Doesn't Every School Have Leadership Retreats?

On Friday our principal set up a leadership retreat for 6 of us. We had 3 Assistant Principals, the Literacy Coach, and myself. We went from 8 AM until the bill was paid at dinner about 12 hours later. And as I was driving home I thought to myself, "Wonder if other schools do this?"

I have mentioned it before, but I feel very strongly about the fact that I have a very good principal. He is a self-proclaimed geek who loves to look at analytical relationships - "If I tweak this input variable how will it affect my output variable?"  He also shared with us that he enjoys conflict too. He looks at conflict and failure as places where the greatest learning occurs - and he's right! Although I have to admit I'm someone who prefers that "we all just get along."

The timing of the retreat was perfect. All of us were "officially" on contract and the school was closed because we are still on the summer schedule which has the schools closed on Fridays. We worked from about 8 until nearly 5 with lunch delivered. Then we drove to a nice restaurant where we ate and had a few drinks which just added to our bonding experience.

The image at the top has part of our agenda. Notice that this section of the agenda is titled, Leaders of Learning.  No mention of being administrators. We are all about learning. And so you'll see that we started by looking at Chapter 1 of "Instructional Rounds in Education," which focuses on "The Instructional Core."  This year we want to purposefully examine the relationships between teachers, their students, and their content.  The relationship between these three is the key to deeper learning according to the authors.

Next we looked at our Mission Statement. The year before we taken what had been called a mission statement but was more of a motto and we analyzed it and adjusted it so that it was concrete and measurable. We like to think of the mission statement as a challenge. And so our first task was to look at student data and find 2 areas to celebrate and 2 areas where we failed, as a campus. We wrapped this section up by focusing on creating a common goal for the year.

When we have "Brutal Facts," like having only about 10% of our SPED students passing the state tests and less than half or our ESL students passing, it's easy to see where we need to focus. But driving towards one main goal that will help those students and every other of our 800+ students is a different story. We know that literacy has to be our main focus but what does this look like in math? in art? in PE? We need to make a concerted effort to help every student in every one of their classes.

The rest of the day was centered on the backward design process (BDP) and response to intervention (RTI). We are using CSCOPE this year for our pacing and curriculum design. So we have created a process to take the information given in CSCOPE and transform it using BDP so that it fits nicely into a project planning form (PPF). That's right we do BDP on CSCOPE to create our PPF!

Our teachers feel a bit stressed because they will be using a new curriculum guide and will be putting that information into a PPF because they will be using PBL as their primary mode of instruction (for the first time) while having 1:1 iPads (for the first time). Just a bunch of whiners if you ask me. Kidding of course. (see my post here about taking care of my teachers ).

Looking at the Instructional Core again, we need to make sure the teachers, their students, and their content are in perfect balance. If the leadership doesn't develop a system to ensure our teachers are successful. And if we haven't identified those students who will need additional help. And, if we haven't given our teachers a way to deliver curriculum in a way that provides the students with a way to go deeper. Then we will not be successful as a school.

Waiting until after the entire campus is back to their normal working hours is too late. We need to give them things that will help them throughout the year right away. But we also need to balance that with NOT giving them too much so that they feel even more overwhelmed. It's a tricky balancing act but we will remain positive and do as much modeling as possible in the early days and weeks of the school year. Still, we could not have gotten this far into the process without a dedicated day totally focused on how we, as Leaders of Learning, can create a culture of learning.  Bring on the teachers! I'm ready to help them get started

Professional Development Planners Need Our Help

http://goo.gl/KPWQpo

On Wednesday I was able to sit through (survive) the first day of a three day professional development about literacy.

Thursday morning, prior to walking to the PD,  I put up a post about not being negative and helping teachers instead of being angry with them.

How are these two events connected? Well, I really wanted to write an entire blog post about just how bad the day's PD was. Then I was reconnected with one of my favorite Depeche Mode songs, Blasphemous Rumours, and the line about God having a sick sense of humor.

Oh sure, I could have talked about the exchange that had us all shaking our heads: "Have any of you ever heard of Prezi? It's a way to do presentations. This particular Prezi will be riveting." But I won't.

I could have talked about "sitting and getting" for over 3 hours. But I won't. Nope. Not me. I want to analyze what was done to us today and offer other ways that this PD could have happened. Because I don't complain without offering a solution.

First, whenever you have a 3 hour block of time to present topics, especially dry but important topics, you have to deliver the information in chunks.  And, in between the chunks, there should be time for activity and movement. Just like in working with our students we need to have cooperative group activities that enhance the learning.

Some suggestions: What if tables were given certain parts of the learning and we held a jigsaw with tables presenting what they learned? What if there was a simulation of exploring standards and we used a socrative discussion or a fishbowl of the  process? There are dozens of possibilities for handling this part of the session.

Alternatively, we could have been assigned a reading to have been completed prior to the first day and we could have immediately gotten into groups to discuss what we read and to come up with questions that we still need answered.

What if, instead of not providing wifi, there was a purposeful use of internet sites to help us better understand the point of the learning. And, instead of asking us to share the information we got with our fellow teachers and then asking us to not use our technology, we were given a hashtag and were asked to share our favorite links that we found.

More and more of our teachers are entering classrooms that are 1:1 with chrome books, iPads, or other technology. We are expecting our teachers to use the technology to help our students go deeper with the information provided. We want our classrooms filled with activities and to no longer have our desks in rows. We want instruction differentiated and engaging. We use rules of thumb like "lecture for no more than the the equivalent number of minutes that coincide with the age of the student."

Why then would we expect less of the educators who are presenting material in professional development?  Presenters should be asking us to use technology to help us go deeper with the material. There should be activities and ways to differentiate. And the "sit and git" portion should never be more than 15 or 20 minutes.

In the past 2 years I have been to many professional developments and many conferences and un-conferences. In order of "amount learned" I would put them like this: Educon Philly, NTAC, Edcamps (at multiple sites), Margaret Kilgo's Unpacking the Standard's training, my own district's PD sessions, ISTE, TCEA, and SXSWEdu. Somewhere after that would be the other PD's I have had to attend.

What keeps the first three (Educon, NTAC, Edcamps) above the rest? First, at all three, I can choose what I want to learn. And, if there are multiple sessions at the same time, I can ask someone else to go to the other one and let me know what they learned.  Second, all three of those have a large on line presence. If I'm not in a session I can hear about it by checking my Twitter feed on the hashtag for the event. And the bigger/better known conferences will even have teachers who can't be there, with their own hashtag, such as #noneducon, where information is also flowing. The information is being shared instantaneously.

Where should these larger PD's start? They need to look at the "standards" that they want us to learn. Unpack them and do some backward design. Plan for activities and workshops where teachers can go deeper with the content. Think of ways to provide reflection at various points during the day. Give the teachers an opportunity to teach or lead a discussion on what they've learned. Oh, and make it fun...with food and coffee if possible.

Professional development needs to be done by people who understand proper facilitation of training.  It needs to be handled by people who understand how to teach in the 21st century. It needs to be handled by teachers. 21st century teachers. Because that's what we are, teachers in the 21st century.

A Chance of a Lifetime

Student Photo MNTHS

The fact I got to see President Obama was not a given. I'm not teaching at Manor New Tech (MNTHS) any more. Yes, I do a lot with PBL in our district but the fact is I am not a teacher at the school being visited by the President.  But Steve Zipkes, the MNTHS Principal, told me his goal was to have all of the former teachers at the campus when Mr. Obama was there.

Finally, Tuesday night, I received an email from the White House advance team representative that I would be part of a group of "Volunteers" and I would have a meeting on Wednesday to get more information.

Wednesday afternoon there were about a dozen of us from around the district who were given assignments for the big day. At the beginning of that meeting we were told the layout and we knew that some of us might end up in the cafeteria where there would be a live stream of the speech. Again, I knew that I might just be there and not get to see the man in person. But I was asked to be at the entrance making sure students, staff, and guests entered in an orderly fashion. And I was told "when they close up you can go into the gymnasium for the speech." 

As it turned out things went incredibly smooth and about an hour before the arrival we had closed up and I was inside tweeting and talking with many of our guests. Being "in the loop" I knew when the motorcade had arrived and that he had entered the main part of the building to see the student presentations. He was free to spend as much time as he needed so when he hadn't arrived in about 20 minutes I knew the students were getting maximum time with their President.

During the waiting time I started getting tweets and texts from friends around the country who were watching the live White House feed, online.  They could see me and all of my actions so we started having some fun with strategic hand gestures and comments about the brightness of my bald spot.  Then a really cool thing happened.

They had anticipated almost 200 press for the event and there was plenty of room in the gym for that number of people. The advance team wanted it to look full and so they invited the entire student body to come in and see the speech live.  It was a little cozy but as the advance team had said, "we need it to be crowded with lots of happy cheering people."

Before the President came into the gym, he was introduced by a senior at MNTHS, Tevyn Washington.  Tevyn was one of my favorite students and his introduction was well thought out and moving. Listening to his speech caused tears to well up in my eyes for the 2nd time that day.

The president's speech started out, as was expected, very presidential but he quickly got to talking about what he had seen during his tour of the school and he included the sound bytes that had been provided for him. It was a pretty emotional time for those of us who had been at the school for a while. His entire speech can be found here. I thought I could keep it together, but he still managed to get me teared up a couple of times.

Thanks to the military I've been in the presence of Presidents,Vice Presidents, Secretaries of State and Secretaries of Defense. But once I had left service I really didn't picture being able to see the President. Especially in a small town in central Texas.

Mr. Obama spoke the truth yesterday. He didn't embellish his remarks and his speech writer didn't make up statistics.  We are doing good things in this district. We feel that we have such a long road to go to get where we want to be. We see the blemishes. We know where we are lacking. But for one day a school district and a town could stand together and beam with pride as the whole nation recognized the efforts of some of their own. It was a day none of us will ever forget.

It's All About the Conversations

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Anyone who has ever attended an Educon event knows that conversations are the key to having successful learning experiences at conferences.

In the standard conference we attend sessions where people talk to us, in a lecture format, and there may, or may not be time for questions. To truly have time to discuss what you just heard you have to join up (virtually or face-to-face) with others who attended that session or who have knowledge of the subject.

SXSWEdu is starting to have less lecturers and more facilitators of discussion and it is a welcomed change.  There are many things that are different, this year, from that first disappointingly bad conference two years ago. But, unfortunately, there is still too much emphasis on the business of education rather than the art of education.

So, if you want to have conversations about topics of interest, it is the hallways, restaurants, bars, and lounges where you will have the best and deepest discussions.  While in the hallways of SXSW you hear teachers talking with edtech people; startups talking with venture capitalists; and IT folks talking with school administrators.

Unfortunately, you don't hear many conversations between teachers and other teachers at SXSWEdu.  As a friend of mine said to me this morning, when I asked him how his week was, "They should call it an Education Industry conference.  It really isn't an education conference."

And this week was frustrating because of the huge emphasis on data.  There were startups who could give you a better dashboard for your data.  Edtech companies who could put all of your data from the various programs you are using into one data file.  There were companies who could do more meaningful data management.

Analyzing data can help teachers provide better and more meaningful instruction for their students. That is a true statement. God knows I spend hours upon hours of spreadsheet analysis of student scores related to various data points.  But with this much emphasis on data I felt like I was attending a math conference instead of an education conference.

SXSWEdu has grown in size and in scope.  It is immensely better than the poor excuse for a conference in 2011 that I had to attend - at my own cost even though I was a speaker. [Side Note: speakers at the other SXSW events get a pass to the conference]  But if we're going to call this an educator conference, let's bring in the educators in large numbers.  Let's have the break down be 70% educators and 30% industry folks instead of the current 70%(or more?) industry and 30% educators.

As I said two years ago and last year: Let's put together educators in the Central Texas area to sit on a panel and select key educators from around the globe and truly make this the "Can't Miss" education conference on the planet. Then we can discuss the data of its success.

Hey! Where'd You Get That?

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A good friend of mine, who has now been married for more than 30 years, used to use this expression whenever we saw a good looking woman:  "It doesn't matter where you go for your appetite, as long as you come home for dinner."

The same holds true with your projects.  Projects that you run in your classroom need to be  your projects but it doesn't matter where you go for your project ideas.  Projects that are taken, fully intact,  from someone else and then run in your class just won't work the same.  And your students will know that it isn't your project.

So stop beating yourself up about using someone's project idea.  It's OK.  You can use the idea.  Just make it your own.  Have your entry event totally unique to how you want to start the project.  And figure out how you want your project to end.  Allowing students to pick their own end product means that, even if a group wants to do something that was an end product in the original project idea, your students have ownership in it.

Now when it comes to some of the scaffolding activities, in the original project,  you may really like some of them.  That's OK.  But, until you have run the activity you won't know what could go wrong.  What material isn't listed that would really help.  What time changes did the original teacher make when they ran it.  Was it a "class period" activity and the original teacher was on a 90 minute block?  Or, was it a "class period" activity for a 45 minute class and you have a 90 minute block?  Work through the activity yourself (which should be your modus operandi anyway) to gauge the length of time needed.

Now that you've selected the project idea, you have your entry event, and you have determined how you will handle end products, it is time to really look at the theme of the project and see if there are any other things you might want to add or subtract to make it "your" project.

Hopefully you are starting to see that getting ideas from somewhere else is an incredible time saver BUT you still have to create your project.  You still need to arrange your calendar with content, scaffolding, and assessments.  I really like having someone's project to manipulate into my own.  What I present to my students may not even look at all like the original project except that the original content is there.

Remember, it doesn't matter where you go for your project appetite, as long as you come back and create your own project meal.  I know, bad statement.  But I had to come back to my opening.

Where to get project ideas:

•  Regional Education Centers in many states such as Texas, Ohio, and South Carolina may have links to resources.  Transformation 2013 in Texas has good project ideas, for example.
•   Edutopia has a whole section of their site devoted to Project Based learning.
•   Curriki is a resource I sometimes forget. They have classroom activities that can easily be molded into a project idea.
•    We Are Teachers is one I like to have in my pocket.  Great resources and activities.
•    Discovery Education has some great resources and is not always thought of as a place to come up with project ideas.
•     Buck Institute for Education is the most obvious one for me but I thought I'd put it late on the list.
• Your local newspaper, a magazine (hard copy or online), or current events aren't necessarily taking someone's project idea, but there may be a problem to solve or a concept to explore and there's your project.

Teachers With Guns? Sign Here.....

http://fairnessworks.com/page/2/

I avoided this post for a while now.  I started writing it and stopped many times.  But I just can't stand back any more.

There are people who want teachers to be allowed to have firearms on campus.  I can go on and on about why I think this is wrong but, instead, I offer this contract that I want EVERY teacher, who wants to be in the same building as me and carry a weapon, to sign:

  

        The following agreement is made between myself (the undersigned) and all parents, teachers, administrators, and students in _____________________ (name of school/school district)

                1.  I will attend annual firearm and use of deadly force training each year at my own expense.

                2.  I will send a letter to all parents of my students that I have a firearm in my classroom and I agree to allow any students whose parents are uncomfortable with my possession of a firearm change classrooms to another teacher.

                3.  I will clean my weapon, at least once a month, off of the school premises.  And, I will let the principal or other administrator know that this has been completed.

                4.  I will, at all times, keep the firearm and the bullets separated and stored where students are unable to find them.

                5.  I agree to allow unannounced inspections, by police or other state sanctioned representatives, to verify I am following these rules.

                6.  I agree to discharge my firearm, when the need arises, in a manner that will stop the possibility of harm to students, faculty, or innocent visitors to my school.  I further understand that discharging my firearm may hurt, maim, or kill anyone between myself and the person I am firing at.  And, when necessary, I am prepared to kill the person causing harm to others.

               7.   I agree to psychological testing, by a school district or other state sanctioned psychologist, upon signing this agreement and, again, every three years from this date.

     I hold a concealed weapons certification dated __________________ and do hereby sign this agreement without reservation.  Signed this ___(day) of _____(month), _______(year)

If you want to carry a weapon then do so.  After 20 years in the military I don't have a big problem being around people with firearms.  However, I do have a problem with people carrying them without facing the fact that they are then telling me that they will use it to protect me, my children, and any other innocent person in my building.  I will NEVER carry a weapon and find no reason to do so.   I want to know that others are prepared to kill someone so that good people may live.  Just give me that psychological test first - please.

Power Standards to Project Planning

At Decker Middle School we are using a Power Standards Protocol to choose those state standards that have the most bang for the buck.  Since we are in Texas we don't need no stinkin Common Core Standards, but you could do the same thing with those standards.

So, you've selected your power standards and you want to now do some project ideation.  What I would say is that you have already missed some of the best project idea brainstorming time - if you have completed the Power Standards Protocol and you haven't completed a project planning form while you were selecting the power standards.  Let me show you what I mean.

Let's say you are looking at selecting power standards for 6th grade English.  Here is the form we are using to select our power standards.  We look at what standards are to be covered during a set period (in this case 3 weeks).  We look at whether the standard is a Readiness or Supporting standard.  And then we look at how we have done on state standardized tests with these standards.

But the first and last conversations we have about those standards are a ranking of importance.  Here is where you have the chance to have those tough discussions.  Does the standard have endurance?  Does it have leverage.  How does it fit in the student's readiness for deeper learning?

Now look at this form, from the Buck Institute, for planning your projects.  Notice that there is a space for Content and Skills Standards to be addressed.  You should have this form right next to you as you are addressing the conversations about ranking.  When you are discussing endurance, leverage, and readiness you will, undoubtedly, talk about how you have presented and assessed each standard.  You should also have discussed how important it will be in future classes.

This is where I envision someone saying, "What if we do.......?"  POOF!  You have an idea of what you want to do for the next project.  And, you can start looking at the scaffolding based upon the other standards that need to be addressed during the project time frame.

The Project Planning Form is often forgotten when, ironically, you are planning for your subject area.  Take the time to have a planning form with you whenever you are discussing your content.  I would even say you should have one out as you are having discussions with other teachers about their content.   You might discover a cross-curricular project lying in the conversation.  That makes me think of a possible project, got to run......

How Do You Create a School? (Part 1 of 2)

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     (Part 1 of 2)
     The first question that hit me when I said I wanted this job was how do we transform an existing school, Decker Middle School in Manor Tx, from what it is to what it will become?

     I mean the school building is there.  There are students attending the school.  Heck, a lot of the students I was teaching came from that school.  But, the school it is about to become doesn't exist and the teachers, administrators, and I have the chance to mold the school in whatever fashion we desire.

     Luckily I am a teacher who has been trained by the New Tech Network (NTN) to use project based learning (PBL).  This is the ultimate PBL assignment.  I was given the entry event when I went to the job interview.  I know that a thriving middle school where teachers are using PBL as the means to teach their content is my final product.  It's time to create my Knows and Need to Knows.

KNOWS:

•      In August sixth graders will be coming through the doors expecting an education (THAT is the ultimate know).
•      Some of the sixth graders will be coming from an elementary school where the teachers are using PBL in their classrooms very successfully.
•      The 6th grade teachers I will be working with have been to a 4 day training on how to use PBL and have been working with the 5th grade teachers to see how it is being used at the elementary school.
•      The 6th grade teachers will be attending the New Tech Network's Annual Conference (NTAC) in July with me.
•      I will be attending the New Tech Network's Boot Camp (for trainers) in June.
•      I will be attending the Buck Institute for Education's PBL 101 as a guest of White Oak (Tx) ISD's in early June.
•      I have 20 years of teaching experience, a Masters in Education with emphasis on Middle School Math and Science, and 4 years of PBL teaching experience in a NTN school.
•      There are NTN teachers and coaches available, all over the country, who I am connected with through Twitter.  They can and will help me with this process.  There are also Buck Institute National Faculty I am connected with on Twitter and they will help me too.
•      No matter where we are on the opening day of school, we need to be ready to teach and we need to have a structure in place for our students to be successful learners.
•      The principal may be new to PBL but he has a great reputation for putting structures in place to create a safe environment where students know they can take risks while being successful learners.

     This list of KNOWS is long but I could add many more.  But, by writing them down, I now know that there are safety nets in place for my successful journey through this learning process.  Just like our kids, it helps to reflect on what you DO know about something before you immediately take the negative stance of "I don't know anything about this!"

     No, I have never been an Instructional Coach.  No, I have never started a school.   But there are a lot of things about instruction that I know.  I have been a part of schools, all over the country, who are at some phase of reinventing themselves.  And, most importantly, there are dozens of people with various levels of knowledge ready to help me - and ultimately my school - be successful.  Next time we visit the Need to Knows.  It's a looooonnnnggg list!

What to do With Textbooks?

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I haven't used a text book in my classroom in 4 years.  There, I've said it.  I did have a dozen copies of an Algebra 1 textbook in my class two years ago so the students could use it as a reference.  I love having copies of teachers editions of several publisher's textbooks for math at each level from Pre-Algebra to Advanced College Algebra in my room.  I also have copies of Algebra for Dummies and other "self help" math books that students may choose to use.

Today I took a sick day so I could work on getting over my bronchitis and I happened upon a discussion on Twitter - #beyondthetextbook.  That's one of the many things I love about twitter - I was able to sit at my laptop and cough my brains out without disturbing anyone (other than my wife and cats) while following an active, interesting, and relevant discussion.

As a teacher it is my responsibility to guide my students to finding the best resources on a topic.  And, once they have chosen resources teachers should be guiding the evaluation of the resources.  And, finally, teachers should be there to provide insight and understanding of the information found within the resource.  If the resource my students choose is a textbook then that is fantastic - as long as there isn't something else that explains the information in a better way.  If there is a better resource, then it is my responsibility (the evaluation of the resource) to guide them to this other media.

And so the things I kept seeing seemed to be avoiding the fact that a textbook is just a reference source.  I saw lots of things about going hi-tech with textbooks and having students create textbooks but I think too much time was spent on finding ways to replace the textbook with another form of something that is still, basically, a textbook.  IT IS A REFERENCE BOOK PEOPLE!  There I feel better now.

One of the better posts I read on this was by Doug Belshaw.   Doug went so far as to say that "the textbook is a symptom of a problem around assessment," in a tweet.   You should take time to read his post, read the comments, and read any of the posts he references in his post.

I live in a world where students research a problem.  They need to find and evaluate resources that help them find solutions to the problem.  If one of those resources is considered a textbook then, who cares? Notice I have not said anything about the political minefield of state textbook adoption.  You can't pay me enough to walk through there.  I found out a few years ago that textbook adoption committees mean nothing in my state and I'm sure they don't mean much in many other states who have textbook publishers in the lobbying business in their state.  Wait!  I said I wouldn't go there and I won't go any farther....

Thoughts on SXSWedu

SXSWEdu 2012 by @cfanch

     Yesterday was my first day at this year's South By Southwest Education (SXSWedu) conference in Austin, TX.  I spoke twice at its maiden conference last year and was wondering where it would go this year.

     It appears that SXSW has figured out a direction they are heading.  Last year it felt very awkward being here - was it supposed to be a TEA (Texas Education Association) conference, a vendor conference, or an educator's conference?  We never really knew.

     This year there is a definite feel that we are seeing this conference embrace edtech and education entrepreneurship.   And that's OK.  If they continue in this direction it would be great to see ways to get more educators in attendance.  I attended a session with about 40 people and when the panel asked how many were teachers there were two of us.  There was another higher ed person in the room but the rest were all from industry.

    As we get more and more startups creating products that can be used in the classroom, we need to have educators here to hold conversations with these company representatives.  An app or program is only as good as its usability.  Will teachers want to use the product?  Will students use the product?  And, most importantly, HOW will they use the product?

    I have met many startups as well at this conference.  One of the things at SXSWEdu is LAUNCHedu where startups/edtech companies can hawk their wares and attendees can ask questions.  This is a great idea and I see wonderful opportunities for future South By's in this arena.

     Finally, this evening, I was able to attend meetups hosted by many of the larger edtech companies at the conference and it was nice to be able to talk directly to their representatives about the conference and how it can be improved.  Then many of us were able to attend a party hosted by Tech & Learning which really made us feel like we were more than just "educators."  These type of parties are prevalent at the regular SXSW conference and it really gave a nice ending to a great day.

     SXSWedu will be in its 3rd year next year and I'm hoping that they find a way of getting more teachers to the conference.  I was able to talk with WeAreTeachers founder Sandy Fivecoat and she came up with a great idea of holding a contest on her site that would allow a certain number of teachers to win scholarships to next year's SXSWedu and I'm hoping that can become a reality.

     Over and over I was asked for my thoughts on the conference and without hesitating I was able to say that it was MUCH better than last year.  There was good interaction in most of the sessions I attended and presenters wanted to know where the teachers were.  I would like to see more interactive sessions with conversations and hands-on opportunities but SXSWedu is heading in the right direction and I look forward to what it looks like next year.

   

Thoughts on Vendor Areas at Conferences

http://www.flickr.com/photos/techxas/

{NOTE: After writing this last weekend I started putting in links and realized it was almost identical to my post from Feb.7 .  Guess the thoughts in that post resonated with me. }

Last week was the Texas Computer Educators Association (TCEA) annual conference and I was fortunate enough to have an understanding principal who let me off on Tuesday and on Thursday afternoon to go to the conference.  And, unlike other years, my district even paid the cost of my admittance: $180!

Like most teachers I don't get to too many great conferences because of the cost to attend.  For example I attended Educon Philadelphia and I, literally, used that as my Christmas and Birthday present.  The bottom line?  Over $1200 for 3 nights lodging, airfare, food, and admittance.  But I'm worth every penny.  Thank you to my wife, son, and daughter for such a thankful gift.

So, why was I willing to shell out $1200 to go to Educon?   The level of conversation, for one, is priceless.  The discussions, both in sessions and before and after the sessions, went from breakfast to midnight each day.  I learned a ton and got to meet people I had wanted to meet face to face for years.

Another, usually unmentioned, cost was the cost the school district had to pay for a substitute for my two days I missed to attend Educon.  And then there was the cost of me not being in class to be with my students.  Even PBL students with a set agenda and a project to work on become normal kids around a substitute.  If the substitute is going to sit and watch movies on his or her laptop my kids aren't going to be motivated to work.

So last week I ended up getting a substitute for Tuesday and I asked teachers, who were on their conference period, to watch my afternoon classes on Thursday.  Only one totally lost day of learning there.  And, since I was driving from home, no real cost for transportation or lodging.  Pretty reasonable.

Tuesday I immediately went to the Lone Star Edubloggercon (LSEBC12) in the Web2.0 area.  I could have gone to this without the full pass (and I did that last year) but it was nice to know that later in the week I could go to a few sessions and I could visit the vendor area with my pass.  But, again, I could have gotten into this area for free.   That's important.

If you notice the picture at the beginning of this post.  It is the schedule of sessions (free) to attend during the day at LSEBC12.  This schedule was put together by Scott Floyd and was done like an Edcamp.  As a matter of fact Scott knew I was coming and had put down a session for PBL (notice the 1:30 time slot) and as I walked into the room he, literally, asked if I wanted to do a session on PBL.  When I said yes he said good thing because he had already put me on the schedule.

The first session in LSEBC12 featured Kevin Honeycutt who I  have known through twitter for years but had never met in person.  He gave a wonderful presentation on encouraging music and got the whole group involved in making music (see my last post).  I learned about some apps that I didn't know about and I found out more about apps that I had heard about but had not played with.

The whole day was like that.  I got to meet people who are active in social media, true, but they are also passionate about many varied educational topics and we could engage in conversations (there's that word again) in a relaxed, open environment.

When I came back on Thursday I had physically missed a day and a half of the conference.  But, really, I had been able to follow the twitter stream and I knew the interesting (and the not so interesting) sessions that had occurred on Wednesday.  I had been involved in conversations with people at the conference and felt connected to the conference without having to be there.

The first place I went on Thursday was the Web2.0 area and I found many of the same faces from Tuesday along with some others who I hadn't been able to meet on Tuesday.  A bonus was that Ben Grey did a session on digital story telling that had a large audience and I could X off another twitter person who I'd always wanted to hear speak and, again, I saw it for free.

When that ended I decided to head to the Vendor area.  What a mistake.  The place was surreal.  People yelling and cheering.  People trying to "scan me."  Hundreds of people sitting in front of boards, looking like used car salesmen, hawking their wares.  It was very unnerving.  I knew of two places that I wanted to see, the Splashtop guys and the Smart IWB people.  The rest of the experience, as I wandered around looking for them, was awful.  And, as I looked at the names of the products there were few that I wasn't familiar with.  I could tell you what was good and what was bad about them just because I'm active on twitter.

In 2012, people don't need to go to vendors to hear their spiel.  I hear about products every day on twitter and I then look at the links of anything that sounds like I might use it and I read for myself.  If I think I might be interested I seek out people on twitter who have used or are currently using this product in their classroom.  Then I send out the information to my fellow teachers to see if any of them might be interested.  Then, depending on cost, I get the product and start using it so I can put out informative tweets so others can see what I think.

As I said earlier, I was looking for two vendors at this conference.  I wanted to see both of them about the same problem.  I was able to find the Splashtop guy but not the Smart people (even though Smart was a major sponsor of the conference.)  He wasn't able to help me, but he wants me to screen shot the problem and send it to him so they can look into it.  I could have gotten that same result by tweeting to @splashtop and telling them my problem but, hey I got to interact with a real human being!

I know that vendors allow us to have conferences in big fancy convention centers.  I know that it's important for people to compare products in one central area.  I know that this is the one chance, each year, for tech folks to get out and see what the latest products are.  I also know I shouldn't be so cynical about the whole experience.  But it is really hard to see all of these salesmen with the same outfits, the same haircuts, and the same sales pitches and not be dismissive of the whole process.  If more people could see the power of twitter and Google + to spread information about products then we wouldn't need these vendor areas.  And, maybe we could have smaller more intimate conferences built around the art of conversation and not the sale of technology.  Next time I'll make sure I pass on the Vendor area.

What's Important in a Conference?

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I don't have any money.  Let's put that right up front.  My district?  We're in Texas - no money there either.   So today I'm attending TCEA 2012 and I'm spending the day with folks I have met through twitter and folks I haven't had a chance to meet yet but am glad I'm meeting.

I'm here planning on buying absolutely nothing.  Wait!  Actually, I might be persuaded into buying an app or two for my iPad.  But nothing more than about $10.  So when I walk by the Vendor check in and I see all of those tables/booths in the Vendor area I know I'm not going to give them any of my money.

There is a part of me that really questions why there is a Vendor area.  Don't teachers learn about new products from other teachers via twitter or in blog posts?  Heck, don't teachers keep up with their favorite "vendor" on twitter so that they know the latest upgrade or change to the product?  Of course the answer is no.  And that's too bad.

I'm here to learn from educators who are using technology in the classroom.  Already I've heard a great session by Kevin Honeycutt on using devices for the arts.  He even got a member of the audience to jam with him .  Kevin is on his guitar (with an iPad velcro'd to it) and John Maklary is on an iPhone.  There is no pressure to buy anything.  Kevin did share out some of his favorite apps for music and then other educators shared some of their favorite apps for art and music. Those in attendance are all part of the conversation.

Right now I'm listening to Carolyn Foote discussing eBooks.  She's sharing various platforms/devices and various apps for creating and reading eBooks.  There's about 20 educators in her session and they are all actively involved in the discussion.

The common theme in these first two session?  Conversations - teachers are sharing information.  Yes, someone is facilitating and, yes, that person is the main "expert" but their main focus is to lead a discussion about their topic.

10 days ago I was in Philadelphia at Educon Philly.  Chris Lehman set up this conference at his school and it is wildly successful.  And, it is totally created around conversations.  There are no vendors.  But, you can bet that there were things bought after listening to discussions with educators using something interesting in their classroom.  I know I spent some money on some apps during that weekend.  But I went to the vendor - the vendor didn't have to come to me.

I like to think that as more and more educators become active in social media and as they start sharing more of the technologies they use in the classroom, we will see a reduction in the number of conferences centered around vendors.  With no vendors and a set number of attendees the size of the conference can be reduced as well.  And then, hopefully, the cost of attending these great events will come down to something teachers (and school districts) can afford.  Of course, if we just had more "Edcamp" style conferences we could bring the cost down to the bare minimum - but that's something for another post.

Manor Plays the State Assessment Game

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     Today I attended our district's meeting to lock in details for how the state's new End of Course (EOC) exams will effect our students.  We met to discuss key issues concerning how we would convert the scale score to a grade and how (or if) these exams would effect the Grade Point Average (GPA) and Class Rank.

     Before I say anything further I want to say that I was very impressed with how we really attempted to interpret "suggestions" by the Texas Education Association (TEA) regarding these topics.  This was really made evident when we heard anecdotal accounts of what other districts in the area were considering for their answers to the same questions.

     What was frustrating, for all, was that fine line we kept treading between what is best for the district and what is best for our students.  We looked at how tests would be perceived by students.  How students AND parents would view the results of the tests.  And we discussed whether we needed to have the results effect class rank (which lead to thoughts of parental and district law suits over said results).

     The first item of business was to decide how we wanted to convert the state scale score to a graded score to be averaged into the student's grade.  This seems minor but in previous meetings we had, pretty much, decided to no longer award 0.5 credits for completion of each semester and just award 1.0 credit for completion of the entire year.  As for the grading score we had to start with a fictitious scale score because the state hasn't created one yet.  And, each test will have a sliding score along that scale for passing and failing.  By the end of the meeting we had agreed to a set score for the categories of  minimum, satisfactory, and advanced.  What we all agreed to not do is have a graduated scale but one set score for each of the  categories.

     What we ended the meeting with was discussing what the minimum score would be.  We never locked in a value but we are definitely willing to hold our students more accountable to the results of the test than other districts in the area.  One district, it is said, is considering having a score of 100 for a satisfactory score and a 70 for anything below that score.  So, no matter how their students do on the test, they will pass it.  Sign your name?  You passed.  Are you kidding me?  We never came to consensus but let's say we are willing to go below a 70 for scores below that mark on the state scale score.

     An interesting phenomenon occurred as we were in this discussion.  We, as educators, are willing to fight for the rights of those kids in "the danger zone," (just at passing going into the EOC) but we don't always think about how our top tier of students will do on these tests.   We were able to have some good thoughts on how these scores would effect GPA and Class Rank.  We came to consensus that the tests would be included in these two areas but we didn't just gloss it over.  We really took our time considering all of the angles.

     It is worth noting that a definite feel of affluent districts versus less-affluent districts came out of our discussions.  It really seemed to most of us that some districts are doing things in anticipation of lawsuits and are almost daring the state to create mandates that are worthy of bringing forth litigation.  Many of the other districts, like ours, are trying to give a good faith effort to impose changes that will reflect the intentions of the TEA.  We will be ready in January to present our decisions to the school board for their blessings and, come May, our students will have a system in place to convert their score on the EOC exams to a grade that will be averaged in with their other grades for the year in that subject.

     Once more I am pleasantly surprised at how our school district is able to come to consensus while letting all sides present opinions.  I think we can all agree that TEA really hasn't been able to think through with this albatross they've strung around our necks.  But we don't plan on drowning.  We're treading water and moving towards the high ground.