Texas Principal

Teachers are reporting comments like this from students after implementing a student self-analysis procedure after our common assessments.  These carefully crafted analysis sheets allow students to see from their own finger tips how they specifically performed on their exam at the objective level.  The powerful thing of it is that they become less concerned about the overall grade and more concerned about the objective.  Learning is revealed at the objective level which is truly a major focus of teaching.

Each common assessment has two sections.  One section assesses content just completed in the six week period.  I typically call this "new content" since it new to being assessed through the common assessment.  The second section assesses the prior six week period content so it is more review in nature.  Each student self-analysis then looks at these two sections differently.  Both sections allow for student input and interaction particularly with their teacher. 

For the new content section, students simply graph or indicate how many questions they correctly answered out of the total for that particular objective.  It there are 10 questions and a student got 7 correct, they basically got a 70 on that objective.    We generally have about two or three objectives in this new section.  From here, each student writes a goal about how they would like to score on this objective in the next common assessment.  Rick Stiggins suggested this aspect and it has proven to very good as I'll you'll read below.

In section two, students look at how they scored on the review or previous six week objectives.  Not only do they compute their success, but they also look to see if they did better, the same, or worse.  They are also looking to see if they met their goal.  Hint, teachers do this too which leads to interesting conversations in data conferences on topics such as retention, concept recovery, maintaining successful performance or maintaining unsuccessful performance.  Anyway, back to the students.  As students learned how to complete the analysis, it began to sink in that they could literally see number evidence of improvement.  As one girl said, "...you mean I actually did better?"  As her words spread out in the classroom, it caused a chain reaction and others started looking more carefully at their increases or declines.  The "engagement", as we say, was through the roof.  I must say that the student blurting these things out is one that has a history of causing the teacher grief but in this moment of clarity, learning (evidence thereof) was exciting and she was intrinsically ready to learn more. 

These student self-analysis take different forms for each grade level and subject but I must say, they are worth their salt.  Thanks Rick Stiggins and others who have suggested the goal setting part.  It works. 

Let me know what works for you. 

I just completed a week of meetings with my instructional teams and it was great. What made it great is that teachers brought in their data and then I did some additional calculations in front of them. I did the math as they sat there because I wanted each teacher to see my thinking as I went through the calculations. Basically, I look at a few key measures that hopefully drive home the essence of their efforts - student learning. It's not the data that made this week great or even the further calculations I made that made it great. It's the type of meeting that we had that made all the difference.  I might add that we do have some fairly good data, though. 

One of the things I try to drive home to my leadership team is that sometimes we don't really need to drive home any point. We simply need to be present with the teachers when the point become evident. As information sinks in, they will react. In these moments as the emotions flow, I simply want to be present in a supportive, non-judgmental manner. In this respect, deeper issues can come to light which many times are the main drivers of the data we observe. If I respect the humanness of how a teacher deals with data, I can then co-join them on helping to create solutions, new strategies, and improved learning for all. In other words, not only does the teacher leave with new strategies and personal development, they leave knowing that the principal is there on their side to help make things better. There is a deeper connection to the teacher and their thinking than simply manipulating numbers around for the sake of a meeting.

I am looking forward to our next round of data conferences. Let me know what works for you.

So this blog post idea has been running through my head for a while now.  I’ve tried to really figure out how to say this and what exactly I wanted to say.  I know I’m going to ruffle some feathers, but don’t we need that sometimes? These thoughts are completely my own.  So here it goes....

I try to be creative.  I try to think outside of the box.  I try to prepare my students for the “real-world”.  And isn’t that my job?  Wasn’t I hired to inspire and educate children?  Not to take a test, but to be prepared to interact and change the world around them!  

The world we live in today is a technology driven world.  When I was in High School (in the early 2000’s) only a few of my friends had cell phones.  Now, not only do most of my 5th grade students have cell phones, but now many homes, period, no longer have “land-lines”, but use their cell phone as their main phone line.  As a senior in High School in 2003, I took a class on how to write HTML, because my high school was preparing me for a world of technology!  HAHA!  I don’t know many people now who could read HTML, much less write it!  There’s so many more ways that technology has advanced just in the last 5 years.

Technology moves fast, yes.  And as teachers we should be incorporating as much technology into our classrooms as possible.  We should be teaching our students digital citizenship and how to create/share/interact with people from all over the world.  Our students are no longer confined to the walls of their home when they go home.  Whether we like it or not, kids are using technology.  And using it A LOT!

I know some educators are reading this right now and thinking to themselves “You’re RIGHT! But my district’s internet filtering blocks everything!” or “my administration doesn’t support my students using much technology” or “my district encourages technology but they want to make sure that they can control every aspect of everything we use.”  And I know it’s frustrating.  I’ve dealt with it all too!  And I’m fed up.  I’m to the point where I just want to throw my hands up and say, “Why don’t you just block EVERYTHING!?!?”.

Students and Social Media

I’ve fought very hard the last few years for the right to use certain education tools in my classroom.  Nothing good ever comes without a passionate teacher willing to fight.  I’ve had to show time and time again, “Student’s will use technology correctly, IF WE TEACH THEM TO!”  But that is so hard when everything we used is “blocked”.

Do I think we should have absolutely no filtering software at schools?  No, that’s not what I’m saying.  But teachers should have a say.  Far too often we have people in positions of power who decide what can and can’t be used and it’s been YEARS since they’ve been in the classroom.  Teachers are in the classroom NOW, and teachers know how much education has changed just in the last 5 years.

Social media being blocked is one of my biggest pet peeves.  I’ve heard the reasons..
- It’s to keep the kids safe.
- Kids will write inappropriate/mean/bad things.
- Kids should be learning, not on social media!
- There’s no educational value to social media.
- Well if we un-block it, they’ll just be on social media all the time
- and on and on and on

To that I say, “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?”  Whether we like it or not, our students are on social media when they leave school (and in all honest, most are on social media AT school!).  Students are not stupid.  They are figuring out ways around filtered internet.  They have cell phones with data plans and whether you like it or not they’re on social media at school (in the bathroom, hallways, practice, etc).

Today’s parents are busy.  Many don’t train their children how to correctly interact in an online world.  And that’s because growing up, those parents didn’t have to!  But as teachers, since it is our job to TEACH, shouldn’t we be teaching our students how to have good digital citizenship??  I have used a type of social media in my classroom the last few years called “Edmodo”.  Edmodo is similar to facebook in design.  The major difference?  Students can’t send messages to individual students.  Because of that singular fact, I have been allowed to use it in my classroom.  And great, I get it.  I’ve tried my hardest to teach my students how to correctly interact online, but they’re not using Edmodo at home or when they get older.  They’re using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and more.  Yet everyone of those tools are blocked in many districts.  We hear the horror stories of kids bullying others online or posting inappropriate pictures or worse!  But imagine if those kids were TAUGHT that things posted online can never be deleted.  Ever.  More than just TOLD how to act, what if we TAUGHT our students how to use Facebook, how to interact on Twitter, how to share photos with Instagram or videos on YouTube?  If we used that media as instructional tools we could not only teach our students how to use it correctly but also save them from major heartache later down the road from making mistakes.  

Kids LOVE technology, that’s why they’re using it at home.  And when they come to school and are told to put everything away and get out a sheet of paper and a pencil, of course they won’t like coming to school!  We aren’t meeting the student’s needs at all.  We’re actually hurting them.  Those districts that are blocking every single thing or making it almost impossible for teachers to even use great educational websites, are hurting their students more than they even realize.  And I really believe with all this high stakes testing, many administrators or school districts have lost sight of what our job is.  NOT to teach a test, but more to teach a whole child.



Education is shifting.  More and more schools are starting to unblock Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and more because they see the educational value that those tools CAN hold.  Students are social beings.  They want to interact and share with people from all over the world.  When we as teachers bring those tools into the classroom we have that “hook” that gets those kids interested in learning!

Imagine if students were tweeting out what they were learning that day from a class Twitter account, or if parents were keeping up to date with their child’s teacher by checking a school/class facebook page, or a homework assignment that required a student to take pictures and upload them to their instagram account, or find/create a video and upload it to a class YouTube account?  Now hold on.  I know what some School Districts may be thinking as they read this, “Well as an educator, can’t you just find another tool/website that will do the same thing, that’s ‘safer’”?  And my answer to that is, what’s the point?  Why introduce a ‘safer’ alternative to the students that they will never use again in the real world?  It makes absolutely no sense.

The possibilities really are limitless.  School districts, superintendents, technology directors, administrators, school boards, I beg you...WAKE UP!  Stop being so afraid of the social media world.  Our students are on it.  Period.  End of story.  And as educators we should be using it to teach our students and prepare them so that they don’t keep making those mistakes we hear about all the time on the news.  Now, will there be mistakes?  Will kids post or find mean/inappropriate things?  Of course, they’re kids.  But we need to stop, evaluate the situation, and use it as a LEARNING opportunity to teach the kids about consequences and what is and isn’t accepted.

Teachers and Social Media

Now on the same hand, it also confuses me why some districts have the ability to block things for students that are different then they block for teachers, yet tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube are still blocked.

And again I’ve heard the arguments...”teachers will just spend all their time on social media” or “why do they need it unblocked at school?  Can’t they just get on at home?”

And again I say, just like students, teachers are getting on social media at school whether it is blocked or not.  They’re using their phones just like students are.  Will teachers sometimes spend too much time pinning on Pinterest?  Yes they will.  Teachers are human, and they make mistakes.  But a whole district should not be punished for one teacher’s mistake.  That teacher may also need to be TAUGHT what is expected.

Is there educational value in Social Media? To that I shout a resounding YES.

Take YouTube.  Our district had it unblocked for teachers for the first few months of school.  Every teacher on my campus was using it to find awesome ways to use Media to teach.  I was also using it to post instructional videos my students created on our class YouTube account.  It was great!  Then a decision was made to block it.  For fear that students could get on a teacher’s computer and access something inappropriate.  And I understand that fear.  I really do.  We need to protect our children.  But when they go home they can access YouTube...anyway.  But while it was unblocked in my class I was using it to showcase the power that Sharing knowledge online with a global audience can do.  My students made some INCREDIBLE videos when they knew people from around the world were watching and commenting on their creations.  They wanted that positive feedback.  They wanted to know that people they had never met enjoyed and were using what they created.  They loved watching their ‘view count’ go up.  It was amazing!  And after it was blocked and trying to explain to them why, they still didn’t understand.  They said “Well why can’t we use it?  There’s bad things yes, but we weren’t looking at those bad things”  And I had to explain to them, that yes, they weren’t but someone could have.  And their response was “Well then why couldn’t THAT PERSON be punished” and I thought, wow, so true.  Out of the mouths of babes.

Now, take Twitter.  I started using Twitter professionally in May of 2012.  I tweet often about articles I’m reading, things I’m learning, what my class is doing, and so on.  But more than posting I’m LEARNING from other educators from around the world.  As of this writing I have over 1,600 people who value my tweet enough that they were willing to “follow” me.  People from Australia, UK, Canada, Venezuela, Turkey, Russia, and more.  Through my time on Twitter I’ve been able to connect with, interact with, and learn with people from all over the world.  It has been the greatest Professional Development I have ever received and will ever receive and all for FREE!

I have been able to meet and have my class Skype with an Olympic Gold Medalist (@SteveMesler), a 15 year old who invented a test to identify pancreatic cancer that costs 3 cents (@JackAndraka), Classes from Sweden, Canada, Venezuela, Australia, and the UK.  I’ve been able to speak with Ron Clark (@RonClarkAcademy) and attend the Ron Clark Academy and more...all because I sent out a Tweet.

I have participated in countless Twitter chats (#satchat, #txed, #21stedchat, #flipclass, #5thchat, #IAedchat, and more!) and those have provided me with just about every single idea I have used in class this year.

I can’t express enough the professional power there is in Twitter.  I have done training after training on how to use Twitter, yet I still hear of MANY districts who refuse to unblock it, even for their teachers (my district included).  

And image a class Facebook account!  I know just about every one of my student’s parents are on Facebook.  Do I have to “Friend” them?  NO WAY!  Do I want to “Friend” them? NO WAY! haha, but imagine if I created a class Facebook account that they could “Like”.  I could post info about upcoming events, pictures from field trips, links to homework and so much more.  “Well on Edmodo or a School Website you could do that too, right???”  Well, yes, but what parent wants to remember 20 different logins for all the sites that their kids are on?  If our parents are on Twitter/Facebook/Pinterest/Instagram why can’t we just meet them where they are and not require them to create an account for another website they either won’t access or won’t use ever again when their child is out of your class?

So what can we do?  How can we make School Boards, Administrators, District Technologists, Superintendents and more see the power that Social Media holds?  I’m not quite sure what the answer is to that (Though Theresa Shafer @TheresaShafer wrote a GREAT article here http://theresashafer.blogspot.com/2012/08/seriously-stop-blocking-banning-for.html?m=1 ).

There seems to be a very deep seated fear in giving any power to the teachers in the classroom.  We live in a world where every time we turn around someone is suing someone else.  But as a teacher, as an innovator, as a out of the box thinker, I refuse to stand by and watch my students gain an education that isn’t preparing them for the world they are entering when they leave my classroom.  I will continue to speak everywhere I can about the power of social media and how if we take the time to teach our students how to use it, they will surprise even us with the things they’re capable of.  So, I close with asking, will you join me?


***I would LOVE to hear other ideas you may have with how to use social media in your school/class.  Please leave a comment below, Tweet me (@TechNinjaTodd), or email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

It’s the title of a number of books and has been mentioned in several twitter chats I’ve lurked through recently. Administrators are called to lead by example. It’s the easiest way to present new information, a new presentation style, or an idea that you’d like to see take root on your campus.

I’m a big fan of the book “From Staff Room to Classroom” which provides interactive and engaging strategies that get adults up and involved in the PD being presented. The idea is that the teachers will get comfortable with these strategies and adapt them for use in the classroom. Every professional development we have at campus, I pull from this book. I want our teachers to see that I am attempting to differentiate our trainings, as well provide USEFUL strategies…even if they don’t like the content being presented.

Between those strategies and my ever going attempt to infuse more positivity, we declared the month of February to be the “Luna Love” month. We’ve planned two or three different “lovely” activities each week to show how much we love our teachers.

For today’s I posted QR codes that they had to scan to receive how they could receive a free “prize”. We gave out chocolate, free jeans, passes, and some motivational posters. Cheap & easy, but positive!

The end result? I had two teachers figure out what QR codes were and download the app to get their prizes. I have one teacher who has created and printed out mini QR codes to post all over her classroom so that when students are done with their work they can scan them and find extension activities. I showed three fifth graders how to create a QR codes and let them create several with facts about our school, as we’re moving into the free choice period in our district.

All in all? Examples shown and examples followed. Success!

How do you eat the elephant, folks? One bite at a time!

following the leader,
Amber

I've always been the type of person who sees the value in learning.  I also believe that as a teacher we should always continue to find ways to keep learning.  This past week I had the opportunity to attend two incredibly different conferences; TCEA and the Region IV Math Conference.

First I had the opportunity to not only attend the TCEA 2013 conference, but also to present as part of The 3 Tech Ninjas.  Stacey (@TechNinjaStacey) and I had originally only signed up to present a "Ninja Technology" session on Wednesday afternoon.  But a few weeks before TCEA began we were contacted about presenting twice on Tuesday for TATN, once at an Edmodo Booth (On Wednesday), and once on the Digital Square (on Thursday).  We love presenting and talking about Web 2.0 Tools, the Flipped Classroom, and Skype/Twitter.  I'm also proud to say that two of our sessions were filled with no extra seating!!  We were able to spread the Tech Ninja knowledge to hundreds of people and it was a blast!  What was also amazing was last minute @iPadSammy gave me the idea to do a TCEA Smackdown in the Digital Square on Friday.  A smackdown is a EdCamp idea, but it's a time to get people together and everyone just share one thing they learned from the week!  We decided to do this about 3:00 on Thursday afternoon and only had Twitter to advertise.  We had about 30 or so people show up!  It was incredible and you can check out the #tceasmack hashtag on Twitter to learn with us!

This is also where the idea was shared about a NEW hashtag #txidea for teachers to share ideas of what they're doing in their classroom!

Presenting is fun, but I must say building those relationships was by far the best part of my week.  I am quite active on Twitter, and have built an incredible PLN, but many of my PLN I had never had the opportunity to meet before.  I can no longer say that!  This week I met hundreds of people who I've been interacting with on Twitter.  It was so neat to finally get to put a real face with someone's tweets.  I was able to laugh with them, share stories, and just learn more about them!  We went to dinners, attended each other's sessions, hung out together in the digital square, and even did a little dancing with the Wii at the TCEA Social!  Building those relationships was so much fun and provided me with many great memories.

But we also go to TCEA every year to learn.  And man did I learn a lot.  I've decided the best way to share some of that learning is just to list a few of the things I learned.

• http://answergarden.ch/ allows you to brainstorm easily with others
  
  
• WordLens (app) - you can use the app to translate anything the camera is viewing.  It is so cool to see this app in action
  
  
• If you have an iPhone, you can go into the "Settings" and "General" and "Accessibility" and turn your "Speak Selection" to ON.  What you can then do is highlight paragraphs in your iBooks and it will read them to you!
  
  
• visibletweets.com is just a really neat way to show off tweets over a certian topic.  Definitely going to use this idea for EdCampWaller (edcamp.wikispaces.com/edcampwaller)
  
  
• Chirp (app) - allows you to share photos, websites, and more through sound waves!
  
  
• http://kwiqpoll.com/ - can create and share polls!  Super Easy!
  
  
• http://docsstorybuilder.appspot.com/ - really cool site that lets you create a Google Story using Google Docs

There is so much learning that takes place at things like TCEA that it's often hard to put it into words.  If you want to learn from afar you can always check out the Twitter hashtag #tcea13 and check out all the learning that took place.

So yes, I'm crazy.  I got back late Friday evening from TCEA and then had to get up super early to attend and present at the Region IV Math Conference. I have attended this conference before but never presented at it.  I was excited to attend a conference where it was really focused around the subject I'm so passionate about. I had noticed that Region IV was advertising to Tweet using the hashtag #r4mathconf so I was also pumped that I would get to learn from others on Twitter who were attending since I couldn't be in every session.

Well my first session to present was at 8:00am.  Those are always tough, because teachers are notorious for NOT showing up on time.  I ended up having a room full of about 40 teachers.  I did my normal Web 2.0 tools presentation, but man I was shocked.  With over 40 teachers in my session only 2 had heard of Remind101, four had heard of QR codes, and another four had heard of Edmodo.  I couldn't believe the lack of knowledge of amazing Web 2.0 tools!  And the more I attended the conference that day, the more I began to realize that many of these teachers had been so beaten down by their districts blocking this and that, that many of them had given up on trying to use technology in their classrooms.  That broke my heart.

Anyway, so I finished my Web 2.0 session, got great feedback, and then decided to attend a session before I presented on the Flipped Classroom.  While I was sitting in the next session I decided to check out Twitter.  And to my surprise I was the ONLY teacher there who was tweeting using the #r4mathconf hashtag.  Seriously?!?!  I had come from TCEA the week before, where thousands of people were using a hashtag, to a conference today with probably close to 1,000 attending and no one tweeting but me?!?!  So I tweeted out to Region IV asking if they would mind me doing an "impromptu Twitter 101" session in the hall.  Surprisingly, not only did they NOT object, but they gave me a classroom during lunch and highly advertised that people come learn about Twitter!!  I was so pumped.  So at lunch that day I taught about 45 people how to Tweet, use hashtags, and learn from people all over the world.  Now let me say, I have the BEST PLN on Twitter.  Period. I tweeted out to my PLN several times on Saturday for help.  I first asked them to tweet why they love Twitter using the #r4mathconf hashtag and then while doing my Twitter 101 session I just randomly tweeted out for someone to Tweet me (many responses)!  The people attending my session were in shock at how quickly people were interacting with me and how much learning was taking place on the fly!  Suffice to say I think I was able to convince many educators to try out the power of Twitter.

I was also able to do my Flipped Classroom session.  Those always seem to be the most popular.  I probably had about 100 in my room, and they really seemed open to the idea.  I had many teachers wanting to asking questions and learn more about my implementation.

In closing, I can't express how beneficial it is as a teacher to continually be learning, and that's exactly what I did this week.  My brain is so overloaded with the people I met, sessions I taught, and things I learned!  I can't wait to go back to my school tomorrow and implement many of my new ideas!

I have also told many people all week, that our campus is an open campus and we welcome teachers coming to observe!  If you ever want to check out my classroom just let me know, I love guests!  We're also working on figuring the best way to live stream my class as well to show a Flipped Classroom/Project Based Learning Classroom in action.

Don't forget about the awesome opportunity to come learn with teachers from all around the state on April 27th!  It's a FREE conference with MANY heavy-hitters attending.  It promises to be a day of incredible learning. You can learn more and sign up here edcamp.wikispaces.com/edcampwaller