Think Like a Teacher

I poke through well over 100 web sites a week as part of my job with TeachersFirst, so it takes a lot to impress or excite me. I am grateful this final Friday of November for the discovery of Fun Favs. Here is a list of a dozen that have left impressions on me recently.  All have been or will be reviewed on TeachersFirst with loads of classroom ideas. Enjoy some creative play or lasting learning.

3D Photo Cube  What a great idea to make photos display interactively. I love the idea of sharing multi-faceted impressions of an event or person. Think of the pictures you could upload of just one person to show all aspects of his/her personality. It’s just plain visual fun.

LiveTyping  This one looks pretty dumb. Watch someone type as a “recording.” Now think about all the stories you could tell this way. Remember the Google searches during the Superbowl commercial a few years ago? Show what a character is thinking as he/she types a letter  or job application or creates a resume. Record Charlie Brown applying for a job as a football kicker. Record an imagined breakup email. Record an imagined memo being written by your most hated politician. Record a letter to the principal explaining why you had a live pig in your classroom (I once did!). Have fun!

Windmap I actually used  this one during Superstorm Sandy. Apparently a lot of other people did, too. It was quite sluggish. Make weather come to life far more than those static maps or “predictors” on your local TV forecast.  I wonder what other real-time viewers we could invent: see the paths of the grease smells wafting from fast food joints? No one has invented the smellavision, but I am sure there will be an app for that eventually.

Symphony of Science I love experiencing the arts in connection with academics. As an analogous thinker/connector, I always imagine concepts through analogies in visual or artistic form. I “see” poems and words as images. I even experience  numbers via a personal, visual number sense.  So why not experience science as music? This one intrigues me. I want to spend more time with it. Do you ever wonder whether your students personally experience concepts in some unusual way (and are afraid to talk about it for fear of being “weird”)?

Overlap Maps (Do you sense a visual theme here?) This one is simply cool. See maps as overlays so you can compare geographic spaces. I need to see a map when I travel, and I remember directions via the map in my head. But now I can compare places to give them context. How does my planned vacation location compare in size to my city? How does the setting of this novel compare to my childhood hometown? Make geography a toy.

Sodaplay  Yes, you play with straws. Create animated figures that move. Gotta love the web for mess-free “crafts” and animations. Wonderful time waster/creative challenge, depending on how you look at it. How could your students use it to explain something?

Phrasr  A word (or sentence) is worth a thousand pictures. Make words and sentences into a sequence of images. Poetry makes images out of a sequence of words, so Phrasr is another way to engage your visual-verbal mind.  Or simply make a creative sign for your door.

Spectra Visual Newsreader  Arrange your news visually. As a news junky, this one grabs me. My iPad is loaded with visual representations of news and feeds: Flipboard, apps from the networks, Newsstand. This one is online and customizable. I love the idea of hooking kids on current events through the visuals.

Infographics Archive  See the latest and greatest of infographics. Learn (and critique) as you browse this very popular medium. The more I see good and bad examples, the more I respect this way of communicating. I also come to fear it as teh Viewers Digest of information, showing stats and facts

YouTube Time Machine  See times past in the videos from that era. Get lost in the past, perhaps even waxing nostalgic for a favorite TV show from childhood. But you can also build a sense of a time past the same way Madmen rebuilds the sixties. Wouldn’t it be fun to show a few clips and challenge viewers to guess the year?

The final two are for my fellow political junkies:

AllSides As much as we all like to think our opinions are correct, we know there are others who do not agree. This tool lets you see issues from many points of view. Think of it as a 3D scanner for political thought. For those unable to make up their minds, this one is a politikaleidoscope.  During en election cycle — or the approach to the fiscal cliff, you can entertain yourself predicting the next set of soundbytes.

People’s Pie Speaking of the fiscal cliff, what would YOU do about it? Here is your chance to try to solve it without filibuster of news cycle bluster. Decide the priorities for the federal budget using this simulator. P.S. If you do, please sent tips to the folks in Washington.

This has been a grate(ful)  month. Thanks for letting me share it.

I am always grateful for things that save me time or help me find things. In the spirit of sharing, I am passing along tricks that I am grateful to know, discoveries that make my life just a little easier. I show my gratitude by paying them forward.

1. I am thankful for four email accounts, not beause I like reading that much email but because this system keeps things sorted into the right “box”:

• personal/home email
• work
• shopping/travel (includes mileage programs, coupons, saver clubs, etc). All the shopping junk emails and coupons stay in this box!
• memberships (things I subscribe to or join, including web-based or cloud services). This one gets email subscriptions, wiki-Twitter-blog notifications, etc. I use the same info to set up usernames and PW on all these tools (see below re risky business).

I created the three non-work email accounts using “names” to remind me of their purpose. Fake person for memberships = my son’s childhood imaginary friend. I use it to join the zillions of web tools  where I “belong” and use the same password for all, assuming they are not really important stuff.  I ask myself whether I would care if I lost my work there. If so, I change to a second, more secure password. NONE of these emails uses the same password. Risky business: My financial sites have their very own, secure membership and passwords, not my general “memberships” log in.

2. I am thankful for color coding. I use it in my email inbox (both colored flags and colored highlighting). I use it on files in the Finder [that’s My Computer in WinSpeak] or folders on my desktop. I use it within documents as part if the writing process (green is OK, orange means needs to be revised, etc). I color code to show steps in a process, sort items on a to-do list, and to designate or sort sticky notes on my Chrome app home page. I cannot live in black and white.

Installment 3 of Thankful Fridays is for my own learning. Most of all, I am grateful to have a job that allows me to learn something new every day, both face to face and in digital venues. Here are five digital places I am glad to “visit” and participate as a learner:

1. Flipboard. At first glance a visual way to “flip” through news articles and pretty pictures,  Flipboard customized  is nothing short of WOW! This iPad (or iPhone) app can teach me via tweets, RSS feeds, magazine articles, and  multiple Flipboard offerings. Yes, I could go to all those places separately, but the abilities to FLIP through them in one place, send things to others, Fav,  and otherwise pull in a customized educational technology collection (and other, non-professional interests) make Flipboard a namesake nominee to steal my employer’s epithet: The Source for Learning! My interests do not easily fit into a box under one label, so no prepackaged collection of Things to Know appeals to all my needs. Flipboard does- easily. My only complaint is that I get sucked into endless learning and lose all track of time. If you try it, be sure to click the magnifying glass to select things you want Flipboard to pull in for you, including your own accounts from various services (Google Reader, Twitter, etc). Sprinkle in a few news services, Flipboard finds, and Twitter hashtags searches “to taste.”

2. Tweetdeck. Are you noticing a Twitter theme here? Although Flipboard displays Twitter searches, people I follow, etc, there are things I love about learning via Tweetdeck. While Flipboard lets me browse through a visual, magazine-esque tweet viewer, Tweetdeck lets me see a load of tweets at the same time in a small space. The visual footprint is tiny, but I can scroll quickly or shoot out questions for instant help. I also like being able to see my new followers, instantly set up a temporary search column and click to learn details about a Twitter user. A couple of weeks ago when Diigo went down, Twitter was the perfect place to find out if the problem was mine or a widespread concern. Unlike mobile-only Flipboard, Tweetdeck  carries my Twitter search settings on all my devices, including my laptop. Handy.

3. Google News. I am a current events junky, and I also have specific topics where I want to stay informed. Google News gives me its own news categories but customizes to grab news on topics I care about. I don’t like the fact that Google may know too much about me, but Google News is worth the compromise. I learn about politics, latest Apple-dropping predictions, public policy debates, and consumer stuff. I change it on the fly. The only drawback: getting sucked in.

4. OK2Ask®. TeachersFirst offers OK2Ask, free online teacher professional development, as a service so teachers can come together  in informal “snack sessions” to learn. What teachers may not know is how much I learn from them as I present, moderate, and talk together. Not a session goes by that I do not hear about a clever teaching strategy, a web resource, a tool, a project idea, or an innovative school policy that I never knew before. At another level, I learn what teachers are most upset about, are seeing in schools  in various locations, and are wishing for. As someone who runs a web site as a service to teachers, this is some of my best professional learning.

5. Edsurge.  As they describe themselves:

EdSurge is an independent information resource and community for everyone involved in education technology. We aim to help educators discover the best products and how to use them and to inspire developers to build what educators and learners need.

For me, Edsurge is like holding an eavesdropping glass up to the door of Edtech Cutting Edge. I hear the inside scoops on new tools, developers trying to find a niche, and educators finding success with technology. I subscribe to the emails even though I an very cautious about inbox overflow. This one is worth more than the space and time it takes. What I appreciate most is the fact that it always leaves me thinking about issues and philosophical underpinnings at the same time as I ponder practicalities of teaching.

As you dig into the turkey this coming week, think about where you can dig into  some new learning for yourself, too. You will be thankful you did.

Installment#2 of this Thanksgiving series shares my favorite tools to save me time digging, hunting, or forgetting things. As a teacher and a parent, I know how easy it is to lose things, especially among pyramids of paper. As a “teacher to go,” i.e. one who works from many locations, I especially value things that help me avoid shoulder injuries from hauling heavy bags. (Too bad the cloud didn’t exist when I taught itinerant gifted and changed schools at noon each day! ) Here are my favorite FREE helpers:

November has five Fridays this year. In the tradition of Thanksgiving, my weekly posts will share things for which I am thankful. I begin by sharing how grateful I am for inspiration sites. These five  thought-provokers offer visual and verbal sparks. If  my brain starves for the stimulation of a quirky question or a glorious graphic, I can inhale bracing breezes for the brain. I am grateful for:

1. Good. The name says it all. I click to find things tagged creativity or DIY or design, and I marvel at cleverness and surprise. I am thankful to see so many examples of people “doing different” as they “do Good.” They explain:

GOOD is learning, doing, improving–together

These are the people who– a few years ago– brought us the Wanderlust interactive reviewed here. Thank you for inspiring me to learn, wonder, and share.

2.  Places that put vastness of scale (and the meaninglessness of minutiae) into perspective: Scale of the Universe 2 (review and teaching ideas here) and Magnifying the Universe (review and teaching ideas here). I am especially thankful to be able to put stressors and annoyances into perspective  and to draw upon the vastness these interactive spaces provide. The very words space and  size melt into a chance to rise above or delve below whatever preoccupies me. I am thankful for the change of perspective.

3. The Art of Science (complete review here). This find from Princeton offers visual proof that science is art and art is science. I would never call myself a scientist, but I am fascinated by the visuals science offers (see #2). I am even more thankful that the scientists  who share images on this site are prove that not all scientists are about data,data, nothing but data. I am grateful for images about seeing and wondering.

4. 101 Questions (complete review here). OK, this one is a little odd, but it does get my creative juices flowing. There is nothing like a visual prompt to get ideas (or questions) moving. If the prompts are good, the questions move from factual and surface level to pretty deep stuff. I am grateful for questions.

5. Co.Create is even better than Good. Why? I keep finding more articles. Just when I am hooked by one title, there is another one. I find myself wishing I could read in two places at once. I honestly have not spent time figuring out who the writers are or where the content actually comes from, but there seems to be an endless stream of things to intrigue and inspire. I am thankful for their “You might also like.”

Why do these matter to a teacher/ website editor/ed tech person? Because I know I need a broader stream of inspiration than simply #edtech and #edchat on Twitter. This morning I ran across a quote from Steve Jobs:

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.

– Steve Jobs, Wired, February 1996

Doing my job well — being creative — means I need to continuously expand my repertoire of experiences, and this inspirational five offers endless avenues to creative questions, questions, and images.  I hope every teacher has sites like this and is thankful for the role they play in making you a Thinking Teacher.

Next week: Five things that keep me organized — and I am SO grateful!

Eleven years ago, the day began with a sky as blue as today’s, the air as crisp as a back-to-school outfit. An hour and a half into my morning email routine as a technology integration specialist, my supervisor’s voice exploded from the conference room down the hall, “Candy, come quick! It’s a catastrophe!” The rest of the day unraveled in glimpses of TV sets through classroom doors as I tried to maintain normalcy inside a high school filled with gasps and to respond to email requests for news updates from elementary teachers behind news blackouts designed to protect the very young. The slide show of that day replays every time I watch or hear the tales again. As Americans, we tell our versions over and over.  As a teacher, I want our children and teens to hear them. I teach 9/11.

I have a son who has flown his jet in Afghanistan on missions I will never know about. He began the path to those missions on 9/12. I have numerous former students who have followed similar paths. Those who were old enough to remember 9/11 tell their stories in their own ways just as my parents, teenagers during Pearl Harbor, told theirs. I remember realizing as a child that the lesson in my history class  was my parents’ high school reality. Many times since then, especially as they aged, I asked for more detail. Teachers themselves, they willingly told me what they could recall, tinted by their perspectives of a World War and all the decades since. I don’t recall them ever being the ones to bring it up, though. But if I asked… they taught Pearl Harbor.

Now I have grandsons too young to know 9/11.  I know college students, teens, and tweens  who have no solid recollection of that blue sky, calamitous day. As  teachers, we must tell the stories. We must point our students to read and listen and understand what is beyond today’s clear sky and memorial bells. I know this day will always make me stop and think and want to tell the story. I utter a quiet “YES!” when I see sites like Moment Tracker.  I want to be sure that someone is telling the story so our children will continue to ask for it. I teach 9/11.

Make time for what’s “good for you.” Exercise 30 minutes a day. Eat organic. Go outside. Read to your child. Drink water. Set aside quality time. Model responsible behavior. Oh, and reduce stress.

We know what we’re supposed to do and why it is good for us. We just don’t know how to fit it all into a teacher’s week. Now add to the list: staying up to date on new approaches to teaching and learning (often using technology). As someone who finally figured out where to find the time for some of the above, I wonder whether the same strategies –with a little tech assistance– could work for the other things, like staying up to date with tech for learning.

Strategy 1: Where were you?

I have read that we are more likely to exercise if we have comrades at the gym or pool or on our walks. Simply knowing that you’ll be asked, “Where were you?” is often enough to make you go when you’d really like to skip. My swim friends have no authority over me, but anticipation of their concern is enough to drag me out of bed before 5 am on cold, winter mornings. Even the casual acquaintances who greet you on regular walks will ask why they have missed you. Easier to just do it than to make up excuses. Try establishing the same “where were you” type of group in your faculty room for Better Teaching Tuesdays or on Twitter by joining one of the many #chats. But be sure to  befriend enough buddies in the chat that they will ASK you where you have been if you do not show up.  As I scan chats, I see enough side conversations about vacations, family, and local lore to recognize the same kind of conversations that happen in my swim locker room. Support each other’s professional development simply by asking, “where were you” when a frequent chat buddy is absent, and ask your buddy to do the same for you.

Strategy 2: Let them notice

There is nothing like having someone say, “You look good. Have you been exercising?” or “I wish I read to my kids as much as you read to yours.”  If you keep your success at beating the time bandits completely secret, you may never hear these invigorating reinforcements. Leave a trail that others can find. Facebook is great for this. So are blogs. Mention the book you and the kids just finished or the great story you heard at the gym. Be honest about how much you hate broccoli as you share the first broccoli recipe you can stand on Pinterest. Maybe even share the first tech tool you figured out. It’s not bragging if you are simply giving people a small view of a minor accomplishment. I don’t think I’d list my breakfast menu, but I see how many comments my friends receive when they share a pic of a culinary coup. I personally have a bit more trouble with the running apps that share how fast you ran 5 miles, but that is probably my problem, not yours. To me, sharing limited peeks is better than trumpeting announcements. To each his own. A great side benefit of playing in the social network venue is that you are learning the way your students like to learn. How can you adapt it as a class activity?

Strategy 3: Find the app for that

If nothing else, apps add novelty. Heaven knows, they multiply like mosquitos, with a new buzz hourly. A lasting favorite of mine is Flipboard. I like being able to add Twitter searches, favorite blogs, and just plain news into one magazine-style app that I can browse without feeling like I am working. I admit I don’t stay up to date on all the new apps that come out. I wait to read what others say on Twitter and try them when I notice 3- 6 tweets about the same app. Must be good, right?  App shopping is like using coupons. You try new products when you hear enough buzz and you think it’s cheap enough to try. (Either that or your eight year old is hounding you to buy it.)

Strategy 4: Balance your diet

Twitter is dark chocolate for the teaching heart. I could stay on all day, but I know it is not the only food for thought. There are other options that offer high fiber (online pubs like Learning and Leading), large tossed salad webinars, and  the full meal experience of  creating a conference presentation or online PD session. I especially savor the face to face potluck paloozas like the ISTE conference where I meet and simply talk with other teachers.

I certainly don’t stick to what is good for me, and I often do not meet recommended daily allowances of professional development. I’ll keep working on serving things up at TeachersFirst if you promise to try some tech broccoli once in a while.

I admit it. I am an Olympics junkie. As a former “swim mom” and avid lap swimmer, I enjoy seeing even the prelim heats with swimmers whose chance to “medal” is remote. I watch to share in their passion and the incredible accomplishment of simply being there.  I listen to interviews with the medal winners,  hanging on what they say about passion for the sport and about the parents and coaches who helped them get there. I even eat up those “Thanks, Mom” commercials.

As teachers we want our students to have the same passion for academic learning that Olympians have for learning to be the best swimmer or gymnast or runner. One of the parents of  the U.S. gold medal women’s gymnastics team responded beautifully to a question this morning. When asked what advice he would give to parents of  young athletes who show promise, he said something like, “Let them go after their dream if it is their dream and not yours. Make sure they have the tools and opportunities to pursue that dream and just let them go where they dream to go.”

Missy Franklin, this Olympics’ U.S. swim phenom, lives her passion. She has stayed with the same coach since she was very young, eschewing opportunities to move to elite programs with renowned coaches. Why? I assume it is because her coach knows her and knows her passion. She loves to swim. She also loves being a teenager and hanging out with her high school swim team and friends. As a coach, he gives her tools and steps out of her way. Both he and Missy are very lucky people to have each other and especially to have the relationship they do.

Not every student we teach can articulate a passion. It is our job to thrust our heads forward to listen for it, facilitate it, and step out of its way. With our responsibilities to curriculum, we must often seek ways to connect curriculum to our students’ unspoken passions. It is naive to think that everything we must “teach” will miraculously connect with Lego-like snap into our students’ passions. But we need to listen. There may come a moment where we can hear the passion coming through. As coaches, we must then find ways to let them go. They might have fun, and they may even “medal” in learning.

Happy Independence Day/week to all. I am on hiatus from full blog posts as my own Declaration of Independence. Given the recent storms and resulting havoc for technology based in the Washington D.C. area (i.e. TeachersFirst!), perhaps independence from technology for a few days would be a good idea. Have a picnic or go for a swim. It’s too hot for much else.

Ask a teacher about his/her parents, and quite often you hear about a family of teachers. I focus on one of my teacher-parents this Mothers Day.

What I learned from my mom the teacher:

1. “Proper” English. I still remember being corrected for using the word kids:  ” They are not baby goats.”  And I knew how to mentally “test” for subject vs object (I/me) before grade 3. My brother and me NEVER did anything, but my brother and I did.

2. Play with messy things. Even at age 87, she still finds new hobbies so she can play with messy stuff. Lately, it’s making bead jewelry, a true challenge for arthritic fingers. There was the homemade Easter egg phase which we politely called “chocolate turds.” If I introduced her to Pinterest, her small apartment would be buried in messy things she wants to try.

3. Dress with personality. Striped and polkadot socks together. Anything “wild.” If you dress with personality, even middle schoolers will look at you once in a while. After all, middle schoolers have no sense of taste yet, so this “wild” teacher fits in perfectly. If you can’t show personality with clothes, make/wear “wild” jewelry (See item 2 above).

Click to see source

4. Read what you hear about and tell others what you read about. After discussing The Help with her dermatologist, he recommended a 500 page book about African Americans in the U.S. She bought it the next day. Whatever she hears about or read most recently is prime conversation — with me, with her table mates at dinner in her senior community, with the people at the grocery store. She breathes social learning.

5. School matters. The teachers matter more. First grade and eighth grade matter most. Our entire lives revolved around school. Any wonder that I do what I do today? My only regret is that I do not know what it feels like to grow up in a family where  school is not the core. I work hard to envision how life feels in most households where this is not the case.

6. Have a dog. It better be a cocker spaniel, but some others are tolerable. Dogs give you a chance to talk things through without argument and an excuse to go outside. Every child age 10 and up should have a dog so he/she learns to put someone else’s needs first.

7. Sing. I worry that the cuts in school music programs will mean that kids don’t sing anymore. Singing can be simple expression– brash and loud — or the trained compromise of blending into a unison voice with others. Both are important.

8. Faces tell all. Learning to read faces is more important than making them. Her face always told us when we had gone too far, made her laugh inside even though she was outwardly stern, or hit a nerve. I find face-reading one of my most valuable skills as a teacher, a parent, and a person.

9. Be a mentor. Even as an octogenarian, she shares what she knows but also has an uncanny ability to realize that things are not the same now as they were ten or fifty years ago.  She guides many with her wisdom without telling them what to do or retro-recommending outdated ideas: teenagers, college students, candidates for the clergy, activity directors, parents, anyone in a role where she can contribute expertise. Those of us who have been teaching a long time relish the chance to play this role with young teachers, former students, and others. If I can mentor without adherence to “the old days” as well as she does, I will be proud.

10. Tell people what you think. Yeah, I know. I take after my mother.

Happy Mothers Day to all.