Milobo’s Musings

The past few weeks have been filled with lots of thoughts and planning around professional development. Most of the thoughts rolling around in my head revolve around how to find balance in a training model between the art and the science of teaching. Traditionally, technology training has spent way too much time on the mechanics and not enough time on the instructional implications. Right now, we’re working to find that balance and move toward a plan that begins with a foundation of good learning practices.

As we plan, here are three essentials I keep coming back to and the questions they bring to the forefront:

1. Learning about technology should be embedded into curricular practices.

There are lots of ideas on how to do this – one that’s interesting to me lately is the TPCK model which is described as an intersection of technology, content, and pedagogical knowledge. It’s in the blending of those three areas that interesting things begin to happen with technology. But for me, the challenge isn’t in understanding that fact, it’s in figuring out how to best develop a program that builds natural capacity in technology and pedagogy concurrently. What’s the best way to support a technology-curriculum  blend?

2. Learning to incorporate technology happens best when supported by a team of colleagues.

Another big component that we’re working on is developing a sustainable model that builds capacity for change from within. Good professional development models support communities of learners who provide collegial support.  Many times this looks like a “train the trainer” model, but that model still implies a top-down approach to knowledge transfer. What would a “learn with the learner” model look like instead?

3. Learning to effectively integrate technology requires time to try new ideas and time to examine their impact.

Just the other day, I pulled out a book entitled “Reflective Practice to Improve Schools” that I had bought and skimmed a few years back and it seems a perfect fit for the work we’re starting – here’s a quote from there that sums up what I’m thinking about:

“To change our practices, to change our beliefs, and to alter our own theories of change, we must slow down and have reflective conversations that allow us to think through possible changes… Shifting from a culture of doing to a culture of learning and doing, however, is not easily accomplished…”

The book goes on to give ideas and strategies for building reflective practices at the individual, team, and building level. I’m hopeful that by incorporating reflection along with many of the aspects of Understanding by Design, we’ll come up with a plan that will build the practice of thoughtful technology use within the curriculum. How do we find the time to build reflective practices into the already full day?

I’m working to design a plan that incorporates these three ideas, but I’d be interested in hearing what others have discovered and created as models of technology professional development. Share when you have a minute.

I’ve long been a fan of Tom Woodward’s insanely creative method of developing units, so when he gave the green light for an IronTeach challenge, I had to jump on board.

The basic premise of Iron Teach is based on the show Iron Chef America, where two teams of chefs battle to develop recipes that include a “secret ingredient” revealed shortly before the challenge begins. The dishes often fit a theme and the final results are judged by a celebrity panel who rate each dish on Originality, Taste, and Plating.

Iron Teach will follow the same basic premise. Two teams of educators (more if you’re interested in joining us) will battle to develop a unit or lesson plan to meet the requirements of a selected teacher. Each team will share their lesson along with the process they used to brainstorm and develop the idea. A panel of judges, including the teacher who issued the challenge, will rate the lesson on Originality, Student Appeal, and Ability to Meet Outcome.

For Battle 1 of Iron Teach, two teams – Team Milobo and Team BionicTeaching have been issued the following challenge:

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The Audience: 2 classes of 10th grade General Level Literature students.

The Secret Ingredient: The novel “A Separate Peace”

The Challenge (as defined by the teacher): Students are beginning a book discussion of the novel “A Separate Peace.” These particular students struggle to demonstrate understanding of content through writing, but have recently become more motivated to read and respond to literature as their teacher has incorporated audio books and modern literature into the curriculum.

The teacher shares that the class performs better when asked to discuss personal experiences and would like to incorporate the book themes of envy/conformity into the book discussions. These students in particular are not easily motivated to participate in class activities. Their teacher is looking for an original and fun way to have the students discuss and share while demonstrating understanding in a way that goes beyond writing an essay or taking a multiple choice test.

Two weeks have been dedicated to class reading and discussion of the book.

The Deadline: It’s due by midnight- Sunday, April 26th. Post the content to your blog and link back in the comments here and on Tom’s blog.

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We’re making up the rules as we go along, and I hope that it’s something we can develop into a long term project, but for now, it should be a great way to have a little fun while helping out fellow teachers. If you’re interested in joining in the fun as a team member or judge, or want to issue a challenge for a future Iron Teach Battle, leave a message here or on Tom’s blog.

Game on.

Since Katie Morrow and I spent some time in our last Always On podcast talking about professional development, it got me to thinking about some of the strategies trainers can use to get teachers talking. As part of our regular 1:1 teacher meetings this year and during the district Technology Learning Facilitator meetings in my previous job, I’ve often had to find ways to encourage teachers to open up and talk to one another. Sounds easy enough, but if you’ve ever found yourself in charge of leading discussions with groups of teachers, you’ve probably experienced that empty silence that comes when no one’s quite ready to be the first to share. Here are techniques I’ve used to get conversations flowing:

Four Square

This is a very low-tech way I’ve used to get discussions started within small groups or pairs. Give each participant a piece of paper and have them fold it into quarters.  In each quarter, have participants write one word or a very short phrase to describe their thoughts. Depending on the topic, you might start with questions such as: What words would you use to describe:

• your best technology integration lesson?
• your biggest concern about the 1:1 rollout?
• your reactions to the reading we just finished?

Have participants exchange papers with a partner, who then circles one word on the paper. That becomes the discussion starter when it’s time to share. This has worked well because it piques curiosity in the words chosen and often leads to very interesting discussions. Plus, if you’ve got time to rotate discussion partners, you can keep using the remaining words as discussion starters for new conversations.

Video Vignettes

Video clips make great conversation starters, especially when you’re wanting the conversations to center on bigger ideas. I’ve started a playlist on YouTube where I bookmark videos that have been great motivators for conversations.  Take a peek through the videos linked below and see what you think.

S.O.S.

S.O.S. is a conversation organizer I came up with 4 years ago as an icebreaker for district Technology Learning Group leader meetings.  The purpose of each meeting was to allow Learning Group leaders time to collaborate and share best practices. But, because the meetings were only monthly and the teachers had little interaction with one another outside of this time, the conversations were sometimes slow to start.  At other times, the conversations had the potential to become nothing more than gripe sessions where everyone aired their frustrations, but few solutions or suggestions were offered in return. S.O.S. became a regular framework for our meetings and worked well to give purpose to the conversations. S.O.S. stands for Successes, Obstacles, and Strategies.  Those three words are used to help teachers organize their thought for sharing:

• What successes have you seen in your class (learning group, department, etc) this month?
• What obstacles have you had to overcome or are you struggling with?
• What strategies have you tried or are you planning to try to move forward?

I find that S.O.S. also makes for a good meeting outline, because it gives participants a chance to start on a positive note, air their frustrations, and end with suggestions for improvement or change. I find myself now using it for many types of meetings and even for general post-project conversations with teachers, because it can cover so many situations in a way that doesn’t inhibit the flow of ideas.

What other strategies or suggestions do you have for facilitating conversations and reflective sharing?

Picture courtesy Cliff1066 Flickr Creative Commons

I’m a believer in positive thinking and a great example of this philosophy comes straight from the Improv community in the form of Yes, and… thinking. I wrote about it a bit here in a page about collaboration, but basic premise is that by taking an idea and building on it, you’ll find lots of great outcomes as a result.

What can “Yes, and” thinking lead to? My newest adventure is a perfect example. When I emailed Katie Morrow to ask if she’d be interested in a dual-blogging venture to help classroom teachers who use laptops, she upped the ante by suggesting we start a podcast on learning with laptops instead.  I’ve helped students with our school podcasts, have given workshops on using GarageBand to create podcasts, but have never actually created my own. Sounds like it was about time, right?

So, here we are, two episodes into our new podcast, Always On. You can subscribe to the podcast via the iTunes store, or from your favorite podcatcher. We hope you’ll join us as we explore strategies and share ideas for using laptops both in and out of the classroom.  Leave us a message, or send your feedback and ideas – we look forward to hearing what you think!

Over the past several months, I’ve had the honor of working with a group of wonderful educators from the New Jersey Powerful Learning Practice program.  My focus with the group was on Collaboration: How can educators use collaborative strategies both in the classroom and in their own professional growth? We’ve spent time learning about the skills and mindsets needed for successful collaboration, discussing the challenges of collaborative learning, and discovering what others have to say on the subject of collaboration.

To welcome a larger audience into our collaborative learning discussion, I’ve posted the conversation starters here on my blog. You’ll see a link to a listing of the discussion starters in the blog header above as well. My hope is that you’ll share your ideas and thoughts with us. I also hope that some of the original New Jersey participants will be willing to share their responses and replies too.  Their insight and the discussions that resulted within our closed community were a wonderful learning experience for me.

I look forward to hearing your comments and continuing the conversation.

Enjoy!

I’m finally getting a chance to sit and reflect on FETC 2009 (the Florida Educational Technology Conference). As usual, there were way too many great choices on how to spend my time and way too few minutes in a day to do them all.  I presented on Thursday with Colleen Glaude and Katie Morrow on “Creating a PLN with Web 2.0 Tools” and even with the power outage that caught us just as we were getting started, we had a great time. I took notes in the other sessions I attended in GoogleDocs and posted my learning as part of the Scholastic TechTutors blog if you’re interested in finding out more.

One of the reasons I love attending conferences is the chance to see in person all the people I learn with virtually through websites like Classroom 2.0, ALI, Twitter, Plurk and more.  It’s also an opportunity to catch up with my fellow Florida Apple Distinguished Educators.  This year was especially exciting because of the number of interactions that began solely because of tools like Twitter and Plurk:

• I got to see Michelle Olah (HolaOlah), a Spanish Teacher at Teague Middle School in Altamonte Springs, Florida give her presentation. Michelle does some amazing things with Web 2.0 tools in her classroom and it was great to see the examples she shared. During the presentation, I sat with Sylvia Tolisano and learned even more.
• I met Cathy Baker (CathBaker) and was able to help in her quest for an iPhone charger.
• I met the tag team Jeff Richardson and Suzan Brandt, two Tech Integrators from Hoover, AL who created a wiki to share their learning from FETC.
• I got to spend some time with the Tech Integrationists Alicia Eslinger, Sonda Burckhard, and Judy Walter who work with Craig Nansen in Minot, ND.
• I listened to and learned from EduBloggers Lee Kolbert, Steve Dembo, Dean Shareski, Tom Turner, Jerry Swiatek and more during an informal Edublogger meetup after hours.
• I even got a ride to our hotel from Gordon Shupe, who just happened to notice my tweet about when we’d be arriving in Orlando.

Sadly, though, there just wasn’t enough time for the in-depth conversations I was craving.

On the way home, I did a lot of thinking about the traditional type of conference model that FETC represents and how I’d like to see it evolve.  While at FETC, many others were gearing up for learning at EduCon 2.1 in Philadelphia. EduCon is an example of how professional conferences can evolve into more than a “sit and listen” event, but I wonder how we can support the need for volume events for thousands of educators (FETC regularly hosts between 7,000 and 14,000 educators) and the need for interaction and conversation.

If I could make some suggestions to the FETC planners, here are three takeaways that I’d like to share:

1. Ditch the bags. I’m a teacher. I have enough conference bags in my closet to last more than a lifetime.  But that’s not the reason I want to see them go.  To me, the canvas bags are an invitation to collect paper: paper handouts from sessions, brochures and catalogs from vendors…you get the picture.  If we want to model digital literacy, how about giving each participant a conference web page instead? On that page, we could create a schedule of the sessions we want to attend and the vendors we’re interested in talking to.  Then, as we attend sessions, we could take notes directly on our web page or add links to vendor information for followup. Participants could link to one another and share notes, start conversations and plan meetups.  Which brings me to my next request.
2. Create a place for conversations. Give up a couple of the conference rooms and turn them into conversation rooms instead. Put in some groupings of comfy chairs and several round tables.  Put in some power ports so we can recharge our laptops between sessions. You could even designate particular rooms to specific conversations (a 1:1 room, a Web tools room, a video production room, etc).  Don’t worry about putting someone in charge of leading the conversation, or moderating a larger group discussion; that’s called a Panel session and it’s already available. Just give us a place to let our own conversations evolve.
3. Give time for reflection and internalizing. There’s nothing worse to me than becoming engaged and excited in a topic and then having to make a choice – do I run to the next interesting session that starts in 15 minutes or do I skip it in order to put some of my thoughts down in writing or to discuss them with others?  There’s got to be a way to mix time for learning with time for reflection and discussion.

Those are my thoughts.  What are yours?

Much to my delight and surprise, I’ve been asked to serve as an “expert voice” for the New Jersey Powerful Learning Practice (NJPLP) virtual community. Powerful Learning Practice is a program designed to impact instructional methodologies and beliefs by using a combination of real and virtual experiences to build knowledge within a community of teachers, principals, university faculty and state level administrators.  Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Will Richardson have done an excellent job of designing a plan that can meet the needs of all these diverse individuals as they work together to create positive change. 

As part of the program, participants have the opportunity to learn from and share learning experiences with experts in tools and pedagogy. Bud Hunt, blogger extraordinaire, is leading the NJ virtual community and sent an email my way about a week ago asking if I’d be interested in being an expert voice for the New Jersey cohort.

Tag, I’m it.

I have to admit I’m a little intimidated by the thought of being looked at as an expert.  Sure, I’ve had lots of experiences during my 20 years in education and experimented with many different technology tools over those years, but what is it that makes someone an expert?

Here’s what I’m hoping Bud and the rest of the PLP team are looking for:

• Someone willing to risk failure in order to find success.   One of the most important things I’ve learned is that no great thing comes without risk.  Learning how to fail is a skill I wish were taught to students, because it’s one they need to master if they want to grow. For many years in my Algebra class, I spent time after every test teaching students how to learn from their mistakes. They learned that by analyzing their errors, they’d figure out where their weaknesses lay and then could work to improve them.  My goal was to have them see risk and failure as an opportunity for learning, which would ultimately lead to success.  I’ve certainly taken my share of risks, including my current job.  Who would’ve imagined a K-8 teacher would be hired to help a high school faculty learn to integrate technology and redesign their learning environment to become more engaging?
• Someone with more questions than answers.  I’m still a learner at heart and part of learning is asking questions.  Lots of them. It’s that curiosity and need to understand that help me when I’m guiding teachers through the process of building units of instruction.  I don’t claim to be an expert in most of the subjects taught by the teachers I work with every day.  What I can do is ask the right questions to help them define their outcomes, decide what practices would help students meet their goals, and then determine what method will be used to measure achievement. Good teaching and learning practices are universal across all disciplines.  It sometimes just takes the right questions to help teachers find them.
• Someone who believes the best learning comes when all believe they have something to learn. I truly believe that there’s something to learn from every person I encounter. I learn from my fellow teachers and from my students. I learn from those with more experience that I’ll ever have and from those who are just starting out. That’s one reason I’m excited about the opportunity to join the NJPLP. Because while I’m sharing what I’ve learned, I hope to learn from those who are participating.