Serendipity! The EdTech Chat 'n Chew Podcast

I’m often amazed by how often the Universe provides serendipitous moments at just the right time.  Despite being a firm believer in the philosophy of “we’re always where we’re supposed to be”, I still get a kick out of the way perceived missed opportunities often turn into defining moments of growth.

One of the best examples in my career was about 3 years ago when I put in an application to move into the ranks of administration.  I went through the interview process, thought all went well, and then was disappointed to learn that the positions for which I applied were filled with others.  It ended up being one of the best things that ever happened to me.  The following year I was asked to present at two state level conferences, started teaching the graduate courses that have become such a source of growth and learning for me, and was chosen as a state finalist for the 2011-12 Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching (winners still haven't been announced).  Most importantly, those things allowed me to discover that teaching is my true passion, that I belong in classrooms rather than boardrooms, and that I can make the impact I want to make without moving into administration.  I’m not saying I’ll never make that jump, but right now I can’t imagine being in a job where I love what I do more.

I mention this because another of those serendipitous moments seems to have happened this year.  After teaching 5^th grade for 16 years, my position was eliminated due to our enrollment.  We needed one less 5^th grade teacher, and I was the least senior.   I stressed a lot last year because I loved teaching 5^th grade.  My district administrators were great, though, and created a position they felt would best utilize my skill set.

Since September I’ve been working as a Curriculum Support Coach.  I get to work with teachers and students to do really amazing things.  Some of my time is focused on integrating technology.  Sometimes I get to work in math classes.  Some teachers bring me in to help them develop project, problem, and inquiry based lessons.  All of it seems to be pushing the boundaries of what we have always done in schools.

There have been bumps.  I miss having my own classes and students.  I miss the relationships that were developed over the course of the year, and the ability to implement a great idea that comes to me on the spur of the moment.  I miss the tangents and moments of spontaneous learning that occurred in my classroom.  To be honest, even though my days were spent doing amazing things this year, I wasn’t sure I liked this new job until recently.

What changed is the Facebook message I received from Dyane Smokorowski, last year’s Kansas State Teacher of the Year, about a month ago asking me to join her, Andrea Keller, and Karen Wright-Balbier (two outstanding instructional technology specialists) in putting together the Kidwish Project.  It has been such a success, and we enjoyed working together so much that the four of us decided to launch the EdTech Chat ‘n Chew Podcast to share the amazing things that each of us are doing in our schools and districts.

Those of you who read this blog know how much I believe in professional networking, personalized professional development, and sharing successes and failures with others to allow them to learn from your experiences.  This podcast will be a vehicle for teachers to do all of that.

Our mission is to record weekly episodes of about 15 minutes – perfect for teachers to be able to listen/watch during their preps or lunch breaks.  We’ll be sharing some of the amazing things we are seeing and doing in the classrooms in which we are working and ideas for empowering students in the 21^st Century.

Collaborating with these three amazing women has made me feel that I’m where I’m supposed to be.  I really believe that this podcast and the community of listeners and collaborators that we hope to build are going to make a huge difference in this time when those who are trying to create student-centered, technology-rich, innovative classrooms are swimming upstream. 

Below, I am embedding our first podcast episode along with links to the podcast’s website, YouTube channel and Facebook page.  Subscribing to our YouTube channel will allow you to make sure you don’t miss an episode.  Show notes from each show with links to the resources we discuss will be posted on the website.

EdTech Chat 'n Chew Podcast Website:  edtechchatnchew.weebly.com
Facebook Page:  facebook.com/edtechchatnchew
YouTube Channel:  http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-dn9Wo967MEL3q2S__J6Zg

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.