New Blog

Moving to a new URL...thanks for reading/following my blog these past years.  This summer I started a new job and that means a new blog!  This blog was my experiment to learn about blogging and it was definitely a learning endeavor, helping me to define an online presence.  I hope you all continue to follow as I start my journey as an instructional coach.  My new blog is here...http://tiedyedteacher.blogspot.com/...same name, new URL.  Have a wonderful summer!!

Shifting to a 1:1 Environment

The past year, I have had the opportunity to work on two 1:1 research committees, from contrasting school districts.  The first district, a suburb with a large student body, multiple schools, and a very large infrastructure to manage.  The second district, a small rural school, multiple buildings, and a much smaller infrastructure to mange, in comparison to the first.  Both schools have a dubious task ahead of them, whether or not to jump into the new world of a 1:1 school environment.

Even though both school districts have the same goal, they are approaching the goal with distinctively different actions.  The suburban school district is taking the slow approach, making sure they have all their "ducks in a row" before proceeding to a full 1:1 environment.  They are researching sustainability options, types of devices, visiting other 1:1 districts, planning for professional development, etc..  The rural school district is jumping right to choosing the device, making the purchase, and "jumping in with both feet" to make the 1:1 initiative happen.  Professional development is still a priority, but it is more an after the fact and centered on learning the device.  Looking at the two districts, it is very obvious why each is taking the specific approach they have chosen to take.  The larger school district has been operating pretty efficiently under a BYOD environment and has been working the past few years to get up-to-date equipment in all classrooms.  Even if they did not choose to go to a 1:1 environment, the students would not find their education lacking.  In contrast, the rural school, is struggling to support a 21st century education with outdated equipment and a large percentage of students not able to supply their own devices.  The staff, pushed by their desire to provide a quality education to their students, desperately wants to provide each student with a device.

Is there a right approach to transitioning to a 1:1 environment?  That, I cannot answer.  From both of these experiences, I can say that no matter what, teachers need support.  Teachers, in the trenches, creating the daily lesson plans, need guidance and intensive training maneuvering this new world of 21st century teaching.  They are so busy teaching, they do not have time to go out and find the newest program or device.  It is also not fair to ask them what they need to know, they do not know what they do not know!  They only know that they want to provide the highest quality of education for their students and will do anything to make that happen.

WCC CPR Training

Please view each of these videos in order they appear on the blog.

Five Fears


Adult CPR


Child CPR


Infant CPR


Adult AED


Adult Conscious Choking


Adult Unconscious Choking


Child Conscious Choking


Child Unconscious Choking


Infant Conscious Choking


Infant Unconscious Choking


Hands Only CPR

A message from Kid President

I couldn't have said it any better!!

Myths of Alternative Education

After teaching in alternative education for eleven years, I am very used to the mixed responses I get when I tell people that I am an alternative teacher.  There are usually looks of concern, surprise or understanding (if they were shocked that I was a teacher, judging from my appearance).  I guess teachers are not allowed to be creative with their appearance, but that is for another post.  Obviously, I am speaking very generally, not all people give me these reactions and not all people believe the myths of alternative education.  However, many do and I have spent my whole career debunking these myths and standing up for my students.

The first myth I hear the most often is--"Oh, you teach the bad kids."  Yes, some of the students I work with have been in trouble, but not most of them.  There are just as many kids in the traditional building that have been in trouble and continue to get in trouble.  Most of our students come to us beaten down by an education system that they did not fit into.  Some have unknown learning disabilities that were labeled "lazy" or "stupid."  Then, instead of standing up for themselves, they believe what they are told and give up.  Others have been through very traumatic experiences that make it very difficult to attend school and need support to work through those experiences.

The second myth involves the level of academics--"Classes are much easier there."  One of the best compliments I ever received from a student (that wasn't meant to be a compliment) happened when I was teaching night school.  I had a government student, very angrily, tell me that my government class was much harder than any he had taken at the traditional school and was surprised when I said "thank you!"  Since we have small classes, average 14 students, I get to know all my students and am able to individually support them as they learn.  Students cannot pass a class unless they get a C or better.  I also do not allow them to take zero's on assignments or let them turn in incomplete or sub par assignments.

The final myth is about the teachers--"You teach differently than you would at a 'normal' school."  I have the same teaching philosophy and would teach the same way no matter where I am teaching.  I choose to teach at the alternative school because I am supported in my teaching philosophies instead of misunderstood.  I have a great group of co-workers that share my philosophy and care about the students just as deeply as I do.

For more information on alternative education, see Iowa Association of Alternative Education's website.  I am always available for a chat as well, I love to brag about my awesome students!

Summer: Unplugged

After two years of intensive work in the University of Northern Iowa's Instructional Technology master's program, I decided to take myself off the grid, shut off the computer and spend some much needed time on my house, with my kids and in nature.  I found it difficult to completely disconnect with the Facebook app so readily available on my cell phone, but still did not turn on my laptop, visit Twitter, blog, work on my wikis or watch any YouTube or Ted videos. In retrospect, looking at my whole family, I think my kids struggled just as much if not more with not being connected, especially when we went without electricity and I took away the electronic devices for a week of vacation.  Difficult, yes, but very much needed!!

I started out my summer completing some long over due landscaping around our house.  I took the kids to a dried up creek bed on my parent's farm land to collect rocks and then used the rocks in our landscaping project, setting up a garden around the house.  The kids planted flowers in their garden and then learned the impact of water, or the lack thereof as a drought settled on the Midwest and all their flowers died.  We built a playground and put in a pool, creating a perfect backyard for my kids.  And, my kids helped, they did not sit and watch us or watch TV while I did the work.  They got involved in the project, made decisions about where things would go, and celebrated the beautiful end results.

Then in preparation for our vacation to Hannibal, Missouri, we started reading Tom Sawyer and had some wonderful discussions about history, slavery, words, a life without running water and electricity, and the meaning of specific words that are no longer used today.  My eight year old son, quickly related to Tom and his shenanigans.  The book then came alive for them as we toured the caves and the city of Hannibal.  We are now reading Huck Finn and they are picturing all the places we visited as they come up in the story.

We then went to Wyoming for our last big adventure of the summer.  I let my kids have their electronic devices, the DS, Kindle, iPod, etc. as we traveled down the interstate, but the moment we entered Yellowstone I took the devices away and they did not get them back until we left the mountains.  There were moments of grumbling, but when the first elk walked right by our camper as we were setting up our site, they no longer cared about them. We spent four glorious days in Yellowstone with no electricity, just interacting with nature.  My children marveled at the geysers and the stink pots, visualized the volcano, and spotted wildlife everywhere.  My son questioned everything and soaked in all the knowledge that each visual display offered.  After Yellowstone we spent a couple days in the mountains at a friend's cabin that was built in the mid-1800's.  The kids had to use a real outhouse for the first time....hilarious!  We rode four-wheelers around the mountain and collected more rocks to finally complete the landscaping project.  The kids climbed the mountains around the cabin and played in the creek next to the cabin.  My son was beyond delirious when he found fossilized bones.  They were not ready to leave and both decided we needed to move to the mountains.

In my psychology class, I instruct a unit on Environmental Psychology.  Basically, the study of the impact of nature on human behavior and vice versa.  This summer, I recorded much qualitative data, proving that time spent in nature is very beneficial to the human psyche.  We have to force ourselves to shut it down and disappear off the grid for a while to decompress and relax.  Now that I have returned to school, getting my classroom set up and getting ready for the upcoming school year I find myself better composed, less edgy and ready for the rat race.  Even if you just take an hour, a day or a weekend, I recommend finding a park, going on a walk or a hike.

Putting it altogether...

Throughout my Selection and Integration of Technology graduate course I have been asked to learn about various teaching methods that involve integrating the use of technology into my classroom. It has been a very exciting ride, filled with dread, doubt, excitement, validation and fun. I have enjoyed seeing the impact that the teaching methods have had on my students, especially as I embarked on the landscape of online learning. For my final project, we were asked to create a unit that included all the teaching methods we learned: 21st Century Teaching, Gradual Release of Responsibility, Technology Integration Matrix, and Universal Design for Learning. I have posted a link to my full unit below.

Final Project: Online United States History

Universal Design for Learning

Using iPad Apps in an Alternative School

Teaching at an alternative school is a very unique experience and something that I was not taught how to do in my pre-service teaching classes. As an alternative school teacher, we create our classroom curriculum and environment using the UDL model, I just never realized there was an actual model...it was just how we all chose to teach. As we plan our curriculum, we constantly focus on the "what, why and how" of learning, making sure we offer as many options as possible. There is a common misconception that alternative means easier, but I believe that it is actually harder because there is no easy way out. Students are not allowed to slide by with the bare minimum requirements, passing with a D- and taking zeroes on missing assignments. They are required to obtain at least a C and are not allowed to settle for a zero on any assignment. Since we have smaller classes, we get to take the time to learn how our students learn and individualize each assignment to fit their learning style, so it seems easier to the student. They do not realize that they are learning the same information that they failed in with the traditional model because it is taught tailored to them. Technology makes this individualized curriculum goal even easier to obtain, especially with the availability of iPads in the classroom. The following apps seem like they would be useful in an alternative environment:

Soulver for iPad

Calculator that allows the user to see their calculations line by line. They can see a mistake and change that one line, rather than having to start over. Allows for learners that struggle to follow step by step directions to see the steps rather than just in their head. This will also help a learner that struggles with math concepts. They get very frustrated when they do not get the right answer and have to start the whole problem over again. With this app, they can see the problem and redo from that point, learning from their mistakes rather than just seeing it as wrong.

Frog Dissection

The requirement to dissect animals in Biology caused my grade to drop from an A to a C in high school and from talking to our students, they had the same experiences. For me, it had nothing to do with morals, but more about not wanting to touch the inside of anything living. This iPad app levels that playing field. Students get the same learning experience without having to physically smell the formaldehyde and touch the organs. Students that like to do the dissections can still complete the actual task but this could be an option.

AudioNote--Notepad and Voice Recorder

App with the ability to record drawing or handwritten notes, along with audio recording. User can export their notes to email. This could be a very helpful app for students that need the kinestethic process of writing or drawing to take their notes or an audio student that needs to say/hear the information as they study.

Pearltrees

Social bookmarking app that allows users to collect, organize, store and share information from the Internet as a graphic web organizer. Would work best with visual learners that get lost in all the words on their bookmarks lists and help students research, save and share information in a group project.

Book Creator for iPad

An option for students as an assessment piece, project, etc. Students can upload their own pictures or pictures from the web, edit text, and publish in iBooks. Books can be emailed, published to iTunes, or saved in Dropbox.

Show Me Interactive Whiteboard

Teachers can record voice-over interactive whiteboard tutorials and share them online. This would be optimal for students that struggle with health issues and miss a lot of class. The teacher can email their saved tutorials and students can watch them on their own time, rather than taking the teachers time outside or inside the classroom. Students can also use the tutorials in the flipped classroom model.

SpeakText

Students can touch any word on web pages or documents or copy and paste it into the app and it will speak or translate the words. It will translate/read whole web pages. Helpful for students that struggle to read long texts and need it read out loud to fully comprehend. Takes the stigmata away from reading out loud.

Knowtes

Digital notebook, that includes a web browser with a reading list, translator and drawing tool. Students can keep notes from the web, draw pictures, store their notes, blog, etc. then can save their work and share to dropbox, twitter, tumblr, facebook, etc.

National Archives--Today's Document

One critical aspect of teaching social studies is to teach primary versus secondary sources. The National Archives has an extensive number of sources available online for students to use, the problem is they do not realize the importance of those documents or their impact to history. This app gives the student a quick look at a primary document and the tools to analyze that document. This would be helpful in any social studies classroom as an extension to the textbook.

Strip Designer

Students can create their own graphic novel from provided templates. They can upload their own photos, add word balloons, and fun effect symbols. When the story is complete, they can be emailed to teacher/friends and uploaded to various social networking sites. This would be another took for a visual learner that struggles to put complex sentences together. They can graphically create the sentence and then use their novel as a guide for their writing.

Cybercitizenship

This year our social studies department decided offer an online option to the four core social studies classes: United States History I & II, Government and Economics. Being a social studies department of two, this was an easy transition for us. Normally, I teach all the social studies, technology and art electives for the school, but with the increased amount of required credits the need for elective courses has decreased. Transitioning to a fully online credit option requires more thinking than just pedagogy. I must protect my students privacy, individually and collectively. They also need to learn how to be a good online citizen. My students have a basic understanding of the risks that are involved in social networking, but still do not fully comprehend the risks they are taking by what they are choosing to post online and how their words might impact others reading their posts. Parents also seem to be in the dark about what their students are doing and saying online and need extra support to learn how to monitor their child’s online presence. My students will be working in other teacher’s classrooms and with the success of my online classes, my colleagues have started to discuss offering online options in science and math.

Using resources from www.commonsense.com, I have created an instructional program that will instruct my students and their parents about two aspects of digital citizenship: social networking and cyberbullying. These seem to be the most relevant to my high school student’s experiences and the most needed aspects of the common sense curriculum. As for my colleagues, it is more relevant to sell the common sense curriculum to them and help them to adapt it into their online lessons, especially as they prepare to delve into the world of online education. I will offer the lessons that I create for the parents and students as a resource and will do all I can to support them as they construct their own lessons. Please click here to view the full lesson plan schedule.

21st Century Classroom

During the month of October, I had the opportunity to attend and present at three conferences, each very different in their focus but at the same time all discussed the same thing: 21st century skills and teaching. The first was just in our West Des Moines school district attended only by WDM staff. Each fall teachers spend a full day in staff development, usually at our individual schools. This year, the district decided to shift their focus away from bringing people into the district to train us, to showcasing the innovation that is happening within our district. Teachers volunteered to put together presentations on using technology in their classroom and Marzano's work with essential elements of instruction. I discussed teacher and student blogging and the Flat Classroom Project. Then, I attended ITEC, Iowa Technology and Education Connection and learned about technology innovation, adaptation, creation.... Here, the Beijing Babes presented their experiences at the Flat Classroom Conference and I presented my diversity curriculum. Finally, I attended the Risky Business focusing on at-risk education, put on by the IAAE, Iowa Association of Alternative Education. I presented my use of technology in the classroom, specifically in wikis, blogs and social media. While the focus was on alternative education, many of the discussions still circled around technology and 21st century skills. In my humble opinion, I believe that if more schools shift their thinking from traditional models of teaching to a 21st century teaching model, we will see more student achievement, less drop-outs and more students moving onto higher education. If, for no other reason than they were engaged in their learning; they were allowed to be creative, independent and take charge of their education.

I started out this school year attempting to do just that, create a 21st century learning environment for my students. I teach all four social studies core classes in an online format, using a wiki as a homepage, giving students the tools to create projects and the ability to show them to a world-wide audience. Since I already know my intentions with the online class, I decided to get feedback from my students. To do this, I used a form that was created by Shawn Holloway, a principal in a northwest Iowa school. In a recent blog, he discusses characteristics of effective instruction and shared a quick checklist that he uses during his walkthroughs to determine a teacher's strengths and weaknesses in the area of 21st century instruction. I gave my students each a copy of this check list and defined the "teacher vocabulary" to help them understand what they were reading. As expected some students just checked every box as fast as possible, but I was thrilled to see most of the students take their time to give me honest feedback.

In a very informal analysis of the results, I was very pleased to see that in "Student Centered Classroom" all of my students agree that "students are at the center of learning, teacher is facilitating the process," "students have choices," "students are engaged in challenging work," and the "teacher leading students to the answer not giving it out." I had an excellent discussion with one student after he completed his form about "cooperative or collaborative learning taking place." He would like to see more collaboration within the classroom, but we both agreed we did not know how to make that happen. I teach four to five different classes each block and the students are at all different spots in the curriculum due to attendance, different start dates, work ethic, etc. He acknowledged that I was not opposed to him working collaboratively with his peers, as he spent all last quarter working through the curriculum with a peer that started at the same day and had the same attendance and work ethic values. Any advice as to how to create more collaborative projects in this type of an environment would be greatly appreciated.

As for the rest of the criteria, most students seemed to agree that I "taught for understanding," "taught for learner differences," and have "technology infused" throughout the curriculum. The area that I have the most room to grow is "assessment for learning." All students agreed that the "essential concept and skills is clear and evident to the students" and "assessment for learning takes place during instruction." However, I have not been able to provide examples to my students and did not provide criteria for quality work. I struggle in this area for two reasons. I do not want to stifle creativity and I do not want copy cats. It is a constant worry of mine that if I show examples of the low and high quality work students will not strive to be better only to match that. I also worry that if I provide too much criteria students will only see their assignment as a checklist, rather than an opportunity to expand their learning and go beyond my expectations. Now that I have taught the course for a semester, there are student examples for other students to follow on the wiki, but I need to reflect on exactly what I want my students to accomplish with their projects and create a rubric for them to follow. I have a VERY generic rubric that I have been using and shared it with the students on their syllabus, but from the feedback received, it is not enough.

Picture obtained from: pathubert.wikispaces.com

ITEC 2011

I could use many words to describe my experience at ITEC this year, but I am only going to choose the most important one....life-changing. Spending three days with like-minded educators that share the same passion for technology and education gave me the inspiration to continue pushing for technology integration at my building. But, the more life-changing experience happened in a break out session where I met Dr. Punya Mishra. He introduced TPACK, Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge, a theory of education technology integration that takes into account the teacher's understanding of content, pedagogy and technology. I have included a short video, describing the basic belief system of TPACK. In the session that I attended, TPACK and Creativity in the Classroom, Punya Mishra discussed the importance of creativity, not only the creation of something new, but the idea of repurposing a tool for a new task. For example, what teachers are doing now with technology; we are taking web 2.0 tools that may not have been designed or even thought of as useful in education and making them common tools in our room. In my opinion, this is what makes technology so engaging & useful. We can make it into whatever we want it to be for us.

Now onto to the life-changing part...I will be graduating in May from UNI and have been searching for a doctoral program that fit my ideologies & my needs as a working mother. I found just that at ITEC and am in the process of registering for the hybrid online doctoral program at Michigan State. This program is ran by Mishra & a colleague, Dr. Robin Dickson. This program is just what I have been looking for. It is well-respected, focuses on technology and a majority of it is online.

Technology Integration Matrix

Uploaded by nameinprogress on October 31, 2011.

Retrieved from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/beauty_from_pain/6299618300/

In our UNI grad class, Selection and Integration of Technology, Dr. Z asked us to take a look at our current curriculum and see just where it fits in the TIM. Then in true Z fashion, he stretches our thinking and asks us to take it up a notch....this is what I have come up with. Below I have described three of my US History units and two of my Global Society units. I have tried to pick average units that are similar to what happens in all my classes. I have listed one of the the assignments below, you can find all five at Jacobs TIM Assignment.

Our Global Society Curriculum
In response to seeing many of my students involved in gang activity and hearing many racial, ethnic and homophobic slurs in the hallways and in my classroom, I decided to create a class that dealt with the issue of diversity. Students spend the whole quarter discussing topics related to diversity, getting immersed into various cultures and creating change in their own lives.

http://wccglobalsociety.wikispaces.com/

1. Who am I? unit: The first unit in the Global Society curriculum challenges the students to get to know themselves on a much deeper level than most high school students have considered. I model the kind of thinking that I want them to do by watching a professional video called, Ethnic Man and showing a video of my own life. We discuss our values, cultures, and learned prejudices in class and I use the documentary, People Like Us to give the students a starting point in the discussion. As we complete a discussion, students are journaling about their experiences and publishing their thoughts into a blog. The students then go through a process of self-analysis in their “who am I” project. The final task of the assignment is to create a presentation that defines themselves and share it with the group.
1. I struggle to define where this unit fits in the TIM, the students do not have choice in what technology they are going to use, besides what blog platform, however they reach an authentic audience with their blogs that my first year’s students never reached with their written journals that stayed in their portfolios. Reaching a wider audience gives the students, at times, an intense discussion about culture and diversity. They do have a choice about what program they want to use to create their presentation.
2. To take this up a notch, students could also share their presentation on their blogs as the culmination of all their journals in the unit.

Gradual Release of Responsibility Lesson

I was introduced the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model a few years ago in a very short staff development meeting. I was intrigued by the idea as it fit perfectly in my teaching style of being a "guide on the side." It has always been my goal to give my students as much autonomy as possible in my classroom. My classroom is their classroom, they move everything around as they need it, lounge on the floor with pillows and blankets, doodle on the whiteboard, and take over the computer for presentations. As part of my UNI grad class this past week I had the opportunity to meet and discuss GRR with Doug Fisher.

After meeting with Dr. Fisher, we were instructed to take a current lesson that we teach in our classroom and revise it following the GRR model. I decided to work on an introductory lesson for my online social studies classes. The first week of the class is spent teaching the students how to work online, how to create accounts and how to use a wiki. The first time I taught the class, I made the assumption that most of my students would know how to perform the basic web 2.0 skill of creating accounts and logging back into those accounts. I did not spend a lot of time instructing how to do it, just told them to do it and then spent the next week reteaching multiple times. It is my goal with this new lesson, to work with the students as a whole group and teach them how to create accounts, then slowly build their confidence and set them free to work independently on the online curriculum. I have included a link to my lesson below, please feel free to view and comment.

Carrie's GRR Lesson

Picture retrieved from: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13A3cOvm9EEc5i6Mu0ypWNJdCOJjFD6dcfCZSHuG7rUI/edit?hl=en_US

Teaching in an Online Environment--Reflecting on 10 Years

This school year I began my 10th year of teaching. Looking back at that first year, I remember admiring the skills and confidence of my co-workers, many of whom had been in the classroom around ten years. I ask myself daily, do I look the same way I perceived those teachers ten years ago? I am not sure. Yes, I do have ten years of experience. I am confident in front of a classroom of students and becoming more comfortable in front of a group of teachers. I am confident in my teaching style; however I still consider myself a novice in the craft. I am still learning my trade, still learning from those teachers that have been in the trade longer.

I work very hard to keep my curriculum current, changing it sometimes even quarterly when my students show me it is needed. This year I have made a drastic change to my curriculum, offering our core social studies classes as an online hybrid course. Students are completing their US History, Government and Economics classes sitting in my classroom, however they are doing it all online. There is no textbook. There is no lecture. There is collaboration, creation, relevance, and a world-wide audience. No, this is not what I learned in my education classes over ten years ago, but this is what I education has become. Students want real life skills, they do not want to memorize meaningless dates and names about a bunch of guys they do not know.

In an online environment, they are not only learning about history, they are also learning the collaboration and technical skills that will be needed in their adult life. Skills like creating accounts, to maintaining a blog that reflects on their learning and creating online presentations using various web 2.0 tools. As my students and I work through this new learning environment, I remind them constantly that I am learning from them. It is very empowering for them to have a teacher that is listening to their ideas and using them to change the curriculum. I am still learning and still growing as a teacher, even after ten years on the job.

I have spent two days out of the classroom at an iPad training. By participating in this training, I get to have 3 iPads that I have tonuse in my classroom as student tools. Part of the training consisted of finding apps we could use in the classroom, but I am struggling to find apps to use in my high school social studies curriculum....any suggestions out there from experienced iPad users?

Blog and Wiki Training

Wikis provide a homepage for a group of people to collaborate that they can edit by adding information, links and videos. I started using wikis in my classroom about six years ago. I created a social studies wiki that my students could all access from the Internet to download all their projects, communicate with me about the assignments and post helpful hints to each other as they worked through their projects. Now, as a building tech, I use a wiki to support the staff as they integrate technology into their curriculum. I post links to anything and everything that I find helpful and the staff can use the wiki to ask me or each other questions. Your wiki can become the focal point of ideas for blogging, short cuts, how to's, etc. The following are short video tutorials about the creation of a wiki.

The Dashboard

Create a New Wiki

Edit a Wiki

Invite Members to Your Wiki

Beijing Trip: Reflections from Home

Before I left for Beijing, I described the trip to my family, friends and students as "life-changing" and an "experience of a lifetime." Now that I am home, fully adjusted to my regular time zone, and back to completing my daily tasks as a mom and teacher, I have to ask myself........was it REALLY and if it was, what changed?

A seemingly simple question that should have a seemingly simple answer........I could say NO, I am still teaching the same students, I clean the same house, I complete the same daily chores and routines. But also, I could say YES, it changed me in ways that I am still discovering. It changed my family, it changed my students, and it changed my co-workers; our perception of the world has changed dramatically. China is no longer a picture or words on a piece of paper, it is a place that I seen, smelled, touched, tasted, and felt. I now understand more about the Chinese culture than any movie or book could have ever shown me.

Yes, it was an amazing life-changing experience. Because of this experience, my students have a better understanding of Chinese culture, my children (ages 6 & 3) know of this new and exciting world (probably in their mind, a lot like the North Pole because I came home with so many gifts for them) and now they want to visit China. I have been able to lay to rest Chinese stereotypes with all my friends and family by showing my pictures and talking about my experiences. Where do I go from here?

Beijing Trip: Day 7 & 8

Tea Flower 2 a photo by Klink5 on Flickr.

Sunday afternoon, our group spent more time touring the city. We started our outing at the Temple of Heaven with a wonderful tea ceremony. I have always loved tea, have even been accused of being a bit of a tea snob. The ceremony was conducted by a young lady that taught us how to properly pour and drink our tea. We were given the opportunity to sample six different types of tea, each just as tasty as the other. After the ceremony, I purchased each type of tea and a tea cup to make all my new tea with at home. The picture with this post is of a tea flower. You purchase the tea flower in a little brown ball, then place it in the water and it becomes a beautiful flower. I am saving mine for a rainy day to show my children.

After the tea ceremony, we took some time to do more shopping at the Pearl Market. Bargaining has become second nature to me now and I thoroughly enjoyed the shopping experience. Of course, I spent all my money on my family. It is going to be like Christmas in March for my children and my nieces.

For our evening activities, we visited the Drum Tower Hutong area of Beijing. It is one of the oldest parts of the city. We took a rickshaw ride through the hutong, stopping to view the Bell and Drum Tower. We then stopped to visit a local home owner, who invited us into his house for tea. By far one of the best experiences of the trip! He told us that his family had lived in the same hutong for four generations.

We ended our night with our last standard Chinese dinner. I was thrilled that they chose to serve sweet and sour pork at this dinner. It was nice to be able to eat something more than just rice or noodles. We ended our evening saying good-bye to Vincent. Apart from the conference, Vincent made the trip for us. He was an amazing guide, sharing his personal stories as well as listening to our own stories.

Beijing Trip: Final Day of Conference

IowaTeamatFCCwithVicki a photo by UNI Dr. Z on Flickr.

Watching the closing ceremony of the conference and saying good-bye to the students and educators was bittersweet. I had to go back to the monotony of the real world, assignments to give, papers to grade, standards and benchmarks to meet. I was excited to go home and see my children, husband, family, students and co-workers. And, yes to eat western food again was going to be wonderful!!

I had very quickly grown accustomed to the global world and knew that I was going to miss that dearly. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting and getting to know students and teachers from all over the world. It was so interesting to hear about their life, their experiences, and their culture first hand and not from a computer screen or a video. As we left the BISS campus, I found myself wondering if the momentum would continue and just exactly what I was going to do to keep it going in my own world. I will email each and every person that I received cards from and hope that each person that I gave a card to will do the same. I will share my experiences with my students and other teachers. Most importantly, I will do something I never thought I would do, present to the WDM school board about the amazing possibilities offered by the Flat Classroom Project for students. I will be back, with my own group of high school students participating in the conference again and hopefully changing their world.

Beijing Trip: Days 5, 6, and 7 (The Conference)

Flat Classroom Conference 2011, Beijing

Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning, my time was devoted to the Flat Classroom Conference. I can now put "presenter at an International Conference" on my resume!!

Friday morning we kicked off the conference with opening remarks from Julie Lindsay, Vicki Davis and the principal of BISS. I was so inspired by their words and was just imagining how the next days would unfold. The teachers split from the students and the students began to work on their proposals for Flat Classroom Projects. I did not get to spend much time with the students, working mostly with the teachers in the Teacher Academy. I was very impressed with the concept of the the Teacher Academy; action based learning, where teachers actually participate in hands-on activities and leave with a completed project to use in their schools.

As for my part in the conference, I survived...... My cohort and I presented our story about Queen ADDIE and taught the teachers how to design instruction using the ADDIE model. The teachers seemed responsive to our information, signed up for their cohorts and began working on their instructional design proposal. I spent the rest of the conference working with each of the teacher groups and assisting them in their design process. Each day we ended the conference with FLAT talks, along the same lines as the famous TED talks. In these FLAT talks, students and presenters shared what they were doing to instill global citizenship and technology into the classroom. I thoroughly enjoyed each and every one of the talks, but my favorites were meeting students from the Think Global School and meeting the founder of TakingITGlobal.org.

It was also very interesting to see the students and teachers pitch their ideas to each other and get constructive comments back. I know that both sides of the party were very anxious about the process, but overall it seemed to be a very positive experience for all. By the end of the conference, I was so impressed with the amount of work the teachers and students were able to accomplish in a just a couple of days. There were some very creative and inspiring ideas that I hope they do not lose the momentum to continue.

All in all, the conference was huge eye-opener for me. International Baccalaureate schools did not even exist in my schema of education. It brought to light a very real issue in our world of the "haves" and the "have-nots". I don't know where I exist on the continuum, but I know that I do not want to look at this conference as only for IB or private schools. I think United States public school students can benefit greatly from attending something like this, if for no other reason than to open up their eyes to the world, like this experience did for me. I am going to have a hard time talking with West Des Moines teachers and their assumption that a Valley High School diploma is going to prepare students for an Ivy League school. They need more, they need to get out of Iowa, out of the United States and they need to see the world. That is the only true way that they are going to become competitive in the "flattened" global economy of the future.