A Sincere Thanks

This weekend I had the good fortune to have several friends and family members host a small book release party for me to celebrate the release of my book "Can We Skip Lunch and Keep Writing?" Collaborating in Class and Online. I don't know what I was expecting, but I came away from this experience extremely humbled.Some people came from quite a distance to celebrate with me. Many gave up or changed their Saturday plans to attend. I was even able to reconnect with a dear friend with whom I shared my (our) first year of teaching. I had friends who I have shared much of my lifetime with and friends and colleagues I have only known a short time.

The kind words of praise, encouragement, and support really moved me. It dawned on me that often as educators we don't get that kind of recognition. We fight for our students and bend over backwards to look out and provide the best for them. Sometimes I think we forget that there are other educators fighting the good fight right next to us. We have no idea what challenges they may be facing in their classrooms that day. As teachers we rarely seem to get much positive reinforcement for our hard work. It can feel lonely and isolating. A kind word, a bit of encouragement, or some praise can make a huge difference in their day. We are all in this together.

So I wanted to thank all of you out there who have helped shape me into the educator I have become today. And although you may not realize it, the positive, uplifting words, even in passing, have really helped in lightening the load that I (like all of us) carry in my mission to give each of my students the very best. Even though I may not have said it as often as I should have, I appreciate all of the hard work and dedication that each of you puts in every day for all of our students. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you!

When is Enough...Enough?

I recently reflected on some of my ISTE2011 experiences, but I still have something rattling around that I feel I need to further explore. One of the things that I often hear from newbies to ISTE is the overwhelming volume of opportunities to learn and connect. One of the things that I love about ISTE is that there are so many ways to learn with and from so many other passionate educators from around the world.

As we connected and shared with one another, this year I noticed that a majority of what we were sharing were the tools and how they supported learning. I was thrilled that much more of the conversation was about the learning as this is what I passionately believe in.

However, this is often not reflected in the Exhibit Hall. Amanda Dykes did a great blog post about the misguided selling seen in so many of the vendors in this year's Exhibit Hall: It's easy and cool. Now, I realize that the exhibitors are the ones that sponsor the conference, but don't they need to hear from those of us who are in the classroom? My students would walk away from a booth and say, "That was fun, but I don't see how it's going to help me learn better." Now if 11 year olds get it, shouldn't exhibitors get it?

It's easy to get caught up in the newest, hardware or software. It's new and shiny and the salespeople are good at convincing you that your classroom is incomplete without their newest tool. We all enjoy new toys. But it's our job to really look at the tool and see if it really will improve the way our students learn or if it is just  a fun new tool to amass in our classrooms.

If you look at the ISTE NETS, you will see that technology plays a supporting role. It supports collaboration, innovation, creativity, and critical thinking. Technology doesn't do it for them. The focus is on the learner and how they use technology to support their learning across content areas and grade levels. We don't always need more "stuff." So many of the tools we use in the classroom that supports real, rigorous learning are free tools that are available online.

So the next conference that you go to, really listen to what someone is saying. Are they sharing something that will really positively impact your students' learning or are they trying to sell you on a new toy? Sometimes you already have enough in your classroom. Enough can really be enough.

ISTE Insights from Troublemakers

I've just arrived home from ISTE11 which was held in Philadelphia, PA this year. My experiences are probably much different than most of the other 20,000 educators in attendance as I travel with a group of my 5th grade students. For the last nine years, I've had the opportunity to bring a group of students to present their big technology project for the year. We count it as an honor to be invited to travel and share our experiences. However, even though we do attend the conference every day and attend sessions and workshops, having students with you changes your perspective on what you are seeing and learning. We always have great discussion and debates about how we can adapt and change our learning practices based on our new insights and learning. Yes, they are 11 year-olds and their insights are priceless.

The highlight of each ISTE for me is to see my students present their project (This year they shared our collaboratively produced, student-driven journal). Yes, THEY do all of the presenting. They begin working on their presentation and public speaking skills in February. They design and create the look of their display. Knowing that many of the students that attend each year are students who have overcome great obstacles to find personal and academic success is fulfilling. Hearing all of the comments from the 400+ visitors to their presentations is gratifying for me because they see the value in what my students have to say. My students exude confidence and enthusiasm for their topic because it is THEIR project...not mine. 

My students soak up all of the praise, the questions, the encouragement that visitors to their Student Showcase offer. At the end of their presentation day, after they've had time to reflect on their day, we all share how we've grown as people due to this experience. My students shared that they realize how important their presentation was to all of the students who had teachers attend their session. They said that because of them, other students from around the world may have the opportunity to do collaborative projects, create new projects to support their learning, and design their own learning path.

They were thinking about other students. They proudly wore the "Troublemaker" ribbons on their ISTE badges and explained to anyone who asked that they were troublemakers because they want education to change and they weren't afraid to fight for it. They know the importance of learning supported technology and the power of students making decisions about how and what they learn.

So I want to thank all of you who came by and lent your ear to their presentation. That day my students grew up. Through your words of encouragement, praise, and challenge, my students are more driven than ever to change the face of education. After all, it's their education. Don't all of our students need a voice in the direction that it goes?

The Best Kind of Learning aka Finding our Peeps

This week was the Alabama Education Technology Conference in Birmingham, Alabama. I was really excited to attend and present at this conference as I had not been there for the last several years. I was looking forward to getting to share my presentation "Can We Skip Lunch and Keep Writing? Collaborating in Class and Online." This was also the first conference where my new book would be available. And although both were extremely enjoyable experiences, what I enjoyed most was the opportunity to meet and get to know so many other educators.

As I sat down to sign my first book a thought came to me that I wanted to inscribe in it which was inspired by my friend Nikki Robertson, who was holding that first book out to me. She and I connected first on Twitter  and then met face to face several months ago a EdCamp Bham.

"It's all about learning from one another." 

When I think about the professional journey that I've been on in the last couple of years, I realize that my deepest growth has come from times when I was learning with other educators, like Nikki, that shared a passion for learning to better themselves as educators in order to positively impact student learning.

Sometimes these are formal situations where you are sitting in a workshop or a presentation to learn about a  new tool or strategy that you could use in your class. But more and more often my learning has come from those informal times of just chatting with other educators between sessions, at a TweetUp, or over a meal. When you see the passion in their eyes as they share what they are doing in the classrooms, their success stories, or something that they're contemplating the learning becomes infectious. You want to know more. You ask a lot of questions. You listen. I can hear my students saying, "These are our peeps. They get us." These are people who are actively practicing what they preach. It's not something in theory. They are living it.

Today, my mind is still reeling from the connections that I've made and the new things that I want to try in my classroom, but I find myself missing that constant face to face informal learning that I've had for the last two days. Thankfully for me the learning never has to stop. I've found new people to follow on Twitter. Through some of the sessions, I've found new blogs to read.Because of the age that we live in, we can have that informal constant feeding of infectious passion everyday.

So today, I'm feeling very thankful to all of you who have helped me become the educator that I am today whether you have been with me on my learning journey for a while or you are a new member of my PLN. After all, it's all about learning from one another.

A Moment of Truth Part 2

In my last blog post, I mentioned that after 23 months, I had finally  received a copy of my book in my hand.  This thrilling (and noisy) moment of truth led me to reflect on how this experience could lend itself to lessons that we need to apply into our classrooms... like the importance of trying new things.  Here are a couple of other truths that gained from this experience which I feel should be passed on to our students.

Hard work pays off

Was writing a book easy? Absolutely not. To be honest, at times it was a bit painful trying to find a way to make my voice heard in a clear and concise way that stayed true to the story I was sharing about my students.  I wanted to tell their story, but at times their story almost became an all consuming thing, overwhelming other aspects of my life. There were times where I had to take some days away from the writing in order to find myself. After all, what good would I do my current students if I lost touch with who I was because of my previous students? 

However, as I continued to write and work with my talented editor, Holly, I found that these difficult times rendered the best work I had produced. Through her guidance, I learned not only how to become an author for a broad audience, but also how to better guide my students in their writing. The results were not immediate. It was hard. It was tedious. There were times that I wanted to just throw up my hands and walk away.

In our classrooms, our students experience this same overwhelming feeling of frustration. We all have had those students who don't feel like the work is with the reward. They also just want to throw their hands up and walk away. It is our job to reassure them and guide them. We know from our experience that the hard work does pay off. We see it every day in our classrooms. Just like Holly did for me....she saw the forest when I was lost among the trees. We need to help our students see the forest. 

Time to Share

Even though I had imagined a million times what it would feel like to physically hold my book in my hand, the actual feeling was indescribable. Following quite closely to those feelings, was the feeling of showing my book to others...especially my parents. Even as an adult, it was so wonderful to receive the validation of others who valued what I had done. They realized the large investment of time, energy, sweat, and tears it took to complete this job. 

Think of all of the work and projects that our students complete everyday in our classroom. I'm afraid that so often, we are so strapped for time in our jam packed schedule, we forget to let the students take the time to share their accomplishments with their peers, other faculty members, community members, friends and family. They have tried news things. They have put in all of the hard work, inside and outside of the classroom. By forgoing the time to celebrate and receive that validation, we are missing the key element. Let them enjoy their success, their journey.  With the tech tools of today, it is so simple to let them share their projects with people from around the world. They need to revel in their accomplishments so that they begin to value the importance of hard work and personal growth.

So as we contemplate the beginning of a new school year, let's all keep in mind the importance of passing these truths on to our students. Trying new things, hard work, and having a time to share all play a key element in students learning  valuable skills not only in the classroom, but also in life.

A Moment of Truth Part 1

Today, after two years of hard work, I received a moment of truth. I was deep in some work preparing for an upcoming presentation when someone lightly knocked on front door sending our beagle into a fit of barking.  Once the noise and furniture surfing subsided, I opened the front door to find a smallish UPS envelope. My heart skipped a couple of beats at I looked at the address…Portland, Maine. Could it truly be a package I had imagined opening a million times in the last two years? I carefully opened the envelope and peeked inside. Out slid one of the most beautiful things that I have ever seen….my book.

In my hands I held my moment of truth. The time that over the last 23 months I had yearned for and dreamed of, sometimes wondering if it would ever happen. Would all of these words on my laptop actually end up becoming a book?  After the dancing around and noise subsided (this time me, not our little beagle), I immediately thought about this journey and what I learned from it. There are so many things that are running through my head, and I’m sure once my feet touch the ground again, I’ll come up with many more. I wanted to share a few of them now as I feel like they directly impact our students.

Try new things.

I had never thought about writing a book, but at a presentation in Atlanta, Holly Holland, from Stenhouse Publishers, approached me and asked me if I would be interested in sharing my teaching experience and journey with others. The thought of authoring a book while teaching and fulfilling my other professional and personal obligations was a bit daunting even at the front end of this experience.  But with the encouragement of my husband, I decided to try this new experience. What I discovered was that I loved to write and reflect on what I was doing in the classroom, even if I was the only one reading it. One might say that this experience has born a true passion for writing, and in spite of family encouraging me to take some time off, I started this blog and have even outlined a couple of new chapters for a potential new book which may only be written for my own introspection.

Isn’t this what we want for our students? Don’t we want for them to try new things, overcome the fear that sometimes comes with the unknown? As teachers, it is our responsibility to provide as many experiences as possible for them in the short time that they are with us. We need to be there to encourage them to try something new.  Guide them and reassure them as they discover new passions. How exciting is it to witness those discoveries that students make?

So as you are doing all of your professional learning this summer, keep that in mind. Make some connections, learn some new strategies, discover new avenues of learning so that your students can reap the benefit of trying something new.

(My initial post ended up being so long, I've decided to post the rest in a couple of days...stay tuned!)

Time off or Time to Cram?

As we end another academic school year, many people (not in the educational field) keep asking me if I'm counting down the days or looking forward to having a couple of months off. I'm sure other educators hear similar questions and I have to say that those questions frustrate me a bit. I feel like they imply that I can't wait to get out of the classroom and away from my students, putting us in the stereotypical school situation....which we are not. I don't know about you, but I enjoy being with my students. We have fun in our classroom together where we all learn together every single day. It's bittersweet for all of us when they pass on to the next grade because our tight-knit learning community is breaking up as they move forward to the next step in their learning journey.  I'm proud of them and I know that they are more than ready for the next grade, but I also know that I will miss them.

It's a constant journey that causes me to reflect throughout the year on what went well and what I want to change for the next group of learners headed my way. With that in mind, I am always searching for new resources, tools and insight on what will reach my individual learners best wherever they are in their learning journey. With that in mind, my summer fills up fast with conferences, unconferences, and workshops...not to mention all the webinars, blogs and Twitter chats that I'll have more flexibility to read and participate in throughout the summer months.

And although I do thoroughly enjoy having some time where I don't have to set my alarm clock and I can meet friends for lunch, I do (like many of you) cram a lot of professional learning into those two months off. My husband once laughed and told someone that real teachers don't get time off. They work just as hard if not harder in the summer as they do during the school year. The only difference is that we aren't in classroom with our students. We're out there learning to become the best teacher we can be for our next group of students.

So this summer as I strive to learn as much as possible from all of you, I hope that we can connect and learn together. Because learning together (like in many of our classrooms) is what is going to impact our students most. Providing them with as many opportunities to create, collaborate and work together in authentic learning activities while supporting their work with relevant tools is really what it's all about.