The Power of Collaboration

As educators it's easy to close our doors and just do our thing. It's tempting to just fly under the radar and keep to ourselves. I think we miss out on ideas when we avoid collaborating with our colleagues. I find that it's easy to talk about what's going on with students, complain about things, or make small talk about what's going on outside of school. It's difficult to be vulnerable and share what's going on in your classroom. We potentially face being judged when we share what's really going on in our classrooms. I know that I often think about that, when asked what are my students working on.

I'm an overachiever by nature. I want to be the best that I can be. I want to be willing to try to grow myself as an educator. I'm internally motivated like that. I will say that I've been like that ever since I can remember. I have found that one of the best ways that I can grow is by collaborating with my colleagues. It's in having those vulnerable conversations that I can come up with some of my best ideas for my classroom. It is vital to have those conversations with each other. To share our failures and our successes. Those encouraging moments help us to continue to do what we do.

Each week, I look forward to our "Thursday Talk". Our humanities coach meets with us each Thursday and we collaborate and share what's going on in our classes. We share where we are in our transition into the workshop model of teaching. We share projects, books, activities, success, and failures. We lay it all out on the table and help each other pick the pieces back up.

At first it's tough to be vulnerable. To expose your "failures" to each other. It's raw. It's real. It's pertinent. It helps us grow. We are able to gain the encouragement we need to keep going. We get a fresh perspective detached from the "problems". This, my fellow educators, is such a significant part of our jobs. We need to sharpen each other as educators.

This past week I had the opportunity to facilitate our "Thursday Talk." I was so excited to see that we had a full house that day. There wasn't an empty seat at the table. Teachers were all chattering about what they were working on in their classrooms. I was able to share the one pager projects my students completed. We had some great discussion about them. I was so proud to showcase what my students had done. They exceeded my expectations, and I was proud to show them off to my colleagues. The other teachers were excited about this project. They couldn't wait to modify it for their own classrooms. That's a collaboration win!

When we take those moments to be raw and vulnerable, we have the chance to inspire each other with something new and different. Sometimes we share a new spin on a task we've always done. We can put our brains together and tweak a project until we can make it better than before. We can troubleshoot problems and come up with solutions for it. That's the power of collaboration. We can exponentially multiply our skills and knowledge.

It's important that everyone have the chance to share in the collaboration meetings. All voices need the opportunity to be able to share what's going on in their classrooms. It helps the collaboration to be stronger when more than one voice is heard. That's part of developing the strength of the team during collaboration meetings.

Can you teach an old dog new tricks?

I consider myself to be an experienced teacher. I have taught different grade levels, subjects, and at three different schools (if you count student teaching). I find that it's super easy to become set in our ways. We work for several years to find our style of teaching. Can we really learn a new way of teaching?

Learning how to use the Workshop model has been a journey for me. I moved to Texas and this was the way they taught. I'm so thankful that my previous principal gave me a chance and hired me without knowing this method of teaching. I've spent this year really trying to dig in and try to do workshop. I've tried many different things this school year: flexible seating, reader's and writer's notebooks, and mini-lessons to name a few.

Flexible seating has been different for me. I have played around with the style this school year. My poor students have had to become flexible with me as I've reorganized my classroom. I hope by the end of the school year I'll be able to have the room just the way I want it.

I've utilized a writer's notebook this year in a composition book. My reader's notebook was in their binders. Since I've been using OneNote, I may not use the composition books next year. I hope that the technology will be something that will work well with my students. So far, it seems to be. I read a book that showed me how effectively use a reader's notebook. I felt like that was my weakest area. I have some great ideas to implement in the reader's notebook next school year.

Mini-lessons have been my achilles heel. I just can't seem to wrap my mind around them. It's hard to figure out how to stop talking and let the kids take some owndership. I'm so excited to be able to go and observe another teacher's classroom. I will be able to see a lesson from start to finish. Maybe this will help me wrap my mind around the mini-lessons. I'm sure I'm just making it too difficult.

At this point I feel like it's safe to say an old dog can learn new tricks. The old dog might be slow and struggle some, but learning nonetheless. I look forward to reflecting on the visit and gleaning some new knowledge to implement into my classroom.

How I'm Using OneNote

Technology is overwhelming at times. If you are like me, you hear/see/explore all these really wonderful ideas. When you sit down to implement them into your classroom, the overwhelming feelings swell up. Instead of spending time getting bogged down in all of those overwhelming feelings, I decided to focus on one thing. Just one... This year my focus is incorporating OneNote into my classroom.

Just before my winter break, I attempted to test run a class notebook with a few students. Some of my PreAP students overheard and wanted to try it too. So I thought why not jump in and try it out completely. We tested out a few things, but didn't delve into it 100%. I set up my class notebooks to reflect my student's classroom binders.  We talked about the Content Library and how that was like my filing cabinet. The students could look at it, but not touch. It took a little time for the students to make sure they were accessing documents from their own folders and not trying to type on mine.After coming back from winter break, I decided that I was going to really try to utilize OneNote in my classroom.

What's in our notebooks?

• Bellringers - Weekly journal writing bellringers
• Reader's Notebook - I incorporate ReadWorks passages and NewsELA articles in the notebooks. 
• Mentor Texts - I'm not sure if I'll use this section next year. I think I'll combine this into my reader's notebook next year
• Writer's Notebook - Student's writing assignments are located here
• Stems - Greek and Latin roots
• Reference - Documents I want them to be able to have for reference
• Portfolio - Right now it's bare except our 2018 resolution activities

I'm not sure if this is what I'll keep in my class notebooks in the future. I like that I've had the opportunity to try some things out and see what works and what doesn't. I will say that this has helped me think about how to streamline my binders in my classroom. Sometimes less is more, and I'm seeing that with the OneNote class notebooks. It's interesting how the perspective changes when you can visually see the paper trail.  You start to question what's important to keep or use and what's not. 

OneNote Testimonial

I have a student this year who really struggles to write. He doesn't like to write. When I sit and work with him one on one, it's almost like he's in pain trying to write. He struggles to get started. In the beginning of the year, I'd get pages turned in blank. When I'd ask him about the assignment, he'd shut down completely. 

Last week we had a free write. I've been working with my students to spend some time writing down their thoughts, even if it's ugly. They've been building up their writing stamina. This is a sample of his writing. 

It may seem rough around the edges, but I'm so happy that he's finally writing. It gives me something to work with. It gives me a starting point to help him write better. I call this a triumphant moment! He's writing. He's writing because he likes the computer and using OneNote has him writing. That's enough to encourage me to continue to  use the program in my classroom. It will allow me the chance to refine my practices as an educator. My students are eager to try it and that's motivation enough for me.

Samples

I can't wait to see what the rest of the school year holds as I continue to explore all that OneNote has to offer. 

Techie Teacher Reflection

Before I begin with my current technology goal, I felt it was necessary to give some background knowledge. I'm no stranger to technology. I grew up in a home where it we had a desktop computer available. Mind you it was Windows 98 if that gives you a perspective of time. My father worked in the elevator industry. He worked with technology in his career. He was always encouraging me to embrace technology as it would become my world.

When I was twelve years old, I didn't really think on a global scale. I understood the use of the world wide web, but didn't see the future of collaboration around the world. I became more comfortable with technology as I continued to grow up with it. I remember learning to type on an electric typewriter in my high school typing class. We were the fortunate group that experienced the change over from typewriters to computers. I remember typing final drafts of writing assignments on old Mac computers.

As I entered college in the fall of 1999, I remember taking my first Educational Technology (Edtech) course. I excelled in that course. I was no stranger to technology, and that was my opportunity to grow my use of technology into a professional usage for my future career. I loved everything about that course. I remember learning about PowerPoint really for the first time. Oh the possibilities were endless when new technology was introduced to me.

During my student teaching semester in the spring of 2004, I was fortunate to student teach with a remarkable teacher. He was definitely a fan of technology. He had several computers in his classroom, a projector, digital cameras, etc... He even had a computer for me to use as a student teacher. I felt like the power of the world was at my fingertips. Mr. E challenged me to grow myself as a teacher. He encouraged my constant use of technology and showed me how to refine it in my lessons to be more applicable than just "using technology for the sake of using it". He even had me facilitate an interdisciplinary unit with the other teachers and our students in the computer lab. I was very comfortable with the use of technology. I learned how to troubleshoot through the problems on days technology didn't seem so great. I didn't allow it to frustrate me. Thus began my love for technology in the classroom. I liked how much the kids were excited about using it. They struggled with it, but loved the lessons that promoted technology usage. I decided at that point that I wanted to be an ITEC teacher (a district technology leader) and to obtain my Master's degree in Educational Technology.

I went back to school in the fall of 2006 to begin working on my Master's degree. I was teaching at the middle school I grew up in. At that time I was teaching math. I felt that if I could incorporate technology usage in the math classroom, I could do it anywhere. As I moved through my coursework, I built lessons that I would incorporate in my very classroom. I didn't have quite the amount of technology I wanted, but I was working on writing grants to obtain it. I'm happy to say that I eventually became an ITEC teacher and obtained a 1:1 classroom with ipads. I worked very hard for that classroom environment. I received my Master's Degree in Educational Technology in the spring of 2008.

Being an ITEC teacher was one of the highlights of my time teaching in the Calcasieu Parish School District in Louisiana. The professional development obtained through the ITEC grant kept me abreast of technology. We were given technology devices or access to different programs to stay innovated and continue being technology leaders in the district. I remember those professional development days were among my favorite to attend. I couldn't wait to see what the new technology was going to be presented to us. I couldn't wait to brainstorm with my colleagues and see what new challenges I could bring to my students. The technology facilitators were always patient, knowledgeable, and willing to brainstorm and grow me as a professional. Even now being a state away from them, I still find that I reach out to them when I need to brainstorm an idea.

Now, I find myself in Texas. After twelve years of experience, I felt like a brand new teacher all over again. Thankfully, I teach at a school that's similar in size to the one I moved from. While there are many similarities, there are quite a few differences as well. This district is a 1:1 district with laptops. It was like I hit a goldmine. I was sad to have left my technology behind. I had worked so hard for it. I wrote many grants and invested the time to implement it into my classroom. I didn't know how to teach without it. After reflecting on my first year in Texas, I realized I didn't implement technology into the classroom like I wanted to.

My professional goal this school year was to really work at incorporating the technology into my classroom. My school is 1:1 with students having laptops. We have a few students who have opted out of the technology usage, but the majority of them have the laptops. This being my second year in the district, it was time to utilize my technology expertise in my classroom.  It can also be an extremely overwhelming tool. There are so many options, its hard to decide where to begin. It's time that I grow myself in the area of technology and grow my students as well.

Time to kick it up a notch!

I'm an avid technology user. My students have a district issued device at their disposal. It's time to kick it up a notch and really start using technology. I really want to try to go more paperless. It's tough making all the copies, especially if I change my mind on a project. My students have so much technology at their fingertips. It's time to dig in and incorporate it into my classroom.

Things we can use:

• Microsoft Office 365 (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Sway, Forms, OneNote)
• It'sLearning

Between these two platforms, we should be able to use technology on a daily basis. That's one of my goals this school year. I want to use the technology on a more frequent basis and not just for some special lesson or occasion. I've dabbled with incorporating many different things this year. This is my year to test out what works and doesn't work for me. 

Many of the things I make can be incorporated into It'sLearning. I find that using OneNote is a bit easier. Maybe I can utilize the assessment feature and assignment feature of It'sLearning. I know there's a plagerism check that should be helpful, especially teaching ELA. It would be great if this platform worked alongside our gradebook platform. 

I plan to work to try to incorporate different things for my students this year. I really want them to become more tech savvy and that technology will have a purpose in my classroom. Plus technology is one of my favorite things to tinker with. I feel like it keeps me sharp and allows me a place to find success, especially if I'm struggling with other things. It'll be interesting to see how far I've come with technology as I reflect at the end of the year. 

Caution: Triage Alert

Triage - The assignment of degrees of urgency to wounds or illnesses to decide the order of treatment of a large number of patients or casualties.

Trauma - a deeply distressing or disturbing experience.  

Medical professionals have the incredible task of assigning the different triage roles in a traumatic situation. Sometimes in our own personal traumas, we forget to assess where we rank in the triage area. Are we in minor distress, delayed, immediate, or deceased. Sometimes we not only have physical trauma, but emotional trauma as well. I find myself in a different level of triage based on the trauma of Hurricane Harvey. 

I found myself saying many of the following things and discounting the trauma that took place. 

• We survived the hurricane. 
• We didn't lose our entire home. 
• We only lost one car. 
• We only had to cut the sheet rock out 22 1/2 inches. 
• We only lost what was in the garage. 
• We didn't lose everything. 
• Thankfully, we had insurance. 

There were many waves of emotions that took place as I watched my Sunday school class help cut out carpet, sheet rock, and throw our belongings to the curb. It was traumatic. We evacuated for the hurricane not really expecting to come home to a sense of devastation. I know that people had it worse than we did, but I can't discount the feelings that came from this trauma. I find that in crisis we put up barriers to secure our emotions for survival. We try to protect the vulnerability that we already are experiencing. The exposure as people go through your belongings, make assessments of their worth, and toss them on the debris pile. I cried that day. I cried off and on for a few days afterwards. Then I tried to seal up the tears and hold it together. When people asked how I was doing, I replied with simple phrases not willing myself to divulge any more than I had to. I didn't want to be exposed any more than I had to. I even began to close my emotions off to friends, family, and my spouse. I didn't want to have to feel that exposed again. My triage state went from minor to immediate over the course of a few months. I didn't want to deal with the emotions that I was feeling. I didn't want own them, dig them up, discuss them, allow them to be real. Life doesn't work like that. 

Now I find myself in a more immediate triage state. I didn't assess myself properly during the trauma and now the emotional cup is spilling over. I not longer can hold back the tears, the raw emotions, etc... Whether I wanted to deal with them or not, I now have to.