Meet Them Where They Are

img credit: http://www.mrstruittspage.org/differentiated-instruction.html

When I first started teaching, I thought I'd have students writing amazing things, and I would be shaping and fine tuning. As you can imagine, it was a little different. Some of my students were writing sophisticated things. Others wrote words on a page because I said to. Still others had neither the capacity nor the interest in writing anything at all.

When I first started presenting, it was with the thought that I was really late to the conversation and I'd need to amp it up to actually engage educators who already knew so many of the tools I was using.

Turns out, just like teaching young writers, educators show up at different spots in the skills and experience spectrum, and we need to recognize and respect that fact.

There exists a need to meet all learners where they are. We must respect that they are in the learning process, and they may be in very different parts of that process. This holds true if you are in front of group of 1st grade students who have hugely different vocabulary skills or a group of educators who are trying to learn something new about educational technologies.

The difference in these two examples is the why of their appearance in front of you. 1st grade students show up because they have to. Education is compulsory for certain ages. Generally, the group of adults shows up because they're looking for something. They have chosen to come. In this case, poll them. Get a sense of why they came. Learn quickly where they are and where they are headed. This information is going to help you tailor your message to meet them at an appropriate level and in turn to help them reach their goals.

Ideally, you can offer insight early on that will indicate the levels to which you will be speaking. Is your presentation for the experienced ed tech user? Is it for people who are new and just starting to spread their wings? Or is it somewhere in the middle. Letting your potential audience know up front what to expect is going to give potential attendees the ability to decide right away if they're comfortable enough to push themselves or if they have higher levels of experience that won't fit your introductory lesson.

Remember - meeting your audience where they are benefits both the learner and the instructor.

Open Doors

Connected educator month has arrived. This is the time that connected educators celebrate being connected and all the wonderful feelings we have and the fantastic things we’ve learned from our connections. We lament the fact that there are educators around us who fear the methods of connecting that we all hold dear.

What does that get us? A lot of frustration.

“Why can’t they see how wonderful it is to be connected?!”

“They’re stuck in the past!”

“They’re harming students!”

I used to get upset when colleagues shared resources through email because it’s such a limited way to get the word out. I would rail to my connected educator groups about how I had seen the same articles on Twitter the week before. I would not deign myself to click on the dated information.

The fact is that connected educators, as a gross generalization, become exceptionally divisive in our attempts to pull, push, poke, or prod our colleagues into a land of online connectedness. And as we should realize with our students, we cannot force anyone into our world. We must open doors and allow those who have not already found their preferred method of connectivity the opportunities to walk through them.

Pinterest, Twitter, Google+, FaceBook are all ways for educators to connect. Personally, I haven’t spent time with Pinterest, and I’ve never been on FaceBook. I’ve made some connections on Google+, but it’s never been my go-to when reaching out to my PLN. But Twitter is my chosen tool. I was going to write about how it has changed my professional approach, but Jill Thompson (@edu_thompson) did that in 2011 when she wrote "Twitter Has Changed My Teaching Life".

The point is this. Being is a connected educator is important. There are ways to connect for everyone. There are also levels of connection. Wherever your people are, meet them there. Show them alternatives; find some for yourself. Don’t get frustrated because your colleagues aren’t rushing to Twitter or share their Pins with you. Don’t condescend when they turn their noses up at coming to the local EdCamp. The key is to just open as many doors as you can. Send those emails, put links on your sites, talk to them about opportunities. When the doors are open, someone is going to walk through, and they might even bring a friend.

#totallyrossome Week 4: Building a Utopia

image credit: http://shewalkssoftly.com/category/astronomy/page/2/

There has been some interesting doings in Missouri in the last two weeks. Following the officer-involved fatal shooting of a young man. This is the over simplified way of looking at what actually happened. If you don’t know, the town of Ferguson has 53 police officers, 3 of whom are black. The town happens to be ⅔ black. The officer involved in the shooting is white. The young man was Mike Brown, an African American teenager. It also turns out that Brown was shot 6 times, including twice in the head. The series of protests set off by the event have spurred violence in the streets, with police militarization, tear gas canisters being fired into crowds of civilians, police officers arresting journalists and holding them without charge, and the list goes on as the days continue. Across the country, protests of solidarity are springing up. Citizens in New York City have been arrested in protests. Los Angeles saw gatherings with t-shirts emblazoned with “Hands up, don’t shoot”.

So how did we get here? And for us as educators, how do we handle this? As educators who may or may not be far away from the actual situation, how do we engage our students in conversations about society that will enable them to grow into thinkers who fight to be a part of a better society? Ultimately, what does a better society look like? Where are we failing ourselves?

This week’s #totallyrossome is focused on not only what is happening in Ferguson, MO right now, but also the issues that prevail in our country that allow situations like this to occur. We like to talk about going all in for whatever it is we’re doing at the time, and this will be no different. Our conversation is going to focus on creating the perfect world. Bring your opinions and bring your respect. We’ve got a lot to do.  

How differently the situation is being reported or commented on:

Fox News (a 12 minute video looking at the situation from a variety of standpoints) -

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/08/18/on-vacation-break-obama-discusses-iraq-missouri/

USA Today (video and text about support for alleged shooter) -

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/19/officer-supporters-ferguson-shooting/14259993/

Sunil Dutta in the Washington Post -

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/08/19/im-a-cop-if-you-dont-want-to-get-hurt-dont-challenge-me/

News One for Black America (video) -

http://newsone.com/3044563/how-do-you-feel-about-the-police/

Mail Online -

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2726609/Stores-looted-including-one-slain-teen-Michael-Brown-allegedly-stole-cigars-sixth-night-confrontation-Ferguson-St-Louis-police-ordered-stand-Highway-Patrol.html

via Slate: John Oliver on Last Week Tonight “So you’re taking a group of people tired of being treated like criminals and locking them up in their homes for a night.” (some foul language) -  

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/08/18/john_oliver_on_ferguson_missouri_and_police_militarization_video.html

Teaching Tolerance -

www.tolerance.org/blog/dontshoot

20 Minutes to Collaboration

Thanks for joining me!

By the time we leave here, you're going to be able to leverage the Google Drive to collaborate with your students or colleagues.

The following links are for samples to show you just how easy the collaborative process can be.

Document

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hdeJyLihCLE0ZeVlKQjfjNg8JzBSOk3J_9j4Ll5SKVk/edit?usp=sharing

Presentation

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1HqkKNCH3HH6trqgOOMKkLRT5kPVFvbm8CBsYP_neqkc/edit?usp=sharing

#totallyrossome is Ready to Engage!

I planned. I worked. I researched. I had resources.

They were going to love it.

It was time travel and free will. It was technology based. It was Clueless meets Nietzsche. It was scholarly texts and Groundhog Day. It was pop culture and 1984.  Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt, and Bill Murray. It was the best lesson I ever came up with.

Wait - was that a yawn?

What the - ?

How on earth is anyone bored by this? It's amazing!

But I needed this. I needed the snap back to reality. It's important to look at the evidence. Teachers don't ever think that they're the weak link. We are good at what we do. Even reflective teachers who look for ways to connect, collaborate, and develop themselves professionally think that they're doing a good job.

So how do we find those clues that our students give us? Are we getting it?

#totallyrossome is all about getting our students engaged, and I'm eager to hear what you think.

Some thoughts:

Assessing what students thought of the lesson via the Teaching Channel

High School Reading 2011 (A look at getting HS students to read)

Student Engagement Instrument (Through University of Minnesota)

How Do We Know When Students are Engaged? (by Ben Johnson via Edutopia)

Opening Days: #totallyrossome Heads Back to School

Image credit: http://www.bellyitchblog.com/2013/08/13-back-to-school-comics-to-make-you.html

This week at #totallyrossome, we're looking at the most important time of the school year - the opening days. You get one chance to make a first impression, and the opening days of the school year are your chance to set your tone.

When I started teaching, Mrs. Jenkins, who may or may not have had stories about little Walter Disney was like as a tyke, told me I was not to smile before Christmas. "They need to know that you're in charge." I'm not so good with the not smiling, but I learned quickly that what was not set early in the year would become battles later in the year.

Just a few thoughts and resources on the beginning of the school year:

• Jose Vilson's Cheat Sheet for the First Days of School
• Doug Robertson devotes some time to setting the tone for your class in his book He's the Weird Teacher (Link is to Amazon's book page, and I received nothing for my endorsement of the book.)
• Planning for Your First Day at School by Linda Starr (Heads up: Education World is FULL of ads.)
• Pinterest has numerous Back to School Activities from numerous users (This link is from WeAreTeachers.)

How do you get the year started? What do you always do? What have you found you will never do again?

Join us Tuesday, August 5 at 10 PM EST as we get totally into the beginning of the school year.

Reflections on the Inaugural #totallyrossome

Whenever something new begins, there is a period of adjustment. There are nerves. There is insecurity. When I decided to create a new edchat based on being totally committed to what it is we do (whatever that means), all these things were there. I have developed a solid PLN on Twitter, and I know when I have questions or need advice, these folks are there for me. When I floated the idea of an edchat that focused on giving your all, they were there with support.

When I asked my first question at the start of the chat, it felt like days before the first reply came in. Sure enough, it was one of my #edufam. From that close knit group of educators upon whom I have come to count.

"Well, at least one person came," I thought. If nothing else, I can count on them. I don't need to say who they are. They know.

Then someone else responded. Then came another. And another. Out of nowhere, #totallyrossome was a live edchat, complete with participants!

When the dust settled, and the hour was up, we had nearly 300 Tweets from 18 participants. I had an idea for a conversation, but it took all of you to make it a discussion, and for that, I humbly thank you all.

I hope you are able to join us next week for #totallyrossome. It's on Tuesday nights at 10:00 PM EST, and it's a great group of teachers, administrators, and parents.