Reflections on Fifty-Nine Minutes

I will be honest, when I started this blog I had two intentions: One, so that family and friends can stay up with my adventures while I am at AHS, and Two, so that I could participate in a method of publishing that I am expecting my students to be accomplishing on a regular basis. What I am amazed at, though, is where this blog has gone.

Little did I know:
…that I would have friends from home, who I did not even tell about the blog nor even who I have talked to in the past year, contact me via this blog,
…that I would be having both of my cooperating teachers thinking about and reflecting on our days in the classroom via blogs (not to mention linking to each other’s blogs),
…that I would be featured on The Fischbowl,
…that I would have comments on my blog from educators with lots more experience than me giving me advice (and please keep commenting as I want to continue learning),
…that the faculty and staff of AHS would be talking about and reading my blog (as evidenced by the secretaries in the front office who greeted my college representative with “Oh yeah, we know him because we read his blog” – and by the way thanks for all you do!),
…that this blog would be read, commented on, and exist as something that The Karl Fisch would like to see continue,
…and finally, that something that was intended for such a small audience can have such a great impact on so many different people in so many different places.

In C-11, the room at AHS where I teach a majority of my classes, Anne and Kristin have a poster hanging up that says, “This is not education as usual.” Well, I must say that the education I am receiving, both in the classroom at AHS, in meetings with faculty, on the soccer field, and on this blog by your comments is not usual. Instead, this is something that I never imagined could happen, but thanks to the beauty of the world wide web, a post on an award winning education blog, and a lot of people talking to other people it has happened. And for this result, I thank you as readers. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to learn about, read about, and comment on my learning experience at AHS.

In closing, I want to challenge you as readers to continue reading and to leave a comment of encouragement, a thought to consider, or just something that let’s me know you are enjoying the blog.

Thank you again for reading and as your author, I promise to continue writing.


Sincerely,

Randon Ruggles


P.S. If you have any questions or comments that you would not like to post on the blog, please feel free to contact me at: randon.ruggles@gmail.com

Day Eight!

Today was a PLC day, or otherwise known as a Professional Learning Community day, which basically means that the teachers are in meetings from 7:00 – 9:00 am and the students get to sleep in. A great deal for the students, but on the other end I don’t know. In all seriousness though, this was a great time of planning and excitement for our department. I went to the 9th grade Language Arts meeting. The really unique thing about AHS and the Language Arts department, and I have not heard of this before, but all the teachers teach either a section of 9th grade students or 10th grade students. This way they remain “grounded” with their teaching, really giving thanks for the electives that they teach, and they are also able to form relationships with underclassman. I personally think it is a great plan and I really enjoy seeing it at work in our department. I have been to a lot of teacher planning meetings before, but none of them was ever run like this one. There was a fellow educator in our department in charge of the meeting, but this “meeting” was really a lot more like a focused think tank of sorts. We had a couple of issues at hand, one major one was looking at how to assess 9th grade writing and learning through the use of topic sentences and thesis statements. It was really neat to see what that half of the department really thought about these issues and the testing of students in general. The one complaint, which is so true especially for 9th grade teachers, was that the state and federal mandated test results are given to the teachers so late into the school year that they really do the content area teacher very little good. By the time that the teachers receive the results they already understand and know their students. What we did find ourselves trying to devise was a “draft day” sort of meeting with the 8th grade teachers. As a 9th grade teacher, we would really like to know two sentences about the students we are receiving. What, if any, issues do they have at home, what do they need help with in the classroom and what do they really excel at on a regular basis. The teachers find themselves doing some sort of conference with the teachers in 10th grade verbally about every child when students register for classes. What we really struggled with, and actually tabled until our next meeting, was how to do complete our objective to share the information with upper level teachers in a method that is paperless, easy, and in as least amount of time possible. Other than that we talked about a variety of other issues related to testing and actually measuring student learning. What truly surprised me about this meeting was that everyone, and I mean everyone, was respected, talked, and provided their two cents. No one person took over the meeting and directed it down a path that could not be momentarily entertained or was the one overall knowing figure in the meeting. The leader of the meeting was very active in the meeting directing it when she needed too, but this meeting was a conversation. What can we do to make our educational experience better for the students? We really focused on that topic and made sure that we kept the students at the forefront of our mind. What really surprised me, though, was what this meeting turned into. It moved from a conversation to a sharing party. Remember that post a few days ago about sharing information? I think I called it “The Second Best Thing an Educator Can Do.” Well I got to see it in action. Basically we got onto the topic of the position paper, which is what basically all the 9th grade teachers are covering the first part of the semester, and then we literally all shared what we are doing in the classroom to make it engaging. Someone had a great idea about pre-paper lessons, someone else had a great idea about how to challenge individual writers to become better through a mini class mentoring project, and yet another teacher shared about what he is doing about changing the world (Thanks to Anne for the literal push and lead into the conversation). What really surprised me was that we were literally sharing ideas and things that worked in our classrooms and I got a lot of good ideas out of it. If only we had, and maybe this is just the student teacher in me speaking, we had a time just to sit and share departmentally what we are doing in the classroom each of us could take one piece, or the whole idea maybe, and make our own individual classrooms a better place. But let’s not stop it there; let’s go school and district wide. Imagine sitting in a classroom learning from a science teacher about a concept, but being taught a really new way to look at something that could totally apply to something that I am teaching in Language Arts. How amazing would that be? Imagine a complete day of sharing ideas and getting time to work those ideas into lessons, all with the intent on improving the educational experience for our students. Now some would say that’s called a conference, and to a degree I think that is what goes on at a conference, but more so I think that teachers in departments are worked so hard, all the time, that they get no real time to share what they are doing extraordinarily in the classroom with other teachers. What if, instead of paying to go to a big national conference, and I have nothing against national conferences, educators spent the money on subs for their classes and spent the day sharing at a location close to the school? Then they spent the day dreaming, sharing, and supporting each other together in the challenge of teaching. What would that do to the culture and the cohesiveness of the department, not to mention the educational experience across the department and in individual rooms? I really have no answer to that question, and maybe I’m shooting in the dark here and teachers collaborate all the time, which I know we do (heck I do it all the time just to get ideas for the next day), but what I am talking about here is a time of sharing and affirmation of good ideas in a formal setting in front of an audience of peers. What I saw when I shared my idea about challenging the students to physically make a difference caused some other light bulbs to go off in other teachers’ heads and when they spoke the same thing happened in my head. Why can’t we have that same feeling on a more regular basis as teachers? Why can’t we dream, affirm, and exchange ideas on a more regular basis? Why do we have to have a scheduled PLC day to do it on?

The above conversation was running through my head for the first couple of hours of the day today and then I went to Anne’s second hour English 9 class. She was giving them a primer of the format of a formal research paper for most of the period and a pep talk the rest. See tomorrow, one of the coolest things as AHS is taking place (at least in my opinion). The 9th grade honors students are live blogging with Dan Pink. I have blogged about this opportunity before, but it is just such a cool thing to be indirectly a part of that I can’t even explain it. If you want to see the live conversation, click here and it’ll take you to Karl Fisch’s blog and the information about seeing the web stream. It was great to see how excited the students are to have a conversation with a man that is so well known in the arena of writing. I cannot wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Third period, my 10th graders, was a new and exciting challenge. We were re-capping what we covered yesterday, the active and passive voice, but with a new twist – I was being formally observed for my student teaching program back in Iowa. This brought a new pressure and element you could say to the conversation. I did my best, which I thought was pretty good, and then the period was over. It went so quick. We spent the entire time on re-covering the active and passive voice, but unlike yesterday I felt like today really made a difference. The students began at least to understand the difference between and how to correct passive and active voice. That made me really happy though, that students were really getting to know and understand what I was teaching. After the period was over I had a long conversation with my college representative about my teaching. She commented on a variety of things that could be improved, like making sure that all the students are all on the same page before moving on. See I asked the students to pull up a handout I posted on the online class calendar and while they were doing that some of them probably shifted over to their e-mail or some other website while they were waiting for the others. I think that was a natural reaction to having a computer in front of you and being able to multi task, at least for a short amount of time. She made some good comments about paying attention to one side of the class, as I apparently paid and called on more people on one side than the other. Further, she gave me feedback that my presence within the classroom was good and that I engaged the students. However, I apparently use a very limited number of words to affirm students when they give the correct answer, so that was something to work on. I was happy she came and finally got to see me, and frankly it was nice to get the first one (of seven) observation out of the way, but today was such a weird day. I was stuck in this teacher, collaborator mood all morning and then had to quickly shift to educator and teacher in a mere matter of minutes. The students were in a little different type of mood today and, like every day, I over planned what I was doing today. Classes were shortened, which made the classes feel rushed at times too. All in all, it was a good observation. My college representative said some very nice things and gave me a few things to work on. The last thing she commented on was that I have the gift of a natural teacher. She said that I have the sense of “reading” my students, great mentors (Kristin and Anne and the rest of the staff at AHS), and an awesome situation in which I am learning to grown into a great teacher someday.

The conversation with my college representative took the entire forth period, which upset my seniors because they were waiting for me to show up. I saw a few of them in the library during fifth period and they told me how disappointed they were that I did not show up. I explained to them the whole observation thing and having a conversation with my representative and then they understood. I could still see it in their faces though, they felt let down. One of the great parts of teaching is having those personal relationships with students. Even as a student teacher, if I know that I missed a class for a legitimate reason even, I feel like I missed out on something and the students notice. I feel like I missed part of my day and it was not complete. The students missed me and reflecting on it, that is a huge compliment to me I guess because that means that I am making some sort of an impact on their life to the extent that they want me in class with them. That is quite an honor, at least I think, for a student teacher to reach week two even before he has completely taken over the class.

Sixth period was with my wonderful ninth graders again. Today we covered MLA citations, which are something they have never done before, and then I gave them time to work on their Assignment – Change the World papers and to actually find some research. I thought the lesson was good and I modeled an example for them on the computer, but I felt at the end of the period that something was off. The way I explained it to Anne was that teaching that class today was a lot like fishing. I put out the bobber, the information, and then put the hook on there, the actual reinforcement (the assignment they need to complete for tomorrow), and somehow don’t think many of them will bite. I didn’t see blank stares from the students, like they really understood the assignment and what they needed to do, I just feel like they are fish swimming around the bait, almost like they are waiting to see if I’ll reel it back in anytime soon. I thought the lesson was good and they obviously understood what they needed to do, it was just that they were not accomplishing it as quickly as I expected. I guess I just need to remember two things: One, they have never done an assignment like this before. Two, there is no easy assignment for a freshman – thanks Anne.

What Anne and I finally talked about, and this is my big take away for the day, is that as teachers we put ourselves out there on the line every day. As teachers, we work really hard, create awesome lessons, challenge students, and provide an awesome learning environment every day, but we put ourselves out there every day. In addition, we put not only ourselves, but more so we put hearts our there every day, no matter the return. That’s the hard part of teaching and I think that’s where I got today. Tomorrow when I walk into that classroom I expect to see six MLA citations from every student. Will it happen? I can guarantee that it will not, but that’s not the end of the story. I will still put my heart out there – no matter what. As teachers, that’s what we do time and time again, day after day, and period after period. It’s not an easy job though, because if it was everyone would be doing it.

Clearing the Water

Before I actually get to the post for today I must clear up a little comment I made yesterday about how the lessons went yesterday. What Kristin did was come in and do what any good teacher would do, take a struggling classroom and right the ship. She saw a need, her students were not understanding the lesson, and she jumped right in. Putting aside whether that was "right" or not, she did what was natural instinct. I have no problem with that, what I had a problem with was me being frustrated at not jumping in sooner and fixing the problem at hand. Kristin is a great teacher and she did what any mother bird would do in that situation and I do not hold any bad feelings about the situation. As one of the people that posted on the blog entry yesterday wrote, "that there are so many factors that influence a lesson's effectiveness." That statement is completely true. There was the factor of the students not ever learning that concept before, the fact that it is overall a hard concept to grasp, and that they have a student teacher teaching them all came together for that one lesson.

In the end, while I thought at the time it was a "failed lesson," it retrospect it was not. Instead, it was a learning experience. I learned that it's hard to give up your classroom to a new teacher half way through the year. I can't even imagine what Anne and Kristin have to do on a daily basis just to not jump in and add their thoughts to the class. They have been amazing cooperating teachers and I want to thank them for having the trust and confidence in me to sit in the back and let me run the class. Thank you and I won't be upset when you jump in next time, as these are your students after all.

Finally, I want to close with a quote that a good friend sent me yesterday after reading my blog post: "If you're NOT failing every now and again, it's probably a sign you're not doing anything very innovative." I did not fail yesterday, according to my updated definition, but I am trying new things and learning a lot at AHS.

Day Seven!

Some days are just better than others and my day was one of those others – if you know what I mean. I am sure by now that you all know my schedule, so therefore I plan on spending more time in these posts actually reflecting on what went on in my day and less in the meeting people, doing things, and going places – or at least that will be the hope.

Today was a normal Tuesday with a lot of time that I was not in class, but rather planning with Kristin. I blogged yesterday about our frustrations with Diigo, and we thought we had everything figured out for class today and then when we went to e-mail all the students this afternoon Diigo was “doing some back end maintenance,” and we were not able to get that done. The frustrating part for both Kristin and me is that we spent the time giving the feedback to the students and we just want them to actually receive it before it’s too late. Unfortunately, that time of being too late is drawing nearer by the day. Technology, or rather being at the edge of it, is one of the great things about being at AHS. I just have to keep in perspective how lucky I am to be using and even having issues and frustrations with a program and an opportunity that not a lot of schools and even less student teachers get to have.

On the teaching side, today I taught English 10 for the second day in a row. This class was a little different today for some reason. They warmed up to me or something, because when I started asking for volunteers lots of them raised their hands. Well that was nice to see, but the topic we were studying was a hard one. I’ll admit that even as an English major and a Language Arts teacher I still have trouble with it in my writing. The topic was active and passive voice. I gave them an example that I thought really engaged them, then gave them one example and asked them if they understood the topic. They all nodded their heads at me and so I assumed that they got it – well let’s just say that in the end they didn’t get it. So I went on to this activity where they got to create their own sentences in the passive and active voice and then present them to the class. Well when the first group went up their active tense sentence was correct, it was even funny, but their passive voice sentence was not exactly passive. The students for some reason had got the idea that passive voice only means that the sentence is not in present tense. For example, Nate went to the store would have been a passive sentence in their minds. Rewind, so I corrected the first group, thinking that it might be an anomaly – well I was wrong. The next group did the same exact thing. As I was correcting them Kristin noticed that they were obviously having some issues figuring out what exactly the difference was. So she, just like a mother with her children, took back control of the room and got the train back on track. She provided two more really concrete examples and then the students really got it from there. When she took over class I kind of felt defeated. What did I do wrong? This was such a good lesson? I was disappointed in myself for letting the students down, I was disappointed in myself for having to have Kristin take over the class. It wasn’t that I did not notice the confusion, and I was just about to address it when she took back over the class. I guess I had a little more faith that they would understand the examples and we could correct them and the students would understand what was going on. Kristin just beat me to the punch, literally. She took over the class, gave two great examples and then got the students where they need to be. I guess, looking back on it, that was a failed lesson in my book. It did not work, the students didn’t get it. My fifty-nine minutes was cut short because I did not do a good enough job. So sorry students in third hour, I will work extra hard tonight to make sure that the same thing does not happen tomorrow. In fact, to make sure that the students really understand the concept I will be re-covering part of it tomorrow, only with examples actually from the students’ own writing. I will try to drive down the point of making sure that active is followed rather than passive. After the lesson and period were over I went up to the front to collect my stuff and Kristin was being very supportive of how the lesson went. I was happy with that, but like I wrote before disappointed that I let myself and the students down. On the other hand, it was a learning experience. Always give more examples than the students need. Don’t take a nod from the students, check to see if they really do, but make sure they get another example first. Kristin did a great job taking over the class and really making sure that they understood the topic before the end of the period.

I spent part of the afternoon grading or should I say helping a student assistant grade. They have these really nice students at AHS, which are kind of like TAs in college, that do busy work and simple grading for you. Need something cut? They are there. Need something simple typed out? They’ll get it done in no time flat. It’s really nice that these students exist, otherwise I know that a lot of time would be spent figuring out minor details and not so much time spent on teaching. It’s a unique way for the students to interact with the teachers and for the teachers to actually spend more time on learning and teaching students or planning with student teachers – Anne and Kristin know what I’m talking about here.

I went to sixth period, my freshman, looking forward to a day when they get to learn about researching terms and looking at validating Internet resources. For instance, is a blog like this one a proper source for information? What about a website? What separates a credible website from a non-credible one? Well that’s what Mr. Murphy, the amazing librarian at AHS, came in to share with the ninth graders. He did a great job keeping them engaged, even though he talked for the entire period. The students really received some great ideas and they learned a few tips of the trade – heck I even learned a few new things. For instance, if you search on Google with a ~ and then a subject (Example ~horse) it will come up with synonyms for that subject. Thank you to Mr. Murphy for your sharing time and for inspiring the students to find valid Internet resources.

Finally, I want to reflect upon my thoughts with Anne. We talked after school and she mentioned a few things I should be working on, which were good to hear. What she told me was that if I need anything I just need to ask her. Which, from a student teacher standpoint is good, but at the same time I am a stubborn person and will continue working hard to get it right. It is very hard for me to ask for help, but this situation with my mentor is requiring me to ask for help when I need it. I can and do make suggestions, but it’s nice to know that she will help me out if I need help. Anne is there and so is Kristin to help me along the way. They have both been very supportive and have assisted with lesson planning, grading, and helping me out along the way. They have also given a lot of good positive feedback and now that I feel that I have it going it is nice to start getting some constructive criticism, which actually starts tomorrow when my supervising teacher for Wartburg West comes out to AHS. That should be an interesting experience, as we have a professional learning experience meeting tomorrow morning which throws the entire day off and the kids are apparently really different with two more hours of sleep in them (I just wish I could get that sleep and the students could start without me).

All in all, between the tiredness of student teaching, the long days, the students, the situation with English 10 and having Kristin take over, the long day of sitting and listening (when my passion is to actually be teaching), combined with the feedback from Anne made it overall a tough day to swallow. At times I really considered if teaching is worth all this extra work, which I think lots of teachers and especially student teachers do at some point. But then I remembered the greatest part about my life right now – my fifty-nine minutes that I have with the students tomorrow. Tomorrow is another day, another chance to make a difference, an opportunity to learn from the mistakes of today, correct them, and to move on towards changing the world one class and one student at a time. Bring on tomorrow, I’m ready to change the world again.

Day Six!

Today was quite a day. It all started when I walked out of the apartments and noticed that it was snowing. Which is not a problem for me being that I am born and raised in Minnesota and have lived in the blowing lands of Iowa for the past few years.

I spent the morning trying to figure out some new software that were were testing out with our 10th grade class. We had them post their memoirs on their individual wikispaces. Then Kristin and I over the weekend used Diigo to post comments on their wikispaces. When I got to work this morning Kristin and I were trying to figure out how we were going to get the students to view the comments. After a while of clicking through security features and logging in passwords we thought we had a solution at hand, but alas once we actually got to class the solution still did not work. At some point we will figure all the features out about Diigo, and how to allow the students to see it, but we just needed to do a little more preparation work it I guess. In the end what it came down to was recognizing what it means to literally be "at the bleeding edge of technology" as a favorite technology director at Wartburg told me once. We were definitely there during third hour. All the hard work that went into commenting on their wikispaces and then not figuring out the technology in time to use it in class. Tomorrow is another day and hopefully we will figure it out then so that the students will receive the feedback that we left them.

Besides the whole technology thing, which at times was really frustrating, I actually taught that class for the first time. It was a lesson on showing emotion rather than telling it. I felt that the students really understood the material and learned from what I lectured on and gave them examples about. It was nice to work into another prep, more responsibility, and more students. I look forward to the challenge tomorrow and the continuing challenge of teaching yet another group of students.

Forth hour I went to Anne's senior British Literature class. This period they spent the entire time setting up their wikispaces to complete the next unit - their interview / career project. When reflecting on the experience I wonder, where in the objectives of the curriculum or the state standards does it say "Have your students publish their work on a wikispace." To my knowledge, at least in the standards that I have seen, it does not say that. But then I consider the purpose of the technology is to make the content real to the students, to allow them to publish to a wider audience, and to increase engagement - among other things of course. If AHS has the technology, because so many schools do not, we should use it. Anne and Kristin, both of my cooperating teachers are doing just that in their classrooms. I just get the privilege of working with them on a regular basis. If you don't know what a wikispace is I encourage you to check it out at this link.

Fifth period I went to Kristin's American Literature class and taught a refined version of my lesson in English 10, meaning that today I taught a portion of three complete classes - the most I have ever done in my life. This was once again, a great class. I continually enjoy getting to know the students and interact with them on a regular basis. There is just something about getting to know and challenge individual students that makes me excited to go to work each day. These students are crafting an essay of place. To see a work evolve, change, and be refined by students is one of the most interesting processes I have ever seen in my life. Each students' thought process and individual thinking skills are different and interesting. I look forward to reading their essays and helping them improve them over the next few days. I blogged before about how I am amazed that teachers can move from structured time to totally off the cuff thinking. Well Kristin did that again today in her English 10 class. We were about to go onto another activity, after a short mini lesson by me, and she sensed that the students needed to talk about their writing. So she scraped what she was thinking and had the students move their chairs to face each other. Then from there she had a discussion with them about what was going well with this project and what they actually needed help on. It was a great time to receive feedback from the students on how we were doing as teachers and to hear their own individual thoughts on the situation. Kristin and I are now going to alter the plans for the next few days based on the students' thoughts. Before the period ended though, Kristin gave some wonderful thoughts about memoirs and really inspired the students to do their best. It was, once again, nice to see a master teacher at work and to learn from her first hand.

Sixth period I had my fun, exciting, and world changing ninth graders. They were a handful today, as they are every day, but today we had some serious business to do. I blogged on Saturday about how I needed to take their topics that were the size of the world and reduce them down to the size of Colorado or Denver. Well, essentially I gave back their webs that I graded over the weekend and then we proceeded to go through each step one-by-one and revise as a group. I provided them with an example on the board and then we talked through each part of the assignment to literally "Change the World." It was tough keeping them on task and I still have to figure out how to allow students to be working across the room with a partner while I am assisting students on the other half of the room, but other than that I thought the lesson was successful. Towards the end of the lesson I displayed a little of that Kristin and Anne "off the top of my head" thinking by filling the last amount of space in class with a few questions that I thought brought the whole day to a close - Anne really liked that I did this too. I got the students to put away everything else and brought the topic front and center. I mentioned to them that writing this paper and truly changing the world is not an easy task, especially for a 9th grader, but that I know they can do it. I asked them if what we did today in class helped, and they all said it did. It's really nice to know that the last fifty-nine minutes you spent teaching them actually had a positive impact on their learning. It was great to hear, as a teacher, that things went well and that the students were happy. I am really excited for the rest of this week. I think together with the rest of the class we can truly change the world. We have some hard times ahead of us, as the students have not written more than one paragraph before, but we can overcome them together. With a teacher that is committed to going step-by-step and students that want to truly change the world I know that in the end we can and will reach our goal. My take away for the day Anne, is that on Friday it looked like to me that the train of learning was going a little off track, but with the lesson today and the students' feedback I really felt that today was a good day. I felt like the train got back on track and we are ready to move forward together.

Collaborating Together: The 2nd Best Thing for Educators to Do

Tonight I had a little revelation brought to mind by a conversation that I had with a friend of mine back in Iowa. He called me to talk about an event I am helping to host at Wartburg in May, but it turned into a conversation about technology and AHS. I was sharing with him some of the things I was doing in my class with laptops, wikispaces, blogging, Diigo, and various other pieces of technology that I have learned or have used more as a teacher now that I am at AHS. What surprised me was that he had not heard of any of that stuff - none of it.

Which as an educator (I can call myself that even if I am student teaching, right?) really made me think. First of all, once again how blessed I am to be at AHS working with a fantastic Language Arts department and two of the best teachers at AHS (mind you his is according to the principal - sorry to the rest of the staff, you are all amazing too), but in a situation where I am so blessed and surrounded by technology.

Not to mention the amazing and so very humble and down to earth Karl Fisch. Who might I add decided to make me, and this blog, the topic of his entry today. Check it out here. Thanks Karl for the post, although it kind of caught me off guard. Am I even worthy to be put on The Fischbowl? I am only a student teacher trying to do his best at teaching students one period, every fifty-nine minutes at a time. Oh, and I completely agree with you Karl that the learning does not stop after the bell - at least at AHS. At other schools, my friend's in Iowa for instance, they do not have laptops. He does not know what a wikispace is or even how to create, write, or start a blog. This fact, although despairing at times, inspires me to do two things:

One, I want to be the best teacher that I can be for my students. I want to use the gift of technology at AHS to benefit, challenge, and inspire my students to truly make their learning rigorous and relevant to their lives. How can they truly create world change - even as a 9th grader.

Secondly, it's collaborating with other educators. When my friend called and I started telling him about all these really unique and neat things I am doing in the classroom I was so excited. I just have a passion to not only teach students, which is my number one passion and I think the 1st best thing for an educator to do. Although, I truly believe that the second best thing for educators to do is share what they are doing. That's why I love Karl Fisch's work, that's why I am inspired by reading what the teachers at AHS are doing, and that's why I love reading other educator blogs - to get ideas and to share information. Throughout my education at Wartburg I have had to complete an undergraduate research project. I decided to focus on specific and easy ways for educators without a lot of resources, unlike AHS, to start incorporating technology into their curriculum's and classrooms in relevant ways. It's still a work in progress, but sharing information and teaching tips with each other is one of the most relevant and realistic ways to do this in the 21st Century. Marc Prensky, a futurist, author, educator, and thinker (who I managed to come speak at my college in March) who wrote a piece titled: "If we share, we're halfway there." In it he believes that educators should be posting everything they write online. Well that might be a stretch for some, I truly believe that sharing what we have with other educators is one of the best things we can do for each other.

The old saying, "Don't reinvent the wheel," applies here, but just in a 21st century way. I love sharing my ideas with others, and that's what made my conversation with my friend in Iowa so special. I was not only giving him ideas about his classroom, but I was effecting an entire community. I shared with him Karl's "Did You Know Video" to help spur on the conversation as they begin to plan a new school in their district and invited him to come and hear Prensky speak when he is on campus in March. It's knowing that because of my small, kind words and a little experience with technology that I can help other educators become the best they can be. I can help other students, students I will never meet, become engaged in their learning, enjoy coming to school, and really learn the material in a way that is relevant to their lives. I think of the quote that I live by, which is posted on the side of my blog, about how education needs to be relevant to students' lives.

By just a few words of sharing I was able to equip a fellow educator with new tools to continue doing the best job he can in the classroom and to truly educate, challenge, and engage the Digital Natives. Maybe some day I can turn technology education, training, and giving small tips on tools that actually work in the classroom into a job. That would be cool and I have a passion for it. For right now though, I am going to stick to collaborating with other educators: The 2nd Best Thing for Educators to Do - at least in my opinion.

Which leads me to my last point - Karl, I don't think I could stop blogging. I love knowing that maybe someone, somewhere would read my ideas, take them, comment on them, and actually use them to go on and change students' lives one fifty-nine minute period (or instert your period length here) at a time. That's the hope at least.

Day Five!

Ok, so I apologize that this e-mail is getting posted a little later than the day of as I am currently at my friends' ranch out in the mountains. It is really nice to get out of the city, eventhough I really enjoy the city it is really nice to get out and hear yourself think a little bit. Today it was nice to wake up and sit in the sun with a view of the mountains and the foothills and grade papers. Plus a little extra sleep was helpful!

On Friday I spent the day once again at AHS, as with every other day this week, and overall had a great week. First period I spent meeting with a librarian who is coming in to assist my sixth period seniors. It was really nice to get to know another professional in my school. He had some great insight into my classes and also taught me a lot about the school and the resources avaliable.

Second period I did a little preparation with Krisitin in advance of taking over her 10th grade class. It was a lot of fun talking through the lessons I am going to teach and getting everything prepared for class that day. Third period we actually went to class and started the students off on publishing their memoirs on their wikispaces. I had a little time where I worked with three students to help them set up their wikispaces, which it was really fun working with a small group instead of a large group all the time. These students are publishing their memoirs on their wikispaces, for the entire world, and not just turning it into the teacher. They are also "wikifying" it - adding in pictures, music, and hyperlinks to their memoirs to make them more exciting and more relevant to their lives. It is really interesting to me to see what these students are doing with their memoirs. I really wish that I was back in English 10, to get to put my writing out there for the entire world to see on my wikispace - who would have thought about that five years ago?

Third period I went to British Literature and truly felt like a student. These are my seniors and they finished "The Last Lecture" and then talked about their own last lecture / final project that they need to give near the end of the school year. The majority of this period I was working in the back on a computer planning lessons and getting everything ready for the end of the day. All the students had laptops and I felt like one of them working away in the back and trying to pay attention at the same time.

Fifth period I spent inspiring my juniors on to success with metaphors and writing their essays of place. They were an interesting crowd, and I must say that I am still getting used to the whole fact of only having them three times a week. Why can't I teach one of those classes instead of the ones that meet five times a week? Just kidding, I would not trade my freshman for anything. They are incredible and lots of fun, it's just teaching juniors what a metaphor is and only seeing them three times a week is a completly different schedule than I am used to.

Then sixth hour came and I went and visitied my good friends, the ninth graders. They were a little wild on Friday, but that was probably due to the fact that it was the end of the week. I made sure that they looked at their grades before we started class, as I had all their grades up to date by the time class started. Grading is something that I enjoy, not for the fact of putting grades into the computer or even assessing student work, but because I get to give feed back to students and help them to get better. Plus the whole no D policy makes everything a little better. When I really give students a bad grade I know that they can make anything up if they want to, it's just that I truly hope that they do. In class I gave them work time to work on their concept map webs and to help each other out to get better ideas of what they can write their papers on. While they were doing this I circulated the classroom and actually met with every student about their own webs. While I was doing this the students got a little carried away and not a lot of them actually completed their in-class assignment. Which as a teacher is a little disappointing, but then again it was their choice and not mine. At the end of class we watched a video titled: "I Remember When" that speaks to what students remember when they went to school - life before cell phones, hotspots, and a whole variety of other technology. It was pretty interesting. Then I thought it would be really cool to gather around the globe to finish the week off focusing on what the students want to do - change the world. Then the bell rang and my first week was over.

After class I really considered my fifty-nine minutes with them. Was it effective? Did they really learn the material? Are they actually prepared to start this essay? I honestly did not think so, and I voiced this concern with Anne. She explained to me that the most these students have ever written was one paragraph. They have no concept of progression of proof. No concept of evidence in a paragraph. No concept of concept mapping, other than what I taught them. No concept of a thesis. No concept of how to write a long paper. I was thinking and expecting them to be here, when they were actually down here. That was honestly my take away for the day - there you go Anne. I hate to say it, but I was expecting some unrealistic things from my students. So I travel up to the ranch, take a little time off to grill, hang out with some friends, and refocus on the task at hand - to change the world. Tomorrow I will evaluate and look at how can I break down the steps and really get these students from their really large topics down to something small that they can actually research and write about. I need to take them from a topic the size of the world and bring it down to something the size of Denver - hey, that's a great analogy, I just might use that on Monday! Then from there I need to model, model, and model some more. They need to see what a true example looks like. I need to stop talking through examples and start physcially writing them down for the students. Randon, don't be afraid of the blackboard - just because it's not a whiteboard or electronic doesn't mean that it will hurt you! So that's the goal Anne and I set for next week (which is a great idea by my mentor there to actually set a goal for the week and then strive to reach that goal each and every day). I will give the students physcial models of what I expect from them. Meaning tomorrow I will plan to actually sit down and plan out webs for all my students. What is an A, B, and C example web. What does one look like that actually has a position they can support? What is an adequate action plan? Where should they really go with their topic? Those are all things I need to look at, but most of all I think that I just need to model the heck out of these webs. Model each one and for every student in the entire class until they get how to create a web, what it looks like, and where everything goes. That's the only way that I think I know how to do it. Then we will go from there and they will all re-do their webs and this time I am actually going to grade them. Then from there they are going to start doing quality research and start to truly formulate what is going on and where their projects are going. And I am going to demand that the entire class stays up with this assignment. Like I told them, changing the world is not easy - no one ever said that it was going to be - so why should teaching students to change the world be any easier?

After school I went to "The Bubble," or otherwise known as the dome where the women's soccer team practices. It was really nice to actually see the women play and the goalies in action. Let's just say that I can't wait to get my feet wet and start training these goalies. They all need a little fundamental work somewhere; come on goalies are the most critical people of themselves on the planet. All stuff that I look forward to helping them out with.

After talking to Anne about my day on Friday I honestly was completly exhausted. Then it was off to soccer practice. As I reflect on the entire week, though, I recognize one thing Anne told me: "Think about where you were on Monday and where you are today." I have changed. Not only as a teacher, in the classroom, with my students, but I have gotten lost downtown, had fun running around the city of Denver - literally - and even more so than that I have adapted to a schedule and a life that involves making a difference every fifty-nine minutes. Even though I wake up way early and go to bed way, and some would say much too late to be teaching in the morning, it's about those fifty-nine minutes with the students. It's about the fifty-nine minutes to make a difference. It's about those fifty-nine minutes to change the world. I believe, in some small way, my actions this last week during my fifty-nine minutes have done just that, or at least I hope they have for someone, - changed the world.

But it doesn't stop there. On Monday I get another set of fifty-nine minutes. The challenge starts all over again, but at the same time that's the beauty of education - your education is never really complete.