My How Times Have Changed

One of the stories I read to my class every year as part of a unit on friendship, is the story of Jackie Robinson. Today was the day to read it to this year's class. I did it this year without crying. That was a first.

Jackie Robinson was the first black man to leave the Negro Leagues and play Major League Baseball. It was radical and provocative and attracted a lot of emotion. Luckily, Jackie Robinson had Pee Wee Reese on his team - a man who recognized something had to change.

I find the stories of segregation and of how people treated people because of their skin colour embarrassing.  I do, however, find great comfort in how shocked my students are to hear about segregation and of the apathy people showed at that time. My students sit with their mouths gaped open as I explain what segregation means. The idea of having a league based on skin colour was bizarre to them. When I tell them about hotels not letting black people stay there and restaurants not serving black people, and fountains for white people and fountains for black people, they sneer at me. They don't believe me. When I tell them this really did happen they look at me like I must be kidding. There is so much more...but I only tell them a little....a little of the Jackie Robinson story.

I am so grateful that I live in a time where people aren't treated differently (well, not to the same degree) because of their skin colour. I hope one day our society will get even better at it. 

 I am grateful for the pure hearts of children. I try to be more like them.

Kahoot!

Last week I went to a great conference. One of the amazing things about the conference was that at meals people were so excited about the things they were learning that the conversations were often on just that.

One of my friends asked me if I had heard of Kahoot!. She hadn't and nor had I. She said that it had been mentioned in a number of workshops we attended. I decide I had to check it out.

Right away I knew it would be perfect for a workshop I have been asked to teach to a bunch of middle school boys. They want me to talk about study skills. Can you imagine anything higher on the "not interested" scale than that?? I figured I had to find a way to present the information in a fun way. Kahoot! Fits the bill!

My first day back I gave it a try. We just had a week off so in math we reviewed some of the concepts we had covered prior to the break. I was astounded at the buy in from the kids. They were very motivated and are eager to do it again!

Later I tried the same quiz with another group of kids. They are a group whose need a little more think time for math questions. I found some kids got frustrated with how quickly everything went. Some were very motivated, but those who had trouble with the concepts didn't seem to enjoy it much at all. They were frustrated. It moved too fast for them. I will have to be careful about when we use this.

Here is a vine of us playing Kahoot.

https://twitter.com/3affca_nwe/status/666318985877655553

Top 10 Things About ATLE Conf

I was privileged to attend the ATLE Convergence Conference this week. It was interesting to rub shoulders with such confident and talented tech educators. Everyone was so positive and encouraging and clever!

Here are my top ten take always from the conference:

1. Rubbing shoulders with great people was amazing. I got to hang out with the tech team from my school board as well as a few teachers as well. I met all sorts of vendors that had amazing products. I had lunch with the SMART people (have I mentioned that I love SMART? I love that company!). Because some of our tech team was very involved in this conference and because some of them are well connected, I got to meet and have good conversations with tech experts from many different organizations. These are great people!

2. Robots and coding....these two things are big, and I really know nothing about them. This is something I have to work on.

3. Food! The food at this conference was awesome! The venue (BMO center) was great too. It is very convenient to get to and  a beautiful facility.

Image from: http://venues.calgarystampede.com/venues/bmo-centre/

4. Great examples of using tech while teaching. One of the key note used a back channel. I have heard of back channels but have never used one. It was fun!  Even the way the conference was organized was exemplary for those of us trying to use technology to make work easier. There were no printed schedules. Everything was on-line. Some things were changed and added as we went and everyone had immediate access to it. Amazing!

5. Twitter: it was fun to be around people who easily and often use Twitter!

6.  New ideas for teaching: I went to a coup workshops for apps that I have used a fair bit. It was well worth the time just to get a few new ideas. One thing is for sure: there is no one way to use technology in the classroom. They key is knowing your audience, working within your jurisdictions requirements, and getting creative. Lunch with other FFCA colleagues was so fun. Everyone seemed to talk non-stop about the conference and cool things they were learning. There was a lot of: you have to check out ......this app or that Web 2.0 tool. I did and they ARE amazing. I am getting ready to introduce them to the staff at my school when we return from Fall Break next week.

7. Prizes! They give away great prizes at this conference! 

8. Google educators: I attended as many workshops as I could in Google tools. I am sold. Google does some amazing things for education. When I grow up, I want to get a Google certified teacher too!

Image from: http://www.karegivers.org/2014/08/cur-educ-ation.html

9. Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach was the last key note speaker. This is one well versed tech guru!! She knows her stuff. She has a company that does webinars for educators. I receive her emails regularly. I think she is on the cutting edge of PD. Amazing.

10. The Daring Librarian, Gwyneth Jones, was the keynote speaker on Sunday night. What a hoot she was!! I loved her fun style. She was so gracious. I tweeted her and she said to be sure to come say hi. I did, and she remembered my name each time I talked to her! I was so impressed. So is by gracious and friendly. She really knows her stuff too. When I grow up, I want to go around inspiring people like she does. 

Me, The Daring Librarian, and the great, Salima Hudani who I get to work with.

Wild Readers

I am not sure how I came across Donalyn Miller. It may have been that I started following the blog she started called The Nerdy Book Club. When I read what she wrote it struck a chord with me. I bought her book, The Book Whisperer and ate it up. Later, I did the same thing with her second book, Wild Readers. I was more than thrilled when I discovered that others in my school district had also discovered her work and were studying it. This year all the elementary schools in our school district began studying this topic. Our first PD days were dedicated to this topic. Yesterday my grade level team spent an hour and a half with Patti, an expert FFCA hired to help us work on issues specific to our grade. It was inspiring to spend time with her. She was chalk full of ideas. She seems to know our Open Court program well and appreciates the good in it and had great ideas for building on it. I left totally inspire and ready to try some of her suggestions.