What is your filter? a case for CUE as your Instant PLN.

I am sort of a newbie to the whole PLN thing, though I do admittingly have a twitter coach that will work for ed tech help,  I also have an access point to unlimited awesome that I want to celebrate during the closing hours of 2013

Prologue: How I got here

During college I took a job during the summers (2000) as a "Door-to-Door Salesman" selling books to help parents help kids with homework.  Here are the details I knew when I signed up.

Where?  Somewhere on the East Coast.
With whom?  Three other roommates TBD, maybe from your university (San Diego State), maybe not.
Where will we find a place to live?  You will have a day and a half to find a place, usually knocking on doors,  look for places with extra rooms/or a finished basement.
How much do I make?  Depends on how much you sell, maybe nothing, it's 100% commission.

It was a challenging and grit building summer and I stayed on for another two years (the final two I actually made some decent money and ended up the proud owner of a sweet 1982 cream colored Dodge Diplomat ($400.00 out the door...actually "off the front lawn").  What I didn't expect to gain was the relationship capital I built in those years.

I unknowingly stepped into a network full of people that would say "Yes" to the insanely vague/challenging conditions outlined above.  I lucked into that network more on ignorance/stupidity than my own bravery and confidence.  However I was fortunate enough to surround myself with people who taught me what it means to be confident, to have true grit, and embody the "Do-it-now-never-stop-attitude" that I carry (try to) with me to this day.

Before Twitter, Facebook, and social media, I walked into a pre-existing #Bad@$$ PLN that was waiting for me to say "yes".  The context of the company served as a filter that insured an "Awesome Members Only" experience...and it was.

What is your filter?:  A play in one act

Building a PLN is hard, like a garden, one has to nurture it before it will yield fruit.  It's probably the biggest reason we have so many educators still working in relative isolation every day.  For my first two years of teaching I did the same, grinding away at my job and doing a good job of it, but paying a cost that was unsustainable.  Though I didn't know it at the time, I needed a ready-built PLN to plug into, share ideas, and be invigorated, like the one I found myself in during college.

And now the "Self Serving" Part.

By chance/luck/divine intervention I happened upon our local CUE affiliate with the promise to move faster that my current district OS would allow.  Frustrated by constant road blocks to my ideas, I jumped at the chance to:

1.  Work really hard
2.  Work for free
3.  Work on things that matter to me
4.  Have a great time doing it.

4 years later I still work for CUE and am especially fulfilled by my recent efforts to connect with other affiliates more.   CUE affiliates up and down CA are full of people who think that items 1-3 ALWAYS lead to number 4.  Our commander and chief even brands himself as a maverick in what I believe is a reminder to the rest of CUE as to how we should be thinking!  The people that truly work to make their affiliates happen are ALL awesome, supportive, and innovative people that want to connect and share ideas.  I have made the final half of 2013 a personal mission to spread the gospel of CUE around the North Bay Area offering only the following promise:

"I can guarantee you get to take on a lot of extra work, while helping other educators, be paid nothing, and have a great time doing it!".

It turns out there are tons of people waiting for the chance to say "Yes" this experience:

Ali Deguia, Amy Fadeji, Tracy Walker, Catina Haugen, Ashley Williams, Jennie Snydar, Bob Raines, Emily Dunnegan, Jenny Derby, Sarah Fountain, Mark Picketts, James Fester, Eric Saibel, Katy Foster, Adam Welcome, Megan Cusimano, Mary Jane Burke, Raquel Rose, Michele Dawson, Mario Piombo, Rick Phalan, Dan Exelby, Jens Holstebro, the folks at FrontRow.etc.

CUE is a filter for awesome people all waiting for more to join.  So if this sounds like you, drop in on your areas next CUE event and chat up some organizers, we are all "yes" people, and love to grow the working body of CUE.

Or just follow @northbaycue and chat us up on twitter.

Prologue:  a Serious Note and Rock Star Camps were built with people like you in mind.

This post was born out of a reconnection with a work college that is a very close "though partner" of mine.  We started teaching at the same time, with similar values, at the same school,  yet somehow landed in opposite worlds. My department was experimenting and supporting, his department maintained the status quo.  While I spent 4 years endeavoring with grading and assessment for open mindset, he had all his assessments written for him by the district and had strict pacing calendars.  He taught the hardest populations on campus, I taught a beautiful heterogenous mix of students who were in APchem the year before with students who failed algebra I twice.

We went out for drinks the other night and I was saddened to learn that this teacher will be leaving the school and probably the district by choice, due to shear discontent, lack of local intellectual support and even criticism from his peers.  This is a great teacher, walking away from his school and its culture.  #PLNmatter, big time!

If any part of this post rings true in your ear please join the following instant communities of awesome that is CUE  Rock Star Teacher Camps.  CUE is offering a special edition camp in the beautiful Napa Valley on Feb 14th - 16th and if you love the idea of learning all day in small groups with people just like you, I will see you there!

Sun is Shining and the Weather is Sweet

Full Disclosure:  When I first got this tweet from Mark Lunque I was totally not into it.  I am not a fan of chain mail type things.  Probably has something to do with sending a few people $10 in the mail as a teenager with the expectation of receiving over a thousand dollars back over the course of the next few months...didn't happen and I ended up feeling like this.  Fortunately the positive power of twitter kept my interest and I realized this is something cool that should not be wasted.  Thanks Mark!

11 Random facts about myself

1)  I grew up in the Napa Valley (where I live now...fun!) and my father was a hot air balloon pilot. 

2)  I am 1/2 Mexican, 1/2 Italian, All awesome...though I speak WAY better Italian (I can get myself out of a jam in Spanish if I need to), I pride myself on being able to leverage the awesomeness that is embedded in each of those extremely divergent cultures (read: sarcasm...seriously Italians are just European Mexicans).  

3)  In college I was a door to door salesman and during the summers I worked in Louisville KY, Des Moines IA, and Johnstown PA.

4)  I knew what my son's name would be by my sophomore year in high school...which is random because most HS boys don't think about that kind of stuff.

5)  I love music and I sing all the time despite my lack of a good singing voice, which makes it hard for anyone within earshot.

6)  Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: Mint n Chip.

7)  I am a Christian and love it...which I only added because when people find out I am christian they are like "Really?"...which either means I am pretty awesome at being a christian or pretty terrible.  #notsure

8)  I am a painfully insecure writer...I worry about people reading my ideas and thinking them to be lame.  Ironic if you have ever been in a meeting with me #italktoomuch

9)  I was fully grown by 7th grade (6'1'')...have you ever been around middle school boys, tiny.

10)  I have a huge crush on NPR and I would love to take it out for a nice white wine/seafood dinner maybe a after dinner cocktail, and then see what happens.

11)  I usually sometimes tell jokes just to laugh at them myself (see random fact number 10) even if I know I will be the only one laughing.  I also think a careful application of strikethroughs is one of the highest forms of internet wit.  Also nothing beats a good Dumb and Dumber hyperlink...see intro.

Questions from Mark

1. Are you the oldest, middle, or youngest child? 

Middle, and live up to the part.  #helper

2. On New Year's Eve, do you watch the ball drop or are you in bed by 10:00 pm?

 Not big on new years (which is weird because I am a huge fan of low stakes kissing/make-out sessions ;)...Still I watch it drop, despite the fact that I could easily spend my life going to sleep by 9:30.

3. What is your dream job?

NapaLearns EdTech Coordinator...I seriously giggle to myself every time I get my pay stub and it has nothing to do with the size of the numbers on the check and everything to do with the challenging, creative, and meaningful work it allows me access to...and they Pay me for it.

4. Who is your best friend and how did you meet?

I have been super close friends with the same 8 dudes since we were in middle school, we are still very close... They are all the hilarious/adventurous/sharingtheweird, loves of my life!

5. Have you ever met anyone famous? Desribe the encounter

I got to have dinner with Eric Mazur (my mancrush/eduhero) in September, which was fun because I had followed and tried to emulate his work for the previous two years.  The best part is that I totally crashed a cocktail session with him and some other people I 'sort of knew' and ended up joining them for a bad@$$ evening sharing ideas. #couragematters

6. What was the last book you finished reading?

2013 included:  'To Sell is Human', 'Drive', 'A whole New Mind', 'Outliers', 'What the Dog Saw', 'David and Goliath', 'Blink', 'Susan Cain: Quiet' (the actual answer), Kaines, Hayek', 'The Company', 'The Wizard: Tesla",  ''Mindset', 'Unbroken', '11-22-63', 'Good to Great', 1 John, 1 Corinthians

I'm not bragging...I have no time to "read" as I do it at a painfully slow pace.  I only generated this list to say that Audiobooks rule and if you hear yourself saying "wish I had more time to read, but I don't" please consider joining audible.com

7. You could have dinner with three people from your PLN, who do you invite?

No brainer...#TeamNorthBay (6 is more than 3 though I think of us as a collective "Hive Mind of Amazing") doing backyard style hangout at Adam Welcome's house.  We have been talking up this one for months and I am confident that it will happen some day...and it will be glorious.

8. Would you rather attend a sporting event or concert? If you selected a sporting event, who is playing and what venue is hosting. If you selected a concert, who is performing?

I have been to a crapload of both, and at it's peak, there is something beautiful about following a team all season long (Oakland A's Season Ticket Holders) and being there when those special moments happen.  Something to do with "being an invested part of something" that sports offer, and that concerts don't (as much).  That being said, if it were random free tickets:  Concert.

9. Android or Apple?

Frick...prob Android, though the camera on my nexus4 absolutely sucks!  Slow auto focus = lots of pictures like this

10. If you could spend one day doing whatever you want, how do you spend your day?

Golf with my 5 year old...don't care where, though our home course is surrounded by vineyards  which is pretty cool.  Preferably with one of our friends w kids that golf.  BTW I love the fact that I get to live my answer to this question 2 or 3 times a week!

11. Why did you choose to be an educator? Who has been your greatest influence?

I kind of fell into the job and my greatest influence was easily my X-wife, who is a bad@$$ educator herself and in my early years supported and taught me a lot.  Thanks Sarah!  I want to stay an educator because of how cool the job is, lots of opportunity to do meaningful work in creative ways.  

Bloggers:  Most of the peeps I follow are already on this so I will take this chance to learn some fun things about the #TUtechparty as wells a few peeps I want to start to work with more. 

 **Katy Foster**

Brady Mitchell

Bobby Ruth

Debra Carnes

Patty Wyman

Angelene Warnock

Kendall Shomura

Karin Hatton

Monica Ready

Johnathan Dunsworth
Brad Fisher



SHHS Physics...Start here

11 Questions for you all to answer (tweet me when you are done, I am stoked to see what you guys put down)

1)  Best moment of 2014?
2)  What is your favorite thing to spend money on?
3) Besides Christmas, favorite holiday...why?
4)  Outline your #bestdayever??
5) What did you learn over last summer?
6)  What was the last book you finished reading?
7)  Best gift you ever gave someone?
8)  Share something charming/weird about your family
9) What is your best personal gift/quality/strength?
10) What is one of  your weaknesses, things you need to overcome to be successful?
11)  If you could have dinner with any two people, who would it be...why?

Here is your Task

1. Share 11 random facts about yourself.
2. Answer the 11 questions created for you

A Ballad for the PLN: and why the "L" doesn't really matter that much.

Authors Note:  This blog post would not be possible without the following people who in ways large and small, have demonstrated caring and compassion for other educators that transcends Twitter, Professional Development, and Learning: @LS_Karl @awelcome @prinicipaldurham @msvictoriaolson @jstevens009 @mrpiercy @mrsfadeji @alicekeeler @kfostertweet

Thank you for continuing to inspire myself and the people around you!

ACT I:  A brief history of time:  

"Respected Swiss scientist, Conrad Gessner, might have been the first to raise the alarm about the effects of information overload. In a landmark book, he described how the modern world overwhelmed people with data and that this overabundance was both "confusing and harmful" to the mind...That's not because he was a technophobe, he died in 1565, His warnings referred to the seemingly unmanageable flood of information unleashed by the printing press."

By Vaughn Bell at Slate.com:  Please read the rest of this awesome article here

Communication technology (for many) is scary, always has been (probably will be) and at the core of these fears, exists concerns about how it will impact our social interactions.  All my friends, friends-friends, and friend's parents (and for that matter everyone I meet socially that asks what I do) know that I am an  "EdTech Guy", and at some point they cannot seem to resist the temptation to share some version of the following:

"I'm really worried about the impact of technology on kids today, I feel like they are growing up without learning how to interact with other people"

If you are reading this blog I am going to make two assumptions:  A) You know why this isn't true.  B) You have heard the same thing yourself.

My canned response/elevator pitch to these comments used to be tales similar to Vaugh's Slate.com article. The history of concern for how a printed Bible for all would keep people away from the fellowship of the church, or how newspapers would disrupt the social value of town meetings, how mass produced books would make us all anti-social isolated individuals lost in our imaginations.  Note I have not even touched on, Radio, TV, or the Internet.

The emphasis of ACT I, is in the "used to be", as my experiences in the past three weeks (and past 4 months since joining twitter) has led me to change my message a bit.

ACT II:  "Do I have a PLN? Yea, I love my PLN!"  (Internal Monologue:  I have no clue what that means but I am totally going to pretend I do until I have time to do a Google Search later)

This is what was going through my head when I first heard MCOE Supt. Mary Jane Burke (@burkemaryjane) talking about PLNs at an admin unconference in September.  Since then, Connected Eductors Month (CEM) and conversations, blog post, keynotes, etc. Have been emphasizing (rightly so) the importance of a PLN.  PLN's are important, learning can happen so much faster when it is self directed, engaging, and with a network that is always on.  Catlin Tucker (@CTuckerEnglish) shared the following about learning from her twitter/PLN at the North Bay CUE Marin Conference.  "I have learned more from twitter, then all of my PD experiences combined".

Learning is valuable, no doubt, intelligent people like Catlin don't just run around dropping superlatives like this, so that they can sound cool.  However I am starting to wonder if by overselling the value of learning from your PLN, we are making it harder for teachers who are not connected to see what really matters about being a Connected Educator.

ACT III:  the PERSONAL learning network.

This comment by Victoria Olson, prompted me to craft a slightly controversial title to this blog post.

What does Victoria's PLN have to offer to her that Google doesn't, that is so powerful that Karl was inspired to MT with an added "YES!"?  The answer may lie in the "P" of PLN.  The personal nature of a PLN; connection, support, sharing, and most importantly the ability to celebrate our peers, are all elements that were A LOT more difficult for educators to engage in 15, 10, even 5 years ago.

In just the past three weeks I have observed/been inspired by the following random acts of awesome by people in my PLN.

@LS_Karl joining my EdTech Masters Class to talk about why twitter matters, and bringing in awesome people from his PLN to share the love.  @msvictoriaolson from BC, @KtBkr4 from New Jersey (it was like 10pm her time!), and @jstevens009 who showed up HOLDING A BABY (check the pic!).  This does not include the folks who wanted to join but couldn't because the GHO was maxed out.  Thanks Karl!


@awelcome and @mrsfadeji two principals who are so committed to the #allstaffontwitter cause that they sat down in the middle of their day for 30min to GHO with a friend who wants to shift her school's culture with social media.

@mrpeircy joined my night class to teach teachers about Chrome OS, and share chrome extensions (#heygirl) for educators, even though his Boston Red Sox were in a playoff game at the time, that was decided by one run!

@alicekeeler left a rockin @NorthBayCUE party to stand outside, in late October, at a tiny bar table, to give me a 40min lesson on spreadsheets.  And I am not a quick study... #patientteacher

@principaldurham joined my sparsely attended #FallCUE session to honor my need to have an "expert in the room" as I moderated a conversation between Administrators.  

@NMHS_principal retweeted (to his PLN of 50K) a request for HS teachers to fill out a Homework survey and help @jstevens009 effort to reach 10,000 students by the end of the school year, within 30min of my RT request for help. 

@ecsaibel MT of my last blog post with the added "A must read", unknowingly helping me overcome my fear of the "Publish" button.  

@kfostertweet who pushes me to blog and is funnier on twitter than I ever will be. I can't wait to have her organize #BrewCUE Marin next month.

No less than 20 people sent tweets to opening night of the #TUtechparty to welcome my grad students and model the positive power of twitter. Huge Thanks!  #drawer

Epilogue:  We are all better together, even if it's within a cheesy 140 character limit chat space.

The entire point of ACT III is to point out the Irony of ACT I:  That the unlikely outcome of all of this seemingly impersonal communication, is an increase in our ability to connect in a personal way.

For 5 years I sought out learning opportunities and grew professionally through podcasts, Audiobooks, journal articles and blogs for my, "all the time" learning.  And for 5 years it worked really well for me, I learned a lot.  What I didn't get was the encouragement, support, celebration, etc, that EVERY EDUCATOR needs in order to press through the day to day challenges of working in a profession that isolates us by nature.  

I kind of lied, the L in PLN matters immensely and every person mentioned in this post would probably disagree with the title.  I wrote it to attract attention to a very important point.  If our "sell" of the PLN to unconnected educators is primarily as a learning tool, we are missing out on an opportunity to share what makes PLNs unique: They are Personal.   Please model the personal and meaningful side of your PLN in order to encourage educators to see their own growing PLN as more than just a fountain of information...we all have Google for that.  ;)

Cheers

BYOD, Reluctant Teachers, and Homework: A short story

Authors Note:  If you are reading this blog you probably saw it as a link on twitter or G+ and therefore totally get this image.   Therefore I will not be talking about the ideas behind it.  Nice picture though

Also, this post is not really about BYOD

One of the school districts I support is making a solid -#jumpinthedeepend- effort to implement BYOD.

Quick Definition:  BYOD - Bring Your Own Device, schools invests in wireless networks and leaves the hardware purchasing to the students.

ACT 1:  A Case of Mistaken Identity

So BYOD has some obvious challenges, especially when you are implementing it at schools that have %50+, %60+ free and reduced lunch.  This often leads to conversations that start with, "What about the kids that can't...." and "Before we can do BYOD we need to figure out.....".  Which is fine by the way, as long as you consider what I learned at ISTE last summer.

ISTE
Part of my personal homework assignment for ISTE2013 last summer was to talk to as many schools and districts going BYOD as possible and ask them the same question:

"What was the number one lesson that you learned, (as in, 'wish you would have been better prepared for') in your first year of BYOD?"

The answer I got was almost always the same, and even though there came a point when I knew what the answer was going to be I kept asking people just to make a point to myself about what BYOD really is.  

"When we were planning BYOD and looking at the challenges we anticipated, we were always very concerned about 'how many students will show up without devices', however quickly into our first year we learned the REAL problem was 'how many students have their devices and are not experiencing tech infused instruction'".

I have been telling that story to leaders and teacher-leaders as often as I can ever since.

ACT 2:  Reluctant Teachers,  Families, and Students

In our first year we are finding an Adaptive challenge emerging from a Technical problem.

Quote from a parent:  "my son stopped bringing his computer to school, I was like "Manny...you wouldn't leave your binder at home would you?!", and he said "we havn't used it once in the past three days...it's heavy".

Not all students have devices, teachers are reluctant to invest lots of time into technologically transforming their instruction due to inequality, families on the margin of affordability are not making the investment because they see the same old pencil and paper assignments...that are being assigned because the teachers are waiting for more students with devices, who's families are waiting for the teachers....

If I were to summarize Act 2 by drawing a picture, it would be one of a snake eating it's tail*

ACT 3:  Homework and "I have serious concerns around equity when it comes to including  technology at the heart of classwork."

I hear this ALL THE TIME, mostly because it is a pretty legit claim...until it isn't.  What I mean by this is that it sounds totally legit, and I hear smart, progressive, edtech leaders cite some version of this concern often.  I shared the same deep concern for years.  What is starting to change my perspective is this question:

Why are so many of us concerned about equity in access to technology, yet so many of us regularly assign homework without the same concern for equity of access to home environments that support homework completion? 

If equity has not stopped you from trying to make homework better, more meaningful, more accessible, etc...please don't let equity stop you from doing the same with learning to leverage technology to improve instruction.

Epilogue:  Two Roads Diverged in a Yellow Wood...

Leaders:  BYOD is a classic example of a challenges that screams "I NEED A TECHNICAL SOLITION", at us and pulls us to plan, and plan, and plan.  In truth it reveals a whole host of adaptive challenges that may (or may not) exists at your school.  If you are a leader in any capacity, please inform your self on the difference between technical problems and adaptive challenges as much as possible.  Be ready for the deeper cultural challenges that BYOD will reveal at your site.  At the 4 sites in our district piloting BYOD this year, each has it's own unique blend of challenges that I would have never anticipated as people were preparing for the technical challenges that lay ahead.  Want help assessing your schools readiness to BYOD or anything EdTech related?  I highly suggest you chat up the folks at http://www.brightbytes.net/

Teachers:  Please, do not wait for "devices to arrive" to build your ability to include technology in your instruction.  They will come, I promise...and when they do, it will be the worst time to have to learn edtech.  That is to say, with all the students, sitting, watching you, and waiting for you to figure it out.  I started with nothing, no wireless, no cell phone (policy), and most importantly, no knowledge.   If this sounds like you, learn to leverage these three tools:  Some kind of website (Google Sites, Weebly, wikispaces), Youtube, Google Forms.  They will take you far.  Here is a page I made full of 4min videos on everything you need to know for Google Sites.

Big thanks to Eric Saibel (@ecsaibel follow him!) , who's twitter post with this Video (that I linked too now three times!) helped me put together this random collection of ideas into a story worth following.  Cheers Mate!


*this bit was (lovingly) ripped off from Kurt Vonnegut's "Breakfast of Champions"...