The things you find when you start cleaning house. This weekend I had had enough of my desk, in my home office. It was getting out of control! As I was sifting through everything, I ran across an article about something I started in October of 2008. I was ‘Skyping’ in the classroom before it was trendy.
I had to reread the article to remind myself of some of the details. The basics were that another teacher in the district (at another site) and I video chatted – well, our students did. I had gone to a meeting at our county office of education and gotten the idea from something I had seen there. We used Apple products – what our district invested in at the time – and iChat to communicate. We began with a closed network.
We had a great time that year. We began by focusing on speaking and listening skills, as many of our students were second language learners. We ‘met’ most Wednesdays to talk and share. At the end of the year, we met at a local non-profit art gallery. They were kind enough to let us use their backyard space for a picnic and gathering.
I love when spring cleaning results in such a treasure!
These people share everything they do – FREELY. They share their ideas, successes, and failures. Whether they are sharing with people in the department, site, or on the Internet via blogging or tweeting. They realize that by sharing, not only are they impacting their students, they can impact hundreds.
2. It’s Not About Them
This goes along with sharing. These teachers realize that education is bigger than them, or their classrooms. It’s about helping to create thinkers, doers, and problem solvers. They understand that what they do is for the greater good.
3. Connected
These educators realize that in order to grow and learn, they need to seek out others. You can find them on Twitter, Google+, LinkdIn, writing blogs, etc. They attend conferences, local and otherwise.
4. A Need to Learn
The learning never stops. Thus the conferences, blog reading, #brewcues, #coffeecues, and ed tech meet-ups. They go back to school, enroll in MOOCs, or take courses. There is a constant need to learn and improve themselves.
5. Collaborators
Along with sharing and being connected, collaboration is another key. They listen, and welcome, other ideas. The act of building upon one another’s ideas is a regular conversation.
6 Humble and Uplifting
When I really thought about it, I realized these people are humble about their abilities and help others along on their journey. This, I think, is by far their greatest asset.
These are the qualities of a great teacher. This is what I aspire to be.
The last few days, I’ve had students contacting me, at home online, to help them with their math homework. The first time, the student contacted me via email and we had a series of emails going back and forth. In class the next day, I mentioned how a student contacted me for help and how awesome that was.
The next day, I received a chat invite via Google Hangouts on my personal GMail account. My students know what the email is, but never (until now) use it. It’s used for web tools sites. She choose to contact me on this account as our district has disabled chat on the student domain. Here is a portion of our conversation:
How #awesomesauce is that? Next, I’m secretly (well not so secretly now) hoping that someone will figure out how to do the video chats and we’ll do a study group hangout.
Someone once asked me how I could stay at the same job year after year and not get bored. Quite simply, it’s NOT the same job day after day, let alone year after year.
I do what I do because education is an ever changing entity. Theories, methods, and technology keep the classroom fresh and exciting. I am a person who loves to learn new things; I think most educators are the same way. Before teaching 5th grade, I taught 3rd for about 10 years. I never once taught the same lesson, exactly the same way, twice. I was constantly reflecting, and changing how I taught.
Change: it’s the beauty of our job. When we choose to continue to accept the positive changes, learn new techniques, and view each day as a learning experience, we can’t help but be fulfilled with “What We Do”.
So I do what I do, in part, because I’m selfish. I’m easily bored and need new challenges. Teaching affords me that luxury. Another reason I teach is because I get to inspire a love of learning through innovative and interesting ways. I get to show children how fun, and cool, fractions, technology, editing, creating, history, writing, and so much more can be!
In the beginning of the 2013-14 school year, a new 5th grade teacher was brought in. I’ll admit I was excited yet skeptical. I’ve worked with lots of teachers at my grade level and generally have gotten along with them, but never truly ‘clicked’ with another teacher. Until Mrs. Pursley came along.
And here is why I love (working with) her – in no particular order:
I can talk her into doing almost anything in a classroom, no matter how crazy it is. Within 2 months she was doing Genius Hour with me.
We both have a student-centered classroom.
I get random texts from her saying things like, “You complete me <3”
When asked if we do A.R. (Accelerated Reader) we both respond no (in a disgusted tone) and she adds ‘Cuz AR sucks’.
She calls me a Dork, when I’m being one.
I get to call her a Dork when she’s being one.
She will text me at random moments just to say something smarmy.
We share random 80’s aerobics videos back and forth – and we both secretly love them!
We generally have the same mentality (age) – that of a 12 year old.
We constantly laugh, mainly cuz of the mentality issue.
Seriously though, she’s awesome and just felt like sharing her awesomeness with the world.
Recently I began a unit on the Reasons for the Revolutionary War. It’s all gamified and I am usually 1 step ahead of the kids. Last week, I was about an hour ahead of the students. I had a group getting ready to start creating their Boston Tea Party movie that afternoon. At lunch I had the thought, “Hm, I should probably have them create a storyboard”.
I then began looking up storyboards, and stumbled upon Storyboard That. It had several great examples of simple storyboards on the Boston Tea Party. I only meant to give my students some example so they could either draw theirs on paper or on Google Draw. My lack of direction and the group’s internal fearlessness, lead to better than expected results. Instead of my students taking the easy way out, they dove right into the new tool.
The students came came to me after 15 minutes and asked for my login. I told them that I didn’t have one for the site, and asked why they needed it. They then showed me their work. Yeah, they started creating their own story board, and the site prompted them to save it.
So I did what anyone else would do. I created an account on the spot! Glad I did, too. The students are being creative and showing me what they learned.
A few weeks ago I got together with a first grade teacher at my site. We decided to video tape her students holding high frequency words. The idea was to create a fun way her students could practice their words, at school and home. Needless to say, it has been a big success. The students love it, and the parents love seeing it on our school’s FaceBook Page.
So today when I stopped by to see if she needed another taping session, I was sad to find that she was a little down about the project. She had been so excited about this idea and how well it went, that she shared it with others – in hopes that they would find it as inspiring as she had. This is where she became disappointed. Unfortunately, some that she shared this with, immediately disregarded the idea saying that it would never work [for them].
And this is when I realized that those ‘new’ to technology in the classroom can be fragile. Fragile in the sense that this great new ‘thing’ that they are excited about and finding success with, which is then quickly disregarded by others, can easily break one’s spirit. She was truly disappointed that others had not wanted to try this. However, I quickly reminded her that 2 other teachers were inspired by her and had also taped their students.
It is stories like this, that encourage me to be the cheerleader for those who are willing to try. It is because of this teacher, who is now thinking of other ways to incorporate tech into her classroom, I will do what I can to support all those who dare to try something new. It’s not easy being the ‘Lone Nut’ [Jon Corippo & CUERockStar reference] in your grade level, on your campus, or in your district. But when a bunch of ‘Lone Nuts’ get together, amazing things begin to happen! And for this reason, I am looking forward to working with her with all the crazy ideas we can dream up!
Oh, and did I mention that she is a self proclaimed ‘non-techie’? Yeah, she’s THAT crazy – willing to dive into tech even when it’s outside her comfort zone. Mrs. Bolger, you inspire me!
Today was a GREAT day! I began my day by videotaping a 1st grade classroom. They each wrote a word on their white boards, stood in a single file line, and showed their word. They did all this without saying the words. Why? A fun way for this teacher to help her students practice their high frequency words.
It began yesterday at lunch when another 1st grade teacher made the comment that her students practiced their words on the computer (using a game). That got me thinking about what the students can do to be producers instead of consumers. My initial idea wasn’t great. It involved making a Google Slide then using TechSmith’s Snagit Chrome Extension (you also need the App), have the students read and record the words. Well, it was the best I had at the time, and sent an email to the Kinder and 1st grade teachers. I offered to help (my schedule gives me a bit of time to help on Wednesdays).
I was so pleased that one of the 1st grade teachers like the idea and wanted to take me up on it. So after school we met up and began brainstorming. This is where we came up with the idea of taping the students.
So this morning I walked into the classroom and the students were ready to go! We ended up taking 2 different videos, and will do more next week. The idea was to switch around the words so a different student held the word ‘horse’. Another teacher was inspired and approached me today. She would like to do this in her Kinder room; only she will write out the words for the students so that they are legible.
The beauty of this is that the students can have fun practicing words. We posted this on our Facebook Page and School Website. This way, parents can access the videos at home and practice the words with their child.
The best part? The two teachers who want to do this, are self-proclaimed non-techies. Neither of them are too comfortable with using technology in the classroom. This was a great way to get the ball rolling for them! I’m so excited about this, and for the teachers and their students.
As I sat and reflected upon this, I thought, “What DO I do to make this world a better place?” I then began thinking about the people who inspire ME to be a better person; which in turn makes the world a better place.
I began thinking of people who help others, quietly. I thought of my friend Bryan who stands in front of malls offering ‘Free Hugs’ near the holidays. He is a person that is there for his friends and will do what he can for others. He teaches me what true kindness, and generosity is.
Then there is Jen. Years ago I went to a conference with her. She witnessed a man digging through the hotel’s trash. We were on our way out when she made me stop the car. She jumped out of the car, ran over to the man and gave him some cash. I was raised NOT to do such things, so I asked her why she did it. She explained that a person must really be in a really bad place to have to resort to such actions. From that moment on, I have given to others. I learned empathy from Jen.
Finally, there are those that participate in the ‘Pay It Forward’ movement. I immediately thought of Liz and Lisa who have often done this. Who knows how many lunches, coffees, and drinks they have given to others anonymously. They most often have done this good deed in the drive through lane. I have learned generosity, giving, and selflessness from both of them.
So back to the question at hand, what will I do to make the world a better place? I will use the lessons that I learned from those mentioned, and many who were not. I will continue to show generosity, empathy, and kindness to others in the hopes that I can affect others the way my friends have affected me.
*Disclaimer: This is solely meant as my account with a student who identified himself as the opposite sex in which he was born. While the title suggests the student was indeed transgender, I cannot say for certain if he was or was not. If I wrote any pronouns incorrectly, I apologize.
Back in the mid 90’s I did my student teaching in a first/second grade classroom. I was assigned to two teachers, each with their own classroom. There was another student teacher assigned to the teachers as well. The assignment went from January to April.
So why am I bringing up something that occurred so long ago? Well, recently Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie‘s daughter, Shiloh, has stated that she would like to be called John, and identifies as a boy. This got me thinking about my student teaching days and a boy named William.
He’s Gay
That’s what I about William after my first day in my assignment. The other 3 teachers said that I was being mean. I explained that I was in no way judging or being mean, I was simply stating my observations. It was clear from the beginning that William had very feminine traits and played mostly with the girls.
*Note: I was younger than the other teachers in the room. I took a more liberal view to ones sexual orientation than most. My experiences with the GLTB community were very different than many around me. I have long since held the belief that you’re born gay; you don’t decide or ‘change’. It is who you are.
Now it’s not like he was the only child we discussed. The teachers were filling the other student teacher and I in on some of the specifics of students. Who went to speech, who benefitted from SpEd, who to academically keep our eye on, etc.
When I Grow Up
As a part of the daily routine, we would do ‘Calendar’. If you’ve ever taught the younger grades, you know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s a time students gather around a large calendar discussing days of the week, months, counting, place value, weather, etc. Part of our routine must have been to ask about what they wanted to be when the grew up. I remember when it was William’s turn to be ‘Person of the Day’ that question was posed to him. His immediate response was, “I want to be a girl when I grow up.” I asked him why (I know, rookie mistake; shouldn’t have done that in front of the class). Without hesitation he replied, “So I can have long blonde hair and long fingernails.” This answer was accompanied by running his fingers through his imaginary long hair and stroking his imaginary fingernails. I didn’t think much of it and moved on. So he wanted to be a girl, and had an age appropriate reason. It’s no different than another boy saying he wanted to be a firefighter so he could ride in a firetruck. First grade answers are pretty basic.
Christina
Then came the day he went around asking the adults how to spell Christina. This must have been around mid February to mid March. He was now writing Christina on all of his papers. He came to school with a yellow bandana on his head. He asked me if I liked his blonde hair. He was quite happy with his hair. I believe the girls also started calling him Christina. The master teachers refused, and immediately scheduled a meeting with the mom.
Somewhere in that time period, he developed a crush on another little boy. He would sit by this boy and try to hold his hand. This freaked everyone out, especially the other little boy.
In the meeting, as a student teacher I was to observe and not say anything. I don’t remember much from the meeting. I was of the mindset that if he wants to be called Christina do it. If she wants to grow up and be a girl, it’ll happen. I do remember someone asking if the father not having a strong presence was to blame on his behavior.
After the meeting he was once again called William, and no longer wore a yellow bandana. It seemed as if things had ‘calmed down’. I don’t know what ever happened to William/Christina. I don’t know if it was an exploration into the other gender or if he really was transgender. I would venture to say he was/is transgender. I openly admit that I am no expert. Where ever he is I hope he is happy and doing well.
Lessons
What lessons can be learned from this? First of all, there needs to be more education on this topic. As a now ‘seasoned’ teacher, I’m not sure I would have a conference with the parents when a child wanted to change his/her name to something of the opposite sex. On one hand, I’ve had students who have wanted to be called Justin when their birth name was say Raul; I didn’t call the parents then. So why would I call in this case? On the other hand, it does signify more complex factors are at play. Being a 5th grade teacher, I might try to talk with the student one on one.
I also think that the stigma of being boys being boys and girls being girls needs to go away. We need to embrace each other, and especially children, for who we are, not what we identify as or who we like.
In Conclusion
I applaud Brad, Angelina, John, and their family for shedding light on this. It was brave of John. It is heartwarming to see he has the support of his whole family. I can only hope that all children who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender receive the same love and support.
The things you find when you start cleaning house. This weekend I had had enough of my desk, in my home office. It was getting out of control! As I was sifting through everything, I ran across an article about something I started in October of 2008. I was ‘Skyping’ in the classroom before it was trendy.
Nowa Techie 