Reflections in Tech

Back to school season is full of events, changes, new people, meetings, and for the Wolfhope family, a periodic fever syndrome for our younger son.  The stress of handling 'all the things' is often tolerable for me, until it's not. I love my job, and the responsibility and the freedom to try and fail, but ultimately succeed. I like knowing how to do things, things that are really kind of over my head, but I think I may be addicted to learning new things. That quest for always knowing more, the love of figuring things out, and the genuine joy I get for solving problems and helping people has really carried me through one of the most eventful Septembers I can remember. But... I'm no superwoman. I have failed, and failed, and failed over and over again. I have let stress and a workload carry-over at home, often distracted, or saying, "I'm almost done." I was overcome with tears, just days prior to my son's surgery date. He's fine. He's a champio...

It's 3:24 am and I have been wide awake for a least an hour. It was the coughing that woke me. Not mine but that of my seven year-old. He was diagnosed with influenza A this morning. His three year-old brother was diagnosed with influenza B and is sleeping fitfully next to my husband. Friday, today, will be day five of me staying home with sick kiddos. Two different strains of flu sick kiddos. Super irritable, not so sick that they can't annoy one another, sick kiddos. Super hungry, and attention craving sick kiddos. And in moments, it seems overwhelming, like too much at once.  I have not yet succumbed completely to the stress and exhaustion, and it's because of unyielding grace, understanding, and compassion from both my family and those surrounding my family.  Tuesday night, I went with a bunch of girlfriends to dinner and a movie, and that Brandy wouldn't take "no" for an answer. She knew! Self-care is important, and she made sure I took care of myself. ...

I have a seven year old, a first grader. Recently he read and passed comprehension questions on a third grade-level reading passage. Third grade. He solves algebraic problems with me while we wait for our meals when out at restaurants. He questions everything, makes connections to the world around him, and speaks and reads in Spanish. He is a wonder. And yet... he is one of the most frustrating and challenging beings I have ever met.   He argues, because he thinks he knows better. He cries, because we ask him to complete a task he doesn't want to do. He sulks, because his homework will take too long. He focuses, because the task at hand is challenging and rewarding. He persists, because he can see the end in sight. He works, because he loves to help. He investigates, because he thrives on knowing more. That curious, smart, and people-pleasing boy has been shying away more and more from compliance in recent days. Non-compliance - a character trait that could serve him w...

Last week the North Carolina School Library Media Association Conference (NCSLMA) was held in Winston Salem, NC.  Several of my colleagues attended from lots of schools in our area, but I was not one of the lucky attendees. I happened upon the many great things happening there by following the #ncslma18 hashtag on Twitter. The first tweet I saw was from the one and only, Stacy Lovdahl:  Made it to the opening! Can't wait to hear @pernilleripp and absorb some #awesomesauce from #ncslma18 #ncdlc pic.twitter.com/pvZCFoVPur — Stacy Lovdahl (@braveneutrino) October 4, 2018 Stacy is traveling the state serving districts from far and wide as an Educator on Loan with DPI while she also serves her home district, I knew good things would be coming from her all day.  My excitement for the conference was elevated by the incredible authors and speakers they had lined up, one being Pernille Ripp!  Pernille is the creator of the incredible Global Read Aloud proj...

I created a cool resource to help math teachers in our district navigate digital resources for mathematics instruction. This was a need for our educators as the NC Math Standards have been updated for this school year.  This site features an Awesome Table that is sortable via standard, cluster, or key word. It is my hope that this will be a valuable resource for teachers while planning lessons/units. Click here to access the site!

I earned this handy, dandy badge a couple months ago. It's a CETL Certification, which says I'm a Certified Educational Technology Leader. That's a mouthful, and a year ago, I would have said, "No way, I could never pass that test." I had been introduced to the COSN network, casually, on one of those casual BCPS 10 hour summer workdays.  I brushed it off as as "Yeah, right" possibility because my knowledge of the vastness that is technology leadership was not on my radar, at all.  Fast-forward to fall of 2017, and NCDPI announces that there is a partnership with COSN to provide a 2 day course, as well as the testing for CETL Certification. Lucky me, I got signed up, and found myself in Wake county for training in January. What a whirlwind of information; two straight days of information overload! At the conclusion of the training days we'd had about 4 weeks to study, as the test was scheduled for February 28th. I spent lots of time working through al...

For the past four years the North Carolina Digital Leaders Coaching Network (NCDLCN) has been a driving force in my growth as a coach.  I have been able to grow my professional network, stretch my thinking, grow through reflection, and put new ideas into practice.  The most recent NCDLCN session I participated in was an alumni session focussed on the concept of design thinking.  I didn't exactly know what I was getting into, but I knew that I would learn something new, be with my people, and have a blast. That I did. As part of the design thinking process each participant was paired with another to work through the process.  The best part of this partnership, was two-fold; my partner was Delaine, one of my mentees from the 2016-2017 cohort, and the purpose of the design thinking process we were to work through was to solve our partner's problem!  This was so powerful!  I love helping people solve their problems, mine, not-so-much.   At the end...

Summer time means summer reading!  I love seeing what other people are reading, sharing what I've read, and getting book recommendations from friends.  This morning I put together a very simple Google Site to display my summer reading, and thought I'd share a quick walk-through on how to do it! Here's my site:  https://sites.google.com/burke.k12.nc.us/wolfhopesummerreading/home

This adventure in learning began when one of my 6th grade science teachers approached me prior to spring break wanting to plan a BreakoutEDU game. She wanted a game based on the unit her students were wrapping up, Plants and Ecosystems.  I searched the BreakoutEDU webpage  without luck, and decided we'd have to create something to fit the needs of her and her students.  We met together and she was able to walk me through a good bit of the material, and we were able to bounce some puzzle ideas off one another.  She wanted to cover the cycles that take place in an ecosystem; water cycle, carbon cycle, photosynthesis, and pollination to name a few.  She also wanted to include different types of biomes, as well as a variety of flowering plants. Identifying the parts of a plant and symbiotic relationships rounded out our discussion that day. After our meeting I tried to get to work on designing puzzles to match our chosen topics, but my wheels were spinning, and ...

Recently, my family was gifted the movie, "Robots" and we watched it a handful of times, and the line, "See a need, fill a need" is one that resonated with me.  I believe that as educators we see lots of needs on a daily basis, but the filling of needs may be an area where we need some improvement. I got the opportunity to really live out the "See a need, fill a need" idea in our final meeting with our Burke County Global Educators Cohort (BCGEC). We kicked off our session with a Gripe Jam activity.   Jennie Magiera had shared this activity at NCTIES during her PD is not a 4 Letter Word session.  The Gripe Jam activity is a great way to think about challenges that we face as individuals, and then collectively brainstorm ways to address the challenges. One of the collaborative conversations that took place as a result of our Gripe Jam was a need for a collection of technology resources that could be categorized and searched in order find an appropriate...

I have the great opportunity to work with a team of fabulous people that I love to help, anyway I can.  This group of people was integral in helping me learn a very important lesson about asking for help.  Together, we participated in an escape room session in which we failed, because we didn't ask for a hint when we needed it.   I was adamant during the session that we could do it, without help, and yet in the end I left feeling like a failure.  In my mind, asking for help was an indication of weakness, and weakness is not good.  However, in the 'debrief' on the way home, I realized that had we asked for help we probably would have been successful, and would have felt pretty darn good about ourselves.   That was an eye opening lesson for me.   In the past I have rarely asked for help.  It was a personality flaw of mine, that goes along with my stubbornness, perfectionism, and procrastination... While these traits have helped me to stri...

In an effort to get more and more of our teachers engaged in Twitter, our district has created many resources for teachers to utilize to get started.  These resources include a Twitter #pdchallenge , an ideas list , a 20 day challenge , and a Twitter drive .  We have also shared a resource created by  +Alice Keeler  which you can find here  which enables students to tweet from a teacher account with supervision. This sheet is awesome, and I've taken it a step further to be more manageable for students on mobile devices by attaching a simple Google form to the sheet and using the CopyDown Add-on.  See below for some instructions if you want to try it out! First, make a copy of this Google Form.   Click here , and then click "Copy" Rename the form if you'd like and then click on the 'Responses' tab and the spreadsheet icon to 'create a new spreadsheet' and click 'Create' Your spreadsheet is going to need just a few modificatio...

What do you see as the purpose of education?   Why might innovation be crucial in education? In my head it's hard to come up with the 'purpose' of education because it seems like such an enormous idea that encompasses so much more than classrooms, books, and tests.   I'll do my best, but forgive the run-on sentences that may follow.  I think the purpose of education is to help students reach their potential.  I think educators are required to challenge students to prepare themselves for both the known and unknown.  Learners must be provided a safe place to take risks, ask questions, search for answers, share opinions, fail, and try again.  The purpose of education is to empower those that feel powerless, to help them see that their circumstances don't define them, and that they can find a better way.  I think education should encourage problem, ideas, and solutions and embrace new ways to do things. Our job as educators is to provide an environ...

Our school system welcomed teachers back yesterday for a full week of work days to prep for our first student day on August 29th.   We are fortunate to have many new teachers, both brand new, and new to the profession.  I serve three middle schools so I have relationships with many teachers, media coordinators, and administrators.   As an Instructional Tech Facilitator I have taken on the roles of a Mrs. Fix-it, friend, co-teacher, and counselor.  With that in mind I felt the need to offer a short PSA for all of our teachers and those that love teachers. # notaboutyou Totally stealing this from my girl  +Abbey Futrell !  She was our awesome #bcpsdtlc Keynote speaker and she reminded us that we are are here for.   the.   kids ! When the going gets tough, remember you're here for those students in your room, focus on them and you can't go wrong! Take care of yourself!   Teaching is incredibly hard work!  It's draining, all-consuming, ...

We have an excellent public library in Hickory, North Carolina, the Patrick Beaver Memorial Library . My four year-old son, Lucas, has enjoyed many aspects of the children's wing of the library for some time.  The puppets, touch-screen computers, lego table, puzzles, and bead mazes have kept him entertained and begging to come back.  However, until recently, looking for books has been a combination of me pleading and him running around in the aisles playing peek-a-boo.  Last month we ( when I say we, I mean I) finally settled on three books to take home, great pictures, and decodable words and sight words.  We got the books home, and Lucas didn't care to look at them once.... I was discouraged to say the least.  My husband and I both love to read, and I Lucas enjoys being read to, but he didn't care to take a look at the three books we (I) got from the library at all. This week, we returned to the library, with baby brother, Griffin.  He too enjoyed ...

In the coming weeks the BCPS Digital Teaching and Learning team will open the application window for the 2nd annual BCGEC.  We have MacBooks to issue to any middle or high school teachers that get accepted.  We are also extending an open invitation to elementary teachers to apply with us as well.   The first BCGEC was great a great experience for the DTL team as well as the cohort members.  Our department worked diligently to provide professional development opportunities that were engaging, insightful, fun, and productive. We used Canvas to facilitate our course, and shared tools and resources like: Goosechase What's a PLN Copyright Policy Twitter GAFE (Google Apps for Education) Canvas & Google Classroom Skype & Google Hangouts Code.org BreakoutEDU Edcamp All members also attended our DTLC last fall, and will attend/present at the 2016 DTLC. We're looking forward to our next cohort group, and while we are growing our family, w...

Plan. Schedule. Print. Prep. Hide clues. Set locks. Test locks. Double-check clues.  Breathe. Engage. Breakout! I won't sugarcoat this, the process of preparing for my first BreakoutEDU session took me a long time!  (I used a pre-made game, Grammar Guru, it was great by-the-way!) However, every bit of time I spent printing, cutting, re-printing, scanning, and building was WORTH IT! Cyndi Childers, a 6th grade teacher at East Burke Middle School, was looking for something to get her students engaged, and I knew Breakout was just the trick. We ran two simultaneous games in two rooms, with Cyndi facilitating one room and myself in the other.  We had groups about about 12-15 students in each room.  The group size worked, it could have been smaller, but it really wasn't bad at all.   This game has a progression of clue finding, one leading to another, so they were all somewhat forced to be working together on 1-2 clues at once, which I liked.  This help...

I still remember, clearly, answering a phone call from Melanie Honeycutt in my kindergarten classroom back in September of 2012.  I remember crying as I happily accepted a job as an Instructional Technology Facilitator under her leadership.  I was crying because I was overwhelmed with joy at the chance to take on a role that I so excited to have.  Three weeks later I was in tears again, as I had packed up the last of my personal belongings and was ready to say goodbye my classroom and my students.  Tears, streaming down, as evidence of my fear of no longer making a meaningful impact on students.  Never being about to talk about "my kids." because I gave them up. Flash forward to NCTIES 2016 and the keynote speakers Brad Waid and Drew Minock share that relationships with our students are key , and that one may never know what we as teachers could do to help a student find his or her voice.  I gladly accepted the role as an ITF to share my passion of ed...