#EdCampLA Reflections

Have you ever had a week like this? Something awesome happens that gets you excited about life and your general direction. Then you spend the next few days riding the wave of good feelings only to have them rudely interrupted by a slew of unforeseen events that force you out of your usual routine. It’s like you’re enjoying your favorite dessert and then, on the last bite, your tooth is broken. You spend the next week nursing a sore mouth but still thinking about how wonderfully delicious that dessert was. This past week has been  like that. I won’t go into details but my awesome event in this story was EdCampLA and I’m still thinking about how great it was.

I’ve posted about EdCamps before here and you can read even more at the EdCamp Foundation site. Special thanks to the EdCampLA team: Bill Selak (@billselak), Gayle Cole (@ghkcole), Stephen Davis (@rushtheiceberg), Jamie Gravell (@dontworryteach), Jayme Johnson (@jaymej), Lisa Dabbs (@teachingwthsoul), Vicky Sedgwick (@visionsbyvicky) and John Umekubo (@jumekubo). You were awesome! I’m also glad 15 of my talented co-workers from CEE made it out. Thank you for your contributions. And thank you to our amazing school for hosting.

EdCampLA was terrific and it was great seeing so many familiar faces from previous EdCamps, conferences and local schools. A fun activity that has become a regular at conferences for me is matching faces to online personalities. I love having my impressions of people affirmed. So many people in my PLN are constantly posting intelligent things. To see that their “real-life” personalities are just as interesting makes me feel good and reaffirms my belief that what we are doing here is real life, too.

I keep returning to a thought I had during lunch, really the combination of two ideas. The first is that Twitter is a “human filter” you create to get what you want out of the Internet. At any one time your stream has a completely unique feel dependent on who is currently online and active. EdCamps are like face-to-face Twitter. Each one also has its own feel and the mix of ideas that come out of each are wholly unique. You can’t reproduce it. That’s the magic of unconferences. They’re like the salons of the past.

Here are some highlights from EdCampLA. Thanks to everyone who came out and participated. EdCamps are impossible without interested participants who are willing to share.

• New friends were made. Great things were learned. People were inspired. We ate pizza.
• I wasn’t able to attend this but Chris Thinnes (@CurtisCFEE) and Catherine Rhee led what sounds like an invigorating session on Public-Private School Partnerships. By the way, if you’re not following Chris on Twitter your stream is lacking.
• Jo-Ann Fox (@appeducationfox), Jessica Park (@packwoman508), and Karen Foerch (@kfoerch) facilitated discussions on great apps for the classroom and teachers.
• Bill Selak (@billselak) did not suck in his leading the EdCamp staple session “Things That Suck”. Side note: learn how to lead this session with Bill’s easy instructions. Our admin and faculty, of whom 15 attended EdCampLA, were so stoked on “Things that Suck” that we used it in our last faculty meeting.
• Another session I wasn’t able to attend but heard so many good things about was Dave Burgess’ (@burgessdave) session called “Magic for Teachers”. Some of my coworkers were inspired and talking about it days later.
• A ton of awesome tools were shared at the Slam.
• Then some blog posts were written. Make sure to check out David Theriault’s (@MrTheriaultFVHS) Hip-Hop Reflection.

Check out the EdCampLA Wiki for resources from the day and here’s an archive of the tweets.

Peace!

 

The Best of California’s Gold – So long, Huell

California lost its best friend today. I’m utterly saddened by Huell Howser’s passing. He exemplified curiosity and had a fabulous knack for connecting with people. There was no better advocate for telling California’s stories, preserving its history, and discovering its treasures.

Liz (@gypsylizzie) said it well,

“I think what most upsets me about his passing is that, without him, Californians, and even California itself, might no longer be what Huell thought we were. If he’s not here to see us that way, maybe we aren’t. I love Huell’s California. I love what he saw in us. I’m sorry for our loss.”

So long, Huell.

 

Learn more about Huell.

Watch his episodes.

 

Google Teacher Academy Reflections

I spent two days last week at the Google Teacher Academy at the Googleplex in Mountain View, CA. Even though friends who have attended previous academies assured us it would be “life changing,” I had serious reservations about even applying.

First, I’ve been in edtech long enough to know how much money is at stake in this industry and how hard companies work to win us over. I wondered, what business does a multi-national, multi-billion dollar tech company have “certifying” teachers? Aren’t we certified and licensed enough? Aren’t huge corporations exactly who we want to keep out of education? Is this program a type of edtech elitism? Those are valid questions, but I decided to put them aside for now and trust those who went before me.

I’m glad I did. The experience was great and I met many great people.

Of course, the two-day event was packed with learning. We delved into Google Apps and learned a lot of new tips and strategies from CUE’s lead learners. A special thanks goes out to Jim Sill who led our team. Presentations from an impressive lineup of Googlers, including CFO Patrick Pichette and “Education Evangelist” Jaime Casap were also really great. We were also treated to video chats with developers and Googlers sharing some new features.

I could go on forever with tips and tricks we learned. But for me, the real value of the Academy was seeing first hand how Google operates. Google’s focus isn’t education, it’s innovation. As Pichette told us, they have a mandate to innovate. They know that giving employees space and autonomy is the perfect recipe for doing great things. That’s why employees are given 20% time to work on their own projects, and the results are sometimes amazing.

“Everyone deserves to whistle to work.” – Patrick Pichette, CFO, Google

I think that schools could learn a lot from Google. Instead of over-scheduling, over-testing, and over-teaching, how about a little autonomy, or maybe some 20% time? I think we’d be surprised at what students would learn and create on their own. I applaud the teachers who have already started this with their classes.

Listening to Google employees speak, you can hear that they love their jobs and believe in their work, which is pretty amazing. We should be aiming for the same thing. Our students should be excited about their work and their projects. We just need to get out of the way.

 

Do you EdCamp?

So there’s a quiet revolution happening in professional development. Teachers across the country (and around the world) are turning professional development on its head and making it what they want. It’s a resistance. A resistance to the top-down, high stakes culture that reduces students to numbers. And if that weren’t bad enough, this culture attempts to essentially do the same thing to teachers by way of mandated, and often meaningless, professional development.*

I’ve said this before, but teaching is a creative endeavor. Not because our students are blank canvases or pieces of unshaped clay, but because we create experiences for our kids. The thing is, creative types like to hang out and learn from other creatives. But when does this happen? When do teachers get an opportunity to learn from other professionals outside their own school or district WITHOUT someone else dictating the topic and schedule?

That’s what EdCamps are all about. I’m not going to go into the history of EdCamps. You can get that from the EdCamp Foundation site. But take this example from EdCampOCLA last year:

An attendee, we’ll call her Em, wanted to learn about Edmodo. She had heard about it before and heard that teachers were using it in their classrooms to provide students with a private online space to interact, submit assignments, and collaborate. So Em took a notecard, wrote “I want to learn more about Edmodo” on it and put it on the session board.  Later at the session, Em got a demonstration and a rich and relaxed discussion from fellow teachers who were using Edmodo. Em left with something she could use in her class the next week.

Now multiply that by the thousands of passionate educators attending EdCamps around the world. Awesome, no?

And don’t think that EdCamps are only about technology. I’ve spoken to some friends who are really excited about sharing what they are doing in their classrooms, would like some guidance on lesson planning, or are just looking forward to meeting other educators.

So if you’re anywhere near Los Angeles, or feel like taking a trip, we’d love to have you at EdCampLA on January 12th. It’s free and I guarantee you’ll have a rich experience. Register at www.edcampla.org. If not, find an EdCamp in your area or start one yourself!

 

*Of course there are exceptions. Many schools are actively resisting sucking the creativity out of teaching and reducing students to test scores.

 

Google Teacher Academy, Here I Come

I’m pleased to share that, about a month ago, I was accepted into the Google Teacher Academy to be held in Mountain View, CA at the Googleplex. After submitting applications that included a video component, about 60 of us were chosen from a applicant pool of about 300.

GTA is a two-day intensive workshop during which educators from around the world learn about the latest and greatest from Google and how to use it in education. It’s led by a group of Google Certified Teachers who will guide us through a process that previous attendees describe as terrific experience. I’m really looking forward to learning from the #GTAMTV crew. I’ll report back in December.

If you’re interested in applying, keep an eye on this page, Twitter, and Google+. Announcements of the next GTA seem to come out of the blue, with only a little time before applications are due. And they’re not always at the Googleplex. Others have been held recently in NYC, Seattle, and the London.

Here’s my application video. Make sure to check out the videos from the other applicants. Good stuff.

 

Here we go again…

I’d really like to get blogging again. I think it’s a useful tool for reflecting on your practice and sharing with others. Here’s to trying again.

By the way, what was that last post about? It reads like a stream of consciousness on digital spaces. I’ll try to be a little more coherent next time.

 

Conceptualizing Digital Spaces

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about space. Not outer space, but physical and digital space. The concept of physical space is endlessly fascinating. How we interact with our surroundings as individuals, groups, and societies has profound, and mundane, implications for our daily lives. So much attention is being paid to how good design can foster creativity, make us more at ease, and promote social interaction.

But I wonder what attention is being paid to digital spaces? Of course, graphic designers spend time with visual layouts. I’m thinking about how digital spaces that are not primarily visual are conceptualized and created. How will visitors interact, and through what medium? How will presence be represented, if at all?

This is getting complicated. Still thinking…

As always, I would love to know your thoughts.