What Can We Do? Preparing for the Worst...

The sadness of the shooting madness in CT two days ago is simply heart-breaking and mind-blowing.  How can we begin to imagine and now believe that something this horrific would happen in an elementary school and have the majority of the victims be the young children of the school?   The teachers of this school, of course are the heroes, as the media points out.  Of course, many of us know, that teachers are heroes in our world every day... with or without a tragic shooting.  Every day, teachers save lives and change lives.  But... what can we do if the unthinkable happens...an intruder invades our safe haven school.  I like how this post by Beth Still's husband states to rely on your 6th sense.  I'm thinking about the teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary that grabbed a student from the hall and pulled him into her room as the bullets buzzed by him.  Yes, her 6th sense kicked in!  Peace and strength to all of us as we struggle to move on from this and consider what we can do.   This blog Preparing for the Worst simply talks about some practical steps... but does not address the root of it all.  Right now... practical seems do-able.  The BIG ISSUES are so political in nature and we all have our beliefs and opinions, it seems too large to conquer.

Now for my political blah... I know gun control seems like the answer to many... but I really don't think it is at all... of course I'm all for new legislation to tighten restrictions.  And assault rifles?  please, what civilian needs those?  Mental health issues being recognized and addressed effectively is one area over gun control, that I would like to focus our energy even more.  And exploring even more about why is this issue becoming larger and more troublesome??  What in society and our environment is causing this rise in neurological disorders?  And my biggest concern of all lies in the violence that's simply part of our media and entertainment world, where it is acceptable and fun to watch and participate in violent acts over and over again via movies, gaming, and TV.  Where's the role of parenting in all of this, too?  Where does a parent get adequate support when they have a troubled child or a child that is crying for help and ignored or ridiculed by many?  Where is the parenting when it comes to what games are purchased?  But WHY do we even have companies that create these games... it's bigger than us.  I am so sad... and I have to focus on what is do-able.

Google Lesson Plans - Help me, help you, help us, to help them

This is a huge library of lesson plans that incorporate the use of google tools (of course)!  There are many links in the lessons that will lead to many other wonderful resources ... this is a treasure chest to dig into regularly, just like Thinkfinity!  What another great resource that I need to refer to often... so I'm sprinkling it in many places... I've pinned it to Pinterest (my newest approach... first personal fun, now moving to professional boards, linked to Diigo which also links to Delicious, and of course documenting it here in my "What I Learned Today" blog of sorts.  :)

Edudemic - Google Lesson Plans

Pam shares this two days after I start a massive job building a Google presentation linking to other uploaded PDFs on "Thinking Like a Historian" in an effort to share my resources and ideas on teaching  history in a fun engaging and AUTHENTIC way.  This work is exciting to me, but I struggle with how to share this with teachers without overwhelming them... mainly because of my enthusiasm and my approaches to teach the "big ideas" with literature, questioning, simulations, and primary sources.

About being OVERWHELMING ... if I could just get colleagues to know and understand this about me...  it can be a collaborative fun ride...

Dear Teacher and Colleague,
I know I must appear crazy to you at times, but please understand that I love teaching and that I actually really miss it.  It's one of my PASSIONS.  And yes, I want to return to teaching and I'm scared to death of all the work and learning and experimentations... so I always want to try something again or for the first time!  Remember... I admire what you do.  Please don't interpret any of my excited and often random think alouds as a negative toward anything you are doing... it's just that I always start with content related conversations with the ideas that bounce into my head and from the perspective of what would I do?  I know this is not a coach-like approach and I have struggled with this for the past 4 years!  I can at least notice this about myself and I will eventually get to the coaching questions and conversations... but initially, I just tilt and become a teacher for your students and in your shoes.  I will often ask you to let me come in and do something with you or for you... (not the typical coaching approach) but it is because I want to give you the opportunity to pause, and watch your students and think WITH me about whatever I'm trying.  REFLECTING together is where the coaching comes in... it's a bit of a backwards approach to start with... but if you choose to invite me in, together we will learn, have some fun and hopefully have many great opportunities to talk about your students and their learning.  Please help me, help you, help me and you,  help the students become life-long learners... 
Thank you for trusting and giving me a chance!
Passionately Yours,
Janelle

VSTE Reflections and Random Notes

VSTE Reflections and Random Notes

excerpt from an email share-out...

What a great group of folks from ACPS to bring back new ideas… (I've included a few more folks to our list above)  

Yes, I agree with Carrie and Diane that ACPS's own Tony Wayne had to have the BEST presentation on …

• Flipping a Classroom… what was so great about Tony is that even though he was sharing about his HS Physics class, elementary educators got LOTs of practical and innovative ideas to try from him!  I had many conversations about how we could work on units in elementary school in a flipping style for differentiation, etc.  A hopeful "to-do" for sharing Tony's expertise and passions …  Maybe videotaping and unloading to ACPS channel or making a podcast of Tony's presentation at our next event… like at EDCAMP??? Could help others access Tony's ideas and strategies.  I'm thinking he has little time for an Opportunities Class??? Right, Tony?  Thank you for taking the time and energy to share at VSTE!!

Some of my other highlights include:

• Stahmer's presentation on Powering UP… was such a comfortable session and will help me and others build a very useful and seamless toolkit of apps for professional use.  Things like understanding how instapaper, dropbox, evernote, etc.  can help organize your life.  Loved it.  A possible "DO-Now" could be to have a PD session on using the iPad to support our professional life… which is a different focus that all of the amazing apps that can be used with students for possibly the same thing as well as content –focused apps. Peggy could share out amazing ways to use the iPad with students as we all know!

• Brain-stretchers for me were the sessions on Mary Washington's Maker-Space and it opened my eyes to new resources on printing 3-D as well as ideas on even how this type of space can support instruction at all levels… see google docs for a few nuggets on resources. Another stretch was Be a Cantor and John Hendron's science simulations using Scratch… lots of physics!!  Made me realize, that even though I've played with Scratch alongside a teacher … there's so much to learn and the skills and applications are endless.  Many of us noted that we NEED a PD session by our own Jon and Erica here in ACPS and have chatted with them about this!!  A "DO-NOW"

• "Many apps/software to explore or get much better at such as Evernote for effective note-taking and documenting, Tumblr could have a role in a Coaches life or students' life in documenting life in "light touches"… Not blogging, but not tweets either!  Tammy's google tips session was a nice review of all the google tools … see google doc for any new information noted such as Google sites can have a static page.  

• Loved the session where I had the opportunity to Push myself on using ibooks authoring with Ingram… this is a DO-Now for me and hopefully for others!!  Creating ebooks on a elementary units could be a great focus and we could differentiate and best of all… with access to tools, we can have students creating their own ebooks!  I loved the conversations in this hands-on session with Rich Ingram and gang from JMU, Peggy Riso and myself.

Keynotes were inspirational and I got nuggets and resources from all.  I have to say, even if I didn't attend a great session, I still learned something or had an idea spark or got at least one nugget!  Please collaborate on the google doc shared below for your own NUGGET mining and information sharing…  It was very valuable to have a cross-section of ACPS present and the time to get to know each other personally and professionally.  Great social face to face opportunities and side-by-side learning can NEVER be replaced.  Good times… thank you!

this google doc below is from Google Apps in the Albemarlek12 domain... may not open for you until I slide this blog back over to this domain...   just need some time!!!

https://docs.google.com/a/k12albemarle.org/document/d/1w6pAbiCSpw4pA2izdTq784qlb0T1lDGVSidtA7nn7lg/edit

Cool Cat Teacher Blog: You don't need another gadget to be a great teache...

Cool Cat Teacher Blog: You don't need another gadget to be a great teache...: As I'm heading to S DE's PowerUP with Technology conference in Chicago , I'm pondering the two kinds of teachers. There are two kinds of tea...


Boy do I really like this blog this morning...  saving for future re-reading. It's about what you DO in the classroom more than what you HAVE and it always has been this!

The Power of Wondering...

What can we do to encourage our kids to wonder and follow their curiosities?  How can we promote and support this type of authentic learning?  Do we/you have a culture of wonder in our classrooms?  Are we modeling what we are curious and interests we are pursuing?  What wonder questions do we share with others?  This is a wonderful blog that speaks to these ideas.  I long for students to have this experience where they wonder and then turn and ask others... wanna know what I'm reading and thinking??  This is a blog that I want to re-visit over and over... it's one that makes me wonder about classroom cultures and learners as self-motivated and eager to learn in authentic ways...
The Power of Wonder Questions

I Was Here (United Nations World Humanitarian Day Perform...

Do you live each day?  What is your mark?  It's those little things that we do that makes a difference for others.  I love ending my day knowing I was here.

Back to School Idea

I love the idea of giving the parents a chance to talk and share their goals or dreams for their children. Even if you can't do all of this... the idea to sit as an equal with your parents is a simple act that speaks volumes. I want to remember this for my days in the classroom again... and for anyone else who is dreading that "traditional BTS Night. A FRESH IDEA!

The Social and Emotional Benefits of Being Weirdly Creative | Edutopia

I cannot wait to share this with an art teacher and a new fourth grade teacher... both who I have thought of for two completely different reasons.  I have had goal conversations with the art teacher, that this really supports her thinking and areas she is wishing to grow.  I'm thinking of the brand new 4th grade teacher because the video is a great idea for a science unit that she is currently planning for and teaching!

The Social and Emotional Benefits of Being Weirdly Creative | Edutopia

Teach123: Shopping Tips

Teach123: Shopping Tips: 'tis the Season to go shopping.  Fa la la la la  . . . .  Yes, it's the most wonderful time of the year . . . time to shop for back to sch...

Do the UNEXPECTED

I just had this blog and video shared with me by a dear colleague who was so touched that she had to share. THANK GOODNESS she shared! It is exactly what I needed tonight as i contemplate some work. Do the unexpected... Do the unexpected. I want to be that person that does the unexpected at just the right time! As an instructional coach, I watch, listen, reflect... and try to not say too much at the wrong time, but try to say the just right thing at the right time... and my thoughts are always taking me to the "what would I do in this situation" or how would I reach this child, or what does this parent mean when they say... or I cant' believe my colleague said this and further more believes this!!. What is the right question to ask... what language will turn the focus and conversation? How can I make a difference that counts?? Oh my... I run scenarios over and over in my mind as I drive in my car, as I enter my coaching interactions on Sharepoint, as I discuss and listen with colleagues...as I sit hunched over my computer. I want to be the person that does the unexpected... the cool thing is that we often get second chances... but wouldn't it be awesome to do the unexpected at the just right time!!

hmm?? 1:1 Can we without 1:1?

A great blog by a very grateful teacher who is maximizing her students' learning experiences with the tools that she is fortunate to have available. It's apparent that she is a lifelong learner who is willing to take risks and grow professionally responding, adapting and reflecting to the world around her! I want to archive this blog so I can refer back to it and reflect some more... wondering how much of this can we do without 1:1 There are many of these things that can be accomplished in our elementary schools today without 1:1... as I see it not as much about availability of tools as using the tools available in effective and efficient ways. But... need to ponder more...

Don't Prevent Students' Mistakes, Prepare for Them

This article comes to me at a great time. I've spent the past 3 days working with a teacher and her 4th grade students teaching and learning with them about collaborative tools in the classroom, how web tools allow us to interact and share with others...and how we are not just consumers of the web, but producers, too! We've also discussed how the use of these tools require huge responsibilities as cyber citizens and life long learners! So... given a very limited amount of time to help these students log in to their new google apps accounts, while guiding the classroom teacher on how this works as well... and also building a foundation for web 2.0 capabilities and discussing internet safety and cyber etiquette... WELL... there's lots of room for mistakes and errors and just bad practices to happen! So... today was the big dive into creating a google form for a reading log that can be shared with each other...as their first document! So... as the Instructional Coach, I was the teacher, and the teacher was a student, and the students had a wide range of experiences as well. Lots of excitement, indeed... but limited time to accomplish the goal. I modeled, I shared, I demonstrated my thinking aloud... but ultimately, I turned them loose to explore, problem-solve, as well as support each other while creating their reading logs! I felt somewhat guilty that there were struggles and so many questions at certain intervals of the process... but I only had so much time and I wanted to give the students active time to struggle with their reading log question types, to think and answer their own questions on building the form and I was certain that time, some guidance and experimentation would lead them to deeper learning. My first post reflective thoughts were...hmmm?? I wonder if today's session was too messy and too open-ended for the teacher Did she value what was happening with her students as much as I did?. But as I reflected on my strategies for monitoring steps where the students had the most questions and giving a bit of instruction as needed..., I watched this allow the students and teacher to keep trying and failing, and trying and succeeding. As I reflected even more on this session later today, I realized that it was the mistakes made by the students and myself, and the collaborative thinking that we all used to problem solve that really solidified all of our learning and it certainly built up the teacher and students' confidence! This article states it well by encouraging us to quit trying to prevent students' mistakes, but to simply plan for them. Indeed... I did this today and it was powerful. I just wish I was with these students and teacher tomorrow....