want to introduce this fact and use it for myself, and for my students; beginning today for me, and this fall for my students.

My Writing as Part of My Brand:

Not only did we work with Jayson Whithmore, but Rebecca Stockley returned to work with the entire ADE group on personal branding. She challenged us to a quiet moment to think about “How do you connect to think about yourself and your thoughts? Where do your ideas come from?” While I was sitting right there, I knew that I use writing to get in touch with my thoughts. But for others it may depend on the learning style, a quiet place, a crisis, a ride in the car, hearing a song, other creative people, discussion causes my thoughts to go on all cylinders...

This thoughtful place that everyone has is what I call the “juice bar.” This the place where the creative juices” orginate, get squeezed, mix with other ingredients, and turn into something completely new. So I had to ask myself how does my writing make my brand? Is it m style, my ideas, my heart, my creativity? Or what is it?

I realized that I need to write to think, and my computer allows me to do this. When I was younger, I used to have to talk to someone to talk it through. But as I get older, and it becomes harder to find someone who “really gets me” and the job that I do, I realized that this very forum, this blog, is where I think things through. However, that leaves me with another dilemna. How does my blog and web site show my personality and my passion? How can I change it? What am I all about and what impression do I want to put out to the world on the first page? Do I want them to think I am organized and orderly or creative and project based? My classroom is me… my site is me… what would I tell someone in one sentence? What is my calling? My environment and my collaborations? What are my filters to get past? How do I push myself?

The Vomit Draft of the Branding Excercises:

My students always laugh when I use the term vomit draft for generating ideas. But just to prove that I go through quite a process to do my own writing, I decided to post my vomit draft to get to the single paragraph of text that became my personal branding video. So here it is, untouched, unedited, not spell checked, not perfect, not in order, and definitely not in order of importance:

My personal brand script:
I am a High school English teacher half the day
I am a district technology coordinator the other half of the day, which results in a very busy life. I also present regularly at the regional level for the Educational Service Units and to mentor other districts. I have joined the state technology board to work on the conference and to facilitate the 1:1 Learning Community. And now I have been honored as an Apple Distinguished Educator. But all of that is so formal. I am more like a friendly coach. I enjoy the challenge of taking the vision of a learner (kids or teachers) and helping them find the best medium to present their ideas, research, creativity or project. That turns me into a filmmaker, a musician, a writer, a web designer, and most importantly it makes a friend, and storyteller.

Teacher:
My mission is to let students discover literature and writing for pleasure. Though they need the conventions and cannon elements, students will find joy in the language arts discipline through engaging, individually interesting, and diverse encounters with texts and other media. Language arts is the “stuff” of storytelling on the Internet today, and without these basic skills, students who are creating movies, writing songs, producing web pages, blogging and sharing, their credibility can become questionable.
My values include using a variety fo media to teach English. Texts, online reading, video, audio, podcasting, etc and then taking that information to form your own ideas, opinions, interpretations, and creations. To convert meaning to something that is entirely their own, that can’t be graded whether they are right or wrong, but that they workded with the text enough to demonstrate that they have read it, processed it, made connections tot their own experience, formed an opinion, and found a place to file that information in their long-term repository or experiences and opportunitites
My passion is finding new project based learning activites to engage students with literature and writing. I am always trying to find that one project, opportunity for each students that will motivate them, push them to discover something new, knowing that not all students learn in the same way. They need options and they need to be allowed to think critically, and to problem solve without the fear of being wrong, without the fear of the teacher being too critical or judging them, and without the fear of failure. That is why I so desperately wanted to return to the class room and really make a difference. My job was done by getting the laptops in place, now it is my job to use them to make a difference with the kids.

1:1 mentor and leader and collegue
My mission for the past few years, has been to implement a laptop intiative in our small district, and to transform our rural district with seamless use of technology in the classroom to individualize and accelerate learning.
My values include differentiating instruction, being creative, not teaching content but letting the students discover it, to spread their horizons past the borders of our small community
My mission is to help other educators move into 1:1 environments, strengthen their teaching practices, find joy in the work they already do, and to diversify the opportuntities for our students as well as the teachers by connecting them to the world. I love project based learning, and get a natural high by designing, creating and sharing great projects with others. I revel in the presentations that my students create and share with others as well.
My passion is the transparent world… the sharing of my work, new ideas, lesson plans, and strategies. I love to work one on one with our teachers (either in face, online, written, or virtually) to get projects started, to brainstorm the best way to draw out our students, and to find the best medium for presenting this information. The fact there is a real audience in teaching when you live a transparent online life, pushes me and my students to work harder, to do better work, to think more deeply, and to reflect more on quality and the use of our time to be the most effective.
What appears more than once: sharing with others and designing projects
What resonate the most: working with others, workshops and presenting
What are you most proud of? My web sites (1:1 and blog which share all of this information)
Talk to someone who knows you:
Enjoy getting them to think of creative ways to present what they think “Be a spark . Light the fire with learners of all ages and see where others will go with it.”

Words that stick out for me:
• Sharing
• passion
• projects
• creating
• community
• present
• differentiating
• transparent
• mentor
• opportunities
• 1:1
• think for yourself
• students
• engaging
• heartprint

Write your words as sentences:
• The most important part of teaching is sharing our hearts, thoughts and ideas with students, with other educators, and with families.

The Final Written Version, good or bad…
I look at myself as a spark… and I count on the teachers and students to turn that into a flame. My passion is finding new activities to engage learners… to motivate them… to push them to discover something new. They crave options and need to be allowed to problem solve without the fear of being wrong or criticized, and without the fear of failure. That is why I so desperately wanted to return to the classroom part-time from the district technology coordinator position and really make a difference. My job was done by getting the laptops in place, now it is time to help others use them to make a difference. My teaching life is transparent in that you can go online and see everything that happens in my classroom from my web site, my blog, and the projects the kids proudly post. This real audience pushes me and my students to work harder… to do more important work, to think more deeply, and to reflect more on quality and use of our time to be the most effective. The most important part of teaching is sharing our hearts, thoughts and ideas with students, other educators, and families. We as teachers really need to concentrate on the heartprint we leave on the world.

Personal Branding:

Companies take a monumental amount of time to develop their “look,” their logo, their slogans, their mottos, their color schemes, their web sites, and their image. So the question is, how long have you spent developing your personal brand, the image you put out to the world? Well this week I was given the chance to do just that. I spent some time thinking about how I am branding myself through what I say, what I am passionate about, my web site, and the photos I choose to put up on the web. Though I am very conscious of what I am putting out in front of the world, I never really spent any time analyzing what I am passionate about, what I write about, and how my web site represents me as a person. I always thought of the site as a tool for my classroom, not really how it was representing me as a person, an educator, and a professional.

The Power of the Brand discussion began with a keynote by Jayson Withmore, Creative Director + Partner @ Royale animation + creative direction. He is a Full Sail University graduate with a valedictorian in 3 different degrees (animation, recording, etc.) He defined personal branding as: “The best 30 seconds, evoke an emotion, get someone to understand what you are all about in just a snippet… You want a response to your web site, pictures, logo etc. that sums up your brand (a brand is not just the graphic, it is all of the emotions, connotations, etc.).”

I felt like this experience was the most worthwhile part of this entire trip. Not only was I given the chance to get my picture taken by a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer, Bill Frakes, and I was video taped by a professional film and sound crew for an introduction video for my web site and for presentations, but I also had the chance to really look closely at myself. I was given a guide of questions, a little time, and the words of Jayson Whitmore, to guide my thought process. What I realized is that I haven’t really taken a long look at myself over the past few years, I have been too busy to bother taking the time, and I realized I have changed. I have changed what is important to me, what is motivating me to work hard, what my passions are, and what I am “piped piper-ing” about. By taking this close look, I also realized that I might need to analyze where this is taking me, and not just let life happen to me, but to “engineer” the process a bit so I land where I intended to go. I had to ask myself: How do you dress? How you teach your kids? How you make yourself stand out? So who am I? What is my style? What does my web site say about me? Another part of this process was looking at the people around me to see what I want to be like and what I don’t. To look to see what is already being done so I can try to do something new. I need to listen to what I want and find the right medium to get there.
So now as you have probably guessed, since I have new pictures, and a new video, and new view of my life and my job, I need to redo some things. So don’t be alarmed, if I change things! I plan on redoing it all… even though it might just be a great excuse for change… why not right? To see the results of my personal branding video, click here to see the script. Later I will post the video to my web site.
To see the Vomit Version to get to the final product click here.

Personal Literacy eCoach

I know I am behind in getting blogs done since I returned from ADE summer institute, but rest assured they are coming, and they will all be posted on the same day. But one thing I wanted to share very quickly was our group project. We decided to focus on the challenge of personalizing literacy education for all students. So we created this the Personal Literacy eCoach web site, and the elements you see here. We are hoping that this site really takes on a life of its own and grows, so we will be adding to the site monthly, and asking for submissions from other literacy teachers at all levels. Please take a look and participate. Here is one of my blog posts titled "Why Reteach?":

I have a small class of students who: read at different levels; work at different paces; engage according to completely different interests; write in surprisingly different styles or not at all; and revel in project choice. You have been in this type of classroom, in fact, I could be describing your class right now. So I wanted to find a way to motivate my students to do their personal best.
So here was my PROBLEM: My students are taking this class because they are trying to credit recover. They failed their English class but they didn’t fail everything. Why reteach something they already know? Why have them reread the same books and do the same assignments? Why not have them study what they didn’t pass, and move onto something new and engaging?
And here are my CIRCUMSTANCES: In our district, we have the luxury of a pretty loose curriculum. It does not spell out which novels, dramas, poetry, or nonfiction we are supposed to use. We don’t have a district-mandated textbook to use, however, we do have the standards to meet. We have the flexibility and the latitude to let students define their own path of learning based on their interests and on the skill they need to develop.
And here is the WILD PITCH I threw out to my senior credit recovery class: In order to graduate, you need to show that you understand and are proficient in a specific set of concepts. If you can demonstrate you already know this material, then that part of the unit will be very short for you. If you have not reached proficiency yet, then you will have the opportunity to choose the path you will take to become proficient.
And here are the STEPS:
1. I will give you a concept from the curriculum, and you will work through mastering the material at your own pace. Example: satire
2. Then I will pose to you a challenge and give you chance to choose your own choice of readings, whether it is an online book, web pages, nonfiction, library books, etc.
Example: brainstorm/research a list of satirical books, essays, web articles, etc.
3. Then you will need to develop a list of guiding questions you have about this topic that you will eventually try to answer while you are studying this topic.
Example: What is satire? How is that different from parody? Where is satire in pop culture, literature, etc.
4. You will then plan what activities you are going to do learn more about your subject.
Example: read The Onion web site, read Animal Farm the novel, watch an episode of the Jon Stewart Daily Show, find political satire cartoons on the web, etc.
5. At this point I would like you to set up a conference meeting with me to discuss your plans. Example: this is student led and they share what they want to do, and the spectrum of activities they want to do to gain knowledge.
6. Then you will begin to collect your resources. Somehow you are going to want to keep track of all the resources you have used.
7. Then begin to take action. As you are doing each of these activities, keep some kind of record of your reflections, thoughts, reactions to the material, the important details, etc.
8. Once you feel that you understand the topic, and you have completed the necessary reading, learning and reflecting, you will have to formulate some kind of final project to demonstrate what you have learned, and meet the challenge posed at the beginning.
9. Publish this final project for the teacher to grade, and to inspire other students, teachers, and to impress your family and friends.
10. Together the student and teacher will then go through the assessment phase to determine if in fact you do understand the topic.
11. If you are proficient, you move onto another topic from the list that you haven’t completed yet.
12. Once all the concepts have been met then you may return to areas or generate your own ideas of what most interested you.

The ASSESSMENT portion is something that I will change this year. The record-keeping portion is critical because every student was doing something different, and they have different skill levels. I wanted to grade them on their own personal growth as well their knowledge. So I realized I needed several things that I would need to collect over time:
• exemplary, adequate and poor examples to use for assessment: for video, podcasting, blogging, essay writing, keynote presentations, web pages, and others
• rubrics of expectations based upon the content necessary to demonstrate their complete knowledge
• a way to keep track of what types concepts they have studied met the standard (Did they try a variety of writing styles, reading genres, and project presentation styles.)

This year when I repeat this process with my kids, I wanted the students to REFLECT upon their process of learning this material. What came easy to them? What was more difficult for them? What would they do differently in the next unit of study? What was the one thing that will stand out in their mind when they look back at this subject?

ADE Summer Institute Reflections

Before I left for Florida to attend the Apple Distinguished Educators Summer Institute, I kept hearing from the Apple reps and other ADEs that I know, “just wait, it’s indescribable.” I have been asked, “what did you do while you gone to Florida?” And my answer has to be “struggle.” And that might be the worth the entire trip. I am used to being a leader, and in the group we were all leaders. The journey was worth more than the content. It was not the intended learning, but was probably the best possible outcome. I can now related to my students who are struggling… I always could, but it is always a nice reminder to revisit the struggling process. We struggle when we work in groups, we struggle when we think others have better ideas or more knowledge than we do. We struggle when new material comes at us too fast, or when we don’t have time to process what is new. We struggle when we are nervous, in a new situation, or in a new environment. We struggle because that is how we learn. Sometimes we struggle for very short periods of time, and sometimes we struggle for a long time. Sometimes we struggle quietly and pretend it isn’t happening to protect our ego and our self-esteem. Sometimes we struggle loudly and sound like whiners. And sometimes we struggle with a smile on our face and relish the experience of learning.

Well, this program is indescribable, and I am going to struggle to explain it to you, but I am going to try anyway. I tried to come up with one sentence to describe it, but I came up with several (including the struggling statements above.)

“This is the professional development where you don’t have time read a newspaper, check your email, send text messages, check your voicemail, tweet, or take a “siesta of the mind,” even for a moment because you are so excited to learn the next new thing.”
“When I left, I thought I was an extrovert, and now I know that I am shy. It’s all about perspective.”
“ADE is only one letter away from ADD. They have so much energy and creativity to share that the atmosphere is wild and chaotic in a really great way.”
“Quiet is a hot commodity, and one that you never have time for because you might miss something.”
“These few days have completely changed how I will set up my classroom for the rest of my career, and it starts today.”
“I always like to learn but don’t always like to be taught.” Winston Churchill
“In order to be creative, you have to go and live your life and then come back and be creative with your computer. The computer is not creative on its own.”
“Sixty-six 3 minute sessions from the best minds in the country let me with the dilemma of taking notes or watching the visuals, and the fear of going to the restroom because the perfect idea for your classroom will go by.”

What did we do is probably the easiest thing to tell you, but they will each need an explanation. Therefore each one might need it’s own blog post:

1. Learning about the difference between project-based learning and personalized learning.
2. How to use challenge based learning techniques in any classroom, grade, or discipline.
3. The project showcase was the finest I have attended. The presentations were from the participants from most of the 50 states and 12 countries. These are all shared on a wikispace for people to look at.
4. We worked on personal branding exercise to develop our own personal brand, or to re-brand ourselves.
5. We had motivational speakers every night.
6. Excellent networking opportunities
7. Completing a challenge based learning challenge from Apple (see the Personal Literacy eCoach blog post already done)
8. Practical jokes and a lot of fun
9. Warm up activities based on improv techniques (I Failed!, Yes, And..., Story Spines)
   
10. Practical lessons for my classroom.
11. I learned what it meant to be an Apple Distinguished Educator

Personal Learning So Far at ADE Summer Institute

How does a newbie to this type of institute sum up what I have learned over the last 2 days... there is so much to say. I guess I will go with a list:

• "Quiet is a hot commodity" and basically unnecessary. When people are talking they are personalizing what they are learning, and they are learning from each other.
• Volume is a word that describes the ADE institute. Everything and everyone seems to be on high, and that is a good thing. The music is loud, the conversations all taking place in one room are loud, the hotel is bustling with people until all hours of the morning, and it is loud, in different parts. Never thought I would say that LOUD is a really great thing. It just goes to show you how much passion there is among these people.
  
• The 3-minute presentation about journalism was my moment. I came here expecting that at some point I would have my ah-ha, this is why I was destined to come here... and this was my first major moment... with many more that followed.
• The idea of taking things right back to my classroom is always really important for me, so I am finding myself asking questions and trying to soak up every new idea and keep track of all of them, but the ideas come so hard and fast is impossible to remember them all. I need a few minutes to just "brain vomit" everything I can rmeember that I didn't have time to write down... like now.
• The difference between personalized learning and individualized learning is larger than what I thought.
• I feel like I can know change my Language Arts classroom to be more personalized. I can still reach the standards without boring the kids who have already become proficient at different times.
• Challenge Based Learning is complex, it is hard, it is frustrating to wrap my mind around, and it probably the best concept I have heard of, and definitely the most worthy of my hard work in the future.
• The personal branding by far is the most valuable. (See my wordle of this process above.) It is applicable for me as well as my students as they are finishing high school it is critical that they develop their own "brand" and that their online presence is positive and helpful for their future.
• I have learned, through viral video, what I should be making sure my daughters understand and know that they can't believe what the media and the beauty industry is telling them. They have to have self-confidence and know that only real people will give them real evaluations of them as people.
• I loved the story spines and the improv excercises which will be very valuable in my classroom, in my creative writing courses, and just for fun!
  

“A Dream Ride on Dumbo”

So as I am boarding the plane I overhear this conversation:

“Girls, you have to turn your cell phones off.”
“Why? What if someone needs me?” (Reminder it is 4:24 a.m.)
“They will make you turn them off on the plane.”
“Why, do they really think the plane will go down if I text too much?”
“Don’t argue, just turn them off and hand them to me.”
“Fine… when can I have it back?”
“When we land.”
“Where are you going to put it?”
“Right here in my bag.”
“Don’t put it in that one, what if you lose it?”
“I am not going to lose my purse, it has all our money it.”
“Yeah, but you leave your purse laying around all the time and I wouldn’t want anyone to get into my messages.”
“All the money for our entire vacation is in this purse, I am pretty sure I won’t lose it… besides, you didn’t even bring an extra pair of underwear on the plane with you. You must not be too worried about the airline losing your luggage.”
“I can always get new underwear when we land, I can’t live without my phone that long.”

Says it all doesn’t it?
But the best line of the day so far, a couple of small children are flying to meet Mickey Mouse, and as we hit turbulence, the passengers let out a sigh of frustration and relief when it stopped. An enthusiastic young girls says, “this must be what it’s like flying on Dumbo, now I am ready to go!”

So as I am heading for the Apple Distinguished Educators Institute in Orlando, have two thoughts on my mind. I am ready to learn more about technology, and I have a feeling that it might involve phones and/or iTouches. Secondly I am ready to take a dream ride on Dumbo. It might be a little shaky, it might be a little unexpected, but I am sure that it will be animated and exciting. I don’t really know what I am getting myself into, but it going to fun!

Packing for the Opportunity of a Lifetime!

So as I am posting this message, I am sitting and trying to figure out what it is that I am forgetting to pack in my suitcase to go to Florida for the Apple Distinguished Educators Institute at Full Sail University. I have ben waiting since February 20th for this time to come and now I am suddenly nervous. I know that this is an honor to be chosen as an ADE, and I know that I will love every minute of the institute, and I will learn a ton while I am gone, but the fear of the unknown and the lack of control over what I will be doing for 6 days is making me a bit anxious. (I know, I know... control freak!) Check back over the next few days, I am hoping to post fairly regularly for my children to see what I have been up to. The posts will be mostly notes, but at least it will be something!

Obstacles to overcome at this point in the trip:

• leaving my three kids and husband home for 8 days alone
• remembering to bring everything before I am 100 miles from home on the way to the airport
• getting everything packed into one carryon and one suitcase
• hoping my husband doesn't relapse from a hospitalization while I am gone
• getting my voice back from a bout with bronchitis (brought on by husband's illness - we'll blame it on him!)

A Balance Teenager

Recently I discovered something a lot of you may already know, but I found http://www.plinky.com. The part I enjoy the most is the weekly digest of writing prompts. I actually receive an email message so I can peruse them and use what I want. As I am using this Plinky site over the summer, in a test and trial manner, I am thinking I would rather check it every day for my creative writing class. In fact, I can use it as a journal starter for some units with my other English classes. There are other wonderful links beyond these prompts and it might be great for my students to use them. One of my favorite links this week was, “If you could do it again, what group from high school would you hang out with more? Why would you pick this group, knowing what you know now? Jocks, math nerds, band geeks, drama kids, popular crowd, stoners, other” I found myself thinking about this a lot over the past few days. My brother is having his 25th reunion this weekend, which means a lot of our old friends will be in town. I envy the fact that he will get to see them. He doesn’t think that his friends will attend, because they didn’t at the 20th. Because my brother was only 3 years older than me, we kind of ran with the same crowd. I dated one of his best friends for a while, we went to the same parties, the same school, hung out with a lot of the same people, and they were all older than me. So they don’t come to my reunion. (Thank goodness for facebook or I wouldn’t get to talk to them at all!)

I can’t exactly say that I fit into any one of those listed groups. I definitely wasn’t athletic. I wasn’t good at math, I can’t carry a tune or play an instrument. I had a crush on a drama kid who later became our prom king and who attended our reunion and hasn’t changed a bit! (Hi Rich!) I didn’t run with the popular crowd, and I wasn’t a stoner. So what was I? I wasn’t popular and I hope I wasn’t too much of a outsider. I wasn’t a loner and I had a really great group of friends that I ran around with. I had a boyfriend, but nothing serious. I had a job as a waitress (which I loved and would go back to doing again in a pinch) and a group of friends there, but again I wasn’t obsessed with my job either. I don’t ever wish I could go back to high school and do it again, because childhood is something you survive, and adulthood is so much better. So what was I? Balanced? Normal? I guess there isn’t a label, but I can say that I was happy, as healthy a teenager can be, and I was enthusiastic about life. What more could I ask for?

I wonder if my own students feel this way about their current expedition through high school. I wonder if they are happy with who they are and who they are hanging out with. I wonder if they wish they were in a different group. I wonder if they will look back at their high school years as if they were the best years of their life, or if they will think of them fondly and realize there is so much more to life out there beyond their small town and beyond their teenage years. I am hoping this is a launching ground, but the landing spot for most of them.