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.

Blogtoberfest, Day 5: Tracy McCabe

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

Teaching is a family business. Or at least I was raised that way. Having been steeped in public education by a pair of middle school teachers as parents, I understand why the children of actors toil within the entertainment business (which is almost as volatile as public schooling) like their parents before them. Some of my earliest memories are of cheering on the Standley Middle School’s PE Department’s OTL team at OMBAC tournaments as well as shopping at the warehouse every August to fill the sugar and flour containers in my mother’s cooking classroom. Though they ranted and cried missed opportunities when both my sister and I became teachers, it was always a forgone conclusion.

It would be a fool’s errand for me to attempt to recall the scores of teachers who have affected me. All for the common good, the teachers from my youth as well as past and present colleagues have all had a part in the educator I am today. We are inevitably connected to those we learn from, teach, and teach beside. For me, given my upbringing and my profession, work is personal. I’m vested. Because it’s a familial endeavor to learn and teach. 

Beside the heap of gratitude for the shared lessons, links to resources, and various professional development gems I’ve acquired over the years is the lot that has nothing and everything to do with school. My mentor teacher’s “No Bad Days” motto still elicits a smile when it greets me in my desk drawer each morning on a post-it. A scolding from my first assistant principal (“All parents love their children, Tracy.”) has long been my mantra when I read angry parent emails. The women I met during my Masters a decade ago still meet me for wine and whining biannually. The lunchtime pep talks and the happy hours and the colleagues that let me cut in the bathroom line because they have a prep next period are all essential to my survival in this biz. 

I know my practice is better today and everyday because of the teachers who remind me in the smallest ways that we are in this together. It is said that by choosing to be a teacher, you enter an emotionally dangerous profession. My connections to other teachers are my form of group therapy. And like a family, there is nothing like sharing your passion for your job with a colleague who knows your pain, struggles, and your triumphs. Professional help from my colleagues makes me a better instructor, but the collegiality keeps me sane. And teaching.