Technically

#FlipClass #FlashBlog Positivity

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 27 Oct 2015 00:32:00 +0000

In tonight's #FlipClass chat, my first, we were asked what we do to promote a positive culture in our class or school. The first notion that crossed my mind from recent moments surrounded our fundraising for Pencils of Promise. We are conducting our annual "Boo Pop" sale right NOW!

However, I've belabored that topic here a ~~few~~ whole bunch of times, so I thought of my other silly, out-of-the box positive stand. I like showing my students that I am a little different and willing to stand out for things that matter in a positive way. One of the ways I have done this, twice this year, was the use of signs in public. It's silly, okay.

The first time I did this, our school was experiencing a problem with hallway behavior. Our admin had taken to point out when a class was caught doing well. So I began walking us from place to place carrying a sign that read "Aren't we behaving well in the halls?" Due to the novelty, the kids were actually better behaved AND got a kick out of the random compliments we received because of the sign BUT also because we WERE actually behaving well.

Today, following our fundraiser at a local middle school AND the start of our Boo Pop sale (see how I worked that back in there? You can donate at tinyurl.com/belmontpop, just sayin') I posted this sign outside our classroom. The kids got a kick out of calling attention, completely harmlessly, to something positive we are doing to help a serious issue. This sign may or may not have found its way to the front lobby today. I can neither confirm or deny that story.

I suppose my lesson learned is simple. It's the spur of the moment, random acts of simple, positive energy that can make a kid smile and feel a part of your/their community and something greater than themselves.

One sign nearly finished for Saturday. #BeTheChange

A photo posted by Kyle Wood (@jkylewood) on Oct 22, 2015 at 7:22pm PDT

Kier's Review on Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning

noreply@blogger.com (Kieran Wood) — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 00:37:00 +0000

A few weeks I asked my son, Kieran, to consider writing a monthly submission for my blog. Kieran, a 9-year-old fourth grader, reads avidly and has always written pretty well. He often busies himself imagining fictitious universes, drawing their inhabitants, and plotting stories of their adventures. While he has not finished...well, any of those stories...I thought providing him a "real life" outlet that an audience actually reads from time to time, might encourage him to write more often and develop his interest. So humor me once a month (or as long as the kid decides he enjoys himself submitting). This is the first in his series of book reviews.

The Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning is a book written by Lemony Snicket that is so ridiculously sad that it's humorous. The series is about Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire's terrible lives after the death of their parents in the Baudelaire Mansion fire. A family friend and banker, Mr. Poe, ends up in charge of the orphans, and they have to find a guardian until Violet, the eldest Baudelaire orphan, is of age to get the family fortune. Count Olaf, their first guardian and distant relative is an evil man who wants the Baudelaire Fortune and will do anything to get it.

The Bad Beginning is a uniquely written book. Snicket writes as if he is in the story too, and says it is his "solemn duty" to write down all of the affairs of the Baudelaire Orphans. In the story he tells the reader to stop and think of a happier outcome because the book is so sad. The reader wonders how the next pages hold something so terrible that the author of it tells you not to read it. By telling you not to read his book, the author encourages the reader to read it. I know you may be thinking, "If the book is so sad, why should I read it?" Snicket has a way of brightening up otherwise depressing events. For example, in one of the books of the series, he writes that Violet has always found a hand on her shoulder reassuring, as long as the hand was attached to an arm, that is. Snicket's different way of writing is perfect for this kind of book.

I would recommend The Bad Beginning as well as the other books in the Series of Unfortunate Events because. One does not have to read the series in order, since Lemony Snicket sums it all up at the beginning of the book, although I would. If you are looking for a different and quirky book to read, The Bad Beginnings is a good place to start.

Revisiting Seth Godin's Tribes

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 25 Aug 2015 01:33:00 +0000

Years ago, I remember becoming aware of Seth Godin, who is widely followed in the education industry and whose strategies, concepts, viewpoints and ideology are often molded to fit our arena. I am still enamored by his concept of "tribes" especially where its presence and its absence presents itself in our community.

I won't rehash or degrade his original work with my own interpretation, so please view this 2009 TED Talk and come back to me afterward.

Thanks for coming back!
Three ideas strike me as an educator viewing Godin's TED Talk.

The "industry" of education has mimicked the industries Godin shows as examples. If anything, our industry mimics Ford's mass production of automobiles. We entrust employees who making ever-decreasing salaries to pump out similar products (students) while demanding more of their time and higher quality.

Our teaching continues to rival Draper's advertising prowess. We bludgeon the public from the educational pulpit with the dogma that everything we attempt aims to support "21st century learning." In reality many of us are stumbling over our "catchphrases" without aiming their intent to effectiveness. Too many of us are as guilty as the Marlboro cowboy portraying shiny devices as innovative instruction.
Teaching, teaching leadership, is no different than Godin's tribal thinking. Organizing students, peers, central offices, teacher organizations, and so on requires the same steps as leading one of Godin's tribes of interest. Acknowledging that we are all bounded by the want and will to teach, educators worth their salt understand that we teach children not content.

Godin's examples of companies like TOMS shows that in the social media age, one can leverage marketing for social good. And that marketing requires developing a language of use, rather than a snappy catchphrase. Creative storytelling and sincere connections can channel students of all ages. Students, especially children, want to belong, to feel safe, and to feel valued. Giving students a tribe is no different than "establishing a classroom community" except that it asks you to set a goal beyond a test score and provide something for which students and fellow teachers can strive.
Finally, there is hope. My mistakes as a person and professional have lied completely in my expectation that everything works out as planned all of the time. Each school year I am reminded of the opposite and that in those mistakes, I improve, my students improve, and growth occurs.

This summer as the school year approached, I reflected on past mistakes and tried to learn from them. But I also made sure to be cognizant that mistakes cannot overshadow or diminish the successes. I also, very purposefully, sought to acknowledge and enjoy the good.

I have no delusions of grandeur or rose-colored glasses. But I am hopeful. In the last month, I have worked among people who get it. We are not a tribe, no we aren't nearly singularly-focused or organized around inspirational leadership. But I am proud to have shared air with many of the professionals around me. I worked briefly with a set of 6 other educators whose opinions vary insomuch as they really perhaps do not, but whose vigor, passion, energy and drive beckons a tribe. I am attached at least for the next 10 months to a set of 5 other educators who have no agenda, but are committed to each other and to kids to drive through the difficult work of a school year. And I have seen pockets of people who see change and want it, as its need becomes pervasively obvious.

So in Godin's Tribe, I hear the challenge. His challenge is simple. Start a revolution. As Meade told us, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

#EnergizED: The Sequel

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 00:08:00 +0000

About 14 months ago, my mentor extraordinaire, Marilyn Dedmon asked me to help assemble a session for our district's conference. Marilyn, notoriously emailed after conference proposals were due to ask me if I would like to do a session on this topic or that, or if I had any ideas. Secretly, I loved operating this way because she always told me what gaps she saw in the what was being offered and brainstormed with me where my wheel house met those gaps. (Well, I intended on presenting anyhow too, I'm just equally notoriously tardy with proposals).

This time, Marilyn, who retired just last month, told me she had become completely enamored with TED Talks and wanted me to organize her version with fewer parameters.

"Do you want to theme the session so that presenters have a central topic?"
"No."
"Do you want the topics to stay within some realm of education?"
"Nope."
"Do you...um...well what do I tell people?"
"Talk about your passion, whatever it is."

So Marilyn and I made a list of people we thought did their job passionately and could relate their passion compellingly to the audience. I think if either of us had organized it alone, we would've arrived at different sets of presenters because of our different backgrounds and acquaintances. We arrived at a spectacular list of nine presenters who worked in our district, presented in other events for her, and even attended our schools. We dubbed it EnergizED because we hoped it would light the fire in educators for the coming year.

Those presenters agreeing to stumble into such an open-ended session only had to meet a few requirements:

You have 7 minutes.
You can use a presentation if you need one.
You need to talk about one thing in which you are most passionate.

The resulting cocktail included a menagerie of talented people who I am proud to have met over my time within our district and who honored us all with their time and message. The list featured four of my favorite tweeps. Andrew Thomasson (@thomasson_engl), an English teacher at Forestview High School famous for his #Flipped classroom shared his love of all things Flipped in opening the eyes of his high schoolers with a different approach. Dr. Judy Moore (@judyjudymooore), principal at North Gaston High School and master of andragogy, reminded us that decisions...all decisions...are made with the interests of students in mind, challenging us to make certain we kept them in the forefront of our thoughts no matter the obstacles. Craig Smith (@CSmithGoBlue), Assistant Principal at Ashbrook High School then, interim Principal at Lake Norman Charter now, and co-founder of #ncadmin shared with the audience the simple, but powerful message positive feedback from students who struggle can send when teachers need refueled. Julian Wilson (@ycbluesgroove), a world class band teacher at York Chester Middle School and 2012-2013 Gaston County Schools Teacher of the Year (and SW Regional TOY) used his talent in music to energize the audience while sharing the story of his own father, a self-made man, and a person who raised him to overcome challenges with old-fashioned ingenuity and grit. Somewhere in there, I babbled on for 10-12 minutes about teaching students to think beyond themselves and their circumstances to reach other kids around the globe.

Our superintendent, Jeff Booker, even closed us out, patching together our varied messages and sending us out to strive to invest in ourselves and pay it forward to our students.

Walking away from the experience, I felt like I had gotten off a rollercoaster. My colleagues knocked their presentations out of the park and I know some audience members left feeling the impact of their messages in their gut. But, honestly, the value I found in it, selfishly, was in the time spent sitting alone, debating the question Marilyn had posed.

Marilyn, who knows me so very well, asked what sounded like a simple question...she asked me to pass that along to those who agreed to present. "What are you most passionate about?" The rubber met the road where myself and other Energizers had to decide where to focus for 7 minutes, just 7 minutes. The topics listed above sound simple don't they? Think of students. Keep your spirits high. Work hard. Challenge yourself. Innovate.

But I will challenge you having read my ramblings, to do the same. Distill all that is your educational self into 7 minutes. What are you here for anyway? What is at that kernel that moves you from August to June, through the summer, and back again? Watch all of your complaints about the politics of education fall away quickly, superficial concerns that do not even meet the first cut. In fact, watch all of your struggles in meeting the needs of testing...even the breadth of your content...fall by the wayside eventually. You will come to find that your passion for your job, your calling to teach arrives at similar sources as we did last year.

Students come first. We work really hard for them. We challenge ourselves to overcome the obstacles (naming them doesn't matter). We invent new methods to reach everyone. When we are battered by those obstacles (no matter their source), it is the successes of our students (not ourselves) that reenergize us.

This year, I am happy to share that Andrew, Judy, Julian and I have returned for another rodeo. We are sad that Craig cannot join us, but so pleased that it is only because he continues to progress in our profession and has responsibilities elsewhere. However, we are elated to be joined by the likes of Bianca Yavelak (@MrsYav), scientist turned science teacher, Ana Bareto-Mathews (@abaretomathews), advocate of all things ELL/ESL, and Rebecca Shoniker (@writingrebecca), children's author and writing/reading expert. I feel certain having previewed a couple of this year's presentations that the audience will draw at least a little energy from my co-presenters' passion for our work.

Join us Wednesday, August 12th at 1:00-2:30 for #EnergizED at the Teaching and Learning Conference at Gaston College.

The Top 10 Things Pinnacle Leaders Never Say

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 19:41:00 +0000

For the last 4 days, I have attended my Pinnacle Leaders Network training in my district. This initiative began some 15+ years ago as a way to train interested applicants in the most current methods of technology integration. In exchange for participating teachers receive a treasure trove of technology which began so long ago as a laptop and has become 30 chromebooks OR 20 iPads.

This particularly session was my second of my three year requirement. Over the four days we were peppered with pedagogy more than technology. In doing so, we became reacquainted with models and assessments of integration like SAMR, TPACK, and the 4 C's. We jumped head long into Minecraft EDU and dipped our toes into PBL as well. Perhaps most importantly, we were given what the busy school year often robs from us, time to collaborate and discuss ideas with other capable professionals.

The most enjoyable portion of the experience was an interesting activity instructors dubbed the "App-mazing Race," a new vision of a scavenger hunt accruing points for missions completed. As reward, participants received badges much as we had throughout the week for any of a number of actions.

As an homage to the week, my tablemates and I made this video when asked for our top 10 take aways. The McAdenville gazebo reference is due to a fictitious location involved in the "App-mazing Race." We found a substitute gazebo location, but the search of a gazebo in a town of around 1,000 people, featuring maybe two stoplights was suprisingly epic.

Be a Giant!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 21:06:00 +0000

Two weeks ago, I traveled to nearby Atlanta, GA and visited their Center for Civil and Human Rights. My wife, two sons, and I had already visited the GA Aquarium, Krog St. Market, and the Fernbank Natural History Museum. The CCHR acted as a reward to myself for a few days of "daddy duty" taking the kids to attractions that they enjoyed.

As expected, the CCHR took my breath away. Permanent exhibits telling the story of the American civil rights movement and global human rights struck all the right cords. Both experiences were saddening without leaving one disheartened, inspiring without setting an unreachable goal, and honored the lives of modern victims and past's heroes. Several times, I choked back tears as I challenged myself to live within the experience for a moment while also guiding my 9 year old through it. And that was most rewarding, watching Kieran connect the struggles we have taught him with real life examples. He stood aside Idi Amin's massive frame disgusted and in front of Gandhi's portrait honored. For a moment, I saw his sadness, his anger, and his confusion that this reality existed. Why?

On the long drive home, I felt that ~~sneaking~~ nagging, feeling that I, we, all of us could do more. All of us have an at least passing awareness of the injustices in our nation's closet of skeletons as told by South Carolina's removal of the Confederate flag (during our stay in Atlanta). We are aware, perhaps not significantly, of the actions of Joseph Kony, Omar al Bashir, and Mengistu Haile Mariam in the Sudan, Uganda, and Ethiopia respectively.

That day, I journeyed to Twitter, checked my Facebook, and returned to the echochamber in education where articles concerning low pay and poor performance were mixed with those of innovation, gameification, and technology integration.

I was reminded of a quote that often pops into my mind, as they do.

"If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."

This quote and versions of the metaphor have been attributed to half dozen scholars over several centuries (and with a number of meanings). However, I have always taken it as the need and obligation that those of us today pay homage to those before us. I consider my friends, family, teachers, and inspirations throughout my life from my parents to my brother Eric, from Mikey to Malcolm, and Emerson to Hesse, from Mr. Poston in 10th and 11th grade English class to Dr. Goodman at Appalachian State who taught me science pedagogy and technology integration.

Used under CC 2.0 Helgabj

After it all, reading through all of the negative echoes and the positive solutions, I wonder what giants on whose shoulders my students and my own sons will stand? What giant of a person will serve as the example for their behavior, their drive, their talents, and their ambitions? What giant around us will guide them to right wrongs as big as Kony and as Bashir? What giant will support them to heights higher than he/she can reach in their lifetime to assault disease, debt, educational access, hunger, human slavery, et al?

And the thundering answer ringing my ears was simple. It is isn't it?

It's us.

We are the giants. As those giants, it is our overwhelming responsibility to reach our potential, attempt to surpass it, and hoist others onto our shoulders. It isn't about us, our ambitions, our goals, our pay scale, or complaints. Any ambitions of the human story aren't reached in one lifetime and our hope lies in setting the table for the next generation. Our happiness lies in providing a better viewing point for life's parade by sitting our children on our shoulders so that they can see what we cannot, and reach what is outside of our arm's length. Failing to reach our potential, bound by budget, complaints, and naysaying, compromises not only our success but deprives the next generation and every one thereafter of the underpinnings to their success.

So this year, when the struggle is hard or you resolve to compromise a lofty goal for yourself, your instruction, your support of the difficult child, or your challenge of the most intelligent one, become the giant. Ask yourself if you are lifting up the next generation? Watch the struggle of children in countries lacking the giants among them to lift them up and hold them higher. They rely on our shoulders, so strengthen them, and shoulder the weight such that they can aim higher.

Be a giant!

Branding Educators OR "That Teacher That..."

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 23:22:00 +0000

In two separate, unassociated events already this young summer, speakers have mentioned the importance of identity AND branding in education. For years, I have been fascinated by the idea of branding myself (of teachers, schools, and districts branding themselves) as part of our job. However, in both roles I have played in education, I have found it difficult to devote conscious efforts to it and have found it becomes secondary to all of the other responsibilities before us.

Identity and branding are not one in the same and do not serve the same purposes, but the two go hand-in-hand. In education, in particular, we can do a better job of understanding both.

Coca Cola gets me. They even made a bottle, just for me.
CC attribution to jeepersmedia

Our identity goes beyond the vision and mission statement or mascot of the school. The grade level, department, school, district, or whatever group it may be needs to have a solid idea of who they are as a unit. This has to go beyond give a passing nod to the goals and ideals of the group and must permeate into everything you do. In her presentation on Adaptive Schools, Becca Fudge, shared that the identity of the group serves as the foundation for all of the decisions it makes. Beyond the notion of gathering the stakeholders to best understand all points of view, simple matters such as the group's role is often forgotten. From its onset the group needs to know if it holds decision-making power, proposes suggestions to higher ups, or simply contributes research toward a decision. Beyond establishing norms (or rules) for their interaction, each of the members must be honestly aware of their own identities as professionals, able to flex into different roles when most effective for the task at hand.

In order to keep the two distinct, I imagine branding as the means of portraying your identity to your audience. In education, it is best to look at our community, our parents, and our students as clients in these situations. Framing it in this context, reminds us that while we are experts in our fields of study, we do serve our students like a doctor his patients and a lawyer her clients. While my own struggle with branding originally lied in my perceptions that it promoted style over substance, it's much deeper than that. As Todd Nesloney pointed out in his keynote branding a positive image of yourself, your campus, and of our profession is important in drowning out negative press when it inevitably arises. Let's face it, professionals usually end up getting lumped into the stereotypes of the best and worst in their profession. Carving your own niche in that does not mean you are trying to stand apart for your own glory. It means that you are keenly aware that people- kids, clients, parents, car shoppers, coffee drinkers- like to identify with the businesses and persons they deal with professionally. Good parent communication, a pretty website, snazzy letterhead and newsletters, and school events are all part of branding yourself and your school.

Does being trendy and "cool" matter? Yes. It does. And it matters beyond the idea of style. It matters because it makes you relatable and real to your clients. You are likely reading this on an iPhone or maybe you are using Chrome. You might own a pair of Nike's or drive a Honda. Something tells me you also probably did not research whether or not Apple, Nike, or Honda made the absolute best product for your purchase. You might have if you are really into those fields, but I bet if you own a product from a company you are much more likely to purchase another one if it pleases you. You have favorite restaurants, clothing brands, pop drink labels, and more and more....and more, you don't commit to them for any firm, factual reason. You overlook the time your favorite restaurant is a little later getting your order to the table and pay a little more for the brand you like. You feel a connection to the brand that goes beyond your wallet. You are an Apple person or an Android person. You drive a BMW or an Accord. You are sick of hearing about the Microsoft Surface because the iPad is better (or is it?). All of these companies recognize it because they promote themselves in mass media and in personal media. They interact like a person would on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and strategically planned live events.

My point isn't that we need to become a facade or treat ourselves as a marketed product. However, we do need to recognize that branding ourselves in education happens through the memories we make with our students, our parents, and our community. We are looked at by our clients as a person who provides an important service. When we do make a mistake or when we need to have an important conversation about a child, wouldn't it help if they had the same loyalty you show Apple because of that time the Genius fixed your screen crack for free? Wouldn't it help if you were That Teacher That dressed up like a mad scientist because it was just plain fun and not That Teacher That they saw yell at the kid in the hall or worse, heard about getting behind in their grading from another parent? Branding isn't just a facade, it's the identity you present to other people.

Go about your next school year treating yourself like a rock star. Seriously. Your job is to gain fans among your clients because your exude passion in your profession. You have fun doing it. Your clients WANT to come back to visit your place of business everyday (well, Monday-Friday). It doesn't make you a pushover OR a crowdpleaser. It just means you are aware your kids need giants on whose shoulders to stand and first, you need to be a giant in their eyes. It's your job!

The Nonscientific Case for Portfolio Assessment

noreply@blogger.com (Kyle Wood) — Sat, 06 Jun 2015 23:02:00 +0000

This week, my students have been subjected to standardized testing. It reminded me of a post from this time last year, Teaching Lessons. There I pointed out the obvious- that in no other point in life we will be evaluated annually using "lead" dots "bubbled" silently and alone. However, I committed the heinous sin of many a teacher or rabble rouser and omitted suggestions for improvement.

The solution to destroying standardized testing and the need for it is portfolios. We all know it and the concept is nothing new, so why haven't we adopted it whole-heartedly?

"Bubble students" are the ones we discuss who might not
be able to fill out the correct answers...in bubbles.

Instituting true student portfolios would (at least initially) introduce opposite negative effects to those of standardized tests, namely ambiguity. Let's imagine that a state elects to implement portfolios in the coming school year. In addition to the Common Core and Essential Standards, portfolios would come armed with a checklist of suggested products and core concepts which those products must address. Each of those products would require a rubric, a method of submission to either the teacher, district, or state, and a method of documenting their "scores." Wisely, the state or LEA would train teachers on the idea of portfolios, but also evaluating them consistently. Then LEA's would likely conduct needs-based training for teachers struggling to implement the creation of products AND for those struggling to deal with the (hopefully) technological component of submitting and evaluating those products. This doesn't mention the deadlines that would likely occur each term as well as opposed to once annually.

Now, unfortunately, let's imagine this...while evaluating each of his students products and measures throughout the year, Joe Teacher operates on the kind-hearted but woefully ineffective mindset that Billy, Bobby, and Sally are good kids, so they did well enough. Jean Teacher complains that portfolios require more paperwork and provides pointless feedback to her students simply passing all of them. John Teacher "grades" portfolios harshly because the rubric can be interpreted differently by each reader and he champions the cause for rigor.

Admittedly, all of the above would occur until policy dictated that either all of the portfolios be graded by a non-partial third party, creating more consistent grading but a massive lag time in feedback and a huge budgetary issue. Then, teachers would likely be required to evaluate the portfolios on grade level or in departments to insure consistency whether by discussing submissions or trading them among their peers for non-biased evals. But the fact would remain that Billy would be evaluated differently by different teachers within or across different campuses.

Wait a second? "I thought portfolios were the way to go." Oh, they are. We already create paper portfolios in our district showcasing students' examples of math (worksheets) and writing. It is accompanied by a snapshot of the typical measures- report card grades, STAR Math and Reading assessments, and any other identifying info. At issue in this case is that while a portfolio is assembled, the data points are all very similar to what is tested on standardized tests anyway especially as those assignments graded in class begin to mimic the tests in preparation for their administration.

Portfolios are NOT the way to assess because grading would be more accurate or easier. Sadly, given human nature, evaluations would likely be atrocious in the beginning. However, consider two things. First, if the point of any assessment lies in analyzing knowledge, mastery of concepts, and application of that knowledge, only products like experiments, presentations, research writing, and creative expressions of content can possibly make such an attempt. If we truly believe that matters of worth in life occur over the longterm instead of in the grueling instant, we would have to agree that matters learned in process of creating such products outweighs public education's need to arrive at a numerical data point for each student. Essentially, we would be returning to the idea of checking off a list of skills and content each student mastered rather than arriving at all-encompassing number with a week of school remaining.

Second, as I said before, how are you evaluated as an adult? I know how I am evaluated...and it involves artifacts from every domain of my job which I am asked to fulfill. One of those remains quantitative, drawing from my students' test performance, which I understand completely. However, the other five items on the rubric with which I am measured are much more intangible. Can I demonstrate my knowledge of my content (my expertise in my subject matter)? Can I show that I utilize different methods to instruct students of different academic, social, and cultural needs and interests (my delivery)? Do I ASSESS my students using a variety of measures AND develop instruction based on that data (diagnosis and prescription)? Do I try to improve all of the above by attending professional development, researching, or working with peers? Do I show leadership outside my classroom in teaching others where I have had success (collaboration)?

Where in our bubbles are we able to quantify the student that does not perform silently bubbling in mathematics, but can build a wicked skateboard ramp? the one that really struggles to read, but leads his classmates on the basketball court with an infectious small and outgoing personality? the one with 140+ IQ that is just plain bored jumping through our hoops and already understands that dots just cannot quite quantify all that he is? the one who had a really bad day that ONE day in June?

We cannot fear the perceived oddity of portfolio assessment because it too might not provide a reliable picture of our students. That fear would require that we feel our current method of measure is complete and infallible. The fact would remain that our students would grow simply because they aren't prescribed one method or type of method to show their talent. Our instruction would vastly change because in that ambiguity, the truly masterful teachers would be permitted to show their own artistry in connecting with students...avoiding the hours of review or preparation aimed at that ONE measure. School would again become a place where students learn, not only about some math and reading, but about themselves, their goals, their interests, and maybe more importantly about others, their goals and their interests.

I guess my case is a simple one. If we choose to evaluate educators using a portfolio assessment, essentially, then why wouldn't we do the same for our students? If we know that "my" test scores do not correctly evaluate my entire performance as a teacher, then aren't we also acknowledging that (perhaps to a lesser degree) a student's test scores do not evaluate them correctly as well?

Chromed Out: A Year in Review in my 1:1 Classroom

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 15 May 2015 23:28:00 +0000

As the year winds down in the elementary calendar and we find ourselves in batten down the hatches, EOG review mode, I have begun adjusting/planning for next school year. In my mind and gradually in Docs, I have examined my plan for my 1:1 exiting last year and begun evaluating my performance in the environment.

This me, all reflective and stuff.

In my plan, I had hoped to integrate my devices in one portion of the day at a time. I felt like it would be wise to immerse the students in routine practices during the large portions required of my district's elementary day- reading workshop, writing workshop, math and math small groups, and shared reading. Starting with the portions done in small groups (i.e. reading workshop and math small groups), I would be able to establish routines that could carry over into those activities done in whole group instruction (or those group activities done as a class).

A pseudo-learning management system would provide the backbone for my plans. What eventually became my Google Site, though I flirted with Google Classroom, Blendspace, and Edmodo, would allow for differentiation of content, review of that content over time, and the infrastructure for my individual student portfolios.

In reality, I established most routines really well. Students were quickly acclimated in logging in, distributing the devices, and, for the most part, remaining on-task. Guided reading and math small groups went off without any issues at all. My literature circles used various tools to document their discussions, beginning with a shared Doc and graduating to Voicethread and Powtoons, which they chose. My skill groups used Newsela to access current, leveled reading that we could annotate and discuss with ease. My math "create" groups used MoveNote, Google Slides, and WeVideo to make tutorials demonstrating the recently mastered content for those in need of help, while secretly boning up on their own points of weakness by learning to explain the processes to others. My math "analyze" and "synthesize" groups started off using old school mastery books, but quickly graduated to Brain Genie as a way to prescribe skills in need of more focus.

Our Google Site served its purpose amazingly well. Though I envied teachers discussing the ease at which documents were retrieved and submitted in Classroom, I preferred posting content to the Site in a visual way that remains static for kids whole like to review at home. And some of my students grew to depend on it. Our science shared reading content culled from subscriptions to Discovery Streaming and other sites (protected behind a password to maintain copyright), is fast becoming a gigantic e-book for our course.

Our Google Site has also become a source of pride for my students. They have really enjoyed having portfolios. At first, I know it was a choir to embed their assignment and reflect on it. Their first cracks at it show their lack of interest. However, as their sites grew, they began to take on ownership of them and even see the growth they were making from term to term. Now that they have embedded presentations, videos, and Thinglink content, they really see the breadth of what they have created.

But, in reality, I have also missed the boat completely on some of my goals. I had designs of utilizing something like Nearpod to deliver most of my science and social studies content. I became pretty enamored with the site a couple of years ago, but fluttered away before its content library grew to where it is today. Honestly, I am envious of my secondary friends who plan one or two subjects because I find myself drowning in ideas for the content.

When I have utilized Docs for writing workshop, I truly feel at home, however, the digital format has not always felt most comfortable for the brainstorming and tangibility we are encouraged to provide in our writer's notebook. And math, whole group, because we use Investigations exclusively, has remained untouched.

I made a conscious decision (all the way back to my proposal) to avoid the notion of projects. By projects, I don't mean project-based learning, not at all. Instead, I wanted to wage war against the notion that instead of teaching the content or providing activities in science or math to allow the students to truly discover it on their own, teachers assign a "project" using technology that will impart the knowledge needed. Watching the two in a classroom can appear similar, I'll admit. My concern has been that having students create a speech about weather in front of a storm on green screen or creating a video on the Civil War from images found in a Google search is not learning. A carefully planned lesson that results in either may work. I know that I enjoy open-ended assignments that allow for creativity within a broad set of parameters while expecting a depth of content. However, evaluating the time spent creating those types of products versus the valuable research and learning necessary to piece it together has not balanced out for me. I am happy to have steered clear of those kinds of assignments, though I do find myself crafting ways to implement those types of products next year with high expectations of the content included.

What does next year hold? I have to create A LOT of content in order to provide my students access to the types of activities and assignments that I know will be more engaging. I want to give Nearpod an honest shot though planning for all my subjects within a application like that terrifies me. I want more of our work to be created online and in doing so, I want to open the door to more creative assignments provided I can maintain rigor and the depth of knowledge we need. Ideally, I want to see our writer's notebook as the only real foothold in the paper world.

I would also like to take my schedule and turn it on its ear. Instead of instructing the required 60 minutes of math in whole group and 45 minutes shared reading and reading mini-lesson, I would like to find myself doing whole group instruction in the time allotted for small groups AND vice versa. I see better relationships and better learning from the students who I see individually most often. That's a no-brainer if you have good relationships with your students. Right now, I am not sure how I would accomplish Investigations and the level of science and social studies instruction I like to achieve in even less time, but I feel like personalizing that content would be more effective.

In closing, I do me better than anyone can, I guess. I set high expectations of myself this year and I did not reach them. I hardly ever please myself and I suppose that is why I am always willing to improve. Now, I know what a 1:1 "looks like" and I hope that new content combined with the infrastructure I already have can achieve my goals in the next school year.

Help Us Build a School with Pencils of Promise

noreply@blogger.com (Kyle Wood) — Sun, 15 Mar 2015 02:24:00 +0000

A few months ago, I asked if you were a catalyst? Essentially, are you a person capable of creating or increasing positive change in the world without a resulting benefit to yourself?

Since that post, we have not raised funds as we awaited the beginning of what will be our 3rd spring fundraiser. As that fundraising period begins this Monday, March 16th, we find ourselves with $15,000 toward our $25,000 goal. And since that post, more than a few people have challenged my stubbornness in raising funds for schools outside our country. More than a few people have brought up community needs or hypothetical needs in communities around our state and in other states ranging from domestic violence to educational resources.

"Why Kyle, do you keep devoting time and asking for money when there are so many problems here (or there)?"

It's a fair question and one I ponder. There are A LOT of problems in our country and around our globe that need our attention. Domestically, I am well aware of problems with homelessness and poverty. I was raised in a lower middle class home, but I went to school with kids who literally lived on the street, who came from broken homes, and who I am sure lived well below the poverty line. I have taught children in the same situations. It is utterly heart-breaking and leaves you, especially as their teacher, feeling hopeless.

I am also aware of the erosion of respect we have for our women. We all know of the high-profile incidents of athletes abusing their spouses or girl friends. As with any publicized incident, intelligently, we have to consider that those incidents occur ten-fold in our day-to-day lives with "ordinary people." Our news programs are littered with incidents of violence arising from criminal activity, mental illnesses, prejudices, and domestic disputes.

Aaaand, obviously, you and I are aware of the lack of funding our educational institutions face. Wide gaps exist between the rich and poor schools in achievement and even wider gaps seem to occur inversely in resources provided to those schools.

I get it! It seems more logical, maybe more loyal, to contribute money to domestic causes. Local efforts like food and clothing drives are incredible ways to impact our own community, for example. Unfortunately, those ARE necessary and I am proud to count among my friends and family people who organize those drives along with blood drives and rapid responses to tragic, local events like house fires and sudden illnesses. My mom often organized our school fundraisers when I went through our district and has organized contributions for Samaritan's Purse that must number well over 1,000 Christmas Shoeboxes. Having been surrounded by that spirit in both my childhood community and my adoptive one has been very rewarding.

So, I guess my answer is pretty simple. I am going with what I know. I don't know an amount of money devoted to any organization that will prevent an evil person from doing wrong. I don't know how to provide a home or enough food to a person without any, though I raised money for New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. And I sure cannot solve the funding problem in education, though I try to volunteer to get extra equipment or resources for my school when I can. I cannot argue that supporting Pencils of Promise is MORE important and MORE impactful than contributing your time and money to any other cause.

I know that it costs Pencils of Promise just $25,000 to build A school and support it for a few years. I know that I believe in the power of education to change a person's life as it has mine. I know that if we truly believe in that power, then maybe, just maybe an educated child whether it is in this country or another may grow to be another catalyst.

Now, perhaps that child will grow simply in their understanding that strangers in this world care about their lives. Maybe they will grow simply in gaining the ability to pass along the gift of reading and writing to their children. But, maybe they will grow to become the leaders of their impoverished villages, their countries, to urge them forward...faster...to change their situation and the world.

I also know that 250 million kids in our world do not have basic reading and writing skills. Charities toss around numbers a lot in order to illicit a response and often we become numb to them. We see them at base value...any number = BIG number in our minds. But consider that our country's population is somewhere around 320 million people. That's a BIG number!

Then consider the opposite. $25,000 builds a school. Now, here, $25,000 could get my school a couple of carts of Chromebooks or a set of iPads. And that would be aaaweesome! But, we are talking about the difference in the type of instructional opportunities before us versus the existence of educational opportunities.

So, are you a catalyst? I think that providing little 5-8 year olds access to a basic education may not be the biggest problem locally or even globally, but I guess, it is a pretty important place to start.

However, a catalyst seeks out a place where they can be value added, right? If you don't find the value in helping us in our fundraiser, I completely understand. But, hopefully, your response to the question remains, "Yes!" A good friend of mine respectfully declined to contribute a large sum of money to us last semester. Her response, "I believe in supporting this cause, but I already contribute a lot of time and money to..." and I can tell you the list was really long. When I saw her later, she remained apologetic hoping I didn't feel jilted or unsupported. Of course I didn't. I felt inspired. She had taken up several causes, all local, to champion and support. I just met another person that could answer, "Yes!" simply for a different change.

If you would like to help our cause, you can donate or purchase this year's t-shirt by contacting me at kwood@gaston.k12.nc.us OR donate to PoP directly online with our 3rd ranked club.

#BeTheChange #Catalyst

Leadership Lessons from a 9 Year Old

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 06 Mar 2015 02:58:00 +0000

This past Monday, my son, Kieran, turned nine years old. Reflecting on that period in my life, I read a post I wrote on a long-since defunct blog about my worries concerning parenthood. At that time, I had legitimate questions as to how I might deal with issues that could arise, but also about who Kieran might be. Would he arrive, a child full of exuberance, curiosity, and idealism? Would he run amoc in the house or torture me with, "Look at me, Daddy!" comments while trying to stand on his head 101 times?

I mean, I was new to it, okay!

But I could not be prouder. Kieran IS everything I am and everything I want to be. He is off-the-charts intelligent; I am consistently surprised whenever he surpasses a ceiling I thought he had reached. His want and need to create keeps him going on projects just constantly, from writing books to creating entire board games for us to play. His heart- his heart- makes mine hurt. How does it fit in his chest? Within him are valid and emotional concerns for those around him. Now, Kieran isn't perfect; I would never don those parental blinders. He is MY son. Kieran can be stubborn. Kieran can use sarcasm when it is not appropriate. Kieran has waaay too many pots, pans, skewers, and skillets in the fire...And Kieran is pretty slow; I mean, he's slow.

A few weeks ago, Kieran, looking out the window as we drove home from school late, told me that another kid in his class was scared of him. Now Kieran, who's 9, weighs 55-56 pounds on a good day and did I mentioned that he's kinda slow? "Kier, dude, I seriously doubt you have scared anyone in your class. Why would you think that?" He went on to share how he was trying to work with a partner during some of the math workshop time and that he felt like the student, who must struggle a little in math, was indeed afraid.

"I thought that I was going too fast, so I tried to help him, but he like apologized for missing one a buncha times and erased real fast. So the next time, I just went real slow with him, but then he kinda waited on me to answer them. So then I tried to help him get the answers with me like I was supposed to, but he complained like I was talking to him like he was stupid. What should I do?"

First, I reassured him that none of this meant the student was afraid of him. Then we talked about how he could have made the student feel bad if he used a rude or mean tone and I really hope he hadn't done that. I commended him for trying so many different approaches to work with his partner and for trying to be patient because he was obviously a lot more worried about this kid's feelings that whatever math they were doing. So most importantly, I told him that aside from what he tried, I didn't have the answers. He shouldn't ask for a different partner and he had already apologized for hurting the boy's feelings, so all he could do was continue trying to help and reach out to this person.

I share all of this because I have sat down at my iPad and every laptop I own to write a post about teacher leadership 4 or 5 times over the last few weeks. I read blogs and articles about the qualities of teacher leaders and the ways administrators could empower their staff members without drowning them. I considered cutesy videos and my typical silly analogies, but none of it jived.

Then, on the way to school, a school year that has, like many, gotten very challenging as it has worn on, I looked at MY 9 YEAR OLD. It clicked.

There is no secret formula, method, or book to read on becoming a better teacher leader that will bring anything new to the table. There's no method that a 9 year-old conscientiously helping their peer hasn't tried. The lessons of teacher leadership are the same pointed to when we are asked to watch our children and absorb their innocence.

Being a sound teacher leader requires bravery, creativity, and healthy idealism. Bravely, that teacher must understand when best to speak up in the face of the negativity, the funk that befalls our profession from time to time. And just as bravely, that teacher learns when change is best made within their classroom, their team, their department as opposed to barking with political dogs. With creativity, the teacher leader reflects on their practice, examining where they have gone wrong, devising a new method in its stead, repeatedly until something takes hold.

Teacher leadership requires the teacher ,who like me concerns themselves with each and every day, to see the big picture. It requires the stubbornness that idealism provides the intelligent 9 year old too, the thick skin that weathers the daily details. Leaders, in no field I value, concern themselves with their pay grade, the amounts of paperwork piling their desks, or the amount of gratitude heaped on them from their industry. Leaders act because acting is right. They meet the task at hand while seeing the longterm timeline.

In other words, teacher leaders dare to remember from where they came. They were once the 9 year old intelligent, creative, kind-hearted kid too. Looking at my son the other day, consumed with whatever would occur from 7:45-5:00 that day at work, I remembered that. I know we make all of our decisions based on what is good for kids, but I wonder if we have said that a few too many times and need to KNOW what we truly mean when we make those claims. Leadership is daring to truly hold yourself to that standard and remembering that someone's son and our future counts on our honesty.

The Story of on EdCamp Newb #EdCampQC

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 24 Feb 2015 00:11:00 +0000

Snowdays can become powerful professional development tools when used correctly and in moderation. During the first of our 3 1/2 snowdays, my friend Laura Sexton (@SraSpanglish) mentioned me in a tweet concerning EdCamps leading me to follow her discussion (read pry) and discover #EdCampQC. As fate would have it, my son's soccer games were cancelled for the date of the EdCamp and I was actually able to attend having hassled its organizers a little for access.

Woah, woah...Edcamp? Whatzit?

An Edcamp event, often dubbed an "unconference," usually carries no admission fee and has no scheduled presenters. Instead, the camp invites participants who arrive understanding the value in gathering with like-minded peers. Session topics are determined as participants arrive and "presenters" may step forward then as well, depending upon the camp. Participants then breakoff into rooms based on whatever topic strikes their interest and seems to be buzzing most. If a participant doesn't value the discussion in a session, they are encouraged to leave and spend their time in another one.

An EdCamp style seeks to avoid the conference presenters who may deliver the same spiel a dozen times annually or are out to make a name for themselves. It celebrates the power of collaboration and the strength of numbers. It banks on the expertise of the unknown attendees and gambles that people appearing on a Saturday for free, care enough to share.

#EdCampQC

Now, EdCampQC was my first experience, but it worked just as I had read. You arrived to an enormous table of sticky notes and chart paper. You wrote any topics of interest on those sticky notes. As the organizers Lisa Pagano (@edu_ms_pagano), Emily Cassabone (@millielikesthis) and friends worked to categorize those and invent the schedule of the day, our host, principal Troy Moore (@HRESPrincipal) and Bruce Weber (@curriculumblog) introduced us to the building, welcomed us newbs, and explained the general idea behind a PLN.

In short order, the event's sessions were posted online complete with publicly accessible Docs for collaborative note-taking. Sessions ranged from the typically techy Google Apps for Ed topics to the much more open-ended "Things that Rock" and "PD with Humour." Think of each session as a built-in icebreaker rather than a prepared presentation. You are in a room with people who chose the same room...for a reason...GO! That is really it. EdCamp is a round table discussion and sharing session gone atomic!

What Did I Get Out of It?

As a techy person, I will be honest, I did not find a new website/app/game that I hadn't tried before. I did not hear of an idea that I had missed reading about elsewhere. This post won't be one explaining how everyone and their weird Uncle Frank uses Google Classroom or how one hour at half of their schools appears to be dedicated to Genius Hour or how they really do (try) to differentiate to every single kid. You've read that stuff.

Instead, what I gained and want to share here was much more valuable, real life conversation and collaboration with others teaching in my state, using my curriculum and experimenting with all of those website/app/game/method ideas themselves. I heard the doers talking about their last week instead of reading from the talkers pontificating on their ideas. I never once heard someone complain that there wasn't enough time in the day, that they don't get paid enough to work this hard, or that their "kids cannot behave" or "just don't get it."

Teachers of Hawk Ridge Elementary shared their journey toward personalized learning in math and reading where they truly differentiate everything for each child. Facilitators at other local elementaries discussed backchanneling with students doing interactive read alouds. Several teachers discussed their trials and tribulations differentiating using Classroom, Sites, Edmodo, et al.

Karmic Energy Dude

I know this, and I know it HARD! Every single thing happens for a reason. Cite your own source here, but it's true. I know there was some snow (read- like I may have seen a couple of flakes). I know my buddy Laura invited me to an EdCamp. I know my son's soccer games were cancelled. I know I ended up sitting in a 5th grade teacher's class who was doing exactly what I had talked to my teammate about a few weeks earlier. I know that same guy had an anchor chart for Wonder on his easel and that their school devoted time to the 7 Habits. And I know walking down the hallway I came in contact with a sign (like a literal one, not a figurative one) that said their students raised money for Pencils of Promise. I know that I am also a 5th grade teacher, who has used Wonder as the backbone of his read alouds, and has raised money for PoP for several years.

OMG! Look what I found! @PencilsOfPromis I want to teamup pic.twitter.com/EcmTRdCCo1
— Kyle Wood (@jkylewood) February 21, 2015

Now, I'm not one to get all spiritual or make mountains out of ant hills (because I've never even seen a mole hill, seriously, a mole hill). But, I know that sometimes it is easy for people to say, "Well, they do this (insert cool idea), but they don't have to deal with (insert crummy obstacle) and they have (insert cool resource)." Sometimes, those people are correct, but as near as I can tell, the only difference here is me. Saturday just reaffirmed for me that I am on the right track and it's simply time for me to put more of my ideas into practice.

Every time I sit with good educators I remember how poor I am and hope awesome I will be. #growing #sharingiscaring #edcampqc
— Kyle Wood (@jkylewood) February 21, 2015

photo credit: Edcamp NJ 2012 via photopin (license)

Book SMACKDown!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 02:03:00 +0000

Have you ever participated in a SMACKDown?! Smackdowns have become popular at conferences, edtech conferences in my experience, as a way to allow participants to become involved in presenting themselves. The rules differ based on the event, but generally involve setting a very brief time limit and a loose expectation that participants come to the stage in order to share something that they feel might benefit their peers. The results are a fast-paced and completely random event that usually leaves everyone tweeting their thumbs off either affirming the validity of a resource or proclaiming the awesomeness of a new find.

It's crowd-sourcing.

Have you ever heard of Ignite?! Ignite shows have been popping up in cities around the world for years now. To imagine an Ignite presentation, think of a TED-talk where the presentation is no more than 20 slides and has a mind of its own, moving every 15 seconds. Participants have 5 minutes to share their expertise in a topic, but they had better be prepared and fast. The results here are much as before, a encouragement to share and an expectation to dazzle.

Having met both of these ideas and becoming frustrated with maintaining the reader letters expected during Reading workshop, I devised the "Book SMACKDown!" It follows all my edtech axioms and integrates a number of skills in an entertaining way.

During our SMACKDown, students pick ONE book to champion against all others. Each student is given 3 minutes and a maximum of 12 slides to persuade the audience that their book is worthy of the audience member's next read. On the surface, it is just another presentation project, but that isn't at all how it plays to the students.

It lacks technological snazziness favoring instead technological savvy. This assignment acts as a great merger of the typical book report/recommendation and point of emphasis on presentation skills. For whatever reason, adding the "SMACKDown" element and time limit to the assignment creates a since of urgency with my students. They work hard to edit themselves both in their conventions and their design. It also emphasizes that within a strict time limit, there is no time to stumble over your speech or look at a piece of paper. The time limit provides the students and I license to speak from the heart about something we love instead of focusing on wording our sentences just so.

On the day of the presentations, students are provided a rubric (that they are also shown prior to beginning). The rubric awards 30 points each for the visual, the content of the presentation, and the delivery of the presentation. The remaining 10 points can only be earned through reflection. Each student is required to assess, grade, and provide critiques of at least three peers and reflect on their own presentation. All audience members also vote on which of them did the best job persuading the rest to read their book.

I have been most proud of my students ability to assess good design and presentation ability in determining a winner. Both years, I have felt like the top presenters received the largest number of votes. Voting also affords us the conversation of choosing the best, most persuasive presentation rather than the book that we like most. For example, I am not a fan of books like the Harry Potter series, but if their presenters were most persuasive, I should still vote them winners.

If you are curious which books you should run out and read right now, our SMACKDown winners have been The Hunger Games and Every Soul a Star.

The Uphill Climb

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 03:47:00 +0000

See, that's a Pinnacle reference.

As we reach the midpoint of the year, we are making slow progress in utilizing our tech throughout the day. My focus remains integrating the Chromebooks into my periods of small group and workshop times, but I've made strides in utilizing them throughout shared reading (science/social studies) as well. The only portion that hasn't been touched a great deal are my required Investigations math lessons.

At any rate, the pros of our rollout thus far have been an obvious increase in engagement and creativity. I remain committed to conducting activities that are easily reproducible, meaning that I purposefully steer clear of "projects" that would take days of classtime and instead try to install routines that can replace and augment whatever instruction is being done. Our "projects" instead consist of on-going assignments in math and reading workshop- my 20-30 minutes of required small groups and my 45-55 minutes of guided reading and SSR time periods in my day. In shared reading, the student use of Chromebooks have been limited to simple ways to access and process content like Padlet or collaborative Docs.

The cons thus far have been what I think of as "timelines." I have done a poor job of utilizing my increased access to technology to decrease the time it takes to complete a technology task. I had hoped that greater access would make a more noticeable difference in shortening timelines allowed to complete technology-rich assignments. Well, obviously it has because I haven't had to wait on lab time or utilize my desktops in rotating centers.

However, my small group assignments are still taking longer than I would like for a few reasons. First, it has taken more prep time to acclimate students to the technology than I had anticipated. Second, our comfort level with group assignments, thoughtful discussion, and critical thinking remains a work in progress. In response, I have scrapped some of my blogging assignments that were taking days instead of one workshop to complete and changed lit. circles to increase the number of sessions in which students become more comfortable with their roles within their groups. I have done some lessons that my friend, Andrew, refers to as a technology bootcamp, where I train students on file management, multimedia content, and presentation skills. We have also done more detailed lessons than I have in the past on acceptable responses and even in journal writing and open discussion.

My successes thus far have lied in those periods of day where group assignments are most applicable and the time and requirements on that portion of my day are a little less prescribed. My students and I seem more free to make errors in our workshop times when the stress and strain of "getting through" specific content is lessened.

My area of growth would absolutely lie in finding the perfect marriage between meeting the district's expectations of my day and integrating technology within those times while also playing a little catchup on the basics of technology and critical thinking (mostly in the way of, again, thoughtful discussion and creativity). Please do not misunderstand what I mean by this. I understand the value in each portion of our school day. I also understand that technology can be paired perfectly with the content so that no additional time is needed. I openly admit that I am doing a poor job of marrying the two so that that is the case.

This is what I look like when I rock climb.
photo credit: darkmatter via photopin cc

My initial examples of student work can be found on our webpage's Student Hub. The math workshop features our version of Khan Academy-esque videos to teach others the basics of multiplication and division. We are currently working on paper slide videos for adding and subtracting fractions as well.

Our current version of reading workshop can be found as well. Right now, half of the class in working in Newsela while the other half is finishing either Walk Two Moons or the Boy in the Striped Pajamas. You can find the last couple of documents where literature circles are meeting on those two books without me. We are working in the typical roles of lit. circles as I mentioned in another post, but we are working toward more effective discussions (without the teacher's interference) and other products with future books. Right now, the goal is documenting our understanding of the text during an open discussion of each of our understanding, the responsibilities of each of our roles and teamwork within those roles.

Students are also working on portfolios that have submissions each term (only the first appears thus far) and Book SMACKDowns where each student champions the book they consider the best of all-time. Those are also on-going assignments that will occur each term and each semester respectively.

I feel good about our progress thus far, but my use of our Chromebooks is a work-in-progress. We are getting much better at navigating the differences between a Chromebook and OS's with which we are more accustomed. That curve was a very shallow slope. We are growing in our ability to collaborate on assignments and share our means of discovering content as well as our want and ability in expressing what we know. I am excited as we grow in the sheer amount of content and tools we encounter and can add to our toolbelts.

Are You a Catalyst?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 19 Nov 2014 03:24:00 +0000

I asked my students this question a few weeks ago, as we prepared for our first fundraiser of the year. I wrote a word on our SMARTBoard and introduced it to our class.

CATALYST

We had studied chemical changes some weeks before, but I wanted to point out something a bit different. I explained that according to our bosom buddy, Google, a catalyst is "a substance that causes or increases the rate of a chemical reaction."

See, chemical reactions, as we learned, are interactions between molecules of different kinds that created a new substance in the process. Burning wood generates heat, light, and smoke and leaves behind ashes, right? Catalysts are substances added to either cause this change or make it happen faster.

The catalyst itself does not undergo any lasting change. The substance jumpstarts or accelerates the rate of change. It's there, pushing it on, but doesn't benefit in any way.

So I ask again, are you a catalyst?

Webster defines a catalyst as "a person that causes change or action." Each of my 55 students over the past three school years can justifiably stake a claim to the moniker. They created change in those around them and were understanding that our class, despite whatever reward we may grant donors or classes, would not be eligible.

Join us by supporting our goal of creating change in the lives of some of the 250 million children around the world without basic reading, writing, and math skills. Just as with catalysts in chemical reactions, you will not benefit from this at all; you will not change in any tangible way. However, you could accelerate positive change in world and the benefits of those changes in a young child could yield new catalysts to transform communities, countries, and with any luck, the world.

Are you a catalyst?

We are desperately trying to reach our goal of $25,000 to build a school for children without one. I outlined our efforts up until this year in this post. This year, we have been lucky enough to earn another $3,900 in the week of fundraising around Halloween bringing us to a total of $14,968. I was encouraged to see this year's students eager to participate however they could. Unfortunately, we did not go door to door as we did last year to sell Boo Pops to our student body. In an effort to save time, teachers sold the Boo Pops and we simply advertised and delivered them. However, we were lucky enough to have friends step to our aid allowing us to fundraise at a function of the local Two Rivers City Club where we earned $2,300 and a fellow teacher from a nearby school donated $300 of her own money.

Join us and become a catalyst of change. This spring, participate by purchasing #TheShirt3 or by donating. You can donate by contacting me at kwood@gaston.k12.nc.us OR directly online with our 2nd ranked club.

#BeTheChange #Catalyst

Reading Techshop

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 21:12:00 +0000

While I have to admit that my best laid plans have not all come to fruition as I would have liked thus far with my one-to-one, I really like how my reading workshop is coming together. That portion of my instructional day became my focus when I wrote the proposal for the 1:1. I remain very focused on practices I can put into place that can become routine and as my students technology competency grows, I integrate something else.

Currently, my reading workshop period does not operate too far from what you would typically find in a "techless" classroom. I have students split into four guided reading groups with which I meet once or twice weekly. On a rotating schedule, students are busy in the SSR time, literature circles, or with me in their reading group. I had begun the year using some of this time to have students blog letters to the class about their reading, a practice I've done for some time rotating on classroom computers. However, I found that this year's group was not accustomed to that practice and composing the letters was not as purposeful as it had been.

My two literature circles operate as they typically would. However, as we have gotten a few chapters deeper into our novels, they will be working through the responsibilities of their role online. I have groups divided into roles that rotate as they would on paper...discussion director, literary illuminary, summarizer, word finder, techxpert, and illustrator.

Two other groups are using Newsela to access current, level appropriate news stories. I love using Newsela because students can read the same stories and discuss them without having to worry that they are written at a level inappropriate for their reading ability. Each meeting day, we read a news story together, highlighting difficult words, evidence to support our questions, and interesting facts (actually studying whatever skill we might be attacking that week). Then students can read on their own or with a buddy in order to take a tiny quiz to assess their understanding. It's quick and simple and uses their Google login.

Although my writing and small math group blocks have changed dramatically by allowing me to speed up what we already did before, I have enjoyed being able to go to our tools in reading workshop each day.

Searching for the Right LMS

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 24 Sep 2014 01:01:00 +0000

The search began sometime in June for the perfect LMS to pilot in my 1:1. At that time, I had determined a few options for closer review believing that the smart move rested in choosing one tool that accommodated most of my needs and running with it the entire year. The technological grass is always greener on the other website after all. One blog post or another tweet could send the enthusiastic researcher scrambling to a new service at the drop of a hat. While, I am guilty of dabbling in every "in thing," I also felt like I had to focus on one tool or
risk recreating content continuously.

Used under CC license from astridle

During our Pinnacle sessions, I spoke with my fellow Chromebook chums and narrowed the options down to three (none of which are complete LMS's):

Edmodo- the long-standing yet continuously evolving blended learning tool. Edmodo began with a look nearly identical to Facebook emphasizing posts and comments. It has however grown its number of features to include quizzing, document libraries, assignments/grading, and recently even standards-based testing. All of this...AND a Google handshake.
Google Classroom- the newbie. Classroom looks a lot like Edmodo...did 5 years ago. It offers announcements and assignments. Because it is a Google product, teachers and students are able to seamlessly access Drive and YouTube content.
Blendspace- the content manager. The idea here is that Blendspace provides a quick method of organizing all of the content webpages, videos, and document links in a visual format WITHOUT a login (though it is an option).

I am aware that I omitted blended learning sites like Schoology and true LMS's like Haiku and Moodle. In the end, my three choices were nimble, free, and supported by our district.

Once I received my Classroom invitation and the site went public, I decided to go with it as my LMS even though it is starved of the features Edmodo offers. Why? It's Google. Since I have a Chromebook 1:1, my thinking is that I would go all-in with Google. Its short-comings are its strengths. Its few features create a fluid and simple interface that I felt Edmodo now lacks. Any type of content can be linked as an announcement or assignment and once my students are logged into their Chromebook, a simple click on the link lets them right into class.

However, and this is really the reason for my delay in posting my progress, I broke my rule. After one project, I have already decided that Classroom alone isn't the one for me. Classroom works well to manage assignments! You see, once a student joins your class, a folder sharing the classroom's name is placed in their Drive. Each assignment is housed in a folder on their Drive and a corresponding folder is created in the teacher's drive to collect each student's submitted work AND house the uncorrupted templates. It works famously.

Buuuut, my very first major assignment required collaboration. Classroom did a great job pushing out the template to each student, but, of course, only half the students needed the template because they were working in pairs. That meant half of my students would have two similar documents, the unused template AND their actual project shared to them via their partner (but stored in the "shared with me"). Granted, I could have easily chosen NOT to push out copies of the document, but without utilizing that feature, what did Classroom really provide?

Where does this leave me now? In true Kyle fashion, I think I have decided to just make my own LMS-ish site. The plan is actually simple and also maintains my devotion that whatever I utilize in my one-to-one could be mimicked by anyone else with access to Chromebooks only every once in awhile.

I am going to turn my Google Site into a Moodle-esque content management site. I will password protect subject specific hubpages leading to each content focus. Right now, I'll be working on a page for my peer's content on physical vs. chemical changes. I'll flesh out existing pages I had begun for guided reading. These pages can easily provide links (perhaps using Blendspaces) to not only content, but collaborative documents and websites. Classroom can still push out individual, graded documents (though they may be few in number).

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Progress Bar:

15% Installed...Kidblogging instead of Caulkins letters, collaborative presentations in shared reading, peer review writing assignments...

Andragogy Reflection

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 19:05:00 +0000

Dr. Judy Moore (@judyjudymoore) spoke to my Pinnacle group today about andragogy. One expectation of participating in the Pinnacle Leaders Network in which I'm enrolled is mentoring others in technology. To meet that expectation, we are reminded that adults and young students learn best in different ways.

Dr. Moore shared than when teaching adults, we are able to take advantage of their intrinsic motivation and depth of life experiences. In other words, adults before you in training or in individual peer mentoring situations did not arrive based upon their "born on date" (what I affectionately refer to as Budweiser Education). Students come to us in the unfortunate position of being grouped by age rather than interest or ability. Adult groups share at least some interest by nature of their chosen career and hopefully in their attendance to PD or walk to your door.

Adults also have more life experiences than children. While, I would argue fairly easily that connecting the concepts being taught to real life and real interests are key to teaching anyone of any age, adults simply have more life experience with which to approach a new situation. This can be a good and bad element to training. Because of greater experiences, adults may bring a greater reluctance to learn new things whether because they are "set in their ways" or, more likely in our field, they have had a poor experience using technology before. Adults also have stronger opinions about what they want and need from a lesson. They do not approach it like most well-meaning children to learn the content that the teacher provides. Instead, they wish to learn the content that is relevant and that they feel is most important.

Lessons that do not fulfill an immediate need...check that...an immediate, mutually agreed need...will not be taken seriously by the audience of adults. In fact, the adult is much more likely to resent being in the session altogether, and as Dr. Moore put it, harbor "quiet violence" toward the presenter and situation in which they are found.

Jean Marc Cote
http://publicdomainreview.org/2012/06/30/france-in-the-year-2000-1899-1910/A reproduction of the early 20th century, scan

As Dr. Moore concluded her session, I thought of another requirement of the adult learner and of adults in many situations requiring outside expertise. Adults have a much greater need and expectation of their presenter than children. Think of it. Children, in general, take a presenter on face value. If they are teaching them something, they must be correct. Adults, however, need a little bit of convincing. Not only do we proceed presentations with titles, degrees and past experience to reassure adults the presenter has done their homework, we fully expect the presenter to confidently field every question OR at least competently answer difficulty ones with a list of profound possible answers. As adults, we expect that of other adults who again, are in front of us to provide what we need immediately...or want immediately.

I guess adult learners are more selfish aren't we?

App-smashing Reflection

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 16:54:00 +0000

Today in Pinnacle, I was re-introduced to the idea of app-smashing in iOS and Chrome OS. Well, more accurately, I was introduced to the concept on those operating systems that we once tried to accomplish before the days of those devices. App-smashing is the concept of combining the capabilities of several different apps to create one product or presentation. For example, a student might conduct their presentation and keep notes in a Doc, use images to create a video in Wevideo about their findings, then create a collage to send to Thinglink to attach their files so that their audience can view them.

After a session participating in smashing activities, my group was asked to reflect on a post by Mrs. Pepe found here. Her visual highlighting the merger of apps to meet Bloom's taxonomy and different levels of SAMR was enlightening. I identified with her emphasis that the app-smashing "begin with the end in mind." In our activities, I wondered if the same effect could have been accomplished with fewer apps in order to save time. In time, I am sure the teacher (and the apps) would advance in knowledge and capability in order to streamline the processes for the student.

I also found that Mrs. Pepe, included Bloom's newest addition, "creating," in the second portion of her diagram, "the glove." Mrs. Pepe pointed out that SAMR fits within the reflection portion of any activity. I am taking away that the key to moving higher on the SAMR scale isn't only in what the technology does in creating the outcome but in how that outcome is shared. In reality, "redefining" the assignment does not require it being shared publicly, however, creating a new audience is providing the product with a new purpose.

I look forward to modifying my lessons so that I am getting all of the mileage out of my tools rather than substituting the technological component for the paper/pencil one.

Teaching Change

noreply@blogger.com (Kyle Wood) — Fri, 13 Jun 2014 03:23:00 +0000

Do you remember those cliche stories fictitious parents told complaining children in the old movies? “I had to walk three miles to school in the snow, uphill in both directions, barefoot, when I was your age.” The unappreciative child would dismiss their parent’s exaggeration, roll their eyes, and go about their day. Now let me give you a figure that is even more staggering and much more true. Did you know that there are over 57 million children in the world without access to a basic education?

That startling realization did not draw rolling eyes when I shared it with my class last year, but set the stage for our efforts to do something about it. See, one of my goals in returning to the classroom wasn't just to quiet my need to help kids my self (and bemoan them leaving in a very Chris Carrabba-ish emo way), but to do something to quiet my need to make a difference on a bigger scale. The statistic comes to us from Pencils of Promise, an organization founded in 2008 with the mission of providing a basic education to young children around the world, who I had become aware of somewhere in 2010. PoP, as it is called, builds schools in Africa, Southeast Asia and Central America. According to their website, they have broken ground on over 150 to date and serve over 12,000 students. You may have recently heard of PoP whose founder, Adam Braun, published a bestseller describing the story of his founding and building the charity over the last 5+ years.

I was drawn to PoP for two reasons. First, their goal is sustainability. Funds raised not only build schools, but go to research villages that can help to build and maintain the structure long-term. PoP provides training for teachers, establishes on-going support through liaisons in each country, and monitors the success of school programs to ensure their success. Secondly, money raised through PoP goes directly to their programs (not their payroll) at an average rate of 85% over the last 4 years. Braun believes in an idea that he calls "For-Profit" whereby the non-profit like PoP behaves like a business trying to earn a profit, monitoring the bottom line rather than blindly raising money to throw at the problem.

Last April, our classroom decided to start a fundraiser in the community to help. Our ultimate goal? To raise the $25,000 it costs to build one school in a community. Every American school has deficits and areas of need, but just imagine those being met in a local school with only $25,000. After brainstorming with parents and within our classroom, my students decided to raise money in two ways. Many of you may have helped us last year! Taking a parent’s suggestion, we “sold” blocks in one of Belmont Central’s hallways painting one bright yellow for every $50 in donations. Donors contributing $25 or more would have their names placed on signs in the hall. We also decided to create t-shirts to sell for $12 each.

After researching Pencils of Promise a bit more, students set out in teams to develop all the material necessary to communicate our goal to the community and mobilize our school to help. One team composed the flyer and order form to send home with every student in our school. Another massive team made posters to advertise the fundraiser around the school. Still another developed a webpage to provide more information about PoP and the global need to the community, even presenting it to other classes. Everyone pitched in on t-shirt designs before settling on the slogan “I am the change” in homage to a quote I shared with them from Gandhi, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

With the end of the school year approaching, students around the school took it upon themselves to speak to local churches and march around neighborhoods to spread the word. Utilizing our networks of friends and family (and good ole' fashioned FB), we sold t-shirts to donors around the country. We contacted an artist in Greece named Alexis Marcou, who had down a piece in PoP's infancy, but has gone on to work for Nike and others. Alexis donated digital art to us in exchange for a shirt. In a span of three weeks, our community responded with over $4,300 raised from t-shirt sales and donations. Our t-shirt vendor (who asked to remain nameless) even surprised us by donating all of the shirts sold.

This year, as we looped to fifth grade, the students expected to do more to help children and to “be the change.” In October, our principal was kind enough to let us take on the sale of “Boo Pops” around the school. On five afternoons, preceding Halloween, our students sold lollipops around the school each afternoon. Satisfying their pre-Halloween sweet tooth and pitching in to educate children in less fortunate situations, our children brought in another $1,300 for PoP.

What’s more, the students developed another t-shirt that continues our theme of change stating “Learn, Think, Lead, Change,” simply appending “Change” to our existing school motto. If you see children wearing those bright blue graphic tees, you will know what they mean! We have been parading them around since November, but we raised another $4,000+ in April selling t-shirts and asking for donations. We were overwhelmed by the response of our community, our network. A teacher from a neighboring school asked to get involved and decided to conduct a "Penny War" and sell our shirts to raise extra money. A friend in high school with a missionary spirit wanted suggestions on how to help and raised nearly $500 selling Blow Pops at lunch for $1. Local churches pitched in several hundred dollars, one matching their youths donations at their service. Another local lady raised over $1,000 by asking 100 friends for $10 each.

We are incredibly proud of our school’s efforts to help those in great need in education. Our hope continues to be that our school and our community can build a school in a village somewhere in the world that needs help. I know that our class shares a new expectation to change the world in any way we can, big or small. I get to see it whenever a beaming student mentions someone asking them about their shirt when they wear it to dinner or whenever they have seen another child wearing theirs. The kids are able to challenge us in a real way. “I’ve changed the world. What did you do today?”

Now, I'll be real honest. I haven't posted anything in specific detail about our charitable work outside of FB because I did not want to turn our efforts into a "look at me/us." It seemed self-serving and ostentatious. However, the above text was written for a local magazine, one of those free ones that comes in the mail, because I felt like anything to generate a buzz and to make my students proud of what they had done was worth it. I decided to bring it here because as I continued to reflect back on the last two years with this truly special group of kids, I am honored to have known them and particularly taken aback by how frequently the concept of "change" creeped up in notes, conversations, and allegories that ended our year together. In short, I wanted to share that it worked, not because we raised a fair amount of money (because a lot of people have raised a lot more), but because they bought into becoming change.

At some point in our lives, we lose the sense that anything is possible. Whether we come to the realization as we fall to the ground trying to literally fly off that awesome ramp we built for our bike or when we realize the difficulty of stammering through our first chapter book, I'm not sure. But it happens; it happens to all of us. There's something about mending that naivity, believing in the impossible, the outrageous, the silly, that makes teaching so awesome!

Someone pointed out to me recently that while it was an awesome idea to raise money for charity, it seemed a little counter-productive when we have such economic and political problems right here, right in our schools. All the time and money poured into endeavors like PoP only benefit children abroad who we will likely never meet. It is possible that money donated to PoP was not donated to the local school. I couldn't agree more. However, can't we agree that many of our funding shortfalls come from that very thinking? Those in power, those with money, taking care of themselves first? I can't with clear conscience ask for change, change to benefit myself in some way, without helping a perfect strange in greater need first. Those lessons are the most important to teach our students.

Chromed Out: My 1:1 Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Kyle Wood) — Sat, 07 Jun 2014 04:36:00 +0000

This afternoon as I setup for our 5th grade awards, I was cryptically called to office to take a conference call with my AP. We were joined quickly by my incoming principal and the Asst. Chief Technology Officer for our county who informed us that I had been awarded a cart of 30 Chromebooks!

Used under CC License from OobieNoobie

Writing my proposal last weekend was a weekend well spent. Active Pinnacle Leaders, teachers in our county who were once selected to attend additional technology training and receive extra equipment, were presented with the opportunity just a couple of weeks ago. The instructions were simple! Explain your vision of a 1:1 classroom. How might 30 devices change instruction and impact your students learning each day? Applicants were asked to adhere to the line of thinking used in writing SMART goals generated for PLC's. Set specific, measureable goals. Make them ambitious, but reasonable and include a timeline of the plan of action to meet them....but be brief. Uh oh.

I was riddled with ideas for using Chromebooks in instruction if they were accessible whenever I liked, but rather than detail a few projects I had in mind, I decided to tailor my proposal around the idea of rolling out the one-to-one experience in chunks throughout the school year. I wanted to explain how the look of my classroom would change if I could act on the technological urges within my students and myself without stretching the timeline to fit into tackling the same idea with 2-3 computers or weekly lab time.

Anyone who speaks to me for a second realizes that I am a bit long-winded, so I felt a little vague leaving out the details of specific ideas. I also left out all personally identifying information because the evaluation was going to be blind and I felt it was important to have validity in that. In the end, I was pretty proud to have arrived at a plan with about 11 "measureables" and clear ways stakeholders could be involved. (Now, I just have to pull it off.)

You can find my proposal here as well as an old blog post of mine that brought my intro to mind.

My Kids

noreply@blogger.com (Kyle Wood) — Tue, 27 May 2014 22:40:00 +0000

This post is my last letter to my current students, most of whom I have had for 2 school years...

Dear “26,”

I last wrote each of you this time last year. At that time, I felt the same emotions I feel today because I didn’t know that I would be rewarded with a second year with many of you. I read the 4 key points in that letter, points I always include, and have a new appreciation in how cemented they are in my mind and hopefully in your minds as well.

We are a unit, a family, and always will be.
Each of you are spectacular!
I believe in you!
The “work of school” is important too!

But, you have heard me go on about each of those before. I wanted to leave you as Mr. Browne did his class in Wonder instead. This is my contribution to the precepts that I sincerely hope to receive from each of you whenever you find it suitable.

Used under CC
https://www.flickr.com/photos/missturner

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.” -Mahatma Gandhi

If everyone, each one of us, decided to find problems, issues and complaints in everything around us, we would only ever succeed in being sad, upset, and disheartened. A truly disgruntled person and a well-meaning individual might suggest ideas to fix the problem, deal with the issue head on or quiet the complaint. However, a transformative person, a change agent, will be that individual that sees the problem, devises a solution AND acts on it. Whether with the help of a few friends, an entire community or completely alone, this person does not wait for the right time or sit patiently until someone else hatches a worthy plan. This person goes out and DOES. They achieve. They strive to accomplish the goal solely because, to them, it is worth accomplishing. Gandhi tells us simply to follow our dreams. BE whatever it is you WISH to realize for yourself. Don’t plan on doing it later or when you are older or after you finish some other goal. Do it right now, whatever it may be, and once more, when the end of that goal is in sight, set another more lofty one and tackle it the same way. One day, you will look down from the new height you have reached and see just how far you have risen. You will come to a host of realizations and find new questions…”How did I ever get here? I never knew this was even possible. I cannot imagine it in other way. What else might I do?” Imagine the joy in living, in being, even better than you ever thought possible!

I really cannot tell you how saddened I am that I won’t get to see you everyday August… December… May… and in 2015...2016. These last two years have been the best of my career because of you guys. You have made me very proud of you with each of your accomplishments. I feel blessed and so very happy to have had 360 days with you and I hope you feel the same. Before I hush for one last time, please believe me when I extend the invitation to come visit me, email me, or write me to keep in touch. I hope each of you will contact me should you ever need help in something that I might be able to provide. You will always be “my kids” and I your biggest cheerleader.

Missing Ramon, Katelyn, Keegan, Katelyn, Brandy, Destiny, and Victoria...

Love,

Kyle Wood

Yet Another Teacher Decided to Quit

noreply@blogger.com (Kyle Wood) — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 23:57:00 +0000

I decided to quit teaching.

The educational ecosystem lies in disrepair having been assaulted by the public, politicians, and the media. Politicians do not appear to see the value of a profession tasked with educating the nation's future. The general public often views teachers as a lackadaisical flock putting in 180 days from 8-3 until summer vacation rolls around. Parents "side" with their child no matter the situation, putting more emphasis on sporting events, or questioning the educator's judgement, training, and skill in dealing with their child's needs, behaviors, and interests. Meanwhile, DOE's place their emphasis on increasing standardized testing from mandated end-of-grade tests and the corresponding district mandated benchmark assessments that place a great deal of importance on demonstrating a child's learning over the course a few silent hours. And the paperwork, don't get me started on the paperwork. If a student is really bright, teachers test them for placement in special classes and activities to meet those needs. If one is struggling, teachers test them to determine the source of the discrepancy from "the norm." Teachers write individual plans for students that will struggle long-term and more plans for those who might struggle on the short-term...and keep data on all students to determine that norm. Teachers compare them to each other, to other classes, to other schools, to other districts, well...to any number we can find.

And well, I'm sick of it. I can do more. I can impact more people, more kids, somewhere else.

Used under CC
https://www.flickr.com/photos/striatic/

Did that get your attention? The above sentiments sound like any one of a million Facebook post from the disheartened teacher circulating through the echo chamber generating likes and "you tell them's." The post also sounds like me in the spring of 2005 when I left the classroom to become a Tech. Facilitator in our county (ok, I exaggerated a little...well, a lot).

Back then, at age 26, some of the sentiments from my introduction rang through my head, but honestly, not all that many. I really loved my kids, but I was young and ambitious. Several of my mentors discussed this new position in our county with me. They said that it would be a great way for me to grow as an educator and put my energy to better work, that I could earn more money working 12 months, and I could move into a position that would allow me to influence even more kids. I figured all of the bright stars moved "up" one day and I was enamored with the confidence placed in me to start the Tech Facilitator role in our district. My mentors and my wife placed a lot of confidence in me. I can confidently say that I never let them down. I earned a lot more money and I worked 60+ hour weeks to earn it. I volunteered for every presentation, initiative, and Saturday event that I could. I was a workhorse. I think I was pretty darn good at it too.

I escaped the testing (except for tutoring for the Computer Skills Test), the paperwork (except for the creative way I chose to keep my tasks timed), and the data (except for the aforementioned types). I even got to eat lunch for an hour.

Yet, 7 years later, I found myself back in the classroom.

Confused yet? Let me explain. On the heels of Gov. Hunt's 4-yr campaign to raise teacher pay in NC to the national average, a campaign that was weighted toward the teachers with less experience, I left teaching.

In the midst of a pay freeze, I returned, choosing to lose something like 26% of my income. (I'm not pretending to be altruistic here; my pay was likely to be frozen long after teacher pay increases began anyway.)

See, the issues in education that are plastered all over the news, all over blogs, all over Facebook...well, everywhere, they aren't new. Frankly, the teaching profession's response to all of the above isn't new and innovative either. I don't disagree that all of the facets of teaching in public schools are difficult to comprehend and that teachers probably should make a bit more money. However, as an educator, I strongly disagree with the negative perspective I find educator's fostering toward their own industry. When, I began teaching only 14 years ago, in 2000, I made a startling $25,500. I looked at the teacher pay scale as a soon-to-be high school salutatorian in the fall of 1995 and applied to be a Teaching Fellow because I wanted to teach. I had options and I decided to take that wage to be with kids and help them like David Poston, Ann Brown, Becky Pasour, Maurice Bush, Becky Maxon, and the rest had me. It was a deliberate choice.

In 2012, basically tired and burnt out, I decided to return to teaching because I saw the path "forward" closed. I chose a mortgage my family could pay on a teaching salary, bought a used car instead of the new one I wanted, and made the conscience decision laughing and crying along the way, to return to teaching.

I haven't said why yet...because I remembered most, what 17 year old Kyle knew so well. I wanted to make a difference with kids. When I lost sight of that and engaged in personal advancement, politics, and career goals of my own, I lost sight of myself. $25,500 or $55,500 shouldn't and ultimately didn't make any difference in that. I also had a great conversation with a true friend who when asked, "Can I really do this? I know I want to, but can I really do this to my family?" said, "You know, I find that in every job I have had, I have found a way to save some money...and to spend more than I should. You'll survive and you'll be happier."

So I remembered that maverick spirit that 21-yr-old, first year teacher me felt and I came back. I remembered that the reason my mentors thought I should go for more, was because I was really passionate as a teacher. I had great relationships with my kids, my parents, and my community. None of that applied anymore.

I walked in the first day, met my new kids, most of the same I have still today, and fell in love. I got worried when my first paycheck came and it had dipped a great deal. But I didn't sweat the paperwork because I knew how to manage it. I didn't sweat the community because I knew that the way to deal with parents was to communicate, to be a real person, and to listen. I mean, I am a parent and when dealt with frankly, people are very helpful and reasonable. And I sure didn't sweat the news or public opinion because I rarely even listened to it.

Fellow teachers, I understand the frustration and I can agree with much of it. But honestly, can't we agree that we have the greatest, most important job in the world? We are to be the giants on whose shoulders' the next generation stands. The best among us in history didn't rise up to be paid better, they rose because they were needed.

Teaching Lessons

noreply@blogger.com (Kyle Wood) — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 01:59:00 +0000

Today I learned a new teaching lesson. I paced my room for hours reflecting on what I have done over the past academic year...the one prior...and the one prior. Admittedly, I grew a little sullen when I realized that the place in which education finds us- the teachers, its employees and the students, its clients- is no different than when I left the classroom nine years ago. My mindset on the institution of education also has not changed in that time frame. No matter the change in the world over that period of time, education remains largely unchanged.

You see, in those several hours today, my children- MY children- were embroiled in standardized testing. So as I literally paced the room, sat, stood, paced, distributed and thought, MY children were pouring their hearts and souls into 50 some questions designed to determine whether they had mastered the content that is my job to impart to them as best I can and their obligation as children born in a given year to internalize. I considered how often I subject them to the very same thing (on a much smaller scale) to prepare them for days like these.

And I get that. I do. If one person wants to KNOW what another person KNOWS, they should just ask them, right? It makes good sense.

I guess that my issue with standardized testing may appear simple after reading those published so frequently in the typical echo chamber numerating complaints of racial bias, inaccuracies due to method, inaccuracies due to inaccurate testing items, and inaccuracies due to poor alignment between tests and the curriculum. (breath taken here) How can one measure the application of thought, of any thought, by the darkening of a bubble? Consider the simplicity in that.

Used with CC License from
https://www.flickr.com/people/thedavisblog/

In any other situation in adult life, well, really in life outside of education, a person would never be isolated for three hours in a silent room with others with whom they collaborate regularly and asked to demonstrate the totality of their knowledge gained in the past year by darkening circles to acknowledge their answer to previously unseen questions. If your supervisor gathered your office staff in the break room, gave you three hours and only 50 multiple choice questions concerning anything you should have learned in the last year, how successful would you be? How many times would you feel the urge to Google something that you previously "knew" or quickly ask a co-worker how to complete a process you have done before? How many times would you want to walk over to the computer you use because the steps are easy to complete but difficult to explain? How many times do you just, I don't know, stand for a second, because you've been sitting for an hour and feel like it? How many times do you collaborate with a co-worker to complete a task because it is easier and you realize working together is as easy as every pre-school cartoon makes it out to be? Not in education. We want you to work together, help each other and learn 21st century skills of leadership, resourcefulness, and problem solving until you are tested on them. Then you will be asked to demonstrate understanding that can only be shown with No. 2 lead and tiny alphanumeric circles.

And believe me, I am not angry. I love teaching. I love children. I guess I'm just not a fan of education.

Tonight, I sat for a moment and taught myself a much more important lesson. Our super, Mr. Booker, visited us last week to discuss the pending hire of our new principal. Leaving us, he asked that we be proud. The notion would have taken me back because I don't generally care for people who rest on their laurels and like whistles, I never think it wise to toot your horn. However, Mr. Booker had a specific point that resonated well within our staff. Quite simply, we have a lot for which to be proud. In any measurable way, our school remains extraordinary. However you measure our growth and proficiency (if it must be standardized testing), we perform incredibly well. Mr. Booker's request was actually a demand that we pause not to rest on our laurels, but to reenergize over our successes- a water bottle tossed to the marathon runner halfway there.

Tonight, I sat in my little contemplative stare as I do each night, usually very late, and counted my blessings. I recounted the moment I met each of them and how different they looked than I had imagined when reading their names. I thought of our pride in each other when we DID ace the standardized test. I teared up thinking of the time I cried with one when he just couldn't get dividing fractions, another one when grandma died and another one just because words wouldn't quite do. I saw a mental replay of our Field Day box, us in our cool black tees, cheering each other on. I saw the wheels turning when we made those darn multiple towers all over the floor, when we analyzed Valley Forge documents, when we read Wonder and collectively hated Julian and when we presented our favorite books in our SMACKDown. I heard laughter, mostly at me, and I laughed a little to myself. I felt anger at bickering over nonsense, which was immediately replaced with joy when I could discount it as the arguing of close family and friends. I witnessed smiles from so many I can't name them here. I reread the notes asking me to be their teacher again and then my response back to the writers, that whisper I mouthed to the front row when she asked the fifth time because I stink at keeping secrets. I filled myself with the gratitude of my parents who have become friends and mine for them for being there for me as well. I remembered all the elements of who WE are...chorus, baseball games, soccer teams, cheerleading competitions, dancers, Minecraft players, dirt bikes, hunting, fishing, Jordans vs. Lebrons, nicknames, braggarts, jokesters, "Not Us," stolen walkie talkies, boas, crowns, and fart jokes. But most, I felt pride...pride that the 33 people that have comprised US over the last two school years are better for it. I felt pride that our little class and our little community have raised over $10,000 in order for children around the world to have an education. I felt pride that we truly know that we influence others and we started with each other.

Then I felt like none of that shows while drawing tiny circles, but I told myself to end on a high note. ;)

WE ARE THE CHANGE!

The Challenge...

noreply@blogger.com (Kyle Wood) — Sun, 12 Jan 2014 02:22:00 +0000

In the last couple of years despite my best intentions, I have been a very poor steward of blogging. This particular blog is one of a number I have started and while I blog more frequently on my private blog, this address has been left blank for some time now.

A few days ago, one of my favorite "we'll do lunch" people, Tammy Mims (with whom I've never eaten lunch..we really have got to do that) issued a challenge. I will admit, that at first, I thought this challenge might move me dangerously close to those infamous Facebook posts listing randoms likes and dislikes about myself before passing it on to unsuspecting, uncaring recipients. But, I knew better of the source.:) After reading her response and Bianca Yavelak's response to the challenge, I understood the point.

I think.

Sometimes, for me, blogging can be terribly intimidating. I don't always feel like whatever I have to say is innovative, revolutionary, or relevant. Even with all of my blogs over the years, I have found it difficult to discern if what I am posting should go on my personal blog, my professional blog, or my "work" blog at the time. If it is on my "work" blog, which might be my professional one, should I watch what I say? curb an opinion, that to me seems innocent enough, but might be construed like any poorly worded email? I am still not sure.

So I believe the point of this challenge is to just go for it, to become comfortable in it, and since this is circulating through a network of people from work that I trust, I am sure the ultimate goal is to integrate or reintegrate into a PLN through that enjoyment and relationship with each other.

11 Random Facts About Myself

I love, love, love writing. I started writing stories when I was very young and began turning in self-assigned writing assignments to my favorite English teacher during high school. Back then, I wrote free verse, short stories, and even children's books. I have a couple of serious TV series ideas in my noggin and the working parts of a series titled Eden. One day, I will finish what I have started, but right now, I have a massive notebook of characters, plots, ideas, sketches, and charts where I have planned years a fictitious lives since like middle school.
Having been a history major, I am incredibly proud of my heritage. Most of my background arises from whitebread American WASP roots, but I have a tiny percentage of Cherokee in my makeup with some interesting history. (Funny story, my son Kieran is registered at school as multi-racial...no one blinked...well, he is.)
I have an obsession with music. I actually worked as the "punk guy" at Manifest Discs and Tapes in Charlotte. If you are local and haven't visited, you should check it out. It is an independent record store inside an old Winn Dixie. It is awesome. Anyway, I own a lot of music and have only ever bought one song on iTunes. It still just doesn't sit right with me for some reason. Most people would be surprised to see my wall of music including punk rock, rap, indie hip hop, indie rock, electronica, rock 'n' roll, and pop.
I am really into super heroes. When I was younger, I collected comic books along with baseball cards and the typical tween items. I have always been fascinated by heroes and the whole notion of anyone fighting for the greater good whether it's historical figures, super heroes, or great cinema, that just resonates with me. My topic of choice would be the X-Men from Marvel, but as an adult Valiant Entertainment has awesome books and the Avengers movies are far better than the X-Men films. (I share Bianca's obsession with Whedon spinoffs too, watching or owning much of Buffy, Angel and Firefly.)
I was actually September's "Impossible One" for the organization Pencils of Promise. Two years ago, I set 5 goals for the next year. One of those was to either become gainfully employed in a social conscious industry or do more charitable work on the side. I did a bit of both by going back to teaching and taking charitable work into the classroom. My kids and I with support of our school and community have now raised $5500 for the charity over the course of two drives lasting less than a month combined. We are thrilled with our impact globally with the charity who builds schools in 3rd world countries.
I am the youngest of 4 brothers who are all 12-16 years older than me. Growing up I was both the youngest and an only child as my brothers were headed to or out of college by the time I entered kindergarten. My most cherished item is a string of blue and white beads stamped "WOOD." They were tied around my older brother's wrist at his birth. He passed away at age 4 and before I was born. I see the impact of that event on many conversations and emotions in my family today, though I cannot completely comprehend it.
I have actually blogged for going on 9 years. My initial blog held personal writing including humor, poetry and daily musings. I still write on it to this day though I do so privately. While writing it is cathartic, much of it is much too personal. I really enjoy having people I know read it because I am proud of some of the work there in free verse and stream of consciousness, but since it is so unplanned, it can be deeply personal.
My favorite thing to do is to spend the day with my oldest son, Kieran, and I cannot wait for Aidan to truly participate in more with us. We can do anything, but the conversations we have are priceless.
Religions of the world fascinate me. I get a lot of questions about a couple of mala bracelets that I wear that are traditionally Buddhist prayer beads. I am not Buddhist, but I enjoy reading and studying that philosophy along with many others.
I really hate water and I cannot swim. When I was little, I had a horrible scare in the water and was pulled out by my cousin and some friends. Every since then, I haven't wanted any part of it. At this point, I am not afraid to be in water, but it is so foreign to me that I have no interest in it at all.
I have boycotted Wal-Mart for over a dozen years. I'm no activist, but I do like to purchase products at retailers with whose business practices and charitable contributions I align.

My Answers to Tammy's 11 Questions...

1. What are three words that describe you best? Why?

Humorous, Genuine, Unsettled...I have a hard time being serious all of time. My way of dealing with stress or negativity is by making light of it. However, I am genuine. I am myself in any environment, whether in front of students or friends, everyone sees the same person. I am incredibly unsettled. I want things to change all the time, sometimes to their benefit and sometimes out of boredom. This frustrates even my closest friends, but I firmly follow Emerson's "unsettle all things."

2. If you were granted one wish, what would your wish be and why?

I just hope that Kieran and Aidan grow into happy young men. My biggest success or failure will be my role as father, guide, and friend in their lives.

3. Your TV will only play one show. What show is it and why this show?

I watch a lot of late night television because I have a really hard time winding down after being "up" all day. I would probably watch Sportscenter. I watch HGTV and Bravo shows a lot along with a handful of sitcoms, but I have watched Sportscenter on loop.

4. What is your favorite movie of all time?

I like a lot of movies, but the Fountain is probably my favorite. I prefer movies that make me think about life an hour or a year later. I enjoy going to the Manor in Charlotte, close by, that shows only 2 movies at a time that usually aren't at the local theater.

5. If you could go back in time, what "time" would you go to and why?

Sheesh. I would like to meet my brother Eric, even if he has to be 4 according to the rules of "time travel" and I would like to hang out with an acquaintance, Micheal Larsen, who passed away a couple of years ago.

6. What do you plan to do when you retire?

Technically, I can retire from teaching when I am 50. If I do, I would like to remain in the education industry in some way because I love to be around kids. Ideally, I would take on a role in a charitable organization in which I could foster interest in youths to help their world in some way.

I would also really love to work in a music store again.

7. Do you have a personal philosophy? If so, what is it?

I'm not sure that I could distill all I believe and adhere to a personal mantra. My class and I have really identified with Ghandi's "Be the Change..." quote and have shirts labeled "I am the change." Those mean a great deal to me.

Kieran and I (and we will pass it along to Aidan soon) have three rules that we go through frequently.

In everything you do, do it like no one has ever even tried.
Think of others first, especially when it is hard.
Follow your heart, no matter who tells you to do any differently.

8. What is your "safe place"?

I guess I would have to say Kieran's room. I often don't even sleep in my bedroom, so that doesn't apply to me. I love our time together in his floor talking about whatever comes up. I never sleep in his room, but I am so comfortable with him that I would have to feel safest there.

9. You have an empty refrigerator and an empty pantry. You have $10. What do you do?

Oh my gosh....I would probably run to Bojangles, haha. It's close and I like chicken tenders.

10. What is the last thing you do before you go to sleep each night?

It is boring, but I check my personal and work email. Whether it is 11PM or 2AM, I respond to all of my emails before the morning in nearly all cases.

11. What is your most favorite app / technology? Why?

I have an unnatural Twitter addiction, but if I can bundle the Google Apps, that would definitely be it.

I Challenge...
Dawn Wood
Rebecca Wilson
Amanda Morgan/Hunt
Jessica Ellison
Leslie Noggle
Amber Polk
Leah Allen
Todd Goff
Vince Bank
Benjy Howe
Adam Fletcher

My Questions for those Accepting the Challenge...

Of your current interests or hobbies, which could you trace back farthest in your past? Explain.
You are in a convenient store. Describe your most likely meal for the next leg of your 10 hour drive.
If you had one sentence to describe your personal philosophy what would it be?
You get to read one more book, hear one more song (or album), eat one more meal, and hug one more person. What/who are they?
What qualities made your favorite teacher so great?
What is the most embarassing fashion trend in which you have participated?
You have become a billionaire rap mogul and have to assemble a "crew" because all of the other billionaire rap moguls have one. (These people don't rap; they just go with you everywhere.) Who are your first five picks and why?
If you became independently wealthy, what cause would you choose to support most? Why?
Two movies are made about you. Who plays you in the comedy? in the drama?
What is the coolest place you have ever visited? Why?
What is your favorite word? (Thank you, Lisa Montgomery and James Lipton.)

The Guidelines of Your Challenge:
1. Acknowledge the nominating blogger.
2. Share 11 random facts about yourself.
3. Answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you.
4. List 11 bloggers, excluding the blogger who nominated you.
5. Post 11 questions for the bloggers you have listed to answer.
6. Let the bloggers know you have nominated them.
7. Post back here in the comment section a link to your post.