In defense of a small corner of Facebook

Where’s the first place you go when having a problem in your tech room?

For some it may be putting a call into the help desk. Some schools might have a ticketing system where support may come in a few hours or a few days. Others may have no support at all.

For me I have what some may think is an unlikely resource:

I go to Facebook.

Not just my regular Facebook feed; that’s becoming more filled with ads every day. I go to the #NYCSchoolsTech Facebook page.

Is the internet down throughout the city, or just my room? How do I re-image this laptop? I’m getting a weird message on my smartboard that was working yesterday.

Does anyone have any great lessons to share using Kahoot? Now that Padlet is for fee, what are some alternatives? Does anyone have ideas for a parent engagement activity on digital citizenship?

Anyone know of a job opening? I need to get out of my school!

All these and more are asked and answered on the page. It’s a closed group of over 3000 of the best and brightest New York City has to offer. We are there for each other.

We post about events coming up, try to come up with creative ways to acquire funding for our technology centers, and thank our colleagues for always coming to the rescue.

Nothing beats it for speed and accuracy. If my technology or internet is acting weird, I can go online and see within minutes if others are having the same issue. The Department of Ed help desk even posts updates on issues and how soon it will be fixed. I’m sure that makes their jobs easier too, rather than answering the 50 emails or phone calls they would have gotten asking the same question.

Great ideas for your classroom, how to deal with being the SPOC in the building, it all happens on the Facebook.

You can complain about Facebook if you want, but if you have anything to do with technology in NYC Department of Education, it’s a comfort to know that there are some wonderful people out there who’ve got your back.

It’s not just about the badge

I completed the EVERFI Certified Teacher Program (CTP) last year, and it has made all the difference in not just my EVERFI teaching, but my teaching skills overall. I know it’s neat to get a nifty badge to post on your social media sites when you finish a certification, but that wasn’t the prize. I’m an all-around better teacher because of this program.

What I got out of it as a teacher.

This certification program made me consider my role as an educator. Since the program asks you specific questions about how you are implementing EVERFI in your classroom, it made me reflect on my teaching. How can I best implement this curriculum? What am I doing to prepare my students to learn this material? Am I making it as easy as possible for the learning to happen? What more can I do for my students?

What I got out of it as a collaborator.

If you’re like me, you’re the only teacher in your school using EVERFI. The great thing about CTP is that it connects you with people all over the country who are also using EVERFI’s resources in their classrooms. Everyone in the program was so generous with their thoughts, ideas and responses to the online discussions. It was also a great place to share other online resources, and learn how other teachers were using EVERFI in their classrooms. Some teachers had outside speakers from banks come speak to their classes about money skills. Some teachers had graduation ceremonies at their school assemblies. We tell our students to collaborate and work in groups; we should be doing it too. We all got better because we all helped each other.

Online discussions and resources from everywhere.

Periodically throughout the six weeks, the CTP moderator would post relevant articles for us to read and discuss. Some were about the philosophy behind self-guided online learning, and others were focused on the importance of teaching financial literacy in today’s classroom. These articles would start a lively discussion every week. It wasn’t our only online discussion, but they were thought-provoking and we got to know each other a little better. I now know teachers from everywhere.

My PD on my time.

The best part of CTP is that it happened when I wanted it to. Since it was online, I could work on it at my own pace. You don’t sit in a room for a day trying to stay awake and then forget everything you learned the minute you leave. This program is over the course of six weeks, which gives you time to plan, execute, and reflect on how the course worked in your classroom. Any questions or concerns were addressed as they occurred. Instead of running into a problem and getting no support after a traditional PD day, I could ask for help, and ten teachers would respond within a few hours. I firmly believe that giving teachers time to do the work and supporting them through the process was the key to the success of the implementation.

All certification programs should be like this.

As the only tech teacher in my building, talking about technology curriculum with someone is a rare event. CTP made me feel like a part of a team. I’m now EVERFI certified because of this program, but I feel like I am so much more.

Another Month, Another Infographic

Here's one for the principals

What social media is allowed in your school?

It's not just about the doughnuts.

My good friend Lisa Nielsen wrote about this on her blog, so I turned it into a pictograph. Did she miss anything?

My tech lesson when the internet is down

You have a great lesson planned for today, and the internet is down. Your supervisor is lurking in the doorway, you can just smell the observation coming. What do you do?

You teach your kids how to create hyperlinks with just PowerPoint or Google Slides!

Here’s my plan.

Begin the lesson with having the students create the first slide, a “Table of Contents” sort of slide. Mine looks like this.

Here's the basic slideshow to start with. 

This can be a template that you send them 

or make them create it themselves.

Instruct them to then create the rest of the slides, adding information about themselves. I like this lesson towards the beginning of the year so I can get to know my students quicker.

Choose the correct slide to link each bullet point.

I model how they then highlight the text “Where I was Born” and choose Insert-Hyperlink. They link it to the slide titled “Where I was Born.” I model another one, but most kids get it and finish the rest of the links themselves.

This is great, but it only links them out to the slide, not back to the homepage. So to complete the project I have them create a Home link button on one of the slides, insert the hyperlink to the TOC page, and then copy and paste it to the rest of the slides.

Insert-Autoshape to create the Home Button.

This explains how hyperlinks work, and how a website can be built, all without the internet.

It works well for me, and I hope it helps you out too.

I'm a certified bilingual nerd

I recently earned my Google Level 2 Certification, and it felt great, but I'm just as proud earning my Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert Badge for this year too. I like to say that I'm bilingual: I speak Google and Office. Both prove I met certain requirements, but they proved it in different ways.

You can earn your Google Certification anytime you want, just pay the $25 and you have three hours to complete the test.

The MIE Badge is only awarded once a year so you have a long time to complete the tasks, but if you miss the deadline you’re out of luck. I submitted my application 15 minutes before the midnight deadline, cause I’m organized and efficient. I knew about the deadline for MONTHS, yet there I am cramming like it’s a final for a class. I’ll never change.

The Google Test is a bunch of multiple choice questions and a pile of specific tasks you need to complete. Get enough correct, and you’re in. Don’t assume this test is easy-it’s not. You may be great at some Google products, but you need to know enough about ALL of them to pass. Google does provide all sorts of study materials and sample questions to prepare for the test, so if you do your homework you can pass it. I didn’t pass Level 2 the first time, you can read about my humiliation here.

Microsoft has a bunch of courses that you can take, just complete a certain amount of them. You watch videos, or complete interactive tasks, and there’s usually a short quiz at the end. The quiz will tell you whether you got the questions right or wrong as you go, and you can retake the quizzes if you don’t pass the first time. There’s over 100 different courses and badges you can earn along the way. The final piece for their certification is to create a two-minute video or Sway on how this process has influenced you and how you will implement what you’ve learned in your classroom.

Both methods of assessment were effective in their own way. I proved I can do specific tasks and had specific knowledge of Google products, but Microsoft just wanted to make sure I knew about all the things that were available to me and how I can be a better 21^st century teacher for my students. I only really had to prove what I knew by creating a Sway, which are very cool things, by the way.

The Google test gives you the results within seconds, the longest few seconds of your life.

The Microsoft results were released a month after the deadline.

The Google Badge email shows up a day later, the Microsoft Badge shows up with the congratulations email.

The Google Certification is a personal thing, you earn it for your own gratification.  

The Microsoft Badge is a global event. If you are connected to Microsoft in any of the many social media ways you can be, you will see that people in India, Germany and Mexico got their badges the same day you did. It made this planet feel a lot smaller seeing proud teachers from all around the world showing off the same badge as you.

So, I have my nerd cred from both Google and Microsoft. I learned a lot from both processes, and I am a much better teacher for it. It’s vital that teachers remain students, it’s the only way we learn.

My infographic on how to prepare for the NYCDOE Tech Summit tomorrow!

So I accidentally blew up on Twitter last week.

National Teacher Day was May 9^th, and I wanted to recognize that in a small way. I had a graphic that I created for a previous Twitter Chat, so I opened it back up, changed the top, and posted it with two small sentences and hash tagged it with #NationalTeachersDay. I tagged my usual tribe in the graphic so they would re-tweet it for me; they’re awesome like that. After that, I went about my day.

What I didn’t expect was the amount of alerts of how many people liked or re-tweeted it. Throughout the day, the numbers climbed. Some were from accounts just looking for exposure, but most of them were teachers from around the country. The tweet took on a life of its own. By the end of the day, the tweet had over 350 likes and over 200 re-tweets. It felt good to know that I warmed a bunch of hearts that day, but it was also proved the power of a single voice and the influence it can have quickly and globally. I know people are worried about what they see from our commander-in-chief on Twitter these days, but you can’t deny the power of one person’s voice. Just make sure you use yours for good.

What I've learned from tiny little dictators

These North Korean officers are standing there proudly and why shouldn't they? They're wearing enough bling on their uniforms to set off metal detectors.
If you notice along the side of my blog, I've got some micro-credentials: Google, Microsoft, CommonSense, etc. I'm proud of the work I've done to earn them and to display the badges on my blog. I realize that my students should get the same opportunities. Technology class grades are usually not a big deal on report cards, so I have to make them a big deal in my room.
I have some graphic design experience, so I created some badges for my students. When they finished certain modules online, or mastered a unit of work, I've created a badge for it. Google Classroom makes it easy to email just those students I select, and I send them a congratulations email with the badge linked to it. I tell them to post their badge to their blog, and it gets the rest of the class racing to see how fast they can get one too.

Learning something new should be it's own reward, but sometimes it's nice to show off a little.
We're all still looking for little gold stars.

What am I going to work on this year.

I've got a lot of these skills covered, but certainly not all of them. I'm assuming we all could improve our skills. This post resonated with me, so I made it pretty to post it near my desk. When I glance at it, it reminds me of what I am working towards. For all the resources, go back to the original post in The Educational Technology and Mobile Learning website.

Not staying in your lane.

My students, like every adolescent, have their phones in their hands all day. They are in constant contact with their friends, and don't miss an opportunity to take pictures of themselves or their lunch. To the adults around them they may seem very tech-savvy, but the adults should know better. The kids certainly know how to use Instagram and Snapchat, but they don’t know how to insert a picture into a Word document without screwing up the whole page. They stay in their lane.

I thought I would someday be out of a job because the kids would just naturally learn everything before they got to me, but it’s still not happening. They get to sixth grade still not even knowing how to double space a paragraph or create a simple chart. These aren’t highbrow skills; these are tasks that they will need to know how to do. They will need to present their knowledge in ways to efficiently communicate their thoughts, and it’s my job to show them the best possible way.

What I teach rounds out their technology knowledge, heck, its most of their technology knowledge. My job is to take them out of their safe lane and teach them how to drive in all the lanes, even the fast ones. They will work at jobs that haven’t been invented yet, so I need to teach them skills for those jobs. I owe them my best efforts, and I need to teach skills that are creative and effective.

I take my responsibilities seriously and I’m honored to have this task.

A Fresh Start

I've moved to a new middle school this year. I tell my sixth-grade students that I'm just like them; I have no idea where the bathrooms are either. It's a fresh start for me, so I need to step back and really reflect. 

With technology constantly changing, I always need to look at my curriculum and decide if what I'm teaching is still relevant for today's students. Some lessons I've taught for years, like how to format paragraphs and create tabs, but most lessons should change every year. I didn't know what coding was three years ago, and now it's a vital part of my curriculum. 

With my fresh start in a new school, I think it's time to turn all of my lessons upside down. It will be a lot of work, but I believe I need to work from a growth mindset and focus on what's just out of my reach. If nothing else, I'm modeling for my students what it's like to be constantly learning.

I will make my share of mistakes, but I think it's time for some real growth. 

Stand back, this should get ugly.

I created an Infographic about something we should think about

Loading...

It's not always about the Open Bar

Tali Horowitz invited a bunch of DOE nerds as her guests to the Common Sense Media Awards Dinner. The awards were for everyone who works hard to provide a safe environment for children to use technology. It was a lovely evening; we hobnobbed with big donors, caught up with friends, and had a nice evening out. What really inspired me was the message of the evening. We are playing defense for the small people who are defenseless against the giant we know as the Internet.
Marie Belle Vargas was the educator of the year. Working in the South Bronx, her students are among the most disadvantaged in our city. She comes early to school and stays late to give them internet access to complete their work. She provides support to parents to help them in all things online. She works tirelessly for her school and it was humbling to learn how much she truly personifies a dedicated teacher. She's an advocate for her children, her parents and her school. I am proud to call her a colleague. She turned around and instead of taking the accolades, thanked Tali for all the support and encouragement she provides the DOE teachers on a day-to-day basis. I'm proud to know both these women.
I came away from the night with a full belly, and a full heart. I work with amazing people and we are trying to do good. That's a great place to be. Thanks for having us, Common Sense.

Me and Educational Creator Award Winner Bill Nye discuss quantum physics.

Crushed It! How to Host a Twitter Chat

I was asked by Tali Horowitz of Common Sense Media to co-moderate a Twitter chat, but I had never done that before. I’ve been on Twitter for about a year and a half and have participated in other chats, so I thought “Why not?” It turned out to be a lot of fun; if you ever have the opportunity, please do so. Since I want everyone to experience this nerd-thrill, I’ve documented how I approached this project. After it was all over, the stats say we were viewed over a million times. I’m still trying to wrap my head around that but while I work on that, here’s my tips and tricks for hosting a Killer Twitter Chat.

Before I go into what I did, you should really read Lisa Neilsen’s take on this subject. Since I’m the President of her fan club, I feel it’s my duty to recognize her genius before I chime in. http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2014/05/how-to-host-q-and-twitter-chat.html If you’re too lazy to click this link (really?) I’m going to repeat a lot of what she wrote.

Before the Chat

• Promote the chat, then promote it again. The success of your chat depends on how many people are contributing. We all have busy lives; make it worth their while.
• Tag your tribe in the tweets so they start dialogues. That’s what they’re there for.
• Choose a theme that is specific to the audience, but easy for people to engage in the discussion.
• Create a document that has the questions you plan on asking and share that document on Twitter beforehand. It gives people a heads up on what you will discuss. Choose open-ended questions, but not too elaborate. Remember they only have 140 characters to respond.
• Create the graphics that will be used. I created graphics for each question, and I made some random graphics with quotes that were relevant to our discussion. Lisa says that’s how we raised the bar for Twitter Chats throughout the world. (I might be exaggerating there.)
• A long hashtag for your chat will limit everyone’s responses. Keep it short and easy to type. I made mine a keyboard shortcut just to be more efficient while I was responding.

During the Chat

• Don’t type in too much shorthand. It could be hard to understand you and deciphering the message will take too much time if the tweets are flying fast and furious.
• Alert participants that the next question is coming, so they can wrap up the previous discussions.
• Tweet the questions with a graphic too. Using graphics is huge. Twitter is mostly words, so a visual will really stand out. The great thing about visuals is that you can tag up to 10 people in the graphic. Tagging people in the graphics doesn’t take up your 140 characters, and you can really engage the participants in this way.
• Drop the random graphics in sporadically as the conversations get deeper. I designed them to have a consistent look, but still be different from the actual questions.
• Add comments to participant’s tweets to start multiple conversations going.
• “Like” other people’s tweets, and retweet the significant thoughts, it makes you sound smart.

After the Chat

• Catch up on conversations you missed; just because the hour is over doesn’t mean you have to stop the discussion. I’ve had discussions go on for days.
• Follow the people that contributed, it’s the least you can do.
• Thank the contributors, and let them know when the next chat will be.

I loved being the moderator. It was an hour-long adrenaline rush for a geek like me. I tell regular people about it, and they give me a half smile and nod, trying to act like they care. It doesn’t matter to me though. I care, and it matters to my nerd tribe. Connecting with fellow educators online in real time to make all of us better at what we do is something unheard of 10 years ago. We sometimes take for granted how cool technology is, and what we can do with it. This is the world wide web at it’s best, and not only can we take advantage of that, we can model it for our students. They’re the people we do this all for.

If you'd like to see the actual Twitter Chat, head over here #NYCSchoolsTechChat

Lean in

I  go to lots of PD days and learn new stuff all the time, but there are only so many bandwagons I can jump on.
When I'm sitting in a presentation, I'm all in. I buy whatever they're selling. It's only when I walk out and start thinking about the real world scenarios where I will use this. I often come up short somehow. I don't have the time, the support, the resources. I quit before I even begin.
What I've changed about my attitude is I've taken Sheryl Sandberg's approach and now I just "Lean In" which is the title of her book. While I'm all gung-ho about the new resource/website/program, I don't assume it will change my life. I dip my toe in and try it a little. I see how that works for a while and then try more. I'm not investing too much time or energy before I see some actual results. If there isn't enough positive results, I feel no guilt in walking away. I tried, but it just didn't cut it.
The key is to give it a fair shot. Anything worth doing is worth doing well, so a decent attempt at implementing the new resource is necessary. The difference is I no longer spend hours wasting time on something that seems like a solution when it only adds to the problem.
I like the "lean in" approach so much I didn't even finish her book; I took what I could from her book and left the rest. How's that for following instructions?

What's a PLN?

A PLN is a Personal Learning Network. It sounds very cool and it's an idea that is gaining ground. Because of all the social media sites that are available to teachers, you can find anyone that is a mentor or inspiration for you and what you do.
Since I'm the only technology teacher in my building, I don't get to talk to other tech teachers about the challenges I face in my school. It helps to talk to other teachers who face the same challenges.
So how did I build my PLN? Like anything I attempt, I started small and grew it slowly.
I started checking into websites that were a vital resource to my classroom.
I started going to professional development opportunities and connecting with the people running and attending them. From all that, I started to build my network.
At one PD, we went around the room introducing ourselves. I was the only one without a Twitter handle. I felt naked. They spent the next 20 minutes convincing me to join Twitter, which I thought was silly, but I find now is a constant inspiration. I follow teachers that are doing amazing things in the classroom and they inspire me. They also let me know what is the latest and best resource for me to try.
The website connected to common sense media, called Graphite, is where teachers can post reviews for a variety of educational resources. It's not the manufacturer talking, its the teacher who actually uses it. Their opinions are invaluable.
Lisa Nielsen works for the NYCDOE Tech Department and has literally taken over my Facebook feed with all the material she shares. She doesn't seem to sleep, since she posts all hours of the day and night. I worry about her sometimes.
I follow the blogs of influential educators, like Tom Whitby and Alice Keeler. Starr Stackstein is a twitter and blog guru. I could name more, but you should find the people that speak to you. Reading their posts will feel like sitting in on a lecture from an amazing professor.
Do yourself a favor, and find your tribe. You shouldn't go it alone.

EdCampNYC

EdCampNYC was a great event this past weekend. I woke up on Saturday wondering why I signed up for this, but after the day was over, I was glad I did. I feel like a phone that's been fully recharged. 

I catch up with friends and colleagues, I meet new friends and colleagues, and I learn from both. EdCamps attendees are the type of people that want to be the best at what they do so they therefore inspire each other along the way. They are good as some aspect of the job, and want to share their best practices with others. They could also have a real issue with something and just want to talk to other people about it. Either way, they are there to improve themselves or others.

I sat in on two sessions and I led one, so I ended up learning more than what I taught. It reminded me that the world is bigger than just my classroom, and that other teachers have the same struggles as I do, which helps.

The classroom can be a lonely place for a teacher; EdCamps are the faculty rooms that we can sit in all day. And that’s a really good thing.

My first twitterversary!

I joined Twitter a year ago, and I went into it kicking and screaming. I was at a conference and the session was about social media and education. Everyone went around the table introducing themselves and they gave their twitter handle. I was the only one without one. I might as well have said I don't know what a computer is. The next 45 minutes of the session was focused on convincing me how important and useful it would be if I joined Twitter. I took their word for it and had my account before we left the room. I'm glad I did.
I spent the next few months creating a network of teachers who I follow and who follow me. I have taken part in chats, which occur in the ungodly hours of early Saturday and Sunday morning, and I've met people in real life that I've only known online. It's a constant stream of influence for me, and I check in whenever I need a shot of inspiration.
The highlight for me this year on Twitter was when I commented on a book I read from a famous author. I tagged him in the tweet, and he responded to it! How cool it that? I can reach out to someone who inspires me and they can acknowledge it immediately. Think of the possibilities for our students.
After that, I became a full member of Team Twitter. I see the effects, and I'm a better teacher for it. My students are too young to join, but that doesn't stop me from creating a profile for our school to share with their parents.
So as I reflect on my twitterversary, I came to it reluctantly but I was reminded of how Twitter is like all of technology, in that I still have much to learn.
Follow me at @eileen_lennon.