First Impressions of NECC

Here it is Monday morning and I’d like to tell you my first impressions of NECC.

First you should know that I was not here on Saturday. I spent Saturday in various airports trying to get here. But that’s a whole other story. So my first day was Sunday which I spent at Gary Stager’s Constructivist Consortium.
It was at the Consortium that I met my first twitter friends. I’m not sure what was more exciting – learning how to use Frames and creating ideas for next year’s class, or sitting with online friends while learning. Personally, I think it was the latter. I did, however, leave right after lunch to head back to the hotel to see if my luggage had arrived.

This lead to my second impression. I had to get back to the airport to actually pick up my luggage if I wanted to change my clothes. So Christine and I sent out twitter messages asking if anyone with a car would be willing to do this for us. Two people came through. One, Sandy, is someone who follows me. I have never even spoken to her before. And she volunteered. Isn’t that amazing? The other, Derrall Garrison, was at the Constructivist Consortium that morning and came to the rescue. I was impressed with, not only the power of the network, but also the kindness of virtual strangers. Thank you, Derrall.

And, last, the people. I have met and talked with some of the best minds out there. I spent my day feeling a bit star struck as I met, chatted with, a snapped a picture of each one. (I would love to add the pictures here but I left my card reader home.) It is so amazing, also, to be able to have a conversation about 21st Century education with people who know what I am talking about, agree with what I am saying, and can contribute something of their own to the conversation. I am among people from which I can learn. And that is a wonderful thing.

By the way, today will be the first day I actually attend a NECC session. Looking forward to it.

A Few More Random Thoughts

As the year winds down and I gear up for NECC, I have been thinking about how things went in school, about how things are progressing in my life, about - well, as Douglas Adams says, "Life, the Universe, and Everything." (This is the second time a book title of his came to my mind this week. I think it's time to reread The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.)

So what have I learned this year?

1. Failure leads to learning.

I know this probably sounds simple to most of you but it took me 44 years to figure this one out. I always view failure as - well, as failure. Not an option. And I am known as one who is persistent, tenacious - the adjectives can get nasty here depending on who is labeling me. But I finally realized this year that with every failure, comes learning.

How did this revelation occur? I taught a staff development course in the spring. It was one of many classes I have taught in the past few years. My courses are always evaluated quite well, boosting my ego enough to make me want to keep teaching these courses.

But the last course I taught was different. Somehow I knew during the class that not everyone was with me. It was a course on what a 21st century classroom looks like. I worked long hours planning for the class. Figured I'd do my usual - dazzle 'em with my charm and knowledge. Show 'em that I am here to help anytime. Instead, some of the people in the class evaluated me poorly. They wrote on the evaluations that this was too high a level, it shouldn't have been labeled as a beginner class, and there were too many tools discussed during the 15 hours.

So I went home crying. My goal, afterall, is to charm everyone. Everyone loves me. Why would anyone say this? The next step, denial. Of course, it must have been teachers who only took the class for the credit. They don't really want to learn. What a waste of my time! But, finally, the learning came in.

Of course the class was too difficult for some teachers. I am talking about copying urls, hyperlinking pages, setting up user accounts. Perhaps some teachers need to learn how to do these basic things. Perhaps a class needs to be run that truly is a beginner class. How do we copy and paste? What is a url and how do we find it on the page? How do we save to folders and flashdrives? How do we search for information? So now I am creating just such a class. Truly a beginner class. How did I miss the fact that the digital divide left some people very far behind? How can I help bring these people up to speed? Now I feel excited about teaching these teachers. And I can handle the failure because of the learning it brought me.

2. Change involves risk, if one is to be successful.

For those of you who don't know me well, I hate change. I have mentioned this in previous blogs. I like things to stay the same - always - regardless of how much I despise the way things are. Everytime a change has occurred in my life, it has occurred for one of two reasons. One - I am forced. Two - I am so sick of hearing myself complain that I force the change to occur. The first is occurring this summer when my principal retires and a new principal begins. I have no choice in the matter. And I love my principal.

My fear, with my new principal, is that my program will be halted. My choices are continue working as is but keep things quiet. Don't celebrate award wins, don't even apply for awards. Don't send out emails about new ideas and projects. Just keep things hush hush. But where is the risk in that? Another choice would be to continue sharing everything I learn and hope that my new principal will be just as open as the old one. Afterall, do I really want to work in a district where I need to work secretively?

3. Learning never stops.

When I first started working in my district, I was 23 years old. I was hired and started setting up my room one week before the students arrived. I was nervous, excited, and very pressed for time. I worked endless hours that week, getting everything just perfect, planning my lessons, finding material, and meeting new staff members. On Friday, the last day I had to prepare, a teacher came into school to set up her room. She pulled paper off the bulletin boards to expose the posters she put up the prior year. Then she pulled open her desk drawer, pulled out her plan book from the year before, opened it to September and said, "Okay. I'm ready."

I was impressed and awed. "Oh," I said to my principal later that year, "someday I want to be so together that I, too, can pull out my planbook from the year before and be ready for a class." His response, "Hope you never get that way. It is not something to aspire to."

I didn't get it. I didn't know much about this teacher but she had to be good if she perfected her plans in prior years. Of course, now I look back on that and understand completely. She had stopped learning and growing. I don't ever want to stop learning. When I do, I hope I realize it and I leave the classroom.

Sometimes, I still dream of a day when at least one unit I plan will be perfect when I look at it again. But somehow, the children have different needs, the timing is just a bit off, the projects won't work with the present group. There's always something I've learned that makes me need to change things around. And I guess it's always going to be that way.

4. NECC is scary.

Yes, I know. I have been talking about how excited I am about NECC since I first registered months ago. But now that the time is here, I am scared. I am scared that I won't recognize anyone and no one will recognize me. I am scared that I will be wandering around each day wondering where I am supposed to be. I am scared that I will miss something important or something I signed up for because I am wandering around aimlessly. I am scared that my hotel reservation will fall through, that I will miss my plane, that I will not find a shuttle to get me to the hotel.

Why is all this happening? This is a first for me. I have NEVER flown without my husband. I have only been away from him and my daughter for a night at a time and this occurred only within the last two years. (We have been together for 23 years.) He is the one who always makes all of our travel plans. I rely on him to get me where I need to be. Now I have to rely on myself. This is pretty scary. And most scary of all is having this revelation at 44.

So NECC is not only the most exciting conference experience I've had, it is also another learning experience for me. I guess I should be happy that the learning keeps going on.

* Pictures: Not Yet Another Failure by Behrooz Nobakht on Flickr

Lesson Plans by Fuschia Foot on Flickr

The Successful Inclusion Program

Recently, my co-teacher, Christine Southard, and I found out that all of our AIS reading students tested out of reading for next year. Each one of them! I have been teaching for 23 years and have never had that happen. In addition, 2 classified students improved reading scores so much that comprehension skills are no longer a part of their IEPs. When we tested the class ourselves with IRIs, using the Fountas and Pinnell levels, we found each child made at least a year's progress but most made much more. And 17 out of 24 students leveled out of the test, achieving an equivalent comprehension score of grade 6 or higher (level X or higher).

So this, of course, begs the question - How did this happen? What was it about our program that enabled these students to improve to such a large extent?

First, I need to tell you that I have been an inclusion teacher for many years. Although I teach regulary education, I do have my Masters' in Special Ed and have always believed in differentiating instruction to help all students succeed. I truly believe that a perfect classroom is one in which two teachers work toward a common goal. So I have had many co-teaching situations. Two have been quite successful, most have been very unsuccessful.

In examining the successful ones, I realize it all has to do with philosophy. And certain rules need to be followed.

Some co-teachers (both regular and special ed) believe that "you have your students and I have mine." I have worked with a teacher like this. She would come to the room and say, "Ok, my students come with me." I would then watch as the children, with mortified looks in their eyes, would slink out of the room.

Rule #1: Do not separate the children. They should not stand out for being classified. Remember: inclusion means to be included, not separated.

There's also that belief that we should be so private as to not speak about the needs of the children. Don't embarrass Johnny by telling him to put on his glasses, hearing aids, etc. Don't make Susie feel bad by handing her a fidget toy to play with so she can pay attention. In our classroom, fidget toys are in a box for all the children, glasses are mentioned frequently, students are encouraged to move to the front of the room, grab a spell checker, use the computer or alphasmart, pull out the E.Z.C. Readers, etc. The difference? These tools are demonstrated to and available for everyone. (Well, not glasses or hearing aids but you get the point.) So when a lesson begins, up jumps the classified student along with the gifted student. They both gather tools they need to be successful. So..

Rule #2: Don't hide special needs. Point out that we all need assistance at times. Make it available to everyone.

Then there's the idea that a special educator is only there to work with the special ed children. This leaves a lot of other children behind and makes the classified children really stand out. We believe that we both are there to teach all of the students. We group children for various subjects and rotate who teaches the groups. When class tests are given, volunteers leave the room with one of us to go to a more quiet setting or to have tests read to them. Amazingly, the children, all of them, really do choose what they need. Some leave the room for the novelty but most choose the setting in which they work best.

Rule #3: Mix the teachers up and allow students to choose their style of learning.

This year, we also eliminated reading pull-outs. Students remained in class during reading and ended up receiving much more reading service time than they would have in the pull-out program. And keeping students in the classroom as much as possible is helpful for having them not miss content. Next year, we are going to do the same for math pull-outs. Note: This was not an easy goal to achieve. Reading and resource room teachers may feel it threatens their jobs. If necessary, try to make your pull-outs push-ins instead.

Rule #4: Keep students in the classroom as much as possible. Eliminate as many pull-outs as you can.

Of course, other aspects of our program have not been mentioned here. Christine and I spend a great deal of time reading and writing in all subjects. With blogging as a large part of our program, it was inevitable that progress would be made. We also believe in a project-based learning program. This method of differentiating instruction allows all of our students to find success. But I really believe it was a combination of the technology and the philosophy that made it all work. I can't wait for next year!

When Does My Off Switch Turn On or When To Say No

Cathy Nelson started me thinking with this question - When does your off switch turn on? She created it as a meme but this question means so much more to me than a simple answer-the-question-and-tag-your-friends blog. So no tagging, no meme. Just some thoughts.

This past week has been difficult. I have spread myself way too thin and it seems like everything is coming to a head now. Just a few things on my plate:

1. I am on the Multicultural Committee in school. I have created a wiki for members to share resources and valuable information about the very multicultural community we service. This week, we met once again to review what was added to the wiki. And once again, a discussion ensued about whether or not to print out the information for the staff. Yes, print out the wiki information. I find these conversations exhausting. Why put it all online if we are going to print it out? Why did they ask me to waste my time creating a wiki and monitoring a wiki if it will all be printed out? And why are we assuming the staff is so limited in technology skills that they can't click on a url and read wiki information? Why didn't I say no when I was first asked to create the wiki?

2. I am also on the Health Committee for the district. This week we presented our new, revised family life curriculum to the parents of fourth and fifth graders in district so they can decide if they want their children involved. Guess who created the fifth grade presentation and polished up the fourth grade one? Guess who found the videos and downloaded them for the SmartBoard presentation? Guess who presented the information to the parents at an evening meeting? And guess who fielded the questions from the parents about how we really will be discussing intercourse? You only get one guess. For this one, I did urge my principal to allow another teacher to present. She urged me to do it. Guess who won?

3. I wrote and received a grant, along with my school colleague, to create a video studio in our school. So each morning, the morning announcements are broadcast live throughout the school. Raise your hand if you've already guessed that I do the broadcasting each morning. Don't forget that I have a class to teach and, instead of working with my class, I am running the video studio. Are there people in the building who don't have classes first thing in the morning who could broadcast? Yes. Do they? No. Why? They know how to say no. (I actually think my wonderful, spectacular librarian is going to take this job over for me next week. I hope it all works out.)

4. I am teaching two classes for the Teacher's Center at the same time. Okay so only one week overlapped. I completed my beginning SmartBoard class on Wednesday. Monday I started my 21st Century Classroom class. For the SmartBoard class, since I told everyone they would be sharing the last day, only half of them showed up. I wish I could have stayed home, too. But I love working with teachers. So I went. I taught. I asked if they felt ready to use the board. They were nervous and shaky. So, at the end, I said, "If you need anything, any help, any support...call me, email me. We can meet before or after school." I know. I shouldn't have said it but, in case you haven't figured it out yet, I can't say no.

5. My daughter is doing a play with a local theater production company. And, silly me, I volunteered, as I always do, to organize parent volunteers to work backstage during the three shows. I need about 10 parents per show. Right now, for Sunday's show, I have two (I am one of them). So now I have to beg people I don't know. And, amazingly, these people have no problems saying no. Oh, and did I mention that, during tech week, parent volunteers have to come at least twice to run through the show with the kids? 6:00 - 10:00 at night.

Now there were some good things that happened this week.

6. Dennis Swain came to school to give my co-teacher, Christine, some prizes that were supposed to be given out at the big DEN event on Tuesday. He didn't make it on time to the event but brought the prizes the next day. And, he took us out to lunch. While we were at lunch, he kept talking about all we were doing in the classroom, how exciting it all is, and we should blog on the DEN about it. Are you seeing where this is going?

7. I found out that I won 2nd place for the ISTE Sigtel Online Learning Award for my Harris Burdick Writing Project. Apparently, they have been trying to tell me for weeks. But I kept deleting the emails. The message line read, "Congratulations! You have won!" I receive about 10 of those a day. All spam. So...Finally, Yvonne from ISTE called me at school, during class, to inform me that we won and, by the way, she needs pictures and forms filled out by...well everything was due April 27th and it was already May 7th. So this lead to a frantic undertaking, while trying to teach, to get everything together. This included having to call Brian Crosby in Nevada (no easy feat as I didn't have his phone number. I did get to have a nice conversation with his secretary. Want to know how I got entered for the award anyway? I thought I was filling out a form to present a simple posterboard session about the project at NECC. Thought it would be fun. Thought I'd have the time. Thought...alright, I saw the invitation from ISTE and couldn't say no.

By Friday, I was tired, really tired. Near tears...okay past tears. Came home, went into my room, and cried. And slept. And vowed to myself that someday soon, I would learn to say no. Then I got up and went, exhausted, to my last night of bowling where I was talked into going to the big bowling dinner on Saturday night. Sigh. I have to end this blog now so I can go get ready for dinner. I really hope I learn how to say no soon.

"This I Believe" Meme

Patrick Woessner tagged me for this meme. "This I Believe" is a National Public Radio show of essays from people who share their philosophy on life. The meme is a simple challenge to share your philosophy of education. Here is my contribution to the meme:

1. I believe that educators have a duty to create a nurturing, engaging, inviting environment that is accepting of and beneficial to all students.

2. I believe that educators must teach students to be responsible for their own education. They are responsible for completing assignments, for showing effort in school work, for speaking up when they need assistance, for learning. We are responsible for teaching but they are responsible for learning.

3. I believe that this world is falling apart quickly and education is the only way to save it. We must teach our students to be responsible for and respectful of the world and all its inhabitants. And we must always remember that our students will be ruling the world soon. How do we want them to rule?

4. I believe that every child has the potential for greatness and it is our job as educators to find their venue. Maybe they are slated to be the new positive world leader, the next big thinker, the latest inventor, creator of a best-selling book, platinum record, or museum art. We must allow them to express themselves positively using many tools in order to help them find their arena.

5. And, last, I believe that every child has the right to have great teachers year after year. One year full of boredom, one year of no recognition, one year of failure is one year too many in the life of a child.

Thank you, Patrick, for this meme. It made me think quite a bit about why I do what I do. Sort of renewed me. And now..

I tag:

Cathy Jo Nelson, because she seems like someone who likes to say what she believes.

Diane Cordell, because she makes me laugh and I think she'd like a tag.

Christine Southard, because I'd like to see if her philosophy matches mine. :p

Brian Crosby, because I think my newest network friend should be tagged.

Lisa Durff, because I also think my oldest network friend should be tagged. *Please note that oldest refers to the amount of time we've known each other. So stop thinking I said you were old, Durff.

*Readings by SmallestBones/Flickr
*Earth by Alixandra Parisi
*Piano Photo by Celikin/Flickr

The Harris Burdick Writing Project and What I've Learned

Approximately two months ago I embarked on an adventure that has taught me more than I ever anticipated.

We have been blogging in our classroom for a year now. One year ago, Christine Southard and I learned about blogging and set out to find a site we could use with our students. We came upon David Warlick's Class Blogmeister site and found it very user friendly. So we set up a blog and got our students engaged and excited. This year, we started up in September and have seen great strides in our students' writing and communicating abilities through the site.

One of the great things about Class Blogmeister is the ability to connect with other blogging classes. We frequently have our students comment to other classes and we often find comments from students outside of our room. One class in particular kept showing up. We started looking into this fifth grade class and discovered the Learning is Messy blog of Brian Crosby's fifth graders in Nevada. After much commenting back and forth, we finally emailed Brian to discuss the comments and have him assist us in improving the comment skills of our students, while we helped his. Of course, at this point, I also started following Brian on Twitter - increasing my network even more.

Eventually, Brian and I decided it was time to consider doing a project together. Our students had sort of gotten to know each other so there was a motivation, we enjoyed communicating through email and twitter, and we both had fifth graders. Brian came up with the idea of doing something with the book, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, by Chris van Allsburg. This is a very open-ended book begging for a writing piece to accompany it. So we set up a date to Skype and discuss the idea.

During our Skype call, I told Brian about Google docs (Christine and I use them all the time to plan units). We decided this was the perfect venue for writing the collaborative stories. We then decided to link everything onto my already-existing Classroom Booktalk wiki. And, then, just to add to the excitement, we decided to open it up to other teachers. Brian and I both sent out twitter invitations and Christine blogged about it in the NY DEN blog. 12 other teachers signed up.

By now, the project is almost completed. Our students will be editing on Monday and Tuesday, Brian, Christine, and I will do final edits during the week, and the stories will be linked into the wiki next week, along with VoiceThreads to allow them to compare and contrast stories. Other groups are in various stages of progression but most should be finished within two weeks.

So what did I learn from all of this?

1. Setting up a collaborative project with 14 classes is confusing and time-consuming.

I had to create a Google doc carefully explaining the process. When Christine and I work together, we just talk. This wasn't possible with so many teachers. Hence, the need for the document. And the multitude of emails that preceeded and followed the document. And the dealings with technology problems that arose (blocked Google docs, blocked emails, no Skyping experience, etc.). And dealing with teachers that say they want to join, then don't respond to my emails. This took up a great deal of time. I didn't anticipate this when we started. It wouldn't have stopped me, I just was surprised.

2. This was more a lesson in learning to collaborate than learning to become better writers.

The children faced many issues with learning to work with partners with which they couldn't directly communicate. Sometimes, their partners changed the story without discussing it first. Sometimes their partners took a long time to respond to questions. Sometimes they were confused by what their partners were writing. All of these problems were answered when they Skyped but they forgot to continue having these conversations in the Google docs. Or they didn't like the waiting in the docs.

They also needed to learn how to handle these situations. Sometimes, their way of handling it was to delete whole parts of the story. Thank goodness for revision history in Google docs. Sometimes, they handled it by writing their own story, without their partner. That took some intervention from the teachers. Sometimes, their response was to stop writing. Again, teacher intervention.

We spent much time brainstorming solutions. And, in all, I think it was a pretty positive experience.

3. The more our students use technology, the less the technology excites them.

I truly believed that the excitement of using Google docs, collaborating with a class in Nevada, and Skyping would be enough to entice them. And, at first, it was. Then they settled down and realized this wasn't such an easy project. There was actually work involved. Hard work, thinking, creating, writing. And they had to learn to collaborate which, as many of us know, is really not always so easy.

So it was up to us as teachers to...um...teach. Do what we do best. Forget the technology and teach them how to work together, how to improve their stories, how to complete this project.

So my final thoughts.

Overall, this really was beneficial to the students. Once they got into it, they found they are writing some incredible stories and they are proud of their work. And they've made connections with students in Brian's class. They go to their blogs first to comment. They discuss what their partners are writing about.

Also, I am already thinking about next year. The timing was no good...too many teachers on different vacations. October, November might be a better time. And we want to add a chat box into the Google docs. This will allow them the communication they need when they are not Skyping.

Networking is an issue with children. Once they connected, they wanted to make more of a connection. Comments in the blogsite asked for Xbox ids and email addresses. We had to put a stop to this. But it opens up the bigger issue of the power of networking. I can no longer function without my network. I truly rely on others to give me ideas, tips, links, and pep talks. But we had to shut down the fifth graders networks...too dangerous to give out personal information. Keep it in the classroom until...oh yeah, until June when it all shuts down. Sorry. I am actually hosting a round table discussion about this on our May 1st Teachers are Talking webcast. Come listen and add to the discussion.

And next year, join the project. We will have all the kinks worked out and I will, by then, have some sort of sign up sheet so I can avoid the confusion I faced this year. Watch for twits. It was well worth it.

Diigo and My Network

Last week, someone (forgive me twitter friend) started a conversation about Diigo, a social bookmarking site. Everyone sort of jumped in and joined. Turns out, I had joined long ago. When I tried to sign up, I was told that my email address already had an account.

So in I went and quickly found myself getting overwhelmed with the power of this site. I made "friends" quickly, finding many twitter friends already had joined. I joined groups, contributed to message threads and conversations, and started bookmarking sites.

I had a great time but realized that I needed to spend time really learning about the site. So I asked if anyone wanted to join me in this learning. We could have a Skype chat and play around.

What started as three people, Karen McMillan, Alice Barr, and me, quickly turned into a large number. I began to panic. I started something that, due to the power of the network, grew way past my ability to handle it. So I turned to the network for advice.

Where would I host this Diigo sandbox session? My original plan would not be able to handle the numbers. People suggested Steve Hargadon.

Well Steve came through with an Elluminate account from Classroom 2.0. (Thank you so much, Steve. Once again, you have made Classroom 2.0 a invaluable part of the community.)

And today, we held our Diigo sandbox session. We were lucky enough to have Maggie Tsai and Wade Ren from Diigo in the session to help us out. And Alice Mercer, teacher extraordinaire, willingly showed us how she uses Diigo with her class, as well as numerous little tricks for using the site.

So for those of you who made it and want a refresher (like me) and for those of you who couldn't make it but want to learn. Here are the links to the session. They can also be found on the Classroom 2.0 wiki.

The Elluminate Video Session

The Chatroom

Best Day Ever!

Today was the best technology day ever in school! We had three Skype calls, all with a purpose, and one was quite exceptional.

The first was with a middle school teacher in Connecticut, named Paul Bogush. Paul apparently has a connection to Ginger Lewman, an online friend. Ginger sent out a twit that Paul was looking for help with a project he was working on in class. She added a link. I followed her link to Classroom 2.0 where I discovered that Paul was looking for elementary students to critique songs his students were creating about the Oregon Trail. How serendipitous it was that we are studying the Oregon Trail now. So I responded that we would be interested.

Today, we Skyped with his class so they could find out what kind of songs our students liked. They were surprised to find that fifth graders have moved past children's songs and are more interested in songs played on the radio. We did, however, find a common interest in the Chicken Dance. A student from our class volunteered to do the dance for them and then two eighth graders performed for us. It was great fun. And we can't wait to see what they create.

Our third Skype call was with my Teachers Are Talking co-host Susan van Gelder. Susan was gracious enough to speak with some of my students who are researching the government of Canada and various provinces there. She explained how the government works and gave a clear explanation of a Parliament. She then answered questions about Canadian homes, her house (she was in her home while Skyping with us) and any pets she might have. She even sent us pictures of her cats. It was wonderful watching the students seriously taking notes while she spoke and respectfully asking questions. All in all, it was quite successful.

But the second Skype call of the day was, by far, the most impressive use of collaborative technology I've ever seen in my room. Today was the day that we skyped with our writing partners.

Brian Crosby and I started a collaborative writing project based on the book The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, by Chris van Allsburg. We partnered up our students on individual stories from the book. Their assignment is to create an original story based on a picture and a title. After enlisting Christine Southard for this project, we then duplicated it for 8 other teachers. Each story is going to be written and edited in a Google doc. It will then be published in our Class Booktalk Wiki, where VoiceThreads will be available for the students to compare story versions.

So all week, the students have been brainstorming ideas in the Google doc. It has been asynchronous due to the time differences. Today, we scheduled a time when both classes would work together. So at 1:00, each child opened up their document and found that their partner was editing also. This was exciting enough. But that's wasn't all. Brian and I each set up a computer with Skype that we placed in a corner of the room. One group at a time sat at the Skype computers and discussed their story. They were so excited to see their partners, so enthusiastic about clarifying the story elements, and highly motivated to write. One girl in the class told me afterward that her entire storyline had changed after speaking with her partner. "But," she said, "now it's better."

Our principal was invited in to witness this project. She was amazed at the quality of discussion going on, floored by the technology skill of the students (even more so when I told her this was the first time the children had used Google docs), and inspired enough to say we need to find grants to give us enough money to buy 1 to 1 laptops for our classroom.

I, too, was amazed watching this activity. The children were so energized over writing. The smiles on their faces when they sat down and saw their partners for the first time was priceless.
Overall, it was the best technology day I've ever spent in school!

More Random Thoughts

A few months ago, I agreed to try to write an article about how to encourage teachers to use technology with their students, preparing them for an unknown future. The article has yet to be written. The longer I wait, the more my ideas change. I think this is because I am still learning, at a great rate. Each time I think I've plateaued or perhaps couldn't possibly learn more, I do. And then the idea for the article changes. So I thought I would use this space to flesh out some ideas. Let me know your thoughts.

Random Thought 1: I used to think that if teachers saw how "cool" new Web 2.0 tools were, they would begin to use them...sort of the "If you build it, they will come" idea. But I keep teaching classes, getting the wows and still...nothing. They just won't use the tools. Or most of them won't. So what's going wrong?

I think two things are happening. One is that I need to stop showing the cool tools. I need, instead, to start showing how easy these tools are to use, how easily they embed into the classroom, and how simple they are for children to master, even if the teachers find it difficult.

But, more importantly ...

Random Thought 2: The administration needs to start stepping in. Many teachers just won't change unless they have to (see Random Thought 3). They were taught this way, they've been teaching this way for years, and this is what they know. Status quo. Administrators have the power to force change. It happens everytime a new textbook is adopted and teachers go for training, everytime a new program is added, everytime a teacher is moved to a different grade. It is time for administrators to insist that teachers begin preparing our children properly. And, in order for that to happen, they need to recognize the urgency of the situation.

Random Thought 3: I hate change. No, really, I hate change. I've been a teacher since I was 21. I've been in the same district for 20 years. I take the same vacations each year. And I love every constant in my life. So when I was told, after being in my school for one year, that I was going to move from fourth grade to second, I came home, cried for hours, and started looking for a new job. But then I realized that moving schools would be even more of a change, so I decided to stay. Turns out, I loved second grade so much, I stayed for 9 years. Then I wanted a change and took my class to third grade. Then asked to move to fourth, then fifth. Now I am looking to move into the technology department.

So what happened to cause me to embrace certain changes? Why have I been able to completely change how I teach, moving from mostly teacher directed lessons to mostly project based lessons? Why have I so willingly embraced technology and so easily embedded it into my classroom? I think two things are important for me.

One, I have always been someone who relished collaboration. I collaborated on a project with a fellow student teacher when I was still learning to teach. I looked for partners in each school I taught, each grade I was in. When I couldn't find a collaborator in my grade or school, I looked outward - to colleges in the area, to teachers I met at conferences, to my husband, to my mother. Anyone and everyone who would listen to my ideas, brainstorm with me, and move me forward in my endeavor. I fought against the isolation of the classroom. I stayed away from the faculty room with all the naysayers and instead went into rooms with ready made collaborators: libraries, art rooms, sometimes the principal's office.

Two, I went into teaching because I was bored in school. I wanted things to be different for my students. There was no role model teacher who encouraged me, excited me, envigorated me. Only teachers who ignored me (good students too often get ignored) or bored me, accepting very average work from an above-average student.

Now, the second is what got me to attend conferences and strive for better. But the first is what really helped me embrace change. Collaborations give me better ideas and someone to push me when I think, "Great idea but it will be so much work." Collaborators even do the work with me. So much better than working alone.

So the solution for others: Be the collaborator they need. Be the cheerleader, the assistant, the shoulder to cry on, the person to lean on. If I can teach how and then be there afterwards, then maybe more teachers would be willing to use new technologies. And that brings us back to the administrators. Hire an ed tech facilitator. You might just get what you need.

That was a long thought. Here's one more:

Random Thought 4: This one came after a long discussion with Christine Southard, my co-teacher and newest collaborator. I used to complain that I didn't have time to use technology. Now I complain that I don't have time for the technology to be down. Funny how things change. Now the goal is to get all the teachers in my district to feel this way. So much work, so little time.

Celebration of Teaching and Learning Conference

On March 7 and 8, I had the good fortune of attending the third annual Celebration of Teaching and Learning in NYC. This was the second time I attended. Last year started me on the wild journey into teaching in the 21st century, thanks to a session with Alan November. Also, last year, Christine Southard (my co-teacher) and I saw the Chase Multimedia in the Classroom award winners and said we would win this year. And we did, for our Comparing Hemispheres wiki created with Allanah King's New Zealand class. Winning meant, among other things, receiving free tickets for this year's Celebration (worth $450). So we were back.

This conference is so amazing. It is sponsored by Channel 13 (a public service channel here in NY), PBS, and Chase. It entailed two packed days - 8:30 - 5ish - of presentations, classes, round table discussions, and exhibitions. There were incredible people there. We heard Dr. Jane Goodall and Jean-Michel Cousteau speak about the damage we are doing to our

planet. We watched a panel discussion led by Judy Woodruff regarding America's Schools in the 21st Century. Among the powerful people she questioned was Elliot Spitzer (NY Governor). Later, Maria Hinojosa led a discussion on Women in Education. Some more powerful people were here, including Johanna Duncan-Poitier, the Senior Deputy Commissioner of Education in NYS. We viewed winning videos from Adobe's Youth Voices and saw the documentary 2 Million Minutes, about the 2 million minutes spent in high school in three different countries. I could go on and on and on.

So here are some highlights:

Will Richardson: He was one of the main reasons I was so excited to attend. I learned so much from him. I have pages and pages of notes (there was no internet service so I wrote everything). He made some great points - "We are raising kids to use keyboards and mice when they won't have keyboards and mice in the future." "Literacy is maleable." "(Speaking of Wikipedia) We have to get over the idea that we can't let kids go somewhere because the information might be wrong." "If we do not teach kids MySpace, how to leverage it and use it well, we are not preparing them for the future."

My biggest take: "Tap into the wisdom of people out there." We are not experts in everything. But with today's technology, it is so easy to connect with the experts and bring them into your classroom. I spent the rest of the conference collecting contact information from experts.

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Michael Pritchard: This motivational speaker discussed using laughter and heart to reach children. I again took pages of notes, wrote a ton of quotes, and was very moved and inspired. Among my favorites: "Hurting people hurt people. Sharing the pain divides the pain." "It's not the bullies who hurt us the most. It is our friends who don't stand up for us." -Martin Luther King, Jr. "It's not the package we arrive in. It's the product that's packed inside."

My Biggest Take: Responsive Classroom and Morning Meetings really is important. Take time to learn who your children are outside of school and you will find it easier to reach them in school.

Jean-Michel Cousteau: He has a new PBS show coming on April 2 and April 9. Watch it. We are all interconnected and must relearn how to live with nature not against it. And we must learn quickly.

Jane Goodall: Her program, Roots and Shoots, teaches children to run projects in their community. Three projects - one to help humans, one to help animals, and one to help the environment. Worth checking out.

Dr. Majora Carter: She is the founder of Sustainable South Bronx. She runs a program called Green the Ghetto. She can be found on TedTV. You must find out what she is doing. And get inspired!




There were more presenters but I have written enough for now. Just a quick note:

My students, as winners of the Chase award, were given passes to the conference. They came on Saturday afternoon. They loved Jean-Michel Cousteau, the PBS television characters wandering around, and the BrainPop exhibit. (We love BrainPop!) They got to be on tv a few times. The show, which is basically the conference itself, will air on PBS on April 29 and 30 (my birthday! great present!).

But, probably the best for the students was meeting one of the presenters. David Warlick was being interviewed in the exhibit hall and we stopped him and asked him to say hello. He was probably rushed for time, all made up for the interview he just gave, and most likely tired from all the traveling he had been doing the past few days.

But, he so graciously took time to meet our students. They love him, knowing him as the Blogmeister of ClassBlogmeister, where our blogsite is hosted. They asked for, and received, autographs, got pictures of him and with him, and generally just stood around staring. He took it all in stride. Thank you, David. You meant the world to them.

Meme: Passion Quilt

My network friend, Martha Thornburgh, tagged me for this meme. And how appropriate that I found out about this from someone I have never met face to face but have communicated with through projects, twitter, and email.

The rules are simple. Think about what you are passionate about teaching your students. My passion? Collaboration. I truly believe if we don't start teaching our children how to collaborate with each other both in and out of the classroom, we will never know a better, kinder planet. And I really want to live in a better, kinder world. So I do my part, one class at a time. And with today's technology, it is easier than ever to collaborate with others around the world. It's hard to fight a country where your friends are living.

These students from our classroom work together to create amazing projects and link up with other classes through various sites. And they enjoy doing so. Can you see the future taking shape?

3 Simple Meme Rules:

1. Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about...and give your picture a short title.

2. Title your blog post "Meme: Passion Quilt" and link back to this blog entry.

3. Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.

So now to my tags:

Christine Southard - the ultimate collaborator

Lisa Durff - my first out of classroom connection

Alice Mercer - can't wait to see her passion

Cathy Nelson - my most helpful twitter friend

Cheryl Lykowski - because she needs a fun break from her thesis

Enjoy!

Random Thoughts

I've had some ideas floating for awhile that have cropped up during the course of my day. I thought I might share them. You should know that I am someone who believes that everything happens for a reason. We are supposed to learn. So I am trying to figure out what my learning was supposed to be.

1. A struggling student was learning how to do long division. She couldn't keep all the steps together, didn't know her math facts, and generally just couldn't grasp the idea. She handed in some examples, all done incorrectly, and we went through them again. Then I sent her off to try one on her own. She came to me later with them all done correctly! "What did you do?" I asked her. Her response, "I learned from my mistakes!"

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all be so brave as to admit we made a mistake and then learn from it? This is a hard one for me. I am not happy admitting to error. (Christine, stop laughing.) While I do learn, it takes time for me to admit to myself and others that the mistake was mine to begin with. So I thank my student for reminding me, once again, that step one is to admit you made a mistake.

2. Our school's lead teacher is out of the country right now. She is anxious to Skype with someone from the school. She tried me but I did not have my account opened at the time. So she sent a simple email to the principal with one line, "Want to Skype?" Now I love my principal. She loves everything we do with technology and supports us anyway she can. But she really doesn't understand much about it all. So she forwards this email to me with only three characters on it. "???" She had no idea what the lead teacher wanted and missed an opportunity to speak to her in the Philippines.

Language is important. Sometimes the simplest ideas and lessons are lost because we use the wrong language. I often forget that most of the teachers and administrators I work with are not as tech saavy as me. And it is even more difficult to remember that when I have a co-teacher who is right there with me and a husband who was my initial tech teacher. I must remember to use simple language when teaching new ideas or discussing old ones.

3. Sickness has been running rampant in the classroom. Last Monday and Tuesday, we had 8 children out! That's a third of the class. It began with one child and Christine Southard, my co-teacher. Due to her illness and her daughter's, she missed a few days of school. We were lucky enough to have been given a substitute to replace her for those days. Usually they don't put anyone else in the room. So for a few days, I got to see the room through an outsider's eyes. Interesting.

Stretched across the back of the room is the mess known as skit props for the Tall Tale skits the children are creating. On the side we have a pile of poster boards for the Geometry Towns we are working on. In the front is the stack of books we have read or shared in the past few weeks. Drawers don't close, the closet overflows into the classroom, and the children themselves are a bit dishelveled. They talk without raising their hands. They don't often sit in their seats while working. They sprawl on the carpet, spread out in the hallway, and push desks and chairs around the room at will. This was all a bit shocking for the substitute. Also, the computer teacher wants us to use the laptops while the children on sitting at desks. She doesn't like them balancing the computers on their laps (having, of course, missed the whole point of the name entirely).

As one of my favorite bloggers, Brian Crosby, likes to say, "Learning is Messy." I am learning to embrace the mess, the clutter, the noise because the children are engaged and learning. And isn't that what school is all about. One girl, when I mentioned how messy the room was, said, "I like it this way. It shows we are busy." How true.

4. My mother is moving in with me in a couple of weeks. She is not very old (only 65) but is not in the best of health and I can no longer feel good about her living alone. So we have been working on fixing up an apartment for her in our house. It has taken a tremendous amount of time and money. I have essentially stopped doing everything else for the past two months or so just to get the apartment finished on time. This means that I have pulled back from my network - not really using Twitter, not turning on my Skype chats, not blogging or reading blogs, etc.

Two ideas came from this. One - sometimes you need to pull out for awhile. I was feeling very overwhelmed by what others were doing that I wasn't. I wanted to learn and try and just didn't have the time. This respite from my network has given me time to reflect on what I am doing and have done. And I am proud of all of my accomplishments, especially since I know it has really only been since April of last year.
The second lesson that I needed to learn is that my network is still there. I was concerned that, by not contributing for so long, my network would sort of fade away. There have been a couple of very important network friends that had faded from my online life prior to my leave and I wasn't really sure why. But mostly, everyone is still there, still learning and growing, and still happy to have me come along for the ride. How wonderful to know that.

5. Part of my curriculum for fifth grade is to compare the US with Canada and Latin America. Each year the children are assigned a place and must research that place, comparing it to what we learn in class about our country. So this summer, when I started building my network, I thought it would be wonderful to hook up with teachers in all these areas and connect them to the students. Talk about your resources. But it never happened. The teachers volunteered but nothing really came of it. In fact, the whole research project is sort of being pushed aside for other learning going on in the classroom. The children keep coming up with ideas and questions and research projects of their own. And it all takes time away from our curriculum.

What am I learning from this? Children no longer want to do the contrived projects. They are much more excited by their own choices. Even if we start the project and then let them choose. A perfect example is research we are now doing on the 1950s to celebrate the 50th anniversary of our school. We told them we were doing this research but they came up with the initial list of topics and each child chose which topic to focus on. They are very excited about doing the research and excited by their findings. Perhaps next year, we will allow them to choose their country or region. Maybe then they will be more involved.
What else did I learn? The best collaboration is unplanned. During a class discussion on hemispheres, the children said they heard toilet water spins in the opposite direction in the southern hemisphere. We immediately contacted a friend in New Zealand to ask if it was true. Chrissy Hellyer graciously agreed to find out. This question led to more and we ended up creating a collaborative wiki with another friend in New Zealand - Allanah King. (Chrissy didn't have a class on the same level as us.) This unplanned, uncontrived wiki just won the Chase Multimedia in the Classroom Award. This was not in our curriculum but the skills used to create, research, and connect are invaluable for the students. Great learning can occur when you give up control of the curriculum for awhile and let the children lead.

I feel as if I have learned a great deal. Now I just need to remember it all.

The Art of Procrastination

Procrastination. I'm getting very good at it. I sit down at the computer with the best of intentions. I have units to plan, lessons to create, research to complete.

But, first, let me just check my e-mail. Oh, someone new is following me in Twitter. Who is this person? One little click. This new person posted a blog. Let me read it and see if I want to follow her. Hmmm. I look at the clock. 10 minutes have gone by. And all I have done is decided not to follow someone new.

Okay, back to work. But, first, did I finish checking e-mail? Oh look. DEN has a new blog post. Steve has added new favorite links. Let me just check this out. 20 minutes later.

Back to... oh wait...did I check Twitter yet? First to replies. That should speed things up. I'll just see if anyone is talking directly to me. Two new conversations to add to. Now let me take a quick look at the posts that are just on the first page. But this conversation links back to a prior page. A little more clicking, some links to follow, new blogs to read, new applications to play with and.... one hour gone.

I know. I won't go online. I'll just open my bookbag and pull out my plan book. Things look good. I need to...oh, right...a note to myself. "Check to see if mixbook has an embed code." If it does, I can use it for our revamped Cinderella stories. The children are changing the setting, adding incredible language, and publishing the new versions. So, does mixbook have an embed code? Let's see. Open a browser and...wait, I see my name in the twitter messages. What is this conversation? Let me just....

Back to mixbook. It does have an embed code. I can use it. Let me just email Christine (my co-teacher) to tell her the good news. And, while I'm at it, maybe my twitter friends would like to know that too.

So, you see, I really do try to get my planning done. My computer life just keeps getting in the way. I think now it's time to go work on that social studies unit. I just have to finish editing this blog post....