Blessed By The Day - St. Paul Lutheran

I was blessed by the teachers and principal of St. Paul Lutheran School by their energy and enthusiasm to learn something new.  We worked to understand Google Forms, uses for them in a K-8 educational setting, and creating two Google Forms that could be used immediately.  Today it was all about Mission First, People Always! #M1PA

About.Me Student Digital Life

As we move into a new way of thinking, we are encouraging students to positively portray themselves online.  By "new way of thinking" I refer to a past practice where we encouraged students to limit items online.  Today, we need to encourage students to have three major digital items before leaving high school.  As George Courcos elaborated on these items in his 2015 TIES Conference Keynote, we must mold student's behavior and knowledge so that they are positively portrayed online.

Mr. Otto, business teacher, was already in the midst of having his students develop a resume.  We decided that students would create an About.Me page so that they begin to have one of the three items they need to have before they leave high school.

Images of Students Creating

Our students and instructor created some amazing pages on their way to a positive, digital life.  I used the embed feature from About.Me to create the information below.  If you are in the About.Me community, consider giving the students a compliment.

Learning On The Loo - Cool Sites - Vol. 2 Issue 2

We continue to help staff learn more about technology tips, tricks, and resources.

Volume 2 has now two issues.  See them all!  They are not linkable because these are actual papers that get placed in our staff bathrooms.  Thinking about doing a "student version"  Maybe soon!

Chromebook & AirServer Professional Development

In the Pulaski Community School District, we believe one device is NOT good for all.  We believe that Chromebooks, iPads, iPods, VM Ware, and laptops all have their place in the educational arena.  Therefore, we have not purchased one device for all.  Because of that, our teachers have access to multiple types of devices.

We have had iPads for a year at the high school, but today, begins the implementation of Chromebooks.  Therefore, Chromebook professional development is happening for about 20 minutes for all departments.  I will be combining this with the AirServer training so that teachers can project iPad screens so that all can see the contents.
Presentation Link

Promotional Video Lunch N' Learn Year 2

Creating a promotional video for our Pulaski High School weekly Lunch N' Learn provided me with a great opportunity to use a technology tool that I learned about at the Apple Distinguished Educator Institute in Austin.

Final Cut Pro X provided me with so many eye catching graphics that no other program has provided me.  I decided that I would use the great people of Pulaski High School to promote our Lunch N' Learn.  I recorded as many people as I could saying, "I'm there!" using my iPad 2.  I then used the fantastically efficient Photosync app and Mac client to seamlessly and efficiently transfer the video clips from my iPad to a Mac wirelessly.  I imported the different media clips into Final Cut Pro X and combined them with the amazing graphics that Final Cut Pro X provides.  I decided that the best song for this video would be OK Go's Here It Goes Again! because it's our second year! Through the sharing options that Final Cut Pro X provides, I was able to easily upload it to my YouTube channel.

The entire process of recording, editing, and producing took just under three hours.  I am thankful that I am able to use Final Cut Pro X and look forward to finding more features and uses for this amazing production tool.

The promotional video is being sent out this morning to over 80 high school staff members as tomorrow starts year two of our wildly famous (ok, just famous) Lunch N' Learn.  I truly appreciate the energy and enthusiasm that our staff brings to these volunteer learning sessions.  Our staff also did a fantastic job of demonstrating their unique personalities when stating, "I'm there!"

Awesome!

Open Thank You Letter To Innovative Educators

Dear Members of the "Developing a 21st Century Flipped Classroom",

Yesterday, we concluded our time together as of 3:00 PM.  On Day Two we...

• Designed Our First Lesson
• Read and Reflected On Great Resources By Other Educators
• Were Motivated and Reflected On Our Learning Experience

Since then, I have been thinking about how blessed I was to be with a group of educators who were so willing to "think differently".  Many of you said before we started the class that you had a limited idea of what a flipped classroom meant.  This conjures up many different emotions...

• Fear Of The Unknown
• Uncertainty of Outcomes
• What Will I Need To Do

Let me just say that ALL of you attacked these fears with a tremendous about of courage, dedication, and willingness to think differently!  

I am so proud of your eagerness to learn the background information of a Flipped Classroom, discover the power of Twitter and how connected you can be to other #Flipclass educators, be open to learning new tools that can be used at the right time to engage, empower, and educate our students all the time, and to adopt the tools that best fit your needs and your idea of how you can "best use face to face time with your students".  Top that off with reflecting on blog posts and articles by other educators and creating valuable lessons that can be implemented "right now" with your students and you have a full two days.

Jim Valvano, former North Carolina State basketball coach was battling cancer when he stated, 

"To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. Number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special. 

I felt we did that!  For us and for our students!  We worked extremely hard, encouraged one another, and were rock stars!  Don't let anyone tell you 

• that you are not worth your paycheck 
• that because of a flipped classroom, you won't have to work as hard
• that "you teachers who flip just make students watch videos"

Be innovators, encouragers, facilitators, and rock stars for your students and their educational future.  Do what you can, with what you have, where you are at!

Thank you again for making my two days with you an inspiration and truly a great experience!

Clay

raidercamp Pulaski School District's First edCamp

Friday, November 16, 2012 brought a historic event to our school district.

One week prior to Friday, our staff were informed of our plans to have a #raidercamp.  A website was created complete with a short video to explain everything.  We also asked staff to create a Twitter account so that additional information can be learned while not in a session.  Having Twitter accounts for our staff will now lead to more opportunities to explain to staff how powerful Twitter can be for a Personal Learning Network.

For one half of a day, our teachers experienced an #edCamp.  We called it #raidercamp.  Two sessions with 24 different topics suggested by our staff.

There were no keynote speakers, no teachers in charge.  Individual learning by teachers based on topics suggested by teachers.

The entire district staff gathered in the high school auditorium to accomplish three things.

• Quick description of an #edcamp
• Suggesting topics
• Building a schedule

Our specific schedule looked like this...
     PHS Auditorium
     1:00-1:30     Info and Session Planning
     1:40-2:20     Session 1 (rooms throughout high school)
     2:30-3:10     Session 2
     3:15-3:30     Raffles and Reflection, PHS Auditorium

Of course, we had prizes at the end.  There were the traditional prizes of a shirt or iPad stylus, but the real coveted prizes were the gift of time.

All administrators awarded one free hour of subbing for the winners.  Administrators will be in kindergarten, health, high school math, and other classes.  This was well received by our staff!

Lastly, we had staff reflect on the day using a Google Form.

View the actual day below!

Huge "thank you" to our technology department.  We had over 300 educators on our wireless network without one trouble!

Improvements:

1. Map of high school either on edCamp site or through email prior to camp.
2. Talk about and emphasize "independent learning". Let me explain, as educators we ask students to be independent learners.  In fact, we encourage it!  However, some teachers were adamant about how they wished there was an "expert" in the sessions.  There isn't always going to be an expert present when learning.  Having the discussion with staff about how this is an "independent learning' situation may be helpful to understanding the format of the sessions.

Professional Development - Choose Your Own Adventure

See how I carried out this concept.  Slide 98 starts the choose your own adventure.



Overall, I really liked:

• Teacher initiative to move forward on their own using the tutorials that I set up prior to the PD session
• The ability to learn from the participants items that they discovered on their own
• The opportunity to help those participants who needed more help
• The fact that participants did not need to wait for another participant who may slightly fall behind during the creation steps

I will continue to develop this concept when it comes to professional development sessions.

iPad Camera Movie Ultimately Into Edmodo

A LaCrosse School District conceptualized a process, students filming themselves telling a story, and then we determined how the process was going to work.

Eventually, we over thought the process and realized that connecting the iPad to a MacBook with the white chord would be the simplest.

The entire process was a great example of teachers working together!

Blended Learning Beyond Device For 24/7 Access DAY 2

Blended Learning Leadership Strand Lessons Learned

Even though I was presenting today at the 2012 Technology Institute presented by the La Crosse School District and UW-Lacrosse, I was able to attend 3.5 hours worth of Professional Development Planning.  The entire presentation was on the premise of "Supporting a World Class Education: Teaching and Learning With The Use of Technology"  Kim McMonagle, Educational Technology Director, Douglas County School District, Colorado was our facilitator.  All the resources are owned by her.

It was intended for administrators of which I am not, but turned out to be very valuable as I will be providing professional development throughout the year to teachers in our district.  Some valuable lessons I learned are that professional development by school districts to support a blended learning educational environment must have a number of items in mind.

• Outcomes
• Begin with the end in mind.
• Align blended learning outcomes to organization's strategic plan
• Need to have leaders of K12, Higher Education, & Private Sector business collaborate
• Measures
• What are our targets?
• Do we focus on some type of standard, ISTE?
• Did the instructional design improve student learning, achievement, and growth?
• Set objectives for 5% increase on skills, attendance, behavior, PLUS the subjective growth as compared to the metrics
• Learning Activities
• Professional Learning Menu provided to teachers from 7-8 PM at night
• BIG TICKET: Provide a video webinar
• Provide collaboration through online conversation
• Archived & Chat is Participatory
• Teacher tells story while technology integration specialist provides support of the tech, helps with the chat among people participating.

The Learning Activity is THE SINGLE item I will implement from today's session.  This can all be done through a Google Hangout which all district employees have.  I like the fact that it is 7-8 PM and am considering 8-9 PM as this will be better with teachers who have small kids at home.  I can use a number of tools for the chatting such as Today's Meet or even the Google Chat feature.  

Overall, a great day of learning with multiple resources available.

• WTI Professional Learning Institute 2012
• Blended Learning Resource List
• Douglas County Educational Technology Site

edCampGB Why Haven't You Registered Yet?

As we get closer to edCampGB, you may be unsure of what it is!

Watch.
 
  Now Register.