Finding My Passion

Since late October I have not really enjoyed going to work.  It was a chore and I did my duty, looking forward to my exit time at the end of the day.  I realized yesterday why this has happened.  It has been about the "stuff" lately and not about the learning or the people.   This was a necessary evil as it was my campuses time to get new computers.  New computers are a blessing and a curse, but for me it took my attention away from what I love about my job.  So now with winter break approaching I am desperate to find something to hold onto to take me through the long spring semester.    I stumbled upon a pin on pinterest about a "Genius Hour" that a 5th grade teacher was implementing.  I was fascinated.   I want my kids in this classroom.  But more importantly I want to be this kind of teacher!

I started searching for more information about Genius Hour to see what I could find.  I found http://www.geniushour.com/ run by Chris Kessler (@iamkesler) and started reading.  I am hooked.  I am not sure how to implement this strategy as an Instructional Technology Specialist, since I don't teach in a classroom.  I also think those I work with are overwhelmed, but maybe they are not. Maybe they need a fresh take as I do.  It doesn't hurt to ask, and I plan on asking after the Christmas break.

I began asking myself, what would be my passion project?  What would I investigate?  That is when I think about the last few months on the job and the focus on the "stuff."   I want to investigate how to get away from the stuff and focus on the learning and the people.  To start on this journey I purchased one of the books suggested on the Genius Hour website - "Teach Like A Pirate" by Dave Burgess.  Okay - so I first looked at the book because I liked the title and my college mascot is a pirate, so it spoke to me.  Turns out Pirate stands for traits in a good teacher.  P is for Passion.  Passion can come from the 1)Content, 2)Profession and 3)Personal.

I got stuck trying to answer the question "What is it about being an educator that drive you?"  This should be an easy question, but it wasn't.  I could not pinpoint what it was that I enjoyed about my profession, especially the technology side of things.  I was having fun in the classroom when I took this position 13 years ago.  Why did I take it?  Why did I leave?

• I took it because I wanted to help teachers reach students in new ways.
• I liked helping teachers make sense of how technology could fit into their classrooms.
• I wanted to impact more students that I could in my own classroom.

I did not take it because I love laptops, tablets, desktops, chromebooks, android, google, apple, windows, office, web 2.0, or any of the other "stuff" out there.    This answer has been freeing to me.  I am looking forward to learning more about how this is going to look in the coming semester and the impact it will make.

I also am contemplating the future of this blog.  So far it has been about how to work the tools, but I really want to focus on the learning that happens with the tools.  I have tried to jumpstart the blog for the past year or so without success. Does it need a new name?  Has it served it's purpose and it's time to move on?  We shall see.   For now I am going to use it to journal my thoughts  and ah-ha moments as I move through the book and through my own search to find my passion in my chosen profession.

Technology Inspired Lesson Ideas

I usually look at technology as being the engagement piece of the classroom.   These lessons do not take technology to implement into the classroom, but they use technology themes to engage the students:

Table Texting:
An interactive strategy to use with any topic or text. Pose a question to the class, or have them construct a question about the topic/text. Then pass the paper around and have other respond to the question as if in a text message. Directions and the handout are available here.

Exit Ticket: Tweets
Twitter is very popular these days and can be a good way to check for understanding of the day's lesson. Have students fill in their tweet slip and turn it in on the way out the door. These can be hung up on walls/bulletin boards to show the learning taking place in your classroom.
Tweets about Today's Lesson

Cell Phones from the Past
What if a historical character, a character from a novel, or a concept/element had a cell phone? what would be on it? What apps would they use, who would they text, who would be calling them? Have students fill out this handout with that information as they think through the cell phone owner in a different way.
Cell Phones from the Past

My First Flipped Professional Development ~ Reflections

Last week I was able to deliver the face to face portion of the Flipped PD session I had been planning. I asked the teachers to log into the district moodle site and join my PD class. Once enrolled they were to watch a 5 minute video on what an Infographic is and tips on designing one. At the end of the video there were 3 pieces of information to fill out in an embedded Google Form. These three questions were based on what I had learned at TCEA from the Three Tech Ninjas - WSQ.

• Where did you watch the video?


• Summarize what you learned?


• Ask a Question that you have or that someone else might have?

Of the fourteen teachers that were to attend all but three logged in to moodle and answered the questions.  Those 3 teachers were male teachers, not sure if that is relevant, but I found it interesting.  :)    The summaries and questions were good to see ahead of time and let me know what concerns the teachers were walking in the door with and I was able to prepare to address those concerns at the beginning of our session.

When it was time to meet face to face I had prepared example assignments of how a teacher might assign an inforgraphic creation to students.  I included the data they would need to create the final product  so that we could get to the heart of making an infographic with PowerPoint   I tried to make the assignments and data relevant to their current or upcoming units of study and based on a PBL approach more than a straight forward assignment.   I wanted to try to model best practices all around as much as possible.  I also had prepared a handout that covered the basics of how we were going to use PowerPoint and the tools that would be most useful in this assignment.   I made sure to focus on things that were new or different than the normal use of PowerPoint so that I did honor there time with me.

I began by thanking them  for watching the video ahead of time and answering some of their questions they had asked.  I also told them we would now get started with creating their own infographic and I would not be talking about what an infographic was since they had already learned that.   I wanted to re-emphasize that the time they had already invested was worth it and I would be honoring that.

Overall they had positive things to say and were excited to walk away with something practical they could use.  They also appreciated all the hands on time and got a good feel of what would be involved in making an assignment like this for their students.  The biggest confirmation that this was time well spent is that the 8th grade teachers are assigning an infographic to their students for after Spring Break.  Looking forward to seeing this strategy played out in the classroom!  I also look forward to trying out the Flipped PD model again in the future.

 

Infographics

I was inspired at TCEA to start exploring a model of Flipped Professional Development.   After a week of toying with the idea I decided it was time to actually work design and complete a flipped training to get my feet wet.  I've learned a lot so far and I am only in the beginning stages.

Here are my take-aways so far:

1. It is a lot of upfront work!   


2. Have a good outline of what you want to cover and then create your presentation.  I started with the presentation and had to scrap it as I needed to get a better focus on the outcomes of the session.


3. Determine the best format to present the information.   What needs to be video, what needs to be written and what should be done face to face.


4. Choose a presentation tool to fit your audience.   I chose Prezi for this training because it allowed me to zoom in on the images so I could point out the details.   I thought using powerpoint would be too flat for a video and would lose their interest for this.  Also - I haven't played with it in a long time and wanted some practice.


5. Make sure you are having a good hair day if you are going to include a webcam shot of you during the presentation.  Vain I know, but this video will be around for a long time.


6. It takes a lot of work!   I know I am repeating myself, but I have spent hours on a simple presentation becuase my hope is to create something that I can use again and again with different groups.  That makes the time investment worth it.

I am going to set up the video in our district's moodle and will incorporate an embedded google form to ask questions after the video.  I am choosing google forms to demonstrate how the teachers can use them on their own websites when they are intimidated by moodle.

Here is my Prezi that I will be narrating and recording with Camtasia Studio.   The topic of the training will focus on creating Infographics in the social studies classroom using tools they are familiar with, more specifically Powerpoint.

Gmail - Undo Send

Have you ever sent and email and then thought “I forgot something!” or “Who did I send that to?”Well - now you can have up to 30 seconds to pull the email back and make those last minutes corrections.

 

In your inbox, click on the cog/wheel and choose "Settings" from the drop-down.

Click on the "Labs" tab from the top menu.

From the list of labs, scroll to the "Undo Send" lab.

Click the radio button to "Enable" this lab.

Be sure to click "Save Changes" at the bottom of the page.

Now under the General Settings tab you can set the amount of time available to undo the sending of the email. Choices range from 5 to 30 seconds.

When you send an email a pop-up will show on the top of the gmail page that will allow you to “undo” the sending of the email.

 

Clicking “Undo” will stop the email from being sent and allow for any changes that need to be made.

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