Monthly Archives: June 2012

ISTE12 Recommendations

In five days, I leave for San Diego to head to ISTE 2012. This is a special ISTE for me, because the first ISTE/NECC conference I attended was in 2006 in San Diego. I can’t wait to go back to this beautiful venue!

NECC (ISTE) 2006

In 2006, I was working as a professional development coordinator for a suburban school district in Omaha, Nebraska. The only people I knew going to San Diego were other people from my school district. While on a layover in Denver, I met other Nebraskans going to the same conference. These are the people I spent time with at ISTE/NECC.

I didn’t meet anyone from any other states or countries, and there were no new connections made outside of my own state. I was okay with that at the time, because I’m a naturally shy person and don’t tend to put myself out there very easily. I didn’t know what I was missing!

The next ISTE/NECC conference was in Atlanta in 2007. Other than meeting a few new people through other Nebraskans I already knew, this conference was really a “repeat” for me in the networking area. No new contacts. No new relationships.

In 2008, I was on Twitter and I was blogging. In San Antonio, I ventured into an area called the Bloggers’ Cafe and worked up the courage to introduce myself to Darren Draper, Scott McLeod, and Lee Kolbert. They were bloggers I followed and admired. Some guy named Cory Plough introduced himself to me here also. These people were kind and welcoming… and I have to admit that San Antonio sticks out as one of the best conferences I had attended up to that point. That’s because I met new people and made new connections that I value to this day.

We often talk about how teaching can feel like an isolated profession. Social media tools can help to break that isolation… but if you don’t know how or where to make connections, the “tools” won’t help you. If you’re attending a conference, you need to take advantage of the face-to-face time.

My advice to those attending ISTE 2012 in San Diego:

1) If you are a conference regular:

  • take some time to introduce yourself to new people. I know that conferences like ISTE are the few times during the year that you get to see your friends, and you want to spend time with them. But realize that there are a lot of new people who really need you to take that first step to help THEM make new connections and create relationships that will help them grow as educators. They are doing great things in their classrooms/schools, too, and we can all learn something new and valuable from each other.
  • Encourage the people you meet to start blogging or jump on Twitter. If they need help, show them.
  • Be the one to start a connection.

2) If you are a new or new-ish conference attendee:

  • enjoy the sessions and the exhibits, but make the time to stop by the Newbie Lounge, the Social Butterfly Lounge, and the Bloggers’ Cafe. These areas are designed for networking, meeting new people, and great conversations. ISTE 12 Lounges
  • Introduce yourself to someone you don’t know.
  • If you’re on Twitter, make sure your Twitter name is on your nametag (if you’re not on Twitter, you might consider joining before the conference). Twitter is a GREAT way to stay connected to the people you meet at conferences.
The people that I have met at conferences and then stayed connected with through Social Media are some of my most valued friends. I can’t wait to see them! But I also can’t wait to meet you… whoever you might be. I look forward to sharing ideas with you and hearing about what you’re doing for kids. See you soon!

All Comes Down to Love

This blog post has been brewing for quite a while, but I wasn’t really sure how to start it. It’s been sitting in Drafts with about 20 other posts, but it’s time to put it out there.  Here goes…

The “WHAT:”

It makes me sad that the English language has so few words to describe “love.” I can tell a friend, “Hey, I love you.” That doesn’t  mean romantic love, but it’s the same term. More options: adore, captivated by, idolize, enamored of, etc. None of these really speaks equally to the love of a child, a significant other, a friend, or a sibling. I think many of us get caught up in the terminology and are actually afraid to use the word, “love,” because of that fact.

Over the last school year, I have thought about this word many, many times. My students have told me that they love learning… that they love our school… that they love the Space Unicorns song/video. 😉

In conversations with parents, teachers, and friends, I often say how much I love my students. Then I realize also that I love all the kids at our school. It’s like this little community that is really more like a family. And THAT… that makes me think about other schools, other teaching experiences I’ve had, and what ALL kids really need. It also makes me wonder how many times I have told my students directly that I love them. They are MY kids!

Our students need us to love them. Even those kids who are really difficult to like sometimes (or all the time) need our love.

The “SO WHAT:”

Love means understanding that today might not be the best learning day… that just getting to school in one piece was a major accomplishment… that those two sentences eked out after 30 minutes might be all she can write today… that there are other very important things he’s going through, and finding equivalent fractions is not on top of his priority list right this moment.

When you really know your students – your kids – you understand what works and what doesn’t work. You understand their motives. You know their passions. You care more about their emotional well-being. You hurt alongside them when they hurt. You love them. You learn to trust each other. When you love your students, you learn with them.

“Sure, Michelle. You have a maximum of 12 kids in your class. It’s easy to get to know them and love them.” 

Right. I get that. And while the focus of this post is NOT about class size, it is important. In the name of efficiency in time and money, we have poured kids into fact factories instead of learning environments.  In my last school, I had over 440 students. I didn’t know a lot of them well enough to know what really made them tick… or why some of them were easier to love at times. Did I love all of them enough to make a difference? I’d like to think so, but I’m doubtful.

My first few years of teaching 20 years ago… I was there to make sure the kids learned x, y, z, and I was going to shape them up and MAKE them learn. In my opinion at the time, misbehavior was about laziness, lack of discipline, or just plain rotten kids. As I sat and listened to their stories of home, their dreams, their heartbreaks, however, I became more sympathetic. For years, I struggled with how I was taught to deal with “problem children” versus what my heart wanted for them. I admit that I failed as a teacher in so many ways then. It wasn’t really until my own children started going to school that I began to understand what kids really need to learn.

In teaching, and almost any other profession, they won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. *

I would even go so far to say that they won’t care how much THEY learn until they know how much you care. Isn’t the word “care” synonymous with “love?”

And what about those kids that are very difficult to like? How can you love a child who is defiant, angry, uncooperative, etc.? My own children have been all of these things (and more) many times as they’ve grown up… that doesn’t mean I love them any less.  Isn’t this one of our greatest challenges as educators? These are the kids that need our love even more. When I lose patience with a child, I lose the opportunity to connect to something deeper about that child – that one thing that might help that child persevere. I need to be patient and persevere along with her.

I’m not great at being patient, but I know I’m getting better because it matters. It matters to kids who need me to know them well enough to move past the behavior to the child inside.

How many of you get to spend enough time with your students to really get to know them? To understand why they seem happy/angry all the time? To know what is important to them? To know their struggles? their successes?

I don’t think this is a necessarily a problem that teachers solve on their own… I think that schools should be completely redesigned from the ground up, including how they’re funded… but that’s another blog post. 🙂

So, what’s the next step? What’s the “Now What?”

If it all comes down to love,  what one thing can you do (or are already doing) to help your students know that you care about them… that you love them?

 

*I don’t know the source of that quote… would be grateful to anyone who could share that with me!