The Most Vital Thing at School

This morning, like any other Tuesday this school year, I drove to the Grand Forks Air Force Base to spend my day with the teachers and students of Nathan Twining School.  I have had the privilege of working with this staff this year.  Sure, it’s a bit of a drive from my south Grand Forks home, but I find the drive to and on base enjoyable.  Today, I was greeted at the main gate by a young officer and reflected on my experiences every Tuesday morning.

Every Tuesday, whether it is 40 degrees and sunny or 40 below and windy, an officer comes to my car window and greets me as I enter the Base.  Every Tuesday, I am called Ms. Erickson and told to have a wonderful day.  Every Tuesday, I am wished a “Good Morning”.  Every Tuesday, I am given a heart-warming smile and feel valued.  Every Tuesday, I proceed to school with a smile on my face as well.

This is no accident!  I am given personalized treatment each and every Tuesday.  Everyone who enters the Grand Forks Air Force Base is given the same personalized greeting and time.  It is expected, it is protocol, it is a sign of respect, a polished practice for safety and security.

Consequently, I feel welcome and safe as I drive onto base, for which I am grateful.  Today, I thought about this feeling.  I couldn’t help but think of our students.  Do they feel grateful, safe, greeted by name, valued, or welcome?  Is there a personalized treatment for them and their learning?

All relationships are defined by how we communicate with people, consciously and subconsciously, verbally and non-verbally.  We win or lose relationships with students and colleagues by the way we treat them, intentionally or unintentionally.  I personally feel that the most vital things at school are:  “Relationships.”  My guess is any corporate CEO would echo that same sentiment.

Over the past four months, I have had the privilege to visit some schools that have focused on making the school experience personalized for learners.  The one common thread in all three of these locations has been relationships.  I have been most impressed by teachers that have put personal agendas and doubts aside to create amazing teams focused on student needs.  I am moved by the way they articulate trust and respect for their colleagues and how they treat their students.  It was moving to see how students treat each other and the staff.  The buildings had a tone of mindfulness, respect for others and welcoming.  Much like the tone set at the main gate every Tuesday.

As we explore ways to personalize learning for our students, recognize individuality and uniqueness, encourage young people to follow their hearts and passions and to choose a course of study that empowers and excites them, and move toward thinking innovatively in the way we provide education, let’s not forget at the center of it all are the soft skills and people skills – the relationships.

As we enter our last month of school, let’s set the groundwork for personalized learning and building positive and trusting working relationships for next year.  Take time to make the investment to see what other people do, celebrate their gifts, empathize with their struggles, take a different lens and set your own aside, embrace the big picture and WIN relationships.

What's New in Google Apps

I am always getting brilliant ideas and up to date information from Eric Curts and his blog:  Control Alt Achieve.

In a blog post earlier this month he shared a long list of updates, changes, and new things in G Suite for Education.  I have selected a few to share in my blog post this week that I think directly impact teachers and students I work with.  To see Eric’s complete list, check out his blog.

What's New in Google Apps: 

• Google search on mobile adds "Word Coach" game - Resource Link

• Google launches Song Maker tool in the Chrome Music Lab - Resource Link

• Google Drive's "Shared with Me" section to get update showing common people who have shared with you - Resource Link

• Docs, Sheets, and Slides getting Activity Dashboard to see when files have been viewed - Resource Link

• Google launches "Art Palette" AI tool to find works of art based on colors you choose - Resource Link

• Google launches "LIFE Tags" AI tool to search through 4 million historic photos from LIFE magazine - Resource Link

• Menu and toolbar updates in Google Docs editors - Resource Link

• Google launches "OK Go Sandbox" with educational activities - Resource Link, Resource Link

• Google acquires Tenor to improve searching for GIFs - Resource Link

• Google shutting down goo.gl URL shortening service - Resource Link

My favorites from the above list, all spark a creativity idea for students.  I encourage you to take a look at Song Maker, Art Palette, Life Tags and OK Go Sandbox.  I can imagine endless creation opportunities for students with these.  If you want to collaborate and try these together, please let me know!

Flipping for Flipgrid!

Flipgrid is a fantastic video response platform where educators can have online video discussions with students or other educators. Teachers can provide feedback to students and students can provide feedback to one another.  All responses are collected and displayed in a grid format.

Flipgrid One (free) provides you with one Grid to create and engage a social learning community in your classroom. Add unlimited discussion Topics and receive unlimited student videos.

Flipgrid Classroom ($65/year) supercharges discussions across all of your classrooms and communities with unlimited Grids and advanced features like student Reply-to-Response videos, individualized video feedback, custom assessment rubrics, Grid CoPilots, and much more!

My first few experiences with Flipgrid were with professional learning in the fall.  During teacher training in the fall, we had new teachers and experienced teachers reflect on learning and share idea digitally.  I also have assisted classroom teachers in the implementation of Flipgrid, and continue to discover new and creative ways to integrate it.  I continue to learn more about Flipgrid and have become a Flipgrid Certified Educator.

It really IS as easy as 1-2-3!  I’d happy to help you discover this interactive tool!

Create a Grid, then create your topic, and then share the link with your class.

Students record their video (Flipgrid can be used on ANY device)

You and your students reply to one another and take the discussions further.

How can you use the Flipgrid with your class?

Here are 15 ideas for using this video platform in your classroom.

1.  Reading response:  After your class reads an article, chapter or book have them respond to a question about their reading. Take the conversation further by using a student response to “Spark” another conversation.

2. End of the course reflections:  What better way to say goodbye than to have your students record a video reflecting on their learning over the course of your class?

3. Advice to next year’s class.  How cool is it to have a Flipgrid of advice videos from your current students to show next year’s class?

4. Debate a topic!

5. Show what you know! Choice and voice are so important for getting students to share their knowledge with us. Let them share knowledge on Flipgrid.

6. Reflect on a lesson or unit. Seems simple but having your students reflect on a lesson is great feedback for us as teachers. How did it go? What changes would you make? What was your favorite part? Take a look at their responses for planning next year.

7. Book talk challenge. Have your students share about their favorite book in 30 seconds or less.

8. Exit tickets:  Post the question “What did you learn today?” or “What did you create today?”  You can also drill down to a specific skill or piece of understanding.

9. Have students explain their thinking and critique the reasoning of others as they work through a math problem.

10. Brainstorming for their Genius Hour, Passion Project, or 20% time work.

11. Complements for classmates.  Have students create a video that complements or praises a classmate.

12. Reboot your standard biography report and have students dress up as the person they are researching and record short presentation video.

13. Welcome back to school Flipgrid style. Have all staff record a welcome back message for your students at the beginning of the year.

14. Video thank you or appreciation messages.  These can be sent to anyone for a unique recognition.

15. Finally, Appsmash!  Partner Flipgrid with other amazing Apps!  Check out this Webinar Video:  Appsmashing 

If you haven't tried Flipgrid yet, I encourage you to do so soon!

Resources:

https://resources.flipgrid.com/

https://info.flipgrid.com/

 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59887cb1ebbd1aa4144128da/t/59cc075c80bd5ed9e272ed92/1506543456407/Flipgrid+eBook.pdf

Google Expeditions and Discovery Education Mash-up

You look outside the classroom window and see yet another in a long string of snowy and windy days.  Inside the classroom, students are learning about the landforms of the United States.  The classroom next door is discussing the World War II.  Just down the hall, students are reading the novel “The Book Thief” in literature class.  In the science room the students are exploring the objects of our solar system and in math, they are learning about Geometry and three-dimensional shapes.  What background knowledge do students have about these things, how do our New American’s get a mental image of what is being discussed and how can we bring a highly engaging experience about these curriculum and content areas to the students?

We know that students will retain 90% of what they experience and see…. So, it must be time for a field trip!  No money for buses, planes, or admission fees?  How will we get our students in Grand Forks to the International Space Station, Germany, Egypt, or Pearl Harbor?  Even if money were no option we wouldn’t have time for this travel?

I have a solution!  Open the Windows to the World!  Every day is a beautiful day to take a virtual field trip.  With Google Expeditions I engage students in a virtual reality without having to leave the classroom.  I have seen first hand the impact a Google Expedition Trip can have on learners.  These are amazing tools that can be easily integrated into all content areas, at all grade levels.

Virtual reality in education is so beneficial because it engages students in a completely new way that emerges them in the learning experience.  Because students are so engaged in what they are seeing; are interacting and critically thinking about what they are learning; they retain the information and content.  These devices act a bridge for students that have fewer life experiences, have language barriers, and academic challenges, by building background knowledge needed or new learning.

Because of the Grand Forks Foundation for Education, I have been lucky enough to have access to these devices for several weeks during the school year.  They are making a positive impact in the classrooms across our district.

By partnering with classroom teachers, I can bring students to the bottom of the ocean or the depths of the solar system.  The level of the content provided by these devices is high quality because Google Expeditions partners with amazing organizations, a few are: Royal Collection Trust, Wildlife Conservation Society, World Wildlife Federation, and American Museum of Natural History.

Recently, I had the opportunity to plan a wonderful comprehensive lesson for eighth grade English.  We are taking a tour of the 9/11 memorial using the Google Expeditions.  As part of this tour, students will visit other memorials via video clips found on Discovery Education Streaming, read an article about the 9/11 memorial, use the AEIOU strategy to reflect and record during the tour and finally create their own memorial for a historic place or person.  

I love that I can pull resources from multiple sources to make a well-rounded meaningful learning event and project for all students while supporting the content area standards and incorporating 21st Century Skills as well and student voice and choice.

Here is a link to the lesson and supporting materials:  Persuasive Writing Project

Your One Word

Your One Word

What’s with the buzz you see on social media regarding the “one word for the year”?  Well, it stems from book published in 2012 by Jon Gordon and Jimmy Page.  The book is title:  One Word that Will Change Your Life.  I read this book four years ago and it has helped me focus or prioritize.  For me, this hasn’t eliminated goals, but has given me a focus that brings all my goals and roles together with one common idea.

The authors decided that a better way to become their best and live a life of impact was to find one word that would be their driving force for the year instead of creating goals.

A Word that creates clarity, power, passion and life-change.  The authors believe that there is a word meant for you and when you find it, live it, and share it, your life will become more rewarding and exciting than ever.

If you are a person that would like to have a word as your focus for the year, you can start the process at any time. Grab the book, read it and get started!  There are many resources out there to support you.

So, you’ve read the book!  Now what? 

If you’re like me, maybe a word has already risen to the surface for 2018. Or perhaps, you have a list of possibilities but aren’t sure which to choose. Maybe you’re struggling with where to begin or you might not have even thought about it at all yet. 

Wherever you are in the process of finding your One Word, here a few things to consider when finding your word:

Focus on a state of being, not what you are doing.
Your One Word isn’t a reminder of what you “should be doing”. It should inspire how you want to live. Choose a word that will help you become what you want to become.

Be authentic.
Don’t pick a word that sounds good. The word should be a reflection of you personally and resonates with you on a deep level.

Don’t over think it.
It’s simply about identifying the word that keeps coming back to nag at your heart. It should be a word that you see, hear, and recognize the most in your daily life.Make a list of words that come to your mind or appeal to your goals and vision. It can include nouns like peace or joy), adjectives (brave or creative), or verbs (like pause or prepare.

Take some time to look the words up in the dictionary, thesaurus, inspirational quotes, or google them. Look into the meanings and start to remove words that no longer speak to you. Give yourself time to mull over your short list.

Then, take a deep breath and commit.  There’s no right or wrong answers – just follow your heart.

This brings me to my word…. Commitment.  As 2018 dawns, I see that I have dedicated myself to causes and people that I feel passionate about.  I have always been committed to my family, faith and job. But, 2018 brings bigger commitments to causes close to my heart, new committee, professional organizations, appointments, and supporting friends taking on new and exciting adventures.  I am passionate about al the new things that 2018 will bring, and have made a commitment to help others and myself accomplish some goals and amazing things!

The Educator's Innovative and Growth Mindset

I have been revisiting and thinking about Innovator’s Mindset by George Couros and The Growth Mindset by Carol Dweck.  In order for us to embrace innovation in our schools and classrooms, teachers must have the growth mindset and embrace being an innovator first.  Only then can we create schools that embody this mindset as a “culture”.

“Belief that abilities, intelligence, and talents are developed leading to the creation of new and better ideas.”  Carol Dweck

To develop a culture and “innovators” mindset, we must embody it ourselves.  To borrow George’s work and research on characteristics and themes in the area of innovation, listed below are the 8 Characteristics of an Innovator’s Mindset and why they are important for us as educators:

1.    Empathetic – To create new and better ways of doing things, we need to first understand who we are creating them for.  As educators, we should start with the question: “What is best for this particular child?”  For us to create something better for our students, we have to understand their experiences.  This way we can understand what works and what does not work from the perspective of a learner, not a teacher.  We need to put ourselves in our student’s shoes before we can create better opportunities for them in our classrooms.

2.    Problem Finders – All innovation starts from a question, a problem, or frustration - not an answer.  Many capstone projects created by students in their classrooms start with first finding, and then solving problems both locally and globally.  How often do we as educators immerse ourselves in a similar process?  If want to be innovative, we need to look at questions first.  The questions could be as simple as, “What features does Gmail offer me?” Then, we need to go find the answers or create a solution.

3.    Risk-Takers – Many would agree that “we have always done it this way”, “it’s tradition” or “best-practice” can be the enemy of innovation.  To be truly innovative, you sometimes have to go off the beaten path.  For some students, the “tried-and-true” methods will still work, but others, you will need to try something different.  If students are totally checking out of school, is “best practice”, “tradition” or “status quo” truly “best”, or just most comfortable for the teacher?

4.    Networked – Innovation does not happen in isolation, as it is often ideas that are being shared amongst a group that lead to new and better ideas being developed.  The best educators have always created networks to learn from others and create new and powerful ideas.  Now through the use of social media, we have the opportunity to take networks to a whole different level.  We can create “idea banks” globally.  If isolation is the enemy of innovation, then networks are crucial if we are going to develop the “Innovator’s Mindset”.

5.    Observant – Individuals that are “innovative” are constantly looking around their world to create connections or make an idea their own.  In education, we often look to solutions to come from “educational institutions”, but when organizations around the world share their practices and ideas, we have to tap into their diverse expertise and learn from them as well.  Watch what others are doing.  Use their new ideas as a catalyst to inspire your own!

6.    Creators – Many people have great ideas, yet they never come to fruition.  Innovation is a combination of ideas and hard work.  What you create as a result of what you have learned is imperative in this process of an innovator.

7.    Resilient – Things do not always work on the first try you them.  An innovator learns from failure and makes adjustments to their plan to lead to success.  This is something great teachers model daily in their teaching, they modify and adjust as needed while they turn good ideas into great ones.

8.    Reflective – What worked for you and your students? What didn’t?  What could we do better next time?  What would we do differently?  It is important that we sit down and reflect on our learning as students, teachers, leaders, and innovation.  In a time of pacing guides and preparing for the test we often over look this step, yet reflection is probably the most important part of education as the connections we make on our own is where the deepest learning happens.

As teachers and leaders, it is critical that we create a culture where the 8 characteristics are not only accepted but celebrated and encouraged.  Being “innovative” should no longer be a buzzword, it should be an expectation that we embody the “Innovator’s Mindset” at all levels to meet the learning needs of each student that passes through our doors, and help them toward a successful future in a global society.

Beyond #BookSnaps: Using Social Media and Creation Applications to Show Learning

I have loved the idea of #Booksnaps, a concept created by Tara Martin.

Here is why I love them!

Essentially, Booksnaps take a high-yield instructional strategy, close reading, to a fun and creative level. Booksnaps can be used for a variety of texts (narrative, informational, graphic) for any subject area in any grade.

Creating #BookSnaps is literacy-rich activity.  Digital Literacies involve knowing how a tool works and when it is appropriate to use the tool in the correct context. It is also an excellent assessment tool in that it allows students to demonstrate their thinking about what they are reading, learning and experiencing.  BookSnaps makes that thinking visible to the teacher and others and provides students practice with alternative uses of social media or creation applications (Instagram, SnapChat, Google Draw, and PicCollage).

I have been working with teachers and students at South Middle School to create "Snaps" of understanding in all content areas.  Check out some of the amazing creations that students have shared with me.  Also, check out our book recommendations at #GFPSYAReads.

These are so much fun to create and it makes student learning visible to those that they share them with.  So, glad we got "snappy" with our learning and Google Draw!  Let me know if you want to have your students "snap" too!