This is my 50th blog post! To celebrate, and because I like to pretend I'm a rock star, I've worked to put together a Greatest Hits package. This post is an array of ideas, favorite quotes, links, tips, and tricks. I've provided links and resources for inspirations and influences, and hopefully credited all appropriately! Thank you to you, my few and loyal readers!
1. Shaping culture and climate. There are varied definitions and perspectives on culture vs climate, but most share common themes. Culture usually surrounds values and beliefs, while climate often reflects perceptions and meanings. Marilyn Watson and Jeff Hodges share that "culture is the way things are done around here," while climate is "the way we feel around here." When it comes to how one informs or influences the other, I especially appreciate Todd Whitaker's point: "Climate is the measure and culture is the change agent." How can you become an agent for climate change?
2. "I’m not asking permission to be awesome, and I’m not apologizing for being passionate." Brian McCann says it best. Be bold do what's right for your kids. Take chances and create exciting experiences that students (and you) will always remember. Bring purpose to passion and you will always be headed in the right direction.
3. Failing forward
In one of my first and favorite posts, I wrote about John Maxwell's work with failing and failure. I believe that our students need opportunities to exercise behaviors and apply skills in context and for purpose. They also need the chance to make mistakes and fix them. Accountability and responsibility are about empowerment and self-growth, not punishment. Our role is to create moments when our learners can connect thoughts and feelings, and when those feeling are uncertainty, frustration, or even failure, students have authentic opportunity to practice self-regulation skills and strategies.
In one of my first and favorite posts, I wrote about John Maxwell's work with failing and failure. I believe that our students need opportunities to exercise behaviors and apply skills in context and for purpose. They also need the chance to make mistakes and fix them. Accountability and responsibility are about empowerment and self-growth, not punishment. Our role is to create moments when our learners can connect thoughts and feelings, and when those feeling are uncertainty, frustration, or even failure, students have authentic opportunity to practice self-regulation skills and strategies.
4. Makerspaces and Maker movement is about a mindset. It's not just spaces, materials, or spaghetti towers. Design thinking should be embedded throughout the curriculum with authentic purpose. Kids don't need to be brought anywhere special to suddenly apply design-thinking. STEM projects and maker challenges happen best out of isolation, as part of a student's curricular day, and with reflection, iteration, and concept application! This is when a spaghetti tower becomes more than just a spaghetti tower!
5. From Content Consumption to Content Creation: Whether it's creating their own Kahoots, recording Flipgrids, or posting to Seesaw, our students have never had the tools they do now to shift from consuming content to creating it. In addition, they are curating their demonstrations of learning in journals and portfolios, annotation and commenting all the while, building their digital footprints and digital citizenship.
5. Doink is awesome!! When it comes to Greenscreen apps and solutions, there's only one game in town (and happens to be in our town!) Doink is the simplest-of-use apps to accomplish surprisingly complex and creative images or video. I've had more fun with this app than any other in my career. I have also seen more application and extension of ideas than I ever expected, from preschoolers working at Dunkin's for the letter D page of their alphabet book, to a student "reporting" from the Freedom Trail to share info about her location. rather than creating a boring old building-bio chart. 
6. Old dogs can learn new tricks!- This blog post was about my own growth-mindset challenge to learn how to solve a Rubik's Cube! I've been very proud of this accomplishment in life, while also frustrated by having to practice regularly or suffer lost steps from memory in my aging mind! It was a great exercise in learning a particular skill in a way that was unfamiliar, took practice and time, and most certainly required a shift from a fixed mindset. I like to tell friends that if they can memorize 7 or 8 phone numbers, memorizing the same amount of algorithms to apply to the cube is no different. You just have to want to do it, and figure out how to teach/train yourself in the new skill.
8. Teaching Is Learning Twice: The first time I heard this Joseph Joubert quote, it knocked my socks off. It's so obvious! When we create opportunities for students to pair/share, make tutorials, record "instant replays" or create their own video recreations of hands-on demos for next year's lesson, we are empowering the learner to become the leader. We are giving authentic application and transfer of learning experiences with purpose and for an audience.
9. Voice and choice is an invitation, not just a buzz-phrase. When we offer (real) choices, and create (real) opportunities for students to exercise their choices, we need to be prepared to respond. It's what I call our "new RTI"- response to invitation.
10. Leadership is action, not position. It's said quite a bit, but look around your building or district and notice the quiet leadership, the mentors, the change-agents who are keeping momentum, feeding the climate.
11. Blogging is cool. With my 50th blog post, I've decided I can call myself a blogger with a certain confidence. I don't have a massive readership, but as I remind anyone I can convince to blog, my primary audience is myself The practice of formulating, shaping and publishing a cohesive theme or thought is a professional practice that has been challenging, rewarding and professionally empowering. Anyone who is thinking about starting (or continuing) a blog should just do it!
12. Presenting is a tune up. Whether it's at a national conference, a local tech-day, or just a staff meeting spotlight, everyone should make presenting a part of their professional toolkit. It's a great opportunity to articulate the what and why of our craft that we never give time to discuss.
😀13. Everyone loves a sticker, spotlight or shout out. There's a reason badging is so popular right now. Kids and adults love to be acknowledged for continued learning, growth, and success. Badges or stickers are just measures of growth, but an important component of self-monitoring and empowered learning.
14. Practice over product. This is my mantra. As a coach, my role is to always keep the conversation on teaching and learning practices, not particular devices, tools, or tricks. This is a great article my Katie Martin that keeps it real. We always want to focus on students and student learning, and this simple reminder always keeps me headed in the right direction.
15. We are surrounded by experts. It isn't the teacher's responsibility or role to be the only content exert in our kids' lives. When students can search and find facts faster than we can teach them, we should utilize every resource within reach or search to provide authentic meaning and context for their learning, not just their knowing.
16. Tough truths push us. Facing tough truths is a powerful way to reflect on practice. The most powerful quote I refer to in any presentation is by George Couros. He says, "Never hold a student back based on what you don't know." That was a punch in the gut to make me realize that by choosing not to continue to grow or evolve was limiting opportunities or experiences for students.
17. Conferences inspire. Going to MassCUE was my first step toward a shifted role and evolution as an educator. I had been to workshops and seminars, but it was going to a conference and steering my own professional development aligned to my own needs, skills, and interests that got me hooked. Being around other attendees, all of whom had chosen and wanted to attend was also a shift. It's hard to capture momentum and lightning with a captive in-service audience or a tech day that falls on cyber-Monday! Finding a community of like-minded and motivated peers is inspirational.
18. Twitter is a powerful tool to connect and learn. I've seen more of my colleagues' teaching practices and ideas on Twitter than in all previous years of teaching. Twitter gives an authentic classroom view for colleagues, parents, and peers unlike anything before, and connected educators are reshaping our industry for the better.
19. Risk is the Reward. I love seeing risk-taking for real. I love watching a new teacher try something exciting, or a veteran teacher adding to their vast repertoire, particularly by the side of an inspirational peer. It's not about risk vs. reward when it comes to innovative practices or shifting instructional practice. Risk is the reward.
20. "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." This quote from Roman philosopher Seneca inspired a blog post in which I shared my ideas about anticipating and capitalizing on coincidence, but also leveraging opportunity and circumstance. Luck doesn't just happen, but there are elements within our control to promote growth and change.
🎨 21. Visual thinking isn’t about artistry. Manuel Herrera is a great resource for sketchnoting, google drawing strategies, and other modes for making learning visible. He also love all things related to tacos and has been known to hand them out at conferences. I had the pleasure of interviewing Manuel to learn more bout his background and thoughts on ways in which we can encourage visual thinking for (and with) our students at MassCUE's broadcast booth at MassCUE18. Check out Manuel or Sylvia Duckworth on Twitter to learn more about the visual thinking and sketchnoting movement!
22. Peardeck is powerful. It's real-time, and totally in-context formative assessment. I'm new to it, but the promise is evident. It's another example of a tool that allows for something that didn't exist before. I particularly like the social-emotional component that the "readiness" and "feelings" style template questions provide before/during/after instruction.
23. Computational thinking is a lot more than coding. It's also more than just programming robots or computer science. It's the language of problem solving, Providing opportunities for our youngest students to deconstruct problems and apply systematic steps, patters, or algorithms to solve them lays the groundwork for more complex computational thinking and computer science application later on.
25. Relationships matter. This is our district motto/hashtag this year. Fostering collaboration and communication among and between colleagues, administrators and even neighboring districts removes barriers, and the more we remove walls, the better we serve our students.
26. Don't wait til the end to find out what they know. This is another word on formative assessment, not as data points necessarily, but feedback that matters. Practices like quick-writes, entry/exit tickets, or sketches, and tools like Pear Deck, Kahoots, and Seesaw can capture valuable information to steer instruction. Whether it’s a formal data collection swarm or a spur of the moment post or exit ticket, we have frequent mechanisms to let us know how well kids are “getting it”. But that needs to be the launch point if we are being honest with the word “formative.”
27. A wireless mouse can set you free. Here's another simple game-changer. Using a wireless mouse can untether a classroom teacher, presenter, or student to control his or her from any spot in the room, or circulating with a clipboard in hand. Imagine handing the mouse to a "guest-host" student to run a class kahoot from their desk!
28. Epson freeze button. An "a-ha" moment for so many people is this single, simple button. It just freezes your projected image, screen, or page so that your laptop is free for use.
29. Flexible learning environments are more than funky furniture. It's about providing time and space to personalize and maximize a student's unique skills and interests for success. In fact, any redesigned space or room that has't employed the feedback and design input from students has already missed an opportunity.
30. Digital Climate Change: I use this title as a presentation topic for conferences to talk about our rapidly shifting and changing world, jobs, but also our opportunity and responsibility. ISTE's CEO Richard Culatta talks about the shift of tech access to opportunity, standardization toward personalization, and students as consumers to creators. This is shift in focus and emphasis that I call our Digital Climate Change. It's an intense, but exciting, time to be a teacher. Kids' skills and abilities can quickly pass our ability to help them in a traditional model. As someone recently tweaked the old saying, we are also a "guide along for the ride" sometimes"
31. Meaningful, Memorable, Measurable- I Made this graphic about a year ago when I was prepping for a talk about "creating a Combustible Classroom." I wanted this visual to represent that “sweet spot,” that intersection of student experiences that are Meaningful, Memorable and Memorable. Teachers have favorite (and effective) lessons that can hit one or two of these elements, but when all three intersect, that’s the magic time, the ignition, the spark.
32. Teach like yourself! We are constantly being encouraged to teach like a Pirate or Jedi or like our hair is on fire, but if we are not igniting our own passions as educators to teach like ourselves, we are robbing our students of ourselves.
33. Don't just collect data- look at it. Yes, we need to know if they don't get it, but the opportunity is both empty and wasted if we don't know why they don't get it. We have so many quick and effective tools to tell us (in real-time) how kids are doing, it's more important than ever to look and listen to what they are telling and showing to adjust instruction.
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34. Emojis add interest. I went to Tony Vincent's ISTE session on emojis and walked away with a ton of clever tips and ideas to add visual interest to any big or little activity to increase engagement. We have existing art within our fingers' reach to add flavor and personality to any tweet, contact, post, or slide. Hopefully this post is an example of softening a huge load of text with visual relief.
35. History rhymes. Mark Twain said it, and we live it. Veteran teachers always talk about the pendulum, but the fact is good teaching will always be critical, and the next buzz/trend will likely remind us some initiatives long gone but still of value and needed again.
36. Agency is about empowerment. The March for Our Lives Movement is such a powerful example of student agency and voice. It's well beyond the sphere of the elementary students I get to work with, but the skills (critical- not soft!) that we develop through carefully designed culture, climate, and character emphasis set the stones to build strong voices and empowered learners and citizens.
37. Access without effective support isn't opportunity- Vincent Tinto. Mr. Tinto focuses on higher education inequity in the linked article, but his idea resonates with me across all demographics as well as initiatives. Just providing access, money, or stuff doesn't yield results or meaningful change.
38. If you measure something with a ruler, you won't know how much it weighs.
Greg Kulowiec said it better than I ever could. Assessment can become both overwhelming and ineffective. It's not just about having the right tool for the job, but pausing to ponder the purpose of the job itself.
39. Puts your heads together. A headphone splitter can be a $1 solution to provide a shared viewing/listening experience for students. Duh!
40. "You don't fatten a pig by weighing it." No clue who said this, but I love it as a caution about over-assessing and swamping ourselves and our students with constant measuring without a chance to grow. What is the goal and how formative or frequent is the measurement?
41. Coaching isn't about me after all! Another quote from George Couros. It has been transformation for me and my role to consider this quote about service to assist a teacher's journey from "their point A to their point B" I rely on the other familiar saying that my role isn't to show you what I can do, but to show you what you can do!
42. Look to ISTE. ISTE has articulated standards for both students and educators that are framed around practices, not just skills. ISTE Standards for Educators reflect who we are and want to become, not just what we do or have done! ISTE Standards for Students are designed to empower students to develop the skills and roles their futures will require!
"43. Personalized Learning is a strategy, not a policy"- Larry Cuban. This article (and single notion) is a crucial reminder that Personalized Learning is both and desired outcome and and instructional strategy, not a policy. It's the how more than the what, and as an instructional strategy toward reaching a goal, It needs to live among its practitioners.
Clips video
44. Browse the Menu. To launch my coaching role in my District, I created a "menu" of services that I could offer. I've gotten great feedback about it, and it served several particular purposes. I wanted a paper "analog" item that could go into mailboxes, hands and bulletin boards for references. Folks I want to reach aren't always likely to go to a website when they can pin a paper above their desk. I also wanted a visual list of tools, tips, and topics that educators could review and realize that they are likely skilled in several already. There's an empowerment to seeing a continuum or scope of topics and getting a better sense of where you land. Finally, I wanted it to be an invitation. I like to only go where I'm invited, and it works best when there's a focused objective or idea to target. Here are links to the tri-fold and single-page menu options. Feel free to check them out!
45. "Stop! Collaborate and Listen." Vanilla Ice had more than just a monster tag line here. It's a call, and it's the same call I hear in another favorite quote by poet Mary Oliver: "To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work." Both Oliver and Ice remind us to take pause, reflect, ask and answer. That's when and where we grow and learn personally and professionally. We won't notice if we aren't looking and listening.
46. Wordsmith? At ISTE 18, author Andy Weir talked about thankfully not publishing his first novel he wrote in college, during a pre-internet era. He basically said it stunk and he's grateful it never saw the light of day. He went on to talk about becoming a wordsmith, which too often we use offhandedly to describe anyone skilled with the gift of gab or BS. HE reminded me that (like a blacksmith or silversmith), writing is a craft to be honed and shaped through continued practice and attending to skill.
47. Curate Curiosity. I'm linking two awesome resources for any educator to find ideas and inspiration. Whether is Lee Araoz's work with Genius Hour, or Brian Aspinall's Hour of Curiosity, these inspirational leaders challenge my thinking regularly on twitter and never fail to make me want to try new ideas for kids!
48. Inquire, Inspire, Include. Local Edthought leader Kerry Gallagher wrote these words in a powerful blog post that I can no longer locate, but I have my response to her words. She wrote about activating thinking and teaching beyond compliance, and I remember thinking that if we want to see inquisitive, inspired and interested students, we are their first and best models. We need to lead the charge and set the tone, sharing purpose and passion for the jobs we are lucky enough to be able to do.
49. Create Bridge-Builders. Teachers have long treasured reading buddies or math buddies between grades. Why not try STEM buddies for regular challenges or maker challenges? Share the maker-mindset across ages and bring collaboration, communication, critical-thinking and creativity tasks to life. This is bridge-building and I'm not talking about popsicle sticks!
50. Parents Shouldn't Teach Their Kids to Ski, Swim, or Do Math! This was another early post that I loved writing. Every parent wants to support their child's learning but can forget that just because they can perform a skill easily, it doesn't necessarily mean they can teach it effectively. Plus, students always find that extra level of cooperation and composure when working with someone other than their parent. There are certain things that should be left to the specialists. Collaboration can sometimes mean getting out of the way when necessary.
48. Inquire, Inspire, Include. Local Edthought leader Kerry Gallagher wrote these words in a powerful blog post that I can no longer locate, but I have my response to her words. She wrote about activating thinking and teaching beyond compliance, and I remember thinking that if we want to see inquisitive, inspired and interested students, we are their first and best models. We need to lead the charge and set the tone, sharing purpose and passion for the jobs we are lucky enough to be able to do.
49. Create Bridge-Builders. Teachers have long treasured reading buddies or math buddies between grades. Why not try STEM buddies for regular challenges or maker challenges? Share the maker-mindset across ages and bring collaboration, communication, critical-thinking and creativity tasks to life. This is bridge-building and I'm not talking about popsicle sticks!
50. Parents Shouldn't Teach Their Kids to Ski, Swim, or Do Math! This was another early post that I loved writing. Every parent wants to support their child's learning but can forget that just because they can perform a skill easily, it doesn't necessarily mean they can teach it effectively. Plus, students always find that extra level of cooperation and composure when working with someone other than their parent. There are certain things that should be left to the specialists. Collaboration can sometimes mean getting out of the way when necessary.
