Twitter??!

     It has been very interesting delving into the seemingly chaotic world of social media this past week.  I have discovered two very important things. First of all, I realized that I know nothing about navigating through social media.  The second even more astounding realization for me is that I have had a profound misunderstanding of the power of social media. Through the website,Simplek12, I was able to listen to a webinar on using Twitter in the education world.  I had set up a Twitter account over a year ago, but did not know what to do with it. I never even tried to send a tweet nor could I think of anyone I cared enough about to follow.  I just don't care that much about what other people are doing at any given minute of the day.  I saw that people were adding hashtags to everything they posted on line, but I just didn't see why I would ever search #cutedog.  I wondered why people would want strangers to find their day to day happening that were posted.  What I realize now is that there are different worlds even within the world of Twitter.  There is a huge network of educators out there using twitter, not as a chronicle of their personal lives, but as an enormous sharing platform of information and professional development!  I do have to admit, the information is vast and comes at an alarming speed.  At the same time though, there are resources out there to help organize this information and in time I believe I might be able to master it.  A great deal of time.
     What troubles me most, however, is the amount of time is has been taking me to find the information I need and the time to absorb the information that I do find.  School has not begun yet.  Our staff meetings begin tomorrow, and in just a few days the school will be filled with life again; time will begin to fly by.  Getting classroom support will be difficult.  Our small school does not have a media librarian or technology department to turn to for support.  It is a "catch 22" kind of scenario. I know that there is a world of support information out there, but without the knowledge of how to find it, it does me no good.
    I have to keep reminding myself to take baby steps.  I know more than I did last week and I will learn even more next month.  I am really looking forward to beginning the new year and once again being among colleagues who are struggling with the same questions as I am.  As I try to learn new things,  I need to take responsibility for my own learning.  After all, that is exactly what I am trying to inspire within my students.

   As a new year begins this video deserves to be seen by all dedicated teachers who struggle with finding new ways to reach and inspire their students.  Thank you TED talks for opening our minds to new ideas!

Whose Voice Do They Hear?

     It is now 2 weeks before school is open and the smiling faces of students fill their desks.  I feel as if I need at least another 2 weeks to get myself ready for the whirlwind to begin.  I have been researching the digital classroom for weeks now and I continue to find ideas and resources.  I've been trying to reconstruct how I view technology in the classroom and hope that I can get the support from my administration as well as students and families.  As I am thinking of how to give my students a voice, I stumbled upon this TED video. (I am addicted to TED videos!!)  It came at a time I had been wondering and recently discussing with a friend how facebook and Google track our interests.  Especially now that I have been researching the digital classroom, everywhere I look on line something new appears on the subject.  I have to admit it has been useful to me in looking for new resources, but it worries me also.  It is much like the days when I actually went to a bookstore to buy a new book.  The first thing I would see were the books on display quietly saying "Buy Me!".  Of course, those were the first books I would look at and often purchase.  It was easier than searching aimlessly around the shelves of books for something I may be interested in.  I know it was all about marketing, but it was easier to buy something on the NY Times Bestseller list then deciding for myself. The problem is  that I have passed over so many wonderful books I know I would have loved, and perhaps that would have challenged me to learn something new. 
     Now the same thing is happening with our search engines, only with greater consequences. This TED video by Eli Pariser is a must watch!

 



   It is important as teachers that we not only guide our students in finding their voice in the world, but we also need to be concerned about whose voice they are hearing themselves.  Is it their own curiosity that is leading them to discovery or is it Google giving them what they already know.  It is important that as learners they are exposed to  different sides of a story and not just their own opinions and ideas.  How do we counter act these algorithms that decide what information we see and what we don't?  I suppose being aware is the first defense.  Alan November, in his book Who Owns the Learning, explained how he gave a challenge to students to do an internet search on how the British view the American Revolution.  The results were non-existent.  He went on to show how by using Google advanced search, one could find the information from British websites.  This will have to be my next focus.  How to effectively use the advanced search features to access non biased information.

     My students are growing up in a world so different then the world I did!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We Try Harder

      As I begin to plan lessons for the upcoming year, I wonder how I will incorporate blogging into my lessons.  Starting with writing assignments seems to be the place to start, but I suppose I could use it across different subject areas as well.  But I also realized that I need to start small and build momentum.  I know from experience that new ideas are great, but too many at one time can lead to disaster.  If I truly want to give my students a global voice, I must be careful and try not to control my students’ progress.  Doing for them is often easier than having them figure things out for themselves.  Of course, that would negate the very thing I am trying to give my students; their own voice.    My family is very involved in the Boy Scouts of America program and I have to admit I have learned a lot from how this program is run.  The focus of this youth program is in creating strong leaders.  In order to produce great leaders, you must let them lead.  It does not mean that you let them do whatever they want, but rather guide them and provide the opportunities where they can learn for themselves.  Prominent in the scouting vernacular is the EDGE method of leadership:  explain, demonstrate, guide, and enable.  The most important part of this I believe is being able to guide without doing.   Not giving up control, but rather guiding the student onto success.

     It is also important for me to keep in mind that not everything is going to be a success.  I need to keep trying anyway.  The other day I was shopping in a little eclectic, vintage collectors shop.  On display for sale was a little pin that I remember from when I was young, the early 1970s.  The pin was a small white circle with the words: “We try harder.”  I remember getting one of these buttons in school as a reward for doing well on an assignment.  It was a reminder that even if we don’t succeed at first, if we try harder, we will be a success.  The act of trying harder was rewarded.  I know that not everything I try will be a success, but we will just have to try harder.  I need to remember to celebrate each step as I sail through uncharted waters.  Even the missteps will help to guide the way.  We will succeed because we will try harder!

 

KH

The Wall of Darkness

     Yesterday my husband and I traveled from New York to Sedona, Arizona.  It was a long day of traveling.  Because I have never been to Arizona, I was very excited to land in Phoenix and anxious to see the beautiful red rocks that I knew awaited us in Sedona.   Leaving the airport in Phoenix, I have to admit I was very disappointed.  I am not sure what I expected, and I am sure Phoenix is a lovely city, but to me it looked flat and uninviting.  I was eager to start our 2 hour drive to Sedona.  Although the highway views were a bit more interesting with the occasional group of saguaro cacti and some unusual rock formations, again I was unimpressed.  By time we reached Sedona, it was dark and we were very tired.  We pulled into the resort and I just prayed for a unit with a view.  We found our unit and there it was facing the parking lot.  It was disappointing to say the least.  But I am a forever optimist so I thought to myself:  no big deal, we don’t plan to spend a lot of time in our room anyway.  When I woke up in the morning my husband had already been awake and was outside reading on the balcony.  I asked him if he was enjoying the view of the parking lot and he laughed.  He said he was and I should come out and join him.  This is what I saw.                                      

 

 Sure, we overlooked the parking lot, but the walls of darkness had blocked the spectacular view beyond.  

      I had a very similar experience to this several years ago when I visited a dear friend in Seattle Washington.  Her home had a panoramic view of the city and the mountains that lay beyond.  My sister and I were taken by the beauty of the mountains that was our daily backdrop.  My friend however, just laughed at us and told us we needed to wait until the mountains were out.  Clearly, to us, the mountains were indeed out and they were beautiful.  One day during our stay we woke up to our friend telling us to get up because the mountains were out.  We stumbled out into the living room, and were rendered absolutely speechless.  Beyond the mountains we had been looking out each day rose the highest, snow covered peaks we had ever seen.  I never imagined something so magnificent could have been there all that time, and yet be hidden.    We thought we had already experienced the beauty, but we had no idea of the potential that was hidden by the clouds and haze.

     As a teacher, I feel like that visitor enjoying the view, without truly understanding the potential of what lies beyond.  I have been excepting the walls of darkness and have vowed to make the best of things.  We need to start looking past the darkness, past the haze and clouds and reach out to the world beyond.

Crumble, crumble, crumble

KH

 

An epiphany

     My head has been spinning with ideas of how I can use blogging in my classroom!  It has been hard to think of anything else.  Now that August is here, my mind is on school and tomorrow I leave for vacation.  Today I had an interesting experience I would like to share.  After spending the day painting shelves in my classroom and planning how I was going to set up my room,  I met up with a colleague of mine. We spent some time discussing different ideas we have for the coming year.  She too is excited about the possibility of opening up our walls and giving our students purpose in their work.  Like me however, she is a bit overwhelmed with how to make it work in the classroom.

    I left school with plans to pick up some items I needed for my vacation.  As I was shopping in Costco, I was very distracted and realized that even though I was going on vacation, it was getting ready for school that was really getting me excited.  While I was waiting on line, I did what everyone does and took out my cell phone just in case someone messaged me since I last checked (10 minutes ago!).  I found a notice that I was tagged in a facebook post.  A post written by the same colleague I was speaking to at school.  She had shared my blog to her facebook friends and encouraged them to read and comment on my posts.  My first reaction was: oh no, someone might actually read what I had to say!  Funny isn't it.  That is the point of a writing a blog in the first place.  After the initial fear faded, I realized that it was actually very exciting to think that people I don't know might read what I have to say! I felt the urge to rush home and write some more.  Imagine if my students were given the same opportunity to write with the purpose of having others read what the have to say.

     Instead of giving my students traditional writing prompts, we do daily reflections.  I choose an item, word or idea and my students are asked to write about it.  They can describe it, tell a story about it, or share a memory about it.  They start off the year loving this idea.  I have gotten pages written about a simple Hershey Kiss!  Sometimes they share the reflections, but sometimes we don't have time to share as a class.  By the end of the year, the excitement of a daily reflection has waned.  Many times my students ask me what I would write if I were to write a daily reflection.  I always tell them that I wish I had the time to write my own reflections or any other writing assignment.  I have actually tried several times to complete a writing assignment along with my students, but I never get anywhere.  I love to write so I was always frustrated that I could never motivate myself to complete any of these assignments.  The truth is that I have plenty of time.  If I can spend hours pinning on pinterest, I certainly have time to write a daily reflection.  It is clear to me now why I could never motivate myself.  Why bother?  Who was going to care?  There has been no purpose for me completing any of the assignments I had hoped to.   Having an audience changes everything!
 
     We teach our students to analyze text to find the author's purpose.  Is the author writing to persuade, inform or entertain?  Foremost, the author is writing to communicate with the reader.  If there is no reader, no audience, there is no purpose. 

   Those classroom walls are beginning to crumble!


KH