Pioneer or Settler?

Are you a pioneer or a settler?  An odd question?  Not at all.  Hang with me.

I heard another great message at church, and it applied so well to technology integration.  (If you want to watch the message, you can do so here.) In case you're wondering, I'm not trying to convert you. I just wanted to integrate something I heard into the ed tech conversation. 

Chuck, one of our pastors, talked about how any major changes take both pioneers and settlers.  The message started with a stirring video of Martin Luther King, Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech. From there he talked about the great men and women who were part of the Civil Rights Movement.  I think most of us would agree that Dr. King was a pioneer of the movement. One man I did not know about was Whitney Young, Jr.  Mr. Young was not on the front lines of the movement. Instead he was leading the National Urban League and influencing presidents and other politicians along the way. Mr. Young was a settler.  He was quoted as saying that, "Someone has to work within the system to change it." 

Pioneers bring vision. Settlers bring infrastructure.

Chuck mentioned a few other examples, but one of them was the land runs of the 1800s. People would line up on the border of a new territory and at the appointed time would go and stake their claim.  In 1893 100,000 people lined up with the goal of gaining free land in Oklahoma.  Pioneers who ran out to stake their claim certainly got the best land.  However, those who survived had settlers follow behind with wagons full of supplies.  The settlers provided infrastructure. Those without settlers to support them lost their homestead within 12 months. On the other hand, some settlers didn't team up with a pioneer and missed out on the best land. Teamwork was a necessary aspect of a successful land run.

In order to be a successful agent of change, you need a team with pioneers and settlers.

My wife poked me in the ribs and leaned in to say that she thought of my friend Mike and me. Good point.  Mike and I worked at camp together ages ago.  I was the pioneer. I dreamed up all sorts of crazy ideas with no real plan how to make them work.  Mike was the organizer.  He determined the ones that would fly and the ones that would sink. He then organized the plans and got the machine rolling.  Of course, I was there to add enthusiasm for my great and awesome plan.

Do you have a team like this?

At my school, I am the ed tech pioneer. I read the blogs and the tweets. I find new and exciting things to try at the school. I try the great ideas out in my classes or filter them out to my colleagues. The rest of the IT team are the settlers.  They They understand the networking.  They know what will work or how to make my crazy ideas work.  I push. They add stability. We grow.

In the overall world of educational technology, though, I think I'm more of a settler. There are others who are doing more, pushing more, and pioneering more than I am. I am merely looking at what they are doing and gleaning from them. I help add infrastructure and stability to the great pioneering work that's being done.

Let me ask you again.  Are you a pioneer or a settler? Knowing your role in the growth process is a key element of effective change. Embrace that role and join a team that complements your strengths and weaknesses.

Who is on your team? Who is bringing new ideas to your school? Who is helping to keep things stable and organized? 

Orry, West Point Cadet

I am celebrating my 20th year of teaching by profiling former students who are doing great things in their field. As I've watched them grow into adults, I have been impressed with an aspect of their lives and want to share them with you. I fully recognize that I was merely a small part in their growth and development, but I can't help to be proud. By highlighting these former students I hope to encourage other teachers that what we do is a noble and worthy cause. We have the ability to boost others to greatness we have never considered. 

It's a rare thing to say you once taught a West Point Cadet, but I'm honestly not very surprised that Orry is studying at one of the top universities in the land. I have known Orry and his family for over a decade, since his older sister Rachel was in my wife's 5th grade class.  Excellence in studies and behavior have been honed in these two from an early age.

Orry is a Plebe, just starting his freshman year at West Point, having completed basic training over the summer.  Having never studied at a military academy, I had no idea what the coursework would be like. Tactical training? History of war? When to use a gun and when to use a tank? Orry tells me that he is currently studying courses that would be found at a civilian university.  However, on top of his studies he has numerous military duties to complete.

It's no secret that being accepted to West Point is extremely difficult, and I think I would rest on my laurels at that point if I succeeded.  However, Orry has other goals.  He wants to travel and become an army officer (I think he's well on the way to that), but he also plans to learn New Testament Greek one day.  Wouldn't it be great if he published The Madden Version of the Bible?

As a teacher, I feel that it's my job to partner with parents to help raise their kids. Orry's family was one that I truly felt I was in sync with.  As I attempted to instill organization and hard work into my students, I always felt like Orry was one step ahead of the class -- a tribute to his parents.  As I asked Orry to reflect on his sixth grade experience, he mentioned that as an elementary student he was scared to death to make a mistake.  Somehow I was able to help him realize that it's OK to make a mistake, which helped him come out of his shell.

Ironically, he also remembered Sentence Boot Camp.  I remember this very well.  As an English teacher, I was frustrated that the students were not learning (nor taking seriously) all the intricacies of different types of sentences.  (Looking back, I realize that this is extremely boring and I don't blame them for not working terribly hard.)  I got out of my normal character of the laid back and humorous teacher and strapped on my best drill sergeant persona.  I worked them hard, doing all sorts of sentence exercises, striving to make them excellent sentence writers.  It wasn't fun for them, but they came out better writers on the other end of that week.

I'm proud to have been a small part of Orry's growth as a student and individual. I'm even more proud to say that I played an active role in the history of a West Point Cadet.

Do well in school, Orry!

The End of Computer Labs?

When I go to my middle school Tools for Technology course the last period of today, I will greet my four students who will eagerly begin their Innovation Projects. Yes, you read that right.  FOUR students in an elective class that I think is really cool and lots of fun.

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Last night was Back to School Night for our middle school and high school.  As parents walked around the school visiting with teachers, I had visits from parents of a high school study hall student, four kids I had in elementary school, and a family of high school students I've never had.  I did have one mom of a technology student who tried to catch me but missed me. (I had to get home to relieve the sitter!)  

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This past summer, we partnered with a local university to offer a middle school summer camp where students would learn how to build an iOS app.  While the content of the app was not going to be particularly fun (tracking earthquakes, not slinging birds across a screen), it was still a pretty cool and innovative idea. Not many 13 year old children are building their own iOS apps. But... we had to cancel because of lack of interest.  We needed a minimum of 10 students sign up; we had one.

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Last school year, we realized that we had no technology offerings for our high school students. After some pondering, wild crazy ideas, and research, we landed on GenYES.  This is a curriculum designed to train students to help teachers integrate technology into the classroom.  Not only do teachers start to learn about technology integration, it helps students learn some software and apps they might not be exposed to, gives them a glimpse of the teaching profession, and helps them acquire some responsibility and maturity. We cancelled it; no one signed up.

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What's up with the lack of interest in technology courses? (Please don't say it's me!)

More than a decade ago, I wrote my Master's thesis on technology integration.  One thread in my research was from a group of teachers who felt that computer labs should be a thing of the past. Instead, all those computers should be evenly distributed throughout the classrooms to facilitate better integration. The thinking was that computers skills should not be taught in isolation but integrated within content areas. After all, we don't have a pencil and paper lab, why should we have computer labs? 

While this is a novel idea, it has never reached a school where I taught.  Computer labs and computer classes are tried and true mainstays of modern education.  As a regular classroom teacher, I always appreciated computer class, because the computer teacher tried to support what I was doing in the classroom and coordinate lessons to fit my curriculum. Now as a K-8 computer teacher, this is my livelihood, and I would really appreciate keeping computer labs around.

When I wrote my thesis, the idea of 1:1 technology programs were revolutionary.  The state of Maine was in the process of rolling out a 1:1 program to every middle school student.  Apple was experimenting with desktop computers.  ACOT gave each student and teacher in the program a desktop to use in school and one to use at home. However, back at the turn of the century, this type of technology infusion was rare and unachievable for most schools. Today, students of all ages are using iPads, Chromebooks, and other devices in regular classrooms, many of them in 1:1 or BYOD situations. What visionaries pushed for 10+ years ago is a reality in many schools today.

Now the questions remain... Do we really need technology courses? Are computer labs still necessary?

Yes.

I spent eighteen and a half years as a regular classroom teacher, slogging away on the front line planning lessons, grading papers, communicating with parents, disciplining kids, going to meetings, keeping rooms clean, and doing all the stuff teachers do.  Technology integration was my passion and I still felt like I never did it justice.  For teachers who are not as passionate about technology or not as skilled, this is a massive mountain to climb.  In fact, many do not bother trying.

A computer teacher can come alongside a regular teacher and help in a couple of ways.  First, every student needs to learn technology skills.  I recently realized that a number of our kindergartners had no idea what "click" means and many of my elementary kids needed a lesson in "right click."  I also am working with all students from grades 1-6 to learn how to save to a flash drive using folders to keep it all organized.  Regular classroom teachers don't have time for all this.  Second, I am in a position to ask teachers how I can help them.  Helping them with projects, I can push their students in different directions technologically that a regular classroom teacher may not have thought of.  When I was hired at my current school, I got in on my love for technology integration.  The truth is that most of my really great ideas were really derived and implemented by our computer teacher who worked along with me.  Third, as students gain confidence they start pushing the technology envelope.  Their pioneering causes teachers to learn on the fly and allow them to try new things.

However, I'm starting to see that our middle school and high school models may need to change to be effective.  Students need to see relevance to their lives in order to pursue something.  While I see great value in some of the things we've offered here, students don't.  And they show it by not coming.

By middle school, most students have arrived at a skill level similar (or even beyond) mine.  Here are some areas of focus I think we need to be relevant to our teenage students.

1. Different devices.  Different apps. Different platforms. Different browsers. Do we use Microsoft, Apple, Google, or a combination?  What student has what device? Which apps do pretty much the same thing?  It's a confusing world, and more and more a lot has to do with personal preference more than anything else.  Wouldn't it be cool to have a lab where students could experiment with different hardware, browsers, programs, and apps?
2. By high school, technology learning should be more divergent toward students' proposed career path or personal interests.  This may not be feasible in a small school like mine, but students will be more likely to take an elective if it is seen as a step on the path toward what they are going to do in real life.  Photography, web design, and networking are all great options.  These, of course, will need to be taught by highly specialized teachers.
3. Coding. I don't need to say more.  Just watch the video at http://www.code.org/.
4. STEM or STEAM? The more I think about the future of technology in schools, the more I think this concept is the best program moving forward.  Teaching across the curriculum will help students learn the interconnects between science, technology, engineering, arts, and math. This is no small change.  It will take expert training and most likely will require team teaching, but this will take computer use out of the theoretical and  relate it to a number of different content areas.

It will be interesting to see the path our school and other schools like our take from here.

What kind of technology courses does your school or district offer at the middle school and high school levels? 

Animoto

I've known about Animoto for a few months but haven't bothered to use it till the other day.  I'm using Common Sense Media's digital citizenship curriculum with all of my classes from kindergarten to middle school. Their lesson called Digital Life 101 suggests that students write and illustrate a simile to describe their digital life.  It also goes one step farther and prompts students to create an Animoto video to demonstrate this simile.

Here are two really cool videos my students made in a matter of minutes.
Evan
Max

Yes, I think I will be using this site more often in the future.

How do you use Animoto in the classroom? 

Innovation Kick-Off Fall 2013

It's a new school year, which means a new round of Innovation Projects.  I teach a middle school course called Tools for Technology, which is where I implement my projects.  This semester I have a total of four students, which is both sad and exciting.  The good news is that I'll be able to give students more input and guidance along the way.

I have two goals this time around to make things better.  One, I wanted to start things right by helping students select their projects more wisely.  I want the focus to be on creating something to be proud of, not being entertained by something someone else made.  Two, I want to be able to model excellence and help scaffold students along the way.

If you click here and here, you'll see the two documents I had students read and interact with to plan their projects.  In the past, I merely asked students to think of a technical project they would like to do and write me a proposal paragraph. I accepted just about anything and maybe helped tweak the idea a bit.

This year, I've tried to get them to focus more on something they are passionate about.  I also created a contract.  I simply took their proposal paragraphs then added my own stipulations.  For instance, one student is creating his own song.  I added that he would have to write two songs, upload them to YouTube or some such site, then put the links on his blog.  I printed out two copies of the contract.  We each signed both and kept a copy. Hopefully the students will use their contracts to help guide their projects, and this will also serve as the standard by which I judge the quality and quantity of their work at the end.

Here are the projects we'll be seeing this time around:

• Evan -- Creating eight or more pictures using pixel art and putting them on his site.  Evan is a return student from last year, and I like that I'm seeing some more creativity on this project than others in the past.
• Max -- Creating two songs using Dubstep. Like I stated above, he will upload these to YouTube or a similar music sharing site and put the links on his blog.  I'm unfamiliar with Dubstep, so it will be interesting to see where this one goes.
• Mason -- Creating his own web site, though I'm not quite sure of the platform or the content. I'm going to be watching over his shoulder to see what he comes up with.
• Cole -- I'm not sure yet. You know how that goes.

The second goal I have for this semester's projects is to be a better source of help and encouragement during the projects. The vernacular for that is... I need to get up off my butt and get involved with the kids.  I just need to make it a point to spend a couple minutes with each student every Friday to make sure he knows what he's doing rather than wait for someone to ask for help.

I'm excited for this set of Innovation Projects and love the fact that I'll be seeing some creative creations rather than creative consumption this time around. 

Wanna chat sometime?

Dear #edtechex Friends:

I humbly apologize to you for ignoring you over the summer. It was not intentional.  I meant to meet you during our prescheduled chat times.  It started with a family camping trip during our first chat because that was the only time we could camp.  (We had a great time, by the way.)  Then, I realized I was thoroughly enjoying my summer blissfully ignoring educational technology and never looked back.  It really was a good summer!

Now summer is over and it's the first day of school. (Oddly, I am monitoring a study hall during first period this year.) I'm looking at my schedule for the year and see that Thursday is my best day to chat.  I'm free from 9:30 till 1:30 (with the exception of my Lunch/Recess duty between 10:45 and 11:45).  Is there a half hour or hour in there we can chat?

Let's compare schedules and see if we can gather 'round the ol' Twitter table.  It doesn't have to be Thursday.  Throw out an idea and we'll see if we can agree on some common ground.

Thanks!
Craig

The Three I's

Sitting in church on Sunday this summer, I got some incredible inspiration for becoming a better teacher. Now, mind you, the point of the message was about how to build into people spiritually, not intellectually. While I fully recognize this, the message was full of insight into being a better leader of people and help them  grow to be all they were intended to be.  Isn't that what teachers strive to do every day? (For those of you interested in listening to the message, feel free to watch the video here.)

Our speaker was Jo Saxon, originally from England, talking about how to disciple people and help them to grow.  She used plenty of personal history to talk about how she grew, watching over the shoulders of others.  In fact, she went on to discuss that the meaning of "disciple" is to "watch over the shoulder" of your leader.  She talked about sharing life with her mentors, learning from watching them live in the good and bad, talking through issues, and eventually being mature enough to step out on her own.

Obviously, as educators we are not going to take all of our students home with us each night to eat our food, watch us parent our children, and see us live our lives 24/7.  However, there is something to be said about the mentor/disciple relationship over the teacher/student relationship.

Jo broke this relationship into 3 I's:

• Information:  Obviously, in order to learn more, you need to be given more content.  Without the building blocks of information, you can't do anything.  (As I saw one tweep mention the other day, you can't Google EVERYthing. We need to teach content.)  Some things are taught.
• Imitation: Mentors need to be living examples for their students.  This requires relationship, time, and sharing.  All too often, we are ruled by the lesson plan, the objectives, or the Common Core standard and forget to let the kids see our lives and get to know us.  One really cool quote I took from the message was, "Their testimonies became my tools." As we share our stories and let kids into our lives, our testimonies can become their tools to live. Some things are caught.
• Innovation: Turn them loose so they can do bigger and better things.  Talking of her own daughters, Jo said, "I want the ceiling of my life to be the floor of their lives." Isn't that what we want of our students?  When I look at some of my former students, I can say I may be the most proud of the ones who have exceeded what I may have expected: the microbiologist who hopes to do his doctoral work at MIT, the VP at Dropbox, the IT guy at Children's Hospital, my worship pastor, the social network guru.  

How many of us as teachers -- >ahem< mentors -- focus on all three of these aspects of discipling? I bet if we did an honest poll of teachers across the land, we would find that most of us hone in on only one of these, and a few of us try to nail two of them.  

The third I hits home for me.  You've read my blog enough to know that I'm all about innovation.  Not only do I have my pet Innovation Projects, but I also spend a lot of time talking about students using technology to create, not being consumers of technology.  Guess what?  If all I want to do is guide them into innovation, I'm missing some key aspects of mentoring.  

So, as I look forward to another school year, I'm committing myself to focus on all three.  I can't expect students to create unless I give them better raw materials to build with and show them a few tips on how best to make something to be proud of. 

Which one of the Three I's do you need to work on?