When you do start looking for online lessons, where do you start? If we Googled it we are back to being swamped again with this time having to sift through 939,395,293 results. The Adobe Education Exchange is a great place to search for awesome lessons without getting overwhelmed. It is very easy to search and the ideas are great! There is even a place where you can look up other teachers who are on the exchange. Great way to connect!

Here are some cool lessons I found in a search for “science” lessons:

Angry Animals (For all the Angry Bird lovers out there! This is too cool)

Volcano Eruption (My kids do a similar project, I think this is much better than what we were doing!!)

Take the time (which I know is precious) and browse through the site, it will be worth it. Even if you do not have access to Adobe in your school it is a good place to start ideas, and may be good to use to persuade the powers that be to get Adobe!

Enjoy the search!

(This post is crossed posted on Tools and Apps Y’all)

I know we have a thankless job. I’m not pointing it out to complain. I’m pointing it out to remind you that you are right where you are supposed to be with the children whose lives you are supposed to be part of. Some personalities may clash. Some may be ungrateful for what you do. Keep going. We don’t always want to, I know right now it’s taking all I have to keep going.

I want to say thank you to you. I hope you feel appreciated. If not, know you are not alone. The year is almost over. 12 days. We can make it.

There is NO way I could do any of that now. It would take me a year of constant training to get back to that. So when someone says “It’s like riding a bike” they are leaving something major out. While you may still be able to keep your balance, you aren’t going to have the endurance or even the love you had before.

Last week, I went back to work/school. I had been off 9 weeks so I was pretty nervous about going back. I had 3 or 4 people tell me “It’s like riding a bike, you’ll do fine!” So I walked into my classroom trying to catch that balance of before. I did still have the balance. I was able to go through the motions, catch up with the kids, find out where they were curriculum-wise and start from there. Balance was there.

Endurance and love were not as easy. It was hard adjusting to not having my days to focus on what I wanted to. It was hard being around people for hours at a time. I was used to my drama free little bubble for 8 to 10 hours a day. It was a rough personal adjustment. Professionally, I had to adjust. Even though I was home I was working, just a different “work.” I was working on Edcamp Bham stuff (the week after surgery I had 72 emails on just edcamp, I don’t even remember answering/reading), I was trying out products for companies (I fell in love with a science probe lol), looking at websites and giving feedback, attending conference calls about products, reading blog post & books (A LOT OF THEM!).  So my days weren’t wasted, just different. Being in a classroom with 150 kids throughout the day and writing lesson plans that I actually have to find the energy and time to do was a huge change. Plus the kids had to get used to me getting back as well!

I have learned (or was reminded of) a lot through this journey. I was reminded that teaching is fun. I have a fun job! I enjoy the energy of schools and what kids bring with them and how annoying that energy can be when not used for good. I was reminded how hard teachers work. It is a non-stop job! I am tired at the end of the day. Unfortunately, I was reminded that even though I enjoy my job, I know being in the classroom is not final calling in life. I am more than sure I am ready to move on to the next step in my career and I’m pretty bummed I am not given that opportunity. But I have to put that in the back of my mind for now and focus solely on the kids who are part of my life now. I cannot believe there are only 19 more days of this year left! It is time to wrap it up. I hope my students this year learned more skills than basic science. That was my number one goal.

Then it all starts again next year with new kiddos. It’ll be simple, because it’s like riding a bike…right?

You see, Monday they will be announcing the launch of the Creative Cloud (check this out!). Can’t tell you too much now, but I promise the webcast Monday is worth checking out! Very exciting stuff!

Just launching an awesome product is not all they will be doing. They are having an online scavenger hunt (yes, like the ones you have given kids in the past, you know you have). You might as well feel like a pirate because they really will be giving a treasure for a prize – a one-year membership to the Creative Cloud. Yeah I know you don’t know what that is yet, but TRUST me, you want it!

So the hunt starts Monday at noon PT, which is 2 pm CST and last for 3 hours. Before then, you need to register here and you will get an email with the first clue! (Don’t delete it bc you will feel silly on Monday!) Follow #socialhunt  and be one of the first three to provide the correct phrase and you win! Yay!

There is also a scavenger hunt for those in San Francisco. More info and terms and conditions.

Good Luck! Argh!

My best pirate impression (yes I just had this pic on my phone for no reason).

“If you wish to understand what Revolution is, call it Progress; and if you wish to understand what Progress is, call it Tomorrow.”
― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

I could write on this for days. But I’m just going to let you think about. It stops looking at the past and even the present. Progress is good. It’s tomorrow – our future. Now to just decide how to make progress. But I think we may be on the right track.

Wow. After reading this there was no way I could finish the post. It totally stuck with me. So I have decided to “promote what I love.” Seems simple enough. Here is a list of things going on in education that DO BRING ME JOY:

1. Teachers who are not the norm.  I work with some amazing teachers. I am part of a PLN of teachers who probably do not remind you of your most of your teachers you had in school. Teachers who have kids questioning, teachers whose students are not learning from the PowerPoint on the screen or lecture but from doing. Those loud classrooms that make you stop and look, you know the organized chaos I talking about! Looking at education articles today you would think we were all just standing there lecturing and teaching to tests, but we are not. These type of teachers are BECOMING the norm. That should bring someone JOY!

2. School districts whose technology becomes invisible.  Most school districts have at least a computer lab and computers throughout the school. But the school districts who put money into training their teachers to use technology as part of the curriculum, part of everyday life, make my heart happy. These districts have tech integrationist or coaches that support teachers. They bring PD to the teacher and guide them through the use of technology which can be intimidating if done alone. Ya’ll know helping teachers is my passion so of course I love this and I love this is becoming more common every year!

3.Teachers who model lifelong learning. When I was in college we had come up with “Philosophy of Teaching” and the professors pushed us to use words like “lifelong learners” when describing our goals for students. But never really encouraged us to be learners as teachers. With social media I see everyday teachers who are there to learn. Between blog post, tweets, conversations on facebook, and even the rapid growth of edcamps, there is no denying teachers are taking their learning not only in their own hands but this is causing them to be hungry for more. The more we learn, the better teachers we become, and the more we encourage our students to become lifelong learners as well.

4. Educational companies really valuing teacher’s input. Teachers are having to constantly deal with the fact that politicians and the media treat them like they are clueless and everyone knows more about their profession but them. So it is nice to see companies really pay attention to what teachers have to say, since we are the ones using the materials anyway. Last week I was supposed to meet again with Promethean (stupid back surgery!) and today had a conversation with Adobe. Thanks to social media connections with companies are becoming more common which is beneficial for both sides. It is nice that companies seek out to hear what teachers are doing and how we are using their products!

5. Students using technology and social media for GOOD. I love to see my colleagues near and far share what their students are doing online. Nothing makes me happier then to read a blog post by a kid! I have also connected with some former students who are now in HS or college on instagram which seems so silly but I LOVE to see them encourage each other through pictures and comments. Students are not just using social media to bully each other, contrary to what the media claims. Sorry Today Show but they are sending quotes and bible verses to each other when they have a bad day. This doesn’t always come naturally but when our schools teach digital citizenship and we encourage the use of social media properly this is what happens! This is what I LOVE!

I was going to make this a Top 10 list but that would have been sooooo long, so stopping at 5 for now. I would love to hear what you would add to make it a top 10 list. We hear so much negative “ugh teachers aren’t teaching problem solving,” and more (I am so guilty!!) that we do not take time to celebrate the positives!! It is hard to rant about good things, right? I am starting to believe these things I LOVE are becoming more and more common, no matter how slowly, it is worth promoting!!

You see as teachers we have “momma bear” syndrome a lot of times. We worry about and take care of everyone but ourselves. It’s our nature. It’s why we are teachers. It’s why we are good teachers. But I wonder if we are cheating ourselves. Does it hold us back from being great teachers and generally great people.

You see when staring at the ceiling all day you learn some stuff. You do a lot of reflecting. And you start trying to take care of yourself for once. It’s a strange feeling. It’s caused some things to change as well.

One lesson, I realized how much time I really need to spend as me, not as “Mrs. Dykes.” It doesn’t need to be who I am 24/7. So my biggest step was I officially quit coaching cheerleading last week. Gosh I loved that job. Wasn’t easy to do. Lots of going back and forth. Even had an email from a parent asking me to say. See, not easy. Not only do I need to be home with my kids more but that was a huge stress everyday. Trust me, middle school girl drama with my perfectionist coaching and a little cheer mom drama mixed in, stressful. No way I’ll ever be completely healthy with that. My life needs to be simpler.

I also realized friendships I’ve had with people are changing. That part makes me sick to my stomach. Friendships changing in my historical past is usually for the worst. It’s hard to accept them for what they are and not blame myself. But see that’s that momma bear again trying to make everything “right” even though there is hurt and fear. (though I will say some friendships have surprised me for the better lately)

The hardest part has been having to accept I need help for things. That momma bear is supposed to take care of everything, right? Well I can’t. And I don’t always need to. Sometimes it’s ok to ask for help.

You see these are not lessons I just need to know now while I’m stuck laying here recovering and getting ready for the next surgery in two weeks. No hopefully I will keep them in mind as I do get well & go back to my “normal” life. I wanted to share them with you as well. You see not everyone gets joy of have a big piece of their vertebrae removed and the time to reflect. But I want to remind you to do so. Are you being more of a momma bear than looking out of yourself? You need to because, you see, if you are not 100% than eventually you either cannot momma bear anymore or there is no one left to take care of. When I called my boss to quit coaching he said this “40 years from now your cheerleaders won’t be staring you in the eyes, but your children will.” I think you need to make sure you like what they see.

This morning I was watching the Today Show and there was a perfect example of this. If you were on Twitter or Facebook yesterday you probably saw something about  stopping Joseph Kony.  (Not really going to go into the heart wrenching video right now, but take a moment to watch if you haven’t already.) The story was not on events taking place but how the awareness spread so quickly. At one point yesterday 1 million people were viewing the video per hour. Now this is a 30 minute video. Take a second to let that sink in. If you can, please take a moment and watch this news report.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The reporter starts by saying that the creator of this video, Jason Russell, hope to start a new generation of “Global Social Activists.” Think back to SOPA. It did not take long for people to spread and sign the petition. Social activism. Same this is happening here. But you see SOPA only was effecting the US, Kony is in (well according to some posts today he is not actually there) Uganda. That is where the “Global” part comes into play. See here is the deal, we are no longer in our safe beautiful bubble of the USA (or what ever country you are in – sorry about that my international friends). We saw images of the 2011 Japanese earthquake within minutes of it happening, and I can go on and on listing events during the past year that we would not know about if not for how the internet is being used today – to shrink our Earth.

At 2:25 in the news report a high school student, Amy Young, says this “It just goes to show how our generation kind of has a different perspective on the idea of a global community.” That quote is what really stuck with me. The generation in our schools right now are beginning to understand not only how to communicate in this global community but how to use it for good.

So what are we doing to help this generation live in this shrinking world? I’m in the middle of reading Seth Godin’s manifesto “Stop Stealing Dreams” and so far it is a lot about what is wrong with school, how it is out dated. No disagreements from me there. Our world has changed, so of course schools need to change with it. My last post discussed the need for creativity, but we cannot stop there. We cannot just teach history by just focusing on “this is what happened.” Maybe instead we need to ask, how would have this been different if it happened now? Teachers need to be not just prepared for the “21st century” but for the changing century. They need to be ready to constantly change as the world around them is changing. Think about it, “global social acitivist” would not have been something possible two years ago, if I am not mistaken, 2 years ago was 21st century. See how fast our world changes.

Educators need to understand the importance of changing with it. We need to allow students to see the benefits and power of living in this social world.  Josh Allen’s school started a viral campaign to get  Denzel Washington’s attention, perfect example of allowing students to be part of something larger than their community. I promise nothing is more exciting than to see a kid’s face when he/she gets a comment on a blog post from someone out of state or even another country. This again is that global interaction that is changing our world.

What are you doing to prepare your students to be part of this global word? What are you doing to prepare them for what ever the next shift in their generation will be? When that shift happens are you ready to change with it?

There is this line between creativity and something that looks good. Creativity does not always look good, sometimes it is down right ugly. That is OK! Dictionary.com defines creativity as

“the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, and create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc; originality, progressiveness, or imagination.”

When I read that I automatically just think “education.” Holy cow, this is what we are supposed to be doing everyday, cultivating this mindset. I think that is hard in a traditional education setting though. I think mostly because it is missing the last 3 items mentioned here: originality, progressiveness, and imagination. When our main focus is on “finding the right answer” we miss originality. When schools function the exact same way they functioned in the 1950s, except maybe we are doing the same things we did before online, we miss progressiveness. And when the only problems we teach our students to solve are the ones on math worksheets, we miss imagination.

Teaching creativity is different from teaching content. It is not taking facts and putting them into a Wordle or making a pretty poster. It is teaching students to transcend “all the above” and create new ideas. Yeah I get it students need to learn facts but that will not lead to successful lives for them or even for our country as a whole. We need to start with modeling new ideas. Walk students through the creative process. The whole “thinking outside the box” needs to be part of your everyday life. We need to give them questions. Not a lot of thinking happens with answers, give them questions. Let them be wrong. Remember how I said creativity can be ugly. Failure is not too pretty, but it is ok because that failure usually leads to something beautiful. This takes time, more time for some than others, allow that time. Lastly the product is not always a finished product. It may be something on going, that needs to be OK. The finished product may not be what you expected or what you wanted, when this happens you need to stop and ask “but is it wrong?” Again, be OK with this. Celebrate that product, think of the hard work being put into something, it shouldn’t be “here is your grade,” celebrate it!

A lot of discussion lately has focused on testing and teachers being judged by the scores of the testing. As long as this is the mindset and this is happening, I am not sure creativity is our number one goal. I have had a few convos about Arne Duncan and his obsession with testing. So as schools the test often is our goals. There is nothing creative about the tests. Students are graduating from our schools everyday and no one has cultivated a creative mindset in them. Problems cannot be solved. Businesses suffere everyday because employees do not have new ideas. They don’t know how to come up with these ideas. They are used to be told what to do and what to think. Our country, our futures, are going to suffer because of this. Take a stand. Be original. Be progressive. Be imaginative. Our kids deserve this.

Start out with the weekend before the surgery. I flew to St. Louis for two conferences (kinda). Saturday was EdCampSTL. What an amazing event. Bob Dillon and Chris McGee planned a great day full of learning and excited educators. I was in a lot of pain that day so spent most of the day “listening” and “watching”. I saw a lot of teachers get excited things going on in their schools and classroom. I loved hearing the sharing of what is working. Such a positive excitement. Plus I loved how teachers were sharing not just taking. Great day!

Even more positive was the environment Edcamp took place. It was held at Dr. Dillon’s school, Maplewood Richmond Heights MS (well and HS too, it’s all on one campus). Amazing school. Absolutely incredible. It kinda looked like school but there was something about it that just seemed happier, more comfortable. Yeah it was obvious learning took place there, but more obvious the right kind of learning was taking place. If you want to learn how schools are doing right, check them out. From sustainability mindset to expeditionary learning this is a real 21st century school and not just because it is 1:1.

Dr.Dillon and I presented for 3 hours Monday on eportfolios for METC pre-con. We worked well together bc his school has already figured out the “why” where the “how” comes easy to me. We again were at MRHMS and it would have felt unnatural not to have the session be more of a round table than a presentation. Went really well, yet I left wanting to be at a place that holds eportfolios as high importance as test scores.

So the trip left me with a positive feeling about where education is going. So came home, was sliced open, and now have been laying here for days. Since then my hopes are kind of dropping. Since then I’ve read blog posts by a teacher I admire encouraging his child to choose a different profession. I watched John Stewart rip our unqualified Sec of Ed to shreds (which made me so happy, yet sad he is in charge). I read a letter to the President explaining how he has pretty much spit in face of teachers and later stated he would not be a teacher much longer.

All of this has caused me to be pretty upset. Since for 8 weeks I will be out of the classroom I’m kinda an outsider right now.

Then today it all hit me. I read two tweets right together. One from an amazing teacher who said “Ever have one of those days where you just feel like a failure as a teacher?” The other tweet I don’t even remember who it was from (if you are reading this I’m sorry, not calling anyone out and I don’t even know it was you) said something about big meeting tomorrow, hope big things happening for me. Those tweets caused a big “AH-HA” moment for me.

Education is all screwed up. The reason is so simple. It has nothing to do with technology, 21 century whatever, policies, or reform. It’s one thing: when education is no longer about students, it wrong. Period. I saw two tweets, both focused on the teacher themselves, but only one focused on STUDENTS. When we feel like a failure of a teacher it just shows we care so much about our students we want more, the best. Shows how awesome she is and how much she cares. Focusing on ourselves as teachers isn’t bad, when students are not part of the equation but promotions, money, notoriety, we start loosing focus & everything gets screwed up.

This post is just as much a reminder for me, everyone knows my desire for a tech specialist job. But I can safely say students, learning, better schools are why I have a passion for it. But I don’t need to forget that. That’s why EdcampSTL and being at MRHMS was so wonderful and encouraging to me, it was all student focused. They were, as the should be, most important.