Help if you are able

One of my favorite bloggers is Stephanie Nielson "NieNie." She is a young mother of 4 who chronicles her life with her children in the sweetest photographs. Where I would see a banana peel on the couch and yell at the perp who left it there, NieNie will photograph it, write "Ollie was here" on the photo and post it on her blog.  

I just found out that Stephanie and her husband, Christian were in a plane crash and have survived. They are in critical condition. Her sister has posted updates on her own blog and has requested prayers and, if anyone is so inclined, donations toward their recovery.  I thought I would post the info and button here.

As Real as Gravity

When thinking of a name for my blog, I almost chose As Real as Gravity from a favorite quote about positive energy being as real as gravity. Positive energy spreads and builds and creates more positive energy. Nowhere is this truer than in schools (ok, well, maybe it is truer elsewhere, but how would I know?).

One of the special things about teaching is that we have the opportunity to create an environment where learning takes place. As I prepare for another year, I thought I'd share a few resources for positivity, some of them simply quotes, stories or memories. I have been so fortunate to have had some incredible mentors over the years, people who've taught me well. And these days I have an amazing network of "teacher-friends" online, in my PLN, people whose blogs I read. 

TJ Shay shared this great site where you can get free posters for your classroom. These posters are terrific, the illustrations are really adorable. I plan to print some out and place them around the room. But I also love the idea of having the kids create their own posters with positive reminders and such. 

I've spent a lot of time lately reading the various blogs from Chet's Creek Elementary School, a local public school with a great reputation. I can see why it has the reputation for being an excellent school. As you read the teacher's blogs (impressive in itself just how many teacher-bloggers there are at Chet's Creek), you can feel the excitement and passion for teaching. It is only natural for students to catch on that "Learning is FUN!" As one of my earliest mentors used to say, "They (students) are in school because they're ALIVE!" (His class, overcrowded by anyone's standards, was always a place of excitement and engagement.) One of the Chet's Creek blogs featured First Day of School Stories which had lots of fun ideas. Here is one of my favorites:

Around Chets Creek in 180 Days via kwout

Just reading that, I know that I would like to be one of Mr. Ruark's 5th grade students. 

Here was my own daughter's first day of 2nd grade homework: the students were each given a paper bag filled with a few, little items and the following instructions:

Opening, reading and sharing this bag of goodies with your parents is part of your first homework assignment.

1. The toothpick is to remind you to "pick out" the good qualities in your classmates and in yourself.

2. The gold thread is to remind you that friendship ties our hearts together. 

3. The chocolate kiss reminds you that you can always come to me if you need someone to talk to.

4. The star is to remind you to shine and always do your best. 

5. The penny is to remind you that you are valuable and special.

6. The band-aid is to remind you to heal hurt feelings in your friends and in yourself. 

7. The rubber band is to remind you to hug someone.

8. The eraser is to remind you that everyone makes mistakes and that is ok. 

9. The tissue is to remind you to help dry someone's tears. 

10. The sticker is to remind you that we all stick together and help each other. 

Now I would like for you to think of something that you could add to this bag. Write 3-4 sentences explaining why the item you chose would be useful and why it is important for us to remember to use all of the other items that are in the bag. 

My daughter's other teacher kept telling us, at back to school "Meet and Greet" that she does this or that because "the kid's love it, it makes them happy, it makes them feel good, that she just wants them to love learning, to love the subject she teaches." I can't tell you how happy that made me as a parent. If my child loves learning and feels positive about herself as a person, a friend and a learner...I know it will take her the distance and allow her to learn what she needs and wants to learn, to attack challenging problems with confidence, to make a contribution to the world.

For our pre-planning in-service this year, we participated in a workshop from Operation Respect. At the start of the workshop, the facilitator asked us this question, "If you had one last class to teach, and that day you were given magic powers that would guarantee that the students would truly, deeply learn one lesson from you, what would you teach?" 

Are you surprised to know that not one person answered with a concept from math or science, grammar or spelling? All of the answers had to do with self-awareness and awareness of others, being a good person. Those are the lessons that truly matter. 

Graphic from "The North Star" gallery, from the book "The North Star" by Peter H. Reynolds. 

A New School Year...

I'm back from a relaxing and rejuvenating summer break. Ready to jump right in...well, except for the fact that I just found out that our first two days of school have been cancelled due to the fact that we are right in the path of a hurricane!

My "theme" for the lab this year was inspired by the book I started reading this summer (and am still reading) The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman. I've posted the largest maps I could fit on the wall and plan to use them with students as we use our computers to connect, communicate and collaborate with others around the world. I've also taken heading words from the NETS for students and posted those around the room as well. 

I am so lucky to have a job that allows me to learn, grow and express creativity, as well as to hopefully touch the lives of others in a positive way. 

Dealing with Disappointment

In a recent post I mentioned that in order to learn and grow, we must be willing to risk. 

This is so important. It is hard, when working with children, to know what feels like a risk to them. We, the adults, must work hard to create a safe space, a place where their ideas and attempts will be encouraged and accepted. 

It is so hard, with so many kids in the room, to tune in to the inner life of each child. We are bound to miss sometimes. But if we really care and really invest ourselves in community building, it can go a long way toward creating a space for learning. 

Isn't that a huge part of the job of the teacher? 

I have had to cope with my share of disappointments this year. I applied for 2 grants and 1 teaching award. I was flatly rejected for all of them. I spent hours working on my applications only to receive a very brief, form letter stating, "thank you for applying BUT blah, blah, blah..."

Ok. I recovered. I'll probably try again. But it felt awful. And the worst part was trying to see myself through someone else's eyes and feeling that I was not good enough. 

I can only imagine that this is what our students feel at times. They are graded, tested, labeled, encouraged to compete...and often they have to face the feeling that they haven't measured up in some way or other. 

I have entered my students work in contests as well. I always give a big pep talk about how we probably won't win, we just enter for fun, it would be neat to win, and we might feel sad if we don't, but it's ok. This year we actually did win something. In fact, we won a total of 3 "first places" in tech4learning contests. It was truly an amazing feeling, for me and for the winning students. But what about all my other students who entered and did not win?

One sweet, sensitive boy burst into tears when he heard that his classmate won first place in the spring contest. 

"What about me?" he cried.

We are moving away from a competitive society and toward a more collaborative, "flat" world. Should we enter only contests or competitions that promote collaboration? I have wanted to join some of these like thinkquest, but because of my lab schedule I haven't been able to manage it yet. The contests we have entered have all had excellent projects or content, things I would have done with students anyway, regardless of entering the contest. However, I did not give students the option of entering their work. I think next time I will let them decide. Truthfully, with the spring contest, I didn't even tell the younger students (first and second grade) that we were doing the project for a contest. I just entered the projects afterwards. I never thought we would win!

On the positive side, some of the winning students were not the usual suspects. They were not the students who normally get recognized for excellence at school. This gave them a chance to shine, and everyone deserves to have that chance. 

I know that disappointment is part of life. It is ok to try something and fail. It really is. We feel bad. We move on. We try again. 

image credit: Bright_Star's flickr photostream

Summertime

and the livin' is easy...

I haven't been writing much lately. I've thought about it, but then I don't. It is hard for me to focus during the summer. I am all over the map. 

In case you're wondering what I've been up to...

•I've been reading and commenting on lots of blogs. I am fascinated by the ongoing conversations, and, since the Comment Challenge I've noticed that I am much quicker to jump in to the mix. 

•I have been working on an online course called Tackling Tough Text for Professional Learning Board. It has been an excellent learning experience for me on many different levels. I have spent much more time on it than I probably should have. It is hard for me to sit down and focus all at once. My mind is jumpy. 

•From the books around the world meme, I have read The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Spain). It was one of my favorite books of recent times. I loved it so much that I basically took a day off from all responsibilities just to read. YUM-MY! If you like gothic, mysterious stories...or even if you don't but appreciate the evocative power of delicious prose, I give it my highest recommendation. 

•I am currently reading The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman. I recommend this one as well. I had heard him interviewed on NPR when the book was first published, and I had skimmed the book when I first got it, so I thought I pretty much had the gist. But the details are amazing! I am about halfway through it and have already learned so much. The recurring theme is COLLABORATE OR PERISH. Funny, I was reading the book on an airplane, and I wrote those words inside the front cover. Later I was looking at my shared reader widget in my blog and there was this blog post with the same title! I had shared it a while back. 

•I've been trying to make it to the gym more than I do during the school year.

•I visited my friend, Sam, in Cleveland, Ohio. We used to teach together. Love her!

•I didn't go to NECC. I haven't worked on my website. I haven't blogged. I haven't really done much for work.....

Sigh. 

I had such big plans for summer. HUGE plans. 

Next week I leave for some summer travels. I return home on August 6th. Pre-planning for teachers starts August 11th. 

Time flies.

Social Dynamics and Learning: Online and Off

The post Disconnecting, by Jennifer Jones (@injenuity) got me thinking....

Actually, social dynamics, both in and out of the classroom, is not a new topic of thought for me. I am almost constantly assessing and reassessing the social dynamics in the classroom and how I can best direct them. 

One thing I have learned is that people are extremely sensitive. Those who seem tough and uncaring are often the most sensitive of all. We all have our ways of protecting, pretending, rationalizing away the things that offend us. Some take on the role of the bully so as not to be bullied.  But I believe that just about everyone is deeply sensitive to the people around them and that feelings are easily bruised.

When I was a classroom teacher I spent the first month of school on team-building activities. Integrating with language arts (and even, at times, math) I consciously worked to build a community based on the TRIBES norms:

•Mutual Respect

•Attentive Listening

•No Put Downs/Give Appreciations

•The Right to Pass

Simple, and yet they cover virtually any problem that might arise. If we all followed them, the world would definitely be on the road to being a happier place, no? One thing I addressed with my classes very early on was how, in order to be able to grow and learn, we must be able to risk, and, thus, in order for any of us to learn, our classroom MUST be a safe place, a community where we can safely take risks.

Now I teach in the computer lab and I don't have the opportunity to build classroom community. The classes at my school are small, and there is only one class at each grade level so the dynamics can be quite intense.  

It is not only what we teach but how we manage the classroom that impacts the social dynamics. If I got down to it, this could be an extra-long post, citing example after example of times I think I've gotten it right and times I know I've missed the boat. 

Some examples of management decisions that affect dynamics in the lab:

• Do I let students choose their seats? do I let them choose their partners?

I don't have any hard and fast "rules" for how I do things. But during my many years in the classroom, I have picked up a few strategies that work:

For partners -- I have "partner cards" that I keep in my desk drawer. On each card is written one half of a pair. For example: one card says "peanut butter." If you get the peanut butter card, naturally you will look for the person with the jelly card, and that is your partner for the day. The fun of the activity, the randomness and mystery of who your partner will be, gets the partnerships off to a great start. However, I don't leave it to chance. Before I even pass out the cards, we all practice our biggest smiles. I remind them that we never show disappointment when we discover our partner because it might hurt someone's feelings. Kids NEED the reminder. I do believe that most times they don't want to hurt another's feelings - they just aren't thinking about the other person. 

 

Another Example:

In my afterschool blogging class this year, I left things very unstructured. I always gave an assignment, but left it up to the students to decide if they wanted to do that or something else related to their blog. One day's assignment was to leave comments, and some did, on a few blogs. Only one student left a comment on every blog in the group. And, of course, I commented on every blog, at least a few times during the class. Several students got comments from real life friends not in the class, parents and student bloggers from other places. I thought all was well.

But on the last day of class, with only a few minutes left, one girl came to me and said, with disappointment on her face, "I only got a comment from ______ (the student who had commented on every blog)." Thinking quickly I wrote all the students names on pieces of paper. I told them they had one final assignment - to pick a name and write a comment on that person's blog. Randomly, the disappointed girl's name was chosen by the one person who had already commented on all the blogs. It happens. But what surprised me was how excited all of the kids were about getting a new comment from someone in the class. It turned out to be a great ending activity for the class. Something about the randomness and the mystery of who picked who's name...

I know how good it feels to get comments on my blog, too. 

There is something about being recognized. Receiving a comment shows that someone has read your words or at least looked at your blog, your creation. There is a human need for attention, to be valued or validated, by others. 

The ISTE nets for students recognizes "communication and collaboration" as vital 21st century skills. We need to put our students into situations that push them out of their comfort zones, that give them opportunities to work with different people. We need to help them navigate the murky waters of interacting with others in polite and productive ways. This is difficult. 

My Thoughts about Twitter-

In the recent past, there was a spate of blog posts about twitter followers and the blogosphere being an elite cocktail party. I read those posts with great interest, although at the time I did not join in the discussion. What I recognized, through many of the posts and comments I read,  was this sensitivity, a need for recognition and validation. I know that I have given a lot of thought to the whole follow/following on twitter. If a real person (as opposed to a spam type follower) follows me, is it impolite not to follow back? I know there are no hard and fast answers to this, and everyone has to do whatever works best for them. Whatever guidelines we follow, we all know, rationally, that we can't become sensitive about twitter. But, nevertheless, people do. 

How can we teach our students the finer points of online interaction if we, teachers, are uncertain of them? How can we create classrooms where it is safe to take risks if, as adults, we do not model the values of respecting and appreciating people for who they are, of reaching out to include everyone? 

Communication and Collaboration. Why are these so fraught with possibilities for misunderstanding and hurt feelings? What are your best strategies for teaching and classroom management that foster inclusivity in a real way? Are you thinking about yourself or about the other person when you interact on blogs or twitter or wherever you interact online?

Professional Development Meme

Clif's Notes via kwout

My 3 Professional Development Goals for Summer 08 (which starts in just a few short days --hooray!!):

1) I am developing and facilitating an online course for Professional Learning Board(PLB) using moodle. PLB is a great site for teachers who need professional development credits. This will be part-time work for me, but I also consider it professional development as I am learning new skills and dredging up some old ones that are starting to gather dust.

2) I will finish a webquest I started earlier this year to teach the skill of evaluating websites. I plan to also incorporate resources like snopes to teach students to evaluate emails that spread questionable information.

3)My "to-do" list is soooooooooooooooooooooo looooooooooooooooooong....I really want to be lazy and develop my professional self by lying on the beach. Can my plans to re-decorate the computer lab count as PD? Writing a few more blog posts? Reading twitter?

Ok....for number 3 I will read at least one of two books I have been meaning to read: The World is Flat and/or An Ethic of Excellence.

Eight tags???!!!!! That is a LOT of people to tag! I guess you really want to make sure we all develop professionally, Clif! Ok....I tag these lucky 8(and you all have my permission to include lying on the beach as part of your PD) --

1. Nedra Isenberg

2. Silvia Tolisano

3. Ken Allan   (I know it is not summer for you in Middle Earth, but you can share summer vicariously by doing summer things with us..like work!).

4. Britt Watwood

5. Chad Lehman

6. Kate Olson (don't think because you are resigning you are off the hook for PD!)

7. Barbara Cohen

8. Ann Oro

Happy Summer, Teaching Friends!

Top 5 Lessons from The Comment Challenge

Drumroll Please.....

Not wanting to miss the final wrap-up of the challenge I never really completed...

Here are my Top 5 Lessons Learned:

5. A 31-day challenge with tasks to be completed each day is just a bit too much for me to undertake, no matter how good my intentions.

4. It doesn't matter that I didn't do each and every activity. I think I have left more comments on blogs during the month of May 2008 than all of my previous blog comments combined. 

3. Soooo....it was definitely worth the effort. And look, here I am at the end, albeit a day late. 

2. I think I understand RSS feeds a bit better than before. 

1. Blogging is the same as everything else. You get out of it what you put into it. Not a huge surprise, but I feel that I have begun some real interaction with real people out there in the edu-blogosphere. I think that participating in the challenge jump-started my commenting. I find myself leaving comments whenever I feel like it now, rather than worrying over what I might say and how it might be perceived. 

Be Happy

If you cringe at mushy, philosophical mumbo jumbo, you might want to skip this post. 

As I walked around my neighborhood tonight, following my 4 year old on his two-wheeler noticing the vibrant purple-pink of the bougainvillea and the sweet scent of the jasmine, appreciating the fact that it was still quite light out at 7:30 pm, savoring a Sunday night before a Monday holiday with less than two weeks left until summer vacation..the line that kept repeating in my head was this one:

Happiness is not having what you want; it's wanting what you have.

Wanting more, having goals, desiring...that is good and important. It is the place from which all creative energy flows. But taking time to really appreciate all that you have, that is heaven on earth. 

Another line I read years ago in a book really struck me. I've long forgotten the book (I do recall it was a Robert Anton Wilson book) but the line, I think it was the last line in the book, was "Positive energy is as real as gravity."

I love that. 

Now, what place does this have on EdTech Workshop? Have I lost my vision, my focus? Apparently I have, if only for a moment. I know there are those who hate this type of talk. How can you waste space writing about happiness and positive energy when there is so much suffering in the world?

How can you not?

For those of you who have taken the time to read this and any of my humble thoughts here on my blog, thank you. 

and thank you, Randy Son of Robert, for sharing your lovely image on creative commons. 

Books Around the World Meme

Silvia Tolisano is always one to challenge me in the best of ways! She devised a meme challenging readers to look at the books we are reading, see if we tend to favor certain locales and then expand our horizons. Since reading is a type of travel, it is the next best thing to being able to visit or live in different worlds. I have always been an avid reader, although I have a bit of a problem remembering details of the books I've read.

Here are the details of the meme. You can join by being tagged or you can tag yourself.

• Create a Google Map and add a bookmark with the title and author of a book you have read with a setting in another country of the world.
• Look through Book Around the World recommendations or on other Google Maps created by participants in this meme/challenge.
• Pick at least three books for your summer reading list that have a setting in a country you have not read another book about.
• Enjoy expanding your horizon!

Step 1: Create a google map. I decided to put a few recent reads on my google map. I noticed that my book settings seemed to favor North America and Asia lately. I tried to take a minute and think of books I have read from each continent. I can not think of a book I have read from Antarctica. The closest I could think of was Mr. Popper's Penguins. Other than that, I have "visited" the other six continents through reading. Countries, however, are a different story. Luckily, I already had a few books on my "plan to read" shelf that also fit the challenge.

View Larger Map
Here are my three books:
1. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, Bosnia and Herzogovnia
2. Shadow of the Wind by Carols Ruiz Zafon, Spain
3. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Germany

Now I know I am favoring Europe here...what can I say? These are three books I have really wanted to read anyway (have Shadow of the Wind sitting on my night table) and all happen to be listed on the Book Around the World site.

Thanks, Silvia, for always keeping me on my toes! I am tagging: Kim Glasgal, Ken Allan (Ken, something tells me you are a reader-hope you are up for a new challenge since the comment challenge is almost over) and.....who else out there would like to participate?