NECC 2009

We're getting ready to practice and I'm a little nervous!! Please let me know if you need a copy of anything we shared with you today. You are welcome to join our discussion on ning but as Bill will tell you, there are many ways to find us online!

Information Literacy

A friend requested a hard copy of this video. I'm going to try to attach it or link it up here somehow...


This was a project for ITEC 521 at UMW-Information Literacy in the Digital Age. This was a very small class and the four of us worked together to make this video as a culminating project. We also had to write a paper to go with it that was published in the VSTE Journal.

Enjoy! I especially love the music! :)

lovely snow

The weather outside is a bit frightful but the fire IS delightful...I was glad to see that school was canceled and a bit disappointed that the doctor's visit I've been anticipating for over a month and a half was canceled. Hmm. Guess you can't get everything you want out of a snowstorm! I have to take my dog outside into the wind and the snow for a pee break, but before I do let me say that I haven't really changed my approach to my team since last I wrote. Things are still as up in the air as they were a few weeks ago. I've seen more evidence of competition on the team and people rushing to be first. I would like to think that the rushing is really a matter of doing what is expected or asked of them and not communicating with all involved. But I'm not sure. My friends at work are being really supportive. We're all sort of living in this atmosphere of uncertainty. I don't know what my job will be next year. One of our 'group' will be transferred to another school next year. The rooms and teams are being shifted around. There is a clear misunderstanding about what is going on in the county in our school. People seem to think that the transfers are going to be replaced by veteran teachers and they're not. That's just not going to happen. But I guess they will have to see it to believe it. But in the meantime, we're all trying to laugh about it.

The snow day is a welcome break from the routine. As my mother in law just told me on the phone, it will all work out. Don't fret. So I won't fret.
No links to share today...so get off your computers and go help your neighbors by shoveling their sidewalks or something.

Puzzling

I sat through a meeting on Friday and found myself in a downward spiral of thought. The pulsing in my brain that was subtle enough in the morning for me to pocket a tylenol for 'just in case' became a raging rush of frustration personified by the end of the day. By the conclusion of the meeting my face and my words reflected the pain (literal) and frustration pulsing through my being. And here's what was on my mind...
Towards the beginning of the meeting, the most recently accepted scenario of who would be reduced from our team as part of the budget cuts was challenged. An entirely different scenario suddenly was put out as the 'new reality'. I had to laugh only because it put me in a new position, possibly more favorable. I wasn't relieved or excited, only laughing because the change was unexpected. It took the reality that was once so comfortable for some people on our team and made it uncomfortable.
I realize that in this time of economic distress that self-preservation is often the first and then final concern. And maybe it's my personality or my over sensitivity, but I felt the air of competition rise up. The hiring dates versus school board confirmation dates were suddenly important. I just didn't want to think about it.
I guess I was raised to not take my situation for granted, ever. As soon as I heard that my position was in jeopardy, though not my employment I accepted it as a true possibility. I guess that I wanted to see a sort of selfless acceptance on more faces on my team instead of the picking and worrying in a public forum about decisions and details out of our control.
I felt the competition in the air and it made me angry. I don't understand why it's difficult for people to understand that in this situation, the change in our team could be completely arbitrary as people in higher positions will let it be. We can't control their decision-making process. Those who want to be involved with the influential side of it all-that might just be the way to go. But the feeling in the room was not constructive, it was competitive and I hated it.
So the theme for this writing is puzzles. I want to just put the thought out there that these times are puzzling. The pieces will all come together(eventually) into a picture that makes sense. In the meantime, we have to do what's best for our schools, our teachers and our students. That is our piece of this crazy budget puzzle. We have to keep in mind that there is a larger puzzle to build and that our team is a part of that puzzle. If we must serve to preserve something, perhaps it should be the TEAM. The focus on self and away from the team may lead to self-preservation in the short run but what will happen in a year when things are not better and we're fighting the same battle or even more likely-fighting to preserve the idea of the team's entire existence. If we fracture into teeny tiny pieces then we make the puzzle that much more difficult to solve. We lose the idea of team as the key to success to the individual need for self preservation.

Don't get me wrong, I worry a bit about where I will be next year. I am not sure that this blog post helps me out too much! But I do know that I will succeed at whatever it is that I am asked to do and I know that I will do my best to reflect well on our team. So I'm going to go work on a puzzle and relax for the rest of the day...tomorrow will surely present its own opportunities to fit into my part of the puzzle.

Blech Ech

It is the time of year when teachers face the decision of either going to work sick or staying home. Unlike many other jobs when there is an additional person to fill in the gap of a missing employee, the teaching job doesn't allow for an absence quite so easily. You would think with a job like mine that I could miss without too much guilt but it's not so easy. I went to work today under a certain amount of stress and feeling quite green. I needed to not be around the eighth grade classes I was working with in the varying temperature environment of our building. I looked around and while working on the project, I was also evaluating my effectiveness in that room versus out of the building.

We face a great deal of guilt when we miss work. There are loads of people that need me for one thing or another as each day goes by but I don't know how truly helpful I was today. Was it better for the overall project that I was there? Was it better that I didn't miss a Monday? I really dislike missing work, almost as much as I hate the internal debate of effectiveness in the face of illness or life's errands...Blech Ech!

Yo Gabba Gabba!

Yo Gabba Gabba is a show on Nickelodeon. It is a little bit psychedelic, at least the characters are! I had never heard of it until one of my teacher friends was supposed to dress up as one of the characters for Halloween. I think the premise is that music and dancing helps build the confidence and expressiveness of the characters and the viewers. I don't remember the trippiness of children's shows from when I was little. Did I block it all out? Or was puppetry enough for our imagination?

As crazy as it is, I love how it gets the children to sing and dance. It helps me remember that the way I learned is not how all children learn. I need to keep that in mind-even when teaching the adults. I don't think I will wear crazy costumes and dance, but the thought will be there to modify as needed!

What's Your Secret?

I think I've mentioned this community art project before. It's fairly well known and I've seen reporting on it in mainstream media. I occasionally peek in on the blog to see what kinds of things people have to share and the thoughts that are trapped in their minds. Some are quite frightening though others are not that unfamiliar. Tying it all back to education :) a teacher could do a project like this with their students where they write post cards from a character in a novel, a person in history, a caricature of an idea and share that character's secret in an obscure but artistic way.

My favorite post card up there right now is the one about how self-help books haven't helped, but Tupac is. I had to laugh a little, but I identify with that one a bit more. I don't agree with somebody seeing a post card on the site and taking it as a sign (it's okay to leave your partner and take off) or fate. I really do like to look at it like I'm in a gallery of art work. It is all about expression and I suppose artwork can be about interpretation. But I prefer to put the value of a piece in the intention of the author rather than the perspective of the reader.

I'm an English major so that argument bears a little more weight with me than it might with others. I'll try to be better about updating my blog!

Healing Bruises

My bruise from the fall over the bench is almost all healed! yippee!
I am currently at the National Harbor in MD just on the other side of the Potomac from Alexandria. I had a great day today working as a volunteer in Registration. I met people from all across the country as I blabbered my way through explaining where to find things and how to correct the typos on their tickets. I'm looking forward to the week and getting to hear a few new things and get the gears rolling forward (instead of backwards?!)
I'll update more tomorrow :)

How do you define wisdom?

I spotted this one through David Warlick's blog. I peek in on his musings every now and again :)
There was this link to this video and information about a book. It's a 5 minute or less collection of thoughts on wisdom from some of the influential individuals from the older generation.
It is worth your five minutes to give it a watch.

How do you define wisdom? How do we impart that upon our students?

A good dose of humility

I was reminded while reading Maya Angelou's new book, Letter to My Daughter, that a healthy dose of humility is in order in my life.
I fell clean head over feet first today onto a bench as I was walking in one direction and fussing at kids in another. Smash! I now have big bruises on my legs and a few scrapes and an achy knee to show for my Monday. I should have kept my mouth shut and allowed the person trying to take care of it to handle it...
Humility.

Our wireless is not doing what it should be. I am taking it in stride. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. I just have to remember that we are growing, shaping, moving in sort of an amoebus blob...it's not all going to go smoothly and I don't know best all of the time.

And lastly, humility again...I can't do it all. I am juggling a few too many things as a result of my interest and excitement rather than my realistic energy and ability to follow through. I am back to basics with trying to play catch up and not appear worse the wear for it. It is tough. Teaching can be like that I guess but today did not give me many opportunities for reflection and growth. It was more like eating a ridiculously large bowl of pudding, tiny spoonful by tiny spoonful until you're full and then over-filled and yet still eating. I'm just realizing how much I've taken on and I'm overwhelmed. So the humble me is stepping back and taking account. Tomorrow I have to make a list and get to work on getting through it. And I have to watch where I'm walking and let people help me when they are able so I don't go flying over any more benches.
Ouch.

Virtual Field Trips

We're just getting started in Spotsy with distance learning. The definition to distance learning can include many of the things we have in place in Spotsylvania, but there isn't really a definition in place yet. It's hard to say where we're headed with distance learning but we will definitely be participating in some virtual field trips. Even virtual field trips can include different types of interactions with content. It might be that there is a guide or docent in a video conference at the actual location you or your class is visiting. Virtual field trips might also be more like webquests or web journeys where the student or class is interacting with content and video and/or photos of a location.

It's fun to see the individual reactions to the equipment. We are using Tandberg's video conferencing equipment for video conferencing. As people contact me or other locations to test their audio and video, there is a childlike glee as we see each other in the image and can hear each other across the distance. If we can retain the glee and combine it with some hard work and creativity, we will have a winning initiative in Spotsylvania County. Please share resources as you find them...

an Education in Communication

Work and life are so inextricably linked. I definitely appreciate the convenience that technology offers. I think that the benefits outweigh the detriments when it comes to enhancing communication. We have come up with solutions for communicating announcements, newsletters, emergencies, grades, assignments, etc...to our students and parents. I think with every new development comes the need for a re-evaluation of communication. We should be evaluating whether we are depending so much on the new tool that we are forgetting how effective human contact truly is.

Case in point (referring to my first sentence), I'm trying to finance the purchase of my husband's car. I had the option of applying online with the promise of a 24 hour response. 96 hours later, no response. I finally contacted them through a site they provide for tracking the status and then 24 hours from then, I had a response that they tried to contact me and left a message "to no avail". To no avail?!? Talk about NO MESSAGE on any of my three numbers,no email in my inbox, no follow through, no help. And they cancelled the application. Now I have to call THEM. The supposed convenience of applying online left me with more questions than answers and there was no easy way to get my questions answered. It's a case of poor communication and ineffective follow-through.

As educators, we have to be aware that even though the convenience is there, sometimes the best thing to do is check on the customer and make sure that everything is working splendidly from their point of view. Hurray for progress but don't forget the customer and that sometimes we need the human contact.

Lonely Nights in Education

I'm sitting in our computer lab waiting for parents that aren't coming. I'm supposed to be sharing our online parent resource and our online course management system as part of our curriculum kick-off. It's sort of an SOL kick off, but we don't use the anachronym SOL anymore ;).

I don't blame them. There aren't that many of them to start with. Part of the issue is lack of involvement. Don't get me wrong, we love that there are probably 25-40 parents with their kids here tonight. Awesome. But what about the others?

But necessity is the mother of invention, or so I've been told. I need parents, I need communication, therefore I need something different. I think that for the next night (which would be a parent conference night) we should do something related to internet literacy. I'd also like to get the kids involved somehow. It's all doable...but it doesn't make the next fifty minutes of my life any less lonely or any more enjoyable!

Education Makes me Tired

My job from day to day could include everything from showing a teacher that the reason their monitor doesn't work is because their monitor isn't plugged in to deciding whether or not a site visit should include one, two or more representatives and how to best broach that with my potential host...It can be exhausting. What can sometimes be deceiving about what I do is that it does sometimes require sitting at my desk. I spent a few hours today on a newsletter and on a distance learning initiative. I had an online meeting using Communicator where it may have looked like I was talking to myself to the average passerby. Work (thankfully) requires that I be out and about but on days like this I struggle with understanding why I'm so tired after spending so much time in one place.

It's a different kind of teaching in what we do as ITRTs and it requires planning, just as planning in the classroom does. But today I felt the zeal start to seep back into my fingertips. I was multi-tasking and keeping it all together. I managed to finish a few things I set out to finish and I created goals to finish other items in the next few days ahead of me. It is a lot like being a classroom teacher, there are just different types of items to juggle.

I also have to apologize for the blatant sarcasm in the previous post. I felt it, I meant it and please note that I did include Education in the title of this post. Oh-somebody called me a socialist today for my political tendencies...hmph. I wonder if they'll still want help with their SMART Board tomorrow? :) LOL

Education Education Education

Perhaps if I throw the word education in the title and sporadically throughout the posting then I will escape the filter for a few more days. Education is the reason for the season. Education spurs off fun words like educators and educational and even edutopia. Perhaps the remainder of my postings will be more conscious of the use of the word education. I wouldn't want any of my readers to miss out on the connections between my thoughts and education. They are almost all about EDUCATION even if the title hasn't included the word in the past. I will carefully consider each title in the future to make sure that I reference education. I wouldn't want to stray too far away from the purpose of this educator's blog. Perhaps I should change the title to Something about Education to Share!

But most importantly, perhaps I shouldn't rant and just be okay with the fact that my educational blog has been unblocked. I'm thrilled. Now if I only had more time to share my educational thoughts in my blog...

My Blog is Blocked

Today my blog is blocked at school. GRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!

Intimidation and Change

This afternoon I went with my husband out to Pendleton Golf Course to ride along as he played nine holes of golf. He was insistent that I try swinging a few golf clubs and I was quite insistent that I NOT try swinging a few golf clubs. I won :) mainly b/c he was supposed to take me shopping today and he didn't...but my reasons for not trying it out are 1) fear of failure and 2) intimidation. Last time he tried to teach me, he laughed at me and I ended up crying and quiting. (I'm hyper sensitive.) So as I looked at the other people at the driving range and then at him, I definitely wasn't inspired to change my current knowledge of my golf swing. I like riding in the golf cart and watching the occasional PGA event on tv. It doesn't cost us loads of money (golf is an expensive sport) and Stephen has something he can enjoy without me. But if I weigh the overall pros and cons of learning versus not learning to play golf, I have to say that I'm going to lose this battle eventually. So is it fear of change? Or am I intimidated by a daunting new skill? Or afraid of failure?
It seems that I have to look back at what I have already written regarding change and progress and start expanding my approach towards the teachers I work with.
Here's to a new school year!

A driving experience

To get away from technology integration for just a few minutes...Yesterday I went with my husband up to Summit Point, WV for the Audi Driving Experience. It was FUN! I didn't think I would spend the day enjoying myself. I thought I was there for moral support and a person to keep him from driving up there alone. WELL! I was wrong. Stephen had the opportunity to drive a new 2009 A4 on a track and then do a comparison drive of comparable models from Lexus, BMW, and Mercedes. I could have done the same but I was scared. Something about high speed turning in a car that isn't mine just gave me a nervous tummy. BUT I did get to ride with the instructor in the lead car and that was uber fun! I got to ride along as he instructed the drivers behind us (including Stephen) in navigating the turns and looking ahead/anticipating the ride and staying together, etc...and while he did that, he managed to drive the super beautiful Audi S5, hold the radio he was using to instruct, listen to a second radio from a control point that connected all of the instructors, and maintain an interesting conversation with me. Talk about multi-tasking! Matt, the multi-tasking instructor, is a rally car driver with a calm driving demeanor and a good sense of humor. We managed to get a laugh about how our jobs are similar in teaching adults about new things and how 'interesting' that can be! It was very fun. I'll share a picture and links later but it was very very fun. Did I mention that I had fun? And if you think I had fun, you should talk to my husband. He had LOTs of fun, excepting the fact that his wife was in the car with a cool Audi instructor just one car ahead! LOL :)

Relaxing

Yesterday a co-worker told me that it seems like I've been at work every day this summer. :) I haven't been there every day, but I will say that I have been working a bit in the past few weeks. I've learned that I've got to do a better job with planning out my summer work. My brain has taken a vacation even if my body has not.
It's been difficult for me to focus. I don't know that a vacation away would cure me of my brain's holiday! In the meantime...I just found the muppets on YouTube. Gotta love Beaker! Enjoy!

Change for the sake of progress

I have been thinking lately about teachers and their reasons for not changing things in their classrooms. Teachers are full of excuses (some of them good ones) for not changing habits of practice in their rooms. There are teachers in every school that are doing things virtually the same way they have done them for the past ten years. Now, that doesn't make them horrible teachers or horrible people. It makes them pretty average. They may or may not have a formula for success that doesn't need changing. BUT what happens when we apply the same thought process to the REAL WORLD...

Ten years ago, I didn't have a car and my friends catered me around during my senior year of college. Not one of my college professors used a projector or (God help us!) an interactive white board. There was no blackboard access. We used to depend on the phone--landline! to communicate urgent messages. If there was an emergency, you had better hope the radio broadcast the message. The only cell phone in my life was a big one my dad bought for his work travels. Internet? Well, I was accessing email through dial-up at my apartment. Internet research? I was able to do more of that from school with a higher speed access. It wasn't a google started search though...strictly databases. The Internet wasn't so much for entertainment or daily information YET. I had a part time job at the continuing education office-then underneath the cafeteria- setting up video conferencing courses and video-taping them for archiving purposes. I spent lots of money xeroxing articles to take home for research papers AND to make copies of my papers for classmates to critique. I relied on email to remain in touch with friends abroad and had no inexpensive way to contact them. If a group of us had to write a paper, we had to sit together and hash it out face to face in a small room in the library. If we were lucky, the small room had a white board to help us outline in multiple colors! Paper maps were the way to find your way from place to place. I guess we called places for directions...did we have mapquest 10 years ago? Sharing pictures meant printing them out in multiple copies. Sharing video? Are you crazy? If somebody wanted to know more about me, they had to ask me or ask around at school...maybe if they saw my room they could surmise some conclusions from the posters on my wall or the cds stacked next to my boom box. CDs--the storage! and VHS--the quality!

Things have changed in ten years.
DVDs & cell phones & Internet & search engines & wikis & blogs & online course management systems (blackboard, angel) & MWC becoming UMW & UMW opening a graduate campus NOT underneath the cafeteria! We can email documents to each other rather than mailing them or making a bajillion copies! We can meet in virtual spaces online without too much trouble. Everybody has a cell phone. We complain about those people that share 1,001 photos of little baby joe taking his first steps. YouTube is highly entertaining...Napster came, went, and came again. Mapquest! GPS systems in your car and in your phone! Phones that are organizers and photo and video cameras! I have my very own car (yay!) and I'm not schlepping to a part time job anymore. DSL, Fios, Fiber?! Facebook & myspace...Thank goodness for HDTVs! & HD Programming...say goodbye to analog programming in just one more year...
Things have changed and I'm not even talking about the classroom.
Teachers resist change and cite that there is 'no need' for change. Why fix it when it ain't broke?
I'll tell you why. Change can equal progress.
Progress indicates forward movement. Our schools and our students need some serious forward movement.
Do we expect our children to succeed in today's world in the classrooms of AT LEAST ten years ago?
How can we depend so highly on things like cell phones, mp3 players (ipods), cable, high speed internet access, DVD players, GPS, computers, cars with fancier computers than the mechanics of ten years ago could fix, digital information management, online shopping and banking, email, texting, etc...and yet resist them in our professional environment? What kind of real world environment are we providing our students to not have the very things that shape our real lives as part of their instruction? Our schools need to experience a change so progressive and so profound that it would be monumental--a complete shift in educational practice and theory! But the thing is, we are living in that world already. That shift has already occurred in our real lives. Change has equated to progress in our real lives...so what is up with our schools?

I think I was inspired to write this post by the cell phone touting, email checking, chatty teachers from a class I was teaching a few weeks ago. I bit my tongue to not fuss at them like 7th graders. I wanted to say, "Do you see yourselves? You would NEVER let your students walk in with a cell phone, an iPod! You would kick the email checking, IMing student out of your room!" Why are we granted one level of expectation and our kids another? Are we really protecting them? Is that truly the best excuse anybody can offer? Because I think we're punishing them...they are not learning to effectively multi-task. They are bored with worksheets...I mean SERIOUSLY!! It's not that it bothered me that they were exploring and multi-tasking. It bothered me that the same people doing these things are the teachers that YELL at their kids for similar behaviors. They are SHOCKED that kids would think to carry their cell phones when we tell them not to. They cannot believe that they would dare to use a proxy to get around the filter. OMG! But why is it okay for them? Perhaps because it is a part of them that they can't disable while sitting in a classroom. Perhaps it is a part of their life and their need to communicate and work and multi-task...so again, why are we yelling at kids for doing the same thing?

I had some incredible teachers (Mr. Holder, Mr. Hills, Ms. Yalen, Ms. Mills, Ms. Wilson, Mr. Head & others) without all of the technology stuff that is available now, but they drew us in to the real world experience through projects, discussions, problem solving...many of the 21st century skills in the 20th century environment. But perhaps the integration would have been fluid in project choice, podcasts of important class lectures, notes posted online in a wiki for the class to modify...the curriculum would have been enhanced. It's not about change for the sake of change. It's about change for the sake of progress.