Kids Are Like Honeybadger, They Just Don't Care

 It's true. Kids don't care. They don't care about Common Core. They don't care about PARCC. They don't care about OTES, or FIP, or MOAs, or Value-Added. They don't care about AYP, IEPs, or RTI.

And they shouldn't care about those things. Those things should be "invisible" to our students. Our stress should not be their stress. They are too busy to care or understand about those things anyway.

They are more concerned if their bff is waiting for them when they get off of the bus so they can hold hands as they go through the door to start the day. Too busy looking forward to Wednesday because that's Pop-Tart day in the breakfast line. Too busy literally skipping down the hallway on the way to the tech lab because "it's like the coolest place ever." Too busy giving a hug to the teacher waiting for them at the door every morning. Too busy drawing a picture for the "best principal in the whole wide world." Just too busy living and learning everyday.

We as educators get so focused on what we think we need to teach our students, that we sometimes forget we can learn a lesson from them. Before school is out this year, and when I am sure no one is looking and the hallway is empty,  maybe I will skip from one end to the other just to see what it feels like again to be a "kid that doesn't care."

Don't be a Schultz...

  I don't think Schultz was a reader. Maybe his mother didn't read to him very often when he was a little boy, or maybe his teachers didn't use best practice. I say that because he didn't seem to know much about the The War, or England, or Hitler, or the Jews, or even the covert operations of his own Stalag 13. And he worked and lived there everyday! He just existed.

    My mom was an avid reader. We always had a ton of books in the house. We lived in the country, but could order books from the local library and they would mail them to us for free. I couldn't wait to open those bulky brown envelopes every couple of weeks. Other than in first grade with "See Sally? See Sally run? Run, Sally, run" repetition, I don't really remember being taught HOW to read, I just did. I know that method probably didn't work for everyone, but fortunately, it worked for me. In second grade, I remember winning a reading contest that my teacher, Ms. Hill, announced right before Easter break. She must have been integrating science at the same time because the goal was to read books and move from one planet in the solar system to the next, starting from the Sun and ending at Pluto. I learned about the nine planets at the same time I was devouring books. I read everything I could get my hands on, at anytime of the day or night. My motivation and treasured prize for landing on Pluto first? One of those awesome blow up balloons shaped like a rabbit with cardboard feet! (insert your own dorky comment here)
     Now,  I still occasionally read for enjoyment, usually later in the evenings. I tend to stash picture rich history books near my couch that have been salvaged from my mother's cluttered attic, or a good science fiction book that I read years ago.  Lately though, it seems that my reading time has taken a drastic turn.
    To keep from becoming a Schultz in the world of education, I now zealously read twitter feeds and blog subscriptions whenever I can, literally hundreds of them. Collected and tag sorted into my Diigo library and fed into Google Reader, I find myself consorting with people I will most likely never meet in person. People from a variety of backgrounds and expertise, located practically everywhere on the planet, are helping me to think and grow every time I log on.
     I have slowly become a single thread on a giant internet spider web of connected educators who share similar experiences, problems, questions, and issues. ("Welcome to my parlor, said the spider to the fly" comes to mind)

Collectively, we move forward. Alone, we are just another Schultz.

For a glimpse at the top 100 educational blogs that can help you from being a Schultz>>

https://www.google.com/reader/bundle/user%2F03613507553759664083%2Fbundle%2FTop%20100%20EduBlogs

When you get there, hit the blue +subscribe if you wish to add all of them to your reader. Otherwise, pick and choose from the bundle.

Yeh, we can do that.....

 Picture this, a typical day:

Principal slash science fair judge walks into a 6th grade classroom at 11:00 to investigate a bus report. But instead, Teacher asks principal/judge to take a student next door to do a mock practice interview for a soon to come science fair day. Principal is so excited to do science that he temporarily forgets why he was there.  Said principal/judge takes student next door to do so. Student receives good experience and advice. Student and judge return to class. Principal/judge realizes there are now 25 more students gazing at him with a questioning look because they could all benefit from the same experience. Hmmmm, principal/judge opens mouth before thinking. "Hey, I have an idea. We could use a teacher's iPad to record an interview and then show it to all of the remaining students!"  Teacher is excited. Kids are excited. 12:30 principal takes same student and grabs student's friend at the same time. Borrows iPad from a different teacher and heads to another room to re-create the experience, this time with the iPad recording. Hmmm, how DO you get the video from the iPad to be able to present it???  Principal begins to realize this may be a bigger project than intended and kicks himself because he has lots of things waiting on his desk. But remembers, "people are more important than papers."

1:00 Finish bus report investigating and return to office. Crosses fingers and hits the "Publish" button on the borrowed iPad to send it to the principal/judge's YouTube account (which is blocked at school), but it somehow still uploads to the site because Apple is sometimes magic and no one will understand how that really works. Use a "secret" browser on said principal's iPad to navigate to the YouTube site to check and see if it published. It is.  Making progress.  Copy the link and email it to myself so I can open it up on a desktop pc. Try to convert it to mp4 file using keepvid.com , but can't because site is blocked. Go do a couple of walk throughs and realize it is getting late and you need to return the teacher's iPad, but your project isn't complete.

2:00 Desperately track down the district tech coach via a Google hangout (which can find people practically anywhere in the world if they answer).  Beg her to receive the email with copied link and have her use keepvid. com to convert it to an .mp4 file. Watch her open it up, and try. It works! Then, have her put it in a google doc and share it back to me. Navigate to google docs, take the new mp4 file and link it on the school wiki to be readily available for the teacher's science classes tomorrow. Whew...that should work!

Then, get new idea...

2:30 Call tech coach back on another hangout and ask her if in her "spare time" in the evening after she gets home, to re-download the file back onto the one iPad in the district that probably has iMovie installed, add effects and movie trailer stuff to it to impress everyone and make the student actors feel good about themselves. Then upload it back up to me.

Then, get another idea!  Have tech coach also link it to the teacher's school website so students can also view it at home later.  She agrees! (remember to buy a thank-you bribe from Tim Horton's)

4:30 principal/judge finishes up bus report investigations, conferences with a teacher who is stressing the OAA, writes this blog (because it meets his IPDP goals), and heads for home.

Yeh, we can do that!

http://goo.gl/RhlCW science fair video

http://goo.gl/bYW3o  movie trailer

Will the "real world" please stand up?

  Have you ever heard phrases like these thrown around?: 

"When these kids get to the real world, they're going to need to work on projects, with real deadlines, and no one is going to give them a second chance like we do." 
Really? Their employer will give them meaningless projects to complete? with unrealistic deadlines? and limited resources to work with? not schedule common hours for them to work with other employees? give them multiple projects to do at the same time? and then fire them because they weren't successful or late? Really? Employers can afford to hire and re-hire numerous employees? Really?

"If teachers worked in the real world, they would appreciate things more."
Really? You think I drive slower to work than I do going home? You think I don't work more hours every week than what I am contracted and paid for? You believe I am not thankful to be surrounded by small miracles every day? You think I don't make a difference? Really?

Where IS this "real world" we all proclaim to be so concerned with? Where is this "real world "we are preparing our students to be successful in?  What DOES the "real world" look like?

I'll let you in on a secret. The "real world?" It's on the corner of 199 State Street.

May we all strive to ensure the learning experiences at our school, and in our district, will always be the "real world" for our students.

"Tech My School" in 3 easy steps

  Some fellow educators have inquired of me and want to know about how our school uses iPads and other mobile devices and how we have "arrived". In brief, I would describe it this way:
     Step 1, Cross your fingers and sign a purchase order: 2 1/2 years ago I unwittingly made an administrative decision  to purchase two iPads for my school. I didn't know of any other local schools using them but I was intrigued by the possibilities my building tech leader was beginning to rant about more and more often. It turned out to be a lot bigger decision than I could have imagined at the time. I eventually signed myself and my begging, pleading tech leader up for an iPad training class, which included the iPad in the registration fee. At the time, I shuddered at the cost of such expensive training, but the budget allowed for it and in the second half of our school year, we traveled to Columbus. Not knowing what we were really in for, we began with one iPad for my tech leader to explore their potential in a 4th grade language arts inclusion classroom, and one for myself to see if it had any value to improving productivity of a building principal who valued the use of technology.
      Honestly, I was lukewarm with the classroom potential and I was doubting if it was going to be of any benefit at all for me as a school principal. (Especially, since a desktop PC and Windows software grounded me in my office most of the time.) But, by chance or perhaps fate, the iPad purchase decision happened to coincide at a time when I had begun using my android smartphone more effectively for school work, and I had begun to learn and use something new to me, known as cloud computing via Google docs. Long story short, it didn't take us long to realize what the power of tablets, apps, and cloud computing had on students, staff, and yes, even my administrative tasks. I had drunk the Kool-Aid and there was no going back.
   Step 2, Have Christmas in July: Now that we were convinced and excited about the use of these new devices, we wanted to expand it by putting more of these devices in the hands of our staff and students. With a combination of local AEP vision grants and federal Title funds, I purchased enough iPads for all of my grade level teachers and intervention specialists. This time, I was not lacking in confidence of the decision and was excited for my staff to be "early adopters" and to experience some of the productivity curve I was experiencing. With a crazy plan, I invited all of my staff to a training in the middle of the summer. "Come to the training, receive an iPad."  Everyone attended the week after the 4th of July. I realize everyone has a different learning curve, but I rarely see a staff member in the building today without their iPad close by. (It is not my purpose to expound in this blog on all of the ways staff and students are currently using them as that would fill too many pages. I would encourage you to follow their own blog posts or google+ pages for that.)
   Step 3,  write a grant, receive $10,000 from eTech: We added several more iPads to the 4th grade inclusion classroom and I am exploring the potential of a chromebook at the same time thanks to winning a grant. The projects and learning scenarios have been more than satisfactory this year because of it. Combined with a proliferation of students bringing their own iPads and tablets, our school is experiencing a mini explosion of devices. Our tech director has scrambled to keep the wi-fi infrastructure up to par and we have survived the "bumps in the road." The challenge now is to continue to increase number of devices throughout all grade levels and provide professional development to staff so they can continue to exploit student learning styles and to stay one step ahead of the next wave of tech.
What's next? First, I need to help and support our sister schools as they begin traveling the same paths that we have traveled these past couple of years. Second, I see step 4 for us involving several iPads in a classroom, connected with AppleTV devices to whiteboards or large screen televisions, and probably more chromebooks in classrooms.
    It's an exciting time, but with our school district in deficit spending now, it looks like I had better start looking for the next big grant....   Keep calm, carry on!
   

Is it you?

    Have you ever noticed how things that are new to you seem to be mysterious and sometimes even scary to begin using? But then you become more familiar with it. You use it more often.  Eventually, you start "living" it. And then you wake up one day and suddenly realize you have a whole new perspective on what it really is and what you can do with it and maybe even think you can't live without it now. This is how my journey down the road of technology in school and office seems to me. The newest things (at least new to me) never cease to amaze me. Who are these people that develop this stuff and continue to wow us? Are they young, old, boy, girl, alien? Are they US citizens, Asian, other? Are they OUR students? Will they be our students when they get older? CAN they be our students? I hope so! I want to help our students think beyond merely accessing and using technology to play their games, listen to their music, type on their documents, but have a real part in developing and distributing it to help mundane people like myself do my job and have fun doing it. I don't know for sure, but I bet they make some pretty good money at it, too. Here's to the next generation! May you be patient with us.

my first glog, simple but useful>>   Learning Target Glog

Tech+School=Cheese?

  I read a blog today about the top 3 things for 2013 that will impact education. Good article and the last sentence speaks volumes:

"Predictions are always dicey, of course. But no matter what 2013 may bring, one thing is certain: education’s reputation as a sleepy, slow-to-change sector of society is gone. Keep your eyes on education and learning over the coming year, because a lot of exciting and disruptive change is on its way."

The "disruptive" word makes me remember reading a book a few years ago with staff "Who Moved My Cheese?." 

http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/01/here-comes-2013-the-big-themes-in-learning/

Clogs, Glogs, and Blogs...

  I made the mistake of letting my self-proclaimed geeky friend facilitate a training for my staff today. She has a habit of using and modeling the newest technology gadgets or applications in the education world. I guess she is doing just what I asked, "walk the talk and use what you sell" kind of thing. Today, she used glogster to present her topic of internet safety curriculum for our students. I have seen blogs and articles about glogster before, but like so many times, it has been "click, skim read, click and move on." But, today when I saw her glogster page/poster with a video, pictures, wordle info graphic and so on, it really struck me how visually powerful it was and the implications it had for me as a facilitator during professional development and also for teachers in the classroom. So.....of course I had to experiment and make one of my own. I see blogging and glogging becoming a way of doing business in my little corner of the street. Now, can anyone teach me clogging?

I sent the note, didn't you get it?

Earlier this week I began a new one-way messaging system with my parents and staff. I used an app called Remind101. It was so caveman easy!  Quickly made two groups, sent an email out to the people who would benefit from text AND/OR email alerts from me (school) and sat back and watched people sign up. Now, from any device (my android phone, my iPad, any internet computer) I can quickly send out an alert or reminder and let everyone remain anonymous. In a classroom setting, I could quickly send classroom reminders to my parents about a project due or praise for displaying great classroom manners. No more, "I sent the note home in your child's backpack, didn't you get it?"

a website to learn more>> Notes Home

Back flip or front flip?

  I was reading another article about "flipping" the classroom. This statement jumped out at me.

"If we can now have the capacity to have content delivery happen at different periods of time … it's silly to have students sit and watch in class" and then do the hard work at home, Reich said.

Flipped classroom news article