Finding a #MysterySkype Connection for Your Students

Mystery Skype is an educational game, invented by teachers, played by two classrooms on Skype. The aim of the game is to build cultural awareness, critical thinking skills, and geography skills by guessing the location of the other classroom through a series of yes/no questions. Other variations can be used for different content areas.  Classes can play “Mystery Element” or “Mystery Animal” in science class, “Mystery Number” in math class, or “Mystery Historical Figure” in history class.  It is suitable for all age groups, from Kindergarten through college, and can be adapted for almost any subject area.  Some general guidelines that I’ve typed for my teachers can be found here: Mystery Skype Guidelines

Once people learn about Mystery Skype and the student learning that results from playing, they immediately want to begin setting up connections for their students.  In this post, I will share three easy ways to find a partner class for your next Mystery Skype game.

Skype in the Classroom Website

If you have never taken the time to explore the Skype in the Classroom (SITC) website, drop everything and do it now. In addition to Mystery Skype connections, this site will allow you to find authors, scientists, social innovators, and experts who are willing to talk to your students via Skype call to enhance their learning. There are also Skype Guide lessons which will teach you how to use Skype in your classroom and how to best use the website to create amazing learning experiences for your students.

Finding Mystery Skype connections is amazingly easy on the Skype in the Classroom Website.  First, create an account and log in. You can use your Skype or Microsoft ID to create your SITC account.  Be aware that, while they are connected to each other, your SITC account and your Skype account are different.

 

Next, Click on the “Mystery Skype” link on the top of the page (click on pictures to see them bigger).

On the next page, scroll down a bit and you will see a few different ways to connect with other teachers who are willing to Mystery Skype.  On the left side of the page, there are drop down menus that will allow you to narrow down the choices.  This is helpful because there are over 100,000 teachers and experts using the Skype in the Classroom website.  If you choose “United States” as the country you will have the option of narrowing your choices down by state as well. Clicking on any teacher’s name will take you to his/her profile where you can send him/her a message (see below).

My favorite way of searching for Mystery Skype connections on SITC is by using the map feature.  Above the drop down menus there is a blue button that says, “Search the Map.

The interactive map is very easy to use.  Simply move the map and zoom in/out on the location with which you are looking to connect.  Teachers and guest speakers in the area shown on the map will appear below.  Clicking on any of their names will take you to the teacher’s profile.  On this page you can see Skype in the Classroom lessons that he/she have created, lessons in which they’ve participated, and information about his/her class.  To contact the teacher to set up your Mystery Skype, click on the “Send a Message” link on the right side of the page.

In the message, make sure to introduce yourself, to list what classes and/or grades you teach, and to list a few times that you would like to connect.  I also like to include my email address and to have the teacher respond to me via email so that it is easier to keep track of our discussion.

Finding Connections on Twitter

Many educators use Twitter to learn from each other, share lesson ideas, and to set up collaborative projects for their students.  This is a great tool that can be used to find Mystery Skype connections as well.

To get the most out of Twitter, it is important to understand hashtags. Hashtags are used by people in their tweets as a way of curating posts into categories. For example, someone sending a tweet about a math lesson might put #mathchat in their post so that others who follow that hashtag can see it and respond.  Kindergarten teachers may use #kinderchat in their tweets, and principals may use #edadmin.  A rather comprehensive list ofeducational hashtags has been collected and published by Jerry Blumengarten. 

If you tweet out a request for a Mystery Skype using the correct hashtags, there is a good chance that another teacher will see it and respond to you. It’s always a good idea to put the age/grade of your students and any preferences you have in your post.  Since you only have 140 characters, feel free to use abbreviations like “Ss” for Students and “Ts” for teachers.  Make sure that you use one (or more) of the hashtags below in your 140 character post.

Some of the best hashtags to use when looking for Mystery Skype connections are:

•        #MysterySkype – Lots of teachers follow this hashtag and use it to connect.
•        #Skype2Learn – This hashtag is used for Mystery Skype as well as other types of Skype lessons.
•        #SkypeMT – Skype Master Teachers are experts at using Skype in education. Using this hashtag will let them see your request and help you find a connection.
•        #GlobalLearning – Teachers from around the world who connect their classrooms for global projects follow this hashtag.

A good tweet might look something like this:

Following the hashtags listed above is also a good idea if you are interested in using Skype in your classroom.  To follow a hashtag on Twitter, use the search feature at the top of the page. Type the hashtag you wish to follow in the search field.  Make sure to include the # at the beginning of the hashtag.

After you search for the hashtag you’d like to follow, click on “All” on the top of the page to see all tweets using that hashtag.  If you see a post to which you would like to respond, click on the arrow below the tweet.  This will allow you to tell the person that you are interested in connecting with him/her.

Building your professional network on Twitter will also make it easier for you to find connections.  When you see people who are tweeting about things that interest you, click on their name.  In their profile you will find a button which will allow you to follow them and see all of their tweets. Just as in real life, the more you interact with people, the more you will build relationships that lead to collaboration.

Use Your Other Social Media Networks to Find Connections

Many people think of Facebook as a place to share pictures with friends and family, but it can be a great tool for finding connections for your students.  It never hurts to ask for what you need from your network.  I’ve had a lot of success finding experts to connect with my students in this way.  It also can be a great way to find Mystery Skype contacts. 

Facebook groups also provide excellent opportunities for teachers to connect and learn from each other.  Some groups are public (anybody can join and contribute), and others are private (you must be invited).  If you do a search in Facebook for “Education”, you will see more than a thousand groups where educators are communicating and collaborating with each other. More specific searches such as “Mystery Skype” will give you less results, but may help you find a group that meets your needs.  Find a public group that looks interesting, and join to get involved. If you see a closed group that you would like join, you can send a request for membership. 

The Most Important Thing Is to Get Started

Trying something new is always a little scary. Setting up your first Mystery Skype is no different.  It’s natural to be nervous, especially when you know that another teacher will be seeing your class and any mistakes you make on camera.  Everyone feels that way when they start out, and for that reason, the communities of teachers on the Skype in the Classroom website, Twitter, and Facebook are usually happy to help you get started.  Don’t be afraid to tell the teacher(s) that you connect with that you are new to using Skype and may need some help. Teachers who are experienced at creating this type of learning experience become passionate about helping others do the same for their students.

Once you start using Mystery Skype as a learning tool with your students a new world of global learning will open up to you.  The possibilities really are limitless when you can bring other classes and amazing people into your classroom via Skype to help your students learn. You can see the reactions of teachers to the amazingexperiences their students have had on the SITC website.

There’s no time like right now to add your story to that list.  Go find your perfect Mystery Skype connection!

Round Table Discussion with State TOY and Kenyan Teachers

Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in a round table discussion through Google Hangouts with some amazing State Teachers of the Year from around the United States and teachers at the Cheery Education Centre in Nairobi, Kenya.  I am grateful to Dyane Smokorowski for inviting me to participate.

Below is the video recording of our call.

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I'm Not an EdTech Guy

I'm often referred to as a "tech guy" or an "ed-tech guy" in my building.  I use a lot of technology in my class.  My 5h grade students maintain a class wiki, blog regularly, use web 2.0 tools on a daily basis, create podcasts and videos, network with each other on Edmodo, and spend plenty of class time working on-line.

Image:  twobee/www.freedigitalphotos.net

But I am not an ed-tech guy.

I don't spend much time planning on how to integrate technology into my classroom any more.  There was a time when I did.  I was an ed-tech guy then.  I'd take my kids to the computer lab and teach them how to use web 2.0 tools for the sake of using 21st century technology.

Now, I just share the tools that are needed for my students to learn and share their learning with others.  The technology isn't the focus any more.  It's just the way things are done in the 21st century.  We don't spend time planning how electricity can be incorporated into our lessons.  It's just there if we need it.  Technology needs to be the same way.

Last week one of my students came to me and proudly showed off two new origami animals he invented.  I was really impressed and told him that he should draw step-by-step directions to share.  I told him he could probably sell such a book if he created a few more animals.  His creations were really good.  He told me that he would rather make a video because he'd be much better at explaining things verbally.

That's when I showed him how to use the digital camera we have to shoot video, upload to MyBrainShark, and embed the video in his blog.

During the same day, I had a few students who were researching important events in the history of manned flight.  They were drawing a timeline by hand in one of the student's notebooks with the events on it.  They asked me to borrow one of our digital cameras in order to take a picture of it to post on the wiki when they finished.  That's when I took them over to a free computer and introduced them to TimeToast and XTimeline.

When we get right down to it, learning hasn't changed in the 21st Century.  Collaboration, investigation, trial and error, getting feedback from others, and all of the other great ways that we learn are still great ways to learn- just like they were when Plato was learning from Socrates.

How we are able to do those things has changed, and that's where we need to adapt as teachers in order to prepare our students for the world in which they are going to be living.  But our attention still needs to be on the learning and not on the technology.

So, please stop calling me an ed-tech guy.  That's not my focus.

I'm a learning guy who helps my students navigate the world in which they are living.

Student Created Awesomeness

It's been too long since I last blogged.  I've got lots of excuses.  I've been busy training for my first half-marathon in Philadelphia this weekend.  I've been busy running an after-school club where students are free to explore and experiment with web2.0 technologies.  I've been busy developing a 3 credit course that begins in January entitled "Collaborating and Innovating in the Early 21st Century".  I've been busy helping my students be awesome. 

It's that last one that lit a fire under me and forced me to put this post up today.  Because my students have been pretty awesome lately.  And it would be a shame to not share their awesomeness.  So, here are a few of the many things they've been up to lately.

For the presidential election, my fifth graders in collaboration with our other two fifth grade classes participated in a nationwide student-run election.  Results were reported on a collaborative Google Doc and tabulated using electoral votes.  In all the years I've been teaching students about the Electoral College, never have they understood it more than this year when it was directly relevant to them. 

Students created voter registration cards, researched candidates' positions on the issues, ran the polling place, and calculated our schools' results to report.  I thouroughly enjoyed sitting back and watching them participate and learn.  Below are some pictures from the event.


Also, our fifth graders are running a food drive during the months of November and December to help the local food pantries.  In order to promote the food drive, my class organized an advertising campaign.  They split themselves into three groups and decided that one group would be in charge of producing a 30 second video ad, one group would transform a hallway bulletin board into a billboard, and one group would create posters to hang in the hallways.  I was blown away by their work.

Here's the video ad:


Here's the billboard:

The posters should be finished by the end of today, but they aren't ready for me to share yet. 

I'm really proud of the work my students are doing.  I'm proud because it's good work, but also because they are making a difference in the community and learning how rewarding that can be.  And they have ownership because it's their work.  They wrote, produced, and starred in the video (I was the camera person because their designated camera person was absent).  They designed and created the bulletin board with very little help from me (I helped them hang the background paper).

This is what learning should look like.  Students in charge.  Real problems being solved.  Teachers supporting and not leading.  Evaluation based on "How much of a difference did we make?" rather than "What was my test score?"

When students are being awesome, I am reminded why I love my job.

Happy World Teacher Day!

Today is World Teacher Day.  I placed this Thank You Card on the Faculty Room table in my school to tell the teachers I work with how appreciative I am for all that they do for both me and my children.

I also appreciate all of you in my PLNs:  in the blogosphere, on Facebook, on Twitter, on Plurk, and everywhere else that you all share and collaborate.  You help me become a better teacher.

Thank You!

Want Great Schools? Start Simple.

No teacher ever became great by being the best at following the textbook, being the best at reading from a script, or being the best at passing out multiple choice tests from the back of an assessment guide.

No school ever became great by having the best textbook programs from which their teachers read, the best benchmark tests, or the best canned lesson scripts for their teachers.

No country ever became great by having schools that were the best at selecting textbook programs for their teachers to use and the best test-prep programs.

A great national education system starts by having excellent public schools.  Public schools are excellent when they have excellent teachers facilitating learning.  Teachers can only be excellent when they have the autonomy to be.

If we want excellence, we need to start by thinking more simply. We need to start by allowing teachers to be great.  Then encourage them to share what they are doing to inspire others.

Because the current direction of demoralizing them and having them compete against each other simply isn't going to get us there.

If Testing is So Great for Kids...

Imagine a situation in which you have the option to send your child to two schools.  Here are the two schools' mission statements:

School #1 - Our goal is to ensure each student in our school learns the standards that have been developed by our legislators, so we test them at every opportunity to measure their progress.  In order to prevent students from failing to meet these standards we eliminate music, art, physical education, and any other non-tested subject for students who don't test well in order to give them additional instruction on test preparation.  

School #2 - To meet the needs of an ever changing society and develop each student's natural potential, we strive to foster the unique talents of each individual through a comprehensive program of academic, cultural, and physical development.  Our collective goal is to develop life-long learners who can work cooperatively and collaboratively, respect and value the uniqueness of others, and think critically to meet the challenges they will face in their lives.

In which school would you enroll your child?  In which school would your child be more engaged?  Which would be more likely to provide an environment in which learning thrives?  Which would prepare them for their future better?  

Then why are we spending so much time and money trying to force our public schools to be more like school #1?  

If testing is so great for kids, why aren't the expensive private schools that legislators and CEOs send their kids to demanding more testing and changing their mission statements to be more like school #1 above?

Maybe it's because the standardized testing movement has nothing to do with what's best for kids.

Should We Still Teach Cursive Writing?

A friend of mine posted this on Facebook a few days ago:

In the comments, I was one of the few who didn't agree that the lack of instruction in cursive was a huge problem.  Now that we are 12 years into the 21st Century, it's about time we start focusing on the skills our students will need in this century.  We need to be teaching kids to collaborate, create and innovate, communicate effectively, and think critically.  Not doing so makes school irrelevant to them.  What makes us think that someone would be engaged in a learning process that is irrelevant to them?

Cursive writing does not aid in collaboration in any way.  It doesn't help students become more innovative.  Cursive writers do not think more critically than those who print.  Today's communication is not done in cursive.  

We should be teaching students to communicate in the way they will need to in their world.  How much of your communication with your colleagues is done in cursive?  How much is done electronically?  

If we continue to teach our students things because "that's what we learned in school," we will continue to produce a generation of graduates without the skills they need to be successful.  It's time to prepare students for their futures and not our past.  

Friday's Five - Self-Reflection

In order to become better at anything we do, it's important to take an honest look at our practices and look for areas of improvement.  Knowing our strengths, and recognizing our weaknesses allows us to make positive changes in our teaching.  Often, it's hard to do this self-reflection for a variety of reasons.

Flickr/nicola.albertini

Over the past few weeks, I've been forced into reflecting on my teaching, and it's been both humbling and immensely beneficial.  I've been fortunate to be nominated for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching (PAEMST), and the demands of the application process have forced me to seriously look at what I do as a professional both in and out of the classroom.  Because of this, I've been thinking a lot over the past few weeks about ways teachers can self-reflect to improve their craft.  Here are five ideas.

1. Videotape and watch a lesson or two.  Having to watch myself teach has made me realize a few things about my teaching.  As the amount of time in the period gets short, my use of formative assessment decreases.  When my students are discussing concepts in groups, I sometimes cut them off earlier than I should.  Sometimes they are having great conversations, and I should let them continue.  I never would have realized these things if I didn't watch myself teaching.
2. Allow others that you trust to come into your room, and discuss your teaching with them.  This is beneficial for both of you.  Too often we teach with the door closed.  Our great lessons never get shared, and we never get to hear an outside perspective on our teaching.  Some lessons are great, some stink, and most fall somewhere in between.  That's going to be true whether another teacher is watching your lesson or not.  The only difference is that you get professional advice and dialogue when you invite others into your room.
3. Re-write your resume at least once per year.  If you are not looking for a job, it's easy to forget about your resume.  It can be a great self-reflection too, though.  As you look over your list of achievements you'll probably find it easy to identify what areas are strengths, and areas that are lacking.  Identifying those lacking areas is the first step toward building them into strengths.
4. Develop lessons collaboratively with others who teach the same topics.  This can be colleagues in the same school/district, or it can be those you know from networking.  Collaborative planning gives you ideas of ways to improve upon your pedagogy, opportunities to share resources (like videos you make, math manipulatives, etc.), and different points of view.  Collaborating with those in a different location is easy now with videoconferencing tools like Skype and Facetime.
5. Participate in a Professional Learning Community (PLC).  This term has gotten a bad reputation in some places because it refers to mandatory meetings lead by an administrator.  That's not what a PLC should be.  Get a group of committed professionals together and agree to meet once a month or every few weeks to discuss pedagogy.  At each meeting, set the topic for the following meeting and decide upon the information and/or data that each teacher needs to collect.  One month you could focus on formative assessment and have everyone bring the two techniques that work best in their classrooms to share.  The next month you could focus on reading comprehension and have each teacher bring a summary of a journal article, blog post, or other piece on best reading comprehension practices.  The meetings should be voluntary, lead by teachers, and the topics should be set based on what the participants want to improve upon.  

Friday's Five - Our Students Need to Believe They Matter

It's human nature to want to matter.  We all have that desire.  It motivates much of what we do.  For some, it motivates them to seek financial success.  For others, it motivates them to do charity work.  For me, it was a driving factor in why I became a teacher.

Our students have this need as well.  Unfortunately, many of our traditional practices in education make students feel that they have no worth.  It's a primary reason why our students are lacking motivation.  Why work hard if you and what you produce don't matter?

Flickr/just_makayla

I've heard many educational experts tell me that the way to solve this problem is to tell students why what they are doing in school will relate to their life when they get out of school.  Our students don't care about this.  The long technical reason is that their frontal lobes aren't completely formed, and such rational, unemotional thought is not possible for them.  The short reason is that asking a kid to trust you and be motivated by something that may or may not benefit them 5, 10, 15, or 20 years down the road is absurd.  Our kids need to feel important now.  If we want them to learn, we'd better start meeting this need.  Here are five ways to allow kids to feel that they matter.

1. Problem Based Learning (PBL)  If you want kids to feel that that matter, have them do something that matters.  There are a multitude of problems that need to be solved in our communities. Challenge your students to solve them.  How can we help the local food pantry raise money?  How can we effectively publicize the upcoming blood drive in our school?  What data can we collect and use to prove that there needs to be a stoplight at the intersection near the school? 
2. Publish their work. It is insulting to a student to work hard on a project, paper, or other in-depth assignment with the end result being that a teacher looks at it, judges it, and hands it back with a number or letter on top of it.  Use a class blog, wikispace, or other avenue to publish their work.  Let them share with friends and family around the globe.  Let their research be used by others.  Give them an audience other than the teacher.  Better yet, let them publish their writing in a book using a site like lulu.com and use the proceeds to solve a community problem like the ones described above.
3. Stop expecting students to be motivated by grades.  Grades are a way to rank, sort, judge, and punish students.  They are not an effective way to motivate students.  A plethora of studies show that external motivation is not lasting and will not serve our students in life.  We need to give them the experiences of learning for the pleasure of learning, feeling the joy of helping others, and being valued for reasons other than being the best hoop jumper in the class. An emphasis on grades undermines our ability as teachers to give our students those experiences and does nothing to lead our students to believe they matter. 
4. Allow students opportunities to consult, collaborate with, and learn from community members.  If you want students to believe that their math lesson is important to their life, bring in a member of the community who uses that math in their job every day to share his/her experiences with your students.  Then allow the students the opportunity to be an accountant, small business owner, mechanic, home builder, etc.  The same opportunities can be worked into classes in almost every subject area.  In addition to the valuable career awareness that comes from these types of interactions, there is the chance for students to do work that is necessary in the community.
5. Allow students to use tools current to the generation in which they are living.  Forcing students to read outdated textbooks to get information, having them spend hours answering questions that have easily "googled" answers, and not allowing them to use 21st century tools to demonstrate their learning not only makes school seem woefully irrelevant, but sends the message to our students that we don't respect them.  If we did respect them we'd allow them to share their learning using tools and in ways that are familiar to them, regardless of our traditions and comfort with those tools and methods.  This is especially true when those tools and methods are much more aligned with the expectations of the workplace they will graduate into than what we have traditionally done in schools.  A zoologist would think nothing of pulling out their phone to find out the best diet for a pica, but our students learning about mammals must wait until their weekly computer lab time slot - even though they have a very capable phone in their backpack.  An advertising executive would think nothing of sending a text of a picture to a colleague to ask for an opinion on a piece of concept art, but many of our students would get an in-school suspension for sending a similar text to a peer.  I could list examples like this all day long.  I know someone will argue, "Many students who can text their friends won't learn anything because they'll be distracted."  I'll argue, "All of our students who believe school is irrelevant and that we don't think they matter won't learn anything."  Maybe we should teach them to use technology in appropriate ways instead of banning it. 

What are your thoughts?  Do you have other ways to make students believe they matter?  Share your ideas with us in the comment section below, and share this post with others in your network so that we can hear their ideas as well.

Learning, Teaching, Leading: Creating a Toolbox for Today

Over the past few months I've had the great experience of teaching a 3-credit equivilent graduate course for my school district to other teachers who were interested in learning ways they could teach 21st century skills.  Each of the 10 sessions was on a different aspect of teaching and learning, and each provided me with the opportunity to collaborate, teach, and learn.  We found many great resources along our journey, and since I'm sure there are others who could benefit from them, I'm sharing them here.  Embeded below is the Livebinder of the resources, videos, and information we used during the class.

Learning, Teaching, Leading: Creating a Toolbox for Today

Friday's Five - Allow Students to Use Cell Phones in Class

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Friday's Five is a feature every week where I pick a new topic and list five items that I think fit best.  Then I ask you, my readers, to share your thoughts in the comment section.  For an archive of past topics, check the Friday's Five Page.  If you'd like to make suggestions about future topics or discuss topics I bring up on the blog with others, make sure you click the "like" button on the right hand side of the page to join A Teacher's Life for Me on Facebook.  Don't be shy about sharing the blog and Facebook Page with others.  Each post has a "Tweet" button on top and buttons on the bottom that allow you to share in several ways, including e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter.



Flickr/William Hook



Last week I wrote about reasons my PLN is so important to me.  This morning, a discussion between members of my PLN on Plurk got me thinking about rules in school that ban cell phone usage.  In today's post I'm going to explore five reasons why banning cell phones in schools is bad policy and detrimental for our students.

1. If we are preparing our students for life after school, we should allow them to use the tools they will be using when they get there.  How many jobs can you think of right now where a smart phone is not beneficial?  Mechanics order parts on their phone, engineers view blueprints, doctors calculate dosages, and grocers check inventory.  The list is endless.  By the time our students enter their professions the need to utilize mobile technology will be even stronger.  Not preparing our students for that world is negligent. 
2. In a time when schools are facing tightening budgets, using technology that is readily available is logical.  How many schools point to a lack of funds as a reason they are not doing more with technology?  We can go a long way towards solving that problem by using technology that is available for free and probably in a majority of HS students' pockets.
3. Mobile devices are great for teaching 21st century skills.  If you want kids to learn to collaborate, what better tool can you use than a phone?  Videoconferencing with people all over the world becomes easy.  One of the main arguments against student phone use is that kids might cheat.  My response is that tests that are so lacking in rigor that students can look up answers on a phone or get them from another student are lousy and outdated in a world where information is free and easy.  We need to get used to the fact that kids don't need to know "stuff" nearly as much as they need to learn to use that "stuff."  Tests of recall don't prepare our students for the world ahead.  Kids know this - it's why they think school is irrelevant.  Kids working together to find solutions to problems (collaboration) should be encouraged, not labeled as "cheating."  Policies that ban cell phones because students might text each other are short-sighted.  As Kevin Honeycutt is fond of saying, "Students used to pass notes on paper.  We never banned paper."
4. Double standards are not OK.  I know of several districts where administrators come into classrooms with iPhones and/or iPads to take notes on teacher observations.  Yet, in these same classrooms students are not allowed to use mobile devices.  The message this sends to students is totally unacceptable.  These are great tools.  Kids know it.  Let them use them.
5. We need to teach kids responsible ways to use technology.  Keeping them "safe" by refusing to expose them to technology is irresponsible on our part.  Students are using cell phones whether we ban them in school or not.  They are communicating, sending pictures to each other, using social media and social networking, and consuming information.  We need to be teaching them how to do this while protecting themselves from both mistakes they might make that will follow them for decades and others who want to do them harm.  The dangers and pitfalls of using mobile devices aren't going away.  Isn't it our responsibility to teach our students to be safe?

For those who have read the Harry Potter books or seen the movies, a member of my PLN showed drew a great parallel between events in those stories and this debate with the following quote:

"Children, put away your wands. You won't be needing them." - Delores Umbridge

Now it's your turn.  What are the policies on cell phones in your school?  Do you think phones should be used by students in schools?  Are there ways to ensure that phones are not misused in schools if we allow them?  Please share your thoughts in the comment section below and pass the post on to others using Plurk, Twitter, Google+, and Facebook so that we can hear as many opinions as possible.

Friday's Five - My PLN Rocks

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Friday's Five is a feature every week where I pick a new topic and list five items that I think fit best.  Then I ask you, my readers, to share your thoughts in the comment section.  For an archive of past topics, check the Friday's Five Page.  If you'd like to make suggestions about future topics or discuss topics I bring up on the blog with others, make sure you click the "like" button on the right hand side of the page to join A Teacher's Life for Me on Facebook.  Don't be shy about sharing the blog and Facebook Page with others.  Each post has a "Tweet" button on top and buttons on the bottom that allow you to share in several ways, including e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter.

photo credit:  www.learningtoday.com

In the beginning of my teaching career my growth as a professional was pretty typical.  I learned from experience.  I attended "professional development" sessions that my school district mandated, often wondering why I was being forced to spend six hours listening to someone from a textbook company talk all about how their product was the greatest development in education while never giving me anything useful I can use in my classroom.  Occasionally there would be a discussion with someone in my building that influenced my pedagogy a bit.

In the past few years, though, I feel as though my professional growth has accelerated incredibly due to the cultivation of my PLN.  Some claim that PLN is an acronym for "Personal Learning Network", while others prefer "Professional Learning Network".  I could really care less.  I just know that the network of over a thousand educators on Plurk, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+, as well as the edubloggers with whom I interact, and the commenters on my own blog posts have become the catalyst which has allowed me to continually become a better teacher.

Here are five reasons why my PLN rocks.

1. I am continually bombarded with an influx of new ideas.  Every day I learn several new things from the amazing educators with whom I network.  Whether it's web 2.0 tools to use in my classroom, ways to better assess my students, ideas on how to reform public education, or something else, my PLN is an endless source of innovative thinking.
2. My PLN gives me support when I need it.  Everybody in every profession goes through tough stretches.  Teachers are no different.  When those times arise, it's nice to have a network of educators who can both empathize and offer suggestions on how to handle the situation.  
3. I'm forced to reflect and evaluate my practices.  As an active member of a PLN it's important to share as well as consume.  Many times others will offer constructive criticism, challenge ideas that I share, or flat out disagree with my opinions.  This forces me to look inward and truly evaluate whether I am doing what's best for my students.  Is there any more powerful professional growth than that which comes from true evaluation of one's practices?
4. I know people who know more than me.  My PLN is filled with educators who are experts in many different aspects of education.  If I have a question about Project Based Learning, an on-line resource, ways to use videoconferencing in the classroom, conceptual mathematics pedagogy, or any other niche in education, chances are there is someone in my network who is either highly knowledgeable or can put me into contact with someone who is highly knowledgeable about that topic.  This is something that is simply impossible in any one school building or district.  
5. The amazing things that others are doing in their classrooms inspires me to be great.  We often hear about teachers that do stupid things in newspapers and on TV.  Much less common are the stories of wonderful things that happen all over the world every day in classrooms.  I get to hear those stories.  I get to see the incredible work of students who have been inspired by amazing teachers.  I am assaulted with inspiration on a daily basis.  Each time I see such greatness I am reinvigorated to inspire my students in the same way.  I can honestly say that my own motivation level has risen dramatically since I discovered the power of a PLN.

Now it's your turn.  How does your PLN help you become better at your job?  If you haven't begun to build a network, what's holding you back?  What other resources have you found to network with other professionals?  Please share your thoughts in the comment section below and share the post with others via Plurk, Twitter, Google+, or Facebook, so that we can hear their point of view as well.  After all, the more people we have sharing ideas, the more powerful our PLN becomes! 

Absurd Contrasts

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This morning, as I was reading the New York Times Education Section I came across an article called "Improving the Science of Teaching Science."  The following paragraph jumped out at me:

“As opposed to the traditional lecture, in which students are passive, this class actively engages students and allows them time to synthesize new information and incorporate it into mental model,” said Louis Deslauriers, a postdoctoral researcher who, with Ellen Schelew, a graduate student, taught the experimental classes. “When they can incorporate thing into a mental model, we find much better retention.”

The article went on to explain that when researchers compared classes where traditional lecture was used to classrooms that were collaborative and structured as mentioned above, students in the second group learned twice as much as students in the first.

As I read, I thought in my most sarcastic mental voice, "Really?  Students who collaborate, are actively engaged, and are synthesizing new information learn more than those who get talked at for hours on end?"

Take a second and think about how we teach our subjects and what those subjects look like outside of our classrooms.  There are some huge contrasts.

When scientists work, they are usually working in teams.  They have regular collaborative meetings to discuss how their work is progressing and how to improve their methodology and research.  They read a lot of research.  Most times they try things, they fail.  Those failures are learning experiences which help them guide their work going forward.

Now think of what science looks like in a typical classroom.  There's a textbook.  The teacher talks a lot about stuff in the textbook.  Students aren't allowed to research much.  Everything they need is provided in the textbook.  They may do some experiments, but failure is not an option if they want a good grade.  Most of their studying is done on their own, with the exception of a few very controlled labs where they may have one partner.

The contrast is absurd, and not just in science.

Why do people read outside of schools?  Either they read because they enjoy the content, or they read because they need the information that's in the material they are reading.  When you read to find information you need, how often do you thoroughly read the entire book/article/manuel/etc?  I would think that it happens rarely.  You usually find what you need and get on with whatever you were doing.

How do we teach reading in schools?  We spend weeks at a time forcing students to pick apart informational passages that contain information the student won't ever need and won't ever care about.  We force students to read "classics" that they hate.  Assignments that require research are usually on topics that the student doesn't care about and have been researched thousands of times before.

When we discuss teaching math, often the terms "real-world situations" or "real-life problems" are used. The very fact that we tell students that most of the math they learn is not for "real-life" is a huge problem.  How can we expect them to care or become emotionally invested if we tell them this?  We give them dozens of out-of-context calculations during the week, and then have a "real-world" problem that looks something like this:

Betty and Tracy planned a 5000km trip in an automobile with five tires, of which four are in use at any time. They plan to interchange them so that each tire is used the same number of kilometers. What is the number of kilometers each tire will be used? (Source - Word Problems for Kids)

Every student upon reading that problem is going to think, "This is math I am never going to use.  Why on earth would they need the tires to go the same number of km or spend the time to change them if none go flat?"

Many studies have shown that our students feel that school is not relevant and does not teach them what they will need to know in their lives outside of school.  Unfortunately, they may be more right than we want to admit.  Think about the skills and knowledge you use in your life.  How much of it did you learn in formal classrooms?  We need to spend more time teaching kids to find, analyze, and create knowledge instead of trying to fill their heads with facts.  We need to start teaching students in a way that reflects the world outside our classrooms.

Photo Credit -Thomas Favre-Bulle, Flickr