That Time My Network Didn't Become Trolls

I was doing a quick check of my Twitter feed when I saw a comment from @JonBecker  that led me to this post by Will Richardson.  The conversation revolved around the comment by Don Brookover, a student at the University of South Alabama. Go ahead and read the post and the comment.

The conversation around the comment was at first of irritation (anger?), but it eventually evolved to addressing this issue. I found Mr. Brookover's blog and suggested that instead of talking about it on Twitter it might be better if it happened on the post.

This could have gone badly. I see too often people react very poorly to thoughts they disagree with online and their responses are worse than the original post. Let's face it, there is a lot of frustration and anger in the education technology field driven by our perceptions of the direction schools are headed. When confronted with a pre-service teacher that seems to flippantly discount what we are trying to do online, becoming angry is a very real possibility.

Fortunately, the network responded with respect and dignity. They responded to engage and educate, not to shame or hate.

As I thought about this throughout the day I could see a very real parallel between Mr. Brookover and students that I have. They have different experiences, different backgrounds, and they think differently than I do. Shame and hate won't help my students learn either. There are lots of lessons for us in this story. 

I Hide My Disability

This was originally posted on Education Debate

I’m not interested in being politically correct. I don’t think we should treat people differently, I think we should treat each other with respect and dignity. I see no respect or dignity in labels. Having written that I am immediately going to do the exact opposite and label myself. (I doubt I have to worry about offending myself anyway.)

I have a problem that causes me a lot of grief. It makes being a professional educator difficult. It has caused me to lose sleep, become very anxious, even decline to do things that would be beneficial for me and others simply because of the stress it causes. To sum it up, it isn’t any fun at all.

My problem is social anxiety. I haven’t been diagnosed by a doctor, but I know the effects. As a child I was very, very uncomfortable in new situations. The problem was so bad that I ran away from kindergarten every day for the first week of school. Of course there was no diagnosis, no trips to a counselor’s office, just my grandfather picking me up and taking me back. I had to “tough it out”.

If I am in a new situation, especially meeting new people, I can be very quiet. I even developed a coping mechanism, yawning. I don’t know where it came from or why I do it, but if you see me in social situation yawning I am not bored, I am anxious. Obviously this habit does not endear me to others.

I find it very difficult to be in new places. I often find it difficult to go to places I am familiar with by myself. I have been known to pass up gas stations hoping I have enough to get me home because I can’t stop at a station that I have used many times.

My wife, Dianna has been very helpful. She for all intents and purposes becomes my coach exhorting me to go beyond my comfort zone. Without her prodding there is no way I would have presented at METC this year. There is no way I would have attended ISTE in San Antonio a few years ago if she hadn’t gone with me or EdCampKC for that matter. Sometimes she is just understanding enough to let me be and not get upset that I can’t return that item to Wal Mart because I am just too anxious right then.

What accommodations have I made for myself so that I can be successful? I try to always have someone I know with me. I try to arrive at new places early so I can become familiar with them before the added stress of the event that is taking place. I carry something with me like a book or hand held game so that I can retreat into a comfortable situation. I decline to do a lot of things that I later regret. I talk to people online.

I have discovered that the social issues I have in the face to face world go away when I am typing on a keyboard. I can have conversations with people I would never be able to even say “Hello” to in person. I have even found that by having these conversations online I can transfer that confidence to face to face meetings.

How many students have a “hidden” disability? Students can often go for years hiding illiteracy, how much easier is it to hide something even less obvious than that? What are you doing in your classroom for kids like me that some days are barely hanging on until they can get back home where they can relax? Have you actively sought out the quiet kids or the ones that don’t seem to make friends and spend a few minutes with them? If you go out of your way to make them more comfortable, they will be more successful in your classroom.

Modeling Bad Behavior

A couple days ago I was using an aluminum foil boat to collect data for our math class. We were practicing on mean, median, mode etc. (see post below) and I wanted to tie it in to what I had planned to do in science. As I conducted the experiment the students kept asking me about what I was doing. They knew it was to collect data, but they wanted more information. Kids get indignant when you refuse to share information with them!

A thought occurred to me and I decided that perhaps it would be a good idea to have them watch me do an experiment and allow them to critique what I did. This would give me a good idea about what they already know and what we should focus on. Today I conducted the experiment.

I was looking for the students to identify a few specific behaviors that I modeled incorrectly including:

1. I did not have my instructions for the experiment.
2. I did not do any measuring or data collection.
3. I played around by shaking the wet aluminum boat at a nearby student.

Most of them didn't identify any of these three behaviors. They were more focused on safety (I didn't wear gloves!) and the fact that I left my tools out instead of putting them away. I suspect that both of these ideas have been well instilled in them and now I know where to put in my effort.

Was this a better pre-assessment than giving them a multiple choice test?

My Mostly Positive Experience With Donors Choose

This was previously posted on the MSTA blog. 

A few years ago on a lark I asked my wife to buy me a ukulele for Christmas. After almost two years of noodling with it at home and at school (modeling learning to my students) I decided that I wanted to start a ukulele club at school. I talked to my building principal about it and she was very supportive. With money always an issue I told her that I would like to try Donors Choose, a site where teachers can ask for money to be used to fund projects.

I went to the Donors Choose site, DonorsChoose.org, and set up an account. I had to look carefully and read a couple help files to figure out how to set up the project. I wish it had been easier, but I did eventually figure it out. As I was setting up the project I discovered a few things that almost made me stop.

The first problem I had was that there was an 'optional donation' figured into the price. After reading the information I saw that it was to help defray any changes in the amount that was quoted because many projects don't get funded in the usual 30 days the quotes are good for. Any monies not used that way are then used by the organization to help fund other projects. This seems reasonable to me.

The second problem is that I was restricted to specific sites to order from. The ukuleles I wanted were $20 cheaper on Amazon than on the site I was required to use. That being said, choosing the products for the project was as simple as adding them to the cart. That worked seamlessly and I was very impressed.

After finishing up putting all the information required for the project I submitted it to be checked over. Donors Choose uses volunteers to make sure the information meets the site's expectations. It only took a few days until I received the email that it was approved and live.

After getting the email I wrote a blog post for my class blog. There I explained how to use the match code I received from the organization. This code allowed donations made through the first seven days of the project to be doubled up to $100 a piece! This effectively made each donation using the code double. Because of this, I tweeted the link on Twitter to my post that gave the match code. I wanted all the matching funds I could get!

While waiting for the project to be approved I spent some time talking about it on Twitter with my friends. I had several that asked t be notified when it went live so I tweeted to them first. Many of the donations I received came from people that I talk to on Twitter. Don't underestimate the power of social media to help fund your project! If you don't use Twitter, Facebook can also be a great place to ask for help.

I anxiously kept a watch on my project site to see how the donations were going, I was completely shocked that in less than twelve hours it was fully funded. I received notice the next day that the items have been ordered (much faster than going through my school district's bureaucracy :) I was very surprised by the speed of the whole process.

Enrichment Needs to Be Embedded, Not Added On

Being a teacher in a high poverty, rural district I have been expected to read a lot of books about how children in poverty are different when it comes to their ability to learn. Typically the argument is that the life they lead outside of school makes a difference in how they learn and what they learn.

I'm not brain researcher and I have no experience with students that come from upper middle class or wealthy homes either so to speculate on the truthfulness of these arguments would be just that. What I do have is a long term exposure to children that live in poverty because I grew up here from the perspective of a middle class upbringing (although to be truthful my parents worked long and hard to get to middle class even though they both have college degrees.)

I have been reading Teaching with Poverty in Mind by Eric Jensen. I see a lot of familiar information in the book, things I have been exposed to since I was in my education classes. Something that is sticking with me from this book is the idea of student enrichment. The idea being that students in high poverty areas need more enrichment opportunities at school because they get fewer of those opportunities at home.

Did I mention we have a very large percentage of our students that ride buses home? Guess who don't get to participate in enrichment activities outside of school?

This year my school started a before school enrichment program (with a 'let's increase our test scores by doing computer based learning' component). Students have the opportunity three times a week to participate in an activity during time they used to sit in our gym to get ready for the day. I am pretty sure this just isn't enough enrichment to bridge the gap.

I realize that enrichment to my students has to happen in the classroom, but what exactly does that entail? How do I give my students enriching learning activities during the school day? I'm pretty sure that I can't do it successfully if all I do is test prep. Seriously.

When Something Isn't Working, Recognize it and Do Something Different

I have known for about a month that my math class wasn't working. Let me give some background first. This is the first year I have taught math in the last ten. I only have a couple years' experience as it is so I am by no means a master math teacher. Because of my lack of experience I was given the 'high' math group, the idea being that they can learn without me if needed (more on this later.)

I started the year explaining that we were going to spend more time trying to really master the math, not just go through it. To foster that idea, I emphasized that when students didn't show mastery through their assessments they needed to go back, identify the problems, fix the problems and retest. We spent a lot of time after every assessment modeling that behavior. It seemed to work very well as long as the math was easy, it has fallen apart now that it is harder.

A typical lesson runs like this, the first day I would work examples of the new material on the board and then assign practice work for them to do. The answers for these problems are in the back of the book so the students can check their work. The next day I would ask if they had any questions or needed any particular problems shown to them. Usually I ask that question and hear crickets. Then I assign the problems that don't have answers in the back. The third day I answer those questions and do a quick assessment to see if we are ready to move on.

Over time I noticed that several students were not doing the practice work, and doing miserably on the 'ungraded' work. (I try hard to not take grades on any practice.) Not surprisingly, they failed the assessment miserably. I thought they had learned their lesson and they did much better on the make-up assessment a couple days later. I assumed wrong. The cycle is repeating, but their is no drive to learn from the mistakes.

As you can imagine this is a pretty frustrating development. The lack of effort seems to be spreading and I am at the point that I have to change something because this is not working. Do you have any ideas you would like to share?

A Great Time for Reflection

I am using this last full week of class to have my students do a little reflective writing. The topics they can choose from (which you can see on the picture above) can be answered quite simply, but I want them to dig in much deeper.

We need to give our students opportunity and time to think reflectively about lots of things including school. I am really curious to see who chooses which prompt and how they are answered. We will find time this week to share them and hopefully on Friday we will blog them.

What reflective questions do you ask your students?

Is School Learning Valuable Enough for the Time Our Kids Invest?

I heard screams coming from outside so I saunter out onto the porch just in time to see my youngest daughter Quinci flying down the hill on a bicycle. She and her older sister Aidan have been "riding" for a few days. By riding I mean they push their bikes up the hill and coast down it. Quinci is getting ready for the new bike she asked Santa for Christmas. Aidan is helping her learn how to ride.

Later Quinci comes to me with a Sharon Creech book in her hand. She asks me when she will be "allowed" to read it. I was a bit taken aback, I didn't realize that kids had to ask permission to read books (especially my kids in my home). I told her she can read anything she wants to and she is now sitting next to me reading The Unfinished Angel.

What do we teach kids at school that is worth 7-8 hours a day that they can't learn on their own? If a seven year old and a ten year old can teach each other to ride a bike, what do they need a teacher for? How much school time is used to teach things only good for the community of school? Why did Quinci think she needed permission to read a longer chapter book than she was used to? These are the questions that make me wonder about what I am doing at school with my students.

Hayley's Book

Hayley wrote a book, then she read the book to one of the staff at school and asked her to record it and put it on Youtube. Hayley already understands that an audience is very necessary to motivation. 

What makes it necessary for us to feel the need to share with others what we create? I realize not everyone feels this way, but there are a lot of people that do. What are you doing to fulfill this need for your students? For other teachers' students? 

Hayley is giving us a wake up call. If we don't meet her needs to share, she will find another way to do it and there is no guarantee the path she would choose would be in her best interest. If you don't believe me, take a trip through Youtube and see what kids are uploading on their own.

Maybe Your Progressive Teaching Ideas Are Not What's Best for All Your Students

As a teacher that experiments often in the classroom with different teaching methods and exposes my class to different learning methods I see that how students respond differently to them. One of the reasons I change what I do with my teaching and what I share with my students is to allow them to identify what works best for them so they can make informed choices about how they learn best and what they need to do to be successful.

Lately I have become more much sensitive to condemnations of traditional teaching methods. There is a place for these methods in the classroom. They do work well for some students. Many of us are successful products of the old teaching methods. (Yes I know many are not.)

I am not advocating that we never try progressive methods. I am simply saying that all students need the opportunity to learn in their best way. If you summarily reject the past to be progressive, you may be harming some of your kids. 

Edublog Award 2012 Nominations

I have been nominating people for the Edublog Awards for years. It has been a great way for me to show my appreciation for all the hard work they do. Each year it seems to get a little harder to identify 'the best' of the sites that I frequent.

• Best Group Blog: Education Rethink John Spencer and Chad Segersten are always posting diverse, thought provoking ideas. A must read for any person interested in education.
• Influential Post: Sometimes posts are influential because they have a huge reach, sometimes they are influential because they have a huge impact regardless of the reach. Being a Social Outcast by Solal Bauer reminds me of the power of blogging for our students. If you want to read a post that demonstrates the importance of sharing and conversing, start here.
• Individual Tweeter: Jabiz Raisdana aka @IntrepidTeacher Twitter is more than a place to share education links and practices. It is a place to share ourselves and I know of no one that exemplifies that better than Jabiz.
• Teacher Blog: Blogging Through the Fourth Dimension by Pernille Ripp is everything you ask for in a teacher blog. Pernille is honest, thoughtful, and reflective. This is a model teacher blog that centers on the classroom. Why aren't more teachers doing this?
• Free Web Tool: Kidblog is the best free web tool because it makes it very easy to give students a voice on the internet. If we are all about kids, our tools should reflect that too.
• Best Open PD: EdCamps They reinforce the value of face to face collaboration and sharing without ignoring the need to collaborate and share online.  

A Very Successful Writing Activity

To start with, I didn't come up with the idea for this writing activity and I regretfully admit I don't remember who on Twitter told me about it. I really hope they read this and leave me a comment so I can fix that.

Today my class tried out a new writing activity. It might as well be called speed writing because I can't think of another name. We started with a topic and I gave them three minutes to write. when the time was up I added another story piece. After three minutes I added another. Here are the prompts and extra pieces:

• Today my class took a surprise trip to the zoo.
• then Mr. C fell into the gorilla pit!
• Mr. C started poking an alligator with a stick
• then Francisco (one of my students) came back with no shirt on
• When we were ready to leave, we discovered Jason (another one of my students) was missing.

At first the writing prompt didn't inspire many of the students, but when I added myself falling into the gorilla pit the writing took off. I spent twenty minutes watching my students write furiously and listening to them giggle as they wrote. When we were finished the students asked to do it again. In fact they asked to do it again the next time they came back to the home room! 

Here are the two stories we managed to get published on our new writing blog. 

Brayden's Zoo story

Brandon's Zoo story

LiveScribe Post On My Donors Choose Project

Part I

Part II

This is my first post using the LiveScribe Pen. What do you think? I would love some constructive feedback. Was it worth the extra time to listen to the post? Did the pictures help or distract? 

Bambi, Frankenweenie, and Storytelling

In 1975 I attended the re-release of Bambi at my local theatre. I am sure many of you had a very similar experience. As 'Man' entered the forest my anxiety rose, when the Great Prince broke the news to Bambi that, "Your mother can't be with you anymore." I completely lost it. That was my first experience with storytelling that could really manipulate my emotions.

My youngest daughter had a similar experience last night. We went to the theatre and watched the movie Frankenweenie. Without ruining the plot, Quinci was absolutely mortified throughout the second half of the film. I think she was equal parts sad and scared. 

My first instinct was to take her and leave. I didn't because (as bad as it sounds) I was really enjoying the movie. The homage Tim Burton made of this movie is amazing. 

After the movie was over I thought about what had happened, remembering my own experience with Bambi. I was really devastated for days over the death, but I still remember the movie. Having watched it several times with my own children I still have that sadness present. I don't think this is a bad legacy, it is really a gift.

As teachers our goal is to make a qualitative difference in our students. We want them to attach an emotion to the time we spend with them. We want to be remembered. Storytellers know this inherently. They tell stories that are emotional to them in a way that transfers that emotion to the listeners. They make us feel. Maybe we should learn from them.

Creating a Visual Sequence of Events

Having finished the book Peter and Wendy we are now making a visual sequence of events. The pictures will be displayed first in the hallway and later in the room (for comparing and contrasting with the future versions of Peter Pan's stories.)

A visual sequence is a great way to help kids that have trouble reading visualize the story. 

Real Learning is Messy, Embrace It

Here is Stephanie working through an expression with a variable. I just introduced this concept today and there was a lot of push back from the students. Apparently they didn't want to be challenged. This is a real lesson where this wonderful student struggles and is slightly embarrassed about it. We have to push kids beyond their comfort zone and allow them to struggle. We have to push them to show what they are doing and how they are doing it. If we are fortunate they may even share what they are thinking too. Compare this to a Kahn Academy video. Which do you think is more valuable? Why?

Juan Teaches Division

In this video, one of my students teaches division. What I find interesting here is the way he asked questions. It is very easy to see the influence past teachers have had on the way he perceives he needs to teach math. What do you think?

We Are Having Trouble With Voice

I chose the "Voice" trait to emphasize at the beginning of the year. As you can imagine, it is a pretty difficult thing to introduce. The students are so used to writing like they write, not like they speak and that makes all of their writing sound alike.

I am considering having the students partner up to "tell" their story to (think scribe.) I believe they will be much more likely to be able to capture their voice better. 

One downside I can see is the speed the students can record the writing at. In a perfect world each student would have access to a recorder and take care of it that way, but it isn't feasible. Besides, I think there is some value in the immediate feedback they will receive from the scribe. 

So, what do you think? Am I missing something negative here? Are there extra benefits I am not thinking about?

Today I Lectured My Class

Jon Becker asked me to write down some of the things I talked to my students about today. The lecture was off the cuff so I don't have a real record of what I said, but I am hoping to write here a reflection of the spirit if not the actual words of what I said.

Class, we have talked about the behavior you have exhibited in the hallway already this week. I have explained to you why we have to follow the school expectations for the hallway. I don't require you to do anything that I don't think is important for learning. I have told you that several times.

When we are in the hallway we have three expectations: don't touch the walls, walk in a single file, and be quiet. Notice I didn't say 'don't talk'. I don't mind if you say something to the person in front of you as long as it is quiet.

Why are we supposed to be quiet in the hallway? We aren't learning anything there. We use the hallways to get from here to where we are going, not because it is a learning experience. We need to be quiet in the hallway because when we are loud we keep other students in the other classrooms from learning. When we are part of a community we have to choose to put our wants and desires behind the needs of the community. We aren't affecting our learning by being quiet in the hallway, we aren't there to learn. We do affect other's learning when we are noisy though. We need to put our wants behind their needs.

Touching the walls may not seem like a big deal, but if you knock something off the wall it will be a big deal. I have seen students do that many times and the teachers that put things up in the hall are not very nice to students that tear them up or knock them down. I don't want you to experience a mad teacher yelling at you in the hallway in front of other students and I hope you don't want that experience either.

Why do I expect you to walk in a single file line? There isn't always someone coming down the hallway that you are blocking. It isn't because the hallway isn't wide enough either. It is simply because when you walk side by side you want to talk. I want to take away that temptation. I don't want you to inhibit other students learning because you can't wait the few minutes it takes to get back to the classroom to talk.

Now let's talk about your behavior here. You have been given a lot of freedom that other students here do not have. When it is 'your time' you can move to where you want, sit by whom you want, and spend your time doing what you see fit. I even give you the freedom to not do the work if you choose, as long as you are not keeping others from learning too. You, in my opinion, have the right to not do the work. You have the right to be as dumb as you want to be, but you don't have the right to make others dumb too. You have a lot of freedom here.

The problem with freedom is you have to remember you are part of a community. You need to realize that what you do affects others. You need to be responsible. What happens when everybody decides they don't want to follow the expectations of the community? We get chaos. When everybody does whatever they want to things get out of control. Unfortunately, when we can't control ourselves others have to step in and do that. I don't want to be that person. I don't want to be your jailor. I want you to put the community in front of your wants.

I realize you have not had this much freedom before. Unfortunately, if you don't learn how control yourselves the freedom can and will go away. I know you are good kids. I know you don't want me to be the kind of teacher that makes you sit in rows and won't let you talk. I know you want to do what is right, so let's start doing it now.

I am actually pretty surprised at how easily it came back to me. I don't think this is everything I said to the class, but it is probably 85-90% all here. I also want to point out that I actually did use the words expectations and community with my students. I didn't dress up the pig, he is wearing his original clothes :)

My Room Deconstructed

This post is meant to explain some decisions I have made with the set up of our classroom. I won't know if it is successful for some time. When we (teachers) make this many choices for our community we are bound to make some mistakes. 

This first picture is what you see against the back wall, right when you walk into the room.

 This area is meant to be a place where students can relax, read a book, or catch some educational videos. I have a couple exercise balls that will be placed in the area later. I am not sure that this is the right space for them yet, I may be better served having them used by the students at their desks or tables.

 Above the relaxation area are two frames full of school memorabilia from when I attended this school and later attended our high school. The left frame shows a few examples of the grades I earned. I was not a great student at the elementary or junior high level. In retrospect I see how lazy and disinterested in school I was. There really was very little beyond the library that interested me. Also included is my high school graduation program and my acceptance into Missouri Southern's Honors Program. I plan to have conversations with my students about how I changed from being a poor student to a good one and the reward I earned from the hard work.

The frame on the right contains reminders of the extra-curricular activities I participated in as a student. There is a picture of myself in our 8th grade play, A Little Rascals Christmas. I have a newspaper picture of me making a tackle during a football game as a senior. (My form is pretty sweet too :) I also have some clippings from being on the golf team. I really think being active outside of class helped me to be a better student.

 This is our class library. It doesn't yet have a lot of books because I left my classroom library behind when I left 5th grade three years ago. The reason it is mobil is because I want to be able to move things around the room easily. I can create large areas of space very quickly this way.

This is my IWB. My plan is to use it mostly for small group work. I think its value lies literally in the hands of the students. 

 This the is the back, left corner of the room when you walk in. It consists of a record player, a sound board, amplifier, and a couple large speakers. I can hook up the electric guitar and my electric ukulele for the students to play with. They can also play with the conga drum. I am hoping to spend some time teaching the students how to read chords and play some rhythms. How great would it be if we formed a band?

 I pinned this shirt on the bulletin board because I love the pop art feel of it. The shirt is from Walt Disney World (my preferred vacation destination) and it depicts a cowboy holding a churro. I read an article where the artist said that the picture was inspired by Sergio Leone's westerns. I included this in my room because I want my students to be inspired by real art. I also have a couple Ork prints that I will be putting up later after I find the right frames. Hopefully we soon will have a lot of student art work on the walls as well.

 On the left wall I have a station with two computers that will be used by the students. I have enough computers for each of my small groups to have computer access.

 Underneath the computers is a shelf where I have hung grow lights. We will be growing plants soon. I wonder if our community will choose flowers or food? I am hoping for food ;)

 This is a 50 inch HD TV I bought for the classroom. I have hooked up a Blu-Ray player and an Apple TV. I can mirror my iPad or my iPhone onto the television screen and this gives us a lot of flexibility. Students will be able to manipulate the images using the iPad. We will be able to see our class videos without covering the windows and blocking the natural light. I really can't wait to see how we find different ways to use this.

 Here is our class aquarium. It is empty because the community is going to decide what we will put in it. Here is the lesson plan we will be using. I sure hope they make a wise decision. I don't want dead fish floating in it.

 This is my Photosmart printer which allows me to print wirelessly from my iPad, iPhone, or Nexus 7. This is going to be mainly used for printing pictures documenting our year together. Soon we will have pictures being placed around the room by the students which show what they are learning. Below is an example.

 Above my desk (more on that later) are my diplomas and a few certificates I have earned. I want my students to be aware of my accomplishments. This is important because I am a hometown boy and I want them to know that being from Noel does not mean having to work at the local chicken processing plant.

 Here is my desk. I tried very hard to do without a desk, but I just couldn't do it. I really need a place to call my own. Because I realize how important it is for me, I have integrated that thinking into my classroom. I have three tables in my room for students to sit at and eight desks. The desks are put together in a table arrangement but I have explained that if a student needs to take a desk and move it away from the crowd so they have their own 'space' they can. We need to be very cognizant of the students that need to feel ownership of something in the room to be comfortable.

 Finally, as you leave my room this is what you see above the door. This was a gift from my brother because I am a fan of Spongebob. I put this up because I want my students to see that I appreciate having fun. It is a both a insight into my personality and an opportunity for the students to see that enjoying something that may not seem 'cool' is okay in my classroom.