March Madness-Team JXN Style

I use to complain about how long and drawn out the month of March was. No holidays or vacations to look forward to, and spring break teasing us at the end of the month. You may get lucky with one last snow day (which we did this year) and if I was fortunate my birthday would fall on a weekend at the end of the month.

As we roll through this final week of March and into spring break I caught myself saying "Holy crap, it's almost April!". I have felt blessed for this "easy week” with not many appointments so I can get caught up on all the things I have let slide over the past month.

However, March 2016 was pretty amazing for Team JXN!  Kellie DeLosSantos joined our team in late February and jumped right in.

We spent 3 days in Grand Rapids at MACUL presenting, volunteering, making, networking and enjoying time with educators we only get to see a few times a year.

On St. Patrick's Day we had some fun with the New Teacher Academy and held Shamrocks and Scavengers a massive scavenger hunt through Jackson County. Teachers were divided into teams of 4. Given a list of coordinates and hints. Then given 30 minutes to plan their routes. Once they were on the road their task was to get to one of the points, take a team picture at the location, and use a QR code to post the picture to a Padlet to let us know they had made it to the location. If they were one of the first 2 team to the location they were given some pretty great St. Patty swag by one of the JCISD employees that was hanging out there. Teams were given points at each location (they did not know the point values) and extra bonus points were given to teams that could find Alaina or I at specific locations we tweeted out. At the end of the afternoon they all met back at the ISD for cool prizes! Check out pictures from the event HERE.

#teamjxn

The following week we hosted a PD for local teachers called “I STEAM, You SCREAM”. This PD was developed to give teachers time to play and plan for STEAM and Maker activities in their classrooms. Time is something that many teachers don’t have and as great as STEAM and Maker are, planning can be very time consuming.

Teachers playing with Spheros 

We topped off March with Keicher 3rd Grade Tech Day. This was a conference inspired by some awesome Mattawan teachers that have paved the way for technology exploration in a fun and engaging way. Stacy Arnold was the brainchild for this specific event and we were fortunate enough to help her in the planning process. Students selected sessions they wanted to attend throughout the day. Volunteer teachers and Michigan Center High School students helped run each session. It was an amazing and inspirational day for everyone. I think the VIDEO will say it all.

Students playing with MakeyMakey

I am proud of ALL our TeamJxn members! Alaina and Kellie are two amazing gals to work with and Shannon who lets us follow our crazy ideas. Along with some pretty amazing admin and staff in Jackson County with innovative minds along with passion and pride to do what is best for their kids! 

I can't wait to see what the rest of 2016 holds.

I Lost Something at MACUL 2016

Yes, I came home with all the iPads and robots. What I lost at MACUL 2016 was my voice! If you know me well, you know I can talk...a lot. It's a trait of being an only child. However, it has been a long time since I lost my voice. I think I was in the 8th grade when I had full-on laryngitis. I guess it's a good thing I don't plan on spending the evening on my party line. 

This bout of laryngitis is due to the great conversations I had with amazing educators at the MACUL conference. Conversations with good friends, co-workers, old co-workers, Twitter friends I finally got to meet, new acquaintances, and attendees at my sessions. 
We spoke about Making, MakerSpaces, technology, technology clubs, networking, communicating, learning spaces, and coaching. We shared stories, experiences, and goals.

I may not have made it to many session. Ok, I did not make it to any. But, spending that time listening to adults who were inspired to make a change in their classroom because of something they learned in a session or played with in the MakerSpace and hearing from those sweet kiddos in the student showcase share their learning was well worth it!
I will continue to learn from these conversations because I will continue to learn from these people I met and connected with at MACUL. Once my voice comes back:) 

Passion Talk from Jackson EdTech Kickoff

Google Slides Presentation

Slide 1: It's a popular quote from some football coach that I care less to follow, but has become my philosophy, my brand, my passion.

Slide 2: Last year on a brutally cold winter day as I stood outside Lincoln elementary waiting for my daughter; I was thinking of an excuse I could make to get inside the warm building to wait for her.   As a parent and as someone who is passionate about educational technology I looked at my daughter's school and saw a need for some type of technology enrichment. I thought to myself, “wouldn’t that be cool if they had an after school club?”

Slide 3: This was my next do something. I approached the principal, he did not say why or how, he said when?

Slide 4: Within a few weeks we had 10 kids signed up and held our first “Lincoln Tech Club” session. Little did I know how much these kids would inspire me.

Slide 5: During the first few weeks we played around with Makey Makey’s, coding, green screens, and just plain old fashion technology

Slide 6: (video).

Slide 7: As I searched for more hands on activities the kids could do I came across these cute little Bristlebots, and read the definition:

"A bristlebot is an extremely simple form of walking robot. It is one of the simplest of all mobile robots, both in its function and its construction. As a result of this ease of construction, they have become popular projects at the school science fair level."

Cool! We were going to make bristlebots. Little did I know that this “simple” walking robot would completely change how I few teaching and learning.

Slide 8: That day I laid out all the materials on the table and asked the kids what they thought we were going to make? I explained that I was not extremely successful and had tried a few different configurations with the battery and motor and I tried a few different toothbrush styles. My challenge to them was to be scientists and use the skill of inquiry to see if they could get their bristlebot to move forward on a flat surface. The kids took right to the task of making these "simple robots".

The first 5 minutes were pretty quiet as kids began to work. However, I soon learned how quickly kids will give up if something does not work the first time. I heard a few of the kids say this is stupid, it doesn't work”  and “Mrs. Smart, are you sure you know what you are doing?”I looked around the room and saw one kid crying, two arguing with one another, one throwing his stuff on the ground, and Mr. Jackson the student teacher helping strip wires and trying to keep the peace. My own daughter standing on a chair cheering everyone on telling them that “WE CAN DO THIS” because she can now see the frustration on my face and knowing how excited I was about this project.

This was hard for me to hear, I spent SO much time planning this and was SO excited for them to make the bots.  I thought to myself “I should have had a plan, I should have had more directions, this is chaos!”

But then I looked around again, those tears were not “I hate this tears” they were tears of “I am going to make this work dang it!” the boys arguing were actually arguing over the trash can with a pair of scissors and a toothbrush on how they thought the toothbrush bristles should be changed. Tape was flying across the room and kids were running with scissors... because they had an idea they thought would work and were eager to try. My daughter was still standing on her chair cheering, not making a thing.

Slide 9: (video)

Slide 10: By the end of the hour we did have a few successful bristle bots, and the kids were stoked. They all gathered in the gym to watch the working bots go. I realized Griffen was not in the gym. As I walked back to the computer lab I found Griffen stuffing left over batteries, and motors into his pockets, he asked if he could take some tape home. I asked him why. He said, “I am going to make this work Mrs. Smart” he wanted to take the materials home to keep trying. I said, “here Griffen, take the whole role, do you need some toothbrushes?”

As the kids left that day and we looked around a room that had stuff everywhere I looked at Mr. Jackson and said “what the hell, just happened?” His response “I guess that was inquiry based learning”

Slide 11: He was right, but it was also much more. For me it was a huge game changer in how I view education and how our students learn. Before this day I thought I had a good idea of what good instruction felt like and looked like. But I was missing a few pieces. Kids and... more importantly teachers need to take risks, explore, play, question, create, and fail.

Slide 12: As educators and parents we need to do more to make things like these happen for our students. Yes it may be outside your comfort zone, yes, it make take up some of your free time, yes, you may not get paid for it but remember...

Slide 13:

Blame No One

• Even with all the negatives in education (AKA testing), we are still responsible for how and what our student learn, how they perform, and who they become. We are the ones who need make it work. I get sick of hearing teachers make up excuse after excuse about why they can’t do this because of that, we are professionals, our job is to make it work! Have you reached out to others for help? Have you thought outside the box? Have you teamed to work with other to solve the problem?
  

Slide 14:

Expect Nothing

• No one is going to do it for us (Unless maybe you have a teachers pay teachers account)
• Set high expectations for yourself and your students and remember, you get what you expect.

Slide 15:

My challenge to you is to

Do Something.

• Be the change.

2014-15 Off To A Great Start!

WOW! What a great week! I learned and shared so much with educators from across the state and county.

Monday: I spent the day shopping with my mom (and 4 year old son). My mom has been an educator for 40+ years and our conversations always include stories, ideas, and insight into education.

Tuesday: EdTech Kickoff with #TeamJXN. I spent the day learning from some great Jackson area teachers. People always wonder why I love to go to conferences/workshops, “Don’t you already know enough about ___?” My answer is always, “No, I don't know everything. There is always something to learn.” I learned three new things on Tuesday that I can’t wait to share and start using back in Adrian.

1. Making an email address for a Blogger account. This allows you to send a blog post

   to your blog by simply typing an email and sending it to the blog address. Last year
   I tried to get a blog started for our district. Took the time to show admin how to
   use the blog but the only one posting was me. I am going to try out this method
   to see if this will be an easier way for them to post. Thank you Ramsey Musallam.

2. If This Than That. I had looked at IFTT before but never really used it. I learned on
    Tuesday that you can set up an IFTT for Instagram pictures to post to a blog as a new
    post. Thank you IFTT! Thank you Ramsey.

3. Voxer. Again, I had an account but did not really understand the value. Until I sat in on  Ben Gilpins session and learned that it can actually be a pretty powerful tool for giving instant walkthrough feedback to teachers. Thank you Ben.

Wednesday: It was my turn to present at the Lenawee ISD on CRAFTeTechnology. I spent the day showing groups of educators apps and sites that will help aid them in getting students to show understanding, respond to text. I loved the impromptu sessions they wanted at lunch to learn how to setup Google sites and one at the end of the day on Google Forms. It is great to work with others who are appreciative of your help and work. We all learn a lot from each other.

Thursday: I turned around and presented (with Kellie DeLosSantos) back in Jackson at the first ever Digital Leadership for Learning conference. What an amazing opportunity for us to share with others the hard work we have been doing at APS. Many times we do not feel like what we do is that special. The response we got was AMAZING and so uplifting. I was also inspired by others with the sharing and networking that took place. I took a risk and lead an Idea Buffet group on Google, I asked questions that in the past I would have been afraid to ask, and I was happy to know that our team is on the right track to making APS a great place for our students.

2014-15 is off to a great start!  

Tomorrow I rest...