A week at DENSI 2013!

DiscoveryEd, Edchat, EdTech, PD

DELogo

 

What is DENSI 2013?

The Discovery Educator Network Summer Institute (DENSI) is an amazing professional development opportunity offered by Discovery Education each summer.  This year 150 people from across North America gathered at the University of Vermont in Burlington, Vermont to learn, share and collaborate for an entire week.  It was easily the best professional development I’ve ever experienced.

What is the Discovery Educator Network?

The DEN is a global community of education professionals who are passionate about transforming the learning experience with digital media. The DEN connects members across town and around the world through social media, virtual conferences and in-person events.

Dacia Jones (@dacia92) of Hickory, North Carolina really says it all in this Tweet:

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So, DENSI 2013…

A little over 4 weeks ago my colleague Mario and I returned from Vermont and our epic road-trip!  It’s about time I got some thoughts recorded about the trip and that amazing week!

One of my personal guidelines for (hopefully) successful PD is that those attending need to take something away that they can use with their students and/or in their classroom “tomorrow”. Teachers don’t have time to spend on learning complex software and procedures. If, what they learn can’t be used immediately, then it’s going to be lost and forgotten about.

So, for my reflection, I’m going to look at the week and try to determine things day by day/session by session that I can use, pass on and/or implement in my work with teachers throughout Halifax District School Board.  As a result my reflection is a combination of travelogue, journal, “thank you” to many people and personal reference document.

Let’s see how this goes…

(Note: “Take-aways” are examples from sessions, NOT to be interpreted as EVERYthing from any session listed.)

Saturday, July 13

Halifax to Bangor, ME - Mario and I are Technology Integration Leaders in Halifax Regional School Board. We assist approximately 3500 teachers in 140 schools in their use of digital technology in their classrooms. There are just the two of us so we are out at schools much of the time and rarely have time to chat about what we’re doing, to discuss issues and to share successes. This drive gave us an opportunity to catch up on some of the chats that should have occurred in the office over the last year! Bangor… shopping!

Sunday, July 14

historic-tavern-51555_640Bangor, ME to Burlington, VT – More opportunity to chat, but also really enjoyed the beauty that is New England – much like Atlantic Canada, but a little different. One thing we noticed was the frequent use of bunting to decorate homes. That’s a very “American” thing I think, we never see that in Canada. Of course mountains in New Hampshire (highest – Mount Washington – 1900+ m) and Vermont (highest – Mount Mansfield – 1300+ m) are a little different from ours in Nova Scotia (highest – White Hill – 500+ m) and New Brunswick (highest – Mount Carleton – 800+ m) and added some great scenery along the way!

Then we arrived at Burlington and DENSI! It was pretty warm, and I was a little overwhelmed to say the least but the group who were working on reception and welcoming put me at ease and soon I felt like I knew everyone – well at least a few people! Thanks very much for that!

BBQ and Opening Session – the gift trading with personal info sheet was a fantastic way to get to know at least one other person! I hope to remember this when I have the opportunity to organize an event of this magnitude!
Team Meeting – Team Rita!! What more can I say!? The team meetings were a great way to ask questions/get answers, meet others, have a few laughs – and meet RITA Mortenson (@mortensonr) !!

Monday, July 15

Shelburne Museum and Shelburne Farms – What a great outing! So much to see and learn about. At the farm we did an activity I want to use… we were outside (it was very warm and being in the shade with a little breeze was very welcome) and the activity leader from the farm asked us some pretty deep questions that we discussed in groups. She had a term for this type of question/discussion… I need to find that. Good activity. Will use that in PD for sure!  Overall a great day to get to know each other and learn about the Burlington/Shelburne areas.

Evening – Face the Music – fun adaptation of Name That Tune, even if I didn’t do very well – thanks Porter (@DENprincess)!!

Tuesday, July 16

Keynote with Richard Byrne (@rmbyrne) - I was really looking forward to hearing Richard Byrne speak. I’ve followed him on Twitter for a while and he has a fantastic web site and his Tweets are good!! But I was surprised at his in-person persona. I expected Richard to be very dynamic but that wasn’t the case. Perhaps he was having an off day, perhaps I shouldn’t have created expectations based on Tweets and a great website! Either way, not what I had expected/hoped for. But still a follower of him – he’s a smart guy!

Take-aways:

      • RT @CMS_JakeS: Rule for font size in presentation… Take age of oldest person in room and double it. Via @rmbyrne #DENSI2013 Jul 16, 2013
      • A good starting point for changing teaching practice “Today we will explore… ” – Richard Byrne, #DENSI2013 @rmbyrne Jul 16, 2013

DEN_connects-280Connecting Classrooms with Discovery Education – Kelly Hines (@kellyhines)
I was aware of Skype in the Classroom but hadn’t really explored classroom connections beyond Skype (and to be honest, I was aware of Skype’s uses in the classroom, but hadn’t really pursued it in a classroom). Kelly (and others in the session) provided some great thoughts on the “Why?” of connecting classrooms and then some fantastic ideas and resources to help with the “How?”.

Take-aways:

    • DEN Connects
    • Kyle Shutte’s programs and materials
    • Connect with topic experts
    • Mystery Skype
    • Langwitches.com
    • QuadBlog – great idea. Need to find a way to adapt so we can use in NS.

Show and Tell 21st Century Style – Tracy Carpenter (@CarpTracy)
I didn’t “get” the trading card trend until I heard Tracy and others in this session giving some examples of how they can be used and showing some examples. Great idea!

Take-aways:

      • Extend Show & Tell… not just lower grades any more.
      • This is me… this is who I am… this is my history
      • We’ll always encounter people who see the world differently than we do. How do we transfer those skills to students?
      • Bighugelabs.com and readwritethink.org have trading card generators (animals, self, place, historic people, country, etc.)
      • Wolframalpha.com – comparing two things using vs.
      • Pecha Kucha Presentations – 20 slides/20 seconds each, use a variety of tools, Haiku Deck is good for PK, MINIMAL text requires strong knowledge, slides should have strong images

Take Control of the iPad: Accessibility – Linda Rush (@starden)
Oh! So much about the iPod/iPad that I didn’t know! Great resources.

Take-aways:

      • iPodsibilities
      • iPads 4 Special Needs – book
      • Guided access – gets students into an app, but they cant get out (see settings)
      • Assistive touch – gives a menu of common actions and makes access easier
      • Rover – can do flash, was slow, might be faster now
      • Restrictions (in settings) – allows teacher (or parent) to control many aspects – disallow apps, disallow downloading or in app purchase, etc – covered with pw!

Hi, I’m Dave and I’m an APPaholic – David Fisher (@davidfisher65) Dave Tchozewski (@daveski61)
Lots of information from the Dave’s! Fast paced and dynamic!  GREAT!  These are just a few…

Take-aways:

      • Air Sketch – push your iPad to other devices. Great for one iPad classroom.
      • Tammy’s Technology Tips for Teachers - great tips, ideas and resources
      • ColorSplash – great app to create spot colour in digital images
      • Desmos – graphing calculator

Evening – DENmazing Race

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Evening – DENmazing Race – Fun activity! Poor performance by our team (Mario, Greg, Lionel & I) but we put our efforts into having fun and getting to know each other.
Flickr – Cheryl Woolwine (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Later Evening – Name that TV Theme Song

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Many laughs… tons of fun! Thanks DEAN! (@shareski)

 

The New 3 R’s – Hall Davidson (@HallDavidson)
Hall is the man with Google Glass and he wasn’t afraid to share them all week.  We all had a chance to check out the next thing in web browsing and more! Hall talked about QR Codes, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. A great look ahead… but not really… this stuff is here now!

Take-aways:

      • So many great ideas for using QR codes. I want to help teachers and librarians use these in their classrooms and other learning areas.
      • Thanks for making your handouts and presentations available Hall –
      • AR in a book example – Fantastic Flying Book of Morris Lessmore by William Joyce (http://morrislessmore.com ). This looks amazing. The book is in our Board’s central library and I’ve downloaded the app… can’t wait to put the two together!

Storytelling for the YouTube Generation – Steve Dembo (@teach42)

Take-aways:

      • VIMP.com – Like YouTube, canbe installed on your own server. This may be the answer to some BIG obstacles we’ve encountered!
      • And Steve’s presentation… well, it contains so much great stuff I can’t begin to identify just one or two things so I’m very happy he made it available.  Thanks Steve!

Somersaulting the Classroom: For Those Afraid to do a Total Flip – Tim Childers (@tchilders)
It’s great to get to see and know the guy behind the Twitter! Of the educators I follow I can honestly say that I paid less attention to Tim’s Tweets than to those of many other’s. That’s changed! A little face-to-face and a bit of back-story can really help put things in context and let you see things in a different way. Thanks for that Tim!

Take-aways:

      • Edmodo Group for Somersaulting the Classroom: qtzyou
      • Mathtrain.tv – videos of kids doing and explain math! Fantastic!
      • Keep videos short
      • Use microphone to improve sound quality instead of relying on built in mic
      • Jing is ok. Not editable. Tries to force account creation, but you can use it without.
      • Touchcast.com – iPad screencast app

3254295831_4a869afcca_z5 Minutes of Creativity – Dean Shareski (@shareski)
Dean is creative and likes to encourage creativity in others and why not! Creativity is important, though it often gets shoved aside to make time/room for other things. Dean shared ideas for infusing and encouraging creativity with little effort and taking up minimal time.

Take-aways:

      • Thanks for the notes Dean!
      • Digital Storytelling 106 – online open course – Assignment bank
      • PechaFlickr – practice with improve presentations – careful with this one, no guarantee of content

Things that Rock (or Not) – DEN Team
This activity could easily be used at middle and high school – and probably lower. Some advanced planning is needed for the topics and teacher/facilitator has to realize that regardless of how innocuous the topics appear someone could get pretty worked up! Just be aware!

Take-aways:

Unconference Planning – Everyone
“Yeah, this unconference thing won’t work.“

Evening – Ballgame
Lake-Monsters-logoArghhh and Oh my. 96 degrees F, VERY high humidity and I have to attend a baseball game – I hate baseball! Arghhh… I arrived at the field, tired, too hot, and cranky and ran into Porter…
Porter (smiling, happy, awesome): How you doing Sandy? Having a good time?
Sandy (see above): I have no interest in baseball and this is the last place in the world I want to be right now. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t love you Porter! (Felt immediately bad for this, and noticed Porter deflate a bit as I walked away. My bad on this one, for sure!)

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Casey Boothby (@VMSBoothby) throwing the ceremonial first (one of three firsts) pitch!

At any rate, we stayed through rain and a game which made little sense to me and stuck it out through the 7th period… um… quarter… um… INNING! I saw Dippin’ Dots for the first time… not sure about that confection. Chatted with some more cool people I hadn’t met to that point, and really didn’t hate being there. Also, pretty impressed at the immense effort they make to relieve the dreadful boredom of baseball by many little events, contests, etc. between innings and throughout the game. Well done!

You have to read on for the conclusion of my baseball adventure…

Thursday, July 18

“Yeah, this is going to be interesting… this unconference thing can’t work.“

Better Photos from Your Phone – Tim Childers
I figured that if Tim was doing this session, then it would be like a conference session… so, the “UN” won’t spoil this one. I was right. Lots of great ideas and APPS.

Take-aways:

      • ClearCam – needs tripod, takes 6 images and then melds them to make a very clear picture
      • SnapSeed – I had looked at this APP previously. Didn’t like it. Deleted it. Installed it again during the session. It’s GREAT! Nice, easy, quick image editing!
      • 645 Pro – nice features according to Tim. Saves as tiff which is almost as good as raw.
      • Quick Camera – high shutter speed – idea: take multi pics of moving things, load into iMovie and make a stop action movie
      • Touch Blur – easily blur a specific spot – use: blur face of student who doesn’t want to have picture posted, etc.
      • Magic Hour – warns you when the magic photo time of day is approaching
      • Toon Camera – turns images and video into cartoon-like quality
      • MobileMonet – turns images into paintings
      • Slow Shutter Cam – need tripod, keep shutter open for moving effects
      • Online image editors: Pixlr, webresizer, Pho.to
      • Tim’s notes are available
      • Symbaloo of apps
      • Symbaloo of websites for editing

“OK – wow… good! Lots of ideas and resources. But Tim Childers could pull off a presentation like that in a subway station! The rest of the unconference stuff won’t work.“

KidBlog – (sorry, I missed the name of the facilitator)
I’m interested in getting KidBlog approved for our Board. I’ve completed a Privacy Impact Assessment and hope it will go through, so I wanted to hear what others have to say. This was the perfect environment to do that! We sat in comfortable chairs in a nice environment and chatted, shared, questioned… Great session! I’m even more sold on KidBlog… here’s hoping!

Geocaching – Chad Lehman (@imcguy) and ME!
BPfYPxCCYAAFMaN.jpg-largeSo… this is hour three of the UNConference and here I am an unconference “facilitator” and not only that but I’m co-prsenting with Chad Lehman!
This session was attended by only a few people but we had fun, I think everyone learned a little (including Chad and me) and we got outside to look for a cache (no luck there though). While I was looking for the cache I also snapped a picture that I later edited with some of the apps I learned about earlier with Tim. I posted it and got a nice comment back from Tim! So cool! What a day!!

The Wall…
After lunch I came back and sat in a room as a session was preparing. As it started, I realized I was in the wrong room. I exited to the hallway to check the schedule and as I was doing that, I hit my saturation point. I realized I had found my wall. I sat down and thought about the week for a bit, then decided I’d do some laundry and come back and get a coffee. I also felt that I needed quiet. No chat, no great conversations, no music, just quiet for a while. That took two hours. Then I was rejuvenated enough to attend the last unconference session.

Brainstorm Ideas for integrating old technology. Let’s use what we still have rather than filling landfills. – (sorry, I missed the name of the facilitator)
CFSI was curious about ideas and thoughts. I shared our Computers For Schools program. I think there were only three of us in the “session” and the others shared some thoughts they had for re-use or re-purpose or just using dated technology a little longer for a specific single purpose of which it may still be capable.

Take-away:

      • iPhone that no longer works as a phone may still be usable as a camera!

Evening – Harlem Shake Part 1, Dinner, Harlem Shake Part 2

After we completed “filming” of our Harlem Shake we enjoyed a great Closing Celebration with our new friends and “DEN Family”.  The celebration was wrapped up by the Canadian contingent…

(I’ll add the link to that treasure when I get it.)

Friday, July 19

Our final breakfast and then the Closing Session.  Lots of hugs, some tears, many plans to collaborate in person or over distances… and a wonderful plan by Porter and the rest of the DE Team that allowed people to share their thoughts and experiences of the week.  Thanks for that!

Finally… the conclusion to the Baseball Game…

9603037918_99ba02324a_zJUST before everyone left Porter remembered “one last thing”… she started to talk about the Wednesday evening baseball game… she told everyone about my comment (see above)… and asked me to come forward. I’m thinking, “Oh dear, a public beating at DENSI!  I wonder if it’s a first!?” So, I sheepishly came forward … Porter met me at the side of the stage and presented me with a baseball autographed by the Vermont Lake Monsters!!  Awww…. The ball now sits in a position of honour and respect in my home – and reminds me to make the best of situations even if you aren’t thrilled with the specific circumstances at the time!  It’s all good!

So… there is so much I haven’t mentioned.  The great social interactions, wonderful chats over breakfasts, lunches and suppers, a meeting with Dean and Chad to discuss getting more Canadians  involved in the Leadership Council, meeting wonderful folks like those mentioned above, the DE team, Greg H, Lionel B, Casey B, Jill B, Carlos F, Sheila F, DENnis G, the rest of the Canadians!, Andy L, Pete P, Joe O (thanks for showing me where the drug store was!), Gina P, Tony S, Brandon W, Karen Z (you better come to NS!), and everyone else!!  I look forward to seeing you all again and to working with you in collaborations and discussions online!

final

(Cross posted at blog.discoveryeducation.com/sandymacdougall/)

4 Important Ways to Help Your Child in School

Edchat, Education

 

Let me start by saying that I’m not a parent, so I’m not writing this as advice so much as observation.  These thoughts are based on what I’ve observed as a teacher, and shared here because I think they may be useful.

I think these are things that parents can do – and in my opinion, things they should do. They don’t cost anything and take minimal time to implement, but could make a very big difference in the success of your child in school.

From MorgueFile http://mrg.bz/PocdQv

Communicate with your child’s teacher and school administration.  Do this frequently, not only when you suspect a problem or when you’re presence is requested by the teacher or office.  Be involved.  Let your child know you talk to their teacher and principal – not in a threatening way, but as part of the team of people who are helping your child move forward with their education and their life. Your child should see his teachers and school community as part of a team of which you are a member.

I’m not saying that every parent needs to be on the PTA (though there’s nothing wrong with that) but an open dialogue is very important to ensure you know how your child is doing in school and so that teachers know your expectations.

I worked in a school where the principal wanted to open the doors and make the school a more inviting place for parents.  Among other efforts, he hosted “Morning Coffee Breaks.” The events were posted on the school website and sent home in monthly newsletters. Once a week for several months, he’d set aside an hour, put the coffee on, get donuts and wait for parents to arrive.  These coffee break’s weren’t intended to discuss Johnny’s disruptive behaviour in class or Julie’s poor math test mark.  They were a casual drop-in designed to get to know each other.  As a result of these coffee break mornings, that principal drank coffee alone and the staff benefited from fresh donuts at break time on those days.  In all the morning’s he hosted a coffee break only one parent dropped in. Don’t be the parent who doesn’t come by for a chat and a cup of coffee.

The point here is that your communication with the school should be frequent and not only when brought on by a problem.

Engage your child in discussion about his or her school day.  From the first day of kindergarten to the last day of grade 12 parents often ask, “What did you do in school today?” Initially, the answer will contain some interesting (to the child) tidbits, but often very quickly they start to answer with an emotionless, “Nothing.”  As soon as a parent accepts that as an answer they set a precedent that tells the child, “It’s ok to lie to me, and when you do I won’t question it even when I know it’s a lie.”

Instead of asking, “What did you do in school today?” use a question that can’t so easily be dismissed.  Some possibilities:

  • What did Mr Smith have your class doing in gym today?
  • What did you create in art class this afternoon?
  • What topic are you discussing in Global History this week?

Of course this means you need to know your child’s daily schedule but that’s a small effort and something most parents can access easily – if it’s not already posted on the refrigerator!

Many teachers now use social media.  They Tweet or post about specific activities as they happen or shortly after or at the end of the day.  If your child’s teacher does that, follow them and you’ll have even more specific information to ask about.

  • Mrs Jones Tweeted at lunch time that your class had a great science lesson this morning.  Will you tell me about it?

When your child knows you know and you’re interested, they will share.

Respect your child’s teacher – at least outwardly.  This probably sounds like an odd suggestion but its quite simple.  Don’t criticize your child’s teacher in front of your child (or when they’re in the next room, etc.).  They’ll know how you feel and will understand (even at an early age) that you have little respect for their teacher.  That will lead to your child not respecting his teacher and that lack of respect will lead to discipline issues. Discipline problems will get in the way of your child’s learning.

Now, I’m not saying you have to love everything your child’s teacher does.  You can have whatever opinion you want of the teacher, the point is if it’s not a positive opinion, don’t let your child know.  It’s very hard to learn with someone you don’t respect – or someone your parents don’t respect.

From MorgueFile http://mrg.bz/Ry4Zoh

Read with your child.  Read to your child. Let your child read to you.  Simple.

It’s quite possible that reading is the single most important skill your child can develop today since they will be reading text on screens for the rest of their lives.

If you start reading together in early years, this will not only develop an ease with reading but will help with fluency and smoothness of reading.  There are many great websites that kids can use to help with reading – but they should be used with you.  Reading can, and should, be a social activity which includes discussion of ideas in the text being read (comprehension).  If you have an iPad, iPod, computer or other device it may also help to have your younger child read while recording his reading.  When he plays it back, he’ll hear his own mistakes and fluency (or lack of it).  For a surprising number of children that’s enough to make them want to “do it over” and make it better!

Of course reading from books is great, but in this day of e-books and the like it’s not at all necessary to stick to a paper based publication.  If your child is comfortable with reading e-books then by all means read those with her.

As children get older reading can, and will, take on different forms.  Middle and high school students may feel more comfortable reading news articles from the newspaper (paper or online) or various news feeds.  Perhaps if family members are together at breakfast someone might read an interesting article which could lead to a discussion of various issues related to the article.  This will not only enhance reading but also media literacy and awareness skills. Also, just asking about a novel (assigned or personal choice) that a child is reading will continue to maintain a dialogue that has been established regarding reading.

 

So, those are four areas that, from my experience, I think parents could focus on without too much trouble and at no cost.  Interacting with your child in these ways could make a huge difference for them.

I welcome your thoughts, comments and feedback.

Happy New (School) Year!

Education, Twitter

 

I wrote this a year ago but as another school year begins or – depending on where you live – as the summer winds down, I thought I’d edit a bit and repost it.

From MorgueFile http://mrg.bz/73ClZN

I’ve personally never found New Years (Eve and/or Day) to be particularly special.  That’s not to say I haven’t had some wonderful New Years Eves.  New Years in Las Vegas, Puerto Vallarta, north of Montreal in a ski chalet, at a house party or at a community dance were all terrific, but New Years has always been more about the people I’ve been with, than the whole business of a new year.

What is different on January 5th as compared to December 17th other than a digit in the year?  Nothing.  I’ve never been successful with New Years resolutions because the roll over of the year just didn’t seem significant enough to bother making a change.

From MorgueFile http://mrg.bz/ZqJX3t

Now, the other new year – the beginning of the academic or school year – has always been exciting for me.  This is a time when things really change.  There are new students in classrooms, new teachers and administrators in schools and often new people providing central support.  Some of these changes can be wonderful, some can cause apprehension and fear, but there is always change and things in the academic world are never the same in September as they were in June!

So, why not consider some New (School) Year resolutions?  It’s a great time to make resolutions since everyone is getting a fresh start with clean classrooms and desks, empty planners and assessment grids, new first day outfits and white board markers that still mark!

I’d like to offer some resolutions here. I’m going to suggest one resolution that I feel is key for students, parents, teachers, school administrators, and central office support staff.  Of course, there could be many others, and hopefully, you’ll suggest some, but these are resolutions I think would make a big difference for everyone.

New (School) Year Resolution for Students: In the upcoming school year, I resolve to speak up, ask questions and advocate for myself.  You know that there are many students in your class.  Your teacher does they best he or she can to know what’s going on with each one, but really – that’s pretty much impossible without your help.  If you don’t understand, let your teacher know.  If you’d like more explanation or additional assistance with a particular topic or concept, ask questions.  If you feel like someone is not treating you the way you should be treated, talk to an adult that you can trust.

New (School) Year Resolution for Parents:  In the upcoming school year, I resolve to work in a cooperative manner with my child’s teacher and school and to keep in mind that we are on the same team – we both want the best for my child.  Too often I hear parents talking about their child’s teachers, putting them down and criticising them in front of the child.  This is a recipe for disaster.  Parents don’t need to always agree with their child’s teacher, but the disagreement should not involve, or be in the presence of the child.  It would be best if all parents – and teachers – started off the school year on the “same team”.

New (School) Year Resolution for Teachers: In the upcoming school year, I resolve to learn with and from, my students.  Teachers who can embrace the idea of learning with, and from, their students prepare their students for lifelong learning.  Learning with your students is the foundation to creating an environment of genuine collaboration (when collaboration is appropriate).  It also validates for students that what they say and think is important.

New (School) Year Resolution for School Administrators: In the upcoming school year, I resolve to support my staff and realize that like students, every staff member is different, with different personalities, strengths, and teaching styles. Any school administrator who can recognize this fact while leading each of his or her staff members in their professional growth is worth much more than the allowance they receive as an administrator.

New (School) Year Resolution for Central Office Staff: In the upcoming school year, I resolve to try to see the world from the point of view of the teacher.  It is all too easy for those teachers who have central support positions to lose sight of the day to day pressures and stresses on the classroom teacher.  Teachers often feel that those in central office positions have “lost touch” or “don’t remember what it’s like in the classroom.”  They sometimes see us as folks with a very focused and specific agenda that seems more important than anything else at that moment.  But we all need to remember that there are other people from central office, and the Department who all feel their message is the most important and these teachers often have to juggle many “most important” messages.

From MorgueFile.com http://mrg.bz/95M4ia

So, on this eve before returning to school for the first official day in September (or after returning in August), I ask you to reflect on your own situation and position in the world of education and make a resolution for this New (School) Year!

Feel free to post your own resolutions or suggestions and comments.

Reflecting on PD: Exemplars?

Edchat, EdTech

 

If you haven’t seen Dean Shareski’s (@shareski) post It Takes All Kinds: Teachers, you should go now and read it.  If you don’t have time to read mine and Dean’s then check out Dean’s post.

Dean includes a great video, The Myth of the Super Teacher from EdWriters on Vimeo that I include here as well because it’s just, well… GREAT!

If you’re still here reading my blog, thanks!

If you read my last post, you know that I delivered a PD session to two different sets of teachers yesterday.  I was excited about many new topics and tools and wanted to share them with some great teachers.  At the end of each of the two sessions, there were some positive remarks and comments.  I was fairly happy with the day but had a feeling that something was amiss.

Last night I was browsing my Twitter timeline and found a couple of Tweets from Chad Lehman (@imcguy).  One of them was about the post I mention above by Dean Shareski.  So, I took a couple of minutes to have a look at what Dean was saying.

As I read, I reflected (some more – see my previous post) on my day and my presentation.  I realized that my presentation was structured in such a way that the teachers attending might very well suffer from the “Super Teacher” syndrome that Shareski suggests.

I shared many great and useful web 2.0 tools, gave them hands-on time, and introduced some ideas that teachers might find useful as they create a framework for their own technology integration.  All in two hours!

While I didn’t say that any teacher should do all of this (or even most of it) at once – I neglected to say they shouldn’t!  What example did I set?  What message did I convey, by omitting an important part of the message? How many of those teachers are stressed today because they think it would be right to start incorporating all of that into their classroom?  Or, how many have disregarded everything we did in that session as being totally unrealistic and unattainable?

When we have professional discussions about assessment and evaluation there is often the suggestion (often stronger than suggestion) that teachers use exemplar workpieces to illustrate “good work”.  Teachers are told they should gather and collect (as if teachers need to be told to collect and gather anything) good work by students so they can use it with other classes/years to illustrate a Rubric-4 or a Rubric-1.  Where does that leave the student who knows they can’t achieve work that is as good as “that” for a variety of reasons – many of which may not be of his own doing or under her control.  Some of those students will just give up and not put any effort into the work… they will end up achieving a Rubric-1 when they could have been a Rubric-3.

This business of exemplars can be messy.

I started Tweeting almost a year ago.  As a result I follow some fantastic educators who have shared some great resources and ideas.  I feel that I’ve grown and learned tremendously in that time.  Now I find myself excited about sharing some of that information – that’s good.  But as I reflect on my delivery yesterday, I wonder if I might have implied that following people on Twitter and reading various blogs is the way to become a great teacher?  It’s not.  As Dean points out in his post, “There are many teachers doing good work. They don’t blog, they aren’t on Twitter.”

Dean goes on to say that we need to find great teachers whose names aren’t common within the Twitterverse – those who are not the Shareskis, Lehmans and Shrocks of the profession – and use those teachers as exemplars.

Expectations have to be realistic.  While there are real-life (as opposed to the fictional “Dangerous Minds” movie-type) Super Teachers out there (I know one or two locally) it is not realistic to use them as the exemplar for others.  If we only look to those Super Teachers for our inspiration, we’ll set unreal expectations for ourselves and become unhappy and frustrated because we can’t achieve them.  Teachers are under  increasing pressure to do a multitude of things, many of which are not directly related to teaching their students.  To add more pressure by using unrealistic examples isn’t fair to them.

In Dean’s conclusion, he mentions that “it’s a fine line between sharing outstanding teaching practices and shaming others“.   We all most be sensitive of this fine line and ensure we don’t cross it.

Thanks again Chad for being the messenger who brought Dean’s post to my attention. Thanks Dean for providing another timely post that allowed me to do double duty in reflecting on my recent PD delivery!

Reflecting on PD: Collaboration?

EdTech, Other thoughts

 

Yesterday I delivered a PD presentation/workshop twice. In the morning an abbreviated version to one junior high staff and in the afternoon the full version to the staff of another junior high school.  I’m using the term presentation/workshop because, unfortunately, I had to rely on PowerPoint for the framework, but there was ample hands-on time for the teachers, so it was workshop-esque at least!

The session took me many hours to prepare and tweak and edit and… well, you know what I’m talking about if you’ve ever prepared this sort of thing.  I should point out that my job is to assist teachers in using technology in their day to day practice.  As things in the world of education technology (EdTech) have been changing, my colleague and I have been trying to model better practice during PD sessions.  We used to “stand and deliver” but recently we’ve tried to change that in the hopes that teachers will start to see that the “teacher” doesn’t need to be the fountain of all that is valuable.  If you follow EdTech, and other discussions you’ve heard about that shift.

Since the morning session was abbreviated I wasn’t too enthusiastic about the overall outcome, but several teachers thanked me and in doing so mentioned specific points that they found useful.  I was happy with that.

I was more hopeful for the afternoon session.

The sessions in both schools, were scheduled as part of a full day school-based PD day for teachers.  So, in the morning I was the opening session and in the afternoon, I was the final session… on a Friday… at the end of a full day of a variety of topics, not all of which were necessarily as riveting as I hoped mine would be!

The afternoon session was successful. There were a couple of technology glitches, but that’s to be expected and we went with it without too much frustration.  When it was over I chatted with some of the teachers who thanked me and again, pointed out specifics that they found useful.  I think that’s a good sign.  I also chatted with the principal who is very keen to move his staff and school forward with using technology in a well thought out and effective way.

Last night as I was reviewing my Twitter timeline I found two Tweets from Chad Lehman (@imcguy).  Chad commented on, and provided links to, two posts by Dean Shareski (@shareski). So, I followed and read…

In the first post, It Takes All Kinds: Collaboration, Dean ponders the term collaboration and how educators have been using it and  tossing it around quite liberally for some time.  I won’t summarize Dean’s post here, but I do encourage you to read it.

Part of my presentation yesterday suggested that if we’re making the best use of technology, then we aren’t using it for everything.  I sometimes see teachers (and others) trying to jam technology into every crack and crevice, even when it makes their work more difficult or results in no value added to the students’ experience.  Dean’s post suggests some similar thoughts about classroom organization, management, and collaboration.  None of these things are static.  Different people need different ways to learn, to interact, to reflect and to be reflective.  None of these things should be “all or none.”

Dean includes a quote from Royan Lee (@royanlee) who points out that we often use the “real world” as the reason for forcing group work on students because they will have to work in groups in their careers.  Royan goes on to wonder “Just who are these masses of people creating great works with people they have little to no working chemistry with?”

So, what then, is collaboration in school?  What do we mean when we use the term?  Why do we want (sometimes require) students to “collaborate”?  Is collaborate a new way of saying group-work?

In her reply to Dean’s post, Lisa Lagan points out that she loves collaborating with others to “build and grow [her] PLN” she goes on to say that she really doesn’t like working on “group projects” and would rather fail or succeed on her own.

I agree with Lisa.  I very much enjoy learning from, sharing and talking with colleagues and others – even students.  I think this is collaboration at its best.  But I also really dislike group-work type of assignments for many reasons.  I agree with Royan Lee and don’t think they are authentic. I’ve worked in a number of situations (both within the field of education, and otherwise) and have seldom been in a “group work” situation like that we cause students to engage in.  I think there is always going to be a winner and a loser in group-work and I think that most students dislike being told they have to work in groups or with a partner.  Why should we start off a project, assignment or activity with a requirement that most students (in my opinion) will find distasteful??

Again, I won’t take up too much space here relating what you can (and I suggest you should) read in totality.  However, the reason I drew a connection between Dean’s post and my presentation, is because I used the word collaborate many times yesterday.  I showed the groups several tools that allow for collaboration (text collaboration tools like Pirate Pad and Titan Pad and white board collaboration tools like Twiddla).  I don’t regret showing these teachers tools like this, they are great tools, but I do regret not taking the time to discuss collaboration and its place and purpose in our classrooms.

Maybe some of those teachers will read this post, and Dean’s. Hopefully I’ll have the opportunity to have a  conversation with them on the topic in the not too distant future!

Thanks Chad for being the messenger who brought Dean’s post to my attention!  Thanks Dean, for providing a timely post that caused me to reflect on my own practice – always important!