Toole Unlimited

An Agile Turtle

2024-09-15T14:10:00.001-04:00

An Agile Turtle

How I can use UX Management to combat old ways of thinking and doing business

The organizational obstacles I can relate to are a misunderstanding of UX and usability is not perceived as an issue. The example I can think of is a small business who has been growing steadily in their product offerings and loyal customers but didn’t really know why. When I asked to speak to their customers to see how their experience is, the small business owners said they don’t do that to their users. There was such a fear of inconveniencing their users by asking them their opinions. I tried to explain that you don’t know what you don’t know and attempted to gather information from secondary research to prove that more gaps needed to be filled by actually talking to users. Ultimately, the owners thanked me for my efforts but they will only ask if they aren’t making a profit.

So I learned that I have to educate people on what my role as a UX Researcher is and how I can add to their business value. The hardest lesson is to know when to push and when to accept a decision from an owner. Since I could not connect their future state to their continued profit, I tried connecting it to fewer hours of work to complete tasks and orders. I perceived the staff to be overworked unsustainably from their comments they made and I wanted to help social proof their business. The owners just didn’t want my help. They made their business, grew it from nothing, and didn’t care to change now or in the future. So I had to move on to a different client.

With the key learnings from this IxDF UX Management course, I might have approached the problem with more of a business mind trying to learn more about their KPIs other than profit. Maybe I could have made more of a case for user retention and loyalty as a result of improved UX processes. Maybe I could have scoured their forums for comments about their products. Maybe I could have investigated their competitors and identified gaps in performance. And still maybe the owners would not be open to listen. I had to learn that my input will not always be influential, and that is not a personal failure, but people’s ignorance of what UX is and can do.

Why Design for People With Disabilities?

2024-07-31T17:21:00.002-04:00

What do you do when someone says that people with disabilities don't use your product? Don't browse your website? Don't work at your company?

Well other than calling HR to chat with them, you educate them and advocate for people with invisible disabilities, like the estimated 33 million adults.

The problem is that people with invisible disabilities aren't believed or taken seriously when they reach out for help. Historically, we did little to nothing to include people with mental disorders in the workforce. While this seems to have improved over time, I think much more can and should be done to promote a good work life balance and overall mental health.

The ability to work remotely is a huge choice that benefits people with disabilities where they can manage their own space and needs without overwhelm and shame. Offering to work remotely is the key to companies recruiting the best talent with and without disabilities. We help people with disabilities by offering choices that allow for the job to get done. Businesses should provide the accommodations and get out of the way.

Picture from https://www.scienceupfirst.com/project/reminder-not-all-disabilities-are-visible.

Another good resource about workforce practices impact invisible disabilities.

https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/all-things-work/invisible-disabilities.

What would your response be to someone who says that they don't have to design for people with disabilities?

Accessibility Audit: CCU

2024-02-03T15:05:00.001-05:00

Accessibility Audit: Consumer's Credit Union (CCU)

Web Accessibility (claim and link to site)

Summary

Pretty solid scores for accessibility scoring a 94% from the Stark WCAG Audit. Great job for a banking app!

I’m sure your customers appreciate the purposeful and thoughtful design, I know I do. However, some contrast issues stood out right away that could never mean Level AA performance. A few more adjustments and the site could fully meet Level AA requirements, instead of partial conformance.

Biggest area to improve

Color contrast and font size. Especially in the navigation bar which is on every webpage.

💡 Light Gray on gray colors are never accessible.

This is an easy fix that will make a big impact.

Your current choices: Do not pass

You can select something better like a background of #686868.

Or even better with Level AAA compliance with a background of #353535.

Be the Website that Other Businesses Want to Be

Please do not hide behind your "partial conformance due to the use of 3rd party vendors." Make the one change that will impact readability for everyone and champion accessibility.

Then we can overlook the white text on the green call to action button that matches the green in your brand but doesn't pass contrast. That will be more difficult to change.

Iterate and Improve

2024-01-30T21:06:00.014-05:00

Iterate and Improve

Most things in life are a process

After we take the final test or submit the final project to the teacher, students very rarely look at the feedback that was given to improve. This changed a little bit with standards-based grading policies where students would have multiple opportunities to improve on a standard during the school year. Still, there were lots of moments where there was a deadline and you turned in whatever you had, whether you thought it was good enough or not.

Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy, basically made the point that even if you got a 98% on all your math tests, you would still be missing skills and have gaps in your mastery of the standards until you went back and improved on it. You could have those skill gaps your entire life if you never go back and try again. I have an attitude that there is always something to improve and something to learn from the experience. Deadlines are project constraints, but learning and improving through reflections and retrospectives are the real opportunities.

I learned that it’s not good enough to read about agile,

you have to experience agile to think agile.

The Tech Fleet UX Agile Masterclass

The UX Agile masterclass from Tech Fleet utilized three required readings to provide a foundation for Agile sprint work. I did have a general understanding of the Agile process from Tech Fleet’s product requirements class, reading about previous Agile sprint recaps, as well as classes from Interaction Design Foundation, and LinkedIn Learning. My husband also works with the SAFe Agile Framework and we commiserate over times when it seems like people are not being put over processes and it’s just waterfall plus. I had a lot to learn by experiencing the process myself and with others during the sprint.

Jake Knapp’s Design Sprint

I was most familiar with Jake Knapp’s book, Sprint and I liked the overall simplicity of planning one step per day in a 2 week cycle. I do like a good routine and starting by understanding the problem is always a solid choice. I also love that each week involves prototyping and testing to keep the product connected to the target audience. What I think is problematic is the time constraint of one day to perform each task. What starts off as a very chill Monday morning pace, quickly ramps up to a hectic Friday afternoon of trying to get enough participants to finish testing. In our Tech Fleet sprint, this looked like tasks becoming more of checkboxes to be completed on time instead of to the best quality. That’s something I have a hard time accepting as adding long-term value to a company, as it promotes shortcuts to outcomes without full due diligence.

Some say the shortcuts to the outcomes are just one way of understanding agile. One sprint in itself is not going to be very effective, but continuous discovery through the agile process proves to be one way that research can keep up with design and development. In Continuous Discovery Habits, by Teresa Torres, these weekly interactions with the users are what uncover assumptions to test and opportunities for improvement.

Teresa Torres’s Opportunity Solution Tree diagram

Personally, this made sense as a framework for a UX researcher. I liked how the focus was always on the desired outcome and the opportunities that arose from customer interviews. It seems like a great way to find and test customer pain points, needs, and desires. I also liked how it didn’t have a time constraint like Knapp’s sprint did; it just had to be constantly revisited each week to make improvements. In the Tech Fleet sprint, this approach was useful when dividing the work into primary and secondary research teams. Each team was able to test hypotheses related to their research goals around social media addiction. They got feedback faster from the target audience that the product could help address this problem. I really enjoyed working on this portion of the agile class because it caused so many ethical conversations about testing with minors and guardrails needed for our own product not to add to the addiction.

Finally, Lean UX by Gothelf and Seiden, is the closest to what we actually did in this sprint, maybe because it is the most flexible of the 3 processes. Using a Lean UX framework, we were able to deeply understand the problem, propose some solutions, and test our product in a highly collaborative cycle. Sometimes, it didn’t seem like there was anything lean about a team of 100+, and multiple distractions on the discord channel, but the collaborative spirit prevailed throughout the class. Teams were self-organized and decisions were rapidly made as we tried to minimize wasted time and efforts. As the class continued, clear leaders emerged that acted as project managers to further the collaborative problem-solving of the group. Multiple methods of communication like figjam boards, discord chat, recordings, etc., were crucial in facilitating asynchronous collaboration and creating a minimal viable product.

Gothelf and Seiden’s Lean UX cycle

In summary, I learned that it’s not good enough to read about agile, you have to experience agile in order to think agile. Thanks for the class and the opportunity to fail fast.

Works Cited

Gothelf, J., & Seiden, J. (2021). Lean UX: Creating great products with agile teams.

O’Reilly Media. Retrieved on https://jeffgothelf.com/blog/tag/lean-ux/.

Knapp, J. (2021). Sprint. Penguin Books. Retrieved on

https://www.thesprintbook.com/.

Torres, T. (2021). Continuous Discovery Habits: Discover products that create

customer value and business. Product Talk LLC. Retrieved on

https://www.producttalk.org/2021/05/continuous-discovery-habits/.

Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls

2023-12-20T16:51:00.008-05:00

How to Run a Collaborative Sprint

Don't go chasing waterfalls. Just stick to the Kanban boards that you are used to. I know that you are going to have your epics or nothing at all, but I think you're moving too fast.

So many projects start out with jumping in and not asking the participants about their expectations for the event. This is like starting the first day of school by reading Chapter 1 in the textbook without getting to know the students and their needs. The first weeks of school are about learning the rituals and behaviors needed to function in the setting. It's about asking students to share a little about themselves to learn their interests, motivations, and areas they might need extra help. Students aren't going to volunteer that information if you don't build that community of trust. It's okay to go slow in the beginning to go faster in the end.

You need to plan for that relationship-building time and understand the strengths and weaknesses that each person brings to the team. I'm not talking just 5-minute icebreakers that don't align around a common purpose and vision. Those you might incorporate into your other meetings at the start to keep it interactive. Or maybe add a Slack channel to get to know each other and find things in common, where further discussions can take place. That's the literal point of an icebreaker, to start and keep the conversation going.

I’ve worked on a team that was just agile in name. They did standup meetings every day, where no one ever had blockers. I didn’t know if they never had any obstacles or more likely, they didn’t feel comfortable enough to mention their struggles to the team. They also never mentioned anything to fix in retrospectives. Just a heads in the sands type of team. I was only there a short time to try to interject some clarity around research goals, but they definitely did not put people before processes.

What is your experience with sprints? Do they start designing deliverables before they know what problem to solve? What is done to kick off a sprint that builds trust and community on a team?

How Transitioning Designers Can Add Value With Transferable Skills

2023-10-30T17:30:00.004-04:00

I recently completed Don Norman's Design for the 21st Century class from Interaction Design Foundation. I like his ability to think systemically about big complex problems and make small incremental changes to improve them. It's very motivational and inspiring. I am sharing one discussion question from the course that they said was very well-stated.

Prompt:

As a generalist, you are able to apply your past knowledge to a new challenge.
Please describe one skill you currently have that you think might be useful in addressing a design challenge.

I am a retired special education teacher and in that field I had to be a generalist of all the curriculum with a co-teacher who was an expert in curriculum. I could learn how to teach math to kids by watching experts in their field teach math to kids. However, when it came to my special education students, I had to modify the way they learned because it didn’t all process when the math teacher was teaching it the first time. I have to break down and simplify complex tasks and ideas for them to be successful. This ability I have to simplify tasks and processes has helped tremendously in the design world where I have to communicate layers of design to various teammates or stakeholders.

Good vs Bad UX Design

2023-10-04T16:41:00.000-04:00

Today, we're delving into the fascinating world of User Experience (UX) design. We'll explore real-world examples of both good and bad UX design to shed light on what makes a digital experience either delightful or frustrating.

Good UX Design: Making Life Easier

Apple's iPhone: Apple's iconic iPhone is celebrated for its user-friendly design and intuitive interface. It proves that simplicity and functionality can coexist beautifully. I personally don't have much experience with Apple products, but I still can't help respect the empire that Apple has built through it's fanatically loyal users.
Google Search: Google's search engine sets the gold standard for UX. It delivers fast, relevant results within an uncluttered, easy-to-navigate interface. I'm definitely a Google gal over Bing or any other search engine.
Airbnb: Planning your next getaway? Airbnb's website and app offer a seamless booking experience. Clear photos, reviews, and a user-friendly payment system make travel planning a breeze. I loved when they added the different filters for types of stay. It might have seemed like a lot of clutter in navigation, but it really opened up all the awesomely cool places to stay like treehouses and castles.
Slack: In the realm of workplace communication, Slack shines. Its clean layout, straightforward navigation, and handy integrations enhance productivity for teams. I also like Discord in this similar vein of communication platforms, but I am way less productive there with all the extra features they are adding these days.
Netflix: Netflix knows how to keep viewers engaged. Personalized recommendations, intuitive navigation, and a smooth streaming experience keep us coming back for more. It also stops after a certain amount of inactivity, or asks you if you want to continue watching after you should probably take a break, or wake up from a nap.

Bad UX Design: The Pitfalls to Avoid

Cluttered Websites: Websites overrun with ads, pop-ups, and distractions confuse users and bury essential content.
Confusing Forms: Forms with unclear labels or too many fields frustrate users and often result in abandoned actions.
Inconsistent Navigation: Inconsistent menus and terminology across a site or app can leave users feeling lost and disoriented.
Unresponsive Mobile Design: Failing to adapt to mobile devices can be a major annoyance. Buttons might be too small, or layouts may break on smaller screens.
Overly Complex Software: Software with an overwhelming array of features and settings, minus clear guidance, leads to confusion and reduced productivity.
Hidden Information: Concealing vital info, like contact details or pricing, frustrates users trying to make informed decisions.
Long Load Times: Slow-loading websites or apps test our patience and often result in users bouncing away.
Unintuitive Controls: When buttons, menus, or gestures don't behave as expected, frustration ensues. Predictable, intuitive controls are essential.

In summary, good UX design prioritizes simplicity, clear pathways, and user needs, while bad UX often stems from neglecting user feedback and overcomplicating interfaces.

As you embark on your design endeavors, remember that the key to exceptional UX lies in understanding your users, anticipating their needs, and continually evolving to meet their expectations.

What do you think? What are some examples of good or bad UX design?

Happy designing!

Launching into Code - A Summertime Journey of a Teacher

2022-05-22T22:20:00.002-04:00

Why the change?

I didn't work in technology because it wasn't an option for me when I was looking at careers. I was always on a track to become a teacher. I had a wonderful 14 years of student smiles, aha moments, and teacher appreciation cards. Yet if I'm honest, I was burnt out by year 5 from how slow the educational system changes. Veteran teachers would always say, "This (insert curriculum) is just a fad. The pendulum will swing back around to something else in a few years." They weren't wrong either: change did happen, it was just so incredibly slow to change that it was painful. I was highly successful in my teaching career, but I was bored. So on to the next chapter, especially during summer when I have all the time to immerse myself in learning and practicing.

The good thing about a teacher is the ability to learn new skills and teach others. Those skills are highly transferable to a new career. I also dabbled in coding for fun like playing Code combat, designing a RPG video game, and becoming certified in CS Discoveries from Code.org, a training to teach and implement a Computer Science program for middle level grades. I'm also on Khan Academy daily to supplement my curriculum and learn how others' explain the concepts. It's interesting to me to note that when my husband was taking a paid boot camp to reskill as a data scientist, the course sent him to free Khan Academy videos on statistics to learn the math, and I tutored him in the parts he had difficulty. It was reminiscent of my Math Team days in high school when you learned a concept just to learn it and feel good about learning something new.

I thought I would have to work twice as hard to be half as good as a male counterpart in the good 'ole boys club. The reality is there is still a huge disparity in equity of opportunity for women and people of color. However, having a victim mentality and believing that women are less deserving than men is not something that I have time for. I want to make my way in the tech world and help others make their way, too. So after doing some soul searching and googling some first steps, I decided to start my journey into programming, at least while school is out and I have the time to devote to studying.

Some free boot camp options:

https://www.launchcode.org/women-plus

Other places to learn

The following is a list of topics and skills needed to complete the LaunchCode Discovery online course for Computer Programming. I completed it in a weekend at a casual pace. It is a good example of debugging needed to complete the questions for the course. I got stuck once or twice and had to step away and revisit it later with fresh eyes.

Expert study skills

(from https://stepik.org/lesson/61293/step/1?unit=38394)

Use recall
Test yourself - https://www.hackerrank.com/dashboard
Talk to yourself
Teach it to others
Use analogies and metaphors
Chunk your problems
Break big skills into smaller sub-skills and drill them until they are mastered

Common Things You'll Need to do as a Programmer

Type (a lot!)

https://www.speedcoder.net lets you practice your typing of code.

Use a text editor

https://code.visualstudio.com is my preferred text editor.

Python function type() and it will tell you the type of data

Type conversion

int () - integer

str () - string

float () - rational and decimal numbers

Remember, it always contains the last value that was assigned to it!

Use keyboard shortcuts

Use the command line

Download and install software

https://replit.com/repls is a place you can download and copy your code

Check and change your PATH variable

Think about inputs, outputs, and processes

What is the desired output?

What inputs do I need to have the necessary data to form or inform that output?

What processing do I need to do with my inputs to get the desired output

Operators and Operands

- which performs subtraction

* which performs multiplication

/ which performs division and always results in a float

** which performs exponentiation (raising a number to another power, for example 2**3 = 8)

% which is the modulus (or remainder) operator

if x % y is zero, then x is divisible by y.

If x % 2 is zero, then x is even.

If x % 2 is 1, then x is odd.

Conditionals

If, elif, else loops

While true loops

For loops

Range

Functions

Def - function definition

Implementing and calling

Naming variables

Return values

Other Related Math Concepts

Binary, decimal, hexadecimal

Order of operations

Linear algebraic equations

Exponents

Logarithms

Averages

Percentages

Perimeter and area of a rectangle

Radius, diameter, and circumference of a circle

Area of a circle

Allying Against Racial Inequity

2021-08-14T12:28:00.002-04:00

I wasn't alive during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's, but it feels like another big change is about to occur. I know change is necessary, but I'm worried that it's going to be violent, too. (Note: I first drafted this idea of a blog in November of 2017. Fast forward to 2021 when a whole slew of racist violence continues to dominate our society.)

I'm privileged enough that I've never had to worry about racism. I've never been treated unfairly because of my skin tone so I won't pretend to know how it feels. If anything, I get labeled white and am extended all the privileges of being a white woman in America. The closest I've come to feeling discriminated against is being a female getting hit on by creepy guys at clubs or concerts. I have learned to just avoid those types of environments in order to avoid those uncomfortable negative situations. Or I can go with a guy and then it's not an issue. I enlist the help of an ally, someone who has power and influence over a situation to protect someone who does not.

The problem is that people of color experience racism everywhere and it is not avoidable. We have to do better as a society and finish the job to end racist practices that began so long ago.

The funny thing about the protests is that the protesters know their history a lot more deeply than their critics. They know exactly what they are protesting and are very articulate about it when asked. The problem with a silent protest is that other people can put words in their mouth. Take football player, Colin Kaepernick, for the San Francisco 49ers for example. He decided to use his platform to speak up against the police brutality that black males face by kneeling during the national anthem before each game. Some people were confused and curious why he was doing that as they watched other players and people in the stands also start kneeling. Some people were immediately outraged that someone deliberately was disrespecting the national anthem and the flag. Oh boy did they spin his message and mistreat him even more. Learn the true history of what happened to him to keep him and his message of police brutality silenced. I watched a Nightline video to learn more about it myself. Here's a clip of "Kneeling for Change" on YouTube.

I remember going to a volleyball game at a predominantly Caucasian public high school and feeling so conflicted when the national anthem came on. With the kneeling going on in the NFL, it was still reaching all the other sports or really all the places that played the national anthem. The announcement came on to please stand for the national anthem, with noticeably more emphasis on "stand" than at previous games. I stood up, placed my hand over my heart, and felt it beating faster than usual. I stood, as I was taught to do, because I respect the military and the sacrifices that were made so that I can live in freedom. But I also looked around and wondered how many people in the stands and on the field were mindful of their reasons for standing for the national anthem. Additionally, I wondered how people would react if there was a person of color in the building that decided they wanted to kneel. That's when I was struck with my empathic breakthrough; how much courage it must take to be a person of color fighting against daily and unrelenting oppression. Patriotism is more than waving a big flag, sometimes it's having a tough conversation about how we can do better for our citizens that we ostracize and other. It's not just listening to the voiceless, but amplifying their message until real change happens.

I also tried to find some racial equality resources and I found Race Forward, where they believe racial equality will happen if people listen, learn, and engage. That sure was the opposite goal of the Trump administration where he was so quick to remove peaceful protestors and provoke violence against those that he disagreed with. Dialogue is the way we become better and do better. I whole-heartedly respect peaceful silent protests. It's a person's right and they should exercise it whenever they see fit. However, we teach our students that bullying continues to happen because there are too many bystanders who witness it and do nothing. How is this any different? We need to be actively anti-racist and keep pushing back against racist practices that are within the foundation of our American history. So as an ally, I commit to listening, learning, and engaging in order to promote equality for all.

20-things-you-can-do-as-an-ally-right-now

Are We Ready for Back to School Time? Nope

2020-07-13T18:24:00.007-04:00

In Wisconsin, USA we are now seeing the highest increase in positive new COVID cases since the pandemic began (WI Dept of Health). How can it possibly be time to end the Stay at Home order which helped us flatten the curve and go back to work and school?

We closed schools for a reason and I don't see why now is the time to reopen when there are even more new cases each day. Perhaps it's time for some assuring words from the Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos.

“The key is that kids have to get back to school,” DeVos said, “And we know there are going to be hot spots. And those need to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. But the rule should be that kids go back to school this fall. They have been missing months of learning.”(https://youtu.be/m5YCpNqpdCM).

So she reassures everyone that it's time to send kids back to school by calling them hot spots and acknowledging how quickly the virus can spread in groups of children. Just about the level of incompetence we've come to expect from a Secretary of Education that has never visited a classroom.

Why kids say they want to go back to school

Kids say they want to go back to school because they miss their pre-COVID experiences. This is the negotiating phase of grief and loss. It's only natural to want to go back. They spent most of their days in a school surrounded by their friends. Most kids would say that lunch and recess are their favorite parts of school. But what they don't understand yet is that way of school is gone until we find a vaccine. Kids are not going to be returning to the magical school atmosphere of high fives and smiling faces; instead, it will be the sterile environment of a doctor's office with temperature checks and masks. And empty seats of kids that didn't make it to school that day. Not quite the same vibe. This is the COVID pandemic collective trauma and we are still experiencing even if the Dells and Disneyland are reopening.

From what I've seen, it's still too early to reopen schools safely. If we go back to school in the fall, kids will still not have a "normal" school experience because they can't interact like they used to. Even if we get the ridiculous 6 feet apart and no mixed groups CDC regulations in place, what happens when there is a confirmed case in a classroom of students? Wouldn't we offer online learning and self-quarantine at home to those exposed anyways? So online learning will not be going away anytime soon. Even the blended learning models that alternate in-class instruction and online learning will probably end up being more of a 2:3 ratio, with 2 days in class and 3 days online during the week, which still puts kids in jeopardy.

Give kids what they are really missing - socialization

Adults should transition to teaching students how to interact with their peers online to maintain play and relationships. One way to do that is a virtual book club. In my personal experience, the two toughest parts about starting a book club are setting the ground rules and choosing the first book. Once those are accomplished, the kids take it from there.

We had a group of kids who always wanted to read together in a book club instead of by themselves during silent reading. When I asked who would be interested in reading together, their hands went straight up. I picked kids from a similar reading level, selected 3-4 books of varying topics, and let them preview and vote on their choice. That's just how our reading groups were organized, that's not to say that is the only way to start a book club. I've also done a mixed level reading group but made sure the students could access the audiobook if they struggled reading it at their level. Sure, you might get the rare student that pouts through the first chapter because they are reading a book they didn't vote for, but tell them they get to choose next time and they will read along until the book naturally engages them.

Give kids what they need - communication of their thoughts and opinions

Book clubs are academic or reading skill-based in schools, but they are also highly social. The social aspect of reading the same book promotes learning because:

Some prefer to read with others instead of by themselves.
Some get more engaged in listening to a story than reading words on a page.
Most remember more when they can ask questions and share connections.
They can fix comprehension errors and cite the text to prove their point.
It teaches how to pause and summarize to keep the group on the same page.
It teaches an understanding that not everyone thinks the same and that's ok.
It builds the culture that every voice and opinion matters.

Book clubs replace the mandated reading logs which tend to demotivate students to read. Yes, teachers can gauge reading comprehension with an online multiple-choice test, but some kids will pass by guessing. Yes, teachers can have silent readers write down their thoughts as they are reading and share out after, but that takes additional class time. Yes, kids can show up to the book club without having done the assigned reading for discussion but it's pretty hard to fake your way through "What was your favorite part of the story?" without the teacher knowing. Besides, with the case of my 5th and 6th graders, I let the group handle all the details of managing the book club. I make suggestions on pacing and they assign what to read for homework, or by the next discussion time. Let them have ownership and accountability within their group; they don't want to let their group members down.

Thanks for reading.

What do you think? Is it time for kids to go back to school? Do you feel like schools can safely operate under the CDC guidelines? Have you been contacted by your local school to see what you think? Would you start an online book club for your kids?

Survival

2020-03-23T15:09:00.001-04:00

Survival is a common theme I read about in blogs lately. Am I talking about the zombie apocalypse or eating bugs in the wild Bear Grylls style? No, the survival theme I'm talking about is preserving one's best self without being influenced by mass (social) media, the poor economy, or what passes as news nowadays.

For some, it might mean navigating social circles of school and online trolls. It might mean adjusting to a work from home environment and getting tech-savvy practically overnight just to keep up. Or a struggle might impact the livelihood of your home and the health and welfare of your family. If the main character in The Hatchet, Brian Robeson, has taught us anything, it's how powerful our positivity and hope can be in bleak situations. Make the little things count more than ever. Go to your refrigerator and say thank you for finding food inside. Chat with people through the amazing internet and catch up on conversations. Play online games together with your friends in the comfort of your own home. Learn to cook a new recipe, or plant a new seed, or learn a new music piece. Keep that hope and spark alive because we will get through this. I know you have it in you to not only survive but thrive. Be well.

Be in the moment

2020-03-23T14:50:00.003-04:00

I haven't written anything in a very long while and so this post is going to just be short and sweet to ease back into it. I thought of something to do to bring awareness to how codependent people can be to their cell phones, and or technology. Treat cell phone notifications as an interruption to the time you are spending with someone. If you are in the same room as another person having a conversation or eating together, ask permission to pick up your phone if it dings or rings. Yes, it may be an emergency and you have to leave the room to deal with something. But it's probably just another notification on your phone that maybe you could have turned off altogether. I've turned off all notifications of my apps on my phone and email -- it's not designed to be an easy 1 click feature, but you can turn them all off manually app by app. I only check when I choose to check.

My Magic Sentence

2016-11-27T17:09:00.002-05:00

This post is from the perspective of a special education teacher managing classroom behaviors and avoiding power struggles from people who think very differently than yourself. Even if you are not a special education teacher, you still could benefit from the strategy provided if you need a little more help coping with the plethora of issues that arose out of the 2016 United States Presidential Election. This election was more divisive than any other that I've experienced in my lifetime. It has divided families, scared people about the unknown, and spread hatred and violence on both sides of the party lines. Instead of being about ideas and proposals, this election was about degrading the other side to seem like criminals and worse. People need to understand that just because someone voted for the opposite candidate than you did does not make them a bad person; similarly, just because a student misbehaves in the classroom it doesn't make the student a bad person. We all get choices but we cannot escape the consequences of those choices. Our nation has suffered by enduring such an election and it's time to heal the pain.

When I was a novice special education teacher a decade ago, I had a classroom management professional development class on love and logic. It was essentially about how to get the best performance out of someone with a lifetime of hurt and suffering from past relationships. These were students just struggling emotionally to make it through one more day and learning academics was nowhere on their list of priorities. This caused a slew of behavioral problems in the classroom. After a few times of utter failure at handling the situation, I researched some new strategies to deal with difficult behaviors. (I may have been a rookie teacher, but I still face problems head on.) The best and simplest strategy to use was saying a magic sentence to myself before addressing misbehavior.

My magic sentence: “I didn’t cause this pain, but it they let me, I can help them heal it.”

It’s a short and sweet sentence, but transformative in a time of anger and frustration. It's simply too good not to share. People ask me, how do you stay so calm and patient? It's my magic sentence and how it restores my inner peace to handle problems. In that same moment when you stop and breathe, releasing oxygen to your brain so you can think more effectively, you say your magic sentence to yourself and re-frame the problem. Repeat it over and over as necessary until you are back under control of your thoughts and actions.

Here’s the parts and their individual contribution to the whole:

“I didn’t cause this pain” - We know that behavior is just a way of a person communicating his or her needs. If you accidentally hit a nerve in the person, you will get an unanticipated reaction from the person. If you ask a student to do an educational task and you get a bunch of disrespect back for your trouble, you can analyze the antecedents to the behavior later. Right now, the student is suffering and is not open to learning. Open a dialogue and give choices. "Whoa, I see you are angry about something. Would you like to talk about it with me or someone else?" Depending upon your rapport with the student and how deep the damage is, you can get results varying from the student opening up and telling you everything from an escalation in behavior and sometimes violence. Prepare yourself to see past the behavior as pain and choose empathy and compassion.
"..but if they let me," - We know that anger overrides logical thinking, so timing is important. In the previous step, you already opened up a dialogue and gave the person a choice to talk about it or not. Respect their choice. The person might not be ready to talk about what is bothering him or her at this moment. That's ok. Or maybe the student chooses someone to talk to someone other than you. That's ok too. Or maybe the person continues to rage and does not accept help from anyone. Just send the message that you are there for them when they are ready, and walk away.

Too many people try to force advice on people when they do not want to hear it. If and when the person is ready to accept help, he or she will seek you out and ask for it. Yes, it is incredibly difficult to sit on the sidelines and wait, especially if the student is doing something illegal or dangerous outside of school. It can eat you up inside worrying about it, but it's not in your control so you have to let it go. Just show your concern, offer to talk, and move on to the next person who did ask for your help.
For your really tough kids to crack, you have to understand you are chipping away at layers and layers of mistrust and you cannot expect to change behavior overnight. For one student I worked with for grades 7-8, he was used to moving and escaping his problems instead of facing them. It took more than a year to get him to trust me with his problems. I acknowledge that is a time limit that most teachers do not have the luxury to allow, given that it exceeds the typical school year of instruction. However, if you think about it, it's the same with students who come back the next year to seek out your counsel. A caring person doing small acts of kindness can make a difference.

"...I can help them heal it." - We know from Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs that a person's basic physiological needs supersede the ability to learn and live up to their full potential. Normally through listening to a conversation and some detective work, I can figure out how to help the person solve the problem right in front of them and make them feel better if even a little bit.

Inspired extra credit

2016-09-09T21:54:00.003-04:00

So it's the 3rd week back at school and I've got the class routines and climate set. I'm trying to teach the kids about growth mindset and to always improve. I'm also letting them use their cell phones as learning devices to lookup things they don't know like unknown words. The students have identified in a survey that they do not use technology as a learning device very well and would like to improve. That is my targeted behavior goal for the class this quarter. We start our English class with a quote of the day and we practice annotating for meaning, identifying theme, and sharing what we think is the author's message (Common Core Reading Standards & 21st Century Skills). For some students, it's just a regular assignment like a worksheet they just rush through to finish. Sometimes, I collect it to grade as a formative and other times we just talk and discuss it.

I really enjoy famous quotes for several reasons.

It's highlighting famous writers and people known for their intellectual contributions rather than the latest celebrity gossip. I'm always a fan of that.
It's teaching the importance of words and the impact that our words can have on ourselves and others. That's a nice anti-bullying message for students who can't use social media respectfully.
Another reason is that it teaches sentence variety in a an interesting way since most of the quotes are complex or compound sentences.
It's a positive way to start class collaboration; it's designed to stimulate conversation and promote deep thinking.
Most importantly, it has some deep quotes that are inspiring.

For example, the quote of the day for Thursday was:

Recently, the students like to look up the author also so we pulled up a biography about Helen Keller to read and summarize together. I was blown away by their level of engagement and their reading and writing skills. We wrote the first paragraph together as a class and then I had the students summarize the second section about Helen Keller's teacher on their own. The students loved it. We even talked about braile and how it is on the door signs at school because that is how blind people read. Kids got up to see and ran their fingers over the raised surface of the room number. Some kids closed their eyes and tried to write a word like Helen and wondering how she could write her words so clearly. It was a very memorable learning experience.

In the biography, it mentioned a movie based on Helen Keller and her teacher. One student re-read to find the name of the movie, The Miracle Worker, and said she was going to watch it tonight and write a summary about it for me tomorrow. Imagine my surprise when she returns to class the next day with a 5 page essay detailing the movie plot and conflict. She said she stayed up til 2 am writing it; it was fascinating to her. She said she couldn't go to bed until she wrote it all down from her head. She also looked up the sign language alphabet and taught herself all the letters. So yeah, total proud teacher moment. (minus the staying up late, but that's the way the creative process goes sometimes).

I can't help but think that I am like Helen Keller's teacher. Equipped with love, logic, and soon to be delivered laptops, I can help my students really communicate with the world. Maybe having devices all the time has made them bored and impacted their ability to focus and sustain their attention. All they want to do is be on their devices. Maybe they are a little spoiled in this respect. However, I have witnessed too many positive outcomes to say no technology devices allowed. So I guess my task will be to help them filter the type of information that gets to their devices (Audio books and how to videos versus funny snap chats and selfies). All I want for them is to contribute their passions to the world and someday there might be a brainy quote about them. Then I'd really be like Helen Keller's teacher. Goal: Ultimate proud teacher moment.

Thanks for reading!

Getting on the Write Track; Thinking Like a Blogger

2016-03-07T09:53:00.003-05:00

I read this post from Edutopia about "How to Use Social Media to Strengthen Student Writing" and I knew we were on the Write Track with blogging. I personally don't use Twitter much, but I would if my students were able to use it to write more effectively. There is still resistance from students to put their very personal thoughts and stories online on Blogger; some just prefer to write on paper and only have me read it, which I always respect their wishes. However, when they share, it can have an almost therapeutic effect. Here's one example below.

So for the last day of the quarter, I ask the students what was the most important thing they learned and why? It's fun to see what skills the students value and remember in the long run.

Imagine my surprise when one of my senior students said that this class was the first time she had written an essay. We actually wrote two essays this quarter. One essay was comparing and contrasting different writing styles, and the other was a career research paper. I was in disbelief so I questioned her her for more information.

"So you've gone your whole high school life without writing an essay before this class?"

She nodded her head yes. Earlier on her blog about a life lesson she learned, she wrote about how she ditched classes and didn't get caught when she was a freshman and sophomore. I think she was surprised that I read that post because she blushed a little when I asked her why she ditched class and why she decided to stop. Her response showed her new-found maturity level and acceptance of personal responsibility.

"Honestly, I just got too old for it. My friends pressured me into ditching with them...but they dropped out now and I want to graduate."

I checked her first quarter attendance when she was frequently absent to other classes and yet she showed up to our small English class. There had to be a reason why she came to our class and not the others. While I do not know the exact reason she tuned into writing instead of tuning out on her earbuds, I am grateful to have her in class on the Write Track.

Frappachinos to really feel like a blogger
and celebrate their work this quarter

Thanks for reading!
So what do you think about students using social media to strengthen their writing?

Learning to Like Reading

2016-02-27T11:06:00.001-05:00

So here's an update on how the independent reading program is progressing. In the past, Friday's work production was minimal with a lot of excuses about how they can't do any work. Since starting the book talk Fridays, I have seen some very different reading habits develop.

We start class on Monday clarifying due dates and expectations for reading outside of class. Students are supposed to learn how to set short term objectives and manage their time by reading 15-20 minutes each night. Not every student has caught on to this way of thinking yet. Some students are still cramming all their reading into Thursday night, but that is still progress from before and not reading at all. The students are doing this not just because the teacher said so and it's part of their grade; the students are doing this because they like reading their books they chose.

We started the Friday book talks with very little structure. It was just tell the class about what you are reading so far. Tell us about the main character and setting and the conflict. It was just a basic retelling of the plot and not that interesting, honestly. So I asked the class to ask questions to the presenter about their book the next week of book talks. Sometimes there were questions that the presenter didn't know how to answer, and sometimes the presenter could flip right to a page of the book to show the answer citing evidence. With this format, students were much more engaged in a discussion. I think it's because students kept their classmates accountable for their reading. If the presenter didn't know an answer to a question maybe because it didn't show up in the book yet, students kept asking each week until it was answered. People are naturally curious. Not only are the students interested in the book they are reading, they are also curious about the books their classmates talk about too.

For example, last week one student was asked about the cover artwork of her book and what it meant. It was a great question, but the presenter did not know the answer yet. So she was motivated to read more and find the answer. Then I overheard a student ask her "So did you figure out what the cover art means? and she responded that it had to do with an art project and a tree. I don't even think the students noticed that I was listening, so they didn't do it for a grade. Proud teacher moment.

Risky Business for Teens

2016-02-26T19:09:00.002-05:00

As an educator for almost a decade now, I have seen students engage

in risky behaviors. I have seen students with low self-esteem cause harm to themselves and others, act out to get attention, and self-medicate to escape the struggles of life. I have counseled students through many difficult choices where their past behaviors have caught up to them and forced them to work harder to make up for it. Some students do work harder, thus affirming my belief that people are resilient and can bounce back from failure. I believe in second chances and learning from mistakes. However, my heart just can't take seeing another teen pregnancy.

Yes, there is some good news here that teen pregnancy rates have dropped over the past two decades. Still more can and should be done to further reduce this amount because "Pregnancy and birth are significant contributors to high school drop out rates among girls. Only about 50% of teen mothers receive a high school diploma by 22 years of age, versus approximately 90% of women who had not given birth during adolescence." (Center for Disease Control, or CDC).

Young women already have the deck stacked against them in terms of the glass ceiling and the differences in pay for males and females. Not only have teen moms eliminated their chance for advancement in their social-economic status, they have also overburdened their family support structure, and predestined their child for a life of hardship. The CDC also reports that the children of teenage mothers are more likely to drop out, have more health problems, get incarcerated, and give birth as a teen. So teen births are a vicious repeating cycle that will continue unless something is done about it.

TV show depicting a high school boy

flirting with an older woman as he cleans her pool.

Adults do your own thing, in the privacy of your own home, and please don't feel the need to publicize it or glamorize it to teens. Stop showing actors in their 20-30s as high school students on tv shows. I have experienced way too many teen parents who wanted to have sex without really thinking what would happen if they were to get pregnant. The scariest is when young teenage girls get pregnant and miscarry, but still remain sexually active after. Some girls even go through the trauma of having an abortion and then go right back to having sex.

I remember a conversation with my doctor last year talking about how mothers were having their daughters get an IUD at 14 years old just to ensure that they did not get pregnant even if they were sexually active. After hearing that fact, I felt like I was transported to another planet. I was completely dumbstruck by that thought. I think the fact that parents have so little control over kids these days is a big reason why I personally choose not to have kids. It's terrifying. Is that what most teens and parents of teens have to deal with these days? Has it always been like this? How did it get to be like this? What can be done to better educate young teens about the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies, and miscarriages?

Quick Facts about Teens Having Sex - from http://www.pamf.org

Parents are the most important sexuality educators for their children.
No parent needs to be an expert on sexuality to have meaningful conversations with their children – parents can share their values about sexuality, relationships, and respect for others.
Some parents believe that talking about sex will lead to teens having sex. In fact, research shows that teens who have talked with their parents about sex are more likely to post-pone sex and use birth control when they do begin.
Teens that have high self-esteem are more likely to make responsible decisions about sex.
Teens often believe that all of their friends are having sex. This belief puts pressure on teens (especially boys) to have sex.
Every 350 teens contract a sexually transmitted disease (STD).
The United States of America has one of the highest birth rates among developing countries.
Teens often overestimate the percentage of their peers that are sexually experienced.

Well for one thing, parents have to talk to their kids about sex. Don't believe that talking to kids about sex is going to make them want to have sex. Yet even the most descriptive and intentionally designed sex ed course at school cannot compare to a parent conversation with their own teen. The lines of communication have to be open so that parents can set boundaries for their sons/daughters. Trust has to be established in order to get that call or text when there is pressure to have sex that the teen doesn't know how to deal with. A trusted adult's advice, given at the exact moment of need, is what is going to make a difference to choose healthy decisions. I recommend this guide from planned parenthood for some tips on how to talk about sex with a teen.

Another recommendation is to let the teen argue his/her points, respectfully of course. When it comes to the topic of sex, parents should not preach and state, "It's my way or the highway," or "Because I said so." Maybe that worked when the kid was little but now the teen is more capable of thinking through their actions. Studies show that teens need to learn to disagree or they will be overcome by peer pressure. Try role playing situations to develop critical problem-solving skills. Listen to what the teen has to say and praise him/her for being honest. Give opportunities to build responsibility and trust gradually over time so that the teen is assertive when handling conflicts. There is a happy middle ground between a teen's back talk and complete silence. Teens can disagree with a parent's decision. Let them talk out why they disagree with a curfew or a chore list or anything that can be negotiated. Even if nothing changes, at least the teen learned that they have to speak up for themselves, especially in stressful situations. The teen will also learn that he/she can talk to his/her parent about anything and discuss it calmly and rationally.

Is there more peer pressure to have sex than in the past? Is society placing more emphasis on sex than in the past years? I don't really know. All I know is that while I sympathize with teen parents, that's what happens when people engage in risky behaviors. It's the same thing with underage drinking and driving, doing drugs, and being involved in illegal activities; one poor choice can change a person's life forever.

Express Yourself

2016-02-16T23:13:00.000-05:00

So last month I have been engineering a new curriculum for my students and today was the first day of them experiencing what they would learn if they weren't told what they had to learn. I started my students down an unknown road where they get to take ownership of their learning. (Shout out to my students if you are reading this.) It is always a tricky balancing act to teach within the confines of a job description and mandated parameters while really asking and sometimes challenging why the students are learning what they are learning.

One teaching strategy I have used with amazing success is for the students to summarize what they learned in a Learning Log. It can be a simple notebook, a google form, or sometimes just a conversation at the end of class about what they learned. The key point is to share it. Share the learning. Notice when learning does not occur, and make a plan to learn better next time. Appreciate when learning outside of the targeted learning objective happens, because it does despite whatever amazing lesson plan a teacher designs. I actually have kept the students' learning logs throughout the years, and when I re-read them, I remember what amazing human beings I have had the privilege of teaching over the years.

Below are some picture examples from a Math class I taught in a low-performing, restructured school in Hawaii. Yes, writing should be taught in Math class (and every class) in order to express the concepts and processes. Common core standards say students shouldn't just get an answer and be done, they need to explain how they got the answer. So that's what we did. You can see the progression from one sentence answers (doing something because you were told you have to do it), to paragraph explanations and visual references solidifying the information in long-term memory (owning the learning).

Simple one sentence answers

Adding details and diagrams

Writing the process steps in order

Evaluating what was the most important learning and why

If there is one message I'd like to tell my students (and anyone open to listening), I would tell them look for the good in people and you'll find it. Look for the bad, and you'll find it too. Never underestimate the power of positive thinking and how your attitude will impact your life and the lives of others. Don't just tell a story, tell YOUR story. That's what makes me passionate about writing, not the English grammar and conventions, but the ideas and the ability to express myself without talking.

Be bold and show people what you are passionate about. Connect with people who are passionate about that same topic too. Use the internet as the amazing learning tool that it is that can teach you anything, anywhere, anytime you want. Really, if you have the internet, I can't accept the excuse of "I don't know how to do that." If you truly want to know how, you'll find a way.

For example, today's assignment in google classroom was to create a blog on blogger and then write about the students' independent reading book. All I did was assign the task, link the resource guide with step by step instructions on how to create a blog, and everyone was able to do it. Some students asked me questions and I said, "What does the guide say?" over and over until they stopped asking me questions and started reading the guide and helping each other. I did that on purpose. I also got a lot of questions about the assignment: "How long does it have to be?, What are we supposed to write about?, Is this good?" My response was "What do you think?" on a broken record loop. This is what students experience when they get their first chance to be creative. I reflected on that bittersweet moment; I'm sad that the students have been conditioned and "educated" over the years to complete things like a checklist instead of the joy and pride in meaningful work, and also hopeful that something positive is going to come out of this.

So thanks for reading and stay tuned for more teaching ideas and tales from the classroom as I model for the students what it means to express yourself online.

Strategy Roulette for the Restructured School

2014-02-22T03:07:00.001-05:00

Depending upon the phase of restructuring, failing schools employ various methods to turn around their schools' performance. In the early phases when a school is not making adequate yearly progress (AYP) on test scores, but they are in range of the target goal, they use what I call safe harbor strategies. A school meeting the safe harbor qualifications of the No Child Left Behind Act tries to narrow the focus to a particular skill, subject, or subgroup for testing. They might look at their data, identify tipping point students, and provide test prep instruction for a short time period before the test. These interventions are generally unknown to the general student population since it's by invitation only and it's not during school time. It could be before or after school, or even a short class in the summer. If that small percentage of students increase their test scores, then the intervention is considered successful. If the students do not increase their test scores, then the school will have to move on to more invasive methods.

Here is what a school structure would look like before restructuring. The tell tale sign of a restructured school is the amount of disruption to the natural classroom environment. It begins relatively harmless with a few visitors to observe the class and snowballs into major disruptions to the classroom flow.

Restructuring Not needed	Students	Teachers	Plan	Timeline	Location	Disruption to Classroom
Meeting AYP	1% students need intensive interventions	Teachers teach to the students not the test	No additional strategies required	Progress monitoring throughout the year	Strategies are embedded into the curriculum	None
Last Chance Before Restructuring	Students	Teachers	Plan	Timeline	Location	Disruption to Classroom
Safe Harbor	5% or less of the student population	1 or 2 experienced teachers lead the test prep intervention	A short test prep course is given to targeted students	Generally occurs before a testing date	Outside of the regular school day	None

Here are the possible next phases of restructuring.

Restructuring Phases	Students	Teachers	Plan	Timeline	Location	Disruption to Classroom
Consultation	May involve interviewing students during classroom observations	A sampling of teachers are observed and represent the entire faculty	An outside source assesses the school’s performance	Consultation contracts can last ½ a year up to 3 years	Majority is outside of the regular school day	Teachers could be pulled out of classes to attend training sessions
Data Collection	All students take a universal screener test in Math and Reading	All teachers create assessments and rubrics	Teachers create common formative and summative assessments	Generally during the 1^st grading period of the school year.	During class time and outside of class time	Noticeable disjointed assessments added into the classroom lessons
Data Analysis	All students take assessments that aren’t for a grade	Teachers become data analysts overnight	Teachers talk about their student data in Professional Learning Communities	Generally during the 2^nd grading period of the school year.	Planning time and meeting times	Less time to plan lessons and problem solve with colleagues
Curriculum mapping	Focused on students but students don’t participate in this process	Teachers create and align curriculum	The data says that the curriculum is lacking in rigor	A year course is completed by the end of the school year	Plan times, meeting times, outside of school	Less time teachers can give feedback to students
Strategy Roulette	Students stop doing everything and try a new strategy	Teachers stop their lessons and throw in a new strategy	Teachers are trained in a new strategy and create new lesson plans with this focus	Happens throughout the school year, can be multiple years	Training outside of school, class time	Stop and restart learning process

Thanks for reading! How have the restructuring phases impacted you?

Less Negative Talk, More Acts of Kindness

2013-11-11T23:03:00.000-05:00

Hi everybody,

It has been a long time since I last blogged and my writing will be a little rusty as a result, please bear with me. I have been busy with school and special ed meetings for my students. All excuses aside, here is what has been on my mind to share lately.

I would like to explore the prevalence of negative-themed memes and propose an alternative. Now I do enjoy a nice Chemistry Cat meme, because the science geek in me loves a good pun. I could not say that I know a lot of memes, but upon observation, it looks like a majority of them are making fun of someone or have a negative impact. I am fed up with the amount of misplaced rage that people have about their lives being so unfair.

Ironically, I have been accused of having "1st world problems" and I took it to heart. Well first I googled it to find out what it was, and then I took it to heart. Here's what I found.

"First World Problems, also known as “White Whine,” are frustrations and complaints that are only experienced by privileged individuals in wealthy countries. It is typically used as a tongue-in-cheek comedic device to make light of trivial inconveniences."

Those that know me probably would not label me a complainer, but it does not mean I don't have thoughts in my head about how things are unfair or need to change. After all, my whole blog is about change. It is not easy to stay positive. It is a lot easier to get bogged down in the negativity and go along with that flow of energy. Still, a pity party for one is not my kind of fun.

I do not normally like the memes people make nowadays, as it is just more ways to complain about problems that they are lucky enough to have. (Hmm, it occurs to me that I may be complaining about memes, another first world problem. This is going to be harder than I thought.) I would like to see a webpage dedicated to taking a negative image and/or thought and changing it into a positive one. We need more "Turn that frown upside down" memes.

So here is what I am going to try for this month, and you can feel free to try it, too.

November is all about thankfulness and appreciating what you have.

Whenever I feel sorry for myself that the day is not going the way I would like it to, I am not going to post it on Facebook. I will not tweet about it and I will never write FML.

Instead, I will think about how lucky I am to be alive, healthy, and have all of my needs met. I will remember I have family and friends that love me and would do anything for me.

After I stop my negative thinking, I will then do at least one act of kindness for someone else.

I will then post or blog about the act of kindness, not to toot my own horn, but to tilt the scale towards positive interactions on the internet and social networks.

If there is one thing I want to teach my students, it is that a life lived unselfishly serving others will bring you many years of happiness, purpose, and fulfillment. It is difficult for young adults to not see themselves as the center of the universe, especially with their first world problems. However, I want my students to care about their education, and then focus on how they are going to use their education to build a life where they can contribute their gifts to society.

Lastly, today is Veteran's Day. I want to say thank you for all the men and women that serve the United States of America. You are the epitome of unselfishly serving others.

Thanks for reading!

Do you think that memes are having a harmful effect on people? When was the last time you saw a positive meme? Will you make any changes to your social postings after reading this? Share in the comments.

How I Score the Common Core

2013-06-21T15:42:00.000-04:00

"Forty-five states, the District of Columbia, four territories, and the Department of Defense Education Activity have adopted the Common Core State Standards." from Common Core Standards Initiative

Hi Readers! Happy Summer!

I wanted to talk about the elephant in our schools. It's the common core learning standards. The claim is that states have adopted the standards, not necessarily adapted nor embraced the standards. Parents of school children are experiencing emotions that range from uncertainty to hatred of this newly imposed set of standards for learning. There are even coalition groups forming to prevent the common core from entering their towns like in this youtube video, The Destructive Nature of Common Core.

First, I sympathize with the mother of the boy with a learning disability who begs not to go to school. Success in elementary school has a lot to do with routines and habits. Common core shakes things up a bit for the teacher and the students because it's not always clear what is expected. Everyone has to go through a retraining phase where new routines and habits are established. Every change requires time and practice to adapt. Change is a process, not an event. I understand how the previous year teacher would call home to praise how well behaved the student was in class. That means a lot to a parent to get a positive call like that. However, common core does not reward students just for being compliant, it rewards them for their level of thinking they can do about solving real world problems.

If I could talk to this parent, I would want to address some of her misconceptions about what common core is and how it will effect her son's learning.

I'd start by thanking the parent for her concern and explain that common core requires a few shifts in thinking. She does not have an easy job as a parent, but I hope that I can support her efforts to do what is best for her sons. She is welcome to disagree with anything she feels challenges her beliefs about parenting and education, but I would like the chance to provide more information and explanation for her to make her decision.
"Common core is a one size fits all curriculum." That is not true because common core is not a curriculum, it is a set of learning and performance expectations. Teachers are still free to teach the standards using whatever curriculum resources they deem appropriate as long as it is aligned to the standards and raises student performance.
"Common core is more work." It should not be more work, it should be a different kind of work. She mentioned that the math problems are more than one step and that her boy gets frustrated and gives up. I would expect to see this in class and talk about the importance of trying to do your best at all times. You don't need mastery of everything the first time you do something, but you do need practice and improvement.
"Common core took his confidence away." Students have multiple opportunities to improve their proficiency. He will take pretests to see what skills he knows and what he needs to work on. This does not mean that he should know everything and that if he doesn't know it he should feel bad about not knowing it. At different points along the way, he will have opportunities to improve and he will be able to see his improvement as well. This should increase his confidence if he sticks with it and does not give up.

School is not just about memorization of facts and repeating them on tests anymore. If a student gets a correct answer, and the teacher praises his correct answer, his confidence goes up. But if asked why it's a correct answer, and he doesn't know, then did he really know it in the first place? So could it be that we could be giving students an overconfidence in their abilities? I think it's possible when I look at the change in students as they progress from elementary to middle to high school. They know it one year and forget it the next. This is what common core is designed to reform.

However, I think blaming the common core standards has little to do with the extreme testing situations we put the students through. As I understand it, her little boy was protesting the hours of standardized testing, not the expectation to perform the common core standards. I totally agree that the amount of testing has increased with state-led common core, but the trend is that assessment measures have increased every year since the passing of No Child Left Behind Act, a federal mandate. The fact that participation is not mandatory, and that 45 states chose this route, means that educators are trying to regain control over the school system. I just hope that educators can continue to put the focus on the students and not the scores.

Thanks for reading!
How would you describe the change to common core learning standards to upset parents?

Common Nonsense Gun Laws

2013-02-16T01:07:00.000-05:00

Hi Readers,

I've been bombarded by a lot of gun control issues recently and I just want to respectfully discuss some of the viewpoints. The gun control debate has definitely picked up steam with the recent tragedy at the Sandy Hook Elementary School right before Christmas. My purpose is not to make light of a very serious situation. I'm sure that people will have very strong opinions on this topic and I'm not trying to pick a fight just for the sake of causing drama on the internet.

The 2nd amendment of the United States of America's Constitution is the right to bear arms. Interesting to note that it is a "well regulated militia" that has the right, not your average joe. I think we can agree that the regulation is a little lacking. Now some believe that the government structure built in our colonial days does little to address the issues of the 21st century. The United States of America still deals with high levels of violent crime and property crime like our founding fathers tried to protect us from with the Constitution. (FBI - Annual crime in U.S.).

However, newer categories like counter terrorism and cyber theft consume the bulk of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's time and budget these days. Technology has always been a double-edged sword that has helped some and hurt others. Guns could be one such example of technology designed to both protect and kill. It is not the technology itself that controls the purpose, but the human being wielding the technology.

Still the data from the 2011 Crime in the United States report is compelling when it highlights that:

"Firearms were used in 67.8 percent of the nation’s murders, 41.3 percent of robberies, and 21.2 percent of aggravated assaults (data on weapons used during forcible rapes is not collected)."

Now when it comes to murder, there is a huge difference between the 67.7% firearms, 13.4% knives, 13.1% other weapons, and 5.8% hands/feet used. I would think this is because you shoot to kill, not maim or scare. So if a firearm is involved, it's probably going to be a near instant fatal shooting instead of emergency room hospitalization from being beat to death.

However, if you look at the data for robbery and aggravated assault, you see that a firearm is the weapon of choice for a robbery, except for when no weapon is used at all. So a gun is used in a robbery just as much as a gun isn't used in a robbery. Then in aggravated assault, it's just as likely that someone will pull a knife on you as a gun, or just the brute force of their physique. So is there a correlation between those crimes and use of firearms? Not that I can see.

First row: 2010 incidents. Second row: 2011 incidents. Third row: percent change.

As a suburbanite of Chicago, I was raised with guns being held only by gang members and organized crime. I never saw a gun except through a Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) officer having one holstered on his hip in school. We called him "Officer Friendly" whether that was his real name or not. The officer basically explained that only two kinds of people would have a gun, cops and criminals. I did not experience hunting as a sport or even as a source of food for survival. Guns were always used to hurt others. Also, thanks to the movies, you didn't mess with an armed cop in Chicago because you'd just as soon assume they were a corrupt cop aiding the mafia.

Furthermore, why are the legislators wanting to call it common sense gun laws? If it was so common sense, wouldn't people already abide by those rules? What common sense gun laws can Congress come up with that police can enforce without getting caught up in the legalese of the law? It's not their job to interpret the law, it's their job to enforce it. So what will happen when they now have to respond to situations with "dangerous people"? And how will they keep the data to show the reality and complexity of each crime? It seems to me that if they want to go after gun-toting citizens, they must also improve the registration of knives (if there is any registration) and beefcakes that bench more than average at the gym. All of which is utter nonsense prerequisites when it comes to establishing a relationship to crime.

Thanks for reading!
What do you think of the gun control issues?

I've Learned...

2013-01-03T17:10:00.001-05:00

Happy 2013, Readers!

The good news is the Mayan Apocalypse was just as much a fluke as the Y2K scare. The bad news is the credit card bills of people living like it was their last day will be coming in the mail soon. Is that why the government postponed the decision to fund the postal service?

As everyone returns to school from their winter breaks, here is a little perspective to remember so as not to get caught in the school system cogs of standardization and test scores. My high school AP Macroeconomics teacher gave this poem to the high school graduating class of 2001. I don't remember anything from his class except a teacher with a passion to improve the lives of young people he impacted, which is what he intended to teach me since the start.

I’ve Learned by Omer B. Washington

I’ve learned that you cannot make someone love you.
All you can do is be someone who can be loved.
The rest is up to them.
I’ve learned that no matter how much I care,
some people just don’t care back.
I’ve learned that it takes years to build up trust
and only seconds to destroy it.
I’ve learned that it’s not what you have in your life
but who you have in your life that counts.
I’ve learned that you can get by on charm for about fifteen minutes.
After that, you’d better know something.

I’ve learned that you shouldn’t compare yourself
to the best others can do,
but to the best you can do.
I’ve learned that it’s not what happens to people,
It’s what they do about it.
I’ve learned that no matter how thin you slide it,
there are always two sides.
I’ve learned that you should always leave loved ones with loving words.
It may be the last time you’ll see them.
I’ve learned that you can keep going
long after you think you can’t.

I’ve learned that heroes are the people who do what has to be done
When it needs to be done,
regardless of the consequences.
I’ve learned that there are people who love you dearly,
but just don’t know how to show it.
I’ve learned that sometimes when I’m angry I have the right to be angry,
but that doesn’t give me the right to be cruel.
I’ve learned that true friendship continues to grow even over the longest distance.
Same goes for true love.
I’ve learned that just because someone doesn’t love you the way you want them to
doesn’t mean they don’t love you with all they have.

I’ve learned that no matter how good a friend is,
they’re going to hurt you every once in a while
and you must forgive them for that.
I’ve learned that it isn’t always enough to be forgiven by others.
Sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself.
I’ve learned that no matter how bad your heart is broken,
the world doesn’t stop for your grief.
I’ve learned that our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are,
but we are responsible for who we become.
I’ve learned that just because two people argue, it doesn’t mean they don’t love each other.
And just because they don’t argue, it doesn’t mean they do.

I’ve learned that sometimes you have to put the individual
ahead of their actions.
I’ve learned that two people can look at the exact same thing
and see something totally different.
I’ve learned that no matter the consequences,
those who are honest with themselves go farther in life.
I’ve learned that your life can be changed in a matter of hours
by people who don’t even know you.
I’ve learned that even when you think you have no more to give,
when a friend cries out to you,
you will find the strength to help.

I’ve learned that writing,

as well as talking,

can ease emotional pains.

I’ve learned that the people you care most about in life

are taken from you too soon.

I’ve learned that it’s hard to determine where to draw the line between being nice

and not hurting people’s feelings and standing up for what you believe.

I’ve learned to love

and be loved.

I’ve learned…

I don't need to make new year's resolutions.
I need to remember and apply what I've learned.

What lesson you learned has had the most impact on your life?

Happy Holidays!

2012-12-10T18:15:00.003-05:00

Happy Holidays!
I just wanted to wish my readers a Happy Holiday and thank you for reading. May you have a joyous and safe holiday with your loved ones. See you next year.

Inflation of Incentives

2012-12-05T18:40:00.004-05:00

I was subbing today and spent a good chunk of time in the library as I monitored students finishing their math tests. The school has a reward system for students to read pages of books where the more pages a student read, the higher level of prize he/she can qualify for. I thought about this incentive, and I wondered what message the school was promoting. Yes, I agree it's an incentive. Students who wouldn't normally choose to read are encouraged and rewarded for reading. It's also positive reinforcement for those students already reading to continue reading.

The only reading incentive I had in school was Book It in collaboration with Pizza Hut restaurant. It was only in elementary school; it didn't extend to middle or high school. It was based on the number of books you read a month. For each book you read, you would get a star sticker on a button, then when you completed all your stars, your teacher would give you a voucher for a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut. You also had to complete a reading log with the title of the book and sometimes write a short summary of the book proving you read it. I loved Book It! I used the Book It program in my first classroom but found that the students who liked to read continued to read and students who didn't like to read did not improve their reading. It had no impact as an incentive on this generation of students.

One likely reason a personal pan pizza is no longer considered an incentive is that despite a recession, middle class families enjoy a level of comfort higher than the previous generation. If Mom and Dad spend hundreds of dollars on a new Iphone4, a Nintendo DS, laptop computer, new shoes, name brand clothes, and gourmet lunches, why would you need a free $5 small pizza? That's chump change. If someone gets everything they want without working for it, how will incentives in school or the work force ever be adequate to reward productivity? If this trend continues, it's going to take a gold Rolex watch to incentivize the students to do their job.

Personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut.
Incentive 1990's - valued at $3-$5.

IPhone 4S smart phone
Incentive 2010's - valued at $390-$680.

Rolex gold plated watch
Possible Incentive for 2020's - valued at $35, 000. Lol.

Then I thought about the idea of rewarding pages read instead of completed books. This would make it easy to count and keep the data, however not all pages are equal. When I was in school, we did have some students who the teacher would have to help them choose an appropriate book because they selected a really short story or a comic book. When that happened, the teacher would require a minimum amount of pages read for it to count as a completed book, otherwise we read novels. We read the classics, and I oftentimes learned a lot more reading for pleasure than reading together in class. I think that's how reading goes. In the library today, I still saw the classic books I read in my youth but I was shocked at how many new books were considered good reads that I've never heard of before.

My next thoughts were a bunch of questions without clear answers.

If the literature we use to teach students in elementary, middle, and high school is contemporary, how come we still use the classics on Advanced placement tests and collegiate coursework? After all, our American colleges are more reputable than our public schools compared to education in other countries.
Does the goal of reading shift from reading for enjoyment to reading for intellectual exploration as students progress through school onto college?
Does your school or public library use a reading incentive program?
What is it like and how effective do you think it is?
All subjects being equal, how come there is not a Math incentive program, or a Science incentive program?

Thanks for reading! What do you think about the use of incentives? Share your thoughts below.

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Hi Readers! Happy Summer!

Common Nonsense Gun Laws

I've Learned...

I’ve Learned by Omer B. Washington

Happy Holidays!

Inflation of Incentives

Use recall
Test yourself - https://www.hackerrank.com/dashboard
Talk to yourself
Teach it to others
Use analogies and metaphors
Chunk your problems
Break big skills into smaller sub-skills and drill them until they are mastered