Do You Dream to Be a YouTube Star?

Probably not....but guess what...some of your students do! I'm going to take you back a few years (almost a decade) to when I taught in a small town in rural Alberta. This town, I might argue, skewed the statistics on Socioeconomic Status and value in Education (snapshot on some of the research). Most of my students had a parent or parent(s) who worked in the oilfield and, since it was in the prime of boom time in Alberta, they were making great money. A lot of those same parents did not have any post secondary education and some didn't even have a high school diploma. It was this perfect storm that caused some of my students, in Grade 6, to say "I don't need school, I'm just going to work in the oilfield". Unfortunately, they weren't able to see a couple of things. First, working in the oilfield is hard work! So, if you want to keep a job long enough to make good money, you had to be prepared to work hard. Second, what happens when the boom busts? I get that trying to get an 11 year old to see the "big picture" is tough and I struggled to connect with these students to make the classroom content relevant to them. Mostly because I have never worked on a rig and I have no idea what I was teaching could have or would have connected to the rigs, aside from work ethic. I think hard work is one of the most important "soft skills" to be taught in school, but it's not an easy task. 

Fast forward to today... I have a student who (and this student is not the only one) who LOVES vloggers! I don't know exactly how much time a day this particular student spends watching YouTube vloggers but guessing from how bleary eyed he is when he gets to class....I'm going to assume a few hours a day. Today, we were working on multiplying decimals by whole numbers in Math class and this particular student was having an off day. I got the chance to go for a walk with him and found out that he believes, he doesn't need to learn about multiplying because he's going to be a YouTube star. He also explained how school was boring for him because he just wants to be YouTube star and nothing he learns in school will help him with this. Sound familiar?! Yep, YouTube vlogging became the oilfield of today's classroom! I know a little bit more about YouTube and Vloggers, so I latched on to this one.

I asked him, "Does he think being a vlogger is easy?"

His response, "yeah, they just record themselves doing stupid stuff...I can do that".

In my attempt to explain to him the amount of work that vloggers put into a "simple" 5 minute video is insane, I had a light bulb moment. I wanted to make the learning in the classroom relevant to him and also to have him think about his future. Not once did I tell him he wasn't or couldn't be a YouTube star...in fact...I encouraged it (just not during Math right?! 😉). I decided he was going to start planning this out. I had about 10 minutes before recess was out, so I quickly sent a couple of messages to his YouTube heroes in hopes a miracle reply of them explaining the amount of work it takes to produce a single video (no luck in replies yet). I also put together a quick (extremely ugly and not toooo well planned out) sheet of guiding questions for research and the beginnings of creating a budget (check it out here...if anyone wants to make changes, aesthetic improvements, etc. feel free). Through some discussions I was able to point out that a lot of the math calculations we were going to be learning about this year. We also talked about how to calculate percentages and that Jake Paul's information and YouTube's ad revenue information didn't match up, I couldn't quite tell him that maaaaaaybe Jake Paul's math wasn't the most accurate. The student however, was hooked, he spent a good chunk of the day planning, researching (both LA outcomes) and doing some Math (even multiplying decimals) to figure out his start up costs, monthly operating costs and how many viewers and views he was going to need to make some money. This was the most engaged I saw this student this school year. Unfortunately, in the world of school, the bell went and he had to head off to another class and since I don't teach him the rest of the day, we weren't able to reconnect to see what he had done. We haven't figured out how many viewers, views, advertisers or sponsors he's going to need in order to make the millions he dreams of, but perhaps some day.

When I was working with this student, I was thinking how much I want to make my classroom personal and relevant to as many students as possible. I also came to an understanding that, although this is the ideal for me, reality may not allow it. Time, curriculum, provincial achievement tests, team teachers, student needs, may not allow for me to make this happen.....this time around.

Spellcheck is our Friend...Don't Make it an Enemy!

I have heard plenty of arguments both for and against spell-check. On one side, there is the spellcheck is the enemy and is killing the English language. I've heard, "Students are lazy, they assume spell check will fix their work, they don't even look it over"; "Students language is becoming basic because of spell check", "students don't know how to spell anymore".

On the other hand there are the supporters of spell check, "helps students become more independent in correcting their spelling", "they have and use it in their day to day use".

I will openly admit I'm pro spell check for my students, however, like all the tools our students use, they need to be shown the purpose and proper use of the tool to be effective. For example, just because a student in Gr. 1 knows how to navigate an Ipad, does not necessarily mean they know how to use an Ipad to support their learning. Chances are they know how to access their favourite show on YouTube and get to their favourite game, maybe even go and download some new games; don't confuse this with knowing how to use an Ipad for learning. Just like knowing how to open and create an email does not mean I know how to effectively communicate via email. That being said, just because a student knows that the little red underline means a word is spelled incorrectly and that they can right click on the word to get suggestions, does not mean they know how to effectively use spellcheck to improve their writing or communicate effectively.

So, how often do we as teachers take the time to show a student how to use spell check? Do we model and explain the importance of reading over their work even if there aren't any underlined words?  This is not just for grammatical reasons either, reading over their work for grammatical corrections is important, but I mean to read for spelling too. Right now I currently have multiple words underlined, but they're not spelled incorrectly, spell check can be used to teach the difference in spelling between countries that have the same language in that case. I also have the word YouTube underlined right now, but it's because I didn't capitalize the y and it's a proper noun...have we ever thought about using spellcheck to teach the use of proper nouns?

What about using spellcheck as tool for expanding students' vocabulary? Showing students the importance of finding out what all of the different "suggested words" mean vs. telling them to pick the one that makes sense. Perhaps getting students to think about why there are so many different suggestions based on the single word? Why would spellcheck give so many different suggestions? Encourage students to explore the different meanings of the words including the one they actually meant to spell. Could there be another word that would give their message more meaning or a more clear message? I know I have come across words I didn't know existed because of a misspelled word, why not embrace this?

All to often spell check is seen as "the devil" and avoided by teachers and students just use as best they know how, right click, pick the first word that is suggested. Sometimes it is avoided because "they already know how to use it", right click, pick the first word that is suggested. However, I think spell check should be embraced and taught as an effective tool to increase students' vocabulary and communicate more effectively. Do you teach how to use spell check?

Accessing Generation Like in Your Classroom

I recent watched a documentary called "Generation Like" I was very intrigued. In short the documentary shows how companies use individuals search history and social media usage (liking, sharing, etc) to bring advertising to the user. The documentary then goes to show how individuals who create their social media content and become popular (get a lot of likes or followers) can turn their "likes" into currency. In some cases, like it or not, students self worth comes from the number of likes their posts get. One reason for this could be that, if they get enough likes/followers, companies start to take interest and will pay them to promote their products through their social media. Whether they have 15 minutes of fame (remember "Damn Daniel!") or long time Youtube superstar Pewdiepie (over 49 000 000 subscribers) people are making money now by having followers and getting "likes". 

Understanding that students are a part of "Generation Like" and a lot of their day to day satisfaction comes from "likes" or "subscribers", how can we harness this in the classroom? 

Well, let's think about/look at gamification (not game based learning) but true gamification, students earning experience points to level up through assignments and tests. What if you turned your classroom into a social media setting where students collected "likes" and "followers". What if your assessments weren't a mark or a scale but a number of "likes" or "shares" and students needed to collect a certain number of "likes" to achieve a certain mark or to achieve a benchmark with their ultimate goal is to become a social media star in the classroom. If you really wanted to step up your game and tie it into the reality of likes and social media, there could be other extrinsic rewards like "sponsorship" opportunities based on the number of "likes". Now this situation is a little contrived and may not have the motivation to learn/explore/share we would like, but something to think about nonetheless. I think engagement and motivation in learning are things that we, as educators, are always striving for, especially because we (in Canada) are tied to a curriculum that we must teach. However you, as an educator, harness that motivation, whether it be through gamification, harnessing the power of "likes" or just being an awesome and amazing person, we are teaching a generation of students who are, in the words of Much Music, #MadetoMake. 

Ignite the Passion in Your Next PD Day

This past Wednesday I attended the Discovery Education Ignite Your Passion evening. If you haven't heard of Ignite talks here's one explaining what Ignite Talks are.

How awesome would this be at your next PD Day? If there's one thing teacher's have, it's stories! If there's another thing teachers have it's the ability to talk...and talk....and talk. That being said, one thing teachers struggle to talk about, either with their peers or with others, are the great things that are happening in their classroom and in their school. Another thing teachers struggle to talk about is what they are passionate about. Why? I'm not sure. Perhaps it's a culture in the profession that needs to be broken...perhaps too many of the people who were brave enough to share, were/are mocked and then they hide. I find this extremely ironic because we want students to share their thoughts and ideas (whether they're "right" or "wrong"), yet we won't do it ourselves? 

The moment I knew I needed to keep sharing was early in my teaching adventure. I had just finished sharing my thoughts in a staff meeting about differentiating for students with autism in the classroom. Although this was my 2nd year of teaching and first with a student with autism, I had spent two summers working at a camp for people with special needs. At camp we spent every single day differentiating and accommodating to make sure every single camper had the time of their life. So no, I didn't have a wealth of classroom experience with this population...however if you think it's difficult to accommodate and differentiate for a student with autism in classroom...trying doing it fishing on a boat in the middle of the lake. Anyways, a colleague of mine mocked my sharing, turning their nose at me with my "little classroom experience". I was a little, no, a lot deflated. Perhaps I needed to be. After all, I didnt have that much classroom experience. Then another colleague that day came and thanked me for sharing because they said more teachers need a view/understanding like that. I made 2 choices that day...1) I will share because even if I'm not an "expert" or a "veteran" somebody will appreciate it and learn. 2) I will never discredit someone who shares their thoughts. I will thank them for sharing no matter what their experience level because I learn when I share so they can/will too. 

Back to the Ignite...share your story, it will inspire someone and you will learn! 

My Open Letter About Open Letters

Dear writers of open letters,

I believe there is a time and place for open letters and at times open letters can be very powerful. However, let's be clear on a few things about said letters. First off, if you write an open letter, expect feedback. The feedback may be positive, it could go viral and you have thousands or millions of supportive comments and shares of your open letter. It may lead to someone supporting your cause for your open letter. However, it may also cause negative feedback, for example the Yelp employee who wrote an open letter to her CEO about the appalling conditions in which she was working in and found herself out of work.

Second, it is wonderful that you are being so "brave" and sharing your feelings with the entire internet community instead of sharing them with the person or people in which you are actually writing to. Perhaps it's just me and the nature of my job that I feel that if you are going to critique or criticize someone or some group that you should address it privately first, allow them the opportunity to not have to deal with the entire internet community because of one person who had a poor experience or was not treated properly. Don't write an open letter before this, you are hiding behind the keyboard and the faceless internet. If they fail to respond in a matter in which you feel was appropriate, publish away, make that letter open (but keep in mind point one, just because you felt wronged, the internet may not agree with you).

Finally, the internet is a very powerful thing and social media is an excellent avenue within the internet, and it should be leveraged when needed. Social media needs to be used responsibly...even Kanye needs to figure this out (really? Asking Zuckerberg for a bailout?). Don't jump on the social media rant-wagon because you didn't get your way or someone hurt your feelings. Jump on the social media positivity-wagon and make it a wonderful place where people write open letters about their journey battling/beating cancer or about how they received such excellent customer service from a company, or maybe even how great their company is to work for. Don't get me wrong, if push comes to shove, you may just see an open letter rant from me (oh...wait...). So let's think about the purpose of our open letters, take the right steps to address a situation before writing open letters and remember that just because you think you were "wronged" doesn't mean the internet will agree with you and the internet world can be mean!

Sincerely,

Nathan McEntee

2016 is an Exciting Year for Education

Why do you ask? Here we are in Alberta, on (hopefully) the cusp of a brand new curriculum and ultimately a reform to Education in Alberta. The vision for Inspiring Education is for Education in Alberta to create engaged thinkers, ethical citizens and an entrepreneurial spirit all while maintaining the core values opportunity, fairness, citizenship, choice, diversity and excellence. Sounds exciting doesn't it?

The vision set forth is awesome, but what does it mean for us (teachers)? For some, it may mean retirement, or a prescription for eternal damnation where they will have to throw out their worksheets and tests and spend hours upon hours creating brand new work sheets and tests. For the rest of us it is a giant breath of fresh air and why 2016 is an exciting year for Education!

We are finding new ways to teach the same curriculum in a new and exciting way that is more than just regurgitating facts and filling out worksheets. Teacher's are finding ways to incorporate different technologies into the classroom (like Google Apps for Education, Kahoot, WeVideo, Voxer, Sphero...the list goes on) to engage students in learning. They are also redefining their instruction to a flipped classroom (students preview content on their own time before coming to class to enhance discussion and working time in the classroom), blended learning, using the workshop model to ensure more small group or one on one time with students, as well as Project Based Learning. All of these ways of teaching take the focus  away from the teacher at the front being the bearer of all information and putting in the students hands (literally). Students are learning how to find, curate and create content to take control of their learning so they can be productive in the today's world and hopefully the world when they leave the formal education system.

Now as exciting as this is for me and for many of my fellow educators....it's not easy! It does take time to redefine your teaching, to learn, unlearn and relearn things, to learn what new technologies are available, how they work and how they can be integrated in the classroom, but I said it was an exciting year for education though....not an easy one!

So, fellow teachers, let's celebrate! Let's embrace the change and move forward to prepare our students, whom we care about, for the world in which they are going to enter, whether we know what that looks like or not!

Facebook Memories Are a Good Thing and Here's Why

by Nathan

I have seen some rants on Facebook and other social media sites recently, complaining about how stupid and irrelevant the Facebook memories feature is. Sarah Hagi wrote an article in GQ "Facebook Memories are Still a Hot Mess", she talks about the irrelevance of what was posted years ago and how it's Facebook's feeble attempt to get you to interact on their site. Memories have caused such a stir that Global News did an article on adding filters to your memories to block out sad memories, "Facebook adds filters to ‘On This Day’ feature to weed out sad memories". Both of these articles make some good arguments as to why maybe Facebook's memories aren't great. However, here's why they are great!

Image Source

I was looking at my FB Memories a couple of days ago and I thought, very similarly to the GQ article, what was I thinking? Why in the world would I share that? I thought the world needed to know how great I was at procrastinating but also there's a reason why I had to hunker down and finish my assignments in university the day before they were due...I was having a lot of fun! Not my proudest moments...but who I was nontheless. I then went to update my current status about the attacks in Paris and my "fully educated" opinion on the matter. I immediately thought back to the "memories" I had just looked at and thought am I going to care about this status in three years? Am I going to be proud of this status three years or more from now? I decided not to share anything at that moment. It prompted me to think about my students and adults who bombard Social Media with mindless postings. How often do we share, post, tweet, etc without T.H.I.N.K.ing.

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It's important to remember everything we post is "out there" and is what creates our digital footprint, digital resume, our digital portfolio for the world to see. Our digital footprint is there for good! So if we are disgusted about our posts on FB from years ago, or think they are irrelevant and useless maybe we will be a little more conscious about what we post today. When your "memories" on FB make you think about what you are going to post today, that's what makes them great!

 Take a second and T.H.I.N.K. so we can work towards creating a more positive world through social media, we can be proud of what we posted 3+ years ago and we can create a great digital footprint for ourselves. I hear parents/teachers/adults alike complain about what is being posted on Social Media or telling me why Social Media is so terrible, however, our children do not have a large base of people modelling how to appropriately act on Social Media in a lot of cases. It is important for us as the adults to be involved in the digital world and model great digital behaviour! So the next time you see your "memories" on Facebook or hear someone complaining about the memories on Facebook T.H.I.N.K and start creating great "memories" now for so you can be proud of your accomplishments when you look back at your "memories" and so you can start being a great model citizen in the digital world for the younger generation seeking guidance/role models in the world of Social Media. 

Round 2....

I started a blog a few years ago and "fell off the wagon" rather quickly. However, I recently received an email from a parent of a former student. The parent mentioned how they appreciated seeing what I was learning about and what interested me in the world of Education and that I was invested in learning about my students and how they learn. That was the first time (3 years later) anyone had every commented on or about my blog. The lack of interaction with my blog was part of the reason why I "fell off the wagon" in the first place. I have seen and read other blogs and love the conversation that occurs around their sharing. That was my goal when I started to blog. Although the conversation and comments around my blog would be great....sharing ideas (mine and others) and reflection can be very powerful and should be done. Whether a person chooses to share their reflection personally or publicly is ultimately up to them.

My first attempt at blogging was inspired by George Couros who was the keynote speaker at 21CTLS (21st Century Technology and Learning Symposium). Mr. Couros is a huge believer of blogging not just teachers for reflection and professional learning but also for students to reflect on their learning. The interesting part of this for myself, is that I never "found the time" for my students (or myself for that matter) to truly reflect on their learning (this thought has sparked a variety of other ideas that will likely become future posts). Why not? Well, in my infancy of a teacher my thought was...how does blogging fit in my Math and Science curriculum (those were the two subjects I taught at the time)? As I have grown as an educator, with my new role as a Learning Coach and as the focus on Literacy becomes more pervasive in Alberta Education...blogging to reflect in all subjects not only supports the ideas of reflection to make learning powerful but also gets students writing to an authentic audience. What more can we ask for in a classroom??

Start to a New School Year!

Today and yesterday I attended my district's "Summer Institute", a two day event chalk full of free Professional Development sessions. I attended 3 different sessions in the 2 days and lead one.

I'm going to reflect and share what I learned in each of the sessions and what I'm excited about coming out of the sessions.

Understanding 21 Century Learners Project

Last year there were 7 schools in the division that took on this project. The project is an opportunity for schools to create a team and have that team become school experts in an aspect of 21 Century Learning (21CL). The schools are given a chunk of money for the lead teams to get extra training on the aspect of 21CL that they chose to focus on. Then go back and deploy their learning in the classroom and share with their colleagues in hopes to educate their colleagues and show the benefits of creating a 21CL environment. There were some excellent ideas shared. Some schools created and empowered the students to become "tech experts" in the school to help other students and staff with basic problems. A couple schools focused on green screen technology, video conferencing, classroom blogging and the list goes on. 

The hope is that my school will join this venture and pair up with one of the existing schools to achieve whatever goal we want to help our staff in understanding 21CL. I am excited and I hope our application is approved as I really want to help move my school forward in understanding and using strategies to engage and excite the 21C learners we have.

Managing Meltdowns

In this session I learned about the difference between temper tantrums and meltdowns. Temper tantrums being an act by a child who has complete control of their actions in order to achieve their desired outcome or goal. A meltdown is when a student completely loses control and has no goal or outcome in their mind in which they want to achieve.

I also learned that we can be proactive in controlling or limiting tantrums and meltdowns by building a relationship with the student(s), understanding what their "triggers" are and changing the action or behaviour at the stage so that it doesn't escalate to the meltdown or tantrum stage. 

I wish I would have taken this session last year but I'm sure I'll be able to put my learning to action in the future as well.

Breeze by Dreamstalk

This was a session to introduce the new web design company/software that our school division is going to be launching. Another great session as the software is extremely easy to use and I hope that it's ease of use will increase the likelihood of my goal to start a classroom blog with both my class and hopefully some other teachers as well. 

Ipads in the Elementary Classroom

This session I lead with a colleague of mine +Tia Grahn . We went in with hopes to change the way a PD session looked and felt. We created a project based learning environment with a dynamic powerpoint presentation on Google docs in which we will update as more people add to the ideas we've shared. I learned about some great apps that can be used in the classroom in the upcoming year as well which is an added bonus.

Overall the "Summer Institute" has really got me energized and excited for the upcoming school year! I'm excited to and looking forward to continuing to adapt my classroom into a classroom for the 21st Century Learner.

Don't Forget the Hashtag #

Yesterday I was replying to a tweet that came up on my Twitter feed with the hashtag (# if you aren't sure) #edchat. I actually had a reply to one of these posts for once and was all excited that I could help someone I've never met, and likely never will meet, expand their knowledge and use of technology. However, when I replied I made a huge rookie mistake! I didn't put the hashtag in my response. Why is this a big deal? It's not a huge deal as I could delete the post and then repost my answer with the hashtag. It is kind of a big deal to myself for a couple of reasons. 1) One of the many uses of Twitter is a PLN, a place to learn. If you're a person that searches hashtags and had the same question as the original post I replied to, you wouldn't have received the answer. So although I may have helped one person, I didn't use twitter to it's fullest in letting others who may have had the same question and follow the hashtag #edchat know the information I had.
2) I have been spending that last few months reveling in the information I have gained through my own PLN via, Twitter, Blogging, and most recently Facebook, and I am hoping to spread the PLN fever throughout my school with my new role as Technology Integration Lead at my school. I should have a fairly sound working knowledge of the tools if I want encourage the use of them by others and what I did was a rookie mistake.

Hashtags in the Elementary Classroom

While I'm on the topic of hashtags. I was reading the blog post of George Couros (follow him on twitter as well, a great person to add to your PLN @gcouros) called "Twitter Hashtags in the Classroom" in the blog he gives ideas a  list of hashtags for educators as well as some ideas on how to create an effective hashtag for your school division, school or classroom. I teach elementary school (Grade 4 to be specific) and I really want to use twitter and blogging in my classroom. I've got some basic ideas for using twitter in my classroom like having my students tweet each day about something learned or are looking forward to (a way to hopefully connect with parents and let them know what's happening in my classroom and to teach students about digital citizenship). A lot of the ideas I find for twitter in the classroom and hashtags are for Junior/Senior high school. I would like to hear some ideas on how Twitter is used in the elementary classroom? How do you use twitter in your elementary classroom?

Making Connections Personally not Digitally

I came across this teacher's blog by searching #edchat.

Connecting With Students (personally not digitally)

In Mr Guyman's blog "How Spiderman, Washing Windows and a Book About The Beatles Taught Me the Importance of Touchpoints" he tells a great story about he discovered the importance of connecting with his students on a personal level. There is a lot of research that supports Mr. Guyman's story about connecting with a student but it's nice to see a real life story that supports the research. Research in education is valuable but it the real life support of the theoretical research reinforces the research and makes the research real for anyone skeptical of said research. 

I am a big fan of technology and I am always looking for ways to integrate it in my classroom to engage and connect with my students, but there's a lot to be said for making that personal connection with students. I am lucky in that a lot of my students who aren't really excited about learning and school are males and most of them just happen to play hockey. Well, I was that student and I still love and play hockey! I had a student this year whose parents told me that he wasn't really a big fan of school and especially reading, that he'd rather be playing hockey. I noticed that during our DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) time he was looking at a book but not really reading it. So, I asked him if he watched TSN and/or if he had a favourite sportscaster. When he said yes, I asked him why he didn't bring in some articles from TSN.ca he looked at me, "I can?". Now I wish I could say he started reading regularly and was totally engaged during DEAR time because that would be a lie. He did however, start bringing in the odd article and reading those. He also started looking for books on hockey to read every once in a while. 

What do you do to personally connect with your students? Do you think making that personal connection with students and building a relationship with your students improves their learning and/or makes managing your classroom easier?

What Makes PD Great for You?

Continuing on with Mr. Couros summer blog challenge, today I respond to a blog post on teacher's and professional development.

I came across this post in my twitter feed this morning. The post is called "What Matters in Teacher Professional Development" .

I agree with this post. When we have professional development days at my school and our administration set up PD opportunities there was usually an overall "sigh". I don't think it was because what was chosen for us wasn't useful or relevant to the vision of our school....it was just that the teacher's didn't get to choose.

On that note, for myself, whether I chose the PD or the PD I chose really wasn't as engaging or relevant as I was hoping. I have decided that, as a teacher I have chosen to be a life long learner, no matter how entertaining or exciting the PD session is, there is always something I can learn from it. I want to learn more and therefore there is always something I can get out of a session.

Something I look for when I go to professional development which I rarely find but am extremely excited when I do is when there is a great strategy or idea and they can show me how I can tie it to the curriculum. I know there is more to teaching then just the curriculum but sometimes struggle with the connection (especially in Language Arts) between the strategy, idea, or concept and how it is connected to what I have to teach.

With that being said, one of the best PD sessions I went to was on the 6+1 Traits of Writing and the curriculum. The whole session was different strategies on how to teach the 6+1 Traits and then at the end we were given rubrics that specifically tied the traits to each grades Language Arts outcomes! I saw relevance and used the strategies and rubrics in my classroom immediately!

I leave you today with these questions (please don't hesitate to respond via the comments) What was the best PD session you attended? What made it so good?
If you were to lead a PD session what would your topic be and what would you do to make sure your attendees were satisfied?

Social Media and the Curriculum...Do They Align Somewhere?

Once again I was perusing through my twitter feed and came across a link on how to use twitter in the K-8 Classroom it was originally posted by @web20classroom and retweeted by @ASCD . As I read the post I was became excited and have decided that I am going to give this a shot in my classroom in this coming year (I teach Grade 4). I also decided that I want to get my students blogging this year and have been working out the logistics on getting them started on that. As I was thinking about it all I was thinking about all the content I need to get through in a year....how can I integrate these great tools and ways to engage my students into the curriculum content? If you're wondering the same thing....sorry I don't have an answer yet....this brainwave just hit me today....haven't really worked on the logistics yet.

This did however get me thinking about the curriculum and whether or not the curriculum is connected and ready for 21st Century Learning. I love doing project based learning with my students, letting them learn, discover and problem solve collaboratively but it is not a quick and easy process unfortunately. In Grade 4 with students who are just getting used to working in a collaborative environment these projects take time and thus I run into the problem of covering all the content (Maybe I shouldn't be admitting this to the world?). My question is though, is this due to imperfect planning on my behalf? (some of it for sure...I'm human!) or is because the curriculum is full of so much content (much of which is very accessible to students via the internet) and does not focus anymore on the skills students need to be successful in the 21st Century? (Problem solving, technology, working collaboratively, etc.)

As I venture into my next year of teaching I hope to get my students on their way to become connected, 21st Century skills equipped, learners using the tools they have available. Hopefully I will at some point be able to integrate them fully into the content that must be covered!

Summer Blog....Challenge Accepted

After reading my twitter feed this morning like I do every morning to get my daily news updates and find out what's happening in the world of connected educators I came across a favourite blogger and connected principal, who I was also lucky enough to see speak, George Couros (@gcouros) . I had originally decided to spend my summer blogging by reflecting on my past year but now have to decided to take Mr. Couros' challenge . I then continued on through my twitter feed and stumbled upon this blog "How to Ace Your Teaching Interview" posted by @Edtweeps.

I found this post really interesting. I have just finished my second year of teaching and consider myself a digital native but only because I was lucky enough to get a job in a school division who embraces and encourages teaching to the 21st Century Learner. Through my first two years of teaching I have changed how I used my twitter account (became more connected with other educators and educational technology), I started a blog and am spending my summer thinking of and coming up with ways I can used technology and social media more and more effectively in my classroom. However, if I were interviewed by the principle in the above blog two years ago....I don't think I would have been hired. It's not because I wasn't using technology in my teaching and it wasn't because I wasn't using social media or didn't have social media accounts. I don't think I would have been hired because when I did my post secondary education, use of technology was not used or demonstrated. In my "educational technology" class. I "learned" how to use Microsoft office (I grew up using Microsoft Office....I know how to use it!). In my the same class and my "Ethics and Law of Teaching" class I was instilled a fear of using social media....especially Facebook. We weren't told, check your privacy settings, create a professional account or now a page. We were shown the negative effects of having a Facebook account was and thus every year I see friends who change their name on Facebook for fear of "being found".

Twitter, edmodo, linkdin, etc weren't even mentioned. I never used or looked at Notebook until I started my practicum. Although I don't think I am quite where I want to be with being a connected teacher and encouraging and using technology to its fullest in my classroom...I think I would be hired by that principal today. So, I leave you with this, if you are a teacher if you went through the interview with the above principal, would you get hired? And, do you think Post Secondary Institutions are prepared teachers to teach 21st Century Learners?

A Look Back (Part 2)

Getting to Know My Students

I have done an activity at the beginning of the year to get to know my students and if they want to (which most of them have wanted to) they can share it with the class. It's pretty standard questions on the front about their family and favourite things, on the back they get to create a Superhero....this is where I really get to know my students! The tell me the superhero's name and stats what his/her special powers are, who his greatest enemy is, what is the superhero's weakness and then they draw me a picture of either their superhero or the logo that their superhero would wear. I really got a feel for my students through this, I could tell which students were really artistic and creative, who liked to just get things done, who played a lot of video games and a variety of other things. I used those to strike up conversations each day. I set a goal of spending time with each student at the beginning of the year this year, just to chat and ask them questions...I didn't quite meet that goal and it is something I am going to do for sure next year. I found that the students that I did chat in that first couple of weeks are ones that loved coming up and telling me about their day or if they were having a hard time with something didn't have a problem asking me or other students for help. The students I didn't get a chance to make that initial contact with I didn't have the same connection with. 

Every Monday morning I did a sharing activity called HALO (High, Acknowledgement, Low, Opportunity) my students LOVED this and I will most likely continue this. This gave me a chance to find out what my students were up to and another chance to make a connection or have a conversation. The best part about HALO was the boy with Autism in my class would never go up to a class mate and tell them about his weekend and the rest of my students, as caring and considerate of him they were, wouldn't go and ask him about his weekend or what he did the night before. He would talk about what he did and then soon I noticed the other students making connections with him. They realized (even though some had been in his class for a couple of years now) that he does the same types of things they do. The other students started to make him feel like a classmate, like one of their own. They even invited him to play at recess (even though he declined almost every time) and wanted to work with him in group projects....it was really amazing to see the transformation from the first day to the end of the year!

I know that next year I must take the time to make that initial contact with EVERY student in the first couple of weeks. I have seen the dividends pay off when that connection is made and students feel they have a voice in the classroom. This does mean that I am going to have to listen a few students tell me that story that goes on and on and doesn't really have a point....but the story really isn't for my entertainment or listening pleasure....the story is for the student to feel important in the classroom and to have their voice heard. 

A Look Back (Part 1)

As I now relax and look back at the year that past, a year with quite a bit of change for me, it's time to share what I learned and what I found hilarious (which is why one of many reasons why I love to teach).

Work Smart....Not Hard

I have always applied this philosophy in my life and I think some people may think of it as being lazy. I firmly disagree! I have learned this year that cooperative learning can be very fruitful for students of all abilities and while students are working and learning cooperatively, for an outsider looking in, it may not look like I, as the teacher, am working very hard. However, I have also learned that cooperative learning is only successful for students and teacher if the cooperative learning environment is structured, the students know the variety of roles and jobs each have, a goal is set before the cooperative learning begins and most importantly.....it's fun and engaging for the students. This is not always an easy task and does require some hard work up front but the majority of the time...the results are impressive. This year I had students working together whose parents called me at the beginning of the year to say that they want their child moved away from another. I had students who normally would rather cruise through an assignment on their own stopping and taking the time to make sure another student understood the concept. I even had students who would rather be playing video games or playing sports outside laughing, smiling and participating. It wasn't always sunshines and rainbows but when I look back at those moments, it wasn't my students who weren't getting the job done, it was me who failed. Part of this came from not teaching Grade 4 before and the other part came from me not working very smart or hard. I hadn't set the students up for success in my planning and thus their frustration in not being successful turned into a shared frustration....lesson learned! 

Another part of me working smart not hard this year, ties into the cooperative learning aspect but setting up a team environment where students are comfortable asking each other for help and are comfortable helping each other before they come to me for help. I spent about the first 3 weeks doing role playing and discussing what this looks like. We definitely had to come back to it a few times throughout the year as some students "forgot" how it worked but it was a great to see students helping each other out and gave me a little more time to help some of the students who still really weren't comfortable asking a peer for help or just needed some extra help. 

Taking the backwards by design planning to heart. I learned the hard way that there are some excellent activities, lessons, lesson plans out there but if I did not know exactly what I wanted my students to learn from it and how I was going to check to see if they have learned it (I believe this is called assessment) and then what I could do if they haven't quite understood the concept or idea....then I was in for some long nights and days. I learned this the hard way and sometimes I got caught in the excitement of how awesome an activity looks like or sounds....that I forgot about how I was going to check for understanding or what they were supposed to get out of the activity and then when it came to assessing them or giving them feedback....I ended up with very frustrated students and thus a very frustrated me.....lesson learned!

Finally I found that making my students laugh and have a little fun makes life a lot more enjoyable in the classroom overall. I found that breaking into song (trust me what I do isn't generally called singing), telling jokes, letting students tell that painfully long story that kind of repeats itself and doesn't really have a point, getting up and moving around (even though the recess bell didn't go) makes for a group of happy students who want to be in the classroom. None of the above are hard to do but it sure makes life a lot easier on the teacher in the end!

A little bit of the lighter side...

After my first three posts I thought I'd share a bit of the lighter side of my second year of teaching.

I have a boy with autism in my classroom and it has been an amazing experience. He is always keeping me on my toes. One day I was having a chat with my students about something and I must have been getting a little excited or maybe raising my voice as I was really trying to drive the point home. All of a sudden my boy with autism pipes up from the back of the class...."Mr. McEntee.....CALM DOWN!". The look of shock and horror on my other students' faces was priceless. For me....I replied, "Thank you! You're right! I do need to calm down".

About a month ago one of the girls in my class comes up to me as she was getting ready to head out for recess..."Mr. McEntee! I'm going to name my children after you!".

Today as I was walking my class to the swimming pool, it was a little breezy out and we were running a bit late. So I set the pace at the front of the line and explained to my students that we were going to have to walk pretty fast so we can get into the pool on time. One of the girls who was right behind was telling me I was walking pretty quick and I was said, "Yep, you're right...so keep up". She replied, "We can't keep up Mr. McEntee, we are walking into the wind!".

One Monday morning my class was doing our weekly ritual of HALO (High, Acknowledgement, Low, Opportunity) basically a time for each student to share with the class what they did over the weekend. My boy with autism loves this part of the week. He was telling his story about going camping with his family and started talking about his little cousin. He was saying how she was being bad and then goes, "yeah and I had to give her shit!". I calmly asked him to make sure he kept his language school appropriate, to his reply. "What?! I had to give her shit!!"

Those are all the ones I can think of for now.....just a couple of reasons why teaching is so awesome!

Zeros in School

With a lot of talk about the teacher in Edmonton teacher Lyndon Dorval who was suspended after not following the school's "no zero" policy. I've been reading a bit of the reactions through twitter and some of the newspapers. I've only been teaching for two years and I have never assessed using zeros so I don't have a previous comparison to the way I assess now. I do have a couple of thoughts about the whole thing. 

I teach Elementary School and I have other consequences I'm able to give my students if they choose not to do their homework. On the same note, as part of the same system I reward my students who do complete assignments on time and so far this system has been very successful. 

If I do have assignments or projects that a student or students don't hand in, or I am having a hard time getting them handed in, I don't think about how much that student is going to "fail in life" because I'm not giving them a zero. Instead I take a look at my assessment and see how I can change either the way I present the information or the way the students show me what they know to make it meaningful to them and thus encourage them to complete their assignments because they are excited to show me what they have done. 

Again, I understand that life is different in elementary school compared to the life of a high school Physics teacher but I don't think the mindset should be much different. I was at a cohort meeting for second year teacher's in my school division and a high school teacher who teaches at risk students or students who haven't been overly successful in school. He talked about the way he assesses and how he does project based assessments. He talked about he differentiates his assessments so students can show him what they know in the way that makes the most sense to them....not in the way he thought they should give them the information. 

I want my students to be successful, I want them to be excited to come to school every day and I want them to complete every assessment I give them. I want my students to be excited to show me what they know, to explore and learn everyday they come in. In order for this to occur I must reflect and be critical about how I teach and assess in order to make this happen.

Fun Field Day!

So today was Track and Field Day at my school. What a great day! I think it's awesome when people are soooo thankful for me to switch groups I was supposed to supervise. Maybe I'm wrong but isn't part of teaching being flexible and adaptable? 

If I'm teaching a lesson and I can see (through my formative assessment of course) that my students aren't picking up what I'm putting down.....or discovering what I would like them to find.....I change it up! So it wasn't that big of a deal for me to change groups and have a blast! 

Ice Cream Debacle

On a lighter note for the day. I had a student ask me last week if his dad could bring ice cream in for his birthday because his birthday is in the summer and he never gets to celebrate it at school. Of course, I obliged. Yesterday he asked me if it was ok if his dad brought the ice cream around 3:00 on the Fun Field Day. Of course! My thinking was, we'll just be getting back to the classroom, it's the end of the day....PERFECT! Well....in the middle of the relays, with the entire school hanging around, my student's parents roll in with three, ten liter buckets of ice cream and 100 cones. Well...there was about 200 students out watching the relays. We had students coming from all over asking for ice cream and they ran out....so the parents....not wanting to disappoint start scooping it into hands! Yep....kids not getting ice cream....kids with ice cream in their hands....DEBACLE! Good thing there's a PD today and the kids are off for the weekend!

I start my blogging adventure nearing the end of my second year of teaching. As I look back on the year I there are a few things that I have learned or that I would like to do differently for next year.

Professional Development

Professional Development (PD), in my humbled opinion, is a wonderful thing. The thing that is missing from PD is the teacher's willingness to learn more. I say that even the "worst" PD session you attend has something to offer....if you truly have a willingness to learn. I like to find at least one thing I can take out of every PD session I go to. If I get more then one, even better. 

I have also found that some of the best PD I have attended have been free and after school (a gem that my school division offers) or via social media. I have learned more strategies, techniques, ideas, information from my Twitter feed this year then I think I did in my 7 years of university (I feel another blog coming here). 

Finally, I found that if I didn't use what I had learned in a PD session right away then I might as well have not gone at all because it ends up in that dreaded binder I have of PD "stuff" never to be seen again!

Backwards by Design

I love backwards by design planning. It makes sense to me and it is all I know as that is how I learned to plan in university. The small issue or flaw I find in backwards by design is this....I am a firm believer of work smarter not harder and thus I rarely create from scratch a lesson or assessment. However, if I'm planning and I choose the outcome(s) I want to teach and then I decide on how I want to assess them then I'm off to find a lesson.....however, a lot of the time the lesson doesn't quite match how I had planned my assessment or what I had in my assessment (even though it clearly meets the outcomes I want to teach). So, I must then fix my assessment so it is more in line with the lesson or activity or change the lesson so it fits my assessment plan. Which then means I am technically not fulfilling my commitment to the backwards by design plan. 

So I ask...am I not really using the backwards by design? or am I adapting the design to fit my needs?

The Value of Sharing

I started at my current school in the middle of October after taking over a mat leave. I only kind of knew one other teacher in my grade team and a couple of others in the school. The first thing I did was talk to the teacher of the school I had just left to see if he could help me out with some ideas and/or resources to get me started. Then as I got comfortable and was creating things for myself (backwards by design of course!) I would fire out an e-mail and attach the Smartboard file or assessment and a quick note on what I used and how I used it. I never claimed they were amazing (which is one reason I think a lot of teachers don't share, they're afraid of the judgemental eyes of a colleague) and as always added change adapt how you may (I later started to add...if you do change it could you please send it back to me). Soon.....I was getting e-mails or hard copies dropped on my desk of ideas, activities, or lessons and now, my grade team is a lean, mean, file and idea sharing machine. 

I also found that just because someone doesn't teach the same grade doesn't mean their information is not valuable....I got a great idea to use in my portfolios while wondering around the Kindergarten rooms one day. 

That's all for now but I feel a blog on how Social Media has helped me in the near future.