Jan Zanetis is the Managing Director at the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration and is currently serving on the ISTE Board of Directors as the Board Secretary. In 2015, Jan was awarded the coveted “Making IT Happen” award from ISTE.

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I have known Jan for over 20 years and always look forward to catching up with her at conferences. I met Jan when she was working with TANDBERG when I first learned about video conferencing. At ISTE last year, I mentioned to Jan that I wanted to learn more about her work so invited her to have a conversation with me. Below are a few excerpts from the podcast:

Your background

I’ve had multiple careers starting in the classroom. My passions have always been around opening the walls of the world to kids and classrooms. I live in Louisville, Kentucky by way of Nashville, Tennessee. I have three grown sons and one granddaughter 18 months old in New York City.

I figured out when I was 13 years old working at Head Start that I wanted to be a teacher. I went to Peabody College in Nashville that is now Vanderbilt University and majored in special education and elementary ed. I ended up being a Title I Reading Teacher and worked with Special Ed and Gifted kids then a middle school teacher teaching science and loved Mrs. Frizzle, teaching hands-on, and personalized learning. I was teaching my kids to code in 1999. Nothing is really new. Everything is coming around again. I was producing videos with my students in the late 90s.

Videoconferencing

I fell in love with interactive video back in 2000. I was asked to take a position at Vanderbilt running a virtual school. Ours were all live interactive distance learning experiences for kids for the city of Nashville for the science community then grew nationally and now is international. In those five years, that was the most fun time building a distance learning community. During that period, I met Kecia Ray and Camille Cole at ISTE and we decided to write a book about Videoconferencing in the K12 Classrooms published by ISTE.

Little History of Videoconferencing

Video conferencing was different in the 1990s and it was very complicated. You had to have special phone lines to connect to other people which caused huge phone bills. You needed 8-12 phone lines to support the bandwidth of 384K. You needed an IT person because everything was done manually with remote controls.

Then it switched over to IP based video in 2005 that made it easier because you didn’t need the expensive phone lines. In 2010, it switched from room-based codex video to cloud-based video which is so much easier for teachers. All they have to do is click on a link and they are in a video call across the world. Also, it is much less expensive than it was before. Now there are free or low-cost platforms like Google Hangout, Skype, and Zoom which we are using to connect for this conversation.

Moving to the corporate and non-profit sector

I was hired by TANDBERG in 2005 as their Global Education person. That was a lot of fun too. I got to travel the world and meet all these great educators. I worked for CISCO from 2011-2013, I worked with the people who did virtual excursions which were the Australian version of CILC. Yes, I lived in Australia during that time.

In 2013, I became the Managing Director of CILC (Center for Interactive Learning) a non-profit that has been around for 25 years. CILC is like a match.com between teachers and organizations to connect to museums, art galleries, authors, artists, and more. We have over 200 video programs with schools around the world typically reaching almost 3,000 kids a day. A lot of our programs are free like the ones from the National Parks and Smithsonian Institute. We also have a collaboration center is an area where teachers can go look at or post collaborative projects. You can browse the projects, past projects, or post project ideas where kids can talk to other kids. It could be a debate, a student-created presentation, or in other ways.

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As an educator and university administrator, Jan Zanetis spent 20 years in K-12 and Higher Education. In 2005, she moved into the corporate sector as an education specialist, first for TANDBERG and then Cisco Systems. In 2013, she began her current role as the Managing Director at the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration. Jan feels very lucky to present at educational conferences, regionally, nationally and internationally.

Jan’s area of expertise is the application of video technologies in education. She has written extensively on this topic for education journals and has co-authored two books. Jan is an active member of several professional organizations including the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), the United States Distance Learning Association and the Consortium for School Networking. She often presents at educational conferences, regionally, nationally and internationally. Jan is currently serving on the ISTE Board of Directors as the Board Secretary. In 2015, Jan was awarded the coveted “Making IT Happen” award from ISTE.

Jan holds a bachelor’s of science from Vanderbilt University in elementary/special education and an M.Ed. from Tennessee State University.

Press Release (August 2013) http://www.cilc.org/newsletter/news_releases.asp

Contact info:

Email: jzanetis@cilc.org
Twitter: https://twitter.com/janzan

• CILC Website: http://cilc.org/
• Nepris: https://www.nepris.com/
• ISTE Interactive Video Conferencing PLN: http://www.goo.gl/6iDXyD
• Global Education: CILC Collaboration Center:   https://cilc.org/Collaborations.aspx  Ripples Make Waves, World Water Day, March 22, 2018. https://cilc.org/Collaborations/Global-Collaboration-RMW.aspx
• Best practice in Science Education Churchill Fellowship report http://www.goo.gl/XiZFd1\
• Virtual Excursions Australia http://www.virtualexcursionsaustralia.com.au/
• ISTE Board Ballot: https://www.iste.org/about/elections

Resources:

A Beginners Guide to Interactive Virtual Field Trips
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ886387.pdf

The Impact of Broadcast and Streaming Video in Education (CISCO)
https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en_us/solutions/industries/docs/education/ciscovideowp.pdf

Interactive Videoconferencing: K-12 Lessons That Work Paperback – February 15, 2009 by Kecia Ray and Jan Zanetis
https://www.amazon.com/Interactive-Videoconferencing-K-12-Lessons-That/dp/1564842517/

Videoconferencing in K12 Classrooms, 2nd Edition – 2009
Camille Cole, Kecia Ray, and Jan Zanetis
https://www.amazon.com/Videoconferencing-K-12-Classrooms-Second-Development/dp/1564842568/

How Virtual Excursions Enrich Classroom Teaching https://www.fizzicseducation.com.au/Blog/x_post/Podcast-how-virtual-excursions-enrich-classroom-teaching-00214.html

Dr. Rena Hawkins is the principal of Maple Elementary School in the Smithville School District in Missouri. She was recently honored by being selected as a 2018 Missouri Association of Elementary School Principals Exemplary New Principal. Rena co-hosts the Share Mo Edu Podcast with Dr. Eric Carlin.

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I was lucky to meet Rena on a panel with Adam Welcome so I added a selfie of Rena and Adam. I loved her passion for teaching and learning so I just had to have a conversation with her. Below are a few excerpts from the podcast along with some great pictures and resources from Rena:

About you and your family

I met my husband in the summer 25 years ago and we’ve been married for 23 years. My husband is Jason Hawkins and is a Psychotherapist at Truman Medical Center in Kansas City. We have 3 children. Our oldest, Serena, 19, just finished her freshman year at Northwestern and wants to be a music teacher. Harley is 16 and is a true outdoorsman. He loves football, hunt, and fish. Elaine, 15, will be a freshman next year in high school and loves to sing and loves drama.

Journey as a Teacher to Principal

I always wanted to be a teacher and was a teacher for eleven years. I taught first, second, and fifth grades. I moved back and forth between Missouri and Florida three times in my life, twice as a child and once as an adult. My teaching experience spanned from areas in Missouri to Florida and back. After teaching, I moved into an instructional coach role for six years and one year as the K-12 ELA curriculum coordinator. Following that, I went into administration and was the assistant principal in Smithville for 2 years before taking over the Maple Elementary (K-2) as lead principal 2 years ago where there were 500 K-2 students.

Transitioning to Maple Elementary PreK-6

The Primary School just finished its last year as a K-2 school and is now a PreK-6 school. For years, K-2 children in Smithville were bussed to Maple Elementary. The district is in the process of building a new elementary school and all three elementary schools will open as PreK to 6th-grade schools in the fall. So my building is going through major renovations this summer.

One of our major changes opening as a PreK to 6th-grade school is we are starting multi-age co-teaching classrooms. We are breaking down walls between six classrooms and will have sliding glass doors between them. There will be multi-age co-teaching with first and second grades so the first graders will get to loop with those teachers for two years. We have done looping in the past, but the way we are doing looping with co-teaching models is new to us.

Changing Everything

With the change in the model and a new school, I lost two-thirds of my teaching staff to the other two elementary schools. I belong to the Missouri Department of Ed’s Leadership Academy this past year where we had regional meetings and toured different schools in the area. I toured a school and saw co-teaching with the two teachers at the same grade levels. I came back to my superintendent and asked: “why are we going to open Maple Elementary with the same model when we can make a difference?”

So he suggested that I research multi-age co-teaching. Once the teachers got a taste of facilitating the leadership hour with another teacher in the co-teaching model, they liked it. I had a feeling that there were a lot of teachers interested but nobody knew who was going to be staying at Maple at that time. After much planning with the schedule, we decided to start with a first/second grade co-teaching model with 3 first grade and 3 second grade classes. We have a new curriculum and plan to go slow by starting small with a workshop model, team building activities, and social-emotional learning strategies. We are hoping with the looping that children will have strong peer models to help them lead the way.

2018-2019 staff…our theme was “Learning Under Construction”

Building the Classes and the Culture

The class sizes are small with 16 to 19 children so each class has its own classroom separated by a sliding glass door. In fact, the glass will be frosted half way up so they can write on it.

We decided to spend the time to build the culture since we will have new staff. We have late start Wednesdays for our collaborative planning time and build time for PD. We encourage our teachers to determine what support and resources they will need for their PD. We are a little crunched for time because of the construction so we are starting later after Labor Day instead of starting mid-August.

Our theme is Welcome Home because we have our new home with many of the primary children coming back.

Monthly Themes

Dr. Eric Carlin is the assistant principal at Maple Elementary who worked with me to pump the passion at Maple using monthly themes. We’re still working on some of the themes.

• #SeekYourSquad September or #Celebrate September
• #OptimisticOctober or #OpportuneOctober
• #Notable November
• #DaringDecember
• #JoinTogetherJanuary
• #PhenomenalFebruary
• #MeaningfulMarch
• #AudaciousApril
• #MoreMay
• #RejuvenateJune
• #FindYourJamJuly or ?
• #AuthenticAugust or #AllInAugust

 Share MO Edu Podcast

Over Christmas break, I was really active on Twitter and Adam Welcome reached out to me to encourage me to do more. He said I need to write more blogs and start a podcast. So Eric and I kicked off the podcast February 1st using the monthly themes and now there are over 20.

Share MO Edu is on Podomatic at http://sharemoedu.podomatic.com/ and on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/share-mo-edu-podcast/id1352067430?mt=2

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Dr. Rena Hawkins is the principal at Maple Elementary School in the Smithville School District in Missouri. She is passionate about education, especially in the area of literacy.

Prior to becoming an administrator, Rena was a classroom teacher for 11 years (1st grade, 2nd grade, and 5th grade) and served in coaching or curriculum coordinator roles for 6 years, allowing her to impact student growth by supporting adult learners to understand and utilize best practice.  Constantly considering “next” best practice allows her to learn WITH staff and students.

I was recently honored by being selected as a 2018 Missouri Association of Elementary School Principals Exemplary New Principal.  Here is the information: https://www.facebook.com/smithvilleschooldistrict/posts/722069344658522

Website: Learncaching – http://learncaching.weebly.com/
Twitter:  @renathunderhawk
Email: hawkinsr@smithville.k12.mo.us

School website: https://www.smithvilleschooldistrict.net/ (this is the Smithville R-II School District Site)

Here is the website for Maple Elementary School:  https://www.smithvilleschooldistrict.net/mes

Ted Fujimoto is President of Landmark Consulting Group, Inc., a management and investment consultancy for scaling innovations in learning. Ted helped to design and create the replication systems and strategy for several of the highest performing public school designs in the country that created over 350 schools, including New Tech Network and Big Picture Learning.

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I’ve been following Ted on Twitter for many years and am constantly learning from him. When I reached out to Ted, he welcomed me with open arms. I really enjoyed our conversation and added excerpts with links, resources, and pictures to complement his podcast.

About you and your family

I was originally from the Napa Valley in California. During my developmental years, I grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and I lived overseas as a teenager in Japan. I have two kids. One is finishing up her third year of medical school and the other is finishing college who just got married this summer. My wife, Leigh Rachel Faith @unleighshed, is an actor, writer, and producer in the entertainment business. We live in Los Angeles.

What school was like when you were growing up

I was in a traditional school in a single room country schoolhouse. Oversees, we had correspondence school where we had to mail in our assignments and then got them back literally a month later. I was one of those kids who felt that school was boring and in the way. What got me through it was kind of cracking the code. For example, when I was in the correspondence school, I knew I could get the school work done by 10 am and then jump on the subway to tour Tokyo until 6 pm every day. So I got done by speeding through.

Even in college, I got through in three years. There was a bunch of classes where I just went to the midterms and finals. That’s what I needed to do to get the grades and that’s all I did. Even as a professional some 20 odd years later and started dozens of education organizations, I looked back to figure out what part of my education contributed to what I know today. I would say maybe 5% – there were a few classes that gave me a perspective and helped me to do what I do today. But, actually, about 80% was not useful at all.

New Tech Network

When I moved my company from Silicon Valley to Napa Valley where I was originally from, we were one of the first tech companies there. Then Napa was a farm town then and we couldn’t find employees to help us grow. My first foray in transforming education was literally out of survival. We needed employees even entry level and that resulted in starting that Napa New Technology High School in 1996.

About New Tech High School: https://youtu.be/NuurI4v8nSY

I hired a number of students as interns and later as full-time employees. It was really creating a school that gave kids the real skills that I could literally use the next year. We hear about project-based learning and the variety of ways to do it.  I can tell you with New Tech and the teachers like Paul Curtis who went to sabbaticals with the Buck Institute. We wanted it rooted in real-world work and toured the country to find schools that. But we couldn’t find schools with that authenticity. One of the people who designed New Tech was involved with Silicon Graphics. The purple that New Tech uses is the purple from Silicon Graphics. Now there are over 200 schools in the New Tech Network.

Big Picture Learning

My involvement is to help communities connect to school designs that scale and are replicable. I was on the board and executive team with Big Picture Learning and now am a thought partner. I helped Dennis Littky and Elliot Washor design and create the replication systems and strategy that created over 200 schools. They have public schools located in some of the toughest urban areas in America and are graduating over 95% of their students of which nearly 100% are being accepted to college.

Landmark Consulting

My company, Landmark Consulting, has gone through multiple iterations, but it officially started in 1988, my freshman year of college. We built finance and logistical systemsfor major clients including Remy Martin, LVMH and early cellular phone innovator AirTouch Communications which then became Vodafone and then became part of Verizon. I had no master plan, but I had the skills and the opportunity to use those skills. It actually started out fixing people’s personal computer problems. Then all of a sudden we saw some other problems that needed to be solved. Within a 24-month period, we were literally taking on whole enterprise systems. Part of it is about being at the right place at the right time, but that all boils down to relationships. It was all about doors being open when someone said we have a problem we know you can solve. That’s how it started and continues to work that way.

At its peak, we had several dozen employees mostly in the management consulting area. Today, our focus is very specific around advising investment groups and helping organizations to scale in their strategy. I have a network of consultants that understand this area for different sectors. We handpick maybe a dozen clients that have a high potential to do amazing work in their area or their organization is at risk to do damage in an area. We help them help navigate and gain perspective so they make better decisions.  

Scaling innovations in learning

Early in my career, I had a long-term client that developed the retail concept for the Saturn automobile brand. We re-engineered the retail networks of 11 automotive and hospitality brands worldwide like Ritz Carlton. We asked questions like how do you create a new network experience for your customers? How do you create the culture, mindset, and practices that are world class? The founder of the group was retiring so as part of an investment group acquired the company. During the time that I was there, I learned so much about scaling and creating ecosystems that enable the right mindsets to start to work and function on a consistent basis. This happened at the same time we were looking at how to scale New Tech and Big Picture Learning.

Having aligned goals is not enough. Every school says pretty much the same thing. It is the consistent execution that matters. No one wants to work in a toxic environment. What makes it executable? What we learned is not only how they structure time and space for effective relationships and agree on the goals but how they are going to work together.

If you have a school that has discourse and disconnects, I ask them “when was the last time you compared student work with other schools and national practice?” It takes a much more structured approach like daily advisories to actively spawn the relationships, trust, and responsibility. Not many people have been trained to do this instinctively. Proactively, you need to do this every day and be intentional to build those authentic relationships and use protocols.

The things that distinguish who employers want to hire is how they work as a team, how they think creatively, how they basically manage a team project, how they are reliable, how they articulate their journey and what they are going to solve, know how to get agreement, and how to navigate things that might be falling apart. All the companies I work with are doing innovative things which means no one has done it before. It is unchartered territory.

The education community doesn’t realize how big the gap is and what is applicable. We don’t use email. We use a joint conference call with teams worldwide. The amount of real-time decision making and collaboration is happening right away. That is different than the routines and schedules that are in schools.

Right to Succeed Foundation

Right to Succeed Foundation is a non-profit that is focused voice and storytelling about the schools really work and are scalable. There are systems to support that. We use our connections and media to share the stories with the world.

Right to Succeed: https://twitter.com/righttosucceed

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Ted Fujimoto is President of Landmark Consulting Group, Inc., a management and investment consultancy for scaling innovations in learning. Clients include some of the most prominent foundations, investors, and innovators that span across education, media, entertainment, technology, distribution, content, energy and real estate.

Ted currently serves on the Board of Directors of the California Credit Union, a $3 billion credit union.  He is the co-founder of MuzArt World Foundation and co-chairs the Right to Succeed Foundation, a non-profit focused on transforming public education through the creation of at least 6,000 American Dream Schools within the next 10 years

Ted helped to design and create the replication systems and strategy for several of the highest performing public school designs in the country that created over 350 schools, including New Tech Network and Big Picture Learning.

He has served on the California Education Technology Advisory Committee, received the 2002 Center for Digital Government “In the Arena” Award for Education Leadership in transforming vision to reality, and in Converge Magazines “1999 Year in Review,” Ted was named one of “Educations Dreamers, Leaders, and Innovators.

+1 916-769-2417 Direct

Email: tedf@consultlandmark.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/tedfujimoto
Landmark Consulting Group: https://twitter.com/ConsultLandmark
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tedfujimoto
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/public/Ted-Fujimoto
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tedfujimoto/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/tedfujimoto/

Other Podcasts with Ted

https://youtu.be/912jOwBK72E
EdTech Episode #69 – Relationships, Relevance, Rigour in School Reform

Dr. Darryl Adams is the Rock & Roll, Hip Hop & Soul Superintendent, Thought Leader and a Technology Evangelist! His goal for education is to help make this a better world by inspiring everyone to participate in providing equity, equality, and opportunity for all by ensuring that we “Leave No Child Offline and No Teacher Behind.”

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I’ve followed Dr. Adams on his journey as a superintendent and keynoter for some time. In this episode, we talk about his journey that led up to the release of “The Education Nation” album on Rock & Roll, Hip Hop, and Soul Musical Tribute to Leadership, Education, Equity and Democracy (L.E.A.D.) Below are a few excerpts from the podcast where we included pictures, videos, and a link to his website with the streaming version of his album.

A little background and surprise about Darryl first

I’m originally from Memphis, Tennessee, but I’ve been in California now for 35+ years. I still have those roots in Memphis starting out in the music business in the 80s and fortunate enough to be in a band then that was pretty popular. We had an album out then and was on tour with Hall ‘n Oats. We were 6 African American guys from Tennessee in a Rock ‘n Roll Funk band who were on MTV. I thought you’d get a kick out of the picture of the album cover from 1984. 

Then our band broke up and I moved to California. This background of music is a big part of my story. My love for music took me into teaching music and then into leadership. Leadership and music both are an art and need to be created.

I started out as a music teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District for five years. I really wanted to go into leadership because I felt we needed to bring more love, trust, creativity, and innovation to leadership. In the 90s, leadership was still a top-down entity in administration, I really wanted to bring that openness, transparency, and trust so everyone is included in the process of educating all of our students.

Your journey as Superintendent at Coachella USD

After being an assistant principal and then a high school principal, I wanted to be a superintendent. Then I landed at Coachella which others told me was a tough place with so many on free and reduced lunch. That was exactly where I wanted to be. I was lucky to be there with a board that told me that the only way to go was up and that I was the only one that could take us there. I decided to reach out to everyone in the school community, board, union members, business partners and talk about how we can do better than what’s happening now. Then discuss together how we can make a difference, be open, transparent, and make sure everyone was involved so we were more successful.

TLC Philosophy: Trust, Love, and Collaboration

I created the TLC Philosophy to inspire everyone to participate in providing equity, equality, and opportunity for all by ensuring that we “Leave No Child Offline and No Teacher Behind.” It really is all about Ethical Leadership that focuses on digital equity and access to all students so they can compete on a global level.

One of my songs on my album is called, Coachella, to demonstrate how they truly worked together. This was the right place for me to take my crazy music ideas instead of going from a C to an F Sharp, I put the idea of going from no technology to everyone having the technology.  We knew we didn’t have funding from the Federal government or the state so we had to figure out how to find the funding from the community. I asked the community to see if they were willing to tax themselves so their students will be successful in the 21st century. We had the campaign to get the information out to the parents including support from Apple who explained to them what the mobile devices could do for their children. First, we did a huge pilot program so the parents could see what we could do and then the teachers, students, and the parents agreed that this was the way to go. At the 2011 election, the program was voted in with 67% of the vote. All 20,000 Pre-K to High School kids received their own individual iPad.

Wifi-on-Wheels at Coachella USD

At that time, there was no E-rate money to upgrade the infrastructure and broadband at the schools. We used some of that money to do that as well. We wanted a state-of-the-art system that would handle 60,000 iPads.  We were the first in the world to ensure students 24/7 internet access by putting wifi routers on school buses by way of the Wifi-on-Wheels initiative.

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This is Barbara: I  pulled together a few more things about Dr. Darryl Adams below to share with you including some videos:

Dr. Darryl Adams  just released his new album, “Education Nation.” He is an eternal optimist who keeps it real by bringing his unique energy, passion, oratory skills and original musical messages to inspire audiences everywhere. His goal is to change the world through creative servant leadership, innovation and out of the box thinking! Dr. Adams’ Keynote Presentations or Keynote Concerts are engaging, interactive, informative and fun. Think Hamilton meets Tony Robbins meets Martin Luther King with a touch of Rick James, James Brown and Jay Z!

Contact Information

www.adamsedutainment.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/darryladams
Twitter: twitter.com/@TheEdutainor
Facebook: facebook.com/Darryl Adams
Website: www.drdarryladams.com

Don’t miss the launch and streaming version on his website soon of…

The Education Nation Album: A tribute to Teachers, Students, Parents Everywhere!

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In 2014, the U.S. Department of Education and the Obama White House named Dr. Adams one of the Top 100 Innovative Superintendents in the Nation. His iPads for All and Wifi-on-Wheels initiatives garnered a much-heralded shout-out from the President during the 2014 Future Ready Summit at the White House! President Obama praised Dr. Adams’ leadership and creativity and spoke to the importance of the iPads for All and Wifi-on-Wheels programs as being innovative ways of connecting students and families to educational opportunities.

Obama commending Dr. Adams: https://youtu.be/B-K6mxv8RX8

Dr. Adams has been named as one of the most influential voices in education by Tech and Learning magazine and the Center for Digital Education has honored him as one of the Top 30 Technologists, Transformers & Trailblazers in the nation in digital conversion.

ASU + GSV Summit May 2017

Dr. Adams has led the way in educational technology and digital conversion, broadband infrastructure expansion for schools and homes and in developing teacher educational technology certification programs. Dr. Adams has been interviewed by and highlighted on National Public Radio, The U.S. Department of Education, The Learning Counsel, the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelly and the Center for Digital Education regarding educational technology innovations, to name a few.

CUE 2015 Super Symposium:

Travis Lape is the Harrisburg School District’s Innovative Programs Director and was the recipient of the TIE Technology Leader Award for the State of South Dakota. He co-hosts the Movers & Makers Podcast and helped host over 8 Edcamps in South Dakota in the past three years.

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I’ve followed Travis on Twitter for several years about his work with Makerspaces and personalized learning. Then I met him at the TIES conference in Minnesota last year. We had loads of fun then so I had to make sure he joined me on a podcast. We added some excerpts from the podcast below:

Your background and family

When I graduated in 2010 from the University of SiouxFalls (USF), I went into teaching right away.  I taught 4th grade at a low socio-economic school teaching at an elementary school in Sioux Falls,  Lowell Elementary at that time was the Science, Math, and Technology school. It was a lot of fun and a great year. Prior to teaching, I was a travel softball coach for several years. Then, after a year of teaching, I got a unique opportunity to be the head coach at USF to help transition them from the NAIA ranks to the Division 2 NCAA ranks. My passion was with coaching and teaching. I was not married at the time and couldn’t pass this up. I was the head coach for two years and transitioned them to Division 2 with pieces in place to be successful to hand it over to the next coach.

In that process, I got married and didn’t want to live on the road as much as I was doing. My wife is a teacher who shared with me that Harrisburg School District had an opening for a technology integrationist role. A family is super important to me and I wanted to be at home more. I applied and got the job as Technology Integrationist at one of the elementary schools for a year. My wife and I have a 2 ½-year-old son, DJ, who we adopted two years ago. 

Technology Integrationist

My background was elementary education. My first school we used iPods so I spent a lot of time searching to catch up on technology. The place I found support was on Twitter and several Edchats. I was on fire because I got connected to some powerful educators in the field doing that type of work for years. I was able to take ideas and piece them together to make them work for our building. My principal and I had planned for over a year to remake the library into a Makerspace due to Laura Fleming @LFlemingEDU and Shannon Miller @shannonmmiller until he left to take another job in Iowa. That was when Darren Ellwein @dellwein came into the picture and said that his middle school could use my services as a technology integrationist working with teachers in the classroom and to make a Makerspace in the library.  

That was when Darren Ellwein @dellwein came into the picture and said that his middle school could use my services as a technology integrationist working with teachers in the classroom and to make a Makerspace in the library. That was the best professional move I made and stayed there two years while working on my masters in administration as well. Darren and his staff are incredible and helped shape the tech piece for me. We were able to bring tech into the classroom to make it meaningful rather than just a device kids use. Then I became an Assistant Principal at an elementary school where we focused on personalized learning. That was a unique situation where the district needed to APs at that school just for one year. I loved it and, at some point, I’ll end up being a building principal.  

About a Makerspace 

Innovative Programs Director

This was the first year for an Innovations Programs in our district. As director, it has been really good for me to have a district view and vision. I don’t feel like I’ve worked a single day yet. I love it but change is super hard and not easy for the faint of hearts. Not everyone is happy about changing school structures. The one thing we all have in common is a school experience and everyone has an opinion on how a school should operate. When you have that much of a dynamic, it is super hard. Our district has paved the way for our innovation in the idea that kids deserve better.

TIES Technology Leader Award 

Personalized Learning

About five years ago, our high school wanted to change by adding more flexibility of time in classrooms. In that process, they came across customization which could be interchangeable with personalized learning. Every freshman got into the program and there was not a lot of soft skill building. For 9 years they were told what to do and when to take a test or turn in a paper. Then in their freshman year, their world was turned upside down telling them that they were in charge of their learning. They would have to prove mastery with artifacts and evidence learning.

To really have systemwide change, we found that you need to start personalizing learning in the early grades and let those parents be your flagship carriers. Then they will be the ones questioning what school will do for their children. We kind of did it backward, but we had a bold school board who stuck it out. We decided to offer choices at the high school and that’s when the middle school started with the sixth grade. This year it is 6th/7th and then the following year we’ll bring in 8th grade.

Getting Rid of Grade Levels at the Elementary Level

In elementary, we look at it through a whole different lens. We decided to meet the learner with the right content with the right facilitator at the right time and give them voice and choice in how they prove their learning and have them part of the learning process. We got rid of grade levels and focus on the whole child and what they need for their education. When you think of that I think of a graphic that Ken Grover from Utah shared with me. His graphic starts at the base of a triangle with all learners can learn. If you believe that, then you need to put in an invisible structure to support those learners. Elementary students still need structure and support. Then identify the instruction and then the tools. Tools need to be brought in last.

We identified the best practices that are already in our classrooms and then put them in a personalized learning environment. In our elementary schools, we have created unique learning environments where we have taken age levels of what traditionally would be 2nd thru 5th graders and put them all in a community together with four learning facilitators. In each cohort, there are roughly 85-95 learners. Our whole goal here is to support them where they are at in their learning. Empower them to drive and take a hold of it. It is incredible to see the ownership they take in their learning when they have control.

The first ten days of school we spent a lot of time developing SOPs (standard operating procedures), building relationships and working on Habits of Mind. These ten days were vital to our program’s success because it is the foundation that we work on each day.

Habits of Mind Videos
Habits of Mind Lessons

Movers & Makers Radio

Our Makerspace radio show is on the BAM Radio Network! The show is called WMKR, Movers & Makers. Embarking on this journey with me, I am lucky enough to have a fabulous co-host, Laura Fleming.   

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Travis Lape is the Harrisburg School District’s Innovative Programs Director. He earned his B.A. Elementary Education and Master in Leadership at the University of Sioux Falls where his research focused on personalized learning models for Elementary and Middle Schools. In 2016, Travis was the recipient of the TIE Technology Leader Award for the State of South Dakota and is also an ambassador for seesaw, Flipgrid, and squirrels. He co-hosts the Movers & Makers Podcast as well as blogs about all things in education at Lens into Learning and helped host over 8 Edcamps in South Dakota in the past three years.

Travis is constantly pushing the newest tools to support creativity and innovation in our classrooms. He is passionate about Makerspaces, personalized learning, and helping teachers become connected educators. Travis travels and works with districts all over the midwest on making school-wide changes.

Contact Info

About me: https://about.me/travislape

Twitter: @Travislape – Follow #epiclearners

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/travis.lape.5

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/travis-lape-b1170b36/

Email: lensintolearning@gmail.com

Website: www.mackinmakerspace.com/experts/travis-lape/

This past year, I decided to step out of my comfort zone. I wanted to try some new experiences, but something was holding me back. I couldn’t figure it out. I think what was keeping me from finding my magic was fear. Fear of not having enough money so I kept taking jobs that kept me comfortable. Fear of looking foolish so I kept doing the same presentations. Fear of letting my family down. Actually, my family was pushing me to go out of my comfort zone. I didn’t realize I had a fixed mindset that I couldn’t do something. It was me holding me back.

So I decided to start over and rethink what I’m doing with my life. I needed to find my WHY, my purpose. You probably notice a theme around passion and purpose in my posts and podcasts lately. I tried to figure out why I was letting fear take over so I had help from my family, friends, and a coach. Here are some tips that helped me:

1 – Know Your Fears

Fear is a valuable thing. It keeps you safe and encourages you to be cautious when you need to be. But fear also limits you. Not everything you’re afraid of deserves fear or caution. Sometimes, courage and bravery are needed to make your life better. First, review your fears and if they are real. I had no idea I was holding myself back when I didn’t have to. So I took time to address each fear one at a time and talk about that fear. I needed to figure out on a scale of one to ten how real that fear really was. There were no fears in my work that were 10s. I made the fears bigger than they really were.

2- Challenge Yourself with Small Activities

One of my fears was changing the direction in my work. Before I jumped straight in, I needed to identify the direction I wanted to go. I had been blogging on my website Rethinking Learning since 2010 and before that blogged as Rethinking Learning on My eCoach since 2004. I really love to write and share. I figured the easiest thing to do was to start blogging again around passion, purpose, kindness, and agency. So I did. I’m loving it and writing every day. It’s about going slow and dipping your toes into what you’re passionate about.

3- Think of it as a Blesson

I learned from my husband that everything you do that takes you out of your comfort zone can be a blessing and a lesson: a Blesson. I love that. I decided to ask me a few questions: “What happened that I can learn from and learn about me? What am I learning about the other people who have gone through a similar discomfort? How can I use the information from both of these questions in my professional and personal lives?”

4- Be Your Own Coach

I am a coach for others and even help schools with their coaching programs. My coach asked me: “What questions do you ask when you are coaching someone out of their comfort zone?” I knew the questions and realized that I could do this for me. These are the questions I asked me: “What are the worst things that could happen if I go out of my comfort zone? What are the best things that could happen? Will I and others benefit from my actions? Would it be better to stay where I am? What is holding me back?”

5- Get a Handle on your Fears

After I identified some of my fears, I needed to do research on different topics. I needed to reinvent myself. That seemed so big, that I just kept doing the same thing even though it wasn’t working for me. I guess I didn’t feel confident in myself. I needed to get out and talk to people, visit schools, and travel. This is a mental trick anyone needs to do. It is about believing that you can do something if you do the research on what it is you want to do. The research builds knowledge. When you have that knowledge, you build the confidence you need to move forward.

6- Living with Uncertainty

Being uncomfortable is kind of the new norm today. The world is changing so fast that no one knows what is ahead for us. There is an uncertainty about the type of work is needed in the future. That impacts all of us. For me, I knew I couldn’t keep going down the same road because it wasn’t working for me and for others. The best habit for me was to practice becoming familiar with uncertainty and discomfort. I try to pick one thing each day that kind of scares me and act on it. The one big thing I did was start my podcast show. Each show puts me out of my comfort zone. I needed to push myself so I did big time. I really recommend the idea of picking one thing each day that scares you and go and do it. You will be amazed at how you will be able to live with uncertainty easier every day and build a growth mindset about whatever you want to do.

When you take at least one small step to living uncomfortably and tackle your fears, you will be amazed at what magic occurs within you.

Michael Mohammad, a high school science teacher in Elmbrook School District in Wisconsin, is passionate about personalizing learning for all learners. Mike writes a blog post, Mo Physics, Mo Problems about his own journey to personalize learning and building his PLN.

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Mike shares what happens in his class on social media. I’ve been part of Mike’s PLN for several years and have enjoyed what he shares with the world. When he first learned about personalized learning, he decided to try it right away with his kids. I was pretty excited about the results and just wanted to learn more what his kids were doing in his class. So it just made sense to invite Mike to join me in a conversation. Below are excerpts from the podcast:

Can you share a little about you and your background? Why did you go into teaching?

I grew up in Wisconsin. I live outside of Milwaukee, WI with my wife and my new puppy who is a Golden Doodle named Georgia. My parents are immigrants from Pakistan and they pushed me to be a doctor. My mother never went to school and my father became a pediatrician. I actually did work that would take me down the path to become a lawyer or doctor. I always loved school, because it came easy. I was good at “doing school”, but enjoyed English because it allowed me to create and be imaginative. Science was sit and get, English was creative thinking. It was a big leap for me to push to become a teacher. I found in college that I really liked science education and it really made that connection to who I am. There was no push back once they saw I was happy. My parents are very happy with my career choice.

What are the best things about teaching science and high school for you?

I teach 10th through 12th grade Physics. The best thing about science is that you can really make it hands-on. It’s not that hard of a leap to make learning hands-on for students and it’s a great place for students to take risks. When we talk about engineering and designing, it is fantastic. I see the world through science. I am able to take risks without fear. This is science at its best: when we are challenged to think, do, and learn.

Why is it important to personalize learning? Can you share how you are creating a space for every learner?

Learners have passions and aspirations. I need to bridge their passions and aspirations to the content.

It comes down to my Why statement. When I think about when I was a kid doing things just to do them. I cannot tell you a single thing I did in my physics class in high school except the day we went to Great America. When I polled my students to see if they knew what physics was, 90% had no clue. I wanted my students to know how physics connects to their lives not just the world at large. I live physics and want them to experience it the same as I do. Students have to do hands-on with physics or it is not personal to them. Everyone is different. They need to talk about who they are.  It doesn’t matter what subject you teach or population, there is a spectrum of abilities and preferences. It is about removing the obstacles from learning and building the “why” for learning. Teaching learners to know how to learn for themselves rather than simply absorbing information.

What are some strategies you are using to build a culture of learning in your classes?

On the very first day, I ask students to build portfolios using Google Sites starting with a passion page. They are asked to find four videos that talk to you about who you are, your passions, what you want to do, etc. and embed those on the page. Then they write a paragraph about the videos and how they connect to you as a person. This post talks about the portfolio and how it changed over the last term.   http://mophysicsmoproblems.blogspot.com/2017/11/portfoli-o-yeah.html

I enjoy going through the portfolios and learning about them and what they love beyond school. Then I have them create a Learner Profile that you shared with me and that really helps them understand who they are as a learner. After 9 weeks, they go back to reflect on their passion page and most usually want to update the videos because of how much they changed. I tell them to keep the old videos and just add to them. The portfolios also include standards and evidence of learning. I shared with my kids how I needed a portfolio when I was learning to become a teacher. I wanted them to know that collecting evidence, reflecting on it in a portfolio and defending themselves on why they chose that evidence is a lifelong skill. I want them to have a voice and own their learning. It’s not about me. It’s about them. Here’s a link to Hannah’s Portfolio:   https://sites.google.com/elmbrookschools.org/hannahphysicsportfolio/home

Can you share some of the projects you do with your kids?

The biggest project I have been working on is a year-long Passion Project. They choose something they are passionate about and it is my job to find the physics behind it. The night before exams, we’ll have an expo with all the classes that is open to the community including parents. Students are responsible for presenting their learning. Instead of just presenting to your class, I want them to experience what it is like to present to an authentic audience. I have 90 kids so I split the presentations with 45 presenting first and then the other half after. I want them to have a chance to be in the audience as well so they can ask questions and give feedback to their fellow learners.

Click on this link to Thinglink to be able to access all the projects:

Why does your PLN matter so much to you?

I love getting on social media and listening to podcast. My learning was limited to the building I was in. Now my PLN provides me ideas on the edge of innovation and how to define what’s possible. I learn about resources for classroom use and strategies for communicating to staff. I also learn about new technology and how to hack it. I use social media to challenge and celebrate my learners.

I found your blog, Mo Physics, Mo Problems. Here are two posts to share:

Overarching Standards to Drive Personalization.

What are the essentials of NGSS science practices? If standards are being written into narrowly framed learning targets, everyone can’t get through them. It is important not to  be specific to products, but to be specific to skills and big ideas. Then students can find their own path to mastery. Don’t define the problem, help learners define the problem.

Practices in the Classroom are Practices for Life

Habits of Mind! Many standards (CCSS, NGSS) have habits of mind ingrained in practices. We need to highlight these components not simply the content standards.

Can you share one last thing for our audience?

The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) lens unlocked understanding of Personalized Learning for my peers at my school. It cut through mixed messages and put it back in simple questions to ask about learners in your classroom. Starting with the Why, then the what and how.

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Mike Mohammad was born and raised in Sheboygan, WI. Mike attended UW Madison where he received his degree in Secondary Education in Broadfield Science and Biology with additional certifications in chemistry and physics. He’s been a secondary educator for 17 years, 13 of which have been at Brookfield Central High School in Brookfield, WI. His interests in education focus on putting students at the center of their own learning experience. He lives in Brown Deer, WI with his wife and dog.

Email: mohammam@elmbrookschools.org
Website: http://mophysicsmoproblems.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @mo_physics

Mike winning Trailblazer Award from the Institute for Personalized Learning (picture in graphic above is when he received the award):    http://www.elmbrookschools.org/brookfield-central-high-school/news-details/~post/mike-mohammad-receives-trailblazer-award-20171103

Darren Ellwein has been principal of Harrisburg South Middle School, Harrisburg, South Dakota for eight years. He has always had a passion for technology. Darren believes technology and personalized learning has a transformational potential for growth in learning, for teachers and students.

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I’m very fortunate to have met and spent time with Darren in Minnesota at the TIES conference and in California when he was at a Google event. I love sharing his stories and videos with schools and am excited to share excerpts from the podcast with you.

Why are you so passionate about transforming education?

We all know at some point that time is pretty short with what we feel like we’re called to do. For me, I want to make a dent in changing education before I’m done. You have to start sooner rather than later because changing education is so difficult at times. When we go to conferences, I meet people like you, and it seems like everyone is ready to change education. But then when you step back and you come back to the real world of education, you realize there is still a very small percentage making those changes. I think the goal is how do we get to the point where our thoughts and our proven research on what we’re doing in our schools and what you’re doing can scale so more people see the value in it. I think a lot of it is that people are scared. The risk-taking component is so hard. That’s one of the things from day one I’ve preached. I want educators and kids to take risks. You need to be able to step out there and to say I’m doing this because I know where my kids are at today and it is not where education is. So we really have to look and value where the learner is at right now.

Why is it so important for students to be creators and to inspire them to greatness?

I’ve been talking with a really good friend of mine in North Carolina, Derek McCoy@mccoyderek a lot lately and we’ve been in middle school for a long time. We talked about Middle School as the forgotten area, and so I’ll talk about middle school and then go bigger picture. There’s so much power in a middle school kid. It just came to me yesterday when we had some people visiting our personalized learning framework. I said to Derek that I realized Middle School’s one of the best places you can bring about change because kids are changing themselves. I think there’s something because of the fact that their bodies, their emotional being, everything is changing, then we can grip on to some things to help them understand why this change is important. I think when it comes to students if we talk about greatness and if we talk about creativity, they’re going to do it. A lot of times, we get so stuck into “okay” or here’s “a, b, c, d” of my lesson. What’s more important is what experiences they are getting from their education.

We spent time with the staff for a couple hours and talked about what is our purpose. This purpose is going to define everything else that we do. It came down to deciding as a staff that our purpose is relationships. So then if we’re doing personalized learning. does personalized learning fit relationships?

If we can prove it does, then it’s a part of what we do. Even starting this year, I was less concerned about the logistics of our district policies. I was more concerned about the culture of my teachers, and the fact that I can have a sixth-grade teacher hardly ever talk to an eighth-grade teacher in the hallway. So we did kind of a speed-dating question time for about a half hour just so people could talk and get to know each other. I want people to love what they do and to know that they have a purpose and drive. But it all comes down to how do we relate to each other.

How do you encourage voice and choice for both students and teachers?

We include our learners in the process of the student handbook by selecting learners and teacher representatives at the end of the year to give me feedback. They quiz the other learners in their grade level on what they want for some changes, this is what we think others might go for,  then they meet with our team leaders to finalize the handbook together.

Middle school kids have so much to offer in what their input is. But the problem is in most schools, they sit in the classroom then move to the next class and that’s all they do: their spectators. We have something called iChoose which will probably be talked about later.  It is a combination of Ed Camp meets genius hour or passion projects and we do that about 10 times each semester.  I’d like to do it more often but sometimes you just have to start with baby steps but most of the kids really love it.  We just had one a couple weeks ago and we had kids came up with offerings like animal science, magic because we have one facilitator one teacher that does magic tricks.  We bring in the community.  We do coding sessions where they build 3D games. We’ve had an architect come to school.  We’ve had people that do scuba lessons one year just to show the equipment.  It’s all based on where their interest is at and that’s not even including our genius hour projects.  These are like our high-octane genius hour projects and some of the projects are just amazing.

How does the learning environment impact learning? Share some of the stories about what your school is doing to create new learning environments.

I had the opportunity to go to the Stanford dSchool with a team. When we got there, the experience wasn’t related to an educational theme or topic, it was more of going through the five steps of the process. When we got back that’s when it kind of hit us how it can apply to education more. I took about a hundred pictures and then I basically I looked at everything in my building. Every inch was evaluated to see exactly how can we use that space like right now. If you came to our school, we have learners in the hallway all over the place and this year is even crazier than last year I use the word crazy in a positive way.

We have a personalized learning environment within our traditional environment. So this just happened on Friday. Our RPL kids were in the hallway and the bell rang for our other kids to go. The school visiting us saw our kids that were personalizing learning did not flinch during that 3 minute passing time. They were absolutely tuned into their personal flex time and that’s because we took the time to really train them on what’s the space look like. Actually, if you talk about student voice they’re the ones that created the norms for that space so I think you can correlate there’s a high level of empowerment when they have a voice in how that space looks.

How are your learners personalizing learning? Tell us about iChoose, your student scheduler.

Learners have a track of learning, personalized learning, called Team Innovate, where they don’t have a set schedule in their morning. There are four main content areas facilitators who explain their offerings for 4 or 5 blocks of time.   If I teach social studies it’s not going to be the same thing for every block I’m trying to meet.  Think of 50-60 learners in one room together and after the offerings are done then they open up their iPads. The software tool is a flex-time scheduler where learners schedule their morning based on what’s best for their learning and that’s the common language they use.

If you ask a learner why they chose the offering during the B block of time, they would say because I know that’s what’s best for my learning today. That’s the voice that they have and that scheduler from personalizedlearningtools.com. It’s just been a lifesaver so instead of us using sticky notes trying to do it through Google, This is done with the scheduler within a matter of seconds or minutes and then we can get them to sign up what they want to take. I recorded one-sixth grader doing that since she had only started scheduling for about 3 or 4 weeks on her own. She looked at the camera without any prep. I asked why she likes this scheduler. She shared  “how the scheduler helps her know what’s best for her learning” and that was nothing I told her to say.

Why is it important to share your story?

Maybe tell the way you do that and then you know the why do you do it. When I first started following Eric Sheninger on Twitter, he used this phrase “if you don’t tell your story someone else is going to.” About 4 years ago, there was something on the local TV Affiliates that was supposedly happening in our school district and they took a picture of our marquis at South Middle School. But there was nothing from the story related to our school. I didn’t get any kind of parent kick back from that. I still believe today part of that is because we push out information about our school. Every one of my teachers have Twitter accounts. I don’t monitor how much they use Twitter. We want to get our story out. We want to share what the kids and teachers are doing so people can really see what is cool and what’s going on in classrooms.

What are some cool projects happening in your school?

Joe Klumper @mrklumper in his sixth grade classroom found a way to make it look like you’re creating Snapchat filters to explain Neolithic and Paleolithic information. He did it through pages through the iOS framework, and it was just brilliant and that goes back to the first question that you asked you know about how do you make that change. I think again it’s you have to let people know that taking risks is a benefit and even if you fail, failure is that first attempt in learning and you just grow from it. It’s not that you cower away and stop. You figure out what’s next and how do I make it better.

Within our wheel or Encore classes, I created a class called Idea Foundry. It’s based on the design thinking process so the first task within the six week course is to create a better school experience.  I Leave It Wide Open on how they want to make a difference. We have two girls who wanted to expand our local food pantry. They met with the mayor and a couple of city council people. They’re getting skills that go beyond the so-called school skills. They’re getting real life skills and going to continue because they are passionate about their project. There were two 6 grade boys that weren’t engaging totally and then a light went on at one point. They are now creating a football helmet using littlebits sensors. The philosophy is if the impact is hard enough then the sensor alerts the training staff from the helmet that there could be a possible concussion. I mean you have 11-12 year olds coming up with these ideas that they wouldn’t come up with it unless you give them a space to think about it. That’s really a part of the design thinking process. I want them to understand prototyping and what’s an iteration. I’m choosing to focus more on the future things that they’re going to need for a collaborative working environment which is really what a place, like Google, exemplifies. I’m choosing to talk about being able to collaborate and understand how to iterate so it’s not the first time they’re getting feedback to make it better the next time.

Why do you connect with experts around the world?

I do a lot of work with 3 schools in Norway and our kids are working with kids in Norway to complete projects that couldn’t happen unless I was willing to connect socially on a digital platform.

We have a Plastics pollution project that will be a longitudinal class over 3 years. We’re trying to figure out how we can prevent the spreading of the pollution problem in our Waters. Now we’re getting Bergen University professors in Norway and scientists here in South Dakota to help with the process of analyzing microplastics. If you can connect digitally through social media, you can keep going. I find myself getting overwhelmed at times because so there are many dots to connect right now and it’s hard to keep track of it. In June of 2018 we will have the first-ever Plastics conference off the coast of Honduras.  There are several middle schools in USA and Norway arranging the first student led microplastic conference in Honduras in June.

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Darren Ellwein has been a principal for eight years of Harrisburg South Middle School (HSMS), but has always had a passion for technology. He believes technology has a transformational potential for growth in learning, for teachers and students. He has made sure every staff member at HSMS has a Twitter account which has allowed them to communicate with parents through the social media network. In addition to social media, Google Docs and Google Hangouts have played a major role throughout his school. Ellwein has also created technology-based clubs such as the Drone Club and has even created Twitter Tuesdays and a Genius Hour every Wednesday which has led to the school’s Makerspace being used for prototyping inventions such as an automated dog feeder.

Darren believes that investing and scheduling time for students to be creators is important when working to inspiring them to greatness. Student choice is key as they select what they want to focus on and learn about.

Twitter: @DEllwein

Website: Under the Influence: https://edtransformed.wordpress.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/darren.ellwein

Harrisburg South Middle School Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/HSMSPAWS/

Plastic Pollution https://youtu.be/LUySc_U9MfU

Crazy that is the Drone Club https://youtu.be/1d-9WTe5gHs

Starr Sackstein is Director of Humanities K-12 in West Hempstead Union Free School District in New York.  She is Social Media Manager of ECET2 and manages the Twitter account to build the brand as the voice of @ECET2natl. She is the author of several books on education, on topics such as going gradeless, peer feedback and blogging.

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I met Starr on Twitter years ago and learned more about her through reading several of her books. She moderated a chat, wrote a blog on the Power of Questions and even wrote a section for both of my books. I really was honored that Starr was able to take time to have a conversation with me and I learned so much more about her.  Here are a few excerpts from our conversation below:

Can you share your story about you, your son, and being a teacher?

I have been in education for 16 years and it has been a learning adventure every day. I’m super proud to be a teacher and educator. This is the first year that I’m an administrator. Being a school leader is very different than being a teacher in the classroom. I miss my kids every day. I’m just hoping that the transition is one that is smooth and that I begin to love working with teachers the same way I love working with kids.

Even though I am a central district person now, I am housed in the high school and around kids in the building and get to stop into classrooms to see what is going on. That’s my favorite part of every day. If there is anything that is a big change for teachers such as student-centered classrooms, or if they are going to take a risk with something, I’ve offered my services to support them in their classrooms. I’m back in grad school getting an advanced certification in education administration. My son just started middle school and is in 7th grade. 

What are your job and responsibilities now?

I am responsible for several K-12 departments: English, Social Studies, World Language, and Business departments. Instead of keeping them as separate departments, the idea is to create one Humanities Department and the idea is to start with one interdisciplinary unit so kids can make those connections more concretely as they are learning. Hopefully, the ultimate goal is the shift to a project-based atmosphere where teachers are collaborating so the kids get those benefits of the collaborations. A lot of these ideas are new so it is going to be new for many of the teachers and students. We plan to take baby steps. I hope I can get them to think in terms of student-centered learning first before I start to really integrate the bigger steps of getting the more integrated content area. Especially in the high school where there are so many exams that they have to adhere to still. That’s going to be a challenge for a lot of the teachers.

My district knows my background with gradeless classrooms, assessment, and ideas about homework. When I got hired, they knew about my books and my focus. The district is very traditional. When I have independent conversations with people and we talk about assessment, I usually drop it in a little bit. We do have a very large ELL population at the school so homework seems less of an issue because they don’t have the support they need at home anyway. A lot of teachers aren’t giving homework, and the ones that are, are going to be encouraged to do a little less of that especially on the middle and high school level. They have started talking about changing the report cards in the elementary schools to be more standards-based. New York state just changed their standards so we’re waiting until those standards are available. Then we can start the process.

How do you balance your life, your work, and writing?

I am not really good at balancing my life. I got engaged this summer. Basically, having someone I want to spend time with at home aside from my son forces me to shut the books once in a while and put my phone aside. I’m hoping to put clear lines between work and home. I had some real vacations this summer, too where I wasn’t working at all. I really enjoyed that time and being off the grid. I think I’m going to try that more. 

A Recovering Perfectionist Journey to Give Up Grades.

Public speaking is a real challenge because I’m almost painfully shy. Over the years, I’ve gotten better at it, but I still feel like I’m going to throw up in front of people. I’m really passionate about what I’m talking about. I tried to prepare super hard for it. I felt it was important to share the story about assessment. Once I get over that initial fear of getting in front of a crowd of people, it kind of alleviates. With the TedTalk, ironically it was a 12-minute talk and by minute 7 I started feeling comfortable. I actually felt like it wasn’t that bad at that moment and then it was over. I just wanted to share my story and thought it was important for people to think about assessment.

TedTalk

Let’s talk about your book: Peer Feedback in the Classroom: How does peer feedback play a powerful role in learning and teaching?

When we are teaching kids to give each other feedback, there’s a really important role not only of being the receiver of feedback and learning to use that in a positive and integral way to make them better learners. It is also for them to provide really good feedback to teach them to identify ideas for them to start giving really good actionable feedback to their peers. This is better so teachers are not the only ones responsible for making sure that every kid gets feedback every day. I put in the book the culture you need to cultivate in your space so that peer feedback can happen. It breaks down how to model the behaviors kids are going to need to emulate and how to create expert groups. This was how I ran peer workshops in my class. It also talks about how to make them endure over time. and encouraging peer expert groups and using them in classrooms for different things.

In the faculty meetings, I will be leading in the department, I plan to model the behaviors I hope to see them use in class, differentiating, giving good collaboration time, not speaking too much in front of the space. I’m hoping to see some peer expert groups happening in those department meetings so that may be the entry way to show them that they can do this with their kids too. I know you asked about giving teachers my books, but I’m uncomfortable being self-promotional handing my book to teachers. I have a library in the office with many books including mine.

Now let’s discuss Hacking Homework that you wrote with Connie Hamilton: Why is the homework debate ending?

There are a lot of folks stuck in the same regime, and I feel homework falls into that category. People who will say that kid’s need homework to be more responsible or be held accountable, there’s really no research out there especially at the primary level that suggests that homework does anything to promote learning. In fact, in those formative years, kids need to be playing more and engaging in their environment. If we do certain things in our spaces, we won’t have to send homework home. There is so much discrepancy with the type of support kids have at home. If you are in a district that isn’t a high socio-economic district, you’re going to end up with kids whose parents are working all the time or speak a different language, there’s a gap in the support they can get.  

Where I grew up, my mom used to do all my brother’s homework and his projects. When kids are at home, you just don’t know whose work you’re getting when it comes back and then be crazy enough to assess that work and use that as a part of an agreed-upon assessment for all kids. Maybe by the time kids get to high school, you can assign work that gets done over a period of time and then the kids have to map out when it’s good for them to do it. Regular daily nightly homework is really a waste of time in my opinion.

Maybe learning needs to be anywhere and everywhere. What do you think?

Absolutely! I think kids don’t recognize the stuff they’re doing outside of their own spaces is educational. It’s just about making them aware of the fact that there is mathematics that go into those kinds of things like if they’re cooking with their mom for dinner, doing laundry, working on measuring with fractions. Consider if they’re doing a load of laundry and have to figure out what time or how much of the detergent to put in or even reading directions so they don’t ruin something expensive. That’s math!

If they’re outside exploring, playing in the dirt, picking up rocks or participating in sports and games and all these things that kids do the imaginative play that happens between friends outside helps them become better learners and better people. I think we have to broaden our ideas of what learning is outside and inside of school so that you know we’re not just looking at those worksheets which or an atrocious waste of time and ruins the environment.

What are your next steps, books, and projects?

Mark Barnes who publishes the Hacking Education series is definitely trying to get me to do a second hacking assessment book that goes a little deeper. I went to Canada to work with a K-12 district that this going great.  I would love to do a case study about what that looks like over time. I did write a pitch to my other publisher because  I owe them another title at some point. We talked about doing a student voice book but not until 2019. I have way too much going on right now in my primary job and I’m taking a current issues class right now on top of everything else so I have to write 20 pages long paper.

I’m still hosting and moderating a Twitter group #T2T with Mark Barnes that came out on the heels of teachers throwing out grades. I feel like it’s really bringing a lot of legitimacy to this idea that learning doesn’t need to be labeled for it to be real learning. Honestly, the message doesn’t have to come from me for it to be good. If educators reach out to me on Twitter, I am very eager to help and be supportive in whatever way that I can. I’ll still be doing keynotes when the opportunities arise and consulting work with groups who are really serious about making these changes. I’m always interested in collaboration and learning from other people also and you know I always have time to answer people’s questions so if they have questions, they can always reach out to me. 

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Starr Sackstein is an author, mom, NBCT, TedX speaker, and 2016 ASCD Emerging Leader and blogger. She is Director of Humanities K-12 in West Hempstead Union Free School District in New York. Starr is Social Media Manager of ECET2 and manages the Twitter account to build the brand as the voice of @ECET2natl. She is the author of several books on education, on topics such as going gradeless, peer feedback and blogging. She was a high school English and Journalism teacher at World Journalism Preparatory School in Flushing, NY where her learners ran a multi-media news outlet at WJPSnews.com. Starr serves as the New York State Director to JEA to help serve advisers in New York better grow journalism programs.

She blogs on Education Week Teacher at “Work in Progress” in addition to her personal blog StarrSackstein.com where she discusses all aspects of being a teacher and education reform. Sackstein co-moderates #sunchat as well as contributes to #NYedChat.

Starr’s Contact information:

Email: mssackstein@gmail.com
Twitter: @MsSackstein
LinkedIn: starrsackstein
Facebook: Starr Sackstein, MJE Facebook Fan page

Starr has authored the following books:

Hacking Homework:10 Strategies That Inspire Learning Outside the Classroom,  Teaching Mythology Exposed: Helping Teachers Create Visionary Classroom Perspective, Blogging for Educators, Teaching Students to Self Assess: How do I help Students grow as learners?, Hacking Assessment: 10 Ways to Go Gradeless in a Traditional Grades School and The Power of Questioning: Opening up the World of Student Inquiry

Starr Sackstein, NBCT
Director of Humanities k-12, West Hempstead Union Free School District
My TEDx Talk – A Recovering Perfectionist
Education Week Teacher: Work in Progress
Amazon Author page
ASCD Emerging Leader 2016
Amazon Teacher Innovator
One of 2016’s top educators to watch
Bammy Finalist 2014 (high school teacher) and 2015 (educational blogger/commentator)
Google Educator
Special Recognition Adviser by the Dow Jones News Fund 2011
ASNE Fellow – Kent State ’11

Ken Shelton has been an educator for over 14 years and holds an M.A. in Education in Educational Technology as well as New Media Design and Production. Ken regularly gives keynotes, presentations, and leads workshops, many of which are hands-on, covering a wide variety of Educational Technology, Creative Expression, Visual Storytelling, and Instructional Design topics. Ken is currently the Global Keynote Specialist and Educational Technology Strategist for the EdTechTeam.  

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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I am very fortunate to have known Ken for many years and to call him my friend. We even have a collection of selfies over multiple years at ISTE so I have to include at least one here. I always attend his sessions because he keeps coming up with new and exciting ideas that I need to learn especially about visuals, storytelling, and equity. Below are excerpts from the podcast.

Can you share a little about you and your background?

I grew up and live in Los Angeles. I went to college at UCLA. Growing up in LA has exposed me to several things. I played sports in college and also learned how to surf in my teens. I spent a number of years in the acting and modeling industries. That, in addition to my athletic background, supported a lot of opportunities that shaped how I am now. I started working in education early on as a substitute teacher back when I was in between jobs whether it was a commercial or a modeling job. I recognized that education was an important component of my life. I came from a family of educators. My father was the chief business officer and assistant superintendent for the Los Angeles County Office of Education. He also was at the Santa Clara County Office of Ed and Solano County as well. One of my grandfathers and my maternal grandmother were educators. We have a long history of educators because of the importance of education was instilled in my family on both sides many generations ago. My great grandfather made sure all of his nine children went through school to college.

When I was in high school, one of the things I wanted to do when I grew up was not only to play professional football but after that, I wanted to teach and coach football in high school. I knew I needed to get the credential and then eventually the master’s degree. The doctorate was put on hold, but I’ve been encouraged by a number of folks recently to get into a program.

(Ted Talk) Using the past https://youtu.be/ORsevBbNFwE

I have three girls. I want my girls to have the opportunities I had so they can be diligent and committed to performing well in an education setting. My oldest is Alice (17), Kennedy (11), and Kyana (9).

Why are you so passionate about educational technology?

When technology is utilized with the appropriate degree of access, that can be a significant pillar in the bridging of an achievement gap or equitable divide. If you take the socio-economic status at a Title I school versus a school that has a 10 million dollar endowment most students in either situation have access to some technology like a Chromebook, and that bridges the gap. The Internet is free and open. You can’t access things on the Internet based on your economic status. For me, a big part of that was looking at how does technology provide transformative learning experiences for teachers and students. How can we capitalize those experiences to allow students and teachers to do things that if it wasn’t for the technology they wouldn’t be able to do?

When I used to teach history, there were a number of glaring omissions in the social studies textbooks. Now, if you have access to the Internet, you can fill those gaps or you can vet the breadth and quality of the information in the textbook. I would love to see school districts take the thousands of dollars spent on textbooks and use that to acquire technology and provide the teachers and students with the right type of support in using that technology. I personally think that textbooks, as far as a primary source of information delivery are obsolete. Take any content area and now you can have access to primary sources and even have real discussions with an author of a book they’re reading. You can’t get that from a textbook. If you don’t have access to technology or don’t use it in an appropriate capacity, you don’t have that ability to connect with authors or discover primary sources. Consider a kindergartener who uses technology and even teaches another child how to use it. Think of the layers of what they are doing and go deeper than that by

(1) they are learning deeper communication skills and
(2) a collaborative growth environment by learning together how we learn together.

My passion is primarily along the lines that you can bridge the achievement and equitable gap and what you can do with technology to bridge that gap.  

Let’s talk about data and how educational companies use that data.

It is known that companies curate user data. I don’t have a problem with that as long as it is used in the capacity to improve an existing product, not for selling demographics. Google has the data of who performs what during searches to use to target ads. I know people have an issue with that, but I’ve reminded them that’s basically how the Neilsen Rating system worked back when I was a teenager. They use the demographics of who was watching particular programs on prime time television and then they can sell ad space to promote those products to a target audience. I caution educators not to digitize their lessons. You need to use technology in an appropriate and effective manner. The other side to it is savvy businesses can have conversations with students and teachers to look at how to design a platform or an experience that enhances something you are already doing or can be transformative in what you are doing. That means they are taking that information and data and putting it to good use.  

(Ted Talk) Danger of Data: https://youtu.be/c_fI_z7K-dw

I love your visual storytelling and digital storytelling session. Why do visuals and stories matter?

The science is already out that we are wired for storytelling. I love sharing it with other educators who either are speakers or have an interest in becoming speakers. Conversations that we have with our friends and family are essentially nothing more than a series of storytelling. There is a storytelling component that has existed for thousands of years. The visual side of it for me is that visuals have a way of being universally communicable. One presentation I do on visual storytelling and visual literacy, I take the audience through a series of icons and asks them what is being communicated through these icons? 95 out of a 100 will identify an icon communicating the same thing especially one recognized globally. This is an example of an icon I talk about in the session:

The visual aspect is two-fold. One is universally communicable and accessible. Two there are so many layers that are compelling images that we look at. You have to do a detailed an in-depth analysis of the image. Who is the author or artist? What were the time when it was produced and the context of it being produced? Why is that visual representation one that they selected to distribute? Asking these questions makes us more observant of things. Especially now with kids posting so fast on sites like Snapchat or Instagram to capture a moment that could be the speck of what could be a bigger picture and not looking at what’s going on around them. Visuals are the universally communicable and accessible way of storytelling. Just like the saying “A picture is worth 1,000 words,” we can take one medium, share it, and essentially tell a 1,000-word story. One of the pictures on the wall behind me tell my story is one of my favorite places on the island of Kauai.

How do you create learning environments for sustainability, equity, and access?

Essentially what I looked at is multitiered. I juxtaposed the difference between equity and equality. I looked at the system as a whole especially in larger districts with the emphasis on student stratification. For example, you have a school that offers honors and AP classes,  the regular classes, and the remedial classes. I have seen the pattern and trends in the research where there is a disproportionate percentage of students along a race and socioeconomic status that are generally steered toward the remedial classes. When you think about equitability and access, there is the social economic and geographic component. Equitable access is a challenge in urban and rural areas. How many learning spaces exist right now where the conversations and learning opportunities are severely limited or skewed because of the lack of accessibility and diverse representation?

Think about what’s going on right now in the society where awareness of social injustices is coming back to the forefront. For some of us, it’s always been there. If we think of the conversations that teachers should be having with their kids and adults should have with other adults, I’d like to see opportunities for schools and teachers to provide more students with accessibility so they can be a part of those learning experiences and those conversations. We can build a degree of understanding, of awareness, and empathy in everybody. Every time you tell a child that they are no good either through omission or commission possibly by telling them they cannot take AP classes, how much human capital have we lost? There was a school district in New York that looked at that dynamics and recognized that they had to do something different. It took some time for them to do it, but they fazed out all of the lower tier classes and only had honors and AP classes. The students who needed the additional support received it as additional support, not an intervention or remediation. Words matter. Even when the community was concerned about “those kids” being in those classes, the assistant principal said, “those kids are in OUR school in OUR community, so we need to support ALL kids.” If schools work with African American students, I ask them “what is your discipline policy and is it skewed against students that look like me?” If it is, then there might be a lack of cultural awareness that what you define as a behavior problem may not necessarily be a problem. In an ideal equitable environment, you have to have technology so each and every student has a platform for their voice.  How many stories are going on right now in classrooms that we don’t know?

What do you believe is going to be the next big important thing to share?

Storytelling needs to be more amplified. Make sure your story is appropriately represented and distributed. You tell the story in the capacity that would be proud of that tells the real story and not someone else’s.

Ken currently holds an M.A. in Education with a specialization in Educational Technology as well as New Media Design and Production. He has worked as an educator for over 14 years and most recently taught technology at the Middle School level. As a part of his active involvement in the Educational Technology community, Ken is an Apple Distinguished Educator and a Google Certified Innovator. Ken was also named to the California State Superintendent of Public Instruction’s Education Technology Task Force. Ken regularly gives keynotes, presentations, and leads workshops, many of which are hands-on, covering a wide variety of Educational Technology, Technology Integration, Creative Expression, Visual Learning, Visual Storytelling, and Instructional Design topics. Ken is currently the Global Keynote Specialist and Educational Technology Strategist, for the EdTechTeam.

Ken has had the privilege to speak at many major conferences and events around the world as well as schools and school districts. He brings a worldly breadth of experience knowledge and perspective. Ken also had the privilege to speak at the TEDx Burnsville ED event as well as CRESSTCon16 at UCLA in front of a predominantly Higher Ed audience.

Ken’s Contact Information

Twitter: @k_shelton
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/kenshelton/
Website: http://kennethshelton.net/
Ken’s Photography site: http://www.kensheltonphoto.com/