LOA Diaries: Edmodo, part two ~ Stranger in a Strange Land

In my two months at  +Edmodo I have tried to make the most of my experience. I am enjoying working with Edmodo Certified Trainers (ECTs) and updating training materials. On the days I come into the office, I commute not quite two hours a day, including a nice walk form the train to the office. But honestly, it has not been all work and no play. I've participated in Paint Nite, complete with wine and Bob Ross wigs. I participated in my first hackathon, even though at first I didn't even know what it was. They have an onsite masseuse one day a week. Edmodo has hot lunch brought in two days a week, usually one of the days I'm there.There are always have packaged salads, sandwiches and entrees that are of gourmet quality. They have unlimited soda and snacks, both healthy and not so much. 

Alberto the Artiste!

 

This morning I happened to ask the exact right guy to show me how the coffee maker worked. I'm not doing it justice to call it a coffee maker. It's one of those big things with multiple spouts and steam and all. I am a Mr. Coffee kind of gal, so I was slightly intimidated. The Keurig was out of K cups, so I asked the young man (they are all young compared to me ;) making some sort of foamy drink it he wouldn't mind showing me how to use the behemoth. Lucky for me, Brady comes from a family of coffee makers! His dad owns a handful of coffee shops in Louisiana and Brady used to train baristas! He took the time to show me how it worked, explained how lighter beans make stronger coffee and helped me as I made my first latte! I have found the people at Edmodo to be kind, generous with their time and always willing to help. From the CEO on, the company culture seems to be one of kindness. And yes, they have their own keg and wine stocked in a small wine fridge. No wonder I don't mind working late! 

NuAhn

In addition to my lucky day with latte, I was finally at the office on the right day to get a massage! Edmodo has a masseuse that comes to the office and sets up in a conference room one day a week. She does a half hour for $20 or a full hour for $40. The office manager, Nhu Ahn, uses a Google sheet where people can sign up for their own time slot. Talk about #HighTechHighTouch! I decided to not splurge, so I only got a half hour but about midway through I was wishing I'd booked a full hour. But then I reminded myself to stay in the present and enjoy the now. It was a wonderful massage, but it took me about 15 minutes to get my head back into work mode after being so very relaxed. 

Edmodo has an open office concept, with a variety of sizes of windowed conference rooms outfitted with projectors, speaker phones and power cables so you can just carry in your Mac. There are no phones at people's desks and all of the desks adjust for standing or sitting with the push of a button. Despite the open floor plan, the work area is surprisingly quiet, especially compared to my classroom. Edmodo employs a product called Hipchat that allows 1:1, one to some or one to all communications. If you need to talk to someone across the way you just hipchat them! Not for the first time I wonder about the implications and applications of this ability in a school setting.

I document my experiences back in the business world as an anthropological report. Not to make my teaching colleagues jealous, but to give them a peek into the corporate world. Yes, this is what the business world is like. I can drink as much water as is healthy. I use the bathroom when I want. I take the train to the office and I can show up when I show up, as long as I get my work done. I am so grateful for this opportunity, something I never could've done while teaching full time. It really is a different world.

Zach working the support wall.

LOA Diaries: Edmodo, an introduction

I've used an educational software product, +Edmodo , for about 5 years. Edmodo is kind of a private, safe and secure Facebook for education (though they prefer I not make that comparison, for people who don't use Edmodo, I find it helps). Edmodo is the largest social learning network used for connecting, communicating and collaborating with colleagues and students. When Jim or I would complain about the bureaucratic, slow moving workings of our educational system, he would say I should go back into business and 'work somewhere like Edmodo.' I belong to an amazing group of educators, Edmodo Support Ambassadors and Certified Trainers. I'd posted to the group that I was taking a year leave (LOA) from teaching. Understandably, people who didn't know my full story said 'how lucky' I was. What they couldn't know is I'd gladly work the rest of my life if it would have meant my husband would've beaten his cancer.

About a week after I took the BTSA coaching job, I received a message on Edmodo from +Kevyn Klein, Director of Customer Success and Advocacy. She had seen that I was not teaching and they were in need of some temporary help managing their on-site trainings. I drove up to San Mateo to talk about their needs and ended up starting my training that day and signing a contract the next morning. As I got ready for work the next morning, I could just see Jim smiling with pride and maybe a bit of, 'I told you so!'



I go into the office one or two days a week and work a few hours Tuesday through Friday from home. San Mateo is about 25 miles away, but in commute traffic can take a mind numbing, stop and go hour or more. I've started taking the train on the days I go in, which gives me back two hours a day to walk (to and from the train), meditate, call far away family and friends and write - all things I wanted to do when I took my leave of absence. Edmodo's amazing IT team, +Allison Laureano  and +Sam Swink , set me up with a MacBook Air and my own conference number so that I can easily work from home.

As I was describing to my parents the work I do at Edmodo, I realized I had come full circle.  My first job out of college was at Tymnet, where I started in 1982 as a receptionist in the training and support department and was soon coordinating trainings, much of what I do now! Of course the tools are fancier and more technologically advanced, and yes, the pay is better, but a circle nonetheless.

It is really interesting to get an insider’s perspective of a company whose product I've used for so long. I expect a number of updates to follow!

LOA Diaries: BTSA

About two weeks before school started I received a call from the district HR department asking if I'd consider being a coach for new teachers. A BTSA Supporting Teacher. BTSA stands for Beginning Teacher Support and Induction.  It's a great program designed to help teachers navigate the first two years of teaching. I had an amazing mentor, +Kristi Schwiebert who I'm lucky to still have as a colleague and friend. 

I did my research and determined it would generally take one day a week which was about how much time I wanted to commit. I felt it would show good faith to a district that had treated me well when I needed it most. I said yes and the following Monday attended training and on Tiesday met two of the three teachers I'd be supporting. I meet with them individually once a week and have complete flexibility in my schedule except for required monthly meetings.

I have found the work to be incredibly rewarding. The teachers' enthusiasm is infectious and they are eager to learn and grow as educators. I get to spend some time with students as well. I support a kindergarten, fifth grade and middle school teacher in our small k-8 district. I knew I was making a difference when I arrived on campus last week and one of my participating teachers threw open her arms, greeted me with a big hug and whispered with relief, "you're here!"

LOA Diaries: an Introduction

Anyone who knows me well, knows I decided to take a year leave of absense, an LOA, after two incredibly difficult years of my life.  I am a 5th grade teacher with a first career of 20 years in high tech.  My husband died in the middle of the school year in 2014. I returned to the classroom in April to end the year and returned the following school year. What people who've never taught don't get is that when you have thirty or so little faces expecting you to not just show up but on be every day, no matter what, that you can't 'just phone it in.'  Heck, they think teachers actually live in our classrooms so how could we possibility be anywhere else?  When you are facing any sort of personal crisis just showing up can be exhausting.

After debating and consulting with my physician, therapist, my accountant, my close friends, and mostly myself, I decided to put in for a leave of absense. No one questioned my choice and most enthusiastically supported it. When I sat down with our human resources person, I told her I'd consider part time opportunities as a way to keep my toes in the pool, and not burn any bridges. 

I started meditating and rowing daily. I spent more time with my octogenarian parents. I ate healthier and started sleeping better. I started a new blog about my journey through grief to gratitude and grace. I felt as good as I could. I planned mini-vacays to have a future to look forward to. I was careful to plan a special drive to Yosemite in my S2000CR on the first day of school as a kickoff to my endless summer. 

So the next nine months posts will feature the adventures of an educator on adventure, my LOA Diaries.  

#twittertuesday for Elementary School Students

For the last several years, my co-teacher, +sheila monger and I have been using +Twitter with my fourth and fifth grade students. It provides and authentic writing experience with practice in succinctly capturing a main idea or essence. We encourage their parents to follow us and they work really hard to do their best work for this wider audience. I try to keep an eye on the twittersphere for trending hashtags and use them if applicable to link to current events. For example  On #GSPD we _________________ (global school play day) .I limit them to  ½ 140 or 70 characters...they have to fit it on the paper and I have to be able to read it from across the room.

Logistics

Before the school year starts, I laminate 30 pieces of paper that fit on my back cabinets.  I create a handle for each student using the first few letters of their first and last name. For example Sandra McConnell would be SanMc. I write their handles and glue them to a name tag with an Egg, showing they are a new user on twitter. As the year progresses, some students created new avatars for themselves.

Be sure to start the year with digital citizenship lessons. We rely on +Common Sense Education lessons. We also use the acronym RAMENN with our kids. When posting make sure it's
R - relevant
A - appropriate
M - meaningful
E - edited - and our students added the last two...
N - is it nice?
N - is it necessary?

Each Tuesday I post the prompt and give students time to generate ideas and write. Sometimes the prompts generate a lot of reflection, other times not so much. After most of the tweets are posted to the wall, my tweeter of the week, a classroom job, chooses one to five posts that they want to have represent our class.  They rewrite the prompt in their journal (or take a picture with their iPad) and bring it to my computer to type into our class account in twitter, @mrsmccsclass. Often I will have them include photographs of the students’ tweets to include in the tweet. I have them do it at my computer because I do not want the students to have unrestricted, unsupervised access to twitter.

Although I am not in my classroom this year, our account is still active and you can see what other types of things we post.

General Student Instructions

1. write a draft of the tweet in your journal. Be sure to include a hashtag summarizing or emphasizing your main idea. Proofread.
2. have your post checked by an adult
3. make edits, then with pencil, write your tweet on twitter paper
4. go over letters with a marker (no more than two colors)
5. post in the wall with blue tape at your @handle

Have fun with it! For sample prompts, visit this google doc.

3 Little Words

Some words are benign enough, it is....It. A non-specific pronoun.  Is. A form of the verb to be.  But put them together and add one more word, and you have a sentence. In the case of news delivered by my husband's doctor, the sentence sucked the air out of the room, my ears stopped working and I think maybe even my heart stopped pumping blood through my body for a half second when he spoke those words, "It is cancer."  Those simple little two words, matched with the most malignant, changed my life. Forever.

That was just over two years ago that I heard those words, such a short time, yet a lifetime.

Thinking about those three words, made me wonder about other times when just three words had changed my life so much. Some were hard to hear, others filled my heart with wonder and joy. All have brought me to this day.

Congratulations on Graduating I thought that meant I was done with school, though later I returned to earn two masters degrees, but it did mean it was time to get serious, be an adult, get a real job. And I did. I had a successful career, traveling the world, earning obscene amounts of money and always serious, saving for retirement.  

I love you The most precious words ever heard. Whether from a parent, a friend, a lover or a child, nothing changes a mood faster that hearing those words.  I remember once, almost 30 years ago, after a particularly bad day at work, stopping by my parents' house on my way home from work. As I climbed back into my car, my four year old niece, who'd been in the back playing, ran to the front porch and yelled at the top of her lungs, I love you! My whole day brightened at the sound of those words.

Be my wife At 37 I'd pretty much given up on the idea of marriage, yet it was a pleasant surprise to be proposed to by a man I really did love and want to spend the rest of my life with. I had no idea I would only get to spend the rest of his life with him.

Good Morning, Teacher After 20 years in high tech, I retired the day before my 40th birthday. After messing around for a few years, I decided to use my experience and passion to teach children. That first day in my own classroom started changes to my life in ways I'd never dreamed. I've never regretted the decision. I still love hearing those words!  

What three words changed your life?

Kindness Matters: Writing with StoryLines Pages & Edmodo

I partner teach 36 fifth graders with +sheila monger , our inclusive education teacher (some would call her an SDC teacher, she would not). We encompass rooms 7 & 8 so we call ourselves Team Seight. If you were to come in when we are all in the same room, you would not know who was officially assigned to each teacher.  +Edmodo has been a great tool for connecting our students in authentic ways, and preparing them for the world of social media in a safe and controlled environment. This year a theme at our school has been kindness, so using StoryLines Pages, an app in Edmodo, we created a Kindness Matters Book for each student.  

StoryLines Pages is a collaborative classroom activity where students learn the power of compliments and encouragement. Inspired by the story "All Good Things", by Sister Helen Mrosla, StoryLines Pages has each student in your class creating a page for each other student, expressing something he appreciates about his classmate.With this app, each student writes a “page” (one sentence) about every other student in our class. We read the short, true (verified by Snopes) story by Sister Helen and then the kids got to work. Some of my findings as we worked on this project:

• All students participated, and I had a quick snapshot of who was or wasn’t working on their pages, using the overall status page

• As I went through and reviewed students’ pages, I was able to see common mistakes, trends and areas of need. For example, this student consistently used capital letters incorrectly. Many of my students are still misusing the contraction of you are, spelling it Y-O-U-R.  Several of my students had difficulty writing in the first person, present tense.

• It was extremely rewarding for me to read the comments that my students made about all of their classmates. Never once was a comment checked “It is not nice” because it was mean. Some of our ED kids did have challenges differentiating between a statement (You play with me at recess. vs I like when you play with me at recess.) However, overwhelmingly, the students really had surprisingly nice things to say about each other.

• One of my students on a 504 has significant challenges starting work.  He will sit and stare into space. I was very worried about what other students would say about him, there just doesn't seem to be much 'there-there' from a 10 year old’s perspective, or so I thought.  I was delighted to see pages such as “You respect others, You are smart and funny (he is, when he speaks), You are a good listener, You are good at sitting still when others are talking. You are polite, respectful to others and very quiet in class.”  None of these things are untrue and I just loved seeing how they took a behavior that can be difficult and saw the positive in it! I learned a lesson myself from these kids (well,honestly they teach me something every day)

• The app was incredibly easy for me to use, and even easier for the kids.  Because often the same child would make the same errors repeatedly, I could cut and paste my review comment, and they got practice correcting these problem areas.

• I did have a few students think they could just cut and paste and make the same comment to multiple classmates. Because I would review all of the pages by a given student at one time, it was pretty easy to catch this and comment back to them to be original and be specific.

• Once most of the Storylines Pages ages are done, we will go ahead and publish the book. Students will receive a link that they can choose to share outside of Edmodo.

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I am eagerly awaiting the smiles and happy sighs when the students read the kind words said about them. As a parent, I know I would cherish seeing the kindness extended toward my child through such a project.  As a teacher of students with a wide range of abilities, it was great to find an activity that all students could participate in equally. This activity also served as a great formative assessment and gave me insights into student needs. Finally, it was just sweet and this time of year, in fifth grade, we can all use a little sweet!