Milobo’s Musings

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

For most of my life, I’ve carried a physical sign that marked me as literate.  At the age of 5, that sign was first acquired over weeks of laborious work under the guidance of my Kindergarten teacher as I carefully practiced forming the symbols of  literacy by putting pencil to paper.  For the next 12 years, as I filled pages and pads with notes, essays, reports and thoughts, that sign became a constant symbol of the work I put into my studies.

Through college, graduate school, and almost 2 decades of teaching, that sign remained.  But recently, I’ve noticed that even though I write more than I probably ever have, I’m actually losing that physical reminder of my ability to write.  Instead of a callused pad of skin formed from decades of balancing a pen against my finger as I write, there’s a smooth area where that callus used to be.  It’s probably the most concrete example I carry of how my own mode of communicating and building knowledge is swiftly changing.

Since I’ve acquired digital writing tools – mainly a laptop and an iPhone – I rarely write more than a reminder or grocery list by hand.  There are times when I spend the entire day writing, but don’t ever pick up a pen.

As look at the students who are part of our 1:1 laptop program this year, I wonder how long it will be before we see a generation who remembers fondly the scratch of ink to paper as part of an earlier era.

What will be their sign of literacy?

Picture from Flickr Creative Commons, CharlieCE

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!

Imagine that your school has been asked to host a visit from a group of international delegates who are interested in learning how you use technology to communicate, mentor, and collaborate with other schools both in town and around the world.

Now imagine that the delegates are from Saudi Arabia and are visiting the United States for the first time.

And you are one of two females in the IT department.

And you teach in the predominately conservative South.

In a Catholic School.

With a Crusader as a mascot.

Sound unlikely? Today that’s exactly what came to pass when a group of 9 delegates and 3 interpreters spent the afternoon touring our school and learning more about our technology program. The delegates all serve as leaders in the Boy Scouts of Saudi Arabia. Many of them also work as university professors or serve on the Ministry of Education in their country. We had little idea what to expect, but decided that we’d focus on talking about 3 aspects of our program:

• Mentoring elementary students in other schools through programs such as our iPodPals project.
• Collaborating with others via iChat such as the program begun by Dean Shareski where his pre-service students at the University of Regina are working with high school students around the world.
• Communicating with our student body and parents through a student podcast series created and maintained by our Design classes.

Three of our students volunteered to present to the group about the iPod Pals, while Colleen Glaude (our Technology Coordinator), Travis Brown (our Design and Media teacher) and I gave an overview of the other programs. We were fortunate, too, to have Dean join us via a video chat from his office in Canada for a portion of the visit.

Here’s the great thing.  Our students (and we) came into this experience not knowing what to expect.  We had been briefed on many customs that could be offensive (showing the sole of your shoe, giving a thumbs up, pointing with your left hand, among others). How accepting would they be of our students our school, and our country?

In the end, however, our students left with a greater understanding of how difficult it is to stereotype someone when they’re standing right in front of you, asking questions, smiling at your student’s work, and gasping as Dean Shareski shares images of the snow outside his window during your video chat with him. It’s a lesson I hope will remain with our students for life -that deep down, regardless of where we live, what religion we profess, or what the media reports, we really aren’t all that different.

As the delegation left, they gave each of us a lapel pin from their group (shown in the picture above), while we gifted them with bookmarks from our school that list our core values:

• Selfless Love
• Commitment to Excellence
• Personal Integrity
• Commitment to Service

The nicest thing? Seeing them nod in agreement as their interpreter translated the 4 values written on the bookmark. It seems that those values aren’t just important to us, but to others around the world as well.

Imagine that.

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 sitting here looking at my SMS messages, my email inbox, my Twitter replies and my Google Docs listing, all of which seem to be beckoning tonight. As I sit here, deciding how much procrastination I can actually get away with, I realize just how much of my professional life revolves around the ability to communicate and collaborate seamlessly with people from around the country.

Who and where are the people I’m working with? I decided to create a map just to see how far my little corner of the world extended out from Pensacola with the projects I’m working on right this minute…

(Click on the placemarks to learn more)

View Larger Map

It’s amazing to me that from my little desk, I’ve been able to work with some of the best minds from around the US.

Now, it’s fair to say that I instigated a lot of the collaborative efforts linked on the map above. There’s nothing more exciting to me than starting with a seed of an idea and seeing who out there will come along for the ride.  If you’re a person who relates to the “Now Discover Your Strengths” philosophy, it probably won’t surprise you that two of my five talents are Includer and Relater (the other three are Learner, Input, and Focus, which probably isn’t much of a surprise either).

But what still amazes me is how many of these opportunities simply wouldn’t have been possible just a few years ago.  It’s tools like Google Docs and iChat and Twitter that make the collaborating easy.  The hardest part nowadays is coming up with an idea and then seeing it through.

Actually, that’s always been the hardest part.

For so long, collaborating meant working together either in person or through mail (both the snail and the e kind). The type and depth of those collaborations were limited by the ability to find common time or by the inability to get in a groove when you had to wait for an asynchronous reply before you could move ahead to the next step. The quality of the collaboration was often limited by the quality of the people within driving distance. No longer.

So, what does all this mean for teaching and learning and collaborating?  How does our ability to do great things change when we’re not limited by the where, or the when, but by the what? How do we teach our students to aspire to great things when their greatness now can be judged by a global audience? How do we teach them to find, connect, and create with others both across the classroom aisle and and across the globe?

I’m still figuring it out.  The most important thing, I think, is to be willing to jump in and give it a try. Sometimes the collaborating leads to great things, greater than I could have ever imagined.  Sometimes, it doesn’t.  But, that’s not to say the trying wasn’t worth the effort.  Every experience leads to new thoughts, new connections and new ideas.

So, here’s the point to my rambling post.  The web isn’t about publishing or product. It’s about possibility. Possibility that’s only limited by the ideas you have and the people you’re willing to share them with.

What are you going to make possible today?

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?

All we are is dust in the wind.

It’s a tough fact to face, but the words we write on our blog, the mighty effort we put into teaching and collaborating and learning every day will fade.  We’d all like to think that our words will live on forever and for that special few, they may. But for the rest of us, what will remain are the personal moments. The times when we moved beyond our official roles as teachers and shared a little of our personal selves. The secret portal into what makes us passionate educators who stretch beyond.

With that spirit, I join Sharon Elin and a host of other educators who are participating in the “7 Things Meme.”  It’s a chance for us to learn a little more about one another.  A chance to know more than we can learn in 140 character bites or topic oriented blog posts.

Here goes.

One. At the age of 16, I left home.  Many call it running away, but to me that conjures up visions of sneaking off into the night to sulk.  When I left, I knew there’d be no turning back.

Two. I owe much of my success in life to Gladys and Gene. At the age of 17, I was offered a place to stay by  the family of a friend.  They had seven children of their own and thinking of it now, I have no idea if I could have done the same and opened my door to a stranger.  But they did.  They helped me get my first job, helped me re-enroll in school and housed me for the next several years of my life as I graduated high school and started college.

Three. My husband has been my best friend since I was 16. That friend I moved in with, you see, is now my husband. I shared a room with his sisters and learned what it was like to live within a family of people who cared deeply for one another.

Four. My teaching philosophy is shaped largely by what I learned when I re-enrolled in school.  After missing almost an entire quarter of classes, there was no possible way I could pass without some intervention.  I learned there are three types of teachers:

• Those who say it’s not their problem if you missed the assignment and give you a failing grade.  I didn’t learn anything from these teachers.
• Those who say it’s not your fault and excuse you from every assignment so you can pass.  While I was grateful, I didn’t learn much here either.
• Those who admit life’s tough, but then look for a way to make it better.  These were the teachers who taught me the most.  They expected me to be accountable for learning, but gave the the chance to learn and catch up as best I could.

Five. I believe in seeing the best in every situation.  I don’t believe in dwelling on the mistakes or the problems or the things I can’t control. Life’s too short and too full of opportunities to spend it worrying or wishing for something I don’t have.

Six. I believe in seeing the best in every person.  I am constantly amazed at what my students are capable of doing if they’re just given time, attention and a little bit of care.

Seven. I love grits for supper – plain with a little butter and pepper. (You didn’t think all 7 would be deep and meaningful did you?)

That’s it.

I tag:

Tom Woodward

Bud Hunt, who must begin his post with the sentence “It was a dark and stormy night.”

Katie Morrow

I don’t go to the beach much, but whenever my nieces and nephews visit, you can bet we’ll spend at least a day or two there.  Where I live, the main commercial section of the beach is only about 6 miles from our home. Our favorite area to visit is a section of beach in the Gulf Islands National Seashore called Langdon Beach.  For the past 4 years, though, the road to Fort Pickens and Langdon Beach has been gone, the result of hurricane damage that literally scattered the road from one side of Santa Rosa Island to the other.

It seems building a road on a foundation of sand doesn’t stand much of a chance against a major hurricane….

Likewise, a classroom built on a shaky foundation— one that is not well organized, that’s missing compassionate policies, or that doesn’t consider best practices is destined to crumble too. I’ve become a fan of several blogs that help teachers think through their own classroom practices including Successful Teaching, Practical Theory, and Teachers at Risk.  All are good reads for new teachers or for those who want a new perspective on classroom practices.  Looking back at my own teaching career, I’ve discovered that there are a half dozen statements that have served as my guideposts.  They’ve evolved somewhat over the years, but they serve as my foundation – so much so that I used to write them at the front of my plan book every semester. I’m not in a classroom full time anymore, but these principles still guide my work.

My Foundations:

• Help students learn instead of teaching them a lesson. Early on in my career, I had the pleasure of teaching Eric.  Eric was a mustached fifth grader who should have passed onto middle school at least 3 years before. He towered over me and over his fellow fifth graders.  According to his previous teachers, he had a reputation for throwing desks at teachers and spending more time in the principal’s office or on suspension than in the classroom.  Great.  On the first day of class, I pulled Eric aside and asked “What do I have to do to help you stay in my class and keep from getting a desk thrown at me?” His reply? “Mrs. B, when I say ‘I’ve taken a mood’ just let me be.”  True to his word, whenever he’d utter that statement, we had an agreement that he could go to the back of the room until he was able to rejoin us.  I’m happy to say that Eric didn’t miss a day of class that year due to suspension. Plus, he competed in science fair, worked in groups and passed fifth grade; if not with flying colors, then at least with pride.
• Give second chances. We all fail sometimes.  It’s learning to deal with failure that means the most. Enacting compassionate policies in a classroom doesn’t make you a push-over; it makes you a realist. Kids mess up sometimes – they forget a book, miss a homework assignment. A “no-exceptions, no makeups” policy only teaches students that unless it’s learned according to a set schedule, it’s not worth learning. In my Algebra class, I used to allow students the opportunity to receive half credit for any test question that they reworked and turned in along with an explanation of their error.  It gave a student who failed a test the opportunity to pass if they were willing to put in a little extra effort. In the long run, they probably learned as much from their mistakes as they did from their successes.
• Leave room at the top. As many of you probably do, I often use rubrics to assess projects.  Sometimes, however, my rubric would end at the “B” level.  When students would ask what would earn them an A, I’d say “Amaze me.”  Funny how often they exceeded my expectations when I left room for them to go beyond.
• Be amazed. Be willing to show your awe when your students impress you. Look for the moments when they go beyond your expectations and celebrate them publicly.
• Be amused. Forget the rule “Don’t smile before Christmas.”  It’s not wrong to show students you care, especially if it’s backed with clear classroom expectations.  Smile at them and laugh with them when you get the chance.
• Never assume you are the smartest person in the room. Enough said.

Those are my foundation statements. What would yours be?

Picture from the National Park Service.

So, a friend from another school and I decided to write grants for LEGO Robotics kits and video cameras that we could use to teach math, science and problem solving.  We spent a weekend putting it all together and were excited when our grants were awarded.  The problem, however, was that each of us only received half of the money we needed. It meant we didn’t have enough equipment for either of us to fully implement the project.  We decided to buy what we could and then plan our units so that we’d combine our materials and each have the equipment every two weeks.  Every other Friday we’d meet and move the equipment between our two schools.

After a couple of weeks, we began to notice that our students were slipping tiny notes into the LEGO cases to one another.  “Make sure to use the little gears on your wheels – it’ll go faster.”  “Hi my name is Eric and I used this kit.” and so on.  We asked our principals if we could set up an online collaboration between our classes to allow them to talk and share what they were learning.

Every Wednesday and Friday, we opened a chat between our two schools so that the students could type messages to one another.  They shared building and programming tips as well as general “kid stuff.”  It helped them to work on their writing and conversation skills while communicating with their peers.

At the end of our units on simple machines, we planned to have the students build examples using their LEGO kits and then create videos to teach the rest of the class.  Our students asked if they could work with their “virtual buddies” to create their videos, so their communications became focused on dividing up the video into segments and deciding which group and school would be responsible for each piece.

We planned a field trip at the end of the unit for our students to meet in person and build four group videos out of the pieces they had created in class.  We set up computer stations in the school auditorium so students would have space to work in teams to create their video masterpieces.  At the end of the day, we served popcorn while the students crowded around the screen in the library to see the final product.

What did our students learn from this project?
• Science skills: Simple Machines,
• Math skills: Ratios, Scale, Proportion
• Communication skills: Writing for an audience, Outlining, Spelling, Grammar
• Collaboration skills: Working in teams, Compromise, Negotiation

Think this project sounds cutting edge for today’s classroom?

What if I told you that this project was from my classroom in 1993? The students used LEGO TC logo kits with an Apple IIe to build and program.  They used Macintosh LCII and III computers with 8MB of RAM and a 40MB hard drive to create and edit their video using KidPix and Premiere.  Their final videos were stored on a floppy and transferred to VHS tape so we could watch them on the only available television in the school, which was housed in the library.

To communicate between classes, we used a modem and an early version of Apple’s eWorld online service to open a chat between our schools.  I actually had to purchase a 100 foot phone cable to string down the hallway so that I could tie into the faculty lounge phone when we wanted to have our students chat.

I found myself cleaning out piles of photos last weekend and came across the pictures from that project. It got me to thinking about how many of the things we argue are “cutting edge” today are really just extensions of ideas that have been around for quite a while.
So let me ask that again.  Think this project sounds cutting edge for today’s classroom?