My PLC on Engagement

Yesterday several teachers voluntarily chose to attend a “PLC” I was conducting on student engagement.  I had a pretty good presentation, but jazzed it up a bit by converting it to a prezi and embedding a short animoto video.  

Each teacher who came (whether during their conference period or after school) impressed me.  They were working through the topic, asking tough questions, and offering up great ideas.

I left school smiling.  I was smiling all evening.  I was smiling because once again I tasted that almost forgotten feeling I used to get when I was in the classroom after an amazing day of instruction – the feeling that my students got it, that they were engaged.  Student engagement – whether you are working with children or adults is very powerful.  Very powerful to both the student and the teacher!

Stationery card

Bubbles Of Snowflakes Christmas Card

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Trench Warfare

A colleague of mine had a meeting during his first period class – on trench warfare day!  Knowing that this was one of my favorite lessons to teach (I know all the lessons were my favorite, but this one was especially great).  I hesitated a brief moment to take up the offer to teach a period, because I knew how much it would make me miss the classroom.  However, I had to jump on the opportunity – it was trench warfare after all.

The premise of the experiential lesson from History Alive (http://www.teachtci.com/) is that students, while sitting in “trenches,” experience what life was like for a private fighting in the trenches during World War I.  While students listen to excerpts read from All Quiet on the Western Front, they are shown images of the various scenes on a projector.  Throughout the activity, students respond to journal prompts provided by the teacher.  After the emotionally charged lesson, class concludes with a paper fight. 

Immediately prior to the infamous paper fight, I share the story of my great-grandfather, Frank Gaffney, a Congressional Medal of Honor award recipient.  The text of his citation is available at: http://militarytimes.com/citations-medals-awards/recipient.php?recipientid=916

Other sites about Frank Gaffney:

1.     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Gaffney_%28Medal_of_Honor%29

2.     http://www.iantn.com/frank_gaffney.htm

3.     http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7862335

4.     http://www.homeofheroes.com/photos/6_ww1/gaffney_frank.html

5.     http://www.homeofheroes.com/photos/6_ww1/gaffney_frank_newspaper.jpg

6.     http://www.niagara2008.com/history126.html

7.     http://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/us-m1911-medal-of-honor/

The beauty of this lesson does not come from the images and emotions of war; it is the level of student engagement.  They feel fear, exhaustion, and boredom (in a safe environment). They metaphorically taste the hunger of stale bread and rancid canned meat ravaged by fierce rats.  For a brief moment they can imagine what life was like in the trenches of World War I.  They make a connection to a soldier who experienced it firsthand.  Most importantly, they begin to make connections between World War I and current military engagements.

My challenge to you: find or create a lesson that allows students to fully engage and experience a topic.  I promise you they will not forget it!

Czech Wedding March

I was at a beautiful wedding on Saturday.  As the sun was setting on the Central Texas landscape, the wedding party requested the participation of every guest in a Czech wedding march.  Being more of an observer (and mother of a young child), I initially hesitated; however, my love of culture and dance prevailed!  I had so much fun - and speaking for the many other guests, they did too.  While hopping, ‘polka-ing,’ and hand-holding, I wished I had my own video camera to capture the moment from my perspective.

As I reflected on the wonderful moment in time, my thoughts went back to the recent technology conference I attended.  I wanted to use technology to capture a cultural event that needs to be passed down and shared.  I wanted to use technology to enhance an experience – a connection between the present and past – to be cherished or saved for the future.

The question becomes:  are we just using instructional technology to teach our students to be 21^st century learners or are we using technology to make connections between the past, present, and future.  I hope it’s the ladder.

For those of you that are curious about the Czech wedding march, please view the following video:

http://youtu.be/rVvOuOl-jE8

Tech Forum 2012

A day later....

I am still as inspired, encouraged, and motivated as I was while experiencing the conference.  Yesterday exceeded all criteria on my typically self-created critical convention/workshop rubric ( really, I have one.  I value my time and expect to leave a workshop learning knowledge and skills that will assist in making me a better educator).

If you don't use Evernote, I highly encourage you to try it out.  I took notes on my iPad while at the conference - and opened them up this morning on my computer (no importing/exporting needed).  Instead of posting my notes, I pasted them into wordle.net.

Remember:

1. We need to grow in our profession.
2. To grow in our profession, we need to have engaging conversations with colleagues in the field with the knowledge and skills we need or are ready to acquire.  
3. To have these engaging conversations, we need to take the time to attend professional development (on- or off-line).
4. When we are growing professionally, we are also growing personally.

Try something new today!