One Big Idea and Global Connections

The topic on PasstheScopeEDU this month was One Big Idea and Global Connections. I have to confess that this topic had me stumped mostly because I’m terrible at narrowing things down to just one thing. There are so many tech tools and I want to learn all of them. There are so many things that need to be done in education. There are so many books that I want to read and every time I tune into EduMatch I add a few more to my list. And what about conferences;  the list of conferences that I wish I could go to is long and expensive.  

And, don’t get me started on Twitter chats and Voxer Groups. My Hootsuite has a tab for every day of the week so that I can follow and tune into the chats going on anywhere, any time. I actually said that I wished I had a longer commute so I could have more time to listen to my Voxes.  Who says that?

Part of this is complicated by my role as an instructional technology facilitator which kind of requires you to be a jack of all trades. I support five schools from Pre-K to Early College High School and I provide support to teachers and staff in everything from our gradebook system, the state assessment and instructional support system, website creation and maintenance,  Google Apps for Education, Learning Management Systems, almost any cool website or app that teachers are interested in and troubleshooting on iPads, Chromebooks, PCs, laptops and every once in awhile Macs and even installation of equipment like clickers, SMART boards, and other classroom hardware. Phew - It might sound like I’m complaining but I’m NOT. Part of what I love about my job is the variety and the constant challenge!

But, One big idea? Just ONE. hmmm….

So, I want to switch gears for just a minute and tell you about the NC State Friday Institute Innovation Bootcamp on June 16, 2016 and how you never know who or what is going to bring you to a key understanding. Steven Weber gave the closing Keynote at the Innovation Bootcamp and he framed his talk around asking questions.

My question was how to focus on One Big Idea?  What’s THE most important or at least what’s THE most important to me? What am I good at or passionate about so that I can actually make a difference?

Add to the mix a conversation I had with another amazing educator, Nathan Stevens. The idea choosing One Big thing seemed limiting, especially when so much is changing and so much needs to be done.  His comments resonated with me especially in my job serving five schools in using technology effectively for instruction.  How could there be One Thing that would apply to all teachers and, by extension, students in Pre-K through Early College?

One last story … Have you seen Hamilton? If you said yes, you have my eternal jealousy!  I was watching an interview of  Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator and star, and he said he never felt like the smartest person in school. The term he used was “treading water” being surrounded by geniuses.

“Lin-Manuel Miranda: You know, I went to a school where everyone was smarter than me. And I'm not blowin' smoke, I, my, I was surrounded by genius, genius kids. What's interesting about growing up in a culture like that is you go, "All right, I gotta figure out what my thing is. Because I'm not smarter than these kids. I'm not funnier than half of them, so I better figure out what it is I wanna do and work really hard at that." And because intellectually I'm treading water to, to be here.
Charlie Rose: So why do you think I'm sitting here talking to you and not sitting here talking to one of your classmates?
Lin-Manuel Miranda: 'Cause I picked a lane and I started running ahead of everybody else. So I, that's the honest answer. It was like, I was like, "All right THIS."”

“Cause I picked a lane.”  

So, now I’m back to choosing One Big Idea.  Clearly there’s some benefit to focus, right?

Last tidbit to my story. Really. I promise.  Steven played the Moonshot video as part of  keynote is in my brain about asking the the right questions.   Then he showed the Moonshot video.  Even if you've seen it before, listen to Astro Teller's segment at 2m16 sec. It's faster/better than me explaining.

What am I bothered by?  Well, the list is pretty long in education these days, right?

• Kids aren’t on grade level.
• Too much emphasis on passing tests.
• Not enough emphasis on learning that lasts.
• Technology moves so fast, I can barely keep up, and I LIKE technology.
• Professional Development rarely meets my needs.
• How do I reach the crazy, heartbreaking, diverse needs of the kids in my classroom AND teach my standards?
• Or now, how do I support the teachers and staff in five schools from Pre-K to Early College?

What’s the one thing that helps me deal with all the challenges of this job?  Is there one answer?  I wouldn’t have made you read this long story if I didn’t believe there is!

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/connected-educator-begins-with-collaboration-tom-whitby

For me, everything changed when I started becoming a connected educator and I’ve decided that THAT is my One Big Idea.

It addresses everything doesn’t it? Being connected empowered me to figure out how to help kids who aren’t on grade level. When I discovered the #flipclass chat on Twitter in changed everything.  At first, I was too terrified to participate. I just lurked, but finally I asked a question and Brian Bennett and Cheryl Morris and Andrew Thommason tweeted back. They were amazingly generous with their time and their knowledge.  And it changed everything. Before I knew it, I had flipped my classroom and started reaching those kids.

There are chats and connected educators willing to help you learn and grow, anywhere, any time.  I won’t address every single thing on MY list, but here’s my mission….

I wasn't bothered, but today, I choose to be bothered. And I choose to believe that it is possible to connect them all.

My One Big Idea

It's something I'm passionate about. It's something I can do with the help of the amazing people in my PLN and it will change everything.

From Nah to OMG in 8 Days - The Evolution of Snapchat for EDU

Wait a minute... I need to scroll back through my Voxer feed.... Ok, that took WAY longer than expected because Edumatch is on fire, but here it is.

Snapchat Vox Zero*

*As in patient zero.

Wednesday. March 30. 5 Seconds. Snapchat Revolution ....  well, for me at least. It turns out that Colleges and Universities have been using Snapchat to showcase student life and promote their brand for years.  Education bloggers have been writing about Snapchat's usefulness for quite some time, but, as Wired said so bluntly, 

"... [I]  couldn’t really figure out what Snapchat is supposed to be used for. And so [I] turned [my]back on Snapchat. [I] shrugged and thought Well, it’s for those damn Millennials...."

That was until Snapchat Vox Zero,  by Sarah Thomas, hit the Edumatch Voxer group.  I'll be honest, the transformation was not immediate. I did not download the app right way. I did not set up my account immediately.  I don't think of myself as a naysayer, but my first reaction was Nah! I couldn't really see an educational use for an app that is known for disappearing, silly and often inappropriate pictures.  Here's how I went from Nah! to OMG!   

Two hours later Cynthia Day forwarded a Vox by Daniel Bauer (aka alienearbud) describing educational applications of Snapchat. There seemed to be a reason to pay attention to this Voxer conversation.  On Voxer, we continued to discuss problems - It's blocked at school. What if we receive inappropriate Snaps from students? There was a serious security concern in the past. Legitimate concerns.

Later that day Sarah posted her Snap Ghost! I wanted one too.  A few hours later, she posted a Snapped video with a filter and a sticker.  Then there were filters with rainbows and zombies. Basically, she let us watch her learn how to use the app. Within 24 hours, I had my Snapchat account up so I could start exploring too.

It's awesome ==> Watch me play ==> Come play too

At some point, Toutoule Ntoya invented the phrase Snapchat Shenanigans* and we all just jumped in to play and learn the app. As the play ensued, ideas for using Snapchat in our classrooms, our buildings and our districts emerged; ideas that we couldn't imagine until we started using the app.

* Shenanigans is Toutoule's trademark word.

Eight days later, I am definitely at OMG about the possibilities. I've practiced making and downloading stories and I can't wait to use Snap Stories to share what's going on inside our schools and classrooms.  I've even submitted a Geofilter to Snapchat for approval. Then, this weekend, I had the opportunity to talk about Snapchat at EdCampSpark held at Discovery Place Studio in Charlotte, NC and the learning and ideas grew even more.  We have a Google Doc with our ideas here that you are welcome to add to or just read through for inspiration.

Use Google Drawing to Make a Meme

If you click the link to the Google Drawing Meme Template, you'll notice the example is setup as 700pxX700px which is a standard size for a square meme. These are the directions for using the template to create your own meme. The idea that I'm thinking about is to do this with teachers or students in January centered around creating a goals or reflections based meme for 2016.

Directions:

1. Make a copy of the Drawing so you can edit it.
2. Click on the middle of the image to select it and delete it.
3. Insert your own image by clicking: Insert > Image and choose an image to upload or choose one from the internet.
4. Move the picture to the back
1. Select the picture, and right click.
2. Choose Order > Send to back
5. Re-size your image to fill the drawing canvas so there are no blank edges by grabbing the corners and re-sizing it.
1. Make sure you don’t change the “aspect ratio” which means you don’t stretch it wider than you do tall.
2. If you have to make it bigger than the canvas, that’s ok, we’ll crop in the next step.
6. Crop your image
1. Once it takes up the whole canvas, click on the crop tool and use the black handles to crop the picture to fit the canvas.  You should be able to see the canvas edges faintly behind the picture.
7. Re-position your picture if needed.
1. If necessary, re-position your picture on the canvas by:
1. De-select it then hover over the picture to get the 4-sided arrow and move the picture around so that it is centered.
2. You may need to select the picture and the crop tool to re-size it.
8. Create your Meme Text
1. Double click the Word Art text box at the top of the meme and type your text.  The example text fits the canvas. Use it as a guide.
1. Make sure caps lock is on.
2. Use Shift Enter for a new line.
3. Use Enter to save.
4. Repeat for the text at the bottom of the canvas.
9. Share - Personal & Together
1. Click File > Download as > .jpg.
1. This should download the picture to your desktop or your downloads folder.
2. Click on the arrow and select Show in folder to see where the file is located.
3. Minimize that window. (Don’t close it.)
10. Personal - Decide where you'd like to post your meme. Think about somewhere that you'll see often. For example, you could save it and set it as your school desktop background picture or your school computer screen saver.  
11. Together - For our project - Click the link in our Google Classroom and add your meme to the Slide show.

Make Your Meme - 2016

www.Bestlessonseries.com by Brian Sztabnik

This morning, while browsing Twitter and trying to figure out #Edcampvoxer (last minute Lucy, I know!), I ran across this picture by Brian Sztabnik It falls into the category of inspirational and touching. And, I love the idea of stating what you want for your students and crystallizing it into a meme.  What a powerful process to go through.
(Follow Brian on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TalksWTeachers)

Memes are known best as those clever, sarcastic, funny, sometimes touching internet pictures that circulate around social media.  I love them. They make me laugh, inspire me or provide a springboard for a presentation.  

At the same time over Christmas break, I'm noticing that all my favorite Twitter chats are getting geared up for 2016 with some kind of goals setting oriented chat topics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-out_of_incandescent_light_bulbs

Light Bulb Moment
Why not do this for myself? Well, duh....  But, like I said, last minute Lucy....

Tips for creating memes for your 2016 goals...

1. Figure out what you want to say first.
I browsed meme generator sites to see what was out there and experimented with creating a couple memes, but I found the hardest part was deciding what text to type on my selected picture.  I discovered that my process required that I figure out my meme text first and go in search of a picture second.

2. On-Line Meme generators.
I Googled meme generators and found tons of options. From what I can tell, the benefit of using an online site is the built in formatting.  Memegenerator for example didn't require me to download anything and it has a diverse (but limited) library of meme images. Everything from Sad Keanu and Grumpy Cat to Star Wars and The Sound of Music.  Memeful allowed me to easily upload my own image and share it to Twitter or Facebook, but I decided to do a quick screenshot to save it to my pictures.  Imgflip allowed me to upload my own picture without creating an account and to easily download it to my computer.  Imgur gave me options to download, embed and link without creating an account too.  Makeameme didn't show me my meme when I clicked "private". It looks like I need to create an account, which I'm not interested in doing.  So, I kept looking to see if I could find one that saves directly to Google Drive.  ImageChef - no Google Drive. Quickmeme - wanted me to login with Facebook, so nope. 

Scroll, scroll, scroll.... hmmm.... Another thought occurs to me. We're all teachers, right? We might want to use this idea with students. It would be powerful to have students create a meme to express the theme or setting, what a character might say.... In science and math... But, none of the sites listed above is appropriate for students. Even without making an account, these sites have too much mature content.  What's a teacher to do?  

Make it in Google of course.  I experimented with Google Slides first, but it turns out the Impact font is T.H.E. meme font and it is really hard to duplicate in Google Slides. If you figure it out, let me know!  But, Google Drawing works really well. It has the Impact font and it has Word Art so you can add the classic meme black outline. 

Here's a link to a template with directions that you can use if you'd like to try it.

Teaching the Same Old Thing in a Whole New Way

Tonight's #flipclass flashblog is about teaching the same old thing in a whole new way. I have a lot of activities that I L.O.V.E. to do. That kids love to do and that seem to hit the standards very well. But, I've never been able to repeat the same things over and over every year. Even the best activities are boring!  Cell division is a good example.  It has been part of middle school science in one way or another for the 14 years that I've been teaching and the details don't really change.  Mitosis is mitosis.  Every year, I try to change things to keep it fresh for both me and the students.  Most years students create a mnemonic device to remember the steps of mitosis. One year we did the yarn activity. Another year we used Twizzlers. We've looked at onion root tips under the microscope. We've watched really cool and amazing videos of cells dividing. 14 years is a lot of mitosis activities. One year, I remember watching a video from Cells Alive and thinking it's like a dance.  There it was. Let's see if we can create a dance for cell division.  I provided the students with some supplies:

• Different colored T-shirts to color code themselves as sister chromatids.
• Segments of rope in different colors to represent different membranes.
• Carabeeners and long ropes to represent spindle fibers and centromeres.
• Various signs

Students divided into groups based on their roles and created their movements. We commandeered the school lobby so we'd have space to practice. And, we had a ton of fun.

Twitter Resources for Educators

I introduced Twitter to a small group of educators at our Summer Professional Development week.  Twitter is an awesome resource and I could have talked and shared for way longer than the hour and a half allotted to me. The people who were there were probably glad I had only an hour and half - I sensed a lot of willingness, but Twitter for Educators is a little overwhelming at first.  This post provides the resources I presented during the workshop and other great stuff from my Twitter PLN.  I'd love it if you'd share your resources and thoughts in the comments to make this a dynamic, growing page.

Resource 1 (drum roll)  Jerry Blumenthal's Cybraryman Website and Twitter Guide

Of course this one is first!  Don't be put off by the plain design of Jerry's site. It is full of information and is T.H.E. place to go for a complete list of educational hashtags and Twitter chat times and dates.

Resource 2 Using Twitter to Build Your Personal Learning Network (PLN)

@rocklandryan  created and shared this presentation and it is a fantastic overview of the nuts and bolts of using Twitter for the first time and for building a PLN.  I've added resources and links through out.

I hope you decide to jump into a Twitter chat soon.  If you do, let me know and I'll try to jump online with you.  Happy Tweeting! Follow me @braveneutrino.  For more on my Twitter journey, read Home Grown and Weed Free.

Cell Phones are Distracting, and....

I've seen the headline "Kids do a lot better when schools ban cell phones" and the Facebook likes and the laments to "put that thing down and go outside and play".    I can see the huge potential for distraction that cell phones pose in the classroom with their constant buzzing, vibrating and beeping.  There's the Pavlovian response to check it. And, kids these days (and adults too) are conditioned to pull out their phones to record everything with a picture, a text or a post.  What possible educational purpose could these devices possibly serve?

The study, as presented in the CNN article, by researchers Richard Murphy and Louis-Philippe Beland, focused on the distraction potential of cell phones.  It's not clear that the researchers differentiated between schools or teachers who had an academically oriented BYOD policy and those who threw cell phones into the classroom distraction be damned.

I think the article is right and wrong at the same time. I think the effect on student achievement of anything, whether it’s technology, a new program or a textbook, lies entirely in its implementation. I think a smart phone is nothing more than a computer that a student owns and has, potentially, constant access to. I think students don’t know how to use technology for academic purposes and especially don’t know how to use technology for anything beyond canned practice and assessment programs. I think students need to be taught how to use their devices for rich academic purposes. I think that texting, snapchatting, etc. during class is the digital equivalent to passing notes and that we need to have effective discipline strategies that focus on the behavior not the device. I think smartphones in the classroom is in its infancy and we are gradually developing ways to harness the power of these tiny, always up to date, ubiquitous computers that everyone has in their pockets. I wonder why anyone would consider banning them and in the next breath spend thousands of dollars on computers.

Since I think all these things, I looked up the authors, read the original study here: http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp1350.pdf

Among many other things, the authors state that

“The existing literature on the impact of technology in the classroom implies that the unstructured presence of technology has ambiguous impacts on student achievement. We add to this by illustrating that a highly multipurpose technology, such as mobile phones, can have a negative impact on productivity through distraction.”

The key is in how teachers implement the access to these “highly multipurpose” devices. If they’re just going to be buzzing in their pockets, then they’ll be a distraction and should, sadly, remain banned. However, teachers can work together on manageable ways to use devices in class to improve instruction and student achievement instead of relying on a ban to remove distractions and increase the attention and motivation of students to learn traditionally taught content.