I created an Infographic about something we should think about

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4 Steps to make your profile pic look really professional

When I first added logos to my profile picture, I just simply did it in Preview on a mac. It was effortless. Once people saw my profile sporting my nifty badges to show off my accomplishments, everyone wanted to know how to do this and I wanted to help. Here how it’s done through Paint. Yes, lowly little Paint.

Step 1:  Open your photo in the program.

Step 2: Open your logo in another window and “Select All” and then choose “Copy.”

Step 3: Go back to your photo and “Paste” the logo. Keep it selected or it becomes stuck in the photo. Resize it, move it, whatever you need. 

Keep the other images small, you don’t want to turn into a scrapbook page.

Step 4:  After you’re happy with everything, save the file. Voila, you’re branded! Here’s what my finished profile picture looks like on Twitter.

You can stop reading now and go play with it. You too can turn your profile picture into a mini resume. A picture can say a thousand words and a branded one can help you make sure they’re the right ones for your image.

It's June! Time for something new!

I like June, but not for the usual reasons. Yes, the school year is winding down, and the kids are getting “antsy,” but I see it as an opportunity to think outside the box.

I can try all the things I wanted to during the year with a little less pressure on them to succeed.

Keeping them engaged is the focus in these last few weeks, so the resource I try has to get their attention, and get it fast. We can have a little more fun, and celebrate all that we've accomplished this year. Students need to be reminded of how far they've come, and take pride in their efforts.

I even open the "Welcome to Technology" presentation I show in September, and we review what we've learned and what we came up short on. It's a way for me to reflect, and to model for the students what it means to try and not always succeed. It's also an opportunity for the students to tell me what they think about what I taught them.

June is not just counting down the days, but making the last few days with your students count.

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

Book Club Girl

My book club has been together since 1998. We were all moms with little kids at home, and once a month on a Monday night was a big deal to get out and talk to adults for a few hours. The challenge was to stay awake for the meeting. Now we discuss how those same kids are doing in college, but we still have a hard time staying awake.
Late last year, Harper Collins had a contest to become a sponsored book club for a year and I entered our book club. I had completely forgotten about it until I got an email telling me we won. We get to pick a book from a bunch of choices every month and they send us the free copies. Once this year, an author will Skype or call into our meeting to discuss their book! We got our first shipment of books today, and I am thrilled. They have sent us a copy of a book that hasn't been released yet, it's our job to start a word of mouth campaign for these books which seems like an honor. Mostly we are relieved to not have to figure out what we should read every month, the pressure is off to find a great book because it's already been done for us.

We have been through a lot together: a bunch of babies, a handful of divorces, a few re-marriages and our first grand-baby. We even survived Hurricane Sandy, when many of us had to relocate for months while our houses were repaired. What is wonderful about our book club is that for a few hours every month we have a glass of wine, maybe some cheesecake, and discuss how a book has touched our lives. These are the things that make for a lovely life. Thank you to my friends and to the authors who enrich our lives. We are forever grateful.

Running into a really old friend.

I graduated from the School of Visual Arts a long time ago with a degree in Fine Arts. It sounds impressive, but my brothers tell everyone I went to Crayon College. I loved the experience, and it has enriched my life. It set me on a path that took many turns for me to wind up where I am now; a computer teacher. It took a lot of turns.
One assignment I remember from school was to go the the Metropolitan Museum of Art and study a specific statue called Marble statue of a kouros (youth). You would walk right past it, as it is not very distinguishable from the thousands of other pieces of art in the same room. It is life-sized, but not very detailed. It's simple and straightforward. I had to write 10 pages on it. I just wrote two sentences about it and that's all you really need to know about it, so you can imagine how much elaboration had to go into 10 pages. That was the exercise; to really look and study it extensively. I sat in front of it for hours and then wrote about it for even more. I felt I really knew him. I handed in my paper and forgot about him.
I've been to the museum over the years, but I completely forgot about the statue until I bumped into him recently. (I didn't actually bump into him, you get into a lot of trouble for stuff like that.) I was shocked. He hasn't aged a day, and I've aged over 30 years since I last saw him. I stood there looking at him from the eyes of a grown woman, remembered the young lady who first studied him. Time really felt solid to me in that moment. I could sense the breadth of my life, and how insignificant my 30 years feels to a statue that's thousands of years old.
I thought about what was ahead of me back then; and all I've lived since. How I am just a blip on his timeline. Centuries will pass, and he will still be there. Nations will rise and crumble, and he will still be there. 
Art is powerful; it speaks to us in many ways. Mostly though, it reminds us to look outside ourselves. To see the small part we play, and to play it well.
It was good to catch up with him.