Common Sense Classroom

It has now been a full month since NECC 2008 which has proven to be one of the most eye-opening experiences of my career in public education, and here I am continuing my near perfect record of being late to the conversation. Where have I been the last several weeks? Well, when I wasn’t off summer vacationing, I was actively turning my new learning into practical application.  So, here at long last, are the people, places and things from my San Antonio experience which continue to resonate clearly:

Ian Jukes speaks my language!  When he began talking about the myelination of neural pathways, I felt like I was at a Reading Recovery Conference that I had attended over six years ago, which completely changed my teaching approach  to a consistantly multisensory model.  While the rest of the audience was pondering the differences between digital natives and digital immigrants, which you can read more about in this handout, I was experiencing a profound sense of relief that I had some background knowledge to bring to the experience.  As far as the my digital citizenship goes, I think I am probably more of a digital tourist on an extended vacation.  I really can’t claim digital native status, and I am a bit too nostalgic to truly be considered an immigrant.  I enjoy coming out to play and learn with the kiddos on a regular basis, and as a tactile/kinesthetic learner myself, it is fairly easy for me to adapt to the environment. However, I truly prefer spending time with my dusty old books, graphite pencil and Big Chief tablet too much to lobby the embassy for my immigration papers.

Among a host of other actionable gems, Chris O’Neal made an excellent point about how more and more parents are requesting teachers based on the way they use technology in their classrooms.  I can certainly see this happening as I speak to parents around my school district. Many parents have expressed concern that their children will not have the opportunity to continue to use the web based technologies that they had in my class the previous school year.  As a parent, that is a concern to which I can truly relate.  As a teacher, I simply try to be the kind of teacher I want for my own children. 

I learned what a NING was, joined one, and participated in the discussion, all during the Birds of a Feather Classroom 2.0 discussion/session.  I’m truly thankful my husband was sitting beside me at that moment, as I would likely have not been able to navigate to it on my own, even with Steve Hargadon’s kind and patient guidance, due to a sudden serious case of cognitive overload.  Following that session, I met and spoke with Karen Greenwood-Henke of the Long Tailed Learners blog, and found myself featured there not long after the conference.  As I’ve continued to follow her micro-interviews, with some really amazingly smart and influential folks through the summer, I  find myself becoming more and more overwhelmed by the magnitude of everything and everyone that is “out there” in the wide world of edtech.  The world may be flat, but it is still very, very big meandering place - and I am so unbelievably small, and totally out of my element as I continue my personal exploration.

The conversations that I just “happened into” throughout the conference were many, profound, and several of them are ongoing.  That is the true power of all of these tools - I actually feel more connected to many of the people I met, now that I am home.  They are only a click away, and unbelievably eager to help me with any confusion I may experience as I work to put all that I am learning into practice.

Then there was the Blogger’s Cafe, where I was able to happily ”lurk” and listen, as well as participate in many great conversations about making school a better, more connected place for kiddos to grow and experience their world.  It was a joy to meet many folks from the Open PD gang face to face.  Most of my favorite moments from the conference took place in this location, including the one pictured below: 

 This is the funny moment Darren Draper wrote about in his reflection post about NECC 2008.  Karl Fisch was a genuine good sport, sheepishly allowing several of us to capture this Kodak moment. No, that really isn’t the same shirt he was wearing for his cover shot, but it was so close - I wasn’t the only one who did a double take.  Chris Lehmann bringing his copy of the magazine that day:  priceless! 

Finally, the most pivotal moment of the conference for me came during the final panel session about viral professional development, moderated by Vicki Davis.  We were drawn to the session because the Open PD folks (Robin Ellis, Darren Draper and Kelly Dumont) were participating, and I left the session a changed and highly motivated teacher. During the session, Darren described Twitter as a really powerful tool for professional development.  Up to that point I had been a Twitter holdout, being way too busy for “social” networks. Powerful “learning” networks on the other hand are a completely different story.  So, the first thing I did when we got home was sign up for the Twitterverse . . . and I have been learning nonstop ever since.  I will talk more about Twitter, and how it has changed my learning paradigm in my next post.

Final disjointed thoughts:  NECC 2008 was a grand adventure in a beautiful city.  This post, outlining just a few of my personal highlights, cannot possibly do justice to the experience.  I learned about an overwhelming number of diverse tools which I have yet to explore.  I can’t wait to share what I’ve learned with my colleagues at school.  I am really looking forward to the endless possibilities that this school year holds for my new 1st grade apprentices.  For all of these things, I thank you NECC folks!  I look forward to continuing the conversation . . .   

I started this blog in April of 2008 as part of my homework for OpenPD, my first organized experience with web based professional development.  As I swiftly taught myself to adapt to monitoring and contributing simultaneously to a ustream chat, skype backchannel chat, ustreamed vodcast and corralling my 7 and 9 year olds in the background (I was participating from home most days - I am woman see me multi-task), my little suburban Texas world was forever changed.   Darren Draper and Robin Ellis’ pet project allowed me to connect with and learn from folks, like Cory Plough and Sue Waters (yes Sue, I know there are no pictures - again - I promise to do better in my next post), from across the U.S. and around the globe.  I learned about how people were using blogs and wikis, and began to reflect upon how maintaining a personal/professional blog, in addition to my very active and demanding classroom blog, could help me grow.  To this end, I completed my homework for the course by starting my own edublog, and faithfully posting to it - for all of two weeks. 

It wasn’t that I didn’t have anything to say (those who know me, know that I am rarely at a loss for words), the problem was that it was end of year crunch time here in my little corner of the northern hemisphere.  My poor blog got lost in the rush of busy-ness.  Often thought of, but not acted upon.

Then came summer vacation, and I did just that - I vacated.  I fled to the much cooler, mountainous New Mexico territory with my mother, the kids, and very limited Internet access (sans husband, who still had a few weeks left at the tech center).  I returned home  just in time to prepare for our trip to NECC 2008 in San Antonio.  Poor blog, no time for you . . . even if I could remember the URL.

Then there was NECC 2008. Boy, talk about inspiration!  I must have begun 8 unfinished posts while I was there and shortly thereafter, only to realize later that my brain was so boggled by all of the information and conversation I attempted to consume and contribute to, that not a single one of them made any sense.  Alas, my poor little blog seemed doomed to neglect. 

I have spent the last three weeks since NECC filling my aggregator with the blogs of all of the great folks I was fortunate enough to connect with during the conference, and have spent a great many hours neglecting my family while pouring through them, leaving a comment here and there. I have engaged in the conversation and begun to establish quite the little personal learning network via twitter (I was a longtime holdout, but the words “powerful tool for professional development” are very motivating for me).  I have wondered if given the amount of elapsed time, if I have missed the posting boat when it comes to NECC.  It’s not that I have been procrastinating exactly; it’s more like I have been reflecting and processing all that I have learned.  And all that I need to learn.  And the fact that I will never know everything that I need to know, in order to truly make the positive and profound impact that I hope to make on the lives of the children I am priviledged to teach. 

I have learned through the many blogs I have been reading, the microblogging I have engaged in on twitter, and all of the conversations of which I have been privileged to be a part, that I am not the only one who reflects upon these things which flutter through my overactive consciousness.  I’m really not all that abnormal a breed - there are many “overthinkers”  and “overdoers” in this world, and I am delighted to have finally found them.  I believe that this is where this little blog will finally fit into my life, in a way that makes sense. 

For better or for worse, I have found my way back to my Common Sense Classroom blog.  I invite you to continue to meander along with me; as I endeavor to explore all of the things that will help me make my classroom a place of amazing adventure, that can be explored with just a little bit of common sense.

My own children brought this little gem home from daycare several years ago.  I remember stifling many a chortle as they used the phrase to cope with life’s little frustrations and disappointments.  After a time, I began using it anytime they would complain about the way things were going.  From there, as you may have guessed, it didn’t take long for it to creep into my “teacher talk.”  I have to admit, I have begun to believe that the phrase has a little “magic” to it.  It can quite effectively turn a frown into a grin, and it has such a nice rhythm to it, that the kids can’t help but join in the refrain anytime I pull it out of my bag of tricks.  But you know, upon reflection, I think that there is a little more depth to this little pearl of wisdom than I had previously realized.

It occured to me, that most teachers I have met over the past 18 years or so (even the really good ones), are primarily focused on student deficits.  It seems like we are programmed to immediately notice the weaknesses in our students.  I can’t count the number of times I hear educators talking about what kids can’t do.  Yikes!  If we spend all of our time focused on the negative, how can we possibly accentuate the positive? 

The truth is that it really doesn’t matter who your students are, what they can do, or where they have been - they all have one thing in common . . . they have strengths!  We as educators have to get past our preconceived ideas about what students should “look like”  when they walk through our doors.  It is always amazing to me how smart kids become when I believe they are smart, and how much they can learn when I step up and give them the opportunity.  Sure, I’m “wrung out” at the end of most days, and truth be told, there aren’t many teachers in the building that would get in line to spend the day with my 2nd grade “crew”; but I wouldn’t trade a single second that I have had with these amazing kiddos.  As we have explored blogs, wikis, Skype conferencing, and other Web 2.0 treasure troves; I truly believe I’ve learned as much from my young apprentices as they have from me.  What a gift!   Who could ask for anything more?

Darren Draper’s “Becoming a Better Teacher” post on Drape’s Takes reminded me of a Reading Recovery training session I attended several years ago.  I remember vividly the moment Dr. Nancy Anderson completely changed my perspective as a teacher. She shared that with every teaching decision she made,  she asked herself one question, “Why am I doing this, and how is it good for this kid?”  

As teachers, we have so many reasons for doing the things we do in the classroom.  We follow the state curriculum, district objectives, content area curriculum, and curriculum office/campus initiatives.  We have favorite units, things we have always taught, things our team likes to do, and the next thing that appears in the textbook.  There is the newest technology tool that we need to try, in order to remain on the “cutting edge.” We even make sure that we address all of the “pet peeves” of the next year’s grade level, so they won’t be disappointed in the “new crop” they are inheriting.  In the midst of all of this “stuff” do we lose site of our most important purpose - meeting the needs of the kiddos?

The thing I love most about collaborating with my colleagues, on and beyond my campus, is the way it helps me to continuously reevaluate what I am doing with my students.  Sometimes it is easy to get bogged down in the mire of academic expectations, but I always try to take a moment to ask myself Nancy’s question.  “Why am I doing this, and how is it good for these kids?”  Sometimes it causes me to make a quick change to what I am about to teach, sometimes it doesn’t.  But it does accomplish one thing - without fail. It reminds me that I am not just teaching a curriculum, I am teaching children.  After all, isn’t that why we all got into this game in the first place?