Why Teachers Should Blog

This post in nothing new, but rather is a collection of ideas gathered from many places and a way for me to work out an idea.

I started blogging way back in 2003 when I went to Japan as a way to keep in contact with my friends and family. It evolved into a photo blog, and when I became a teacher, it became what it is today - a blog for me to reflect on teaching and learning.

I am a believer and proponent of blogging. 

I believe teachers should blog for the following reasons (which are all related and some could probably be combined):

1. Blogs are a great platform for reflection. Write about your day, lessons, current issues, or ideas you have and invite others to join the conversation.
2. And speaking of ideas, blogs are a great way to keep track of ideas you have. Sam Sherrat had a great line in his Learning2 talk,"Ideas are like bubbles, if you don't catch them, they float away."
3. Blogging also has the potential to show you your own thinking. As Shelly Blake-Plock explains, in ‘Why Teachers Should Blog’, “… to blog is to teach yourself what you think.”
4. Not only does blogging show you what you are currently thinking, but it keeps a record of it so the changes in thinking can be seen over time. 
5. Blogging helps me organize and articulate thoughts in my head and helps me work through ideas.
6. It helps make connections to other topics.
7. Blogging is a great way to share ideas with others and make connections with other educators. 

Like I said, this is not groundbreaking, but I was doing #5.

You can also take a look at George Couros's ideas on the topic.

Learning About Commenting

All the students in Grade 4 are very excited to have their own blogs and be able to make comments on each others' posts. And since they are beginning a blogging project with three other schools, they will soon get plenty of practice.

The teacher and I collaborated on the best way to introduce comments and starting online discussions. She followed the guidelines Taipei American School uses for their elementary school:

• Make a compliment
• Add new information
• End with a question
• Proofread your comment

For older students, one might use these guidelines via Eduro Learning:

The comment:

• shows insight, depth, and evaluation.
• is connected with the original post and subsequent comments.
• is relevant with links to supporting material.
• shows personal opinion expressed in an appropriate style and is clearly related to the thread or post.
• shows a level of evaluation and considers in some depth the outcomes, impacts or effects of the post or comments.

The lesson went as follows:

• She first spoke with her students about what makes a good comment. (See the comment framework below)
• She let the students make comments on each others' posts.
• The students were then brought together to look at a few comments that were made and worked together to think of how to make the comments better.

We also looked at the comment settings and made sure the settings to make sure students would be emailed whenever they received a comment.

This setting can be found in Dashboard > Settings > Discussion > Email  me whenever > [check] anyone posts a comment

If students do receive an inappropriate comment they should alert a teacher right away.

It is great that students will be able to authentically practice what they are learning with a real audience.

Word Sort With Google Drawings -- Improve Me!

Last week I went into an elementary classroom and observed a solid language arts class. It was a solid program with students learning independently and knowing just what to do and what was expected.

I had been wanting to try using Google Drawings more for a long time, and I could see a few ways I could easily substitute it in.




It went OK. The students were engaged, but they were not speaking as much as I thought they should be speaking.

So now I have a followup lesson where the students will take the words they practiced and use them in sentences.




So, what do you see that I could do to make either one of these better?

If you are interested in either of these Google Drawings templates, let me know.

A Partial Definition

Best friends are the people who make your problems their problems just so you don't have to go through them alone.

— Legofans (@Legofans_pa) November 10, 2015

I saw this Tweet in my feed, and it spoke to me.

First, because I feel it is the truth.
Second, because this is partially what I hope to be as a coach.

I want to be there for teachers, and support them through difficult times.
I want to be able to offer insights that will help them achieve their goals.
I want to be helpful.
I want to be a good teammate.

These are all the reasons I love being a coach and what drew me to the position in the first place.

These are not all that a coach does though, it's only a partial definition.

Defining Coaching at KAS

Now that structures for the coaching program at KAS have been built, it's time to deliver the message to the teachers and explain what coaching is, can be, and will mean for them.

Victor and I (with Diana's guidance) have decided in this first year of the coaching program to focus on the Tech Ambassadors at KAS. The Tech Ambassador is a team of teachers who are able and willing to help their peers with learning technology. Diana instantly recognized that we have a built-in group of teachers who are willing to take risks. So that's where we are starting.

I spent a lot of time in the past few weeks looking over resources and decided SIS had the most easy-to-follow definition I could find.

Something I am going to work on is creating an elevator pitch I can use to briefly explain the program whenever I am asked about it.

I have done this preparing for job interviews but didn't think of it as an option for explaining what you do until I saw Geoff Derry's post where he mentioned the idea.

So, I spent some time considering my options for the vision statement (the first slide) ...

• I support teachers by providing advice and in-class support.
• I help teachers choose appropriate technologies to integrate into their classrooms.
• I am there to support teachers when they need it providing professional development, in-class support, and act as a silent partner.

... and the coaching cycle ...

• The coaching cycle follows a lesson or unit through the entire process.
• The coaching cycle allows the coach to be involved in a lesson or unit from the beginning to the end, helping to increase student outcomes. 
• The coach helps guide the teacher through the planning process, the delivery of the lesson, and reflects with the teacher on the lesson.

Time and Space

The Learning Technology Strategic Plan has three parts: Lead -- Collaborate -- Share.

When drafting the coaching plan for KAS, I kept thinking of how teachers currently feel disconnected from teachers in other departments or parts of the building. Yet, when I observed teachers or learning working together, I saw great collaboration and idea sharing.

KAS has had a group of teachers called the Tech Ambassadors (TAs). The TAs are the innovators of the school, knowledgeable with tech, and able to help others when they had questions. When I arrived, the Tech Ambassadors met every other month.

From my point of view, these teachers needed to spend more time together. I thought long and hard about creating some sort of discussion forum where conversations could take place, but there is something magical that happens when ideas are shared face-to-face.

I read something about time and space needed for innovation to take place. (This might have been from Sam Sheratt from the blog Time Space Education.) So, I figured if we could make the time in the form of more frequent and focused, 20-minute meetings where teachers have a chance to bring lessons they are doing in the classroom to get feedback, it would help create a culture of sharing.

We begin our journey in a few weeks at our next meeting.

Just Listen

The other day I felt like talking with my best friend. That term is a little strange since I haven't lived near him in 13 years, and it might be a one-way feeling, but that's how I feel all the same.

So I was feeling that I needed to email him to talk out some things I had on my mind. Then the next day I got an email from him.

Then when I replied to his message, I unloaded.

That was probably the wrong timing and I know I caught him off guard.

I explained my issue and he replied and all was going well until it wasn't. Suddenly he was offering advice I didn't want. All it seems I wanted was someone who I could trust with airing my issue rather than looking for advice.

I wonder how much I jump in and offer advice when teachers are not looking for it. I wonder if that is an option teachers should have when meeting with me. I wonder what I could look for to determine if that is how someone feels during a coaching meeting.

How to Better Communicate?

When I was a homeroom teacher, communication and understanding took on a different form than my current role as a technology coach. 

I feel like communication in my lower elementary classroom was me as more of an authoritative figure who could dictate when and how students would make themselves clear when I did not understand them. I was also directing the learning, so I knew, or could predict their lines of questioning.

This picture really has nothing to do with this post.

SJSA Fourth Grade - The Longest Year in My Life!, 

by Michael 1952, via Flickr, CC BY 2.0

Now, however, I am on the outside and people come to me with ideas. The role is new to the school, so a culture is still being established. This has meant a lot of what I am doing is last-minute, can-you-come-in-later-today-to-teach-X?-type lessons. I'm not complaining, I just realize that the program needs to move to one of the coach joining planning sessions if there is to be a mind-shift in people's perceptions of coaching in the school.

Knowing I cannot change others, what can I do ot better communicate?

• Don't jump to answer right away
• Instead of answering with a solution, answer with a question
• Ask better questions
• Better empathasize
• Approach conversations looking for a win-win