Shutdown Food for Thought: Share Your Planted Seeds

We made it to Thursday. Does anyone else feel like these days are both shorter and longer at the same time?
In follow-up to yesterday's message about feeling disconnected, I began wondering how things are going with everyone else and if you've had any successful moments with your students and their families (or with your own kids) now that we've settled into this a bit.
I personally had some awesome learning moments with my kids when we ventured out to Sleepy Hollow State Park for a hike. What started as an escape from the house for some fresh air turned into a great learning experience in reading maps, navigating using the map with the sun's position, talking about how the sun moves across the sky in different times of the year, identifying trees by their bark and branching characteristics, all while getting the blood flowing with a 4-mile hike.

Today we took to the outdoor classroom for a cross-curricular PE/Geography/Science lesson. 4-mile hike, map reading, navigation, and tree ID. #MiMakerBreak pic.twitter.com/zjMUcG9Vy4

— Justin Knull (@Everyday_Genius) March 17, 2020

All the while I couldn't help think about how their curiosity was driving their learning rather than someone else telling them what was important. It really brings a tweet from Jessie Heckman that I saw recently to life,

Just 🤔:What if during this time, removed from expectations of grades and performance, we encouraged open curiosity, creativity & connection? I wonder what kids will come up with? How can we plant these seeds from afar?

— Jessie Heckman (@Heckmantechman) March 17, 2020

But... these things are all easier said than done. We need to help each other out a bit by sharing our stories and successes with each other to help us plant those seeds. I've heard of some of our teachers using Flipgrid for read-alouds with their classes and having students read back... Awesome!

I've seen friends creating stop-motion videos with their kids at home... Awesome!

Today we are playing around with stop-motion. Lego is such a fun medium for this. Just playing around with @OSnapPhotoApp and watching magic come out the other side. #MiMakerBreak pic.twitter.com/OCJCrA63zS

— Andrew Hudson (@ahudsoncms) March 17, 2020

I've seen Kindergarten teachers sending directed drawing videos to their students... Awesome!

Ms. Zeeb put together a directed drawing for our Oakwood students to enjoy. Bring you pictures back to school when we return! Enjoy! #portlandraiderpride pic.twitter.com/OYVlc7xWN7

— Oakwood Elementary School (@school_oakwood) March 18, 2020

I've heard of teachers using the current events as a way to "make math real" by investigating how experts are modeling the outbreak... Awesome!

I've heard from a teacher that she's hand-writing and snail-mailing letters back and forth with her students pen-pal style... Awesome!

Please remember through all of this that children WILL learn on their own. It's been happening for a couple hundred-thousand years. Plant a seed and set them loose. Then help each other out by sharing those seeds with the rest of us so we can sow them even wider.

Shutdown Food for Thought: Disconnected

Good Wednesday Morning,
Despite my best efforts to treat last weekend like a normal, true weekend, my brain was already telling myself that something was weird and different. Even though I'm lucky to have a family around me, I already felt oddly disconnected, and that's coming from an introvert who enjoys being alone. The most common thing I've heard from friends (in person and through social media) and replies to the first couple of these emails have been similar comments about feeling disconnected. If we're all feeling this way, imagine how some of our students must be feeling. Those Google Classroom posts, Flipgrid read-alouds, and Facebook posts are important to let students know that you're still there and thinking of them. Please don't forget to encourage them to participate back. That same disconnect is what is driving me to write these daily messages to you. Sure, I'm a math teacher by trade, but I find something soothing about writing (and I'm grateful that the ELA department is taking it easy on correcting all of my horrible mechanics). Maybe some of your students might be the same. When you're reaching out to them, don't forget to encourage your students to reach back. A digital community is still a community.
Another thing that brings me comfort and a small sense of connection is my social media presence. I personally rely on Twitter to connect to my tribe. I've slowly built up a great network of friends, colleagues, and other educators over the past few years with whom it has been great to share ideas, generate thoughtful discussions, and glean activities and inspiration. Most of the ideas that I shared yesterday came from there, and Twitter is full of educators with great ideas and great passion to share. I would encourage anyone who doesn't have an account to give it a shot, follow a few people, and see what it's like while you've got some extra time. Where to start? Create that account, then check out some good hashtags. #MichEd is a good one with a strong and active community, as is #cmakers. #MiDigCit is a fairly recent one focusing on Digital Citizenship with a group of Michigan educators spinning off of the national #DigCit discussion. In addition to these broad hashtags, you'll surely find many content and age specific hashtags that you can use to customize the content you see and consume. When you find folks that you enjoy hearing from, you can follow them with a click, and their content will show up in your main feed. My Twitter handle is @Everyday_Genius if you want to see the way I use the platform.
If you already have Facebook in play, awesome. Use it during this time to fight that disconnected feeling as well as making your students and families feel connected as well. If you're feeling especially frisky, you could also use some of this time to explore some other social media platforms that our students are using. Give Instagram (iOS, Android), Snapchat (iOS, Android), and TikTok (iOS, Android) a try and see what they're all about.

Shutdown Food for Thought: See the Opportunity

Happy Tuesday Morning,
Just to preface... What follows is my opinion and meant to encourage thought and discussion. I don't claim to be right, only to have an opinion. 

It seems like everywhere I look I see companies and other individuals talking about tools and strategies for moving to a virtual style of education. While these things are nice to keep in mind, and maybe we'll need to think that way at some point, I think that we're missing an opportunity (and the bigger picture) by jumping to this type of thinking right away. Remember when learning was about engaging your brain to think and grow and make sense of the world around you, not mastery of CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.3.3.A? How many times in the past few years have you had that nagging thought that it would be awesome to do a certain activity with your students, but you don't have time because of everything you have to "cover?" I would urge you to reach out to your students and their families with ideas and activities that fit in that category. Get them discussing, making, experiencing, questioning, growing without being "for a grade" or to check a box. Give them a spark rather than an assignment and encourage them to share their experience with you and others.
Just a few of the ideas that have caught my eye recently:

• Our Middle School sent out this Bingo game to students with a challenge to submit their "work" to be entered for prizes. I've shared this forward to a number of other teacher friends to adjust for their students, and they loved it.
• @dailystem on Twitter shared out these 77 Simple STEM Activities for Families and then followed up with 77 More (just in case 77 wasn't enough?). I plan to steal ideas from this list for my own nuggets at home, and I'm guessing you might have some students and parents who would appreciate the ideas. Just be careful to point out that not all of these activities would be great in our current "social distancing" format of daily life.
• My wife stumbled across a great 30 Day Lego Challenge that I just had to share. Lego is one of the all time great examples of how rich learning can be when it happens through play.
• Don't overlook the amazing learning opportunities hidden in a pile of cardboard destined for the recycling center. Tell me that building a Geodesic dome isn't PACKED with high school level math, engineering, and problem solving... I'm guessing many of us might start accumulating cardboard, also, seeing as how online ordering is the only way to get toilet paper right now.
• Start a class Padlet, Flipgrid, or even Google Classroom discussion for students to be able to connect and share some of the things they are doing.

I think that for as uncertain as all of this feels and for all of the negatives that come to our minds related to our current situation, it's very important for us to step back and remember that this is a great opportunity for us to remind our students and ourselves that not all learning has to be tied to a standard. Sometimes we just have to experience it and figure stuff out on our own terms.

Shutdown Food for Thought: Boredom is Not a Disease

I'm not sure if anyone even reads this any more since I have so neglected it for way too long, but I have set a goal to send a blog-post-style email to the teachers and staff at my school each morning.  Being that these emails read like a blog post, I decided I should post them here as well.  If anyone is still out there, here comes a daily "Shutdown Food for Thought" while we're all social-distancing.

So I thought I would set a goal for myself to stay in touch each day with an email each morning with some things to think about as we go through this weird experience.  I hope I'm not just spamming your inboxes, but rather I look forward to the discussion that my opinions and outlook sparks.  Feel free to read, reply, argue, discuss, etc.

As my own family was coming to terms with the prospect of 3+ weeks at home together with no school and working remotely, my wife and I (just like many of our parents) were discussing what we are going to do to keep our kids busy, engaged, inspired to learn, sane, etc. all while not getting to the point that they are ripping each others' faces off, my brain immediately went to a Podcast I listened to a few years ago with Manoush Zomorodi about the importance of being bored for our brain's creative function.  Maybe it was partially inspired by the fact that she was just recently the opening keynote speaker at the MACUL conference, but it seemed pretty applicable to our current situation.  I made my 8 year old son listen to it in the car on the way to and from the grocery, and he immediately said, "I think Grace (our daughter) should listen to that too."   The episode is linked below to a few popular podcast platforms.  You can also play it through any web browser.  I would encourage you to carve out 43 minutes, and give it a listen.

Zomorodi talks about her work showing how important moments of boredom are for our creative brain and the way mobile phones have taken that away from us and made us very uncomfortable with the thought of being bored.  She then talks a lot about the importance of learning some self regulation of our time and connection to our phones, and how the right response isn't an "all or nothing" answer but rather a gray area compromise somewhere in the middle.  I made some adjustments to my own behavior (fine-tuning notifications, app timers, etc.) after listening to this episode a few years ago, and it was a great adjustment for me personally.  I wanted my kids to listen as well (it is a kid friendly episode if you would like to do the same) so that I could remind them of it when I hear the phrase that I know is coming... "I'm boooored."  New standard response will be to remind them that being bored is really good for your brain, so it's ok.  

If anything, at the beginning of this time away from school and work, look for opportunities to slow down a bit, allow your brain to wander, and examine some ways to develop a better relationship with your cell phone.

If you feel so inclined, feel free to share this story/message along to your students and/or parents of your students and encourage them to embrace a little bit of boredom back into our lives.  This could also be a great discussion starter as we investigate ways to introduce our students to thoughts about their digital well-being.

Podcast #342: Why Boredom is Good for You | The Art of Manliness (This link also includes a transcript of the episode if you'd rather read it than listen to it)

• Episode on Spotify
• Episode on Google Podcasts
• Episode on Apple Podcasts

If this topic inspires you to learn more, Zomorodi's book, "Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self" is available on Amazon for less than $10.

How's the New Job?

For those not familiar, I have taken a new job as the Instructional Technology Specialist at the Shiawassee Regional Education Service District (RESD).  Having been here since April, I have accumulated a number of different thoughts, feelings, implications, etc. that I thought I would use as a kickstart to getting my blog back up and running.  After all, an Instructional Technology Specialist should maintain a blog, right!?
So, as I sit today and mourn the loss of the summer to which I have become very fond of over the past 12 years, I feel the need to share a few of my thoughts.
**Note:  Please pardon the rambling.

1. Teachers work hard!!

As a teacher, you don't think about it; you just do it.  You wake up before the sun, go non-stop for 7+ hours.  You cram lunch/bathroom/phone/social time into a 30 minute span of time when most people are eating breakfast.  You take work home to finish just before crashing to sleep, never knowing what it might be like to consider 9:00 p.m. "Primetime TV" or ever see the end of the big game without a DVR.  And let's not even mention working while you're sick because it's worse to take a day off than to struggle to stand in front of your troops and lead them through a new lesson while trying to block out feeling like you've been hit by a truck.

Not that I'm slacking in the new position, but I have thoroughly enjoyed still having some gas left in the tank for my own kids when I get home at night.  It's been an eye opener to me how much energy I actually put into my job as a teacher, especially considering how many days I ended with thoughts about how much better I could have done that day.

2. ISD's are foreign to most people.

Being that I speak to people from many different states (and countries) from both my family (Ohio) and my wife's circles from all over, a lot of my replies to the title question have been dedicated to explaining what an Intermediate School District is.  I never realized how "Michigan Specific" my job actually is or what a tough concept an ISD is even to someone in education in another state.

3. The Education World is foreign to most people.

It used to be easy... "I'm a teacher."  Pre-conceived notions aside... Done.

The common follow up question to "How's the new job?" is easily "What do you actually do?"  In my head I know my answer is, "I collaborate with teachers across 8 different local districts to more successfully integrate technology tools and applications into their curriculum."  I have quickly learned that this response leads to a cross-eyed, confused look from anyone other than a teacher or school administrator.  My new line has defaulted to "I teach teachers ways to use technology," even though I know this is a gross misrepresentation.  The vast majority of people outside of the world of Education really don't have any idea what goes on, and this has started to scare me.

4. Old habits die hard.

I still find it odd sometimes to be outside of a building at lunch time or to use the restroom at 1:45 without calling someone to cover for me.  I still scarf my lunch as fast as I can, often at my desk.  I still find myself working at a frantic pace through the morning hours, but now I find myself wanting for something to do by the end of the day.  I still get a little bit uncomfortable when the office is quiet without the chaotic classroom buzz right on that fine line between active learning and all hell breaking loose.  I still want to jump out of my seat, immediately, and run to someone who needs help with something.

This isn't all bad; I plan to do my most good in 1:1 settings, running to those who need help, and be more of a "Tech Coach" than a trainer in front of a room of 50 teachers.  I hope I never lose those "old habits" I worked very hard to develop as a teacher.

Photo by Laurie Sullivan, "Discovery Education Orion" December 1, 2014 via Flickr, CC BY

And, Moving On... #GEducator

After way too much procrastinating, I've earned my Google Educator Certificate!  Now what?

The training that I was a part of was geared toward becoming a Google Certified Trainer.  This means that I would be endorsed by Google to train other teachers in using Google's tools.  As I have said before, my lack of experience leading professional development sessions puts me at a real disadvantage on this road, and further, it doesn't really fit with my role as a teacher.

In my opinion, as a teacher, the next step is to focus on applying to the Google Teacher Academy.  I think this route fits much more with my actual job, plus, who wouldn't want to spend a long weekend in Mountain View at Google's headquarters with a bunch of exciting people?  Since those dates and applications haven't been released yet for this year, my new focus needs to be increasing my "Googliness" so that I am the type of person Google is looking for in their selection process.  This means continuing some of the things I already do, but increasing the deliberateness with which it is done.  I need to become a bit more active online and in professional groups, and put myself out there a bit more to prepare myself for the application process when it rolls around this spring.

Blogger, Twitter, YouTube, etc., here I come.

Google Certified?

So at this point I'm back on my own.  The three days of help were awesome, and I learned quite a bit from some of the more advanced bits and pieces that we covered in the training sessions, but now it's all up to me.  I still have a few exams to complete, and I'm not too worried about them.  After getting the first couple of tests under my belt, I feel much more confident, and I don't think they'll be that much of a problem for me.  I just have to find the time (they are time consuming) to sit down and get them done.  The upcoming break will be just the time to get these out of the way and on to the next step.
This next step is the big one for me that I think will be my biggest hurdle in becoming a Certified Google Trainer.  To earn this certification, one of the major requirements is having led training sessions on using Google's products in varied professional settings.  While I do teach with Google Apps every day with my students and also work continually with the teachers in my building on using Google Apps, I don't have much to list outside of that.  I do have one major presentation coming up at the MACUL Conference in March (that I'm super pumped about), but the bottom line is that it's time to start stepping out of my comfort zone and actively seeking presentation and training opportunities outside of my own little bubble.
I'm really looking to expand in this area, and I hope that a couple of connections that I've made this fall as well as some future connections as a result of presenting at MACUL can help out with this, but first things first... Finish the Exams, grrrr.