From Where I Began

Posted on by Traci Bonde

In elementary school, middle school and high school I was a mediocre student at best. In  Sparks Nevada, every tenth grader in 1985 met with a school counselor to talk about the future. Looking at my grades and assessment scores, the counselor told me I shouldn’t even bother going to college  & I didn’t have “what it takes.” Fast forward six years later and I returned to the same high school I graduated from as the youngest substitute teacher in the history of the Washoe County School District for that era ( I was 21 years old).

In 1989 and 1990 I was the Education Coordinator for the Reno Boys and Girls Club. I helped students with homework and assisted with activities to encourage learning. We had a small but powerful MAC lab. Students could sign up to play Oregon Trail.  That was my first introduction to technology and learning. Unlike many of my Ed Tech nerd friends I was not a gamer in school nor did I build my own computer. I didn’t have a game console and only used a word processor as a requirement to write my college papers. You would not refer to me as an early adopter.

In the early 1990s while attending a bachelor’s program which began in special education, I taught small group instruction at a non-public high school and worked as an aid in the larger classes. I then decided to leave education altogether.

I returned in 2003 as the first Data/Ed Tech Coordinator for Pittsburg Unified in Contra Costa County. I was tasked with responding to office civil rights (OCR) complaints and putting to gather data systems for school administrators and teachers.

During the 8+ years in Pittsburg Unified, I had a chance to work closely with teachers as they attempted to integrate technology into their lesson plan design. This time was long before online testing and Chromebooks. Much of what we experienced came as a result of a teacher’s willingness to take risks and fail.

And now in 2019 I feel the formula is still very much the same. In order for a teacher to reinvent their lesson delivery style and change their classroom management protocols attempting to integrate technology with student agency and voice and choice, teachers have to be willing to take on a feeling of risk and failure.

There are volumes upon volumes of resources on this topic in the business world and in the education environments that we now live in. Here are my tips for all the educators out there on this path:

  1. Do only 1 thing at a time, not 2, or 30- just 1. Pick the one thing that is true to your style.
  2. Know it will be as messy as every day of teaching is….Embrace the mess, that’s the risk and failure.
  3. Bells & whistles are just that. Our students need access to you, your content, & guidance. How you get there, what road you are on, what tools you use: they do not generally care…
  4. Repeat 1. Repeat 1.

How can I help you on your journey?

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MakerFaire A Many….

Posted on by Traci Bonde

This past weekend, I attended the 12th iteration of the Bay Area Makerfaire event in Silicon Valley. The week before the event was set to kick off there was an article in the SF Chronicle suggesting it would most likely be the last year. The rationale was due to cost and declining attendance.

Here’s what I know about having attended this event and promoting it in schools around California for the past many many years: it is life-changing.

The concept of the makerspace, MakerFaire, and just being a Maker is a return to a hands-on experience that many of us lost when technology began its climb into our daily lives. From amazing projects created and designed by teams to innovation introduced by singles, there was much to learn, discover and experience on a regular basis.

Throughout the years, when I talk about being a Maker mom, a promoter of maker teachers, and a designer of maker environments and schools, I am still often asked what does that actually mean?

I share it’s full circle back to where we began when in classrooms, in garages, and in bedrooms all over our country people would design and create amazing things for every day use.

For students and teachers alike in public education, it was an excuse to get away from the grind of standards-based education. Schoolwide efforts and districtwide initiatives to introduce Makerspaces has also begun a decline in the recent years.

What I’ve concluded is that it’s not due to a lack of initiative or desire, rather really good teachers at really great schools integrate the concepts much like they do in the way they use technology as a tool in the classroom- never the end result.

In my last year serving in the Los Gatos Saratoga Union High School District, this has become even more true with our teachers across both high schools. The integrated innovation and examples of what we would refer to as maker activities are prevalent in many courses.

& if the local events do dwindle, don’t worry. The recent addition of dedicated maker programs at community colleges throughout the state has shown that there is a great opportunity for the learner that may not be book heavy will have a place at the table.

Here are the maps I encourage you to share with all of your high school students so that they understand that the traditional four year college is not the only route to go:

Keep Making. I believe in you.

How To Make Schools More Inclusive

Posted on by Traci Bonde

4 year effort by Acalanes High School district.

What’s your relationship with race? & what’s the impact of race in your life?

How people look is how we identify them.

Leaning into love space.

Sometimes we need to lean into where someone else is so we can meet in a place to talk about race.

Where do you land on the topic of race?

Morally, heady, action, feeling?

Balance in quadrants will be powerful for you holistically.

Stay engaged on topic of talking about race.

What’s your real racial truth?

Build an equity muscle. Speak our truth.

What’s your racial biography?

UDL: late 90’s

Posted on by Traci Bonde

Cognition, learning, & the brain. Learners have tons of variability. Traditional edu systems are designed for average learner.

If we design for the average we miss everyone.

What barriers are we introducing? Direct correlation to space + instruction.

1 goal of UDL- to develop expert learners. Experts at learning.

1. Multiple means of learning.

2. Learning process.

3. Demonstrate what I learned.

UDLguidelines.cast.org

Learn more: micro credentials. Credential program.

www.STEAM-Studio.com

UDLSpaceDesign.com

Sample high school library redesign using UDL cards.

Till next time….

2019 ISTE LEADERSHIP SUMMIT Provocateur

Posted on by Traci Bonde

This past month I was asked to be a Provocateur for ISTE’s 1st Leadership Summit.  Target Audience: Administrators from all over the US & Canada.  We went through the IDEO Design Process over 2.5 days in search of 1 Big Idea that would move the needle in our districts.  Some attended as team, others as singletons.

My role for Table 2 as a Provocateur was to facilitate the conversation, keep things moving, provide clarity, poke the bear, challenge thinking.  It was a great fit for my personality.

The Summit schedule included lightning talks, chats, design blocks in chunks, Big 3 ideas for discussion.  It was intentional , thoughtful & well executed.  Here are my notes:

ISTE Tools for Admins:

https://www.iste.org/standards/essential-conditions

https://www.iste.org/standards/lead-transform/diagnostic-tool

https://conference.iste.org/2019DigitalLeadershipSummit/program.php

ISTE Leadership standards

BIG IDEA:

ISTE Partner District:

https://makecode.microbit.org/

Recommended Reads for Administrators from Jon Corripo

Free UDL Lesson Plans: CUE.org/CRAFT

1st design challenge: Discovery Conversation big question in table groups.

1 2 3 icebreaker in partners say 1 then 2 then 3……

15 minutes: take notes as Admin tells you about their district  & their scope their challenges.

Where do you need to work? What’s you Big idea?

Identify 3 essential conditions you want to work on over 2 days.

 

2nd design challenge: Interpretation

Design Block 3: Ideation
Quick write, pass around for others to ask more questions. We often don’t ask enough ?’s

Craft a pitch. 15 minutes. Practice pitch.

 

Design Block 4: Experimentation

Cool social media template:

Design Block 5: Evolution

 Block 6: Presentation

 

Other Resources:

https://www.newamerica.org/in-depth/prek12-oer-in-practice/

Offline: adventures in real time

Posted on by Traci Bonde

As a technology leader over the course of the last 17+ years, I rarely if ever have opted to totally disconnect for more than a day. Two years ago over a long weekend, we took the family to Sebastopol California and discovered we were out of range of cell for two days and to our surprise we absolutely loved the experience. With my young pre teen + teen, we play board games, watched good all fashion DVDs together, read, ate and shared space.

I found in the next year plus I longed for that type of experience again for myself and my now very busy teens. I took an opportunity to go five days in Joshua tree National Park totally unplugged offline. It was an amazing trip. The family did bouldering, photography, played card games, read books, played boardgames, and just spent time together sharing space. The value of disconnecting was huge as we found ourselves in great weather outside enjoying the day together.

It is amazing how fast our culture has changed with the infusion of all elements of our lives being managed and moderated by some form of technology. I believe in today’s culture with young people especially, the value of teaching them to put down devices and go off-line be at for a long weekend or even the ability to go for a full week in the woods, in nature, or out of cell phone range is in valuable for recharging and resetting the body.

I am thankful for the ability to have done that trip last week and encourage all of you to find moments where you too can experience the same type of option off-line for even a weekend.

Disclaimer: I did use my iPhone X to shoot pics.

What I learned from Fall CUE

Posted on by Traci Bonde

Start here: Crazy Fun Pics/Vid’s

For those of us who attend conferences one, two, or many times throughout the year, the real Takeaway is often the relationships created and the opportunity to breathe just a little bit away from the daily grind.

I am not a conference junkie by any stretch. For my own professional growth, I cherry pick maybe three conferences a year that I think are worth investing in. Here is my shameless plug for FALL CUE–this is one of them. Now it begs the question why?

The real take away that you cannot quantify on your expense report is the energy you get by playing sharing and taking risks with other educational leaders teachers and support staff that have a similar mindset to yours.

I do not like conference formats where you sit for an hour and listen to people talk about something or nothing and then get up go to the next room sit and listen for an hour.

I prefer conferences that allow you to create some product even if that product is a photo album because you did a gallery walk learning how to use tools on your phone. Much like our students, I believe I now as an educator can access anything I need online in real time if I need to learn or know something. The real Takeaway is when I can create content with peers and learn to take risks in an environment that promotes growth.

Just like our students — we are no longer content consumers — we also need to be stretched to be content curators and content creators.

Modeling in our own professional growth what we want to see our students doing in our classrooms is critical to make the connection.

I predict that conference attendance is going to begin to decrease as we discover the teachers administrators and support staff no longer have a need to attend a conference where they sit and get information dumps one hour at a time.

Attend conferences or create opportunities in your location that really feed your soul and allow you to explore and innovate. Be awesome in everything you do.

That’s a wrap

Posted on by Traci Bonde

Whew! Another summer of amazing moments watching dedicated classified staff prepare schools for teachers and students in anticipation of the next school year. In my new district, Los Gatos Saratoga Union High School District which consists of two high performing high schools I have often again found myself amazed by the will and skill of classified staff.

Beginning my position as the Director of Instructional Technology, I joined on the last day of school. That was the first time in my tenure as a district leader that I began while so many of our students and some of our teachers/staff were finishing a long educational journey. For many of them, they were winding down and grieving the loss of a chapter. For myself, I was gearing up for a new chapter in my own professional journey.

Those of you that know me, know that I spent that time thinking about the projects that were coming down the pipe that would need a full a team effort to achieve. And so it began, my secret sauce in Leadership is as follows:

Meet the team

Quickly assess skills

Develop and communicate game plan

Jump into the deep end of the pool and have fun

This very small team in Los Gatos Saratoga Union High School District were fully welcoming and had no trouble transitioning to a new style of work very quickly and effectively. We began by tackling projects as a whole team, and then smaller teams of 2 to 3 people pending on the need, the day, the location, and the timeframe.

Throughout the weeks to follow, as some staff took the month of July off, other staff stayed on and in a much smaller group. We continued the daily grind with many moving parts and a lot of flexibility required by all. Our use Voxer for daily “on the fly” “in the moment” “real time” communication helps dramatically. Voxer keeps all the team members abridged of any changes. It’s a great pathway to ask questions in the middle of a job. We have our fair share of funny gifs, decompressing moments with humor, and Real life challenges shared in the department chat. Images, video, and texts allow everybody to be heard and to understand directions in a variety of learning styles.

My biggest discovery through the summer was that regardless of what district I am in, the dedication of the classified staff always exceed my own expectations. They may not be the center stars but they have as much heart and as much investment in students exceeding as teachers and administrators.

Our summer project task list, classroom punch list, and daily support for summer school literally finished at roughly 3 PM on the Friday afternoon before all the teachers were due back. Thank you to the classified staff in Los Gatos Saratoga Union High School District in the technology department- the maintenance department- the business department- the HR department- the superintendents office and school offices.

For many of us, beyond ongoing daily support, after hours support, and weekend needs that we will stretch our capacity to ensure a good experience for our students and teachers: we also gave it 100% all summer long.

So for now, on a Sunday before the Monday of our first professional staff development day we are tired yet ready to begin the school year with the hope that are teachers and students feel like they are fully supported. That’s a wrap……

Scratch 3.0 Coming Soon…..

Posted on by Traci Bonde

Update from ISTE18: Scratch 3.0 FAQ’s

A highlight of the Makerfaire this past May 2018 was this talk:

Meet Scratch at it’s inception from a users perspective: Making art with Scratch allows for collaboration. Remixing in Scratch is a powerful element. Scratch is an online community not just a coding program. Ipzy Studio offers other creators her artwork. She created tutorial for backgrounds. Never imagined kids would do tutorials. Scratch creators wanted to give kids a voice. It’s programming & coding with writing. Per creator Mitchel Resnick, just leaning to code is not enough. We need to develop kids to be creative thinkers. 4P’s:

projects
passions
peers
play

“You don’t develop your own voice if you solve a puzzle.” says Mitchel Resnick.  “Kids learn best when they can work on a wide range of projects. Not all kids learn doing the same project.”

Most learning happens in collaboration with others. Play is ratified toward engaging with the world. 200 million people interacted with Scratch last year. A 5th P: purpose. Creating projects that are important to them.

“Scratch is a really open place. “ says Jinho.

What’s next with Scratch 3.0?

Kids can create things connects to voice commands. & it will work with LEGO Wedo.

Scratch bit will take Scratch into the physical world. Integrating open API’s.

They wants kids to develop into critical thinkers. Not coders.

Projects in Scratch are covered by Creative Commons. Use anything you want but reference the creator. Scratch 3.0 will be HTML5/Javascript based.

No more Flash needed.

Students will be able to author on tablets beyond ScratchJr. Not ready for smartphones yet.

Keep on scratching.