#teachers — Page 4

Personalizing your own Professional Development & DC

April 5, 2015 by Amber 1 Comment

I’ve spoken before on how important it is to take charge of your own PD. At the Greater Clark Ed Conference I spoke to a room full of administrators on using their power for good, their admin power. This year this was a new opportunity. The Alliance for Education partnered with the National Teaching & Learning Conference to present a “Digital Learning Day Live” over Spring Break.

I first received a casual text asking if I would be interested in presenting at this event last October. It was an almost comical request. Hey Amber…Do you think you’d want to…come to DC & present on how to personalize your own personal development & growth…

You can access my session presentation here.

Watch Daisy Dyer Duerr be recognized for her tireless efforts in her rural school.

Stand where Martin Luther King Jr. stood.

Meet Governor Bob Wise, president of the Alliance.

Visit the Department of Education. (The ACTUAL DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION.)

Have a fascinating discussion with Arnie Duncan’s staff. Have this discussion in Arnie Duncan’s conference room.

Finally meet two people who I literally talk to EVERYSINGLEDAY for the first time.

Visit the big Abraham.

Visit Arlington National Cemetery.

GO ON A TOUR OF THE WHITE HOUSE.

Meh. I guess I could do that…

(I jest. This trip was one of the most incredible opportunities I’ve experienced. Add in the amazing people that I have the blessing of calling friends…& it may not get much better than that.)

PLN humbled,

Amber

Conferencing at #ASCD15? Here’s why you better be!

March 18, 2015 by Amber 1 Comment

ASCD is having its annual this conference in Houston this weekend. I am a member of several organizations, and attend several national conferences, in addition to local region/state events, and this by FAR is my favorite. Attending ASCD provides a chance to grow, as well as make connections with other educators from around the nation.

While, yes, I may be biased because of their outstanding communications team, there is so much that this organization and conference offers.

Keynote speakers: This year offers Sarah Lewis, who will talk about the concept of grit and play, both national hot topics. Nicholas Negroponte, the first ever TED talker, will talk about how its the EFFORT that should excite and teach us, not just the end result.
Content: This conference offers sessions that are literature rich, research based, and RELEVANT. While technology will be embedded in different sessions there isn’t a device focused buzz, or any “silver bullet” discussions that would require a “tool”. Best practices here revolve around people, ideas, and most importantly, students.
Author mixer: Steven Anderson (@web20classroom), Reggie Routman (@regieroutman) Todd Whitaker (@toddwhitaker), and my instructional coach crush Robyn Jackson, (@Robyn_Mindsteps) have all recently written books for ASCD and I’ll have an opportunity to talk with each of them, gleam any gems of greatness that I can , and will share out!
The 2015-ness: From the app to the official hashtag (#ascd15) ASCD naturally has taken the “connected” pieces and integrated them into their conference. Wifi, blog lounges, and a hearty twitter stream will all be in the background, available as needed.

I am REALLY excited about this weekend! Throw in that it is in TEXAS again this year, which means I can drive and am guaranteed to see some Texas faces, and I am counting down!

The awesome Joe Mazza (@joe_mazza) has also created an #ASCD15 Voxer group, if you’re a Voxer.

Click To Tweet

Join in!

If you are not able to make it this year, follow the twitter stream, there is sure to be a lot shared!

Take charge of your PD, make ASCD one of your growth commitments!

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ASCD ready,

Amber

What are you reading? Need some help? (An #ASCD resource)

January 18, 2015 by Amber Leave a Comment

I am a big reader. I love to read and have even gotten in trouble for reading in the shower. (TMI?) I read in the car, I read at volleyball practice, I read while waiting for small curly headed 4 year old to fall asleep.

Last year I took on the idea from Jessica Johnson, (@PrincipalJ) to record the books I was reading, both personally and professionally, into Goodreads. This went great, up until the fall, when there was an unfortunate missing YA book/fine/confusion disaster. Thankfully, this was resolved around Christmas and my library relationship was resumed. You can follow along with me on Goodreads here.

What’s harder for me to find at the library are the books I want to read for personal professional growth. Enter in ASCD. (I’m stewing over a professional organization post, stay tuned for that.) ASCD, as an administrator has been instrumental in making sure I am able to speak to, and have resources on, current educational topics and concerns. This infographic was recently shared with me, I hope you can find it beneficial as well! And if you’re reading something different, share with me so I can add it to my list!

Collaboration…who doesn’t have time?

January 14, 2015 by Amber 4 Comments

There is clearly not enough time in the day. I have a never ending to do list that seems to grow more than it shrinks. Recognizing that I don’t have enough time to do all the things that I have to do, much less what I want to do, I still feel like this post needed to shared.

Collaboration isn’t an option, it is now a necessity.

Knowing that we can get bogged down in our buildings, or in our classrooms, can make us feel like taking an extra step to communicate and collaborate with other teachers may push us over the edge. But sometimes? It can lead to the most organic of discoveries!

Last week, I was scrolling through Instagram, I came across a post from another educator friend talking about the website Popplet. Popplet is a visual mind mapping tool that students can use to organize facts and thoughts and learn to create relationships between them. I took a screenshot and sent it to two of my teachers whom I thought would enjoy teaching with it.

The next week, one of them, a second grade teacher, had her students use popplet to write word problems. They had to roll a dice and get three numbers. They then used those three numbers to create a math word problem and had to show different ways to solve it on a popplet.

The other, a fourth grade teacher, used it to illustrate all the different forms of numbers they had been studying. The students wrote one form of the number in the middle and then connected all of the different ways it could be written around it.

His comment? “You never know what a students doesn’t know until you ask them to create something.” It began very clear, and very easy, to see which students were struggling.

I couldn’t have required such an epiphany!!

The point here is that I didn’t pay to go to a conference. I didn’t sit through a webinar. I didn’t read a book. I simply saw a picture on a form of social media and shared it. Something that quick and easy allowed these teachers to add another tool in their toolbox to gather formative assessment data from their students. Sharing doesn’t require a tremendous amount of effort, you just have to do it!

Demonstrating learning doesn’t have to look the same for every student…

January 11, 2015 by Amber Leave a Comment

This post was originally written for Classflow. After you’re done reading, check out this webinar and blog post to learn how ClassFlow can support various ways of demonstrating mastery, too!

As important as it is to have academic goals, learning outcomes, and a decisive idea of where your curriculum road is going, how do you determine that a student has actually learned the content you have taught? Whether it be a formative or summative assessment, or assessment of any kind, you’re typically talking about a number earned. A score on a paper, right?

As any teacher knows, just because a student failed a paper doesn’t mean they didn’t “learn” anything, and a passing paper doesn’t guarantee mastery either. This is one of the more persuading reasons to leverage the technology in your classroom to allow your students to demonstrate their learning. Differentiation takes on a whole new meaning when you allow your students to SHOW you what they have learned, utilizing technology.

A first grade class last week was walking through the halls, using paper and pencil to list the different states of matter of materials they saw in the hall. What if, using an iPad (or any other type of camera), the student took pictures and then created an animoto for each state they observed? Students could create a presentation in Google or Prezi, they could make trading cards using Big Huge Labs, or create any other tangible ‘product” that not only allows their choice to shine, but also combines creativity and even collaboration with others students in a digital artifact.

When I taught fourth grade, convincing my students that writing a lab summary report was exciting was next to impossible. However, once I allowed them to create and share in any means necessary, AND let them know it would be shared on our classroom blog, I had students lined up outside my door at 7:30 a.m. to go over their reports. We had videos, podcasts, hyperlinked animations and more. The ability to choose how they shared what they learned meant they cared about WHAT they learned. When I had them fill in a worksheet or a lab template, it became about me and the minimum of what I expected to see. There were things gleaned that I didn’t assess, that I was unaware of, misconceptions I wasn’t privy to. By allowing my students to choose how they were measured, the results went off the charts. I was blown away by how much they DID know, and the depth with which they were able to share it all.

How can you make this happen in your classroom? Start with one assignment, one concept, and allow students to choose how they can demonstrate mastery. (Younger students can be given options.) Provide tools that you are comfortable evaluating and that can be completed fully in a timely manner. If that overwhelms you, start smaller. Allow one student to choose. Build out from there.

By leveraging the thousands of different ways technology allows the multiple methods of demonstrating learning, you’re not only teaching your academic standards but truly preparing students for a life beyond a classroom.

multiplying-ly,

Amber