collaboration

Easing Back into the Fray

/ Catherine Cabiness-Atkinson, Ed.D. / Leave a comment
Tilting at Windmills?
Monday morning back from a holiday is just as hard on the teachers as it is on the students.  As a veteran teacher, I know that it’s best to ease back into the routine.  We started a new unit today which was a perfect introduction back into a schedule ruled by bells.  The task for today was for students to analyze a secondary source and compile notes utilizing the Thinking Tools:  details and unanswered questions.  Today’s task focused on giving students the choice to work together or independently (my morning classes were half asleep) as they used their analysis skills and background knowledge to make inferences about life on the manor in feudal Europe.
I usually tweet this…but today I really should have done it…I really should have recorded their conversations because they were so interesting, thought-provoking, and in some cases, downright hysterical.  In analyzing a picture of manor life, most students struggled with an object that looked like an elephant (not likely in Europe), a rock (not a significant factor for describing a place), or a person taking off their clothes (to which they wondered…why is someone taking their clothes off in the middle of the manor?!?!).  Then there was an object in quadrant two…is it a guy doing pull-ups (seriously?), committing suicide (well, we did just finish our study on the Bushido Code), or was someone hanged for a crime (what kind of crime required hanging as a punishment? how long did they leave the guy hanging? what is that hanging thing called?!).  One of these days, I’m going to record their conversations because the pictures on Instagram only told half the story.  When students verbalize their thinking, it is truly something to behold…

Where Learning Matters

/ Catherine Cabiness-Atkinson, Ed.D. / Leave a comment

Like last summer, I was brought in as part of the technology team to plan, present, and facilitate professional development for teachers in my district.  Because of the size of our team, we were able to host a variety of technology PD for all teachers in our district K12.  However, we were not able to host as many repeat sessions this year because we simply did not have the man-power or space to do so.  In fact, I was told that the sessions quickly filled to capacity when Super Week sign-ups opened at the beginning of June.  This was a good sign.

Last week was the start of Super Week (#superweek2015) for our district.  I’m not sure how other districts run their PD, but in my 20 years we’ve always had PD before school starts.  Some years it’s a full week, last year it was a week and a half (dubbed Super-Duper Week, no hashtag).  But what I really enjoyed about this year’s Super Week was the addition of K6 teachers to the mix.  Prior, we only concentrated on secondary teachers (7-12 Instruction) which made sense since we were all from the secondary level.  But this year we added a few elementary teacher presenters and facilitators which brought new insight into how technology could effectively be integrated into the curriculum.

This year, I presented on a variety of topics:

  • Presentations that Inspire – Slides, Prezi, PowToon, HaikuDeck
  • Advanced Flipped Learning – EdPuzzle, Movenote, Educreations, Camtasia, Screencastomatic
  • SAMRai – UpLeveling the Learning
  • Let’s Get Appy – Web Apps for Everyone
But what I love most about presenting is the learning that occurs on my own end.  I enjoy lively dialogue with teachers about how best to use technology with their students.  It is exciting to see the passion reignited in teachers when they see the power that technology can bring in order to transform the learning process.  But it’s not just on their end.  I always pick up several cool ideas that I could bring back to my own classroom which will not only benefit my students but my department as well.  Learning is a two-way street and delivering PD is one avenue to the process.  

What Makes an Educator?

/ Catherine Cabiness-Atkinson, Ed.D. / Leave a comment

Connectiveness.  Collaboration.  Community.

It’s interesting because one might think that the moment school is out for summer, teachers shun anything that has to do with work or education.  But you’d be wrong.  This is the time when educators come alive…we don’t have to worry about faculty meetings, after school tutoring, papers to grade, lessons to plan…we finally have the freedom to do whatever WE want to help keep us charged and amped up about being part of the best profession in the world.

This week, I found myself added to a group on Twitter comprised of tech leaders in the OC.  We were lamenting on the fact that we needed to create some type of cohesiveness among the educators in OC…if anything just to touch base but I think more importantly to build stronger connections between districts.  I know that there is a lot of good stuff going on around the county…and we have some remarkably creative and talented teachers who are touching the lives of countless students.  We know that working in isolation is not going to cut it anymore.  The digital society that we live in is interconnected.  We feed off of each other’s triumphs and learn from each other’s trials.  And what better way to build a stronger sense of community than to create a group that commits to getting together on a regular basis?

People were throwing around ideas like game night, getting together for sports events, even using someone’s garage as an informal fort, er meeting place…I’m also thinking that the upcoming EdCamps will be more fun since we’ll already know each other (even if we haven’t met F2F, yet).  And then watch out CUE…#ocXed will be in.the.house.

Needless to say, I’m stoked.  I love our hashtag and our t-shirt design (see above). If you’re an educator in beautiful Orange County, California…join us!  We don’t bite.  Well, not all of us anyway.  😉