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