The Chasm Grows: Public versus Private

My heart is burdened. One of the things that always bothered me as an educator is how polarized I often felt as a private school educator when I attended conferences. Oftentimes the conferences are sponsored by state education departments and even in the opening sessions I can feel completely confused at the acronyms and current mandates being discussed. I have even felt judged at times because I have chosen to teach at a Christian private school at this point in my life as opposed to public schools. I didn't like how the chasm made me feel. I remember discussing it with a public school educator friend and he said, "I think there is a lot we can learn from each other. We each have things we do well. For instance, I stand amazed at what private schools can do with so little money." That very simple statement made me feel the support I needed at that moment.

The desire to mend this chasm started working on me thanks to Edcamp Gigcity. As part of the planning team that represented private, public, higher ed, and k12 educators I made friendships that helped me to see it was time for me to be intentional in trying to break down the walls I felt in order to prosper as an educator in ways that each group could offer. Greg Bagby, the coordinator for educational technology for Hamilton County, Tennessee schools has always been a friend and resource for me. Together, we currently co-moderate #TnEdChat weekly twitter chat. This is a really simple way to get out of the silo of your workspace to hear the thoughts of other educators across the world, not just your state. The connections I have made through this chat have helped me to feel less disconnected with fellow educators.

From that, I started a monthly coffeeEDU opportunity. This concept was first developed by Alice Keeler. Our #CHAedu monthly meet up allows educators from anywhere in the Chattanooga area to get together for one hour, one day a month to discuss educational topics of their choice. What I gain from these Saturdays is amazingly valuable. Representation from different states, districts, and roles helps me to see outside of what is often my narrow viewpoint. And as Jim David once said to me regarding a conference he was attending, "I didn't know what I didn't know." This monthly event is often eye-opening for me.

By choosing to bridge the chasm between public and private schools I've learned that if I want to know something about Open Education Resources, Dan Lawson is my guy. If I have a burning question on how to utilize a chromebook for math instruction, I can reach out to Dan Lyons. If I want to query area schools about their SIS, I can ask the pros and cons of what my friends use and I get real answers.

But I see outside forces making each camp feel uneasy. Even more disturbing, I am seeing educators feel they have to "protect" their schools. Public school educators feel they have to wear shirts that say "I love Public School." Private School educators feel the generalities being said about the boujeèness of their jobs are unjust. Instead of bonding together, the chasm grows. I believe wholeheartedly that I am exactly where I am supposed to be a Christian school educator. I also know my friend Jennifer Rimback feels completely in God's will being a guidance counselor in public education. I stand amazed at the level of care she gives ALL the students at the high school she is at even though the number of students has to feel like a daunting task. I sometimes get jealous of the level of support Greg Bagby gets from software companies due to the funding of those initiatives by his county.

What I know is in my amazement, confusion, and sometimes even jealousy of what is going on in the schools of all my educator friends, we are better together. My prayer is that we can rise above the things that polarize us and continue to grow together to benefit all students everywhere. Less finger pointing, more applauding the positives and helping each other work through the negatives. We are all facing the daunting task of being called to educate the workforce of the future. Let's continue to model the importance of linking arms in this bigger journey called life so that we can learn from each other.

Putting Yourself OUT THERE Professionally

As I reflect over my school year, I realize I had a lot of disappointments. In fact, a crazy amount of disappointments. As a rule, I don't deal with disappointments or rejection well so I have spent the last few days asking myself "why does this year feel like a success if you truly felt like you had tons of disappointments?"

I think it is because my disappointments weren't in what was happening at school that much and more about putting myself out there to become a better educator and to grow. I also think it was because I put myself out there enough that I also have some crazy awesome things to celebrate as well. As I started typing this blog post I decided to just create this chart to help me put my year in perspective:

A few years back I realized that in order for me to get the feedback I needed to both grow and feel fulfilled in my role I would need to reach outside of my own school system. Not that it isn't a wonderful school system- it is! But I tend to be a futurist and and "what's next" type of thinker about education. That being said, it is not my role to force my dreams on those I work with, so looking for ways to develop and feed that part of myself while incrementally creating opportunities at our school is important to me.

There are some years the professional rejection feels more overwhelming than the things to celebrate but because of my personality, I feel like it's important for me to keep putting myself out there. And let me say that has not always been my personality. There have been more years than not that I was quite happy siloing myself in my classroom with my students and focusing on teaching and the things that happened within the four walls of that classroom. AND I was a good teacher. But after spending time looking at what others were doing by attending conferences and using Twitter to grow professionally, I had a quest to do more and be more for myself, my school system, but ultimately the students and families I serve.

So now I spend time looking for opportunities to get outside my box and challenge my thought processes. I realize that as an instructional technologist I work in a role that opens a mixed bag of emotions from others. It is that fact that has pushed me to have a more global approach to my job so that I can get the support I need and can be a balanced educator in seeing the strengths and potential pitfalls in my realm of influence.

I say all this to challenge others to continue to put yourself out there. After not being chosen for part of the Google Innovator program this year I tweeted "Rejection makes me hungry." It's true. Don't let your rejection define you-dig deeper, apply again, seek other avenues, but never accept the status quo of complacency!  Fail forward and grow! Colonel Sanders, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison and J.K. Rowling are just a few people that come to mind when I think of persevering through the struggle of failures. May I ever be someone with that type of growth mindset.

Year Two - Elementary Tech Team Plan

Our elementary school creates an opportunity for our fourth and fifth-grade students to take part in Friday afternoon electives where they choose from about 7- 8 choices that teachers lead from their passions. The opportunities have been awesome- woodworking, knitting, makerspace, board games, digital gaming, are just a few. For me, it finally gave me the opportunity to create an elementary tech support team.  Last year our students researched and created step-by-step instructional supports for our teachers regarding the technology they use on a regular basis. The opportunity was awesome and the details of what we did and accomplished can be found here in this post: https://techhelpful.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-beauty-of-ownership-and-belonging.html

This year we are going a different direction. The students will once again create "how to" instructional supports that might be a Google doc or a video but we are making it a bit more fun. Recently, I asked our elementary teachers what they needed the most in terms of technology professional development. The answer was, "we want to have a better understanding of our STEAM tools."

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend a workshop sponsored by Mozilla that allowed the attendees to create an escape room experience that would allow the users to learn more about iOT (internet of things) as they went through the experience. I loved the idea! So I challenged my 7 students in this quarter's tech team to think on this. We will have 10 weeks of 45 minutes on Friday to create our experience. Here is what we defined and how we are going to accomplish it:

Day 1:

• I gave the students 3 sticky notes each and had students write down 3 STEAM tools they felt they could teach their teachers more about. We then sorted these ideas and came up with a list to work from. 
• We then used the sticky note idea to write down 3 themes for our rooms. Each student wrote down their ideas and we sorted those. Based on which idea had the most votes, we went with an "ocean" theme.
• Our next step was to assign groups and have each student start thinking about what their experience will look like with the STEAM tool they were assigned. For instance, they want to dress their Dash and Dot robots up like "pirmaids" (pirate mermaids) and have them go on a treasure hunt. 

Day 2: 

Our new STEAM Project Assistant and Curriculum coordinator will meet with our students and they will teach her skills because she is new to the job. Based on the questions she asks and the things they think she should know, they will start creating a list of basic skills needed for their tool. I'm actually out of town for this week so I created this video to help the students know what they would do for this week: 

Day 3:

Students will start creating their lesson plan for their escape room experience based on their ideas from day 1 and their notes from Day 2.

Day 4: Students will create green screen video productions of "how to" use the tech tools. These videos will be viewed by the teachers before they start their escape room experience for each tool. 

Day 5: We will upload all videos to last year's tech team website so that there is one place teachers can go for support. 

Day 6: We will continue to create a good escape room experience. Our goal is to offer it for each grade level to work together. 

Day 7: Students will create the experience and try each other's stations out and give feedback.

Day 8: Students will take the feedback from the previous week and finish up their end product.

Day 9: Students will use the time to decorate the room and offer the 30-minute professional development opportunity to any available teachers, admin, and parents.

Day 10: Students will once again use the time to decorate the room and offer the 30-minute professional development opportunity to any available teachers, admin, and parents.

School Designation: Process > End Results

In September of this school year I became aware that the state of Tennessee had a STEM School Designation Process. Being a little over a year into implementing a STEAM curriculum at Chattanooga Christian Lower School, I decided to look at the criteria to discern what my state felt was "best practice" in regards to STEM education. There are 18 sub areas under the headings of Infastructure, Curriculum and Instruction, Professional Development, Achievement, and Community and Post Secondary Partnerships that are critiqued.

As I looked over what was deemed "best practice," I was fairly excited to learn that we were either hitting all of them hard or were in a process of doing so. I met with our STEAM leadership team and we decided to go ahead and apply for the designation based on our self- evaluation. Two weeks ago I received the news that the committee felt we needed to make some growth in 4 of those 18 sub areas. Honestly, I believe that much of the issue is less that we need to make growth and more that I did not do a great job at documentation in those areas. That being said, our STEAM leadership team has already looked at the feedback and we have made a plan to move forward for next year. The hard part is behind us, it's now just being intentional about updating our sub area folders as needed.

That being said, I was more than a little disappointed that we did not receive the designation this year. We had some unexpected circumstances during the time that the Designation Review Team needed more documentation. I wasn't able to give them the information needed but I also know that we did need to do some improvement in the amount of PD opportunities we give our teachers in regards to STEAM. So here is where I am at...

The process of gathering information for the state of Tennessee for the STEM Designated School process has grown our program more than any assigned "you made it!" stamp could ever do. Being mindful about what is being requested and questioning the WHY of what is deemed important has helped me to add more robustness in areas that we currently might have been lacking in.

This process also has opened the door for me to say "This is best practice, we have to give the teachers the scaffolding they need in STEAM if we expect implementation to go well." It gives me documentation to stand on but furthermore it gives me preset goals that are aligned with what the world (or at least my state) thinks is "best practice." For me, it is never going to look just like what the state desires because we are a private Christian School that wants to definitely strive to holistically teach our students...humanities are just as important to us for a well rounded student BUT if we are doing the things deemed best practice in STEM why not share that?

One of our teachers asked, "Why do we want to be a STEM Designated School?" The answer for me is easy, it gives us solid framework that the outside world is already familiar with and that studies show parents want for their students. But as a leader of the STEAM program, it gives me solid goals in the form of a rubric that can help our school navigate the growth of this program. I don't have to spend my time defining what best practice is, I can spend my time creating opportunities for best practice to happen. Watch out next year, Tennessee...we got this.

"And what about technology?"- The progression of an instructional technologist

I've hinted at this moment in another recent blog post but I just want to share what progression in technology integration looks like for me. A few years back I was holding teachers accountable for 2 technology enhanced projects a year in our lower school. Today, there is no checkbox accountability for usage because it has just seamlessly become part of who we are at Chattanooga Christian Lower School.

In the beginning it would be fair to say that there were times when I was leading conversations towards tech integration. I know some people might disagree with me but I do believe in the beginning that often has to happen in order to open mindsets. I co-taught with teachers as they introduced technology in their classrooms. I was the safety net for those that were uncomfortable.

Today, it has just become part of instructional consideration for our teachers. Is there an app I can use that supports math instruction? Is there a way I can digitally have students share their learning? Our lower school teachers have adapted and adopted technology in ways that intentionally support their classroom learning without me directing. Now, I often come up with suggestions on how technology can support certain ideas or I share some new tool that I think would bring value to the classrooms but I'm not standing around watching to make sure integration is happening- it is.

I'll be honest, I didn't realize when the shift happened. I tend to share my Tech Tip Tuesday ideas just to give teachers some fresh resources. I will always be seen as the techie but I also have been a part in helping our teachers understand project based learning and how STEAM education can support this learning. Which leads me to the following moment that felt like fireworks of success went off-

It was the first few inservice days back in school for our teachers in January and the lower school curriculum coordinator and myself were visiting each grade level to help the groups with their project based learning plans. We were sharing concepts, answering questions, giving ideas, etc. Half the day had gone by when a teacher looked at me and said, "and I guess you expect a technology component to these?" It was as if the world around me got quiet. It dawned on me that I had not mentioned technology all morning long as we were talking professional development and I was the technology coordinator! My answer was this quirky, less than confident sentence..."well, you guys are doing tech integration really well now and uh I would think that if you felt it would enhance this PBL you would use it, right?"

I remember walking out questioning myself. What was I doing? Was I truly doing my job if I wasn't expecting technology integration? And then it hit me...this is what it SHOULD look like. I'm not saying we have arrived. There will always be areas that need growth (for myself and for our school) but this moment has left me with a small sense of accomplishment. I won't linger here, I'll keep pushing forward in other areas, looking for ways to be innovative. BUT it's nice to know I've grown.

What kind of PD makes teachers smile? And on Saturday? EDCAMP

Year five of Edcamp GigCity is in the books. It was in a fabulous location- Red Bank Middle School in Chattanooga, TN- and it had fabulous attendees. According to the feedback form most left as very happy campers! (pun intended).

Things I learned:

• Oops on the schedule. We accidentally used the schedule from 2 years ago instead of last year so the sign up said 9-2 but the day was laid out as 9-3. We also had adjusted times down to 45 minutes last year but the old schedule had the sessions at an hour. Our bad! We apologize for that oversight and promise it won't happen again.
• Many hands make the burden light. WOW! What an amazing organizing committee we had this year. Being the lead for the last 3 years, I am finally learning how to delegate and trust the team. I was not disappointed. Sure am thankful for a wonderful group of fellow educators. What many people probably don't know is that this is all volunteer led and run, and Edcamp Gigcity is unique in that the organizers represent higher ed, lower ed, public, and private school sectors. I love that about our edcamp! This uniqueness opens the door for collaborative thinking way beyond the walls of the school house, the district, and even the city! I can't even begin to say how much I appreciate the following organizers that planned along with me this year:
• Dr. Karen Adsit, Education Professor at The University of Tennessee of Chattanooga
• Greg Bagby, Principal at Barger Academy
• Jim David, STEM School administrator 
• Kimberly Elbakidze, Computer Science Instructor at Red Bank Middle School
• Evonne Hackett, Technology Teacher at Lakeview Middle School
• Julie King, Middle School Librarian at The Baylor School
• Arthur Williams, K-5 Instructional Technologist at Lakeside Academy
• We need to make sure we explain how edcamps work a little better for new attendees. Often people are a bit overwhelmed by the "no presenters" and "rule of 2 feet" if it is their first edcamp. We need to make sure we provide more insight on how edcamps got started and why it is so organic in nature.  
• The EdCamp philosophy makes people smile. All day long I watched as people moved around from room to room at EdCamp Gigcity with smiles on their faces. I couldn't help but ask myself, "Is this what you see when you lead PD at school?" And I answered myself (because I'm weird like that) "Not usually." So why do educators like edcamps? I have 3 theories:
• Choice- Educators are at least college graduates and sometimes/often even have advanced degrees...they love Edcamps because they get to choose what they learn about instead of being forced into a PD that may or may not interest, help, or pertain to them. 
• Voice- Educators get to ask questions and share their concerns and fears in a safe non-threatening environment. The beauty of our edcamp is that it isn't "district led" so the voices they are in a room with aren't necessarily the ones they usually hear from so it adds a freedom to learn from others. The value of being heard is important to everyone, the nature of edcamps is active participation no matter what your level of understanding. 
• Free- The event is free, the food is free, and the door prizes are both awesome and free. How does that make an educator feel? VALUED. For some educators, they rarely have the opportunity to learn outside of their school building because of cost or time. Edcamps show teachers that they are appreciated and important by creating platforms for them to learn without other things hanging over them- like lesson plans for subs and money.
• Being an #EdcampGigCity organizer make me a more connected educator. This is year five of our edcamp and every year I walk away with new edufriendships, knowledge, and ideas that I know I have a safety net for if I have more questions. Like all conferences, you get what you put into it. Allowing yourself to connect with others and hear what other schools and districts are doing brings value back to yourself and your school/district. I'm thankful for the opportunity to connect in such a big way to the Chattanooga are. #CHAedu

My #ISTE17 Takeaways

Rachelle and myself

Traveling alone to ISTE this year gave me lots of time alone with my thoughts and my learning. Meeting up with my friend Rachelle Poth on the last day led to one of my greatest moments of reflection. When we talked about the things we had done during the week it was very different from each other. Rachelle presented multiple times (and I must say she's amazing at sharing her classroom stories) and I was there as an attendee only.
For me, that moment was a realization that ISTE meets needs in many different ways for many different personality types. It's easy to get lost in the crowd if that is what you want or to be in the middle of everything learning AND social. I was "all in" for learning this week and here are my takeaways to learning more about:

• Google Applied Digital Skills- Yes, I did stand in a 30 minute line for a 30 minute session to learn more about Google's new Applied Digital Skills curriculum.
  
   A free, stand alone curriculum that can be found at https://www.cs-first.com/en/apps. Our school recently started looking at the scope and sequence of digital skills we want our students to have by the time they graduate from our school. What I love about this curriculum is that many of these skills could be mastered with these very relevant curriculum ideas that 13+ year old students would both enjoy doing and benefit from. 
• Snapping, Gramming, and Scoping Your Way to Engagement-  

  

  Shaelynn, Steven, and myself

                              Educators Steven Anderson (@web20classroom) and Shaelynn Farnsworth (@shfarnsworth) created an interactive learning opportunity that challenged me in how to reach students, teachers, families, and constituencies with the use of social media. I've often used social media to share the story of our school using the hashtag #ccslearns but I'll be honest, I think my assumed audience was almost always my professional learning network. I am currently reflecting on how I can use it more to reach broader in my own school community. Steven's sharing of data shows a window of opportunity to reach our families and share our stories in a platform that will be looked at. As most schools can attest, the percentage of emails sent and read by families is small. Why not meet them where they already are looking? And as I've heard often but don't know who said it, "someone is going to tell your story, shouldn't it be you?" 
• Big news from Wonder Workshop: Challenge Cards- Dash and Dot are some of our favorite  robots to introduce robotics to preschool and elementary students. What a great opportunity to meet Charlotte this week- she's the creator of the new "Challenge Cards: K-5 Learn to Code Starter Pack" that hit the market in September. I had a little look at the cards and can't wait to add them to our curriculum. These cards "meet both CSTA and ISTE standards are aligned with Code.org's Computer Science Fundamentals series." (store.makewonder.com)

  

  Charlotte of Wonder Workshop 

• Creating Interactive Professional Development Opportunities- This idea has been growing in my head since Edcamp Gigcity but attending a session by Michele Eaton solidified in my head how I want to do this. I plan to introduce one tool every 2 months to our teachers (I'm working on curating those tools now) via an interactive introduction that they can access at any time. My hope is that in the two months the teachers will try the tool in their own classrooms.

Obviously there were tons of learning moments at ISTE for me both in and out of the conference center, it's like learning from a firehose, but these are the top things I am excited about!

Why I love #CHAedu #coffeeEDU

Education and educators are a segmented lot. A classroom teacher teaches their students and comes into contact with maybe 5-10 other educators on a daily basis. Most others are just passing conversations in the hallway unless they are on your grade level team/dept and you can add another few hours a week. The point I'm trying to make is that it's really easy for educators to fall victim to no new ideas for their classroom. We can easily sit in silos and echo chambers, only hear the rumblings of discontent around us and the supporting rumblings. We can easily find ourselves in a culture of acceptance of "this is the way, this is what I've been dealt, bloom where I'm planted" and lose our visionary outlook.

The above is the reason I am passionate about being a part of the monthly Chattanooga area coffeeEDU. I didn't dream up the concept of coffeeEDU but I did see the value of it in the Chattanooga area. Chattanooga is uniquely located in an area that easily accesses 3 states. It is a private school heavy environment and has several colleges/universities in the area. As I helped with Edcamp gigcity for the past two years I stood amazed at how many different school districts, schools, and states were represented. I also immediately saw the value of being plugged into some of these schools because they were doing things my school wasn't doing. Trying things I knew educators at my school were interested in. 

So, I decided to do a social media invite to #CHAedu #coffeeEDU. The first meeting took place at a donut shop and I had no idea who would actually come... imagine my surprise when 2 higher education professors from two different colleges, 2-3 different private schools were represented, and public school educators from both Georgia and Tennessee showed up! We've met every month since then (taking the summers off) at different schools. We've shared our struggles, asked questions about things we want to know more about, shared transparently about things that worry us in education, celebrated things we've seen as triumphs, gotten to know each other better, grown the group, eaten lots of donuts, and thought outside our normal spheres of educational banter.

For me it has been refreshing. It's nice to hear I'm not the only one feeling overwhelmed at times. It's nice to have a network of people to engage with and ask questions. It's nice to have face to face interactions with people that see education differently than I do. It's nice to listen and gauge and reflect on what others are doing. I am thankful for this group that is always changing because who has a Saturday each month to always give up? But I am thankful to the core of people, that like me, see this as worthy of carrying on. We spend 1 hour in discussion of whatever topics come up. It is participant driven, like an unconference model. One hour is it...we all have things to do on Saturdays but I always leave glad I participated.

May I always see the importance of both hearing and listening to the pros and cons of educational speak from others around me so that I may continue to grow. 

p.s.- Next coffeeEDU is December 10, 2016 at Girls Preparatory School. All area edus are always invited.

Professional Development Excitement...is it possible?

As an instructional technologist I see many different personalities of educators when I’m introducing new technology ideas. With a broad generalizing paintbrush, I find personalities fall in one of 4 categories:

• “I’m In!”
• “Show Me what you mean?”
• “I’m not convinced!”
• “Not in My Classroom!”

It’s not always easy to meet the needs of all these types at the same time, so the way I introduce to large groups of teachers during professional development is often varied. It is my goal to meet a teacher where their comfort level is and take them to the next step. Recently, we have tried a few new approaches to professional development opportunities. When I know whole school PD days are on the horizon I start asking my teachers what they want to learn more about regarding educational technology. Our curriculum director and myself then sit down and map out a hybrid “edcamp” experience for our teachers that includes not only technology options but a variety of helpful authentic “take this back and make it work” ideas. Teachers are offered 3-4 choices of learning topics every 30 minutes. This format allows the teachers to quickly digest something they might want to learn more about but it also allows them some choice in their learning path. Let’s be honest, these are educated individuals, shouldn’t they know where they could use some help? When we set up the day, we often utilize teachers that are exceptional in different areas for sharing purposes as well. This makes them feel affirmed and it grows teacher leaders as resources as well. Our goal is to ask individual teachers to share only once during the day so that they can also benefit from the sessions as well. I’ve found that teachers are much more receptive to learning from each other than from me telling them how great an idea is and I don’t even have a classroom. I often enlist my early adopters to lead sessions so that teachers see it from their real world perspective. Also, anytime they can take an app/website/idea for a “test drive” it is less scary. Setting up those opportunities during professional development days is a plus. While this is a brief introduction time, it allows me to ascertain who sees value in the concepts and to follow up for more one to one with the teachers.

This year we also introduced some new required curriculum changes to the teachers and unfortunately it was during the back to school rush. In this situation I try to make these experiences as hands on as possible and with the goal of each teacher leaving a session with a lesson plan in hand. I often will introduce the concept with a hook that they can use in there classrooms as well. For instance, to introduce a day of project-based learning curriculum writing we used a breakoutEDU game to encourage rapid learning of the basic concepts. Not only did our teachers learn about PBLs but they also found out I had a breakoutEDU toolbox available that they could utilize for critical thinking opportunities. I am a firm believer that if you want teachers to try new things and teach using different methods, you have to model that in professional development opportunities! Look for ways to create small group, station rotation, flipped learning, inquiry-based, hands on, connecting concepts to tasks type things that aid teachers in thinking outside their norm. The words "professional development" often incites moans of despair, it doesn't have to. Find the pulse of your teachers, engage them, and then ask for reflection to grow these days forward!

    

The frenzy of beginning

I always seem to be starting the new year wondering if I'm adding "the last straw" to overwhelmed teachers as they face the new school year with different expectations and a need to learn something quickly. I hold my breath as I plan how to share what this year will entail and I pray that I'm setting them up for success with the scaffolding and planning I've prepped. 

The hard part of starting new endeavors with teachers is that it usually means introducing the concepts the week before school starts when they are at their most frazzled! For the past two months I've been immersing myself in all things STEAM, PBL, and integrated units to best be the support I need to be as this new school year unfolds.

I am excited about these concepts and I hope my excitement is contagious as I extol to the teachers the benefits of PBL, the blessings of a STEAM grant, and the effectiveness of integrated units to wrap it all together. I stand amazed as I've seen the pieces come together in the last few days! 

As we plan and move forward to best meet the needs of the elementary students at CCS I am thankful for the team of educators I work with that come alongside, encourage, and challenge me to create a culture of learning that is exciting for all of us! It will definitely be a year of learning with our students... And I'm excited about that aspect. I think there is great value in students seeing that educators don't always have all the answers, aren't the smartest person in the room, and that they have things to learn about the topic at hand too. Perhaps that in itself will encourage some of our students to see the value of lifelong learning.

"Edcamp Style" PD- Personalizing teacher learning on a required PD day!

Last year our school had the opportunity to host Chattanooga's EdcampGigcity. Several of the elementary teachers at our school attended and many plan on attending again. After the experience it allowed the lower school curriculum coordinator and myself (lower school technology coordinator) to rethink some of our professional development days. On one day in August before the students came, and again in January of this year we set up Edcamp style PD days.

I am thankful for a curriculum coordinator that I work well with. She is someone that sees the value technology can add to the classroom and looks for ways to enhance learning in many different ways. While our PD days weren't like the traditional Edcamp style (we actually came up with the choices instead of the teachers making the choices), the teachers found the days to be useful.

So how did we decide what the session offerings should be and what did this look like?

• We both spend a lot of time with teachers and learn what their needs are. Many of our sessions were based on things teachers had asked us questions about.
• We have exemplary teachers using tools or creating environments that work. We asked those teachers to lead a session to showcase how they do things in their classroom. Two things happen when you do this:
• Teachers feel affirmed as educators by asking them to lead a session.
• Other teachers feel more comfortable asking questions and learning more from a peer because of the strong relationship bonds that already exist. Hearing "this is a good practice/tool" from a teacher already implementing is more effective than hearing it from myself or the curriculum coordinator that aren't using it practically.
• As the technology coordinator, I used it as a time to introduce new tools and practical ways to use them that would be beneficial for all grade levels in an elementary setting.

We then shared a version of this document below (see red) a day beforehand and asked teachers to think about which sessions would be the most useful for them. We even suggested that someone from each grade level attend different sessions so they could share the information with each other later but this was not a requirement.

                                         A Room               B Room                  C Room

9:00-9:30	RenWeb 1- Steve	Q & A on Integrated Units- Elaine	4 Cs of Tech Integration- Julie
9:35-10:05	Small Math Groups- Carie	Brain Pop- Myra	See Saw- Leigh Ann
10:10-10:40	Problem Based Learning in Math- Craig	Reading groups- Beth Ann	Book Talks- Sara
10:45-11:15	NWEA Resources- Allison	Small Math Groups- Carie	Formative Assessment with Technology-  Julie
11:20-12:00	Reading Groups- Beth  Ann	Positive Behavior Supports- Shonda	Mystery Skype- Julie

Session 1 Descriptions

RenWeb 1- Intro to the cloud-based version of our grade book system.

Q & A on Integrated Units-

We have spent the first half of this year mapping your Social Studies and Science units. During this session, you may ask questions or discuss ideas about the work which has been completed so far and the next steps in the integration process. There will also be five integrated unit notebooks for you to examine. These completed units offer examples of enduring understandings, essential questions, approaches on how to plan a unit map, Biblical themes, performance tasks, and culminating activities.

4 Cs of Tech- We will discuss four different ways to integrate technology into your classroom- CONSUMPTION (i.e.- reading and watching opportunities), CONNECTION (collaboration opportunities), CURATION (research and finding good information), and CREATION (presentation opportunities). I will give you examples of apps and websites to be used in the classroom that represent each of the 4 C’s..

Session 2 Descriptions

Small Math groups-

This session will discuss the benefits of teaching small group math.  We will discuss tips on how to manage your rotations and utilize your math time in the most efficient way.

Brain Pop-

This session will be an overview of the features found on BrainPOP. We’ll take a quick look at units and topics covered, as well as support materials: videos, quizzes, games, activity pages, graphic organizers, and the informational text feature.

SeeSaw- learn how Leigh Ann is using Seesaw learning journal app in her classroom. It's great to keep track of student work in one place, for students to reflect on work, and for you to easily look through. You can even share it with the parents. So easy first graders can use it but it is also even being used in eighth grade!

Session 3 Descriptions

Problem Based Learning in Math-  Quickly review what “Problem-Based Learning” is and the purpose of it.  Teachers will build capacity in strategically planning and implementing daily problem solving opportunities for all students, as we look at a 6-step process for planning for the “Problem-Based Learning” portion of a lesson.

Reading Groups-

You (really) can do it all!  Really!   We all know we feel crunched to make everything happen during a Guided Reading group.  We will discuss time management and the necessary skills that will allow even the shortest amount of time to be beneficial with individualized learning.

Book Talks -

This session will introduce or reintroduce you to the concept of Book Talks, especially as it pertains to a Reader’s Workshop model.

Session 4 Descriptions

Positive Behavior Supports for the Classroom

In this session we will discuss the principles of applied behavior analysis (ABA).  Do you know the difference between negative reinforcement and punishment?  These two concepts are often confused and are important to understand when determining the function of a behavior. We will discuss Functional Behavior Assessment and how it can be used as a powerful tool in the classroom. We will also discuss how to use these methods of training to encourage our students as they seek to serve Christ and His Kingdom.

Small Math Groups-

This session will discuss the benefits of teaching small group math.  We will discuss tips on how to manage your rotations and utilize your math time in the most efficient way.

Formative Assessments with Technology- Wouldn’t it be nice to know if your students got a concept you just taught? We will learn about a variety of different formative assessment tools that can give you immediate feedback from your students. This could mean less grading for you and a faster turn around on knowing what your students have actually learned! Win/win.

Session 5 Descriptions

Reading Groups-

You (really) can do it all!  Really!   We all know we feel crunched to make everything happen during a Guided Reading group.  We will discuss time management and the necessary skills that will allow even the shortest amount of time to be beneficial with individualized learning.

NWEA Resources-  Please bring your laptop and explore the NWEA website for all the resources available to help guide your instruction for your students.

Mystery Skype- Looking for ways to teach geography and connect with the world at large? Mystery skype! We will discuss how to lead your students to ask good questions, how to connect the lesson to other things you are learning in the classroom, and how to lead your students to have a global mindset in their world! We will even get the opportunity to try it out.

As you can see there were a variety of different voices sharing that day. This way even teachers that could share had the opportunity to also attend sessions as well. We asked our math interventionist, reading interventionist, IT director, exceptional education director all to be a part of this day.

I have definitely seen positive results from this. I have had one teacher in particular that followed up with me after sitting through all of my sessions and let me know how successful the use of Seesaw and Kahoot has been in his classroom. While this might be 100% personalized learning, it did give our teachers some voice and choice opportunities in what they felt might be most useful for them.

How I Set up Periscope for Professional Development Talks

Recently I did a Periscope session during EdCamp Global about "Classroom Management in a Technology Rich Environment." I've never been so nervous to do a PD event in my life! I was stepping outside my comfort zone to try this but could see it being beneficial to learn. Since it's a live event- trial by fire! But it worked.

I had two main things that concerned me about trying this:

• Creepers. The night before some of my PLN had used Google Hangouts to do some sessions for EdCamp Global and some really weird people showed up, it had to be a closed session in the middle of it. I worried that might happen for me- I guess because I presented at 9am most of the creepers were still sleeping!
• My default settings for any Periscope I do normally is set for ONLY USERS I FOLLOW CAN CHAT- I knew that I would have to open that to the whole world in order to let everyone take part from EdCamp Global SO I TURNED THIS OPTION OFF. Previous uses that way had provided some very inappropriate comments- fortunately this time, there were none! 
  

So here are the key things that made my session successful:

• My set up. I opened Periscope on my iPad, tested my angles and distance before I started. The stability of the tripod helped tremendously when using my hands to share visuals during the session. One thing I would think a bit more about next time is the lighting in the room (get away from the window) and raising the computer when sharing something on the screen (it was in the area that comments showed up in).
• Plan your start and stop. I didn't have anyone to hit "start broadcasting" for me so I started with the computer screen facing the iPad so everyone could see the name of the session. This is important because when it is posted to the Periscope website or the link is placed on Twitter when you go live that will be the screenshot that everyone sees (it's the hook so to speak)- so you want to make sure something that brings in watchers is in the screen to begin with. Also, I obviously had to get up at the end and stop the broadcast, once again I turned my computer screen for the sake of a better video.
• Let Twitter tell the world you are broadcasting. Click the Twitter bird before you start- that way your Twitter PLN knows when you are Periscoping because Periscope automatically posts a tweet using your account when you hit "Start Broadcast." I would also suggest here to spend some time thinking about the title for your broadcast- make it helpful enough for your viewers to know what the broadcast is about but catchy enough to hook them in to watch.
• Communicating with viewers. This is the hardest part- I wanted to be able to see what was being said but the iPad was turned away from me. As soon as I hit broadcast and sat at my computer, I opened the Periscope link of my live event using a different Twitter account on my phone (make sure you turn down your sound as well). I loved being able to interact with the viewers because I met their needs as I talked and could adjust the session on the fly as needed. It was sometimes hard to follow all the comments (I had over 100 viewers for the event but almost 40 more viewers watched it later in the 24 hour public period on Periscope) but I feel like I did a fairly good job of multitasking between the plan and the questioning. 

• Save to your camera roll. An oops moment for me! At the end of the broadcast you should
  
  plan on saving PD sessions to your camera role for future watching because they only remain available to the public for 24 hours. It's a simple click of a square but I totally didn't do it. Lesson learned for next time. I've also been told there is an option called #Katch- I'm still not sure exactly how it works but definitely worth looking into (@KatchHQ) because it saves all your streams on its website.
• Upload your saved video so others can access it. This is me telling myself here since I didn't do it during my session! But here is what I would have done! Our school gmail accounts have associated access to youtube. I often use the app " YouTube Capture" because it quickly uploads large size videos to Youtube without a lot of fuss. It even lets you edit the video if you would like. I'm a fan of the ease of this.

In April I wrote this blog post about Periscope sharing some of my concerns of seeing students use it. That hasn't really happened at our school yet, but I am sure it will. I also have concerns about the true usefulness of it in the classroom setting (privacy issues being my biggest concern) BUT I see great usage in making "events" live. So here I will share with you ways you could help with the privacy issues:

• Making a closed event broadcast. I would do two things, I would let people know what was going to happen and ask them to follow me so that I can follow them back (this could become a pain but I think it is a smart move to keep inappropriate comments out)- I would then set my broadcast where only people I follow could comment on the video. The other options is to make a "PRIVATE BROADCAST" where only people you select could view the event (a little time consuming if there is a potential for lots of viewers). 

I hope this helps you as you as you consider navigating Periscoping PD in the future!

The Happy #TruthBombs of EdCamp GigCity

Yesterday, after weeks of preparation, EdCamp GigCity came and went. That sounded simple, didn't it? Ha! It was one of the most stressful days I've had in a long time and a completely roller coaster ride week but I want to share the powerful inspiration I saw from this exciting edCamp GigCity experience. I choose positive thinking.

• There is safety in cross-school collaboration. When you are in a room with other educators and transparency happens, it feels somewhat easier to share struggles and successes. I'm not sure why; Maybe it is pride in your "home school" about successes. Maybe it feels easier to share failures with outsiders because you realize all these other schools have them too. Sharing with educators in your building adds the fear of judgment, sharing with non-building educators doesn't leave that hanging over you- just a thought.
• There is beauty in corporate learning. Brainstorming, roundtable discussions where there is the ability to share and ask questions allows for maximum results of information. When I look at the shared notes folders that were set up for edcamp gigcity which can still be accessed at http://bit.ly/edcampgigcity  I realize just how much learning was going on yesterday. Before we broke up for sessions, questions were asked like "What's augmented reality? PBL? Flipped learning?" Things that I take for granted as an instructional technologist, but quite honestly those questions made me excited for the day- it meant some teachers were going to have their socks rocked off- and I'm fairly sure I'm not wrong. Which leads me to the next point...
• There is value in blowing someone's mind. It happens to me as well- I go to the ISTE conference and feel like I am in "information overload" mode but what happens is that after I self-curate all the amazing things I've learned I come out with a "nugget of wisdom" (or two) to implement. Sometimes conferences/edcamps/professional development days feel like learning through a fire hose, but the value is that within the overwhelming amount of intake usable information comes forth for future greatness.
• There is awesomeness in the fact that edCamps aren't Tech camps. I'll be honest, even though I repeated this 27 times, because I was pushing it, most teachers thought it was a tech conference at my school. I love edCamps because they are NOT tech camps, therefore the "techies" aren't the smartest people in every room. Everyone brings value to an edCamp because the path of learning is based on all those lovely little sticky notes that started the day- the ones where anyone in the room could say, "I wanna learn this!" edCamps tend to have many technology-based sessions due to the educators that tend to attend but it isn't locked into just that. I love this fact because it allows us to learn from everyone in attendance.
• There are outstanding educators choosing to better themselves on Saturdays. On. A. Saturday. Educators that worked all week dealing with the frustrations of "end of year personalities" choose to better their practice. They made the choice to be a part of learning ON. A. SATURDAY. Do you see the awesomeness of that statement? Yeah- 136ish educators that care enough about what they do to come to an unconference on. a. Saturday. Ok, ok...I may have gone to far with that point but what I am trying to say is that there are outstanding educators out there in our community and beyond. Everyday on the news we hear the negatives of schools in our area but I'm here to tell you that I met a ton of teachers and administrators yesterday that care about what they do and how they do it. They should be applauded.
• There is innovative dreaming for the future of education. I wrote a recent post about the value of innovation in education- yesterday I saw it firsthand. I saw teachers asking questions, leading discussions, weighing possibilities and thinking "what if..."- I totally, completely LOVE "what if" thinking educators. I was fairly busy doing behind the scenes stuff during the day but I did get to pop in and out of a few sessions. I myself have a "what if..." moment I hope to implement next year from listening to what the Sequatchie county school system is doing with a "student tech club." I can't wait to see what people had to say on their exit form to see what they got from the day as well.
• There are determined outstanding educators all around me. Wowsers. I loved listening to what was going on in the schools represented in those sessions. I was blown away by the intelligence in the rooms. We need to tap into this greatness. We need to visit each other and see what's happening. We need to grow these newfound relationships- after this weekend, our PLN (professional learning network) exploded. We don't need this to be the end, we need edCamp GigCity to be the jump off point for continued greatness and learning. We need to follow each other on Twitter and communicate via educational Twitter chats, we need to follow up with our home schools and make suggestions to those around us to connect with those we met. There is such great value in breaking down the silos of not only our own rooms but our own schools. One tweet I 100% agree with said, "Build collaborative culture not competitive - open the doors of learning from each other #edcampgigcity" -@hollowayreader. This is an opportunity for us- it is up to us to move forward with it. We talked summer "lunch and learn" networking opportunities that would continue to include private and public educators. This excites me.
• There are educational administrators that see the inspirational benefit of the edCamp model. I was thankful for the attendance and support of various administrators at this event. Educators that see their administrators value edcamps see the value themselves. Those are the type of principals/ administrators that see teachers willing to think outside the box because they feel safe to innovatively think. My "YES" moment of the day was when the assistant superintendent of Hamilton County schools tweeted  "Most significant edu discussion I've had in years #makerspace #edcampgigcity" -@RRSharpe. He's not even my administrator but to me this was an epiphany moment. He spent the day going from session to session, listening and learning. There was nothing he could really implement in the classroom but he was supporting the Hamilton County teachers there and listening to their hearts and minds. He got it.

I realize the experience may not have been what everyone was looking for but I woke up this morning tweeting the Chatt Tech Crew about things we could do to make the next one better. What a gloriously wonderful day of collaboration and learning that I now have in my educational toolbox for the future.