Podcast: The 12 Digital Gifts Smackdown

In the spirit of the giving season of Christmas this episode of the of the Coppell Digital Learning podcast we decided we wanted to hear from the educators.  We connected with several educators in our district to share what their favorite app or digital strategy is they LOVE and use in their learning environment.  Listen to see what the CISD educators are saying...

 Share your gift by sending out a tweet and use #coppelldlc so we are sure not to miss your suggestion.   It looks like we are planning to share more "love of technology" in February!  It might just be you featured in the upcoming episode!

Making a Connection to Understand Our Learners

As an educator, I know I have had several moments throughout my career when my eyes were opened to what was really going on with a learner outside of class.  It's the moment when all the little signs of missed assignments and changed behavior come together to reveal a situation beyond my belief or understanding.  It is in these moments my patiences truly kicks in and I can do my best to try to understand.

I remember standing in the hallway monitoring students as they entered the building eager to get to class.  It was the first cold day of winter.  Everyone was bundled up in coats, hats, mittens.  Then, one child in 3rd grade came walking down the hallway with his hands crossed and folded up wearing shorts and a T-shirt.  Every morning we would always exchange a "Hello!"  But, today I asked why he wasn't wearing a coat.  "It's literally freezing outside!"  With a big smile he responded, "It's not too cold for me!"  Later I would find out there was no money for a coat, food, or an extra bed.  The family barely had money for the apartment where they were living.  The fact the child made it to school most days was a miracle in itself.  That day my heart broke when I finally understood why school was not the most important thing for this child, but survival came first.

When designing the Leading Innovative Change Series for educators, the first characteristic introduced in the book Innovator's Mindset by George Couros, is empathy.  We have to be able to understand and connect with our learners no matter their circumstances in order to move their learning forward.  When I start to focus on a topic, it's interesting how so many examples begin to stick out everywhere I look.  I found a great video by Brene Brown of what empathy really means while going through tweets one afternoon.  I felt it was important to share the video in order for all of our educators to have the same understanding of the term.

When designing the learning experience for our educators it was also important to me to connect the larger concept of empathy to our district's Learning Framework, specifically in the area of building appropriate and positive relationships that foster a mutual respect.  To make this connection, educators were then challenged to tweet messages that supported, modeled, and promoted empathy at our campus.  The objective was to share our campus story beyond our walls.  Twitter is a tool the educators have been introduced to at various times; and, this opportunity gave educators a very specific purpose for their tweets.  The educators were encouraged to use hashtags popular within our district to help spread our story at Coppell Middle School West.

Here is the presentation used to share the concept of innovation regarding empathy:

Starting From the Beginning

A former boss once gave everyone in my department a framed quote that was individually picked for each of us upon her retirement.  The quote chosen for me was "Everything you do, you do with the child in mind."  From the time I started teaching I always considered how it would play out for the learners.  They were the reason I was there in the classroom.  Years later, when conversations with my colleagues began to center on what is best for learners, it just made sense to me.  This is what educators should focus on in the classroom.

Fast forward to this past winter, a colleague, Sunny,  was excited to share with me a book she had recently read that we both firmly believed in the message, The Innovator's Mindset by George Couros.  The message of empowering educators to lead change in their learning environments in order to push learners to think and be creative!  I get excited just thinking about it again!  We discussed how we wanted to spread this message to our circle of influence, our campus.

Around this same time we also heard about Teacher2Teacher #WhyITeach.  We thought there was a strong connection of having educators share their story as to why they began teaching with how transforming their classroom environment would best meet the needs of their learners.

From these resources and conversations a series of Leading Innovative Change began!  The series would focus on the 8 characteristics of an Innovator's Mindset, directly from the book.  Each week we would present a characteristic with some type of discussion while modeling a technology tool educators could then use with learners in their learning environments.   And so our journey began.

Our first session focused on introducing the series to our audience.  We shared the concept of #WhyITeach, had all the participants create their own story bubbles, and tweet their stories.  It was a very successful session.  There were a few individuals who were unable to participate on the particular day and made their way to the room later in the week to share their story!

It is important to me to also encourage educators to share the story of what is happening on our campus and connect with other educators to build their own PLN.  We encouraged the educators to share tweets using #cmswconnects.  We also encouraged educators to follow #tcea16.  TCEA is the Texas Computer Education Association conference highly attended!  It is a great place to learn!  It is a great way to connect, either virtually or in person!

The particular tool we wanted to focus on for this conversation was TweetDeck.  I showed educators how using a tool such as TweetDeck allows you the flexibility to follow individuals or hashtags on twitter.  We spent time setting up accounts and searching different hashtags for different areas of interest.  

Leading change had begun.  We were off and running.  Where would this path go?  We didn't know.  Who would jump at the opportunities to make changes in their learning environments?  We didn't know.  We had hope!  Hope is a great place to start.

Twitter Challenge

Developing a PLN through Twitter has been an encouraging and validating experience for me.  I am excited by how many educators are willing to share their ideas and connect with others.  I crave learning from other liked minded individuals and inspired.  This PLN I have created keeps me engaged in a wider world of education.

I want to help others grow their PLN.  Earlier this fall, I hosted a Twitter challenge.  The focus was to tell the story of our campus.  It is interesting how so many educators have amazing things happening in their classrooms and never share!

The challenge  about 3 weeks.  The challenges focused on broadening awareness of the campus activities, trying new tools or sharing familiar tools, sharing your voice.  All the tweets had to have either #teamwest or #cmswconnects.  Take a look at the bingo board the educators used:

The challenge included prizes!  Jeans passes were a hit! It was amazing to see individuals really take a leap of faith and try something new.  Many educators have continued to use Twitter so share their story.  What a great example to share with learners how to use social media responsibly.

Educators used the app Notability to track their participation and shared their results in the end.  A good number of educators either filled their bingo boards or came very close.  Overall, this was a great experience and I would highly encourage others to use a similar method to dive into tweeting!