Coppell ISD is hosting their iDesign conference this week, and I am so excited to be sharing why I think we should all get off our Educator Islands, 🙂
[slideshare id=35974993&doc=qka8xgzrmebu0thqyeen-140617105545-phpapp01]
ahoy mate’s,
Amber
Don’t have a professional summer slide!
With summer comes less of the demands on our time in education. It’s an opportunity to refresh, renew, and recharge. Never one to just sit by idle, I always look forward to this time of year. What other profession do we get to start over every year? There are so many simple things that educators can do, teachers & administrators alike, to stay ahead of the curve, and get invigorated for the next year.
Create an account on pinterest full of fun lesson ideas, technology integration suggestions or a board of inspiration for days when you are down. Want to learn more about digital citizenship? Start searching and pinning! Want to gamify your classroom or building? There’s a pin for that!
Pinterest tip: The more detailed and specific you keep your boards, the more likely you are to use them because of how easy it will be to find what you’re looking for!
Find a podcast that you enjoy!
One of my personal goals is to walk more this summer. I am NOT a fan of the heat. Or sweating. Or, um exercise. One way my walk is more enjoyable is when I listen to one of the podcasts I subscribe too. I get behind throughout the year, and am hoping I can get caught up this summer! My favorites?
Book Bonanza!
Find a book that can help you change the way you do ONE thing next year. I recently read “Leverage Leadership” and can’t wait to sit down with my new principal and implement the coaching piece that I read about. In the book, they talk about priority scheduling what matters most. As a teacher, I was most passionate about our campfire talks. It was an opportunity for my students and I to just sit and chat. If I remembered to write it on my lesson plans, then it was way more likely to happen. In the same sense, I am going to be very intentional with my teacher coaching. I’m going to create a schedule and stick to it! Developing a yearlong guide that will systematically–and systemically– be effective will make me more cognizant of my role, empowering teachers!
Need book suggestions? I highly recommend the ASCD Arias series. Short and sweet, and available in ebook format! Angela Watson is also starting a book study on July 1st on her book, Awakened. I also obsessively devour anything that Robyn Jackson writes.
Find a hashtag!
ISTE is having their national conference at the end of June, the Greater Clark Connected Ed conference in July, There will be hashtags related to both conferences that you could follow along with from home, just to come across lil’gems that can challenge your philosophy on what we do for a living. Edudemic just posted these 21 interesting conferences that you could also look into via Twitter or in real life.
Find an edcamp!
They’ve created a master calendar of edcamps all over the US, see if there is one coming by you! If not, what about creating your own? Administrators should think about adding edcamp style PD for their campus when making PD plans for the fall. According to #edcamp participant surveys, traditional PD was rated a 2.5 on scale of 1-5 & #edcamp rated a 4.5.
Find a blog, create a blog to start reflecting and sharing!
I have an account through Feedly that I have linked many of the blogs that I consider “musts” that I read regularly. Several I have signed up for through listservs, so I get an email when there is a new post. Extremely handy for the ones I just don’t want to miss out on! Justin Tarte just posted his “Top Ten Blogs to Read This Summer” list, you might find some inspiration there!
If you’re looking to start a blog, I can’t recommend Heather Steele, at Blue Steele Solutions, enough. From technical aspects, to platform support, she is extremely knowledgeable and helpful. With her social media knowledge, she can help you discern exactly what you want to do, and the best manner in which to accomplish it!
All of these tips are “saw sharpeners”, as Stephen Covey would say. One of his “Seven habits of Highly Effective” people is to “sharpen the saw”. This habit discusses self-renewal, self-care, self-respect and self-improvement.
Even picking just one of these from above will help keep you from having any “summer slide”! How do you plan on “sharpening” this summer?
Sharply,
Amber
Free and easy ways to connect with your staff & parents!
There are a variety of ways that teachers and administrators can communicate with their class, staff, and parents. Effective communication is vital to a schools success. Not just the typical teacher to parents way, but also in the campus to the families way. Good communication can prevent misperceptions and mismatched expectations, encourage parent involvement and foster a team approach to caring for your students. Families should feel welcomed, informed and as involved as possible.
Tim Lauer in Portland uses Instagram to share the good things happening at his school. Want to know what matters to that lead learner? Check out his feed.
Classroom activities, fun projects, assemblies…there are visuals to accompany all of the good things going on at Lewis Elementary.
Melinda Miller creates videos that communicate important calendar events happening. Her campus still sends home a paper calendar but also provides this link to her staff/families. She uses an app called Touchcast, to make this happen. TouchCast creates an interactive presentation that mixes video with web content. The app lets you record a video and overlay elements such as web pages, maps, photos, Twitter streams, polls, quizzes and more. Users watching the video can click on these multimedia elements and interact with them while the video continues to play. You start by recording a video using your iPad’s camera. You can pick from several themes like newscast or review that’ll insert titles and other elements to get you started. TouchCast uses a timeline to lay out the elements of your video and allows you to drag& drop extra content.
Tony Sinanis, known for his Bammy award winning and New York Principal of the Year ways, creates amazing videos with his students each grading period. Want to know what Cantiague students are learning about? Let them tell you. I think my favorite part of this idea is the relationships that are so evident between Mr. Sinanis and his students. As an administraor, it is impressive, but as a parent? I’m all in.
We use Remind101 not just with our students in individual classrooms, but also with our staff. This has been a HUGE tool for me this year, as I don’t have the personal relationships with our staff that I am used to, just being a year in on this campus. It’s always awkward when you get to the phone number/texting/connections aspect of being the lead learner…but no fear! I still have the capabilities to connect with my staff through Remind 101. We created an account and then utilize it to announce a couple of jeans days (ensuring campus wide participation;)) and have taken advantage of its one way mode of getting info to our teachers. From uplifting texts to snow day announcements, this has become our go to way to getting a message out to teachers. I can even choose individual users as well for grade level specific messages, if necessary.
Jay Posick creates a weekly Smore that he shares with his Merton families. I love that I can back to week one of his school year and see what they doing then. He adds pictures and short blurbs to let everyone know where and what is going on. As a parent, I think this would be incredible way to have the “what did you do at school today” conversation. It is free and easy to use. Promote school events, let students design flyers for upcoming curriculum, and you can even monitor the number of views and web analytics. Smores can easily be linked and shared to classroom blogs, school websites, Twitter and Facebook. Plus? a 2014 bonus…Smore ‘pages’ work flawlessly on smartphones and tablets!
Establish THE hashtag, THE phrase, THE saying that defines your campus. From the AHMO of Wylie high school that made it to Letterman, to the #GOCRICKETS that Joe Sanfelippo has permeating all of Fall Creek, Wisconsin, to the biggest and student led hashtag of #leydenpride from Jason Markey’s unifying campus culture, this is an opportunity for you to create an environment that extends past your physical location. Brand your vision for your community. Everyone wants to be a part of a team…this is why the collegiate traditions of A&M and Texas Tech are so popular, people want to feel connected and a part of something bigger than they are. Why should your campus not take advantage of that?
Twitter and Facebook are two popular ways to share information but in this day and age there is no reason not to find a “high tech” way to match your “low tech” efforts and meet the needs of your families. Worried about them getting on board? Showcase your students! Spot light the great things happening on your campus every day. That’s what parents really want after all! Then? You just sneak in the extra that you want to know as well.
BE INTENTIONAL in your attempts to involve the “village” that we all know it takes to have a successful school/home partnership. It’ll be worth that extra step or two to use any of these methods. Need help? Email me and I would be more than happy to walk you through getting started. Or? I can connect you to any of the excellent folks I get to call friends listed above to help ya too!
Communicatingly,
Amber
What the #EduLounge was…and wasn’t…
Saturday was the kickoff for the Classflow #EduLounge tour. Besides the fact that I got to hang out with educational rockstars like Tom Whitby, Steven Anderson, and Nick Provazano, I was able to be a part of something designed to be different. Taking a spin from the success of edcamps, which is a nontraditional way to go about PD, the Educators Lounge wants to make you think about learning different.
What Saturday was:
- Casual- No formal attire needed here, it was more about what you hearing than you were wearing. It was supposed to be a come as you are, learn as you want- type of day. You were able to come and go as you pleased, and there were snacks and drinks available. Held at the Lakewood Theater in Dallas, the entire vibe was casual and comfortable.
- Inspirational- Listening to Arvin Ross was incredible. This young man has overcome more in his 22 years than many of us see in a lifetime. He spoke about unlocking your creative genius, but that isn’t want I took away. He made the statement that his life was changed when his teachers took him out for coffee, and let him know that their biggest priority wasn’t him getting an A in their class. He reminded me that if you can make a connection with a child, if you unleash his passion for learning, you’ll never have to force them to lean anything.
- Reaffirming- Doing things differently is ok. Sticking your head in the sand and pretending that status quo is going to grow a generation of innovative thinker isn’t ok. There was an underlying message that encouraged taking risks, working through your failures, and taking chances in your classroom. A high schooler who had his phone taken away and was reprimanded shrugged and went on to become the CEO of the iSchool initiative, which is introducing a students-teaching-teachers approach to professional development to share a new perspective with teachers and administrators. Their mission: revolutionize the American education system through technology and promote a culture of lifelong learning.
What Saturday wasn’t:
- About an app, a device, or a tool: I had the realization on the drive home that not one time were any of the speakers promoting an app or a tool as a way to change the world. Rarely in eduland these days do you find that to be true! While, thankfully, the student consumer push is fading, it still was impressive to think back through the day and realize the speakers didn’t focus on a “silver bullet”, but rather a way of thinking.
- Increasing your stress level There was no pressure. There were no expectations. Being able to mingle in the crowd and have follow up conversations with the speakers allowed everyone to connect and dial down to what mattered to them. Nick walked a teacher through creating a “genius hour” mindset in his middle school classroom, despite lack of funds or technology. Tech specialists from Rockwall connected with the iSchool Initiative team about bringing them out. I don’t know about you, but typically at a conference, I don’t get to have follow up time with the folks that presented that interested me.
- A financial drain. This event was free. From the light snacks to the heavier horderves, to the motivating speakers…there was no cost. The vent was also live streamed, so those not around in Dallas were able to watch as well. I know several people who had commitments but streamed it and benefited as well. In a day of budget cuts and extremely fiscally conscious districts, conferences that cost an arm and a leg just aren’t attainable for most people.The Educators Lounge is giving you access to the Godfather of Twitter and the closing Keynote of #ISTE13…for free!
I am so thankful to have been a part of this day. If you missed it and are interested in the stream, it has been archived and is available. I encourage you to check out the website, The Educators Lounge, and see when a Classflow event is coming your way!
A Proud lounger,
Amber
Not how…but WILL you be remembered?
I had gathered up all of my things one day last week and was walking out the door when my phone rang. To further avoid my dentist appointment, I answered it abruptly, “Teamann”. A sweet little voice said, “Hi Mrs. Teamann, I’m sure you don’t remember me but….”
It was a former Beaver student that I had taught calling to invite me to an academic banquet that he was being recognized at, and he wanted me to be his guest. That little voice turned out to be a practically grown student whom I did in fact remember. In fact, I tore apart my picture closet that night trying to find the picture I had of he and I had a baseball game of his that I went too. I can even remember what I was wearing, and that we were both squinting at the sun in the picture. (Random, I know.)
The fact that this student, whose full name I so enjoyed calling him by, took the time to hunt me down and invite me just warmed my heart. Now a senior, about to go off to college, practically done with his Garland ISD experience, took the time to make contact with me…it made me happier than any award or prize that I could have gotten this year.
An additional funny…sweet Mason brought me his invitation the day that we were under a tornado threat. He walked in, smiled at me, and I promptly ushered him into the clinic bathroom with the rest of the office staff to duck and cover.
When you are beaten down by testing stress, buried underneath initiatives & changes, or exhausted by paperwork and deadlines…please remember that you don’t do this job for hours or the paychecks. You do this job because you have the opportunity to be the one of the BEST parts of these children’s lives. To be remembered and respected for the impact that you made on their impressionable lives. Never take that lightly. Mason probably doesn’t remember a single assignment or test I gave him that year…but he remembered me.
I will be honored to join Mason and his family next week.
honored,
Amber
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