Connected in a Crisis #DigCit #DigCitSummit

The other day, my school had a lockdown. It started during the last few minutes of the school day, so it seemed odd for it to be a drill. Standard procedure has the teacher shut and lock the door, pull the shade, and move students out of possible view of the door. Students are to remain quiet and stay off their phones. It turned out that this was not a drill. A student claimed to have had gun in their backpack.

Thankfully, the student did not have a weapon. While we were locked down, I was keeping students quiet and had to keep telling them to put their phones away. We do this to prevent students from sharing information on social media that could possibly aid an assailant and to prevent wild rumors from going around that could cause other problems. Rumors spread anyway.

When the lockdown was called off, a student of mine proclaimed he knew what happened. He said someone had been stabbed across the street at a local market, the assailant ran into the school, and they had a gun. I told him this was ridiculous and that he should not have been on his phone. The principal came on the PA and explained what had happened shortly after the lockdown was called off because rumors had gotten out of hand in the brief 20 minute window. How wild? Local news stations were reporting the false information as fact. Take a look at this article.

A student started a random rumor on social media because they thought it would be funny and it was reported as fact. Less than 20 minutes and the message had spread throughout the community. Parents were scared. They needed to find out if it had been their child stabbed. The police had to check to see if this were true or not. Time and energy was wasted on this wild goose chase while a potentially serious situation was unfolding in the building. This is why Digital Citizenship needs to be stressed.

I took the first part of every class I taught the next day to explain the seriousness of these false tweets and posts. Explaining to the students that misinformation in a crisis could lead to loss of life really shook some of them. The look on some of their faces told me they had never even thought about it.

We want to be connected during a crisis to let our loved ones know that we are safe. That is one thing, but spreading rumors is another. This was a terrible situation that needed to be used as a teachable moment. Posts have consequences and a crisis is not the time for jokes or rumors.

I hope teachers will take this story and share it with your classes if/when you talk about Digital Citizenship. Our posts have power. We must remind our students and remember this ourselves.

Hugs and High Fives,

Nick

Fear Leads to the Dark Side #EdChat

“Fear is the path to the dark side…fear leads to anger…anger leads to hate…hate leads to suffering.” - Master Yoda

This quote stands out to me when I think of education and change. One of the biggest road blocks to change is fear. When I see teachers angry about change and hating on new ideas, it leads to fear. Fear that they cannot teach in the new model, fear they will look stupid trying out the new ideas, and just general fear for that their every day teaching lives is going to be thrown into chaos. However, we need to fight our fear or succumb to the Dark Side.

The quote does a nice job outlining what happens when new ideas are brought to some teachers. At first, they are angry that there is something else for them to learn and use in the classroom. They move to resent and hate the new idea or tool because they are being told to use it. The students will suffer because the teacher has decided not to embrace these ideas or the teacher will suffer because they are being left behind. It all starts with fear.

A Jedi needs to face their fears. A truly great teacher must face their own. This could be trying a new cloud based tool or the Socratic Seminar in their class. It could be anything, but facing fear can lead to many great things. The environment also needs to bet set in such a way that allows for trial and error with support. Luke had Yoda to guide him while he faced his fears and it is important for schools and districts to offer mentoring and coaching for all teachers willing to take on new ideas and face their fears. Asking anyone to go it alone is cruel and leads to the Dark Side.

Moving forward, take a look at your environment. Does it support facing fear and taking risks? Do you have a coach or mentor that can support you on this journey? Can you support someone on their journey? The Dark Side is a place too many teachers end up because a system of support was not in place for them and the allure of easy path is too hard to overcome. I believe that all teaches have the ability to be a Jedi. What are going to do today to make that possible?

Hack The Book Contest! #MakerEd #EdChat

So many amazing people have reached out and shared how much they love "Your Starter Guide to Makerspaces" over the past week. It has really blown my mind. I love hearing how people have connected to the pop culture nerdiness of the book. My favorite part of the book is where I ask people to Make. This is what I really want to see from people that have bought my book. I thought a fun way to encourage people to share their Maker awesomeness is to create a little contest. The winner will receive a brand new autographed copy of "Your Starter Guide to Makerspaces" and a Raspberry Pi 3*! Here are the guidelines for the contest.

On page 90 of the book I wrote,

"Hack this book! I want you to think of a way to use this book in a way that I never conceived. This can be something crazy or something tiny and simple, but I want you to stretch your hacking muscles in fun and creative ways."

Once you have hacked your book, you need to do 4 things:

1. Take a picture and share it on Twitter and/or Instagram.

2. Tag me in the picture (@TheNerdyTeacher on Twitter and TheNerdyTeacher on Instagram).

3. Add the hashtag #ImAMaker and #MakerEd

4. Share a link to my book on Amazon.

For those who bought the Kindle version, you can show me a cool hack using your device and that would count as well.

You can enter more than once if you have come up with multiple ways to Hack The Book! The best Hack will win the Raspberry Pi 3 and the signed copy of my book.

The contest will end on Sunday October 30th, so get hacking!

Thanks for everyone that has shared their Making stories with me so far and I can't wait to see the great things all of you are going to do over the next few weeks.

Happy Making!

Nick

*Raspeberry Pi does not endorse this contest, I just thought it would be a cool prize to give to a budding Maker. 

#Makerspaces and ELA #MakerEd

I received a great question on Twitter today and gave a short Twitter response, but I thought I would write a more detailed response.

@thenerdyteacher -Burning question of the day: as an ELA teacher, how do you connect makerspaces to your curriculum? cc: @MsJohns1314

— Dr. Andrea R. Pleau (@DrPleau1) October 11, 2016

For me, Makerspaces and ELA make perfect sense. The reason for that is because I do not believe that they are for STEM courses alone. Makerspace advocates need to make sure they leave room for the "A". Of course, the "A" stands for Arts. For me, that includes English Language Arts.

Makerspaces are places that allow students to create things and explore ideas they interest them. It can be very easy to leverage this in an ELA environment if teachers are ready to embrace project based learning. PBL is where you can get students Making and fully using the Makerspace.

I love to give students the flexibility to demonstrate understanding using a variety of projects that they create. A Makerspace will give them a location to meet and create with peers.  These might be 3D designs, quilts, Raspberry Pi programs, green screened videos, and so much more. The Makerspace gives students an opportunity to explore and that is what makes PBL so exciting. Teachers do not have to drop a Makerspacce in the middle of their class and expect students to create in ELA. Makerspaces needed to be offered to students as a chance to push themselves when it comes to demonstrating understanding. With more access to tool, the more likely students will be to try new things. They will be even more likely if the teacher is willing to model some of the cool tools available in their own classroom.

Makerspaces are just another tool that teachers can use to allow students to create. In ELA, I encourage students to use it to demonstrate understanding. How would you use a Makerspace with your classes?

Interested in creating your own Makerspace for your school or classroom? Check out my new book, Your Starter Guide to Makerspaces and get started today!