Mote and ClassroomQ for Feedback, Discourse, and Classroom Management

 In today's challenging blended learning environment (which may consist of students learning from home, students learning in person, or a concurrent hybrid of the two), you want to maintain the basic building blocks of an effective classroom.  Such a learning space should have opportunities for varied feedback, structured discussions, and scaffolded classroom management.   Mote and ClassroomQ can help with one or more of these aspects!

How do they work?  

Mote is primarily a feedback tool that allows users to make a voice recording up to 30 seconds long inside of a Google Docs Comment.  (Mote also works inside the Comments of Slides, Sheets, and even Google Classroom.) It requires installation of a Chrome Extension to make a Mote, and accounts can be created via a Google sign-in, although neither the extension nor an account is required to listen to a Mote.  In the free version, you can both create and listen to an unlimited amount of Motes.  For more on Mote, please see the following Google Slide presentation I have created, along with an example Mote on Slide 3.

ClassroomQ is essentially a "hand raising" digital web-based tool; students who request help are queued up in the order they hit the button.   Teachers create a free account via Google or email.  When a teacher logs in, a session is begun, and a "class code" is given.  (Tip: this class code is unique to the teacher account and stays the same code for every session you begin, in case you want to permanently post it.)

Students who want to join a session do not need to create an account.  By choosing "student" when they visit the site, they will be prompted to type their name and enter the session's class code.  Once they have joined the session, they can hit their button when necessary along with the option of adding a comment in a text box; a student will be told their place in line, and can also cancel their request.  (From their session perspective, students cannot see which other students have requested help or what comments they may have made.)   

Teachers will see up to 5 student names queued up in the order they hit their buttons, along with any comments.  (Note the teacher interface allows you to toggle off student comments so they are not visible, if you only want names to appear.) When a teacher has resolved a student's question, the student can be removed from the queue.  

One of the advantages of ClassroomQ is its extremely easy interface -- there is no way to get lost, and in fact, a teacher could easily manage a session from a small screen device like a phone.

A screen capture to demonstrate what ClassroomQ looks like from the perspective of a teacher on a phone.  Note that the class code is marked out in the image, and if you turned the phone horizontally, the student name and commentary would perhaps format better.

How could you use them?  Mote provides an alternative feedback method for students that appreciate a kind of commentary beyond just text (and hearing their own teacher's voice feels more personal!). Students that struggle to understand "tone" linguistically will have auditory support.  If your students are challenged by reading (pre-literate, EL, and/or ECE) they will also appreciate a voice recording that you can play and pause and repeat as needed.   Students that have their own Mote accounts could make voice commentary that would enhance peer-to-peer feedback as well as potentially create a "voice discourse" without the possible distractions and anxiety associated with a video commenting tool like Flipgrid.  (Although in fairness to the wonderful video-centric Flipgrid, they recently have added the ability to make text comment responses to videos.)

As the video below discusses, ClassroomQ can be more than a way to digitally raise hands for help (whether your students are in person or at home, or a mixture of both); for example, the video mentions using it as a game buzzer to answer review questions.  You could also gather instant feedback for how your lesson facilitation is going, determine the order of when volunteers will present, or initiate classroom discussion managed by the teacher if students utilize its comment feature.  (This last idea may especially come in handy if you have blocked chat and muted student mics in a virtual meeting.)

You can also imagine some interesting possibilities for app smashing.  Perhaps a student lets you know via ClassroomQ when they are ready for you to read over the opening paragraph on a Google Doc, so you then can make a Mote voice comment for next steps.  With ClassroomQ, you may also selectively choose to share your screen in a teleconference meeting and let all students see student comments, as another way of facilitating discussion.

Downsides?  While both tools have a free initial tier, you have to pay for upgraded features: 

• Mote pricing for premium features start at $19/year for an "Essential" individual plan which extends your Mote time from 30 to 90 seconds; the $39/year "Unlimited" individual plan allows for voice-to-text transcriptions of your voice comments, in-app translation of those transcripts to one of multiple language options (a potentially powerful ELL feature!), and more.
• ClassroomQ pricing for premium features start at $19.99/year for individuals (school or district licensing also available) to lift the limit from 5 students in queue to an unlimited number, the ability to see who joined your session, and exportable session data.

However, the free versions of both tools offer significant usefulness and may be more than enough for your classroom needs.  If nothing else, the free versions give you an opportunity for a robust try-out of the tools before you shell out dinero.  Most importantly, cost is only at the teacher level -- ClassroomQ doesn't require a student to ever make an account, much less pay, and Mote voice notes can be played by students without them ever creating an account (although they need to make at least a free account to create a Mote).

Are you using Mote or ClassroomQ?  How do you integrate them into your classroom? Leave Comments below!

  

Google Tips and Tricks: Greatest Hits Collection

As our district has returned to school under non-traditional instruction (NTI), I have been visiting the teachers who are in our buildings -- planning, assessing, synchronously teaching, meeting online with students in small groups and one-on-one -- as the students are unfortunately at home.  As always, I am impressed with not only the teachers' innovation but their positive attitude in less than ideal circumstances.  The current growth and transformation in their teaching will have long reaching effects.  As our new superintendent Dr. Sugg often quotes, we are creating a foundation for "better than normal" learning when students are once again in our buildings.

Often in my classroom visits, I end up sharing an aspect of Google.  I realize that I have amassed, in various one-sheets and blog entries, several helpful tips and tricks....enough to put together this blog entry as a "greatest hits" collection.   Some of these are not well known, others could be considered hacks, but the common theme is that all of them are pragmatic and could be easily applied tomorrow in a digital classroom.

• Calling OUT by phone in Google Meet.  Helpful when your student needs to participate or be contacted but does not have Internet. (Note: this may end for the "free" educational version of Google Meet on September 30.)
• Translate captions and chat in Meet.  A potential game changer for EL students.  All of the Google Translate languages can potentially be used!
• Creating and organizing personal bookmarks in Chrome.  Bonus: I also share some information on creating "Teacher Pages" in Clever.
• Google Classroom and Guardian Emails.  Parents can receive a weekly email "report" on what is going on in your Classroom, although it takes a few steps of setting up.
• "Google Jamboard."  A relatively new Google app that will soon be integrated into Google Meet.  Think of it as a collaborative "digital corkboard" for brainstorming, an entrance/exit slip to assess student thinking, or a place to capture opinions.
• "Google Keep."  An underutilized and underappreciated part of the Google Suite, especially if you couple it with its mobile app!  Make short notes, create artifacts, track and document your conferring.
• Inserting audio in Google Slides.  While the insertion of audio is simple, this Doc details ideas for how to create the audio in the first place, pedagogical examples why audio in Slides could help, and options for formatting the audio's appearance/playability.
• Making manipulatives and digital annotation in Google Slides.  This combines together a few ideas which can allow students to annotate text as well as imitate the "Infinite Cloning" feature of SMART Notebook software.
• Sign your name in Google Docs.  "Document signing" software is hardly ever free, so this gives you the next best thing at no cost.
• "Student Journals, Personalized Learning Plans and More: The Power of HyperDocs."  In this blog entry, I describe a work flow to make Google Docs into something deeper.
• Take a picture inside your Doc (or Slides, Sheets, Drawing).  Did you know that you can Insert>Image and directly utilize your webcam?  This Doc shows how, but also gives pedagogical examples of when this could be helpful.

And here are some of my favorite Chrome Extensions:

• Mote (audio comments on Google Docs and in Classroom)
• Read Aloud: Text to Speech
• Screencastify (free version allows you to record 5 minute screencasts saved straight to your Drive)

Do you have a favorite Google hack, tip, trick or Extension?  Share in the Comments below!

Book Spotlight: Power Up Blended Learning

Digital learning coaching has been weighing heavily on my mind.   I don't think it is controversial to say that last spring has taught all educators the importance of blended learning, so whether it's help in integrating the tools or the actual best practice pedagogy, digital learning coaches are more important than ever for schools and districts.  Kentucky's Digital Learning Coaches had their first official conference last month (virtual of course).  Thanks to Laura Raganas's organization, last school year was the launch of a new cohort opportunity for us to meet and learn, both in person and via our hashtag #KYDLC.   Under the generous sponsorship of KET Education, conference attendees received a fantastic package:

Got my goodie box for the upcoming #KYDLC virtual conference! Special thanks to @EducationKET. P.S. @brian_spellman, appreciate the "Seven" movie reference. #KyGoDigital pic.twitter.com/3LiSVaq57y

— Adam Watson (@watsonedtech) June 10, 2020

One of the books in the box, and the first I grabbed to read cover to cover, was Catlin R. Tucker's Power Up Blended Learning: A Professional Learning Infrastructure to Support Sustainable Change.   (Tucker also provided a virtual keynote address for our KYDLC conference.) The "sustainable change" part of the subtitle was something that particularly struck me, because that is the hardest part to achieve.  Even if you prioritize the budget to get 1:1 student devices, the act of transforming teaching with technology is a legacy mindset that cannot be accomplished in a "one and done" summer PD.  In a bigger sense, the book is an excellent guide for a person still needing to grow in the role of a  digital learning coach (or in the parlance of Tucker, a "blended learning coach"), and I include myself in that category!

Here are some of my personal key takeaways and highlights from Tucker's book:

• Start with the Why.  Tucker actually refers to Simon Sinek and his "Golden Circle" here, but her connection to integrating tech for lasting change is important: "If leaders are clear about their why, teachers are more likely to buy in and take risks" (3, author's italics). The why should then drive your how (how do you accomplish your why?) and ultimately your what (what do you produce?).   I have been guilty teaching tech from the opposite direction in the past: I started with the what a tool did, then how to use it, and if I was lucky, glossed over why using the tool mattered in the first place.  This might work for a perfunctory one day PD, but it is not effective for lasting, sustainable tech integration that should parallel your school or district's pedagogical beliefs.  To paraphrase Sinek, if the digital tool does not meet "an organization's purpose," one should reconsider using it.  Why does your district or school's beliefs need blended learning in the first place?  Answer that, and the right tools and digital platforms should naturally follow.
• Explain It, See It, Discuss It, Try It.  While Tucker details this as a "simple approach to professional learning" (36), I would argue that what seems simple and obvious is not always what is followed by PD facilitators.  "Explaining it" starts, unsurprisingly, with why a teacher would want to use a specific strategy or tool in the first place. Next, you need to model its usage in order to make the abstract into the concrete.  Teachers (like all learners) then must talk about it in order to reflect how the tool or strategy can apply to their own classrooms, changing their pre-lesson/PD schema by making meaningful, relevant connections.  Lastly, knowledge without application is an empty exercise: teachers need to try the tool/strategy out on their own.  This might occur live at the end of the PD (for example, making their own Screencastify video after learning about the tool), but ideally, it would be later with actual students in an actual lesson when a coach or colleagues could observe and/or analyze data, then give feedback.
• Effective coaching for blended learning must be individualized, intensive, sustained, context-specific, and focused.  Tucker goes into excellent detail on each of these points (45-47), but in particular, I want to highlight how she acknowledges that a "kickoff" PD in a whole-group setting is pragmatically a likely beginning of the coaching process.  It is what happens after the kickoff that makes the difference: "The blended learning coach must take the spark created in the whole group training or all-staff professional development day and keep it alive with individualized, intensive, context-specific, and focused professional learning" (47, my italics).  You need a spark to light a campfire, but you need constant kindling and tending to the flame to keep it going.  No matter how charismatic or inspiring the summer PD facilitator might be, it takes a "boots on the ground" approach with coaching staff over the months and years to make the professional learning meaningful and long-lasting.
• Coaching must be a partnership.  Tucker highlights Jim Knight's "seven partnership principles":   equality, choice, voice, reflection, dialogue, praxis (application), and reciprocity (coaches must be willing to learn too!) (68-69).   I have to say that I have likely underestimated some of the dialogue necessary for good coaching relationships, especially at the beginning of coaching cycles.  Tucker does a great job of detailing the "power of dialogic interviews" and even provides a useful download template for the process (58-59).
• When a coach is showcasing a blended learning model, consider your learning purpose.  A blended learning coach may be asked, for the sake of a whole group or on a one-on-one basis, to create a lesson that highlights a blended learning model (station rotation, flipped, etc.).   However, Tucker offers some simple but very illuminating questions that coaches should ask themselves (111):
• Can I highlight a slightly different approach that will push teachers to expand their approach?
• Can I use technology to foster collaboration and get kids working together?
• Do my activities feel like work or play? (This might be my favorite!)
• Will kids be excited to engage with the concepts and with each other?
• Virtual coaching will work differently than in-person coaching.  While this may seem obvious, I welcome that Tucker offers her entire Chapter 11 to address this issue.  Considering the uncertainty that awaits us in the upcoming school year, this chapter alone makes the book invaluable!

As I close out my entry on powering up blended learning professional development, I should mention that Monica Wainscott (Beechwood Independent), Stella Pollard (Franklin County) and myself shared some perspective and resources about what student choice and personalization can look like in a post-NTI world at a recent virtual KyGoDigital conference.  (At Shelby and in many districts across the state, we are emphasizing that thanks to planning and reflection time, the fall's blended learning opportunities for students should look different than the "emergency" distance learning educators had to manage last spring.)  As Digital Learning Coaches/Coordinators, we were happy to showcase our roles in helping our districts in the educational frontier ahead of us.  Our half hour session is just after the Day 2 keynote (about 1 hour 6 minutes in), and our Slides are available here:

For Breonna (Equitable Outrage for Change)

I.

On Friday, June 5, 2020, Breonna Taylor would have turned 27.

She shouldn't be a hashtag, or a news story.  Breonna should be celebrating today in our shared hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, laughing with friends and family, opening presents.  Instead, three months ago in March, she was killed by Louisville Metro police officers who obtained a dubious no-knock warrant, decided not to wear body cameras, and shot without warning into her house.  As of today, the officers involved still have their jobs and have not been charged with a crime.

If anyone was still naive enough to think Ms. Taylor was an isolated incident -- do we really need to remind people of the long history of police brutality and injustice against African-Americans that goes back decades before her death? -- the recent murder of George Floyd should have destroyed the ability to keep your eyes closed.   We, who have enjoyed an unfair proportion of power for four centuries, need to do better loving, listening, and acting.  Transformation toward equity must occur now -- in our workplaces, in our schools, in our neighborhoods, and in our homes.


II. 

Some are offended at the phrase "black lives matter."  We say "black lives matter" because the mattering of the lives of the status quo (Caucasian, Christian, male, heterosexual) has always been a given, and "all lives matter" is often used as a literal whitewashing of that fact.   The notion that we should consider those of a different race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation and so on as not just created but treated as equal is, in historical context, a very recent phenomenon in America.    However, of all of those groups, only one -- black Americans -- came to this country in chains as slaves.  It should therefore not be a controversial statement to declare that the four hundred years of violence and oppression against African-Americans is particularly wide, deep, and still pervasive.   (Of course, no amount of suffering is just, nor should suffering be treated as a contest that pits the pain of one American group against the agony of another.  To take just one example, Native Americans also endured egregious amounts of government-sponsored prejudice and genocidal treatment, and still face prejudice.  But to dismissively take a purely relativist position that "everyone is discriminated against" is almost always an attempt to not uplift all the oppressed but to excuse the oppressor.)

To be clear: I believe in non-violent protest.  I am thankful for the courage of selfless people who carry a badge, who are willing to sacrifice even their own lives in order to protect and serve us.  (Our belief that the police should be our protectors and our servants is particularly poignant, especially in the current context.)  But I also believe in equitable outrage. Note the term is equitable, not equal.  One should have outrage that is placed in its proper proportion, given the legacy and context of the history and situation at hand.  I completely support and agree with a person's outrage over a broken window or a brick thrown at a police officer, so long as they are more outraged over a police officer grinding his knee into a black man's neck as he screamed he could not breathe.  For more than eight minutes.  In broad daylight.  With three other officers helping.  Until that man was dead.  If you are willing to judge a protest movement that has tens of thousands of activists on the unlawful behavior of a small percentage of "rioters" and "looters," then how shall we judge America's police force, with its percentage of unpunished officers that have a long history of murdering blacks with disturbing disproportionality?  Which of the two groups -- the police or the citizens -- are entrusted to not just follow the law but to uphold it, to be the ideal and exemplary model of ethics and justice for others to emulate?  Which group has been given the automatic assumption of innocence and legal superiority for more than a hundred years, before film cameras, camcorders and cell phones finally punctuated that myth of infallibility?  Should the relationship between these two groups be built on respect, or out of fear?

Do we fault the students of the classroom if the teacher is not practicing what the teacher teaches?

The classroom of America has asked the teacher a question.  What is our answer?


III.

In a world still reeling in the face of a pandemic, hope to change systems of racism in America that goes back centuries is beyond daunting.  Hope is a scarce commodity.

But hope is not just something you can find.  It can be something you make. Hope and change starts with us.  By "us" I mean those of us with privilege and power that is both seen and subtle.   We need to learn how to be more effective allies, to be willing to get uncomfortable as we explore our biases.  We need to better love, listen and act.  But the greatest of all of these, to paraphrase a social activist from a few thousand years ago, is to act.  We can love from the safety of our homes, yet not change anything.  Even Jesus got angry enough to justifiably overturn some tables here and there.  (I am glad we didn't judge his disciples too harshly for his riotous behavior.)

For the last few weeks, my family has watched YouTube, Twitter, and the news with an almost paralyzed sense of sadness and anger.  I may have been tweeting and posting on Facebook and immersing myself in documentaries about the black experience, but that is not enough to qualify as real action.   Passivity is complacency, and complacency becomes complicity.  And I have a vocational duty to do better. I became an educator to empower our young people, so they can make the world more just than our generation left it.

So my wife April and I did some research and listened to those we trusted.  We picked five charities who could use donations, and made a slideshow highlighting each one.  We grabbed some fake money from a board game, my two daughters (age 8 and 15) and my laptop, then headed to the living room.

Everyone got an equal amount of fake money, then I Chromecasted my slides to our television. Slide by slide on the TV, side by side on the couch, I briefly talked about the motivation, purpose and the recipient of each charity.  There was necessary dialogue, sometimes painful and awkward.  Next, we used our fake dollars to decide how much money each of us would pledge to each group.  Two things emerged. First, we each felt a sense of agency we hadn't had in days; we created some hope.  Even my eight year old was glowing, knowing that by "voting" via her fake dollar bills, she would actually positively impact the lives of others.  Secondly, when a certain group got more of a donation from one family member, it would organically be balanced by the generosity of another family member toward another group.   So while there was no "rule" that every group had to get a donation, they all did in the end.  Fake game board money in hand, I went online to transform our pledges into payments.

It was a first act and a small one.  Our modest collective family dollars spread among five recipients may seem almost negligible. Of course, simply giving a donation is not enough, and there is more work to be done.

But it's the best we felt in what seemed an eternity.

While I encourage you to research these groups for yourself before deciding to give a donation, as well as exploring other deserving recipients, here are the five our family chose:

Justice for Breonna Taylor

Official George Floyd Memorial Fund

Louisville Community Bail Fund

Know Your Rights Camp**

Black Lives Matter**

**These are 501(c) charities. 


IV.

This is an educational technology blog, not a political platform.  I will turn Edtech Elixirs back to educational technology soon enough.  But there are times when we must make it clear, regardless of profession or our day to day station in life, what side of history we are on.  It is a question of humanity, not politics.  Over the last few weeks, I have watched with dismay how some so-called '"edu-celebs" have blithely autoposted their tips and tools on the hour every hour on social media without a single word about our current crisis.  If there was ever a time for them to use their influence on their thousands of followers for the greater good, now would be it.   My reach pales to theirs, but here I am with a blog entry, taking a stand.  Compared to the actual tragedy and suffering of others, not to mention those marching in the street, it is the very least I can do -- to share my feelings, and make a public promise to continually contribute to the work of "a more perfect Union" both in my educational and personal spheres of life.

Friday, June 5 is Breonna Taylor's birthday. She is black, and her life matters.

Honor her life with a gift of yourself.  Make the world today better than the world she was forced to leave.

New Vodcast Series for Educator Reflection During NTI

First, we must honor the date of this entry!  Not only is today Star Wars Day, but it is the start of Teacher Appreciation Week.  Has there ever been a school year where all teachers have not easily earned the rank of Jedi Knight?  I can't imagine one.  Thanks to all of the compassionate teachers out there who strive to innovate in these challenging non-traditional instructional (NTI) times...and that includes a nod toward the parents and guardians who are co-teaching these lessons at home.

It was an awareness of our Shelby educators who are innovating during NTI that inspired Lora Shields, our district Staff Developer.   Knowing that some hard-won professional learning was happening out there, she proposed a vodcast that could both capture this moment in time as well as share the learning with others.   As we teamed together to make this happen, we shaped the focus of the vodcast series to be guided by two questions:  what new tool or strategy are you currently learning to use during NTI, and in what ways will that transform your teaching when you return to the brick and mortar of your school buildings in the future?

Thus, the vodcast series "Shelby Speaks: Looking Forward" was launched, sharing our facilitated interviews with the creative educators of our district.  As of today, over half of our recorded episodes have been published (see the playlist on SCPS's YouTube channel), and we have already earned acclaim from other education leaders and even local television news:

Love these! “There’s a difference between a project and PBL...” Well-done, @shelbycountysch team! @loratshields @watsonedtech @DugleSusan @rltmartin @JamesNeihof https://t.co/QeXN3zsBfb

— Jonathan Vander Els (@jvanderels) April 26, 2020

Loving these Shelby Speaks series led by @watsonedtech ... this one is on how PBL & exhibitions are still happening for 8th grade, just digital now! Nice work Casey, LaPorsha, & Sarah!! Awesome creativity and innovation with digital tools. Well done. #KyEdNext https://t.co/AWgmjvCLqx

— Dr. Justin Bathon (@justinbathon) April 28, 2020

Teachers @shelbycountysch share how online learning lessons will transform their classrooms: https://t.co/iKki6dsMKf | @SaraSideryWDRB pic.twitter.com/pEwGw1ne0H

— WDRB News (@WDRBNews) April 24, 2020

In particular, I'd like to highlight three episodes that address a few of my favorite educational topics: project based learning and libraries.

In Episode 3, Martha Layne Collins art teacher Lukas Allison talks about how important cross-content PBL and design thinking is to his lesson planning (9:43):

In Episode 5, West Middle School teachers Casey Robinson, Sarah Buchanan, and LaPorsha Jackson talk about the process of moving PBL exhibitions to an online space (12:26):

Lastly, in Episode 10, Julie Webb (Shelby County High School) and Emily Northcutt (Marnel C. Moorman, our K-8 school) discuss how librarians and libraries play an essential role in NTI (18:20):

Thanks to all of the educators worldwide who are attempting the Herculean task of continuing student learning at home, even when our students face substantial inequities of Internet access, food insecurities, and understandable anxieties about our unprecedented present.

NTI Resources, Virtual Field Trips, and a Deep Breath

Despite the title, I want to start with the deep breath first. 

Every year, I look forward to KySTE's three day spring conference at the Galt House in March.  While there was a bit of a rumble over the slowly accelerating COVID-19 situation in the United States ("pandemic" was not quite the commonly used phrase, much less "crisis"), KySTE reassured everyone that the conference was still happening, albeit with advice to replace hearty handshakes with waves and wash your hands often.  I assembled like hundreds of others to the conference's first day on Wednesday, March 11.  There was talk about non-traditional instruction days (NTI) and students learning from home possibly happening as early as the following week, so I attended sessions with a focus on content-specific digital learning tools.  By the morning of March 12, KySTE organizers were putting down rumors of an early end and still reassuring that the conference was continuing.  By that same afternoon, in the second to last session of the day, they broadcasted a message: the conference was cancelled.  We met for a hastily convened closing session, where door prizes were given out in 15 minutes, and promises were made to announce award and grant winners at a later date.  A few hours later, I checked out of the hotel and on a whim, stopped by a grocery store on the way home, where I purchased the last packages of paper towels and toilet paper sitting on the shelf.  The next day -- aptly enough, Friday the 13th -- I went to my Shelby office for final meetings and planning as we launched, along with so many other districts (and states!), the longest and most ambitious educational NTI plan in modern American times.  I have not been back to my office, or seen my colleagues in person, since.

That was just two weeks ago, and yet it seems like a lifetime.

We are still very much in the beginning of a long term, once in a generation struggle that affects every aspect of our human life.  It is overwhelming to think of the potential loss of life and the what-if's to come.   So in this entry, I will try to only narrow my focus on the educational road ahead.  I myself have overused the words "unprecedented" and "uncharted waters" these last few weeks, so I'm loathe to repeat them.  But this is an unprecedented time to be a teacher.  It is uncharted educational waters.  What can we do?

Breathe.

It is clear that despite anyone's best efforts, the school year 2019-2020 will be disrupted.  We have to allow ourselves grace.  We will not hit all of our objectives.  NWEA MAP tests, if we could even give them, might not reflect much "academic growth."  And that is okay.   It will become evident that we cannot maintain virtual schools for millions of students for weeks on end without consequence -- and that's not only okay, it's affirming!  Of course we are facilitators of learning, but we are also relationship managers, inspirational guides, growers of human potential.  We analyze body language, listen to stomachs growl, feel the energy of students as they connect to content.  In short, teaching is a complex art, and difficult to do at a distance.  If teaching was as simple as pushing a worksheet across a table -- well then, anyone could do it.  Ask any parent who is social distancing at home right now with their children if teaching is easy.

So breathe.  Students are still learning, in authentic ways we could not begin to fathom or calculate.  Let your students know you are there, that you were always were there, that you will be there after all of this is over and all that remains will be the remembrances of the kindness and sympathies you gave to them in a time of uncertainty and sacrifice and tragedy.  That is a lesson they will remember.   They will remember you.  The rest will work itself out in the months to come.

The very real tragedies and sacrifices aside, there are some positive "truths" to emerge out of this disruption to the status quo of education:

• Necessity is the mother of invention, and teachers are being more innovative with digital tools than ever before because they have to be.  If even a small portion of that blended learning experience (and other innovative pedagogies that challenge traditional instruction) comes back to the brick and mortal classroom, education will be better for it.
• We need to stop talking about digital inequity and start solving it.  In other countries, Internet access is just another utility that all citizens have, like water and electricity.  This crisis clearly reveals that high speed Internet in every household is not a luxury but a necessity.
• Public education needs to be fully funded and supported.  If there was ever a question about the enormity of services that public school provides as a social safety net, it should be easily answered now.  What organization besides public school systems could so quickly have marshaled resources like technology, educational materials and food for the general good?  (This is not to disparage the efforts of our private, charter and parochial educational colleagues, but it's merely reporting the facts about the enormous power, effort, and reach of public schools.)
• Last but not least, technology is best when it serves the objective of personal human connection.   I am astounded and inspired from social media posts at all the ways teachers are using tech to foster continuity, engender hope, ignite excitement, and share a smile.  Learning should always be engaging, but not in absence of addressing the individual passions and needs of each student.

As I wrap things up, I want to offer two NTI resources for educators in these (here I go) unprecedented times.

#KyGoDigital invited me to lead an online session as part of their #MyNTIKy series.  I discussed virtual field trip resources and strategies on how to use them.  The video is here (38:16):

You can access the Slides from the presentation here.

Several people have asked for our Shelby NTI resources.  While I've curated them (quality over quantity was my mantra), I have to thank many district staff members for their input and submissions, and I hope to have put the tools and sites in some sense of context rather than just reproduce a list of links.  Here is our Doc.

While I'm thanking SCPS people, I want to give a personal shout out to all of our Shelby admin, teachers, food service workers, custodians, technicians, counselors, and other support staff for their heroic efforts to keep our children fed, educated, and safe these last two weeks and in the weeks to come.  

Last but not least, I want to thank all of my Edtech Elixirs readers over the years, not only for reading this particularly long post, but for reading any of my past ones!  This entry marks my 150th blog post since I began nearly six years ago.  To put it mildly, in the summer of 2014 I could never have predicted the state of education in spring 2020.

And speaking of spring!  Next week, spring break begins for our district and for many others.   I promise you I will try to breathe a bit.  Promise me you will do the same.   

Competency-Based Education: A Reading Journey

As Shelby County's journey toward competency-based education (CBE) has become regionally and nationally known, educators often ask about resources we have discovered along the way.  In particular, what books have we read?

This entry is an attempt to compile a useful -- but by no means exhaustive -- list of CBE related books that I personally feel have been either extremely illuminating in pragmatic ways (detailed models, insightful anecdotes, clear "how to's") or it inspired me to stay the course.  Often the same book did both!  Instead of ranking them in order of importance, or even in the order I actually read them, I have put them in what I think would be the most useful reading sequence that would best grow one's CBE knowledge as well as help you strategically plan for implementation in your own classroom, school or district. 

One very important point here: as with all of my Edtech Elixirs entries and my personal social media posts, this is only Adam Watson's ideal list as of this posting.  While my CBE knowledge would not nearly be as robust without my work in Shelby, and although many of these books were part of our leadership reading, this list is not meant to imply any district endorsement of these texts or of the sequence I have described.

1. What School Could Be by Ted Dintersmith (2018)

Before getting too deep into CBE terminology and logistics, teachers and admin should be given the chance to ideate for an "outside the box" transformative classroom experience.  This book's title succinctly states its purpose: we need to dream up a different way of doing school.  Dintersmith was the executive producer of the engaging documentary Most Likely to Succeed, which mainly focused on High Tech High in San Diego and how that school challenges how education achievement can be done.  This book is basically Dintersmith's road trip covering all 50 states in a single school year as he searches for inspirational models of educational transformation.  What School Could Be is both a wakeup call to rally against the status quo as well as a potential map of locations to visit.


2. Reinventing Crediting for Competency-Based Education: the Mastery Transcript Consortium Model and Beyond by Jonathan E. Martin (2010)

Don't let the slim nature of this book (151 pages!) fool you.  As Martin describes examples of what a competency-based report card/transcript may look like (in particular, the work of the Mastery Transcript Consortium), you realize how crucial it is to have an effective reporting tool of learning, especially for high school.  Beginning your CBE planning with such an end in mind is highly recommended, as we in Shelby can speak from experience that communicating and creating a new reporting tool was an area of challenge in our journey, especially for some of our high school teachers, students and parents.


3.  How to Grade for Learning: Linking Grades to Standards by Ken O'Connor (4th edition, 2019)

O'Connor has been challenging the idea of what grading should be for many years; in fact, the first edition of How to Grade for Learning came out two decades ago.  This book is likely the most "dense" and longest on this list, but it is chock full of very useful examples, anecdotes, and templates. I would argue that the principles laid out in the book are critical for moving to competency-based learning, as you need strong, clear, and consistent standards-based grading (SBG) practices to get there.  As I discussed in a previous entry, you need teachers and admin to understand the limits of traditional points / percentage / letter based grading and how SBG is more effective for learning.  O'Connor expertly leads you through that shift.  I especially appreciate how he devotes whole chapters to looking at how to calculate grades beyond merely averaging numbers (for example, Chapter 5: Emphasizing More Recent Evidence).  Make sure classroom teachers have a chance to discuss key excerpts!


4. Transforming Schools Using Project-Based Learning, Performance Assessment, and Common Core Standards by Bob Lenz with Justin Wells and Sally Kingston (2015)

Transforming Schools was one of the earliest books I read on my CBE journey, as I was learning how instructional classroom models like project-based learning fit into a bigger transformative educational system.  (This is something not to be glossed over; through communication and strategic planning, your journey to a CBE system should make clear how competency-based learning is not "one more thing on your plate" but instead becomes the plate where personalized learning, PBL, blended learning and other initiatives smoothly "sit" on and build toward.)   Lenz and his contributors do an excellent job of sharing their narrative of how they changed learning at one school, which then evolved into a system of transformative schools (Envision Learning).   The book also helped me think more deeply about the importance of advisory scheduling, graduate profiles, and students doing defenses of learning.  Bonus: it includes a DVD with video clips!


5.  Breaking with Tradition: The Shift to Competency-Based Learning in PLCs at Work by Brian M. Stack and Jonathan G. Vander Els (2018)

Stack and Vender Els write from the perspective of principals "doing the work" in New Hampshire, a state well known for its CBE leadership.  (In fact, Stack is still principal at Sanborn Regional High School.)  As the subtitle suggests, it is important to invest wisely and deeply in the professional development of your staff as you shift away from traditional practices, and Stack and Vander Els insightfully outline a successful way to navigate that process.   Helpful examples of competency frameworks, as well as how they were created, are shared in detail.  I also appreciated the book's discussion of what intervention and enrichment looks like in a CBE system, so students can truly "move when ready."  Lastly, both Transforming Schools and Breaking with Tradition explain the need for change in performance assessment practices, and the urgency for creating new performance assessments that better match competency-based learning. 


Bonus: Learning Supercharged: Digital Age Strategies and Insights from the Edtech Frontier by Lynne Schrum with Sandi Sumerfield (2018).

I briefly discussed this book in a previous entry.  While technically not a "CBE book," I found Learning Supercharged to be highly useful when connecting CBE related pedagogies with best practices in blended learning.  Chapters on makerspaces, project-based learning, personalized learning and more allow you to see how crucial digital tools will be when creating an effective "transfer task" culture of mastery learning.


Honorary Mentions of other CBE authors and websites:

• Rose Colby.  Colby has been talking about CBE for at least a decade and she is often quoted, including in many of the books above.   Her 2017 book Competency-Based Education: A New Architecture for K-12 Schooling is a recent example of her work.
• Chris Sturgis.  Besides writing the forward to Breaking with Tradition, Sturgis is an author of many influential white papers on CBE; she also helped launch CompetencyWorks, itself an important online resource.
• Aurora Institute (formerly iNACOL).  The site, and its related conferences, continues to be a leader in sharing and discussing the work of CBE and the educators behind it.   As a starting point, read its updated definition of CBE published in November 2019. 

What are some significant CBE books you have read?  Please share in the Comments below!

Full disclosure:  Over the last few years, Shelby County has nurtured both one-time consultancies as well as ongoing partnerships with several of the authors and organizations mentioned above.