How My Dogs Contribute to Teachers' Professional Learning

Mayer always wants to know what you are doing.

I love dogs. My wife and I have two: an older female named Emma, and a younger male named Mayer. We got both of them from animal shelters, so we don't really know what breeds they are, although it's obvious that Mayer is a pit bull mix, and that Emma has at least a little bit of husky in her. Other than that, it's a mystery. We also don't know much about their history, including their exact ages, since they were each picked up as strays by animal control, without any identification.

Whenever we get a dog, especially from a shelter, we make sure to do as much training with the dog as we can. A friend of ours runs dog training classes, and we very much like her approach, so we take our dogs through her class. They learn to come when called, to drop a toy or bone they are playing with, to be gentle with us and with others, among other important skills. Most importantly, we learn to be consistent and effective with our commands for the dogs, so they are constantly reinforced for behavior we want to encourage (and not for behavior we want to extinguish).

Emma (left) and Amelia (right), who died in 2010.

Every dog responds differently to training. Emma is easily distracted and often stubborn. She will respond to our commands when she feels like it. Mayer, on the other hand, is extremely smart and eager to please. He is very good at figuring out what we want him to do.

We have also had several dogs that we have fostered for various times, up to six months. For each of them, we have to teach them the rules of the house and how to behave. In each case, their training always has the same central idea: marking behavior that we want to encourage and positively reinforcing that behavior with a reward.

Which brings me to my main point in writing this post on an educational technology blog. It's a subtle idea, so follow me closely here:

Teachers are not dogs.

Teachers do not need "training". They need workshops, seminars, hands-on learning, professional development, conference sessions, classes, courses, discussions, meetings, round tables, symposiums, forums, conventions, conversations, colloquiums, interchanges, assemblies, pow-wows, and palavers. (Thank you, thesaurus.com.) They do not need to be trained to behave in certain ways through the use of positive reinforcement.

I think of my dogs every time a teacher asks me, "When will we be trained on this?" or "Are you going to have any more trainings?" The use of that word for professional learning is like nails on a chalkboard for me. I think it demeans my role and the role of the teachers who are doing the learning, by reducing it to a "button-pushing" training: push the right button, get a reward. By changing the language we use, I hope to change perceptions of professional learning, if only in a small way.

Evaluating the Credibility of an Online Source

One of the common requests I get from teachers is for help teaching students how to evaluate the credibility of a website. Luckily, there are lost of resources out there to help with that. One of the best is from Catlin Tucker at her blog: catlintucker.com/2013/06/common-core-evaluating-research-credibility/

It is a Google Form that students use to answer several questions about a website they are considering using as a source in their research. They evaluate things like the author's institutional affiliation, the quality of the writing, any identifiable bias, the quality of cited references, etc. This is a great way to teach students the clues that we all use when deciding whether a web resources is reliable and credible.

SAMR Poster for Classrooms

Here are two posters that I've created for teachers' classrooms in our district. One gives a description of the SAMR levels, along with "ladder questions" to help get from one level to the next. The other gives subject-area examples of tasks and how they might be adapted for each of the four levels in the model. There are examples for English, Math, Science, and Social Science (adapted from edofict.wikispaces.com), and then a general example (taken from Alice Keeler and Sean O'Neil).

They are both Creative Commons licensed, so feel free to use them in your districts if you find them useful.

Download both pages as PDF

What Physics Education Research Has to Say to All Teachers

Last Friday, I attended the eLearning Strategies Symposium, sponsored by CLRN and CUE. The opening keynote speaker was Dr. Eric Mazur, Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard. I had been very familiar with Dr. Mazur's work, not in physics, but in Physics Education Research (PER), though I had not previously seen him speak. (I wrote a little about his book, Peer Instruction, here.) His keynote was titled "Confessions of a Converted Lecturer", and it inspired me to write about how the lessons of PER can and should be applied more widely.

Many of you know that I taught high school physics for sixteen years before taking my current position. (I intend someday to return to teaching physics, so I don't think of myself as an ex-physics teacher.) In that role, I was a member of AAPT, attended a number of their conferences, and followed the journals. In the late 90's, as I was starting my career, Physics Education Research was getting off the ground as well, led by researchers such as Lillian McDermott, Joe Redish, David Hestenes, Richard Hake, Eric Mazur, and many others, mostly taking off from the seminal earlier work of Arnold Arons. PER explored how people learn physics best, and found that it was NOT through listening to lectures. Researchers found that students who were taught through interactive engagement strategies learned more and retained it longer than students who were taught through traditional lectures. These researchers developed more and more tools for turning introductory college lectures into interactive classes. Some of these strategies were developed by Mazur, and published as Peer Instruction. In 2012, several of these teachers and researchers were featured in an NPR interview, to which you can listen here.

The vast majority of PER took place at the college level; I was one of the few high-school teachers to take an interest. Yet, the general results of PER were what high-school teachers have known for years: at best, lecturing produces small and shallow learning results. For deeper, more significant understanding, students need to interact, engage with the content, and learn through inquiry. My physics classes were always taught with inquiry methods, to the point where my students got frustrated with having to discover everything for themselves. ("Why won't you just tell us the answer?") I was able to take many of the tools produced by PER and either use them directly in my classes or adapt them to be more appropriate for high-school students. Most notably, I used McDermott's Tutorials in Introductory Physics; some strategies from Mazur; Ranking Tasks by O'Kuma, Maloney, and Hieggelke; RealTime Physics by Sokolove, Laws, and Thornton; and textbooks by Randy Knight, the first texts written with the results of PER in mind.

Now in my current role as ToSA for Technology and Learning, I find myself learning about 21st-century skills and helping to support the Common Core transition for our district. The more I learn about the skill expectations embedded within CCSS and the instructional shifts required, the more I find myself realizing that they are some of the same ones identified by PER over the last 15 years. CCSS, at its most basic, is about having students learn from texts (broadly understood) rather than from teachers. This is inquiry-based learning, and it's not just for science classes any more. Teachers in all subject areas are expected to guide their students in examining materials and drawing their own conclusions: constructivism writ large.

Creative Commons licensed image from MIT OCW
ocw.mit.edu/high-school/physics/

To which, PER says, "It's about time!"

Dr. Mazur's keynote speech from last Friday will be posted on the eLearns.org website shortly. When it is available, I highly recommend that you take some time to watch it. There is some physics in the talk, but don't focus on that. Focus on the lessons for education at all levels, in all disciplines, that Physics Education Research can provide.

Instructional Technology in Common Core

Over the last few weeks, I've been assisting with Common Core PD for our Science, Social Science, and Electives teachers. The main idea I've been trying to communicate is that instructional technology and use of digital resources are explicitly required by Common Core Anchor and Literacy Standards. Our current set of standards do not mention instructional technology; my guess is that the next set of standards that comes out in 20 or 25 years will not mention instructional technology either, because it will be simply assumed that students will be using the tools they have. But CCSS includes expectations that students will be able to identify and evaluate digital resources, and then create and publish their own products using technological tools.

The best resource I have found for investigating instructional technology in CCSS comes from the Fresno, California, County Office of Education. Their slick and well-designed Common Core Resource site includes a page on Technology, and provides a CCSS/Technology crosswalk, a matrix of expected technological skills for students from K through 12th, National Education Technology Standards (NETS) profiles for students of different age ranges, a Rigor and Relevance Framework that includes technology-rich products, and links to California Technology Assistance Project (CTAP) Training Modules and Mobile Learning Resources.

If you're looking to investigate instructional technology in CCSS, your first stop should be the Fresno County Office of Education website.

To SAMR or not to SAMR

I first wrote about the SAMR model for integrating technology into instruction last April (here, here, and here). When working with teachers, I have occasionally found it useful to refer back to, asking them where they think a particular lesson or activity falls. This usually spurs some reflection about what is the appropriate use of technology in that teachers' instruction, which is exactly my goal.

Krista Moroder has written a thought-provoking blog post explaining why she does not discuss SAMR (or TPACK, another model) with her teachers. Go read it and come back. I'll wait.

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OK, welcome back. I completely agree with her take on TPACK. In my opinion, that model is too complicated to be useful to practicing teachers. I suspect it is more useful for education researchers, but for a middle-school or high-school teacher trying to figure out a lesson plan for the next day, TPACK is too much.

I also agree with her that the focus for professional development should be on good teaching rather than on any particular tool. This is where I think SAMR can be helpful with teachers. In my experience, most teachers who are working on the Substitution level can be encouraged to think about Augmentation, Modification, or Redefinition when prompted by exposure to this model. As they think about how they could modify or redefine their task, they are necessarily thinking about more engaging practices for students. A lesson that moves from S to A, M, or R, doesn't do so without becoming more individualized, more engaging, and more effective. This is where I have found it useful to explicitly use SAMR with teachers, as a way of getting them to think about how educational technology can lead them to more effective teaching practices.

While this is a useful approach for some teachers:

The approach that I think is more effective with teachers is: "you're trying to do Y- and here's how X can make you more efficient or effective (through increased access, better organization, more automation, etc.)". That way, the focus for professional development starts with good teaching practices- rather than starting with the tool.

what I've found is that focusing on better organization or more automation too often leads teachers to Substitution or at best Augmentation. The worksheets they used to xerox, pass out, and collect are now downloaded, filled in, and then emailed to the teacher. Thinking about modifying or redefining the worksheet can usually lead the teacher to add more interactive and more effective components to the lesson.

Having said all this, I really just wrote this post in order to have an excuse to re-post Moroder's wonderful infographic:

Resources and Ideas from SDCUE 2013

Saturday was this year's San Diego CUE conference at CSU San Marcos. This year SDUHSD had more than 20 teachers and administrators attending; last year I think we had five. Samantha Greenstein and Tracy McCabe presented about the Computational Thinking activities that they are incorporating in their science classes; Chris Faist and Tracy McCabe presented on their experiences last year flipping their classes; and I presented about using Google+ and Google Hangouts for professional learning.

When I wasn't presenting, I attended some great sessions, and would like to share some of the resources and ideas from those.

Subtext

Holly Clark (formerly of Carmel Valley Middle School) has been presenting about Subtext at the last several conferences and workshops that I have attended, and now I understand why. She absolutely loves this collaborative reading tool; after listening to her, I feel the same way. Subtext is a game changer for supporting students as they read complex texts.

Subtext (www.subtext.com) is a free iPad app and Edmodo plugin; they will soon be adding a web-based client so teachers and students with any device can use their service. Teachers set up a class account and add their students. Then teachers can import books or articles for their students to read. Along the way, the teacher can add annotations (including images, videos, or web links), checks for understandings, or surveys. Students can use Subtext to highlight and annotate, taking notes as they read. Those notes are then searchable later on, so students can actually go back and find all instances of foreshadowing, for example. Teachers can see where a student is in the reading, so you can keep an eye on students who might be falling behind. Teachers can see students' notes, and students can share them with each other as well. Additionally, Subtext includes a feature that can read text out loud to students.

As we implement more and more Common Core-aligned lessons in all subject area classes, Subtext is going to become a more and more useful tool to help scaffold reading skills and differentiate for readers of all abilities.

Infographics: Telling a Story with Data

Renea Jaeger from Horace Mann Middle School in San Diego presented about her experience having students create infographics about biomes. She shared tools that students used as well as some best practices, including giving students multiple examples of infographics, having students evaluate each others' work early in the process, being explicit with students about how to reference sources, and providing students with sources of copyright-free graphics. Her students typically thought that doing an infographic would be easy, until they actually started working on it. She found that it forced students to use multiple sources for information (not just Wikipedia and one other site), and that it made them think very hard about the best way to present information. She also found that during the final presentations, students clearly demonstrated greater knowledge of their topic than if they had done a report or traditional presentation.

This website has information and links to tools that you could use with your students to have them create their own infographics.

Science Apps

This presentation by Kathy Hayden and Stacey Campo of CSUSM focused on work done in the iQuest and CyberQuest programs. They shared a collection of iPad apps designed for inquiry-based science lessons, primarily in elementary and middle school. Additionally, there are other lessons that include all the resources that a teacher would need to have students complete an inquiry about some topic in science.  (Many of the iPad apps that they shared have equivalents for Android or for web browsers; as I research those, I will add them to this post or in the comments below.)

Blogtoberfest, Day 31: Robbie Shockney

How have connections with other professionals improved your practice? Today's entry is from Robbie Shockney, Social Science Teacher at Diegueno Middle School:

In 1994, I was 12 years old and just met my English teacher for the first time. “She seems cool,” we would say. Little did I know how cool she was. Through her visionary guidance, she supported my social, emotional, and academic growth in ways I can never repay her for. This teacher gave me more than lessons in an English class, her connection with students was a guiding light though awkward years of adolescence.

In 2007, I was 24 years old and just met my master teacher for my first time. Anxious and excited to get into a classroom and work with kids, her wisdom and direction provided me a path to an experience where I could grow professionally. My mistakes were made to seem like minor bumps in the road and my successes like New Years Eve. As a veteran teacher who emphasized not only academic growth for all students, but a sound environment for them to thrive as people, this teacher offered an experience that has guided my personal teaching philosophies.

In 2008 I was hired to teach at Diegueno Middle School. My 7th grade English teacher and my master teacher became my colleague. In the years since being hired, Linda Huston remained my teacher, my mentor, and colleague. Her passion for students spilled into whatever she did and it carried over into those who worked with her. My connection with Linda allowed for some amazing collaboration around student support and has been guiding my work as an educator and will continue to so for years to come.

Now in 2013 as I approach my tenth year in education, this blog reminds me of the value I place in connecting with those I work with. Collaboration is a tool we in SDUHSD use regularly and use it well. The connection with Linda Huston is unique, but not uncommon. Since I began teaching at Diegueno, I have worked in and through six different subjects. Much like some of conversations had this month on the blog, each new subject granted an opportunity to collaborate with other teachers who were already teaching that subject - the experts in our district. I am thankful for the people who willingly take on my questions, those who have reached out to help when I needed it and didn't realize it, and those I have the chance to pay it forward to in the years to come. I am proud of the connections made on a regular basis and the high level of education delivered in our district is a direct result of this practice.

Blogtoberfest, Day 30: Bjorn Paige

How have connections with other professionals improved your practice? Today's entry is from Bjorn Paige, Assistant Principal at La Costa Canyon High School:

I get kidded by some colleagues for my tweeting (lots of photos and a pinch of what I hope comes across as wit), just as I've been chuckled at for my weekly emails to parents; “Your Wilfred Brimley moment,” a fellow administrator calls it, not altogether disparagingly.

The folks who don’t kid me about these electronic communications are parents, and increasingly students. This audience, what we call our “Maverick Family,” have given me such positive feedback for my digital missives, that when I was given this opportunity to write about how professional connections have affected me, my first thought was the profound connections social media and more traditional electronic communication have given me to the people I strive to serve.

My professional communication with this audience: parents, students, as well as grandparents, guardians, aunts and uncles, makes me a better educator, and to be honest, it started with one of those wonderful accidents that can define life: When I took on sending out our school’s “E-News,” an electronic newsletter posted on our website, I set up the email so if one of the recipients hit “reply” they got me. And did they ever hit reply.

Each Monday I now look forward to a slew of responses to the email I send to the LCC community. It’s an email in which I do my best to paint a picture of what’s happening on campus in a paragraph or two, introducing the newsletter. As often as I hear back on specific items in the E-News, I also get comments on everything from the parking lot to upcoming musical recitals, big games, student events, and even questions about what we’re serving for lunch and the lost and found. I answer them all, and through this professional connection with my parents, students, and others, I stay connected with my school community.

Last Winter I took my experience with the E-News as a launching pad and blasted off into the Twittersphere. What a wonderful ride.

I’m still figuring out how best to use Twitter, but so far I've been served well by this analogy: I see my Twitter feed as a mosaic of life at La Costa Canyon High School. Every day I add a small piece of tile (a photo from the dance show, an observation from homecoming, a link to the ASB prom video) and collectively they help to create an honest image of our great school.

I’m excited for the big changes coming to education, and to our society. I’m not so arrogant as to believe that I have all the answers, but I am thankful that I work with so many great people who, like me, are asking questions, lots and lots of questions, and pushing ourselves and our schools forward into this brave new world. Paradigms shift, and I’ll be there to tweet it @BjornPaige!

Blogtoberfest, Day 29: Michael Santos

How have connections with other professionals improved your practice? Today's entry is from Michael Santos, Science Teacher at San Dieguito Academy:

Collaboration is at the heart of the teaching profession. I feel that when you get into a room with other teachers, something magical happens. The sharing and collaboration just starts to flow like water breaking through a dam.

My experience going to National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) conferences has really been reenergizing to my teaching. It is always great to be in a room, or at an event, where there are people of the same mind and motivation. These teachers all have the goal to help kids, to incorporate interesting and exciting lessons in their classroom, and are always willing to share. I loved going to Seattle, Anaheim, and Charlotte to talk and interact with teachers that love science and kids. I think that going to these conferences in the early part of my teaching career really helped me stay focused on the kids and made the countless hours we all spend grading/working totally worth it.

With budget cuts, both at the district and in programs that used to fund me going to these conferences, the interactions with other professionals from all the nation has been nearly eliminated. But not to fear...I find myself connecting with stellar professionals every day. The teachers that surround me here at SDA always want to share best practices and to offer a helping hand in anything kid related. The science department here also creates a sense of openness that allows for a free flow of help and curriculum. I know that I am a better educator because I am surrounded by even better teachers that are willing to help me and inspire me to do more.

Blogtoberfest, Day 28: Dave Bair

How have connections with other professionals improved your practice? Today's entry is from Dave Bair, Spanish Teacher at San Dieguito Academy:

As professionals we are constantly re-creating ourselves and self-evaluating the effectiveness of our teaching. We ask ourselves how we can make learning fun for our students while reaching our shared departmental goals. Sometimes we even decide to change our goals as the times change. 

I have found that working with other language teachers has not only given me wonderful lessons for the classroom but sparked my own desire for knowledge and growth. A teacher who is excited creates excitement in the classroom. In every conference, workshop, training, share-a-thon or meeting I actively ask myself what can I get out of this experience to enrich the learning of my students. How can I accomplish the same objective in a way to create greater interest, participation and enjoyment? I know this will create successful results.

Learning is exciting for adults as well as children. When I am able to work with my colleagues or in the community with others, my students overall experience is positively enhanced.

Blogtoberfest, Day 27: Samantha Greenstein

How have connections with other professionals improved your practice? Today's entry is from Samantha Greenstein, Science Teacher at Earl Warren Middle School:

Growing up, both of my parents worked in the field of education. I saw, day in and day out, that their jobs were more than just a place where they went to earn a paycheck. I saw my parents making connections with the people where they worked. My parent’s colleagues became their best friends and a part of our family. 

When I graduated from college, I wanted a job where I felt a part of a community. From my experiences growing up, I knew that becoming a teacher would provide that opportunity. I was right. Through my work in the San Dieguito district, I have met some of my best friends. Being able to connect with the people I work with on a deep level has improved my practice tremendously. It is only when people have complete trust in each other can they challenge their ideas and push them to be better. In effect, my professional connections and friendships have helped me better serve my students.

Blogtoberfest, Day 26: Mike Grove

How have connections with other professionals improved your practice? Today's entry is from Mike Grove, Associate Superintendent of Educational Services:

Connections are the reason I’m in education. Connections are relationships and I very much believe that relationships, and the collaboration they engender, are the key to any professional success I've found. As a young high school English teacher, connections with colleagues helped me learn how to become a professional and how to improve my own practice. The experience of brainstorming ideas for curriculum and teaching strategies, learning from our collective successes and failures, laughing together, and, yes, venting frustration, made me a better teacher for my students and, most importantly, made me feel as if I was part of a larger whole rather than an independent contractor pursuing isolated goals. When I became an administrator, I continued to build connections and relationships with mentors, with teachers with whom I worked, and with the families I served. Through various professional organizations, graduate study, and random professional interactions I've developed relationships with colleagues in districts across the county and state and I can’t overstate how enlightening it is to learn how things are done in other districts. It’s too easy to settle into patterns within a district based upon past practice and exposure to fresh perspectives has helped me see new and different approaches and has also deepened my commitment to my core values and practices – frequently I've learned what not to do through connections with colleagues in other districts! 

On a pragmatic basis, professional connections provide me with a network of expertise and advice on which I can draw when I am unsure of a direction or simply don’t have knowledge on a subject. More importantly, these connections build trust and shared commitment among myself and those with whom I work toward common goals. When I am connected with other professionals, I develop a shared obligation with them – an obligation to them as colleagues and with them to our shared goals for our students. These connections eliminate the sense of isolation that can pervade education – as a teacher and as an administrator, connections have always been the key to making me feel as if I am not toiling alone, but rather as a part of a larger whole and this is not only more fun, but also inspires me to give my best to my colleagues and our students. This is why I choose to work in education – because I get to work as a part of a connected team in an endeavor to improve the learning and lives of our students and, therefore, the community in which we live.

Blogtoberfest, Day 25: Mike Starr

How have connections with other professionals improved your practice? Today's entry is from Mike Starr, Social Science Teacher at Carmel Valley Middle School:

It’s Blogtoberfest, so let’s have a bleer…ok, ok, was it that blad? Please stop? Ok, ok. :)

How have connections with other professionals improved your practice?

My thanks go out to Kevin Fairchild and Shea Starr who collaborated/taught me how to use Blackboard to the degree that I could run a 21st Century skills and Common Core based essay project for my 7th grade World History students at Carmel Valley Middle School. According to Edweek.com, “21st-century skills" is generally used to refer to certain core competencies such as collaboration, digital literacy, critical thinking, and problem-solving that advocates believe schools need to teach to help students thrive in today's world”. There were many aspects of Blackboard that I learned about that made the project 21st Century learning and Common Core based. First, the project was entirely digital and paperless! In past years, I passed out essay instruction slips to each student and had them turn in a typed essay. Kevin and Shea taught me how to create classes in Blackboard, add students, how to create a unit folder, and post the instructions of the project in a content page. The students read the instructions online. As part of the Social Studies Common Core W2 “Use formatting, graphics, and multimedia to aid comprehension”, I assigned the students to write their essay in a multimedia format of their choice. Many created Google docs, Prezis, PowerPoints, and there were even a couple of amazing Powtoons. In the past, I had the students use the texbook and their parents as the sole source of evidence supporting their argument. This year, students were additionally expected to back up their arguments by also finding appropriate graphics and secondary source quotes found on the Internet. Kevin helped me set up Discussion Groups in Blackboard. This was so that students could post their finished projects to Blackboard. I was excited for this component of the project, which asked the students to post their project to Blackboard, read two of their peers’ posted projects, and post a reply back to them in the Discussion Group’s thread. The reply was structured and asked students to pose a solution to one on the problems the United States is facing that their peer had written about (online literacy and problem-solving). The resulting project had students completely engaged in creating their multimedia presentations and researching secondary sources and finding graphics on the Internet. A few students had problems losing information and using their time inappropriately playing with their multimedia software too much and not focusing on research and typing their essay. Overall, however, the excitement of the students, their interaction with digital media, and the critical thinking shown in their final product far outweighed the few problems that arose. I could not have run this project digitally without the assistance of Kevin, whose summer Blackboard training was where I designed my unit and set up the discussion board. It also would have been much more confusing without Shea’s help answering numerous Blackboard questions and helping me look at the project from a student’s perspective.

Blogtoberfest, Day 24: Doug Gilbert

How have connections with other professionals improved your practice? Today's entry is from Doug Gilbert, Social Science Teacher at Canyon Crest Academy:

I've enjoyed reading the thoughts of so many fine educators in our district on the topic of collaboration and improved practice. We are fortunate to have so many talented and dedicated professionals. 

I would like to reflect on the opportunity we all have to improve our practice by learning from others through conversation and the visitation of classes other than our own. As a BTSA support provider in our district the last 8 years, I have been in almost every class that our district offers. It is in these classes that I have witnessed some great teaching, and most importantly great learning. Collaboration happens when teachers are together discussing assignments, rubrics, technology, students, strategies, and the changes that take place in education. One of the first steps to collaboration is to listen and watch. Often times as teachers we are the ones who are acting and talking. Sometimes as veteran teachers we believe that we cannot learn from others, specifically new teachers. Rather than be threatened by changes in practice and education, and the new teachers that bring those changes, embrace them and make them your own. 

So I implore you to go and visit some classes in your department, outside your department, perhaps at a different site. How are others making great things happen? Teaching, and more importantly our district, is a fraternity of professionals, and by utilizing these professionals we can improve our teaching and our learning.

Blogtoberfest, Day 23: Melissa Griffen

How have connections with other professionals improved your practice?  Today's entry is from Melissa Griffen, Math Teacher at Carmel Valley Middle School:

Teaching-a profession where we are constantly learning, growing, laughing and being inspired. 

My fellow teachers are my extended family, whose advice, wisdom and support are invaluable and have helped me become the teacher I am today. 

“Foxy Fraction”,“Quadrilateral Family Tree”, “Tushy-face” , “ZAGA” are just a few crazy “Griffisms” that have been created over the years by learning and listening from colleagues and students. 

It’s my colleagues and students that inspired me to apply to LearnZillion last March, giving me the opportunity to attend Learnzillion’s TeachFest conference in San Francisco. I attended a three day training, learning and networking from over 200 teachers across the country about Common Core Standards and spent the summer researching, creating and publishing video lessons for their website. My research group consisted of teachers from Washington, D.C., Indiana and a math coach from Georgia (how cool is that?) I am now Facebook friends with over 100 math teachers across the country. Without a doubt, it was the most amazing, unforgettable, professional experience of my career (and the free hotel room was pretty nice too!) If you get a chance, check out their website at learnzillion.com for free video lessons based on common core standards for English and Math. 

With each year of teaching comes the opportunity to learn new things. My learning goals this year:

• implement common core lessons in the classroom
• create more flipped lessons with Terrascore
• “ToSA-ing”
•  win the Bobcat 500 

I’m lucky to be a middle school teacher. I get to laugh and learn everyday!

Blogtoberfest, Day 22: David Jaffe

How have connections with other professionals improved your practice?  Today's entry is from David Jaffe, Principal of Torrey Pines High School:

I have had the good fortune to build my career as an educator through collaboration. As a teacher, my best year teaching was the year I teamed up with an English teacher to teach a Humanities class. As a administrator I was fortunate to open a high school (CCA) and hire incredible educators who understood the school's success would hinge on the staff's ability to create, problem solve, and grow together. Over a four year period, we hired approximately 25 teachers each year. We spent four years on building a culture of collaboration. I believe very strongly that the most successful schools are those where there are systems in place to provide teachers the opportunity to collaborate and schools where the culture demands collaboration.

In my 18 years of experience in SDUHSD I can honestly say that who I am as an educator is the direct result of the collective collaborative experiences in each of the roles I have served. I feel very fortunate to work in a district that emphasizes and supports collaborative learning environments.

Blogtoberfest, Day 21: Julianna Newell

How have connections with other professionals improved your practice?  Today's entry is from Julianna Newell, Science Teacher at Torrey Pines High School:

Collaboration has been the heart of my teaching practice.

Before I even began working for SDUHSD, there were teachers like Isla Cordelae, Erika Pavlovich and Christina Collins supporting me by sharing their teaching connections and wonderful teaching practices. When I was hired at TPHS, it was teachers including Lindsey Olsen, Isla Cordelae, Angela Willden and Brian Bodas who helped me make a seamless transition and who were there to answer every question and lend support as I transitioned at TP. Collaboration is Charlenne Falcis-Stevens answering my every Aeries question and Patricia Storey, Liz Marshall and Tim Staycer supporting me with my SPED students. You get the picture. There are so many other amazing teachers who have helped me along the way - their names are too many to mention. 

Without collaboration, I might not have a job and I certainly would not be the teacher I am today. It is because of those around me graciously sharing their ideas, suggestions and proven teaching practices that I am able to go to work each and every day filled with joy (well, most days anyway). I know I'm not alone! I really think that is the point. Teachers sharing their experiences and insights with other teachers for the greater good of all of our students. We're all better because we have each other.

Blogtoberfest, Day 20: Brian Shay

How have connections with other professionals improved your practice?  Today's entry is from Brian Shay, Math Teacher at Canyon Crest Academy:

I have been fortunate enough to have served the education community far beyond the walls of Canyon Crest Academy. My passion for service began as a student in my credential program, where my adviser had us attend state and national math teaching conferences. At these conferences I learned the value of looking outside myself for mentoring, instructional strategies, and assessment alternatives. I continued attending conferences and began presenting at state-level conferences when I began teaching at CCA. I have made it a point to reach out of my school and district for advice and support in helping all students succeed. The sessions I lead at conferences focus on using projects and problem solving in math classes to drive instruction. I show teachers, both new and experienced, the benefits of technology, interdisciplinary projects, and integrated projects within the mathematics curriculum. After presenting for many years at the state conference, I am now one of the teachers who organizes it (approximately 3000 teachers from across southern California attend this annual conference). This year, I have been able to funnel this energy and passion for professional development into my new role as Teacher on Special Assignment (ToSA) for Common Core Mathematics. We are implementing some massive pedagogical, instructional, curricular, assessment, and cultural shifts in our District's Mathematics Curriculum. Helping each mathematics teacher learn and explore these changes, and supporting them as they change their classroom practices is integral to a successful transition to our new state standards. It is only through these meaningful connections that teachers can fully implement and students be successful in learning the Common Core Standards.

Blogtoberfest, Day 19: Don Hollins

How have connections with other professionals improved your practice?  Today's entry is from Don Hollins, ISOL teacher at Torrey Pines High School:

While this question seem trite or banal, the truth is the connections with other professionals not only changed my teaching practice, those connections changed my life. 

I still remember my very first day in our district at the August 1996 New Teacher In-Service where I watched Terry Hendlin share a brief presentation on Sunset, the alternative high school for the district. Instead of talking to us with overheads full of charts and statistics (this is before classroom PowerPoints and Proximas), she welcomed all of us warmly and then asked some of us to blow up balloons. It seemed a strange activity first thing in the morning but we new teachers, eager to please, blew up and passed her the balloons. She then asked us to name issues facing middle and high school students and as we responded she wrote the responses on the balloons, “Drugs” “Family Separation” “Learning Disabilities” “Stress.” Soon she was trying to carry all of these troubled balloons across the room with tremendous difficulty. In a matter of a few minutes she had engagingly conveyed the challenges so many of our district’s students deal with every day in a way I’ll never forget.

Within weeks I had established a circle of colleagues at Earl Warren that I taught with and laughed with. We shared lesson plans, friendly class competitions and stories at lunch followed every Friday by high-spirited games of Spades at The Roadhouse’s Happy Hour. But two years later I attended the four-day Ready to Learn District training where I got to work with Terry Hendlin again. Only this time, we spent days learning about how to develop listening and about strategies to support and address the real issues that confront some our highest-performing students and derail some of our brightest ones. It was after this spring training when Terry asked Doctor Risner to call me to talk about a position at Sunset.

Working with Terry and the Sunset staff over the next 11 years was the greatest gift I could have ever received as a teacher. Through weekly thump-and-dump staff meetings and the daily, rushed 20 minutes in our tiny break room we developed a deep respect and a deep concern for students, for our school, for our programs and for each other. We saw the importance of everybody pulling together and stepping up to support not just the many frustrated, troubled and difficult student and family situations, but the importance of taking care of each other. Terry was central in this support through organizing staff birthday celebrations, retirement parties and of course, our week-long Holiday celebrations. (And there ain’t no party like a Sunset party - just ask Mustang Sally.) She is always quick with a kindness and right on time with an exquisitely-written card to celebrate a special occasion.

In a word, Terry and the Sunset staff humanized teaching for me. It was something I was incapable of doing myself because the idea of my teaching needing humanizing was beyond my comprehension. The concept never entered my mind. 

I was in the advanced third grade and stayed on the advanced-placement track my entire life mostly due to having two parents who placed a primary importance on education and advocated for me. All of my siblings and I attended elite schools on full scholarships. 

My ideas for better teaching were, "try harder" "study more" and "use a tutor." They aren't bad ideas, but they also aren't always sufficient. 

Terry helped me see the kid as well as the student. She helped me understand that kids who don't feel safe at school or at home attend less and drop out more. She helped me see that even exceptionally-talented students who are blocked up with feelings of resentment, frustration, and fear (whether at themselves, their parents or the system) don't perform to their potential, and sometimes can't perform at all. More importantly, she and Doc believed, and helped me believe, that it's our job as teachers to meet these needs as much as it's my job to teach them the quadratic formula. And in comparison, I look back and wonder how I couldn't see the greater importance and value of those lessons before, but then I remember the paradigm that I had grown up in, succeed in and had been taught to propagate. I'm so grateful I meet Terry because she showed me an aspect of teaching students that not only shows up on tests scores, but shines in all the other aspects of their lives.

I have been able to co-facilitate support groups with Terry for 15 years now, and I never cease to be amazed at her concern, her compassion and her ability to help. I even learned how to write a better letter of recommendation for students from reading how personal, real and heart-felt each of hers always are despite having written literally a thousand of them for probably every college-bound senior who has ever attended Sunset over the past 27 years. But this is the magic of Terry, she does her utmost with whatever, and especially, whoever is in front of her. 

Terry always addresses the need and focuses on what’s important. She confronts the delusion or excuses students use to quit or lie to themselves. She comforts and supports students who have lost family and friends. She helps students get in touch with the feelings that undermine their success and block them from believing or trusting in who they are. She arranges suits and shoes for students to be able to do interviews. She harasses students into applying for scholarship money to go to college. She arranges rides for students to get to school, to work or to home. She feeds them, laughs with them and cries with them. Most of all, Terry listens. And listens. And listens.

And while listening, Terry gives every student she talks with the respect and dignity they deserve simply for showing up. And the kids respond; thousands of students have experienced a transformation for the better. Sometimes students change so much as to be nearly unrecognizable from their former selves, literally working at the White House rather than being in the Big House. These transformations happen because of the loving space she has created for students for more than 30 years as a teacher and counselor in our district. And I feel lucky to have been able to watch and learn from her for nearly 20 of them.

So, working with Terry hasn’t helped my practice as a teacher, but rather like so many of her students, she has transformed it.

Blogtoberfest, Day 18: Paul Brice

How have connections with other professionals improved your practice?  Today's entry is from Paul Brice, Math Teacher at San Dieguito Academy:

During the 2012-2013 school year, I had the honor of working with other high school math teachers throughout North County on a project initiated by a professor at Cal-State San Marcos. The teachers were to be groomed into leaders of implementing the Common Core math standards in their respective districts. The group had an initial meeting during the summer of 2012 and then met on Saturdays every few months throughout the school year. How did this group of professionals improve my practice? Let me count the ways… 

1. I view teaching a lesson like perfecting a recipe. With a recipe there always seems to be an adjustment to ingredients, preparation, and cooking time and temperature to yield a wonderful result. Lessons need these adjustments and what better way to get ideas than to meet with other educators at neighboring districts. I learned a tremendous amount from the other members of our leadership group – I am a big fan of borrowing ideas from elsewhere and not spending time reinventing the wheel.

2. As a professional group, we were tasked with reading professional articles and recent publications, completing well-selected math problems, and sharing our ideas on implementing the Common Core. As a teacher it is easy to stay behind closed doors and not explore where the profession is heading. By working with the professor, we were afforded time to be professionals and get current with research and techniques on effective math instruction. 

Two things. That’s what I counted up to. These two things are enough for us all – work with other teachers (not just from our site or district) and seek out higher education for ideas and support. There is a wealth of knowledge close by – just ask and create that tasty treat – a well-crafted lesson.

Blogtoberfest, Day 17: Lauren Monahan

How have connections with other professionals improved your practice?  Today's entry is from Lauren Monahan, English Teacher at La Costa Canyon High School:

A few years ago I had the great pleasure of attending a week-long camp for teachers at MIT in Boston. While there, we heard some of the greatest minds in the world lecturing for eight hours a day (once we even got to tour their nanotechnology lab, or as I liked to call it, "the bat cave!!!!!!!"); each day I came away with more than ten pages of single-spaced notes on everything from string theory to plastics. For a nerd like me, I couldn't imagine a better way to spend my summer. I've also attended ISTE conferences, snuck into history lectures at schools I do not attend, taken a full-immersion Hebrew course in Jerusalem, and driven through the night to nab a front-row seat and handshake with the likes of Junot Diaz or Condoleezza Rice. 

All of the following have significantly influenced my teaching in unexpected ways, as have the casual encounters I've had with teachers of other disciplines while we work together to battle the notoriously persnickety Xerox machines at LCCHS. 

While at MIT I practiced writing rudimentary code with their new educational software and realized that the same skills required to write effective code were the ones required to write a solid essay (SPECIFICITY, clarity, transitions, etc.), and I learned a lot about what happens to the brain while my students are reading/doing abstract thinking. While learning Hebrew I was reminded how much my fears of doing poorly could literally block my ability to learn, and by working an a language so different than my own I was able to perceive linguistic elements of English I'd taken for granted and was then able to discuss them in a fresh way with my students. While Ed Machado metaphorically kicked the Xerox machine for me, Jobi Cooper and I were able to pinpoint areas where our students' analytical skills were limited. The list of "ways my teaching English has improved by studying other disciplines" goes on and on. 

I do love my English department colleagues, and since Kaitlin Wood's post perfectly summed up what I was going to say on the synergy of LCC's English department's lunchtime chats I had to start thinking outside the box for what to write here. But I'm glad I was pushed outside my comfort zone on blogging because it forced me to remember how much better off I am as a teacher each time I'm pushed outside my comfort zone. So I guess that's my contribution to Blogtoberfest: sharing my love of reaching across the intellectual aisle. 

And as a final thought, here's a link to a cool TED talk (Warning: if you don't already use them, TED, Coursera, MIT's Open Courseware, etc. are addictive) on how no one achieves greatness by rigidly sticking to the right-brain or the left-brain, but by using both sides of the brain. 

Blogtoberfest, Day 16: Rick Schmitt

How have connections with other professionals improved your practice?  Today's entry is from Rick Schmitt, Superintendent of SDUHSD:

ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY DISTRICT CONNECTIONS

The San Dieguito Union High School District each year receives approximately 2,000 7th grade students from our friends in the Cardiff, Del Mar, Encinitas, Rancho Santa Fe, and Solana Beach elementary school districts. SDUHSD is blessed to have such amazing partners in all five of our feeder elementary school districts.

For years, SDUHSD has regularly met with our elementary districts to discuss curriculum, instruction, assessment and technology. This year, we are able to blend those topics into planning for a transition to the Common Core State Standards, (CCSS) in Math, English, Social Studies and Science.

In our first regional CCSS meeting on September 17, 2013, Cardiff, Del Mar, Encinitas, Rancho Santa Fe, SDUHSD, and Solana Beach discussed their academic priorities. Out of that discussion came a list of shared academic priorities. Those priorities for 2013-14 are:

• Parent / community awareness of CCSS transition 
• Professional development on math instructional shifts for teachers 
• Advanced / accelerated Honors Math & how to approach 
• Instructional materials adoption as a result of CCSS 
• Report card alignment to CCSS at grades K-5 (MS in future?) 
• Integration of technology into teaching/learning and development of digital curriculum 
• Long term English Learners (LTEL) cohesion K-12 

Follow up meetings have already taken place since September 17, and more meetings will follow. Those meetings have and will include teachers, school administrators, parents, students, & community members.

You can follow SDUHSD on FB and Twitter.

Blogtoberfest, Day 15: Heidi Robson

How have connections with other professionals improved your practice?  Today's entry is from Heidi Robson, Math Teacher at Earl Warren Middle School:

How have connections with other teachers improved my practice? 

Where to start? 

Ugh. I don't like writing (I sound like some of my students who complain about math!). Can I just make a list? My mathematical mind likes things organized and concise.

• Collaboration with other EWMS and district math teachers helps me to constantly think about how I can be approaching things differently. It's somewhat like problem solving in math. There's a lot of ways to get a correct answer, but what's the most efficient? What's the most in depth? What way haven't I considered before?
• Reading blogs by other teachers from our district, as well as outside of our district, state, and country help me keep perspective about what's happening in education outside of my "bubble". Although we are bound by state standards with the content that we must teach, we're not bound to a certain approach or set of textbook exercises.
• I've stayed connected with teachers from my previous job in San Diego City Schools. Being connected as friends with a common interest and passion for education helps me stay sane as well as being able to collaborate with people that have a different perspective.
• Connections with other teachers have helped me with everything since the beginning of my teaching career: Figuring out lesson formats, pacing, best ways to communicate ideas, how to have a function (and useful) website, how to communicate with parents, how to make sure I'm reaching all of my students and making accommodations for those who need them,.... I could go on, and on, and on...

Engaging Students in your Blackboard Course

I spent Friday at Southwestern College in Chula Vista, attending a one-day conference sponsored by Blackboard. The morning general session included some sneak peeks at planned developments for Blackboard Learn, including a "Student Preview" mode and a greatly improved Grade Center. But the session I thought was most interesting was presented by Stacey Campo of Poway Unified School District. Stacey is a Technology Integration Specialist in PUSD; one of her responsibilities is to support teachers in their use of Blackboard. Poway has been using Blackboard for more than a dozen years, so they have had a good amount of time to develop some best practices.

The topic of Stacey's presentation was "Engaging Students", focusing on how to create a worthwhile Blackboard course that students will want to continue using.  The three key components are engaging design, engaging content, and engaging interactions.

Engaging Design:

• Include a course banner and/or a welcome image on your course entry point. You can use Cool Text, PicMonkey, and Icon Archive to create an appealing image that makes it obvious to students which class they are looking at. (Here is a screencast I put together to show you how to change the course entry point.)
• Modify the navigation buttons on the main menu to make it easy for students to find what they are looking for. Keep the menu short, and use dividers to organize it into sections. (Here is a screencast showing how to edit the main menu.)
• Make sure things are updated regularly, so students want to return to see what's new. You could do this with announcements, or with a "This Day in History (/Science/Math/Art, etc.)", or a Quote of the Day. Here's a collection of "This Day" links; here's a quote-of-the-day resource.

Engaging Content:

• Using the improved Calendar in Blackboard can help shift the ownership of learning from teacher to student. You can add animated cartoons with tellagami.com; you can include quick screencast recordings with Screencast-o-Matic; best of all, you can have your students create these videos themselves and they can post them in a wiki page in your Blackboard class. Also, you can post exemplars of student work in Blackboard just as you would in your physical classroom.

Engaging Interaction:

• Don't neglect the collaboration tools (Discussions, Blogs, Wikis, and Journals) within Blackboard allow students to activate prior knowledge as well as process new information. They can also use Blackboard in conjunction with their Google Drive or Sites accounts to create a portfolio of their work. (By the way, one of the planned upgrades for Blackboard itself is to include a "Portfolio" assignment type, to make this even easier.)
• How do I know which collaboration tool is the one I want? Start with this chart:

Blogtoberfest, Day 14: Elise Davies

How have connections with other professionals improved your practice?  Today's entry is from Elise Davies, Assistant Principal at Canyon Crest Academy:

Last week I had the opportunity to attend a district training for teachers on new technology resources with 5 outstanding teacher leaders from CCA. In addition to learning about the district's new resources in order to better support teachers at my site I was able to spend some quality time with my teachers as well as teacher leaders from other schools. The training was great and I learned a ton, however there was one experience in particular from the day I found especially meaningful. The highlight of my day was a trip several of us took to Chipotle for lunch during our break. I know what you're thinking- collaboration at Chipotle?! Isn't that the same thing as a kid proclaiming recess is their favorite subject in school? Before you write off my collaboration experience let me explain. Now I'll be honest, our conversation at Chipotle wasn't all business- we talked about our families, kids, hobbies, upcoming vacations, summer breaks, and career paths. There was certainly some business sprinkled into our conversation but mostly it was about getting to know each other better, hanging out. I left Chipotle with a better understanding of the people I work with every day; their needs, what they value, why they do their jobs, what they believe in, what makes them tick. Hopefully they learned something new about me too- so that as we continue to work as a team we have a greater sense of trust, understanding, and community. In my opinion the most effective leaders are ones who build and nurture meaningful relationships. In the business of the day to day responsibilities we must accomplish, how often do we take the time to build relationships with the people we share a room, hallway, building, school with? So I challenge those of you who are still reading this with skepticism- get out of your room/office at lunch today and make your own Chipotle experience! Who knows what you might find out, and how it will impact the way you interact with your colleagues and how that might impact the way you work with your students!

Blogtoberfest, Day 13: Sara Zook

How have connections with other professionals improved your practice?  Today's entry is from Sara Zook, Special Education Teacher at La Costa Canyon High School:

One cleat is planted into the turf, the other swings back waiting for the perfect angle of precision to make the ball graze over the goalie’s fingers and into the wide net behind him.

The moment comes. But it is a miss, bouncing off of the post to the right.

He goes for it again, but this time he will fake out the goalie out to pass to the right forward at the last minute. He taps it to the forward for the goal and… no one is there. Another miss.

“Okay,” he thinks, “I will jump over the ball just as they think I am about to shoot and then my center midfielder will come from behind for the goal.” Just as he hops over the ball, nobody comes. Miss number three.

If there were only one person on a soccer team, it would be pretty evident that the team is headed for a loss. They would have no backup, no support, and they probably would start to get disheartened when the losses started to add up.

If you can’t tell, I have been on one or two less-than-championship-bound soccer teams! And, no, I am not just talking about soccer here. Teamwork is not something that is unique to sports fields. We can imagine an educational team without all of its “players” and it would not work!

The teams that I work with most are IEP teams and team-taught classes. I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to be a part of these groups. I have found that these groups allow us to put our heads together, solve problems, and support students collectively in a way that not one of us could do individually.

In collaborating with teachers, school psychologists, speech and language pathologists, program specialists, interpreters, therapists, parents, administrators, tutors, and the students themselves, we see transformations.

Sometimes it is minor (“yay, they are calling out less in class!”), sometimes it is gigantic (“yay, they are participating, gaining confidence, turning in work, and advocating for themselves!”), but whatever the change, it is due to the input and interaction of a team of professionals who care!

Blogtoberfest, Day 12: Adrienne St. George

How have connections with other professionals improved your practice?  Today's entry is from Adrienne St. George, District Librarian:

There are many mentors and heroes in my teaching career that I could never list them all. 

My excitement and interest in technology started when Simeon Greenstein organized a tech fair at TP for anyone to attend in the early 1990s. I walked away in a daze of "oh boy...think of the things I can do" without any clue of how to start and absolutely zero tech background. The only reference to anything technology up to that point for me was a typed on a typewriter evaluation from an AP that stated I was a technology pioneer because I used an overhead projector in the classroom on a daily basis. Wow!!! 

Fortunately EW was the place where some teachers had already decided to bring technology to their classrooms. Two main ground breakers were Dan Salas and Larry Hilke. The two of them convinced enough teachers and the principal, Marilyn Pugh, to jump in. Soon Dan had put together enough equipment to create what he called Pugh Net. It was so basic compared to what we have today in the District but it was what we had and no one else had. We used Eudora for communication and I learned all sorts of stuff about bulletin boards, Ethernet cards, and new terms like POP, SMTP, IMAP, Internet, FTP, ISP, etc. It was a brand new language and fascinating. We had to trouble shoot our own problems but also had Dan and Larry to give us very professional cues: "Is your computer plugged in? Is your computer turned on? Try wiggling the wires. Please do not use white out on your monitor."

The teachers who joined in at EW were having so much fun that we made enough noise to make the District notice. Soon the District jumped on board and we had a DO tech leader, Bill Olien who was a master of the big picture. He moved all sites into consistency and similar goals. We changed to ccMail and then Novell and started using grading software and and and... 

I was so caught up that I decided to forget the admin road and went for a masters in ed tech. I got that master's at a school that only used macs; I learned to despise the bomb when the darned system would crash but became familiar with both Apple and PC platforms which make today's world of variety much easier to work with. I really learned that these fascinating machines and systems were tools that were going to help me out a lot once I figured out what to do. I learned a whole new way to look at learning objectives and design. 

I ended up teaching a computer class at EW which, at the time, was part of the district business dept. Basically the class was keyboarding. My class went beyond keyboarding. I had to completely throw out my "absolute need for perfection and everything will go as planned without hitches" types of lesson plans. I faced things like: The computers are down...now what? Uh oh...a student got past the filter...now what? The machines have to be re-imaged: they will be down for an entire day because they take 90 minutes each to image one by one...now what? The portable that the lab was in was built over a swampy area: one morning there were 100s of mosquito hawks swirling thru: now what? Salas and Hilke would calmly say: wiggle the wires, step out of the box, take the kids for a walk, we know you have a backup plan: you are too anal to not have a back up plan...and, of course...it all worked out. The kids loved the class, they loved the mishaps, they loved the structure to explode...made for a fun time for them...made for interesting and hair pulling days for me but...it did all work out. 

Of course, the speed with which things advanced was and is amazing! There is only so much that can fit in my brain so sometimes it is just as much fun to sit back and watch the brainiacs who just inhale all the new stuff and make it work. I often wish that some of these brains were transparent so I could watch the action as those brain cells trigger and race around. One of these brains belongs to Joel Van Hooser. He is just brilliant. He started as a student at SDA and worked with Dan Salas. When Dan had moved from EW to SDA, the technology at SDA suddenly exploded. He captured the interest of a lot of students when he started training students how to fix computers and work on network structure. Joel was one of those students and an exceptional one.

When I became a teacher, I was looking at a great career of teaching History, which I love, but fell into the opportunity of another dimension through the demonstrations of teachers who were looking ahead and looking for challenges beyond what was in place. The challenge part was scary but turned out to be fun and is still very exciting. Suddenly I was doing more than "just" teaching History. Yes, all of it is daunting and I know I will never know the half of it. I know I have limits but somehow those limits keep stretching and I always seem able to learn yet another thing. Even when my brain is stuffed to the limit, something else pops up that looks so interesting and seems to capture students; I know it is another moment to give it a shot.

I really thank Dan and Larry for getting me started and supporting me through all of those beginning and ensuing years. I know I was a trial and a pest but they hung in there and kept me moving forward. I know my goofy questions and improvised ways of doing things provided them with quite a few hilarious stories to share. Currently, my mentors and heroes are the huge number of teachers all across the District who are taking the initiative to try something that is new. I am so impressed and want to know what they are doing. It is so fascinating and fun to watch student excitement and involvement as teachers use the key that captures so many students: the very cool tool of technology.

Blogtoberfest, Day 11: Tracy Bryant

How have connections with other professionals improved your practice?  Today's entry is from Tracy Bryant, Social Science Teacher at Canyon Crest Academy:

CCA is my 5th high school. I am not counting my own high school or that one year I lost my mind temporarily and taught middle school. I wouldn't be who I am as a teacher without the help of my colleagues. My perspective on teaching is broad since my experiences have been so varied.

Collaboration? Heck- to-the-ya!

My first year of teaching was at a tough inner-city school where gang violence was the norm. I am not sure if I would have survived to teach another year without the help of three seasoned veterans with whom I team taught. It turned out to be a fabulously successful year. I didn't just survive I learned to thrive because of collaboration and discourse. My colleagues taught me to not sweat the small stuff and to be consistent with rules. Most importantly they shared their passion for teaching and helping others. 

However, my first big push to improve my craft was ten years ago at an innovative technology school in Colorado. We worked in pods and I often got my best ideas from outside of my subject area: math, language arts, foreign language, and science. Usually collaboration was inspired through prep periods in a common area and informal lunches. (It helped that we had 45 minutes to eat!) My colleagues were always amazing and it inspired me to be amazing. I was motivated to find my passion, connect with students, and to be innovative with my teaching.

Fast forward to Canyon Crest Academy with almost two decades of educational experience I still find it inspiring to work with other educators. Collaborative ideas are sparked by a brief chat waiting for a copy machine, stopping by the media center, or lunchtime. Some of my most creative collaborations have been with art teachers. Big success came when we had art students draw dream journals from psychology class. We discussed Freud, Jung, and Surrealism. More success came when we paired graphic art and world history in the post-classical world. Less successful but wildly entertaining was when we had the AP World students complete tape sculptures of students modeling ancient Greek and Roman statues. World History and AP World History classes have worked together for the last four years at CCA on projects, review sessions, lessons, and tests. The world history collaborations have helped us as much as it has helped our students. 

Reflecting over my career, I feel that collaborations have been at the center of my success as a teacher. The worst feeling is being alone at a new school with no one to offer input. On the flip side, the best feeling is helping out a colleague and paying it forward.

Blogtoberfest, Day 10: Mark Van Over

How have connections with other professionals improved your practice?  Today's entry is from Mark Van Over, Assistant Principal at La Costa Canyon High School:

Maintaining digital connections--no matter how small they may seem--has helped me immensely maintain a solid focus as an educator--both as a teacher and as an administrator.

One of my most fruitful endeavors came from something as simple as being a member of a listserv dedicated to AP U.S. History. Perusing the daily messages from my colleagues, nationwide, helped me to learn and grow as a new AP teacher. I was able to swap lesson plans and collaboratively create tests and to know that I wasn't in it alone. My students, as a result, benefited from this. They had lesson plans that were fun, innovative, and effective, and they had experiences that were richer than I might have devised on my own.

As an administrator, I have to say that Twitter has become a favorite of mine. While I am not as witty as my colleague when it comes to tweeting, I love reading the tweets from the organizations I follow. A favorite on my Twitter feed is Edutopia (they also have a website, edutopia.org). They constantly have links to easy things that teachers can use for anything from implementing the Common Core to effective formative assessment techniques to classroom management. I keep an archive of the helpful things I find so that I can point teachers in that direction as a means of enrichment. Another of my Twitter connections is the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD). They have awesome articles from renowned experts in the field of education, and their tools lean toward the practical--meaning, it isn't always some lofty academic speak and is more about how teachers can use methods and use them quickly. The best part of this connectedness is that if it weren't for Twitter, and seeing various tweets from these organizations, I wouldn't necessarily think to go and check on my own. Twitter is what helps me keep current of issues that are of interest to my school and our students.

Blogtoberfest, Day 9: Guen Butler

How have connections with other professionals improved your practice?  Today's entry is from Guen Butler, Teacher on Special Assignment for Formative Assessment:

How has being connected improved my practice?

I have had a unique opportunity over the last year to work as a Teacher on Special Assignment. I've met hundreds of teachers in our district, and have spent time on all of our campuses. Few people get the opportunity to learn from their peers the way I have, and I absolutely treasure the opportunity.

By being connected, face-to-face, and by phone & email with the amazing teachers & administrators in this district, I have learned:

1. The location of the Xerox room on every campus.

2. The name of every principal’s secretary in the district—thanks for all of your help, ladies!

3. While we all have the same priority (the kids), we all have different priorities. And approaches. I've learned so much from talking to fellow teachers in our district about how we assess, give grades, manage a class, use technology, collaborate with others. It’s been so enriching—thank you!

4. I've learned what a Google doc is.

5. What a Google form is, and how to use it.

6. How to make a website, and WHY I should have one. Mine isn't going to win any web design awards, but it works.

7. There’s this thing called a “Snipping Tool” that lets you take pictures of what you’re looking at on your computer screen. It’s down there in the bottom left corner under that big “Windows” button.

8. We have access to Adobe Acrobat Pro. It lets you change pdfs into Word Documents, and do other cool things to pdfs. Download it on your school computer from the Install Software Portal.

9. Google Chrome is a newer Internet browser. If you click on the Chrome icon on your desktop, it goes right to the Start Page.

10. We should think twice before asking our students scores of “Google-able” questions since 75% of the Smarter Balanced Assessments require higher-level thinking.

11. In an age of information overload, it is our responsibility to teach our students how to evaluate the quality of the information they find online.

12. I've learned to make a test to give to kids online. And, I freely admit to never having given such an assessment to my own students. Thank you for letting me practice on yours.

13. I know when school starts & ends on every site, and when lunch is. I am a parking lot traffic-avoiding ninja. And so are you, if you've ever worked on more than one campus or tried to leave your own campus right when school gets out.

14. I've learned that Education Week is a great resource for teachers who want to keep up with educational policy & changes to our field.

15. You can learn things from a screencast. (I had never watched an instructional video on YouTube until last year.)

16. How to MAKE a screencast using a free online tool called screencast-o-matic.
17. That “the district” is basically a handful of people that I share an office with. And what I've learned from them would fill pages.

18. Assessment isn't something we DO TO kids. It’s not a punishment. Assessment should inform us of what our students know and don’t know. And we should do something about what they DON’T know, not just move on to the next chapter.

19. It’s OK to not know the answer. As teachers, we are used to being the “holders of knowledge.” Not knowing the answer can make us feel vulnerable. While this is a pretty long list of what I've learned recently, what I still DON’T know could fill volumes!

20. I've learned that education is going to change more in the next ten years than it has in the last 100. We’re changing what we do in the classroom and changing what we ask our students to produce. And it’s exciting. Scary, but exciting. Good thing we’re all in this together!

Blogtoberfest, Day 8: Torrey Trust

How have connections with other professionals improved your practice?  Today's entry is from Torrey Trust, PhD candidate at UC Santa Barbara, graduate of La Costa Canyon High School, and daughter of former SDUHSD teacher Jerry Trust:

My Professional Learning Network

In 2008, I started building my Professional Learning Network (PLN) for a class in the Educational Technology M.A. program at San Diego State University. I used the now extinct version of Google Reader to collect and organize 5 blogs related to educational technology (e.g., FreeTech4Teachers). These blogs featured other popular blogs and the next thing I knew, I was following more than 50 blogs.

While working in a low-performing elementary school, I noticed that the laptop cart, classroom computers, and Interactive Whiteboards went unused. The teachers shared that they didn't know how to use these technologies as learning tools. So, I used my PLN to find websites, games, simulations, and other interactive technology resources for the teachers in my school. However, I became overwhelmed by the amount of tools available, so I developed the K-12 Tech Tools Database to start organizing the tools that I found by subject, grade level, and standard. Today, that site has more than 2,000 technology tools and resources and it has been viewed by more than 150,000 individuals in 140 countries worldwide. 

The benefits of building a PLN did not stop there. When I entered graduate school to pursue a Ph.D. in Education at UCSB, I spent many nights staring at the ceiling hoping that my dissertation topic would magically pop into my head. Unfortunately, this strategy proved to be unsuccessful. Luckily, one day, in my Advances in Learning Sciences class, the professor lectured about the power of using technologies to connect and collaborate with individuals on a global scale. I realized that I was already doing that with my PLN. So I thought, “Why not do my dissertation on how teachers share knowledge with educators around the world using their PLN tools?" 

I'm currently wrapping up my second to last chapter of my dissertation and can't believe how far my PLN has taken me. 

I hope that in the spirit of Blogtoberfest, you venture out into the online world of social networking and start building your PLN. If you need ideas or resources, here’s a helpful tool to get you started: http://edpln.wikispaces.com

Blogtoberfest, Day 7: Sherril Brice

How have connections with other professionals improved your practice?  Today's entry is from Sherril Brice, ISOL and Math Teacher at La Costa Canyon School:

It’s the start of new school year, I’ve got my teaching assignment, my syllabus is prepared and ready to be dispersed to students, the bell rings and we’re off and running. But wait, it’s now Friday and I think I see an AP approaching me, he wants to talk briefly about my schedule… 

They are reallocating a section at our site, which means I will now be teaching a Sheltered Algebra 1 course starting at the end of the next week. With no teacher prep days for syllabus writing, web page design, or lesson planning I would have drowned except for being “saved” by professional connections at my site and a neighboring site. A teacher at SDA shared a wonderful book, Making Mathematics Accessible to English Learners, which essentially helped remove some “cobwebs” (see how I worked in October-ish stuff) and reminded me of some basics we had learned a few years back in SDAIE workshops. All three of the algebra teachers at my site rallied and offered up copies of lesson plans, resource books, and have continued to share, via email, both sites and activities they find useful and interesting. While it’s not perfect, someone even suggested checking out Google Translate, which has certainly been helpful, since it’s been over 35 years since I studied high school Spanish and had I tried to translate my syllabus alone it may have said something really crazy. 

No, I have not yet reached nirvana with this experience, nevertheless I have access to Algebra 1 lesson plans for the year, thanks Erin. I do have a word wall, we have made cool flip books for working with integers, there’s an M&M activity for modeling the distributive property in my tool box, and I am using Frayer model notes to help scaffold the lessons, thanks Paul, Julie and Jill. This definitely is not a Cinderella story, unless you think of the scene where everything changes back to pumpkins (did it again) and mice, because I am still re-inventing some wheels, ditching plans in the middle of the period as students get call slips for CELDT testing, trying every day to start with a positive fresh attitude, but the comforting knowledge is that when things go bump in the classroom, I have other helpful colleagues willing to lend support. 

Ghoulishly submitted,
Sherril Brice

Blogtoberfest, Day 6: Brinn Belyea

How have connections with other professionals improved your practice?  Today's entry is from Brinn Belyea, Science Teacher at Torrey Pines High School:

How have connections with other professionals helped my practice? 

The College Board is changing the AP Chem class to focus on in depth thinking, conceptual knowledge and lab applications.  To meet these goals and the goals of CCSS and NGSS I flipped my class this year. 

I prefer the PLN model to the PLC model so I follow the SDUHSD tech blog closely.  I did what the internet allows best which is to follow the links that are in links that are in links and found Roger Schank, an expert on learning.  Schank advocates story centered curriculum for retention of skills and knowledge.  I formulated a plan and went to visit CCA chem teacher Eric Smith.  I observed his flipped class and solicitied his advice on flipping and story centered curriculum. 

The College Board's AP chem message board allowed me to get a good idea of how the test is changing and how to prepare for that.  So far, the flipped class has put the responsibility for learning base knowledge on students and allows me to focus on in depth learning, problem solving, and critical thinking in class.  The students are much more motivated to drill and practice skills and to think critically in the context of the story centered curriculum I have developed than they are with traditional chem problems. 

The rate of change with ed tech is increasing so fast that I've found I can't keep up.  So, I rely upon trusted colleagues who think alike for tips on what to try.  Recently, TPHS chem teacher Angela Willden showed me socrative, a site that turns student cell phones into clickers.  I plan on using this for informal formative assessment, the kind I use for instant feedback on what kids get. 

I hope to keep building my PLN in order to improve as a professional educator.