Think Twice Thursday #6 - How do you Reflect?

In a continuation of my Tuesday Post about my experiences with #edchat, I thought a lot about what people said, and also what I said myself.  In my new position, I don't get to necessarily teach students anymore.  The previous years as a teacher I would often reflect on my day when I went home and talked to my wife who is also a teacher.  I realize now that I never wrote any of those reflections down.  I can't go back and grow from those discussions with my wife, because I can't remember them to this day.

One of the suggestions that I made was that teachers should blog as a method of reflection.  It would be an easy way for administrators to open up a dialogue with their teachers about what is going on in their classroom.  It is difficult for administrators to get to a teachers classroom more than maybe once a month.  So, for any administrators reading this blog, I suggest that you THINK TWICE about asking/suggesting/requiring your teachers to create a reflection blog.  They could even attach documents and lesson information which could alleviate the portfolios or assessment notebooks they are already doing.  This would be a good way for you to assess the effectiveness of teachers in your building, because they are assessing their own effectiveness.

I always thought about writing a book about all the funny things that students say and do when I retire.  A blog would have been a good way for me to remember those.  Teachers could use a blog to write about classroom experiences, student humor, lesson successes and failures, and ask questions that readers of the blog could answer.  Readers could offer support and suggestions about an issue that the teacher might be struggling with that they discuss on their blog.  Self-assessment is probably the best kind of assessment that one could do.  A blog would be an excellent way to reflect.  So to teachers that read my blog, I suggest that you THINK TWICE about how you reflect, and start reflecting by creating a blog.  Within this blog assess the effectiveness of your teaching, lessons, assessment, activities, and relationship with your students.

This blog has been a great way for me to organize and share much of the ideas, thoughts, and resources that I find useful and that I have shared with the teachers in my building.  With my new job there are plenty of instances that offer chances for reflection.  Tuesday's #edchat got me thinking about reflecting about my own experiences.  So it is a double standard for me to sit here and suggest to my readers that you all should blog, if I myself do not do it.  So I am going to THINK TWICE about how I reflect and assess my effectiveness by creating a reflection blog about my experiences as a Technology Integration Specialist.  If you maintain a blog and are out of the classroom, you too should THINK TWICE about keeping a reflection blog to assess your effectiveness.

I will be starting one shortly and will share once I get it off the ground.  I am thinking of titling it "Reflection = Happiness???"

Another point/suggestion made during #edchat to get teachers encouraged to blog at my school was for me to offer to watch one of their classes one day for creating and maintaining a blog.  While subbing in their classroom I would do a lesson with technology.  I think I will look into this.  I will let you know how it goes if I decide to tackle such an interesting concept.  Must thank ElephantsGerald for the suggestion.

Create a blog, and THINK TWICE about assessing your effectiveness.

Wiki Wednesday #5 - Copyright Confusion

As teachers, we all know the trouble that the Internet and the Web has caused when it comes to students using Copyrighted material or plagiarizing  someone elses work.  I know that it has been a constent battle within our school system when it comes to portfolios and posting student work on teacher webpages, something that is completely new to our district.

Well, there is a Wiki out there that will help answer some of the questions you might be having and address the issues that you are facing.  Copyright Confusion is a great place to learn about the Code for Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy.  You can learn more about this Code by reading the PDF which is provided on the Wiki.

One of the best resources on the site is a worksheet that allows you to determine if the use of copyrighted material could be considered fair use.  This would be a great tool to evaluate projects or for planning your own project.  You can view the concept and fill out the worksheet here.  Another link worth visiting is the Scenarios page.  What a great way to learn if something you are doing violates copyright laws.

This site would be a great way for you to start a project or to provide to your students so that they have a better understanding of how to avoid getting in trouble with copyright and plagiarism.  Just spend some time here looking through and educating yourself.  If you feel you have something to add, do so...that is why it is a Wiki!!

Twitter Tuesday #6...From Sick and Unplugged to First #edchat

Well, being sick sure did take a lot from me.  I was unplugged from Twitter for quite a while.  I guess you know you are sick when you are to tired and just don't feel like reading and updating Twitter!  I jumped right back in tonight though, and participated in my first #edchat.  It was a great experience discussing teacher evaluation and how teachers assess their own classroom and teaching.  The usual responses were mentioned, but then there were also some others.  Most teachers will tell you that portfolio's, scheduled walk-through's, and student surveys do little to help teachers learn about themselves.  Most of the time, its ineffectiveness is not because of the process, it is because of the user.


We always had a saying when I worked in retail and a customer would bring in a computer with problems that we could not solve...."I guess it must be user error."  Same thing for teacher assessment.  If you don't use the tools correctly, then it must be user error.  If you don't take information you learn about yourself to improve what you are doing, the only person to blame is the user.  Think about it.


One option is Peer Observation, but how do you monitor it?  How do you ensure that teachers really are observing each other?  You could probably require a form, but does that really ensure that learning and assessing was going on?  Probably not.  One suggestion I had was to have teachers on planning go with a principal when they complete a walk-through.  This would ensure that peer observations are going on and when post observation meetings happen, that teacher could also participate.  Maybe even participate in the pre-observation meeting.


I am not teaching now, but keeping a blog has been a great form of reflection for me in this new job.  I take much of what I find and reflect on how it could be used in the classroom.  I then share that with teachers.  I know that keeping a reflection blog would receive quite a response, but if you could trade that for keeping a big binder portfolio would you?  Most of the time, a portfolio completed by teachers has the necessary parts required by the administration/district thrown in there, and often times, nothing new is put in, even though you have new students. There is also very little reflection.


Another topic within the #edchat was assessing Administrators.  Most of their assessment comes from test scores, attendance, teacher retention, etc.  But who assesses them on things like communication, organization, leadership, etc.?  Should teachers have a say in such evaluations?  A lot of that comes down to respect.  Would an administrator respect the opinion of a teacher fresh out of college?  If you create such a system, who is in charge of seeing suggestions implemented?  Teachers always have to show evidence, would administrators have the same requirements; to show evidence?  Just throwing this out there.


So, on top of all the other reasons why I have created a Twitter account and started Tweeting, I discovered that #edchat in itself is a whole reason in its own.  Through #edchat, I also discovered many other educators that I added to my PLN.  So if you have a free Tuesday night, 7 EST time, or 12 EST, you can join in the fun by searching for #edchat and then following the conversation, and when you are comfortable, join the conversation.  Just following the conversation will open a ton of doors, so don't feel like you have to immediately join the conversation.  Get a feel for it first.


I am sure that there was a lot more to the #edchat conversation from tonight, but these were the conversations that I took part in and wanted to highlight.

Must See Monday #6 - Ahead - Playground for Creative Minds

As most of my readers know, I am a big fan of Prezi.  I recently wrote a post about other ways to complete lecture other than Power Point.  Upon completing that post, I discovered another option; Ahead presentation software.  It was also suggested in a comment on my Blog.  So I thought it was only appropriate to discuss it today.

Ahead is very similar to Prezi.  It has a 3D canvas for creating your presentation.  It allows you to zoom in and out on aspects of your presentation.  What I like about it compared to Prezi is that you get more options for creating your presentation, especially when it comes to fonts and text.  It bodes itself as "No Coding, No Boundaries."

Ahead is for people with more tech savvy backgrounds, but for those that are not, I highly suggest that you visit the tutorial for help creating your presentation.  Another benefit is that it gives you the option of 25 prearranged slides if you have a fear of an infinite open space to work on...might be useful for those wanting less freedom.

When creating your presentation, you create scenes, which can be put in order within your presentation.  That is how the software knows where to go in your presentation.  You can upload any file to the presentation, video, audio, picture, PDF, etc, however, it does take some time to upload the file, so you might want to upload any files to the presentation to start with, so they are ready when you need them.

It definitely takes some getting used too, but it is definitely worth looking at to help change up your normal lectures.  You could easily copy and paste from your old Power Point Presentations as well.  My suggestion, is just visit the site and play around for a while and see how you might use it....that is what i did.  When you visit the homepage, click on the arrows in the bottom of the right of your screen and go through to learn about Ahead.  Here is a screen shot of the homepage.

You can follow the company on Twitter.  I am, so that I can make recommendations for education use and licensing.  You should follow them too and make the same suggestions!

100th Post - The Growth of my PLN

Around 3 months ago I started this blog with different ideas for where I wanted it to go, and who I was hoping to reach with it.  For my 100th post, I want to focus on my PLN; the people who follow this blog, follow me on Twitter, and that I follow on Twitter.  The whole blogging experience has been probably the most influential of any professional development that I have had while teaching.  Partly because of what I have learned and found, but mostly because I have been able to share that information with others and hear of their personal experiences and then share them.

So what is a PLN?  Well, it could mean Professional Learning Network, or even Personal Learning Network.  That is the literal meaning of the acronym, but what does it really mean?  Imagine for a minute teaching in a school where some of the most influential educators all teach.  Imagine teaching in a school where the administrators encourage new and innovative ways to teach to your students.  Imagine teaching in a school where all those teachers share their ideas and lessons openly without fear of being seen as "that teacher."  That is the experience of a PLN.  Sharing ideas and experiences with people who enjoy what you have to share and openly share their personal experiences.

Most of my PLN started via a few Social Networks that I follow.  The first one that I joined was Classroom 2.0.  Very helpful in allowing me to share my blog as well as get feedback for future ideas.  I also met some people in the same career path as me, as well as some teacher education students who were enthusiastic about learning from other educators.  Another social network that I discovered was the Educator's PLN.  This was another website that allowed me to meet other educators who were experiencing the same change in education that I was experiencing, and many of these same members I follow on Twitter.

Then of course there is Twitter.  This is truly where the growth of my PLN started to grow.  I went from a few followers and following a few people to following over 100 (which I hope to increase soon), and being followed by over 200 in a matter of a month.  The problem with Twitter is its perception through out the education world. Yes, it originally and is still perceived as a Social Network.  But for educators...it is a Professional Network.  It is where I discover new ideas.  It is where I experience new thoughts.  It is where I find people who share many of the same educational values and beliefs that I do, and we discuss those without fear of egos, retribution, or fear itself.  From my original post about Twitter, you can tell that I am passionate about its use as an educational tool.  So let this be another opportunity for me to suggest joining Twitter and learning more about your PLN.  To give you another example, Dodie Ainslie Tweeted for suggestions for  what to include in a professional development about using Twitter.  I replied with ideas and from that, I had about 10 new teachers to Twitter begin to follow me....thus starting the creation of their own PLN.

Another opportunity came through Kelly Tenkely and the creation of a Blogging Alliance.  You can read more about the Blogging Alliance and see how to add the blogs to your Reader Account on her blog here.  By visiting the blog, you can click on a link to subscribe to the bundle of educational blogs.  This type of Alliance created a whole other type of a professional network for me to get to know and follow.  I highly recommend that you check out and follow our Alliance.

So, my questions for you are....what is keeping you from creating your own PLN?  Will you break away from the trend of most teachers and branch out from what is comfortable in your classroom and school and start a PLN?

Remember the following quote:

"CHANGE IS LIKE THE SUN, YOU EITHER CHANGE BECAUSE YOU FEEL THE HEAT, OR BECAUSE IT CAUSES YOU TO OPEN YOUR EYES." Not my own, saw in a book, drawing a blank on the author's name.