Let Them Teach

Sylvia Duckworth's visual representation of success is so revealing. It struck a nerve. I have to be visible not only in my success, but in the process along the way. Process over product, or at least with it. But its a two-way system. I need to share my whole iceberg and look at other's when learning from them. Often we look at people doing amazing things and think, "Wow! They make it look so easy !" I don't know about you, but EASY is a 4 letter word in my classroom. I discourage students to use it because it is undermining for some and unrepresentative for others. So why do I use it? Nothing starts easy for anyone.  The challenge is to follow up those thoughts with "How did she/he get there? What did it look like along the way?" We need to ask those questions when we are learning, and give those answers when we are sharing. Its a true representation that will add fuel to the Crowd Accelerated Innovation. When we can learn from each other...

I had the pleasure of reading the book that lead to  Barry Schwartz TED talk on the Paradox of Choice  before I ever entered education. I thought about it in terms of decision making for life, but hadn't made the connection to education, innovation, and sharing. *Kicks rocks* I am so guilty of sending a million emails over the course of the year for this thing or that thing that I think could be powerful in our classrooms. George, I hear you. I have felt no one was listening. Now, I know why and I don't blame them. It is clear that our campus and district are pushing three tools: Google Apps for Education, Schoology, and Twitter. I use these fluently, I think. Now that I have a focus, I can be more intentional about what and how I share. I also have ideas on how to share others' ideas, not just mine. We need to show how our staff is smart. We are all smart, we just need to expose it! Less gives focus. Focus gives intention. Intention breeds action. 

Some people call me a leader. Some people call me a rogue teacher. Which is it? Who decides? I think I am a leader, but I do not want to be THE leader. I don't want to be in charge, but I want to share and push people's thinking and teaching and learning. It is my strength. Risk taking. Jumping in with both feet without a lot of perseverating on details, and then sharing my experience, my struggles, my successes, listening to feedback, and turning it around the next day or week or year. In my strength, I feel like I could be so helpful to our organization at large. I'm just waiting to be tapped. I'm doing what I can to put myself out there, but I'm also waiting on someone to figure out what to do with me, in a sense. Are our kids doing this? Are they sitting in class waiting for us to tap into their strength and show us their potential of what they can contribute to our classrooms? Are there other staff members waiting for someone on top to pick us out and...

Relationships and collaboration are crucial to innovation, but what about working in isolation? Where does that come into play? A couple weeks ago I had an opportunity to get @GoogleforEdu and #googleexpeditionsAR on my campus. I've coordinated a similar day with Google Cardboard 3 years ago, and it was just as much of a whirlwind this year. Relationships and collaboration are crucial. I wouldn't be able to get to where I have in isolation, but this day was a good snapshot of what it might look like at times when you do venture out on your own, whether by choice or necessity.  Let me break down the timeline for you that led to the day of isolated innovation. Saturday, October 7th 10:17 am I respond to an email I get as being part of a GEG-CENTX (Google Plus group of Central Texas Educators) in which there is an application to apply for this experience. I forward that information on to my administrator to see if she supports it if we are chosen. I didn't want to w...

What is one thing that you used to do in education that you no longer do or believe in? Why the change? This is a question that I hope every educator can answer. If we are a product of our experiences, and up until recently the majority of classrooms modeled the industrial age of interchangeable parts and people ( Seth Godin TED Talk Stop Stealing Dreams ), then we probably started very differently than where we are today. I know I did.  Note Taking THEN: In a 5th grade class, I started my career with lots of note-taking. I would spend entire class periods, up to 60 minutes, setting up students with information to apply in a lab later, which required students to get the information they needed via lecture and notes. I thought I was hitting two learning styles by talking and showing. NOW: Notes are references or practice, and usually last no longer than 15 minutes. They are interactive-there is a lot of questioning happening during the note taking process. I try to ...

Two weeks into this #IMMOOC challenge I prescribed myself, and not only am I surviving, I am fully engaged and ideas are pouring out of my ears. I can hardly contain my excitement, but I think my principal will help me with that, as I am sure she is really over my emails. :) I have rarely read a book DURING the school year. I found my spreadsheet soulmate in @alicekeeler. This is going on my must read list of books for sure. Validation. It is a bridge builder. It lowers the affective filter. It primes your heart and brain to take in new information and make the connection to ways you can use that information.  I have had countless conversations with my colleagues at various levels about our grading system. What does an 86 in math mean? I stopped taking points off for no name. That doesn't have anything to do with how well a student understands rounding. I've stopped averaging first and second attempts. The goal is mastery, right? Don't we have the whole year to...