What Do Your Student's Tweets, Posts, & Instagrams say about them? A #digcit Lesson

Over the past few years I have had the opportunity to do many workshops with mostly high school students regarding crafting their "digital footprint" or "digital tattoo".

One of the activities the students do in this workshop always hits a nerve with the majority of students ( and actually...it does with the teachers in the room as well).

Here we go!

Get out your cell phone, open the app that you use the most for social sharing.  Pull up your feed, showing your instas, tweets, FB posts....just show your own stream.

Now take ONE minute and look through your feed....choose 3 words to describe what others might assume about you based ONLY on what you have shared.

( If you have the kind of classroom culture that permits it...have the students trade phones instead and do this...OR...if you have a colleague in another building, another state etc...you could have the students connect via their social media channel and analyze each other's posts!)

I go first, sharing my twitter stream via the projector and ask the students to choose 3 words to describe me or my interests. They typically say...education, education technology, schools, teachers, New Tech Network, project based learning or other similar words.

Now...the fun begins, I ask students to share their words.

3 words that students typically use to describe them via their social media stream
drama
boys
song lyrics
whiner
friend
food
angry
silly
basketball
sports
Jesus
curser
potty mouth
funny

After everyone who wants to shares has a chance to speak...I have them think for 30 secs about if their "three words" really represents who they are as a whole person.  They generally say, not really or maybe yes, just a part of them.

Then I ask them  to think of 3 words they WISH were the most prominent.
Students then share out those three words

3 words students WISH their social media stream included. ( some are the same)
smart
talented
sports
Jesus
creative
funny
college
successful
happy
good daughter ( son)
brother ( sister)
( some version of a career...teacher, dentist, engineer, stylist etc..)

Then in groups at their tables they discuss this question...

How can we as high school students still "be ourselves" on social media while crafting a "brand of Me"

Students always come up with great strategies for this. Which I won't share because you need to be impressed with what your OWN students come up with.

This is a super simple lesson that can be a springboard to using social media as a learning tool or to get students thinking about how far reaching their online persona can be!

I'm So Much Cooler Online 

by Brad Paisley

I did not prepare my classroom & maybe you shouldn't either!

Inspired by this post "Less is More? What do your classroom walls look like?" by Craig Kemp and a twitter conversation with Tim Kaegi . I thought I would share something I did many years ago with my 1st graders at the beginning of the year.

It was way back in 1992 when I was teaching at Nora Elementary in Indianapolis. It was my first teaching position, but my 3rd year at that school.  I loved teaching there. I had great leadership and wonderful colleagues.  A few of us in the building had given up the basal readers, and were exploring having "inquiry based" classrooms. We had strong administrative support, it was a great place to be a beginning teacher.

I was really exploring deeply giving those 1st graders ownership of their own learning and was studying Reggio Emilia  due to my years at the Butler University College of Education and the now current Dean of Education, Ena Shelley .

So....I did not prepare my classroom!

• No bulletin boards
• No taped down names on the desk
• Nothing purchased from the teacher store
• No books on the bookshelves
• No little bins for folders

When my students arrived, it looked pretty much how the custodians left it.  You should have seen their faces!  They didn't know what to do, they were already "experts" at what school looked like at 6 and 7 years old!

I greeted them, said hi and....watched...it wasn't too long before one of the students "took charge".  She said, " When are we having a class meeting?"  

I asked "Do you guys want a class meeting?"  

They said yes and immediately say down in a group in front of the easel and white board.

 I asked what we should talk about...

"Why isn't our room ready?"

"Where should we put our backpacks?"

"How do I know which table to sit at?"  ( I had ditched desks for tables, too)

"Where are the bathroom passes?"

"Where is the jobs list?"

"Where is the calendar?"

So I told them this was OUR learning space and that we were going to create it together.  They made a list of what they thought we needed and they divided themselves up and got to work.

They arranged tables, chairs, made bulletin boards ( WAY better than anything I had ever done and it was THEIR work), set up reading areas, the calendar, stations, made job charts....I'm sure I'm forgetting things, but if they thought it was needed, they created it!

IT WAS WONDERUL!  

They felt ownership, they made changes as the space worked or didn't work for their learning.  They brought in a few things from home . ( Lamps, posters, rugs...)

We had a wonderful year.  For the rest of my years at Nora I began the year with the furniture shoved in a corner and nothing on the walls and we created our learning space from scratch, together.

I highly recommend it!

Okay..So Maybe I AM a Bit Motivated by Awards

So I KNOW “they” say we aren’t motivated by awards , but I have to admit….I sometimes am !

When I woke up and checked my Twitter Feed the day after the Educator’s Voice Awards were announced and saw all of the congratulatory tweets, I did a little happy dance!

#PBLChat began over 4 years ago as a way to create community and conversation around project-based learning. I gathered together several colleagues who really valued our Twitter PLNs put our heads together and come up with this chat.

I have had the pleasure of meeting and connecting with so many people via this chat and my knowledge base has grown tremendously because of them.  I’ve gotten to meet some of my “edu-crushes” both virtually and in person. 

When I first began diving deeply into PBL it was as a Technology Coordinator for Rochester Community Schools as they began their partnership with New Tech Network.  I dog-eared this book by Suzie Boss and Jane Krauss to death.  Now there is even a 2^nd edition of it available to you.

Imagine my delight when I held a PBLchat at ISTE in person with Suzie & Jane after they had joined in on our chat several times.  That is one of my favorite personal “twitter wins” as a direct result of this chat.

Many of the wins are the little things:

• ·      When students join the chat ( especially when the adults think they are teachers because they are so profound in the points they make!)
• ·      When teachers tweet out sharing they implemented something learned during the chat.
• ·      When teachers who are out their doing great PBL work on their own without the support of a local network find validation in this chat.
• ·      When I find a new tool or project idea I can share widely

After chatting almost every single Tuesday night for 4 years, I will admit, it can give a girl a bit of burn out!  A big shout out to Jeff Spencer, Principal at Washington Discovery Academy in Plymouth Indiana for taking one of the Tuesdays each month and adding a little elementary flavor !

Some of my favorite chats have been our “Mash-Up Chats” where we partner with folks like SteelCase, Project Lead the Way and StemPremiere .  We love adding new voices and ideas to our chat and want to focus on that this year.  If you are interested in partnering with us for a chat…add your information here and we will be in touch!

A big big thank you to the Education Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Bammy Awards for drawing attention to “All That is Good in Education”  !

I'm Happy it isn't 1977 : Friends & Connectivity

When I was a kid in the late 70's I used to go to Camp Tecumseh  for a week each summer, it was this great camp about 45 minutes from my house.  I would go for a week, stay in a cabin, sing songs, ride horses, do crafts and make dozens of new friends that I swore I would never forget.   We would bring our address books, trade letters for a bit, but after a time you typically stop writing….connectivity broken. I lived only an hour or so from most of the other campers but when you are 10 it might as well be 1,000 miles!

Fast forward to the connectivity we have today...

Last week I received good news/bad news.  I am always happy for a colleague when they have new opportunities and move on, but I MISS them.  This friend in particular I will miss.
Sarah Field and  I have worked on  several big project together and with others, Our Ignite Talks, The #MYParty12 project and currently our Global Happiness Project. You see Sarah lives in California and I live in Indiana, we can probably count the times we have seen each other face to face on two hands (and maybe some toes) .  All of these projects came to be FIRST through virtual collaboration, usually an IM with something like

Do you have a sec? I have this idea…

Then off we go!  We create google docs, video chats, phone calls and lots and lots of creativity, critical friends and learning.  The project gets bigger and bigger, then we edit it back, and keep crafting until we land where we want.  I wish for everyone to have someone in their PLN that is this kind of thought partner.

The thing is with digital tools, we can keep doing this, I am confident we will still be thought partners and friends and most likely will come up with a way to roll out more projects together!

I am so glad I met Sarah through New Tech Network and not at Camp Tecumseh!

Connected YET Disconnected

So I had a big "a-ha" moment yesterday and this post has been rolling around in my head ever since.

First you need a little backstory to see how I arrived at the "a-ha"…I am recently divorced after 26 years (nope, not gonna blog about that part!)  At the encouragement of a good friend (Thanks, Mary!)  I signed up for Match.com  just to sort of get my feet wet.  After all, I'm ONLY 46 and got married at 19.  I could potentially claim to have never actually dated….you don't really "date" in college, right? So many potential blog posts about the whole dating thing, but THAT is not happening…read on….

So, I painfully wrote a Match profile that really forced me to describe myself,  examine just what I might think I was looking for in a person.  One of the things that is important to me is an open-minded, always learning attitude.  For example, if someone on Match emailed me, we talked back & forth, eventually getting to "what do you do" and I say social media? If their response is something like, I just don't get that stuff…seems worthless.  My response is "delete".   (not learning, not open-minded, not connected)

Being connected is important to me.

I am super connected, I connect people via  social media as a part of my career.  I believe in the power of connectivity, about half of the women who have really walked with me through the past year I only see a couple of times a year, they live in California, Texas,  South Carolina, all over the place. I'm totally cool with having long distance friendships…these friends are super digital, we video-chat, we FaceTime, text, IM….we connect online WAY more than in person.

I also very much value the amazing group of my friends that I see face to face all the time where I live.  So this actually  made me start thinking….just how do I define connected? After all, my more local friends are definitely less connected, with a few of them really not technology users at all beyond texting.  Why do I not "delete" them?

Because they ARE connected.  They connect by calling, inviting, learning, loving, listening.  They are connected to their parents, their neighbors, their community, their children, their friends.  The connect authentically without technology by reaching out.

So this made me think of people I know that are connected, but disconnected.  People I know that are always on a computer or their cell phone and I'm not sure what color their eyes are, because when you are with them they never look up.  People who text a thought or feeling that deserves to be delivered or discussed in person, but texting lets them hide from the emotion you can't help but witness when you are face to face.

So my "a-ha",  YES, I value being connected, but it isn't the technology at all.  When I first begin working in this job, I was overly connected, addicted to a Twitter stream and the myriad of valuable education related chats, this is my 3rd year doing this now.  For the past year,  I  have been working on balance. I'm using my vacation days,  I shut down my computer at night, I (usually) leave my phone in my purse at lunch and dinner.  I call people more often instead of texting them.  I'm certain I have spent time in the last few years, being VERY connected but VERY disconnected.  Sitting in the same room with people but my cell phone buzzing w/ tweets so I'm constantly glancing down at it, my iPad right next to me or my laptop slightly open so I don't "miss anything".

This reflection also made me think of the judgement we "connected educators" sometimes throw at the educators in our schools who don't use Twitter, don't have an online PLN, BUT they are quick to walk across the hall, chat with others in passing, meet and work on projects.  Connecting can be defined more broadly than online.

So, I DO value being connected, but it is the people, not the technology…proving once again, no matter what the topic, it always comes down to relationships!

http://bestquotesayings.wordpress.com/2012/11/22/a-disconnected-society/

Twitter for the WIN: Snow Day Collaboration

Each year about this time, I am working on a project around promoting & supporting Digital Learning Day.  Sometimes I struggle with this because I am steeped in working with schools who have excellent digital learning.  They are 1:1,  they know tech is a tool, not the end all be all.  They lobby often for more bandwidth, unblocking, and employ technology purposefully to extend learning and to connect with others.

Because this is my "normal" for digital learning, I was reflecting on what part of digital learning was most important or urgent for me.  Just as a was coming to a conclusion around the fact that the best part for me was connecting…I was distracted from my very deep thoughts around this by this Twitter stream…

Then I was totally sucked in!  The tweets flew back and forth with project ideas from these teachers.  The significance for me was, it began with a teacher listening to a podcast, snowed in on his farm, reaching out to his colleagues via Twitter.

You could feel the sense of urgency to get busy on in leaping from the page.  The more they went back and forth, the more the ideas grew, one of the final tweets was this…

 Later that night I see this Facebook post from one of the snowed in teachers….

Connectivity is the win for me.  Teachers connecting with each other as needed not from 8-3, connecting with broadcasters, journalists all to connect students to resources, history and possibilities.

I know these teachers, I know they had this passion for teaching and learning long before we had real-time collaboration via Twitter, but without Rex, sending out that tweet and his colleagues jumping in and responding, the idea might never have been fed, nurtured and now growing into a project.

C'mon Get Happy (Yep It's a Partridge Family Tribute) #NTNHappy

Hello, world, here's a song that we're singin', c'mon get happy...

Easier said than done, eh?

Just what does it take to have a happy life? A happy community? A happy school?

If you are a regular reader of this blog you know I am unabashedly an admirer of the New Tech Network people I work with, both on our staff and in our schools!  

One of my fav colleagues , Sarah Field, and I Vidyo-ed a couple of weeks ago when she was inspired by this post from Upworthy….

AND A PROJECT WAS BORN!

I am very intrigued by this project for so many reasons, some personal….I feel like I was sort of "born happy" blessed with a happy nature. I tend to be an optimist, a pollyanna, an "everyone thing will be okay" kind of girl. …..nature or nurture? Which makes me wonder...

Can we…

 CHOOSE happy? 

CREATE happy?

I do know what makes me happy…the fact that this project is open to everyone, everywhere, every grade, every age!

Connecting people, projects, places, resources, ideas…that makes me happy!

I am so excited to watch how this will unfold, what our students will discover, who they will connect with , what they will teach us and what we will learn!

Now if you haven't watched the Partridge Family video at the top of the page yet, you should….(full disclosure: I did get a David Cassidy guitar sometime during the early 70's for Christmas and have had this song as well as "I Think I Love You" on my iTunes playlist forever!)

Join the Global Happiness Project!  

#PBLChat and #INeLearn team up to talk Common Core & PBL

By now blog readers know I work with New Tech Network (and that I LOVE it).  Sometimes in the network we laugh and wonder if we "over collaborate"…..but we keep going because two (or more) heads are better than one!

In the spirit of collaboration we are teaming up with the folks at #INeLearn (Indiana E-Learning) to talk about Common Core.  You often hear from the people at BIE that "Common Core is the what & PBL is the how".

Is PBL the "how" that can help you as we find our way with the Common Core?
Do you have some resources to share that may help others?
Just need to vent & discuss how you feel about it?
Join us (whether you are from Indiana or any other state!)
We typically have students present & engaged at this chat so it is a great time to hear their voices!
Have questions you want use to pose during the chat? Add them to the comments!
We are using the #PBLChat hashtag, but feel free to add #INeLearn, too!
See you Tuesday 8pm ET!


To prepare for the chat….check out this Ignite Talk
Common Core Will NOT Bring About Armageddon 

Let's Ask Students About Homework!

I have been pretty opinionated about the value of homework in the past.  Especially where elementary age students are concerned.
(See this blog post…STOP with the Homework Already, They Are Kids! )

This past week for #PBLChat our topic was HW and project based learning.  We have always been fortunate in this chat that we always have students jump in and chat with us.  As usual they shared some very insightful thoughts during the chat.  Here are a few of them:

Of course not all of their thoughts around homework were negative!  Many students jumped in with advice on how to make homework more meaningful and valuable to them. 

What do YOUR students think about homework? Have you asked them? 

BlurryLines : If I Can Find It, It's Okay to Use it & Other Copyright Myths

If I can download it, it's okay.
If they don't want me to use it, they should make it so I can't.
It's for "educational purposes".
If I can just right click and save, it isn't copyrighted.
It's not like I'm hurting anyone.
If I can find it, I can use it.

All of the above are things I've heard teachers and students say.  I'm certain I've said something like "It's for educational purposes" without even being sure what that meant.  I was someone who was okay with what I thought were the blurry lines of copyright. it was easy to  rationalize my behavior, I just told myself  that it was something a student needed and that made it okay.  Then I had an experience that led me to think more deeply about copyright.

Read the full post that includes resources on New Tech Network's blog where it was originally posted. 

College: They All Went but They Didn't Stay

Follow your dreams.

Life is a journey, not a race.

Figure out who you are…
Maybe try "un-college"...

BLAH BLAH BLAH…

The whole "un-college" thing is all the rage these days and it seems like a good idea….for other people's children!

So, I have a history of encouraging kids to follow their dreams, take the "road not taken" etc... In our early 30's my husband and I even quit our great jobs, sold our house in the suburbs , cut our income in half and moved our 3 boys under 8 to a city 800 miles away so he could follow a dream and I was totally onboard with this.

 But imagine my surprise when our own boys  followed in our footsteps! 

Both my husband and I have our college degrees, I have a Masters and often ponder a Ph.D ( I google, I bookmark, I can't commit)  We have talked to our boys about college for as long as I can remember. The question was never, "Are you going to college?" it was "Where are you going to college?" 

And they all went, but they didn't all stay.

Our middle son Trent has always had a calling to do "good works".  His high school resume is filled with philanthropy. Nevertheless, when he first went off to college he sort of denied this part of himself.  It didn't last long, after a semester, the school he chose didn't feel like a fit.  He applied to work with Americorps for the next year and off he went from Indiana to California to live and work with people he had never met.  He had amazing adventures, from planting native species while camping on the beach to working at a therapeutic horseback riding center to re-roofing cabins at a national arks.  He was happy!  When his Americorp stint was over, it was back to college. ( I MAY have been a little pushy about this….) This time he studied "Non-Profit Management" and got involved in philanthropic groups on campus.  But honestly, he felt like he was just jumping through hoops and not DOING anything.  Much to our surprise (even though we knew he wasn't really happy) , after a year and a half it was bye bye college & hello again Americorps.  

Currently he is in Las Vegas working with The American Red Cross.  He is making a difference for people every day.  He isn't jumping through hoops, he is bringing resources & help to people who need it. He talks about returning to college so he can go further in the non-profit world, but again…he is happy…the world is currently his college, his boss & colleagues are his favorite professors.  

Trent is on the right end

Alex also set off to college right after high school.  He had a scholarship to run cross country, I will now, in hindsight, admit that he was never all that pumped up about going to college.  He went because we thought he should and the majority of his friends were going.  He had a great first year, ran, made friends, had fun and... didn't want to go back. 

GRRRR how is this happening to me again.  

He has always been an avid skate boarder. He eats breathes & sleeps it.  Really skateboarding and any sport that makes a mother's heart beat too fast. The thing is, he is really good at them.  Currently, Alex is living in a city about an hour and a half away from us with his girlfriend who goes to college & works.  Alex is working at a really great alternative sports sort of store True West Coast Style .  He lights up when he talks about  meeting with sales reps whose products are in the store. He has led the store in sales, never misses works and loves it.  He is….you guessed it….happy.  The customers, sales reps and store owners are his professors.  He learns everyday. He also talks about going back to school, studying something that will help him design skateparks.  He isn't in a hurry, but wants to take a few classes at a time so he can still work & skate.

Photo by Chris Johnson

So who learned the most here?  Likely the answer is me!  The boys are alright…they are independent, pretty much the only bill of theirs we pay is their cell phone. I'm not saying it has been an easy journey, , but as I may have said more than once in this post, they are happy & that makes me happy. 

So, it is true, life IS a journey, not a race….even when it is your OWN children's journey!

Some resources in case you listen to your kids better than I did:

Uncollege

Apprentice University

When Your Child Says No to College

Americorp

Hacking Your Education

I've Got a Big But…..

So I confess, I've got a big but…..
I haven't written a blog since the beginning of summer because of my big but….
Well, I might have more than one big but...

But….
I don't have time.

But…
I'll do it after I finish this project.

But…
I can't figure out how to say that.

But…
That idea is dumb.

But…
I might make a grammatical error.

But
But
But

My big but has gotten in the way of my blogging so it is time to get rid of the big but.
What is your big but?
How is it getting in your way?
What is your big but keeping you from doing?

Gotta go…time to work out my big but!
I promise a blog post next week! NO BUTS!

via @Improvingthesilence.com

We are Living in a #PBLWorld and I am a PBL Girl

So we JUST ended #PBLchat tonight where we had a super high energy chat about making global connections for and with our students.

You can see the archive here in Storify (want to see it as a slideshow? Just add /slideshow to the url, trust me, it is fun to read and share this way!)

Just want to share a few loves...

I love that the folks at this chat have either worked all day, been at a conference all day, are either super close to bedtime or just before dinner time, tweeting from a soccer practice or chatting from their phone while waiting in line somewhere all take time to share and learn with others. 

I love the fact that while I get to work with an amazing network,New Tech Network ,  of collaborators, we are also a part of the larger PBL community across the world and tonight's chat made that so evident.

I love that it was fun to see "friends" at the chat tonight that I have never met, but they have become resources & experts for me via Twitter and/or their blogs or even I have met them just once and I can't wait to see them f2f at conferences this summer.

I love that I "think in PBL" I often use phrases like "I wonder" and "What are our next steps" in my everyday conversation.

I love that as I am planning the decor for an addition we are doing to our house that I want my sister to come visit and "critical friend" my plan.

I love that I can't  read or listen to the news without looking for a driving question or global connection.

I love that I watched & listened to educators run through their Ignite Talks for our national conference and they were FILLED with passion.

I love that several members of my online PLN are students and I value their opinion and so does everyone else in our PLN.

So much more to love about PBL....but that is enough for now!

Anyway...just a little celebratory post about being happy to be a part of something that I am proud to be a part of!

Join us for #PBLChat every Tuesday!  Usually at 8pm EST but once in awhile we change it up for a special collaboration or event.  Follow @NewTechNetwork to get all of the scoop!

Is Your School "Successful"?

Way back in 1997 when we were considering moving back to Indiana to my husband's hometown one of the reasons for choosing this town was because, while the local elementary schools were great where we lived, our kids were moving into middle school and I wasn't thrilled with what I knew (or thought I knew) about the middle and high school.

My views were that there was no sort of "be true to your school" feeling. High school events were well attended, sports teams sometimes didn't have enough players to field a team, the school just wasn't the hub of the community.  Since this was "pre-internet" I went to the library and checked out the Places Rated Almanac and my fears were confirmed around the data they reported for the school, too.

I was happy to be moving to Indiana to a community known by everyone here as "a great place to raise kids".  We often heard things like...

•  You don't have to lock your doors.
• Kids ride bikes everywhere, with no fear.
• They can fish at the hospital pond.
• On Friday  night everyone is either at the football field, or at a basketball game, depending on the season. (Go ZEBRAS!)

So did that make this a successful school system?

After we lived here for a bit, I actually checked out THIS school system in the Places Rated Almanac and guess what? They had pretty much the same data/test scores/grad rate as the town we left.  

So was one school more successful than the other?

Flash forward to present day and I am happy to say I consider this school (the whole system here) a success!  (It's been a journey undertaken by a lot of great people, but that's another blog post!) A few reasons might be...

• They are on a path of continuous improvement and reflection
• They have embraced project based learning
• They do technology integration really well and are always looking ahead
• Of course, fantastic dedicated teachers who, even if the face of year after year of budget cuts always find a way
• The administrators work as a team & the school board is a part of that team
• Many active, engaged parents & community members

My colleague @PaulSCurtis wrote a blog about school success and the rubric that New Tech Network is sharing. I really like it as a measure, it goes so much deeper than the newspaper headlines we see each year ranking schools by test scores alone.

We are going to be discussing and trying to define "school success" at this week's #PBLChat Tuesday June 11th at 8pm. I would LOVE to hear your thoughts! Join us for the chat! 

http://sweetbeanz.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/success-failure-sign.jpg

But...I want you to know I'm a teacher!

I often wonder if those of you who have "left the classroom" feel as I do, that you are somehow....less a part of the real work of education.

My current job title is "Online Community Manager" with an amazing education non-profit, New Tech Network .  I'm so proud to work with our network, to interact with our schools and absolutely love the work that we all do together, but, when people ask me what I do, I tell them AND, I always always add, but I'm a teacher.

There is a line in "A Few Good Men" where Tom Cruise asks Demi Moore "Why are you always giving me your resume?"

She replies "Because I want you to think I'm a good lawyer"

I do that, I give people my resume...all the time...because I want you to know I'm a teacher.

I love what I do, to put it very simply,  I get to connect people to each other and to resources that they need. I get to tell your education stories, to share those stories and do everything I can to amplify all the great things that are happening in all of your classrooms.  It is a part of my job to learn every day and share that learning, casting as wide a net as possible.

It is a sweet, sweet job sharing the voice of people doing world-changing work. I really do love it!
 ,
I do get to connect with students all over the place via Twitter, these students share such a special place in my heart, they are my virtual classroom. I love to hear from them, listen to their opinions, read their blogs and watch them grow as learners and as people.

Sometimes, I even get to be in classrooms with students or with teachers and teach! I LIVE for those days, I love being a part of an entry event, Skyping in for a workshop, re-tweeting a student who is celebrating an #eduwin or an a-ha moment.

But...I want you to know I'm a teacher! 

http://the-inspired-nest.blogspot.com/2012/02/i-teach-whats-your-superpower.html

There is more than ISTEP in Indiana!

Ever get frustrated by the education headlines about your state? 
I KNOW! Me too!!!!
I can make my laundry list of complaints too, letter grades for schools, funding, ISTEP fails....

BUT I like to count my blessings and I would encourage you to do the same! 
What do you like that is happening in education in your state?

If all you know about Indiana education is what you see in the headlines, I'd like to give you a little different lens.

Do you know about Dennis Stockdale? 
Showing us that rural schools can DO!

Profiled as a "Leader to Learn From" by Edweek.

The most New Tech Network schools in the nation?
23 NTN schools that have "Teaching that Engages, Culture that Empowers & Technology that Enables" with more coming in 2013. 
Proof that PUBLIC school innovation can, and does, work. 
Our  2013 Report of Student Outcomes http://ntnwk.org/fp  

Indiana's Summer of E-Learning?
Our DOE awarded grants all over the state so that educators could share with other educators around student centered learning. There are options, dates and locations to suit everyone! Check out the conference locations.
Each one of them have amazing keynotes that you are likely already following on Twitter because they are definitely PLN leaders! Many are still taking RFP's and most have registration open.

Our awesome #INeLearn Chat?
Each Thursday on Twitter at 8pm EST, we chat about what ever crowd-sourced topic is selected. This is a positive upbeat chat full of sharing, not unlike the many other fantastic education driven chats! It grows each week. I love connecting with educators from elementary, MS & HS environments for this open conversation.

HECC Conference 
Is one of my favorite all time conferences. Filled with a great mix of Tech leaders, administrators and educators. I learn so many new things and about so many new tools each time I attend.

Ivy Tech Community College
Growing by leaps and bounds and not afraid to build actual campus' in small towns, offering major opportunities to adults & HS students alike. They work so hard to give people a leg up, especially 1st generation students. So happy we have a campus in our little town of 8,000 where HS kids can walk over and take college level courses during their school day.


PBL Networks courtesy of CELL
CELL makes their home at the University of Indianapolis and has been a major contributor to innovation in education in Indiana since 2001.  

Our DOE encourages innovation with a variety of grants offered each year, not only do they give MANY grants, but they create groups and connections from these grant winners to build support and communication between these schools. 

Of course there is so much more happening here! 

We want more, we want more, like,  you really like it so you want more...

So Hoosiers (or really everyone)...jump in here and share MORE! 

What is happening in your district, your building, or your classroom! 

Want to be sure you are following IN peeps? Check out THIS list 

http://katts21.blogspot.com/2010/06/greetings-from-indiana.html

 

Would You Starve Your Kids Now, If You Knew if A Famine Was Coming?

So if you knew food would be scarce in a couple of years, would you begin to make your kids know what it was like to be hungry now?  

Of course not.  It is far more likely that you would feed them well, lots of leafy green vegetables, fruits, proteins, make them as strong as they could possibly be so they could weather the tough times!  

We would never have them "practice" being hungry.

That is what I think of every time I am asked the question
"How will PBL students be  prepared to sit in a lecture hall of 300 kids in college?"  

I have kids in their 20's,  all newly in or out of college in the last few years, all three have had to collaborate, communicate, work in groups, present projects, find outside resources and experts, manage an internship,  take responsibility for their own learning and YES, they have had to sit in a lecture hall of 300 or so kids and believe it or not, they didn't need any experience to be able to do that.  The part they needed experience with was how to break down that lecture, apply it to their background knowledge, take and organize notes, find a group to study with, manage their time between work, school and fun, live on a budget, collaborate with others, give presentations, interview, plan for the future and more.

In a recent school tour, middle school students were asked this question about PBL and college, it stumped them a little, college is so far away when you are barely a teenager, their teacher tweeted out the question asking for a little help from project-based learning practitioners on Twitter who use the #PBLChat hashtag.  This crowd-sourced google doc was the result of @RyanSteuer 's tweet.  Feel free to add to that list!

In the meantime....Feed your children well!

(Now that Crosby Stills & Nash song is stuck in my head...Teach, your children well.....)

http://healthandcare.in/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/healthy_food.jpg

Building Bridges of Their Own #StudentsareAwesome

Just about a year ago I gave an Ignite Talk at our New Tech Network summer conference called "Bridges & Fences".  

As I rehearsed for this I could never say the ending without choking up, you can hear in my voice at the end that I barely made it through.  I think it makes me emotional because those of us in education know so many students who are surrounded by fences they didn't build but must somehow get over to reach their dreams and goals.  As educators we try to empower them to build a bridge to get over that fence.

A big part of project-based learning and the culture of schools in our network is  is to be connected to each other, to their community and to the world.  A few weeks ago we issued a challenge to students around the country, "How have you been building bridges?".  We received over 60 amazing 2 minute videos from students that , in spite of the fences in their own lives, are busy building bridges to help those around them over fences.

Take a look at this playlist and be inspired by these amazing students who are building bridges of their own!

I Don't Care What Device You Choose, Really, I Don't.

Laptop, iPad, Android, Chromebook, BYOT, what is a school to do?
The implications of each choice can be far reaching, touching teachers, students, budgets, tech departments and more!

I get asked "What device do you think is the best?" almost every day and, here is the deal,
I don't care what device you choose, really, I don't.
I care about what your teachers & students are going to DO WITH IT. 

So let's begin with a one questions quiz:

Why are we moving to 1:1?

A.  All the cool schools are doing it
B.  We got a grant for iPads
C.  The state says we have to prepare for online testing
D. Our mission & vision support transforming the way we support teaching & learning
E. Worksheets look awesome on LCD screens.

I bet you know which one was the correct!
 
As always you gotta know your WHY  (Thank you, Simon Sinek) before you even begin to think about a device.

Because this is much more than a technology decision, be sure you have lots of voices at the table, teachers, parents, students the tech team and more.

Since I tweet out or reply to an email pretty much every week at this point in the school year around this question,  I thought I would just link right here to the resources I routinely share out.

Many of these links help you get to your "why" not just your "what", but there is also good "what" advice, too.

Implementing a 1:1 Program via Nick Sauers ( @NJSauers )
New Tech Network 's Pinterest Board with BYOD/BYOT resources 
1:1 Essentials Program from Common Sense Media
4 Questions to Ask Before Choosing: iPad or Chromebook via Edudemic
How to Choose the Right Tablet for Your School via @CenterDigitalEd
How to Choose the Best Device for Your School via Adam Webster ( @Cagelessthink)
Project Red
5 School-Worthy Alternatives for Education

In addition to the above articles here are three helpful chats and hashtags.

#1:1techat at 9pm EST on Wednesdays
#BYOTChat 9pm EST on Thursdays
#iPadChat 1pm EST on Wednesdays

I look forward to you sharing resources that you have found helpful on this journey!

http://www.thecleanslate.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/SocialClassChoice.jpg

I Miss People & Sometimes Paper

Like most of you who are a part of a variety of social media networks,  I'm hyper-connected. My cell phone is WAY more than a phone. we have no home phone or alarm clocks, I text more than I talk, at night after I shut down my laptop, I check my phone before going to sleep. I can go days and only get texts, not actually speaking to our kids.

My home office is equipped with a laptop, dual monitors, an iPad and google chat is always open.
Today, I have had  a Vidyo meeting connecting Rochester IN with Napa and Oakland CA. , exchanged tweets with students in Michigan and Indiana.  I have chatted with teachers in Texas, Ohio, North Carolina and Oregon, none of whom I have ever met in person.  In about an hour I have another virtual meeting where three of us in 3 different states will be collaborating around a project.

I work from home and can go days without seeing anyone face to face except my husband and my dog, Brinkley.

Don't get me wrong, most of the the time I love working from home! My morning commute is about 15 steps and I don't have to wait in line for coffee! The dress code is pretty relaxed, too.
  
But I miss people!

A few weeks ago I was able to attend the CoSN conference, conferences, for me, have become a place where I get to meet f2f people I've already talked to via Twitter or blogs for months or sometimes years.  I had no idea how conferences would change in nature for me as I became a "virtual girl".  They are still places of inspiration, learning and conversation, but now, they are so much more.

I'm super excited about the upcoming New Tech Network summer conferences. I'll get to see educators who I've been working with online face to face, to laugh and think together in person.

Also for Indiana's Summer of E-Learning conferences, I'll be attending and/or presenting at many of them. Indiana is the home of my very first PLN by way of the HECC list and #INeLearn.

Ohh and I can't forget two more!

EdCamp Fort Wayne is coming up in May, this will be my very first edcamp and I cannot wait!
Then another brand spanking new conferences in Grand Rapids, MI called Nova Now.  


I also miss paper

Not all paper, just sometimes.  At NTN we use google docs for pretty much everything. I have more docs than I can count (or sometimes find) but for some tasks,  I do better with paper.  I like my to do list on a yellow legal pad.  I make a new one everyday at the end of the day, prioritizing a la Stephan Covey's quadrants.  I have yet to find an app that is more effective for me!

During those virtual meetings, someone is always keeping notes on a Google doc, but I am also taking messy, scribbly notes of my own on that same legal pad.

I wonder... 

As we move towards blended learning, online learning, and less face to face, if we don't need to keep in mind that our students might miss face to face (and paper) too! Let's make sure they get time with people and with paper as needed!