Technology Habits for Teachers - Planning Professional Development

Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it’s useless.

Thomas Edison (Inventor)

A year ago we started using this infographic with our faculty: 7 Habits of Highly Effective Effective Teachers Who Use Technology. It started more as a motivational idea, but actually became part of our planning and implementation of the professional development activities. Depending on the topic, we will share one or more of these to open up our learner centered professional development. I love the simplicity of the seven habits and it has really helped us move forward with many instructional initiatives connected to Instructional Technology. 

Here are a few examples of how we've used several of these habits:

• We use the habit of embracing change to get people started with a new resource. For example, this is a great starting point to introduce and new LMS or Gradebook.
• We use the habit of sharing to get people to collaborate and share their learning  both in our PLCs and embracing broader PLNs. Here is an example in our PLN Challenge. 
• We use the habit of why to start conversations about how the technology could support learning.  We shift the focus away from the tool and on the pedagogy the tool can support. 

Think about it: 

• What other Habits might you suggest? 
• How could you use these Habits to support teaching and learning? 

Additional resources: 

• 7 Habits of Highly Effective Tech Leading Principals
• 7 Highly Effective Tech Habits

My Day at NSTA

The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them. -William Lawrence Bragg

NSTA 2015 Conference

The NSTA Conference is an incredible event filled with science teachers of every size, shape, and teaching style. The diversity and skills of the educators at this event cannot be truly described. Add to the incredible educators is the incredible Vendor Area. (Probably the biggest I've ever seen. I hauled out 3 bags of cool stuff. I was a bit conflicted as an Environmental Science Teacher.)

Most of the time I love being a learner even more than a teacher. Believe me, I love being a teacher a whole heck of a lot. I consider it a boring day when the only questions anyone asks me are the ones I already know or think I know the answer to. 
When it comes to environmental science, technology, and online resources for teachers I sometimes fall into a trap of forgetting how much I don't know. No worries about that at the NSTA a conference. I found many new inspirational questions.

So what questions am I looking for answers to after my first day at the NSTA Conference?

• What can the Argo Buoys tell my students? How can I use the data to support learning and engage my students?
• What are the Next Generation Science Standards? How will they help my students "Change the Word" (Courtesy of Bill Nye!)
• How do we think like an expert without being an expert in the content? (We want students to learn to behave like experts. Not no it alls, but learners who solve problems like the experts.)
• What is 3 Dimensional Learning and how can I use it with my students?
• How did Bill Nye become and expert on taking selfies? (You had to be there!)
• How did I not know about so many of the incredible resources the vendors shared today? (I actually have 3 full tote bags for of some awesome learning swag! More to come tomorrow!)
• How can I use more formative assessment to support learning and improve my teaching?

I guess its time learn some new things and be inspired.

This is my secret to staying young - Never Stop Learning!

Teachers - You Must Share to Learn and Grow

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

I love being a teacher because of the constant need change. There is something new every year, every month, every week and every day. Yes this can be stressful, difficult, time consuming, but it is never dull. I always tell anyone who will listen that if I ever start to believe I am good enough, I will quit teaching. While perfection may be out of reach, it is a great goal.

There are 2 things that have changed my teaching and learning in the last 5 years than anything I've ever done connected to being a teacher. I've shifted from a teacher centered content delivery machine to a learner centered facilitator of learning and student choice. I thought I was good at what I was doing before and maybe I was, but I am better at what I am doing now. I owe this fundamental shift in my teaching philosophy to both face to face interactions and my online social network, including:

• My Digital PLN: Twitter, Google+ Communities, Pinterest, and many Educational Blogs
• My Personal PLN: PLCs in my District, EdCamps, Google Summits, and ICE Conferences

I tried an experiment a few weeks ago with the teachers in my building. My idea was to engage them in digital Personal Learning Networks. Our building is full of incredible educators who share incredible things in our established Personal Learning Communities. Many teacher present and share what they now at local and national conferences. The only area where I don't see extensive engagement is online. I wanted to see if I could change this, so I created the PLN Challenge.

The PLN challenge seemed like a great idea, but it was complete and utter failure. Two teachers in a building of 300 staff engaged and tweeted to our district hashtag: #iplearns. Reflecting back, I think I failed in the delivery of the challenge. I believed that sharing the challenge through our Department Chairs and ILT would be enough to get the ball rolling. I did not take an active role encouraging teachers to participate. I did not help teachers who might be new to Twitter. I did not do enough to convince teachers how powerful a personal learning network could be.

We learn from failure, and in the future I will approach encouraging teachers in a more active way. I'm still thinking about how to best accomplish this, but digital PLNs are too powerful of a learning tool to ignore. I plan to take what I learn from this first attempt and turn it into something better.

How do you promote / share the power of Personal Learning Networks? 

A few PLN resources:

• Edublogs Teacher Challenge - Building your PLN
• Tips to Building a PLN
• A Teacher's Guide to Twitter
• A Teacher's Guide to Pinterest
• Google+ for Educators

Why Blog? - Inspired to Get Started Again

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." 

- Mahatma Gandhi

Last night I was able to participate in the second half of the ECET2 Twitter Chat immediately after I left the kids with mom to finish up our nightly bedtime rituals. (Read Stall-tactics if you have kids.) It was an early bedtime for the boyts after a weekend of them all being up later than they probably should, but that is not the inspiration for this post.

Sunday nights do not typically allow me the time or energy to jump into Twitter for a fast paced Twitter chat no matter how interested I am in the topic. The topic questions all focused on blogging as an educator. If you take a look at the archives of this Blog you might notice that I don't appear to be a very active blogger.  (Not my first go around at blogging, but the first one I've come back to.) It was not a topic I expected to engage in, but when I opened my Twitter feed their were a couple of posts that caught my interested and I was hooked.

Here are the first Tweets that caught my attention:

I quickly became fully engaged in the conversation and before I realized the conversation shifted in my direction and I committed to becoming a blogger again.

I love being a teacher because I love learning. I also love sharing what I learn because I believe that I always get back more than I give. Twitter has been my outlet for a larger audience, but I realized that last night it was not enough. I am convinced that I can using Blogging as another tool to share and learn.

It will take me some time to land on the best direction for this blog, but until then I will enjoy the journey. Thank you to everyone who inspired me. Feel free to let me know what you think at anytime.

Check out ECET2 on Twitter for some inspiration for yourself.

20% Rule

Google asks employees to set aside 20 percent of their work week to projects outside of their normal workload.

I have a 9 year old and two 6 year old boys at home, and they each love to learn in their own way. They are constantly asking me questions or trying something to see what happens. I know they are just kids, but I would imagine they spend more than 20% of their week interested in something that is not homework or a lesson from school.

In contrast, many of my high school students seem to have lost this curiosity about the world. They don't ask questions like why or how, instead they ask me, "What do I need to know?" or "What is on the test?"  Did adults, schools, and teachers do this to them, or is this just part of growing up? This is a question that has been on my mind for years.

In our current education system that is based high stakes testing, how do we inspire students to learn for the sake of learning? This is where I come back to Google's 20 percent rule.

I recently read a post by Paul Solarz, a 5th grade teacher in Arlington Heights, Illinois, titled "Creating Passion Projects (Genius Hour)." Paul and his students have been following the 20% rule this year; however, it does not look like it was a quick and easy process. It did not happen overnight, but his students look like they are truly engaged during their Genius Hour.  Paul used the chart below to organize his students, and I love this part of it:

"As they researched, students added details to their KWHLAQ Chart (in the "L" Section). If they had any trouble finding what they wanted to know, they filled out the "A" Section with ideas for how to find the information. Any new questions that they came up with while they researched were written into the "Q" Section." - Paul Solarz

A little more research led me to the Genius Hour Website, and a video by one awesome kid talking about genius hour. I believe this might be a path to reignite the love of learning in some kids.

The end result? I am inspired to try this in my own classroom. I'm going to start small with a simple project after our AP Exam. My students are going to use the KWHLAQ chart and take a class period to create something about anything that interests them. I hope to be inspired by my students. I hope it is not too late for them to show me what they can really do.

What a wonderful place the world could be if everyone asked why and how instead of just what.