I’m sitting here looking a the Gulf of Mexico.  No oil, no smell of oil.  Only deep blue-green waters with white crest as the waves crash against the shore. Only smell is salty air.  I see snow white sand with green and tan stalks of sea oats blowing in the wind.  There is a random car that passed every few minutes, a street seperates me and the beach.  I hear the waves crash and a weed-eater in the background.

(OK remember that paragraph, I’m coming back to it! You know I could not just have a blog post that just started and stopped normally)

Last night I got to meet someone who I respect greatly.  Many of you know my obsession with the ocean and its ecosystem.  If not, here is a brief explanation.  The person who I respect the most when it comes to ocean conservation is Philippe Cousteau.  Last night I went to the Discovery Education’s VIP reception at the AL MEGA conference to hear him speak. (No I did not go to the conference, but drove an hour to hear Cousteau speak).  He said two things that really stuck in my mind with which are a huge part in my teaching philosphy. So let me share.

The first thing he said was that teachers are storytellers.  I think that is so true.  I love lessons where my students are using discovery to learn, but there is a time where they need to hear information as well.  So often we get stuck on the fact that teachers should never be at the front of the room speaking, etc., but you know what, children like stories! I remember last year teaching hurricanes, I told the kids my story of Ivan, I used pictures and videos to enhance that story. At one point I looked up and my entire class was listening, watching, LEARNING.  The story became real to them.  We forget this.  We become so anti-lecture that we forget there is a difference between lecture and telling a story.

Digital storytelling is my favorite thing to do with kids. Have them create these stories using fun presentation tools.  We need to teach them the value of these stories. Instead of being a project, it needs to be “Look Mrs. Dykes does this all the time,do you remember the one about the moon she did, lets make ours like that!”

Teachers hold a wealth of information, we are experts in what we teach, we NEED to share it.  We need to share it in a way kids want to hear it. Lecturing is not fun and I think can be bad, but storytelling is not a bad thing.  I needs to be done every now and then, not every day, but occasionally.

The other thing he spoke about that caught my attention was teaching kids to be critical thinkers.  I could go on and on about how important teaching problem solving – no not math problems, real life problems – but I feel as though I would be preaching to the choir.  I am putting it in here to remind me and you of it.  Remember my BP post (it is the one linked earlier) and how I blame BP for not being problem solvers or the situation in the gulf would have never happened.  We need to prepare our students for a life of problems ahead.  They will be the ones taking care of our Earth, our economy, and our government.  The need to know how to think beyond memorization.  They need to know how to step up and change what ever bumps life throws at them.

Now back to the first paragraph.  Could you picture what I was talking about?  Could you imagine the beach, the sounds, the smells?  Your students need to be brought to that place. Where ever, what ever, you are teaching.  Tell them the story.  How much better would my story been if I had included pictures, audio, or video as well as the words? That is way storytelling with technology is even more meaningful.  You all are great teachers, I know that, lets be even better!!

AC

The last few weeks I have gotten a lot of new followers, many of which are new to twitter.  Yes, I check that out, I look at the profile of every follower I get.  I look at who they follow and who follows them.  I also read their latest tweets and when their Twitter “birthday” is.  Yes, I do this for every follower.  If someone takes the time to follow me I can at least take the time to figure them out.  Now does that mean I follow back? Well not always.  It takes me a while to get used to a large number of new people to follow.  Now if someone @’s me, I immediately follow them back. Conversation is why I am there. You cannot learn from a one-sided convo! That’s like the opposite of social media.

I have actually had a few introduce themselves to me as new twitterers.  After I had a convo with a follower who said she felt like she was “the new person at the bar Cheers” I remembered that feeling and had the idea for this post. I’m one of those people who have this weird need to help everyone and make them happy.  Well I cannot always do that, but in this case I want to try. SO to all my new followers or those who read my blog but are not on twitter here are MY pointers.  FYI I am far from a social media expert, well who am I kidding I am far from an expert in anything. But I’m about to play one on UpsideDown.

Well before you ever tweet you need to get your profile “follower friendly.” No profile, people will not follow you. I know I won’t and I may even block you.  If you are trying to build a PLN, in your profile put something about what you teach and maybe something personal.  Also, put up a profile picture.  Use an avatar or even a photo. I like real photos, more personable, but anything is better than the twitter bird!

So now you have a profile, what’s next? Tweet.  Just a simple “Hello, this is my first tweet!” or “I’m a US history teacher who just joined twitter!” (That was easy wasn’t it!)

OK next you need to follow people.  I was going to give you a list of people to start following but I just kept adding to the list, I have way to many favorites to name.  I would recommend going to the search box and typing in #edchat (will tell you more about that later) or #itse10 (or whatever conference is going on right now). Find someone who is actually saying something interesting. Follow that person! Twitter also has this stalking-like feature that allows you to see who other people follow. A smart person is going to follow smart people, scan through their list.  My first followers were all the people @SuzanBrandt followed.  Once you have a beginning group, look for things they RT, follow people in those tweets as well.

It is OK to lurk at the beginning.  Watch the stream of tweets go by, but that is not what twitter is about. You have to jump in that stream. Reply to people.  I remember when I first started to tweet feeling so shy and thinking people will think what I say was dumb. Now I know they will think what I said was dumb, but I no longer care! Twitter is for conversations.  You may be learning stuff by remaining quiet, but others are not learning for you. Find a cool link, tweet it. Read a cool post/article, tweet it. Someone tweets something awesome, Retweet it.  People are there because they want to learn something new!

Remember everyone once only had one follower, even @web20classroom who now has 5,324,114 followers. Oh wait that is Britney Spears, sorry about that, they have more in common than the accent so got confused. (No I don’t follow Britney Spears, we are the same age so when I see how old she looks now I get depressed.) Seriously, we have all been there and are eager to learn from you! And do not take it too seriously! You can discuss more than just education stuff here. You do not just talk “work” with your coworkers do you, well think of this place as a huge faculty lounge (and yes we all know that name of that place is an oxymoron).

So welcome to twitter. The place you get to follow and unfollow whomever you want! Have fun!

Oh and about #edchat, it is every Tuesday at 7 EST, wonderful way to build your PLN and jump in the conversation!

When people always ask me why I use Twitter or have a PLN my first response is because it is like sitting next to the smart kids in class.  You know what I’m talking about, there is always that group of smarties and sitting next to them makes class just a little bit easier.  Growing up I was the head cheerleader with ADHD so people sat next to me for a whole different reason – to socialize. But by the end of high school I figured out if I was going to go to the private college of my choice I needed to be more serious in class.  So I started sitting next to the smart kids, the ones that were not as cool, but I liked them, they taught me a lot.  Luckily by senior year in the advanced classes was only the smart kids.  Academically – my favorite year.

I still have that mindset, hang out with people you not only can have fun with but learn from.  That is where collaboration comes into the picture.  Another thing I am taking away with me from #ISTE10 is how important collaboration really is. Last post was about creavitity, but I think collaboration backs up the quest to creatively produce something.  It gives feedback from more than just the teacher as well a push for doing more than just the bare minimum.

Backchanneling was a common theme I noticed throughout the week.  I even went to a backchannel session and participated in others.  During one session I was bored to death so opened up the backchannel to a session I wished I had chosen, I was learning from my PLN when not even there.  We saw how powerful the backchannel was during the PLN session when people from all over the country were participating in the conversation about their PLN.

We talk so much about how important our PLN is to us. We use backchannels, blogs, and twitter to share our ideas, but stop short from giving our students that opportunity.  Students need to share what they are learning as they learn it.  They need to have others to bounce ideas off of.  Even more they need to help each other.  Isn’t that what we do in our PLN, help each other?  Learning takes on a whole new level when it is done with others.

Collaboration needs to be more than just group work – even though working in groups can be part of it.  They need to have a place where they share ideas and thoughts at any time.

My biggest challenge I think will be setting up rules and procedures for this.  Before beginning these rules need to be made clear, just like in any event in your classroom.  If you have any ideas let me know – MS kids can just be mean and weird.

I plan on using this different type of collaboration much more next year.  Our students need the opportunity to sit next to the smart kids or even better – BE THE SMART KID!

…I’ve got who’s it and what’s it galore! Got a thingamabox? I’ve got 20, but who cares, no big deal, I want more…”

If you have a princess at home you know that song. I know every word (can’t blame my princess I was actually in elementary school when the movie came out). If you don’t have a child, that song is from Little Mermaid. I cannot tell you how many times over the past week while at #ISTE10 that song came to my mind.  I think it best sums up what I got most out of the conference.

There were sessions on how to use this or that “gadget or gizmo.” I think that is great, many people attending are there because they do not know how to use some technology or are still learning how to be comfortable with them. Also, so many do not read blogs or have a PLN and have no way to keep up with lastest technology. But I did not go to many of those. Many of the sessions I did go to all had common theme: Creativity.

It does not mater which tools you are comfortable using with your students, it doesn’t matter how difficult or simple they are. The important thing is HOW you use them.  Technology – gadgets and gizmos – are worthless if just being used to regurgitate facts or practice for a test. We need students to be creative.  We need to teach them to think outside the regurgitating typical school mindset.

Teachers must have that climate in their classroom. A climate that allows for failure. I “try and try again” safe place.  Also a climate that asks “what can you do” not “you must do it this way.” Have kids make music, movies, blog, websites, whatever. Use those wonderful gadgets and gizmos to promote this creativity. That is what they are here for, but also lead students throught he creative process. Give them examples, do not just have one due date – have dates throughout the project so you can give feedback (and youbetter give imediate feedback).  The students need to use tools they are comfortable with not just one to choose from. Let students use thier abilities and talents to create wonderful things.

We are preparing students for their future (well we are supposed to be) and careers more and more rely creating something. So lets teach them how to do that correctly.  Lets teach them to be comfortable with trying something new and comfortable with the positive negative feedback that comes with it.  Lets teach them how to use that feedback for good.

The Little Mermaid ended up getting her legs at the end of the movie. Let us help our kids get their legs and grow into the creative/thinking adults they deserve to be.

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