Category Archives: Education

It’s Always about Passion, Figurative Language and Tons of Glitter

Education

Last night I had the privilege and honor to plan and execute a retirement party for a dear friend and colleague of mine. She has been teaching for 34 years and has decided to move into the next chapter of her life. I cannot convey what this woman has meant to me as a teacher and a person. I also had the opportunity to speak. I thought I’d share my speech here:

I met Tess in August of 2001. I had just moved here from Orange County and was checking out my new home at Cooley. I was with my mother and we were passing through the office. She grabbed my hand and exclaimed, “You’re German! We’re going to get along just fine.” And that we did. We were instantly connected mind and soul.

Over the years, I have learned many things from Tess. I thought I’d take my time tonight to highlight a few:

    1. Speak in analogies. Tess has an incredible ability to explain things in such a poetic way it not only creates a clear picture of what she is trying to say, but it also makes everything she says that much more interesting. One recent text I received reads: Wings work well in a flock or a single pattern.
    2. Use glitter. I remember my first year at Cooley, Tess had introduced our team to the Gift from the Heart project. Glitter, she says. The students need to use lots of glitter. I still have nightmares of drowning in rivers of glitter. But, the students LOVED it. She taught me that sometimes you just have to let teaching be messy, because, in the end, the sparkle will be worth it. In fact, when she sent me the guest list for tonight’s party, I opened the envelope, and sure enough: GLITTER.
    3. Cream Rises to the Top. When I got to Cooley, I had only been teaching six years. When I would come to her, fretting that I had botched a lesson or even ruined a child forever, she would assure me that the good things will always rise above the bad. Children will always remember the kindness we show them. The good can never go unnoticed.
    4. He’s a boy. I left teaching for eight years to be at home with my babies. I have a daughter, Stephanie, now 12, and a son, Jeffrey, soon to be 10. After Jeffrey was born, I remember complaining to Tess about the things he would do. He was nothing like my daughter. What was wrong with him? She would simply tell me that he’s a boy. He’d get there. There was nothing wrong with him. Boys are like Puppies, she’d say. They need to run, jump, bite things and maybe even bark at you.
    5. Go BIG: Tess taught me early on that nothing was worth doing if it was small. This was apparent when we decided to put on our first Renaissance Faire at Cooley. Not only did the every 7th grader out there in costume and guilds,  we had a professional Blacksmith, archery and at one point a large scale trebuchet. This woman never does anything small. And her costumes! Always fit for royalty! If you’ve ever been to a Tess event, you know what I mean. Always a grand celebration!
    6. Nod, smile but do what’s in your heart. Tess taught me that following the way everyone else is doing something, isn’t always the path that’s right. Sometimes you have to follow your own passion. You have to open your own wings and let the wind take you where it may. You have to allow your students to do the same. But when someone asks you how that common assessment is going, simply smile and never let on that it’s still buried in a pile of papers on your desk. When you’re busy flying, you can’t worry about the ground.
    7. Cherish every day and every person you hold dear. This is probably the biggest lesson of all. I don’t get to see Tess as much as I’d like. In fact, it makes me a bit sad how little I do see her. But when I do, she always reminds me what’s important. It’s not our crazy schedules as parents or the endless papers to grade as teachers that make our life full. It’s the people we love.  She always reminds me that no matter what happens, our time should be spent with the ones we love.

 

I have been blessed with knowing this incredible woman for over 14 years. She is a gift to me that I will hold dear until the end of time.

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How Ed Camps Will Save the World

Education

Even though teachers have been attending Ed Camps for years, I recently made the trek to my first in San Jose. After only 20 minutes in the day, I realized something: this is the answer. Why had it taken me so long to get here?

  1. The Board   When you arrive at an Ed Camp beyond the smiling faces, greetings from other educators, and if you’re lucky, the coffee table, there is a board. Now this board is the key to the entire day. Here you place a Post-it (or something like it) with your idea on one of the two sides: things I want to learn or things I want to share and lead discussions. After the attendees settle in, the sessions are determined based on the board. If educators want to know more about blended classrooms, for example, the organizers will try to find someone willing to lead. If one is passionate about Genius Hour, he can invite people to come to a session. If others want to join, a session is born. It’s brilliant, really. It’s why Ed Camps are called an unconference.
  2. The Discussions  Since it is not a predetermined session, there is no curriculum, no guideline for the way the course flows. If you are looking for structure go elsewhere. The leader simply starts the discussion, maybe helps answer questions, but really the participants are just as involved. In one session I attended, the topic was authentic writing. Our discussions went well beyond that, as well. I was collecting ideas from every teacher in the room. What works, what doesn’t work. We were brainstorming and exchanging ideas at such a rapid pace, the hour diminished before we knew it.
  3. The Rules  The best part, there really aren’t any. If you attend a session, and it’s not what you were hoping, get up and leave. No one minds. It’s about meeting your needs as an learner.
  4. The Cost  Unlike GAFE or even a CUE conference, Ed Camps are free. Yes, free. You really should be paying, though. The participants range from new teachers to veteran teachers who are experts beyond their own classroom. Of course, there are always educators in attendance who are innovators in the field and are so passionate about teaching, they are willing to inspire other teachers at EdCamps and other conferences regularly. They tend to lead sessions, but are just as eager to learn from you. They are the celebrities of the teaching world and the reason I drove 2 ½ hours to my first Ed Camp.

In recent years, there has been such a pressure to implement technology in the classroom and rightfully so. Districts all over the country are delivering Chromebooks and iPads to classrooms and dictating teachers use them. Some jump at the opportunity to try new ways to motivate and educate kids. Others are a bit more apprehensive. All of them feel they need more training.  We need knowledgeable educators to effectively teach with technology. Ed Camps just might be the answer. Train the teachers, save the world.


To find one in your area: http://goo.gl/HCTb1u

Navigating the Waves of the Backchannel

Education, , ,

I’m a huge fan of the Socratic Seminar, but the drawback is always getting kids involved who don’t like to speak in a large group setting. I’ve tried many different configurations with moderate results. One of my PLN colleagues, Travis Phelps wrote about using Chromebooks to create a backchannel during the discussion. (Read his blog here.)

Like Travis, I used TodaysMeet to create my chat room, projecting it on the board, so all could see. I organized my room: chairs in the inner circle, desks with Chromebooks on the outer. As students came in, I let them choose their spot, but gave them a heads up that we would be switching halfway through the period.

What I learned

  • Assign seats, at least inner or outer circle. Letting students choose which circle they participated in first wasn’t necessarily a good thing. The discussions were sometimes unbalanced. Too many strong personalities in one group, not enough in the other.
  • Give guidelines on the nickname students choose for the chat. I basically told them I couldn’t grade them, (I grade for participating with useful evidence or insight), if I didn’t know who they were. “Farting Burrito” had to fess up to his handle.
  • Talk to them about spamming and set rules. I teach 8th graders. Writing “poop,” 14 times always seems like a good idea. I let them be silly when they first logged in, just to try it out. However, once the discussion started, the chat needed to be on task. The stream moves so quickly, if someone is typing, “Johnny is Bae,” or even, “LOL,” the other stuff is lost. Just talking about it made all the difference.
  • Change the chat room for each period. This is something I did not anticipate. I had students on Chromebooks in other classes, spamming our conversation. It was done in good fun, but became rather annoying.

The Good, the Bad, and the Silly

I asked the kids at the end of each period what they thought of this different Socratic technique. Most really liked it. They liked that the inner circle was smaller, so it was easier to talk. They also mentioned that they could check the chat on the board if they were stuck for something to say. Mostly they liked that in the outer circle, they could look stuff up on the internet to add to the conversation. The biggest drawback was that the board was sometimes distracting. In some classes, the inner circle would stop talking and take to just reading the board. Plus, there was always that one kid who had to try to make everyone laugh.  But I guess, that’s just what makes it an 8th grade classroom.

I’m looking forward to trying it again soon. Hoping Farting Burrito is too.