I Need Your Help

This week I was astounded by the news that I am one of 10 finalists nationwide in the Great American Teach Off.  While I am humbled, excited, and certainly shocked, I now need to make 5 videos, 90 seconds in length each by Wednesday the 28th of September (!), answering these questions:

-How am I an innovative teacher

-What I'm doing to make a difference

-Best teaching tops for teachers across America

-Endorsement from a parent or peer

-What I would do with $10,000 for my classroom 

While some of these are easier to make, I need your help with one of them.  Some people tell me that I have helped inspire them to change something in their room, whether it is to get rid of your desk, join the Global Read Aloud, get your students blogging or other things.  If you are one of those people, please consider taking a picture of yourself holding a sign where it says what I inspired you to do, your name and where you are from and email it to me (psripp at gmail.com).  I may then use it one of the videos.

So something like this (courtesy of my amazing students):

You don't have to be super creative, just write it in sharpie and hold it up.  I cannot tell you how much this would mean to me and my kids as the grand prize winner gets $10,000 for their classroom.

Thank you!

A Not So Delusional Guide to Twitter

I have read so many posts on how to get on Twitter and get connected, many of them offer fantastic advice and yet some of them keep reiterating how it is all about following.  Follow one person, and then see who they follow, and then follow them, and soon you will be following so many people you will feel like the most popular kid in the school.  Except you don't.  Instead you feel like the kid who came to prom only to take pictures of all the cool people there.  So I offer up these tips instead for those trying to figure out Twitter.

1. Follow one person, or even 10 but then stop.  Let yourself process what Twitter is and how these people are using the tool.  Don't mass follow, you will find enough people to follow, just take your time.
2. Connect.  Once you have a couple of people you follow, reach out to them.  Tell them you are new, tell them your story, and comment on their blogs.  Open up about yourself, start a conversation, and give them a reason to connect back.
3. Don't give up.  Sometimes I felt like the biggest loser when it came to Twitter; no one thought I was witty, no one rt'ed my posts, until I realized that this is not what Twitter is about.  Twitter is about the connections (I know, I sound like a broken record) so it is not about the retweets or single comments but the dialogue you get involved in and the people you meet.
4. Who cares about Klout?  I didn't realize I had a klout number until my husband asked me what it was.  Then I had to look it up because that little number meant nothing to me; it still doesn't.  If you are asking whether Twitter is worth your time you probably haven't connected with the right people, so keep connecting.
5. Don't worry about the popular kids.  One thing for ongoing discussion has been the grades of popularity Twitter educators seem to have.  Sure there are people with massive followings, but guess what?  They are normal people and they probably have that many followers because they say some really great things and they are good at connecting with others.  It is okay to reach out to them as well, no one is off limits.

So there you have it, my small piece of advice on how to get something out of Twitter.  Of course, you can follow as many people as you want, but think about what your true goal is: numbers or connections?  I for one count my connections just as much as I count my blessings.

I've Always Been a Teacher - Edna's Aha Moment

Edna was one of the first international connections to my PLN and has been one of the most inspiring as well. Never afraid to lend and ear or give advice, she has been a wonderful person to learn from. Edna is a teacher and curriculum coordinator at an IB PYP school (Primary Years Program) in Melbourne, Australia. She blogs at What Ed Said and is @whatedsaid on Twitter.

I’ve always been a teacher. Not the sort who does the same things year in, year out, though. I’ve always enjoyed change and challenges and been willing to experiment with new ideas.

But I’ve been teaching a long time and I admit there have been things I have done just because I always did them that way. I always liked using computers, but I had no idea of the possibilities…

My ‘aha’ moment came a couple of years ago, when I read an extract from ‘Navigating through the Storm, Education in Postmodern Democratic Society’ by Ron Aviram, head of The Center for Futurism in Education, in Israel. To be honest, till then, I had not thought much about the fact that education in schools hadn’t changed, while everything else in the world was changing rapidly and radically.

Then I attended my first international conference in Singapore, a gathering of 700 IBO educators from the Asia Pacific. What motivated me wasn’t so much the content, as the opportunity to network with educators from around the world and to witness the things that teachers had done in their classrooms and schools.

I started reading online and began to discover some inspirational education blogs.  Soon I had subscribed to quite a number and was reading voraciously online about educational reform and how others were integrating technology into their classrooms.
I started experimenting with web 2.0 tools and implementing them into my teaching. I introduced my class to ToonDoo and Voicethread to enhance their learning. We learned together.  As I discovered new and useful tools, I shared them with my class and with other interested teachers at school.

The ICT teacher at my school was thrilled to have an accomplice at last. We started a voluntary tech group for interested teachers to experiment together every fortnight before school. Our ‘Thinking group‘ which meets on the alternate week had been sharing readings and implementing Visible Thinking and soon the 2 groups began to merge as a 21st century learning group.  Discussions centred on making learning relevant and authentic, including the integration of technology. This is my in-school PLN.

I joined nings, such as Classroom 2.0 and PYP Threads and began to participate online.  Then a friend encouraged me to start writing my own blog. At first I didn’t think I had anything to say. Then I didn’t think I would have any readers. But I pushed forward and was soon addicted. I had more things to write about than time to write them.  I didn’t care if I had an audience or not, the process was part of my own learning.

And then, by far the best thing happened. I had dabbled in Twitter and not yet seen the point. But, once I figured out the benefits of following educators and educational hashtags, and once I discovered #edchat, I was on the road to the most powerful learning yet. Over the coming months, I began to develop a worldwide PLN. Learning from them and with them, I discovered and uncovered resources, tools, ideas, challenges... and inspiration. Interacting with educators around the world has pushed my thinking, clarified my ideas and motivated me to explore different kinds of learning for myself, my students and my school.

I’ve always been a teacher. Not the sort who does the same things year in, year out, though. I’ve always enjoyed change and challenges and been willing to experiment with new ideas. But I’ve changed more in the last couple of years as a teacher and a learner than in the preceding 25 years!

By whatedsaid | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

Just an Every Day PLN Moment

I, too, have joined the ranks of the faithful PLN supporters; the ones that proclaim all of the amazing things that have happened to us because of our connection with others whether we choose to call it a PLN or simply a community.  And yet, today I was reminded of just how big of an effect my PLN, or whatever you want to call it, has had on my everyday life.

In the last 2 days, my PLN has helped me with:

• Convincing my principal that less homework = more learning.  Thank you to @Nunavut_teacher for sending out articles that I was able to pass on to my principal.  No meeting needed, the research spoke for itself.    
• Share Everyday Math Resources with my school from another tweet.
• Create a Google Map for the Global Read Aloud Project as prompted by the wonderful Laura Fleming.
• Strengthen my argument for limiting grading in the classroom through conversations with @MrMacnology and @Joe_Bower. 
• Purchase 8 Flip Camera's for the price of 4 thanks to a link sent out a long time ago on Twitter (if it was by you - thank you!)
• Work out again - thanks to the fantastic people involved in #temt, now I don't want to be lazy.
• Promise 500 people that I follow that I would get them a free IPad - thanks Twitter hacks.

This does not mean that I couldn't have figured this all out on my own, but the point is that I did not have to.  My PLN did all the legwork for me and in turn I tried to help them out.  

So thanks PLN, every day you make my life a little easier; my students (and husband) are grateful.

Where are all my Test Subjects or The Geek is Revealed?

Two weeks ago, I was a regular educator, searching for inspiration and feeling very alone.  Then Twitter happened (see my hallelujah moment in this post) and I have now known what a PLN is for 13 days.  So here I sit, filled to the brim with exciting new ideas to try, technology that will entice and inspire my students, lesson plans written and ready to go and yet there is a problem; school is out and I have no students.   I try to run ideas by my husband and yet the experience just isn't the same.  He thinks it sounds great and that yes he would enjoy that lesson.  So I feel like I am at standstill, or felt anyway until I read a post written by @thenerdyteacher on his inspiring blog.  Entitled, "So, Now What?" it really made me think.

I did not get to go to ISTE this year, mainly because 2 weeks ago I had never heard of it and yet I have had a very similar transformation as I imagine many of the conference goers had.  Through Twitter, blogs etc. I have been re-energized, re-focused, and renewed with so many ideas I have had to write them down to remember them all.  So as the @thenerdyteacher said, well now what?

I have a special predicament that I am a 4th grade teacher, however, I may be teaching a split grade next year but won't know until August.  I therefore can only prepare and plan so much for the next year without possibly planning for lessons that will never happen.  What I can do though is create connections.  By reaching out and engaging in dialogue with other educators across the globe, I am staying energized and staying focused.  I am seeing ideas and bookmarking them for possible future use.  I am doing grad classes all about technology.  I am searching for other classrooms to connect with next year - are you interested?

Some teachers think I am crazy for not quite going on vacation but in all honesty this is my ideal time off.  I am finally getting the time to think, something there seems to be so little time for when the students arrive for the year.  I get to create and imagine what learning will happen next year and I get to reinvent myself. 

Next year, I will not be the 3rd year teacher following in the footsteps of her very capable team members.  I am repackaging myself as the techy geek teacher I truly am, finally wrestling out of the old lesson plans and trying something new.  I may fail but so what, I may also succeed and inspire others just like my PLN does every day.  So I may not have all of the answers to "So, Now What?" but at least I have a direction.  And for that I am thankful.

What my PLN has done for me

I have always considered myself a bit of a techy geek, a badge I wear with pride; I may not look it, but I love technology and computers.  My school has a couple of people like me and we meet in secret; sharing sites and ideas for how we can make our classrooms more technology friendly.  And yet, Twitter escaped me.  Sure, I had an account, but no desire to follow celebrities or wannabe celebrities in their daily doings.  So last Friday, I was following 15 people on Twitter, had 4 followers myself which included my husband and two of my brothers (who the 4th one was I have no idea) and I had used Twitter as a status update tool.

Last Friday, my world moved a little bit:  One tweet came across my computer that mentioned PLN, not knowing what this meant I clicked on the link to the article and was brought to @shellterell's twitter account.  I scanned her tweets and clicked to follow her; the rest they say is history.  In 9 days, this is what learning about a PLN has done for me:

• I now follow more than 100 educators, bloggers, techies from all around the world and daily add more valuable people .
• These fantastic people have invited me to join in the The Educator's PLN where I have established contact with even more educators and resources.
• I have started my own blog, not just doing a classroom blog anymore, and through that have been challenged to think about my teaching and which direction I want to go.
• Strangers have complimented me on things I post and encouraged me to keep blogging.
• I have been introduced to phenomenal free tools such as Voki, WallWisher, Wordia, Glogster, Prezi, and Mouse Mischief
• I have set up a student blog via KidBlog for next year and have designed lessons for the students to blog about.  No one does this at my school.
• I have discovered blogs to follow who do the research, try out new technology, come up with incredible lesson plans for me amongst many other things.
• I have changed my Master's Degree to Technology Instruction - no joke.
• I have forwarded blogs and articles on to my principal, PTO, Professional Development Coordinator for our district, and fellow teachers hoping to inspire them as much as I have been.
• I have made tentative plans to go to my first technology conference, ISTE 2011.
• I have out-geeked my husband for the first in our 10 years together.
• Most importantly though; I have become energized about teaching!  I am not alone and nor should I be.  Reach out and there are people who will learn with you, teach with you, and go with you on your journey.  I can't wait to start the school year and create PLN's for my students.

In the last 9 days, I have discovered that there is a whole world out there waiting to join me on this crazy teaching ride and they all have the time to talk.  I cannot hide behind the excuse of not having time to collaborate anymore now that I can do it in a matter of 10 minutes of skimming the tweets from my PLN.  
All I can say is; this is what 9 days with a PLN did for one teacher in a district, imagine a year with 10 teachers or 100 teachers.  Where will it take us all?