Post 3 - What is my sentence?

I have had so much fun learning my new skill. My students are involved and are cheering me along... it's fun to have fans! I have a few basic pieces that I have created and have found that I have little to no talent...LOL! I have been really good about practicing and purchased a workbook to help me practice strokes. It is fun, I can incorporate it into my everyday routine with ease. It is perfect to practice in front of the Bachelor and other mindless shows. I find it soothing and actually find it fun. My skill level was mediocre going into this genius hour endeavor and now is slightly above mediocre! Yay...growth! I have gained a some confidence from the week prior and decided that there is no harm in trying something that seems hard, even if I fail because even if I do I can rip it up and throw it away and no one will know!

My sentence is: Using stylized penmanship expresses my personality and brings life to letters.

Love adding flare to a gift!

I think Stanley is pissed I was using his pillow for display purposes!

Post 2 - Genius Hour Final Rose Ceremony

I really wanted to entertain an idea that involved my physical health...workout goals, eating healthy, etc. but I have done that before. I trained for a triathlon and loved it. I liked the schedule and structure. It felt like it was cheating to do it again. I considered desserts, it would be so fun to learn how to decorate cakes. My girls loved this idea (young metabolisms) but then I realized I would gain so much weight taste testing and licking my fingers with sugary goodness. Um, no thanks, that can't happen. There was also an investment in supplies, baking materials and time that led me away from my cake fantasy.

I have wanted to take a tap class ever since "Fake Monica" and Rachel, Monica, and Phoebe from FRIENDS took a class together. After some soul searching I realized I really wanted to be with THEM, not by myself learning to tap! My family also exercised veto rights on tap. I am already doing Zumba moves all around the house and the thought of me tapping in the house would drive us all crazy! I watched several tutorials online and obviously it is learning many very basic steps first before I could throw down some mad tapping like Gene Kelly!

Learning to do a handspring, a life long dream and one that I do often in my dreams was an idea that my middle-aged body strongly disagrees with. I watched several tutorials and while my heart wants to do that, I also don't want to be in a cast with broken wrists! Each tutorial was led by a lithe teenage girl showing incredible flexibility that I am self-aware enough to know, I don't have.

Snowboarding? Sure if I were out in Colorado on the real slopes but Four Lakes bunny hill didn't feel like a challenge I wanted to pay $300 for, plus I hate cold weather. Swimming a mile? Fair enough. I knew it was attainable but ultimately I know how hungry I get when I swim and that is a problem I don't want to contend with. I also got scared away from a couch to a mile swim program that was almost in a foreign language. "4 to 8 times 100m FC with 15-30 seconds rest between each. On the first 50m of each, breathe every 5 or 6 strokes and on the second 50m breathe every 3 strokes or try a 3-2-3-2 breathing pattern." What does any of that even mean? 

So that leaves me with Calligraphy. I love fun fonts (dafont.com is one of my favorite sites) so I figured traditional Calligraphy would be fun until I realized it didn't excite me and is a little too stuffy for me. See what I mean by being undecisive?!?! Now what crazy lady? I arrived at the decision to do a spin-off of Calligraphy called "Hand Lettering." It is fun, whimsical and artistic. It is easy to do at home and has little investment because I LOVE markers and pens and already have quite a collection. I feel like it will be a skill that I can use forever and am envisioning handwritten notes, birthday announcements for my students on the whiteboard, and making people feel special that I took the time to do something with them in mind executing my own personal flare!

Post 1 ~Generating ideas for Genius Hour

Ugh! This is the worst. If learning how to make decisions was a genius hour option that would be the one I should pick. I hate open-ended decision making. I'm the one at a restaurant who annoys the server saying, "Can you ask me last?" and then when everyone is done ordering, I'm still left reeling and hand wringing. If I saw me, I'd say "Jeez lady, just pick. It's one meal." I have even defaulted to I'll choose two and I make the server decide for me. Why? Why is decision making (Running shoes, jeans, backpacks, etc. ) so HARD for me? It's all the same...I hem, I haw. I do eventually tire of my research phase and ultimately do make informed decisions. So here I sit. Pick anything to get better at. Oh my! Choices overload. I have been all over the map with this one.  I enlisted the help of friends and family to help generate some ideas. Swimming a mile, snowboarding, cake decorating, calligraphy, back handspring (haha, I know, right?) and tap dancing. That's a random list! Stay tuned to see how I arrived at my ultimate decision!

Cyberbullying, it's a real thing!

I would absolutely hate to grow up today with the pervasive use of technology. Being a teenager was hard enough without iPhones, iPads, texting, tweeting, FB, Instagram, Snapchat, you name it. We had payphones and answering machines. If you missed a party, you missed a party. You didn't have to see the party pics as it was happening. You didn't have to feel excluded from all the fun it appeared your friends were having without you. Being a good digital citizen comes with a lot of responsibility and maturity that today's youth don't yet possess. Queue Cyberbullying.  Unfortunately, it happens. It's real. Sometimes it's accidental but usually, it is very intentional and very hurtful. I've lived through it as a parent, as a teacher, as a neighbor, as a friend and I'll tell you what it never gets any easier. I loved this assignment and being able to revisit cyberbullying and retune my awareness and understanding of it.

Cyberbullying

Move over HGTV, here I come...

I love rearranging. I live in a house that doesn't support the reorganization of furniture so I get to relive my childhood hobby by rearranging my classroom. This project of designing a functional classroom was right up my alley. I found it to be very satisfying. As a teacher, I do monthly desk reorganization to mix it up and then every other month or two I do a whole room rehaul. The kids love it and it feels like Christmas morning! This project really allowed me to think about my dream room and what I'd love to have. My favorite addition is a stationary bike and exercise balls. I know after a long day of sitting and listening to professional development, I'd love to sit on a bike and move a little bit! I have some antsy pantsies that would benefit from the freedom of movement! I also loved being able to design the locations of the power outlets and design a technology zone!

EEND-680 21st Century Ed Leadership Reflection

My biggest takeaway from this class is the power of observation. I was moved by the #observeme movement and even volunteered to have my teammate observe me and participate in my formal evaluation cycle for her Type 75 certification program. It was very liberating to open myself up to critique from my peer and welcome her to my pre/post-conference meetings with my principal.  I enjoyed creating a google form and becoming the evaluator and watching my teammates as well. It really gave me perspective on what principals have to do during our evaluation cycles.

Teacher Observation Google Form

I was really challenged by planning a 30 minute, online, self-paced professional development on the introduction of Twitter. I incorporated some tricks that we've learned through this journey and linked a few slides in my presentation. I am glad that I have more tools in my toolbox because of this curriculum. I was inspired to do this self-paced training on Twitter based on our Capstone Project and asking teachers to use Twitter. I remember how resistant we were at the beginning of this program and how far we've all come. I thought that these "baby steps" into Twitter would be a good first start!

Twitterific

Capstone Project update

The realization that this is a huge undertaking has hit me when I think of how hard it is motivating people to do anything out of their normal day-to-day expectations. The real struggle became glaringly apparent how hard it was to motivate teachers in our district when we were asked to show up to support the negotiations committee by showing up to a board meeting wearing red. I thought there would be hordes of people, a sea of red, a sheer force to be reckoned with, but it wasn't. There were many that showed up in support of the negotiation team and the hard work put in to fight for our contract rights, but not as many as you would think. The level of return on investment should've been very high. This is our salary, insurance, and vacation that we're talking about and still, only about 1/3 of teachers showed up. SO, this gets me to the Capstone Project. How in the world are we going to get investment and teacher buy-in when there is zero return on investment? Incentives are great but we can't really offer anything of much value. Here is a digital badge, or sticker? Somehow we have to figure out a way to make it fun and easy to do. We have to get some buy-in from staff and hopefully encourage a decent level of competition and hopefully turn the spotlight on something encouraging during this bleak negotiation time.
Another struggle is the size of the group. It's tough to motivate a whole class to invest in a project. I like how we broke into smaller more manageable sized groups. From there we must rely on good faith that each group is holding their own and contributing to the success of the project.
I'm excited to see how this all plays out and to hopefully inspire some healthy competition among the grade level teams!