Light vs. Heavy Coaching

What makes someone better at something?   Is it staying complacent, comfortable and repeating the same things over and over?    No.   When you question what you do, reflect, and feel uncomfortable you will move forward.   I was reading a blog about moving forward every day, (see that blog here) and it made me reflect on my coaching practice.
Our district is very lucky to have the support of coaches from the Learning Forward group.   This group creates the standards for coaching and reflective practices.   One thing that we learn about is heavy vs. light coaching.
There are many roles that you can have as a coach.   Everything from finding new tools, to providing reflective feedback with teachers.   You can watch a video on the hats that I wear as a coach in Decatur Public Schools.  If you are a light coach, you will do tasks like looking for resources, and modeling lessons.  These things can help to support teachers but there is typically not a lot of deep conversation and reflection.   If you are coaching heavy you are more likely to be co-teaching and observing lessons, followed by some deeper questions.   This type of coaching really pushes teachers to reflect on their practice and make some deep changes that can really change the way a classroom looks.

Heavy coaching can be hard but rewarding.

As I sit and reflect on MY coaching practice, I want to move toward being more of a heavy coach.   When I look at myself I know that I typically shy away from conflict and really do want to make the people around me happy.   This is something I am working on both personally and professionally.   In my professional life, this trait pushes me more toward light coaching.  That is not going to help my schools reflect and move forward.   It makes me uncomfortable to make this push and this change, but I know that being uncomfortable is the first step in making change.   As a change agent, this is my responsibility.
So I ask you, do you coach heavy or light?   if you are a teacher do you reflect on your practice?  If you are an administrator are you happy with the status quo or do you push for excellence?  Join me in my push for change, and excellence!

Hang onto your conference Buzz

Learning together can continue
beyond the conference!

I am starting to wrap up my last session at EdCamp Saint Louis.   If you haven't been to an EdCamp before I would highly recommend it!   This conference is free for educators and highly interactive.   Sessions are decided upon that day, and they are more about the conversation than the presenting giving information.   Because of that, the best part of this type of conference is the connection that you can make with other like minded teachers!
With this conference, as many others, it is easy to go to a conference get excited and then completely leave everything behind.   To make conferences worthwhile it is important that you can hang onto that 'conference buzz'  Here are some ideas on how to hang onto that.

Connect with others on twitter and check in.
There are so many amazing people to meet and chat with.   Keep the conversation going!   Twitter is awesome for keeping connections with others going.   Be sure not to just take their twitter handle, but also make the commitment to going BACK onto twitter and read, share and comment!

Choose one thing to try/continue to learn about
There is a lot to learn and a lot of new ideas.   Don't get overwhelmed!! Choose one thing to commit to and try out, research more, commit to using.  Don't try to do it all, you will get overwhelmed.   Dig deep on one thing well!!

Thanks for tuning in and keep learning!!

Why I Love Feedly

Want to learn more but don't have time to hunt?   Find a great blog but lost the site?   Well then my friends, Feedly is for you!
At this year's IETC conference I spent some time in a session all about RSS feeds.   RSS feeds make your life easier.   What they do is keep a website link the RSS feed constantly updates and bring you the newest articles or blogs at that site kind of like a newspaper.   There are many RSS Feed Sites, but I love Feedly.   Feedly links with your Google account which is great.   One less username and password for you to remember.   My Feedly is organized also by categories.   Makes it easier for me to find my Techie blogs, recipes, and everything inbetween.
If you would like to learn more about how to use Feedly read my blog HERE and HERE .
Go out there, set up a feedly and start reading!

My first time Presenting at IETC

Yesterday I had my first experience presenting at a conference.  The past three days have been the Illinois Educational Technology Conference, IETC 13. I have presented at district wide conferences but this was my first session where I was not familiar with my audience.  It was a. Fantastic experience!

I, along with a teacher from a school that I work at presented on using Twitter in the classroom.  Basically a says to harness Twitter and inspire your students.   You can find the presentation here. 

As I reflect on my session, I feel as thought he experience was equally beneficial to those that attended and for me!   I stretched myself a little that day.  Of course it was great to collaborate with a fellow educator to create the session, butt he end of our session was an opportunity to share ways that the participants thought they could apply Twitter in their rooms.   We also created a google form to gather everyone's contact info so we could stay continued beyond the conference and hopefully follow each others' classes on Twitter.  

So my challenge to all you readers.  Especially the teachers out there.  Figure out what you are passionate about and find a conference to present at!   Many of you have something worth sharing so do it!  I guarantee you will find it rewarding!

**shameless plug you can find me at ICE 2014 METC 2014 and cross your fingers for ISTE 2014

Connected Educators

Happy Connected Educator's Month!  If you didn't know before you know now, October is Connected Educator's Month.  Its time to reach out to educators, build your Professional Learning Network (PLN) to learn and share with others.  In honor of Connected Educator's Month I will share some of the ways that I connect with others.  Feel free to try one, all or any sampling of the ways.

 Twitter
Anyone who knows me will tell you I love Twitter!  You can follow me @techiechrissie.  The reason that I love Twitter is that its a source of constant sharing, learning, and support, if you do it right.  A great place to start is by following some awesome people.  If you are looking to add a few to your PLN try @mattbgomez @Shyj @tbbrwn @msellis61 @craigyen @stumpteacher @justintarte .  These are just a few of the hundreds of thousands of amazing educators on Twitter.  Start by reading tweets and links attached.  Favorite the ones your like.  When you are feeling brave, reply and comment!  If you are interested more about how to use Twitter to connect with educators read my blog here.


Google +
Google + is a community online through gmail accounts.   Mine is techiechrissie@gmail.com.  You can search for hashtags similarly to Twitter, join communities, and save contacts into circles.  I have used Google + to seek out resources and support on things I am working on.  I have also shared things that have worked for people who are looking for support as well.  On Google + you can type more than 140 characters which is helpful.  Search for communities and join them to stay connected.  To start out I would recommend searching a topic you are interested in, then add those people to your circles.  Some communities to get started with are teachers helping teachers  and teachers loving technology.

Feedly
I use Feedly to manage my blogs that I read.  Its basically a place that holds blogs with an RSS feed and holds them kind of like a newspaper.  When i find a blogger on Twitter or Google + that I think is interesting i will copy their blog link and paste it into my Feedly.  Now the blog is saved and will keep all of the posts there.  Some grade blogs to start with right off the bat are http://www.freetech4teachers.com/  http://diaryofatechiechick.blogspot.com/   http://www.twoguysandsomeipads.com/  http://mattbgomez.com/blog/


Go forth and get connected!!

My Favorite Part of Edcamp

Connecting at edcamp is half the fun!

This past weekend I was able to go to my first edcamp with an instructional coach from my district. (Find her on blogger here, and follower here on twitter here.)  The goal was to learn more about the format, meet some awesome people, and learn.  We were able to accomplish all of our goals.  It was an awesome experience and I loved every moment.  I wanted to blog about the experience but I needed some time to reflect on the experience.  What I came up with was this, connecting with other educators was awesome!
The best part of edcamp was the opportunity to connect, reflect and share with others who were passionate about education.  Heck, we were all there for a full day of learning on a Saturday!  The instructional coach and I reached out and shared in conversation with others and edcamp is a great platform to do this.  We were sure to provide a google form for our session so that we could all stay connected after the day was over.
Half of the learning of professional development is the learning that will continue after the conference is over and that's what I got out of edcamp.   When you attend a session of professional development do you extend your learning?  Set up a follow up session with your district's professional development providers, connect with teachers at your grade level to carry on what you've learned, be sure to meet new people at each session you attend.  When you connect and continue that's when real learning happens.
And if you get the oppurtunity to go to an edcamp, GO!

Another class of bloggers

We are ready to share our blogs!

We have another class of bloggers at Durfee Technology  Magnet School!  This fifth grade class will be blogging about their classroom.  Instead of the teacher deciding what will be important and creating a weekly newsletter, the students will blog about things going on in the classroom and sharing via their blog.  Goodbye newsletter hello blogging!  Below are hyperlinks to all of the students' blogs.  Stay tuned for their blogs!

Lavon

Shania

Kamilan

Jahmel

Kaylee

Tyler

Dora

Derek

Kamariah

Ikeria

Ashanti

Travonn

Austin

Royce

Hannah

Trelyn

Alexis

Michael

Tianna

Jacobe

Takailion

Marlon

Kaderius
Rashad
zanaria

BYOSS: Cool way to Facilitate PD

Not only do we get ideas, we get free snacks!

A few months ago I went to a conference in Chicago put on by SDE.  This conference's focus was differentiation.   There were a lot of cool things that I picked up on but one thing that i brought back was an idea for professional development from a session hosted by Rick Wormlei.  He spoke on an interesting way to lead professional development called BYOSS.
BYOSS stands for Bring Your Own Skill and Snack.  The goal of this professional development session is to have teachers bring ideas on how to use a tool, or implement a strategy, the skill.  And of course teachers love a yummy treat after school so that's why the snack.
If you are leading a BYOSS first you need to select a idea.  Its a good idea to think of something that people could share a variety of ways to use or implement this idea.   I chose to have my session on Promethean Responders as all K-8 classrooms in my district has a set.  Teachers that choose to attend are to bring a copy of a way they use the idea, responders, in their classroom for every attendee.  So 15 participants, 15 copies.  I chose to have teachers bring 10 copies as a standard.  Then of course, they must also bring a small snack to share.  Entry into the session is both the copies and the snack.
Once everyone is there, collect their 'skills' and everyone has there snack its time to get started!
Distribute the ideas to all of the participants.  I like to pass them out one at time so that the teachers can focus on them one at a time.  The teacher who brought the idea shares it with the group.  Then, as a group we brainstorm at least one way to modify or adapt the activity.  We do this for each idea.  The great thing about this session is 1.) you get to eat yummy snacks and 2.) you get to leave with a TON of ways to use an idea or incoporate a strategy.

# of teachers x 2 = tons of great ideas! 

When I tried this out at my schools is was super successful.  In addition to getting a lot of ideas, it allows teachers to reach out to each other and find experts in their own building.   Its definitely a style of professional development that I plan to try again.  I challenge you to try this at your school.  

Twitter Tuesday

Twitter is a social networking tool which can connect learners of all ages.  I use Twitter to connect with educators around the world, and share ideas.  Twitter allows you to quickly sort through ideas and learn more about ideas that interest you.  I tweet about what is happening at a conference I may be at, an amazing thing I see happening in classroom, and of course I always tweet about this blog!  Teachers can use Twitter in a similar way with their students as well!
I work with a fourth grade class at one of my buildings pretty regularly.  This teacher approached me about utilizing Twitter in her classroom.  Twitter Tuesday is what we came up with.  'Twitter Tuesday' is an activity which incorporates Twitter into the classroom.  Students use Twitter to communicate ideas, thoughts, and themes which have been discussed in the classroom.  We definitely wanted to make sure that we follow guidelines in CIPA and as our students were in the 4th grade we didn't want to sign up all of her class with Twitter accounts.  So, we decided to have students write paper tweets instead.  This teacher found a wealth of pins on Pinterest on exactly this idea.  She found a plethora of ideas on different ways to create paper tweets when she search 'class twitter'.  Students all receive these paper tweets and tweet when they have a lightbulb thought, or learn something new, or want to share an idea.  You could also use something like Edmodo, Today's Meet, Padlet, or Schoology to have students tweet.   At the end of the day the teacher selects the best few tweets to tweet on Twitter using their class twitter account.
When I started to work with classrooms on this idea i anticipated the excitement and engagement.  I knew that it would be a great tool for summarizing big ideas, and getting kids to take a more involved role in their education.  What I didn't expect was how this lesson became a teaching tool in itself for summarizing a lesson, and with hashtags identifying the main idea.  It also pushed students to become creative writers and develop their ability to write with an audience in mind.   Yes Twitter Tuesday is a great way to incorporate technology in the classroom, but it is also a way to develop summarizing skills, main idea, and author's purpose.  To see Twitter Tuesday in action, follow @firstgradehawks, or @mrsdanyus.

When you would like to incorporate technology into the classroom it is important to put our desired learning outcomes first, and then find the technology to support the desired skill.  Looking forward to the common core, students need to be able to synthesize information in texts, and clearly write.  

In fourth grade students need to be able to write clearly and express opinions with support from the text.    Let's look at one standard for the common core in 4th grade.   CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.1a Introduce a topic or text clearly, state an opinion, and create an organizational structure in which related ideas are grouped to support the writer’s purpose.  This standard demands that students be able to communicate a thought which also is supported by evidence.  Twitter Tuesday can help to develop many of these standards, including the above standard.   

A classroom 'Twitter Wall' in a first grade classroom.