Description

How can we push students past simple recall into deeper thought and engagement?  Is it about teaching content?  Or should we be asking more questions?  If so, what questions should we be asking?  Do you think WE know?  Would you like to listen to today's podcast and see if we can find out?

Lessons Learned

Chris – Playing cards, a sheet of paper, and an imagination are excellent tools for classroom team building, and spending a class building a team will pay dividends many times over.

The Quiet Year: https://www.mikuru.ru/files/rpg/the-quiet-year/The%20Quiet%20Year%20EN.pdf (https://www.mikuru.ru/files/rpg/the-quiet-year/The%20Quiet%20Year%20EN.pdf)

Dennis - Not a new lesson learned, but did get a chance this week to introduce some teachers to this wonderful tool, which is incredibly useful if you are working on curriculum documents or your school’s WASC Report.  The education jargon generator.  https://www.sciencegeek.net/lingo.html (https://www.sciencegeek.net/lingo.html)

Daniel - Using the Trim function[1]  in Mac Finder to edit the ends of your videos and audio.  Quick and Easy.

Fun Fact

About Socrates (SO-CRATES)

* Not an attractive guy.  Described as having the “mouth of a frog or donkey” and “bulging eyes that don’t track”

* Not a teacher in the traditional sense.  He was known to say that he doesn't have information to transmit and that's why he's asking questions.

* Never wrote anything down.  All we know about him comes from accounts of his students like Plato and Aristophanes.

* Could have avoided trial and execution completely byby going into exile but chose uncompromising civil disobedience. “O men of Athens, I say to you ... either acquit me or not; but whatever you do, know that I shall never alter my ways, not even if I have to die many times."

 

Source: 7 Facts About Socrates, the Enigmatic Greek Street Philosopher | HowStuffWorks (https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-figures/socrates.htm)

Notes & Links

Article: https://www.edutopia.org/article/question-teachers-should-ask-often-possible (https://www.edutopia.org/article/question-teachers-should-ask-often-possible)

How might this “How do you know?” technique be applied in the following models:

1) Distance Learning

2) Blended Learning

3) Asynchronous (Self-paced, online) Learning

 

Another link shared by Chris:

Bringing What Worked During Virtual Learning Into Grade 3-12 Classrooms | Edutopia (https://www.edutopia.org/article/bringing-what-worked-during-virtual-learning-classroom)

Description

What do you get when you take an American football coach, send him to England, and put him in charge of a professional soccer team? (You know, the other futbol.) Well, you probably get one of the most talked about television shows of the last two years, but you’ll also get some remarkable lessons and insights about teaching, learning, and of course, relationships.  Today we welcome two amazing educators who will share “What Ted Lasso Teaches us About Learning”

Lessons Learned

Chris -  Microsoft PowerPoint App rehearsal feature - will watch your face, body language, rate of speech, volume, inflection, and provide feedback to improve your presentation.

Dennis - Using Teams with students, you need to be sure you make it “student safe”.  Plan your admin policies ahead of time to make sure students can do what you want, and not what you don’t.  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/keeping-students-safe-while-using-teams-for-distance-learning-f00fa399-0473-4d31-ab72-644c137e11c8 (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/keeping-students-safe-while-using-teams-for-distance-learning-f00fa399-0473-4d31-ab72-644c137e11c8)

Daniel - Online Learning Consortium - Quality Score Cards - A great way to evaluate your online courses.  Teacher, admin perspective https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/consult/olc-quality-scorecard-suite/

Fun Fact

According to History.com The word soccer comes from a slang abbreviation of the word association, which British players of the day adapted as “assoc,” “assoccer” and eventually soccer or soccer football.

Notes & Links

“What Ted Lasso Teaches us About Learning”

SPECIAL GUESTS:

Mike Lawrence - Education Leadership Executive at Jamf

Delaine Johnson - AP Computer Science Principles Teacher & Tech Integration Coach for Clovis Unified, California, USA

VIDEO: Live Podcast + ACAMIS Demo Slam (https://youtu.be/NVf06xtGmvY)

Description

How YOU doin’? Nǐ hǎo? Estas bien?  Wie Gehts? We hope you are well. And we’re pretty sure if you’re here listening to us LIVE AT ACAMIS that you are well because you must already have the green code and the Covid test results to prove it.   As we continue our 9th year of talking about tech in education, we want to not just talk about using Tech Well, but also talk about BEING well as we use Tech.  Are you finding that healthy balance between tech and no tech, screens and no screens, online and offline? If not, then you came to the right place because … actually, we were going to ask YOU for ideas. So, I guess it's the blind leading the blind...

Lessons Learned

Chris Nolan Ryan and Gaylord Perry

Dennis - Do not disturb mode on your iPhone.  We all need to unplug, but we also want that important call or message to get through.  Add exceptions to your Do Not Disturb.  Allow calls from a specific contact group or bypass DND for specific contacts.  ​​https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/26/20883331/iphone-do-not-disturb-mode-exceptions-how-to (https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/26/20883331/iphone-do-not-disturb-mode-exceptions-how-to) (And coming in iOS 15:  Focus Mode!)

Notes & Links

STRESS is the major contributor to low teacher morale, and cited as the primary reason for teachers leaving the classroom.

How to build emotional supports for Teachers - Article from Edutopia

​​https://www.edutopia.org/article/how-build-emotional-supports-teachers (https://www.edutopia.org/article/how-build-emotional-supports-teachers)

COMMUNITY - Focus on Building Relationships.  Provide regular space for teachers to step back and reflect - be a listening ear.

Focus more on TRUST, less on accountability.

"Accountability is something that is left when responsibility has been subtracted." - Pasi Sahlberg (Finnish Lessons)

Provide regular space for teachers to step back and reflect - be a listening ear.

Set clear BOUNDARIES and let Teachers fill in the blanks - set expectations and allow for teacher choice on how those will be accomplished.  (Remember that whole trust thing?  Don’t Micromanage)

Change the goal posts and unhook - Episode 804 - We discussed this topic in depth:  Burnout - Secrets to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily and Amelia Nagoski.

Moving the Goalposts - Redefine winning - Today I am going to make someone smile and make a connection.  Redefine failing - Take your failure and learn from it.  One step closer to success.

 

For Tech Wellness?

Clearly define your electronic communication policy (to parents, your admin, etc.)  Never check your email on the weekend.  Use that Do Not Disturb feature.

Lean on others.  Lean on your community.  This community. One lesson we learned is that we can’t go through this alone.

Description

Whether you're back with students in the classroom or still working remotely, teaching and learning continues.  As we begin our 9th Season of podcasting we know now, more than ever, that learning can’t happen without relationships.  We’ve also learned the hard way that many of our traditional classroom practices fall flat when we face the fact that face to face must often be forfeited in favor of forging a foundation for future fortitude.  We invite you to join us as we fabricate a forum of sorts around the idea of blended learning, taking a look at our current practices and asking the question, “Will it Blend?”

Lessons Learned

Chris - Don’t be owned by your circumstances.

Dennis - When a system says it “integrates” with another system that rarely means what you think it means.  Read the fine print.

Daniel - What is our infinite game in education? - Simon Sinek.

Fun Fact

Will it Blend? (The Web TV Show)

Started in 2006, this is a viral marketing campaign demonstrating the Blendtec Total Blender. In the show, Tom Dickson, the founder, attempts to blend various unusual items in order to show off the power of his blender.  Top Viewed Blended items include: Golf Balls, Hockey Pucks, iPad, iPhone, rake handle

Notes & Links

True or False:

* Schools that rely on the direct instruction model have the biggest difficulty transitioning to Online (Distance) Learning.

* Having a teacher lecture live over Zoom is just as effective as a live lecture F2F in the classroom.

 

At the end of the 2020 school year (4 months into Covid) we shared some takeaway lessons and lessons learned.  Which technology practices and strategies will blend?  What would we change or update knowing what we know now?  Link to Podcast 720 from June 2020.

 

Chris - Stop thinking “classroom.” Stop trying to recreate the face-to-face experience. Whatever your opinion concerning John Dewey’s vision of what “school” should be, his understanding that education happens all around us is spot on. Once you drop the “classroom” in your brain, possibilities abound.

 

Resources:

https://districtadministration.com/3-ways-ensure-student-centered-learning-outlasts-pandemic-ed-tech/ (https://districtadministration.com/3-ways-ensure-student-centered-learning-outlasts-pandemic-ed-tech/)

 

https://www.edutopia.org/article/tech-centric-not-remote-teaching-classroom-year (https://www.edutopia.org/article/tech-centric-not-remote-teaching-classroom-year)

Description

In the establishing shot of the movie Transcendence, people use keyboards as door stops and discarded computers litter the streets. Mankind is slowly recovering from tech-addiction, returning to a life of face-to-face communication and the petty inconveniences of a tech-free world. While that world may be a dream for some and a nightmare for others, we take a Waldorf Schools’ view of classrooms without tech. What are the essentials of teaching? What happens when tech isn’t there to support these essentials?

Lessons Learned

Chris - Mmhmm 2.0 like chunky monkey delicious! https://www.mmhmm.app/blog/introducing-mmhmm-2-0-chunky-make-video-work-for-you (https://www.mmhmm.app/blog/introducing-mmhmm-2-0-chunky-make-video-work-for-you)

* Mixed live with pre-recorded

* Duel video

* Presets to keep a “look”

* iOS app coming soon

Dennis - Cool new feature coming to Teams - Reading Progress https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/education-blog/reading-progress-in-microsoft-teams-improve-student-reading/ba-p/2315377 (https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/education-blog/reading-progress-in-microsoft-teams-improve-student-reading/ba-p/2315377)

Daniel - teleprompter - https://apps.apple.com/app/id1444106389 (https://apps.apple.com/app/id1444106389)

 

Fun Fact

First Television Broadcast

"The first American TV station began broadcasting on July 2, 1928. W3XK was the first commercially licensed television station in the US, owned by inventor Charles Francis Jenkins. The company broadcast just outside Washington, D.C., and continued to air “radio movies” to the general public five nights a week until 1932."

 

Notes & Links

Thought Experiment - What if all your technology failed?  

 

No Internet, devices bricked, no power.  What would happen to learning?  Could it happen?  What are the consequences?

 

1980’s PBS Series, “Connections” featured James Burke.  In Episode 1 - The Trigger Effect, he talked about the New York Blackout and looked at what could happen if all our technology systematically failed us and we were put back to the age of the plow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XetplHcM7aQ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XetplHcM7aQ)

 

In the show he talks about all the technology we use, trust, depend on, every moment of every day with absolutely no idea how it actually works. And poses the question: How did we get here?

 

Let’s look at the technology we depend on for Education - in fact, let's drill down to the definition of “education” itself.  What have we built? How easily could it be completely unravelled?

Description

During distance learning we all learned the importance of video for meaningful teaching and learning.  A good video can teach and even inspire.  A bad video . . .  well we’ve all seen our share of those too. Today on the podcast we welcome special guest Dan Speed, who is not only doing great things with video in his classroom, but his students are, as well.

Lessons Learned

Chris -

* The pleasures of kahoot

* A reminder to use reminders

* Sometimes an empty box can contain hours of enjoyment and learning (shout out: Dave Burgess)

Dennis - Barcode to Sheet/goqr.me (pure text to QR Code)

Daniel - Attention Residue - you continue to think and process a previous task once you’ve moved onto another.

 

Fun Fact

Cisco had already estimated that, by next year, a staggering 82% (https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/executive-perspectives/annual-internet-report/white-paper-c11-741490.html) of all created content will be video. But the pandemic has accelerated an already ravenous appetite for video content. The average U.S. consumer now pays for four (https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/technology/digital-media-trends-consumption-habits-survey/summary.html) different streaming video subscriptions. Nearly one-quarter of U.S. consumers (23% (https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/technology/digital-media-trends-consumption-habits-survey/summary.html)) have added at least one new paid streaming video service since the pandemic began. https://www.forbes.com/sites/falonfatemi/2021/02/01/how-the-pandemic-has-changed-video-content-and-consumption/?sh=6a2f94d6ec00 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/falonfatemi/2021/02/01/how-the-pandemic-has-changed-video-content-and-consumption/?sh=6a2f94d6ec00)

 

Notes & Links

Video is more than just sharing information, it can connect on an emotional level as well.  In school that’s important for moving that info into long term memory (retention).

 

SPECIAL GUEST:  Dan Speed (2nd Grade Teacher here at Concordia)

Description

Did you get my email?

Oh! That was in the email that Bob sent last week?

Can you send me an email about that?

Email, Email, Email

 

What would we do without email?

 

But is email making us dumber, less efficient and poorer collaborators?

 

In today’s podcast, we will delve down the email rabbit hole and discuss what we have learned from this 30-year experiment. We’ll discuss its implications on our society, workplace, and on education.

 

Lessons Learned

Chris - “Hey Siri, remind me at 11AM to head to the recording room for our podcast” “Hey Siri” reminders kind of makes it seem like I actually have a memory, right Siri?

Dennis - Microsoft Lens

Daniel - Loom Screenrecorder app - www.Loom.com

 

Fun Fact

First Email Sent in 1971 on the ARPANET by Ray Tomlinson  - Regarded as “The Inventor of Email” https://www.theverge.com/2012/5/2/2991486/ray-tomlinson-email-inventor-interview-i-see-email-being-used (https://www.theverge.com/2012/5/2/2991486/ray-tomlinson-email-inventor-interview-i-see-email-being-used)

“at the time there was no really good way to leave messages for people. The telephone worked up to a point, but someone had to be there to receive the call. And if it wasn’t the person you wanted to get, it was an administrative assistant or an answering service or something of that sort. That was the mechanism you had to go through to leave a message, so everyone latched onto the idea that you could leave messages on the computer.”

 

Notes & Links

A World Without Email - By Cal Newport (Author of Deep Work, Digital Minimalism) (Here is a summary of the book - https://www.getstoryshots.com/books/a-world-without-email-summary/ (https://www.getstoryshots.com/books/a-world-without-email-summary/))

 

Almost 30 years of widespread use of this communication tool.

 

Part 1 - The Case Against Email

 

The speed of emails also prevents workers from disconnecting. People’s stress levels are higher as a result of more emails.

 

Newport argues our evolutionary drive to be social leads to a feeling of unease when we neglect these interactions.

 

When no structure is introduced, there will be a huge amount of messages across several tasks that you have to address. To keep on top of this, you have to be constantly monitoring these channels. The issue with this is your lack of focus is reducing your cognitive capacity and you are left miserable.

 

Hyperactive Hive Mind - This social need to be responding to emails in a timely fashion and the inefficiencies it creates.  Unstructured conversations on messaging apps and meetings dropped into diaries on the fly congest our day. His objective, to give people the space to do their best work without distraction

 

Part 2 - Principles For Moving Past Email

 

We need a linear approach to work

* We all need to buy into this approach.  No Rogue Leaders

* Your first two hours of work are your best and should be sacred Deep Work time.

* People need to completely stop one task in order to fully transition their thought processes to the next one.

* In the book Scrum (a methodology used for building small teams to tackle projects)

* Small teams work best with projects (no more than 7)

* They all work on one task at a time and everyone knows what everyone else is doing based on a Kanban board of tasks.  They ask each other:

* What did you work on yesterday?

* What are you working on today?

* What challenges do you have?

* The job of an administrator is to ensure there is a proper workflow for their team to be successful

* You can track the amount of tasks completed in a week and the complexity of each task to ensure that teams are improving in their work.  This is a measure of past performance

* Tracking people’s happiness is a measure of future success.

Description

Hey, if you’ve been with us since the beginning that means you have been listening to us drone on and on for eight whole years. We finally honor your stubbornness by addressing some fascinating applications of  ... drones.

This week, NASA scientists flew the first drone on Mars.  This amazing technology has changed the way we look at flight, gives us a different point of view on the world (and other worlds) around us, and will likely be the way we receive future Amazon deliveries - beside all that they are really cool!

Today on the podcast we will welcome two of our own drone experts to tell us everything we need to know about drones.  They have experience flying drones, filming with drones, and they also teach a drone CCA here at Concordia. Oh did I mention they are also middle school students?

 

Lessons Learned

Chris - Porting information from one phone to another has gotten much easier, but there are still some kinks.

Dennis - Need an alternative for Google Classroom? Teachers and Students can use Microsoft Teams for Free! https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/education/products/teams (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/education/products/teams)

Daniel - Recording PE class for analysis of their spacing during invasion games.  Plan your flight using AirMap to ensure that you can fly on the day.  https://app.airmap.com/plan

 

Fun Fact

Getting Rid of the Hiccups

https://www.chicagotribune.com/consumer-reviews/sns-bestreviews-health-get-rid-hiccups-20210312-gf3qml7ms5fpfplfx53toyjtta-story.html (https://www.chicagotribune.com/consumer-reviews/sns-bestreviews-health-get-rid-hiccups-20210312-gf3qml7ms5fpfplfx53toyjtta-story.html)

Although the article dismisses it, you can use fear - or at least the fear of public speaking to dismiss hiccups too.

 

Notes & Links

Special Guests: Marcus and Shreyas from Concordia’s Middle School tell everything we need to know about Drones.

Podcast Video: https://youtu.be/aVnCyeZhZBw (https://youtu.be/aVnCyeZhZBw)

Description

We get up in the morning, check our weather app, check our Facebook, check Instagram, check the top news feeds pushed to us on our mobile device, and scroll through the dozens of notifications we received over night. The volume of information that our technology pushes to us is greater than ever before, yet our biology has limitations on what we are designed to pay attention to, or even process.  Apps and social media are fighting for our attention, yet we have maxed out or surpassed what we are biologically capable of focusing on…

 

Wait, I lost my train of thought. What am I talking about again?

 

Oh, right, data overload. Today we continue our discussion on distraction as we talk about the battle between the biology of attention and the demands of technology.

 

Lessons Learned

Chris - 5 Tips for Zoom Breakout Rooms - https://bit.ly/2P9gb1b (https://bit.ly/2P9gb1b)

* Understand the basics

* Personalize the rooms

* Highlight kindness and courtesy

* Assign roles

* Allow feedback opportunities (and address feedback)

Dennis - Wonder.me (What Zoom breakout rooms SHOULD be like.)

Daniel - Be careful with sharing Zoom windows.  VTC

 

Fun Fact

If “Back to the Future” was made today and Marty McFly traveled back in time 30 years like he did in the original, the song he would likely be playing at the dance would likely be “Smells Like Teen Spirit” because it would be 1991.  (Yes, 1991 was 30 years ago.)

 

In 1991

* There was no www.anything.com

* We were renting VHS tapes from BlockBuster - remember searching through the empty cases on the shelf to see if they had any of the new release that you wanted to rent?

* Playing Legend of Zelda on Nintendo (NES)

 

Notes & Links

Link: https://www.hottopics.ht/21102/the-quest-for-educational-categorization/ (https://www.hottopics.ht/21102/the-quest-for-educational-categorization/)

 

Key Points from Article

“multi-tasking also creates a dopamine feedback loop, effectively rewarding the brain for losing focus. In short, we can become addicted to multi-tasking and the false sense of accomplishment that it brings.”

 

“We become better students through the quality of the information that we internalize, and not through its volume.”

 

The conscious mind is capable of processing c.120 bits per second. A conversation requires c.60 bits per second. To listen deeply requires more. In other words, our brains are not designed to multi-task.

 

“Attention is a limited capacity resource. And our brains have evolved to focus on a single thing at any given time.”

 

Solution:

Organize and Categorize, two things we are very good at doing.

Give yourself specific times to do specific tasks, and don’t cheat yourself!

Description

It’s happened to all of us.  You’ve got a project you’re working on that needs to be done. A message from your friend pops up with a funny new Bernie Sanders meme, which inspires you with an idea for another meme. You start searching for memes.  Your search results include a new music video parody with Bernie in it. You click the link to watch the video.  Another suggested video shows up with a preview for that new movie you’ve been waiting to see . . . yada yada yada . . . It's 11pm and your project still isn’t done.

 

Okay, maybe that’s just me, but we all have issues with distraction.  And with the amount of time we spend on screens during remote learning and home quarantines those distractions have become an increasing problem - especially for our kids.   Join us today as we try to focus on distraction as we discuss “The Covid Effect”.

 

Lessons Learned

Dennis - Online learning requires low tech tools.  Have “Justin Case Bags” ready to go at a moment’s notice.

Chris - I’d have a lesson learned, but I got so distracted with pop-up alerts on my screen that I never got my “lesson learned” done. Has that ever happened to you?

Daniel - Manage your iMovie hard Disk space. Terminology: Library & Projects.  Have your teachers or students create new libraries each semester.

 

Fun Fact

22 Palindrome Dates in 2021

From the Farmers Almanac (https://www.farmersalmanac.com/what-palindrome-28106 (https://www.farmersalmanac.com/what-palindrome-28106))

According to the Farmers' Almanac, 2021 will have a total of 22 palindrome dates, which are dates that read the same forwards and backward in four, five, and six-digit formats.

From January 20 - 29 we had 10 straight days of 5 digit palindromes.

In December we’ll have another 9 straight days.

 

Notes & Links

NYTimes Article:  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/16/health/covid-kids-tech-use.html (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/16/health/covid-kids-tech-use.html)

 

Blog Post from Brad Jasper

“How to Maintain Your Productivity During a Crisis”

https://heyfocus.com/blog/maintain-productivity-in-a-crisis/ (https://heyfocus.com/blog/maintain-productivity-in-a-crisis/)

 

* Identify what distractions you can control and what you can’t.  (Your Circle of Control)

* Monitor your media intake

* Use a web site blocker

* Establish a News-Free morning (That includes personal news on FB/Twitter/Insta)

* Take time for your own mental health (i.e. Tai chi)

 

Students picked up a lot of bad habits during the pandemic.  How do we help them learn to manage distraction?

* Understand what distracts them. They often don’t even realize it.

* Use ScreenTime  - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208982 (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208982)

* Manage their distraction and Focus on schoolwork - block distracting apps, web sites, and notifications when you need to concentrate on work.

* Focus app for Mac - https://heyfocus.com/ (https://heyfocus.com/)

* The Pomodoro Technique - https://heyfocus.com/blog/master-the-pomodoro-timer/ (https://heyfocus.com/blog/master-the-pomodoro-timer/)

* Turn off notifications

* Make communication channels different from personal.  (i.e. Canvas & PowerSchool Learning vs. WhatsApp, WeChat)

* Separate personal from school - Create a second user or use a second computer that only has school related apps, minimal browser extensions.