My Top 12 Reflections on 2012 pt. 1

It's the beginning of a new year, a time for looking back and a time for crystal ball gazing. On twitter Vicki Davis, @coolcatteacher suggested: Write a 2012 year in review about what you've done, where you've been, and the joys of the year. Take time to remember.  So I decided to gather my thoughts and reflect on 2012 before embarking on the adventure and promise of a new year. In honor of 2012, I'm working on my top 12 highlights from the year. As I am continually trying for life/work balance, some of the highlights are related to my teaching practice, and some are purely personal. Here are the first four highlights.

1. iPads in the classroom: In March, I applied to and was accepted into the iPad Action Research Academy  in our school district. We received our class set of iPads in April and my students have been engaged ever since. I started a blog to keep track of our experiences and have had the opportunity to work with an amazing team of innovators as we have pioneered use of this technology in our district. As a group we have used a wiki and primarily Edmodo to communicate, problem solve and collaborate. It really has been a game changer for me, my students and my colleagues.

2. Once again, this year I was laid off until the staffing and budget picture was clearer in our district and state. What was different this year was that before the school year ended, in fact on the last day of school, I knew I'd have a job the following school year and that I would not have to move my classroom! Honestly, just knowing that I'd know my status by the last day of school was a gift. Finding out that I didn't have to pack up, move, store, move, and unpack my classroom again this year was huge! I wrote an op-ed piece for the Mercury News which was picked up by a few blogs. Cool to be noticed but how do we change the cycle?

3. On our bucket list was spending quality time with the Smithsonian Museums in Washington, D.C. This summer my husband and I spent two full weeks exploring and learning. In addition to all of the museums, we visited the Bureau of Engraving, Congress and of course, the monuments.

We had a wonderful time together walking all over the city. Knowing I'd be teaching 5th grade social studies made our visit to the National Archives particularly poignant. I got into a very interesting discussion with a female African American security guard who was standing next to the Declaration of independence and Constitution. She was unimpressed with the documents and their historical value. No one had every helped her to see that although, yes, it's initial relevance did not embrace women or anyone of color, the basic tenants put forth in the words of our founding fathers laid the groundwork for civil rights for people of color and women (and maybe soon all people!). It reminded me of the importance of my job as a teacher, to help my students see the relevance of history in their lives.

4. Time with family: this summer my parents celebrated significant birthdays. Mom turned 80 in May and Dad turned 85 in August. To celebrate, all of us siblings gathered with family and friends to celebrate the octogenarians. It has been many years since all of my siblings and our spouses were all together.   Unfortunately, not all of the grandkids were able to be here, having lives, jobs, and kids of their own now.  All of my surviving aunts, uncle and cousins were there to share in the special day and I know my parents felt the love return to them which they have sowed all their years.

Yes Teachers Want Tech, Let's teach them how to use it!

I just read an article tweeted to me by Edworld written by Edworld Jason. He points out how most teachers are finally ready to take on tech, and want more of it in the classroom. Buried at the end of the article, beneath some really cool graphics, is this sentence...

Researching costs for technology purchases—ranging from installation to training time—is the first step in identifying what's right for your school.

The training time has been in my experience the biggest block to anyone other than early adopters using technology in the classroom. Teachers I have worked with have dust gathering on projectors, use Smart Boards as screens for their overhead projectors and don't know what to do with laptops, iPads and PCs. I hold dual citizenship, but most teachers are digital vacationers at best. We need to find ways, and finance ways, to help these teachers learn how to use the tools to provide meaningful and authentic learning opportunities for our kids.

I have scoured the Internet for lesson plans using iPads and have come up with very few good examples. New-to-tech teachers need good and easy to find sources of information and resources to help them step across their own digital divide. In our district, where we have a growing pilot program for 1:1 iPads, we have started a wiki and edmodo group to share best practices and ideas. But it is still a challenge for all of us, we are so busy teaching, to find the time to research and learn and share new ways to be innovative in the classroom. Yet, we owe it to our kids to prepare them as best we can 'for jobs that don't even exist yet.'

And, to reward you for reading all the way to the end, here is one of the really cool graphics I mentioned.




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Lead3.0

This weekend I went to a two day conference, Lead3.0 put in by TICAL, CUE andACSA (my cousin, George Manthey is the  the Assistant Executive Director of Educational Services, of ACSA and the event co-organizer, an amazing guy).  

The first session I attended talked about Common Core Standards. The second session was near and dear to my heart.How Two Superintendents Collaboratively Launched an Initiative to Maximize Classroom Effectiveness in the Digital Age

Dr. Jacqueline M. Horejs, Superintendent, Union School District & Dr. Deborah L. Blow, Superintendent, Cambrian School District: Aware of the importance of collaboration as a 21st Century skill, Dr. Debbie Blow.. and Dr. Jacqueline Horejs, ... decided to initiate a 21st Century Digital Media Academy to provide professional development for teachers in both of our districts.  Teachers from each district applied and were selected to participate in a year long academy to learn how to effectively use digital media in their classrooms.  ...  Management team members are also collaborating on book studies including Trilling and Fadel’s 21st Century Skills, and workshops on the effective classroom use of iPads.

It was so cool to hear Dr. Blow talk about what we are doing and I honestly have never felt more proud of my school district! It was interesting to hear some of the background behind the thinking of the Academy concept & design, which basically is "feeding the rabbits" or as my previous Superintendent called us, "fire-starters".  Find the people who want to use it, they will use it and thus excite and teach others.


The keynote speaker at lunch was Alan November. If you ever get a chance to hear him speak, DO IT! Here are some notes I took, but doesn't really do him justice. If you have time - watch the video recording they made.http://novemberlearning.com/

• Teach by asking not telling
• Unlearning misconceptions is a phenomenally difficult thing to do.
• Math train.tv 6th grade teacher site .for kids to make movies about math.  We so have to do this
• Teach not only content but courage.  We have to teach them to be fearless learners.  Global publishing.
• Children would prefer content provided by children when they are learning something new.
• Unleash an army of creative problem solvers creating problem solving across the curriculum.   Kids work for free.
• Check out Prime factorization by bob on Mathtrain.tv.  She says she learns more doing the videos that the kids watching because she "really has to learn it."
• Kid who per teacher is not a Good 6th grade because she is lazy, as to why she is not doing school work but literally publishing content to a world-wide audience, "I have to decide, do I publish for my teacher or for the world?"
• What is the proportion of work that has purpose and adds value to the world vs work that is done for a grade?
• YouTube Dan Pink drive rsa animate   3 motivators...purpose, autonomy and mastery
• Seed and tree. ...how did it get there?  Kinder give same answer as harvard grads.  And they went to school between then!
• If they don't have internet access, download to DVD and send home.
• Mrs. Cassidy classroom blog   In Moose Jaw, 1st graders reaching a global audience creating documentaries of how they learned something.

Later I attended Technology Tools to Support Academics in RTI by Sheri Wilkins, Program Manager, Desert/Mountain Special Education Local Plan Area.

This workshop will provide participants with opportunities to explore technological solutions that will extend the effectiveness and efficiency of a Response to Intervention (RTI) model. The session will focus on tools for assessment and intervention in the areas of reading, writing, and math. Participants will be given time to explore the tools that are shared in the presentation.  I was hoping to find some good technology sources for reading intervention. This session focused mostly on assessment and not strategies.  I did talk to a vendor who has something similar to SuccessMaker but it runs on an iPad, so I might trial it.

I also attended a session with an innovative PD model between San Bruno Park SD and the Krause Center for Innovation.  I am a MERIT graduate so was interested to see what they did, which was produce an accelerated program to create tech savvy teachers. Creating Affordable and Timely Professional Development by Skip Johnson, Principal, Steven J. McGriff, Teacher-in-Residence, KCI, Gay Krause, ED, KCI and two teachers from the district: Providing high quality professional development to promote the use of technology is a challenge. In the San Bruno Park School District we created a partnership with the Krause Center for Innovation housed on the junior college campus of Foothill in Los Altos Hills to provide low cost professional development through the establishment of the Danford Center for Innovation.

The final highlight of my day was collaboration time with Jason and Martin.  We did some brainstorming about apps, they gave me encouragement about being laid-off, again, and then we went to the Apps for Apps mixer, where it was like speed dating but with iPad apps.  We learned about some really cool apps. I'll add links later.

• App. Home 3d. To build a mission
• App. Reflection can display whatever is on your iPad onto the computer, than project it.  Not as big a deal if you have appleTV
• What we then brainstormed is to use a free app...Join me. It shares my screen with the kids they sign with a code.   Can also log in remotely.  This might be the solution Sheila and I were wondering about if we want all of our users on the same "page" at once, for example with a read along.
• App. Classroom management. Can assign Badges, kids see how they are doing..they get points.  Could display using 2 windows so kids cn always see their status.  It can also be set up to send parent emails.  Maybe useful for 'that kid'.
• app.  Educreation.  Just like show me. A little simpler. can't download videos with show me so if you want to embed them in something else, you may want to use Educreation ..both are free.
• App Explain everything. 2. Cool app to annotate presentations, images, etc.
• Doceri 3 versions can edit with the video then record   Export to an mov. Free $25 no ad, $30 also controls computers
• If you are going to make movies, there is a Case/tripod mount/adapter for lenses. $64 Makayama. iPad 2. You can attach a 37 mm lens.  Kinda cool.  You can also attach external mic with $20 dongle
• Cosmonaut. Stylus. A bigger handle for little kids. http://www.studioneat.com/products/cosmonaut
• App and web based tool  take notes and store them in the cloud for anywhere access..  It is where imam typing this!  Evernote. Shared folder so you can share assignments with kids that they can access anywhere...maybe much the same as Google apps though frankly docs is super slow and awkward.  Jon from Minnerette high school.   Taking notes in the cloud. 
• Assignment: using Ask a friend three questions and record. (t has a voice feature) Then write summary. They have to stay on task because they have to produce soemthing!  

I am so happy I went to this event. It was engaging and re-invigorating. Will post later about the closing session with Steve Dembo 

We are in!

Despite union politics and me being a temp, our application to the academy was accepted and I am in! We had our first meeting and got our teacher iPads and MacBooks on the 26th.  Needless to say, my kids were very happy!