Back to school (Imagine Adam Sandler singing it)

     Back to school.  Here we go. The I’m going back to school assignment…  The only difference between this assignment and every other back to school assignment done in the world is that I am the teacher and I gave myself the assignment this time.   This isn’t going to be the what I did this summer blog. Instead it’s going to be the what I have to look forward to this school year blog.

                This year Mr. Nick Gordon, a physical education teacher from Wales, and I are going to be working together to create a new and unique learning opportunity for our students.  We are going to encourage our children to connect with peers on another continent.  The way we will do this is by utilizing every avenue of technology that we can get a hold of for free.  Our students will range from 11 to 13 years of age. 

We will start out by writing a blog and posting it on our own website for both schools to see. This will be a nice preview for our students to understand why they will be blogging.  Mr. Gordon and myself will be using Kidblog and requiring that our students post at least one blog to their counterparts across the pond.  If anyone needs to understand why blogging is so important for children I beg you to read Pernille Ripp’s blog.  Our collaboration with Wales will knock her 6^th point right out of the water!!

After that we will be using Edmodo to allow our students to have 24 hour access to each other under the watchful eyes of the “The Men”.  This will help our students create closer relationships as well as allow them to foster friendships on their own.  Edmodo gives us the ability to push out assignments or links as well. 

If things haven’t gotten techy enough for you just wait one moment!! Twitter and Youtube will allow the students to post pictures and videos for the other class to access instantly.  This is where the students will take true ownership of their learning.  This is common in their world.  They post pictures and videos of themselves online every day. Why wouldn't we encourage them to take pictures and videos of themselves during their mastery of education?

                This will be our first real year collaborating with Mr. Gordon’s class.  I am filled with excitement and awe at the things we can accomplish.  What ideas will my students come up with themselves?  Will they want to learn about the Welsh people and customs?  Will our students be motivated to work harder in class because they know that their effort will be seen by people across the world? Will this be the way education works in the future or will it be a huge distraction that takes all our time and energy but ends up falling flat? 

                The opportunity that my students have this year will be unlike they have ever had before.  They will be using technology to learn not learning to use technology.  There will be an opportunity to realize that there is an entire world out there and our little town is just one part of it.  Real, meaningful, authentic learning can and should be accomplished this year.  Mr. Gordon and I are making the jump of faith that this will be an adventure worth taking this year. After all if we aren't growing as teachers we are dying.  

                If you are still reading this that last line was a little melodramatic I know. If you are a Springfield 6^th grader please continue reading. If you are not our short journey together is over.  I thank you for your time. Springfield students please post a reaction to this blog by clicking on the comment box below the blog.     

#slowchated moderator

Connections: Follow #SLOWCHATED on twitter

If someone told you they would give you a billion dollars but you wouldn't ever be able to be around other people again would you do it?  Absolutely not right?  This is because we are social people. We need relationships in our lives to make us happy.  We have family, friends, and work pals all who we share our lives with.  Life is not worth living if you don’t have people to create memories with.  That is why connecting with people is so important.  We need to build bonds and create relationships.  We need to matter to other people.  In Tara Brown’s article entitled 7 Strategies for Teachers to Connect with Students she states, “The research is clear: humans are literally “hard-wired” with the desire and need to connect.” 

            Teachers have contact with so many people.  Not just students, people.  The mass number of students, teachers, parents, administrators, support staff, and para professionals we interact with and is staggering!  Every interaction we have is a chance to connect with another human being.  How do we take advantage of every opportunity to make connections?  Sometimes it might just be a smile and a quick greeting.  You have coworkers that you have worked with for years and have no idea what they really are about We spend whole class periods teaching a student without recognizing they are an individual.  .  We walk by the same people every day without a clue who they really are.   

            You see teachers all the time who lost the connection to their students.  They forgot that tying your shoe really was the most difficult thing to do when you are five.  They forgot what it felt like to be nine and scared that they didn't know the answer when asked to go to the board and explain a problem in front of the class.  They forgot how good it felt when you were twelve and have the class laugh at something you said or did that may have been slightly inappropriate.  They forgot how important being and looking cool is to a teenager.  When you lose the connection with students your teaching suffers.

How can we make connections?  The first step is to realize that people matter.  Every person you interact with students, coworkers, custodians, parents or administrators matter.   Every time you have an interaction with a person you leave them with a feeling.  The most important feeling is validation.  The validation that they exist.  This can be accomplished by remembering something about them when you see them such as asking them how their son Jon did in his baseball game? Maybe a conversation with the custodian about what a great job they did.  It could be as simple as asking a student what their favorite music is. 

The most impactful thing I ever read was in one of the Chicken Soup books.  They talked about being the first one to smile.  Be the first one to smile and say hello to people.  You will be amazed at the responses you get back.  It seems that people are either scared or waiting for the other person to say something first.  Validate people.  Remember details about their lives. Say hello when you walk by people in the hallway. Say hello a hundred times in a row if you walk by one hundred students.  Just make a connection in any way you can.   

            Living is connecting.  The great teachers show the students they care.  The inspiring administrators connect to their staff by listening to them and supporting them as much as possible.  Prodigious schools consist of workers who are connected with the belief that their work benefits students.  Be a positive force in your school. Make connections with students, staff, and stakeholders.  You never know the impact you will have in someone’s life.

Readings to for improving connections with students:

http://goo.gl/uBRWpe

http://goo.gl/5WXU2c

http://goo.gl/v0Crv

Follow this weeks questions on #slowchated:

Q1What do you do to make connections with your students?

Q2 What are some ways that you connect with parents/guardians. What benefits have you seen from it?

Q3 What are the challenges with connecting ur content to the real world. How do you make ur subject authentic for the students?

Q4 How does your school create connections amongst the staff?

Q5 How does your administration positively connect with their staff?

Q6 What role does empathy play in connecting with people? Do students need to be taught how to form and maintain connections?

Q7 Why do you consider social networking connecting?

Negative Teachers Get Out

I have just read on twitter @MrLeBrun @TheWeirdTeacher have been discussing teachers proclivity to quit and write editorials to the newspaper proclaiming why they just couldn’t hack it anymore. We hear all the time about the outside interests taking over education. National lobbyists and government pushing their way into evaluations through standardized testing, sgos, slos, and the implementation of the common core. Boards of Education members are in charge of making decisions about the direction of schools without being required to have any knowledge or understanding of how schools run. There are millions of reasons why teachers are feeling the squeeze from every direction.

Really teaching is easy though!! Schools are unionized. The weak teachers are protected. All you have to do is get tenure. Then you can just float through doing nothing because getting rid of a bad teacher is a costly endeavor that is rarely done. Teachers only work 10 months a year. Their benefits are first rate and costly. They only work 6-7 hours a day. Out of that they get a lunch and a prep that combined can total 90 minutes. The easiest job is being a physical education teacher! After all those who can, do, those who can’t, teach, those who can’t teach, teach gym.

Teaching is the easiest job! My only question is why doesn’t everyone teach if the job is so easy? The reason is simple. It is because it is not as easy as people want to portray it. This blog is not about how hard it is teach or the amount of hours and money that a teacher puts in above and beyond their contractual obligations. It is about the burnt out teachers who have only negatives to say about the profession. It is about the teachers who can no longer connect with this generation of students coming through the schools. It is about ADHD becoming the norm. It is about technology furthering education and teaching not supplanting it. It is about teachers preparing kids for life not just for tests. It is about people who would teach for free if money were not a necessity. Teaching is an honorable job that when done right can change lives for the better. For all those that retired due to burnout I applaud you. We don’t need you in our schools creating negativity, dragging your feet when the inevitable change comes. We don’t want you in our classroom berating kids and whining about how things used to be. When I get there I hope some young punk teacher walks up to me and says you should quit and write a negative editorial whining about how teaching just isn’t what it used to be.

Daddy Hands

My whole life I have felt like only part of a man. My father was an art teacher who paints, draws, sculpts, and does pottery. Anything his hands touched would turn out to be gold. This man could take a piece of wood and chisel an animal out of thin air! A piece of clay on his pottery wheel was putty in his hands (excuse the poor pun). My dad put up his fence, redid his kitchen, and remodeled the living room all with his hands. Me not so much. It only got worse for me after I met my wife. Her father is a farmer. He fixes tractors, built a whole edition on his house, and hunts. He is a man's man. I can't even put together a wicker Christmas ornament for the front yard!! What good are my hands? What man things can I do with them? I can’t draw, paint, shoot a gun or fix anything. But today my life changed. I was following my daughter up the stairs. I held her hand in front of her to steady her as she started walking up the stairs. There was complete trust that she could pull on my hand and it would get her up the next step. Just then it dawned on me. I have Daddy Hands. Hands that are trusted to do the most important things in life. Hands that catch my children when I throw them way too high in the air. Hands that that are trusted to swing my 3 year old in a circle without him flying into the stratosphere. Hands that have held two innocent newborns that had only been in this world for seconds. I don’t need any other type of hands but Daddy Hands. Daddy Hands trump every other type of hands.

GAFE introduction

I am starting my blog because my PLN on twitter insists that blogging is a necessity in this new digital age we live in. My school has just transitioned to GAFE. We used the google drive all year but we didn't truly embrace it due to lack of technology. The kids learned how to use the Google drive and share but that was the extent of our GAFE. There has been a lot of trial and error with this new system just as there would be using any new technology. One example is when I gave a test using Google docs and sent it out to the mass of the class with editing privileges. Needless to say I had 25 kids all typing on the same test at the same time!! After that I became smarter and gave the test on Google Forms. The only problem with that was about a third of the class didn't finish the test and there is no way to save. Like all technology, if I have a problem thousands of others have had the same problem and I learned about doctopus and the various other apps and extensions that can help teachers. I will blogging about how GAFE will change my school for better or worse. Hit me up with any advice you think will assist me as my school changes from paper and pen to Chromebooks and laptops. Justin Schleider

Mister Schleider's Blog

This blog will be for my Springfield Elementary School students and parents.  I will be posting each week to give a little more insight as to what we are learning in Health and PE.  If you have any questions you can email me at jschleider@springfieldschool.org. 




Hello my name is Justin Schleider.  I am 30 years old and I teach grades K-6 Health and PE at Springfield Elementary School.  I love playing any sport or activity where there is competition.  I am married, have an 18 month boy, and expect another one on the way in Sept.  My life  is going to change drastically and I can't wait! In addition, I am so excited for the football season to start. (NFL) I am one of those fantasy nerds who spends way too much time looking at stats.  I am excited to continue towards my masters this semester.