3 Reflections and Considerations For Teaching and Learning In 2020

In March 2020 nearly the entire world’s education systems were thrown into the unknown when the COVID-19 Global Pandemic shuttered schools and teaching and learning moved to remote means. Still to this day in many parts of the world schools are shut down for the foreseeable future.

There is hope however.

In places like Canada, Denmark and Southeast Asia schools are opening back up and students heading back to the classroom. To call it a traditional space wouldn’t be accurate. Many new health and safety measures like physical distancing and mask are the order of the day.

What school will look like in locations around the US still remains to be seen. Some states are releasing guidance as to how to open safely while others aren’t taking any chances and will continue remote learning in the new school year.

There is much to reflect upon here at the end of School Year 2019-2020. And there is much to think about going into the Fall 2020. Here are 3 Reflections for the end of the school year and how we can take those as considerations into the next regardless if learning is face-to-face or remote or both.

3 Reflections and Considerations For Teaching and Learning In 2020

Community

• Reflection: How was my classroom community prepared when the move to remote learning was done? How did I maintain a sense of community when we were forced to be separated? What did I learn? 
• Consideration: How will what I learned in remote learning help me to build better communities and relationships both with my students and among my students? How does the current climate of social action shining a spotlight on social justice play a role in my community next year? 

As we look at all that we accomplished this year and begin to think about next it’s important to consider the communities we build in our classrooms. Many educators I’ve spoken to said the number one thing that helped them transition to remote learning wasn’t devices or apps. It was the fact they had strong relationships and communities already in place. There was already a sense that everyone could do this together.

Moving forward, it will be even more important to build these communities and connections not only among the students we teach but with the wider community as well. Students and teachers alike are hurting right now. And we can’t shy away from the injustices that plague our communities and school systems. Kids need spaces to talk about these events, their experiences and know that the adults in their lives will fight for them.

What kind of community will you create?

Social-Emotional and Mental Health

• Reflection: The pandemic has caused much of the education system to finally consider the emotional, social and mental health of students. What did you do? What steps did you take to ensure students and parents were ok in forced isolation? How did you take care of your own self during this time?
• Consideration: Building off the need to create communities, how can you make classrooms safe places for students? What awareness can you raise with staff members and administration to focus on the mental well-being of all students and parents? How will you make time to ensure each student is well both emotionally and mentally but also make time for yourself? 

Let’s be honest. Quarantine isn’t fun. We might think that being at home for an extended period of time is like a vacation but after a few days it’s definitely not. And this upheaval in our lives and the lives of our students and parents put a great deal of stress on all of us. I saw it in my own daughters everyday. All they wanted to do was see their friends. They wanted a sense of normalcy. I am one of the lucky ones. Both my daughters' teachers put learning aside at the beginning and for 2 weeks at the start just called every day to talk to them. 30 mins to an hour in some cases. Just to see how they were doing. I got calls too from the school. Asking how I was holding up. It made the isolation feel less isolating.

This focus on social-emotional and mental well-being is a cornerstone of educating the Whole Child. An exclusive focus on content and standards only builds compliant, non-thinking adults. Social-Emotional and Mental wellbeing can go hand-in-hand with content. It’s not just important for our students but for our parents and ourselves as well. Regardless of what school looks like a near constant consideration of the social-emotional development and mental wellbeing of students, staff, parents, community members and ourselves is a must!

How will you keep your students, parents and yourself emotionally and mentally well?

Teaching and Learning

• Reflection: While we may have been somewhat unprepared for the sudden move to remote learning we did our best to ensure students were learning. How did you know students were learning? What strategies did you use that worked well? What didn’t work so well? Are students prepared for next school year? 
• Consideration: Learning in Fall 2020 will be different from the beginning of every other school year because of how the last one completed. How will you determine where students are? What methods will you use to meet the needs of each student regardless of where school is or what it looks like? 

2020 might go down as the year that teaching and learning changed at a fundamental level. Or it might not. That choice is up to us. Teaching remotely is vastly different from teaching in a traditional classroom. While they had good intentions many teachers and leaders made poor choices when it came to moving to remote learning in attempting to replicate the classroom in a virtual space. Requiring face-to-face video meetings every day or requiring teachers to be online for the same amount of time they would be at school each day. Again, good intentions, poor execution.

We are at a crossroads in education when it comes to teaching and learning. We can keep going down the traditional path, one that has served inequality and injustices since schooling began. Or we can chart a new course. One that puts students in the driver seat and allows them time and space to empathize, create authentically, and uses these pervasive technologies for good rather than regurgitation. One where differentiation is the norm. One where students have the flexibility to explore their world, examine the topics that are meaningful to them. One where teaching and learning finally looks like it should in the 21st century.

How will teaching and learning be different for you next year?

Recap App: 3 Back-to-School Ideas for Student Videos

Last time we co-authored a blog post, Shaelynn Farnsworth and I shared Blab. It was so much fun and such an easy app to integrate into the classroom we wanted to share another favorite of ours!
Recap is a free video response app created by Swivl which allows students to reflect, respond, and demonstrate through video. Recap is easy to use as both an educator and as a student. It is also an excellent way to model and use digital literacy modes in the classroom! Simply create a class and assign a Recap to students. Questions or prompts can be teacher-created in the forms of text or video, and can be assigned to individual students, small groups, or whole class. When completed, teachers can share the whole “Review Reel”, or each individual child’s video. Share options include email or weblink!

Here are 3 Back-to-School Ideas that will have your students (and parents) Recapping through video response:

Reading Interest Inventory - At the beginning of the year, giving students a “Reading Interest Inventory” provides valuable information about each students’ reading preferences and how they view themselves as readers. It also provides a launchpad to place the “right book” into their hands that may hook a reader for a lifetime. Using Recap, students could record themselves on their computer or ipad. These video responses would provide valuable insight to climate and culture of literacy in the classroom. Here are a few of unique questions to include on a Reading Interest Inventory: What is your earliest memory of reading or books? How do you choose a book? What do you notice adults reading? When should a person leave a book? What two books or magazines do you wish we had in our classroom library?

Student Goals and Reflection - Another way Recap could be used at the beginning of the school year is to capture a student’s goals for the year. Part of educating the Whole Child is helping the student see where they are with their learning and where ultimately they want to end up. We know that learning is a continuum. So using Recap students can record where they’d like to see their learning be at the end of the school year. Maybe they want to be a better math student. Or perhaps they want to be able to read more proficiently. What ever their goal they can capture it. Then throughout the school year they can refer back to it. Use it as part of their own personal reflective practice. How are they progressing? What do they still want to do. Have they met their goal and maybe it’s time for another. These videos can become a part of a larger learning portfolio where students examine their learning throughout the year.

Parent Involvement - At the beginning of each school year, many of our youngest learners attend a back-to-school night or an open-house in which they meet their teacher, unpack their school supplies, and explore their new surroundings in the safety of their parents. It is also a time that many parents and family members come to the realization that their child is growing up and “leaving the nest”. What a perfect time to have a “message station” set up for parents or family members to leave a Recap for their student. Imagine the joy in a child’s eye after receiving a message from their parent or family member on their first day of school. Recap classes can be accessed through a pin number assigned to the class, so those parents or family members unable to attend can record their message from anywhere. It is also a great way to demonstrate to parents how you will meet the digital literacy demands in the Common Core State Standards, as well as how technology can be used in a meaningful way even with our youngest learners!

Recap is an engaging and creative way for students to share their understanding through video response! Recap is a free app and is available via the web (so perfect for chromebooks), as well as an iPad app. Coming soon - a  phone app, Recap from anywhere at anytime!

Reflection Makes Us All Better

Back when I was in the classroom I spent very little time going back over my teaching.

I of course went back over test questions, quizzes, formative assessments and the like to see where students had gaps in their understanding or those content areas we needed to revisit.

But rarely did I sit down and just think about my teaching. What was I doing? Could it be better? Was it effective? What was working well in my lessons that I could perhaps replicate in other lessons?

I regret that. There were so many opportunities I missed to be better or change things in my classroom for my students for the better because I just didn't take the time to reflect.

Reflection is such an important part of the learning process. We ask kids to do it all the time. (Or at least we should be.) As educators the reflection process is just as important for our improvement as it is for students. Even now, in my role or working with schools and districts on communications and technology or presenting at a conference, reflecting on my processes, methods, what I say, what I did, all deserve some internal and external review.

Reflection is how we learn and how we get better.

Whether you spend a great deal of time reflecting and want to do it better or you want to start, there are some great resources out there and some great tools that you can use for the reflection process.

Reflection4Learning-This is a site I have used often to talk about reflection in learning. Geared mostly towards student reflection this site has some great resources like reflection models and how to fit reflection into the classroom. It's been around for a while so some of the tools are a bit outdated, it can, however serve as a jumping off point to more places to learn about reflection in learning.

Learning Through Reflection-In the book Learning and Leading With Habits of Mind from ASCD authors Costa and Kallick explore what habits all educators need to develop to improve. Thanks to them, the full chapter on Reflection is posted for you to check out. In it there are methods to reflection and most importantly why it helps us all improve.

High-Tech Reflection Strategies Help Learning Stick-This great piece from Edutopia not only lays out why students need opportunities to reflect but how technology can help make that process better in the classroom.

In addition to learning about reflection its important to understand there are many technology tools that both students and all educators can use to openly reflect on learning.

Blogs-As you read in the piece from Edutopia blogs can be a great way to openly reflect on our learning and invite the comments of others to help us see differently or think differently. I often use this blog as a place to reflect on my own learning. There are many different blogs and blogging platforms so the choice is really yours. Check out this post I wrote a while back about getting started with blogging and this post on using blogs in the classroom. 

Twitter-I am a huge fan of using Twitter for reflection. I will often tweet out quotes from speakers to reflect upon my own thinking. This give me a platform to engage with others out there on a myriad of issues. Sometimes I get push back from what I tweet and other times I am the one pushing back. The debate and discussion helps us be better and think smarter. Moreover, Twitter chats have proven a great way to discuss, debate and reflect on pressing issues in edu. Visit the Twitter Chat Calendar to find a chat and take part in the discussion. Don't know about Twitter chats? Here is a post about the most popular, #edchat, and how to get involved. 

Recap-Currently in beta this app has the potential to really change reflection in your classroom. When the app is launched students (or could be teachers after a professional development session) record their thoughts and feelings on what they've learned. Videos are uploaded to the site for review by the teacher. When recording the video students (or teachers) can self report their understanding and the platform breaks out those that are still having trouble so you can focus on the learning that matters. I had the chance to take a look at it and if I was still in the classroom this would be a must-have app for me. 

Technology certainly makes capturing and sharing reflection easier and we can do more with it. But there's nothing wrong with good ol' paper and pencil. I carry a journal with me to write down what I am thinking. Sometimes just writing to get words on a page helps me see another side I hadn't considered.

Whatever you use, always take the time to reflect on what you've been learning and teaching. And allow students to do the same!

photo credit: Red and blue via photopin (license)

Evernote and Postach.io, A Match Made In Tech Heaven

If I've said it once, I've said it quite a few times, blogging is an open reflection of learning and is a wonderful (and easy) way to share our learning. I have been blogging in this space for over 5 years now. I have over 500 posts and have shared a bunch. I couldn't imagine my professional life without my blog.

Recently, I've been wanting to share more and more. But I faced a quandary. I wanted to share just little bits of information with a little detail. Just one or two things that didn't need much depth but that just didn't fit in this space because that isn't the focus here either because of a specific timeframe or for some other reason. I have so much rich information I am curating and I want to share it but I need the right way to do it.

Well Steven, Twitter would be a great use for that. And frankly you are already doing that there.

Well Self, you are correct. But I am limited with Twitter. 140 characters doesn't leave me much room for the kind of depth I was seeking.

Then I discovered Postachio.

And now I have a new obsession.

Postachio is dead simple blogging and publishing. Don't believe me? Watch.


In its essence, it's a hook for your Evernote account that allows you to post by simply tagging a note in a specific notebook with a Published tag. That's it. No fuss, no mess.

Y'all know how much I love Evernote. (If you don't you should read my posts.) So for me this made so much sense. I am curating so much in my Evernote already. And using some IFTTT recipes (you can read about those too) I am saving a bunch there. So now I have an easy way to share that. I move notes into my Postachio specific notebook, edit them, then just add a Published tag. Thats it!

And you can take advantage of Evernote's powerful tools like the web clipper and Skitch to really create amazing and simple posts. And because Evernote lives on all your devices (at least it should), you can publish from virtually anywhere.

So for me, this solution was perfect! I finally have a way to get those short, individual thoughts out of my Evernote and share them with the world.

Which got me thinking...

This would be incredible for schools!

Think about it. Evernote has so many wonderful portfolio features like audio notes and inserting documents and PDFs right into notes. So for students to create portfolios there makes a whole bunch of sense. Now hook that portfolio notebook to Postachio and you have a wonderful, shareable, public representation of student work. It really can give kids a simple way to have a global audience for their work.

And not just kids. I advocate for School Leaders, Administrators and Teachers to use Evernote for professional growth portfolios. Now with Postachio those can be easy, public representations of learning.

For me, Postachio won't at all replace this space. It's the additional space I was seeking for so long. But for some, Postachio could be a great place to start the blogging process because of its integration with Evernote and all the rich features there.

Oh, did I mention both Evernote and Postachio are free?

You can check out my new Postachio site at http://postachio.web20classroom.org to see what I am curating.

And be sure to check out the Postachio blog. They have a great series on #PostachioEd, using the platform in a variety of ways in the classroom. 

A Reflection On 2012-The Most Popular Posts

As we close out 2012, let's take a look back at the most popular posts here.

With the release of the Apple iBooks Author many educators jumped at the chance to create their own textbooks and books for the classroom. But what if you don't have access to it or don't use Apple in your district? There are lots of other ways to make living textbooks and books. Better yet, there are lots of tools that kids could use. In So...You Wanna Make Your Own Texbooks and Books I gave a few of my favorite tools and others contributed some in the comments. 

Seemed like no one could escape the term "flipping" this year. At ISTE there were several workshops and sessions dedicated to teaching the masses about how to flip their classroom. I still don't buy the concept of flipping the classroom. (I know, I've been saying for a while I need to write a post as to why.) But when it comes to faculty meetings, I think the flip could work in everyone's favor. Freeing up time from pointless and boring meetings to do meaningful professional development could have a big impact on student learning. In Flipping...It's Not Just For The Classroom and Flipping Your Faculty. It's Easier Than Videos I discuss how it could be possible to flip those faculty meetings and provide a time for real learning and the tools to make that happen. 

Data can be boring. Reading a bunch of stats may be fun to your neighborhood statistician but to your Average Joe it could put one to sleep. Infographics have been around for a while but for the better part of this year there were new one's coming out each week on various topics. Teaching with and through infographics can be challenging, yet rewarding. In So...You Wanna Make Your Own Infographics, we look at several different services to make infographics without a Masters degree in Illustration and also look at some ideas on how kids can use infographics for learning. 

In our district one thing is for sure. Our kids and teachers love Edmodo. Not only do most of our teachers have a space set up there for their classrooms, many of our district PLC groups have spaces there to share information and grow professionally. Across the country Edmodo saw their platform grow in popularty as well. But what is it all about and how can teachers use it effectively? In Why You Should Give Edmodo A Try we explore how we've been using it here and how you can start using it in your classroom. 

Lastly, I had tried for over 2 years to figure out Evernote. I would install it, try to use it and forget about it. For New Years this year I committed to getting myself organized and I thought Evernote would be the perfect way. I am hooked. (Even paid for a Pro Account.) I can't live without my Evernote. In How Things Changed With Evernote we look at my experience and how I use my Evernote. In What Do You Mean Evernote Could Get Better?  I explore the many ways educators are using Evernote and how you can extend its use with lots of third-party apps. 

Those were my most popular posts this year. Thanks so much for reading and sharing with me this year!

What are some things you would like to see me write about next year? (Hey about about that post on flipping for a start!) Leave me some comments below. 

photo credit: TaniaMG via photopin cc

What Is It About #Educon? My Reflections...

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend Educon 2.3 in Philadelphia. For those who don't know, Educon is an educational conference that us put on by the students and staff of the Science Leadership Academy, lead by Chris Lehmann. Really, it is more the students who do everything. From running the live streaming to the EduConcierge who would tell you the best place to eat and print your boarding passes for you, kids were everywhere doing any number of jobs. Instead of sessions there are Conversations which are supposed to be more interactive for the participants and the Conversation Leaders.

It is a different kind of conference. It has taken me the better part of 3 days to reflect on everything and to try to determine where I go from here.

Here are a few of my thoughts after attending for the first time...

SLA is a great place, with great people and great kids. But. Is it any different than many schools? They have lots of opportunities because their school is tied to the Franklin Institute and they have an amazing leadership team. But don't all schools have the same opportunity to do the great things that go on at SLA everyday? They are still a public school so they have standards and testing and all that stuff but people still hold them in high regard as a model school or the school we all would like to teach in. Can't we take the same values away from SLA and make them happen in our own schools? I like the beginning of their mission statement. It starts with 3 questions:

1) How Do We Learn?
2) What Can We Create?
3) What Does It Mean To Lead?

Inquiry-based learning is a cornerstone of their approach. Collaboration and reflection are a big part too. It all just makes sense. So, why not take those same values and mission to our own corners of the earth and institute them?

One of the questions I kept asking myself was what makes everyone say Educon is the conference to go to? Not that I disagree of course, but why this one in particular? I think it comes down to the people. Moreover, I think it is the opportunity to engage with and learn with many that we do virtually each day. Which drives home the point that while my virtual learning is such an important part of who I am and what I do, I still crave these opportunities to meet people face to face and sit and have a conversation. I truly enjoy meeting people I talk to online. We are human after all and we need those social interactions. Educon is just a venue and a platform for that to take place on a large scale.

Many times I saw people gathered around in small groups talking about whatever they really wanted. I think the best conversations happened outside of the scheduled Conversations. The same thing can happen locally Schedule a monthly tweetup or get-together. Edcamps and TeachMeets are another example of how this can happen. While our virtual networks are great, the face-to-face ones can be equally as great.

I kept hearing and asking myself why can't this style of presentation (The Conversation) be replicated at things like ISTE or other major conferences or even at the local level? Then I caught myself saying, sure they can. We just have to change the way we present. My favorite session was one lead by Joyce Valenza, Shannon Miller, and Gwyneth A. Jones on student inquiry and research. Not only is a topic that I really enjoy but the opportunity to learn from these 3 ladies was a chance I could not pass up. But was it the topic that made it my favorite? Sure there was great information shared by them but it was highly engaging and interactive. There was back and forth between us and them. We all became apart of the conversation when we did Rocks, Sucks, Not Sure with various topics in student research like Term Papers or Online Citation Makers or the use of Wikipedia in the classroom. We had to get up and move around the room and defend our position. So not only were we learning from Joyce and Shannon and Gwyneth but we were all learning from each other. Lots of sessions were like this. There was group sharing, group projects, talking one-on-one, problem solving, and more. It was like a class you never wanted to leave and you hated when the time was up.

As a presenter I am in control of the same thing. Sure, I could stand in front of an audience and lecture for 60 minutes, taking questions every now and then. Or I could make my participants actually participate. Get up, move around, work in groups, have everyone collaborate in Edmodo or on a Google Doc. The whole point is that this how learning should be, especially in our schools and classrooms. We all have something to add to the conversation. The presenter is not the only expert in the room and that is evident in the Educon Conversations. We all did a little (in my case a lot) of learning together. And that is just really cool.

Would I go again? Heck yeah! Am I different for attending? I don't think so. I have different work to do, yes. But I am not that much different than when I left. I know that I still need time to process and reflect on the 5 conversations I was able to attend and I know I want to hit up the archives to see the tons of conversations I couldn't. And that reflection is important. If we are not reflecting and growing as a part of our learning, what is the point?

See you at Educon 2.4?