Reflecting on my Global Classroom presentation at #wcgtc13 #coffeechugPLN

Today at the WCGTC13 I presented my first presentation. I am going to be 100% real when I say I was nervous. My poor wife had to read and respond to all my negative texts about how I was not ready to present at this conference. Thank goodness she is amazing and honest and set me straight.

This conference is loaded with many Ph.D's, university people, consultants, and administrators. There are very little educators here(to clarify, the people mentioned above are educators. I mean classroom teachers). Most presentations are quite heavy on stats, research, and studies. My presentation had none of that, but spoke from real world experience and my heart.

I had to wait for three other speakers in my room to speak before I spoke. It was nerve wracking to say the least. I was very nervous and had the shakes before speaking. We actually had a pretty good crowd. However, once I stood up and started speaking it just took off. I was in my groove speaking about what I love and believe in as a teacher. From that point on I was good to go.

I think the presentation went well.

Thanks to +Ginger Lewman who tweeted during my presentation and has been amazing at challenging all my thinking at this conference for some tweets to give me real feedback. If you know Ginger she is very honest and straight forward so I respect all of her ideas!

@coffeechugbooks Laying it down so simply and do-able. Nods and quiet "ah's" from the audience. Good laughs. Relaxed learning. #wcgtc13
— Ginger Lewman (@GingerLewman) August 11, 2013

@GingerLewman @coffeechugbooks talking abt how 2 stir up intrinsic motivation by removing grades 4 feedback #wcgtc13 pic.twitter.com/tmPzrwVqXs
— gtchat (@gtchatmod) August 11, 2013

@coffeechugbooks "If you're asking me if a project is 'good enough' you're saying already that it's probably not." #wcgtc13
— Ginger Lewman (@GingerLewman) August 11, 2013

In my short time I had to speak I think I made my point clear about the importance of a global classroom. This should really be essential for every classroom. If we want students to be ready for the real world why are we not bringing the real world to the classroom? It just makes sense. I hope that I inspired my audience to think about how they teach and what their schools are doing. We have to give our students full engagement and in order to do that we must bring the real world to the room so they see the practical use in what we are teaching.


You can see my slides below. This is a new presentation and angle that I previously have not used. I think it is much more polished than some previous presentations.

The best part about presenting are the conversations that happen afterwards. I feel blessed that so many connected with me after to investigate more insight and ideas. This is the best part. I feel successful as a presenter because of the many conversations I had as a result of the presentation. I can only hope my presentation tomorrow morning goes as smoothly. It is a new presentation, but one I hold quite dear to my heart and soul as a person and teacher.

Here are my slides, but they won't provide much without my words. I will speak on slide styles at a later date. But, if my slides tell the whole story, then what use it for me to speak?

Creating a Global Classroom #wcgtc13 from Aaron Maurer

Below is the handout I created for the session. I hope that many will answer questions and give suggestions on the Google Doc.



It was a success. I feel good. My many hours of work to get ready paid off. Now off to get ready for the next presentation which is quite early! Get some sleep and be ready to think about your own passion!

Coffeechug Cafe Podcast #2: Why Classrooms Need To Go Global and Real World

Click to Listen

I do apologize for my voice during this podcast. I had a bit of a head cold as of late. I hope to be back to normal soon.

In order to go global in your classroom and develop a real world audience, you have to first understand WHY you need to go global and bring in a real world audience. I believe there are four key reasons WHY you need to connect with the world and bring down your classroom walls before you learn HOW to accomplish this goal.

• 1. Power of One

• 2. Idea Generated Jobs

• 3. Real World Skills

• 4. It is our reality

This podcast will address why these four reasons are so important for understanding why we need to expand our classroom boundaries to a global perspective.

I will be creating a future podcast about HOW to do this and share my experience and journey from starting very small to where I am today. There is not enough time in one podcast to do both.

Listener Questions

Brett Murrey @Sciology asked two great questions

1. How do you increase your audience to reach more people in a global classroom?
2. How can I develop myself as an educator to bring exposure to my teaching practices for real world or global classrooms?

Announcements

• Still looking for suggestions for a 10-15 second theme song.
• If you are interested in connecting for a podcast let me know. I am always open to ideas so if there is something I share online via the #coffeechugPLN, this blog or elsewhere that you want to know more about please let me know.

Episode Resources

In this episode I mentioned several resources, including:

• Book: The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas Friedman

• Book: Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin

• Book: Purple Cow by Seth Godin

• Podcast: Episode #1: Passion Driven Classrooom

• Software: Audacity
• Choose2Matter Project
• Blog posts on Choose2Matter - Passion, or Email Discussion, Teacher Reflection #1, Teacher Reflection #2

Subscription Links

• http://coffeechug.podomatic.com/

• iTunes Channel

Your Feedback

If you have an idea for a podcast you would like to see or a question about an upcoming episode, please email me at aarmau (@) gmail (dot) com or you can leave a comment.

Also, if you enjoyed the show, please rate it on the iTunes Channel and write a brief review. That would help tremendously in getting the word out! Thanks.

Question: "What is the right kind of education to prepare our students for the future?" Please leave a comment with your answer!

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas on what I shared. Thanks for listening.

@FlatClassroom @EracismProject Global Debate Learning From Teacher Perspective

I know, you are probably thinking what in the world can I possibly have to talk about in regards to the Eracism Global Debate project?

I have blogged about this project several times(see the end of post to see past reflections). Well, I have some more ideas to share. I have learned that I am not good enough yet and have made preparations to be better as an educator. Talk about a model learner! Yes, I admit that I could have been better as a teacher. That is the truth and I accept that.

Doing this project for the second time, but with a younger group of students was essential for me to realize that I have more to learn. Without this opportunity I would have never known.

Working with sixth grade students on this project has really changed the operations of this project. Here are some issues that I did not discuss in the first 6th grade reflection.

1. They need more strict guidance and focus because they are just too immature mentally and socially.
2. Many don't use Facebook or social media tools so this just debunks the whole notion of them all being online using these tools.
3. Wait......why are they not online connecting to learn besides the apps that lead to nowhere good?
4. Structure on how to do research because they really have no idea how to gather research and piece it together as a team.
5. Teach them how to listen. They don't know how.


So, what I am going to do about it?

1. Google Research in Google Drive - I recently realized that I am an idiot for not using this tool. I will require this tool for them to research. I will teach them and the first thing we will do is create an annotated bibliography using the tool to gather research and work through the How-To's. I made the mistake of assuming that they could find an article, extract the proper information and share it with their team. They made a feeble attempt, but I needed to give more step by step direction and then let them go. I left it too open too soon and we struggled in this area during the first round.

2. From the annotated bibliographies of each student I will have them critique the information provided to get them ready to create rebuttals in the debate. Having them look critically will help them listen. I think by doing this activity throughout in terms of arguing the merits of the article or book will help them process the information while at the same time working on persuasive skills needed to debate. While debating we wanted to talk like it was a summary and not really sell our ideas.

3. Teach them to create a chart and how to document the information shared by the other team. As opposed to just a blank piece of paper to capture ideas I will give them a template to follow. I have found that the open piece of paper is too broad and they miss out on key phrases and facts to respond to. There is not enough time to listen to the debates twice so they have to be on the spot. When I judge debates for this project I use a grid system and for some reason I never thought to teach my students the method. We used it second round and it worked so much better. It forces them to key in on key facts and phrases and learn to scheme and strategize much more efficiently.

4. Evaluate their scripts and statements for grammar and spelling. We often don't have time to cover this in great detail, but with so much time on speaking, listening, writing, and research why am I not hammering this big time? Time to bring out the guns and teach them. This will help them in organizing ideas as well as speaking.

5. Kick kids out who don't work. I give them several chances to work and warnings, but this is not a required class. If you are just going to goof around and mess up the document, leave immature comments in the Google comments, and not contribute.....see you later. Grow up and try again. Sometimes I need to be a bit more harsh. I like to let them learn and let the group bring them in, but 6th grade they don't do this. In 8th grade they will call the person out, but not at this level. I need to be that person. I think if I remove them after giving some warnings and vision about what to do, then they have had their chance. If it continues, then remove them. They need to realize this is a great opportunity to learn. If you don't want to be passionate about it, then perhaps this is not for you. I really believe that sometimes removing a student from an opportunity like this can be a wake up call that they need to take advantage of what is being provided to them. I don't think they always understand this. Once they have lost that chance, they will realize it and next time around they will be more focused. And yes, I have that luxury over most teachers as this is an enrichment opportunity. I am blessed to hold that over their heads which I know most classroom teachers don't have this, but I need to use this when needed.

It has been an interesting journey for me. I have found myself more frustrated with the sixth grade compared to 8th grade, but I have to remember they are lacking several key tools, skill sets, and thought processes that 8th grade came to me with. My frustrations stem from me not preparing them as well as I should have and therefore I point the finger at myself and not them. I have to step back and teach them. I assumed too much and that lead to my frustration. Next time I will take care of the gaps and I know that it will resolve the frustrations I felt during this sixth grade enrichment. I have high expectations and I need to remember that if don't equip them properly how will they ever achieve this status?

With that all being said, I am so proud of how much we turned things around from the first round to the second round. I implemented some of these ideas and the students realized they did not quite work to their potential. I think it was a great wake up call to not win the first round. It knocked them down a notch and made them realize they had to improve and I had to do the same. We were in this together as a unit, the students and I, and as a unit we modified our system to make it work.

It has been another wonderful experience for myself as a teacher and creating a classroom that was able to see growth in learning and engagement. The learning did not stop with a letter grade as I did not give a grade. I told them the world was listening to them and that should be all they needed in order to do well because who wants to sound unprepared to the world? The learning has continued beyond the debate class and I am so excited to work with these students on new projects this year and the years to come.

Any suggestions or thoughts? I would love to hear them. Especially on how to teach listening?

6th Grade Debate Project: Eracism

March 15th, 2013: Flat Classroom Global Debate Project: Eracism
"How do I operate my classroom and run the day to day operations of preparing for a global debate?" 

8th Grade Debate Project: Eracism 

December 19th, 2012

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

December 14th, 2012

Eracism: Global Debate, An Amazing Learning Experience

December 12th, 2012

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

October 25th, 2012
Flat Classroom: Eracism Round 1: AMAZING!

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.

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.

Can You Identify This Bird?

http://eagleeyecamera.wordpress.com/2013/02/07/2-7-13-can-you-identify-this-bird/

Bald Eagle Photo Album Updated - Bald Eagle Days

I have updated the photo album pertaining to our Bald Eagle Project taking place now. This weekend I attended Bald Eagle Days and was able to snap some pictures of an eagle about 4 feet from me. Very cool.

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

To Our Friends in Japan: Part 2

Here is part 2 of our video to our friends in Japan. These are the 4th graders. At the end of the video they have a little challenge for you. Anyone can take the challenge if you want. Just make a video response.

Enjoy!

Here is the link the Part 1 in case you missed it

To Our New Friends From Japan

My two ELP classes have teamed up again with an amazing educator in Japan to work on our writing skills and hopefully develop a project along the way. The package of letters from Japan arrived this week and we have begun writing our response letters.

Friday my 5th grade students responded and received their letters. They loved it! Below is a short video I compiled for our friends in Japan so they can see their letters here in Iowa as well as their new friend that they will be writing to. On Monday my 4th graders will be doing the same and I will create a similar video. Monday afternoon we will mail our package of letters and goodies to Japan.

This is such a rewarding experience to work not only on writing, but to immerse ourselves in culture with the potential for a larger global project.

Here is our video


Here is a slideshow of the individual pictures from the video above.

Global Education Conference 2012: My First Presentation

Friday morning I had the amazing privilege to present at the Global Education Conference 2012. This is a week long conference done completely online and completely free. Last year I was an attendee to many of these sessions. It was my goal after being amazed by so many fantastic people that I would knock down a personal hurdle of mine and present. About a month ago I did my very first presentation at the ITAG Conference. A few days ago I did my very own first online presentation.

Even though I used the same slides and information with both conferences I realized many things that and that both sessions ended up being quite different.

Let me go into what I learned from my online presentation and then I hope you take time to listen to my presentation as well as all the other amazing sessions. It is going to take me forever to get caught up with all the presentations.

1. I presented at 4 am Denver time. What this means is that many people in the US were sleeping. My audience that attended were from a variety of countries like Morocco, Italy, Spain, and India. Therefore I had to quickly think on my feet and remember that making detailed explanations of Common Core were useless as this does not exist in other countries.

2. Presenting online can be more difficult than presenting in person. It is hard to read and gauge your audience. I like engagement and interaction. I was presenting and discussing PLN, Twitter, etc. and I then realized that part of my audience had not concept of what I was talking about. Trying to gain some prior audience knowledge is difficult.

3. Adlib. I had to speak off the top of my head. I had to use the same slides as my ITAG conference, but I soon realized that I need to plan and prepare differently for an online presentation. What works on person does not always work online.

4. I love presenting. I love being with other like minds. I love sharing information and learning from others whether it is online through these type of presentations or in person like the NAGC conference. I have now presented twice in the last month and am motivated to improve my presenting skills and continue to apply for conferences to apply to. I realize I am far from an amazing presenter, but I am getting there. More practice and more presentations will help me in my craft. Perhaps one day I will be good to present at a conference like NAGC and hopefully have one of the key presentations at Global Ed!!!!!

Thanks to anyone who joined and listened to my presentation. As always I am always open to feedback and advice. My next goal is to find a way to present without slides in person! I need tangibles and creative props, but that is my mission.

You can access all links to the Global Education Conference as well as the link to my very own presentation on my presentation wiki

http://coffeechug2.wikispaces.com/Global+Ed+Conference+2012

Book Review: World Class Learners by Yong Zhao

Let me start by stating that this book pretty felt like the ideas were taken from my head and Yong Zhao just brought clarity and data to support the ideas.

This book is a must read!

As the American Education System works towards spending billions of dollars in creating a Common Core curriculum, other countries are trying to emulate what America schools once were. I am not stating that the school system we had was perfect, but it allowed students to pursue their interests and there is a reason that we have more creative awards, innovators, Novel Laureates, and patents than any other country. Forcing everyone to teach the same way is going to cause schools to eliminate those opportunities for students to explore their passions.

This book discusses what America is doing wrong and questions why we want to be like a China education system that can have students pass tests, but cannot innovate? China is striving to be us and vice versa. We are in a pivotal moment right now in education and this book shows what can be if we continue down this path.

It is imperative that teachers have freedom within their classroom. When a teacher can no longer teach a project because other teachers in the subject field don't want to and teachers cannot add their own flare to their subject, then students lose out. This mindset is settling in not only with policy makers, but communities as well.

Parents want more work. More homework, harder classes, more tests, etc. At what point do we say enough! A child should not have to attend school for 6-7 hours a day and then go home to hours of homework each night. It is very important for kids to have time to explore, play, sports, art, music, drama, etc. These avenues allow students to find out who they are and what they want to pursue.

Yong Zhao, the author of this book lays out what he thinks needs to happen to allow students to think like entrepreneurs and prepare for the world. The way things are going right now we are not allowing for this to happen.

This is a well written book. He supports all ideas with several facts, figures, and examples. Being a book review I won't go into all my thoughts and ideas with each section of this book, but I will tell you that this a necessary read for anyone involved in education and wondering what the future holds for us. If we don't start to rethink how we teach and how schools operate we are going to find ourselves falling behind. Creating a national curriculum driven by people who have not stepped foot in a classroom is not the answer. Teachers need to be willing to step up and take risks to challenge their students. As Rabindranath Tagore stated, "Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time."

It is time for teachers to change and adapt how we teach. It is time for administrators to step up to the challenge and change the system. And it is time for policy makers to get out of the way and quit acting like they know what they are talking about. If our students don't prepare to be a global citizen and learn to seek out problems and learn to solve them, then the future could be different from life today! Read this book and find out more about how we can change things to better prepare our students for their future.

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........