wwwatanabe

Lead, Coach, and Build Capacity

2012-03-08T15:51:00.001-08:00

Building capacity in the school district means improving and strengthening the learning in our students, employees, teachers, administrators, school board, and community. Coaching is a great way to build capacity, and leaders naturally build capacity.

Finding leaders to assume leadership roles is an important part of the process. Please be aware that I don't believe a title makes someone a leader, it's just who they are.

Leadership skills sets

I've recently been involved in several conversations about building capacity. One of the conversations was about skills sets to look for when identifying leaders, specifically coaches.

I believe the following qualities are found in good coaches and leaders:

People person: gels well with others and builds relationships
Character: has integrity and is trustworthy
Attitude: is positive even in negative circumstances
Skills and productivity: able to get things done
21st century thinker: adapts, problem solves, is creative, strategizes, communicates and collaborates
Stress management: deals with pressure, deadlines, risk/failure, and obstacles
Passion driven leader and visionary: understands, communicates, contributes, and makes progress towards the vision
Leadership capacity: ability to build teams and gather followers
Servant leader: takes pride in serving others and building them up
Shared leadership: must work as a team to change culture
Grows people: nurtures their strengths, and gently challenges them to learn/grow
Develops others: knows how much to lead (direct), when to facilitate or team teach (coach), and when to set them on their own (empowering them to do it independently)
Measures growth: creates "formatives" along the way to strengthen and help others succeed (this also requires a clear sense of what goals they are looking for)

Coaching and developing others to build capacity

Measuring effectiveness

How do you know you are effective as a leader and coach? Everyone has a starting place and everyone can learn, improve, reflect, and grow.

For me, I measure my effectiveness as a coach based on the growth and changes in myself, and in those I invest my time in.

I set goals for learning, improving, and I reflect, which causes growth. I measure the growth through the amount of risks taken when trying something new, and the improvements made from reflecting, which is evidence of growth.

I also believe Kirkpatrick's four levels of evaluation helps guide a more formal measurement though qualitative and quantitative data, but I will dive into that in a different post.

I'd love to hear your thoughts

How do measure effectiveness as a leader and coach?
What examples can you share of a time coaching/leading builds others (which builds capacity)?
What leadership qualities do you look for in others?

Instructional Practices with Huge Impact

2012-02-19T06:30:00.000-08:00

So, you've done some formative assessment, and the results show you that the route you had planned to take with your instruction actually needs to adapt to where the students are at.

Lesson planning and formative assessment remind me of planning a day trip. When I prepare for a trip, I like to have a plan or a route for where I'll go, where I'll park once I'm there, and what I'll do. Sometimes I need to make adjustments along the way, such as taking an alternative route when the street has construction work or is too congested. Other times, when I get there, the parking lot might be full, or I might find a more cost effective lot to park in.

Lesson plans and formative assessment are similar because I start with a plan, but once I'm there, I realize that adjusting my plan to fit the circumstances and student needs are in our best interests.

The formative assessments provide me with feedback on which route to take, what speed to progress at, and what pit stops I should make next.

I've done my formative assessment. Now what?

Created with Doodle Buddy, PhotoForge2, Photogene, & Collage Creator

I know the direction I want to travel in, however the pathways I choose are most often based on readiness.

If I am able to fill those gaps by building background knowledge or providing enrichment, then that's what I do.

If I need to work with small groups because of vast differences in readiness, then I differentiate the content (such as curriculum compacting, tiering lessons, learning contracts, i-Searches, or webquests).

If I want more flexibility to switch from small group, to whole group, from facilitator's role to a director's role, then I often choose differentiation based on product (such as choice boards, Tic-Tac-Toe boards, RAFT, or options based on interest, learning style, or readiness).

If it's a huge concept that needs to go in deep, I'll look to PBL, which addresses differentiation on multiple levels.

No matter what, I always differentiate the process by helping them connect meaning, ideas, concepts, and information in various ways. I try to address their learning styles throughout the process, even during my "traditional" type of lessons with direct instruction.

Ways to differentiate process and raise rigor

Differentiating the process takes the least amount of time and effort on my part. Differentiating the process helps students with various learning styles and strengths to make connections and meaning for them. It boosts rigor because making these connections go beyond filling in the bubble or completing a worksheet.

Some examples are:

I use several of these techniques daily during instruction. This is what it could look like:

Final thoughts

Having norms and procedures in place to create a positive and constructive learning environment is a necessity for differentiation. Remembering that the purpose of assessment is to provide feedback to improve, and to help us know the best route to take for learning.

How does differentiating raise rigor?
What are your favorite ways to differentiate the process?
What are some other instructional practices that makes a huge impact, with little teacher prep?

This post was written in preparation for AJHS's February 15th half day of staff development.

Formative Assessment and Differentiation

2012-02-13T06:00:00.000-08:00

Formative assessment informs educators about student learning, and when done correctly, it also informs the students how to improve and move forward with their next goal. Teachers must know how to use that information to shape their instruction.

We use formative assessments to drive instructional decisions such as changing the approach or changing the target content.

Created with Doodle Buddy, prompted by Stem Resources visual

Differentiating assessment and instruction

I spent February 10th with the awesome staff at Apache Junction High School facilitating staff development. While talking about differentiating assessment and instruction, we addressed the importance of adjusting our teaching style to their learning style.

For example, I'm an exceptionally visual person, and like to synthesize and put concepts together in pictures such as the one above. In school, I enjoyed geometry and calculus, but struggled in Algebra II. In fact, I took calculus as my fun elective freshman year of college. Why? It's visual.

While I was sharing this with our high school faculty, a foreign language teacher talked about how he excelled in algebra but not geometry. He explained that the geometry teacher would show him over and over the concepts, while he needed to hear it and talk through it. He wasn't understanding based on differences in learning styles. I, on the other hand, needed to see it, visualize it, and do it to understand it.

We must consider different learning styles when we check for understanding, instruct, and assess. We also need to take the time to know our students and their interests to really connect with them.

Differentiation and formative assessment

The above presentation was made in preparation for today's training. Below are a few artifacts created during the trainings:

Final thoughts

I am encouraged by the discussions from today about differentiation in the 21st century classroom. The artifacts above are various formative assessments letting me know how much we are growing as a professional learning community, and it helps me plan our next steps.

Why is “assessment” not a synonym for testing? What are the implications of that?
How do you gather information/feedback to structure/guide instruction?
How do you evaluate the data collected, and how does this change/drive instructional decisions?

Managing the 21st century differentiated classroom

2012-02-08T22:07:00.000-08:00

One size does not fit all. Classrooms must be differentiated.

Created on iPad using Doodle Buddy

What does a 21st century, differentiated classroom look like?

A 21st century, differentiated classroom should look and sound different from the classroom of my childhood. It also looks different from one classroom to the next, because there are numerous ways to differentiate.

AJHS Differentiated Instruction: Module I on Prezi

What procedures and routines help maximize learning?

The foundational pieces for managing the 21st century, differentiated classroom are:

Increase active student engagement
Establish a positive classroom climate
Establish task expectations
Increase student engagement through individual accountability

The presentation was created in preparation for professional development for our high school, which will go to a 1:1 learning environment in 9th grade next year.

What procedures, routines, and norms help structure and maximize learning time in a 21st Century, differentiated classroom?

How do you create a classroom climate where all students are open to learning and participating?

What tips can you share with us as we prepare for 1:1 learning?

This post was written in preparation for our staff development at AJHS.

Blended Learning in AJUSD

2012-01-31T21:48:00.000-08:00

Our district focuses on creating 21st century, student-centered classrooms. We want classrooms filled with student collaboration and discussion about their learning, connecting to the world around them.

Some rights reserved by tgbarrett

Blended learning

Students learn in different ways, and at different paces. To address these needs, we've been piloting blended learning in two high school classrooms.

AJUSD's definition of blended learning is:

Blended learning combines the best features of in-class learning with the best features of online learning. Online delivery allows student control over the time, place, path, and/or pace of their learning. In-class learning provides student-teacher interaction as well as opportunities for students to collaborate on challenging, project-based work.

By having content online, students have more time on task. They can pause the content, go back to revisit lectures/lessons, and have control over the pacing of their learning.

In class, they apply their learning by moving up Bloom's Taxonomy to create something that has real value and an authentic purpose.

New skills sets for teachers and students

The teacher's role shifts. He or she is no longer the sage on the stage delivering lecture, but something much more powerful--a facilitator. A great facilitator is part of the learning process, modifying and adapting to each individual, while moving the whole group along. The difference is, the content delivery now comes from more than just the teacher; it comes from the students, as well as online.

Discussing Blended Learning with Senator Crandall

Facilitation of project based learning and online content requires a different skills set from the traditional lecturer. Finding a balance with blending the project based facilitation with the online content is difficult to achieve. It's difficult for teachers who are well versed in facilitation as well as teachers who are most comfortable with lecture. We are realizing the specific ongoing professional development needed to support teachers in the blended learning environment.

We've also found there is a shift in the student skills set. There's a learning curve for the students to shift from being fed the answers to having to work through the answers. To process the information, they develop their critical thinking and analysis skills more in the blended learning environment. They also develop their communication and collaboration skills while working in collaborative learning groups.

Final thoughts

There have been successes with blended learning, but it's not for everyone. We are still at the beginning phase of sculpting what our ideal blended learning classroom looks like. There is much we're learning through our pilot and how to improve.

We are dedicated to providing the best education for our students, and blended learning is a viable option.

What are the advantages/disadvantages of blended learning?
How does the project based learning enhance student learning beyond just receiving content online, from a lecture, or a book?
What types of learners benefit from blended learning?
What would the ideal learning environment look like for you?
What else should we think about regarding blended learning?

This post has been written in preparation for Digital Learning Day. I thank Sandy Rollefstad and Amanda Hetro for trying something new in order to improve student learning. Photo attribution to Brian Killgore.

Coaching and Professional Development Midyear Reflection

2012-01-30T08:16:00.000-08:00

This post is my reflection (and brainstorm) for creating a 21st century learning district, specifically through developing our Collaboration Coaches. I’m asking for your feedback.

The focus for Year 2 Collaboration Coaches

This is the second year we’ve had Collaboration Coach training in the district. The first year training module is closely adapted from Microsoft Peer Coach Training developed by the Peer Ed Team.

Since there isn’t a continuation training module, I’ve created my own based on surveys, reflections, and four areas of focus:

Communication, collaboration, and coaching skills
21st century learning, pedagogy, and lesson design
Best practices with technology integration and resources
Staff development

The professional development plan for Year 2 Collaboration Coaches

August: Setting goals and overview of year -- for the purpose of kicking off the year
September: Web 2.0/Coaching Smackdown -- focusing on best practices; resources; and ideas for staff development to try at sites
October: Communication, collaboration, and coaching skills -- focusing on coaching skills
November: Edublogs Serendipity Webinar focusing on PBL -- focusing on communication, collaboration, coaching skills, 21st century learning, pedagogy, technology integration, resources, and it gives them another idea for staff development
December: Midyear reflection
January: Communication, collaboration, and coaching skills -- focusing on coaching skills
February: Use student and coaching artifacts to create a video to show others what coaching looks like at AJUSD -- this is using all four focus areas at the highest level of thinking on Bloom's Taxonomy
March: Reflecting and setting goals for staff development and building learning communities with principals and Year 1 Collaboration Coaches -- focusing on staff development for 2012-2013
April: Completing, reflecting, and sharing their portfolios
May: Helping Year 1 Collaboration Coaches reflect by being their audience for their portfolios

Feedback for improvement

Some of the feedback for improvement was repeated by several coaches. I organized them into topics:

Created in xmind

Ideas I'm pondering to improve Collaboration Coaching

I’m brainstorming ideas to improve the coaching based on the feedback from above and our goals. In no way is this list a final draft or even a rough draft. It’s just a brainstorm to collect ideas.

Time collaborating and learning together:

Meet more than one hour a month to bond, share, and learn together.
Invite continuing coaches to meet the new cohort of coaches, and have them participate in Session 1 -- setting site and individual coaching goals with the principals.
Join Year 2 and Year 3 coaching cohorts as one learning group.
Have one day of sub release (or a Teacher In Service Day) to work together on lesson improvement and PBL (either have it for all the Year 2 and Year 3 coaches, or have it for the teams that work together with a coach).

Time to go in teachers' rooms:

Could we give Year 3 coaches an extra prep hour for 7th-12th grades, and K-6th coaches 1 sub day a month or a rotating sub to give the release time?
What other options are there for allowing teachers to leave their classroom and go into another teacher's room?

Site Goals--Blogging: Could the principal dedicate staff development to develop a blogging learning community? If not blogging specifically, then authentic learning or 21st century learning, and have blogging as one of the options.

Site Goals--CCJH: Since there are no longer pure teams, the coaching focus should be on content area for PBL, 21st century learning, and improving lessons. The house team, or team that has the same prep hour focuses on management and digital citizenship.

Specific Coaching Goals for PBL, 21st Century Learning, Global Collaborations:

Set a goal each quarter with their coaching team to share with one another. -- Possibly measure that goal by having them reflect with a quick survey to measure their/our progress towards that goal?
Have site sharing of these goals with the leadership (and staff?).
Set goals based on ISTE's NETS-S and/or NETS-C.

Incentives for others to collaborate with coaches on 21st century learning:

Offer 301 or inservice professional development hours during the contract time, and non-contract hours if outside school day.
While we still have Career Ladder, have those portfolios options on form to check off during the orientation meeting at the beginning of the year.

Other ideas:

Leadership book study: One of the best trainings I had was when Larry LaPrise took me under his wing, and challenged me to read various leadership books. I grew so much from reading a chapter, then debriefing in a quick meeting every week.
NETS-S: Incorporate ISTE NETS-S or the Learning Activity Checklist into their collaboration logs or into an agenda as a template (I've read many times that their coaching meetings are much more focused when they create and share the agenda ahead of time) -- Which idea would work better?
Relationships: A fun, informal gathering of coaches to build relationships outside of school time
Connecting the training from the end of the year reflection to the beginning of the year's setting goals: In the Peer Coaching training, Session 7A has the coaches and principal reflect and set staff development goals, and in Session 1A the coaches and principal set site goals, and then they set personal goals. It didn't seem to flow smoothly into one another because the training is set up for the first year only. So, I'd like to modify to have it fit together better. Suggestions?

Measuring effectiveness

Build NETS-C into goals/reflection.
Survey Collaboration Coaches on what has worked well and changes for next year.
I have not asked for feedback from the team being coached and their reflection of the effectiveness.
Continue to survey Collaboration Coaches on what has worked well and changes for next year.

Final Thoughts

Collaboration Coaching is definitely helping us open doors and support one another as we create 21st century, learning-centered classrooms. Pausing to reflect on the effectiveness of what we've done, and looking ahead to what we can do to improve is necessary.

The purpose of this post is to gain insight from others. Whether you are part of AJUSD or not, I encourage your feedback to help us improve.

What ideas stand out to you here?
What questions do you have?
How would you improve coaching?
What have I missed?

Developing 21st Century Learning through Coaching Conversations

2012-01-12T13:14:00.000-08:00

My passion and goal is to see 21st century learning (innovating, creating, collaborating, communicating, and critical thinking) in our classrooms.

How can I spread that passion so the goal of 21st century learner-centered classrooms becomes a reality?

As the Technology Integration Specialist, part of my job is coaching teachers, administrators and students in technology integration for 21st century learning.

As a coach, there are several different roles, avenues, and opportunities I have to further this goal:

Roles	Sharing or Consulting (Expert)	Collaborating (Peer to Peer)	Coaching (Facilitator)
Visual
What and Why	Shares information, resources, content, and advice	Works together to create; collaborates	Supports, encourages, critiques, and guides to new insight or deeper reflection
How	Provides supplies and resources; offers ideas and materials; gives tips and solutions	Brainstorms together; plans together; works together; gives and takes	Provides "Wows" and "Wonders"; Paraphrases, inquires, and probes
When	Use with new ideas, content, or techniques; don't overuse	Use with willing, and remember that collaboration is goal	Use when relationship is built and readiness is there (otherwise frustration or shut-down could occur)

The above representation is my summary of various sources such as NSDC's Learning Forward's "Fit the Strategy to the Learner", Laura Lipton and Bruce Wellman's Mentoring Matters, and Microsoft Peer Coaching developed by the Peer Ed Team.

Key ideas in coaching

Building relationships and trust is key. Being passionate about learning and having integrity is part of building trust. Truly listening and helping will grow trust and the relationship. To show I'm listening, I do my best to:

Paraphrase the conversation and ask clarifying questions to make sure I understand.
Ask questions to probe deeper.

Shifting up and shifting down conversations

As I create our professional development for our Year 2 Collaboration Coaches, I turn to my friend, Taylene Bell, to help us understand more about the power of paraphrasing and asking questions. She shares Laura Lipton's and Bruce Wellman's three ways of paraphrasing and shifting conversations:

Acknowledge and clarify by paraphrasing and restating the conversation.
Summarize and organize by pulling the main ideas, themes, or issues into a short paragraph.
Shift the focus of the conversation to something concrete (shifting down) such as an action, strategy or example; or, shift the conversation to something more abstract (shifting up) such as the big idea, the overall goal, an assumption, or a belief.

What could shifting conversations look like for our collaboration coaches?

Taylene and I put together two hypothetical situations to show what shifting conversations could look like:

Scenario 1 from our video: technology management

In the first scenario from our video, the teacher is having difficulty with management of technology based on the various readiness levels of the students. Since the teacher focuses on specific problems and examples, the coach shifts the conversation up to the overall goal, which helps the teacher move forward.

Scenario 2 from our video: Creative Commons

In the second scenario from our video, the teacher is frustrated over others not using Creative Commons. The teacher highly values sharing and respecting licenses. The coach helps by shifting the conversation down, resulting in the teacher setting a specific action plan to move forward.

Final thoughts

These skills help me continue conversations about 21st century learning--innovating, creating, collaborating, communicating, risk taking, and critical thinking.

I realize there is so much I do not know about coaching. My goal is to improve, learn more, and share so others can reap the benefits. Ultimately, if I become a better coach and listener, I'll have a stronger impact on creating 21st century learning-center classrooms.

What key concepts or take-aways did you get from this post?
How do you develop your coaching/listening skills?
How would building those coaching/listening skills help build relationships with your peers, students, friends, or family?
How do you further discussions about 21st century learning?

I want to thank Taylene Bell for helping me learn more. I also thank the Peer Ed Team for giving me a foundation in coaching.

Quality Blogging and Commenting Audit Meme

2012-01-01T21:04:00.000-08:00

Silvia Tolisano (@langwitches) challenges us in a meme to audit blogs and comments to raise awareness of quality blogging. I'm honored that both Kathleen Morris and Sheri Edwards tagged me in this meme.

Here is Silvia's meme challenge:

Select a blog post or blog comment to audit (Professional or Student)
Take a screenshot or copy and paste the post or comment into your blog post (be sensitive whether you want to reveal any names or references)
Include or link to the rubric you use to assess the quality of post or comment
Audit the post or comment by describing your train of thought regarding the level of quality you would assess your chosen post or comment
Suggest how you would coach the author of audited post or comment to improve
Tag (at least) three educators and challenge them to audit a post or comment
Leave a comment with the link to your audit post on Langwitches

Quality blog posts

I created a few variations of checklists as guides for quality posts. The checklists are based on the work of Silvia Tolisano, Andrew Churches, Ryan Bretag, and Sue Waters.

Click here to download this as PDF.

Checklists are helpful as planning tools, self reflection prompts, and also for starting coaching conversations.

Coaching

I strongly believe in finding Wows and Wonders to provide feedback. A Wow would be something specific that is strong and working well. Based on the above checklist, I'd follow with a specific Wow for something that is checked off (and might add a few areas that should be checked off with a specific reason).

A Wonder is a statement such as, "I wonder how the post would look if (address one of the areas that was not checked off)..." I would try to focus on the one wonder that would make the most impact on the overall quality.

Crafting quality comments

Coaching conversations should also focus on crafting a quality comment. My favorite post regarding quality comments comes from Linda Yollis and her students. Her tips are what I share with students and teachers in my district.

Created on Glogster Edu. Tips learned from Linda Yollis & Class.

What if my kids still don't have the prior knowledge to start a quality comment?

Sometimes students don't have enough experience with writing or blogging to jump in and compose a quality comment, and the teacher/coach should address this.

That's just what Gina Fraher did when she realized her 3rd grade students didn't have the prior knowledge to successfully start creating quality comments.

Fraher created an assignment to help them analyze quality commenting:

She modeled her expectations with a real blog post and several comments.

After the students worked on their own for a little bit, they collaborated to share their thoughts and worked through their ideas together.

Their dialogue was amazing, filled with critical thinking. Students asked each other if the topic sentence could also be a compliment? They realized that the conclusion could also be a question. They recognized "Your blog is cool," was not a quality comment, then explained why, and how they'd improve it.

Breaking the task down and working through it together raised their awareness of quality comments, which is what this meme and post are about.

Improving quality in comments

We could use Gina's color coding from above to analyze comments, or the rubrics created by Silvia Tolisano or Andrew Churches.

It's sometimes easier to assess someone else's comment than my own because I'm not as attached to it. However, I'd like to assess the comment I left on Gina Fraher's post:

Click here to see original comment; Click here to see Churches' comment rubric

I believe I left Gina a quality comment. When I use Churches' rubric, it scores high in quality. If I use Gina's or Silvia's, it will fall short in the area of starting a conversation because I don't ask a question, nor do I expect Gina to comment back on how amazing I think she is. However, if I had asked her about how she decided to raise money for their pen pals in Kenya, or the process of organizing a whole school to purchase pencils, etc. I could have started a discussion; hence, improving the quality of my comment.

Final thoughts

Blogging is such a valuable part of learning, and I hope it becomes common place in all classrooms. I believe if we focus on connecting with an authentic purpose, we could still meet all of our curricular standards and demands while practicing the joy of respecting others and embracing the love of learning!

In order for blogging to be part of classroom culture, we need to continue the discussions about coaching quality posts and comments. We also need to recognize that everyone has room to improve, and we all start somewhere.

How can educational blogging help students and educators regardless of age or experience?
How do you assess quality posts and comments?
How do you coach others to help them improve?
What else connects with you in this post?

Continuing the meme

Everyone is invited to write their own quality blog post and commenting audit meme. I would like to invite these three people, who do a fabulous job at teaching students about blogging:

Gina Fraher @gfraher and/or class
Shauna Hamman @shammanaj and/or class
Kathryn Trask @KathrynTrask and/or class (Click here to see her second post on it)

I want to thank Silvia Tolisano for writing the series Learning About Blogs FOR Your Students, and for concluding with this meme!

21st Century Learning & Writing

2011-12-22T22:30:00.000-08:00

The #elemchat on Dec. 17th, focusing on strategies and approaches for helping students become better writers, got me thinking about what writing looks like in 21st century learning.

What does 21st century learning look like?

Some rights reserved by sntgmdm

Students engaged in authentic task
Students are collaboratively problem solving
Collaboration -- students helping peers
Students are creating original work to represent their ideas
Teacher is walking around the room facilitating
Noticeable routines and procedures for getting help and transitioning
Learning is interactive and engaging
Students are on task and taking risks to learn
Students are forgetting they're learning
Ongoing assessment/feedback/reflection

All of the above can be with or without technology

What does 21st century learning sound like?

Teacher facilitating instead of directing
Focused noise--it's not silent while they are on task
Student led discussions
Respectful discussions and feedback
Enthusiastic conversations about their learning
All of the above can be done with or without technology

What does 21st century learning look like with writing?

There should be a balance between teacher led instruction and student led discussion, interaction, and collaboration.

Four years ago, Tawyna Olen asked if she could observe me for her Master's class assignment. She observed a writing mini-lesson with my 5th grade class. Here are some excerpts she wrote:

Next, (Tracy) transitioned into the mini writing lesson by asking them to take out their work. Students were to have written the ending to an eighth grade essay on A Good Teacher using one of the concluding techniques they learned the day before. Once each student had their work out, she asked the class to think of all the different ways they could conclude a piece of writing. She waited a few seconds and then had students share with their partner.

Some rights reserved by Isobel T
While they were busy sharing she put up on the projector a list of all the strategies: She then clapped and raised her hand to get their attention and asked for someone to explain to her the different strategies. She then had the class share with their partner again only this time giving examples of each strategy. After getting the class' attention, Tracy went on to confirm what she had heard the pairs discussing by going through the list and giving examples of each strategy and explaining what type of writing might benefit from each type of conclusion.

Tracy then transitioned into the activity explaining to her students the directions. They were to read their ending to a classmate. The classmate was to listen and then comment on the ending by giving a compliment or suggest a way in which they could improve and then read their ending. After they had finished they would move on to another classmate and repeat the same procedure. This process would continue for three minutes...

After the timer went off students quickly went back to their seats. Tracy asked the class if they heard any endings that they thought were strong that should be shared with the whole class. Many hands went up and she called on a few to share if they wanted to...

Break the task into smaller steps, and allow the students to explain it in their own words, make connections to their past experiences and understanding, and provide feedback to each other.

Connecting beyond the four walls

Reaching beyond the four walls of the classroom and connecting with others as part of the learning process, or to share learning, creating, and writing is valuable. Connecting with an authentic audience via blogging takes the writing and learning to a deeper level.

Final remarks

Writing should be learned through a balance of instruction, collaboration, peer discussion, application, and reflection. When an authentic audience is added in, there is a real purpose which increases motivation.

Writing in 21st century learning is more than just writing with a technology tool--it's the process of learning writing.

What increases the love for writing in your classroom/life?
How do you achieve a balance between teacher led instruction and student led discussion, interaction, and collaboration?
What does writing look like in different grades?
How else did this post connect with you?

My list for 21st century learning was adapted from "A Highly Differentiated Classroom" ... I also want to thank all of the people involved in the #elemchat discussion(s)... and for inspiring this post.

Math in One-to-One

2011-12-15T07:50:00.000-08:00

Ever wonder what math looks like in an one-to-one environment? Is it just worksheets and math problems online, or is there an advantage to learning math in one-to-one classrooms?

Math in one-to-one

When I was in Tina Jada's class, I saw students actively engaged, engrossed in their learning the standards at a deeper level, with a context for why they were learning and when they'd use these standards in the real world.

Here's a glimpse into her 7th grade class:

Different teachers, different approaches, great learning

When I was in Valinda Wells' class, I saw more great learning. Her class started with a quick review for students to start on their own. After a short amount of time, Ms. Wells' showed a Screenr video modeling her solving the problems, her metacognition throughout, and how she deduced the correct answer. While she played the video, Wells was free to walk around to provide feedback, check for understanding, or guide learners if needed.

Next, the students quickly moved to new places in the room. Ms. Wells grouped them based on their learning styles, interests, and readiness. While she'd work with one group, the others were learning from online tutorials or other interactive online content.

One group worked on math projects. Ms. Wells offered a few different projects based on interest and readiness. Both projects required converting percentages to decimals, calculating sales tax, tips, discounts, and totals.

One project was a Menu Project:

The other students worked on mean, median, mode, and range based on the links Ms. Wells curated for them. The students collaborated for peer reflection and feedback. This was review content, but necessary for them to be ready for the new content in outliers and stem and leaf plots.

Ms. Wells designed the learning in her classroom based on task analysis and learning styles. She grouped them according to pre-test data and ongoing formative assessment.

Having the content online provided the students with multi-media tutorials and interactive learning. It also gave Ms. Wells the opportunity to work with all the students, tailoring instruction to their individual needs.

Final remarks

Both teachers had different styles, and both focused on the learning. They made math relevant and connected to the real world.

What did you notice about the learning in these two rooms?
Is there an advantage to learning math in one-to-one classrooms?

This post was inspired by Nick Sauers asking if I had any videos for what math looks like in one-to-one. Thanks, Nick, for inspiring me to take action!

Edublogs Awards -- Supporting AJUSD

2011-12-05T19:30:00.000-08:00

The nominations process has closed, and we are excited to see a few of our AJUSD blogs represented on the Edublogs Awards shortlist.

Please support our AJUSD blogging community. You can vote once a day, and if you are in our AJUSD district, please vote from your home computer (our school computers will have the same IP address, so it will only get one count a day). The voting will end on December 14th.

Here's who you can support in our AJUSD blogging community:

Em's Blog for best student blog
Ethan's Blog for best student blog
Jon Castelhano's "This and That" for best administrator blog
Melissa Martinez (Mrs. Martinez's 4th Grade) for best class blog
Tracy Watanabe for best individual blog

Here's how you vote:

To vote, click on this link, then use the drop down menu to choose the category, then select who you are voting for. You'll need to go back through the process to vote for the next category.

Final remarks

All of our blogs are new, so we are honored to be represented amongst other amazing educators and learners.

How do educational awards raise awareness for 21st century learning?
How can you support educators and learners who inspire you?
How can you thank Edublogs for raising awareness for how blogging and web 2.0 tools/networks can promote learning?

Leadership, following through, professional development, & PBL

2011-12-01T16:10:00.000-08:00

One of the lessons I've learned is a strong leader is someone who can start the momentum and will continue to carry it through. You see, just having the vision and getting it rolling is a step in the right direction, but to continue to nurture it and finish what you've started is what counts.

Professional Development and Project Based Learning

Project based learning (PBL) and professional development (PD) require some effort to complete. I'm realizing that implementing successful PD is very much like facilitating PBL.

Background courtesy of DragonArtz Designs, gears created on Clker, text created in Pages

Each of the gears is a step in the process, and they rely on each other to be successful and complete. If you miss one of the gears, you are missing one of the essential elements in implementing PBL or PD. Furthermore, you're never really "done" with the cycle because it keeps going and keeps evolving into something better.

When the gears get jammed

Sometimes gears jam up, but don't throw it away or dismiss it when that happens. Assess the situation, collaborate with and consult others, then apply a plan to get the gears working again.

Isn't that what it's like in the classroom during PBL, or with staff development? Sometimes things don't turn out the way we want them to, but we persevere. We push forward by reflecting, assessing the situation, setting goals, creating a plan, then implementing it. This gets the gears moving again, and if it doesn't, try again.

Keeping the gears moving

Once the gears have started, they need to be monitored. Sometimes more energy is required. Once the momentum gets going, it takes less energy to keep it going. However, totally withdrawing and walking away expecting it to run itself is also not going to work, at least not for long.

With PBL, once the project is launched, it also needs to be monitored. This is when the magic occurs, because the teacher facilitates by coaching and providing feedback.

I've learned that PD is the same. The training is just the start, the follow through is beyond implementing it in the classroom, it's when transformation in student learning occurs. It takes nurturing, refining, and stretching it towards excellence. That's when you are steps closer to finishing.

Finishing

I like what John Maxwell says about finishing:

Final thoughts

Leaders see through what they've started. If the gears are moving, it will continue to move as long as it is nurtured and refined. Over time, it will transform and evolve.

How do you keep the gears moving?
How do you persevere to finish what you've started?
Have you ever considered the similarities between PBL and PD?
What else did this post get you thinking about?

Tracy's Nominations for the 2011 Edublogs Awards

2011-11-20T16:28:00.000-08:00

I love awards because it's a chance to recognize and share those who rock my world.

Thank you Edublogs for providing this opportunity to acknowledge amazing educators around the globe, and for raising the awareness of the awesome impact social media and web 2.0 can have on our learning and our learners.

Here are my nominations for 2011-2012:

Best individual blog: Integrating Technology in the Primary Classroom

Integrating Tech in the Primary Classroom

Hands down, the most influential individual blog that I've learned the most from is Kathleen Morris' Integrating Technology in the Primary Classroom. Her content is innovative, filled with tangible and applicable learning for every level (even if you aren't a primary teacher). She makes it super easy for a newbie to feel right at home, while being encouraged to take the next step. I appreciate how Kathleen replies to all her comments, which lets us know how much she cares and is passionate about helping others create 21st century, learner-centered classrooms.

Best individual tweeter: Joan Young @flourishingkids

@flourishingkids

I met Joan last summer during the Edublogs ISTE Meet-up, and have been inspired by her ever since. I enjoy visiting her blog, and see her almost every time I'm on Twitter. She's a passionate educator who encourages, and shares a plethora of valuable resources and ideas. I highly recommend following Joan.

Best group blog: Our World, Our Stories
Our World, Our Stories is a new group blog for primary students to connect and share with others around the globe about their community, their lives, their creativity, and their experiences. This is a great blog for all classrooms to connect with other classrooms around the world. The classrooms involved are:

Our World, Our Stories

2KM and 2KJ from Victoria, Australia
B4 from New Zealand
Mrs Yollis’ third grade class from California, USA
Mr Salsich’s third grade class from Connecticut, USA
Melody Watson’s 2/3 class from Canada
Andy Sefa Boachie and his students from Ghana
Miss Usher’s standard 3 class from Punta Gorda, Belize

Best new blog: Travelling with Mr 'Davo' Devil

Travelling with Mr 'Davo'

Sue Wyatt, otherwise known as Miss W or @tasteach, created a new blog this year, blogging from the point of view of Mr. 'Davo' Devil, a Tasmanian devil. This blog is a way to share Miss W's trip around the USA and Canada, connecting with blogging classes and chat room friends. Students and classrooms from around the globe enjoy following, commenting, and participating in all the discussions this new blog offers. This blog gets my vote for best new blog of 2011.

Best class blog: Mrs. Yollis' Classroom Blog

Mrs. Yollis' Blog

My absolute favorite class blog is Linda Yollis'. Her blog was the first class blog I've ever followed, and I always return to it as an inspiration. I love how she uses her class blog to build community, awareness, and a joy for learning. I learn so much from following her blog, and her blog absolutely deserves recognition for the incredible impact she makes on learners around the globe.

Best student blog: Teegan's Terrific Blog

Teegan's Blog

I first noticed Teegan when I was reading through the volunteers to mentor during the Student Blogging Challenge, and Teegan wanted to help out the younger kiddos in the challenge. When I visited her blog, I could see why she was chosen as a mentor. I appreciate all she does to help others, and the digital footprint she is making. Thank you, Teegan!

Best ed tech / resource sharing blog: What Else

What Else

No secret, I'm a big Sheri Edwards fan, and I appreciate all Sheri offers. One of my favorites of Sheri's blogs is "What Else" because I always have a take-away for an idea to share with others. Sometimes it's a direct idea through her post (such as an idea to implement in the classroom), and other times it's indirect (such as an example for how she posted or how she created a visual). I appreciate all the ideas for integrating technology and resources. Thank you, Sheri, for making a difference in so many lives!

Most influential blog post: Top 10 Twitter Tips! by Kathleen Morris

Top 10 Twitter Tips!

Kathleen Morris is the reason why I understand how to use Twitter, and am not afraid of it. She has several posts about using Twitter, and I recommend all of them, but if I'm trying to share with others how and why to use Twitter, this is the post I send them. Thanks, Kathleen, for answering all my questions and teaching me about the power of Twitter!

Best twitter hashtag: #comments4kids @wmchamberlain

#comments4kids is my favorite hashtag because it's a place where I can go to ask others to comment on student posts, and a place where I can return the favor of placing a smile on someone's face. I've seen the disappointment in students after they've written a post, but no comments... and the excitement from someone leaving students thoughtful comments. It can make their day. Check out #comments4kids, leave a comment, and put a smile on kids' faces.

Best teacher blog: Dare to Care by Denise Krebs

Dare to Care

Denise is another passionate educator who I learn so much from. Her blog, Dare to Care, focuses on the 6 Cs she puts in her tag line, "Creating, Contributing, Communicating, Connecting, Collaborating & Curating." Her genuine love for learning is apparent in all she does.

Best School Administrator blog: This and That by Jon Castelhano

I know that traditionally when "administrator" is said, I think of a principal -- but not this time. The best administrator's blog is the blog of Technology Director, Jon Castelhano. He gets it. He gets how he and his department can help change the culture of a district. He empowers those around him to work towards the goal of a healthy 21st century learning district, and he captures that in his blog.

Best free web tool: Twitter
Twitter is the best free resource I've been introduced to. The people I connect with, and resources and ideas shared on Twitter are a huge part of my professional development, learning, and growth.

Best educational use of audio/video/visual/podcast: Mr. Avery's Classroom Blog

Mr. Avery's Classroom Blog

Mr. Avery creates fabulous math videos and tutorials. I appreciate that he has his students host the math movies.

Best open PD/unconference/webinar series: Serendipity/Fine Focus Webinars

I love the Edublogs Serendipity and Fine Focus Webinars because they involve everyone attending, and they strongly encourage audience interaction -- for newbies and experts.

Best educational use of a social network & Wiki: #elemchat
I absolutely love the discussions and professional development through the #elemchat on Twitter. Furthermore, exploring the archive to revisit amazing resources and ideas are a must. I'm grateful to all those involved in this!

Lifetime achievement: Sue Wyatt

Miss W -- @tasteach

Sue Wyatt, also known as Miss W and @tasteach, volunteers her time to organize the Student Blogging Challenges. The amount of effort, time, and energy spent to provide students with an authentic purpose to help them create, connect, and improve their blogging is incredible. She leaves oodles of comments for the students and classes participating, while also teaching students and teachers to connect and comment on blogs around the globe. From the bottom of my heart, I thank her for all she does, and believe she deserves the Lifetime achievement award.

Final Remarks:

I'd love to hear who your favorites are in either a comment or your own post. Be sure to send Edublogs your nominations in a post and connect to their Nominations Page.

Who are your favorites?
What do you like about nominations and awards?

Collaborative Writing to Develop the 21st Century Learner

2011-11-07T10:19:00.000-08:00

Collaborative writing is strong for bringing ideas together, capitalizing on individual strengths, and building in feedback. When I walked into Mrs. Bliss' 5th grade class to work on the Student Blogging Challenge #3, "Me on the Internet," they decided to write their post collaboratively.

How can students successfully write a collaborative post (or written work)?

Build Background Knowledge (while hooking their interest)

First, we watched this video called Digital Dossier by DigitalNatives, introduced to us in Miss W's post for the Edublogs Student Blogging Challenge #3. Before playing the video, we asked them to focus on two questions to discuss after the video:

What is a Digital Dossier?
Why is it important to each one of us?

Following the video, we went back to our guiding questions and asked them what it was and why it's important. The students were quite involved in their discussions because of its relevance to their lives.

Introducing Tracy's Favorite Graphic Organizer

I once saw this organizer on a bulletin board and thought it was genius because it helps organize ideas while allowing for creativity.

Box 1: Introduction

After their discussion, I asked "What's the main point they will want to make in their post?" or "How can you protect your digital dossier?" They said two things:

Stay safe online
Be positive online

Next, I shared my favorite ways I like to start writing:

a quote
a question
an interesting or shocking fact
a sound (typically better for creative writing)

For this post, what would be the best starter? The students agreed on a question, and brainstormed until they narrowed it to two questions.

Box 2: Define it

Box 2 it makes the most sense to define the topic.

Box 3: First main point -- Being safe

This is based on one of the two main points from Box 1. They had to explain why being safe online is important to their digital dossier.

Box 4: Second main point -- Being positive

This is the second main point outlined in Box 1. Again, it's key to explain why it's important to be positive (instead of saying negative things about others, etc).

Box 5: Conclusion

Box 5 is actually a repeat of Box 1, but for the purpose of concluding. I emphasize that repeating something from Box 1 gives the reader a sense of closure.

Collaborating on the Writing

We organized the class in five groups and asked who wanted to write each of the five parts based on the graphic organizer.

Within each group, we had one or two typers (sharing their document in Google Apps), editors, word choice wizards, and task masters (helping with ideas and focusing the group). It's important to clearly define the roles in each group, and to talk about norms of collaboration, so the groups work together smoothly. Taking the time to set the tone for collaboration is worth it.

When the groups were ready, they filled in their part of the graphic organizer, then started working on their paragraph(s).

Final draft

As we collected each of the groups' paragraphs electronically, I had a few students help with the final draft. It was hands-on modeling the revision process. They grappled with tense, point of view, and voice. They also chose to put the video in for depth, as well as links to other blogs.

Click here to see their final product.

Alternative way to use Tracy's Favorite Graphic Organizer

Final Remarks

Learning how to collaborate is a necessary 21st century skill, through experience will become a learning habit.

Modeling the writing process is key to developing the writer, and so is writing for an authentic purpose and audience. Blogging has been one of the easiest ways to model and build in the authentic audience.

What tips and trade-tricks do you share with your students to develop their confidence in writing?
How does working collaboratively improve the final product?
What else grabs your attention in this post?

Common core, informational text, digital literacy, & 21st century learning

2011-11-02T21:53:00.000-07:00

Last week, I had the privilege of working with a group of educators on 21st century lessons and PBL as part of their Collaboration Coach training. One of the main topics we kept revisiting was authentic purpose and audience.

After pointing out strengths, I asked questions such as:

What real audience could the students share their learning with?
What real audience would benefit from their learning/product?
What real audience, community, or expert outside the classroom could provide feedback?

Relating Authentic Purpose and Audience to Common Core Language Arts

Yesterday I received an email from Theresa Bartholomew, our Federal Programs Director, asking us to watch this video and reflect on these questions:

What stands out to you about this?
What potential shifts will this require in our instructional time, focus, use of curriculum programs, etc.?

Here was my quick reply to Theresa:

I'm pumped about it! I expect to see more PBL, probably thematic units, and using technology for authentic learning --the Internet is filled with informational text everywhere! So if they are using it authentically then rock on!

Information text, digital literacy, and blogging

Blogging is a great way to connect to an authentic audience, while learning about writing for an authentic purpose. Furthermore, there is a huge focus on reading informational text. Here is a quote from Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano's Langwitches post, Learning About Blogs FOR Your Students- Part I: Reading:

"Blogging is about writing, but it begins with reading. Teachers recognize that in order to teach about blogs, they have to read good blogs. Most want to jump immediately in and have their students start blogging, sit back and expect students to write quality blogs. It won’t happen. Teachers need to take time in reading other blogs, before they expect to be able to lead their students in quality blogging."

Blogging is fabulous for literacy and all content areas.

Final thoughts

Will the common core be the panacea for education? No, but it might be a disruption in how things have been taught... which could open the doors to change.

What impact do you predict common core will have on instructional focus?
How do you do to focus on informational text, digital literacy, and 21st century learning?
What were your take-aways from this post?

Thanks, Theresa Bartholomew, for sending us the video and questions to reflect on!

#Rockstar Meme: 1 Year Blogging Anniversary

2011-10-22T16:53:00.000-07:00

I was recently invited by an amazing woman, Joan Young, to participate in the #Rockstar Meme -- How Blogging Rocked Your World. This is such an honor, and the timing couldn't be better as I celebrate my first year anniversary of blogging.

Why blogging?

Blogging helps me reflect, process, and focus, which provides clarity. I think in brainstorms, adding ideas and eliminating others as I rule them out. The process I go through to write a post helps me decipher ideas and connect new meaning, leaving me with a sense of calmness and closure.

Expected blogging benefits

It's expected to be an organized place to keep notes on my learning. Saving time is another expectation because I spend much of my time answering emails about tech integration. So, it helps to post it on my blog.

Unexpected blogging benefits

I didn't realize the connections that evolve from blogging. Until nine months ago, the only blog I followed was my best friend's. The change happened when I stumbled upon a Tweet about the Edublogs Teacher Challenge, which pretty much opened Pandora's box in such a great way.

Connected and inspired

I thrive when I'm having fun learning, creating things, connecting, and making a difference in the lives of students and teachers. My batteries recharge when I'm around others who have the same passion.

Blogging connects me with innovative and passionate educators. I go to their blogs over and over because of the inspiration they give me. They recharge my batteries.

The #Rockstar Meme

Created with Sketchpad & Aviary

Those who inspire me the most through blogging are the #Rockstars that I'm passing the meme baton to:

This meme, started by Miguel Guhlin, is about how blogging rocks your world. The typical meme expectations are to link back and comment on the originator's post, and pass the meme baton to five others.

I believe memes are for recognizing others as inspiration, and it's not actually expected they write a post.

Final thoughts

If you want to be inspired, I highly recommend the five bloggers I named because they are #Rockstars!

Who are your #Rockstars?
How does blogging rock your world?

Creating 21st Century Classrooms

2011-10-15T11:02:00.000-07:00

Teching it Up K-12 -- Success Stories, Part 3

In Part 2 of "Teching it Up K-12 -- Success Stories," originally presented at the Arizona CIO/CTO Forum 2011, we focused on developing a learning culture through peer coaching. In Part 3, we focus on 21st century learning, blogging, and PLN.

Pedagogical Shift

There is a pedagogy shift happening in our district. Teachers are focusing on their learners. They are connecting beyond the four walls of their classrooms for an authentic purpose, relevant to their learners. Students are creating products as part of their learning, rather than it being just another hoop to jump through.

As our teachers become 21st century learners, they push themselves to the next step. For us, the Edublogs Teacher Challenges and Student Challenges have been catalysts in this process.

Edublogs Teacher Challenge

Image attributed to Edublogs

The Edublogs Teacher Challenges build teachers' skills in web 2.0 tools with the support of a global community working through the challenges together. By piggy-backing on their free professional development, we build a learning network side-by-side with one another, and around the globe.

Edublogs Student Challenge

The Edublogs Student Challenge is a global blogging challenge for individual student blogs and class blogs. There are 10 weeks of challenges that occur twice a year: September and again in March. Through these challenges, students (and teachers) learn about digital citizenship in an authentic setting, while learning how to improve their blogging and commenting skills.

Blogs in AJUSD

Students are motivated and engaged because blogging allows them to connect with others in an authentic context. It allows them to continue their conversations about what they are learning and seeing in the world, while practicing appropriate online behavior and digital citizenship.

AJUSD Blogs on PhotoPeach

Building PLN

Blogging is one way to build PLN. It allows us to share resources; build momentum; it connects us with others; thereby, allowing us to support one another.

Final remarks

I'm thankful our technology department keeps educational sites filtered and accessible, a decision based on pedagogical ideologies.

How does 21st century learning affect your students?
How are you becoming a 21st century learner?
How does your technology department's decisions reflect their pedagogical ideologies?

Special thanks to Sue Wyatt, for her dedication in organizing the Student Blogging Challenges. Thanks to Sue Waters and Ronnie Burt for their commitment to teachers through the Teacher Challenges. Thanks to Jon Castelhano, for making excellent pedagogical choices that empower learners. Thanks to all of the AJUSD teachers for their passion in education.

Grow a Learning Culture through Peer Coaching

2011-10-11T11:15:00.000-07:00

Teching it Up K-12 -- Success Stories, Part 2

In Part 1 of "Teching it Up K-12 -- Success Stories," originally presented at the Arizona CIO/CTO Forum 2011, we focused on the importance of a learning-centric vision. Our focus for Part 2 was developing a learning culture through peer coaching.

Serving others through Peer Coaching

With all the professional development needed to sustain one-to-one, PBL, 21st century learning, and individualized instruction, we turned to the Microsoft Peer Coaching model developed by the Peer-Ed team.

The beauty of Peer-Ed's training modules was the adaptability to our district's vision. To highlight the "collaboration" role of peer coaches, we called them "collaboration coaches."

Collaboration Coaching, Catalyst for Culture Shift

We tapped into full time teachers as our collaboration coaches. They focused on creating a 21st century learning environment in their own classrooms, while also working with a small group of teachers for increased collaboration.

Doors started opening because teachers understood the expectations of collaborating, sharing ideas, and resources focused on 21st century learning. As a result, the culture shifted to a learning and sharing culture.

Coaching Culture in One to One

The eight coaches at Cactus Canyon Junior High also had the added role of navigating the changes of becoming a one-to-one environment.

Pedagogy & D.I.

Staff development focused on pedagogy and differentiated instruction with technology infused in it.

For example, instead of talking about how to use Google Forms, we discussed formative assessment and checking for understanding. After brainstorming various ways to use Google Forms as formatives, we created our own.

PLC -- the mini PDs

Some people learned web 2.0 tools quickly, while others needed ongoing, mini professional developments. Voluntary 30 minute trainings were offered once a week. This gave teachers a chance to try it out in their classrooms, with the comfort of knowing there'd be continued followup.

The teachers were so responsive to learning shoulder-to-shoulder, they expanded to four days of voluntary PD, completely ran by the coaches. They became a learning community, there to support one another. Awesome!

Final remarks

Collaboration Coaching built capacity. It's a shared leadership model that fostered a supportive learning community.

How do you grow, develop, and nurture a learning community?
How do you improve the learning culture and climate at your school, classroom, or PLN?

In Part 3, we will focus on 21st century learning, blogging, and PLN.

Teching it Up K-12 -- Success Stories, Part 1

2011-10-07T14:00:00.000-07:00

We see districts who have an established learning culture, and their classrooms are filled with authentic learning experiences. How did they get there?

Our story

Jon Castelhano and I have the privilege of presenting at the Arizona CIO/CTO Forum 2011 on October 6th. We are going to share how our district closed the door on the 20th century and opened 21st century student-centered classrooms. Our district started teching up the classrooms with engaging, standards-based, student-centered learning, despite the financial climate we are in.

The next three posts will share about our journey, and some of the key game-changers for us.

The focus and the vision

Our district focuses on our learners. We ask, what's good for our learners? What do they want? What can we do to improve their education? If you listen to their answers, they will tell you about our vision.

Leadership

Those in leadership roles in the district believe in building relationships as the foundation for working together towards our 21st century learning-centered goals.

Our decisions reflect our vision. For example, despite having to close two schools due to decreased enrollment, we are moving forward with one-to-one environments and opportunities. Why? To prepare our students for their future.

How do your decisions reflect your goals and vision?
What would your students share about their favorite things they learn in the classroom?

Our first Web 2.0 Smackdown

2011-09-28T15:37:00.000-07:00

After experiencing the EdubloggerCon ISTE 2011 Web 2.0 Smackdown, I knew I wanted to see this in our district during professional development.

To add to that idea, I read a post by Patrick Larkin, Burlington High School Principal, about their flipping the Smackdown to the beginning of their Professional Development as a preview for their breakout sessions.

Our Collaboration Coaches, are just the people to introduce this idea to. They are passionate learners, collaborators, and focus on creating student-centered classrooms.

Our version of a Web 2.0 Smackdown

Any participants could share whatever tools/resources connecting to lesson improvement, coaching skills, or tech integration. The process:

Submit topic and link to your visuals before we meet (collected in a Google Form).
On the day we meet, present for 2 minutes live or show a recorded "trailer" for us.
After smackdown, we'll vote for one to learn more about.

Tools and Resources

Here's what they shared:

MuseumBox, a tool that helps make a collection (anything from text files to movies) on any given topic, shared by Bethany Myers.

SpicyNodes, an interactive mindmap which is fabulous for supporting ideas or giving resources, shared by Valinda Wells via her Screenr:

Screenr, a web-based screen recorder that captures anything on your screen and your voice, shared by Tina Jada.

Twitter Chats, focused discussions/professional development on Twitter that takes place at designated times, shared by Shauna Hamman.

Sqworl

Sqworl, to create collections of bookmarks on the topic of your choice, shared by Amber Moore.

Interactive Websites, oodles and oodles of resources for your subject matter, shared by Patti Carpenter.

Wacky Web Tales, is like a Mad Libs where you fill in parts of speech for a story, shared by Gina Fraher. Fraher also shared a Mad Libs widget to add to your blog.

Weebly, an easy website builder, shared by Erica Modzelewski.

Web 2.0 Smackdown Wins

Their enthusiasm as they shared the impact this made on their learners was awesome. It didn't matter which we voted for because we all heard many new ideas, tools, and resources.

It was also encouraging to see how this group of educators took to a Web 2.0 Smackdown so readily. I am grateful that we have a culture that:

encourages us to try new ideas
focuses on our learners
engages us as active participants
fosters leadership
cultivates learning
promotes collaboration

I thank our Collaboration Coaches for creating that culture through their beliefs, dedication, and all they do!

Final thoughts

How does allowing the teachers to step into leadership roles impact the educators' active participation in professional development?
How does their shared ideas reflect our focus on 21st century learner-centered classrooms?
What would you like to add to the list, share back to our coaches, or add to this discussion?

Bloom's Taxonomy and a Praying Mantis

2011-09-20T10:52:00.000-07:00

Several mentioned that even though they knew Bloom's Taxonomy, they hadn't put a Bloom's microscope to their lessons until designing PBL. Once they designed a PBL, they realized a rigor boost in Bloom's Taxonomy was needed.

Some rights reserved by Mantid Man

Bloom's Taxonomy and a Praying Mantis

About ten years ago, I had a third grade student bring a praying mantis to our class, and we placed it in a terrarium. The students were fascinated with it.

To capitalize on their interest, I introduced Bloom's Taxonomy for writing research questions about our praying mantis.

I gave a simple explanation, then they worked together in small groups to write questions based on Bloom's Taxonomy. They also had some great insight about each level:

Knowledge: These are facts that we could just look up and memorize. They used the least amount of "brain-power" on Bloom's Taxonomy.

What is a praying mantis? What does a praying mantis look like? What does a praying mantis eat?
The students noticed that their spelling tests were these types of questions.

Comprehension: This is understanding the knowledge, and when you put it in your own words, you show you understand it. Even though these used a little more "brain-power," they're still just the second level of Bloom's Taxonomy.

How would a praying mantis catch its prey? Why are some praying mantises green and others brown? What did you learn about praying mantises? (a summary)
The students pointed out that most of their test questions were at this level.

Application: Use the new information or apply it.

How could we act out the praying mantis' hunting habits? What will our praying mantis need in his terrarium to stay alive?
The students realized that writing a report would be at this level because they were applying some structure and organization to their new knowledge from what they understood.

Analysis: Break the big ideas into smaller ideas, and describe how they are related.

What are the functions of the body parts on the praying mantis? What makes the praying mantis such a good hunter?
The students wondered if this meant we had to look inside the praying mantis' body. I assured them we did not, but we would look it up on the Internet or in our books.

Synthesis: Create something completely new using all the Bloom's levels we've talked about so far.

Create a praying mantis that would have been alive during the dinosaur times, and relatively the same size as the other dinosaurs. What made him capable of surviving? How would he affect the other dinosaurs? Create a poster, presentation, drama, or a model to help explain how well your praying mantis would survive, and how he'd affect the time period.
The kids were so excited at this point, and were ready to start creating their pre-historic praying mantis.

Evaluation: Making judgments about what you've learned or what you're thinking. Defend your opinion.

Would a praying mantis or a scorpion survive if they were placed in the terrarium together? Defend your opinion.
The kids were a bit let down by this because they believed the synthesis question was more rigorous (and exciting) than this level. They thought that this level should be flip flopped with synthesis. (I agreed with them and struggled to defend Bloom at the time, and oh how I wished I had a glass ball to see into the future to know that they would indeed be flipped).

What did we do with these questions?

Based on their excitement to learn, I let them create a praying mantis for the pre-historic era. Together, we created some criteria for how we would assess it.

When the students started talking about it, they concluded they needed to research both the praying mantis and a pre-historic era. Several chose a different era for some variety.

They also asked for time during the day to observe our praying mantis. Some students started their own observation journals, and used their writing time to create paragraphs and stories about a praying mantis.

Who would have known that a little thing like a kid bringing a praying mantis to class would have sparked such interest and rigor that extended across our curriculum!

Final thoughts

I knew Bloom's Taxonomy fairly well before this, but after this exercise with my third graders, I was pushed beyond what I possibly would have ever known because together we had to decide if some questions were really at a different level than where we first put them.

This changed the types of questions I'd ask, and it changed their own questioning. They took ownership of their learning, and their engagement through the power of questions became my goal.

How does Bloom's Taxonomy drive the learning in your classroom?
How would writing questions based on Bloom's Taxonomy change the types of questions you ask? How would it change your student's questions and learning?
What other take-aways do you have from this post?

This post was inspired by a discussion with Jon Castelhano, and his sharing George Couros' post "Bloom's Taxonomy and a Pen" with me.

Introducing Your Class to Your Blog

2011-09-13T19:05:00.000-07:00

Blogging is a fabulous way to connect with an authentic audience. Like everything else, there is a transition process for learning how.

Some rights reserved by T Hall

Foundations for Blogging

Houses need a sturdy foundation to remain standing. Likewise, blogging needs a sturdy foundation of digital citizenship and quality commenting.

Digital Citizenship

Introducing your class to digital citizenship is the first step. They will learn most of this in the context of blogging. However, setting guidelines is important for safety and netiquette expectations.

Resources

Sqworl

Commenting

When it comes to learning about quality commenting, I turn to Linda Yollis. She teaches us to break commenting into two parts: the content and the editing. Here is a summary of some of their tips:

Start with a compliment.
Add new information, especially facts.
Connect with a personal story of how it's relevant to you.
End with a question.
Proofread.

Comment Prompt Starters

During one of our Edublogs Blogging Professional Development Classes*, Sandy Rollefstad noticed the comment starters on the Scattergood Biology blog. Based on that idea, here are a few I'd try with various grade levels:

This made me think about …
This reminds me of …
I appreciate that your post ...
I feel that we should …
I can relate to this because ...
Another thing to consider is …
What I'm wondering is ...

What if my kids still don't have the prior knowledge to start?

Gina Fraher quickly realized her 3rd grade students didn't have the prior knowledge to successfully start creating quality comments.

Fraher created an assignment to help them analyze quality commenting:

Teegan's Terrific Blog -- Student blogger from New Zealand
2KM and 2 KJ @ Leopold Primary School -- Mrs. Morris' and Miss Jordan's class blog
Eagles Write -- Mrs. Edwards' Class Blog
The Edublogger -- Sue Waters, Blog Editor
Integrating Technology in the Primary Classroom -- Kathleen Morris' professional blog

Closing thoughts

Blogging should be engaging and fun for the kids. It's important to hook them right from the beginning. Sue Waters from Edublogs shares great tips on getting your posts and commenting started.

What are the key "ingredients" to hooking your class on blogging?
How do you introduce your class to your blog?
What does a responsible digital citizen look like?
What tips would you recommend for writing quality comments?

*We are aligning our Professional Development classes with the Edublogs Teacher Challenges, which have been an awesome way for us to build PLN within our district and around the globe!

This post was inspired by all the new bloggers in our district. Thank you for your dedication to creating 21st century learning-centered classrooms!

Essential Questions

2011-09-01T23:13:00.000-07:00

In my last post, I reflected on a conversation that clarified PBL. When we crafted the Driving Question or Essential Question, the teachers became comfortable with their PBL.

What is an Essential Question?

The purpose of an essential question is to connect relevance of the main concept or big idea back to the learner. It focuses the learner on what's important. Essential questions are:

Thought-provoking, higher level thinking questions, and complicated with more than one answer.
Open-ended, interesting, engaging, and focused on the key concepts.

What are Driving Questions?

I view them as essential questions that drive the PBL, containing the purpose for learning it and the project in one question. I honestly use "Essential Question" as a synonym for "Driving Question" depending on my audience.

To set driving questions aside from essential questions, I ask:

What real audience could benefit from the solution or answer to the question?
How can I phrase the question as a challenge that causes learners to make a decision or take action?

If you are familiar with driving questions, I hope you don't mind that I continue to call them essential questions for now.

Examples of essential questions I've discussed recently:

In what ways have "personal safety" and "citizenship" changed, and how do we respond to those changes?
How can we, as leaders, create a culture of learners that thrive in the 21st century?
Click here for other examples I've seen.

Creating essential questions

Glogster

Convert answers to questions:

I ask questions about the big idea. When I answer those, I end up converting them back to essential questions. For example: What do I want teachers to get out of my Professional Development training on digital citizenship? Answer: I want teachers to be passionate about helping our students become safe and responsible digital citizens. Therefore, my essential question is: In what ways have "personal safety" and "citizenship" changed, and how do we respond to those changes? (Created with the help of Sheri Edwards).

Sentence starters:

I use a few generic questions and fill in the blanks. For example, instead of How can we, as leaders, create a culture of learners that thrive in the 21st century?, I could have used the sentence starters to come up with these questions:

What are the ingredients for a successful culture of learners that thrive in the 21st century?
What does good 21st century learning look like?
How can we create a culture of learners that thrive in the 21st century?
What would our future be like like without 21st century skills?

Frame the question:

I use one of Peer Ed's Microsoft Peer Coaching lesson improvement tips and place it in BIE's format found in PBL in the Elementary Grades. BIE expands this idea in their Tubric:

Final Thoughts:

It takes time and practice to create essential questions. I recommend working collaboratively to create them. I often turn to my PLN for help brainstorming and fine tuning my essential questions.

How can you use essential questions in your professional developments, units, classes, or blog posts?
How did you learn to write/use essential questions (or driving questions)?
What tips can you share?
What questions do you have?
How else did you connect with this post?

This post was inspired by Dr. Wilson and the AJUSD Leadership Team who asked to learn more about essential questions. I also want to thank Jo Hart for helping me think through much written here in this post during your Serendipity Webinar; thanks to BIE for awesome resources; and special thanks to Peer Ed for being such a strong influence in education for 21st century schools and professional development.

Conversations that Clarify PBL

2011-08-22T20:28:00.000-07:00

I had the privilege of working with five different groups of educators on PBL this past summer. There were conversations in each of the trainings that I cherished. One of those conversation occurred with our elementary teachers.

As small groups were brainstorming their PBL topic, I heard a conversation about focusing on counting money. As the conversation progressed, several key questions came up.

How do you convert a theme to PBL?

The teachers started their conversation by choosing a standard that needed time and depth, and couldn't be learned through a one or two day lesson. Then a few of them started talking about learning activities they could do, while others were grappling with converting it into a complex and open-ended driving question.

Glogster

These conversations helped them realize learning activities were fabulous differentiated instructional activities, but those activities did not make it PBL on its own.

What made it PBL?

PBL was a meaningful challenge that connected to the real world. It was relevant to the students, with a real community who would benefit from the solution.

The Driving Question or Essential Question framed the PBL with purpose and focus. It required Bloom's higher level thinking, and simply couldn't be Googled because there was more than one solution. It would culminate with a presentation and reflection.

Final Thoughts

When we discussed the Driving Question or Essential Question, the teachers became comfortable with their PBL and how to incorporate some of those learning activities in it. (My next post will expand on creating those questions.)

How does this post help clarify that PBL is much more than a learning activity?
What do you want to add to this conversation?
What questions do you still have?

I want to thank the educators who were involved in these awesome conversations. I also am thankful for BIE's Toolkit Series. The conversation in this post was ongoing throughout our training, and the starting point for their Driving Question came from PBL in the Elementary Grades.

Internet Safety and Digital Citizenship

2011-08-11T23:23:00.000-07:00

In what ways have "personal safety" and "citizenship" changed? How do we respond to those changes?

Expectations of conduct

When I was growing up, there were expectations my parents had of me for my personal safety and development:

Ask permission before going somewhere.
Don't talk to strangers. -- (With the exception of my parents/entrusted adult being aware of the conversation.)
Ask for help when I need it.
Be polite and use good manners.
Help others when I can, and add to their lives.

These are the same expectations I have of my own children for their interactions in our physical community and our digital communities.

What resources are available to us?

Tap into resources to start the conversations and learning.

Our district has curriculum from iSafe.
Edublogs is an amazing resource for teachers. Not only will they educate us about Internet safety, but they also provide an authentic context for applying it in the real world. See their blogging challenges.
You can always view my Diigo bookmarks for other ideas.
I love BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr's videos too.

Click here to view Spark Top's showing of Brain POP's Online Safety video

Final thoughts

Expectations for personal safety and citizenship extend beyond our physical community and into our digital community.

How will we respond to the changes in personal safety and citizenship to include our digital communities?
What digital citizenship and safety expectations should we set for ourselves, students, or schools?
What authentic learning opportunities can we offer students to safely practice digital citizenship?
What else are you thinking about related to this post?

This post was inspired by SMES Principal Heather Wallace. Thank you for making proactive choices to focus on digital citizenship and Internet safety. Thank you for inviting me to work with your staff! I also want to thank Sheri Edwards for helping me with my Essential Question for this professional development/post!

Effective Leaders Model

2011-08-05T11:20:00.000-07:00

Talk about it all you want, and we'll talk about it. Use it, model it, demonstrate it, and we'll give it a try. It won't happen all at once, but it will happen.

Effective Leaders understand Monkey See, Monkey Do

Some rights reserved by Stuck in Customs

Do you want the focus to shift from a teacher centered classroom to a student centered classroom?

Then focus your staff developments by actually doing what you want to see in the classroom. If a student centered classroom is innovative, engaging, relevant, and motivating, then model it in your "classroom" which is your staff development.

Offer options for them to pick and choose from:

Give them a choice board or a menu to pick and choose their professional development trainings.
Try FedEx-ing it: Work collaboratively on a PBL or a student-centered lesson. At the end of the training, you must "deliver it" and bring it back to the whole group.
Flip your Professional Development by giving a 2-minute Web 2.0 Smackdown (teachers show their favorite web 2.0 tools) in the beginning of your time and then go to breakout sessions based on teacher interest.

Do you want to see more technology integration?

The best route for hooking your staff on the values of technology integration is to use it. Some winning ideas are:

Use a wiki for teachers to take collaborative notes, brainstorm a school procedure, establish meeting norms, or sign up for a school event.
If you want your classrooms to connect with an authentic audience and build community, then model the power of blogging. Create your own.
Have them create presentations that tie your school vision to ISTE's NETS for Students.

My own goal:

I've realized that as our district steps towards learner centered classrooms, and we explore project based learning, I need to emphasize Essential Questions. In my own professional development, I should include an Essential Question that drives our P.D. (Thanks Jo Hart for that ah-ha during the Serendipity Webinar yesterday!)

Final thoughts:

What are your goals?
What do you want to see and how can you model that?
Any ideas you want to add here?

This post was inspired by Scott McLeod's shout out for Leadership Day.

Project Based Learning First Steps

2011-07-25T21:51:00.000-07:00

It's scary to take your first steps into PBL. What if it doesn't work? What if I don't know what to do next? The first steps often are the scariest; however, most of us who try it are sold by the success.

Preconceived Scare-Factors about PBL

In the past year, I've heard the following three preconceived notions about PBL:

I have heard people describe their PBL as having choice boards or menus for student choice; but in actuality, what I hear them describing is differentiated instruction (DI). Sure, DI is in PBL, but that does not make it PBL.

PBL Benefits

PBL is good for all learners. When PBL is done correctly, it engages the students in their learning. They are motivated by an authentic purpose that peeks their curiosity. Learning is differentiated through product, process, possibly content, choice, etc. Various learning styles are met, and student strengths are nourished. Teachers can work with small groups, and can meet individual needs.

PBL allows students to use their knowledge and understanding in new and creative contexts. By working at Bloom's higher levels of thinking, students retain and remember the lower levels while learning how to problem solve and use critical thinking. Therefore students get more out of PBL than direct instruction or lecture.

PBL does takes teacher planning time and student learning time, but it's time well spent! I notice less reteaching needed because PBL focuses on the top three levels of Bloom's Taxonomy, which allows learners to make connections and explore learning in depth.

This depth and motivation is not something they easily forget, thus they retain their learning. Students actually do better on multiple choice tests because it tests knowledge that they understand at such a high level.

Final Thoughts

The first steps of PBL are scary, but worth it. If your students are motivated to learn; willing to work harder because of their active engagement; will learn some of the "basics" while moving to the higher levels of Bloom's; and will learn more, then what's stopping you?

What will make/What made PBL an easier transition for you?
How does PBL look in your room?
How do you get ideas and share resources that can be used for PBL?
What else would you like to add?

Using Diigo for Student Portfolios

2011-07-21T16:21:00.000-07:00

I had some great comments from my last post about student portfolios, Diigo, and blogs. This post is a continuation of that conversation.

Traditional Portfolios

When I think back to my beginning years in the classroom, I remember my student portfolios were in manilla file folders. Later, they became gorgeous construction paper books. On both accounts, they were linear, and you would view it from left to right, one page after another.
Currently, the two sites that stand out in my mind to collect student work in a linear manner are LiveBinders and Google Sites. Those are great options, and I'm sure there are a plethora I haven't even considered.

However, I am not always a linear thinker. I like having multiple options.

Diigo Portfolios

In Diigo, students could bookmark and collaborate regarding their resources, notes, etc. The teacher could view per assignment or per individual.

Here's a little video made in Screenr that shows my thinking:

Tips for Management in Diigo

If you have multiple classes, it may be easier to name students by the hour number and then the name. For example, if Tracy Ryan is in my first hour, I could name her 1TracyR.
Have tags for subject (i.e. math), type (i.e. geometry), specific (i.e. polygons), student user name (i.e. 1TracyR), and hour (i.e. hour 1).
For the portfolio piece, have them put a tag in for portfolio to identify that it is something they want represented in their portfolio beyond just their collection of work.
Decide if you will use quotes around groups of words, underscore, or no spaces. For example, "commutative property" vs. commutative_property vs. commutativeproperty. Then try to remain consistent.
For K-2 (and maybe 3rd), I personally don't think I'd try venturing into Diigo. I may teach them how to submit the URL on a Google Form with the title of the assignment and their name (the same data I'd use to sort in Diigo).

Final Thoughts

What other tips can we add to the list?
What else do I need to think through?
What questions do you have?
What have I missed?

Student Portfolios, Diigo and Blogs

2011-07-12T10:14:00.000-07:00

I've had several people ask me about how to start blogs and portfolios with their students next year, and what's the best approach.

Purpose of Student Portfolio?

Portfolios are collections of student work/artifacts that represent the process and progress of their learning. Typically the stronger artifacts document reflection and feedback. Some of the artifacts in the portfolio are then selected to present to others, such as at a parent-teacher conference.

Collecting, reflecting, and selecting to share with others is what makes portfolios extremely valuable. I like the visual that Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano created to show the three steps of curating a digital portfolio.

Creative Commons: Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano/Langwitches

What Could a Digital Portfolio Look Like?

I appreciate Implementing ePortfolios? Questions to Consider, and have used it to funnel my thinking for what the digital portfolio could look like.

I'm at a comfort level now where I don't limit students to certain tools. I allow them to use whatever they believe will be most effective for their purpose. Therefore, in thinking about how I'd have them collect their digital creations, especially if they are created all over the web, I need something that is easy to collect, easy to have dialogue or post reflections, and easy to share. With that, there are two fits that I believe would be the easiest for me.

Diigo for Digital Portfolios

Using my Diigo Educator's Account, I'd set up my students in my class. Some steps to walk through are:

Bookmarking and tagging using tags that I've pre-created. (Click here to read more about folksonomy vs. taxonomy). For example, I use "AJUSD" for things related just to my district, and now it is easier to retrieve as well. I might have my students label their portfolio selection as, "mE-Portfolio." So, there would be class/assignment tags and tags for the portfolio.
The class would have to learn how to leave constructive comments for one another, and practice digital citizenship.
Dialogue and reflection on the bookmarks is easy in Diigo through comments and/or annotations.

Blogging with Students

The other route I'd use for portfolios is blogging. I'd start with one class blog and would place student names in categories and the assignments in tags/labels. From here, students can share and reflect from within the blog. They can comment and leave the URL to what they've created (or use a Google Form to collect the URLs), or I could dedicate a new page on the blog to showcase their projects.

For their portfolio piece, they can create a new presentation such as a digital story to share their overall reflection of their growth. Eventually, students can graduate from the class blog to earning their own blog, at which point, their portfolio would truly be their own.

Final Remarks

There are many ways to create digital portfolios, and what I've written about is what would be easiest for me. Please help me think through this more.

What are your thoughts about using Diigo, blogs and portfolios?
How would you create student portfolios?
What questions do you have?

Hootsuite for iPhone

What have I missed?

Special thanks to the #elemchat group on Twitter for the resources! It was my first time participating, and I was determined to learn from all of you, despite only being connected through my iPhone on G3 and poor reception!

Continued thanks to Edublogs for their Teacher Challenges. I love building PLN through all @edublogs does!

Reflection of ISTE from a Newbie

2011-07-04T01:24:00.000-07:00

This was my first time going to ISTE and Edubloggercon. So, what were my favorites and takeaways?

1. I found that Jackie Gerstein's session on the Flipped Classroom at Edubloggercon gave me incredible perspective. We were given snippets of information filled with examples, interspersed with discussion points as small groups and the whole group. Later in the day when I had a moment to ponder this, I realized the possibility of the Flipped Classroom was no longer something intangible to me that only districts with lots of money and high SES could do. It's something we can do despite the economy, having to close two schools, and all the other "Yeah, but..." excuses I could list here.

2. Blogging "N@ked" or Being Transparent in Our Relationships with Susan Davis, was another favorite from Edubloggercon. The discussion started with what it meant to be transparent by sharing celebrations as well as failures, because that's the reality of change and innovation, which evolved into the discussion of promoting transparent culture.

3. Edublogs hosted an ISTE Meet-up for a tour of Independence Hall.

I am in serious awe of everything Edublogs does for teachers. Their incredible commitment to building teachers up so they can create learning-centered classrooms is honorable. I am still very new to blogging, but through their Teacher Challenges, I've learned more than I ever anticipated, and it has trickled down into the classrooms of AJUSD to positively affect our learning culture. So, meeting Ronnie Burt and others from the Edublogs community was an epic event for me.

On screen is AJUSD Superintendent.
Left-Right: Me, Shelee King George, Bartow, & Knight.

4. Peer Coaching. I was adopted by Shelee King George, Mary Knight, and Colet Bartow for the day and helped out with their Peer Coaching Poster and Birds of a Feather Sessions. It was an honor to give back a little that Peer Ed has given us, and with all the excitement over ISTE's NETS for Coaches, it was great fun talking to all the people curious about how to build 21st century pedagogy, technology integration, and learning community through peer coaching.

5. Suzie Boss' session on Ripped from the Headlines: Real Events Yield Relevant Projects was another highlight. Be selective what news you choose for PBL. Use complex, relevant events students can empathize with, and will affect us for a long time. Paul Allison, part of the panel discussion, solidified that blogs are fabulous to share their PBL to a real audience.

5. What Does it mean to be a Tech Savvy Principal? Totally inspiring. This panel discussion with Lyn Hilt, Patrick Larkin, Eric Sheninger, George Couros, and Brian Nichols, was moderated by Scott McLeod. First off, I've learned so much from the Connected Principals Blog, that it was exciting to see the faces and hear their voices in person. My main takeaways from this (and I'm sorry, I don't have who said what):

Principals need to model using the tech, but this doesn't mean they are experts at it.
Build PLN within district and outside, and resources will come to you.
Use ISTE's NETS for Admin to self assess where you are.
Share your learning.
Change policies, such as BYOD (Bring Your Own Device).
Allow teachers to self-choose own professional development. Allow those who are ready, to push ahead.
Media waiver in AUP. Have the AUP guided by your vision.
Blogging with students AUP. Have a parent night for blogging.

6. Kevin Honeycutt. Even though I'm reserved, I thrive on fun and passionate educators. My favorite Honeycuttism: "Digital limbs can't be amputated at the front door of the school."

Taken from my iPhone

7. Chris Lehmann's Unlocking Potential. My notes are not as fabulously comprehensive as Moving at the Speed of Creativity, nor as visually amazing as David Warlick's, but are meaningful to me:

Caring about and caring for are different things.
It is okay to take risks to succeed. It's okay to fail as long as we are still learning.
Help our students become 21st century citizens.
The most important thing is to become the best people they can be.
The 4 things to instill in students are: 1) be thoughtful, 2) be wise, 3) be passionate, and 4) be kind.
Help them find the humanity in the world around them.
Write down your goals and your action plan.
Question anyone who says they have all the answers.
Be one community and lead.
Be the best version of yourself.

Ronnie Burt & me

8, 9, & 10. Relationships. My favorite place to go was the Blogger's Cafe, which was filled with camaraderie. I was excited to meet people who I've been learning with, visit with some I've met before, and create new friendships.

The genuine compassion towards helping and growing others that I experience online was felt here in person.

It was also quality time with my AJUSD peeps! Thanks so much guys for the awesome experience! I love our AJUSD family!

Final thoughts

Our AJUSD gang: Maryanne Galvan, Jon
Castelhano, Amber Moore, Elizabeth Francois,
Bethany Myers, Me, and Gina Fraher.

As I wrap my head around how to implement the next steps, I'm filled with encouragement knowing that there is a community supporting us! And we've met several of them at #ISTE11!

What were your favorites and takeaways from ISTE 2011?

Special thanks goes out to all who were involved in ISTE's Mission Possible! To sum it up in one word -- spectacular!

Visit ISTE Unplugged for more learning.

10 Peer Coaching Tips in 10 Minutes at ISTE

2011-06-27T21:12:00.000-07:00

I was asked to present ten coaching tips in ten minutes at ISTE. Here are the ten I presented today:

1. Building relationships is key. It takes time and energy to build those relationships, but it's the key in coaching.

2. Work with the willing. It is more effective to work with those who are willing, and forcing someone won't get the results the students deserve. If this were an ocean, I probably couldn't turn a whale. However, I can focus on turning and working with the leaders in a school of sardines, and the rest will eventually follow. (Thanks Jon Castelhano for giving me that imagery).

3. Cater to their readiness. It's the same idea as individualizing for your students -- pre-assess and adjust to their needs. I ask questions to assess their comfort level, if they use it primarily to teach, or use it for students to learn and create. In other words, is technology something that is used? If so, how? Is it used mainly by the teacher or also by the students, and in what capacity?

4. I provide them with positive feedback. This goes back to building trust and relationships. When I go in their classrooms, I actively look for great things they are doing. I make a point to leave them that specific, positive feedback via an email, a note, or verbally.

5. Cater to their strengths. They will be more successful if we focus on their strengths, and tap into those. Having a successful initiation fosters more trust and willingness to take more steps towards 21st century learning-centered classrooms.

6. Integrity builds trust. I am not there to "fix" anyone. I am there to bring out the best in them and help them grow.

7. Collaborate. Collaboration is two ways. Sure, I do the best I can to help them, but I also create opportunities for them to help me. I need their feedback and insight too.

8. Build in support and PLN. I support them with planning, modeling, and/or team-teaching. Providing critical feedback helps nurture ideas and think through steps. Guiding them to resources and setting up that infrastructure for sharing resources (i.e. through Diigo groups), is also extremely important for their success. Anytime we can provide opportunities for building PLN, it's a win-win.

9. Celebrate the successes. I like to celebrate their successes by blogging about it. Teachers and students are very proud to have someone else recognize their achievements, especially when they reflect on what they've learned and how they've grown from their learning experience.

10. Coaching should connect with the district vision. If it doesn't all connect, we won't have a common goal and vision. I'm assuming that the vision is valued by the district, and the administration believe in it. If they do, then coaching is a way to help them support and sustain their goals. Hence, administration buy in must be there to support coaching, otherwise it's limited to the influence and success of the coach.

Special thanks goes out to Peer Ed for all the support you have given AJUSD with Peer Coaching! I also want to thank Sandy Rollefstad and Lynn Cook for helping me brainstorm my ten tips!

Connecting in PLNs

2011-06-18T13:17:00.000-07:00

The Edublogs PLN Teacher Challenge #2 gives me an opportunity to ask what questions I have about PLNs and share some insight.

Connecting

I want to connect with innovative educators who are passionate about learning-centered classrooms. I am rewarded when I learn and can help others grow, because of the impact it makes on the students.

Developing PLNs are like developing friendships. It takes time. It's easier when I have similar goals and common things to discuss, or can respectfully challenge each other with new ideas. I need to contribute as much as I take, otherwise it's an unbalanced relationship, which won't last.

My One-to-One PLN Needs

My job title is "Technology Integration Specialist" for AJUSD. I spend over half my time in K-12 classrooms working with students and teachers. The other half of my time is spent helping teachers with resources, project based learning, creating/facilitating professional development, and setting goals for future implementation.

I am the only Technology Integration Specialist in the district, which is why it's so important that I have a PLN to help me process ideas and grow.

Last year we took all 7th graders (Class of 2016) in the district to a one-to-one environment. Next year, it will be 7th (Class of 2017) & 8th graders (Class of 2016). As the Class of 2016 goes through the grades, they will continue with the one-to-one environment and so will the classes who succeed them.

Where do I connect with other ed techs, leaders, and teachers who are in one-to-one environments and/or starting the process of going to one?

My Blended Learning PLN Needs

At the High School level, we are looking at blended learning. Our thoughts are to have Bloom's lower level (lecture/content) delivered digitally, whereas class time would capitalize on Bloom's higher levels and PBL. I am interested in knowing if our vision is more like that of the Flipped Classroom?

Outside of one person, I have not connected with ed techs, leaders, and teachers who are on this same path (at least I don't think I have). It seems like everything I've found is already established, however we are in the early stages of planning and preparing. I would like my PLN to reflect this.

Grow your PLN

I primarily connect with my PLN via blogs, Twitter, and even Diigo. I've heard much about the Educator's PLN on Ning, and even found The Flipped Class Network on Ning, but I don't know where to start. Do you have any tips for me?

Final Thoughts

Even though this post is about my PLN goals and insight, I'd like to hear about yours.

How do you connect with your PLN?
What would you like to learn about PLNs, or what insight can you share from having one?
Are you involved in the Edublog PLN Teacher Challenge?
Are there any thoughts or feedback you'd like to share about this post/PLNs?

Thanks Edublogs for once again catering to my needs by bringing people together who also want to develop their PLNs!

Fail Forward

2011-06-13T22:53:00.000-07:00

I was reminded what it felt like to be incredibly frustrated with technology.

Perceptions of Failure

I had everything ready for my first BlackBoard Collaborate webinar where I was a guest of Shelee King George for Peer Coaching. My computer was ready, and just in case, I had Plan B set up -- my laptop was booted up with the URL typed in.

When it was time to start, my computer crashed and my laptop froze. Panic. Anxiety. I ended up using our System Admin's computer because neither of mine would reboot.

Pictures by AJUSD's Brian Killgore

I was taking a risk and trying something new, but didn't feel like I was connecting with my audience because I couldn't see nor hear them. Plus, I didn't feel like my calm collected self after the technical errors.

I easily could have dismissed the whole experience and told myself, "I guess it's just not the medium for me, so I'll never try that again."

Time Gives Perspective, even Inspiration

The following two days were filled with fabulous training. I had the privilege of facilitating training for AJUSD's second group of Collaboration Coaches.

During our training, I was inspired by three teachers who used new mediums to create a multi-media presentation to introduce Collaboration Coaching to their staff. They experienced some technical difficulties, but instead of giving up and dismiss using technology, they stuck with it and figured it out.

By falling in the pitfalls, they learned how to successfully navigate around them for next time, to achieve their goal quicker.

Fail Forward

These few days were a great reminder of frustration, but also a reminder to fail forward. Remembering John Maxwell's words of wisdom to pick yourself up and continue on is essential in leadership.

Even though my first webinar did not go the way I envisioned, it went much better than how I perceived it, and the rest of the week was epic. I am glad for the opportunity to learn from perceived failures, and to turn those into successes.

Click here to listen to the recording of the webinar, and skip ahead to 2:30 for the start of our webinar.

How do you help others (or yourself) when frustrated with technology?
Do you find that time and reflection gives strength and perspective?
Failing does not make you a failure. Do you agree?
What do you do to get over a failure?
How else does this post connect with you?

Special thanks to Shelee King George and Peer Ed for being so supportive. Collaboration Coaching has made such an amazing impact on our district! Thanks to Brian Killgore for sitting through the webinar, and for the images used here in my post.

Beyond 4 Walls -- Building PLN

2011-06-05T13:57:00.000-07:00

I'm filled with excitement as we move beyond the four walls of our classroom to build our Personal Learning Network (PLN).

What is a PLN?

Watch this fabulous 2 minute interview of Steven Anderson explaining the difference between a PLC and PLN, and its power.

Our Growth

In the past year, almost 70 AJUSD educators joined Diigo to start sharing resources. Approximately 100 AJUSDers subscribed to blogs in Google Reader, and roughly 30 educators started Twitter accounts, including me.

One-to-One

We started moving to a one-to-one environment at Cactus Canyon Junior High (CCJH). Our professional development (PD) throughout the year focused on pedagogy, which naturally included differentiating instruction with technology. Therefore our PD modeled our beliefs.

Skype Beyond 4 Walls

When we focused on engaging students with authentic purpose, we discussed blogs. There were three PD options for our CCJH educators tiered to their needs. Since this is so new to us, our "advanced" option focused mainly on global awareness and commenting on blogs.

Mr. Salsich's Class Blog

We were fortunate to have Jonah Salsich as our expert guest via Skype to answer questions and provide resources. This was our first Skype experience for PD, and Salsich's expertise was incredible. It opened our eyes to the power of moving beyond the four walls of our classroom with our learners, in addition to the power of PLN.

Final Remarks

As I reflect on this past year, I'm encouraged by our progress and look forward to seeing where we will be this time next year!

How has your experience with growing in a PLN made an impact?
How do you move beyond the four walls of the classroom?
What else would you like to add to this discussion?

Special thanks to Nick Sauers for coming out for 1:1 training and getting AJUSD teachers hooked up on Twitter & RSS in Google Reader amongst all the other things you did. Special thanks to Jonah Salsich for going above and beyond to help others out!

PBL is not Project Oriented Learning

2011-05-30T06:50:00.000-07:00

Many people confuse project-based learning with project oriented learning. I like how this High Tech High video explains the difference:

Main Point

Doing a project at the end of a unit is project oriented learning, and that is not project-based learning.

What is PBL?

Project-Based Learning is authentic learning that is focused on answering an essential question (or driving question).

This High Tech High video has a great tip for PBL, which is do the project yourself before giving it to the class.

Final Remarks

What tips can you share about discerning between PBL and project oriented learning?
When is project oriented learning valuable? - And how can you portray that it's not PBL?
What tips can you share about Project-Based Learning?

My post was inspired by 21k12's post on What PBL Isn't, and What it Is: 2 Videos by High Tech High.

Digital Footprints

2011-05-23T16:50:00.000-07:00

After reading Kathleen Morris' post about digital footprints and LinkedIN, I thought very carefully about the digital footprints of educators.

Some rights reserved by anneh632

What are Digital Footprints?

During my first year of marriage, my front yard was the Pacific Ocean. Everyday I took a walk along the beach and loved feeling the wet sand on my feet. Even though the footprints I left would wash away, I loved looking at the path and trail I left.

Digital footprints are similar because they are the imprints made in the digital world. They are different because they are the permanent mark left in the digital world by individuals.

Why do Digital Footprints matter?

They are the permanent record of your online behaviors, which reflect your attitudes and beliefs. Once digital prints are made online, it's fossilized for the world to see. The world can pay attention now or later because your fossil does not erase -- even if you delete it.

Where do we leave Digital Footprints?

They are left anywhere there is a digital environment: online, cell phone text messages, airwaves, etc. So, regardless of professional or personal use, the digital footprint leaves the same mark -- a permanent one.

Tips that Guide my Digital Footprints

Does it show integrity?
Did I remember netiquette?

Would I say it in front of my child, an assembly of parents & students, and my friends -- and still feel good about what I said later in life? It's very possible that one of them may view my words one day, so asking this question is a good start.

Is it okay to share? I remember a young prayer group from many years ago, and hearing prayer requests that I felt should not have been shared aloud with the group. For example, "Please pray for a situation I am having with someone that I won't name, but this is what happened ... XYZ..." By the end of the prayer request, everyone knew who was being spoken about. It made me uncomfortable and I felt less detail would have shown more integrity, while maintaining absolute faithfulness in the power of prayer. -- For me, digital footprints follow the same thought process. So, I won't share something told in confidence.

Did I pause before posting? One thing I started doing recently is pace my posts out. Once I've written the final draft, I wait to post it. I am trying a minimum of 24 hours before posting, which will give me fresh eyes to edit/revise again, and it might give perspective on my post. That time of reflection is valuable to me.

Feedback

What other tips can you share to guide your digital footprints?
What advice could you give someone about their digital footprints?

Thanks Edublogs for teaching me about "Digital Footprints" through the Teacher & Student Challenges, and thanks Kathleen Morris for being a model of positive digital footprints. I have learned so much through all of you!

Reflection of a Peer Coach Facilitator

2011-05-20T22:28:00.000-07:00

I learned so much this year about what it takes to launch and sustain success in peer coaching. We wanted to highlight the "collaboration" needed in successful peer coaching; hence we don't call them peer coaches, but rather "Collaboration Coaches."

From the Beginning

Our district made the decision to tap into teachers who naturally collaborated with colleagues, engaged kids with 21st century thinking, and created student-centered classrooms. The idea was to train them so their strengths became even stronger.

Why Collaboration Coaching

Peer Coaching was sponsored by Microsoft on Microsoft's Partners in Learning Site. The facilitator training by Peer Ed's Shelee King George was superb, and it provided me with a tried and true floor plan for training others.

We took that training and blended it with our District Vision and Plan. The training builds skills to foster the culture of collaboration because there was an expectation for collaborating with peers, and their beliefs reflected those expectations.

I believe the Coaching Chronicles created by Valinda Wells captured this in her GoAnimate4Schools:

GoAnimate.com: CollaborativeCoaching2

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Behind the Scenes

I appreciate the district I work in because the leadership models collaborative culture. Jon Castelhano, Director of Technology, always helped me bounce ideas around and gave suggestions for how to move forward. Educational Services also had helpful insight. I appreciated having a team to provide critical feedback.

On the Front Line

While my role was more behind the scenes, the teachers were on the front line. They were the ones transforming education in the classrooms to match the needs of their learners on a daily basis. I applaud them for the fabulous jobs they have done!

Relationships

Building relationships was pivotal in the process. Watching the coaches build relationships with each other and their colleagues was inspiring, and that influenced how they related to the students.

I absolutely adore these teachers and am so grateful for the friendships built. I love being part of an institution that believes in building people up, tapping into their strengths, and doing what's best for learners.

This post was written as a reflection as the first year of Collaboration Coaching ends, and the second year will soon begin.

Innovative Learning in High School

2011-05-13T10:42:00.000-07:00

This is the second post in a three part series to highlight some awesomeness, and to ask for others to share or provide more ideas.

Coaching Chronicles

The following Coaching Chronicles was created by our High School Collaboration Coaches as their reflection on the 2010-2011 school year.

Collaboration Coaching at AJHS has allowed us to better use our instructional time and resources to effectively engage and inspire students. Through training sessions and frequent interactions, we have been able to share ideas, receive encouragement, and seek guidance on lesson plans. In looking forward we anticipate creating a stronger support system, increasing student achievement and accountability, and discovering resources to better teach 21st Century skills.

Created by Elizabeth Francois, Sandy Rollefstad, and Jerry Paterson.

What I appreciated was their understanding for collaborating and building professional learning communities. Prezis spread like wildfires in the classrooms because the students were given opportunities to engage in more mediums, and teachers started having conversations about what was working in their classrooms. Those conversations led to trying new things to focus on the learners.

OK Go and Rube Goldberg

Physics students were given the task to build Rube Goldberg Machines. Kids were engaged as they watched the OK Go "This Too Shall Pass" video. But who knew so much physics were involved? AJHS teacher Sandy Rollefstad did, and she used it to ignite interest in learning.

Rollefstad's students grappled the physics and collaboration to create their own Rube Goldberg Machines.

Student reflection-- Q: "How do you feel this project helped you learn about physics and simple machines?"

A: It broke it down to make it more understandable for me. Not just a video and a test on it.
A: I really loved this project because it was a perfect project for a kinesthetic learner like me. It helped me understand the six simple machines as well as many of the properties of physics.
A: We got to learn more about physics and simple machines from it because we used them to power and successfully/unsuccessfully run our Rube Goldberg machines. :-)

Science Symposium

Panda + Lion = "Landa"

Rollefstad saw the power of an authentic purpose and authentic audience, and entered her AP Biology students in the Central Arizona College's (CAC) 8th annual Academic Symposium. "The Symposium is an academic conference where students share original projects, research or talents with other students and faculty."

"We were charged with the task of realistically hybridizing two living organisms, and to treat the resultant species as if it were an actual evolutionary path," explained AJHS student Ty.

It was amazing to listen to the students discuss what would happen if they actually created a new hybrid breed, and defend/debate the best traits and behaviors of their hybrid.

Those same students asked Mrs. Rollefstad to create a class blog for them to share their ideas with others. She wasn't going to hold them back.

She created an Edublogs class blog, which is ran by the students with teacher supervision.

Final Remarks

It's been almost twenty-five years since I was in high school, and I only remember a few brief moments of innovative learning, but never anything like this. I predict they will remember this twenty-five years from now.

What innovative learning will your students remember twenty-five years from now?
How is the focus shifting from teaching to learning in your classrooms?
Is there anything I should add to this, or anything you want to add?

I thank the AJHS teachers for opening doors and talking to each other. When I asked Sandy Rollefstad how she got the idea to introduce Prezis to students, she let me know it was the teacher next door... who heard from the collaboration coach, Francois, in the middle of the campus. Awesome!

Inspiring Elementary Learners

2011-05-08T09:17:00.000-07:00

Our year is wrapping up, and as it does, I'd like to dedicate the next several posts to celebrating some fabulous educators and incredible learning, starting with the AJUSD elementary level.

Celebrating Collaboration

As a reflective piece on our school year, the Elementary Collaboration Coaches worked together to create this "Coaching Chronicles" during our Microsoft Peer Coach Training:

Elementary Collaboration Coaches from Shauna Hamman on Vimeo.

This Vimeo was created by Shauna Hamman, Gina Fraher, Amber Moore, Mary Kate Robertson, and Erica Modzelewski.

Their video captured the essence of our focus to engage kids.

21st Century Research Report

Watching the 5th grade kids at Four Peaks Elementary School collaborate on 21st century state reports reminded me of Reflections of a Techie's post about the importance of digital research to survive in the post K-12 world.

Hamman's 5th grader discussed the quality of sites by looking at the URL to see if it was a .edu or .gov site and to look at the date it was published/updated. They collaborated throughout the writing process and created quality reports. It was inspiring to watch the enthusiasm in a 21st century learning-centered classroom.

Mrs. Fraher's Kenya Buddie

Kenya Buddies

There are some things that no matter how it's taught, it just won't have the same impact as it would if students connected with it first hand. It's valuable for students to connect with others around the globe, and they absolutely love it.

Gina Fraher's students learned so much this year from their Kenya Buddies. The kids realized how much they had in common, and experienced the impact of global connections.

Applying Mathematics in Real Life to Better the Community

One of the things I appreciate from Edutopia is their focus on real world connections as motivation for learners. Amber Moore's 3rd graders loved applying what they learned about perimeter, area, and money to create a flowerbed with a $100 budget, and donate it to someone in the community.

They were so motivated by the challenge to plan the whole project from scratch, that they didn't even realize how much they were problem solving, thinking, and using their math skills... not to mention learning a valuable lesson about philanthropy!

Student Blogging Challenge

The benefits of classroom blogging are numerous, and students in Melissa Martinez's Language Arts classes learned all about blogging when they entered the Edublogs Student Blogging Challenge. They wrote for an authentic purpose and real audience.

Their posts reflect real world connections to science, ecology, and learning through their Outdoor Classroom. Their Outdoor Classroom Habitat is the product of the vision, passion, and commitment of 4th grade teacher Julia Goucher.

Final Remarks

Learning becomes relevant when it connects beyond the four walls of the classroom. Students thrive in authentic contexts, knowing their ideas, learning, and work are valued by others and add meaning to other lives.

What success stories can you share for creating 21st century learning-centered classrooms?
How do our learners feel when they connect to a real community?
What questions or thoughts can you add about inspiring learners?

I want to thank educators for making a difference in the lives of our learners... and grateful for those who are inspired to learn. Happy Teacher's Week!

Blogger's Groove

2011-04-30T13:43:00.000-07:00

Mrs. Martinez's students have got their groove on! Here's how we approached the Week 7's Edublog Student Challenge:

Review what we've done so far -- which also sparks excitement.
Look at the Edublogs Student Challenge.
Narrow it down to the three of activities we are most excited about.
Split the class into three groups.
Collaboratively work through the writing steps.
Share and celebrate our posts.

The Writing Steps, A Collaborative Effort

We brainstorm in a think-pair-share format.
Discuss and decide the outline of the blog, such as the main points of the introduction, the body, and the conclusion.
Decide who will write which part. If more than one student wants to write about it, that's fine, they can work together. If nobody is interested in writing one of the ideas from their brainstorm, then that's fine too, and they leave it out.
Students start writing (use paper if computers are being used).

Collaborating on Google Apps

We let a group of students go to the 6 computers in the classroom to start this process. They compose their writing by sharing one document in Google Apps.
For now, it's easiest if the teacher sets up a template with their outline and who will write where.
Edit/Revise with partners.
Note when sharing equipment: It's key to have time limits to rotate the students to the computers. If they don't finish, then they either move to the teacher's computer, and she can help with the final steps, or they can jump back on the computer later in the day. Some elect to finish on paper to not lose time.

Variation of the Brainstorm -- Using Answer Garden

What was your favorite part of Science Night? Answer Garden

We brainstormed on Answer Garden. I liked that it took less than a minute to set up, and limited the students to just a few key words.

Answer Garden would also be fabulous for word choice, evaluating strengths of a post/comment, or brainstorm titles of a post.

Tip: When you are done with the Answer Garden, take a screen shot to share it instead of embedding the open discussion box on Answer Garden. Anyone can go in and add to the discussion on Answer Garden... and it won't always be monitored.

Teacher's Time

In class, we mainly facilitate, set goals, and discuss the writing process/mechanics in context.

We still do the final editing to make sure the layout looks okay. The visuals are mainly our efforts because students are still learning how to do this.

Tagging, categorizing, and placing the Edublog Student Challenge URL in the trackback area is also something we take care of.

Tracy as Coach

Even though I love the classroom, learning with the students and Mrs. Martinez, I also know it's time to step back to allow Mrs. Martinez to take lead, and for me to be more of a side-kick.

Today Mrs. Martinez to did most of the facilitation. She's in the groove. I will continue to step back more and more to allow this to be entirely hers.

Questions to Ponder on Blogger's Groove

I'd love to hear from you, whether it's to share your insight or to ask questions.

What's worked for you to maximize time for blogging?
How have you gotten the students more involved with the final editing of the layout, tagging, categorizing, trackbacks, and inserting pictures? What advice can you share?
What questions do you have for me on blogging or as my role as the Technology Integration Specialist?
Anything else you wish to comment on?

This post was inspired by my blogging experiences with Mrs. Martinez through the Edublog Student Challenge. Thank you Edublogs! PS I'm putting questions back in my concluding remarks. :-)

Great Leaders Focus and Build Teams

2011-04-26T20:11:00.000-07:00

Forbes blog post, "Suddenly Noticed By Big Investors, Kevin Tanner's RIA Is Bracing For Billions Of AUM," caught my attention as I thought about educational leadership.

Kevin Tanner focused on his strengths and passions. "He was never as interested in financial planning and spent his time perfecting his investing methodologies."

He wasn't content with running things the way others did just because that's how it's always been done.

Great Leadership

Great leaders invest in their strengths and imagine the possibilities. Great leaders see where they are going, plan for it, remain focused on the goal, and know how to develop others.

John Maxwell, author of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, describes this as "the law of navigation." The fear of change doesn't hold back great leaders because they intuitively strategize and plan for success.

They value the strengths of others, and recognize that building other leaders and tapping into their strengths just makes them better at what they do.

Kevin Tanner knew this. He hired people to do all the non-investment tasks so he could focus on his strengths and passions -- investing.

Tanner's company, Saratoga Research & Investment Management, is in the top 1%.

Connecting Leaders and Learners

Building relationships and connecting is key in this process. Lyn Hilt addressed this point in "Becoming the Lead Learner" on the Connected Principal:

We must connect. If you’re capable of connecting and learning from those in your physical realm, consider the power of building relationships with other inspiring educators from around the world. Too often we think: how could that person’s experiences help me when their schools and circumstances differ so greatly from mine? That’s precisely the reason we can learn so much from one another. I have as much to learn from a high school principal in an urban school setting as I do from an elementary principal in a neighboring district. The varied perspectives are invaluable.

Invest in Others

Leaders invest in others to pursue their passions and try something new. When we target the goal, such as pursuing what's best for learners, then change should be expected.

Jeff Delp's posted about helping others develop their passions on the Connected Principal. Check out this true story of passion, vision, and using their strengths:

It's a journey that can't be done alone. It requires a team working together towards a common goal.

Great leaders know investing in others as leaders are worth every ounce of energy, because in the long run everyone profits.

Personal Connections

I am slowly connecting the dots to what leadership means. As I do, I notice leaders everywhere. Some I barely know, but recognize their building others in their classrooms and PLNs. Some, I have the honor of working with and appreciate their dedication to building team. Other leaders I've known my whole life, and never thought to pause and say Wow.

Final Thoughts

I'd love to hear what insight you have to share about leadership!

How do you build relationships and connect with others?
What else makes a leader great?
How do great leaders build team?

This post was inspired by great leaders who connect with others. Thanks to Kathleen Morris, Linda Yollis, Miss W, and Sue Waters for all you do to build others. Thanks to Larry LaPrise for investing in and building leaders. Thanks to Jon Castelhano for believing in me, encouraging me to do my best, and having strengths where I do not. Special thanks to Kevin Tanner for being an inspiration to me my entire life -- I love you Big Brother and am so proud of you!

Blogging and RSS

2011-04-24T13:27:00.000-07:00

I don't want to make the same mistake I've made in the past of going all in teaching everything I know about a topic all at once. Professional development needs to be tailored to the readiness level and rolled out in layers over time.

To be honest, it requires discipline on my part to not share everything because I'm excited and want to push on to the next step. The other day I held a class introducing blogging and RSS through Google Reader. My goals were to introduce them to what blogging was, and how they play a role in education. They serve as self-selected professional development and a way students can share with an authentic audience.

It's important to tier professional development training in layers just like I would new content for students. In a one to two hour training, less is more. That means introducing less new concepts is more effective than introducing many new concepts, especially when it comes to educational technology.

There are some who were ready for more, so pointing them in the right direction is key. I plan on personally connecting with each of them. Making my first bundle for them was also guidance towards the next step.

I want to thank Edublogs for the Teacher Challenges. They guide me, taking one step at a time. Thank you!

Choice Boards for Language Arts

2011-04-22T13:06:00.000-07:00

A teacher recently asked me for suggestions for her choice board to differentiate a novel.

Options for Choice Boards for Differentiating Novels:

Become one of the characters in your book. Decide what motivates him/her and what his/her goals are. What would that person want to achieve or need from others if this person were alive today? Using the digital medium of your choice, persuade the audience to ...
Maintain a Google Form or Wiki page in QAR (question-answer & relationship) format during your reading.
Act as a news anchor or reporter and publicize an event from the book. You may use the digital medium of your choice such as a digital video, Voki, etc.
Rewrite a scene from the book as a script for today or the future. What would be the same/different if the setting were different?
What is the author's theme? Create an original fable or folktale to explain that theme, moral, lesson, or commentary on life.

Tips

I focus on the learning standards, and make sure it is meaningful to the students. I use Bloom's Taxonomy to pick higher levels of thinking, which also cuts down on kids copying/pasting something that's already on the Internet. Having students create products that could be published on the web are also favorable. Furthermore, I try not to limit them to certain technology tools; however, giving suggestions is always important.

What ideas would you add to this list?

Thank you, Lisa, for always wanting to push learners to the next level, and for your willingness to tap into others.

Power of Vision

2011-04-19T11:45:00.000-07:00

Changing culture requires a change in expectations of behaviors. Those behaviors will produce beliefs, which will affect culture... and it starts with the vision.

I applaud Dr. Wilson, AJUSD Superintendent, for focusing on what's best for learners. As a result, AJUSD's shared vision is “Arizona’s First Choice … Excellence In Everything We Do.”

The plan to fulfill the vision shoots for College Readiness for All, by concentrating on one-to-one opportunities, individualized instruction, project based learning, and 21st century learning through rigor, relevance, and relationships.

The decisions made in the district connect back to the vision, and ultimately the question, "What's best for learners?"

I want to thank Steven W. Anderson for retweeting -- RT @mrhgaddis: Greatest video on power and vision. I wouldn't have found this without your Tweet. Thank you Dr. Wilson for the vision.

Creative Commons, Copyrights, and Google Images

2011-04-14T12:24:00.000-07:00

Where are the lines and boundaries for copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons? Copyrights extend to photos, music, art, ideas, etc. Fair Use can be difficult to understand, open to interpretation, and if I understand correctly, don't extend outside the United States. So, if I'm running under the assumption that it's okay to use the image if attributed correctly, then what if the image was from contributed from outside the U.S.?

Digital Citizenship

I try to get teachers to think outside the four walls of the classroom, and how technology allows us to connect with others around the globe. The last thing I want to do is upset someone on the other side of the world because I used an image that was acceptable under Fair Use for Educators, but not acceptable on their part of the world. Now what?

Create my Own

I love creating my own. Hey, I minored in fine art in college, so it's natural for me. Do I have the time to create my own? Not always, and others can do a much better job than I.

Creative Commons

There is an answer, it's called Creative Commons. Dare I share that I hadn't heard of Creative Commons prior to the Edublog Teacher Challenge?

Types of Creative Commons Licenses

There are a few different Creative Commons licenses. Always give credit to the original, and it's best to place a link directly to it.

Key: CC means Creative Commons

Attribution By -- You allow others to use your work the way you've requested, provided they give credit to you.

the ND = means NoDerivs (no derivatives) the original can't be changed.

the SA means Share Alike, which means others can make derivatives (changes to the original), but can only license it identical to the license that governs your own work.

the NC means Non-Commercial, so you can't make a profit off of it.

How do I know if the images are under Creative Commons?

Sue Waters made a brilliant post on searching for Creative Commons in the Edublogs Teacher Challenge. I can use her suggestions when I'm at home; however, I found using Compfight (on safe mode) and Flickr CC weren't viable options to use within my school district. I discovered the Advanced Search in Google does allow you to search Creative Commons.

Step 2. Advanced Search

Searching for Creative Commons in Google

Go to www.google.com.
Click on "Advanced Search." This is just to the right of the search box.
Click on the + to expand the "Date, usage rights, numeric range, and more."

Step 3. Expanded Date, usage rights, ...

In the "Usage Rights," select the license you wish to search for.

Step 4. Usage Rights

Giving Credit Properly

This is what should be cited:

Credit to creator
Title of the work
A link to the URL where the work is hosted
The type of license

My Pledge

I pledge to do my best to share this information with others, walk the talk, and educate students and teachers how to use Creative Commons.

I want to thank Edublogs Teacher and Student Challenges for introducing so many to Creative Commons. Thank you Techie Brekkie for your post on Creative Commons. I want to thank ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries andInnovation through Creative Commons Australia and the Copyright Advisory Group of the Ministerial Council of Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs for the information on searching for Creative Commons in Google.

Authentic Learning through Edublogs

2011-04-08T16:15:00.000-07:00

As the only Technology Integration Specialist in the AJUSD district, I focus on technology that fosters student learning. I spend over half my time in the classroom with students and teachers. I always tailor it to the teacher's readiness because I want the teacher to find it practical and beneficial to continue what we've started, even when I'm not physically in the class helping.

The Edublogs Class Challenge is a wise investment of time because the students learn with a meaningful purpose, and the teacher continues with the blogging. It's her blog and she loves it. I am thrilled about our success!

Today we set huge goals, and have completed many of them.

Now that the students are used to the procedures of blogging, and how we use our time, we can dive into it more.

Tips for Managing Class Blogging

Graphic organizers help with success, by allowing them to focus on their task.
Collaborating on one document in Google Apps has been extremely beneficially with time management.

Google Apps Collaboration

This is the second year these kids have used Google Apps, and possibly the first time we've had so many of them collaborating on the same thing at the same time.

It helped to have one student create the document and share it with everyone working on it. Then we gathered around and discussed who should type which part. Then the students typed it up. Afterwards, we revised together. Our last step was teaching them how to insert hyperlinks. They loved their results!

Student Posts

Portions of the original post based on the Edublog Student Challenge is pasted below. I've included hyperlinks to the students' posts we completed today. I know they'd love your comments, so please take a gander.

Our goals for blogging this upcoming week are:

Finishing Challenge 1 Tasks:

A -- Group 1 Blog Prompt: Why should students and classes visit our blog?
Let's finish this challenge by typing up what we had written

From Challenge 2:

C -- Activity 2: Create a class poster or video about our commenting guidelines
We get to do the next step, which is teach others about making quality comments by using our commenting guidelines.
Sum up the guidelines. Then copy/paste them into Fodey.com.

Challenge 3 Tasks:

E -- Prompt for Activity 1: Write a post about our widget tracking visitors in the sidebar of our blog. What do you notice about it? Then, go to 2 other blogs in our Blogroll and compare and contrast widgets that also track visitors. What do you like about theirs? Remember to leave links so others can go see.

H -- Prompt for Activity 4: Even though we did not take part in World Water Day, we did take a field trip to Project WET. What did we learn? Why do you think World Water Day is important?

Challenge 4: How do you find your way around a blog?

J -- Prompt for Activity 1: How is our blogroll categorized? How are others organized? Use your graphic organizer to take notes. Compare and contrast them.

Blog Challenge 3 and 4 Graphic Organizers.

This post was inspired by the Edublogs Student Challenge. Thank you for providing this opportunity for students around the world!

A Day of Tech P.D. for Educational Services

2011-04-06T19:39:00.000-07:00

It was such a pleasure to provide professional development for our Educational Services team.

Google Form -- Pretty, isn't it?

I loved using technology to start us off. In a Google Form, they completed a survey. The form had three sections. It had some questions to collect data of their prior knowledge. There was a section on norms where they checked the boxes of norms they thought were suitable for today's training, and an option to type a norm in. The norms that the majority agreed on were:

Be positive.
Help each other out.
Be willing to try.
Have fun.

They also wrote three descriptions for the Ed Serv team. We then took those descriptions and created a word cloud in Wordle.

What I liked was modeling how easy a Google Form was to use. We viewed the summary of data to show what areas we should focus on. Plus, it got them thinking about how they could use this in their own professional development.

Thanks Theresa Bartholomew for Fodey idea!

Other topics of the morning were:

Back Channel
Introduction to wikis through Titan Pad -- so we could use the "chat" as our Back Channel, and we could take group notes in the wiki space.
Doc Camera basics specific to the two types of doc cams in the district.
SMART Board basics specific to the different sites.
An introduction to blogs -- we had enough time to check out my BlogRoll and briefly touch on the role of blogs in education.
The majority of our time was looking at Google Apps features, documents, and forms. There have been a few changes/improvements that we went over.

It was encouraging to hear the discussion on how they could use these in the next professional development they provide and amongst themselves.

I want to thank Heather Wallace for asking me to do this and for brainstorming what things we wanted PD on. I absolutely loved planning and facilitating today. Special thanks to Theresa Bartholomew for co-facilitating during portions of today. I loved learning with you all!

Creating Positive Digital Footprints through Class Blogging Challenge

2011-03-31T15:57:00.000-07:00

Our second challenge in the Edublogs Student Challenge is about creating online identities and leaving quality comments on other blogs.

Avatars and comments go together because when the avatar is uploaded to the user's name, it shows when the making comments.

Activity 1: Create our Class Avatar Slideshow

Part 1: Make an Avatar

Each individual will create an avatar using the options I have listed below. Avatars are digital representations of yourself. Decide what you like the best, and what represents your personality or traits.

Build Your Wild Self

This site is from the New York Zoos and Aquarium, which allows you to become a person and animal hybrid.

This is the "Wild Self" my 5 year old daughter created for me. She did not like the spider leg or scorpion option, but it was fun to try.

You'll need to print screen to capture your picture for this site.

Picasso Head

This was a fun site to build a Picasso-like head. No sign up is needed, just create and save or email it. I used the print screen method to save it.

These avatars are a little more artsy because they are cubist in Picasso's style.

Wimp Yourself

This one is based off of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Again, no log in is needed. It gives you a link to what you've created. However, I still used the print screen to save it.

This one is quick to make. If my daughter made it her way, my eyes would be hearts.

Doppel Me

You actually don't need to create an account to use Doppel Me, however if you do it gives more options. We won't be doing that in class.

Just click "create" and get started. At the end, you'll need to use the print screen method to save it.

Reasonably Clever - Classic Kid-Safe Mini-Mizer

For this site, you have to "picture yourself in plastic." In other words, what would you look like if you were a Lego person?

I saved it through a print screen.

Reasonably Clever - Blockhead

Again, what type of blockhead could represent you? This was the closest "me" that I came up with. Print screen was how I saved it.

My Avatar Editor

This one was like creating my Wii avatar. When I was done, I chose the "export" option. I remembered to resize it as smaller, and zoomed it to fit, then saved it as a jpeg to my computer.

Harry Potter Doll Maker

If you like Harry Potter, then now's your chance to create your own variation of a Harry Potter character. After creating my "Harry Potter" avatar, I saved it as a GIF image. I then had to reformat to a jpeg.

Management of this task:

If our students want to save anything they create, it must be in "the cloud" (Google Apps). Therefore, this takes a little more time. I gave the kids 5 - 10 minutes of free time to explore which avatar they wanted to create.

By the end of 10 minutes, we saved their avatar by clicking print screen, then we reshaped it and saved it as a jpeg. We emailed it to me to save. If there was extra time, the student also saved it in Google Apps.

Part 2: Class Avatar Slideshow

After we create our avatars, we'll create a slideshow. Based on student recommendations from Mrs. Martinez's class, you should view this example from Global SPUDS placed in Animoto.

Management Tip:
Throughout the day, I'd grab the jpegs from my email, resize when needed, and save it to my hard drive. Then, I'd upload them into the Animoto.

Here's our final product:

This post is inspired by the Edublog Student Challenge.

Students are Challenged to Blog

2011-03-26T21:31:00.000-07:00

One of my highlights this past week was the day I spent team teaching in Mrs. Martinez's 4th grade class. We have entered the Class Blog Student Challenge: A global blogging challenge for students of all ages.

During the past few weeks, we have focused on setting up our blog (posting guidelines), Internet safety, and how to leave a comment for others. We are now ready to start on the actual challenge.

Group 1: What should we blog about?

What can we write about that others will find interesting?
What will readers learn from our blog?
What can we contribute that could help others?

Group 1 Blog Prompt: Why should students and classes visit our blog?

Group 2: Compare and Contrast "About" pages

You are a detective looking for similarities and differences between the "About" pages on the blogs in our Blogroll?
What is similar and different with our "About" page and theirs?
Use our graphic organizer, and take notes as you find answers.

Group 2 Blog Prompt: Write a post comparing the "About" pages. Remember to include links back to those class blogs, and remember we are digital citizens.

Group 3: Introduce our Class to the World in a Slideshow

If there were only 10 pictures you could take to introduce our class, what pictures would we use to show our best qualities?
Create a plan of what pictures (indoors and outdoors) best depicts us. Be ready to defend why.
Use the graphic organizer to complete the task.
There is one more step, but you will be given the specific directions in class. In order to receive the directions, you will need to complete the above graphic organizer with superb quality.

Group 3 Blog Prompt: Write a brief introduction of our class based on our graphic organizer. You will then create an animoto with images of your classroom or school to embed in your post.

Group 4: Visit your Buddy Classes

Visit two sites from our Blogroll (you will be assigned which sites to visit).
Find a post to leave a comment on.
You must follow our comment guidelines and procedures.
Use the graphic organizer to take notes what you found interesting.

Group 4 Blog Prompt: Write a post about visiting other class blogs. Tell what you found interesting. Remember to include links back to those class blogs, and remember we are digital citizens.

Blog Challenge 1 Graphic Organizers

Classroom Management

In order to maximize time and get everyone involved, we approached this challenge jigsaw style. It was very important to have the graphic organizers ready for each group.

After introducing the challenge activities, we broke the class into groups. It was best to get Groups 3 and 1 on task first because Groups 2 and 4 would require my assistance on the computers since this was our first time everyone was going to the blog, and procedures are still being established for this.

Group 3 Management -- Photos for Animoto

With one digital camera available, we only had four students in Group 3 working on the photos for creating an Animoto. I waited until they were in a small group to explain they were actually going to take pictures around the school, but they had to have their plan mapped out first (see graphic organizer for Group 3).

I brought up what to do if there were differences of opinions in the group and allowed them to brainstorm what to do to resolve it. When it was clear they understood the task and they were prepared for collaboration, I let them get to work. I knew this would take some time to map out, which allowed me to focus on the other groups.

I checked in on them periodically. Before giving them the digital camera, we made sure the photo resolution was set to the lowest setting for ease in uploading them to the blog. When it was time to give them the equipment, we discussed the following key expectations:

Properly using the camera
Handling the equipment appropriately, with the wrist strap on at all times
Walking throughout the campus
Quiet voices
Staying together as a group
Not photographing students' faces
Organizing the order of locations to go to for the quickest route, and only giving them permission to go to those locations
There was a 10 minute limit they could be out of the classroom (which would be tight, but they could manage it)
Last of all, I told them I trust them to complete this task following all my expectations, and I know they will which will mean they get to do something like this in the future

When they returned, they worked with Mrs. Martinez on creating the Animoto. If I were the only teacher in the classroom, I'd do that part the following day during small group rotations/centers as our center.

Group 1 Management -- What will our blog be about and why should others visit it?

We got Group 1 started. It helped to have copies of the task and discussion questions. They discussed what they thought and brainstormed together verbally. Then they each wrote a paragraph expressing their ideas about the blog.

When their paragraph was ready, which was towards the end of class, they went to the open computers to type it as a post or a comment.

The timing for this worked nicely because Groups 2 and 4 were finishing up on the computers, which allowed them access to complete this task. For those who didn't get to type, they can finish it next week.

Management with Groups 2 and 4 -- About Pages and Visiting Buddy Classes

The hardware in the room determined how many students were in Groups 2 and 4. We have six thin clients in Mrs. Martinez room; therefore, we partnered them up, assigned them the classes to visit, and helped them log onto the computer.

I had to teach them how to find Mrs. Martinez's class blog as the starting point, and then how to navigate from there. Naturally, each group reviewed the commenting procedures with me.

For Group 2 -- About Pages, it worked best to have them read our About Page first, then look at another About page. Once they read through both, it was easy to compare and contrast.

The graphic organizer was extremely important to focus on their task, remember which blogs they were assigned, and take notes for their writing prompt at their seats. (I marked on their graphic organizer with a big green dot which ones they were assigned for clarity).

Group 4 finished their commenting task first, so they returned to their seats to write what they found interesting about the blogs they visited. Group 1 students were able to rotate to the computers to type their post/comments.

Group 2 kids also returned to their seats to write paragraphs comparing and contrasting the About pages. When they were done with their draft, they went back to an open computer to type, or turned it in.

Reflection

It was a success having students write with an authentic purpose and real audience. The discussions they had about composing and editing, along with the process of how to navigate throughout the blogs were fabulous.

It was a joy to watch the gamut of kids gain from this experience.

What's the Next Step?

Mrs. Martinez and I discussed how she can use blogging as their writing prompts and daily journals. We explored how to record grades for measuring growth while focusing on the standards.

Our next step is to complete all of Challenge 1, have students follow up with the discussions they've started as comments, and looking ahead to how we'll get parent involvement with the blog.

This blog was inspired by the Edublogs Student Challenge. I want to thank Miss W for all she does to inspire bloggers around the globe. I wrapped my head around how to approach this in the classroom when I visited her class blog and saw how she did it.

Class Blogging and Family Participation

2011-03-24T17:48:00.000-07:00

As part of the Edublogs Challenge, I am learning how to start a class blog. It's very important to include the families in this process. I used Kathleen Morris' fabulous example to guide me in creating my letter to introduce the class blog. Here is the first letter that I'm sending home with the students in the class:

Dear Families,

I am proud to announce Mrs. Martinez’s class blog. This blog is for both of her language arts classes.

I want to thank Mrs. Martinez for allowing me to team teach with her as we introduce blogging to her classes. For those of you who do not know me, I was a 5^th grade teacher at your school before I became the Technology Integration Specialist for AJUSD. While my Master’s in Education focused on Curriculum and Instruction, my specialties include project-based learning and technology integration. Again, I want to thank Mrs. Martinez for allowing me the ongoing opportunity to team teach our blogging project.

About the Blog

Mrs. Martinez's Class Blog

If you are unfamiliar with blogs, they are a place to share your thoughts and writing online. So far, our blog has been a website for the administrators, Mrs. Martinez and Mrs. Watanabe, to post in chronological order. At the top are links to pages with more information. On the left are the blog posts, and on the right is the tool bar to help us use the blog.

Purpose of our Blog

The purpose of this blog is to learn the art of writing and lessons of language arts through a real world experience with a real audience. Blogging is more than just reading and writing, it’s about respectfully conversing with others. Through this project, students will practice the responsibilities of digital citizenship and Internet safety.

Internet Safety

Internet safety is extremely important to us. Through blogging, the students have the opportunity to learn Internet safety and appropriate online behavior in an authentic and supervised setting. When you visit our blog, you will find links to Internet safety on the “About” page, and you can read what the students have written about also.

The following guidelines have been established:

1. Students, parents, and teachers will identify the students by their first names only. (If a parent comments, it should read “Tracy’s dad” instead of “Ken Watanabe”).

2. Keep personal information private, such as your last name, phone number, and where you live.

3. Respectful comments are allowed.

4. Proof-read comments are allowed.

5. Use complete sentences with appropriate grammar. (“Text talk” does not qualify).

6. All comments submitted must have teacher approval first.

7. Try to write comments that continue the conversation.

8. Try to find comments you agree with or made an impact on you, then add to the discussion.

We encourage you to participate in our blog by writing comments. We will send more information about this in our next blogging newsletter. If you have any questions about Mrs. Martinez’s blog, feel free to contact Mrs. Watanabe or Mrs. Martinez.

I want to thank Edublogs Challenges, Kathleen Morris, and Linda Yollis for your help in this journey.

VoiceThread Your Riddles

2011-03-13T14:43:00.000-07:00

I love this project because it takes their 1st grade science standards and marries them to the reading, writing, and fluency standards. Students had to research their animals, write riddles, work on fluency, and topped it off with digital illustrations and publishing.

Google Docs Drawing

Ms. James' students were introduced to the netbook cart and Google Apps Drawing during this project. They loved using the shapes, layering them, and adding color.

Collaboration

VoiceThread allows others to comment on the project. I was amazed at the comments left by an elementary grade student.

This added another dimension to the students' original project. It added a digital audience. Fabulous!

Click here to view Part 2 of their Riddles on VoiceThread.

Thank you Ms. James for allowing me to collaborate with you on this project. Thank you for allowing your students the opportunity to appropriately integrate technology for learning.

One-to-One Success Story Tip #1 about P.D.

2011-03-08T19:55:00.000-08:00

Recently I read a post by Nick Sauers titled, "Common frustrations with one-to-one." He found that those who were frustrated with one-to-one had issues with lack of professional development, and weak infrastructure.

To his second point, I have to say kudos to our Tech Department because I don't know of any infrastructure issues because everything was exceptionally planned out.

To his first point, I have learned a lot about the professional development needed in a one-to-one environment.

Adjusting the Professional Development

I had been training them in one swoop -- so one training of this or one training of that. Those who were tech savvy, needed that one time of show me the basics and I'll figure the rest out on my own. Well, that was the minority.

There were several who would ask me some basic questions about technology integration, and it became clear to me what needed to happen. They needed small doses over a continued amount of time.

Ongoing, Small Doses of Training

Professional Learning Community at CCJH

I decided to come to their school every Monday for thirty minutes and work with those who wanted repetition and a slow pace with tons of review and repetition. Did I mention repetition?

We started by looking at Google Apps--Forms for assessing students and checking for understanding.

Professional Learning Community

I was grateful that I was with this group of educators the day I opened up my laptop and noticed that Google Apps had a "face lift." We unanimously decided to figure out where things were and how it changed our class procedures. I would have been frustrated if I was by myself at that moment, and was glad we all went shoulder-to-shoulder to learn together.

Success

It was such a hit that there was a demand for another day a week of bite-sized trainings. Tina Jada, has taken the role of facilitating the second day of training for those who couldn't make the first.

That's evidence of a healthy learning community.

This post was inspired by Nick Sauers' article and counsel; the guidance of One-to-One Institute; the influence of Peer Ed; and mostly by the wonderful group of CCJH teachers -- you guys rock!

Composing Quality Comments

2011-03-04T15:08:00.000-08:00

My experience of introducing one of our 4th grade classes to blogging, as part of the Edublogs Challenge, has offered new insight on starting a class blog for learning. Our focus today was introducing the concept of quality comments.

How do you get Discussions Started on your Blog?

A blog's success can be measured partially by the blog comments; therefore, it's important students, parents, teachers, and administrators, learn how to do this. I realized this is a lesson that must explicitly be taught in order to promote the type of blog discussions where readers respond to each other in continued conversations.

We used Edublogs Teacher Challenge -- Student Blogging Activity 3 -- Teaching Quality Commenting to start our class discussion.

Compare Websites to Blogs

We needed to start by connecting their prior knowledge, which was websites. What's the same and what's different between the 4th Grade Science Website and a Blog?

Our learning point was blogs are for discussions! So, it's important that we learned how to write quality comments to spark conversations.

Our Tips for writing Quality Comments

Based on what we learned from Mrs. Morris and Mrs. Yollis, we wrote our own tips for creating quality comments.

Look for blogs that you like or made an impact on you, then start a respectful conversation.
Start a conversation by complimenting them, asking a question, or adding more information. This is how you connect to the writer and begin a discussion.
Remember our cyber citizenship and Internet safety tips and rules, such as: keep personal information safe; know how to report someone if necessary; be respectful; and use good manners. Responding back to comments is a way to use good manners.
Edit and proof read your comments to make sure it sounds correct, uses correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Have someone else double check and provide feedback before you ask your teacher or parent if you can post your comment.
Use only one exclamation point when you are excited about something. Add more information to show your enthusiasm, instead of adding more exclamation points (Mrs. Yollis' students).
Write your comments like a friendly letter, with a greeting, the content, and then the closing (Mrs. Morris). Remember to use your first name only.
Stay on topic of the conversation or blog post, instead of talking about something unrelated (Mrs. Yollis' students).
Make sure someone else didn't write the same thing before you post your comment (Mrs. Yollis' students).
Let's remember our audience when choosing vocabulary and tone for comments.

Explore Quality Comments

Here are some of the classes we looked at:

Mrs. Yollis' Third Grade Class (California, USA)
Mrs. Morris' Second Grade Class -- 2KM and 2KJ @ Leopold Primary School (Victoria, Australia)
Mr. Salsich's Third Grade Class (Connecticut, USA) and his How to Comment Page
Classes in the same age range for ages 8-11 (Edublogs Class Challenge--Around the Globe)

Tip from Mrs. Yollis

Mrs. Yollis explained during the Tech Talk Tuesday Webinar, that she has her students evaluate the quality of comments by voting. I put her suggestion to practice. If the comment followed the tips our class made, then we gave it a 3; if it followed most of the tips then it rated a 2; if it was not a quality comment, then we gave it a 1.

It was such a simple way to have students evaluate and share back visually to check for understanding. It also provided us with an opportunity to discuss it's okay to have different opinions, which should be respected. I'd have students share why they voted the way they did, again continuing the discussion of quality comments.

Next Step?

Next week, we'll take some time to apply what we learned, and comment on other blogs.

This post was inspired by Edublogs Teacher Challenge. Special thanks goes to Kathleen Morris, for sharing your experience with us; and to Linda Yollis for inspiring others by sharing her expertise and passion about blogging.

Collaboration Coaching in AJUSD -- Partners In Learning

2011-03-03T21:15:00.000-08:00

Principals and Coaches came together to discuss school-wide professional development and community.

Staff Development & School-Wide Professional Community on Prezi

We started by sharing what's been successful with collaboration coaching. One of my favorite quotes was from Gina Fraher:

My triumph in collaboration coaching is twofold. I have made some valuable relationships and learned some tools to foster new relationships. The second triumph for me is personal. I have been given valuable tools, resources, and mentoring in technology that I never would have had if I had not done this coaching program. I feel that this has been the single most valuable opportunity I have been given in a long time.

I loved the discussion that arose when we compared collaboration coaching to a day on the slopes. Some key points brought up were:

You can't start off on the black diamond runs, you need to start on the bunny slopes. Some people take longer on the bunny slopes than others, and that's okay.
It's a cycle that continues. You take a lift up, and hopefully shred on your way down.
It's important to know how to fall so you don't get hurt.
It's fabulous when you share the gondola with friends, and ski/board down together. You might all take the same run, but each of you carve it up differently. In the end, you all have stories to share and reflect on...

The action steps set for next year focus on continuing to open doors, celebrate successes, foster growth, and meeting teachers where their needs are.

Below is our photo collage that started at the beginning of the year, and includes today's training.

I want to thank all of our principals and coaches for sharing the afternoon with me. Thanks to Jon Castelhano, Director of Technology, for partaking in today and for your support. Special thanks to Superintendent, Dr. Wilson, for coming by before your other speaking engagement, and for setting the vision and focus of AJUSD.

Last but not least, thank you Peer Ed and especially Shelee King George, for helping me think through tonight's training. I couldn't have done it without you!

Our Professional Development was based on Session 7A, Partners in Learning-Microsoft Peer Coach Training. During part of today's training, we looked at "DeforestACTION" PBL from the Partners in Learning Shout! Network.

Blogging with Students: Internet Safety & Digital Citizenship

2011-02-25T13:00:00.000-08:00

We have entered the Edublogs Challenge, and set up a class blog. I am so excited to be part of this 4th grade team-teaching experience!

Wordle

Today, we are focusing on introducing the students to why we are setting up a class blog, digital citizenship, and Internet safety.

Purpose of Our Blog:
The purpose of this blog is to learn the art of writing and lessons of language arts through a real world experience with a real audience. Blogging is more than just reading and writing, it’s about respectfully conversing with others. Through this project, students will practice the responsibilities of digital citizenship and Internet safety.

We then discussed Cyber Citizenship and Internet Safety:

We are part of our physical community and our cyber community. What do we mean by that?

First, let's define "community." It's where we live, places we go, and people we interact with. It's also the group of people who participate in similar activities, play on teams, are members of clubs, or students at a school.

We also interact with people on the Internet that are interested in similar things.
In our physical community, we have written rules and expectations. Can you think of some of those?

In our cyber community, there are also written rules and expectations. What are some of those?

Rules keep us safe in our physical community as well as our cyber community. When we do a good job of following those rules, we are being good citizens.

Let's brainstorm a list of rules that would make us good citizens and keep us safe when in our community.

Did your brainstorm include these ideas?:

Ask permission to go somewhere first.
Don't talk to strangers.
Ask for help when you need it.
Be polite and use good manners.

Do those same rules apply to our cyber community? Yes, they do.

If we follow those rules, does that make us good cyber citizens? As members of our cyber community, we are expected to be good cyber citizens, which is shown through our online behavior.

Let's create our own rules that reflect good cyber citizenship.

Directions: In small groups, create a list that reflects good cyber citizenship. Each group member should choose one of these roles:

Live Spokesperson: Shares back to the physical class your 5 most important rules for online behavior that would reflect good cyber citizenship.
Digital Spokesperson: Shares back to our cyber community your 5 most important rules for online behavior that would reflect good cyber citizenship.
Secretary: Writes down your brainstorm of ideas for important rules for online behavior that would reflect good cyber citizenship and safety.
Task Master: Help keep your group on task. A great task master will paraphrase (or restate) what someone else said, and then ask a question to continue thinking about what was said. (We'll go over examples of this in class.)

Lessons Learned

I realized that I needed a procedure for having the "Digital Spokesperson" place a comment. So, I created a "Comments" page.

After going through the procedures, I realized that I need to take the option to comment off the Comments Page because some students were commenting on the blog, while some were commenting on the page. After that was taken care of, everyone knew where to write their comments.

Insight Gained

The students worked diligently to edit and revise their comments. I heard dialogue about word choice as well as punctuation rules. It gave me a chance to teach using the space bar after punctuation, which is something that they hadn't learned before.

Of course, they learned extremely important Internet safety rules and expectations of digital citizenship. Today was a successful start!

This blog was inspired by iSafe Inc. and Edublogs Challenge.

Remove the Navigation Bar from Blogger

2011-02-23T22:16:00.000-08:00

I always thought of the "Next Blog" button more like a "Life is a Box of Chocolates" button, because if you click on it, you never know what blog you might get next!

I honestly didn't think anything of it until students started going to my blog, then it glared at me.

Thanks to the help of Linda Yollis, I learned how to exorcise it.

Steps

From the Dashboard, edit the design.
Click "Edit HTML".
Scroll 4/5 down towards the bottom of the template HTML code. Look for ]]></b:skin>

Add this line of HTML:

#navbar-iframe {height:0px;visibility:hidden;display:none} <== Add this line,
]]></b:skin> <== immediately above
</head> <== these 3 lines,
<body> <== that are already there.

Tips

It's recommended that you backup your template before and after you make changes.
Tracy's shortcut is to copy all (CTRL A) the HTML and paste it into a document before making any changes.
Another shortcut is to take a screenshot before making changes, that way you know how to fix it.

Before

After

Thank you, Mrs. Yollis, for teaching me how to do this! I also thank my hubby for teaching me how to resize the pictures so it fits the screen.

Touring TitanPad

2011-02-22T20:29:00.000-08:00

The TitanPad wiki was introduced to me back in September by Nick Sauers during our One-to-One training. What I liked was the immediate setup with no accounts needed, the way it color-coded who wrote what, the easy viewing of the revision history, the options to place passwords on it, and the built in "back channel."

TitanPad Wiki used in our Reinventing PBL book study class

Process of Introducing

During our 4th class, we divided chapter 5 into sections (jigsawed it), and wrote down what what struck us about the section.

After modeling it as a class, we were able to divide and conquer the remaining chapters for our next class.

High School Teacher Tours TitanPad

After seeing how easy it was it implement, AJHS teacher, Sandy Rollefstad, chose to do this with her AP Biology kids. Her students had a great experience with this.

Here's the example of our "Chat" or built-in "Back Channel".

She said the first day there was discussion on the chat, but nothing more than what we as teachers have in our classes, and they still completed their assignment. On the second day, there was less discussion on the chat, and the same fabulous results.

Recommendation

I recommend creating an account with an easy name to type in. Otherwise, you are limited to 15 people typing at once and there is a maximum number of saves. With the account, you get more people, more saves, and more options.

Tots Tour TitanPad

Back in December, I had the wonderful pleasure of working with 2nd grade tots on their first tour of the TitanPad wiki.

The SMES 2nd grade team, Marcy Saggio, Meredith Hopaczylo, and Denise Cook, brainstormed ideas to help their students learn same sounds but different spellings, such as n in new, gn in gnat, or kn in know. They wanted to have students engaged in words and working together to help generate more ideas and examples.

Naturally, they wanted to use a wiki to do so, but wanted it open for families to work on when they were at home. Therefore, the team decided to use the TitanPad to do this because it was instantaneous collaboration without having to sign up ahead of time.

Since this was the students first time working on such a space, they enjoyed the task but also became upset if someone moved their work. So, we had a little learning curve because each time someone hit enter, it moved their work down a space... but the students thought their labor was erased because what was on "line 21" turned into a blank line instead of looking to "line 22".

I was glad we decided to introduce it in small groups. Once those lessons were learned, they were golden and loved being able to collaborate on the exact same assignment as the kids in the room next door.

This blog was inspired by the fabulous educators in AJUSD who continue to try new things to create learning-centered classrooms. Thank you for making a difference in our kiddos lives!