Information overload and flying teachers

PBL, 21st century skills, Genius Hour, tech tools galore--today was the culmination of the best week and a half of professional development I have ever had. I somehow found myself relating the process of making wreaths to drugs--in front of other professionals--while projecting a slide illustrating the Pinterest logo. The week before that, I found myself flying through the air tethered to eight other people, walking across a human ladder, and doing kart wheels in the middle of the street at night...all in the name of STUDENTS!!

I'll start with the "tame" one. This week I spent my time at our district's 21C Learning Symposium for this year's 21c grant recipients. While at times I felt overwhelmed with all of the information and new tools, I genuinely grew a lot as a teacher. I had to get outside of my control-freak box more than a few times and let myself feel utterly lost in how to do project base learning. But, tonight, as I reflect on my week, I feel more excited than ever to get back in the classroom and have students solve real world problems by using the content of my classes. This way of teaching sounds like a no-brainer, especially considering that even I learn and retain info better when I have a purpose for using it!!

Here are some of the best tools we discussed and used this week:

•Today's Meet

•Padlet

•Symbaloo

•Google docs and Google forms 

There are so many more tools and I'm sure I'm leaving great ones out, but his week really packed in so much information that my brain almost exploded on more than one occasion. 

Now, to the crazy one. Let me start by saying that this was the only PD I have ever been to where there was no agenda, activewear was required, and sunscreen was advised. The Success 1.0 (Keystone) teachers went to a workshop in order to learn what our class was going to be all about...it's a new class at our school and we are (all but one) learning the standards together. 

What we found was that this class IS relationships. We were introduced to so many trust-builders, ice breakers, team builders, and collaborative games that will help us facilitate real world relationships and task completion. 

Now, for your real question: how and why was I flying through the air tethered to eight other people? This was an element that was a part of a high ropes course this teacher had BUILT. A student had designed the element after completing the course, demonstrating immense confidence and skill in this realm. Basically, what happens is 8 people--reindeer--hook up to one end of a cable. I'm hooked to the other. The cable is connected to a pulley (or some mechanism which I do not have a name for) that hangs from a cable that is suspended high off the ground at a perpendicular angle to the one I'm hooked to. The reindeer take off running and, as they do, I jog a bit too, and am quickly catapulted into the air, possibly flipping over the cable. It was pretty amazing. Crazy. Scary. Really, there is no lack of words to describe the feeling. But the really funny part was when I started jogging forward and screaming in anticipation, but my reindeer hadn't taken off yet. I almost ran into a tree before realizing that I was still on the ground!!! If only someone had it on video...

Honestly, after experiencing both workshops, I can actually see lots of connections. Keystone will help students use real world skills to build relationships, learn how to communicate with others, think critically, and collaborate to create things (BTW, these are your 21st century skills). PBL is content based, but requires real world application of the content, forcing student inquiry and the 4 Cs in order to master the standards. PBL is Keystone with content. 

For once, at least a few pieces of the education puzzle make sense to me. Finally. After a bachelors degree, a masters degree, student internship, and four years of teaching, this job is finally making some sense. 

Are you sure you are in the right place?

Well, are you?  Did you mean to stumble into my crazy teacher-coach domain?  I only have five years of teaching experience...and I'm a Health teacher for goodness sakes!!

Well, proceed at your own risk. Who knows? You may get a few laughs at least.

On a serious note, I am very passionate about my job. After four wonderful  years of teaching English, I am switching gears and will be teaching Health and Keystone this year.  I could not be more excited.  I get to teach the classes where the content is relationships. You know that dream class, where all students have amazing relationships, treat each other and you with respect, and you all leave the school year a little bit sad because you did, in fact, become a family? I love those classes, but I only get one, maybe two, of those classes a year...and that's if I'm lucky.  Now, I get to facilitate classes where that is the expectation for each class, not just one or two.  And it's my content!!!  Maybe I'm being a little idealistic, but that's what the curriculum says I'm supposed to do...and "they" have even sent me to amazing trainings where I got to learn games and trust building activities I can do with my kids.  Stick around...I'm sure you will get some laughs at my expense in that area for sure.

Also, I am an assistant coach for our high school girls' volleyball team.  This is the part of my job that I have always wanted to do...since I started playing volleyball when I was eleven...I promise, I always knew this was what I wanted to do.  The teaching part came about because I didn't figure I'd be able to get a job coaching if I couldn't also teach something.  Turns out that you can get a job only coaching, but you can't do it coaching girls' volleyball...not here anyway. Who am I kidding? Not anywhere!  Volleyball has always been a passion of mine, partially because of all of the wonderful relationships I got out of playing and being around the sport for so many years.  I had always considered myself to be a coach first, and then a teacher...turns out that God leads us to what we are meant to do by way of those things we love to do.  I consider myself a teacher-coach (hence, Mrs. Coach, which is the major point of confusion in my classes for the first week of school--which title my should students address me by).  I love teaching kids and learning from them, whether that's on the volleyball court or in the classroom.

Further, I was lucky enough this year to be a recipient of what my district calls the "21st Century Grant." This program gives a certain number of teachers in the district a class set of laptops as a learning tool for student use.  As grant recipients, we are expected to employ some of the latest and greatest ideas in education: project-based learning, 21st century skills, critical thinking/problem-solving skills, and the like.  I say latest, because I'm still relatively new to teaching (this is only year 5 for me).  A lot of this stuff has been around for a while, but for some reason, we are told that it's new...yea, and in 30 years, we'll see it again, but it will be called something else, right?

At the risk of boring you to tears on my first post, let me sum this up.  I don't believe that I'm some amazing teacher who has infinite wisdom to share with the world.  That's not why I'm blogging.  I'm choosing to start a blog on these topics because I don't know everything.  In fact, there is very little I do know...I'm learning every day from you and people like you.  I love to read, learn, and try new things in class in order to become a better teacher, and ultimately, to help our students become better people and citizens...just like you do.  I want to learn from you, share the things you know with others, and if I do happen upon some original ideas of my own, I'll share them here.  Major points of interest for me include the following:

• teaching/coaching generation iY
• educational technology
• project-based learning
• health and wellness
• trust/team-building
• student collaboration
• leadership
• professional learning communities

I plan to post regularly (for me, that means weekly), but I won't fight it if the mood strikes more often than that.  Feel free to comment, post links, or just laugh at/with me.  Welcome!!