EdCamp Iowa Reflection

Over the weekend I attended #EdCampIowa.  The idea behind an EdCamp is simple yet complex.  It's hard to fathom because it changes the way we learn.  EdCamps are often referred to as unconferences, because they are not traditional.  The idea is a group of educators come together and learn collaboratively through discussion, not through sit and get presentations.  Educators volunteer to facilitate discussion son any topic relating to education and people attend those discussions based on their interest.  Nobody presents, everyone participates.

After EdCamp Iowa I felt inspired and motivated, I truly want to get to strive for the "ideal school" which was the topic for one of the sessions I attended.  There are many great ideas, discussions, debates, etc. being presented at EdCamps and I think it was probably the most useful event I have attended as an educator.  So much learning and reflection in one day.  I wish all professional development followed this format and to certain extent the classes in which we teach.  It is an interesting approach, but just by going to one of these I am sold on the idea and it has proven, to me, that they do work, and so much can be accomplished.  

One of the great things about EdCamp Iowa is the fact that it is held on a Saturday.  Hosting it on a Saturday ensures you get the educators not tied to a contract by a ball a chain.  You get the educators that are truly passionate and truly want to better themselves.  Another great aspect is seeing the range of educators that attend.  I met other teachers from all sorts of grade levels and content areas.  I met IT personnel, administrators, AEA personnel, and even one student teacher.  I think it's great to see a diverse set of educators all meeting together to do one thing, better ourselves.

EdCamp Iowa was a great event and I urge anyone who has never been to an EdCamp to try it.  Even if you disagree with some of the things being discussed it can open your mind to a whole different perspective of education and that is beneficial. 

Non-Educator Back Lash: Stop It

Having difficult conversations is, well, difficult.  Having difficult conversations is also necessary.  I love education and cannot picture myself in any other career, but it's hard sometimes to put in so much work and continually be shut down by people who don't share a vision.  Most people who read my blog, if any, probably nod along in agreement and that's great, but there's a problem with that.  I'm reaching the people who probably don't really need to be reached.  I'm not reaching the people that need to hear these conversations.

I have been trying new things in my classroom and learning new strategies for awhile now and I have been spreading that information in multiple ways, but I think the most common back lash is ridiculous.  As an educator I always have to expect backlash, but this common form is kind of odd.  It comes from non-educators, community members, and parents.  The most common phrase that is uttered is worded like this: "I was taught this way and I turned out just fine."  It's hard to make these people understand and perhaps you never will.  It boggles my mind that people have that mentality, because I guarantee if you go back to when those individuals were in school they weren't getting much enjoyment out of it.  The assumption is simple though, they spent time in a classroom "learning" so obviously they know how to teach the best way.  They fail to see the alternatives because they have never been exposed to them.  

There are great people out there that will support schools no matter what.  These are the people that understand teachers are the professionals and understand they are doing what is in the best interest of the students.  Education is one area where change is probably needed the most, yet gets the most back lash when change starts to happen, and most of that back lash comes from non-educators.  When a school wants to roll out devices for each kid, the community can embrace it (and often do), or they can shut it down, and it usually comes back with: "I didn't have computers when I was in school, and I turned out just fine."  I argue that last point, "I turned out just fine."  If you turned out "just fine" you wouldn't argue with the experts.  You can question the experts all you want, but don't come with an argument that isn't based on your own learning and research.  Just because an individual sat through school 20 years ago with notebooks, pencils, overhead projectors, and chalk boards doesn't mean the students of today should.  That would be very selfish.

Community needs to have a voice, but it shouldn't be based on assumptions.  It should be based on research, and knowledge.  I would challenge any non-educator to sit through my classes and tell me my students are not gaining something from them.  At first glance it may look like my classes are not worth much, I'll admit that, but learning isn't a surface level observation.  Sure I could have kids sitting down in rows of desks quietly taking notes, and you might think, great class and learning.  That's not the case though.  Learning is active, engaging, collaborative, independent, creative, opportunistic, and much more.  learning is not paying attention.  Learning is not transcribing.  Learning is not robotic.  Many non-educators believe learning is exactly how it was 20 years ago, because that's all they know.  You give a kid cinnamon roll made from a can and tell them that's a cinnamon roll and it's great, they'll believe it, until you give them a cinnamon roll made from scratch, but until then that kid will live it's whole life believing the best cinnamon rolls are made from a can.  Many non-educators are the same way, they live their whole life believing learning is not engaging, because they have never been exposed to the engaging side of learning.  A cinnamon roll is easy to be receptive too, though, schooling for some reason is not.

We need to bridge the gap for the non-educators out there who seem to discount everything we throw there way.  Perhaps community sessions, invitations to events and classroom activities?  The trouble is, more times than not, those back lashers are the ones not involved and that makes for a difficult situation.  To that we have to turn the other cheek and move on.  If a patient tells a doctor they don't like the diagnosis or the treatment, the doctor simply doesn't treat that patient.  Maybe it needs to be the same way with education.  We can try to pull those individuals in, but if they refuse, we have to refuse to treat them.

My plea is simple, if you are a non-educator reading this, give your change makers a chance.  Education needs a very heavy makeover, and that's not going to happen with so much push back.  Let the experts do what they have been trained to do.  There are bad teachers, and those are the ones who are often not targeted.  Let the good teachers, the leaders, the change makers, do their job.  Our kids aren't learning if we stick them in a classroom and expect them to learn simply by "listening."  We need the definition of learning to change, and it starts with people understanding that learning is different than it was 20 years ago.  When you utter the words, "I turned out just fine" ask yourself if you truly believe that and if you do great then ask yourself if you were ever truly satisfied with the education you received.  Would you have paid for your high school education in the same way you may have paid for a college education.  We need to have that mentality.  Was your education, or your kids' education worthy of praise? 

Take Yourself (The Teacher) out of the Equation

I gave an analogy this morning about schools.  I said that schools are like a grocery store.  We don't walk into a grocery store and think to ourselves, "look at all this wonderful stuff" and then in turn buy it all.  No, we pick and choose what we need and a little of what we want and walk out of the store attaining something.  Our students have the same approach to there education.  They will walk in the school and we will offer all these great pieces of information, but not one student will grasp a hold of every single thing we throw their way.  They will, in turn, grasp a hold of what they see as relevant and purposeful and leave when they graduate with whatever they attained.  The nice thing with a grocery store, I get to choose what I look at, and what I purchase.  Most schools are not the same way.  The students are forced to be introduced to a wide range of topics, concepts, principles, ideas, subjects, etc.  I think students need this type of education to an extent, but I don't think it should be the basis of their education for 13 years (k-12).

I can't be so conceded to believe that all of the students that walk through my doorway will grasp a hold of everything I teach them, or everything I have them learn.  That's not how education works, and it has never worked that way, but we expect it to, for some reason.  We need to focus on how we can make our classes more engaging by guiding students to a purpose.  What this takes is freedom based learning, problem-based learning, collaboration, and choice based education.  It also takes some drifting away from content to focus more on skills.  I teach a big unit dealing with heroism and Greek Mythology in my English I class, but I know that not every student is interested in that.  I open up my classroom for options during this unit.  Prompting students to research different topics and relate it back to the main idea and using different resources (of their choice) to get the message across to me.  They may leave my classroom not any more interested in Greek Mythology but they have gained independence, maybe some collaboration, research skills, problem solving, making connections, technology use, and real-world application.  To me, that is much more important than being able to rattle off the 12 Olympians and what they do.  The best part though, the students are still learning the content, their just doing it on their own and it's gauged to their interest and their research.  That's a pretty rough outline of one unit I do, but hopefully you get the point.

We need to start adapting and changing the way we teach to meet the needs of all learners and we can't do that by expecting every student to do the same thing every day, and complete the same thing as every other student.  The main point here, is, we can't teach students the same way we bake cookies.  Every cookie is mixed up the same way, cut the same way, baked the same way, and eaten the same way.  Students aren't like that, they need variation, differentiation, diversity, etc.  Our students are begging for it.  We can no longer spoon-feed our students.  We can still set expectations high, and in a sense this is a much more challenging approach because it holds students accountable.  They are accountable to themselves.  I can expect student x to attain the same thing in my class as student y so I teach them differently, but I step back and take the teaching out of the equation and become facilitator or guide, and let them do the learning.  It;s hard to step back, until you finally see that the students are getting so much more out of your classroom.  I love teaching, but the one thing I love more than teaching is when my students are learning, especially when they find enjoyment and purpose in what they are learning.

Engagment

One of the biggest aspects of teaching people struggle with is classroom management.  I never took a management class in college and I soon discovered that classroom management would have been difficult to teach.  Everyone has their own preference on how to manage a class.  There are many different methods to ensure productivity in a classroom relating to classroom management.  These can be as simple as seating arrangements, rules, how the teacher presents him/herself, etc.  This post will deal with classroom management and how to ensure productivity to the highest degree.  The answer is simple, the method is difficult.  The answer is engagement.

When students are engaged in what they are doing, they are less apt to be disruptive, disrespectful, and defiant.  Below are my keys to engagement, and I stress MY as they may not work for everyone, but the beauty of teaching is we can tweak things to our liking.

1. Purpose.  When students see a purpose in what they are doing, engagement is easy.  The hard part is ensuring students see a purpose.  Guide students to seeing a purpose.  I used to stand at the front of the class and rattle off reasons why things were purposeful and I don't many of them stuck, so instead I started flipped it and started asking, "why do you think this is purposeful?"  I am getting great feedback and students are creating things based on the purpose they see.  I tell myself, if I ever say 'because I said so,' then the purpose is not there so there is no point in teaching it.  I also hate the phrase, "you will use this someday."  We can't ensure or guarantee that, so why do we say it.  I don't use algebra everyday, or at least I'm not aware of it, so when my math teachers told me I would use it someday they were lying to me.  If my math teachers would have said we were doing these difficult equations to foster problem solving, higher order thinking, and creativity I think I would taken it a little better.  I don't know it's just a thought though.
2. Creation Based Learning/PBL/Freedom Based Learning.  I like giving students options and choices because it helps them find a purpose that is gauged more towards their interests.  Not every student likes creating a Google presentation, or a prezi, so I never require that out of them.  Instead I let them decide.  I will give the students the criteria and then let them run with it.  The other day I assigned a timeline activity to the students dealing with The Lightning Thief and The Odyssey.  I had students creating prezis, Google drawings, poster boards, videos, snapchat stories, and using other websites.  The results are amazing and it keeps me from getting bored looking at the same thing over and over again.  We still write and read in my class, as it is ELA, but I do give out projects and activities in between.  I put the emphasis on the learning, the understanding, and the transfer over the projects though.  It's great to have "fun" activities, but the purpose has to be placed on the learning goals, not the "cool" factor of a "fun" activity.
3. Enthusiasm.  Most teachers are passionate about the material they teach, but many fail to have enthusiasm towards their teaching.  I try to be as excited as possible when I talk to students, and engage in their learning.  I preach about attitude, character, and leadership in my classes (my infamous "soapbox" lectures) and I think this shows the students I truly care about them and my career.  I am happy and I show it, and that transfers to the students.  I am engaged in my teaching, and when I am engaged the students find it easier to be engaged as well.  I have always said "look at a classroom full of bored students and I guarantee the teacher is bored too." (I got that quote from somewhere but forget where).  Present things with a positive tone, and direct students to a purpose.
4. Let the students create the map.  I use this cheesy saying in my classroom a lot, "I can point you in the right direction, but I won't create the map for you."  I allow students to create and solve problems.  Too many times I see teachers solving the problems for the students and then ask the students to repeat the process.  That's boring and doesn't foster problem solving skills to the highest degree.  What if you give students a concept, principle, idea, topic and then have them figure it out through research and present the idea?  I feel as if the students are getting much more out of the lesson that way, and they are engaged because they are responsible for the learning.  This changes the definition of a teacher, which can be unsettling.  A teacher is no longer meant to give answers and regurgitate information to the students.  A teacher now has to play roll as a guide or facilitator.  
5. Be invested.  I hesitate including this, but I think ti is important.  Students tend to respect and "like" the teachers that are truly invested in the school they teach at.  Going to sporting events, making appearances, getting out of the classroom, staying late, arriving early, having conversations, being involved, etc.  Students see this as a caring mentality.  If you are involved you care, bottom line.  Be invested in every students education, but also show you care about each student individually by being available and being involved.  You are not in this career for the money so quit acting like it by expecting an extra 100 dollars on your paycheck for helping out at a school dance, or going to an event. 

I think there are more ways to create an engaging atmosphere in your classroom, but those are my five approaches.  I think if you can at least apply these then engagement will come.  If your students are not engaged always think back to purpose, and figure what is missing.  It takes a lot reflection to be a great teacher, and I am by no means perfect, but if you can reflect, tweak, and try again, it will make your experience and the students experience so much better.

Weekly Tech Tool: Snapchat

Social media poses many threats, but that shouldn't stop teachers from accessing them for educational purposes.  Information is presenting itself faster than ever and students are faced with this every day.  They have to type thoughts in 140 characters or less, watch videos that are 6 seconds long for a good laugh, and with a tool like Snapchat, communicate using pictures they can view for only 10 seconds or less.

When Snapchat was introduced many people started to assume bad things were going to develop and I think that is accurate.  Twitter is the same way, students can abuse it and use it for inappropriate reasons, but they can also use it for good things as well.  I decided to download Snapchat on my phone, and I failed to see a purpose.  I can just text, or tweet, why do I need this.  More of my friends hopped on the Snapchat train and I saw more of a purpose.  Sending humorous photos for a quick laugh, or just something quick to communicate something.  Nothing inappropriate, just fun.  I started to think, "how could I use this in class."  Most of my students were using, and still are, why not access it for class activities?

In one of my classes we do vocabulary.  I started to have the students pick their own vocabulary words from the reading they are doing and then, in turn, master those words.  They can show their mastery in multiple ways, and one of these ways is to utilize Snapchat.  The students act out or find a visual description of the word, snap it me with a sentence using the word (Image on right).  I also had students create a timeline for The Lightning Thief and The Odyssey to argue whether Percy or Odysseus are heroes or not.  One of the options for the students was to create a Snapchat story for me to view.  I had two groups do this and it turned out great.  It was fast, effective, and overall I got an accurate picture of their understanding.

Yes I do give students my Snapchat name, just like I give them my twitter name.  The one question I always have get, what if they snap you something bad?  Well then I block them, but I always have to ask a follow up question, what if they don't?  I trust my students and so far I haven't run into any issues (knock on wood).  A lot of the students will add me on Snapchat the day of the activity and then delete me afterwards, only to re-add me when they use it again.  This prevents them from sending me anything that could be perceived as inappropriate, not that I condone that, but at least they keeping me safe.  I love using the technology that students are using in my classroom.  Snapchat can be a great tool, and I know other teachers have used it as well.  One of the science teachers I work with used it for clam dissections (students would label parts of the clam and snap it to her).  Using Snapchat in class also has the "shock feature" where students can't believe you would use it in class, which transforms into excitement and engagement.

The Experts

I was watching TV last night and a commercial came on that kind of inspired me to think a little bit about the profession of teaching or education, in general.  It was a Best Buy commercial.  There was a group of employees playing around with some of the tablets/laptops and a question was posed: "What makes us the experts?"  The answer to that question: "We take our work home with us."  This was obviously speaking about the fact that Best Buy is allowing their employees to take the devices home to "play" with so they have a better understanding of how to use each device.  I don't know if Best Buy actually does this with all of their employees in that specific department, but it is implied.  This question/answer got me thinking about "experts" as a whole.  Who are the experts in any career or job?

Personally, I think the experts are exactly as Best Buy states, the ones who take their work home.  Now let me explain myself before you close out of this page because I am not considerate.  It is my full belief that we have too many teachers who work 7:30-3:30 and that is all.  They are solely working based on a contract, attached to it without any flexibility.  These are the teachers who show up promptly at 7:30am and are packing up at 3:15 so they can be sure they are walking out the door at 3:30pm.  They are impossible to contact outside school hours, and any other work is solely reserved for prep time or the half hour before school actually begins.  These teachers are not all bad, that is not what I am getting at, but It is my belief that they have lost a lot of the passion for teaching because they are more attached to a contract than they are to their profession as a whole.

Experts don't have to be those intimidating people who present at staff development or big conferences.  Some of the experts can be found in the building in which you work.  These are the people who are teachers full time, who work outside of the building, who are invested in the school as a whole.  Time is an issue and many teachers have families and I understand that.  I coach, I have a wife, I have 13 month old son at home, I like reading and watching television, but I always find time for my career because I am passionate about it.  I'm not saying bring your grading home and call it good.  What I am saying is to turn your brain on at home, reflect and think about what to do differently in your classroom.  What can you change to better your classroom.  I replace some of my TV watching and reading time with research devoted to reading blogs, twitter chats, and articles about new practices and technologies in education.  I do this because I never want to be that person who thinks or says: "I can't do this because we haven't learned it in professional development."  I want to be the person who says/thinks: "I can do this, because i want my classroom to be better."  If the only things we are ever trying to implement come from professional development that's a lot of information that is not being presented.  Think about, professional development really does not take that much time...you probably have about 5 full days a year, with some 2 hour sessions sprinkled about?  I don't know about you, but that is really not that much time.  Some of the best professional development I have had has been self implemented.  Self implemented meaning I am discovering things on my own time.  This is how a few of us teachers decided to implement 20% time, how we implemented the 1:1 initiative, PBL, Freedom based learning, new forms of assessment, etc.  These self discovery sessions have led to me giving presentations to the staff in the form of professional development.

I would even go as far as saying that to work outside of school, you don't even need to bring anything home.  Like I said before, a lot of this work is simply thinking and reflecting, and then in turn applying those thoughts to your daily lessons.  I type out my lesson plans at the start of each week.  If I had a dollar for every time I stuck to those lesson plans every week, I wouldn't have any money.  I change things constantly  because I go home and think about things, I read about things and say to myself, "I think I'll try that tomorrow."  I do this because I want to get better.  I don't think anybody will ever achieve perfection, but if I can change and make the classroom experience better why wouldn't I.  I don't ever want to be that person that looks back and thinks, "I've been doing this for the past 5 years so might as well continue."  I want to be the person that says, "I haven't tried this, I wonder if it will work."  Trail and error is effective and it takes that thinking and reflecting to implement effectively.  Ask yourself, when was the last time I truly took a leap and did something spontaneous in my classroom, or something I was unsure of?  I try to do this at least once a week, and on some occasions I have done it daily.  The best part, I love it, I feel like I am getting more out of my career when I take these leaps, and the students attach to it as well, which the overall goal.

The experts in any school building are the ones invested, in the building and out of it.  I give credit to a lot of the staff I work with, because they are reflecting, and finding things constantly.  These are the experts.  These are the people who I enjoy working with and who I can have great conversations with.  How do you accomplish expertise?  Be an educator full time, extend that contract a little for yourself, change how you are doing things, implement things past designated professional development, be truly invested in what you are doing.