A GeekyMomma's Blog

The History of Superman and Why We Need to Pay Attention

2013-05-06T23:51:00.003-04:00

A recent interesting infographic on the history of Superman caught my attention. This may seem a little bizarre, but it got me thinking about the similarities between the evolution of this great superhero and the state of education. Check out the infographic then come back and let me rant for a few minutes.

I love how every generation is treated to an updated and more relevant version of our favorite superhero, Superman. It was always so exciting for me to tune in to another episode to see if today was the day that Clark Kent finally spilled the beans about his true identity. With all the changes that Superman has endured since the 1930s, some things continue to remain constant: His actions are always rooted in his deep belief in doing what's right and good.

It reminds me of teaching and how we also need to evolve. Although Superman almost meets his untimely demise on several occasions, he is mostly able to escape death in some twist of superpower and fate. Even when Superman DID finally succumb (in 1992), the writers found a way to bring him back and tell the story in new and more interesting ways.

Like Superman, in education there have been cycles of life for a variety of ~~fads~~ strategies that were whole-heartedly adopted. (Can you say, "Inventive Spelling," "New Math," "Whole Language," or "Open Classrooms?") Each era brings new challenges and somehow we manage to adapt and keep Superman alive. We just tell his story a different way. The message that keeps us coming back is that of hope. No matter how dim things look for him, there's always a way to pull him back and he'll be stronger than ever.

Good always wins over evil, right? or does it?

I'm afraid that this generation is going to finally see "Superman" die. I'm afraid there are limited resources with which to continue to resurrect what kids (used to) love about school. The assessment and accountability state of affairs, along with the fact that most teachers are now fearing for their livelihoods if their students don't bubble in the correct answers, is too often making educators challenge their own sense of ethics; causing good people to do bad things. The litigious nature of parents forces policy makers to base decisions on what will be best for school systems, avoiding what's actually best for students.

I fear that things are going to get worse before they get better. Perhaps we need Superman to really die in order to realize what he was to us. Perhaps we need to have education bottom-out, before something drastic is done to bring it back to life. And yet, I worry that it will be too late.

Does anyone care about ~~Superman~~ our kids anymore?

TchTeams from The Teaching Channel

2013-04-30T18:30:00.002-04:00

This post is brought to you by guest blogger, Pat Wasley from The Teaching Channel.

I want to share some exciting news about a new development at Teaching Channel that will enable deeper collaboration and learning for teachers. It’s a big step in the growth of Teaching Channel, so I wanted explain why we’re taking it. We’ve been listening to you: from our monthly surveys to the hundreds of comments that come in daily from our growing community of 229,000 teachers. We hear how you’re watching Teaching Channel videos, modeling those strategies, and making them your own. We also have heard that you crave more feedback and collaboration. And we’re mindful of the recent Met Life Survey that emphasizes that teachers who have opportunities to collaborate are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs. So, I’d like to officially introduce TchTeams—a robust and personalized platform for collaboration among you and your colleagues.

We believe Tch Teams combines everything educators love about Teaching Channel with several new custom tools to collaborate around video, including:

The ability for schools, districts, and education organizations to host and share their own videos of exceptional teaching practice
A place for coaches, mentors, and new teacher training programs to use video as a means for reflecting and collaborating to improve teacher practices
The ability for educators to share other resources along with video including lesson plans, presentations, and any other digital resources
Direct integration with Google Docs and Microsoft Office to bring all of your PD assets into one place

As an organization our mission is to support and inspire teachers around video and we feel combining the power of video with socially-networked, online collaboration tools will enable educators to work together to grow professionally. Tch Teams is a fee-based service that schools, districts, states, or educational organizations can license.

I think it is very important to remind you all that as a non-profit Teaching Channel.org videos will always be a free resource, that’s not changing. But, we also believe it’s important to offer new levels of support and collaboration to educators across the country.

If you think Tch Teams would be beneficial to your school or district, simply click here to visit our Tch Teams page, or sign up for a 30-minute webinar to see Tch Teams in action!

P.S. If you can’t attend one of our webinars, sign-up anyway and we’ll send you a link to a recording.

Can You Explain This?

2013-04-27T10:30:00.000-04:00

My favorite explainers, Lee and Sachi LeFever from Common Craft,* have this to say about explaining: "No matter what you do for work, you are an explainer. Part of your job is helping others understand ideas - it’s a fundamental part of being a professional. We explain ideas every day - we just never think about how we do it. Our explanations just... happen."

Or do they? Writing things down is one bit of advice LeFever offers. But, he agrees that sometimes writing things down isn't enough. That must be why he wrote this book.

I want to share one way you can visually explain something when the person isn't right there with you in the room.

Are you a Skitch user? If not, it's probably because you haven't heard of it, or you're a PC user and didn't know there is now a PC version, too! From the creators of Comic Life, Skitch will change the way you do business.

Skitch is available for Mac, Windows (XP, 7, and 8), iPhone, iPod, iPad, and Android. (For your information, Comic Life is also now available for Windows.)

Call me a geek, but I love, love, love Skitch! Skitch is a free (and very easy) tool that allows you to grab and annotate screenshots, documents, photos, and even PDFs now. You can draw attention to particular parts of your photo/document using the arrow, shape tool, or drawing tool. Take a look at my screenshot below.

Have you ever tried to grab a screenshot of a drop-down menu of a webpage for tutorial purposes? As soon as you click on another program, the drop-down usually disappears. With Skitch's Timed Screen Snap tool, you can maneuver around your desktop or webpage, or document before the screenshot is taken.

Once you have your snap, you can just drag the little tab at the bottom onto your desktop and send it via email or upload it to Evernote, Google Docs, Dropbox, Twitter, Facebook, and more. You can even choose the file format.

You can also upload or sync to your (also free) Evernote account and use the URL to share with others. Sometimes, I prefer to share the URL rather than the actual image, keeping email attachments to a minimum.

Giving tech support? Is the end-user not seeing what you're seeing? Grab a snap and draw attention to the item in question.
Grading digital homework or assignments? Show the best parts of the work. Mark up the students' work with stamps or comments.
Giving feedback on a PDF? Easy!When you share an annotated multi-page PDF, Skitch lets you add a new first page to that document. This page is made up of previews of each piece of feedback contained in the PDF. Click on one and you’re taken to the annotation.
Giving directions? Snap a map and add your own comments such as, "Park Here!"
Teaching geometry? Have students take photos of angles and lines and then let them label their photos.

It's nice to know, you can always go back to any Skitch document and edit your markups.

Check out Shannon Miller, Teacher Librarian Extraordinaire, who penned this post about using Skitch and Evernote with her 2nd grade students.

What's your favorite way to use Skitch?

*Disclosure: Common Craft has provided me with a free membership to their premium service with the understanding of no obligation on my part. If, and when, I reference this service in my posts, it is my personal choice with no benefit to me other than providing a valuable service to my readers within the context of my posts.

Quest2Matter

2013-04-07T22:13:00.002-04:00

My good friend, Angela, is passionate about helping people understand that they matter. It is not enough to say it, people must understand how their contributions really matter. Please take a few moments to read her call to action and if you are moved to help this movement, please donate $5.00 or more.

During a 2011 Ted Talk titled “You Matter,” Angela Maiers spoke of how these two words can change lives and change our world, if we understand them and we leverage them in the right way.

Students everywhere reacted powerfully to this call to action, completing jaw-dropping quests to address problems in our world. These range from sending a crate load of books to a school in Ghana to raising money to build wells for communities without water, to publishing YouTube videos that save lives and creating Facebook support groups for students in crisis.

Choose2Matter was created in response to this breathtaking reaction. It invites the world to make “mattering” a new way of life. The first embodiment of Choose2Matter is the Quest2Matter, a five-week, student-focused initiative. We’re reaching out to millions of students, seeking to inspire them to pursue a quest to change our world.

The Quest2Matter is much more than a “school project.” Many innovative businesses have embraced the opportunity to help us show students that they matter:

Top Coder is creating the Quest2Matter website;
Fablevision is building the Choose2Matter Website;
AOL will promote the Quest2Matter on its homepage as its “Cause of the Day;”
Huffington Post is devoting substantial media to promoting the Quest;
Kidblog is advising us and promoting the Quest to its members;
findingDulcinea is creating content to help students become informed about social issues and learn to effect change in today’s world;
Business Innovation Factory (“BIF”) is providing an army of entrepreneurs to serve as mentors and judges;
Members of the My Community Manger community are harnessing employee bases and user communities to mentor students; and
The Bammy Awards will recognize five student quests at its 2013 award ceremony, and BIF will honor three student quests at its innovation summit.

With this support from the business community, students will learn to use digital media to become fully informed, experience the power of learning from mentors, and adeptly use modern means of communication to effect change in our world.

This is an unprecedented opportunity to unlock the potential of students to think entrepreneurially to solve problems that break their heart. Because of the scale that social media enables and the extraordinary reach of our collective networks, we believe the Quest can reach, and inspire, millions of students.

How You Can Help

Accelerate the Quest2Matter

Help Us Raise Money

Make a small donation to our fundraising and encourage your network to do so.

Help Us Increase Participation

Encourage your teachers and students to join the Quest Student Team.
Encourage your teachers and students to participate in the Quest.

Help Us Spread the Word Through Social Media

LIKE our Facebook page and ask Facebook friends to do the same.
Like or Comment on our Facebook posts to increase their visibility.

Post several Facebook status updates; see examples below.

Follow us on Twitter and encourage your Twitter followers to do the same.
Send several Tweets; see examples below.
RT @Choose2Matter tweets.

Publish a blog post about the Quest2Matter; see messaging points.

Quest2Matter

Resources to Share

Blog post: Introducing the Quest2Matter

The You Matter Manifesto

Sample Tweets (Just click and Tweet away!)

Click to Tweet this: I made a donation to help Quest2Matter unlock the potential of students to change the world. http://StudentLauncher.org/fdab

Click to Tweet this: Please make a donation to help Quest2Matter unlock the potential of students to change the world. http://StudentLauncher.org/fdab

Click to Tweet this: The Quest2Matter will facilitate students' learning from mentors to solve our world’s problems. http://choose2matter.org/2013/03/24/donate-to-the-quest2matter/

Click to Tweet this: The Quest2Matter will inspire students to pursue a quest to change our world. http://choose2matter.org/2013/03/24/donate-to-the-quest2matter/

Click to Tweet this: Innovative companies embrace the Quest2Matter as an opportunity to reach & inspire students. http://choose2matter.org/2013/03/24/donate-to-the-quest2matter/

Sample Facebook Status Updates

I made a donation to help Quest2Matter unlock the potential of students to change the world. Please consider doing the same. http://StudentLauncher.org/fdab

Please make a donation to help Quest2Matter unlock the potential of students to change the world. http://StudentLauncher.org/fdab

The Quest2Matter is an exciting initiative that will facilitate students' learning from mentors to solve our world’s problems. Teachers, tell your students about it! http://choose2matter.org/2013/03/24/donate-to-the-quest2matter/

The Quest to Matter will inspire students to pursue a quest to change our world. This is an initiative that all educators should support. http://choose2matter.org/2013/03/24/donate-to-the-quest2matter/

Innovative companies are embracing the Quest2Matter as an opportunity to reach & inspire the next generation of world leaders. http://choose2matter.org/2013/03/24/donate-to-the-quest2matter/

Bullying: Not Just For Children Anymore

2013-03-09T15:03:00.001-05:00

A new viral video by the geniuses at ThinkModo is making the rounds. It's actually a promo for the movie Dead Man Down disguised as a videotaped prank. Watching it made me think about human behavior and why some witnesses to crime do nothing. Nobody can say for sure how he/she would react in such a situation, but I'm sure most people would like to think that they would do something heroic. Anything.

But, too often people step aside and do nothing.

An article in Psychology Today refers to the Bystander Effect where onlookers are more likely to intervene if there are few or no other witnesses. (Tweet this.) It also explains that social influence plays an important role, too. Individuals in a group tend to monitor the behavior of those around them to determine how to act. The Bystander Effect refers to situations where individuals do not offer help in an emergency situation when other people are present. The greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that any one of them will help. The mere presence of other bystanders greatly decreases intervention. Experiments have shown that the mere presence of other people actually inhibits folks from helping.

This brings me to the topic of Workplace Bullying. According to WorkplaceBullying.org:

Both workplace and schoolyard bullying usually involves common underlying principles: the desperate grab for control by an insecure inadequate person, the exercise of power through the humiliation of the target. School-age bullies, if reinforced by cheering kids, fearful teachers, or ignoring administrators, grow up as dominating type people. If it works for them, there is no reason to change. At work as adults, they do what they do best--bully others. An unknown percentage of workplace bullies have a lifelong record of disrespecting the needs of others.

If you think you are being bullied at work, consider taking this is Workplace Aggression Research Questionnaire developed by researchers from the State University of New York in New Paltz and Wayne State University. Occasional insults don't count, but if you feel you are a victim of consistent bullying, you can take action.

We can all agree that bullying is awful and should be stopped. It's easy for adults to tell children how to react in bullying situations, including those where the child is a mere witness to such events. Right?

What about when witnessing other adults being bullied? (tweet this)

Are you guilty of using euphemisms intended to trivialize bullying and its impact on bullied people: Incivility, Disrespect, Difficult People, Personality Conflict, Negative Conduct, or Ill Treatment?

Are you guilty of ignoring the "office jerk" who dominates the conversation and/or makes sarcastic, or belittling comments to others who try to contribute? Is it ok to just roll your eyes when in the presence of the "office jerk" who is putting someone down in front of us?

In a Workplace Bullying Institute study (2012), participants who claimed they were bullied at work were asked why workplace bullying happens. "Coworkers stand idly by & fail to stop it" was ranked fourth. It is understandable that workers not only fear for their own jobs, but are often worried about the bully turning on them. Does this make it OK to remain silent?

“First they came…” is a famous statement attributed to pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the fact that too many German people failed to act following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets.

"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me."

Have you ever been the victim of workplace bullying? Are YOU a workplace bully? What are your thoughts on this?

Please leave your comment here.

http://careerjourney.co.uk/career-infographic/bullying-at-work/

Why I'm Celebrating National Grammar Day and Why You Should, Too

2013-03-03T12:56:00.001-05:00

National Grammar Day is Monday, March 4, 2013. It is a day to write well, speak well, and help others do the same. It is a day to put aside our annoyances and pet peeves, and declare our appreciation for the effective use of our language.

Permission granted to use screenshot by Steve Dembo.

No, Steve Dembo, You Are Not an Idiot!

Everyone makes mistakes and humans have short memories. Made a mistake in an email? Let it go. Periodic mistakes often go unnoticed by harried recipients who don't have a lot of time.

Made a mistake on Facebook? Fasten your seatbelt! People have a lot of time on their hands in that space! Brief updates that are peppered with mistakes are often fodder for fun.

I think communication on personal social media accounts (like Facebook and Twitter) has been given a "pass" in the grammar game. Is that ok? We need to let our hair down somewhere, right? What about professional accounts? How about professional missives?

CONFESSIONS OF A GRAMMAR NERD

I confess I have a sickness. I can spot an extra space in a 5000 word document. My eyes are drawn to public signs that use misplaced apostrophes. My brain sounds an alarm when I see subject/verb disagreements. I cringe when listening to someone say, "The girl that didn't do her homework needs help." I can't help it. It's a sickness. At work, I've earned a reputation for being a Grammar Nerd. Although we joke about it, I'm sure people are annoyed by me acting as if I "know it all." I hope that's not true, and those who are close to me are well aware of the fact that I don't know it all and I'm not opposed to admitting it. I do a lot of writing and when I'm unsure, I look something up or ask someone for assistance. Even with my best efforts, I still make mistakes and sometimes publish items I wish I could correct. That doesn't stop me from having high expectations of myself and others.

Am I the only one who believes educated professionals should be able to write complete sentences? Is it too much to expect people to understand the differences between:

your and you're
to and too
its and it's
there, their, and they're
wear and where
lose and loose

An article in the Wall Street Journal speaks to the unfortunate increase in workplace grammar gaffes. Good communication is credibility. Sometimes, your written words are all you have. Consistently poor grammar (and spelling, for that matter) stands out and can result in loss of respect and credibility.

RULES

There are many grammar myths regarding "rules" that perpetuate the cycle of misinformation. Sometimes, when following a rule may actually cause confusion or when a debate ensues, it may just come down to a matter of style. In those cases, the best strategy is to just make a choice and then remain consistent. For example, if you insist on capitalizing a specific non-proper noun, then do it consistently throughout your document. (Keep in mind however, all important nouns are not proper nouns.) Likewise, if you are not a fan of the Oxford Comma, then don't use it - but be consistent.

WRITTEN VS. ORAL

When I hear someone say, "Send the document to Cassie and I," I chalk it up to a problem of the brain moving faster than the mouth. We don't always have time to analyze and organize our words on a conscious level before speaking. Most of us make some grammatical mistakes when we speak (and then cringe inside when we hear ourselves). Disorganized speech however, is not only unforgivable, but detrimental to one's credibility. Those who consistently use poor grammar, repeat themselves, go off on tangents, or use verbal pauses (e.g., um, er, like) would do themselves a favor to take the pulse of the room and adjust accordingly. Privately, ask someone you trust for feedback after you've had a chance to speak.

When we write professionally, we owe it to our "audience" to proofread and at least make a good effort to be clear and concise. Obvious mistakes draw attention away from the focus. Sometimes, despite our best efforts we still issue memorandums or send emails with mistakes. It happens. Employees who don't think writing is important though, are likely to think other things are not important. In today's technological world, the written word is even more important. People are writing to communicate more than ever before.

GET OUT OF YOUR OWN WAY

Understand if spelling, grammar or writing in general is not be your cup of tea, it is not a reflection on how "smart" you are. Smart people acknowledge their shortcomings, use resources, and surround themselves with people who are even smarter. If you are the smartest person in the room, go find another room.
Take the time to learn how to write clear sentences.
If you know grammar is not your thing, circulate your documents to coworkers to proofread for grammar and clarity.
Use a free browser plugin to catch mistakes. Try Ginger or Grammarly.
Subscribe to Grammar Girl's newsletter.

CAN'T WE ALL GET ALONG? ADVICE FOR GRAMMAR NERDS WITH BIG EGOS

Don't correct people when they speak. Let it go. Nobody appreciates being embarrassed in front of others.
Offer assistance if asked. Resist butting in where you don't belong.
Choose your battles. When someone corrects your grammar and you'd rather not use the suggestions, just say thank you and carry on. Unless that person is your boss and you've already explained why you think your way is correct. In that case, appease your boss and bite the bullet.
When someone accurately corrects your grammar, acknowledge your appreciation for a "good catch."

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?

It Has Happened to Me and It Can Happen to You, Too!

2013-02-17T09:34:00.001-05:00

Nobody is immune. Hacking can happen to you too!

The information in this post can help protect your PINs and email, Twitter, and Facebook accounts from unauthorized use. I hope to read about your other suggestions in the comments below.

Every day I see a post from someone sharing that their account got hacked. There is no single cause for this but one thing that remains constant is that you've inadvertently allowed it. A lot of people "poo-poo" the need for strong passwords; until that is, they get hacked. Take some time to review Twitter's suggestions on keeping your account secure. Facebook also offers suggestions here.

Have your friends reported that you are sending them emails suggesting they buy "male enhancement" products? Some may actually thank you, but most are annoyed and tired of you becoming a victim of what's called Phishing. Watch this video (2:45) from my favorite explainers Lee and Sachi LeFever of Commoncraft, for an explanation of how Phishing works.

What about passwords and PINs? There's a good article published last October 2012, on the most commonly used passwords and how to choose a secure password. (Hey, teachers and students... don't use common words for your passwords! Don't compromise your educational institution's network by using an insecure password. It's not just about someone getting into your email. A hacker can do severe damage to an entire system by getting into the network with your credentials. To make matters worse, the IT folks can trace it back to you and your failure to secure your password.)

As for your ATM PIN? This infographic from BackgroundCheck.org presents this concept in a visual representation that is easy to understand:

Infographic credit: BackgroundCheck.org

Have any of your accounts ever been hacked? How did it happen and what did you learn? What other suggestions do you have? I look forward to your comments.

Free Microsoft Network for Teachers

2013-02-14T20:42:00.000-05:00

I want to make you aware of a great FREE educator resource called the Partners in Learning Network.

It's a free network for teachers who are dedicated to improving student outcomes using authentic, engaging strategies that work!

Over 30 downloadable free technology tools and resources
Over 12,000 learning activities and tutorials created by educators around the world
Hot topics moderated by education experts
Over 60 hours of online professional development courses about teaching with technology aligned to the UNESCO teacher competency framework
A community of thousands and thousands of educators from around the world dedicated to improving student outcomes

Please join me. You'll find inspiring tools and learning activities and support from colleagues around the world.

Be sure to take advantage of the free courses. Take the self-assessment. Log in then click "Professional Development." Then, choose "Teaching With Technology." This 40-question self assessment will help identify your current knowledge of integrating Information and Communication Technology (ICT) into teaching and learning. It is aligned to the Technology Literacy Approach of the UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers (UNESCO ICT-CFT).

Social Media to Enhance the Experience at FETC 2013 in Orlando

2013-01-25T22:22:00.002-05:00

The use of social media has become fully integrated into our culture – from individuals connecting with family and friends, or businesses connecting with their customers, to elected officials connecting with their constituents. And now it is evolving with the younger generations in the classroom and taking center stage at one of the nation’s largest education technology conferences, FETC 2013, which kicks off Monday (Jan. 28) in Orlando.

Thousands of educators and exhibitors attending the conference will have the opportunity to get connected and participate in FETC’s multiple social networks and advance their own skills by attending social media sessions and workshops.

FETC has been actively engaged in social media since 2009, creating an online environment where technology enthusiasts, educators, presenters and exhibitors can share information and build relationships by posting conference updates, announcing contests, sharing teaching ideas and best practices, uploading videos and encouraging conference meet-ups with people in their personal learning networks.

FETC has implemented a variety of ways for participants to easily get involved in social media at this year’s conference, including:

Edmodo: This social media network is devoted to classroom education, allowing teachers to communicate with their students about assignments and with their fellow educators about teaching techniques and best practices. Conference attendees can join the FETC Edmodo group to find presentations, participate in back-channel discussions, learn more about exhibitors and meet up with other attendees on this free and safe social network. (www.edmodo.com/FETC)

Twitter: This popular social media network has been the centerpiece of digital networking for FETC attendees, exhibitors and others interested in the latest developments in education technology. “Followers” of “@FETC” share an interest in education technology and can engage in the conference back-channels of discussion by using the #FETC hashtag (or search tool).

Facebook: Attendees are encouraged to “like” FETC on Facebook (www.facebook.com/FETC1) to find out about conference activities, sessions, speakers and exhibitors, as well as to see how others are learning, teaching and sharing new ways to improve education with technology.

Foursquare: This “geo-location” social network will allow conference attendees to “check in” at “FETC at OCCC” and “FETC Exhibit Hall” – as well as at participating exhibitors’ booths – to win prizes, earn points and find friends at the conference.
LinkedIn: Conference attendees are invited to join FETC’s discussion with other education leaders and technology experts.

YouTube: FETC has incorporated video into its social media this year. The National FETC YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/NationalFETC) offers attendees a sneak-peak of the 2013 featured speakers and videos from previous years at FETC.
Google+: Conference attendees can join FETC’s interactive circle on Google+ to meet and “hangout” with other conference attendees.

During the 2013 conference, FETC will be hosting its annual “Tweet Up” of Twitter users attending the conference during its opening reception on Tuesday, Jan. 29, from 5:30 – 7 p.m. at booth #1065 in the Exhibit Hall. Attendees will have the unique opportunity to meet with their colleagues face to face during this event.

For the second year in a row, FETC 2013 will offer a mobile app available in both the Apple and Android app stores. Conference attendees can download the app for direct access to VerAttend, FETC and Learning Environments conference schedules, sessions, maps and FETC social media platforms directly from their phone or tablet.

In addition, FETC 2013 will feature sessions and speakers to hone the social networking skills of attending educators, including:

Creating Student and Teacher Friendly Social Media Guidelines, presented by featured speaker
Steven Anderson on Wednesday, Jan. 30, 1 – 1:40 p.m., in room S310GH.
The Power of Personal Learning Networks, presented by featured speaker Eric Scheninger on Wednesday, Jan. 30, 1 – 1:40 p.m., in room S310BC.
Super Secret Twitter Tips, Tricks and Resources, presented by featured speaker Steven Anderson
on Thursday, Jan. 31, 2 – 2:40 p.m., in room S310BC.
Google+ Hangouts: A Great Instructional and PD Tool, presented by Randy Damewood on Thursday, Jan. 31, 1 – 1:40 p.m., in room S320E.
Teaching Students Professional Social Networking Etiquette for the Real World, presented by Tammy Fry on Wednesday, Jan. 30, 12 – 12:40 p.m., in room S320H.
Motivate, Innovate, Collaborate Using Edmodo & ePals, presented by Norma Jennings with Linda Cobb on Thursday, Jan. 31, 2 – 2:40 p.m., in room S320F.
Using Pinterest to Build a Personal Learning Network, presented by Kathy Parker-Jones and Lauren Davis on Wednesday, Jan. 30, 1 – 1:40 p.m., in room S230B.

FETC Conference: Don't Miss It!

2013-01-22T19:08:00.000-05:00

Allow me to share some exciting news on the conference front! Below is a press-release about the Florida Educational Technology Conference (FETC) which will be held in Orlando, Florida next week. Personally, I'm always excited to learn new things, see what's happening outside of my circle, and to meet up with some great friends (even those I've not yet met). I'll be there and I hope you will, too! Follow #FETC on Twitter for updates.

And, if you didn't already know, we throw a pretty nifty conference ourselves here in Palm Beach County, so if you find yourself around these parts of the woods on February 19, 2013, I hope you'll join us here.

The National Ed-Tech Conference for 2013 Emergent technologies to be introduced, cutting-edge programs to be announced

Orlando, Fla. – Thousands of educators from across the country will have an opportunity to explore emergent technologies, cutting-edge programs and a highly innovative ed-tech marketplace when FETC 2013, one of the largest conferences in the nation devoted entirely to education technology, opens next week. FETC 2013 is co-located with both the Learning Environments conference and expo event and the FDLA (Florida Distance Learning Association) Annual Meeting.

FETC’s 33rd annual conference takes place at the South Concourse of the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla., Jan. 28 through Jan. 31, and features dynamic speakers, exhibitors and events designed to provide PK-12 educators and administrators with an unparalleled opportunity to explore different technologies across the curriculum while increasing their familiarity with the latest devices, hardware, software and successful strategies on student technology integration.

FETC’s distinguished keynote speakers include Dr. David Sousa, award-winning educational neuroscience consultant and author of fifteen books. He will discuss some remarkable findings from brain research about how we learn and suggests ways that administrators and educators can translate current brain research into strategies for improving learning. Another keynote, Matt Kaplan, is the author of ScholarScribe.com. He has been one of the voices behind science and technology stories in The Economist for years. His articles frequently wind up in National Geographic, Scientific American, Nature and New Scientist. Additionally, FETC is proud to have Katie Salen, Executive Director for the Institute of Play Design, present a games and learning keynote. She will explore a set of guiding design principles for the creation of connected, game-like learning experiences that are socially-situated, challenge-based and student-centered.

New for 2013, FETC is introducing one-hour poster sessions intended to highlight innovative schools and districts who have implemented exemplary technology integration projects with success. An FETC Video Contest has also been added to the event where FETC has partnered with NextVista.org to promote the teacher strand of the “Mountains of Creativity” contest and make quality digital media happen. And a special event movie preview: Look! I’m Learning, advocacy film about a digital revolution led by kids in Michigan.

FETC is known for being one of the most comprehensive and progressive ed-tech conferences in the country. This year’s schedule will feature more than 200 concurrent sessions in 25+ focus and curriculum areas targeting the hottest topics ̶ BYOD and mobile learning, 1:1 implementation, current and emerging technologies, digital content, innovative learning technologies, distance learning, integrated curriculum, infrastructure, Web 2.0 resources and social networking. In addition, educators have the opportunity to earn up to 32 hours of CEUs by attending conference sessions and any of the 125+ ticketed professional development workshops for in-depth exploration and skill development offered this year.

The 2013 Exhibit Hall, a dedicated educators’ marketplace, will enable attendees to see and purchase the latest innovations in classroom technology from more than 500 companies, including industry powerhouses like Epson, Edmodo, Google Chromebooks, Insight Systems Exchange and Lenovo. This hands-on, interactive environment is a key component of the FETC experience, allowing conference attendees to access the cutting-edge technologies transforming today’s education landscape.

Register for FETC 2013 and get more information, including a detailed list of sessions, presenters, exhibitors, ticketed workshops and registration details by visiting www.fetc.org.

FETC, a division of the 1105 Media Education Group, is owned by 1105 Media, Inc., a leading provider of integrated information and media in targeted business-to-business markets.

About 1105 Media

1105 Media, Inc. provides integrated business-to-business information and media to qualified professionals in the public, academic and private sectors focusing on technology, products, policy, regulation and news delivered through an assortment of media, including print and online magazines, journals and newsletters; seminars, conferences, executive summits and trade shows; training and courseware; and web-based services. The markets served by these offerings include Government, Education, Network & Enterprise Computing, Business Intelligence, Office Equipment, Industrial Health & Safety, Compliance, Security, Environmental Protection, Water & Wastewater and Home Medical Equipment.

1105 Media is based in Chatsworth, Calif., with primary offices throughout the U.S. and more than 350 employees. The company was formed in April 2006 by Nautic Partners LLC, Alta Communications and President and CEO Neal Vitale.

Are you a blogger?

Note: Media representatives (bloggers) interested in attending and covering FETC 2013 can register online at www.fetcpress.org or on-site in room S220D of the Orange County Convention Center. FETC 2013 will feature an on-site Press Room where registered media representatives can schedule interviews, work stories or just relax. The FETC Press Room will be open Tuesday, Jan. 29 (10 a.m. – 5 p.m.); Wednesday, Jan. 30 (8 a.m. – 5 p.m.); and Thursday, Jan. 31 (8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.). Media representatives are required to register and will not be admitted into any FETC venues without a badge issued by FETC press staff. There is no cost for media registration.

Lucidchart: a free collaboration tool for teachers

2013-01-10T19:23:00.000-05:00

Today's post comes courtesy of guest blogger, Eliza Wright (from Lucidchart). I think you'll be interested in what she has to say about Lucidchart. Keep reading to learn about her offer for a free educator account.

A growing number of teachers, as evidenced in a recent study of over 40,000 educators, believe that innovative, collaborative learning systems are instrumental to students’ success. What if you had access to a free tool that makes classroom and at-home collaboration simpler? Well, now you do.

Lucidchart is a web-based diagramming program that’s completely free for educators and students. With our tool, both you and your students can quickly sketch up a variety of visual communications: Venn diagrams, mind maps, graphic organizers, flowcharts, and much more. Teachers can manage a team account that allows them to collaborate with their students' work in real time. If you can’t see why that’s a useful proposition, check out some potential scenarios below and see if you aren’t swayed.

Real-time collaboration means no more late homework excuses. When your students do work in the editor, changes are synced instantly and immediately visible to everyone on the doc, including collaborators and admins. We maintain a robust revision history for each document, so if something’s not right, it can be fixed lickety-split.

Our collaboration features also expedite the grading process for teachers. Educators have told us that with Lucidchart, they don’t have to wait for students to submit work to them. Comments and suggestions can be made as students develop their work, which results in faster feedback and stronger student output.

Group projects are simplified, since students can collaborate from any location, with any browser, on any device. All your students need is an internet connection. The painful logistics of group meetings are erased when students discover the live chat and in-editor commenting features. Plus, your kids can work with an unlimited number of collaborators, so group projects can be more effective than ever before.

How to use Lucidchart in Google Drive:

A few more reasons to use Lucidchart

Useful integrations

If your school district is one of the many that uses Google Apps/Google Drive, you’ll be happy to hear about Lucidchart’s deep integration with both services. These integrations simplify the entire process of sign on, sharing, creating, and organizing, from one central location in Drive.

Customizable templates

Lucidchart gives you the freedom to start diagramming from scratch or to use one of our fully customizable templates. We recently introduced over 50 new templates for graphic organizers, which are education specific and span many grades and subject areas.

Here’s how to access them:

Log into Lucidchart.
Click the “Create” button.
Choose “New Document”.
Choose the “Educational” category.
And scroll through all the great new templates.

Educational Templates:

Easy to share

Whether you prefer old-school handouts or a digital canvas, Lucidchart makes publishing easy. Here are all the ways you can share your diagram:

- Traditional print-outs

- Unique webpage hosted on the Lucidchart site

- Permanent online PDF link

- Popular image formats: PDF, PNG, and JPEG

- Embedded in a blog or wiki

- Share on Twitter, Facebook, or the Lucidchart Community page

Where do I sign up?

Sign up here for a professional trial account, preferably using an educational email address. Once you do that, click here to apply for your free educational account. Then we’ll approve you and you can start diagramming upon login.

If you’re still on the fence about Lucidchart, try out our free demo and see how diagramming can be fun and easy.

Give us a shout out!

We offer our premium account, with all the perks, to our educational partners at no cost to you because we believe it’s the right thing to do. We do want to spread the word about this great resource, so if you use Lucidchart and love it, mention or review us (on a school district site, classroom blog, resource list, etc.) and link to our website. If you need support or more information related to your Lucidchart review, please email Brad at bhanks@lucidchart.com and we’ll be happy to help.

Happy Diagramming!

Blogging at FETC 2013

2013-01-03T16:07:00.000-05:00

If you are a fellow blogger it may interest you to know that media representatives interested in covering FETC 2013 can attend at no cost as registered press. FETC is scheduled for January 28-31, 2013.

With permission, I have reproduced the entire text of a recent email sent to me by Adrianne Miller, FETC 2013 Media Relations Coordinator.

FETC 2013, the 33rd annual national conference devoted entirely to education technology, is just [around the corner]. Media representatives interested in covering FETC 2013 can attend at no cost as registered press.

In order to gain press access, applicants must submit their request for credentials at www.fetcpress.org or register on-site during the conference in the Press Room (though registering in advance online is faster and easier than on-site, plus we’ll have your badge awaiting your arrival).

Registered press will have access to a contact list, fact sheet, news releases, conference graphics and the on-site Press Room. Media representatives will not be admitted into any FETC venues without a badge issued by FETC press staff. The FETC 2013 Press Room will give media representatives a place to schedule interviews, work stories or just relax. The Press Room will be open Tuesday, Jan. 29 (10 a.m. – 5 p.m.); Wednesday, Jan. 30 (8 a.m. – 5 p.m.); and Thursday, Jan. 31 (8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.).

FETC 2013 is the ultimate place for educators to explore new and current technologies being employed in the classroom through hands-on labs and demonstrations. FETC will feature 200 concurrent and “BYOD” sessions and more than 80 professional development workshops focusing on hot-topic areas including the latest resources and techniques-wikis, blogs, social networking, virtual learning, podcasting and more.

For more information on FETC 2013, including a detailed list of sessions, exhibitors and ticketed workshops and attendee registration information, visit www.fetc.org. For media-specific information or to request press credentials, go to www.fetc.org and click the “For Media” button or go to www.fetcpress.org.

Adrianne Miller, FETC 2013 Media Relations Coordinator

Facebook Privacy 101

2012-12-29T10:28:00.001-05:00

Photo Credit: Flickr user Alan Cleaver

It seems like at least once a week, a misleading piece of advice starts proliferating on Facebook. This piece was circulating a few months ago, but has recently surfaced again.

You may have seen it and maybe even (gasp) shared it yourself, without checking its credibility. (Hey, I've been guilty myself.

It goes something like this:

Facebook changed its privacy settings again! Due to recent Facebook privacy changes that we can not control, our posts are now public. To keep our posts private, I need you to do this. Place your mouse over my name above (DO NOT CLICK), a window will appear, now move the mouse on “FRIENDS" (also without clicking), then down to "Settings", click here and a list will appear. REMOVE the CHECK on "COMMENTS & LIKE" and also "PHOTOS". By doing this, my activity among my friends and family will no longer become public.

Yes, Facebook privacy settings can be confusing, but here are some tips:

If you hover over someone's name and remove certain checkmarks (as recommended in the advice in the circulating post), you are only removing the items that YOU can see of this person's posts. You are not changing anything about this person's public or private exposure.

If you are concerned about privacy you really should set your privacy to "Friends Only" and ask your friends to do the same so that when you comment on their posts, only their friends see your comments.
Never post anything you wouldn't want public.

You should know that if a friend creates a post and sets it to "Friends of Friends" or "Public," and you leave a comment, then yes people who are not your friends will see it. One way you can check this is to look at the little icon next to the timestamp of each post. Hover over it and see who the post is shared with. See image above.
When in doubt about these posts that are going viral, check out Snopes.com.
Follow good etiquette. Don't repost other people's photos without their permission. Take a look at Randi Zuckerberg's Facebook freakout over one of her photos that got reposted.

What other Facebook advice do you have?

Preparing for the Worst Case Scenario (a repost)

2012-12-15T09:58:00.005-05:00

Photo from Morguefile.com

This post comes courtesy of Kristofor Still who is the husband of blogger, Beth Still. Beth asked Kris to write this post on her blog (published 12/14/12). With their permission, I am reposting it in its entirety here. Please share this information with everyone you know and pray that we never need to use this information.

"I have been in Law Enforcement now for almost 19 years; the last 13 years have been with the Scotts Bluff County Sheriff’s Department in Nebraska. I have been a SWAT team member for the last 11 ½ years and a SWAT sniper for the last six years. I am also one of the department’s two firearms instructors. In May of 2012, I was given a great opportunity as I was one a select few from across the state who were able to gain a certification as an Active Shooter Response Instructor. I now teach a two day class to area Law Enforcement Officers along with my Sergeant, Troy Brown and Scottsbluff Police Officer and fellow SWAT team member, Ian McPherson.

As most of you probably know by now, today was one of the most horrific days in the history of the United States. A killer walked into the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut and killed 20 children and 6 adults. Of those killed, a majority of them were Kindergarteners.

When something like this happens and innocent children are killed, it tears at the hearts of a nation. Destroying what we as parents hold dearest to our hearts shock us to the core. It makes us realize how fragile life really is and how one crazed, sick person can take it away in the blink of an eye.

As I mentioned above, I am one of three instructors in our county that teach active shooter response to our area Law Enforcement Officers. Because of this, my wife knows that I am passionate about making sure that our officers are prepared both mentally and physically to go in and meet this evil head on and terminate it as quickly as possible in order to stop the killing.

Like most parents across our nation today, we talked at great length when Beth arrived home from school about what we can do as Law Enforcement Officers and Educators to stop this from happening. Beth came to me because she knows that I have also in the past gone to two of our area schools and provided them in-put on ways the school and teachers can protect themselves and the children. The sad thing about all of this is that my advice fell on deaf ears. I know that neither school followed through with any of the recommendations provided to them. I believe the reason that nothing was done was two fold. First of all, too many administrators fall into a comfort zone and genuinely believe that this kind of evil will never happen here. The second reason is because of the all mighty dollar. In both schools that I went to, I talked about purchasing certain items that could be used to aid teachers in protecting and or keeping intruders out of their rooms in the case that they were unable to escape. I felt that in both cases, I lost them once it came down to spending money.

I am often asked by people and teachers what they need to do in the case of active shooter in the building or school in which they are located. I start off by telling them to follow the acronym A.D.D. This stands for AVOID, DENY, DEFEND. I tell teachers, administrators, law enforcement officers, and citizens the same thing.

AVOID: Escape the scene as quickly as possible. If you are able to run, do so until you are sure you are in a safe place.

DENY (entry): If you unable to get out, barricade yourself in a room. Pile all of the furniture and heavy items in front of the door as possible and then quietly hide in the room in an area that would provide cover and concealment from an active shooter who wants to try to shoot into the room. Remember that an active shooters main goal is to kill as many people as possible to provide the greatest shock factor to his or her audience. They do not like to get hung up on a closed and locked door. This will slow them down too much for them to effectively accomplish their mission or goal. Most likely, they will move on.

DEFEND: If you are unable to escape or secure yourself in a safe room, you need to fight for your life. Find any items that you can use as a weapon. These are items of convenience such as a fire extinguisher, coat rack, trash can, chair, etc. If you are able to, find others in your same position that are of the sound mind and body to assist you in fighting for your life as well as the other innocent people who could fall victim to the senseless killing that is happening.

Another major problem that I am seeing in our schools is that our teachers are given a policy or a flip chart to follow in times of an emergency. This may work if you are talking about a fire drill or tornado drill, but teachers need leeway in their decision making when they are dealing with an active shooter. Most teachers are by nature known to be rule followers. This creates problems as they tend to fall back on a flip chart or policy and ignore that sixth sense about what they should do. The way I describe this to our new law enforcement recruits is by telling them that if something doesn’t seem right, it probably isn’t. Learn to follow your sixth sense and do what you feel is right.

Early on in this post, I spoke about certain in-expensive items that I recommended these schools purchase for each teacher or each room. Below is a list of these items that I recommended to them and am now recommending to you.

1) Tactical door wedges. These can be found on-line and typically cost between $15 and $20 a piece. These secure the door to the floor from inside the room, so the door can be permanently locked. If done properly, the only way you can open the door is to tear it down with an axe or chainsaw.

2)      A claw hammer with a long handle. These can be used as both a weapon to fight with or a tool to break and rake windows to aid in escape if your room has exterior windows.
3)      Medical kit to include a [tourniquet] and a clotting agent. Remember that the first responders that are entering the building are not there to provide medical attention to those that are injured. They by-pass the injured and going straight to the threat so they can stop the killing as quickly as possible.
4)      Rope or fire escape ladders. To aid in escape through an outer window if you are on the second or third floor of a school or structure.
5)      Emergency blankets. These can be used to help comfort the wounded or to throw over the broken glass in a window pane prior to escape.
6)      Cell phones or emergency radios for each classroom. Communication is key to any law enforcement officers or tactical teams arriving on scene. If you are able to provide pertinent information to police dispatch, you can aid in response time by providing the locations of the shooter(s) inside the structure.
7)      A box, tote, or five gallon bucket to hold all of these items as they are stored in a safe place inside the classroom.
As you can see above, these are not high priced items. Push your administrator to purchase these for each classroom and tell him or her why you feel it is important. If they refuse to help your school, find ways to make this happen on your own. Some of the items above may be lying around your house or garage and could easily be transported to your school. The rest that needs to be purchased could easily be justified as inexpensive life insurance policy.

As an educator you are responsible for protecting your students if at all possible. Too many times in these cases of school shootings, there were red flags that many noticed, but failed to report until after the unthinkable happened. If you see or hear something that you consider to be red flag with a student, report it. Start by telling an administrator or counselor. If this fails and you believe they pose a true threat, talk to one of your trusted law enforcement officers.

In closing, I want you to ask yourself this; could you live with yourself if you failed to prepare, act, or report a possible future threat that resulted in the death of a student, wife, husband, son, daughter, grandparent or co-worker. You owe it to yourself and your students to be their first line of defense by educating yourself and making good sound decisions!"

You can follow Kris Still on Twitter at @kris_still

Sexist or Silly?

2012-11-11T10:02:00.000-05:00

"A little girl’s school assignment has generated impassioned debate online after her father, blogger Steve Bowler, sparked outrage by posting the third-grader’s worksheet, which dealt with gender stereotypes."

Image: Kozzi Free Images

The child's class was reading a story about gender-bias and the teacher sent home a worksheet requiring the students to place each toy or activity into a column labeled Boys, Girls, or Both. In response, this student forced all items into Both and her teacher wrote, "We talked about how each square needs to be filled"

Now, don't even get me started on why she referred to the rectangles as squares and why some of the non-proper nouns were capitalized...

Image: New York Public Library

The bigger issue is obviously that the teacher required the students to make choices based on gender-bias.

... and this parent was upset, confused, and left with lots of questions about the meaning of the assignment.

When I was teaching, I always to tried to remember to include a written explanation of the assignment's intent so that if a student couldn't remember, or appropriately articulate the purpose for the worksheet or project, at least the parent could read it for themselves. In this case, there were no directions. However, in all fairness there may have been other pages to this same assignment where directions were included.

There is no mention of email. The father is on Twitter, so he has Internet access. Does the school? Does the teacher? Could he have emailed the teacher immediately with his question and received a reply immediately as opposed to waiting a few days for a conference?

Please read the entire article. There is some great discussion in the comments, too.

This article raises many questions for me. I have my own thoughts but I'd really like to hear from you. Please leave your thoughts in the comments section.

Is everyone overreacting?
Did the father overreact by posting this on Twitter?
How would you handle this situation?
Did the teacher do anything wrong? If so, what?
If you were this teacher's principal, how would you handle this with the parent?
If you were this teacher's principal, how would you handle this with the teacher?
If you were the father or mother, how would you address this with your daughter (the student)?
As the teacher, how important is it to include written context so the parent can understand?
What other questions does this generate for you?

survey tools

How to Avoid Offending Anyone This Holiday Season

2012-11-03T09:38:00.000-04:00

Answer at the bottom of this post.

My son posted this on his Twitter feed and it gave me a good laugh. I could be wrong, but I believe the comment originated with Jim Gaffigan, a comedian.

It's humorous and not-so-humorous at the same time. While most people are starting to look forward to the holidays with all the good food, cheer, family time, and personal wonderment, some people are getting a little stressed out. Every year in schools across the nation, teachers are beginning to assess their new group of students and figure out how to appropriately handle the holidays.

For me, because I taught elementary students for 22 years, there were 22 varieties of how I handled the holidays. Within those 22, there were other variances for individual students based on students' sensitivities, parental wishes, etc.

Every year brought new surprises but one thing was consistent; every year brought lots of stress. Not the stress of planning parties (which as we all know is stressful enough), but the stress of keeping things generic enough for everyone without offending anyone. I've come to realize it's an impossible task.

I've recently been asked to be a regular on-air commentator for BAM Radio, the largest education radio network in the world offering programming from the nation's top education organizations and thought leaders and reaching a wide audience of people passionately commited to quality education. The segment we recently recorded is called Balancing Act: Celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza in School hosted by Rae Pica with Maurice J. Elias, Ph.D., Julie Bisson (and me!)

I hope you'll take some time to listen and enjoy. I'd love to know what you think of the radio show and if you have tips for a stress-free (or less-stressful) holiday in school, please leave your thoughts in the comment section.

Answer to the title of this post:

Can we avoid offending everyone? I don't think so, but you can minimize the risk. If you listened to the radio segment, you now have some ideas for moving forward. What are your thoughts?

Are You Driving a Race Car or Horse and Buggy?

2012-09-03T09:22:00.004-04:00

http://darkartwork.freeoda.com/

I recently watched a TV show about the Amish lifestyle. It was fascinating to see how their lives that leave behind almost all modern conveniences, can be so fulfilling to those who choose it. They don't drive automobiles (although they will accept rides from others - or hire a car to take them some distance). They enjoy the slow pace of the horse and buggy and simple pleasures from not using modern-day technologies. This works well for them for many reasons, but mostly because the entire community buys in to it. I am not judging their lifestyle; in fact I am in awe of it. I am simply setting the stage for an important analogy.

Watching the show made me think of the English (non-Amish) lifestyle and our use of technology. Imagine everyone in your community enjoys the luxury of automobile transportation, grocery shopping at large chain stores, and regularly using computers and cellphones. Now imagine that one person who left the Amish has now joined your community. This person convinces everyone to adopt some of the Amish practices which require you and your friends to give up many of the conveniences and luxuries you've come to depend on. How long will it take for you to lose touch with the other communities? How long before your ability to learn and communicate becomes severely handicapped? The rest of the world is competing in Nascar-like races, and you're hoping to win in your buggy.

To me, this is analogous to teachers and schools that refuse to move at the technological pace that our students need. Those teachers, schools and districts that refuse to adopt the use of technology in their classrooms are not only slowing down the pace of their students much like using a horse and buggy rather than a car, they are withholding valuable resources that their students NEED to be successful. While the rest of the competing world flies by in their cars and airplanes, they are clopping along in their buggies. Entire schools and districts often delay (or ignore) decisions about the use of innovative practices due to fear - handicapping their students' ability to learn and communicate in ~~tomorrow's~~ today's world.

The infographic below does a good job of illustrating why we can't continue to rely on one teacher in one classroom, with her white board and flat textbooks. Is your school/district forcing you (and your students) to drive horses and buggies, or are they giving you the go-ahead to drive race cars?

Some Things I Learned at ISTE

2012-06-29T02:18:00.001-04:00

While ISTE is technically over, the Twitter and Facebook streams are alive and well. (Follow Twitter hashtag #iste12 if interested.) I love how the learning and social connections live on long after an event occurs.

As usual, my experience typically focuses not only in the content I've gleaned, but also how inspired I am, as well as those things I inevitably learn about myself.

I noticed an increased focus on lifting teachers' spirits and helping them see that they really are valued. Teachers often feel helpless to facilitate change but there was definitely a concerted effort to help teachers feel empowered in concrete ways.

I noticed there was some leadership bashing. If you're trying to help teachers feel empowered, it's not helpful to contribute to the idea that they are all alone out there and the district or upper level administrators don't care. Yes, I took this personally. I attend a lot of meetings and I often marvel at how focused everyone is on assisting teachers, schools and students. I know my team in particular works very hard at being advocates for those in the trenches.

I love that I saw a lot of new faces at SocialEdCon (previously known as EduBloggerCon). It's so important to encourage new ideas and welcome in new participants.

I also saw a lot of new faces in the Bloggers' Cafe. I wonder if this means people are finally getting over the "intimidation" factor.

I saw myself not caring anymore about some people in my network who for some reason or another make it very difficult to connect. Maybe I just don't want to try so hard anymore. is that wrong?

I love that I was able to deepen my relationships with so many very smart and really nice people who I only knew before and now I call friends.

More people than ever came up to me and told me they follow me on Twitter. I wasn't creeped out and in fact, I took it as a compliment.

Nobody called me a Rock Star. Either I am no longer one, or people finally realize it makes others uncomfortable. Either way, I'm glad.

I also learned about some tools from a productivity and integration standpoint. My favorite is an iPad app called Soundnote. It allows you to record audio and add tags or notes. When you play back the recording, you can click on your words and the audio jumps to that place in the audio. You can share the document with others and it works for them as well (even if they don't have the app; in which case it displays the time code of the audio so you can scrub to it yourself).

What were some of your takeaways? I'd love to hear from you in the comments.

Some ISTE Advice to All

2012-06-16T10:38:00.000-04:00

2010 ISTE Keynote Slide

As ISTE 2012 lurks right around the corner, I am reminded of some of the things that makes a great presentation. In 2010, the keynote may have had very important and relevant ideas to share, but very few gave him a chance (myself included) because among other things, his slidedeck was terrible. Admittedly, many of us behaved badly by publicly criticizing him before he was even done. (As an attendee who uses social media, I need to constantly remind myself to refrain from displaying my usual snarky self.) Nonetheless, the ISTE audience is not much different from other audiences who want to be engaged, to learn and to be inspired..

If you are a presenter, please be sure to use a variety of media in your presentation. Incorporate a back channel or shared document, use video (edit it to be under 60 seconds - trust me on this one), and leave time for questions. Know your material and be sure there is at least one big takeaway related to your session description. Also, look at your slide deck and think about revamping the slides. Keep in mind that further information, resources and materials can be included on a website that you clearly post on your slides (in a shortened URL). Your slides don't have to be a duplicate of what you are saying. Bullets are OK but save them for when you are summarizing. The best presentations I've attended are where the presenter uses images with quotes to supplement their points. They also allow for some conversation and the presenter knows his/her audience. Don't feel compelled to give out your slide deck. I stopped doing this awhile ago and I know many others who also don't do this anymore. This is a personal decision that sometimes results in your work being plagiarized. If you include all of the resources you talk about on a website, then I can't imagine why anyone would want your slides, too. Be sure to CITE YOUR SOURCES for everything that you did not create.

Try to create your own media. Make a few of these inspirational "posters" and you'll find yourself starting to really think about your position on topics. Do you think it's too much work or too difficult to create these images? Maybe you don't know how to use a tool that allows you to mark up photos and documents like Skitch (my all time favorite). Consider using those that others have posted for you to use. Check out some Flickr groups.

Posted to group Flickr pool by user Willrich

Every now and then I'm reminded of this Flickr group which was organized in 2008 by my friend, Dean Shareski. Dean is a level-headed, really smart guy who really makes you think. Dean not only created this space for people to share their ideas, but he's inspired many people to create and think. There are over 950 member and over 1700 items such as the one above. The group is public and free to join and the posted images are free to use.

Even if you are a seasoned conference attendee or social network guru, consider attending some sessions where you will not only learn and be inspired but you will also pick up some dynamic speaking strategies. Go see Dean's session at ISTE and try to also make time for Rushton Hurley and Hall Davidson. There are many others so you really need to make time going through the conference planner BEFORE the conference.

If you can't attend in person, be sure to participate remotely. ISTE has this figured out and is providing ways for you to attend virtually here. Be sure to also follow the ISTE Twitter hashtags #iste2012, #iste12, #iste, and #edchat.

I am not offering advice because I am such a dynamic speaker (I assure you I am not), but I have attended many, many sessions and walked away frustrated. The best presentations I've attended include audience participation, but not too much. We are there to hear YOU. If Adora Svitak, at age 14, can give a compelling presentation, so can you. If I want to have a lengthy group discussion, I'll go to the Bloggers' CAFE or other networking lounge. (Speaking of the Bloggers' CAFE, I encourage you to visit and you just may find it to be the best part of your ISTE experience.) Having said that, just don't expect much, as you won't find "Dog and Pony Acts," you'll simply find people having conversations. Jump in! If the folks there wanted to exclude others, they would be in a private area having that conversation.

One last item - try to attend some of the evening festivities where social networking and real life come together for a great time.

See you there!

How Long Would It Take You to Read "War and Peace?"

2012-05-30T11:00:00.003-04:00

Click image

I just stumbled across this reading test that assesses how fast you read at your normal pace. (My score was 369 WPM - 48% faster than the national average.) The free test includes a just a few comprehension questions and in all will only take a few minutes.

The most interesting part comes after you get your results. You are then presented with a list of books (Harry Potter, War and Peace, etc.) and info on how long it would take you to complete these books. It also tells you how many books you can read on a variety of devices before losing battery life. This is a great resource for reluctant readers to get the idea that some books really are not out of their league.

What do you think?

Source: Staples eReader Department

A Great Prize Opportunity

2012-05-05T09:16:00.001-04:00

You may know that I've been involved in judging some contests where teachers are able to show what they are doing in the classroom and potentially win an award. Since I'm all about recognizing good teaching, I couldn't say, "No" when
Alfred Thompson, K-12 Computer Science Academic Relations manager for Microsoft, asked me to share the exciting news of the contest below. If you are, or know of, an innovative teacher who is making a difference for girls and women in the areas of math, computing or engineering, please encourage them to apply.

The A. Richard Newton Educator Award recognizes teaching practices, techniques or innovative and new education approaches that attract girls and women to math, computing, and engineering. The award recognizes the educators (either individuals or teams) as well as the practices in K12 or undergraduate education. The award carries a $5,000 prize and will be presented at the 2012 Grace Hopper Celebration for Women in Computing awards celebration on October 4, 2012 in Baltimore, Maryland. I know that many people on this list are engaged in these practices, and I hope you consider nominating your deserving colleagues for this award! More information, including details on how to submit a nomination, can be found at http://anitaborg.org/initiatives/awards/a-richard-newton-educator-award/

The deadline is May 15, 2012.

Dear Will Richardson

2012-04-15T00:02:00.002-04:00

Thank you for writing your ~~recent~~ Huffington Post article. It motivated me to write this passionate post. Just so you know, I like and respect you very much and wish we had time to chat in person when we were both in D.C. Some day, I hope to sit with you and have this conversation in person.

I hope you read this, Will, and please don't take this personally; on the hand, please take it personally.

In response to your post, I want to tell you that I agree with almost everything you said, but I think you (once again) lost sight of what it's like to be in the trenches. You and many other educational (motivational) speakers and PD experts would do well to take a one/two year hiatus from the awesome (yes, awesome) stuff you/they are currently doing, and spend some time in an FCAT tested grade in a public school. There are many who could use to spend a year dealing with this head-on; rather than writing or lecturing about it and making teachers feel poorly about the instructional choices they are forced to make every day. It would make you and these other folks even more awesome.

I mean it; return to the classroom. You can do it... I did. If you've been out of the classroom more than five to ten years; don't say you know how it is. It's changed that much in such a short time.

A few years ago, I willingly took a $20K hit to return to teaching, but have since returned to district administration. I left teaching because as a classroom teacher, I felt terrible about the choices I was forced to make, and after successfully teaching for 25+ years, I suddenly felt incompetent. I'm not the only one. The current environment has made too many great teachers (with experience, sharp instincts and a real passion for teaching and learning) feel like they suddenly don't know what they're doing. Listening to well-known educational experts (and so many who are in my PLN and who I respect) tell me I was doing it all wrong, didn't help. You do have a tendency to do this, Will. Whether you mean to or not.

I admire all of those teachers who CAN make it work. There are plenty who can; but not me. By returning to the classroom and (attempting to) practice what I was preaching, my perspective shifted tremendously and now I believe that new perspective makes me a more thoughtful leader where I am now. And if you and some others tried it, they ~~just may~~ WILL see a shift in their perspective as well.

In all fairness, Will, you do state that you're not picking on any teachers in particular. You say, "...I am, however, picking on a culture of schooling that feels the need to pump up students for test-taking with chanting and dancing that, on some level, makes me actually shudder as a parent."

But I still can't help feeling that, although you're not calling out specific teachers, you are calling out teachers in general. That's the part where I think teachers start to feel really crumby about themselves; because there are so many who (rightly so) really value your thoughts.

I'd like to make it clear that I'm really not picking specifically on you either. I've challenged this approach before and some excellent discussion ensued in the comments. Many people pushed back in the comments (and some who actually agreed with me) and I also received many private Twitter messages and emails thanking me for writing what they were thinking (but were hesitant to express themselves publicly).

Again, it's not only you, Will, but all of the folks who stand in judgment of others who are dealing with the pain of helping students not become victims of the testing madness.

I commend Melanie Sutherland Holtsman on her comment (below) at your post and I thank her and all those teachers who help our kids get through the state testing (and the many simulations throughout the year) with less stress. A big "thank you" to those teachers who hardly mention the test but instead prepare the students to show what they know daily through sharing and collaborating and building knowledge so when students do share their knowledge it feels natural to them; to those who avoid scare-tactics, "magic" objects or "anti-stress pills" that will miraculously help kids do better on the tests: and to those who know they still have to answer to their principals and so they MAKE IT WORK. It is these teachers, like Melanie, who work in other ways to make changes, but know that overtly bucking the system (with the unintended consequence of using the students as pawns) is not the way to go.

From Melanie:

“I agree with everything you are saying, can't fault you for any of it. And as much as it saddens me to be a part of a district that is in a state where that "test" really matters (FCAT - FL) we feel the need to do spirit week, pep rallys, encouragement treats not so much so the kids will get that high score. But because we hate the fact that the kids have to take it and don't want them to have any anxiety about those testing days, so we try to make it fun. It doesn't drive what we teach, our standards do, and it just another test like all the others. We want the kids to feel loved like all the other days of the year and we want to quickly move past it to the real learning of our other school days.
I just felt the need to add my 2 cents about rallys and the things we do as educators that may seem wacky. Not a comment on this particuar rally, but just my point of view. Thanks for your article. Hope it makes others think as well.”

Due to your place in the blogosphere versus mine, this post is likely to be unpopular, but from what I've heard you say, you do encourage people to push-back.

So here you go.

Respectfully,

Lee

P.S. If anyone else happens to be reading this, I hope you will share your thoughts in the comments here. Although I love getting replies on Twitter, for the sake of conversation, I would appreciate your comments on this post here. (Feel free to leave only 140 characters; it that suits you.)

The topic of my P.S. is fodder for another blogpost. Another time.

Free Robust Messaging for Schools

2012-04-07T11:49:00.000-04:00

This came across my email today and thought it worthy of sharing. Have you heard of Celly?

They were named a top ten education technology startup of 2011 by Hack Education. Celly lets people create private communication networks that work really well for situations that other social networks don't and they have a schools specific section. Teachers, students and parents can communicate (while not revealing their phone numbers) via text messaging. They have a rich suite of tools that include: moderated messaging, so students can help each other and ask questions with guidance from the teacher polling for instant evaluation and clicker replacement access from the web, sms, and email phone numbers. Emails and phone numbers are not shared nor exchanged.

To me, these two key features alone make it worthy of checking out:

Phone numbers and email addresses are kept private from the users. Which sometimes raises a flag because it allows for anonymous users, BUT...
Teachers can moderate all messages before allowing them to go through. -In my opinion, too many companies are digging in their heels about moderation and insisting on not providing that feature. In school districts where the legal dept. has plenty to do (such as mine), something without moderation will have a very difficult time passing the Sniff Test. This holds true for principals who spend too much of their time dealing with social media issues at their schools (even when they happen at home). From my experience, principals trust their teachers very much, but are unlikely to allow their teachers to use something that can't be moderated.

According to their message to me, "This is a free service that sent over 1 million text messages last month and is growing fast."

Audrey Watters does a great job of summarizing Celly. I suggest you check out her post.

Innovative Teachers Win Big

2012-03-29T21:56:00.000-04:00

The following post is a guest post from Rob Bayuk.

On Monday I was fortunate to visit Palm Beach Co. School District’s annual Technology Conference (see: #sdpbctechconf) which aims to bring educators from across this large district together for professional learning focused on education technology. This year’s event attracted nearly 2,000 educators and staff from across the district. An impressive display for even a large district.

As part of this event, Microsoft had an opportunity to partner with the district to host a Microsoft Partners in Learning 2012 Regional US Forum. I’ve blogged about this global teacher recognition forum, and in the U.S. we host the national forum in Redmond on Microsoft’s worldwide campus attracting top educators from across the country.

The Regional US Forum, hosted by Palm Beach Co. School District, was led under the thoughtful leadership of Lee Kolbert (aka @Teachakidd) and is the first of four regional forums being hosted across the U.S. that provide local educators an opportunity to be invited to the national forum this summer in Redmond (though any educator can apply to the national forum).

It was great to meet and congratulate the four finalists from this forum who have the esteemed acknowledgement of being the first four educators to be invited to the national Microsoft Partners in Learning 2012 US Forum in Redmond this summer. As their projects outline below they are doing incredible work to engage their students thoughtfully, incorporating relevant and practical technology to advance their student’s learning.

So without further adieu, I would like to congratulate the first educators to be accepted to the Microsoft Partners in Learning 2012 US Forum. All are from Palm Beach Co. School District (Palm Beach, FL) teachers are seated, from left to right in the pic: Andy, Todd, Randy and Jamie and here is a little about their projects:

Andy Goldstein, 6-8th Grade Technology Teacher, Omni Middle School
In Andy Goldstein’s class, students became inventors! All inventions begin with a dream, and students create inventions by taking a leap into imagination. For this project, students used Microsoft Word and Windows Movie Maker to explore their imaginations and to encourage team work through collaboration. These tools also helped achieve a highly skilled finished product; the end results being the completed videos that are published to the classroom blog at http://weblogs.pbspaces.com/mrgoldstein/. This project was helpful to gently encourage students to stretch their imaginations, yet to have discipline in completing each step of the design process.

Randy Lavery, K-5 Communication Arts/TV Production Teacher, U.B. Kinsey/Palmview Elementary School
Students worked together to create Microsoft PowerPoint and Photo Story 3 multi-media projects about topics that affect them at home and school. The final products were videos and poster/fliers to post around campus. All students in the class now have a greater understanding of how they can stay healthier and reduce the spread of germs. The final videos will be shown to the school and posters placed around campus to educate the whole school.

Todd LaVogue, 6-7th Grade History Teacher, Roosevelt Community Middle School
In order to help his students gain a better understanding of life in ancient Egypt, Todd LaVogue had his students create a TV show about ancient Egypt. Using Microsoft Word, Internet Explorer and video editing software, his students researched and created a Today Show style news program with news, weather, sports, cooking, lifestyle, historical, music segments. Students were able to compare and contrast ancient Egypt with today's society very well. In the end, they had a better understanding of what it would have been like to have lived during that time.

Jamie Worrall, 6-8th Grade Math Teacher, Christa McAuliffe Middle School
Using Microsoft PowerPoint, Word and Photo Story 3, Jamie Worrall’s honors algebra students worked in groups to create instructional videos to assist (tutor) other math students through the concepts of relations and functions in a fun and entertaining format. The assignment was for each video to be rich in vocabulary and to include the four ways to represent functions (words, equations, tables/maps and graphs).

If you would like to track the progress of the US Forum follow #pilus and “Like” us on Facebook. The final deadline to apply is May 15th.

Rob (@TeachTec)

See related TeachTec posts:

A Few Things That Caught My Attention

2012-03-23T10:00:00.000-04:00

As I opened my blog, I see that it's been quite awhile since my last post. I've been blogging less for a few reasons, but mostly because I haven't felt like I have much to contribute to the conversation lately. I've also been using Twitter less; for the same reasons. Hopefully, I will reengage soon because I do enjoy that feeling of connectedness and sharing.

I still don't have much to say today, but I wanted to share a few blogposts that caught my attention recently. I urge you to spend a few minutes reading these.

Videos to Help You Rethink Education, Learning, and School by Garr Reynolds *In this post, Garr Reynolds (Presentation Zen) shares a few excellent videos related to education.
Don't Fear Failure by Karl Fisch *Thoughtful post about taking risks in learning and sharing.
Serving or Delivering Does Not Equal Teaching or Learning by Wes Fryer *Wes shares his reaction to the 60 Minutes episode on Khan Academy. Of particular interest are some links and recommendations that Wes shares for further exploration.