Our TLC work has gotten a lot of good press this year. First, with our use of iPads in the Early Childhood program; then with hosting EdCamp Maine; and now our TLC work specifically was highlighted in this recent news story from Channel 6:
Click here for the full story from WCSH. Both of our TLC groups have worked hard to advance the use of technology in our classrooms. Even though we never seem to have enough time to accomplish what we want, everyone involved has contributed in some way - having thoughtful conversations, taking chances in changing curriculum, challenging their students to do more, taking time to learn something new, and so much more. Thanks TLC for bringing the conversation to a new level and making the school more aware of the exciting opportunities available to us.
Showing posts with label professional development. Show all posts
Showing posts with label professional development. Show all posts
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Teach21 Sumer Conference in NYC
This is an unsolicited advert for the Teach21 Conference at The School at Columbia. I have not been paid for my testimonial.
For a third year in a row the cohort of tech-savvy proponents of progressive pedagogy from The School at Columbia are offering a stupendous professional development institute. The institute is organized into single and multi-day workshops that span the range of disciplines and ages. The focus is not wholly on technology in the classroom, rather the organizing principle is as the name suggests, 21st Century teaching. Technology is at the heart of the institute, but its multitudinous limbs and organs include: collaboration, essay writing, fitness, assessment design, social networking, co-teaching, design, cultural awareness, and something called "algebraic thinking"-- which sounds scary. I cannot imagine a day spent thinking algebraically, but the workshops I have attended continue to positively shape my work.
Two two-day workshops stick in my mind; I most remember the GoogleDocs workshop from 2011 and the Personal Essay workshop from 2012. Here is why they stick, and I hope you are ready for this revelation: time. I was allowed (given even!) the time to sit in a room with two Google certified experts and learn all about the Google Apps and then more even more time to explore and create. My Googlexpertise expanded exponentially (I think I'm using that word correctly) in those two days and a year later I went back to grow my writing chops. Eve Becker walked us through a speed version of her unit on personal essay writing. With Eve, I was forced to take time to draft and shape my own personal essays. She insisted that we dig deeply and then write honestly. As is typical when I'm challenged, I resisted. I couldn't figure out why I was so cranky though. After much internal Sturm und Drang, I realized I was just scared to write -- that is when I started writing. I saw the position of my own students who may be resistant or cranky when offered a challenge and that empathy and the skills Eve presented are going to be a lifelong lesson. This two-day workshop was the kind of whirlwind where you spin, spin, and end up dizzy but in better shape rather than battered.
Highlights of these weeklong institutes are the daily keynote speakers. Sitting in a cozy library with three dozen teachers listening to Howard Gardner chat amiably for an hour about his writing process will continue to be my "happy place" during stressy times. The invited speakers are as varied as the workshops offered and last summer we heard chef Bill Telepan proselytize the power of produce in children's diets. Not a topic any of us would have argued against, I assure you.
All of these wonderful things are ready for you at Teach21. I plan to go back this summer for workshops on conferring with students, co-teaching, and a refresher on GoogleApps. I hope you'll consider coming along. Follow them on Twitter for updates and info:
[Ah! I forgot about the food! Breakfast and lunch are included every day and they are well done.]
Monday, February 4, 2013
On Tactility and Technology
"I'm going to EduCon. It's like Comic-Con, but--you know--with teachers."
This was my favorite retort when anyone asked me what conference I was going to again? Although the reference was lost on most, I did like the conjured-up image of teachers with capes wafting behind them, eyes masked as they whisked off to tackle the next issue that has arisen in their classrooms.
It's an appropriate metaphor: we are superhero-like in our powers to both impart information, coddle fragile egos, engage many different learning styles, organize student work, grade grade grade, and of course: work 8 hours without a food, water or bathroom break. On the shuttle back to the airport on Sunday, it turned out my fellow passenger was another EduCon attendee, and so we did what attendees do when at EduCon: we had an invigorating discussion about education. When I pointed out to him that these conversations were the theme of the weekend-- more than technology or innovation or creative design thinking-- he, a veteran of the conferences, replied that of course it was. People who go to EduCon are the people that want to change, to better to invent.
When thinking about how to post about EduCon, it is this idea that I keep returning to: the people at EduCon. The big thinkers. Which reminded me how important connections and relationships are when learning. This has been the hardest part of my embracing technology. I see my husband unfulfilled by the TV screen that is his graduate classes and remember back to the great personalities that collided and meshed and argued and laughed in my own graduate classes. I'm still in touch with many of my fellow students because we bonded through those lively debates and pre and post class chatter. I don't get the sense that my husband will cherish the relationships he's sort of formed through his online classes.
And I think of my middle school students and how tactile they are. I have a Newton's cradle and a stress ball in my classroom and both were destroyed within a month. Not because my students are overly destructive, but because they show an engagement and excitement about those toys that I wish they'd show toward my grammar lessons. So on day one of the conference, after taking a rather bone-jarring fall on the icy pavement as I was returning from lunch, my frustration was quickly met with delight as my next session had a description that included:
Throughout our 90 minute session, I was continually drawn to the ideas being posted and linked to at todaysmeet. Mini-conversations about related topics punctuated the main topic of the day: how to create a school, from scratch, without a template. With Legos. Yes, we began by creating with Legos, then touring our Lego metaphors, then-- my favorite part-- changing each other's Lego designs as we walked around on a second tour. It was an eye-opening experiment that likely caused us to be more disorderly than mindful, but I found myself so much more engaged and full of ideas than in the sessions where I stared at someone talking and tried to listen and take notes for a sustained period of time. The tactile experiment engaged my brain, and todaysmeet gave me the connection I needed to develop what I was thinking.
To me, technology needs to reinvent, not substitute. To do it the old way, but slap some technology into a dusty lesson plan seems clunky and out-of-touch. Why a smartboard to replace a whiteboard that's replaced a chalkboard? Why not think of a new way to work with information than a board? Which brings me to my second take-away from the conference: failure.
The opening night's panel, an eclectic group of people that included google's "Senior Education Evangelist," eventually got to that light and easy topic so crucial to success: failure. You know, the thing we teachers tell students it is safe to do, yet never allow ourselves to really practice it? Yes, putting a lot of effort behind something that just.doesn't.work. To me, if we are going to use technology in our classrooms, we have to fail at it. A lot. As we're responsible for educating tomorrow's leaders and workers and givers and takers; it's a hard pill to swallow. But most teachers agree that this Industrial Revolution-inspired classroom setup is outdated, and no amount of one-to-one laptop programs or stacks of iPads is going to fix it. If we are going to really change things, we need to find a way to use the ever-growing technology at our fingertips both to enhance our current lessons, but also to break away from safe planning and fail until we find success.
At 8pm I arrived at the airport, opened my email and found over 50 emails that need imminent attention. I'm ready.
This was my favorite retort when anyone asked me what conference I was going to again? Although the reference was lost on most, I did like the conjured-up image of teachers with capes wafting behind them, eyes masked as they whisked off to tackle the next issue that has arisen in their classrooms.
It's an appropriate metaphor: we are superhero-like in our powers to both impart information, coddle fragile egos, engage many different learning styles, organize student work, grade grade grade, and of course: work 8 hours without a food, water or bathroom break. On the shuttle back to the airport on Sunday, it turned out my fellow passenger was another EduCon attendee, and so we did what attendees do when at EduCon: we had an invigorating discussion about education. When I pointed out to him that these conversations were the theme of the weekend-- more than technology or innovation or creative design thinking-- he, a veteran of the conferences, replied that of course it was. People who go to EduCon are the people that want to change, to better to invent.
When thinking about how to post about EduCon, it is this idea that I keep returning to: the people at EduCon. The big thinkers. Which reminded me how important connections and relationships are when learning. This has been the hardest part of my embracing technology. I see my husband unfulfilled by the TV screen that is his graduate classes and remember back to the great personalities that collided and meshed and argued and laughed in my own graduate classes. I'm still in touch with many of my fellow students because we bonded through those lively debates and pre and post class chatter. I don't get the sense that my husband will cherish the relationships he's sort of formed through his online classes.
And I think of my middle school students and how tactile they are. I have a Newton's cradle and a stress ball in my classroom and both were destroyed within a month. Not because my students are overly destructive, but because they show an engagement and excitement about those toys that I wish they'd show toward my grammar lessons. So on day one of the conference, after taking a rather bone-jarring fall on the icy pavement as I was returning from lunch, my frustration was quickly met with delight as my next session had a description that included:
It’s time educators break down the walls, promote mindful disorder, leverage ALL of the environment for learning, and guarantee our young people access to contemporary materials for learning and creating new knowledge. This session will cause you to question all that you have come to believe schooling is as we collectively imagine what learning can become.Oh, yes. I was ready. And this group delivered. Immediately we logged on to Todaysmeet.com, a bare-bones site that is as beautifully stark as google, making it probably the easiest web tool I've included in my classroom. Essentially, you open a closed chat room, and everyone can easily contribute to it within a limited character length--I'm looking at you fellow verbose English teachers. It's easy to setup, easy to explain, easy to navigate, and it disappears within hours or a week--you choose. Did I mention it was easy?
Throughout our 90 minute session, I was continually drawn to the ideas being posted and linked to at todaysmeet. Mini-conversations about related topics punctuated the main topic of the day: how to create a school, from scratch, without a template. With Legos. Yes, we began by creating with Legos, then touring our Lego metaphors, then-- my favorite part-- changing each other's Lego designs as we walked around on a second tour. It was an eye-opening experiment that likely caused us to be more disorderly than mindful, but I found myself so much more engaged and full of ideas than in the sessions where I stared at someone talking and tried to listen and take notes for a sustained period of time. The tactile experiment engaged my brain, and todaysmeet gave me the connection I needed to develop what I was thinking.
To me, technology needs to reinvent, not substitute. To do it the old way, but slap some technology into a dusty lesson plan seems clunky and out-of-touch. Why a smartboard to replace a whiteboard that's replaced a chalkboard? Why not think of a new way to work with information than a board? Which brings me to my second take-away from the conference: failure.
The opening night's panel, an eclectic group of people that included google's "Senior Education Evangelist," eventually got to that light and easy topic so crucial to success: failure. You know, the thing we teachers tell students it is safe to do, yet never allow ourselves to really practice it? Yes, putting a lot of effort behind something that just.doesn't.work. To me, if we are going to use technology in our classrooms, we have to fail at it. A lot. As we're responsible for educating tomorrow's leaders and workers and givers and takers; it's a hard pill to swallow. But most teachers agree that this Industrial Revolution-inspired classroom setup is outdated, and no amount of one-to-one laptop programs or stacks of iPads is going to fix it. If we are going to really change things, we need to find a way to use the ever-growing technology at our fingertips both to enhance our current lessons, but also to break away from safe planning and fail until we find success.
At 8pm I arrived at the airport, opened my email and found over 50 emails that need imminent attention. I'm ready.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
EdCampME!
It's official - there will be an EdCampME (Maine) this March and Waynflete will be hosting! Our TLC (Technology & Learning Cohort) came up with the idea after a bunch of us attended EdCampKeene in August. We all enjoyed the "camp" and came back thinking that it would be a great thing to put on at Waynflete. That enthusiasm did not die so we began laying some groundwork to bring EdCampME to Waynflete.
I had several initial conversations with the Head of School and Director of Finance and Operations and they both gave me the go ahead to find a date. Finding an open date was a little tricky as our facilities are used a lot on the weekends for Admission events, athletics, and arts. I found a few options in March which is a good month overall because it is between sport seasons, it is just before the "end of the year" craziness begins, and stress levels seem to be in check.
After a few more conversations, I found a date that would work and got full approval for a weekend in March and reserved the space. Before I left for the weekend, I decided to post the date on the main EdCamp website and reserve a website wiki - EdCampME.wikispaces.com. (Seem to make it even more official). On Saturday morning I woke up and checked my twitter feed and found that the "edcamp guy" (@dancallahan) had tweeted that he was looking forward to EdCampME in March (yay - instant press). Then he followed up that tweet a little later telling me to check in with @jaimesteward who (along with @alicebarr) was also planning an EdCampME. I checked the edcamp site and sure enough, she had put an entry in for EdCamp Maine for March 17th. What are the chances?
So I tweeted @jaimesteward and @alicebarr to see what they had planned and asked if they wanted to team up. They said they were working on reserving a space. We all thought it would be silly to have two edcamps so we teamed up. Not only that, but in the course of the twitter conversation we had about 3 or 4 other Maine educators volunteer to help us - yay Maine. Here's the shortened twitter conversation:
Now we have 10 teachers from Waynflete plus an additional 5 or 6 educators from the whole state working together to plan this EdCamp for March 31st. Now the fun begins. To get things started I created a Google Doc to share with everyone to begin brainstorming some ideas for the day. Once we get the big picture down, we can begin to assign jobs.
We don't have the details worked out yet but stay tuned to twitter (#edcampme) and to our website (http://edcampme.wikispaces.com) for more information on:
EdCampME
Saturday, March 31
Waynflete School, Portland ME
We hope you can join us!
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