Badges: Learn and Earn

 Unfortunately, when I was a boy, I never took the opportunity to join the boy scouts and I secretly envied all of the neat badges my friends earned and displayed on their shirts. If I were still in the classroom, I am pretty sure modern day badges would have a place in my classroom. I think they provide just the right amount of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Badges in school today are a way to recognize students' and teachers' informal learning.
Badge resource: http://www.emergingedtech.com/2013/06/the-evolving-use-of-badges-in-education/
   
     The Ohio Appalachian Collaborative has begun to digitally recognize educators by providing them a pathway to earning and learning. Educators can earn a "tweet badge" and a "share badge" and earn CEUs along the way. If your school is a member of the OAC, you can find out more here>http://portal.battelleforkids.org/OAC/blog

     I am thinking of hanging a poster size board outside of teachers' classrooms next year and then printing off large sticker "badges" to attach to for recognition as they pursue informal learning opportunities.

     Does your school principal or teachers promote and recognize "learning and earning?" If so, I would love to hear about it in the comment section!

   

Would you apply for your own job each year if you had to?

       A couple times a year, Ohio University-Zanesville hosts a mock interview session for their graduating education major interns. The program directors invite local school principals to the University, after school hours, to conduct thirty-minute interviews. Interns submit their resume's ahead of time and a feedback evaluation form is provided at the conclusion of the interview. Each intern gets a chance to practice three or four times. Afterwards, interns and principals are treated to a dinner which includes an informal question and answer session where interns have the opportunity to ask the things that are important to them as they search for their first assignment.
     I always enjoy meeting and talking to the interns as it helps me to keep things in perspective. I am always reminded of the many different experiences they are being exposed to as they complete their field work. Some of them may have just a glimpse of a certain educational topic while another may have a very deep understanding, depending on the grade level and topic of their cooperating teacher. It sometimes becomes apparent that not all intern placements are equal. Some schools are in different places with state initiatives, and some are committed to doing their own local thing.
    I always try to accommodate an intern placement in our building when I can, but it is not always an easy thing to do. Teachers are accountable for the growth of every child they come into contact with and it is a daunting task. I am encouraged though with the trend of some universities to move from the traditional student teaching placement experience to the "start teaching on your first day" co-teacher internship type model. I have heard it said that new teachers will be able to say to perspective employers "this is what I did in my classroom during my training" instead of saying "this is what I would do in a classroom."

    Almost every intern I talked to would most likely accept any offer proffered from any of the local schools without giving much thought about whether their new "family" would fit in with what they believe or were trained to do. They will count on their enthusiasm and freshness to make up for their lack of experiences.

    For the new interns, I recommend reading this short article found on the Connected Principals blog site to get an insight on what you may be getting into.
For my own staff, I sent this same article because I am curious: If THEY had to re-apply every year for their own job, would they do it?

http://connectedprincipals.com/archives/10406

Making Minutes Count

The following tweet gave me the inspiration for this post:

Jamie Wright @misswright06

you know you work in an awesome district when you have your post-conference via google hangouts. #rvlsd

Teacher evaluations take time. Lots and lots of time. Complaining about it doesn't help. Working harder doesn't help. Working longer and harder leads to even more complaining.

I have been out of the building this year more than at any other time in 17 years of education. I suppose it really can't be helped. So many initiatives are going on that mandate you attend meetings. So much is happening in curriculum and instruction that you need to attend workshops and trainings or risk being left in the dark on important educational topics that will have a big impact on students and staff.

By necessity I have been using every minute I can grab just to keep my head above water. For example, I had just finished an evaluation rubric of a teacher and when I recently went to work extra early I happened to find that teacher had also come into work extra early. He agreed to meet with me then and there and I was able to gain a valuable time slot in my busy calendar. Lesson learned? Don't be afraid to ask teachers to meet with you outside of contract time. They may be just as appreciative as you and it shows everyone just how much we value the coaching process.

I double dip. When in a classroom that uses a co-teacher, I observe and take walk-through notes on both of them.

I also have staff members who are very comfortable using technology and web2.0 tools. Sometimes when I revert to "the old ways" they will chide me and question my sanity. Having just completed an evaluation rubric on a Sunday afternoon, I took the chance of conducting a post-conference via Google hangout. A quick text to the teacher confirmed she was more than willing to do so. I scanned all of the evidence and documents she would need on her end and scheduled the hangout shortly after. Once we connected, we did a quick video and audio check and then followed the exact same procedures as if she were sitting right next to me. Lesson learned? Don't be afraid to think outside the box because someone may already be out there needing someone to collaborate with.

As a side note, the teacher thought the experience would have been "neat" if other teachers could sit in on a conference and learn from the dialogue. This tells me that this was a great coaching conference and less evaluative. NLHS principal Bobby Dodd blogs about a similar topic here.

 As my teacher was thinking that, I was thinking that it would be neat to have other administrators, especially new ones, join in the hangout to also learn from the exchange.

Everyone gets the same 60 minutes in an hour. How are you using yours?