Bikers, Boaters, and School Culture?

It is funny sometimes, when you do things without thinking and they simply occur so naturally, then you find yourself wondering, “Why do we do that?” There are two hobbies that my husband and I have and they are motorcycling and boating. These two hobbies can be very different from one another, yet there is something they both have in common. When you are on the lake and you pass another boat filled with people you have never met, you give them a wave, a nod, or a smile--some type of greeting. When riding our motorcycles and pass another biker, you give them a wave, a nod, or smile--some type of greeting. It does not matter the make or model of the vehicle, or who is the driver of the that vehicle, you acknowledge their presence, even when they are complete strangers.

So of course, I relate this to educational settings and the focus on school culture. How difficult is it to acknowledge anyone who passes by in the hallway? Why wouldn’t we greet students everyday with a wave, nod, or smile--some type of greeting? Creating a welcoming and inviting environment is free, it doesn’t require a a new software program, it doesn’t require a costly workshop-we can commit to greet everyone anytime, anywhere. I never thought I’d be making a connection between school school culture and bikers and boaters...

Digital Citizenship--2013 Commencement Speech

As I started to reflect on this past year and the message I wanted to leave you with on this very memorable day

My thoughts kept taking me back to when I graduated and just how quickly this world changes in such a short time.The graduating class of 2013 has faced and will continue to face the Perfect Learning Storm--or what Trilling and Fadel describe in their book: 21st Century Skills-Learning for Life in Our Time As:

Powerful forces that are “converging and leading us toward new ways of learning for life.”

These powerful forces are the elements that are required to support you in all of your future endeavors.

As your teachers we understand that learning is social--the environments you will encounter in the world of work are collaborative. We do know that you have mastered the skills of collaboration during your years at AHS.

You will have to work with people in a variety of locations all over the world while utilizing the gazillion mobile learning devices and services that allow you to work smarter not harder--such as:

• smartphones
• tablets
• calendar and contact management software
• skyping
• online chat spaces
• email
• text messaging
• websites
• cloud computing
• web conferencing
• and the numerous social networking tools available to you

Ladies and Gentlemen:

These students are not only mobile learning device experts but they can send a tweet, reply to a text, and post a status update to Facebook all inside the front pocket of their hoodie!

BUT: You can’t all just be skilled at collaboration and tech devices; Do not lose sight of the importance of interpersonal skills—you must be flexible and understand you will never be done learning! The rate of change in our society is beyond comprehension

I just read: 

• Computer microchips continue to double their processing speed every 18 months

• All the books ever written can be transmitted over an optical fiber the width of your hair in a couple of seconds

• Currently the amount of new technical knowledge doubles every 72 hours

What is required of you today, may not be the same tomorrow!

When we describe you all as digital natives we mean you have grown up immersed in digital media. 

You’ve never known a time without speed in communication--sending messages and getting an immediate response. Rather than mailing a letter to your cousin in Arizona because you are not allowed to make long distance calls.You have the ability to design a playlist on your phone without having to fast forward the tape player because you don’t like the next song. You can now choose to take a class from a “virtual teacher” when you are interested in a class that is not offered in the learning institution you are attending.

To offer you advice in a world that changes so rapidly can be challenging. But know that every step you take from this point forward can never be erased- you will leave your digital footprint everywhere you go. Including the Facebook status update that can be viewed by every future employer you will ever have, every Instagram picture you post will leave an impression, good or bad, on the admissions advisor at your university, and every tweet you’ve tweeted about how DBH swept you for being tardy, but will never be forgotten

Practice Positive Digital Citizenship Class of 2013--We started from the bottom now we’re here!

Backchanneling Breakthroughs

It is an exciting moment when you see your teachers feeling safe in their classrooms to try new web 2.0 technology with the students! However, with the excitement, often time comes disappointment and frustration, when students choose to use the tool inappropriately. The situation that transpired was a backchannel opportunity for students during direct instruction from one teacher, while the other teacher moderated the chat in #TodaysMeet. The students chose a name to be identified in the chat room. Some chose their actual name, but some students chose a fictitious name.

During the backchannel, a student chose to refer to a fellow classmate in a derogatory and demeaning way.  This particular student had identified themselves with a fictitious name. The teacher immediately shut the chat room down and came down to my office inquiring as to how to handle the situation. As an administrator, I was furious and debated about how to address the issue; find the offender and suspend them or address the entire class, talk about respecting one another, encourage some self-policing, or at least require everyone to reflect on the situation. I elected to have a discussion with the class, but wondered if I did not send a strong enough message to the offender.One of the teachers indicated that the the students stated after I left, that they really thought I should have found the person who wrote the inappropriate statement and punish them severely. This concerned me even more, that I handled it the way I had.

The next day, the teachers indicated to me that they were going to try backchanneling again, but with stricter parameters. No one was permitted to be anonymous. The second experience turned out to beneficial for all involved. The teachers were pleased with the students' performance and felt it was a valuable tool this time around.

Now that I have done even more reflecting on the situation...three things come to mind.
      1. I am still not sure if I should have handled the situation differently. Would the offender have learned more from the experience with a severe consequence or was the class discussion sufficient?
      2. The backchanneling expectations were not clear to the students.
      3. The students did not have clear expectations for backchanneling, because backchanneling was a new strategy. With any new learning technique or strategy, one cannot pre-determine what might happen, until it does. Once it does, you learn from the experience, and improve it the next time.

While educators try to anticipate any and all paths a new strategy or technique our classroom might take, it is impossible to know everything in advance. This does not mean we avoid trying something new. We take on the challenge, own the mistakes we make, and fix SNAFUs before we try again.

Tech in Schools: Not Just Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

This winter break included installing a wi-fi thermostat, purchasing a Fitbit One Activity Tracker as well as a Fitbit Aria, a wi-fi scale. I am absolutely in love with my new tech gadgets! They make my life easier and provide me with information that allows me to make sensible choices for my budget as well as my health and fitness.

I shared the excitement about my new 'toys' with my parents and they thought those were absolutely frivolous expenses. They questioned my judgement in purchasing a thermostat that can be adjusted from my mobile device or any internet connection, the scale that sends my Fitbit account my weight and adjusts the amount of calories I should eat to meet my goal, and my Fitbit One that tells me how many steps I took during the day. My mom stated how her thermostat works just fine and she has never needed to change the temperature of her furnace from outside the home. She also shared with me her Weight Watcher Food Log that she tracks what she eats with paper and pencil. These non-tech tools accomplished the same tasks as my tech tools did, but at a much lower price. I was willing to pay the higher price in exchange for convenience and instantaneous information. Actually it is more than that, I can train my thermostat so it begins to "learn" when I want the temperature to increase in my house and what I want that increased temperature to be. When I am not at home it adjust the temperature accordingly whereby conserving energy. My Fitbit One not only sets my goals and timelines for weight loss based on the amount of activity I engage in or how many calories I consume--but it helps me hold myself accountable by sharing on social media or with other Fitbit One users. These tools allow me to do and know much more than I would if I used the non-version of these devices.

This scenario made me think about the technology we use in school. Is this new technology simply to complete the same tasks we have always had to complete? Have we just traded the higher price tag for convenience and instantaneous information? Or is the new technology that we use in schools opening doors that were closed before? The new technology that is available provides for: increased collaboration by using a Wiki to create a collaborative staff meeting agenda; greater opportunities for educator staff development by doing a book study via Edmodo; students giving and getting feedback on their writing from their peers all over the world by publishing their essays on Blogger; entire school populations to use Google Apps and Dropbox to store documents where others can access anywhere, anytime; using the iMovie app on the iPad to create a trailer for the school play. The list is endless...Technology is what you make it and how you use it. What is your "wi-fi thermostat?"

5 Fool-proof Strategies to Confident Public Speaking

Recently, a student who I had never met, approached me in the hall before school. She had long bangs covering her eyes and her hoodie sleeves were so long they were covering her hands. She kept her sleeve-covered hands in front of her mouth which made it very difficult to hear her on top of her small, timid voice. She shared with me that she had to do a presentation in front of her class for which she was completely unprepared...she said she hated speaking in front of people. She said she was shy and too nervous to present. I shared five MUSTS for presenting in front of others. These strategies not only increase confidence, but make public speaking much less intimidating.

1. Know your stuff. You must must know your material inside and out. Be an expert on the topic for which you are speaking.
2. Reduce, Reduce, Reduce. Practice by fully writing your presentation out on paper, then reduce it to note cards, then reduce is again to 1-5 word phrases, then reduce it to nothing.
3. Practice makes perfect. Say it to yourself, say it to a friend, say it to a recorder.
4. Be an earlybird. Get to your presentation area early. Set up in advance so you can run through the presentation 1-2 times before the real deal.
5. No technical difficulties. If you are presenting anything from the internet, you must download it to your computer, in case wi-fi connections are slow or not working.

So Crates' Circle

No, it is not from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, I am talking about Socratic Circles. This higher-level thinking/collaborative strategy intensely focuses the classroom discussion around a particular piece of text or artifact. All students are assigned a particular reading the night before the Socratic Circle. While they read (or analyze) the text (article, act in a play, piece of artwork, section of the text book, or anything of value related to the curriculum in the course), the students are required to annotate as they read and bring questions, ideas, thoughts, and connections to the Circle the next day.The facilitator of the Circle, forms an inner and outer circle with the chairs or desks in the classroom.  The inner circle is permitted to start the discussion  for a designated amount of time that is predetermined by the facilitator. The outer circle has the role of silent observers and to evaluate how the inner circle is interacting with one another rather than evaluating what they are discussing. All students are provided a feedback form so they understand the evaluation criteria while in the inner circle. The inner circle begins by discussing the questions, ideas  or thoughts they brought from the reading that they did the night before. The facilitator may elect to provide the initial question to begin the discussion. After the designated discussion time is up, the outer circle reflects on how the inner circle interacted based on the criteria. Outer circle members provide the inner circle with feedback. Then the roles switch.

I had the pleasure to witness the "first go" at Socratic Circles in Mrs. Warren's class this week. I was very impressed to see students who I would not have thought would step up to share their thoughts, let alone, disagree with a peer and defend their point of view with evidence from the text! This process was an example of students taking responsibility for their own learning and I really believe that these students gained a deeper understanding than if this information was shared via a lecture and they take notes. Students provided positive feedback about the overall experience.

Socratic Circles--Try it, you might like it...your students definitely will!

All Students Can Read Your Mind

Did you ever wonder how a student knows that you have just spent your whole lunch period talking about what a lazy, apathetic, loser they are? Or maybe you could not figure out why the students have such poor performance in your class after you repeatedly tell your colleagues about the “delinquents” you teach and that they just don’t care about learning. I also bet that you have pondered why a student is disrespectful to you after you have just made comments about how “you have given up” on them to your partner.  It is because every student can read your mind.

Students are very intuitive and obviously do not read minds, but they do read body language, facial expressions, tone of voice, and the level of genuine sincerity that is expressed about their well-being. If educators are truly going to raise the instructional bar for students and expect high levels of learning for all, a teacher’s mind must be free of stereotypes and a negative outlook for students. Until educators truly BELIEVE in students, and expect them to learn and challenge themselves, schools will continue to produce lazy, apathetic, loser, delinquents that the adults have given up on.

Maybe if everyone really thought students can read minds, educators might change their own minds and realize they are responsible for fostering a supportive learning environment. Educators might change their own minds about how the negative thoughts and beliefs they hold are reflected in their daily interactions with students.

What do students see when they read your mind?