In the world of technology integration and education the focal point is often teachers. The school leaders a.k.a. Site Administrators are generally overlooked although they often lead all initiatives.  In Dublin Unified, there is a team of elementary leaders hungry for technology use that is meaningful in their daily work.  School Administrators rarely have time to hunt for resources that will make them more efficient.  In the spring of 2015, Holly Scroggins and myself began an initiative to create a monthly timeframe dedicated to technology integration use for Elementary Principals.  Once a month, our site leaders close their doors, turn on their computers or chromebooks, and join a Google Hangout with one another for one hour in an open forum. (Dublin is a GAFE district, if we used Office365, we’d do these meetings via Skype)

There is no set agenda, and the time is meant to be used learning the ins and outs of Google Hangouts for meetings and the overall experience of using technology in a natural way in their own environment on their own hardware.  My observations during this time are as follows:

At the beginning of every Google Hangout, at least two of the Administrators are struggling with their cameras and/or their audio. I will watch them call one another and troubleshoot through the challenges. And yes, you may be asking, why is the Chief Technology Officer only observing?  My style in leading professional development is to often stand back and let it play out. I am not the only expert in the room and by their ability to support one another, I often learn new things too.

The topics we discuss are not as critical as the time spent troubleshooting and exploring the computer for their needs as Instructional Leaders.

Yes, we often deal with some nuts and bolts while we are laughing and having fun with one another which is an invaluable professional development opportunity in and of itself.  We have successfully participated in roughly 5 Google Hangouts as a team since the spring.  Dublin’s elementary school Principals now know how to create a Google Hangout open a Google Hangout, troubleshoot through a Google Hangout and deal with logistics during a mobile meeting that occurs for a set timeframe.

At our last Google Hangout that occurred this past week, I encouraged every one of them to set a Google Hangout with one of their classrooms as a way to model the use of Google Hangouts with their teachers and their student body. I encouraged them to use some of the silly extensions that will show that they too have a very playful side.

I’ll report back on what we discover after we do our next Google Hangout, scheduled for February 2016. Here are some resources that you can pass along to your district leadership:

Google Apps for School Administrators

How Educators and Schools Can Make the Most of Google Hangouts

How Google Hangouts can enhance school communication

 

 

 

During the week prior to Thanksgiving break, I participated as a member of the Lead Learner Faculty team for a @cuerockstar admin at Skywalker Ranch in Northern California. Now I will stop right there and state that that in and of itself is all I have to write about. The End.

Oh but wait, there’s more.

Here is the CUE Inc. blog post that will give you a sense of what it meant to attend this very specialized camp or remind you of key items that you may have missed:  http://blog.cue.org/

I want to focus on the “now what”. So often, we attend fabulous conferences and professional development opportunities that can be so deeply moving that we know as we are walking out the door that nothing will ever be the same again. And this begs the question: what do we do with everything we now know in our efforts to make a difference?

I have a philosophy that is a common thread throughout much of my life and it is this: keep it small and start basic.  So what does that mean for each of us as we walk away from this very special exposure to another way of being and make an impact?

I have found the most effective way to instill real change is to be a “strategic termite. ”

The most effective change is curated over time, thoughtfully and in many small ways. It’s not a big change, it’s not always recognized by any of its parts, and time and time again in the most successful leadership books, this is key to the success of effective change.

Case in point: when you attend a @cuerockstar camp, the ratios are the most ideal for your learning experience. There is a heavy emphasis on networking. A key takeaway for many of you from your @cuerockstar camp journeys is to continue the conversation going with that same group of people who struggled and stretched over three days in some remote location in the Northern California hills.  Starting with daily small changes: a mention, floating an idea, reaching out to any of us for specifics can all be examples worth experimenting with for you in your culture. If you begin thinking “I need bigger”, try letting it marinate a bit longer, add another small change.
 Give this a try, and let me know how it goes. 

Coming back around from TOSA’s in Part 4, now we open it up to teachers, coaches, and administrators. Edcamps are the hot new thing.  Now I generally do not buy into what is trendy in EDU.  There have been many hot new things in EDU that go away after 1-2 school years to become yet another thing that didn’t GO. To appreciate #edcamptrivalley, that occurred on October 10, 2015, we have to go back to January 2015.  I had just begun my new role in the new position in Dublin Unified. In a series of introductory meetings came across this character and we were instant friends. She had heard of the “unconference” and wanted to try one at Fallon Middle School.  That’s all it took.  Fast forward to October 10 #edcamptrivalley.  I am not going to outline all the steps and outcomes, rather highlight others who did it all for me:

Check these out:

Edcamp Trivalley 10/10/2015 (with images, tweets) · craigyen · Storify

Resource Roundup! Five Key Takeaways From #EdCampTriValley

Dublin Teachers and Students Are Lifelong Learners : #edcamptrivalley

Continuing my series of the new kind of Professional Development Series for Teachers, this post will highlight the Academic Coaches (TOSA’s) that are our unsung heroes.

These professionals are pulled out of the classroom, generally in a full-time capacity, and offered an opportunity to coach classroom teachers in their pedagogy and delivery of classroom instruction. Quite often, these professionals do not receive dedicated professional development. In our modern education environment, & it has become critical for all educators to embrace and use technology almost on a daily basis.

Yet, TOSA’s often receive no exposure and/or dedicated professional development on the topic of technology integration. Once Dublin got through the big professional development and the classrooms were loaded with students and stuff, it was time to focus my attention on the Academic Coaches. In a partnership with the Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Dr. Sarah Breed, we out outlined a very aggressive professional development plan for the Academic Coaches and Dublin Unified.

Weekly targeted professional development is being delivered to Academic Coaches on two basic topics: the full integration of Google Apps for Education and it’s a daily use with students and staff. And modern thinking on apps and extensions to ease efforts of classroom teachers and the ongoing needs of TOSA’s to be everywhere at once.

Our first session had a heavy focus on Google classroom as one of our delivery mechanisms for instruction in 2015-2016. I also introduced them to the broader community of TOSA’s via CUE Rockstar and targeted Twitter chats that met their needs in there very specialized positions for their PLN’s (personal learning networks).  This exposure proved to be much needed as some of the TOSA’s in our district have since begun to participate in weekly chats on Twitter fine-tuning their own skill sets.

Some of our coaches in their roles were brand-new to the district so we also focused on Hyper Docs” created by a Pleasanton Unified  team of high-profile Coaches: Lisa Highfill (@lhighfill), Kelly Hilton (@KellyiHilton) and Sarah Landis (@SarahLandis).

I shared that there had been a focus in spring collaboration meetings at the elementary level and secondary level utilizing hyper docs in daily instruction. That along with google classroom felt like it was more than enough as a kicking off place.

You will notice while viewing the slide deck: Coaches Deep Dive, that we also spent time on iPads as a delivery mechanism in coaching teachers in the classroom.  For coaches that travel around to multiple sites, lugging a large laptop is not always ideal. APPs were introduced by the Coaches in a very dynamic APP smash that allowed them to share with one another, tools they used on a daily basis that could help them as a team overall.

In the Google Classroom professional development course created (and mentioned in a prior series post) they have all been added as teachers. Some of the Academic Coaches have also created classrooms and invited other Academic Coaches to participate as students. This gives our Academic Coaches an invaluable lens of the Google classroom experience for both a classroom teacher/student.

Complimenting the technology, I provide them with readings from online sites that are the best of what is offered in research for technology integration. We are not spending time learning new models, nor are we spending time attempting to master said models. Rather my approach is to take the Coaches directly to the tools that will be used by themselves they can share with classroom teachers during collaboration time. I believe that is a more effective model to learning technology integration.

When meeting with grade level teams or departments: the Academic Coaches are charged with integrating some of these tools in their own delivery. Our next professional development topic will be video in the classroom. The Academic Coaches will learn one to two video recording tools that they in turn will make available to classroom teachers so that they can begin to use video with students.

If all goes well with my master plan for technology integration and TOSA’s, our district will be well prepared for full technology integration in every classroom in a meaningful way. Stay tuned for progress on my thinking through the school year.

2 hours and 15 minutes after I finished the Boot Camp with new teachers in Dublin Unified, I moved onto the next professional development offering for all teachers to occur on August 24. A survey had been given to teachers in the spring, asking them to choose what type of professional development would be most meaningful for them as a group prior to the school year beginning. Overwhelmingly, technology was a focal point.

The data was mined and teachers went off for the summer. We had a number of administrative changes occur between June and August that impacted planning. I began by reaching out to the internal teachers that had been targeted as rockstars and slotted for sessions as presenters.  I asked them to set aside the date and gave them a topic. I also told them we would begin planning on August 4. And that was as much information as I provided them.

Fast forward to August 4, all of us met in a Google Hangout at 5 PM to discuss logistics, deliverables, and our goals as a team. I gave the teachers complete autonomy to build their sessions from their perspective as classroom teachers.

We held one more planning meeting via another Google Hangout, conducted final planning via email, and all teachers were asked to solicit slidedecks to a Google site that I had created. It’s modeled much after the CUE Rockstar theme where teachers can go after sessions end and still access content as needed as well as view all content from other sessions that may be occurring simultaneously that day.

As I like to, I threw an additional wrench into the formula. Our one high school in our district of 10,000 students has the most beautiful student union with gorgeous tall windows and a lot of steel. I had a vision of many teachers attending professional development in this building on the topic of Google Classroom.

Here’s approximately 200 teachers attempting to access Wi-Fi all at the same time following a rather large email migration that required they reestablish their logins on the network. Many had only reopened their laptops after having been gone for two months, and we changed the WIFI access codes! Was I crazy? You bet.

A 45 minute delay in the first session meant two thirds of the teachers could not access Google Classroom. The presenter, Kathy Proctor, a fifth-grade teacher at Amador elementary, handled it like a pro. She kept them going, had them team up, and dive in.  The second session, led by A.J. Oliveira from Wells middle school went off without a hitch.

We held approximately 11 other sessions with a focus on Google APPS, Hyperdocs, and flipped classrooms. Infinite campus gradebook was also offered to roughly 100 teachers in our library. Every session felt the same pain with the 45 minute delay, every second session was successful.

To continue the learning for the presenters and the attendees, I created a Google classroom called Dublin Unified Professional Development. The goal of this classroom is to allow teachers to be students with their presenters from August 24 and learn about what their students will experience when they are the teachers in the room in Google Classroom ( Note: there is no real room in Google Classroom).

Here’s my big takeaway– there is no gain without risk. End of story.

Here’s my share out after Dublin Unified had its new teacher Boot Camp. Over three days approximately 50 of the 70 new teachers in Dublin Unified came to a boot camp that was offered to them and they were not paid for their time. They arrived enthused and ready to learn. A day and a half into the boot camp, they were turned over to the technology services department for the remaining day and a half of professional development. As you read in part one, we chose to do things just a bit different. Teachers had an opportunity to check out new laptops and do the regular required paperwork. They were asked to log into the computers so we could verify they knew how to also log into Google and that began their journey with Technology Services. Once they arrived back at the Board room, they were met with a personalization station to decorate their laptops with stickers that were meaningful to them promoting positive sayings as the students will be looking at those laptops all year long in class. I giggled as I saw many teachers stare at me in dismay as I encouraged them to deface their laptop cases with stickers. I knew right there that was a foreign concept to many of the new and veteran teachers alike. Once they decorated their laptops, they were encouraged to go to the green screen station and create fun images that could be added to their webpage, Google profile, and or just for fun in their first agenda. The staff in this image are our Superintendent and the Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services (the new teachers loved seeing them! & the green screen APP master is my soon to be freshman!).  

Day one ended with an exit ticket requirement I had that they have one page of their website built with contact information and a photo so that parents knew how to get a hold of them as early as days before the first day of school.

Day two began in the student union at our one high school in Dublin Unified.  Teachers were taken through an adventure game that led them to an opportunity to work in teams for the next two hours on one deliverable due at the end of the morning session.  The exit ticket for the morning session was the first day agenda, some teachers opted to do Google forms and getting ready for back-to-school night, other teachers begin working on their classroom website. All in all, it felt like a very productive morning and we received many compliments from Directors.  Teachers shared that they really enjoyed the space and time to work, network, and focus on one deliverable due mid morning. During their hour-long lunch, many teacher stayed around for Twitter 101. I walked them through the value of Twitter as a PLN and encouraged them to create accounts even if they intended to only lurk on Twitter. I sang praises for the value of Twitter as an ongoing PD and networking tool that they can tap into for themselves and in classrooms with their students throughout the school year. 

The afternoon sessions were hands-on and by the end of the sessions teachers got a chance to do even more work in systems that they would be using on a regular basis and would need exposure to.  In addition, they had exit tickets to have certain elements of those program set up prior to leaving for the day.

The same model is how we will conduct our first August PD for staff prior to the school year. Stay tuned for the next post that will outline the menu of items that will be available to teachers to pick and choose sessions throughout the day based on their individual needs.

On August 11, for New Teacher Boot Camp in Dublin CA, 100 teachers will pick up their laptops, sign in to network with new login and password, and listen, listen, listen, as IT department tells them how to navigate WIN 8.1 for reading email, opening PowerPoint, etc.  WAIT, scratch that, rewind, that’s what we did in 2014 and every year prior in Education Technology.

Meet 2015 in Dublin, CA: 100 teachers will get laptops, but that is the only similarity. Here’s our agenda in the Technology Services Department:

1. Check out laptop
2. Sign into Google for Education Apps (GAFE)
3. Personalize your laptop with stickers with positive themes!
4. stop by the “What is my teacher super power?” green screen movie photobooth
5. Build your skeleton website with contact information

So; how does that sound? #welcometomyhouse

Resources for ways to use green screen, video creation, or animation in classrooms (more to come….):

ISTE: Engage elementary students with stop animation! with step by step instructions for how to do this in your classroom

25 Free Green Screen resources

This resource did a great job storifying GAFE Summit 2015: https://storify.com/KarlyMoura/gafe-summit-july-18th-19th-2015-links-resources Thanks https://storify.com/KarlyMoura @karlymoura

In the late winter of 2014, Joe Wood invited me to attend Lake Tahoe CUE Rock Star Camp as a faculty member. Around that same time, Joe and I completed our Chief Technology Mentor program with CETPA and had just received our award letters. I was preparing to transition from a position in West Contra Costa Unified School District as a Business Specialist on special assignment and begin a new position that January with Dublin Unified School District as their first-ever Chief Technology Officer.
I accepted and felt like “Why not jump in and attempt to do something new?” I have been delivering professional development for corporations and school districts for the last 17 years. I have written curriculum, designed interfaces, and have trained staff on a variety of topics related to technology. I spent approximately 4 to 5 months researching, refining and preparing what would become a few slides and a slide deck and one document per day on topics that I chose. More important than my getting to choose my own topics to present was the opportunity I created for my 10-year-old son and I to co-teach on a topic that we are both very passionate about: coding. He created three math Scratch projects that we would deliver together in our sessions on day two.
As CUE Rock Star Lake Tahoe came closer, my son and I both found ourselves excited and nervous at the same time. We arrived in Lake Tahoe in the summer of 2015 on a Sunday afternoon and attended a barbecue for Rock Star faculty. At the barbecue, Bryce instantly made friends with some of the adults who were my peers and who would be presenting with me for the next several days. I knew instantly that we had made a great choice together! The topics I covered over the three days are below and you can see all of our resources and projects. What I most enjoyed about the experience was the time with my son in an environment where he could see what mommy does every day at her job. When we were not in sessions together, we were exploring other classes, playing with many of Brian Briggs’ robotic toys, and enjoying being around other Rock Stars!

In addition to the content delivery, the relationship building and the time just enjoying conversation together, my son and I also made many new friends. The value of an intimate professional development opportunity like a CUE Rock Star Camp is hard to quantify. I observed teachers walking through the door the very first morning, apologizing for their lack of knowledge. That is a very common thread seen by those of us delivering educational technology. I will tell you those same teachers were tweeting about new hurdles they had overcome and mastered within a number of hours as takeaways. It takes great bravery to walk into a training opportunity that you have personally selected with no prior knowledge.

For many of us in district leadership across California, and I will assume many other states in the country, professional development is a very hot topic right now related to technology integration. I highly recommend CUE Rock Star camps for not only the experience of leading sessions, but also for the opportunity to attend sessions with professionals who believe that technology engages students and makes learning fun.

Once I got back to my district, I met with my superintendent and briefed him on my experience as a Rock Star faculty member. I shared with him the approach to professional development, the relaxed manner in which interactions occurred, the high level of engagement of the all of the teachers participating, and the takeaways that they felt they would be able apply once they were back in their classrooms in the fall. My superintendent also has delivered professional development for many years, and found this model to be very intriguing. I am hopeful that as we move through the school year together, we can find places where our professional development and department and or staff meetings can look much like the format of CUE Rock Star.

I am lucky to be able to present again for CUE Rock Star Admin at Skywalker Ranch in November 2015. My son won’t be teaching with me this time around, but I look forward to taking back as much learning as I can to share with him and my district.

For the classroom teacher, Twitter is an easy, effective way to access resources in one destination with one swipe of a finger. Twitter has become so important for educators that now for many conferences you are strongly encouraged to have a Twitter account so that you can more fully participate in the many conversations happening all at once. That alone has  introduced to Twitter to thousands upon thousands of teachers in classrooms around the world. You may be thinking, “So what?” 

Let me share with you the power of Twitter.  By searching on Twitter, I can find posts and tweets on any topic regarding any element of technology and education and pedagogy available in modern thinking, instead of going to Google. When I search for a concept or subject on Twitter, I can isolate resources from my peers in one list with all of the websites embedded in the tweets. (This is crowdsourcing at its best – I don’t have to spend valuable time sifting through stuff I don’t need or want.) I don’t have to tweet or post anything myself to be able to access great insight from others on best practices for my students on any topic under the sun.

In no time you’ll be getting comfortable with searching concepts in Twitter and will be ready to do your first post. All you have to do is figure out how to say what you want in 140 characters max. (If you tell the friends you find on Twitter and follow that you are new to Twitter, they will celebrate your newness!) Once you learn the nuances of following and hashtags for conversation threads, you can go all kinds of places. Easily getting the resources you want and need for your classroom on Twitter makes it well worth having an account.