Back To Teaching for Me

I made a big decision recently about my professional life. I decided to leave my current job and return to teaching. It wasn't an easy decision. It meant earning a lot less money, leaving a great group of people and leaving a few projects of which I was very fond. But nonetheless, in the end, it was really the teacher in me who made the final decision:
I miss teaching kids.

So, now I've finally started sharing the news and its beginning to feel not only real, but pretty scary. After all, a lot has changed since I've been in the classroom 5 years ago.


I just shared the news on Twitter and FaceBook and already the responses I'm receiving remind me that I'm never really alone. Already I have friends offering assistance and opportunities for collaboration. The last time I was in the classroom, things were very different. My PLN was confined to the walls of my building, the fibers in my phone or the community where I taught. I'm so looking forward to teaching now on a whole new level.

Twitter in Schools; What Does it REALLY Look Like?

Twitter is the new black. Everyone is doing it! Well, everyone except, of course, our schools. For most, the issue starts and ends with the firewall departments. Twitter is blocked and therefore no further discussion is necessary. But even if Twitter is blocked, isn't there still value in using it after hours and with those who have a vested interest in school-based updates?

Some school districts and individual schools ARE using Twitter to issue updates to the community. There certainly are many teachers who use Twitter and we've all seen many presentations where the benefits of using Twitter in the classroom are sung with great praise. What's missing is what it all really looks like.

• Administrators
  How do you get administrators on board? How do you get your principal or other administrators who may be nervous, to allow you to give it a shot?
  
• Parents
  How do you get parents on board? Do you explain how Twitter works at a Parent Night? Do you create a white-paper or video tutorial? Face it, if it looks too difficult then we've already lost most of them. Signing up for Twitter and entering your cellphone number is a pretty scary thing for many. How do you ease people's fears about this (in the few minutes you have to address it)?
• Content
  How do you determine what you will tweet? Obviously, a school district and school will have many more generic tweets, but what about individual classes? Do you tweet about upcoming quizzes, projects, and lunch menu changes? What about Author of the Week or other happenings that might involve individual students?
• Privacy
  Do you protect your updates? If you do, how do you determine who you let follow you and if you've gone to that much trouble, how do you determine who those folks really are?
• Conversations? or Announcements?
  Do you follow back? If so, why?

What does it all really look like?

Whenever I venture into new territory, the first thing I do is seek out those who are already actively involved. I've created a few collaborative documents to try to compile information on those who are currently using Twitter in our schools. The first is for school districts on Twitter. The inspiration for this was when I learned that the school district next door to us (where it's blocked BTW) was using Twitter to issue updates to the community; but we were/are not. I wanted to find out if there were many other districts trying it out as well. This spreadsheet has since proven helpful to many educators as we all continue to argue for reasonable awareness as it relates to our school districts using Web 2.0 and social networking tools. If you have something to contribute, feel free to edit it here.



The next document is specifically for classroom teachers who use Twitter with their students and/or their parents. Feel free to edit this one as well.


The last is a wiki site I set up in a manner of minutes thanks to a tweet sent out by Liz Kolb (@lkolb) Here, I'm looking for some concrete examples of how teachers are using Twitter with their kids or parents. Please add or glean ideas here as well.

If you're someone who has never considered using Twitter in the classroom, I encourage you to check out a few of the Twitter names on the last spreadsheet and check out their tweets. I've already learned a lot about the different ways teachers can not only keep parents informed but motivate students to stay involved.

Txt Me When My Favorite Blog Updates? OMG!

I've now reached the point where I don't even check my RSS reader anymore because it's too overwhelming. With over 1000 unread items, I've just given up. And yet, I know I'm missing some great blog posts and unfortunately, when you miss the posts, you sometimes miss the great conversations too.

I'm guilty of relying on Twitter to alert me of new blog posts and yet I know I'm missing plenty of great posts. Using Twitter as an RSS aggregator is not the most efficient way to consume blog feeds anyway, in my opinion.

So, I know I need to trim my reader but there are a few blogs that I would really like to read right away when they update and I don't check blogs often enough to join in the conversations in a timely manner.

I was very excited today when I ran across Pingie! Pingie is an RSS to SMS solution and will send you a text message when the blog (whose atom feed you enter) updates with a new post. All you have to do is sign up, add your cellphone number then add the atom feed to the blog(s) you want alerts from. You get a 2 line text message with a weblink to the actual post so, if you're on a smartphone, you can read the post from your phone.

There's even a widget you can add to your own blog to allow others to subscribe on your own blog.

I love this idea because because not only will it help me stay on top of my favorite few, but parents can remain on top of class blogs more easily too. I already subscribed and got my first alert!

Whose Conference is it Anyway?

Reflecting on NECC09 has apparently taken me a little longer than many others. There are so many blogposts out there about NECC09 that there hardly seems anything left to blog about. Although there were many F2F and online conversations regarding this, I've not yet seen a blogpost addressing this issue. That is; the role of companies at educational conferences, particulary NECC.

It used to be very clear what a company's role would be at a conference. They'd be in the exhibit or vendor hall and teachers would walk through to pick up as many goodies as possible. But things are changing. Companies are re-thinking their participatory roles in conferences and therefore our experiences are taking on a new shape:

• Companies in The Vendor Hall
  In my job I deal with vendors almost on a daily basis. I don't find them nearly as annoying as others, apparently, do; maybe because my team at work puts on a great (if I don't mind saying so myself) conference every year and we depend on the sponsors and vendors to finance the entire event. We don' t charge for our conference but knowing what it cost for our small event; I can confidently say, that NECC could not succeed by simply charging what they do for participant registration. The vendor hall is not just a place where vultures are dying to scan you. We can and should use the hall to OUR advantage!
  
  The vendor hall is the perfect place to take a peek at what's new and to talk with the people who make the products we use or would like to use. I'm not sure most teachers are aware, but if (for example) you were to visit the Discovery Education booth, you would have seen (in addition to the sales folks) a few of the people from the back end of Discovery who truly want your feedback. There were product developers, customer support managers and professional development directors. All willing to answer questions and listen to your concerns. Now, this is not to promote Discovery Education. The reason I use them as an example is because of my close ties with them as part of my job and as part of being one of their DEN Stars. I know who these people are and I know their roles. Most people walking by see everyone at the booths "merely" as sales people who will tell you anything to make a sale. Not true.
  
  I believe we should seek out the people at these booths who can make a difference in the products we use, the way we use them and then modify their product accordingly. They are typically there at these conferences and they do listen.
  
  
  
• Companies not in the vendor hall:
  There were a few companies, of which I was a aware, that did not take a booth or sponsorship but instead had a presence at NECC anyway. VoiceThread was one of them: A few months ago, Ben and Steve (co-founders of VoiceThread) were tossing around ideas for how they wanted to participate in NECC; if at all. They were toying with the idea of taking a booth, or instead perhaps sponsoring some teachers to attend. They were kind enough to run some ideas by me (again.... companies DO listen and I was thrilled to be in on the conversation) and I loved the idea of sponsorships. Beth Still started a campaign to bring a conference newbie (Richard Byrne) to NECC and after Twittering, blogging about it and promoting it on other social networks, Beth collected approximately $600 in donations from individuals in her personal learning network. This seemed like the perfect sponsorship to suggest to Ben and Steve and they jumped on it quickly. VoiceThread chipped in the remainder and Richard attended NECC09! Kudos to Beth and online pals!
  
  Ben and Steve attended as well and were there to have conversations with the folks who helped make VoiceThread so popular. They attended some sessions and actively sought out those folks who are passionate about using VoiceThread. Ben also took a few of us out to dinner. Ben was thrilled to meet everyone and the conversation focused mostly on teaching, learning, online safety and the future of our students. No sales pitch, no promos, just good intelligent conversation from all around. This was one of the highlights of my trip because I got to be a part of some great discussions with some of the most widely respected educators without the hubbub of the conference madness. (In photo - top left- from left to right: Steve Muth, Me and Ben Papell / In photo - top right - from left to right: David Cassinelli, Ben Papell, Collette Cassinelli, Wes Fryer, Me, Richard Byrne and Beth Still.)
  
  CommonCraft was there as well.When Lee and Sachi Lefever were "spotted" in the Blogger's Cafe, the tweets started flying. Such superstars they are with the edu-community. They were posing for pics and shaking hands and having real conversations. They also sponsored a meetup at a local bar. I enjoyed chatting with Lee about how they make their videos. Lee explained to me how the most important part of their production comes in writing the script. A good lesson for those of us engaging our students in digital storytelling.
  
  What a great opportunity to learn from the experts! (In photo - above - from left to right: Lee Lefever, Me and Sachi Lefever.) (Photo - right - Lee Lefever)
  
  
• Private Workshops such as Constructivist Celebration:
  I had the pleasure of attending Gary Stager's Constructivist Celebration on Sunday and enjoyed it thoroughly. The cost was minimal (can't remember, but approx. $35.00) and included lunch and a handful of various full versions of software products. Gary had representatives from FableVision, Inspiration, LCSI, and Tech4Learning, SchooKiT and Generation YES in attendance to assist us with our projects. They handed out their software along with some flyers. I thought it was perfect. Who better to assist us with technical or How-To issues than folks from the companies themselves? Everyone seemed ok with it and I didn't hear any griping that there were vendors in attendance. Was that because we were getting so much "free" stuff? Was it because that we were all aware that without their sponsorship, Gary couldn't have pulled off the event without charging us all an arm and a leg? Or was it because it was a truly engaging opportunity to learn something new and simply create as if we were kids ourselves? (Scott Mcleod did a great job of summing up the key speaking points of the day.) Or were people put off by their presence and I was just not aware? (In photo-above-from left to right: Cheryl Woolwine, Me and Peter Reynolds. Photo credit: Gary Stager's Flickr stream.)
  
  So above are some examples of companies who approached the whole NECC-thing from a different model. As more companies find it's not cost effective to spend their money on vendor booths, is this a glimpse of things to come? What are your thoughts about companies attending as "regular people" and mingling and conversing or having a presence at a private workshop? or is it just a stealth move on their part that "shouldn't be allowed?" Should they be required to wear signs that say, "I represent XYZ company?"
  
  Are there benefits to us? Are we able to adequately represent the hundreds of thousands of other educators who aren't in attendance while speaking to these companies with our shopping list of Do's and Don'ts for their products?
  
  What are your feelings about companies at conferences? I'm interested to hear what are your thoughts on all of this. ccdc09
  

Twitter in Real Life

Thanks to a Tweet from Lisa Thumann, I started my day today with some Twitter humor. Enjoy!