My Life in a D School

2010-12-30T10:21:00.002-06:00

I was much happier with my teaching style a couple of years ago. I feel like I have lost some of my enthusiasm and patience over time and need to get back to the way it was. But how do you reverse time? As we all know, time passes quickly, and with the advent of technology changes, time changes exponentially. I have to change with them. I am willing to change. However, I can’t change until I know what I have done wrong. How can you change if you don’t know where you went off course?

I would hate to blame the students I work with. I would hate to say that I enjoyed teaching a couple of years ago more because the kids were different. I would hate to say that these former students were more engaged in learning and more committed to doing the work. Too many teachers look back and don’t want to admit that they have changed and blame it on the kids. I have heard over and over, “Teaching just isn’t like it used to be. The kids just don’t try like they used to.” I think it is time for me to try harder.

So the first step in this process is to analyze what I did a few years ago that I don’t do now. Hmmmm… I did lesson plan more. I thought through more details of the lessons. I had wrote them, I crossed off what we got done, I made notes of what we didn’t get done. So how did this make me a better teacher? Obviously, you can’t do a great job if you are flying by the seat of your pants every day. However, the devil’s advocate in me also wants to jump in and say some of my best lessons have come from flying by the seat of my pants.

Another thing that I have done differently is that I am expecting students to take notes, but not modeling it for them like I used to. I used to go over the notes, they would watch me write them down, talk about them, and have them add to the notes. I expected the notes and I periodically asked to see them. Now, I am asking students to take notes, I give them the basics and expect them to take notes, but they don’t. Then I don’t ask to see them, because I know they don’t exist. I also used to make them keep everything in a notebook, and then referred back to those notes, but in an effort to be green and use less paper, I have not made them do this. Am I providing them too much in the way of digital notes because I have the technology to do so, and they are getting lazy because of it? Maybe I should expect more.

Lately I have been frustrated by the lack of effort by the students. They give half the effort they should on assignments. They complain when we try something new. They say things like, “this sucks,” or they mutter under their breath and act like they are being tortured. I think part of their frustration is that they feel like they don’t have time to do the work they are asked. They think they are too busy. The kids weren’t any busier back a few years ago than they are now, so what is the difference? I can wager a guess, but they wouldn’t like the answer. A few years ago, they weren’t texting on their phones nonstop all night and they weren’t on Facebook all night chatting and snooping into their friends’ pictures and status updates. They weren’t sucked into an online life that assists them in losing track of time.

I used to spend a lot of time going over the project guidelines and creating grading rubrics to match their projects. I have always asked the students to write notes in the margins or to ask questions they don’t understand anything they might be graded on. Recently I had the students do a project, I went over the guidelines, and handed out the rubric. The students handed in a rough draft and I spent a lot of time making comments, and using the rubric to show them how to improve. A week later when they turned in their final drafts, they only made superficial changes and did not change or improve anything major. I wasted all that time making comments and suggestions for improvement. I am not sure if it was laziness on their part, or if they did not understand how a rubric works, or if they ran out of time, but there was no improvement. No effort. Such a letdown!

They never write down assignments. They never worry about due dates. They think they are entitled to turn things in on their own timeline. I used to make the kids write down due dates and check them off. Originally, I thought that the digital submission of files would help those who were less organized. They could see in their sent box whether they sent in their assignments. I would have a copy and there would be less “losing” of papers. However, now the excuse is, “you must not have gotten it.” Or, they say I sent it and I thought you got it. So now students need to “send a copy to me and to yourself” at the same time (which I can see in the header of the email).

"Going back to the basics" sounds so cliche. I am not teaching junior high students, I am working with high school students, but maybe this will help. Maybe reiterating the basics will bring them around to finding out what is important before we start the second semester and inevitably find the senioritis disease, and the end of the year slide the other students seem to fall into.

Money for Education

2010-11-26T10:06:00.000-06:00

I have been working with my students writing blog entries. Usually when I teach a new form of writing to my freshman, I give them a basic organizational format to begin with. This format is used to let them get started, and then, once they are comfortable with the format, they can make it their own. As we began blogging, rather than doing all the research myself, I had the students search the Internet for effective organization methods for blog entries. Then I had them search for bloggers who wrote about subjects they are interested in. I also had them search for famous bloggers who write with great style and interest.

As I teach a new concept, in this case searching for blogs on podscope.com, I usually demonstrate on the overhead projector once, and then have the students do the same with a topic of their interest. I searched “why education doesn’t get money.” At some point in this demonstration process, while the students were searching for their own interest areas, I found the following quote in a blog that I can’t find today:

“The reason why education is not given any money is because it doesn’t generate any money. The study of natural resources generates revenue; the study of diseases generates money especially for the pharmaceutical industry, etc. Schools generate human resources and that is not an obvious moneymaker from the beginning because you have to go looking for them, they are not lying around waiting to be minded or mixed.” (Source unknown but if you know, please help me give them credit.)

I am not a very political person, and when conversation turns toward teachers pay in a group of non-teachers, I stay out of the conversation. It is safer this way. If you complain about your paycheck, you are just opening the door for others to complain about their paychecks and how they deserve more money than teachers do. If you complain, then you are just encouraging them to say how much time we get off during the summer and how we have such a short day from 8 to 4. If you complain, someone always has it worse than you. If you complain, and you expect someone to agree with you, you will be disappointed.

However, I can’t help but think about this quote. I don’t want to dwell on the money aspect of this section either. I want to concentrate on the human resources aspect. It might sound cliché, but without teachers to work with the natural resources brought to us every year, your children, there wouldn’t be scientists finding cures for diseases. There wouldn’t be the study of new energy sources, or new pharmaceutical developments. We as teachers have to work with all the students that are given to us. We can’t go through and work with only the resources that will help us in the end. We have to look at our natural resources as more than just moneymakers. We have to think more about how to “mine” the “mix.” We have to figure out how can we use what we have and remix it knowing its strengths, weaknesses, and possibilities that can be cultivated. That is harder work than just digging in a mine for raw materials and selling them as is. That is harder work than mixing materials according to a recipe that is handed down from the boss. We prepare the human resources for all job markets.

Does this mean that we should be paid more? No, not necessarily, but I do believe we need to have the best people possible to work with these kids. We as teachers are cultivating the future and helping every job market to develop. We are training everyone from a CEO of a major global company all the way down to the people who make the world work, the construction workers, hairdressers, waiters, and farmers who are all equally important in the whole scheme of things. Sometimes, to get the best people, you have to pay them well. Sometimes to get the best results, the teachers have to love their jobs and be able to pay their bills without second jobs taking their attention away… I’m just sayin’ …

Where Is the Balance?

2010-11-23T07:00:00.000-06:00

Today, a student was struggling with writing a scholarship essay. (I know, I have written about this before… just bear with me for a while.) As she began to speak, she rubbed her forehead in frustration, and slowly tried to explain her dilemma. She explained that she will not be the valedictorian of her class, nor will she be the salutatorian. She said she didn’t have the highest ACT score, and she doesn’t have the most jam-packed activity resume of her class. As she spoke, I couldn’t help but relate to what she was saying. I had to agree with her, and I also knew it was best to be honest with her and not pump her up full of unrealistic hopes. When she stopped and stared at me, waiting for some kernel of inspiration to get her started writing, I told her to just begin to write. Sounds simple…

I told her to be honest. Tell the scholarship committees the truth. Tell them just what she had explained to me. Explain to them that she only frustrated herself with being in every sport, out for every activity, keeping up with the ever increasing homework demands, and working in time to be with her friends and family. She was struggling with finding balance in her life and needed to get things into perspective. I told her she had to hope that the honesty of her essay may be a breath of fresh air to the committee members. Maybe they would just love to give money to a hard-working, down-to-earth student who will use the scholarship money for a good cause. I wanted to say with certainty that some scholarship committees realize when they are reading scholarships that are all the same. These committees receive a ton of scholarship applications that all have the same qualifications: good grades, high ACT scores, a jam packed activity resume, and the same mediocre essays telling the same stories of being involved and studying. We talked that some students simply join everything to beef up their resumes even when they don't really want to be in all those activities. Some students only join activities because they feel pressure. We talked about the balance of academic focus with the fun focus. Which focus should the scholarship committees see as an asset? Which focus will help her in college? She has a well-rounded education and social life, even if she is not involved in everything. She needs to emphasize her focus on the things that are really important to her.

But the questions becomes, how does this student make herself stand out? How does she explain the lack of activities in her senior year? Will the scholarship committee see that at a time when most students want to simply enjoy life, their senior year? This student is really focusing on her future. Instead of doing participating in every club, sport, and activity that might take her out of school (thus minimizing the amount of time she is “forced” to be in high school), she has chosen to taken to dual-credit college courses. She is taking the more difficult chemistry class instead of an elective that would not have homework. She is taking the highest level of math course offered in our district so she will be prepared for a college math class. She is taking a college expository writing course and another semester of college literature in the spring instead of the regular high school English course. Even her elective courses involve homework. She is taking a psychology course, a journalism course in which she is the editor and reporter for the school newspaper, which is mailed to over 600 public subscribers. I reminded her of a blog post I wrote last year for another senior titled, “A Practice Regimen for the Big Game.” http://lifeinadschool.blogspot.com/2010/05/practice-regimen-for-big-game.html (Little did she know that she would be the subject of a blog post too.) I reminded her that if everyone spent as much time on their academics as they do practicing for volleyball, basketball or track, then everyone would be better prepared for college. I also reminded her that she is doing just that… that could become the focus of her own scholarship essay.

I suggested that she go home and do some “brain vomiting” of ideas. Just begin writing, let her real feelings, frustrations, and concerns come out quickly onto the paper. Then once she has said it all, and feels a bit better, she can begin to clean up the mess and pretty it up. I reminded her that she will probably take a lot out. She will probably clean up, rearrange, and rewrite many of the sentences and ideas. She will probably also add a lot of new ideas later too. She stared at me for quite a bit, probably not realizing how long it really was, because she was lost in her own thoughts. Finally she broke the silence and asked if I would proofread it for her.

So as I sit here writing, comfortable on my couch with a cup of hot chocolate and listening to music, I wonder if she is at home writing too. Has she found her voice? Can she portray balance of activities and academics? Will the scholarship committee appreciate the balance in her life? Are those scholarship committees more impressed by students who are involved in everything – and often over extended, or are they impressed by other things? Are they impressed by the ACT scores and the GPA; or are they impressed that she is taking more difficult courses that will prepare her for the future instead of easy classes? I have to agree with my father who always said, “An honest day’s work should always be rewarded.”

Nobody Went to College and Majored in “Cool”

2010-11-22T08:45:00.003-06:00

As the college kids are beginning to come home for the long Thanksgiving holiday, I am starting to see them wandering the streets of our small town, in the businesses, and some even come up and visit at the school. I look forward to this time of year for many reasons. I love to catch up with last year’s seniors (who are most likely to visit). I love to get surprised by students who graduated several years ago and I haven’t see in a long time. I also love to have alumni return with their own families (yes, I am that old). It is usually at this time of year, that I get that brief moment of “this is all worth it” that all teachers hope for. This is when some of the hard work pays of for a few seconds.

When students are in high school, I get so tired of the students saying to me, “that sucks,” or “that is lame.” I want to scream each time they deflect my efforts to help them better themselves. Every one of my students will admit that at some point I have given them all advice. Some solicited and some unsolicited. Some didn’t want to hear it, some did, others heard but didn’t listen, and others listened. (You can’t win them all.)

I can’t tell you how many times I have said to my senior students, “You can’t major in cool in college. You are going to have to work and you may as well get prepared now, while you have help adjusting to the new work ethic.” I’ll bet you can guess the reaction I get: the rolling eyes, the deep sighs, and the mumbled comments. That is when I have to make a choice: shut my mouth and let them learn on their own or just keep talking hoping they will hear some part of my message. Again, I’ll bet you can guess… I keep talking and hoping.

Jeff Piontek, a superintendent from Hawaii once said, “I didn’t learn to think until I went to college.” When he said this, I was mortified for a moment. I was scared to admit that the same was true for me. I was even more horrified when I started to think about all the people who did not go to college... maybe the connection between when people start thinking is more connected to age rather than the college… So does that mean people don’t start to think until they are older? I need to take a step back and think more about this statement.

They key words are, “learn to think.” If we choose to believe that we didn’t learn to think until college, then that must mean we are not teaching our students to think while they are in high school. (Long pause to analyze this idea.) If you were to survey 100 high school teachers, how many do you think will say that they teach their students to think? If you tore this down to core values, how many would say that they teach students to think about their content area instead of just learning the content material as it is presented? When do we actually take the time to teach them to think about it and make new meaning? This means we would have to get every student above knowledge, comprehension, and application. The teacher would have to make sure students get to analysis, synthesis and evaluation. A lot of education happens between application and analysis and even more by the time students take the time to evaluate what is being told to them or read by them.

As a writing teacher, I work with my kids to develop their own voice. To find the right word choices and phrasing to say what they really mean, not what they think others want to hear. I work with their ideas so they can prove, in writing, that what they interpret, believe and think is valid. I work with my students so their writing is fluent and so they can develop the most powerful message for their readers. I work with my students on their grammar, spelling and punctuation so that their message is not lost in a sea of mistakes. I work with my students to develop their ideas and not just allow them to regurgitate the ideas of others. They all have something to say, they just may not be as ready and able to share it in writing.

As a teacher of literature, I do the very same thing. I give my students options. I want them to think for themselves so I don’t ask them comprehension questions when they read novel. I don’t really care if they can name the characters; what I do care about is what they learned from reading the book. What new information did each each learn for themselves? What did they glean from the words and phrases? What did they think about as they read they will carry with them into the future? What meaning did they find as they read? What interpretations did they discover, even if it is not what I interepreted? How does this reading assignment help them as they move on with their future (even if the student is going into construction, fast food, the law, medicine, professional athletics, agriculture, etc.)?

When the college students come home, they are welcomed with open arms by not only me but the high school students. They are looked up to. They are idolized. They are questioned about the wonders of being out in the real world and how much fun it is. They are deemed to be “cool.” They are what others aspire to be. Too bad those college students don’t tell the high school students that they can’t major in cool. They have to work and they have to work hard or they won’t be in college for long…

Moving On or Stop and Smell the Roses?

2010-11-11T14:21:00.001-06:00

Time seems to go so fast, and we only make it go faster by trying to reach the next plateau, the next goal, the next milestone, the next summit. Though being forward thinking, aggressive to work for what you want, and determined to improve are all good qualities, are we missing something? Have we taught ourselves, and our kids, that it is wrong to stop and enjoy the small victories? Have we taught our kids that taking a break to enjoy is “resting on our laurels”?

I am not talking about stopping, I am talking about stopping to enjoy. Enjoy is such a hard word to write about, especially when you have a series of goals you want to meet (either in a short term project or in a lifetime). For example, in the spring of 2003, I voiced something that might be considered a wish for my students. I told the school board that I wanted to start a laptop initiative. I worked tirelessly to until spring of 2006 to get our students, teachers, community, and taxpayers to agree with my idea and get things started. I didn’t have much time to enjoy this new success because I was busy training teachers and working with students that entire first year. In the spring of 2007, I was offered a job in another district that did not have a laptop initiative and didn’t plan to have one (to this day they still don’t). My choice became, stay and enjoy the rewards of my hard work and really see the program flourish, or move on and try to convince another district to do the same thing.

I stopped to enjoy, but not for long. Even though I chose not change districts, I didn’t stop trying to improve and move forward. I began working with other districts to help get their laptop initiatives started. Over the next several years we made major changes, and could see vast improvements in the education of our students. Now my choice became, stop and enjoy or move on.

How long is an appropriate amount of time to enjoy? How long is too long rest on our laurels? How long does it take to stagnate? How long until we begin to be resistant to change? How long is too long to put off striving for a dream? How old is too old to make major life changes?

How fast should someone move onto the next goal? How fast should we be trying to change? How fast can change happen and still be effective? How fast do we move before we are just speeding through things and not giving them the attention they need so others can learn?

How many opportunities do you pass up before you have lost your way? How long do you consider your options before you are just wasting your time? How do you know when you have outlived your usefulness in a district and could really benefit someone else?

It sounds like I am thinking of a job change, but I really am not. I don’t have any job changes in mind, and I can tell you why. I have a husband and three kids of my own that deserve my full attention when I am not working. If I take a job change, then my focus will have to switch away from them for a while. Do they deserve that? On the other hand, do I deserve the opportunity to move up in my profession? Can I rely on the old saying, “One Door Closes... Another Opens.”

Another reason I am hesitating to change is that financially I am secure. I know I have a good job and a steady income. In this economy can anyone really take a hug leap of faith to chase a dream? I have always dreamt of writing a book, but I don’t have enough hours in the day or week to really work on it; and I can’t afford to quit my job to do it either. I have wanted to get more involved in presenting at a professional level, but to do that you have to build a reputation, present a lot, and travel. Do I want to do that? Again financial security and time with my kids while they are growing up, gets in the way.

I like what I am doing now. I am comfortable, most days with what I am doing. I love teaching, and I love working with technology. I like the amount of presenting I am doing and I love blogging when I have time. So am I smelling the roses right now, or am I moving on? Am I somewhere in between?

Veterans are People... Not Symbols

2010-11-10T10:39:00.003-06:00

So many of our activities and lessons we present in the classroom fall upon deaf ears. Teachers are always trying to find new and innovative ways to get our students attention and to create motivation for them to learn more. The one thing that is always emphasized is change. Things need to be different each year. We can’t just keep doing the same lessons year after year and expect the students to be interested and engaged. This same thing can be said for school programs. When we have drug-free presentations, the students only listen when the speaker is dynamic (funny, shocking or famous). When we have Internet safety presentations, the students only listen if they think they might be at risk, and scare tactics have not worked in the past.

Veterans Day is tomorrow. So today, I am thinking about veterans in general. I have watched, throughout our school district, teachers give lessons about Veterans Day. We do it every year with some variation, but not much. The kindergarten learns the Pledge of Allegiance. The first and second graders used to learn to fold the flag and the meaning of each fold. We had a veteran on staff that taught his students to march and it was cute to watch them go through drills. Our seventh graders read patriotic poetry and the eighth graders write essays for our local DAR contest. We have a variety of high school students who create PowerPoints, play in the band and sing for the ceremony. We have, in the past, had students who are in the National Guard as high school students participate in the color guard. Though all of these things are wonderful and as each group of students prepares for their presentation, they are learning. But when it comes time for the actual ceremony/program, is their message lost because the audience has seen it before?

When we took our students to see the Traveling Vietnam Memorial wall a few weeks back, our students were more engaged in learning about veterans. It was different; it was new to them. It was tangible and real. They paid attention and they learned. They listened as Governor Dave Heineman said that Vietnam was “a difficult time and we forgot to say thank you. Today are here to say thank you. Today we are here to say the thank you we forgot. We always, always, always, need to support our troops regardless of agreeing with the war, we have to support out veterans ... We owe a debt of gratitude to them from all Americans, every chance we get.” They realized not only do we need to honor our Vietnam vets, but also all vets, of all ages, all wars, and all state-side soldiers.

Now as we are preparing for Veterans Day, the students know it is something to be celebrated, and it is worth the time to pause and think about the meaning of the day, and to think about our Veterans. In an effort to try to find a meaningful project for my students to do, that centered around Veterans Day, I thought I needed to do a bit of quick research. As the English teacher, I can’t really go the historical route, the history teacher will do that. I can’t have them sing that is for the music teacher. The younger grades are doing the essays, and the art students are working on visual representations. What should my kids do? I googled the terms “veteran” and various forms of the word “patriot.” I am sure you can guess exactly what appeared in the images…pictures of flags, eagles, soldiers, and gravestones. The links for information using the word “veteran” revealed Veterans Day programs, benefits for vets, and a couple of organizations for veterans. When I searched the word “patriot,” I got more about the definition of the word, the NFL football team, and historical examples. I found the same catch phrases: “freedom doesn’t come free,” and “they made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.”

I thought to myself, “What does all this really mean? My dad doesn’t carry a flag every day, he doesn’t have a pet eagle and he is very much alive.” Have we gotten too cliché about this holiday and is it beginning to lose its meaning with the kids because we use the same images, lessons, and catch phrases? Should we be focusing on something different to really get the message across and to get a different reaction from the students. I could have gone the route of defining a patriot, a hero, a veteran… that would be language arts based… but not really effective. When I think of a veteran, I think of one specific person, my father. I am sure that is the same for everyone. Most high school students can also say they know of at least one veteran. They probably even know one that is close to their own age since they are growing up in wartime. Veterans Day is not about symbols or catch phrases; it is about people. People we know and love. That is what their assignment should be. Sit with a vet at the program. Talk with them. Learn their story. Let them share their experiences (if they are willing) and really learn from them. Honor them with your time and listen, not just hear about them. Honor them by talking with them, asking questions and appreciating them.

Additional Thoughts on November 11, 2010:

Today, during the Veterans assembly, I was pleasantly surprised to see that this program was more about the people. The 3rd and 4th grade students really did concentrate on the vets themselves. They each went home to find out the name of a family member who served in the military. Then they interviewed, found old pictures and presented to a large audience today. They each showed a slide, said the solider's name, the student who the solider was related to, when and where they served, a favorite memory, advice for the students, and then anything else they wanted to say. These kids really learned about veterans.

Yep... I Qualify!

2010-11-09T08:18:00.000-06:00

In an email, twitter post, or from a blog, I received a link to "21 Signs You're a 21st Century Teacher," and thought it was very interesting. I have felt for quite some time that I might be a 21^st century teacher. I thought I fit the model… until I read this list... (You might want to read this post before you read my reactions below, or they might not make sense.)

1. I require my students to use a variety of sources for research and they use blogs, podcasts, etc. I even skyped with my class to teach a lesson while I was in hospital.

2. I have my students working on collaborative projects, but not necessarily out of the country. My students live so rurally, just working with a urban student si a huge change. This must be something to strive for…

3. I keep a blog, but don’t necessarily use it to talk to parents. I give them the address… I use my blog to brainstorm, talk with other teachers (especially since we are so rural there is only one high school English teacher in our district), and to post assignments for my students.

4. I really enjoy twitter and I go in spurts using it. The problem I have with twitter is the same as with email and facebook. I find myself checking it too often and not getting other things done, therefore I fear that my students will get distracted as well. So I use it in moderation for my professional life and as an introduction for my classes in a short assignment.

5. Video is such a powerful medium for a variety of uses that I don’t limit its use to just controversy. I use it more for individual interpretation of poetry, writing, sharing new ideas, persuasion, etc..

6. My subs are never left with a simple set of written directions. I have them direct the students to my online lesson plans (for both students and parents) to get their directions. The students are so used to getting links, directions, examples, and other materials from my web page that they can usually sub for themselves.

7. This is funny but I have had my students create a MythSpace page for the Greek gods as an assignment. Funny they should get that close to my real assignment…

8. Wikis are so much more than just study guides. They can be used for portfolios, shared textbooks, all-class brainstorming, shared links for a similar topic categorized by type of technology, and so much more.

9. If sharing lesson plans means that I post them to the internet each day and each week and anyone can see them, not just my students, their parents, and my administrators, then yes, anyone can see mine and they can get a link to my documentation, examples, and resources.

10. Free is my middle name! I love the free resources that is why we use blogger, wikispaces, free email accounts, google docs, animoto, toondoo, and so many more for projects.

11. Professional development is such a personal thing for most teachers that technology has really opened doors for expansion. It used to be that we all filed into an auditorium for the same session and half the people would not be paying attention. Half of those that are paying attention are only paying attention half of the time. Half of those left only listen when the crowd begins to chuckle or a buzzword is used. Half of those are actually getting information from the speaker. And half of those are going to use the information they gained from the presentation. With online resources, you can pick what you want to learn, where you will learn it, who the presenter will be and what you will do with the new information when you get back to your classroom.

12. Virtual field trips have become a weekly occurrence in our district. The students can’t travel for financial reasons, and distance, so it is great to have them visit places for science, art, museums, history, literature and so much more than they would never have had a chance to see.

13. Photo galleries on flickr are a regular occurrence, and when I ask them to write captions for those photos it becomes a writing assignment. We also do sequencing for elementary students based on the stories the pictures tell too!

14. This one is redundant in that we have already talked about virtual field trips.

15. Internet etiquette and safety are a ongoing conversation in every class. If students are going to have access to technology in class everyday, they need to be reminded of these issues every day too. It doesn’t have to take long, but a mention here and there is best.

16. Cell phones are still an issue in our school because we don’t have enough teachers ready to make that massive change to ask them to use them. Not to mention the fact that teachers should not “talking” with students via cell phones for privacy issues. This becomes a catch 22… However, at a minimum, getting the students to not use their cell phones in class is small trouble, but when we tell them they can’t have them, and they hide them in their bags and backpacks, are we just forcing them to lie to us? That really isn’t fair to them because if you look in desk drawers, pockets and purses of the teachers they are there.

17. Summarizing chapters, annotating online texts, and writing reflection blogs entries can be done via twitter, text message, email message, discussion board, blog entry, Facebook status posts, etc. Why limit which medium we are going to use?

18. I don’t need to showcase my student’s work… they post it themselves to YouTube, Facebook, blogs, wikis, etc. (However, I do post links on my lesson plans and blogs of their examples they have made public.)

19. No morning coffee, no RSS feed, but I read my share of blogs, twitter posts and the links in them, and online newspapers, journals and tech magazines while I relax at night before going to bed. (The morning is too hectic with 3 kids to get off to school!)

20. I read the whole thing and even did a bit of research on who else has written about it in their own blogs.

21. I blogged aobut this post, posted the link so people could read the original blog entry, and then posted to facebook and tweeted that I had written this reaction…

Hmmmm...Must be a 21^st century teacher…

A Whole New Mind… A New Way of Thinking About Education

2010-11-05T10:44:00.002-05:00

I went through a voracious reading stint a while back and just found some notes from one of those books I must have borrowed. Unable to remember which of the 3 or 4 books I had read through inter-library loan at our public library, I searched a quote I thought would reveal which book these notes came out of. I searched one of my favorite quotes that was written at the top of the page which read, “The world belongs to creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers and meaning makers," only to find out that I had paraphrased a section of Daniel Pink’s book, A Whole New Mind.

I sat for a few minutes reflecting on that book and could remember the basics. I decided to read it because a friend of mine had said it was a good book, but I didn’t actually read it until I was headed to a conference where Pink was going to be speaking. I can remember only a few of the basic things in the early part of the book because it was talking about right brained (creative, intuitive, and holistic) and left brained (logical and sequential) and I can never figure out which one I am. The idea that both sides of my brain work together makes me feel better because when you take those personality assessments, I am never strongly on one side or the other. You can see this strongly in my bipolar job as the district technology coordinator (in charge of the network, accounts, hardware, software, and troubleshooting), and an English teacher who loves to read anything I can get my hands on, write both creatively and informationally, and speak as a presenter for many different subjects and conferences. Pink helped me to realize that I am well-rounded and use as many parts of my brain as possible. This also explains why I could never take a standardized test, but I could write a paper, complete a project or put together an impressive portfolio.

Pink believes that we are becoming “knowledge workers” and we don’t necessarily use our physical strength or manual skills as much. We are changing into well-educated manipulators of information and deployers of expertise.” In one respect we could look at this as: we (as a country) are smart enough to get other people to do the manual jobs and leave us open to accomplish the more educated tasks. However, it also seems that “any job that can be reduced to a set of rules or broken down into a set of repeatable steps, is at risk.” There are so many things computers have made easier from home and tasks that we used to have to pay someone to do for us because they had the expertise we didn’t. Examples include tax forms have gone online, stock brokering can happen from your living room, web design by anyone, medical advice is online…

But on the other hand, it seems to me that even some of the “hard jobs” are even being outsourced (IT, accounting and other white collar jobs). So does that mean that Americans are being pushed to create jobs that don’t even exist, or will we be jobless soon? We need to do the jobs that “workers abroad cannot do equally well for less money to keep jobs in our country.”

So, my logical, sequential side of my brain is taking over to ask you are we preparing our students for this type of world? Are we as teachers preparing them for a world of outsourcing? Are we preparing them to be manual labor? Are we preparing them to be creative enough to create their own job of the future that may mix the outsourced skills and the manual skills that so many kids love? Pink talks about the six essential aptitudes workers need are: design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning.

1. Design: “To be a designer is to be an agent of change.”

Pink believes that we must cultivate an artist’s sensibility. It is not enough to make it more beautiful because useful isn’t enough. It needs to have utility, significance, effective, transmit new ideas and emotions, functional, and be used as a means for differentiation and to create new markets. This means people need to learn how to work with people and be inspired by other people. Design is creating solutions.

2. Story: “Stories are therapeutic.”

Facts are always available, however finding a way to remember them is whole other task. “The ability to place these facts in context and to deliver them with emotional impact is better. Stories help relate old concepts to new ones. Stories encapsulate, contextualize and emotionalize facts.” Stories help explain by adding details to ideas. As you tell the story you often think it through ore and come up with solutions or new ideas. As people read stories they ask questions; they reflect on their experiences and they make new connections. We think about more than just the story.

3. Symphony: “This is the ability to put together the pieces, synthesis rather than analysis… to find relationships, patterns and connections between seemingly different disciplines is the key to symphony.” There are several different types of relationships: the boundary crosser (work in several realms/interdisciplinary), the inventor (combine unlike things), and the metaphor maker (helps with quest for meaning).

4. Empathy: Imagine yourself in someone else’s experiences and see their point of view. What are their facial expressions, emotions? People who can empathize are able to seek solutions because they can figure out what others need.

5. Play: “Laughter can improve health, increase our profits, and maybe even bring world peace.” People rarely succeed at something unless they are having fun doing it. Watch the people around you at work, do they enjoy their job? Can they find a way to have fun and make it enjoyable for everyone, or are they simply miserable and just trying to get through the day? People who can’t find joy in their job need to find a job they can enjoy, life is too short to suffer.

6. Meaning: Viktor Frankl said, “man’s main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain, but rather to see a meaning in his life.” We all seek to find the good in a life full of disappointments, fears and challenges. You have to find joy, satisfaction, and eventually enlightenment. “The quest for self-realization only comes when other more basic needs are met.”

How does this change our school systems? What will able to be automated? What can be REPLACED by a computer? What can be done cheaper from overseas? Pink explains that “Japanese education is moving to an age of ‘education of the heart’ which is explained as fostering creativity, artistry and play… away from schoolbook academics which is outdated.” Can we as teachers be outsourced? If another country is better at teaching our students math, should that be outsourced? If another country is better at science or technology do we want our students to learn from them? If another country is better with art, or finance, or economics, or writing, would our students be better off with them? We already know that technology can make this happen from anywhere in the world, so it is possible.

Knowing this, teachers can either be overwhelmed by these ideas so they react with either a “not in my lifetime” attitude, or they can be motivated to figure out what they should do to prepare their students before it is too late. This involves seeing more than immediate theoretical ideas, you have to begin to see the big picture.

To see the “big picture… the best prescription for overcoming being crunched for time, deluged by information, and paralyzed by the weight of too many choices is to distinguish between what really matters and what merely annoys.” Teachers will need to use empathy, sympathy, and first person experiences as a way of helping students to learn new skills. Teachers must embrace an ethic of caring and teach it to their students.. This is why education must change, we need to individualize and differentiate.

I look at that list of 6 skills and can see them in my lessons, in some way, shape or form. I can see design when I offer students the opportunity of choice to show or demonstrate what they know. They write, design, draw, video, record, create, animate, or anything else with their laptops to show what they have learned in any subject area.

I can see the element of story when I ask students to blog, to reflect, and write in their online portfolios. With the dramatic increase of searching skills on the Internet, symphony is something that almost required. I have purposefully changed the questions I have asked students in class to make them put more than one piece of information together to come up with new knowledge, otherwise they can just regurgitate the ideas of someone else. I have to admit that empathy is something many students struggle with. They are so absorbed in their own lives that they rarely take the time to think about others and the struggles they go through daily. Empathy is something I believe must be taught to the majority of students. They have it in them, but it must be cultivated before it gets forgotten in their busy schedules. The idea of play is not a difficult one for me either. I believe that students learn more when they play with a new piece of software, or use an online game or simulation to learn about a topic. I believe that students can related to teachers and adults who are a bit more fun, yet controlled, than someone who seems untouchable and all-knowing. And last, we all know that students and teachers don’t want to do busy work. We both want to put our time and effort into something that is meaningful and worthwhile. If we are working in dead-end jobs, we are unhappy. If we are doing assignments that don’t allow us to learn something new, we lose interest. If we are just going through the motions of life, we strive to find something new. If we aren’t happy, engaged, and interested in our daily activities and learning moments, we will find something else to do, even if it isn’t more productive for our future.

To avoid being outsourced ourselves, teachers need to figure out, “Is what I am offering in demand in the age of abundance?”

Analyzing How I Read: Annotations for Anything

2010-11-04T10:43:00.001-05:00

I have always been a reader. I am also an equal opportunity reader, and when I say that I mean that I will read anything that someone has said, “hey, I read this book and I think you will like it.” It seems like I read a lot when my students are reading and blogging a lot, because they talk about what they are reading and I get interested. I also seem to read a lot when I am travelling because I can do that when I am riding in the car, staying hotel rooms where there is nothing to do, and on airplanes without WiFi connections.

I tend to read with a pen in my hand. I know it sounds weird, but I am sure that I acquired this habit while college when I was reading so many novels and other books getting my English degree. To this day I still read for pleasure with a pen in my hand. I mark mistakes in the newspapers and magazines I read. I write in the margin of books that own, and I circle words that I either don’t know, or that I think are interesting. I underline sentences and phrases that are interesting, and that if I ever flipped back through the book to show it to someone else to convince them to read it, this is the line they would get hooked with. When I borrow a book from the library to read, I tend to put a small pad of paper in the front of the book so I can write down the same types of things as I read.

So I decided for an assignment with one of my classes, I wanted them to annotate as they read to see what they think about. (I thought it might be more interesting than asking comprehension questions I already know the answers to.) I wanted to show them they can be active readers and not just pretend to soak it in. I explained to the students that as they read there are two paths their brains are taking. On the left side of the brain they are reading the words, phrases, and sentences and figuring out what they saying. (This is the most basic level of reading comprehension.) They are also “reading between the lines” for what is not actually said and the information that is implied. (They understand that part.) Then I explained – or maybe reminded them – that they are also reading from the right side of their brain. They are making connections to their own lives. They are stopping mid thought and making a connection to something they have read, heard, or viewed at some other point in their life. (They are actively reading at this point which is the interesting part.)

So I gave them the book Lord of the Flies as a .txt file (.pdf works too) and they add comments, pictures, videos, definitions, etc. in as they read. More directions for this assignment can be found here: https://mrsbadgley.wikispaces.com/NovelAnnotation . Some of the students have complained that they “don’t think as they read.” They just “get the information” and keep going. In my mind, that is why I needed to do this assignment with them. The really strong readers need to slow down and really process how they are thinking and it helps them find details and nuances of the writing they might not have noticed before. It helps the slower readers to find more meaning in their reading by analyzing what they know, what they don’t really understand (even if it is vocabulary), and reading for more detail. Even with the complaining from the students (who are going to complain no matter what if you pick a novel for them), the class discussions have improved. Their quiz grades are higher and their written assignments are of more quality. They are using quotations from the novel, because they are already flagged…

Planning Web-Based Activities

2010-10-30T19:59:00.001-05:00

As the technology coordinator, I am expected to always “protect and defend” the use of technology in the classroom. Evidently this can be translated to mean I expect every teacher to use technology in every lesson, and that I use technology in every lesson I teach. It seems as if a cold wind blows through the room when I say anything that remotely sounds like a traditional method of teaching will work just as good for some lessons. Usually the teacher turns to me, with their mouth open, and has that “I can’t believe you just said that” look on his or her face.

Believe it or not, there are times when technology is not the best option for teaching a lesson. Sometimes students need to write with a pen or pencil. Sometimes students need to look up words in the dictionary to practice their alphabetizing skills. Sometimes students need to visit the library and find resources since not everything is online yet. Sometimes you just need to hold the book and smell the pages to really fall in love with a story. Sometimes you need to underline, circle, draw arrows, and box words to understand grammar. Sometimes you need to draw, cut, glue and use some creativity to make a really great poster for a presentation where there is no electricity.

Just to shock one of the teachers that gave me “that look,” I sent him an email with the following link to a web site titled, “5 Questions for Planning Successful Web-Based Activities.” (http://blog.learningtoday.com/blog/bid/25774/5-Questions-for-Planning-Successful-Web-Based-Activities) My notes simply said, “Ask yourself these 5 simple questions before choosing to use technology in your lesson plans.”

1. What is the curriculum related purpose of the activity?

2. Does the Internet enhance the activity?

3. How will students use the online resources?

4. Do students have necessary information analysis/information synthesis skills or am I including these in instruction?

5. Do I have the necessary time and support for the activity?

I have presented many times to faculties about lesson planning, preparing for technology integrated lessons, and implementation of 1:1 programs in all curricular areas. If I had used this as a model for professional development, I would have altered this list basic list. I would have taken this concise list and added my own experience to the questions. After I sent the email, I realized that I would have asked a few more questions. If I had to add my own questions to this list I would add:

6. How can you determine if the students know this material and doing an extensive lesson or activity is unnecessary?

7. How can this material be learned the quickest and most efficiently?

8. Who is doing most of the work for this lesson, the student or the teacher?

9. Did you as the teacher learn more preparing for this lesson or will the student learn more from participating in this lesson?

10. Even though there is a technology activity equivalent for every traditional activity, which will the student benefit from the most? http://arnoldtechhandbook.wikispaces.com/TraditionToTechnology

The Perfect Human and Lord of the Flies

2010-10-28T10:00:00.004-05:00

Many years ago, I read a book titled “Seven Habits of Highly Successful People.” As I was cleaning out my home bookshelf to take books to my classroom, I rediscovered this book and found a sheet of paper I was taking notes on as I read. One of the lines in my notes read, “What are the stages of maturity (emotional growth)?” And then with arrow leading to that same questions it said, “these are sequential stages of growth and development (each step is important and can’t be skipped… each takes time.”

So then I wondered what all of this meant… when a person takes notes, they are meant to trigger your memory for another time so you can remember what you have read, heard and learned. So now I must admit that “one has to admit ignorance to continue to learn and grow.” To continue to learn and grow, I went back and read parts of this book. I even went back and read parts of “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teenagers” by the same author. Though this is an older book and largely forgotten on a daily basis, I found many of the ideas refreshing. One particular section highlighted the values and practices that each student/human being should engage in: fairness, integrity, honesty, excellence, growth, nurturance, dignity, service, quality, potential, patience, effectiveness and encouragement. As I think about each one of qualities, I can’t help but think about the imbedded habits our children (and students) have. They like to procrastinate; they can be impatient; they are critical of others; and they tend to be selfish rather than gracious and giving. Though none of us are perfect and we all have our faults and frustrations; we need to strive to be our personal best. We need to strive to be that perfect human.

When William Golding wrote The Lord of the Flies, he had something to say about human nature, and about how humans (teenagers in this situation) grow emotionally and turn into different kinds of people. I began to look for these qualities in Jack, Ralph, Piggy, and the other boys in the book. I like to believe that I can find the good in every person I meet, even if it is buried kind of deep. I think I can see good qualities in all of the characters in The Lord of the Flies.

The perfect human would be fair. Not just fair as in cheating, but fair in their judgments of others. They would have integrity, a sense of consistent and unimpaired behavior with each person they come into contact with regardless of who that person is. They would be honest, knowing that telling a lie to anyone is wrong not matter how small the lie or the reasons behind that lie. They would strive for excellence in everything they do, not just sports or fun activities, but in academics and other more adult situations. They would want to continue to grow in all areas, which requires and open mind, a willingness to see new perspectives, and to try something new. They would be able to nurture others and not focus so much on themselves. They would want the best for those around them. They would have dignity, pride and respect for themselves, which in turn commands respect from others. They would be service oriented. They would want to help others, and not for profit. They would want the best quality in everything, not just in what they buy, but in what they write, publish, produce and create. They would use their full potential to better their lives and their community. They would create quality projects, volunteer, work hard, learn more, try harder, and never slack off when they “just don’t feel like it.” They would be patient and effective in what they do. People too often give up when things get too hard. They often don’t give themselves, or others, enough time to really learn something, and then to learn how to do it well. Not every task comes easily to each person. They would also have encouragement. Not just for others, but for themselves. We tend to talk down to ourselves when things are not going well; and then, in an unfair twist of fate, we take that frustration out on others and talk down to them to make ourselves feel better. If we encourage ourselves, think positive and talk positively with encouragement others, the world would be a better place.

What a great vocabulary lesson for students of all ages. These character traits, when I mentioned them to some of my students, were not words they could easily define. They had general ideas of what they meant, but they tended to use the same words to define each one. The nuances of the meanings are all different, but it is those subtle nuances that make each trait important and separate. As we are reading our novel, Lord of the Flies, many of the characters exhibit these traits, and others do not. I asked my students:

For each characteristic you defined on your wiki page, which character is a good example of someone who exhibits that trait?
I want to take this one step further, by asking what character traits do the boys in the novel exhibit that are not good traits?
Brainstorm other character traits that helping these boys survive on this deserted island. What good character traits do the boys exhibit that are not in my list?

What Matters?

2010-10-20T12:14:00.003-05:00

A Letter to My Students About the Importance of Reading...

Not everything you read will stay with you for the rest of your life. You won't remember all the small details from every novel you have read, or all of the specifics from each nonfiction writing you have read. You won't remember everything you read on each web page you have visited, and you won't remember the headlines from each newspaper or magazine you have read.

As you read, your brain remembers what it thinks it will need to know for the future. Your brain will remember those facts and stories that you can make a connection to your own life. Your brain will remember those facts that you want to remember or that you found more interesting than the rest.

As you are writing about your reading for the week (in your AR blog/journals), I want to know what you have been reading this week? It might be a variety of things. But more importantly, I want to know what you think about your reading. I want to know the details that you really remember. What really matters to me...

that you enjoy the book, article, web page, blog entry, or novel
that you gain some new insight by reading (big thing or a small thing)
that it is not torture to read and that is a nice break in the day to let the rest of the world drain away from you and a few minutes alone with your own thoughts

What really matters in what you read?Here are some example questions you might want to answer in your blog/journal. You don't have to answer them all, this is just a list of suggested questions when you get stuck. What I really want to know about might include...

As you read what are you thinking about?
What connections to your own life can you make?
Does this reading remind you of something that has happened to you?
Do you want to do something new because of what you have read?
Have you changed an opinion about a topic?
What will you remember from this reading in 5 years?
Does this reading (the characters or their actions) remind you of a specific person?
Did you learn something you never knew before?
Were you shocked or appalled by something you read?
Were you extremely happy about something?
Can you relate to a character - tell me how?
Did you come up against the train wreck syndrome ... so bad you just can't look away?
What do you like about the writer's style?
Is this book like any another book? movie or a song?
Does this book refer to pop culture? history, movies, literature, other books, science...

Be thinking about, "Why should Mrs. Badgley care care to read my blog entry?" What do you have to say that is important enough for Mrs. Badgley to read it?

(Also, tell me the title, author, how long you have been reading it...)

Treading Water in a Sea of Information

2010-10-18T20:32:00.000-05:00

I just began working with 8^th grade students in the middle of October. It has been over 7 years since I have worked with this age group, so I am a little rusty. I had forgotten how energetic some of them can be, and how lethargic others can be. I have also had a healthy reminder through my exploratory rotation classes that middle school students have to be reminded to question what is real and what is not. With our laptop initiative in place, they are given a laptop to use and take home every day, but they don’t have the reasoning skills to realize what is real and what is fabricated on the Internet. They are treading water in a sea of information, and they haven’t been given a life raft. They have nothing to hang onto.

That is where my class comes in. My class is called reading current events, but I wasn’t given any textbooks because they wouldn’t be current. Their laptops have become the huge seafaring vessels that move them through this sea of questionable information. I have to teach them responsibility. I have to teach them what is credible, relevant, and believable. Sometimes, depending on what subject you are looking up on the Internet, you have to move between the floating debris of biased information, the giant swells of relevant and purposeful research, the floating logs of propaganda, the whirlpools of lies, the dark water beneath web sites that contains hidden motives, and the tidal wave of search engine hits from all over the world.

They need to learn Internet safety, identity protection, privacy, and etiquette or they will be caught up in the perfect storm of online danger. If we don’t talk about social networking, online predators, and credit card theft, they will never learn it on their own. They are online all the time. They have cell phones that are faster than most fishing boats and more expensive than a yacht, but will connect to the Internet anywhere. They have iPods, iPads, netbooks, and desktops at home to sail the open waters of without so much as a lifeguard to watch. Yes, they have parents, but often they tend to watch from the beach instead of getting in the water with their kids. We as teachers spend more time with these new sailors in bootcamp, so we need to quit pretending they can make it through the Bermuda Triangle without drowning. (How’s that for a metaphor?)

Island of Misfit Toys and ME!

2010-10-12T16:07:00.005-05:00

I am in the hospital today. I am sick, but not sick enough to miss class. While my students were sitting with my substitute and my student aid, I was sitting at my computer talking to them. They were downloading the lesson plans. They were downloading files I shared with them from my web site. I presented the lesson, They were asking questions, and getting answers. All of this happened while I was 250 miles away. This small miracle all happened because of a video chat.

As I was beginning this "interaction" with my students, I hesitated to actually follow through with the video chat. I thought maybe I would limit it to an audio chat. I was worried about how I look. I have 25 electrical wires connected to my head and 2 to my heart and they are doing a 5-day EEG to try to diagnose my brain seizures. (Sounds worse than it is, believe me. It is mostly frustrated stuttering and trying to say the right word is not always easy.) Essentially I have 25 globs of super-sticky gum in my hair and a ponytail of colored wires that lead to a bag around my neck. (If you are friend on Facebook you can check out these pictures for yourself, for the rest of you, I didn't want to torture you with the UGLY!)

When the class came on live, and I could see them. I could tell one student his aunt had stopped by to see me. I could see that one student had moved onto the next novel in the series she was reading. I could see one with curly hair and one with big grin. I could see one whispering - probably in sympathy, and I could see one smiling right into the camera right back at me. I realized it was only fair for them to see me.

I took a deep breath and clicked the video button knowing how bad I must look. I couldn't help but think, "I am a broken person and that is what should make me more human to my students." Part of being human is admitting that you make mistakes; that you do get sick; and that you can get better. They laughed and enjoyed the close-up tour of my wire globs via my built in camera on my laptop. We spent more time talking about my tests and my ugly hair than we did talking about their English assignment. Was this an educational moment for my students? Probably not, it was more entertainment.

However, it also makes me a more credible teacher to my students. If I can admit my frailties, then I can admit when I am wrong. In the past few weeks, I have made a conscious effort to admit when I am wrong, when I have made a mistake, and to admit when I didn't get papers graded on time. And in return, the students enjoy being the "expert" and finding the right answer. They enjoy pointing out my mistakes and getting extra credit points for it. And they enjoy the reprieve they get from homework when I don't get mine done.

I can admit that broken has potential for learning about each other. Look at the Island of Misfit Toys. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SH1j1luFOw) The Jack-in-the-Box named Charlie, the spotted elephant, a choo choo with square wheels on his caboose, a water pistol that sprays jelly, the bird that swims, a cowboy who rides an ostrich, a boat that won't stay afloat, and Rudolph with his red nose. We can all learn a lesson about seeing each other for who we are instead of who we are expected to be. Seeing other sides of people is a good thing.

If only one good thing has come from my illness, then I would have to say what I have learned about my students over the last 10 months is best part. I have learned they are concerned. They care, even when they don't show it. They can be patient while I try to find the right words. They can be humorous to lighten up a potentially embarasing situation when the English teacher can't talk. They can be helpful when I am not at my best. They can be thoughtful and forgiving, kind and tolerant and pleasant, and that's not just on their good days. On their bad days, which those aren't so bad, they are just kids. Kids who are curious and learning.

Columbus or Viking?

2010-10-11T16:04:00.001-05:00

With just today being Columbus Day, I can’t help but think about explorers. The dictionary defines explorers as people who “travel in or through (an unfamiliar country or area) in order to learn about or familiarize oneself with it.” Columbus was sent to seek out a new world. He was sent out to learn about the world with the preconceived notion that the world was flat and that he might sail off the edge. He took on the challenge not really knowing how it would turn out. He must have been sailing on faith. He must have been sailing because deep down in his heart he knew the possibility of something life-changing could happen and he wanted to be in on it. What he couldn’t have known was that someone, or a lot of someones had already discovered what he hope to find.

So why is it that Columbus gets credit for finding the “new world” when the Vikings really found North America a long time before Columbus? Why is it that Columbus gets credit for finding America, when in reality he was on the island of Cuba? Does Columbus get credit because he had a better publicist?

The same can be said of a lot of great technology discoveries and a lot of great lessons learned by students all across the world. John Spencer of http://teachingunmasked.blogspot.com said, “If you know a world and do not know your own backyard, you know nothing. If you know the world and do not know your own backyard you can colonize without thought… without resistance… We are spending a lot of energy teaching our children about the world without teaching them a thing about their backyard… We are living in a place that was once designed for others.”

The big push in technology right now, the famous “discoverers” of new ways of teaching and learning, are asking teachers and, consequently, their students, to begin to learn collaboratively with classrooms across the globe. In theory this sounds wonderful and Spencer admits this. But he also admits that if you don’t know your own backyard, you really aren’t learning about the world. This can be as simple as content. If you don’t know your own government, literature, or history, then how can you share it with someone else, let alone compare yours to theirs? If you don’t understand the technology, or the software available to you on your laptops, then how can you expect your students to use it? How can you get involved in project-based, or challenge-based learning projects with others when you are not using them in your classroom? I see a lot of teachers who want to participate in collaborative classroom projects, but they aren’t allowing the students sitting right in their room the time to work together. How can they learn to work collaboratively through technology if they don’t understand group dynamics at home, or in their own backyard? We, as teachers, are famous for taking a lesson or project that was once taught by someone else (the Vikings) and then revamp, reorganize, personalize and use it in our classrooms. So does that make us more like Columbus?

The phrase, “we are living in a place that was once designed for others” is perfectly applicable to education. As teachers we tend to work in rooms that were built for paper and pencil learning and trying to adapt that place for technology. As we are beginning to integrate technology into our classrooms we are trying to adapt our old curricula, resources and materials to technology with the least amount of work to change. This doesn’t work. Columbus couldn’t change the land he discovered. He couldn’t change the materials that we on hand, but he could introduce new. So can teachers.

Now it sounds like I am knocking teachers, and I am not. In fact I need to praise the teachers of our district for their creativity. They do a lot of really great projects. They really use our 1:1 laptops in many innovative and engaging lessons. They have been doing this for a long time, but does this make them the Vikings or Columbus? Our district was one of the first in the state to go 1:1, and we continue to help other districts prepare to go 1:1 as well. We weren’t the Vikings in Nebraska, someone else gets that honor, but we enjoy being part of the Columbus entourage.

Tech Support As a Safety Net

2010-10-10T10:43:00.000-05:00

If only I had followed my first instincts I would have been much less stressed out, frustrated, and pushed to the limit. A wise man, Rich Molettiere of Omaha Public Schools, once said, "Never make major changes right before a day out of the office or before a vacation." I wish he had said this just a few days earlier for my benefit!

We all fall into this category of bad decisions when it comes to our work lives. We want to get as much done as soon as possible... or just in time... whichever fits your personality or situation. Making major purchasing decisions, fixing large components of your network, finding accounting errors, fixing code in programming, adjusting the filter, or resetting workgroup manager settings that effect all the users in your network is not a good plan right before you are gone. Not only do these changes stress out your users if they don't go smoothly, but it can also stress you out when they are calling (while you are gone) and trying to troubleshoot over the phone.

For example... you were waiting for the example weren't you?...

A couple of weeks ago, we had a Friday off from school. Our football team had to travel over 4.5 hours west to play a game, so to show support of our new CO-OP team, the administration let out school for the day to attend and support our Bobcat team. I had the brilliant idea that if I went to school really early that morning I could get the new switches put in and running while no one was around, and then leave for the game. I thought the task would only take about an hour since I have put in new switches to the network in the past. I methodically went through the process. I put the new switch at one end of the network. Tested the connection and it worked. I put in the other switch at the other end and all the connections worked. Then I realized that I forgot to replace the old orange fiber wires and put on the new ones. You would think that this would be an easy task... but not today.

As soon as I tried to put in the new fiber, the connection failed and the entire high school wing of our network down. Not a good option for a 1:1 school. So then process of methodically changing the fiber connections began. Time slipping away... I tried putting on the other end, to no avail. I called tech support in Kearney and they tried to talk me through the mess, gain to no avail. So then I thought I would just put the old fiber back on and deal with the new later... to no avail. It wouldn't work either.

So now I am stuck. I am supposed to leave for the game (which my son plays on the team so I really don't want to miss it), and time is really starting to run out. Another call to tech support, and more troubleshooting. I am now starting to panic! I am frustrated, rushed, and ready to cry. I suppose the word "cry" is now making you wonder... why would she "cry"? It's simple. I was also planning to be gone for the entire next week to have some extensive tests run at a hospital 4.5 hours in the opposite direction. I am now officially caught in the middle.

I couldn't just leave the network down for a week and I am the only one that could fix it. I call tech support again trying to maintain my composure. Luckily the man was going to work in a neighboring school (35 miles away) and he said he would come over to fix it.

Problem: I have to leave in 10 minute and it is a 90 minute drive from where he was at that moment.
Solution: I left my school keys in my car, parked at the school and he opened the doors, worked on the network and locked his way back out! How's that for service. Then he even called me on the cell phone to say everything was working and not to worry!
Lesson to learn: You need to skip the major change and wait until you have the time and patience for a potential disaster. (You probably won't have trouble if you don't have the pressure.) OR... you need excellent tech support to be your safety net and they are not busy.
Moral of the story: The rush makes it difficult to do the job correctly and the pressure can kill you if it doesn't go smoothly.

Things I wish I could say to my students...

2010-10-08T08:08:00.009-05:00

You may find this hard to believe, but I don't read all of email. If it is a forward, I tend to not read it because it is probably a joke, a story that is supposed to be heart-warming, a religious message, a political bashing of someone, what we used to call chain letters (don't let this stop with you messages), or some other unnecessary quiz. Sounds mean doesn't it? But when you think about the fact that I get over 50 emails a day that are important and must be dealt with, the other 100 messages from vendors, e-newsletters, and forwards I get daily tend to be trashed before they have been read.

Today, as I am cleaning out my email inbox, I see the subject line "Rules of Life" without any indication that the message might be a forward. The sender was someone I know and can trust that they are not sending me virus-filled messages. So I opened it. I was fooled! Of course it was a cleaned up forward, but it really caught my attention. Here is what it said:

These have been credited to Bill Gates, but I have read that they did not originate from him.

1. Life is not fair; get used to it.

2. The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

3. You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school OR college. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone, until you earn both.

4. If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.

5. Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping; they called it opportunity.

6. If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

7. Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents' generation, try "delousing" the closet in your own room.

8. Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades; they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

9. Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.

10. Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

11. Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

This could be considered the list of things teachers want to say to their students, but don't. Some of these phrases I would want to say, but shouldn't. Some of these phrases I have said to kids. Other phrases I wished I had said to some of my "tougher cases."

Twenty-first century skills is the concept that in schools we give students real-world opportunities to learn. (Though I know there is more to these 21st century skills, but I am concentrating on this part.) We can provide them with job skills, career exploration, and let them do job shadowing and on-site job experiences. However, the students don't seem to get the "reality" of the world.

At one point recently, I did an exercise with income with my students. I asked them, "When you get out of high school, what are the things in life you want the most? How much do you want to spend for housing, entertainment, material items to have in your house, gas, car, rent, phone, food, etc.?" We didn't even begin to factor into the household budget children, emergencies, vices, health-home-car insurance, appliances, furniture, clothing, cable television or internet service. With that information, and a rounded amount for each one per month, we took a minimum wage job, and calculated how many hours would you realistically have to work a day, a week and in a month to have all of those things.

Then we talked about the importance of an education. I shared with them unemployment statistics of for drop outs, GED students, high school graduates, college graduates, and higher education graduates. We talked about the average income for each of these levels (based on the job they wished to do in the future) and again did the math from the first assignment. They then realized that even with an education and a decent job, they might need someone to help pay the bills (a roommate or a working significant other).

Now you would think that this might have some impact on students and make them sit up and take notice. You might even think that they would take school a bit more seriously. You might also be wrong. My students are running on faith, even after we did the math... even after we tried to logical and practical... even after we "trimmed down" what they want to spend for their life... they think it will all somehow work itself out. They must think that money will fall from the sky. They must think that there will be lottery to win or an inheritance that will fall down around them. Or, they might think that their parents will help them with money or they can live with them. What is it that is letting our students believe in this fantasy? Where have we gone wrong? I said a lot to my students trying to help them "see the light," but I don't feel like I accomplished my goal. I think the light is still fogged out in the distance and they don't want to learn the truth.

As a parent I question, have my own children seen enough of our financial struggles to realize life is not a piece of cake; or have we shielded them from the truth too much? Do they know that just because they ask for something, it does not mean that we can afford it? Do they realize that just because we have a credit card doesn't mean that we can pay it off? Debt is something that children don't learn unless they learn it from their parents or by personal experience when it is too late.

As a teacher I question, have my students realized how much things cost? Do they know that the laptops they are using at school and at home are about a $1,000 each after all the software installs, insurance, backpacks, etc.? Do they appreciate what the school is giving them to use; and do they understand that the laptop might be a luxury item they will have to do without after graduation if the price is too high for their personal finances?

Maybe if we emphasized the real "Rules of Life" we would have more realistic children in our communities. Maybe if we let them see the economic struggles, and the didn't shield them, they would begin to learn. Maybe if we as adults are more realistic with out own finances we can begin to teach our children.

“With unemployment at 10%, no one was going to spoon-feed, baby-sit, and hand-hold them - they would have to do their job and do it well to keep it.” - Unknown

Giving Compliments Is An Acquired Skill

2010-10-04T11:31:00.002-05:00

I recently gave an assignment in class that I was really excited about. (I actually learned about it from one of those forwarded email messages that no one really believes, but I tried it anyway. I told them the story from the email about how the students came back together at their 20-year reunion and many of them still had their compliment sheets. The papers were worn and tattered, and folded this way and that to fit into wallets and purses. The people shared how much those compliments have met to them over the years and how many times they have taken them out when they were feeling low and needed a boost.)

I asked each of my students to write a compliment for each person in the classroom. We talked about the fact that there is something good in everyone and how we always need to look for that, no matter the situation. I asked them to take their time and really mean what they write, then after they hand them in, I would compile them individually for students to keep. My hopes were high and I waited with anticipation for the results. I couldn’t wait to see the look on their faces when the read the list of compliments… little did I know that I would be disappointed.

When the sheets were handed in, and I started to compile the information, I realized that the students didn’t even take the time to really think about their classmates and write something meaningful. They often wrote the same thing for more than one person in the class. Some mixed a compliment with an insult mixed in. Some didn’t even write in complete sentences, and some didn’t write a compliment for each student. And, if they wrote a compliment for themselves, they 15 out of 18 times said, “you’re ok.” Not one wrote a compliment for me (and I was in the room when the assignment was given) but I didn’t expect them to write one either. Several things that did begin to stand out clearly: the kids who were nice to everyone, the kids they don’t know much about because they got all the same compliments, and the students they didn’t like because they were often skipped.

So, as any determined teacher would do, I kept the first “draft” and had them start over. This time I talked about the assignment from the perspective to include compliments beyond the school environment. They could compliment about sports, activities, friendships, personalities, etc. This did help, however, not much… or so I thought.

The second time I sat down to compile the compliments; new “revelations” hit me in the form of a series of questions:
Do these students really know how to give a compliment, or to accept one?
Do they understand how a compliment can mean a lot to a person, even years later?
Do they think beyond the surface – beyond the way a person looks?
Do they bother to get to know more people than just their immediate circle of friends to be able to give a compliment?
Or, do I dare ask… do they not care enough about others that they can’t give a genuine compliment because they are so wrapped up in their own lives they don’t see others for who they are?

Even though there was an occasional genuine compliment in the bunch, usually from a very close friend or the case of this small town, a cousin or other family member, the compliments were generic. I could have written most of these compliments without even knowing the kids. In fact, I could probably write a more genuine compliment than they could for each other. From reading the lists I realized that they seem to see people from only one perspective and that is their place in the “pecking order.” They tend to label each other as the drummer, the comedian, the smart one, the athlete, the pretty one, the bull rider, etc. What really got me thinking was, do they label the teachers and other adults in their life as well? Do they see us in just one way and are unable to see us for who we really are? I would understand with elementary students not seeing their teachers beyond their tiny desks and colorful bulletin boards, but I am talking about high school students. These older students see us out and about in town, at the stores, at activities, helping with groups around town, etc.

Thus begins the “Badgley Spin.” If I can notice that most of the compliments are the same, then so will the students. From these compliment lists I want the students to really think about who they are. Who are they when they are alone, with friends, during sports and activities, with family, with the community, and anywhere else? Who do they want to be? What don’t other people see about them? How much of that hidden person do they want to share with others? What do they want to keep private? What do they wish the public would quit believing about them? Now they can write about those ideas.

As I read back over what I have written here, I can’t help but think I began complaining about the results of a lesson I designed that essentially failed. As I continued to write, I realized that maybe the lesson to be learned would come from the second half of this assignment. And now, as I am finishing up, I feel like even if my students don’t benefit from this assignment, I have. I will try to keep in mind as I am working with my students that they should not be pigeonholed into one stereotype as the comedian, the troublemaker, the drummer, or the bull rider. I need to give them the benefit of the doubt and realize they have many sides to their personalities that I may not see. They are each a multi-faceted diamond in the rough and I just need to look at the side they are showing me today and appreciate it, and realize tomorrow I may see something completely different.

How Can You Change How You Will Be Remembered?

2010-09-04T10:39:00.001-05:00

As the school year begins, I love to look back at the old yearbooks and see my incoming students when they were much younger. At the same time, I can almost imagine the futures of some of my returning students. I think about where they will be in a few years. I asked one group of kids today, “How will you leave a legacy of greatness?” They stared at me with a look of shock. On the faces of some of the more cocky students you can see them thinking, “I am already great, how can anyone forget me?” One student even said, “I will be remembered for how great I am in sports.”

It dawned on me to say, “I can’t remember who the quarterback of the football team was last year, let alone 5 or 10 years ago. The only way we remember the great athletes in high school is by reading the records boards in the gym with the longest jumps, the most rushing yards, the highest scorers, etc.” With that being said, I also mentioned people from my graduating class. I have distinct memories of many people I went to high school with over 20 years ago. Most of those memories are not good.

I can picture a girl who was considered the best dressed, but I can’t even remember her last name, and I couldn’t recognize her at the reunion. I can remember the most arrogant athlete who didn’t have time for anyone he deemed “below him” in status, but when I ran into him at the reunion, he didn’t have many people to talk to and left early. There must be more people like me who didn’t like him. I can remember one of the most beautiful girls in our class, and when I saw her for the first time in 20 years, she looked like an old shoe. She had spent so much time trying to preserve her youth with hair dye and time in the tanning booth that she actually looked older than me. I can remember a boy that used to bully other students. Many were scared of him, but others would not back down. He didn’t have any friends, other than the other bullies in our class. Where do you think he was when it was time to go to the reunion? In jail for assault.

So let’s look at the more positive side of things. I can remember a guy who was outgoing, interested in drama, music and basketball, and the underdog winner for prom king. He was fun, and tried to get along with everyone. He never had a bad word for anyone. Where was he? Happily married, with children, working in a job he loves, and volunteering in his community. I can remember the kid who was the smartest in our class, with the longest list of scholarships and awards. He kept mostly to himself, but had a few close friends, which is all anyone really needs. He was a CEO of a major design firm and married to a Victoria’s Secret model. He was still unassuming, yet, he was much more confident and talkative. And then there are the stories of my close friends. None of us went on to become famous, and none of us is wealthy. However, we are all successful. We are successful as human beings, we are good husbands and wives; we are good parents, hard workers, and contribute to our communities. I can go on and on…

So I asked my own students again, “How will you be remembered? As the bully, the bad attitude, a good student, an athlete, or a nice person?” Then I took a long pause while the students looked around the room uncomfortably. Finally I let them off the hook and said, “What can you do to change how you will be remembered?”

Personal Philosophy Statements:

2010-09-01T10:05:00.002-05:00

To begin this school year, I wanted students really start thinking for themselves. I think too often we ask our students to regurgitate information and pretend that it means they are learning. I would prefer that my students think and develop their own voice, their own ideas, and challenge the thinking of their teacher with respect and the ability to back up their own ideas with facts, stories, anecdotes, and theories. When I was at ISTE this summer in Denver I attended a session in which two English teachers from Colorado presented about the use of portfolios in the classroom. They inspired me to begin this “philosophy” journey with my students. Essentially, these teachers ask their students to write a “philosophy of life” statement at the beginning of the year. Then they are periodically asked to look at what they have been reading, writing, and talking about in their English class as well as their other classes and see how it connects to their philosophy of life.

But first they had some work to do:
They needed to create a space to house all of their ideas. A place for their philosophy statement to live publically and the other assignments they will be doing. So I asked them to create their own free wikispace site at http://www.wikispaces.com I told them to be sure to create this page so that you name it something that hides your identity but is not silly – just in case you want to use it after high school. You will want it to be similar or exactly the same as the blog site you made if it is available. You will create an account first and then you will need to create the wikispace itself as a second step (the type is personal – for now). When they were done, I had them email a link to your newly created wiki site to me at nbadgley@esu10.org so I could “join” each of their wikispaces (as will other students later for different assignments) so we can read, help them edit, and make suggestions for their entries.

Once that wikispace was created, I felt like they might need an example to get them started, so we brainstormed aloud in class. We discussed:

What is a philosophy?
What is a personal philosophy?

I had them search for blogs that had this type of statement. I even gave them a link to my own philosophy example titled: “If every student put as much effort into academics as they do sports practice, they would truly be superstars in college and the world of work.”

Accelerated Reading: A Fast Track to Frustration or is status quo ok?

2010-08-31T08:40:00.000-05:00

As the school year begins, each year for the last 15 years, I question how I want to implement my personal reading program. I know what my goals are, but how do I reach them fairly without “sucking the joy out of reading.” In a perfect world I would simply give my students time to relax, read, and enjoy a break in the day to just sit down with a good book. In that same perfect world, the students would want to read, and they would want to talk to their friends and say, “Hey! Read this one next!” I wouldn’t have to give grades for how many books they read, or how many points they earn because I see excitement in their faces and know that they are reading. They would not ask to go the bathroom, or run to the library for the 5^th time to waste time and change books AGAIN. But we all know that we don’t live in a perfect world, and that this doesn’t work with all students.

So this year I decided to do challenge based learning assignment with my freshmen and sophomores.

The Big Idea: Accelerated Reader Program

Essential Question: How do we make AR enjoyable for all students?

Challenge: Design a new AR program we can use. Things to keep in mind: (1) AR is worth 20% of your grade (mandated by the school through the curriculum committee, I can’t change that). (2) I have to have a way to grade everyone fairly (but you can design that).

The students then moved through the CBL process by brainstorming essential questions. (For my group I had them brainstorm what they liked and what they disliked about the current AR program and then turn those statements into questions.) They then went through their own research process as their Guiding Activities. I explained that they need to keep track of all the resources they used to gather information. This includes all the people you talked to, all web sites, blogs, videos, etc. that you read or looked at while you were doing research. If you read web sites, copy and paste the address and the notes you took. If you talked to someone on the phone, then take notes to prove you did this. If you talked to someone in person, take notes and write down their name and the date/time of the interview. If you chatted with someone online, copy and paste the chat into a document for proof. If you posted to Facebook and received comments, copy and paste for proof. These became their Guiding Resources.

We discussed not throwing out any ideas during the research process because in the end you might use them, adapt them to your ideas, or possibly not use them at all, but at least you can refer back to them.

Then it came time to choose an action plan, to create a design. Essentially, to solve the problem of antiquated reading program that they said they didn’t like. They knew they were going to publish their design in their own creative way (a powerpoint/keynote, web page, commercial, song, video, web page, blog entry, print ad, etc.). They could choose to work in groups, pairs or as individuals, but they would have to present to the class their process, and their final product to persuade the class that their design was the best solution and the “new AR.”

I was really excited, I don’t mind telling you. I thought this is their chance to really shake things up. I encouraged the students to think “outside the box” and be creative. I predicted that someone would really make drastic changes. I hoped that someone would propose to throw out the program entirely and start from scratch. What I got was quite to the contrary. The results were shocking in that the students seemed to just give in. They simply said the only fair way to grade this, to make sure that everyone is participating, is to keep doing it the same way with very minor changes. (Study hall if you reach your goal, a party if everyone in the class reaches their goal, alternative projects to prove they have read instead of taking the tests, points for reading web pages and blogs, and self-set goals according to ability and participation in sports and activities.)

I found that my students had a hard time with doing quality research. They wanted to simply interview their parents about how they did personal reading. They wanted to ask the teachers here in the school how they did it when they were kids and how it was done here at school a few years back. By asking these people they only found out what was done in the past, before technology came into the daily lives of students. I found that they didn’t try to contact anyone using iChat or Skype. They didn’t go out to sources outside of the local area, let alone out of the state or the nation. They didn’t try to see if schools in other countries had a better plan or a more interesting plan.

When this realization hit me, I wondered… have we taught them how to seek out his type of information? Have we taught them how to find human resources beyond our own comfort zone? Have we given them “permission” to respectfully say “I think we should start from scratch with new ideas, and here are mine”?

On the other hand, I can look at as: “what I have been doing is fair and the students simply needed to go through this process to appreciate what they have set up for them and that should minimize their complaining.” (Do you believe that? I had a hard time writing that and even a harder time believing it!) So where do we go from here? I struggle with this because I need to move on in class. I can’t spend another week or another month on this one topic with the kids, even if the persuasive writing, problem solving and critical thinking skills they are using (and not using) are important. So I guess this topic gets tabled for now unless you as my reading audience have any suggestions. Am I disappointed? No. Were the kids interested and engaged? Yes. Did they want to make changes? Yes. Am I curious as to why the kids didn’t take this project further? Yes. Will I try again next year? Yes.

Documents I used in class that you can request:
1. Sample audio file from a student.
2. CBL overview file
3. the checklist for students
4. the presentation notes,
5. the "final verdict" keynote presentation

Please contact me by email: nbadgley@esu10.org

Would Students Learn On Their Own?

2010-08-30T10:13:00.001-05:00

Grading is such a difficult thing to do, especially in my discipline. If I were a Math teacher, the answer would be the same for each student. If I were an science teacher, you can't change the chemistry formula by very much. If I were a history teacher, I couldn't change the date that an event happened. Now all of these subjects do have an "exception to the rule," and we can all find those examples, but any English teacher can tell you that so much of our grading is subjective. How do you tell a student that their interpretation of a poem is wrong? How do you say that what they gleaned from a novel is not what they were supposed to learn? How do we say that their writing assignment was done well enough? e.e. cummings didn't even know how to capitalize.

If I weren’t going to measure a student’s proficiency in English class through grammar tests, and made them give speeches with a criteria checklist, or comprehension questions to be sure a student read a novel, or had them write papers which had complicated rubrics attached to them, how would I know if a student is proficient in the English language? In other words, in a perfect world, how could I grade English classes and really know if student learned what they are supposed to and be successful in the world?

Would they learn to interpret what they read and find meaning for themselves?
Would they recognize deeper meaning in what people are writing and saying?
Would they be able to learn a lesson from someone else’s experiences that are in written format?
Would be able to travel to other locations, cities, states, countries, etc. and learn about other cultures and their ways of life without leaving their own home?
Would they be exposed to poetry and dramas? Would they read classics as well as magazines, modern literature and even blogs?
Would they learn to write for the pure joy of it? To blog, to write poems, letters, diaries, stories, plays, and even novels if they didn’t learn to love English?
Would they learn to think for themselves, to problem solve, and then to argue their side when someone disagrees with them?
Would they even recognize the common allusions to famous literature and authors?
Would they gain that love for reading a variety of works?
Would they learn to write coherent sentences and paragraphs?
Would they be able to speak grammatically correct, at least when they are trying to?
Would they learn to debate a topic and see both sides of an issue?
Would they learn to do research and be able to find information they need for work and entertainment?
Would they have the confidence to talk in front of a group?
Would they attend, watch or participate in theatrical events, either on or off stage?

My soap box is pretty high off the ground right now, but as I go into planning my year, preparing for my personal reading unit, laying out the writing units I want my students to experience, I am motivated to try to be creative. I want my students to enjoy at least parts of my class if not all of them. I want them to be engaged. The bulleted items above are definitely my goals and I strive for them all year, every year.

The World is Open: Practical Uses

2010-08-29T09:02:00.000-05:00

I recently finished reading The World is Open: How Web Technology is Revolutionizing Education by Curtis Bonk. Though it was a slow read, and I felt like I started skimming it due to writing style preferences, I did find many ideas that I will take back to my classroom and to my faculty. I could have written a summary or book review, but it was the practical suggestions (not theories or philosophies) for my classroom that I discovered were most important while reading this book. Some of the ideas – in a raw format – are listed below.

Blog about the progress a project or unit is taking in my class for the kids to read. Include supplemental links, compliments and suggestions for improvements.
Create a collective textbook made by the students – possibly in a wiki or some other social site they can all access. (Or use online textbook sites like Connexions)
Search for “experts” to talk with either by chat, video chat, discussion board, or some other forum, that are outside of the immediate community, at the state, national or international level.
If students are absent, post what they have missed, links, videos, documents or files needed, what was collected, handed in, discussed and announced, etc. (wiki space, ustream, etc.)
Keeping a set of individual writing goals to work on based on their writing skills after each paper. Give one goal for the entire class, and give 2 or 3 individual goals.
Using an ebook have partners create an interactive chapter of a novel to share with the rest of the class. Each makes notes of what to include then work together to find links, photos, videos, simulations, podcasts, etc. that will demonstrate that portion of the novel. It might be an allusion, a location, a historical reference, a vocabulary word, notes about the author, theme, writing style, other books by the author, literary terms or examples you notice, etc.
Expanding upon the ebook idea, it would be fun to have students choose from online novels to read and annotate that they are individually interested in. They could be fiction, or nonfiction, and part of the public domain. (They can use Google Book Search, Global Textbook Project, One Million Book Project, Tor Books, We-All-Learn, Open Content Alliance, Yahoo Books, the Open Library Project, the British Library, Turning the Pages, or some other online book repository to find a book they are interested in.)
Have students self-publish their own short stories, novellas, or novels online through Lulu, Author House, or Book Surge if they are interested.

Sites for All Subject Areas:

Professional Development: Use YouTube and search Common Craft to watch short videos “in plain English” for Web 2.0 tools. (Example: “Wikis in Plain English”)
Science: Nature – online journal; Public Library of Science; Encyclopedia of Life portal for Earth, Life and Biology science
History: ECHO Exploring and Collecting History Online
Foreign Language: use dotSUB to create subtitles or to watch a video from another country so you can understand the language.
Discussion Board: Chinswing is an audio discussion board where you can simply record your voice reactions to a topic.
Journalism: use CurrentTV to produce your own news program
World History: “Web 2.0… the Machine is Us/ing Us” by Dr. Michael Wesch (22 minutes long timeline of world history)
Library: use LibraryThing to make and join book groups

The Professor, Willa Cather, and Me

2010-08-28T10:49:00.000-05:00

It’s funny how the right book comes along at the right time. You read something that really connects to your own life, and it comes as a complete surprise. I recently finished reading Willa Cather’s Professor’s House. Though I really have enjoyed reading Cather’s work, this was one that I didn’t expect to enjoy as much as I did. We took a group of students to Red Cloud, Nebraska, to visit the childhood hometown of this famous author as part of a Nebraska literature unit we have been studying in my senior English class. (I know, I know, Virginia claims Cather as “their” author, and so can New Mexico since she lived there as an adult, but as a person from Nebraska – and considering that she wrote many of her short stories and several novels about the people and the town of Red Cloud - we will claim her as a Nebraska author.)

When we were there, the tour guide showed us the home where Cather lived and as we walked through this restored home filled with Cather’s actual belongings and antiques, you could really see her stories come to life. You could see where Old Mrs. Harris slept and where the “stairway to heaven” in the attic was. As we walked down main street, you could see where the Two Friends sat and talked business. You could see by visiting the Depot where the actors came into town on the train before they headed up to the Opera house.

After going on this trip, I realized I had not read The Professor’s House, but I had been in the houses. I had seen the dressmakers mannequin, and I had seen the desk. Now, I just needed to understand the story. As the book unfolded, I was going through some of my own illness issues. I was getting depressed about not knowing why I was sick and wanted to be alone a lot. I escaped into reading to try to find some happiness through a character that was happy. Obviously, this was not the book, but I found my connection. I could see in myself this professor. The professor stood in the empty house he had earned his way out of (into a much larger and more expensive house) and gazed out the window realizing he was giving up what made him comfortable. He was giving up what had given him a sense of security and now he was not dealing with change very well. Cather scholars say that this novel was also a time period in Cather’s life where she was at a cross roads of success and you had to change to keep going or get left behind. Change was imperative, even if it was a challenge, even if it was painful, and even if you didn’t feel secure. I could see that my life was going to have to change as well. My illness was pushing me into this change and it was something I could not fight. I could either let it get me down, or I could suck it up and push through to find the happiness at the other side.

The professor also realizes through his son in law that greed can be a very bad thing. He can see that his wife wants more, his daughters want more and his son in law was willing to give up his integrity to get the finer things in life, even if they didn’t make any of them any happier. It is not the material things that make a person happy, it is the relationships that make all the difference. Cather, at the time of writing of the novel, was starting to make some money, and her lifestyle was changing. She was more recognizable to the public and her private life was not entirely her own anymore. Cather was also going through some family issues and her best friend had gotten married and they were not seeing much of each other anymore. Cather wanted things to stay the same, but the relationships around her were changing. Cather had to find a new way to connect with those friends who were now at a distance. My changes were similar in that everyone was asking me about my illness (much like being famous and asked questions everywhere you go). I had been upset about the expenses my family was incurring due to my illness (like the professor) and worried about every little expense trying not to deprive my children of what they were used to having. They had already given up enough while I was sick. I realized that I would get better, the children would not really suffer for the long term if they didn’t have the “in” tennis shoes, or the top of the line new electronic gadget. I realized, and so did they, that as long as we had each other, we were all healthy, and that we had food on the table, we could still be a happy family. The material things were not that important; and that is a big thing for a 6 year old, an 11 year old, a 15 year old, and to adults in their 40s to learn.

One of the characters, Rosie, realized that a shiny coat of paint can’t cover up what is really going on. She couldn’t cover up what her sister was doing, Cather couldn’t cover up what was happening to her in her fame, and I couldn’t cover up my illness anymore. People were going to know and hiding wouldn’t change anything, it would just make the rumors worse. So, like the professor, when a student challenged what was going on with me, I told them truth. The professor was challenged by a student named Miller, and in the end, they both learned from each other, and in this case, made the teacher work harder. Cather at that time was struggling to begin writing again, and it was a student and friend who challenged her to get back to her writing. I too found myself challenged by my students and I am a better person for it. When my students began to notice my obvious problem with stuttering, getting off balance, and then losing my ability to speak for a few moments when I had brain seizures in class, I simply had to tell them the truth. The students learned to take the initiative and do what they knew I would assign them. They learned to be patient and kind instead of making fun of my situation. I learned to be more patient as well because I figured if the kids could be patient that I needed to also.

I also learned what Lillian (in the novel) did not learn. I learned that you don’t have to do anything for “show.” You don’t have to act a certain way because that is what is expected from you. Lillian was vivacious and lively when people were around, but as soon as they were gone, she was sad, sullen, and depressed. I think that “putting on the show” is more exhausting than just admitting you are having a bad day. Covering up was harder to maintain that simply admitting when you can’t handle (or afford) something. Cather’s way of dealing with these issues was to write about it, my way of dealing with it was to finally confess what was really going on instead of trying to act like everything was fine (and then write about it months later when I am more objective). Rather than let “something that goes unsaid” get between me and my husband, my family, and my school family, (like the professor and his wife, or the two daughters rivalries and jealousies tore them apart) I need to say those things that needed to be shared. “Secrets don’t make friends,” has been overheard in many classes, and it is so simply and so true. The truth can set you free, and so can a book that you can relate to.

I realized after that same trip to Red Cloud that I have not read the Song of the Lark (which is supposedly the closest story reflecting the town and townspeople). Before our next trip down there next year, I need to get it read. My next endeavor into Cather’s world will have to be the Song of the Lark, but I don’t have a copy yet, it is on order!

Are We There Yet?

2010-08-20T11:25:00.000-05:00

For every journey, there is a beginning, a middle that takes the most time, and an ending that is usually too quickly over with. This can be said for planning a wedding, reading a good book, taking a long trip, or implementing a new program in our school systems. All of these “trips” take time and you must be able to adjust, adapt and change along the way. These adjustments are often frustrating and challenging, but after you step back and look at your accomplishments, they will seem more worth it in the end. Educational reform is no different. Every change is a process. Though I have only been teaching for about 16 years, I can remember a lot of changes that have happened. I have watched the change from phonics to whole learning and back. I have seen outcome-based education come and go very quickly. We researched block scheduling and implemented only to revert back. I participated in writing local standards assessments only to have them replaced by a state-wide test. now we are working on RtI (response to intervention) training for improving reading and we have implemented a laptop initiative in our district for the last 5 years. Change comes every year in some way, shape, or form. As teachers we research this new proposed change, we experiment with the best practices for our classrooms, we change the way we do things for the betterment of our students. We do this every school year. However…

Do you get tired of travelling through change, the struggle that goes with it, and the wait to get there?
Do you need an experienced travel guide or do you blaze your own trail?
Can you identify the obstacles that others have endured and avoid them for yourself, or are you destined to trip over the same hurdles?
Do you follow a route designed by someone else, or find your own route?
How do you know if you are “there” if you have no end goal in mind?
How do you push forward to improve if you don’t know where you are going? Do you just keep swimming like Dori in Finding Nemo?
When you get there, will you be happy or relieved?
Will you be able to enjoy the view once you get there, is it all down hill from here, or will you keep planning the next leg of your journey?
How can you keep pushing to new heights? What is your mountaintop experience?

How each of us handles change determines the success, the speed and the longevity of that change. We have to remember that achievement that comes the first day is not nearly as satisfying as seeing something you have worked hard for come to fruition. Watching someone else reach his or her goal pushes you to try to keep up. Working together, you can go further and you can celebrate together. Victory is sweet. Don’t let change slow you down.

Self-Exporation as a Unit Introduction

2010-07-27T19:03:00.006-05:00

So I have been asked several times about a classroom strategy that allows students to take control of their own learning. Instead of the teacher doing all the research, and the students sitting and listening to a lecture of what the teacher learned, I feel like it is more important for the students to take control of their own learning through exploration and collaboration. The students will be more engaged, the teacher doesn't have as much prep work, and the outcomes include motivation, interest, ownership, and engagement.

I have many times told the story of drawing sticks. As students come into the door of my classroom, they each draw a popsicle stick out of the cup and they begin their research while I am taking attendance, talking with students who were absent the day before, handing out papers, or doing other classroom management issues. Here is what this typical "exploration day" goes. Please keep in mind that the times are all adjustable based upon success of the exploration. Sometimes you will want to extend time, others you will want to shorten the time when their minds begin to wander.

Each student draws a stick. They then do their own search based on the new topic. This could be: a historical event, a math concept, something related to literature, or a science topic. I usually write this topic on the board in the same place each time, or post it to my web site along with the lesson plans.
Each student has about 10 minutes to do their research.
The students then copy and paste links to a class wiki page, post a comment with a link to the class blog, or email them to me to share with the rest of the class. (It depends on which method I am working with currently and which one they have not experienced yet in other classes.)
Once that first 10 minutes is up, a timer goes off and those who have struggled to find anything draw another stick.
For the students who found some really great sites, they are asked to annotate their links. They add one to two sentences summarizing what a visitor will find on the web site and what makes it a great site. (If they didn't find any good sites, then they should have drawn another stick.) If there are any specific directions of where to look, secondary links to click, etc. they are included in this annotation as well. The student might also give warnings, or suggestions for the site as well.
I like to do a quick share - almost like a advertisement to "go see my links." This needs to be limited if you want enough time to let students explore on their own. Set a timer for about 3-5 minutes.
For the next 20 minutes, the class then is given a chance to explore the links posted by the other students based upon their own interest levels.
For the last 5 to 10 minutes, I ask that each student write a summary of what the learned that they didn't know before this exercise. Then I also ask them to write a reflection of what they would do differently when they do the next exploration. (Often the students will still be writing and reflecting when the bell rings and they will want to finish for homework so they may do this part of the assignment in a word processor so they can copy and paste to the wiki, blog, or email later.

So what is written on the popsicle sticks? Here is the list, but it changes often, and if you have any other suggestions for general categories, please comment here!

web page
educational web page
web page from a foreign country
published PowerPoints or other presentations
Video
Audio or podcast
iTunes University podcasts
Discussion boards or forums (written or audio - Chinswing)
search other people's bookmarks on Diigo or Delicious
educational games
Museum of Online Museums
Nings
Peer reviewed resources like MERLOT
interactive elements: texting, chatting, instant messaging
blogs
wikis
simulations or virtual worlds (Second life)
pictures/clip art
Wolfram alpha for data
Google Squared
news.google.com for current news today
Ask an Expert
Google Earth or maps.google.com
virtual reality sites
ebook sites

... Hopefully with Kindness

2010-07-23T19:02:00.000-05:00

How many times have we said to our students, “there will always someone out there that will try to break you down to make themselves feel smarter, or better, or stronger”? The funny thing is that we actually believe the students will hear us and take to heart this advice. We assume that they will be able to think rationally about how they are being treated and get past the emotional trauma to overcome and move on. But recently I realized I can’t even take my own advice. Yes, kids… you heard me right.
I have done a lot of traveling this summer for professional conferences, workshops, and meetings. (If the truth was told by my 6-year-old, “mommy has been gone 13 days out of 25. That’s over half the time!”) While I was gone it was interesting to watch the dynamics of adults working and travelling in groups, and what I realized was that it is not much different than the way high school students interact. (Have your heard the song “High School Never Ends”?)
In each of the situations, the adults tend to gravitate toward people they know, and leave out those they do not know. This is natural. Another commonality is that when they do draw in others to the group, they choose people who are most like them in “level of personality” displayed. Again, very natural. The final similarity I noticed was that even if a new person wanted to get to know the adults in any particular group, that new person is judged immediately and often dismissed without really getting to know them well. Natural, but not necessarily right.
Now none of this is really news to anyone, right? We all began to learn this in junior high, we lived it in high school. We started to out grow it in college. We got comfortable in our own skins in our own environments and circles. It isn’t until we step out of our comfort zone that we realize this type of behavior still exists.
I feel like have changed my own behavior in the last few weeks. I purposefully went out of my way to make new friends. I sought out new relationships on each of my trips. I observed old relationships in action, and then tried to be open to new relationships in every circumstance. That comfort zone I talked about earlier was something I tried to leave behind and I feel like I am a better person for it. Was it easy, NO. Was it worth it, YES.

But what sticks in my mind is the lesson I learned loud and clear:
1. I can’t lie to my students to say that when you are adults there are no popular groups.
2. I can’t ask my studens to deceive themselves into believing that what others think about them doesn’t really matter… it does.
3. Even as adults we can get our feelings hurt, but how we react really determines how adult or mature we really are.
4. Just because you weren’t treated well doesn’t mean you should back down or give up. In fact, just the opposite, fight your way to the top.

So the question that lingers in the forefront of my mind is, what do we tell our students that they will be able to hear, that they will actually believe, and that others will understand? Using my own travel experiences as the example, I can honestly say:

1. Be proud of yourself. I was chosen for a reason to attend all of these events, and the people that chose me to go and participate felt that I had something to offer to the larger group, however, each participant does not know my qualifications so I have to “prove myself” by working hard and demonstrating my intelligence and expertise.
2. How hard you work will be rewarded and noticed. It may not result in a pat on the back, or an overt public recognition of that work, but someone will notice and that is the important part. Hard work is always rewarded in the end and as long as credit is given, then everything will even out.
3. What you tell others will determine how they react to you. Choose your words carefully and accentuate the positive before they can prejudge you. Sometimes over emphasizing what makes you SO different from them only separates you from the group. Sharing how you are alike creates a bond, and then the differences can come later.
4. Where you come from is a major part of who you are. This is also a part of being proud of yourself. Everyone needs to experience what they have not, and that includes where you come from and what you have experienced. If they can’t appreciate the differences, then it is their problem and not yours. You can only control how you feel (and evidently feel frustrated when they don’t have the “right” feelings).
5. When people are acting immature, treating others poorly, dismissing peers, or putting up barriers to block people out, then they will miss out. They may not realize it until they need something, but eventually you have to trust in fate that they will come to this realization in time.

“I have met some nice, and some not so nice people, but I can’t let that get me down.” The experiences we have make up who we are, and how strong we become. These experiences prepare us for the next time, and they determine how we will treat others. Hopefully that is with kindness.

Cell Phone Post I Will Probably Regret

2010-07-22T18:16:00.000-05:00

At the beginning of many new ideas, there are always the naysayers who say, “this will never work.” There are usually a group of people who want to sit back and watch and see how it goes before they begin to invest their time. And there is usually a group of people who jump in with both feet because they can see the potential and power of the change. In most instances I feel like I am a “jumper.” Now if you review my blog entries you will see me saying that twitter is a waste of time. You might even go back to find that I didn’t really get Second Life as a learning tool. You could probably even quote me saying bad things about Facebook, but I would be really embarrassed.

But rest assured, I will always speak what is on my mind at the time, and apologize later for not having the vision when I finally am able to see it… like now. Brace yourself, I am about to ramble on about something in which I don’t have a lot of vision or faith. I recently attended a session in which two educators were regaling their audience about the power of cell phone computers in the classroom. My first reaction was “WHAT? That will never work.” Now maybe the reason I had that reaction was because the software they were demonstrating looked like a throwback to the early palm pilot days from 8 years ago. I wondered why we would want to take a giant step backward… but then I realized how often I use my blackberry for Internet applications, interaction through email, twitter and Facebook.

My second reaction was to question how schools could afford to pay for data services for all those phones. Now keep in mind I am not a numbers person, but I wonder if for the cost of a laptop, spread out over 3 years, would the cost of the phone, the applications that would need to be downloaded, and the data service for 3 years cost less? Could a school district save money?

My next reaction centered around the creative tools that we would have to forfeit. Yes, a cell phone can take photos and video. That is nice, but the students can’t edit those photos or the video. They can’t add their own voices, interpretations. They can’t remix what they have found on the internet with their own photos and experiences.

I could make a judgment, a generalization, a prediction, but my track record, as outlined above, is not that great. I tend to change my mind after I do a little research and actually try it hands on. So I am going to refrain from making those types of statements. I am going to reserve my thoughts and keep an open mind. In a few months, or years, I will revisit this topic and try to formulate my own new opinion. Stay Tuned.

My First Tweet Up: Unplanned, Informal, Unexpected

2010-07-19T18:14:00.000-05:00

So call me cheesy and silly. Call me a lurker, a watcher, or maybe a stalker. However, call me excited and that might best describe my first tweet up. Some of you may be asking yourself what is a tweet up? Some of you may be thinking – why doesn’t everyone know what a tweet up is? For those of you wondering, a tweet up is a face-to-face meeting of people who have only talked through twitter posts. A tweet up is a moment when two people realize they have just met someone you follow on twitter.
My tweet up occurred at NETA, and it actually occurred over the two days, in a very random and disorganized way. I went to a session by Meg Ormiston and when she was talking about tweeting and discussion began, someone yelled out to me as one of my followers. During my own session two people mentioned that they followed me on twitter. I noticed a few people in the PLN café, but that should not have surprised me, then I started searching the hallways for others.

So now I feel the need to plan for next year. How can we, meaning the NETA organization, help others discover the power of Twitter and the Nebraska tweeters? How do we get them to join the twitterverse? Should we make a tweeple list? Should we plan a time for tweetups? Do the tweeters set up their own tweet ups just prior to the NETA conference? Does anyone have any suggestions?

Everyone Should Try CBL

2010-07-17T18:13:00.000-05:00

“Unlike treasured gems, precious metals and any other prized possessions, time can’t be hoarded, collected, earned, or bought with hard work, money, dignity or our soul. It slips away whether or not we choose to pack meaning into it. Use it or lose it, so goes the saying.” (Author unknown – but I read it somewhere and wrote it down because it touched my soul – I just can’t remember where I read it.)

Packing meaning into my classroom and into every lesson I teach is something that all teachers strive for. We work tirelessly to use every minute to its full advantage and hope that we are not wasting a moment of the precious time we have with our students before they move on, grow up, or forget what knowledge we hoped they would gain while in our care. As we think about the summer ending and the opening of a new school year is looming on the horizon, it is easy to get negative about the standardized assessments we HAVE to give, the standards that HAVE to be met, the paperwork that is mandatory, the meetings we MUST attend, and so many other “management issues” that come with being a teacher.

Each year I try to be positive. Each year I want to take a new approach and start fresh with my new students and with my new chances to improve the lives of my students. Those students are the treasured gems, the prized possessions and we have to keep them in mind. So the question that rises to the top is, “What can I cut out of the day, or the class period that doesn’t make a huge difference in the education of a child? What can I take a bit less time working on so that I have more time to do what really matters.” Then a series of other questions begins to evolve… what is repetitive? What is busy work? What can I do to avoid reviewing material that some or all of the students have already learned? What can I do to individualize learning for each student so they are all moving forward with their own learning, at their own pace, to learn what is expected, and to move beyond that and learn what is important, meaningful, interesting and motivating for that child.

These are lofty statements and lofty questions that are really not answered here. So you are probably wondering, do I have a plan? Do I know what I want to try next? Well, I know what I have tried. Last year I committed to trying challenge based learning with my senior students. I followed the model and I struggled with how to make it work in the classroom setting. I can see how I learn in a challenged based setting, but then, I am not trying to get a good grade or to keep up with a GPA for scholarships and college entrance. How do I make this loose model of learning gradable, meaningful, individualized and less chaotic?

Use the model of challenge-based learning, I feel that giving deadlines for completing the steps in critical to the success. Secondly I feel that is mission critical to connect with each student each day if possible or every other day at a minimum to keep students on track. Third, the student has to drive the subject matter to study, the method to prove what they have learned, and it is my job to push them to go deeper. If you ask a student to research a subject and they read the top 10 different search engine links that appear, they will think they have learned a lot. You have to give them a checklist of “types” of research to read so they get a variety of perspectives, and authentic, valid data. They will have to keep a list of resources and the notes from each. That is gradable.

They will have to be guided into setting goals each day for what they will accomplish, even if it means putting in extra time to discover. Some will do this voluntarily, and others will have to be pushed by taking grades. That is gradable. You will have to set minimum expectations, through examples or dialogue with the student, so you have something to grade. What is going to be hard is that expectations for each student will have to be different, and you might have to justify the grade to a parent or administrator, so plan ahead. Have a “log” of interactions with the student each day on their progress (or have the student keep the log). That is gradable. Have a different rubric for each type of project (you can find them online, have the student find them online, or you can create your own).

If nothing else stands out from all this advice, do something! Try challenge based learning. CBL is like Home Depot – sometimes you just want a new faucet and not a remodel. There are multiple points of entry. It can be a simple short project, like the faucet; or it can be a longer project that you continue to work on over time, like a remodel. Don’t be afraid to fail. You and your students will learn from the failures just as much as you will learn from the successes. Learn together.

Am I an Outlier, or Just a Hard-Worker?

2010-07-11T18:12:00.000-05:00

I just finished reading The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell and I am having a hard time formulating into words what I thought about the book. When I first started reading the book, I loved the easy style of writing, the story format for getting points across to the reader, and one quote in particular from page 150 which said: “If I offered you a choice between an architect for $75,000 a year, and working in a tollbooth every day for the rest of your life for $100,000 a year, which would you take? I’m guessing the former, because there is a complexity, autonomy, and a relationship between effort and reward in doing creative work, and that’s worth more to most of us than money… Work that fulfills those three criteria is meaningful. Being a teacher is meaningful.”

I can’t agree with this quote more and many times I have felt the need to defend the profession I was born to do. As a very young child, playing school at the bottom of the stairs on a chalkboard my mom mounted to the wall (nice a low one so I could reach it as a kindergartener), I knew I wanted to be a teacher. My mother often comments that being a teacher was in my blood and she could hear the voices of my teachers during the day when I was playing. As I got a little older, I taught the neighbor girls (who were several years younger than me) how to read and to spell. A bit later in life, I was always trying to teach someone how to do something by “showing” them how. However, some of those people were not as appreciative as I wanted them to be, and I was often called “bossy” when I thought I was helping. My paternal grandfather and grandmother were both teachers, so I saw the profession as “meaningful” at an early age and wanted to be just like them.

As the years passed, and salaries for teachers not climbing with those of other professional counterparts, I was not deterred. It never crossed my mind that I would not be a teacher. However, if you ask my father what I wanted to be when I went off to college my freshmen year, he would say that I wanted to go into marketing. What he didn’t realize was that I was stalling a bit so I could come up with a way to break the news, to market the idea, that I wanted to go into teaching. He handled the news well after my first year, and I have never looked back and I have never had any regrets.

Gladwell spends the entire book discussing that successful people are actually benefitting from the perfect set of circumstances to get them to where they are today. He uses technology pioneers, successful lawyers, business tycoons, and even his own family to illustrate how circumstance molds your life into what others might see as luck, fate, or just plain hard work. In many respects I agree with Gladwell’s findings, but I recoil at the thought that some people who don’t fall into the right category, birth time period, ethnicity, or school enrollment won’t be successful. I like that all of his examples included people who worked hard and people who put a lot of hours into their passions and that is partially why they “made it” in the world. However, I am saddened by the idea of no matter how hard people work, if the circumstances were different, even just a little bit, the person would not have gotten where they did.

I am a firm believer that if you want something bad enough, you work hard enough, and you create your own opportunities by introducing yourself to the right people, you can do anything you want. As a teacher I preach this idea every day, in every class, and to every student. I could tell my own success story, and the “circumstances” that surround that success, but I will go to my grave believing that my own passion, persistence, and repeated attempts to get the right people to see my vision, is what got me where I am today.

From reading the last few sentences, you would think that I fit into the technology pioneers, successful lawyers, and business tycoons professions, and that most people who attend their high school reunion would not see my job, my life and my career choices as a “success story.” But let me tell you why I have made my life a success.

1. I have not had to compromise my beliefs, values, and wishes for my family life to be successful. I have a great husband and three wonderful kids who support my work and think that it is meaningful as well. They are proud of me and that is important.
2. I have never given up any opportunities due to my location, economic status, or schedule. My family makes concessions for me to be able to travel and be away from home so I can continue on my “quest” to work with other teachers.
3. I have been able to find ways to reach higher and further beyond my small classroom in Nebraska through working with the Department of Education, as a board member of the state technology association, and through regional technology presentations and online classes.
4. I have been able to do some revolutionary work in the field of education in Nebraska by being one of the first schools to go 1 to 1 with laptops for students K-12. I continue with this work by hosting 2-day training seminars in our school for teachers getting ready to go 1 to 1, moderating an online community for 1 to 1 teachers and administrators.
5. I have been able to reach out to other teachers and administrators through professional development to aid them in improving education through technology in their own districts. I have worked for other school districts to train their students and faculty in technology uses. I have worked for the Educational Service units across the state. I have worked for Apple to create online lesson plans and best practice models.
6. I have presented to over 5,000 people in the last 5 years to share my ideas and shout from the rooftops the benefits of integrating technology into the daily classroom.
7. I have been able to influence the teaching styles and best practices of teachers from all over through publishing my ideas on my blog, wiki, web site, emails, list servs, and twitter posts.
8. I have been able to work beyond the borders of the state with educators from across the globe as a Apple Distinguished Educator.

Could I come up with more? Maybe, do I need to? Not today. Do I feel like I am tooting my own horn? Yes, a little bit, but it is ok to be proud of your accomplishments. However, I would be remiss if I didn’t admit that none of these things would have happened without the support of others. No one climbs the ladder of success without wanting to do the work to climb; and everyone needs to find the right people to hold onto the bottom of the ladder for support.

If you look at Gladwell’s findings, I was not born in the right years to be a technology tycoon like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. I was not born into the right ethnicity for business success. I did put in the hours, hundreds and hundreds of them. I did make sure to meet the right people and make the right connections. Could Gladwell’s findings be changing with the advent of social networking and crowd sourcing to get work done? If Gladwell wrote this book 10 years from now, what would he have said about this time period and the successful people of my generation?

Surround Yourself With Believers

2010-07-09T18:10:00.001-05:00

Rem Jackson presented at NETA, which you are probably already aware because I may have blogged about him before, but I just read a paper written by him and a couple of his colleagues titled, “The 19 Reasons Sustainable Change Doesn’t Happen in K-12 Education.” Rem spoke about this “call to action” paper during his keynote and I wrote it down. I returned to school really excited to read it, and quickly realized that I did have enough time to really soak up what it meant, so I printed it for later. (I know, it isn’t very green to print these days, but when I really want to focus on a reading I like to hold it in my hands, write in the margins, highlight, and often this happens in the car rather than by looking at my laptop screen.) Well, later was today!

How do I describe what I read? How do I summarize something so surprised me? I guess I will begin with explaining what made the writing so surprising. It didn’t pretend to be scientific research. It didn’t quote famous people and it didn’t use a bunch of questionable statistics to make a point. The writing was straight forward, honest, and concise in its message. It was refreshing, and it even invited teachers to quit reading if they didn’t think they agreed with what was being said (which made me want to read it even more). The title alone would create a pause for most educators, and that drew me in, but as I finished reading I found myself wishing for an internet connection and an opportunity to get involved with the Top Practices Education Gold Mastermind Group. And with that excitement and my own perspective as a 1:1 educator, I wanted to turn the negative into a positive. I want to create sustainable change, and I realize that our district already has, and that connection is what I feel the need to explain to you.

Top Practices Education simply says to create sustainable change we need to:

1. … challenge our own assumptions about people, organizations and even solutions. We can’t look at our staff and say they may not be able to get a 1:1 started. We can’t look at our district or any other district and assume that they aren’t ready for a 1:1 or the changes that it will bring. And last but not least, we can’t look at the commonly held solutions to common problems, and continue to make the same decisions. We need to change how we approach solutions and find new ones if we want to bring about important changes.

2. … recognize the naysayers within our group and get them on board. This sounds easier than it really is. When we were first mulling over the idea of going 1:1 we had some very skeptical faculty members. However, their skepticisms was a great thing, because it only forced us to be more prepared and to quell those fears and anxieties so everyone could be prepared for the change that the laptops would bring to our classrooms. Dealing with naysayers early diffuses a lot of problems and fears.

3. … address all aspects of a problem. When stakeholders came forward with concerns and questions, it was our job as a team to deal with all aspects of those concerns and give them answers to their questions. If we left one unturned stone, then fault could be found and open the door for more concerns stemming for the first.

4. … create a realistic timeline of completion in steps. Planning and preparing is a major factor in success and creating a step-by-step process that everyone can follow and participate in their completion. Focus on your core vision, don’t loose sight of it, and keep moving forward on schedule. If people think there are deadlines, expectations, and a plan of preparation, then they can follow the progress and invest their hopes and hard work in the process.

5. … don’t fight standard operating procedures. The way things have always been done may not be something you can win through battle. Instead embrace those procedures, and then adapt them with new ideas and changes. Making a massive amount of changes in a short time, disrupts status quo, so pick your battles.

6. … recognize those that help you. No one completes major projects on their own, so if one person tries to take credit, then the participants will quit trying. You can’t push anything through on your own, everyone has to help. As we all know, a little reinforcement of a good job, someone noticing our hard work, a pat on the back for long hours, and a smile for a creative effort can go a long way. We need to be sure to recognize those people often, and in a public manner so the public knows how hard everyone is working and that the taxpayers dollars are being well taken care of. Focus on “them” not you (the students, the teachers, the administrators, the parents, and all of the supporters).

7. … spread your message many times, to many people, and through many media forums. The messages that need to go out is that good things are happening, students are thriving in the best possible learning environment and with the best teachers who work the hardest. And these are things that can’t be said enough, and they need to appear in every newspaper, on every television, on many web sites, and through word of mouth.

8. … present in a dynamic way and you can assure more success. No matter the audience, adult or student, when you are presenting you have to have fun, show your enthusiasm, exhibit your extensive knowledge, and motivate others with your passion, no matter the subject.

9. … use data accurately. Simple, yet difficult. When you are using statistics to make a point, build a budget, or persuade an audience, you can’t misrepresent that data or someone will find fault. Once that happens you will not be trusted and you will begin an uphill battle to get people to listen and believe in you.

10. … never apologize for change and never place blame. We will all succeed together or we will all fail as a collective.

11. … create a supportive network of people and hardware that you can rely on. This might include technicians, visionaries, and people from other districts. Find those who have done what you are trying to do and those who want to go through the process with you.

12. … foster a community of new ideas. If every person involved in your process of change (even the students) helped create a repository of ideas and possibilities, think how large this collection would be.

Jackson ended his speech with the comment that “you are the average of the five people you hang out with the most.” Look around you. Are those people intelligent, creative, hard working, and honorable problem solvers? Are those people complainers, negative voices, coattail riders, or unmotivated? Surround yourself with believers who can help your cause and you will only improve yourself and the work you accomplish.

Wouldn't You Want To Change?

2010-07-07T19:56:00.003-05:00

I was riding in the elevator in my hotel while at the ISTE conference in Denver last week. Four people all in yellow polo shirts (with no company logo I might add) got on the elevator. They broke every rule of elevator etiquette by all facing the middle of the crowded elevator, and I just happened to be in the middle of the back (facing the front as is usually expected). Now don’t get me wrong, I am not that strict with elevator etiquette, especially since I live at least 45 miles from the nearest town with an elevator, but more realistically I live 90 miles from an elevator that includes more than just a second floor, but this was an unusual experience. These four people felt like they had a captive audience so they did a sales pitch for their technology company. (I think it is related to http://www.brainology.us but I can’t be sure since their “card” was a great diagram with no company name or logo to refer back to at a later time.

I probably received 150 company business cards, fliers, handouts, and gimmick gifts from the vendors at ISTE – and I am not complaining - but as I was sorting the “stuff” this afternoon I found their business card and found it rather fascinating. Fascinating enough to blog about because of the content of this compact lesson plan and motivational information really said a lot to me. Not in the elevator, but today!

This diagram had two sides/two mindsets to think about (written by Carol S. Dweck, PhD.). One being the fixed mindset where intelligence is static; and the other is a growth mindset where intelligence can be developed. At first glance this was kind of a “duh” for a teacher. Of course I believe that intelligence can be developed – I try to do this every day with my students and with my own learning. But as I read my way down the two sides, I realized that it really was advice for teachers who are in a rut. If you knew the following about yourself, wouldn’t you want to change? If you knew you:

had a desire to look smart, even if it means not admitting when you don’t know or understand something, wouldn’t you want to change?
Avoided change, even if the change was really beneficial, wouldn’t you want to change?
Give up too easily, even when the hard work would benefit you and your students this fall, wouldn’t you want to change?
Ignored useful negative feedback, even though you could make changes that would impact your classrooms, wouldn’t you want to change?
Feel threatened by the success of others, even though you could be just as successful in your own right, wouldn’t you want to change?
That all of these traits lead to an early “peak” in your career and that you won’t reach your full potential, wouldn’t you want to change?

If you knew that you could grow simply by being open to learning, embracing challenges, persisting through obstacles, learn from criticism, and view the successes of others as a place to be inspired, wouldn’t you want to change?

That is what ISTE10 was all about, exploring excellence and I felt like I took a huge bite out of that search while I was there. This one little card was a nice summary for what I learned and saw... thanks to those four people in the elevator!

ISTE Highlights

2010-07-05T20:35:00.000-05:00

The most popular question of the day, both on twitter, facebook, email messages, and from my collegues is: “what was the greatest thing you saw at ISTE?” I guess I have more of a Top 5 set of answers.

1. The vendor area was huge and really showed what was possible, impossible, what was unnecessary, and what was a goal for the future.

2. The keynote and feature speakers were wonderful and I would never have had a chance to see them all in one place and also hear their follow up sessions as well. Gary Stager was amazing, Ian Jukes was enlightening, and Jeff Piontek was inspiring.

3. I loved one particular session that involved Language Arts and the use of online portfolios. That is such an understatement and a less than adequate summary of such a great presentation, that I am almost embarrassed to publish it. However, Ann Smith and Kristen McClaire should be proud of what they are doing in their classrooms.

4. The use of personal networking tools during the session made it possible to learn from other sessions that you could not attend yourself. Twitter was wild, but archived to look at later, Facebook was full of links, and the backchannels and Ustream sessions will be fun to watch later. Not to mention all the recordings and tools ISTE provided themselves, such as http://www.istevision.org.

5. The people I talked to over lunch, in the hall, sitting in sessions, at vendor parties, and walking down the street made the conference special for me. It sounds cliché, but it is true. You can learn anywhere if you are open and ready to the moment.

Reflections on my First ISTE Convention

2010-07-03T20:17:00.001-05:00

I can honestly say that when I left last week for Denver and the national educational computing conference – now named ISTE conference – I didn’t know what to expect. I had heard so many descriptions of what it is like, and I have had so many people say it something you can’t adequately explain since it is so different for each person. Unfortunately, I hate those two statements… I have heard them too many times! So for those of you didn’t get to go, I will try to describe or explain…

I also realized that even though this was my “maiden voyage” to the national and international level of conferences I needed to have a game plan. I read many blogs, followed links from tweets, read the over abundance of emails from ISTE, and went through the conference planner online. These were nice tools, but not PHEONOMINAL like the conference itself!

I was so overwhelmed with all the session offerings, SIG meetings, bring your own laptop sessions, spotlights, and other offerings that I could not make decisions. I opted to simply not pay for anything and only attend what was offered as part of the conference registration so I could ask around to what others found valuable. Here’s the first thing I learned: go with your gut! If you are going through the conference planner, and you don’t see something that is “free” during a given period of time, then don’t be afraid to pay for something. Everyone I talked to seemed to get involved in the conference in a different way and that included sessions they had to pay extra for. I am now wishing I had attended the SIG meeting for 1:1 schools. I heard it was wonderful and very informative for the “networking” time with other educators. I was scared off by the “meeting” aspect of the session, and didn’t think that a free lunch was enough of a trade off for the business meeting aspects, but I heard the time was invaluable. Live and Learn!

Here’s the second thing I learned: no matter how much you plan and try to get ready, all of “the best laid plans” get changed when you get there. You will see people you want to see present again, so you stay and miss the next session you planned on. Someone will inevitably recommend a presenter and you will change your mind. You will get overwhelmed in the vendor area because it is so huge, and you will go over your “allotted” time into a session. You will meet up with someone in the hall, start a really great conversation and learn a ton from them and the other people that sitting in that same area, and you’ll miss a session. Lunch might take too long, and you simply might wear yourself out moving around, running to events, standing in lines, and walking the vendors so you might get tired.

Therefore, the third piece of advice is to be flexible, adjustable, adaptable, and try new things. There is a bloggers café which is aptly named – bloggers go there to plug in, recharge their batteries (both literally and figuratively) and this is where great conversations take place. Another option was the informal learning session areas where you can go to use a projector or whiteboard to show someone how to do something. I noticed these areas filled up with groups of people after they were in a session together to continue their learning. A different area that I never really got involved with was the “birds of a feather” area. I didn’t think that I “flocked together” but next year I will give it a try because just listening might give me some inspiration and motivation to try something new. I should have flocked with Second Life people to learn more about it.

I know that many people suggest that you volunteer to learn more abut the process, but I will admit one thing. I didn’t want to volunteer or forfeit any time that I could be learning something new. I was selfish with my time, and I am not ashamed to admit it. I spend a lot of time helping other teachers at our own state conference, and with teachers at my school (both visitors and my own staff) during the school year. This was my time to learn. If you feel the same way, it’s ok.

Here’s the last bit of advice: you can’t get to everything, but you can try! You will want to see it all, and then there will be a huge line to get in. You might not get a seat and you will have to find something else to do. The advice that goes with that… pick 2 or 3 sessions, at least 2 that are close together in the room layout, so you have an alternative session to go to if your first pick fills up. Plan to spend several hours in the vendor area because once you get in there, you’ll find it hard to leave and you will lose track of time. I even wanted to fit in some site seeing but it was hard to fit in. So either add a day before, or a day after the conference to do that! Then you won’t feel cheated or feel guilty that you “skipped out.”

Successful Teams

2010-07-02T18:04:00.000-05:00

Recently I was asked by a former student to answer several questions for her administrative professional procedures class. As I was answering them on her Facebook wall, which is where she contacted me and I was responding back, I realized that the answers that might apply for a business are the same advice and information that I would have given to a student in the education department. The two, business and education, seem so far apart, yet so close at the same time. In my estimation, if schools acted a little more like a business, and if businesses acted a little more helpful like a school, then the world would be a better place… but, that is completely off track… back to the questions at hand.

1. Have you been a part of what you considered a successful team? I have been on several successful teams in my 16 year career. I have been on many, probably too many to mention but a list to start: school improvement committees, evaluation teams for other schools, teaching teams for classes, curriculum writing teams, groups to write state assessment tools, project teams for Apple computer, being on the state-wide technology committee (NETA), and many more but I will try to focus on just two to simply this answers. One team I was on was a middle school teachers team where we worked together to create and execute collaborative units across all subject areas, and also to discuss individual students and how we can improve their school experience to make it more successful. Another successful team, which I am sure you are well aware of, was the teaching team at Arnold High School as we started our laptop initiative beginning in about 2004 and which still continues today.

2. What were the strengths of the team? The strengths of all of these teams, but more especially both teams listed above, tend to be very similar. It is really helpful to think about both at the same time, because then it really highlights and amplifies by comparison the similarities that made them work effectively. The strengths that seem to float to the surface as I reflect upon my many
• There is no “I” in team, so egos have to be checked at the door otherwise you are fighting a losing battle and things just do not get done, and you work in an ineffective circle.
• Being INDIVIDUAL as part of the team means that you will have strong personalities and ideas from many different perspectives. This diversity makes for a group that can be creative from many different angles. The brainstorming and even the arguing can produce a lot of deeper thinking, new ideas, and often fabulous solutions.
• Being committed to the same GOAL - in my case that would be "what is best for the students." All of these teams knew we all wanted what would create a better experience and improvement of education for kids
• FOCUS on the task at hand and meeting deadlines to avoid wasted time and repeat of work that should have been done since the last meeting.
• DELEGATION and trust that the work will get done as assigned to the different group members.
• PASSION for the subject, project, problem, or people you are working for. If people are not passionate, then their interest will wane and their productivity dive into the dirt. As long as people feel passionately, they will continue to work hard.
• ORGANIZATION and, God forbid, record keeping so you can return to the work you have done at a later date and repeat the success or avoid the pitfalls.

3. What weaknesses did the team have?
In the same ways that all of the above are strengths of a team, they can also be turned around to be the weaknesses. When the team becomes ONE PERSON, then there is no point of having a team. The one person can just do the job. If people are not being INDIVIDUAL, or they are too alike then you may never find a new creative idea and perspective. If people are too afraid to be individual then they are being passive and not really contributing to the team. If the GOAL is not clear before the team begins their work, then they will work in circles and never really accomplish anything of significance. If the team doesn’t set realistic deadlines to get things done then the group loses focus. And when the team is afraid to DELEGATE for fear that someone on the team will not do their part, then the work turns back to a one-person show. When the PASSION leaves, so does the productivity. And, if the passion was never there and the team is not committed to the work, then again, you lose the ability to be creative and productive. And, last but not least, when a team is disorganized, then the members get distracted, disgruntled, and disinterested.

4. Did communication problems occur? If so, what were they?

Using various forms of communication worked best for most of the teams I have worked on. The use of regular mail, email, conference phone calls, and face-to-face meetings make a good combination to meet the needs of all of the team members. Most often communication problems occur when the team members wait until the last minute to communicate, when there is no written record of information or communications, or when all team members are not given the same letters, agendas, documentation, and opportunities for phone calls and meetings. When team members don’t participate as much as possible, then often there is a break down of communication.

5. If you had the latitude to work in teams or individually on a project, which would you choose? Why?
With the advent of technology and all the opportunities it affords us, working collaboratively on projects would always be my choice. The old adage of “two heads are better than one” is so true. I feel like when people work together (with an assignment like you are doing or with any other project) getting ideas from more than one person, stakeholder, or beneficiary of the project only enhances the outcomes. One person can’t possibly think of every detail, every glitch, every cultural difference, every possibility, or know of every opportunity.

To the young woman doing this assignment and asking these thought provoking questions, thank you for allowing me to participate in your class project. To her professor, good job involving others in your study and I hope that the collaboration and information gathered through this study from all of your students renders a new perspective for you and your students. For my blogging audience, I hope this example of collaboration shows you that a simply Facebook post, an email message sent to a larger audience, a survey online for anyone to participate in, or even a twitter question can connect someone who is geographically isolated to a larger audience in their region, state, nation, or in other countries. This is great way to connect with people of different life experiences, job experiences, and cultural experiences.

Presentation Skills are REALLY Important

2010-07-01T18:05:00.000-05:00

In response to a blog post by Michelle Baldwin dated June 27, 2010 at Avenue4Learning. http://avenue4learning.com/2010/06/27/a-purposeful-reflection/

Michelle thanks for writing this reminder of how we would all want to be treated and how we should be reacting and behaving professionally towards our collegues at conferences like this. I find that I can agree with you on everything you said. But as I would do with all of my students in my classroom, I feel like to perpetuate the discussion, I need to take part of the devil's advocate and see where the discussion leads us.

As a collective, we, the audience, could all see that the speaker struggled to get his very important message out in a less than stellar manner. (I won't go into his presentation methods, you covered those very well above.) His material was VERY important to know and to share with the world. Especially since the United States has the potential, intelligence and know-how to do something about these global problems. With that being said ... here come the devil's advocate side...

If you were bringing someone to a conference to talk to 15,000 educators who could help mold the generation of students who could do something about these global problems, wouldn't you want the speaker to talk directly to the teachers and school leaders and given them suggestions of how to change their classrooms right now?

Wouldn't you want your message to be how to change the way we work with the young people of our country to motivate them to change their future world?

There was a lot of data in his speech, but I can read that data from the powerpoint slides myself, on various Internet sites, and I can watch the global news to get this information. I think his intentions were good to "wake us up" and encourage us to work toward solving these problems, but he could have gone the road of being a story teller, much the way the evening news does, the way people who have lived through these problems do when they come forward to raise awareness.

There were times during his speech when he mentioned specific people and famous attempts to solve these problems, and when he did it in a story/anecdote format the audience was more engaged. You said above that he should have known his audience and he should have prepared for those people when he considered what his speech was going to include. If I (as the presenter) knew I was going to talk to that many classroom leaders, and that the information I was going to convey could make it back to 1,000s of classrooms this fall, I would have taken a long hard look on exactly what I wanted those teachers to do with my info. I would have started my speech with that.

We teach our students for the Nebraska state writing assessment to take a problem (usually one in our school but this might be a better topic) and BRIEFLY describe the situation and how we got there. The bulk of the rest of the essay should include possible solutions to that problem. In the end of the essay, the writer then chooses the best solution (in their opinion) and calls the reader to action to solve that problem. This is just basic structure of problem solution writing and speeches.

Now I am not saying that I am expert in giving speeches, nor am I an expert in global problems, and I am certainly not an expert in essay or speech writing. What I am saying is that preparation for your audience as to be mission critical or you lose your audience. You would never have a long speech for young elementary students, you would never use jargon and vocabulary that is college level for junior students, you would never give a speech without pictures to high school students who could find alternate ways to entertain themselves if they weren't motivated and stimulated, and you should never give a presentation to teachers that is such a downer at the beginning of the conference and then send them out of the door thinking that things are futile and frustrating. He should have sent out is into the conference ready to attack even the biggest problems by starting with what we can change in our home states, school districts and families.

By the way, you posted the day before about using blogs to clarify your thinking, and needed to concentrate on purpose... I think you just helped me focus on own thought process and what I thought about the keynote as well. I too have changed my initial reaction even if it isn't directly related to solving global problems. Thank you.

More time in the student essays, and in the keynote speech, should be spent on the solution rather than on the gory details and depressing facts that we as adults are well aware of. I think he missed a golden opportunity...

A Practice Regimen for the Big Game

2010-05-22T10:53:00.001-05:00

During a casual conversation with a student, during let’s call it “her” last week of school as a senior, “she” asked what I thought was the biggest problem in the high school today. Lots of things went running through my mind, and all of them were fairly valid. I could give a pretty good reason for worry if I was talking to right set of parents, or the right teacher, or the right student. For example, as with any high school, I think we as teachers, parents, and community members would be shocked by how many students drink and how many students drink often. I think we would be even more shocked if we knew specific names, because we might not suspect all of the “angels” from our classrooms, volunteer work, youth groups and our sporting teams to also be drinkers. To take this a step further, I think we would be even more shocked, or maybe even appalled by the kids who are doing some form of drugs, be that illegal or stolen from the medicine cabinets of their friends and family. But that is just the standard worries that have been going on for generations. In fact, those worries have gone on for so long, that some people don’t even worry about it anymore. “I did it when I was a kid and I turned out just fine,” can be heard across the nation as our kids are getting into trouble.

And so, as I thought… and thought… what is the real trouble in the high school today… and “she” stared at me, not letting me off the hook and waiting for my answer. I started to bounce ideas off “her.” I began with a question.

“How much do you really challenge yourself? How much do you really challenge yourself to do better in any given aspect of your life on a daily basis?”
She had an answer, “in sports, every day. I work hard and push myself every day.”
So I asked another question. “So, will you be doing sports in college, or is that over now that you will be graduating?”
Her answer was “no.”
“So you have spent the last four years pushing yourself to be the best you can be and now that is over. What have you done in the last four years to push yourself academically – to daily improve yourself?”
Her blank stare was all the answer I needed, but she reached for words anyway. “I got good grades. I took classes that look good on my transcripts.”
“But that doesn’t answer my question, now does it? What have you done academically, that equals pushing yourself in yourself in sports the way you have over the last four years, that will pay off when you leave this small town and go off to college to get an education, and step into the real world where your education really begins? What type of “practice regimen” have you used to push yourself to get to the “big game”?

Do you know what I think is the biggest problem we have in high schools today? Procrastination, lack of motivation, laziness… call it what you will. But even if it doesn’t have a word to describe it, it is something that teachers can’t give you, it has to be something that students want for themselves. Teachers can try to instill it. Parents can try to cultivate it. Family members can try to foster it. Community members can encourage it. And in the end, it is the student who has to want it for themselves. We try to teach our kids to not be selfish, to share with others, to take turns, but when it comes to an education, you have to take it. You have you demand it. You have earn it. You can’t get it by being lazy, skipping class, not doing homework, wandering the hallways, taking the easy classes, or “sliding your way to graduation” because college won’t be like that, and neither will the work world.

The real question is: how do we get kids to listen earlier? How do we get them to understand as freshmen and sophomores what this student realized in her last week of high school? (And yes, I have shared this with younger students.)

Make a Huge Leap You Can't Turn Back From

2010-05-20T17:55:00.000-05:00

I was watching an Open Letter to Educators on YouTube (you can look it up or go to: http://danielcraig.posterous.com/an-open-letter-to-educators-3 ) and had one immediate reaction… Yes! I agree, that the internet is turning into the great equalizer of information – meaning that it is giving the greater population the information and therefore rendering organized learning institutions, like schools, colleges and universities useless. People don’t really need to go to a bookstore, a classroom, or an organized learning group to learn about a given subject. They can hop on their computer and immediately find a million or more other people interested in the same subject in a variety of formats. You can find people who want to talk via live video, pre-recorded podcast, interactive text chat, watch video, read web sites, go through simulations, add your own perspectives to wiki pages, add comments to blog posts, post to bulletin boards, or simply send email messages to support others who are interested in the same issues as you.

These topics might be highly sophisticated, intellectual, completely frivolous, slightly silly, literary, newsworthy, investigative, mathematical, political, collegial, or even simply entertaining. What should be alarming to most teachers is that because all of the “new” that is available via the Internet, and how young our kids are when they gain access to this information, we are rendering our schools more and more useless earlier and earlier in life, and our students know it. It is strange to hear a first grader say, “why don’t we just use Google Earth for the answer” when they don’t know if it is dark in China in the middle of the day. What we are now saying is really good was also around in 1999 (blackboard, email, databases, distance learning, etc. and we didn’t use it when it was new way back then either). This isn’t “really good” now… it might have been back then, but it sure isn’t now, it should be “old hat.”

As organized learning institutions, we shouldn’t have to pay for anything on the Internet… everything should be free (monetarily and in the liberating sense). We should be reinventing ourselves and not just a bit at a time. We have to make a huge leap and it has to be drastic and it has to be such a huge leap that you can’t climb back up and try again. You can’t turn around and try again or jump again. It’s all or nothing! You have to take the challenge and live with where you land and then much around it and keep going forward.

What leap will you make this fall?

“The Peter Principle”

2010-05-18T17:20:00.002-05:00

Just recently, when reading some posts from twitter, I came across something called The Peter Principle and I had never heard of it. So, naturally, I did what every English teacher cringes about... I checked wikipedia. In case you didn't click the link above, here is a quick overview:

"the Peter Principle's practical application allows assessment of the potential of an employee for a promotion based on performance in the current job; i.e., members of a hierarchical organization eventually are promoted to their highest level of competence, after which further promotion raises them to incompetence. That level is the employee's 'level of incompetence' where the employee has no chance of further promotion, thus reaching his career's ceiling in an organization.

The employee's incompetence is not necessarily exposed as a result of the higher-ranking position being more difficult — simply, that job is different from the job in which the employee previously excelled, and thus requires different work skills, which the employee may not possess...

One way that organizations can avoid this effect is by having a policy that requires termination of an employee should they fail to attain a promotion after a certain amount of time. Even in instances where an employee can handle their current job but fail to do any better, they can still cause harm within the company, by way of preventing those beneath them with higher potential of moving up, as well as lowering morale once such employees become aware of this fact.

Thus, work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence."

That is a lot to process... but if you put it into the context of a 1:1 school... how does that effect you own child's education? If the school your child attends is either considering going 1:1, is planning to go 1:1, has already gone 1:1, or went 1:1 a long time ago, how does this principle effect the teachers that are working in the district?

If your district is only considering going 1:1, should the administration consider the Peter Principle before making any major decisions? Should they think about the faculty they have and whether they will be able to continue to improve or will their job change enough to reach their level of incompetence? If some of the teachers will reach this level of incompetence, then professional development will need to be planned to keep everyone moving forward and preparing for the future or you will not have success. If you district is planning on going 1:1 in the very near future, have you assessed your faculty for this principle or is it just dawning on you right now that you may have problems on your hands?

If you district has gone 1:1 recently or in the past few years, are they preventing someone else from getting a teaching job in your 1:1 environment that might do a really great job with your students? How about the morale? If the teachers are struggling, are they bringing down the atmosphere for the others who are enjoying the change, even though it might mean extra work and a challenging workplace for a year or two?

Though I can't pretend to have any answers to any of these questions, all I can say is that 1:1 involves a lot of change. It involves a lot of dedication by the teachers to change the way they teach, the way they write their lesson plans, the questions they ask for homework, the projects they assign, the homework they grade, the assessments they give, and the time they spend with their students during class as a facilitator instead of lecturer. Knowing all of this ahead of time, should administration create a set of expectations... consequences... policies?

Our district has been so lucky. Even with the level of teaching experience our staff had (our average faculty age at the time of 1:1 implementation in 2006 was 43), we have really taken off with project based learning. The teachers have embraced using teacher web pages for disseminating files, presentations, links, lesson plans, and other items for students, parents and anyone else in the public to access. The teachers have integrated a buffet of different software uses in their daily lessons to provide variety for the students and to allow for differentiation and individualization of learning. However, none of this happened overnight... it grew organically and it grew through collaboration and support from each other, the administration, and the technology team which included myself and the educational service unit in our area. For the most part we have avoided the peter principle with a smile.

1:1 Has NOT Failed Expectations

2010-05-16T15:57:00.000-05:00

Lately, it seems like articles about 1:1 computing failing to meet expectations can be found all over the internet, journals, and magazines. Some of these sources can even be called credible sources, and others I feel like I can pick apart piece by piece. However, an argument with a school yard bully usually doesn’t get anyone anywhere, neither does changing where that argument takes place. Let me explain…

I was recently reading in District Administration magazine an article written in the May 2010 issue by Cathleen Norris and Elliot Soloway titled “One-to-One Computing Has Failed Our Expectations.” I recently met both of these people when they were in Nebraska presenting at the Nebraska Educational Technology Association Conference and I attended a couple of their sessions. While I respect both of these presenters and authors, I disagree with some of their ideas presented both from this article, and from their presentation at NETA.

Point: “Providing each student with a laptop computer has not resulted in significant achievement gains… Some teachers know how to make good use of a one-to-one situation, and some don’t.”

Counter Point: The same can be said for a new textbook series implementation. If you don’t have the right teacher then spending the money won’t be worth it. It won’t increase performance or test scores.

Point: “We have heard students ask who are participating in one-to-one rollouts: ‘Do I need to bring my laptop to class today?’”

Counter Point: Get real… in our school. If the students are told to close their laptops then they think they are being punished for something. They think they might be missing out something. The laptop is such an integral part of the lesson, they know they can’t function in class without it, and they don’t want to – it is not an add-on to the curriculum. What the teacher wants the students to do in the classroom can’t be done without the laptop – that is truly the definition of transformative educational lessons.

Point: At NETA, these authors felt that cell phone computers were the wave of the future and that laptops were on their way out.

Counter Point: What they were demonstrating was basically a palm pilot from a few years back, file distribution that is basically done the same, and an Internet connection. However, what we aren’t seeing is the creative element… If you move to the cell phone, you lose the ability to record and edit you own music, movies and photos. You lose the ability to blend several forms of media to interpret, mash-up, remix, and create something new from what has already been presented to the students (just as lectures have been presented to students for centuries).

Point: “Schools have long dropped computers into classrooms where they are used add-ons to an existing curriculum and pedagogy with little or not impact.”

Counter Point: How do you argue with that? I have to concede this point, unless I have a plan to make this work in my own district, and a plan to help other districts. That is why I work so hard to help my own teachers to find ways to use the computers in a transformative manner. To use the computers not as a newer version of a pencil, but as a tool that allows the students and teachers to accomplish learning that could not have been done without the laptop and the Internet connection.

How have you made a difference in your own department to help another friend?

How have you made a difference in your own school to help another teacher?

How have you made a difference in your own district to help another colleague?

How have you made a difference in your own region or educational service unit to help another teacher or group of teachers?

Advice to Student Teachers

2010-05-14T15:55:00.000-05:00

Beginning in January of 2010, one of my many nieces moved in with our family to live with us for the semester to do her student teaching. She decided she wanted to student teach at the same district where I teach knowing that our district is 1:1 from kindergarten on up. She knew as a elementary teacher that this would be an invaluable experience for her and a great resume-builder. Over Christmas break we cleaned out a storage room in our basement (which was originally supposed to be a bedroom anyway) and put down some carpeting, finished the painting, hung some curtains, and made sure the wireless connection was strong. I know what some of you are thinking – but she turned out to be my blessing. With my illness, and my inability to drive for the entire semester, she was definitely my saving grace to drive me to work every day. If the truth be told, when she moved out last week, she decided that she was glad she was the youngest in her family, and that she didn’t have younger siblings and that her younger cousins (ages 15, 12, and 6) were not permanent fixtures in her life.

The last few weeks of her student teaching were exciting, full of hope, prospects of future jobs, applications, summer work, observations of other classrooms, moving home, one carload at a time on Friday afternoons, and one nugget of advice from each adult in the school building she passed in the hallway on her way to graduation. When I first graduated from college (in December of 1991 – not that long ago), many of my experienced teacher friends offered a lot of advice. I was reminded of all the advice I too once heard. “When you get your first job, don’t smile until Thanksgiving, that way the kids know you mean business… substitute teach everywhere in a 50-mile radius and be sure to introduce yourself the administrators so they know your face when it comes time apply for jobs…stay out of the teachers’ lounge for at least a year so you get to know the kids for yourself and not be influenced by the other teachers’ impressions of the students.”

Of course I didn’t want to listen to that last bit of advice because I wanted to fit in with the faculty of the new school I was working for. What I wasn’t prepared for was how negative the place could get. Granted, the lounge was a place for teachers to collaborate (and that went on). It was a place to check on how projects were going and if others needed help (and we did that quickly as people entered and exited on the way to activities and as bells were ringing). It was a place to relax and tell stories (about our families and even sometimes about the fun things that happened with out students). But most often, it was a place to vent where others understood our frustration. This might sound healthy at first, but it can also be damaging. It is most harmful if a teacher doesn’t have the student, because it creates a preconceived notion about what the student will be like when you do see them sitting a desk in your room.

Advice is just what you take away from it. If I could give the Best piece of real advice to give to a new teacher it would be to make a connection with each student each day. Start slow and make sure you talk to and get to know a student a class period until you know them all, not matter how many there are. That will make each one feel important and loved.

Why do kids take dual credit college courses?

2010-05-12T15:53:00.000-05:00

Why do kids take dual credit college courses/Advanced Placement classes? To save money for college? (In our district, the money the college normally pays the teacher to teach the class is used to pay the tuition for the students.) Is it to impress college admission offices? (The high school student had the work ethic and effort to earn college credit while also participating in high school courses, activities, and athletics.) Is it for the credit for the look to the college? (Especially if the student will be attending that same college in the next year.) Is it for the challenge or the inspiration while still in high school? (Could the student simply be bored by “middle of the road” studies that which might not be challenging enough?) Or could it simply be that this is just another notch in their belt?

I tell my dual credit students, “you can earn an F just as quickly as you can an A. Attendance doesn’t count in a grade, neither does politeness, therefore learning to play school doesn’t work with me. I am more concerned about what YOU get out of this class. I am more concerned about what your intellectual and personal growth in class than I am in your grade. If you come to me with absolutely zero skills and come out with some skills, then you have come a long way. However, if you don’t give me 100% of your effort (which means doing your homework every day, and turning in all assignments on time) then you won’t see personal growth in your grade.”

Have students learned to play school? Have they learned to give the right answers? Have they learned what techniques make each teacher happy, the notes, outlines, the homework and paper writing strategies that get the highest grades? Have they learned to say the right things that make teachers and professors happy either in discussion or in writing? Have students learned what to study all night before a big test or what to write in papers or what subjects to broach in project studies instead of what is relevant and interesting to them?

As a teacher (and a graduate student) what I am most concerned with is making learning relevant to each student “where they are, for what they need.” If I as the graduate student go into a class have some basic expectations of what I am going to learn in the class, or what I WANT to learn in the class, then don’t other students have at the very least some basic expectations as well? Don’t they have some reason they chose to take the course (if it was an elective)? As the teacher, isn’t it my job to find out what they wanted to learn and at least strive to meet some of those expectations?

With those expectations in mind, will they ever learn to think, analyze, remix later, find relevance, relationships between ideas, concepts, make connections between the past, present and the future, and will they remember anything forever? Will they learn to learn for themselves, or will they expect to be spoon-fed for the rest of their educational careers? (Even though we all know that educational careers really don’t end with any type of matriculation, cap and gown, or diploma. We learn every day, but we personalize what we want to learn, and call it fun later.)

Whatever the case may be, when students are choosing dual credit college courses or advanced placement courses, they have to choose them for the right reasons. If they aren’t, then they risk the failure appearing on their transcripts. They risk scholarship committees seeing their successes as well as their withdrawal from courses they could not complete. But the most important thing that comes from this process is that students find out early, while still in the safe environment of high school and their own family homes what college is really like on a smaller scale. They find out how much work it is. They find out what how well they can do, what they can put off to the last minute as well as what they can’t put off. They find discover the learning management system for most colleges at this time (ours happens to be Blackboard and there are many more across the nation but they tend to be similar). No matter their motives, they learn a lot about themselves, about college, and a lot about their own learning style.

It's Worth The Climb

2010-05-10T10:50:00.000-05:00

Graduation was just this last weekend, and as the kids prepare to move on I can’t help but look at their lives over the past few years. They have such lofty aspirations. They want so much for their lives, and I can’t wait to see where they go and how far they climb. They are all just like I was at that age, and how I still am a lot of the time. They want so much and they will have to work for that future. What they don’t have time to realize right now is that they will probably learn more from the climb to the top, than they will from the view at the top of the heap.

If you are at all familiar with pop music right now, or if you happen to have a tween lving your household right now like I do, you probably recognize the reference to the song “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus: http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-climb-lyrics-miley-cyrus.html Unfortunately the older teenagers can’t really relate to this song because of who recorded it. If someone else had recorded it, or some cool rock band had make a great arena rock ballad, then they would love the song too.

“There’s always gonna be another mountain
I’m always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an uphill battle
Sometimes I’m gonna have to lose

Ain’t about how fast I get there
Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side
It’s all about the climb.”

The message I wish everyone could get from this song is very clear in the lyrics. It is about the climb. I have tried many things in my career. I have done a lot of things and I have failed. I learned just as much by failing and trying over again as I did by succeeding. When our district first wanted to start our 1:1 initiative in the spring of 2005, the teacher were not ready and they voted it down. I had worked for a couple of years, and thought I had all my ducks in a row. I thought I had my school board votes lined up, my administrators lined up, and the high school teachers ready to go with training. What I didn’t realized, was that the elementary teachers and the middle school teachers were not sure it was going to work, and that created too much doubt. Doubt is contagious and it spread to enough high school teachers we waited another year. But guess what…

“With every step I’m taking…
Every move I makes feels
Lost with no with not direction
My faith was shaking

But I gotta keep trying
Gotta keep my head held high
There’s always gonna be another mountain…”

Now, we are getting ready to check in our laptops for the end of our fourth full year of our 1:1 learning initiative and it has been a great ride! Things have really changed around here. And I can only imagine how things will change next year. We will have a new superintendent and a new principal. They will want to put their own “brand” on what we have already started, and that will be exciting. They will want to polish up what we have been doing and put a new shine on “the old penny” and that will keep us all on our toes! But if we want the education for our students to improve and the learning environment for our teachers and students to keep getting better then we have to “keep on moving, keep climbing. Keep the faith baby, it’s all about the the climb!”

Hard things in life to admit are true:

2010-05-06T10:44:00.000-05:00

Continuing from the book Life is a Verb: Hard things in life to admit are true...

1. “If you would just tell me those lessons rather than make me suffer to discover them, I would believe you, I promise. (This only goes for those who are over the age of 25.)

2. Some people don’t care who is left behind or who falls down in the mud.

3. People don’t stop being bullies when they grow up. They just dress differently to fool you.”

And now my own list:

4. The popularity contest you were wrapped up in high school never really ends. You just learn to deal with it more effectively, and some people manage not to care outwardly, but are bothered by it inwardly.

5. You don’t forget the pain of childbirth, you simply talk yourself into wanting more children because they are so much fun when they get enough sleep, they are not cranky, they begin to have a life of their own, and they start to become your friend.

6. Being in love with one person for the rest of your life can happen, but if you rush into finding that person, you will make mistakes in the hunt. The least likely person will turn out to be the best friend you have, the love of your life and foundation of your family. Be patient and be prepared to overlook the small things, and keep your sights on the more important blessings.

7. Being embarrassed doesn’t have to be a lifelong concern. If you give yourself permission to be silly, then others will not look down upon you. If you give yourself permission to be different from the crowd, others will learn to respect you for it.

7b. If you forge your own path in life, others will see you as a trailblazer and begin to follow.

8. Risk taking is the hardest thing life, especially the older you get. Even the small risks can be hard. Once you begin to take small risks, you will continue to find it easier to take the bigger risks… and those risks will not all pay off, but when the big one pays off, you’ll be glad you did!

9. Failure is a fact of life. You will have small failures and big failures. You have to just stop and say, “I failed!” Though it is hard to fail and none of us want to second guess our abilities, or get knocked back a notch or two, you have to keep trying. Anything worth doing right is worth doing wrong the first time and learning from it. People who claim they have never failed, are simply waiting for the “other shoe to fall.” We all fail at some point, and it is better to fail and pick yourself up and try again. Most failures are not fatal…

10. Those who are not generous with their time will eventually end up friendless. Those who don’t make time to be with friends, to help those in needs, to donate for a good cause, or work for a higher cause, will not receive the gifts of generosity either. Who wants to help someone who is selfish and unfriendly? Who feels sorry for the workaholic who has blown off plans with you every time you try to take them out for dinner?

11. Bigotry and intolerance, racism, sexism and profiling occur every day. The only way to get rid of it is to be sure that you don’t add to the problem. The only person you can change is yourself, but you can try to influence everyone else by pointing out when they have not been fair to others. Lead by example, love unconditionally, and be accepting of all races, religions, preferences, affiliations, and beliefs.

12. We all know that people who are weak need a hug. We know that some people are only weak temporarily and they just need a boost to keep going. However, do we ever stop to realize that even the strongest person needs a hug once in a while? Sometimes strong people just need to admit that they are “falling apart” and need to be held together for a few minutes. It’s hard to admit when things are bad, and the “pity face” that people give you when they hear you are “in need” is hard to stomach, but in the end, it nice to know that they care enough to help hold you together.

13. No matter how great a person you are, people will judge you by your outward appearance. They will judge you on your weight, height, hair, clothing, cleanliness, etc. They won’t be able to see your intelligence, compassionate nature, or sense of humor until they get past your exterior. It is a fact of life. It is harsh to say, but when people say you shouldn’t judge a book by it cover – it’s true, but it happens. YOU shouldn’t judge, but you also need to keep in mind that THEY will judge you.

14. Compromise usually has a good connotation. However, when compromising means continually giving up what you want for someone else then that means you are being walked on. You should not have to change what you like, how you act, what you dress like, what you are interested in, what you want to do, what your career should be, or who you talk to. Someone who really loves you won’t make you change, they will love your for who you are – without compromise.

Life is a verb:

2010-05-05T10:42:00.000-05:00

For most of us, life is mundane. Things don’t change much, and we do the same things day after day. We go to school, we attend 8 different classes, we eat in the same lunchroom, we talk to basically the same people, attend sports practice, attend the occasional evening meeting of a club or church group. Sometimes we go really crazy and go to a school concert or ball game eat dinner at the local restaurant, and on one of those really special days, we travel 45-60 miles to the nearest “town” and go shopping… most likely at the Walmart because that is the store that has everything. We lead simple lives, and we dream of the glamourous. We keep plodding through days and years doing mostly the same things, and we forget to enjoy them. We forget to try a new restaurant, see a different movie than the ones we usually pick, or go somewhere to meet new people. Some will think that we are in a rut, some will take a bit of time and realize we are lucky.

Lucky you say… how can they be lucky? We are lucky because we are happy the way we are. We are satisfied with life and can enjoy the simple things in life. We are happy with the people we know and love, and we don’t need glamour or the drama that comes with a more complex life. Do we all deserve to “spice it up a bit”? Of course. We can be disappointed with someone else doesn’t want to change, but sometimes change is not good for every situation. The way things have been done in the past can be a good thing. Some things are tried and true… some new ways are not a successful…some things are traditions… and some things are best done “the old fashioned way.”

The book, Life as a Verb, asks that we seize the opportunity to drive the convertible instead of the safe, and cheaper sedan rental car. The author reminds us that something dire can happen to any one of us at any time. We can be gone tomrrow and what would we have missed if we didn’t seize the opportunity to try something new. My question is this, if we can be gone tomorrow, wouldn’t you think some people would look back and say, I am glad I went to all of those games – even the ones we lost. I am glad I attended that concert. I am glad I lived in that small town, and I am glad I only married one person – in my whole lifetime. I am glad I was kind to my neighbors, and that I never had to worry about crime or drive-by shootings.

“We all deserve to have fun, live large, and be ridiculed by less imaginative people existing under the erroneous assumption they get extra credit for being prudent and safe.”

What have I learned through blogging?

2010-05-04T10:08:00.002-05:00

I have been never really been asked this question directly, but often when I am trying to illustrate a point, given an example, or "do the same homework" as my journalism students (and sometimes my English students) I turn to my blog as a place to that writing to happen. Often I have turned to my blog and scrolled back through the archive looking for a post to show a student an example of writing that they can obviously improve upon for their own assignment. Sometimes I have used it show that writing can happen in a short amount of time, or that opinions can come from a variety of sources.

Just this week the students have been going back through their blog entries and reflecting upon their process since the beginning of the year. Some have been looking at the progress through articles published in the newpaper since their freshman year along with their blogs, their English papers, and then came back talking about their journals and diaries kept at home. What fun conversations they had, and what fun reflections they were writing. I can't wait to grade their portfolios...

Here are my own reflections about what I have learned through blogging...
1. I think more deeply when I write for an audience (or a perceived audience since I don’t have many followers) … or when I have to talk to someone about my ideas. I tend to go into more detail, and really do more analysis of what is important and what needs to be emphasized.
2. It’s all about me. It is about what I want, what I want to say, and what I am thinking. It really isn’t for anyone else, but if someone can benefit from it, then so be it. So if you are starting a blog hoping to become famous, then you are going to work a lot harder than I do. I do this for me. It is selfish, and I benefit from the thinking more than anyone else.
3. Ideas of what I want to write about come from everywhere. (sermons, magazine articles, tweets, the news, students, radio, conversations, etc.)
4. I should have learned discipline to get more writing done more regularly, but with my illness I realized it can also be set aside in an emergency of time and relevance… it will be there for me when I come back especially since I write the most for myself…
5. Reflection from the main events I have participated in are often the best writing and the most interesting.
6. This is my connection to other adults, but I can invite students to read my blog when I think they might benefit from reading it. Some of my best followers are my students... but they tend to respond through email responses.
7. When someone reads it, it is a joy. When someone comments, it is a gift. When someone disagrees, it is a challenge.

Cell Phone Ponderances

2010-05-03T17:02:00.000-05:00

Students are not supposed to have cell phones and the one I confiscated today goes off about every 3-4 minutes if not more. If their friends, family, parents, and acquaintances all know they are not supposed to have their phone during school, why does it keep going off? I am not naive enough to believe that students don’t have them in school, but his leads me to believe that students are distracted by them more than we realize. Even if they don’t answer their phones, or deal with the vibrating messages right away, they are getting distracted very often.

How long does it take for the “senders” to give up when they don’t get a message?
How long does it take for the “senders” to send back when they have been ignored for some time? Then when the students who are receiving do take the time to deal with the messages, by asking to go the bathroom, going to visit with a teacher and taking way too long, or running to their lockers, cars, or the library… does this mean it starts the cycle of messages all over again.
Will it ring more over lunch? If it doesn’t ring over lunch does that mean the students in our school are all together at lunch so they don’t need to text?
If it doesn’t ring over lunch is it because he told the kids that I have the phone, and not to send messages?
If if doesn’t ring over lunch, what does that mean?

Goal Setting: Goals or a Bucket List

2010-05-01T16:57:00.004-05:00

Recently, at the NETA conference in Omaha, I was honored to pick up Rem Jackson from the airport. I found him to be charming, entertaining, intelligent, challenging, and of course, funny. Not only did I get to pick him up (which was really cool by the way), but I also got to hear his keynote address the next day. Some of the main points of his speech encouraged the audience to find sustainable change, to “roast your inner chicken,” and that we are all the “average of 5 people we hang out with the most.”

However, the message that seems to have stayed with me and “haunted” me the most over the past few days had to do with the idea of goals. He wants people write down their goals – even the fun ones. He said, “give yourself permission to think this way (in regard to the goals), and you will set up your life to get to those goals.”

Professional Goals:

Write a book and get it published
Work for Apple, Inc.
Work at an educational service unit or as a professional development/teacher trainer
Present at the national level – maybe at NECC
Present as a keynote or featured speaker at another state’s conference
Be able to afford opening a pop machine and giving it all away to the kids at school.
Work in a specialized school for kids who want to be there.
Speak my mind at a school board meeting and not worry about the repercussions
Stay in Red Cloud for days to create comprehensive web site for the Cather Foundation (with pictures) and full stories of how the literature connects to the buildings
Try something new and innovative with every lesson
Find a way to control behavior without punishing the netire group out of reflex
Try for a grant at least once a year
Mentor a teacher or student
Cause a ripple towards improvement

Personal Bucket list:

see the northern lights
drive from coast to coast of the US
drive an expensive sports car I could never afford
help a person achieve something on their bucket list
live in another country for 6 months
visit the Mona Lisa
see the “ice man”
create my own clothing line
visit every state , country and continent
learn a language
go to a treeless place and plant 50 trees
say “patience young grasshopper” seriously (stolen from a student)
whistle with my fingers
send a message in a bottle
see the Hollywood sign in real life
kiss a stranger
meet someone with the same name as me
swim in the ocean naked (wait… I have done that)
sleep under the stars (in a comfortable bed, not a sleeping bag)
watch the sunrise with someone I love and not be sleep deprived
go to an old Nazi war camp and pay my respects
see the pyramids of Egypt
feed the homeless and make a difference
save a life (literally and figuratively)
finish this bucket list
Break someone out of a care home that hasn’t had a visitor in a really long time and make it a day to remember
Dance with abandon in front of a crowd as if no one knows who you are (like in the Black Eyed Peas video)
Be able to afford to Get a pink volkswagon bug even though I am over 250 miles from the nearest VW dealer and repair
Visit the dinosaur and ancient animal museums across the world
Go to the Olympics
Go to the Indy 500 and listen to the drivers with the headphones so I can hear them get frustrated when they can’t take the lead – even though I don’t like car racing
Go watch the The masters golf touranment
Watch the Oscars red carpet (who cares about the awards, I’ll pick my own movies thank you)
Go see the CMA awards
Do 3 Good deeds like in the movie Pay it Forward
Keep a Diary (could this blog count as that?)
go on a trip without planning it out and flipping a coin on at each intersection
Voice Your Appreciation
Conquer a Fear
Go on an Alaskan cruise (so I never have to wear a swimsuit in public)

The Prioritization of Life

2010-04-22T12:28:00.002-05:00

Only the truly honest will admit that priorities in life change and adapt for what is really going on at any given moment. When put on the spot, all of us have our standard answer of what our top priorities are, which priority ranks at the top and which priorities rank lower. This answer is always 100% politically correct when spoken aloud, 98% emotionally correct because we don’t always want to admit our deep dark secrets for fear others will not understand, and 90% morally correct because we don’t like to admit when we want something for ourselves that might seem a bit selfish when looked upon from the outside, but that is another story.

Over the past few months, when I haven’t been blogging, my priorities have been flexed a lot and my desire to blog has been put on the back burner by my own choosing. My other priorities have definitely drifted to the top of the priority list. So at this point, you probably wondering what some of those priorities are. You can probably guess some of them, especially if you know me personally (mother, wife, family, etc.), if you know me professionally (teaching, managing the laptop initiative at my school, etc.), or if you know me from this blog (reader, writer, thinker).

Let’s start with the 100% politically correct priorities that I am sure we can all agree upon. We all prioritize that health, family, friends, and career are our top priorities. At any given time, these priorities move around according to circumstance, timing, calendar, and let's just be blunt... health issues. As some of you may or may not realize my health has been my main issue since Christmas and everything else has gone on the back burner.

I have been blogging... just not for the public. I have been writing more privately - for my kids when they get older. You may, or may not get to see that writing, it depends where things come out at the end of the illness. But for now I can be happy with the idea that writing makes me who I am, and it makes me happy. I need to get back to it - for me. It really doesn't matter that I haven't blogged since January. It really doesn't matter that the 3 people, or maybe more - who knows, that used to read my blog, may have moved on. What matters is that I am going to get back to work, for ME.

New year… new look for my blog. So with this blog entry, I am beginning a new phase... a new look for my blog... and a new outlook for my life for this location... be watching... Hooray… my blogging drought has ended!

1:1 Learning - Face to Face In Kearney

2010-01-20T08:10:00.002-06:00

The old adage “two heads are better than one” was clearly evident January 19^th when over 48 schools from across the state converged at ESU 10 in Kearney to discuss 1:1 learning. The 1:1 Learning Community members met to share projects ideas, discuss solutions for common concerns, explore possibilities, and to improve best practices for technology-integrated learning.

Though an agenda is collected prior to the meeting, the discussion was driven more by the interests and questions brought forth at the meeting itself. The day began with each person introducing themselves, their 1:1 status, and the information they wanted to gain by the end of the meeting, thus building an agenda and direction for the morning session.

Topics ranged from discipline, hardware issues, learning management systems, monitoring, tech support, and deployment, to professional development, lesson planning, and classroom strategies.

After a lunch of networking, the participants returned to the discussion by sharing a technology-integrated project from either his or her classroom or district, and how technology changes student learning. (For a complete listing of projects, and discussion items, please see the full text of the minutes online.)

The 1:1 Learning Community formed in the summer of 2008 beginning with a meeting of 20 people from 10 schools. Attendance has since swelled to over 130 in January of 2009, to its current status at the state-wide level. This group continues to provide support for schools, administrators, tech directors, and teachers currently in a 1:1 learning environment, as well as those planning to go 1:1 in the near future. NETA is proud to sponsor this group by providing funding for the lunches and location.

Dear Santa,

2009-12-19T10:58:00.002-06:00

How are you? How is Mrs. Claus? We hope that you are doing great, and taking plenty of time to rest during this very busy time of year. We understand what busy means, we are very busy too. We have been hosting Christmas programs for the elementary and the secondary school. We have been playing about 3 basketball games a week and watching about 12 per week. We are also attending at least 1 wrestling meet a week, all the while attending practice until 6:30, participating in community programs and family events.

While you have been making a list and checking it twice, arranging the sleigh with all of its presents, stashing cookis, carrots and other snacks for the road, and filling thermoses with hot chocolate, we have been busy trying to get homework checked, units finished, semester tests written and taken, and everything else done. The students have hit the “excited that there is only a day and a half before we get out for Christmas… uh … holiday break” that they can’t focus through the candy cane sugar high.

But who is complaining? I love juggling all of these activities while trying to get Christmas letters written, addresses updated, shopping done, wrapping completed in secret in the middle of the night, decorating done, and meals planned. And all of that is just for school!

Now that I have wasted so much time and effort explaining what you probably already know, because you know when we have been good and bad, you are probably wondering I haven’t gotten around to asking for anything. (My English teacher would say that this is more of a personal narrative than a persuasive paper, and that my organization if judged by journalistic style is WAY off!) I am trying to figure out how to tell you what we really need here at the school. Now, according to the directions on most assignment sand projects, it is recommended that you read all the way through the steps, and then make a decision that will help you accomplish your gift-giving goal. Remember, Christmas lists are simply a suggestion list, but actually something we really want to have it you can afford it all. (Smile)

We have done a really well in the past 12 months watching out pennies, cutting our spending, and making due with the resources we already have that we have saved our districts almost $100,000. Hopefully that means, if we keep working hard, that you can help the school board make wise decisions to help us balance our school budget. Please give them the gift of patience and wisdom to study the situation and do their very best.
We are all working really hard. In the last year, when we had to cut two teachers from our staff to save money. One teacher was cut in the elementary causing a blended 5th and 6th grade classroom. This also meant that one teacher was reassigned to another grade level, another has the blended classroom, and still another took on additional Title One duties and help with the blended class Language Arts classes. The second teacher cut from the faculty was in the high school causing the duties of the librarian, social studies teacher, 2 English teachers, and the computer teacher to take on more teaching responsibilities, not to mention extra curricular duties of mock trial and National Honor Society sponsorships. Though the cuts needed to take place, Santa we are hoping that you can grant these overworked teachers some solace over the holiday break. Even though they will probably spend much of their time with their families, it is also pretty much guaranteed that they will have to devote a considerable amount of time to lesson planning and grading to keep up. If you could manage to add a few more hours to the day… no wait… a few more hours to our sleep time… that would be the best gift of all!
With all of these changes taking place and adjusting to our new teaching duties, we are also looking to the future and how our lives will change again when both of our administrators retire at the end of this year. We will be losing our principal and athletic director who has worked here since the early 80’s and we will be losing our half-time superintendent who has been here for about 10 years. Again the school board has the difficult task of ironing out the details of sharing a superintendent with the Callaway School District, while at the same time trying to advertise for a new K-12 principal. I know that it would be difficult for the elves to bring us a new principal on Christmas Eve, but if you could help some really qualified applicants find our advertisement in the newspaper, and help them get their resumes updated and sent to Arnold Schools, that would be one of the best gifts we would receive, even if you couldn’t get it wrapped with a pretty bow.
We have just entered into a really interesting period in our school history. Just the a few weeks ago, our school board voted to merge athletics with the neighboring town of Callaway. And just the other day, the cooperative board voted to change our mascot. We now know that we will no longer be the Arnold Cardinals, but we will be one half of the South Loup Bobcats. We won’t be wearing red and black on game days, we will be wearing royal blue, silver and black. With all of these changes, we will need some divine gifts to help pay for the new uniforms, repainting the gym mascots on the floor, changing out the bumper pads in the gym under the hoops, and buying new “Bobcat” sports apparel for the fans!
As always, we are always looking out for each other, so I would like to ask that you keep our faculty, support staff, office personnel, students, parents, taxpayers, and friends health throughout the coming year. We wish the same for you, your wife, the elves, the reindeer and your extended family! Merry Christmas and take a little time after the holidays to enjoy your children and their school activities in come school year.

How Do I Write a Discussion Board Post?

2009-12-17T09:18:00.000-06:00

I have been finishing a college course called Online Course Design. It has been quite an experience of learning how to use Blackboard, as well as learning about course desing for online classes. I have been teaching a hybrid online class for several years now (4 to be exact), and feel fairly comfortable with the process, other than changing from WebCT to Blackboard in January.

As we worked through the course, the focus kept returning to the discussion board. All of the sources I have read, materials I have found online, and all of the suggestions from my professor is that the discussion board is mission critical to online courses. (I don't necessarily agree and feel that there might be better options, but that is a completely different post for later.) So I asked the professor, via email and via the course discussion board, "how do you write an engaging discussion board post?" I searched high and low on the Internet, but didn't find many resources that really answered my question. There are a lot of resources that say you need good questions, but they don't really tell you HOW.

I am really intrigued by this topic and wanted to hear the professor's opinion on the topic so I emailed her. The article that she attached was really interesting. I particularly enjoyed the part at the beginning which said "Discussions are often a presentation technique to avoid lecture lethargy or sleepiness, and are not considered a prime facilitator of the education process... In an asynchronous online environment, discussion questions are planned and students and faculty respond with considered answers. Faculty carefully craft questions to fit content and student needs. Respondents, both students and faculty, can take the time to carefully research and develop their responses. Therefore, the achieved learning from online discussions is potentially much greater than in a face-to-face environment."

My initial reaction upon reading this passage is if we as instructors can craft less questions and simply ask fewer of the right questions and we can accomplish the same amount. Instead of doing warm up questions, we can just jump right to the meat of the matter because students have time to process their thoughts and their answers whereas in a verbal discussion you always think of things you wish you had said after the class is over.

The main ideas I want to put in my cheat sheet for designing my online class are the following:

Students will be more motivated to read and study the assigned materials knowing that not only the instructor, but fellow students, will be reviewing their work. Questions need to be composed to use terms or concepts found in the reading material which cannot be answered without having read the material. (Badgley translation - no summaries, only new ideas.)
The primary purpose of higher education is the development of critical thinking capabilities. (Badgley translation- make them think in the evaluation, analysis and synthesis categories)
Discussion questions can lead to very creative library searches for information not in the reading material, but relevant to the course. (Badgley translation- share resources with the class that you like and that no one else has shared - make them read the previous posts before posting their own)
Discussion questions can lead to very creative library searches for information not in the reading material, but relevant to the course. (Badgley translation - make them use library resources or they will google for everything... which isn't always the most scholarly information to spend hours reading through)
Discussion questions that require searching create an awareness of the vast amounts of data available on the Internet. (Badgley translation - find the good and bad and then evaluate why they are good and bad examples. You can learn just as much from the bad as you can the good)
Topic preparation can also be used to reduce stereotypes or biases before a topic is introduced. (Badgley translation - for technology classes we always have to look at what is out of date and what is going out of date, and what is the new trend.)
Getting students involved in meaningful discussions throughout the course creates a community and seemingly should thereby contribute to retention. (Badgley translation - even if the first few discussion posts don't generate much interest or quality, keep trying because they will learn more by failure and working their way back to successful posts.)
The Bloom's taxonomy table (Learning Skills Program, 2005) contains a list of verbs that I found particularly helpful in composing discussion questions that address the higher order competencies. (Badgley translation - look at the verbs you are choosing in the question to be sure to get to the answer you want. Be specific.)
A question that works particularly well with case studies is, "Describe any lessons you personally learned from this case? Anything particularly hit home? Was there anything in the case that you think needs to be emphasized or communicated, or that is commonly done poorly?" This obvious requires reflective thought. (Badgley translation - there are a lot of "case study" possibilities in web design and I need to learn to craft this type of question.)
Questions that have a right or wrong answer and/or do not enhance learning and are merely busywork are also inappropriate. (Badgley translation - this is the worksheet effect. the student really doesn't have to learn anything to complete the work. They can search for the answer and never really engage their brain or retention.)
A discussion requirement that works well is to require students to directly answer two of five questions and respond to three separate postings of others. (Badgley translation - if the class is really small, this doesn't really allow for the students who choose not to answer a question to learn from the students who did answer it. there wouldn't be enough people answering questions.)
(Badgley translation - I might be guilty of the "war stories" during this class and the last one!)
Students appeared to consider instructor postings as "the last word' on discussion threads thereby ending the thread. Interestingly and almost contradictory, the authors also found that student satisfaction and views of instructor enthusiasm were positively correlated with the number of instructor postings. Students' comments indicated that they favored instructor involvement that consisted of questions, as opposed to answers. (Badgley translation - instructors post to start a discussion, keep the discussion going by asking questions, quell any misconceptions, and to summarize the posts to indicate the thread is ending.)
Late responders require students to backtrack to previous units which can be distracting and time consuming, so rules to discourage lateness are required. (Badgley translation - it is a waste of time to go back and read posts that are not posted when the rest of the class is reading them. The late posts are only a last ditch effort to boost their grade.)
Showing continuous improvement is a must to show continuing improvement in your grade. Simple enough

The Tribe Has Spoken

2009-12-15T08:50:00.000-06:00

Survivor is a complex game of relationships, teamwork, individual efforts, planning ahead, and physical strength often determined by size and resources. Survivor is a game for the intelligent, for the determined, and for the hearty. It is a game that can only be won if you really want to win, and if every aspect of the game falls into place correctly for you. The opening credits of the show say “16 castaways, 2 tribes, 39 days and 1 winner.” The same can be said for small school districts all across Nebraska, except it is the rural schools that are the castaways, the tribes are the larger schools who were given the financial responsibility to absorb those smaller than them, it takes a couple of years to get everything settled, and in the end there is a winner. Depending upon whom you talk to, the winner might be the large school, but hopefully it is the students. The small schools are trying to Outwit, Outplay and Outlast.

In the beginning, two tribes (districts) were formed, in this case by location, Callaway and Oconto. And, as with any situation, you have some tribe members (students) who are envious of what the other tribe has, they might even want to defect and join the other tribe. But for the most part, everyone is happy with the group they live and learn with. Within these autonomous tribes (districts), friendships begin, relationships are developed, alliances are formed, and rivalries begin. Each tribe works hard to maintain their size, their strength, and their longevity to get to the end, to ultimately “survive.”

The tribes develop their own strategies for survival and success. The tribe members develop different skills, become desirable to other tribes for their unique abilities, and set themselves apart from the crowd. They compete in reward challenges to be noticed, to improve their tribe, and to increase the belongings and equipment of those tribes.

As time passes, the tribes eventually participate in immunity challenges. They are always trying to find ways to learn, to become more proficient at their daily tasks, to protect their tribe members, to preserve their hard work, to keep the great things they have done, and to develop great processes and programs. Leaders appear, followers emerge, and those who are just trying to “fly below the radar” keep moving forward.

Eventually the number of tribal members dwindles (whether by leaving the tribe, moving to another tribe, or simply running out of potential tribe members). The tribes eventually must merge to continue to be successful and survive, and become one large group. Power shifts occur among all the tribe members, not just the leaders, and situations change. But the size of the merged tribe also keeps dwindling down until there is only one winner in the end.

If you have seen the show, you know that the tribe marches in quietly to tribal council, trying not to look at anyone, trying not to give away any early information. They gather in a semicircle around the host and other tribe members. Others, namely the jury, file in silently to observe without being able to participate; and then the tribal council host invites the members to individually speak and then reveal their vote. To each voting member the host says “you’re up” and they squirm a bit, then cast their vote. Each member usually looks directly at the audience explains how they feel about the given situation, and then try to explain why they voted the way they did. The school board meeting felt the same way, for the visitors as well as the board itself.

“Once the votes are read, the decision is final. The school voted out will be asked to leave the tribal council area immediately (actually at the end of the school year). I’ll read the votes… 6 votes to close Oconto… the tribe has spoken.”

For this extended metaphor to work, you have to realize that the school districts are the tribes, and the tribe members are the teachers, support staff, students, parents and community. Last night, as I was sitting in the school board meeting I felt like we were in a Survivor Tribal Council meeting. It wasn’t that I was mad when the vote happened, because it is all part of the game, and Oconto has known for years that this outcome was inevitable, but that doesn’t make it any easier to hear “the tribe has spoken.” I also know that it can’t be easy to be the voting members either. They did their job with the most respect possible and they can hold their heads high as they leave the tribal council and return to the business of everyday life and survival. We can now look forward to the Suvivor All-Star Series, with all of the tribes merged together and starting a new game. Watch for the future of this new tribe and I am sure big things are coming.