Update

So it looks like this may be a good time to update my Professional site....

It's not about me or you; it's about the kids learning

We are at that time of the year where we start making financial decisions, human resource decisions and changes to the school's look and appearance. We need to continue to focus on what's best for kids and their future? Many times we focus on what is best (easier or comfortable) for the adults, it makes us feel good and "we have always done it that way".

We are in the process of making changes to our learning spaces and classrooms. Often in discussions are focused on what the educator wants to do to make it easier or safer for them as the leaders of the learning and not always focused on how to support the child and their learning, because if they are not the focus then who is it benefiting? As we explore the world that are children are going into it looks much different then the one I entered 18 years ago...

With changes there is resistance, confusion and doubts that the changes will yield their tended results.  I am excited about our flexible learning commons; we are moving away from a traditional library with books and setting spaces. This is an area where we would like students to collaborate discuss and learn together or by themselves. We have continued to tweak the furniture, layout and look of the space. More importantly the content and resources inside the space. We have added wonder walls and discussion boards, along with more updates devices and books.

I am also excited about the learning space changing to a maker space for all students. Like any change we need to focus on how is it going to benefit students learning and creativity. This includes content/learning outcomes, opportunity to be creative and solve problems as well as being able to articulate ones thoughts....oh things are changing but the changes are to support student learning not to make out job easier?

Learner Agents

The past few years our education system and needs have continued to change as our society has changed. We have moved from an industrial age to the digital age...as we look around our world we are more mobile, digital and have information overload (*by 2007, 94 percent of information was digital, meaning that the world's digital information alone would overshoot the moon if stored on CD-ROM. It would stretch 280,707.5 miles (451,755 km)). We are now able retrieve facts, information, formulas at our fingertips. We as learners will need to take this information and do something with it.

With this change in ability to retrieve information we need to shift our learning for our students from recalling facts to being able to do something with facts and data. The term learner agency is defined as:  **when learners have “the power to act”.  Agency is when learning involves the activity and the initiative of the learner, more than the inputs that are transmitted to the learner from the teacher, from the curriculum, the resources and so forth. In the past our schools have catered mostly for groups of learners, for classes of kids, with a one size fits all approach. Arguably, many students felt disenfranchised in the midst of that, as they just had to sit and do what they were told. Lessons were delivered to students who were passive in the way that they received that. When learners move from being passive recipients to being much more active in the learning process, actively involved in the decisions about the learning, then they have greater agency - per Core Education.com Core-ed. 

At Underwood Elementary our mission is to provide a relevant and engaging education that will graduate students who are collaborative, creative, effective communicators and critical thinkers. Last year in an effort to increase our digital capabilities we piloted BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) in eleven of our classrooms. This year we will have over 20 classrooms utilizing BYOD in their learning. Along with an increase in digital use, many of our classrooms are getting makeovers in their seating and learning appearance. Remake your classroom to support collaborative learning is taking place in many of our classrooms to increase collaboration, support individual learners, and provide choice for students. We are utilizing Google Classroom, Google Application, Genuis Hour, Makerspace, and other tools/resources to support students' learning.

How are you creating a learner agency in your school?

*http://www.livescience.com

**Core-ed.org

First GAFE

I just completed my first Google Apps for Education Summit this week and as with many of these events I leave with lots of items rolling around in my head...

First idea, the power of voice, choice and telling our stories. I have spent the last year working on telling my story and telling the story of the school that I have the honor of leading and I am more energize in helping students and teachers voice their stories.

Celebrating the great things at school!

Who is telling your school's story?

Who is telling your story?

• Power of Twitter -- tshillings
• Website - Underwoodes

Second item was continued focus on being a supporter of learner driven learning environment. This will require reflection on our school spaces. We are looking at our hallways, common areas, classrooms for seating, collaborative areas, independent learning, etc.

For all of this reflections and learning opportunities there needs to be a balance.

Reading Lists

Summer Time, is a time to reflect, recharge, and rejuvenate my mission to support students continuous learning. This month I have chosen to read three books to support my brainstorming ideas. I highly recommend these books:

1. Kids Deserve It!

by Todd Nesloney (@techNijaTodd) and Adam Welcome  (@awelcome). This book highlights the importance of what is best for Kids. It puts the focus back on what is best for kids! It also provides examples and idea starters in creating an school learning environment with the students at the center.

• Relationships matter 
• Visit students homes 
• "we have to view every child as a seed waiting to bloom"
• #kidsdererveit 
• "get off the island and start collaborating".

 2.  Innovators Mindset

by George Courous - This book exemplifies the importance of relationships, reflection on the ways we think, and building trust with the learning communities. "The world only cares about--and pays off on -- what you can do with what you know (and it doesn't care how you learned it)".

• competitive collaboration 
• 8 things to look for in Today's Classroom -- pg 111
• I Learn (via Krissy Venosdale) 
• Creativity is where we start to think differently, and innovation is where creativity comes to life #innovatorsMindset

3. Launch

by John Spencer and AJ Juilani - This book provides a modeled design to create collaborative, innovative, and critical thinking learning model.

• Look, Listen, and Learn - Ask Lots of Questions - Understand the Problem or Process - Navigate Ideas - Create - Highlight What's Working and Failing 
• We all creative and provides strategies to support this in classrooms of all ages 
• Often the Labels kids receive become the lies that they believe 
• Ask TONS of questions
• "If school is meant to prepare people for real life, then why doesn't school look like real life?" - Bo Adams 

These books continue to reinforce the importance of creating a learning environment that is built on relationships, innovation/asking critical thinking questions, and putting the students first (and a part) of the learning process.

How to build a collaborative culture

"There is no I in team...two heads are better than one..." these are cliches that speak to working in a team, but what is true collaboration and how do we support our young learners in working with their peers emotionally, socially, and intellectually?  We are working with our students on how to work with others, but before they can work in a group it is important to for them to know their strengths and ways that they learn the best. In our fifth grade classrooms we have students take surveys to see how they learn and what some of their strengths are so they can know how they will help a group and where they may need some help themselves.

What is collaboration? - Collaborate is defined as “to work, one with another; cooperate, as on a literary work”. Collaboration is different than group work...think of a time that you worked in a group. Was there one person that did most of the work, one person that didn't listen to everyone else and one person that wasn't interested in being a part of the group? Our students are learning to being an active part of a collaborative team. At times they are given specific roles to ensure that all are involved, other times students divide up the work, or they are grouped based on their determined skill set to support the group with their strengths.

What characteristics are needed to have a collaborative culture? Trust, being open to ideas, having a safe space, a tough skin, and being open to feedback and discussions. How do you create or provide a learning environment that supports these characteristics? It starts by building relationships with your students, but just as important are the students building relationships with each other. This is done through tools to support conflict resolution, learning about their feelings and how to positively express them, and practicing team work in a variety of settings prior to them being expected to work together. We are giving and providing the tools to support collaboration and not just expecting students to play nice with each other.

What are the tools needed to create a learning environment that supports and encourages collaboration?  Time, space and people. We will continue to provide students with the opportunity to collaborate with their peers in a variety of settings and purposes.

Digital tools - Join me, Google Apps, Skype, Google +, Google Hangout, Projector Apple TV or Chromecast to showcase the product that you are working on to the group. If you are using a Google Application such as Drive (document) collaborators are able to see the changes as they happen or through the comments section in the document.

Collaboration is essential for our students to be successful in school, but also in their future pursuits.

 

Makerspace in Elementary Schools

We are very excited about our previous computer lab being transformed into a Makerspace. The new space will benefit students’ learning and creativity including content/learning outcomes, an opportunity to be creative and solve problems as well as being able to articulate ones thoughts. 

Makerspace is space for students to be creative in solving a problem. Students use a variety of objects, tools, and technology to create a solution.  Mrs. Trowell's first quarter School News Elective has created a wish list:  items needed for Makerspace start up. Problems come in many forms and we are wanting with our students with their use critical thinking in a problem solving. Students will be planning, designing and creating their solutions. 

Some Examples near us and additional information.

Hunt Library, NC State

The Forge

Success

What is success?

I was asked recently what I felt success looks like for our students. Success to me is when a student is confident in their ability to work through a problem with others and prepared for challenges that may come in the act of solving that problem. This doesn’t always look the same in every subject or grade but the characteristics and skills are similar. Success isn’t a student’s ability to break the test code or how fast they can read a grade level problem, rather it is using grit to work through a challenging situation, seek out assistance from experts when they have questions and the perseverance to figure out the solution or answer to the problem.

True success is the ability to persevere, articulate ideas and solutions, collaborate and reflect on the learning that is taking place and hopefully learning from mistakes. This is the success that I am working towards for all our students and teachers. This type of learning outcome is something that we will continue to strive for daily! We are continuously preparing our students to be problem solvers, building their grit and learning to work hard until the best solution is figured out.

We are at that time of the year where we start making financial and human resource decisions and changes to the school’s appearance. We are in the process of making changes to our learning spaces and classrooms. Often our discussions are focused on what the educator wants to do to make it easier or safer for them as the leaders of the learning and not always focused on how to support the child and their learning, but if they are not the focus then who is it benefiting? We need to continue to focus on what's best for our students and their future.

  

How do you learn and grow as an educator?

We are continuously trying to improve our teaching and to increase our students’ learning for various reasons, which include increasing test scores, improving our evaluation standards and most importantly to prepare our students for their ever changing world.  But what is the best way for educators to learn?  For many years it has been a speaker or company coming to the schools or trainings and going through a presentation (Death by PowerPoint) to all of the educators in the room.  This goes against everything that we preach is effective teaching and shouldn’t professional development be a learning opportunity?

I remember one of my first professional development opportunities that I had where I felt like a traditional student and less like an educator. I was in my second year teaching and I was attending a county supported running record workshop.  As I sat in the training the presenter spoke about the how to’s and what to look for.  The problem was that I had the responsibility of completing 75 running records the year before. Was this a benefit for my learning, maybe, but it would have benefited me more to talk to my peers about what they do after the running records to talk about mistakes that I may have made, because my first year teaching I made LOTS of mistakes.

Last week I had the opportunity to attend #NCTies15 to listen to speakers and talk with peers about their learning and how they were growing their craft. I hope that #edcamps continues to take off and we move away from the traditional sit and get workshop that is a one sided discussions. What I liked about the NCTIES workshops is that many of them moved away from the power point and one-sided discussions and incorporated back channeling (a way to ask questions and discussion without taking away from the presentation). There were discussion boards, resources to try out with others, and more network connecting to build off of the two-day workshop.  Many times when we leave a PD training or workshop we don’t continue to reflect and evaluate what we heard or worked on in the training. We usually just go back to our comfort zone. We as educators need to continue to surround ourselves with people that will ask questions, challenge our thinking and support us in our continuous growth. 

How do you assess your students learning? Summative and Formative assessments in Elementary Schools

A couple of weeks ago I was listing to a #EDCHAT podcast on assessments (formative and summative) while running on the treadmill (one of the best ways I have found to get past the boredom) and it made me think more about how we assess our students in schools.  A few of the discussion points focused on standardized assessments based on geographic locations whether it was an end of course/grade or ISTEP.  These assessments are the most natural summative assessments as teachers and school leaders do not receive scores that impact the students’ learning and most of the data is very vague in assisting with the planning process.  This just strengthens our need to have a way to assess our students that impacts our teaching and more importantly their learning. 

At #NCTIES2015 I had the opportunity to hear from a group of educators from Flat Rock Elementary in Surry County who shared their top 8 ways to assess without a formal test. Here are some of them (I added in Socrative)

Some great tools to use:

QR Codes codes

kubbu (have to log every 180 days) --

Google Forms infuselearning.com

Socrative – 3 types of ways of giving the assessments – self paced, groups paced, or teacher paced

Plickers - no ipad app yet just phone

Evernote

Jeopardy Labs - create jeopardy games with up to 12 teams

Kahoot

All of these tools are good to use with kids, but to truly be a formative assessment and impact learning students need to receive immediate feedback.  Feedback needs to be more than “good or not correct”.  Each of these tools starts the conversation but isn’t the whole conversation.  It is important for our teachers to create assessments that start the conversation and then have the power to extend the assessments and not just move to the next question.  If you just move on the next questions are teachers needed?  I continue to see more and more nicely wrapped educational software and sites that will “fix” students.  Many of these sites are neat and provide great practice for students, but do we want to teach our students through a one-sided computer?  

I hope not…

Collaboration

What is collaboration? - Collaborate is defined as to work, one with another; cooperate, as on a literary work: Collaboration is defined as a product resulting from collaboration:

What characteristic are needed to have a collaborative culture? Trust, open to ideas, safe space, tough skin, open to feedback and discussions,

What are the tools needed to create a learning environment that supports and encourages collaboration?  time, space and people

tools - join me, Google Apps, Skype, Google +, Google Hangout. Projector Apple TV or Chrome cast, to showcase the product that you are working on to the group. If you are using a Google Application such as Drive (document) collaborators are able to see the changes as they happen or through the comments section in the document.



 How do you collaborate successful?

Using data to drive instruction

Am I a pessimistic when I say that I don't agree with just looking at an end of grade test score or an SAT score and saying this student needs x,y, and z?  Maybe this comes from my history as a student that didn't score high enough on his ITBS and had to go to summer school in fifth grade....maybe its the fact that my life rarely consists of multiple choice problems.  Yes I do have, "I want to go out to dinner to either Boston Market, Panera, or Jet's Pizza", but I wouldn't call that a problem more of a luxury. 

I value the day to day assessments, the quick check/quiz, and multiple facet assignments.  I would like to see more using Interactive Clickers / response systems (socrative.com, http://www.einstruction.com/ and http://smarttech.com/response).   There are many applications that (IXL, Study Island) support students in a day to day, real life problem solving tool.  There are also companies that have devices (Scantron) that make it easy to score and analyze results. 

We need to continue to assess our students, programs, and teaching methods in a effective manner, but let's broaden our scope to more then just a one three hour test in May (or June for year round schools).  With constant discussion about students' progress (or lack of) we will be able to have a true picture of how effective our teaching really is or isn't for our students.  

Instructional Practice

Many times I think about what an ideal classroom looks like and what would students be working on in this learning environment?  I think back to when I was in the classroom and the transformation for web 1.0 to web 2.0.  For the record 1.0 web tools are linear, app based, isolated, singular and focused on copy right content and web 2.0 is a more fluid learning opportunity that is web based, collaborative work and shared content.

Real world examples...my first thought as a former avid gamer is the evolution of the game Zelda to World of Warcraft.  Zelda is a task by task game that is based on the designers of the game controlling the order we played the game at our house. Fast forward to the World of Warcraft where you create your character, decide the tasks that you want to play, join other people across the world on-line and is collaborative in nature.  Another example is the change in the stuffed animal to the Webkinz.  Children moved from playing with dolls in isolation or with one friend to moving to an online site where you can create your animal and play with others.

How does all of this apply to a school's learning environment?  In literacy we have seen the change from the basal readers reading together and having pre-created questions that are discussed as a whole class to guided reading groups that have leveled text written responses that are shared with the teacher or oral responses shared with the group.  The goal would be to expand that to sharing out within a collaborative school.  This can be done via a Voki or VoiceThread, students can write their information via a blog (EduBlog and Edmodo), or you can take a picture of the written responses and post them. It is important after this is posted that the students converse about their responses and have continued conversations about their responses and reflections. 

In math it is a move from rote numeration using apps or sites such as Pop Math to students' communication such as math talks and explanations both oral and written.  As mentioned by Tony Wagner "its not what you know, it's what you do with what you know".

Other suggestions for science and social studies include changing from students memorizing items such as information about North Carolina or landforms to utilizing project based learning and active learning working with teams.  Some of the best examples involve students creating essential questions and being given the opportunity to use these essential questions to create presentations and products within a student group.

We will need to continue to move our instructional practice and assignments to opportunities that require students to collaborate, communicate, problem solve and think critically. No easy task, but what in life comes easy?

Engagement during learning

At the end of this post you will receive a prize if you can answer the questions correctly... Do I have your attention now, are you more willing to be engaged in the post?

Engagement is explained by Newmann, F. (1992) as "students make a psychological investment in learning. They try hard to learn what school offers. They take pride not simply in earning the formal indicators of success (grades), but in understanding the material and incorporating or internalizing it in their lives". There is ritualized engagement, because I am taught to pay attention and give eye contact. Then there is authentic engagement, which means that I am tuned in without distractions and truly want to be there.  How does one create an environment that is engaging and thriving with learning?

There are a couple of factors that I think are important in creating a learning environment that supports students' engagement and interest. There needs to be clear expectations for the working process and end product or results.  Without purpose or clarity it is easy to lose students and become disengaged in the learning environment. As learners we need and are driven by feedback as shown in many articles and sites such as 7 keys to feedback and 20 ways to provide feedback.  The common theme is that specific, timely and attainable feedback leads to growth.  

How does technology support learners' engagement whether it is a child or an adult? For my learning, it opens up a world that I would not have been able to access if it weren't for the internet and the many places that it would take me.  I also would not be able to create products due to inability from a lack of knowledge or equipment.  This could be a laptop, camera, app, or any other device that allows me to do something more than I can do with a pen and pencil. 

Morning News Program

We are very excited about our Morning News Show. In previous years we had a morning show that was a live broadcast with our fifth grade students that required a lot of prepping by adults prior to the viewing of the show.  As our equipment aged out and staffing changed we need to rethink how we did things and as the students said "make it more fun and exciting".  We moved to a prerecorded show that had many different segments, anchors/reporters, and added some more "fun" to our show.

Our Morning News Crew Leaders --

Jean Monroe and Emily Harkey have done a great job of providing students with the opportunities to create the morning news.

Created by Green Cloth and Screen

- Our morning news shows are compiled through iMovie using videos of recorded segments by the students and Mrs. Monroe.

Mac using iMovie

On site recording using iPads...We use three to rotate throughout the week.
- at the lake
- Meet Ms. Pakes
- In Admin office

We use a computer as our teleprompter with all of our information stored into the Drive Account set up for the Morning News Crew.

Apps Needed:
Green Screen by Do Ink ($2.99)

Safe Share via You Tube link -- http://safeshare.tv

What motivates you?

What motivates someone to do something?  Is it peer pressure, authoritative power, self-motivations or something completely different?  In Daniel Pink's Drive  or a Great visual of Drive he speaks to the lack of success of the carrot and the stick.  If the fact is that increased rewards don't equal increased success why do we do this in our schools?  I wonder about this topic as I work with students in their classrooms, the new adults coming into our work force and our teachers in our every changing education system.

How are students motivated to learn?  We change their curriculums, their grade level expectations, and the devices they use to solve things and they continue to "complete the assignments".  Many students complete these assignments because they are told to do so by the authoritative figure (i.e. the teacher).  I find it interesting that many teachers will tell me that the times that they had a student's attention was during a certain type of activity usually involving working with peers creating something (visual, audio, paper/pencil, with a device).

As I am sure I am at least two generations removed from the generation of students that are entering the work force I find it interesting to hear about people's expectations and motivations in the world.  With social media, 24/7 video/news, and always being linked in many new employees need constant praise and attention. We are working with the trophy generation, children that have always been told that they are "great", they will earn a ribbon/trophy for their effort, and that things come easy.  I have found that this it is difficult to figure out what motivates these individuals.  Is their motivation to seek approval from their peers or bosses or is it what they get from completing a task?  As a person that works on many tasks throughout the day and week I don't expect a "way to go" for all of the tasks that I complete, my motivation is to mark it off my list and move to the next item.

In our education system with over worked and underpaid teachers, support staff and administrators it comes down to doing what you love.  As mentioned in a July article in the Huffington Post If you are motivated by Money and Power you will fail.  This essay speaks to the fact that most educators are driven and motivated to come to work and work with students because they love what they do.  When I went into education it was beaten over my head that I wouldn't get rich and would not be compensated for my craft. Many of my peers in college saw that this was not a life that they wanted to pursue and switched majors.  As I have worked in a school system for the past fourteen years I have seen many of my peers leaving the education system.  I would say many of them enjoyed working with students, but at some point they lost their passion or love for teaching.  Did they lose their motivation?

I look at what motivates me....I am motivated by a sense of accomplishment for a task I marked off my list, a teacher getting a resource that they need to be effective, a student getting a great result on their project or test that they worked hare on and my two children learning something new or being able to do something on their own....is it enough motivation?

Tech Hardware man in AP role

So these last three weeks have been quite interesting in our year round school.  Due to budget cuts, we were unable to rehire our technology assistant for this school year.  So I have had the dubious honor of filling in that role.  Let's just say that it has been a learning curve and an eye opening experience.  I love technology and I love using it, but I am not a big fan of fixing it.  I have learned about network printing, smart board wiring, and a variety of computer errors.  I am fortunate to have the "help desk" to help out, but I received an email from them that they are backed up with a high volume of request (hmmm sorry). Now that I have "fixed" repaired most of the problems it is time to start using the technology with teachers and students.

One things that we would like to work with is  Live streaming of our morning news, events, performances, etc.  We feel that this would provide our extended families and traveling family members the opportunity to see are wonderful performances even if they are not on site.

Another area that I would like to model for teachers to use with students is the creating and presenting apps or sites.  We are using imovie, puppet pals, prezi, voice threads, and etc.

Lastly, as a school leader I would like to dive into podcasting and video chatting (or google groups) as a way to send out information.

It's funny that I started this in August and it seems like we have made some strides in the areas of concerns...We have been able to convert our studio news into a student ran show that uses a mini ipad and a mac air to create and edit their segments of the show.  Students are able to do interviews, report out and create the news using iMovie.
On the administrator side we create a weekly vlog to share out school news.  We are also adding in the video portion of the news into our daily world.

Bookmarking using Diigo

This is a short attempt on How to Book Mark sites and blogs in one place to be able to retrieve as needed anywhere.  Take a look....

How to Diigo (not Dougie)..

My Diigo Page -- https://www.diigo.com/user/tjshillings21/teaching?type=all&sort=updated

iPads in the Classroom

As we have moved our iPads from a central location to the classrooms, as a team we are now trying to manage, organize and streamline our iPad apps.  As a school, we have over 200 apps that do a variety of things many of them were replacing the paper pencil practice.  Is this the best use of this type of technology device?

The iPad is a creating, presenting and displaying tool that enhances the students thinking and creation.  From Edu Creations, keynote to Show Me and Sock Puppets has allowed students to use their knowledge of a variety of skills to teach other students.  This is the higher level thinking tools that we would like to provide for our students.  

Take a look at our 3-5 Profile.  What apps would you add to support technology integration?

Building a Collaborative Team

One of the joys of my job is teaching teachers how to utilize a variety of technology tools and applications.  The past few months, we have been focusing EdModo.  For those unfamiliar with Edmodo, it is Facebook for educators.   EdModo you make "connections" instead of "friends".  You also build you're learning community and not "catch up with others".   As we discuss this type of platform (this is my second school that I have lead this discussion), I reflect on collaborative teams and learning with and from others.

It is interesting to me to see how quickly and easily I can send out a question and get a response.  I also find I only get what I put into a site like this.  If I am a "lurker" or an "observer" I am able to see collaboration and discussion, but I am not a part of it.  I know that in the early part of my teaching career, this is how I felt in real world (not the virtual world).   Do we do enough talking and discussing with each other and not at each other?

Many of the team meetings that I was in as a teacher and now as an administrator, the facilitator or the team members gave out their information to the team and ask for little feedback or thoughts.  It was more of "I have the floor and I am going to say everything I need to say".  Many times upon reflection I would say, "Why not put that in an email, memo, or on the announcements?".

In the past couple years as a facilitator and a team member, I have attempted to gather input and feedback from others only to hear crickets..  Is this a product of what we know or is it easier to stand back and listen?  Are we worried about hurting each other's feeling?  Or is a matter of trust...if I say something to my administrator are they going to come down on me?

When we have the conversation of "things to think about, what if..., have you thought about...," we begin to create a school culture that values others opinions, we gain ownership in the decisions, and we become vested in the decision and not doing it because "we were told to do it".  This is not an easy, nor quick process.  It also requires a sense of professionalism and what's best for the school.  Educators tend to see criticism or questions, as a reflection on themselves or their worth and not as a way to make create the best solution.  Dr. Steven Covey speaks a lot about "seek to understand, before seeking to be understood" and if we seek to understand that we are in the business of student success then discussions become less personable and more productive and solutions oriented.