Being a teacher is hard

Being a teacher is hard. The range from pure joy to heartbreak is greater than I could have possibly ever imagined. The things that bring me joy are so different then what I thought where the redeemable factors for teaching. Anyone in the educational field laughs at the idea of it being a nine to five job with a great paycheck. And most people in the world recognize, acknowledge and appreciate the sacrifice that teachers make. But there is no way to fully put into words the joy of watching a student understand something for the first time. Or hearing a middle schooler say that it's the first time they been excited to go to school because they have friends. I've worked and been exposed to students in many different environments from those who are multi billion dollar heirs to children whose greatest wish in the world is to have food whenever they are hungry.

While I have a responsibility to ensure that students are learning a certain amount of content, I

believe that our education system has gotten away from teaching people how to exist as human beings. I work at a school now that puts a high priority on creative thinking, problem solving, kindness and acceptance. Teaching students how to have a conversation, particularly if there is a disagreement, is a critical skill, in my opinion, missing in today's society. Children are learning how

to hide behind social media to flame, argue and shame others simply for having a different perspective or opinion. I know it's hard for people to see that schools and education are different than what they were when you were a kid. They are different from when I begin teaching 6 years ago. It will never be a perfect system, of that I am sure. But if you are disappointed in ”the children of today,” I challenge you to contact a teacher and go spend time in their classroom. If you want society to change, empower our younger generation. Help them see they have a voice, they are important, and that their ideas have value.

Let me Google that for you

I'm naturally inquisitive. I wonder about a lot of things. I remember days on the playground pondering the development of language between running around playing chase or games of pig on the basketball court. Who decided that the letters c-a-t looked, sounded and meant what they do now? So maybe my nerdy tendencies run deep but I am grateful to my parents for developing my sense of wonderment.

I still have that same questioning nature about me, the only difference between then and now? I can find answers to my questions at a moment's notice. The universe's answers are at my fingertips 24-7. Does this make me any less inquisitive because the information is so easily accessible? 

Absolutely not! In fact, people who know me well know that I often have problems sleeping and it's frequently the result of a random question, thought or idea. A quick search for an answer can lead me down a rabbit hole of knowledge for hours. I have often found myself suddenly in complete darkness because the day had ended around me. While I have received criticism for being too reliant on technology, I have learned to acknowledge and move on because for an information nerd like myself, the instant access to answers allows my obsessive tendencies to let go.


Rather than chastise the younger generation about their use of technology and bombard them with comments such as "when I was young and in school..." acknowledge that the world is not what it once was when you were young. In case you haven't noticed, the younger generation is often rebellious and stubborn. Instead of complaining, chastising or otherwise making us feel bad for using the modern technology, learn with us and help us to build a culture around the quest for learning and knowledge.

Portfolio Life in Space: NASA ISS and Astrobiology

As you know, I am in the process of completing my masters in education from Adams State University. I am working through their Curriculum and Instruction program which will include a STEM certification offered by the Endeavor STEM Teaching Certificate Project through Columbia Teachers College. These courses have been some of the most engaging and interesting courses I have taken throughout my LONG educational career. Not only are the instructors knowledgeable, but they are timely in their feedback and the course content is meant to be directly applicable to the classroom- not just a study on theories.

For the past semester, I have been working through various content related to NASA's International Space Station and the concept of Astrobiology. Despite the topic being on the lower end of my interest scale, I learned a great deal and feel that my students are getting an opportunity to work with the required standards in a little bit different context. This course had five main objectives that I have selected artifacts to demonstrate how I have implemented concepts in my classroom. In order to share my work, I utilized the new Google Sites to create a digital portfolio. Due to the craziness that always comes with the logistics of being a teacher, some of the projects are still ongoing.

“I have nothing to write about!”

My first teaching assignment was with the last sixth grade class at the elementary level. At the time, our district was in the process of restructuring the grade levels and sixth graders were moving to the middle level rather than staying at the elementary schools. I was gifted with a pretty incredible group of students who were not only interested in school (despite the attempt to show that they didn’t care) but the absolute best part of them all is they loved to have fun. As a first year teacher, it was amazing.



Their one downfall, if you can even call it that, was that they talked ALL THE TIME. These students learned by talking through their thoughts and ideas. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, I just had to reframe how I taught each lesson to include discussion time. The only time they were quiet… when it came time to write. These students had stories to tell about every little thing in their lives but stared wistfully for hours at blank pages with “nothing to write about.”

Cue Inda Eaton and the NCSD Discover program. Inda was working in the district conducting workshops with students and I approached her with a desire to create something deeper with my students. I wanted them to see that writing doesn’t always mean sitting down with a notebook and pen. Writing is supposed to be the way you record and share your story. There are so many ways to tell your story and using music is one of those ways. Inda and I put our heads together and so began Ideas to Inspire.

The co-created program is now beginning its 6th year and each year we learn something more about how to improve the design. While Inda takes the lead on the songwriting process and I take the lead on curriculum development and integration, it truly has been a confluence of genius between the two of us. The Discover program in the Natrona School District has provided the funding for an invaluable experience that motivates and inspires participants.

The students work with Inda and a group a specialized musicians to compose a song from start to finish. Musicians have included Jeffrey Smith (percussion), B Rhem-Gerdes (electric guitar, mixing), Curt Mychael (bass) and Nancy Atlas (vocals, art, guitar) and each bring a different expertise to the overall project.  At the end of the year, all the participants gather together for a culminating conference to participate in rotations related to the annual theme and conclude the event by sharing their work. My favorite moments are watching the many “aha” moments that occur throughout the year and the pride exuded as they share their hard work with all the other participants.

As we head into the sixth year of the program, our district is facing a significant budget reduction due to the energy crisis affecting our economy.

View "Nature is Change," the 2016 final creation by Woods Learning Center Middle School students at: http://ideastoinspire.org/project/2016-woods-learning-center-nature-change/

Google Certified Educator

Digital Portfolios

Our school utilizes traditional portfolios that we have called “Learning Logs.” These binders collect data to document the student’s year in school. At the middle level, it is intended for students to have a great deal of ownership, however, I’ve noticed that it’s a big push at the end of the trimester to write a reflection for the semester. I would like to find a more authentic tool that would require students to reflect on a regular basis for their portfolio.

I moved to interactive notebooks in my math and science classes last year which served as a portfolio of sorts because all of their work was included in the notebook. The main considerations for creating a digital portfolio is how can students best demonstrate learning and mastery and create a showcase of their work all in one place. Another consideration is the authentic audience for the portfolio. In past, the portfolios have been designed for the parents and I feel that the portfolio would be a much more authentic demonstration of learning and growth if the audience were the students themselves. They should have a portfolio that they are proud of which will encourage them to do their best work.

Between the courses through this EdTechTeam Online Teacher Leader Certificate and the other professional development sessions I have attended (GAFE summits, Google Bootcamps, Webinars, etc.), I have a wealth of tools to research and investigate as to which will be the most effective digital portfolio tool.

Assessment

The final course for the Ed Tech Team Online Teacher Leader Certificate was assessment. I am also about to embark on a semester course for my master's degree that it all about curriculum and assessment. Because I am pretty much addicted to learning, my puppy, Loki, and I spent about 6 hours yesterday virtually attending a "pd in your pjs" webinar event provided by Simple K12. When I first registered for the event, it hadn't really sunk in that 6 webinar sessions would be a lot on the last weekend before school started. I decided to go ahead and check it out as the sessions were designed around Chromebooks. Our school just adopted Chromebooks for grades 4-8. While I didn't gain much insight on the function and usability of the device, there were several guest presenters who shared a plethora of great digital assessment tools that I can't wait to try.

Authentic assessment is a very important concept for me and I am happy to be working at a school

that values that same philosophy. We are required to give the state and district accountability and growth assessments, but all other assessments are encouraged to help students develop the skills needed to become problem solvers and having a growth mindset. I feel it is important to connect all learning and assessment to real-world applications to ensure that the students truly have the skills and/or knowledge of the concept. It is also important to connect the learning to the outside world because if all my teaching happens from a book, when I put that book back on the shelf, all the learning sits on the shelf on with the book.

In the course, we were directed to explore add-ons and other formative assessment tools. Our school just purchased a Mastery Connect license which is connects with Socrative so I thought I’d give that tool a try. It was very easy to take a quiz from my math curriculum program and import the quiz. I did, however, struggle a bit with writing the math expressions in the spreadsheet. I will have to

explore more in the aspect of importing quizzes with images where I can use the g(Math) for Sheets add-on. I don’t have students yet, but I took the quiz a couple times so I could see what it looks like from the student side, as well as what it looks like live on the teacher side as data is populating live. I will also need to practice the grading options for open-ended questions. As I experimented with the tool, Socrative may not be the best tool for an open-ended math assessment that has one correct answer that isn’t a multiple choice response. Using a form quiz would probably be a better option for that type of assessment. I used the add-on g(Math) for Forms to create the mathematical equations for quiz. I could’ve used the asterisk for the dot in the multiplication problem, but it is important for students to see the math symbols that will actually occur on the high stakes assessments. I also tried Flubaroo for the first time. I had heard much about it, but had never actually used it. Looking for ways that I can use this in addition to Mastery Connect without duplicating my efforts.

I agree with Kohn’s (2014) confusion about “the number of educators who are adamantly opposed to standardized testing yet raise no objection to other practices that share important features with such testing... Here we find the same top-down control and one-size-fits-all mentality that animate standardized testing.” Formative assessment is so critical to really know where my students are in

their learning of concepts. In past, I have taken my students assertions that they “get it” at face value because of the amount of effort it takes to collect paper/pencil documentation of their understanding. I frequently used a hand signal (1-5 or thumbs up/down) to gain a quick check on where students felt they were with the concept. But now, technology makes it easy, efficient and engaging to assess students quickly to gain an affirmation that they have the skills needed to move on in the lesson.

Last year, I used Plickers and Kahoot on a pretty regular basis and the students absolutely loved those games. Plickers takes a little more time with a larger group of students unless they are grouped together in close proximity to me. Kahoot was definitely best for pre-assessing background knowledge and for reviews. Often the students would just click responses to be the fastest in hopes that it was the correct answer. It was also best used at the end of a class period because it was sometimes a challenge to get back on track after the fun. In addition to the tools available with Socrative and Mastery Connect, some other tools I am looking forward to working with this upcoming year are NearPod, Pear Deck, Tally and Roll & Reflect with QR code dice. My goal this year is to know exactly where my students are before we take the final unit tests. In a school that focuses on differentiation, I hope to use some of these digital tools to increase my efficiency of knowing where students are to better meet their needs and drive my instruction.

 Kohn, A. (2014). Why the Best Teachers Don’t Give Tests. The Huffington Post. Retrieved 28 August 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alfie-kohn/why-the-best-teachers-don_b_6077466.html

How is space the third teacher?

Myself in 5th grade
with Mrs. Hayes

When I think back to my own experiences in school, my fondest memories were in classes where I felt welcome and comfortable. I was a total teacher’s pet and LOVED school. My favorite teachers were Mrs. Maguire in first grade, Mrs. Hayes for second grade (pictured to the left), and Ms Moyer in fifth. Beyond my electives courses, I don't have strong memories of middle school or high school. The classes where I struggled or have minimal memories, also often had classrooms that were stark, cluttered, or were set up for students to sit in desks in the traditional rows facing the front. I remember my favorite classrooms had comfortable reading nooks with pillows or bean bags, lots of color (without lots of stuff) and had different areas designed for different purposes (desks, group table, computer station, floor space, etc.). My favorite classes also had learning experiences that happened outside the classroom walls through field trips and outdoor activities. There were definitely other factors that played into my favorite memories of school, but the classroom's physical arrangement was a key component.

I do think that space plays a huge role in learning. As teachers, we have to understand what we want

for the student learning experience and design with that goal in mind. According to Long (2012), we should be “using design to improve the human experience” (p. 17). As a person who shares space with other teachers, I have to find creative ways to redesign and use the space in ways that still allow it to function for teachers who have different teaching styles than I do. “Design thinking combines collaboration, systems thinking and a balance of creative and analytic habits” (Long, 2012, p. 16).

As my classroom will take more detailed planning through the design process to make changes, I will be using the design thinking process as our school looks to build a greenhouse on our campus. I run an after school club that has taken the lead in the process and I was struggling to move forward with specifics. I think the resources available from this unit will give me a great deal of momentum to move forward with the plan.


Long, C. (2012, February). Teach Your Students to Fail Better with Design Thinking. Learning & Leading with Technology, 16-20.

Redesigning the Learning Space

Space has a huge impact on learning. In my work with Quantum Learning, both as a Team Leader for SuperCamp and the three times I’ve attended their teacher training, the first two of their tenets for learning are “Everything Speaks” and “Everything is on Purpose.” This refers to the learning space and even components such as temperature, scents and plants. I think it’s very important for the teacher’s learning goals to be reflected in the space design. Our brain is only able to attend to a finite number of things at a time and when the space around us is distracting or uncomfortable, then those will be the center of our brain’s attention, rather that what is being taught.

My space is set up for cooperative learning science and math work. I have large tables that can be grouped together to create larger work space if needed. I have a Promethean Board at the front with a white board and an ancient chalk board on the right side. I have a small sofa and chair at the front corner and a nonconforming accordion style divider separating our large classroom into two separate rooms. I have several lamps and christmas lights hanging from the ceiling to avoid using the overhead fluorescents as much as possible. I have one medium sized window and a door that opens to the outside. Along the back I have a counter with cabinets (that houses all my science materials) and a sink with a drinking fountain that is more like a bubbling spring.

The main constraint of the space is that it is shared with other teachers. I would like to have more

flexible seating. I also don’t have much flexible wall space to hang content related posters or vocabulary word wall. My space also is relatively small with chairs that take up a great deal of space. There’s also not an easy way for students to use the restroom as they have to go through the adjoining space and interrupt their teaching (the accordion wall is not quiet) or go outside and all the way around the building to enter the front doors (not conducive for quick restroom breaks or during the winter). Depending on the schedule, I may be using a different shared space in the building giving me even less control of the setup without setting up and tearing down before/after each class. I also have to be able to keep the extra chairs in my space as we often open the room and use the whole space for all 54 students.

One change I will make in my classroom is to arrange the tables so that there is flexible sitting space at tables and the floor. I previously had the tables arranged in groups, but I didn’t have a floor space available. I would also like to add a standing bar in the back of the room, but I am not sure yet if I can make that happen.... yet. I will be adding an artificial plant, more lamps and Christmas lights to enhance the ambiance. I also want to label the chairs so that the right number are stacked and put away (instead of by the end of the week having too many chairs out at nonexistent seating places). The biggest goal is to reduce clutter and add ambiance as the basic structure of the room I cannot change significantly because it is a shared space. I have only been at this school for 2 years and I spent a month purging and rearranging before I moved in so this will be more about small changes and modifications.

I don't know, yet, what changes I'll be able to make but I am confident that there will be changes. Stay tuned for an update on the final space!

Visual Literacy Infographic

I teach science at a K-8 multi-age school. If my students learn nothing else in my classes, I want them to think of themselves as a

scientist and learn how to think like a scientist. We spend a great deal of time learning the scientific method. I use the science circle format taught by Teton Science Schools because it helps students to see that the process isn’t linear and doesn’t have a clear starting or stopping place. 

One of the more challenging tasks is to get students to make scientific observations. Many of them want to just right to making inferences. I created this infographic to hang in my classroom as well as print for students to place in their interactive science notebooks. 

Visual Literacy Links

CLICK HERE to see a collection of links focused on visual media in the classroom. 

Visual Resume

Right now I'm working on a course in visual literacy. I am learning about several new tools to enhance my lessons with images. One of the first tasks was to create a visual resume. I learned that I have a plethora of photos to choose from and was reminded how many activities I am involved in. One thing that was clear is that I am surrounded by beautiful scenery, endless adventures and the support of some pretty incredible friends and family.

Photos (left to right): Sailing on Flathead Lake, MT; Glamour shot from a fun photo shoot; Balloon glow at the Balloon Roundup Festival in Casper; Rotaract of Casper: Young Professionals Network; Teaching about Google Drive; Selling concessions with my Rotaract friends; Learning to telemark ski with my siblings in Steamboat, CO; testing water quality in Jackson, WY with Teton Science School; (NEXT ROW) My parents and I at a wedding, Aria the hot air balloon landing; Myself and new puppy Loki, Teacher & student selfie waiting to go on the news; (BOTTOM ROW) Teaching team at AMLE in Nashville; Lunch break at the summit of Mt Oberlin in Glacier National Park; My siblings and I after a day of backcountry tele skiing.

What would your visual resume look like?

Flipped Learning

Flipped learning is becoming more and more prevalent in the education world. Knewton has created a fabulous infographic to describe the main components of flipped learning. Click here to view the infographic Flipped Learning: Turning Traditional Education on its Head

In my classroom, I have begun to experiment with the idea of flipped learning. While not all of my students have access to the internet at home, we are a 1-1 school so each student has a laptop assigned to them. This year we are moving to Chromebooks which will add another layer of learning to my teacher toolbox, but we have been using Google Apps for Education for about two years so I don’t feel like there will be too many significant changes on that front.

I flipped a significant amount of my lessons last year in both math and science and I am looking forward to applying the strategies I’ve been learning through the EdTechTeam Online courses to improve the practice. For the most part, I saw students who were more engaged and active as learners in the classroom. Flipping lessons also allowed me to differentiate for the diverse learning styles and levels that come with a multi-age, inclusion model school.

Flipping lessons didn’t only benefit my students. I gained energy and excitement to create the fun lessons I’d dreamed about creating in college, but had those dreams squashed by curricular prisons and drill and kill methods. Moving schools empowered me to take risks with my teaching and move through the teachable moments, even if it wasn’t covered in the textbook or a topic on the state assessment. Flipping lessons allows me to work smarter and more creative in my lesson planning which not only keeps my students engaged, I stay motivated and energized in an often soul crushing career.

One of the things my students will be doing when school starts in the fall is creating blogs to share their research. There are a lot of articles about whether student blogs should be public or highly moderated by the teacher. I attended a session at Google Apps for Education (GAFE) Summit last year and the facilitator had a great perspective about teaching students how to be digital citizens and how to react to negative comments online. I think it is definitely a skill that is lacking in modern world of social media and the number of people who hide behind a screen to flame others. I go back and forth and know it will be a point of conversation for my staff and maybe the district about the topic, but for now, I believe the students' blogs should be public. Click here to view the lesson plan document for a flipped lesson.

Project Based Learning

The school where I teach utilizes Project Based Learning (PBL) as a key component to how we teach. PBL is about the journey and the process and less focused on the actual product. Students have an opportunity to drive their learning using curiosity and interest in the subjects. The process allows students freedom to express their knowledge in creative ways and gives underachieving students a chance to excel.

I will again be working with a team of students to create and design a greenhouse for our school. I attacked the opportunity last year with force, but I think I need to step back and slow down a little. Here's a PBL unit I've designed to kick-off the year with students where they'll design and build mini biodomes. Students will observe changes and blog about their results and learning. 

PBL: Engineering Biodomes

Student Agency: Looking ahead one year

According to Knewton, "Student agency refers to the level of control, autonomy, and power that a student experiences in an educational situation" (Student Agency 2014). Kevin Brookhouser describes agency as "having control of your destiny." Agency is giving students power over their learning and a voice in their education. I am proud to work in a school where agency and student voice is not only valued, but encouraged. As a school who has long implemented Project Based Learning, the freedom to guide their own learning and research is a valuable skill taught as early as kindergarten. 

This year, I look forward to bringing back Genius Hour to my classes. Genius hour is an idea based on Google's 20 time where employees are able to spend 20% of their working hours researching, designing or exploring a topic based on their own personal interests. Here's a great video introducing Genius Hour by Chris Kesler. 

I don't quite know the particulars or logistics about how it will fit in to my classes, but it will become a part of my teaching practice as I think it is important for students to have an opportunity to unleash the creativity they have within. 

The last time I incorporated Genius Hour, my teaching partner and I were blown away by the effort, detail and motivation that occurred throughout the process. We had a class with a higher than normal at-risk and SpEd population and even the students with academic challenges created final products that were above and beyond the expectations I could have ever given. 

I have spent some significant time already this summer reflecting on my teaching practice through various graduate courses and the EdTechTeam Teacher Leader Certificate program and while many concepts weren't necessarily new, they are rejuvenating my passion for the craft. There were a handful of strategies and valuable components that I let fall by the wayside as I moved to a new school and a new grade level because I wasn't sure they would fit. I am looking forward to the next year being full of fun, experiential and passionate learning on the part of both myself and my students. 

References:
"Student Agency." Web log post. Knewton. N.p., 12 May 2014. Web. 5 July 2016.

EdTech Team Teacher Leader Certificate

I have embarked on a journey to expand my teaching practice with technology by working through the EdTech Team Online Teacher Leader Certificate program which will help to hone my skills at using technology as a tool in my classroom. "EdTechTeam Teacher Leader Certificate is an online cohort that will inspire and empower teachers to make a difference in their classroom and change their learning environment.  A  Teacher Leader  is committed to the ideals of Courageous Leadership, Empowerment, Student Agency, Inspiring Spaces, and an Engaged Community."

Throughout the next several weeks, I will be posting and sharing projects and lessons designed throughout the six courses: Global Collaboration and Community, Project Based Learning, Flipped Learning, Visual Literacy, Assessment and Redesigning the Learning Space.

The first course was on global collaboration and community and developing our personal learning network. Participants in the program are located across the world and it has been very interesting

learning from new perspectives and also finding common ground in teaching philosophies. Check out this cool map of all the course participants. When you click on each icon on the map, there is a short introduction video about the person. Click here view the live map with the video links.

Our first big project was to collaborate with other cohort members to design a digital citizenship lesson and then the final component was to include a way for students to collaborate with others using social media or other online collaboration tool. I worked with Cathy and Cheryl to design a middle level web-quest. The lesson includes an opportunity for students to participate in a Twitter chat about being a good digital citizen. You can view the project by clicking here.