Every night Braeden will be required to write his multiplication facts three times each and since this is a strategy that has been repeated without question over the years, many will swear by its perceived effectiveness. Before presenting an opinion, let me remind you of a time long ago when teachers used "discipline sentences" to punish kids for things like talking in class. I remember writing "I will not talk in class" 100 time and I did it by writing all of the "I’s" followed by the "wills" and so on. We called this "columnizing" because we didn’t write whole sentences but columns of repeated words. To be clear, it didn’t work to keep me from talking then and it’s not the best practice for math now. Today, while Braeden was working, I heard him say, "Should I stop when I get to 33 or 36?" I glanced at Braeden’s paper and saw that he was "columnizing" his repeated facts and in doing so, he skipped a number and made a mistake which threw off his pattern. He knew that something was off but again, he wasn’t connecting to the facts themselves but to the pattern that he knew he should have had. Braeden’s method of fact writing was for no other purpose than to finish the task. It wasn’t about learning the facts. It was completely about getting through the assignment in the fastest possible way. This method is not teaching the memorization of the facts themselves but the practice of writing numbers and patterning which may sound appealing except that to "remember" facts, one must first write down the pattern. Some teachers may argue that parents should monitor their children and make sure that they are not recording facts in this way but instead, writing the entire problem before going to the next. I actually did that with Braeden and as he was writing, he was also singing his math facts…turning them into his own little song. Again, I am not advocating for writing in this way either but the song that Braeden made was quite joyous and memorable. If the intent is that students learn math facts, then the follow through to that should be that the practice of learning them should be up to the student. Braeden said… "I would have rather made my own flash cards. I could have also made a few patterns on each one to show the multiplication. I would have loved to do that instead of writing these over and over. My hand hurts. I’m tired. Can I play minecraft now?" Bonus Braeden Minecraft Challenge: Create a structure in minecraft utilizing various representations of this weeks facts up to 12 from the perspective of area. Don’t forget to include signage for each one.

About a week ago, my son was assigned a geometry vocabulary project that required him to choose 30 words from a list and visually represent them. The instructions were as follows… "You are to find these images in the real world. You can personally take pictures, find them on the internet, or find the items in a magazine. You must manually or electronically mark the picture so that I can identify the geometric term in the picture. You will organize these items to present to me in some manner such as gluing the pictures to posterboard, create a "book" of the symbols, or you can do it digitally and burn it to a CD or email them. However, just copied images won’t do, put them in a power point or Prezi presentation. Be Creative!" My son, the same kid who said in his blog post that he was not going to "do a basic ppt", fixed his mouth to ask me to head to the store at 11pm for glue and poster board. That was not an option on any level! Instead, I handed him my ipad and showed him how to use Haiku Deck which enabled him to use its internal image search to connect his terms. While this project may seem pretty basic for a high school sophomore, I was pleased to see him not only do it…but do it excitedly. To him, Haiku Deck was new. It was also super simple and to use. My Haiku Deck Pro-Tip for math vocabulary: Each of my son’s slides had exactly one term. When searching, I taught him to think of a real world object that may have characteristics of the geometric term, and search for that object instead of the word. There were a few words that my son did not know and I knew immediately because the image did not match which meant that we were able to discuss and make better connections. Of course, a project such as this had its "issues". We do not own flash drives anymore…so a CD was out of the question. My son exported his Haiku Deck to Keynote, added a few diagrams where needed and then uploaded each keynote image into Animoto which is an auto video creation tool…very old school. However, it was new to him and will probably be extremely new to his teacher. To turn it in, I shared one more tip with my son…a bit of an homage to him wanting me to buy a poster board. I showed him Tackk.com a digital storytelling/poster tool and encouraged him to create an account which could house his slideshow, and video. You’ll have to click the image below to view it! You can also check out his animoto video below!

If you have children in school, logging in to the online grading system is a necessity. Many of them even have alert settings and getting those alerts is critical to you supporting your child. This is especially important for high school students. In a perfect world, my son would tell me every little detail of his life and for the most part, he does. However, when it comes to grades…my son often holds back and understandably so. I am his mother but I am also a teacher and it is sometimes difficult to turn the "super critical edu" part of me off. I am working on it though. Today I saw that my son had a zero in a class because he didn’t turn in a student information sheet that I know I signed. A part of me was annoyed with him for not turning it in and the other part of me was annoyed with his teacher for assigning a grade to an information sheet. So, I emailed her to inquire about the purpose in doing that. Why would his grade be reflective of my signature in lieu of his work? Long sigh… She replied and after a short discussion followed by the exchange of a digitally signed signature sheet, I realized that sometimes I have to choose my battles. During this exchange, I actually shifted focus to building the relationship with my son’s teacher. My son’s success depends on it. One more thing… After inquiring about grades in another class, my son’s teacher checked and found that he made a mistake in not giving him credit for something that he did. This too, was due to a few exchanges of building the relationship. If you are thinking that these are things that my son could’ve done himself, you are partially correct. The reality of being a black teen in a largely non-diverse environment is that student led advocacy is often misinterpreted as insubordination. My visibility and involvement means that maybe he has a chance to navigate a few more of these waters by himself…with me watching from the distance.

Yesterday after school, I was meeting with a group of 3rd grade teachers about how they could make use of the ipads in their classroom. While we were meeting, the most perfect interruption occurred that completely changed the entire conversation. Trust me…I could not have planned it better than this. As teachers were wondering about the mechanics of teaching kids how to use the technology and every barrier possible, another teacher walked in panicking over changes that kindergarteners made to her classroom devices. After examining the "odd black" ipads and showing her how her 5 year olds went into the accessibility option and "inverted colors" (on multiple devices because it was fun), the teachers that I was working with…the ones who feared the uncertainty of technology, looked at me and said… "Well, that answers that question. If 5 year olds could figure that out and go change other devices like that, our 3rd graders can do this too. We can’t hold back. We need to just do it. Our kids are ready." With the words of Whitney Houston silently playing in my head…"There comes a point when you exhale"…This was mine! Most Kids Figure it Out I have a 10 month old nephew and on occasion, I hand him my ipad. He doesn’t know what to do but he knows that when he touches certain things, the device responds. He gets excited and repeats it over and over and over until he remembers which touch produces the response that he loved. He then repeats. Kids are naturally fearless…especially little ones. When you are working with teachers who are hesitant because they feel that kids "can’t", you have to push back on that and remind them of the babies that figure it out. They always do. Truthfully…a teacher’s hesitation isn’t really about the kids figuring it out, it’s about that teacher. We (teachers) hold kids back with our own fears and we have to stop doing that. I may not be the expert of a tool or concept but I would not keep a kid from investigating and when they figure it out, let them show you. Let them share how it works and why. Those 5 year olds that inverted those ipads are my heroes because what they did in figuring out how to "disrupt the norm" is make "jumping right in" okay to some pretty fearful teachers. Now we can have discussions about creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and communication. Now we can talk about how to use technology in a way that enhances learning…when applicable. In the words of my friend and colleague Kristy Vincent (@bigpurplehat), "You are more than welcome to remain in the technological cave but you are not allowed to keep kids in there with you" Let them go…Let them go…Can’t hold them back anymore… (You’re welcome)

The other night, my son brought home a geometry assignment on midpoints that he needed to complete. I recognized the assignment right away because it was a simple worksheet from the "binder", a collection of district purchased worksheets from 2003. (Imagine eye rolls and a sea of long sighs…Yep!) As ridiculously bad and basic as this worksheet was, my son had not turned it in because he did not understand how to do the work. Yes, he lives with a math teaching momma, but he’s still not a fan of being tutored by his mom. I get it. (Again…eye rolls…long sighs) With that said, he is lucky and here is how our "homework help" played out. His first few problems were simple number lines and after talking about the meaning of a midpoint, he eventually figured out that he could combine points and divide by two. Things changed a bit when he got to coordinates. Me: What don’t you get? Son: Well, it has two points. What does that have to do with the number line up top? How am I supposed to graph that? Me: How would you prefer to graph them? Son: Probably on a coordinate grid. Me: Well, you don’t have one. So what’s your plan? Son: (freehand draws) Wait, it’s a horizontal line. So, it’s just (-1,4) (Does next one and sees another horizontal line and says oh, it’s (0,-4)) Son: Cool, I get this part Me: Wait just a sec. Let’s explore those a bit more. What would you do if the line wasn’t horizontal? What if you had coordinates that weren’t so simple to graph? How would you find it? Son: She gave us a formula to use. (searches mounds of crumbled paper for notes) [eye rolls...long sighs] Me: Let’s explore   This is the point where I opened the Geogebra Chrome app and placed a point that we renamed M. I then told him to place two other points anywhere on the coordinate grid. Next, I told him that Point M was his midpoint and his job was to move point M to be the midpoint of the two other points that he placed. Me: What do you notice about point M in relation to the other points? Son:Well, it looks like it’s still halfway. Me: Hmmm…What do you mean by that? Son: Well, look at the point (0,9) and point M. They’s like opposite corners of a rectangle that’s 4×2. (I showed him the segment tool and he outlined the lines) Look at the point at (4,1) and point M. It’s the same. Both are 4×2. Wait, the whole thing is 8×4 and the midpoint is at 4×2. Does that work every time? (Son knows the drill and proceeds to check several different points. He grins and says…wow) Me: Let’s go back to your original problem. Where was your midpoint? Son: Well, it’s at (2,5). [stares at the page a bit] (0+4)/2 = 2 and (9+1)/2 = 5 Son Screams: Oh my gosh…Does that happen every single time? Me: You know the drill Son: (Places points at several locations…followed by calculations) Why didn’t we do this in class? All you do is Add x’s and then divide by 2. You do the same with the Y’s. It’s like finding the average of the points. Me: What about the next part? This time, you are given a midpoint and asked to find the other endpoint. To be continued…  

The other day I published a conversation, a tutoring session, between myself and my son. It was a painful reminder of a problem that is so systemic in math classrooms that students, like my son, are suffering on a day to day basis. It’s called 100% lecture and zero inquiry. The problem with this method is that lecture does not reach every student. It reaches some…the ones that can see the problem happen visually as they hear it. My son is not that kid. He needs to manipulate, ask questions, manipulate more and ask more questions. Sometimes he needs questions asked of him because there are moments that he still does not see. When we ignore the necessities of "the hands on learner", we are sending this message… You do not matter and you need to learn it as I taught it. If not, that’s on you. Dear "lecture only up-front-information giving math teacher", please reconsider your methods for the good of the mathematically thinking universe! The fact of the matter is that if kids are not actively pursuing the what, why, when, where and HOW of math, there is a greater chance that they are not learning. Regurgitating a given formula isn’t learning. Knowing how to do a problem is one thing. Understanding why you do it and why it works is another. There is a difference. Tutoring My Son…Continued When I left off my last post about my son’s pursuit of finding the midpoint between two points, he was at a place where he understood not only the meaning but also how to manipulate the equations. However, when he was presented with a problem where he was given the midpoint and told to find the other point, he was a bit stumped again. Son: Ok, so this is different. Me: What makes this different? Son: I am given the midpoint and I need to find the other point, like it says.(pure sarcasm) Me: Alright smarty, what does this mean to you? Son: Well, it’s like if Ferris (TX) were the midpoint and Ennis (TX) was the other point, I need to find what’s on the other side of that which might be Dallas (TX) Me: Oh?? Son: Well it makes sense. Me: So, how would you go about doing that? Son: Can I use the points that we used before because the pattern should be the same here too, right? (Goes to Geogebra to test) Son: Wait, I’ve already worked out this problem. (Somehow he chose this series of points last time) Me: How can you use graphing as you pursue these answers? Do you feel like you understand? If so, are you ready to look at how the formula works? Son: Mom, when we are at home, can you use "home language" and not "School language"? You sound like a teacher. (insert 5 minutes of off task comedic banter) My son continued with physically placing midpoints and one endpoint on his geogebra board in order to play around and make sure that he understood. Algebraically, he could easily plug points into the formula and find the other point but on occasion, he made mistakes. What he found was that if he "free handed" a graph and points, he could estimate where his answer should be and this gave him a way to check himself. I must also point out that our formulas can’t always be their formulas if students find a better way. My son’s way of doing it… "I feel like this is working backwards. I already have my midpoint so since I added and then divided by 2 to get it, I can work backwards to find either point. If I take my midpoint and double it, you know….multiply by 2, I can then subtract the given point and I will get the other point every time. See….try it, I bet it works. Or better yet, in your "teacher language", find a time when it doesn’t work." "I bet you can’t" The student becomes the teacher. That should be our goal…always.  

The richest conversations that I have with my kids often take place outside of math homework. They take place as they happen in the real world. The other day I was driving my niece around and she just happened to make a back handed comment about how slow I was driving. It was exactly 32 miles per hour, this distance between Ennis and Dallas. Me: If I continued to drive at this rate without stopping, how long would it take me to drive to Dallas? Niece: Probably 5 hours Me: Really? How many miles are between Ennis and Dallas? Niece: like 32 Me: What rate am I traveling now? Niece: Slow Me: Seriously? Niece: I don’t know. What do you mean by rate? If it’s how fast you are going, you’re driving slow so your rate is slow. Me: Maybe…Ok, let me change the question. How do you know how slow I am going? Niece: You’re going 32 because that’s what the speedometer says. Me: 32 what? Niece: 32mph Me: Do do you know what mph means? Niece: (thinks for a few minutes) miles per hour? Me: Yes! So, if I continue to travel 32 miles per hour, meaning stay AT THIS RATE, how long should it take me to get to Dallas? Niece: I told you earlier….probably 5 hours Me: What does "miles per hour" mean? Niece: How many miles you go in an hour… Me: So, if I travel 32 miles per hour, how many miles will I drive in one hour? Niece: (thinks for a few minutes) 32? Me: And what about two hours? Niece: 64 Me: What about 3 hours? 10 hours? Niece: 96, 320…Why are you asking me math questions? Me: So, again…If I continue to travel at 32 mph and Dallas is 32 miles away, how long will it take me to get to Dallas? Niece: (thinks for a few minutes…laughs) Ohhh 1 hour…That’s what that means? You should have said it this way before!   Much later in the day, I decided to pick her brain again. Me: Now, you know that I am not going to drive to Dallas at only 32 mph. However, I will drive 65mph until we get to Wilmer and the speed limit changes to 60mph. What if I asked you to make a chart, graph and equation explaining our trip? Does any of this relate to any concepts that you learned in Algebra? Niece: 1. Auntieeeeee!!!!! Do you ever turn this math off? 2. Yes, I can make a chart. That would not be just one equation because your rate changes. The graph would not be just one straight line, it would shift slightly lower because you went from 65mph to 60mph. 3. I remember talking about this in Algebra during class because YOU WERE MY TEACHER so since I forgot about it for a while, I guess that you will need to speak to my teacher. (grins and dodges pillow tossed her way) 4. Auntie, when I got home earlier, I looked for a video about this on youtube. Have you seen this? Reflecting as a Parent/Teacher When I taught Algebra 1, I always talked about the math of driving before we went into the specific elements of the lesson. I found that doing this helps students connect to something that they do everyday…ride in a car or drive. I am never surprised at the number of students who miss this basic connection between driving rate and time. This is a conversation that can start when kids are young and learning to say…"Are we there yet?" When my niece reminded me that I taught her Algebra, it didn’t bother me at all that she did not remember. I tend to think that she was more frustrated with my slow driving than thinking about the math of it because the rest of her connections were spot on and she had to have had a foundation in order to get to that point. In addition, I am happy that she found the STEMbites video because whether she knows it or not…another conversation is coming.

When I talk about my math classroom, I always cross post to facebook because my audience on facebook is quite different than twitter. That is where my former students are and when I post there, they get to relive our classroom too. At times, they will even comment…suggesting that I return back to school. On occasion, they talk about the lack of caring of some of their teachers. When that happens, there is almost always a fallout of sorts as well as an explanation of the "back ended" things of EDU by other  teachers. When I read those "but…but…but" statements from teachers, I am always reminded about the quote above that my mother says often and also about Disney World. Disney World is such a magical place, but there is also a "behind the scenes", the dusty crates, tools, characters out of costume…etc. No one gets to see the "behind the scenes part". Yet…we know that it is there. It has to be. We know that in EDU, so many problems take away from the great things that happen in classrooms. We have test that we have to give. We have meetings to attend and that includes meetings to plan other meetings. We have accommodations, interventions, mandates and all types of acronyms that defy all logic but we have something else that has to come before that…STUDENTS. When a student feels that their teachers do not care, we can’t explain it or "teacher-splain" it away with…"I had meetings, madates, a test, interventions, no paper, blah blah blah…" We have to listen and we have to adjust. I’m not saying that we have to hide our laundry because it’s there whether we like it or not. However, a student should NEVER feel that their teacher does not care and we should never explain our actions by telling them about "the things that cause us not to care". The thing that we have to do is be open to how kids feel.  What students should feel is cared for, motivated, challenged and supported. They should feel that they have a choice in becoming whoever it is that they become. We cannot get upset when they do not feel those things. We cannot go into "explain mode" when they do not feel that we care. What we have to do is look at ourselves and change our approach in order to address how they feel. Personally, I am more concerned with this reply… I know they do (teachers care) but sometimes it really just doesn’t seem like it. And I’m so glad that this is my last year, I’m ready for a broader horizon and I’ll get to choose what I do and where my next step will be. I will finally be able to become the person that I wanna be! Maybe I am missing something…but shouldn’t the things that this student wants be the purpose of schooling to begin with? Also, see the video of the late great Dr. Rita Pierson if there is any doubt…

Google Teacher Academy is coming to Austin and even after the let-down of Atlanta, I’m applying again. I took a different route in taking the time to try and creatively piece a video together as opposed to last year’s "last minute like" video. No, it’s not about the video…and from what I understand, it’s only a small portion but to me, this was important. I have never been a great video editor but I took the "letdown of Atlanta" as an opportunity to learn. I wanted to be better at creating the story so I looked at other forms of video and even watched a few clips in Lynda.com. None of those clips did me any good actually! Basically, I threw out all of the things that I learned in the last few months and instead created from a script and by instinct. The Question: How do you innovate in the educational community to generate positive change? I actually wrote three different versions. I wrote one that focused on equity. I wrote another that focused on math and then I wrote this one that focused on creativity. Truthfully, as much as I have done, nothing has been more impactful than sharing Braeden’s story…so with that in mind, I created this… This video represents me better than anything that I could craft…JUST to get in. This is our story…his story…my story. Creating the Video I edited every piece in imovie but I also included clips that I captured using hyperlapse as well as Camtasia Mac. Part of my sharing over time has been posting videos to instagram so I captured a few of those to help tell the story. I recorded my track on my phone in a video and separating the audio from video was as simple as detaching it. I rarely write scripts but I certainly did for this and making that small adjustment allowed me to piece together the media that I needed to tell the story. As for the title, I made it in photoshop on a transparent background which I like much better than imovie titles. I learned all of this since August and I am proud. No, it’s not perfect but it’s progress and that matters more.

Yesterday, I taught one of our Google Drive trainings for school paraprofessionals and I left feeling something that I haven’t felt in a very long time…pure joy and bliss. It was a feeling that I haven’t experienced since I taught my own math class. It wasn’t about the teaching of anything related to Drive. It was purely about knowing that we were empowering these ladies in a training that is often not available to paraprofessionals in many districts which makes zero sense. I am so proud of my district for valuing the growth of our entire community because in addition to these "during the day" trainings, we also provide 24/7 virtual learning access to every person…the kind that can be career changing or even affirming if a person desires it. Every district should do this…every…single…one. Later that evening, amidst crazy school canceling storms, I found myself looking through conference proposals and sessions. It bothered me. I won’t lie. I feel like we, this edtech community, are further drowning ourselves into a pile of buzzwords and platforms so much so that I have to wonder if people really understand what transformation, innovation, inquiry and even creativity looks and feels like. I get that one must learn about tech tools but I have to wonder why we do the exact opposite at these "learning events" that we want to see in schools. Why are we NOT putting the "how to use this app" things online and offering more discussion based sessions on things like writing better questions, learner empowerment, designing student driven lessons, community based projects, teaching beyond the test, reflection, feedback, research and soft skills…you know…the things that technology can enhance support. (See the update below for a more thorough and fluid expansion) At some point we’ll figure out that while playing assessment app games are somewhat informing, our kids deserve much more than that when it comes to technology. Scanning a code for a math problem to solve is "fun" but how is that technology really enhancing supporting learning? Did the question change because it was scanned versus written in a book or on paper? Don’t even get me started on augmented reality. Yes, some kids love competition, but how is playing Kahoot different than "insert clicker name here"…and don’t you dare say, "because it has bright colors and music!" Just…No. We need technology, don’t get me wrong but I also know that we have to talk about how we are empowering students to lead in their schools, communities, states and globally! How are we preparing students to be not just "future ready" but Globally Ready? How are we encouraging creativity and innovation? How are we giving students more choice and voice? (Not choice of apps or recording their "voice" in an app…Again, NO!) How are we personalizing learning? (And not the edtech company version of personalization) How are we creating more equitable solutions? (It’s probably NOT BYOT) Again…because it’s ALL about this… HOW CAN WE ASK BETTER QUESTIONS THAT LEAD TO MORE QUESTIONS? Put your app lessons online. We can view them there. Let’s dig deeper and make our rare face to face connections count. If this is all there is….maybe I need to just stick with EduCon. Or, maybe this is the conversation that I need to submit to EduCon. Well… there’s that.   Updated to add: The conversations that have resulted because of this post have been eye opening. The fact that we have to "App-Up the session" in order to have it approved at major conferences is appalling. At some point, we have to question this. David Jakes made a great point to this post in pushing back on the word "enhance" in terms of what technology should do. I agree with him and wanted to make sure that you read this because it is absolutely true and powerful. I am grateful to him for pointing it out. Growth is empowering especially when lived out loud. "The question in my mind is not about "how technology can enhance." That perspective is part of the problem in my mind. Enhancing implies improving what exists, and its simply not bold enough. The mindset of enhancing causes teachers to build scavenger hunts with augmented reality. Rather, how can technology support the reinvention of education? How does technology support the creation of things never done before? How do the affordances of technology fundamentally create a new condition for learning."

The other day Braeden decided that he wanted to involve "twitter" in his puppet decisions. As a kid who thrives on collaboration, making a Google form to share seemed like the obvious choice. Those were his words anyway. His questions… What should I name my lion puppet? Should I make a turkey costume for Lenny the Lizard? Which puppet should I make a Christmas costume for? After the form was created and shared, it was simply amazing watching him light up as his survey takers increased. He watched his data change and as the data changed, his questions and thoughts grew. Braeden’s Thoughts People will enter the strangest names if you give them a blank space. Maybe asking if I should make Lenny a costume was a bad question since I already knew that most people would choose, yes. Hey, how does the percentage of No stay the same even when the total number of votes change? Wait, now it’s 4 "No’s" out of 40. That’s 10% just like our minecraft lesson. I’m thinking that the more people take this survey, the better because I’ll have answers from more people. Auntie this is called a pie graph and these spaces represent the number of votes for each one. Maybe that Lenny costume question wasn’t a bad question since it’s interesting watching how the percentages change. I feel like I need at least 200 takers since I’ll get better results if more people do it. Don’t these people know that I can’t use names like "Aslan" because of copyright? Will the President take my survey? Dissecting the Results and Making a New Survey Braeden ended up with 156 responses. It wasn’t 200 like he wanted but he was satisfied with the results. He got a huge laugh out of some of the names that people submitted (Pookie was the funniest!) and to make his selection, he chose to "gray out" the names that he could not live with and keep the names that appeared multiple times.   This led to a creation of a 6 name list which garnered its own form. As of now, he has 79 responses and is still collecting because, again…He feels that he needs more votes for better data. When I asked Braeden why he felt that "more data" mattered, he said that as he watched his results come in, he had a better variety the more people that participated. He also said that if he had more submissions, he would feel more comfortable knowing that he created what people wanted.   My Edu-Auntie Reflection When Braeden decided that he would make a form, I had no idea where he was going with it. I honestly thought that he would collect his information and move on to continue creating. I was pleasantly shocked to watch him bury himself into deep thought regarding submissions. Even as he talked in more math language, I chose not to push or question him. I would ask an occasional, "what do you mean", and while he did elaborate, it was important to make sure that his "wonders" were his own. I believe wholeheartedly in the authenticity of learning and he was making connections. That was more than enough. I will say that I kept thinking that it was such a shame that he could not do this type of learning at school. What appeared to be a "simple form" was actually a gateway to deeper discussions that connected to something that he loved…his own creations. If this isn’t authentic learning, I don’t know what is!  

Yesterday, I taught what I think was my new favorite session. It’s wasn’t a "connect to twitter" or a "build your pln" session but there were small nuggets of those. It wasn’t a "Google apps" or a "coding" session but there were small nuggets of those as well. My session was all about learning through global connections/projects. What made this session great was not my joy in sharing some of the most amazing projects created by my connected community but that the teachers in attendance were super stoked about it and many were heard saying things like… Where has this session been all my career? You mean we can do this in our classrooms? Oh my gosh, I can’t wait to do this when I get back to school! Wait, you’ll come to our classrooms to help? (YES!!) We can totally get the librarian on board to connect our classes in these Classroom Hangouts! We have to do this because if we don’t our kids are missing out! A Few Tidbits I created a TACKK that our teachers can continue to access and share on their campus. I ALWAYS do this. I polled the room and found that a majority in attendance taught elem-middle school ELA so I started with the Global Read Aloud and that excited the entire room! TACKK is awesome when it works but when information gets jumbled somehow during the saving process…it can be annoying. However, fixing the resource LIVE during the training was educational. It happens. Embedded full searches from twitter was a subtle "nugget" that invited teachers to see what was happening without creating an account. I will do this every time. http://connectedclassrooms.withgoogle.com/ is AWESOME and the upcoming hangouts with Lemony Snicket and Lois Lowry also excited our teachers. Their librarians should be getting calls this morning about this one. Quite a few teachers took notes via Google docs and shared with their team immediately. That was just as encouraging as the teachers who preferred to do it on paper. It’s their choice after all. When I talked about projectsbyjen, I shared how I knew her through my Discovery Ed community. 5 of them immediately signed up for my next Discovery Ed training. We’ll connect again! Speaking of Projects By Jen…They called this, LIFE-Changing I’m teaching another "twitter for learning" session on a campus next week and many of these teachers signed up to attend If you want coding in the classroom, get teachers in a room and let them code. This year, we’ll have classes coding during hour of code. Perhaps the greatest win in this session wasn’t about exposing teachers to these global resources for the first time but about giving them a reason to connect and a path to get there in a way that suited them. The "why" matters and growth doesn’t happen without it.   Click the TACKK below to visit each resource!  

I’ve tried really hard to back down a bit from my son’s schooling. Part of that reasoning is that I wanted him to be able to find his own way without my interfering in every aspect of his education. The other part is that it seemed as though the more I questioned, the greater the target on his back. That was my thinking anyway. What I found was that the less that I questioned, the greater the target. Basically, it’s pretty much a no win situation. Except, my involvement gives him a far better chance at edu-survival than not being involved. A week ago, a sub (one with known issues towards students of color) threw him out of the classroom and wrote a few things on the referral that were so outrageous that they were humanly impossible. When the AP called to inform me that my son would be going to ISS for three days, I immediately asked if she even bothered questioning it because it was THAT ridiculous. I knew that she didn’t and upon her confirmation, I asked…no, DEMANDED…that an investigation occur. Too often, especially for young men of color, referrals are written as law and punishments are handed out without a single attempt to verify the facts of the situation. In many cases, the facts as turned in are not necessarily the truth. This was the case with my son. He ended up staying home for one day, per my request, while his name was cleared. What infuriated me more about the situation was that years ago I worked at this school and although there have been subtle changes in administration, the culture of the school is the same. Kids of color have no voice and speaking up for themselves is grounds for insubordination. I’ve written about this once. Other kids can not only speak for themselves but there are almost always follow up questions to verify the facts in the cases of guilt, those kids are too often given much lighter punishments. The other day, I had a small "back and forth" with one teacher because he told my son that he was lazy and arrogant. To be clear, my son asked for extended time to complete an essay…one that did not allow technology which is pretty important for editing. (In case you are wondering, the kids are not allowed to write using a computer since they can’t do so on the state exam) The teacher’s response… "Maybe he needs to change to a new teacher. I care about all of my kids. Maybe he took something the wrong way" Yep, that’s the answer. Don’t stop mistreating kids of color. Instead, move the kid when well-informed parents question it! (many eye rolls at this response) Also, it’s a good idea to understand the implications of words. He didn’t take anything the wrong way. What was said to him was completely wrong. Owning these mistakes is important. If only "owning incorrect actions against kids of color" was a thing. As for my son, he acknowledges that he can do certain things differently because right now, his survival is more important than anything. He’s taking the steps necessary to do so. He also understands that he is not alone and perhaps that is his only privilege.  

This summer, after the rejection that was GTA Atlanta, I sat and talked to my friend Lise while I was in Canada about my Google Teacher Academy rejection. She flat out told me that my biggest problem was that I do not talk about the things that I do enough. She reminded me of my network of connections and how I don’t "hightlight" them at all. She even said that I didn’t talk specifically about the mathematical connections that I help teachers and students make through inquiry using applicable tools. Then, there is the whole part about me speaking at conferences all over the country and teaching online webinars. Yeah…I don’t talk much about those things either. The bottom line, in her words, was that I do no sell myself enough nor do I acknowledge the things that I do and if I wanted to be considered for such a thing as GTA or any other specialized group…I better learn how to sell…RAFRANZ. In other words, stop being so modest. Honestly, I still struggle with selling RAFRANZ because in all honesty, I’d much rather spend my time helping others recognize themselves.  And then came Austin… I spent more time on the video than I did before…creating something that I believe spoke to who I am as an educator. In less than a minute, I created a look inside my life in a single day. I chose not to talk about the 15,000 chromebooks in our district, the in-summer google camps that we hosted, the countless staff developments, cross country sessions, webinars, google hangouts, cross curricular collaborations or even my upcoming keynotes. I focused on what drives and motivates me. I also directly included Braeden since so much of his story lays the framework for what I do. It’s not about his insane puppet creativity, it’s how he learned, continues to learn and shares. Without youtube, there would be no puppets. But then the questions… What holds people back from applying is sometimes the intimidation of the video but the video is only a teeny tiny percentage. The rest is all about how you share who you are on "paper". Every GCT that I have talked to, said that people needed to spend more time on the questions because they actually weigh quite a bit heavier than the video. For this application, we had 1 minute for the video and only 800 characters each on the extended questions. That’s not a lot. Question 1 was a question about overcoming hardship and I shared a specific example about the event that pushed me to go back to college…forever changing the course of my family’s life. I’m actually okay with question 1 even though I considered writing about my struggles in tech & the absence of diversity. Question 2 was more than likely my big miss. I may actually have gone all "nerd city" talking about connecting with "people like me" and the more that I think about it, the more that it bothers me because this question easily lent itself to talking about sharing the power of global learning and being able to have exposure to new ideas that I could not only take back to my school and connected community but home…to the kid that inspires every ounce of my work. No regrets though…except question 2…darn… Final Reflections Let me be clear in saying that I didn’t write this post so that people would leave sympathy comments or even comments about "why I didn’t need GTA". Please don’t. (There is a reason that I wanted to do this again and to those that care about me…and you know who you are…I need you to trust me.) I wrote this post-submission reflection so that any others who may be thinking of applying can learn from me and my mistakes. 1. From my ATL rejection, I learned that making the video was much more about sharing my story as an educator while answering "the question". Be creative. Get your story across in one minute but at the end of the day, with the video counting so little…it really is about answering the question and making something that shares who you are! 2. Take Lise’s advice. Sell yourself like crazy! What do you do? Why do you do it? When do you do it? Where do you do it? At the end of the day, if you aren’t willing to highlight what you do…why apply? (ok…fine!) 3. After you hit submit, don’t second guess any creative decisions. Don’t use voxer to whine about the things that you could’ve, would’ve and should’ve done differently. It’s done now. Instead, learn from it. Share with someone else and plan for the next event because at the end of the day, whether I miraculously make it to Austin or not, there is still plenty of work to be done. In the meantime, I’m posting my video again because I am proud of it and so is the kid…even if "the specificity of how I innovate" is unclear.  

Today I asked my niece if she felt that she knew about the world around her. Her response to that question, that she did not, was exactly as I expected. She attends school where her learning is limited to the words in her state adopted textbooks. Learning for her is 100% "sit and get" with zero application beyond district purchased worksheets.  Aside from her personal social connectedness, my niece has zero experience with making connections with the world outside of what this town makes available. She is a senior and by today’s standards, will graduate high school without being globally ready. My niece’s story is my story…the one that existed before my social journey began over 5 years ago. My niece’s world was my world…my town…my school…my classroom….my life as an educator…the one that I vowed to change. Inside My City Limits I don’t think that people really understand how sheltered one can be in a small town, unless they themselves share the experience. There are far too many void of opportunity, accessibility, visibility and voice. In my town, this is typically the case, especially if you are black and even more so if you are hispanic and undocumented. The numbers of kids that fit into that category are staggering. I worked very hard to create a space in my classroom where kids could not only feel success but feel encouraged, challenged and expected to aim higher than our town standards. My openness to understanding of the accessibility to information that technology provided helped tremendously. I know that for a fact. As a teacher, I was isolated and in a sea of negativity where "my ways" were a bit "too open" and "out there" for many, I preferred that and my isolation was just as much defense mechanism as it was necessary. I was the weird one, the one with the crazy ideas…who always had to have technology, the one whose kids rushed to and also hated to leave. My room was not my room. My tools were not my tools. What was "mine" was certainly…THEIRS. It’s still crazy to me that certain people never connected my connectedness with the kids that I taught to the empowering community that we established over the commonality of race. "He works in your room because you are black". "No, He doesn’t work in your room because your environment doesn’t allow his success" And Then Came Twitter My initial bout with twitter-edu came because of technology. I was and still am very excited about certain tools and their impact on learning. I started traveling to conferences and attending sessions by people who I was connected to…only to realize that I knew a lot more than I thought. After-all, "not on twitter" doesn’t mean "not knowledgeable". It simply means "not instantaneous". There is a difference. I found chats and the more conversations that I had, the more that I evolved as a learner and leader. I moved from lurker to sharer and all of a sudden my ideas, the ones that were confined to my room, were helping other teachers change theirs. I think that I probably chatted 7 days a week back then…constantly connecting with educators all over the world which was amazing when you’ve barely stepped foot out of your own town. Somewhere along the way…after downloading hundreds of apps, cycling between a multitude of devices, teaching countless sessions and mentoring teachers in their instructional growth, I found a much bigger purpose in connecting. I found conversations that spoke to my experience as a sheltered learner and the affirmation of the environment that I created in my classroom. I found Diana Laufenberg‘s TED talk on failure, Frank Noschese‘s talk on inquiry and Jose Vilson‘s talk on teacher voice. I connected with each of them and through their work as well as the work that they linked to, I found educational advocacy. I found that it was not only my right to refuse to remain silent on the need for more opportunity to inquiry based learning, access, equity and voice…but my responsibility. I also found that if I didn’t use my experiences as a teacher of color in a non-accessible environment to help push the conversations for more voices to be prominent and necessary for change, I was doing it wrong. I will forever have Educon 2.6 (2014) to thank for that. In a sea of devices and apps, I found a lifeboat in transformative thinking. I changed. My perception of the world changed. My mission changed. My city limits are no longer limiting but metaphorically motivational. My niece, as globally unready as she is, is about to get a crash course on the world…that has forever been at her fingertips. Much like Dorothy’s Ruby Red Slippers…It was there all along.  

A few months ago, I found the Google Cultural Institute while looking around for a few of Google’s initiatives and I have to say that this is my all time favorite thing that google has ever done. As a person who believes wholeheartedly in the power of experience through media, I love that users can take a virtual tour of a plethora of cultural cognizant artistic and historical pieces.   Other things that users can do… Click the dropdown next to Explore and visit featured projects like World Wonders which takes users on a Google streetview tour of "The World’s heritage sites" like the Taj Mahal while also connecting users to specific cultural artifacts For every adult who ever convinced kids that street art was garbage, there is a specific exhibit which takes users on a journey of experiencing street art from a global perspective Create your own gallery and share it. Use the compare feature to create a side by side view of two different works which will certainly drive discussion. Women in culture…Interactive, full of content yet so much more yet to be included! Visit the Google Open Gallery, (you’ll find a link from the home page on the right), which is a platform aimed to help artists, museums and galleries bring their content online! Combine Global Galleries with the Google Translate Extension The beauty of having something as significantly accessible as the google translate extension is that when experiencing artistic perspective from another culture, translating is only a click away! I make a point to visit this one site daily and I learn something new every single time. The world is not necessarily within my physical reach but with tools such as this, it’s always a click away.

When I was a student, my math instruction involved a teacher writing problems on an overhead projector with clear transparencies and vis-a-vis markers. They all followed the typical, "I do, We do, You do" model. We didn’t do a great deal of thinking at all. We solved as asked, often regurgitating exactly as our problems were modeled. In many classrooms, we’ve tossed out the overhead and replaced it with interactive whiteboards, projectors and sometimes even handheld devices. But think about it…Has our approach to math instruction really changed? A teacher recording problems on an IWB while kids copy and duplicate or a teacher walking around using their ipad as a writing tablet is really no different than the teachers who prefer the overhead projector. In every case, the teacher is "modeling" process while kids record steps. The tools changed but the pedagogy remains the same. As a student, I was given tons of worksheets and homework was often solving even numbered problems from the textbook. Often times, my teacher would stand beside my desk or call me to hers in order to listen to me speak my way through a problem. Now, if kids aren’t getting physical worksheets or solving the same standard problems from a textbook, they might just be recording "how to solve a problem" on a mobile device. Does working a problem out on an ipad make it any different than writing it on paper? What about listening to students via device? How is that different than listening while standing beside my desk? Thinking about it makes math seem even more drone-like than I remembered. Is This Real Life? In math circles, we throw words around like "real world" problems and we like to think that we make problems "real world applicable". An example of a "real world" problem might start like so… In a model of a ship, the mast is 9 cm while the mast of the actual ship is 15 m high… I remember giving tons of those problems and then trying to draw and explain what a mast was to a group of kids who had never even experienced a lake. In my mind, the picture that I drew should have been enough. All they needed to know was that it formed a triangle, at least on paper, and that understanding the mechanics of the boat had zero to do with the answer. A few weeks ago, I traveled to the great state of California for the first time and I took tons of images because this was my first real experience with not only seeing a boat but watching it sail the ocean. When I experienced it, it was different than what I saw in a textbook…the same book that I used with my students. Only, I didn’t wonder about the missing side of the possible right triangle formed by the mast, sail and ship. Instead, I wondered if varying sizes of "sail material" affected boats differently. I wondered why some boats traveled without their sails and if doing that affected speed in the water. I wondered how much weight could fit in those small boats before they didn’t sail so well. I wondered if angles mattered. I wondered why we give kids problems like this and call it "real world" when most kids never experience it. This is not their world. This is not their math.  When I was standing on that beach, I wasn’t standing as a teacher but a person who was experiencing newness. The sights, sound, smell…I felt something…a connection. Not just real…but human

About a month after Educon 2014, I was approached to join a group of "connected educators" to write one short book in a series aimed to help schools understand a plethora of topics about being a connected educator. This opportunity came about as a result of the conversation about diversity led by Audrey Watters and Jose Vilson. I like to refer to it as the moment when I found my voice. Initially, I started writing about the conference circuit which led me to more research than I could possibly squeeze into 64 pages. I had every intention of writing about the lack of people of color and women in keynote and featured conference roles and I started writing all about how we (POC/Women) can be experts of so many tools/ideas yet are rarely given the same platform to share as many of our peers. I found preposterous examples of tech companies hiring "Booth Babes" for the educational tech circuit in which models aren’t hired based on knowledge and skills but initially by physical attributes. (Bra size was choice #1) Unlike the "Booth Babes" of the gaming tech circuit, these ladies dressed in anything from polo shirts and khakis to pencil skirts and high heels. (I actually kept this reference in the title on my chapter about women) Why is that? Well, it’s because the majority of school edtech decision makers are men so hiring "hot models" is a common ploy to get those decision makers into the vendor booth. This seemed to be common practice at ISTE 2013 in San Antonio where "event modeling" companies not only boasted about their ladies working the event but posted plenty of pictures. I nearly threw my computer upon reading this line… "Our ladies can learn anything well enough to increase your sales tremendously" because clearly, nothing sells software and expensive computers to schools like hiring a group of models to sell it. As for the research of this…A simple web search of conference models + conference and year is all that it took. Enjoy! In the end, after months of rewrites, sharing, living and learning…the entire theme of my book changed. I had a lot of aggressions about so much of the negative stuff that happens and I found that my book lost focus. I didn’t want to write a book that simply pointed out "the things" without giving solutions. In addition, I didn’t want to write something that did not speak to my intended audience…schools. I wanted to share thinking points, ideas and stories of the differences that can be made by intentionally seeking input from certain marginalized voices. While I do recognize that diversity carries many meanings, I chose to directly focus on four while indirectly interweaving others. About My Book My Book, The Missing Voices of Edtech: Bringing Diversity into Edtech (Corwin Press, Connected Educators Series) is a personal experiential reflection of how teachers, students, women and people of color are often not heard when it comes to technology initiatives in schools. Yes, there are fabulous women in tech leadership all over the country but there are still far too many schools that lack such. There are amazing technologist of color but I can count the visibility of them on my hands. As for teachers, we know how that goes…the tool shows up in a classroom for teachers to figure it out. And students? They have opinions, needs and ideas. We must engage them more. We don’t do that enough. Within my book are also contributions, vignettes, from a few members of my connected community. I will forever be grateful to Aimee Bartis, Lisa Johnson and Rachelle Wooten for sharing their journeys and perspectives. I also have two former students who proudly shared theirs. One of which, hand wrote his story on a paper tablet during his factory job break. (While meeting with me at Starbucks, to learn a few more skills, he has since created his first email address which is amazing since he is a recent graduate of a "tech heavy" school.) While I thought that I wanted to add my voice to the non-diverse tech conference/edtech company circuit, I am actually thankful for the months of delays that led to my final product because at the end of the day, if we don’t address the embedded problems in school tech thinking, there is zero room for change beyond. Why Diversity Matters (a snippet of thought from my book) Diversity matters because with understanding comes intentional thought. A single person or group of non-diverse decision makers without an understanding of their learners decides based on the lens of their own view. They tend to look at scenarios from the scope of numbers and not need. On the other hand, a group that reflects the differences of the impacted learners as well as a collection of varying yet open ideas will almost always address the needs first to align with the numbers. Diversity matters in EdTech because not all tools, devices, apps, and ideas are created equally—nor are learners   My book is available for pre-sale NOW and will release January 2015. The Missing Voices in EdTech

That moment in Round Rock when I gave my first keynote. If you follow Dwight Carter on twitter, you may have caught a particular phrase that he says with his morning tweets, "…Make it a great day… or not. The choice is yours" I can’t even read that statement without smiling profusely because it reminds me so much of the principal of my last school, as he used to say this too and like then…I find myself charged and energized with understanding that how I face my day is a choice. It can be great…or not. So many wonderful things have happened in the last few weeks and I’ve yet to take a moment to recognize them. It all started with my acceptance into Google Teacher Academy. People, many of them close to me, have their own thoughts about "edtech academies" but this was important to me. While I am certainly proud to be a part of such an amazing cohort of educators…it seems as though I am caught in the middle of a "what others think of me" whirlwind. Honestly…it is a draining place to be. The reality is that this process has made me realize my own weakness in wanting to be accepted and supported. Fortunately, this process has also shown me that those two "wants" are actually unnecessary because when it comes to goals, our own measures of success, the court of public opinion has no vote. My goals are pretty simple…be the best Rafranz that I can possibly be and do so with the intention that everyday is a step towards being better than the day before. Sometimes I fail miserably at it and others I do quite well. Regardless…at the end of the day, my reflections always show me that all of my outcomes stemmed from choices…my own. When I face my life…my job…through the lens of my own choices, it makes understanding the reality of the misalignment with the way that others think versus how I think…quite bearable. We will all deal with some sort of negativity but it’s important to know that the repercussions of such do not have to become a part of our psyche. We can choose to believe in the things and thoughts that are against us or we can choose to find the path that leads to that place of …" in spite of". In spite of negativity…I will do what is asked, expected and needed of me. I will do so knowing that not everyone wants to see my success. Not everyone believes in me but I believe in me and that is more than enough. We all have a choice. This is mine.

Lately, I have been reminded of why I typically avoid the vendor area at conferences. I have been thinking about this for quite some time and lucky for you, I’m on a long drive home and can finally hash this out. For starters, I don’t understand your company’s training practices and typically after a few sentences, it is generally quite clear that you have no idea how or if your product really impacts learning, yet you insist on repeating your provided blurb. Perhaps a deeper understanding of current educational practices as well as YOUR OWN PRODUCT sometimes, might be beneficial. I’m proud of you for at least memorizing the "EdTech Buzzword Bingo" board but until you fully understand the meaning behind the practice (from an actual classroom), you are no longer allowed to throw around such phrases as Flipped learning, future ready(Really???), transformative, personalized learning, blended learning and wait for it…content delivery system. FYI…You probably did not invent collaboration or any other derivative of the buzzwords that you used about 10 times. Yes, I did in fact count them because I was THAT over it! When you show your super expensive product and someone like myself (highly informed and tech savvy) points out that there are quite a few others on the market that do the exact same thing but at a more reasonable price point…please do not insult my intelligence by trying to repeatedly convince me otherwise. The correct response is to say something like. "That’s interesting. Let me look into that. Thank you." These conversations almost always result in a debate comparing product A to B and sometimes C. It would be different if you really understood classroom instruction and your product but too often, you do not and it shows. Is it too much to ask that you do your homework? Is it too much to ask that you actually listen to the very people that you’re trying to sell to…especially those who have already purchased your product and are offering you feedback from their classroom experience…real instructional application. Although "feedback isn’t in your lane", you might just hear a small blurb that may help you as you talk to the next person because that "small yet important classroom example" is much more conducive to your "purpose" than the ppt slides that are loaded on your device. Long sigh… Here’s an idea. Before you stand before a group educators, please do some homework. We may not always agree with homework but a little bit on your part will go a long way. You should know that in education, there are those of us who are aware of change and innovative practice as well as those that do not. At the same token, there are Edtech companies who get it right and those who need to reflect on their strategies. I do believe in a free market society as well as the creation of innovative tools. However, our priorities are different. Mine is student learning and growth. What’s yours? One more thing…Those that garner our trust, include us in the process and value our input. Doing that would be a start.

The day that my dad brought home a set of encyclopedias was an important family event. He called all of us into the front room as he unpacked each book one by one. To my parents, providing this access to knowledge was critical and I distinctly remember my dad telling us that within those books was the key to our future. He certainly believed it anyway. My parents did the best that they could to make sure that we had access to as many opportunities as possible so paying what had to be a small fortune at the time in order to support our academic and cultural development was something that they were quite proud of…even if the books were published before I was born which meant that in essence, they were obsolete and missing quite a bit of culture. As lacking as our encyclopedias were, I remember my parents saying, "Go look it up!" whenever we inquired about pretty much anything. Our learning ritual was that I would search for the information, read aloud a pretty insignificant blurb and then learn what I needed through discussion with my parents as they filled in the blanks with memories that our encyclopedias did not and could not contain. While I did enjoy this critically important bonding time, I think that we can all agree on the importance of having the type of access where a simple act of curiosity can lead to places where discussions from a single family’s dining room table can extend to others around the world…where discussions about history that happen in private can be recorded, uploaded, shared and referenced for years to come…where a desire to learn doesn’t end at the conclusion of a book but is transformed through that learner’s realization that they too can create the information that they seek…but in their own way. …Where a kid who is curious as to why she doesn’t see any lawyers, doctors, architects, engineers, astronauts, computer programmers, mathematicians or teachers that look like her can reach beyond her city limits and not only connect but be inspired to pursue her own dreams. This is the type of access that my father desired before he knew that it existed. This is the type of access that I want for MY KIDS…YOUR KIDS…ALL KIDS! There is a movement (#internet4schools) to create and share a 15-second video about why the FCC should expand high speed internet access to schools and vote "yes" to E-rate which they should certainly do. However, I want to challenge us all to go a little bit deeper. When you do have access, how will your students not just seek information, but create it? How will you address student device equity and accessibility? (BYOD isn’t the answer for all situations or all students) How will you make sure that the devices in school buildings are not only working but maintained to their highest capacity and replaced when needed? How will you guarantee that student connectivity isn’t limited to test prep technology but used collaboratively and creatively? How will you empower learners to use the power of access to create the schools, communities and worlds that they want to grow in? How will you make sure that the problems that kids solve in school are not just "real and relevant" but relatable? How will you support teachers through job-embedded development and empower them through the same learner driven growth that we want to see in our students? How will you make sure that important community, cultural and global discussions aren’t ignored but are represented through discussions, research and if desired, student-led activism? and finally… How will you make sure that all students are given every opportunity possible to learn, develop and grow through entrepreneurial minded instructional design and development through real global connections and experiences? At the end of the day, the FCC can grant all of the access possible but if we aren’t collectively ready to implement certain changes with fidelity, we all still lose. More importantly, our kids lose.

I have an 11 month old nephew who is just starting to take much longer walks around the house. Since he was about 9.5 months old, he’s been attempting this passage of life with very limited prodding from adults. I’ve sat for long periods of time watching him literally watch the people around him and it has been quite cool to see him "soak it all in" and then try things himself. He would stand on his own and immediately fall but then immediately stand again. Eventually, his long moments of standing turned in to a new sequence of events….Stand, step, fall, repeat. Seriously…the baby has set a goal for himself and has tried again and again and again until he met that goal. Then he starts a new goal…fearlessly. If you think about it, babies go through life as little goal setters. In my mind, I think that my nephew’s brain works something like this… I wonder what I can do to make people pick me up. I wonder if I can hold my own bottle. I wonder if I can sit up. I wonder if I can slide off the couch. I wonder if I can stand like everyone else. I wonder if I can drink from that straw. I wonder if I can walk on two feet like my cousins. I wonder what will happen if I touch that shiny thing. I wonder what that thing does when I press the buttons. (yes, in my mind he knows what computer keys are) As for me, I wonder when adults step in and discourage this natural curiosity about the world. What if we didn’t? What if we allowed kids to continue to set goals, learn, try, fall and repeat? The least that we could do is fearlessly do this ourselves. After-all, babies do it.  

One of these days, Techsmith’s App Show won’t be in free beta and I’ll be sad. For the record, I’m pretty sure that this nifty storytelling tool wasn’t made for education but that didn’t stop plenty of educators from finding it. I actually love App Show because it helps users create stories from an embedded "best practices" framework. You plug in your device and film scenes. After filming scenes, you add voice over and music. If you have Camtasia, you can export for further editing and what’s cooler is that each clip translates over to its own timeline for much more fluid editing. Yesterday, Braeden started working on his version of a Google office in Minecraft. Of course he wanted collaborators so of course that meant that I would be deeply embedded in Minecraft greatness yesterday. He wanted to record a quick clip and App Show was the right tool for it, especially after my Quicktime recorder kept failing and my Airserver refused to work! I should also note again that I have Camtasia and recording from a plugged in device is a function of Camtasia. Maybe it was a bit of "tech for the sake of tech" or maybe it was that we chose the right tool that we needed. At any rate, it was fun and it worked like a charm! Using it is as simple as opening the app, choosing a pathway and then deciding on number of scenes and length which can be changed at any time. You don’t even have to plug in an ios device. You can totally do the same thing with an android or with any form of video because there is an "upload media" function which means that you can make a story about whatever floats your boat! Braeden’s take: He loves it and is now writing a script for a minecraft cartoon because this tool will be perfect for making that! Click to view slideshow. Below is the video that we created! &

There is a brief moment when you are asked to speak at the White House when you just might think, "What on earth have I gotten myself into?" For me, that was never the case…not for a second! For the past week, aside from work, I’ve done nothing but write, revise, recite and repeat my Ignite speech on Supporting #FutureReady Teaching and Learning that I will share at THE WHITE HOUSE tomorrow! I’ve never been more excited and ready for anything in my entire life and not just because I actually have a completed presentation well before the event but because I am deeply ready for this. I grew up in a small town, a place where the greatest thing that has ever happened was winning a few State Championships in football unless you count the Super Conducting Super Collider that almost was…something of this magnitude was completely unheard of until now. I’m not even nervous…yet. I was actually more nervous practicing in front of my mother, who is a tough one to speak in front of. She is a pro, after all! I actually get to be in the same room as Our President and for my family, it doesn’t get any better than this. It just doesn’t…unless Michelle Obama is there…that would be amazing! So, without fear or reservation…I get to channel my inner "Jose, Sabrina, Melinda, Chris, Diana, Xian, Audrey and Jaime" and every other speaker that I have ever looked up to. I’ll lean on the support of my friends and local community who have been loud and proud in their excitement. More importantly, I get to represent my parents and my entire family. Without their sacrifices, there’s no way that I would be here. It’s not about me at all but I’m grateful for the opportunity and platform to share. Thank you to the Office of Edtech for taking a chance on a girl from a small town in Texas. Because I am connected, this "unheard of thing" is real! Let’s put this same power into the hands of all of our learners. #futureready