This post is part of Te@ch Thought’s 30 day blogging challenge.  The purpose of this challenge is to focus on reflective teaching. 

I’m still working on catching up with my blog posts---all reflection, all of the time!!!

Day 9: Write about one of your biggest accomplishments in your teaching that no one knows about (or may not care).
      This feels a little like bragging.  Some days, I think that my biggest accomplishment is that I’m still teaching and trying new things and not getting discouraged when everything seems to be going wrong.  The past two years haven’t been great for me and there are definitely days where I think about retirement (which is only a short 19 years away).  Maybe it’s not “bright and shiny” but it is an accomplishment to still be teaching and loving teaching when the going gets tough!
     If I were in more of a bragging mode, I might mention that I got to reach one of my professional goals last school year.  I presented two sessions at the New York State Council of the Social Studies 2014 Conference this March!  It was pretty awesome and I truly felt honored to be chosen among all of the other applicants.

Day 10
·        Share five random facts about yourself.
I’m left-handed, red-headed, love chocolate, am an obsessive viewer of Grey’s Anatomy (guilty pleasure), and wear size 12 shoe (it sucks).
·        Share four things from your bucket list.
It’s all about travel: visit the UK, Italy, France, and all 50 US states.
·        Share three things that you hope for this year, as a “person” or an educator.
Have a life outside of school, get back my teaching “joy”, be the best teacher I can be!
·        Share two things that have made you laugh or cry as an educator.
Cry: having to call CPS.  Laugh: Discussing with a fellow lefty student how one day us lefties will take over the world!
·        Share one thing you wish more people knew about you.
I’ve survived a lot in my life and I think that it makes me a stronger person.

Day 11: What is your favorite part of the school day and why?
     Some days it’s when the bell rings at the end of the school day.  More often than not, my favorite part of the day happens when I know I have the students in the palm of my hand.  You know what I’m talking about?  When they are listening to your every word, asking awesome and insightful questions, are answering questions which illustrate that they’ve actually learned something.  That’s my favorite part of everything!

Day 12: How do you envision your teaching changing over the next five years?
     I hope that I continue to evolve and improve.  I don’t want to be stagnant.  I imagine that I’ll be using a lot of technology and I hope that my students will be too.  I hope that I will always remember that my number one goal is to make sure that my students are learning and being challenged to think critically.

Day 13: Name the top edtech tools that you use on a consistent basis in the classroom, and rank them in terms of their perceived (by you) effectiveness.

• PowerPoint/Projector- I know.  This is so old school and not innovative.  But, it’s the technology that I use the most with my students.  It’s difficult to avoid notes in social studies---especially since I’m not flipping as much as I was last year.  (Must flip!)
  
• Weebly- My website is key to my instruction, particularly when I do projects.  All the students have to do is go to my site and everything is there, in one happy place!  Plus my Psych students are using Weebly for blogging.
  
• Laptop cart- I use this a bunch when my students are working on projects in class.
  

You may ask why I’m not using a ton of apps.  Well, that’s because we are not a 1:1 school and with BYOD not everyone has access to devices with apps.  I really want devices!!!!

This post is my second as part of Te@ch Thought’s 30 day blogging challenge .  The purpose of this challenge is to focus on reflective teaching.  

Day 2: Write about one piece of technology that you would like to try this year, and why. You might also write about what you’re hoping to see out of this edtech integration.

     Yesterday’s post dealt with my goals for this school year.  One of my goals was to increase student engagement and inquiry.  I know of just the right piece of technology that I can use in my classes to meet this goal! 
     At EdCamp Hudson Valley, Melissa Seideman (Not Another History Teacher  and @mseideman) did a session about mobile devices in the classroom.  One of the items she discussed was Infuse Learning.  Infuse Learning is a student response system which is web based so you can use it with computers or smart phones.  
     Teachers can create a variety of assessments such as:

• Draw response
  
• True/false
  
• Multiple Choice
  
• Sort in Order
  
• Open Ended Text
  
• Numeric
  
• Likert Scale (1-5)
  

     The beauty of this is that you can then get real time results that can be shown to the class and the students get real time results which is the best type of feedback!  Best of all, this is a FREE service!  What could be better!
     Some of the ways that I might be using Infuse Learning in my classes are:

• Bell Ringers
  
• Polls
  
• Checks for Understanding
  
• Regents Review
  
• Review Games
  
• Exit Tickets
  

     I can’t wait to try this out with my students!

Question: What’s the biggest buzz in education?  
Answer: Anything that has to do with technology.  

     I am someone who grew up with computers.  I was one of 
those students who used the internet as a source in high 
school and my teacher had no idea how I should cite it in 
my paper (because it was new).  My Master’s is in 
Curriculum Development and Instructional Technology and I 
have NEVER written my lesson plans or student grades on 
paper planbooks or gradebooks.  Technology has been a given for my teaching for my entire career.
     This is not the case for some of the teachers that I work with.  I know of teachers who struggle with our electronic grading system and are mystified by smart phones.  Using Google Drive is not a time saver for them, it’s a chore.  They do not use technology in their teaching because they aren’t intelligent enough or because they don’t care enough about their students.  The reasons these teachers don’t use technology because it is unfamiliar to them and they don’t know where to begin to find something that will be useful for both them and their students.  
     Enter Graphite.  As I mentioned in my August 28th post, I am in the Graphite Accelerator Program.  The specific program I am in is sponsored by NYSCATE which is the New York State affiliate of ISTE.  
     So what is Graphite?  According to their website: “Graphite™ is a free service from nonprofit Common Sense Education designed to help preK-12 educators discover, use, and share the best apps, games, websites, and digital curricula for their students by providing unbiased, rigorous ratings and practical insights from our active community of teachers.”

     What a great service?!? Graphite (a subsidiary of Common Sense Media  and Common Sense Education) employs “professional educators” to review a variety of technology products ranging from websites, apps, and programs.  These educators rate each product in the categories of engagement, pedagogy, and supports.  They discuss the pros and cons as well as how the product works or functions.  The products are categorized and searchable based on content area and skill set such as thinking and reasoning or creativity.  There’s even a “Common Core Explorer” search function.  Then, teachers---like you and me---can also review these products by writing Field Notes.  
     This means that teachers like me who are comfortable with technology can share our knowledge of what works and what doesn’t.  We can also learn about new resources and save some time with new products based on the experiences of other teachers.  Teachers who fall into the category of “don’t know where to start” can actually find a place to start!  Beyond reviews and field notes there are App Flows which are written by teachers as actual lesson plans using educational technology.
     After I finish the Graphite Accelerator Program I am planning on becoming a Graphite Certified Educator.  You can do this too!  As more teachers review products on Graphite, the richer a resource it will become.  You will be helping educators around the world to introduce technology into their instruction that will be meaningful for their students.  Talk about 21st Century Skills!
     I hope that you will check out my Graphite profile and see what I’ve been working on and I hope that you will also consider contributing to Graphite with Field Notes about your own educational technology experiences.  I hope that Graphite will also be a means for you to try some new things in your classroom and to expand your own instructional horizons.  

*One last thought for my New York State friends: participating in a project like Graphite is great for your APPR.  Our district uses the Danielson rubric and contributing and using Graphite could certainly fall under several domains, particularly Domain 4: Professional Development.  Why not get credit for sharing your knowledge?

     I am a good teacher; or at least I think I am using the typical teaching metrics.  I have good pass rates on the Regents exams, my psychology elective is fully subscribed, and I have a good rapport with my students.  But here’s the question: am I doing the best I can for my students?  Am I teaching them to think critically, use reason and logic or am I just teaching them to pass a standardized test? While attending the Library of Congress Summer Teacher Institute  I decided that I need to up my game.
     At the LOC Summer Teacher Institute, we learned a variety of methods to encourage students to think critically.  After each demonstration I thought “Why am I not doing this with my students?”  I learned that although I am teaching them enough to pass tests and to have a general knowledge of the subjects I teach, they are not learning as much as they could (or should).  Basically, it’s all about putting the students’ learning and critical thinking process first above my teaching.  
     You would think that this would be easy for me to swallow and to put in to place but it’s proved to be difficult.  I think that a large part of the problem is me. It’s that whole “sage on the stage” thing.  It’s what I grew up with and was taught to do in college and what I have done for the past 13 years.  I have a difficult time giving up how I have always seen my role in the classroom.
     I am diligently working to remedy this situation.  I have begun gradually flipping my classes in the hopes of filling class time with more meaningful activities.  That really hasn’t been enough of a change and so the first week in February (the start of the new semester) I will be moving to a completely flipped Psychology class using the mastery model.  I am extremely excited and anxious as well.  I hope that my students will be willing to accept a really big change from what they have experienced for the past 11-12 years of schooling.  I hope that I will be able to retire my sage role and become the “guide on the side” that I know my students need.

     I have spent the school year so far reading like a fiend---all kinds of books, blogs, and articles about putting students at the center of learning. I have done a number of mini experiments with my classes which have moved both me and them out of our comfort zone.  I have used sites like ZooBurst to have students create children’s books on abolitionists and apps like Viddy for students to illustrate answers to review questions for Psychology.  I have had students organize themselves based on the documents they were assigned to analyze and had students search out their own supplemental information on the topics we discuss in class.  At every turn I have asked for student feedback and have used that to modify future trials.  Luckily, my students are very willing to provide constructive criticism!
     I will be attending three conferences in the next two months which will also help me in reaching my goal to provide my students with the best learning environment possible.  I will be using my Psychology classes as my model to move to a flipped mastery model for my US History classes for the 2014-2015 school year.  I truly believe that the move to flipped mastery will foster inquiry, creativity, and critical thinking on the part of my students.  I also believe that it will help to put my students on an equal footing in terms of access to technology, extra help, and the biggest item---it will eliminate homework.  
     So, here’s to my year as a teacher.  The teacher my students need me to be.

     A lot of good things have happened for me professionally this year.  Being selected to attend the APA/Clark University Workshop for High School Teachers and the Library of Congress Summer Teacher Institute were certainly high points.  Being allowed to host two Twitter chats (#psychat 9/4 and #sschat on 11/4) are icing on the cake!
     My Twitter PLN (lovingly called my tweeps) already know the value of Twitter for professional development.  Many of my Facebook friends and school colleagues, however, still need some convincing or at the very least a starting point as to how to make the best use of Twitter. 
     One note before we formally get started----I only use Twitter professionally.  I don’t talk about my non-school experiences, politics, friends, food, etc.  I also do not use Twitter with my students although many teachers do.
     Thus, I now present: The Clemens Twitter Guide to Professional Development! *Please imagine a curtain being lifted and roaring applause at this point.
     First: Sign up for Twitter.  You can do this online or via an app on your smart phone or tablet.  Be sure to choose a good user name.  This is important because this is how you will be known in the Twitter Universe.  If you can’t use your real name, use something that is representative of who you are professionally.  Basically, don’t choose a handle such as @sexybeast, people won’t take you seriously.  
     Also, be sure to put something descriptive of you professionally for your profile.  Mine says “I'm a hs social studies teacher (USH & Psych this year), VP of my local teachers union, and follower of all things education especially tech.”  You should add a picture for your profile as well because often times spammers just have the egg as their profile picture. 
     Second: Follow some people.  My best advice is to first follow someone with the handle @cybraryman1.  This is Jerry Blumengarten who is a retired social studies teacher from NYC but basically knows everything there is to know about educational technology.  His website, http://cybraryman.com, is chock full of information on all areas of education for students, parents, and especially teachers.  After you follow Jerry, go to his page of PLN All Stars and follow people from the subject(s) you are interested in.  That will give you a great start.  You might even want to take a look at who some of those people follow and follow even more people!  The way I use Twitter, following more people means I get more information from a diverse set of people.  You can look at who I follow to get some ideas as well.  I have mine followers broken down into lists such as Social Studies Teachers, Psychology Teachers, Teachers who Flip, etc.  
     Third: Take part in a chat.  Chatting is the best way to dive in to Twitter.  You will see how everyone formats their Tweets, meet new people to follow, and most important learn a ton!  I typically end up with 20-30 additional browser tabs open during a chat due to all of the information that is being shared! It’s amazing and a little bit overwhelming when you first get started but it is easy to get the hang of and an invaluable resource.   You can find a calendar of Twitter chats here.
     Let’s take a minute to discuss how to chat most effectively.  Trying to chat on the Twitter website or using the Twitter app will most likely be impossible.  The chats just move too fast and are too difficult to follow that way.  There are two good options for chatting: TweetDeck using a computer (available as a website or as a Chrome App) and HootSuite (available as an Android and iPhone/iPad app).  I prefer using TweetDeck because it updates faster and because I am constantly getting links that I need to open tabs for.  Both work well and are the main ways that people take part in chats.  

     Above is a screenshot of my Tweetdeck.  As you can see, I have several columns going.  Twitter works via hashtags (#) and so my columns are hashtag based.  When participating in a Social Studies Chat (#sschat) I can follow only the discussion taking place in the chat by following my #sschat column.  The chat is still fast paced and I might still miss something, but I will get the majority of what’s going on there.  Most chats have their discussions archived for future use such as the Social Studies Chat Ning which houses the World History and World Geography and U.S. Government and Civics chats as well.  That way, even if you miss something or miss the chat altogether, you can still get all of the information.
     Fourth: Don’t become fixated on missing stuff.  Twitter is worldwide and thus people are tweeting 24/7.  You have a life, you are going to miss stuff----it’s okay!  You can make sure that when you are looking for information that it is easier to find.  Even though a chat normally only takes place once a week, people use the chat hashtag to post information about a topic all of the time.  It’s another way that you can get great professional development.  For example, one of my posts was about the NY Times Learning Network: 14 Ways to Use The Learning Network This School Year http://zite.to/14nNIBr  via @zite #sschat.  Adding #sschat tagged the post so that people following that tag could easily find it.  For a list of popular Twitter hashtags go here.

     There are two great ways to keep up-to-date on Tweets.  You can use your TweetDeck columns to scroll back and see posts you missed when you weren’t online.  This is not my preferred method but if you don’t have a tablet it may be the best option for you.  Since I have an iPad, I use Flipboard which is available for both Android and iPad.  I love Flipboard because it turns your twitter timeline into a magazine!  You can view all of your twitter followers’ tweets as a whole or search just by hashtag or just by a particular person! It’s handy and easy to then either retweet, email to yourself, or open on the internet.
     There are many resources on the internet that are geared towards assisting teachers with getting the most out of Twitter as a professional resource.  I can only say that it is thrilling to meet your tweeps in person after talking to them for months online, it’s exhilarating to have people to discuss ideas with who share your passion, and it’s amazing to see what is available outside of your everyday experiences.     *By the way- taking part in Twitter chats is a great way to fulfill Domain 4d on the Danielson Rubric for  Participating in a professional community and 4e Growing and developing professionally.  I have been keeping track of my participation in chats for our district's required Artifact!

     Every year I have my students complete an exit survey.  I love getting to see what the students liked or felt was useful as well as what students did not enjoy or believed was not worthwhile.  I typically plug in the numbers into excel, take a look, and make changes as needed.  I share my findings with my co-teacher but never anyone else.
     This year, I decided to improve my survey—more questions, more room for free responses, more critical thinking.  I also decided to move away from paper forms which were tedious to tabulate and created a Google Form for students to fill out.  This was a great success!  The students seemed to be more thoughtful in their responses and truly enjoyed filling out the surveys on their electronic devices.
     Additionally, I decided I really needed to share the results.  Who better than my new students and their parents?!?  So, I thought about the best way to present the findings.  Some of the information I will hold back for closer to Regents time since it had to do with review methods.  Some of the info is more for my co-teacher and me to improve the class.  I choose information to present that will help to let students learn about the class and what makes it different from other US History classes in the building. 
     I used Piktochart to create an infographic.  I’m not sure that it’s quite what I wanted it to look like but it gave me a good start at learning a new skill.  I’m actually thinking about integrating a requirement for infographics in future student assignments.  I’ll be sure to give an update as to the reactions of my students and their parents once the school year starts!
     By the way, surveys such as this are great for Danielson 1b: Knoweldge of Students, 4a: Reflecting on Teaching, and 4c: Communicating with Families.

PS-  I tried to embed the infographic here but for some reason I couldn't get it to work!  I did get it to work here if you would like to view it more clearly.

     Practice what you preach.  This is quote that teachers should live by.  If we expect students to develop 21st Century Skills such as curiosity, cooperation, communication, and critical thinking then we should be willing to do the same. 
     It would be wonderful to have a district that provided all that a teacher needs to be successful but in the age of budget cuts and ominous regulations we’d better not hold our breath! This series of posts on creating your own Personal Learning Network by using 21st Century Skills is meant to start you on a path towards filling in some of the gaps.  We can’t continue to expect someone to be there to spoon feed us information to keep us current.  We wouldn't want that for our students, so why do we sink to the lowest common denominator ourselves?
     I hope that you will be able to use your critical thinking skills to decide what type of PLN you need vs. what you want to reach your future goals.  Some ideas you may come across are cutting edge while some might be too good to be true.  Use your PLN to get real life reviews of what works and what doesn’t and ask questions about things that you don’t understand. 
     This is the start of possibly many new and wonderful doors opening to you and your students.  Make the most of it, choose wisely and don’t forget that we can never stop learning!

*I’ve included a few more links to help you on your quest to create a 21st Century PLN.  

     Curiosity and cooperation – obviously these are vital requirements to be a successful student and/or teacher no matter what century you are in.  The 21st Century, however, forces us to be willing to cooperate with people from around the world.  Thankfully, as I discussed in the previous two posts, there is technology available to assist us in meeting those goals.
     Now, we are ready to move on to the next component of 21st Century Learning: communication.   Although you do not have to contribute to your PLN the more you contribute, the more that people will be willing to contribute to you.  It’s always positive to have someone to bounce ideas off of or to discuss the best approach with.  I have found that since I am unfamiliar to so many of the new methodologies being used, I need to ask questions, a lot of questions!  I am much more likely to get people to answer me if I am willing to provide contributions myself.  Here’s how to get some serious skin in the game:

• Twitter- This is by and large the best way to create a diverse PLN and it’s not as hard as you might think! I’ll be writing a post on this topic later on.
  
• Edmodo- I had heard of Edmodo previously but did not have the opportunity to use it until I was selected to be part of the SMART Board turnkey trainers for my district.  The person who facilitated the training used Edmodo as a means for sharing resources with the group.  I became hooked!  I downloaded the app, joined a bunch of groups, and haven’t looked back. What can you do with Edmodo?  According to the website: “Edmodo provides teachers and students a secure place to connect and collaborate, share content and educational applications, and access homework, grades, class discussions and notifications.” Feel free to connect with me by searching for Dawn Clemens.
  
• Wikispaces- Wikispaces has been around for a while but should not be overlooked as a place to collaborate with others.  “A wiki is a space on the Web where you can share work and ideas, pictures and links, videos and media — and anything else you can think of.”  You can find and create many wikis on many different topics.  They are also great to use for class projects.  Just completing a search will offer a wide array of resources (for example Karen Brooks from Ulster BOCES has a wiki with specific resources for technology and the Common Core.   Many groups allow anyone to post within a wiki once you receive posting permission.
  
• Google Sites and Google Drive -  Create your own website using Google Sites to collaborate, plan, and share information.  Google Drive allows you to share and edit files with others via the internet.  
  

     My final post in this series will focus on critical thinking.  I'll also be including a bunch of other links to assist you in creating a PLN that works for you!

A variation of this post can be found in my original article “What is a PLN and Why Do You Need One” found here.

As teachers, we want our students to be career ready for the 21st Century.  What happens when we’re not ready to be in the 21st Century ourselves?

In my previous post, I talked about 21st Century Learning Skills: curiosity, cooperation, communication, and critical thinking (Find out more about 21st Century Learning at http://www.p21.org with a focus on curiosity.  Now we are ready to move on to cooperation.

If you join a PLN you are going to have to think about what your level of contribution will be.  It is fine to be a “lurker”, or someone who watches what happens but does not necessarily take part in discussion or provide ideas.  If you like the idea of sharing anonymously without any expectation from others that you should share in return; here are some great resources for you:

• Pinterest- This is a social bookmarking site where you can organize information you gather from around the web.  
  
• EduClipper- This site is very similar to Pinterest except that it is specific to education.  The idea is that you can create your own digital clipboard.  This site is part of EduTeacher.
  
• Symbaloo for Education- This is another alternative to Pinterest for social bookmarking.  You can create your own boards of bookmarks as well as view what others have created.  An interesting way that Symbaloo is being used by teachers is to provide a means for students to stay on task when using the internet.  For example, have your class visit your Symbaloo board for resources on a specific topic of research rather than worrying about students getting off task or viewing sites that are off topic.  There is an app which can be used for this resource as well. 
  
• Delicious- This is another social bookmarking site but with much more utility than Pinterest and EduClipper in my opinion.  Any site, regardless of whether or not there are images can be saved, described, and categorized.  I have literally hundreds of sites bookmarked for both school and personal topics.  Additionally, you can search within the site to see other people’s bookmarks that they marked available to be shared.  
  
• Learnist- Of the sites mentioned in this post, this is the only one which is currently blocked on my district’s network.  However, there is an app for this resource and I have the ability to submit a request for the site block to be removed.  As stated by the website: “Use Learnist to share what you know and learn new things. Create Learn Boards on topics you understand and add learnings by pointing to videos, blogs, images and documents on the web”.
  
• Livebinders– What are Livebinders?  Think of it as the ultimate way to organize your resources whether you have created them yourself or found them on the internet.  It’s truly a wonderful source for you to utilize to keep yourself organized as well as to get new ideas and resources from others.  Here’s an example for math Common Core: http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=187117  
  

Our next topic is communication where we’ll talk about how you can really get involved with your PLN and really learn a lot!

A variation of this post can be found in my original article “What is a PLN and Why Do You Need One” found here.

Education has always been full of acronyms and buzzwords but the pace at which new requirements, initiatives, and methodologies have been thrown around recently has been at light-speed. We know about No Child Left Behind (NCLB), Race to the Top (RTTT), Response to Intervention (RTI), STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math fields), and Common Core State Standards (CCSS).  But are you familiar with 21st Century Skills, flipped classrooms, BYOD (bring your own device), digital native, gamification, MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), digital storytelling, 1:1 technology, or PBL (Project Based Learning)? Maybe you have heard of some of these ideas but you don’t know exactly what they are or how to apply them to your classroom.  Maybe you would like to be ahead of the curve rather than constantly trying to play catch-up.  If this is the case, you should work to create your own personal PLN or a Professional Learning Network.

You should already have a PLC (Professional Learning Community). These are the people that you can lean on frequently. If you have a PLC why would you need or want a PLN?   A PLN is a wider group of people who you can get a much more extensive set of resources and ideas.  You can find out what your counterparts are doing to help their students in another county, another state, or in another nation.  Your information is only limited by the size of your network.  The question is how does someone acquire such a network? I will teach you to do just that by following the four C’s which are the focus of 21st Century Learning Skills: curiosity, cooperation, communication, and critical thinking. Find out more about 21st Century Learning at http://www.p21.org.

For this post, we’ll stick with Curiosity!

Before you do anything you should think about what it is you are hoping to gain from your network.  Do you want to increase your technology knowledge?  Do you want to find someone to collaborate with?  Do you want to find funding for particular projects?  Are you looking for feedback or do you just want to see what is out there?

To start getting a broad idea of what is trending in education now; here are just a few great places you might want to check out:

• Edudemic- Great articles about the cutting edge of education
  
• Education Week- A print and web-based weekly newspaper which focuses on current news and policy in education (I happen to subscribe to Ed Week and I think it is great!)
  
• Edutopia- Resource for innovation in education
  
• Teacher Cast- Podcast on education with a focus on technology (Great to listen to during your commute or during a spare minute, wonderful range of guests and topics.)
  
• Teach Thought- Website and blog with a focus on technology in the classroom
  

Remember, before you get into the game, you need to know what the game is about.  If you’re not up on the latest jargon then reading up on educational trends is a great place to start.

What are your go to sources for Education information?  Let me know in the commentTune in next time for Cooperation!

A variation of this post can be found in my original article “What is a PLN and Why Do You Need One” found here.