Three Things I Learned from the College Football National Championship Game

What a crazy game! Who would've predicted Ohio State, with a 3rd string quarterback, to win the College Football National Championship. I DID!! I'm a big sports fan, but I haven't really followed the college football season and rankings. I would watch football when a game was on television, but I could not have told you who was ranked what or who should win. I think if Urban Meyer is the coach, then that team will evidently prevail as winners. As a rule, I do not bet against him. He knows how to win. After watching the championship game I started thinking on why they won, and I came up with three reasons. I believe as teachers we can learn from these three things.

1. BE PREPARED
There is no doubt that Ohio State was prepared for their opponent. When you are facing the Heisman trophy winner or when your first two quarterbacks are out injured, you better be prepared and have a great game plan. Same applies to teachers and technology. When using technology in the classroom, it is best to be prepared...prepared for when everything falls into place and prepared for when the bottom drops out. Technology can be scary. My hope is that, as scary as technology may be, that you would step out of your comfort zone and try. There is a great group of instructional technology specialists in this district who have been in the classroom and understand all that encompasses. Explore their expertise to help you start this new year integrating technology into your content. We offer co-planning, co-teaching, modeling a lesson, and even resource prep for teacher activities. We can help you be prepared.

Ohio State team led by their coach, Urban Meyer

2. PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTHS
Ohio State started this game with a guy who had only started in two games. How does a rookie quarterback win a national championship, you ask...by playing to their strengths, Ezekiel Elliot, sophomore running back. Every time I looked at the television I saw him running through a crowd of linemen. Ohio State used their strength with the run game to dominate Oregon. Same applies to teachers. We all have strengths. We all have things we do well. We are all part of a team. One of the best things we can do as a teacher is learn from others along with sharing our strengths with others. Of course I'm going to talk about technology. I've come across many teachers who are integrating technology in their content and doing it successfully. Many have even said to me, "I'm not sure I can go back to the old way of teaching." Find those teachers on your campus. Plug into what they are doing and learn from them. Make time to collaborate with them and with others who may not be in your content area. It's the same in my group. Not all instructional technology specialists have the same strengths. That is what makes us a good team; we learn from each other.

Ezekiel Elliot #15

3. KEEP GOING AFTER YOU MAKE MISTAKES
Turnovers after turnovers after turnovers. Did the world really think Ohio State would have a chance after the turnovers they kept making? I'm sure there were doubts. A big shoutout to Ohio State for staying focused and going strong after the many mistakes they made. (You know the next line...) SAME APPLIES TO TEACHING (and technology). Don't abandon technology just because the first integration did not go the way you expected. Try again AND then try again. When those mistakes happen, brainstorm with a teammate or instructional technology coach (I coached for 10 years so it is hard for me to let that go) to help you evaluate the process, and see what improvement can be made. I can not count how many times I have failed in the classroom when trying to be innovative. It happens. Don't let that stop you from trying again.

Mistakes will be made

This year vow to be MESSY. We can make 2015 messy by...

How to Become a Connected Educator

It's the day before the start of Connected Educator Month (CEM) and more than 500 events and activities have been added to the calendar, with many more still on the way.

What is Connected Educator Month?

Connected Educator Month: All month, all free, all around the world – A celebration of community, with educators at all levels, from all disciplines, moving towards a fully connected and collaborative profession.

October is "Connected Educator Month" and the U.S. Department of Education encourages teachers to share ideas, resources and instruction about how to use technology.

Why should I connect?

Do you want to be more proficient with social media to improve your teaching practices? Would you like to connect and grow your personal learning network online and build stronger relationships with other professionals?

According to Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Lani Ritter Hall, authors of the Connected Learner  “Teachers must learn to model connectedness and enable students to develop personal learning networks, made up of people and resources from both their physical and virtual worlds---but first, teachers must become connected collaborators themselves.”

What are the traits of a connected educator?

• Connected educators are "do-it-yourself learners." They don't wait for someone to deliver professional development to them. They seek out professional development and learning that meets their individual needs.

• Connected educators have a "network of collective wisdom" to turn to when information and knowledge is needed. Educators who are connected have fostered and developed, over time, a network of other professionals to turn to for professional knowledge needs.

• Connected educators are "collaborative learners." They rely on others to help provide learning and they contribute to the learning of those in their personal learning network.

• Connected educators have moved away from the "paradigm of isolation and closed doors" to sharing a strong commitment with other educators to learn and understand more and more about teaching and learning. The educator who is connected no longer closes their classroom door and carries on teaching. They actively enlist the help of others and offer their help in return.

• Connected educators have leveraged online networks to solve their instructional problems through crowdsourcing and relying on the wisdom of the crowd for resources on teaching and learning. The educator who is connected does not hesitate to engage others in the face of the issues and problems of teaching. They use the crowd to learn more about the craft of teaching.

Here's the CEM signup link--http://bit.ly/cem_newsletter_signup

To follow connected educators via Twitter check out #CEM14.

View the following video to learn how to search and sign up for free professional development sessions sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. 

Twitter Chat

Give a Chat a Chance...that is a Twitter Chat!

What is a hashtag?
It is a keyword or phrase that is preceded by the # symbol.  Hashtags help connect people with similar interests. Some popular education-related hashtags can be found at this website:   http://www.teachthought.com/twitter-hashtags-for-teacher/  Many hashtags have scheduled meeting times each week.  This creates a Twitter Chat.

What’s a Twitter Chat?
It is usually a weekly event where many users participate in a discussion via tweets on a specific topic, usually using a predetermined hashtag at a designated time. Larger chats can involve hundreds of participants and thousands of tweets.  If that is overwhelming to you as a newbie you can just follow the chat without tweeting until you are comfortable with the format.  Some of the chats like #edchat discuss broad educational issues while others are based on topic, content area, grade level, job type, or geographical region.  A few examples:

#enghat:  This chat for English teachers happens every Monday at 7pm ET
#mathchat:  This UK-based chat for math teachers and students happens twice a week at 8pm ET on most Thursday nights and 8:30 pm on Mondays ET
#cpchat:  The cp stands for Connected Principals.  It happens every Wednesday at 5pm PT/8pm ET 
#mschat:  Middle school topics for MS teachers happens Thursdays 8pm ET

Here is a list of more education-related chats.  http://bit.ly/officialchatlist

Why Chat?
There are many reasons to join a chat including resource sharing, networking, and contributing to the profession.  Chats give a voice to teachers who may not otherwise have the opportunity.  Chats are immediate and concise.  They provide an opportunity to connect with educators across the globe.  Chats have become the new Professional Development format.  Like a webinar, you do not have to leave your home. There are more than 150 free online PD workshops/chats a week in the twitter world.

Tips
Many times chat moderators will number their questions  with Q1 and Q2 so participants can respond with their answers as A1 and A2.  Also, free services such as TweetDeck or HootSuite can be used to link to your Twitter account  and allow you to manage tweets and chats. 

Other Resources
http://www.teachhub.com/twitter-chats-educators

http://blogs.techsmith.com/for-educators/twitter-chats-in-education/