tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88556335837433976952024-02-07T00:35:13.928-08:00EdTechSpecThis is a blog of educational technology tips and tricks set up for any teacher, TOSA, instructional coach, leader, or school district, but especially those who are using a GAFE (Google) domain. All are welcome to comment, share, and avail themselves of the resources on this blog.EdTechSpechttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00573422614783714241noreply@blogger.comBlogger117125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8855633583743397695.post-4613711849279550452019-07-08T18:00:00.003-07:002019-07-08T19:25:31.286-07:00The Actual Work of an Edtech Sith Lord<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<h3>
<i><span style="font-size: large;">Coming to Terms With My Role as an Edtech Administrator and My Contribution to Education, Edtech, and Educators</span></i></h3>
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Recently, at the ISTE 2019 conference, I presented on <a href="http://bit.ly/BudgetEdtech" target="_blank">building an educational technology professional development program on a budget</a>. It was only the second time I had given this presentation and I was fortunate enough to be collaborating with my edtech sister, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/kmartintahoe" target="_blank">Kelly Martin</a>. It was my first time presenting at what is the gold-standard conference in our field and I was feeling the incredibly trite combination of excited and nervous. Now that it is said and done, I’ve done a lot of thinking about the presentation, our message, the systems we have tried to build, and the pedagogical practice we have tried to improve. Our presentation, in many ways, speaks to a professional identity crisis I have been having since decided to cross over to the Dark Side and become an Edtech Sith Lord, an administrator.<br />
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I came into edtech as a teacher coach. It was my job to be the expert on the tools AND to coach teachers. I would partner with them, build lesson plans and activities with them, and be in the room as support when we tested those lesson plans out with students. I loved it. If I am 100% honest with myself, after three years of being an administrator, I still miss it. In fact, I am going to commit a <b><i>teaching taboo</i></b> and admit: I think loved that job more than I loved my 14 years of being a classroom teacher, because the only thing I have loved more than helping middle school kids succeed by finding what they are capable of, is helping teachers succeed by finding what they AND their students are capable of.<br />
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So when I became an administrator, when I made the conscious decision to join the Dark Side and trade my green lightsaber for a red one, I knew what it was I wanted to accomplish and why I was doing it. I wanted to build a great educational technology department in a district that was just starting out with edtech. I had had a great model at <a href="https://www.fsusd.org/" target="_blank">Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District</a>, lead by <a href="https://twitter.com/DrMelissaF" target="_blank">Dr. Melissa Farrar</a>. To this day, FSUSD still employs two of the best educational leadership role models I have met, Dr. Farrar and <a href="https://twitter.com/KristenWitt13" target="_blank">Kristen Witt</a>. I was part of the team that first started the educational technology department in FSUSD, and naturally had some ideas on how I would do it “differently” or maybe “better.” <br />
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I didn't know how I was going to do it, but I had my what and my why in place. The how… well that has proved to be trickier, and more difficult than I expected. A thing I didn't expect is how much being on The Dark Side was going to pull me farther and farther from direct contact with teachers. It has been a bit of a sacrifice, one that I am certain I would make again. Yet, it would have been easier if I had realized that going in. <br />
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So now, after ISTE, after I have been allowed to represent myself as some sort of expert on building an educational technology department, I am reflecting even more on these questions: Am I effective? Am I an effective leader? What do I essentially do? How do I approach it? What do I believe in here? <br />
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Teaching can be solitary work, but at least you have a whole school of other teachers, and a vast social media teacher community. One of the hardest things about my job is that to find a professional community you have to have friends outside of your district, because there's only ever one of you. Even with that, I think what I still wrestle with most, having moved to the Dark Side, is missing teachers and classrooms.<br />
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When I do get the chance to speak with men and women who do a similar job and we discuss how we interact with teachers and how we create professional development systems, there are common threads. What I have to say on this may not be terribly original. It could be summed up as “hire good people, and then get out of their way”, but since I have been reflecting on this, I thought I would share what the most important tasks of an Edtech Sith Lord are.<br />
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Recruit Revolutionaries</h2>
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Every educational technology administrator I know in any public school district anywhere, who does not also have to do the IT portion of that work, is constantly messaging this to the entire organization: “We are not IT.” I like to tell people that IT works with boxes and wires, and edtech works with hearts and minds. Because we work with hearts and minds, we need the right people. Recruiting quality people is a quintessential part of building a good professional development program, educational technology or otherwise.<br />
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One of the things you quickly find out when you're recruiting for professional development is that even the best and most experienced teachers are not necessarily going to be the best professional developers. The skill-sets certainly overlap to a degree, the same way that there is overlap between pedagogy and andragogy, but they are not the same. Additionally, probably unsurprisingly, good teachers who are comfortable in front of a room full of second graders are not always comfortable in front of a room of their peers. So you do have to find people who are willing to do all the parts of the job. Good teachers are a must, but you cannot stop with that criteria.<br />
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The reason I want to recruit “revolutionaries” is because an effective professional developer has to be willing to stand in front of a room full of teachers and say, “what you're doing is good, but it could be great!” An effective professional developer is an agent of change. Being a champion of “it could be so much better” requires bravery, ardor, and perspicacity. Your people skills have to be on point. As a professional developer, you are yourself a recruiter. A recruiter to the cause of improved teaching practice, and you have to find a way to be both subtle and enthusiastic, to be a Pied Piper of teachers when you're telling them “you can do better,” because that task is fraught with push back and hurt if you do it with a heavy hand. You must achieve a balance of gentle, yet relentless urging forward of your colleagues.<br />
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Recruiting revolutionaries is no easy task, and they are usually in short supply. Another thing you have to be mindful of as a leader of revolutionaries, is that revolutionaries want change...and they want it now. Managing that expectation and engendering patience in them...also not easy. I wish I had better guidelines here, but I am not always patient myself, and sometimes my revolutionaries have had to teach me patience, but it is definitely a thing to think about. If you have done your recruiting right, you will find yourself being an Edtech Sith Lord who leads Edtech Jedi.<br />
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Clear the Path</h2>
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The next thing I have learned over the last three years is that I need to clear the path for the revolution. In other words, I need to set up conditions so that my revolutionaries can get on with the work of proselytizing, being agents of change, and winning hearts and minds. What’s more, I need to ensure we don’t run out of the physical and emotional supplies they need to carry on. In short, you truly must support your revolutionaries in every conceivable way. <br />
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Clearing the path can take many different forms. The most obvious is making sure that your team has the technology they need. You want them to be innovators and explorers so “standard issue” is often not enough. Hopefully, they will ask you, “Can we get some ____?” At first, or at least for me, my first compunction was to say, “yes.” But what you soon realize is that you are on the Dark Side, and you have peers and superiors on the Dark Side, and one of those higher Sith Lords is going to ask you why you spent $3,000 on 3D printers. You had better be ready to justify that cost using standards, superintendent goals, or board goals. <br />
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In this case, one part of clearing the path is starting to ask your Jedi, your revolutionaries, “why,” and asking them to think about the pedagogical purpose for trying the cool new thing. Even when you yourself think it's super cool and don't want to ask why because you want to play with the new toys too, you have to ask that question. Another part of clearing the path is communicating and “educating” your peers and superiors behind the scenes to make connections between your experimental/innovative work and more conventional areas of education. If they already understand your department goals and vision to the point where they can guess why you’d be going to trainings or conferences, or purchasing technology they’re not themselves familiar with, then they’re less likely to question or push back. <br />
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In fact, much of clearing the path is actually done away from your team. It might mean working with IT, principals, or union leaders. Sometimes clearing the path means finding paid professional development or peers for your Jedi and putting them in the same physical space to make connections and find support. And this last point, making sure your team has a professional community, is an example of clearing the emotional path for your team. <br />
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I feel like, in order to do the work of professional development in education well, you have to really <b><i>want</i></b> to do it. If you have recruited revolutionary Jedi, and they are anxiously waiting to see change, then they might be in for some disappointment in the day-to-day. Especially in public education, changes are often incremental and slow. The word glacial comes to mind. However, if you can give your team a sense of belonging to something, remind and show them their accomplishments from time to time (<i>hint: you will need this for yourself too as a Sith Lord</i>) and provide opportunities for fun and bonding, then their emotional path will remain clear.<br />
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Develop Your Developers</h2>
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This may not be as straightforward as it might sound. Obviously there is the normal goal-setting and driving people to develop their skills. In educational technology, we have the benefit of having many different certifications out there for our people to pursue. I work in a GSuiteEdu District, and I am very happy to say that we have added many Google Certified Trainers and Google Certified Innovators in our district, at all levels, and we have grown the number of Level 1 Google Certified Educators dramatically. This has been an outstanding achievement for our district, but this technical skill expertise is not enough. <br />
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One of the things I have figured out, and it seems obvious when I read it, is to find out how people want to be developed, how they want to grow, and then find ways to grow them in those areas. This has two difficulties involved in it. The first difficulty is that sometimes you need to set aside how you want someone that you are leading to grow. Sometimes you have a need on your team, and you only have so many team members to fill it, and the team need can drive your actions in a way that isn't always best for the person you're trying to develop. There are, of course, certain basic team needs that must be fulfilled, but as new challenges or roles come along it's good to be judicious and deliberate in assigning those roles and the accompanying development that goes along with them. The second difficulty comes when the team member isn't really sure how they want to grow themselves. Allowing somebody the time and space for self-discovery and reflection can be difficult, especially if you are an impatient Sith Lord, but it will pay dividends in the long run.<br />
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And then there's this other thing, which seems to go opposite to the idea of developing people how they want to be developed. Sometimes you can see the potential for strengths in people; sometimes these strengths have no direct impact on the work of your team. Sometimes you can see that people are good at things even if they don't know that they are good at those things, or, and this is a hard one, even if they don't necessarily want to be good at those things. <br />
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One of the members of my team is a natural diplomat, a clear-headed communicator, and has an overriding sense of fairness. It's like he is a natural-born, level-headed leader. This is a role he shies away from. Every time he is in leadership he distinguishes himself so people keep asking him to do it. I think he would be a fabulous administrator, and it has taken me over a year to get him to a place to even consider it. For my part, I have had to be mindful and creative about how I use certain situations to help him see his strengths and the opportunities they might afford him. <br />
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So in a way, being a Sith Lord is being a talent scout. This is pretty obvious at the recruiting phase when you're looking for the initial attributes you want on your team. In addition, as you work with your individual team members--and you really should approach developing your team members as individuals--you need to be looking for their strengths so that you can build on them, and their areas of growth to mitigate them. The difficulty that comes as a team leader is when you know you need to push somebody up to a new position or a new challenge which will require them to leave your team. That can be hard, and downright annoying, but you develop yourself as a leader when you find new people to recruit and develop. You have to remember that teams succeed because of systems AND people. Build both, and in the long run the work will succeed, individuals will succeed, and the accomplishment will be satisfying.<br />
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EdTechSpechttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00573422614783714241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8855633583743397695.post-36468349547490401632017-06-11T12:53:00.001-07:002017-12-16T16:49:36.769-08:00Budgets Are Declarations of Belief<i><span style="color: #ffe599;"><u>Blogger side note</u>: Sometimes if you procrastinate on a blog post long enough, you <b>get</b> to write the original post <b>and</b> the follow up post all in one go.<br />So...that’s fun.</span></i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8rqhpmHoek3JAySyEMEwP8vaXxMQYua48HSGCSVcc1J0LIeomYTNrI8ovQfl0NCleyT2nr5hNAbeXy4M8QiNQRNcb4GAvSBhVMdhyphenhyphenjr_39jK7eFhyphenhyphenESZmUbh9sz8_AsAFSwjMlc1KXcen/s1600/IMG_0326.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8rqhpmHoek3JAySyEMEwP8vaXxMQYua48HSGCSVcc1J0LIeomYTNrI8ovQfl0NCleyT2nr5hNAbeXy4M8QiNQRNcb4GAvSBhVMdhyphenhyphenjr_39jK7eFhyphenhyphenESZmUbh9sz8_AsAFSwjMlc1KXcen/s320/IMG_0326.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Why Is No One Else Excited About This?</h3>
I seem to really like doing a part of my job that my coworkers and peers in other districts seem to dread. I am a first year administrator, the Director of Educational Technology in Alisal Union School District; I am also originating the position. Budgeting and budget projections have become a thing I like doing. To me there are so many positive and intellectually engaging things here. <br />
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It’s like a puzzle where what I want to accomplish and what I can (theoretically) accomplish come together and I have to make the pieces fit. I like puzzles and problem-solving. We’ve been asked to do 3 years of projections and in each year we have to cut by 10%, by the end of 2019 - 20, it will have been reduced by 30%.<br />
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So this seemed like a critical but interesting challenge. It was also a gut-check moment: What do I really believe my students and teachers need, and how am I am going to put resources into that when resources are diminishing? But on an emotional level, budget projections and action planning, especially around edtech, are what one of my favorite authors, Sarah Vowell, describes as a “snowball moment.”<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp4Gl0zEx3jOEadRcqZtTVl61iNhrYeT8TntGpNEQ781JV3GT8hK0iZWNEMzsm5Ee84wCDttqB2vWkpD7dUdA0Bdj9UJAKimSL58cCsQ-MIa8XPtgNXUw4G76gW6QRoiLuIVQSDN0zez8C/s1600/Snowball+moment.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="648" data-original-width="517" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp4Gl0zEx3jOEadRcqZtTVl61iNhrYeT8TntGpNEQ781JV3GT8hK0iZWNEMzsm5Ee84wCDttqB2vWkpD7dUdA0Bdj9UJAKimSL58cCsQ-MIa8XPtgNXUw4G76gW6QRoiLuIVQSDN0zez8C/s400/Snowball+moment.png" width="318" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vowell, Sarah. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wordy-Shipmates-Sarah-Vowell/dp/1594484007" target="_blank">The Wordy Shipmates</a>. Waterville, Me.: Thorndike, 2009. Print; pg 54.</td></tr>
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Yes, budgets carry real effects and mean choices, impacts, and sacrifices. These are not always fun. But, to me, when you’re doing the projections, the harder parts have yet to happen. The plan hasn’t met reality yet; the mistaken suppositions haven’t come to light, errors and emergencies have yet to happen. Budgets, despite all the constraints and must-dos they are required to have, are a votive list in which we as leaders say, “this is what we believe in; this is what we are going to support; this is what we promise to do!”<br />
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Who wouldn’t be excited by that?</h2>
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I didn’t realize I was kind of alone in this mindset this until I had a conversation like this with a fellow director before a school board meeting.<br />
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HIM: You have a good day?<br />
ME: Yeah! Me and my team spent the afternoon doing our 3-year projections with those cuts we were asked to put in!<br />
HIM: (groans) Ugh, budgets. You seem excited by that.<br />
ME: Yeah, I think we got a really good plan…(dawning realization) Wait, you don’t like doing that?<br />
HIM: No. I hate budget projections. In fact, you’re the only one I know who has ever said they liked doing this...especially during [budget] cuts.<br />
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I am, however, undeterred. As an administrator, I don’t have a lesson plan anymore. I have an action plan and it’s accompanying budget. These are a statements of what I know in my bones to be the best solutions for our students and teachers to become fluent in 21st century learning and teaching, and ultimately to become engaged citizens of the connected world.<br />
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Being a leader, I now get to do everything in my professional power to execute, to make those solutions a reality. ¡Ándale pues!<br />
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The Follow Up - Round 2: Is It Still Fun?</h3>
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In California right now, we’re not exactly having hard times, but we’re heading into what looks like a few years of budget reduction. This is because STRS (State Teachers Retirement System) and PERS (Public Employees Retirement System) contribution rates are going up, and will continue to go up as far as the 19- 20 school year. So even if our budgets are leveling off, the mandated costs of those items is going up dramatically. For me this involved a couple of complications.<br />
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We have a new fiscal director who pointed out that we’d been making some errors in our budgeting practices. While we were putting in our salary costs for stipends and timesheets--“supplemental salary” (which make up a large portion of my professional development budget), we’d been leaving off the associated benefit costs. We were accounting for paying our folks their extra income, but we didn’t realize that the extra money that goes into retirement and medical for them ALSO had to come out of those budgets. <br />
You know, the budgets we’d spent all that time cutting by 10% year over year.<br />
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If the first one was an interesting puzzle and a gut check this was kind of a body blow. In real numbers, this was an additional 2% in 17 - 18, 3.5% in 18 - 19, and 5% in 19 - 20 in cuts that I had to find, while maintaining all the beliefs and hopes for efficacy I talked about above. The absolute dollars were the same, but how much of them I was going to be able use went down each year.<br />
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When you have to do this, it’s just you and the spreadsheet and the math. There is no negotiating, no pleading; like <a href="https://youtu.be/DUT5rEU6pqM" target="_blank">Shakira’s hips</a>, numbers don’t lie. You’re either within the limit, or you keep finding cuts. But I wanted to be a leader, and this was a leadership moment. And I don’t mean to be too melodramatic, but when you’re trying to build a program, there’s a lot of attachment to it.<br />
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I admit this time I was less eager. This time, “stuff got real.” It’s not that I didn’t take it seriously before, I absolutely did. But it was a thing I thought I was done with for a while. I still viewed it as an engaging puzzle, but this time was more serious, somehow. The deadline was closer, the amounts higher, but I still didn’t dread it. <br />
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“Like” is maybe not the right word for how I felt about it, but positive definitely is. I wouldn’t have wanted anyone else to do it. My ardor was not reduced in any way. I know my professional convictions; I know what I think is the right path in edtech. If anything the creative constraints got tighter and I wanted to do it more. <br />
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This budget is my promise to my team, and the teachers and students of this district, “This is how we’ll prepare you for the future of education.” Why wouldn’t I be excited about making and keeping that promise?<br />
#StillExcitedAboutThis<br />
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EdTechSpechttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00573422614783714241noreply@blogger.com0Salinas, CA, USA36.6777372 -121.6555012999999736.575870200000004 -121.81686279999997 36.7796042 -121.49413979999997tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8855633583743397695.post-82193955908571732662017-06-11T11:48:00.001-07:002017-06-11T15:22:49.605-07:00Making Lessons With New Google Sites RT @ZahnerHistory:<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
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Making Lessons With New Google Sites <a href="https://t.co/bGHjecgatJ">https://t.co/bGHjecgatJ</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/edtech?src=hash">#edtech</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/gafe?src=hash">#gafe</a> <a href="https://t.co/F5UO2wL905">http://pic.twitter.com/F5UO2wL905</a></div>
— Kevin Zahner (@ZahnerHistory) <a href="https://twitter.com/ZahnerHistory/status/873967182878838786">June 11, 2017</a></blockquote>
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June 11, 2017 at 11:39AM<br />
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EdTechSpechttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00573422614783714241noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8855633583743397695.post-85884886204004524812017-06-11T10:48:00.001-07:002017-06-11T15:23:09.014-07:00#GAFE Impact Report: Overview & Infographic RT @MrSchoenbart:<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
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<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GAFE?src=hash">#GAFE</a> Impact Report: Overview & Infographic at <a href="https://t.co/v5PSMMmk00">https://t.co/v5PSMMmk00</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/edchat?src=hash">#edchat</a> <a href="https://t.co/L2sKN0hGu3">http://pic.twitter.com/L2sKN0hGu3</a></div>
— Adam Schoenbart (@MrSchoenbart) <a href="https://twitter.com/MrSchoenbart/status/873944206590476288">June 11, 2017</a></blockquote>
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June 11, 2017 at 10:39AM<br />
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EdTechSpechttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00573422614783714241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8855633583743397695.post-43086136658666992032017-06-11T10:33:00.001-07:002017-06-11T15:23:29.896-07:00Spreadsheet Fun in First Grade RT @DLCoachSandy<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
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Spreadsheet Fun in First Grade <a href="https://t.co/oycNJ6uoeM">https://t.co/oycNJ6uoeM</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GSuiteEdu?src=hash">#GSuiteEdu</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GAFE?src=hash">#GAFE</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/gafechat?src=hash">#gafechat</a></div>
— Sandy Kendell (@DLCoachSandy) <a href="https://twitter.com/DLCoachSandy/status/873951732509933570">June 11, 2017</a></blockquote>
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June 11, 2017 at 10:18AM<br />
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EdTechSpechttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00573422614783714241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8855633583743397695.post-77610827496616811732017-02-12T21:55:00.000-08:002017-06-11T12:25:12.031-07:00Why #Edtech People Are #StickerJunkies & You Want To Be One Too<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
Recently on Twitter, something fun and interesting happened. It had nothing to do with president Trump. I said “fun”. <br />
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It had to do with stickers. <br />
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Automatically, that last sentence should make this blog post more interesting. If you’re in education, you like stickers. It’s a genetic predisposition in educators. If you’re in education and you don’t like stickers, your alien masters need to add that to your programming.</div>
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But Edtech People Especially <i>REALLY</i> Like Stickers</h4>
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I mean we really like them. Most of us collect them, put them on our laptops, and some of us even put them on our phones.<br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "lato"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="IMG_0205.JPG" height="288" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/sHZt2qDq9ivfHygz0_jkIQByBlUMfyiJYFpZnIIxbYRiJFwrhSp6e2pGqfJGjId8yP9qPk5nNNRHSD08PNWuleUjtAv5dIXww0MANkgqqjcVpRR_4LPHb4MtKw9LZ75Dj_z0Ch0Y" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="251" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "lato"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "lato"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="Edtechspec phone.jpg" height="287" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-dU2HunLBuwlf0TZrfk_3aKi38Se2E455Iocz-nWnRd8A_7NRrbvkWWacSbyi4Amr-5mytuXWV6_VWd-_pnApb12tTKuVF_0bl6Cn0NQmeO86UKeMEQs6s44CeROnaYAKamkhW04" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="146" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="vertical-align: baseline;"><br />But most of the time as a practice in the edtech sub-culture none of us think about it. All the cool kids are doing it, and we’re teachers--so we already like them, and we end up doing it without question.<br /><br />Not too long ago, my friend and fellow #edtech coach/integrationist/TOSA/presenter, Ryan O'Donne</span>ll (<a href="https://twitter.com/creativeedtech/media">@creativeedtech</a>), had a few tweets on the #StickerJunkies hashtag inviting us to post pics of our laptops. I, like so many of my fellow #edtech nerds, responded with sharing out the stickers we have plastered all over our computers--mainly MacBooks. It was fun, and there were quite a few rounds of “You have a(n) _____ sticker! I WANT!”</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
This lead me to a discussion with the edtech friends I see in real life on a regular basis. Here was the question: Why do so many of us who work in edtech, especially those of us who attend and work what I call the circuit--the series of edtech and other education conferences, summits, workshops and other events--plaster our machines with stickers? Does it have value other than fun and aesthetic, and if so, can we use that for some educational purpose. What follows is some explanation, reflection and my 2-cents on a very prevalent practice in my professional subculture.</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
Let’s talk about the why. As I noted, most of us have MacBooks, which are beautiful machines for our purposes, but, unlike PCs or Chromebooks, which have multiple manufacturers, and therefore multiple looks, MacBooks more or less all look the same. I think this is why so many of us start by putting cases on a kind of laptop that arguably has the least actual need for it--it helps you pick your own out when they’re all closed on the table. But cases, are pretty plain. people like to express themselves and/or show off what they know and/or what they believe in. And here is where the stickers come in. </div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "lato"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="IMG_0900.JPG" height="225" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/z-eV50kOpqfqr1bDu1fpO80a0DKqcvUKQoiatngeOARPO5yovG5nkecCfELHgc9d8N8IT0TFLqONEE1xezU18DjR0_gilN-nbWvtsOSGmzF6nWO5ONYL2SdihwLy0Wc0gJ7ydksB" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="298" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "lato"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "lato"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="IMG_1445.JPG" height="217" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/d9NYkw9D4gylvrRHq17QpMfSuLvN_29GYzIpUHJSZyDLQpc_zx4xw8oKhcTw2d-HWB_tITG5I89ueyZGGUQcZUG-95baD_EuIMxA8qj285isId8wzv1aqdRaBGanIq_NcrAiktxX" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="297" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "lato"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "lato"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="IMG_1448.JPG" height="221" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/52k93sE3IbQkaWTzQ4d9VNiIDCUhV3XIlxNVpUv_bYcTAgo3mefJ1i5pKjs3V3g8SrTNSSeo3zptiIdiyAZD9lozciPPTl1fwCnHarkKgIdRu3rzZDv9z6V4Aemg6yFZt-ST4uEE" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="296" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "lato"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "lato"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="IMG_1447.JPG" height="221" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/YRYFPt2QCOmhQmYiDl9KkgUs93-xGPHoPr3ic3BGxxiJuShkICsYS3GpB5CKB5pPuHFY0oHa5Booe5JB1LBClfFvzGQU5Uq26wL4Ofy7MCpVIAMQ32EnGIZWCTfNXV9OpJt6d1Jc" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="295" /></span></div>
In edtech, laptop stickers are a visual, graphic kind of slang or cipher. For those of us who know how to read them, they tell each other a lot about our respective experiences, achievements, passions, and values.<br />
<br />
For instance, with the right eyes, you can look at all 4 of this laptops in the picture above, which belong to educators in three different school districts (<i>Salinas, Fresno, and Lake Tahoe</i>), and know the following:<br />
<div>
<ul style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li>They’re all pretty Google-y</li>
<li>All of them know or have been to a session with Susan Stewart (<a href="https://twitter.com/techcoachsusan?lang=en">@TechCoachSusan</a>)</li>
<ul>
<li>So they’re interested in or value K-2 edtech learning and teaching</li>
<li>But only 2 of them went to her #K2CanToo conference</li>
</ul>
<li>All of them know or have been to a session with me, Josh Harris (<a href="https://twitter.com/edtechspec">@EdTechSpec</a>)</li>
<ul>
<li>His sessions focuses on presentations, so their interested in that</li>
<li>Also, he tends to focus on mastery at an intermediate or above level</li>
</ul>
<li>They all participate in the<span style="vertical-align: baseline;"> <a href="http://www.tosachat.org/">#TOSAChat</a></span> twitter chat</li>
<ul>
<li>So they likely are or were Teachers On Special Assignment, and see value in instructional coaching</li>
</ul>
<li>They’re all regular twitter users</li>
They probably also know (or are) at least one of the 4 regular moderators of #TOSAChat
<li>Even though all 4 have have Alisal Edtech stickers, only two of them work there...can you tell which two?</li>
<li>One of them is clearly an edtech administrator based on one of the vendor stickers prominently displayed on the laptop.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="vertical-align: baseline;">A friend and fantastic teacher and instructional coach, Ann Kozma</span> (<a href="https://twitter.com/annkozma723?lang=en">@AnnKozma723</a>), said it like this:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><b>“sticker swag helps tell the story of where I've been, what I've done, what I'm passionate about. I enjoy seeing my stickers and remember connections I've made to others who share the same passions and interests that I do. Plus, they're a great conversation starter.”</b></i></blockquote>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="vertical-align: baseline;">Another good example of the value the edtech community place on these symbols, these badges, is something that also comes from Ann Kozma. Her laptop died and the thing she tweeted about was not the lost data--it’s 2017, Ann works in the cloud like a normal non-amish person. What she tweeted was how much losing the stickers was a wrench:</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img height="640" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/tujti0PXu852J-kR_3hyUTe7TZgBqADES7O27KdzbKPziWiLXzOElpsZYOmlyCeaVD89g4jsm8eYHqeYTa0H4YdRqTxRYKbAl_7qEpYdfGWPg1QNUO0i2V3jKQUH2JvRFh-zBV7d" width="360" /></div>
<br />
The edtech community responded in mass. I am planning on sending mine to her in the next few days. But by far the one that made some of us jump was a response tweet from Roland Aichele (<a href="https://twitter.com/EdTechMinded/media">@EdTechMinded</a>)<br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "lato"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="IMG_1457.PNG" height="572" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/hop07m164Y7PKDxVTo6sMj4t2nvDltxLo282djC2_nMF7n_4s7Vb7In0_IhIbyGydffCASqoO0lAvKeG_az46ivlXZ8hRp91-HLY3h_XFszt64cqj4E2nKcz_4-tgZzm8UKXPtkF" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="322" /></span></div>
<br />
...now, at least 2 of us covet the Android in the Google Classroom T-shirt, visible at the top of the pile. It’s a cool sticker, yes, but we also happen to be passionate about Google Classroom and its ability to make edtech integration and edtech based instruction more accessible and easy for teacher and students. We think that tool is one in the toolbox of 21st century pedagogy, and that's a thing we care deeply about. It's not just about a neat sticker.<br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<h4>
How The Edtech Sticker Fetish Can Lead to Greater Connectedness In A District.</h4>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="vertical-align: baseline;">Okay, that’s all fun and neat, maybe even interesting, but so what? </span>Well if you talk to some folks in the EduBadging set, Cate Tolnai (<a href="https://twitter.com/catetolnai?lang=en">@CateTolnai</a>) and Rich Dixon (<a href="https://twitter.com/richedtech?lang=en">@RichEdTech</a>) Spring to mind, they’ll tell you this kind of visible display of achievement and experience is the future of grading, the future of assessment, maybe even the future of professional licensure.<br />
<br />
For me, it's a little closer to home...and work.<br />
Personally, I have a sticker addiction. On my office wall is the lid to a previous laptop case that I kept and hung, because of the stickers. There’s a ton of memories there. My personal MacBook has a layer of stickers right on the aluminum shell of the laptop and then I bought a translucent case, so I could put on more stickers.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="IMG_1454.JPG" height="325" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Ya0J8FF3kAAnqEqAnRKNZS6u-nfldws0oRkJw6IMLC3yLjLSYMLKddV_lk5j5ZYhVNTeO2D38fyuiduFcX1i3HDxUfTk4VYBo6KHkHGeEYZOUTV1mLQKPHPVc9sgrdtD4ph4o0ef" style="border: none; font-family: lato; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; transform: rotate(0rad); white-space: pre-wrap;" width="457" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="font-size: medium;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">If you look closely, you can see them through the red case.</span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
My team (<i>half-</i>)jokingly talks about staging a #StickerVention. <br />
<br />
I even order stickers for my job. These are some of the stickers (<i>and magnets</i>) I have had designed and bought (<i>out of pocket</i>) for my team and district. Shout out to <a href="https://www.stickermule.com/">StickerMule</a>, they do excellent work and their product is awesome #recommended.<br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "lato"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="IMG_1453.JPG" height="166" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-cmlVgv3ZjCXlXmouB0c0yhzoWFeNynNovMk3hJJuYSdzjJgUMvIHrQjVBP7XUYksPetWAoWFGR4fFMdjIlaWA93wTjYtheU_q7OGM6If5D3oMk7zZTD0BlpozKKqUlVfWsK5yco" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="166" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "lato"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "lato"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="FullSizeRender 4.jpg" height="124" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/9Triqt-kA-aSMdXYHgaHy-eTBf1xoH_8lYWJ3Zo49XLpkqap30RFdwicaxx7-0-76O18AOr_mtaF6ZrPB4Zms5vSx-H7VajGMr2L893juDIHCh4iMlD4Kh_uANHcjDsgh_EyxL9g" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="214" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "lato"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "lato"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="IMG_0853.JPG" height="167" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/RVDNP8B5CVUdksditG2kZAHAMrpahTmVm8OT051HWnuoAx41-btChPur57SDvqmZOAtHNwKyEm81yK7js9UvIjtM7MCBmtQzJeyh2nnG8qHu_aINLEEe8EGWD-BVak1NTEDq0C3I" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="151" /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "lato"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="IMG_5242.JPG" height="324" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/xrK2a91TCH0zw8L5lkaZBwq-deyvOA_16sRBtZO0j3Ysvf4QToNslfpVwKKYBtGhD_0laZryWJnoCVt0UFZX673WUEBSybuwhAeoODsZvFgeUUi3wXDvC28BWKwj36oVPTpAzouW" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="490" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="vertical-align: baseline;">The two hashtag stickers have generated a lot of excitement in our school district. At this point, I can honestly say that all of our principals, most of the asst. Principals, all of the Ed Services directors, and the Assoc. Superintendents of Ed Services and HR, and (<i>I think</i>) the Superintendent himself have put these stickers on their laptops. The simplicity of the message of the hastag really appeals to the mission of our district. Clerical and other DO folks have started asking for (<i>and getting</i>) them too.<br /><span style="font-family: "lato";"><span style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-width: initial; font-size: 12pt; transform: rotate(0rad); white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="IMG_1392.JPG" height="161" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/oyOXhShv00NJ9vL1o06Ma670oHVfzKF942LQL4538imAXbjFa4ZAHFbQrvCABD4AP9NTVwztsnqa2OxKqK6I8uLuK-5zzJ3Lme7sYj-cxtoui_ueR4VSK14910SIWe89dKOpdS9T" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="320" /></span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "lato"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="IMG_0893.JPG" height="143" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-TMlv8SkqStcciWagMQJ8-E8pSHob9Ls5E1eR2n1eMx7zS4RP7Yhh7-n84dOEj7dFBV_l4gQyMTTTkzH9KXkdelWLXES32tOfj_R84lmB6Sys9F59tUk7dLuS4HsiOTi_r1QODAW" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="320" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "lato"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "lato"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="IMG_1297.JPG" height="240" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/rwtm4cScsjNGWk4Jwr0NyBJsJY9nqXmsjVErdCOXu0q3K-oxX7VE_B0l-x7Y5oiA3v1kUZQqmobZuqdPpqLcZWzPTpMeRPqwxZIDGpgpY3af7fHIAHAxWuSRQGqrJ_IQjvJe2xKB" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="320" /></span></div>
<br />
When we go to our County Office, or any other function, even if it’s just our laptops, you can always spot the Alisal Table now. That gives us a feeling of team and pride. People who don’t work with us sometimes ask for one, or get one as a small token. The TOSAs on my team Ben Cogswell (<a href="https://twitter.com/cogswell_ben">@cogswell_ben</a>), George Lopez (<a href="https://twitter.com/newimpulse">@NewImpulse</a>) and I have been handing them out like candy, or posting the stickers and magnets in conspicuous places all over the district.<br />
<br />
And here’s the thing we’re excited about. We’re trying guerilla marketing in our own district. We’re going to try to get more of our site leaders and teacher leaders to be more connected to the edu Community online, and for us twitter is the gateway drug to that. First, step, the rest of the year we’ll be giving these out, putting them up in classrooms and staffrooms, front offices and anywhere else we’re allowed to place them.<br />
<br />
Starting next year we’ll start posting flyers and posters drawing attention to the stickers and magnets to generate attention and interest. Then as a department, we’re planning twitter challenges for everyone. Some will be about teachers, some about administrators; some will be whole district, some will be school-by-school, some might even be school-vs-school. We’re trying to gamify self-driven being a connected educator and online professional development.<br />
<br />
The point, our goal is threefold:<br />
<ul>
<li>Get our teachers and admin to actively use a social media channel for professional learning</li>
<li>Telling our own stories from the classroom, front office, and DO</li>
<li>Exposing our folks to people and connections beyond our their school site.</li>
</ul>
We’ll see how well it goes and what we learn from our attempts. I’ll keep you posted.</div>
EdTechSpechttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00573422614783714241noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8855633583743397695.post-75558716096340690752016-04-16T13:35:00.001-07:002017-12-22T07:40:45.103-08:00Can We Be Done With "Creepy" Now?Remember “random”? You know that few years when you heard, “...that’s so random!” all the time? And I think this was not only folks common for who worked with kids. “Random” was everywhere, and mostly what people meant was "coincidental" or "unexpected." But, like most slang, it died. In my experience, and I have nothing but anecdotal data to prove this, slang dies for one of two main reasons: Condition 1-adults (or advertisers) pick it up and make it uncool, and/or, Condition 2-it gets used so commonly and ubiquitously that it loses it’s meaning. I submit that with "creepy" we are almost at Condition 1 and we are definitely at Condition 2. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>There’s an educational point to this...and I promise I will get there.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTv3Eg8NdtKFrTwVMHheC280w-kpSKgJP9cTw9GKbJ6ITcb4HM5c4I-J3w3FMAk1eXAJoOxow4Me7JlcV4bvqD_jjOr3_fwUNGjOTMd7meJs9J9ed8OBDVpXZPsZFmr3cQ_ZpV9NcWVRLx/s1600/Can+we+be+done.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="140" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTv3Eg8NdtKFrTwVMHheC280w-kpSKgJP9cTw9GKbJ6ITcb4HM5c4I-J3w3FMAk1eXAJoOxow4Me7JlcV4bvqD_jjOr3_fwUNGjOTMd7meJs9J9ed8OBDVpXZPsZFmr3cQ_ZpV9NcWVRLx/s200/Can+we+be+done.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Can we please be done with "Creepy" as a thing now?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div>
I’ve been feeling this way for a while, largely because of how it gets used by students for things that are really innocuous but are also new/different/unusual/unexpected. And then I saw this on Twitter:<br />
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<a href="https://twitter.com/RickKing16/status/721343439741284353" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Original Tweet Here</a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHdPpZuJbDCylTauhyb5rjFUqPnxH58RI-pAbFCfk9tS-h2n5EFCSGu6UmnpX1xamUK0R3kI4I5sr4TujORulwEY5PoWuzb6KlBV19a_fo6STyXs96Tg6x64jUw8lmIQWJA7qRxjUDnP2O/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-04-16+at+10.55.08+AM.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="348" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHdPpZuJbDCylTauhyb5rjFUqPnxH58RI-pAbFCfk9tS-h2n5EFCSGu6UmnpX1xamUK0R3kI4I5sr4TujORulwEY5PoWuzb6KlBV19a_fo6STyXs96Tg6x64jUw8lmIQWJA7qRxjUDnP2O/s400/Screen+Shot+2016-04-16+at+10.55.08+AM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.engadget.com/2016/04/11/festos-flying-sphere-makes-the-creepiest-drone-deliveries/" target="_blank">Original Engadget Article</a></div>
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I am not attacking anyone, not Engadget, nor Rick King, but this slang term...I’m ready for it to go, especially when our kids use it as ubiquitously and randomly (<i>see what I did there?</i>) as they are. <br />
<br />
This is linguistic and vocabulary laziness that is indicative of intellectual laziness and I’m ready to be done with it; we call it lazy writing instructionally. On some level, aren’t we all ready to be done with lazy thinking?<br />
<br />
This drone is not coming-on to the water recipient in a sexually aggressive way, nor is it stalking him with malicious intent. It’s trying to bring him some water...which, as it’s a “delivery," he asked for in the first place. Can someone explain exactly what is creepy here? Is it new? Sure. Unorthodox? Definitely. A thing we’ve never seen before? Potentially, but in no way is that “creepy” <br />
<br />
Let’s define terms. Language and communication only work when we all agree that the words we use mean the same things to all of us; word definition is not the best place for personal interpretation.<br />
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Dictionary.com defines creepy thusly:<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Slang. of, relating to, or characteristic of a person who is a <a href="http://www.dictionary.com/browse/creeps">creep</a>; obnoxious; weird. (<a href="http://www.dictionary.com/browse/creepy" target="_blank">http://www.dictionary.com/browse/creepy</a>)</i></div>
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Not good. Let's click on <i>creep</i> in that definition. When you then click on “creep” you see this:<br />
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<span style="font-family: "lato"; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.dictionary.com/browse/creeps" target="_blank"><img alt="" height="462" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/OlGOOOlexBZB17HpV3Qk8pe3r0SIK0uB12TTn7lWv2WzHq5u_O-ccmPE7A4lAnqOR4SENNou5dfOAY8P5v7yyMsaXPNPDorktK3MF8dyoxzb6ZJ0_tmxeYvARP-EsY6hEAjBVn4J" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" title="" width="640" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lato"; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.dictionary.com/browse/creeps" style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; text-align: start; white-space: normal;" target="_blank"><i>http://www.dictionary.com/browse/creeps</i></a></span></div>
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So, they’re all negative connotations.<br />
<span style="font-family: "lato"; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: small; line-height: normal; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "lato"; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If </span>you want to see what they say synonyms are, <a href="http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/creepy?s=t" target="_blank">click here</a>, but I assure you they’re not pleasant.</div>
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So here is the edtech tie-in, and in part, adults and school officials who approach edtech and specifically the internet from ONLY a harm-avoidance/reduction model are responsible for the student mindset I am about to explain. If you paint something as only dangerous, that's what the perception of it will become. But also our current linguistic over-reliance on this word when what we mean is “new”, or “not used to it” is becoming a problem in edtech...at least in my view.<br />
<br />
One of the teachers I support has had a few students (and then a few more) in her middle and high school classes, where she is a frequent Google Classroom user, copy the assignment into a new doc and do the work there, specifically so she cannot open it up and see what they are doing. And here’s the thing, they’re not doing anything inappropriate, they’re working. She’s not doing anything inappropriate, she’s working. In fact, she’s utilizing the thing that so many of us love about Google Apps for Education (GAFE), namely: live document collaboration. When we asked the students why they were doing it, they responded with some version of, “it’s creepy just having my teacher in there [the doc] whenever.” When we asked what was “creepy” about it, in true middle and high school fashion, either “I dunno” or “it just is.”<br />
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No. I’m sorry. Not sufficient. When you accuse a teacher of being “creepy” you’d better have some damn thought behind it. Not everyone takes that word so lightly. We think in language. Words indicate thought--words mean something important.<br />
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Was the teacher doing anything out of order here? Absolutely not. <br />
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Does the word “creepy" have a negative, sexually aggressive, stalker-like connotation? Absolutely yes. And before you tell me I am overreacting or over-thinking this, Let’s try a little 2nd grade empathy. How would you like it if a kid told you (and then each other) your teaching practice, especially one that you saw as progressive, revolutionary, and “how the new generation learns,” was “creepy?" For those of us who pride ourselves on being responsive to students, that’s not a good day. Then add an anti-edtech parent into the mix….not good.<br />
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Language works because we all agree words have the same meaning for all of us. Slang is a purposeful attempt to subvert that commonality to create exclusive use by a group of people. I get that. Further, I get why kids do that, and I have no problem with that as a concept. I don’t think students, and now more and more adults, are specifically trying to paint each other with this particular (creepy) brush, but we are. And we increasingly use this term because something is basically unfamiliar. <br />
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Is that really the mindset we want our kids walking into the wide and diverse world full of amazing, different and unusual new things, that all those things are “creepy”?<br />
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Yeah, me neither. So how about we all knock it off and use our bigger words. And while we’re at it, how about we call it out in our kids, and use it as a teachable moment?<br />
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EdTechSpechttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00573422614783714241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8855633583743397695.post-37237920492217789032016-04-04T14:17:00.001-07:002017-06-11T12:14:49.194-07:00Choose Your Crater: Deciding Your Leadership RoleBefore I really delve into this blog, I am going to ask you to participate in a brief thought exercise.<br />
If you have said or thought either of these things…<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>“Good principals are rare, I hope I get to work with one some day.”</li>
<li>“I can’t become an administrator, that would be going over to the ‘dark side’,” OR “I doubt I’d be a good administrator, I’m too __________.”</li>
</ul>
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...then ask yourself if you even allow for the idea of a good principal in your thinking.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiae_TWjT8o-nj5-Pds3VmssPTEDtFka9EPi8jrCsoXTJn8_-qBL8CmxPNHprPlCE39iQs0rOFT_OBt9OwIvbFulU5UPZoS0gyKfFArQkTD4MKnp6K4RoOzTFIgMwZ9SdPR2sAkqDQUKN9k/s1600/Crater+one.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiae_TWjT8o-nj5-Pds3VmssPTEDtFka9EPi8jrCsoXTJn8_-qBL8CmxPNHprPlCE39iQs0rOFT_OBt9OwIvbFulU5UPZoS0gyKfFArQkTD4MKnp6K4RoOzTFIgMwZ9SdPR2sAkqDQUKN9k/s400/Crater+one.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image by <a href="https://twitter.com/TeachingTechNix" target="_blank">Cynthia Nixon:</a></td></tr>
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<h3>
We Are Asteroids in the Education Cosmos</h3>
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I am finishing my second full year as an instructional coach. The learning curve has been steep in so many areas that sometimes it is difficult to unpack it all. Despite that, I have done a lot of reflection during this time, and it helps me when I get questions from my fellow teachers and fellow instructional coaches. Recently in the #TOSAChat Voxer group, there was a discussion about being a coach and how we impact our school communities, and the possibility of going into administration and leadership.<br />
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Many in the discussion voiced the, “oh, I could never go into admin…” sentiment, followed by one of several typical reasons. They speculated that they are either too introverted/shy/fragile/emotional/reactive/opinionated to be a principal, which is always amusing to me. Do these teachers think their principals don’t have emotions and opinions, or aren’t subject to the harder parts of human interactions? We all know administrators aren’t robots, right? I think this point of view goes hand-in-glove with the jokes that teachers make and hear about “going to the dark side” when one of our colleagues talks about going into administration. If the people who make those kinds of jokes also claim to be openly collaborative, I tend to treat that claim with a bit of skepticism.<br />
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The other main reason I hear for not wanting to be a coach or administrator is that they would “miss the kids too much.” Indeed, this was the sibling sentiment to a question I was asked what felt like constantly for the first 6 months of being a TOSA, “Don't you miss the kids?” Please note the word “the,” not “your.” Implicit in the thinking behind that question is the assumption that I was no longer working with students. It is difficult to explain how incorrect that assumption is and how much it says about the person who asks it without the explanation sounding like a rebuke. Because here’s the thing, and there’s no denying it--I was in classrooms with kids all the time, often several classrooms per day. I was getting to meet kids in four different and new (to me) schools at grade levels I never would have encountered in my middle school classroom position, to say nothing of the dozens upon dozens of talented teachers I was now getting to work with.<br />
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And the truth was, my feelings were complicated on the topic. I was hired mid-year from my middle school classroom, and some of the kids I left behind were fantastic humans and I missed them terribly; the ones I’d had for 7th and 8th were amongst my favorites. But as classroom teachers we have to say goodbye to our students every year (or every few years if you get to loop with your kids), so this was nothing new. On the other hand, I felt like I became the educational equivalent of a grandparent in my role as a TOSA. Every time I came into their classroom students got excited. It meant we were going to do something new with fun toys (edtech devices), we were going to do it long enough for them to get really enthusiastic about it, and then I would hand them back to their educational parent--the classroom teacher. It was the first time that I understood why my mom wanted to be a grandparent. In any case, I myself was still having a direct impact on kids, and an indirect impact through their teachers. The difference was that my impact was broader, affecting a greater number of students; it was just not as deep or personal.<br />
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Another new aspect to my job was working with site and district leadership in a way I hadn’t had the chance to before, and again on a scale that wouldn’t have been possible as a classroom teacher. About the work of site administrators as it pertains to this topic, I would say two things. First, whether it’s in the office, while monitoring lunch or recess, or during classroom visits, administrators generally spend at least a portion of their day with students. They don’t like doing discipline any better than you do, but interacting with students is a highlight of the day for most of the ones I have worked with. So, while it’s generally true that they don’t know each student as well as their classroom teachers, site admin generally know more of them by name...and not just “those kids.” Again, impact that is broader and less direct. But you cannot dispute the fact that site-based and central office administrators have an impact on students, often through their teachers. They have an impact on school culture, district culture, spending and budgets, and site and district priorities, to name a few.<br />
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Now certainly, these are not the same kinds of impacts that classroom teachers have, and are probably not as fun. However, I think we’d all be hard-pressed to claim that these items have no impact on students. And I cannot think of a classroom teacher, or even a TOSA, who has not been frustrated by or disagreed with a decision that has been made above them, and known with every fiber of their being that the decision should have gone in another direction.<br />
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So, if this frustration is universal, it seems the best way to abate it is for people who have strong educational points of view or visions to go into leadership. Become the principal you wish you had. How many of you had a favorite teacher that you tried (or still try) to emulate in the classroom? What about non-examples--do you remember a teacher you make sure not to mimic? Well, why shouldn’t that be true for site and district leadership? Never really had a great mentor? Why not go become the coach you always wanted? Meeting the new challenge of working with fellow Teachers is very rewarding, and you’ll find that good teaching is always good teaching, regardless of the student’s age. And here’s where all this talk of impact comes in. You have to choose your crater; what kind of asteroid will you be?<br />
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<h3>
All Craters Are Evidence of Impact</h3>
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In education, no one’s crater is deeper than the classroom teacher’s crater. Their impact is profound and personal. They get to spend the most time with their students and witness and influence a child’s growth most carefully. Without doubt, a great teacher can have a lifetime impact on their students--your school memories prove this. But, this is always going to be contained and confined to the students in that teacher’s class. So while deep, a teacher’s crater is narrow.<br />
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A principal has a different impact and a different crater. Principals obviously have an effect on the entire school, so their crater is broader than the classroom teachers’ are, but it’s not nearly as direct or personal. That said, I have seen some amazing principals make some very real and personal changes in students’ lives.<br />
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TOSAs, or instructional coaches, have yet another kind of crater. Their impact, depending on their assignment, is broad, possibly broader than a site principal’s (if they work with multiple sites), and generally more indirect than direct. They interact with students through other teachers and, in my case, help principals make decisions that impact teachers and students. So again--broader, but less deep; and yet, still important.<br />
<br />
In the model of this analogy, the higher you go in school and district leadership, the broader, yet shallower your impact on the lives and learning of students is. So your job delineates what kind of asteroid you are. There are no better or worse asteroids, they’re just different, and they have different kinds of impact.<br />
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<h3>
And Now, the Ask </h3>
<br />
Consider the possibility that your career in education may not end in the classroom.<br />
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Acknowledge that you are a skilled and intelligent educational practitioner. Accept that there is a difference between not wanting to and not being able to do certain jobs. Recognize that the person who can best implement your ideas about education, how to support teachers and schools, and what’s best for kids, is you. And know that if you choose to be a different kind of asteroid, you’ll still be you, you’ll still get to fly through the cosmos, and you’ll still have an impact. But you have to give yourself a chance to choose.<br />
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EdTechSpechttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00573422614783714241noreply@blogger.com0Vacaville, CA 95687, USA38.3286205 -121.9359339000000138.129352 -122.2586574 38.527889 -121.61321040000001tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8855633583743397695.post-51819037931501377872016-03-10T19:01:00.000-08:002017-12-16T21:14:38.470-08:00Challenge Accepted, & With My Usual Verbose Aplomb<br />
Kristen Witt, the principal of Fairfield High School, who was also the last principal I worked for before I left the classroom, is one of those people who, when you're dreaming about starting an Ideal school and you can hand-pick the people you want to work with, is right at the top of your list. In addition to being one of my favorite Educators, and one of my favorite leaders, she's one of my favorite human beings on the planet. She has issued this 1-2-3-4-5 Blog Challenge to me. I think it's a good chance for reflection and consideration. Plus, I never back down from a Kristen Witt challenge, they’re always a good idea and usually pretty fun.<br />
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<h3>
1. What has been your <u>ONE</u> biggest struggle during this school year? </h3>
<br />
My biggest struggle this year has been maintaining realistic expectations of myself and others. I am an Educational Technology Specialist, a teacher-coach. Like every coach, I expect my team to improve and have a more winning record than they did last year. The problem with that expectation, for me, is keeping it based in reality. The last two years in this position, working with some amazing teachers, I feel like we have all made some great strides in terms of our Edtech integration. But, I have a goal in mind. I have an idea of where I want to go, where I would like to see my teachers’ practice and comfort level, and what kind of edtech-facilitated student learning and creativity I’d like to see. At the beginning of this professional journey I knew that we weren't going to get there in 3 years, or even in 5...I’ve heard it takes 7 years minimum to change organizational culture. Intellectually, I understand all this.<br />
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But I am a goal-oriented person and I push myself, and sometimes I let the vision of achieving that goal get ahead of reality. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit disappointed in where “we” were in relation to the vision in my head. However, that would completely fail to take into account the growth that all the teachers I work with and I have made professionally. And make no mistake, the growth is real. My struggle has been to maintain patience with myself, and then respectively with my client-teachers, on achieving what I see as important for their practice and student learning. It's not really okay to disregard progress and growth simply because it doesn't match the chart you have in your head and the end result you’ve decided you want to see. We spend a lot of time talking about how students learn and grow in different ways and at different rates and how we need to be okay with that as educators. Yet, as professionals, we seldom afford ourselves or our colleagues the same consideration and acknowledgement of variety, diversity, and human differences. Patience is, as it has been, a struggle for me.<br />
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<h3>
2. Share <u>TWO</u> accomplishments you are proud of from this school year.</h3>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Before I answer this question I have to get on a soapbox that I am usually on with teachers. And here it is, as a profession we are terrible at singing our own praises and recognizing our own achievements and accomplishments. That has to stop. If you are not telling your story, someone else is. Part of being able to tell your story effectively is, yes, talk about the achievements of your students, but also to be able to talk about your own accomplishments. Teachers should reflect on this question more often, increased self-awareness and recognition of your own accomplishments is never a bad thing. It doesn't mean you're not humble, and it doesn't mean you're a braggart.</blockquote>
<br />
I would say the <b>first accomplishment</b> that I'm proud of is an ongoing collaborative project with Stacie Ryan, a 3rd grade teacher at Anna Kyle Elementary. Last year Stacie began blogging with her students. If you know anything about blogging you know that what makes it really engaging for students is having an actual audience and receiving genuine comments. And 3rd graders, as I imagine all of us would, get bored receiving comments from the same audience members (in their class) over and over. She was looking for a way to connect her students with other blogging students. There was a service called Quadblogging known in edtech circles, but that service, which connected teachers and students to a regular audience for their students’ blogs, appears to be defunct. So Stacie approached me about planning a way to simplify the process for teachers to find other students to comment on her students’ blogs. <a href="http://bit.ly/s2sbcForm" target="_blank">The solution we came up with was, from a technical standpoint, fairly simple.</a> Instead of spending any time as a service matching up teachers, we simply let them all deposit there pertinent information into a Google form and let them find their own partners, because we believe in autonomy. The next part, what could be termed as the heavy lifting, was for the two of us to leverage our personal learning networks, and social media to get the word out to teachers all over. At this point we have empowered, over 50 teachers from all over the United States (& Canada and Dubai) to connect with other teachers and their students for mutual blogging an audience connection.<br />
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The <b>second accomplishment</b> that I'm proud of is the FSUSD Google Educator Cadre. There are several levels of Google Apps for Education (GAFE) certification. Google Educator level 1 can be done on your own using the training center materials, but I had a different idea. I thought it might be useful to teachers to get them together in a space where they could work at their own pace in peer groups for mutual support, learning, and collaboration. The idea of self-pacing and collaborative learning was intrinsic to my plan. Letting teachers who wanted to take the time and initiative see that, when given the support of like-minded peers, they are capable of achieving this certification was important in my view.<br />
<br />
When I put out the email to the district teachers explaining what the program was, that it would involve 3 Saturdays, I expected to get no more than 20 applicants. I got over 60. I enlisted the help of another Ed Tech Specialist, Dawn Kasperson, and we were able give 28 teachers three Saturdays of self-paced, collaborative, study-group style learning with our support. So many expressed gratitude at the format of the Cadre; they seemed to really appreciate not having to march to a presenter’s drum. Another goal I had was to get teachers out of their sight-based silos to make connections with their grade-level peers at other schools. <br />
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Overall, regardless of what metric you use, whether it's number of teachers achieving the certification, or connections between teachers at different schools formed, or people who felt like they're learning and comfort in the GAFE Suite was increased, I would definitely say there was some success, and this program has room for improvement. But, I am not afraid of reflection and refinement. <br />
<br />
The reason I am proud of our Google Educator Cadre is that it was something brand-new to the district, and an undertaking I had never done before. In those senses, I feel like that it happened at all and that the response we got was generally positive, and people are still expressing interest, are enough to make me feel that it is a program worth improving; I’ll take that as a win.<br />
<h3>
<br />3. What are <u>THREE</u> things you wish to accomplish before the end of the school year?</h3>
<br />
<ol>
<li>At the start of this year, Dawn Kasperson and I, who are the main GAFE trainers in our district, set out on an ambitious plan to more-than-double the number of professional development topics we offered in our GAFE tools cycle. We picked these topics based on teacher requests and what we saw as emerging needs. We offered 8 topics in 2014-15 and designed 18 topics in 2015-16. I am not sure I realized how much more difficult these higher level PDs would be to develop. I would like to finish creating the last of the new topics and be able to offer each twice before this school years ends.</li>
<li>For the last 2 years Warren Herrera, Dawn Kasperson and I have run a week long PD camp for district clerical staff which we call “The Classified GAFE Cycle.” In the past we have done this in the 3rd week of June. Based on attendee feedback, we’ve moved it to the 3rd week of July, and will be revising and hopefully improving the materials. I am hoping we can get this done before we leave for the summer.</li>
<li>I am a Google for Education Certified Trainer, but it has always been a goal of mine to be what is now called a Google for Education Certified Innovator, commonly called a Google Certified Innovator, previously known as a Google Certified Teacher. To achieve this, one must be accepted to a Google for Education Innovation Academy. I suspect the application will open again before the close of the school year. I would like to finally get my application together and submitted.</li>
</ol>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifC76F3EPhMae0VtyTF7ydJxUJxHqkOqrgRQm9JwT_novaUcDY58QOkoJhdXWScDTYkggTJRb8fUoLCd6srgjweGG74SJ_wprNZjfwQHqrTrhtGy1vZGXh5wNXwzg0N5t9hdC4AV79cCY/s1600/innovator-program-elements-header.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifC76F3EPhMae0VtyTF7ydJxUJxHqkOqrgRQm9JwT_novaUcDY58QOkoJhdXWScDTYkggTJRb8fUoLCd6srgjweGG74SJ_wprNZjfwQHqrTrhtGy1vZGXh5wNXwzg0N5t9hdC4AV79cCY/s1600/innovator-program-elements-header.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
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<h3>
4. Give FOUR reasons why you remain in education in today's rough culture.</h3>
<br />
<ol>
<li>Because I believe, as King George VI of the UK said, “The highest of distinctions is service to others.” And further, I believe, the highest kind of service to others is the education of our children.</li>
<li>Because I firmly believe that the best way to improve everything in education is high quality, well-planned, thoughtfully made, and considerately delivered professional development, and I have discovered a deep ardor for making and delivering that professional development.</li>
<li>Because school was my safe place growing up and I must do everything to make sure that this is still true for children today.</li>
<li>Because I love teaching and learning with both children and adults. I cannot imagine another career where this is possible.</li>
</ol>
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<h3>
<br />5. Which FIVE people do you hope will take the challenge of answering these questions?</h3>
<br />
There are a lot of people who could be on this list. lucky for them, I am restricted to 5. Each of the individuals is someone I consider a friend, a colleague, and a peer. Every single one of them is on my short-list of folks who I want to come with me when I start my Ideal School. As far as I am concerned, the people below are a “Seal Team Six” of public education.<br />
<ol>
<li><a href="https://twitter.com/DrMelissaF" target="_blank">Dr. Melissa Farrar Ed.D.</a> - Melissa is my current boss. She has been and continues to be an outstanding mentor. I feel like she has personified servant leadership, and Tina Fey’s thought on being a leader in her book <b><u><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bossypants-Tina-Fey/dp/0316056898" target="_blank">Bossy Pants</a></u></b>, “In most cases being a good boss means hiring talented people and then getting out of their way.” She has taught and teaches me as much about professional self-awareness as she has leadership. She continues to be my role model in the area of calm, and, “Yes and...”</li>
<li><a href="https://twitter.com/EdTechAri" target="_blank">Ariana Flewelling</a> - EdTechAri is a friend, colleague, and creative in-putter whose acquaintance I made over twitter and through a <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23GAFESummit&src=typd" target="_blank">#GAFESummit</a> and whose friendship I was able to foster over Voxer. She is 1 of 2 people on this list that are testaments to the amazing power of a Personal Learning Network. Ari is an edtech coach in Riverside Unified School District, and a Google Certified Trainer and recently became a Google Certified Innovator.</li>
<li><a href="https://twitter.com/TechCoachSusan" target="_blank">Susan Stewart</a> - Susan is another person who started as a person in my PLN and has now grown to be a full-on, real-life friend. Susan’s cheerful voice and verbal “smirk” have made her one of my go-to humans on Voxer. She is also a Google Certified Trainer and has a Leading Edge Certification. Yeah, she’s totes legit! Susan is also an Edtech Coach and is a specialist in an area that perplexes me--<a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://goo.gl/Xyh9YZ&sa=D&ust=1457660411590000&usg=AFQjCNHylxRTr2v_-NO8cl5L2tbc-NeUYg" target="_blank">primary</a>. Check out her <a href="http://www.techcoachsusan.com/" target="_blank">website</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://twitter.com/mshorsma" target="_blank">Gayle Horsma</a> - Gayle is a teammate of mine in <a href="http://www.fsusd.org//site/Default.aspx?PageID=11202" target="_blank">FSUSD</a>. Like me she is an Edtech Specialist , but different to me, Gayle has a specialized focus. In addition to being a Level 1 Google Educator and SeeSaw Ambassador, she is our Kinder-Code Specialist in our Title I kindergartens. When I met her, she was one of my client-teachers and has quickly grown to be a trusted and amazing teammate. I feel fortunate to have her to collaborate with.</li>
<li><a href="https://twitter.com/SRyan3rdgrade" target="_blank">Dr. Stacie Ryan Ed.D.</a> - Stacie Ryan is a teacher in my district and has been a friend of mine for a few years. We initially met through our local teacher’s association. She was one of those people you meet and, although you’ve just met them you think, “I bet she’s a good teacher,” but you never get to see them teach. Then when I became her Edtech coach and got to see her work, my thought was, “Wow! I had no idea it was going to be this amazing.” Stacie is a dynamo, who never stops learning and is constantly trying to grow her practice and become the best teacher…anywhere, ever. She is currently in the middle of National Board Certification. I am lucky to get to work with her.</li>
</ol>
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8855633583743397695.post-2836688951351482242016-03-10T15:41:00.001-08:002016-03-10T15:41:09.139-08:00Just found #GoogleSheets #addon: Essay Metrics. Haven't tested it, but looks awesome. #GAFE https://t.co/35HcvqHHuF https://t.co/BF54er6Hd7<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr" xml:lang="en">Just found <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoogleSheets?src=hash">#GoogleSheets</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/addon?src=hash">#addon</a>: Essay Metrics. Haven't tested it, but looks awesome. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GAFE?src=hash">#GAFE</a> <a href="https://t.co/35HcvqHHuF">https://t.co/35HcvqHHuF</a> <a href="https://t.co/BF54er6Hd7">http://pic.twitter.com/BF54er6Hd7</a></p>
— Josh Harris (@EdTechSpec) <a href="https://twitter.com/EdTechSpec/status/708071612243775488">March 10, 2016</a></blockquote>
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March 10, 2016 at 03:26PM<br />
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EdTechSpechttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00573422614783714241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8855633583743397695.post-34331456330089262632016-03-10T12:33:00.001-08:002016-04-03T17:31:20.437-07:00@TheGoogleGooru: 3 updates to Google Classroom you should try out today #GAFE https://t.co/lZ7T7We4ii https://t.co/GP08ybkfmt<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
3 updates to Google Classroom you should try out today <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GAFE?src=hash">#GAFE</a><a href="https://t.co/lZ7T7We4ii">https://t.co/lZ7T7We4ii</a> <a href="https://t.co/GP08ybkfmt">http://pic.twitter.com/GP08ybkfmt</a></div>
— TheGoogleGooru (@TheGoogleGooru) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheGoogleGooru/status/708027427352682500">March 10, 2016</a></blockquote>
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March 10, 2016 at 12:33PM<br />
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EdTechSpechttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00573422614783714241noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8855633583743397695.post-22430009362909651312016-03-10T10:23:00.001-08:002016-04-03T17:31:30.266-07:00@edtechteam: #EdChatME #edchatma #ctedchat Prepare for Level 2 #GAFE certification at our #gafebootcamp - https://t.co/AK8HQJL8MW<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EdChatME?src=hash">#EdChatME</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/edchatma?src=hash">#edchatma</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ctedchat?src=hash">#ctedchat</a> Prepare for Level 2 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GAFE?src=hash">#GAFE</a> certification at our <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/gafebootcamp?src=hash">#gafebootcamp</a> - <a href="https://t.co/AK8HQJL8MW">https://t.co/AK8HQJL8MW</a></div>
— EdTechTeam, Inc. (@edtechteam) <a href="https://twitter.com/edtechteam/status/707991000149458944">March 10, 2016</a></blockquote>
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March 10, 2016 at 10:11AM<br />
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EdTechSpechttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00573422614783714241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8855633583743397695.post-49283412961825522042016-03-08T16:28:00.001-08:002016-04-03T17:31:49.564-07:00@kehall16: Excited to work as part of this team! #edtech #gafe #edtechchat https://t.co/2M0z5G1bwp<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
Excited to work as part of this team! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/edtech?src=hash">#edtech</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/gafe?src=hash">#gafe</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/edtechchat?src=hash">#edtechchat</a> <a href="https://t.co/2M0z5G1bwp">https://t.co/2M0z5G1bwp</a></div>
— Kimberley Hall (@kehall16) <a href="https://twitter.com/kehall16/status/707356551682461698">March 9, 2016</a></blockquote>
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March 08, 2016 at 04:10PM<br />
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EdTechSpechttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00573422614783714241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8855633583743397695.post-6981953071714341212016-03-08T14:40:00.001-08:002016-04-03T17:31:59.519-07:00@TheGoogleGooru: 3 updates to Google Classroom you should try out today #GAFE https://t.co/xbRDZaT7UJ https://t.co/OGF3GWDycH<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
3 updates to Google Classroom you should try out today <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GAFE?src=hash">#GAFE</a><a href="https://t.co/xbRDZaT7UJ">https://t.co/xbRDZaT7UJ</a> <a href="https://t.co/OGF3GWDycH">http://pic.twitter.com/OGF3GWDycH</a></div>
— TheGoogleGooru (@TheGoogleGooru) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheGoogleGooru/status/707332589837803520">March 8, 2016</a></blockquote>
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March 08, 2016 at 02:34PM<br />
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EdTechSpechttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00573422614783714241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8855633583743397695.post-63314849602909646972016-03-07T21:20:00.001-08:002016-04-03T17:32:08.016-07:00@armstrongedtech: April 8 - Google Apps Ninja Bootcamp. Just added to https://t.co/h2Pl44C4Su Limited Seats! @Crippit @edtechteam #gafesummit #MapleSyrupEdu<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
April 8 - Google Apps Ninja Bootcamp. Just added to <a href="https://t.co/h2Pl44C4Su">https://t.co/h2Pl44C4Su</a> Limited Seats! <a href="https://twitter.com/Crippit">@Crippit</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/edtechteam">@edtechteam</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/gafesummit?src=hash">#gafesummit</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MapleSyrupEdu?src=hash">#MapleSyrupEdu</a></div>
— Michelle Armstrong (@armstrongedtech) <a href="https://twitter.com/armstrongedtech/status/707070760049897472">March 8, 2016</a></blockquote>
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<br />
March 07, 2016 at 09:13PM<br />
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EdTechSpechttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00573422614783714241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8855633583743397695.post-90948670838263467142016-03-07T16:46:00.001-08:002016-04-03T17:32:17.413-07:00@TheGoogleGooru: 3 updates to Google Classroom you should try out today #GAFE https://t.co/rR3Y1384b1 https://t.co/Rh3ctmXlHD<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
3 updates to Google Classroom you should try out today <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GAFE?src=hash">#GAFE</a><a href="https://t.co/rR3Y1384b1">https://t.co/rR3Y1384b1</a> <a href="https://t.co/Rh3ctmXlHD">http://pic.twitter.com/Rh3ctmXlHD</a></div>
— TheGoogleGooru (@TheGoogleGooru) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheGoogleGooru/status/707000514651799552">March 8, 2016</a></blockquote>
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March 07, 2016 at 04:32PM<br />
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EdTechSpechttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00573422614783714241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8855633583743397695.post-73813682793685381152016-03-07T07:50:00.001-08:002016-04-03T17:32:27.352-07:00@texthelp: Good morning #SXSWEdu early birds! Hope to see you soon at #GoogleEdu's Fiber Space. @GoogleforEdu #GAFE #edtech https://t.co/v6kXVYnK0K<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
Good morning <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SXSWEdu?src=hash">#SXSWEdu</a> early birds! Hope to see you soon at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoogleEdu?src=hash">#GoogleEdu</a>'s Fiber Space. <a href="https://twitter.com/GoogleForEdu">@GoogleforEdu</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GAFE?src=hash">#GAFE</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/edtech?src=hash">#edtech</a> <a href="https://t.co/v6kXVYnK0K">http://pic.twitter.com/v6kXVYnK0K</a></div>
— Texthelp for Edu (@texthelp) <a href="https://twitter.com/texthelp/status/706849791565815813">March 7, 2016</a></blockquote>
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March 07, 2016 at 07:33AM<br />
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EdTechSpechttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00573422614783714241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8855633583743397695.post-21333455001519115982016-03-05T19:33:00.001-08:002016-04-03T17:32:36.392-07:00@TheGoogleGooru: 3 updates to Google Classroom you should try out today #GAFE https://t.co/bhdYV63pPB https://t.co/MLVotYjTlG<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
3 updates to Google Classroom you should try out today <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GAFE?src=hash">#GAFE</a><a href="https://t.co/bhdYV63pPB">https://t.co/bhdYV63pPB</a> <a href="https://t.co/MLVotYjTlG">http://pic.twitter.com/MLVotYjTlG</a></div>
— TheGoogleGooru (@TheGoogleGooru) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheGoogleGooru/status/706320956046839809">March 6, 2016</a></blockquote>
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March 05, 2016 at 07:33PM<br />
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EdTechSpechttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00573422614783714241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8855633583743397695.post-56345331032330656802016-03-05T16:39:00.001-08:002016-03-05T16:39:59.125-08:00RT @MrAdamPE: Are You Formnomenal ? https://t.co/IJZgyS4Lpj #physed #pegeeks #peblogs #gafe #mlearning #pesuperpower #cpchat #NQT https://t.co/hgkIzvIe5h<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr" xml:lang="en">Are You Formnomenal ? <a href="https://t.co/IJZgyS4Lpj">https://t.co/IJZgyS4Lpj</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/physed?src=hash">#physed</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/pegeeks?src=hash">#pegeeks</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/peblogs?src=hash">#peblogs</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/gafe?src=hash">#gafe</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/mlearning?src=hash">#mlearning</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/pesuperpower?src=hash">#pesuperpower</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cpchat?src=hash">#cpchat</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NQT?src=hash">#NQT</a> <a href="https://t.co/hgkIzvIe5h">http://pic.twitter.com/hgkIzvIe5h</a></p>
— Adam Llevo (@MrAdamPE) <a href="https://twitter.com/MrAdamPE/status/706199612168736768">March 5, 2016</a></blockquote>
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March 05, 2016 at 04:30PM<br />
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EdTechSpechttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00573422614783714241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8855633583743397695.post-48701864287997815652016-03-05T11:09:00.001-08:002016-03-05T11:09:27.865-08:00RT @craigyen: District just needs to open up Blogger if you would like to use it #GAFE #cuerockstar Via @CVRscience7<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr" xml:lang="en">District just needs to open up Blogger if you would like to use it <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GAFE?src=hash">#GAFE</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cuerockstar?src=hash">#cuerockstar</a><br />
Via <a href="https://twitter.com/CVRscience7">@CVRscience7</a></p>
— Craig Yen (@craigyen) <a href="https://twitter.com/craigyen/status/706184051929919489">March 5, 2016</a></blockquote>
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March 05, 2016 at 10:56AM<br />
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EdTechSpechttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00573422614783714241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8855633583743397695.post-32084485563943364912016-03-04T14:46:00.001-08:002016-03-04T14:46:19.315-08:00RT @GoogleForEdu: Talk the talk with @GoogleDocs voice typing & more. Don't miss the Google Apps recap: https://t.co/uRRDrdZQi3 #GAFE https://t.co/ZmelSoRJvw<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr" xml:lang="en">Talk the talk with <a href="https://twitter.com/googledocs">@GoogleDocs</a> voice typing & more. Don't miss the Google Apps recap: <a href="https://t.co/uRRDrdZQi3">https://t.co/uRRDrdZQi3</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GAFE?src=hash">#GAFE</a> <a href="https://t.co/ZmelSoRJvw">http://pic.twitter.com/ZmelSoRJvw</a></p>
— Google For Education (@GoogleForEdu) <a href="https://twitter.com/GoogleForEdu/status/705883074261872641">March 4, 2016</a></blockquote>
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March 04, 2016 at 02:35PM<br />
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EdTechSpechttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00573422614783714241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8855633583743397695.post-57285552324452867052016-03-03T08:02:00.001-08:002016-03-03T08:02:35.879-08:00Google Apps update: New templates in #GoogleDocs: designed by experts, made for you | #GAFE #edtech https://t.co/5lkjEXdKam via @google<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr" xml:lang="en">Google Apps update: New templates in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoogleDocs?src=hash">#GoogleDocs</a>: designed by experts, made for you | <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GAFE?src=hash">#GAFE</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/edtech?src=hash">#edtech</a> <a href="https://t.co/5lkjEXdKam">https://t.co/5lkjEXdKam</a> via <a href="https://twitter.com/google">@google</a></p>
— Josh Harris (@EdTechSpec) <a href="https://twitter.com/EdTechSpec/status/705421719033393152">March 3, 2016</a></blockquote>
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March 03, 2016 at 07:56AM<br />
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EdTechSpechttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00573422614783714241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8855633583743397695.post-18486126440935316622016-03-02T12:23:00.001-08:002016-03-02T23:29:36.619-08:00Raise your hand if you're excited about new lesson plan templates in @GoogleDocs! <blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
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Raise your hand if you're excited about new lesson plan templates in <a href="https://twitter.com/googledocs">@GoogleDocs</a>! 🙋🏽 <a href="https://t.co/fHDpqvcQXz">https://t.co/fHDpqvcQXz</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GAFE?src=hash">#GAFE</a> <a href="https://t.co/lO1XFLc4OT">http://pic.twitter.com/lO1XFLc4OT</a></div>
— Google For Education (@GoogleForEdu) <a href="https://twitter.com/GoogleForEdu/status/705123915346153472">March 2, 2016</a></blockquote>
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March 02, 2016 at 12:16PM<br />
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EdTechSpechttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00573422614783714241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8855633583743397695.post-84769997494390307952016-02-28T10:57:00.001-08:002016-02-28T10:57:52.992-08:00The new list of voice commands in @googledocs is #AMAZEBALLS! #GAFE #Edtech Full list: https://t.co/FsJzTYZfll https://t.co/lynUz5TAph<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr" xml:lang="en">The new list of voice commands in <a href="https://twitter.com/googledocs">@googledocs</a> is <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AMAZEBALLS?src=hash">#AMAZEBALLS</a>! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GAFE?src=hash">#GAFE</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Edtech?src=hash">#Edtech</a> Full list: <a href="https://t.co/FsJzTYZfll">https://t.co/FsJzTYZfll</a> <a href="https://t.co/lynUz5TAph">http://pic.twitter.com/lynUz5TAph</a></p>
— Josh Harris (@EdTechSpec) <a href="https://twitter.com/EdTechSpec/status/704017057046605824">February 28, 2016</a></blockquote>
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February 28, 2016 at 10:55AM<br />
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EdTechSpechttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00573422614783714241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8855633583743397695.post-74650058728677757522016-02-27T10:28:00.001-08:002016-02-27T10:28:05.819-08:00.@GoogleForEdu Pls look at your Level 1 Training Ctr Smart Search examples. The example of "minus" is broken. #GAFE https://t.co/NX0WgrOWtT<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr" xml:lang="en">.<a href="https://twitter.com/GoogleForEdu">@GoogleForEdu</a> Pls look at your Level 1 Training Ctr Smart Search examples. The example of "minus" is broken. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GAFE?src=hash">#GAFE</a> <a href="https://t.co/NX0WgrOWtT">http://pic.twitter.com/NX0WgrOWtT</a></p>
— Josh Harris (@EdTechSpec) <a href="https://twitter.com/EdTechSpec/status/703644296893706240">February 27, 2016</a></blockquote>
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February 27, 2016 at 10:14AM<br />
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