The Google Shades Project

While in Philadelphia for the annual ISTE conference I spent a short amount of time walking through the vendor area and swung by the Google booth. In the midst of checking out the Chrome Books, I grabbed a couple pair of their freebie Google Shades. I gave one to a friend and brought two home to my sons. If you have two kids you know that you can’t bring home just one of anything! Somewhere along the way a handful of us, that hung out at ISTE, starting taking pictures of ourselves and eventually our kids wearing the Google Shades in various locations. We started tweeting them to each other and then created a posterous site to share our collective pictures. Initially this was just a fun thing to do with friends online.

However, I thought it might be cool to take it a step further and bring the Google Shades Project into our classroom. Wouldn’t it be cool if we could get a ton of these glasses and have our students take them to places special them and take a picture and write a little something about that place? What a cool way to get to know our classmates better and learn about our community through the eyes of our peers. As with most things I often try to take it a step further and set myself up for an even bigger project. I tossed an idea out to our original group of Jeremy Macdonald, Kristina Peters and Josh Allen that we go global with this thing. How cool would it be to have these glasses go out to kids around the globe who can take their Google Shade picture and share their stories? What a great way to bring the world to our classrooms and our classrooms out to the world. The group was all over it and we began brainstorming ways to make it a reality. Thanks to some great connections we brought in Rich Rikker who knew some folks inside Google that might be able to hook us up with a ton of these glasses. At time of this post we are still awaiting word from Google about the shades, but we are optimistic. We hope to eventually have this project look similar to a Flat Stanley project while putting our pictures and stories that we collect on a Google Site and the locations pin pointed on a Google Map.

For me, I teach world history and it is often difficult to have 6^th grade students understand the cultural, societal, and physical differences of people in different places on the globe. What better way to learn about these people and places as well as develop an understanding and perspective than from people living there? Jeremy, Kristina, Josh, Rich and I will surely be sharing our journey and I encourage you to follow along as we go.

If you are potentially interested in taking part in the Google Shade Project please fill out this form. At this point we are still very much in the idea generating stage and don’t be surprised if you don’t hear from me initially as we move forward with this. We will be looking for classrooms, specifically overseas, that would be willing to have us send them a pair of Google Shades. Then we would ask that they have their students take pictures wearing the shades in a place important to them. We have all seen pictures of the Great Pyramids and the Eiffel Tower. We would hope to see more” off the beaten path” and personal locations that we would normally never see. Below is an example of the type of entry we would be looking to gather from locations across the globe.

This picture is of my oldest son Tanner while boating with my younger brother on the Rock River in Dixon, IL. Dixon was the home of US President Ronald Reagan and has a rich history as a trading post and military encampment during the Blackhawk Wars in the early 1800s. It was the first time we had been out on my brother’s new boat and we all had a blast. One of Tanner’s favorite things to do is hang out with his uncles and his cousin Cole who is just a bit younger than him. On this particular day we spent time swimming, tubing and watched my younger brother do some wake boarding. We even pulled up to a large sand bar and spent some time swimming there while watching a guy on another boat pull in a large bass on a fishing line. At the end of the day, Tanner was chilling up on the front of the boat and my older brother, who was also with us, snapped this picture. I hope to have many more days on the river with my brothers and our kids enjoying the water and fun times. 

Passing the Puke

I recently went to the local movie theatre to watch Transformers 3 with a friend and coworker. On a side note, I highly recommend the movie. It had some amazing action and it was nice to see my local downtown Chicago getting blown up. However, as we were walking to the screen where our show was playing there was an employee telling us to watch our step. He informed us that a young movie patron has lost their dinner in a pile on the floor as well as a trail from that point to the men’s room. As we navigated around the soiled carpet one of the theatre employees was beginning to spread the magical “puke powder” on the spot.

A few minutes before the movie started I walked back out to head to the rest room for my pre-pee ritual.  On the way I noticed that the pile of powder was still there as well as the expelled food parts. I then overheard the original employee who spread the power standing and telling another employee, 

“Let’s just leave it for the night guys to clean up.”

I sort of laughed at the moment but then was kind of irritated by the statement. These two individuals did not want to deal with the mess so they were passing the puke on to their late night counterparts. How often do we do this in our schools? When you have a difficult kid do you ever find yourself thinking just get through the year and let next year’s teacher fix it? When you see a depressed kid do you talk with them or assume someone else will? When you see garbage on the floor of your school do you pick it up or hope someone else will notice it? When you see a dress code violation do you just think next period’s teacher will catch it? When you hear of a teacher doing something wrong do you assume it is an administrator’s job to deal with it? What puke are you passing off to others?

Personally, speaking I know I have passed the puke in the past and pushed things off that I should have dealt with myself. Whether it is time, experience, or uncertainty, we all have the urge to push work off on to others. As a new school year will be here before I know it, I am making it a goal to not pass the puke but clean up all my own messes and not ask others to do what I will not do myself. Unlike those movie theatre employees, I would like to clean up, fix, and make better whatever happens under my watch. 

Lightning Bugs and Learning Loss

By Bruce Marlin [CC-BY-SA-2.5 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons

I have been reading a great deal about the “learning loss” that occurs over the summer break? I completely agree with this idea that students suffer great loss over the summer months. However, I am a huge fan of it as well. The learning loss that happens over the summer is the best kind. Students forget not only how to take standardized tests but also how to adhere to a rigid curriculum that dictates what, when, and how they learn.  They forget filtered learning and the restrictions of a traditional school day complete with scheduled breaks and feeding times.

Yes, students are not learning from the common core over the summer…or at least not in the way we want them to. However, they are still learning a great deal. For example, the other night I was out back with by two sons catching lightning bugs. When we were done my boys had all sorts of questions about how and why those little rear ends lit up. We then spent time doing research online to answer all their questions. Or how about the time when we went to our local zoo and listened to the zoo keeper talk at length about the life and habits of our local Bald Eagle residents? This again prompted follow up and some bird watching via a live web cam. This is spontaneous learning in the purest sense of the word.

In addition, what about those “non-essential” skills learned through those summer months? Think about the team work and social skills being taught on baseball diamonds and soccer fields all across the country? What about students learning responsibility and hard work through summer jobs? What about the time to work on physical health through the various sports and outdoor activities? How about all that free time to read books of their choice? What about all the day trips and vacations to different places complete with different cultures and opportunities for learning? How about the occasional television show on PBS kids or History Channel that reinforces a learning concept or exposes a new interest? As a former Boy Scout, I could not imagine never having learned to whittle with a knife, start a fire with flint, learn emergency first aid or shoot a gun. All of which are not allowed in schools.

No, I don’t think the learning loss that occurs during summer is a problem. I would rather spend my time worrying about fun, creative, and freedom losses that happen during the school year. How can we infuse the freedom and fun learning that takes place during summer into the school year? How can we ensure that creativity is alive and encouraged in our classrooms? I would rather take time to learn about lightning bugs than prep my kids for the next standardized test. 

Too Heavy

In the past several weeks and months I have been reading a great many blogs and articles about the state of education and where we need to move. I further discussed this at great length with a number of educators at ISTE last week. The question I have is, “are we overcomplicating the matter?” There is a great number of “experts” spouting pedagogy, theory and even some philosophy to try to explain how education should be done in our schools. I kept thinking that it was all a bit heavy and maybe a bit to over thought. For me, I have four relatively basic beliefs about education that everything seems to come back to.

Relationships Rule

At the end of the day it will not matter how much content we cram into our student’s head but rather how we relate to them as people. Yes, content is important, but relationships will always trump it. Teachers that are able to have a positive relationships built on trust, honesty, and mutual respect will always have a greater chance of helping a kid succeed. Student learning will not take place in a classroom where there is fear, mistrust, or a power struggle.

Always remember that the kids in your class are human beings first and students second. If we remember this and address the human relationships first, we will always have more success with the student relationships second. In order to do this, we need to know our students beyond the relatively short amount of time we see then daily. We need to invest time to create personal connections and know them beyond what their homework and test scores tells us. Taking a personal and genuine interest in a kid is never a bad investment and is often the difference maker in some kid’s lives.

In addition to our relationships with our students, those we have with parents and other teachers are crucial as well. We are all in this together and we need each other to maximize a student’s ability to learn and be successful. Parents play a key role in child development and as teachers we need to foster a positive relationship built on those same principles of trust, honesty, and mutual respect.

Stop the Arms Race

Due to many political and economic reasons I either don’t understand or don’t agree with, we are pitting our teachers and schools against each other. Schools are not allowed to share their work with others and student’s work is being kept under lock and key. We are afraid to share the good work we are doing for fear that someone else might copy us. If we are doing good work, wouldn’t we want all kids to be doing it? Should we not be proud of our work and want others to be able to learn and grow from it?

One of the greatest things about my involvement in social media is the connections I have made. Through these connections I have been exposed to great teaching and examples of student learning all over the world. It is through this sharing that the learning experiences in my classes have been greatly improved. Beyond the teachers, we need to find ways for our students to stop competing for grades and awards and instead work collaboratively to create enriched learning experiences. We are better together.

When we Standardize we Bastardize

Yes, I am obviously referring to the standardized testing but more than that as well. Standardize testing’s evils have been written about in such great length that I will not go into any more details. However, testing is not the only thing we attempt to standardize in our schools. We do the same thing with teaching practice. In many schools we look to find “best practice” and then standardize it. When we do this, we are standardizing something that cannot and should not be standardized; people.  As long as humans are individuals and inherently different, teaching and learning practice can and should not be standard.

This also goes with resources and technology. We are trying to blanket cover classrooms with the same tools and resources. This is not the way to go. While I may like a particular resource, it will not work for everyone. Instead or standardizing these resources, let’s make innovation and creativity standard. Give me a tool box full of tools, some guidance, and let me run with it. Let each teacher decide what is best for them and their student’s learning. If we are truly the professionals we claim to be, then we should be more than capable of doing such work. Give us the destination but stop giving turn by turn directions.

Student Learning Above All

This should seem like an obvious piece of the education puzzle but not always the case. We often get caught up in board policies, new technology tools, or political jargon that we forget why we are doing all this. Stop writing policies that limit teacher’s ability to teach effectively. Stop being wowed by the latest gadgets and gizmos without thinking if it will actually help a student learn. Stop making decisions from up on high without ever setting a foot in a classroom to see who your decisions are impacting. Bottom line, if you can’t clearly articulate how your actions directly help student learning, please stop.

Although it must be said that student learning is not always indicated in a test score or a final grade. Some of the greatest learning that takes place in a class is human learning. This is when a student grows and develops as a human being. I put far more weight is the human learning grade than any test about Ancient History or Math Facts.

Many people will disagree and claim that education is not that simple and maybe they are right. However, when I talk to teachers in classrooms doing the actual work with kids, it always comes back to these four things; create positive relationships, start sharing, stop standardizing, and put student learning above all else. 

ISTE Flash Mob

Here is the unofficially official ISTE Flash Mob video from this past week’s conference held in the front lobby of the Pennsylvania Convention Center. A huge thank you goes out to all that participated in this fun event. Special notice to Tim Gwynn and Michelle Baldwin for organizing it and jumping through a series of hoops to make it happen. Thanks to Ellie Gibbard from the Pennsylvania Convention Center for her support as well. In addition, thanks to John Jacobson of Double Dream Hands for his support and choreography and Cory Plough for some of the video footage. Also, thank you to Kristina Peters for being in the front row with Michelle and leading the crew!

Now many people tweeted about the ridiculousness of such an event taking place at the conference. They could not understand why anyone would be interested in such a venture and tweeted and spoke out about it. It’s funny because I remember hearing similar negativity when I took on the Lip Dub at my school this past spring. Some people just don’t get it. They don’t get why people would want to work together to do something fun. They don’t get the feeling of being part of something spontaneous and did I mention fun. They don’t get the sense of community and companionship that is the root of what makes us human. They don’t get that we will remember that moment with fondness for years to come. The don’t get that we share these moments and they are what binds us together and allows us to work together on a deeper and more meaningful level.

I encourage any of my readers to do a Lip Dub or a Flash Mob with your staff or your students. I guarantee it will be a memorable occasion and bring you all together with a deeper sense of community…and it will be fun!