Category: 21st century learning

#IMMOOC: Finding Opportunites for Innovation

#IMMOOC: Finding Opportunites for Innovation

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I was recently reading Dave Burgess’ blog about how change is built and not announced. He used this beautiful analogy of building a snowball that really resonated with me and how I think about innovation:

No matter what your position, you can create change. If you are struggling to do so, maybe you’re trying to pick up all the snow at once. Just grab a handful, pack it tight, and then start pushing. Change is a lot easier when you’re rolling snowballs downhill.

-Dave Burgess-

In this week’s IMMOOC, we are exploring our definitions of innovation and what they can look like in our school’s context. Change is an inherent part of innovation. In the book, Innovator’s Mindset, George Curous shares some of the challenges he faced with defining it as he took on his role as the Divisional Principal of Innovative Teaching and Learning. He contemplated Simon Sinek’s ideas on leadership, ruminating on how impactful organizations are when they dig into and articulate a clear “why” behind their existence and then move toward changing the what and designing their system of how to match their cultural values. Cultivating an innovative culture doesn’t require transformation -it requires information on what is ideal for our unique group of learners and school context, refining the current practices and classroom spaces so that it is optimal for learning. “Change for the sake of change” is not the point of innovation. George explains that “Innovation is a way of thinking that creates something new and better“, as we consider what would help spur the intellectual and emotional growth of our learners. When we keep the focus on the kids, innovation happens organically and with purpose.Anytime teachers think differently about.png

As I step into the classroom this week, I have the intention to think differently about our learning community and find the opportunities for innovation. If I think back to Dave’s snowball analogy, I’ll need to keep my awareness on the “small handfuls of snow” that I can pick up and build upon so that I can create some momentum with the innovative ideas that will best serve our students.

A Journey into Design Thinking to Tackle Classroom Challenges

A Journey into Design Thinking to Tackle Classroom Challenges

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Design thinking isn’t a subject, topic or class. It’s more of a way of solving problems that encourage positive risk-taking and creativity.

-From LAUNCH by John Spencer and A.J. Juliani-

I am not proud to say this but I am really struggling with our school’s initiative to tear down classroom walls and combine classes to increase collaboration. I’m usually keen to try out new ideas but it’s made me question so many things about what is trending in education and has really made me “sharpen my stone” when it comes to classroom management.  But here’s the thing, I don’t want to ‘manage’ the students, I want to empower them. So I wonder what I am missing –how can I use this structure and type of learning to fulfill the needs of our 21st-century learners? How will this better prepare them for their future?  George Curous says “Change is an opportunity to do something amazing“. So I’ve taken on my innovator’s mindset and have begun to apply design-thinking to build a better functioning learning environment.

In Design Thinking, initially, you seek to understand your “audience” or the “user” and define the problems that they may have.  Currently, we have two perspectives to consider: our students and our team of teachers. Collectively we are a community of learners, but it’s important to put the needs of the children first–they are the reason why we are here anyway, right?!  But as teachers, we are the facilitators of this change, so I think our focus will ultimately be on the big WE, and cannot carve ourselves out of the equation when developing a flourishing community of learning.

user experience.jpg
The journey begins! What does our community of learners need? Why? How does it make them feel?!

Because this is the research and discovery phase, I am really digging into books and articles to find ways to make this work–not that we survive but to thrive in such an environment, and turn this challenge into an opportunity.

So I’ve begun to approach our situation through the lens of curiosity and ask questions about the challenges that are most immediate and pressing. As teachers, we have three main areas of concern: time for learning, the organization of the learning space, and conducting effective and engaging classroom discussion (in the large group and in small groups with our noisy space). Here is a list of just some of the questions I have begun to formulate about our collaborating Grade 1 classes:

  1. How can we structure our timetable to ensure that we have enough stand-alone literacy, maths and then transdisciplinary unit time?
  2. Of those transdisciplinary subject areas, how best do we need to develop the knowledge and skills in that areas?-in the “large group” (both classes combined) or in “split groups” (separated grade 1 classes) or through a carousel of activities.
  3. How do individual voices get heard in all the “noise”? What tools and strategies do we need to employ to make sure that there is a diversity of ideas being shared, especially our English Language Learners?
  4. How can we use our space to design areas, not just for literacy and maths, but for genuine collaboration, creativity, and quiet?
  5. What gets the kids not just “doing stuff” but actually thinking and reflecting?
  6. And how do we develop strong relationships with our students, knowing about who they are and how they learn best? What feedback systems can we create to help them go from learning passively to actively engaging and ultimately being empowered?

Although I know that we have already begun a rough “prototype” with how we tackle these challenge areas, I recognize that we need more time to understand our learners, our constraints and what the research says about developing more collaborative learning environments, which some have dubbed as Modern Learning Environments (MLE). 

desing evolved
From the wonderful website: http://corbercreative.com/the-ux-process/

So as I layer the designer mindset to frame our challenges, I recognize that we will need to actually get more data. If I am to rewind and start again, then our discovery phase requires a deeper analysis into the complexities of our learners and the needs of our community. Other than our co-planning meetings and daily reflections, I have 2 other ideas for mining some data:

  1. Student survey: we need to find other ways to include their student ideas so they are co-designers of our learning community. In the book, The Space: A Guide for Educators  , the authors encourage including student voice to create a purpose for the learning spaces and cultivate behaviors that support their emotional and mental growth. I am thinking of using the formative assessment app Plickers for a general climate survey and then work on interviewing students either individually or in small groups to get their feedback and input on how we can improve the learning.
  2. Fly on the Wall-I would like to ask some staff members, including administrators, to just pop in and make objective observations. I am thinking about making a questionnaire as a framework for their drop-ins, but I’m also really curious about them just capturing some conversations that they hear–what is the “talk” in the classroom?

As I begin to dive into our data, I will be sure to share some of the results. Truthfully, I’ve always thought about design thinking as something that you introduce when doing project-based learning and never thought to use it in this context, so I’m exploring new territory.  I am really keen to hear other people’s stories and ideas about how I can go deeper. What am I missing? What suggestions do you have?

The Future of Homework

The Future of Homework

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HOMEWORK!-There is probably not an area of education that is more hotly debated than this. It doesn’t matter if you are a parent or an educator, opinions will vary. There is the 10-minute rule that a lot of schools use that comes out of the research done by Harris Cooper due to the positive correlation between student achievement and homework. Following this rule of thumb, a child in the first grade would be assigned 10 minutes of homework, while a secondary student would be assigned no more than 90 minutes of homework. However, this principle is not helpful in differentiating based on the needs a child because not all children take the same amount of time on each assignment. So this complexity makes it difficult to make generalizations about how much homework should be given. And, quantity is not the same as quality. There’s been a huge trend towards “Flipped Learning” in which teachers assign a video for students to watch at home and then they do the practice problems at school. Math is a particularly popular subject for this type of homework. In the latest season of the Innovator’s Mindset MOOC,  George Curous interviews Jo Boaler,  a personal math hero of mine, who surprisingly dismissed this approach to math learning.

She explains that, at the end of the day, all this fuss over homework doesn’t matter. In fact, according to research done, it has a negative impact when you look at access to the internet, meaning that disadvantaged families or families without technology in their homes suffer from a “digital divide”. The research on this rather reminds me of the book Future Shock by Alvin Toffler in which one of his main ideas was how technology will create a post-industrial age revolution that will create an economic and psychological chasm. Although back in 1970, these ideas were radical, now in 2017, it has come to past with the era of the “knowledge worker”. And so one has to wonder if our traditional approach to homework is actually serving our students in preparing them for their future, especially as I ponder one of Toffler’s infamous quotes from this book:

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. -Alvin Toffler  

At many PYP schools, there has been a shift toward reframing homework as home learning, and parents who have had more traditional educational backgrounds have mixed opinion on this. In a place like Asia, in which students usually take classes after school or attend academies, parents really cringe to hear that there isn’t homework being assigned. And in many ways, sending home worksheets or assignments really helps communicate the learning that is being done in the classroom to families; because parents can see that their child is doing 10 homework problems with expanded notation, they have an obvious idea of the learning that is going on in the classroom. At our school, we send home “learning overviews” that detail the conceptual understanding and learning outcomes of the units of inquiry, adding ways that parents can support the learning at home. Also, since we use we use the app SeeSaw, we post a lot of photos of what we are doing in class. And I wonder if this fills the void that parents feel while meanwhile achieving the aims of preparing students for this “future shock”, that, in many ways, is already underway. At the end of the day, both teachers and parents just want the children to feel successful and equipped for their unknown careers ahead.

What I found most interesting about Boaler’s interview is how she articulates the importance of cultivating students’ genius. More homework? No!-more brain connections!  Jo explains that “when you have a piece of knowledge that you see in different ways”, you can be more of a creative problem solver. And how can homework really achieve that unless it is a passion project or conducting personal research that fosters divergent ways of thinking? More importantly, valuing their ideas helps children to develop confidence, autonomy, and a work ethic. And it can be gymnastics, baking a cake or playing a game. Doing this, rather than a page of math problems, surely will pay higher dividends in the long run. That’s the problem with homework–it’s rarely authentic or inspiring. And if students don’t have an intrinsic drive to learn more, there is absolutely no way that forcing a student to conjugate verbs or memorize the rivers in the world will improve that situation. Getting kids to be deeply curious and willing to try and fail at something is loads better-  that is the only learning that needs to happen, inside or outside the classroom.

So I think that the future of “homework” might just be extinction.

What do you think? Post comments below.
Shouldn’t the Madhatter be a Girl? He’s Having a Tea Party After All!

Shouldn’t the Madhatter be a Girl? He’s Having a Tea Party After All!

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I have really been grappling with the idea of “girl stuff” vs. “boy stuff” lately and it’s a conversation that I have had with many of my friends who are likewise trying to navigate the concept of gender with their children in our modern age. In an effort to make sense of this, I reached out to fellow International Baccalaureate educator and creativity wizard, Tim Fletcher to help me explore this idea in a guest blog post. Tim is an avid dancer and Middle Years Programme (MYP) performing arts teacher at The Inter-Community School in Zurich, Switzerland. I am excited to share his ideas and I hope they are as thought-provoking and insightful for you as they were for me. Enjoy!

 

 

I knew I was different. I thought that I might be gay or something because I couldn’t identify with any of the guys at all. None of them liked art or music. They just wanted to fight and get laid. – Kurt Cobain

There is something incredibly sad with this quote from Cobain, a guy that went on to make music that defined a generation and most likely resonated strongly with those that he could not identify with growing up. What it does show is the huge disparity between the perception of gender role play and the reality. What Cobain found interesting was disregarded by his peers as not being ‘masculine enough’, yet his through his own path he became a revered figure. It is a complex subject which I can reflect on from a personal perspective, having started ballet in a small rural city at the age of six, but it has many wider implications about how our brains are wired, how society reinforces that wiring and what we can do to change those perceptions.

What gave me the desire to ask my mother to start ballet so early? Why was I driven to dance, that it became such a driving factor in my life that it turned into a career? To be perfectly honest I have no idea, I must have seen it – and that was it, I had to dance. It is a decision that shaped my life, took me travelling, introduced me to my wife, etc. My whole being was attracted to movement and moving, and still is.

Not to say I didn’t like doing the boy things too. I ran around with toy guns and built spaceships, I just did ballet as well. Now I got lucky, my friends accepted that ‘Tim just did ballet’ and never questioned it or its masculinity. But in lots of situations it is questioned, take this anecdote, for example, the given starting point for this blog post: During a recent sleepover, my daughter creeps over to me and whispers “I think when I grow up, I’m going to be a boy”. My eyebrows raised and a curious grin comes to meet her gaze. “Really, what makes you say that?” She confesses, “Well, I like boy stuff like robots and remote control cars”.  “Ah, I see”. “and I don’t think it’s fair that boys get to have all the fun, why can’t us girls play with those things? And furthermore, I don’t think it’s fair that us girls only get to play with Barbies. Maybe boys would like to play dress up as well. What do you think?” My 7-year-old explains what prompted this revelation–her girlfriends prefer to play with Barbies all day and she gets bored with them after a while. So she feels like she’s not “girl enough”. The socialisation of this situation is frightening in that seven year old questions herself and feels she may not be “girl enough”, like Cobain, when we don’t fit – we feel ‘unnormal’.

As soon as young children figure out the difference between being boy or girl (we’ll stay with the binary for sake of not exploring another theme) they start to play out roles. Although, the exact cause of gender identity remains unknown, biological, psychological and social variables clearly influence the process1. These are reinforced by older siblings, peers, education, media, toys, marketing and most of all parents. Very quickly children fall into what they hear in the playground, like ‘boys are dumb’, ‘girls aren’t strong’, etc… and let’s not start with the parents who bolster these attitudes.  

We are quick to jump on the bandwagon today and blame marketers, toy manufacturers and tv producers that create gender specific products and content for today’s youth, not to mention the sickening phenomenon of pink for girls, blue for boys (which only took hold in the early eighties). In fact, we have been going in reverse with gender neutral toys, so much so, that when you wade through the mass selection in a toy store it represents more a vision of the 1950’s than the 21st century.  Surprisingly, it’s only the last three decades though that the toy industry has made massive strides backward, making a buck and greed has driven this trend. But it wasn’t always this way, check out this letter from Lego that came with a set of bricks in 1974.

lego to parent

Marketers and our environment contribute to this problem of gender identity and what is “normal” or not. All that being said, there is now some growing evidence to suggest that we may actually be predisposed to certain types of toys based on our gender. Recent studies with rhesus monkeys showed how female and male bias may be biological in what types of toys they preferred to interact with. In this study, male monkeys took to the trucks and females to the dolls. And there is a lot of historical reasons to support this, men hunted and built the shelters, woman cooked and bore children. Then these roles were repeated and repeated, and repeated, until very recently. It provides us with a framework of why the world is constructed as it is and why some people have trouble surrendering to modern structures.

This creates what we call ‘norms’. Most males probably have a predisposition to building and most females to nurturing, within a bell curve of sorts. Most people fit into (more or less) this type of behaviour, which is fine. Although, these norms can be twisted. We know through psychology that we categorise and compartmentalise as a coping mechanism. It is impossible for me to think of every person as an individual, with uniques traits, likes and dislikes, etc. So my brain groups them by their ethnicity, nationality, gender, clothing, etc. These rough categorisations have associated attributes from my specific environmental socialisation, i.e. my opinion, based on my experience, to a particular ethnic group, gender, etc – determines that… and violà I have a sweeping inaccurate impression of someone I saw for a second on the street. Although it is inaccurate, our impressions of others defined by this categorising, creates cognitive comfort.

What is not fine is giving into it and judging people for not fitting into the stereotypes we have built of the world, like when a girl prefers to play with robots and a boy prefers to do ballet. Even worse berating them for being different. Many parents who insist and tell their child that they are an individual, special and can do anything often struggle when the child falls from the realms of normal gender play. This cognitive dissonance must also cause some discomfort for the child “Mum says I’m special and can do anything… except, as long as I don’t play with dolls and stick with trucks”.

This is why we have a responsibility to educate, establish acceptance and shape a new set of norms, which is the responsibility of all those I listed above that contribute to this predicament. So, what can we adopt to remedy this perception problem?

Asking children why they think one way to challenge the stereotypes is a good place to start. Why is it stupid to brush and stylise the doll’s hair? What could you learn from doing it? Could the plaiting of hair give them ideas to build in different ways? This could be supported by showing innovative building designs but also showcasing successful male hairdressers. Breaking down false stereotypes can be done rationally, and emotionally. There can be an appeal to the emotions in the context of a game or competition. Children facing gender opposite tasks during a game will often “get on with it” because of the nature of competition and through doing, their actions may appeal to their emotions – that actually, it feels alright.

What can happen by observing different toy vehicles in action? The tyres make different patterns which could be the formation of an eventual print on the material. There are an unlimited amount of ways we can look at using gender specific toys in a variety of ways if we allow ourselves. In terms of creativity, it is a well-documented technique that putting odd things together can have very productive and unique outcomes, as I have covered in this post. It could be introduced as a rule of playing with gender opposite toys at home or in the classroom. How can I apply this toy, or playing with this toy, to an area of interest for me?

But most importantly we must be installing a new ‘norm’ of acceptance with what children are drawn to and indeed prefer to engage in. If that interest manifests it could shape their lives, so we have more female physicists and male midwives. I hate to think what would have happened if I had not been allowed, and indeed encouraged, to follow my passion for movement and attend ballet classes.

  1. https://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-guides/psychology/development-psychology/psychosocial-development-age-02/gender-development

nela_painted_1

If you would like to read more from Tim and his research more specifically into creativity and education, check out his blog, Learn Creatively. He has a lot of interesting ideas about the intersection of art, learning, and inspiration.

Why Schools Should Rethink the Use of Classroom Time

Why Schools Should Rethink the Use of Classroom Time

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Before I begin to ruminate on the title of this post- are you familiar with the work of Cal Newport? His book, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, changed the way I think about my use of personal time. I highly recommend it. Its premise is simple, we live in the Age of the Knowledge Worker, in which our highest value to society is the ability to apply our understanding to solve problems and think critically.  Our fragmented attention deters us from doing something well, and thus if we want to work at our highest levels, then we must “drain the shallows” of our life and put the focus on developing the skills the understanding that will move us forward in our work and passions through ruthless command of our schedules and excavating frivolous habits that waste our time and do not produce any benefit in our lives.

Since reading this book, I systematically eke out time in which I can do research and reading to improve my craft as an educator. The more I work with the principles of Deep Work, the more I wonder how it can be applied to my classroom.

As an avid fan of his blog, I have to share an excerpt of a recent post:

A Tale of Two Schedules

In 2009, tech investor Paul Graham published an influential essay titled “Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule.” In this piece, he argued that the best types of schedules for people who makes things are different than the best schedules for those who manage things.

As Graham elaborates:

“The manager’s schedule is…embodied in the traditional appointment book, with each day cut into one hour intervals. You can block off several hours for a single task if you need to, but by default you change what you’re doing every hour…”

“…But there’s another way of using time that’s common among people who make things, like programmers and writers. They generally prefer to use time in units of half a day at least. You can’t write or program well in units of an hour. That’s barely enough time to get started.”

He then delivers the key conclusion: “When you’re operating on the maker’s schedule, meetings are a disaster.”

Though Graham doesn’t mention it specifically in the essay, we might add that the need to keep up with an inbox or chat channel can be equally disastrous to a maker. The constant context switching, as we now know from research, also prevents the maker’s brain from fully engaging the creative task at hand.

In the years since this essay was published, it has spread widely. The (slightly modified) terms maker schedule and manager schedule are well-known, and most people who deal with both types of workers agree that Graham is speaking the truth: if you want someone to make something valuable, they’ll be most effective if you let them work in long, uninterrupted chunks.

But here’s the thing: almost no organizations support maker schedules.

Speaking of organizations…ahem, let’s talk about schools, shall we? What does your school timetable look like?- Are you creating “makers” or “managers” in your school? And, is one type better than the other, you might ask?–what am I implying here?

This is actually tricky to articulate but I’m wondering about my students’ futures. Managing seems to go with manufacturing, which I believe automation will make so many of those jobs obsolete. So developing their time organization skills seems more relevant as a “maker”.

But I am reminded of the words of Katie Wood Ray, a passionate educator of young writers, who says:

We need to talk about time in our conversations about the teaching of writing. Time is not just when writing instruction happens in school; time must be part of the curriculum, part of what students are learning about as they develop as writing. You see, it doesn’t really matter how many craft lesson or genre studies a teacher plans for students if she doesn’t first teach them how to sit down in chairs, stay there for a long time, and make some work for themselves that leads to writing. With blank paper in front of them, students have to leave how to make something out of nothing, and they must learn to come back the next day and do it again. The curriculum of time is fairly simple: Sit. Stay. Put something on the paper.

Excerpt from her book In Pictures and In Words: Teaching the Qualities of Good Writing

As a teacher of young students, I wholeheartedly agree that we must instill in our students’ a desire and curiosity in order for them to develop stamina and elaboration/experimentation in their work.  They must learn how to focus. I think ahead to next school year, I know I want to create habits of critical thinking and deep work, in which students approach their learning with the willingness to engage in the effort to create something. I know that some schools have Genius Hour or have special occasions such as Day of Design, but what if there were more embedded opportunities within a day to do something like this? Not only am I refreshing myself in the workshop model, but I am spending some time this summer considering how I might cultivate this habit and how I might structure it in the classroom. I want them to have the time to think and create artifacts of their learning that matter to them, that communicate who they are and what they care about. I want them to be intentional with their time.

I believe that we owe to our students to analyze our school timetables and consider if we are helping or harming our students in preparing for their future work. Are we bobbing from subject to subject or are we offering them chunks of the day dedicated to learning? Can we cultivate curiosity and carve out long blocks of time in which students can explore ideas and projects that matter to them and yet still move them forward in developing skills and knowledge?

What do you think? How does your school or your classroom develop time management skills in students? Do you think block time is successful in creating a culture of Deep Work? 

Season 1, Episode 4 of The Educator’s Companion to PD Podcast : Teachers First

Season 1, Episode 4 of The Educator’s Companion to PD Podcast : Teachers First

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I know that a lot of people enjoying reading and skimming through podcast show notes to get a gist of the highlights of the episode. This podcast was originally recorded back in June 2017. To listen to the podcast, please go here.

On February 16th, 2013, I signed up for a free membership at Teachers First and my life hasn’t been the same since. This is probably one of my favorite website for teachers. You can really get lost here in the generous amount of fabulous resources here, which has everything from Edtech reviewed resources to BYOD tools and tips, and tons upon tons of curriculum ideas to integrate subjects. It has other useful and timely resources for special education and But that’s really the tip of the iceberg, you have got to go check it out.

The best part of all of this is that it is completely free, including ads and politics. This site is interesting because it self-funds through its non-profit parent company, The Source for learning.   The Source for Learning (SFL), holds licenses for some special broadcast frequencies that date back to the 1970s that are now used by wireless communication companies. The royalties from these arrangements let SFL maintain Teachers First’s main operations as a free service for teachers. They see this website as their charitable way to help teachers enrich their practice with their online community for teachers by teachers. With thousands of lessons, units, and reviewed web resources for K-12 classroom teachers, you will be grateful that you have found this website, as it supports you in becoming a 21st-century educator.

There are literally thousands of resources here for classrooms K-12, but I’m going to focus mainly on the free professional development that they offer through their OK2Ask program. The OK2Ask program conducts virtual workshops that are designed to be interactive and practical. Since they are based in America, they offer these online workshops in the evening, eastern standard time, so it’s convenient as well. Even for me, who lives in China, I can catch these workshops before I go to school. These webinars are about 90-minutes long and you can ask all sorts of questions. The first 60-70 minutes is all about the topic, and then the rest of it is just answering a question.  That is what I love about these workshops is that you never have to feel idiotic. Sometimes you feel like you should know more about a topic but you don’t and are afraid to ask so you don’t look stupid. So I really appreciate how they create this context of authenticity, and they patiently and thoroughly answer questions. And, even though this is free, you can still get continuing education credits that you can use towards your licensing.  And those credits are not given with a fee attached–they are completely free.

Listen to the offerings for last month’s OK2Ask Program:
  • 3 Cool Tools for Student Response
  • Explore, compare, and contrast 3 free online student response tools for formative assessment in the classroom. 4/11
  • Digital Storytelling In the Classroom Pt. 3: Adding Tech Tools Join us to explore free options for creating digital storytelling projects with your students.
  • 4/25 Differentiating the K-8 Classroom Learn to use instructional technology strategies that invite differentiation and provide opportunities to tailor your teaching to reach all students.
  • 5/2 Meet Google Classroom Join us for a “Meet and Greet” with Google Classroom, an online tool that incorporates G-Suite apps into a dynamic classroom environment.
  • 5/9 Make the Most of Your TeachersFirst Membership Discover the benefits of the free membership offered by TeachersFirst.
  • 5/16 Microsoft Tools to Ignite Student Engagement and Increase Productivity! Enhance classroom instruction and connect your students to authentic classroom experiences with free tools from Microsoft
  • 5/23 Getting Started with Google Draw Explore the hidden treasure that is Google Draw. Don’t let its simplicity fool you; there are many things hidden in this versatile tool.
  • 5/30 Tech Integration Made Easy with Adobe Spark Engage your students with Adobe Spark, an integrated suite of FREE storytelling applications. Learn to use Adobe Spark, Post, and Page for classroom projects and personal productivity.
Personally, I have taken courses on everything from Daily 5 with a Technology Twist, to Digital Storytelling, to Tools for Flipped Learning, Student-friendly Search Engines.

3 Pros of the Resource

  1. The teachers who present these topics are really well versed and helpful, so you are getting quality PD. Oftentimes, there are multiple hosts so you are getting more than one perspective or advice from an expert in the area of interest.  I personally love that, and since they use Abode Connect, not only are there are little to none technical glitches, but it’s a great platform to interact and engage.
  2.  And they archive workshops so if you miss it, you watch it later. However, they do repeat certain popular workshops so there is a likelihood that you can catch it live another time.
  3. If you have a BYOD or 1:1 initiative at your school, they have a multitude of ideas and solutions to your challenges. You can use their archived workshops in your own school’s PD meetings, so your team can discuss and troubleshoot these challenges.

2 Cons of the Resource

I actually had to think hard about this since the Webinars are incredibly organized and are a well-oiled machine. but here are my 2 cons.
  1. You have to be live on the webinar in order to receive PD credit.
  2. They have almost too many resources. I know that sounds funny but sometimes you can get overwhelmed by it all. However, I do have to say that they have webinars on how to use the website and if you take it. And if all you ever do is engage in the OK2ASk offerings, the presenters do an amazing job with creating wikis on the content they share.

1 Idea for Success

Get a membership. It is free and be sure that you sign up for their newsletter. They don’t bombard you with a bunch of ads or annoying emails, it’s just straight up resources. I just want to share one more resource that you can avail yourself that is nestled in their professional resources area:

TeachersFirst’s Grant Sources and Contests

There they have over 30 listings of contests that educators can have their classroom compete in that award money as well as resources for educational grants. The only thing I love more than Free PD is free money for my classroom, so I highly recommend you avail yourself of these opportunities.
Season 1, Episode 3 of the Educator’s Companion to PD (Show Notes)–Taking a Byte Out of Apple

Season 1, Episode 3 of the Educator’s Companion to PD (Show Notes)–Taking a Byte Out of Apple

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I know that a lot of people enjoying reading and skimming through podcast show notes to get a gist of the highlights of the episode. This podcast was originally recorded back in June 2017. To listen to the podcast, please go here.

Can you think back to your first experience with an Apple product?  Was it with an iPod, iPhone, Mac or iPad?
My “aha” Apple moment was several years ago when we went on a trip to India with my family and friends. My daughter was turning 1 year old at the time and she was eager to explore and crawl around. Now I don’t know if you have ever been to India, which is a fantastic country, but with over a billion people, there is a lot of humanity and it was really hard to contain my daughter’s eagerness to crawl all over the ground. My friend Eric, in his wisdom, had downloaded a few toddler apps on his iPhone, and I can’t begin to tell you how much this saved us during our adventures in India. Although she was barely 1, she could completely navigate and engage with the games on his device. It blew my mind away. Clearly, Apple had designed such a user-friendly interface that even a toddler could use it. After this trip, I was transformed and became a technology optimist and began an advocate for its use in classrooms.
Now let me just say that Steve Jobs, the well-known founder of Apple, had been conspiring to hook us educators on its products nearly since The company’s inception.  You see Apple has always been vying for its place in education ever since the Apple 2 was introduced into classrooms in 1978. Back in the early 80’s Jobs marched up and down the halls of Congress for weeks to actively lobby them with an initiative called Kids Can’t Wait. This allowed corporations to make it easier to get tax breaks for donating to schools, libraries, and museums. It was after this push that  Apple soon came to dominate the education PC market (for a while at least), and developed initiatives like the Apple Distinguished Educator program and research projects like Apple Classroom of Tomorrow. So you could say that educators have been taking a “byte” out of the Apple for quite some time now. With the advent of iPads, tablets have become a staple in schools around the world, with over 8 million iPads in schools across the globe.
What is it?
So now that you know this, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that Apple has created an online Apple Teacher program. When Apple first started teaching teachers about computing, its focus was on programming with LOGO. Nowadays the Apple program is focused specifically on the features and tools of their products, allowing you to take 2 tracks–either on the MAC or iPads. And you can deep dive into the tools on applications such as Numbers, Garage Band, iMovie, and Keynote. You may think you know these apps well, but I guarantee that you will discover new things they can do with Apple Tools. Once you complete the training, you are provided Recognition with a special badge that you can put on your resume or CV, website or blog.
How does the program work?
  1. How you get the certification?
  2. What the certification means?
First of all, yuh need to head over to Appleteacher.apple.com and sign in using your Apple ID. Once you’ve logged in, you have to select your learning track, which will be with Mac or IPad. There you will review and study materials and pass the quiz for each app which will earn you a badge. Once you earn all 8 of the badges, you get the certification. For example, when I got my certificates, I had to get learning badges for the iPad, Pages, Numbers iMovie, GarageBand, keynote, creativity, And productivity with the iPad. Once I had all the badges, I was emailed my Apple Teacher logo and certification. It was a very straightforward and easy system.
The 3/2/1: 3 Pros, 2 Cons, and 1 Tip
The Pros: 
  1. The program is constantly evolving and expanding. Since the program launched in the summer of 2016, Apple has already added badges for teaching coding with Swift Playgrounds. I expect more apps will be launched and the training will go with it.  Also, earning badges in education is a trend that teachers need to pay attention to. I think in the future, our degree programs will be either augmented or replaced by badge systems. My opinion, but I think earning these symbols of recognition will be an important aspect of determining whether a teacher is “highly qualified” when it comes to 21st-century learning. Apple means to be a mover and a shaker in education, so I believe that their badges are going to carrying more clout as the program continues to evolve. After becoming an Apple Teacher, be sure to get the little badge/graphic so you can advertise your expertise either on your classroom door, blog, or website.
  2. There is a growing community of Apple Teachers. You can get your geek on and join Follow #appleteacher on Twitter to connect with other like-minded educators.The resources are fantastic. It’s not just about the badges. There are some fantastic resources here. Stories of technology being used in the classroom, starter guides for the most often used apps, teacher-created iBooks and much, much more.
  3. You can go deeper and apply to become an Apple Distinguished Educator. As per the 2017 guidelines, you must be employed in an academic capacity and submit a 2-minute video that demonstrates how you transforming the learning environment and creating success in the learning as well as extending your reach in education beyond your classroom walls. All applicants must attend an in-person ADE Academy event, which would cost a chunk of change, but you could imagine what an inspiring and life-changing event this could be. Perhaps something to look forward to doing some time in the future if you’re an Apple Geek.
The Cons:
  1. Learning through iBooks:  Currently, the program’s content is offered through ebooks, which I personally found a bit bland and I really wanted more of a multimedia approach with the How To’s, especially when I worked through the module on Garage Band and iMovie. I ended up going onto YouTube to watch videos, which was a bit confusing since there are different ways to navigate features on the iPad vs. the Mac, and there are different versions of the apps.
  2. It’s easy to Cheat: Meaning that you can take the quiz over and over again without really demonstrating true expertise in an app. Once you know the questions, it’s easy to go back and find the answers in the ebook without really developing the skill. I have a confession, I totally did that with the Numbers module. I am not a spreadsheet person so the least amount of effort I could put into that module, I did, but I didn’t feel that I really mastered the nuances of the app because the quizzes didn’t demand it from me.
So head on over to appleteacher.apple.com
Season 1, Episode 2: Getting a Harvard Education with MOOCs on The Educator’s Companion to PD Podcast (Show Notes)

Season 1, Episode 2: Getting a Harvard Education with MOOCs on The Educator’s Companion to PD Podcast (Show Notes)

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I know that a lot of people enjoying reading and skimming through podcast show notes to get a gist of the highlights of the episode. This podcast was originally recorded back in May 2017. To listen to the podcast, please go here.
Today we are going to talk about one of my favorite free learning resources: MOOCs. Spelled M. O. O. C.  Perhaps you have heard of them. But otherwise, you might be thinking, Huh what’s a MOOC? Yep, it’s a real word and it stands for Massive Open Online Course.
Massive means there’s a ton of choice of courses and the opportunity for many people to sign up. In a typical course, maybe 30 students sign up, but here you could literally have hundreds, if not thousands.
Open means that anyone can sign up and take the course, anytime and from anywhere. Its content is unlicensed and is free if you choose to audit it. Otherwise, certification can cost you upwards to 100 USD. In some cases, there are micro-credentials programs, which would cost beyond that, but today we are just focusing on one-off courses.
Online means that all of the learning content happens via the internet. Most of the interaction happens on one platform and in the online forums. Participants sign up and work through the modules, which can be done at any time of the day. The learning is asynchronized and so you needn’t complete work on specific time deadlines and can be very much self-paced.
Course means that it is structured with the intent to develop knowledge and skills. There is a curriculum to work through, complete with class outlines or syllabi that  a participant works through during the class. Oftentimes you can get college credit or certification by completing the course and paying a fee.
Sounds pretty good, right! Yes, it is! And MOOCs are really making it possible for people to be lifelong learners because there is no shortage of courses or programs that one can explore. In fact, they are poised to really disrupt higher education with the focus on competency-based education that emphasizes what students know and are able to do, rather than on how long it takes them to do it. Although I don’t want to really go into how MOOCs are challenging the status quo when it comes to getting degrees, let’s just say that  MOOCs are evolving and creating “micro Masters” programs so that one can really uplevel their knowledge and skills. So this is really a fantastic time to get on board the MOOC train because you have some fabulous professional development from high-quality universities.
So although there are many MOOC providers, I want to explore a few of them that have relevant courses for educators.
1. EdX: Courses are offered by well-known universities like MIT, Harvard University, Boston University, UC Berkeley, Kyoto University, Australian National University, University of Adelaide, University of Queensland, IIT Bombay, IIM Bangalore, Dartmouth College, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Curtin University.  You can learn anything from Design thinking to strategies for inquiry-based learning to Big Data and education. There’s no shortage of interesting and relevant courses that you can take so that you can become more informed and innovative in your classroom.
2. The next one is Cousera. Courses here are offered by universities such as Stanford University, Princeton University, Arizona State University, University of Maryland College Park, Yale and Duke Universities. Here you can learn about topics such as emerging trends and technology for virtual classrooms, music in the 21st-century classroom, autism spectrum disorder, digital storytelling, copyright for teachers and librarians. The list goes on.
3. My 3rd favorite MOOC provider is FutureLearn and most of these universities hail from the UK such as the University of Birmingham, University of Edinburgh, King’s College London, University of Leicester, University of Reading, Open University, University of Southampton.  There you can explore topics such as Assessment for Learning in STEM teaching, Mindfulness, Dyslexia and foreign language teaching, science writing, Getting a grip on mathematical symbolism, learning how to code, and social well-being. Again, a plethora of choices.
4. Another great MOOC provider is Open2Study which offers courses from a mulititude of Australian universities such as James Cook University, Griffith University, University of Wollongong, Flinders University, RMIT University, Central Institute of Technology, Sydney Institute, University of Western Sydney, Polytechnic West, Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Swinburne University of Technology, University of Newcastle, Jordan University of Science and Technology, University of Tasmania, International College of Management, Sydney, Massey University. There you can explore topics such as Early Childhood teaching, Sports and recreation management, the Human Body as a Machine, Education in a Changing World, Foundations in Psychology, the Art of Photography, and World Music. Again, a multitude of topics to pique your interest.
5. Lastly, I want to speak about the Canvas Network whose courses are made from a network of American universities based in Utah. You can take courses about digital tools for K-12 educators, art appreciation, chemistry, grammar, educating girls, digital citizenship. and economics. One of my favorite courses I’ve ever taken, and probably the one that hooked me into taking MOOCs was offered by then. It was about becoming more creative.
There are more MOOC providers but these are my top picks for educators. Since you have figured out your learning goal already and know what topics you want to explore, you can easily browse on any of these sites to find courses that would match your professional interest. Complete one course at a time. It’s tempting to sign up for 10, but stay focused. Most courses will tell you how long it will take to complete, with roughly 2-4 hours a week being an average.
 Now I’d like to do a segment that I am calling the 3/2/1. 3 pros of this of the resource. 2 Cons and 1 idea to help you succeed.
3 pros of this resource:
  1. These are high-quality courses, nearly the equivalent of a college class.
  2. You can participate at any time or as much or as little as you want, so your level of engagement is defined by you.
  3. You can explore a variety of perspectives on an educational topic, or gain timely content knowledge that you can use in your lesson plans.
2 Cons
  1. Since these classes aren’t going toward a degree, courses aren’t usually offered over and over again as they might in a traditional college with its semesters. If you missed the sign-up date, there’s a chance you can still access an archived version of the course, but it just depends on how it was set up.
  2. On some MOOC sites, they are really pushing that you pay for the courses. For example, on Cousera, you have to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the sign-up page before you see an “audit this class for free” button.  If you need continuing education credits for your teaching license certification, then you have to pay for it. So that’s the caveat on this, however, if you want to enroll in the class for free, you can always upgrade and pay for it later to get credits towards your certification and the price is rarely more than 50 USD. So I might suggest that you sign up and see your willing to see this class to the end before I make the investment in it if you need professional development certification credits.
1-Idea for success
  1. There are a ton of interesting subjects being explored via MOOCs. Before signing up for a MOOC, look back at your goal–is this course really in alignment with what you’re trying to accomplish? Read through the syllabi to ensure that it’s covering topics that will move you towards accomplishing your goal. Looking through the syllabus carefully will also help you to make sure that you have the prerequisite skills for completing it. For example, I signed up for a Robotics MOOC and then later I found out that I had to take a pre-test that tested my knowledge of Linear Algebra. Since it’s been ages since I took higher math, I went over to Khan Academy to reteach myself. When I did that, I realized that I would really need to invest more time in getting the prerequisite skills to do the MOOC. So I re-examined why I wanted to take the course and decided that my time invested in this course wouldn’t really help me become a better teacher, hence I dropped the course.

Hopefully, this overview was helpful and got you thinking about how you can deepen your knowledge of current and important pedagogy without spending loads of money. If you have any other MOOC providers that you also feel are worthy of notice, then comment below. Thanks!

The 14 Gifts of Design Thinking

The 14 Gifts of Design Thinking

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Last month I finished up the MITX Design Thinking for Leading and Learning course, and I’m still assimilating the profundity of these ideas and the impact they can have in classrooms. It’s actually really hard for me to articulate since I’m in the midst of a paradigm shift as ideas are colliding between developing empathy, creativity, and critical thinking in students. It’s been a “perfect storm” in my mind and I’m still trying to erase my former notions about design as a cycle instead of it as a creative process–which was probably my key take away. When I learned about how schools of poverty and underachievement are transformed by using it, I was impressed, to say mildly.  And I have been chewing on how this is possible when it occurred to me that it wasn’t all the great knowledge that was gained, it was the mindset that was cultivated. In particular, it made me think about the work of Brene Brown and her research on shame and vulnerability.

The REVOLUTION will not be televised. It will be in your classroom! You are working on the hardest edges of love.

Do not ever question the power you have with the people you teach!

Learning is inherently vulnerable and it’s like you got a classroom full of turtles without shells.  The minute they put their shells back on, they are protected–from their peers, from their teachers, from whoever–no learning can come in…so we really have to develop ‘shame resilent’ classrooms.

-Brene Brown, author of Daring Greatly

I agree with Brene Brown about developing “shame resilience” and have found the usual tug of war between with teaching and mistake making diminishes when we introduce students to a mindset in which they appreciate the importance of recognizing our errors and strive for constant improvement. When I think about design thinking, I believe it could beinnovation a powerful way for students to experience their vulnerability and develop perspective taking, all the while creating real cool stuff–whether it is a piece of writing, a t-shirt, a rollercoaster, an app or, in my Early Year’s classroom, a garden. They learn how to fail forward and create another prototype. This design sprint is not a destructive but constructive element because, although they spent a lot of time developing their idea, the focus shifts from the product itself to the user–who will reap the benefits of this redesign. It gets the kids to detach from what they are making to who they are making it for. This nuance has a relatively big impact on the process of improvement.

So, it’s been in the midst of implementing it at a deeper level, that I had a moment of clarity in which I connected Brown’s ideas to that of design-thinking. Design-based learning creates a space in your classroom in which different “gifts” from the students’ learning can emerge:

  1. Love Of Ideas
  2. Belonging (in their collaborative groups)
  3. The Joy of creating something and learning new ideas.
  4. Courage to try new things
  5. Problem-finding by thinking future forward and considering what the possible issues might be with their design.
  6. Innovation by using different strategies and materials to solve a challenge.
  7. Ethical decision making by considering the different perspectives and considering if their solutions will be harmful to the environment or hurtful to others.
  8. Trust in each other and themselves
  9. Empathy for the users.
  10. Accountability to finish the job
  11. Flexibility with our time table and dealing with challenges.
  12. Creativity in designing.
  13. Listening to Feedback from others
  14. Hard conversations with each other

As my class is still in the midst of this design-based unit, I continue to be fascinated by their growth as the process reveals another level of their thinking and feeling about issues and ideas related to our current unit. I’m enjoying observing this process and love how it fits so well with the inquiry-based learning model of the Primary Years Programme (PYP). I definitely look forward to implementing this approach in future.

I’m wondering if others who have more experience with design thinking would agree with the “gifts” and/or add different ones to the list. Please share. I’m genuinely interested in your perspective.

Season 1, Episode 1 of The Educator’s Companion to Professional Development: Unlock Your Genius through PLPs (Show Notes)

Season 1, Episode 1 of The Educator’s Companion to Professional Development: Unlock Your Genius through PLPs (Show Notes)

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I know that a lot of people enjoying reading and skimming through podcast show notes to get a gist of the highlights of the episode. This podcast was originally recorded back in May 2017. To listen to the podcast, please go here.

Before we start diving into all the great resources, I really want to share with you a structure to unlock your potential, that I call a professional learning plan. I know. It’s not very sexy sounding, but it is a practical framework that you can use as a map for your learning journey.
Today’s Focus hinges on 2 questions: Why you need to create a personalized plan for your professional development? And what is the framework so you can get the most out of your learning?

Why you need to create a personalized learning plan?

Unfortunately, for many teachers today, professional development is viewed more as an exercise in compliance rather than an opportunity to improve their practice.
Research has shown that the way in which schools and districts deliver professional learning is highly fragmented and characterized by big disconnects between decision-makers and teachers.
I was surprised and disappointed to find that research suggested that only 29 percent of teachers are highly satisfied with current professional development offerings. With a 1/3 of all teachers stating that they do not believe that professional development is helping them prepare for the changing nature of the profession, including the use of technology and digital learning tools, analyzing student data to differentiate instruction, and implementing the curriculum.
 So, although a variety of professional development formats such as professional learning communities and coaching is becoming mainstream, there is an extraordinary amount of that still feel like they aren’t growing themselves, and becoming more effective in their classrooms. Perhaps this is because they have limited if any choice. Fewer than one in three teachers actually have a voice in their professional development.  Yet, what we do know is that those teachers with more choice are more likely to engage seriously in professional learning and improve their craft.
I can absolutely relate to the struggle of making professional development meaningful in schools. As a curriculum coordinator, I was involved in the planning of professional development for my school. We look at data, we do surveys, we have PD committees, we have PLCs, we have collaborative planning meetings. We try to tick all the boxes but the truth is that it is really difficult to move students forward without addressing the specific needs of a teacher; so we often make generalizations when it comes to professional development decisions. We talk a lot about differentiation for students, but rarely for teachers. But the research now shows that increasing the use of self-guided online resources combined with the individual teacher’s innate desire to focus on a professional goal, improves the quality of learning in the classroom.
Teachers who are learners, shift from mediocrity to expert status when they are motivated towards a professional goal that is meaningful and timely for their growth in an area of specific interest. And passionate teachers, create classrooms of excellence.
It is preciously why I have made this podcast and preciously why I want to help you to create a personalized professional learning plan because you can go from good to great in no time whatsoever if you have a framework that supports your growth. So this professional learning plan is has been created from a mash-up and combines the ideas of Google, the methods of Tim Ferris and Josh Kaufman, as well as stealing from the playbook of the personal learning plans that we use for our students.

What is a personalized learning plan?

Now I’d like to share with you the 6-step process to create your plan, and 4 tips to help you be successful in executing it. So let’s begin.
Step 1: Start with the end in mind by creating a goal.
You have to have a destination in mind when you embark upon a learning journey. So think about what worries you about your learners or what excites you in education, then create a goal around that. Be careful not to make it something outrageous but it needs to be something that is challenging–to throw out some teacher speak for you, it needs to be in your zone of proximal learning, right?
The Goal: To be Smart on Unsmart?–that is the question!
Yes, you may wonder how you should approach goal setting.  At this point, I’m going to leave this up to you. You’re an adult and you know you. Some of you may cringe at the idea of making a goal S. M. A. R. T.–specific, measurable, achievable, relevant/realistic, and time-bound. Yet others of you really need that in order to flesh out your goal. What I am suggesting is to use a framework that will inspire you and keep you glued to this interest so that it becomes sustainable.  Your goal needs to you light you up and get you excited for this journey ahead. Use positive language that is focused on what you want, not what you don’t want. You can start with a challenge that you currently plaguing you.
I can give you a personal example. I had a student who I was concerned about that had some very anti-social tendencies. And I really wanted to find a way to develop empathy in this student without it being a lesson in social skills because that approach really wasn’t working since this student had a touch of oppositional defiance. So I decided that I was going to another approach such as design thinking as my way to developing perspective-taking in students, particularly this student.
So my goal became: I use design thinking in at least 1 unit this year, in order to develop perspective over a product and cultivate empathy in a context that is rigorous and fun.
There you go. Hopefully, my personal example helps you to consider how you might create a goal statement that captures what success might look like. The point here is to turn any challenge or interest that you have into a statement that you resonate with and places the attention on your purpose for learning.
When you crafted something that makes you feel anticipation and delight, boom–that’s your goal. Do that.
 
Step 2: Audit your Knowledge
They say that what you measure you can improve upon. We know that all good learning in our classroom begins with a pre-assessment. So then the next logical step is to do an audit of what we know about this topic. I’ve created a workbook that goes with this plan which you can access on my website and I have a couple of exercises in there to help you determine your level of competence in an area. But let me give you one tool right now to help you start thinking. I think this one comes right out of the personalized learning plan playbook that is used with students.
Current Status:  When you begin, you simply rate yourself on a level of 1 to 10. 1 being little to no knowledge on the topic to 10 being a trainer or expert in it. Where would you put your level of proficiency and why did you rate yourself there? For my example, I rated myself as a 3 because I have done some research but not much and had attempted to use the design process with some success in a previous unit of inquiry.
I think it’s important, to be honest with where you are at and to remember, just because you may score low in the beginning of this journey, doesn’t mean you will be there at the end. In fact, I suggest that you do status updates along the way and mark your progress towards your goal. I assure you that monitoring your growth will be an affirming check-in that will help you develop momentum.
How will you know that you have acquired a level of mastery in this area unless you are keeping track of it?
When you know that you are making gains, it can be very motivating. This helps to inspire you to keep up your commitment and perhaps even increase the intensity of it. You will be ever so grateful and pleased that you did because it develops greater confidence in your ability to make small steps forward towards awesomeness.
Step 3: Write questions you want to be answered
So now that you have done this audit, what needs to be learned starts to emerge. You should start writing down all the burning questions you have about your topic of interest.
Going back to my personal example, some the questions I asked were…
Can I really teach design thinking to little kids?-How can it be modified? What might design thinking look like in the Early Years?   How might empathy be developed in this process? What exercises or approaches to I need to take in order to develop empathy in a creative context? Based upon my last experience, what part of the design process do I need to understand better to make it more successful? Can design thinking create learner agency?-What other ways might students be empowered in the process?
Once you have formulated a list of questions, you must rank the ones that you want to pursue first. Which leads me to the next step.
Step 4: Build a Learning Ladder
This is the step in which you take your big goal and deconstruct it, breaking it into pieces of the knowledge you need to attain and the skills you will need to develop in this process. Look at your questions-What are the main skills and concepts that you have to master? Brainstorm the ideas and get into the nitty-gritty of what needs exploring. Have you ever heard of Pareto’s Law–the 80/20 Principle? This is when you try to figure out the main 20% of activities or tools that produce 80% of the results that you want.  Focus on those power punches and commit your effort to them.
Where do you think is the most important place to start with those key skills–that becomes the first rung on your ladder for your transformation. Then what do you think is the next logical step, and the next. The point of this exercise is to start charting your trajectory and is really important so that you don’t get overwhelmed in the process of learning. You can always revise this later, but it is really important to make a sketch of your learning process. This is one of the keys to making this personalized and meaningful for you.
Step 5: Resources Needed Who Can Help/What can help?
In the upcoming segments, I will share with you some free resources and training that you can use to help you in your learning.  Depending on the quality of the content, you may only want 1-3  true resources. If you scatter yourself too thin, then it’ will be hard to focus. But it is useful to have a bookmarking site to pin things to when you come across ideas later. Just don’t get sucked into the world of Pinterest, Pocket, and Diggo and not actually do the reading and deep dive into your resources.
People can be exceptionally helpful. If there are experts in your area of interest, then find out what methods or ideas created their knowledge.
  1. Is there someone in your school or district who has expertise and knowledge in this area? Can you invite them out and pick their brain?
  2. Look on Twitter–are there experts you can follow who might be posting great articles or ideas that would benefit you? Follow them!! What are chats? Are there any Tweet Ups you can do? That might be another way to engage and learn from others.
  3. Facebook Groups are there any groups that are examining these topics. Join these groups.
Another word of caution when it comes to social media, be sure you put time limits on yourself. If you want to spend 10 minutes a day checking into those groups or folks you are following, that’s fine. But make sure you manage your time wisely. Personally, I set a timer or do it when I know I only have a few minutes to spend so that way it keeps me from falling into a black hole and losing so much of my day to getting sucked into conversations or posts.
 
Step 6: Schedule Your Learning Time
This is huge. In order for you to go from 0 to 100, then you have got to make managing your time seriously. There was a great TedTalk and book written by Josh Kaufman that debunked the myth of the 10, 000 hours rule that was perpetuated by Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers.  Instead, it only takes about 20 hours of focused time devoted to the pursuit of an interest before you gain competency in it. If you think about, 20 hours is really not all that much time, but the quality of your attention during that time that is extremely important. You need to have undivided attention to it. If you spend 1 hour a day for 5 weeks, you are going to see progress. Consider this your “Genius Hour”, in which you explore your interest without any sort of pressure to produce or create something.
So then What days are you going to do this? And from what times? Put it on your calendar. Micheal Hyatt is a productivity expert and he says that what gets scheduled, gets done. So true, if you put it in your Outlook or Google Calendar and set up reminders, to make sure that you sure that you have time set aside to work on your plan.
 
4 Tips in Executing Your Plan:
  1. Write down the theme of those learning timesRemember your calendar, well get it out because you need to flush out some details–what will be your focus? What do you wish to accomplish in those slots? You can make this as general or as specific. I used to be more general, but now I am very specific. For example, when I want to do research, then I have a content curation day, and I further divide that up into social media, blogs/websites and books. If it’s a social media day, then I am on FB and Twitter looking specifically at what’s being posted with certain hashtags or the ideas being posted in groups. I’m just reading. I may like or heart something, but I am not commenting on stuff. That’s not my purpose. On blog/website days, I only read that online content. Online PD days, I only go through a workshop or course that I am focused on. I try to be really specific and focused because I find it is super helpful in getting the most amount of knowledge in the shortest amount of time. Other days you might want to theme as planning days, in which you are working your new found knowledge into your unit or weekly plans. I’ll speak more to planning later, but the idea is to have a theme to help you become intentional with your time.
  2. Pick your place: I haven’t spoken about the importance of privacy because it seems self-evident that you are going to need some “alone time” to do your research and reading. I hope you have considered how important it is to be undistracted during these times. Make sure you have a special place that you can work unfettered for an hour. Sitting on the couch, while your family watches Game of Thrones is not going to be your “place”. You need to find a place that offers a pure unadulterated block of time in which no other things are happening other than your learning.
  3. Gather the resources: Have everything you need ready to go when you set down to learn. If you are doing your learning online, close down all the other tabs, like email or social media, on your browser and make sure your notifications are off. Just have those web pages open and ready to go so when you open your computer, it’s go-time!
  4. Reflect once a week on your learning: do a status update. You don’t have to do it at the same time as your learning time.
For example, I usually spend a part of Sunday doing planning time.  If you were to look at my schedule, you would see that I themed the day Planning.  I block off a couple of hours on Sunday and plan out my schedule for the week. At first, I do this planning with my husband on household things. It’s the time we plan our menu and make the grocery list. My husband and I go over our weekly expenses and budget. And talk about what needs to be done that week regarding our household–is there anything that needs to be fixed or paid or any special events that are going on at school? We have these conversations so we can then decide who is doing what and put it on our personal schedules. Then my husband and I go our separate ways to work on our personal planning for the week. Not only is this is the time I work on lesson plans, but I plan out MY learning as well. And this begins with reflection. So I look at my goal and ask myself where am I with this?  What are my next steps? And from there, I determine what I need to work on next to move me forward in achieving success on this goal.
As you know, my verb is to Empower, and I hope all this information was helpful and is getting you excited for your learning possibilities. In order to cut down on time, I intend to post a personal learning workbook that you can access and download from my website: judyimamudeen.com  so please sign up for my blog and I can send it to you.

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