My blog posts are too long. There are many things I do wrong. Maybe you mess up too.
But there is one thing I do right: I love my students. When they are in my classroom, I am WITH them.
Make a list today: what makes an incredible, life changing teacher? Post it on your desk and read it every day. do the list.
Be THAT teacher. You can change the world, one child at a time.
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10 Ways for Living Large in Lunch Duty Land
I admit that I dread lunch duty. But as I stood there talking to a student during my week to serve, it struck me just how important this monthly occurrence is to my personal effectiveness as a teacher and the overall well being of our school.
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| Photo Credit: Big Stock |
You may think it is silly to have thoughts and guidelines for doing a good job at lunch duty but I think you can tell a lot about the greatness of a teacher by how seriously you take this time to interact, supervise, and connect with the students. But I want to start with a word to administrators.
1 - Lunchtime is time for Administrators to show up
Eating together has been a time of fellowship and friendship since caveman ate mammoth over an open fire. The best administrators I've worked for let themselves be seen and interact with the students during this time. I'll see them laughing, talking, and asking questions of students about their lives or sometimes talking about a question that students have.
You may have an open door policy but when you go out during the times where students interact, you open the line of communication. Your presence is a physical deterrent and shows you care at the same time. You may or may not back up that teacher but if you're involved from the first moment, you'll always back up your own eyeballs. They know that.
2 - Find a place where you can see it all.
Where you stand is important. If there is a place you cannot see, that is where the problems will happen. Unfortunately, at our school, this place is at a pole on the corner of the building where the wind whips around like a tiny twister. I grab my jacket, leave a hairbrush in the bathroom and stand there. Otherwise, someone is unsupervised.
3 - Meet and Greet
I don't "butt in" to student groups that are doing just fine, but I do say hello by name to those student who walk past me, particularly those in ones and two's.
To understand the mind of a child who has been bullied, you have to have been one like me. When you're alone and feel like you have no friends, when someone calls your name in a kind way, it is like a drop of water on the tongue of a person dying of thirst.
You are not ominpotent and you don't know who the person is who is having a bad day. Teenagers have a secret world and there is the world they let us see in the classroom and the real world. Don't think for a second you have a finger on the pulse of their real world because you see what they want you to see. Be kind to everyone. Say "hi."
4 - Look at body language and speak with your location
You don't have to hear conversations to know what is happening. Good teachers are masterful readers of body language. If you see a kid with a head down leaning against a wall with arms crossed and several other kids gathered around him talking at him, it is time to move closer to see what is going on.
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| Big Stock |
5- Look for the daredevil doubletake
Kids always give a cutaway glance before they cut loose. I call it the daredevil doubletake. Watch for it next time!
Just before a child is about to do something he knows he shouldn't, he'll lift his head up and look both ways - usually his head will turn to the right and left and his eyes will scan the full periphery like he's about to cross a street. He's looking for you.
If you make sure this person knows you're watching, you can physically see him shrug his shoulders and change course and abandon the plan he just concocted. Moving closer into his line of sight and making eye contact will usually deter anything from happening and even if it does, you're closer to the action when it starts. They are assessing the damage that will happen to them and if it is worth it to go ahead. (This is why if an administrator is seen during the daredevil doubletake, it is usually enough to abandon the plan.)
6 - Move in before you butt in
Sometimes your read on body language is wrong so quietly move near where they are and start listening in before you butt in. Let them see you. Bullies are empowered by a crowd and a perceived lack of supervision.
7 - It is ok to butt in
You are a teacher. It is your business. It is your job to butt in and put your nose in business that is not yours. Get over it. You're not here to be popular, you are here to do the right thing.
The right thing is to defend the defenseless and to keep these kids safe. If that child were yours, what would you want an adult to do? Butt in and take care of business. Love the kids and defend those who have it rough. That is your job.
8- Never let "just kidding" negate what you just saw
Just kidding is the get out of jail free card for bullies and it works... most of the time.
Trust me, even if one is being bullied, that child will echo that they were both "just kidding" in the vain hope it will ingratiate him/her to the bully because the bully was just saved a trip to the principal's office.
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| Big Stock |
Last time I had this happen, I just said:
"I don't care that you say you were just kidding. What I just saw wasn't something you kid about. It was over the top and we're headed to Coach Ross' office so he can know that you two are completely out of line. Cut it out. You don't act that way at lunch."
I was bullied. If you believe for one second that a child was just kidding then you don't know kids or you were one of those who never was a target. If they really are just kidding, if that really happened, wouldn't you rather be wrong about that side of thing 1 out of 100 times or would you rather be wrong 99 out of 100? Just kidding doesn't cut it. Students do what they mean to do. Hold them accountable for what you see and for what they say.
9 - Take time to connect but stay vigilant
If that student stops and talks to you. Make eye contact as you continue to scan the area. You want to connect with students but you also want to know that students who really want to do something understand the subtle art of "distracting the guard." In Hogan's Heroes, when the prisoners wanted to escape, the first thing they did was distract the guard.
Some of you will not like the link to a prison guard and that is fine, but the point is that you have a supervisory duty here. If you can connect while you do that, then that is great. I've learned so much about the inner workings of kids who really needed it during these lunch conversations. During class I build knowledge but during lunch, I build relationships.
Usually, I'll only have one on one conversations and not be in large groups of students because it is too hard to watch everyone and have a group of 15 kids around me.
10 - Bring your whole self to lunch duty
I know you have a thousand things to do and if there is any big flaw with being a teacher, it is that we are never left alone. Ever. Well, hopefully when we go to the bathroom, but that is pretty much it. I've literally gone to the ladies room before just to take a breath, brush my teeth, and look in the mirror to see if my eyeballs were still in my head.
Why I will do my best at lunch duty even though no one notices
But as much as you have to do, lunch duty is important. It is one of those things that no one likes but you've got to adjust your attitude and do it. No one will give you a plaque at the end of the year for "best lunch duty teacher" and no one will even notice.
But the students will. I want the students to know that when I am there that they are safe. I want those who want to act up to know that they will be held accountable and they'd better not do it. I want build relationships with my students, make eye contact, and let them know I care.
My present to them will be my presence and I will be there.
Doing a good job at thankless tasks is what teachers do. We are noble and we care about the things that are important, not about the things that are flashy or showy or get us in the newspaper.
OK, gotta run go pack my coat. I have lunch duty today and I'm going to have a good attitude and see what blessings are in store.
Have a great day! Remember your noble calling, teacher.
I am teaching
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| Image via Wikipedia |
It isn't much but all I have is enough.
When I look at their bright faces,
part of me wishes I could be a personal one on one Socrates or Plato to each one...
pouring out everything I have but more importantly, helping them extract all of the greatness within.
Great teachers are always known by the great minds they inspire...
if I were only that great.
I doubt Plato had poofy hair that just wouldn't sit down and Socrates probably didn't have a hole in his sock.
The thing we have in common is that they showed up. Consistently and daily, they were there teaching.
And there is the difference.
There is a big difference between being called a teacher and teaching.
That is why some people are so mad about teachers. Some teachers aren't really teaching at all.
Teaching doesn't mean I'm in the middle of a quiet circle of cross legged agape children hanging on my every word.
Sometimes it means they are in the middle of a loud circle of conversation close to hanging on the rafters with excitement.
Many Don't Want Excitement
I don't subscribe to this new model of destroying the classroom and everything it has been because I think that great learning experiences have always been exciting. It is just that we've gotten to the point that many administrators and teachers don't want excitement. They don't want surprises. When surprises happen, they're afraid of ending up on the front page of yesterday's news.
Most educators would rather float quietly in the cess pool of monotony than surf the big waves of learning. Big learning can be scary and have a bit more excitement than you want.
We're supposed to have stoplights on our wall that show the sound level and that get to red when the kids get too loud.
The kids think it is fun to make the light move so they work together to get louder.
Instead it should be fun to learn our topic. Instead of gami-fying misbehavior and thus, making it attractive, we should be gamifying the learning process. Leveling up. Challenges that seem insurmountable. Personalizing learning in powerful ways.
Today, I will be a teacher who is teaching with all she has. I have a plan. I am ready. I am armed with arms that love and appreciate these kids.
I am teaching. Are you?
Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock #teaching 12/28/2011
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Improve Your Learning and Memory.: Your Kid May Be Smart. Just Don’t Tell Him So Too Often
Every kd isn't smart but every kid (and adult) needs a "growth mindset." Please read this article. "Research by Carol Dweck and colleagues at Stanford demonstrated that the students who are most likely to learn from their mistakes are those who don’t think of themselves as smart as such but smart enough to get smarter. They have a “growth mindset,” a belief system that they can get better if they will just invest the time and effort."
"In one of the group’s experiments, half of the students were repeatedly praised for “being smart,” and these students were not good at learning from mistakes. It is not clear why. Maybe they thought the problem was in the learning material, not in them. The other half of students were praised for effort and improvement and these students got better and made fewer mistakes. Several months later, all students repeated a standardized test, and the “smart” students’ scores dropped 20%, while the “growth mindset” students scored 30% higher." Praise students for effort not for being smart. bottom line. everyone is not a genius -
Ignoring What Works in Education, The Umbrella Man, and The Challenge of Framing
Prepare to be challenged as you read Ewan McIntosh's thought provokingnpost on formative assessment and why it is being ignored or misrepresented. i have some reading to do with the links he gives. this is one of those must reads for thought leaders.
Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 12/28/2011
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Fill Your New Kindle, iPad, iPhone with Free eBooks, Movies, Audio ...
Free free free learning. Cost: Your time. nice list of free ways to add ebooks, textbooks, courses, and language courses onto your ipad or Kindle.
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Improve Your Learning and Memory.: Your Kid May Be Smart. Just Don’t Tell Him So Too Often
Every kd isn't smart but every kid (and adult) needs a "growth mindset." Please read this article. "Research by Carol Dweck and colleagues at Stanford demonstrated that the students who are most likely to learn from their mistakes are those who don’t think of themselves as smart as such but smart enough to get smarter. They have a “growth mindset,” a belief system that they can get better if they will just invest the time and effort."
"In one of the group’s experiments, half of the students were repeatedly praised for “being smart,” and these students were not good at learning from mistakes. It is not clear why. Maybe they thought the problem was in the learning material, not in them. The other half of students were praised for effort and improvement and these students got better and made fewer mistakes. Several months later, all students repeated a standardized test, and the “smart” students’ scores dropped 20%, while the “growth mindset” students scored 30% higher." Praise students for effort not for being smart. bottom line. everyone is not a genius -
China’s Parallel Online Universe | The Diplomat
Social media with censorship. take a peek inside the Great Firewall of China. as the people connect "the party" keeps a firm grip on acceptable conversation, perhaps eliciting more control than ever by blocking conversations and the resulting connections that could happen.
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Pinterest: A Beginner's Guide to the Hot New Social Network
Beginner's guide to pinterest, the new social network that manynteachers are gaga over. from recipes to craft ideas and lesson plans, teachers are all over this site.
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Articles: A World without Schoolteachers
eBooks make it possible to eliminate teachers? the fact isnthat if kids could learn just bybreading,mtheynwould be learning in most schools. The ubiquity of books is a point but this article is an example of how it is easy to jump to incorrect conclusions, especially if you have never taught. I think that in a few years that schools and unions will reverse course and beg their teachers to blog. If you dont joinnthe conversation, the comversation moves on without you and goes to places you nor the world (once it sees the impact) do not wish to go. There are good points here. Never be afraid to read views different from your own. the fact remains that the barrier for homeschoolimg is getting less expensive by the day.
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Graphic Artists Guild Changes Mind: Withdraws SOPA Support | Techdirt
Graphic artists guild pulls support for SOPA. Now, I am wondering, where do educational organizations, ISTE for example, stand on SOPA? Has anyone bothered to ask?
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Google Will Release Their Own iPad 3 Competitor Within Six Months
Google releasing ipad 3 competing tablet in 6 months.
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How SOPA Would Kill Art & Creativity Online
SOPA and the impact on online art. if this is really the case, SOPA is looking worse all the time. It is time to use the old fashioned phne call and call our Congressmen and Senators. Time tomlet our voices be heard on this one. the fact is tha phone calls tend to carry more weight than email. As someone whonused to answer phones for a US Senator in DC, I know this to be true. Phone calls get attention because they tie up staff. i will call in the morning. will you?
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Ask Slashdot: Tools For Teaching High School Kids How To Make Games? - Slashdot
This 189+ question on Slashdot is a great example of how comments become the post. if you eant to teach game peogramming and want the pros and cons and lots of choices, head here for a great, though time consuming, read.
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Tinderizer - Sending articles to your Kindle, one click at a time!
If you have a Kindle fire or kindle and want to send articles, there are many ways to send articles there. Tinderizer is one of them. My favorite iPad RSS reader Mr. Reeder will send to Tinderizer ( and Diigo and Tumblr which is why I use it.)
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5 Tech Trends to Watch in 2012
Mashable's tech trends to watch. where i think they are wrong: the ultrabook. I think the ultrabook will sort of go the way of the netbook, all i hear are tablets and voice activation. I think emerging personal assistant technology will dommoremthan the ultrabook. Ultrabook is really just a set of specs.
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5 Reasons Why Our Students Are Writing Blogs and Creating ePortfolios | Powerful Learning Practice
Jenny Luca writes a powerful post about why her school has students blogging and creating efolios.
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Microsoft: Five things to look for in 2012 | Microsoft - CNET News
Analysis of Microsoft's moves coming in 2012 including the move into the living room through further inroads intomthe live tv experience started with the recent rollout of Kinect's voice activated tv. i do admit our new preferred way to stream music onto tv is no longer Pandora but the fm service through Kinect.
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Educational publishers supporting sopa
Pearson Education, Cengage Learning, McGraw-Hill Education, Macmillan, Scholastic, etc are among the educationall publishers supporting SOPA. this bill has many of us cringing just because it puts the power to shut down just about any website in the hands of the copyright holder in a pretty "guilty until proven innocent" type method that won't consider fair use until your site is already down. Perhaps I am oversimplifying but as one who had a Ning used for the digiteen project operated by our nonprofit almost pulled because the coyright holder and !Ning had no way to "let us" claim fair use, this is a very bad idea or at best case, a very bad implementation of a somewhat decent idea.
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If you are a compiter Science teacher or advocate for Computer S ience education, you should read Slfred Thompson. he works for Microsoft covering computer science but has a great personality and the kind of genuineness that all companies shoudl wish for in their bloggers. he will tell you what he thinks and I think he has done a great service to computer science educatiion. here, he lists his most popular posts of the year including "Why programming is for girls." Take time to read these posts.
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The Big G & Business » Top 10 Google+ Plus Tips
Nice overview of how to get the most outvote Google+. The 10th item is to be proposed by readers with the selected winner being included in hs book.
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Ignoring What Works in Education, The Umbrella Man, and The Challenge of Framing
Prepare to be challenged as you read Ewan McIntosh's thought provokingnpost on formative assessment and why it is being ignored or misrepresented. i have some reading to do with the links he gives. this is one of those must reads for thought leaders.
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BBC News - Man sued for keeping company Twitter followers
This company is suing @phonedog (name since changed) since he left the company and changed his userid keeping the twitter followers (some 17k he had accumulated.) Expect increasing scrutiny and debates on who owns the followers of people tweeting on behalf of companies.
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Rahilla Zafar: Raising the Next Nobel Laureate
A common trait of Nobel Laureates: an inspirational teacher or two in Middle school. This is a great article for middle school principals to share with staff but also for any educator to read.
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Ellen Siminoff: All Classes Great and Small
On one thing I totally agree with this article: students should have pre- high school graduation experience collaborating with humdreds (eventually thousands) of other students. This article argues against needing small class sizes in schools. Where it falls short is the fact that if we truly want to reach each child, large class sizes are an anathema to personalized learning environments like mine where i have each student doing their own Freshan project, for example.
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End of an Era: The Golden Age of Tech Blogging is Over
Never mistake the discussions that the "golden age of tech blogging is over" with blogs are dead. Blogging is changing. many have noticed people are more likely to respond with a retweet or comment on facebook and googke currents but it isnt dead. with every shift comes opportunity. it is a matter of understanding the audience you write for and how to share in a way that is insanely helpful to them.
Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 12/26/2011
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Set Up Your Kindle Fire for Tiny Tablet Awesomeness
A handle Kindle Fire set up guide from Gizmodo.
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The Next Mark Zuckerberg Is Likely At Harvard’s New Innovation Lab
The redesign of learning spaces has hit Harvard with their new iLab. Mark Zuckerberg was present at grand opening of venue which includes xbox gaming area and a stocked snack fridge.Before the i-lab, students like Mark connected and collaborated wherever they could find space,” Faust said. “Mentors mentored, and networks networked, and speakers spoke, and each of these things was happening. But now they can happen in one place"
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Adobe Design Achievement Awards Now Open To Students & Teachers
Adobe design achiement awards 2012. Students are invited to compete in 13 categories, including Game Design and Development, as well as Application Development and Mobile Design. For the second consecutive year, the ADAA will also recognize teaching excellence through three categories designed specifically for higher education instructors. Since the ADAA competition began in 2001, nearly 25,000 students from 73 countries have been involved; in 2011, a record 4,600 entries were submitted.
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New ELI 7 Things... Explores First-Generation Learning Analytics | EDUCAUSE
Learning analytics are underused but will be one of the most important tools in our online toolbox. Once we grasp the importance of these, we will be demanding more and more intelligence on behalf of the learning analytics that we use to support elearning, apps, and all of the things our students use as part of their learning toolbox.
Reports from Educause
Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 12/22/2011
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Made In A Free World - Slavery Footprint
This survey is designed to educate and activate you. With the size of my house and the fact I have a lot of electronics 83 slaves"work" for me with the primary impact in Asia. This is not about guilt but facts about our world today. What can I do? We shoud advocate that businesses look ino their supply chain to determine f the good are made by people who are free or if they are, in fact, slaves. Create awareness. Let businesses know there is surging interest in abolishing slavery.
Don't complain about slavery in America over 100 years a go when ou are willing to do nothing now. Provocative test. -
Organizing Your iPad Home Screen: A case Study - Lessons
This is a video I made in just 2 minutes on my iPad. I didn't have to go to educreations' website first but did everything on my iPad. I cannot watch the web version, however as it is flash based. You can create public or private classes and easily share the videos. Very cool implementation of simple screencasting. This would be great for ll schools with 1:1 iPads. Need to get if you can view class content from their app without going to web. Very easy. Wow.
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Move over Khan Academy. Educreations is here with a super simple web or iPad app that lets you record lessons to share with your students, wherever they are. If they enable one thing like common core tagging (tag it with the standard) and enough contribute we will have an incredibly powerful tool.
5 Fantastic Things to Do Over Winter Break
You need a break or you'll break... literally. Take some down time, help others, reconnect with your family, and get a head start on life next semester. Here are some things you'll want to fit in to your time.
1. "Veg"
"Veg" is a word that implies to vegetate or just relax. But it also implies what it means... vegetables or really anything good for you. Here are some of my favorites:
- Don't set your alarm clock and get up when you're ready
- Get off caffeine and drink lots of water (I always do this)
- Lay on the couch all day and watch movies with your kids
- Pull out one of your favorite movies from when you were a kid and rediscover it with your own children (Star Wars, Gone with the Wind, Chariots of Fire are some of my faves)
- Drink you favorite drink in the morning.
- Eat just when you're hungry
- Cook a new recipe or an old one that you haven't had time to do
- Make a batch of cookies unexpectedly (don't tell the kids - just let them run in because of the smell - my favorite recipe site is All Recipes)
- Cook some good fresh vegetables and keep cut up fruit in the fridge to munch on
- Read a book or two
- Go to your library and mess around and look at books
- Take a walk or run in a new place
- Flop like a flip flop with no guilt
- Don't make a list for at least several days
- Take long bubble baths
- Do your favorite relaxing past time with those you love
2. Reconnect
When I was a child time would drag by -- now time drags me.
Spend time with yourself, your significant other, your children, your parents. (See Be the Present.) Hang out without a rush and just inhale their presence to nourish you when they are no longer here one day.
Remember that it isn't all about you. Sometimes it is being thoughtful. If your son loves egg nog, get a carton and put it in the fridge. If your daughter likes a latte, make her favorite unexpectedly. Think of others and remember that the big things are often little things.
3. Organize
Next week after Christmas, I'll be "Pareto-ing" everything. Pareto's principle says that 80% of the productivity comes from 20% of the things you do. So, you probably wear 20% of the clothes in your closet 80% of the time. You use 20% of the apps on your ipad 80% of the time. How could you improve your life if you focused on that 20%?
My Ipad Screen (see Pareto-ing your Home Screen), my closet, my kitchen, everything gets the once over.
For example, in my kitchen, I take everything that I use daily or weekly and put it within easy reach. (Zone 1) Then, zone 2 are things I use monthly and they can be down lower or up higher. Finally, deep storage is for those things I use once a year (if I really must keep it.) If you separate things by frequency of use then you can have a system that makes sense for organizing.
4. Donate
If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I've asked you to donate one tweet or one Facebook status a day to #endslavery. (Read about the #endslavery challenge here.) If you're not going to support this cause, use your tweets to support the cause of your choice. Social media does impact giving, awareness, etc. We have the ability to put things on the front burner and garner attention. To me, nothing deserve more attention than the 29 million people enslaved in the world today. It is easy to look down on the ancestors of centuries a go but if we won't tackle slavery today, I don't want to hear it.
But you can also donate your time and you can donate gently used things that you don't need any more. Just remember this, Goodwill isn't a trash can. If it belongs in the trash, do them a favor and throw it in the trash. I know you may hate to part with Great Aunt Sarah's stained sweater but if you don't want it, no one does.
Give back this Christmas in some way. It isn't that hard.
5. Anticipate
After being rested and reconnected, then it is time to look ahead at the upcoming things.
For me, it is the official Flat Classroom book launch and book club (see www.flatclassroombook.com) as well as sports schedules, and writing assignments etc. I'm having knee problems and want to work on running with better form because I love it and I can't regain the 50 pounds I've lost so I begged Randi Farina, Lifetime's Social media director to let me test Chi Running / walking materials. If that doesn't work, I will be doing something every week to stay fit because that is what I do. Great accomplishments are the results of decisions. No excuses.
Also, I'll go ahead and plan the menus for January. Get calendars set through spring break. And plan routines. I don't make "resolutions" I literally plan out routines. 95% of what you accomplish in your life is due to the routines you have according to Brian Tracy. Because routines. make you who you are going to be. (See: The Routine of Being Amazing.)
All I want for Christmas...
to season the season with family, faith, food, and fun
and remember the reason.
Photo Credits:
Big Stock (a great place to download photos licensed for blogging)
Your Reward is Great (reflections on #eddies11 and #iste12)
Been pondering on rewards and awards. The inevitable onslaught of upset people after the EDublog 2011 award finals has begun.
But some have asked why we should even have awards in education. Shouldn't teaching be reward enough?
When it means judging the unjudgeable, not a good idea
In my church youth group, my youth minister created an "Eagle Award" for the "best Christian" youth. He said kids needed an award at church to make the kids want to come and compete for that award.
In this case, I didn't like this award and rightly so. As a Christian, walking daily with God IS my reward and the greatest rewards come later in heaven anyway. In this case, the journey is the reward and to create an award is to judge something on the inside that no one can see: motivation. We have to be careful about casting judgement on others and that is what I see a lot of happening.
When you point a finger at someone, you always have 3 pointing back at yourself!
Rewards vs. Awards
The looks on my eighth grader's faces as I knocked it out of the park teaching filmmaking yesterday. That was a blast. By the end of class we were huffing and puffing we were working so hard. That rewarding lesson was great for all of us.
My Daughter "Didn't Win" with her Flat Classroom Video
Today, the Flat Classroom projects will have our awards show at 8 am to announce our winners.
I haven't told anyone until now that this semester's project has a very special student in it: my daughter. She's special to me. She wanted to win the Flat Classroom project video competition more than just about anything.I wanted it for her.
Find more videos like this on Flat Classroom Project
She spent over 20 hours drawing each frame by hand in Paint.net and importing. Julie and I have an agreement that when our students are in a project, that we completely distance ourselves from judging. Fairness is essential.
I've seen the final list and my daughter didn't win anything huge. She did make the list. Am I disappointed? Of course. She's disappointed. Am I glad we had the competition. YES! It spurred her on to do more and be more. She's going to dissect the winners and prepare for NetGen in the spring because she loves making movies. She will learn and do better next time.
She didn't win but did that mean she lost: no! She gained a valuable learning experience.
The Grindstone of Life
Life grinds on you. You can choose to let it either it polish you to a bright, shiny gem or grind you down. It is all how you take it.
Did I lose or did I learn?
So, what about the edublog awards?
Joe Bower raised his concerns in a post "Why I Don't Like Edublog Awards" and Melissa (who had commented on my original post mentioning the Edublog awards) said:
"Thanks for posting this! I actually commented on someone who was nominated for said award. She was encouraging her readers to vote for her because she wanted to be awarded the "best teacher blogger." I was really turned off by this because I thought...what message is she sending to her students if she did not win said award. I asked if she needed the award as validation AND was having 1,000 followers not enough validation. I don't think she cared too much for my comment, as she mentioned that I was passing judgement on her...no judgement, just curious of why all the self promotion for an award saying that you are the best teacher blogger. No worries...I will remain a follower."My response about the edublog awards on his blog:
"I think these are great comments. Melissa commented on my blog. The reason I wrote my post was because I was nominated in five categories and, to me, I didn't feel I deserved a lifetime achievement award after only 6 years of blogging. So, I said which awards I felt that would mean something and best teacher blog was one of them. I also wanted to thank those who nominated me. It is a pain to nominate for those awards and I should acknowledge that. Enough of that.
Secondly, all awards are flawed. Especially ones involving online polls. (Author's note: See my post about the online poll involving a Redskin player trying to stack the poll for his cousin versus our school's quarterback to see just what I mean.) This poll was based on ip address. That means if someone really wanted to and thy had a mifi card, they could turn it off and on again and vote all they wanted. Hopefully no one did that but the fact is that it is easily hackable. The awards were given in most categories with just a couple of hundred votes. Not many.
Online polls are flawed. Period. See these for what they are. The people who win must mobilize their friends, fans, family and schools to win by ASKING. Period. You will see that behind everyone who won. If you want to win. You ask.
Don't ask. Don't win. The name of the game. I don't apologize for telling my readers about the awards for this reason. You never know unless you ask.
But I think it is fine to have these conversations. We should always know that the best value of the eddies or any other award like it that is popularity based is to help us find new voices. Help us see new people. Truthfully, every link to the eddies opens up more conversation.
It is ok. In life not everyone can get an award and not everyone deserves it. The best awards is always knowing that you helped someone. None of us would ever blog just because of the eddies, that would be silly. But it would also be silly to ignore something that recognizes excellence in what you love. I get up every morning at 5 am to write and set up my tweets for the day. Blogging and Tweeting is very near and dear to my heart.
Just see these for what they are and it is fine. But to have nothing to recognize rank and file teachers means the only educational writers would be journalists etc and that would be sad.
None of us will unfollow you for this post. It is well written and has good points. Likewise, Melissa, no blogger worth a flip would take your comment with offense. When you ask like I did it is a risk you run and there are always people to disagree with something in every post. It is the nature of this beautiful wonderful online conversation. Up with edublogging."
It is a fact that the more people who vote in the Edublog awards, the more it will mean and the less likely someone could hack it. Does that mean we should get rid of the edublogs because it is flawed. The Academy Awards are flawed too, but we don't get rid of those. All award systems are imperfect, especially online polls.
I think the thing that bothered me most about Joe's post is this. He says:
I realize this isn't going to win me many fans, and I'm likely to lose followers on Twitter and subscribers to my blog, but I guess that would be my point.
People often imply that they risk having people not follow them because they have a contrarian viewpoint. Long live the contrarian. We need more people who can disagree respectfully. And we don't want group think. If we are to be bridge builders we listen to all sides of an issue. We include everyone and treat everyone with respect.
What about ISTE?
A note on ISTE. I have NEVER had a session accepted where it was just me. ISTE cares about "we" presentations -- or groups of people. Lots of people will have their feelings hurt. Lots of deserving, amazing people. But ISTE has a rubric as well and when you have groups of people, the rubric is obviously stacked in your favor.
Don't be disappointed, look at what was accepted and learn.
We win some we lose some
Yes, it is trite but it is true. Right now, you could say I "lost" the Edublogs. Sure, I was second to Stephen Anderson (@web20classroom) in the Twitter category but still. I didn't "win"... or did I? (Honestly I had like 90 votes and he had 120 - not huge vote counts either way but he has 36K followers to my 26K -- I would agree that his numbers speak for themselves but 26K is nothing to sneeze at. Neither one of us compare to the millions that follow rock stars - just keeping perspective. I know Stephen does, that is why he's such a great guy and so many of us like him.)
There are awards I don't even apply for any more. The fact is that most awards in education judge your pedigree as a major factor in the awards and I don't have it. I'm a private school teacher who didn't go to a school of education. That is OK. So really, there are just a few things I can "go for." Those very few things I can... I do.
The fact is that links build traffic and if your business is online and you are writing books and creating projects that depend upon social media and education, it is important to your livelihood and life to get on every list and awards program you can. I love my babies and this blog is helping send them to college.
I gave up a 6 figure income to go into teaching and am just fine with that but now in a year my first child will go to college. Everything I may get from this blog or book writing is heading to help pay for college. Honestly, today, I have no idea how we're going to do it. If I put my name out there and let people know and they choose to vote for me, then that is great. If I get more people who find my blog and like it because of it, that is a good thing. But I'm not going to sit around and say "poor me" and not at least ask. No way. I love my babies. It is a risk I'm willing to take. I'm putting out there my motivations and not hiding them -- that is transparency. For you to judge me any other way is to judge but certainly that is your right.
I really wanted to get accepted as one of the TED Teachers. I worked sooooo hard on that nomination and even had about 10 of you on Twitter join in and nominate me. It was risky to even mention it on Twitter because if you're doing anything in this world some people are going to love you and some people are probably going to hate you. It is the nature of doing anything worthwhile.
So, we were supposed to hear from TED on Monday. They said we would. We haven't. To me, this means, I didn't make the list or even the cut. Am I dissapointed... of course. Will I try again... sure. Will I take anything away from the 10 who get picked -- NO. I'll tweet them and blog them and share them. They are winners and we all win when we encourage good teachers.
Jealousy is a bitter lunch that will make you sick and anemically unable to contribute.
So, the only way to become a loser is to act like a loser.
Losers wallow in self pity. Losers only care about themselves. Losers whine when they don't get their "fair share."
Well, life isn't fair and few people share. Awards are part of life but if you teach or blog, you should be doing it for the rewards of the conversation and helping people but if an award happens, then, great.
Win with your actions
Winners encourage others. Winners share in the conversation. Winners root others on and congratulate the winner. Winners look at their rewards and keep perspective about awards.
Awards are flawed measures. They are an attempt to find best practice and we certainly need that.
If they spur us on to excellence, then great. I know they spur me on to excellence because I want to be the very best I can be. Not because of the awards but the rewards but I make no secret about wanting to be world class.
OH, but you can judge me.
"Vicki needs validation. Vicki should be happy with all her readers and followers."
Oh, yes I am. I'm thrilled with those things. Every time a major newspaper or someone asks me to write - I'm in heaven. I love to write.
But I've lost more awards, competitions and contests than I've won. I've lost 5 beauty pageants and won 1. I lost 15 elections before I started winning as I ran for offices. Each time I competed, I became better.
Competition is life. Awards are part of them. Some choose to compete and some don't want to. That is a personal choice.
But anything that recognizes and rewards excellence in the field of education - as long as the system of judging is fully disclosed -- has my vote.
Keep perspective. You are a winner because you are a teacher -- that is your reward. Awards come to only very few and if you're fortunate enough to be one of those, use it well
but if you don't win --- don't be a loser.
You're a winner for just being in the game at all. (Please do not imply that I think Joe Bower is a loser for his post. I think he actually expresses his thoughts in a respectful way.)
Remember your noble calling teacher. The only way to lose your nobility is to give it away by acting in ways unbecoming to your profession.
Happy Holidays and thank you for taking the time to read all the way to this extremely long, rambling post. Just had to get this off my chest.
Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 12/16/2011
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Silvia Tolisano shared this with me on the podcast last night we recorded for Curriculum 21. This takes projects and outlines and relates it to the global competencies from the Asia society.
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Why Steve Jobs isn’t Time’s Person of the Year - The Washington Post
Lots of conversation about why Steve Jobs wasn't named the Time Person of the year. This would be a fascinating discussion for a social studies or current events class. Who would you name as the person of the year and why.
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Going Global: Reflections of a Flat Classroom Judge | Engaging Educators
Great reflection from Ben about what it means to judge Flat Classroom and what he learned. Thank you for joining in!
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Get a virtual seat at ted talks
Ted live subscription for your school? You can get a virtual seat at TED talks (it includes a Kindle fire - no one is sure why.) This is a great overview from Edudemic.
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Christmas Jeopardy for Literature or Culture Class
This Powerpoint based jeopardy game includes The Night Before Christmas and other Christmas classics as well as a piece on Christmas films. You can download the powerpoint and customize it to your current lessons and play it near the end of the term. A fun way to finish and summarize. Remember, keep teaching!
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Tons of printable holiday Puzzles
Crosswords, scramblers, work to do in pairs or together. If you need just one more thing just in case, go here. Created by a teacher.
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A CSI Lesson PLan for High School Math
I love this lesson plan which includes algebra, ratios, angles, and stastics that most 9th and 10th graders I know could compute. This could be a very fund summary activity. Look at this PDF and powerpoint and create your own. If you do, please share it with me in the comments or email it to me, I'd like to share what you do.
Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 12/15/2011
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Announcing the 2011 Winners – Congrats to All! | The Edublog Awards
A full list of edublog awards and finalists 2011.
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Linda Yollis' Learning How to Comment Post
Winner of the most influential post for edublog awards. A great post teaching children how to comment on posts. Educators around the world refer to this post.
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Best free web tools - it is a behavior management app for the classroom. Won in edublog awards.
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Won best group blog. Students are sharing about their topics in their various 7 countries on a blog each week.
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Administrators Blog Award Winner for Edublog Awards 2011
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Winner best librarian's blog
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Winner of best teacher blog in Eddies 2011.
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Started in November 2010 in Mrs. Yollis' Grade 3 class and he's the winner of tonight's best student blog. He's in fourth grade. Edublog awards. He went and said thank you tonight. His thank you was so touching.
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Winner of best new blog
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Winner best classroom blog in this year's Eddies 11.
Edublog 2011 Winners Announced
Lots of great winners announced in this year's 2011 Edublog Awards. Still wish more people voted but it does go up every year.
Thank you to those you nominated and voted for me. You put me in the top 5 tweeters! My friend Steven Anderson @web20classroom won.
Please take the time to broaden your RSS over the holidays and make room for some wonderful new voices! Anything that celebrates educational writing and sharing in positive ways should be shared!
Congratulations.
And just a word here. Although there are great winners, remember that if you are taking time to write and share that you ARE a winner already. There is an innate desire of most teachers to be thanked. Such little appreciation is meted out in teaching that it is almost a hunger. Every follower, every hit, every reader is a reward. Every comment is a gift. Every blog post has the potential to be a legacy. Share.
Way too few teachers are recognized for anything and even fewer voted on by teachers. Use this list to find some totally awesome voices but set as your goal to find those that haven't hit the radar yet. Converse and enjoy your area. Don't let "awards" get you down. Be the reward to those who use their precious time to follow you by being excellent, helpful, kind, and respectful. The greater and more excellent we are, the more people will begin to recognize our profession for what it is... The most noble of callings.
Congratulations to everyone.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Shooting Hoops in the Hallways of Learning
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| I wrote this at halftime last night. Here was my view. |
And sometimes. Air ball. Literally. The paper is flying at the trash can, at each other...at you. The kids are disruptive. Every time you turn your back -whoosh someone disappears from his seat. Not a good day.
The goal is to have more excellent days....to get more net than air. To score learning. The principals know who their star players are. The teachers who consistently get results. They also known their inconsistent players who really need more practice before hitting the court in a game.
Therein comes the big difference between basketball and teaching. Everyone starts. Everyone.
All full time teachers are starters because every full time teacher is a student's only chance to learn that topic. This is why having the best team possible is essential. There is no such thing as a bench in a school. Everyone plays.
Except this is not play. This is serious. If someone continues to foul. If they commit too many personal fouls or disrespect the referee, eventually a good ref will eject that player or coach.
We can't afford to have teachers with poor personal skills in the classroom. We can't afford to have teachers who can't ring a basket on a good day teaching. Likewise, we can't afford to lose our best players. We need to keep the stars playing on our team. Experience counts. Energy counts. You can have all the moves in the world but if you only shoot air balls (your teaching doesn't produce results) perhaps you need to slow down and be more simple and just shoot lay ups.
If you are a basketball fan (like me) -the next time you watch a game, think about this and how seriously we must scrutinize our teaching team. If no one wants to play on your team and you are just looking for any warm body who will walk in your school then you have to look at those leading your school system and improve the learning environment.
Learning is serious. We need to do it well. Be excellent. Be great. Be world class. Play well and serve in the greatest (most unappreciated) profession.
The future is in your halls. And we can't afford to miss this one.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Photo Credit
Personal photo - Players at halftime of Fullington and Westwood Game, December 13, 2011
Bigstock
12 Amazing Ways to Teach During the Crazy Days of Christmas
Some teachers are tempted to be babysitters during the holidays when, in fact, you can get some powerful teaching moments in your classroom. Take time to be creative and integrate holiday-themed teaching into your classroom. Please share what you like to do in the comments.
1 - Have a Social media activity relating to topics you're learning
Two of my most tweeted things from last week were the Facebook template and Twitter template that you can download and use in Microsoft Word. This is a great alternative for those of you who cannot use the online Fakebook template from Classtools.net.
Our AP Literature teacher has had students create a Facebook profile for their term paper author. They have to add at least 8 "friends" who are contemporaries of the author, a certain number of status updates with comments from friends. All of it must be believable. It is a lot of fun because students have to research their person, figure out the contemporaries and understand aspects of his/her life.
These spark fun conversations and can be done offline or online.
2 - Make an Interactive Story
This is a great time of year to teach students how to create interactive stories using PowerPoint. You can have them illustrate a popular story (like this Night Before Christmas PowerPoint) with their own narration or create an interactive story talking about their family. (see a review for Powerpoint 2007) The concepts you can teach with this idea:
- Clickable hotspots (where you click and make a choice - this is basic programming)
- Recording narration
- Creating a self-running PowerPoint
3 - Make a Review Game (to promote future recall)
If you're doing reviews, and know that content you shared this semester will need to be recalled next semester, you can have the students create fun review games using PowerPoint (see the video below.) You can save them and review. If you don't have Powerpoint, use the Free flash Online Jeopardy Generator and have them save the file or embed on your wiki for review later.
4 - Play Games to Learn
For elementary teachers, TES has the 12 games of Christmas which are perfect for the whiteboard. If you want to play this on the ipad, the last three games (the santa addition game - #11 is my favorite for my 10 year old) are available for free. You can download the game from the iTunes store. (There are 3 games in the app - a sequencing game with ringing bells, and a velocity and angle game where you shoot an elf at presents to grab them and get them into Santa's sack.) There is a free downloadable teaching guide for these games, a big plus. (On another note, you can write a review and tweet it with #tesxmas to Twitter and win an ipad on Friday.)
But you could take this further if you have older students. Why not come up with your own 12 games of Christmas and embed them in a wiki by having students create their own games at classtools.net? These can be used for review next semester before testing. You could start playing eLections to understand how elections work or make your own class stock market game. (I use the one at Market Watch.)
You could also take some of the fun holiday games over at Kaboose and adapt them to your classroom or activity.
5- Play Games to Make the World a Better Place
Or how about selecting a game that can change the world like Free Rice (answer vocabulary questions and rice is donated to areas in need), Darfur is Dying (not a happy game for Christmas but one that could give perspective), or other games that bring awareness to social issues. (Like Disaster watch, citizen Ship, or the Carpet game.)
6 - Make Games
There are a lot of places to make your own video games: Sploder (for arcade games) or MIT's Scratch or Microsoft's Kodu Game Lab. All of these are free. As the K12 online conference 2011 said, "Play with a Purpose."
7 - Create your efolio
The end of a semester is a great time to update (or create) your efolio. All of my students have their own website and their parents know the links. When they graduate, they put the links on college applications and resumes. My favorite place for student efolio websites is Weebly, but you could also do this on Google sites.
8- Create a DVD for the family
Use Photostory (free for PC), or iMovie or Windows Live Movie maker (free for PC) to make a simple DVD movie for the child's family. These are fun, simple programs that have built in tools to help make simple videos out of family photographs. If you do this option, my best recommendation is to have students bring the photos in already scanned on a CD or DVD or to have time outside class when students can scan photos.
9- Digital Picture Frame or Digital Jump Drive
The best picture I gave last year to my family was a digital picture frame with pictures from the year on it. My Mom keeps hers running in the kitchen all the time. You can get a nice Digital Picture Frame
from Amazon for 20 something plus a memory card for a total of around $30. This would be a great gift for the principal or front office to have photographs and works of art. How about having students scan their work form the year and creating a digital portfolio for their parents using a digital picture frame? (You can also find small digital keychains for photos as well. I have seen them but don't have a specific one to recommend.)You could even have students scan or photograph their work and take photos and put these items on a jump drive and give the jump drive for Christmas. Both of these gift ideas cost a little money but would be nice for parents or principals.
10- Make Christmas Cards or Have Fun with Photos
I have students create a movie poster using Adobe Photoshop to photoshop their face onto a movie poster. Then, we have the students assemble Christmas cards for the school board of directors to send to parents. If you teach graphic design, Christmas or Holiday cards are great things to do.
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| Have fun with Photos at Big Huge Labs |
Speaking of fun with pictures, Big Huge Labs is a blast for anyone and can help you make fun, frameable signs like the one I made for my school's state championship football team.
11- Solve Santa's Murder
OK, this is a very different kind of activity, but I think that is why I like it. It is a writing activity but has students use clues to solve Santa's murder mystery. It is no secret that I spend quite a bit of time running around the free TES resources and this is another one I turned up there. Probably better for middle school but would spark interest.
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| Widad Kinard's Pinterest board with classroom activities |
12 - Share Your Ideas
Share your ideas for teaching during the holidays with others. Sometimes seeing what other teachers are doing is so helpful. For example, Widad Kinard has a lovely Pinterest board with classroom activity ideas overflowing with holiday ideas straight from her classroom.
Share on your blog (like I've done here.) Certainly there are many great ideas out there. Send them through your favorite hashtag on Twitter. (See Jerry Blumengarten's Hashtag Guide -he's @cybraryman1 on Twitter.)
Teach!
There are so many things you can do that will teach students.You don't have to watch another movie. But if you do, watch a classic movie. They will watch popular movies at home (most likely) but A Christmas Carol or "It's a Wonderful Life" will give the kids an insight into culture. There are lot of classic movies you can watch.
Recess is great but three recesses are a bit extreme in one day.
Some teachers go on autopilot this time of year and become glorified babysitters. You are too good for that. This is the week that separates the good from the great. Use every moment and find the power of teachable moments. As kids play and relax in other classes, they may just have more mental energy for your subject than you realize.
Take time and use your time! Please share your ideas in the comments.
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