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

     Ahhhh!!!!  School started and then I promptly fell off of the blogging wagon!  I think that it doesn’t matter if I follow the challenge to the letter.  The important thing is that I reflect and think critically about my teaching!  That being said…let’s work on catching up!

Day 3: Discuss one “observation” area that you would like to improve on for your teacher evaluation.
     In New York State, our whole teacher evaluation process is so flawed.  I wish it was all about the teaching and what really happens inside the classroom.  This is why the topic of improving my observations is especially meaningful to me.
     I want to be better at questioning my students.   I want to not only ask better questions but I want to require more of my students to answer them.  I have this thing where I feel bad asking students questions who are shy or who I don’t think will know the answer.  So I don’t call on those students.  Which is not good.  Soooo, I am working on questioning this year. 
     I downloaded iLeap Pick a Student and I plan to use that randomly call on students.  I think that even the shy students might feel better knowing that it’s “chance” that I am calling on them rather than intentional.  Also, after rereading this I’m realizing that I need to toughen up.  My job is to make my students think and be accountable.  They will be better off and learn more-----which is the point, right?

Day 4: Respond: What do you love the most about teaching?
     The students.  Hands down.  They are the best part about teaching.  They make me laugh and inspire me and keep me young.  My brain works overtime to find ways to keep them interested and make sure that they have everything that they need to be successful.  Yup, it’s all about the students!

Day 5: Post a picture of your classroom, and describe what you see–and what you don’t see that you’d like to.
     When I was in the throws of flipped mastery in the spring I really wanted to change my classroom set-up.  When everyone was working at their own pace I thought about how cool it would be to have bean bag chairs around the room for students to curl up and work.  When my students were working together on projects, I wished that I had tables in my classroom or at least desks that could be grouped together easier.  I had to move away from flipped mastery this fall. I’ll probably be talking more about this in a future post.  As a result, I’m not so big on the bean bag chairs right now.  Tables still sound pretty cool…
     Otherwise, I love my classroom.  I think it’s the prettiest high school classroom ever!  It’s very me.  It’s busy and colorful and there are presidents that are there to help me teach.  I plan to add more presidents in the future.

Day 6: Explain: What does a good mentor “do”?
     It is now a requirement in NYS that new teachers have a mentor for several years.  When I started teaching, my district did not have a mentor requirement.  As a result, I’ve never had a real mentor.  I’ve had people that I have bounced ideas off of or asked for advice but I’ve never had anyone that I felt I could go to 24/7.
     So, if I could have had a mentor---what would I have expected from them?  I think that I learn best from observation.  I wish that I could have been partnered with someone who I could have observed teaching.  To actually see how a master teacher works and then get to sit down and have a discussion about that teaching----how amazing is that?

Day 7: Who was or is your most inspirational colleague, and why?
     This one is a hard one!  I have had a lot of teachers who I really respect and who have inspired me to try new things.  I can think of 2 teachers in my department who I often think “I want to be more like them”.  One of them has been teaching 5 years longer than me.  He still has the “joy”.  He is energetic----seriously energetic.  We often joke that he should not be allowed to drink coffee.  His love of teaching shines through every day to his students who love him right back.  He is joyful AND he is a great teacher who likes to try new things but has the fundamentals down pat.  He’s actually achieved a 100% pass rate for his students on the Regents exam.  Twice.  I may actually hate him a little bit. ;)
     The other teacher that comes to mind is someone who has been teaching a few years less than me.  She’s so good that when our principal wants to target a group of students to get better results, she is chosen to teach them.  This means that she’s been required to teach a bunch of different things and some of them are not necessarily her favorite classes.  That doesn’t seem to matter though.  She works her butt off to make her class interesting, even when the topic is not one that she is passionate about.  She is so creative in designing lessons!  Not only are these lessons fun but they’re functional too.  The students are learning.  Also, she’s great with parental contact.  I need to take a page out of her book for that one.
      I feel honored to work with these two very inspiring teachers.

Day 8: What’s in your desk drawer, and what can you infer from those contents?
      Can you believe that our desks don’t have drawers?  They’re basically just tables with computers on them.  I have a filing cabinet that has old files in it.  I’m not a paper kind of person---I’m all about the technology.  I have closets in my classroom that are full of all kinds of things: posters to rotate onto my walls, past examples of students’ work, arts and crafts supplies, cleaning supplies, and tons of dry erase markers.  What does this say about me?  I think it mostly says I’m a packrat! 

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?

     Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of my flipped life.  I started my spring semester Psychology classes at the beginning of February.  This was probably the worst month to try to get students into any kind of regular routine.  We had two snow days and two 2-hour delays and a four day weekend.  Also, I missed a day visiting flipped mastery in action with Tom Driscoll and a half day assisting with special education annual reviews.  Oh, and I almost forgot, I was “kicked out” of my classroom at one point because a new SMART Board was being installed.  I’m really happy that I’ve got this great technology but it’s still not hooked up yet and thus I haven’t been able to make use of it.  As you can tell, continuity was difficult to come by this month.
     My introductory chapter lasted a lot longer than usual because this time, it included an introduction to flipped mastery and the technology that we were going to be using this semester.  I created a “choose your own adventure” type assignment to introduce the students to the basics of Schoology (our LMS), Weebly (our blogging platform), and other resources they might find useful throughout the semester such as Cel.ly. 
     The students spent a lot of time customizing their Weebly sites (you can see them here) which I knew was going to happen.  It’s actually why I chose Weebly because it is easy to customize and has a ton of options for layouts.  I like pretty things!

     Some students also spent a lot of time trying adjusting to the fact that they had choice as to what to do in class every day.  Some would ask me “what do I do now?” and we would look at their Unit Objective sheet and talk about what they had completed and what might be the best thing to work on next based on the amount of time they had left in the class period.  It was pretty obvious that many of my students don’t have much of an idea about time management or prioritization.  I think that this concept alone will be a valuable one for them to learn throughout the semester.

     Other students breezed through the unit.  Those students were the happiest.  They expressed that they really loved the format of the class and that they finally felt that their time in class was well spent as opposed to being wasted with waiting on other people to finish writing when taking notes or dealing with classroom disruptions.  They are the students that feel comfortable with technology and are able to self-monitor their progress.
     I have been constantly asking the students for feedback throughout the month.  Prior to going to see Mr. Driscoll’s classes, I asked the students what they wanted me to ask his students.  The big fear that my students expressed was that flipped mastery would take away their opportunity to have class discussions or to ask for help when they needed it.  Their biggest fear was that our class would become impersonal. 
     I was sure to talk to Mr. Driscoll and his students about how they were able to keep student/teacher connections.  Mr. Driscoll’s format includes a ten minute discussion time at the start of each class period.  He might give the students a quote, political cartoon, or have them watch a video clip.  The students then reflect on their Daily Learning Journal handout (see below) and then engage in a class discussion.  I like this idea a lot and have been implementing it in my classes as well.

     Also, instead of having the students watch a documentary on the brain independently, we watched it together as a class.  That helped the students who were feeling disconnected too.  I created a “parking lot” on one of my free whiteboards where students could write questions and comments anonymously on post-it notes.  The students are just starting to post things here and I imagine it will be used more as the class progresses.
     I was feeling pretty good about everything until the last day of the month.  One of my students came up to me at the end of the class period to tell me that he was dropping the course.  He is an all-around nice kid, smart, hardworking, thoughtful, the whole nine yards.  I was devastated!  No one has ever dropped my class before; not like this.  He literally said “it’s not you, it’s me”!  He said that the format of the class was just too impersonal and that he thought that there was going to be more discussion.  I told him that we are really just getting started and that there is tons of discussion to come!  I told him that we will be having all kinds of activities that we wouldn’t have had time for using a traditional teaching model.  I asked him to hang with it for another week and see if I could change his mind.  He said that he needs to drop now, before the end of the 5-Week progress reports. 
     I truly thought for a minute that I should completely throw out this whole experiment and go back to my regular way of teaching.  Then I remembered that I have a wide PLN who has experience I can use to get me though my crisis of flipping faith.  I posted on Schoology that I needed them to talk me off of the ledge and they did just that!   I also made a point to talk to my students who I have for both Psychology and US History.  Those students know me well and have no compunction about being brutally honest.  They reassured me that the class is going well and that they truly enjoy it.  When I said I was thinking about doing a unit of US History as a flipped mastery experiment, they were excited.  They said what many teachers have said when talking about implementing a flipped classroom---it’s all in how you sell it to the students.
     I’m thankful that I have a great PLN, wonderful students, and this blog to reflect on my teaching practices.  I think that reflection might be THE most important component to improving as a teacher.  Thank you for being a part of my reflection process and for making me the best teacher possible for my students!

     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!

     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.