You Matter, All of You

I sat in my car ready to be inspired. I had just discovered the EduAllStars Podcast. After listening to Todd Nesloney (@techninjatodd on twitter), Stacey Huffine (@techninjastacey) and Chris Kessler (@iamkesler) share their mission statement for the show and 7 wonderful interviews I was growing more and more excited to listen. As I started episode 9, I was in for something that would change my perspective.

In my classroom, I have always tried hard to let my kids know how much they mean to me, how much they should mean to each other, and how lucky they are to be here. For a few years now I have explained to students on the first day of school that if they learn nothing else from me, I want them to learn that love is a choice and for the next 180 days I choose to love them. They may not always appreciate it, but I love them none the less. I give an annual Thanksgiving speech to remind them to be thankful they are in school here, sharing what life for a child their age is like in other parts of the world. When things go South in the room and bickering begins in the spring I will will talk about the Experiment in Gratitude from SoulPancake (Watch it here, it is amazing) and I have the students write a letter to someone that matters to them. To be an example, I do the same. Then I read it to whoever I wrote about in front of my student. We usually cry as they watch wide eyed. I ask the kids to give what they wrote to the person that they wrote about. All of these things are designed to show kids that they matter.

Before listening to episode 9 of the show, I was pushing toward this goal of worth, but it wasn’t until I heard Angela Maiers that I realized that I needed to do more. If you have never heard of Angela (Here is her website) she is responsible for pushing and supporting several student focused initiatives that encourage students to investigate their passion and worth. She strongly supports Genius Hour (or 20 Time). However, it was the Choose 2 Matter portion of the podcast that is just so brilliant.

That night I got to work creating a poster for my room centered around the You Matter Manifesto and after several nights of work in front of the television with my wife, I hung this in my classroom.

You are enough. You have influence. You are a genius. You have contributions to make. You have a gift the others need. Your actions define your impact. You are the change. You Matter.  

You can’t hang words like that in your classroom, and not have them noticed. I gave kids some time to take them in and I noticed a lot of them read it. Some smiled, others looked confused, but most of them saw it. Then I took 15 minutes to explain it to each of my classes. In typical me fashion, my energy level was high. There were a lot of smiles, and I saw improvement from several students.

I revisited the manifesto throughout the year, each time using a specific point to focus on and giving examples from each class. Most really seemed to appreciate it and while there were some that didn’t seem too impacted it was very worthwhile.

I have been meaning to write this post forever. For one reason or another business has kept me from doing so. However, as I reflect about the shootings in Dallas which were a response to other shootings driven by fear and value of life, it was all I could think about this morning. As teachers we need to let our students know that they matter. We need to instill in them the value that they have and contributions that they offer. That actions, positive or negative have an impact. We must stand up and teach our kids to strive to be the best that they can be or else we are giving up. As a friend of mine said last night, bad things happen in this world and being strong is a choice. We need our kids to choose to be strong, to choose to matter and contribute in a positive way. Stand up, be heard, and spread a message that you matter. We all matter.

Make the Opening Moments Mean More

I have always struggled with bell work. The “Hey guys. Here are a few problems based on information that we have already covered. You need to remember them, so here are three more. Work on them while I take attendance.” approach has never been for me. I think it is boring. Yet, that is what you would find 95% of the time at the beginning of a math lesson in my room. With pending standardized test I feel like we HAVE to keep reviewing this way.

So when I read the first paragraph on page 45 of The Classroom Chef, which basically described the above situation, I drew this face in the book…

I am not alone! There are other teachers out there in the unknown who struggle with this too. It is not just me. I give a quick squeal of excitement and then take a second to look around and make sure no one is looking. I recompose myself and carry on reading. 

As I read the rest of the chapter, I am given a new lease on the opening my lessons. John Stevens and Matt Vaudrey, the authors of the book lay out several better options that can I easily modify to what I need. The craziest part of it all, the first recommendation was something I already do. In my class, to take attendance I would always ask a ‘Would you rather’ question.  However, for some reason I never thought to myself, ‘Hey, let’s tie these two things together to make it all stronger.’

The first unit on my district’s pacing guide is exponents. A quick Google search and boom, I have my first anticipatory set of the year. “Would you rather get a million dollars or double your money everyday for 30 days starting with a penny?” A little further searching and I find my way to a Which One Doesn’t Belong website. Man, I am in business and rolling. My whole anticipatory set life has changed and I am so very excited to get the ball rolling next year. There are times and places to review, quizzes or just before the big test. Going forward I intend to make great use of those first few minutes of each lesson. 

As we head into the next year, I want to encourage you not to be afraid to make your opening moments matter as well. It may take some time, but it could be so worth it.

Here are the links for those sites, by the way.

Would You Rather

Which One Doesn't Belong

My First Presentations...So Fun

I may have mentioned this, but in the last year or so I have become what is referred to as a connected educator. My interactions are mild but increasing as I gain confidence in myself and the direction that I am heading in the world of education. In the spring my school district announced that they would be doing a conference-ish event (the Franklin County Public Schools Learning Summit). With over 200 teachers in attendance in the 3 days following the end of our school year, I would consider it pretty successful, especially for a first attempt at something.

When I found out about it, I had no hesitation. I wanted to help my district get this off the ground. The prospects were very exciting. As I read and interact with different people, I feel as though I have many ideas to share. There was an application process and I put in two concepts; my previous introduction to the benefits of using Classflow and a forming concept about creative lesson planning. Both of my ideas were approved and I was off.

The creative lesson planning session came first. I was nervous as all get out. This concept is my baby. Part motivational speech fueled by a desire to never hold back a crazy idea and part planning philosophy that I employ which has been enhanced and refined in the wake of reading Teach Like a Pirate (have I mentioned that everyone should read that book). This is a message I feel strongly about. I opened by sharing stories that brought me to this point. Being a teacher who is always willing to try an idea that I feel would inspire kids and honor content. I momentarily got on my soapbox about being great. Then I introduced the concept of melding Content + Passion + Desired Outcome to come up with lessons that are memorable and relevant to the students. Listing successes, coplanning, and failures, I wanted this group of willing teachers to hear examples of it working well, but also know there were times it did not. However, that doesn’t mean we should quit. After an hour and 5 minutes I wrapped up (a tad shorter than it was supposed to be, but I cut some things fearing I would go over my 75 minute time frame). People in the group were very encouraging and man, I felt great.

Me rocking my fancy Kids Deserve It! shirt.

The Classflow session came at the end of the third day. Coming in, I could tell the group of motivated educators was tired. Reading my audience, I laid out my intentions to go through my presentation, and then work with anyone who did not need an extended bathroom break. My enjoyment and excitement about what Promethean is doing Classflow is pretty well documented, but I had a lot of fun with this presentation. After talking about change and sharing what Classflow is, I hit the meat of this presentation by sharing what makes Classflow special: engagement.  On the fly feedback from your constituents that can help you gauge when to move forward and when to circle back. I tried to use humor to share the polling tools, asking questions like…

Word Seed: What word or phrase comes to mind when looking at this picture?

I shared other perks of using the program like uploading already made flipcharts (that admittedly need some touching up) and assessment tools that make formative assessment easy. Finally, I closed by encouraging people to play with it over the summer or when we get back to work in August. To my surprise about half of the group stuck around to play with it, which was super encouraging.

Having a great time sharing Classflow with educators.

The bottomline in sharing all of this is that I hope that you will be willing to share too. We all have things that we are passionate about. It may be scary to put yourself out there, but there are people in our profession who need what you have. I implore you to be willing to lift others for the better of the school. It is worth it. I know I will, hopefully at next year's Franklin County Public Schools Learning Summit or with anyone who will have me. Man, I have the bug.

A Social (Studies) Encouragement

At the beginning of the school year I am willing to admit, I struggled. You see for me this was completely new. The little guy venturing upwards and onwards into Middle School. It was, and at times still is frightening. There are days of great successes and times when I wonder why I left my familiar world of little hugs and tater tots, my affectionate name for the kids, not the lunchtime side dish. For the record, those are good too.

In teaching, I often find myself wanting to push boundaries and try new things. I am lively, loud, and regularly positive. To some this can be off putting or come across as arrogant, so in my experience it takes time and consistency to earn respect. The last week has been great for that. Two separate stories, from two separate social studies teachers I have come to like and respect very much.

The first came out of a small two day workshop I ran after school on Classflow. Talk about intimidating. I am trying to encourage teachers to give the program a shot, since most are using Active Inspire already. Turnout was about what I expected, so no complaints here. A friend from the Social Studies department came to both sessions and seemed eager to give it a shot late last week. After our second period class, a former student of mine in 5th grade passed me in the hall and said, “Mr. Renard, we used Classflow in history today. My teacher forgot to put us in classes but it was still cool.” Oh no! Tech can be hard, and if it doesn’t work some will walk away quickly. I raced down to my colleague's room. “How’s it going?”

“Good, I didn’t have them in classes. But I worked it out.” She quickly explained and in my head I did the Perfect Strangers dance of joy (how many get that reference, Adam?).

She later reported the lesson getting better each time she used it. I was so proud and excited for her. It was also really encouraging to me.

The second part of this story comes from a different Social Studies teacher. We serve bathroom duty between lunch periods. Monday she looked at me and said, “It is gorgeous outside, we should go outside. How can we get outside?” Suddenly, in my head the Dave Burgess (@burgessdave on Twitter) Pirate light kicked on. 

“Well, what are you talking about in class?” Westward expansion was her reply. We batted a few ideas back and forth and she seemed very excited about her outdoor lesson. In truth, I was really excited for her and her class (and jealous I couldn’t participate. I miss multiple subjects sometimes). I caught up with her a few times during the day for updates. Each time she shared that it was going well, finishing the day with a funny story about a student's suggestion to go Westward to West Hall, the other building of our campus. We laughed. It was a lot of fun.

These two, and others are making me feel much more like part of the team and I really appreciate them for it. As I heard Principal El (@Principal_EL on Twitter) say recently in an interview with the guys at Kids Deserve It, “Teamwork makes the dream work.” Reach out and be great.

Battling Self Doubt

We have reached Christmas break! It is a wonderful time. There are many things that this two week block is good for. One of those things is reflecting. So, as I take this opportunity to write some new posts, the first thing I want to touch on is being unsure about yourself. Quick history lesson: I have failed before. Like, in a job, fallen flat on my face and needed to change/find a new job. It was rough. It hurt. It impacted me a lot. This has created, at times, doubt in myself. That same self doubt will then push me to seek the approval of peers. Calling it what it is, this is pride, and frankly, it usually makes me feel stupid.

Students using Fruit Loops to identify ratios...that's a good idea, right?

I am not the only person out there who struggles with this. There are a lot of people that we affect in and through our classrooms. I think that because of this we want to do our absolute best, and for varying reasons, some of us don’t know that our best is good enough. Whether we are new, trying something different, struggling to find a way to communicate a concept, or feeling the weight of data, there are a lot of reasons to feel unsure of oneself. 

Here is the thing, we don’t need to feel this way. We need to understand that we are gifted at this. There is something in you that made you want to do this job, that is an area of strength for you. It may be the content and how well you know it and LOVE it (I am looking at you English buffs and History nuts). You might just be really good at communicating with the age group you work with. Like the Kindergarten whispers out there who get five year olds to go from no knowledge of the concept of words to stringing them together to create sentences with meaning. You might know how to harness creativity; your own or those around you. You can turn something mundane into a frenzy that pushes your kids into the halls to sing the wonders of snowmen dying as matter changes from one form to the next. Whatever it is, in these three, you have a foundation. Trust that about yourself and build from there. 

Next, we, the unsure, must trust the response of our target. This can through assessment, student reflection, or just plain seeming enjoyment of an activity or class period. On my best weeks, I use any combination of the 2. Enjoyment is easy with most kids. Smiles, intensity, or just flat out engaged in what we are doing. It is anecdotal. Conclusions lend themselves to reflection. With new concepts I usually give a…

3 things you learned

2 questions you have

1 thing you think I should know

Something that simple can be the difference maker.

That leaves assessment, which can be a question sample at closure, morning/bell work the next day, or waiting for the test depending on your time frame. Look at the data, folks. Don’t obsess over what it says about you, but use it as a tool for what your kids need. Last I checked, education is still over testing kids. There are signs of improvement, but that is where we are. So take the cracked eggs and make a delicious omelet, where you know what the class needs and you adjust to meet those needs.

Finally, trust or adjust. If the response you elicit is good, you can trust that you did well. If not, then make the adjustment that is best for your room based on the need of your students. Unsurity is a tricky beast, but you got this. I’ve got this. We’ve got this. And trusting that will make ourselves, our rooms, and schools better.

Molding an Understanding of the Properties

Eye's went wide.

"What?! Playdoh!"

"No way!"

There was a sense of joy. A swapping of colors. I looked at each of my four groups of students and said, "You got four minutes to build whatever you want." It was a great warm up for what was to come. Anything from pancakes to elephants. Kids spelling out their names or making sculptures of themselves.  Creativity abound. In hindsight, the pancakes were probably failed something elses.

When the four minutes was up, I gave the kids a few examples of the Identity Property of Addition (3 + 0 = 3 and h + 0 = h). "What does identity mean?" Hands shot up to tell me it is who you are. "How does that relate here?" Hands again, the number wants to stay the same. Yes! 

"Great, now I want you to make your own version of the identity property using whatever you can create as your variable. Go!"

There was a moment of blinking as the wheels turned. Every class struggled for a few seconds to grasp exactly what I meant. Then, BOOM, magic. Again, amazing amounts of creativity, only this time it was being filtered through math. It was awesome.

We repeated this process with the Identity Property of Multiplication (8 x 1 = 8 and t x 1 = t). Now there was a bit more confidence. The students made some amazing things (displayed below). Then we compared the two different properties identifying similarities and differences. Students discussed it at their tables, wrote out an answer, and then shared what they came up with. It was a great lesson. A couple weeks removed, I can also say that it had a lasting effect. Students have taken two assessments since then and have done very well with the properties questions. Score one for creativity. Enjoy the pictures.

OOOOOOHHHH!

Bowties are cool.

No buddy suspects a thing. Can't pass up an OctoDad reference.

Slowly, slowly, slowly says the snail.

In eye popping 3D!

And last, do you wanna build a snowman?

Classflow Tuesday's

I will never forget what my father told me when I was 16 years old. I was learning to drive, and though he may not remember it, these words have held true  to me and been applicable in many facets of life that do not involve cars. "Son," he said, "you have to realize that the car is an extension of who you are, but you still control it."  This is how I feel about Classflow.

Classflow is the Promethean people's new-ish product. I always describe it as what would happen if Active Inspire and Google Docs had a kid. In November of 2014, my Elementary principle sent me to a training session and I never looked back. That may be a bit of hyperbole, I am constrained by the limits of technological availability, but you work with what you have. 

Using Classflow adds an air of excitement to the room. Today, I used it to introduce key words about integers to my students. They would copy down a definition, discuss it with their neighbor, then provide examples of what they thought it might mean through the iPads or laptops. Here is the catch, I was then able to populate the screen with their examples. This allowed us, as a class, to discuss each example and correct it if necessary. Because of the way I took the feed back, the students remained anonymous and were therefore less afraid of making mistakes.

Later in the lesson, I had students come up with a situation that could be represented by a positive or negative integer. This time the students names were displayed proudly. I drew Popsicle sticks from my Bag of Fairness (an amazing Legend of Zelda satchel), and had that student read it and provide the answer. If something was off about their example, we discussed it, allowing students to make suggestions about how to improve it.

To close the lesson, I had students complete a small, very basic, four question quiz that I put together in the presentation. The data is saved on the website for me to pull up and see what I need to review tomorrow before we begin talking about comparing and ordering integers. Super nice in this data driven world we call home. 

What does this all have to do with my Dad's story about the car being an extension of who you are? It is simple. Classflow, and all edtech really, is best utilized when we do so as an extension of who we are in the classroom. I would have done most of this in more basic forms of interaction today with or without Classflow's help. However, the program let me reach more kids. It gave more of my students a voice. It allowed us, as a class, to grow together and help one another. It is the vehicle, but I am still driving...with the windows open...rocking out...to Meat Loaf...And I would do anything for love! Oh, I would do anything for love! Oh, I would do anything for love! But I won't do that!

Anywho, if you are interested in Classflow, check them out at Classflow.com. It is pretty amazing. Just remember to get into the pool at your own pace. I recommend starting slowly with a basic chart and getting some student responses. You will be surprised how much excitement something so simple will add to your room.