LIMIT YOUR INTAKE

3/17/2022 0 Comments

Bringing Back Joyful Learning

Perhaps more than ever, schools face a multitude of challenges in meeting the needs of the students they serve. The pandemic introduced a new set of protocols for classrooms to implement, along with the myriad of responsibilities already in place for classroom teachers. Considering these many expectations, it is easy for teachers to find themselves pouring all of their energies into managing their students and learning environments. In an effort to control variables, attention can become hyper focused on to-do lists, as well as tracking behaviors, shortcomings, and predetermined outcomes. We can lose sight of the individual student, and instead focus on collective performance and outcomes. In doing so, we slowly rob our students of ownership of their learning, self-discovery, and expression, thereby stunting the natural joy in learning. And, it isn’t only the student who experiences diminished joy in this environment, so does the teacher. The more external control and lack of autonomy students feel exerted upon them, the more disengagement, dependency, apathy, and lack of motivation they feel. A perfect storm for behavioral issues to appear.

A solution to this exists. A simple, natural, human-friendly solution; make students partners in their learning journey, and infuse natural elements of play and exploration in learning experiences. Turn over some of that control and responsibility to the learner, it is their journey after all. Allow them to devise ways to connect play, exploration, and experimentation to learning targets. Consider this quote by Susanne Leslie, “Play is not more important than science, literacy, physics, or math - it IS science, literacy, physics, and math. It is the FOUNDATION for learning.”

How do you incorporate play into your plans? What kinds of play and discovery opportunities are you opening for your students?

This post is part of a series about joyful learning. Friend and fellow ASCD Emerging Leader, Abby French wrote this post based on a conference session we presented together for Washington State ASCD and New Jersey ASCD Whole Child Institutes.

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3/3/2022 0 Comments

Cultivating Empathy: SEL in Action

I have the privilege of working with amazing teams of professional learning facilitators, teachers, AND students. I really do get the best of three worlds. From time to time I'll be writing posts for the Resonance Education Consulting blog. We are sharing pieces called called SEL in Action, a sharing of experiences from working with students and supporting the development of SEL skills in the classroom.

This is post was originally written for and posted on ResonanceEd.com/blog. To learn more about Resonance Education. Consulting and bringing sustainable social emotional learning systems to your school, click here.

Some of the most special moments we experience as teachers are when we watch our students live the skills we teach.

We’ve been digging into empathy this month in our newsletters and blog feed. This is because empathy is a complex concept to teach and there are many skills to model and practice. Supporting our young learners in developing their empathy skills is critical for their long-term development as well-rounded individuals.
When we are teaching, we may have social-emotional expectations of students that may not be met. Often what we witness are students struggling to work with each other. Why is that? It could be because we haven’t spent the time necessary teaching the skills needed to collaborate, empathize, and make responsible decisions. In my current school setting, we discovered when there is a struggle, it is necessary to slow down, back up, and teach some specific skills to develop the bigger picture competencies.
I have the good fortune of substitute teaching in a small multi-age group school. Some time each day is spent together in the whole group learning. This approach has pros and cons and can be a solid representation of social-emotional learning in action.
Sometimes though, we assume students at the ages of 10 or 11 automatically have the skills necessary to work with 5- and 6-year old students, because they are students themselves.
When students work together, they draw upon both inter- and intrapersonal skills. As such, we must be mindful that we are explicitly teaching those intrapersonal skills first. Primarily, patience, empathy, and perspective-taking.
Patience is an intrapersonal skill, meaning it’s a skill we learn to develop within ourselves. But how do you teach kids to be patient? What makes them impatient in the first place? Recently, when observing upper grade students work with lower grade students, there seemed to be a quick increase in level of impatience as the older students tried to read with their little buddies. We noted this frustration and realized we hadn’t prepared the upper level students to read with their younger counterparts.
We decided to slow the process and explicitly teach the skills needed when working with the younger students. We began by having students identify their intrapersonal strengths and then moved into strategies they could use to feel calm when their patience was thin. Students soon realized already familiar techniques such as breathing or pausing could be applied in this situation when experiencing frustration.
In addition to some quick patience-building techniques, we knew that we had to talk about empathy, another intrapersonal skill. We knew building a bank of strategies with the upper level students could help them understand how the younger students are at different developmental levels. Once we shared stories of “remember when you were five?” and brainstormed ideas around “what do we think we need to do to help someone is only five?”, Intentionally and explicitly naming the skills and allowing them to internalize the situation, provides the skills needed to effectively work with the younger students.
Finally, after a few weeks of explicitly focusing on and practicing some intrapersonal skills, we noticed the upper level students were more patient and empathetic towards their younger schoolmates. Were they 100% improved? Of course not - they are still learning themselves. The point is that was an improvement in the interactions during mixed-level activities. Students displayed patience and empathy through their ability to pause and listen, rather than showing their frustration with a younger student. When students practice the skills, they are better able to make caring, responsible decisions.
Time invested pays off longer term, but we have to continuously teach and reteach these skills throughout school years. If we do, our students are equipped for having positive relationships with others, and themselves.

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2/23/2022 0 Comments

Three Tips for Adopting a Minimalist Mindset

Christine and I were super excited when Naomi of Growing Minds Consulting asked us to write a guest post for her blog. Naomi's area of expertise is in in UDL in math and we have had some conversations about the cross-over we see in the principles of UDL and minimalism. This piece though, isn't in that lane yet (it's coming, we promise)! This piece showcases three tips that can get you started when adopting what might be a new mindset for you!

"Educators can make up to 1,500 decisions per day. Adopting a minimalist mindset in education means that we are working towards keeping our minds clutter-free. For our minds to remain in optimal problem-solving and decision-making shape, we must have some strategies in place for clearing out what’s irrelevant, to make way for the tasks in our proximal priority zone.
If you are someone who can easily and quickly navigate working through a list of tasks, keep tuned into what’s most important at the right times, and maintain a clear line of focus most of the time, you’re already on the right track. If you are someone who needs reminders and a consistent flow of ways to keep yourself sorted out, we’ve got some ideas for you."

Click here to read the full post with the three tips on Naomi's site.

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2/10/2022 0 Comments

Human Connection

I was a bit reluctant to click on an Uber Business blog post when I was doing a search for the benefits of working in-person versus remote.

I'm happy to report that the first item on their list of why returning to a workplace is important was what I hoped it was... for human connection. But the second point really caught me - optimal workspaces! Hello! Speaking my language!

There are studies that show both benefits to going to a workplace and working from home, but I wanted to focus in on the benefits of getting back out into live collaborations as I head into some starting this week.

I've spent the good part of this last couple of years in transition between countries, condos, and now home office spaces. I've finally got something set up that I think will help me stay as productive as possible. But... even having our designated workspace at home can mean there are some blurred lines.

This week I am looking forward to some in-person work time with teammate, Nicole. We have done all our collaborations online, much like Christine and I as we wrote our book and continue our work together, however this dedicated work time and separate space is going to bring our productivity to a new level, allowing us to reduce a list of items that we kept adding to in a shorter amount of time than when we work online.

We've got a lot to do, and I am confident that we will get our work lists sorted out, completed, and still get out to ... goat yoga.

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2/3/2022 0 Comments

Not all questions

300 questions. That’s how many questions a four-year old may ask in a single day according to some studies. How many questions do you think adults ask per day? We can be sure that it’s not 300. It’s not even 100, or 50. Some studies report that adults ask less than 20 questions per day. We can formulate some ideas for why this is.

As we gain knowledge and understanding we may start asking less questions, it would benefit us to start asking more.

Here’s why.
Good questions can help us clarify our purpose.

Not all questions are created equal, but they all have a purpose. Sometimes we ask questions to gather basic information needed to be able to get from A to B. Sometimes we ask questions for attention. And sometimes, we ask questions to gain clarity about something we are trying to learn, understand, and live.
Good questions create clarity and support understanding. When we have clarity, there is little room for confusion.
In practice: One of the most powerful questions we can ask ourselves and each other is: “What’s the purpose of this?” Answering this question with some ease means we are on track for our […] of success.

Inquiry cycles can help us broaden our perspective.

Inquiry cycles are a way for learners to formulate questions about what they wish to gain more insight into.
In an inquiry cycle, we can use question starters like ones created by Project Zero out of Harvard's Graduate School of Education. Using starters that differ from the way we would normally start a question can offer us a new perspective on what we are learning or insight into a problem we are solving. For example, we may often ask questions beginning with “Why did we…?” or “why are we…?” - more often that we realize. When we ask similar types of questions, we limit our responses. Asking ‘why’ in this way can also add a feeling of judgement. However, by shifting the language slightly, we can gain further insight into a different perspective by asking “What if we knew… about…?”
In practice: I’ve used these question starters with adults and younger learners, and I am always amazed at the questions asked and how those questions lead to such rich discussions.

The right questions can help us move past obstacles.

In her post about leadership and asking questions on Vistage.com, Beth Miller wrote that, “[G]reat leaders respond in a more value-adding way: by asking the right questions and helping the employee find the best solution themselves.”, rather than simply answering questions of employees. “Leaders, who lead by questioning, rather than needing to always be in control, will see improvements in many areas.” One of these areas? Problem solving.
In practice: Both when coaching adults and facilitating conversations with younger students, I ask what I think will be “the right” (and perhaps unexpected) question, that can help someone break through a barrier. I’ve asked young learners questions like: “What makes you say that?”, or “Can you tell me why you think that is true?” to uncover some ideas I wanted to learn more about. Alternatively, I have asked teachers, “What did the student say when you asked them about…?” I have found this to be a groundbreaker! The response I hear once I’ve asked that question… “I haven’t asked them.” Sometimes obstacles remain as such because we haven’t asked questions.

Spending more time intentionally inquiring about our tasks and challenges would yield more refined and targeted outcomes, allowing us to tackle obstacles and move forward with our individual and communal successes.

This is post was originally written for and posted on ResonanceEd.com/blog. To learn more about Resonance Education. Consulting and bringing sustainable social emotional learning systems to your school, click here.

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1/25/2022 0 Comments

Skill Transfer

Guest post by Nicole Dissinger

We learn so much during our years in school. We learn a variety of concepts from mathematics to writing, visual art, and science. When we think back on all that learning, how much of that has transferred to our everyday lives?

As a teacher I often think, what skills are my students taking with them into their daily lives? Do they use those communication skills we practiced when they are having an issue on the playground? Will they be able to transfer and apply their self-management skills between the science activity into their independent math activities?

Over my years of teaching, I’ve developed a clear understanding of the importance of teaching skills. I’ve learned that providing students opportunities to learn and practice skills is more valuable than just teaching them content. Communication, thinking, self-management, social, and research are some of the skills that students wil need tol use when when thinking critically and making decisions in order to solve problems.

A common belief arises from both my experience as a teacher and from experiences of other teachers around the world: these skills are essential in students becoming independent and responsible learners. So how do we shift our teaching practice to reflect our beliefs?

What do we want our students to be able to do? Simply understand place value and construct a proper sentence? Sure these are important skills, but these aren’t skills that apply to all aspects of their lives. Let’s think bigger. Do we believe that clear communication is important? Do we value clarity in expectations? Do we value using our time and space efficiently? Do we believe that relationships are a priority? If our answers are yes, we need to teach skills that translate from school life to daily life. These values guide the learning and classroom environment and teachers who model these values will see them reflected in their students.

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1/19/2022 0 Comments

Bookmark Bar

Do you have your favorite and most used sites saved in your Google search history, on a sheet, or bookmarked on your browser? Me too.

Have you tried to use a OneTab filter system so it looks like there’s only one browser open, but then found your baby (laptop) is running on high because those tabs are still actually running? Me too.

What I didn’t realize was that I could have all my most visited sites on my one browser, in plain site, and simplify how my bookmark looks, making it easier to use.

As you know, a bookmark bar isn’t the bar you go to to read books and drink a cocktail. It a place our eyes always land when we live in the land of computer work.

I can’t take credit for this trick. I did read it in someone’s tech tip blog a few months ago and partially implemented it right after I read it, and then tightened it up in the last couple of weeks.

Here’s what I’ve done to simplify what’s on my screen, yet give me the comfort of knowing it’s still there.

Go to Bookmark Manager.
Delete sites that aren’t in your top 10-15 most visited.
Reaaraange the bookmarked sites into rank order of importance.
Delete the name of the site.
Browser result = horizontal line of symbols of your most used sites.

As much as I love words, they cluttered up my bookmark bar. We use symbols for a reason, and all the sites I use have recognizable symbols that make it easy to know which site are listed in my bookmark bar.

That’s it. It’s an easy to implement system. And one you can tecah your family and students.

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1/13/2022 0 Comments

My "New" Approach

A new approach can look a lot of things. It depends on what you need, what your vision is, or how you want to feel. For me, it looks like a google sheet.

Over this last 12-14 months I’ve made some some attempts to get a handle workflows and projects that have now come to life. I started tracking a few things last spring, and was impressed with myself for sticking by the sheet systems, despite the mess it became by the end of the year.

What I decided to do, as always, was lean into my close network. They are awesome to help jog memories of things we’ve chatted about before, but maybe I wasn’t quite ready to dig into. They amazing at sharing ideas, and progress with their use over time. After having a look at some of our emails and texts, I began to do some synthesizing and I came up with what I think will be a sheet system that I can stick with.

Here are my two main sheets (with a potential third on the horizon), their tab names, and what’s inside:

2022 Content Planner.
- Tabs: Months. So far, I am only posting three tabs for quarter one. When I’m ready to plan into March, I’ll create the sheets for quarter two.
- Inside: This is where I am keeping track of all my content for emails sent to subscribers, blog posts, and social media ideas.
2022 Communications.
- Tabs: Numbers, Communications x 2, and Conferences.
- Inside: The Numbers tabs communicates to me all the numbers and logistics I want to track to look for trends. The Communications tabs are to track specific weekly outreach emails, and the Conferences tab is to track conference proposal submissions and communications received about submissions.

Setting these simple trackers up and using them right away, every day, has been helping me keep my thinking organized and ideas in one spot. Like any new habit, it’s taking me some practice and patience to stick to the plan, but I know that because I value flexibility in systems, I can always tweak what needs tweaking. Can’t wait to get this all set up in my reMarkable 2…

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1/5/2022 1 Comment

Tweaking Systems

Each year, January 1 rolls around, and I know that I will be seeing all these "New Year, New Me" ads and articles popping up. I look at them and may take a peek at what they are about, but I already know I am not making resolutions - again. Making resolutions is a very personal choice that needs to suit you, your lifestyle, and the place you are in at that moment in time.

I do like the feel of a fresh start, however, like a new set of Mr. Sketch smelly markers at the start of a new school year.

This year I evaluated a few of my systems and a few more of my “systems”, to determine where I needed to make some tweaks. I strongly believe in making changes when something is not efficient or valuable. This year, in the first week of 2022, I decided to make two significant tweaks. Well - one was a tweak and the other is a full system remodel.

The first change I made and has already proven to be successful is how I use my phone. No surprise that all my apps live in labeled folders. I knew I needed to do some deleting of unused apps and I also needed to figure out a more efficient way to sort the apps I check most frequently. So on my home screen, I created a folder called "Daily App Check". In that folder I have the 11 apps I check every day. I also put them in order of importance, so when I open that folder, I check my email first, then Voxer messages, and so on, and complete an app sweep in just a few minutes. After a couple hours of working, I will do another app sweep to check messages and socials again. Later in the day, I am not as mindful about the time spent app sweeping because I know I efficiently used my time during the day.

The second change I had to tackle was much larger of a brain tickle. I needed to choose how to track my writing. Essentially I needed to streamline a few of my thoughts and documents to get all bits in one place. Thank you Monica, for helping me out with that.

We can make changes any time we want, and I am happy with the ones I made this week. I hope the ones you have made have been good choices for you so far.

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12/22/2021 0 Comments

Adding means subtracting

Over the holiday, you may be adding a few things to your shelves, drawers, or countertops. All good! It's fun to give and receive during the holiday season, but because we often add more to our physical spaces during gift-giving season, it may be important to subtract something too.

Let's say you receive a new set of colored pens for your planner. Perhaps you go through your current set of pens to test that they work, toss the ones that don't, and consider if they still suit your needs. If they don't, perhaps you ask your pen-loving friends if they use that type you wish to discard, or send them off to a school for use.

Also, I know many of us will be adding books to our shelves this season. As you add those new treasures to your shelves, think about which ones you can trade, consign to the books shop, or donate to a school or library.

As you add to your collections, determining what you can subtract helps create a little more physical space, and you will side step having to clear clutter later.

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12/9/2021 0 Comments

Reflection on the Full Focus

I was introduced to the Full Focus Planner in early 2020 by my good friend, Monica Burns of ClassTechTips. I needed something to help me get all my lists, plans, and meeting notes in one place.

I have been using my FFP during goal-reviewing and setting at our quarterly Prime to S.H.I.N.E. meetings with great success. This practice has helped me move forward with several things I was getting stuck in.

But.... around the year-mark of using the original FFP, I found I needed to make some changes. I found I wasn't using all the pages I was originally because I had been able to feel some sense of automaticity with some routines - I suppose that means a goal was met!

I came to believe that the full Full Focus Planner has had it's place in my life and now I am downsizing to the mini.

The mini-planner still has the annual goal setting, goal detail and week-at-a glance, and notes pages at the back of the book. For right now, this feels more streamlined, less chunky, and a better use of pages at this moment in time. I have introduced the small notebooks into my note taking routine because I have several projects that I wanted to keep the note living in their own places. I'm going to try this for a quarter and see how we go. I have since found my Rocketbook, so I may shift again in the spring... we shall see!

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11/30/2021 0 Comments

EdTech space Essentials

I've had fun this year peeking into spaces, both live and virtually, of some of my dearest friends and esteemed fellow educators and consultants.

This week on her blog, my good friend, Monica Burns of ClassTechTips shared her workspace.

Here's how she breaks down her EdTech space:

"On My Desk"
- Computer accessories
- Raising her laptop
"Not on my Desk But Worth Mentioning"
- Hydration
- Other tools

I love how simple this sounds! Head over to her site to read the details and see the photos.

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11/23/2021 0 Comments

What Grateful means

Isn't this just so true?

Today Americans celebrate Thanksgiving - the kickoff to the holiday season. A season that can bring up many strong emotions for people. Many of us will experience joy, many will feel sadness and loss, and many many many people will be feeling the stress of entertaining, traveling, cooking and cleaning.

This holiday season, find happiness, joy and gratefulness with those you love and care about, first and foremost.

Spend time together.
Laugh and play games.
Eat some pie, sip some wine, and drink lots and lots of coffee.
Play outside.
Compliment each other.
Be present.
Do something for someone else.
Share your gratitude.

And that will bring you happiness.

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11/18/2021 0 Comments

Chatting with Sue

This morning, my co-author and I recorded a podcast episode with her friend and former colleague centered around our book, The Minimalist Teacher. The more we talk to people about this approach, the more realizations I have.

Realizations about...
... the takeaways that readers are experiencing,
... the need for this approach in education,
... and about me.

One of Sue's Takeaways:
Christine and I intentionally wrote the book so it didn't have to be read as a whole. The intention was for readers to read the chapter(s) that popped out to them, grab nuggets and role with them. In our chat with Sue, it was clear that she gravitated to one chapter in particular - decluttering instructional strategies and assessment. While it was completely satisfying to hear that our intention was achieved, the conversation we had about strategically choosing low-prep yet high leverage instructional practices that cross time, content, and grade level was exactly the thinking we hoped readers would consider and run with.

Needed Approach in the Field:
The book is called The Minimalist Teacher, yes, but it's written in a way that we hoped would pull in any educator, regardless of role. Our field is a volatile place and we are not seeing much being done to truly support teachers and giving them time and autonomy to focus on teaching, and keeping themselves well. The minimalist movement is about much more than decluttering closets and cupboards. It's a transformative process that can potentially change how educators feel about remaining in the field.

About Me:
After our last couple of conversations with folks for podcast recordings, I'm realizing more and more how much I really do rely on this way of thinking and living. It's a natural process for me to question and find the purpose of what I'm doing. There are definitely times when I lose site of my purpose and I have to reprioritize, but I am more aware now how helpful this really is.

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10/27/2021 0 Comments

Five Things a Day

This morning in a team meeting - somehow - we jumped into a short but meaningful chat about "things".

It's not a foreign idea for us to talk about things in our spaces, items we've collected, etc. I always get excited to hear about how people sort and organize their items and collections. But I love even more when people talk about how they up with ways to reduce the amount of things in their spaces.

Removing items can make us feel anxious when we think of this potentially time-consuming and emotionally-charged task.

I was super excited to hear how a teammate is implementing the "5 things" rule. Each day, she chooses five things to remove from her space - anything - as long as there are five things. She does this is a way to ensure she is successful AND instead of thinking of ALL: the things she wishes she could get rid of - that's too much to think about for anyone!

If you're looking for a solid entry point to minimalism at home, in the office, or classroom, this is a great one! You could even remove just ONE thing - it's the perfect starting point if you feel a bit weary about making these changes. And who knows, maybe you will influence someone else to join in the journey with you!

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Bringing Back Joyful Learning

Cultivating Empathy: SEL in Action

Three Tips for Adopting a Minimalist Mindset

Human Connection

Not all questions

Skill Transfer

Bookmark Bar

My "New" Approach

Tweaking Systems

Adding means subtracting

Reflection on the Full Focus

EdTech space Essentials

What Grateful means

Chatting with Sue

Five Things a Day

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