#totallyrossome a eulogy

TL:DR, this is the end.

In July of 2014, I started an ed chat based on being completely committed to the hat you're wearing at the time. It was fun. It wasn't identical to all the other ed chats out there. (If you run one, that isn't meant to disparage what you do. Everyone has a thing.) I wanted to connect educating to the all the things. Pop culture, social issues, things that don't seem to automatically connect to education.

It worked. It spoke to some people. We averaged about 6 questions per hour and about 300 tweets in that time. Generally speaking, those hours saw responses from around 20 people. We were never a huge chat, but each week I was given the opportunity to connect with people from around the globe. They are good people who have given themselves in some way to improving educational experiences for students. We've had parents, teachers, principals, and students. We've had multiple content areas. We've had multiple continents.

I've never been not surprised that some of you came to play. Moreso, I've never not been appreciative of how much your energy keeps me fired up throughout my days. As the years have gone by and my career has changed, I have found it more and more difficult to keep up. It is with some sadness that I announce that #totallyrossome is no more. It went as it came.

Those of you who have come out to play have been there for me in ways that you may not even realize. Thank you all. I'll see you on the timeline.

Braaaiiins or The Zombie Metaphor

Img Credit: http://colecciondegifs.blogspot.com.es/2016/08/imagenes-de-plants-vs-zombies.html

I searched my blog posts today for keyword "zombies", and to my horror, no results were found.

How could I have never written about zombies?! So here it is - the zombie post.

But first: How do I approach writing the educational equivalent of zombies? Well, how do we define zombies? Usually traveling slowly (You hear me, World War Z? Slowly!) in hordes, zombies are the undead walking the earth with a singular hunger for human flesh. Usually, we associate their hunger with brains. Generally, we believe them to be slow moving, never changing, and unwilling to listen to reason when it comes to the previously mentioned hunger for human flesh.

There's a metaphor in here somewhere.

Option 1:
Zombies are like those teachers of old, who think that rows are where the learnin' is. They like paper worksheets, and they know the information, so they firmly believe they are the best ones to sling that knowledge to the students!

Option 2:
The zombies are the children! They come to us each day, exhausted from the endless barrage of things that barrage children - play dates, sports, enrichment classes (if they're lucky), or neglect, empty bellies, and poor sleep patterns (if they're not). They can barely hold a pencil or an eyelid open in their exhaustion. Don't get me started on the coast-to-coast televising of every sporting event in the country. East coast teens are not going to bed until the last whistle blows in Portland at the Trailblazer game on a Tuesday night. How are we to prevent this horde-building energy drain? It's basically the origin story for zombies in general.

Option 3:
The zombies are the early adopters. They have heard of a cool new thing that's going to change the way learning is done! They go after it immediately, put in their class right away, and chastise you for not doing the same. And get ready - there's a cool new way to teach without any books and without talking to your classes and without desks and without paper and without a school and without students and all you need is an Chromebook and the right suite of apps and the ability to write your own lines of code and you're good to go, and these early adopter zombies shout about how amazing it is and how much better it will be when we don't recognize a school anymore but then that's all they'll say, and it's like you can hear them hording up and saying, "Braaaaiiiiinnnnssss. Braaaaaiiiins."

So I think all these metaphors are apt. I like the notion of zombies. I like to think that zombies are simply the most robotic parts of ourselves and that part is in there somewhere in us and sometimes we are all capable of just going on autopilot. Sometimes we're the zombies because we know what to do, we know how to do it, and it just falls on us to execute a simple task that requires no new, critical thinking. But if we're going to really evaluate this metaphor, we need to be willing to have hard conversations with where and when we go on autopilot. Be honest with yourself. Are you just out there trying to get brains? Fill brains? Make brains grow? Or are you willing to legitimately challenge yours?

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Thoughts, come share at #totallyrossome, which can be found on Tuesday evenings at 9:00 PM Eastern.

10 Things You Should Be Doing with Forms

img credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/31333486@N00/1977134004

Forms is one of the most versatile tools in the Google Apps For Education tool kit. With this one tool, districts are able to impact the efficiency with which they communicate with the community, present material to students, assess the efficacy of instruction, and streamline the library of paper forms that districts need to have filled out by all stakeholders. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and I look forward to hearing from you as to how you're using Forms to make your school run better.

The following examples are aligned to the presentation I'll be giving at TeachMeetNJ on August 11, 2016.

Forms for Paperwork

Forms for Formative Assessment

Forms for Voting

Forms for Surveys

Forms for Business Office

Forms for Benchmarks

Forms for PD Feedback

Forms for Homework

Forms for Quizzes

Forms for Walkthroughs

Play or: How I Learn Best (a Revisit)

(This was originally posted on 11/16/2015 as a part of a #slowchated. With schools around the country reporting back, it bears repeating. The closing paragraph has been amended. Best of luck to all you for successful, fun 2016-2017 school year. -RL)

(img credit: https://pixabay.com/en/playground-children-kids-game-417615/)

"Here you go. Make it work."

Those were the instructions I gave to the algebra students when I showed them the 3d printer our school recently acquired. I hadn't opened it. I didn't want to do anything with it until I knew what it would mean to the instructional lives of our students. There's no point in having something for the students unless there's a plan for how the tool will build on their experiences.

So that became the plan. I gave the unopened box with a laptop to a small group of students, who - through a glitch in scheduling (read: a mistake I made) - have an empty period in their day. They unpacked, explored, Googled, watched videos, made mistakes, aligned pieces, and printed a little heart pendant. The looks of satisfaction on their faces were priceless, and it was a result of their freedom to play with a goal.

Play is not about a lack of direction. It's about sampling, poking, prodding, and finding ways to fail and ways to succeed within parameters. Games are designed with ends in mind. So is learning that utilizes play. Assessments are done along the way. You understand how much a participant is capable of grasping of the play while observing them in it. When one skill is mastered, it generally opens the door to more sophisticated opportunities.

We've spent so much time trying to figure out as adults how much our students have actually learned that we have strayed away from what it means to be a child. They play, they touch, they learn, they grow, and then it repeats. It happens a little at a time, and it happens all at once, and it sometimes it takes a while for it to happen at all. Let them play, and don't be afraid to play a little for yourself. You're going to be shocked at your own growth.

Pokemon GO or How Toys Can Be Toys and That's Okay

Img Credit: http://www.wsj.com/articles/pokemon-go-why-you-should-play-1468430960

(see Doug Robertson’s post on this topic here!)

There are times in our world that we are lucky enough to have titans unite for events of unprecedented awesomeness. Batman v Superman (well, maybe awesomeness is too strong a word). Cookie dough and fudge brownie fro yo (Half Baked by Ben and Jerry’s). Laverne AND Shirley!

And now this: #weirded - father of the irreverent, topical, challenging, fun educational twitter chats is teaming up with #totallyrossome - derivative, irreverent, seeker-of-balance, pop-culture-infused educational chat to bring you a special two-night event.

It’s just like when Horatio got to come to New York and see Gary Sinise whenever CSI Miami needed a ratings boost from CSI New York. (So you’re aware - a typo whilst writing this gave me an idea for a hip TV show about challenging work with students featuring Child Study Teams from different geographic locales!)

But I digress - Doug and I want to know about toys and play. Specifically, we’ve been discussing the move to make Pokemon GO an educational tool. The one idea that we keep coming back to is -

WHY CAN’T A TOY JUST BE A TOY?!

I look through the apps on my phone, and I have some great stuff for my edtech side. I have some great organizing tools, and I have SimCity Build It, Clash of Clans, and Words With Friends. They’re not work. I can argue that they have value in terms of city planning, resource allocation practices, and developing my near-thesaurus-like mind further, but I know the truth. They’re my games. My distractions from the work.

Students need that. They need something that’s not for us. They need something that we’re not attaching standards to and trying to jam into place so that we can write a new blog post or a book or do an edcamp session on. They need the ability to just be a kid with their new toy. And so do we.

So that’s what we’re talking about this week. Both chats will feature different questions with the same overarching theme. Come to both and receive your limited edition #weirdlyawesome commemorative pin! (Due to lack of supply - pins may not be available at time of chat. Or in reality.)

• #totallyrossome is Tuesday nights at 9 PM EDT/6 PM for our friends on the west coast.
• #weirded is Wednesday nights at 10 PM EDT/7 PM PST.

Going to Extremes

Why iron a shirt when you can engage in Extreme Ironing!
 (img credit: http://www.oddee.com/item_97001.aspx)

Roller-skating? Too lame.
Take those wheels off and put them single file? EXTREME!

Wooden planks attached to each foot? Sure - if you're cross country skiing.
Put both feet on a single board and surf down the mountain? EXTREME!

Jumping out of a plane? Passe.
Jump off a building barely tall enough for a parachute to be effective? EXTREME!

It occurs to me that extremists and fanatics are dangerous. When one adheres to one side of a spectrum only, they risk entering a world of fanaticism. It's not unlike current attitudes in education.

Educators are often asked to do more. To be more. If they use older strategies, they are labeled dinosaurs who have opted to not keep up. Worse, they are treated as though they want to harm their students. This is a disservice to all involved. It wrongfully vilifies swaths of teachers who are working hard to ensure their students understand basic principles. It wrongfully - nay, dangerously - elevates teachers who now feel as though their decision to "go paperless" or "no homework ever" or "worksheets are the devil" has given them some sort of pedagogical superiority over the plebeians in their midst.

It hasn't. For the most part, there's not tremendous difference between the teacher who knows how to utilize the tools she's always used combined with developing relationships and the teacher who is trying a newer strategy with not much proven success combined with developing relationships. The outliers are - on one end - the ones who have a real knack for understanding exactly how much new their students and community are capable of dealing with, and - on the other end - the ones who can't see that their students are craving more but continue to put demeaning work full of low expectations in front of them.

Please stop putting the EXTREME up on this pedestal. There's never been a time when 100% of anything is the best way to go. Balance in your work and personal life is a goal to feeling well-rounded and happy. Balance between the use of old and new techniques can allow your students to experience varied things, which will, in turn, create more well-rounded, capable adults.

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Stop by #totallyrossome on Twitter for our weekly chat, Tuesdays at 9:00 Eastern.

Stuck on You: An Ode to the Gym Wall

I learned a few things today, and I have some numbers to support my learning.

3, 150, 18, 3000, 5, 280, 60, 10.

• It takes a committed community 3 days to hit 3000 dollars in sales at a buy-one-get-one book fair.
• This committed community cleared their never-before-hit, projected sales goal by approximately 10%.
• It takes 150 students approximately 60 minutes to cover their principal in duct tape.
• 5 pounds of duct tape is enough to suspend a 280 pound superintendent 18 inches above the gym floor.

Our students, our staff, and our community came together this morning to do something that wasn't in our curricula. We won't be able to report the day in our test scores. The grade books won't be updated by the day's events. Truth be told, I couldn't be more thrilled about the way the day went.

If you're an educator, your students need to know you're capable of being silly, goofy, and human. Sometimes, it's good to let your hair down. (Yes, even the bald superintendent knows this.) 

It's Okay To Be Not Happy

The many moods of the author.

This isn't going to be my most popular blog post. It occurs to me that connected educators - those educators who reflect on their work through blogging and engage in upbeat edchats on Twitter and sharing all their students' activities on Instagram - are relentlessly cheery. Like to the point that it's possible their not being real with themselves.

I've decided that I'm not going to single out any one super cheery individual - they know who they are, and for whatever the reason, they've determined they're not letting their bad mood out to breathe. If you're not sure who I'm talking about, just find anyone who talks about motivation, inspiration, making a difference, or being a superhero teacher (another chat covered this recently).

It's not that there's something wrong with a positive outlook, but let's face it. There are days that are hard. There are days that we don't want to get out of bed, and there are Sundays that seem to move way too quickly. The pay is small, and the demands are many. The gratitude comes intermittently. Fellow teachers throw each other under the bus, are resistant to change, seem unwilling to grow. There's any number of reasons to be in a bad mood, and each is valid.

I guess what I'm really saying is it's okay to be in a bad mood. No, you shouldn't let yourself get bogged down with bad moods. But you don't have to be unbearably chipper at all times. That's lying. And you're better than that.

The Dissolution of Resolutions

What do you do when The Great Egg White Experiment doesn't pan out? Add BACON!

In honor of the official end of resolution season! That’s right! If you made your resolutions for the new year, January 17 is the date that the majority of those resolutions fall apart. So long, gym trips! Adios, grading those papers early! Sayonara, early bed time!

You know the spiel up to this point in the year. It’s the new year! Make your new year’s resolutions! Gonna be a great year to change it up! New year, new you! Pick one word that exemplifies what you’re gonna be about for the whole year! Stop sucking so much at being you and be a better version of you!

Bleh. Okay, maybe that last one isn’t so much a sales point as the others, but let’s just talk about what works. After all - that’s what we do, right? We keep doing what works. So, what’s good and what you do now that you did last year and the year before? How much of what you do is actually new? How do you bring in small amounts of new to the old to make it feel just different enough not to lose your mind?

I try to keep the following things in mind as I move forward, and I don’t feel like I’m reinventing anything. I actually feel like I’m reflecting and adapting.

Identify your successes:
Chances are you’re doing something well. You’re fostering relationships, building rapport, You have great methods for imparting knowledge. You know your content forward and back. Find the things you do well. They’re the things that you’re going to take with you forever. Hold on to them. They’ll help you grow.

Find 1 or 2 new things to attach to things you know:
You’re clearly connected. Now it’s time to harness that connection. Find someone who is doing what you do differently. Talk to them. Pick their brain. What are they doing differently? How is it working for them? Can you use what they do? Can they use what you do?

NEVER teach a new tool with new material:
When you find a new tool you want to teach your students, you cannot teach it at the same time you’re teaching new material. It doesn’t matter the age. If they don’t understand how to use the tool, you’re not going to know if they understand the material, and the assessment value will be lost. Teach them the tool. Let them fail with it a bit. Then let them use the tool to show you they understand how to leverage it to demonstrate their content knowledge.

Thinking strategically about how you approach your early [or even late] adoption will allow you to keep your changes sustainable.

The Shawshank Redemption or How I Escaped My Own Ed Despair

(img credit: http://haru204.deviantart.com/art/Shawshank-Redemption-151789548)

I was innocent. Everybody here is innocent, didn't you know that?

You probably thought you were innocent. You're not. At some level, you have yourself to blame, and I have myself to blame. Whether it's the testing, or the parents, or the other teachers who just don't get how to handle the kids - we all at some point have contributed to our own despair in the educational environment.

But it can be really miserable, you know? We get tired in that way that feels like we may never have energy again. Kids come from homes with little to no food. They aren't doing the most basic of work despite my best efforts. I don't have anyone to go to for support. We get defensive in that way that no one really understands what it is to be an educator. My admin doesn't remember what it was like in the classroom. My teachers don't get that they're where the the rubber meets the road. My children's teachers don't understand how special my kids really are and that's why they get in trouble.

I did this. I've said these things. I've felt these feels.

I had to take control. I had to find my voice, and I had to hear myself. It wasn't that I needed someone else to hear me. That wasn't going to do it.

This week's #totallyrossome focuses on just how we approach the negative aspects of what we do through the lens of The Shawshank Redemption. (If you haven't seen it - I don't know how to help you. You're missing a major piece of American cinema, and you need to remedy this immediately.)

I was Andy Dufresne. I didn't see any fault of my own in what I was doing, and I wanted someone to fix it for me because that would mean justice and fairness. We don't deal a lot with justice and fairness, though. We need to assess our situation, look our options, and make a plan for how to deal with it. (Sometimes that means making a hole in a solid object and crawling through some awfulness to find something better.)

*     *     *

Please join us for #totallyrossome tonight. It's at 9 PM Eastern, and it features some of the most thoughtful and fun educators I've ever met.

Play or How I Learn Best

(img credit: https://pixabay.com/en/playground-children-kids-game-417615/)

"Here you go. Make it work."

Those were the instructions I gave to the algebra students when I showed them the 3d printer our school recently acquired. I hadn't opened it. I didn't want to do anything with it until I knew what it would mean to the instructional lives of our students. There's no point in having something for the students unless there's a plan for how the tool will build on their experiences.

So that became the plan. I gave the unopened box with a laptop to a small group of students, who - through a glitch in scheduling (read: a mistake I made) - have an empty period in their day. They unpacked, explored, Googled, watched videos, made mistakes, aligned pieces, and printed a little heart pendant. The looks of satisfaction on their faces were priceless, and it was a result of their freedom to play with a goal.

Play is not about a lack of direction. It's about sampling, poking, prodding, and finding ways to fail and ways to succeed within parameters. Games are designed with ends in mind. So is learning that utilizes play. Assessments are done along the way. You understand how much a participant is capable of grasping of the play while observing them in it. When one skill is mastered, it generally opens the door to more sophisticated opportunities.

It's been a while since we have had #slowchated, and I've missed it. Discussing one question across the span of a day allows for richer connection and reflection. We're capable of transcending the challenges of injecting nuance into 140 characters. So let's slow chat this week about play. How we use it for our own learning, how we use it to get our students to learn, and ways that we can expand its use.

Question by day:
11/16: What was one thing you learned by playing that has stayed with you? Why does this stand out to you?
11/17: What types of play do you allow for your students, or do you find there isn't enough time for play?
11/18: Are video games useful educational tools? Which ones? How so? OR Why not?
11/19: Think of person with whom you work who views play as an "out of school" activity? How can you bring them to play? If it's you, what would it take to get you to play to learn?
11/20: We've talked a lot about playing and learning - How can someone who is using play use assessment (formative, summative, authentic) to provide feedback?
11/21: I always end with a challenge: Tell us one way you'll try to use play next week in your school/classroom.

Blogging Lets Me Self-Reflect

(Img credit: http://www.thebusinessofsports.com/2014/12/19/chicken-parm-you-taste-so-good/)

It's connected educator month - a time for educators on Twitter to tell other educators on Twitter how important it is to be an educator on Twitter. Well that is generally what it devolves into, but I want to do something a little different at #totallyrossome - I know, shocking - to mark the occasion. As we've done in the past, I'd like you to invite as many non-chatters as possible. If you can get people who are new to the Twitters this month to come, extra points for you.

So you may or may not have seen these Nationwide commercials. They play up the jingle which claims "Nationwide is on your side" in a very sing-songy way. Then they take regular folk saying regular things in the sing-songy way as a parallel to the Nationwide jingle. Now that's 3 Nationwides in the same paragraph, I think I've fulfilled my obligation for schilling for them. (4) Take a look at the newest ad below to get a sense of the jingle, and its many uses.

In education we find ways to reach students that may not be in the how-to manual. For instance, no one ever taught me in teacher preparation courses that a drum-line could be a way to demonstrate understanding of Lord of the Flies story progression, but it sure helped me get those 5 students to read it and fight to make me see how their self-written piece showed that progression. We try things that engage real students who sit in our classrooms. The alphabet is sung to a popular lullaby tune. There's at least one "clean up" song that encourages students to "do their share". I remember being a young man and learning the counties of Vermont in a song sung to the tune of Yankee Doodle. There are any number of mnemonics that can be employed to help students engage and retain information.

The other night at dinner when my 6-year-old sang, "Tomorrow is pinata day," I realized just how effective a tool jingles can be for helping young people access and retain information. (I don't have any idea why it was pinata day, but I know he was ready.) We do all sorts of things for our students to engage them. We should be willing to do the same for ourselves.

So it brings me to the assignment. Tonight at #totallyrossome, we're going to talk about being connected educators with a twist. All questions and answers will be "in the form of TV ads." (Hum the quoted words to yourself. It works. And while you're at it "see the title at the top". (I did it again.))

Remember - invite someone new. Have fun reflecting on your own connectivity. If we're not doing these things, Connected Educator Month becomes just another opportunity to pat ourselves on the back for stuff we're already doing, and that doesn't help anyone.

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#totallyrossome meets Tuesday nights at 9 PM EDT.

Apologies and Amends

(Img Credit: Photo taken of presentation at Congregation Beth Israel, Scotch Plains, NJ)

"I don't apologize."

It's a sizable blanket statement. It was the answer I gave in an interview (for a job I didn't get). It was also 100% true for a time in my life. 

Apologies fly around adult conversation in places they shouldn't. Adults like to look at each other and say sorry for things that need to get done. "I'm sorry, but I need that report filed by 3 PM." Break it down: There is a report. It has to be done. It has to be done by a time. The listener is the responsible party for the report. The speaker is not sorry for this list of facts. The apology shouldn't happen. 

When I started looking at professional conversations in this way, it made things far less personal - for me. There's a thing to do, someone is responsible for the thing, and the thing gets done. It's a sterile, clinical relationship. With this type of relationship, empathy decreases. There's no reason for empathy when nothing is personal. In fact, it moves in the other direction. When nothing is personal, but one of the parties involved in the responsibilities takes it personally, I found myself looking down on them. Didn't they understand that the situation wasn't personal? Why were they so unprofessional?

I've learned some things from this mindset. First, and probably the most important, personal relationships have very little to do with bottom lines, deadlines, or lines in the deli. In fact, finding empathy in the connections we make each day is one of the traits that allow educators to move beyond the cold, hard numbers that make up a student into the realm of helping that student reach his or her potential as human beings. That's significant.

I have started apologizing again. When I find myself faced with delivering disappointing news, I need to be able to look past it as matter of fact and see it as news that will change the course of the receiver's day. When I have done something to warrant an apology, I apologize and when I haven't done anything per se but I know that there's bad news to give. An apology does not mean laying claim to guilt, but it shows that I'm empathetic to person feeling the pain. Sometimes empathy is enough to let someone know you see they're hurting, and that can go a long way to mitigating that pain.

Birthdays and Anniversaries or How I Started Reflecting on My Work

I started a chat a while ago. It is educational in nature; it is goofy by design --

No no. That's not the angle. Let me start over.

My youngest turned 6 this week. I'm struggling with the words. He's one of the Lunatic Brothers. He's got the greatest laugh you've ever heard. When he doesn't like what's happening, his whine will cut through you like icy, December winds. He routinely makes me question who I am as a father - how I react to behaviors, how I support him, how I protect/overprotect/underprotect him, how I encourage/push/allow him to grow. He's makes me smile. He's made me cry. He's made me want to be a better man.

It's no small thing, this young man turning 6. Most of my jobs didn't last this long. My wife and I look at each other in amazement, and we discuss how the time passes. "The days are long and the years are short," a wise man once told me. It's a phrase we have latched onto as we think of all the pressures we face day-to-day. The grind. The hustle we went through trying to find the right day care centers for the boys. Two and three jobs and trying to be on time for all of them. 3 seasons of coaching, complete with all-day Saturday track meets where I didn't see the boys. Grad school with both boys under the age of 3. All the stresses we had then, and we look back at them now and think, "Do you remember when...?"

In a way, this is how #totallyrossome was born. It was actually far less planned than either of the Lunatics. I wanted a way to reflect on the number of different hats that educators wear at any given time, because in my conversations, I have found that no one seeks balance. To balance is to take from one area to give to another, and that's not what we do. We're all, or we're nothing. Discussing how we approach these areas of focus allows reflection of exactly how well it works.

Sometimes it doesn't work. Sometimes, because we're looking at one aspect of our life with such focus, other areas fall short. I've felt like a failure as a parent because I was keyed in on work. I've been made to feel like my work was falling short because I was choosing family first. The truth is being totally committed to the hat I'm currently wearing forces me to be less committed to one of the other hats. 

That's where #totallyrossome became a lens through which I was able to look at my work. Things that happened at work became topics for my weekly chat. Challenging myself to write questions that would lead participants down a path forced me to think about what I ask my staff to do and how I asked them to do it. Weeks that I was unable to be there, and Justin Schleider, Amanda Rogers, Samantha Bates proved the value of being connected by running the chat, I was able to look inward that I'm not alone on an island in my day-to-day work. There are people there I can count on. The weeks were the chat fell short (or flat on its face - remember the Mad Libs open letter to testing? I do) reminded me that every swing is not a home run, every shot doesn't go in, and every golf movie isn't Caddyshack.

Tuesday marks the one year anniversary of #totallyrossome. To all of you who have attended over the past year, I thank you. Without you, the chat would be the musings of a madman who wonders how The Goonies connect to education. With you, the chat became my way of looking at my work and finding ways to try to keep getting better. 

Thanks for making #totallyrossome a thing.

                                 ***************************************************

#totallyrossome happens Tuesdays at 9 PM EDT. Stop by and say hi.

Without Echo, They Were Just Bunnymen

(img credit: http://cutearoo.com/2011/08/12/bunnies-in-boots/)
You're not alone.

It's a bit of a weird title, and that's another amazing chat, but I want to talk about the echo chamber this week. Recently, I've been reading that there's too much agreement in the educational Twitter world. It's created this vacuum of people who think that student choice is best! And integrating technology is great, but it's a tool that cannot replace the teacher! And don't give homework - ever! And we need admins who support innovation!

All these things are statements that have made their rounds during the past few months, and you'd be hard-pressed to find the teachers who are going to fight any one of these concepts for two reasons.

• They are, for the most part, pretty good things to think about education.
• They are, for the most part, topics that will get you shredded by the people who agree with them should you ask a question.

Case in point: Last week in the #totallyrossome chat (which IS an edchat despite the lack of "ed" or "chat" in the title) we answered some statements that are posited in the edutwittersphere as being irrefutable. That's fine, but the group actually had some questions as to what would actually need to happen in the world at large to make these hard and fast TRUTHS a reality. The interesting thing is that the blanket statements were retweeted during the week as fact. Tweeters of these statements were called upon to look in at the discussion in order to answer some of the questions, but they were largely unavailable for comment.

The thing is, sometimes we need to challenge these statements, but sometimes we don't. Sometimes we just need to know that there's someone out there who feels the way you do. Our jobs are hard because we may have people siphoning off our energy in the place our body goes to work each day. It's nice to know we have someone in our corner when we visit our virtual spaces. Someone who gets us.

Hard being the only one who is weird where I work... Thankful for twitter pic.twitter.com/yxF88T83j4

— Toby Price (@jedipadmaster) July 20, 2015

Thanks to Toby Price (@jedipadmaster) for the tweet. It was timely.

So come to #totallyrossome tonight. Bring a friend who is new to twitter. Someone who wants to know that they're not alone in the frustrated eduworld and wants to know that they're not the only ones out there who feels the way they do.

They'll know they're not just one Bunnyman. There are more. 

And there's an Echo.

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#totallyrossome is on Tuesday nights at 9 PM EDT. We talk about being totally involved in wearing the many hats required of an educator, and we welcome all.

An ISTE Reflection in a Time of ISTE Reflections

The author with Sean Farnum at ISTE2015 (img credit: Sean Farnum)

I've been home from ISTE 2015 for 11 days. Actually, a fortnight ago, I was sitting in the opening keynote with butterflies in my belly with nerves over what to expect throughout the next four days. But that was then.

This is now:

There's a pile of stuff on my desk at work that I need to look through. Business cards. Flyers. Fliers. (One of those means papers from a company advertising their stuff.) Never mind. Pamphlets. Samples. Notes I took. Pictures I took of QR codes sit waiting for me to revisit as I try to sift through what I've learned to determine what will trickle down to my teachers.

But this is where I get caught. It's not as easy as just putting the information in their hands and saying, "Go. Do this now."

So I'm left with: What did I learn? Where did I learn it? How do I recreate this for my staff?

What did I learn?

I learned about how I learn. I enjoy being at conferences and unconferences. TeachMeetNJ was my first, and I loved it. EdCamps came next, and I started to meet people who were amazing and had great things to share. The New Jersey Literacy Consortium at Kean University continued the trend in a more formal setting, and over the past two years, I've met some amazing educators who are doing great things in their classrooms while hearing from the likes of Jim Burke, Carol Jago, Carl Anderson, Jennifer Serravallo, and Penny Kittle.

ISTE continued this trend. Being at a world-wide collection of educators gave me unprecedented access to people I've admired from a distance. Thinkers, makers, doers, experimenters. People who helped me when I was still a classroom teacher. People who shared strategies when I needed ways to help my staff reach their students. I learned that I thrive on fostering these connections.

I learned that people want to be able to ask questions and get real, tangible answers to actual problems. So often in the day-to-day of the experienced teacher, when a problem comes up, the solution can be as easy as someone saying "Use a Mystery Skype!" The experienced teacher, being experienced, has that in his or her bag of tricks and is able to see the connections and implement the solution. Problem solved.

I learned that people want to find friends. I will not say develop relationships. That's the clinical, non-committal way to say we want to be friends with the people we meet. We want to know that the people with whom we've connected feel the connection and find us as meaningful to them as they are to us. I also learned that's not going to be the case, but I've also learned that sometimes an extra hug or a 2 minute pause to listen goes a long way. A gentleman I only know from Twitter ignored his friends in a pizza place to have a conversation with me. I have always found him to be a great advocate for students and teachers in need through social media, and now I have a deeper respect for him as a real-live person.

I've been reading about people disappointed from clique-ish encounters with educational celebrity types.  To get the most out of a large conference, you can't talk to the person surrounded by the most people. In the poster sessions, I was fortunate enough to see presenters from a kindergarten class showcasing their iPad skills. Naturally, they drew a large crowd. People wanted to talk to them - "What projects do you do in your classes? Do you have fun?" People wanted to talk to their teacher - "How do you scaffold? Where did you get your funding?" I couldn't get in. Then I saw it. The name badge that read "Student Chaperone". It was the mother of one of the kindergarten presenters who also happened to be the teacher's wife. We spoke at length about the program, what the students were taking from the projects, how curricula was developed. We spoke without interruption for approximately 20 minutes. The relationships we create are not about finding the person you want. Those relationships are about finding the person you need.

Where did I learn it?

I learned from the people around me. I learned from the sessions I visited. I learned most from the people who've been doing the things they're speaking on. The poster sessions were amazing for this. I spoke with middle school students from Oklahoma, innovative teachers from Michigan, and educators from El Salvador who were using Minecraft and Second Life to create digital learning locales. I spoke with a husband and wife team from Pennsylvania who parlayed the need to get a student with Cerebral Palsy to take part in the sculpture unit of art class into designing meaningful instruction using 3D printers.

In the lecture sessions, I was able to learn more about using adaptive technologies to improve outcomes for special needs students. I learned how to use the Zombie Apocalypse to teach math, science, social studies, and Language Arts.

In the Birds-of-a-Feather sessions, I connected with educators who self-identified as being weird, and I realized that my interpretations of what it means to be weird varies for all of us. I was fortunate enough to catch part of the Edumatch session, and it was amazing to be able to talk to teachers from around the country reflecting on what it means to truly connect with other educators.

Even the expo hall (which I generally stay away from due to high-pressure sales people) gave me insight into the ways companies are trying to solve the problems teachers and admin see each day.

But I think the place I learned the most was in the conversations I had with people. People I had seen in twitter chats were suddenly across the table from me. These may be the hardest learning experiences to quantify. What can I bring to my staff that I learned from Amanda Rogers and Melissa Eddington? How do I reproduce the excitement that Justin Aion and Sean Farnum generated (especially considering their attendance was - what's the word? Unplanned?) How can I get my building to feel the hopeful anticipation I felt at the promise of meeting Emmanuel Andre, Sarah Thomas, Doug Robertson, and others in real life for the first time who have so heavily influenced who I've become as an educator? I want to put these experiences in a bottle and stock plenty in the staff room fridge this year.

So...

How do I recreate this for my staff?

My experiences at ISTE will forever be exactly that - MY experiences. To recreate them for my staff, I'd be looking to get them to feel and do exactly as I had done, and if there's one thing I've learned from reading the pieces of reflection from ISTE, it's that no one experienced the conference exactly as the person next to them.

This is not to say that I will not create experiences for my staff that will give them great learning opportunities. I have plenty of teachers who are not connected educators, and for them I have started a "SHARE" folder. I am actually printing out articles that will help improve culture and instruction in our building. I've got to meet them where they are.

I have a few teachers who have already stepped out of their comfort zone by getting more involved in Twitter. They have even begun to test the waters of Twitter educational chats. For them, I am encouraging them to reach out to teachers with questions and ideas that may help them in their classroom. For the things that they want to do in their classroom, I am fostering a culture of risk-taking and a willingness to try new things.

I want my teachers to allow their students the freedom to question their learning and take the lead in the direction it goes. If I ever really hope that this becomes the culture of my building, I need to first model it with my treatment of my staff and their development. Their learning will be inspired by what they want to do and see for their students.

And that's the biggest takeaway from this monster conference. The learning I did was personal and specific to me, and as a school leader, I need to provide personal and specific professional development to my staff. We can all learn for ourselves, but we need to be ready to use that learning to share what we know with our colleagues. Then we'll truly be connected. Then we'll be sharing.

*If we haven't met yet, I look forward to a time when we can. If we have met, I can pretty safely say I'm looking forward to seeing you again in the future.

American Gladiators: The Standard

img credit: http://logos.wikia.com/wiki/American_Gladiators

Once upon a time, there were men and women who do battle against a group of spectacularly evolved humans to determine just how strong, fast, and fierce they were. This group of super humans were fast, tall, strong and decked out in the splangliest of spangly unitards you've ever seen. And they had super human names. Names like Laser, Turbo, Gemini, Thunder, and Ice. There was even a Zap. That's right. A verb. A strong, present-tense, no-participle, no-gerund (look it up), onomatopoeia verb. That's the kind of name reserved for the best of the best. (See: Sting)

There was an arena. There were proper-noun events like The Joust, Hang Tough (no NKOTB affiliation here), Atlasphere, Breakthrough & Conquer, and Human Cannonball. There were lights. There were cameras, and you know there was action. More action than a mere mortal could fit into an hour-long television experience.

See the way the powerful Gladiator makes light work of the regular human in "Hang Tough".

And the reason that men and women would volunteer for public sacrifice at the hands of these behemoths was that they were the standard of power and athleticism, and to challenge them meant to be able to prove that you were worthy of the challenge.

They are not unlike the standards that we have for our students. Our standards represent a level our students haven't reached yet. So we train them. We show them what it will take. We make modifications to allow them the edge that will allow them to reach new, never-before-seen heights.

So that's what we're talking about tonight. Taking our students to the next level. Just like those few people who were able to summon the courage and fortitude to best the American Gladiators, we're going to understand what our standards are and where we fit into helping our students reach those peaks.

We'll see you tonight, Tuesday June 2, 2015 at 9 PM EDT for #totallyrossome.

Apps for #totallyrossome...It's Not What You Think

Usually when an educational chat announces they're talking about Apps, you can expect to see some amazing programs, Web 2.0 tools, websites, and tablet features that improve student performance. Those are so great!

That's not what this is. This is about apps. Appetizers. We're #totallyrossome, and we think a bit differently around here. Appetizers are amazing, and they are designed to set your palate and your mood for the rest of the meal to come. And that's what we're going to do to this week.

There was an overwhelming mood in my Twitter timeline yesterday.

(img credit: http://seckora.com/2014/09/22/monday-can-help/)

Everywhere I turned, there was another member of my community bemoaning the start of the week. There were lamentations, whines, teeth-suckings, cursings, and ragings. Librarians displayed the language of lumberjacks; Mathletes had the mouths of masons; Teachers with the tongues of truckdrivers. (Sidebar: I've either worked with or lived with the latter in each of those comparisons, and each lived up to the reputation.) So I thought - my community needs to get this table set better for what lies ahead!

So this week on #totallyrossome, we're restarting. With appetizers. My metaphorical questions will come from a place of delicious premeal eats. There will be traditional - think soup cups or small salads. There will be non-traditional - perhaps some Irish tacos? There will even be some pop-culture - who can forget Chotchkie's Pizza Shooters, Shrimp Poppers, or Extreme Fajitas?

As usual, all of this metaphorical app discussion will center around our ability to improve the school experience for our students, so dust off your creative thinking; it's time to be #totallyrossome!

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#totallyrossome meets Tuesday nights at 9 PM EST. That's 6 PM for our friends on the West coast!

A #slowchatela for Products

Teachers of the English Language Arts (ELA) are often pigeon-holed into being one type of teacher. Read a book; write an essay. If you're really outside the box, you may even allow your students to write a short story!

However, there are great ELA teachers out there putting together some amazing thematic lessons that have some amazing products attached to them. This week on #slowchatela, I want to hear from you! What products are you using to allow your students to show what they've learned! How are we seeing skill mastery from our young scholars? How are we engaging them in interesting ways?

Please share, and give other teachers the opportunity to see what great things you're doing.


Questions for the week:
Q3/9 - What was your favorite product to turn in as a student?
Q3/10 - What is your favorite product to assign as a teacher?
Q3/11 - What product do you feel is the most outside the box? Do you use it for your classes?
Q3/12 - What multimedia products do you see as overused with limited impact on student learning?
Q3/13 - It's Friday the 13th, did you ever assign your students a product that failed across the board as though it was cursed?

To My Fellow Administrators and For My Teachers: On Meetings

img credit: http://tickietackie.blogspot.com/2010/11/bored-meetings.html

I was recently speaking with the parent of one of my son's friends. After being told that he might be heading up a project in the Caribbean, I asked, "So what do you do? For real?"

"Basically, I solve problems."

For the record, that's not a job title.

So what does this mean? Well, I asked, and he described his meetings as a "for instance".  They're called stand-ups ("because when we sit, we get comfy and stay too long").

How it works:

1. The group stands in a circle.
2. Each person answers 2 questions:
1. What projects are you working on?
2. What are your roadblocks?
3. If there are roadblocks, we look for a way to crowd-source the solution. ("Has anyone else encountered this? How was it resolved? Is something we can resolve here?")
1. If yes, we solve it.
2. If no, we set up another time to meet individually and discuss.
4. Go around the circle until all have answered the 2 questions.
5. Adjourn 

This whole process should take no more than 10 or 15 minutes. Because we're standing, people have not had the opportunity to settle in to their comfort zones. Distractions are minimized, and people are not allowed to turn the session into a complaint meeting.

The keys to success will be in the follow-up. Grade-level discussions can be had following the initial stand-ups. Teachers experiencing similar roadblocks will have time scheduled to sit with the supervisor to discuss strategies. Those teachers not experiencing roadblocks are able to break out to continue planning or grading that needs to be done. Ultimately, the teachers have captured more of their time for themselves.

And if you ask any classroom teacher what they need more of, time is high on the list.

Give it a try with your staff! Let me know how it turns out.