Distinguished Educator, Distinguished Community

This week I submitted my application to join the Apple Distinguished Educator class of 2013. After weeks of planning and sleepless nights working on my application, it was finished and ready to be submitted. I submitted my application and this screen appeared:

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks, the magnitude of what I had just done. This moment was a year and a half in the making. Ever since I followed my first institute on Twitter in 2011, I knew that something was happening in education I had never seen before and I couldn't wait until it was my turn to apply. No matter what happens, many of them are already a part of my network. They teach me something new every single day whether they mean to or not. They inspire me with their creativity and fearlessness. They challenge me to be more for my students and bring my best everyday. I consider many of them colleagues and trusted friends. I am grateful that they share what they learn so I can learn along with them. I am privileged to have some of the most innovative people I have ever met in my learning network.

Learning with Mr. Tully

One of the most valuable additions to my PLN over the last year has been Christopher Tully. Christopher Tully is a multimedia technology instructor at Middle Bucks Institute of Technology, adjunct professor, and trainer. By following his blog, Twitter feed, and seeing his presentations, I have learned so much about what it means to be an educator. I have learned strategies that have served me well in the classroom that I have been able to share with other educators.

These are a few of the gems I've gotten from him in the past year:

"Let students learn by failing." This is something that I am still processing and working through but I am learning that students can learn just as much from failure as they can from success.

Responsibility, time management and collaboration are important when using technology in the classroom. Using technology is about more than the tool itself. Teachers need to communicate clear expectations for appropriate use, set guidelines, and allow for collaboration with others to ensure that activities and projects run smoothly.

Career and technical education is so much more than most realize. Christopher Tully is a vocal advocate for career and technical education. Students in career and technical education are not academically challenged. They learn the same standards-required content as those in traditional educational settings but they are allowed to do it in a hands-on and project-based way. 

"Empower students to use technology. You'll never know what they do." Within every student, there is tons of creativity waiting to be unleashed. Giving them a tool plus the freedom to create with it can release that creativity and talents they may not have known they had.

"Teacher behavior impacts student achievement." Every student can remember a teacher that believed in them and helped them to achieve more than they imagined. It is those teachers that sincerely have the ability to change lives. A teacher's attitude, as well as their words, can have great impact on their students and shape how they view themselves as learners. 

Set higher expectations to maximize student potential. It is believed that demanding more from students is setting them up for failure. I disagree. I believe that when students are challenged, they rise to meet those expectation. Students are capable of more than they realize and with opportunities to prove themselves, they often will. 

Success for students should be doing their best work. In a day and age when we are driven by grades and test scores, the intrinsic motivation of learning can easily be lost. Instead, students need to be encouraged to put their best effort into everything they do.

One of my favorite talks he did was on creating engaged and motivated classrooms. I applied a lot of this when I was student teaching and it changed the way my students worked, the classroom environment, and my interaction with my students.

iAm a Supporter of Student Branding

Last week, Steve Hargadon interviewed Apple Distinguished Educator Christine DiPaulo about her iAm Collection, a collection that originated from last year's ADE summer institute. The course involves students completing a series of exercises such as creating personal brand statements, designing logos, and concludes with a resuME which tells their story. Christine shared the collection and had some of her students share their personal projects and discuss their journey of creating them. I was amazed hearing the students share their stories of self-discovery as a result of creating their student brands. I applaud and support projects and courses like these because through them students are learning how to establish and control their digital identities. They are learning that everything they create, in the digital world as well as the real world, is a representation on themselves to the world. Instead of fearing student interaction with the Internet, students are being encouraged to showcase their work and tell their story. As digital media becomes more ingrained in students' lives, it is important that they are taught how to create a digital legacy they can be proud of in the years to come.

If you missed the interview with Christine and her class, you can watch a recording of it here

For information on the iAm Collection and personal branding, check out their student page and iTunes U collection

Apples in the Desert: The ADE Summer Institute

Image by Chris Penny

This week was the summer institute for the new class of Apple Distinguished Educators in Phoeniz, AZ. I followed along on Twitter and it seemed as though just as many powerful things were happening with a small group of 200 educators as the 18,000 people that attended the annual ISTE conference.


What impresses me so much about this group? These educators don't just sit around and talk; they plan, they promote, they collaborate. I have seen the fruit of their work and, one by one, they are changing the landscape of education in their classes, in their schools and in their communities. Their goal? Improving learning by learning themselves. Their learning didn't stay inside a conference room all week but spread throughout learning communities inspiring educators who weren't able to be there. 


Here are some powerful things that came out of this week:
We need to allow students to use the digital tools they use outside of the classroom. Presenter Kevin Honeycutt captured it best when he said "If we amputate students' digital limbs when they walk in the door, how can we expect them to learn?"


Tips for Storytelling:
    -Be unique
    -Know your audience
    -Engage
    -Be concise
    -Start strong. End strong.
    -Think about perspective
    -Show. Don't tell


"It's not about teaching. It's about facilitating learning." - Chris Tully

"Not sure what kids are doing on their computers in the classroom? GET UP! If you love your chair so much, retire." -Kevin Honeycutt

"Technology is nothing without a real relationship with our students." -Kevin Honeycutt


"Passion knows no hours." -Bill Frakes


Thanks to all of the ADEs for tweeting what they were learning throughout the week so I could learn along with you :-)