With all the chatter in our professional learning communities, meetings that seem to last for days at district levels, even in our social media groups, the Common Core Standards have become, not just ubiquitous background noise, but the only language we teachers speak. Unfortunately, with the frantic need to implement new standards, often comes a cacophony of negativity. It is hard sometimes to see the value in change. Then, love smacks you right in the face.

I was fortunate to be asked to participate in an online class offered through Stanford University for the sole purpose of helping educators understand and create effective performance assessments.  I was familiar with the concept, having researched Smarter Balance and experimented with one in the classroom last spring. However, I was still wet behind the ears.

Understanding what a performance assessment truly demands is the key to execution.  It is not just an assessment of what students should have learned. It asks students to think and to produce–to demonstrate learning through work authentic to the real world. AUTHENTIC. That is the key. Real life situations. Stanford breaks it down into four key principles a performance task should encompass:

1. Targets skills and knowledge that matter, and preparing for performance assessment improves skills and knowledge that matter.

2. It is assessment for learning and as learning.

3. It links curriculum, instruction and assessment.

4. It is learning by doing.

The performance task is the CCSS curriculum ultimate assessment. It takes students beyond what you taught, in turn, they learn even more on their own They’re not just regurgitating what you hammered at them through lectures and simple practices. They are using what you taught and applying, synthesizing, analyzing and all those great buzz words to actually do and produce something. And isn’t that what we ultimately want?

As I was creating my first CCSS performance task on my own, I started recalling all the great teachers I have worked with over the years. Yeah, this wasn’t anything new. They’ve been doing this stuff for years. That’s why I fell in love with teaching almost 20 years ago. Sure feels good to be in love again.

My first attempt was a culminating activity on The Outsiders. I had students pretend they were an intervention group handing out brochures and giving a speech to the teenagers of the town to stop the violence.  The concept wasn’t bad, but I didn’t do the best job delivering it. The results were mediocre, with only a few standouts. Perhaps the students aren’t used to these types of assessments yet, but really, I’m still learning how to create effective tasks. I’m giving myself a break, knowing I can only get better. New love is always fragile.

Just the other day I read a tweet by Marc Seigel that really nailed it, “If you can Google the question, you need to change the assessment.” Ain’t that the truth? So, embrace the performance assessment. Don’t be afraid to commit to the time it takes to plan and carry out. Don’t be afraid to fail a few times. Don’t be afraid to fall in love. Love can hurt, but it can also save your life. 🙂

Research is such a huge part of the Common Core curriculum, not that it hasn’t always been essential for student learning in our classrooms. But if you’re like me, getting kids to research effectively, navigating the web, is a daunting task. I recently had the opportunity to explore the world of Google and plan a workshop with my amazing colleague, Cheryl McGee. We were instructed to show a group of educators how to teach kids to research. Racking our brains, we came up with these steps:

Before you begin:

Take some time to discuss the following with students:

• Check for Reliable Sources: teach students what sources are reliable. Mention domain names (.gov, .org) and sites you wish for them to avoid (wikis, ask.com, etc.)
• Use Advanced Search Tools if Necessary: You might want to introduce students to the “search tools” options. The time an article was posted or the reading level might be beneficial for your assignment.

Research Time:

1. Brainstorm Essential Questions: Get your students to focus their research. Have them come up with three questions (works well in a five paragraph essay) or more of what they are looking to understand.
2. List Keywords: Breaking down the essential question into keywords will encourage a more focused search.
3. Create a Note-taking Document: Have students create a new Google Doc. Rename it immediately the topic and “Notes” (ie. Saturn Notes)
4. Type in Essential Questions: Students should write their questions on the document, allowing space between each.
5. Open Google Research Tool: This Google Tool will become your student’s best collaborator. Type in Keywords of each essential questions.
6. Open Reliable Web Pages: Students should sift through the research on the suggested web pages, (it will open a new tab) finding the information that answers their essential questions.
7. Copy and Paste in Notes Document: Under each essential question, students should copy from the webpage, and paste the information into their “Notes” Doc (tab should still be open). This will allow students to just gather information relevant to their search, but also drop the URL in the footnotes section. (More on that later!) Students should continue gathering research until they feel they have enough to adequately answer their essential questions.
8.  Print Notes: Blasphemy! I thought we were going paperless? At this point, I find it best for students to come to my class with a paper version of their notes. Here I would talk to them about taking the information and making it their own, you know, NOT PLAGIARIZING!
9. The Rest of the Writing Process: Here you would do all that good stuff about good introductions, thesis, strong paragraphs with evidence, conclusion, blah, blah blah. But this blog isn’t about that. So back to the computers we go!
10. Create a Bibliography: Easybib is absolutely brilliant. I mean, why would anyone want to do all that nonsense himself? Students have all the URLs from their note-taking document. Simply copy and paste into Easybib and Viola! A bibliography. Keep in mind Easybib is an Add-on, so it will need to be installed. It really is the easiest citation generator.

Researching the internet can be a crazy endeavor. Teaching kids to do it can be even worse. Getting them to focus and explicitly giving them skills in which to do it is the answer. This is one way, one tool in the ol’ tool belt, to navigate the enormity of the world wide web. Good luck! Let me know how it goes.

The beauty of being the only 8th grade language arts teacher on my campus is that I don’t need to coordinate my lessons with anyone. The other side of that coin: I have no one with whom to collaborate. Luckily, I have the internet. Sometime in early August, I had the idea to start the year with a unit on digital citizenship. Since my focus will be digital literacy this year, I figured it was wise.

Common Sense Media has a great program. They break it down into lessons that could be easily implemented, with little preparation from the teacher, each in one class period. The material is age appropriate (there are three ranges), and has engaging activities for students, plus informative material for the instructor. You could easily hand the unit to a first year teacher and have success. Plus, there is a mass of additional resources and ideas for projects.

Enter Mrs. Allison, the language arts teacher. I knew I had to do more than simply get them thinking about how to behave online. I needed to attack my Common Core Standards. I started with the units Digital 101 and Scams and Schemes. With these, we set up our interactive notebooks, taking Cornell style notes, and reflecting on what we’d learned. Next, I tackled Cyberbullying. Here I stayed for almost two weeks. Two weeks! What was supposed to be a class period or two, took on a life of its own.

I had their attention, so I needed to take advantage. I pulled an article and went through the steps of critical reading, underlining and annotating. I pulled in videos from the Common Sense Media site. We also watched Amanda Todd’s video. We held our first Socratic Seminar. Students wrote their first blog on their websites. The topic of cyberbullying turned out to be great fodder to teach the beginning of the year required skills.

We ended the unit with Trillion Dollar Footprint, which was my favorite of all the lessons in the program. The activity involves the students trying to pick a host for a television show. Included is all the candidates’ social media posts. It’s eye opening for most of the students. So many still have no clue that the world can see what they do online. Of course, I also taught them how to cite evidence. Language arts geek!

Schools have long taken it upon themselves to teach kids how to be good human beings: be responsible, be respectful. It’s equally important to teach digital citizenship. It’s easy to find the time if you incorporate teaching the skills you cover anyway.

“How should you behave online?” I ask my students. In chorus, “The same way you should behave in person.” Exactly.

It takes a certain kind of crazy to teach middle school: a fact that really goes without saying. The profession attracts people with certain qualities. I fit that mold rather perfectly. Crazy dress days, ridiculous dance routines at rallies, practical jokes on other teachers:  I’m game for it all. So I thought. When one of our teachers suggested we do the ALS ice bucket challenge, I believe my eyes audibly rolled. Not because I have any aversion to getting a large bucket of ice dumped on me in front of the entire school, but because I was so sick of watching video after video in my social media feeds of wet, screaming heads. I mean if everyone was doing it, it can’t be “cool” anymore, right? (Yeah, at moments I still think I might be cool.)

Ignoring my “coolness” dilemma, I decided to get involved. I even helped organize. Then I did some research. The fundraising numbers since this challenge began are staggering. The ALS Association has never raised this much money in such a short amount of time. After talking to a few staff members, I learned of a friend of theirs, a local principal stricken with ALS. She is now confined to a wheelchair due to the disease. We decided to collect from our staff and students on her behalf. More than anything, it was important to me for our students to realize the point of the whole challenge. They had seen the countless videos, too, and even laughed at the “fail” collages on Youtube. The sensation is ubiquitous. At the very least, I hoped my middle schoolers would walk away that day with an understanding of the reasons behind the craze. More importantly, I wanted them to realize that sometimes it is important that we think beyond ourselves and give to others.

I also concluded that getting a bucket of ice poured over my head might be the coolest I would ever be. So, cheers to all of you out there who continue the ice bucket challenge. As an educator, I am always trying to make what I teach relevant. What is more relevant than teaching kids human compassion?  Even if everyone is doing it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCJ0OF_UG2E

My parents live 870 miles from my house. Now, one could drive that entire distance, about 14 hours, in one day. It is done quite frequently with people with far better dispositions than myself. I choose to do it over two days, stopping along the way to make it an adventure. My kids are 11 and 9, but this isn’t their first road trip. We’ve done this tango for years. My husband and I have been shoving them in a car, loading the backseat with snacks, pillows and electronics since birth. I have learned a few things along the way.

1. Be sure you have your vital belongings, before you leave your house. I’m sure this is assumed by most travelers, yet, on my recent trip someone, (who may not be named here, but shares a bed with me), realized he forgot his wallet an hour and a half into the drive. Turning around for your essentials could add an unnecessary three hours to your trip.
2. Never let your kids drink soda. As much fun as it is to stop for a snack, get a treat, and peruse the gas station convenience store, say no to the soda. The demon elixir creates an infinitive bladder fill in your nine year old’s body that can only be explained in scientific doctrine. You will need to stop every 15 to 20 minutes to allow the toxin to vacate.
3. Plan your meals at local brewpubs. Fast food has a purpose. The purpose has nothing to do with taste. The major chains offer only slightly palatable “food”, but the ones near a major highway seem to be even below that bar. Steer clear. Search your favorite site online for a brewpub with a good rating. Most have a decent kids menu, but mostly they have BEER. I am blessed with doing most of my travelling in the great state of Oregon, which ranks one of the highest states nationally in craft breweries per capita. The city of Portland alone has over 40 in its city limits. My point being, if you’re in Oregon, drinking craft beer is mandatory. I make it a policy to try and hit a new one each time we drive through. In the past I’ve graced the glassware of Bridgeport, Full Sail and Deschutes with my saliva. All have wonderful restaurants that are family (and dog) friendly. (Oregonians LOVE their pets.) This trip’s journey north landed us in Eugene at dinnertime–and by dinnertime, I mean 9pm, (see #1). I chose Hop Valley Brewing Company for my fix. Food was decent, as was the beer. I ordered their Alpha Centauri Binary IPA–an imperial, because I loves me some hops. I was far more impressed with the name than the taste, but it did the job: relaxing my stiff neck muscles and tuning out the sibling bickering at the table. This is why you stop at brewpubs. Lunch on the second leg was spent at a Hood River brewery, Double Mountain, that is literally across the street from Full Sail. We stumbled upon this years ago, and the local vibe and delicious pizza is why we keep going back. Beer is pretty darn delicious, too. 
4. Always book a hotel room with a pool. In the summer, that’s a no brainer, but even when we travel in the cold weather, we stay at hotels with indoor pools. The kids need to burn energy, and nothing wears out a kid like jumping into the water, over and over again, spastically screaming “Watch this!”
5. Bring extra books to read. I love to read on road trips. Luckily, I don’t get motion sickness. After finishing one John Green book on the first leg, I found myself at a store buying another, even though I have a stack of books next to my bed stand at home waiting to be devoured. After I finished the second book, I had to commandeer my 11 year old daughter’s Kindle. Ah, teen romance…
6. Never return the same way you came. This is a good rule because if you’re following rule #3, there are even more brewpubs to visit! The home of one of Oregon’s biggest stars, Deschutes, the city of Bend is a contender for the greatest beer city. Meeting some dear family friends, we visited Worthy Brewing. The newer facility is gorgeous, including hop, herb and vegetable gardens in the parking lot. Worthy’s commitment to limiting their carbon footprint is everywhere, from solar panels, to the hand dryers in the restroom.  Their Eruption Imperial Red was the first beer on this trip to get my attention. I enjoy being kicked in the face by my beer. Northwest beer tends to be very balanced. (Sadly, I brought home a bottle and didn’t get the same sensation a few days later when I cracked it.) The worst part of the trip to Bend was only being able to stay one night. So many great beers to try, so little time. Good thing we do this every year, sometimes twice. 

I used to dread road trips. Endless hours of “are we there, yet” thoughts. I’ve learned it’s all about your frame of mind. Enjoy the scenery, enjoy being away from your daily grind, and enjoy some craft brews. Make everything an adventure.  

Every year San Diego hosts Comic-Con, an absurdly large convention that started as a way for comic book artists and writers and their fans to interact. Over the years it has grown exponentially, to a multi-genre entertainment convocation, that boasts an attendance of over 130,000 fans. I have friends who make the pilgrimage every year, and, in turn, I find it necessary to tease them for it. “Bunch of nerds.” In truth, I love when people are passionate about their hobbies, work, or really anything. Passion is what makes people interesting. 

Immediately following Comic-Con, the city of San Diego was infested with teachers.  I scoffed at my friends noting, “I hope the nerd smell is gone when I get there.” Some may argue this contamination was worse than the week before. 4,000 teachers arrived at the Town and Country Convention Center, as they do every year, (and 4,000 more the week after), to be trained and inspired by AVID, a program that has been incredibly successful for over 30 years. AVID, or Advancement Via Individual Determination, is a global nonprofit organization designed to give students the tools they need to go to college.  There’s nothing flashy, nothing trendy, it’s all about teaching kids how to write, ask questions, collaborate with others, read critically and stay organized. 

As I sat in my “strand”, or class, learning about proven effective strategies to teach students, and actually walking through the steps of some fun activities like hosting a World Cafe, writing Mentor Texts, and rattling off impromptu speeches, it was obvious. I was just as much of a nerd as any of those fanboys at Comic-Con. I was totally geeking out on graphic organizers, sentence starters and rubrics. The smell of my passion and enthusiasm was polluting the warm San Diego air, and I knew it was awesome. 

What was even better than total teaching nerdery was that I got to do it next to my fellow Chilton teachers. Eight of us traveled to San Diego, learning and collaborating from 8am to 5pm for three days, not to mention riding in trolleys and taxis shoulder to shoulder, eating every meal together, taking in a Padres game and sharing laughter all along the way. Not everyone gets to work with friends, I just happen to be astonishingly lucky.  These colleagues and friends certainly fuel my enthusiasm for teaching each and every day.

The truth is, I’ve been a nerd my whole life, and I love nerds. People who are ardent, zealous and just truly enjoy the things in their life are the people I enjoy being around. So don’t be afraid to hold up that nerd flag and let it fly. Let’s let our scent fill every city we grace. 

Even John Green gets it. 🙂

http:/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUmd9d64Sdk

When I was asked to be a part of a team of “Google Trainers” for our district back in January, I really had no idea what that meant. As it was explained to me, I would be educating teachers to implement technology into their classrooms.  Now I consider myself a fairly savvy tech person, but by no means an expert on anything. I can navigate the web and mainstream programs with ease, problem solve some hardware issues, but mostly, I am really good at asking for help. In fact, I was the winner last year of the most tech tickets at my school!  That means, I complained the most about things that needed to be fixed by our tech department. I’m apparently the best at complaining: like gold medal-worthy. Sadly, there was no award. 

Attending the Google Summit changed so much for me, but it left me hungry, salivating for more. When I saw the CUE Rockstar conference agenda, I smooth talked my principal into paying for my entry AND my hotel stay in Truckee. Little did he know I would have footed the bill myself. 

The format of CUE (Computer Using Educators) Rockstar is unlike any other. It is small, only 70 or so participants. There are only two sessions a day, two hours each, plus a TWO hour lunch. This annoyed me at first.  I wanted to learn as much as I could, and take advantage of every opportunity. Why couldn’t I go to more sessions?  Let’s just say, these folks know what they’re doing. The leisure time is valuable, far more valuable than the price of admission. Of course, if you’re me, the time is not spent in leisure.

The biggest complaint teachers have about technology is training. We are thrown Chromebooks, Smart Boards, tablets, iPads, Mobis and told to use them in our classroom. We might get an hour of instruction, a 200 page booklet, a list of helpful websites and apps that might lead to good lessons. What we NEVER get is time: time to “play”, time to discover, time to plan a lesson using the new tools. It is in using the new technology that you learn to implement it into your everyday lessons. Time is what I had in Truckee, but it wasn’t just idle time. It was time surrounded by colleagues. Even enjoying street tacos in the Alder Creek Middle School Cafetorium, I was learning. “How do you embed a form onto my web page that only my students can see?” After hours, at the restaurant across the street, the conversations continued until late in the evenings. Time spent collaborating is beyond invaluable.

I was also pleasantly surprised at how much I already knew going into each session. From lessons on Google Earth, Doctopus, Google Forms and even coding, I was quite ahead of the curve. That in itself felt pretty good. In only six months, I had come so very far. 

Being a contemplative person by nature, driving down the hill back home, I thought about what I had learned.  Sure, I learned some incredible logistic things: listening to Megan Ellis talk about how she implements Doctopus, organizes her Drive and uses Google Forms for reading logs was nothing short of empowering. But there was something else. It was a theme that each presenter shared in one way or another. Technology is an incredible tool. Nevertheless, it is just that, a tool. It is there to help you teach and to help kids learn. It’s not about how fancy and hip you look. In the end, what matters is that students learn to create content, based on standards we teach. We live in this 21st century digital world, but our goal is still the same as it has always been: to create literate, problem-solving, independent-thinking citizens. 

That’s when I knew I was a rockstar, and not just because I had the lyrics of “21st Century Digital Boy” blasting on my iPod on Interstate 80 heading home. 🙂

Of the many incredibly cool things I get to do, take a group of 8th graders to Washington DC and New York is by far one of the coolest. Chilton’s inaugural trip hosted 14 eighth grade travelers and three parents. Sharing the trip with Cooley Middle School and Loomis District, we embarked on what many will eventually consider the trip of a lifetime.

Things I learned: 

• Alexandria, Virginia has ghost stories, downpours and lightning. Cutting the first night touring short is a good idea, since barbecued 8th graders are not tasty. 
• Wake-up calls don’t work on all 8th graders. Banging on doors sometimes doesn’t either. However, threat of missing breakfast does.
• Security guards at the Capitol are never amused. “What about these guns?” (lifting arms to show muscles.)
• Putting an 8th grader in a dark room, after the first night in a hotel room with his friends, far away from his parents, will result in inevitable snoozing. 
• You will NEVER have enough time to visit the Smithsonians.
• Your shoes can fill a swimming pool after a June rain in DC, but it’s just rain. You get wet.
• George Washington was wickedly handsome.
• You will fall in love with New York every time you visit. Every. Time.
• Broadway performers are some of the hardest working people in the world.
• Riding bikes in Central Park can be exhilarating, or you could break an arm.
• There are 20 different types of bottled water to purchase at JFK.

What I love more than anything about this trip is the reaction I get from students when we depart and for years after. For most, this is the furthest they have ever been away from home. More than anything, this is the first time they have ever been away from their parents for an extended time. It is their first brush with life beyond their town, beyond their world. It gives them a sense of place in this vast universe. Beyond even that, it gives them independence. They have to learn to coordinate showers and bathroom time with three other people. They have to be at a certain place at a certain time, without constant reminders from adults. They have to remember to NOT have a soda bottle in their carry on bag when entering the security checkpoint at the airport. Sure, I’m there to help, but ask any kid who goes on this trip. Somehow, he’s changed. 

Much love to my 14 students who made this a memorable and amazing trip. xoxo

Sometime back in February, I had an idea. We should put together a slideshow for 8th grade commencement that wasn’t just pictures, but spotlighted every 8th grader in the school. After all, there were only 97 of them, and they were our first graduating class. A little leery of setting a precedent for years to come, Mr. Ancker, our illustrious principal, reluctantly agreed. “But then we’ll have to do it every year.” “No,” I assured him. “We won’t. This group is special.” They deserved all we had to offer.

I put my newspaper kids on the task.  They interviewed every 8th grader and created a slide for each. As any of my bright ideas, I ended up spending far too much of my own time on the project. Hours were spent editing, revising and formatting.

The night before the ceremony, as I was putting the final touches on the show, it hit me. And it hit me hard. These kids were leaving. My kids. With a few exceptions, they had been in my life for two years. A few I’d even taught for three. I knew them. These were MY kids. They were off to high school. I was suddenly sobbing, tears flowing down my cheeks to the tune of Taylor Swift’s “Never Grow Up”, a sappy song I had chosen to end the show.

One of my favorite moments of the year was our journey together reading SE Hinton’s The Outsiders. As every 8th grader knows, who has had the privilege of that rite of passage, one of the prominent themes is from Robert Frost’s poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay”. Never has that theme become so real to me then at that moment. My kids had to change. They needed to move on. 

As I stood at the podium at commencement, trying not to repeat the water works from the night before, Johnny’s words to Ponyboy at the end of the novel reverberated.  “Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold.”  

As educators, we have students who come into our lives and plant themselves right next to our hearts. I was fortunate enough to not just have a few these past two years, but almost 100. I will truly miss them. 

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay

                –Robert Frost

Yeah. I’m not going to rap. I care too much for the sanctity of your keyboard. I don’t want you to have to clean vomit out of those tiny spaces between your keys. You’re welcome.

On May 30th, 2014, my little experiment came to an end.  Looking back, my goal was to get the kids to write and write often. Adding the “21st Century” component is really just a fancy way of tricking kids into writing.  They live in this world of social media, of instant access, of sharing every aspect of one’s life. Why fight that? My job is to teach students how to function and be successful in this world. This world. This world of instant feedback with a skewed sense of fame. But I’m not writing to rant about some inevitable doom of our youth, especially since I LOVE social media. (You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr….) I’m writing to share what I learned. 

I decided to take the last week of school and have students add essays, a list of books they’ve read, as well as “blurbs” about projects they did in social studies and science. I wanted it to be more than just a blog, but also a portfolio of their 8th grade year. 

What I learned:

• Have students write down passwords and usernames. In Sharpie. On their foreheads. Permanent tattoos might be a viable option. I had so many students who had to start over because they couldn’t access their page. I’m developing a lesson plan on “How to pick a password you won’t forget.”
• Allow more time for design, but then set a deadline. I started blogging after just one day in the lab. Quite a few weren’t ready, and it snowballed. They got further and further behind.
• Be very specific about your expectations on a blog. This might seem like a “no duh” teaching moment, but it’s worth highlighting. I fell into this hole. Simply giving an 8th grader a topic and telling him to “write as much as he’d like” often results in one sentence. I found giving a specific word count to be the most helpful (200 words).
• Always give a topic, but also allow for “your choice”. Freedom allows for creativity, but not all are ready for that. 
• Require students to read other blogs and comment. Work this into the day. It is completely worth it. I sent out a Google Doc with the all the URLs. 
• Learn from your students. As with anything else, some will only do exactly what you require, so be specific. Others will take this to a whole new level you never imagined. Pay attention to these kiddos. They’ll show you things that you didn’t even know were possible.
• Mostly,  BLOGGING IS POWERFUL. As I sat and read every kid’s web page, each blog written, I remembered how powerful writing can be. It is therapeutic, leading to self discovery and is often a safe place to share things, one might never share. I read about losing a friend in a car crash, being adopted at only five years old, watching a beloved pet get hit by a car, and what it feels like to be left out of a group. I laughed, I cried and felt a sense of connection with my students. So much of my days are spent teaching students to analyze literature, to cite sources, to organize thoughts, that I fail to teach the heart of writing. Writing is one of the greatest forms of communication, but it also allows us time to think, organize and reflect before we let others in. 

I am so excited to continue this project next year. Taking what I’ve learned and building on new ideas, I hope to improve it ten fold. I’ll be starting right away in the fall, making it a year long effort. 

I’m guessing I’ll still be wearing my running shoes.