This week I've been attending SXSWedu here in my transplant-hometown of Austin. I was excited to miss school, but I was also excited because this was my first time to attend a conference.
(Back story: I am only in my 7th month of teaching as I just graduated from Baylor University in May of 2011. I am currently working as THE sole Spanish teacher for the secondary grades at a K-12 charter school in Georgetown, Tx.)
I had this notion of the conference in my head. I'd heard about all the tech emphasis and read all the session information. However, I've been slightly disappointed. Every session that I walked in to, I instantly felt like a baby. I am 23 years old and being surrounded by 40, 50, 60 year olds on iPads is just weird to me. Not to alienate any readers, but its an honest experience. I know there are younger teachers out there, I just don't know where they are, and I don't know why they aren't HERE!
I got excited about sessions titled "21 Ways to Integrate Social Media" for instance, and hoped to hear about cool new applications for the classroom. But I found an hour long discussion about "What is Twitter" and "Using Google News". I had to leave not only this session but a few others as well. I've been on the internet since I was 6 years old. My students are NOT leaving me in the "digital dust", and I have more followers than any of them on Twitter. I was hoping for lots of applicable knowledge, but have yet to grasp much.
Not to say I've learned nothing though. I've taken away a great handful of information that I can and will use once Spring Break has passed.
1. Start sharing. A lot of the conference focuses on open content sharing and creative commons licensing, and for a good reason. As a first year Spanish teacher with less than perfect resources and 4 preps, I am constantly scrambling for projects, worksheets, lessons, whatever. I can't come up with all of it; I'm not a workaholic. When I find something, I grab it up, and go on with my lesson. Why am I not sharing these things that I find? Why am I not sharing all of this content that I am creating every day in my classroom? Its like the ultimate test of creativity. We all spend so much time gobbling up ideas and information (this conference), but what are we doing to give back. Possible reason for this blog?
2. Creativity and critical thinking go hand in hand. Peter Nilsson (@pnilsson) held a session on how we can combine these two forces in student work. THIS was the kind of thing I had been waiting to hear. Applicable, usefull information that I could take back to my class. He introduced his taxonomy of creativity (Pro Tip: Teachers LOVE taxonomies), and something kind of clicked. Like, duh, of course there are levels to creativity, where are my students? Where should they be? Is that my fault? (Answers: Here, There, and Yes). We (I) get lazy and our students suffer. I do mine a disservice every time I cut creative corners to save time, effort, or in my classroom, drama...
3. Be progressive. Yes I am young, no I am not an administrator, no I do not have not have any say about anything that goes on in my school, but that doesn't have to stop me, or any of us. That old saying "Its easier to ask forgiveness than it is to ask permission"? Its true. Just do it, try it, fail at it if you have to. I'm not saying to go add all your students on Facebook and create some creepy private "learning group" because that will 100% get you booted out the door... but try something new in a warm up, take 5 minutes to introduce kids to an app that could download outside of class. Baby steps.
I attended the first keynote address with LeVar Burton (duh!), but did not attend today's with the CEO of Pearson. My reason being, and I quote my own Twitter "because their butt raping of my wallet while in college is still a fresh wound". I look forward to seeing Arne Duncan speak tomorrow, which may surprise some, but I feel that many problems we have in Texas are a result of the Texas legislature, not the national.
This blog may be a flop, fabulous. But the void of young teachers sharing positive experiences and new resources needs to be filled, y'all. Lets do this.
As one of the "40,50,60 year olds" probably sitting next to you at SXSWedu, I'm encouraged to see you reaching out to share! I was in a great session today that centered on the topic of encouraging sharing among educators from PK through higher ed. I hope you will move ahead with plans to share about your teaching experiences and the approaches you are using in your classroom. We need educators of all ages participating in the conversation if we're going to move into the levels of tech use/integration envisioned by many at SXSWedu.
ReplyDeleteAlso, since you mentioned not jumping out on the edge and using Facebook, you might want to check out Edmodo, which is aimed at K-12 education and provides many tools for extending learning in a Facebook-like context. Best of all, it's free!
Thank you for your encouragement! Its tough being young in a sea of experienced professionals.
DeleteI've done a bit with Edmodo, but most of my students are not open to moving beyond Facebook, and I've met lots of parent resistance from families who don't approve of ANY kind of social networking. I work with an interesting demographic to say the least... (:
It's good to hear that you are trying. Has your school implemented Epsilen/Project Share yet? Maybe since it is a state provided, password protected system, your parents will be more open to it.
DeleteAlso just had a thought for you: Facebook pages (different from personal profiles) are public and can be seen by students even if they don't have Facebook accounts. I wonder if parents would be less resistant to you using it as a means of communication if their child didn't need to log in to see it?