Reflections from Plurk

I’ve been thinking about writing this blog since almost the first week I started plurking. Remember that book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten? I think I could write a book called All I Really Need to Know to Teach I Learned from Plurk.

There is a lot of talk right now about PLNs. Some say PLN stands for Personal Learning Networks, others say it stands for Professional Learning Networks. I like to think PLN, at least for me, stands for Plurk Learning Network. For those of you not familiar with Plurk, it is a unique social network. It is most often compared to Twitter, but in my humble opinion they are very different. Twitter is a place to talk at people. When I plurk, I’m given the opportunity to talk with people. As I’ve stated in a previous blog, I wasn’t to sure about Plurk at first. Primarily because there was such a plethora of information, and I couldn’t figure out how to efficiently assimilate it. Believing there was value in plurking, I made the commitment to dive in and make connections. Over the last two months I have discovered ways to filter the information shared, and as a benefit, the knowledge and inspiration I’ve gained has grown exponentially.

Plurk has provided me support and encouragement as I endeavor to daily be a better teacher than I was the day before. I’m introduced to cutting edge educational resources. Already this year my students have been able to Skype with a class in Kansas. We have made connections with schools in Australia, Poland, Turkey, Russia, and a round the country through a project I learned about on Plurk called One Day, One World. This week my students enthusiasm was tangible as we located our partnering schools on Google Earth. In my Language Arts class, my 5th graders had the opportunity to brainstorm ideas (for the classroom newspaper we’re creating) with educators across the country using a website called Wall Wisher. I wish you could have heard the Oohs and Aahs as posts appeared on our Wall Wisher site, and the students realized that another teacher sitting in another state was talking to them live. These are all examples of things I was able to do in my room because I had made connections with fellow educators on Plurk.

The connections I’ve made on Plurk have inspired me to reflect on who I am as a teacher. I remember when I was completing my college career that one of my final pieces was to put in writing my philosophy of teaching. This summer, as I began pouring through the educational articles shared on plurk, I realized I hadn’t thought about what it means to be a teacher in quite sometime. The connections I’ve made through Plurk have inspired me to reevaluate my pedagogical philosophy. One of the key conclusions I made is that as a teacher, as a human being, I desire to inspire those around me. I want to teach my students to reflect, to think deeply, to believe in themselves. I want to ignite a desire within each of them to grow and to learn.

Plurk has also taught me a few other valuable lessons to take with me into my classroom. These lessons don’t have anything to do with the links posted or the instructional ideas shared. On Plurk when there is something you want to say, you create a post that is limited to 140 characters. This post is called a plurk. After I hit enter, my Plurk becomes visible to my Plurk Buddies. They then have an opportunity to comment on my Plurk. One of the things this has made me aware of is my hunger for feedback. I can’t wait to check back to see if anyone has commented on my Plurk. My desire for feedback has made me think a lot about my students. If I, a grown up, long to hear input about my thoughts and ideas, how hungry must my students be for feedback. As a teacher of writing, this realization has helped me conclude that I must provide my students with more authentic opportunities to share their writing. My students are funny, witty, insightful, and brilliant. Why should I be the only one reading their amazing pieces?

A friend of mine, when describing Plurk, called it 24/7 self directed staff development. I couldn’t agree more. I firmly believe as a teacher, we should be daily striving to do what we do, better. If I, or any other educator, loses that desire, it is probably time to find a new path to journey down. Our students deserve the very best we have to offer. I can’t give them my best if I haven’t invested the time to stay abreast of the best teaching practices currently available. With the connections provided by Plurk I know that I can continually fine tune my teaching practices, so that when my students walk in my door, they will be receiving the very best I can give them.

Reflections from the First Day of School

This week I began my thirteenth year of teaching. Wow, just that statement makes me stop and pause. I know it’s cliché, but it seems like only yesterday I was walking into my first classroom.

This past Thursday was the first day of school for our students. Over the last few weeks, as I prepared for a new school year, I assumed on the first day of school I would be standing at my classroom door greeting each student. Unfortunately the state of Arkansas had other ideas--I was called for jury duty. Due to the nature of the case no one was being excused. I diligently sat in court Monday, and Tuesday, and Wednesday hoping against hope that I would finally be excused. Wednesday, as I was leaving court, the reality began to sink in. For the first time in my career I would not be at my door on that first day to meet my students. I began to cry.

Those of you who teach, know how important it is to start the year off on the right foot. I knew that first day was a day with my students I could never get back. After moping for a little while, it was time to stop mourning about something I couldn’t change. I had a new goal. How could I make sure my students had the best possible day even if I wasn’t with them?

How do you even go about leaving substitute lesson plans for the first day of school? I began to brainstorm about the possible activities I could have the students do with a substitute. I even asked my friends on Plurk for help.

Our school is in an unique position this year. Due to consolidation, we have students from three different schools coming together for the first time. I, like many of our students, am also new to our building. Because of all this change I’d come to the conclusion that it was important to help the students build relationships with each other, and I wanted to get to know each of them. But how could I accomplish any of those goals with a substitute?

Have you ever had one of those “Ah-Ha” moments? I did on Wednesday. If I couldn’t be there to talk to them, I was at least going to give them the opportunity to talk to me. I asked the substitute to have each student write me a letter. In that letter they could share anything they thought I needed to know about them.

Thursday evening I returned to school after finally being released from jury duty. The students had already gone home from their first day of school, but sitting on my desk, waiting for me, was a pile of hand written letters. I sat down and began to read. Over the next hour or so I made my way through 80 plus letters. As I read I became stunned by the insights I was already gaining about students I had yet to meet. I wondered to myself, “Why have I never given this assignment before?” and quickly realized it would be a new annual assignment for the years to come. There were many letters that chronicled the events of their summer, but there were just as many letters that told me bits and pieces of who they were and how they think.

There was the 6th grader who had the guts to tell his English teacher, “Sorry, I really don’t like writing.” Another student made me giggle when he said, “The nicer you are to me, the nicer I will be to you.

Other letters broke my heart. A 5th grader wrote, “I am not that smart.” And a 6th grade boy, after telling me his aspirations to be a professional skateboarder and how he had repaired a broken laptop without any help, ended his letter by saying, “I’m not real interesting.” I began to wonder how I’m going to inspire these young men. How am I going to help them see themselves for who they really are?

A girl from my 6th grade class said, “I’m sure you are amazing. This is kinda scary since the other school is here. I know it will be an interesting adventure. We always have to be prepared in life and ready for change. As you can see I am a free spirited person.” Another young lady told me, “Literature is my favorite subject. I would love to be an author. I write and draw all the time. I am articulate and smart.”

Then there was the 6th grader who in one breath said, “I am a little smart” and in next said, “I can be creative in lots of ways.” As she expressed her thoughts through the rest of her letter, I could see that she was more than a “little smart,” she was very bright. I knew I had to take on the mission of helping her realize how very gifted she is.

Many students shared excitement about the start of a new school year and their love a learning like one 5th grader who said, “I’m excited to be in your class. I think I will have a good time.”

As I read the last letter a thought began to form in my mind. The vast majority of the letters were written by students excited to be at school, who voiced a love of learning. I began to wonder, what is it that we do as educators that extinguish that passion? How do we keep from quenching their excitement? How can we, instead, encourage them to continue to grow? What can I do to help them learn to love learning?

This summer I was inspired to try some bold and innovative new ideas in my classroom. Although inspired I have also had some trepidation about actually implementing those ideas. Mostly I have been plagued by the fear of failing miserably. After reading my students letters, however, I choose to set aside my fears. They deserve a teacher who is determined to do whatever it takes to foster their love of learning, and I want to be the kind of teacher they deserve.

*Image was created using www.wordle.net

Reflections from Podstock

I thought I’d use my first blog to write about the conference that inspired me to start blogging in the first place. Last weekend (I can’t believe it’s only been a week) I attended a conference in Wichita, Kansas called Podstock.

I guess though, before I can talk about Podstock, I have to explain how a girl from Arkansas ended up in Kansas. It all started about a month ago when I attended a teacher workshop taught by a new friend of mine, David. He introduced us to a new social network (okay it’s not really new, just new to me) called Plurk. I have to be honest. I tried it out for a couple of days and thought, “This isn’t for me.” My initial thought was, “This is like Twitter on crack.” I didn’t know what to do with all the conversation taking place on my computer screen between people I really didn’t know.

About two weeks ago I attended another workshop called “The Wired Learner,” presented by another new friend, Kevin Honeycutt. I was in the room all of about 10 minutes, and I knew this was not going to be your run of the mill workshop. This guy was different. Even without ever meeting my students, I knew he understood them and that technology was usually their medium of choice. I got on facebook and encouraged other fellow teachers to come hear this guy.

I’m pretty tech savvy; its not uncommon for other teachers to come to me and ask for help. Most tech workshops I attend are discussing technology and websites I’m already familiar with. But Kevin’s workshop was different. Almost everything that came out of his mouth that day was something new to me. A couple of times I had to stop him and ask what in the world he was talking about. This was a phenomenon that had rarely happened to me in the past when talking about educational technology.

He also talked about that weird website, Plurk. I decided to give it one more try. This time I jumped in with both feet. I just pretended I already knew everyone. When they said, “Hi.” I said, “Hi” back. Before long I was entering into great discussions with other teachers from all across the country. I was being infused with fresh new ideas for my classroom, and I liked it!

One common topic of conversation that week on Plurk was an up coming conference called Podstock. As I understand it, Podstock is the brain child of Kevin. It seemed like everyone on Plurk was either attending Podstock or totally bummed because they couldn’t attend. Their excitement was contagious. That contagious excitement reminded me that one of the best things I like about teaching is getting to learn new things, and by golly, I wanted to wrap my brain around some new ideas. Now you have to understand, I’m a single mom, and doing things on the spur of the moment is not always logistically or financially realistic.

If you read my blog very often, after my first attempt, you’ll learn that my faith is very important to me. In my heart I knew for my own personal growth and inspiration as a teacher that it was important for me to go to this conference. In the next couple of days after Kevin’s workshop, I watched God put all the pieces in place, so I could attend. God provided places for my two children and our two goofy dogs to stay, and in the world of finances I decided that this conference was more important than the Ipad I had been planning to buy.

Early, on July 15th, I began my journey to Podstock. As I drove I took pictures along the way. Six hours of the nine hour drive was on a road I drive quite frequently to my parents house. This time, however, it looked different to me as I looked for pictures to share with my new friends on Plurk.

As I drove into Wichita that evening I called one of my new Plurk buddies and made arrangements to meet her at the hotel. In the hotel lobby it was like a family reunion as Jan and I bumped into fellow Plurkers and Podstock attendees. I was meeting face to face people I had been visiting online with the last couple of weeks. The friendship and camaraderie was instantaneous.

The next two days that followed were a whirl wind of sessions, good discussion, and lots of laughs. There were so many new things I learned. New tools for my classroom. New ideas to experiment with and figure out how they might work in my room. Although those are invaluable and I could fill the next 50 blogs sharing each new tool I learned, Podstock, for me, was more than that. It was the sense of community I felt by being with likeminded educators who truly want to prepare our students for the future they will live in. Teachers who believe so deeply in what they’re doing they are willing to sacrifice their time and personal finances to make it happen. When I was trying to explain to my mom why this conference was different, I told her that these teachers have a mutual desire to inspire their students and fellow colleagues.

I’m a processor, a chewer. I have to think on things for awhile to fully assimilate them. On my way home from Podstock I finally had time to sit and process, but I was driving. I wouldn’t recommend driving and typing at the same time. They have those laws about texting and driving for a reason. But then I remembered I had a stupid, undeletable app on my Iphone called voice memos. An app I thought I’d never use. I was so afraid I’d lose my thoughts if I didn’t get them recorded that I did something I thought I’d never do. I started talking to myself--out loud. Even though I hate the sound of my recorded voice, I have listened to that recording several times in the last days really trying to process, to really think about the kind of teacher I want to be.

Technology is a tool to help me be successful, but I have to start with who I am as a teacher and my core values. As a teacher, there are so many things I want to share with my students beyond the content material. I want to inspire them. I want them to find their passion and peruse it. I want to instill in them a sense of integrity.

I want my students to dream big dreams and think big thoughts. And I have to find a way to dream big dreams and think big thoughts because if I don’t, my students won’t. I learned so much about technology at Podstock, but its more than technology. I could have all the best technology in the world, but if my core values, what I believe as a teacher, aren’t solid all the technology in the world won’t matter.

Thanks Kevin, for inspiring this teacher to dream big dreams. I can’t wait to see the results.