Who's on Duty? Rethinking Digital Citizenship in Schools

Digital Citizenship in schools is a topic that has been weighing heavily on mind lately.  I am a technology integrationist in a 1:1 junior high school.  All 800 7th and 8th grade students have MacBooks that they take home.  This is a huge responsibility and one not to be taken lightly.  In the role I have, I try to teach digital citizenship as much as I can.  This year that has included a face to face lesson for each classroom, a weekly discussion board on different topics in Schoology (our LMS) and each advisory class is currently in the process of creating a digital citizenship iBook, but it is still not enough.  I would love to see this as a mandatory elective for all students.  I would love to see our library media specialist teach monthly lessons for all students.  I would love to have every teacher incorporating digital citizenship as a part of their lessons.  There needs to be a "we're all in this together" mentality; a united front as a school and as a district. 

It amazes me that some educators still  feel that students don't need any more education on this topic. I see statements on social media and  I hear statements from educators such as,  "They already know all that; they are just making "bad" decisions, but they know better".   I'm an adult and I make bad decisions daily; we all do.  How many of us have ever over indulged in food or alcohol or any other vice?  I know many people who never touched another cigarette after seeing the lung cancer illustrations.  I taught for several years with a PE teacher who never ate another doughnuts after she saw how bad they are for her and exactly what was going into her system. She was well into her 40's at the time. We all teach our children to be safe when it comes to sex.  Why in the world would we not teach them to be safe online?

I truly believe it is our responsibility to make this a priority for our students.  Technology can be a wonderful thing when used appropriately and it can be a terrible thing when it's not.  We owe it to our students to prepare them; to arm them and make them think before they create a tarnished digital footprint that will follow them for the rest of their life.  

Ink it and Achieve it: Setting Goals for a New School Year

Write it down. Written goals have a way of transforming wishes into wants; cant’s into cans; dreams into plans; and plans into reality. Don’t just think it – ink it! Michael Korda

     When I taught 8th grade English on the first day of each quarter, I would have my students journal their goals for the quarter. The task of actually writing down what you want to accomplish makes it real.  The last day of the quarter I would have the students look back over their goals and see what they had and had not accomplished.
     I think goal setting is so important, especially as an educator.  One of my favorite things to do each summer is sit down and brainstorm a list of all I want to accomplish for the upcoming school year.  Last year in taking this new job, I had a list of things I wanted to accomplish.  On the last day of school, I looked over my goals and I was very pleased to see I had accomplished all but two on my list of 10.  One of the goals was to blog more and I did accomplish blogging a few times throughout the year, but not as much as I would have liked!
     As I sat down last week after attending ISTE 2014 in Atlanta, I was inspired to write my goals out for this year as well. To start with,  I want to be more intentional with my time;  I pride myself on the fact that if I say I will do something; I do it. Sometimes, that means I spread myself too thin because I don't like to say no or let anyone down. If I'm more intentional with my time, I can hopefully do all the things I need to do without feeling like I'm spreading myself too thin.  I also want to work with as many teachers as I can this year; I want to help put our school on the map and be a school others want to visit!  I want to do a big collaborative CBL project partnering with our Mooresville friends in North Carolina; I want to transform our library into a 21st century media center; I want to become Google certified; I want to do a big digital citizenship project incorporating students writing their own iBooks. I want to write an ISTE proposal for next year and be accepted! I have more but those are at the top of my list.  I have personal goals as well.. I want to be more intentional with my time at home as well.  I want to soak up as much time with my kiddos as I can before my oldest goes to college in a couple of years; I want to continue to try and live a healthier lifestyle and I want to strive be a person that my friends and family enjoy spending time with. I am fortunate that I  am one of the people who love my job and love the people I get the joy of working with every day, so I want to make sure they feel the same way:)  They truly help make me a better person and educator and I'd like to do the same for them.  Hopefully, I will achieve all my goals this year.  If I don't, they will go back on the list for next year and I'll keep trying!  I would encourage you all to write down a few things you want to accomplish and periodically refer to it through out the year to remind yourself of what you want to accomplish.  Ink it and achieve it!  Have a great school year!
   
 

Refections....

Here it is the end of March, with 38 days of school left in our first year as a 1:1 school.  I spent some time today reflecting on our journey and the ups and downs of it all.  When I think back to last summer and how scared some of our teachers were about this year, I have to smile. I think it has exceeded all of our expectations with how well it has gone.  I am very lucky to work with a majority of positive teachers who are open to trying new things and have a motto of "Just keep Swimming".  In August our math department was freaking out about making sure their textbooks could be put on each student's computer; now they haven't used a textbook since the end of first quarter.  Teachers were having trouble with using Blackboard; we have now switched to Schoology as our LMS and life is much easier!  If you had told me in August that our geography department would be teaching a zombie unit, several departments would be using the green screen to film videos, we would be flipping science lessons, Skyping with best selling authors in a voluntary book club, organizing a teacher technology leadership academy, and planning a "Teach Like a Pirate Day" in May;  I wouldn't have believed you!  I feel beyond blessed to work with such great teachers!  I also don't think it could have happened without the 100% support of our principal.  When Valerie (the other tech facilitator- who I couldn't live without!) and I pitch things to him, he openly listens to us and enthusiastically gets on board with anything he thinks will benefit his school in a positive way.  We are blessed with his leadership and our superintendent's leadership as well- he is the one who had the 1:1 vision.
Are we perfect? No.  Do we fail? Yes!  Do we learn from it? Absolutely! 
I have so enjoyed my first year in this new role.  It has been challenging at times and I've had to learn to not take things personally, because dealing with adults is so much harder than dealing with kids- but I wouldn't trade it for the world. The positives far outweigh the occasional hurt feelings or anger.  I have gained a lifelong friend and colleague in Valerie, I have decided I have a love of curriculum and have even started a new graduate degree with that in mind and I have renewed energy in my career.  I can't wait to see what next year holds!

Carpe Diem

Dead Poet's Society- Carpe Diem
Carpe Diem Clip

     For the last few years at this time, I would always start my poetry unit with the above clip from Dead Poet's Society.  This year in my new role I am obviously not teaching poetry, but when I saw the newest Apple ad that used a clip from this movie, I fondly remembered the Carpe Diem scene and how much I loved showing it to kickoff the unit.  I would always tell the students that Carpe Diem is a great motto and way to live your life.  They would then blog about what was on their bucket lists and what they could do to seize the day. It was a great lesson and I loved reading their posts and responding to them.
     Even though I am no longer teaching poetry to 8th graders, I thought what a great lesson for our teachers who are bravely forging their way this year into unknown territory as we adopted a 1:1 laptop initiative.  I encounter so many teachers daily who want to try new things and new technologies in their classroom, but they are simply scared.  They are scared that the kids know more than they do (and they do), that they will mess up (and they will), and that they will be pushed out of their comfort zone of what they've always known (and that's a certainty).
     I want these educators to know that it's all right to fail because that's how we learn; and it's okay if the kids know more than they do because they will help teach you and the others; and it's okay to move out of their comfort zone and put the textbook down and try something new!  We should all have a "Carpe Diem" mentality when it comes to teaching.  Seize the day, try something new, something that pushes you out of your comfort zone and scares you to death.  Be brave and don't worry what others will think of you. Put your ideas and thoughts out there and enjoy life because as Mr. Keating says in the movie, " We are food for worms people."  Don't live with what if's; go out knowing you left everything on the table- Carpe Diem.
   
   

Save the Trees and Engage Me Please!

     My 15 year old son got in the car this week after school and said, "Mom, I hate school!".  As a teacher, these words broke my heart.  How can I have a child who hates school?  This is the same kid who has been on the A honor roll since he started school; the same kid who in elementary school jumped in the car every morning excited to go to school; the same kid who used to love to do the fun projects he was assigned.
     I looked at him and said, "Why?"  His answer was not surprising and I'm sure is the sentiment of many kids just like him.  He said, "It's' boring!  All we do are worksheets, packets and read from an old textbook in EVERY class."  He proceeded to tell me he wished it was like the old days when the teachers really cared about him as a person.  Over the years he was blessed with some phenomenal teachers who really cared about him and pushed his to do more than he thought he could.  Immediately, I began to think about how or what I could do to change this situation.
     Teachers want students to be engaged in the classroom, but in order for that to happen, the student has to want to be in that class.  Passing out another worksheet or answering the four questions at the end of the chapter is not going to lead to student engagement.  
     I am the instructional technology facilitator at the junior high in my district, so my job is to help change this mindset.  The conversation with my son coincidentally happened two days before a faculty meeting where I was to lead the staff in a problem based learning activity.  My principal had put this on the announcements for the last two weeks and I had already encountered staff telling me, "I think this is too much", "Our plates are full already", "I don't think we are ready."   I really felt that if I could introduce the topic and lead the staff in actually participating in a problem based learning activity that they would see it isn't  that scary or hard and could easily fit within what they are teaching in their particular subject areas.  So, I trudged ahead and got the activity ready to go.  The other tech facilitator that I work with was not able to be there to help me with this meeting and I was very nervous about leading 40-50 staff members through this by myself, as this was my first time to facilitate a whole staff activity.  Fortunately I did coerce another colleague to help me which eased some of my anxiety.  I am a teacher and have sat through many faculty meetings where people checked their phones, looked at their watches and engaged in side bar conversations.  I had never been on the other side of the table until now and truthfully, it terrified me.  
     I broke the staff into groups and introduced the activity.  Then, I nervously watched to see what would happen.  This particular activity was on Alzheimer's Disease.  The teacher's role in a problem based activity is to facilitate, so as I walked around I noticed that they were really participating in the activity.  I started to get excited!  My principal came and stood beside me and said, "Look at them, what do you see?" I didn't know what exactly he was getting at and so I stood there and hem hawed a little bit and he said, "Total Engagement... this is awesome."  As I wrapped up the activity and told them I would love to come and help them plan a PBL for their subject, I felt a tremendous sense of relief.  I had worked through my nerves and it had gone well.  The seeds had been planted.
     Hopefully, they will take me up on my offer and we can start slowly moving up the SAMR ladder. Maybe the worksheets and boring packets will slowly get replaced with these higher order thinking, collaborative, real-world activities.  I sure hope so because  I long for the day when my teenager gets in the car and says, "Mom, we did the coolest activity at school today." 

   

Don't Let it Steal Your Joy

     As a classroom teacher in the same building for the last 18 years, you can imagine how easy it would be to be weighted down with negativity.  I love my co-workers, but anyone who has ever visited a teacher's lounge knows they aren't often the most positive places to hang out.
I really don't think teachers are necessarily negative people; I just think a lot gets put on our plates and sometimes the only way people can deal with that is to complain.
     As I started my new job this year, I was really worried about encountering negativity and complaining because I really try to pride myself on being a positive person.  Don't get me wrong!  I get frustrated and complain, but it's usually privately and not posted on social media for all to see. I wanted to be the person teachers could feel free to talk with, but not get sucked down into the dark abyss.    I struggled with the thought of how I was going to listen and try to be positive with some people who can only be positive when the bell to end the day rings.  So far, I have been lucky.  Even with some very real struggles this year, hardly anyone has "let me have it" yet.  I'm sure the day will come and I hope I can smile and try to offer something positive to help the situation.  I'm very extremely lucky to work for a principal who is one of the most positive forces on the planet.  His general optimistic personality helps to set the tone for the staff, which is so important! 
  As I was perusing Pinterest one day, I came across a quote by Joel Osteen which read: "You can't make people happy.  You can't make them grateful.  You can only run your race and not allow them to steal your joy".  Truer words have never been uttered.  I've decided to post that in my office so I can remind myself of it every day.... especially when Negative Nancy or Pessimistic Phil decides to come in and have a chat!

1:1 A Whirlwind Beginning

   

  Our school district decided to go 1:1 starting this school year. We started with our junior high (825 students).  I moved from my position as a classroom teacher for the last 18 years to one of the instructional technology facilitators placed at the junior high.  We spent all last year preparing for our fall start!  We have now been in school since August 16th and all I have to say is, "Wow!! What a whirlwind beginning!"  
     The week before school started we deployed the Macbooks to the kids and parents in several deployment meetings.  I will have to say I was pleasingly shocked at our 87% attendance rate. Students and parents who did not attend, did not receive a laptop until the training session was completed.  Now, on our 13th school day, we have all students with the exception of 3 (99.5%) who have Macbooks, and those three have extenuating circumstances which hinders the process.
     I walk through the classrooms and see all the Macbooks open and teachers really embracing this new way of learning for all of us.  It has been a hard year, filled with lots of changes for everyone, but I am so proud of our staff.  They really came together and are giving this their all- even those who are out of their comfort zone.  Our district has provided lots of professional development for the staff throughout last year and this summer, but we had no idea what to expect as started this journey.  The first two weeks have been a blur with questions and details and things that we scratch our head about and say, "I can't believe we didn't think of that!"
     We have a help desk area that is manned all day and the students and staff are really using this area and coming down for help with any and all questions and problems.  Our next focus will be to evaluate our instruction by using the SAMR model for technology integration in the classroom developed by Reuben Puentedura.
     My advice to any school district that is considering going 1:1 would be to start planning at least a year in advance.  Get a committee together of administrators and teachers that meets regularly (we meet once a week) to organize and hash out ideas, and last but not least SUPPORT the STAFF.  It's a new scary road for some teachers, especially the veteran teachers. Making them feel valued and supported will bring them along with you.  It really does take a village!