The Importance of a Support System

This summer I really started thinking hard about the importance of a support system.  I think that, my whole life, I looked for people who would be there for me.  As a child, this made me a very unforgiving friend.  I had high expectations for my friends and, if you failed to meet them, you were no longer my friend.  My expectations, I thought, were pretty simple...be honest and be there.  When I think about it now, for a child this is pretty deep.  Most children can't "be there."  It's the being there that runs a support system and young children aren't really capable of being a true support system.  So I have started to think about what this really means.


My Definition of a Support System


In order to be a support, one must
1. listen with an open heart.


Basically this means that when someone comes to you with a problem, you don't tell them how wrong they are right off the bat.  Listen to their feelings first.  Tell them you understand.  So it sounds like this: 


Me- "This parent is driving me crazy.  Every time I open my email, there is another complaint about Suzie not understanding the homework or being bullied by her classmates.  It's not what I see in school but I hate having to answer her all the time."

Supportive Friend- "Yeah, that sucks. It's hard to deal with this every day.  I know you've said Suzie seems so happy in class so what is this woman's problem?  She needs to get a life."


2. be honest.


Now would be the time to try to help.


Me- "I wish this kid wasn't in my class.  Her mom is really crazy."


Supportive Friend - "True.  Have you met with Mrs. Suzie in person yet?  Maybe she just needs some reassurance.  You're always much better with parents face to face."


Me- "I've been avoiding that but, you are right.  I will have her come in and sit with me and Suzie.  Let's find out what's really going on."


With the help of my supportive friend, I am able to vent first and get validation that my venting is justified.  Then I can get down to business.  


Now, obviously, this example is pretty simplistic.  But I realize my support system helps out in so many ways, not just when I need to vent about a pushy parent.  I depend on my friends to cheer me on when I am struggling, to laugh with me when all I want to do is cry, to celebrate successes small and large.  And, most importantly, I must do the same for them.


So why has this come up so much this summer?  It isn't because of Suzie's mom (Suzie's mom doesn't really exist although we have all had parents like this).  It isn't because of how rigid I was with my friends in elementary school.  But the importance of a support system has come up a few times.

• ISTE

• One of the things I miss terribly in school is a local support system. I have always been lucky enough or maybe smart enough to have found a very few people at work who can be my support system.  This makes school manageable for me - knowing that, when the going gets tough, I can reach out to my friend. When my friend isn't around, I hold my breath waiting for us to meet.  But at ISTE, I realized I could relax and breathe again.  Everyone there is in the same boat.  We work in schools where others are resistant to our ideas, where we are told to do things that go against our teaching philosophy, and where we are alone.  But when I talk at ISTE, all I hear is "Me too."  
• This was brought home to me one day in the Blogger's Cafe.  I was standing by a couch watching Kevin Honeycutt with some friends playing music with IPads and computerized guitars.  It was fun.  Paul Wood was standing next to me and, while we were listening and laughing, I realized it was the first time in a long time that I was comfortable with a group of teachers.  I turned to Paul and told him this was just what I needed.  He, a true supportive friend, gave me a hug and told me he was glad I was there.  Ahhhh.
• My Husband's End of Year Evaluation
• My husband works in a district where parents are in control and teachers talk against each other.  He had a particularly difficult time this year with his grade level colleagues and it all came out in his final evaluation.  The principal wrote about issues he had with his classroom that were only issues because of his colleagues.  And she only knew about them because his colleagues told her.  One example...he was using email to contact parents and students.  One parent didn't get the emails and complained to the homeroom teacher, who, instead of going to my husband, went right to the principal.  Not a great support.  He did get the principal to change her evaluation, only talking about what she has personal experience with.
• He has had a rough time this summer just wrapping his head around going back to work.  He has no support system there and, in fact, has to worry about the rest of the staff.  And he is miserable.
• My Daughter's Schooling

• I have written in the past about Ali's struggles with high school.  Her middle school was split into two high schools and her entire support system went to the other high school.  She thought it would be okay but she has been unable, after two years, to recreate that support system in her school.  
• I am in the process right now of trying to get her moved to the other high school.  But all the superintendent is hearing from me is that she wants to be with her friends.  He doesn't understand the difference between friends and a support system.  She has plenty of friends at East (her school).  She just has no friends who listen with an open heart and then are honest with her.  Those friends are all at West.  This summer she has spent a great deal of time with them. While listening to their conversations, I finally realized what was missing at East. 
• BTW...I reached out to my support system and got some great advice from Patrick Higgins about what to say to the superintendent. So, after our meeting Friday, when he started with no, he moved to..."Let me do some investigating and I will get back to you."  Stay tuned.
• My Classroom
• Now is the time I start preparing for a new year.  I am creating exciting projects, looking into great books to read, deciding on a theme for the year.  And what I realize now is that it is my job to be a strong support for my students and to model being supportive for others.  I want my students to feel supported in the classroom.  I think I do a really good job of creating this.  But now I have a better understanding of why it's so important.

I am incredibly grateful to have a support system.  I live with strong supports in both my husband and my mother.  I work with strong supports in my own classroom.  I am lucky this year to have my wonderful friend, Joanne Miller, be my aide again.  And I have my amazing support system in my online PLN.  I know I can always reach out to Karen Janowski, Maria Knee, and Linda Nitsche for an open heart.  I know I can always depend on Paul Wood to say just the right thing.  I know I can complain to Brian Crosby and he will listen and commiserate with me.  There are so many of you out there who are there for me.  

Do you have a strong support system?  Can you reach out to support someone else?

Image: 'Strength Over Head' 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/41864721@N00/3446286013

Image: 'Deep conversation' 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38869431@N00/4703017753

Image: 'Class photo' 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37718498@N00/2610009219

Image: 'We're thinking of you' 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26406919@N00/291488094

An Update on the Denton Dynamos

There have been lots of positive things going on in my classroom lately but I have been so consumed with and saddened by the new politics of teaching and unions that I haven't been able to open my eyes to the wonders of my students.  So I want to take this space to let you all know the good things going on.


1. An update on the creation of the Exploration Lab


As I talked about in a previous blog, after reading The Third Teacher and speaking with Trung Le of CanonDesigns, we decided to rearrange our room to better suit our students' needs.  It has been a resounding success.  What am I seeing?  


Children at different tables seem to be more helpful with each other.  They readily lean over to help each other with assignments or struggles.  They offer supplies and trade emails after school.  I believe this might have something to do with the fact that the children sit at tables based on their chosen "best way to learn."  So the artists all speak the same language.  The musicians know how to communicate with each other.  The collaborators readily jump in.  And the children who needed quiet know when to help and when to leave each other alone.  It's really amazing to watch.


Students are quicker to move around the room, getting what they need to make learning easier or just moving to a different place in the room to get closer to the instruction if needed.  They seem more comfortable being different than their classmates.  So, although I run a UDL classroom and have encouraged this all year, the movement into an Exploration Lab seems to have really pushed the idea.


The children are working more independently.  I know it is the spring and the children usually get to a point around this time of year where they are more independent.  But this year, it seems to have happened sooner. And this brings me to the second positive happening in my classroom.


2. Becoming much more of a facilitator


The past two weeks have been interesting, to say the least.  While we push toward our state testing (coming up right after vacation) and the required preparation, we have also been pushing to complete some large projects before vacation.  So our days have been spent either doing test prep (boooo) or working on projects (yaaaay).  And this has given me lots of opportunity to see the children at their best.


You see, when we do test prep in my room, it is limited to a 45 minute period per day.  This 45 minutes is not the best, since it is primarily drill and practice, but the children are positive, knowing that it will be a short amount of time and then we get to move on to "the fun stuff."  


The fun stuff is the rest of our curriculum.  It's games and projects and research and collaboration and reading and writing and math and....nothing about drill and practice.  Just learning.  And three things we really worked on were our Moving West social studies project, our Energizing Energy science project, and our literary essays in writing.  


Since we had been working on the projects for awhile, the children were well into them.  They worked in groups, collaborated online with each other and children from other classes, and solved problems all day.  I had the luxury of sitting at a table with my laptop and seeing their conversations and work in their Google docs.  I got to quietly watch them work on scripts and props and design work.  I was witness to kindness and support and laughter and perseverance. 


I watched E work with H, who was upset because he wanted to do an Xtranormal video and the rest of his group wanted to do a Glog.  She carefully explained to him that his video will be used, embedded into her Glog.  Calmed him right down with no support from me.


I saw S lean over to T and gently help her run through the math work she struggled with.  I had explained it many times but she had shut down in frustration.  S didn't even think about her sensitivity.  He just walked her through the steps and she was successful.

I witnessed A and her group struggle to figure out how they were going to show that their partners in Nevada were going to catapult them a fish (it's all part of a video about simple machines).  How will it look like the same fish when they were splicing together two different videos?  They talked with each other and chatted with their partners, finally coming to me to tell me they MUST Skype with their partners.  So I turned on Skype, called in Brian Crosby, and brought the children together.  What did they do?  Brian's students had a stuffed fish.  They put it up to the camera to show A.  A said she had a similar fish at home.  They spent a few more minutes talking backgrounds for their video and walked away smiling.  My only job...turning on Skype.


I listened to B and his group struggle with Google Sites.  It was the first time we were using it and had many issues with it.  They kept getting logged out, kept losing their work, and spent much time just troubleshooting.  Finally, they told me to check my email.  They had sent me an invitation to their wiki, created in Wikispaces.  They decided, without me, that they had spent enough time troubleshooting and needed to actually work.  So instead of creating a site, they created a wiki, quite successfully.


3. Moving West Project Conclusion


Moving along in our social studies curriculum brought us to Chapter 14.  An exciting time in American history, the early 1800's are explained well in the textbook but...oh how boring to read the textbook.  So Lauryn, my co-teacher, and I created a project.  With the help of our librarian, who set up LiveBinders for each group, we created a Google site with essential questions, topics, assignments, rubrics, and ending with a webquest.  Each group had to create a site to teach about their topic.  This site had to include three parts - one written, one drawn, and one multi-media.  It had to answer the main essential questions and some topic specific questions.  After all sites were completed, the children worked with partners from other groups to complete a webquest using these sites.  

There wasn't any part of this project I had to teach to the whole class.  The students jumped in, delegated assignments, met with me to explain their plans, and got to work.  They gave each other homework assignments (not kidding) and begged to spend more time working.  The fact that what they were really doing was research is amazing.  They loved this project, learned a great deal, and did very well on their webquest.  


The adults in the room marveled at how independent the students were, making great choices about projects, choosing appropriate research material, and collaborating beautifully.  It was a dream project, bringing together everything we have worked on all year.  And we finished it all just in time for vacation.


I love being able to share some of the excitement of the classroom, er Exploration Lab, with you all.  It helps me remember why I love teaching and working with children.  And it helps me push aside all the negative press teachers are getting these days.  I hope it works for you too.

Image: 'Always Look on the Bright Side of+Life' 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26652303@N07/3199154697


Image: 'Day 83: Fifty Fingers - Hands Together' 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28362388@N00/3382838948

Energizing Energy - A Success Story (?)

Last year was an overwhelming year for me.  You can see past blogs to find out more.  But one issue that I felt I could work with was an increase in science curriculum we were required to teach.  Because I quickly realized that all the units we were supposed to cover were related to energy.  All I would have to do is teach a massive energy unit and I would have it covered.


So over the summer I worked and studied and fretted and talked to science teachers and finally created Energizing Energy.  This project would take my students through experiments in various forms of energy and really get them thinking about the topic.  Or so I hoped. 


I was nervous.  If it didn't work out, my students would be heading off to 6th grade with a clear disadvantage in the area of science.  The teachers would really know that I didn't cover the units - which in my district consists of a box full of experiments.  In order to help me work through the nervousness, I enlisted a partner, actually two.  David Cosand, of Oregon, and Brian Crosby, of Nevada, both willingly (or maybe not so willingly) joined in.  David, unfortunately, had to drop out early on due to some class difficulties.  Brian has come aboard wholeheartedly.  


We are now nearing the end of this project, which actually started in September.  We have a final presentation for the children to do but the end is in sight.  So as we add our conclusions, I would like to reflect back.


I remember planning this summer.  To start, I never thought it would actually work.  Brian kept thinking I had this all under control and knew exactly what I was doing.  Ha. For starters, science is not my forte.  I depend greatly on other experts to help me understand the concepts.  Good thing Brian is better at understanding science concepts than I am. For another, I have never undertaken such a massive project before.  I knew going in that I was attempting to cover 6 science units in one.  So it would take a looooong time. I didn't know if I could ever get anyone else to agree to work on a project for so long.  I should have known Brian would be up for it.


Working with a new class is always interesting.  They had very little technology experience.  So everything we did was brand new.  They were introduced to Google docs, Skype, Discovery Streaming, BrainPop, wikis, and CoveritLive just to work on the research and collaboration aspects.  Other tools will be used for the presentation part.  Teaching them internet etiquette, patience with technology, and how to work collaboratively took some time.  By now, of course, they are most comfortable with all our tools.


I remember thinking, around the end of November, that this will never work.  The research was taking forever and I wasn't really sure they were understanding their form of energy.  I was almost relieved to hear Brian saying the same thing.  We decided to meet in small groups together, skyping our lessons, to help push their understanding.  After those skype sessions, I really felt the students had a better handle on what was expected.


Once we started writing our experiments, I realized the children really had no idea how to write an experiment.  They didn't understand what a hypothesis was, had no idea about variables and constants, and couldn't write understandable steps.  More small group instruction and we got them back on track.  I think this part says a great deal about our science boxes.  I always felt I wasn't really teaching my students anything.  They had a workbook that they followed to complete the experiments.  They never wrote their own experiments or questioned the results.  For the first time, I was asking them to really behave like scientists.


We included others in our lessons.  My physical education teacher, Mike Lesak, came into the room and taught my class and Brian's class about golf clubs as levers.  We then moved into the gym to measure the clubs and test out his lessons.  My aide's son, Nick, who is on the college golf team, joined us in the lesson.  And the band teacher contributed drums and drumsticks (Nick also plays the drums.)  Once the kids got into volleyball in gym, Mike just continued the science lessons there.





The past two weeks, we have been performing our experiments.  We had to adjust our expectations a bit.  We thought all the students would perform all the experiments but materials were hard to come by, and time is flying.  So instead, each group performed their own experiment while the other children either wrote up the results in the Google doc or carried on a conversation in CoveritLive.  This has been the most exciting science time I've ever had in school.  For the first time, my students and Brian's students were talking about changing variables and trying the experiments again.  They were discussing unexpected outcomes and why it might have happened.  Conversations about mass and density, temperature and materials, even location were going on all day.  My students are so enthusiastic about their learning that I have decided to have a science day.  Next week, we will have a day where all the experiments will be set up and the children can change variables and predict the outcomes.  I can't wait to film that day.


The children will not complete group presentation demonstrating their knowledge about energy and their form of it.  I think the presentations will be fairly easy.  This is what my students have been doing all along.  But what have they learned about science?  That mistakes turn into more experiments.  That results are often not what we expect.  That hypotheses can't be wrong, so they don't need to be changed to match the results.  And, most importantly, that science is fun!  You can read some of their blogs to find out how much they loved experimenting.


I think what I like the most about this project is that it was like a science experiment itself.  I never knew if it would work. While all the other fifth grade teachers rushed around finishing up each science box, I just kept plugging away at my research and development of experiments. 


I am surprised by the results. I thought they would learn about energy.  I had no idea they would also learn so much about experimenting.


I had to keep adjusting along the way to help my students be more successful.  Thankfully, having a partner like Brian makes that so much easier.  He never once flinched when I said, "We're changing the next step."  You should all be so blessed with a great collaborative partner.


Next year (yes, next year, Brian), there will be some changes.  But for now, this has been a very successful science project.

An Interesting Vacation

Tomorrow is the last day of my vacation.  This was a long one, running from December 24th to January 4th.  I had every minute planned out and was really looking forward to the vacation.  And then reality hit.


We were supposed to head to Florida on the 24th, spending most of the vacation visiting my sister in Weston and my mother-in-law in Margate.  I haven't seen my sister or my five year old nephew, Henry, in about a year and haven't seen my 90 year old mother-in-law in about 2 years.  My brother-in-law and his wife were also coming, as were my husband's nephew with his three teenage boys.  The last time we saw this nephew, he was a teenager himself.  It's been quite a while.  So we bought Christmas gifts, spoke on the phone about all the arrangements for our big Christmas get together, hooked up on Facebook, and began to get excited.  


The plan was we were staying with my sister, who would pick us up at the airport on Thursday night.  Friday, Christmas day, we would head over to my MIL's early and see the Parisi clan, bringing my Jewish sister, her husband, and my nephew along for a big Christmas day. (I love mixing the holidays.)  

We had a few days to spend with the Parisis before Frank's brother headed back to Arizona and his nephew headed back to Texas.  We were going to go fishing, parasailing, and boating.  We were going to sit around the house and talk.  We were going to laugh and hug and catch up.  Ali, my daughter, would meet her cousins and hang out with three teenage boys! Once the Parisis all left, we would spend more time with my sister and nephew, taking them to the beach, going off to play tennis. Ali and Henry were going to spend a day at tennis camp while my sister and I took my MIL shopping.  


On the last day of my trip, I was going to hook up with Lee Kolbert, having lunch, sunning at the beach, hanging out.  I would come back tanned and relaxed, with four days left to do school work, laundry, and shopping before school started.  Ahhhhh!

So what happened?  First, we left our New York airport 15 minutes late.  This brought us to our connecting airport, Philadelphia, too late to catch our plane.  Remember the huge snow storm that brought my house 25 inches of snow?  That backed up flying so much that the airlines were very quick to give away our seats early.  And the soonest they could get us on another flight was Monday.  That's Thursday to Monday.  By Monday, we would have missed the whole Parisi clan.  So we turned around and came home.


On the way home, with Ali crying, me crying, my sister crying on the phone, we tried to find the silver lining.  Maybe we could go skiing instead.  Maybe we could head into the city to some museums.  Maybe we could find some new restaurants to try, go to some movies, etc.  But, on the way home, my throat started....

Well, by the time we got home, I had a lovely cough.  In fact, it was so bad that I couldn't sleep through the night.  I was exhausted waking up at 3 in the morning.  Then the lightheadedness and runny nose started.  Before I knew it, I was flat on my back in bed for the week. So we didn't go skiing, or to the museums, or to new restaurants.  We did go to the movies twice, me fully stocked with cough drops to make it through. After each one, we headed home so I could go back to bed.


This morning, Saturday, I woke up with the realization that I had slept through the whole night without coughing.  It took the entire vacation.  This should be the crummiest vacation ever.  But it wasn't.  

I certainly rested enough.  And, while I really hated being sick and coughing and blowing my nose, it was kind of nice to have a reason to stay in bed all day.  I really think I needed to do that.  And, I spent some great time with my family at home.  We pulled out all the old movies of Ali.  Hours of us staring at an infant (why did we think that was so exciting when she was born?), hours of her funny jokes and conversations, great moments of her explanations as to why she was crying.  (My favorite one - "Why are you crying?"  "Daddy sent me to my room." "Why did he send you to your room?  What did you do?" "I climbed on the dishwasher." "And what did Daddy say?" "He said, No climbing on the dishwasher." "So what did you do?" "I climbed on the dishwasher.") We also did lots of cooking together: two trays of cookies, an apple pie, chicken stew, and spaghetti sauce.  And the best part of that was I wasn't allowed to really touch the food since I was germy so I just hung out and watched.  We shopped, using up all my holiday gift cards.  I connected with quite a few online friends, had a great meeting with Paul Bogush, Karen Janowski, and Christine Southard about our Educon 2.2 presentation, and worked quite a bit on the book I am writing with Brian Crosby.

So silver lining?  Had we made it to Florida, I would have loved seeing everyone but it would have been hectic trying to see my MIL and my sister all at the same time.  I would have been in my sister's house keeping everyone awake with my coughing. There would have been no time to relax, which is what I really needed to do after the first half of this school year.  And my husband, daughter, and I, who have all been overly busy since September, wouldn't have had so much time to bond with each other.


It did take me until now to see the silver lining.  I did spend quite a bit of time feeling sorry for myself.  But I know now that I am rested, happy, and ready to go back to work.  And that is what vacation is all about - a time for renewal.


I think my New Year's Resolution is going to be to search harder for the silver lining when a gray cloud comes into my life.  There always is one.  And it's time to stop wallowing and start enjoying whatever life brings. Don't you agree?


Happy New Year!







Image: 
'We're a little bit behind schedule...' 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/20715319@N07/4215767192
'happy christmas everybody!' 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31493432@N08/3131341442
'Have a splash this year' 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13774211@N00/2154937296
'i hate jetblue' 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/81513646@N00/854483426
'Anti-Cough.' 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25754408@N00/363043497
'silver lining' 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/66994844@N00/237327475
'A Toast to the New Year!' 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/61963330@N00/2168022622

What Would It Take?

Last Sunday, we had a discussion on Conversations about alternative teacher certification programs, both pros and cons. Naturally, as usually happens, we digressed toward the end, discussing the reality of teaching in poorer districts. What does it mean for the students when the districts can't find teachers to work there? The neediest students end up with the least experienced, most dissatisfied teachers. These are teachers who rarely stay long and don't try to change the system in any way. They just teach, day by day, waiting for the opportunity to work in a better district, for more money, with more materials. And the haves and the have-nots spread even further apart.

Now, I know that it isn't always like this. Yes, there are some brilliant teachers out there who work in inner city schools and do amazing things. Both Adina Sullivan and Brian Crosby jump immediately to mind. But these teachers are rare.

You should know I have experienced this for myself. For the first three years of my teaching career, I worked in two different inner city schools. My first year was in a different state. So as to not offend anyone, I will not name the state. I will tell you, however, that I worked with very unimaginative teachers. The state had a mandate for how we were to teach. The Six Steps of Teaching were to be in every single lesson. I only remember Step One - tell the students what they are about to learn. So each lesson had to begin with the aim being written on the board. The Steps was a great idea for teachers who really didn't know how to teach. For me, fresh out of college, I was confused. I did not learn this way and wanted to try my own methods. Luckily, I had a principal who allowed me freedom. She told me that when she observed me formally, I had to follow the Six Steps. Otherwise, I was to do what I was comfortable doing. I had great support from my administration and great animosity from my colleagues. I was seen as an upstart and things didn't get any better when our students' test scores came in and mine were the highest in the grade. I only know this because the teacher with the highest test scores was made grade level chair for the following year. I deposed a 12 year grade level chair. I didn't stay to take the position.

My next two years were in a New York City school. It was a district where nobody wanted to work. They were so desperate for teachers that one colleague was interviewed, hired, and placed in a classroom with students all in one day. The principal had two goals: discipline (which incidentally meant silence at all times) and higher test scores than comparative schools. We spent most of the year prepping for tests. When we were not prepping for tests, we were reading textbooks or writing in workbooks. There were no supplies and no support. We were not allowed to stray from the schedule of textbook pages and test prep at all - no exceptions. Okay, there was one exception. I managed to convince my principal to let me take my bottom 5th grade class (students were grouped homogeneously by test results) on a field trip to the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan - by subway. As we left the building she spoke to the students. "Remember, you are representing ________ school and if I get a bad report about your behavior, you will have ruined the chances of any other class ever going on another field trip." I spent every day of those two years looking for another job and was so grateful to be able to leave.

So during our show on Sunday, I said I often think about what it would be like to go back to that school, knowing what I know now about teaching, and teach those students. And then I was asked what it would take to get me back. So here it is. My solution to getting good teachers, innovative teachers, excited teachers, into these districts that nobody wants to be in.

First, offer money. I would not take a pay cut at all to move to a different school. But money is not enough.

Next, offer support. Hire me for what I have to offer and then let me do it. Provide me with enough materials or allow me to go after grant money. Let me open up the world for the children and don't block me while I do that.

But, most important of all, give me a place to work where everyone has the same vision. I want to work in a school/district where there is one vision, where it is my vision (because of course I was hired because I share that vision), and where there is ample time for PD and collaboration with colleagues in order to reach our goals. And please don't make test scores a goal.

I think if I had that type of school, I would be very willing to bring my expertise to an inner city school. I would love to work with the students who find that school is the only safe place to be. Give me the students who have nothing and let me show them what is out there for the taking. Let me try to connect with parents, even here. Because if parents can come into the school and find a safe haven too, then they will certainly help their children to stay there. I was not ready 23 years ago to fight the system in order to make a difference. Now I am but I want partners in that fight. Any administrators out there looking? ;)


'214-28'
www.flickr.com/photos/24409978@N00/3279258603

'Six Steps'
www.flickr.com/photos/29638083@N00/3518237307

'1963, Cooper St'
www.flickr.com/photos/28516908@N08/3184581479

'Bronx_01'
www.flickr.com/photos/28998362@N00/343500844

'Money!'
www.flickr.com/photos/37108241@N00/61056391

'Atlas, it's time for your bath'
www.flickr.com/photos/73645804@N00/440672445

'Visionary'
www.flickr.com/photos/70405662@N00/1204637477

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.

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.

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.