Becoming a 7th grader again

In my school, I teach technology integration to 6th,7th, and 8th graders. I lovingly call my seventh graders, "the pod students." See in sixth grade the kids are sweet, eager to learn, and down right scared about the middle school experience. Eighth graders are more mellow, some taller than me, and are looked up to as the cool kids of the building. Then there are the seventh graders with their constant mood swings, their intellect, and their stupidity. Follow one and you may see laughing, crying, fighting, and laughing again within an hour. Most of the time they don't know why they make the decisions they do and they lack long-term focus. Of course this is my own observations and has little to do with solid research.

So, you may wonder what is the point of all of this?

I feel like I am leading the life of a seventh grader these day when it comes to my career. There are these incredible lows where nothing seems to be going right and then the incredible highs where everything seems to be falling into place. The highs of last week were great with winning the Best Buy grant and getting all of my proposals accepted for the MICCA conference. I wasn't as happy as I thought I would be when my principal gave me kudos about the grant at the faculty meeting. At one point I was looking onward to another job, but am the happiest when I am teaching in my room. For awhile I decided not to push technology anymore in my school and now I am working on two projects. It seems like utter chaos right now which probably means I am growing up a little bit.

I don't know where this is headed, but my hope is that I will morph into a cool tech leader.

When One Quarter isn't Enough

As the computer teacher in my school I am part of the Creative Arts team. It is a great group of talented teachers who put up with not getting the same respect as the academic teams (I know this to be true since I was once on the other side). Some of my team gets to see their students all year long like Band or Chorus, but I am part of "the rotation." Every quarter I get a new set of students which is great and terrible all at the same time. Lately it has been more terrible than great...

1. There is not enough time! Since my team is on an A day/B day schedule, I only see each class 20 times. For those in the Web 2.0 universe, you understand my dilemma in deciding what projects to do in that short of time.

2. I never know what the students can do. I know students are capable of anything, but what the students come to me is extremely important for me to plan. I realized this last week when I had planned a project for the sixth grade and many had breakdowns. This actually required me to stop the lesson mid-class and move to another activity this group could handle.

3. Think about the beginning of the school year... What do you have to do to prepare students for learning in your classroom? Now take that experience and multiply it by four. As much as I try to streamline this new period every quarter I still have to take time to get the students on the right track. Just as I get them really ready to create...POOF!... they are on to Art class.

So now that I complained, what is the solution? If I plea for semester classes or even an elective full year course, less students will be able to take my class. I see less than 50% percent of the school now and that makes me sad because students get so little access to technology in other classes. I can't really look to the other instructors who teach this course because they follow the curriculum and don't have this same problem. Maybe the solution is simple, maybe I need to realize that can't do it all in 20 days. Maybe I don't need to think smaller, but bigger!

As I was writing this post, I saw my Plurk tab at the top of the screen. For many of us it has been a way to keep the learning going after f2f meetings, conferences, institutes, etc. I tried Edmodo.com with students last quarter, but it didn't catch on. I wonder if there is a way for me to build an online community for students to keep trying new technology even when the quarter ends? Could Ning be my solution? What do you think? What are you doing at your school to encourage the use of technology? I am making a plea to Eduverse for help so I can start building a solution. I can't think of a better group to ask.

Time to take some blame and FOCUS!

Besides spending the weekend on the laptop to Plurk and complete some work, I took advantage of EduCon2.1 streaming their sessions. Being able to see a part of so many sessions reminded of the advances of technology and the hard work of some (Chris Lehmann) to share the knowledge. As with any conference, I head into reflection on my own practices. This is what I have come up with so far:

1. I haven't been the technology advocate in my school that I once was. I know the reasons behind this, but they are just excuses. My first step in the right direction is to attend the school improvement team meetings again.

2. Maybe it is my fault that my principal is not as supportive as I would like. Jason Levy had a great session on the various reasons principals say "no" and what teachers can do to eliminate those reasons. What I realize based what I know about my principal, I shouldn't go share a new idea or project without a well developed plan.

3. Professional development! I am not a bad trainer, but all of my efforts to provide PD at my school this year has not went so well. The staff just isn't interested for a wide variety of reasons that are typical in a public school. I put the blame on administration for not supporting a tech movement in the school, but maybe I haven't been creative enough in my approach. Plans have already begun for PD site where teachers could learn in their own time, but this site gives me a new outlook on the project. David Bill not only has a great PD plan, but a realistic view on teachers adapting technology.

I think that the best part of this conference gave me the chance to focus on the ideas since I was viewing by myself and not part of the crowds. I am looking forward to my new personal, focused movement. 

On a separate step in my tech journey, I got an email from the district's technology training team asking if I would conduct an intro to DE Streaming. I am excited about the opportunity and I am going to focus on a stellar workshop rather than wondering about a future career move.

What's in a name?

Juliet:

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."

Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)

I love Shakespeare because his writing has stood the test of time and there is always a quote that can relate to your life right at this moment. This particular quote has been roaming around my head since Friday since I had a sit down discussion with my principal. I guess I better start from the beginning.

This year our district started a new student system that integrated attendance, student information, and teacher grade books. It has been an interesting process in getting all of the teachers to use it correctly and on a regular basis. After the monthly Principal's meeting, there was a new report with a list of teachers that didn't use weighted averages in their grade book. My principal wanted this corrected right away so she put the IT guy and myself on the job. Of course it was handled in a couple hours, but it brought up the same raw feelings I have had for two years. While I handle a lot of tech issues and conduct in-service trainings, I am not the Tech Liaison for the building. The person that is essentially does nothing, but has the title and extra pay. So after the mini emergency was under control, I decided to finally ask, "Why not me?"

My principal was very gracious by admitting that she did depend on me more, but did give the position to another person. She said it was unfair and promised to correct the situation in the next school year. It made me feel better at the moment, because I had this resentment built up for so long. Now I just feel embarassed.

I got too wrapped up in having the stupid title. In every way that it matters I am the technology leader in the school. There are always email or phone requests and teachers will always stop me in the hallways for tech advise. All of the administrators depend on me to help them with their tech issues. I run the school's website and am the one to coordinate new technology initiatives. Why was this name so important? As many of us witness a title does not make a leader. I think that while I have evolved as a teacher, this moment was a step backwards.