ALCOA Eagle Eye To The World: Bettendorf Student Showcase Night Part 1

On Monday, March 18th from 5:00 - 7:00 students who are part of the Bettendorf Schools ELP program conducted a student showcase to show off their work on their independent study projects that they have been working on all 3rd quarter.

We have 85 presentations spanning from grades 4-8. The elementary grades (4 and 5) focused on bald eagles as part of the Eagle Eye to the World project that was created by several teachers and former students.

Students made their way into the middle school around 3:30 after being released from school at 3:20 to setup their stations. We placed 30 elementary students in four classrooms in a manner that gave each student plenty of space to conduct a presentation and to quiet the noise from the hallways. Students had from 3:30 - 4:45 to get ready and prepared. After setting up students could eat pizza with their mentors from 4:15 - 4:45 (we have our elementary students paired up with 8th grade students to offer guidance). Also, during this time they were able to talk with Allen Holloway. Outside of the classrooms we had expert painter Allen Holloway set up painting a bald eagle to show the community all the various career pathways that studying something like the bald eagle. could provide. He was in the middle of painting a current painting of a bald eagle which was just amazing. To watch him work was a sight indeed. I had a chance to speak with him and he was such a remarkable guy. He had lots of visitors passing by and stopping to admire his work. It was a great pleasure to have him for our showcase night. When I was discussing ideas with him I found a couple ideas to be important. First, by sharing his passion for painting students are able to realize that you can make a living out of your passions despite what people tell you. He told me how everyone told him he could not live as a a painter and now he does just that. His story is important for students to hear that they should never give up on their dreams. Second, he talked about how important having something like this is for students. He wished he had something like this project available to him as a student. That was a big compliment to what we are doing and what we are striving to achieve.

Our big goal with the showcase is help our students learn to speak publicly and be able to articulate their thoughts and ideas. If we can begin to develop this in grade 4 and have them speak to hundreds of people on a night like this, then think about how amazing they will be thinking on their feet by the time they graduate. They will be ready for the real world.

Even more important to me about this night is that it provides students a chance to showcase their hard work and talents. I have told the students from day one that if you put in the time and hard work to this project, then you will be busy all night. I don't have to give a grade because the audience response will tell you how you did.

Additionally, this gives the students a chance to show off their work. So often in school kids turn in work to one teacher who looks things over and gives a few comments. This gives them a chance to share their knowledge with hundreds of people That is awesome!

Each student had to focus on one aspect of the bald eagle that they were interested in studying more in depth. They had to create a display and have a station for people to visit. Additionally, to keep things engaging each student was required to have one interactive component. This interactive component forced the audience to engage in the material. When they complete the task, then they are awarded a clue to our scavenger hunt. You can view our scavenger hunt and handout here - http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/Final+Showcase

I will be sharing their stations and work shortly. I have been working on some video and images. In the meantime I wanted to share just one of the things we offered during our showcase on Monday. Below is the painting he was working on. And yes, I have all intentions of buying this print when it is finished.

At 4:45 we began to usher the students and anyone who showed up for the sessions into the auditorium for our next special presentation which I will share in Part 2 coming shortly once the video finishes up. Stay tuned.

You can check out all things about this night and our global project here - http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/

We are currently tracking and keeping a log on the eagles and eaglets. Feel free to help us out. We are trying to crowdsource the documentation of the eagles.

Liberty and Justice: Bald Eagle Updates

Sleeping in on a Saturday Morning

Posted on March 16, 2013 | Leave a comment

Sleeping before the big day? Will today be the day?

Even the birds are waiting for the eaglets

Check the top left screen. There are 3 birds hanging out. They are excited for the new eaglet to arrive too!

Check out more here: http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com

Flat Classroom Debate Project: Eracism - How we operate and prepare

I wanted to create a post about our current project we are exploring in 6th grade. I am working with a small group of students for a global debate project, Eracism, conducted by Flat Class.

We are debating the following topic:  "The use of Facebook by students around the world to communicate with one another does more harm than good."

We just wrapped up our first round debates. We faced a  very powerful school from Indiana, Forest Ridge Academy. As we now prepare for our next debate and wait for the judges decision on which school won I wanted to take time to write up a post sharing how we prepare and conduct class for a global debate.

The whole process and information about this project can be found here: http://eracism.flatclassroomproject.org/

Step 1: My situation is a bit unique. I teach extensions/enrichments. Our 6th grade is currently focusing on the theme of bullying. I thought this debate topic was relevant to this theme. I talkd with the language arts teachers and we assembled 10 students who we thought could handle the workload of regular language arts class and attending class with me. I meet with these students three days a week during their language arts class - Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. They come out of various class periods throughout the day so we are never all together at the same time. I have a group in the morning and a group in the afternoon. We work collectively. So we are not only working in an asyncronous environment online with the other schools, but also in our very own school.

Step 2: Getting Organized: We use Google Docs for everything. We create the following documents:

1. Global Debate Research: Negative
2. Global Debate Research: Affirmative

The next time I run one of these debates we will create both of these right away. This time we created just the negative document because that was our side to argue. In hindsight we should have created both so when we conducted research we could store items for both sides accordingly.

3. Global Debate Script: Negative
4. Global Debate Script: Affirmative

We create two more documents where we can transfer the research into a script to read and practice with while preparing for our debates.

5. Google Form/Survey - We created a survey to poll our school population.

Step 3: Getting Started - Daily Classroom Operations

Each class we meet in my office around a little table


The picture above is one of the groups I work with. We all sit in a circle. I have found collaboration to be more effective this way. In other groups we would go the library, but the computers are in rows so the kids don't talk. This feels more open and the kids really open up, talk, collaborate, connect, and move around as needed. They are little professional workers.

I start each class discussing where we are and where we need to be. We always start with a small group discussion about goals, mini teaching lessons(speaking, word articulation, how to reuse key words, etc.), and then I let them sort themselves out. I will be honest it is difficult for me to not structure it all. I let them figure it out even if it is the hard way. I provide suggestions, but don't force anything. They choose to either use it or go their own route. I really feel that this is the heart of learning. For example, my students know they can do better especially after listening to the other team speak. They followed their process and now know what to do to improve.

After having short conversation the students get to work. They divide themselves into tasks and work. I sit at my computer(to the right of this table when looking at that picture) and I read the script and notes take place. I interject as needed and make sure they are staying on task. I don't tell them directly what to do or write. It is all on them. I give guidance. Each day I will write up a bullet point list on the document of my thoughts and ideas.

I have also made video recordings when I don't see them for days due to scheduling. This example I give more direct insight than normal, but we missed several times to meet and had to record when we returned so I felt the need to really give some specific guidance.




Step 4: Preparing to Record and Record

The debate is all conducted online using Voicethread.

We use my own personal Mac to record because the audio quality is always the best. Before we record we will have practice runs where we time the script, study word count based on various speakers(rate of speech so we can gauge how many words needed). I make everyone speak. We have to have different speakers for all the parts. The rules state that we cannot have one person do all the talking. I go a step further and I don't allow anyone to record twice. Everyone must try to practice and gain experience.

When it is time to debate here is what we do. We have 5 minutes to respond after listening to simulate live debate protocols. We cannot sit and prepare for days for a response. It is a highly stressful moment of time. It is high octane discussion and scramble to assemble a rebuttal. We have our notes pulled up on the laptops and we listen.

Here is our rebuttal process

Here is what we do just to share our strategy for what it is worth. On our end we listen around one computer and take notes on paper. After listening we spend 2 minutes quickly sharing out what we heard and think we should focus on. We then open up our laptops and quickly tidy up our script with the remaining 3 minutes. At the 5 minute mark we start recording with our next speaker. While that speaker is speaking the rest of the crew can go ahead and finalize any last rebuttal notes and ideas. We slide those papers to the speaker and he/she then has to make sense of the notes and speak on the fly. It is very stressful and always a relief to have it done

When we record the speaker sits at my desk as shown below. While he/she records our opening remarks you can see the others working behind the scenes to get the rebuttal prepared. On the desk you can see the notes the others have placed down for him to use to speak on the fly and make it work.


Here is a note exchange en route



We have little note reminders to help the speakers and the note takers like this



After we finish recording we always stop to talk about how it went, what we can do better, did we miss anything, etc.

As of this writing, we have reflected on the process as a whole. We do not have the judges remarks yet. We listened to the whole debate and studied it. It is not personal, but we look at what we can do better and learn from. We have many key take-aways from our first round to get better. That is the great part of this project.....we can always get better.

Now we wait the judges feedback. We are now working to create a script for the other side of the debate so we are prepared. We have to change our whole mode of thought and basically start over.

This is a great project. I hope this post helps shed some light on how we operate. I am sure I am forgetting key things that I will later realize I forgot to discuss. If you have questions, advice, or tips we would love to hear from you!

Teaching Ideas: Eric Collard, Nikola Tesla, and Controlling The Weather

Here is an incredible inspiration for students who might like to be challenged to make a difference.

Eric Dollard has been working on recreating the inventions of Nikola Tesla - who was way ahead of his time.

It is alleged that Tesla was killed at the request of Thomas Edison. http://listverse.com/2012/06/07/10-ways-edison-treated-tesla-like-a-jerk/

Dollard forces us to dig out of the thinking ruts that we all get into.

Here is Dollard's fascinating story:

http://www.jinnwe.com/quest.php?id=1002

Here is Dollard's indiegogo presentation:

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/tesla-round-2-the-mission-of-eric-dollard

Tesla himself can be incredibly inspirational and gifted beyond words.

http://www.kerryr.net/pioneers/tesla.htm

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/tesla/esp_tesla_2.htm

http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_mispapers.html

Inventions and the inventive process have been suppressed:

http://listverse.com/2009/07/31/top-10-amazing-lost-or-suppressed-inventions/

http://usahitman.com/18msie/

Can our weather be controlled?

One of the members of our Innovation Initiative Co-operative inventors group claims to be able to control the weather using radionics devices. While discussing this with him, I suggested that if could do what he says then he could divert a typhoon that I had read about away from Taiwan. I followed the satellite weather images and sure enough the typhoon was diverted. Peter also claimed that he arranged to have a bright sunny day for his niece's wedding. The forecast had been for rain that Saturday. He has a team of people that he works with.

Other claims: the central west USA was in drought situation last summer. He and his team brought rain clouds down the Rocky Mountains to give rain. He and his team have diverted many hurricanes that approached the US from the Atlantic including the big one that was supposed to hit New Orleans again.

CHALLENGE : Come up with a way or experiment to try to prove that he is actually controlling the weather.

Can

http://pesn.com/2005/09/06/9600160_Weather_Modification/

Our Words Matter - A Personal Example

I am sorting through my Gmail account trying to get back to an empty inbox and organized online and real world life. As I was sorting through all these links, emails to myself(I send myself emails all the time), and just general decluttering I was reminded of a very special and cool moment for me.

Vicki Davis a.k.a. Cool Cat Teacher who is an education extrodainer and someone who has really helped me find my passion for flattening classrooms and making global connections bookmarked one of my projects via her Diigo account. I know not a big deal as many people do this, but her words mean so much

Here is the link to her blog and this page - http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2013/01/daily-education-and-technology-news-for_22.html

If you don't follow Vicki, then you have missed out on some integral thoughts, visions, and ideas that can really help  you as a teacher.

A few days before this she had posted a really insight blog post - http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2013/01/3-characteristics-of-people-builder.html

I left a comment in regards to her post because I felt that I needed to. Her words spoke to me. What stood out was her taking time to respond and I cannot tell how good her words felt to me.

I am not sharing this to toot my own horn. I am showcasing this to get to an even more important idea.

OUR WORDS MATTER!

It might be that one sideline comment that students overhears or that one little phrase that we don't think twice about that can make all the difference - good or bad. Her words helped me. They still help me and still hold a place in my mind(obviously here I am writing about it a month later). It is a reminder about how we phrase our words and statements to students, family, friends. Are we really delivering the true message that we want to get across?

Sometimes we need these little positive urges to continue our journey. There are times where I question why I am up late working and up early prepping for the day. I question if it is all worth it when I sit and converse with educators and other professionals around the world to find something to make me better in my classroom. I connect and hear positive things and I am reminded that it is worth it. I always go back to my own kids and what would I want? I would want that teacher always striving to be their best and expecting the same for their students and my own children. I want my kids to come home and tell me that their teacher(s) have a burning passion for what they do. I want to provide this same feeling as an educator.

This weekend I will return the favor of positive words. I am going to handwrite a few positive notes to people and send out. I need to remember how important these words from Vicki were to me and return the favor. Maybe, just maybe, that is all that person needs to keep the journey alive with whatever their passions might be.

And maybe sharing this will spawn others to do the same.

Have a good weekend.

Brainstorming Power Needed!

We have a cool showcase night in the works to broadcast our students knowledge and expertise of their independent study projects. We are working on a way to to bridge all 30 of our projects together. Our current idea is to have each student provide us(teachers) one fact/question that they want each person who visits their station to walk away with as the most important fact. Our current plan is to take these 30 facts and create a handout mystery/scavenger hunt paper to give each person who attends our showcase. Our theme is bald eagles so each presentation is focused on bald eagles in some capacity.

What we need are some ideas to create cool interactive approach to the community finding answers to these 30 questions. We want it to be more than just a piece of paper with questions.

Any thoughts?

Liberty and Justice - 2 Eggs!!! We have another Egg!

2.10.13 Sunday night around 6 pm the world was given another great surprise as Liberty and Justice brought us another egg. That brings us up to two eggs in the nest.

The eggs are about 4 days apart. Eagles will produce anywhere from 1-3 eggs so there is still a chance of one more egg, but no more after that.

Last night I took a picture around 10 pm showing how the eagles were burying their faces to stay warm and trying to get some sleep. They are not nocturnal so sleep at night is a must just like us humans. I don't know how they sleep in this wind. The wind has been crazy lately with the nest swaying all over the place.

Sunday also brought us a ton of rain. The eagles were soaking wet and had to endure the rain and wind all day.

As the day went on the camera was blurry from rain so it was hard to track the eagles for a few hours.

Monday, 2.11.13 I was finally able to see both eggs. How exciting! This is just too cool and these eagles are slowly taking over all my free time!

The wind is giving them a bad hair day!

Here they are exchanging egg warming duties. It is always a quick transition. One flies in, they do a little shifting around and off they go their separate ways doing whatever it is eagles do when they don't sit on the eggs.

Round 2 Reflection of Eracism: Global Debate, An Amazing Learning Experience

The team at work

This morning I was lucky enough to have another group of students take part in a championship round debate in bracket B of the Eracism project. We came to school early arriving around 7:15 to get ready for a 7:30 am debate. This is a small sacrifice to make compared to our friends and debating opponent, AISG from China, who had to stay at school until 9:30 pm to take part.

I have not had the luxury to actually meet with my students since the semi-final debates which were a few weeks back. Between then we have communicated through some emails back and forth. I was just hoping that we would have enough students to come in early to debate as I had not heard from many of them. However, they were all there except for a few so we were ready to go.

Trying to make sense of notes and rebuttals

More random notes to organize on the fly!

We did have a major scare. I am not sure where the miscommunication was between the students and myself, but my students came to my office ready to debate the wrong side of the debate. They had all their notes and information ready for the negative side. We did not catch this error until 7:27 am which was three minutes before we started. In a mad scramble and panic we printed off a few notes for the affirmative side and the students were left to quickly change their mindset, their arguments  and really to have all plans fall to the wayside.

To say that I was proud of these students is an understatement. Here we are hearing the beep of Blackboard telling us it is time to speak and we have nothing prepared. Our first speaker took our notes and crafted a great opening based off the bullet points of our research from months ago. During this time we quickly assembled small squads -

The winning pose!

• some were developing a framework for our second speaker for rebuttal, which when even organized and prepared proves to be the hardest speaking part of the debate
• some were constructing a conclusion to wrap up and drive home key points that we were speaking on the fly 
• some were simply working on organizing any notes that we had and preparing for the other team and getting prepared to argue back

Our secret ingredient: donuts!

If you read my first reflection on this project then you have seen the office that we work in. It is small and quite cramped. We have to shut all the doors which makes the room cook us like hot dogs as the heater in the ceiling pumps a ton of hot air. As we started and continued through the debate not only were we sweating from the heater, but from the intensiveness of this debate as we scrambled to sound intelligent.

In the end, both teams did an amazing job. The topic is difficult.  It is not easy, but to listen to these students articulate their thoughts is impressive.

I am not going to be redundant from my first post reflections because many of those ideas still reign true(click the link above to read), but I would like to reflect on some other ideas.

• I love the ideas that AISG brought up in the debate. The whole notion of new emerging leaders who are empathetic is a great thought to absorb and think about. I need to follow the new emerging leaders and start to figure out how their empathy affects the countries that they lead. We argued back stating that conflicts of many lands go back generations to almost the beginning of time and a new leader cannot make change, but I would like to believe that this is perhaps a start of something positive
• I love the whole notion that AISG brought to the table about education. Projects like this where students from all over the world work together to increase their learning is powerful. How can we continue to push this global education concept to the next level? We debated against one another, but how can we take these projects further where students can begin to build empathy and understanding of one another so that when these students become leaders the acceptance and equity of all people are just common nature? As I was wrapped up with the idea of current events and education from the debates last week, this new thought of mine is also taking hold of any extra brain cells that I have.
• Debating and communicating with students from all over the world does two great things
• Raise the local bar of expectations - Our students knew that they had to bring their A game in order to be ready for these debates. We came across some amazing students, research, rhetoric, and speaking skills. This was a good wake up call that perhaps we are not as amazing as we sometimes like to think. (I don't think the students would ever admit this, but just an observation from a teacher perspective)
• With all the hype in the media about American schools falling apart and not being ready to compete globally with other children is just that....hype. Our students proved that despite all the negative press of education in America, our students are doing high level thinking and can do anything they want to do. The key as a school system is create more opportunities for them to feel motivated enough to challenge themselves while they are within our walls and school days. If we don't provide the necessary challenges and relevant issues we miss opportunities for our youth to expand and explore.

As I bring this post to a close I just want to say that all credit goes to the kids. I shared our victory with my staff and they were all very happy. The kids were ecstatic who participated. It is the joy of their emotions that reminds me that projects like these must continue. They were beyond the notion of grades. They were beyond the notion of just doing school for the sake of school. They wanted to do well. They wanted to make sure they could articulate their thoughts. Even during the moments of this debate when we struggled here and there to figure out what to say they continued to work hard and take measures to do all they could do(being ready for the correct side would have helped with this :)) The intrinsic motivation to learn was beyond anything that I could create in a regular room.

My new favorite line that I read on another blog was -

 I'm the chief learner in my classroom of middle school students.

This line is so true. I have acquired many new thoughts, ideas, questions, and development of my teaching skills through the observation of these students. Eracism has given me a new sense of how amazing students can really be and when we don't think students can do this or that, they can(that is a great reminder for ourselves as teachers!)! Today they could have just quit and said no when we realized we prepped incorrectly. Instead they thought on their feet and did awesome. Their quick thinking to prepare in 2 minutes was more impressive than actually thinking on their feet during the debate. 

Thanks to everyone who judged, participated, and helped to organize. There are too many to name. However, I would love to create a Google Hangout to talk with others about their takeaways, questions, thoughts on global ed, etc. Let me know if interested and I will work on setting a date.

As Vicki and Julie state, "Once you go Flat, you never go back!" My passion for global education has only gotten stronger through the participation of this project.

All of these students that I had the opportunity to work with through both teams that we operated have done nothing but remind me why I love my job! Kids are amazing! Simply put. When they shine and show their talents and you know that it is all them that have done the work, then as a teacher/leader you know you have done your job. I simply sat back and watched them blow my mind. It is amazing what kids can do when you place them in a situation where there is no ceiling but the ones they place on themselves. When they remove that ceiling WATCH OUT! because it is a spectacle to behold.

Eracism: Global Debate, An Amazing Learning Experience

I am not going to blog about the whole journey of this amazing project. You can find all information about Flat Classroom and this particular online global debate project here

You can check out my other thoughts after speaking to Dr. Zeitz from UNI earlier this week

Rather, I am going to reflect about the final championship debate for Bracket C. I want to start off by sharing an email I sent out the students who I was so lucky to work with for this project. My students were 8th grade students that were pulled from social studies for about 6 weeks to do this project. I am ever so thankful for the teachers willing to work with me and being flexible to allow this happen.

Here is what I shared with my student via email this morning. I have removed parts that are not necessary for the sake of this blog post.

Happy Friday everyone!

I have a couple of things to address and final confirmation on the debate against China.

First, team 2B did an outstanding job on Thursday! With little prep leading up the final debate this team did amazing. I am so impressed by the work and articulation of your arguments  I know you were bummed to not win, but I hope you took away some vital learning concepts and life skills. As mentioned that day, you have crafted your skill set to be able to sell your ideas or yourself when you are in the workforce, applying to college or a job! I have received several emails afterwards from teachers who attended the debate speaking on behalf of how impressed they were by you guys! Remember you were in the high school division and you held your own. Great job! I really mean that.

Second, the team 8B you debate has been finalized. It has been very difficult to overcome the 14 hour time zone difference and seeking permission for students to stay late or come early. After many negotiations we have found the following time to work. We will be debating on Wednesday, December 19th at 7:30 am. You will need to be at school no later than 7:15 am to make sure we are ready to go. This is a small sacrifice for us to make considering that this means the students in China will be debating at 9:30 pm. They will probably not get home until midnight due to transportation issues and such. They also don't get to leave school and will be at school for almost a full 24 hours. Please don't make excuses and come prepared. Let us give them a debate they deserve and make the time worthwhile. I have not heard from any of you on this team so I hope that you have been reading your scripts and slowly getting prepared. I will bring in donuts and juice. You will be done with your debate around 8:30 am so missing TA and part of 1st period. 

Some tips we received from the judges when they spoke about why we did not win that could benefit this team are

1. Impact Statement - What is our impact statement? Our slogan/motto that we want to use to drive home our entire debate? This has been missing in all scripts and has been discussed before. Think about it and see how we can incorporate one.

2. Current Affairs - a very interesting statement from a judge from another country and one that has me thinking things over as a teacher and in my curriculum. She mentioned that we need more current affairs in our research. She stated that anyone can pull from a historical text, but students should be able to show understanding of the world in which they live in. Pretty powerful and therefore if you see anything in the news that could be used bring and perhaps work it into our already existing script.

3. We need to be able to have judges feel that what we are saying is important to them. Why is what we are saying important to me(judges, you, students, the world, etc.)? Bring that passion and prove that what we speak about is urgent and important!

When debating we need to make sure we debate face to face. I think this is what cost us our victory this week. When they bring up facts or points we need to debate them directly and head on. We tend to quickly talk about a point and then resort to the script. We need to really pick apart what they opposing team speaks about.

Have a great weekend and please let me know that you read this will be here on Wednesday!

I decided to share this email because I think the information shared from judges and our experience are things that apply to life in all aspects. The examples are focused on the debate, but I always like to think big picture and figure out how what I teach can transfer to real life.

As a teacher I cannot get over #2 on the tips for judges. How do we as teachers bring in the real world? There is so much going on in the world how does a teacher decide what to focus on? It goes back to an old idea of mine where social studies is taught backwards. You find current events and trace the history of the event backwards and explore our past this way. I don't know yet, but I know that as we push for more global education students need to understand the world and cultures. Sometimes I think that reading about the past eliminates time to teach these broader concepts. I don't know the answer, but I am stuck on this piece.

Perhaps at this point I should step back and talk about our debate system.

First, Mrs. Hatch brought in some super power brain food to get us started. Can you start your day any better than with some donut holes?

Next, due to schedule and conflicts we all had to cram into my office. I brought my Mac in as the mic on this is very good and I don't always trust our school equipment. It never seems to work for me. We had to gather around the one computer and listen as best we could. It was not super loud, but loud enough.

These pictures speak volumes to process, learning, and teamwork involved.
























These two pictures show education at a high level. We have students listening, analyzing, and trying to process new ideas and concepts in real time without much time to finalize as a team. During the short quick breaks they quickly dispersed ideas and had to quickly gather all their ideas, write ideas down and looking for that one loophole that we needed to win. It was remarkable. I sat on the floor with my coffee and just watched it unfold. I try very hard to keep my thoughts and ideas out as this is their debate. I do give them things to ponder, but never give facts or information directly.

Go to the debate - http://eracism.flatclassroomproject.org/Debate+Finals+12-2

It is bracket C.

Listen to the articulation of these students from both teams. It is amazing. I have never been part of such high level system of thought with middle school students before.

We have one more team ready to debate against China next week in Bracket B. I am excited to watch them debate and see how they argue. They are on the opposite side so it is much different in terms of thought and strategies. I hope to connect with them before the debate, but who knows. I know they will be ready and I will once again share the information and reflect as well.

I would love to hear from you about the ideas and thoughts shared in this post. What is your reaction? Do you have other food for thought? What would you like to know more about? I want to keep this conversation going because I feel like these students were pushed to a whole new level and really explored their capabilities without worry of grades and rubrics. Rather, they had a live audience that they wanted to impress and do well. THINK Global was amazing we have learned a great deal from them. It is awesome how much we can learn from other schools and students through engagements like this.

This is my first time working a debate and something like this with middle school. As a teacher I learned a great deal about myself and my teaching. I have things to improve as well. More importantly, I am excited for teaching and learning. I am now intrigued by the things mentioned above and how I can make changes to my teaching to bring these concepts to life.

I will be blogging again soon when I have time to gather my thoughts a bit deeper.

ALCOA: Eagle Eye On the Wold - Global Classroom Project - Registration Deadline Fast Approaching

Don't these pictures get you excited for learning, collaborating, and connecting with students and teachers from all over?

I just want to send out a final reminder that December 15th is the deadline for the Bald Eagle Project. 

If you have not yet signed up to join us for this amazing project, then make sure you do by the 15th.

Check out the project page - http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com

The project is going to be amazing and super sweet as we explore eagles and other birds to work on 21st century skills.

There will be a teacher meeting coming up in a few weeks where we will tweak the project to meet the needs of all teachers and classrooms.

Join the wiki and be sure to fill out the registration form - http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/Registration+For+Project

I will be in contact soon with some videos and information. Come join us! We have several big things planned.

Global Education/Flat Classroom: Discussion with Dr. Leigh Zeitz and Students from UNI

Last night I had the awesome opportunity to jump online and chat for a little bit with Dr. Z who is a professor at UNI

You can check out his very insightful blog here - http://drzreflects.com/

I was contacted by Dr. Z last week to speak to his students about teaching and preparing students for a global project. Currently, his college students are the judges for the Flat Classroom Eracism project. This project is an international debate project for all grade levels. It is a very intense, high level thinking project that requires students to use a variety of tools and thinking skills to prepare to debate students from all over the world. I won't go into all the details of the project, but it is one that you should check out. Here is a link to the project page where you can find all information, rules, recordings, etc. - http://eracism.flatclassroomproject.org/

Last night I jumped online and met up with Dr. Z to talk about what it takes to get involved, stay involved, and succeed in online learning project.

You can see the recording at http://univnia.adobeconnect.com/p6zpn2lptwq/

A couple things that I wanted to elaborate on from the discussion is that when you do any project that incorporates other countries and classrooms you have to have persistence and patience. Never think things will go perfect. You have to be flexible and be willing to adapt. I think this is essential to making projects like this work. It also is a great example and teaching moment for your students. For me, I have several students who are perfectionists. It is good for them to see me, the teacher, working and adapting, making decisions, thinking on the fly, and keep an open and honest dialogue with all of them. It is good for them to see that as a teacher I don't have all the answers and sometimes I am wrong. These projects keep me on my toes as a professional and allow me to incorporate teaching life skills as they occur.

A few things that I did not get a chance to talk about in the meeting last night that I think are very important are the following:

1. Real world audience - I touched a little bit about how my students quit asking about their grades. By giving them a real, breathing, living audience the students worked very hard to show others that they could compete, think, and articulate their thoughts. The grade was not nearly as important as not coming across ignorant in these debates and recordings. This is so important in teaching. For about 6 weeks these students came to class ready to engage in material and content for themselves and their learning and not to just get it done for a grade. This is how education should be.

2. My students. They are awesome! My students that I worked with are amazing and really pulled together as a team and assembled great information, scripts, and delivery of content. I cannot take credit for anything they did. I was merely an organizer and devil's advocate. I did not stress this enough, but my students rocked this project and I want to make sure I give them credit!

3.Confidence - For the first time my students were nervous. They are so used to being on the top here in our school, but going global put them in check and gave them a new perspective. They had to learn the hard way that the real world does not just care if you have the facts and figures, but you have to be able to deliver the goods. Speaking with confidence, persuasion, and proper tone to sell your idea is just as important as having facts. This is a life skill and we talked about how this is key to job interviews or pitching a new idea. You have to sell and market your ideas.

4. Student Frustrations - I think this is just as important. This generation lives in the NOW! world where they expect results instantly. They found it increasingly frustrating when teams did not deliver as promised, dropped out, or deadlines were not met. We had several conversations about making sure that if these things bother you to make sure you don't drop the ball on others. Also, working on patience and taking time to understand where others are coming from. We cannot go right to angry mode until we get all the details.

I am ever thankful to Dr. Z for giving me a chance to talk about the project. It has given me time to pause and reflect as well. I leave you with some key links to others things to explore and digest. Please contact me if you have further questions or would like to chat about global education.

Resources to Explore

1. http://coffeechug2.wikispaces.com/ - my wiki page where I have links to resources and my presentations about going global in the classroom

2.http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/ - a projected I created with a few other teachers that will be starting in January. If you are looking for a cool project, then this might be for you. We wrap up registration soon!

3. Flat Classroom Network - http://www.flatclassroomproject.org/


4. Books worth reading

World Is Flat - Thomas Friedman - see notes













World Class Learners - Yong Zhao - My review - This book is an eye opener!





Flattening Classrooms - everything you need to get organize online for global education
My video review of this book!




Last check out all my projects and online connections - http://about.me/coffeechug

Let me know how I can help and help myself in the process

Thanks again Dr. Z

Flat Classroom: Eracism Round 1: AMAZING!

This year I have students participating in another Flat Classroom Project.

I have 16 8th grade students taking part in the Eracism project which is an international debate.

A link to this project is here

The debate topic is

Debate topic:
"Global management of natural resources will cause conflict between cultures"

Talk about intense! My students had to take time to focus on the content, deciphering what this really means, creating research, outlines, arguments, etc. Everything that goes into a debate. These are some of the top students in our building. This project has not only opened their eyes, but my eyes as well.

Aside from gathering researching(basic skills that they are sick of), these students have to take their thinking to a whole new level that I really feel they have not reached before or not too often.

After a team dropped out, both of my teams are debating against THINK Global school located in Argentina. What I found to be most fascinating about this process is during the first day when I exposed the students to this project they all had a common reaction:

• We have to go against other schools from other countries? Awesome! Oh wait, they are going to tear us up. 
• We are the only public school? That is not fair!
• How are we going to beat these teams?

I found this so striking. When time presents itself I am going to have a class discussion about why they felt this way without even knowing who these other schools are and what they do.

My 16 students are spread across three class periods. They don't get to meet together as a collective team due to scheduling so they have to communicate and work together through Google Drive and gmail. It has been interesting. What we have discovered is that nothing works better than face to face communication. In a tech saturated environment, these kids are realizing the power of human interaction.

We are in the midst of our first round debates. We have had two of our speakers speak so far. One team is done presenting and just waiting for the final speaker of the other team. 

What do we think?

Well, I think my kids felt inferior. The speaking skills of the other teams were amazing. We have done an outstanding job preparing. I am quite impressed with the scripts and research we have conducted. One student contacted an author, has been asking questions, obtained a copy of the book, and just started to explore beyond Google. 

My kids felt the pressure of thinking on your feet. They only get 5 minutes to plan a rebuttal after listening to the other team. I cannot even begin to describe how intense my office felt while they were talking, discussing, planning the strategies, and then speaking rebuttals. I am not going to lie. I was sweating I was nervous. And I am the teacher and really play no part in the process. I really wish I took pictures. Actually, I am going to take pictures and video next round so I can show how we operated. It is quite amazing to watch them break down the information, make a plan, write some ad lib scripts and begin recording in a matter of minutes. I am so proud of these kids.

There is such a sigh of relief when the recording ends. Then we talk and celebrate for getting it done. 

As an educator I feel like I am being challenged. This platform challenges me to think of more ways to push my students in this way without it being detrimental to their learning. I think that they are enjoying this project. They know there is a real audience listening to them. At this stage they could care less about grades, but instead they care about sounding intelligent, making sound arguments, and winning!

Now that they have done a few speeches(for a lack of a better term), I feel like we have a grasp on things. We know what to expect. We know how to better prepare. Regardless of how we do first round, we have second round. 

This is their project. I don't even have access to their scripts. I fill their minds with ideas, strategies, how to work as a team, etc. I leave it up to them to organize content, find content, write the words, etc. Should I proofread their scripts? I don't know. Some might say I should. I have decided to be an advocate of the "team concepts" and "thinking skills". I feel that if I read the script, offer ideas, give links, etc. then the arguments become mine. I don't want that. I want them to find their voice. I want them to discover their ideas. I want them to feel like this is truly 100% theirs.

I am fortunate enough to be working with another amazing teacher that runs the Argentina schools. This teacher communicates back and forth daily. It has made life great. This teacher helped when another team had to drop. I feel blessed to be competing against THINK Global. We have learned a great deal from the effective speaking and articulation of their speakers. They are examples of where we are trying to be. 

This is phase one. I will keep things updated and will post pictures and video next time we go through the process. It is too much fun to not document. Education is good when at the end of the day the teacher has learned as much as the students.

My First Presentation Reflection.....FINALLY!!

This nametag made feel more important than what I really am!

Last Monday and Tuesday I attended the ITAG (Iowa Talented and Gifted) Conference in Des Moines. There were over 500 educators, professionals, research experts, parents, etc. in attendance for the conference. It is a massive gathering of some very intelligent people that really make me feel inferior in terms of my knowledge.

 I submitted a presentation proposal about 6 months ago as this was always something that I wanted to challenge myself with doing. It has been a goal of mine, but at the same time I have a great fear of giving a presentation. To make a long story short, my proposal was accepted.

 The title of my presentation was, "Going Global With Coffeechug! How To Go Beyond Your Classroom Walls.". You can view the slides, handouts, and wiki I built for the presentation here.

I spent a great deal of time preparing for this presentation. It underwent about three themes, slides, layouts, and basic structures. I kept changing things because I did not feel it was good enough. I won't go into all the headaches I put myself through, but you can read this post about how I stressed over my handout.

On Tuesday, it was my day to present. I had the last time slot to present. I honestly was not sure about what type of turnout I was going to have. However, the last session really was amped up by the head lady and with about 20 minutes before I was to begin my room was packed. I had a room full of people and thought that this was good. All my efforts were going to be worthwhile. I set a goal of not losing my audience. I did not want anyone leaving during my presentation.

I did what I do best. Tell stories. I gave stories and examples like crazy. Perhaps too much because my 60 minute time slot flew by. I needed more time!!!!!!

I had connected with an amazing teacher from the Philippines who created video of her 1st graders. This video is amazing and a great eye opener about what is happening around the world. It is an eye opener that we are not as cutting edge as we give ourselves credit for! My goal was to give my audience their very first global partner. I wanted my audience to record a short video response to the video for these first graders.

A few stuck around for the video due to me talking too much. We finished and many of them did not want to be on camera. I found this interesting. As gifted educators we are constantly challenging and pushing our students outside of their comfort zone and yet as adults we were not comfortable enough to do the very same thing. Part of this was not knowing everyone, but I figured that since we were talking to 1st graders it would not be a big deal. Very little video was recorded and I quickly had to rethink my plan. I now have my 2nd grade son taking a video into his classroom where his teacher has been kind enough to shoot some video for us to send back to these amazing kids!

So, what did I learn? How did it go?

I give myself a B+. I was very comfortable once I started talking. I want to do less talking and more engagement. I wanted more interaction, but this presentation made me realize that perhaps these audiences don't want more engagement. I created a Twitter hashtag, made a Google Document handout where we could collaborate during the presentation, had a video partner established, and built a wiki for us to further connect. What I found interesting is that nothing developed on any of these levels. I really think they wanted a paper handout and to just listen. That is fine and I need to have this as a plan B next time I present. I need to be more accommodating to my audience. I don't like paper. I don't like to to use paper if I don't need to. I need to remember that not everyone is like me.

I also need to provide more time for questions. I had some amazing questions being asked. The questions drove the presentation. Less content, more time for question and answer. I felt that my audience was engaged. I had a lot of eye contact and more questions than I thought would be asked.

It felt good to present and connect. I am following up on some connections with people who wanted more information. I have already applied and been accepted to speak at the 2012 Global Education Conference in November(time to work on a new presentation) and would like to continue to present and challenge myself.

It was a great experience and a great conference. When I attended other breakout sessions I studied how others presented and how the crowd interacted. I now know that I need to give them the straightforward facts and steps for them to follow. They want specifics. I like big ideas for me to then go back and ponder and create my own path. Not everyone is that way.

Thank you to everyone who helped me along the way. There are too many to name, but Amanda(my wife) had to listen to me a million times and helped me stay focused on organized.

Thanks to ITAG for allowing me to present. I only wish I had feedback from the audience to learn more about what they thought.

On to the next one........

Expect The Best From Yourself: Small Details Matter

Tuesday I am delivering my first education presentation ever. I am nervous. I feel prepared. I spent most of today finalized everything. I will admit that I feel good about what I put together. With anything, I had tremendous help from so many people helping me, offering ideas, suggestions, topics, links, etc. Amanda had to check out all things today when she had other issues.

I have high expectations for my students. Ask any of my 6th grade students that I just wrapped up an extension with and they will tell that I expect a lot from them. In order to expect great things from others you have to expect a lot from yourself.

That is the reason for this post. I want to show my students and others that small details make a difference.

Today I spent more time that necessary working on the layout of my handout. I was not going to hand anything out, but I was advised that teachers love handouts so I agreed.

I started out with this version to begin with:

I used my own face as images because I could not find what I wanted. I originally liked this one quite a bit. However, it was pointed out to me that the glare in the posters behind were tacky. Then I thought that an image of myself could come across as conceited.

So I moved to version 2.0

I was trying to achieve a Zen like approach, but this just seemed to be "off". I don't know, but it did not work and I was frustrated. Then it hit me and I came up with version 3.0

I started to really like where this was headed, but this was still not quite right. I changed some fonts, increased the images just a tad to eliminate white space and reduced some dark shades of black and came up with the final version.

Yes, that looks nice. I like this handout. This is one sharp looking handout.

I expect a lot from myself. This is just a silly handout. The real worth of my presentation is all online with my Google Document and the slides and the website I built for one 60 minute talk.

So, to all my students. I do have high expectations. I expect great things from myself and my family. I expect great things from my colleagues. I expect great things from all people. Why not work to your potential? We are only here for so long so what will your mark be that you leave behind?

In case you care all things for my presentation can be found here on the website I built - http://coffeechug2.wikispaces.com/

Feel free to check it out. As always leave any suggestions or ideas as there is still time to make any necessary changes.

My First Presentation About Going Global in the Classroom - Your Help Is Needed

Coming up in just a few short weeks I will be conducting my very first presentation at a conference. I don't normally get nervous about these types of things, but I am nervous for this. I am nervous because I don't want to suck.

My whole topic discussion is about breaking down your classroom walls to expand your classroom globally. This topic is challenging because I don't know the experience level of my audience. So I have plans to gain their level of comfort and adapt on the fly.

I am presenting at a Talented and Gifted conference 
  http://www.iowatag.org/HTML/conferences.html
 
Here is my presentation description for the conference 

Going Global

This presentation will cover my experiences with taking down the walls of my classroom and expanding globally to bring the educational experience of my students to the real world. This presentation will discuss how I started small and progressed to some amazing projects. I will share various resources and some projects to get started with going global.


Basically, I don't want to just stand in front and talk the whole time and show some slides. I am trying to be more engaging. 

My thoughts so far are this
1. Handout - business card or something more clever with a link to a wiki full of resources(what I am currently working on)
2. Twitter Hashtag for people to connect with my audience online during presentation
3. Intro myself
4. Gain a sense of comfort of audience with connecting globally and adapting presentation based on needs
5. Throughout presentation I would like to have some educators join me via Skype or Google Hangout and share a few things they have learned and possibly even a class join for a short Mystery Skype session to give the audience a live example.
6. Q and A
 
I don't want to just talk. I want an engaging session of conversation and dialogue to make it more meaningful.

I have some possible connections with bringing in some classes and teachers via Skype to make it real time and meaningful. If you are an educator and would like to jump into the conversation about the importance of going global please let me know.

Actually, I just thought of this - if you and your class can make a short little video clip about the impact of global connections and share it with me I can create a little montage of footage to show during the presentation.

I want my presentation to be meaningful. I want the audience to walk away motivated and excited. Being the last time slot of a two day conference makes this tough. However, I can leave a lasting impression.

Last, I am working on a wiki that will act as my electronic handout. At this point I am working on filling this wiki with resources, projects, information, etc. to give my audience and anyone who checks it out a starting point. Please consider joining the wiki, adding whatever you can provide, and leave your name to get credit. Thank you in advance.

UPDATE - Here is a link to the wiki - http://coffeechug2.wikispaces.com/Home

Back to research! If you have anything to add or suggestions please let me know.

Flattening Classrooms Engaging Minds - Video Book Review