#Authorspeak Day 1 Recap

Today was a whirlwind day of learning for me. I've spent the last hour or so trying to collect my thoughts and think of what I wanted to share and the one one word that kept coming to mind was change. Change not for the sake of change, but for sake of the students in our classroom. Here are the various sessions I went to and my thoughts on them.

Keynote with Daniel Pink

Before the conference, I really did not know much about Daniel Pink. I had heard about him and knew he was an author. Other than that, I really didn't know what to expect. I have to say that I was very impressed with his speech and motivated to make some changes.

The part that stood out to me was when Pink talked about creativity. A study was done with artists. They were asked to create art. Some of the art was whatever they wanted it to be and the other art was very specific commissioned art. After all of the art was made, art experts were brought in to evaluate the pieces of art. It turns out the experts ranked the non-commissioned art higher than the commissioned art. The commissioned art was equal in technique and skill, but the non-commissioned art had that extra something. The results did not really surprise me. It seemed to make sense that people perform better when they feel ownership over their work. This seems like common sense, yet we seem to expect less from our students. It really made me think.

I am a big fan of project based learning and have seen the positive impact it has had on my students. However, the projects are still based on the curriculum. The kids do not get to choose the topic of the project, just the project. What if I gave the kids the chance to spend time exploring the topics they want? What if I used the Google model and gave students 20% of the week to work on something that is important to them? Would I see even better results from my students if they felt like they owned every aspect of the learning process? This is something I really want to explore this year.

Another part Pink talked about was that Merit Pay doesn't work. Duh.

Building a Professional Learning Community at Work - William M. Ferriter and Parry Graham

This was a great session. One of my favorite things was that Bill starts out with telling the crowd what the outcomes of the session are going to be. It's a very simple thing to do and I need to add it to my presentation tool box.

We talked about emotions in PLCs. When Bill asked for some emotion words in their school regarding PLCs, the word frustration was mentioned. I would have to agree with word. I feel the biggest thing I have experienced in the PLC process that has been going on for 8 years in my district is frustration. Nothing has been accomplished in using PLC time in 8 years. Thing that have been accomplished have been tossed aside for other ideas. We spent 8 years on common assessments and do not have one because they are changed year to year for "tweaking". We have no data and things seem to just never get better. We are currently working to renew the PLC process in our building, so we will see where it goes.

Back to the session, the expression of emotions made me feel better because I did not feel alone in my frustration. PLCs can work, but everyone needs to have buy in and the little bits of progress need to be celebrated. That is something that I feel was great to take away. There will be times when it feels like a PLC is sitting in neutral and the smallest bits of progress need to be pointed out and celebrated to encourage the groups to keep working. I really look forward to bringing that idea to my building. No matter how small, progress is progress and needs to be celebrated and encouraged. I was very happy that I attended this session.

Mobile Learning Devices with Kipp Rogers

I'm getting a class set of iPads in my class in the next week or so and I wanted to see if there were some cool things I could get from Kipp. I met him the night before and he was such a nice guy. That might seem random, but I feel that people that I have met that are nice in person tend to give awesome presentations. Kipp gave the best presentation of the day for me. He was engaging and used the tools that he was talking about. He had us using Poll Everywhere and scanning QR Codes from the projected screen. I learned that you can text Google any question and Google will text you the answer. Crazy! Some of the ways he suggested using cell phones were not new to me, but I'm sure they were new to many people in the audience. The session was engaging, light and a good time. The 45 minutes blew by and I was sad to see it end. I recommend picking up his book Mobile Learning Devices if you are using them in your class. You will not be disappointed.

Teaching the iGeneration with William M. Ferriter and Adam Garry

I've already raved about Bill (@Plugusin), but he deserves another shout out. He talked about engagement in the classroom and admitted that his tests scores where lower than the teachers down the hall. I do not know of any person, especially someone speaking to educators who he needs to trust him, that admits to that fact. What it showed me is that he is dedicated to his work and does not judge himself by test scores. I admire that. I have felt the same way with my projects, but it was something different to see someone stand in front of a packed room and say it.

Bill uses Kiva.org with his students to show them the difference between developed and developing nations. Kiva is a site that connects people with developing nation citizens who need loans for their business ideas. Bill's students formed a club, made presentations and have raised over 4K for Kiva. I tweeted that it makes me smile on the inside when I see students passionate about projects involving social good. I was talking with Eric Sheniger in that session during one of our breaks to discuss what was covered about what kids are learning. The presentation showed story telling skills and understanding of music and audience, but there was something else. Empathy. I feel this is something students need more and more. Caring for others outside of their bubble is something all people need to do, but it is something that needs to be instilled in kids at a young age. I feel that could really help solve many of the problems we see later in school. This was another excellent session where I felt empowered to make a change.

I said the word change at the start of the post and it is still in my mind. I do not want it to just be a word. I want it to be an action. I want to do something. Daniel Pink said that it is not possible to change an entire school district or state by yourself. However, it is possible to make something a little bit better every day. That is my goal. I want to make something a little bit better every day. Who's with me?

Walking the Walk

This is the video from Day 2 of the #140EDU Conference that was held in New York. There were many amazing speakers, but I want you, the administration of my district, to jump ahead to the 1:14:30 mark and listen to Eric Sheninger. Eric is the principal of New Milford High School in New Jersey. In 2009, he was against all Social Media in his school. Today, he is one of the biggest advocates of Social Media in Education. He has some exciting things to say.

I've met Eric a few times at conferences and he is just as passionate in person as he is on stage. He has given me great advice on how to use Social Media in my class and I think he makes some great points. To be honest, he makes so many great points I cannot go into all of them here. I will point out a few that I think we should be doing and can do ASAP.


Communication

Eric talked about the old way to communicate with the community. Snail mail and websites are not reaching the people they need to reach. Twitter and Facebook are great and free ways to reach parents and students. While we have a district Twitter account and one high school has an account, why not everyone? Why shouldn't every school have a Twitter account that can send out updates on the great things that are happening during the day? Are there sporting event today? Tweet out the information to the community.

Facebook is a place where our families, friends and students spend time. Why not have school Facebook accounts? You can connect Twitter to Facebook so updates are posted directly on the Facebook wall after you send a tweet. If we really want to reach out to the community and share information with them, we should be striving to put the information in places that people can find it instead of burying on a page on a website.

It's free. What are we waiting for?

Public Relations

Right now, everyone else is writing the story on education accept schools. Nobody is going to hear about the great things classroom teachers do every day if the school doesn't support. Why not recognize some of the amazing students, teachers and administrators in the district? Show off the amazing things that happen every day. We want the community to know about the amazing things going on and we shouldn't have to rely on Patch or other news sources to do it for us. Why are schools afraid to spread the good word?

Student Engagement

I want to end on Student Engagement because I think it is one of the most important elements of this speech. Eric says that his students are excited to come to class and use the tools that he has helped bring into the school. He says that math scores have gone up in one group of students. Not because there was technology, but sound pedagogy infused with social media and technology.

Now is the time to stop banning and blocking. We need to move to a more open technology policy and support the teachers and students that are excited to to try and do new things. My Assistant Supt has been pushing to do some different things and that gives me hope, but we need everyone on board. The question everyone would should ask their administration is why not? Why do we not share great things with the community? Why do we want others to control our image? These are the important questions as we move forward.

The time for talk is over.

If we truly want to be a leader in education technology, we need to walk the walk.

My boots are laced up.

Are yours?

- Nicholas Provenzano
English Teacher
Grosse Pointe South High School
@MrProvenzano

Changing it up - My vocab lesson gets a facelift

As much as it seems like I'm always doing something new in my class, there are some things that I have not changed in the 10 years I've been teaching. I always try and evaluate my lessons every year, The really good ones make it to the next round and the bad ones are altered or eliminated. It takes work, but I feel it is needed to keep my teaching fresh. One part of my daily teaching life is undergoing a huge change for second semester.

For the past decade, I have given students a Word of the Day (WOD). The come in and there will be a word on the board. The students are responsible for writing the word down and finding the definition at home. After 20 or 25 words, the students will have one week to study and there will be a test. As the school year progresses, the tests become more difficult. The tests start with definitions and end with correct usage. This is how I was taught for 4 years in high school and I felt it really helped me with my vocabulary skills. As the years have passed, I have had students tell me they have seen the words on the ACT, SAT and other standardized exams. The lesson worked well. For me, that was proof that my lesson was a success, but was it?

As part of my vocabulary lesson, I accepted that there were going to be students who were not going to study the words. The tests were very much pass or fail. The kids that studied did very well and the kids that did not study failed miserably. As I have moved more towards project based learning, I've started to question my assumptions on who is studying and who is not. Are the students not studying because they cannot master vocabulary using memorization? Is that what is stopping them? my WOD tests are the only "tests" my students take all year. Why? Why can't I change the way I've done something for a decade? Well, I'm giving it a try.

I did not do away with the test. I'm not ready to part with my exams yet. I think I could be there next year, just not right now. I did decide to add a new element that will hopefully help some of the struggling students. As a visual learner, I thought of way to bring the visual elements I like to use in other lessons to the WOD. The AP teachers in the building have students do visual representations of Tone words. It's a cool lesson and kids decorate the room with words and pictures. I've always wanted to do something similar, but never made the connection to my WOD unit. Now, I've decided to blend the two concepts together.

The day of the WOD test, students are to submit 20 illustrated words and definitions as part of their test score. The can draw or use images from newspaper, magazines or the internet to illustrate the definitions. My hope is that the time the students spend on their projects will translate into retention. I want the kids to see the words on the exam and see the picture in their head. I really have no idea how this will work in the long run, but I feel like I needed to change it up a bit for the students who might need a change to be successful. I'm not saying that it is going to stick around forever, but I'm willing to at least look at the difference and make a better judgment on "What works well".


- @TheNerdyTeacher

#rscon10 - My Thoughts

I want to start off by thanking Shelly, Kelly, Chris and Jason for putting together an amazing conference. I also want to thank the other presenters for doing an amazing job and taking the time to present. One last thank you to all of the people that attended the various sessions. Without you, we would be talking to ourselves.

I was bummed that I was unable to see many of the sessions live over the weekend. I was away at camp and needed the time on Saturday to finalize my presentation and deal with some technical glitches. I have been able to catch up and watch some of the recorded sessions and I have been blown away. This truly was an amazing collection of talent speaking on topics they were passionate. There wasn't a single session that I did not make me think about my teaching or my school in general. I have never been to a conference where every session proved valuable and a great use of my time.

I watched the chats as they scrolled by for the different sessions and was amazed by all of the different teachers from all of the world that were spending there time free time, and in some cases sleep time, on professional development. These were educators that wanted nothing better than to take time to improve themselves so they could improve their classroom or school. These are the educators that are going to change the world. It is was truly an amazing thing to see.

The other thing that got me really excited was the fact that this entire conference was put on by educators. I don't mean to say that it is shocking that educators could accomplish this. edcamps have been popping up all over the country and that proves that educator run conferences are possible and successful. These events are the things that are going to make a lasting change on the world of education. I say world, because this is a global issues. Teaching our students the fundamentals of education is the responsibility of the world. Technology has opened up the lines of communication and educators are taking advantage of these connections. There are plenty of talking heads talking about the problems in educations, but here was a conference that was talking about solutions.

The odds of getting Secretary Duncan into one of these conferences is next to none, but if we continue to work together and strive to make education better for everyone around the world, our voices will be too loud to ignore. It is going to be frustrating as we strive to see immediate change, but we have made amazing advances in a short period of time. As long as educators continue to band together at conferences, #edchats, #edcamps and other educator driven events, we will make an impact that will have a lasting impact on the future of education.

Keep fighting the good fight,

Nick