Who are you really serving? How far does your reach extend? Why did you become a teacher in the first place?

On changing schools (again), moving away from Ed Tech (not completely), moving back into the classroom (why would I do that?!?), and bringing this blog to a close (perhaps) . . . 

The title poses some very good questions that I have been pondering over the last few weeks and months of this turbulent school year.  Going back to just over a year ago, having major cardiac surgery (in a foreign country none-the-less) certainly made me pause and think.  Add to that moving house/country/schools/continents brings everything into sharp focus and scrutiny.  There have been a number of ups and downs, and complete turn-arounds in the last 12 months which have culminated in a whole lot of change for me.  All of these changes were planned (in one way or another) and initiated by me and my family - we just didn't plan on doing everything at the same time.  That's just how it all worked out.  Now that we are a year down the track, I am making another big change with moving schools again, moving away from ed tech and returning to the classroom.  Why would I do that, you might ask?  The more that I think about it, the more I come back to the three questions in the title of this post . . .

What lies on the road ahead?  Are you on the right path?

Who are you really serving?
In my current role as an ed tech coach, I have really examined this question this year.  At my previous school, my role meant serving the entire student body (directly in classrooms, through technology tools and systems, and through various interactions with student leadership, clubs and the school community), the entire HS faculty (through developing teaching and learning with ed tech integration, through PD/training/support, and through building a school culture of professional sharing and collaboration), and the school as a whole (through my role as a co-director of digital learning, and through the development of school systems/procedures/organisation for school growth and innovation).  This year has been really difficult as these avenues for growth and development are in their infancy here, and out of my sphere of influence - which is just not a good fit for me.  Leadership here thinks my time is best spent acting as a technician (which we have enough of in IT Services), working as a substitute (wait, what?!?) or covering the ugly jobs of others (like planning the sub coverage for the day, very early in the morning).  My role here seems to be serving administration, as they simply do not understand what my role is, what my strengths and abilities are, or how I can help the school to grow and develop.  Am I serving the school community as a whole here - not really.  Am I doing what I thought I was brought here to do - definitely not.  Am I working in an environment which is conducive to school growth and innovation, as well as providing a platform for my continued learning and development - nope.  Which leads to the second question . . .

How far does your reach extend?
I can't help but compare my previous school to the current one when I consider this question.  The visual that pops into my mind is having my arms blown off by a grenade that has been handed to me . . . not a pretty image.  In my previous school, I contributed to school growth everyday in many different areas across the school.  Over the years, I helped to change the school timetable and master schedule, moved the entire school to become a Mac school and use Google Apps for Education, bring in external collaboration and certification programs for teachers like Google Certified Educators and GEG Poland, create flexible classroom environments, and update and evolve the courses and programs on offer.  Here, I have not been allowed to contribute to many of the bigger projects around the school such as building and outfitting the new campus, selecting school systems (LMS, SIS, SIMS), considering platform change for the laptop program, or bringing in/back Google Suite.  Everything has been relegated to "not now", "maybe next year", or "there is a team working on that already."  Disappointing, frustrating and again, not a good fit for me.  Not being able to contribute to school growth is demoralising, and does not help to build a sense of collegiality or ownership in the school.  Working in a strictly "top-down" environment where you have no voice and certainly am not heard, is not for me.  Looking back, I wish I had a better way to evaluate this aspect of a school from far away, before uprooting the family and making the jump.  In terms of evaluating where a school is at with its approach to educational technology, I think this is a very important question when considering a move that can only be answered truthfully by going there and seeing it for yourself.  What people say is so different from the realities of the environment, as everything is coloured by their own perceptions, attitudes and how they want to portray themselves, the faculty, the school or teaching and learning in general.

Why did you become a teacher in the first place?
This is the big question that I think all teachers should think about from time to time.  I first started thinking about becoming a teacher when I was halfway through my 3rd year of university.  I realised that my love for programming and computer science, and the kind of work that I was doing for my university courses, was not reflected in real-life and industry after graduation.  I had the benefit of an older brother who was already working in the software industry of the late-80's, and I could see the kind of work that he was doing was not for me.  When I started asking my friends and family what I should do, they all said that I had been a teacher all of my life - first as a school tutor, then as a lab tech in uni, and teaching assistant during the school year and over the summers.  Working with people, whether they be adults or students, is what I thrive on.  Seeing the lights go on, making connections, expanding someone's thinking and pushing their boundaries - these are the things which make going to school everyday worthwhile.  I have been doing this for 28 years now, and this is the first time that I have been in a school environment where much of this is lacking on a day-to-day basis for me in my current role.  If that is not a signal that I need a change, then I don't know what is?!  If what you are doing does not bring you some level of fulfilment and joy, then I suggest that you really think about the path you are on.  I have realised that I really need to get back into the classroom, to get back to teaching students who want to learn rather than adults who do not.  I have realised that I have been teaching CS in one way or another for my entire career, and I miss having my own classroom and students.  I need to work with the Growth Minded and problem-seekers, not try to change the very Fixed Minded and those who set in their ways.  Time for a change.  Time to look for a "better fit".

Does everything fit together?  Are you in the right place?

So, what am I going to do?
I am almost finished this school year, and this may be my last blog post for awhile.  It has served its purpose - to record my thinking and reflections on ed tech, to help me process everything, and to share it with anyone who cares to look.  Each of my posts has averaged well over 100 clicks/reads so they have at least been seen (I just don't know how many of those clicks were from bots trolling the internet ;-).  But I really started writing this blog for myself and it has run its course for the time being.  If you are reading this post and it is well past June 2017, then perhaps I have not come back to it in my new role back in the classroom.

I have come to realise that right now, I am not reaching very many students.  Being a coach and working with the faculty means reaching the entire student body through the faculty.  But the culture of the school has to be in alignment with this path, and school leadership must support building the path and setting a course for the faculty to follow.  Without this roadmap/vision/direction and without the authority to create them, the school simply remains in stasis, frozen in place.  My thinking now is that I can affect more change and reach more students by returning to the CS classroom . . . and a lot more fun along the way.

I can't wait for next year - going back to teaching Computer Science full time is complete serendipity!  They say "timing is everything", and in this case the timing was perfect for a change.  I have never had the opportunity to go to a new school with an established CS program that is growing, and never had another teacher to work with and share classes.  Moving to one of the top few international schools in the world is a great opportunity that could not be passed up.  Returning to the classroom, going back to my roots in CS, rejoining the AP community and (hopefully) getting back to the APCS exam reading next year, leading school trips and coaching school teams . . . it's all happening next year!  I know that I am a geek at heart - returning to my true geeky self just feels right!

Big Takeaways
Despite the frustrations and "poor fit" of the school this year, there are some big takeaways (as there always are things to learn), such as:

• Taking the opportunity to return to Asia (which we missed so much), and getting out of Europe at an opportune time (it seems to devolving and becoming unsafe in many places) have been good for us as a family
• Moving the school forward with ed tech and integration (even if some of the steps have been baby-steps, the faculty are at least moving), and being able to shift some people's thinking to "we are all technology teachers" has been important for future change here
• Moving a school towards innovation and updating teacher's pedagogy is a massive job, and it cannot be done without the support/endorsement/realisation of the school leadership as a whole - leadership's understanding and acknowledgement of ed tech role in school development is key, and has to happen before any real, deep and meaningful change can occur in the school
• Chip and Dan Heath's book Switch has been very helpful for me to frame my thinking and understanding of the very Fixed Minded (it has to do with the associated identity of the person involved, and their particular environment, rather than their personality or disposition), and my reflection on the how/why some particular initiatives have failed here
• Reconnecting with the international Ed Tech community in Singapore and Asia (and I will continue to work with Apple, Google and the international schools community as I transition back to the classroom)
• Concentrating on my recovery and health (the change of environment, climate and diet have been great for me ;-) plus being in Singapore where we all "just fit in" (for a mixed race family, living in Turkey, China and Poland has been challenging at times) has been a true revelation

So, this is the plan for next year and the foreseeable future . . . and it feels like I am going home!  Wish me luck!

Coaches = Givers

Have you watched this recent TEDTalks by Adam Grant which defined Givers and Takers (and Matchers)?  As an educational technology coach, I watched this with great interest and reflected upon Grant's model as applied to my work as a coach.  If you haven't watched it yet, then here it is . . . definitely worth the 18 minutes of your time!



Here are the key moments that I picked out from his talk . . .

• 3:40 - Givers make organisations better . . . Schools need to recognise and acknowledge this.  My previous principal always said that I was a problem finder and would immediately start working on a solution without being asked - something that was greatly appreciated.  But the work of Givers is not always appreciated - please see a previous post about what I call "guilty by competence".
• 5:30 - Protect Givers from burnout . . . As a self-identified Giver, the environment and school culture that I work in has a profound effect on me.  The act of changing schools has forced me to reflect upon this a lot this year.  How school leadership values our role as coaches and change-agents within the school, makes all of the difference with how our day-to-day work progresses and how quickly (or slowly) we "feel the burn".
• 6:30 - Encourage help-seeking behaviours . . . Get more people to act as Givers by creating/building a culture of giving, providing help, and sharing.  Again, this is all about changing the culture of the school, which comes from top through leadership and from the grassroots movements which encourage collaboration, professional sharing and growth.  Without the support for such bottom-up shifts in culture, the Takers dominate the culture of the school and the Givers get burned out.
• 7:50 - Get the right people on the bus . . . To me, this speaks about hiring practices and considering people's Mindset (in my case, mindset towards educational technology).  One way school leadership can address and build a positive school culture is through effective management of hiring practices for faculty and staff.
• 8:50 - Weed out the Takers . . . This is an inherently difficult thing to do in schools, but entirely necessary and vital for school development.  As a teacher for almost 3 decades, I have seen the ineffective/disgruntled/unmotivated/coasting/bully teacher at every school that I have worked in across 3 continents.  Admit it, this is a problem at every school in the world no matter how big or small, how affluent or inner-city, how well resourced or under-funded.  School leadership needs to be able to move someone on who is detrimental to the organisation as a whole.  More easily said then done, I know . . . but just because it is difficult doesn't mean that it isn't necessary.
• 9:10 - Characteristic of Agreeableness . . . I only bring this part up because I am Canadian, eh?! ;-)  Sorry about that . . . 

My takeaways from this?  Coaches are generally Givers by nature (there are a few that I have met who I would classify more as a Matcher though) and they are not the only ones in the building.  As such, schools need to protect them and cultivate a culture of giving/helping which will benefit school growth and development through building a positive school culture.  Would you classify yourself as a Giver?  Have you ever worked in a school where the Takers stand out and dominate the school culture?  If so, how did you survive in that kind of environment?  Or did you hit burnout and move on, as changing the school culture is just too hard or too long of a process?

Can Shared Leadership Really Work?

Note - this post was originally written back in June (over 6 months ago, so all references to dates are for the 2015-16 school year) but never was published for a variety of complex and personal reasons which I won't get into here . . . but I found the text in my notes and thought it needs to be published.  So here goes, with a few small tweaks and updates . . .

This year, I became a "director" for the first time in my career. Now that the school year is almost finished, I would have to say that this social experiment in shared school leadership is partially successful and partially a failure. Just to back up for a moment, the school director had no intent to explore shared leadership for educational technology - he wanted to either continue with the traditional leadership structure with a Tech Director, or split off educational technology from technology services and support.  In discussing this latter option and what that would look like, I was asked to draft a job description for an Ed Tech Director. Some of you reading this now will remember me asking for copies of your job descriptions and a structural breakdown of technology at your school (BTW - everything that I collected from you back in the fall was greatly appreciated).  As the job description started to take shape, it became apparent that out of our team of 4 tech coaches, more than one of us would be interested in the director of ed tech position. With the potential for terminal discord and a fracturing of our working relationship as a team, we jointly decided to propose a shared leadership model.

After about a month of planning how we would work together to co-lead educational technology across the school, the four of us (tech coaches) were appointed to be Co-Directors of Digital Learning. Our proposal separated ed tech from tech services, and a new person would be hired to manage and lead IT which includes hardware, infrastructure and tech support. The four tech coaches (2x ES, 1x MS and 1x HS) would have dual roles supporting tech integration in our school division (or assigned grades), plus collectively leading educational technology across the school.  

With shared leadership - is everyone looking/moving in the same direction?  Is there a clear, shared and articulated vision?

We have been working with this model since about November of this school year, and I have really mixed feelings about how successful it has been.  In general, we have been able to move forward with a number of initiatives and projects which probably would not have happened or have progressed as far in a short time if we had stuck with a traditional Tech Director model. As there are four of us Co-Directors, we could divide up the work and push forward with projects which interested us or were important to us. For example, some of the bigger projects that I led were:

• promoting and organizing the third annual Hour of Code, which featured events spread across the entire school
• formally adopting the ISTE Standards for Students (through embedding the standards in our PYP and MYP planners), Teachers (currently working on adding the standards into our new teacher appraisal process), Coaches (which we adopted as tech coaches a few years ago) and Administrators (which we adopted as Co-Directors of Digital Learning)
• writing and formalizing our job descriptions as tech coaches and as Co-Directors, to make them into usable documents which accurately describe both of these roles and what they truly entail
• bringing Learning2Europe to Warsaw, taking on the role of conference chair and forming a team of teachers and staff who will form the core of the organizing committee and support team 
• initiating an exploration and testing of Google Expeditions Beta along with Google Cardboard for use in the classroom
• proposing a new project to put iPad Pro's into the hands of teachers (as an interactive whiteboard replacement and to facilitate teachers being able to annotate, comment, sketch/draw/graph on the fly in class) through a two stage approval program

So what were the challenges and problematic areas?

1) With a group of four individuals who are given "carte blanche" to initiate new ed tech projects, there is no single decision maker to say whether it is the right time and/or place to start each project, or to oversee how it all fits into the overall vision for the school. As a result, what we end up with is a collection of projects all in various stages of development, which may be disjointed, out of alignment and sometimes even at odds with each other. Without a single decision maker, everything moves forward on their own pathways, but sometimes in different directions.  

With shared leadership - are everyone's views of a similar hue, or completely different colours?

2) How well the group functions together really depends on the different personalities involved, their individual styles, and how well they mesh together. Any friction or lack of trust creates disharmony in the group and the team breaks down immediately. We all know how hard it is to regain trust once it is lost, and how quickly trust can disappear entirely. Given #1 above, trust will always be eroded as friction builds from differing opinions on direction and vision. Conflict will also come from the simplest of things, like how the group interacts with each other, talks to one another, and is inclusive or exclusive. In fact, the team started off with a feeling is distrust due to how we came to even brooch the subject of shared leadership. As the school director favoured a business approach to leadership, he pitted the four of us "against" one another and was looking to appoint one of us to the director role. This approach forced us all into feeling distrust for one another, which we had to address as a team before anything productive could be done as a group. 

3) Following on from #2 above, I think that the current school organization with two coaches in the ES, but only one each in the MS and HS created an imbalance, as two of the Co-Directors work very closely together and tend to have a unified position on any issue. Not that this is a bad thing - having at least part of the group working closely together is better than not having any of the group at all.  However, this made making decisions about the whole school difficult with four "votes" in total, but an internal coalition of two in place. This last point is key if shared leadership is to work smoothly. Instead of having each member of the shared leadership team be all things to their constituency (their school division), they should all represent the entire community at all times. Or perhaps it could be divided up by school division, but in a more balanced way such as two for elementary and two for the secondary school.  

Epilogue on this last point - this re-organisation of the tech coaches has actually happened for this school year, but not for the co-directors role (I think the school just kept three co-directors now that I have moved on and changed schools).  I think shared leadership would have a better chance of succeeding with a smaller group than 4.  I can think of many dual partnerships which were spectacular (Lennon and McCartney, Jobs and Wozniak . . . you can add to the list), but it becomes harder to think of some great examples of groups of 3 or 4.  Too many chiefs or chefs in the kitchen perhaps? 

In retrospect, I am happy to have had the opportunity to work in a shared leadership environment as it provided a unique learning experience and collaborative work at the highest levels. If another shared leadership opportunity comes up in the future then I will be better prepared and so much wiser about what the pitfalls are and try to address them up front.  Can it work productively and smoothly?  I am sure that it can, and I wonder if it is happening anywhere out there?  Have you ever worked in a shared leadership role? Did it/Does it work? What was your experience like?  What were/are the challenges?

Takeaways and Reflections from Learning 2 Africa

Every year, I get recharged from attending Learning 2.0 - I just want to keep going back.  There's something about the energy, connection and the learning that happens there and beyond that draws me to L2 events, whether they be in Asia or Africa.  Last year, I was very fortunate to be invited to be part of the organising committee for the first L2Africa in Addis Ababa, and also attended (and helped out) with L2Asia in Bangkok.  This year, I continued to help out with L2Africa in Johannesburg (specifically with organising the Cohorts) and will also be working with the crew to launch the first L2Europe in Milan (spring of 2016).  On the first day in Jo'burg, Jeff Utecht called me a Learning2 "junkie" which I don't mind . . . I think it's an apt description of getting my annual (or bi-annual ;-) "fix" for all things ed tech.  Learning 2.0 really make me expand my thinking and makes me hit the reset button every time . . . it gives me the time and space to find balance between my teaching and learning, between work and play, between high tech and low/no tech, and between what's happening at my school and everyone else's.

So what are my takeaways from the second L2Africa?  Here's some of my thoughts:

• Size does matter - this year's L2Africa was almost half the size as last years (or at least it really felt that way).  Part of the reason it felt so much smaller was the enormity of the AISJ campus - beautiful and spread out across a hilltop . . . it offered lots of open spaces for everyone to find their own space (but that impacted on the connections you could build during the breaks, lunches and even the Unconference times).  A secondary reason is due to the higher concentration of AISJ faculty who attended the conference.  Having a higher number of local participants "watered down" the opportunities to connect and share with other teachers from across the region, plus the local faculty often did not participate in the social gatherings and dinners for the conference.  Working and collaborating with other teachers from around the world is a big part of Learning 2.0 - future conferences really need to keep this in mind.
• Having a smaller conference impacts on the conference experience as a whole - a number of tweaks and changes were made to the conference structure and organisation as a result of the lower registration numbers.  The two areas which really stuck out for me were the reduction of Cohort meetings (from 3 down to just 2) and the organisation of the Workshops (increasing the Workshop time slots to 3, but having workshop leaders present twice in order to fill up the time slots).  With the Cohort meetings, only having two of them meant that the first meeting was occupied with getting to know everyone in the Cohort, and getting into some of the group's "burning questions".  The second/final meeting was entirely filled up with "other business" and completing the conference feedback, so it was a bust.  Most of my Cohort were experienced Learning2 folks, so we bonded pretty fast and were able to get down to connecting and sharing - but I know that other Cohorts never really bonded as they did not have the time to do so.  Also, many of the members in my Cohort lamented the missing Cohort meeting on the Friday evening as they got so much out of it last year.  My recommendations here are to keep the three Cohort meetings and lengthen the last one by 30 minutes to provide the extra time needed for completing the conference feedback, while not taking time away from the Cohorts.

• Getting back to the basics of Search - a really started thinking about this while sitting in Jeff Utecht's extended session focussing on teaching students in this age of information overload.  For the last few years, I have been delivering lessons to all G9 students (connected to an English 9 research project) on how search engines and ranking work, how to do more effective searches, and techniques for refining your search.  What became apparent to me sitting in the workshop, is that I really need to go back to the faculty and do all of this work once again with them.  "We are all technology teachers" and effective search techniques is something that we should all be teaching/using/demonstrating/continually reinforcing every year at all grade levels.  "Oh duh!", right?
• Recruiting 2.0 - sitting and talking with Maggie Hos-McGrane from ASBombay about the Global Recruitment Collaborative was enlightening and inspired.  The work that has gone into creating this collaborative and cooperative option which connects the top schools in the world is something that my school needs to tap into.  My school meets all of the qualifications to join the GRC (we offer at least one IB Program, have a 1:1 laptop program, and are looking for innovative international teachers each year) but we have not done so . . . I really need to talk to our new director about this, and Maggie has sent another invitation out already.  This can only benefit the school in the long run by attracting the type of quality and experienced faculty without any additional cost to the school.  Win for the school, and win for the faculty.

• Making a Maker Space - this is a project that has already been started here, which I am not really involved in.  But that doesn't mean that I'm not interested and can't build my knowledge about it.  From my second extended session of the conference, I got a huge insight into how a Maker Space can be built and resourced with simple tools, equipment, and donated stuff (like old children's toys and building blocks or Lego).  All of these resources can make for exciting building/design projects which are open ended yet closed in scope.  In a very short time, our group built a collaborative Rube Goldberg machine in sections, which had to integrate and connect with the other sections to form a working machine with a specific goal.  Not only was this a great collaborative learning and building experience, but it all about the bonding and working as a team (even if we had never met each other before).  All down with simple stuff in hand - no robotics, motors, or digital anything.
• Using Wikipedia - Jeff Utrecht had some great information and writing projects (for HS students) linked to using Wikipedia with students.  Wikipedia is the world's largest collection of data/information, yet many teachers refrain from using it personally and for education.  This anti-wikipedia culture has to change, beginning with educating faculty about how wikipedia is curated and rated for accuracy.  Delving into the rubrics for accuracy and relevance of information is closely tied to citations and authority of sources - aren't these precisely the topics and skills that we want to our students to know and use intimately?  Adding to and correcting Wikipedia entries and using the rubrics provided are great writing exercises which have a world-wide audience, is authentic and meaningful, can be linked to a student's CV and university applications (through their Wikipedia profile and account).  Imagine if you can show on your application that you have contributed to a number of Wikipedia entries on a variety of topics which have been accepted and approved by the world at large and the expert curators?  How powerful would that be?  Instructing my faculty about using Wikipedia in the classroom has always been something that I have done in the past, but now I have more ammunition for moving this forward across the school.

Although this year's version of L2Africa was smaller than the first edition in Addis, it still had its moments and takeaways for me.  The MS/HS Technology Leaders Cohort was great and jumped right into sharing and collaborating - I hope this group keeps in touch through Google+ in the future.  There was a lot of experience in the room, which I hope we can all leverage in the future.  There are a number of takeaways listed above which I need to get working on to implement in the HS here this year . . . so I had better get to work!  Did you attend L2Africa?  Are you planning on going to the first L2Europe in April?  What are your takeaways from Jo'burg or your "burning questions" going into Milan?

Back to the Future . . . or at least the 1980's

Today (thanks to a colleague), I came across an interesting article from OpenCulture.com which included a series of short videos from the BBC Radio 4 and The Open University.  The collection featured in this article is titled "Has Technology Changed Us?" and includes 4 short animations narrated by Gillian Anderson (from cult tv show fame).  The X-Files link immediately grabbed my attention (I have two personal connections with the tv show, but those are different stories ;-), as did the title of the series.  These are well worth taking the few minutes to watch them in order, but the one that really spurred me to share is the first episode titled "Rewiring the Brain" (embedded below).

With our 1:1 Laptop Program, there is a lot of talk/discussion/inquiry/angst surrounding screen time, computer/gaming addiction, distractions, finding balance, multi-tasking and a general decline in student attention spans.  After watching this video this morning, I think it's time to revisit hosting an Unplugged Day in the HS again.  I did this two years ago (see the original blog posting here as well as the follow-up reflection posting here and a second reflection here) with mixed results, but it is time to come back to this idea of going without technology for a day to better understand its impact on our daily life, and how deep our "need to be connected" runs.  With HS students, I think discussions about total screen time in a day, and making home agreements about computer usage come into direct conflict with the realities of school life and the curricular requirements of programs like the IB DP.  My experience has been that some of our students today have little or no awareness of just how wired they really are, and unplugging them from the web/net is the only way to give them some perspective.

After my first Unplugged Day, I really thought that this is something that we all need to do as a community - both teachers and students across the board.  We all need to seek balance in our lives, especially when it comes to our technology use.  Some people are better at it than others, and some people are totally addicted to their devices and don't even know it.  One of my best friends is completely attached to his mobile (he frequently checks it while you are actively engaged in a conversation, or when eating a meal) but seemingly has no idea about how others perceive his mobile addiction.  How many others are totally addicted to their devices and don't even know it?

Last year and this year (right now during the month of March, actually), I have challenged students to participate in the UNICEF World TAP Project where people can raise clean drinking water for the needy by not using their mobile phones (click here to see my blog posting on this project too).  This project has been pretty successful within the school, but again, has been limited to those students and teachers who elect to engage with it and learn about themselves.  It needs to be pushed out to the entire community and done together, whether they think they need it or not.  So it's time to go back to 1984 but as an entire HS this time.

I just had an initial conversation  with my principal about doing a school-wide Unplugged Day either in April or May this year, and he is all for it.  After talking through the possibilities for the day, we decided that there are a number of learning outcomes associated with this project that will make it bigger and better, such as:

• Connecting the day to the IB Learner Profile, where April for us focuses on "Thinkers" (which is a perfect fit with "We use critical and creative thinking skills to analyse and take responsible action on complex problems.") 
• Digital Citizenship to generate staff/student self-awareness of their own tech usage
• Make this into a school wide Spirit Day, including an 80's dress-up, Unplugged Coffee House lunch time performances, Advisory competition, and other themed "touches" to give it life and to make it fun
• Get student leadership involved to make this into a CAS project
• Most importantly - have everyone in the school participate this time . . . we are all in this together!  Connect and reflect on the process through grade level Advisory classes.

Getting everyone on-board is the next step, so I had better get started with the planning and communication with the staff . . . I hope a month is enough advanced notice!  Or we will have to rebrand it as "1985 on 8/5" and move it to May . . . but that would leave out the seniors as they will be in the middle of exams.  Hope it doesn't come to that!  Have you ever hosted an Unplugged or Blackout Day in your school?  What made it successful?  What made it flop?  What kinds of learning and self-reflection took place as a result?

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?

What does Giorgio Armani, your mobile phone and drinking water all have in common?

No, it's not some story about Giorgio dropping his mobile into a glass of water and destroying it, all caught on video.  World Water Day is almost upon us (March 22nd), and the answer to the question lies therein.  I came across this great UNICEF project this year which coincides with World Water Day, and decided to launch it within the high school a few weeks ago.  Here is the short video intro/promo that I made for the launch during our weekly assembly . . .

Basically, Armani has teamed up with UNICEF to provide clean drinking water to millions of needy children around the world through this simple online project.  Armani has pledged to donate up to $75,000 for water through this project, plus at least half a million dollars through other related projects, to UNICEF.  I hooked into this project as it is a simple yet effective service learning opportunity for students, while also feeding into our school-wide mindfulness movement through having students unplug from their mobile phones for long or short periods of time.  By unplugging from the constant noise of the internet and social media, students can better understand their own wants/desires/needs to stay connected at all times.  For some students, this is a real enlightening exercise in self-awareness and reflection.  And they are raising money for clean drinking water at the same time . . . win+win in my books!  Interestingly, after launching the campaign in the high school, I heard from a number of staff and students about how many days of water they raised in one day.  It was nowhere near my forecasted challenge in the video, but it was a good start.  And a number of students have taken it upon themselves to follow through with this project over an extended period of time as a CAS project . . . a nice bonus and an additional measure for reflection.

How does it all work?  Pretty simple - just go to UnicefTapProject.org on your mobile phone's browser and start the project.  The program will start on your phone and will record the amount of time elapsed before you pick it up and use it.  For every 10 minutes that you left your phone alone and running, UNICEF & Armani will donate 1 day of clean drinking water to a child in need.  Note that you must have a mobile phone which has a motion sensor built into it for the program to work, and no, it does not work on an iPad.  While the program is running your phone can still receive notifications and messages, etc. but the program will end if you pick it up or move your phone.  Even though World Water Day is on March 22nd, the program will run through the end of the month, so there is still time to jump on board.  I raised 41 days of water on my first try at school during the day.  My MS daughter promptly broke that overnight by leaving the program running while she slept . . . smart girl!

A Short Jaunt to Learning 2.013 Singapore

Getting to Singapore for the Learning 2.013 conference involved a very long flight, but well worth the effort. After working in Asia for 8 years and attending the Learning2 conference in its infancy, I know that it continues to evolve and simply gets better and better every year. There's certainly nothing like it in Europe, where I am now. And organizing a conference around cohorts who share similar roles, issues, concerns and successes just makes too much sense - how come other conferences do not do this? These are the reasons that I still tell people when they ask me why I have come so far for a conference. Plus the learning - my learning.

I used to say that being an AP Computer Science examiner and going to the exam reading every year was the best professional development that I ever did. I still look back fondly at those week-long trips to South Carolina to sit in a heavily air conditioned room for hours on end, learning a rubric, teaching it to others, and grading a single question hundreds of times over, day after day. Add in the regular feeding times every two hours, and you have a landlocked cruise ship experience where the only activity is grading exams. So why was it so good? Why did I do it year after year until the College Board retired me as an international examiner? Because of the people who were there and the learning that took place. The best of the best CS teachers were all there - trading ideas, talking shop and best practice specific to CS education, and looking behind at the trends and ahead to where we are all collectively going. It was really hard, exhausting and mentally challenging work, but the growth and learning that you came away with in a week was phenomenal. But I don't grade AP exams any more - I no longer teach the course and they cut-back on bringing in international teachers due to costs.

But this is how I see the Learning2 conference now - hard work and a long ways to go, but filled with learning and growth. Last year's conference was special as I was able to take the entire coaching team to my old school in China (Western Academy of Beijing) and show them around the city. This year was the first time Learning2 has moved out of China and I was also able to have reunions with both BISS and WAB folks that I used to work with. Funny that, as I am writing this while on vacation in Istanbul where we are having a week-long reunion with old friends and colleagues at Robert College.

My main takeaways from this year's conference revolved around: finding balance and practising mindfulness with students when it comes to technology use; creating a basic photography mini-course at my school which will help students become better creators and producers; gathering some new ideas and tweaking some old ones for updating how we deliver technology PD; employing cognitive coaching techniques when working with faculty in my role as a tech coach; and giving back to the wider community through two workshops that I presented which were well attended and received. Perhaps the most exciting development from the conference is that Learning 2.014 Africa is now in the works for next year, which I hope to get involved in at the organizing committee level - again, a lot of hard work but with big rewards in the end.  

See you in Addis Ababa and Bangkok next year!

'84 on 8/4 Unplugged Challenge - Revisited

In a previous posting I talked about hosting an unplugged or blackout day in the HS, as a way to create student awareness of their own "wired" behaviours and to give them a sense of how "connected" they really need to be.  We are now at the end of a five week long buildup to our first ever Unplugged Day which happens next week on April 8th.  Throughout these five weeks I have been trying to engage and draw staff and students into participating in this event, using some "hooks" such as having 1984 related references and videos in assemblies and newsletters, running weekly trivia contests (grade level competitions for house/grade level points) for 5 weeks in a row, branding the Unplugged side of the event as being a student in 1984 (you can only use technology that was available back in the day), connecting a dress-up Spirit Day in the HS with the event, and building mashup movie posters with teachers from favourite movies of the 80's.

1984 Weekly Trivia

A major component of the buildup to the event has been the weekly trivia competition where the four grade levels compete for "house" points over the school year.  I used the 80's to theme all of the trivia questions - at first I did not even say what it was all about and let the student's natural curiosity build.  Over the last month, I have been asked a number of times about what all the 1984 references were all about.  In fact, the student council president had the idea to kick everything off by having the movie trailer for the movie "1984" mysteriously be shown during an assembly with no explanation at all - that got the students talking.

Fitting the trivia questions in with the theme of the 80's was simple.  The first week focussed on major events in '84 such as the famine in Ethiopia, and the recording of "Do they know it's Christmas" as a fundraiser.  The second week's questions turned to famous bands and movies from 1984, and the famous "1984" Apple television ad to launch the Macintosh to the world.  The third week raised the bar as students had to identify famous bands/songs, movies and television shows from 1984 based on video clues that I spliced together.  Here is one of the video clues that I put together, if you are interested . . .

Week four questions forced students to use primary sources, as I built the trivia questions around information about the school in 1984 (location, address and name of the director), and about the current faculty (Who graduated from high school in 1984?).  This was interesting to watch unfold as students could not just go online to figure out the answers.  They had to actually talk to one another and collaborate, talk to various people in the school beyond their immediate teachers, and figure out their own plan of attack.  This particular week's trivia was definitely the most difficult to answer, so it generated the fewest responses, but it was interesting to see how students were working together, talking with the students in their grade who have been at the school the longest, and trying to figure out how old their teachers are - some estimates were very far off in both directions!

The final week of trivia was designed to hype next week's event, and to give students more information about what to expect that day.  To get more of the faculty involved and to help build some spirit into the event, I decided to put a ton of time and effort into making teacher mashup movie posters from the 80's.  Teachers simply had to send me their favourite movie from the 80's and I would insert them into the movie poster as one of the characters.  In some cases, the posters turned out much better when they took a self-portrait with their head at an angle to match what is in the original posters, which the staff were more than willing to do.  As I was doing all of the technical work to make the posters and staff just had to volunteer to be included, this turned out to be a massive hit with more than half of the faculty getting involved.  The final round of trivia was simple - students were shown in an assembly, a video with 22 different movie mashup posters and they had to name the teachers (in order) as they saw them . . . and it was tough but a whole lot of fun!  To hear the hooting and waves of hysterical laughter from the student body as they saw the posters made it all worth while.  After all, part of the event is all about school spirit!  Here are three posters that I made for the final trivia, as I could not help it (it was so much fun and I kept getting ideas for movies to use as examples) . . .



Spinoff or Collateral Learning

In preparing for our upcoming Unplugged Day, there has been a lot of spin-off learning amongst staff and students that has come up through the weekly quizzes.  Some of these outcomes I had hoped for, and some came as a surprise, but these are what make all of the time and effort really worth it.  Some of the collateral learning and positive outcomes which reach beyond technology, have been:

1. Development of student search online skills and working with primary sources
2. Student collaboration and communication, and working in self-forming teams or small groups
3. Building school spirit and involvement with both staff and students
4. Faculty developing new technology skills such as using Photoshop or other built-in tools on their new Macs like Photobooth and iMovie - there is nothing like "just in time" tech learning to move people's skills forward
5. Building currency and connections with the faculty that I work with in the high school
6. Faculty developing new project ideas and connections with their own curriculum through inquiry learning, using different media in class, and how visual and video media can be used in the classroom to study/analyze advertising and other concepts.

It will be interesting to see how our Unplugged Day works out tomorrow, but I will write a short follow up once our first attempt at this is complete.  It has been a fun build-up to the event, and I hope that staff and students gain at least a little insight into their habits and need to be connected - it's all about finding the right balance.  Have you hosted any school events which had collateral learning beyond technology or spin-off technology development?  What happened and how did it go?