Back to the Classroom

The 2014-15 school year was a transitional one for me. It was my first year working in a role outside the classroom since I began my career in education in 1998.

My role this year as an instructional coordinator in the nation's largest universal pre-kindergarten program roll-out provided me with a lot of insight and knowledge about the behind-the-scenes work at the DOE. It also provided me the opportunity to expand my scope of work beyond one class and one school. My favorite part of this role as compliance officer, thought partner, supporter, resource fetcher was the time spent in classrooms watching teachers interact with students, and having conversations with 4 year-olds while they built block structures or painted a portrait.

I was excited to broaden my work scope and engage with teachers and students at multiple school locations. I was motivated to get out there and be in classrooms, but as the year progressed I realized how much I missed the classroom. Although I only spent one school year in this role, it was a great learning experience for me.

Due to life changing at a pace that sometimes I can barely keep up with, I am thinking about how I have already left this role I really wanted to be in, to go back to what I think is my biggest passion and enjoyment - teaching. Stepping out of the classroom made me realize how much I still wanted to be in it, but needed a change of scenery. Knowing me and my desire to keep things changing and moving, I know I will transition in and out of the classroom again as I progress through my career. So my new adventure of heading back into the classroom in August is extremely exciting to me. New school, new environment, new part of the world. The opportunities available are unlike any I have participated in so far. The world is at my fingertips! To say I'm excited is an understatement. This opportunity has been in the works for some time, and it's finally coming to fruition.

Looking forward to sharing the experiences!

Professional Reading

In my ASCD Voxer PLN, someone was asking about some good ASCD reads. We found ourselves recommending books so I thought, why not write a little about reading.

My routine - I tend to read a professional book simultaneously with a non-preofessional read to balance my mind between work and imaginary. Since the fall I've read a few professional reads, and unfortunately my pile of books never gets smaller, it keeps growing and growing. Sometimes I choose the book that seems the most relevant for the moment in my role, and others I chose because of interest.

1. Eric Jensen's Engaging Students With Poverty in Mind 

What I learned from the book: The discussion of the "seven engagement factors" was helpful as were the practical actions and solutions to engage students living in poverty. While the structures and suggestions are geared for students living in poverty, I'd use many of the actions and solutions with any students.

2. Richard Dufour & Michael Fullan's Cultures Built to Last: Sytemic PLCs at Work 

What I learned from the book: Zeroed in on the difference between accountability and building capacity, and the reasons why systemic change is hard but necessary.

3. Pete Hall & Alisha Simeral's Building Teachers' Capacity for Success: A Collaborative Approach for Coaches and School Leaders

What I learned from the book: Learned about a continuum for teacher practice and a practical approach for offering feedback to teachers. A valuable read for building a safe and positive culture of professionals who can trust an learn from each other.

4. Marilyn Chu's Developing Mentoring and Coaching Relationships in Early Care and Education 

What I learned from the book: Suggestions around specific mentoring and coaching strategies for early childhood educators. Great reflection questions and informative coaching/professional development plans.

5. Derald Wing Sue's Microagressions in Everyday Life (currently reading)

What I'm learning from this book: Wow, what am I not learning. A very informative read about society, how we judge people, and how the unintentional judgmental looks or comments we make can have a profound physical and psychological effects on groups of people.

What are you reading?

Growing Your PLN

Why is it that having a personal and/or professional learning network even important? Well, particularly as educators, we signed into this deal to educate. And that includes educating ourselves. Let's face it - most of us are obsessed with learning, we are that dedicated. Learning pushes our practice forward, and our lives in general.

www.educatorstechnology.com

As you can see in the graphic, there are so many ways to be a #connectededucator with an active PLN. So if you're new to education, or not - maybe just new to PLNs, here are three places you can start growing your PLN, and also some ways to sustain it!

1. Workshops - Let's face it, we've been to tons but generally don't make the most of them. At every workshop there is another teacher who is bound to be someone you should stay in touch with for practical daily classroom advice. Many times you go to the workshop, you learn, and then leave. No, no, no! Stay in touch with this person so you can plan together via email, FaceTime, or a GoogleChat.

2. Conferences - When you spend a few days with the same group of people at a conference that you all share an interest in, you will definitely find a group of people you will want to stay in touch with. Remember it's not enough to get names, you have to set up a communication plan like I did with my ASCDL2L group. We didn't want to lose the connections we created at our first conference together in July 2014 so basically the next day Brad setting up a Voxer group where we communicate with each other almost daily. Can't imagine life without my Voxer group now!

3. Twitter - Isn't Twitter just for putting a status update? No! Twitter is a network full of educators from around the world. Start following chats with hashtags like #edchat and start following some of the zillions of educators. Edchats are structured conversations guided by questions on a particular topic and followed with a conversation hashtag. You can jump on these daily conversations whenever you want and they will help you get connected to many educators from the same or different regions, and give you a lot to talk about with like-minded people.

Some of the value I gain from my PLN:

hacklibraryschool.com

How do you stay connected? And if you are not, get to it!

Why Write?

Why not?

But as a leader in education, who has the time to write? Well, in order to grow professionally sometimes you have to carve out that time at first until it becomes part of your routine.

Writing is an integral part of teaching and learning. To me, writing is one of the best ways to share not only expertise, but what you have been learning, what would you have read, what's happening in your classrooms or districts. I value the blogs that so many educators write to reach beyond their immediate community and get their ideas out to other educators.

I've met a lot of educators in recent months who are writing to be published, or have already published works. To say I'm envious is an understatement. But the only person who can make me write more is me. For me, it's about getting my ideas sorted out and sticking with it. I often have so many ideas to write about, I start many pieces and never finish any. The good thing about that is, I can always go back because the ideas really never become obsolete, and sometimes sitting on a piece for a time enables me to get a clearer picture of what I actually want to say.

In all honesty, writing is a great outlet to reflect and decompress from our busy days in classrooms, with teachers or principals. It's about becoming more and more reflective as your career progresses, and that says a lot about someone.

www.bushagenda.net

EdCamp=Awesome

This weekend I went to my first EdCamp.  The place - Roslyn Heights, New York.  Lovely venue, great networking, wonderful vibe.

If you haven't been to an EdCamp, please find one and go.

Edcamp is place where educators go to share their ideas, thoughts and expertise with other educators in a semi-structured format.  Anyone can present or lead a discussion on a topic of choice and sign up for a time slot to share.  Presenters may or may not have prepared beforehand, it's completely up to them.  Sessions are a place of sharing and learning from each other.  No need to sign up for a session either, you go to the ones you want in part or whole.  What a concept! Going to a professional learning event to learn what you want to learn, ideal.

My take-aways included learning how to make an app and how to transform professional learning for teachers.  To me, that's huge for being there for only a few hours. Definitely time well spent.  Looking forward the next one!

http://edcamp.wikispaces.com

The Importance of Being Prepared

Have you ever been to a meeting or workshop where the presenter was unprepared? Or you thought you were prepared to teach or present at your workshop but you missed some details in your planning, forgotten copies or props? I think we've all been there at some point.

The last couple of days I've been visiting school sites to make sure they are prepared for their little ones to arrive. What I saw was amazing. I can't tell you what a treat it was to walk into classrooms and see how prepared administrators and teachers were to begin their work with their incoming children.  Those little 4-year olds were engaged in activities and structured play right on day one.

Preparing programs, lessons, professional development sessions and workshops take a lot of time and energy, but it's valuable and necessary energy.  Being prepared shows you are invested in what you are teaching or presenting, and that you are passionate about what you do.  Investing your time and sharing your expertise is always worth it when you are educating children and their teachers.

www.mannaexpressonline.com

Building Your Team

Monday was the beginning of a new chapter in my career in education.  I started a new position, working with a growing team on a huge new initiative in New York City schools.  Walking in Monday meant meeting 25-30 new people in one day, not to mention those in other offices that are working on the initiative with us.

Knowing half of our team was new, Monday was planned as a team building day.  We participated in a number of getting-to-know-you activities, ones I'm sure you have also participated in at some point in your careers.

Why are these activities important?  Well, as leaders, taking time to get to know your team both personally and professionally will provide you with information about the strengths of your team players.  These activities will an able you to observe interactions among your team.  This is crucial information in developing a sustainable and productive working environment.  Regardless if most of team is new or not, convening after hiatus is an ideal time to strengthen your team.

"You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation." - Plato

www.malaysia-adventuretours.com

How can you build team relationships and morale when there is so much work to be done in our field?

There are a number of ways.  Here are some:

1. Come into each meeting with a smile and a positive outlook.

2. Greet your team daily by thanking them for their dedication and work.

3. Treat your team as the professionals they are. Give them flexibility in their schedules and trust their judgement. There's a reason you hired them.

4. Surprise your team with treats or lunch on occasion.

5. Check in with your team members by simply asking how they are feeling about what's going on.

6. Establish a culture for sharing feelings.  We are all human.

7. Ask questions that elicit thoughtful conversation, rather than provoke judgement.

8. Take a few minutes once in awhile to participate in a new team building activity together.  

9. Take pleasure in working together as a team. Enjoy the time.  Remember - you share a vision.

These ideas are simple, but you will be surprised how such simple ideas will create a culture of positivity and trust in your team.  It's all about building relationships.

Pausing Job Search

So in the midst of wrapping up a school year in June, traveling in July and as we speak, organizing myself - I put my search of an online teaching position on hold. However... I did manage to secure a new position a couple of weeks ago.

It may not be an online position yet, but it's a position I look forward to very much. I am transitioning into the role as an Instructional Coordinator in the Early Childhood Office. I can't wait to work with teachers, supporting them with their instruction and developing as professionals.

So my search will remain on hold temporarily...

Landing the Job

Ok, so I finished my course. I have my Certificate in Online Teaching. Completed with above 100%. Awesome!

Now what?

Well, it kind of feels like I just finished college and I don't know what to do. But I do know. And I know how to do it!

At least I already have my full-time career in order (unlike a new college grad), now I just need to make a switch. Hopefully a fairly seamless one. I need to get searching for those online positions for real and rigorously. I need to commit to the search and get myself a new job! I'm really excited about staying in teaching though, I just like this more flexible idea of facilitating in my pj's if I want. And that I don't have talk to anyone if I don't want to. :)

So here I go! Let the real searching begin!

www.lovethispic.com

Assessments? Oh Man!

www.relationaladvantage.com

As an elementary teacher, my poor little 8 year olds are benchmarked, standardized, and field tested out the wazuba. It is not my choice to administer them, but they are a reality of school. Fortunately, I give them the opportunity to demonstrate their learning in other ways throughout the year.

Teaching online requires assessing too. Fortunately again, the assessments in your course don't need to be standardized tests either! If you want to include them in your course, you can, however you can use any other alternative assessments for your students can apply their learning! Way more fun!

So here's a short list of many alternative assessments you can use in your online course.

1. Research papers
2. Power point presentations and other presentation platforms
3. Journals
4. Info-graphics
5. Blog posts
6. Discussion board conversations
7. Case studies
8. Pod casts
9. Video presentations
10. Speeches

I'll stop there. You get the idea. There are so many ways to assess learning - and none of these assessments are tests! So when you create your course, you'll want to include a variety of assessments to capture all the knowledge your students are learning and synthesizing.

Now let's examine two of my favorite alternative assessments.
The first is the reflection journal. I use this currently with my 8-year olds and I will use this with adult learners. When students can articulate content knowledge in their own words and provide examples through writing, you know analysis and synthesis of content has taken place. To me, reading reflections are a glimpse into the learner's mind about specific parts of the content you've delivered and what the student's mind has captured as important information. Reflection journals provide insight into the learner, allowing us to see where both gaps in knowledge and deep understanding reside.

The second would be some sort of info-graphic project. I would call these 21st century "posters". I am a visual learner, as are so many others, and I always value a well-done visual presentation of information. Choosing key content and carefully chosen or created visuals that really add to the meaning of the text is a very powerful synthesis of content. The creation of info-graphics can be as simple or as complex as the learner wants to make it. There are millions of examples to look at which are all very unique, so this really captures the learner's creativity.

These assessments are actually fun to grade and a lot more interesting for your students to create. Which ones will you choose?

www.livewireskills.com

Resources:
Module 3 - Assessments in Online Classes (cmu content)

Assessing Learning in Online Learning - http://itle.okstate.edu/fd/online_teaching/assessment.html

Inforgraphics as a Creative Assessment - http://home.edweb.net/infographics-as-a-creative-assessment/

Journal Writing as a Teaching Technique to Promote Reflection - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1472640/

Engage!

How engaged would you want to be in an online course? Probably very - that's why you decided to take an online course in the first place, isn't it? So if that's what you want in a course, that's what you should plan for your students.

There are tons of ways to interact and engage your learners in an online class.

How's the level of engagement here? Ha!

Basically, students need to engage with you and I (the instructors), the content, and most importantly - each other. And there was no engagement in Ferris's class was there? Not with the content, the students nor the teacher! You don't want this to be you in your online classroom.

Of course you will be engaging in conversations with your students from the start of the course. Your students will know your availability and how to reach you from the syllabus you provide.  You will engage them from the very beginning through your materials, an opening email or message, and your connection will remain throughout the course. Keep interacting through the discussion board or chats so your students continue to feel valued in the course.

Now, let's look at engaging with content. Are you engaged right now? Yes? Well, you are reading! But do you want to only learn the content by reading? You watched a video with audio, didn't you?! Your senses are working! Think about incorporating videos, Power Point with audio, podcasts, Prezi presentations, or a web field trip! You may be teaching adults, but learning the content should still be fun and interactive. As an instructor you can learn how to create new ways to deliver your content too!

Your students have engaged with some of your content, so next they should be interacting with each other about the content. People are valuable resources, and sharing experiences and knowledge with colleagues is often the best learning. So - host webinars, chats, online meetings! Open up your discussion board for Q & A's or other topics. Allow your students to engage in conversation about the content as much as possible so their understanding deepens.

So, how do you feel about engaging your students? There's a lot to consider but I think I'm ready!

www.iap2.org.au

References:

• http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ890707.pdf
• Discussion Board Blackboard 9.0 Generating and Facilitating Engaging and Effective Online Discussions
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP0mQeLWCCo&feature=kp
• Google image - www.iap2.org.au

Thinking of Teaching Online? Me Too!

I have two Bachelor degrees.  Those were the ones that I actually went to a campus to get, because well, I didn't have a choice.  There was no online learning when I went to university the first two times.  The "online" was limited to the library research and accessing the occasional email.  But now… we live in an interconnected wireless online world!

So to advance my education and move toward 21st century ways of learning, I took my Master of Education online.  Yes, I was apprehensive.  This was very new to me.  But in the end, the experience was awesome.  Intense, yes.  But so worth it.  It's been a couple of years since then, and now I'm thinking about expanding my horizons to teaching online.

With every life change, what do we do?  We weigh the perks and potential challenges of the new life event, so I've been doing some reading about it, and here are my thoughts.  I've even been participating in a course about teaching online.  I have to see if it's for me, don't I?

So here is what I've come up with so far.

Perks of Online Teaching:

1. This is my wheelhouse.  I've been a teacher for 11 years, and worked in education for 15 years.  Seems like a logical fit.  Education at all levels is the foundation of a strong society.
2. I still get to teach! It's new avenue for me, but teaching is teaching.  I'm ready for the change!
3. I get to participate in the creation and facilitation of online communities! That is really amazing.  This is a new level of teacher pride.  Just because the learners are adults, does not mean there isn't teacher pride when conversations are fostered in the content you deliver.
4. I can create my own schedule!  Yes, deadlines are always looming, but let's be real about this.  I don't have to be tied to a set daily schedule.  Wiggle room in my schedule can exist!
5. I play a role in somewhere achieving academic goals, such as completing a degree program.  That's incredible.
6. I love the student-centered approach to teaching, because I believe it's how students learn best - students of any age.  There are so many fun and engaging ways to build and deliver content AND tons of exciting activities for students to participate in!
7. Because I am very organized and sometimes overly internet-connected, I know that I would effectively manage communicating with students by returning emails and providing feedback for assignments.
8. I could facilitate a- or synchronously, or a mixture of both.  People have busy lives and it's hard to always be able to connect at the same time in an online meeting or chat, so… why not provide both options.  Flexibility is beautiful!
9. Building the content on different platforms will be a fun challenge.
10. I can facilitate from anywhere.

Image credit: www.theenglishteacheronline.com

Potential Challenges of Online Teaching:

1. There will be a lot of reading, responding to emails and grading.  Grading is not new.  The emails, well, some will be fine and some - meh.  This, I know, will be overwhelming until I get into the groove.
2. Once in a while there may be that belligerent student that will argue about the grade and the feedback.  Good thing I'm a peacemaker and know how rubrics work :)
3. I might spend too much time monitoring my online community… I get obsessive and meticulous about things …
4. Building quality content is time consuming and a lot of work.   But see number 9 above.
5. I can facilitate from anywhere.  Will I eventually become less motivated because of distractions?  Knowing me, probably not, but it's a possibility!  Number 3 above is more likely!

Image credit: leftyconcarne.wordpress.com

Hmmmm…. I think the perk list wins! This seems like a journey I should take.

Are you in?

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References:
Hanover Research Council. Best Practices in Online Teaching Strategies,  July 2009.
Hrastinski, Stefan. Educause Quarterly, Number 4.  July 2008.  Asynchronous & Synchronous E-Learning: A study of asynchronous and synchronous e-learning methods discovered that each supports different purposes.