Hilliard City Schools #cyberPD Opportunity

In July, Laura Komos, Michelle Nero, and I will host our 5th annual #cyberPD event.  The event began five years ago as we all realized we had the same professional books in our summer reading pile and wanted to find away to talk about them together even though we lived too far apart to make that happen (learn more about #cyberPD here).

This virtual book talk has grown across the years as more people have joined the conversation.  This year, our Google Community already has close to 100 participants.  During the month of July, participants will read Digital Reading:  What's Essential by Franki Sibberson and Bill Bass.  The book will be divided into three parts.  Each week, we will discuss one of the sections through digital response, community commenting, and social media interaction.  The great thing is, you can read, respond, comment and interact from your favorite spaces and in the times that work for you.

This year, I'm excited to offer this professional learning opportunity to educators in Hilliard City Schools for CEUs.  Educators in our district can earn up to 10 hours (or 1 CEU) credit for participation in this global book-talk community.  Many of you have participated in the past, but I'm thrilled to be able to offer credit for the work you do during your summer.

Here's how it will work.  You will earn .1 credit for each section read, each digital response to reading, and each weekly Twitter chat (1 hour 3 total for each section).  The event will not only give you an opportunity to think more about digital reading through this professional book, but also to connect with educators near and far.

To Get Started:

• Go to PD Express and Enroll (course can be found on 7/9, 7/16, 7/23, 7/27 dates)
• Join the #cyberPD Google Community (space to respond, link, connect, and discuss).  You can join through your Hilliard City Schools Google account, if you like.  (If you need help, just send me an email.)
• If you don't have a Twitter account, you'll want to join Twitter to participate in conversations.  Our Twitter hashtag is #cyberPD.  (More about hashtags)

July's Professional Book Chat:  #cyberPD

• Week of July 6th:  Read Chapter 1 & 2, digital response, Twitter chat 7/9
• Week of July 13th:  Read Chapters 3-5, digital response, Twitter chat 7/16
• Week of July 23rd:  Read Chapters 6 & 7, digital response, Twitter chat 7/23
• To Be Announced:  Final Twitter Chat 

Digital Response:  Digital response to chapters may be made in any way and posted on our #cyberPD Google Community.  This means you can write a response in the #cyberPD community, make a digital poster, create a video, or choose another way to share your understanding.  In the past participants have posted from their blogs.  If you have a blog, you can post your digital response there and link to the community.  If you don't have a blog, this year participation is still possible.  

Twitter Chats:  Twitter chats will be hosted weekly using the hashtag #cyberPD.  Twitter chats will be held on Thursdays at 10 a.m. EST.  The final Twitter chat will be in the evening for the convenience of all time zones.  

Hilliard City School Colleagues, I hope you'll join me for this professional development experience.  

Summer Learning Opportunities

Summer.  Sure, summer is a time to enjoy the green grass, the leaved trees, the warm waters, and that gorgeous sunshine.  Sure, summer is a time where my schedule slows enough that I can actually breathe again.  For me, however, the best thing about summer is time to work to grow professionally. Summer is the time to read professional books, attend workshops, rethink practice and pedagogy, and connect with other educators.

This summer, my plans may be bigger than the time available.  Here is some of the professional learning I have planned for the summer.

Hilliard Summer Academy:  In June our district hosts its Summer Academy.  Educators around the district lead these sessions creating opportunities to learn from others.  Last week, Julie Johnson, Deb Frazier and I lead a session on digital literacy.  We had an amazing group with so many smart questions.  I was also able to attend a session on our new LMS:  Canvas.  Betsy Bargar led our session.  I'm glad I took it early in the summer so I could play around with it a bit before the year begins.  There are other classes available in the coming weeks.

Columbus Area Writing Project:  This summer I will spend two weeks writing with the Columbus Area Writing Project.  I'm honored to have this opportunity.  I've always admired the work of CAWP and the NWP.  I've participated in many events sponsored by this group, and have always grown as both a writer and as a teacher of writing in the process.  Julie Johnson will be leading our group which includes Tonya Buelow, Deb Frazier, Scott Jones, Deb Lairson, and Mandy Robek.  Our group will be focused on digital literacy. I'm working with educators I know will push my thinking during these weeks.  It should be quite a learning experience.

CLMOOC:  Speaking of the National Writing Project...I'm looking forward to participating in the Connected Learning MOOC hosted by the National Writing Project (June 18 - Aug 2).  This virtual collaboration will allow me to grow in my work to compose digitally and will also provide opportunities to work and learn with others.  During the past year I have followed the work of the Writing Thief MOOC and helped lead The Digital Maker Playground Community.  I have found these learning communities to be another way to learn and connect.

nErDcampMI:  Yes, I made sure to keep my calendar open for Nerd Camp this year (7/6-7/7).  I attended the first year, but due to a conflict was unable to go last year.  This year, I'm looking forward to attending this #edcamp focused on literacy.

#CyberPD:  In July, I'll be cohosting the 5th annual #cyberPD global book talk.  We'll be discussing Digital Reading:  What's Essential by Franki Sibberson and Bill Bass.  The book talk takes place across the month of July.  The book is divided into three sections.  Each week a new section is read and discussed across blogs, #cyberPD Google Community, and on Twitter using the hashtag #cyberPD.  At the end of the month, a virtual live book talk is held in a Twitter chat.  This is always one of my favorite summer learning events.

Innovative Learning Environments (ILE):  August 5-7, I hope to attend ILE.  This conference is focused on using technology to enhance instruction.  Speakers share ways to think differently about the way we define school and share ways to consider new opportunities for young learners.  ILE will conclude with an #edcamp on August 7th.

Professional Reading:  Summer isn't just about events, I have quite a stack of summer professional reading.  The problem is I have more books than I have time.  My hope is to read some of these titles in the coming weeks.  I've signed up for two district books talks that include two titles from this list.

Children's Literature:  During the summer, I always hope to catch up with some of the newer titles available to young readers.  My focus is usually on picture books, but I do find a few middle grade books to enjoy.  This summer I really want to focus my reading on early chapter books so I have better recommendations for the readers I support.  I need to find titles that will work for them as they grow as readers.  Later this month I will participate in Mother Reader's 48 Hour Book Challenge (6/19-6/21) which is perfect for reading some of these early chapter and middle grade books.  In August, Mandy Robek and I host #pb10for10.  This is usually the event I use to celebrate new picture book discoveries.

Wow, when I type all of that in a post I realize I have a lot to do.  It's going to be a busy summer of learning.  Don't worry, I have a vacation planned.  There are a few days tucked away for rest and relaxation.

What do you have planned for your summer learning?  (Yes, I'm a little worried to ask this question as I'm afraid I will want to add to my list!)

DigiLit Sunday: The Digital Maker Playground

Photo:  Pete Proedohl

Professional development is no longer confined to physical spaces.  A myriad of opportunities are available for professional learning across social media, through blogs, and in online learning spaces.  Educators are busy so opportunities to learn in different spaces and at a variety of times opens new doors.

Julie Johnson and I are hosting the digital playground for educators in our district and around the world to connect and learn from one another.  The Digital Maker Playground is MOOC-ish digital maker space where participants gather to share and learn together.

Teachers work together
during the Live Workshop.

The Digital Maker Playground
The Digital Maker Playground, #P2Lmooc, is a unique opportunity open to everyone near and far. All educators are invited to play with us as we explore new tools, create and compose projects around themes, as well as share and collaborate with one another.  The Digital Maker Playground is located on Google Plus where participants can ask questions, discuss topics, and share makes.  The goal is to allow time to consider meaningful digital composition while providing opportunities to connect with other creators.

The course takes place across April and May with a new make every other week.  Currently the community has over 50 participants from local districts and around the globe.  The course is free and open to anyone who would like to participate.  You are welcome to join the fun.

Our Makes 
Our first make was sharing our maker space with one another.  A variety of tools were utilized to share our spaces.  (You can view the maker spaces here.)  This week our next make will be posted in our Digital Maker Playground.    The next make is about lifting a line from literature and finding a way to share it with the community.

Our first live workshop.

Every two weeks, Julie and I host a live workshop for those who would like to attend.  Our first workshop was two weeks ago.  We were excited to have so many people join the workshop from our district as well as neighboring districts.  The time is for participants to work, ask questions, and puzzle things out together.  It was fun to watch everyone work together and share what they know.

Professional development is no longer confined to one space and one time.  Opportunities like this allow us to learn and grow together in a supportive learning community.

As part of a continuous collaboration among educators interested in digital learning, Margaret Simon hosts a weekly Digital Learning round-up on her blog:  DigiLit Sunday.  Stop by Reflections on the Teche (today's link-up) to read, discover, and link.  

DigiLit Sunday: Join The Digital Maker Playground

As part of a continuous collaboration among educators interested in digital learning, Margaret Simon hosts a weekly Digital Learning round-up on her blog:  DigiLit Sunday.  Stop by Reflections on the Teche (today's link-up) to read, discover, and link.  

Are you an advocate for digital literacy?  Do you think often about how you can help students improve the power of their digital composition?  Do you want more time to explore tools?  Would you like to connect with other educators?  Is life too busy to attend a class, but you want to learn more?  Do you like working from your couch during these cold days?  If so, we might have just the opportunity for you.

Julie Johnson and I have opened a new Google space to create, connect, and discover new ways to work digitally.  The Digital Maker Playground community will provide opportunities to make and create around selected themes.   A combination of MOOC and Digital Maker Space, we both were looking for a way to collaborate with others to think more about the possibilities of digital literacy for our students.  This seemed the perfect way to get started.

Of course, we need you to make this work.  If you are Hilliard City Schools employee, you can receive CEUs for this course through PD Express.  Our hope, however, is that educators from all over will join in this collaborative professional learning opportunity.

There are six maker sessions:

• March 5: What's Your Maker Space? 
• March 19: Lift a Line from Literature 
• April 2: Make a Statement 
• April 16: Rock My World 
• April 30: Connected

Please join us.  Go to our Digital Maker Playground and join the community.  The first official make is March 5th.  Spread the word....the community is already growing.  

Rethinking Professional Development: Hilliard U

This year our district has been rethinking professional development opportunities.  Tuesday was our second day this year of Hilliard University.  On this day educators across the district lead sessions for others.  Hilliard U has an #edcamp feel with a variety of sessions available to attend.  Though planned a bit more in advance, it is a grassroots event as educators volunteer to share and lead sessions during this day.  Educators, and other staff members, choose the sessions they'd like to attend.

My takeaways:  

Do What You Do

I kicked off the morning in a session with our superintendent, Dr. John Marschhausen.  Dr. Marschhausen had requested teachers take a bit of time to send him a quick note to tell why they originally got into education.  He shared quotes from staff members and positive reminders of the importance of our work.  Though accountability and assessment are essential, they shouldn't cause stress.  He reminded us our building and classroom environments are key and culture is built on ownership and commitment.  

Keep Learning

After the uplifting kick-off session, I headed to hear one our district technology leaders, Mark Pohlman, share information about our new learning management system, Canvas.  I'll be interested to play around a bit on the site to see what potential it holds.  Mark shared some of the basic features as well as ins and outs of the new system.  I'm most excited about the possibility of the collaboration between Canvas and Google.  I'm hoping it will make it easy for students to save their work across years.  It looks like possibilities in using video to support instruction will also be worth looking into a bit.  

Build flexibility with these phrases shared by
Carrie Higginbotham

Grow Creativity

My next session was lead by a group of teachers from Hilliard Crossing:  Teaching for Creativity.  These teachers talked about creativity and the need for nurturing creativity in our schools.  They reminded us of the importance of teaching for fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration.  They shared a video by Ken Robinson in which he suggests we could be educating people out of creativity.  They shared phrase stems to encourage creative thinking.  

Open New Doors

Finally, I went to a session led by media specialist, Ashley Lambocher.  There's nothing like a little picture book love to round out a day.  You can see her titles on her site:  Hilliard U Books.  New picture books open new doors for young readers.    

Take Risks

My day ended with a maker session as Julie Johnson and I kicked off a virtual professional development opportunity we are offering for educators.  In order to understand the challenges and potential of digital literacy, we have to be willing to dig in and play a bit ourselves.  Our session looked at the changes in literacy as a result of new digital opportunities and then allowed teachers to take a moment to try to compose a meaningful piece.  You can see more by visiting our Google Community:  Digital Maker Playground.  (Here's more about our upcoming learning opportunity.  It's open to everyone, but Hilliard educators can earn CEU credit.  Check it out!)  

Bringing It Together

There's a great amount of energy around the day as educators from across the district come together in one space to learn from one another.  In the coming days, I will be thinking more about all I learned and how I will be using this in the work I do each day with children.  I'm grateful for the opportunity to learn from and collaborate with professionals across our district.  Always a great day!  

Summer #cyberPD: Call for Professional Stacks

It's almost time for the 4th Annual #cyberPD event.  In 2011, Laura Komos, Jill Fisch, and I decided to start an online collaborative book talk with colleagues about a common professional read.  We were inspired by the power of the conversations across the event and the depth of learning so we have hosted #cyberPD each July to continue to grow as educators.  Each year the event has grown and the learning has helped us to improve our work as educators by considering the thinking of those participating.  The books ground our conversation, but the reflections exponentially grow our understandings.

Past #cyberPD Events

• 2013 Who Owns the Learning
• 2012 Opening Minds
• 2011 Conferring:  The Keystone of Reader's Workshop 

Share Your Stack
It's time to select the title for the July's #cyberPD event.  To do this, we'd like to peek into your professional book stacks to see what titles return across stacks.  This will help us to select our 2014 title.  We're hoping you will find the time (and we know how crazy busy it is) to share your stack.  You can:

• tweet a picture of your stack with the hashtag #cyberPD
• tweet favorite titles with the hashtag #cyberPD
• write a blog post about your stack
• find a convenient and/or creative way to share your summer professional reading list

Here are some of the 2013 professional reading stacks.

Anything goes!  

Stacks need to be tweeted at #cyberPD or linked to one of our blogs by Saturday, June 7th.  (You do not need to share a stack to join us in July.)

We'll be sharing the selected title, and the July event dates, on Sunday, June 8th.  We hope you'll join us.

My current professional summer reading stack:  "in progress"

Professional Development, #edcamp Style

Meetings can leave us exhausted and overwhelmed.  Sometimes professional development opportunities feel more like something being placed upon us instead of something we can own.  That's not meant with any disrespect, the job of keeping large groups moving forward is daunting.  With time constraints, sometimes we have to take the fastest route forward as there isn't time to let learning unfold.    

Honestly, I believe the best professional development comes from creating our own learning journeys.  I'm a bit of a professional development junkie.  The first step is admitting you have a problem, right?  I switched to the district I currently teach, because I knew I would have many opportunities for professional development.  Working as a literacy coach for a few years, and sometimes in consulting, I have tried to figure out the characteristics of strong professional development.  Most of my experience, however, is as an educator seeking to know more and to make thoughtful changes to improve the work I do with young learners.  These days I find many opportunities for professional learning through Twitter, blogs, and online learning communities.

A few year ago I attended my first #edcamp.  Since then I have been fortunate to join conversations at #edcampCbus and #nerdcampbc (the literacy version of #edcamp).  There's something powerful in collaborative learning conversations.  The learning seems to grow exponentially.  So when our principal, Cindy Teske, said we were having #edcamp for our late start day, I was beyond excited.  I'm fortunate to teach in learning community in which I am continually supported, challenged, and inspired by my colleagues.  I knew I could learn a lot from them.

On Thursday morning, we all shuffled into the media center and our principal began to put things on the board.  She may have twisted an arm or two, but our board filled quickly with possibilities and the only complaints were that there wouldn't be enough time to go everywhere.  Here's what I loved about our day:

1. Tapping Expertise:  Opportunities to learn from the expertise of others in our building.
2. Timely:  Creating the board in the moment allowed us to create timely learning opportunities and discuss what we need to know now.
3. Collaborative:  A chance to collaborate across grade levels which is sometimes hard within the time constraints of a school day.
4. Supportive:  Conversations continued beyond the morning as teachers found one another to seek more information or support in next steps.  (to action)   
5. Empowering:  Educators maintained ownership of the learning.   
6. Energizing:  I left energized not overwhelmed.  

Here It Is! July's #cyberPD Title!

I know you're wondering about this year's #CyberPD title.  Honestly, for close to 48 hours Jill, Laura and I wondered too.  This was definitely the hardest year to choose a title, but we had so much fun discussing the possibilities.  (I think all three of us have much longer professional reading lists for the summer thanks to all of you!  Amazon loves us!  Oh my!)  We truly hope you are as excited about it as we are.

This year as we looked at the #CyberPD stack posts and tweets we were puzzled.  Most years the title has just jumped out at us, but this year there were so many possibilities.  The initial list had 16 titles that had appeared several times in a variety of stacks.  As Laura Komos (Our Camp Read-a-Lot), Jill Fisch (My Primary Passion), and I talked through the stacks we were impressed with the quality of the choices.  We knew for our 3rd Annual #CyberPD event we wanted a book that would be interesting across grade levels, hadn't already been talked about heavily on Twitter or across blogs, and one that we think would be the basis for a deep discussion that would help us all in the coming year.

After much debate, we chose....


Wait for it....


I know you want to know.....


Sorry, since school has been out I've had a lot of sleep.  It makes me think I might be funny.  (My children think quite differently.)


Here it is...

Our Selection
OK, seriously, we chose Who Owns the Learning by Alan November (@globalearner).  The book first crossed our radar thanks to Lesa Haney of Footprints on the Moon.  The book reappeared here and there as we went through stacks.  The more we considered it, the more we thought it would be the perfect follow-up to last year's discussion about Opening Minds.  I'm excited because the book is available in eReader format!!  Of course, it is available in paperback too.  

July's 3rd Annual #CyberPD
Now for the fun.  In July we will discuss November's book across blogs and on Twitter.  We will read sections and then share our thinking.

#CyberPD Dates and Host Site:

• July 3rd:  Chapters 1 & 2 here at Reflect and Refine
• July 10th:  Chapters 3 & 4 at My Primary Passion
• July 17th:  Chapters 5, 6 & Epilogue at Our Camp Read-a-Lot 
• To by announced:  We will end with a final chat on Twitter.   That date will be announced.  

You can participate in July's #cyberPD event by: 

• Blog Reflection:  If you have a blog you may join us each posting date with your reflection of the chapters read.  Then link your blog to the host blog by leaving a comment and your link.  If you don't have a blog, but have been considering getting started this is the perfect opportunity.
• Blog Commenting:  If you do not have a blog, you are welcome to comment on the host blog to join the conversation.
• Twitter:  You can also participate by commenting any time on Twitter using the hashtag #cyberPD.  
• Other:  Last year we had people participate using other sites as well.  If you can link, they will come.  :o)  We love a little creativity.  

Past #CyberPD Events

• 2011 #cyberPD:  Conferring:  The Keystone of Reader's Workshop
• 2012 #cyberPD:  Opening Minds
• 2013 #cyberPD:  To Be Announced

Join Us

We hope to see all of you there participating in the discussion.  Past participants will agree the books have always been fabulous, but the conversation always takes it to another level.  As Mindi Rench said on Twitter last night:

Professional Conversations: 3rd Annual #cyberPD

It started a few years ago when Jill Fisch, Laura Komos, and I were comparing all the similar books in our book stacks.  We decided it would be interesting to talk about the books together so we chose a common title, found some willing colleagues, and changed the way we learn --- #cyberPD was born.  Since then we've enjoyed not only the conversations during #cyberPD, but the supportive community it creates that helps us along the way to implement changes.

This year we're excited about our 3rd Annual #cyberPD event that will take place in July.  We're hoping you'll join us, and start today by posting your list of professional books in your "to be read" pile.  We'll look across the lists and choose a title we see often and know will work for a collaborative discussion.

Share Your Stack
Today you can share your summer professional reading stack by:

• taking a picture and tweeting it with the hashtag #cyberPD
• leaving professional titles you plan to read in the comments section on one of our blogs
• writing a post for your blog  
• actually, any way you can get your list to us will help it be considered in our decision making for July's event.  

Follow the hashtag #cyberPD for the book we'll focus our conversation around in July.  

My Stack

I'm afraid to see the stacks of others as I don't need to add one other book to my list.  Looking at the books I hope to read I know it will be nearly impossible to read them all during the summer --- especially if I hope to pause to consider the changes I need to make as a result of new thinking.  I think I'd have to read nearly one a week to get done by the end of summer (and I have a little pleasure reading planned too).  Wish me luck! 

I prefer to read books on my Kindle so I have many e-copies and had to figure out a way to show them.  I decided to build my stack on Shelfari and snap a photo.  

Here's my list:

My Plan to Read Stack

I guess that's my top 10!  This doesn't include the books I hope to revisit like Assessment in Perspective, Math Exchanges, A Place of Wonder, and Opening Minds.  It doesn't include the books I hope to spend time with as I plan such as Teaching Student Center Mathematics, The Common Core Writing Book & Lesson Book, and many nonfiction professional texts.  

Yep, I think I need to prioritize.  That's where all of you come in as I know you'll help guide me to the one I most need to study --- really study.  I know together we'll find the title that I will learn more by chatting with everyone across blogs in July.

July's #cyberPD Event will take place on Wednesdays in July (3, 10, 17).  Stay tuned!  We can't wait!  Hope you're joining us!  

3rd Annual #CyberPD: Share Your Stack June 12th

Summer is here.  While many think educators are sitting by the pool sipping cold lemonade, we're busy doing what we really do --- collaborating, reading, learning, planning, and preparing for a new year.  It seems my summer professional reading stack just keeps growing and growing; one of the dangers of spending time on Twitter.

Again this year, Laura Komos at Our Camp Read-a-Lot, Jill Fisch at My Primary Passion and I will be hosting #cyberPD.  CyberPD is an event in which educators read and discuss a shared professional book over a three week period in July.  Our first #cyberPD event was in 2011 and the number of participants has grown each year.

2011 #cyberPD:  Conferring:  The Keystone of Reader's Workshop
2012 #cyberPD:  Opening Minds
2013 #cyberPD:  To Be Announced

June 12th:  Share Your Stack
It's almost time for the 3rd annual #cyberPD event.  To get started, we're hoping you'll join us on Wednesday, June 12th, to share your professional stack of summer reading.  Gather all the professional books you are hoping to read this summer, stack them, and take a picture (or find some way to share your list).  You can post your "to be read" pile on Twitter using the hashtag #cyberPD, on your blog, on Tumblr, in the comments of one of our blogs, or any other way you can find to share it with everyone.

July's 3rd Annual #CyberPD Event
On June 12th, Laura, Jill, and I will share our stacks as well.  Then we'll wander around the virtual world to choose one book that seems to be on a lot of lists for our July #cyberPD discussion. We'll announce the book and give everyone time to get their copies.  Then in July we will host three different discussion dates on our blogs.  You can participate in July's #cyberPD event by:

• Blog Reflection:  If you have a blog you may join us each posting date with your reflection of the chapters read.  Then link your blog to the host blog by leaving a comment and your link.  If you don't have a blog, but have been considering getting started this is the perfect opportunity.
• Blog Commenting:  If you do not have a blog, you are welcome to comment on the host blog to join the conversation.
• Twitter:  You can also participate by commenting any time on Twitter using the hashtag #cyberPD.  
• Other:  Last year we had people participate using other sites as well.  If you can link, they will come.  :o)  We love a little creativity.  

Hope to see you next week!  What professional books are you planning to read?  Share them.  

Listening --- Really Listening: #cyberPD Final Thoughts

"A dialogic classroom is one in which there are lots of open questions and extended exchanges among students....classrooms in which their are multiple interpretations and perspectives." Peter Johnston (p. 52)

The Event
For the month of July a group of educators have been discussing Peter Johnston's book, Opening Minds:  Using Language to Change Lives (Stenhouse, 2012).  At the bottom of this post you will find many important links related to our 2nd annual #cyberPD event.  Today's final reflection is hosted by Carol Wilcox at Carol's Corner.  Stop by to read, comment, and join the conversation.


What's Next
I've been trying to wrap my head around all of the thinking in Johnston's book.  Thankfully, stopping by blogs of colleagues in this event has helped.  These blogs, however, have also made it necessary to pause to consider different perspectives and new thinking.  As I've been thinking about this post I've been asking myself a lot of questions:

• What key ideas am I taking away from this book?
• Can I get what I have learned down to one important word?
• What teaching behaviors will I try to unlearn?
• What changes will I make as a result of this conversation?
• How will our learning community look different this year?

Listening --- Really Listening
Somewhere in my archives of pictures I have a photograph of a chart I made with one of my kindergarten classes years ago.  It was a chart about listening.  It is probably better that I cannot locate it, but it had a huge picture of a student sitting criss-cross on the carpet, hands in lap, eyes forward and attentive.  It said something like "listening is" and then listed a few characteristics: "Eyes on the person talking, hands in lap, sitting criss-cross, mouth closed, and ears listening."  It might not have been that extreme, but it likely was.

For years, actually since that chart, I've been on the journey toward helping young learners in the classroom community really learn to listen to one another.  Every year I get a little closer, but it is not an easy task with listeners whose developmental tendency is to be a bit egocentric.  For me, reading Johnston's book, and participating in the #cyberPD discussion with so many thoughtful colleagues, has provided more tools for helping to support students in learning to really listen to one another by thinking about the words of the friend speaking.

Listening to One Another Learning from One Another
Maybe this is all I need to do; change the way I talk with students about listening to one another.  It isn't the listening I'm so concerned with, though it is essential to the larger goal, it is the learning that happens each day in our classroom.  This year I really want students to understand all they can learn from one another.  I'm hoping to take myself out of the equation a little more.

• Build learning conversations in share circles.  Johnston says, "We develop a metalanguage for thinking about group processes and establishing their significance as something to attend to. (p. 107)"  Perhaps we could say:  "I learned ____ from ____ when they shared ____.,  I was able to think about ____ because I/we _____."
• Help students to see the power of learning together.  Johnston says, "A group can have intelligence that can be more (or less) than the sum of its members' intelligence. Group intelligence is related to...the average social sensitivity of the group and how evenly the group distributes conversational turns. (p. 96)"  Perhaps we could say: "____ tell ____ how you did that., When we started thinking we thought ____, but when we talked together we realized _____.,  Make sure each person has a chance to say something so that you're sure you don't miss different ways of thinking about it." 
• Learn to recognize when our thinking is changed by someone else.  Johnston says, "Listening is the foundation of a conversation and it requires that we are open to the possibility of changing our thinking. (p. 102)"  Perhaps we could say:  "____ made me think about _____.,  When I heard _____ I thought _____.,  I never thought about it like that before."    
• Know it's ok to disagree (and how to do that with kindness).  Johnston says, "We expect to have more interesting and powerful conversations when people bring different perspectives and when they disagree.  (p. 103)"  Perhaps we could say:  "Now I'm wondering...,  Could...., Do you think ____?,  What do you think about what ____ said?,  It looks like you might have another idea."
• Learn to rephrase the thinking of friends:  This is likely going to be something I'm going to have to work to change.  Instead of rephrasing students' comments, have other learners talk about what they heard or find other ways to say the same thing.  Perhaps we could say:  "Can you explain what ____ said in another way _____?,  Would you tell _____ what ____ means?  Repeat what ____ said so we can think about it (p. 27)."
• Develop skills to be flexible thinkers who build on the thinking of friends.  Johnston says, "They (students) understand that knowledge is constructed, that it is influenced by one's perspective and by different contexts, and that we should expect and value different perspectives because they help to expand our understanding." (p. 57) Perhaps we could say:  "Is there another way to do that?,  Is there a different way to think about that?"
• Wonder together:  Johnston says, "It is the perception of uncertainty that enables dialogue." (p. 59)  I'm hoping we can set the tone to get comfortable with the unknown, the uncertain, and the unanswerable.  "I wonder..., What are you wondering?  When I heard ____ I wondered ____., I can't figure out ____, what do you think?"  

This is just my beginning thinking, and it may be a little soon to just put it out in the world.  Thankfully I know you will all consider it thoughtfully.  So what do you think?  Are there other aspects I should consider?  Different language?  Please leave your thoughts in the comment section.  

Picture Books
As I read Peter's book and visited blogs I began to consider picture books that might support the community conversations I have to have.  Here are two Listmania lists I have started thanks to this thinking and some of the posts from our #cyberPD community.  These are growing lists.  I can't wait to get into my classroom to get my hands on my picture books so I can add more titles.  Let me know, if you have titles to add.

• Picture Books for Social Imagery 
• Picture Books that Illustrate a Dynamic Learning Frame

Paired Readings/Professional Books for Continued Conversation

• Choice Words by Peter Johnston
• Number Talks:  Helping Children Build Mental Math and Computation Strategies by Sherry Parish
• Mindset by Carol Dweck
• Fires in the Mind:  What Kids Can Tell Us About Motivation and Mastery by Kathleen Cushman 
• Making Learning Whole by David Perkins

Event Links

• Stop by our #cyberPD collection of posts from the entire event at Jog the Web.  Click on the left table of contents to view pages in the Jog.  If you'd like to go to the page, just click the "show url" button at the top.  
• July 11th:  Opening Minds Chapters 1-3.  Discussion hosted here at Reflect and Refine. 
• July 18th:  Opening Minds Chapters 4-6.  Hosted by Jill Fisch at My Primary Passion.
• July 25th:  Opening Minds Chapters 7-9.  Hosted by Laura Komos at Our Camp Read-A-Lot.
• July 26th:  Archive of #cyberPD Twitter Chat with Peter Johnston.
• Opening Minds:  Words to Live By a cooperative Google.doc started by Julie Balen.
• #cyberPD Wallwisher 
• Professional Learning Conversations:  #cyberPD:  An event post hosted by International Reading Association's Engage / Teacher to Teacher Blog.  
• Twitter List of #cyberPD Participants

A huge thank you to Laura Komos and Jill Fisch for helping to create such an amazing event.  Thanks to all of the #cyberPD community for sharing your thinking, making me reflect, creating new resources, and collaborating in this professional learning conversation.  I know I will be able to continue to count on all of you to help me in my learning journey.  

Building a Community of Learners: #cyberPD Part 3

"Intelligence, creativity, and caring are all properties of communities as much as of individuals, and teaching children with that in mind will result in individual achievement but also collaborative achievement and accompanying social and societal benefits."  Peter Johnston, Opening Minds (p. 123)

Today we will be discussing the final chapters of Peter Johnston's book, Opening Minds:  Using Language to Change Lives available from Stenhouse (at 20% off during Blogstitute event).

Today's #cyberPD conversation is hosted by Laura Komos at Our Camp Read-a-Lot.  If you are joining the conversation from your blog, you will want to leave your link there.

Important Event Links

• Our Event Jog:  A collection of the posts from the entire event.  Just click on the table of contents on the left to move from page to page.  
• #cyberPD wallwisher:  Stop by to leave important quotes, related links, or questions to ponder.  
• Google.doc of Language:  Julie Balen began our Google.doc of language to consider for changing the lives of young learners.  Feel free to stop by to read, add, and share.  

Event Schedule

• Opening Minds: Chapters 1-3 hosted here at Reflect and Refine
• Opening Minds: Chapters 4-6 hosted by Jill Fisch at My Primary Passion
• Upcoming Event:  Twitter #cyberPD chat, Thursday, July 26th at 7:00 CST (note 8:00 EST) 
• NEW CONCLUDING EVENT:  Wednesday, August 1st Carol Wilcox will host Final Thoughts and What's Next at Carol's Corner

Building a Learning Community

For the last six years I have been back in a first grade classroom.  There are many things I enjoy about teaching a variety of age groups, but first graders are interesting in the amount of learning that happens in just one year.  In first grade, the amount of growth in learning is easily measured in student work.  You can see it in their writing.  You can hear it in their reading.  You understand it in their thinking and solving conversations.

Individual growth is easy to illustrate, but what about collaboration and social imagination?  One of the parts of my teaching I've been working on for the last few years is establishing stronger learning communities.  Our classroom structure allows for opportunities to own our learning.  It allows for collaboration, choice, goal setting, and time to learn among other things.  I've tried to spend more time talking about learning with peers, listening to one another, and thinking about what our friends say.

Reading "Opening Minds" has really helped me to think about ways to establish more of a community of learners where everyone has equal voice.  Johnston reminds us, "When each (my emphasis) person in the classroom community is viewed as able to contribute to the development of knowledge, there is not the typical hierarchy. (p. 102)"

How is this accomplished?  In our classroom we have learning conversations across our day.  When we are on the carpet together students have learning partners.  These partners share in thinking, learning, and collaborative talk.  Johnston reminds us that turning to talk isn't enough.  Students need to learn to value the thinking of their friends and build on the conversation to push the learning to a higher level.

Students often work together in pairs or small groups across our workshops.  At the end of each workshop, we gather to share our learning.  First graders love to share and tell what they've been doing, but helping them to value the thinking of their friends develops across the year.  Johnston says, "We develop a metalanguage for thinking about group processes and establishing their significance as something to attend to. (p. 107)"  In the typical busy academic day, it is sometimes hard to slow down for this important step.  I know I will need to take more time this year to have these conversations.

In what has become our world of testing, assessment, and data collection it is easy to forget the real goals of education.  I thank Johnston for reminding me of the bigger mission we must all accomplish - about the real significance of the work we do every day.  

Some Quotes

• "Discipline that points out the consequence of prosocial behavior and attributes a motive of kindness and generosity is likely to be most effective.  (p. 88)"
• "Conflicts are opportunities to examine our assumptions and values and they are exactly the places where students find morality most engaging.  Social problems offer concrete spaces for understanding different perspectives, understanding and managing emotions, learning strategies for negotiating social conflict, and asserting a commitment to fairness. (p. 91)"
• "A group can have intelligence that can be more (or less) than the sum of its members' intelligence. Group intelligence is related to...the average social sensitivity of the group and how evenly the group distributes conversational turns. (p. 96)"
• "Our ability to think alone is substantially dependent on our ability to think together. (p. 96)"
• "Fostering more egalitarian relationships through collaborative talk emphasizes the class's work together and the value of each member of the classroom community in creating knowledge.  (p. 102)"
• "Listening is the foundation of a conversation and it requires that we are open to the possibility of changing our thinking. (p. 102)"
• "We expect to have more interesting and powerful conversations when people bring different perspectives and when they disagree.  (p. 103)"
• "Each person's experience, what they notice, the logic they bring, and the assumptions they don't accept  enrich the conversation and, if we are trying to solve a problem, make a solution more likely. (p. 104)"
• "We want our children to recognize when things are unfair and to act to make things right. (p. 116)"
• "Children are more engaged when they have choice, a degree of autonomy, and when they see the activity as relevant.  (p. 118)"

Some Questions

• How will I help shape a community that listens and values the thoughts of one another?
• Is our classroom environment and community conducive to thinking and learning together?
• Is there a hierarchy of learners in my classroom or does everyone have an equal voice?
• Do our school teams value different perspectives, sensitivity to the thinking of others, and work toward distributing conversational turns equally?  Is everyone heard and valued?
• What picture books might help to start conversations toward fairness and social justice?
• Are students fully engaged in learning in our classroom? 

Language for the Classroom

• "What's the problem?"
• "How could you solve the problem?"
• "You solved the problem.  You figured out what the problem was and you worked out a solution."
• "Why do you think that?"
• "Could you explain?"
• "I agree, because..."
• "I disagree, because..."
• "Make sure each person has a chance to say something so that you're sure you don't miss different ways of thinking about it."

Summer Professional Reading #cyberPD

It's hard to believe there are only 5 school days left until the end of the year.  I'm looking forward to some time to reenergize and dig into new learning.  I've already scheduled some summer professional development classes, have made tech plans, and have compiled my summer reading stack.

Today I'm sharing my reading stack along with Laura Komos at Our Camp Read-a-Lot and Jill Fisch at My Primary Passion.  With a break on the horizon the three of us our starting to plan another #cyberPD opportunity.  Last year's event was a great learning experience.

My Professional Reading Stack
This year I likely have an overly ambitious reading stack (my stack last year).  I'm not sure I'll quite make it through all of these, but I'm going to give it a try.

Habits of the Mind, Charles Duhigg
Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman
A Place for Wonder, Georgia Heard and Jennifer McDonough
Number Sense Routines, Jessica Shumway
Talk About Understanding:  Rethinking Classroom Talk to Enhance Comprehension, Ellin Keene
Small Steps, Big Changes:  Eight Essential Practices to Transform Schools Through Mathematics, Chris Confer and Marco Ramirez
I See What You Mean, Steve Moline
Pathways to the Common Core, Calkins, Ehrenworth & Lehman
Visible Learning for Teachers, John Hattie
Investigate the Number System:  Getting Started with Contexts for Learning Mathematics, Catherine Fosnot
Write Like This, Kelly Gallagher
Comprehension Going Forward, Keene et. al

What Are You Reading?
What's in your reading stack?  We'd love to know.  Feel free to post about your reading stack and link it to the comments below.  You can also tweet a picture if you'd prefer using the hashtag #cyberPD.  Laura, Jill, and I will soon be sharing more information about this year's #cyberPD learning opportunity.

Professional Books About Teaching Poetry

The fun of teaching poetry has begun.  I have placed collections of poetry books on the tables around our classroom and asked this question, "What is poetry?".  In the coming days we'll be working to create an understanding of poetry, and all it can be, together.  We will surround ourselves with poetry by reading it together, creating opportunities to read it independently, and perhaps a little poetry break every now and then (stopping everything to listen to a poem).  My hope is to help aspiring young poets get the rhythms of poetry in their ears, minds, and hearts so they will soon be able to create their own poetry.

When getting ready to teach poetry I like to get myself ready as well.  I am writing poetry, listening to poetry on my iPod, reading books written to help you capture your words in poetry (Heard, Wooldridge, Murray) and following National Poetry Month events.  I have always loved poetry so for me this is always a fun time.

Professional Resources
Here are a few professional resources for teaching poetry to children I always recommend.  If you have others, please leave them in the comments below:

Awakening the Heart:  Exploring Poetry in Elementary and Middle School by Georgia Heard.  If you don't buy anything else, buy this book.  First of all, Georgia Heard has a delightful way with words on a page.  I enjoy everything I read by her.  Secondly, she takes a closer look at poetry through the eyes of a writer.  She talks about finding poems where they hide and creating an environment for poetry.  When talking about a unit of poetry study Heard reminds us our goal is to "ensure that poems will sing to our students and that they'll seek out poems even after the study of poetry has ended in the classroom."

Outspoken!  How to Improve Writing and Speaking Skills Through Poetry Performance by Sara Holbrook and Michael Salinger.  This book is interesting because it looks at poetry through a different lens - performance.  How do we read poems?  Of course, there is also discussion about how to write poems that move an audience.  I especially enjoyed the chapter on memoir where the authors share suggestions for helping young poets write about what they know.  Interestingly, there is a section that demonstrates turning a story into a poem by capturing key words and phrases.

Kids' Poems by Regie Routman.  If poetry isn't your thing, this is probably the book you should buy to support young poets.  If poetry is your thing, you'll want this book for the way it looks at poetry through the eyes of the young poet.  Regie not only shares suggestions for getting started with the teaching of poetry, but she also has collected poetry written by young poets in a format ready to be shared with your students.  Regie has written a Kids' Poem book for grades K-4 (that I am aware of).

A Note Slipped Under the Door:  Teaching From the Poems We Love by Nick Flynn and Shirley McPhillips.  This book is a much deeper read about poetry.  It taught me so much about poetry itself.  It's beautifully written.  Though it is a professional text, I felt like there were lines within it that were poetically written.  The authors remind us, "Poems are mysteries and come from deep places.  We can be amazed or moved without always being able to explain why."  This book shares powerful examples of poetry, makes suggestions for writing poetry, and takes a closer look at key characteristics of mentor poems.

Poetry Matters by Ralph Fletcher is the perfect book to share snippets about writing poetry with young writers.  When I went to grab my copy for this post, it was missing again.  I tend to lend it out often as it is  useful when talking with students about writing poetry.  This book was written to hand directly to young poets.  Ralph wanted poets to have practical ideas for getting their message just the way they want it.