Managing Expectations

Spawned out of a Twitter conversation that I thought died and then was reignited, a blog post. Thanks to John Spencer for poking a thread I thought was done.  Let’s do this!

All connected educators deal with a huge number of excellent educators in our PLNs who do great things. How do we, as educators, deal with the expectations that come out of this knowledge? That was the gist of the conversation that got reignited last night.

"Men's high jump" from Wikimedia by Marie-Lan Nguyen

Clearly, this is a place where the adage ‘Different strokes for different folks’ rules. I’m looking forward to hearing what my fellow conversators have to say about this. But my two cents? Here they are.

How do I manage the expectations of the Twitter-sphere? Or to put it better, how do I deal with expectations I have of myself because I’m connected to so many great educators? In an age where I can see into so many great classrooms, and in an age where people are hesitant to share the mess that is their collective classrooms, it is easy to beat yourself down. To set the bar to unreachable levels. Or get a serious case of FOMO about what you’re NOT doing.

So how to manage? Here’s my recipe.

• I want to keep getting better. Always.
• Better doesn’t always mean new. Better means improvement, not shiny.
• I get to look into a lot of classrooms. That sets the bar high. That bar motivates me. I know that I won’t reach the best of what my friends and colleagues from all over the world do. But I know I need to be okay with that failure. The bar I set for myself is higher than any administrator could - or should - set it. It’s still the bar I want to set for myself.
• I have some things that I believe are almost static: I believe in them strongly. Can I change them? Yes. Do I anticipate changing them? No. (More on this idea here.) My semi-static beliefs:
• Student creation: regardless of what I am using - technology, or paper and markers - I believe that students need to be creating knowledge, not consuming knowledge. Do you need to consume some knowledge to create? Yes. Do you need to consume all the time? Or even most of the time? Heck no.
• Curiosity rules: want to talk about rigor? The Common Core? Good, neither do I. If I can get my kids curious about something - to the point when they have questions, and iterate questions on top of answers they find - I don’t need to worry about rigor. Or the Common Core.
• The grey area of history is the most important area: what makes history interesting ISN’T memorizing facts. Is it the story? Maybe. Is it getting to cast judgment on the past? Yeah, that’s a possibility. Is it big ideas that cut across time and subject area? Sure. Students need to be tossed into the grey areas of history with the skills to create and defend arguments. The answers they come up? Inconsequential. What matters is the why.

Additionally, we all need a place to do something that isn’t education. For me, the combination of a Fitbit plus a love of taking and editing pictures on my phone has become an extremely important balance to deal with this bar I have for myself.

Thanks to Melissa, Victoria, John, and Jeremy for the conversation.

For more reflections on this conversation, check out what John had to say.

#edcamp35: A Reflection

I was lucky enough to get to attend my first international - and I believe fourteenth overall - edcamp in Langley, BC yesterday. Guess what? That skimming effect that edcamp has - educators are choosing to give up their Saturday and set the course for their learning for a day so pretty much only incredible people show up - was true at edcamp35. Awesome, dedicated educators were the norm at edcamp35.

A few takeaways for me, in no particular order:

The variety of stakeholders at edcamp35 was truly spectacular. Sure, there were tons of teachers. But there were also many parents there. And students - great to have student voices at an edcamp! A big chunk of the University of British Columbia student teacher cohort came. School board members (they call them trustees in BC). A ton of administrators. Classroom aides. And district personnel: a superintendent, directors of curriculum, and other folks as well. Whatever the edcamp35 team did to get out all stakeholders was impressive!

edcamp35 tied my first SoCal edcamp (edcampLA in early 2013) as the edcamp that I got to meet so many of the folks I learn with on Twitter face to face. It's always a blast to connect a face and voice to the @ symbol I'm so used to seeing, and the sheer volume folks who I 'knew' from Twitter that I got to connect with in person was rad!

D'Alice, Christine, and I: love meeting folks face to face!
Thanks for the pic, Christine!

Conversation-based sessions were the norm. The organizing team did an awesome job setting up the spaces we were going to use before the event started: desks were in a circle in all classrooms when we arrived Saturday morning. Want to discourage presentations? De-front the room and make people talk to each other!

Enthusiasm was the rule of the day. Enough said.

Free lunch, from food trucks no less. What?!? An unexpected surprise!

And now as I fly home - and my flights today were gorgeous: the San Juan Islands, Puget Sound, Rainier, all the Oregon volcanoes, Crater Lake, Shasta - I'm left with the 'what next' questions.

How do we give educators more choice in their PD? How do we spread the edcamp #EduAwesome, the edcamp model, to folks who aren't attending edcamps?

As much as I don't really love the 1.0/2.0/3.0 discussions in education, it works for this question. What is edcamp 2.0? edcamp is awesome. I firmly believe that today, in 2014, edcamp is one of the best parts of education. But what is next for edcamp?

This is not to imply that edcamp NEEDS a 2.0. But so many great people are involved in edcamp you just know it's going to iterate. So what is edcamp 2.0? (Full disclosure: I - and a bunch of other volunteer edcamp organizers - sit on the edcamp Foundation's Partnership Program committee that helps new edcamp organizers sort through the hurdles of running their own edcamp. I don't come at edcamps bias free.)

So that's where I'm left with: how do we spread and evolve the edcamp model. Kudos to the edcamp35 organizing team: y'all put on a killer event with the broadest representation of stakeholders that I've seen at an edcamp.

Now I just need some more face to face time with all those awesome BC educators I got to meet for the first time yesterday...

CUE14: Finally Some Words

So annual CUE was like two and a half weeks ago. I haven't blogged about it. Still. In fact, I haven't written anything on my blog since February 19th. For shame!

Did the wifi suck? Yes. Royally. Were there like one million awesome people there? Yes. There were.

Highlights? Too many to list. Two stand out.

Getting to present with friends was TREMENDOUS. Thanks for including me Diane, John, Victoria, Lisa, JR, Megan, and Joe. It was an honor. (Presentation resources are here.)

Best conversation? Thanks for skipping that session with me Saturday, Moss and Kristen. The discussion about how to hack a conference, about how to make conference sessions more interactive was pure gold. It has given me a ton to think about moving forward.

As I read over other CUE blog posts, I was wondering what I had to say. On the plane home from spring break Sunday night, I was flipping through my photos and I figured out my CUE blog post. So here's my #CUE14 post: a collection of pictures.

Sam Patterson and Cheryl Morris in the registration line on Thursday morning. Yeah, that's Ellen Kraska too!

A Voxer channel I was in hatched the idea for #SelfiesWithSelak. This idea reached its apex when Bill got called onto stage to take a selfie with CUE director Mike Lawrence and keynote speaker LeVar Burton. Which was awesome. Here is my contribution.

My ninja buddy - and my edtech mentor - Diane Main and I being ridiculous. Because why not?

After separately meeting the elementary teacher wonder twins Elizabeth and Christina, I was struck by their energy for education and all things awesome. And they got to meet face to face at CUE!

The crew I was with decided to skip Dan Meyer's keynote to watch LeVar Burton get interviewed for the ITM show. There were about ten of us watching. It was awesome! Here Mark Hammons and Chris Fitz Walsh prep for the interview.

Victoria, Elizabeth, and Sara with LeVar. Homemade shark hoodie: yeah Sara!

My favorite shirt I got to sport at CUE - no one else had a #kyedchat shirt. Thanks Donnie!

The RockStar Manhattan Beach team: it's gonna be rad! Note: this was before we added Nancy Minicozzi to the staff. Need to photoshop her in!

Because when Jon Samuelson rolls into the session you're in, you've gotta take a photo! At least Jo-Ann Fox is dutifully taking notes, right?

I got to film a West Coast Beercast with Bill Selak featuring homebrew from Mark Hammons and myself. Good times were had by all. Here's my view from the taping: the peanut gallery.

The awesome folks I got to do a Google slam with. If you've got to present Saturday morning at 8:30, do it with JR, Lisa, Joe, Megan, and Diane. It was sooooo much fun.

I like this picture JR took from the Google slam. Thanks buddy!

Sherman's Deli - right next to the convention center in Palm Springs - has legendary slices of cake. This slice of coconut cake made the rounds at our table. Good friends and food: a CUE win for sure.

From Diane's Google drawing session. Comparative uses of Google drawings: annotating a picture of the Renaissance pool and creating a river map of British Columbia. Participants shall remain nameless.

Another Voxer channel united for Mexican food. I'll repeat myself: food and awesome educators - what's the downside?

My favorite pic from CUE. At the #caedchat meet-up, we gathered everyone who was there who was an edcamp organizer. (Yes, I love edcamp. This is well documented.) This is an awesome group of people. I'm honored to know them. 

Sunset from the last night I spent in Palm Springs.

To everyone I met or hung out with there: thanks. My first annual CUE conference was awesome. 

Now let's fix that wifi...

My Imperfect Classroom

It seems like since becoming involved in social media, lots of doors have been opened. I see into spectacular teachers' classrooms on a regular basis. I beg, borrow, and steal (with attribution) from awesome people all over the place. I talk about the good things that happen in my classroom. I talk about the bad things that happen on my classroom.

And, given all the awesome I get to see from other connected educators, I'm more vexed than ever that I have students that are disengaged. I'm bothered that I can't create the climate of excellence in my classroom that lets me move away from grades. A climate that gets students to do their best always. That gets rid if the 'how many points is this worth' mentality. That attempts to reach this point have both been unsuccessful and made my assessment this year kind of a hot mess.

I can't explain why I couldn't reach two students who chose not to do one of the most spectacular projects that we do. A project that everyone does. And everyone talks about for the rest of their high school career and beyond.

I can't logic out why kids are still sometimes creating things that are less then their best. Why when given choice around subject matter and the way they demonstrate their knowledge, products are still being created that demonstrate less thought and use of classtime than are appropriate.

I'm stuck in a rut with a few kids: I can't get their focus for my class period. They are highly capable students. They are successful and thoughtful in other classes. But I don't have the answers - or choices - that they need to be successful right now.

In this age of the global teacher this is hard to stomach. I see so many people doing so many great things with their students and I wonder why that isn't happening in my room.

It isn't teacher jealousy: jealousy implies a desire for someone to do less well or be less good at something. I want the ninjas in my PLN to keep inspiring me with the great things they are doing in their classroom.

It's a feeling of not-good-enough. A feeling of frustration. And it's kind of a dangerous game.

Before I was a connected educator, I was looking into classrooms on my campus. Now the pool is so much bigger. I get to look into a LOT of classrooms and hear about what is going on in them. And that opens my eyes to what I COULD be doing. And I know I'm not the only connected educator that feels that way.

Being connected makes the bar that much higher. Being connected therefore makes the shortcomings in my classroom that much more visible to me.

So what's the answer? I wish I had one. Keep sharing. Keep listening. Keep taking to people. Keep asking yourself how that awesome thing that that teacher does in AP Chemistry - keep asking how and what does that look like in my world history class.

Keep asking how. Keep asking why. Keep asking 'what if.'

Keep listening to our students.

Get better. Iterate. Try things. Listen to people way smarter than me - and yes, this definitely includes my students.

Steal more ideas. Try and fail more. And keep listening. That's the only way forward.

20% Time GHO

I got to do a GHO with Kevin Brookhouser and Chris Cooper tonight about 20% time. We chatted about starting 20% time, reluctant learners, and the Bad Idea Factory. Among other things. Plus, we conned Chris into getting back onto Twitter. Sounds like this might become a regular thing, which would be really exciting. The conversation is embedded below.

History #flipclass Teachers Unite (Again)

It had been about a month. It was time for the batsignal. We needed a #flipclass history teachers hangout. Luckily, Kaelyn Bullock started asking good questions about what a flipped inquiry history class would look like. And just like that, the batsignal was sent. The conversation is embedded below.

North Bay CUE Conference Thoughts

I was lucky enough to get to attend the North Bay CUE’s annual event today. It was a good time! Like most conferences these days, it was awesome to get to catch up with Twitter friends in real life. People are the highlight. Does this mean that conferences aren’t worth it? Absolutely not. I take ideas back to my classroom that will make me a better teacher. But man, it’s cool to get to hang out with folks who are passionate about making education better!

I got to check out Amy Fadeji’s #twitterrocks in the first session of the day. Amy swore this was her first presentation on Twitter, but her session layout was excellent. I especially liked her use of a TodaysMeet backchannel as a non-Twitter way people could share concerns and questions they had. It was inspiring to be in a room learning about Twitter with multiple administrators and superintendents. Connected administrators - what a powerful thing!

I got to co-present with with Sarah Press about the Innovation Day we had at our school last spring. We spent a lot of time thinking about the structure of this presentation - neither of us wanted to stand up in front of people and talk AT them for 90 minutes. We settled on a nice structure that allowed us to share what Innovation Day was and have participants brainstorm issues they would have on their campus running Innovation Day as well as try to find solutions for these issues. The presentation is embedded below. All of our resources that we used to prep for Innovation Day are there - please steal away!

Catlin Tucker’s keynote was excellent. What really struck me was Catlin’s emphasis on failure in the classroom. It’s one thing for me to talk about failing forward with my students. It’s entirely another thing to have an author and keynote speaker tell a large group of teachers that is their job to go out and fail and then reflect and get better. What an awesome charge to go and do!

Catlin’s push to get teachers to blog was one I hadn’t thought about but is so totally on the money. By blogging, teachers are doing two really important things that often get skipped over for a lack of time: they are reflecting and sharing. What a great rationale for blogging!

I got to lead a session in the afternoon on better feedback with Google tools. First live demo presentation ever! And by the end of the session, everyone had created a Google form, gotten responses on it, and run Doctopus and Goobric on the results of their Google spreadsheet. Check out the step by step directions I created here. I ran out of time to have everyone walk through Kaizena, but I’m hopeful that my fast run through and the step by step notes (available here) that I made will have people feel comfortable using this powerful feedback tool.

Thanks to the NBCUE team for throwing an awesome event - great wifi, nice facility, good food. As always, hanging out with passionate educators is awesome!

#20Time, Day 2: Some Structure

I started off 20% time in my class two weeks ago with the Bad Idea Factory - more on that here. Well, last Friday came along and it was time for week 2 (day 2?) of 20% time. But I took off from school a little early to head down to the first ever edcamp in Palm Springs, CA. And then flew back on Sunday. And collapsed for an epic nap upon returning home. Hence the lateness of this post.

Day 2 of 20% time was all about structure. Not structure in a ‘you’ve got to do all this’ way, but an attempt to provide some form to the crazy - and awesome - brainstorm that came out of the Bad Idea Factory. Students left the excited had left excited, but without any real idea what the project entailed. Day 2 was channeling of that excitement.

So, what is that structure? Like most things I’m doing with 20% time, these structures are heavily borrowed from Kevin Brookhouser and Kate Petty. Students can work alone or in groups of up to 4. Their work for the year of 20% time should be something they normally don’t get to do at school. Failure is absolutely an option - the final product is not graded, so dream big! Some sort of a product must be created - I don’t want a list of ideas at the end of the year. And finally, their 20% project must positively impact a community or group of people in some way.

So if the final product isn’t graded, what is? Good question! Their daily reflections - document linked here - will be graded. Both Kevin and Kate have their students blog their reflections. That would be one more layer of stuff for me - I get the power of public reflections, but this year they’re going to Google doc their reflections. One less thing. My student’s project proposal - linked here, heavily borrowed from Kevin - is graded. The outside interview my students must do with the community they will impact is graded pass/no pass with revisions available for those who struggle with this section. In December, students will give a two minute ‘what I’ve done so far, where I’m going’ presentation about how they’ve used their time during the fall semester. This will be graded pass/no pass, but shouldn’t be overly burdensome. Finally, my students will give a TED-style presentation in May that encapsulates their year of learning that will be graded. This speech is going to be big and awesome.

We went over these guidelines and graded/ungraded sections, then I returned my students to their initial brainstorms. Given the increased schema that they now had about their 20% time, planning restarted anew. Some groups and individuals started filling out their project proposals while others wrestled with the content of projects.

This Friday we’re going to talk backwards planning then return to planning the project. I’m hopeful to have a handful of project proposals to review by the end of the period!

Postscript: I attended Kate’s 20% time presentation at edcampPS. It was cool to see the amount of interest that folks down in SoCal had for doing 20% time in their classrooms!

Postscript #2: I’m building the 20% time section of my class website as I go - feel free to check that out here.

A Few edcampPS Thoughts

Holly, Wokka, and Sam as edcampPS got rolling

So back in May when the first edcamp Palm Springs was announced, clearly I was intrigued. I love edcamps - I think the structure and organic nature of edcamps, but also the kind of teachers they attract, make the edcamp experience unique among educational professional development opportunities. Plus, they’re free. So I wanted to go. But I live in the Bay Area. Palm Springs is a long way away.

Enter John Stevens, one of the edcampPS organizers. He solved part of the issue: “Just fly down here and stay with me and my family.” Well then. Lacking an excuse not to go, I bought a plane ticket. Great decision. (Also, enormous props to John for putting me up for the weekend!)

I don’t want to talk about everything that happened at edcampPS, but there were some definite highlights. First, most of the #caedchat team was there. Given that the majority of the team - everyone but Sam Patterson and I - are SoCal folks, it was great to spend the day with this awesome group of educators who I had spent so much time planning chats with. Jo-Ann Fox brought irrepressible energy, Holly Clark asked tough questions all day, Ryan Archer provided some fascinating tidbits about his transformation as a teacher, Sam Patterson had the irreverent humor on point all day, and John Stevens and Jessica Pack, well, they helped organized the day. Some highlights:

The #caedchat crew  teamed up and facilitated a session on Twitter in the morning. As an absolute Twitter evangelist, I LOVE talking with other educators about Twitter. I also get eye rolls when I bring up Twitter on my staff, so having a room full of teachers that wanted to talk about and learn to better use Twitter is absolutely a blast to me.

Kate Petty’s 20% Time session offered a couple important reminders for educators. First, we sometimes need to remember to emphasize the process over the product in our classrooms. This is obviously true for something like 20% Time, where final products of this project are not graded. This emphasis on process can help move our students away from their obsession with points and grades. Second, and building on moving students away from their obsession with grades and points, Kate discussed that it was important to give students the chance to fail in their 20% projects. Being open and honest about this with students - you’re welcome to fail on this project - is so needed in an educational system that doesn’t allow students anywhere near enough opportunities to fail and learn from those failures.

One of the absolute highlights of the day for me was a post-lunch session facilitated by Moss Pike and Chris Long. Their session was titled ‘Check Your Ego at the Door’ and dealt with control and choice in the classroom. First, the session started with us rearranging the room and getting the chairs into circle so we could have a discussion. YES. This is what edcamp is supposed to look like. But the conversation was a deep one. Free flowing and touching on student choice, rules in the classroom, and making change at our sites and in education (to name a few of the light topics we discussed), it was everything an edcamp session is supposed to be. The body language of the participants reflected this as well - people were actively engaged in conversation and showed this whether they were speaking or not. Plus, props to Ryan Archer for one of the lines of the day with his realization that as teachers at edcamp, “We’re finally part of the one percent!!!”

'Things That Suck'

I got to facilitate ‘Things That Suck’ in the final session of the day with Matt Vaudrey. First, if you haven’t met Matt and gotten a chance to talk to him, do it at the next conference you are at: the dude is absolutely hilarious. Even on the 6:30am drive to edcampPS. Anyhow… Always a rolicking session with lots of voices and opinions, this version of Things That Suck was highly enjoyable. It even included a kindergarten teacher - who shall remain nameless - who had to put herself on timeout because she wanted to discuss everything!

Ah, what the heck - I’m outing you for that, Elizabeth Goold - your passion made Things That Suck even more fun!

iPad, photo by DianeDarrow

And while edcampPS was fun - I won an iPad mini in the swag drawing at the end of the day!!! - it was really the relationships and conversations - some new, others old - that are what edcamp is all about. Hearing a teacher’s visceral frustration with their prescribed curriculum, and how they are trying to deal with a complete lack of autonomy in their classroom. Excited teachers thinking about turning their students loose on 20% Time. Another teacher who can’t wait to get out of the classroom and into their TOSA position. The relationships, the people, the conversations - that’s what made edcampPS special.

Hats off to John, Jessica, Eduardo Rivera, and the rest of the team edcampPS team - the inaugural version rocked! Thanks for all your hard work - y’all delivered a great learning experience!

And the experience was capped by a late Saturday evening beer with Alice Chen, who couldn’t make it edcampPS! Well, Alice had desert not a beer, but regardless is was a nice way to end the weekend.

As I sit and type this in the Las Vegas airport, I’m left with a couple thoughts. We NEED to get more administrators to edcamps. They have a unique perspective on education that is so valuable in a room full of teachers,. Also, though, hopefully getting to see such a dedicated group of teachers would allow these education leaders to free up teachers to take risks in their classroom: to go out and try something, then support them if they fail. I’d love to say I knew how to do that.

Second? Get yourself to an edcamp. Even if it means some travel. Do it. You won’t regret it.