Harvey 'Smokey' Daniels - Opening Keynote Reflection/Thoughts #tcrwp

What a fun opening keynote from Smokey Daniels, so many Tweetable moments/comments from this morning. 

Giving us a pictorial tour of his travels throughout the US in working with schools. Harvey says so much is missing from the Common Core…..creativity, engagement, curiosity, choice and responsibility. Telling stories is so powerful, they engage the audience, get people excited, inspire, laugh, think about our personal interactions and make us want to write!

With the writing standards he’s concerned they’re too low. Kids need to be writing way more says Harvey, kids should write ’think pieces’ 5, 7, 20 times a day….what does that look like.  Showing us MANY examples of written notes from kids, so many teachable moments, editing, fun memories and ideas to implement at school. Share with kids, get them excited, engage them, all level of students can write these!

I think about my school (jseroadrunners.com , @jseroadrunners) and that each of our 3rd-5th graders have their own blog on KidBlog.org. In two years I’ve seen kids write more and more each year. Having conversations with each other, learning, writing, and publishing their work for everyone to read….that’s powerful! I’m not saying paper/pencil doesn’t have a place at all, but digitizing our writing is so powerful for kids to engage in, give it a shot!

More thoughts to come later…..

Also, anyone want to co-blog a post with me this week, Tweet me if you do! @awelcome 

First Morning Thoughts - February Institute #tcrwp

First day of the TCRWP February Institute in New York and already seeing people I know from California, meeting new people and those that I ‘know’ through Twitter. I walked into the opening keynote this morning and @teachkate is welcoming participants along with @amandalah! Having been in elementary education my entire career (teacher, Assistant Principal and now Principal) I’ve always/usually been the only male in the room, so it’s really great to see @rscalateach in the crowd and hopefully we’ll connect in person this week as well.

Some initial thoughts this morning……

- it’s so inspiring to be surrounded by fellow educators who want to learn and extend their thinking.
- people coming together from all over the country, to become better teachers/leaders, all for the best interest of kids!
- some are TCRWP veterans and others their first time here.
- it’s cold and snowy outside but people are smiling, laughing and excited to be here.

Just a short post this morning with opening thoughts…..I’m hoping to convince @amandalah to do a co-blog post this week, I know @wordcrazy is already on board for this!

#standby #keeplearning 

TCRWP - Here I Come! #tcrwp #savmp

It's 4:30am in California and it's fully normal for me to be up at this time, my 'normal' routine is a 4:00 or 4:15am wake-up each day. Today though is not normal because a Town Car is coming to pick-me up for SFO and my much anticipated trip to NY and TCRWP!

Eleven years ago was my first introduction to Writers Workshop from none other than my current Administrative coach, Robert Alpert. (Note - I'm working on Robert and getting him on Twitter!) I can vividly remember the training and him 'telling' stories throughout the week long seminar at Montair Elementary in Danville, it changed my teaching and had a lasting impact!

Now, I'm an Elementary Principal and we've launched Writers Workshop at John Swett Elementary and bringing my school to the next level with Workshop is why I'm going! Can't wait to connect with educators I already know and meet so many more.

My wife and I are a parenting team, and this is the longest period of time I'll be away from her and our two children. She's slightly nervous for the busyness that is G and T our two children, but I know she'll be fine and have fun while I'm gone.

As I told some students last Friday when talking about my trip....."I'm going to NY to become a better Principal!" #enoughsaid #teamkid

Watch this blog and twitter ( @awelcome ) and follow the #tcrwp hashtag throughout the week!

An Amazing Addition #savmp #juno

It can sometimes be challenging to 'look' ahead and have a 'vision' of next steps for a classroom or school. 

- How can we take our teaching/learning to the next level?

- What's it going to take for that to happen?

- Who/what needs to be involved?

Sometimes this happens inadvertently......

- You meet other educators who have great energy/ideas and it all starts to flow!

or.....

- You get hooked up with two Danish guys, one is an app developer with the #1 app in Denmark (that's a separate blog post and YES we're piloting the app at JSE) and the other is President of FrontRow and they come to your school and give you a demo!

Jens setting up the Juno!

Jens contacted me about coming to JSE for a demo of their Juno system, I fished around with a couple teachers about 'piloting' in their rooms and @JenniferDeWeerd jumped right in! This system has been such an amazing addition to our school and Jenn's classroom so far, in so many ways!

- Voice enhancement in class

- Screen/voice capture with lessons on the SMART board and wireless document camera!

This is where the REAL power of the Juno comes into play. Jennifer can record/capture EVERYTHING she teaches the students from the SMART board and/or document camera whenever she wants. 

- Math lesson 

- Student presentations

- The list is looooong

The most amazing part is, we have it all set up so ALL the screen/voice recordings get automatically synced with Google Drive so Jenn's entire class has access to them whenever they want, and I do as well. If a student is at home and can't remember the steps for long division, they go to their Google Drive. Student does a 'how-to' in class for a presentation, automatically in Google Drive.

#eduawesome

Contact Jens to demo a system in your classroom, you WON'T be disappointed, you'll be INSPIRED!

Jenn sporting some educational jewelry with the teacher microphone, it works on voice commands as well!

21st Century Teacher set-up, MacBook Air, wireless document camera and Juno system, ready to record!

All Juno recordings are automatically shared with my Google Drive as well, I can see what's going on in class from my iPhone! #wiredprincipal

Jenn's had the Juno in class for only ten days and the Google Drive folder is already filling up, keep them coming, love to learn!

#teamkid

TCRWP Writers Workshop #savmp

I'm headed to New York this Sunday for the Teachers College Reading & Writing Project February Institute!  It's beyond exciting to have the opportunity to extend my learning so I can better support my staff with the implementation of Mini-Lessons, Units of Study and Writing across our campus.

So, stay tuned for some blogging from New York next week, and possibly even a combined post with Kathy Moore!

@TCRWP

GHO (Google Hangout) - Why It's Changing the Game and Should For You Too #savmp #teamkid #teamnorthbay

If you haven't heard of Google Hangout or if you haven't participated in one, it's changing the game and should be for you too! So much of our Professional Development is delivered in such an archaic way......

- Take a full day off from work (or half day) 

- drive somewhere

- sign-in

- sit at long tables

- hopefully there's wi-fi (on some occasions there isn't, or it's suuuuuper slow) 

- spend a portion of the morning watching a Power Point and reading the slides on paper that they passed out

So much of PD is just lecture, isn't that what we're trying to change in education? Aren't we trying to promote collaboration, creativity and communication?

Now......here's where GHO comes in. (First need to give a shout-out to @coach_sv who is the ultimate GHO promoter and I'll often get a Tweet like this.....

"Adam, GHO in 15 min w/some educators from ____ to talk about _____, you in?" #yesplease

GHO is......

- free

- anytime/anywhere

- you can plan for it, or do them at a moments notice

- mobile/portable

- fun

- can last 15 minutes or 60

- easy to figure out, no software downloads or 'permissions' needed

- can be one on one, or staff to staff! About sixteen of my teachers (@jseroadrunners) had a GHO with another school about an hour away. (@pennpanthers) Thirty minutes of talking about Twitter, podcasting and other #eduawesome classroom tricks, would never have happened without GHO!

GHO is not....

- a lecture

- sit and get

- costly

Also....

- Download the Hangouts app for iPhone, it's a must!

- You can record a GHO, just like #teamnorthbay, check it!

@mrsfadeji getting warmed up in GHO with me!

@kfostertweet throwing down some knowledge with #teamnorthbay

@ecsaibel always inspiring and has something #eduawesome to add

@PeterMDeWitt - Yes, that's Peter DeWitt and I've had a GHO with him, thanks to #savmp for the hook-up!

#teamkid @jseroadrunners #enoughsaid 

Power of Sharing #savmp #googlematters

It's been five years since I've been in the classroom and my last year teaching I had just set up Google Apps accounts for my 4th graders. Very quickly the power of Google Docs was evident and my students were 'sharing' everything they created, on a daily basis.

As an Assistant Principal at Live Oak Elementary we introduced Google Apps as well and the power of 'sharing' again was evident very quickly. Without any bit of exaggeration, it changed teachers and how they managed their classrooms overnight. Students would also collaborate together on a document/project and work together simultaneously, editing and improving as they went. 

Very quickly I started telling kids to 'share' their work with me and I would comment or chat with them while they worked in class. To see the excitement (and have teachers tell me after school) when I would open a shared document and the kids would say..."Mr. Welcome is on my document!!!!!" I'm hard pressed to find a higher level of student engagement than this!

I also recently received an email from a teacher at Live Oak Elementary who thanked me for introducing Google Apps to them. "I'm still struck at the profound level of amazing change that Google Docs has brought to our school!" #enoughsaid 

Having visitors/guests visit my school is very important I feel. You can sometimes be in a fishbowl and an outside perspective is great. Sergio Villegas recently came to JSE for a visit and his Tweet below reminded me of the power Google Apps has to change a school/teacher/student/Principal! 

The screenshot below is of JT's (5th grader) writing entitled "Shelldon the Robot's Adventure!" JT shares a lot of his work with me and it's yet another reminder the power of 'sharing' can have on students, teachers, parents and the Principal. 

#teamkid