I'm not an entertainment lawyer, I'm an educator

I will remember the day always and forever. It is embedded in my brain.
When I was 14, my granddad looked at me and told me, "you're going to be a teacher."
"No I'm not," I replied. "I'm going to be an entertainment lawyer."

I went on to spend two years at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts studying theatre. (1992-94)

I love acting. I love being on stage. I love costumes. Sometimes, I love make-up. Most of all, I love a candid audience. I never had any big aspirations for acting. I love it. I do. But, I knew that I was made for something different. I knew I was supposed to help people. I think, that's why I was thinking "lawyer."

Flash-forward a few years. I sat in the office of a newspaper publisher, interviewing for a job as a young reporter. As the publisher and I talked about my lead up to this moment, I shared some things about who I was and what I had done. He looked at me and called me "a frustrated actress."

I will never forget that day as well.

I went on to become a newspaper reporter at another newspaper, then an editor, then a publisher. Yes, this "frustrated actress" who wanted to be an "entertainment lawyer" became a newspaper owner and publisher. I wrote and edited articles. I sold advertisements. I worked with people. I helped people. And then, my world changed. A shift occurred. A change happened. As I continued to run my newspaper business, I found myself back in school working toward my teaching credential. I also worked as an adult school teacher. I found a path for myself far different than I ever would have anticipated. And, each step of the way, I knew granddad was watching. I wanted him to see what I was doing. We wrote letters back and forth. He remained one of my greatest fans.

And then, one day, I walked away from journalism.
Another day, I stepped into the traditional classroom.
Another day, I became a full-fledged teacher.
Another day, I looked back on it all and saw that my granddad was right.

I am a teacher.
I was born to be a teacher.
It is in my blood.

My grandparents were educators.
My parents are retired educators.
I am now an educator.

I grew up with an administrator at one end of the dinner table and a teacher at the other.
I can tell you quickly who my most influential teachers were in the classroom and I can tell you that my family also includes influences on my life.

My grandfather is someone people remember. So is my nana. My mom has students with whom she (and I) remain in contact with and my dad is amazing. My aunt is in the top of her field.

I was born and made to be an educator and our dinner conversations are part of my PLN.

I am a teacher.
I am not an entertainment lawyer.
My granddad was right.
And I am ok with that.

I am an educator.
And I will work with m colleagues, near and far to be the best educator I can be. Always.
I am a lifelong learner.
I am a facilitator of learning.
It's in my blood.

Oh...and that actress stuff? I do it. Every. Single, Day. Sometimes I put on a costume. Sometimes I wear make-up. Sometimes I write and follow a script. But always, yes always...I put my students first. Always. And forever. I am an educator.

A glimpse at Fall CUE 2016

I was one of many attending Fall CUE this weekend. Today I will offer you a glimpse, an overview of my experiences.

I arrived on a dark, rainy Thursday night in an unfamiliar area. I found parking easily and made my way to the badge pick-up. I found it easily and everyone I encountered treated me with kindness. We were off to a good start. Then I followed directions to the cafeteria to grab a bag, a badge holder, and best of all...ribbons to add to my badge. A saw a familiar face, John Eick, and said hello. I made it just in time to get my badge. As I made my way back to my car, others heard words I feared I would hear, "Sorry, we just shut everything down for the night."

I selected a hotel about 15 or 20 minutes from American Canyon High School and the drive worked out pretty well on Friday and Saturday.

Friday started with the opening keynote delivered by Dave Burgess, author of "Teach Like a Pirate." The theatre packed full quickly and easily thus leaving some of us out in the rain. But only for a moment. Organizers worked to get people settled in overflow rooms quickly and efficiently. I ended up in the comforts of the cafeteria with coffee, a cheese danish, and a decent view of the screen broadcasting the keynote. I read "Teach Like a Pirate" over a year ago and it inspired me to keep doing things I was already doing, as well as to bring out my costumes and really take some of the things I did to the next level. I looked forward to this keynote so much so that I dressed in my full pirate costume for the day. (I received great, positive feedback and that made it even more fun, of course.) Standing in the cafeteria, listening to Burgess speak, I had one thought above all others.

"Wow! He talks really fast!"

He does. And you have to try to keep up. Sometimes you do, and sometimes you're still making a note about the I in PIRATE while he starts his big set up for A. (I exaggerate only slightly.) Here are a couple of my big take-aways from the opening keynote Friday:

Student Powered Showcase

"You don't have to have permission to learn."
* I try to instill in my students the idea that they can and should always dig deeper, ask questions, seek answers, and look beyond the face value of questions they are asked. If I ask them to tell me what they know about current events, they will give me headlines and I want them to go beyond the headlines. That is a goal we have for the year. When I give them a math problem, I don't want them to show their work just for the sake of me seeing it, but I want them to be able to go back and find where they made a mistake or discover different ways to solve the same problem. Sometimes we will do this on paper, sometimes I will have them create a model of the problem in Google Draw. Right now, I am guiding them through these processes to some degree but my hope is that eventually they will come to do it naturally. I only have them in these classes for this school year, but they need to continue learning and they need to remember that they do not need permission to learn. They need to feel free to discover and learn on their own as well.

"We are in the life changing business."
* Yes. See my notes above. If I can make the difference in the lives of my students and if I can get them to ask and answer difficult questions and if I can get them to pursue greatness in all they do, then I have done my job. I may not do this for every single one of them, but if I can do it for at least one of them, then I have succeeded. It's like the story of the starfish. (More on this in a moment.)

"Bring more of myself to work everyday."
* Precisely! As I noted above, reading "Teach Like a Pirate" inspired me to dig into my closet and begin incorporating my costumes into my teaching, but I have more I can and will do. I can wear hiking boots and take them on virtual hikes that I find on websites or that I create myself. Why? Because I enjoy hiking and there are valuable lessons to learn: math, science, literature, observation skills, and so much more. Let's go for a hike! That inspired my #EduAwesome #Adventure seeking in my lesson planning. I love adventure and can bring that into the classroom. Back to the costumes, I wear my Steampunk costume for STEAM events and teach Pirate speak on Talk Like a Pirate Day. But now, I see more. We will read "A Christmas Carol" coming up soon and it will all come together just before Christmas break when we celebrate with a party in the spirit of Charles Dickens' writing, costumes fully encouraged.

"What is unique about you makes you powerful and effective."
What is unique about you? I have found some of my uniqueness and I strive to live it, be it, and teach through it daily. Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I fall on my face. The key here is I pick myself back up and try again. Sometimes a lesson may not work with one class but will with another. Sometimes a lesson just needs to be reworked and strengthened. I started this school year asking my eighth graders what their super powers are. What makes them unique? I will ask them

Closing Keynote Saturday, October 29

again toward the end of the year and we will compare this. I look forward to seeing how they change and how they stay the same. I look forward to seeing the greatness in them grow. It starts with us. We must fi


rst show them that we embrace ourselves, our strengths, our unique approaches to life and to teaching. We must demonstrate what it means to be a lifelong learner and encourage them to become lifelong learners themselves. Be powerful. Be effective. Be you.

Earlier in the week leading up to the Fall CUE Conference, I talked with my parents about wanting to take and wear my pirate costume in the spirit of the opening keynote. They both encouraged me. My mom said, "Be you." So, I did. I am almost 40-years-old and hearing my mom encourage me still to be myself can make all the difference. I am a little silly, a little fun, a little adventurous. I have a background in writing and theatre. I love bringing that to the classroom and continue to expand on it. So, why shouldn't I do the same when spending time among other educators. One of my presentations begins with showing "We're Going on a Bear Hunt." It asks, "Are you afraid?" "I'm not a afraid," declares a sea of children's voices. As adults, we must do the same. We must declare that we are not afraid and take our students on the bear hunt of education.

BADGES!

I earned all possible badges to earn in the Fall CUE Game and that was pretty cool. Initially I wasn't sure I would even try. Then, I realized how easy it was to do one. Then another. All I had to do was document things I was doing anyway. I greatly enjoyed time in the STEAMpunk Playground and I wanted that badge. So, I took more pictures. I have a dream of bringing drones into my classroom, so I spent more time with the drones than anything else. Now, I am curious about more, especially the VR experience that was available there. I am hopeful to have a chance to experience some of these things at CUE Annual in March.

Another highlight for me at Fall CUE was the Breakout EDU session with Ari Flewelling and Ben Cogswell. I keep glansing at Breakout EDU and "thinking about it." Their session helped me see how I can use it in different ways. I have ideas for my math, history, and language arts classes. Now, I just need to work on getting set up for them. My goal is to do three Breakout EDU lessons (one at each grade level) by the end of the year.

Now, back to the starfish reference.

I shoved a small strip of paper in my pocket at the Breakout EDU session. On it is a single question.
What can you learn about failure from playing?
This is a wonderful, beautiful question.

Two of my favorite educators:
Doug Robertson and Jon Corippo

My answer includes this: if we quit because we hit a roadblock only then have we actually failed. However, if we continue and are persistent, then we have blown failure out of the way and eventually meet with success. The only failure is in not trying or in giving up and quitting rather than trying to do things differently. As teachers, we know this. We know we have not failed unless or until we quit trying. That is precisely what we need our students to learn. We can model it for them, but with tools such as Breakout EDU, they can actually experience it. So, what tools can and will we bring into the classroom to allow our students experience missteps only to look failure in the eye and say, "Not this time. I got this," and then find their own way to success?

As teachers, we have to remember that we may not reach our ultimate destination or predetermination of success with every single student on every single day. But, we can and we will do our best. If we help one student, we have made a difference and we have succeeded. Just as the boy threw starfish after starfish back into the ocean hoping to make a difference, we must go in and take our unique skills and interests to our students through our lessons and strive to make a difference. We can and we will make a difference.

Fall CUE is a very different experience from the CUE Annual Conference. After attending Palm Springs three times, this was my first trip to Fall CUE. I knew it would be smaller and different, but I still had to experience it to get it. The networking is more personal. The idea-sharing is different. Relationships are strengthened and lessons taught, lessons learned. Just before i left for the conference, someone asked me, "Why do you do it?"

1. I can grow as an educator.
2. I can help other educators.
3. And the biggest reason of all, the true "payout" from experiences like this: the benefit to students. My students, my colleagues' students, students in other places throughout the state, across the country, and around the world. Students benefit from teachers who strive to do more, be more, share more, learn more, explore more...We are lifelong learners now in hopes that our students will become lifelong learners themselves.

Why do I do it? Because my students deserve the best me I can offer and this helps me on that journey.
Why do I do it? Because I can and I will make a difference, one starfish (err...student) at a time.
Why do I do it? Because it is what I am called to do. It is my passion and in being true to myself, I must follow my passion.

I am a lifelong learner, a passionate educator, and my students are going to journey their way through potential failures on the road to success and they will have a guide along the way.

A whole new world: Of GHO and beyond

As I sat, a wee bit frustrated at times, eating my reheated homemade fettuccine with two coffee stirrers as chopsticks (because while I carefully planned what to eat, I somehow forgot to plan how to eat it in my hotel room), I spent almost two hours on a Google Hangout, with my children.

This is my life.

And, I love it.

My son had math homework he wanted to have my help with while my daughter sought my help with spelling homework. My son is slightly better versed in the Google-verse than my daughter. Hence, the periodic frustration. I had to teach her a few things from this end of my computer. She had to pick them up as quickly as she can so we could move forward with homework. She's six. Her class uses iPads. At home, she has a Chromebook. She wanted to type her spelling while keeping the video feed from our GHO in plain view. This was no simply task with me here, her there, and other distractions along the way. My son stepped in and did what he could on the other end to help. And, help, he did. Afterall, remember, we are an EdTech Family. From us is born the "If you give a kid a camera..." (stay tuned, it's coming. I promise.)

We accomplished our goals. My son completed six math problems with my help and my daughter performed her "Type It" task (typing her spelling words as prescribed and chosen from a spelling menu offered to her by her first grade teacher). At the end, my son helped share the typed spelling words with me so that I could be sure they would end up emailed to my daughter's teacher. Following that fairly easy task, my daughter read a story. I listened, saw the pictures, and helped with words as she held the book up for me to see.

This may be my most favorite Google Hangout of all time, even though I cried (as only an adult woman can and will) for a break during one point. The best part of it was seeing the joy in my children's eyes and feeling a sense of accomplishment at the end of it all.

Last spring, I used Google Hangouts to connect a class with podcasters. It was incredibly fulfilling to see my students ask questions and get answers in real time then apply what the learned.

Before Google Hangouts On-Air became a thing of the past, my son and I did our first EdTech Family broadcast and will turn to YouTube Live for future installments.

This real-time video and audio interaction is beyond anything I ever could have imagined 30, 20, or even ten years ago. And seeing its classroom benefit outweighs all frustrations.

It helps students in the classroom. It helps students at home. I do indeed like it here and there, I love GHO everywhere!

And, you will too!

Give it a try. Find its usefulness in your arena and go for it. Connect with parents. Connect with educators. Create a classroom without walls. And help a kid accomplish homework tasks. This is what it's all about! Let's do this!

Reporting live from Fall CUE 2016 Night One. @RemScience

What's ahead:
Tomorrow is the day Fall CUE really, actually gets started.
Dave Burgess will provide the opening keynote address.
Many sessions ahead, but I will attend one paid session featuring Dave Burgess.
I forgot my copy of Teach Like a Pirate.
And, that's ok.

Learn how to transform lessons into EduAwesome Adventures using video (and yes, that includes Google Hangouts!) in my session on Saturday at 2 p.m. Hope to see you there. But, if you're interested in something a little different, check out Karly Moura and Kelly Martin's session on using Padlet! (Great tool! I'd be there if I were't presenting.)

What sessions are you most looking forward to attending at Fall CUE?
Have you picked up your badge yet?
Remember badge bling!
Make it EduAwesome!

Take me IN to the ballgame

If you have met me or if you have participated in Twitter chats with me or even, quite simply, read just one blog post, you know I am a huge proponent of breaking down the walls of the classroom. This could mean actually venturing outside or it could mean bringing the outside into the classroom. There are many ways to break down the walls (both physical and proverbial) and extend lessons into EduAwesome Adventures.

Today, I want to talk a little bit about one of my very favorite things on Earth: baseball.

"And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good and that could be again. Oh...people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.”

~Thomas Mann (James Earl Jones) in Field of Dreams

I love baseball. And, I love teaching. So, naturally the two can and will come together in the classroom. When I taught middle school science, I used hula hoops, tennis balls, jump ropes, and baseball to teach lessons. At one point, to gain some insight, I attended "Fastballs and Physics," a Science on Screen presentation at the State Theatre in Modesto, California. It drew primarily from baseball movies. I connected lessons from there with lessons I already planned. Now, as I teach a math class and the baseball season makes its final dash toward October, I find myself once again looking to incorporate baseball into lessons. The measurements between bases, speeds of pitches thrown, and batting averages and ERAs for pitchers all automatically lend themselves to math lessons.

As we sat at the San Francisco Giants game on Friday night, I looked around and started thinking of how and when I would incorporate baseball into upcoming math lessons. Then, I started looking around and I found a couple of good resources.

Edutopia has six baseball themed lessons and I also found some that I like over at Education World. I will continue to explore these, but also had a couple of ideas of my own.

I recently had my first lesson in Number Talks and am in the process of building them into my lessons. We have been working with converting decimals to fractions and vice versa, so I will start there and build. We will explore averages and we will find differences between best and worst ERAs. We will determine how many games the Giants need to win to pass the Dodgers and at what point they may become mathematically eliminated. The other piece of this is the Wild Card race which was much talked about mathematically through the weekend as the Giants battled the Cardinals, splitting a four-game series.

Over the next two (or more) weeks, we will break down the walls and bring baseball into our math classroom. Students will learn, friends. Students will learn. They will begin solving math problems and it will be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters.

So..."do you wanna have a catch?"

How have you incorporated baseball into your teaching?

What new thing will you try this week?

EdTech Adventure: Family Style

Over the course of the last few years, my children have watched as I have attended conferences. They get excited about the swag I bring home and always want to hear about what I've learned. They also love to talk about what they learn at school and what new tricks and tips they have. Close to two years ago, my son and I started to develop an idea for a conference. Then, earlier this year, as I traveled to make some connections at schools in Alabama, I introduced him to Google Hangouts. A few months later, he joined me as a watched one of my favorite podcasts. More ideas bloomed.

Within the last week, we finally took a step and made our idea happen. We sat down and did a Google Hangout together and recorded it thanks to Google Hangouts On Air. Here I will share some of what we learned and what we discussed.

First, as of September 12, Google Hangouts On Air is no longer available. Google has redirected people YouTube Live. We recorded on September 10, so we used GHO (On Air) but mentioned at the beginning that we would transition to YouTube Live for the next discussion.

We conducted our first conversation "interview style." I wrote the questions and we had a brief discussion beforehand. Then, we set ourselves up and got the conversation going. The only addition was my six-year-old daughter who decided to participate as well. That added more time to it and we will adjust in the future. Our hope is to have these typically be 10 to 15 minute conversations that allow a teacher and student perspective, but also a parent and child perspective as well. This first conversation focused on the use of technology in education, specifically in the classroom and focused on the child/student perspective.

Our conversation offered many thoughts, but it was a closing thought of my son's that I think is an important thing for us to all consider, and remember. In his closing thoughts, he talked about how some students lack Internet access at home. Connectivity is definitely an issue and I think it puts things in perspective for students to be aware of it as well. At a time when some fourth graders are asking for the latest iPhone, others would simply appreciate accessibility for the sake of looking at the homework for the week on their teacher's website. A discussion has started in some circles, but we definitely need to keep the conversation going about connectivity and accessibility.

Other highlights include my fourth grader sharing about Chromebooks, Google Classroom, and Google apps in his classroom. My first grader shared some about iPads and her favorite apps/activities. Her most favorite is Starfall.

Our first EduAwesome Adventure conversation took almost 40 minutes and we will work to keep them shorter in the future, but this was a fun kick-off to something new from our little EdTech family. Want to hear some for yourself? The video appears below.

Blending math learning approaches

In February, I had a special opportunity to travel to Baldwin County, Alabama and visit classes where I got some interesting ideas. At the time, I had little idea how much I would be able to incorporate some of the ideas as soon as I have. It was a unique opportunity to share approaches to learning across the country. I found great value in the trip and brought back some ideas that I explored immediately, but some were placed in my "ed bag" (my mind vault). One experience included observing students in a math class complete a Gallery Walk. Each student had a worksheet where they could work out math problems. They worked in partners and walked around the hallway where their teacher had placed different posters with math problems on them. They used this opportunity to have a low-tech, high learning day where they applied the Pythagorean Theorem. Observing the students, talking with the teacher, and soaking in the learning happening was incredible.

Flash-forward to last week. Over the summer, I had started hearing about Math 360. I took interest in it because as I started a new role at a new school, I would take on teaching one math class and becoming familiar with new ideas seemed like something I definitely should do. I browsed the Internet and looked at fellow educational Twitter users' Tweets about this approach to math learning. I wanted to know how I could do it. Going to the training and purchasing the available supplies was a little out of reach for me in the immediate future, but I could pull aspects of the learning approaching and incorporate it into my class. As I wrote my lessons for the week, I knew I wanted to incorporate what I could, how I could.

Then, I remembered my Baldwin County experience.

Ah-ha!

I took the two ideas and I blended them together. I made large posters with math problems for the current chapter. I laminated them and put them up around the room. Additionally, I put one problem up on the white board and one on the SMART board. I broke the students into small groups and handed each group a dry erase marker. With their Interactive Notebooks in hand, students made their way around the room. Their task was simple: complete all of the problems in their Interactive Notebooks and take responsibility for solving at least two problems up in the room. They spent the entire class period making their way around the room and getting math practice. The next day, we came back together in the classroom and went through the problems as a class. This allowed students to correct their work. We identified specific issues together, they made their corrections as needed, and we were ready to move forward.

As we reflected on the experience together, I came up with one modification. (We will do this again!) When we do this in the future, students will complete all of the problems in their Interactive Notebooks, then when we come back together, each group will take a turn leading through the steps of one or two problems with the class.

I left the posters up around the room to show parents at Back to School Night, too, so they could see what their students did in math during our first full week of school.

We are off and running and it is #EduAwesome without a doubt!

A splash of color, a little song, and creative learning rocks!

I recently started using a planner. I still love my Google Calendar and I use it for everything. It's ease of use makes life easier. My planner allows a different sort of organization and creativity to emerge. In that, I received a pack of gel pens from my very best friend. It has allowed me to color code my planning on paper similarly to how I color code on my Google Calendar. It's fantastic!

Last week, I brought that organizational technique into the classroom. I am using a varied approach to my math instruction this year. I am incorporating different approaches in instruction and learning to reach all students. One thing I started with students was the use of an Interactive Notebook. As we make notes together, I color code with my set of gel pens. I have encouraged students to color code as well. It allows them to get creative while keeping their notes organized. Today, I modeled for them how I would be ok with them using gel pens. Erasable gel pens! Make a mistake? That's ok, erase it, rewrite, and move forward. The colors have engaged them in their note taking and takes some of the potential drudgery out of it.

Meanwhile, in eighth grade, students wrote songs! As we spent the first few days of school getting to know each other and establishing routine, I incorporated some fantastic learning. We started by co-creating a Google Slides presentation. Students worked in small groups and each group created three to five slides with the primary emphasis being on the 13 colonies. Each of the 13 original colonies had its own slide. At the end of the week, we presented together as a class team and the final slide (which I had created) introduced the song assignment. They could work independently or with a partner and they could create their own tune or put words to a familiar song. The only requirement was that all 13 original colonies be included. Today, they presented, and let me tell you, these student

s ROCKED this assignment. One group wrote a song and choreographed their whole number, one group did the whole song creation using technology tools such as Audacity and a voice sounding much like Stephen Hawking came across with the lyrics, another group sang a beautiful tune, another did a rap with a Yankee Doodle underscore to it. Today, we heard very different songs from each group and got to know the 13 colonies just a little bit better.

During tonight's TOSA Chat, I mentioned that one of my goals for the year is to allow more creativity in learning within the "regular" classroom and I think we're off to a great start!

Looking for other ideas? Check out what my EdTech friend Ryan O'Donnell came up with this summer. Seriously, go, read it. Now. And, be sure to follow him on Twitter (if you aren't already.) @creativeedtech