(Mine)Crafting a Better Project - First Week of Summer School

Insanity.

Craziness.

Free for All.

Fun.

Those are just a few of the choice words and phrases I'd use when describing our first four days together in summer school.  The class is all about Minecraft with a twist - I'm trying to help students see they can use Minecraft as an alternative to school projects. They just need to be bold enough to convince their teachers that it is a worthy option.

Worthy. Definitely.

We started with some general rule building (generally, respecting property (no griefing) and no PVP were the main ones).  Then let them play around. Out of the 72 students signed up for the class, only 4 had no Minecraft experience.  The ones that don't are still struggling a bit, so it has been a challenge keeping everyone engaged while helping them get the basics.

Then, our first project - Pixel art! You can see the above example of Heat Man vs. Megaman. I helped put that together because I freaking LOVE Megaman and come on, is that not the coolest looking thing ever?

Here are some others:

This first project was a blast, but unfortunately, many students would rather run off and do other crazy things, so there weren't THAT many awesome pixel art structures.  That was my first issue - how, in Summer School, while playing Minecraft, can I get all students swimming up stream? Some tech issues have hindered us as well - learning that the server computer should be a bit beefier than 2GB of Ram and a single core processor.  Make sure students have access to anything they might need.

We were going to search for pixel art as a guide, but the generic log in I was using for them on the school computers had everything blocked, so that was another hinderence.

Beginning this week, I read an excerpt from the book "Drizzle" that described the setting. I also showed them a map of the farm in the story. As an entire class, we are going to be attempting to re-create the setting.  It has been a challenge to say the least. I should have set more up ahead of time (teleporters to roughly where the different buildings should go), but it was also interesting to see how chaos transforms into some semblance of organization over time. However, with 20 kids, I need to provide more structure in the virtual realm for them. I might even consider assigning the  different sections of the farm to avoid confusion and students not knowing their part.

The adventure is just beginning. I'm hoping to convince a few students that Minecraft can be more than just a game. Mostly, they just want to blow stuff up and do Player Vs. Player combat.  By the end, maybe they'll want to be designers. One can hope!

Until We Meet Again

I must say, I live a pretty blessed life, so at the risk of sounding overly dramatic, here goes...

This was a tough week. Officially, I accepted a new position in the Unified School District of De Pere as a Technology Training Specialist. Obviously, there was a lot of excitement in my mind because THAT is the type of work I want to be doing. Helping teachers help students. That means I get to work with and potentially impact more students! That is good.

However, there is always a downside. The old saying goes you can't please everybody. I've learned that lesson many times in my life, but still try my best to make everybody happy (because apparently I don't learn that well). I had to tell my colleagues that I was leaving. An old cooperating teacher once told me that everyone is replaceable, and I know it won't be long until I'm a distant memory. Or maybe not.

Upon receiving the official word and talking to my administrators, colleagues, and some students, I received an unbelievable outpouring of well-wishing, sadness at my leaving, and gratitude for things I might have done for them. You honestly never know the effect even the littlest actions have on others. I really don't take compliments well. I have no idea if I should smile or stay stoic, respond or stay quiet, sit up straight or hunch over, look at the person in the eyes or look down.  I cannot believe the sheer number of people who had nothing but amazing things to say about me. I had students tell me I was their best teachers (that I hadn't had for over a year).

Maybe it is a confidence issue, but I don't think I'm that great. I struggle to maximize class time. I can be a pushover when it comes to discipline. I'm probably too lenient on grading and assessment. I may not always explain things clearly. I struggle to set up engaging, relevant projects with multiple means to demonstrating learning.

But technology and I always meshed, and people counted on for me that. I have no idea how or why it happened, but I am always grateful for the opportunity to help others.

And that is what makes this so hard. I could never anticipate how much my colleagues respected and appreciated the little things I did for them. Being in three different buildings, I connected with nearly 100 educators.  A good amount of those I assisted with little tech things here or there, mostly simple questions, but sometimes big projects.  Many of them I can call friends. 

I've never had that before in my life. 

My family has always been great, but to this day, outside of the friends I have made in my time with the Denmark School District, I might have two friends I talk to, and that includes my wife. Now, I can say I have made many life-long friends through this endeavor.  Nothing will ever be like walking into school and working with people you love. That is so hard to find.  Then, to have those people love you back is really more than I can take. I've been on the verge of some kind of breakdown all week. It hasn't happened yet, but when the weight of my decision finally hits me, I'm not sure how I will react.

No more classroom.

Friends left behind.

Comfort zone gone.

To quote Jack Bauer, sometimes you don't know that you've made the right decision until everything plays out. On one hand, I LOVE what I will get to be doing. Working with teachers and helping them better integrate technology to increase engagement and reinforce important skills in today's society is such a strong passion of mine. I will get to affect the lives of many hundreds of students.  And I will be able to provide my full attention and concentration on learning the best tools and tactics for helping teachers of all levels achieve true tech integration.

On the other hand, I am leaving behind a situation where I got to affect hundreds of children, directly, in a classroom. I got to work with many colleagues and administrators who supported every crazy idea I had.  the relationships I built made working with people on tech related issues so much easier, because we all felt comfortable working with each other. I'd also formed some incredible awesome bonds with the students. I will never forgot being called Mr. Galuffy or Coach Bob. Ever.

After an emotional day, saying goodbye to 8th graders and colleagues for the summer (and possibly for quite a long time), I had an opportunity to unwind with those same colleagues and had an amazing night out.  I honestly didn't want the night to end, because that meant it was truly over. My time at Denmark has passed. I know the path to greatness is littered with pot holes, detours, and road blocks.  Who knows what the next move is, or what the right move is. All I can know is what I feel is best for me professionally and to make that decision for me. 

As I wrap up, I find it challenging to fight back the tears of joy and sadness as I reflect on my first three teaching years in a place I could really refer to as another family. There are so many great memories, so many great people, and so many great kids.  I feel like I'm letting them down by making this decision. We have to hold onto the fact that we are in this to help kids live better lives. We have to hold on to the fact that even though we don't get to work together every day, we still get to be friends. That doesn't ever have to change. So until we meet again, I will always remember every one of my colleagues fondly and hope that our time together didn't end today at Jimmy Seas listening to our band teacher colleague rip it up. 

But if it is, at least we can say we went out with some jazz!

This Has Got to Be The Good Life

Onerepublic sang that song.

If you aren't familiar with the song, you can listen to it here.

While I can't equate my experiences with those of the band, I can say that the last year or so in my teaching career has been a lot like that feeling.

Now, don't get me wrong - I have had my fair share of struggles, and have blogged about many of them. But sometimes I let all of those negatives cloud the fact that I am having the best time of my life. I know I've getting to be a better teacher. I know my students are learning some amazing things and practicing important skills.

I've been able to attend conferences, even present at them, and ultimately expand my skill set and my connections. Just this past weekend, I got to go to Chicago for a Google Mini-Conference put on my ICE in Illinois.  Not only that, but because they allowed me to present, I also get to attend with my wife. It was awesome! We even made a weekend of it.

Sure it was small, but it was also cool to connect with people in a small setting like that. I got to meet an amazing person Heidi who was helpful in trying to give me ideas for dinner downtown Chicago. She was an impressive individual and definitely put the pressure on me for my presentation. I think we could all learn a thing or two from her extensive living abroad experiences!

I got to catch up with the brilliant James Eichmiller - leader of an awesome Google Scripts training I attended back in the depths of winter. Somehow, I was recognized by another awesome individual, Nick Giacobbe, who I had never met before. Those twitter connections are truly something else. Plus, @richmanlobster was a pretty sweet story.

After that, my wife and I hung out in Chicago. You can't really get used to views like this...

Conference presentation notwithstanding - just the fact that my wife and I are blessed enough to afford a vacation to a major city is amazing. A day doesn't go by that I don't appreciate the opportunities I've been given and the breaks that have fallen my way. You walk through downtown Chicago and see all of the homeless people and your heart breaks. In reality, many people are not far from that. Sometimes we hardly realize how tenuous our existence is.

Ultimately, the point of this post is to celebrate where life has gone for me. I'm 26 years old. I am very happily married. We own a house. We have a fairly stable careers that match up and allow us to spend quality time together often.. I get to make an impact on the future of the world every single day. I get to be creative. I get to work with some brilliant people.  I live in a safe and somewhat prosperous area. I get to watch a lot of live baseball games.

I have two of the most adorable (albeit annoying) cats to every exist:

I try not to look to the future too much, as I have a tendency to worry about things way more than I should. A really wise book talks about worrying and how it really doesn't add to your life. It doesn't. It changes nothing. So with that, I am optimistic that things will continue to get better. But I have confidence they will, because not only do I have hard work on my side, but I've got one of the greatest support networks a man can have.

So, this really is the good life. It may not always be. It may get better. But for right now this seems like a good time to sit back and enjoy the ride.

That Feeling...

You know the one.

Nothing seems to be working. The kids are disinterested. The classroom environment feels negative. And worst of all, you can't tell if anybody is really learning anything.

The feeling of failing as a teacher.

In all my wisdom, I thought I had crafted a great class idea.  Once a week, students would investigate a career (the class is an 8th grade class about preparing for the future). The rest of the week, they would be involved in so called "challenges" which they would be in groups crafting creative presentations on various topics, from introspective personality assessments to career movie trailers, to acting out employability skills. With this group of students, I thought I had the perfect idea.

I was wrong.

I am "grading" two things - the individual career posts and the individual portions of the challenges. The first problem has been confusion - many students couldn't keep straight the Thursday career posts from the individual challenge portion from the rest of the week. As a result, I believe this caused students to "give up" and not use their class time, leading to a lot of missing work.

I've had 6 assignments with 19 students, meaning I should have roughly 120 things turned in. That number is less than 60.

Clearly I've made two mistakes. First - I've created assignments without student input, so they aren't invested. They don't care about them and therefore don't have a reason to go through it.  Secondly - I've created a strange pacing that makes little sense and takes students out of flow.

So we spoke today as a class about what is going on. Students were, for the most part, candid, with a few snarky comments in there from the more sarcastic "look at me" students.  They spoke of feeling very rushed, being confused, and having a tough time in the classroom environment with certain students. I also spoke of some of my frustrations and expectations. All in all, I think it was beneficial. I'm hoping the changes we implement will help the students see I care about them and their learning and their opinions.

It is such a fine line to walk. The shocking part of this all is that I stress, at the beginning, that students shouldn't have any homework if they use their classtime wisely. So why all the missing work? As I mentioned above, many students weren't working well, but why did I not do more to keep them on task? I can't "make" them do anything, but I feel like I let too much slide. Now with the amount most are behind, I consider a "catch-up" day. On one hand, I feel the humanity of me should let that happen. But the analytically (possibly cynical) side of me says I'd be sending the wrong message by doing that, indicating that wasting time equates to earning more time, which might in turn be wasted.

Ultimately, I have to find my inner pirate, super charge my class, and get students excited about learning. Maybe I need to find different ways to assess that aren't formal, typed up, turned in documents. I'm facing once again one of the greatest challenges I've faced this year. I'm hopeful I can rise up to it, despite the end of the year, despite the hole I've dug myself in. It is all about the learning and all about the students. This is for them. I need to do better by them.

(POSTNOTE:  Yes, I realize they need to take some responsibility too. But I need to do my due diligence for them and help them get out of their own way to value the learning. That is my job as a teacher. I already put a lot of them, making them responsible for finding most of the information and reporting to me.)

Who I am as An Educator - Guest Post for the Who I Am, What I Do Edublog

It still is a strange feeling to be sought out by another educator for comments about myself and my thoughts on education. It is happening more frequently, but I am definitely still too humble to really appreciate how cool that all is.  In any case, this post will be a guest post on the Who I Am, What I Do edublog started by Rory Gallagher (@EddieKayshun - love the pun!!).

So, who am I? This is probably one of the most asked questions in the world. However, it probably isn't always spoken. As humans, it is simply natural to be curious about our place in the world. As I approach a real foothold in my career and a solid spot in life, this answer is becoming clearer to me.

Simply - I am Josh, and have been for 26 years.  The story goes my dad wanted a J.R. (80's Dallas influence - love ya dad!) but my mom, always the smartest one in the family, wouldn't have that. So I ended up as Joshua Reuben. Yup, my dad still go the J.R. in there that sneaky guy. Kind of crazy that after hearing him called "Mr. Gauthier" for so many years, I now carry the title proudly (albeit, it is often Mr. G, Mr. Person, Mr. Galuffy, and a hundred other assortments I can't even remember. The imaginations on these kids is incredible). Oh, and I've lived my entire life in Wisconsin. I don't mind that.

I am smart. I don't mean for that to sound pretentious, but I've always been a good learner. School was pretty easy for me.  I did my homework, studied if I needed to, and earned mostly A's, with a few B's scattered in. The worst class in high school? Ceramics. I loved art, but I earned a C+. Couldn't handle having to do all my work in class. I would rather take it home. Definitely, I learned a lot from that experience. My love of art is coming back as I begin to appreciate the role of it in education. Being graded on art was tough for me as a Freshman in High school. College was a piece of cake as well. Sure, there were times I was challenged, but I was never seriously concerned of failing or doing poorly. I graduated with a GPA over 3.90, and finished in the Top 25 of my college graduating class of over 1000 students. An incredible honor - and to anybody who says GPA doesn't matter, it really mattered to me and it really improved my confidence heading out of college to receive that award.

I'm now so confident, I think I can pull off wearing a bow tie with a sweater vest! Bold man!

I am more persistent than I know.  Searching for jobs was fun. In looking back, my experience was probably less stressful and more successful than many in the tough post recession economy.  10 interviews and 35 applications until I finally hit the big time. Each interview was a new learning experience as I figured out what exactly it would take it help a school see that taking a chance on a kid straight out of college would be a great idea. Somehow, I was able to convey that message to the School District of Denmark (not the country, not the country!). Interestingly, that vote of confidence and the promise and potential they saw in me still sticks in my head. The chance they took on me was a gamble on their part, and I strive every day to provide way more value to our educational community than they ever thought possible. Maybe I'm an overachiever, but I don't believe education is something you can overachieve with. Anything less than perfection isn't good enough for our kids. I fail A LOT. But, I'm persistent, because one time somebody took a chance on me. Our kids deserve that too.

I struggle with my philosophy.  Twitter has opened doors, and has really opened my mind to an entire world of educational ideas and thoughts. Probably the most influential thoughts I've dealt with lately have to do with democratic schooling, gamification, flipped classrooms, and no homework. As a teacher of Business Education and Information Technology, most of my classes are so called "computer classes". In such, homework was never something I stressed because I knew there wasn't equal access.  Probably my biggest struggle right now, however, is this idea of the democratic school - where students choose their own learning path every day.  Trying to justify all the things I do or have done gets more difficult and trying every day. I believe typing skills are important; I believe knowing how to do certain things on a computer are important; however, the question I really need to ask is how can I help students get there on their own?

Here's me, clearly struggling with my philosophy of HOW THE HECK CAN I EAT THIS???

I love teaching.  I'm very fortunate in my school to have a lot of freedom in what I do. Helping other teachers is a big passion of mine, because I know I can help that many more kids if I can help teachers be a little better. I'm not sure how I think I can do that having only taught for three years, but I suppose I'm pretty good with technology, and I work at staying at the cutting edge, so teachers seem to like that about me.  I honestly never thought I'd love working with kids as much as I do. They are silly, crazy, frustrating, fun, enlightening, intelligent, irritating, and most of all, they are KIDS. If I can help they see what unconditional love looks like, help them see that learning can be fun, and help them see that school can be a great place to be, I think that is success. Who cares if they never quite get that using Ctrl + C after highlighting text is a really fast way to copy. Is that as important as creating students who love creating and learning new things that THEY are interested in?

I don't know the answer to that above question. However, I do truly believe that somewhere between a student's passion and my passion is a place where amazing connections can happen. Getting there is another story, but I'm Josh, and I'm a teacher, and if anybody can do it, I believe I can.

Oh, and I wear snowman hats.

Beyond the Boundaries

I am so blessed.

It is really difficult to express how lucky I have been in my first three years of teaching to have the opportunities to do many of the things I've done. Whether it be site visits, conferences, or license to try some crazy ideas, I've been well-supported by my district, administrators, and fellow teachers.

Students involved in a crazy idea....I think

In addition to the incredible support, I've also been pushed and pulled to become a better teacher. Opportunities have abounded for me to change up my style, pitch in on committees and projects, and teach at three different levels.  I know many other teachers also have had these opportunities, but I honestly look back at my first three years and see these as a blessing.

Today, I was lucky enough to share an experience with two colleagues (who, unfortunately, due to time constraints, I rarely, if ever, see).  This involved us heading down to Milwaukee to check out the happenings at the University School. Thanks to Twitter, I had connected with Michael Matera (@mrmatera) and Adam Moreno (@USMDrama), among others from that school. Eventually those relationships grew, and we discussed site visits. I decided I was done discussing - I wanted to see, in person, the innovation happening at this great school.

Pictured:  Innovation (Noisy, Active and Fun Learning!)

This was a huge step for me. I really don't consider myself that social, and struggle with initiating contact. But I felt strongly convicted to make this happen. Twitter broke down that barrier, and honestly, I believe it has changed me to be more assertive and put myself out there more (not to say I still have a long way to go, because I do!).

The day was awesome. We got a private presentation from gamification guru Michael Matera right off the bat. What a great privilege to be able to chat about his techniques, and why they work, and what the reasoning was, and where his thought process was to introduce it. In a large group presentation, like something we'd see at one of the many conferences Michael has/will be presenting at, we would never have that opportunity.  I am definitely looking forward to:  including more status in my gamification, including more story-line based challenges that weave into my curriculum, and MORE SIDEQUESTS!.

Then, Adam Moreno spoke with us about a few really exciting things that I'm ready to incorporate yesterday. The first were Keys to Purpose-Driven Learning. Essentially, these were employability skills that we've been talking about in my 8th grade class each time I've taught it. Well, they ASSESS students on these as one of their main assessment pieces. They take the focus so off of grades and content, and focus on the character traits that truly matter. I know I'm going to be trying very hard to implement more of that type of assessment coming up. I'm certainly convinced at the merits by what Adam and Michael had to say about it.

Adam also spoke about performance-based assessments - which means giving a great performance when presenting in class. This was a great reminder to me that presentations in class are really important, but also need to be treated with high expectations. There is nothing our students could possibly do in life that won't involve interacting with other humans.  Therefore, strong presentation skills, regardless of whether you consider yourself an introvert or extrovert is HUGELY important.

After this, we observed gamification in action.  Michael had a rumble going, which is basically a kind of mini review game. I loved watching the kids mix it up within the content area. So cool. They even got to play with blocks and legos to make their creations. Nothing cooler than serious play.

See - blocks and Legos. I wasn't joking!

After that, we recorded a podcast. You can listen to that here. In that, I learned more about one of the 6th grade science teachers and how she gamifies. She definitely is much stronger on the storyline, and would be where I'd like to put my energy. The challenge is figuring out how I make a great storyline that my partner teacher would also be willing to go along with. 

They fed us (how awesome is that?!?!?) and then we split up a bit. My colleague Brent got to enjoy some one on one with an 8th grade math teacher who has flipped his class, and noted it to be very beneficial. I was so excited for Brent to have this experience. I'm glad he and Melissa got a lot out of it.

I decided to go and check out the House of Tech in person. I had watched them present on WEMTA14, so I was really excited that I would already be in the building to witness what they are doing. They are SO impressive. Visit them sometime. It'll drive you crazy what their students are capable of. Now, we could probably hem and haw all day about demographic differences, private vs. public school, cash flow, etc, but in the end I know this to be true:  we have some really gifted students in a variety of areas, especially technology, who would LOVE to get experience, could offload a ton of tasks, and create new opportunities for us. We need to jump on this bandwagon. I'm glad to know Nikki Lucyk and the House of Tech team, and am comforted knowing they are in my corner as we pursue implementing something similar to that in our school.

Finally, we wrapped up talking maker spaces with Tom Mussoline (@tmussoline) and seeing his vision. The maker space/culture, as well as the student tech team, or definitely the next big fish on my list. Obviously I want to put a lot of passion and time and energy into my classes, but I also serve the higher purpose of creating a more positive school environment, and creating more relevant, engaging, and awesome experiences for students. House of Tech and Makerspace could make this happen for us!

All in all, this was an amazing day. Meeting members of my professional learning network is always excited, and it really makes me near emotional when they treat me like I'm an old friend. It is great to have such professional and personal connections beyond my boundaries, so that I am continually challenged and pushed to be better, to do better, and never lose focus on who matters most - the kids.

The Value of Fellowship

I'll preface this post by saying that I talk too much. It is not uncommon for me to take a 10 or 15 minute block of time during the day, find another teacher who doesn't have students, and chat them up until I have to race back to my class. No work done, no items marked off the checklist, and nothing new created.

But was it a waste of time? Some would say yes, but I say no.

Yesterday I attended #edcampec (Edcamp Eau Claire, WI). I was lucky enough to have some people come with me, including my wife, and normally that is what would make an event like that a success. But, thanks to Twitter and other events I have attended, they weren't the only people I know. I can't describe how great it felt to hear Joe Sanfellipo ask me how I was doing as he vigorously shook my hand, or the tweet Curt Rees sent me to help him with a tech issue.  Others throughout the day (Beth Lisowski, Jess Henze, Tom Whitford, Kaye Henrickson, and John Gunnell) I had also met, and they made me feel like I was an old friend, even though I've barely spoken to them face to face.

That kind of connection with educators is so powerful. It drives me to be better because I rarely feel worthy enough to have people that I respect so much treat me like I'm as awesome as they are.  I want to live up to that.

Listening and engaging in other conversations throughout the day continued to stretch and make me want to take on the world all over again. I can't say that I learned as much at this edcamp as others, BUT the connections and reconnections that I made were awesome and made it a truly amazing Saturday. To share that with my wife and brother in law and father in law was great. I hope they also go to see how amazing those types of connections are.

Confidence is pretty intangible. But whether it is the conversation with great educators outside my sphere, or the ones next door, I feel so much more energized after each time. I obviously want something constructive to come out of conversations, but building relationships with our colleagues is as important, in my opinion, as with students.  We have to feel comfortable to share with those we work with if we want to foster an environment of collaboration.

I'm not hugely social, but I understand how crucial these connections are, and the way they make me feel help me take on the enormous challenges we face as educators day after day.

So thanks to you that let me take up your time by letting me chat your ear off. You'll probably never know how much those conversations mean to me. And for everyone else - get out and talk to some people and be open to all conversations - you never know where the connections will lead. At the very least, you can share your excitement and concerns with someone who understands! The value of that can't be understated.

Make time to talk.