Author: mjjohnson1216

Reflections About Twitter Chats by Meredith Johnson

What is all this noise about Twitter chats for educators? This past week I briefly scrolled through over 200 education hashtags to review the content they were posting. One after another, my cursor flew across all those tweets. It was an interesting task and I wanted to write a blog post to share with you what I learned. Is Twitter transforming before our eyes?

Are there repetitions from one hashtag to another? You bet there are! A great deal of what is shared between chats could be considered advertising. People reach out to others to sell a product, encourage them to go to a conference, participate in their chat, read an article or blog they wrote, and keep them up to date with books that have been written. At times, moderators post tweets between chats sharing who the next guest/topic would be or the name of some amazing educator who agrees to be a guest moderator. There could be a graphic sharing the change in a date/time/occurrence of a chat. All this information shared for about 150 education chats that are on Twitter! Amazing!

What are some of the interesting pieces of chat information I noticed? I have been active on Twitter since March, 2012 – seven years and it has been very interesting to watch Twitter evolve. After searching out a hashtag that I hadn’t seen before from a list of Twitter chats, and scrolling through the most recent tweets, I noticed others seemed to “grab” that hashtag title, glop it with about half a dozen more, and tweet out information they believe is important in hopes of reaching the largest amount of people in one message. This could certainly be an effective way to communicate but there is one huge problem – no one ever goes to that hashtag as the chat stopped occurring years ago. Perhaps, another person notices this tweet, and they also cut and paste the hashtag into a message they want to share – the ineffective sharing of information continues! Now, if they thought about what target audience might be interested, searched out that chat hashtag and used it to share a message, this sure would increase effectiveness!

There are countless reasons why chats drop to the wayside in Twitter Land hallways. Often people begin a hashtag, start a chat, promote whatever mission they’re on and then move to the next project in their lives and forget about it. It will be interesting to see if this process increases during the next year.

How I would love to do a study on the number of teachers using Twitter from each State! I mention this as I have noticed the tweets being shared by specific State hashtags such as #OhioEdChat or #TxEd different greatly from West Virginia or Alabama. What factors play a role in one State in our country having teachers so active in Twitter chat participation and another not? Is it their overall focus on professional learning of educators? Are teachers in only a few states granted professional development credit toward certification renewal for participation in Twitter chats? Are the chat moderators from those States different in some way? I bet you could make a few guesses yourself as to why this happens.

I wonder about several things ….

Where is the higher education voice in Twitter chats?

Why are topics of chats/questions so similar?

Use of conference hashtags has increased tremendously – what direction will this trend take?

How important is it to focus on tweeting high-quality, valuable content or are “feel good” tweets just as important?

How are teachers making decisions about which chats to join? What might cause them to return week after week?

What aspect of Twitter chats do you wonder about?

How will this social media platform adjust over the next year to better meet the needs of those who use it?

I hope you will find the database of education Twitter chats I created helpful and share it out in tweets you create with others.

https://mjj61244.wordpress.com/twitter-hashtag-search/

I worked with hundreds of teachers who retired – why did I so rarely wonder what they did with their lives once they were finished teaching? School administration can be all-encompassing, so my thoughts were usually focused on the next challenge rather than retiring co-workers. I remember being so thrilled when a retired teacher would appear in the school’s office area and I could inquire, “Is there really life after working in education?” They would smile and share with me that indeed there was. I would probe deeper and ask, “What do you do with your time?” Many times, they weren’t specific, which would puzzle me, and simply share that they were plenty busy each day. I remember sitting in administration meetings where details about our pending contract negotiations talks would include statistics about possible retirement benefits. I would wave my hands through the air and ask the men present if we couldn’t talk about something related to students as this discussion was boring. They would laugh and ask me if I wasn’t concerned about my own retirement benefits. “Oh, for goodness sakes, no, I am not. That won’t arrive until decades from now. Let’s talk about something interesting!” The years zoomed by at lightning speed and suddenly I was standing at the edge of beginning my own retirement.

When I was fortunate to have two weeks away from being at a school, I would quickly become bored and want to return. I thought this was what being retired would feel like, so I wasn’t looking forward to it at all. This month marks two years of retirement for me and I am content with how I am daily involved in education with a caring group of individuals on Twitter. Yesterday, one of the educators I had met on Twitter sent me soaring into space with a message she tweeted out.

From Cathleen Beachboard @CathleenBeachBd

Just wanted you to know I am dedicating my upcoming book to you. We are now in production to print. If it was not for you and allowing me to guest blog, I would not have had the courage. You didn’t know you made such a difference, but you did. Thank you, Meredith

It’s about student empowerment. I know you don’t know me very well Meredith but within the past 5 years, I’ve completely changed my practice in teaching. At one point in time, I was 285 lb and a student asked me to lose weight because he didn’t want me to die. So, my students help me to lose a ton of weight and through that journey, I discovered ways to empower students through service learning. The book will be coming out with Routledge publishing. It’s entitled 10 keys to student empowerment. However, I would never have had the guts to do it if I did not have the opportunity to do that guest blog post that I did for you. Even though it was a little thing you did for me it inspired me. It gave me the confidence to tell my story. I wanted to acknowledge you and even though it’s a small thing it’s my way of appreciating you. I just submitted the entire manuscript for publication today. Today I start the book publication process. However, as I go through it, I will keep you updated. Thank you for being awesome.

Can you imagine how thrilled I was? Then today, I receive the following tweet from Bridget Gengler @BridgetGengler

The exchange begins with me asking the question, “Who do you think believes in you each day?” Bridget responded, “Oh! So many people .. my husband, first and foremost. My family and close friends push me each day, Just as I believe in my students, they believe in me. They cheer me on every day. We need those people in our lives just like our students do.” Then I continued the conversation by adding Adam Welcome’s graphic. Bridget closes out the exchange by sharing that she considers me one of her “pushers!” What an absolute honor!

These are the discussions that make my day! I may not walk the hallways of school buildings any longer, but I am thankful to have found a way to continue in helping others.

Dreams of Summer by Meredith Johnson and #PLN friends

Can you hear the soft summer breeze just outside your window? The songs of the birds flitting from branch to branch welcoming the change in seasons and often, a shift in your life. I asked several educators to share their dreams of summer so I could add them to this blog post. It is a wonderful time of year when different thoughts run rampant in an educator’s imagination and call out to them to alter the daily habits they have grown so accustomed to following. I hope you enjoy reading the thoughts they have shared. Perhaps, once the cool winds of autumn blow, they will again share and write their memories of a summer past?

By Tosh McGaughy @ToshMcGaughy

Two weeks ago, our family became whole again as my husband fetched our college freshman daughter home from Norman for the summer. Her metal straws, her vegan cheese, and her ethically sourced toiletries are back with a vengeance, and we are all delighted to have her home, even for just a couple months. My husband and I actually are fighting for opportunities to drive her to her job in Dallas (she won’t drive or own a car because of her carbon footprint), just so we can have the drive time to talk with her and catch up on everything we have missed over the last nine months. As proud as we are of her launch into adulthood, we have all missed her terribly. Thankfully, my summer hours at work give me Fridays off so we will have long weekends to visit museums, explore new vegan restaurants, and go to plays and concerts. Catching up on Grey’s Anatomy episodes and a July trip to NYC is also part of our Charlotte-is-home-for-the-summer plans. Having our family under one roof seems like a gift; a gift that I took for granted for eighteen years but that I won’t this summer. Hooray for family time and daughters who return home! 

A Couple of Reasons Why I Love Summer

By Rachelle Dene Poth @Rdene915

When people find out that I am a teacher, one of the first things they say is “it must be nice to have your summers off.”  Yes, it is, but in all honesty, I would be totally fine if my school switched to year-round schooling. I enjoy being in the classroom and look forward to each day and what it brings, even the challenges that might pop up. More than anything, I love working with students and learning from them. My reason for loving the summer is not because I don’t have to go to work; it’s because it is an opportunity to have more time with family and friends and to take part in professional development and reflection.

Time for Reconnecting

Life gets so busy sometimes that before you know it, weeks and months pass by and you might find that you haven’t had a lot of time to spend with family and friends.  Of course, technology helps us to stay connected, whether we use text messaging, different apps, FaceTime or even a hangout to see our family and friends, it’s not the same as time together in person. More days at home means more time for family and friends.

I’m also excited for conference season to be here and to have time to spend with some of my closest friends learning together and relaxing. I will be presenting at Summer Spark and ISTE 2019, fantastic conferences that bring so many educators from around the world together. I’m looking forward to being a part of the EdWriteNow Volume 3 group of authors in July and spending time with my good friend Jennifer Casa Todd and a writing retreat later this summer. Knowing that I will spend time with my core groups, the 53s and the #4OCFPLN, plus meet other members of my PLN for the first time, in real life, is one of my favorite things about the summer.

Time for Recharging

Summer is a time for a lot of things, one of the most important is self-care and recharging. So, doing some normal summer things like sleeping in late, catching up with friends and family, going on vacations, ditching our devices and not worrying about setting the alarm are important for our self-care. Summer is also a valuable time for teachers to do even more on a personal and professional basis like think about their practice and take advantage of the opportunities that are out there for personal and professional development and growth.

Time for Learning

A more flexible schedule for the summer means more time for attending conferences or webinars, joining in book studies or Voxer groups, or connecting within different learning communities. It might be easier to get involved in a Twitter chat, whatever it is during the school year that just doesn’t seem to fit as part of your routine, make it part of your summer routine.

There are lots of opportunities out there and my advice is to decide what is best for you. Do you want to be in one Voxer group or join one book study? Then make that your focus. Or maybe you want to start a blog or create a new website. It’s up to you because it is your time to decide how to spend your summer break. I’m thrilled to be part of the summer BookcampPD book study with my book In Other Words. Looking forward to discussing the six books included in the study and of course, the two weeks in July (July 15-28), when we get to talk about my book and share ideas and takeaways from it.

Enjoy yourself

Each summer gets better and better, and it’s not because I traveled and spent hours on beaches, or to the contrary, kept idle. It is because I have used the time to learn more, to read, to connect, to reflect and to prepare for the next year.  My summer goal is to work so I can start stronger and be better than I was the year before. Whatever you do this summer, make time to recharge, connect and learn. And don’t set the alarm 🙂

Kellie Bahri @kbahri5

Awesome! Summer for me is bittersweet. Saying goodbye to the school year is very difficult for me. I’m a work workaholic, so shutting my brain off takes serious commitment, but it’s my gift to myself. My dreams for summer always take me to Michigan’s lakes. Whether I’m paddle boarding in the lily pads, kayaking Lake Superior, or just dangling my feet off a dock into the water, I am home. Being in nature refuels my soul. I am a much better teacher for it.

Hedreich Nichols @Hedreich

As a tech/design teacher in an IB middle school, I spend most of my day connected to some device.  Google Classroom, PowerSchool, music, emails, my personal kid’s grades, etc. I also read, shop, tweet and binge watch all online, so I dream of being unplugged with the ocean reflected in my aviators. I want to sit under an azure sky with a latte, or something icy with an umbrella in it, letting a gentle breeze caress me, while salsa music- band, not playlist– soothes my soul.

Lainie Levin @mrslevin11

This summer, I dream of doing more. More “less.”

Let me explain.

Throughout the school year, I pack all of the “more” I can into my days. Between planning, grading, kid logistics, managing a household and trying to maintain some semblance of self-care, I find myself crammed in with little room to breathe.

I used to feel obligated to be productive with my summers so that when people asked me what my plans were, I would have an answer that sounded important and busy: graduate work, professional development, curriculum planning.

Don’t get me wrong, I still continue much of that over the summer. I don’t think it’s ever possible to completely shut off my teacher’s brain. But I’m also realizing that I don’t have to feel guilty for having times where I am unproductive. Simply put, I need to come up for air. And summer is the time to do it.

And if that means I do less? So be it. I’m owning it.

This summer, I dream of doing less of my “more,” and more of my “less.”

More hiking and walking.

More reading.

More baking.

More working out.

More sleeping.

More catching up with friends.

And when I come back to school in the fall, there will once again be more of me to go around.

-Lainie Levin

BreAnn Fennell @PlayYay

I dream of some time on the beach with my boys.

Helping children learn to journal during writing camp.

Holding hands and taking walks.

Boosting creativity by speaking at a conference.

Meeting with my looping students to build relationships even during the summer months.

Finding a balance between parenting and teaching.

Bridget Gengler @BridgetGengler

When I think of summer I think of rejuvenation, reflection, and relaxation.  I love my job as an educator, but during the school year there is so much going on. My mind is in a million different places and the stress and being overwhelmed takes over. I always must remember to slow down and find ways to de-stress. When summer comes, it is the time to work on myself and it allows me to find myself again. It is a time for family and friends, a time for fun and adventure and a time for quietness and peace.

This summer I plan on starting my mornings outside on my new patio with a cup of coffee and a good book. There are so many books that I want to read- some professional and some for pleasure.  I plan to get lost in many books and enjoy the solitude that it brings to my soul.

I look forward to spending time with my family and creating new memories. With my son, I want to spend time enjoying our baseball. Our love for Yankees baseball is one of our bonds and I can’t wait to connect in that way. My daughter is off to college at ASU this August, so I hope to spend time with her, not only getting ready for this new chapter in her life but also just enjoying each other before she begins this new journey. With my husband, I plan to take short trips to some of our favorite places on the Central Coast of California and enjoy the beauty of nature and our state.

My #oneword2019 is gratitude and my mission this year is to write letters to all who have impacted my life and inspired me. Over the past couple of months, the busyness of the school year has taken over, so I have had to put those letters on hold. Each morning I hope to spend part of my quiet time reflecting and expressing my gratitude to those special people.

Summer is a time to take care of myself and my relationships. It is a time to enjoy who and what is around me.  I look forward to the relaxation, rejuvenation, and reflection that this summer will bring.

I just finished reading What School Could Be (2018) by Ted Dintersmith @Dintersmith and almost every page contains examples of schools who are jumping into innovative practices. Ted shares that we roll out, “Yet another round of teaching all students standardized material, in standardized ways, to a new battery of standardized tests.” He shares six variables that stand out which educators can use to capitalize on an innovative change model that empowers teachers and students (pg. 189 – 190). The hundreds of educators I worked with during my forty-year career would certainly agree that I adored innovation. I also stood solidly behind the new standards when they were released. I fully embraced them as a motivational tool to cease educators spending two months on a unit about dinosaurs and a student who endured this only to have a different teacher, two years later, spend three months on the same topic. When I began in education students took standardized tests, but the data went into three-ring binders that collected dust on the shelves. Teachers rarely, if ever, saw the results. As the assessment corporations increased their data reports to include sheets that both teachers and parents could easily understand, the amount of money school districts were spending increased ten-fold. We grabbed hold of those data sheets, pouring over the results, to locate gaps that, once filled, would help our students’ achievement continue to increase. What has happened in the decades that have followed (No Child Left Behind, 2001 and Race to the Top, 2009) with both standards and standardized assessments, haven’t led us down a path to innovate.

All this standardization lead to developing “good little soldiers” who could learn the standardized curriculum and spit out lower level responses to standardized assessments. This leads me to the question, “What if …..” as I don’t believe most of us have the desire to settle for “What is ..” “Standardized-testing regimens cost states some $1.7 billion a year overall, or a quarter of 1 percent of total K-12 spending in the United States, according to a new report on assessment finances. If the money for standardized assessments was instead put toward teacher raises, the report estimates that each teacher in the country would receive, on average, a rise of $550, or 1 percent, based on data about teacher salaries and other factors from the 2012 Digest of Education Statistics” (Education Week, 2012).

I wonder what will be the impetus that will move our country toward innovative practices that will prepare students for the future that lies ahead? Perhaps, carefully studying history will provide answers to this question. What has previously occurred that provided the motivation for systemic shifts in our education system? The initial idea of No Child Left Behind began somewhere. Since a great deal of the power to shift our current system has now been given to the States, policymakers at the State level rarely stay in office the necessary three to five years to positively affect a change, where does this leave us? Does it feel to you as if we have shifted into an automatic “cruise” mode?

What if …. news associations like CNN and Fox News reported daily on innovative practices that are happening in schools across our country? Families adore hearing about how the places they send their children each day are in the spotlight for something terrific. If the news capitalizes on innovation as a stellar approach, on a consistent basis, I imagine many will sit up and take notice. Ted Dintersmith’s book certainly has enough schools mentioned to last for almost a year of daily coverage. Is it true that Americans only tune in and watch the news to hear the latest and greatest tragedy, negative comment, problem, disaster, or politician arguing with each other? As a child, I sat and listened, year after year, to Walter Cronkite sharing the number of youths who were returning home each day in body bags from the Vietnam War. You bet that made an impact then and on the adult I am today. Could news reports, flashed across your screen, about innovative practices impact others in a positive way? What will occur that will shift current practices, in most schools across the United States, in order to prepare children for the future ahead of them?