My 10 Most Stated Phrases and Questions

Early in the weekend, a science teacher friend of mine, Patrick Goff, shared what he titled his Pearls of Wisdom or things he frequently says, and he encourages others to share their own.  So...here are mine, and I hope you might also share yours. Regardless of your role in education (teacher, parent, administrator, community member, etc) this is an interesting way to capture what you find yourself saying most frequently.

1.  Remember to convey purpose in instruction.
2.  Students are more than a score.
3.  Stop the test prep!
4.  We need more creativity in schools.
5.  Student choice and interest are vital for making learning meaningful.
6.  Do your best.
7.  Do you use Twitter to connect to other people in education?
8.  Have you thought about blogging?
9.  Why is this important?
10. I'm interested in equity and excellence.

What about you--what are your most stated phrases?

What Connected Educators Do Differently Describes My Own Connected Journey

How well do you remember your very first tweet? Was it original? A retweet? Did you share an article or an idea? Did you connect with other educators?

It just so happens that I remember my first tweet very well, and it was a retweet of an article shared by an esteemed educator and leader with whom I was working at the time--the very same person who encouraged me to get connected via Twitter. I remember well Dr. Jeffery Zoul encouraging me to connect on Twitter since I was already connected in some of the typical ways via email, conferences, listservs, Facebook, etc.

Since becoming more connected via Twitter and through my blog in late fall of 2011, my learning professionally and personally has grown exponentially as I've been a giver, a taker, a learner, and a leader focused on not only learning but on building relationships with others from around the country and the world.

Though the authors of What Connected Educators Do Differently don't know my personal story of becoming a connected educator, I feel as though they described my journey in their book published by Routledge.  Jeffery Zoul, Todd Whitaker, and Jimmy Casas created a 134 page resource for educators on every end of the connected spectrum.

The book starts with an introductory chapter which explains what it means to be connected and why it matters. Even if you're already connected, this chapter provides you more specific background of what to expect throughout the book. I enjoyed the conversational tone and the anecdotal stories, especially those describing scenarios of isolation because there's no longer reason to feel isolated now that we have so many ways to connect virtually (and in person).

What Connected Educators Do Differently is divided into eight chapters with each chapter being a Key Connector. The eight Key Connectors explain what connected educators do differently and why it matters. You'll have to read the book yourself or visit the blog by Jimmy Casas to learn about all eight, but I will tell you about one of my favorites.

Key Connector 5: Strive to Be Tomorrow...Today. This one is my favorite because I believe it drives the very reason I blog, the very reason I passionately persist in public education, the very reason I work on re-imagining public education. This chapter is about seeking the power of a positive voice, bringing our best everyday, and striving to make an impact. If you've been reading my blog regularly, you'll know how much I value these ideas. While I was reading the book, I did what other readers often do and took notes in the margin.  At one point in this chapter,  I wrote "yes! This is why I blog..."

The authors share specific examples of well known change agents such as Scott Mcleod, Jerry Bluemengarten, and Kristen Swanson (Glad they included at least one woman in this section! Though, I wish they had included more). These individuals, described as change agents, are known "risk-takers... people with a consistent and clear purpose, a vision of the footprint they want to leave on the world in which they live." And, yes. That's exactly why I started this blog shortly after becoming connected on Twitter.

If you're not already, you can become connected, too. Pick up a copy of the book and learn not only about the Key Connectors, but enjoy learning about resources and other connected educators. At the end of each chapter, you'll learn about 5 connected educators to follow, 5 resources to find, and 5 action steps to take. I personally appreciate how the action steps grow more advanced as the book progresses, with the earlier action steps being about creating your PLN and the later action steps including ideas such as modeling risk-taking, using Maker Spaces, or implementing Genius Hour.

As we strive to be our best every day, let's remember we have one another for support and if we stay positive, we can indeed make an impact. I am determined to use my voice and connectivity to influence change on a greater scale. How about you? Are you committed to being connected and impacting change? I hope so, and I hope you will join me.

**All opinions expressed here are my own but special thanks to Routledge for a copy of the book**

What Educators Can Learn From Biz Stone's No Homework Policy

Biz Stone, Twitter Co-Founder, writes about a No-Homework Policy in his recent memoir.  As educators, we can learn from this as we look for ways to re-imagine learning outside of school. By re-thinking our homework policies and approaches in schools we will be better able to meet the needs of today's learners.  As Stone says in his book, "the point of school, after all,  isn't to do homework. The point of school is to learn" (147). To re-think our homework polices requires open and honest discussions about our philosophies and ways of "doing work" in our schools and departments.

Why do we give homework anyway? To provide extra opportunity to practice skills? To ensure students will perform well on standardized tests (shudder)? To progress our instructional agenda at a pace faster than what we have time for in the classroom? To extend learning?  To encourage curiosity and exploration?

If you don't want to read his entire book (even though it's good and a short read) you can read an excerpt from his no-homework policy chapter here. 
__________

Students (like Biz Stone when he was young) might have a good reason for not completing homework.  In Stone's example, he worked to help support his family, participated in athletics for physical well being, and attempted to complete homework before learning it required him to stay up until 4:00 in the morning.  Eventually, he decided he knew best what he needed and homework wasn't something he really needed, if he could pay attention in class and learn the required content during the school day.

Grades for homework either punish students for non-compliance or they provide an inflated sense of what students know and can do. In Stone's example, he is willing to accept the consequences of non-compliance even when that means earning an A in genetics and a C in something easy. How often does this still happen in our schools? Do we punish students with poor grades based on non-compliance to our made up rules rather than on what they really know? Alternatively, do we give students and their parents a false sense of what students know and can do when we give points for mere homework completion?

Students want teachers and adults to listen to them and to know them and maybe even (Why not?) design assignments that offer choice based on interest. Stone thought "it was a mistake to assume that teachers or anyone else for that matter automatically knew what was best [for him]."

A few weeks ago when I blogged on take-aways from Biz Stone's memoir, I mentioned I would write again about Stone's no-homework policy, and I was encouraged to keep that promise when Elisabeth commented that I had piqued her interest. I hope I've piqued your curiosity as well, and I'd love to know your thoughts about how we can continue re-designing homework practices in our schools. Please comment here or join me in September at the Innovations for Learning Conference in Lexington.  Here's a blurb from my proposal:

In this session we will share, collaborate, and explore tools and websites that will help us turn homework into wonderwork. We will re-imagine the possibilities for extending learning beyond the school day. We will ask--what if?

5 Reasons to Read Things a Little Bird Told Me: Confessions of the Creative Mind

The longer I use Twitter, the more I understand I use it because it connects me to other people, issues, ideas, and humanity.  Because I enjoy using Twitter so much, I previously read Hatching Twitter about the invention of the company.  In that book I learned about the backstabbing and behind the scenes issues the start-up endured on the way to being a successful company.  The one founder who stood out to me most in that book was Biz Stone.  I liked that he was focused on empathy, humanity, and creativity, so he's the one founder I started following on Twitter.  Thus, I learned from a Tweet that he wrote his own memoir on the founding of Twitter.  Biz Stone's Things a Little Bird Told Me:  Confessions of the Creative Mind was an excellent read, a book I recommend for educators, entrepreneurs, or anyone interested in bettering the world.

Things a Little Bird Told Me Reminds Us...

1. Technology without personal connection = pointless

This reminder is apparent in the storyline about how Twitter was originally created.  During a two-week hackathon, Biz Stone and Jack Dorsey worked on a technology that would include status updates from text messages on their phones (pre-iPhone days) to let their friends know how they were doing. The message would appear on a website. They were driven not so much by the technology itself but by the idea of people connecting with one another.

As an educator, I think we should consider this point when we use technology. We could teach the same old boring stuff by placing it in Edmodo or another platform and that would save paper, but what's the point, unless we are in some way connecting people? Instead, How can we use technology platforms to engage students in conversations about ideas, books, community service, etc.?

2. Ideas drive us.  Abandon linear ways of thinking to create good work.
Educators are sometimes known for their linear way of step-by-step thinking and rule following.  Imagine though, the freedom in abandoning those linear ways of thinking and allowing students to abandon step-by-step thinking!  Then we could be learning instead of just completing tasks. We could encourage creative thought and processing. "Plain hard word is good and important, but it is the ideas that drive us as individuals, companies, nations, and a global community.  Creativity is what makes us unique, inspired, and fulfilled (iv)."

3. We learn from failure
In Stone's chapter on the infamous Twitter Fail Whale, he writes about companies liking to put forward the persona of perfection--"we have the best rates! We do the best work! We're awesome! (89)"  We do this in our schools too.  Are we honest about failure and room for improvement? Just as we often celebrate the schools with the best test scores, we also frequently label schools as failing schools, and we don't see that as something positive from which to learn.  How can we be invested in school or education if the primary focus is on obtaining good test scores? We need creativity and authentic learning because everyone is more invested when what we do is about more than a test. “If you are not emotionally invested in what you are doing, failure is pretty much guaranteed...Success isn’t (35)."

4. Some people in the business world DO care about more than the bottom line
So often in the education world we shy away from entrepreneurship and the business world because we think it's only about making money or the bottom line. More and more I'm learning that's true for many businesses, but not for all. My first awareness of this came when I was asked to write an article for a women's business magazine--Cake & Whiskey. C&W's business was created with a manifesto that encourages the telling of stories--connecting women with one another. My belief in the possibility of business being able to do good in the world was then established. Thereafter, it wasn't  a stretch to read Biz Stone write about innovating to improve humanity and finding empathy as a core to personal and global success.

5. We don't have to have a lot of money to give
I related well to Stone's story about being a recipient of free school lunch as a child and appreciated his thoughts on not needing to have a lot of money to give money (or give time). From an early age, my parents taught me this, and I continue to believe it's true and also an important lesson for us to teach kids. Stone's story about giving to DonorsChoose.Org was one of my favorites in the book because he writes about how he and his wife logged on to the site and found a 4th grade teacher who was requesting copies of Charlotte's Web for her class. Knowing young children experienced the friendship of Charlotte and Wilbur for the first time was a personally fulfilling moment for Stone.

Things a Little Bird Told Me:  Confessions of the Creative Mind is well worth taking an afternoon to read.  It's a short 200 pages and will leave you smiling with Stone's witty sense of humor and good natured approach to living life.  

_______

Stay tuned for another post on this book coming soon because Stone had an entire chapter devoted to his no-homework policy--there are lessons for all educators in that chapter.

Why I Read Hatching Twitter

While on a recent trip to San Francisco, my colleague mentioned the Twitter offices to me when we drove through the section of the city where Twitter Headquarters is located, so on my flight home I downloaded Hatching Twitter by Nick Bilton and read the entire 600 e-book pages in a single weekend. Why?

Curiosity.  As an avid Twitter user for my work in education, curiosity about the business world and start-ups caught hold of me, especially since I'm working for a brand new nonprofit aimed at transforming education.  Thinking about how Twitter revolutionized communication and interaction motivates me and feeds my curious nature.  A single day in San Francisco left me wanting to know more about the history of tech start-ups.  What makes the ideas for products and services turn into multi-million or billion dollar companies?   Clearly, not every start-up successfully morphs into a money-making, world-changing company, so what happens to the rest of the start-ups that are less successful or that never make it at all?  Is Twitter an outlier in a sea of failed start-ups?   What made Twitter a success?  If someone starts a business following Twitter's business model, will it be successful? 

Okay, so none of those questions are answered in the book because the book is about relationships, drama, betrayal, power struggles.  Plus, Twitter supposedly lacked a real business plan in its earliest years.

Stories.  A conflict filled book based on real life interviews with individuals involved in the founding of Twitter sucked me right into the story about Ev, Jack, Biz, and Noah.  The book includes sections devoted to each of the founders and his story of rising and falling with Twitter. I enjoyed reading the varying viewpoints of each man's ideas for the purpose of Twitter--from individual status updates to connecting with the world and giving equal voice to people from everywhere/anywhere.

Surprises.  Since I had never previously read anything about the founding of Twitter or about starting a technology company, many surprises came my way while reading Bilton's book.  The power of money and investors was new and surpirisng information for me as were the hiring/firing procedures.  Basically, if the investors/board members decided the leader wasn't directing the company the way they preferred, the CEO would be fired, even if he was one of the comany's founders.

Learning Ev Williams was the founder of my favorite blogging platform, Blogger, was exciting, too, especially since the reason for creating blogger was for "to tell stories.  To disrupt media." Twitter is a tool for disrupting media, starting revolutions, building new businesses and electing government officials.  Twitter is also a tool for creating a network--a professional learning network or PLN.  Personally and professionally I have experienced tremendous growth since learning how to use the tool effectively.

Renewed Learnings.
Relationships matter most.
Stories are powerful and important.
Leaders should respect their employees.
Social media is changing the way we work, interact, communicate, learn, sell, build, and connect.

My Eleventh Hour Connected Educator Blog Post

For the entire month of October, I have had the privilege of publishing a daily blog post at my place of employment.  Each day I posted a profile of a Kentucky educator who's connected; these profiles were sent to me throughout the month and covered educators from a range of roles and regions.  It was a sheer pleasure to read what my colleagues in the state had to say about how they are connected.  In addition to reading and posting all the Kentucky educator profiles, I spent time following educators across the country and world who also wrote connected educator posts.  I even found humor in those who proclaimed connected educator month silly, nonsensical or annoying.

I also spent each day thinking about how I should write my own post about being a connected educator, and each day I put it off to focus on other things in life, including my current personal project and my commitment to practice a more balanced sense of living.

Now as we approach midnight and the end of the month, I decided it would be worth recording a few of my own personal thoughts about ways I'm connected and how it impacts my practice.

I am connected via multiple social media platforms as well as through other networks, some of which meet face-to-face.  I connect because I like to learn and with all the different people in my professional learning network (PLN) I have people from across the world from which to learn via Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, Google +, Linkedin, the NCTE Connected Community, R-Group Space and various Listservs.   I am learning from educators and non-educators alike; I'm learning from other learners who are equally curious about the world in which we live.

Since I moved an untold number of times as a child, teenager, and young adult, I have always enjoyed connecting with others and maintaining some level of contact with those left behind after a move.  For me, technology has made maintaining these connections more feasible.  I have a friend who teaches in France and another who teaches in China, and these connections help me maintain a global perspective--clearly essential in our increasingly connected world.  In addition to these friends, I have met new colleagues who teach in my very state but whom I never met prior to with connecting via Twitter.  I've met new colleagues from other states and even a few new colleagues who teach in other countries.  Though technology might not be the only way to connect, for me technology has impacted my practice by allowing me to connect with a wider and more diverse group of people who all bring different perspectives to an online conversation.  

One of the grumpy connected educator posts I read this month made a distinction between being a teacher and being an educator. This person said those of us who call ourselves educators are really just tyring to sound more important.  Well, for me, that's not the case (meaning, I'm not trying to sound important).  I call myself an educator because I no longer teach on a day-to-day basis in a high school classroom.  In many ways I'm still a teacher though and will never stop being a teacher. 

This semester I taught a pre-service class at the local university and was so happy to be back in a classroom on a regular basis.  Together, my students and I worked on literacy and being connected and prepared to teach adolescents in a digital world.  A favorite connection for us all this term was when the students commented on the blog of Troy Hicks and he commented back to them. They were thrilled because of his willingness to engage in conversation and to continue the learning across state lines.  

In addition to learning with my students, I continued learning by participating in weekly edchats on Twitter, by reading and commenting on various blog posts and by attending face-to-face trainings and summits.  A highlight of connected educator month, actually, was when I had the opportunity to meet face-to-face several of my fellow Kentucky colleagues who participate in the weekly #KyEdChat sessions.  Connectedness via technology is great, but it's even sweeter when a face-to-face connection occurs as well.

Wonderwork Replaces Homework

As I approach the one year anniversary of my blog, I find myself reflecting on how I’ve grown as a learner and leader over the past year.  The very idea that I will continue to learn and reflect on education practices, reform, literacy, and the arts is nestled in my blog title—Learning to Muse. 

My second blog post, 3 Meaningful Homework Practices, developed the way many of my posts develop—after conversations face-to-face and virtually with friends, family and colleagues or after reading various articles, novels, and nonfiction books.  Interestingly, this post on homework brought only one comment on my blog, but it also brought a comment via twitter, and this comment has had me thinking and reflecting  all year on the purpose and value of homework.  Who would have known last January that I would one day, in the same year, begin working side by side with the very person who has caused me to reflect in 2012 on the value of homework?

 

As a result of all this reflection and reading on the purpose and value of homework, I entered last week’s twitter #wonderchat already wondering about how we can provide more interesting and meaningful opportunities for children and teens when they are at home.  The site Wonderopolis offers a wealth of possibilities as do many other engaging sites for children and teens.  To my delight, a twitter friend—Paul Hankins— suggested the possibility of wonderwork to replace homework.  Check out some of our conversation on this topic last Monday night.

 

What will it take?  How can we get the idea of wonderwork to replace homework?  I'm not completely sure but I’m going to start by signing off to help my sixth grader finish his wonderwork right now.  He’s working on a science fair project where he’s wondering which hand soap will be most effective with eliminating bacteria.  Stay tuned this week as he collects and analyzes his data.

Feel free to share your own ideas for wonderwork in the comments below.