Five Stones and Social Media in Your School

As Principals, we are often forced into no-win situations, against all odds, backs against the wall … or are we?  

Lately, technology has brought new expectations to our already full plates.  When I first entered educational administration (15 years ago), the line between the school’s responsibility and the family’s was clearly drawn at the bus stop.  Today, we are asked to reach further into our students’ lives through social media.  Our “watch” now includes the 24/7 never-ending realm of Facebook and Twitter.  It is impossible to ask school officials to deal with our kids’ digital worlds … or is it?

Malcom Gladwell’s new book David and Goliath shares complex and surprising ways in which the small beat the odds and defeat the large.  We all know the story.  Young David (later to be King of Israel), with a sling and five stones, accepts and defeats the challenge of the 6-foot-9 Philistine warrior in the Valley of Elah.  He beat the odds … or did he?  Gladwell will argue the odds were in David’s favor.  A “slinger” has a huge advantage in hand-to-hand combat, and Goliath was the actual underdog.  He was slow, clunky with armor and needed his opponent within an arm’s reach to win.  David, on the other hand, never had to get within 40 feet of Goliath for victory.  

David saw the fight differently than everyone else.  Size didn’t matter.  Some 21st-century educators see interacting with their students online differently as well.  Most see Facebook as Goliath and too enormous to monitor.  How could we ask a principal to watch all of his/her student’s Twitter accounts and enforce school policy.  Obviously we can’t, but there are some Davids out there looking at social media differently.  

These educational Davids are embracing social media and seeing results. By getting on Twitter, they are killing two birds with one stone (yes, pun intended).  Many schools have thriving Facebook pages with thousands of followers.  Not only is information shared instantly with their communities but also a culture of common ground is created.  Students at school districts like this understand that adults (educators and community members alike) will see what they post and react to it.  Teachers tweet out assignments.  Families sit down to classroom Facebook pages to review the day’s activities.  Young people email their counselors for schedule advice.  Students text school hotlines alerting officials of a crisis.  Our kids obviously think more before they “click” in this kind of environment when they know adults are fully engaged in it.

As our schools become more digital, our districts and legislators are slowly reacting.  A federal framework based on COPPA and CIPA is in place.  Most districts have created walls attempting to  block certain access.  Most would agree this has to be done but is very ineffective.  Students quickly find ways around these barriers (even between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m.).  We have taught them to be creative … right?  By only blocking access, these districts are creating an online free-for-all with very little adult presence. If young people don’t think anyone is watching, what do you think they will do?

Will school officials ever cut the head off social media as David did to Goliath? … Probably not.  Maybe, just maybe, victory looks different in this battle.  Consider a school district where we embrace virtual citizenship and adults teach young people the implications of their digital footprints as the WIN.  Social media is here to stay, and engaging adults and young people together in it may be your “five stones.”  Watch out Goliath.

Cut and Pasting our High School Diplomas

In college I always had someone’s paper notes from the previous semester.  We would share them.  I often would read essays from friends who had already taken the class.  I would even meet friends for a coffee and find out what the professor’s expectations were before even sitting in his/her class.  Oh the SHAME!  

In today’s virtual world of education where students can collaborate and share at light speed we have demonized much of what we all did in class 20 years ago.  In the pre-Google years our teachers tried to force us to collaborate and now good intentioned educators are closing the doors on these very skills due to our lack of control.  The students are ahead of us and it's time to catch up. They have everything and everyone right at their fingertips … more than we will probably ever know :)  How do we handle this?

In an instant a group of students (and anyone else that wants to help) can form a #hashtag and tweet out all the geographic features that define places in California, or join a Google Hangout and work together on a quadratic function presentation, or create a facebook page sharing everything needed for success in Psych 101 … GREAT!  

The challenge is that as a 21st Century teacher, we need to be ahead of this collaboration.  Our policies and class structures need to not only control digital collaboration but to embrace it.  Here are strategies to help empower our virtual teachers so that students are not simply cutting and pasting their diplomas:

*Teacher explains ahead of time what parts of an assignment students are expected to work on together and which parts must be a student's own individual work (Corsetti).

*Create a mechanism for other students to anonymously self-report the plagiarism of others - like a hotline or a Google form.  Make it very public to all students that this ability is out there.

*Good virtual teachers keep a digital copy of everything ever submitted by previous students to compare to present student work and make it well known that this process is in place (private websites expand this like turnitun.com)

*Teachers change the mechanics used for assessments (ie poetry or personification) allowing for more creativity and limiting the ability to copy and paste.  Consider these two prompt examples: “In your own words explain five differences between photosynthesis and cellular respiration” vs. “Become your favorite plant or animal and please defend five reasons why photosynthesis is better than cellular respiration or vice versa”

*Even though systems usually timestamp when students turn in work the expectation is for the student to contact the teacher telling him/her that it is complete.  This gives them ownership in the process and allows the teacher a better feel for when multiple students are turning things in (Ruiz).

*It is imperative to set expectations in your virtual class, both in your syllabus and on your individual assignments.  If you have a face-to-face meeting at the beginning of your class ensure to discuss this.  Give examples of what virtual plagiarism is, why it is wrong, and when they may get tempted to do it.

*Teachers have students complete writing assignments (instead of multiple choice, fill in blank, etc.), thus encouraging individual pieces to demonstrate their understanding of course material (Reinowski).

*Teacher changes the media used for the assessment (ie ShowMe, ExplainEverything, or video) allowing for more creativity and limiting the ability to plagiarize.

Please feel free to share your ideas with me at this link so I can add them to this list.

https://docs.google.com/a/croslex.org/forms/d/1tlFJTBlBMv9B9Nof5KuRJreo2HllvE5g5VQATOwkCsQ/viewform

iManage the Classroom

5 Management Strategies from the Trenches for Teachers to Utilize in the One-to-One Classroom


It’s often said that when all students in your classroom have iPads (or other tablets) that “it changes everything”.  This is certainly true for learning, but often overlooked is classroom management.  With multiple companies selling products and software to schools the single best management tool is, and always has been - the teacher.  Here you will find teacher tested management strategies in the evolving world of one-to-one instruction.


1.  Expectations have to be clear.

The best run 21st century classrooms are always the ones where teacher and students are completely on the same page regarding rules and expectations.  Good teaching is good teaching, and collaboratively setting class rules/expectations and posting them for all to see apply to “one-to-one classrooms” just as they do in traditional classrooms.  Good teachers clearly state expectations and stick to them.  Consider posting them on your class website or social media feeds as well.

2.  Students switching from work to games during your lesson.

All educators know that today’s digital natives can quickly move from a game on their iPad to an appropriate learning activity when they see a teacher coming.  The students are often too fast to catch, even for the best of us who pride ourselves on moving around the room throughout the lesson.  To solve this, get in the habit of asking your students to clear/close their running apps at the beginning of class.  They can do this by double clicking the home button or four-finger swiping up.  Then they should hold down an open app until the minus sign comes up.  By closing all running apps they not only will save battery life but also give you the ability to do spot checks of what they have been using during your leson.  If the students know you can quickly find out what apps they have been using they will be far less likely to sway from your lesson plan.

3.  Losing my signal to the LCD projector.

We know the iPad was not created with the teacher and certainly not with the LCD projector in mind.  It’s wifi’s promiscuity, hiccups with mirroring, and inability to secure cables into it’s connection slot makes projecting often a nightmare.  Many of us have lost great teachable moments due to our screens suddenly going blank and our kids attention lost as we attempt to reconnect.  Get in the habit of “freezing” your projector.  Most remotes have a button allowing you to freeze whatever is on your screen while you do different things behind the scenes.  When you are not moving from screen to screen simply freeze it and you will never get that black screen again.  You have a much better chance of maintaining student engagement while trying to reconnect if you have something on the screen.  This is also a great way to take your attendance while your anticipatory set is up on your smartboard.

4.  Collaboration and when students should work together.

One of these device’s strongest attributes are their natural tendency toward collaboration - they were designed for this.  We must be crystal clear about our collaborative expectations for each assignment we give.  Digital natives are wired collaboratively and now have devices that encourage this.  They can share and work together across the classroom and across the globe without anyone knowing.  We must specifically tell them when it is and when it is not appropriate to work with others … a good rule of thumb is that if we don't tell them they can’t - then it is appropriate.  

5.  Digital Literacy and Turning In

It is now common place to ask students to submit their writing digitally. They can draft in Google Docs, share their drafts with peers/families and teacher for in-process feedback. Teachers then bulk download work as pdfs, save them on Google or in DropBox, and open on iPad with a digital copy of the rubric where they respond using a note-writing app where they write on them with a stylus.  Getting in this habit is not only strong process but it creates a digital log for the student, family, and teacher.

iTeam in Action

Birth of the iTeam

The need for a student led technology club came simultaneously with our one-to-one iPad deployment this August at Croswell-Lexington High School.  Our school culture supports clubs of all kinds and the “iTeam” was a natural fit when the entire student body was issued  iPads this year.  The club’s present goals are to help fellow students and teachers who need tech support and to assist in guiding our school policy as it evolves with the addition of 800 iPads.

I knew the group was going to be popular, but was surprised by the immediate pride our members took in the iTeam.  They designed a logo and ordered t-shirts.  When a student asks a teacher for help with their iPad, team members jump at the chance to interject.  They solve problems quickly.  They have created a google doc of common problems and how to fix them and even taken broken iPads - opened them up and repaired them.

Our next step is to work directly with Apple and broaden our goals. Team members are interested in:
- getting sponsorship to support new objectives
- schedule office hours where students can get help with technology from our members
- create a course so team members can receive high school credit for their service
- obtain Apple certification