More Than Devices

In last week's post, I ended with a shout out to Laura Warmke for helping me work through some new ideas to replace an old project.  This week, I thought I would share about Laura and her role in our school because it might be unique.  At the very least, it is rare; and it should not be.  Laura has made us better teachers, and I'm not sure I can give a higher compliment than that.

Let me start with a bit of history.  When I started at GRACE fourteen years ago, teachers were calculating grades with a calculator and a pencil.  I created a spreadsheet, and I think my colleagues viewed it as sorcery.  During the years that followed, our school slowly grew in technology by allowing students to bring their own devices and encouraging teachers to learn new things.  As new teachers were hired, they brought new skills and ideas.  The whole time, we were encouraged by our IT Director, Diane Scro.  She supported, taught, trained, and cheered us on in our efforts to come forward.  She even convinced our head of school to start implementing Smart Boards in our classrooms.  Big SHOUT OUT to Diane for pulling us forward.  Diane was joined seven years ago by Sean Blesh, and that team was the force behind our one to one program.  Together, they held teachers hands as we learned Mac and began to implement technology based lessons into our plans.  They both understood that they were dealing with teachers across the spectrum of skills and fear when it came to technology and were able to move everyone forward.  Big SHOUT OUT to both Sean and Diane for the way they led us during this time.  They couldn't have been better resources.

Five years ago, our librarian moved to Tennessee.  That's when we hired Laura.  If you are over thirty, you probably think of librarians as older women who tell you to be quiet, lest you disturb the books.  That is wrong.  They are now media specialists.  That's not just a PC term like "administrative assistant."  Media specialists will still lead you to the book you need, but they will also help you find information from credible internet sources, connect you to visual media, make sure you are staying within fair use guidelines, put it in a perspective of research, teach your class to do more than google, and possibly connect you with an expert.  It's not just about books anymore.  Laura is all these things, but she is also someone who cares deeply about teachers and helping them make the best lesson possible.

Two years ago, Laura's husband finished his PhD and got a job in the Midwest.  For some reason, Laura wanted to live with her husband, so she had to move to Indiana or Illinois or whatever too.  I was not okay with this; but as He often does, God made it work even better than we knew.  We now have a wonderful new media specialist, Daniel O'Brien (Big SHOUT OUT to Daniel for implementing Maker Spaces and our 3-D printer), but we also didn't lose Laura.  She became a telecommuting technology coach.

Let me say that in different words.  We have a faculty member who lives over a thousand miles away!  She provides all the support and love she always did, but she does it using Google Hangout (while staying home with her babies).  Every quarter, I have at least one meeting with her just for the purpose of talking through new ways to integrate technology and create more depth in our lessons, especially challenge based learning projects.  She is also available by e-mail, and we share some google docs for things that require more extended collaboration.  She physically comes in for teacher week at the beginning and end of the year and for the North Carolina Technology in Education Conference; but most of the time, we just see her head.  This happened because GRACE understands the need for teacher training in technology.  No matter what devices a school has, without teacher training they might as well be a chisel and stone.  All schools should have someone like Laura (NOT Laura, she is ours), someone who is looking out for the deeper application of technology rather than just the use of it.  It's the way to make your one to one program more than devices.

Trading in Tradition

One of the funniest things I have learned from teaching at a school long term (14th year at GRACE) is that kids are intolerant of new ideas.  Sound crazy?  Aren't millennials early adopters of technology?  Aren't they seeking novelty?  Aren't they progressive?  The answer to all those questions is, "Yes, unless it is about education."

When students come to visit, they remember everything I did with them.  They ask if I have talked about twinkies yet.  Sadly, the twinkiesproject website no longer exists, or I would have used it forever.  They ask if we have done the egg drop project yet.  They even ask about certain jokes I tell.  They remember everything and will not hear of my changing any of those things.  They are traditions, set in stone.  No one is allowed to say they graduated from GRACE without hearing the story of Max (my first cat) getting stuck in a tree.

This year, there is a big change happening in my classroom, and I am already hearing negative feedback from older siblings of my students.  As of this year, I am dropping "The Atom Project."  For seventeen years, I have assigned each student an element, had them build a Bohr model of the atom of that element, and do research on the history and uses of said element.  This year, I am dropping this project in favor of one in which my students will research various topics related to the nucleus of an atom (radiation cancer treatment, nuclear power, nuclear weapons, fusion, irradiation of foods).  Former students have told me I can't make this change.  I don't know what kind of power they think they have, but they keep telling me that their brother should have to make an atom model.  They can't believe I would not have this project.

Don't get me wrong, this was a good project.  I would not have assigned it for seventeen years if it hadn't been.  However, there are reasons to change a project, even a good project.  I modified it over the years.  The model never really changed, but the presentation of research went from a written essay to a podcast to a newsletter to a website.  These were modifications in presentation, not content. They were reactions to technological changes, not scientific ones.

You may be asking yourself (as my former students ask me), "Why change it?"  There are two reasons.  One is personal - the other pedagogical.

Personal Reason:  I'm tired.  I'm tired of grading this project.  I'm tired of counting beads, cotton balls, puff balls, styrofoam balls, thumb tacks, pennies, and the gazillion other materials used to represent protons, neutrons, and electrons.  In a quick calculation, I estimate that I assigned this model to 945 students.  They have built models from carbon (36 particles) to plutonium (327 particles), I believe that I have counted over 185,000 subatomic particles in my career.  Then there is the paper.  I haven't learned anything new about an element in a long time.  When I am a senile old lady, pushing a shopping cart down the street, people are going to be confused why I keep muttering, "Aluminum is the most abundant element in the earth's crust."  It is because I have read at least 30 papers that started with that sentence.  I'm tired.

Pedagogical Reason:  Personal reasons aside, there are real reasons to change projects.  The old way is at a fairly low thinking level.  It is very concrete and doesn't incorporate 21st Century Learning.  Students do come away with an understanding of the atom and certainly some of the applications of elements they might not have known before, but I don't think they come away with much understanding of why that is relevant to their lives.  It consumes from the internet (which has value), but it does not contribute to the internet.  The new project will still require them to understand the nucleus of the atom because they will have to learn in it in order to explain the technology.   However, they will also have to apply this understanding to busting myths about nuclear activity.  They will get to see the relevance of how knowledge of the atom led to improved cancer treatment, or how their food could be preserved if we allowed it to be irradiated with gamma rays.  These are things that apply to the lives they live in the 21st century.   They will get to decide as a class how they want to present the research (make a website, put videos on a youtube channel, hold a summit).  In this way, they will be contributors, not just consumers.

If you are a former student of mine, you should know that some of the things I did with you are different from the class before you (unless I taught you in 1998).  You want teachers to have new ideas.  You want us to improve.  Teachers who have the same year over and over for their entire career are not teachers you want to have.

PS - Big Shout Out to our technology coach, Laura Warmke, for her encouragement and willingness to brainstorm ideas with me.

New Additions

When you enjoy working in a school, it is difficult to watch people leave.  You know that a great school is made, in part, by the delicate balance of personalities and giftedness of the people who work there.  When that school is a Christian school, however, it is a bit easier because you can trust that God has the best plans for both the good of the school and the good of the people who have left.  That's why it is always so interesting to incorporate the new people into the roles vacated by those who left.  (Note:  I have intentionally not said "those who replaced" those who left because no one is replaced.  Their role is filled, but the person who fills it is usually very different and puts a different mark on the job.)

This year, we have some new people that have come in and become part of the GRACE community as though they were always here.

Our new head of school, Mr. Bradley, has brought a positive presence that fills the room.  He understands the challenges of teaching, but he doesn't focus on them.  He keeps his eye, and by extension, our eyes on the bigger picture.  He keeps us thinking about the mission and vision of the school.  He focuses our discussions on gratitude, even giving us all thank you notes to send to someone in our lives.

Our new math teacher, Buddha Nepal, has big shoes to fill.  He is coming into a job held by his beloved predecessor for fourteen years.  He couldn't be more different than she is.  She is calm and quiet; he is excited about everything.  She is still in our family, and he is becoming a brother.

The English department just keeps growing, and I am super excited about our new 8th grade English teacher, Kellie Petty.  I knew her last year as the mom of one of my students, and she was my favorite parent-teacher conference of the year.  She and I will be working closely together on some projects and papers and the 8th-grade cross-curricular blogs.   She is so fun, and I am psyched to work with her.

As GRACE has grown, we have lost some great people.  We've also gained and lost some electrons (science-y people will get it) over the years.  I'm excited about the future as we move forward with these new additions to our community and grateful for those who stay in touch after they have moved on to other places.

The Olympics, YouTube, and Teaching Physics

I have been teaching science for eighteen years now, and I have taught physics for fourteen of those years.  During that time, there have been four Summer Olympics as well four Winter Olympics.

In my first five years of teaching, I kept a blank tape in my VCR (yep, that's how long ago we are talking).  When something happened that could be used to demonstrate any concept I taught, I hit record.  This tape contained the launch of the space shuttle, several olympic events, a few commercials, even a recording of the time Tulsa's weather man had laser eye surgery live on the air.  I used this tape for a long time because visual demonstrations of physics being used provide meaning and relevance to learning.

Then, in 2005, the greatest thing that could ever happen to education happened - the invention of YouTube.  It wasn't intended for that.  In fact, it was created as a way of archiving news footage for public watching (or as an online dating service, depending on which of the founders you listen to).  The internet being the modern equivalent of the Wild, Wild west, people decided they would use it
however they wished and began uploading everything from cat videos to Star Wars parodies.  Somewhat slowly, colleges began to see the power of posting lectures online, and YouTube provided a convenient place to do that.  Smart phones and apps gave people the ability to upload anything from anywhere, so we now see almost every aspect of life posted on YouTube.  I even repaired my shower by using a video from the Home Depot You Tube Channel.

In the past few years, YouTube has become my "go to" source for science demonstrations that are too dangerous or expensive to be done live.  It has also become a source of illustrating science topics.  When I am doing my lesson plans, I go to the site and type in the topic of the day.  Whether it is the Doppler effect or chemical bonding, I can always find an animation that will help a topic make more sense to my students.  Sometimes, I can't remember how I taught without it.

This post is being written one week into the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.  I just went and searched the term "Rio Olympics 2016" and received a return of 3,180,000 results.  As a physics teacher, this is amazing.  I can show angular momentum using a perfectly synchronized dive from the China team, Newton's third law of motion by showing Katie Ledecky crush her 800m freestyle, or the impulse
momentum theorem by comparing a Simone Biles "stuck" landing with other gymnast who took that extra hop or step.  I can even teach chemistry by explaining why the pool water in Rio turned green.  By the way, there is a lot to be gained using the winter olympics as well.

What I used to do in a clunky way with a VHS tape that I had to fast rewind to the right point in between each class, I can now do at the speed of thought.  It can happen on the rabbit trail if a student makes a connection I didn't expect.

I haven't even mentioned the YouTube channels that provide education on purpose.  There are some amazing resources, among my favorites are Crash Course and Khan Academy and Discovery Education.  There are also some of the great shows, like Modern Marvels and How Its Made.  These are also great resources for review and engagement.

Technology gets criticized frequently for its potential negative effects on education.  Reports often focus on attention span, distractibility, and students not being taught basic information because they can just Google it.  Those are certainly issues that need to be addressed, as teachers have always needed to adapt to the impact of any cultural change.  Like any tool, the effectiveness comes from how it is used.  I would encourage all teachers, no matter the subject, to use YouTube daily.  Before long, you will have the encouraging experience of your students sending links to you.  That's when you know you have inspired learners.

First Day Jitters - No Matter How Old You Are

A veteran teacher told me today that she was so nervous, she was nauseated.  She has been teaching for well over a decade.  I am entering my 18th year (14 in the same school), and I'll admit that I was also nervous at the start of the day.

No matter how old you are, the first day leads to butterflies.  I would imagine that a teacher's nerves come from a different source that those of a student.  It isn't like we are wondering who will sit at our lunch table or whether we will get lost on the way to class.  We worry about much sillier things.  I, for example, have spent every first week of school for the last seventeen years wondering if I forgot how to teach during the summer.  It has been two months since I taught anything to anyone, after all.  What if I don't know how to do this anymore?  I have dreams in which I cannot get my classes under control.  This past year, I had a dream in which our new head of school demanded to know what was on specific pages of the textbook.  He is not at all like that, but my brain played that trick on me.

I saw an interview once with a stage actress who had been doing the same show for several years.  The interviewer asked if she still got nervous before going on stage.  She said that she did and that if she ever had a day when she wasn't nervous, she would know it was time to stop.  She talked about using the nervous energy for her performance.  If her character was supposed to be angry, she could take the adrenaline of her nervousness to fuel her shouting.  If she was supposed to be sad, she could use the nerves to make herself cry.

Last night, as I watched the women's gymnastics in Rio, I noticed how each of them was handling nerves as well.  Everyone had them, I'm sure, but some seemed more willing to use them to their advantage than others. Maria Hernandez seemed to be using the adrenaline to add  dance-y moves to her routine.  Simone Biles was using hers to dig in and gain power for vaulting.  One poor girl from China made a simple mistake and wasn't able to recover from the nerves for the rest of the night.  She fell several times.


Based on the experience of students, teachers, actresses, and gymnasts, I have come to realize that the trick isn't to eliminate butterflies.  The trick is to use them well.

Teachers at the Start of the School Year

When I was a student, I never thought much about what my teachers did before the first day of school.  If I thought anything about it, I'm sure I must have understand that they hung stuff up in the classroom.  I guess I would have also realized that they must have copied the handouts they gave us on the first day of school.  I had no idea that they had larger thoughts in mind.

As I reported back to school this week, very little of what I did was focused on preparing for the first day of school.  That will come, but there are also bigger conversations happening.  We opened with worship and a discussion of our mission statement.  From a previous post, you know how large our mission statement is.  We talked about each item in it and what it means at school.  Our new head of school talked about our vision and why it was important.  We had a Maker Faire in order to inspire each other to reflect our Creator by being creators.  As our school is encouraging students to be makers, we wanted to remind ourselves and discover hidden talents in each other.  We discussed what skills these types of learning build in our students that are not built other ways.

On Friday, we had many different meetings to discuss project based learning.  Each teacher that had an idea for one (which ranged from Tiny House building in Geometry to providing electricity for missionaries in Physics to a History Department initiative to make every student in expert in a particular world region).  Some of these discussions were brainstorming; others involved incorporating multiple classes into the same project so that students can learn that life doesn't exist in 45 minute segments that never overlap.  These discussions are inspiring, not only because they reflect the depth of education philosophy in our teaching staff but also because they reveal the innovation that new and veteran teachers alike possess.

Don't get me wrong; we will have all the nuts and bolts discussions, arguing about drop/add policies and discussing schedules.  All of that has to happen, but I am so glad to be in a school that never lets the urgent drown out the important.  By the way, we have a lot of fun doing it as well.  Need proof?  Here's our English department.

Summer Reading

I mentioned in my post It Must Be Nice that one of the best parts of summer was reading for pleasure.  Since it has been far to hot to do a lot of walking (or really going outside in any way at all), I have done A LOT of that this summer.  Since I go back to school this week, my reading for pleasure will have to significantly decrease.  Here's what I've gotten to enjoy this summer.

Even during the summer, teachers read about school.  

1.  I checked Reality is Broken was a recommendation from our Technology Coach.  I can't say I loved it quite as much as she does (and I'm always skeptical of books that promise to "make us better"), but I did get some valuable insight into the thinking process of gamers.  

2.  I ordered The Way They Learn when I was at a seminar and saw Cynthia Tobias speak.  I've been teaching long enough to know learning styles, but Cynthia is great about giving practical advice you might not have read before.  It's worth the read just to hear her stories (although those are better live because her delivery is fantastic - I wonder if she does her own audio books).  

3.  Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer was assigned by the school as summer reading.  It's the best book they have ever assigned us to read.  I now have another of his books, The Cost of Discipleship, on my reading list for the future.  

A couple of years ago, my mom gave me the complete collection of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for my birthday.  There are 57 short stories and 3 novels.  Early on, I decided that I would enjoy the experience more if I didn't binge on them.  I tend to alternate Sherlock stories within all of my other book reading.  In this way, I can enjoy "new" ones for years.  I will admit to reading the "Empty House" immediately upon finishing "The Final Problem" because I couldn't stand leaving Mr. Holmes dead at the bottom of a cliff.  Reading these has given me an even greater appreciate for the brilliant BBC series that I already loved.  Steven Moffat and Mark Gattis have taken elements from these stories and made really fun and quirky allusions to them in the show.  The show is enjoyable without knowing them, but recognizing them in the episodes makes for richer repeat viewing.  It has also made reading the books for the first time really fun because as soon as I come upon a little item, I can stop and say, "Oh, I see what they did there."  I recommend Sherlock Holmes to anyone who loves reading.

I started listening to R.C. Sproul on the radio a few years ago.  When I purchased a Reformation Study Bible, it came with some Free e-books.  These are two of them.  I am currently in chapter two of Believing God: Twelve Biblical Promises Christians Struggle to Accept by his son, R.C. Sproul, Jr.  What I appreciate about both is that they tackle very complex topics, but they explain them in ways that are accessible to the average reader.  Unlike a lot of theological writings, I don't feel like I need a seminary degree to deal with their writing.  Search just about any theological question you have on  www.ligonier.org and they will likely have a book or essay that addresses you question.

I didn't intend to let the Harry Potter franchise pass me by; it wasn't a decision or anything.  I had just never gotten around to reading them.  Last year, I had to admit to a couple of freshmen that I had neither read them nor see the movies.  They - were - horrified.  One of them had to get up and walk it off in my classroom.  I promised her that I would start reading them this summer and that I would finish by the time she graduated.  Well, they were a lot quicker reading than I was expecting, so I actually got through the first five.  I have also now seen the first five movies.  I am slightly bothered that the books got better with each reading but the movies peaked at number 3.  The director left so much out of 4 and 5 that I was disappointed by the things I was missing.  Anyway, thank you to Caroline for getting me to read these.  It may be next summer before I can read the other two, but I will greatly look forward to them.

The author of this book was a freshman in the first school I taught at in Oklahoma.  Her dad was also my pastor.  We are now seventeen years later, and she has become a wife and mother of two.  Her daughter has Down's Syndrome, and this book is about the journey from the shock of diagnosis to the understanding that God's sovereignty placed this child in her home for a reason.  If you know someone with a special needs child, I recommend this book.

We now live in the world of pragmatism.  If you read my blog, you know that I hate the cliche, "It is what it is."  We also live in the age of "slacktivism," believing that using a hashtag is the same as doing something or that they are philanthropists if they dump ice on their heads.  We don't have a lot of people who truly fight for right in the modern world.  For that reason, I chose to read about these two great men of the past.  

1.  I had seen the film version of Amazing Grace, but the book by Eric Metaxas gives so much more detail that it is an even more inspiring story.  William Wilberforce did not drop his cause when it became difficult or even when it cost him his health.  He devoted his life to ending the slave trade.  He pounded at what seemed futile for decades, and we owe him a great debt.  

2.  Do you have an English translation of the Bible in your house?  Chances are that you have more than one.  You take it for granted that an English speaking person would have access to the Bible in their own language.  You probably don't know that the reason you have it is because some very brave men gave their lives for it.  The  British government was so intent that no one have an English Bible that they passed a law, making it illegal for anyone to write or print a new book without official approval.  Was this a misdemeanor for which you would be slapped on the wrist or fined?  No.  According to the law, "an offender would be marked with a red-hot iron, and his eyes would be plucked out of his head or his hands cut off."  Knowing this, William Tyndale hid during the time he was translating the New Testament from the original Greek and teaching himself Hebrew so that he could translate the Old Testament faithfully as well.  He was caught and executed before he could complete his work, so other brave men took up the cause.  We think we have sacrificed when people look at us strangely for praying at meal times, but these people knowingly risked their lives.  

Endurance - Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing as recommended to me by the head of our English department in response to a Shackleton quote I retweeted.  She knows books, and she said she thought he was one of the greatest meant of the twentieth century.  After reading this book, I would have to agree.  First of all, it is a non-fiction book, but it reads like a novel.  As I was reading it, I kept thinking, "If this isn't a movie, it should be."  I have just learned that there are two movies, one with Kenneth Brannagh and one with Liam Niesen, so I will soon be ordering one or both of those from Amazon as soon as I finish this post.  I couldn't believe how many thing happened to these men.  I kept reminding myself that these were, in fact, real people and not just book characters.  It is excellent.

After I have finished Believing God, I plan to read a book that has been sitting on my nightstand for years, My Vision for Mars by Buzz Aldrin.