EdTech with Teacher Candidates

I got about 30 minutes to share some thoughts on integrating tech into a middle and high school history classroom tonight with an awesome group of teacher candidates from Stanford's Teacher Education Program (STEP). As a STEP grad, it was cool to be able to go back and share some things that I do to try to thoughtfully integrate tech into a history classroom.

I stressed using tech for students to create (not consume) and preached the Twitter message (get on Twitter now, darnit). I walked them through the SAMR model as a guide for tech integration and gave examples of SAMR and Google docs.

It was a good conversation, but too short! I also got to hear Bobby Cupp talk about how he integrates tech in his classroom. Give Bobby a follow - he's a super thoughtful guy!

Here's the document I shared with them.

Are We Overthinking School? (aka an #edcampOC reflection)

David Theriault, John Stevens and I (photo by David)

I got to go to edcampOC a couple weeks ago. It was awesome - old friends, new friends, folks I had only met on Twitter, folks I was looking forward to seeing on Twitter more in the future. Just an all around #EduWin. But as I've marinated on the day, I'm left with a thought, a thought that arose out of my day down in the OC: are we overthinking education?

Some context for how I got here is needed. The next two anecdotes come from the Teacher Confessions session I went to that was started by Stephen Davis and David Theriault. There is strict confidentiality about what gets shared at teacher confessions not getting repeated to the outside world, but I got the okay from the people I am about to share anecdotes from.

So. Are we overthinking education? Over the last few years, thanks in large part to the diversity of opinions that I’ve gotten from my PLN, I’ve really started to examine what my class should be all about. What do I want my students to be able to do when they leave my class after two years with me? It used to be hardcore critical thinking and analytical writing. With some content knowledge thrown in. Now? Maybe it's more of an ability to find and synthesize information and then to go out and create. Create something, anything, to demonstrate your knowledge. This swing has come at the definite expense of overall content knowledge.

Even now, as I am about halfway into my first year of 1:1 (and my assessment structure is in shambles), I wonder what my class is really about. Engagement? Creation? Is that what it should be? Have I swung too far away from content knowledge? What about skills? Will my students be able to write well enough? What about public speaking? Presenting? Will they be able to defend their ideas well enough? Test scores? Okay, not that one.

I don’t have answers to these questions. However, I feel like I SHOULD have these answers. I’m paid to have these answers, right?

In Teacher Confessions, Raymond Lopez talked about how, after teaching history for 19 years, he was still conflicted about what his class was supposed to be about: was he supposed to be emphasizing skills? Content? Some of both?

Clearly, this comment really resonated with me. If someone like Raymond, whose opinion I respect and who is someone I have gotten to know through Twitter and email exchanges, isn’t sure what his class was supposed to be about after 19 years… Well, I mean that totally dignifies my struggles with what my class is supposed to be about.

And then.

And then.

And then Matt Dale said something that really resonated with me around the struggle that Ray shared and that I empathize with as well.

Matt said he wants every student to leave his class feeling loved.

And there you have the 'drops mic walks off stage' moment. Umm, DUH. Clearly this is what I want my class to be about: making sure my kids leave my room feeling loved.

This doesn't answer my (or Ray's) conundrum. But it does put the conundrum into some perspective.

Because really that's what it's all about. Does this mean that Ray and I don't need to keep battling those 'what is my class really about' demons? No. Those are worthy questions, questions that teachers need to come to individual decisions about.

But really, if every kid leaves my class feeling loved, I've done my job. THAT is what matters. Forget skills and content knowledge.

***

The rest of edcampOC? It was a whirlwind day. Fly down to Orange County and get met at the airport by my edcampHome co-conspirator David Theriault. Morning sessions on literacy and the Common Core and the aforementioned Teacher Confessions made for a thought-provoking morning.

As I was sitting around chatting with just a spectacular group do SoCal educators (really, this group as incredible), Crystal (and Grayson) Kirch showed up! I skipped session three and sat around and talked with Crystal and edcampOC organizer Kate Petty. An hour well spent. The day ended with David, Elizabeth Goold, and I facilitating the edcamp staple Things That Suck.

edcampOC did NOT suck. A late kudos to the organizing team for a great event as well as to David and Crystal for being my chauffeurs!

Awesome friends I got to reconnect with at #edcampOC

How Do You End Up Bowling With Awesome People at Fall CUE?

Okay, so this isn't a super serious seeming question. And yes, fall CUE was over a month ago. But bear with me...

Pic via @mrsfadeji - thanks Amy!

The backstory: Saturday night at fall CUE I ended up going bowling with a crew of awesome people. An eclectic group of folks with no common strand - location, subject area, teacher/administrator - other than they were connected educators. Everyone knew everyone from the Twitterz. That was the commonality.

Sidenote: this night was a freaking BLAST. Not an upset - get a bunch of teachers together and you’re bound to have fun.

It was here, with this wide-tanging group of people, that I wondered how people ended up there bowling. This question spawned the title of this blog post. How do you end up with this group of folks? There were newly connected educators. Folks who have keynoted big conferences. People who run conferences all over California. It was an enormous mix of awesome folks and since this gathering spawned the question, it seemed like a good place to try to get an answer.

I think that everyone needs a push - or needed a push - to get involved and connected. I wouldn't have been bowling with this group of people if I hadn't met Diane Main - my edtech momma - at the MERIT program in 2011. And then proceeded to go do stuff she told me to do: yes, the inaugural edcampSFBay. Yes CUE Rockstar. Then at some point I just went off and did things. Not awesome stuff, but stuff nonetheless.

I needed that push though. I needed to be told to go and DO. But does everyone need that push? This seemed like the group to pop that question to.

And the consensus - unanimously - was that yes, folks needed the push. Everyone there could identify someone who had pushed them to get connected, someone who said go do this thing. Or these things. From the newly connected to the veterans, everyone got a push from someone.

I followed this conversation up with other folks as well. Out of all the folks I talked to, I only found one person who had organically gotten connected and involved in the edtech world.

So what? Well, it means people need to be encouraged to go and do. Hit up that conference. Start blogging. Think about presenting at this event. #EduPressure. #EduEncouragement. Whatever you want to call it.

I've heard too many folks - awesome teachers who do spectacular things with their students - say that they have nothing to share. That what they do in their classroom isn't really that cool or innovative.

SHENANIGANS.

In the follow up to this admission of 'I don't do anything cool' my follow-up question is always about a cool activity or project they do in their classroom. And inevitably, within five minutes, we've found at least one conference presentation or blog post that could happen right now. Often times it is several.

What else does it mean? Well, for me at my site, it's easy to get discouraged. Outside of the tech I got through grants (and my private wifi network that I got through whining to the right people), there isn't really any functional tech on my campus. Or a wifi network that is robust enough to support even the most rudimentary BYOD program.

For obvious reasons, this makes it really hard to integrate tech at Hillsdale. So what can I do? Yeah. That's the question. I'm lucky to be part of an awesome three-headed instructional technology committee, the first of its kind at Hillsdale. I'm hopeful we can keep pushing forward. I know we are advocating for the right things from the district.

I'm also pushing hard to get folks at my site to apply for MERIT this summer. Two weeks of intensive - and paid! - hands-on edtech goodness did wonders for me. In fact, eventually - once I got hooked into the Twitterz - it revolutionized my classroom. So I've slowly been talking up MERIT to a group of about ten teachers on my campus.

I'm not confident that my approach - how I try to get people more involved and comfortable with edtech - is the right one. I do know, though, that I'm trying to push. Gently (though I know some would argue a more gentle touch is needed) but a push nonetheless.

What is your approach?  How do you encourage people to get more involved and comfortable with edtech? With revolutionizing classrooms and education?