Igniting Awe in Learning

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My daughter wrote a blog post about her observations and experiences while serving as the Social Media Director for SDCUE conference. In her post, she reflected on the lack of "teachers eager to keep learning and the ones who wanted to keep up with the new technologies" when she was in school just a couple years ago. She questioned why teachers are "stuck in their ways" and why there aren't more teachers like the ones at SDCUE who want to keep on learning. Maybe it's because those "stuck" (her word, not mine) teachers need to be more dog. You see, dogs are amazed by EVERYthing. A snack is amazing. The UPS driver is amazing. Even a chewed up ball that smells like mud and lost its shape is amazing. They live for the moment, and they aren't afraid to fail. So how can we build the confidence and excitement of our teachers that have not yet channeled their inner dog? What chew toy, adventure, or treat will make them as excited as a dog? Do...

Kobi Yamada wrote a fabulous book called What Do You Do With an Idea? In the book, the main character finds an idea. He takes it with him everywhere. When he first shares it with others, they scoff at it. Luckily, the boy does not listen to the naysayers and instead nurtures the idea.  In the end, the idea takes form and ... well ... read it and find out. I read this book yesterday to a 4th grade class. I had not met the students before, but they seemed pretty excited to have me there. At the end of the book read, we discussed the plot, and why people may not have supported the boy and his idea. After the discussion, I led them through an improv activity called "Yes, but." In "Yes, but" one person of a pair shares an idea. In this case, the idea was what the student wanted to do over the weekend. The other person's job is to react to the idea with a "yes, but" statement. For example: Student 1: I think it'd be cool to go to the zoo this wee...

Dr. Nathan Lang, an Ed Leader and Innovator, shared this graphic on his Twitter ( @NALANG1 ) the the other day. In four words, it simplifies much of what we are working to achieve through Design Thinking in my school district.  When I was in school, I completed a lot of projects. I created clothing worn by a Native American tribe; I recreated a topographical map of California with salt dough; and I built a California Mission with sugar cubes. Most of us have similar memories from our school days. However, none of these projects truly prepared me for the challenges of life. Yes, I learned to work nicely with others, and clean up after myself. I even learned that, if I procrastinated long enough, my mom would work on my projects after I went to sleep. But the piece that was missing was that these projects were just projects. They were defined for me by my teacher, and were meant to teach a specific content standard. What each of these projects was missing was the creation of a...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/02/technology/silicon-valley-teachers-tech.html Last month there was quite a lively conversation about the above article. A lot of educators were upset about the seeming "attack" on teachers this article contained, as it seemed to question the reason teachers become ed tech brand ambassadors.  It's important for teachers to have access to the tools they need to teach well, and sometimes these ambassador programs provide that. Over my educational career, I have been branded by a few ed tech companies. For example, I was a Microsoft Innovative Educator and a Tech4Learning Innovative Educator. Both titles were earned based on evidence of higher level learning taking place with those tools in the classroom. I didn't have to keep using their tool to maintain my title, or prove that I was using the tool for a certain percentage of my day.  However, I was also a titled educator for another ed tech company, and in order to maintain m...

Love thy neighbor as yourself. - Mark 12:31 I woke up today to horrible news on my iPhone. Over 500 injured, and over 50 killed in the largest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. It's unfathomable that this happened. And it's unfathomable that it has happened before. And that it will happen again. I wish I had words of wisdom about how to change the culture of our society. But all I can say is, hug your babies. Tell your students that you care about them...and truly mean it. Look at a homeless person as a human, and not as a dreg. Call your mom and tell her you're grateful for doing her best in raising you. Whatever you do, exude love. 

Photo Source: Flickr, Eric E Castro  I learned the other day that ending a text message with a period can be interpreted as insincere. Such a simple, innocuous dot now carries more hidden messages than it was ever intended to convey. Likewise, the messages we think we're sending in our classrooms may not be the messages received by students. Consider these... Time WILL pass, will YOU? Does this imply a nurturing, supportive environment that believes ALL students deserve every opportunity to be successful? I'm not so sure. Students not paying attention in class? Lock up devices. Does this show trust? Relationship building? I wonder if the teacher's device is locked up during meetings as well. Or how about this sign I saw in a classroom:  "Work hard in silence. Let success be your noise." A companion sign read, "The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." Does this mean we don't value collaboration? Team work? I wonder how...

Write about your summer vacation. How many of you wrote on that topic, or something very similar, when you were in school? How many of you wrote about it many, many times? Honestly, I can't remember a first day of school that did not include a summer vacation activity. Now take a moment and ask yourself, what does this focus on summer vacation say about the culture of learning at your school, or in your classroom? More specifically: How does this make students feel who don't have awesome summer stories to share? What about those who depend on school for basic safety and needs like the free lunch program? Where is the joy of learning if everyone is counting down to leave school? Mark Church, co-author of Making Learning Visible , presented at Harvard's Project Zero four questions we must consider when looking at the learning transcript. These questions are critical if we are to empower all students to reach their genius potential.  As Ron Ritchhart,...

Unless you live under a rock, you probably heard about the solar eclipse that happened today.  Across the country people were standing outside with their ISO-certified glasses, or their pinhole cameras, or just looking at the shadows poking through the trees. Strangers became friendly outside office buildings as they showed off their homemade tools and warned each other about the dangers of staring at the sun. Children held their paper glasses tightly to their face, while gleefully pointing at the event as it unfolded in the sky. And yet, there were also plenty of students kept inside today. Many schools, fearful of becoming schools for the blind, kept students locked behind the safety of their classroom walls, resorting to NASA live feeds to simulate the experience. I'm not sure why, in public education, there is this fear of providing students with experiences. I spent the past ten years of my career promoting digital citizenship as an important curriculum component for all s...

Jordan inside the "Daydream v2" exhibit. On Sunday, my daughter and I attended the Wonderspaces exhibit in San Diego. It is described on their website as " a pop-up museum of extraordinary experiences." Each of these experiences was given their own space in which to reside so that each piece could speak its own voice, without the presence of the others. "The Last Word" exhibit As we explored the 16 unique experiences, Jordan and I experienced a range of emotional reactions to the art. In some, we were completely awestruck. In others, we were perplexed. At others, raw with emotions. And in some, we felt playful. "The Last Word," consisting of hundreds of pieces of rolled up paper, allowed participants to leave their "last word" to someone... a way to "recapture what was never uttered" ( website ).  This opportunity to peer into the soul of others silenced my mind, and opened my heart to the emotional plight of oth...

"When we're sort of infused with   either enthusiasm or awe or fondness or whatever,   it changes and alters our perception of things.   It changes what we see. It changes what we remember."  - Rob Legato, movie effects creator  from his Ted Talk " The Art of Creating Awe " Being introduced to the School Board Last week I started a new job. No longer in Educational or Information Technology, I am now the Executive Director of Innovation and Design for a K-6 school district. Leaving my former position, and district, was not a decision that I took lightly. And yet, it was an easy decision to make. Why? Because this new district is in pursuit of awe... of wow... of creating wonder and joy for students. It was evident in their five year plan published on their website. It was evident in the weekly videos produced showcasing students engaged in learning. It was evident in the questions they asked me during the interview process. It was evident in every co...

I get so many daily emails with tech digests that I hardly ever go through them all. But today, my last day of work before Spring Break, I had a little extra time on my hands so I thought I'd read through all my "junk" email. And hidden at the bottom of one of my emails was this gem of a quote: We have mistakenly believed that giving teachers and students new software or a new box will help fix education, but the technology has over-promised and under delivered. – Larry Ferlazzo I would like to politely disagree. I don't think technology has ever promised to do anything. It's just a tool. People may have promised that these tools will revolutionize education, but people tend to make a lot of promises that aren't filled. People are the only fix to the problems in education. People who are willing to have tough conversations about the sad state of affairs many (but not all!) of our classrooms are in today. People who are willing to ackno...

Urgency is often a gift.  It can create both clarity and action. - Mark Miller When I started my teaching career, my dad would scoff about Teacher Professional Growth Days. I remember him saying, "I don't see cars in the parking lot... it's just another day off for teachers." Well Dad, today we had 300 teachers packed in at one school engaging in some of the most meaningful professional growth I have seen during my 16 years as an educator. Starting our day was a call to action from the superintendent. After years of stagnant test scores, he emphasized that it is time to face our current reality. Students aren't succeeding academically. What work must be done to turn this around? Five instructional systems were discussed: Coherent First Teaching, Intervention, Positive Behavior Support, Assessments, and Teacher Collaboration. These gears, when in sync, can create monumental shifts in the learning experience of students. So how do we get there? Through p...

In his blog post, " What Makes a Master Teacher?" George Couros lists what makes a master teacher. Are there any qualities you would add? Or remove? Which one resonates the most with you? For me, I tried to ensure I got to know students on a personal level. Having taught middle school English Language Arts, it wasn't uncommon to have 150-175 students walk through my door every day. It was critical that they not see themselves as just another warm body in a seat, but rather as an important contributing member to the class.  I'll admit that I did better with some students than others. But I think that, overall, the effort paid off. By knowing my students, I was able to tailor curriculum to meet both their needs and their interests. For example, one year I had a student who had a poor assignment completion rate. He hated essay writing (and really, who doesn't?). But when I learned he wanted to be a rap artist, I let him write some of his literary responses as a ...

A while back, I read an article in Good , "A magazine for the global citizen" about a  #100StartsWith1  project. The idea is to promote positive change that betters society.  It's an idea I circle back to today because I just spent three days at CUE Rock Star Admin being inspired by the passion, innovation, and creativity of school and district leaders in attendance.   Sometimes it's the simplest ideas that make the biggest impact.  For example, dancing and singing during morning drop off, as this vice principal in Arkansas does every day.  Maybe my #100Startswith1 project will be a return to blogging. Don't get me wrong... I don't believe my blogging will better society. But perhaps the time for me to reflect, and the ability to hold conversations with others about the current state of education, will spark a change that will lead to a better society. It's worth a shot. 

Photo from 10News: http://goo.gl/HcKI4E I shared the below information with my management team today as Burn Book seems to be the latest and greatest way for high school students to cyber bully. Feel free to modify and use if needed. But more importantly, I encourage you to read this blog post by a high school student about the impact these types of apps have on people:  http://goo.gl/Ls4Tv8 By now, most of you have probably heard of an app called BurnBook. Burn book allows students to anonymously post comments about anything. They choose their school, and then start posting. There are a lot of mean comments about other students and teachers being posted on the app, and occasionally threats to the safety of the school’s campus. I began monitoring the app the other day, and so far, it seems to be focused on high schools.  The high school district personnel have started a campaign to talk to students on all their campuses about the seriousness of p...

High School Student's FB this morning On #CAEdChat Sunday night, we discussed ways to "pimp" our lessons so that students walk in the door jazzed to learn. Dave Burgess, author of Teach Like a Pirate , shared that he always asks, " Here's my lesson...now how can I make this come ALIVE?! How can I create an EXPERIENCE?"   So often, I see teachers who drag the technology out of the cupboard and expect the students to start the ticker tape parade.  But students are bored, just like the high school student who posted the above FB pic this morning from his class.  Technology is not a ticker tape parade for them. But learning should be! As student Alex Bockert explained during #CAEdChat, " Don't start with all the actual work/research to be done - start with why this project will rock." So how will you make learning rock today?

I love Angela Maiers. I think I love her because she values what should be valued: the person. Yes, technology is fabulous, and it allows us to do fabulous things, but if we aren't valuing the person, then it's all for naught. I first started following Angela when I saw her "You Matter" manifesto. It resonated. Deeply. Who we are to others doesn't matter until we realize that we have to matter to ourselves. It is a powerfully simple concept. But one which many of us don't take the time to own. Recently I came across another one of Angela's blog posts that also resonated with me. The Heart: An Underused Tool for Digital Learning discusses the need to challenge students to "work together to solve problems that break their heart." Can you imagine the impact this approach to education would have? Not only would students find meaning in the work they were doing, but they'd be making an impact on the world. They'd be saying, "Hey, I...

My daughter, a high school junior, recently keynoted an ed tech fest. Because I feel odd talking up my progeny, I'm going to copy/paste a write-up shared in her district Superintendent's newsletter : "she shared her school experiences with technology and challenged the teachers in the theater to provide a wide array of technology-driven opportunities. She emphasized that students need to be prepared for a digital world and our schools are an essential part in that development." There was a lot of great feedback from the teachers that participated, but in an effort to make the conversation global, I'd love to hear what you have to say as well.

I came across this posting on a school's Facebook page the other day. Am I the only one who is sad by this photo, and the accompanying caption? I don't see a single engaged student in this photo. On the contrary, I see a lot of body language that denotes the complete opposite of engagement. What message does this post send to students, parents, community members? What message does it send to you?