MACUL: Presenting!

Would you believe me if I told you that I was a very shy child growing up?  I remember one summer at camp, I was in a theater class (don't know what I was thinking!) and even though I was just playing a barn animal, I was terrified to get on stage!  And in 6th or 7th grade (middle school is all a blur) we had to give a speech a month.  Except I was so terrified of public speaking, that I would be absent the day of and the day after, so I could turn in a written copy instead of actually speak!  I didn't actually give my first speech until junior year of high school, that's how terrified I was.

Which makes what I'm about to say somewhat of a shock, at least to me.

I LOVED presenting at Macul!  It was So. Much. Fun!

I think it also helps that most people at Macul are there because they want to be, and are looking to learn things they want to learn - way different, unfortunately, than most professional development provided by schools.

The first presentation for this year was right after the opening keynote.  It was about Twitter for Teachers - beginner twitter, that is!  I loved this session because like in class, there were so many lightbulbs going off throughout our hour together!  I love being able to expose people to tools that can have such drastic impact on their educational practices!

Friday morning, one of my colleagues and I opened the day with an 8:30 presentation on Tech Lab.  This is something we created this year, and as it's a work in progress, we wanted to share it with others who might be interested.  It was one of those interactive sessions, as the audience was encouraged to share their ideas, too!  

Tech Lab is basically a weekly "special" that my third graders, and her second graders, get together to learn about different technology tools.  Projects we've done include coding unplugged, Scratch Jr., App Reviews, and creating presentations on Google Slides.  It's been such an exciting journey and it was great to share with others!

At this point, we were able to get to ONE session.  Again, it was well worth it, though, spending much of my Macul time presenting and supporting my students.

My final presentation was a favorite one, as I've done it twice before in my district.  I like to call it "iPad as Teacher's BFF" and sharing how my iPad has become my right hand, and simplified life in my classroom is always fun.

Leaving Macul is always bittersweet.  I feel like I'm leaving behind an extended family that is a huge part of my world, despite the fact that I only see most of them on twitter.  On the upside, when I leave, I always leave with "new friends" in my circles than with which I came, and I always feel energized from connecting with "old friends" that I usually only "see" via twitter.

Technology may be a pretty big deal, but it was clear this year, as it is always year, that education isn't about the technology, it's about the relationships.  And Macul?  A wonderful place to build relationships!

See you in Grand Rapids in 2016!

Our Coding Journey

Check out our semester of coding!  The Thinkers took our experience with Hour of Code and ran with it.  In fact, they're still running!  The games that have been created, the challenges that have been overcome, the unlikely relationships forged, the experiences..... All I gotta say is WOW.

Oh, and as far as next year goes?  

Coding class will begin the second week of school.

Yep.  It's that important.  

It's that powerful.  

It's that crucial to so many skills, that I'll continue devoting 

at least 45 minutes a week to regular coding class.

Wanna come play with us? Let me know!

Book Club Projects

I always loved to read. I still do.

Back in school, we had to do book reports every month, probably from 2nd grade through 6th grade.

I always loved to read.

I always found the book reports tedious and pointless. They were always the same. Complete a written report, add an illustration, and hand it in.  In grade school, we created little folders with construction paper, glued the illustration on the front, stapled our writing inside.  In middle school it was fancier, with the clear plastic cover.

But no matter how you sliced it, it was always the same.
And for someone who loved reading, loved writing, and loved drawing........ even I didn't enjoy them. 

Which is why, while I'm an absolute advocate of reading, writing, and drawing, and I think "book reports" are a useful way to share good books with others...... the delivery method has been desperate for an overhaul.

Thanks to lots and lots of amazing teachers who share their ideas online and offline, I've continued to play with a variety of "report" methods. The three clips you see here are the "reports" for three different groups during our Economic Book Clubs.  I gave the class the freedom to choose any method to showcase their learnings from the book and sell it to another reader.  Three groups chose to do book trailers.  Two groups did plays (not shown for privacy reasons) and one group did a poster.  It was clear that the groups understood the stories, made the requested economic connections, practiced their discussion and presentation skills...... and more than that, enjoyed the end project nearly as much as the book!

Hour Of Code

Teaching our 2nd grade buddies!

Coding.  Computer programming.  Not something you'd think that elementary aged kids could do.  If that's the case, you'd be wrong.

My class participated in something called Hour of Code, sponsored by Computer Science Education Week.  What started out as something just my class was doing, happily spread to the other fourth grades.  And, even more exciting, once my class completed their "training hour" we collaborated with our second grade buddies so THEY also experienced hour of code.  Second graders!

Teamwork and patience were needed.

But it doesn't stop there, no, it kept spreading, and we ended up collaborating with our Kindergarten buddies too, who had a blast telling the computer what to do during their coding time!  That was one of my favorite things about the Hour of Code - how, once my class started, it organically spread where it needed to go.

Exploring Scratch.

Coding.  Basically it is telling the computer what to do.  In the case of the tutorials set up for this experience, the kids started with something familiar - Angry Birds - and were able to manipulate several levels of code there.  The tutorials (which are still up, by the way!) walked kids from Kindergarten through High School through the basics of coding.  It was so neat seeing how some of my kids really, really clicked (pun intended!) with the coding concept, and went on to try other tutorials, and taught each other the more complicated programs, such as scratch, which we'll be using later in the year (hopefully!) when we play with the MaKey MaKey….. but that is a whole different post!

Anyway, I highly encourage you to take an hour out of your week, sit down with your class (we started whole class before moving to individual laptops) and play around with coding.  This is one of those skills that I don't think we realize how much it will be used in the future!

A mash-up of Vines taken during our class coding experience!

Professionally Developed

Photo taken by @Dshulks

Back to school means lots and lots of time spent being professionally developed.  Meetings.  Speakers.  Articles.  Research.  Data.  Data.  Lots of Data.

It also means my district's annual Welcome Back Day celebration and kick off.  Every year, all the staff in the entire district converge at one of the buildings for a continental breakfast with lots of indulgent breakfast goodies (read: donuts and donuts and donuts) along with the requisite fresh fruit and other healthy ways to start the day.

From this lively breakfast, we descend upon the gym, climb the bleachers (this year, more comfortable thanks to a staff appreciation gift of stadium cushions!) and settle in for a rousing kick off, complete with the requisite "rah-rah" speeches.  Thankfully, the speeches are usually really good.

This year was no different.

What was different, was what came after the yearly spiel.  Our guest speaker.

Three words.

Ah.  May.  Zing.

And inspiring and motivating and entertaining and engaging and resourceful and knowledgeable and humble and enthusiastic and WOW.

Kevin Honeycutt.  If you haven't had a chance to hear him speak, google him.  Now.  Find his YouTube.  Explore his website (yes, it's overwhelming - he, like me, has ADHD.)  It will be worth your time.  Not sure about all of this?

Well.  Let me tell you.  Today's Welcome Back Day was scheduled from 8:00 - 10:30.  From there, we had the rest of the day to head back to our buildings and classrooms and work on getting things ready for day one.

There were two optional breakout sessions with Kevin, one from 10:45 - 12:00, and one from 1:15 - 2:30.  I signed up for the morning session, thinking it would be a treat to work with Kevin in a smaller setting (only 30 people for the breakouts, verses the 650+ at the kick off) and knowing I'd have the afternoon to work.

Photo taken by @mwmedvinsky

Nope.  Not happening.

Instead, I found myself SO inspired, SO engaged, and SO excited to have this time with such an awesome speaker, I stayed.  For the day.  So I was at Welcome Back Day from 8:00 - 3:30.  That's how worth it Kevin's presentations were.  Don't believe me?  Go google him.

Some tidbits from my day....

• Relationships trump all - make that connection with the un-connectable kid and the impact can be life changing....
• Kids don't know what they don't know - give them a chance to change the world, you may be surprised at what happens!
• Value what kids are good at, not what they can't do.
• Perfection is the enemy of done.
• Relationship is key - believe in kids, especially when they don't believe in themselves, and maybe, just maybe, one day, they'll start to believe too.

Reflecting on the day (reflection is KEY in learning) I am so grateful to have been given the opportunity to spend my day learning with such an engaging, motivating, and meaningful person.  I look forward to connecting again..... and again..... and again!

Photo taken by @mwmedvinsky

Hello from Macul!

I am sitting in a session at Macul- this huge Tech Ed conference in Michigan.  Believe it or not it is my first year going!  I have not been disappointed- this place is a gold mine for a tech junkie like me.

In the last 36 hours I have experienced a plethora of new tools to take to the classroom. At this very moment I'm sitting in a session learning about ways to use smart devices in the classroom. Gone are the days where kids come to school and have a ton of technology at their disposal. Instead, most kids are leaving their technology at home, and coming into subpar technology at school.

Which is why I wanted to hit up to this session- it's time to let the kids bring their devices in, time to fully embrace the digital natives and all their techieness!

While I'm not going to bore you with a ramble right now, into want to share one big learning from the conference thus far- If we don't keep up with our tech savvy students...... We have to start playing on their playground now- twitter included!