Thank You

This post is a little different. It is very personal and is dedicated to my colleagues at Sauder Elementary. I have accepted a position at a new school district and want to let all my friends know how much they mean to me, so here goes...

Six years ago I walked into a building where a nice woman looked at me over her glasses and greeted me shortly there after, I walked into a room with a good-looking blonde lady. I told her a few jokes and talked about some educational stuff and tricked her into thinking that I would be a good fit in her building. Little did either one of them know that on my way to the interview, I was pumping myself up by telling myself that I had to get this job or I would have to give up on this dream of being a teacher. Michelle and I were both looking for jobs and wanted to start a family. I needed to get a job to support this family. Had it not been for Sauder Elementary, I would not be a teacher today. I cannot leave without telling you how important you have been to me. In my 6 years here I have never once thought that I was the best teacher here. I know this to be true because I have seen the lessons and activities in your rooms. You have pushed me to become a better teacher. I am the teacher and the person that I am today because of you. I remember in my first year, hearing people say “Welcome to the Sauder Family.” I didn’t think I was a part of the Sauder Family until February of that year when a little thing called the Variety Show happened. That is when I truly felt like a part of the Sauder Family. I am leaving the Sauder Family to spend more time with my family at home. Even though I am leaving I know that I will always be a part of the Sauder Family. I wish there were better words to describe my gratefulness to you. Unfortunately the only words I know, seem too small to express my gratitude, so here goes; THANK YOU!

My 5 Year Old; The Teacher

A few weeks ago my wife and I took our three sons to get their immunizations. The good news is that they are all done until before they go to kindergarten. While we were waiting, my five year-old spotted a flier encouraging people to eat locally grown fruits and vegetables. I of course starting quizzing him on the different foods and asked him to identify each of them for me. He did a really good job and was able to identify all of them. Then something happened...

he said, "Dad, what meal could you make out these foods?" Initially, I didn't really know what to say to that question. I don't think I have ever asked him a question like that before, so I wondered where he got it. Then I realized that I needed to answer his question. I am not even sure what I answered, i think it was something like an omelet. I then asked him what he would make and her replied, a salad with all of the foods in it. I wasn't as surprised by his answer as I was at the question. I thought that he was teaching himself better than maybe I could. I used think I was kinda good at it.

I know that these are the questions that I should be challenging my students with everyday. I don't need to ask the simple identifying questions with my 5th graders, and thanks to Barrett, I now realize that I should ask those same questions of my sons. I need to challenge kids to create, not regurgitate.

My sons are amazing and they continue to surprise me everyday. I hope to be able to show this post to Barrett in a few years to show him how deep his love of learning was at this age. I also hope that never goes away.

The Connection Question

This post was inspired by a tweet that I saw as a quote from the recent NASSP conference. There also seems to be this idea or myth (call it what you want). That the connection we make through technology is not a meaningful or worthwhile one. It is also a thought that has been clanging around in my head for awhile now. Is Social Media making us more or less connected?

There is no doubt that personally, I have connected with a lot of inspiring people through my social media journey. Have I truly connected? Does that connection mean something to me? To answer these questions, I will give two examples of social media connections and the relationships that are built as a result.

1. #ohedchat - If you don't already know about what is going on with this great educational endeavor, I will direct you here and here. Obviously, we have made some great digital connections through this technology of the twitter chat. However, that was simply not enough for some folks. During one chat the idea of a tweetup was mentioned for those involved in the chat. I thought it would be a great way for folks to connect socially and meet up. That wasn't enough for some of the #ohedchat folks, they have concocted a socially and educationally engaging day for members to connect and continue to learn.

2. TCC Class of 2000 Reunion - My graduating high school class has not had any reunions. I won't get into the many reasons that have kept us from connecting up to now, but the fact is we haven't yet. One of our classmates started a Facebook page and added all of his friends that he graduated with to the group. We are about two years away from a possible 15 year reunion, but we have started a good conversation so far. I have been friends with some of my past classmates for a few years now, but we are now focusing on meeting face-to-face again.

I use these two examples to illustrate a point. I believe that technology and social media give us meaningful connections. No one, even technology and social media experts, could argue that face-to-face communication is inferior to other forms. But if technology is our tool that we use to make those new connections, then isn't that meaningful? Shouldn't we be leveraging technology to make those meaningful connections? What do you think?

Remember that Awesome Worksheet?

Nope. That was my answer to a student that recently asked me why we never do worksheets. The conversation went a little like this:

Student: Mr. Evans, why do we never do worksheets?
Me: What do you mean 'do worksheets'?
Student; You know like do a worksheet, we all do it and stuff.
Me: Oh, you mean when I hand out a worksheet and talk about something, then everyone 'does it' then we go over the answers?
Student: Yeah like that.
Me: Well have you ever said this to one of your friends; Dude do you remember that Awesome Worksheet that we did last year?
Class: Laughs

I went on to explain a little bit why we don't do that. That because it is not that fun for them and that it does not really help them learn anything. I think they definitely got the idea that I don't particularly like using our time in class for things like that. Anyone can find worksheets at the teacher store and throw them at the kids, but is that teaching? Not to me. I'm a teacher not a resource regurgitator.

I do feel guilty sometimes standing at the copier as I run off some of those "sheets" for homework. Because it's not like I don't ever use a worksheet for something like homework or extra practice. I just don't believe that you can consider it a lesson.

I am so glad that this student pointed this out to me. He obviously has noticed that his past teachers have employed the worksheet method (if you can call it a method). He also noticed that I don't do that, for that I am very grateful. This tells me that students notice more about our teaching methods than we may think. Hopefully they appreciate my approach and will learn more in the end.

Social Media and Teachers ... Who Knew?

I follow a lot of great educators on Twitter. I have noticed that a few states like Iowa and Wisconsin are having their own scheduled Twitter chats. It seemed like a great way to share and learn about all of the issues and topics facing educators and students in Ohio. A couple weeks ago I tweeted a question about if anyone knew about Ohio having a state chat.

Before I knew it, a about 5 people were interested in participating and helping. A few volunteered to promote the chat to their followers. I even volunteered to moderate. What was I thinking? I have never done anything close to something like that. I was very nervous. Not nervous for myself, but for all of the participants. I wanted things to go well for everyone involved.

Well judging from all of the thank you tweets, I think it is safe to say that it went well.

Even my wife, a reluctant tweeter, joined in and learned a few things.

Who knew that teachers could be so into Social Media? I knew the Ohio teachers were out there, but they are way more into it than I ever thought. We even got some reporters from State Impact Ohio in on the fun.

A huge thanks goes out to #iaedchat and #wischat folks for inspiring this great adventure. As I said their ideas and discussions really helped us get this thing moving. More shout outs to Christina Hank, Molly Bloom and Michael Roush. Without their help, #ohedchat would still be an idea instead of a great tool for learning. This whole idea is about 2 weeks old, and I can't wait to see where #ohedchat can take us and what we can learn. If you haven't joined us yet, check us out on Mondays at 9PM. We can't wait to learn from you!

About Value-Added and Challenging Yourself

This post is not about Value-Added Teacher evaluations. I could, and may, write a another post about that. This post is about a workshop that I attended that was put on by Battelle for Kids and how it changed my thinking about my teaching and my life. So if you are reading this and you are not a teacher just bear with me to the end, and you may be challenged as well.

I saw a tweet about a workshop to share some of the practices of Highly Effective Teachers as identified by the research done by Battelle. I have to be honest here. I really wanted to hate Battelle for Kids. We are constantly hearing about how education is broken and needs fixed. This whole Value-Added movement just seems like one more thing to throw at us to break us down. Little did I know that this movement seems to be more about accentuating the positives. I think we could use more of that in all areas of our lives, not just in the teaching profession.

First of all the research method used by Battelle was Appreciative Inquiry. Simply stated, Appreciative Inquiry is a type of research that looks at what is good about something and how we can get more of it. Makes sense, huh? Basically their research found that Highly Effective Teachers positive behaviors fall into 4 categories. Student-Centered, Continuous Improvement, Stability and Goal Orientation. I scored high in the Student-Centered and Continuous Improvement categories. That was not surprising to me. I thought that is where I would fall. For the final part of the workshop, we were put into groups and asked to "stretch" into the categories that we did't score high in.

I loved this. I love that we were challenged to think outside of ourselves. I am going to be thinking about this for a long time. I will be challenging myself to think about how I can put more stability into every lesson this week and beyond. The research revealed that Highly Effective Teachers have a balanced approach to teaching. I think many teachers would that they take a balanced approach. The fact is that we all have to "stretch" ourselves from time to time. Not just teachers, but as parents, spouses and friends. We need to stretch ourselves into the areas that we need to improve. So I challenge you to first identify the area you need to "stretch" into. Then challenge yourself to live in that area over time and everyday because it can help you be a Highly Effective Teacher, Principal, Husband, Wife, Father, Mother or Whatever.

This is Why Students Students Should Use Google Apps

So at the beginning of the year my district decided to give our students Google accounts so that students could use Google Apps, specifically Google Drive. We started with the basic functions of documents and presentations. It wasn't much different than your typical word processing and powerpoint lesson. We then showed them how to share documents. I graded them and they could see the results instantly. I told them that the best was yet to come.

They have been studying the Solar System in Science. We let them choose any topic to research and make a presentation. They knew how to make presentations, but I showed them how to share them with their classmates. They thought that was pretty cool. THEN I showed them the chat feature. You would have thought I let I doled out extra recess. They went nuts. I was a little nervous that they would misuse it and just chat about everything but their projects, but they amazed me at the level of conversation. They were not only discussing the project, but how to make it better and complimenting each other along the way. Now, I went nuts.

As it turns out, I didn't have to give a big speech about not using the chat to talk about non-school related stuff. They just did it because they were caught up in how well it worked as a communication tool.

So the biggest reason why I think students should use this technology is communication. I told them that face-to-face communication is not always needed and we can learn how to adapt without it. They weren't silent while working on the projects, but the majority of their communication was through their writing. This is the kind of work that they will do and the way they will communicate later in their lives, and they are seeing the value of it at a very young age. In my technology class, my students aren't just learning about technology, they are also learning better communication skills and how to leverage available technology to accomplish tasks. So that is why I believe students need to use Google apps.