The Light Bulb Moment

by recesstec reflections workshops
lightbulbmoment

All teachers know it… The light bulb moment. The exact moment when all of your hard work pays off because you can see the light switch on in the eyes of your student. The “I’ve Got It!” look. The “Oooohhhhh…now I understand” expression. I am not sure what causes this to happen for some students or why it takes longer for some to finally get there, but it is one of the best payoffs in the world of a teacher. Better than dare I say…the paycheck.

 

However, as wonderful as the light bulb moment seems, I have found another moment as equally as satisfying. The smile. The smile that creeps on the faces of my students as they watch their completed digital stories appear on their screens in full viewing mode. The moment they see their creative writing combined with music and real images is unbelievably fulfilling.

 

That happened to me a couple of weeks ago in the computer lab. As the kids were finally done searching for images on Microsoft.com, putting them in order to coincide with their stories, double checking transitions, recording, rerecording, and recording AGAIN to achieve their desired fluencies, the time came to insert their background music. That was when the smiles started to appear around the lab. Since they each wear a set of headphones, I don’t know what music they choose while we are working. I can just see the smile and the heads bobbing. Then more clicking with the mouse. Another smile, head bob and finally a hand shoot in the air indicating the readiness to publish. Once the program runs its course and puts the elements together into a movie-like story, the students can view the finished project on full screen. It is the easily the best part of my job!

 

I am SO looking forward to doing the digital storytelling workshop in November at ROE #11 in Charleston.  It is one of my all time favorite workshops to conduct.  So many times the exact same light bulb/smiling moment is experienced by the teachers in that session.  It is amazing to see them realize the power of the digital story!  And we love to show our examples for ALL grade levels and subject areas.  This is not an “elementary” thing!

 

Please be sure to visit http://www.mrsssmith.com/ and click on student showcase. My students’ first digital stories are “Nothing Ever Happens at North Ward”.

 

Edusomnia Strikes Again

by recesstec reflections

I am cross posting an entry that I actually just placed on my classroom blog.  Cheating?  I think not.  If you stick it out until the **end of the post you will see my Recess TEC relevance.tired-yawn

Here I sit at 1:49 on a Friday “morning”. Oh who am I kidding…it is definitely still Thursday “night”. Edusomnia has struck again and I have a gazillion thoughts running through my brain. I am very excited about some of the projects I want to tackle this school year but still trying to figure out how to balance it all and cover the IL learning standards all at the same time. The mention of learning standards just caused me to yawn. Could my edusomnia be coming to an end? I think not.

While the standards are definitely something that bore me to even contemplate, I must admit they keep me focused on what I need to cover in my classroom. It is easy to get distracted by all of the tools and fluff that make learning exciting for the students, yet educators must also stay focused on the task at hand. The standards aid in my focus.

Reflecting back to my Parent Orientation presentation, I wonder if I over-spoke about the tools that would be used in the classroom to aid in learning rather than their infused pedagogical use. Ugh…did I really just use the word pedagogical? I exhaust myself. Too bad I can’t use that exhaustion to aid in SLEEP! I digress.

At the end of both sessions I did have several parents approach me about teaching them to use the tools so they could be an active part of the classroom environment this year. WOW. I have actually always wanted to have a Parent-Class for this type of parent involvement, but figured the parents of my students would a.) think I was completely NUTS (ok, I am a little). or b.) tell me they had better things to do with their time (which they probably do).

SO…in summary…. Parents: If you ARE interested in learning how to add comments to the children’s blog pages or wiki pages… or if you are still wondering what language I was speaking during orientation, please drop me an email or even a voice mail and I will get several options scheduled. I think it would be fun to have you come to the computer lab one evening and actually have some hands-on practice with some of this.

Also, if you have any requests for different topics, please let me know. I would be happy to accommodate any type of “info” session that would benefit you and your child.

**Could Recess TEC Inc. be expanding its line of workshops to meet the needs of parents as well?  This has my brain even more overloaded.  I will NEVER get any sleep.  Actually, I am a little nervous about feeling the need to catch upon sleep during our faculty meeting tomorrow afternoon.  I may need to load up on the coffee in the morning….ok…later this morning.  Geesh!

The Marble Jar

by recesstec reflections SMARTBoard workshops

jarI saw it…in a classroom on the first day of student attendance.  The empty wide mouth glass container with the label “Marble Jar” scotch-taped to the side.  And it reminded me of the “Incentive” slide in our SMARTBoard: “What’s It Good For Anyway?”  presentation.  We try to incorporate the use of the SMARTBoard into every imaginable facet of the teaching day, including the use of the marble jar.  Or in this case to replace the use of the marble jar.  But before I go any further, I must step back in time a bit.  You see, we recently did a full day SMARTBoard training in a southern IL Catholic school.  Mom had been looking forward to this training all last spring. (They booked us early).  She taught for quite a few years in a small Catholic school and refers to her time there as “The Golden Years”.  The strong parent-support, the church community and various self-contained groups of 8th graders all contributed to wonderful teaching experiences.  So having this opportunity to go back to her roots (so to speak) for a day of SMARTBoard training was right up her alley.  As we pulled into the black iron-gated and perfectly manicured grounds of the school, I couldn’t help but to be impressed.  And it only got better.  The school was old..and I mean O-L-D.  I am not sure what year it was built, but it reminded me a lot of the 4th grade school that I attended in the City of Shelbyville, Illinois.  The 4th grade school that was razed 15 years ago because it was not fit to house children.  Not this school.  As we walked down the hallways of this building to find the room in which to set up our equipment, the only word I could use to describe this old building was pristine.  The floors were prefectly buffed, the walls freshly painted, the woodwork unscathed.  I loved the fact that this old building was getting a technology upgrade.  Two worlds collide.  The VERY old, with the VERY new.  After we got ourselves set up and the teachers were catching up after being apart for two months, Sister came in and led us in a short prayer service.  At least that is what Mom told me it was.  As far as I was concerned, it was a short mass.  After all, it had prayer, singing, candle lighting…the works.  My first thought…can you light a candle in a classroom…or in this case a handful of candles?  My second thought… Sister can do anything she wants.  Period.  Since I have absolutely NO private school background, I learned a lot that day.  Prayer can be held in the classroom, candles can be lit, students WILL obey their teachers since the class limit is 30 (with a waiting list).

Back to my Marble Jar story…

As I was showing our idea for using the SMARTBoard as a classroom incentive tool, Mom said she was thinking about a picture she had of a Catholic School 2nd Grade class.

St. Pat's

Notice the class size…with ONE nun in charge.  I’ll bet she didn’t have a marble jar to keep these kids in line.  And I KNOW she didn’t have a SMARTBoard. Now THAT is what I call awesome classroom management!

It is often assumed that this kind of classroom management includes the use of rulers and some sort of corporal punishment. Not always.

More than half of my education involved schools that were not local public schools. As an “army brat”, I attended 14 schools in twelve years, many of them parochial schools. I was never hit or spanked, and never saw it happen to anyone else. We were just good. Why? Because if we weren’t, we received the afore-mentioned things at home. We were taught to respect our teachers, whether they were sisters, brothers, priests, or anyone else who decided to take on the task of teaching us. The best reward was a “Good Job!” or a gold sticker star on our paper, and even, yes even, a hug.

Candles lit in the classroom? Prayers before class? Singing of hymns? Did Shannon mention carrying our equipment up and down stairs without any elevators? Nothing but the help of someone else to carry them? They have nobody to answer to for government funding. No ISAT’s. No NCLB.

Just God.

A Crooked Kind of Perfect

by recesstec Book Reviews reflections

crooked_kind_of_perfect9.) A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban

AR Level – 3.9
Points – 4
Interest Level – Middle Grades

This book has been perfectly titled.  6th grader, Zoe is living a crooked kind of perfect life.  She has just been replaced with the popular girls by her best friend and is realizing that she doesn’t quite belong…with them.  She has a dream of being a famous pianist like the great Horowitz but when her crooked kind of perfect father goes to purchase her a piano, he returns with a Perfectone D-60 organ…sigh.  Her smart and pretty mom seems to prioritize work before family. And while there seems to be a pattern of conflict within Zoe’s life, she takes things in stride, keeps her head on straight, and makes the most of each situation.  You can’t help but to love this girl.  (Don’t get me wrong, she is not superhuman…she is 11.)  I wish I had her in my class!  I think the best part of this book (within a school setting)  is the fact that it will generate discussion that everyone has his or her own problems with which to deal even if not brought to the forefront at school.  Zoe is inspirational.  I wish I would have been more like her when I was her age.  Great read…add it to your middle grade bookshelf (grades 3-5).  There is no questionable content…ANOTHER reason to love it!  I guess I am still pondering the question, “Why DO author’s feel the need to add the token swear word in an otherwise perfectly good book?”  Thank you to Linda Urban for not doing so.  This will be on the my book club list this year!

NECC Reflections #2

by recesstec reflections SMARTBoard workshops

Autistic ChildrenMy niece, Allison, came into our lives thirty years ago. She has provided us with a glimpse of another world that we can’t begin to understand, only because we are limited in both our intellect and ability to “see” things the way she does. As a child, Allison “danced with the fairies” and was lost in thoughts that we could only wish to share with her. She was first diagnosed with significant developmental delays with “islands of ability” or possible “childhood schizophrenia”.  When Allison was five, her pediatrician called my sister, Diana, at work. He had just returned from attending a conference in California and was very excited to have found an “answer”.  Allison eventually was “labeled” autistic, and was placed in special classes in schools in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Diana worked as a political consultant at the state and federal levels, and used any and all connections she had to educate herself on autism. She became an officer in the Autism Society of America, and became proactive in securing the best help to enable Allison to become all she could be. Eventually we learned that Allison’s symptoms were best described as Asperger’s Syndrome, and she was not only very high functioning, but had an IQ that was far above anyone else in our family. When she was twelve, Allison described to me a book that she was reading about “parallel universes” in terms I could understand. My “Allison Stories” include finding piles of miniature notebook pages under her bed with hieroglyphics of different thoughts and messages filling each page, all easily translated by her at the age of eight. On a visit I took her to buy a bathing suit, and she absolutely needed the black one-piece with a huge beautiful sequined pineapple filling the front. How could I refuse? She loved nothing more than to sit in front of the television under a huge open golf umbrella watching Comedy Central and laughing with the audience. Her humor is quick, dry, and catches you off-guard bringing you to your knees. She has been to “Burning Man”, belonged to a tango club, belly-dances, and has taken Diana and me on a trip to southern France for the “Gathering of the Gypsies”. On our trip to Paris, her first request was to go to the cemetery to see the grave of Jim Morrison. On our trip through the Louvre, she was our personal guide. Just this past Sunday her post on Facebook read, “I just had a great day yesterday at Plunderthon. I and a bunch of other people dressed as pirates and went on a bender in Downtown Portland. Yyaaarrr!!!”

So, with Allison in mind, I chose to attend the NECC session entitled “Increasing Attention Span of Students with Autism Using Interactive Technology” presented by Randy Welch, Chief Program Officer, at the Spaulding Youth Center in Tilton, New Hampshire and Kathleen McClaskey, President of EdTech Associates. It was the first session that brought tears to my eyes. With a great deal of conviction and dedication, Randy described the difference that SMARTBoards made in five of their classrooms where the students ranged from ages 7 to 20. He described how the use of these boards help children focus on communicating and for the first time, they found words to relate their experiences and thoughts to their teachers, aids, and other children. Videos took us into the classroom and we were introduced to several of the children, specifically “Katie”, and watched their progress in ways that I have never seen before.

Leaving that session I was excited to share with Shannon what I had seen. I was convinced that schools need to require a SMARTBoard in every special class, and that interactive websites and Web 2.0 tools are included in their curriculum.

The school in which I teach now has SMARTBoards in every classroom. Two of our teachers who work with special needs children, both friends and partners with whom I have taught, attended our SMARTBoard workshops in the first session of our 2009 Summer Series. They were both excited and enthusiastic about the possibilities of how to use the boards in their classrooms, and I look forward to watching them grow and learn, and providing additional help and support to get them started on what promises to be an exciting path to an exciting future.

I invite you to read the handout that was provided in the workshop I attended.

Book Reviews – Round 2

by recesstec Book Reviews reflections

I hear educators talk about Battle of the Books.  I honestly am not sure what that entails, but I think it sounds interesting and right up my alley. That is the first thought that came to mind as I typed this title.  There will be quite a few rounds of these book reviews this summer since I have found myself on a reading hot streak that I want to ride out for as a long as I can! Also, these book reviews are in the order that I have read them…not in order of preference. Just wanted to clear that up.  Since I have not finished my list, I do not want to make any preconceived decisions regarding my favorites.  Maybe at the end of the summer I will do a post that ranks them…we’ll see.  Ok…here is 4, 5, and 6.

georgie

4.) The Thing About Georgie by Lisa Graff

AR Level – 4.3
Points – 5
Interest Level – Middle Grades

This is a fabulous book for 4th graders since the main character, Georgie, is exactly the same age.  Except there is this one thing…just as the title indicates.  Georgie is a dwarf.  It seems that every year I have some sort of “friendship drama” that takes place in my 4th grade classroom.  Usually it revolves around jealousy when one friend decides they would like to play with someone new.  This book is a great beginning of the year read to emulate the possibility of new friendships as well as accept the fact that sometimes your best friend might want to be friends with someone else as well.  There is also a pretty great antagonist in this story that you can’t help but to love.  Especially after you get a glimpse of her home life. (This is the only questionable content in the entire book.  She gets into a name calling match with her brother that results in her being called “Puss Head”.)  Her real name…Jeannie the Meanie.  I am guessing you will understand how she earned this label within the first pages of this book.  Georgie comes from “normal” parents who are now expecting another baby.  At first Georgie is excited at the possibility of being a big brother but soon realizes he may not be the “big” sibling of the family in the long run.  Georgie’s 4th grade year proves to be a struggle while dealing with all of these personal issues, but something with which I believe most 4th graders will be able to identify.  This, too, will make the list of book club choices for the upcoming months.  I loved it!

lovelybadones

5.) All the Lovely Bad Ones by Mary Downing Hahn

AR Level – 4.5
Points – 6
Interest Level – Middle to Upper Grades

Brother and sister, Travis and Corey, are sent to spend the summer with their grandmother in Vermont after being asked not to return to the summer camp they had visited last year.  Being the pranksters for which they are so famous, the siblings are delighted to find out the inn that Grandmother owns (and in which they are staying) has been rumored to be haunted.  The previous owners sold the inn to their grandmother and then left after a series of odd happenings throughout the old hotel.  Grandmother has yet to see anything weird happen and flippantly mentions how business might actually be better if the guests were attracted to the inn for the possibility of seeing a ghost just as they had in the past.  Well, that is enough of a spark to light the fire for the ornery siblings to put on a “ghost show” for the inn’s guests.  What they don’t realize is the grounds surrounding Grandmother’s inn are haunted and they are about to wake up those sleeping ghosts for the scare of a lifetime.  I am not a big fan of ghost stories, so I was a little skeptical of this book, but I really did like it and am glad I have found a book that I can recommend to students with that genre interest.  Overly mature readers might find some of the parts in the story a little hokey while younger readers might actually become frightened.  So choose your audience carefully here.  On a side note, since I scour books as I read them for possible book club candidates, the word Hell does appear several times.  Although it sort of fits the theme of ghosts and the supernatural.  This is a possible book club choice AFTER I get to know the students who will be participants this year.

 

shootingmoon

6.) Shooting the Moon by Frances O’Roark Dowell

AR Level – 4.5
Points – 6
Interest Level – Middle to Upper Grades

This book is a bit near and dear to my heart since the 12 year old female character, Jaime, is an Army Brat.  So is my mom.  While I have absolutely no idea what it must have been like to attend 14 schools in 12 years as did my mom, I got a little insight to Army life from my mom and I was able to connect the stories that she has told me to Jaime, the daughter of an Army Colonel.  This book takes place during Vietnam.  Jaime’s older brother has decided to enlist and shockingly to her (and her brother), The Colonel is NOT HAPPY!  To Jaime and her brother, TJ, this is a contradiction in terms.  They had been brought up in knowing that serving your country is the finest honor bestowed upon any individual, yet now that “the time has come for all good men to come to the aid of their country”…TJ is shocked that his parents are not supporting his decision.  As the story progresses and TJ goes off to fight, Jaime is left back at the Army base working at the Rec Center for the summer where she befriends young Private Hollister whose brother has recently died in Vietnam.  When TJ sends his first letter saying all is well, he includes a roll of film for Jaime to develop.  You see, TJ’s most beloved hobby is photogrpahy and now that he is in Vietnam, he is not able to develop his own film.  Jaime takes on the responsibility with a fierce determination that she will learn how to develop the film in hopes that she will be able to see the story behind the story in the “boring” letters that TJ sends his parents.  I really enjoyed this book, but maybe it was because of my personal connections to Army life.  I would love to hear other’s perceptions of this novel. As always, I include any questionable content…The colonel quotes a colleague and uses the word Damn.

Many of you have seen our reinvention of the “Book Bag” by placing important images from the story into a music video via Animoto.  I have created one for “Shooting the Moon”.  It is a bit wordier than our standard book intro which gives more information than I typically like to give my students.  But maybe this could be a trailer/book bag combined.  This will definitely be one of my forms of book reporting this year.  Can’t wait for the kids to do them. 

Let the Book Reviews Begin

by recesstec Book Reviews reflections

Lately I have been reading…and reading…and reading.  I think you get the point.  Since I am always on the search for new novels for my monthly school book club, I am quite picky when it comes to choosing “winners”.  So far, I have read nothing BUT winners!  I am going to quickly run down the books that I have checked off my summer reading list and give a quick opinion for which classrooms it is most suitable. I have also found a couple of fun “tech tie-ins” that have already been published to the web!  Book reports/trailers created by students who are using technology…I LOVE IT!

wednesdaywars1

1.) Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt

AR Level – 5.9
Points – 12
Interest Level – Middle to Upper Grades

If you have ever seen the TV show ‘Wonder Years”, that would sum up this book’s feel.  A young man who is neither Jewish nor Catholic is not required to attend Wednesday afternoon’s religion class which means he is the only student staying in the classroom with his very “put-out” teacher, Mrs. Baker.  After all, this would have been her planning period, but now she has to babysit a 7th grade boy. Insert her sigh here!  Each Wednesday is spent reading Shakespeare and watching the odd but lovable relationship grow between teacher and student.  Due to some deeper content and questionable choice of “vocabulary”, I will not be choosing this book for my 4th grade book club.  However, I would recommend it for upper intermediate and junior high level classes.  I laughed out loud on more than one occasion!

 

 

jeremyfink

2.) Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass

AR Level – 4.5
Points – 11
Interest Level – Middle to Upper Grades

This quirky story had me hooked right from the beginning.  Jeremy’s Mom receives a package in the mail that is to be given to Jeremy for his 13th birthday.  Inside the package is an intricately carved wooden box that requires a series of specials keys to open it.  What’s so special about this box?  It was carved by Jeremy’s father and has been under the care of his lawyer since his death 5 years ago.  It contains “The Meaning of Life”.  Well, as you can imagine, I wanted to know what was in that box right away…kind of like Jeremy and his best friend Lizzy.  There is just one problem.  The lawyer has misplaced the keys and hopes “they understand”.  Quite a series of events unfold while on the mission to locate these keys which kept me turning the pages.  I loved this story.  However, I will have to read it aloud to my class and NOT make it a book club choice for 4th graders.  Why?  Once again, there is some mature content when Jeremy’s best friend “becomes a woman” and has to seek advice regarding feminine products from Jeremy’s mother.  There are also a couple of swear words that can easily be avoided along with the “womanhood talk” as I read aloud to my fourth graders.  If your students are mature enough to handle the previously mentioned questionable content, I would make this a must-read for your students this year!

nakedmolerat

3.) The Naked Mole-Rat Letters by Mary Amato

AR Level – 4.3
Points – 6
Interest Level – Middle Grades

First off, I must clear up that the “letters” are not in fact letters, but a series of email exchanges between Frankie (actually a girl) and her widowed father’s new “possible” girlfriend, Ayanna.  Dad has recently returned from a business trip in Washington D.C. where he and Ayanna met.  He took one afternoon to visit the zoo during his stay, and as a result of an unexpected downpour went into the small mammal house where Ayanna takes care of the mole-rats.  Ayanna helped him pick out some souvenirs to take back to his family, and Dad ended up with an unexpected and growing friendship.  Frankie is not pleased…AT ALL.  She finds herself making quite a few uncharacteristic decisions and getting herself into a bit of trouble.  One of these poor decisions includes posing as her father in a series of email exchanges with Ayanna in hopes to sabotage the budding romance.  I love this book because it fosters the discussion regarding digital footprints while online.  It will also be easy for my students to connect with this small town, everyone knows everyone else’s business type of setting.  I love the strong female character and how she evolves throughout this book.  This definitely makes the book club list.  DEFINITELY!

Stay tuned…there are more books to come…

NECC Reflections #1

by recesstec reflections

NECC ScreenI had to title this blog Reflections #1 since there is no way I will be able to pack everything into one post.  Also I am habitually the type of person that looks back at presentations and conversations wishing I could add or tweek something.  I know, I know…get some counseling already!  So, in order to allow myself some more time to think back through the past week at NECC, I have set myself up to post a series of reflections. 

After sitting through a gazillion presentations over three days, some good, some great, some terrible, I have walked away with the justification that what Mom and I are presenting in our workshops is pretty darn good.  Not Alan November good, but definitely up there with some of the bigger sessions that we attended.  I was continually amazed at how often a large gasp from the audience would result from something the presenters had demonstrated, only to look over at mom (if she was in the same session) and give her “the look”.  The look was a mixture of “hello” and “yes!”. NECC Session

The “hello” part was a result of me thinking that everyone should have already known the concept or idea demonstrated.  After all, it was something we have been doing for years.  The other part, “yes!”, was truly validation.  Validation is an awesome feeling. 

The validation that we received after spending three jam-packed crazy days at NECC is worth the price of the trip in itself.  You see, we are considered “small town”.  We teach in rural IL, not the big city.  Yet we are providing the latest and most innovative ideas during our professional development sessions.

I saw it come up on Twitter and Plurk over and over again.  The statement that NECC sessions were mostly geared to beginners.  I would say Yes and No.  Yes in the fact that there were a LOT of newbies on the scene.  At the end of day two while waiting for the elevator at our hotel, a gentleman behind us asked if our heads were spinning with all of the new things that we were shown.  I could see the look of exhaustion on his face and in the way he was carrying his free canvas NECC tote bag.  I smiled to myself and said, “No, I think I’ve been sorting through it all ok.”  But NECC also, definitely, had elements that advanced tech integrators could implement. 

Not to mention the inspiration provided by speakers such as Alan November. Inspiration is priceless.  I look forward to his sessions each year and always walk away wishing I knew half the things he has forgotten over the course of his career.  This was his 25th NECC presentation.  25th.  I was 9 when he did his first NECC presentation.  I would love to listen to the archive of that speech since I don’t recall the use of ANY technology when I was in 4th grade.  None. 

It is sort of ironic that yesterday Mom wrote about family passing down genes that make us the tech geeks that we are.  If you read my husband’s blog you might know that Alan Novemeber could be my father-in-law.  Maybe I will ask him at our next family reunion about the content of his first NECC speech.

That “Age-Thing”…

by recesstec reflections SMARTBoard workshops

“Cathy, Linda, Sharon, Connie, Brenda…”

I feel like I’m home when names like these show up on our Saturday workshop rosters.
And you find these names less and less often among the faculty pages on school district websites.
You see, attending these workshops says our guests are giving up a Saturday morning to spend it with us learning about technology.
A Saturday morning during the school year…
A Saturday free of grading, lesson plans, and “all things school” to spend it doing “more things school”…
They belong to my generation…and they are still excited and willing to learn new ways to teach and to make their teaching relevant for their students.

Shannon and I just returned from the 2009 NECC Conference in Washington, DC.  One session we sat in on was “Teaching Math Using SMART Technology”.
The session was excellent in that it was presented as a math lesson on plotting coordinates on a quadratic plane.
The demonstration was led by Michelle Meehan, a young 7th grade math teacher from Virginia with teachers pulled from the audience who had volunteered to be her students.
It was fun to watch someone else present and to see the excitement that was generated by a Notebook 10 lesson and the “How did you do that?” questions that followed.
A facilitator walked around and answered the questions, and several times she made comments that began, “If a 50+ person like me can do it, so can you!”

Anytime we have participants who are reluctant or afraid to use the technology, and use their age as an excuse, we, also, try to reassure them that one of their teachers is older than they are,
(and I always am.)
Often these people are not “old” at all; just afraid.

We recently presented at a school where the curriculum director had spent some time doing research on the connection between the age of teachers and their willingness to use technology in the classroom.
I was very interested in hearing the results of her research and was quick to inquire.

She found that the connection had nothing to do with age,
but had everything to do with the willingness of the teacher to step out of their comfort zone, (a.k.a. “The Box”) and to try to do whatever was necessary to get their kids to learn.

I was not surprised.Mom's Facebook Profile Picture

This summer we were fortunate to have a vistor to one of our sessions. My mother attended a beginning SMARTBoard workshop, and she was totally engaged by what she saw. Her comment to me was that, “This is so fascinating! If I were a young teacher, I would be at every one of these classes!”

Again, I was not surprised.

My mom just turned 80.
She was one of the first her age to use email.
She has been IM’ing ever since it was introduced and she “Skypes” and is on Facebook.

Thanks, Mom, for passing those genes down to Shannon and me…

Learning to Accept “Less Than Perfect”?

by recesstec reflections workshops

As teachers, we are “life-long learners”, and as students, we expect to be graded…

So it is with our workshops.

And our grade is generated by a form required by the Illinois State Board of Education:

“EVALUATION FOR WOKSHOP, CONFERENCE, SEMINAR, ETC.”
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Please answer the following questions by marking the scale according to your perceptions of the professional development activity.

  1. This activity increased my knowledge and skills in my areas of
    certification, endorsement or teaching assignment.
  2. The relevance of this activity to ISBE teaching standards was
    clear.
  3. It was clear that the activity was presented by persons with edu-
    cation and experience in this subject matter.
  4. The material was presented in an organized, easily understood
    manner.
  5. This activity included discussion, critique, or application of what
    was presented, observed, learned, or demonstrated.

This needs to be filled out by each participant before we can provide their CPDU‘s.*

We’ve both been known to have a few “control issues” and we tend to lean a bit towards perfectionism. Therein lies the problem…

We want all “A’s”.

 Our biggest stumbling block is #2. 

As teachers, we have heard about our state standards over and over and over and over again…

     *In workshops
     *In conferences
     *In committee meetings
     *At board meetings
     *In classes we have attended

We have had to consider them

     *as members of textbook selection committees
     *in our lesson plans
     *when aligning our district curriculum
     *when considering state testing

And here we meet them once again as presenters.

So we address them…while trying to keep our workshops both informative AND fun… (Refer to our logo.)

Sometimes we cannot get straight A’s on #2….because…

They are not easy to understand? They are not fun?

Trust me; we TRY to connect what we teach to the relevance of our State Standards.
And we TRY to make the connection “fun”.
And even while “trying”, our participants will often sit with blank looks on their faces when the topic shows up on the screen in front of them…

We provide access to all of the State Standards.
We explain that technology standards for the State of Illinois DO exist.
We tell them to include them in all of the grants they write.
We even provide online copies for them and encourage them to “copy and paste” them whenever they feel the need.

And yet, at the end of the workshop, #2 is the “gold ring” we can’t seem to grab.

Until…Illinois State Board of Education

The day we forgot to include any reference to our beloved state standards.

THAT was the day we finally received “Straight A’s”.

We have come a long way since our first workshops.
We have learned that sometimes it isn’t always “us”.
Sometimes our attendees are having a bad day, too,
and we have accepted the fact that we just can’t please everyone all of the time.

 *CPDU – Continuing Professional Development Unit: a measurement used in continuing professional development to award credit for participation in a broad range of activities, including action research, staff development programs, curriculum design, mentoring, supervision of a student teacher, workshops and seminars, etc. CPDUs generated by workshops, seminars and conferences are earned at the rate of one for each hour of participation. Such a workshop or seminar must be offered by an approved provider.