Getting ready

Another school year starts on Tuesday. Am I ready? I sure hope so. No matter what next week brings, I had a terrific week of getting ready for the new school year.

On Monday, my principal gathered our entire school staff for team building and goal setting at the North Idaho College Challenge Course. We've always had a tight staff, but it was amazing to see the trust exhibited on that ropes course. About half of us were willing to go up and try the high wires, rickety bridges, and swinging balance beams, but everyone took part hoisting ropes and working together on the ground-based challenges. It was the best start to teacher meetings I've ever experienced.

Tom Schimmer came to speak to all of our district's teachers about grading on Tuesday. He presented the idea of a standards-based mindset for grading. I really got a lot from his presentation, but the best were his explanations of summative vs. formative assessment that helped me understand the difference better than ever. We also received copies of How to Grade for Learning by Ken B. O'Conner for a district-wide book study. I'm excited to delve into this topic.

The purpose of summative assessment is to verify that learning has occurred & report that to someone -@TomSchimmer #CdAedchat #271leads

— Jim Windisch (@TeacherWithTuba) September 1, 2015

Formative assessment keeps learning on track & supports continual improvement -@TomSchimmer #CdAedchat #271leads

— Jim Windisch (@TeacherWithTuba) September 1, 2015

Speaking of book studies, my school staff read Dave Burgess's Teach Like a Pirate this summer. I read it the year before, but I was happy to share the experience with my staff. We had a pirate party to celebrate and discuss some of the ideas that came from reading it. Many of the teachers commented that the high school orientation of the book was difficult, but everyone came away with ideas for the coming school year. For me, the best part of our discussions was hearing about the plans to bring more joy into the classroom. The emphasis on testing and rigor has taken a toll on our kids and I'm glad to see our school focus on incorporating more fun and excitement into the good work we're already doing. I put up a Teach Like a Pirate bulletin board in our staff room with space for teachers to add notes about the ways the book affects their classrooms. I look forward to seeing what shows up there.

In addition to getting ready for the new school year as a teacher, I am the parent of a kindergartener this year. Thursday was kindergarten orientation for parents and our school's open house. Orientation was a remarkable event. My school's kindergarten team, Title I teacher, and district math coaches gave parents games and strategies to help their little guys succeed. We left the event with great information on assisting our son with handwriting, reading, and number sense. The evening's open house was a blast, too. It totally changed my perspective to experience this event as a parent. My son is lucky to have some friends from preschool in his class, because I think that helped put him at ease. He also got to meet his teacher, find his locker, and play on the playground. He seems really excited to start school next week: I'm the one who's nervous about it.

Finally, I was able to end the week with one of my favorite things: seeing and hearing live music. Sarah and I went to see Junior Brown in Spokane at Pig Out in the Park. I've loved Junior Brown's music since I was in high school. I saw him perform last time he visited the area nearly 20 years ago, when the world looked like this music video.

If it's possible, he was even better at playing the guit-steel this time around. The sounds he creates with his instrument are absolutely jaw-dropping. When we discussed it on the way home, we figured that he's had 20 more years of practice. I want to continue improving my practice as a teacher the way he has improved as a musician - maintaining my enthusiasm, experimenting with new techniques, and refining my craft. Here's to another year of practice!


Here's some more recent concert footage if you want to see what I mean about what happens with 20 years more practice!

The swinging new sounds of professional development

Since becoming my official Building Technology Leader, I've been working to provide meaningful professional development to my colleagues. I often share a new tool or idea with my staff at our collaboration sessions or staff meetings. I have made it a priority to give teachers time to discuss, experiment, and play with new technology in my sessions, but everyone seems a little reserved and hesitant and I can tell that many are much more concerned with the impending morning bell and preparing for the day to come. I knew I could make professional development more engaging and memorable. Press 'play' below, read on, and see what I mean.

Welcome to Monday Morning Appy Hour!

Care for a drink? It's okay, these mimosas are made with 7-Up, not champagne. Fire up that iPad and learn about a few new apps.

Stemware & iPads: what a combination!

The content of Monday Morning Appy Hour wasn't radically different from my other PD sessions. I shared SeeSaw, ChatterPix, Shadow Puppet EDU, and Telestory, discussed the importance of moving students from consumers to creators, and gave everyone some time to try the apps and generate ideas on how they could be used in the classroom. The attitude and level of participation, though, was a huge improvement from my past morning trainings. Everyone was having fun, and they were really discussing how they could use these tools in their classrooms.

So, is providing refreshments the key to engaging PD? I don't think so. I transformed my classroom and broke everyone there out of the expected environment. I've done it before for my students by disguising myself as a signer of the Constitution and being my own substitute teacher for the day or starting class with kindergarten-style circle time for fifth graders, but I'd never transformed a presentation intended for other teachers.

PD featuring the smooth instructional stylings of
Jim Windisch

In Teach Like a Pirate, author Dave Burgess devotes an entire chapter to transformation. In the chapter, he asks a powerful question: "If your students didn't have to be there, would you be teaching in an empty room?" Teachers are busy; they have a lot to do to be ready for the day each morning. As much as they want to learn new technology, I know my PD sessions wouldn't be everyone's first choice for that precious before-school time. This session was optional, but most of my school's staff was there. In fact, after the first couple teachers came in, received their drink and heard the lounge music, they went and grabbed others because "Mrs. X just needs to see this!" It went from a training to an event.

Making it fun loosened everyone up. They were excited to participate. The room was full of terrific conversations about giving students opportunities to create. I jumped in to support and tell some lousy jokes, but I refrained from actually doing any lounge singing. 

It was also a memorable experience. I feel like breaking away from the ordinary got the morning's content stuck in the participants' heads. Instead of having teachers ask me to remind them the names of the apps, they're coming to me to share how they've incorporated them into lessons and looking for support to take it a step further.

I'm sure this is only my first foray into transforming professional development. I'm already thinking of themes for future sessions. And I'll keep you updated at I continue to experiment and refine. 

Thank you, thank you, and especially, thank you. Remember to tip generously. I'll be here all week!

Inspiration from Edcamp Idaho

This has been a tough post to write, I really don't know how to describe my experience at the first Edcamp Idaho.  My son (almost 4 years old) helped me. He said I should write:

Camp was fun! Everything there was so much fun!

His words pretty much cover it, but I'll try to elaborate. When I first heard about it, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to go. Although it was my state Edcamp, it was a long way away. I took the plunge and made the 11 hour drive to be there.

Photo by Simon Miller

The night before the event, quite a few #IDedchat participants met for a Tweetup at a local restaurant. My main goal for the trip was to meet members of my personal learning network face to face and this would be my first opportunity. It was a little surreal meeting people I had never met before, yet they knew me by name before we even said hi. We were able to chat, share some food, and play bocce. If there is ever an inter-state edchat bocce competition, I wouldn't bet against the Idaho team (as long as I wasn't playing - my bocce game still needs some work).

Everyone was excited to be there to share ideas, and they were all unbelievably helpful and friendly. Being at the other end of the state, I only knew one other person there. Simon Miller is a technology coordinator from Kellogg, Idaho who I first met at a Google Apps for Education Festival this winter. He helped arrange accommodations for me in Hailey. I also met my host for the night, Dave Guymon. He just moved to Hailey to take a job with their school district and graciously offered a place for Simon and I to stay the night (and he cooked us a hearty breakfast before our day of learning). Tim Rocco was kind enough to supply us with sleeping bags for the night. In addition to the effort those three put into making sure I had somewhere to sleep, everyone else at dinner instantly made me feel at ease and comfortable. I met four more members of my PLN: Tami Rigby, Marita Diffenbaugh, Janet Avery, and Chad Avery. There were plenty of teachers who weren't on Twitter (yet) who joined in our conversations that night.

Edcamp Idaho session board photo by Janet Avery

Since I was staying with some of the organizers, I was one of the first to arrive at Wood River High School in the morning. I met Maggie Stump, who has been an active participant in our Teach Like a Pirate book study, right away. Excited educators kept streaming in and voting for the day's topics. One of the great things about edcamp is that all of the sessions are completely participant created and driven. For Edcamp Idaho, most of the session ideas were proposed ahead of time and participants were able to place stickers on the topics they wanted included in the day's agenda. When the session board was posted, there were 36 sessions to choose from with topics ranging from encouraging students to read non-fiction to learning how to use specific technology resources.

My first session was Teach Like a PIRATE. Although only a handful of teachers in the room read the book, we had a great discussion on the importance of rapport and a lot of ideas shared for transforming classrooms. I went to sessions on favorite classroom apps and using Discovery Education, but my favorite session of the day was "Things That Suck." That session presented us with controversial education topics and everyone in the room physically arranged themselves in order from strong agreement to strong disagreement and then we debated. I found that I was frequently in the middle, but there were many passionate arguments for and against merit pay, high-stakes testing, and homework. I was surprised by the diversity of opinions in the room.

Hanging out with other edcampers - photo by Marita Diffenbaugh

Edcamp Idaho was everything I hoped it would be and more. With over 100 teachers in attendance and 36 sessions, I'm still sorting out everything I learned. I have a huge list of apps to check out, some resources to investigate for project-based learning, and ideas for getting my students started with Google Apps. I even won a year subscription to Nearpod! But by far the most valuable part of Edcamp Idaho are the connections I made. As great as building my Twitter PLN has been, meeting face to face is amazing. I guess the best way to wrap it all up is by saying: Camp was fun! Everything there was so much fun!

P is for passion

Image from a presentation by Christy Hilbun

The #IDedchat study of Teach Like a PIRATE has begun. And the P in PIRATE stands for passion, an essential element for any good teacher. Author Dave Burgess asks readers to answer three questions about passion. I decided to post my answers here.

"Within your subject matter, what are you passionate about teaching?"
When I was teaching fifth grade, this would have been an easy answer: U.S. History! I love our country's early history: the crazy adventures of the first European explorers, the hardships of colonization, the passion that ignited the revolutionary war, and my all-time favorite topic: the three branches of government. Next fall, when I am officially an advanced learning teacher, those aren't technically within my subject matter. Instead, I'll be teaching reading and math switch groups for third, fourth, and fifth graders.
My passions in reading and math aren't as easy to define. I'm passionate about good storytelling and the ability to get lost in a great book. I'm passionate about learning through non-fiction. I'm passionate about connecting mathematics to real life. I want my students to fall in love with reading for pleasure and reading to learn. In math, I want them to see mathematics as a language for communication and problem solving. If I can weave those into every class, the passion will be there.

"Within your profession, but not specific to your subject matter, what are you passionate about?"
Lifelong learning is definitely a passion! When I was in school, I wasn't a good student, but I was a good learner. I would take an idea and run with it, puzzling though multiple solutions or seeking out books to learn more. My greatest goal as a teacher is to create lifelong learners. I want my students to have the tools to learn and discover about anything they want or need to know.

"Completely outside your profession, what are you passionate about?"
I love my family! I want to spend quality time with them and have fun. Music is a big part of my life. I play the tuba whenever I get a chance, but listening to music is one of my favorite activities. I grew up loving my grandpa's big band records. I still love the music of his era, but I've branched out to have very eclectic tastes: I'll listen to anything! Food is always on my mind. I enjoy cooking just as much as eating.  I studied the Titanic disaster in-depth throughout high school and college, and I still add to my library of books and articles about the ill-fated maiden voyage. And I can't get enough of surprising and obscure facts: I'm constantly reading articles from mental_floss and sharing all of the crazy things I learn with anyone who will listen.

Now that I've identified my passions, it's time to bring them into my classroom. I'm looking forward to learning how to do that in the rest of Teach Like a PIRATE. And I'll keep you updated as I continue to experiment and refine...


If you would like to join the #IDedchat study of Teach Like a PIRATE, let me know in the comment section or by contacting me on Twitter @teacherwithtuba We just got started, and would be happy to build a larger group!