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 - 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! 

Love the One You're With

I've listened, read, and watched a lot of debates and opinions on how to improve education over the past few years.  There's lots of disagreement over many, many things.  Two things that are irrefutable and backed by the data of many studies are:

1.  Student socio-economic status is the factor that correlates highest with achievement in school.
2.  The quality of the teacher in front of a student is the largest in-school factor in his/her achievement.

Since the focus of this blog is not on decreasing poverty, teaching parenting skills, nor building stronger relationships between parents, I'm not going to talk about the first statement above.  I'll simply state that if we are serious about improving education in this country, we had better not ignore the fact that poverty in the United States is at its highest point in decades.

Flickr/McConnell Center

I would like to focus on the second statement, though.  We've known that the quality of our teachers is important for a long time.  We've known since well before No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, the charter school movement, union-bashing, and the push for school vouchers.  In all that time, we've never focused on making teachers better.

We hear talk of firing bad teachers, using student test scores to evaluate the effectiveness of a teacher, and eliminating collective bargaining rights.  We focus on "accountability."  We never focus on developing our teachers and making them better.

Imagine a farm where the farmer tried to make his pigs larger by weighing them more often instead of feeding them.  Imagine a greenhouse that tried to grow larger plants by measuring them more often instead of giving them more fertilizer. 

We hear "experts" claim that getting rid of the bad teachers is the answer, however we know that we are facing a national teacher shortage in the future.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics we will need 1.6 million new teachers in the next few years.  It's time to start looking at how we can improve the teachers we have.  To borrow from Stephen Stills, "If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with."

It's difficult to determine how much money we've spent on standardized testing in the United States in the past decade.  If you look at only the cost of developing and administering the tests, the figure is somewhere between 5 billion and 10 billion dollars.  If you include the costs districts and schools are forced to spend to buy test preparation materials and meet the federal mandates, the cost rises much, much higher.

What if we spent that money on developing our teachers and improving teaching in this country?  What if we used it to identify great teachers and develop mentorship programs with those new to the profession?  What if we used it to provide time and opportunities for teacher collaboration so that the best ideas were spread to as many classrooms as possible?  What if we created exchange programs where teachers from struggling schools could spend a year in a high performing school?  What if we made teacher improvement our focus by bombarding our teachers with professional development opportunities the way we bombard them with standardized testing pressure?  What if we spent our resources developing our talent instead of hoping that talented teachers will suddenly appear if we keep turning over our faculties enough times?

What if, instead of looking for one to love, we started loving the ones we're with?

Do that and you'll see the improvement in learning that we are all hoping to find.

Friday's Five - Make Schools Better without Spending Money

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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/planspark

As educators, we should always be looking for ways to make our schools better learning environments.  Every day, new stories are surfacing about how school funding is getting cut.  In this post, I'd like to examine five ways that we can improve the educational experience for our students without spending a lot of money. 

1. Start school later in the day.  This change would cost nothing, and undoubtedly lead to increased learning for our students.  According to the American Psychological Association, adolescents need 9 hours and 15 minutes of sleep per night.  With travel times in some rural areas of over an hour to arrive at school in the morning, sports and activities that often last late into the evening, and school start times before 8AM, most students do not get the required amount of sleep.  Pushing back the school day by an hour would leave less students in a constant state of exhaustion, and more learning would occur.
2. Allow teachers control over their own professional development through PLNs.  Instead of paying for expensive "experts" to come into schools to deliver professional development to teachers, allow teachers to model life-long learning to their students through the development of Professional Learning Networks (PLNs).  In this way, teachers can learn about the topics they feel are most important from others in the field through professional blogs, social networking sites like Plurk, Twitter, and Google+, and other resources.  The reality is that most school/district sponsored professional development does not trickle down to changes in classroom pedagogy.  Networking with other professionals is something that is critical to growth in any profession, and something that has been lacking in the field of education.  
3. Buy fewer textbooks.  Textbooks are so 20th Century.  The textbook selection process in larger states all but guarantees that any controversial, thought provoking, or polically charged topics are left out.  There are problems waiting to be solved all around us that require research, writing skills, and mathematics.  We live in a time when information is ubiquitous and free.  Textbooks hold back students from having to think and teachers from having to be creative.  
4. Eliminate Standardized Test Prep.  Despite what the companies that sell test prep materials tell you, there are many studies that show that special test preparation classes and lessons lead to no additional learning.  We know from countless brain researchers that learning can only happen when students have an emotional connection to the material they are learning.  I've seen fewer things in my teaching career that are less emotionally engaging than test prep materials.  Requiring students to take time away from engaging, authentic learning to drill and practice using test prep materials is not only boring for the students and teachers, but it's ineffective and expensive. 
5. Involve students in the community.  In these rough economic times it is vital that we maintain a good relationship with the community, since a large part of public school funding comes from local taxes.  In addition, there are increasingly more community members that need help.  Students need to learn the value of helping others and the rewards that come with service.  Helping others in the local area is an opportunity for our students to solve real world problems with the skills they've learned in school, while also building a stronger bond between school and community. 

Now it's your turn.  Has your school adopted any of these changes?  Are there other ways we could increase learning without increasing the budget?  What obstacles would we face in implementing the above suggestions?  Leave your thoughts in the comment section below, and pass the blog on to others via Twitter, Plurk, Facebook, and Google+ so that we can hear as many points of view as possible.

Friday's Five: Continue Your Learning This Summer

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This week's Friday's Five is a special cross-post on summer learning that also appeared on Lee Kolbert's "A GeekyMamma's Blog." 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 other readers, make sure you click the "like" button on the right hand side of this 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 buttons on the bottom that allow you to share several ways, including e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter.

www.freedigitalphotos.net / graur razvan ionut  

When summer comes, many of the sources of stress that drain your physical and emotional energy during the school year disappear.  Along with having some extra time to do some of the things you love other than teaching, it’s a fantastic time to learn, share, and find new inspiration that will make your classroom more enjoyable for yourself and your students.  So, when you are not taking a little time to enjoy camping in the woods, lounging on a beach somewhere, or whatever it is that you do to relax, here are five ways to continue your learning during the summer:

1. Participate in a Professional Learning Network (PLN) – Nothing that I have experienced in my career has taught me more or inspired me as much as my PLN.  Whether through collaboration using social networks like Facebook, Plurk, and Twitter, seeing different points of view on the blogs that I follow, interacting with those that follow my blog, or learning through my membership in professional organizations, I am constantly gaining insight as to how to better do my job.  During the summer, all of those resources are still available.  
2. Read a Book – It’s often hard to find the time to read during the school year.  During the summer, though, I’ve been able to read some great books that helped me grow as a teacher.  If you’re not sure what to read, ask your PLN. I’m sure they’ll have great ideas.  Another option is to join a book group on a site like Goodreads.  Two of the more influential books on education I’ve read are The Element by Sir Ken Robinson and Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen.
3. Attend and/or Present at a Conference – Educational conferences are fantastic places to both pick up new ideas for your classroom and network with other professionals.  Many take place during the summer months to make it easier for educators to attend.  Presenting is an extremely rewarding experience that often comes with the benefit of a free or reduced registration fee.
4. Browse Through Bookmarks - During the school year I am flooded with great new websites and web 2.0 tools that are shared by my PLN.  Many I save in my Delicious account and never get the chance to play around with to see if they are useful in my 5th grade classroom.  There’s just not enough time.  Summer is a perfect opportunity to spend some time playing with these tools.  You might discover something you love. 
5. Download Content from iTunes U - Many people don’t realize how much free content is available on iTunes for teachers.  There are over 350,000 free lectures, videos, and films available covering just about every possible topic.  The best part is that you can listen or watch them while you go for a run, garden, lounge by the pool, or even while you stick your feet in the sand on the beach.  

Now it's your turn. In the comment section, please share how you continue your professional learning. What books do you plan to read this summer? What conferences are you attending? Do you have any great ways to continue your learning that I didn't mention? What's your favorite iTunes podcast? Please share!