So in my last blog I posted a link to the videos I created for my externship. It should be noted that I used Lenovo technology to create them. What I learned is that I can use my tablet to do anything I can do on my laptop…but the access and ease of using it is much easier. While I was an avid IPad user…I found that there were limitations as to what I could create and what I could do within my school system because we are not a Mac system..as most systems are not. Access to my Lenovo tablet enabled me to create, produce, and share easily, efficiently, and in a timely manner! It was and is a wonderful tool that I continue to use today!!!!

OK…so I’m a little behind on my posts…Ok a lot behind. Hopefully this will make up for it. Instead of a long post of how great my experience was teaching my unit created with the assistance of DPI I was going to post one of the three videos I made highlighting the three shifts in ELA following Common Core. However due to size of the files I can’t. So instead I’m going to post a link to the videos on my Youtube account. Hopefully this works! Fingers crossed!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ix111s8wGg&feature=youtu.be

Hope you enjoy the video!

Because my Fellowship was with DPI and not an entity outside of public education such as a business my partnership was quite different. However, I’m sure in some ways it was the same.

I benefited from the expertise and resources of my mentor. As someone who has been out of the classroom for a while it was so helpful to have the viewpoint of a curriculum expert. With the demands of Common Core changing the way we do business it was helpful to have the point of view of someone else. I had my own perception of what the shifts were, but it is always helpful to compare that to someone else’s and see where you were right and where you need to adjust your thinking.

I also benefited from the feedback of my mentor. Was it always what I wanted to hear? No. But was it helpful in helping me grow and challenge what I thought? YES! We can all benefit from constructive criticism when it is truly constructive!

And finally it did lead to growth. I was challenged, coached, and sometimes led to frustration…but in the end I am a better educator than I was before. I have a deeper understanding of the content and I am more prepared to share it with others!

Expectations…it is a word used frequently in education. We are to have high expectations of our students…people have high expectations of teachers. But what are those expectations really?

I attend meetings frequently where the expectations are explained in terms of achievement. Achievement defined by test scores. And I must admit it is easy to fall into that definition of expectations.

But sometimes something will come along..something that causes you to increase the expectations you have for yourself and for your students. The staff development we have experienced as Kenan Fellows does just that. Creativity, exploration, student centered instruction…these are the areas we should hold to high expectations. When we talk achievement we have to look at data from all areas. Instruction needs to be engaging on a whole new level for today’s students.

So in short the staff development has led me to increase my expectations of myself and look at how we define high expectations. Whether delivering staff development or teaching in front of a classroom what we used to hold as the epitome of high expectation just isn’t enough today.

That is definitely the question of the hour or at least for the moment.  You see the only thing that is constant is change.  Having been in education for 16 years I’ve seen lots of change.  Technology has exploded in the last few years and the way we communicate is changing rapidly.  I imagine that when Samuel Morris sent that first telegraph he could not have imagined how communication would evolve by now where literally you can communicate with hundreds…even thousands of people…in a moment.

And as with all new technology we are faced with the dilemma of how will it change us.  Fear of the unknown can absorb you.  If we communicate via social networks instead of face to face will it change the fiber of who we are?  The answer is no.  But that doesn’t stop people from fearing..that new ways of doing things will change them..change our society….be used for wrongdoing.  And here’s the thing…all of those things are true.  But they don’t have to be the only truths.

Will social media change us?  Yes.  Has it changed our society?  Yes.  Has it been used wrongly?  Yes.  However…the same can be said of the telegraph, the pony express, telephones, and yes even pencil and paper.

In schools there are basically two view points…get rid of it or embrace it.  I tend to go with embracing it and here’s why….

1.  It’s not going to go away.  It’s only going to get bigger and faster!  In a room of about 85 new teachers I met with at the beginning of school all but a couple had a social media account.  Universities, businesses, schools, families are using them more and more to communicate.  They can communicate in real time and share highlights and encourage others to do the same.  Even my three year old asks, “Put it on Facebook?” every time I take his picture with my iPhone.

2.  It’s powerful.  There are almost 600,000,000 users of Twitter.  An average of 58 million Tweets are sent daily.  Eleven accounts are created on Twitter every second.  Enough said.

3.  It has the power to transform the face of education.  Social Media makes you accessible and visible on a whole new level.  Teachers can post about the exciting things going on in their classrooms.  Administrators can post resources for their parents and teachers.  Staff development becomes interactive as does the classroom.  It opens up a new way for students to express themselves and share their thoughts and ideas.

4.  It gives us the opportunity to teach ethical communication to children.  It doesn’t matter what media you use…it can be used for evil.  Bullying, lying, cheating, these are all things that drive fear of Social Media.  Of course social media can be used for all of these things and they are the basis for most schools on refusing to allow it.  However, I would stress that it is still going to happen.  Our job is to model and teach them how to use it responsibly.

Something I’ve learned…that’s easy…there’s always something to learn.  Just when I think my tool box for teaching is as full as it can possibly be I have learned so many new and wonderful things to share with my teachers!  Strategies, technology resources, contacts…it just keeps coming.  Just this week I was reading an article on Close Reading and found a new way to plan and organize it in the classroom.

One of the things we sometimes lose as teachers, administrators, etc. is the desire to learn new things. It becomes…”Oh no.  One more thing.”  When it should be “Oh yeah.  I’ve learned one more thing!”  We give lip service to being “life long learners” but then life happens and we don’t have time to learn more.  The truth is that everything I’ve learned thus far has refueled my desire to learn even more!  I am excited when teachers get up to share!  I’m looking for ways we can share virtually through Twitter and other social media!  I’m sharing even more than I have in years and I’m starting to see others feel the need to share as well.  The fire is reignited!  Just check out my new blog for Beginning Teachers!  http://www.lee.k12.nc.us/Page/4996

Let’s get learning Y’all!

I find this blog topic interesting since for me the term “students” has different meanings.  As a curriculum coach my “students” are usually teachers.  This experience is going to be so valuable as I often am called on to present or share information with teachers regarding curriculum and all sorts of things in our district.  I love working with teachers and just like my 10 years in the classroom I find great joy in being able to hone my skills to serve them better.

Through the process of creating a unit focusing on the three shifts of ELA I am finding that even as a veteran teacher who feels like they understand the new standards I am having to struggle through the process of truly applying them.  This is giving me the opportunity to expand my tool belt, building a deeper understanding of the new standards, and get re-energized about teaching!

While I could present on the shifts and the new standards till the cows come home…those presentations take on a different feel when I’ve had that productive struggle of applying them in a real classroom situation.

So I’m thinking about what in my externship has been a big Ah-ha and the answer is really nothing on the surface.  I’ve been studying Common Core for a couple of years so it was really no big surprise.  Instead what I found surprising was the explosion of Social Media use in classrooms and during staff development.  Sure I had a Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn account but honestly I mostly just used them to post pictures of my adorable child…seen here.  🙂

But since beginning to use my Twitter to post educational resources and explore resources offered by others it has kind of opened up an entirely new world.  In our district Social Media in the classroom was shunned by many.  “They’ll just use it for no good or to cheat on a test.  We CAN’T let them have their phones.”    I think once we really begin to utilize the power of Social Media for selling our brand (in this case our brand is Public Schools) we can harness it for the good.  Will there be teachers, parents, and students who abuse it?  Yes…just like anything else including paper and pencil!  Does that mean we ignore it?  No!  The good will far out weigh the bad.

So I say yes to the Social Media Revolution…not sure I would have said that a few years ago as a school administrator.  🙂  Let’s face it if we don’t get on board we will be left behind SMH!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB99MjUz7YQ

I am positively positive about the affect Common Core and the Essential Standards are having on technology.  I think the question is actually somewhat moot because we have no choice but to embrace technology and make it not just a separate entity that we teach occasionally.

“Everyone get our your laptop. We are going to have a technology lesson.”

But something that is simply integrated into what we do.  Technology is already part of our children’s lives.  While some of it may be relatively new to us…our students have never known a world without it.  My two year old soon will never know a time when the world wasn’t at his fingertips.  Just the other day he asked me a question to which I replied I didn’t know the answer and he said, “Google It.”  It has become part of our lingo and our life style.

The new objectives challenge teachers to find new and innovative ways for students to communicate, produce, research, etc.  But the truth is to our students they aren’t that new!  They know about may of them before we do because they are immersed in technology.

The way I look at it, whether Common Core affects technology or not, we have no choice but to embrace the changing world we live in…because the constant change is now the norm.

My summer externship has probably been very different from most.  While not connected to an outside business…I’m actually connected to the Department of Public Instruction.  This has afforded me the opportunity to work with so many teachers that are excited about the possibilities of public instruction and the changes common core has brought to the table in literacy.  We have been forced to ask some pretty tough questions about instruction in our classrooms and by asking those questions and making adjustments to align with the three major shifts in Common Core we will begin to see an entirely new level of achievement from our students.

What are the three shifts?

• Building knowledge through content rich nonfiction and informational texts.  That doesn’t mean we forget about the rich literature that our students need to read…but that we make sure we incorporate just as much informational text.  Informational text is the language of our world…it’s found in text books, on college applications, in manuals, and in news articles.  The skills for reading informational text do vary from reading literature and so we must equip our students with those skills in order to make sure they are successful in our society.
• Reading and writing grounded in evidence from the text.  Writing…seems almost like a forgotten art form.  With the demands of high stakes testing it was inevitable that writing would take a back seat.  With Common Core we must embrace the importance of writing.  And we must make sure that writing is not a separate component.  It must be taught hand in hand with literacy.  Teachers must ask students questions that require them to return to the text.  They need to become used to proving their answers.  They will have to read the text closely to draw inferences.
• Regular practice with complex text and its academic vocabulary.  Teachers must also focus on the growing complexity of texts.  This is forcing teachers to reevaluate the level of the texts in their classroom and make sure they are appropriately challenging and then finding ways to scaffold instruction so that all students have access to that same challenging text.  This is also the shift that focuses on the need to teach vocabulary in a clear and systematic way.

So making connections between my externship and my curriculum will be a piece of pie!!!