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!

Collaborate Collaborate Collaborate

     As educators, we hear the word collaborate over and over again.  As a classroom teacher, my understanding of collaboration and how it pertained to me was that I would meet with my department every quarter.  We would work on common assessments, plan out our pacing guides and compare our data.  This is collaboration, but we could have been doing so much more!
This week our district brought in four Mooresville, North Carolina middle school teachers to host a technology camp for  all of our staff.  We are going 1:1 next month and these educators know exactly what we are going through and what we need at this stage of the game. I was so impressed with these educators.  They brought real life, practical applications and shared them with our staff. They spent countless hours of their own time to upload tons of materials into our Blackboard Management System- not just for this camp, but for us to keep forever.
     The presenters really hammered home the message of collaboration and what a powerful tool it is.  Sometimes teachers have this idea that if they have a great idea, then it's "mine" and I don't want to share it.  Mooresville school district puts collaboration on a whole other level.  Their grade levels share materials on a consistent basis, their students collaborate daily in the classroom, their district collaborates with other districts that are making the transition that they made not too long ago.  I've never seen such a willingness to share before in education as I have with this district.  They truly want other schools to succeed and reach the levels that they have achieved with their students.
     Shouldn't that be our goal?  If something works, share that idea with someone else who might could use it as well.  It is my hope that after this week our teachers are inspired to collaborate on a much deeper level and that at some point we can pay it forward and visit other districts to help them like Mooresville has helped us!  It is truly an exciting time to be working in the Poplar Bluff R-1 District right now and I for one can't wait to see what the future holds!
   

On a Positive Note.......

     This past week I attended a three day training called, "Capturing Kids Hearts" by the Flippen Group.  I went into the training as most teachers do with the attitude that I will probably take a few good ideas away, but over time they will fade away as most great ideas from workshops generally do.  Almost immediately I saw that this was not "just another workshop".
     Over the three days, we bared our souls to each other through different activities and we really became vulnerable with each other.  We bonded as a staff like I've never seen before.  I was able to look at colleagues in a whole new light.  One particular activity was called mailbag.  We each designed a bag with our name on it and displayed it in the room.  Over the course of the three days, we were encouraged to write positive notes to people and put them in their mailbags. If you wrote a note to someone, you had to sign it.  Well, as a former ELA teacher I was in teacher heaven!  I loved writing notes and slipping them in people's bags!  My good friend Krista said I was a dork each time the facilitator said, "Okay, write a positive note" and I excitedly reached for my paper and pen.  On the last day of the training, we were able to take our bags home and read our notes.  I was giddy as I went to the car and pulled them out to look at them.  They were all so sweet and really made me feel special, but there was one in particular that touched my heart.  A lady in our building who teaches special education had written to me that special education teachers sometimes have a hard time fitting in with the other teachers because they're often excluded or treated as "not real teachers" and sometimes they keep to themselves a little more for that reason.  She went on to write that she felt that by greeting her everyday in the hall last year with a friendly word and a smile, chatting with her on field trips or complimenting her outfit (let me tell you- she's a fashionista!) I had made her feel like she belonged and how appreciative she was to me for that.
     I sat in my car and teared up.  I thought to myself how powerful smiles and hellos are and how a kind word can really stick with someone.  I also thought how we can do a much better job of this with our colleagues and our students.  We had a very special assistant principal a couple of years ago who learned all 750 students names and greeted them in the halls every day.  It made such an impact on the kids and the staff!  That should be our goal.  Sometimes, we are the only happy face and kind word a student hears at all.  
     I left the training with the intention to become a more positive person in my job, my family and in life.  The staff stood in a circle the last day and we each made a commitment to capture these kids hearts next year.  I am positive we will do it and I can't wait to see what a difference it will make at PBJHS!

A New Beginning........

Let me introduce myself.  My name is Candace Warren and I have been an ELA teacher at the Poplar Bluff Jr. High in Poplar Bluff, Missouri for 18 years.  Our school district is going through a digital transformation right now and every 7th and 8th grade student at the junior high will be receiving Apple Macbooks next year to take home in our 1:1 initiative.  As part of this initiative, the district created the position of Instructional Technology Specialist.  I was hired for the junior high position.  As a classroom teacher, I always tried to incorporate technology into my lessons whenever possible.  I love teaching and have a special love for this "hard to love" age group.  It was a hard decision whether or not to give up the classroom and delve into the unknown.  I decided it was time to change things up and just go for it! I'm so excited to do something different, yet anxious at the same time....  I plan to use this blog to communicate about my first year in this new role; my successes, frustrations, failures and fears.  I always had a classroom blog before and was inspired by my great friend, Jenifer (a principal starting a new blog) to start one in an entirely different direction. I am always open to helpful tips and suggestions from fellow educators.  Join me in my journey:)))

Candace