As I was preparing my lesson for tomorrow, I was reminded that my students were not born when the events of 9/11 forever changed how I (and likely many others) view the world. I am not the only one who likely struggles when watching the video clips, reading the first-hand accounts, or viewing the still photographs from that day. In fact, I found myself in tears today as I compiled some resources for my 9/11 collection in Wakelet. It was surprising to me just how powerful imagery is and how easy it is to slip back in time to the morning of September 11, 2001.

Living on the West Coast, I was up early getting ready for work when my landline rang. Nobody in their right mind would call me at 6:20AM PST unless something was wrong. When I picked up the phone, I heard my dad quietly ask, “Have you see the news?”

“No,” I answered.

“Turn on the TV,” he said.

And so I did.

To my horror, I could not believe what I was seeing on the screen. My dad and I watched in silence, him from his house and me from mine.

It was eerie. All I wanted to do was run to his house because I knew I would feel safer just being in his presence. But I couldn’t because I knew that in two short hours, I was going to have 35 seventh graders waiting for me outside of my classroom.

I hung up with my dad and proceeded to get to work.

It was a surreal day. Many teachers were visibly upset, and some were outright crying. All I could think about was, “What am I going to tell my students?”

I had no answers. No one did.

Flash forward to today.

My students have no first-hand knowledge of 9/11 other than what they’ve heard from their parents, seen on the news, or gathered from social media. Thus, my goal for tomorrow is to share the events of 9/11, the personal stories of the unsung heroes and the innocent people whose lives were tragically marred or taken that day. I know from past experience that my students have family members who joined our armed forces because of the events of 9/11…so even though they may not have been born to see the events first-hand, they do have a personal connection through their loved ones.

Developing historical empathy has been a theme of mine for many years now. So tomorrow, I’m going to show video clips and still images as well as share first-hand excerpts from kids their age all in the hopes that they will gain a better understanding of the impact of 9/11 on those who lived through and witnessed those events. My story of that day isn’t important. What’s important is that we do not forget the thousands of people who died that day. It’s their stories that need to be told. It is their stories that need to be remembered.

#neverforget

This past week marked my 25th year as a classroom teacher. As others have aptly posted (as evident in my Twitter feed), there’s no tired like first day of school tired. #truestory But I’m excited for this new school year because it’s another chance to do things better. Each year, I set goals for myself. Some of them pertain to me personally, others are for my students. This year (and I’m putting this out there in the universe to help me stay accountable) is the year that I will finally have my students reflect on their learning via a blog or vlog. I’ve been wanting to do this for many, many, MANY years…but something always took precedence.

Not this year.

Having just finished my doctoral studies, I’ve found myself with quite a bit of free time. One of my personal goals is to be more consistent about reflecting on my teaching and learning via my blog. One of the goals for my students is to give them opportunities to reflect on their learning journey via their own blog.

Though I’m still marinating on the details, this is what I’ve decided so far:

• Students can choose to write or record a video of their learning
• Students can reflect individually or with a partner
• Their reflections need to be somewhat public (meaning at least their peers need to be able to see/comment)

That’s all I have so far. I’d love for parents to be somehow involved, but I’m not sure how that will work or even where to start. If you have any ideas, I’ll take them!

Potential platforms/apps that students can use:

• Google Slides
• Weebly
• Wakelet
• Flipgrid
• YouTube
• ???

I’m going to let my students choose whatever medium best works for them. Links to their reflections will be posted in our PowerSchool site as I think keeping the information in a central location will help when it comes time for students to review the work of their peers.

I’m thinking that students will post a reflection once a week (due Sunday by 9PM). I’ll hold myself to the same standard in which I will post a reflection at least once a week, too. Though I have six sections of world history, I think I’m going to roll this out just to my GATE/PreAP kiddoes at this time. I need to take baby steps because I’m not sure how this will play out. If all goes well, I’ll push out blog/vlogs second semester to the rest of my classes.

Wish me luck.

#fingerscrossed

So, we have a new textbook this year and with that comes mandated workshops to teach us about our textbook and how to…for lack of a better phrase….use it.

Yes, you read that correctly, we have mandated workshops to teach us how to use our print and online textbooks.

For the past two days, I attended PD in which I was not an active participant. We were told to close our laptops so that we could pay attention to someone talk at us for hours on end. We did not interact with much of the information presented to us. And when we were given time to talk, we were told to “talk to your elbow partner” or “talk to your shoulder partner.”

Since when has it been appropriate to talk to adults as if we were children? Oh, some may say that the presenters are modeling a strategy for us, but I have never uttered the phrase “talk to your elbow/shoulder partner” to my students. Maybe that phrase works for young children still learning about body parts or who may find elbow partners a neat idea. But in my circle of educators…nothing turns us off more quickly than to be told to talk to our elbow partners.

Now, in my district, the term elbow or shoulder partner is something that the majority of presenters or facilitators say, but that phrase is not exclusive to my district. At a regional conference two years ago, I was told to talk to my elbow partner. To be clear, one of the facilitators yesterday was from the textbook company–she was not from our district–yet, she also used that term with us. So…yeah, it’s a bigger problem than I thought.

Do you want to know a quick way to get adults to shut down during a workshop or meeting?

Tell them to talk to their elbow partners.

I wonder, is this phrase uttered at administrator meetings? How about school board meetings? Has anyone in higher education been subjected to this condescending directive? Or does that phrase exclusively live in K12 education? Is this somehow connected to Mehta’s (2014) notion of the (de)professionalization of K12 versus higher education?

In my research on professional development, I have come across numerous reports and studies (Avalos, 2011; Borko, 2004; Darling-Hammond, Hyler, & Gardner, 2017 ; Desimone & Garet, 2015; Matherson & Windle, 2017; Penuel, Sun, Frank, & Gallagher, 2012) that have investigated best practices for professional development. In fact, for my dissertation, I used Desimone and Garet’s (2015) work, which stipulated that effective professional development consisted of five components: content-focus, active learning, sustained duration, coherence, and collective participation. When I designed my intervention–a peer-to-peer coaching model–I incorporated all five of those into my 8-month study. And from the quantitative and qualitative data, the participants were satisfied with the level of support and design of the intervention.

It’s not rocket science.

Trust me, my husband is a rocket scientist. And he laughs at the absurdity of the phrase “talk to your elbow partner.”

If you have ever…EVER…sat in the audience of a workshop, I guarantee that you already know what makes a PD effective or not.

What I went through the past two days was exactly what PD should not be. And yet, it was. And these people are educators. They call themselves teachers…but if they taught their classes as they facilitated the PD, then their classrooms were definitely teacher-centered.

This is what gets me. We are told to make the learning engaging for our students. To put the onus of learning back on them. To let them do the work. So why is it different when it comes to the learning for teachers? Why are these basic elements of effective learning ignored when it comes to adult learners?

Is it that these presenters like being spoken to in a patronizing manner? Do they enjoy being treated like a young child? What gives?

Did I mention that I have three more full-day sessions (on how to use this new textbook) in my future? #sigh

References*

Avalos, B. (2011). Teacher professional development in teaching and teacher education over ten years. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27, 10–20. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2010.08.007

Darling-Hammond, L., Hyler, M. E., & Gardner, M. (with Espinoza, D.). (2017). Effective teacher professional development. Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute. Retrieved from http://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/teacher-prof-dev

Desimone, L. M., & Garet, M. S. (2015). Best practices in teacher’s professional development in the United States. Psychology, Society, & Education, 7, 252–263. doi:10.25115/psye.v7i3.515

Matherson, L., & Windle, T. M. (2017). What do teachers want from their professional development? Four emerging themes. Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, 83(3), 28–32. Retrieved from http://www.dkg.org

Mehta, J. (2014). When professions shape politics: The case of accountability in K-12 and higher education. Educational Policy, 28, 881-915. doi:10.1177/0895904813492380

Penuel, W. R., Sun, M., Frank, K. A., & Gallagher, H. A. (2012). Using social network analysis to study how collegial interactions can augment teacher learning from external professional development. American Journal of Education, 119, 103–136. doi:10.1086/667756

*not an exhaustive list of studies and reports