Do you feel it?

Like most school districts across the land, we are closed and our government has encouraged staying at home.  In my job as instructional technology coach, there is always more to learn than I have hours in the day.

Or week.

Or month.

Or year.

I feel a need. 

I feel an urgency.

For the past year, I have felt such a sense of urgency to try and get people to know some of the things I've got the capacity to teach them.  I want to share things I know that can make their work more streamlined, organized, easier.  I want to share things that can help their students be more creative, engaged, and challenged.  It has been a far greater sense of urgency on my part than most have felt the need to learn.

For the past several months I've been quietly telling teachers with whom I work that I won't always be there to support their teaching and learning and they really need to take more risks and learn more.  Yet, I think those teachers have sort of swept that concept under the rug thinking that even if I am not there, somebody will be there to teach them or show them or help them or just provide support as they are working through.

This week, however, we have entered our third week at home.  We are supporting and encouraging distance learning like people have never experienced before.  Now there seems to be an urgency.

This morning our instructional technology team offered virtual learning for teachers.  When we have hosted these events in the past, participation has seen a dozen or so people log on and take part.  Once, I had a group of thirty-eight.  At this time of year, participants were generally just trying to check a box and earn professional development hours.  Today, we had record numbers log on and learn.  There was no extrinsic incentive like earning credit hours. There was no requirement by an administrator to get on board and embrace an initiative.  There was a personal urgency. 

If nothing else, this unusual time in our world has helped many recognize that our world has changed and we are being forced to change along with it in order to rise to the needs and expectations that are present.  We cannot cling to the old just because it has worked for us in the past.  We have to embrace the new as well.  We have to adapt ourselves to the newness that keeps surrounding us.  There is an urgency.

I could feel it all day today as I fielded questions and requests for support from teachers.  I could feel it as my partner and I shared the basics of a different means of sharing opportunities for students to learn.  I could feel it when I chatted with my children and grandchildren in the early evening.  Please let us hold on to that urgency and enfold it into our natural being so that we continue to grow and learn and make this world a more positive and better place. 

I feel a sense of urgency like never before.  Do you?

Visiting With Old Friends While In Self Isolation

As time goes by, it seems people are settling in and teachers are wanting to post more for their students and students are wanting more to do.  Could it be that there is still excitement in learning?

As I peruse through social media posts, I see funny memes but I also see lots of posts where folks are asking for book recommendations. Sometimes they are asking for themselves and sometimes they are asking for the students in their households. 

The other day I saw where somebody had posted, "Looking for book recommendations for my sophomore and 7th grader?  Thanks 😊" 

Here was my response:

What are their interests? Do they play ball or fish or hunt? Do they play video games or draw or paint? That is a good place to start.  What did they enjoy reading or listening to when they were younger? My philosophy is that everybody can be a reader, we just need to know what they like and enjoy digging deeper into!

(By the way, that is the same thing I always used to ask my students when I was a classroom teacher.)

I think the most fun I had as an educator was when my first 7th grade class of students moved on to high school.  I'd taught them all in 7th grade and then most of them again in 8th grade.  Right before spring break I asked them all to write the title of their favorite book on an index card and give to me and why they liked that book.  Then, my intention was to share it with my next year's class. 

Well, later that year I was approached by our administration and told that it was customary to recognize students for having an outstanding year.  We recognized highest average, all As, and things like that like most places do.  We also had an award to recognized folks for most improved or other accomplishments. 

I decided that I would use those index cards and bought each of my awardees his or her favorite book in a hardback edition.  I had the most fun surfing the net or haunting book stores to find each of those books.  The look on the faces of those students when I handed them their book and said a wee bit about them was priceless.  I doubt they treasured that nearly as much as I did!

So, while we are staying at home and there are no sports to watch on TV, I am revisiting lots of my old friends - books I've collected over the years.  I hope other people are doing the same.

First Official Week Wrap-Up

Well, we have officially spent a week supporting teachers from a distance and using online resources.  Here is a little of what I learned this week (listed in no particular order):

• Virtual meetings are exhausting.
• Virtual learning is so very different from face-to-face learning and people don't realize that, yet.
• I really like creating visuals more than I do most anything else that relates to my job.
• There's a lot more to a How-To video than meets the eye.
• Teachers really love their students.
• Students like regular school more than they realized they did.
• Students really ought to be journaling about their experiences right now.
• It is hard for me to stop working.
• I get a LOT of email in my personal account and don't have the energy to read it when I've worked from home all day.
• There are so many online opportunities to learn that it is mind-boggling.
• My idea of professionalism is not the same as lots of other people's ideas.
• Learning and education is really evolving during this time.
• My long-time vision of the power of online learning is coming to fruition.
• The instructional technology department in my district consists of a lot of rock stars!

I have read so many powerful things written by educators, journalists, and students this week.  The written word is alive and well in 2020!  

P.S. I have to give a huge shout out to Pearson for sharing his journal with me this week.  I feel blessed and enriched by reading his writing. He truly has a gift and I am inspired to become a better writer.

Gritting Your Teeth or Smiling?

Do you hate sitting in meetings?  Would you rather go to the dentist than be a meeting participant?  

Oh, good!  Come sit by me!

Today was a day for virtual meetings.  

I had a couple of one-to-one Google Hangouts with a couple of teachers and that was fun.  We could just be ourselves and it was almost like sitting in my office with the teacher across the desk and we were just chatting.  

Then, the entire afternoon was filled with Zoom meetings.  This was more the kind of meeting that makes me wish I was in that dentist chair with some instrument going drrrrrrrrrring and making my head vibrate a little bit.

You see, the only thing worse than a big group meeting of teachers held in the library where everybody is scattered here and there at tables with their friends and a stack of papers and pens or a computer in front of them and somebody talking like the Charlie Brown teacher about some sort of topic you've heard about countless times and you could really lead the group in a much more exciting sharing time about the topic - the only thing worse than that is a virtual meeting with a lot of people like that.

You may be asking me why I think that.  Well, let me tell you.  It is worse because you never know who is looking at you and you are right there covering the little square that is the screen with nothing else to look at - no big slide projected on the wall behind you or anything.  So, if you don't sit there looking like you are eagerly learning about whatever is being shared, it could come back to haunt you.  

You see, somebody could be just as zombie-like as you and they could see you nodding off and take a screenshot of you to share later and giggle about it with their friends.  Somebody could see you leaning on your palm with your cheek all smushed up just trying to hold your head upright.  Somebody could be watching you scratching your ear.  Somebody could zoom in and see that you have a drop of salad dressing from lunch smeared across your shirt.  Any number of things could be showing up and somebody could take a screenshot of that unpleasantness and post it on social media or put it in a presentation and project it on the big screen when you are sitting in a really boring in-person meeting in the library and the entire faculty would burst out laughing and you would have no idea where that came from.  

Can you tell that after my second or third virtual meeting I was pretty much a waste and useless?

Can you imagine the look on my face as I'm sitting here thinking about the three meetings I have tomorrow?

When I closed my laptop for the day and strolled all the way from my bedroom into the kitchen to start scrounging something up for dinner, my jaws were hurting.  I think I was following my Granny's advice.  "Grit your teeth, honey.  People will think you are smiling." 

Quarantined and Working From Home

Do you remember that song from the movie, Grease, when John Travolta starts off singing the words, "Stranded at the Drive-In..." 

Well, today I kind of wanted to write new lyrics for that number.

How do you think it would sound to sing, "Quarantined here at home, following all the rules..."

That is kind of how I'm feeling this morning.  I have loads of work to do but I cannot seem to focus on anything enough to get it going, get in the groove, and get it done.  I've got video scripts to write and videos to record for one of my summer professional development workshops.  I've got visuals to create and examples to update for another PD workshop.  I've got ideas for materials that I could be collaborating with teachers to create for students to continue their learning while they are isolated and at home.  Yet, I cannot seem to settle on any of that.

I'm sort of like a butterfly, fluttering here and there and pausing at first one flower and then another.  I will find an example that needs updating and moving from one folder to another in preparation for being included in a workshop and then I'll get an email notification bing-bonging and I click over to see what it is about.  I will enter a few words that relate to the slide for one of my videos and I'll get a notification on my phone that the Governor is going to give an update about the state of our state and Covid-19.  I will add a catchy graphic to a slide and draw a text box and while my fingers are resting on the keys and my brain is trying to come up with a good heading, a pop-up notification will slide onto the bottom of my screen giving me notice that somebody has a question and might need me to show them how to do something to make their online lesson more interactive.

I'm wondering if I was at a REAL office would I be able to focus and get my work done or am I just using my location and the fact that I've been here in this place for over two weeks as an excuse for not getting things done.

Things to Remember

Today I felt like I'm sure some of our students must feel from time to time.  I think it could best be described as boxed in and semi-struggling.

My team and I have been tasked with creating short videos which can serve as tutorials to guide parents and students through accessing and using the resources we are posting so that students can learn on their own at home.

We aren't really providing instructional lessons, just resources and materials.  So, often, parents might not know how to use the online textbook or the math practice site or create a Google Drawing.  Plus, they may be overwhelmed at searching the web to find support materials to do that.  Short, simple videos to the rescue!

Now, I'm not struggling with showing how to use the tool.  I am learning to use a tool to create the visuals that I don't customarily use.  One of our goals is to create all the videos to have a similar look.  Just like people have favorite brands of paper towels or toilet paper or peanut butter, we have favorite tools for creating and we each have our own style of design.  Yet, this time, we all needed to have a cohesive look and feel to the products and we needed to have the products done on a short timeline. We even had a checklist and got peer feedback. I get all that and I wholeheartedly support it when putting a product out for the masses.  It is sort of like quality control.

However, I also felt a little bit like the teacher had told me to create a set of slides.  Each slide should have three bullet points and two pictures.  If you put a tulip on the slide, the petals should be yellow #F8C202, the stem should be green #0D3F01, the leaves should be green #ABCE5F but I wanted my petals to be red #E3401B! Most of the time as collaborators and team members, we have more choices and more options.  This time was just a little different because we are in different circumstances.

I know that in the classroom with good teachers students almost always have choices and options for how to report what they know.  They are provided with resources and asked to apply their learning to show what they know and how they understand.  However, I also know that there are times when this isn't possible.  So, as an educator, I certainly want to keep in mind how I felt today working on this project and try to be one who opens the door to learning and creating more often than giving students a box and asking them to place certain items into it in a certain order and way.

Teaching and Learning - From Home

On March 6 it was announced that our school would be taking a couple of days off for deep cleaning due to the Corona Virus impact.  We were told that school would be closed the next day and on the following Monday.  We have not returned to school and the impact of the virus has been growing.

Today, I started officially working from home as an educator.  We began the morning with a virtual meeting of the district Teaching, Learning, and Assessment department.  We learned that our ideas were reality and we are working through this one day at a time.  We also learned what is expected of us for the next few weeks as we do navigate this new path.

Following that virtual meeting with the large group of district folks, we had our own online meeting of instructional technology team.  We got further instruction of what is needed from us right away and what we could be spending the next few days working toward.  We learned how to support as many learners as possible but support them remotely.  We were told to keep it professional and follow the guidelines set up at this time.

So, I spent my afternoon working on a couple of professional development workshops that I'm planning to facilitate this summer.  Now, instead of creating them to be blended virtual learning, I am leaning more toward online learning with virtual support.  My workshops will be delivered online with videos offering instruction and me available via chat and online broadcast. 

I also had a Google Hangout with one of the teachers I have worked closely with at the school where I'm assigned this year and we offered one another support in the coming days.  We will be curating resources for students and parents to access and grow with as they are staying home.

While we are not pioneers or doing anything new and different, it feels a bit that way to us.  We are learning as we go more so than ever!  We are developing a new way.  I hope you will join me as I share what we are teaching and how we are learning.