Stuff

Okay, it's official, I'm done! I've shopped, packed, wrapped and stacked and I'm ready to kick back and enjoy this holiday. But I can't savor the satisfaction for long. As I sit and look at the fruits of my labor I'm suddenly overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that I've managed to acquire over the last few weeks. Stuff to fill stockings and stuff to fill stomachs. Shiny stuff and smelly stuff, stuff to play with, stuff to make, stuff to share and stuff to wear. And the acquisition of it all has sure taken the stuffing out of me over the last few weeks. Is all this stuff really important?

That's a thought I have many times each day while sat at my desk in school. It's constantly cluttered with stuff to grade and stuff to return. Stuff to sign, stuff to read, stuff to apply for and stuff to complete. Stuff for field trips, stuff for P.D., stuff for the office and stuff I need to see. Then there's the technology stuff! The interactive whiteboard, the Doc cam and flips, the laptops ,the netbooks and the PicoCricket kits. There's Evernote and One Note, Kodu and Scratch, voicemails and emails with all sorts attached. There's wikis and Moodle, Prezis and Blogs. There's movies and Bing maps, Google and Glogs. Then there's the new iPad that I've just received , I'm excited about it, but it means I've got to read. I'll be reading a lot of stuff to learn what stuff I need to get the most out of my new classroom toy.

I'll step into my Twitter stream for a quick paddle and before I know it I'll be sucked into a torrent of ...guess what? Really cool stuff! The blog posts, the best apps, the links and the chats, the messages and retweets, the quotes and hashtags. I'll follow more people then make some more lists, favorite a few tweets and look for good tweets I missed. Before I know it, hours will have passed and my head will be buzzing with the stuff I've amassed. And how much of it will enhance my teaching and how much of all this stuff will get in the way of my teaching?

And how much stuff gets in the way of learning? I read a great post by Josh Stumpenhorst about the stuff that some students will have to endure this holiday: fighting, yelling, domestic unrest, caring for younger siblings while parents work, working themselves to support the family, cold, hunger... the list goes on. How much of this sort of stuff do our students have to put aside each day to open up their hearts and minds in order to learn and grow?

Wow! Did I really just use the word stuff thirty times in one post? Well for the next few days the phone goes off, the iPad goes to sleep and the laptop lid goes down. I'm pushing to one side all of the stuff (31) that occupies space in my head so that I can enjoy family, friends and food. You know-the really good stuff (32)

Happy Holidays Everyone!

A Teacher's Obituary

Am I the only person who has ever Googled their own name for fun and found obituaries? It certainly takes the fun out of it but it also provides some great food for thought! When I did this a few years ago some of my namesakes had made very meaningful impressions on the people in their lives, and I couldn't help but wonder what my own obituary would say.

My family would say nice things, I'm sure there's some sort of law about that sort of thing. And my friends, well they're friends for a reason right? Then I thought about the people I have spent most of my waking hours with while on the planet, my students. What would they have to say about me?

Mrs. Roberts, the teacher who taught me how to add fractions.

Mrs. Roberts, the teacher who helped me learn the flowering parts of a plant.

Mrs. Roberts, the teacher who ruined my life with homework assignments!

The possibilities I considered kind of went downhill from there. Realizing this was way too important to leave to the hands of fate, I decided to work backwards. What would I like my students to say about me? Something that started out as a bit of fun, soon became a serious activity that took hours of contemplation. It took a few days but I eventually decided upon:

Mrs. Roberts, the teacher who taught me that I'm brave, I'm smart and that I can make a difference.

Feeling smug that I could finally articulate what I would like my legacy to be, I kicked back and rolled the sound of it around in my mind as if I was at a wine tasting event. Then I realized-it's one thing to write your own obituary but living up to it is another matter!

I decided to make a conscious effort every day to push kids beyond their comfort zone. I put a sign outside my classroom door that said "Come to learn." I wanted my students to know before they walked through the door that they would be challenged , made to think, try new things and be expected to achieve what they never thought they could. Their learning path may be a rocky one, they may fall, they may get lost along the way, they may find parts of the journey scary, but we would be in it together, and we would help and guide each other along the way.

I put a sign on the inside of my door that said, "Leave to lead." We talked a lot about what that meant but one student demonstrated it beautifully when she voiced her concern about the student body's lack of diligence with peanut allergy rules. Having a severe peanut allergy herself she was frustrated by students who didn't realize how their careless actions could have such negative consequences. The class brainstormed possible solutions and she, uncomfortably, but bravely, led a mini campaign to heighten awareness by speaking to students, making posters and announcements and sharing her story. She made a real difference not only in terms of making students think about the consequences of their actions but also in making them realize that they could, in fact, make a difference.

By accepting the invitation to lead this student modeled for others the potential each individual has to evoke change. A floodgate opened and classroom meetings became a forum for identifying problems and brainstorming solutions. Within two years my students placed second in the national Siemens We Can Change the World challenge with their Trash Free Friday Campaign and the signs "Come to learn" and "Leave to lead" took on a life of their own. Learning in the classroom was no longer sufficient for my students. Exploring and discovering was just the beginning of their journey, doing something with the knowledge they acquired and taking action became the focus.

We now regularly look for opportunities to participate in hands on problem solving activities that require students to explore their roles and responsibilities as global citizens. Today we Skyped with one of our partner schools in the Challenge 20/20 project to share what we have learned about climate change over the last few weeks. We've been working with schools in Columbia, Bahrain and the United States to examine global warming. Once students pooled their collective wisdom today, they began to identify possible solutions. It was fascinating to watch the kids bounce around ideas and from a tiny seed of an idea develop a whole campaign to "Half the Light". Students will now be challenging their school communities to see how much energy can be saved by turning on just half of the classroom lights.

As an adult learner I am excited to have the opportunity to participate in a similar collaboration with teachers from around the globe. As part of the Microsoft Partners in Learning Forum in Washington last month, I was introduced to four other teachers from Mauritius, Egypt, Canada and Thailand. Over the last few weeks I have been putting together a series of lessons to support the theme for Shout 2012: Water Matters. Shout connects educators with rich content, tools and expertise that get students to take action on global issues. The work on this project took on even greater significance for me after watching Academy Award nominated film producer Elise Pearlstein present Last Call at the Oasis, a documentary about the global water crisis. It's a must see call to action and will be distributed to U.S. theaters in 2012.

I'm not dead yet, though I do have to check twice on Monday mornings, and some may say that thinking about one's own obituary is a bit morbid. However, this exercise has served as a compass for me and the direction I have wanted my teaching to take over the last few years. If one kid feels that they are brave and smart and that they can make a difference after being in my class I'll feel proud. If they all do, I'll know that I will have lived a life of consequence.

What will your teacher obituary say?

Thinking Big

I was running errands at the weekend with my kids when, from the back seat, my daughter asked, “Mom, do you believe in aliens?” With my head bulging with grocery lists, holiday shopping and dreaded laundry requirements, it would have been easy to say no. Instead, I asked why. “Well, we’ve been learning about space and how every star is a sun.There’s so many stars, doesn’t it make sense that at least one of them has a solar system like ours?Shouldn’t there be at least one other planet with some kind of life?” Not bad for a nine year old!

A rich and interesting conversation followed and when we got home we set about Erin’s homework. It was a sheet of basic math facts.It was like watching an elastic band that had been stretched to it’s limit snap back to its original shape.Don’t get me wrong, I’m a math teacher and I too demand that my students know their basic facts, but I was reminded of my favorite education quote:

"Education Is Not the Filling of a Pail, But the Lighting of a Fire" William Butler Yeats (Poet, 1865-1939).

I had to wonder how many times as a teacher, I’ve filled buckets so that my students can fill in bubbles on a multiple choice test.Content, curriculum and standardized tests are all important, but isn’t it also important for teachers to stretch the minds of students above and beyond the curriculum?

At the Microsoft Partners in Learning Global Forum in Washington last month, David Christian presented Big History, a project he’s developed collaboratively with Bill Gates.With great passion, David explained that the goals of this project are to foster a love of learning amongst students and to highlight for them the many links between scientific disciplines and the humanities.Course themes include origin stories embracing 14 billion years of history, interdisciplinary knowledge from astronomy, geology, biology and history, and understanding differing scales in time and space from atoms to galaxies.Being online, this class will allow 9th graders from all around the world to engage in conversations about life, the universe, our reason for being. Now that’s thinking big!!

The questions is, how do we get students thinking big before 9th grade? I’m not suggesting we start asking fifth graders about the meaning of life but we can challenge them beyond core content, can’t we? I recently learned about an activity that one of my colleagues, Leon Braisted, does with seventh graders.After studying great leaders,and covering required content in depth, the students are asked to go one step further by answering the question : “Whose face should be the fifth to be placed on Mount Rushmore?”

Working in collaborative groups students wrestle to find the “correct” answer, citing all of the knowledge they have acquired about great leaders and employing 21st century learning skills such as creativity, effective communication and flexible thinking.Check out the whole project by clicking on the photo-a product of the activity!

I look at my students just a little differently now.What exactly are they capable of thinking about and consequentially achieving?Which one of them will find the cure for cancer?Which one of their faces will be the fifth on Mount Rushmore? Which one of them will find the other life sustaining planet that my daughter is so convinced exists and more importantly, what’s my role in helping them get there?

How do you help your students to Think Big? I can’t wait to find out.

A Reluctant Adult Learner

We are living in a time of educational revolution. I read that on Twitter so it must be true! Being an educator it certainly is an exciting time, with so many opportunities to incorporate technology in innovative ways and to make meaningful global connections. I wasn’t always so excited though. My transition from reluctant, to enthusiastic, adult learner has been a slow one.

I was born and raised in the North of England, the home of the industrial revolution, so being part Luddite is in my genetic make-up. I was sad when digital cameras arrived. Going to the photo shop to pick up prints and eagerly ripping open the packet to see whether or not you had at least one good picture was all part of the experience for me. I resisted buying a cell phone for the longest time-until my car broke down on a cold and rainy night slap bang in the middle of nowhere. So introducing technology into my classroom was not on the top of my priority list.

Five years ago I found myself teaching the inaugural Engage class at Birmingham Covington School (BCS).Engage was developed as BCS sought to reinvent itself to keep up with the real world demands placed upon our students when they exit the school system. The overarching goal of Engage was to engage students in problem-based and project-based activities that integrated elements of science, educational technology, technology education, and language arts as well as the four main elements of the enGauge 21st Century Skills: Digital Age Literacy, Inventive Thinking, Effective Communication, and High Productivity.

I was thrilled to be involved in developing fourteen day projects until I was told that Engage was not intended to be a vehicle for curriculum delivery and that the projects had to be designed in the spirit of Lifelong Kindergarten. What I heard was: Stop teaching for two weeks and have fun with the kids!! I know innovative teaching involves taking risks but in an era of high stakes testing, this approach seemed plain irresponsible. Jordy Whitmer, a patient colleague and mentor, persevered with my constant questioning and misgivings and sold me on the lifelong Kindergarten approach by sharing many readings, podcasts and videos about Mitch Resnick’s philosophy. I figured two weeks out of the curriculum wouldn’t do eternal damage and we set about designing the first unit: Digital Story Telling.

The Luddite part of me became fully engaged. I was digitally illiterate and couldn’t fathom how I could possibly “teach” this unit. On day one my greatest fear came true- a student asked me how to do something and I didn’t have the answer. That was a pivotal moment for me. It was the precise moment that my stranglehold on a traditional classroom environment was relinquished forever. My reply was, “I don’t know, does anybody else in here have an answer to this question?” Hands flew up all around the room and in seconds the moment had passed, the kids moved on and the tone and style of my teaching was forever changed. I learned that I was not expected to be the font of all knowledge and that I didn’t have to know how to manipulate technology tools. My responsibility as a teacher was to provide opportunities for my kids to figure out how to use the tools, and to embrace my students as partners in learning.

Teaching this class has allowed me to witness levels of student engagement I have never seen before. Students are motivated, curious, flexible, prepared to take risks, comfortable with failure and they are also having fun. Aside from learning global competencies they are also covering the curriculum on a deeper, more meaningful level. The big difference is that they are the drivers on their learning journey and they decide in which direction it will go. Being involved in the design and evolution of this class has been the best professional development I have ever had. I now attempt to “engagify” all of my math and science lessons and I know that I am winning when the students ask if they are in Engage or science. Upon reflection, being told to focus less on curriculum delivery, and more on teaching kids to learn while having fun was indeed a gift.

Five years later I found myself representing the BCS Engage team at Microsoft’s Partners in Learning Global Forum in Washington last month. Seven hundred educators from around the globe were gathered to celebrate innovative teaching, to collaborate, to share and to learn from one another. Spending time with such passionate, creative and talented people has ignited in me an even greater desire to not only be prepared for the educational revolution, but to play an active role in it. My journey from reluctant, to enthusiastic adult learner is complete. My journey as an innovative educator has only just begun.

Living Up to the Gifts

Being a Brit, Thanksgiving isn't technically my holiday, but after living here for ten years and raising two American children I think I'm safe to take part in the celebrations now! I have enjoyed watching and learning about Thanksgiving traditions from my friends and colleagues over the last decade. I see stress levels rise as house cleaning and grocery shopping missions take priority. Excitement grows with the imminent arrival of family, as does fear and trepidation at the inevitable excessive calorie intake, and always, conversations center on the things we have to be thankful for. You'll never catch me making a pumpkin pie, but I will be giving thanks.

This year in particular I have received more than my fair share of gifts and I have a deeper understanding of the notion that gifts come in many forms. I have been thinking about the ways I can show my appreciation in a meaningful way. When I was little," thank you" took the form of a handmade note or card. Today we email, text, tweet, Facebook, call and occasionally get to say thank you F2F. One of my favorite expressions of thanks I learned from a student.

Each year this particular student and her five siblings are required by their parents to sit and think about a person who has had a positive impact on their lives during the previous year. They then sit and write a letter to that person explaining, in great detail, how their lives have changed for the better as a result of their shared experiences. I was fortunate to receive one of those letters a few years ago and it made me cry. Emails, cards, voicemails or tweeting out THX just doesn't seem adequate for the abundant year I have had. Instead, I am determined that I am going to live up to the gifts I have received.

For my husband I pledge to be a better confidant and supporter.
For my children I promise to notice and acknowledge the gifts you give me every day.
For my family I will not let the miles create distance.
For my colleagues I will be a better collaborator and flexible thinker.
For my old friends my shoulder will be more readily available for tears.
For my new friends I commit to maintaining and strengthening the bonds we have made.
For my students I aspire to teach you as much as you have taught me.

With that said, I wish you all a wonderful time of giving thanks with your nearest and dearest. Being British is irrelevant, being grateful is what matters.

Collaboration

The first twelve years of my teaching career were spent in England as an elementary teacher. Fresh out of college, I was handed the National Curriculum, given a gentle push over the classroom threshold and told, "Have at it!" And I did, and a marvelous time it was too! Being the only Year 6 teacher in the building I was free to do pretty much my own thing behind my classroom door. As long as my kids did well in standardized tests nobody really asked or questioned what I was doing. 

When I arrived in the U.S. I was fortunate to be hired at Birmingham Covington School (BCS) , an innovative school of science and technology. I was hired to be a 5/6 math and science teacher sharing 54 students with a Social Studies/Language Arts teacher. I was required to collaborate with my teaching partner, the math and science teachers and the whole 5/6 team. To do so effectively required certain skills: active listening, flexible thinking, risk taking, effective communication, and being politely critical. I didn't have any of them! When we started teaching Engage, we discovered that students don't naturally have these skills either.

Engage is a 3-8th grade project unique to BCS. Engage was conceived as BCS sought to reinvent itself to keep pace with the real-world skills that are demanded of our students when they exit our system. The overarching goal of Engage is to engage students in problem-based and project-based activities that integrate elements of science, educational technology, technology education, and language arts as well as the four main elements of the enGauge 21st Century Skills: Digital Age Literacy, Inventive Thinking, Effective Communication, and High Productivity.

We designed challenges that required a team of students to collaborate in order to be successful, and they weren't! They just didn't have the necessary skills. Students were excited and engaged but lacked the ability to listen to each other, to communicate effectively, to challenge each other in meaningful ways and to reach consensus on effective solutions. Realizing that the skills were not inherent and had to be taught, we developed a bank of resources and strategies.

When teams are first introduced, each member completes a personal skills inventory , assessing their own strengths and weaknesses. They use their findings to allocate specific roles within the group. The roles are determined according to the task but generally include a project manager, materials manager, communications manager and lead engineer. Once students have a clear understanding of their responsibilities we provide them with scripts about how to be politely critical and how to reach consensus .Armed with these tools they can begin to focus on the challenge activity and intermittently take the time to assess the success of their team using teamwork rubrics.

The success of these strategies can be measured by the fact that Engage was selected to be one of the projects representing Team U.S.A. at the Microsoft Partners in Learning Global Forum in Washington D.C earlier this month. As an attendee I was lucky enough to take part in discussions about collaboration with teachers from all around the world. One teacher likened collaborative projects to making a jigsaw: each student is given an element of a task and they connect the pieces together to produce a complete picture. I had to disagree. This describes co-operation, not collaboration.

Collaboration is more like bread making. The individual ingredients are blended, kneaded and pummeled, flattened, stretched, rolled and ultimately transformed into something warm and nourishing that smells and tastes good. Unlike a jigsaw, the original ingredients are unrecognizable and cannot return to the way they were. In learning to collaborate effectively with my colleagues at BCS I have often felt pummeled, stretched, challenged and transformed into a better teacher and learner.

When we ask our students to collaborate they should feel the same way. They should be able to take their individual thoughts and ideas, stretch them , reshape them and synthesize them to produce creations of meaning and consequence. The process should transform them as learners and take them one step closer to becoming more effective collaborators.

The next time you design a collaborative assignment for your kids, stop and think: Am I asking them to make a jigsaw or am I asking them to make bread?

A Partner in Learning

I bought a camping trailer this summer. Not the most momentous event in my life in recent months but certainly significant on my journey into Blogging. The saleswoman sat in front of a wall plastered with her numerous awards as salesperson of the month. When I pointed them out she laughed and said, "They make me put them up." Three weeks earlier I had been named teacher of the year in my school district. My first formal accolade in twenty three years of teaching. Nominated by my teaching partners and verified by fellow colleagues throughout the district. A real honor, and where was my framed certificate? In a drawer in my bedroom.....hmm!

Not long after that I received an invitation to a ribbon cutting ceremony for a new methane operated electricity plant at a local Waste Management facility. The invitation was completely unrelated to my award, and came from Chris Klein the education officer there, who had visited my classroom on several occasions to talk to my students about alternative energy, human impact on the environment and stewardship .I found myself mingling with local dignitaries, General Motors executives, and business leaders. While marveling at my free lunch and goody bag people would ask who I was and my reply was, "Oh! I'm just a teacher." Chris, on the other hand, introduced me as an important member of her team. She considered me to be amongst my peers while I felt like a kid who'd been allowed to eat at the adult table.

Last week I found myself in Washington D.C. at the Microsoft Partners in Learning Global Forum. I was part of the USA innovative educators team and was treated to an intense week of professional development, global collaboration and serious discussion about the future of education. Anglea Maiers ,one of my educational gurus, was participating and I wanted desperately to meet her. I couldn't fathom, however, what to say .What could I say to her that would enhance her learning as she has done for me so many times through social networking? So I backed off and missed the opportunity. Tono Sablan didn't.

Tono was also a part of Team USA , presenting his Project Unite which he developed to celebrate diversity in his school and to reduce fighting amongst the students. He introduced himself to Angela, handed her his card and described his project. He walked away with a promise of future collaboration. He is fifteen years old!

Why couldn't I do that? Some may say I lack confidence but I can hear those that know and love my loud and obnoxious self choking back laughter at the very suggestion. Have I been brainwashed by the old adage "Those that can't- teach." Was it the high caliber of the fellow attendees that made me feel like I am "just a teacher" ?

I think again about the lady who sold me my camping trailer. Those awards on the wall should have given me a clue as to how good she was-she sold me a fifth wheel that was five times more expensive than I was willing to pay!!When I get back to school I'm going to put my teacher of the year award on the wall outside my classroom. I want it to give my students a clue that when they come into my classroom they will get five times more of an experience than they bargained for.

We all have that kid in our classroom who just sits there like a sponge soaking it all in but they rarely look up and engage in the conversation. And it drives you crazy because you see that they are learning but you constantly wonder how much all of us could learn from them if only they would share their thoughts and ideas with us. And as teachers we encourage and coax and cajole that kid into participating. Well it turns out that I am that kid.

I want to thank my teachers : the R.V. saleswoman, my amazing colleagues, Chris Klein at Waste Management , Tono Sablan and especially the Microsoft Partners in Learning Team. You have all taught me that even amongst business leaders, movie makers, politicians, policy makers , educators... I am amongst my peers, and I am a Partner in Learning .With that comes responsibility-the responsibility to share , engage , take risks, challenge, participate-everything that I demand of my students and now it is time that I demand it of myself. I am lifting my head. I am raising my hand. I have something to say , "I'm Pauline and I am a teacher!"