A Blogger's HW

I have not been reflective enough this school year; at least not here and not in a formal manner.  A random tweet came up about The Homework Meme.  While I am not interested in participating in the actual meme (still not sure what a meme really is and why they are so popular), I thought some of the topics would make for an interesting blog post.  Also, it would give me the kick in the butt I need to write more.

1.  Share 11 Random Facts About Myself

• I have been in 2 movies.  I was at a Mets game with my father and grandmother and they filmed the crowd to use in a scene for Three Men and a Little Lady.  Then a few years ago, I was visiting family in Pittsburgh and while at a Pirates game, they were filming a scene for Abduction with Taylor Lautner.  We were half a section over from the filming and saw him.  If you slow the movie down, you can see an extremely blurry view of us.
• I once drove from NJ to Vegas in 41 hours.
• As of this posting, I am one of only three people in NJ with Google Glass and the only educator in the state.
• Despite my occupation and what everyone thinks about me, I have a serious fear of talking in front of a large group of people.
• My first three part-time jobs all went bankrupt within a year of me quitting.
• One of my many summer job experiences included working in a butcher shop.  Learned a lot that summer!
• You can find my name on Wikipedia.
• I name all of my cars.  It is something I picked up from my childhood best friend.  Penelope, Clarise, JoJo, Portia have been mine while Amy and Sadie have been my wife's.
• I have a hard time creating lists that contain more than 5 things on them.
• I could say chocolate before I could say mommy.
• If I could meet anyone it would be my sons in 30 years to see what they are like when they are my age now.

2.  11 Questions from The Homework Meme

• If you weren't in education, what would you do instead?
• I am fascinated by pyrotechnics and fireworks.  I think it stems from my love of science and chemistry, but it is also because they are so amazing.  It is a controlled explosion that produces wonder and awe.  How could you not love them?
• Pencil or Pen?
• I was raised in school to always use pens.  If it is not neon, I won't pick it up.  But, I lean toward pencils now.
• Last Book You Read
• I am currently in the middle of Ape House by Sara Gruen.  Her previous book is Water for Elephants.  It is pretty good so far, but I am hoping it gets a little better in the middle like Water for Elephants did.
• Guilty Pleasure
• Twizzlers.  I bought a 4.5 lb bag at Hershey Park this summer and ate it myself.  I would have eaten it that day, but my wife wouldn't let me.  I actually ate a 1lb bag while watching a movie and made myself sick.
• Has tech made your life easier or harder?
• Yes, but in many ways I have had to work so much harder because of it.  But, overall, I can't imagine my life without it.
• If you could give your younger self advice, what would it be?
• It is all worth it.
• What is your favorite blog to read?
• There are several that I really enjoy and several that I like to read because I always learn something new and several that I read for both reasons.  I would hate to say there is one that is my favorite so I linked three here.
• Would you ever wear orange pants?
• Hell's no.  But I do have a pair of orange socks with black dots.
• What is the one thing you hope to do in the future?
• I want to win an award.  I was watching the #EduBros Award show and was thinking that I want to be nominated for something next year.  
• Favorite thing to do on a Friday night
• Watch Grimm.  Love that show!!

I tend to write in pieces.  This post took 7 days to put together.  I promise to make a better effort in 2014.

A fantastic opportunity

About a month ago, Wacom contacted me with a fantastic opportunity.  Wacom wants to help teachers, especially those looking to create instructional podcasts, find better ways to make their videos more engaging.  So, being a teacher who makes those types of videos, they asked me to product test one of their
tablets and give share my thoughts on the device.  But, there was a catch (isn't there always?).  Wacom said that no matter how I felt about their product, I had to raffle one away on my blog.  That's right!  Dear readers, one of you will be receiving a brand new Wacom tablet simply for reading this post (details and fine print at the end).  So here are my thoughts on the device.

I was given the choice between the Bamboo Create and the Bamboo Splash.  To be honest, I really knew nothing about either device.  I had used a Bamboo tablet at the Flipped Classroom Conference last year for about 5 minutes.  But, being a Tablet PC user, I have never had the need to use an external tablet.  My attitude has always been 'Go big or go home' so I asked Wacom if I could test the Create simply because it was physically bigger, and I'm definitely happy with that decision.  Here are some of the things I discovered.

First, here is a short video about the product:

1. I like to do most of my work on my family room couch with my computer in my lap so I prefer devices that do not require me to sit at a table.  With my computer sitting in front of me, the Create's size made it almost like a small lap desk giving me room to lean my arm on the device without interfering with writing.  This was a huge benefit because the extra room around the edge of the writing space meant my arm didn't move the pointer.
2. Wacom offered me the wireless adapter and I feel that is a definite must.  I do not have a clean desk at work, in fact the only clean spot is usually the small rectangle that my laptop occupies, so something that allowed me to push back from the desk is ideal.  I also like the idea of being as wireless as possible in the classroom and the adapter definitely aides in that.  I found that my writing was still pretty accurate at about 10 feet from the computer.  The product details indicate that it is good up to 10 meters, but I didn't test it that far.
3. The device has buttons along the side that serve as the left and right mouse buttons, but also 2 that can be programmed as short-cut keys for specific programs.  I didn't have a need for these extra buttons, but the art teachers that I shared the device with found it handy when working with programs like Photoshop.
4. The device is extremely slim and light weight.  It added very little weight to my computer bag (a concern for my shoulders carrying it back and forth to school) and was easy to carry around in class.  The other benefit of this physically larger device was it rested in my arm nicely as I was writing.  Other, smaller, tablets that I have seen before have to be held in one hand while the person awkwardly writes on it or they have to put it down on a flat surface.  This tablet could be cradled in the arm while writing standing up.
5. The Bamboo Create came with several different programs that help you not only learn how to use the device, but also to become comfortable with looking away from your hand while writing (more on this below).  I found some of the games extremely useful and fun.  My 5 year old was also able to play the games with little problem.
6. Absolutely zero issues with inking in PowerPoint and Word.  I was a little concerned about this as my Tablet PC is not really designed to use external tablets and have had issues with other types of third-party devices in the past.  But, the drivers were loaded quickly and PowerPoint treated the device like an external mouse.

So those are some of the positives.  Now let's discuss the drawbacks.

1. If you are not going to purchase the wireless adapter you will need to plug the tablet into a USB slot with a short cord.  Connected to my laptop, this wasn't much of an issue, but a huge problem with my home desktop.  My CPU is under the desk in my home office and the short cord made it so I had to lean over to use it.  Also, at work, I had to move my keyboard to get the tablet close enough to the computer.  This can be a deal breaker for some users.
2. Now, to preface, I have been using a Tablet PC for nearly 5 years so I found it difficult to adjust to an external tablet.  I can use my stylus to write directly on the screen, but with an external you need to look at the computer screen while your hand is writing off to the side.  This took me a while to get used to.  My handwriting was so bad for some of my videos that I couldn't read what I was writing.  But, that is a personal issue.  Others who used the device adjusted much faster as they weren't accustomed to doing it a different way.  I think if I had the patience and time to sit walk through all of the training programs, it would have solved the issue.

Other than that, there were no other drawbacks about the device.  My students were eager to try it out and the art teachers in my school are excited to have something that will allow them to do more digital work with the students.  If you are a person looking to take your podcasts to the next level, move to a paperless environment (great for annotating on work students submit digitally!), or make what you current do with a mouse easier, this is the device you are looking for.  Seems like a winner for everyone!

So, here is how the giveaway is going to work.  Think of different ways that your classroom, students, and teaching methods could be improved by having a Wacom Bamboo Create and leave your ideas as comments below.  Comments will be accepted for the next 7 days.  You can earn additional entries by tweeting about this blog post, and following me on Twitter.  On Saturday, June 8th, the winner will be randomly selected and announced on this blog.  Thank you to everyone and Good Luck!!
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Yes, Man!

Ok, inspiration comes from the oddest places sometimes.  I randomly heard Jumper by Third Eye Blind on Pandora which made me think of this scene from the movie Yes Man with Jim Carrey.  The basis of the movie is that Jim Carrey gets convinced that in order to really change his life he has to say yes to EVERYTHING.  This means that he ends up going bungee jumping, taking flying lessons, learning Mandarin, and meeting the woman of his dreams.  

http://goo.gl/R964K

We talk in education about there being too many "Yes, men"; people who are only hired to agree with the boss and never contribute any meaningful ideas that are going to help move the program from Good to Great.

But maybe we actually do need more people to say "Yes, Man!"  People who are willing to try new things, to be the first to volunteer to pilot a new program, to say YES instead of maybe or that won't work here.  There are so many changes going on in education now that if we are not willing to say YES to change we are in real danger of becoming irrelevant.  

[Spoiler Alert] As Jim Carrey learns in the movie, you need to weigh your options before outright saying yes.  But when he lived his life in fear of change, he was miserable and alone.  When he took that leap of faith and put himself out there, he found a far superior version of himself.

What is happening in your school that you are going to say YES to?

This I Believe...

When I was doing my student teaching, I was asked to make a "This I Believe" statement for the first page of my teaching portfolio.  Recently, while helping a recent college graduate prepare for an interview, I told him to do the same thing.  But I have been thinking about my own statement from 13 years ago and realize I need to get it rewritten to better reflect how my practice has changed.  I am a big fan of lists that contain five things (don't ask why. Little bit of OCD in there somewhere) so here it goes:

1.  All students can and want to learn.
--they may not want to learn what I am teaching them, but they can do it.  They also do not know the way that works best for them.  Teaching HS you get a lot of kids who will tell you their method for studying and that works best for them.  Unless you get a perfect score on everything you do, there's always room for improvement.

2. "Technology should be like oxygen.  Ubiquitous, necessary and invisible" --Chris Lehmann
--no longer is it acceptable to say "I'm not that tech-savvy." The personal computer has now been around for thirty years.  It's time to figure out how to use it.  Computers, the Internet, cell phones, none of these things are going away.  If you don't start embracing them you will become irrelevant to your students.  It is OK to ask for help, especially from the students,  to learn ways to use technology more effectively.

3.  Teaching is not a job, it's a life style choice.
--teaching is an art form.  Ever notice how artists are just a little bit different than everyone else? They see the world differently and therefore are not treated like the rest of the population. The same goes for teachers.  If you are thinking about getting into education, understand that if you do not commit yourself to the job, the art, the students, then you will never reach your full potential as an educator.

4.  School should not prepare you for the real world but rather for a world that doesn't yet exist.
--I saw a statistic somewhere that said most high school seniors will eventually accept a job that doesn't currently exist. That doesn't mean the company is expanding and adding jobs. Rather that they haven't invented the job title yet. To my father's generation this would be like saying you could become a software engineer. Or for my fellow high school graduates, telling us we could design blu-ray players. If we are preparing students for the jobs that currently exist we are preparing them to be forgotten and outdated. We need to give students the skills to be successful at any job they may have and learn how to adapt what they know to new situations. Actually just that last part.  We need students who can adapt.  Adapt their thinking, adapt their environment, adapt their mindset.

5.  Every problem can be solved with a logical, scientific approach.
--It doesn't matter if you are dealing with a scientific problem or not.  If you approach everything in your live with a clearly defined order, you will be more likely to get the result you are satisfied with.  Go back for a second to your middle school days and recall the Scientific Method.  Make an observation, develop a hypothesis, test your hypothesis and then refine your method based on your results.  (Yes that was an over simplification, but go with it)

That's my list.  It's not perfect and it is always a work in progress.  What's the #1 item on your list?

I'm better because of you.

I'm a better person because of my sons.  They remind me that I must be humble, passionate, caring and courageous.  They show me the wonder that is the world around us and to not take things so seriously.  I see the world anew through their eyes as they discover it's wonders for the first time.  They also show me that love has no boundaries.

I am a better person because of my wife.  She reminds me to be loving and spirited, to not take things at face value, and to always look for the good in people.  She keeps me in check and challenges me in ways no other person can.  Her devotion to our family is inspiring.

I am a better person because of my friends.  They are perfect examples of how unpredictable life can be and how you can be happy and successful doing just about anything.  The road of life has many forks in it and regardless of the choices you make, my friends show me there are joys to be had no matter what.

I am a better person because of my students.  They allow me to love what I do and never feel like I am actually working.  Their trust inspires me to not fear failure when I try risky activities with them.  And if it does fail, they support me with smiles, encouragement, and ideas of how to improve.  They inspire me with their resilience, strong work ethic, and friendly personalities.  We learn together in the classroom, both about Chemistry and life.  Their experiences help make me a more well-rounded teacher.

Who inspires you to be a better person?

Living in beta

Have you noticed that we have shifted to a beta world? A place where it's is perfectly fine to produce something that isn't quite finished or polished as long as you promise to make refinements later.  I've noticed it a lot lately especially in games for mobile devices.  You download a game, beat the first 4 levels and bam level 5 says " Coming Soon!" 

Google has made an art form out of being beta.  Gmail was beta for FIVE years!!  In fact most of their products come out as beta or invite only,  but they give us their word that they are constantly updating services and we trust them to do so.

So if beta is the accepted norm, why do we still insist, in education, that everything is perfect before it is rolled out?  Curriculum has to written over the course of a year, then checked by a supervisor,  then approved by a Board of Education before finally being put into practice.  Teachers fear new methods or activities unless they have been thoroughly tested and widely accepted.  Even new courses and clubs can take years in the approval process causing those who propose them to lose all interest in running them. 

This begs the usual question "why aren't schools adjusting to the changes in the world around them?"  I am sure that at some point there was a purpose to all of the beauracracy but I don't think those reasons are here anymore.

You know who understands this? Charter and Magnet schools. They are schools of choice; kids have to muster the courage to leave their hometown school and go to this new location where they may not know anyone.   If these choice schools do not constantly modify and make improvements to the program, their enrollment will decrease and they may have to close.  But local districts have a guaranteed enrollment so there is no motivation to change.

Maybe the key to success is to think more like Magnet schools:  Develop desirable programs that entice kids to want to come to school everyday.  And every year/month/day refine it so it is evolving and just a little bit better than it was before.

What is your school doing to stay on the forefront of education?

Stop hiding and teach!

I am currently reading Teacher Man by Frank McCourt (he wrote Angela's Ashes) which is a memoir of his 30 years of teaching in NYC schools.  To give you a little background, McCourt was raised in Ireland and started teaching in 1957 after graduating from NYU.  As he tells his story, he sends a number of messages about what it means to be a great teacher without coming out and saying it directly.  He doesn't preach, he just tells great stories about how he happened to make the right decision.

There was one comment that he makes about himself that really struck me.  In fact, since I was listening to the book on CD in my car, I actually was scrambling through my center console to find a pen and paper to scribble down his comment as I am driving.  He was having a particularly tough stretch and McCourt said to himself,

"Stop hiding and teach!"

I want to make a gigantic sign with this on it and post it in the facutly room of every school in every country.  As teachers and education continues to come under attack more and more teachers are falling back on what is safe, comfortable and what will allow them to keep themselves away from the firing squad.

But you can't do that!

Teaching is not safe.  Teaching is a contact sport.  There are going to be mistakes, there are going to be mishaps, there is going to be turmoil.  Put yourself out there.  Try something that you have never done before--not just a new activity but a new teaching style.  Who cares if you are in your 1st year or your 30th year.  Schools need educators who are going to go the extra mile and put themselves out on a limb.  

So please, STOP HIDING AND TEACH!!

#SchoolDidAGoodThing

If you don't follow @TheNerdyTeacher or read his blog, you are missing out.    After listening to him speak at ISTE 2011 and reading his posts, I know that his classroom is a dynamic learning environment where every student is given the chance to succeed.  He is also the type of person who looks at a negative situation and immediately begins to work out how he can spin it to work in his favor.

In some of his recent blog posts, he has charged the education world to begin to change the negative views the country seems to have of schools.  His most recent mission asks teachers to post on Twitter something positive that happened to them in school while growing up and add the hashtag #SchoolDidAGoodThing.  Inspired once again by him, I would like to share 2 stories that shaped my teaching philosophies:

The Best of Intentions
Middle school was not kind to me, as is the case for many kids.  I wanted to be an athlete, but I didn't have the coordination.  Academics came extremely easy and I was that kid who always had his hand up to answer the teacher's question.  I was not obnoxious, I just worked hard so I knew the right answer.  This led me to be bullied excessively both in and out of school (one incident actually gave me a concussion when a locker door was slammed into my head).  When I brought this information to the school counselor, he told me that I drew too much attention to myself and that I should think about not raising my hand in class anymore.  As any of my friends will tell you, I am extremely strong willed and do not let others dictate how I should act.  I ignored his advice and decided to stand up to the bullies.  Well, as most MS bullies are, as soon as I stood up for myself, they back off.  I look at this situation and wonder what I would have become had I taken this short-sighted counselor's advice.  Even worse, how many people did listen to what he had to say?  I am sure that he was doing what he thought was best, but he never considered how his words could have destroyed the confident man I was becoming.

Give a Boy a Chance
When you are growing up, you don't realize what adults are secretly doing for you to give you the opportunity to reach your potential.  I was on my HS fencing team and to be really honest, I sucked my freshmen year.  I never missed a practice, worked my tail off and ended the year 0-12.  We didn't have a large team which is why I got a chance to fence 12 times, but the better point is my coach had enough confidence in me to keep putting me in even though he expected me to lose every time.  Fast forward to my senior year.  At the end of the year banquet, I was captain of the team, held 3 school records and was on the All-State Team.  My coach pulls me aside afterwards and says, "Marc, to be honest, you were so bad your freshman year that I secretly wished you wouldn't return.  Thank goodness I never recommended for you not to come back out for the team."  My coach did exactly what he was supposed to: gave me support.  I didn't know how important it was at the time, but as I look back it was exactly what I needed to try and find out who I was going to be.  I could have given up, but instead I surged forward because I was given the chance.

Thanks to @TheNerdyTeacher for getting me to reflect on the people who helped me become the person I am today.

This rock will turn into a tree

My son is about to turn 4 so needless to say I watch A LOT of Disney and Pixar movies. Now kids movies of today are so radically different than the movies of my youth. For one, there are almost always clearly defined learning objectives for the movie (Cars: treat everyone with respect; Monsters, Inc.: cheaters never prosper) instead of just the fluff that was produced in the 80s (Oliver and Company?). Second, they are made for adults as much as kids because the creators clearly want the parents to pass along the underlying message.

My point. We are watching A Bug's Life and there are two very important messages said right in the beginning of the movie. The in your face obvious one is delivered by the main character, Flick. He is speaking to Dot, a child ant, who is mocked by other ants because she is so small. Flick hands her a rock, tells her it's a seed, and explains how everything that makes their giant tree is already contained in this tiny, little seed. Dot looks at him and says "this rock will become a tree?" While some of the message was lost on Dot, clearly we must remember to reinforce in our kids that just because they feel small and insignificant now it doesn't mean that they won't be a huge, powerful force in the future.

But that was not the moral that inspired this post.  Flick is an inventor, a tinkerer.  Someone who looks at a problem and develops a innovative solution for it.  He is not smarter than any of his other bugs, but he doesn't let the status quo stop him from being.  At the beginning of the movie, all of the ants are picking seeds and fruits and walking in their typical ant line to a gigantic pile of food they are collecting for a group of grasshoppers.  Suddenly, a stalk comes flying out of the air and lands right on the princess.  Flick was using a device that cut down a stalk, plucked all of the seeds on it at once, then flung the stalk away.  Clearly, a must more efficient method than picking 1 seed at a time and walking that 1 seed to the pile.  When Flick runs over to help, one of the older supervisor ants yells at him and exclaims "Why can't you do it like everyone else?!"

Ants are known for their conformity and here is someone who is bucking the system.  Yes, he makes mistakes along the way and almost wipes out the colony, but in the end he is a hero.  His ideas help scare away the grasshoppers and saves the colony.  The best part is all of the harvesters are using his devices, doing less work and producing more food in the end.

I have had a lot of people tell me "Why can't you do it like everyone else?"  The answer is I am not built that way and neither are most of my students.  The problem is we continue to try and put kids into the pre-designed holes that we have created for them.  It's ok if they don't fit because we will either chip away at them until they do or we will cast them aside and let someone else try to make them work.  Let your kids be a Flick.  Let them have great ideas and do whatever you can to make them a reality.