5 Things We Should Stop Pretending

My good friend Aaron Hogan challenged me to come up with five things we should stop pretending as educators. Here are his five things (which you should totally check out). It took me about a week, but I’m always up for a challenge.

So here goes. Five things we should stop pretending:

1)      In order to be good at our jobs we have to check emails every five minutes, even on nights and weekends.

Hello, my name is Stormy, and I’m addicted to my phone.  I often won’t walk from one side of my house to the other without it. The little number at the bottom of the screen representing unread email messages taunts me. It says, “Someone needs you right now!” It says, “There’s something important you forgot to do!” And so I check it over and over again. I delete junk mail, answer easy questions, file messages, flag items to handle later. I’m managing my work time when I should be enjoying my home time.

This semester I’ve made a real effort not to check my work email obsessively. Over Spring Break I even committed out loud that I would not check my work email for three straight days. It was tough! When I needed information about a church function that I was sure was waiting for me in my inbox, I made my husband check my email just to give me the info I needed and nothing else. I turned off, disconnected, replied to no one for three whole days. You know what? They sky didn’t fall. No one thought I was a slacker for not responding within 3.5 minutes during Spring Break.  Email can wait.

Anyway, if someone really needed me they would text me. Because that’s better, right?

2)      We don’t care what other people think.

The truth is that we absolutely care what other people think. It’s because we’re connected to others that we invest in them and they in us. People who don’t care what other people think are either lying to themselves or incredibly disconnected. I don’t want to be either, so I’ve decided it’s okay that I care.

I didn’t make this up. In Brene Brown’s book Daring Greatly, she calls readers out on this. The idea that it’s somehow strong or self-assured to not care about others’ opinions of you is false. However, she asserts that the way others see us shouldn’t drive our decision making or define who we are. I love this from her book (replace Lawrence Welk with Willie Nelson, and this is so me):

I carry a small sheet of paper in my wallet that has written on it the names of people whose opinions of me matter. To be on that list, you have to love me for my strengths and struggles. You have to know that I’m trying to be Wholehearted, but I still cuss too much, flip people off under the steering wheel, and have both Lawrence Welk and Metallica on my iPod (Brown 171).

I find myself sometimes getting caught up in worrying about what others think. Will they like my decisions? Will they think I did the right thing? Do they think I’m doing a good job? Then I remember the names on my piece of paper and that I’m doing my best, and I take a deep breath.  I care about what lots of other people think, but as long as my heart is in the right place and I’m taking care of those who matter most, I’m not going to beat myself up about other people’s opinions.

3)      “Venting” means it’s okay to say whatever we want about others.

One of the pledges I’m asking staff at my school to make is to always see the best in others. I’ve said to every single teacher  I interviewed that I believe what we say behind closed doors impacts the way that we treat people out in the world. I simply don’t believe that we can close the door, trash someone personally, professionally, or otherwise, and then return to life as normal treating that person with kindness and respect.

I’ve vented, I’ve listened to people vent, and I’m quite sure I’ve been the subject of someone else’s venting session. I’ve pretended that this behavior is healthy and makes me feel better. But the truth is that words have power (even behind closed doors), and if I’m willing to say something awful about a person behind their back but not talk about it with them face to face, then that feels bad. Really bad. It feels shameful.

I’m planning to use this clip from Jimmy Fallon with our staff to start a conversation about choosing words carefully and not saying anything about a person when they’re not there that you wouldn’t say in front of them.

4)      Schools can solve all of the world’s problems.

I’m currently reading The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace. This is the true story of a brilliant young man from poverty whose mother struggled to give him opportunity after opportunity, sacrificing her own health and comfort in the process. His father loved him and had a bright personality and mind, but ultimately made his money as a drug dealer and hustler and ended up in prison. Rob is faced with several paths, and in his environment they each seem to have equal merit.

The schools Rob attended were full of caring, smart, I’ll-do-anything-to-help-you-help-yourself educators, yet Rob’s life was still “short and tragic.” The bottom line is that it takes all of us to help kids become positive, contributing members of society. It takes dedicated teachers, parents, and communities working together with a common goal. It takes kindness and understanding and connection, not just to the school but to the world.

I’m an educator. I believe with all my heart that schools are magical places and education has infinite power. But we can’t neglect the fact that it truly takes all of us to educate our children. We need to actively seek partnerships with those educators who aren’t inside our buildings – the moms and dads and grandmothers and pastors and random folks on the street who create the communities where our kids live. It really does take the whole village, and the school needs to be in charge of coordinating that effort.

5)      Going to the dentist isn’t that bad.   

I couldn’t think of a 5^th thing, but I did go to the dentist yesterday. I hate the dentist. Stop telling me that going to the dentist isn’t that bad, because it is.

 

Twitter: From Lurker to Learner

I'm relatively new to Twitter, but I am so incredibly hooked!  I was pretty apprehensive at first, but along the way I learned that Twitter really isn't all that scary. Now I think half of my sentences begin with "I found this thing on Twitter..." so I've been getting some questions from people who are new to Twitter or just lurking. I thought I'd answer some of them here. 

Sidenote: I wrote all of this from a perspective of a PC rather than an ipad or other mobile device. Things are slightly different on mobile devices, but I think the notes below are still applicable. 

Why Twitter?  What good is it going to do me?

You get to connect with people all over the world and learn from them.

How do I know it works?

•   I randomly found a virtual field trip to the Tundra (@DiscoveryEd). REAL scientists in the Tundra did a live broadcast where they talked about their research. Students from all over the world emailed them questions while they talked, and the scientists answered the questions during the live broadcast. It. Was. Cool.
• I have a principal in Ontario, Canada, in my PLN (Tim Slack @slackt). He was presenting on why to have a personal learning network and asked for his followers to type their thoughts into a google doc which he then shared during his presentation. I added my two cents to his presentation, and, I’m not going to lie, I felt a little famous. Also, I love the idea that I helped with educator professional development across the world.  You can see his Google Doc here.
•  I have a fourth grade math and science teacher from New Orleans, Paula Naugle (@plnaugle), in my PLN. She regularly creates lessons for her students in google docs and tweets them out. She compiled a great list of election resources, including an interactive lesson and links, and I was able to share those resources with the teachers on my campus. She also shared a math lesson she called “The Great Pumpkin Project” that saved our third grade math teachers some time because they didn’t have to start from scratch to create a similar activity. 
• I’ve participated in my first Twitter chat (#txed), and I’ve already used one suggestion I got from it. The topic was how to keep teachers and students motivated during this time of year, and one principal mentioned that his leadership team meetings begin with everyone writing two notes of appreciation to teachers on the campus. I have to give a great big thanks to @TroyMooney and @PrincipalAlton. We’ve already used that idea in our leadership meetings.

Okay, I’m convinced. Who should I follow and why? How do I do that?

First, I use my Twitter for professional purposes only. I have a personal Twitter so that I can follow family and friends, but my school stuff stays at @stormyhickman1. You can use your Twitter account however you choose, but this works for me. I follow principals, teachers, technology specialists, and educational organizations, among others.

How to find people to follow (there are lots of ways, but this is a good way to start):

1. Check out educational hashtags that interest you. Here’s a google doc from Alan November with a pretty comprehensive list.
2.  Enter the hashtag in your search box at the top of the page - #cpchat for connected principal chat or #edchat are good places to start.
3.  Browse the tweets. If a particular Twitter account seems to interest you, click on the person’s name (it looks like this @stormyhickman1).
4.  A summary of that person’s profile will appear. If you would like to follow them you simply click the follow button. That person’s tweets will now show up in your feed.

A few words of advice about following people.

Don’t be afraid to follow! You’re not asking a Twitter user to the prom, so there’s no need to stress about it. Educators are on Twitter because they want to participate in a personal learning network. The more followers a person has, the more he is participating, so by following someone you are essentially helping them out.

You’re also not asking fellow Twitterers to marry you, so you always have the option to unfollow them. I have followed a few people only to find that their posts were mostly about television shows or the latest funny (sometimes inappropriate) youtube videos. I just quietly unfollowed them, and no harm was done.

Following others is also the best way to get followers yourself.

Now I’m following people, but what do I do if I like something I see and want to share it or be able to see it again?

You have two choices – retweet it or favorite it.

Retweeting another person’s tweet posts it to all of your followers for them to see. You get to share the knowledge!  Do this by clicking the “Retweet” link that comes up when you mouse over the tweet that you love.

Favoriting a tweet saves it in your favorites so you can reference it later, but it doesn’t send it out to your followers.  Do this by clicking the “Favorite” link that comes up when you mouse over the tweet that you love.

Now I know how to find information from Twitter, but how do I get back to the stuff I retweeted or favorited?

The best way to explain that is to talk about the tabs at the top of the Twitter web page. Once you can navigate those, you can find your stuff. 

The Home Tab – contains your feed (tweets from people you follow), suggested people to follow, and topics that are trending on Twitter. When I’m just looking for information, cool new stuff, and want to see what’s out there, I click on my home tab.

The Connect Tab – if someone Tweets you or mentions you by using your name in a Tweet, it will show up on your connect tab.

The Discover Tab – Twitter says this tab is to help you discover new content. The content should be customized to you.

The Me Tab – shows your profile. When you tweet something, it shows up here. This is the best place to go to look for something you retweeted and want to see again. You can also see a list of who you’re following, who is following you, and your favorites. If you favorite something, it will stay in your list of favorites so you can reference it later. Just click “Favorites” in the pane on the left to see all of your favorites.

You still haven’t told me how to compose my own tweet or participate in a chat. What’s up with that?

Honestly, I didn’t do those things until I’d been dabbling in Twitter for a while. More advanced users may move to that stage more quickly, but if you’re waiting for my instructions you’ll have to wait for another blog post. J

Welcome to the vast world of Twitter!

Tell me what you really think. Really. I can take it. Maybe.

You may remember my previous blog post about flipping some staff development in an attempt to be innovative and take a risk in the hopes that our staff will feel empowered to do the same. This is the follow up. The fun part where I do the learning. 

As a reminder, teachers viewed a Prezi on their own prior to coming to our whole group meeting. This contained information that we needed to cover from the faculty handbook, along with some silly videos and other absurdities intended to keep it mildly entertaining. Then, when we met as a group we used our Smart Response system to take a quiz over the Prezi's content. Things that seemed unclear (via the real-time quiz responses) were discussed. Things that seemed really, super duper clear, we didn't spend our valuable time talking about. 

Here's how it went down.

I began the day absolutely certain that someone - maybe everyone - would be totally confused, frustrated, angry about a major technology fail. We've all been there, right?  The perfect lesson was prepped and ready to go, you got to school early because you were so excited about all the amazing learning that was going to happen that day, and BAM! the computer doesn't work and the internet is down and the water is off in the building and there's no air conditioning. 

I was prepared for that to happen, and I was prepared not to cry or sweat profusely or seem rattled. I committed that I was taking a risk doing something new, and risks are called risks because they are risky and sometimes they don't work out. I was cool and calm.

Wouldn't you know it?  Not one single person had trouble. No one even had a question about how to access the Prezi. I swear I could hear angels singing "hallelujah" in the hallway. It was like my own little miracle. 

Then one group found a mistake. 

The hallelujah chorus stopped abruptly. I willed myself not to sweat. I took a deep breath. And I laughed. 

Two of the videos were swapped. I introduced saving lesson plans and the Prezi advanced to the video on how to document parent contact. Curse you, last minute editing to increase the volume!

"Well, I guess that doesn't make any sense, does it?" I said to the group who first discovered the mistake. "Sorry about that. I promise the other video will come later in the Prezi."

"Okay, no problem!" they responded, and they just kept right on trucking with the Prezi. 

Calmly, I continued from room to room, nonchalantly saying things like, "I guess you guys figured out I swapped the videos. Sorry about that! If that's the worse thing that happens today it will be a good day!"

And you know what? No one cared. No one complained. No one was confused forever. It was Just. Fine.  

We proceeded with our afternoon of quizzes and conversation, and I loved it. I left that afternoon certain that we did not waste a second of our teachers' valuable time that day. The feedback I got was all positive. Teachers were particularly glad that they could view the Prezi at their own pace with their team and have discussions that were relevant specifically to them -- discussion they couldn't have if we reviewed all of the information as part of a large group (not without getting some dirty looks for talking, anyway). People on my campus have made Prezis in the last few weeks. It was good.

Then I did the survey. 

My goal was the quickest, easiest survey possible while getting some feedback on what worked for teachers and what didn't. The first weeks of school are crazy, and, let's face it, no one wants to spend their precious minutes filling out a survey, even if it's for the betterment of the staff development universe. 

My super simple survey listed the sessions we had during the week, and asked staff members to choose "this was awesome," "this was just fine," or "this wasn't useful to me." It also had a comment box for any thoughts or ideas that teachers wanted to add.

35 people completed the survey (it was not required), and three of them checked the "this wasn't useful to me" box about my awesome, innovative, technology-ridden session. 11 noted "this was just fine," and the other 21 selected "this was awesome."

I was crushed. 

I think I actually started some sort of weird staff development planning grieving process. 

First, I was sad. They hated it. They didn't find anything useful in it at all. It was a total waste of time. Horrible! What about all those people who told me it was great? Were they just trying to make me feel better because it was so bad? Do people think they have to tell me what I want to hear? Do I really know our staff at all? I have ruined their entire staff development week. Risks are for losers! What was I thinking?  Next time we will just talk for hours. It worked in the old days, so it will work now. 

Then, I was judgmental and offended (I'm not proud of this stage). If those people didn't get anything out of it, then they weren't trying to get anything out of it. Some things changed since last year, and those are things they need to know. If they didn't get those because they had a bad attitude, then they'll be sorry when they do the wrong thing, won't they? Some people are just going to be grouchy.

Stage three was an attempt at rational thinking. In this stage, my type A, nerdy, over-achiever personality flared, and I lamented the "just fine's." I don't like "just fine." I like awesome. I like impressive and cool and inspiring. If this is a B "just fine" what do I have to do to get an A "awesome"?

Finally -- wait for it -- I became a rational human being. Overall, teachers appreciated the session, as is evidenced by the survey and the comments I received. Customization of learning opportunities exists because everyone doesn't enjoy the same stuff or learn the same way, so the three evaluations that I viewed as negative are just a reminder that we need to continue to differentiate - to provide something for everyone - to meet the needs of individual learners even in staff development. 

I also came to accept (for maybe the billionth time in my life) that "Just fines" are just that - fine. Every day can't be mind-blowing for every person. If we can have a several awesomes mixed in with lots of just fines and an occasional "I didn't like this," then we're actually doing a bang up job right here in reality, in the trenches where philosophy and research go up against real life. 

Was the risk worth it? Yep. It was totally worth it. Teachers learned, administrators modeled, information was communicated and we all left with tools we'll use again some day in some form or fashion. 

And all was well with the world. 

Practice what you Preach

It's long been a conversation among teachers, even if they don't want administrators to know.

"They expect our classrooms to be full of technology and engaging and exciting, but sometimes it's all I can do to stay awake during staff development."

"The principals want me to use (insert latest fad technology here), but they don't know how to use it."

"We keep talking about engaging classrooms, but when was the last time she planned a lesson? What about a lesson on a really boring topic? Does she have any idea how long the prep for something like that takes?"

This year, as I've worked on the staff development plan for my school, I've tried to keep this in mind. I've tried to incorporate strategies that are cutting edge. Innovative. Fun. And the teachers are right - it's not easy.

It's also not a Power Point with cool pictures that I can read from in an exciting voice while the faculty and staff pretend to listen. 

Relevant Sidebar.

Two things I've learned about myself in the past few weeks: 

1) I hate Power Point. It's become a technological crutch. I know this because I've used it. As a teacher, I filled in the "technology use" blank on my lesson plans with "power point presentation" many, many times. Honestly, I probably just copied and pasted it to every day for the week because I was certain there would be some Power Point notes in there somewhere. 

The first thing I do when someone opens a Power Point is look at the bottom right corner to see how many slides it has. Then I calculate the amount of time it will take based on my Speech Communications professor's theory that each slide of a Power Point should take three minutes to lecture over. Imagine what I think next when I see a presentation with 76 slides. Ugh. 

Power Point isn't inherently evil. It definitely has practical uses, and in the hands of a good presenter it can be a great tool. But this year during staff development I'm determined to pretend it doesn't exist. To stretch. To do more. Just like we ask teachers to do.

2) This one I've actually known for a while. I can't stand when we make rules specifically for people who don't follow rules or have lengthy conversations with large groups about things that apply to specific people. Here's a fictional scenario to make my point:

Administrator #1: Our handbook clearly says that teachers cannot wear flip flops. Did you see Mr. Jones today?  He had on the shoes he wore to the beach this weekend, complete with sand stuck to the bottom. What are we going to do?

Administrator #2: Well, if they can't handle no flip flops maybe we need to be more clear. I think we should just say "no open toed shoes" from here on out so this doesn't happen again. Then people will definitely not wear flip flops because they are open toed shoes. 

A) This is Mr. Jones's problem, not everyone's problem, so making everyone a little more miserable is       just mean. 

B) Mr. Jones doesn't follow the rules. Making new, stricter ones isn't going to make him start following the rules. 

So back to staff development.

The worst part of most August staff development is going over random stuff that people need to know, like what time morning duty starts and where I drop off my kids in the cafeteria. I bet that in my eight years in education I've spent roughly 30 hours of my life listening to someone tell me these things. The first year at a new place was really the only year I needed to hear all of it, and that year I was so overwhelmed that I probably wasn't focused enough to remember any of it. My question is always, "Where can I find that later when I need it?"

I want to let you in on a little secret here. The people who really need to hear the rules/policies/procedures the most probably aren't listening. Mr. Jones is thinking about how rad it was when he caught a gnarly wave this past weekend. He's not thinking about how he should really be on time to morning duty. The people who are really paying attention are probably on time every day, but now maybe they'll be extra early because it must be a problem because we keep talking about it so much. 

With all of this in mind I began designing our "nuts and bolts" part of staff development. (I need a name that has more flair for this part, but so far I can't think of anything. If you have an idea, let me know.) I attempted to take some of the theories and strategies we've talked about during our administrator time this summer and incorporate them into something that teachers will A) not hate, and B) say "Hey! That was cool! Can you teach me how to do that?" 

I started with the concept of a flipped classroom.

Teachers will get about 30 minutes to work through a Prezi with all of the stuff that just really needs to be said (they'll have their employee handbooks, too, as a reference). They can do this alone in their classrooms or together with their teams. The direct instruction part will take place before they ever come to "class."

Then, when we meet together as a whole group, we'll have a Quiz using the school's clicker system. (I'm certain that's not the official name of this system, but it's what I've always called it.) It turns out we have 70 clickers that may have been put in the testing closet by an Assistant Principal last summer when they came in only to be discovered in late May when said administrator was cleaning said closet (me? why, of course not  ;)). So no one has used them. 

We'll do a whole group, quick quiz thing, and faculty and staff will respond with clickers. If everyone (or most everyone) gets the question right, we won't even discuss the content. There will be no need, and I hope teachers will feel their time is respected because we're not beating dead horses. If it looks like there is confusion about something particular, we'll stop and discuss it. 

To tie in all of the awesome learning, we'll wrap up by watching this video on how a flipped classroom works. I found it through a mentormob playlist. 

Now, I am quite certain that this could tank. It could be a technological disaster. The internet could be down. Teachers could struggle navigating the Prezi. They could just think it's dumb. 

But we're doing it. Because if I'm going to ask them to be risk-takers and innovators, I have to lead the charge. Wish me luck!

PS - Here's the link to my Prezi. If you have feedback, feel free to share. I love constructive criticism as long as it's not mean (particularly before I try this with 75 staff members). FYI - I know the audio is too low on the tutorial videos I made, but I can't fix them at school because I don't have a program that will do it or permission to download a free program that will do it. Yes, I do see the irony in that. 

A few tips - Click "more" before you start playing the Prezi and you can make it go full screen. Press the arrows on your keyboard or mouse click the arrow on screen to advance to the next slide. 

Web Conferencing

On Sunday, March 20th, I attended a web conference as a requirement for a graduate school class. I have attended several web conferences in the past, mostly for meetings with people in different locations, but this was my first web conference for a course that is required for my degree.

In attempting to describe the conference, words are difficult to come by without sounding too harsh. Overwhelming. Disorganized. Crazy. It was pretty rough.

It did, however, spark some ideas for me to implement in the event that I conduct a web conference in the future.

1) Ensure that all participants understand the purpose of the conference ahead of time. This is common practice for in-person meetings, and it should be for online meetings, as well. A clearly defined purpose would alleviate confusion and save the moderator time because he/she will not have to explain the purpose over and over again.

2) Limit the number of participants to a small enough group that they can all participate. If you truly want to conference, I would suggest 15-20 people as a maximum. More than that and you are dealing with a web conference where people cannot keep up with the comments of others. Ultimately, conferences with more people than can actively participate are no longer "conferences." They become webinars with presenters disseminating information.

3) Esatablish a protocol. This should be adapted to fir the purposes of the conference, but some things to consider might be

• no one contributes until the moderator begins the session and asks for introductions.
• questions are taken in an organized manner (maybe alphabetically or in some numerical order)
• the moderator may implement a STOP command, when issued will tell all participants to stop posting and wait for others to catch up or for further directions.

Progress Report

In the 2010-2011 Texas Progress Report of the Long Range Technology Plan, the Executive Summary begins with a quote from a high school student: “Every time I go to school, I have to power down.” In my personal experience, this is too true. Many of my students feel like they have to cut themselves off from their friends, family, and the outside world in order to participate in school, but isn’t the very purpose of school to make our students better contributors to all of those groups? Under the guise of keeping order we are taking away the world that we plan to send students out into one day.

Would we be better serving kids if we taught them etiquette about such matters as facebook and cell phones? At my school, when a teacher sees a cell phone she is to take it, and it can only be returned to the student after a fine is paid. This sends the message that the cell phone is the enemy to learning and that we, as educators, are afraid of it. I think a different system is called for.

The long range plan for technology calls for the integration of technology into basically everything we do as educators to prepare students for a technological world. The hard and fast truth, however, is that the funding resources to provide all that technology just doesn't exist. Perhaps it is time to leverage the technology that students already come armed with in order to meet the goals of the State. Instead of saying to students, “Put away your technology and use mine,” we should say “What technology do you have and how can we leverage it toward greater learning today?”

Isn’t that the practical application that will most benefit them after graduation anyway?

National Educational Technology Plan

The concept of one-size fits all learning has long gone by the wayside. In my eight year teaching career, I have increasingly learned about various ways to individualize instruction, lately attending a conference on differentiating instruction. In the 21st century model of learning, a priority is placed on meeting learners where they are instead of trying to fit students into pre-made molds. Additionally, the plan requires that assessment is an on-going process, and that student needs are identified before they have failed a course or fallen drastically behind.


The model also includes using technology to build capacity for educators. While in the past educators have worked in the isolation of their own classrooms, 21st century teachers must go beyond the classroom to involve a global community in student learning to prepare students for a global workforce. Teachers must be comfortable moving beyond the confines of an individual classroom so that students can be comfortable moving beyond their own small worlds into the greater community.

Goals of the model include giving all learners an opportunity to participate in empowering experiences both within the classroom and beyond. Assessment should utilize technology in order to meet the changing needs of students, which will also reduce both physical and time waste. Professional educators should be connected outside the classroom to leverage the most cutting-edge resources to meet the needs of their learners, and the state must provide the infrastructure necessary to make that happen. Finally, technology should be used to refine the processes within our educational system to make them more effective and efficient.