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.    

Flip It, Flip It Good!

   My grade level partner Mrs. Devita (Amanda @amanda_devita) and I are implementing a collaborative flipped classroom model. The best part about this model is our cyclical approach to collaboration with each other, our students, and professional colleagues. Each day, we exchange materials in preparation for our lessons.  I have the privilege of flipping math, and Mrs. Devita flips important pieces of Language Arts.  This material is shared with each others class.  However, we still teach both subjects.    

   Now I think about the power of this idea.  Here you have two passionate educators working in complete cohesion, heck even a true PLC.  We are constantly sharing/exchanging data about how to improve learning/teaching in each others classroom.  I feel this picture shows our partnership at a glance.

                  

    Before the students even arrive each morning, we know which ones need help and those who are now the "content experts".  The differentiation game no longer requires so much guess work and traditional assessments. The students evidence their learning through their responses, questions, and shared thoughts through teacher to student, student to student, and student to teacher collaboration online. Also, in our opinion, we use the best platform for digital pedagogical practice (Sophia.org). 

Thus, this methodology provides students with the skills in both subject areas in order to be successful for the upcoming day.  Is it a lot of work?  (YES) But, I also look at OUR students and think, are they worth it? Without hesitation (YES) 

  One other motivating fact is that my administrator Dr. Cook (@drspikecook) and school coach, Mrs. Nolan (@litcoachmps) not only supports us but are heavily involved in the process.  They are participating by actively engaging online through watching our videos, posting comments and questions, and interacting with students. Oftentimes, the content related discussions online translate into meaningful learning experiences on Sophia and back into the classroom environment. This not only teaches digital citizenship but allows them to assist us with teaching and student learning.  The students are so engaged with this concept that they are watching these videos repeatedly to enhance their knowledge and deepen understanding.  I know it may be a cliche, but our students are literally BLOOMING within and beyond the classroom.    

    Finally, I look at how much time students spend on task. Students are spending about 1 hour actively engaging in real world math problem solving activities in both English Language Arts and Math. Most importantly, students are feeling confident about what they are learning and motivated to apply those skills in class.

    This is just one of the activities that are classes did together below.  50 students are in this classroom working together to solve math problems based on a menu.  Needless to say, the math conversations were amazing between students.    

My final thought is that I would encourage everyone to try this teaching method for either yourself or even your grade level.  Just think of the different learning/teaching that could be happening in your class.  Thoughts????

ECET2 NOLA

I am at a conference this weekend for Elevating and Celebrating Effective Teaching 2. As much as Barry Saide and his team assure me that I belong, I am still a little overwhelmed when I see the amount of awesome educators from the around the country that are here. I sit here and think wow, I am one of the 350 educators that were asked to come here. Why me? Am I really on the same playing field as everyone else here? Then after hearing Barry and Chris present, it started to sink in about why I am here. There is someone out there that is probably feeling the same way I am. Although, I may be doing things differently back home from a traditional classroom outlook, It's okay to be different. It is okay to think and teach differently. Also thinking about my principal Spike and his most vocal message, if you do not tell your story then no one will ever know the amazing things that you are doing. Also, someone else may tell it differently. I have always felt that I could not write, or my material was not worth sharing. Today, I was just reassured, sometimes it is just good to get your thoughts down and then share them out. Thanks again Barry and Chris.