Gigabit Challenge Finale

On Wednesday, January 18th, we will be blogging live from the Gigabit Challenge Finale in Kansas City, MO.  Last Spring, Google announced the recipient of it's high-speed fiber internet project - Kansas City (both KS and MO).  I was especially excited because I live and teach in Kansas City, KS.  As part of the deal, the schools would be receiving the service free.

After the initial buzz, I found myself wondering how my classroom would benefit from the speed.  Would innovation be more possible with my 5th graders because of the service?  Would the internet service attract ideas that could be tested in my classroom?  Would it do anything?

At the finale, I will learn about the range of possibilities.  I will seek to filter these business plans through my education filter.  I hope to be able to dream clearer after Wednesday.  I am excited to learn more from the event - check out the speaker line up!  If you would like to join in the fun you can check out this blog again on that day, watch the event live here, follow the hashtag #GBfiber and @gigabitchallengekc, or follow either myself or my co-blogger on Twitter:

Jon - @jonathanferrell
Britt - @brpumphrey

I'm curious to find out what I learn.

#EdCampKC

We are at #EdCampKC today in Lee's Summit, Missouri today. Looking forward to learning with everyone who comes!

What is EdCampKC?

ShowMe App for the iPad

A few months ago I came across this *free* app and I have been excited about its potential use in the classroom.  Below I have embedded a ShowMe recording that shares a few of the ideas that have been bouncing around in my head.  Share your ideas for other ways to use this app with students.  Enjoy!

Learning to Present to Adults

Over the weekend we had the opportunity to present at the Podstock conference in Wichita, KS. We chose to discuss why and how we have our students blog in our classrooms. Blogging has been around for a while now so this was nothing revolutionary. But, it is a simple starting point for teachers who want their students to be more engaged in their writing and it is great practice for interacting appropriately online.

This was just our second time to lead a presentation at a conference so we have a lot to learn about the art of effectively communicating to a group of adults.

What we know so far ...

• Discussion rules. Questions are difficult to frame well, but very important.
• Blended discussion (verbal and using a Google Doc) appears to be a great method to involve all participants.
• Allow the group to learn from each other. Provide a backchannel opportunity to foster interaction among participants. Don’t pretend that we have all the knowledge.
• Keep it simple. Avoid the theoretical and the education jargon and just talk about what works in the classroom.
• Be a learner before being a teacher.

What we need to learn more about ...

• How this format will work with other topics. We have the student blogging presentation down at this point. But, will this format work well for other tools?  
• Working with larger groups of adults.  Both of our presentations have been between 20-40 adults.  
• Differentiating technology.  

Reflecting on this experience I (Jon) am struck by what I have learned can be applied to the classroom. Far too often I will get in a rut of gushing out information at my students. This year I will strive to involve my students more the learning process. I would like to have a Google Doc serve as a discussion platform and backchannel throughout the day in my classroom.

Reflecting on this experience I (Britt) find myself mulling over all of the professional development I have been a part of at the building and district level.  I wonder if this more interactive approach would enhance those times.  There is a significant difference between the voluntary mid-summer conference and the mandatory, district inservice in February - but I am not sure the mid-summer conference holds the advantage.  I believe teachers would thrive in the interactive learning environment, and make strong connections to their own rooms (as Jon did).  I mostly wonder if the average professional development session involves enough learning to inspire the kind of discussion we got to be a part of?

Blogging with Students - Podstock 2011

Tomorrow we are leading a session on blogging with students at the Podstock 2011 conference in Wichita, KS.  The plan is to facilitate discussion around blogging with students and spend time creating a class in kidblog while exploring the platform.  

Follow the conference on Twitter using #podstock2011.

We will be using a live document to aid and document our discussion.  Here is the link to the doc.  It is a semi-organic document that will be filled with ideas and information during the session.  Feel free to join in even if you can’t make it!  The doc will be most useful to reference after the session is over.

Here is the proposal for the presentation just in case you are going to be at the conference tomorrow and are wanting to know more about what exactly we will be doing.  We look forward to seeing you!

Our plan for this session is to provide teachers with an engaging conversation about student blogging with additional hands-on time to create and setup blogs for their students. Both presenters blog with their students. After experiencing the benefits of blogging with our students we are eager to share this valuable tool with other educators. We have experience using Kidblog, Blogger, and Edublogs with our students. During this presentation we will demonstrate setting up student blogs with Kidblog due to the extreme easy of use.
The session focus will be on sharing ideas about blogging best practices. This conversation will be held verbally while also utilizing a backchannel discussion using Google Docs to aid in engagement and comprehension.

The session focus will be on sharing ideas about blogging best practices. This conversation will be held verbally while also utilizing a backchannel discussion using Google Docs to aid in engagement and comprehension.

Changing Subjects

In August I will begin my fifth year of teaching sixth grade. I love my job. I enjoying spending each day with energetic, quirky, and lovable students. It is a privilege to be able to lead my class as we explore and learn about life together.

The previous four years I have taught math, reading, writing, and social studies. This year I will keep the core subjects and switch out social studies for science.

While I am intrigued by science I would be remiss not to mention my sadness at losing my social studies classes. In sixth grade we explore the ancient civilizations and it is a blast. I will miss uncovering the ancient mysteries and retelling awesome stories of those who came before us.

Transitioning to science this summer has been an exciting and humbling process. Exciting because of the new challenges and interesting content. Humbling because it has highlighted what I don’t know. I have a basic understanding of these topics and could pass a test. Yet, to teach something well one must possess a far deeper understanding and fluency with the topic.

Luckily, I am in a profession that affords me the opportunity to spend the summer learning and exploring. So, I have devoted time this summer to deepening my understanding of science. So far I have found some great science blogs, read a handful of science books, watched a couple of documentaries, and sought the wisdom of those with experience teaching science. I am beginning to get to that deeper level but I still have so much to learn.

I hope to model this attitude of not knowing everything and seeking knowledge with my class in the fall.

I would love to hear your advice - what is your one nugget of wisdom for a beginning science teacher?

Best Environment for Educators

This question is posed to US public school teachers: "How do we create the best environment for our educators to lead their classrooms and help their students perform better?"

Vicki Davis of the Cool Cat Teacher blog posed this question and a subsequent survey yesterday. This post will be my response to that question, a question I think all teachers should answer. I will use the questions I give my students when we are setting goals to answer the question.

Jonathan Ferrell shared this link yesterday on Twitter. In the article, which is an interview with Jonathan Kozol (don't stop reading just because they misspelled Kozol's name in the title!), Kozol says he learned from Paulo Friere to "not to think I always know the answer".  I need that printed on my forehead.  It is an important caution as I or you attempt to answer the above question.

Here are the questions I ask my students when they are setting goals. The answer to the question at the top of this post is really a goal, that is why I am choosing to use these questions to structure my answer.

1.  Where are you?

• I teach 5th grade in a large, urban district.  
• My school is predominantly hispanic, and 98% free and reduced lunch (or low socioeconomic) with the majority of those students on the free lunch side of things.  
• I have taught for 4 years.  
• My first year was in a small-town district, made up of majority white students.  
• I am planning to start my masters in administration this fall, so this question is very important for me as I think about eventually leading a school.  
• I am currently team teaching.  We have two teachers and two classes, all day in all subjects. 
• We get 4 plan times each week, one of them is a common plan time with the other 5th grade teachers.
• Our district has progressively decided to adopt components of the common core standards as well as ACT standards as well as the current state standards and we are tested every 4 1/2 weeks around these.  
• Our school struggles to meet the federal requirements for AYP on the state test and it seems to be an annual struggle to avoid potential restructuring consequences of low scores.
• Our district has early release every Wednesday.  Students go home and teachers are in professional development.

I could go on, but the list covers enough for this post.

2.  Where do you want to be? (providing the best environment for educators to lead their classrooms and help their students perform better)

• TIME: Structure the plan times to be more collaborative.  Teachers should be planning and developing units together as well as assessing and reflecting together.  
• TIME: Instead of top-down professional development, the time should be spent having teachers critically reflect on their teaching practices as well as jointly analyzing the curriculum and pacing.  
• TESTING: The current model of excessive testing leads to a flood of data.  To best help teachers, the tests should be boiled down to the most important ones and there should be support in analyzing the data so that it can inform classroom instruction.  As it is, tests are a statistical mess that bore students and scare teachers.  To the point to where our "best" students are best at factual memorization and regurgitation and not necessarily at learning, being creative, or being inquisitive.  
• MEANINGFUL REVIEWS: Bogged down administration and closed-door teaching practices means that teacher reviews are generally a triangulation of test scores, a 15-min observation, and a personal lean (do I like you or not).  Even then, the observation is usually focused on a correct lesson plan format, whether or not the standards are posted, and did the teacher manage the student's behavior well.  For the students' sake, this needs a change.
• Allow for peer evaluations.  How about the principal cover a class while that teacher goes to observe another teacher.  They could be looking for something (were students engaged) or they could be learning from a teacher who is awesome at teaching a certain skill.  The teachers could then spend 10 minutes talking about the observation.
• Instead of 15-minute reviews, once or twice a year.  Principals should be given/should take the time to be in classrooms every week.  It would be natural for that to lead to discussions around how to improve the environment.
• At professional development, teachers should bring videos of their teaching.  Not their best lesson, but rather of them teaching something their students just aren't getting.  Constructively and critically, teachers should provide feedback and ideas for that lesson.  For me?  I would like to bring a clip of me conferring with a student during reading.  I need to get better at this!
• Instead of asking, "are the standards posted", the question should be, "is the lesson focused and do the students know what they are supposed to be learning."  As I believe that is the spirit behind the movement to post standards.  

• SUPPORT: Everyone agrees that schools should be 100% about students.  Attacking teachers does not help students learn.  So support them.  If a teacher is not improving even with support, then help them find a job where they can be successful.  Supporting teachers does not mean to blindly tell them they are awesome and doing great.  

3.  How will you get there?

• This year I will seek out teachers who are strong where I am weak.  I will ask my principal to let me observe them with students.
• I will work to minimize the excessive testing by providing good instruction for my students and not relaying my worry for the results to their 5th-grade shoulders.  I will not spend hours every week doing test prep.  Though common, it is not best practice.
• I will continue to take time, on my own, to be reflective around my classroom data.  No, I am not paid extra for this.  Even if there was merit pay, I wouldn't be paid more.  I wouldn't receive much for taking a student from four grade levels behind to two grade levels behind, according to the test I am still a failure.  The point is that it helps my students.

Ultimately, I will work to get better at what I can control and not get held back by the systematic or environmental things I cannot control.

Thanks for reading.

Enjoy being reflective today!