This blog post includes my resources for Natomas Charter School's upcoming blended learning summer tech camp. Tweet out to #NCSTC14 Richard Byrne says, “Start a blog” is my first response to anyone that asks, “what should I do to start using technology in my classroom?” There are many things that teachers can do with blogs, but they all fit into two broad purposes; sharing and discussing." http://richardbyrnepresents.com/blogging-in-school/
Richard Byrne's blog post about blogging in school (above) is a great place to start if you're thinking about classroom blogging. Here are some questions we'll try to answer: What is blogging? Why should I blog? Where do I start?
Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape
Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Looking towards the koi pond
I love summer. Sleeping in. Staying up late. Sitting in the back yard with a book all day if you feel like it. Last week at book club, it felt like summer even though I still had four days of school left. We sat outside in the garden sipping pinot grigio and strawberry lemonade under the pine trees in Camino. It was heaven. We laughed and talked about vacation plans and families and sandals. School was already out for my book club friends, and their summer spirit was contagious.
View from my back deck
Today is my first day of summer. I'm in love already. I haven't written a blog post since April and I am so excited to have time to write. In my back yard I can hear the pond and the water fountain, and the aspen leaves if only just a little. Tri tip is smoking on the BBQ and the sunflowers from Green Acres have been planted.
Green Acres sunflowers!
Summer Bucket List
Read. I have so many books in my to-be-read pile!
Write.
Take one vacation to the ocean and disconnect. I did this last year and I loved it.
Connect with people I haven't had time to see during the school year. I have two "playdates" scheduled with admin friends this summer. I'm looking forward to visiting and getting recharged for a new school year.
Kayak. My kayaks currently reside in Truckee and I miss them!
Walk or run or both. I need to get back in the exercise groove!
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA!
It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now...you just might discover your next “must-read” book!
Kellee Moye, of Unleashing Readers, and I decided to give It's Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children's literature - picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit - join us! We love this meme and think you will, too. We encourage everyone who participates to visit at least three of the other kidlit book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them. Read more at: http://www.teachmentortexts.com/#ixzz2zZ5jttiS
Finally!
I love this weekly #IMWAYR challenge, and I have been missing it! Being on Spring break and having time to read has been amazing. I've been feeling really guilty about not reading- my email signature has been stuck on The Tail of Emily Windsnap by Liz Kessler for months! I finally finished it up last weekend, and I know Lizzy, the second grader who recommended it to me, will be happy to hear the news! I've also been feeling guilty about my progress, or lack thereof, towards my Goodreads goal of 109 books this year. I'm still behind, but I have read 9 books so far this break and I'm not finished yet! Yes, I am on my way. Thanks, Goodreads!
Here's what I've been reading over my Spring break!
I love my mom and dad. I think they are amazing. My dad just turned 70 this month and he hikes and skis and is involved in his community- he’s on the Truckee airport board, running the local cleanup day, and he’s even Santa to about 300 kids every year. Yep, my dad is Santa.
My mom rocks, too. She loves to travel, so much that she was my roomie at CUE Rockstar Napa, painting during the day and enjoying Napa dining in the evening with me. And last year, the night before the Truckee Rockstar camp, my parents opened their home to 20 complete strangers- conference presenters and attendees for a BBQ, croquet, and conversation.
One of the things I love most about my mom is how thoughtful she is with gifts. At my age, I don’t even expect gifts anymore, but she always seems to select just the right thing: a running watch, the perfect Life Is Good t-shirt, or a yummy bottle of wine for a special occasion.
But one of my favorite gifts ever wasn’t even for me. My mom subscribed to Sierra Heritage magazine for my husband one year for Christmas. My husband is a history buff and this fun and funky magazine published in Auburn always has a great history story, beautiful photography, and ideas for local hikes and vacations. We found an idea for a great trip to Mammoth in this magazine! It also features a column by Warren Miller, one of the oldest names in the world of skiing, who has been producing ski action movies since 1949. This month’s column by Warren Miller has some of the best advice for presenters EVER.
In his column this month “Why Not?” Reflections with Warren Miller, he talks about getting his start.
In the Sun Valley Opera House in November of 1950, thirteen people paid a dollar to see my first feature length ski film, “Deep and Light”. That meant there were 337 empty seats. My income for the evening was 40% of that thirteen dollars, or $4.20. After the show that night, I learned a couple of very important lessons from the theater manager that I have never forgotten: 1) Entertain the people that show up and feel sorry for the people who did not and assume that they had not heard about the showing of the film, and 2) You will work all of your life to be a success overnight. Since I have not worked my entire life yet, this lack of success is apparent as I am still writing My Biography.
Warren’s rule #1 I think is the best presenting advice ever. Last year, the night before my first ever Rockstar, I was terrified. Terrified of the shreds, and even more terrified that no one would attend my session. I wish someone had told me his rule before last summer, even though all of my sessions were well-attended and I was relieved! But in Napa this past February, and even the last Saturday session at #CUE14 in Palm Springs, some of my sessions were small. But I loved them! And I did what he said- and gave the best I had to the awesome people who joined me. I love Warren’s advice, and even if just one person joins me, we will have an amazing time learning together. If no one joins me, you’ll find me heading to a different room to join in on the fun.
I love Warren's advice. Don’t sweat the size of the crowd. Just be awesome!
In early January, our school kicked off our very first Family Blogging month in an effort to get our families excited about our newly created classroom blogs. Teachers and students posted throughout the month, and learned the art of quality commenting. Student bloggers wrote posts at home and emailed them to their teachers via their Gmail accounts and the topics ranged from writing about yoga, Skype, vocabulary words, and even Minecraft. We also had Andra Goodwin , a parent, post on our school blog during that first month about the learning going on in her daughter's first grade class. During the month of January, our school wrote 66 blog posts and 356 comments, with over half by students. Almost three months later, student blogging has taken on a life of its own and the posts keep coming. Something that surprised me, though, was the excitement about blogging that has spread to our families. Last week, two of our first grade parents approached me about the possibility of doing some blogging about autism to coincide with April and Autism Awareness month. We met last week, and they walked into my office with books to share and a plan to share their story and information through a seven blog series on autism! Amazing! I am so excited to have them posting as guest bloggers for our school. Today, I received the first post that is scheduled for April 2nd, World Autism Day. I seriously get chills thinking about the power of writing and sharing and how our little Family Blogging month has turned into a vehicle for sharing thoughts, ideas, and feelings for everyone in our school community. Please join us in raising autism awareness! Our school will be wearing blue on Wednesday April 2nd in celebration of World Autism Day 2014.
A few weeks ago, I got a call from Danny Silva , Professional Learning Coordinator at CUE. He asked me how I was at giving inspirational keynotes. I answered truthfully that I love inspiration, and that I love to write, but that I’d never given one, although I do present quite a bit. It turned out that Dry Creek School District, where I had taught for three years back in the late ‘90’s was just beginning their journey with Google Apps and 44 Chromebook Carts or “COWS” (Chromebooks on Wheels). As a two year user and lover of Chromebooks, I was excited to share about the power of Google and technology. It may sound silly, but Google has changed my life as an educator, leader, and learner. I said yes and began thinking about how to inspire educators new to Google. And then I started packing for CUE in Palm Springs.
Along with a variety of devices, dongles, and my presentation clicker, I also packed my writer’s notebook. Although I am truly a lover of digital tools, my favorite go-to drafting device is one that always works and requires no power or wifi! I’ve shared before that I have one goal any time I participate in professional learning- I want to be inspired. It’s also the primary goal I have for myself when leading learning-- to inspire. I’m always hoping people leave my sessions wanting to learn more or are excited to try something new. With this in mind, I grabbed a front row seat for Lisa Highfill and Robert Miller’s Friday session “YouTube, Maximizing Innovative Digital Pedagogy to Motivate Learning.”
Lisa’s session blew my mind. I laughed and I cried. I was inspired. At the end of her session, I walked straight to my hotel room, grabbed my notebook and a pen, and walked back down to the pool deck. I sat down and started writing. Three hours later, I stopped. My draft keynote was done.
Something Lisa said during her session stuck with me- she said that the hour of time together during her session would be spent not explaining how to make a YouTube playlist (although her website includes awesome directions for how to do this) but rather the pedagogy- the why and how to use YouTube videos to transform your classroom. Her playlist is organized into categories like “to make you think, to make you move, and to inspire you”. I love this video she shared for starting Mondays off with a smile- and it's a Volkswagen commercial!
I’ve been a longtime lover of technology going back to the days of Print Shop Deluxe and the 15 page birthday banner. Things have really changed since then!
I also frequently used YouTube in my classroom, but had really only used videos that were more content driven, like rainforest animals or weather. I’d never thought about using videos to start our week with laughter, or how powerful the pause button could be. Stop the video. Ask a question. Make them think. Make a connection. Have a conversation.
This is the power of technology.
I followed Lisa’s lead and focused my keynote not on step by step directions around how to use Google’s tools, but about the pedagogy, the art of teaching and learning with technology, to educate students, and promote collaboration and engagement with students, families, and the world. How can we give our classrooms a digital makeover using Google’s tools to do something that we could never do with paper? Here are a few digital makeovers you might consider using Google’s tools!
My goal for the day was to inspire-- I was inspired by the amazing energy of the teachers in Dry Creek. It was also incredible to co-keynote with Kevin Brookhouser!
Thank you to the thoughtful teacher who handed me this note after I finished. It made my day!
Of course, if you still want step by step directions for how to use Google’s tools, you can always Google it! Google power!
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