Mrvaudrey

Tag: edtech

  • What’s Missing?

    This tweet caught my eye last week.


    Three things on that.

    1.) I’d be a way better coach

    All four people tagged in that tweet can testify that credibility is the most precious commodity for an educational trainer.

    Skeptics can smell B a desk jockey the minute they walk into the conference room wearing dress shoes or heels.

    redshoe
    THIS is what teachers wear.

    I’m guilty of this skepticism, too. B For the last eight years, I’ve attended CMC-South every fall, and some of the presenters are…

    well….

    professors.

    Good... uh.... good afternoon. We... um... we received a grant in 2006...
    Good… uh…. good afternoon. We… um… we received a grant in 2006…

    I’d scoff silently and see if any other–more interesting–sessions were taking place in that time slot. I’m a teacher, I told myself. I’m not going to waste 90 minutes listening to this district stooge talk about “rigor”.

    Now I’m the district stooge.

    Teaching one period a day would allow me 55 minutes to try out those ideas that Twitter and Voxer find for me: those ideas that sound awesome and I want to immediately try in the classroom.

    Teaching, however, is a lot like making fudge.

    Photo credit in the link.
    Photo credit in the link.

    Every fall, I make fudge for my students before Winter Break. I buy the ingredients, set up my double boiler, line the cooling tray with wax paper, and chop almonds and walnuts.

    When I had 200 students, I made 5 batches of fudge.
    When I had 80 students, I made 3 batches of fudge.
    This year, I’ll probably make two batches of fudge.1

    All the prep is the same, it’s just repeatingB the steps.

    While I daydream about doing both roles, in reality…

    2.) I’d be aB wayB worse coach.

    If I taught one period of students, I’m still prepping the lesson, entering grades, hanging student work on the wall, developing seating charts, and cutting out colored paper for aB class set of congruentB triangle cards.

    All for only one batch of fudge.
    Seems like an awful waste of energy.

    As a one-period-per-day teacher, I have department meetings, IEPs, back-to-school night, and a heavenly host of other duties that keep me from meeting teachers as a coach.

    Many would re-schedule.
    Most would just give up trying to get a hold of me.

    "Never mind. I'll make my own overhead transparencies."
    “Never mind. I’ll make my own overhead transparencies.”

    It wouldn’t be just 55 minutes that I’m a teacher, it’d beB closer to half the workday. That’s hoursB each week that I’m not researching 1st grade math apps for the iPads, prepping workshops for getting departments on Google Drive, or giving demo lessons to seniors on QR codes.

    A part-time teacher and part-time coach is significantly less profitable for my district than a full-time teacher orB full-time coach.

    What’s most likely in this scenario is…

    3.) I’d do a mediocre job of both

    “Sorry, students. Mr. Vaudrey is unavailable for math tutoring after school, during lunch, before school, or during prep period, andB he also leans heavily on his department and grade-level teams to pull his weight on parent-conferences, student discipline, and late work.”

    “Sorry, teachers. Vaudrey understands how busy your schedule is; he’s a teacher, too! His mornings are swamped scrambling through a lesson that he delivers once. But he can’t improve it for secondB period;B there is no second period!B After a 40-minute lunch at his desk answering Tech emails, he eventually settles on supporting a teacher at his school site instead of driving across town. His teammates at the middle school get most of his Ed Tech coaching, while other schools rarely see him.”

    frazzled

    For the time being, I must be content to beB justB a coach, and mooch classrooms for demo lessons whenever I can. Those students will never beB my students, but it’ll keep my chops sharp for the next time I present a grant summary at CMC.

    While I miss the day-to-day routine of classroom teaching, I’m also thrilled to be building Google Presentations on a Chromebook while listening to SciShow and sitting on an exercise ball.

    I wore costumes most of the day on Saturday.

    Although… I did sillyB stuff in the classroom, too.
    Silly is kinda tough to switch off.

    All of these three coach teachers. Only one has a mouthful of food.
    Everyone in this pictureB coaches teachers while in costume. Only one has a mouthful of food.

    ~Matt “I still miss my running shoes” Vaudrey

    P.S. John StevensB also wrote a response to Tim’s tweet.
    P.P.S Check out Felix’s response in the comments below.

    1. It’s not a linear relationship. The 200 students got much smaller pieces than the 80, but here’s a quick model that I’m quite sure can be improved.b)

  • A Week in the Life

    School started Monday.

    For the first time in nigh a decade, I didn’t welcome students into Mr. Vaudrey’s class with a handshake and a smile.
    I didn’t take roll and ask each student how to pronounce their name and “Do you prefer Bernardino or Bernie?”.
    I didn’t prep a beginning-of-the-year icebreaker activity.
    I didn’t even hang up colorful examples of student work or revise a syllabus.

    Because for this first time in eight years, I’m not starting the year in the classroom.

    In May, I accepted a job as Teacher Coach of Instructional Technology for Bonita Unified.
    bonita USD logo
    “But Matt, didn’t you just take a new job in March?”

    Yep.

    And I learned a lot while I was there, but it wasn’t for me. In this position, I’m in the classroom every day, I’m helping teachers with aB variety of needs, and I retain the title “Teacher”, which is important to me.

    triumphant-facial-expression-2_medium

    Here’s what I did in my first week asB EdTech Coach:

    • Trained about 100 teachers on Music Cues in the classroom, which was well-received by manyB elementary teachers (a target market, in which I have very little experience and could use some credibility).
    • Visited all but one of our district’s schoolsB and met principals and teachers, nearly all of whom had no idea that I was even hired, but were thrilled to hear it.
    We have an EdTech Coach?!
    We have an EdTech Coach?!
    • PerformedB bread-and-butter tasks with my new department (e.g. tag the Chromebook carts with District ID, follow up on tech needsB from New Teacher Orientation, deliver keyboards) and actually enjoyed it. As 33% of my department, we’ll likely get to know each other pretty well, and Kris and Cheryl are both a hoot.
    Hoot.
    Hoot.
    • Visited 15 (wow… that’s a lot) classrooms to help teachers with various tech needs. Most of them Elementary, most of them for Music Cues, all of them delightful and eager to learn.

    Here’s the cool part: I log each visit here and get the results in a spreadsheet (below), so I can quantify just how helpful I am in a given week. My new boss liked this form so much, she had me make her one, which she then showed toB her boss, who wants one, too.

    Walkthrough Responses
    Click to enlarge

    And I can color-code the “Future Needs” column based on who I want to invite to a future training. For an upcoming Music Cues follow-up, all the teachers I visited who expressed interest are in green cells.

    Next workshopB is probably Google Classroom, so I’ll change the formatting to show me those cells and inviteB those teachers.

    Oh! And I can use formulas to separate out the email of those teachers using the first and last name, concatenated with the district email!

    (Inhaler)
    (Inhaler)

    Seriously, if you haven’t used Concatenate yet in a spreadsheet, you are missing out.

    It’s more funB than Revenge of the Sith.

    "You were the chosen one!" "=concatenate(left(A2,1),B2,"@bonita.k12.ca.us")!
    “You were the chosen one!”
    “I hate you!”
    “=concatenate(left(D2,1),C2,”@bonita.k12.ca.us”)!”

    Anyway, the new job is great and I’m thrilled to have it.

    Next post:

    What’s in my purse as I visit classes?

    or

    Matt Carries a Purse His Wife Tried to Donate to GoodWill

     

    Stay tuned.

     

    ~Matt “Speadsheet and Star Wars Joke…this siteB is now complete.” Vaudrey

  • The Myth of the Digital Native

    Attention, Administrators:

    "Yes?"
    “Yes?”

    I have some news.

    The term “Digital Native”, while creative, isn’t an accurate representation of young students.

    Because I liked being included as a “Digital Immigrant” (an equally cute term), I bought into the idea, but I’ve been less and less convinced lately.

    Partly because of the description: A digital native is a person born into today’s digital culture, who takes to it naturally, as a duck to water.

    Network Management
    Network Configuration

    Even hearing it phrased like that begs the question: Do students actually take to technology easier, faster, or more often than their aged counterparts?

    "Oh, I just use it to text and hammer nails."
    “Oh, I just use it to text and hammer nails.”

    Nope.

    Not even a little.

    Sure, my younger sisters can text like it’s their job, and my students are really good at Minecraft,

    Like, really, suspiciously good at Minecraft.
    Like, really, suspiciously good at Minecraft.

    but when it comes to tackling foreign territory, they are just as confused and lost as everybody else. Often, more so; they lack the reasoning skills to seek the likely solution to their problem.

    This week, myB Pad students were floored when I showed them satellite view in Google Maps. It took us 20 minutes to get walking directions from their house to the school. Setting up new iPads takes two hours at the beginning of the year.

    Teachers, however, are more likely to realize that after they’ve joined a wireless network, they can click DONE to move on to the next screen. No less than 15 students ask me “Now what do I do?” during iPad setup.

    YOU JUS... hmm... Just click where it says "Done".
    YOU JUS… hmm… Just click where it says “Done”.

    So, Administrators: if you use the term “digital native” with a teacher who deals with young people and technology, they’ll likely raise an eyebrow.

    UPDATE 10 FEBRUARY 2015: Today, I was talking with a teacher about this very thing, we decided that a child born near the beach doesn’t necessarily learn how to swim quicker, but is more likely to beB exposed to the water.

    ~Matt “Dual Citizenship” Vaudrey

  • Stage Presence, Google Drive, and Twitter questions.

    Noted teacher, Tweeter, and recent real-life colleague Robert Kaplinsky asked about this tweet today:

    There’s a lot happening in and around my class, specifically with regard to the students’ 20% Projects, so how about I just tell you what I told him.

    The TED talk notes on Stage Presence were in conjunction with prepping my iPad class on their 20% projects. I got the idea from Kate Acker, who had her seniors watch TED videos on mute, making observations on stage presence only.

    As you may imagine, about 20% of the notes were potent (a fitting ratio), but it led to a good class discussion with a few students declaring their intent.

    “I’m gonna make sure to look at the audience!”
    “Can I walk around the room? Sweet!”

    What I neglected to mention to Robert (until now) is how the shared Note-taking thing worked (and how it worked out).

    Shared Note-Taking

    1.) This class has 1:1 iPads. They had previously downloaded the Google Drive app and logged in with one of my Gmail accounts (created specifically for this purpose).

    2.) All students open Google Drive and open the spreadsheet that I had previously created for them. As you can see, student names run down the left, name of the speaker runs across the top.

    3.) With 17 students all active on the same spreadsheet, it gets a little glitchy. Toward the end, some students are getting frustrated, insisting “Franz deleted my note!”.

    4.) Only 17 students (out of the 22) are participating on their iPads, because two students have theirs confiscated pending a parent conference. One is absent, and one is lazy; she sits vacantly at her seat until I poke her with a pencil, at which point, she mumbles, “I can’t log in.” Super.

    5.) The resulting notes (spread over a couple days) give us fodder for a class discussion on stage presence. I highlight a few boxes that interest me and we talk about them. Hopefully, they’ll take them to heart when we do a rehearsal next Wednesday.

    As long as I’m hoping for things…

    bigassburger

    ~Matt “100 by 100” Vaudrey

    *It’s also notable here that I first heard of shared note-taking at the CUE conference in a session by Bill Selak.

  • Cheese Crackers – iPad Pics

    There was one more tech integration on the Cheese Cracker Square Root Showdown.

    Students in the iPad class were prompted to explain (via picture) the lesson to the next class.

    They took a picture, edited in Skitch, then uploaded to the class DropBox folder. Some of them are pretty sweet.

    Photo upload tip:

    Have students put their name on the photo somewhere. They are very sad if they have to re-do the whole thing.