Tag Archives: Professional Development

nErDcampMI or Bust!

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It’s been on my bucket list for six years and I’m finally going to nErDcampMI. The brainchild of teacher/author Colby Sharp, this “uncamp” is free to attend but tickets “sell out” incredibly fast. Teachers from all across the country trek to Parma, Michigan to learn along with some of the nerdiest people on the planet. Kidlit lovers like me will be in heaven, surrounded by a jillion of the most amazing authors and illustrators of our favorite books.

Thanks to a nudge by my author friend Clare Landrigan, (and the fact that my son’s summer soccer days are behind us) I finally booked a ticket for Michigan. It takes a lot for me to leave Maine in the summer and I know this will be totally worth it. Having Clare for a travel/learning buddy will make the experience even more priceless.

I submitted a proposal for Day 1 and was delighted that it was accepted. Day 1 is like a traditional education conference with featured speakers,  while Day 2 is an (un)conference that is self-designed by participants who decide what topics they want to learn about. My session is called “Thinking Through Our Fingers: Reimagining Writing Possibilities”.Screen Shot 2019-07-01 at 3.53.10 PM

I’m on a bit of a mission to expand our definition of writing so that everyone has a place at the writing table. I want us to see the value in all types of writing that can help us explore thinking and feeling, that can help us communicate more, and that is FUN! I’ll proudly be sharing the work that teachers and students have been doing in our Augusta Schools and hopefully come back with even more ideas from nErDy teachers at camp. Here are the sketchnote handouts I’ve created for my session:

I’ll be sketchnoting during other sessions and look forward to sharing new learning with colleagues who couldn’t attend. Summer is a great time for teachers to refill their buckets and I know this will be a huge part of my summer rejuvenation.

One More Off My TBR Stack

Continuing my audiobook summer series I was able to listen to two audiobooks as I traveled to visit my parents in Wisconsin this past week but I’ll share one here.

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The Tattoist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

Based on interviews with Holocaust survivor Ludwig Sokolov (Lale–Lah-lay), who became the Tätowierer (tattooist) who permanently marked arriving prisoners, after it is discovered he speaks several languages. He managed to survive over 2 1/2 years in Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps while risking his own life to exchange jewels from murdered Jews for food to help keep fellow prisoners alive. One day he tattoos the number 34902 on the arm of a frightened girl named Gita. He vows that he will survive and one day marry her. But the Germans don’t care about the hopes and dreams of their prisoners and the odds are against Lale and Gita as they experience and witness unspeakable atrocities. I didn’t think I’d want a ‘heavy’ book for my summer reading, but this one was amazing. The audiobook is read by Richard Armitage and he brilliantly conveys the voices of German, Russian, Slovakian men and women with a complete range of emotions from fear to intimidation to hope.

 

NCTE 2018 Ah-has and Oh-Yeahs

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When I can’t attend a conference (and that is most of the time) I like to learn vicariously img_0221.jpgthrough other attendees. I follow hashtags on Twitter, I look at posts of Facebook or Instagram, and I read the blogs of those who share out. I think it is only fair to reciprocate whenever I can. Last week I attended NCTE18 in Houston and tried to tweet out quotes and highlights as well as my sketchnotes. (You can see all of my #NCTE18 sketchnotes HERE)

So what did I take away from this conference (other than dozens of books for my TBR stacks?) Here are some of my Ah-ha’s and Oh-yeah’s in sketchnote form…

Raising Student Voice: What is our Role in Equity and Justice in the Classroom?

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Cornelius Minor gave me lots of food for thought:

Oppression can be pervasive in seemingly innocuous practices that our privilege blinds us to. Open our minds and eyes to how others may feel left out or less-than with the systems we consider ‘normal’.

There is a big difference between DIVERSITY (“all the people are at my table“) and INCLUSIVITY (“I change the rules for all”).  Where do my beliefs and actions fall?

 

 

 

Sharpening the Intervention Lens Through Responsive Conversations

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Dr. Mary Howard always provides me with ample Ah-ha moments and she didn’t disappoint this time.

She challenges us to rethink interventions-that sometimes 1 minute could be the most powerful in a child’s day if we are responsive to their needs.

The best teachers do more writing after teaching than before.

Interventions should be JOYFUL, not PAINFUL.

We can’t TEACH kids we don’t know! Look in their eyes and show them how important they are!

 

Enacting Sustainable Teaching: How Mindfulness, Embodiment, and Literacy Practices Can Help You Stay in the Profession for the Long Haul

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Teaching is one of the few professions that intersects professional and private lives. We need to embrace Sustainable Teaching Practices. The presenters from CSU Writing Project shared some of their research and understanding.

I will definitely be revisiting these ideas in future posts. You can check out their website at https://www.csuwritingproject.net/what-is-sustainable-teaching.html

If we don’t find a sustainable balance between our professional and personal lives, we are destined for burnout and stress-and that doesn’t allow us to be the best teachers, parents, spouses, friends, or family-members we can be.

 

Keepin’ it Real: Authentic Responses to Reading

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I appreciate that each of these panelists (several from Maine) are in the classroom everyday and using these practices.

Though many were not new ideas they offered ideas for rubrics  and reflection that teachers could use in assessing student responses that are more authentic than tests, quizzes, and response logs.

They reminded us that we can’t just assign these approaches, but that we have to explicitly teach students how to use them, and scaffold them as needed. If kids aren’t ‘getting it’ then it is on us to reteach, provide feedback, and model for them.

 

Writers’ Notebooks: Who? What? When? Where? Why?

Screen Shot 2018-11-23 at 10.45.25 AMMichelle Haseltine, Linda Urban, and Amy Ludwig VanDerWater are my go-tos when it comes to writers notebooks, so when they were scheduled to present a session I was gobsmacked!

I love the idea that our notebooks are gifts to our future selves. Author Anne Nesbet talked about this in a session I moderated as well. She suggested entries and documents that balance LARGE (world events) with LOCAL (community or personal) to write about.

Also-don’t be intimidated by perfect- be messy and raw. These aren’t published pieces they are an exploration of our heart and soul on paper.  Surprise yourself!

There were more take-aways that I’ll explore in future posts, but these were some sessions that will resonate with me for a long time. Of course, the sessions I presented with others shaped my teaching in profound ways as I prepared, reflected, and practiced more mindfully what I planned to ‘preach’. You can see those presentations here:

https://www.paulabourque.com/ncte-2018

Anytime we plan to teach others, we enhance our own practice and deepen our own understandings. If you have never thought about being a presenter, I would strongly encourage you to try it. You will definitely come away a stronger teacher and more reflective practitioner. Call for NCTE 2019 proposals are open now https://convention.ncte.org/2019-convention/call-for-proposals/

One More Off My TBR Stack!

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SHOUTING AT THE RAIN by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
I have been waiting so long to get my hands on this book and all I can say is that it’s worth the wait!
Lynda Mullaly Hunt actually threw out her first manuscript and started all over with a new setting-Cape Cod and the story poured right out of her heart and onto the page.
We meet Delsie living on the Cape with her Grammy, abandoned by her mother and never knowing her father. Until this summer she has never given the situation much thought, but as some friends rehearse for Annie at the summer playhouse, she realizes she, too, is an orphan. She feels an even keener sense of loss when her best friend, Brandy, chooses a self-centered summer visitor, over their longstanding friendship. Along comes a new kid, Ronan, who is sharing some of the same struggles as Delsie, but handles his frustration in more destructive ways. Together they confront challenges we hope our children never have to weather, and make some discoveries about themselves and what family really means. So glad I finished this on Thanksgiving-a perfect way to celebrate the day!

nErDs Unite!

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The longer I’ve been teaching, the more I know how important it is to take charge of my own professional development and not wait to see what might be offered by someone else. Don’t get me wrong, school-based, district-based, or state-based PD can be great, it’s just not enough. Not if I want to be my best and feed my insatiable appetite for learning.

That’s one reason  I love EDcamps and nErDcamps so much. That’s why I attended nErDcamp NNE (Northern New England) this weekend in Maine along with my tribe of nErDs.  Teachers and authors came together to share ideas, pose questions, and collaborate on answers to the daily challenges of being the best educators our children deserve. Giving up a precious weekend requires a lot of passion and self-motivation!

Big shout outs to the nErDcampNNE organizer Susan Dee, and her team of nErDs who made this weekend in Freeport, Maine a huge success. They brought in authors, and lots of free books, and lots prizes for the event. Everyone walked away with bags of ‘swag’!42797496_10214952710564590_8524555302740164608_n

Also a huge thank you to all of the authors who came together for nErDy Author Night on Friday. They packed the gym at Morse School with fans who got a chance to talk with their favorite authors and get books signed by their heroes in kidlit. Look at this lineup!

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For the second year, I brought my “Genius Notes” book that I invite authors to write in. I ask them if they would share one piece of advice for the student writers back in my district, and I’ve never had a single author decline. They are so generous in their thoughtful advice and it is so exciting to share their tips with young writers.

I was also able to share some of the work I’ve been doing around quick writes and get ideas from others in our session. Authors such as Haley Barrett, Elly Swartz, and Lynda Mullaly Hunt all had tips for sparking ideas in short bursts of writing. Teachers shared what works for themselves and their students. That’s what I love about these sessions-it is a give and take from everyone. 42912894_10216891224943001_2273204431744925696_o.jpg

So if you ever get the chance to attend an EDcamp-get your nErDy on and DO IT! Take charge of your own professional learning, share your expertise with others, and become a part of a collaborative community that cares about books, about learning, about kids…as much as you do.

One More Off My TBR Stack!

Screen Shot 2018-09-30 at 1.48.29 PMThe Wish List: The Worst Fairy Godmother Ever! by Sarah Aronson

Playful!
It’s the one word that kept resonating with me as I read this novel for young readers. It also kept coming up in nErDcamp sessions as authors shared tips (and mentioned Sarah quite a bit.)

Isabelle is training to be a fairy godmother (her grandmomma is president of the Fairy Godmother Alliance) so the pressure is on for her to be good at it-in fact, her sister already is. But Isabelle would rather play than study-she might just fail her training! So she is assigned a “practice princess” to prove herself worthy. Unfortunately Isabelle finds out she has been assigned a “normal” girl and her worst fears might just be realized. I often read a lot of ‘heavy’ and serious kidlit books, so it is fun to get some time with whimsical books for younger readers-and Sarah’s got a great website (http://www.saraharonson.com ) I love the  #TipsonTuesday section for writers of all ages. Just what I needed this week.

Sketchy Professional PD

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Summer is a time that many teachers choose their own professional development. Many of us take courses, attend conferences and workshops, or read professional books to enhance our teaching. I’ll be doing those things as well, but I’ll be doing it a little different this summer.

For the past couple of years I’ve kept a sketchnote journal for attending conferences and workshops.  It has really shaped the way I think about the information being presented as well as my ability to revisit the information and reflect more deeply with what resonated.

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This summer I want to apply that way of thinking and responding to my professional reading and my podcast listening as well.  As I am reading or listening, I tune in to what information inspires, challenges, or connects with my current thinking.  I listen for “ah-ha’s” and visualize how that might look with my own teaching or in my life.  Sometimes I sketchnote right then, other times I let things percolate and sketch what ‘sticks’.

I give it a little time and then as I revisit my sketchnotes I add small details and doodles as I meditate on the message-helping to internalize the ideas and epiphanies from the pages. I think I am going to work in black and white this summer, and then add color later to things that I plan to (or have) incorporate into my teaching and coaching. I want these to be interactive and inspirational.  There are too many books I’ve read where I have thought, “That’s a great idea!” and then never applied it to my teaching.  I’m hopeful that this approach will change that.

So here’s to another summer of personalized PD.  May it be enlightening, inspiring, and sketchy!

What’s On My Book Radar?

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Initially this book reminded me of some favorites (Maze Runner, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Scar Island) but it quickly developed into a thoughtful and poignant tale that embraced and exposed the joys and fears of childhood. “Nine on an island, orphans all, Any more, the sky might fall.” An idyllic island where once a year a boat arrives with a young orphan (a care) and the oldest orphan (elder) must depart the same day. This ‘changing’ brings stability to the island but uncertainty for those coming and going. On the day Jinny’s best friend, Deen, must depart she becomes the elder and must care for the new child, Ess. With new responsibilities and the inevitability of her limited time on the island, Jinny must come of age with no mentor. She discovers choices have consequences that affect others and that growing up reveals the world doesn’t revolve around you. This book is extraordinary-I couldn’t recommend it more. It will leave you thinking and talking about this book with kids and adults for a long time.

PD À la carte

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A few years ago I approached the administration in our district about bringing an EdCamp model of professional development to our staff. They wanted to give it a try for one of the few workshop days we have. They designed a mini-conference-style day of professional development where teachers were offered a menu of sessions ahead of time that they sign up for sandwiched between keynotes to kick off and wrap up. It has proved to be very popular and meaningful to staff.

Yesterday was one of those workshop days. It was also the first time I didn’t have to present and could just be a participant.  I loved it!  My choices were quite wide ranging…and probably would not have even been on my radar a few years ago.

We started with a keynote ‘Responding to and Preventing Bullying’ that stressed the importance of intervening-even when we don’t know the ‘right’ thing to say.  Speaking up with respectful interventions and breaking the pattern of escalation is essential. The speakers intent was to open our eyes to how students experience coming to school in which hateful language and bias is prevalent and our role to awaken the empathy that allows it to exist.

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Preventing Bullying Sketchnotes

ACTIVE SHOOTER simulations. This is a PD I hope I’ll never have to use, but was grateful to our local police department for offering it.  What would I have done if  was at Columbine or Sandy Hook? I don’t know, but I have a better sense of awareness and options to consider, now.  We experienced 3 real-life scenarios that happened in schools and then debriefed on what occurred and what we might do in those situations. It’s training teachers should never have to experience, but our world is changing so fast and guns are far too prevalent for us to bury our heads in the sand.

Another way our ‘local world’ is changing is with the influx of more and more immigrants and refugee students. A session on supporting English Language Learners was incredibly enlightening. Understanding why it is important for their entire family to acculturate together, the ‘affect of filter’ on learning, and cultural considerations that can impact our relationships with student were eye opening. I am more in awe of the challenges and courage of these families and I’m more determined than ever to support them.

After a session on Movie Maker (our school took away our Macs and replaced them with PCs so I felt like a novice again!) I think I can once again create teaching videos to share with staff.  We then ended with a keynote on Happiness Hacking. By the end of the day on a Friday we were already feeling pretty happy, but any tips for inviting more into my life is always welcome.

If your school district hasn’t tried this format for professional development, I encourage you to look into it and suggest it to the powers that be.  We differentiate for our students, why not differentiate for our teachers as well?  We are all learners. We all want some choice in what we learn! I’m proud of our district for recognizing and honoring that.

When PD Becomes Crisis Management

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Yesterday sign ups opened for a workshop day next week. I love that our district is adopting an EdCamp-ish model of offering voice and choice in our professional development opportunities. I’ll be presenting at one of the sessions, and so I had two others in which to choose my own PD.  As I looked down the list of offerings I was struck by how many were not related to academics at all.

  • Active Shooter
  • Homelessness
  • Marijuana/Vaping/E-Cigarettes
  • Anxiety Disorder
  • Substance Abuse
  • Pain Based Behavior

Schools have clearly had to become more than institutions of learning. We’ve had to Screen Shot 2016-03-12 at 8.12.28 AMbecome caregivers. That is not to say we hadn’t always been to some degree. Most of us are here to teach the child and not just the curriculum, and so we have always looked for ways to support the needs of our learners; whether they were academic, emotional, social, or physical.

Our schools offer food, clothing, counseling, behavioral support, health care clinics, dental cleanings and screenings, vaccinations, homeless liaisons… Teachers are expected to become highly qualified in our area of instruction and ensure that ALL students become highly proficient in achieving the standards. In essence, we are expected to become everything for everyone.  And we try! I don’t know how many conversations I have each week with teachers stressing over their struggle to meet the needs of a child (or children) in their classrooms because their needs are greater than we can address.

And so I applaud our school district for recognizing that teachers need support to help these students, and that these students may have nowhere else to turn for that help. I am proud that our teachers are putting the most basic of our students’ needs first and learning about ways to address them.   But I am sad that we don’t have more sessions for sharing amazing book titles, implementing genius hour,  sharing successful strategies and practices, etc. I am sad that our students need us to focus our energy and professional development on dealing with societal issues that are causing them such trauma and grief. And I am incredibly sad for so many of our students.

I will balance my day by offering a session on Close Writing to help foster greater purpose and passion for our students in writing, and then taking sessions to help me better understand the non-academic needs of my students. I will focus my professional development on supporting the whole learners…the human beings who are counting on me to make a difference in their lives.

 

Oh, and our high stakes standardized testing starts the next Monday.  Screen Shot 2016-03-12 at 8.13.57 AM‘Nuff said.

The Best PD of My Life!

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IMG_824616 Years ago today I began the best professional development of my life.  With the arrival of my 9lb 13oz daughter, Bailey,  I became a mother and from that day on I was changed for the better.  Now I don’t believe being a parent necessarily makes everyone a better teacher.  I have many teacher friends who are unbelievably talented educators who are not parents and I have met some less than effective teachers who have begotten children of their own.

It is not the circumstances of our life that is responsible for shaping us, it is our perception, appreciation and responses that fashion the people we become. Having my daughter did not bestow upon me any special teaching expertise.  What it did do was offer me the opportunity to experience the world through a child’s eyes again.  It constantly reminded me that children are far more than just students, they are human beings with lives outside of those classroom walls and dreams that extend beyond the goals of any curriculum.  It allowed me to empathize with the parents of my students in ways I could not have imagined.  It helped me to deeply understand the developmental, emotional, cognitive and social needs as my children passed through each stage of childhood.

When my son, Casey, arrived two years later my understanding and empathy for boys became an eye opening experience.  It helped me to appreciate children as individuals on a much deeper level-I could no longer think of siblings in schools the same way.  I began to look for the ‘specialness’ in each of them, because I knew it was there.  I began to challenge prejudices and assumptions based on gender, birth order, family history, etc.  I learned to accept my children for who they are and not just for the hopes I had for them as babies.  I’ve watched my daughter grow into an amazing dancer  and not the tom boy/athlete I was in my youth- and I am in awe of her.  They will have lives that I can not even imagine and yet it is my role to prepare them for it.  That is the same task we as teachers have for our students.

So I want to thank my children for the professional development you have offered me over IMG_8254the past 16 years.  You have challenged my thinking (and my authority!).  You have provided me with experiences I would never have chosen.  You have taught me patience, stamina and empathy for others on a daily basis.  You have compelled me to seek balance in my life as I juggle my needs with yours.  You have helped make me the person I am today-not perfect, but perceptive, patient and positive.  I can’t wait to see what lessons the next 16 years will offer me.

The best professional development we as educators can have is that which shapes our world view and not just our classroom practice.  It helps us to be better people so that we can be better teachers of people.  It breeds understanding and empathy and not just pedagogy.  We all should look for those opportunities in our lives and embrace them when they come along.  What’s the best PD that you have received in your life?

 

What’s on My Book Radar?

IMG_8097I didn’t want this book to end.  I loved Gae’s message of hope and redemption.  I cared so much about Francesca and Frankie that I didn’t want to leave them behind when I’d read the last pages.  These characters have flaws that we can all identify with and hearts that break and mend and forgive in ways that can help us reflect on our own relationships. I didn’t want to let go of The Summer of Letting Go!

 

HAPPY READING!