No Worksheet Week

I teach English to ninth and tenth graders all day, in a time of insane standardized testing. Seriously, my sophomores take a high stakes test, or a predictive test for a standardized test, every month of the school year from October through May. They equate learning with stapled papers and bubbles to fill in with number 2 pencils. Between the testing and the worksheets and packets I see them completing for other classes, I’m surprised they have any interest in school at all. Not to say I don’t give the occasional worksheet, but I want to do everything in my power to make school a positive, fun, and productive place. I want my students to do, to create; if they don’t create things now, they won’t be likely to create things as adults.  Needless to say, I was completely on board when I heard of the #noworksheetweek challenge on Twitter.

Comic Summary of The Invocation

Immediately, I thought, “this won’t be hard; I rarely give worksheets anyway!” I participated in my state’s Twitter chat (#inelearn) the week beforehand and even gathered some new ideas. Then, I found out I would have to miss at least half the day on Monday of #noworksheetweek, and my first thought was, “I’ll leave some handouts for the sub...oh snap! #noworksheetweek!” This is the real struggle.  It IS pretty easy for me to teach without worksheets, so why is my response different when I won’t be there?!  Sure, some students try to push the boundaries a little with a substitute teacher, but I have good students.  We’ve built relationships. I have them do and create all the time! Why would I leave them anything less when I have to miss a day? They deserve better!

Working on the Iron Chef Activity

Just a little more thought helped me plan out a creation activity for my absence.  My sophomores were easy--We spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday writing and peer editing argumentative essays.  Thursday and Friday were rounded out with watching a film to prepare for a Socratic seminar the next week.  My freshmen were a little tougher.  We were just beginning to read the Odyssey and write a research paper. On Monday, they read, created a comic summary of one of the scenes, and searched for evidence of strengths/weaknesses of Odysseus’s leadership for a graphic organizer we will continue throughout our reading. Tuesday found us discussing the reading and practicing paraphrasing and summarizing different sections of a news article. Wednesday we generated research questions as a group, collected articles, and formed a tentative Works Cited page. Thursday brought an Iron Chef assessment of the Cyclops section of the Odyssey, and on Friday we read and marked up our research articles and planned our own epithets based on our personal traits, modeled after The Odyssey.

The whole week, I did not use a single worksheet, but I wonder how often I do it without being intentional? I wonder how much more I can do it if I AM intentional about planning no worksheets? As I asked my students to reflect, their response was all the same. They liked #noworksheetweek, but they didn’t feel anything unusual was going on in my room. Instead, they urged me to keep fighting for them.  They are creative, capable, intelligent beings who can Do and Create if we allow them to do it! They asked me to spread the word, to show other teachers what is possible if we do away with the worksheets.

What could your students do if they weren’t doing worksheets? What are some of your favorite non-worksheet activities or non-test assessments? Please share in the comments below!

Reflection on the Indiana GAFE Summit 2015

I’m not quite caught up for this busy week because I spent last weekend working and learning at the GAFE Summit in Franklin, Indiana. I love all things Google, and my first summit didn’t disappoint!

The event organizers did a wonderful job, and Franklin Community High School was an amazing place with friendly hosts. Even though more than 500 educators attended the conference, most with 2+ devices, our wireless connections were wonderfully fast and reliable. The building is equipped with amazing furniture which allowed for easy movement and plenty of comfort; the school even has charging areas with student-designed furniture! In addition to the expected adults in charge, Franklin had a team of students who gave up the weekend to serve as guides and resources for the event. Students even attended sessions to learn more about Google, and having a student join in a session about the new Hoosier Student Digital Leaders program sponsored by the Indiana Department of Education was an amazing opportunity. The young man was a perfect ambassador for the program, interested, attentive, eager to learn, and ready to add his voice to the conversation.  I can’t wait to get a student technology team in place at our school to offer our own students such opportunities for leadership!

The keynote speakers were dynamic and inspiring, as expected! Google Evangelist Jaime Casap stressed the importance of creating and collaborating--not “group work,” but true collaboration where students contribute equally to solve a problem. To stay relevant, Google is always trying to improve and building on its success, and we need to ask the same of our students. If they have mastered something yet, its our job as educators to offer them more opportunities to improve, show growth, and reach mastery.  If mastery is achieved, we need to push our students beyond that boundary and get them innovating. In that same vein, Jaime, touched on digital citizenship by explaining that digital citizenship is the minimum requirement in today’s world and the future. To keep improving, we need to teach our students to be digital leaders! Finally, he reminded us that we’re educating students for a future that doesn’t yet exist. By recalling his own journey with technology in education, he showed that the tech we are so fanatical about today will be our own children’s or student’s Commodore 64. They are using the worst technology right now that they will encounter.

I learned some new tips and tricks for GAFE, and I even had time to create two new class activities for this week during the training. Michelle Green’s presentation on Amazing Race and Iron Chef inspired activities led me to create one of each for my students, and Adam Seipel’s Google Drawings session helped me create a  beautiful, digital graphic organizer to help my students prepare for Socratic seminars at the end of our reading. Thanks to the Google Drawings session, I’ve also decided which GAFE feature I will spotlight in my Google Trainer application!

Some of my favorite ideas came from collaborating with the other attendees about the presentations; the presentations simply inspired the conversations we shared! In Matt Miller’s awesome presentation on Google Hangouts, one teacher shared the brilliant idea of using Google Hangouts on Air to broadcast and record morning announcements in the school. I love this idea; a leaky roof several years ago ruined our broadcast room, so a secretary has been reading announcements in the morning. This solution will offer a cost effective solution to engaging students in creating announcements, and an easy way to distribute and archive them for our school!

Most of all, I was impressed by the number of Indiana educators willing and able to give up an entire weekend to develop their Google skills and integrate technology into their classrooms! We are modeling the digital leadership for our profession and our students! I can't wait to try even more tricks I learned, and share them to make learning more relevant and engaging for my students! How will you inspire digital leadership today?

Dear First Year Teacher Self

Dear First Year Teacher Self,

You know those crazy, scary thoughts you had about the time demands of teaching? You know, the ones brought on by seeing the first year teacher race into the teacher’s lounge, down a Snickers and a Coke in 2 minutes flat, and pass out asleep on the couch for the remainder of lunch while you were substitute teaching as a college sophomore? Yes, it really is that intense. Teaching, really teaching, is an exhausting job.  Even when you design student-centered, differentiated, authentic learning experiences.  Especially when you do that.  But it’s all worth it; just make better food choices.  When the student’s wish they could spend all day in your class, when you see a student who has been told he’s a failure succeed, and when the bell rings and the students say, “I can’t believe class is over already!” you know your fatigue is paying off!

Remember how terrified you were that you might mess up or not know the answer? It’s really going to be ok. You won’t always know the answer, and sometimes your perfectly planned lessons won’t work. Use that to your advantage. Teach students it’s ok to make mistakes, that we shouldn’t avoid them, that we won’t learn if we don’t make them. Admit mistakes, revel in them, announce them to students because you won’t make too many. That student who never speaks up in class? He’s been ridiculed for mistakes.  He needs to trust you to model a First Attempt At Learning so he’ll share his brilliance. The girl who cries when she *only* earns 95%? She needs to reclaim her childhood, and you can help!

Never forget your main purpose. Keep student engagement and learning as your compass, and you will never go wrong. Administrators, politicians, standards, tests...they will come and go. Your students will only get one school experience. If they are learning, if you make it fun, interesting, and relevant to their lives, they will have positive views on learning and school long after graduation. They deserve to be the center of everyone with a stake in education’s universe; and if others won’t put them there it’s your job to fight for them.

Take care of yourself, and connect with as many educators as possible who know these ideas are true!

Sincerely,

Your more experienced, but still student-centered, Self

Social Media and the Power of Positivity to #celebrateMonday

Yesterday was our first day back to school after a week long spring break. I was happy to go back, because I truly believe I have the best job in the entire world; but I also knew from eight previous years experience what my students would probably be like on the first Monday back. Many of them would be happy to be back as well, but few would say so. Most would be tired, for they hadn’t gotten up at “school time” all week. Most would have waves of energy that come from seeing their friends they might not have seen for a week. And in the last couple of years, they have to see if everything they heard about on social media was true and lasting.

I had planned accordingly.  We would learn and get something accomplished, but the day wasn’t too strenuous.  They would have time to collaborate with their peers. I would use the routine of that darn required vocabulary book (that’s another story) to help them get back into the swing of things. And, since it was Monday and they would all be checking social media today more than ever, we would do a #celebrateMonday.

My students know I value social media when used productively, and I have been incorporating it into my classroom regularly since we have the advantage of 1:1 Chromebooks this year. One of the positive uses I’ve been promoting is the idea to reshape our thinking about Mondays. In their book School Culture Rewired, Steve Gruenert and Todd Whitaker promote the idea, explaining that our culture places more value on the weekend. The only way to change the overall feeling about Mondays and make students (and educators) want to be at school is to change our mindset to look forward to Mondays and the fresh opportunities they offer.

I have been tweeting #celebrateMonday reasons for a few months now, and a few weeks ago I thought, “This would be a great idea for my students!” I made the assignment voluntary, so the first few times not many students did it.  It might not be “cool” to tweet about this. Mrs. Manahan is a crazy lady anyway. Why should we #celebrateMonday? Steadily, the number of students tweeting reasons has been increasing! But I was not prepared for the response I got yesterday!

As I explained it was another Monday and reason to celebrate, and would you please consider tweeting your reason with the hashtag, my students got excited! They were so excited, they asked me to take pictures-selfies with all of us! The results were amazing, and first period the day after spring break turned into an amazing, energized, happy place to be!

The excitement was contagious too! More than one-third of all of my students tweeted a reason to #celebrateMonday yesterday. Slowly but surely, my positive attitude and discussion is working...How else can we impact school and classroom culture with a deliberate, gradual, and relentless message? What other positive changes can we bring if we try? Oh, the possibilities!

Creating Experiences in the ELA Classroom

Inspired by this Tweet from Mrs. Toflinski and Teach Like A Pirate, I want to talk about creating experiences in the ELA classroom this week. I’ve been focusing much more on experiences this year as I try to reclaim my true teaching personality.

Sophomores had way too much fun with #TheThingsTheyCarried discovery stations & obstacle course! #engchat #elachat pic.twitter.com/NzIrnqfR39

— Mrs. Toflinski (@MrsToflinski) March 27, 2015

You see, I taught French (and sometimes English) for my first 6 years in education, and I ALWAYS included experiences as part of my French lessons.  It’s what foreign language teachers do by nature; introducing students to the cultures of the language is about equal to teaching the language itself. How else are we going to do that in the Midwest, other than creating classroom experiences?

My ELA lessons were never as fun; I felt I “had” to do things a certain way.  I was the new kid in the department when I started teaching English as well in my fourth year, and I was given lessons and told how to do things.  When I switched schools and started teaching English exclusively, I felt more of the same pressure.

In English class, I’m guilty of neglecting the experience more often than I’d like to admit.  With all the standards to cover and standardized testing hoops, it’s all too easy to get caught in a whirlwind of boring lessons.  I consciously fight against this battle, for I truly do want to create experiences my students will remember long after any story/poem/novel/literary concept we’ve covered.

So I turn to you, my #slowchatela friends, for inspiration and a challenge.  How are you creating experiences? What more can you do to create those lessons you could sell tickets for? Think about specific pieces of literature or concepts you study.

Q1 3/30: How do/can you use/transform the classroom environment to create the experience?

Q2 3/31: How do/can you use food to create a classroom experience?

Q3 4/01: Which guest speakers/experts can help create an experience for your students?

Q4 4/02: How can you incorporate family/parent contact with the experience?

Q5 4/03: Can technology help to create an experience?

Dear Principals: Do you miss the students?

Dear Principals,

Do you miss teaching, the classroom, and the student connections that happen there?

Eighteen months ago, I began working through Indiana Wesleyan University’s Principal Licensure Program.  I have been fortunate that my mentor and my school district offered me numerous and varied leadership and professional development opportunities to help me grow as an educator.  I have attended workshops and conferences, designed and implemented our high school’s Response to Intervention program, and offered professional development opportunities for my colleagues, not to mention keeping up on my coursework, taking care of my family, and attending to my primary job of providing high quality instruction for 150+ high school freshmen and sophomores.  While it has been stressful, I am sure it is preparing me well for the demands an administrative position will place on my time and energy.

I chose to begin this journey because I am completely committed to education and my fellow educators.  Teachers need leaders they can count on and trust, and support and affirmation go a long way to creating an environment where teachers trust and are empowered to be their best..  Students, too, deserve the best educational leaders possible; after all, they are why we do what we do!  A principal who keeps the students at the center of decision making is essential!

When I finished my course work and my new license came in the mail, I  (of course) posted to my social media accounts that I was now official.  I keep all my personal postings to my Facebook account, and I was completely unprepared for the outpouring of support and congratulations I received!  My friends list is largely populated by former students, and so many of them took the time to thank me for something specific or mention a specific incident they thought made me a good principal candidate. My nine years of connections with students were evident, and so many memories made me reflect on those connections and the impact I had on my students’ lives. As a French teacher for the fist six of those nine years, I was fortunate to have the same students returning to me for three or even four years to continue building positive relationships.

I remember the time a fourth year student revealed her pregnancy, and then cried because she wanted to tell me before her parents. I recall the times I held dance parties in fourth year classes as students got accepted to colleges.  I bravely organized a trip to France for my second year teaching where one student traveled with her mother and grandmother; when her grandmother passed away a few years later, this student reached out to me to mention that she reminisced about our trip with her grandmother in her last few hours.  I’ve attended not just graduations and parties, but weddings and baby showers too. My classroom is full of pictures of crazy classroom activities, field trips, and senior pictures.

This is what I know I’m going to miss most about the classroom. How does a principal form these bonds and make these memories? I’ve worked for several principals in the last nine years, and only one of them was able to build relationships anywhere close to those that can  be formed in the classroom.  He mainly stayed connected through organizing and hosting “pizza with the principal” twice each month, which involved drawing a name from each grade level, asking those students to invite three friends each, then having an hour long pizza lunch where he talked with them.  He attended every school field trip or event; he even bravely parked himself in the middle of the throng of students at every school dance and sang along to each song as he chaperoned.  Students trusted him, respected him, and shared with him!  

Obviously, the connection does not have to be cut when leaving the classroom for the principal’s office.  In fact, principals are also in a unique position to form multi-year bonds with students! However, I know it will take hard work and extra effort when the time comes for me to make this transition. I am up for the challenge, for I do not want to stop making those memories.

I’d love to hear some more ideas to help stay connected and build relationships with students from some experienced principals!  Please share!

Combating Teacher Zombies

I read a great post by fellow educator Ron Dorland last week, Twitter: The Heartbeat of Education. Any educator I know who has braved social media and connected on Twitter would agree.  Twitter is an amazing tool for getting enthusiastic, generous teacher to share ideas and try new things.  I overlooked Twitter for far too long; I told myself I didn’t have time for one more thing.  Now, a year after I really started engaging on Twitter and building my personalized learning network (or PLN), I tell every teacher I know that I don’t have time NOT to be on Twitter.  Twitter is THE venue for the most passionate, student-centered, risk-taking educators to share, learn, and grow.  

Ron’s post made me reflect on all the ideas and energy I gain daily through my PLN, but it also made me ask why I don’t always feel this same passion and energy from my colleagues. Sure, some days are better than others; some days we share more, engage each other and our students more. But some days we enter the building like tired teacher zombies, heads down and shuffling along. What can I do, as a teacher-leader and future administrator, to help combat this beaten down, defeated attitude?

First, all educators need to realize that we mainly share our success stories through any social media like Twitter. We usually share our most engaging activities and lessons, brag a little about our best student questions, and offer those failed moments only when we have fully learned from them. In a single building, teachers see each other day in and day out, through the good moments and the ugly. It is all too easy to slip into zombie-mode! We need to be committed to broadcasting our successes to each other-in person-the way we do on social media. If we don’t celebrate the good times, no one will know beyond our walls.

Also, we connected educators need to encourage and support the rest of our colleagues to become more connected.  We must spread the word of the power of social media to form connections, transform our teaching, and increase our passion for education. Take a few minutes to show someone how to get started with Twitter, suggest a few hashtags to follow, maybe even pull up your Tweetdeck to show a colleague all the fabulous ideas coming to you in that moment! Not only will you help spread your own enthusiasm, but you might ignite that enthusiasm in a fellow teacher and help prevent that aforementioned zombie shuffle!

I am doing my part to engage my fellow teachers. I recently introduced several teachers to Twitter at an after school Tech Tuesday, including how to use Tweetdeck to manage the barrage of information headed their way now that they have been brave enough to connect themselves. I am also planning a voluntary book study of Dave Burgess’s Teach Like a PIRATE ( the “P” and “E” in PIRATE stand for passion and enthusiasm; just the thing to combat teacher zombies) in the coming weeks, where participants will engage in 15 minute Twitter Spark chats as one means of discussion. Hopefully, I can encourage them to share the wonderful ideas I know they are going to have beyond our study group and tweet them out to engage with other educators around the world.

Finally, if social media can ignite passion in teachers, imagine what it can do for our students!  Stay tuned for more thoughts about social media in the classroom soon!