Other Duties As Assigned

Three months. A seemingly short span of time and yet, a great deal can change in three months. Jordan had clinic today – often an extended appointment involving a full team of doctors. Today our appointment was surprisingly one of the more abridged experiences we’ve had in our nearly two-year venture into the world of cystic fibrosis partly because we lucked into ideal scheduling at the hospital and partly because we walked in with three small children.

Today, our arrival aligned with our doctor’s completion of another CF patient’s appointment, and the girls’ presence typically invites curious faces into the cramped room that we occupy, expediting our priority on the rotation schedule. I am happy to report that the girls were enthusiastically engaged with everyone we encountered, and Jordan only screamed for the first few minutes of his checkup – much less than we anticipated. We had to laugh denoting how healthy his lungs are if he can cry at such extraordinary decibels. (Keep clearing those airway passages, my son).

Check off “attend a clinic rotation” on the CF list of to-dos for the next quarter of the calendar year. In spite of knowing how well Jordan is doing, I still struggle in the days before it is time for clinic again. As my anxiety heightens before Jordan's appointment, I return to the notion that parenting often requires us to assume roles and duties that we never dreamed of when holding a newborn baby for the first time. Walking alongside a child in this world is full of beautiful discoveries that we share as they experience firsts and reach milestones, but being in this world means that beautiful moments are not devoid of heartbreak and heartache.

In life, we do not willingly sign up for the challenges we face. People do not naturally raise their hands, volunteering to endure painful experiences or to assume more work than they can handle, and yet there are moments when we are called to action whether it be to advocate for the health of a child or to support a much larger group of people.

At school, the byline in my instructional coach position that reads “other duties as assigned” continues to apply to the daily agenda that fills my scratched notebook, a notebook that I repeatedly leave in the rooms and on the desks of my colleagues and friends who I am blessed to work with each day. (Thanks for returning it to me each day, friends). Sometimes the list of to-dos feels insurmountable. 

Every day I ask myself, “Am I doing what’s right for kids? Am I doing what’s right for MY kids?” I have come to realize that this is a question that needs to be revisited each day. While my natural instinct is to be planned both at school and in life for the next three months straight, I continue to remember that what we do each day is far more important than where we anticipate we will be in the coming weeks or months. Plans are valuable and essential to our success, but plans should not be written in permanent ink. Plans can and sometimes have to change. Today matters and should be the priority. Instead of wishing or waiting for the holidays to come or the next chapter in life to begin, we should appreciate the here and now. The people and the experiences before us today deserve our attention and love because in that instance, and for that time, we have an opportunity to make the present moment meaningful.

Life is full of unexpected gifts and obstacles that can be used to generate positivity and perpetuate good in this world. I will continue to embrace those experiences. Whether it be an unresolvable tech issue or a daily treatment for my tiniest little guy, I will continue to seek and find meaning.

Thank you, Jordan, for teaching us all to tackle the “other duties” that have been assigned to Team Sukow this week and in this life. Life will continue to ask us to face moments of joy and moments of adversity, but again, I return to the idea that we no matter what we face, Team Sukow will face them together with great fervor and positivity. Everything does not happen for a reason, but we will make reason and meaning together.

What Happens When the Internet Goes Down

The afternoon was going smooth. Everyone in the establishment was working productively, and tasks were being accomplished. Then, unexpectedly, the internet goes down, and pandemonium quickly broke out. 

In that instance, tasks could not be completed, and individuals were unsure of how to complete their jobs. A bit of panic broke out among all present parties about who to contact to ensure the internet would go back up promptly, and business could continue as usual. In a block of three interconnected restaurants that rely on the internet to sync orders and accept payments for said orders, the moment the internet crashes, panic ensures.  

This scenario is what occurred at my parents’ restaurant this past weekend. As a tech-savvy person, I was asked to jump in and attempt to rectify the situation. Implementing educational technology tools, however, is quite different than making sure a register is accepting credit card payments.  

After addressing the outage with Comcast, I realized that the staff needed to create a plan on how to take payments offline, and we needed to act quickly as the Saturday dinner rush was about to begin. Officially, I was out of my element. If we were not using a digital P.O.S. (point-of-sale or more commonly identified as the register), none of this would have happened. Almost all businesses rely on this process currently, so there isn’t an alternative. Fortunately, we were able to take payments offline and created a plan for if this happened in the future. Within an hour and a half, the internet went back online, and the phones started functioning again. 

While I was called into action in a situation that I am certainly not an expert in, I was gifted with a fresh perspective. The feelings I was experiencing reflect how some teachers and students may feel when a new technology tool or program is introduced. I now understand how digital immigrants might feel, I was out of my element, the situation was out of my control, and I was unsure how to rectify the situation. At the restaurant, the tools that I take for granted (the register) were hindering my ability to function, and I was beyond frustrated.

My response at this moment must be how some teachers and students feel when they are less confident in navigating a digital world. I had an epiphany. I have walked in the shoes of the apprehensive technology users. 

How do we effectively implement technology? How do we reasonably make a contingency plan for when that technology fails? How do we find the balance between instructional strategies that require tech and require low or even no-tech? 

1. The first step is to realize that it is not about the tech. Often, we focus on the tools and less on what those tools could do for our students and our lessons. Flipgrid is a fantastic tool that can be used in a variety of ways, including redefining how often students have opportunities to talk to each other and give each other feedback. This tool provides countless opportunities for each student to give their thoughts and voice ideas. But when we say, " I want to use Flipgrid," we need to understand how and why before we focus on what. It is the same with any tool, whether it be as pervasive as an entire management system or as simple as a quick polling tool. We need to focus on the how and the why because ultimately, the what will evolve and change as technology tends to do at a rapid pace. 
2. Instead of planning lessons around technology, plan lessons and units using the UBD or "understanding by design" method. Technology should never be infused into a lesson for the sake of using technology. It is merely a tool that can and will evolve, and using technology does not guarantee that learning objects are met. As such, using UBD or backward design can help make incorporating educational technology purposeful and valuable. Backward design means starting with the end goal or learning outcome and working back to discover how and what students will be working to achieve that goal. With an overarching end-goal, this process challenges teachers to avoid being caught up in the minutia of picking a text, a lab activity, or any learning activity. Instead, UPD challenges teachers to consider holistic skills that could be honed using any content-specific text or activity. Ultimately, we as teachers are working toward helping students master learning objectives not necessarily become expert in our favorite books or labs. Not that there is anything wrong with loving what we teach; in fact, that is what makes great teachers great. We can sell our content like nobody's business, but backward design helps us to focus on creating well-rounded learners. The what is still crucial, but starting with the why allows us to create more paths to help students arrive at their final destination, which might create some great backup plans if the internet just so happens to fail at the least convenient time. 
3. Once we know what we want students to be able to do, we can begin to create pathways to reach the end goal. Every student is unique and different, so to should our teaching. As blended and online learning moves into our schools, the strategies used to teach in these types of learning environments can be applied to all classrooms in a variety of ways. Using station rotation or mastery pathways can help students acquire specific skills in the time and manner that works best for them. For example, if I was teaching a grammar lesson, I would use the pre-test to determine what specific skills students need support with, include some direct instruction and full-group practice. After everyone received a little review, I would then break students into groups based on skill-level and work directly with students who were in need of the direct assistance. While I was working with some students, I would allow other students to complete other work or apply their skills in an enriching way. Technology tools enable me to implement this practice in my classroom. Having a clear end-goal ensures that every student will reach the target, but again, they do not need to do it in the same manner or even time-frame. 
4. When two paths diverge in a tech-centric world, allow students to take either path or create one themselves. Using backward design with tech tools will permit me to empower students to drive their learning. Some students need more traditional instruction and practice. Others will soar with a little guidance and the room to move forward. Tech tools allow us as educators to ask the questions, "How might we," and more importantly, "How might they?" It is okay to take many paths to reach a destination. We can challenge students to decide which way to go and even let them march off the beaten path on occasion. 
5. When all else fails, pen and paper always work. When the internet goes down, the sky isn't falling. Unless you cannot take payments for services rendered, traversing a few minutes off-schedule cannot hurt students. While it may require some adjusted lesson plans, providing students with time to write, reflect, and evaluate their learning is critical. Instead of completing an online assessment or task, have students create their own assessment or review games. Have them write a creative story from the perspective of a character. Play the eraser game that students rave about in their math classes at my school (I'm still not quite sure I understand the rules, but it involves math puzzles!). Heck, you might even allow them to have a meaningful conversation with their neighbors.

When the internet goes down, it is not have to be the end of the world. We do not need to use technology every day and for every lesson. Instead, we need to focus on the end result. Just like the reviews of a restaurant, it's almost always about presentation and the process and less about how it was made in the kitchen. Think about the final product, plan for a little bit of chaos to happen now and then, and you are sure to have a room full of happy customers. 

Flipping for Flipgrid

Recently, I have worked on creating asynchronous professional development for both the high school and the college where I teach. In doing so, I continued to ask, "How might we...?" How might we revolutionize learning that's happening in our classrooms? How might we engage our students? How might we motivate students to be the drivers of their own learning?

These questions challenge us to reflect, identify learning objectives and design meaningful experiences for our students. When we dream beyond what was once possible in the classroom or simply what we have done before, we enhance and innovate. Our students then have the opportunity to do the same.

Since the start of the school year, I have worked with teachers to create a tech goal to enhance how students are listening, speak, communicate, collaborate, reflection, and more. Together, we have been working through a backward design process to establish what teachers want students to accomplish by the end of the year. From that information, we have worked to envision how students might achieve those goals. Conversations have been inspiring and motivating - as teachers process what is possible.

To support teachers' endeavors, we have paired what they want students to achieve with tech tools that will enhance and transform how they might reach and exceed these benchmarks in their respective classrooms. Technology for the sake of technology is not useful - a point I have stressed a great deal this year in the setting of these goals. Picking a tool and then determining a goal is not the way to implement transformative learning in the classroom. However, tech tools can be useful in challenging students to redefine their responses to "How might we?"

For my next few writings, I want to explore and focus on specific tools in more depth. After working with, playing alongside, and exploring the possibilities these first few weeks of school with some inspiring and engaging teachers, I feel confident in turning to the tools to take their amazing ideas and put them into action.

The first tool I want to hone in on is Flipgrid - one that prides itself in amplifying student-voice and connecting classrooms and people from around the world using face-to-face communication and engagement. At times, this tool resembles a social media platform, as it allows time and space for every student to respond and exchange messages with one another. However, this tool also allows students to receive feedback, reflect, and connect in meaningful ways.

Within the first two weeks of school, a teacher approached me with all the enthusiasm in the world. He knew he wanted his students to engage in self-assessment and reflection, and he knew that he wanted to use FlipGrid to do it. So we began to talk and imagine how might his students achieve this goal, and how might this goal evolve in his classroom.

Flipgrid is a video creation tool in which students can post responses to prompts, videos, images, etc. Typically, students then watch and respond to their peers, or the instructor watches the videos and provides feedback to their peers.

We started by reviewing how to set up Flipgrid. My recommendations for teachers who are new to Flipgrid is to jump in and start. Seeing Flipgrid in action can help teachers to understand the possibilities.  The homepage of Flipgrid prompts users to "Add New Grid," which I view each grid as a place to house "Topics" or individual assignments for a course or specific class. When a new grid is created, an introduction topic is automatically created, which can be assigned to students without making any changes. The blue "Share" button (with a picture of a rocket on it) is available on the grid and on each topic, which can be shared with Google Classroom. The link can be copied and pasted onto any platform on which students access coursework.

Once a teacher has played with Flipgrid in the classroom, my next suggestion is to start playing with the topic features. Again, I would create a grid for each course and use topics as individual assignments. Teachers can set video lengths from as short as 15 seconds to five minutes, add written prompts, add a video prompt (already created or created by the teacher), attach files, allow feedback and liking, and build a customized rubric.

After students respond to a topic, the teacher can choose to SPARK a conversation (by selecting the flame icon) or create a new topic from one student video. Also, a teacher might challenge students to watch and provide feedback to each other. Teachers can also generate a mixtape or a playlist of student work to be shared with their peers. Students have loved viewing playlists that highlight the best-of work produced by classmates. I used this feature last year when completing a Visual Valentine activity in my senior English class and students were pumped.

World language teachers have also loved making Gridpals, a feature that allows teachers to connect their classes to other classes around the country and world. This tool would be incredibly helpful for language acquisition and practice. I have heard teachers using this tool to partner high school and elementary science classes in which the students demonstrate and teach each other essential concepts. While I have not used this feature, I have used the Disco Library, a place to post creative grids and even engage in professional development with other teachers.

When it comes to viewing student work and assessing it, Flipgrid does an excellent job of creating a running log. Once students have submitted, it is easy to go down the line, open a video, and grade it. The feedback is immediately emailed to the student, and a grade can be synced with an LMS platform if desired. The dashboard has been updated. It is even easier than last year to view each topic board as a student and navigate how to share videos. Individual videos can be shared and posted. I love the idea of sharing videos with parents, especially at the elementary level.

Indeed, there are so many possibilities with this tool. When students cringe at the notion of creating a video of themselves, I remind them that they send dozens of Snapchats each day. Here is their opportunity to take their messages a little more meaningful and make a "snapshot" of their learning. This tool does not let anyone hide and also encourages the quieter student to take time to reflect and process information before being asked to speak. It allows for asynchronous learning, peer feedback, parental engagement, and interaction with an authentic audience. Did I mention that this tool is currently free and syncs with student gmail accounts?

Yes, I have caught Flipgrid fever and am excited to hear about teachers using it in their classrooms. The teacher I have been working with wants to ask students to solve math problems and then have their peers watch and learn from each other. He is also hoping to empower his students to teach key concepts and skills. As the passionate person he is, I know he loves the ability to hear from and provide feedback to each of his students. Sharing these videos, I know they - both students and teacher - are going to learn so much this year!