This morning I was listening to the #satchat Voxer group messages, and one of the tools shared was Blendspace. I hadn't heard of this one, so I decided to check it out, and here's what I came up with!
There are a lot of uses for this - included some flipped or blended learning options. There are lots of media types that can be embedded, including Google Docs files (although you have to download them as Microsoft Office files), YouTube videos, Flickr photos, websites, and more. You can add text/writing prompts and quiz questions for formative assessment. This is all great, but in this set up it's something we are doing to students. There is definitely a time and place for curating resources for students, but think about this:
I'd be excited to see students creating content and using this platform to present and publish their learning! You can upload Educreations videos, which I find really exciting, because I love Educreations for student demonstration of knowledge! They can share their collaborative group work from the Google Apps, use the comment features to get feedback and lead discussion about their work, create and upload their own YouTube videos, and build a portfolio of work throughout a unit or year! By adding rows, this could be an ongoing project, and all of it is EASY to share on a blog or webpage, although you can also share the finished product via email, QR code, or Facebook (among others).
Blendspace is definitely worth a look. I'm excited to continuing exploring, and interested in hearing about other ways people are using tools like this!
Cross-posted from RethinkRedesign
Thursday, August 7, 2014
Saturday, August 2, 2014
6 Places I Will Not Take My Students This Year
Without winning the lottery I definitely won't be taking students to these places this year, but you can get pretty close by using Google street view! It's not a perfect remedy to budget constraints, but using this old favorite, but often under-utilized tool will take students to places they may not otherwise get to see! I've picked 6 places in the United States that I would love to visit with students, and included teacher resources associated with each of them. Don't forget to check out these other virtual field trips from Google+ Connected Classrooms project!
Sea World
San Diego Zoo
Wahington DC: WWII Memorial
Grand Canyon
Mount Rushmore
Central Park & Central Park Zoo
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Student Networking
One of the most important parts of my world is my PLN. Networking has become almost as essential to me as breathing. This was something I wanted to share and inspire in my students. In addition to modeling life-long learning and Twitter connections in my classroom on a daily basis, I used a career unit in 8th grade computer class to demonstrate the value of having a strong network to my students.
Here's the process we went through:
1. We created class Twitter accounts. I did not follow their accounts, but many of my students opted to create new accounts for class purposes - this told me that they understood the value of having a "professional" persona versus a personal persona. For me, these were one and the same. For teenagers, that wasn't necessarily the case.
2. I asked them to think about their career units from guidance class, their passions, and their personal goals and ambitions to make a list of top career choices they wanted to explore. When they had their list, we set about finding personal and professional blogs around their choices. I wanted some personal blogs so they could see how the career path impacted day-to-day living for the people who worked in those areas. At the time, we just read and favorited their blogs. Now, I would recommend using something like Feedly to organize their lists.
3. We searched for companies and professionals on Twitter for them to follow. We talked about what sorts of things were tweeted out, whether it was more professional or more personal, and how social media might impact their job.
4. With my help, we connected with someone they followed on Twitter (or a connection I found through Twitter) and did a video chat with a professional in their career choice area. Allowing them to have a face to face conversation enabled them to ask questions, put a face to the blog or Twitter handle, and make a personal connection.
5. Finally, the students wrote about their own goals, who they are online, and how they might be perceived in a digital environment.
Since then, I've been doing some digging on personal branding, and Emily Whitehead (@mrsewhitehead) shared an idea that I think I would use as the culminating piece (or maybe as bookends to the process). She recommended having students do a Google search of themselves or a partner, write a logo, create an icon, & tagline that represents what was found - then have students reflect on their brand. After students have thought about themselves as a brand, have them do the activity again for who they WANT to be, and follow it up as a conversation about how to get there.
How are you talking to your students about networking and branding?
Here's the process we went through:
1. We created class Twitter accounts. I did not follow their accounts, but many of my students opted to create new accounts for class purposes - this told me that they understood the value of having a "professional" persona versus a personal persona. For me, these were one and the same. For teenagers, that wasn't necessarily the case.
2. I asked them to think about their career units from guidance class, their passions, and their personal goals and ambitions to make a list of top career choices they wanted to explore. When they had their list, we set about finding personal and professional blogs around their choices. I wanted some personal blogs so they could see how the career path impacted day-to-day living for the people who worked in those areas. At the time, we just read and favorited their blogs. Now, I would recommend using something like Feedly to organize their lists.
3. We searched for companies and professionals on Twitter for them to follow. We talked about what sorts of things were tweeted out, whether it was more professional or more personal, and how social media might impact their job.
4. With my help, we connected with someone they followed on Twitter (or a connection I found through Twitter) and did a video chat with a professional in their career choice area. Allowing them to have a face to face conversation enabled them to ask questions, put a face to the blog or Twitter handle, and make a personal connection.
5. Finally, the students wrote about their own goals, who they are online, and how they might be perceived in a digital environment.
Since then, I've been doing some digging on personal branding, and Emily Whitehead (@mrsewhitehead) shared an idea that I think I would use as the culminating piece (or maybe as bookends to the process). She recommended having students do a Google search of themselves or a partner, write a logo, create an icon, & tagline that represents what was found - then have students reflect on their brand. After students have thought about themselves as a brand, have them do the activity again for who they WANT to be, and follow it up as a conversation about how to get there.
How are you talking to your students about networking and branding?
Sunday, July 13, 2014
Getting to the questions...
These are my two oldest children:
Rylee is a perfectionist...
And Aaden can be a bit of a "know-it-all"
Now don't get me wrong, I love them dearly, but between one who always responds with "I already knew that" and one who hesitates to even try if she isn't going to get the answer right, getting my kids to ask question and admit they don't know is a TOUGH job! Some people want their kids to stop asking so many questions - I want mine to ask more!
Almost a year ago I came across a website called Wonderopolis on Matt Gomez's blog. Last week, at #ipadu in Cedar Rapids, Matt mentioned this resource again, and I couldn't wait to come home and try it out with my kids.
Since I got home Friday night we have been watching Wonder videos like crazy! Rylee and I watched them together Friday night and Saturday night, and I practiced modeling making educated guesses - I wanted to show her that nobody (not even mom, which is hard to believe, I know) has ALL the answers! We took turns making guesses and then she wrote about what we learned. Tonight I did one with Aaden, and it was even more difficult to get him to ask questions. However, I am all about helping my kids practice this skill, and it is a resource I will be sharing with all my districts!
The basic set-up is that there is a kid-friendly/inspired question or "wonder" each day, with photos and a video, and then the essential questions of the "wonder" - "What is in a hot dog?" or "How are mountains made?" Along with those there is a short article with lots of interactive vocabulary words, and finally a quiz, if you'd like. Rylee and I did a couple of the quizzes, but we were more interested in the questions.
Getting students to think, wonder, and sometimes just guess is one of the hardest parts of education these days. The desire to get the "right" answer is so deeply engrained in their brains that being wrong or not know an answer is scary to them. I love this resource as a method of learning and questioning! Good work, Wonderopolis!
Rylee is a perfectionist...
And Aaden can be a bit of a "know-it-all"
Now don't get me wrong, I love them dearly, but between one who always responds with "I already knew that" and one who hesitates to even try if she isn't going to get the answer right, getting my kids to ask question and admit they don't know is a TOUGH job! Some people want their kids to stop asking so many questions - I want mine to ask more!
Almost a year ago I came across a website called Wonderopolis on Matt Gomez's blog. Last week, at #ipadu in Cedar Rapids, Matt mentioned this resource again, and I couldn't wait to come home and try it out with my kids.
Since I got home Friday night we have been watching Wonder videos like crazy! Rylee and I watched them together Friday night and Saturday night, and I practiced modeling making educated guesses - I wanted to show her that nobody (not even mom, which is hard to believe, I know) has ALL the answers! We took turns making guesses and then she wrote about what we learned. Tonight I did one with Aaden, and it was even more difficult to get him to ask questions. However, I am all about helping my kids practice this skill, and it is a resource I will be sharing with all my districts!
The basic set-up is that there is a kid-friendly/inspired question or "wonder" each day, with photos and a video, and then the essential questions of the "wonder" - "What is in a hot dog?" or "How are mountains made?" Along with those there is a short article with lots of interactive vocabulary words, and finally a quiz, if you'd like. Rylee and I did a couple of the quizzes, but we were more interested in the questions.
Getting students to think, wonder, and sometimes just guess is one of the hardest parts of education these days. The desire to get the "right" answer is so deeply engrained in their brains that being wrong or not know an answer is scary to them. I love this resource as a method of learning and questioning! Good work, Wonderopolis!
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
6 Days of Highlights at #iste2014
Holy goodness, I had every intention of blogging my main take away each day while I was at ISTE, so my friends at home could follow along, and I totally got wrapped up in the awesomeness of the sessions and forgot!
Day 1: This was actually a "tourist" day as the conference hadn't started yet, so my highlight was Flip Burger Boutique!
Day 2: #Hacked is pretty much my favorite part of ISTE - this is a MUST ATTEND/non-negotiable for me. The unconference style combined with the #edurockstars that come, creates an experience that I can't even describe.
I had a conversation in my first session in which I described having my students help me build our class together - if we're piloting something new, they take ownership and build with me along the way. I was excited to share, but one participant said he felt like I was doing kids a "dis-service" because the other teachers aren't like this, and when they walked out of my room they had to go back into a traditional environment. Remember folks, you shouldn't do bad things to kids just because other people are doing bad things to kids.
The smackdown session had some interesting tools, like Chatter Pix, Art Rage, and Touch Cast , and a session I went to on "Voxer" in an educational setting made my day (thank you @wkrakower)! If you aren't on Voxer you should be. Trust me. I had downloaded it prior to the conference, but it came in handy
Day 3: Workshop day! We went to an Invent to Learn workshop with Gary Stager and Sylvia Martinez - the time to play was excellent, but I am still a proponent for some level of structure, design thinking, something. However, that being said, our team really illustrated the learning process and environment that we want to create perfectly! Our process was collaborative, reflective, personalized, challenging, purposeful, and FUN!
Day 4: While Sunday had many amazing experiences, I have to say I can sum up my top highlight in one word: RAKtivism! I was incredibly inspired by an Ignite session by @HCPSTinyTech on Random Acts of Kindness, and tweeted about it, after which I was challenged by a member of my PLN (@JD_Rincker) who was watching the feed from home, to complete one RAK in the next week. I returned the challenge, and we agreed to both complete RAK and blog about it (okay, the blog part is still in negotiation, but I'm planning on winning that one ;). We have both since completed our first RAK, but more on that later!
Day 5: Monday was our presentation day! That was definitely a highlight! Our team had some last minute changes to make to our presentation, but we worked hard to pull it all together, and I was really happy with our collaboration and final product. It wasn't always pretty, but that's part of the process, and it meant a lot to me that we all played different roles at different times, and we got a lot of positive feedback.
Day 6: Our last day was kind of a whirlwind of activity, but I still tried to cram in some final sessions. The sessions were fine, but to be honest, my favorite part of this day was taking some time to sit and reflect and think about the big ideas we will bring back home to our #plaea teachers. That, and the peach popsicles. I had 4...
More to come - I haven't even touched on the value of my PLN and getting to meet up with so many of them at ISTE!
Day 1: This was actually a "tourist" day as the conference hadn't started yet, so my highlight was Flip Burger Boutique!
Day 2: #Hacked is pretty much my favorite part of ISTE - this is a MUST ATTEND/non-negotiable for me. The unconference style combined with the #edurockstars that come, creates an experience that I can't even describe.
I had a conversation in my first session in which I described having my students help me build our class together - if we're piloting something new, they take ownership and build with me along the way. I was excited to share, but one participant said he felt like I was doing kids a "dis-service" because the other teachers aren't like this, and when they walked out of my room they had to go back into a traditional environment. Remember folks, you shouldn't do bad things to kids just because other people are doing bad things to kids.
The smackdown session had some interesting tools, like Chatter Pix, Art Rage, and Touch Cast , and a session I went to on "Voxer" in an educational setting made my day (thank you @wkrakower)! If you aren't on Voxer you should be. Trust me. I had downloaded it prior to the conference, but it came in handy
Day 3: Workshop day! We went to an Invent to Learn workshop with Gary Stager and Sylvia Martinez - the time to play was excellent, but I am still a proponent for some level of structure, design thinking, something. However, that being said, our team really illustrated the learning process and environment that we want to create perfectly! Our process was collaborative, reflective, personalized, challenging, purposeful, and FUN!
Day 4: While Sunday had many amazing experiences, I have to say I can sum up my top highlight in one word: RAKtivism! I was incredibly inspired by an Ignite session by @HCPSTinyTech on Random Acts of Kindness, and tweeted about it, after which I was challenged by a member of my PLN (@JD_Rincker) who was watching the feed from home, to complete one RAK in the next week. I returned the challenge, and we agreed to both complete RAK and blog about it (okay, the blog part is still in negotiation, but I'm planning on winning that one ;). We have both since completed our first RAK, but more on that later!
Day 5: Monday was our presentation day! That was definitely a highlight! Our team had some last minute changes to make to our presentation, but we worked hard to pull it all together, and I was really happy with our collaboration and final product. It wasn't always pretty, but that's part of the process, and it meant a lot to me that we all played different roles at different times, and we got a lot of positive feedback.
Day 6: Our last day was kind of a whirlwind of activity, but I still tried to cram in some final sessions. The sessions were fine, but to be honest, my favorite part of this day was taking some time to sit and reflect and think about the big ideas we will bring back home to our #plaea teachers. That, and the peach popsicles. I had 4...
More to come - I haven't even touched on the value of my PLN and getting to meet up with so many of them at ISTE!
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Why I HATE anonymous user names
As an educator I teach my students that they can make a difference in the world, and as a tech integration consultant I promote social media as a means of doing so. Recently, however, a dear family friend has been experiencing the down side of social media, and her "haters" illustrate perfectly why digital citizenship is so important, why we need to start teaching our kids early how to interact in a public (virtual or otherwise) forum, and why it is SO IMPORTANT to extend our outreach to parents and community members.
Let me start at the beginning:
A little over a year ago, I contacted Mindi, founder of the blog Bailing Out Benji, to speak with a class of my students about puppy mills, her blog, and rescue animals, after she helped my sister find a rescue dog. She shared about how she started her journey as an animal rights advocate, and how she used her blog and Facebook page to help educate people about puppy mills.
Last Christmas we adopted a second rescue puppy when my other sister saw that BOB (Bailing Out Benji) was hosting a virtual event called “Home for the Howl-idays” to promote getting shelter dogs and cats into their forever homes (all while going through the shelter application background checks and paperwork) for Christmas.
Finally, this spring I was able to take my two oldest children (8 and 5) to join my sisters and our rescue dogs to Iowa State University where other BOB members were holding an awareness event for college students during finals week.
I am proud to say that BOB is educating my students and my children, as well as myself, about the reality of puppy mills, but also about the impact an individual or small group can make when they have the right tools at their finger tips. Mindi's work has grown from one individual's passion into a thriving group that raises money to support rescue work, educate the public, and raise awareness about puppy mills in Iowa and around the United States.
Fast forward to today. Iowa news stations have been picking up more and more stories about puppy mills thanks to the work of Bailing Out Benji and other awesome rescue workers and volunteers. Along with these stories, we also find the comment section, where people insert some sort of anonymous user name and have the freedom to say whatever they want; true or not, appropriate or not, civil or not.
What frustrates me about these comments on a WHO news story is not that these people have opinions that are blatantly rude (and since I know Mindi personally, I can tell you are also HUGELY false), but that they can hide behind anonymous pseudonyms, spouting whatever they damn well please. You shouldn't be able to anonymously imply that someone is dishonest, a thief, or a liar. You shouldn't be able to anonymously threaten people or make libelous statements. You can, and we all love free speech, but it sucks, and it sends the wrong message.
I wish these people had the opportunity to take a class with me on digital citizenship and how to behave in a public forum, because this behavior could definitely go on my list of “non-examples”.
Why does civility go out the window once people sit behind a computer screen? How am I supposed to teach my students that this isn't okay, when their parents, older siblings, neighbors, etc. are modeling this petty, disgusting behavior? How do we tell kids that cyber-bullying is wrong when these comments are some of the more tame remarks (and sometimes threats) that we see in public forums?
Am I a little biased because I know the person being attacked? Maybe. But rather than "biased," I would say "more informed" - I know these things are untrue, and I know the horrible things being said about her are not only untrue, but incredibly hurtful to a very sweet individual. This is just one small example of the hundreds of comment forums just like this that are filled each day with hate and name-calling.
This makes my drive to grow digital citizenship education that much stronger. Please join me in educating not only our youth, but our communities in what exactly it means to be not just a good DIGITAL citizen, but a good citizen - period.
Thursday, June 12, 2014
LPK Model for Close Reading
Several years ago I worked on a strategy for my students to use when reading articles, journals, primary sources, etc. I had completely forgotten about it until today, when I was teaching a class on the Rule of Law and using the C3 Framework as a means for discussing lesson design. One of the really important concepts we discussed was close reading, and as we were sharing the tools we have successfully used in our own classrooms, I remembered my own strategy. It's one that I developed and piloted with my students, and then I lost in the chaos of daily life in the last two years. I'm disappointed in myself for not making it more of a priority and using it to help more students understand their reading, but I'm ready to pull it off the shelf, dust it off, and share it with you. Feedback and thoughts on how to #makeitbetter are, as always, greatly appreciated. If you are able to use it, I'd love to hear how it went with your students.
LPK Model for Close Reading
Underline the title
- Look at the title and headings. Predict what the article is about
Identify the goal
- Why are you reading this piece?
- What do you hope/need to accomplish by reading the article?
- Are there discussion questions?
- Will you be taking a quiz?
Vocabulary
- Skim the article - Which words do you need to look up?
- Can you infer their meaning from the reading?
Relate to your
life/Make connections
- What similar experiences have you had?
- Are there other things you have read/learned about that are similar or remind you of this topic/situation?
- Who could you ask about the topic that might be able to help you to gain a different perspective?
Summarize the article
- Who/what was it about?
- What is the main idea?
- What is the purpose of the reading?
- What happened in the reading?
- When did it happen?
- Was there a conflict or problem?
- How was it resolved or why wasn’t it resolved?
- Underline the parts of the reading that correspond with your answers.
Critical Thinking
- Develop a critical thinking question about the reading – a type of question that does not have a “yes” or “no” answer.
- How would you answer the question?
Partner Talk
- Compare your summary with with that of a partner
- Did you both come up with the same thing?
- What are the differences?
- Can you come to an agreement?
- Exchange critical thinking questions with your partner.
- Compare your partner’s answer to your own.
Analysis/Concluding
the Reading
- Answer the questions, take the quiz, have a group discussion
- Did you meet your goal?
- How successful were you?
- If yes, what was most helpful to you in meeting it?
- If no, what might have helped you meet your goal?
Rate Your
Understanding
- How well did you feel like you understood your article/reading?
- Which strategies were most helpful to you?
- How can you apply them to future readings?
- What else might you have needed in order to better understand the reading?
Monday, June 9, 2014
The case for banning laptops...
This morning @mcleod shared an article via Twitter, about college professors' case to ban laptops in the classroom. The article discusses the negative impact of multi-tasking on performance, the decreased value of note-taking on a laptop, and lower quiz scores from students who had a laptop vs those who used pencil and paper. The real meat of this article, quite possibly the most important sentence, is when the author, Dan Rockmore, shares the following:
Is there a place for balance? Absolutely. Is there a place for teaching good digital citizenship and a place for modeling "computer etiquette? Definitely. But there is also a place for significant improvement in higher ed in terms of understanding teaching and learning. I would imagine that you would be hard-pressed to find a student who identifies a 300+ student lecture hall with 60 minute lectures three times per week as their preferred learning environment.
I'm not naive. I realize that packed lecture halls are cost-effective, and I don't know that it's even what I'm proposing. What I do know is that my ONCE a week lecture followed by my THREE times a week small group discussion and work session (shout out to Luther College) was significantly more engaging, meaningful, and effective than any 3x/week lecture course I was required to take after I transferred.
The case for banning laptops?
Let's start making a case for looking at increasing engagement in higher ed.
These examples can be seen as the progeny of an ill-conceived union of twenty-first-century tools (computers, tablets, smartphones) with nineteenth-century modalities (lectures).Herein lies the problem. The problem is not that students are on Facebook and Twitter during class, the problem is not that my ability to type quickly and produce a verbatim transcript of the lecture decreases my inner-analysis of what is actually being said, the PROBLEM is your monotonous, self-indulgent, egotistical 50+ minutes of lecture. Forget that no real application of any sort of active learning is taking place, obviously the glow from my Apple is disrupting my ability to regurgitate back to you the analysis and research that you have already done for me.
Is there a place for balance? Absolutely. Is there a place for teaching good digital citizenship and a place for modeling "computer etiquette? Definitely. But there is also a place for significant improvement in higher ed in terms of understanding teaching and learning. I would imagine that you would be hard-pressed to find a student who identifies a 300+ student lecture hall with 60 minute lectures three times per week as their preferred learning environment.
I'm not naive. I realize that packed lecture halls are cost-effective, and I don't know that it's even what I'm proposing. What I do know is that my ONCE a week lecture followed by my THREE times a week small group discussion and work session (shout out to Luther College) was significantly more engaging, meaningful, and effective than any 3x/week lecture course I was required to take after I transferred.
The case for banning laptops?
Let's start making a case for looking at increasing engagement in higher ed.
Sunday, May 18, 2014
Class of 2014
A year ago I wrote a post called "An open letter to my students" to share all my final thoughts, the lessons I had learned, and my final good-byes. Today, as I watched the class of 2014 walk across the stage, I realized I had more to say.
When the class of 2014 walked into my room as 8th graders, I was a brand new teacher starting her very first job. My 8th graders first assignment (or one of the first) was to write about some of the earliest inhabitants of the Americas (aka Native Americans - NOT the Europeans, and DEFINITELY not Columbus). I don't know why I remember that, but it seemed important at the time.You presented your city planning projects to Marlin Pruismann, you created a world in Minecraft, you opened up to the world about 9/11 on Today's Meet. But it's not the assignments or projects that I remember most.
What I remember is the way you met every challenge head on. You carried out an AWESOME prom while I was on maternity leave. You worked through projects and activities when even I didn't know what the final product would be. You went through this sharing agreement and saw your high school lives change halfway through - and flourished.
I remember how you embraced life and had fun. We had parties. We named future children with strong, historical names like Natty Bumpo and Fanny Fern. I still have homemade Colts birthday cards.
I remember the hard times. You lost a classmate and it hurt. But you all grew closer and stronger. One of my favorite memories of James was a day in class where everyone was kind of sleepy. He helped me lead the class in doing the Cha Cha slide at our seats. It's that fun-loving attitude that you all have held onto and kept alive as the time has gone on. Always hold onto that.
All these things seemed so big at the time. Now they are little pieces of the past. You will go out into the world beyond the walls of NEH and remember the stories and faces and friends. But this has been just a small part of a big future. Carry the big lessons with you, let go of the little things. You won't keep up every friendship, but when you meet up again it can feel like you never left - cherish the memories as you face the future.
It's funny how even after a year away, those little things are all still such a huge part of who I am. I guess what I really realized today was that I was a small part of a great big life that you have ahead of you. But you were, and still are, a HUGE piece of my life that I will cherish every single day. I went into teaching thinking that I would get to play a role in who you became - I hope that's true - but what I didn't truly realize (although I thought I did) until today was the huge part you all would play in who I am. I have learned with you, learned about you, and learned from you. Thank you, class of 2014. I learned one more lesson from you today. You will go out into the world and each make your mark, but please know that you have already made an impact; already made a difference. Thank you for the part you played in shaping me into the person I am today.
When the class of 2014 walked into my room as 8th graders, I was a brand new teacher starting her very first job. My 8th graders first assignment (or one of the first) was to write about some of the earliest inhabitants of the Americas (aka Native Americans - NOT the Europeans, and DEFINITELY not Columbus). I don't know why I remember that, but it seemed important at the time.You presented your city planning projects to Marlin Pruismann, you created a world in Minecraft, you opened up to the world about 9/11 on Today's Meet. But it's not the assignments or projects that I remember most.
What I remember is the way you met every challenge head on. You carried out an AWESOME prom while I was on maternity leave. You worked through projects and activities when even I didn't know what the final product would be. You went through this sharing agreement and saw your high school lives change halfway through - and flourished.
I remember how you embraced life and had fun. We had parties. We named future children with strong, historical names like Natty Bumpo and Fanny Fern. I still have homemade Colts birthday cards.
I remember the hard times. You lost a classmate and it hurt. But you all grew closer and stronger. One of my favorite memories of James was a day in class where everyone was kind of sleepy. He helped me lead the class in doing the Cha Cha slide at our seats. It's that fun-loving attitude that you all have held onto and kept alive as the time has gone on. Always hold onto that.
All these things seemed so big at the time. Now they are little pieces of the past. You will go out into the world beyond the walls of NEH and remember the stories and faces and friends. But this has been just a small part of a big future. Carry the big lessons with you, let go of the little things. You won't keep up every friendship, but when you meet up again it can feel like you never left - cherish the memories as you face the future.
It's funny how even after a year away, those little things are all still such a huge part of who I am. I guess what I really realized today was that I was a small part of a great big life that you have ahead of you. But you were, and still are, a HUGE piece of my life that I will cherish every single day. I went into teaching thinking that I would get to play a role in who you became - I hope that's true - but what I didn't truly realize (although I thought I did) until today was the huge part you all would play in who I am. I have learned with you, learned about you, and learned from you. Thank you, class of 2014. I learned one more lesson from you today. You will go out into the world and each make your mark, but please know that you have already made an impact; already made a difference. Thank you for the part you played in shaping me into the person I am today.
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Musings from 2nd Grade
My daughter, Rylee, has been doing some writing in her "notes" lately. I was helping her post her thoughts to her blog this afternoon, and as I read over it (to make sure it was all safe to share - and to support our conversation about proof-reading), I was a little surprised by what she had written.
We're still working on things like run-on sentences, but there a few I thought were worth thinking about a little deeper. She titled this post, Rylee's Real World.
"Today I am a 2nd grader and it teaches me that you have to keep trying and that the hole earth is filled with learning. I watch people I know to learn to do things I watch the world to learn and do things. I watch my brother to learn how to play angry birds go. I watch my friends to see what the can do. All because of the world you can learn. I watch dad and he levels up higher and higher on Hay Day. This is my world and I love it."
I was excited to see that she views the world as a continuous learner. Do you still view the world this way? Do you see a chance to learn and grow around every corner?
"Now the world is full of excitement all because of the people who changed the world... Now the world has hundreds of heros..."
Do you see the people who change the world every day? She goes on to mention George Washington, but I was struck by the notion that she sees the individuals who make a difference every single day.
"I know you can't always get what you want when you are a kid but when you start to grow up you can."
Now this very easily could reference things like toys and dessert, but I choose to think about it as her seeing all the possibilities that the future has to offer. Or at least that's how I'll challenge you to think about it. The second part of the challenge is to paint a world in which she sees that she can make a difference, too. You don't have to be an adult to make a difference.
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Top 10 Lessons for Education from The Lego Movie
10. Instructions can only take you so far. In fact, while they can be really helpful to get you started, there is no one prescription for everything. You should feel free to use your mind to create your own instructions when it’s necessary.
9. Pull a page from the book of female lead, Wild Style (a.k.a. Lucy), and fight the status quo! Sometimes the “master builders” or great thinkers step back, hide, or are off track for whatever reason. So don’t be afraid to work against the grain. And for goodness sake, beware of the “kragle”! Don’t ever get stuck.
8. One person believing in you can make all the difference. This is why we teach. This is why we do what we do and get out of bed each day. Because making a difference in one child’s life matters.
7. Trust your instincts - unless your instincts are terrible. As educators, each of us has a niche, and each of us has areas where we struggle. Take what you do well and make it amazing, but never be afraid to push outside your comfort zone. When it’s not working, it’s okay to admit it. Not every idea is gold, and that’s okay. On the flip side, though, sometimes people think your idea for a double-decker couch is lame, and it ends up saving your life. So please also refer to number nine.
6. The only thing that anyone needs to be special is to believe that you can be! This is for you AND for your students. Believe in yourself. The world depends on YOU to make a difference.
5. Build things only you can build. We are all unique and bring different perspectives to every problem and situation. Focus on being the best you that you can be, and bring that to the table. Whether you are lesson planning, on a building leadership team, at EdCamp, or working one-on-one with a student, you can change everything.
4. Share what you build! I recently wrote a post called “I’m not THERE yet” and what it really comes down to is that people are inspired by you. Whether you intend to or not, whether you know it or not, people - teachers, kids, parents - are inspired by you, and will take what you made and make something new. And likewise, you will take something somebody else makes and make it your own. Make it better. This is how we learn. This is how we grow.
3. LET. KIDS. CREATE. I don’t think I need to explain this one, but in short - please do not stifle a child’s creativity by trying to fit them in a box that fits what the world expects. See numbers nine and ten. And probably six. Eh, if you aren’t getting it yet maybe you should re-read all the numbers.
2. You are the most talented, most interesting, extraordinary individual, capable of amazing things. So is each student sitting in your class. So is everyone. Embrace what is special about you and share it with the world.
1. Having a plan helps talented individuals work together as a team and save the world. I love celebrating the unique talents of individuals, but when we can harness the power of those individuals to work as a team for the greater good we can accomplish so much more. When we complement and push each other is when real progress is made. Don’t forget, “Everything is awesome! Everything is cool when you’re part of a team!”
Friday, January 10, 2014
1000 Words #omw1314
When you look out your window, what do you see? If your window is anything like mine, you see fields, trees, maybe a barn or silo, maybe a few other modest houses.
When I look out my window I see majestic branches frosted in glistening snow. I see intricately designed snowflakes falling all around me. I see beauty. I see a glorious piece of nature unique to my window.
This fall I had the opportunity to worth with my amazing friend and colleague, Erin Olson (@eolsonteacher) on a project that was near and dear to my heart, and through that work, and I now also see poetry.
I see a rhythm and beauty and an elegance and a story that didn't exist before. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. These pictures are worth so much more. They are an identity.
By photographing and writing about where I live, how I live, and what makes it unique, I am able to share my view - my window - with the world. Sharing my world via "Out My Window" gives others a chance to see the world through my eyes.
What do kids see out their window? And what impact would it have if they could see out another student's window? Being able to express yourself, share your point of view, and make sense of the world around you are great skills - but being able to appreciate where you are and find the beauty in the ordinary are skills that are undervalued. Those skills, coupled with connections with peers across the globe create an experience that reaches extraordinary.
When I look out my window I see majestic branches frosted in glistening snow. I see intricately designed snowflakes falling all around me. I see beauty. I see a glorious piece of nature unique to my window.
This fall I had the opportunity to worth with my amazing friend and colleague, Erin Olson (@eolsonteacher) on a project that was near and dear to my heart, and through that work, and I now also see poetry.
I see a rhythm and beauty and an elegance and a story that didn't exist before. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. These pictures are worth so much more. They are an identity.
By photographing and writing about where I live, how I live, and what makes it unique, I am able to share my view - my window - with the world. Sharing my world via "Out My Window" gives others a chance to see the world through my eyes.
What do kids see out their window? And what impact would it have if they could see out another student's window? Being able to express yourself, share your point of view, and make sense of the world around you are great skills - but being able to appreciate where you are and find the beauty in the ordinary are skills that are undervalued. Those skills, coupled with connections with peers across the globe create an experience that reaches extraordinary.
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
It's funny, isn't it?
It's funny, isn't it? How one moment... one person... one teacher... can change your life?
Life is a series of interactions, of choices, of decisions, of circumstances that build and shape every part of who you are.
20 years ago my parents let me decide whether or not to skip the 2nd grade. A life changing decision left in the hands of a 7 year old.
12 years ago I got to do a job shadow, and if you'd asked me what I'd be as a "grown up," I would have told you I'd be a doctor - a surgeon, to be exact.
11 years ago I took a Chemistry class that ended my dream of becoming a doctor. I left the class feeling like I could never be good enough at any of it to accomplish my dream. Now I wanted to be a lawyer.
9 years ago I headed off to Luther College and discovered Law was maybe not my thing, though I loved history and politics, and changed my life plan to include Social Studies teacher.
8 years ago I restarted my college journey at Iowa State, following the death of my father, only to find that they didn't offer Social Studies certification. Back to Law School!
7 years ago Iowa State changed their minds. Now I can teach!
5 years ago Northeast Hamilton took a chance on an idealistic kid.
1 year ago Prairie Lakes AEA decided to create 4 new tech integration positions.
Here I am. Do I make my decisions and way in this world, or do the decisions of others create the path that is before me?
Who are you? Are you helping others find their way? Are you shaping lives in positive ways?
Ultimately it's a combinations of the positives and negatives and my actions and your actions that brought me to where I am. It could be divine intervention, it could be random chance.
But it's funny, isn't it? How all the pieces come together? It's funny how we find our way in life. Be a positive force. Be a role model. Create. Make. Do. Your actions and inactions don't impact your life alone - you shape and impact and change the world around you with every move you make. Or don't make.
So if everything you do and don't do impacts everything around you, you might as well make it count. Make it matter.
Life is a series of interactions, of choices, of decisions, of circumstances that build and shape every part of who you are.
20 years ago my parents let me decide whether or not to skip the 2nd grade. A life changing decision left in the hands of a 7 year old.
12 years ago I got to do a job shadow, and if you'd asked me what I'd be as a "grown up," I would have told you I'd be a doctor - a surgeon, to be exact.
11 years ago I took a Chemistry class that ended my dream of becoming a doctor. I left the class feeling like I could never be good enough at any of it to accomplish my dream. Now I wanted to be a lawyer.
9 years ago I headed off to Luther College and discovered Law was maybe not my thing, though I loved history and politics, and changed my life plan to include Social Studies teacher.
8 years ago I restarted my college journey at Iowa State, following the death of my father, only to find that they didn't offer Social Studies certification. Back to Law School!
7 years ago Iowa State changed their minds. Now I can teach!
5 years ago Northeast Hamilton took a chance on an idealistic kid.
1 year ago Prairie Lakes AEA decided to create 4 new tech integration positions.
Here I am. Do I make my decisions and way in this world, or do the decisions of others create the path that is before me?
Who are you? Are you helping others find their way? Are you shaping lives in positive ways?
Ultimately it's a combinations of the positives and negatives and my actions and your actions that brought me to where I am. It could be divine intervention, it could be random chance.
But it's funny, isn't it? How all the pieces come together? It's funny how we find our way in life. Be a positive force. Be a role model. Create. Make. Do. Your actions and inactions don't impact your life alone - you shape and impact and change the world around you with every move you make. Or don't make.
So if everything you do and don't do impacts everything around you, you might as well make it count. Make it matter.
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Why my 5 year old has Twitter
My 5 year old son (@AadenLK78) and my 7 year old daughter (@RyleeBK) both have Twitter accounts. I can guarantee, unless you already know the value of being a connected learner, that you probably think I'm crazy right now.
"Who cares what a 5 year old had for breakfast?"
"What does a 7 year old have to share on Twitter?"
"Why would you put your children 'out there'?"
I care.
Rylee cares.
Aaden cares.
My children will grow up in an environment where they are encouraged to have a voice and opinion about the things they are passionate about.
My children will grow up in an environment where they are excited to share their learning and their ideas with the world.
My children will grow up in an environment where they are guided by a responsible adult from an early age through the tangled web of pros and cons of social media.
My children will grow up in an environment where being a good digital citizen is valued.
About a year and a half ago my Street Law students created a video about cyber-bullying. We had in depth conversations about the hurt and pain behind social media, and we shared our stories. We used twitter to ask other people to share their stories, and this is what they came up with:
These stories, along with stories of those like Rebecca Sedwick, are heartbreaking. These stories are why I have chosen to educate my children from an early age.
I would never hand kids a car and say have fun - we spend time as parents teaching them (from a very young age if you live on a farm!), they take courses, and there are guided pathways and exams to teach about responsibility. But I also would never sit a kid in a class about driving for 15 hours, have them pass a test, and declare them qualified to drive. The hands-on practice is an essential part of that. Does it work out perfectly? No, there are still accidents. We live in an imperfect world. Do I always send my text messages to the person I intended? No, because I'm not always paying attention. But my children and I have conversations about appropriate things to share and about talking to strangers in a digital world just like we do about our physical reality. Students get fire safety, tornado drills, and character lessons from PreK on - where is the digital safety/citizenship piece of that conversation?
But while we do have those conversations, the focus is more about the good that they can do. They share their ideas, creations, and experiences. The looks on their faces when they read comments from others about their work, or read tweets written TO them, is priceless. You'd think it's Christmas morning! It's not because it's digital, it's because someone in this great big world has valued their ideas and their opinions! Feeling validated for their work at 5 years old, or 7 years old, has inspired in them a drive to create and share more.
We spend an exorbitant amount of time and energy telling kids no, no, no, and don't, don't, don't. I believe there is a place in which we can teach responsibility and accountability in schools and at home, which is why my children each have a blog (Rylee's and Aaden's) and an account on Twitter. However, there also needs to be an emphasis on the POSITIVE things we can do with social media! If we spent more time empowering kids to create something positive and amazing with their voice instead of trying to block and ban them, we might get somewhere.
My children have voices. They are passionate, creative, inquisitive individuals. They have stories to tell. I have provided them with a public, but guided way to express those qualities and stories.
"Who cares what a 5 year old had for breakfast?"
"What does a 7 year old have to share on Twitter?"
"Why would you put your children 'out there'?"
I care.
Rylee cares.
Aaden cares.
My children will grow up in an environment where they are encouraged to have a voice and opinion about the things they are passionate about.
My children will grow up in an environment where they are excited to share their learning and their ideas with the world.
My children will grow up in an environment where they are guided by a responsible adult from an early age through the tangled web of pros and cons of social media.
My children will grow up in an environment where being a good digital citizen is valued.
About a year and a half ago my Street Law students created a video about cyber-bullying. We had in depth conversations about the hurt and pain behind social media, and we shared our stories. We used twitter to ask other people to share their stories, and this is what they came up with:
These stories, along with stories of those like Rebecca Sedwick, are heartbreaking. These stories are why I have chosen to educate my children from an early age.
I would never hand kids a car and say have fun - we spend time as parents teaching them (from a very young age if you live on a farm!), they take courses, and there are guided pathways and exams to teach about responsibility. But I also would never sit a kid in a class about driving for 15 hours, have them pass a test, and declare them qualified to drive. The hands-on practice is an essential part of that. Does it work out perfectly? No, there are still accidents. We live in an imperfect world. Do I always send my text messages to the person I intended? No, because I'm not always paying attention. But my children and I have conversations about appropriate things to share and about talking to strangers in a digital world just like we do about our physical reality. Students get fire safety, tornado drills, and character lessons from PreK on - where is the digital safety/citizenship piece of that conversation?
But while we do have those conversations, the focus is more about the good that they can do. They share their ideas, creations, and experiences. The looks on their faces when they read comments from others about their work, or read tweets written TO them, is priceless. You'd think it's Christmas morning! It's not because it's digital, it's because someone in this great big world has valued their ideas and their opinions! Feeling validated for their work at 5 years old, or 7 years old, has inspired in them a drive to create and share more.
We spend an exorbitant amount of time and energy telling kids no, no, no, and don't, don't, don't. I believe there is a place in which we can teach responsibility and accountability in schools and at home, which is why my children each have a blog (Rylee's and Aaden's) and an account on Twitter. However, there also needs to be an emphasis on the POSITIVE things we can do with social media! If we spent more time empowering kids to create something positive and amazing with their voice instead of trying to block and ban them, we might get somewhere.
My children have voices. They are passionate, creative, inquisitive individuals. They have stories to tell. I have provided them with a public, but guided way to express those qualities and stories.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
But what if my kid can't use an encyclopedia?!
My morning routine started like it normally does, wake up, check Twitter, check Facebook, get kids ready for school... As I was checking Facebook this morning, I came across the following post (Original post was something along the lines of "I hate that the kids are getting iPads") and 42 responses...
What about the students in my colleague Erin Olson's classroom who are using *gasp* Twitter to share their voice? Or the students in my own classroom who, when asked to identify what they NEEDED in their education, came up with ideas like technology, internship opportunities, hands-on learning, and personalized learning opportunities. My students, who were able to learn from people across Iowa, Hawaii, Minnesota, Sweden, and South Africa. My children, who travelled through space using their iPads. Kids are doing amazing things, and experiencing life outside of their four classroom walls, and writing, publishing, and creating for a real life audience.
Setting our kids up for failure isn't handing them iPads. Setting our kids up for failure is continuing to educate them in a system that was built for how we lived 100 years ago. We cannot keep preparing students for a world that will not exist by the time they are ready to enter the job market. And it's not just a world that won't exist, but a world that doesn't exist. Even living in rural Iowa, you have to see how even something as basic to us as farming has changed in the last 10 years.
We're not quite here yet, but check out John Deere's vision of the future of farming:
If you are lucky enough to have students in a district where they've been provided with devices that will allow them to produce, publish, create, explore, and contribute to the world around them, get excited! Challenge your students and their teachers to use that technology to do something amazing; to transform their educational experience. But please, please don't underestimate the amazing opportunities being offered to children all across the globe as technology becomes faster, cheaper, and easier to use.
These two are my favorite, but let me pick out the best parts for you.
It looks like somebody missed the memo that Encyclopedia Britannica stopped printing encyclopedias after its 2010 volume, citing that it had long since moved toward a business focus on its online educational materials.
And I know everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but as a parent of 3 awesome kids, I do not wake up in the morning saying, "I hope your life is hard, because mine was, and I made it." I work my butt off to make sure they have the tools they need to be successful. I want them to not only have the amazing experiences I did growing up, but to give them bigger, better, more exciting opportunities. And then I want them to share those experiences with the world.
To quote Scott McLeod, whose video I'm about to share with you, "I want to tell you a different story about youth and technology."
What about the students in my colleague Erin Olson's classroom who are using *gasp* Twitter to share their voice? Or the students in my own classroom who, when asked to identify what they NEEDED in their education, came up with ideas like technology, internship opportunities, hands-on learning, and personalized learning opportunities. My students, who were able to learn from people across Iowa, Hawaii, Minnesota, Sweden, and South Africa. My children, who travelled through space using their iPads. Kids are doing amazing things, and experiencing life outside of their four classroom walls, and writing, publishing, and creating for a real life audience.
Setting our kids up for failure isn't handing them iPads. Setting our kids up for failure is continuing to educate them in a system that was built for how we lived 100 years ago. We cannot keep preparing students for a world that will not exist by the time they are ready to enter the job market. And it's not just a world that won't exist, but a world that doesn't exist. Even living in rural Iowa, you have to see how even something as basic to us as farming has changed in the last 10 years.
We're not quite here yet, but check out John Deere's vision of the future of farming:
If you are lucky enough to have students in a district where they've been provided with devices that will allow them to produce, publish, create, explore, and contribute to the world around them, get excited! Challenge your students and their teachers to use that technology to do something amazing; to transform their educational experience. But please, please don't underestimate the amazing opportunities being offered to children all across the globe as technology becomes faster, cheaper, and easier to use.
Monday, September 16, 2013
PK-2: We can do it too!
In all the times over the years that I have prepped for a presentation I have never once felt the gut-wrenching sense of urgency and need that I felt while preparing to share this presentation today. I even got a little choked up as I shared during my second session, trying to describe the impact that feedback on a video had had on my son's life. We cannot wait on this any longer.
Think for a minute. How many of you have kids? Or know kids? Or teach kids - that you would go to the ends of the earth to help? To provide a life-changing education? When you think about those kids is there ANYTHING you wouldn’t do to offer them the world? To engage them? To empower them?
Some of the educators in the room today I knew, others I didn't, but what I know about every single one of them, based simply on the profession they chose, is that THEY KNOW that our youngest learners can do amazing things. And what I asked them to do today was spend 45 minutes a journey with me, looking at some ways we can continue to offer these LITTLE kids BIG opportunities.
Me must take our youngest learners and help them find their voice. Express to them early on how much their voice matters. We cannot afford to wait until they are 10, 11, 12 - they are living in a world in which EVERY voice matters. EVERY voice can make a difference. That includes 5 year old voices. Six year old voices.
If you look at Kathy Cassidy's blog you find learners who have an entirely different vocabulary than they did even ten years ago. How amazing is it that these 6 year olds are talking about sharing their learning and connecting with others?
I challenged the educators I spoke with today to take their most phenomenal lessons and look at how they might step it up a notch to empower their students. Or to take a lesson that seemed a little flat and rework it a bit to engage students in a powerful, authentic learning experience.
I can tell you, I have seen first hand how a kids’ face will light up when someone communicates that they have watched or appreciated his work. Here’s an example my son made. We took one of his Kindergarten projects that he was SO excited to share with me. I heard the story over and over and over. So we recorded it. And he shared it with his grandparents. He shared it with his aunts and uncles. We put it on Facebook. But beyond that, we shared it with the world. I could literally see the pride on his face when I showed him the comments on his work.
Primary school teachers have students who are more creative, more trusting, more inquisitive, and more innovative than almost any other learners we will see throughout the course of their school careers. We must harness that power and model how to use their voice in a positive way. I love the idea of taking this group of kids who are so innately driven and fearless and giving them a stage on which to produce and share their creations.
I asked Kathy Cassidy this summer why she uses blogs and twitter with her first grade class. She told me because it creates a more authentic learning experience. The kids focus on writing in a focused 140 characters. They read tweets and comments that are written FOR THEM. How powerful is that? Her kids tweet. They share. They converse. The question. They use hash tags geared toward learning events. Matt Gomez’s kids have a map of all their “twitter friends”.
These teachers are creating authentic learning experiences for their students. They know that their kids have powerful things to say. Your kids have powerful things to say. I want to challenge you to find an audience for your kids. It might be parents right now. You may not be ready to share a blog with the world yet, and that’s okay. But there are a lot of people out there who can help you make those steps.
I know that each and every educator I spoke with today is working hard to do something amazing with his or her students. I know YOU are working hard to do amazing things with your students. And I want you to share it. The educators I met with today shared their successes on a Padlet, and I shared a resource bank that I collected, as well.
Think for a minute. How many of you have kids? Or know kids? Or teach kids - that you would go to the ends of the earth to help? To provide a life-changing education? When you think about those kids is there ANYTHING you wouldn’t do to offer them the world? To engage them? To empower them?
Some of the educators in the room today I knew, others I didn't, but what I know about every single one of them, based simply on the profession they chose, is that THEY KNOW that our youngest learners can do amazing things. And what I asked them to do today was spend 45 minutes a journey with me, looking at some ways we can continue to offer these LITTLE kids BIG opportunities.
Me must take our youngest learners and help them find their voice. Express to them early on how much their voice matters. We cannot afford to wait until they are 10, 11, 12 - they are living in a world in which EVERY voice matters. EVERY voice can make a difference. That includes 5 year old voices. Six year old voices.
If you look at Kathy Cassidy's blog you find learners who have an entirely different vocabulary than they did even ten years ago. How amazing is it that these 6 year olds are talking about sharing their learning and connecting with others?
I challenged the educators I spoke with today to take their most phenomenal lessons and look at how they might step it up a notch to empower their students. Or to take a lesson that seemed a little flat and rework it a bit to engage students in a powerful, authentic learning experience.
I can tell you, I have seen first hand how a kids’ face will light up when someone communicates that they have watched or appreciated his work. Here’s an example my son made. We took one of his Kindergarten projects that he was SO excited to share with me. I heard the story over and over and over. So we recorded it. And he shared it with his grandparents. He shared it with his aunts and uncles. We put it on Facebook. But beyond that, we shared it with the world. I could literally see the pride on his face when I showed him the comments on his work.
Primary school teachers have students who are more creative, more trusting, more inquisitive, and more innovative than almost any other learners we will see throughout the course of their school careers. We must harness that power and model how to use their voice in a positive way. I love the idea of taking this group of kids who are so innately driven and fearless and giving them a stage on which to produce and share their creations.
I asked Kathy Cassidy this summer why she uses blogs and twitter with her first grade class. She told me because it creates a more authentic learning experience. The kids focus on writing in a focused 140 characters. They read tweets and comments that are written FOR THEM. How powerful is that? Her kids tweet. They share. They converse. The question. They use hash tags geared toward learning events. Matt Gomez’s kids have a map of all their “twitter friends”.
These teachers are creating authentic learning experiences for their students. They know that their kids have powerful things to say. Your kids have powerful things to say. I want to challenge you to find an audience for your kids. It might be parents right now. You may not be ready to share a blog with the world yet, and that’s okay. But there are a lot of people out there who can help you make those steps.
I know that each and every educator I spoke with today is working hard to do something amazing with his or her students. I know YOU are working hard to do amazing things with your students. And I want you to share it. The educators I met with today shared their successes on a Padlet, and I shared a resource bank that I collected, as well.
Birth to 5 years is the most important developmental period of a person's life. These kids matter. Their voice matters and their ideas are worth sharing. How are you changing your students' lives? How are you helping your students share their voice? I said it once, but it's worth repeating: we cannot afford to wait until these children reach an age that WE think is appropriate to have a voice. We cannot wait to teach them how amazing and powerful their voice truly is. They have thoughts and they have ideas and they have the power to change the world. We must give them the tools, the guidance, and the support to do that.
Change a life. Let your students BE AWESOME. Help them share their awesome.
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*Thank you @mattbgomez for letting me share some of his resources, @mrfsfirstgrade and @kathycassidy for Skyping with me and sharing thoughts and resources, @TammyMassman for inspiring me
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*Thank you @mattbgomez for letting me share some of his resources, @mrfsfirstgrade and @kathycassidy for Skyping with me and sharing thoughts and resources, @TammyMassman for inspiring me
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Friday, September 6, 2013
Oh the places you'll go... with technology
Tonight I went on a journey with my kids. A few weeks ago we spent some time learning and talking about heroes and super heroes. Tonight Rylee asked if we could please learn again like we did for the heroes. Obviously as a parent I couldn't say no, so she chose to do a "lesson" on planets and space. We started while I was making dinner by watching this:
Side note - why don't more people teach like Miss Frizzle? They are hands on, messy, problem-solvers in this classroom! And the kids are excited to come back each day. In this episode she ripped a map in half, took the half they needed, and told them to come find her by figuring it out. The proceeded to give hints along the way until the kids were successful. Sounds like good learning to me!
About the time the show was over, they had finished eating, so we moved on to the book the kids had ordered from their Scholastic book order.
Another side note - I am still learning the green screen app AND iMovie, so forgive the imperfections. At least I'm trying. :) Next time we'll get an earlier start and I'll have THEM do the editing in iMovie.
But ultimately, it took about 3 hours to work through this entire process. The kids got to read, watch, act, play, take notes, and now have a video (not a super video, but a video, nonetheless) of themselves in space. What kind of experiences could you offer your kids? Your students? With technology?
Side note - why don't more people teach like Miss Frizzle? They are hands on, messy, problem-solvers in this classroom! And the kids are excited to come back each day. In this episode she ripped a map in half, took the half they needed, and told them to come find her by figuring it out. The proceeded to give hints along the way until the kids were successful. Sounds like good learning to me!
About the time the show was over, they had finished eating, so we moved on to the book the kids had ordered from their Scholastic book order.
And took some notes about what we had learned.
I then suggested we write a story and make a movie about what they knew about planets. Rylee set to work writing down her thoughts and the story she wanted to share, while Aaden and I "built the set" (including wrapping his football helmet in foil so that it could be an astronaut helmet) and found pictures for our green screen - we even talked about Creative Commons while we searched for pictures that we were allowed to use.
It was at this point that I learned a lot about my kids. Aaden was happy just to cheese it up and play. I think it's part age (5) and part personality. You'll see what I mean in the video.
Rylee, on the other hand, can be seen holding up a hand-drawn picture in each of her frames. Between each "take" she would return and check her notes.
Both kids had a creative process, but they went about it in a very different way. It was interesting for them to watch each other. We talked about how Rylee had created a story board, while Aaden enjoyed doing "improv". Our whole adventure took us somewhere around 2 hours, at which point it was bed time and I spent another hour editing their video.
Another side note - I am still learning the green screen app AND iMovie, so forgive the imperfections. At least I'm trying. :) Next time we'll get an earlier start and I'll have THEM do the editing in iMovie.
But ultimately, it took about 3 hours to work through this entire process. The kids got to read, watch, act, play, take notes, and now have a video (not a super video, but a video, nonetheless) of themselves in space. What kind of experiences could you offer your kids? Your students? With technology?
Saturday, August 31, 2013
What’s Wrong With “School”
"What's wrong with school? Why don't you get more excited to be here?" I had to ask. I wasn't sure I wanted to know, but I had to ask. Knowing I will be going out and trying to inspire educators to make the world, or at least their world, a better, more engaging, more meaningful place for students, I had to know what we were up against. So I asked some kids: What's wrong with "school"? Their responses are bulleted.
- At least 55% of the information I will never use in real life
Now I'm pretty sure this number came out of nowhere, but the point here is that these students felt that MOST of what they were being taught was irrelevant to daily living. We have one of two problems here:
1. They're right.
2. They aren't being shown how what they're learning IS relevant.
How can you remedy that? Is your content irrelevant? Are you presenting it in the right way?
- Teachers are mean with no reason - not understanding something is not reason to yell
I don't have an argument here. I think this is pretty meaningful. Haven't you ever been frustrated trying to learn something? My husband tried to teach me to golf. He tries to be really patient, but sometimes I know he gets frustrated. Just because I'm not understanding the correction he's trying to help me make does not mean I'm not trying to make the correction. Come at it in a different way. Have somebody else tell me! Because eventually, you're going to get mad and I'm going to shut down. And that doesn't help anyone.
- Not enough creativity - I get bored. We get bored doing the same thing every day.
One of the things that has really hit home with me from reading #TLAP this summer is the idea that just because you may not be super passionate about a certain topic, doesn't mean you can't make it exciting. And when you can share excitement and passion and enthusiasm about something, your students are going to want to get in on it.
I'll be honest. I'm guilty of this. I tried not to do it often, but I will admit it did happen. There were some topics that I wanted students to be familiar with but that I just wasn't that excited about. Once in a while that meant we used the chapter in the book - section by section, took some notes, a test at the end, and moved on. It happened less and less the longer I taught, but I'm embarrassed to admit it happened at all. So I want to share a different example, too.
I hated Econ. It was the subject I was least excited to teach to my students. So instead of working through the book like we did the first year I taught, so I ordered Thomas Friedman's "The World Is Flat" and began teaching that. We tied in the Iowa Core in some very different ways than a traditional economics class, but my kids got real-world views of the job market, the type of education they were receiving, where new markets and technologies were taking us, and what that meant to their future. And I was a better teacher because I found a way I could be passionate about the topic.
- Teaching the same old thing, not updating lessons for modern students
With all of the amazing tools and opportunities available to us via technology I am baffled by the number of people teach just like it was done 30 years ago - or worse, 100 years ago. Start small. Make a commitment to try one new thing this term. I have faith that you can do more, but at least try one.
- Not allowed to make mistakes without penalty - If I try and fail, I shouldn’t get in trouble
Failure is how we learn! Have you ever had a lesson fall flat? Did you get fired? If you did, that sucks. If you didn't, which I'm guessing is much more likely, remember that and offer your students the same kind of mentoring and suggestions and critiques and scaffolding that you were offered to improve your lessons.
- We are all individuals - don’t compare me to others
In our world of high stakes testing that's all we do, right? Compare how Iowa did to how Massachusetts did? How Waukee did to how Johnston did? How Bobby did to how Susie did? But when is the last time you learned something exactly the same way and at exactly the same pace as your colleague? Or even your sibling or neighbor?
- Be patient!
These are kids, and they are growing up, and they are learning, and most of the time they are doing their best while trying to find their place in the world. Cut them some slack once in a while.
- Trust us
Remember to give your students opportunities to try. They might fall sometimes, they might miss the mark, and they might even make a poor choice. But when they know that you're trusting them to be great - to do their best and to make good choices, they usually don't want to disappoint you. You get the respect you give.
- We don’t always like to write papers - we like to create things and do projects!
We all know writing is important. But if we don't give kids the opportunity to create, what will there be to write about? Let them get down and dirty with the content. Let them make their mark on the world - and then let them write about it. But don't just have them write about it, have them publish it; share it; use it; read it - anything to get their voice out into the world about what they've created; learned; mastered.
- Take the time to develop a relationship with us - encourage us, get to know us
Very few things will take your farther in your efforts with your students than taking the time to get to know them as individuals. And if you can take what you learn about them and turn it into a lesson that inspires them to do something great, you will have created a life-long learner.
These kids are smart. They had a lot of great advice. Which parts will you listen to? I wish I'd asked this one day 1 in my classroom. Try and use it in yours.
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