It has been awhile...

It has been a really long time since I last blogged...

Almost two years in fact.

I had kind of given up on blogging because I didn't think that I was very good at it.  But, I was encouraged to give it another shot, so here we go:

It is kind of funny how a little moment in time can completely change you.  I had one of those moments in September of 2015.

About a month after my last blog post, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma and everything suddenly stopped.

On a Friday in September, I went to the doctor because the acid reflux and wicked cough I had been battling all summer was only getting worse.  I nearly passed out while driving from a vicious coughing fit and figured it was time to press the doctor for more testing since I couldn't walk more than 50 feet without getting winded.  I went in at about 4:30, his last appointment for the day and he listened to my chest.  Immediately, he said something was wrong and sent me down to get x-rays.

Given the timing, he said that he would call me on Monday with the results and I should really just take it easy over the weekend.  So, I went down and did the x-rays and headed home to take care of my kids.  About the time I made it home, he called me.  That was when he told me I needed to head directly to the hospital, they were waiting for me and if I couldn't leave immediately, I needed to call an ambulance.  Luckily, my wife was close to home and my father-in-law was able to watch the kids.  Away we went, scared out of my mind.

After the many blood tests, scans, breathing treatments, discussions, I was worn out.  My wife was worn out.  I missed my kids terribly.  I had found out that my left lung had completely collapsed and the right one was not too far off from the same fate.  Pneumonia was the most likely source and that was why they kept testing my blood.  They had tested for some 40 different things, but hadn't nailed it down just yet.

We didn't really have anything to do but hang out and speculate what was going to happen.  I could tell she was exhausted and needed a break, so I sent my wife home to shower and relax for a bit.  That is when the doctor came in.

It was Sunday morning.  He walked in, grabbed a chair, moved it next to my bed and put his hands in his lap.  I specifically remember him putting his hands together and taking a deep breath.  He didn't even need to say anything, I knew what he was going to say.  Everything stopped.

All alone in my room, I did not cry, I really just did nothing but wait for my wife to get back.  We had talked and I told her what happened.  I was really more worried about her driving back to the hospital in distress than I was with the news I had just received.

At this point, I wanted to run out of there as fast as I could (which was not very fast given that I only had one working lung), but they needed to confirm through biopsy what we already knew.  So more waiting.  The following morning, a series doctors and surgeons assessed their options about which lymph node to take.  They could go down into my chest and grab one or cut the large swollen golf ball out of my neck.  By the afternoon, they decided to take it out of my neck.

I wanted to get out and go home as soon as possible.  All I wanted to do was get home and escape this nightmare situation.  I was trapped in a bed with a breathing tube and other cords attached to me, unable to get up without letting someone know.  I have never been one to sit around.  I like to do stuff.  This was making me claustrophobic.  I had things to do.  I had a new job and sub plans to make for a class that was only in its infancy.

Once the surgery was finished and the funny video was made of me all doped up singing "Don't Speak" by No Doubt, I was sent home.

I had to wait 3-5 days to get confirmation on my diagnoses.  More sitting and waiting, but at least I was home and able to take care of my responsibilities.  I was getting so anxious.  The fifth day was my 31st birthday and I did not want to get that news on my birthday.  I was absolutely miserable and a wreck.  On the fourth day, at 5:10, I got the call that confirmed I had cancer.

After that, everything started moving really fast.  On my birthday, I saw my new Oncologist, got a bone marrow biopsy (single most painful thing I have ever experienced) and laid out a treatment plan.  Within 2 weeks, I was officially a patient.  Every two weeks after that, I would go and sit in a chair while chemicals that could easily kill someone were pumped into my body for four long hours.  It was a great time to take what I called a "chemo nap".  I also had my lung drained of almost two liters of fluid.  Four months later, I started daily radiation.  6 minutes of sitting in a tube listening to KSHE and the machine spinning all while pinned under a mask that made it impossible to even move.  I got to do this every day.  This month was the worst for me.  I was able to work again, but the radiation did a serious number on me in a lot of ways, making it a struggle to get out of bed and carry on.

Finally, I was in remission.  Still recovering in a lot of ways, but I had made it to that glorious word. Remission.

3-4 more months and I was finally able to say that I was myself again.  My hair was back and thicker than ever.  My weight was back to normal.  I had an appetite and energy to actually do stuff again.  The whole thing was mostly over except for the "scanxiety" that came every 3-6 weeks when I had to see the doctors.

I am now so far into remission that just yesterday I completely forgot that I had a doctors appointment next week.  Life is good again and that chapter of my life is pretty much closed.

Since that day in September a lot of things have happened and I have a lot to be grateful for, but I'll just stick to the professional side.

I have the best job in the entire world.  I get to help students and teachers achieve more, create more, and explore more.  The innovation program we have created has become a raging success.  I really believe that what we are doing makes everyone involved better.  This year, I will be taking the program to our newest K-5 school and expanding the class to be a full on Lab that allows me to work with teachers more and thus give our students more exciting opportunities.

I have made so many new friends through my PLN.  I have gotten the opportunity to share what I do and my ideas to so many more people.  I have been able to connect with people all over, experience the latest and greatest technologies, share my love for creating with students and teachers alike.

When I took this job and then immediately got sick, it was like a shot to the gut.  I finally found something that I was really good at and I couldn't even do it.

To make my experience a bit more mythical, it is like a phoenix.  I had to be taken down a peg or two to grow and be better.  I had to change my mentality or my mindset in order to literally survive.

I made it a point when I was sitting in the hospital, alone, waiting for my wife to get there that I was going to be the most positive person I could be.  No matter what came at me, no matter how bad, I would keep my head up and smile as I pointed out the silver lining.  That decision has had such a profound impact on me.  That little decision is why I am still here and one thing that has helped me to be much more successful.  My mindset is how I got through some of the darkest moments in my life.  That little moment in time is what makes me who I am today.

What's your curriculum? #innovationclass

Today, I was asked by the building guidance counselor what my curriculum is so that she can better explain it to parents wanting to transfer their kids into my class.  I was not really prepared to answer that because typically in most of my career it was simply given to me.

First, let me explain the situation.  I was lucky enough to be hired into a new position teaching a new class called "Technology and Innovation".  The goal is to provide kids with experience using various technology so that they will have a better idea of what kind of things they like or to develop an interest in computer science.  Other than that, it was open to whatever I could come up with.  The district provided a lot of expensive resources as well as incredible support.  I felt as though I had hit the jackpot.  This was absolutely the best opportunity I could ever hoped to have found.  What geeky teacher like me wouldn't be on cloud nine?

So, when asked what my curriculum is, I came up with this response (maybe not in these exact words...):

Explore.  Students will explore technologies and concepts that they find interesting

Learn.  Students will learn about those areas that interest them the most.

Create.  The students will have the opportunity to create what they want to create with the extensive resources we have available.

After this, we talked a little about the activities we would do and how exciting it will all be.  She also informed me that I would likely have full classes for the second semester because of the buzz about the class.  I turned around and went about my day frightened and excited about the prospect of 30 students in every period that I taught.  The thought of my curriculum still lingered with me though.  I pondered what made this such a great opportunity for the students.  Was it the technology they had access to?  Was it my impeccable knowledge? (haha)  No, it is the fact that they get the rare opportunity in our educational climate to guide their own learning.  They get to explore, learn and create what matters to them without limitations or interference by me (within reason of course).

What is my curriculum?  My curriculum is student-lead.

Series of thoughts inspired by @gcouros and #iste2015

I am fortunate enough to be in Philadelphia this week attending the 2015 ISTE conference.  If you have never been, you need to make it happen.  Mind Blowing. (and huge)

I have seen and heard a lot of really cool things and have much more to do before I leave, but today I attended one of the most intriguing speeches I've heard in a long time.

I have new job and it entails innovative technology instruction.  A blank slate and ample support to provide the type of learning that isn't found in your standard curriculum.  This is everything I have ever wanted in my career, but it can be a little daunting to plan for!

So, I have a lot to do before I begin and I focused my attendance around all the ideas that I have for my class.  I decided to attend a session called Developing the Innovator's Mindset lead by George Couros, who I have seen all over Twitter with great ideas and inspiring messages.  At the end of his speech, I was left with many thoughts about what he said.

His message was all about how to BE innovative.  Since my new job is to be innovative, I came up with these thoughts:

To me, part of being innovative is to show no fear.  Try new things, learn to use the resources that your students use, and go with the flow.  Let the kids lead the learning.  Stay out of your comfort zone.

There are many teachers who think that they have all the answers, or at least portray that to their kids.  Afraid of being wrong, they project an aura of superiority over their students that veils their insecurity of leaving the safe, curriculum guided world of predetermined lessons.  The what-if holds them in a box and stifles the opportunities.

I, for one, began my career with this fear.  For the first several years, I followed the lesson plans of others to the T.  What was the result?  Poor test scores, behavior problems, and (most importantly) kids that I failed.

Then, I decided that the way I was teaching (somewhat like a stoic robot) wasn't working.  I tried other things.  I gave up on standard curriculum and started letting kids decide what we would learn about.  At first, it was in small amounts wherever I could fit it in.  As I observed the students, I realized the power of this.  I had to start training myself to be able to fit this into the standards and make sure that I was still "following guidelines" and meeting the requirements of my position (which I was), but it drove me crazy.  I could see that these kids got more out of solving things they wanted to solve than following a textbook's "exciting" activity of summarizing a news article they clipped out of the newspaper (most of them didn't get the paper, they were part of the 21st century and got news off the internet).

Slowly, I became more adept at making time for these authentic learning opportunities.  Not quite PBL, not quite Genius Hour, but something very similar.

In our exploration of various topics, I often did not know the answer.  My students were trained to simply ask an adult and blindly take their answer as the truth.  This got hard to manage when you have 20 different topics going at the same time, so I stopped answering and replied "I don't know" and left them to their own devices.  After the kids realized I wouldn't give them answers, they started to find the answers on their own.  I believe that this curious method (by some accounts) helped create problem-solvers.  All of this changed the way I taught and the way my kids learned, and I believe, it was an improvement.

I guess my point is, change what you are doing to be more student-centered.  We've all heard that a million times, but really look in the mirror and see if you are.  I did and I wasn't (though I thought I was) and changing my ways was probably the best thing I ever did as a teacher.

More destruction of worksheets

Are you going to participate in #noworksheetweek?

In my last post, I wrote about some ideas for eliminating the unnecessary waste we create with worksheets.  I wanted to share some more ideas to help you reduce your consumption of paper and mundane student tasks.

How can you have your students show their learning without paper?

In our class we talked about using GarageBand to have a student record their responses.  Even simple responses to reading can be recorded and given to the teacher for review.  Or to take it a step further, we could use iMovie and the iPad camera to record their responses like an interview.  As a teacher, this is way more fun to grade!  This also gives you the opportunity to talk with the students about public speaking skills, eye contact, posture, etc. expanding the activity to more than a simple formative assessment.

Do you have GAFE?  If you do, using Google Classroom will help you destroy your worksheets!  Scan anything you would normally print, assign it to students, then they turn in their work.  It is all digital and no paper required.  This could present problems when it comes to a lack of devices, but getting creative about how you get students access is the only way.

There are many more ideas and if you have some, please leave a comment.

Until next time, have a great #noworksheetweek

#noworksheetweek

April 13-17th my class will be participating in #noworksheetweek.  Our goal will be to survive our normal instruction, without using paper.  While I have drastically reduced paper consumption in our class this year, to have no worksheets is honestly, a little frightening.

I thought I would share some ideas I have to eliminate the wasteful practice of handing out worksheets, checking them, giving them back and inevitably they end up in the trash (or recycle I hope...):

Formative assessments are a necessary and extremely beneficial part of any instruction.  Simple 2-5 question question quizzes can give a wealth of insight and knowledge about my instruction and the learning of my students.  How do I do that without using paper?  I have a couple ways.  MasteryConnect uses an add-on called "BubbleSheet".  All I have to do is create the questions on a doc or pdf, load them into the system under the correct standard and give my kids the test id.  They log in to either the app or bubblesheet.masteryconnect.com and go.  Data is collected in real time and I can assess my instruction on the spot.

Another tool I plan to use is Plickers.  I create the questions, then show them on the board.  They hold up their answer using one of the provided cards:

   

Then I use my phone to quickly scan their answer and collect my information.  Another nifty part of Plickers is that I can launch a real time results graph that shows the students what everyone else is choosing anonymously.  This allows for instant feedback and for the student to reflect on their answer in the moment.  Not to mention it is pretty cool!

There are of course the old school methods.  I taught my kids A, B, C, and D in sign language and have them hold their choice to their chest.  Or there is always thumbs up or thumbs down.  While I will always continue to use these methods, the techy versions allow me to collect the data rather than trying to simply remember.  We all know we already have more than enough to remember!

These are just two examples, if you have more, feel free to add them to the comments!

This is going to be a challenge for me, but I am not afraid.  If we as teachers don't challenge ourselves, we become stagnant and quickly lose our effectiveness.  Take the challenge and do something really cool!  

I will be posting more ideas up until #noworksheet week, so check back for more!

Monuments of Glory

My students were tasked with writing a persuasive letter explaining why a particular individual deserved a monument in their honor.

First, I had my wife print envelopes that mimicked real bulk mail.  Each one was addressed to each student in my class.  Needless to say, they ate it hook line and sinker.  They were asked by a state committee to choose which person deserved the monument.  As a bonus, we were going to create presentations that showed their designs for the actual monument.  They needed to use symbols to show their reasons for choosing their person.  Their options were Ellison Onizuka, Thurgood Marshall, Susan B. Anthony, or Jackie Robinson.

After expending a large amount of time researching (taking notes via iBrainstorm), organizing their research (via Mind Mup), and writing their letter in correct form (via Google Docs), they were ready to create.  Each student was grouped with other students who chose the same person.  Then they linked up worlds in Minecraft and began crafting away.

Each group spent time creating designs, destroying them, tweaking them, and creating all new ones (kind of like the writing process, right?).  Some chose blatant symbols, for instance, a space shuttle for Ellison Onizuka, while others chose rather abstract symbols.  For Thurgood Marshall, one group created a fountain that had fire coming out of some dark stone.  This was explained to me as him showing the light on ignorance in our society, but it only looked like that at night.  That came out of a third grader.  I think that is proof enough of the effectiveness of Minecraft and general Educational Technology.

I am blown away by their creativity and so proud to be their teacher!

Below are some examples, see if you can tell who is who 😄

Quasi-Flipping the class

I have always wanted to find a way to help parents reinforce their child's learning.  I thought creating a block of "How-To" videos and sending links to parents for access, but I always worried about keeping parents up to date.  When I designed our school web page, I added a section for "Parent Help".  Here you would find specific links for help in subject areas that lead to teacher created resources from our school.  After all my work, the district switched to a canned website and out of frustration for my time, I gave up.

Recently, I started looking into podcasts. They are easily acquired and update on their own.  So, I dove right in.  I got students to give a weekly update on things we are doing and recorded their prepared speeches.  Then I created a "How-To" video on a topic we are learning.  Then I sent my podcast to iTunes.  Within a day or two it was up and running.  Now I plan on continuing the helpful videos and publicizing them to the parents.  My hope is it catches on and I no longer will need newsletters or to have extensive phone calls and emails discussing how we are currently teaching multiplication and other things of that nature.

Below you will find links to the resources I  am using to accomplish this and a link to the feed:

Posomatic is the site I used to create the feed, it's free

https://www.podomatic.com/login

The link to iTunes

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/mr-walls-podcast/id955931710

The XML feed

http://andrew-wall.podomatic.com/rss2.xml

Since I don't have an Android device, feel free to post a good Podcast app in the comments!