Island Life

Tropical Paradise
I want to talk about island life for a moment and full disclosure, I have never lived on a remote island, so no offense to those who have. Living on a remote tropical island really sounds good though, at least for a short amount of time, but long-term, being on an island can become isolating. Not interacting with others, sharing, and working alongside peers that challenge you, will keep us from growing as individuals and we can become stale.

Stay Fresh
It is easy to become isolated on internal islands within our own technology departments. With the grind that comes with answering help desk tickets and trying to maintain normal daily responsibilities while pushing ahead with additional projects, communication between our peers becomes increasingly more difficult. If we layer on top of that the rapid pace that technology changes and the amount of content generated on a daily basis, the island starts feeling like a safe place to be. We all know however that isolation will not help us solve the problems in front of us, keep us fresh with new ideas, and increase collaboration amongst our peers to better serve our students and staff. 
 

PLN Strong
The concept of a professional learning network has been around for quite some time now and still, in my opinion, the most effective way to connect with peers. The power of a PLN is the informal manner that a person can participate, share content as well as consume, and take advantage of a global community. Having a staff that has strong PLN's will benefit our internal technology teams that often struggle with getting out and allows that isolated island feeling to creep in. Although the PLN and PLC terminology is synonymous with teachers and administrators, there is a vast community of technology-related professionals waiting to connect. A few places to connect with other technology-related professionals.

• Twitter: Search hashtags, ie. #itdirector, #networkadministrator, #datasecurity, #programmer
• LinkedIn
• COSN: Consortium for School Networking
• ISTE: International Society for Technology in Education
• State and local listservs 

Creative Time
I am not sure that creative time is a thing, my point here is that time is the magical piece that there is never enough of. Instead of using the old saying that you will find time for what is important, be creative with time and find different ways to get together other than the traditional meeting. A recent post on Engage, an employee engagement blog, on "7 Fun Ways to Host Team Meetings", points out a variety of simple common sense ways to make meetings not boring. Three of my favorites are mentioned below that I have added some ideas on how to make these easily happen with minimal time involved in preparation. 

• Use grouping: We know birds of a feather flock together right, so instead of having everyone count off from 1-5 then split up, which is boring, pass out different pieces of candy to everyone when they arrive and find their table of like sugary fun. Substitute anything you would like if candy isn't your thing. 
• Change the scenery: This one is very self-explanatory and why not meet at the local coffee shop, nothing makes a meeting more enjoyable than sitting in a comfortable chair with an iced coffee. One notable mention here is as the leader, you need to reassure your leadership team that this is OK. Let them know your expectations, traveling an hour across town to a nice speakeasy is probably not what counts as productive for most organizations. 
• Switch up positioning: This is similar to grouping in moving people out of their comfort zone by not having them sit in the same exact chair every week. Here is where you need to lead by example, the next time you walk into the meeting room, you start it off by sitting in a different spot every time. If we expect others to venture out of their comfort zone, we must lead by example.
  
  

Sharing is Caring

I would love to hear what others are doing with their staff for staying fresh, building their PLN's and being creative with time. Leave a comment, tag me on Twitter @jcastelhano, share the great things you are doing!

Been A While

Been A While

courtesy of Arndt Nollau

It has been quite some time since my last post, a little over three months actually. I would imagine that is probably a bit to long in between posts, but the inspiration to write has been lacking. In my opinion, it is probably better to take a break than force something that just isn't there. Lacking the motivation to blog is not any different than becoming stagnant with other things in life, even in the workplace, where there are numerous things to keep us busy. So how do we stay motivated, inspired, full of enough energy to keep innovating and moving forward at work or anywhere for that matter?

courtesy of Bjorn Hermans

Get Out...
of the four walls of that office or classroom and start building your personal learning network! The greatest source of inspiration for me comes from others that I am connected too. It can be virtual connections or face to face, but sharing thoughts, ideas, and opinions with others will contribute to your professional development and knowledge. And (not sure that is grammatically correct), we all need support, information in today's world comes at such a rapid pace it is impossible to keep up without a network.


Where Do I Start?
The first step in any new adventure is the hardest part, but let's just be honest with ourselves here, you are not climbing a 500 ft. cliff without a rope, or walking a tightrope with no safety net, you are looking for individuals that share a common denominator. If in a classroom or office, prop your door open and say hi to your colleagues as they pass by, maybe they will drop in and you can talk about what they have planned for the day. Jump into the Social Hurricane and build your PLN virtually through social media. Find a group that is outside of your school walls but maybe local in your state (AzTea, AZ CIO/CTO, @azk12) or venture out to the national organizations (ISTE, COSN, TLN)!

Big Thanks
I want to thank the AZ CIO/CTO group for being a big part of my PLN. The passionate, diverse, thought provoking contributions by this great group has been very helpful in building my professional development and knowledge. The recent activity on the list serv is what inspired me to get back to my blog, thanks all.

Creative Juices

Take A Moment
It is hard to ignore the countless articles, blogs, tweets, etc. about creativity being lost in our school system these days. To some extent I don't disagree we are putting certain practices in place that can be stifling to the creativity that our students possess. But take a moment and reflect on what we have accomplished as a nation and where we are at. Yes we have many issues that can seem depressing at times, but in my opinion, we still have incredible schools, many opportunities, and creative citizens sharing and working with people around the globe!

courtesy of betterworldbooks.com

I am currently participating in a book study with the ISTE SIGAdmin group, reading the book, "The Flat World and Education." There is mention in the book about Singapore's educational reform and their focus on creativity and innovation, what grabbed my attention was a response by one of the SIGAdmin members about this program.

What is even more interesting is that the "training" the teachers are receiving is being done by, (you'll never believe it), teachers from the United States. True! A very dear friend of mine "commutes" to Singapore monthly to work with 240 teachers for 10 days a month in one of their training programs. my friend says that "the teachers are marvelous and "she returns quite inspired each month." -Becky

As a nation, we should be proud that many countries still turn to the United States for training, observation, and ideas, on how to educate their students to become creative and innovative thinkers. But how do we keep creativity and innovation in the classrooms, many think it is already gone others on the way out?

Keep Them Flowing
So where does technology fit into the puzzle with developing creators and how do we keep the creative juices flowing? As I always like to point out, we must keep the focus on "good teaching" and not the shiny object, and I recently read a grant proposal that stood out as an example of this. Robert Jones, a English teacher in Tempe, AZ, is having his students create Android apps that they will use to review and synthesize literature. The students will then make the apps available to download on their Android tablets or other compatible devices. The project has what I feel are all the right pieces that support innovation and creation in the classroom and the English content standards were the foundation when the project based activity was designed.

courtesy of http://wiki.makerbot.com/

Another technology device that I am amazed with is the 3D printer. Maybe it is just a shiny object that is distracting to me personally, but it seems like the device has a tremendous amount of potential to be used in schools. What better way to incorporate essential standards into a project based activity and actually be able to build a product, literally have it appear right in front of you. I learned about the Makerbot, an affordable 3D printer, from John Miller, Tech Director at Litchfield Elementary, last year. After showing a video of the device to my son, he immediately wanted one so he could make armies of Lego characters and blocks for stopmotion movies. Can only imagine how I could have used this in the classroom many years ago.

Looking Ahead
Developing creative and innovative students is important for any society to be successful and should be a priority around the world. Great things come from new ideas...jobs, success, personal satisfaction, and the understanding that if something isn't working, innovate and make it better. I hope that as a nation we do not lose sight of what has worked in the past, continue to evolve so we are relevant in the present, and develop creators to lead us into the future.

Yes, No, Maybe?

Face-To-Face

The ISTE Learning and Leading publication is a membership magazine that contains great ideas, success stories, and the chance to share opinions. Point/Counterpoint is a regular feature that provides a topic question that readers can respond to. The reader answers yes or no and then gives their reasoning for their answer. It is a great feature that I enjoy reading and on occasion will respond to. Back in August the question was,  "Should students opt out of face-to-face education." This question is featured in the current issue and I thought I would share my response (added a little color) here and see if others have any feedback on the topic.   

No
Online learning has brought a great opportunity for both students and teachers in today's educational environment. It continues to evolve and K-12 institutions are finding ways to incorporate this medium of instruction in a number of creative ways. Traditionally, opting out of face-to-face and moving online has been associated with credit recovery, illness, participating in a class that their school does not offer, or particular situations that keep students from attending a traditional setting. I think we should be grateful to the online learning options for those situations. However opting out of all face-to-face education  just "because" is not the right choice in my opinion.

Blend It
I believe that a blended learning opportunity can better meet the needs of our students than opting out completely from the face-to-face environment. Blended learning was defined by Michael Horn and  Heather Staker in The Rise of K-12 Blended Learning as,

"any time a student learns at least in part at a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home and at least in part through online delivery with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace"

This definition has been interpreted and rewritten in a number of different ways, however the definitions that I believe will allow our students to be successful in society have a meaningful face-to-face component. We have created this definition in my school district to guide our blended learning opportunity pilot by combining our own thoughts and those of others.

blended learning is any time a student learns at least in part in a Project-based, higher level thinking, brick-and-mortar location away from home and at least in part through online delivery with some element of student
control over time, place, path, and/or pace

"When PBL is done correctly, it engages the students in their learning. They are motivated by an authentic purpose that peeks their curiosity. Learning is differentiated through product, process, possibly content, choice, etc. Various learning styles are met, and student strengths are nourished. Teachers can work with small groups, and can meet individual needs." -Tracy Watanabe

Why Not
I suppose there could also be an argument that PBL and higher level thinking can be facilitated online and not face-to-face, but a productive society still has to interact with one another sometime, so why not blend it.

Not the end...

Publish It
I began the final day at ISTE 2011 attending the session, "Writing for an ISTE Publication." I am not sure if people are aware just how many publications that ISTE has in circulation, but I suggest checking them out here, there is something for everyone.

Vendor Row
I waited until the final day to really spend any meaningful time in the exhibit hall. I was discussing with my colleagues the days when we used to attend Comdex in Las Vegas during the height of the tech boom. Vendors had gigantic exhibits, some with live music, showgirls, one company even had people high in the air swinging around like Cirque du Soleil! It really was over the top and hard to figure out what some were even trying to sell. The ISTE 2011 exhibit hall was very nice, easy to get around, and had a nice vendor presence. I was able to make some meaningful contacts with a few of the vendors we use and put a few names to faces.

Wrap up
The closing keynote was amazing and started off with the group Street Beats Group, who performed an amazing glow in the dark percussion piece. Their performance was followed by a well done animation by Youth Voices, "Who Do You Think You Are" (both can be watched in the video below).

Chris Lehmann was the closing keynote, but before he took the stage, he had a group of his students present their poetry slam and that was a very emotional piece that moved the entire audience, I would recommend sharing with your staff and not just teaching staff, but any staff in your district. The importance of my technology staff understanding today's students is monumental in helping to clearly define our role in the organization, I believe this applies to every person working on a school campus.

It is difficult to describe Chris Lehmann's keynote in just a few words, but I will just say that he is very passionate about kids and learning and a great inspiration for all educators. It is very obvious that Chris wants to see our kids not just become 21st Century workers, but 21st Century citizens. Take the time to be inspired and watch his keynote address along with the other closing performances below.

You can never doubt the wisdom of the voices of students
-Chris Lehmann

ISTE 2012
Thanks for following my blog this week and I hope to be attending ISTE 2012 in San Diego. Feel free to follow, comment, and share your thoughts here at "this and that" and follow on twitter @jcastelhano.

The Birds-ISTE Update

Tech Commandments
Catchy name for a session led by Adam Bellow, check out the eduTecher blog. He started the session on a good note by saying there would be no


which at that point I figured this was going to be a no lose session. Adam had some great quotes and information he shared, few of them below.

"Training needs to be a priority, but not all about hardware and software"
"Educational technology is not all about stuff"
"I don't like students using cell phones because they know more than me and look things up"
"Any teacher who can be replaced by a robot should be"
"Lies my teacher told me"
"Be like the kids, be stubborn and resilient, don't give up"
"Collaboration is the 21st century skill"

Leading in 3D
This session was lead by Chris Oneal and very relevant for principals and how to be a technology leader by modeling. Check out his wiki, here is a quick question for principals from Chris.

Do you lead by example? Teachers and other instructional staff look to you to demonstrate a commitment to technology through efforts that make sense for your job, yet define the expectations you have for technology use across the board.

Birds-of-a-Feather
I ended the day with a birds session on 1:1 computing and was excited for this one as it was more of a round table discussion. It was interesting hearing about what a district or two in Australia was doing with their 1:1 initiative and others experiences in their adventures to change the learning in their own little part of the world.

Thanks for reading and I will try and post one more time tomorrow as I am running a day behind now!

Getting Started

City Life
It was a crazy ride to Philadelphia, the plane was up and down more times than a roller coaster at Six Flags! It took the rest of the evening to stop walking into walls, but this morning I was ready to roll. We spent a little time roaming around the city and taking in some of the historic landmarks and went on a tour of Independence Hall courtesy of Ronnie Burt from Edublogs. Tracy Watanabe and Elizabeth Francois hooked me up with the group and I met some great teachers. Also managed to visit the market near the conference center and there was to many choices of amazing food to take in! I will be returning there everyday to try something a little different.

Checking In
Finally checked in and ready to go, was excited to find a Higher Ground iPad case in our bag of free stuff. Plug for Higher Ground, they make a great case, we use them for our 1:1 netbook program. Took a stroll through the ISTE SIG booths and picked up my Admin tag and waited for the kickoff keynote address by John J. Medina.

Electric
This is only my second Iste conference, but there is something special about it. Maybe it's the 1,000's of individuals gathered together that share a common interest, but you can feel the excitement all around you. The electric feeling of sharing ideas and learning from others is something that all educators and administrators should experience. I look forward to jumping into the BYOL I have signed up for and all the other sessions, check back for an update tomorrow.

Blogging at ISTE!

Part I

My first visit to an ISTE conference was in 2009, in Washington DC. Not only was the conference amazing for a number of reasons, but it was also my first trip to the nation's capital. I was able to take part in a number of great sessions, listen to amazing keynote speakers, and also get in a little sight seeing as well. Seeing the capital for the first time and meeting the Obama's at the conference, you can see from the picture below I was a little nervous, was a great experience.

Part II

I was not able to attend the conference in 2010, but will be attending this year in Philadelphia in just a few short days. I am again excited for the trip and what makes this trip more special than the first is we are able to take a small group of teachers along! I can't wait for them to experience the week and have them bring back their experience to other teachers in our district, sharing resources, ideas, and general conversation will benefit each of our schools. I have also decided to use the conference planner this year, novel idea right, and should be able to cram in almost everything that I want to attend.

Blog Away
I am going to give it my best shot to blog my experiences throughout the week while attending the conference. Here is my disclaimer, I am not quite sure what kind of random thoughts, resources, or experiences I will end up sharing, but going to try and capture the experience and not just session by session type of info. So check back during the week and enjoy!

Change Can Happen

Setup
Recently I wrote about professional development and my district's "Summer Academy" activities. There were a number of district participants and presenters, one being Tracy Watanabe, AJUSD's Technology Integration Specialist. She spent one of her days working with the teachers at CCJH, the district's Jr. High, where we have just finished the first year of a 1:1 program with the 7th grade. Next year the incoming 7th graders will step right into the 1:1 environment and the school will be 1:1 all the way through.

The Growth
There have been a number of amazing transformations take place at CCJH during the year and worth noting, but one of Tracy's activities just grabbed my attention. She had small groups of teachers take the district's "College Readiness for All" plan and make the connection to the

ISTE NETS-S. There was great collaboration between the groups and the way they chose to share their information was also very impressive. They had little time to complete the task and the three groups below all chose different forms of multimedia for sharing.

Culture Change
One short year ago this activity would have not yielded the same results. Not sure how many teachers would have known what the NETS were and sharing would have probably been on a piece of butcher paper or maybe a powerpoint. The culture at CCJH has changed and there are a number of reasons, great teachers, principal, support staff, district support, board support, that can be attributed to this. The overall point that I guess I'm trying to make is, things can change in the K-12 education setting, you just need to be willing.