Last week I made a promise to deliver one chat with my district’s tech director each week. I almost broke that promise while struggling with Shout Engine’s submission form today, but their support came through with flying colors, and you now have the podcast below for your listening pleasure. Truth be told, Shout Engine has been ridiculously easy for getting this podcast up and running (and this is coming from someone who has helped dozens of individuals get started with podcast production and hosting). I was excited to get this episode up for two reasons. One; my tech director, Pete Poggione, enjoyed sitting down and having a chance to talk through some of the thought processes that go into technology decision making for a K-12 school district. Two; I got responses from the teachers that I support! Sure, some of them were standard grumbles about issues that bug even me, but a lot of the responses were just average curiosities and questions that many have been asking for awhile. Whether it’s lack of time, lack of interest, or just a lack of patience, many often want an answer that sadly there isn’t always time for, especially at the start of the school year. Not that we don’t have time to answer pressing questions, but rather there never seems to be time enough for an answer that makes sense, and offers a bit of reasoning behind the decision. I’m hoping that by continuing to provide these "this is why" type answers, it will give listeners (teachers in my district or elsewhere) an opportunity to satisfy that all consuming "why?!" question that burns at the heart of any question. As educators, we’re all curious human beings, and even though we may not agree with the decisions made by administrators, I’ve found that most people are at least satisfied with a well thought out explanation as to why a decision was made. Or better yet, a well reasoned response allows for a more nuanced conversation that could in turn alter decisions made in the future for the better. However altruistic this project may sound, it’s certainly a bit of an ego-boost to know that people are listening, and commenting. Enjoy the second episode of "Tech Director Chat", and feel free to chime in on Twitter using the #TechDirectorChat hashtag if you have questions or thoughts to share. Here’s a rundown of this week’s questions: 1:38 - Is it gratifying for Pete to get his hands dirty and work on help desk tickets instead of staying behind his desk all the time? 4:30 - Are there new projectors or interactive whiteboards coming? 6:45 - Shoutout to the Later Elementary Teachers, they rock today! 7:31 - Can we upgrade our laptops to OS X Mavericks, and why have you waited so long? - I was told after the recording that I forgot to mention that we also postponed upgrading because not all of the important software we use in the district had been updated by their developers. 13:08 - What plans are in place for providing accessibility for students with special needs or accomodations using district technology? 16:01 - How do Apple products help us with meeting student’s needs and accommodations? Tech Director Chat - Upgrade Pains & Accessibility

After years of watching school districts around my own open up YouTube to their staff, students, and in some cases anyone using the public wi-fi, I finally pushed last year to do the same in my district. Our staff had always had access to YouTube, and our online students at the High School had access for their classes, but that was it. Teachers could use YouTube videos for whole group instruction, or post videos for use at home, but students were restricted to the Education version of YouTube while at school, a smaller portal of curated videos found on the platform that have clear educational value for the K-16 classroom. There are GREAT videos found in YouTube’s Education portal, but the reality is that YouTube has become so pervasive in our culture, that most of the videos our teachers want to use (and have been using) exist out among the general morass of YouTube videos. The hurdle we faced, and still do, is the need for teachers to have effective management strategies and techniques for dealing with a fully unfiltered YouTube in their classrooms. But just typing that last sentence makes me anxious for all of the teachers and parents that question unleashing YouTube upon our classrooms (I tend to over-empathize), and fret for how to effectively manage student behavior while watching YouTube videos. I want teachers and parents in my school district to feel confident that we are always developing and seeking out new strategies for using such an enticingly distractive, yet educationally wealthy, platform like YouTube. This book may or may not have saved my life on more than one occasion. I have a lot of knick-knacks and joke books in my collection of former teaching supplies that still occupy a small corner of my work area. One of them is the Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook, given to me  as a joke one Christmas (I’m a card carrying Eagle Scout). It was humorous to read a few of the stories to my old classes as an example of a "how to" manual that wasn’t some dry expository text. I’ve kept it around because I’ve had an idea to assemble a "Classroom Scenario Survival Handbook" for various realms of technology for some time now, and I thought starting with YouTube would be a good place to start. So far, I’ve broken the process down into 3 basic steps: Collect strategies and resources Curate them into meaningful categories and themes (on task strategies, extending YouTube into projects, etc.) Publish a simple eBook/website/document with strategies for all skill levels I’m currently starting with step number one, and I’d love to get all the help I can! Just follow the link below to help me collect any and all effective strategy you may have for using Youtube for instruction: The Classroom Scenario Survival Handbook for YouTube   image - Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/The-Worst-Case-Scenario-Survival-Handbook/dp/0811825558

Jayme Linton, a good Twitter friend and Assistant Professor for Online Learning & Instructional Design at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, North Carolina, was chatting last week with Steve Anderson, another North Carolina educator, about a form that been been published by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction seeking feedback from educators in the state. Not being up on my North Carolina policy and educational initiatives, I took a quick look. #NCed & #ncacte14 >> Provide feedback to #ncdpi_dtl on new digital learning competencies: https://t.co/uwQv2s5qQx — Jayme Linton (@jaymelinton) September 25, 2014 It was less than encouraging. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there are many good reasons why a state level department of Education would be seeking public comment on an important body of work (in this case crafting digital learning competencies for teachers) using one of the briefest and least rigorous Google Forms I’ve seen published by said agencies in awhile. I hear that North Carolina has been having budget problems, and quite often many bureaucratic types aren’t always well versed in the latest tools being used by practitioners in the field of education. These two reasons alone would have been fine with me, but the documentation that the NCDPI is seeking comments on sounds as though they’re fairly important, and I was taken aback by the brevity of space for responses. I took a screenshot of the form (here’s a direct link if you’d like to view it) and marked it up a bit. Sure, it would have been nice if they had included an image of kids, or a classroom. Yes, it would be been ideal to link to the actual documentation the NCDPI was referring survey takers too (in the interest of ease). But there were a couple of issues I was puzzled about. Like asking some potentially "large" questions seeking considerations, feedback, and reactions while only providing a single text field to submit responses; sure you can type a lot in those boxes, but you can only see the last few words that you’ve typed. Secondly, I’ve grown accustomed to many large state level agencies seeking comments, but also providing a means to submit research, journal articles, and links to publications that help give comments and feedback more depth and support. Ideally, this would ultimately improve a document for thousands of individuals working for a large public institution based on something more than just opinions and feelings. I love opinions and feelings, but when it comes to making large systemic change, you need more than warm fuzzies to help ensure that the opinions you’re listening to have merit. Below is the screenshot that I marked up. After some consideration, and reflection on the thought that the creator of this document was certainly looking for brevity, I decided to improve upon it. So I made my own. On a Friday night. If that doesn’t say something about my lack of a night life, then I hope it at least says something about my dedication to wanting schools, teachers, and educational institutions to be better. I didn’t alter the feedback form too much. I expanded the response fields to paragraph texts, and included a couple of questions that might help give a better cursory glance at the mood of those completing the survey. For example, I tossed in a simple Likert Scale question right off the bat, so that reviewers of the aggregated submissions have a quick visual reference for how educators felt about the digital literacy competencies for teachers (not confident to completely confident). I also included a few places for survey takers to submit important links, resources, and other documentation that might help hone and refine the draft up for review. I tossed in a quick "thanks" and made the "submit optional contact info" field a little more straight forward (name and email, rather than just one box asking for non-specific contact info). Oh, and I managed to snag a nice photo of some students using a few computers at Fort Bragg, so there was at least a human element to the feedback form. Here’s what I came up with. And below is a link to the newly created document, just in case someone wants to send their feedback on North Carolina’s Digital Literacy Competencies for teachers directly to me Seriously though, I did this not to be snarky, but to be genuinely helpful. I feel that our leaders, and the refinement or polish they put into their work, serves as a model for the type of work we do as educators. If we don’t see the type of leadership that we feel the larger community needs, then it’s upon us to step up and be the model of what some of the basics of communication and collecting input from stakeholders should look like. Link to Ben’s "Slightly Better" feedback form  

It’s Monday. I’ve had quite the busy weekend working on far too many projects and enjoying my family, but I wanted to get this podcast out before the end of the day! This week’s episode of Tech Director Chat ran a bit long (I’ll really have to do something about that), but the conversation was rather interesting for me, and I hope for other educators passionate about technology as well; I got my tech director to open up a bit and share some honest feelings about whether we’re doing a good enough job of looking at our instructional settings from s student’s perspective. That in and of itself felt like a pretty good accomplishment, but perhaps more rewarding for me is that we managed to get those episode recorded amidst phone calls, buzzers, interruptions, and a game going on in the middle school gym across the hall. Three weeks in, and it feels like we’ve got the makings of a solid "format", but I’m still open for any and all critiques, comments, and suggestions for improvement. Let me know in the comments. In this third episode, Pete and I attempt to address the sticky issue of when attempts to help aren’t always so helpful, why tech support often comes at the last minute, and what we can do to make ourselves better "helpers". We roll of few issues up into a group of questions adressing what we’ve tried to do and hasn’t worked, and attempt to address a question posed by Sarah on Twitter about looking at instructional technology from student’s point of view. Timestamps for this weeks questions: :50 - Pete feels inadequate about his title 2:45 - What has Pete been doing today? 3:53 - Is the work that Pete does thankless? 5:35 - Why does support sometimes come at the last minute? 6:45 - What sort of processes are in place, or not,  to build effective support? 9:22 - If you build a website, will people come? 11:25 - How do you deal with the responses to help emails don’t go as planned? 14:15 - Why does Ben get frustrated when trying to help people doesn’t end up being helpful? 16:50 - Do you think we’re doing a good enough job of trying to view the instructional setting through the eyes of the students? 21:00 - Ben cannot edit anything down to 20 minutes Tech Director Chat - Communications & Student Views

I like to argue on Twitter; perhaps more so than is acceptable by many of the more positive individuals out there. Regardless of how often I find opportunities to argue a point in the 140-character space, I usually try to hold to a few tenets: Don’t be a jerk Be constructive in my criticism Ask questions Don’t be a jerk Try to understand the other person’s point of view I’m not always successful in adhering to these self-imposed guidelines, but I like to think that reminding myself of them makes me a bit more self-aware before engaging in verbal rhetoric. I guess you could say that I’m a bit of a "know-it-all" (those that know me will readily affirm this). I’m not proud of this failing, so I try to actively monitor my level of "jerkiness" in conversation. Other times, I just can’t help myself and try to find nuance, refinement, and subtlety in a medium that does not afford any kindness to those qualities; Twitter is the grammatical equivalent of the declarative statement on steroids. "The worst thing to ever grace this planet is ___________!", followed by a copious amount of retweets and "favorites" is par for the course on Twitter. I just couldn’t help myself last week when I saw a few prominent educators on Twitter decrying how much negativity they deal with. They mused that education needs fewer "talkers and complainers". A common complaint by many, there are times when all of us just wish there weren’t as many nay-sayers, complainers, and "Debbie downers" standing in our way of accomplishing our goals. What’s disappointing to me is when we don’t take those complainers and moments of frustration, and use them as opportunities to find solutions, or at least invitations to connect with people that might genuinely be struggling to overcome fear or anxiety of moving forward into a new reality with their leaders. Below is a small conversation I had with Eric Sheninger, Erin Klein, and Tom Murray on Twitter last week (yes, I know I pick arguments with influential people, I swear it’s innocent!). It’s mostly in context in order to give you an idea of what I was wrestling with. What exactly is the difference between complaining and problem solving? Can complaining be a critical component of problem solving?   @thomascmurray @KleinErin @E_Sheninger complaining is TOTALLY allowed if you plan on doing something about it — Ben Rimes (@techsavvyed) September 22, 2014 @techsavvyed @KleinErin @E_Sheninger - there's a big difference between complaining and problem solving — Tom Murray (@thomascmurray) September 22, 2014 @thomascmurray @KleinErin @E_Sheninger problem solving often begins with complaining — Ben Rimes (@techsavvyed) September 22, 2014 @techsavvyed @thomascmurray @E_Sheninger I think the negative word complaining should should be switched to what we mean: discussing — Erin Klein (@KleinErin) September 22, 2014 @KleinErin @thomascmurray @E_Sheninger Discussion is good, but can't ignore the truth that happens in so many teachers lounges. — Ben Rimes (@techsavvyed) September 22, 2014 @KleinErin @techsavvyed @thomascmurray discussing is much different than complaining — Eric Sheninger (@E_Sheninger) September 22, 2014 @E_Sheninger @KleinErin @thomascmurray complaints are one facet of discussion. — Ben Rimes (@techsavvyed) September 22, 2014 @techsavvyed @KleinErin @thomascmurray Or is it the constant complaining that forces others to engage in discourse elsewhere? — Eric Sheninger (@E_Sheninger) September 22, 2014 The conversation continued, and David Tebo even chimed in, with a nice comment that offered a different take on the situation: @techsavvyed @E_Sheninger @KleinErin @thomascmurray complaining starts the process with the wrong lens and puts a ceiling on solutions — David Tebo (@tebotweets) September 22, 2014 I could go on, as the conversation meandered through a few more metaphors and thoughts, but essentially what it boiled down to was the nature of whether we allow complaints and negativity to consume us. If it jades us, do we risk walking away from potential points of view and partnerships that may one day prove valuable? I’m not trying to be too naive in my thoughts; rather, I want to believe that those that complain genuinely want to help solve problems, they’re just in a place filled with anxiety, doubt, and worry. I certainly don’t have the experience of leadership at the top of the educational structure that some of these individuals have, but I strive not to discount the feelings of those I work with everyday. I wonder if I’m too far off the mark here, or if others see complaints as just more opportunities to fine tune solutions, and chisel them into more perfect ideas. After all, if they’re complaining, then they must care enough about an issue that they want others to know their opinions, and understand their viewpoint. Could that be the first step (albeit an awkward one) in their process of problem solving?

Google decided to be helpful today and automatically turned on the "Offline Sync" feature of Drive. It wasn’t actually very helpful at all. In a way, it upset me a bit. It’s not that I don’t appreciate the ability to work on documents created through Google Docs if and when I lose my internet connection. That’s kind of handy. It’s that Google made the choice for me, and decided to start caching large amounts of data on my local hard drive. I already have the Google Drive App running locally on my machine for quick access to non-Google Documents files stored in Google Drive. For documents that I know I’ll need access to offline, I use Pages and other iWork applications and then let iCloud sync them for me. The engineers and servers at Google obviously don’t know this, although I wouldn’t be surprised if they did with as much access to my data as they have. So I’m guessing someone thought it would be helpful for the offline sync feature to be automatically turned on. And by making that decision, my machine started to automatically download and cache up to an additional 5 GB of information. Like I said, perhaps handy for some, but I wasn’t thrilled from the perspective of a school "tech guy." If you’re district is like ours, most of your machines available to students are publicly shared devices. The students all have separate logins, but they share machines in labs, on carts, and in classrooms. With the potential for dozens of students using a single machine, that storage space gets eaten up quickly! I’m hoping that this feature was only automatically turned on for non Google Apps for Education users, or even better through some fluke of my own random keyboard mashing (not that I’m in the habit of doing that). You might want to check your own machine and your districts, especially if you use Chrome as your default web browser, as it seems to be much more eager to "help" with these sorts of features. I made a quick tutorial on how to turn it off if you’re interested. Enjoy! Update: I realize that this automatic feature isn’t new, and only for Chrome OS or Chrome Browser users, but for some reason it was just activated on my account today. Paul Murray, colleague and one of my go-to Google power users, recommends that this is actually a GOOD thing on Chromebooks, as it helps improve speed and access to documents. Chrome OS is built to handle a crowded drive, and will efficiently manage data for you without local storage becoming full. This is good news for Chromebook users. So yay for Chromebooks in schools, but for me the jury is still out on full feature laptops that are shared throughout the day. I’ve seen student laptops fill up FAST when used among a dozen or more students, and I know the tech department sometimes gets headaches when there’s one more cloud sync happening in the background taxing the shared devices.

Another Monday is in the books, and another episode of Tech Director Chat is in the can….or on the air…or something like that. New metaphors are obviously needed on my part for digital equivalents of traditional media. This week’s conversation waxes a bit philosophical on the obstacles that we all face when trying to bring new technologies into the classroom; hint, it’s not always the technology itself. I’ve been impressed with my Tech Director’s more candid, yet thoughtful, responses to the questions that others have posed for him. I work alongside him everyday, and while I question some of the choices he makes, at least I know that his heart is in the right place when it comes to moving forward with technology. Sure, we have our disagreements when it comes to how to best implement new hardware, or whether certain hardware and software should be brought into the classroom in the first place. But at the end of the day, forcing him to turn off his email, step away from his computer, and chat with me helps nurture the perception that he’s not just trying to "control" every piece of technology in our school district. A special thanks once again to Sara Kentner for providing some great questions for us to wrestle with! @techsavvyed what's you biggest hold back when it comes to bring in new technology? — Sarah Kentner (@SarahLKentner) October 1, 2014 I’m still not entirely happy that these podcasts are longer than 20 minutes. A little part of me feels as though I’ve failed when I let the conversation run long, or I can’t find a way to cut it down a bit. My audio levels still need work as well; part of it is the less than ideal environment I have to record in, and the rest is just getting both myself and Pete to be the same distance from the microphone (we both fidget a lot in our seats). On the more positive side, I’ve continued to refine how I present the podcasts to staff, including the time stamps and making the audio available to download for listening offline. There’s even a helpful link to each episode in iTunes, so for those that have issues with the player can easily load it up on their Macs in iTunes for better playback controls. I still haven’t found a way to create enough time for everyone to listen to it, but I’m sure some startup in Silicon Valley is working on that. Enjoy this week’s episode, either right here, in iTunes, or however else you’ve managed to get access to it! Timestamps for this weeks questions: :40 Pete isn’t certain about who he is anymore 1:26 What has Pete been doing today? 2:14 Why was Pete on the roof of the high school? 3:19 What sort of projects are you working on most of the time? 4:40 What is a wireless survey and why are we doing it? 5:40 When will the Apple TVs be fixed so they don’t drop the connection, and why are we having this issue? 10:34 What’s one thing that really gets your blood boiling in regards to technology? 12:08 Are sales people in the technology sector not entirely honest about their wares? 13:15 What’s the biggest obstacle to bringing new technology into the school district? Tech Director Chat - Making Pete’s Blood Boil

I don’t have a single particular reason for not being a part of the Instagram community; its corporate parent, Facebook, and the use of my images for any possible promotion in the future makes me anxious. I’ve used Pressgram (RIP), Hipstamatic, and a few other "apps" for photo sharing, including Flickr, for many years now. And when it comes to being social, I usually need a better buy in than just "this tool is so cool!" So it probably comes as no surprise that I didn’t join for just one particular reason either. I became enamored with the "community first" idealism being displayed in the EdTech Baton project. I recently watched Dear, Mr. Watterson, and I became nostalgic for an era now gone when a comic strip was much more than just a comic strip. And I thought to myself….you haven’t pushed yourself into uncomfortable territory recently, let’s see what I can do to challenge myself to grow. Which I know seems odd; by joining Instagram, the very symbol of the "me too" movement, how am I stretching myself? I’ve been operating "on the other side of the fence" for almost five years now. I’ve been an instructional coach, a technologist, and quasi-admin (my district still doesn’t entirely understand how many administrative tasks I perform), and have spent much of that time investing in more critical thought aligned to staff development, how to be a better teacher of adults, and wrestling with questions at a district and state level. I feel as though I’ve lost a lot of opportunities to be playful and spontaneous in the way most classroom teachers are in trying to engage and connect with learners. In other words, I spend so much time in my own head that I often worry about whether I can still effectively relate to the more immediate needs of a classroom teacher. Maybe being a part of the Instagram community will help, and maybe it won’t. Maybe I just need to schedule more time to be in classrooms as an observer, not as the tech coach or an aide for the instructor. It doesn’t matter, as long as I’m finding a way to regularly think about staying connected to the classroom, and acting on those thoughts, right? And while I’m doing it, I might as well bring my friend Piggy along for the ride

It’s an age old stereotype in most school districts that the Tech Director’s main job is to "lock it and block it." And sadly, that stereotype exists for a reason; many school districts hire former IT professionals that are used to working in environments where the end user devices have been specifically tailored and locked down so that employees are as efficient and productive as possible. No need to be distracted with games if you can’t install them. No need to worry about viruses if employees have limited admin control over what devices they can attach to their laptops, or what networks they can connect with. That was the case in our district as well, until about 8 years ago; work stations were locked down, the internet was slow and strictly filtered. However, over the course of nearly a decade, my Tech Director has made incredible strides in making technology more approachable and personal; teachers have their own laptops that they have full admin rights to. Social media sites are mostly unblocked for staff, with some sharing sites open for students as well (where appropriate). We’re on our way to a relatively "happy" school district when it comes to technology, so it was interesting to chat with my Tech Director for this week’s Tech Director Chat. Not only may you find Pete’s answers atypical for a Tech Director, but you’ll find that the conversation lends itself to some larger discussions of the need for balance between control and unfettered access. We have a record number of questions this week; seven! I know, I know, that seems pretty low, but for a podcast that one day hopes to be under 20 minutes, that’s a lot to cram into one episode! We also had some great questions from Twitter! Thanks to Sherri, Rob, and MASSP for asking some tough questions that I’m sure aren’t always the same in every school district. Below is the 5th installment of Tech Director Chat, and if you find yourself enjoying, please consider leaving a comment on iTunes. Timestamps for this week’s questions: :49 What has Pete been up to? 1:15 Why did Pete’s day go sideways? 2:30 Seven questions is a lot for us? 3:02 Why do the printers keep breaking down, and can we remedy the situation? 7:38 Are we any closer on the Apple TV situation? 8:51 Why can’t we move an interactive whiteboard out of a special education classroom into a regular education classroom? 10:40 Are we going to run out of time on this episode? 11:04 Why am I trusted with people’s most prized posession, but not the technology and the internet? 14:24 Why do you always approach a request from a place of "no" rather than a place of "yes"? 17:20 Would you say that a Tech Director from the IT world might be apprehensive to opening up technology to help solve problems creatively? 19:02 Why do teachers often get so little input in the technology purchasing  decisions? 22:56 We’ve gone hopelessly past the 20 minute mark. 23:04 What does a Tech Director do for fun and to decompress? Tech Director Chat - Is "Yes" in a Tech Director’s Vocabulary?

This morning the Connected Educators Blog posted a quick guide for "How to Start Blogging". It was well intentioned, meant to give people some quick tips for starting your own blog, and gave just about the same exact advice that I give individuals. It just got the order of the steps wrong. In most "intro to blogging" workshops I see the typical routine as described in the aforementioned post. Pick a blogging platform and setup your space Decide or define what to write about Share and enjoy That order works most of the time. It’s easy for most tech facilitators to start with the technology platform and then work on the finer points of setting up your blogging "house" given the toolset of WordPress, Blogger, or some other blog hosting service. Instructional technologists come from all areas of education, so it’s easier for us to start with a common place; setting up and fidgeting with new technology. But is starting with the platform the best place to start for a truly meaningful experience? I didn’t start driving by choosing my first car. I didn’t start writing by choosing which pencil, crayon, or pen was the best fit for me, and I certainly didn’t start this blog because WordPress was the best tool at the time. I started driving to escape being chauffeured by my parents. I started writing because society expects us to be able to express ourselves through written language. And looking back, I started blogging because I wanted to create a small home-grown network of educators sharing resources about technology. My choice of car, preferred writing implement, and blogging platform all came later. I’m not convinced that the order mentioned above, or in the Connected Educators post, is the best way to handle getting started with blogging in today’s connected environment. Thanks to many websites and hosts, starting a blog is a 5 minute process now, and posting out to one is incredibly easy depending on the platform you choose. The question of "how" to start blogging is now relatively basic, and is readily answered with a quick search on Youtube (over 93,000 videos are returned when searching for how to start a blog). The more meaningful question for me then is "why" blog. The metaphysical questions about "who is your audience", and "what do you want to communicate to them" and "how do you invite conversation" may seem bothersome to some. To me, it gives me an opportunity to craft a simple roadmap with the educators that I work with, so when they do start blogging they have some ideas about what they want to put out into the world, and can craft their space to better suit those thoughts. I’m sure that I’m being needlessly nit picky here, and unnecessarily splitting hairs over the process; I just like knowing that before I help someone "build a house" for their writing, that we both have a clear understanding of what they want to put into the house, and what it’s going to need to look like to accommodate all of the thoughts placed inside. Bud Hunt wrote much more eloquently about this several years ago, while thinking about the "long game" that we must play as educators. Jim Groom extolled the virtues of blogging and how it has "opened up avenues of happiness" for him in his professional life. Thoughts like that don’t stem from pros and cons of which blogging platform to choose, and can feel like a huge speed bump if you’ve put the tools before the planning. Why start with the easy stuff, when the more difficult conversations are so much more rewarding and full of aspiration, promise, and energy? Looking back at my first blog post, I didn’t just want a blog; I wanted a vibrant, networked learning place for people to converse! I might not have hit those goals, but at least I started with a clear intent of where I wanted to be, not just the shell of an empty house before deciding how to fill it up. I hope that any seasoned instructional technologist thinks twice about leading a "how to blog" workshop with the creation of the blog as the first step, and instead uses valuable face to face time to connect with educators’ passions, needs, and what compels them to want to share openly on the web. The ideas shared in the Connected Educators post under the second step "Define Your Message" are a great starting point. They just need to come first if you really mean to blog for the long haul.  

I’m not much of a "joiner." I don’t say that with any amount of pride; in fact, I consider it one of my major character flaws. It’s one of the major reasons that you don’t see ADE, GCT, or any other alphabet soup of letters in any of my email signatures or bios. If you happen to know me, and I seem to play well with others, then it’s most likely that I’ve gotten to a place where I feel comfortable being a part of the group. Being a part of the Ed Tech Baton is one of those groups that feels incredibly comfortable for me. It’s a "community first" collaboration of educators from around the world, focused on sharing great examples of learning with technology, not celebrating individuals. Being one of the founding members of the #michED chat community, this concept speaks to me; there’s currently a wave of educational technology celebrities, rockstars, and "all star groups" rising in prominence, and I feel at times that it over looks the quietly competent educators that I see everyday in the classroom. The focus on the learning, not the individual, makes the Ed Tech Baton concept fascinatingly simple. I’m not sure how I stumbled across Ed Tech Baton, but I immediately signed up in an attempt just to uncover the individuals behind it so I could send them an email to say "thanks" for creating such a wonderful opportunity. Even then, they wouldn’t reveal everyone behind the project, so I bought in, signed up, and I’m excited to be "carrying the baton" tomorrow! The concept is simple; Everyone participating gets to "run" for a day, and posts images to a shared Ed Tech Baton Instagram account where others can follow, share, and gather ideas for using technology in the classroom. The images will also be shared out automagically to the Ed Tech Baton Twitter account and their Facebook page. It’s a curated and syndicated stream of people celebrating what’s important to them through a few slices and moments of a single day, with the baton being passed to another member of the community the following day. I’m excited to share moments from my school district on October 17th, and since I’m not in a classroom of my own, I’ve enlisted the help of many teachers throughout my district. I’ll be updating this post with the images, so I have my own archived day of carrying the baton, but you’re certainly welcome to check out the Instagram account, or go and sign up to carry the baton yourself. The rules are fairly straightforward, and I hope to capture a few playful shots to share.   Loading It’s always a good morning when you get to use #imovie to make videos exploring geography concepts! These girls are working on a #globalED video project with other schools around the world! Photo by @benrimes View on Instagram Loading Sometimes we ignore the technology around us in favor of something new and shiny. This high school teacher asked his Tech Department if he could have the seven-year old Dell workstations that were slated to be recycled from an old lab. They run Windows 7 just fine, and now his Physics students have a fully #blendedlearning environment in his classroom! Photo by @benrimes View on Instagram Loading The simplest apps are often the most intrinsically motivating. These 4th grade students in Michigan have spent the last 20 minutes brainstorming questions to ask their "digital pen pals" in Denver. #Google Forms makes this simple and straight forward, and lets them submit or craft questions in small batches on separate forms grouped around broader topics of interest. Photo by @benrimes View on Instagram Loading And now for something completely different! This year my Tech Director and I started a weekly #podcast for our teachers. It's a 20 minute Q and A show in which I ask him questions from our teachers. It's been pretty popular for getting those burning tech questions answered! #GarageBand and #Audacity work well for recording and #ShoutEngine helps put it out there for the world. http://shoutengine.com/TechDirectorChat/ Photo by @benrimes View on Instagram Loading If your district mandates that daily learning targets are posted in your classroom, take a page from this middle school teacher's Tech Lit class. She posts "big goals" to always be mindful of your #digitalfootprint when using #socialmedia. Photo by @benrimes View on Instagram Loading Our access to laptops is limited in all of our buildings, but the Later Elementary came up with a clever idea. Each laptop cart of 30 #MacBooks is split among 3 classrooms. That gives each class 10 computers they have access to every day. If they want to coordinate, it also means that every classroom can have a full set of 30 for special projects. #SharingIsCaring Photo by @benrimes View on Instagram Loading 1st graders working on their "padding" skills. We have a mixture of #iPads and laptops at our Early Elementary. Their technology teacher helps them buildup troubleshooting and creation skills through playful experiences in small groups. Photo by @benrimes View on Instagram

You know what they say about Tech Directors. You give them a simple question about RAM, and they’ll want 5 minutes to explain caching. If they take 5 minutes to explain caching, they’re going to want to take 7 minutes to explain how to clear it. You get where this is going. Pete geeked out a little on this week’s episode, but that’s alright, because we need it every now and then. This week we focused entirely on questions from our school district, including some seriously geeky responses from Pete about RAM, cache, and how to best avoid the "beachball of death". We even make a recommendation for Memory Clean, a Mac App that will help you regain some "snap" in your Mac’s step. Once I get Pete back on track we attempt to tackle some big questions about the direction of technology in our school district, and Pete is completely stumped by a musical trivia question about the Beatles. Timestamps for this week’s questions: 1:30 What has Pete been doing at his big conference? 2:03 So this conference you were at is seriously techie? 4:30 Any tips for people to get their Macs to run faster? 5:28 For non techies, what does Cache or RAM stand for? 5:58 Does Ben’s desktop analogy work for understanding RAM? 7:50 What can teachers do to help free up space in RAM? 13:20 Did we really just spend six minutes being geeks about RAM, hard drives, and caches? 14:00 How does Pete see his job changing when our bond passes next month? 16:30 What’s your big picture for technology in Mattawan Schools? 20:06 What is the only Beatles’ song that none of the four band members play instruments on? 21:05 Ben questions whether Pete can really call himself a musician You can listen via ShoutEngine, subscribe in iTunes, or use the embedded player below. Tech Director Chat - Pete Geeks Out

Being a "21st Century" teacher is still very much in vogue these days, and I still hear the term "21st Century Skills" tossed about from time to time at conferences and workshops. There’s nothing particularly wrong with the phrase (it’s immensely better than it’s predecessor "digital natives") as it speaks to the collaborative, creative, and communication skills that most educators should herald as the foundation of their instructional practice. "21st Century Skills" get a bad reputation though for being overly "techie", and quite often people will go out of their way to shoe horn every single piece of media creation they can into a document extolling teachers to adopt more tech. To be honest, that reputation is sometimes earned, as I see teachers that I work with struggle to try all sorts of new gadgets, tech, apps, and sites without getting too deeply into any of them, and only retaining some surface level knowledge, or worse yet, not even giving a tool or technique a fair shake. So when I saw Brad Currie tweet out the following image created by Sean Junkins, I had to poke a little bit of playful fun with it. And thus, my "21 Things Every 21st Century Teacher Should Do This year AND KEEP THEIR SANITY" was born! While I’m always applauding teachers and students to tackle new technology and learning through a hands-on, playful attitude, even I think that sometimes we do go a bit too far. So in response to Sean Junkin’s image, which was actually based on a blog post by Carl Hooker, I present my re-imagined task list for the "21st Century" teacher that wants to try new things, but stay sane in the process. Some of my suggestions are "tongue in cheek," but many I feel quite strongly about when it comes to creating something in the real world versus a digital creation. When I taught 6th grade science, my students and I had MUCH more fun building a grow station for a plant investigation, instead of just using a virtual interactive. We created experiences, developed relationships, and worked through a lot of "21st Century" skills while building something with our hands that then sat at a place of honor in our classroom for the rest of the year. Think of the list of things I’ve put together here as a means of blending much needed real-world experiences with some digital ones. Special thanks again to Brad Currie, Sean Junkins, and Carl Hooker for providing the impetus to create this. I hope it’s received as the playful riff that I intended it to be.    

We’ve made it to the long fabled episode 7 of our podcast! Actually, I have no idea whether that’s a milestone or not, but in this week’s episode I do get to use a creepy voice, Pete and I battle the evils of the Yik Yak App, and we touch upon the "no tech" philosophy of the Waldorf School. I also introduce a regular segment, "Stump Pete", in which we get to question whether he’s fit to call himself a musician. All that and more on this week’s exciting episode of "Tech Director Chat!" Timestamps for this week’s questions: :48 How’s it going today? :59 What’s up with this Yik Yak App that hit the district last week? 4:50 When the bond passes, will each new classroom have some type of interactive whiteboard and a sound system? 7:50 Does Ben sound too creepy when whispering into the microphone? 8:41 Do school districts send home manuals for devices that students use? 10:25 If we were to pursue a 1:1 program, how could you see the program being embodied in our school district? 12:15 Does anyone really want clones of Ben? 12:52 Is it vital for students to have access to technology? Why or why not? 17:00 The Waldorf School doesn’t believe in technology? 19:09 In the 1970s hit song, "The Night Chicago Died" where was "Daddy" a cop, and when? Tech Director Chat - Let’s Stump Pete!

Let’s get this out in the open; I am not your typical "techie". Yes, I enjoy some new shiny hardware and software, but I usually don’t find myself geeking out over every new gadget and website. I’m methodical, I’m analytical….I’m actually a bit of a curmudgeon from time to time. So when Joe Talavier asked what I think a "21st Century Classroom" looks like last week, I couldn’t help but steer this week’s "Tech Director Chat" conversation away from the technology. In fact, I’ve been cultivating a growing belief that the connections and reach technology affords us can lead us to dysfunction and alienation within our own local communities as often as they can help bridge divides on a global scale. Having said that, the rest of this week’s podcast is rather rosy, despite the poor audio quality (Skyping across the planet and recording flawless audio is a challenge). This week we follow Pete as he jets sets around to globe to Prague, where he is attending an Institute for Innovation in Education Gathering (iiE for short). We talk about potential changes to lighting, presentation technology, and other "wish list" items that teachers have regarding technology in their classroom, and touch briefly on why Pete doesn’t listen to a podcast that he participates in weekly! Pete and I both share their thoughts on the definition of "21st Century Classrooms" and I share my recent "21 Things Every 21st Century Teachers Should Do and Keep Their Sanity" based on Carl Hooker’s tech-heavy blog post of the same theme. And of course, listeners attempt to stump Pete, and almost come away with it in this episode! Oh, and a little bit of "humble bragging" as well! The "Tech Director Chat" podcast is currently featured as "New & Noteworthy" in iTunes for Educational Technology. Wahoo! Please go and subscribe or leave us some reviews to help make the show even better! Timestamps for this week’s questions: 1:17 What is Pete doing in Prague, and what is the iiE? 3:13 What is Pete’s role with the iiE? 4:50 A high school student helped plan an international conference? 6:20 When our bond passes, will there be money to change the lighting in the high school? 7:45 Will we be getting better projectors in the district? 8:40 Wait, Pete doesn’t listen to this podcast? 9:25 Is it possible that we might have new dimmer lighting or other enhanced lighting? 10:43 In 60 seconds or less, why does restarting your computer resolve a lot of problems? 12:05 What do you think a 21st Century classroom looks like? 17:18 Stump Pete! Who wrote the album, "Numbers?" 18:20 We were featured as a "New & Noteworthy" podcast in iTunes for Educational Technology, wahoo! Tech Director Chat - 21st Century Classrooms

I’m sitting in a session at the MI Google Summit¹ and I’m listening to Jessica Winstanley melt my heart with adorable images of elementary students working through the mechanics of blogging with markers, sticky notes and reflective thought. Her session was focused on getting students (and teachers) to start blogging, and provided a host of reason why you might want to start blogging in the classroom. It instantly took me back to my post a few weeks ago about how educators should approach the blogging process; give me the "why" first, and then figure out the mechanics of "how". Jessica did a wonderful job, barely touching upon the tools for blogging, and instead focused on the why. So I thought I’d share her compelling examples for why you should get your students blogging, a full baker’s dozen! Alright, so there are 14 ideas here, but 13 made for a better title, poetically speaking Jessica Winstanley’s Ideas for Student Blogging Share class news with parents. Provide a list of homework or useful links. Link to online photo albums to share pictures with the classroom community. Discussion forum with parents/students on material discussed in class. Use as a medium for students to share their writing. Elementary Specific Book Blog - Class blog where students are the authors and they blog about the books they are reading Class News - Student guest bloggers blog each week about what is happening in the classroom Current Events - Students blog about current events: what is happening and their thoughts and opinions on the topic. Diary of a (Insert class pet here) - Students can blog about the life cycle and happenings of the class pet. I Spy - Have students post photos or pictures related to the content area and have them discuss why the picture is relevant.  Other students then can comment and expand the discussion. Secondary Specific Book Discussion - Blog about a novel and have fellow students who are reading the same novel comment and discuss. Living History - students conduct original interviews with local senior citizens, placing text, images, and audio clips on their blog as a digital archive of local history. Class Scribe -  Each day, a student is the class scribe, responsible for posting the class notes to the blog. With clever formatting and the use of pictures and graphs, lessons are shared each day. Discussions in the comments. Lab Reports - Blog about experiments conducted in class, like a lab report.  Through commenting, compare notes with classmates to evaluate what worked or didn’t for each group. Want more ideas? Jessica was kind enough to share her entire presentation with me, and you can view it here, or embedded below! I couldn’t embed her original version, so below is a copy. To keep up with changes to the document use the previous link for her "live" presentation. 1 The MI Google conference is easily one of the most affordable and well run Google Summits around compared to the hundreds of dollars being asked of attendees for Google Summits in many other states.  

It’s no secret that I’m not the biggest fan of chasing after the perfect app. Even when I was in the classroom, I would often give my students a few websites that I felt were appropriate, and then have them curate and identify the games, activities, and resources they found to be the most valuable. Sure, I have some favorite apps, but since I haven’t been in the classroom for 4 and a half years now, I realize that what I find valuable is likely quite different than what classroom teachers currently find valuable (and more importantly, practical). Which is why when I work with teachers looking for ideas for their iPads, or any tablet for that matter, I tend to focus on applications of one of the most powerful apps built into most mobile devices these days; the camera app! I know what some of you are thinking…"oh please, Ben!" Give me a break. There is nothing innovative, creative, or special about using digital cameras for learning. And yet, there are still many school districts that actively block access to the cameras on devices entirely (I would mention names, but I have colleagues at schools where this is the case). Couple that reality with the growing purchases of Chromebooks and other low cost computing devices in the name of "test readiness", and you aren’t exactly priming teachers to immerse themselves for a visual paradigm of learning. So when I decided to present for this year’s K-12 Online Conference, I went ahead and took one of my recent workshops, paired it down a bit, and turned it into a primer for getting started with visual learning activities using any tablet’s camera. I even included some rationale thanks to the Common Core Standards, in case anyone is interested in showing parents the positive side of the CCSS. And did I mention it’s just plain fun?! I’ve enjoyed leading a couple of workshops around this, as it gets participants up out of their seats, taking pictures and video around conference centers, and then coming back to share their work and get excited about exploring one another’s ideas. Per the K-12 Online Conference organizer’s request, I couldn’t post any video of my own about the presentation until I handed it off to them, so below is the video I crafted! Want to see some of the great visual activities that my workshop attendees created this summer? Click HERE for a growing list of visual ways for students to present learning across content areas using just the camera app. And here’s a shout out to the entire Games & Gammification strand presentations, in case you’re curious about more playful learning experiences in the classroom.

Apparently my post earlier this week sharing Jessica Winstanley’s ideas for student blogging was rather popular. So I’m going for broke, and sharing a tool that I created last week to help new teachers start blogging. Again, we’re going to focus on "why blog", not on the mechanics of blogging. Why? Because it’s far easier to fail by just setting up a blogging space and telling yourself that you’re going to blog, then develop an actual plan for using it as an important piece of your blended learning environment. I’ve been helping teachers in my district get started with blogging for a few years now, and some kick butt right out of the gate thanks to a healthy background of previous blogging experience. However, many are new to both the concept of openly sharing thoughts on the web, and the dedication it takes to blog regularly with or for students. Usually I’ll get a blog setup with a teacher, visit a classroom, and help the students work through the creation of shared expectations for their blogging space, and then hand things over to the teacher. I’ve been poor at following up, and giving teachers a simple tool to have them think through a few simple steps before they begin the blogging journey. Until last week. I decided to take my collected notes, thoughts, and scribbles from across my digital and analog writing spaces, and boiled them all down to a few simple questions and placed them in a Google Doc to serve as a template. Now every time a teacher asks me about blogging, I have a quick "go to" document to walk through with them, and hopefully provide enough of a game plan for them to blog successfully. Click here for a Google Doc Template of "Blogging for Success."

I did a search on YouTube today for the terms "video story problem." It returned more than 16 million results. Interestingly enough, many of the top results are from people creating video story problems that I’ve never met, have never been in one of my workshops, and have no links back to where they got the idea; and that’s awesome! Loving that so many other educators and students are starting to play with video to help create publicly available examples of the old "learning is messy" adage! I really enjoyed this one created by William Campillo, who tasked us with estimating the thickness of a single sticky note by using a stack of notes and one on its side. If I find some time, I might try to start curating all of the examples out there that I see popping up on YouTube. Or better yet, maybe create a hub site where all of the videos can live, be sorted and categorized, and maybe even start to build it up as a resource beyond the Video Story Problem Channel. For now, I’m just excited to see so many others creating!

Alright, so the voters of my school district’s community passed the bond. But I’m still excited as the two previous bond attempts failed. That means we’ve got a whole lot of changes in store for the district in the near future, and there’s a lot of questions to explore! This week’s episode of Tech Director Chat touches on a lot of bond-related questions, but is also balanced out by ongoing issues that many school districts have related to technology; how do you bring students into the decision making process, what projects take priority over others when money is scarce, and general questions about "life, the universe, and everything." This week see’s the continuation of "Stump Pete", in which Pete shares his complete disdain for Disco, and introduces actual names of those submitting questions. It feels like we’re getting closer and closer to Car Talk (RIP Tom Magliozzi), but I’m not getting any ideas of grandeur. This podcast is first and foremost for the teachers in my district, and I hope serves as a model for others to adopt, build upon, or tinker with so they can create new inroads with their own teaching staff. You can go listen, download, or subscribe to the Podcast via iTunes using this link, or listen using the embedded player below. Timestamps for this week’s questions: 1:17 We passed both our bonds? YAY! 1:53 What has Pete been up to today? 2:58 Did Pete bring anything back from Prague for us? 3:48 Does the passing of the bond mean that we will have 1:1 computing? 4:55 Can you give us an example of a project that’s been put "on hold" as we’ve been building up laptops? 7:30 Jeff asks, what does the passing of the bond mean for each building? 8:54 What are the plans for the architects and bond consultants for getting input from teachers and the community? 10:10 Wait, we have to hire a technology consultant for the bond? Isn’t that Pete’s job? 12:45 Nicole from Twitter asks, how do you get more students involved with requesting apps and websites for being unblocked? 17:44 Angie asks, if you could ask Stephen Hawking anything, what would you ask him? 19:43 Stump Pete! Jeff asks, what was the first major sound innovation after "Rock and Roll?" Tech Director Chat - OMG! We Passed the Bond!

Planet Money is an amazing podcast. If you aren’t listening, you should be. If you’re an economics, political science, or business teacher, it’s one of the richest pieces of media being produced today that breaks down complicated business and economic issues into easy to digest and engaging audio. If you’re a regular NPR listener, you’ve probably heard their pieces during longer news segments. If you’re an avid podcast listen, go subscribe…..now. It really is great story telling capable of turning the dullest of subjects into engrossing stories; including how the story of two pasta factories can help you understand the basics of the entire Italian economy. Net Neutrality isn’t anything new; it’s been discussed and argued for more than a decade. In fact, the Planet Money team was able to easily explain the amazing power that the internet can afford even the smallest of innovators through an anecdote about Skype, one of the most prevalent video conferencing tools on the internet today. Did you know it was started by a small development team from Estonia? I digress. Planet Money actually did an amazing job of describing both sides of the net neutrality issue two years ago in June of 2012. I won’t go too far into the description of their podcast, as it’s much more engaging if you listen yourself. Suffice it to say, Planet Money breaks the issue down into easily understood terms, with the perfect dose of humor and anecdotes. And it’s relatively bite-sized at only 13 minutes, making it a good listen during a commute, or during your plan time. You can go listen on the NPR website, or using the embedded player below (if it’s working).

If you aren’t subscribed to the PBS Idea Channel on Youtube, I’ll give you a few minutes to excuse yourself while you click on over and rectify that error. …. …. Go ahead, I’ll wait. …. …. Still haven’t clicked over yet? Click here! Or here! Or even here! Seriously, the PBS Idea Channel is a brilliant blend of ADHD media overload, memes, pop and internet cultural, all rolled up into the wonderfully intellectual ether that PBS tends to create. In short, it’s a "thinking millennial’s" internet show. I’ve blogged about it before, but I’ve been catching up on my viewing this week, and I stumbled across their episode from July 2014, in which the host, Mike Rugnetta, describes Frozen as a fairytale meant to critique other fairytales. And he actually does a really great job of supporting that premise; compared to the original source material (Hans Christian Andersen’s "The Snow Queen"), the evil queen is made good, a younger sister is invented, the handsome prince is turned evil, and the evil Duke is turned into a bumbling simpleton. Good characters wield "evil magic", the true love at the heart of the story is that of siblings, not love interests, and it presents a "vaguely progressive" notion of what fairytales should be. You can watch below, or right here! Where am I going with this? The entire episode is built around the question of "WHY" Frozen was so popular, and Mike’s thesis of it being a critique on other fairytales is what he claims gave it universal appeal. How amazingly fun would it be to offer up the same challenge to you students? Task them to build their own case as to why "Frozen" was so popular, and then challenge them to support it using literature, video, audio, pop culture, and any other form of media. It would make for an interesting mix of traditional persuasive writing and more modern digital storytelling tropes. If I were in a secondary English classroom I would LOVE to challenge my students with something like this as a "quickfire" exercise at least twice a month; if nothing else, the playfulness of it would be helpful to lighten things up from time to time.

I was one of the first Instructional Technology Coaches hired by a school district in my county (usually regional educational service agencies do that sort of thing). That was four and a half years ago, and since then I’ve taken on a much more quasi-administrative role in my district. However, over the years I’ve gotten a lot of questions and requests for help in shaping similar roles in neighboring school districts. I share the original job description for my position, the interview process, and any other questions that come my way. I try to be helpful. I was contacted by another individual seeking input of this nature this week via Twitter, and was asked a very compelling and unique question. Typically people just want the job description, and a walk through of my average week. This individual wanted to know specifically "If you were on the hiring committee for an instructional technology coach, what questions would you ask?" The first time I was asked specifically about a list of questions about hiring a tech-savvy teacher, David Warlick blasted me for focusing too much on the educational side, and not enough on the technical. I thought I had created a fairly balanced list, which was published in the Winter 2007 issue of Interactive Educator (it’s a small side bar of "Do’s and Dont’s"). In retrospect, my original list of "do’s and dont’s" may have come down more heavily on the educational side of things, but I was speaking from my perspective then, and quite frankly, the questions that Mr. Warlick provided in return weren’t my cup of tea either.  So, in an attempt to provide an updated list of questions that better reflect my experience, and a more balanced approach, I’ve broken them up into three categories to get a feel for each role that an Instructional Technology Coach must play. Agree with me or not, this is where I would start and most likely would continue to refine the questions with the hiring committee until we felt as though each of these three categories were well represented, and could provide us with some meaningful insight as to who they are as an individual. Questions About Leadership - An instructional technology coach is a leader, first and foremost What experience do you have leading adults? How would you approach a teacher that just doesn’t want to "get on the bus?" An instructional coach needs support, what support would you need from an administrator? How would you help adult learners be accountable for achieving goals? Can you share an example of being a "team player" despite holding opinions contrary to your superior? Questions About Teaching - An instructional technology coach understands pedagogy and people Who is your educational hero, and why do they inspire you? How do you reflect on your personal beliefs and educational philosophy? A colleague tells you that they don’t believe in a learning philosophy or pedagogical viewpoint that you hold dear. How do you deal with that? What’s the single biggest similarity between adult learners and younger learners? The biggest difference? An administrator asks you to lead a workshop for a group of teachers you’ve never met. What’s the first thing you do when you walk into the room with them?  Questions About Technology - An instructional technology coach should posses an innate desire to "tinker" What’s the last thing you took apart, just to see how it worked? What’s the last thing you created because other resources out there weren’t good enough? How do you go about troubleshooting a technical problem? What does your digital footprint look like? What framework or set of tools do you employ to narrate, curate, and share your learning process?   image - question mark in esbjerg by Alexander Henning Drachmann

I’ve been trying to get back to playing with video at least once a week (it’s hard to squeeze it in with all of my other official work duties). Turns out, I should just take my own advice, and be ready with my camera more often when I’m out around town. There was a great opportunity to make a quick video story problem about estimation and proportional reasoning (thanks Aviva) today at the grocery store, and I got some nice cheddar out of it. Learning + food = a win in my book. I really need to find a way to turn all of these videos into something larger. There’s so much more below the surface, but I feel like I’m just scratching at it with a dull spade. For now, I’m enjoying getting back into the swing of creating them. P.S. Sorry for the unkempt face. I deserve a day off from shaving on a Saturday, right?