Westside School District DevelopU Reflection

June 11 and 12 were two days of an incredible experience.  I was blessed to be invited to Westside School District in Omaha, Nebraska.  The Westside School District is doing it right!  At the start of the 2014-2015 school year, all Kindergarten through fifth grade students will have a school issued iPad.  All sixth through twelfth grade students will be issued MacBooks.

Issuing devices is one thing, providing impactful professional development for the teachers and administrators is another!  Westside provided their already incredible teachers with the opportunity to learn so many different effective technology integration strategies from Apple Distinguished Educators.  All of the ADEs are classroom teachers who have effectively demonstrated technology integration which provides valuable learning lessons that involve critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and citizenship.

All of the ADEs are experts in their own fields.  I feel blessed to be able to present with...
Kelly Croy, Bill Ziegler, Matt Baier, Cristin Rold, Matt Lee, Julia Garcia, Gabby Meyers, Katie Morrow, Kevin Morrow, and Josh Mika

All of their presentations can be found on the Westside DevelopU Wiki.

I was asked to present four different topics.

App Smashing: Advanced Workflow on the iPad
About 100 people attended this.  Their energy and enthusiasm was outstanding!
I truly wanted to show how using a simple iPad app is an effective method, but utilizing two, three, and even four apps provides critical thinking and creativity opportunities for students that moves them to a higher level of thinking.


Creating Content with the iPad: What Can I Use For...
About 50 teachers attended this session held in the beautiful Courtyard in the Westside High School.  In my teaching support role, I am asked numerous times in a day, "If I want to edit an image on the iPad, what would be the best app?"  Not only this task gets asked about, but close to twenty different requests are asked.  With that, I created an infographic to help teachers, BUT more importantly students decide what what's the best tool to accomplish a task.



The second day brought me to teaching two different sessions.

Visualizing Learning: Show What You Know Using An iPad
About 30 people attended this.  Mostly elementary teachers who wanted to complete screencasting on the iPad.  Screenchomp, Educreations, and Explain Everything were featured.  I believe that the best part of the presentation was showing MANY real videos of students creating assessments using these tools.  Positive feedback was also provided on the portion of the presentation that included a tutorial for Explain Everything!



My last session of the day was AWESOME!  140 staff and administrators joined in learning about...

Innovative, Personalized Learning Environments
I really tried to show teachers who have removed their traditional rows and desks and created students centered, learning environments.  This doesn't mean that direct instruction areas are eliminated!  We just think about them differently!


An enormous thank you to Paul Lindgren, Matt Lee, Cristin Rold, all of the administration, and the entire teaching staff of the district for making my first trip to Westside one of the most enjoyable learning and presenting experiences I have had!  The DevelopU learning experience and the Wiki are all very well done!  I would also like to thank all of the wonderful people associated with Apple (I will not list them all as I, unfortunately, will probably forget one) as they always make ADEs feel like rock stars!  It is NOT taken for granted and does NOT go unnoticed!

My Week As An Education Rock Star

During the last week, I have participated in the Apple Distinguished Educator Institute as a member of the Class of 2013.

There are many times in my classroom experience where something will be said and it reminds me of a song or phrase of a song.  I will then start singing phrases of that song much to the chagrin of my students.  It doesn't help that I stop singing and say, "You know, I should have been a rock and roll singer"  And as you can imagine, my students "boo me off the stage"  because I truly can't sing!

But this week was different.  Man, was this week different!

In 20 years of being an educator, I have humbly accepted praise for my good work, but I have NEVER been treated like a rock star!

Not this week.  Not this week.

Apple, Inc. treated the 400 participants in The Institute like rock stars.  We were provided with an AMAZING work atmosphere!  Music pumped through our ears as we entered sessions which always seemed to be the exact words to make you want to change the world.  We were praised continuously for our innovative ideas and thought provoking questions.  We never had to worry about eating!  We didn't need to "pay for our meal up front" and then wait for the reimbursement!

We had groupies!  Personal Learning Networks (PLN) groups that truly cared about where we were and what they could do to help.

We had security!  Men and women with white shirts and black pants provided us with that "we are important"stance and protection.  We had professional recording studios for creation of audio and video files.  We had famous creation and improv people inspire us with presentations and activities. We had really professional people, The Improve Lady and Duarte Group, constantly wanting to talk with us to provide feedback as to how we could create and innovate.  We were provided with so many human resources, from graphic designers (did you notice the bolder more beautiful iPaddiction header?) to coders to thought agents that made us Think. Question. Create. & Share!

All of this made me feel like a Rock Star if but only for a week and it really made me ask this question:

     "Why are educators in our society not treated with the same attention as the super star athlete        or the best lead singer of the best rock band?"   

I am sure the answer is different for all of you, but the one thing remains.  Most rock stars and athletes may not have achieved greatness without their teachers to guide, inspire, and refine their talents.  There are so many teachers deserving of the treatment that was provided to us this week.  Our society would do it self a favor if they treated teachers and the educational system with the same energy and passion as they do with a rock band or an athlete.

Teachers Are Rock Stars! 

This week we were treated like ones at the Apple Distinguished Educator Institute.  For that, I will do everything I can to encourage worthy teachers that innovate and inspire students to apply for the Apple Distinguished Educator Institute Experience because I too want teachers to be Rock Stars!