iTeach

The Living Facebook Project: Day 5

2012-03-19T09:45:00.001-04:00

As the facebook-less week draws to a close, I find myself only somewhat interested in getting back on the preeminent social network. The experience for me was moderately eye opening, but fun at the same time. I enjoyed cutting out newspaper clippings and posting them to colleagues' walls. I enjoyed asking people to be my friend. I enjoyed colleagues physically posting messages on my door asking to be friends with me. I enjoyed rejecting some of them and then dealing with the conversations that followed.

I didn't really miss it. When I logged on Saturday morning I didn't really miss much. My cousin got engaged and I hadn't heard otherwise. I'm sure I eventually would have, but it was nice to see a photo of the rock on her finger. Other than that, I didn't miss a beat. I still felt that I was connected with my friends and family when I returned.

So to sum it up, five days without facebook is cake. I returned to my original assertion that facebook employs the perfect design for procrastination and wasting time. It also allows us to vent whatever we want and obtain daily affirmation much like Stuart Smalley did with his mirror on SNL.

I admire John Spencer for sustaining for forty days and want to thank him for starting this project and taking time out of his schedule to speak with my students about this project. That experience really highlighted to my students what you can do and learn from a network. It showed that a teacher from Phoenix and a teacher from Boston can come together to orchestrate a lesson that engages students and models good digital citizenship and why it is important to take care of your digital identity.

I think my students will remember this experience and look differently at facebook, and social media in general. I think they understand that facebook is not a departure from reality and that it is just another medium by which we can engage, interact and voice our opinions and thoughts. It is not a place where we should mask our identity.

The Living Facebook Project: Day 4

2012-03-15T22:54:00.000-04:00

Whitten's wall

Day four of the living facebook project and I'm feeling fine, however my students are starting to get anxious. The link I posted on my colleague's wall has gone viral. Whitten's wall has become the talk of Burlington. His students are really excited to post comments on his board and keep the conversation alive. It's grown rapidly.

The students are starting to see that facebook is not really a place at all and that it is really no different than a wall. It serves the same purpose, however they are beginning to understand the reach and audience that social media commands. This is an important distinction that is not always easily translated to students.

Today as we talked about the facebook project I asked them to define the most important 21st Century skill. Many students described skills involved directly with technology. One student said interaction, while others mentioned searching and researching skills. After entertaining all of their responses, I quoted Alan November and said that the most important 21st century skill is empathy. I related how important this skill is in a global economy and an increasingly connected world. We then transitioned the conversation to a Google doc and came up with some great responses to several questions associated with civility, citizenship, empathy and maintaining and molding your digital spaces.

While this conversation was unfolding on the Google Doc, we were greeted by a group of administrators and teachers who were visiting Burlington. The students explained to our visitors what they were discussing on the doc and the crowd was impressed with their responses. My students immediately relayed the importance of maintaining their digital identity and how someday they will be expected adapt to and use these spaces effectively. Also, they started to see social media as an opportunity for their future as opposed to something that is deemed bad by many. It was one of those moments as a teacher that makes you very proud.

Today's living facebook project was not really about facebook at all. It was about students understanding their responsibility in a variety of digital spaces. Also, it reinforced how important empathy is in a global economy and an increasingly connected world.

The Living Facebook Project: Day 3

2012-03-14T20:57:00.000-04:00

Andy Marcinek is now friends with Todd Whitten

When I left my last post, I came to the conclusion that facebook is a giant time waster. What's more, is that facebook is not something I would classify as 'missing'. What I do miss is the opportunity to share with people that only use facebook. With that element lacking, I decided to take sharing back to the basics and see what others thought about the analog process. So my question is...what happens when you want to share without any audience? And share with an audience of one? More, what would a connected room of students think about this form of analog sharing. I'm also wondering if people share more for the affirmation or more to genuinely help everyone in their network?

Despite having more devices than I know what do with and a digital subscription to the New York Times, I still enjoy reading the print edition of the Sunday Times cover to cover. Call me old fashioned, but there's something very romantic about the Sunday Times. Along with Charles Osgood, I look forward to it each Sunday morning. This past Sunday I read a really interesting piece by Thomas Friedman that examined countries that have abundant natural resources versus those that don't. The countries that did not have an abundance of resources had more invested in education and performed better academically than those with the greatest natural resources. Regardless of the study, I found it to be an interesting read. I decided to bring it into school, cut it out, and share it with a history teacher. Today during Todd Whitten's US-China relations course, I interjected briefly to share the article. However, the first thing I did was to ask Todd if he would like to be my friend. I know Todd, but wanted to make sure we were friends before sharing something with him. Especially if I'm affixing that information on his wall.

Andy Marcinek shared a link on your wall

I asked, "Todd, would you like to be my friend?"

"Yes." He replied.

I wrote this exchange on his board:

"Andy Marcinek is now friends with Todd Whitten"

I then took the newspaper clipping that I found in Sunday's Times and tapped it to his wall. After I posted it, I asked for comments. I later found out that several students liked our new friendship and commented on the article that was affixed to Todd's wall.

The students, along with my colleague, enjoyed watching me live out something we unconsciously do in the social media realm on a daily basis. So I'm curious. Why do we share? Do we share for us? or do we genuinely share to make others better? I'd like to think the latter, but I'm not sold completely. I imagine that some share simply for the affirmation and if you took away the social media platform that person may share less because the spotlight is limited. Obviously, this is a very cynical theory, but I'd like the comments that follow on this post to discuss this point and address the question: Why do we share? And would we share the same way if the social media vehicle didn't exist?

The Living Facebook Project: Day 2

2012-03-14T08:07:00.000-04:00

I am starting to notice two things during my week without Facebook:

1. I don’t really feel left out of the conversation
2. Facebook is designed perfectly for wasting time and procrastinating.

Yes, I occasionally wonder what’s happening in my news feed and if I am missing any great photos or videos of cats falling off of counter tops, but I'm using other venues for information and sharing. And that’s what I find myself missing most. Not so much the cats, but having the venue to share information with my friends and family that don’t use Twitter or any other social network. The same goes with photos. Yesterday I was at the dog park and wanted to share a picture with Facebook. Instead, I sent a photo text of my dog to my mom and a few friends and demanded that they comment and like it. They did.

Beyond the time consumption element, I’m discovering that Facebook is a great party. Everyone is there that you want to be there and it’s usually a good time. It can be a private party or a giant mixer. Most of the conversation is geared towards positive interactions and gaining affirmation. It’s a place where we feel good and can glean some positive reinforcement during a bad day. Facebook is about us. It’s like Cheers: It’s a place where everybody knows your name.

The Living Facebook Project: Day 1

2012-03-12T23:18:00.001-04:00

Today was my first day in sometime without Facebook. I woke as normal with my iPhone ringing as my alarm. While I adjusted to losing one hour this past weekend, I still managed to gloss over my emails and twitter feed after I hit snooze. I noticed the giant blue 'f' on my iPhone homescreen and decided to move it into a folder. I then decided to delete it all together and download it again next week.

I found myself tempted several times throughout the day to check the site. I also started to realize that my attraction to facebook was on the level of watching reality television. For some reason, like most of us, I'm drawn to human flaw and awkwardness. I find this a lot on facebook. It's like all your friends standing out in a field yelling their problems, their triumphs, their favorite quotes, etc, but none of them are wearing pants. It's loud, and awkward all at the same time. And honestly, no one really cares, we're just all looking for affirmation. Facebook, and any social network is about us. It's trying to be there first; It's trying to be original; It's trying to be the coolest kid in school; It's trying to achieve some type of pseudo legendary status among your closest friends. It's vain.

My first day without facebook was not about trying things I usually do on there in real life, but more about seeing it for what it is. Facebook is a great place to connect, and reconnect with friends and family. It's a place where I can connect with my parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. all in one place. It's a place where I can easily plan a dinner party and remember a birthday. It's a place to kill time and share links, photos and videos. It's a place where I am 'friends' with my Mother. It's a place that I can easily let go.

Facebook is nothing new. It's not original, nor is it revolutionary. Facebook has been happening for years only in different forums and through different mediums. Some of our oldest ancestors were writing on walls long before Mark Zuckerberg's great, great, great grandparents were born. My first day away from facebook helped me remember that facebook is not something I need, but just another podium from which we can all yell.

Tomorrow I hope to make some new friends and I hope they can suggest some new friends that I may like. Stay tuned.

The Living Facebook Project

2012-03-08T07:44:00.001-05:00

Starting next Monday, my digital literacy students will be living facebook.

"Wait...WHAT!" - Actual response from student

For five whole days, they will not be logging into the preeminent social network and instead, living out their daily interactions on Facebook in real life.

I discovered this project a few weeks ago when I was perusing twitter and happened upon an exchange between Dean Shareski and John Spencer. The link that followed took me to the “Living Facebook Blog: 40 Days of Doing Facebook in Person”. What I discovered was one man’s epic journey of 40 days without Facebook. Everything Mr. Spencer did on Facebook he would now be engaging with in real life. The goal was to compare his experience off line and on Facebook. A simple, yet effective look at what it’s like to remove oneself from a place we travel on a daily basis.

Today, John Spencer will be speaking to my students virtually and discussing his experience with living Facebook. I will also be engaging in this project with my students and blogging about the experience. My students will all be writing reflection posts each day on their experience and highlighting certain aspects of what they did differently. Also, we will have a a daily Twitter chat discussing this project in class and students will be creating video reflections at the end of the project to detail their experience.

My hope for this project is that students will understand that Facebook is simply another space for socializing, connecting, and sharing and not a departure from reality. I want them to start seeing Facebook as a platform that they can use to not only socialize but highlight and empower their voice and talents. You can follow this project through this blog, our Digital Literacy class blog and also on Twitter through the hashtags #dlit3 and #dlit4

Dear Folks,

2012-02-18T10:08:00.001-05:00

Grandma McDermott at Christmas this past year

What I will miss most about my Grandmother are the handwritten notes she sent me every birthday and holiday. These notes followed me through college, graduate school, several jobs and a recent move to Boston. My cousins, Nicole and Michelle, lived in Ohio and in Allentown when they were young and would always get caught up on family happenings through these letters. My brother and I lived a mile from Grandma and Grandpa, so our early correspondences were usually in person. Nicole and Michelle called these letters “Dear Folks” letters for the simple reason of that is how she started each writing.

The letters were a simple, personal greeting that meant more to all of us than any call, text message, or email. And in case you’re wondering, my Grandparents did have a cellphone. They were important and special because we all knew that Grandma took the time to sit down and purposefully construct each word and sentence. And we saved every letter that Grandma sent. Along with my brother and two cousins, we have a written, personal history of our Grandmother, her life, and how much she cared for each of us. Technology cannot replace that.

The letters were usually composed on both sides of notebook paper and often recollected the past few days:

“Today Grandpa spent the morning up in the garden picking green beans. Will probably have some for supper. Joan (my Grandmother’s sister) and Earl are coming over later. I decided to make a turkey dinner even though it’s June. That’s okay, right?”

“Did some wash today and must clean the burners on my stove tomorrow. They need it badly.”

In the past year, Grandma’s health started to decline. She spent most of October and November in the hospital, but made it home for Thanksgiving. It was odd passing through two holidays and not receiving any letters from Grandma, but we all understood the circumstances. A few weeks after Thanksgiving we all received a Christmas card from Grandma and inside was a letter. Despite her weak hands and limited energy, she managed to meticulously construct each line of this letter delicately, and with love.

As I write this post, I am sad for future generations. I’m sad that some children and grandchildren will never get to experience the genuine, personal experience that comes with opening a letter that contains a handwritten note. I’m sad that some will never experience the intimate elegance of writing in cursive and know how it feels to place feelings and emotions into each letter, word, and sentence. I hope that this tradition is passed down and carried on by those of us who spend our days producing and consuming digital text so that future generations can experience what it’s like to receive something so personal as a handwritten letter. It's a tradition we must hold on to in our families and our schools.

A Valentine from Grandma McDermott 2011

My Grandmother passed away this morning at 87. She died at home - the home my Grandfather built over sixty years ago - surrounded by family and at peace. She got to see the sun rise this morning and watch the birds flock to her bird feeder. It was a peaceful, painless transition. I was not there to see her in her final moments, but I imagine she may have wanted to close with something like this...

Well must soon start thinking of starting supper so will say so long for now. Take care & Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

Love,

Grandma and Grandpa

Focus

2011-11-20T19:17:00.004-05:00

CC image via flickr by Bethan

The inability to focus will doom an entire generation of learners if we don’t embrace this skill now.

Tonight I did something out of the ordinary. I sat down at my kitchen table and had dinner. No TV. No phone. No twitter. No music. Just the dinner plate, the food I prepared and me. If you’re wondering I slow-cooked pork tenderloin, added some potatoes and an array of spices along with some thyme that I picked from my still lingering windowsill herb garden. I promise, the coincidences in that dinner and this piece were not preconceived.

Typically, I will eat at the coffee table while watching television. I usually watch a DVR program while I blindly shovel food into my mouth. Sometimes forgetting entirely what I just consumed. Sure, the tastes are there, but so are the phone, the television, the iPad and numerous outlets to trending topics happening instantaneously around me. If the food were my significant other, our relationship would surely be on the outs.

I think about the ability to focus and what the future of the learner holds in a culture that is enamored with gadgets and instantaneous information. While I embrace this culture and think a lot of good can and has come from it, I fear for an unfocused future. I fear that an entire generation of learners will spread itself so thin that it will hardly appreciate the small moments in life: a sunset, a book, handwriting, a winter walk, a well orchestrated lecture, a newspaper, or a well-prepared dinner.

I know, I know, I know...these things only appeal to me and the learner of today is well groomed to think and interact in a gaming world of instantaneous decision-making and a myriad of stimuli. They are different than you, Andy. They thrive on technology in the classroom and need it to survive in a global job market. Yes, I agree completely. In fact, it’s my job to integrate these devices and approaches to learning daily; however, I yield at the possibility of limiting today’s learner by throwing too much on their plate.

Today’s learner must be challenged beyond the simple rote, systemic procedures of the past. This concept is a given. For years we taught students to memorize answers and learn in a uniformed way. Many would argue that some aspects of this system still exist in today’s classroom. Students must not only seek out answers, but also develop engaging, thought-provoking questions that will lead them to a variety of answers. I believe this can happen with and without technology in today’s classroom. Technology simply affords us the opportunity to connect, share, and engage with the content and a broader audience. And that is a really good thing. However, we should not let the variety of technologies dilute the learning.

We have a lot of good things in this world and yet we always want something more. It’s like the “new toy syndrome” afflicts an entire society: the syndrome that exudes a strong desire and want for something, yet when we get it, we are looking towards the next new thing. We get the iPhone 4s and we are already anticipating the iPhone 5. The same approaches are happening in education. We get a cart of laptops and we’re already thinking about adding a cart of iPads. We get an HD projector and an Apple TV and we are already anticipating an interactive projector that covers are entire wall. Please, slow down. Appreciate and embrace what we have. Take a moment and learn the new technologies you have in your possession before trying to find out what you can get your hands on next. Administrators, don’t overwhelm your faculty with too many gadgets at once. Give them time to play, learn and use what they have effectively.

This piece is not meant to deter innovation, but rather to promote it. I imagine at some point Thomas Edison and Steve Jobs focused their talents and thoughts in one direction. I imagine that the greatest artists, inventors, composers, engineers, and athletes eventually came to a point in their life where they focused their intellectual or physical capital in one direction. This method is not halting innovation, but making it better, making it stronger.

I fear that if we, as educators race to add gadgets, apps, etc. to our classrooms then we will continue to water down the product. We must give our learners opportunities to experience forms of technology in the classroom, but also give them room to breathe and learn. I work in a school that supplies one iPad for every student and I’ll admit, I see many frustrated students that feel overwhelmed at times with trying to integrate a device into a learning style that is not yet there. I see students longing for the focused format of a book, a pencil, and a notebook.

I'm not asserting that technology is a bad thing, however it is an entity that we must pace appropriately and integrate purposefully. I have no doubt that I will receive criticisms for halting creativity and innovation in the educational system, but remember I am not presenting a sweeping conclusion of extensive research. I simply sat down and had dinner without anything else going on in my life. I enjoyed it. I thought about a variety of things while I was savoring each bite and when it was over I felt good, I felt accomplished, and learned that I should use less salt.

Education Restart

2011-10-28T12:04:00.000-04:00

My digital literacy students started with the project detailed in the post below. They first watched the 2007 video by Michael Wesch titled, A vision of students today. They conducted research and presented their findings in this video. Enjoy.

Room to learn

2011-10-19T09:02:00.001-04:00

CC image via flickr by Marcin Wichary

I have decided to step off of the stage and remove my sage sash (say it 5 times fast...go!). In my digital & Information literacy course my students are the authors of their learning, not me. I still present a new tool or lesson at the beginning of class, but I hardly remain on stage longer than five minutes. This is merely a demonstration. In many classes I am learning with the students and seen as a resource. As a result I have noticed happier, more engaged students. Plus, I have witnessed students asking more relevant questions, thinking their way through a problem rather than me telling them, and seeking out all available resources to find a solution. In short the learning is theirs they own it.

The project at the end of this post is something my class is working on at the moment and I’d like to share it with you. The objective is to create a comprehensive guide for digital citizenship and understanding your digital identity and privacy. I designated project managers and provided objectives and outcomes for the class along with a five point structure of what should be covered.

As this project progresses, so has my classroom dynamic. I walk into class, briefly check in with the project managers, and watch the students work. Yesterday, I came in an introduced them to Diigo. I presented this tool for roughly five minutes and then let them get to work. As soon as I finished presenting I witnessed a bustling office with everyone seeking out his or her task for the day. Students were moving around the room and communicating with each other. I could over hear problem deconstruction and decisions being made. Throughout each period all of their progress is documented on a shared Google doc. Each team, as well as the project managers, shares a doc with me. As they develop and accomplish tasks, they add them and eventually check them off on the Google doc. I witness communication, networking with other groups, community building, problem solving, critical thinking, and engagement. My class functions like most places of work. It’s relevant.

I encourage you to steal the project below and make it better. In fact, remix and share it with others. I will share the final result once students complete this project. Don’t feel this type of learning is impossible in core subjects. This type of project has potential across all content areas and all the way up Bloom’s taxonomy. Also, this is not a technology driven lesson. Students could complete the same type of project without any technology in the classroom.

Instead of a Google doc students could collaborate on large post-it easel paper. They could conduct research in their library and pull all available resources to find the most current, credible articles on the subject of digital citizenship. They could use pen and paper to take notes and interview teachers, students and administrators.

I could go on, but you get my point. This is not ground breaking or anything profound. It simply puts the onus on the student to learn by doing and own their learning. Students can find their niche in this project and learn something that interests them. I encourage you, the reader, and the educator, to try this. Take off your sage sash and see what happens. I imagine you will discover, along with your students, some pretty amazing results.

Today we are about to embark on another exciting project. Once again our class must come together as a team and create a comprehensive guide for understanding digital citizenship and knowing how to take care of your digital identity.

Objective:

Develop a comprehensive guide for maintaining your digital identity and understanding your web privacy. Your target audience should be high school students.

Your appointed project managers are

Walter
Stephanie
Ahmad

What you should present at the conclusion of this project...

1. Have a website that you can showcase your information, research, and media you find on digital citizenship, web privacy, and maintaining a healthy digital identity. This website will showcase your findings and serve as a resource for future BHS students and high school students beyond Burlington. You should include information you find, links, interviews, videos, pictures, etc. The media you post must be authored by you or cited properly.

2. Go to the source: Interview students, teachers, parents, and administrators and ask them what they know about digital citizenship and maintaining their digital identity. All interviews must have consent and highlight that this information will be posted online publicly. NOTE: You may want to seek out a generic consent form.

3. Submit research and studies that detail why it is imperative to maintain and understand your digital identity as a high school student. This can come in the form of interviews with teachers, administrators, experts, or articles you find on line. Any assertion you make must include supporting evidence. Remember, you are presenting support for those that say students in high school have no business on these sites. Prove them wrong.

4. Cover all the bases: Think about what sites your peers use and find out all the good, the bad, and the ugly concerning these sites. Check out Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Formspring, Blogs, etc. and detail why students can be trusted to use this type of forum to empower their voice and present research to back up your points. NOTE: You may want to include sections for each site on your website. One link could be an entire guide about understanding your Facebook privacy settings.

5. Many say that BHS is crazy for allowing students to use iPads, and mobile phones in class; present examples of what we are doing and why we are doing it. Provide examples in the form of research and studies as to why we allow these devices. Also poll teachers and administrators.

Grading notes...

You will be graded on your interaction and engagement with your team/group and feedback from your project managers. I suggest that each team, once assembled, shares a Google doc with me and the other members should post daily progress and any information you gather. This documentation will be the bulk of your grade. The end result will speak for itself. I am more interested in the process, your interaction with each other each day in class, and how you accomplish a task as a team.

Timeline...

I want the project managers to propose a working time frame for completing this project. Once submitted, we will stick to that schedule. If we need to adjust the schedule, the project managers must connect with me and provide support for extending the time.

How We're Learning

2011-10-10T11:20:00.000-04:00

The past month has been very exciting time at Burlington High School. On the first day of school every student showed up with an iPad 2. Our first few weeks did not accurately resemble those simple, clean Apple iPad commercials. There were hiccups and challenges along the way. In some cases, we were all learning by trial and error, and by doing. It was great to observe colleagues seeking new approaches to learning and using the device as a vehicle to replace passive learning with active engagement. As this year progresses we hope to learn from our mistakes and continue to provide the most relevant, engaging learning environment for our students.

One thing I have noticed here at Burlington is that with the sweeping integration of a new device, many seem to be trying new things at the risk of a possible fail. For many of us, this is hard to overcome. I have started working with some teachers on various class projects and, while these projects are exciting and engaging, the distribution and presentation of them is occasionally met with a hiccup. This isn’t to say that teachers are ill prepared, but instead it is showing determination in the face of possible failure. What’s more is that our students get to see a model for taking on educated risks. I have yet to meet a teacher who stands in front of a classroom and bats 1.000. To quote the Dead Parrot Monty Python sketch, “It ceases to exist!” And that is a good thing.

Another good thing is the new approaches to learning many teachers are taking on this year. I had the opportunity to work with a few teachers this past month and in some cases, collaboratively teach the class. Here are a few of those highlights:
Michael Milton is teaching the Enlightenment period through social media. Each student cohort was assigned a philosopher from the period. Student groups started researching their philosopher and collecting facts about their respective philosopher. Students then created a social profile for their philosopher using Twitter and a blogger page. Once these pages and profiles were created, Milton had students write introductory blog posts for each persona. The blog posts were written from the philosophers’ point of view. Once the posts were completed, students asked the philosophers questions using the comment section on the blog. This conversation was extended to Twitter as well. Student groups had to field questions from users on Twitter (many of which were teachers at BPS) and learned how to aggregate Twitter conversations using a hashtag.

This experience remixes the traditional and allows the students to not just be the recipients of information, but also drive it. To many students, this subject matter is boring and trite, however when you allow students to engage with the content rather than just receive it you create a more fruitful learning experience.

Another exciting experience is happening in our foreign language department. Our Italian students recently traveled abroad for a week in Cles, Italy. They spent time at a host school and got a first hand experience of another culture. While abroad, another Italian class at BHS got to Skype with their peers abroad. While this type of connection seems commonplace in today’s world, the experience for many students was memorable. Students opened up the videoconference and held a dialogue in Italian with their peers abroad and the Italian students they were sitting with. They got to experience the immediate relevancy and powerful impact learning another language can have. Students also began to rethink our place in the global classroom. These students experienced how powerful connections can be and how using these types of social learning tools can impact and enliven their learning.

These are just two examples of the new approaches to learning happening this year at Burlington High School. In both cases, there were things that didn’t go right; an application crashed, a restart was needed, and the network was not found. This is normal and is what we should come to expect. The message that we take from this is that both teachers attempted to try something new at the risk of a potential hiccup in order to give their students a relevant learning experience. In both examples listed above the students involved in these lessons were not simply the recipients of information, they were the authors of their learning. As educators, this should be our objective each time we step in front of a class. Each time we create a lesson plan we should ask, “Are my students inactive participants in their learning? Or are they the authors?”

Learn by doing

2011-09-16T16:40:00.002-04:00

On Monday I started my digital & information literacy class (aka Web 2.0 class) with this 2007 video by Michael Wesch.

The video went viral a few years ago and provoked an ongoing conversation about what it is like to be a student today. When the video wrapped, I asked my students to comment. Some of them related to the video, while some had questions about the cost of higher education and “is that really what a college classroom looks like?” After we discussed their initial reactions, I asked them, “What is it like to be a student today?”

Boring
Repetitive
Stressful
Overwhelming

When these responses came back, I followed up by asking them what they would change? They seemed to want some time to relax throughout the course of a school day and more engaging classrooms where they are active participants. Their requests seemed fair.

After our discussion, I told them they were going to create this video. Their prompt:

“What is it like to be a student today at BHS?”

Once the prompt was established, I shared a Google Doc with them. I took a few steps back in this assignment and provided minimal directives. I defined some roles that I felt were imperative to seeing this video through to completion and posted them on the doc.

Project manager(s)
Film crew
Design team
Research team
Screenwriting team

The class is comprised of sixteen students. Every student had to have a role in the project. I told them to pretend that our classroom was their hip, Boston office space that had exposed brick and modern furniture. Every day they would come to the office and get to work on this video project. They would have to check in with the project manager(s) each morning and at the end of each day. They had a tentative deadline of finishing the project in seven days, but if they needed an extension they would have to provide me with evidence to grant that extension.

After my brief overview of the project, I told them to begin. Silent, static students followed. They did not know where to begin. Some of them looked genuinely frightened as to what they should do next. Just minutes earlier these same students told me that in most of their classes throughout their academic career they were told what to do as opposed to having more freedom to do. They would have to shed the system for a moment that they were marching along with since their first day of school.

Eventually the google doc (comments welcome) started coming alive with active students. They each started by joining a team. The project managers were established and they started leading the different teams. As the project started to develop I noticed something happening. Once the students felt is was okay to do, they started to make great progress. The Google doc continued to build and they began to make progress.

The next few class periods I noticed some really amazing things happening.

The film crew organized and started tinkering with iMovie. They told the project manager that they wanted to use this application to edit, but never used it before. Without any direction, they went to YouTube and found instructional videos on how to use iMovie. They continued to play around with iMovie and eventually learned some really great tricks for editing. The film crew also realized that they needed to check in with the research team and design team so they could start framing their shots and scouting locations. They learned by doing.

The research team put together a list of questions they wanted to ask their peers to gather data. They performed a Google search for how to create google forms and found a video on how to create and collect data through a Google form. Once they had their form created, they thought about where they could post it. Some suggested email, but they decided for best visibility they would use Principal Larkin’s blog. Once they post the form, they would make an announcement to all students and teachers during morning announcements. They learned by doing.

The design team organized with the screenwriting team not because I told them to, but because they felt it was necessary for their two teams to collaborate. They started their work by consulting with the research team. They wanted to know what questions they would be asking so that they could make shot decisions and create a storyboard. Once the design and screenwriting teams were briefed by the research team, they started to sketch a storyboard. First they used pencil and paper and then transferred their sketches into photoshop. One member of the design team had prior experience in photoshop and started teaching the rest of the design team how to use the program. They learned by doing.

While the end result of this project will be a simple video, the skills and talents elicited during this project are authentic to most working environments. I challenged my students to think differently about learning, collaboration, and time management. I put my trust in them and allowed them to talk in class and connect with each other. Collaboration was imperative and students had to make decisions with each other in order for their team to accomplish their intended tasks. The onus was on them to question, adapt, and learn.

A little over a year ago, a very special person in my life told me I needed to watch the David McCullough documentary, “Painting with Words”. Near the end of documentary (3:14) he says, “The great thing about the arts is that you can only learn to do it by doing it.” This message resonated with me and I believe so strongly in it. I also believe that classrooms, regardless of the subject, need more active participants, more talking, more discussing, and more doing.

Patience

2011-09-07T19:50:00.001-04:00

CC image via Flickr by fpsurgeon

Today was my first day of school at Burlington High School. I woke up early, packed up my school bag, and left for Starbucks in the morning darkness and rain. I arrived at Starbucks before the door was unlocked. I waited patiently in my car listening to the radio and the raindrops. The clock struck 6am and a barista opened the lock on the door. I entered, ordered a large iced coffee with an add shot -otherwise known as a “Red Eye” – and left the store.

When I approached my car, I clicked the key fob and nothing happened. I clicked it again and nothing happened. The rain continued to fall as the subtle daylight started to peek through the night. I clicked again. Nothing happened. For a moment, I panicked. I could not get into my car unless this small piece of technology in my hand worked properly. More, I would have to call my brother, wake him up, and have him come over before work and open my house so I could get my spare key. Plus, I needed to be at work on the first day of school. The first day of school that included every student arriving with an iPad 2. It was imperative that I get there on time without delay.

I placed my coffee on the hood of my car and hit the fob twice on my hand. I clicked the fob again and it worked. My headlights flashed and the door was open. I was in my car and on my way to work.

On my way to work, I thought about what just happened. The simple moral to this story is that we will all encounter new challenges this school year that may cause us to panic and, on occasion, freak out. We may have a new mail system or a new device that will now be part of our school day. It may take us some time to learn it and use it effectively, but we must be patient. We must understand that with any innovation there will be hiccups and hurdles.

We may be using a new technology in our classroom and it may break down. We may be reading a new text and one student may have a page missing. Stay calm. Take a deep or subtle breath and work though this issue. Don’t panic and don't just give up. Take some time to work through the problem and if it doesn’t work, be prepared to incorporate plan B. Think of all the progress we might have missed out on if our greatest innovators had panicked and given up on landing on the moon or curing diseases.

As educators we must be flexible and understand that everything we try may not work the first time, but the fact that we are trying something new is a positive. Educators should never be too comfortable with their classes from year to year. No matter how long we have been teaching, we should seek the best ways to make our classrooms engaging and relevant to our current students. This simple, patient attitude will give your students something exciting to experience and provide a dynamic learning environment for all involved.

Have a great school year everyone and share your hits and misses.

Why I camp

2011-08-05T10:01:00.000-04:00

: edcamp Boston

Last Saturday marked the third new teacher camp (ntcamp) that was held at WHYY studios in Philadelphia. I had no idea that we, the ntcamp organizers, would be putting on another show, let alone our third event. Nor did I ever imagine the unconference movement erupting into what has become today. It is now possible to attend an edcamp nearly every month of the year. Plus, edcamps are starting to focus their attention on specific groups such as an edcamp for administrators and an edcamp for superintendents. I have also heard about edcamp models being used in school PDs throughout the summer and school year. There is no denying, the edcamp model is catching on.

For years, the education world has operated, in many cases, in isolation. Teachers and Administrators (not all) plan behind closed doors and most never cross district lines to see what others are doing. edcamps have torn down these walls (Reagan in 2012 plug) and broadened the conversation. If you leave an edcamp with one thing, it will be that the scope of your network is limitless (Limitless plug).

Most question the appeal of an edcamp and ask “What’s the deal with all the “sizzle” showing up in twitter columns followed by the edcamp hashtag?” The answer is rooted in the conversations happening at edcamps across the country. I don’t organize or attend edcamps because of the technology or to gain more attention on Twitter, I attend edcamps because of the people and the conversations they bring with them. edcamps get right what many big, vendor-driven conferences get wrong. They allow everyone to have a voice. For many educators, their first edcamp is the first time they have encountered professional development in which they have a voice. A voice that is being heard, debated, and questioned.

: edcamp Philly

So why do I camp, and why should you camp? The answer is in everyone who has ever stepped inside a classroom full of students. If we want to produce inquiry-driven, dynamic learners, then we must leave our comfort zone and become this type of learner as well. Not for just one day, but every day we wake up. Educators (This includes Administrators, Superintendents, etc.) should be eager to learn and comfortable with not knowing the answer. Educators should be ecstatic about trying something new and open to experimenting, not resistant. An edcamp may not be your cup of tea, but I implore you to at least try it before you dismiss the value.

I often wonder what the medical field would be like if Doctors didn’t take a risk and try something new. I imagine we would still have some awful diseases lingering around and maybe a plague or two. The simple point is that there is no downside to getting out to your local (this is now possible) edcamp and trying something outside of your comfort zone. And who knows, maybe you’ll discover something great. Or maybe it will suck. Either way, you made an attempt to get out there among your peers and place yourself in the role of
the learner. And that alone, is a step in the right direction.

Find a list of upcoming edcamps here and let's continue this conversation in a session at edcampCT

A Celebration of life

2011-07-18T10:55:00.002-04:00

Most of you don’t know Uncle Bob, while some of you had the pleasure of taking his math class at Shamokin Area High School. Or maybe you had the pleasure of fishing with him or watching a Phillies game with him and enjoying a cold beer. Regardless of your connection, Uncle Bob’s life stands out amongst most and I'd like to share it with you.

Uncle Bob possessed a passion for teaching and thoroughly enjoyed learning. I remember witnessing him stand back and observe as some of his brightest Calculus students showed him new ways of solving a problem or introduced him to new functionality on a graphing calculator. He loved when students would challenge him in math class and always welcomed a good debate.

At family functions, Uncle Bob was always the life of the party. He energized a room just by showing up. He was usually the first one on the dance floor at family weddings and the last one to get off at the end of the night. He made a point to listen to his granddaughter, Lauren, and his nieces and nephews so he could get a grasp on the pulse of this generation. He always opened his ear and allowed us to talk. He wanted to learn from us and stay relevant in an ever-changing society. Uncle Bob did not let time pass him by as he grew up, instead, he moved in sync with changing trends in education, politics, and technology. He always wanted to learn more.

This past Saturday, as I mentioned at the beginning of this piece, Uncle Bob, in his own words, went “belly-up”. While family gatherings will never be the same without Uncle Bob in attendance, he has left us with great memories and a rich life of stories, travels, and debates. His life will live on in the stories we carry with us.

I’m not writing this post to eulogize Uncle Bob, but to share his final story, in his own words. Plus, I know he would get a kick out of being the focus of a blog post and surely ask a variety of questions about the blogosphere and all who read this.

When I read his obituary Saturday morning (full text below) I was not surprised that when I finished I was laughing. Uncle Bob composed his own obituary and in it, reminds us all that life is silly and we should never take it too seriously. Uncle Bob is no longer physically here, but he leaves us with a lasting reminder that we all must laugh once in awhile and realize how damn lucky we all are to be here at this moment.

DANVILLE — Robert R. Erdman, of 9 Meadowlark Lane, went belly-up on Friday, July 15, 2011, at the Hershey Medical Center.

Bob left abruptly to fish one last time at the Rainbow Bridge, with his canine companion of 12 years, Sneakers. Dr. Watson will also accompany them, if he can behave. He also promised to stop at Timbuktu to say hello to Bones and check for other abandoned dogs.

Due to numerous afflictions and a reckless youth, Bob probably lived longer than he should have. This unexpected “longevity” can probably be attributed to his very competent physicians and the care he got from his devoted spouse. So blame them! While here, he enjoyed the friendship and love of his wife and family, good beer, good food, Phillies baseball and trout fishing.

Robert was born June 26, 1943, to Charles R. Erdman and Mildred G. Erdman, of Overlook, where he grew up with the old gang of Turtle, Moose, Rat, Duck, Rabbit and assorted other critters.

He was educated at Mount Union School by some of the meanest teachers that ever stood in front of a classroom. Mr. Erdman went to high school in Elysburg to seek revenge. From there, it was on to Bloomsburg University, Bucknell University and then a career of teaching mathematics at Shamokin Area High School for 35 years where he had many good students, worked with some devoted teachers, but taught under very few inspiring administrators. While teaching, however, he had no better student than his granddaughter, Lauren , and better teacher than his father, Baldy.

Robert belonged to several fraternal organizations over the years, all of which he quit. He did, however, remain loyal to the Audubon Society, the Wildlife Federation, the Nature Conservancy, the WWF, and other tree hugging groups. When Mr. Erdman cashed out, it was not determined whether he was a Republican or Democrat, since he changed registration so frequently. One thing for certain, however, was that the election of Barack Obama meant so much to him.

Surviving are his beloved wife of 50 years, Scarett, his son and daughter-in-law, Robert and Deborah Erdman, of Bloomsburg, and his “adopted” son, Lucho Fuentealba, of San Francisco. In addition, he had one granddaughter, Lauren, someone very special in his life. He was preceded in death by his brother, Frank Erdman, and sister, Joan Bell, and is survived by his sister, Peggy McDermott.

A viewing will be held from 5 to 9 p.m. Wednesday and from 3 to 5 p.m. Thursday at the Leonard J. Lucas Funeral Home, Ltd., 120 S. Market St., Shamokin. A celebration of life will be held from 6 to 10 p.m. Thursday at the Wayside Inn.

Burial will be at the convenience of the family.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the American Heart Association, P.O. Box 15120, Chicago, IL 60693, americanheart.org, or the Carcinoid Cancer Foundation, 333 Mamaroneck Ave., #492, White Plains, NY 10605, carcinoid.org. Please do not give any gifts to some charity of your choice in my name. I have nothing against other organizations, except that these are my choices. If you can’t donate to the above, by all means keep your money.*

*Originally published in The Daily Item on July 17, 2011

Will lifelong learning live on?

2011-07-01T12:07:00.000-04:00

CC image from flickr via Rob Shenk

I hear the term “lifelong learning” a lot in the twittersphere, blogosphere, and many other spheres out there spinning around the education community. It is the buzziest of buzzwords and the go to phrase when we try and provoke change in our schools. We all want it, but what does it look like every day in the classroom, in the halls of our schools? What does it look like for a Superintendent? An Administrator? A Parent? How do we elicit this drive in our students? In our schools? And then, how do we ensure that it endures?

When our students leave us for higher education, the work force, military, etc. we are left on the shore waving, hoping that we have provided them with everything they need for their future endeavors. One wish that I have for all of my students is to constantly question the world around them. I hope that when they encounter adversity they can question, adapt, and learn. I hope they understand that every hurdle will not be met with an immediate success, but that they will see the value in an occasional stumble.

So my question is how do we model our daily instruction to ensure that lifelong learning lives on in our students?

Please start the discussion here.

The edcamp model as Summer Professional Development

2011-07-01T11:19:00.000-04:00

Starting this Tuesday, July 5, Burlington High School in Burlington, MA will open its doors to edcamp Tuesdays. Every Tuesday from 8-12 educators, administrators, parents, etc can come together for free, participant driven conversations centered around best practices and innovations in education. Occasionally we will bring in specialists to work with us or attend remotely via Skype. All sessions will be accesible from afar via a global Google Doc note share. This feature will highlight and model the importance of collaborative notes and transparency in professional development.

All are welcome to attend and we hope you can make it one Tuesday this summer and continue to spread the word about effective PD that is happening under the edcamp model.

If you have any questions please visit our website and fill out the help desk form. If you plan on attending there is an “I’m Attending” tab on our website sidebar for you to show others you are attending. There is also a board for posting session ideas and future session suggestions. Please use these forums so we can make edcamp Tuesdays the best experience for all involved.

Directions to Burlington HS can be found here

View Larger Map

Edcamp Impromptu

2011-05-13T16:24:00.003-04:00

In the past year the edcamp movement has flourished around the globe. An unconference that started on a sunny day in Philadelphia in 2010, has made its way into the educational lexicon. While many of us have attended an edcamp, a lot have not. Today this changes. In the spirit of learning, sharing, and community I bring you edcamp impromptu.

edcamp impromptu is simply an open google doc that has a specific focus or theme for all to contribute. Starting...NOW...the Google Docs are launching. The documents will be open and available to all who have the link. Once you have access, start a thread. Post an idea or a lesson or a question. Invite others to join or possibly scrap your faculty meeting and watch as the documents fill up with ideas, links, and resources. Use the doc to facilitate a discussion. Tweet out the link to this post and share the Google Docs with everyone you know. Use these docs for further support of social media and connected, transparent learning in your district or school. There is no denying we are more powerful as a collective.

Once the edcamp impromptu docs launch, tweet out the links and use the hashtag #edcampi. Keep this column open in your twitter application and check back throughout the day. Like an edcamp, there will be several rooms available to present, share, etc. Each doc will be a numbered room. When you enter a room (doc) you may lurk, start a conversation, ask a question, etc. If you begin a conversation, post it at the top of the page in bold, underline it and either link it to another Google Doc or simply allow the conversation to unfold on the page. That’s it. Simple, productive learning happening in real-time. What is better than that?

At the top of each doc there will be a table for signing in. This will allow others to see who is in the room and posting. Also, when you post anything to the page leave your twitter handle after your post. This will allow for follow up and further conversation.

Finally, edcamp impromptu technically never ends. However, I would like to see the conversation build throughout the weekend. Next week we can reflect on the experience and continue adding to the conversation. As a collective, we are creating a sustainable, breathing resource. You can check back next fall and glean something from the doc to use at the beginning of the school year or continue adding to a conversation. Edcamp impromptu is constant learning and sharing.
This is an idea I had after edcamp Boston. We have the ability to constantly share and spread ideas that work in education. Let’s take advantage of the technology and resources we have at the moment and make this type of learning contagious.

Edcamp Impromptu Rooms (Docs)

Room 5
#edchat on EdCamps

They owned it

2011-05-05T13:55:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago started working with on a new approach to the five-paragraph essay with my English 101: College composition course. I detailed the new approach I took with my class in a post titled, “Own it”. I simply wanted to share what we were doing, get feedback for some of my students, and solicit suggestions for making this project better. Maybe someone would land on it and steal a piece of it or the whole thing and then remix it. That was pretty much it.

The next morning I discovered this in my TweetDeck mentions column:

Let’s be honest, Will Richardson, much like Ron Burgundy, is kind of a big deal in the education community. When he tweets your post A LOT of people get to see it. The web of influence grows significantly. This was awesome. Throughout the day I watched as the post got retweeted and shared amongst my PLN and from some I had never met. Kathryn, the student who I profiled in the post, received lots of suggestions, links, resources, etc. on her Google Doc. That day in class she asked me, “What happened to my doc?” I asked her if she was happy with the responses and she returned with an emphatic, “Yes, this is awesome!”

Kathryn even connected with a student in Nebraska who was working on the same subject of gay teen bullying and suicide. I connected with her teacher and the connection was made between the two students. Kathryn and Kelli shared sources and videos that were right in line with their topics. Kelli shared her blog with Kathryn as well.

I continued to tweet out my students’ Google docs throughout the day for collaboration. Jason, another student in this class, went to bed with four bullet points about his topic and was struggling to find information. After sharing with my PLN he had two pages of links, resources, videos, and several twitter contacts for follow up. That day in class he was thrilled. He began digging through his doc and evaluating these sources. He asked me if it was okay to use what others had posted for his project. I said it was fine and told him to make sure he evaluated the information and made sure it was worth using.

It didn’t end there. Last Friday, I skyped with Dean Shareski as he was wrapping up a presentation with 150 high school teachers from Elk Island Public Schools on the subject of rethinking learning. We connected through my last post and I shared this concept with the teachers present at his presentation. Some of those teachers visited my blog, read the post, and left thoughtful comments.

It kept going…

Kathryn presenting her essay

This past Monday I wrote my latest post for Edutopia comparing the comedic idea process with the idea process in teaching. I reflected on the HBO series, Talking Funny, with Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Ricky Gervais, and Louis C.K. The final segment of the post presented a challenge for teachers to share their innovative or dynamic ideas with me and I would share the ideas in future posts. At this writing I have ten posts lined up with ideas to share. One of them is from a former colleague at Radnor High School.

I decided to share what I was doing and amazing connections flourished. It is that simple. I shared, created a transparent learning environment in my class, and made a typically boring assignment very dynamic and engaging for my students. I helped open up new learning avenues for my students and did my best to give them access to the most current learning tools. They have never been more excited and ready to write, create, demonstrate, present, search, listen, etc. Intrinsic motivation became contagious in my class. Students could not wait to see who was commenting on their Google docs. Our class time became a rich discussion about social media, the students’ topics, and how they could harness the power of social and digital media to empower their projects. To steal a line from Penny Lane in Almost Famous, “It was all happening”.

There is no denying we all encounter speed bumps in our teaching. Some of us are bludgeoned with testing while others cannot simply gain access to the most current learning tools out there. Incorporating this type of an assignment might seem like a far off dream, but don’t stop trying. I did not ask any of my supervisors for permission with this assignment. I just did it. And I knew if anything went wrong I would have happy, engaged students to plead my case. In fact, most of them said they had no idea they could enjoy English 101 this much.

Thanks to all of you who helped my students and joined in our learning. Thank you for the comments. Thank you for the tweets and the retweets. Thank you Will Richardson for putting this post out there. And thank you all for showing my students the power of learning network.

Own it

2011-04-19T14:55:00.002-04:00

CC image via Flickr by mind on fire

Yesterday, I had one of those great moments in the classroom where I walked away with a slight skip in my step. Here’s why…

The course is English 101: College composition. It is your standard writing course offered by most colleges and universities. Students are required to produce five essays that total at least twenty pages. I still haven’t figured out why. I have never understood page length, so I challenged my students. From day one, I told them that if they could cover their topic in a concise, succinct essay, I would be more impressed than if they gave me ten pages of filler and 12.5 font. They took the challenge, and as a result, have improved the clarity and focus of their writing. I have seen dramatic changes in syntax and word choice. Paragraphs are tighter and focused. Their thesis statements are articulate, concise statements that resonate throughout the entire paper. And above all, they seem relatively engaged in writing.

The students just finished their third essay. They have two more to complete. One of the two is the in-class final exam required to be conducted as an in-class essay. So, for their fourth essay I decided to eliminate the parameters, structure, and explicit directions that usually accompany an essay assignment.

Here is what I set up...

1. I gave them a writing prompt: “What do you want to learn?”

2. Open a Google Doc → Share it with me (You could also have them share with the entire class, but for this endeavor, I just had them share with me) → Begin outlining your project

3. For the outline, students are to gather links, images, videos, etc. that will contribute to their final presentation. Their essay is not a standard, written essay, but a focused collection of media that they will use to inform, to persuade, to challenge, or defend. Plus, they are creating a sustainable document. They are creating their own content.

4. Students must build upon this document daily. I reminded them that I would check in daily and provide comments along the way. I also encouraged them to use social media to glean information for their project. One student couldn't come up with a subject, so he posted a call for ideas on his Facebook page.

5. Each class period we will be opening up a Google Doc and discussing the progress and the topic being covered. On occasion, I may use my own personal learning network to collect feedback for the students. So stay tuned!

I told them I did not want them to think of this endeavor as a project or an assignment. I simply wanted them to learn something about a topic they enjoyed. I wanted them to research, evaluate, and filter sources on their own. I wanted them to get excited about learning and researching. Meanwhile, I would reside in the margins of their Google Docs and facilitate the process when necessary. I am still teaching them and collaborating with them on this project, but I am making an attempt to harness all the great resources we have available at the moment. I feel it is my moral obligation as a teacher to open up all learning avenues to them, not hide them.

In class yesterday, I started showcasing student work. One of my students, Kathryn, came through with a great example of what I expected for this endeavor. She is covering LGBTQ bullying and suicides. More specifically, she is covering five bullying/suicide cases that happened last fall within the span of three weeks. On her doc, she posted photos of the teens, links to the news articles, and videos that surfaced during these events. She also collected links to sites that addressed this subject. Near the end of her doc, she started outlining her presentation. It is exactly the start I had envisioned. She took control of this endeavor and owned it.

You can see her doc here.

Not only did Kathryn successfully research her topic, she started creating a resource for others. She was thrilled to share with the class and allowed me to share her story and work with you through this post. Further, Kathryn’s work provoked an impromptu conversation on the subject yesterday in class. One student got out his iPhone and posted a question as his facebook status asking his network what they thought about the subject we were discussing. Needless to say, I walked away from that class yesterday with a slight skip in my step.

I have been teaching essay writing for nearly ten years. It can be a very banal subject to teach, but when you try to find new ways to approach the core concepts of a five paragraph essay, you can create some amazing learning opportunities for your students. Moreover, my students are evaluating sources for use. They are weaving cited content with their own thoughts and opinions. They are using critical thinking and critical analysis to evaluate and filter their sources. They are questioning the work of others along with their own work and using both to drive further inquiry. In the end, they will put it all together in an organized demonstration. They can present, make a video essay, photo essay, lip dub, musical, etc. It’s their call. They will own it.

Every semester my students purchase an overpriced text for this class and many others. This reader is full of well-written essays, but it may not be of interest to them. Plus, most of these essays can be found online for free. Instead, let them create their own reader. Simply have them open a Google Doc and start researching a subject that they want to learn about. Share that document with the class and build it from the ground up. Compile news articles, essays, videos, photos, etc. about the subject. Have the students cite their information correctly and show them how to find Creative Commons media. This way is more fun and engaging. It elicits intrinsic motivation and gives the student ownership of their learning. Let your students create their own content and build their own learning environments. Trust that they will produce good work.

I hear a lot about how we need to innovate and change the educational landscape, but I rarely see educators putting those tweets and presentation buzz-slides into practice. The strong examples are few and far between, and more often than not, we hear “This is great, but I could never do anything like this at my school." Stop making excuses. I didn’t ask permission either, but if my administration and supervisors have a problem with it, I have happy students and pertinent examples of their work that will defend my teaching in front of any jury. As educators, we must stop the platitude chat and start producing examples of innovative teaching practices (cue the more you know music). Further, what I am sharing with you today is not the pinnacle of classroom innovation. It is a start. It is an idea that I hope you steal, remix and make your own, for your own students. Don’t we owe them that?

Please leave comments for my students and also feel free to comment on Kathryn’s Google Doc. She is still in the early stages of collecting her resources, so any feedback you could present to her would be appreciated.

A Simple, Succinct Lesson from Twitter

2011-03-23T12:37:00.001-04:00

CC image via flickr by Jkonig

This morning, two tweets caught my eye. These two 140 character posts evolved into a simple lesson that I constructed for my students. First, Tim Calvin posted this piece from The New York Times Op-Ed titled “Teaching to the Text Message” by Andy Selsberg. This concise piece reiterated something I have been preaching to my students since the first day of class: Be concise and innovative with language. My essay assignments don’t carry a minimum page length requirement, but they do contain a challenge: If you can persuade your audience in one page, I will be impressed.

Soon after the tweet by Tim Calvin, I clicked on a video shared by Michael Wesch. The video was a midterm project from a communications student. The student’s objective was to “look into my life and what I see everyday”. I was impressed by the video and thought about taking on this challenge myself. What does my screen look like every day? What music would represent it best? I'm still thinking.

After reviewing both of these pieces, I decided to use them both later that day in my English 101: College Composition course. I uploaded the video to our classroom wikispace and added a new page title on the left hand navigation bar. The page title: “Be Concise”. This new page derives the lesson presented by Selsberg in the article and will now serve as a new writing assignment three times a week for my students. Each day I will post a new video, image, or passage for them to review. Their objective is to summarize or caption the media I select for the day in one or two sentences. My goal is that they start to experiment with language and write more succinctly. Similarly, I hope they find ways to express themselves more eloquently and devise innovative ways to articulate their ideas.

I developed this brief writing lesson because two people shared something today. I did not find it in a book or a classroom, but simply noticed it falling down in my tweet deck. This is why social media is amazing. It allows us to scan a table full of puzzle pieces and find two, or maybe more, that fit.

This is your class

2011-02-22T15:54:00.001-05:00

CC image via flickr by Jonathan Pobre

I have a late start class beginning tomorrow. The course is English 101: College Composition. I decided to revise my syllabus introduction along with the class structure and attempt to practice what I preach. I welcome feedback and encourage you to follow along with our classroom wikispace.

This course will be a collaborative effort that includes those sitting in this room, those that reside in the world of social media, and myself. We will focus on reading critically, thinking critically, evaluating information, and producing purposeful, grammatically sound writing. The goal of this course is to take our message beyond the classroom and engage with the connected world. We will be using the written word as our medium and covering a variety of domestic and world issues. The focus of this course is not the grade, but to become effective communicators in a world driven by connectivity.

During this course you will not only be constructing essays for a grade, but engaging with a larger community. This community resides in the world of social media and will not only serve as an outlet for information and feedback, but allow for more than one deciding voice on submitted work.

This Wikispace will serve as the central meeting place for this course and allow us to analyze and critique each other's work while constantly learning and adding to this site. Further, this site will be constantly evolving. Like Wikipedia, you will be reading, analyzing, and evaluating information and presenting your thoughts, ideas, and opinions in order to build a better place to exchange information.

This course is not my course; it is yours. I will not lecture at you and I will not give you a grade. Your voice will be the wheels of the course and I will try and serve as your GPS. Don’t think of me as the sage on the stage or the guy with the giant, glaring forehead full of knowledge, but see me as a collaborator. Challenge my points and always feel comfortable when presenting your opinion and constrictive feedback.

Finally, I would like you all to occasionally fail during this course. This is not to say I don’t want to see you succeed, but I want to see you take intelligent risks and think beyond the grade. Don’t settle for average or what you have always done, but go beyond your comfort zone. At the end of this course I hope you continue to think, read, and evaluate critically. I hope this course provokes your thinking in a new way, you continue learning beyond the grade you receive in this course, and thrive as an effective communicator.

Resume and References Available Upon Request

2011-02-07T18:17:00.005-05:00

Originally published in August 2010

I arrive at school for a meeting with our CEO. I assume it is a meeting about the upcoming conference that I am holding at his school, ntcamp. I sit down and he begins telling me that our budget is in disarray and that my instructional technology position that I created and began implementing into the school needs to be cut out of the budget. This is sad news, however, I assumed I could still work as an instructional technology coordinator throughout the school while teaching my classes. I had basically assumed the role as ITC for the past year; helping teachers integrate technology with their curriculum. So, I figured I would be teaching the AP English Language and Composition and returning to my regular teaching duties (NOTE: I just returned back from the AP conference in DC. The School paid for the ticket). I created the syllabus and was in the process of submitting it to the College Board for approval and had also set up a summer reading network via a wikispace and blogger. Students were reading, responding to prompts, and then blogging about them. All of the blogs were linked to the wikispace and it was a well-oiled machine.

I ask what classes I will be teaching next year along with the AP courses. He responds with, “We are getting someone else to teach AP.” Wait....WHAT!? Why? This makes no sense. I have the most teaching experience in the English Department and now you are telling me that I can’t teach the course I created? Plus, I can’t teach at all?

In short, the school's budget did not include the contract I had signed. I leave the office confused, upset, and bewildered. In a few short minutes I went from having two dream teaching positions to having nothing. I could not make sense of this. I told several colleagues that were in school that day teaching and their facial expressions said it all. No one could make sense of it. A few hours later another colleague of mine encountered the same shock and awe conversation. She was the History Department Chair and in my opinion, and most of the students’ opinion, one of the most well-respected and well-liked teachers in our building.

In the span of an hour my school said good-bye to seventeen years of teaching experience. They preferred to have brand new Teach for America teachers replace us. In the sports world this makes sense. You go with youth over experience (Jamie Moyer being the exception), but not in education.

Moving on...

I have started moving on from my former school and am in the process of seeking out the next path. This journey began on Saturday when I hosted and organized my first unconference at the same school that had just let me go. Not only did I speak positively about the school throughout the entire day, but I promoted their efforts and accomplishments. I have nothing bad to say about my school. They provided so many opportunities for me to grow as an educator and I feel I made a valuable contribution to advancing their curriculum and highlighting ways in which students and teachers can integrate technology more efficiently. I did not want to bring this news with me to ntcamp because I wanted ntcamp to shine like no other. I put every ounce of my energy into making ntcamp the best conference for all in attendance and I am already working towards the next version. ntcamp became my only focus and a welcomed distraction from reality.

If you are going to lose your job it helps to have a Personal Learning Network behind you to pick you up and get you back on track. I recognize the fact that many people are struggling with joblessness in our country and this can happen to anyone. The value and support of a PLN will only make this occurrence easier and reinforce that we are never in this business of teaching alone. It also helps to have a conference waiting for you that weekend where the majority of your PLN will be in attendance. I made a lot of great connections at ntcamp and learned a lot throughout the day. I sit back and smile at all the great comments that have been circulating about ntcamp and am truly excited for more unconferences throughout the year. Thank you to everyone who made ntcamp a shining example of how professional development and personal learning networks can create valuable learning for teachers and in turn benefit all of our students.

Oh, one more thing, if you know of any open positions get in touch with me .

Connect More

2011-01-31T16:18:00.004-05:00

30th Street Station, Philadelphia

As I said my goodbyes and left Philadelphia’s 30^th Street Station I noticed a message on a banner above the door. I paused. The sign read, “Connect More”. While this was not the entire script on the banner, these words were in bold and immediately resonated with me. The remainder of the sign read, “Trains CONNECT MORE Than Cities”. I took a quick picture and was on my way.

This message lingered as I drove home. I sent out a tweet with the picture accompanied by the text “An enduring message from Educon”. This is the message we all must carry with us as we depart from EduCon. We must connect more.

However, we must carry this message far beyond the “EduCon fraternity”. We get it. Those of us that have attended this past weekend, and in the past get that we must connect, share, etc., but what about those that did not attend? What about the colleagues that don’t get it? How do we delicately approach them and tell them about the weekend without sounding like an overzealous tween that just met Justin Bieber?

We start by opening up subversive connections within our disciplines and work places. Simply approaching a colleague and mentioning one small thing you learned this week is great start to connecting and encouraging a culture of sharing. Don’t bombard them with EduCon highlights, photos, blog posts, etc. but show them one thing you learned and walk away. Follow up in a few days, or maybe a week, or not at all. Just connect.

As educators we must model these positive connections while empathizing with a hesitant colleague. We not only owe this to our hesitant colleagues, but our students. All of us must encourage building new relationships within our learning environments and promote transparent learning.

Further, we need to bring new faces into the fold. Edcamps and ntcamps are happening monthly across the nation. There are plenty of free opportunities to introduce colleagues to these learning forums and create new connections. Much like the train, we need to build more depots along the way so that we can continually bring new colleagues along for the ride.

EduCon is built on connections. It continues to grow because of the culture of sharing and connecting that it provokes. As I left the station yesterday, I promised myself that I would take the message of EduCon and make every attempt to cultivate new connections and reinforce old ones. We all must strive to connect more, to share more, and to constructively criticize each other.

It is our responsibility as educators.

Reform Education From Within

2011-01-25T14:22:00.005-05:00

CC image via flickr by bensonkua

Browse any education twitter feed and you are sure to see the word “reform” somewhere in the mix. While I believe serious reform is needed in the education sector, I also understand that I will…

A) …never work in a perfect educational system that is equitable for all and

B) …not see any serious education reform happen in the next few years.

Call me a cynic, but don’t call me a quitter. I am also aware that most State and Federal Governments are not taking time to listen to what educators have to say about education reform. Rather, they are paying attention to prominent voices in the entertainment, business, and music industry. The rhetoric continues to the talk show circuit and eventually finds its way to the educators. Our voice: small, full of static. Solution?

Teach the hell out of your classrooms and give your current students the best opportunity to question, think critically, and seek out new learning opportunities under our current education system.

A lot of energy is burning on ways to develop new reform structures and ideas for reform, but it’s not happening this year. It’s not happening any time soon. We need to give our current students the best opportunity under a system that most of us would like to see overhauled immediately. We must, for the sake of our students’ future, change the tone of reform and move towards innovating our best practices, sharing our best practices, with what we have while developing dynamic leaders. We all owe it to this generation of students.

There is no denying education is in a state of flux but let’s prove “them” wrong in the classroom every day rather than with redundant rhetoric. When we change the rhetoric from what we have to do, to what can we do, then we make progress. Let’s build great learners with what we have today, rather than what we hope for tomorrow. This is not to crush our hopes for a better educational system, but if we want the system to thrive we need to change the tone. This happens each day by creating dynamic learning environments where students can constantly question, analyze critically, search efficiently and safely, synthesize and create, and feel as though everything they are doing in your class is purposeful and necessary for the rest of their lives.

Every school has the right to emulate great school systems throughout the world, but many lack the leaders to push and provoke their teachers. A great school system starts with a great leader. Not simply a leader who follows the straight and narrow or who spends all hours of the night working at his or her desk, but a leader who has a clear vision for creating classrooms that are purposeful. A leader who gives his faculty autonomy and trusts they will yield engaging lessons. I can only speak from a teacher’s point of view, but a dynamic, purposeful classroom starts with a leader that is willing to take a risk and listen to their faculty.

When you tie all of these elements together - dynamic classrooms, innovative leaders, engaged students - you create the classroom today’s students deserve. We need to work within what we can control. Educators need to stop getting frustrated and worrying about when and how the system will change. Rather, make an immediate impact on your classroom today, tomorrow, and throughout the rest of your career.

The educational system will always have flaws. So what are you doing today to instill the best learning practices in your students? What are you doing today to promote innovation within your classroom? What are you doing today to combat the notion that no matter how hard it feels to deal with the educational system, testing, etc to make sure your students are leaving your classroom with the ability to learn, question, analyze, and create? If you expect to see a Utopian vision of education in your lifetime you are dreaming. We need to focus on what we have today and thrive. We owe it to these students!