Taking the Long Way Home - Building a Google Lit Trip

When I joined the ranks of Google Certified Teachers over a year ago (GTA SWE 2013), part of my Google Project that I embarked upon was to build a Google Lit Trip . . . from scratch . . . to go with my father's award winning memoir "Things That Must Not Be Forgotten - A Childhood in Wartime China" by Michael David Kwan.  My deadline for completing this project actually passed by two months ago (as I gave myself a year to build it) but in a sense I did make my original deadline . . . kinda/sort of.   Let me explain . . . I began work on the GLT last spring and then put everything on hold until the summer so I could gather more information and old photos at home in Canada.  Then, in the fall, I came back to the project and inserted everything that my summer research had uncovered, and continued my research to try and find the locations of some important places in the book. I was able to just meet my Christmas deadline, but little did I know that I was not even close to being truly finished with the construction process.

What I had not accounted for in the entire process was the amount of work that was required to get it into a presentable state . . . I made a serious mistake here in underestimating the level of detail that was required and the amount of writing that had to be done!

I had met Jerome Burg (the father of Google Lit Trips) before at a Google Geo event, so I got in touch with him about getting my GLT published on his official Google Lit Trips website.  Jerome was very receptive to helping me develop my GLT, and was really excited about including historical non-fiction on his website, especially one set in China.  Jerome's editorial work and feedback was fantastic.  He combed through what I had produced and really pushed me to think about the overall experience of the reader and the fact that I was really telling two stories in the Lit Trip - both my father's story from the book and my own story of discovery as I researched and located different sites and information about my family.  With Jerome's extensive feedback in hand (and burning a hole in my brain with each passing day), I decided to tackle everything over the long winter holiday . . . which never happened (getting the work done, that is ;-).

Six weeks later, I have reworked most of what I had previously produced, formatting and organising everything according to Jerome's guidelines and suggestions, rewriting practically everything to tell my own story with links and ties to my father's story, and taking the time to build a supporting Google Site.  Now, I think I finally have a product that can be distributed and used by others which serves to tell my story of discovery, enhance the reading experience of "Things", and to provide the reader with visuals and background for the places in my father's book.  I really hope that Jerome likes what I have created and that it is now in a publishable state - I just sent it off to him to peruse, poke and prod . . . fingers crossed!

My father David Kwan, with my grandfather John YL Kwan (circa 1938)

Lessons learned and take-aways from building a Google Lit Trip

• Completing the research and gathering all of the extra resources is only the beginning - the creation/writing process takes even more time
• Conducting real-life, hands-on research with primary sources is tough, challenging and frustrating - trying to piece together information from old family photographs, or coming to terms with place names which have changed over time or are written differently, is very time consuming
• Patience is a virtue - you will need a lot of it and you will be tested
• You never know what surprises your research will uncover - now I know that I am 1/4 Serbian?!?, whereas before I thought I was part "white Russian" or Swiss (see my accompanying GLT website for the details of how I came to this realisation)
• Brush up on your basic HTML coding skills - these will come in handy as you build information into Google Earth
• As a teacher, I think having students build Google Lit Trips is not a simple endeavour to be undertaken lightly - perhaps teams of students could collaboratively build a GLT, or it could be undertaken as a major research project, or a tool like Google Tour Builder could be used to create a simpler Lit-Trip-like experience
• Building a GLT will take far longer than you ever thought - double or triple your original time estimate
• Think about where you will store online extras like photos and documents which will be part of your GLT - I used a Google Site to house these items
• Working with historical sites which date back to before the satellite imagery contained in Google Earth takes some imagination and serious sleuthing powers
• If you can find historical maps (which are drawn reasonably close to scale) that you can use as overlays in Google Earth, this adds a very rich and interesting dimension to the Lit Trip experience - but you will need that abundance of patience to get them to sit right, on top of the satellite imagery!
• Creating a resource like this which is close to your heart is very rewarding in the end - building and sharing this kind of resource is one of the reasons we are teachers, right?  And I think this kind of thing is seriously related to your Computing Karma . . .

Have you ever created a Google Lit Trip or tried to build one?  What was your experience like?

Author - Michael David Kwan
Photo by Russel Kwan

This is for you Dad!
And for everyone reading, studying or who has been touched by your book.

Takeaways from a Short Jaunt to HEL and back

A few weeks ago, I jumped on the opportunity to go to Helsinki to attend a workshop on Collaboration and Peer Observation with expert Fran Prolman.  The one-day workshop was being held at the International School of Helsinki (their entire faculty was attending) and sponsored by CEESA (which made it free for me to attend, thank you very much!).  We had a small crew from Warsaw there, and there were other teachers from Krakow and Riga as well.

Did you know . . . HEL is art deco?

My school brought in Fran this past fall, to work with our faculty on team building and protocols for having those "difficult conversations".  Having worked with Fran before, I knew that this would be something worth going to.  I really like Fran's straight-ahead, tell-it-like-it-is style of presenting, and how she encourages everyone to engage in professional conversations . . . even when they are difficult ones to have.  As I was going to HEL, I had a few "burning questions" (sorry, own intended ;-) in mind for Fran to answer about what I have been doing as a Tech Coach with conducting regular Tech Walkthroughs.

As we progressed through the workshop and got into the meat of Peer Observations, I began to wonder about how my Walkthroughs fit in with the model that she was presenting.  To help build a culture of collaboration in a school, having the trust and shared goals in place first, for Peer Observations to take place, are a given.  Peer Observations should be initiated by the observee (yeah, I know this is not actually a word but I am going to use it anyway), and they should direct the observer on the areas/topics they want data and feedback on, and the observations are typically longer or even over a period of time.

Storm clouds in HEL

So how do Walkthroughs fit in?  That was my new "burning question" that immediately sprang to mind, which Fran answered for me.  She told me that my tech walkthroughs were perfectly fine to do, and serve a different purpose than the more formal peer observations.  Although the observees are not initiating the walkthrough and are not directing what I am observing, they do know in advance why I am there and what I am looking at (technology integration in the HS).  Because the faculty know this in advance and expect me to regularly drop by their class at random times for a few minutes, my Tech Walkthroughs are productive and useful.  They have a clear purpose and understood parameters, the most important of which is that I am visiting their classroom in a non-evaluative role.  And when the walkthrough turns into a check-in with the teacher (because there is no class), then it is still time well spent through making connections with faculty, building currency, and bringing coaching/support directly to them.

Once I had confirmed with Fran that conducting regular walkthroughs as a tech coach was a good practice, I then pressed on with my original "burning questions" - Should I encourage other faculty to come along on walkthroughs in order to see other people's classes in action?  When I observe something in a class where I could suggest a change of approach/delivery/tools, should I give that unsolicited feedback to the teacher?

Yes, it does snow in HEL!  And they do like the colour red!

For the first question, I have been trying to get other faculty members to come with me on a walkthrough but I have not had anyone take me up on it.  Fran set me straight on this though - this will not work as anyone's class that we walked into will change the dynamic of the walkthrough.  In essence, the observee knows why I am there and what I am observing, but they don't know what someone else will focus on or what their goals for being there are.  This is where the Peer Observation model comes into play, where the observee directs the observer in what jot look for, collect data and give feedback on.  Fran cut quickly to the root of why I shouldn't do this and why it wouldn't be productive, so I will no longer suggest or pursue doing this and I now know why.

For my second question, it is something that I have been wondering about - giving unsolicited feedback or suggestions to a teacher about something observed in their lesson.  Fran's basic direction here is "don't do it".  Again, relating back to the Peer Observation model, the observee needs to choose what they want to learn about in their class, and direct the observer in what data to collect and what they want feedback on.  Giving unsolicited feedback can be perilous - Fran's advice here was to tread lightly or not at all.  If you really have to provide some feedback on what you observed in someone's classroom, then you must guide the teacher to think about and reflect upon what you observed.  Do not judge, do not evaluate, do not interrogate, do not ask "why" and do not make suggestions on what to do to "correct" the issue.  All you can do is gently/collegially/professionally guide the teacher to reflect on what happened and to come to their own conclusions about what the problems & solutions might be.  Or just don't say anything at all . . . after all, as a Tech Coach I am not there to evaluate, but to support and coach.

These are my personal takeaways (there were more, but more specific to my school rather than for my role) from a short, one-day focused workshop with Fran Prolman.  Each of these items has a direct impact on my daily coaching practice and how I work with my faculty - that's a big win in my books!  It's a great feeling coming home from a conference experience with your "burning questions" extinguished, and with practical advice which you can implement immediately . . . well worth the trip to HEL and back.

Getting back into teaching Computer Science

This year's Hour of Code event has long since passed, but I am still feeling its effects in my classroom and across the school.  In December just before our long winter break, I held a number of HoC events in the HS, which included a couple of student after school coding hours and even introducing parents to coding.  At the end of the second student event, a number of students hung around to talk about programming, what they should do if they wanted to pursue computer science in their post-secondary studies, and how they could engage in more programming . . . but in a more academic setting beyond what the HoC tutorials offer.

So the Coding Club was born right there on the spot - gestation time . . . about two minutes, tops.  The students suggested it themselves and all agreed that it would be something that they would like to do and would commit to, one day a week after school.  They even would take on advertising the new club and seeking out other like-minded students who wanted to engage with programming in a deeper way.

As I phased out CS in my current school a few years ago, I have not been teaching programming for the first time in about 25 years . . . and I have missed it!  From talking to students, from the responses I have had for programming/CS sessions I have done at Career's Night, and from students who have graduated and gone on to study CS without having taken a single course here, I know that there is a need and hole in our program.  Don't get me wrong - I still think that the new IB DP CS curriculum leaves much to be desired and is not a good fit for our school, so that is not the solution.  Apparently, much of the world agrees with me as the numbers of students writing the IB DP CS exam last May with the new curriculum dropped below 1000 (worldwide) - apparently an all time low.  At my school, we are looking at reforming and changing the HS program to give students more opportunities to engage with programming, computer science, the Maker movement and design.  It will not only take time and energy, but will also require a change in staffing - parts of our HS program is governed by who is on staff and what they are willing and able to teach.

In the meantime, forming a club and getting students engaged in a fun yet academic setting is a good start.  And it has been really fun for me.  I have taken the best parts out of what I used to teach in IB DP CS and AP CS, to work with the club.  Students are committed to their learning and discovery, and devote as much time towards programming as they are comfortable.  There's no grades, no exams, no class notes, no big projects with due dates . . . just a lot of learning, discussion and collaborative exploration.  When we first started talking about forming a club that was more academic in nature, I suggested that we could start with laying a foundation that we could build upon, which would serve them well as they got into programming with a compiled language . . . everyone enthusiastically agreed so that's where we started.

Our plan so far has been really fun - my club don't want to go home each week, and are truly apologetic when they have to miss a club meeting.  What we have done so far, and where we are going, is as follows:

• Why binary?, parts of the computer, storage mediums
• Data representation, file types, how stuff works and how stuff is made
• Logic circuits, Boolean logic, simple computational logic
• Types of programming languages, how the CPU works, knob and switch computing
• 3D Animation and programming using Alice3D
• Programming in Java using Greenfoot and BlueJ
• Greeps programming competition
• CAS project - teaching MS Tech Club students programming and other content above

We are only meeting once a week for about an hour, until the end of the year, so I think this will keep us busy!  It has been really energising to be teaching programming again . . . the club has shown me that I do miss working closely with this kind of student, so this really feels "right"!  So, what is your school doing for teaching programming and computer science?  Have you phased out IB DP CS with its move into Group 4 for experimental sciences?  Are you considering offering AP CS or another course instead?