Digging A Hole, Building The Bridge, and Making Changes

“You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone's soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows that they might do because of it, because of your words. That is your role, your gift.” 

- Erin Morgenstern

Classroom discussions at morning meeting

Storytelling shapes my teaching. I teach metric conversions through telling a story about my cousin Meg (plot twist - her name isn't even Meg) calling my great grandmother, Millie ("Meg, Call Millie"), explain the purpose of an anemometer by regaling my class with my mom's reaction to my various speeding tickets commendations for excellence in high speed driving and, and countless other tales. But each of these are more or less a one-off story. It teaches the concept, we refer to it to help establish retention, and then we move on.

However, there are three parables I constantly refer to, especially during morning meeting, in one on one conversations, or in small group work. They shape the dynamic of the classroom and help bolster the students with senses of support, independence, and resiliency. 

"How Are You Going to Get Yourself Out of the Hole?"

photo credit

This story involves a lot of body movement in it. I pantomime digging a hole. "If you dig down to your ankles, you can easily step out. If you get to your waist, it's a little harder, but it's still doable. You get to your shoulders, well... you'll be climbing. If you get in over your head, hopefully someone is there to help."

The students enjoy seeing me act all of this out. Then I reveal - "Think about this in terms of school. If you choose not to work on something in class, you may need to finish it at home. If you don't do it then, you may have to try to do it during class. It can build up." The metaphor soon turns real. I ask them to apply it to how concepts over time will only get worse if they don't work to become better. Being up to your waist at the end of fourth grade can quickly become over your head at the beginning of fifth if the hole isn't filled in over the summer.

In education nowadays, we have a tendency to not let students fail or experience struggle. Jess Lahey wrote an excellent book about this called The Gift of Failure, which I reviewed in a post last year. We need to let the students struggle and see that things can build up. Give them a shovel and ownership of their hole. They will figure it out.

But make sure they know you will always be there at the top of the hole, reaching down to help them. Kids are not perfect (nor are adults) and they need modeling and guidance. I am always very open and honest with my students when I have dug myself into a hole and how I am working to get out of it. Students will still need to work to get to reach your hand from the side of the hole and to fill in their hole, but they need to know their support system is there to help.

"You Can Only Build a Bridge Halfway"

photo credit

To begin this, I asked the students to think of our classroom as a series of islands. 

Me: "How do you get from one island from another?" 

Class: "You can swim or sail a boat!" 

Me: "True, but you're ruining my metaphor here. You can also build a bridge."

I then go on to say that to build a bridge, each side much build half and meet in the middle or else it will collapse. (To be completely transparent here, I started this story without really knowing if it's true. After a little research, I found out that the arch of the Sydney Harbor Bridge was built from both sides. It may be done for the reason I said, but I'm not an engineer!) 

The moral here is that education needs to be a two way street (or bridge.) Many teachers do a fantastic job of teaching students in an engaging, interactive, and differentiated way, but the students need to have the same level of effort in their desire to learn and work ethic. We need to be equal partners in education or it will all fall apart. Students need to be taught what this means to have strong work ethic and building a bridge. Mini lessons on character and resiliency are a must and we need to be models for this with our students, colleagues, and parents. Furthermore, students should build bridges with each other, whether it be in academics or social skills. It needs to be an equal partnership. What would a classroom community of interconnected islands look like for you?

"We Don't Make Excuses, We Make Changes"

My keynote - note the title

The final story is perhaps the most important one to me. Not only is this our classroom motto, this is my mantra for life. (Even to the extent that I titled my keynote based on this phrase.) After my second year of teaching, I was full of excuses and complaints. I was highly negative and blamed others. I realized this was a waste of time. What could I change to make it better?

This is a message that I feel my students (and many adults) can benefit from. What changes can you make to improve a situation? In the classroom, I constantly challenged my students with this. Rather than saying what another student had done, what could they have done differently?

Role playing, modeling, and concrete examples in read alouds help to reinforce this concept. I often share examples from my own life, especially the time I put off getting my car inspected because "I didn't have time" but then had to get it out of impound for more time and money. Obviously, some situations and circumstances didn't fit this mantra perfectly, but often times I could help the students take ownership of their life and learning by reminding them of our class motto.

All of the stories figured largely into my classroom. Not a single day went by where we didn't mention digging a hole, building a bridge, or making changes. We ended our morning meeting every day by repeating our class motto (video below). Students are our partners in education and need to be held accountable. They are literally our future and need to learn how to be a good person, in addition to all the academic content we're mandated to teach. We need to support them in this character building process, and by living these virtues and mantras, my students became capable, dynamic, and independent young citizens.

Year 3 In Review

"Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action." 

-Peter Drucker

I have been out of school for about two weeks now, and have been dragging my feet on writing this post. I have been reflecting on what I wanted to say, how I wanted to say it, and how to best format my thoughts. I decided to structure it similarly to my end of 2015 blog post - sharing successes, challenges, updating on my resolutions, and sharing new goals for next year.

1. What went well?

First and foremost, my students greatly surpassed my academic expectations for them. Each student showed at least a years worth of growth in reading, and much more in math. I am not one to harp on data, but in comparing their end of year tests in third grade versus fourth grade, I saw drastic improvement in nearly all students.

Reciprocal teaching in math

Furthermore, my students showed a greater maturity and developed strong growth mindsets. While growth mindset seems to be one of the latest education buzzwords, I saw my students achieve and excel while demonstrating growth mindset principles. One of my students struggled severely in math in the beginning of the year. He couldn't seem to grasp the concept of regrouping/borrowing/exchanging/whatever the correct term is in subtraction. I worked with him with physical manipulatives, with numbers, computer programs, peer tutoring, and everything else imaginable, but what made the difference was him. He recognized a weakness, wanted to get better, worked at it, and ended up teaching other students how to do it. Another time, my students were working on a Breakout EDU box and one kid stopped the whole class to remind everyone to use their growth mindsets and not give up. I had it on Periscope, but Katch decided to shut down so I can't link the video here. 

We spent a lot of time in class developing the soft skills and other skills needed for life. We had three parables I constantly came back to: "Making Changes, Building a Bridge, and Digging a Hole." I'll explore these parables more in my next post, but they had a definitive impact on my students.

Controlled chaos on a STEAM challenge

I tried a whole lot of new things in class, including student led learning, flipped classroom, Breakout EDU, coding, higher integration of STEAM/Makerspaces, HyperDocs (introduced to me by the wonderful Karly Moura,) and 1:1 Chromebooks. All of these were successful (to varying degrees) and I will use elements of each in my next school year.

2. What challenges did I face?

While student led learning was my main goal for the year, I think I went at it too hard too fast. Hindsight being 20:20, I should have scaffolded it more. I added more scaffolding around the midpoint of the school year, and next year I need to start with more scaffolding and then pull back. I do not think my students suffered from this though. It forced them to learn new skills (that they need) at a rapid pace. Sometimes, you've got to run before you can walk.

A reluctant reader reads Kid President at Morning Meeting

My timing/pacing was off this year. We started earlier than ever before, and our semester break was before Christmas and our end of year tests were in early May, as compared to last year when the semester ended in January and our end of year tests were in early June. It was definitely a transition, and I will need to be cognizant of that in the future. I was still able to teach all of the material, but I felt rushed at times and did not get much time at the end of the school year to do some of the activities that I've done in the past (like Reader's Cafe.)

All in all, the year was different and challenging at times, but I feel it was extremely successful. 

3. Updates on resolutions

I had developed four resolutions for 2016 and this section will serve to update progress on them. 

The proposal

• I will continue to hold my students to high expectations: I would say this has been achieved and will continue to be a focal point of my teaching. Students need to know they are going to be held to high standards and they will meet them.
• I will develop better systems for testing/grading and time management: I developed better systems for testing and grading. When a student finished their test, they brought it up to be and I graded on the spot. I gave them a second chance or gave some brief remediation. This system seemed to work better for the students and for me. It also allowed me to follow up with more focused remediation later. My time management has gotten better, but I still need to work to carve out chunks of time to work and time to relax. 
• I will continue to develop professionally and look for new opportunities: I have left my position in Warren County and will be starting as a fourth grade teacher in Stafford County for the next year. I am extremely excited for this new opportunity and can't wait to see what it brings. Additionally, I co-created Breakout EDU Digital with Mari Venturino in March and that has been a wonderful opportunity. Attending the Google for Education Innovator Academy in late February left me with many takeaways (check them out here and here.)
• I will take more time for my personal life: I realized this was the biggest goal I needed to work on. In February, I proposed to my girlfriend, and now she is my fiance. We are buying a house closer to my new school this summer and I have enjoyed taking more time to spend with her and create more memories. When Mark French came to visit me in March, he shared that sometimes you've got to unplug and make a commitment to spend time. With this, I learned how to say no to other things and have had to cut things out of my "online life" to make room for enjoying what is real.

4. So what's next?

While I will miss my old fourth grade team, other colleagues, and seeing my old students, I am extremely excited for my new career adventure. I have met with my new team and they seem incredibly supportive and easy going (plus, there is another guy on the team!) This new school should be a great fit for me.

I want to get into standards-based grading (which my new team does a version of) and a more integrated/cross curricular teaching method. I think this is the best way to truly assess the students' understanding and maximize instructional time. I want to still continue doing elements of the above things from the successes paragraph, with more scaffolding in student led and revamping some elements of flipped classroom. 

Room 22 Family 2015-2016

Above all things, I want to refocus. Over the past year since I joined Twitter, I have been dabbling into many things and doing a good job with them. I don't want to do a good job of many things, I want to do a great job of a few things. I will be focusing on teaching, my personal life, EduRoadTrip, Breakout EDU Digital, and #FlyHighFri. (After some thoughts, I have lessened my involvement with various Twitter chats and completely dropped #Teach20s.) Sharing these responsibilities with the awesome team of Mari and Greg Bagby will also help in the time commitments. I would also like to continue to carve out time for reading (both personal and professional) and writing. 

Last year, I closed this blog entry with a snippet from a student's end-of-year survey, and I feel this is a good way to end it again:

"It was the best year of my life. I made new friends and I had some drama. Mr.B is the best teacher ever and I learned a lot from him. Also if you focus you have know Idea what you can do. When you make class fun, students learn more and are much more happy to go to school."

Breakout EDU Digital

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Due to my cancer diagnosis in November 2016, I made the decision to leave this project to focus on my health. After finding out I was in remission, I decided to remain inactive to focus more on my classroom and personal life, and to dedicate more time to spreading awareness at my testicular cancer blog (which I highly recommend you check out). I cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information from the following post any longer. 

My Breakout EDU set up

Breakout EDU is an immersive learning platform developed by James Sanders and Mark Hammons. After visiting an escape room (a room where you are locked in and have to solve clues and riddles to escape) with a group of students, James and Mark noted how engaged the students were while working on the escape. Realizing most educators can’t lock students in a room (for obvious legal and ethical reasons), the two decided to flip the concept - take a wooden box, add a hasp and a few locks, and provide clues. Let the students’ natural curiosity and excitement do the rest. By the end, students will have (hopefully) found and figured out all of the clues, enabling them to unlock all the locks and complete the game before time runs out.

We (Justin & Mari) have run multiple Breakout EDU games with our students, and love seeing how engaged and motivated our students are, even those who less likely to participate in class. We realized how much fun these games were, while also being educational. We wanted to replicate them using only digital tools. With Google Forms and data validation, we were able to recreate the locked box and hasp. In our games, all clues are linked directly within a Google Site, and take some serious detective work to solve.

The original beta tester - my little sister

This project started small, and we expected to share the games around, then move on with other things. When we sent out the initial invitation to Beta test our games on March 25, 2016, we were blown away with over 200 responses in less than 36 hours. After the initial Beta test and feedback, we released our games and website out to a wider audience on Facebook and Twitter.

In mid-April, James Sanders reached out to us and asked if we’d like to officially become Breakout EDU Digital, and take on breakoutedu.com/digital. We responded with an immediate “yes!” and began integrating our content into the Breakout EDU website.

We’ve certainly learned a lot since we first launched our games. One lesson we've learned is that we constantly need to be flexible in our teaching. As part of our games we have a feedback form that allows us to hear directly from the people who are playing our games. We act on all feedback that we feel improves the games, which is something an effective teacher should always do as you gauge student reaction in class.

My students playing "Overthrow the Co-Dictators"

Resiliency and growth mindset has been another huge focal point of this project. We purposely make the games challenging and rather in-depth. Sometimes people contact us asking for answers or hints, and we encourage them to explore the games alongside their students, to show that teachers don’t always hold all the knowledge. This may make some teachers uncomfortable, but the connections your class forms as you decode the games together will pay off in dividends.

You can definitely tie your instructional content into a Breakout EDU, whether the box version or the digital type. For our digital game “Alcatraz Night Escape,” we included a number of facts and information about the history of Alcatraz necessary to unlock the Form. Other users who have created their own have also tied their content into their digital breakouts. Imagine how much more engaging this is than reading it from a textbook!

So how can you develop your own Breakout EDU Digital games? We’ve tried to streamline the process by having a “Build Your Own” button on the website. These are a series of screencast tutorials that model different elements of our games. The most important element is the Google Form that acts as the box. Under advanced settings on “short answer” (in the new Forms) or “text” (in the old Forms,) you must turn on “data validation.” From there, type in the desired response and add something like “Still locked” or “Keep trying” in the help text. If you don’t, it will give the answer to the students. There are plenty more tutorials available for you to watch, and we’re always on the lookout for new ideas!

Breakout EDU Digital LIVE 

One of the critical elements of the original Breakout EDU is the collaboration and communication between the classmates. With Breakout EDU Digital, there might not always been that inherent need for collaboration since each device is its own box. We have presented at a GAFE Summit (Mari live, and Justin on Google Hangouts) where we had participants play a short demo game. The session started out with everyone on their own devices, and the naturally paired up and then formed larger groups to work together to solve the breakout. Additionally, we recently hosted a Breakout EDU Digital LIVE event with eighteen adults working together to solve a brand new game. These events proved that the collaboration factor definitely takes it to the next level.

We predict an exciting future for Breakout EDU Digital. We recently launched a Digital Sandbox, where community members can submit their own games for others to play and provide feedback. Additionally, we are both building their own individual games and collaborating on games, and are on pace to release one game per week for the foreseeable future. We always love feedback and suggestions on new directions and how to improve our games.

So what are you waiting for? Go visit breakoutedu.com and breakoutedu.com/digital to learn more about how you can use it in your classroom. The students will be engaged, will collaborate, will develop interpersonal skills, will have fun, and will even learning something along the way!

Author's Note: This post has been cross posted on Ditch the Textbook blog and Mari Venturino's blog.

Innovation Across the Nation (Part 2 - Professional Reflection)

"A key ingredient in innovation is the ability to challenge authority and break rules."

- Vivek Wadhwa

Over the past 6 days, I have been fortunate enough to travel to California to attend the Google for Education Certified Innovator Academy at the Googleplex in Mountain View. This has been a life-changing experience, and to fully do it justice, I need to split the experience into two parts. This is my professional reflection and you'll find my personal reflection here.

While all of the sightseeing and memory making was incredible, the real reason I was in California was to attend the aforementioned Google for Education Certified Innovation Academy. To get you up to speed, I applied for the Innovator program in January. The process involved designing an ideal classroom, proposing a problem and innovative solution, a video, and other tasks (you can read more about the process in this NVDaily article.) After being accepted into the Academy with 33 other extraordinary people (who you can meet on this episode of the EduRoadTrip,) we began connecting and soon enough, the time was here. Our flights landed, hotels checked into, Ubers ordered, we were ready to come together and innovate. 

In a word: WOW. It was an incredible learning experience. I recorded a rambling reflection the day after the Academy which I think so shows how much I have rolling around in my head. We learned about moonshot thinking, mindfulness, happiness, qualities of an effective team and management, how to motivate others without overwhelming them, and a whole laundry list of other topics. The speakers were inspiring and motivating. It was an invigorating breath of fresh air with every new person who took the podium.

Team Black Eyed P.E.A.C.E.

Part of the expectations as Innovators is to design and implement an Innovation Project. This Project focuses on a meaningful problem in education and how we plan to solve it in a meaningful way. A large amount of time was dedicated to working on our Innovation Projects. My initial vision for my Innovation Project was an expansion of the Home-School Connection Nights to aid families in helping their children with math. Right now, the HSCNs are working on a varied basis. I really believe in the power of a family partnership and think that can make the difference in education. After discussing with my team, The Black Eyed P.E.A.C.E., and coach Jay Atwood I had an epiphany.

Perhaps my greatest passion in education is student empowerment. We discussed if the two could be combined and loved the idea. Within the next month, I plan to prototype this in my own classroom. The students will teach their parents (a twist on the Student-Led Conferences from the fall) and I will act as a facilitator. I'll be getting a Theta or Swivl to record these experiences to share them with other interested parties. I also want to implement some sort of gamification and more fun into these evenings.

UPDATE: My project has changed to Breakout EDU Digital, which you can read more about here. I did implement a prototype of my initial plan, which you can check out via KidsDiscover.  

All the Innovators

I am really excited to see how it goes. As the Academy showed me, there may be a need for iterations (minor course corrections) and pivots (large changes.) It's sometimes hard to let go of our ideas because they are so near and dear to us, but change needs to occur to maximize impact. Part of the Academy included opening up our idea for feedback from everyone, and now I have even more to consider as I continue developing my prototype. There is even a possibility that the project may be scrapped and revamped entirely as I grow and expand my horizons.

Beyond the Academy, EdCampSV also got the wheels turning in my mind. This was one conference where I am not walking away with a ton of instructional ideas, but with more ideas and lessons to ponder. In the “Things That Suck” session, we had some great debates about homework, testing, professional development, and mayonaise. I was able to defend my position on each, while also respecting the thoughts of others. These kinds of conversations are what push education further ahead and we need to be having them more.

This trip also helped me to think critically about my own self, especially in my interactions with other teachers. I am incredibly energetic and talk a mile a minute, especially when it comes to discussing technology integration. I often get frustrated when others don’t seem to innately understand seemingly easy tasks or are resistant to learning something new. However, traveling halfway across the country put it in perspective. The roads here in San Franscico are very overwhelming to me. Even riding in a car caused me anxiety. Now I can see what others may be feeling when I am getting super excited about technology integration. Just like I was out of my element, so are they. I need to remember this when helping others and help them overcome it, just like I did with embracing the traffic.

This resonates with what one of the speakers said about fear. We can resist fear and get hurt , let it run our lives, or we can “dance with it.” Change is coming and it needs to happen.

With Coach Jay Atwood

You’ll notice that these two blog posts were very lacking in discussion about technology, which you would think you would have found in this particular post. While we did talk a lot about the impact of technology, I believed the Academy was more about mindset. We have big problems in education and we need even bigger solutions. We need to empower students, families, teachers, and everyone in education to innovate every single day. Only then will we get where we want education to be.

To EdTechTeam, Google for Education, the coaches and mentors, the #MTV16 cohort, and everyone who supported me in this endeavor, thank you. It was well worth the money for this experience. You can check out the vlogs I made about the experience on YouTube. I hope to continue connecting with you all and look forward to big things from us in the future.

Innovation Across the Nation (Part 1 - Personal Reflection)

“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” ― Terry Pratchett

Over the past 6 days, I have been fortunate enough to travel to California to attend the Google for Education Certified Innovator Academy at the Googleplex in Mountain View. This has been a life-changing experience, and to fully do it justice, I need to split the experience into two parts. This is my personal reflection and you'll find my professional reflection here.

Typical pose with Mari

The best personal memory from this trip was the chance to spend a day with my partner-in-crime Mari Venturino. Mari has probably been mentioned in more than half of my blog posts and we have become super close over the past year. However, we had never met before this week. On Saturday, she picked me up and we went to EdCampSV in Palo Alto. After the EdCamp, we went to Windy Hill, which had some incredible views. We recorded an on location EduRoadTrip, which you can check out here. Finally, she took me for my first In-and-Out experience. It was amazing, to be blunt.

Karly, Mari, and me

The EdCamp was fun (with lots of learning to be covered in Part 2) and I got to meet some of my Twitter friends (Karly Moura, Craig Yen, Ben Cogswell, Joe Young, and probably more that I am forgetting) and make some new ones!

Outside of preexisting friends, I made a ton of new close bonds with the #MTV16 Innovator Cohort. (Team Black Eyed P.E.A.C.E. represent!) I could list all the people I consider friends at this point, but then I would just retype the entire Innovator list. I have memories with each of these people and I look forward to continued friendship with them all. I will give a big shout out to my German-South African roommate Adriaan van der Bergh, who brought Lindsey, Natalie, and Ari to our room the first day. To #TeamES and #Team378, thanks for making the hotel fun!

Jump shot attempt 187

While I was in San Francisco before the Innovation Academy officially started, I got to visit the Golden Gate Bridge with Jess, Chrystal, David, and Jared. After about 273 attempts to make a jump shot picture, we finally got one great one of us over the Bridge. We wandered around San Francisco, talked about life and education, and got to just generally enjoy our time together.

With Bill Baker at Alcatraz

The following day, I channeled my inner Sean Connery and visited The Rock (Alcatraz Island.) I am ashamed to say I forgot that The Rock was in San Fran, but as soon as I found out, I dropped all plans to go to the Full House house (sorry Mallory) and went here. I was joined by Katie, Angie, Maggie, and Erica (only one of which who has seen The Rock.) The audio tour was extraordinary and it was surreal to be inside the actual prison. The entire experience came to a head at the end of the tour. A former inmate named Bill Baker was on site talking about his experience and signing copies of his memoir. I bought one and had a wonderful discussion with him. He told us that the average IQ of the inmates was actually higher than the US national average at the time. In his words, "they were the dumbest smart people in the nation."

Credit to Mattcopter for the incredible photo

But by far the coolest place I got to visit was the Googleplex itself. I got to ride the famous Google bikes, tour the campus, drive Google Earth in the Holodeck, eat some incredible and unique food, take a nap in the nap pods, and take all the selfies. I quite literally felt like I was in The Internship. This is definitely crossed off my bucket list and now I need to find a way to get to the Marvel Headquarters.

On a personal level, this trip has been an amazing experience. You can check out the vlogs I made about the experience on YouTube. It is honestly hard to go back, but I am excited to see Mallory, Conner, and my students again. I will never forget the memories, experiences, and people I met along the way.

Living Like George Washington

"First in war, first in peace, and first 

in the hearts of his countrymen."

- Henry "Light Horse" Lee

Mt. Vernon after hours

The above quote comes from the eulogy of George Washington, and pretty much sums up what the average American knows about Washington. We are taught from an early age that he was a strong leader during the Revolutionary War, the first President, and the Father of our Country. However, the man behind the legend is much, much more. 

While at VSTE15, I saw a tweet from @GWBooks in my #vachat Tweetdeck column about "A Residential Weekend with George Washington" at Mt. Vernon. I clicked on it to find that there was an opportunity for Virginia educators to spend a weekend on the grounds of Mt. Vernon, delving deeper into the role of Washington during the Revolution era. I applied, was accepted into the Teacher Institute, and made my way there last weekend.

Our political cartoon

In a word - Incredible. I learned so much from this experience. My brain is still trying to process all of the information I took in. For example, Washington's motives and views on the Revolution surprised me, and I gained a larger insight into his stance on slavery. I actually took notes by hand, which will come as a surprise to anyone who knows me due to my love of technology and atrocious handwriting, but I found it to help me in retaining the information. The scholars they brought in were amazing, as were the educational staff. Each of them had a great balance of knowledge and personality. The other educators joining me were incredibly insightful and a pleasure to be around.

I learned so much more than just content about Washington. A major facet of the program was learning how to effectively use primary sources in teaching. I have attended professional development sessions about using primary sources before and studied it extensively during my graduate program, but something just clicked during this experience. Specifically, I liked that you do not need to use the entire primary source, how readily accessible most transcriptions are, and you can use primary sources to have students create their own, as we did in the pictured political cartoon. I am going to be using primary sources to teach most of my upcoming Civil War unit, drawing on lessons and instructional tips I learned here.

Sunrise on the Potomac

Beyond the learning, the experience was truly one of a kind. We had total access to the grounds of the estate the entire time and were given an exclusive tour of the mansion. How many people can say they watched the sunrise from Washington's porch, gazed at the moonlit profile of Mt. Vernon from the back lawn, or enjoyed the sunset from the cupola of the home? I will literally never get to do that again (unless I am accepted for another program there, which I hope to do). This experience will definitely spoil me for when I go to another estate. Luckily, there are more Teacher Institutes in other locations and I have already begun working on the application for one at Monticello.

When I returned from the trip, I developed a challenge for my students on Google Classroom. It contained various tidbits of information I had learned, which would involve their research skills, analysis of primary sources, and family involvement. About half of my class chose work on the challenge on MLK Day, all working to earn a chance to view the sunrise through Google Cardboard. The parents and students alike enjoyed the challenge, which you can view here.

Sunset from the top

This post did not do the entire weekend justice. It was an adventure like no other. My knowledge of George Washington and my ability to use primary sources were definitely impacted through this experience. I recommend visiting the Mt. Vernon website and checking when they are offering one for your state, or other historical homes in your area to see if they have anything similar. You'll learn a lot and develop memories that will last a lifetime. 

#Teach20s

Author's Note: This project ceased to exist in April 2016. If anyone wants to adapt it as their own, be my guest. I still feel there is a need for it.

In our respective 2015 reflection blog posts (Justin’s here and Mari’s here,) we noted that part of our resolutions was to continue to grow and look for new opportunities, and specifically mentioned a Top Secret Plan between the two of us.

Consider this Phase 1 of the Top Secret Plan.

#Teach20s is a new slowchat for teachers in their twenties. We will focus on the balance between growing into an adult, while thriving as a new teacher. Let’s face it, becoming an effective adult is just as daunting of a task as becoming a master teacher. Let’s build a community of openness, honesty, and collaboration to all help each other grow.

Not in your twenties anymore? That’s perfectly fine too! #Teach20s members can benefit from advice on how you navigated through this time in your life. Teachers in their twenties need a solid mentor who will help them not only grow as a teacher, but also as a person.

In our 2015 reflection posts, we also mentioned that we want to dedicate more time to our personal lives and improve our instructional practice. Starting a new Twitter chat seems like a direct contrast to this. We beg to differ. We are constructing a place where we can grow personally and professionally, and we are surrounding ourselves with individuals who will help us improve our instructional practice.

Because we know how important time is to everyone, we are offering this as a slow chat. On Sunday morning, we will post the question (with the #teach20s hashtag) through our Twitter accounts (@Mr_B_Teacher and @MsVenturino) and the new @Teach_20s account. It will be a graphic and will be reposted a few times throughout the week. Whenever you get a chance, respond with the #Teach20s hashtag. We encourage you to respond to others and engage in meaningful conversation, as that will help us all to grow. Remember to set up a column for #teach20s in Tweetdeck to help track the chat easier.

Establishing a new identity as an adult and navigating a new career of teaching can be a daunting experience. Let’s not do it alone; let’s help each other. If you have any suggestions or ideas for topics, feel free to leave a comment below.

Author’s note: This post is cross posted on Mari Venturino’s blog too.