Equality and Equity in Education

Original Source Unknown.
Please let me know if  you know the original source!
Update 8/5/16 - Discovered the original graphic source
 is Dr. Craig Froehle when this random post
popped up in my Facebook feed!

Earlier this month, I participated on a panel about BYOD Equity at SXSWedu. In the weeks leading up to the panel, the graphic to the right came across my radar. I thought it was an excellent visual of the difference between equality and equity. I used it when introducing our SXSWedu panel, and it seemed to resonate with others as well, as it was photographed and Tweeted during the presentation several times.

Last Thursday while I was in a breakout session during our Spring TEC-SIG meeting, session presenter Wendy Jones referenced this graphic as she discussed teacher professional development and access to technology. Wendy had seen it when attending the aforementioned panel at SXSWedu.

After Wendy mentioned the graphic in the TEC-SIG session, other attendees requested that I Tweet it out. I did so, and after being re-tweeted by a couple of folks, it has gone viral and still continues to be passed around via Twitter. Check out the number of re-tweets and favorites on the Tweet below!

Why giving everyone the same isn't fair in one simple graphic shared by @EdTechSandyK #truth #txed #education pic.twitter.com/kH4s0Rh5it
— Amy Mayer (@friEdTechnology) March 27, 2014

Why has this graphic resonated with people? I think it's because it captures in a simple picture concepts that are difficult to communicate with words: Equality connotes treating everyone the exact same way regardless of need while equity references providing each individual with the resources they need to operate in as level a playing field as possible.

By providing all of the kids in the picture with the same box, in other words, treating them equally, we give the tallest student help he does not need, the middle student exactly what he needs, and the shortest student gets closer to the goal but still does not have his needs entirely met. If we look at each student as an individual through the lens of equity, we see in this case our tallest student does not need extra support, we are meeting our middle student's needs, and we need to give an extra boost to our shortest kid. Suddenly, everyone is successful.

Equality and equity are not the same thing; a focus on equity will probably achieve the ultimate purpose of equalizing the playing field in education. When we say we want all students and educators to be successful and have equal opportunities, equity is probably where we need to focus.

Are You Planning for Equality or Equity?

As I have contemplated the resonance of this graphic over the past few weeks, I've begun to think about how we approach decision making in education, especially when it comes to large-scale endeavors. And I've begun wondering about areas where we usually talk equality but instead might do better to talk about equity. Here is what I have come up with so far:

• Replacing technology for teachers: Does everyone need the exact same (equal) setup? Or do different teachers/grade levels/subjects need different types of technology (equitable)  to meet their learning goals? (Thanks Wendy Jones for planting this one in my head!)
• Replacing technology for students or offering it for the first time: If you are moving into or moving on with 1:1 deployments for students, are you providing the exact same device for all students K-12 (equal) or have you taken into account their unique needs based on their developmental stages and the learning they need to accomplish (equity)?
• Professional development: Is every teacher going to be expected to complete the exact same sessions (equal) or are you providing multiple tracks or choice based on their individual development needs (equity)?
• Planning new buildings: Are you building your next elementary/middle/high school campus on the exact same template that has been used for other campuses on your district (keeping it "fair" and "equal") or are you looking at the latest research on best practices for learning spaces and planning accordingly? Consider that you could at some point retrofit existing campuses to aim for equity.
• Course offerings and graduation plans for students: Do we need to provide the same course plans for every student in order to prepare them for college (equality) or should we be providing multiple, flexible options to prepare them for what they are interested in after high school (equity)?

I know I am missing some important topics regarding equality and equity. What are your thoughts on these concepts in education? What other areas do we need to contemplate through the lens of equity? I hope you will share your thoughts in the comments so we can continue to learn together.

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 All original work in this post by Sandy Kendell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Please see specifics on my re-use policy in the right-hand column of my blog before re-posting/re-using any of my blog content.

Why Do Educators Love Their Profession? #loveedu

Why do we do it? Show up day after day to work with young people and other educators? It's a job that takes a great deal of stamina and energy. We're always "on". Because we are imperfect humans working with dozens of other imperfect humans, there are challenges.

Why do we do it? Because we are wired for it. Because it fills us up like no other endeavor can. Because we love it!

I asked educators on Twitter to share why they love their chosen profession. Their answers are below. Please enjoy! And if it sparks in you thoughts on why you love education, please share in the comments!

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All original work in this post by Sandy Kendell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Please see specifics on my re-use policy in the right-hand column of my blog before re-posting/re-using any of my blog content.

Dream School?

Photo Used Under a Creative Commons License

I classify myself as a realist who leans toward the optimistic. As an example of how that works itself out in my thoughts on things, I am fairly certain that no large scale transformative change is going to take place in American education in the next decade. The current political and social climate won't allow it. However, I believe that multiple small impacts can make a difference in the current system and move education in a more relevant and modern direction for our students. I try to do my part to contribute to the small impacts, looking for ways to encourage teachers to bring technology enriched learning into their classrooms. A little dent here, another dent there, and over time we make some progress.

I am not a dreamer.

I do not have massive educational progress or reform scenarios worked out in my mind. Nor do I put a lot of stock in the dreams I have when I sleep at night. They are ways my mind processes and works out real happenings in my life, but they are not particularly impactful 99.9% of the time.

Perhaps now that you understand a bit about how I think, you'll understand why this blog post is surprising me even as I write it.

I had a very vivid dream last night about a different kind of school. So much so that when I woke up this morning I quickly recorded what I remembered lest I lose the experience back to the world of unconscious thought.

Dreams are so hard to explain to others. But I am going to try to share this dream with you.

At the start of the dream, I was a student, winding my way through an unfamiliar high school but with fellow students I seemed to know and who seemed to know me. It seems I had been absent from school for an extended period, and they were trying to fill me in on what I needed to do to catch up. Eventually, we wound up in a large auditorium, where one of the students started a movie. I caught on that it was a cinematic version of a novel we were studying in depth in our English class. We watched for a while, taking notes on the movie. And then it was time to move to the next class. The same student who had gotten everything started stopped the movie and checked in with me to see if I understood everything I needed to do to get caught up.

It was only on later reflection that I realized there was no one in this auditorium/movie setting that I would consider to be a teacher in the traditional sense. The student who started and stopped the movie and conferred with me was definitely "in charge". (And he looked and sounded like Matthew McConaughey, but I digress...)

Jump to the next class (you know how dreams jump scenes like that) and now I am in a more traditional looking classroom but I am the teacher. It was another English class, but this time I'm up at the board writing words that fit a certain spelling pattern, but writing some incorrectly to see if the students catch the mistakes. When I turn from writing on the board to begin discussing with the students, I see that on the other end of the board (which I could not see while I was writing) some of the students have added their own examples of the word pattern. And some are written as mistakes on purpose, much like mine had been. This participation on the part of the students was seamless and appropriate to the task. We discussed my examples equally with theirs, and I clarified some misunderstandings.

So in this scenario, I who had been a student in a previous class was now a teacher, and students in the class were learners and also co-teachers with me.

Suddenly, class was over (though I heard no bell) and students began leaving the room while others began to enter. I headed toward a back corner where my desk was, but not to prepare for a new class. I was just organizing myself and gathering my thoughts. Upon turning around from my desk (my back had been to the room), I saw the students transforming the room, rearranging furniture, etc. It literally had a different "front" than when I had been teaching just a few moments before. As the new group of students settled in, I saw three of the young people who had been students in the class I had just "taught" seemed to be in charge of teaching this class. Students taking the class did not seem much younger than the ones teaching it.

Again, students as teachers. Are you starting to see a pattern? I wasn't, yet. The understanding would come later when I woke up.

I turned my attention back to organizing my corner of the room, pretty much ignoring the teaching and learning going on around me. That is until the learning intruded. Two students approached me and requested help. One of the students was having trouble explaining Punnett squares to her classmate who wasn't grasping the concept of what they represented, and she asked if I would help her find a way to help him understand them better. Of course, I obliged.

Did you catch that previous scenario? I wasn't asked to help the boy understand directly. I was asked to help the girl help the boy understand. It's a subtle, but important difference.

In case you wonder who was "in charge" of this school, my next stop in the dream was the front office to fill out paperwork due to my previous absence. The office was staffed with adults. No students in sight. Or at least no young people in the traditional "student" age range.

So, there you have it. A vivid dream of a school where teaching and learning were everyone's responsibility. And did I mention the atmosphere was extremely peaceful? It was full of students who came from multiple cultures and who all seemed focused on the tasks at hand.

A dream of a different kind of school from a self-proclaimed non-dreamer. Why share it here? So I don't lose it. It filled me with a sense of wonder (as in "I wonder if ...? I wonder how...?") that I don't want to forget.

Maybe the most important reason for me to share it here is so I will be inspired to dream more...


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All original work in this post by Sandy Kendell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Please see specifics on my re-use policy in the right-hand column of my blog before re-posting/re-using any of my blog content.

Are You a Disgruntled Educator?

Public Domain Image Used With Permission

Earlier this week, a non-educator friend of mine posted this article on 5 Toxic Beliefs That Ruin Careers on Facebook. Curious, I took a look at it, and although it is aimed at people working in the business world, I found myself interpreting it through my educator's lens. And feeling convicted on more than one of the points.

I must interject here that I disagree a bit that believing my destiny is controlled by the supernatural (#3 in the article linked in the previous paragraph) is always toxic. I have faith in a God who does care about my life, and whom I lean on to help me through the slumps. I try not to blame him for the circumstances, but do seek his wisdom in dealing with them. Without his supernatural intervention, I don't know where I would be!

Throughout our life's work, we experience highs and lows - periods where we can't imagine doing anything else with our lives and other times when if we were offered an eject button and promised we'd land in a nice, comfy, everyone-is-happy-with-what-they-do job, we wouldn't hesitate to push it. It's normal to experience these ups and downs.

What I found myself thinking, though, is how very tragic it can be for the students or teachers we serve if we get stuck in one of those lows. We may think being disgruntled, or working under the influence of toxic beliefs, only hurts us, but the truth is, no matter how much we try to cover up, our lack of satisfaction with our work is going to affect the people we serve. In the best case scenario, we might manage to put on a smile and make it through the day, but our students and colleagues are not getting the best we could offer. In a worst case scenario, we may not be pleasant to be around, and we force those around us to tolerate or survive us, rather than be focused on their own teaching and learning.

Education is a unique career in that it is a path, that when chosen, is often pursued because one feels called to do it for the betterment of others. Because educators invest so heavily in the lives of others, I think they are obligated to seek to be happy in and with their work the majority of the time.

If you are currently in a low period (or when you wind up in one), don't beat yourself up, but do think about the fact that in addition to being miserable yourself, you are likely affecting those around you in a negative way. If those people are your students, they are a captive audience, and they are depending on you to work toward getting out of your funk so you can be as good a teacher as possible for them. Take advantage of a new year to try and work your way out of the slump. You might try looking at the toxic beliefs and see if any of them are keeping you down. A related article, How to Be Happy at Work, might give you some ideas for working out of one or more of your slump areas.

Educators answer to many bosses in the form of the administrators who oversee us, the parents whose children we teach, and policy makers and enforcers. There are some things we can't change about our jobs, but our attitude is almost always subject to adjustment by our own efforts, and, in my opinion, a little divine help!

I hope your new calendar year is getting off to a good start. If you have any insights into how to deal with the low periods of your career, please share them in the comments below!

Pressing On in the New School Year

As I start my 20th year in education, a profession I still love, I want to be energized and excited and open to possibilities.

The truth is, I'm anything but those things right now. Right now I'm just tired. There are several reasons for why I feel the way I feel, some of which I can identify and some of which I may be ignorant of, but regardless, it's where I am.

Even when I'm feeling discouraged, I try not to be Debbie Downer (or maybe Sandy Sadsack?) on my blog, because I want it to be a place people come for ideas and encouragement, but I also know it is important to be authentic.  Authenticity is important for the sake of my own reflection (I occasionally peruse my old blog posts to assess where I've been and as a result where I am and where I might be going) and for the sake of my readers. Because some of you probably struggle sometimes, and you need to know you're not alone.

Regardless of how I'm feeling, the cycle of the school year moves ever forward. In my district, the teachers have been back for a week and the kids start back tomorrow. So, I must press on.

Because of the way I'm feeling right now, I am thankful for coming across an intriguing video yesterday. This article on Skills Every 21st Century Teacher Should Know kept appearing in my Twitter stream and on the professional groups I subscribe to on Facebook, and on Saturday I finally clicked on it. I really didn't expect any surprises, but I did run across a treat.

A video of high school librarian  Joyce Valenza speaking last year at TEDx Philadelphia was embedded in the article. In it she recaps the evolution of how students seek information and what they do with it, starting in 1989. It wasn't lost on me that 1989 was the year I started college, already knowing I was going to be an educator.

Watching the video did not suddenly re-energize me, but it did remind me of why I do what I do, why all educators do what they do, is so very important, especially in the over-information age in which we live. In an age where technology gives people of all ages unprecedented access to information and a vast array of options for using that information.

Watching the video reminded me of one of my core beliefs: One of the most important things we as educators must continue to do is help our students learn a foundational set of facts in science and history and work with those facts and their implications through math and writing and literature. I have read in numerous corners of the blogosphere that rote memorization is so 20th Century, and yet we must teach students to be critical thinkers and recognize bad information when they see it. How can they do that if they don't have a solid foundation to reference?

As we continue to impart a solid foundation of basic knowledge to our students, we must also help them learn what to do with the information. And it must go beyond the research paper regurgitation students of my generation were taught. (Substituting PowerPoint or Prezi or pick your favorite publishing tool for the typed paper does not count.) In the hands of a well-educated, determined "average" citizen, technology can become a tool for change and progress. We have an equally important responsibility to teach students how to leverage these tools and use them for noble purposes. And how to recognize and combat those who will use the same tools to inflict harm on others.

Energy and excitement ebb and flow throughout a person's career and lifetime. Purpose, however, can remain a constant. So although I am admittedly tired right now, I am thankfully reminded of my purpose. Wherever you are personally as the school year may be starting or continuing for you, I encourage you to do something that will remind you of your purpose. Perhaps watching the video below will remind you, as it did me, that the meaning of "education" and "being educated" has changed vastly over the last 25 years, and it is our privilege to guide our students and even the education profession itself through the ever-evolving education landscape. Press on!

Teacher, Teach Thyself! Free Quality PD Resources

You don't have to take or attend formal classes
to extend your learning.
Photo Source

It's summer in the northern hemisphere, which is a great time for educators to take a break from the daily bustle of teaching. It's also the greatest opportunity many of us have all year to extend our own professional learning and grow in our craft.

Depending on where you work, your professional development may be proscribed for you, or you may have a lot of freedom to choose courses or sessions you would like to attend or work through online. Regardless of your individual situation, there are countless learning resources on the web for you to take advantage of whenever you have a desire to learn something new. Even if you are required to take specified trainings by your school, you can still learn what you want when you want on your own for FREE using high-quality resources like the ones below.

Direct your own PD for your own professional growth and for the benefit of your students! Here are some resources I find useful and often return to when I'm looking for answers, to review prior learning, or to understand something new.

TeacherTrainingVideos.com - http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/
Created by Russell Stannard, a specialist in the use of media and technology. The tutorials on this site rival any that I've ever paid to watch, and they've helped me learn several programs and web tools. The site is a little hard to navigate in my opinion, but worth it when you find the software instructions you are looking for.

TeachingChannel - https://www.teachingchannel.org/

To quote from the website itself: "Teaching Channel is a video showcase -- on the Internet and TV -- of innovative and effective teaching practices in America's schools." Professionally produced videos which show knowledgeable practitioners demonstrating teaching practices that work in their classrooms. Get inspired with some new approaches to try out in your classroom!

Classroom 2.0 LIVE! - http://live.classroom20.com/
This site provides weekly live webinars with education practitioners that are sure to add to your teaching tool kit! Participating live is the best way to go if you can because it allows you to ask questions of the weekly guests. If the timing of the live sessions doesn't work for you, and/or you'd like to benefit from past sessions, you can view recordings of previous webinars on the archives page.

TeachParentsTech.org - http://www.teachparentstech.org/watch
This site is created by Google employees who want to help a more mature generation of tech users get their bearings in the world of technology. Each video is a short overview of a technology topic or tool. Many are focused on Google tools (of course), but there are also spots on other useful topics such as this one on how to create a strong password.

Learn It In 5 -http://learnitin5.com/
Created by Mark Barnes, an experienced educational technologist, the short videos on this site are aimed at teachers and are mostly under five minutes in length. They get straight to the basics of what you need to learn to use a techonlogy.

Microsoft in Education - http://www.microsoft.com/education/en-us/teachers/Pages/index.aspx
Teaching guides, lesson plans, and product how-tos specifically aimed at classroom and higher ed practitioners. One of my favorites is Digital Storytelling in the Classroom.

Microsoft Office Training - http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training-FX101782702.aspx
General training resources for Microsoft Office products. This site has been valuable to me as our district is switching to Office 2010 this year. Resources exist for Office versions back to 2003.

GCF LearnFree.org - http://www.gcflearnfree.org/
Sponsored by the Goodwill Community Foundation, the tutorials on this site are AMAZING and FREE. Topics include, computers, reading, and math. There are free online courses in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access.

CommonCraft - http://www.commoncraft.com/videos
If you are a visual learner, this site is for you! Complicated concepts in business and technology explained using a unique animated format. You can view individually online for free, but if you decide to use these with students or other educators in presentations, please pay the appropriate licensing fees so these folks can keep creating these high-quality training videos.

Digital Discoveries from El Paso ISD
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL043738DAE4C604F8&feature=plcp
Tim Holt, Instructional Technology Director of El Paso ISD, presents short video segments on all sorts of educational technology, from using iPads in unique ways to using web tools with your students to directing your own professional development.

iTunes U - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz2aWABdeD4
If you own any iDevice, you probably have iTunes on your computer. But have you ever noticed iTunesU? An extensive repository of educational resources from universities and K-12 school systems all over the world, it's hidden right there in iTunes. You can take a course from Oxford or MIT if you want (not for credit, but it's the real stuff!). Several states like Texas have repositories of educational content as well. The video linked above gives a good overview. To explore yourself, open up iTunes on your computer, go to the iTunes store, and look for the iTunesU link in the top navigation bar.

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That's my list! It is by no means exhaustive. Have I left off one of your favorite go-to sites for continuing learning? If so, please share it below in the comments so we can all benefit. Happy learning!

Keeping in Touch and Touching Lives

Last Saturday, I received one of those phone calls no one ever wants to receive. On the other end of the connection was the husband of a dear friend of mine, calling to tell me that my friend's parents had just died in a car accident.

The accident happened four hours away from where I live, and due to other circumstances, my friend was already there when the accident took place. I couldn't be with her right away, and although I knew she was surrounded by family, friends, and church members who were taking care of her and her family's immediate needs, I wanted to connect with her. To tell her I loved her and was praying for her and find out what I could do.

Having been through the loss of my own parents (with this dear friend by my side), I was aware she would be inundated with phone calls and messages and would quickly hit a point where she was too exhausted to respond to them all. So even though I didn't expect an immediate response, I texted. I left voice mail. And I left a note on Facebook. I reached out through the digital pathways that have been built in our lives in recent years.

But it wasn't until I finally heard her voice on the phone a couple of days after the accident that I felt like we had really connected. Prior to that I knew she was safe and cared for, but it wasn't until I heard her voice that I really knew. And even the two phone conversations we were able to have during this awful week paled in comparison to the hug we were finally able to share yesterday. In this time of sorrow and loss, nothing could take the place of being with my friend.


Keeping in Touch

As much as I enjoy using social media - Facebook, Twitter, and this blog - both personally and professionally, I have long recognized that there is a level of interpersonal involvement which these pathways can never reach. This current experience with my friend has confirmed this for me once again and inspired me to encourage you to make sure you are investing in face-to-face relationships in your life.

If you're reading this blog, then you are involved in social media on some level. And you probably know there is great value in social media; I know I've grown tremendously as a professional in the last two years through the resources and contacts I've made via Twitter and I keep up on the events happening in my friends' lives through Facebook. But I hope we can all remember that if we become so involved in these avenues for connecting with others that we begin to neglect the flesh-and-blood, face-to-face relationships in our lives, we risk missing opportunities to build intimate relationships with people that can only grow through investments of time and in-person interactions.

When you think of the people whom you would want around you in a life crisis, or the people whose life crisis you would rush into at almost any cost, I am willing to bet that they are much more than a Twitter handle or never-met-in-real-life online friend to you. As you move forward in 2012, I encourage you to spend as much, if not more, time investing in in-person relationships as you do in your online relationships. Often, we are involved with our closest friends and family online as well as off; in these cases we must not make the mistake of thinking our online interactions take the place of or make up for a lack of in-person involvement. Be intentional this year in investing face-to-face time to strengthen existing relationships and build up new ones.

Touching Lives

A piece of encouragement for the educators who read this blog. Never, ever, ever, doubt your impact on the students entrusted to you each year and the colleagues with whom you serve. My dear friend's parents were both life-long educators. Her father a just retired teacher and school librarian of 40 years, and her mother a still-working elementary school teacher of over 30 years. Two friends and I arrived at the funeral thirty minutes early and could not find a seat. The funeral home was filled with family members and current and former students and colleagues who had been impacted by these two people who had invested in them. Their Facebook pages are covered with comments from former students who fondly remember books recommended, conversations had, and lessons learned.

Throughout this week, I have thought numerous times, "I hope they knew. I hope they knew the impact they had on their schools and their community." Sadly, I bet they didn't. I am convinced we should somehow come up with a way to have funerals for the living. It should not take death and grief and loss to make us realize how important others are to us and to share that importance with them.

One of the things I admired most about my friend's mom was her willingness to keep becoming a better educator and do what was best for her students throughout her career. Knowing I was in instructional technology, she could hardly wait to tell me that she had gotten an interactive whiteboard in her classroom a couple of years ago. Rarely did I ever see her when we didn't talk about something she was doing with her kids or how much she loved using and getting them to use that whiteboard. I wish now I had told her how much I admired her and how much she encouraged me. I have often thought of her, and will continue to do so, when I am working with anyone who is resistent to new technology.

Do you take time to tell people what they really mean to you? To let them know when they have done one special thing or when they've done numerous things over time to impact your life? As a second goal in 2012, I encourage you to be intentional in letting others know their value to you.

Now, go hug or call someone you love.

The Gift of Kind Words

Used With Permission from Morguefile.com

A Lesson from my Classroom Years

When I was a newish 6th Grade language arts teacher, I learned about a Christmas time activity from a veteran teacher down the hall, and I incorporated it into my classroom every December after that. We would take a break from the normal class routine one day and bust out the markers and white construction paper. Each student would decorate the construction paper with a "bow" drawn in green marker, as if it were the top of a present. They also drew a "tag" on the "present" which said "To: Their Name". They could be as creative as they wanted as long as they left at least 3/4 of the paper blank.

After the "presents" were decorated, I took them up, and then I described to the students that we were all going to give each other a gift this Christmas season - a gift of kind words. We were going to pass the presents around the room, and in red marker on each present, each of us was going to write something kind about the person to whom the present belonged. And sign it. In our discussion of this activity, I acknowledged that not everyone in our class was best friends, that in fact in some cases there might be someone who rubs you the wrong way most of the time. In spite of that, it is still possible to say something nice about anyone, even if the kind thing you say is there is a particular shirt that person wears that you think is really cool.

Then, I put on Christmas music, and we passed the "presents" around. There was a "present" in the mix with my name on it, too, and I participated in writing on everyone else's papers.

Was I nervous each time I did this? Yes, especially the first year. I worried for those odd personalities in my class - the ones who, let's face it, are difficult for peers (and sometimes teachers) to like. What kind things would their classmates find to say to them? Would they be able to rise to the occasion and find something kind to say about each of their classmates, the vast majority of whom they didn't get along with much of the time?

When the "presents" traveled all the way around the room, I took them up. Their owners would not see them until our Christmas party at the end of the semester. The bell would ring, the room would empty, and I would sit down to read every comment on every "present". And every year, I would need a tissue box beside me. There was always a Christmas miracle - from somewhere deep inside my students pulled out the most insightful things about each other. I learned wonderful things about my students I didn't know even after  a semester with them. I learned great lessons in kindness from those 11 and 12 year old children every year.

But the best part was yet to come. The day that the students got to see their own presents. In the early years we were in an elementary school, so I would get their papers laminated and set them out as place mats for the party. When we moved to middle school, parties were gone, but I still waited until the last day before break before giving them their presents. Then, I gave them time to read.

The looks on their faces as they took in all of the good things their classmates said about them were priceless! I was reminded once again that we can never give people enough encouragement. All too often we only receive feedback when improvement is needed. We don't get to spontaneously hear about the good things we do or say or are. (I wonder how many of those kids kept those "presents" through the years?)

A Lesson from Today

I came to love the yearly Gift of Kind Words activity in my classroom, and it's one of the things I miss most in the years since I've become an instructional technologist with no classroom assignment. But I was recently reminded of the continued importance I need to place on giving kind words and encouragement to others, and not just at the time of year when gift-giving is on everyone's mind.

I was visiting one of our high school campuses a couple of weeks ago to install desktop video conferencing software and teach a couple of folks how to use it. As I was leaving, I decided to stop by the library and let the librarian know that I was really enjoying the Facebook page she had created to get students connected to what was going on the the library as well as literacy related activities like lunch time book discussion groups and the Austin Teen Book Festival.

This educator is in her first year as a librarian, having just come out of the classroom, and during our conversation, she thanked me for taking the time to chat with her. She alluded to the fact that she's trying to do the right things. It got me to thinking that being a librarian is a lot like being an instructional technologist, in that you are often one of the few in your position in a district, and almost always the only one on your campus. Sometimes it's hard to find folks to bounce ideas off of, and it's sadly rare that someone seeks you out to give you unsolicited positive feedback on something you are doing. In five minutes of my time as I was making my way out of the building, I was able to give this new librarian's professional confidence a little boost. Seeing that was a gift to me as well.

Ongoing Efforts

When our campus technologists copy me on emails which give me insight into what they are doing on their campus, I try to email them back to thank them for what they are doing and give them encouragement. Depending on what other projects are going on, I don't get back to them as often as I wish. I am reminded, though, as I reflect on my classroom activity of years ago, my recent encounter with a new-to-her-position librarian, and my own experience in receiving some face-to-face compliments this summer (which I wrote about in a previous post), that receiving in-person, personal feedback for the things we are doing well or the qualities people admire in us is nourishment for the soul.

In an age where technology increasingly connects us while often decreasing the "need" for in-person interactions, I'm going to increase my efforts to make in-person connections for the purpose of positive feedback and encouragement. The magic of giving kind words to others is that it winds up providing a gift to both the receiver and the giver. A personal experience like that is worth the effort for all parties involved.

How about you? Who in your sphere of professional or personal influence needs to hear some great things about themselves today? Make an effort to share with them, face-to-face if at all possible. You'll be glad you did!

Finding Hidden Talent in the New School Year

Summer break is over and schools are starting up again in the U.S. over the next few weeks. As you contemplate the upcoming school year, I want to issue you a challenge. But first, sit back and watch the video I have linked below. Watch it from start to end (six minutes isn't a lot to ask). Watch even if you've seen it before - it's probably been a while. Embedding of the video is disabled, so you'll need to follow the link below. Please come back after you've viewed it, I have some more to say to you when you get done watching...

Link to Video

I hope you didn't skip the video! :-)

Did that not blow you away? I have the Susan Boyle video favorited on YouTube and I watch it from time to time when I need some inspiration. Seeing so many people go from cynical as they see a person whom they perceive to be a frumpy middle-aged woman to completely overwhelmed by her talent after a few notes come from her mouth is a thought-provoking experience. For goodness sake, even the ultimate mean guy Simon Cowell looks amazed and gives a contented sigh during her performance!

Susan, an admittedly socially awkward woman, has an amazing talent that is now a gift to the world because a few people looked beyond the awkwardness and encouraged her along the way and gave her a chance.

So, what's the challenge I have for you (and for me) in the upcoming school year?

Look beneath the surface of people in your life to find and encourage their hidden talent.

Your Students

Used With Permission Under a Creative Commons License
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaxport/4638651795/

As those new faces walk through your classroom door, try to look beyond the first impressions, favorable and unfavorable. You will make judgements and assumptions from moment one of meeting them (we are all human; we all do this), but try to rise above those judgements and work to get to know the kids and their interests and passions. Maybe focus on the ones like Susan who have a few social or academic strikes against them. Make efforts to draw them out, listen to them and encourage them. The area where their talent/gift resides may not be in your subject area, so be willing to help them move in a direction that will help them be more fulfilled in life and perhaps even enrich the rest of us with their gifts.

Your Colleagues

Used With Permission Under a Creative Commons License
http://www.flickr.com/photos/create-learning/3948400246/

In your sphere of influence, there may be a new to the profession teacher who is enthusiastic but uncertain of  themselves. Check in on him or her. Watch for things they are good at - motivating kids, planning hands-on lessons, interacting with parents - and compliment and encourage them in these areas. Ask them about an instructional approach they are using; I can remember being so flattered when I was a young teacher and a "veteran" would ask me about something I was doing!  Also, let them know through your actions that you will be an uncritical but helpful ear if they need to bounce ideas off of someone during the year. Even if they seem over-confident, there may come a time when they realize they really don't know everything, and your interest in them will make you more approachable, especially if their over-confidence is off-putting to others.

Your experienced colleagues may have some hidden talents and need encouragement to pursue them, too.  Is there something you admire about the way one of your team members teaches? Have you told them that? Have you asked them for advice or wondered aloud with them how the technique could be applied in other areas? Maybe their talent could benefit children beyond their own classroom.

Teachers are an isolated lot, so when we notice each other's talents, we need to build one another up. Vicki Davis at the Cool Cat Teacher Blog recently posted an inspiring peace about how we as educators need to be each other's cheer leaders. Read Vicki's piece, then choose a teacher or two on your campus or in your district who might need extra encouragement this year. Here's a hint: they might be some of the harder teachers to care for.

Used With Permission Under a Creative Commons License
http://www.flickr.com/photos/crazyeddie/2888389000/

Yourself
Don't forget yourself in all of this talent seeking! It's harder to find "new" things about ourselves, but asking a few questions of yourself might help. What's something you've always wanted to try but have never taken the opportunity? What's something others often tell you you're good at that surprises you? What's something you already enjoy doing and know you have a talent for, but wish you could take to the next level? Is there an organization you belong to that you've desired to take a different or larger role in? The answers to any or all of these questions could help you discover an area of talent for you to pursue at the next level.

If you still can't identify the natural talents in your life, ask a trusted friend or colleague. It might be an awkward conversation, but you can preface it with the fact that you are looking for some new areas in which to grow in your life. You can couch the question this way: "How would you finish this sentence: 'One thing that insert your name here does really well/or is really talented at is ________________.'" Ask it in an email if having the conversation in person might be too awkward for you. It also will give the other person a little more time to think.

Here's another hint: The hidden talent in you may have nothing directly to do with your educational role. And that's ok! Discovering a talent/gift in yourself, or pursuing something you've always wanted to try, may help make you a more fulfilled person, and that new level of contentment will translate into bringing more balance to your life which will in turn flow into all parts of your life, including your teaching. Being a "student" of something, if that is part of the hidden talent path, will also help you relate more to the people in your charge each day.

Susan Boyle
Used With Permission Under a Creative Commons License
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Susan_Boyle_Nov_2009.jpg

Lessons from Susan
Susan Boyle had learning difficulties in school and was bullied as a child. She dedicated her life to caring for her elderly parents until her mother finally passed away in 2007, just two years before she came up with the courage to appear on Britain's Got Talent.

And courage it took. She was mocked twelve years before in an audition for a different British television show. She lived only with her parents until the age of 45 and rarely worked outside her home. She had singing experience in her church and a few local venues, but nothing as big as Britain's Got Talent.

It also took encouragement for Susan to step out. Her mom encouraged her before she passed away. And then her singing teacher.  Her Britain's Got Talent performance was the first public performance she gave after her mother's passing.

And how very blessed and fortunate we all are that people spoke into Susan's life and encouraged her.

Who are the Susan Boyles in your life? Does a colleague's name come to mind? A former student you might see in the halls this year? Perhaps it's a new student you've yet to meet. Or maybe it's you. Regardless, someone you know or are about to know needs encouragement to share their talent/gift with the world.

In the coming school year, you have the amazing privilege and opportunity to provide that encouragement.

Are Technology Trainers No Longer a Need in Education?

I have to start this post with a disclaimer.  Please note that in this post I am referencing "second-hand" information from a meeting/workshop I did not attend.

I was conversing with a colleague today and he shared that at a recent gathering of K-12 Chief Technology Officers, the topic of training educators on new technology came up. There seemed to a prevailing tendency reported among the CTOs to roll out new technologies without setting up formalized training for the end users. My take on this new trend was that it was not out of necessity that formalized training was not part of the equation, but rather part of a new "process" for introducing new technologies to educators.

As an example of how this works, the presenter asked how many people at the presentation were on Facebook.  Almost every hand in the room went up. The presenter then asked how many of the Facebook users had taken a training class in how to use Facebook. All of the hands went down. His point was they had all learned to use Facebook without participating in a formalized training event.

The presenter did not advocate for leaving educators completely on their own. Training resources that can be accessed when needed would be made available in this approach.

These ideas relayed second-hand to me were intriguing. As I ponder this method/possible trend, I have some definite thoughts and questions. But before I share mine, I'd like to see how readers of this blog post might react.

What do you think of this approach?

Have you used this approach or something simliar to it in your school/district? If so, how did it go?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts you share. I will share my thoughts in the comments later, or possibly in a follow-up blog post.

Post image from Flikr user superkimbo, used under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license. Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/superkimbo/5131434958/

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NOTE: Please continue learning from the comments  below, and also my follow-up blog post of July 26, 2011.

@BingGives - By Inviting Others to Give

I just took advantage of the coolest opportunity to donate $100 to a classroom project which will leverage technology to help preschool students with special needs expand their communication skills. The opportunity came thanks to Bing - yes, the search engine folks!

It all started yesterday when I received the innocent looking Tweet you see at the start of this blog.

Innocent looking, except I'm super suspicious when it comes to Twitter and someone asking me to follow them so they can DM me! Online safety first, you know! 

So, I went to the @BingGives Twitter profile, and was reassured when it showed up as a verified account with over 13,000 followers. I noticed they were inviting other educators to follow them in the same way that they had invited me, and I followed a link from their profile page which took me to information on the Bing Cause Team. By now I was pretty convinced that they were legit, so I followed them.

Today, @BingGives sent me a DM (a private Twitter message) with a code to redeem for a $100 donation to a classroom project of my choice at DonorsChoose.org. 

At DonorsChoose.org, individual teachers sign up to request donations for classroom projects. After the projects are vetted, they are posted and donors can give tax deductible donations to support the projects. According to the DonorsChoose website, "All DonorsChoose.org projects are submitted by public school teachers who seek resources essential to their students' success. Donors can choose from thousands of classroom projects, and then hear back from the classroom they chose to help."

I searched for projects in my area and selected one in which a teacher of special needs 3-5 year olds wants to add technology to her classroom to help them build their communication skills. You can visit the project I selected to receive my $100 from @BingGives at this link.

I think this is a unique and impactful approach to charitable giving in the education realm. Bing recognizes educators who are engaging on Twitter by inviting them to support projects designed by fellow educators, and by doing so they might create donors who give back again in the future by introducing them to DonorsChoose.org. Not to mention the positive vibe the giver experiences (at least I did!) knowing that they are supporting student learning in ways a school or teacher is unable to fund.

This is a win-win-win-win-win program! Kudos to @BingGives and the team behind them. If you get an invite from them, investigate it for yourself, then take the opportunity to do a good deed for a fellow educator and their students!

Contact the TX Senate Finance Committee ASAP! #txedbudget #txbudget #savetxschools

I received an email this morning from Save Texas Schools reminding me that the Texas Senate is expected to issue its budget bill tomorrow, Thursday, April 21st. It is important that Texans concerned about school finance contact these Senate members and thank them for and encourage them in their efforts to create a budget that does not cut as deeply as the House version of the budget does.

If you doubt the difference, take a look at these cuts from Round Rock ISD and see the number of programs and jobs that can be saved under the Senate version of the budget versus the House version.

Save Texas Schools provided this handy contact list for the Senate Finance Committee members. Now you have no excuse for not contacting them! Even if your Senator is not listed there, contact at least one of them. As a Texan, their decisions impact you and your schools no matter where you live.

Here is a suggested email, also from Save Texas Schools.

Dear Senator _____________________, 

Education is the greatest investment we can make in the future of our state. I understand the current budget crisis, but I also know that Texans can find solutions to the toughest problems. I ask you to support the following: 

1. Finding new revenue and non-revenue sources of funding that will reduce the proposed budget cuts to education. Proposed cuts will put 100,000 teachers out of work, close schools and eliminate vital programs. 

2. Use of most or all of the Rainy Day Fund to reduce budget cuts. This is the time the fund was created for. Given the current price of oil, the fund will also replenish quickly. 

3. Fixing the ongoing structural deficit, so that we are not back here in 2013 with the same crisis. I am encouraged by Senator Ogden’s proposals to reform the failed Margins Tax. 

Texas is currently 44th in its investment in education, and will likely be 50th if the new cuts are enacted. This is not acceptable! We are a wealthy state and the current crisis is man-made. Let’s fix the problem, stop the politics, and invest in our children. 

Sincerely, (Name) (Address)

I encourage you to speak with passion from your own heart, however. I think emails that are individualized gain more attention; they do not look like one organization's "blast campaign", but show the true feelings of the constituents. That said, if all you have time for is the suggested email above, then send it! They need to know we care about education and we are paying attention to what they do.


Speak up, Texans! The future of our children depends on it!!

Remember and Reflect on Your High Calling

Credit goes to Vicki Davis, the Cool Cat Teacher, for inspiring me to write this post. She posted the video below to her own blog this morning, and although I had seen it in the past, I was encouraged to revisit it. I'm so very glad I did, too. As someone who does not work directly with students very often, I need reminders like this to keep me mindful of why I do what I do and help me "keep on keepin' on" during tough or discouraging times.

I think this video is a very timely reminder in the States where we have just begun the second half of the school year. We've just come off of a bit of a break, but now we begin the push into high-stakes standardized testing season. Here in Texas, the stakes are even higher this year because our school ratings will stand for the next two years as our state testing system undergoes a dramatic revision. Adding to the stress right now are stories of the looming Texas state budget shortfall and school districts who are already making plans to reduce their teaching forces in the coming school year.

In multiple ways, it's a tough time to be an educator.

It's times like these when we need to remember why we are educators and why we got into education. We need to remember our students aren't just statistics on the next round of tests and our colleagues can be resources whom we can lean on. We need to remember, too, that every member of the school community - students, teachers, administrators, support staff - needs to encourage their peers as well as one another.

We need to remember our high calling.

Many of you here in the U.S. are off today in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Whether or not you are from the U.S. or you worked today, take five minutes to relax and refresh with the video below and allow it to recenter your focus on what is important.

Teachers' Hierarchy of Needs

If you’ve been around education for very long or ever taken an educational psychology course, you’ve probably heard of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. His theory, in a nutshell, contends that human beings have levels of basic needs, and until the needs at the lower levels are met, we don’t even feel the needs at the next level.

Teachers in my school district report back to duty for the new school year on Monday morning. As we have been making preparations for their return, I’ve been struck by the thought that educators also have a hierarchy of needs, and meeting the needs at certain levels is important if we want to set up teachers, and ultimately their students, for a successful school year. Certain basic needs must be met before teachers are even “aware of” or ready to move to the next level of planning for student learning.

Class Schedules, Rosters, and Gradebooks

Take, for example, class schedules, rosters, and gradebooks. Now, this might seem pretty obvious as a basic need. But you might not have a real idea of how having access to those lists is truly, truly essential for teachers to be able to mentally “move on” in preparing for the upcoming school year. You’ll catch an idea of that if you're ever involved in a new student information system implementation as we are now. The number one questions in my school district at the moment are “When will I get access to my gradebook?” and “Is the new gradebook/attendance/student information system easy to use?” Teachers need to know their schedules, the number of students they are going to have, and they just want to see the names of the young people who are going to be in their charge for the next year. Having those basic facts in front of them, and knowing they are going to be able to easily access data on their students, provides a sense of grounding. Once they have access to the information, they can focus more effectively on their next stage of planning.

Time

When I was a classroom teacher you probably could not have given me enough time in the world to really get ready for the school year. And because I knew I wouldn’t have enough time, I spent “my own” time in the week prior to the official report-back date as well as late into the evenings during that first inservice week getting my classroom ready for my kids. It got even more complicated when Open House was moved to before the start of school. My classroom had to be ready for learning (or at least look ready for learning) before parents and students came to see it for the first time. So my focus in any unscheduled time I had was on the physical classroom with no brain cells free to think about the quality learning experiences I wanted to have with my students in those critical first days and weeks.

Sitting through meetings under those circumstances was torture. I tried my best to focus on the important information that was being communicated to me usually by my principal or department chair. Hard as I tried, I’m fairly certain I discovered the backchannel before I even knew there was a name for it. I had a “backchannel” conversation going on in my own head with myself for much of the time I was in those meetings, thinking of all the things I still needed to get done in the little precious time I had before the kids came. Later, when I became a campus technology facilitator and was given an hour each year of the teacher’s time to update them on technology resources on our campus, I tried really hard to keep things simple and to the point, giving them only the most important information – and handouts which covered in detail everything I was saying. I was fully aware that everyone in that room had a backchannel going on in their heads as well, even if they were making eye contact and nodding. The handout could be referenced later when they had settled into the year a bit. And I gave my best effort to not get frustrated when they came back later and asked me about something I knew I had covered in that meeting.

Those of us who are charged with sharing back-to-school information with teachers should keep all of this in mind. Yes we have agendas and important information, but does all of it have to be communicated NOW? Or in two solid days of meetings? Could we give teachers work time in the morning and meet in the afternoon? (They might listen better if they can knock some things off of their lists first.) Can some of it wait for the first few faculty meetings? Can some of it be communicated through email or a website or blog? If you think about it, you are wasting your own precious time as well if 50% of what you are covering isn’t making an impact because your audience is distracted. Be mindful of your teacher’s needs, focus only on what is of critical importance for getting school started, and then give them the valuable time they need to plan for quality instruction.

Being Valued and Encouraged as Professionals

“I am a professional educator and I am good at what I do.” I do not think we can reinforce this for teachers often enough. Teachers who are confident in themselves as professionals are going to approach teaching with more enthusiasm and be more open to new ideas that will help them grow in their practices. Teachers have plenty of opportunities to hear that they are not good enough – “The test scores were not where they needed to be at the end of last year.” “Here’s a new program/lesson delivery method/planning system and if you aren’t using it you are short-changing your students.” Implied in both of those types of messages is “You aren’t good enough because you aren’t doing ____________.”

I’m going to point the finger a bit at my own educational technology community and say that we can be very guilty of this whether we mean to or not in our excitement over the latest new technology tool or research. When sharing this information with teachers, we can easily come across as “If you aren’t using this tool/method/etc you are not giving students a quality education.” Do we honestly think they are not educating their students at all? I don’t think that. I know teachers who are behind the curve when it comes to technology but who are still giving their students excellent skills in their subject areas. Teachers whom those students love despite the reports that kids are turned off by having to “unplug” at school. I am, of course, an educational technology advocate. I recognize, however, that quality teaching existed before technology hit the classroom and as a result quality teachers from “BC” (before computers) still exist in our schools. And I’ll venture to say that just because you are using computers doesn’t mean you are teaching in a quality manner.

The bottom line is this: If you want to take those quality teachers, or even those ones who aren’t so “quality”, and help them develop into better teachers, you should to give them some strokes for the things they are doing well. And you should present your new idea/strategy/program as an opportunity to add a tool to their pedagogical tool belt to increase the learning that is already going on in their classrooms. Couching it this way helps increase the receptivity of the teachers to new approaches. The old saying “You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar” should be applied far more often in teacher professional development.

New Possibilities

In education we are fortunate to be able to make a new beginning every year. The start of school is the best time of the year in my opinion, because the possibilities are wide open. As administrators, department or grade level chairs, technology specialists, providers of professional development, or anyone who has anything to do with helping teachers launch a school year, I hope these thoughts on basic needs will help us frame the first experiences we are planning for our educators. Let's set them and their students up for success! Here’s to the possibilities that are before us…

 
 
 
All photos used with permission under Creative Commons License Agreements:
Teacher & Gradebook
http://www.flickr.com/photos/83955435@N00/2803559483
Clock
http://www.freefoto.com/preview/11-22-18?ffid=11-22-18
Teacher & Student
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40838054@N00/3545797
Lockers
http://www.flickr.com/photos/houseofsims/2732604677/

Back to School Food for Thought (AKA Anytime Resources for Tech Integration and Your Digital Footprint)

I don't know when the new school year or term starts for you, but in our little corner of the planet known as Texas, most public K-12 schools start up in late August. The closer that start date gets, the more we educators start thinking of plans and goals for the new year. Over the past couple of weeks, several links have come my way via Twitter which I think would be valuable for educators to visit as the summer begins to wind down and preparation for the new school year gears up.

Technology Integration

The links below are excellent resources for anyone aspiring to integrate more Web 2.0 technologies into their instruction. Those just dipping their toe in for the first time as well as experienced integrators will get ideas from these sites. As someone who provides professional development to teachers, I found some ideas I'd like to share in the upcoming school year.

• Reflection: A Year of Implementing Web 2.0 Tools in My Classroom - Kim Munoz (@techmunoz on Twitter) shares her successes and challenges after her first year of delving deep into Web 2.0 technologies with her middle school students. Visit Kim's post for examples of how she used specific Web 2.0 tools with her students. My favorite parts of this blog are Kim's transparency when it comes to the parts that didn't work, and her final conclusion that "...it’s not all about the tool, but the content you have to work with to teach the tool."

• How to Use New Media Tools in Your Classroom - Seven short videos from bloggers and contributors at Edutopia which give you tips on using Twitter, Facebook, wikis, digital cameras, YouTube, Nintendo Wii, and GPS devices in instruction. Even if you do not have access to all of these resources in your school, just watching the videos might encourage you to think outside of the box and investigate ways to integrate these technologies into your instruction.

• Getting Started With Technology Integration in Your Classroom - Mary Beth Hertz (@mbteach on Twitter) reminds us that there are standards out there to help guide us in technology integration. Her brief explanation of the ISTE National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) serves as a good starting place for thinking about the types of skills we should be exposing our students (and ourselves) to in the realm of educational technology.

Social Media and our Digital Footprints

If you are reading this blog, then you participate in social media on at least a very basic level. If you also have a blog of your own or an account on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flikr, or add any online posting/commenting you do here, you're leaving traces of yourself all over the Internet all of the time. Multiply what you are doing by at least ten and that's how much evidence your tween and teen students are leaving. It behoves us as professionals to keep ourselves up to date on the implications of the evidence we are leaving behind - both for our own benefit and for the benefit of the young people we have the responsibility to educate.

• The Web Means the End of Forgetting - If you click no other link in this blog post, I hope you'll click this one. The story from the New York Times is lengthy, but packed with important cautions regarding what we post online and what is posted about us and the future consequences of that information. As much as I try to stay current in this area, I learned several new things in this story. Here's a teaser paragraph to draw you in:
  
  It’s often said that we live in a permissive era, one with infinite second chances. But the truth is that for a great many people, the permanent memory bank of the Web increasingly means there are no second chances — no opportunities to escape a scarlet letter in your digital past. Now the worst thing you’ve done is often the first thing everyone knows about you.
  
  How can you resist reading it now?

• 12 Healthy Habits to Grow Your Online Presence and Keep Balance in Your Life - Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher on Twitter) has grown a tremendous online presence in the education and educational technology world over the last five years. She shares a great deal of wisdom in this post based on her experiences. The one which spoke to me the most was Beware of Flattery because I'm a sucker for positive reinforcement! All of her tips are helpful for those of us who want to contribute positively to our profession. As an added bonus, Vicki has recently started a Facebook page. If you have a Facebook account and become a fan of hers, you will receive helpful tips for being more productive in your professional environment.

• Think Before You Tweet - Beth Still (@bethstill on Twitter) wrote this guest post at Wes Fryer's Moving at the Speed of Creativity blog. In it Beth reminds us that anything we say online can be seen by anyone at any time. She is honest about some tweets she posted that came back to haunt her and she shares thoughts on the dynamics of online and offline relationships and how they intersect. I also find the comments on this blog post a fascinating read. I think Beth might make a fortune if she reproduces and sells the sign her husband made for her after her indiscreet tweet incident - I Just Wish My Mouth Had a Backspace Key! The good news is, our keyboards do have one. Do we use them often enough?

As you begin thinking about the new school year ahead, or just improving your instructional and professional practices at any time during the school year, I hope these links will help you and lead you to other resources as well. If you have sites you think are valuable in similar ways, please make a comment on this post and help us all add to our toolboxes!


"Welcome back to school" image provided by Kevin Connors via http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/610877. Used with permission.