Don't You Mentor Me! Will Teachers Ever Embrace the Role of a Coach?

This year I was asked to mentor a new teacher in our building and although I willingly accepted part of me trembled just a little bit with fear.  See being a mentor implies that you know what you are doing and since I keep changing what it is I am doing, I don't know if I fall into that category.  However, I also knew that I wouldn't be a mentor to a brand new impressionable teacher but rather to someone who actually has a year more teaching experience than I do.  So it wasn't a case of me spilling my infinite wisdom of how to thrive in your first year of teaching, but rather to communicate ideas and offer discussion opportunities to help us both.  So being a mentor has been a reflective practice, mostly because Mark has given me as much food for thought as I hope I have him.  At the same time though I know that I have not fully acted as a mentor because I am afraid to step on toes, not that he would mind, but I just don't feel right.  And I don't think I am alone.

So what is our problem with mentors or coaches in education?  Why do we like the idea of them as long as we are not the ones being mentored?  We tell our students to work together, to learn from others, and yet our defensive hairs stand up on our necks the minute someone mentions a coaching or mentoring opportunity involving us.  I happen to know that I have a lot to learn and yet the reaction even comes from me; what do you mean you are going to teach me something?  I am doing just fine on my own, thank you, take your concern to someone who really needs it.

Perhaps this is our achilles heel as a community; the inability to take advice or have a discussion on how to improve ourselves.  Sure we say we want to get better as teachers, but often that means on our own, not with someone coaching us.  We, of all professions, should be embracing the very nature of the coach or mentor, or whatever you want to call it.  We should celebrate when we actually have the opportunity to learn from others, with others, and yet most of us get defensive instead.  Are we just too competitive to take advice?  Or have we lost our sense of trust when it comes to others wanting to help us?  Do we really think that we are doing our very best teaching every day?  I, for one, do not, just look at yesterday's post, but still why I am not asking people to come in and discuss my teaching?  Why am I not the one out soliciting feedback from my local colleagues?  Why do I hide behind my classroom walls as much as anyone?

So how do we build the trust?  Where do we start as a mentor or as a coach or whatever other title may be bestowed upon us?  Can teachers ever learn to trust each other enough to know that we are are here to be be the best teachers we possibly can be?  I just don't know but I hope someone else does.

For a wonderful perspective on lessons learned from being a coach, please read John T. Spencer's post "10 Things I Learned From Coaching."

So You Want to Do Mystery Skype?

Mystery Skype is one of those ideas I wish I had thought because it just so fun but instead I was lucky enough to hear about it from Caren MacConnell.  The concept is simple:  classrooms Skype call each other and try to guess where the other classroom is located either in the United States or in the world.   There are many great resources out there but for my own sanity I am creating one list for future reference:

Before the call:

1. Sign up - there are many places to sign up and some are even grade level based.  I signed up a couple of places but also tweeted it out; the response was immediate as a lot of people are doing this.  If you would like to sign up:
1. 4th Chat Mystery Skype
2. 6th Chat Mystery Skype
3. Mystery Country/Mystery State
2. Decide on a date and time - don't forget to consider in timezones.
3. Prepare the kids
1. We wanted to know facts about our own state so that we would be ready for any question.  We therefore researched the following questions: climate, region, neighboring states, time zone, capital, famous landmarks, geographical location.  All of this gave the students a better grip of what they might be asked.
2. We also brainstormed questions to possibly ask.  We like the concept of the questions having to have yes or no answers as it makes the game a little harder and has the students work on their questioning skills.  Questions we came up with included whether they were in the United States, whether they were east of the Mississippi, Whether they were West of the Rocky Mountains, If they were in a specific region, whether they border other countries, whether they are landlocked etc. 
3. Give jobs.  I think it is most fun when the kids all have jobs, so this was a list of our jobs:
1. Greeters - Say hello to the class and some cool facts about the class - without giving away the location.
2. Inquirers - these kids ask the questions and are the voice of the classroom.  They can  also be the ones that answer the questions.
3. Answerers - if you have a lot of kids it is nice to have designated question answerers - they should know their state facts pretty well.
4. Think tanks - I had students sit ina group and figure out the clues based on the information they knew.  Our $2 whiteboards came in handy for this.
5. Question keepers - these students typed all of the questions and answers for us to review later.
6. Google mappers - two students were on Google maps studying the terrain and piecing together clues.
7. Atlas mapper - two students used atlases and our pull down map to also piece together clues.
8. Clue keepers - worked closely with answerers and inquirers to help guide them in their questioning.
9. Runner - A student that runs from group to group relaying information.
10. Photographer - takes pictures during the call
11. Videographer - I had two students film the call
12. Clue Markers - These students worked with puzzles of the United States and maps to remove any states that didn't fit into the clues given.
13. Problem solver - this student helped students with any issues they may encounter during the call.
14. Closers - End the call in a nice manner after guesses have been given.

During the Call:
During the call you just have to step back and trust the kids.  My students were incredible, both with their enthusiasm and their knowledge, I think I was more nervous than they were.  I did have to fact check some of their answers so I did stay close by but otherwise it ran pretty smoothly.  We decided which class would go first with their first question and then there were two options:

• Yes answer: They get to ask another question.
• No answer - Other team's turn to ask a question.

Students were allowed to guess whenever they thought they had a great answer (and it was their turn).  In the end, both classes were able to guess each other's location.


Resources:
For our preparation for this, I showed the kids this video on Linda Yollis' blog - it really gave the students a concrete example of what to expect and they got very excited. Also Mr. Avery has a great discussion of jobs he had students do during the call. 
Jerry Blumengarten also has a nice collection of links on one of his many pages that was helpful to me.

Here is a video of our first call with Joan Young's class



We are already excited to try it again!

A Connection is Made

It all started with a question, a small idea really, and one word "Community." Take two sets of children, happy in school, each faced with their own busy lives, full plates, and small victories. What if we turned them loose with a camera, with their own creativity and asked them to show off their community? That is exactly what my friend and inspiration Matt and I did for our classes. What started as just a way to connect two seemingly very different classes morphed into something bigger than just a simple hello via Skype. Instead our students were asked to really think about what sets their community apart from others, and how do you showcase that to others that may have no idea where you are?

What followed after that initial conversation of idea was a lot of hard work and so much enthusiasm. Neither one of us have the luxury to suspend curriculum but had to find a way to fit it in, not just because it was fun, but because it was worthwhile. So I told the kids cautiously, would they get excited as well or would they roll their eyes at yet another harebrained Mrs. Ripp idea? Their excited chatter told me once again this was going to be great.

For 3 weeks the kids worked both in class and outside of class creating their video.  They knew that Matt's students spoke Spanish so they wanted our sometimes shy Spanish speaking students to take a leadership role in each group.  I was also told that i was not needed, after all, they had Google translate if they needed to figure something out and they knew how to shoot the video.  Donations came in for the care package we were sending out their with some real Wisconsin stuff, and then finally; the last shot was filmed, the movie pieced together, the package dropped off.  

So I am excited to present "Our Community" - a video inspired, created, and carefully edited by the students in my classroom for our friends in Mr. Foteah's class.  In the end it wasn't really about the video, it was about the community we shared making it and the community we reached out to.

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?