Kaptivo

Over the weekend, I was introduced to Kaptivo.  This product, in my opinion, has changed the way I will ever look at a whiteboard either in a classroom or workshop.  Often times teachers, (Myself included) write things down in class, at a meeting, and then erase them as the lesson progresses.  Unless you wrote everything down or took a picture, this information is gone.  The Kaptivo product records all of this information which can be shared out in real time.  Also, this allows for students, teachers, administrators, and virtually anyone to access content even when they are not present for the presentation.  Even better, they can rewind the content.  I guess you can see where I am going with this, (This is another alternative to the flipped classroom).  Check out a demo video below.

I think one of my favorite things about this product from what I have seen is how sleek and its affordability.  Also, the Kaptivo can be installed in minutes which is another plus.  I am not a salesperson for this company but just someone who sees an overall value to their product.  Overall, I am looking forward to this product being released in July as I believe it will change the way content at a meeting, school day, and other avenues are shared.

Traveling Together!

As an instructional coach, I make it my number one priority to check with teachers and see what they need to progress on their learning continuum.  I always start our conversations with, "What do you need from me?  How can I help you?"  Most of the time I get responses that require assistance with the little things such as, technology issues, talk with a student, resources, or sometimes just listening. I make it a priority to do each of these things that are asked of me and get back to the teacher as soon as possible.

  What I have found as I have continued to grow as a coach is that most of the time the teachers in my building are answering other teachers questions while having conversations with me.  Each teacher has a skill-set that brings a uniqueness about them to our collective school community.  As I have gathered resources, I am the first one to give credit to where I have found it.  Most of the time, the resource is from a teacher in our school.  When I do not have an answer, I turn to my social media PLN who always pulls through when I need them.  Either way, I want teachers to know that they are not alone and that they can always count on me.  When sharing where I found their answer, I believe this allows for teachers to see that some of the best resources are already in our school.  If not, I want them to see how I learn using social media.  Most importantly, I model that we are not supposed to have all of the answers.  Education is not a field of perfection but rather an improvement.  (Todd Whitaker)

    Over the past month, I have observed the teaching process in every classroom and have truly been amazed at what I have seen.  These opportunities have helped me grow in my own thinking as well as share with others what I have seen.  The downside to this is that for the most part, I am the only one who experiences these lessons.  To promote these observations, I write about them in our school blog for others to read.  Also, I share them with the other educators in our school.  By sharing these tools, I have seen several teachers taking on strategies and activities that they may not have tried before.  

     We all have PLC's that we are apart of but rarely do they involve the entire school.  Due to scheduling, time constraints, and other issues.  As a coach, I am constantly looking to find ways to assist others as well as grow myself.  One of my next goals is to implement instructional rounds with the staff.  So far, I have developed a survey and to no surprise, staff involvement was extremely high.  As a group, we will move forward with how WE want this to look and work in our school.  Most importantly, this will allow for the entire staff to see the amazing things that are going on in our school.  I am excited about the possibilities of this process and look forward to working with the entire staff as we take our lessons one step further with the help of everyone.  Below is a video of what instructional rounds are and look like.  Stay Tuned for our version!  If you have done or are doing instructional rounds, I would love to connect to gain further feedback to help move this process forward even better for my school.

Removing Hurdles

As a coach, I often get asked, "What exactly do you do?"  My response is usually, "I try and remove the hurdles that teachers are facing, regardless of how hard they are."

  I have been in education for 11 years, most of which have been in a classroom.  I know some of the struggles I had and my mission is to make teachers able to do their job to the best of their ability.  By allowing teachers to do this, it is only going to make the whole teaching/learning process much smoother.  As a coach, I constantly ask, "What do you need? What can I do?  Where do you need me?"  I believe building these relationships with teachers and showing them that I am here to support them, allows for us all to grow.  I have found that since taking over this role as a coach a month ago, that the teachers are sharing with me their needs.  While sharing these needs, I make in my personal goal to fix it regardless of whether it's technology, modeling, coverage, resources, etc.  It has taught me to balance many things at one time, but if I can alleviate something from the staff, then it is well worth it.  

  I look at this as whatever I can do to help, allows for all teachers to focus on something else that will impact their instruction, and make it more meaningful for students.  To me, that is why we are all in this profession together.  Moving forward, these are some of my personal goals to cover. 

-Provide non-evaluative feedback

-Start instructional rounds where teachers can observe other teachers and have a conversation

-Continue to remove hurdles that are interfering with daily instruction

  

Becoming a Players Coach

We all know in every sport that you need a good coach to be successful.  Some of the best coaches though do more than the traditional X's and O's.  By establishing a core relationship with each of their players, coaches often get better results than expected.  Of course, there is a need to teach the fundamentals of how to play a sport but more importantly, you need to build relationships to move your players forward.

Look at some of the best coaches in the sports world: Gregg Popovich, Mike Krzyzewski, Bill Belichick, and the list could go on.  The one thing these coaches have in common is, of course, they know their sport but more importantly, they know their players.  These coaches take the time to build the relationships with their players, the trust and study their strengths/weaknesses.  This, in turn, helps when trying to move players forward.  I am sure it is not easy to coach some of the greatest athletes and personalities in the game but these coaches have had success as well as made their players better.  When meeting with their players, I wonder if the questions are that we ask in education.  What can I do to make you better?  What obstacles are you facing now?  What do you need to grow?  What could you have done differently?  

   As a new instructional coach, this is the framework that I am using to better serve the teachers in my building.  I not only want to talk X's and O's of their teaching but also build those relationships that are needed to be successful.  When working with teachers, I try to highlight the greatness that they bring day in and day out, but also want to find ways to help them grow.  This being myself modeling, finding resources, assisting in technology integration, or whatever the case may be.  I believe my sole purpose is to serve as a support so that on game day, they are performing at a high level.  The only difference is that their game day is every day.    

How do we bring out everyone's Rudolph!

    This past week I had the privilege of attending NJPSA conference in Long Branch, NJ.  While I was able to learn and network with a lot with various administrators.  The biggest takeaway I had came during Dr. Yong Zhao's keynote.  During his speech, he talked about the famous song, "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer."  He encouraged us all to think about how Rudolph was different, not like the other typical black nose reindeers.  It was because of this he was teased, not treated the same....you know the rest.

  What he then did was tied the whole Rudolph story into education.  If this was a student in our schools, would he/she be classified, receive basic skills/RTI, be teased by other students, or possibly GT.  This made the crowd as well as myself start to think/reflect on the current educational system.  Are we allowing for our Rudolph's to show off their talents, their red noses, their passion, their skills, who knows what else?  With today's demands, it might make this challenge of allowing each student to demonstrate their inner Rudolph even harder, but as educators, we have to.  After all, we have all heard that saying, "This generation of students job market has yet to be created."  Well, then it is up to us to all work collaboratively to allow for students to take that step towards finding their passion.  When we look at the qualities of entrepreneurial's, it struck me that most of the time, these are the students who are the most creative, biggest risk-takers, have a certain uniqueness to them, show empathy, and are our outside the box thinkers.  

   One way I am starting to see this happen, schools are creating S.T.E.M. labs, maker spaces, different types of tech classes, and my new favorite, ED Camp style, created by Glenn Robins at Northfield Community Middle School.  The best part about it is that it happens every day.  YES, EVERYDAY!!!  If you want to talk about bringing out each students Rudolph, take a look at this video below and see just how this style allows for all students to show off their passion.  This is something that I look forward to not only going and seeing in the future but also incorporating into @rmbacon

  In closing, I not only look forward to finding out how to target and allow students to show off their passion but also different ways to give them the platform to do so.  What are some things that are going on in your school to engage students like this?  Any thoughts??

What Could A 21st Century Class Look Like???

I recently had a conversation with some of the local college students that are observing me as per one of their classes.  They informed me that my classroom is ran totally different from their classrooms that they are learning about in their classes.  I couldn't help but ask, "What does the ideal classroom look like?" Their answer absolutely saddened me because it is the exact answer that I didn't want to hear, "Students are sitting in desk in rows or maybe even small groups."  So now I started to ponder, are we really preparing our teachers/students for the 21st century in not only our classrooms but also at the college level? Also, what does a 21 century classroom look like?  I continued to ask them about what they have seen in my classroom and had questions on.  The one thing they asked me about was the way in which my students worked. (partners, groups, with the other third grade class (50 students in one room).  Below are some pictures that I took recently to show just what they were seeing.  

The one thing I let them know is that I truly believe in working in an environment that you feel comfortable in.  All of these students were doing their expected work but in a manner that was comfortable for them. I look at myself, I do most of my work while listening to music and sitting on my couch.  If we are truly preparing our students for a conversation that is already 14 years old, "21st Century" then why aren't we letting them learn and perform meaningful task in a way in which they feel comfortable.  To me, if a student feels comfortable laying on the floor doing their work as opposed to sitting in a chair, what does it matter?  I guess the answer I am trying to figure out is, are other classrooms out there doing the same?   

Why Press, "SEND"

     I sometimes think to myself after a rough day, Why do I Tweet, Blog, go to conferences, and stay connected?  These questions become especially challenging when others don't see the value that you see in doing it.  I have really brainstormed about these questions over the past few weeks and came to this realization.  I stay connected because I need help, I need support, and most importantly because there are amazing people out there with great ideas that share willingly.  This was not always the case though.

     About two years ago I joined Twitter.  At first, being so new, I thought it was a race to get followers.  I had people following me from all over the world and then it happened.  My account was hacked and the person not only put up inappropriate tweets but also somehow crashed my computer.  At that point I was done, or as we joke at work, I took my football home.  I immediately deleted my account and walked away from Twitter feeling embarrassed and vulnerable.  After about two years, my principal said, "If a student doesn't get something, do you walk away?"  As much as I didn't want to admit, he was right.  I was quitting because of one person.  I was hurting my own learning, most importantly, I was hurting my students learning.  His comments really messed with me for about a week and then it happened again. 

    I took the leap back into Twitter, needless to say it was one of my best decisions.  Thanks to Twitter alone, I have been able to reconnect with amazing educators from around the globe and grow professionally with them.  Not only that, we share our problems and help each other get through them.  We share resources and best practices without the hesitation.  To keep the positive energy going, we have set up Voxer groups to talk even more about education and ways to improve ourselves.  I guess the point I have finally come to is, I am doing what I do because it makes a difference.  It makes a difference in not only myself but more importantly, my students.  These 25 awesome kids that look to me to give them something amazing each day.  This happens in large part because of me being able to grow with everyone in my PLN.  I just want to say thank you to all of you for helping me move forward and grow as an educator.