If Not Us, Who? If Not Now, When?

It was a very cool thing today at my school because we rolled out the ELMO Document Cameras. What was really great about it was seeing teachers excited about using technology. It was a voluntary session to come check out the cameras and learn a little bit about how to work them. There was about 20 teachers who stayed (happily) for 45 to 60 minutes after the school day to learn about technology. It was clear to me that the reason for this is that these teachers saw this piece of equipment as valuable and useful in their classroom and that is why they were here.

I wish that we could figure out the way to get this same number of teachers excited about using Web 2.0 tools . The interest is there it is just a matter of selling them on the usefulness of these tools. Our Technology Integration Specialist, John Geanangel does a fantastic job at our school inviting people to use technology, but faces an uphill climb to get teachers to understand these tools. As a fellow classroom teacher I am realizing that it is important for me to help with this process. The problem is that because I teach in a technology enhanced classroom I am viewed as someone who is using these crazy newfangled technologies that are not for the average user of technology. There needs to be a way to break this misconception and I think the best way is through relationships and connections. However, what else can be done to help teachers make the shift and see the value and power of these tools for their classrooms and their students’ learning?

O.K. so it has been a really long time since my last post. Since the last time I posted I have had a lot going on. In particular, I attended The Solution Tree’s 2008 Learning Summit: Learning By Doing. This conference took place in Anaheim, CA at the Disneyland Hotel and was an incredible professional experience. The focus was on the formation of Professional Learning Communities in schools and the impact they can have on student achievement. I was very inspired listening to all of the speakers (Rick DuFour, Becky DuFour, Rick Stiggins, Bob Eaker, Robert Marzanno to name a few) and came back to my school on fire to make real changes (I started a new blog for the school “A Journey Worth Taking“). Since that time as a school we have started to have some really good conversations about the purpose of our school and the direction we want the school to go and some action has started to take place. One of the best things that has happened is that teachers are starting to truly collaborate and use each other as a valuable resource. In 5th grade we are working on aligning our standards across the grade level and we are developing common assessments. In fact, on the next Science unit we are about to start we are going to use common assessments and compare results and use this data to help us figure out how to address the students that have not mastered the content.  It is funny how all of us have come to the realization (it seems so obvious now!) that working together makes us more effective teachers and holds great potential for impacting the learning of ALL students.

So, while I am in the middle of these great gains in my professional practice I am also considering a career path change for the next school year. I have recently applied for a job in our school district known as a Technology Integration Specialist (TIS). This is a position that I have always had an ambition to pursue, I just didn’t know that I would be pursuing it so soon in my career. I really would enjoy this position because it would allow me to share my passion for educational technology with other teachers and help show them the many benefits of these powerful tools. It just feels weird to be considering leaving the classroom when I am in the middle of creating real change in the system. My concerns are definitely premature since I haven’t even reached the interview stage for the TIS position, but it is just such a weird internal struggle that I am feeling. I really want the TIS position I just don’t want to feel like I am abandoning the journey for change that I feel so strongly about.

Is there anything quite like actually engaging the students in a learning activity? There is a certain excitement or rush that comes from a lesson that goes the way you were hoping, when you can see the students not only doing the learning activity, but wanting to do it. It is amazing to see the type of work and the complexity of things that students can work on when they actually care about it.

In one of those kind of light bulb moments I decided that I needed something in my math class that would truly engage the students in the lessons and it came as a complete accident. As a joke when I was telling students their scores on an assessment I was doing Deal or No Deal with their scores (not for real, but it amused the students). It was interesting how excited they became by playing this game. As I sat later that week watching an episode of the show I started to make some of the math connections (probability, fractions, percentages, etc.). I decided at that moment that I was going to work out a lesson using this game. I made a Deal or No Deal board using Smart Notebook and student sheets, where half the class are the players and the other half are the bankers. We then played the game and the students loved it. Most importantly they started to make the connections with fractions and converting fractions to percents. Also, the bankers were using a formula for mean (a measure of central tendency) and rounding to come up with offers. These students were working with math concepts in real situations and were totally engaged, it was awesome.

After working with these lessons I thought about how the use of technology is often thrown out there as a way to engage the students and what I have found is that simply putting technology in the hands of the students is not a guaranteed way to engage the students in the learning that is required in our current educational system (Standards-Based). It takes more to engage the students, like making it something they can connect with on a real world level. I have branched off of this lesson and looked at statistics from ESPN and the students saw where the skills we were using in our game of Deal or No Deal were also applicable in the world of sports (statistics).

I really love the use of technology in the classroom and fully support it 100%, but in my growth as a teacher that attempts to embed technology in my classroom I feel an increased sense of responsibility in using the technology in more meaningful ways with the students. I have reached the point where it is no longer enough for me to say that the students are using technology, instead I need to be able to say that they are using it in meaningful ways. I see technology and the world of Web 2.0 as an invaluable way for students to make connections and put their learning into meaningful uses, now I must continue with the commitment to make this vision a reality in my classroom.

Web-based Tool Recommendation: Voicethread - As a little something extra I thought I would start trying to include some sort of link at the end of posts. This time I am recommending Voicethread. At this site you can upload images and leave comments about the images. The neat thing about this tool is that it gives you the option of recording a message instead of just typing a message. I see this as having great potential in the classroom to generate conversations about topics and engaging students in new ways (especially those reluctant writers).

I just got done reading Jeff Utecht’s blog The Thinking Stick and he had a post about the value of having a presence or a network for educators. This post struck something within me that I actually posted a comment. I have been thinking about this a good bit recently because sometimes I feel like I am strictly writing to myself in my blog and that is not the true purpose of the blog.

I would love to develop a network of readers. People who could give me feedback and comments. I would love to have a blog that starts dialogs, that has meaningful conversations that lead to some new thinking. The question becomes then how do I develop this network? I know I could e-mail the link to people and ask them to read it, but then it seems like a lot of pressure because it has that feel like “Hey look what I did” which then brings up the insecurities of what if it does not interest them.

I feel a weird transition happening where I am suddenly not as concerned about whether or not I have something of value to say, but now I am more concerned about do I have anyone to say it to.

I have started to see my first feelings of resistance to the new ways I am running my classroom. It is difficult for parents to adjust to things being done differently in the classroom than what they are used to seeing and with the way they remember it being for themselves.

I am very fortunate that I have a very supportive principal who gets it and gives me the opportunity to explore my passions in the area of teaching. I mentioned that I am seeing the first signs of resistance and it is coming as a result of parents not being used to grading being flexible and not the driving and motivating force in a classroom.

I am really coming to terms with the fact that doing what I think is right and in the best interest of students is not always what is easiest on me. I am realizing now that by attempting to lead something you are putting yourself out there to be questioned and perhaps criticized. I also realize that it would be a lot easier to simply fall back and join the crowd and continue on the path that has always been followed.

It has been weighing on me over the last several days, but I am shaking it off. I am determined not to go back and while it is not the easiest path, I am going to push forward.

Once again I am attempting to get this blog up and running. I have often struggled with a title that is catchy and that reflects my feelings about this blog. I have finally settled on “If Not Us, Who? If Not Now, When?” because it reflects my ideas and feelings about the current educational system. I know that we can do better.

I just recently got together with a friend of mine who is also a teacher and we decided that we both needed some pushing to get going with our blogs. It is interesting how people often share the same fears and anxieties, even though we think we are the only people who feel that way. We had the conversation that we sometimes shy away from doing a blog post because we feel like we need to have something deep and profound to say. So rather than post something that doesn’t match with these ridiculous ideals, we simply don’t post anything at all. The time for that thinking for us is up. We have made a pact to do at least two entries per week.

I am trying some interesting things in my classroom this year that are less conventional. I believe that things can be done better than the way they are being done currently and I know a lot of other teachers feel the same way. The problem is that often times we know something and we do a lot of talking about it, but that talk rarely becomes actions. I am now saying it is time for action.

I have readjusted my grading policy this year to be “A, B, C and Not Done Yet”. I have committed myself to setting criteria for mastery and identifying what the different levels of mastery will look like. I have even helped encourage my grade level Science teachers to meet on a weekly basis to develop common mastery levels and common assessments.

I feel like I am growing immensely this year as a teacher and I am going to see the results in my students’ learning. It is an exciting time, but it is also a time of anxiety. I am on a journey (or perhaps leading one) and there are days when I am not sure anyone else is coming (or maybe they’re not ready).

O.K. so in my first post on this blog I said that I didn’t intend on this being shared publicly. I have changed my thought on that. I have been reading Jeff Utecht’s blog The Thinking Stick and he recently had a post about rethinking the purpose of blogs. He discusses how blogs intentions are not strictly intended to be virtual diaries, but rather as an opportunity to have conversations and to invite people’s thoughts and stimulate thinking. I really love this idea because as a teacher I really want my students to become thinkers. While the state requires that my students have knowledge about certain standards of content I think it is just as important that my students learn how to think and acquire the necessary skills to be successful in an ever-changing world.

I think this also goes along with an idea that I saw on Justin Medved’s blog Medagogy in which he talks about losing the use of buzz words like blog, wiki, and Web 2.0 and instead he refers to what they really are like “collaboration and sharing” and his description of Web 2.0 as “the here and now”. This is so true yet I talk with educators that feel like they don’t have time to start using “that stuff”, but I don’t think they realize or understand that it is not really that much different than applications they are already using, it is just a way to globalize ideas and information. For me and my students this year we have been doing class and student blogs and had a great experience when 5th graders at the Shanghai American School in China commented on one of our blog entries. This exposed myself and my students to the power of “the here and now” by seeing first hand that students all the way in China are sharing information and collaborating with students in Lexington, South Carolina. HOW COOL IS THAT!

R.B.

Welcome to my blog. I have actually had this blog for several months, but this is the first post I am making. I am a 5th grade math and science teacher in a technology-based classroom. I am viewing this blog as a place for me to reflect as a practitioner and expound on my philosophies of teaching as a profession.

I apologize if that last line comes across as pretentious as it sounded when I read it back, but the truth is I am not creating this blog with the intention of it being shared publicly. However, if you do stumble upon it and would like to comment I would love to hear from you.

RB