Our School Has Embraced Social Media

I will admit, reading Eric Sheninger's post, A Wake Up Call For School Leaders, caused me to write this post.  In essence, he was stating that too many educational leaders are talking a good game when it comes to technology integration into their school, however there lacks substance once you actually look at what they are doing, and this needs to change if we truly want to see improvements in education.

By no means do I feel as though Eric was calling me out, nor is this post a chance for me to prove my school is actually walking the walk.  This is about seeing it in practice.  In education, we talk about making changes in instruction, and some people get it and go, while others struggle because they need to "see" what that shift actually looks like.  I am sure the same is true with educational leaders.  

Perhaps we are doing something different at BWI that will be an eye opener.  Maybe we are not.  If nothing else, you will be able to see the things we are doing in a 5th and 6th grade building, and maybe that will be enough to give you that nudge to take the first step for your school.

We use Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and a school blog to inform our families and communities about what is going on in our school.  Facebook has actually been great for two way communication.  We allow comments, which can be a scary thought.  However I would rather see those comments than have them happen behind my back.  

This is the second year we have produced a weekly video newsletter and it has been by far, the most impactful, positive thing we have done to tell our story.  Examples and links are below.

School Facebook
Big Walnut Intermediate Facebook Page

School Twitter
Big Walnut Intermediate Twitter Page

Video Newsletter
BWI Video Newsletter

School Blog
BWI 180 Days Of Awesome

We allow our 5th and 6th graders to bring their own devices, use our WiFi, and many of them even use my office in times of an emergency need to recharge.  Do the kids make mistakes and misuse the devices?  Occasionally.  We use those opportunities as learning experiences.

I used to be the principal that locked everything down.  I did not want to see the devices in our building, Social Media was taboo in schools, and I was on patrol.  Then the lightbulb clicked for me, and honestly, Eric Sheninger had a big influence on that.  Am I where I need to be as an educational leader in terms of technology?  Who knows.  What I do know is, we are telling our story, we are using multiple pathways to tell that story, and our school is better off for it.

Connected Educator Month Is Over...Now What?

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to present at our district's professional development day.  It was set up sort of like a trade show at a conference.  Teachers could stop by any "booth" and stay for as little or as long as they liked.  My booth was "Twitter, It's Not Just For Justin Bieber Anymore."  Those who know me know I am a huge proponent of using Twitter for educational purposes.  I originally thought Twitter was stupid because I did not understand it.  Many teachers feel this way.  My goal on this day was to convert a few of them by explaining the benefits.

One teacher stopped by my booth and said "I have a Twitter account, I tried to use it with my class, it was hugely unsuccessful.  Twitter is dumb, and nothing you are going to say to me will change my mind."  Game on.

I asked her how she was using Twitter and she explained that she was tweeting questions hoping her students would respond and they were not responding.  I told her I thought that was a pretty creative idea, but asked her if she ever thought about using Twitter as a research tool.  She had not.  I began showing her how she could connect with other educators in her content area and how she could learn lesson ideas they were sharing on Twitter.  I showed her that Twitter could be a tool for research and connecting.  

Four minutes had elapsed since she made her initial statement to me.  She was now hooked.

I used to be the anti-technology anti-social media principal.  The main reason was, I just did not understand it.  Once I did, it was like a new world had been opened to me.  I will never go back.  Our school has benefitted greatly from the connections my staff and I have made.  It was certainly a group effort.  Some examples are:

• School Twitter account
• School Instagram account
• School Facebook Page
• Teach Like A PIRATE Day
• Mystery Skype
• The Video Newsletter
• Genius Hour Club
• School blog

We learned about many of these from other educators and tweaked them to make them our own.  There is no sense in reinventing the wheel if someone already has and they are willing to share.  We simply modify it to make it the best wheel for our kids.  Our communication with families has never been better and I believe our kids have never loved coming to school more than they do now.

So to all of the new educators who joined Twitter in October, keep connecting, keep reaching out, and keep bringing great ideas to your school.  Your kids will be glad you did.

Postcards to the Principal

Before I begin, I cannot tell you how much I love the idea of this program.  I also love the fact that I did not think of it, one of my staff members brought it to me.

Our school's Reading Tutor wanted to implement a summer reading program to encourage our students to continue to read in June, July, and August.  The idea she brought to me was "Postcards to the Principal." In short, students would read, pick-up a blank postcard from our community library, and tell me about what they read.  They could place the postcard in a box at the library which would then come to me.

My plan is to post all of the postcards in the hallway outside our school office.  I am interested to see what they have read and what they wrote about.  Who knows, maybe Postcards to the Principal will continue all year long, and there is a pretty good chance that I will write back.

15 Years Later, Here's What They Remember

I was fortunate enough to attend the wedding of two of my former students.  The groom was a young man who I have known for 15 years.  I began coaching him in wrestling when he was in the 7th grade and through his senior year in which I was in his corner as he won a state title.  Any time you get invited to a student's wedding, I guess it reaffirms the impact you had on them.

What struck me the most were the interactions I had with some of the other party guests, former students, some of which I had not seen in 15 years.  Those conversations were not so much revealing as they were reaffirming what I have come to know.  They remembered the experiences and how they were treated.  I wish I paid more attention to this early in my career.

Not one person told me they remembered the notes or the lectures or the packets.  They remembered the experiences and they remembered how they were treated.  We reminisced about stories from the classroom, some things that I did not even remember, but they did.  One student told me he still had respect for me because I yelled at him one time, but did so privately as not to embarrass him in front of his peers.  Unfortunately I immediately thought about the students who received similar treatment from me, but in a more public display.  I do not remember the specifics, but I am certain they do.

Now I am not going to claim I was the world's best teacher, or that I treated every student I ever encountered with kindness and respect.  This was also reaffirmed by the lack of conversation with a couple of the party guests.  I do believe I created experiences often.  They remembered that.  More importantly, they still remembered what they learned.  I also remember drilling them with facts and notes.  They remembered it happening, but not what was supposed to be learned.

I recently saw an interview with soon to be Gahanna principal Bobby Dodd, and something he said connected with me and the conversations with the former students this weekend.  He said, "I can't tell you what I learned because I was too busy memorizing things." I can relate to that, and so can our students, and I'd imagine, you can too.

So before you make copies of that next packet, ask yourself if there is a more creative, engaging way to get the student to learn the desired concept?  15 years from now, it may be something they still remember.

Let's Focus More On Our Strengths

In education, we like to talk about weaknesses.  If you have been part of a team discussing a particular student, how much of that focus is spent talking about the weakness?  How much time is spent talking about that student's strengths?  I have been a part of many of those types of meetings over the past 15 years and I would say a majority of that time spent is spent talking about and developing a plan to "fix" the student's weakness.  Have those talks ever involved developing a plan to further enhance their strengths?

We love to focus on weakness in education.  Whether it is test scores, teacher evaluations, or curriculum, educational reformers take great joy in the analysis and dissection of data to point out our weaknesses.  In Ohio, educators have been ridiculed due to the low scores students have received on the Ohio Graduation Test, yet as student performance across the state has improved, state legislators are now replacing the test because it is "too easy."  Not sure why it was not viewed as too easy eight years ago.

I am not suggesting we ignore our weaknesses.  To ignore them would be careless.  I am simply saying that we should not be so enamored with them that they become the focal point of every decision or plan we implement.  I am also not suggesting we sit back and pat ourselves on the back as we look at the great things we do.  Instead, let's work on improving those great things.

Imagine if Derek Jeter focused on his weaknesses as a high school basketball player, rather than further improve his talents as a baseball player.  Would we even know who Derek Jeter is?  What if Bill Gates spent less time working on computer programming in high school so that he could improve upon his weakness as a musician?  Imagine if we put a focus on further improving the strengths of a teacher rather than always targeting their shortcomings.  Acceleration Plans could be more powerful than Improvement Plans.

Voxer...Another Great Collaboration Tool

Have you ever connected with some great minds on Twitter and wish you could pick their brain for more than just 140 characters?  Voxer is a great tool to make that happen.  I just found out about Voxer last week.  Like Twitter, I wish I had known about it sooner, but better late than never I guess.  So what is it?  It is a little bit of everything.

You can download the Voxer app for your iPhone (also believe it is available for Android) and sign-up.  From there, you can add contacts that you know (or encourage them to sign-up).  I know what you are thinking, "How is this different than Twitter?"

Voxer allows me to send the equivalent of a text message to any contact I add.  Those people can then respond without the entire world seeing.  I can also send or receive a photo.  But perhaps the greatest feature is the "walkie-talkie/voice message feature.  If the person is available, he or she can listen as I am talking.  If they are not available, they can listen and respond when they have time.  You can also see if the text was read or the message was listened to.

How can I use it?

It is a great tool to communicate and collaborate with an individual or a group of people.  As you can see on the left, Eric, a principal in another part of the state, left me a 13 second voice message, I responded with a 21 second message of my own and then a text.  It keeps it all in one timeline similar to your text messages on your phone.  I like that it is not all just voice or all just text.  If you need to talk- great.

Voxer is also a great way to collaborate with multiple people in a group.  A few educators take turns hosting #ohedchat on Monday nights.  This is Ohio's weekly Twitter chat.  Rather than rely on one person to be responsible for coming up with all of the questions and then hosting it at 9 PM, we decided to use Voxer to collaborate ahead of time.  I was able to add the participants to the group and they could collaborate via text or voice by using the app.  I feel that we had a better experience because there was input from multiple people.

One of the great things I love about Twitter chats is the ability to learn from other educators.  The downside is the fact that they are usually during set periods of time.  With Voxer, you could create your own group of experts to discuss topics on an ongoing basis with the ability to add members to the group.

A final use for educators would be to record a message on Voxer and have the ability to upload the audio to your school's website, Twitter, or Facebook account.  If there was a message in which you wanted parents to hear your voice rather than just read your words, this would be a tool you could use.

I am sure there are other uses, and if you have some new ideas, I would love to hear about them.

Sometimes Green Doesn't Mean Go

I just dropped my daughters off at daycare this morning and was sitting at the light waiting to make a left-hand turn. Most of you reading this probably did the same thing.  The light turned green and 99.9% of the time I would have hit the gas to continue on my way to school.  Fortunately this morning I did not do that.  Had I hit the gas, I would be dead.

For some reason out of the corner of my eye I saw a car coming from my left,  towards the intersection, showing no signs of slowing down.  This was not a case of someone trying to get through a yellow light, as my light had already been green for about 2 seconds.  This was someone who was clearly not paying attention, had no idea her light was red, and never hit her breaks to slow down.

I just finished reading Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink this weekend  (not that I am crediting him for saving my life this morning, but who knows?).  If you have not read this book, it basically is about how your mind can tell if something is right, or not right, in the blink of an eye.  Fortunately I saw the car out of the corner of my eye, and my brain said “That does not look right.”  So I waited, and honked my horn as loud and intimidating as a Honda Civic’s horn can be.  Really, I just used common sense.

In our jobs as educators, this is something that we do, and maybe need to do more often - use common sense.  This is why discipline is never black and white.  There is always a gray area. Sometimes a gun is a weapon and other times it is a Pop-Tart.  Do we really discipline them both the same way or do we use common sense?

Most of us are in education for noble reasons. We are there for kids, but sometimes our actions seem to contradict that notion. Sometimes, we just need to use common sense before making decisions. Sometimes, green doesn't mean go.

Any time my four-year old is in the car with me, she says, “Daddy, green means go.”  Not always.