FIRST Hyper Doc Survey

This summer I was privileged to present a couple of sessions at the TCEA Elementary Technology Conference in Galveston, Texas.  While there, I attended a session on HyperDoc GameBoards presented by the amazing Lisa Highfill and Kelly Hilton of The HyperDoc Handbook. During their training we had a chance to start our own game board and I chose to do something towards the beginning of the year.  As a reading teacher, librarian, or interventionist, one of the most important things to do at the beginning of the year is find out your students' interests so that you can help them find books that interest them.  So I set off in an attempt to find some interactive ways for teachers to get feedback on students' reading interests, from favorite characters to favorite places to read.  Check out my VERY FIRST HyperDoc Game Board!

Click the link here: bit.ly/BackToSchoolHyperDocRS

Watch this Screencastify video explaining the different game pieces!

Now, if you'd like to use the document, you will want to create a few different links for each of the activities listed below:

Box 2: Using www.answergarden.com to collect student answers

Box 4: Create a Flipgrid code for your classroom (only my domains will work).

Box 7: Link a Google Slide for your students to create.  Feel free to copy and paste my example and instructions if you'd like.

Box 9: Create a free Padlet to see your students' reading hopes for the year.

If you have any questions, please feel to message me on Twitter or send me an email. 

Build Culture - Affirmation Stations

While attending EdCampCyfair I ventured into a session on building culture.  Truth be told, I was looking for ideas on building schoolwide culture but as edcamps go, the people who took ahold of the conversation were classroom teachers.  The discussion mostly hung around flexible seating but one teacher during the session mentioned "affirmation stations."  This was a new term to me so I spent most of the session on my laptop looking into the topic.  I stumbled upon this post here: Affirmation Station by Rebecca Malmquist.  It gives a great step-by-step process for incorporating this into classrooms.  

As a member of the campus leadership team, I thought about how I could take this back to my campus.  It all seemed to be perfect timing!  Valentine's Day was going to be the following month AND I head the Teacher/Student Acknowledgement Committee.  I ran the idea of an affirmation station to my fellow committee members and it went well for a few top reasons:

1) Low Cost

2) Easy Prep

3) Inclusive of EVERYONE!

1) Low Cost - We used regular, white, inexpensive envelopes.  You can get them from your local dollar store, use the school's supply, or I just used old envelopes I had saved from ordering postcards from Vista Print (and they were the PERFECT size for the die-cuts).  In essence, this project cost us NOTHING (but wait until you see the benefits below).

2) Easy prep - The committee divided the responsibilities up and conquered with limited time outside of their day.  My suggestions for dividing up the project:

•  People to decorate the wall (took 3 of us).  [Red butcher paper, some die-cut letters, and we hand wrote the staff names on the envelope.  If you have staff names on an Avery labels document, it saves even more time to just print those!]  
• We had 3 staff members designated to cut the hearts on the die-cut machine.  We stapled a gallon baggie to the end of the display and continued to fill up the bag when the supply was running low.  We also put a pack of pens inside the bag so people could use on-the-go when heating up their lunch or walking quickly through the lounge.
• We also used Outlook appointments to schedule a committee meet-up the day before Valentine's Day to ensure every staff member had at least 2 messages in their envelope and to take them off the wall and "deliver" the envelopes to their boxes.  To my amazement each staff member had at least 3-5 special messages and most had closer to 10, including our custodial and lunch staff!  

3) Inclusive of EVERYONE!  - Everyone on our staff list got an envelope.  At first, we were just going to label one larger envelope for the lunchroom staff and one larger envelope for the custodial staff, but we really wanted everyone to feel included.  Therefore, we hand wrote an envelope for every - single - staff member.  One of my very special Spanish-speaking friends even made sure to write messages in Spanish to all of our Spanish-only staff members.  How thoughtful is that?

As you can see, this simple idea ended up being a really great day for most everyone I talked to.  Want to hear more?  Check out some feedback I got from our staff:

Faculty Feedback:

So, if you're looking for an inexpensive way to create some positive vibes in your classroom, school, or other organization I would highly suggest an Affirmation Station!  It was a great experience for our group to both give and receive positive affirmations. I loved the warm feedback and the overall excitement of the week. 

Notes from SXSW EDU 2018

I was selected to receive a scholarship to attend the South by Southwest Education conference known as SXSW EDU.  Let me tell you. it won't be my last attendance!  This conference had all the swag that I could have imagined and the sessions were varied and extremely innovative.  Unfortunately, school was crazy busy (the week before spring break) so I was only able to visit on the 3rd day of the conference.  Nevertheless, I got some great content and wanted to share it on here as well.

First Session: EdTech That Connects: Expanding Student Networks w/ @juliaffreeland

• Currently we focus more on WHAT students know and leave WHO students know up to their own network.  This is where we perpetuate the opportunity gap.  
• 50% of jobs come through PERSONAL connections so if we aren't setting up those networks with students we aren't providing the structures needed to thrive.
• Mentorships are essential in providing students with upward mobility and connections needed for college and the workforce.

• Informal mentors are still disproportionate according to income level. However, formal mentors with connections into innovative fields (technology) are very minimal.

Informal Mentors (from the top): Extended Family, Any Nonfamily Member, Teacher, Friend of Family, Religious or Youth Group Leader, Coach)

"Lost Einsteins" = inventors and creators - Students in the top 5% of low-income schools have the same likelihood of being inventors/creators as middle-of-the-road students from middle to high-income families.  Students in low-income schools are often not exposed to much innovation.  

• Disrupted Technology - where companies work on more affordable technologies rather than innovating new technologies (Example: Sony and RCA - RCA and the transistor radio versus Sony trying to make cheaper, more affordable technology and thus the Walkman was born.  Who outlasted who?)

• 93% of Facebook users know each other (Facebook is a disrupting technology (low cost) for networking. However, even Mark Zuckerberg explained, Facebook is not good for BUILDING social networks.  Users don't often meet a tremendous amount of NEW people but they connect with people they already know. 
• Today, the national statistic for high school guidance counselors' case loads is 400:1 so there is a great need for mentoring programs.
• Industry-based mentorships are also not happening.
• "Weak Ties" Guest speakers spark relevance of their work (even in elementary). 
• "Strong Ties" Technology is NOT how to addresses strong ties that are needed to thrive in one's career.
• Younger primary students need brief interactions with LOTS of people and experiences but in secondary students need more focused mentors and experiences by interest.
• Similarities build TRUST - surface similarities - try a "me too" activity where you share something about you and others are able to say "Me too!"
• Regarding safety - some digital mentoring programs are available with avatars only - no personal pictures shared and digital background checks like you would coming into a school
• "The dark side of privacy is isolation."  Check out Danah Boyd and her keynote here.
• "Who You Know" is a book written by Freeland(s) coming out this summer.

Implications to My Work: 

• Increasing parent engagement and a mentoring program.  
• Having lots of people come visit students (in EnCore?) of all ages to set up relationships. 
• Rather than bring your kid to work day, bring work to the kids with meeting lots of adults who describe their jobs.
• Parent evening where they sign up to showcase their own professions and businesses. Business Fair or have students create their own business?
• Third grade Economics Fair?
• Reach out to the Cy-Fair community or even parents from other PTOs in more affluent schools.

Second Session: Podcast Meet-Up

• Try Zencaster for podcasting or Soundtrap for lots of different mediums
• Bring in community stories
• Have student/teacher ideas submitted with a Google forum
• Allow a 4 week to 2 month editing process (especially in the beginning)
• Organize by like topics for a semester at a time
• Have a team/club after school for doing podcasting
• Can put podcasts into a Google classroom or put links on a Google site

Implications and Ideas for My Work: 

• With NEW Texas ELAR TEKS focused on listening and speaking, have students podcast about listening and speaking for others
• Teachers record their first examples of listening and speaking experiences

Third Session (Workshop): Blending Leadership by Beth Holland and Reshan Richards

• What is the ACTUAL problem? Frame the problem, not the solution (We're so solution-oriented but time is needed to really look at roots of problems in school/business.)
• Ask yourself: 
• What are we trying to accomplish?  
• What change might we introduce?  
• How will we know that a change implemented well?
• How are we going to measure if something is helpful or harmful?
• Leaders do: (Save us) TIME and (help us share) TALENT
• Activity: Take a line on a paper.  Start from the beginning and talk about ALL the steps needed to reach the end.  (Example: Getting cash out of an ATM and then getting on an airplane.) GREAT way to identify the real issues of a problem.  Under the timeline have an emotional toll of each item.  Now, put into a context like PD, what do teachers hate about it?
• Leadership team and teachers: Do we REALLY believe every child can learn? (If not, what do we need to change so that all are on the same page?)
• Environmental needs of a productive school/work environment:
• Core values
• Time (safety net of time/not last minute)
• Planning (expectation of what's allowed/policies) and prepared for slowness
• Outcomes MUST meet the EFFORT teachers/staff put in.
• Nearpod - pre-assessment to get their voice and emotional state (or Padlet, Google form)
• DISRUPTUS - to generate outside the box thinking or creative problem-solving
• Put picture up on the screen (shopping cart) and state main purpose - "collect things to buy" but list ways to make this more effective (wheels, smaller, sections, thermal capabilities, bags included)
• Put picture up on screen (handcuffs) now find another problem to solve with these same utensils

• 100 hours challenge - What can you solve in 100 hours? What evidence will you have that you're successful?

• Leadership - How well can you SELL your solution?
• Storytelling
• Relate-ability
• Novelty
• Tension
• Fluency (Have to explain the problem on a 4th grade level)

Session Four: Statewide Vision of Transformation (TASA)

• As a new superintendent, met with board and his admin team to create a vision
• Vision - factory model, one size fits ALL
• 21st century skills
• Visioning document
• What we're for
• About children
• DEEP learning (TEKS are a mile wide but only an inch deep)
• Strategic Plan
• Profile of a learner
• Student generated and approved
• Student engagement
• NOT buying into state testing, leaving that out of it
• Time and energy on LEARNING
• STAAR is an "autopsy report" as the scores come too late to do anything about it that year
• Ask parents "What are your hopes and dreams for your child?" They never ever say "pass the state test."
• Parent and student focus groups, panels for input.
• When building culture, have a strategic NO to all other things besides the main goals of the current work.
• Program where teachers apply for model-teachers in student-centered curriculum. They didn't get extra pay but got 1:1 technology, new furniture, an instructional coach, and hours of PD for building lessons.
• Keep on a very narrow, steady pace. "You're setting up fertile soil for the future" not setting up quick fixes.

Implications to My Work:

• Coffee with the specialist
• Panels of students and parents to help build vision/culture of the school - focus groups too.
• Make a video of parents telling us their hopes and dreams for their children.

Thank you again to SXSW EDU for the opportunity to attend your conference. I deeply regret I could not attend all four days but as a current educator and practitioner, I just couldn't get away.

If you have any questions about the content I've posted please let me know. I'd be happy to help or direct you to the correct source.

Google Chrome Extension - Screencastify

Hey reader leaders!  I am busy building my presentations for #TALE2018 for the Texas Association of Literacy Educators this weekend and was adding in a small tutorial on Screencastify.  This Google Chrome extension is the perfect add-on for communicating information to your teams, teachers, parents, and students.  I know once you use it a bit you'll even be thinking of how to incorporate it into your daily personal life.

Check out my quick tutorial to add it here!

This tool is a screen and voice recorder.  You simply click the extension, begin recording, and can review anything on your screen.  It instantly saves to your Google Drive from there in its own folder.

Here are just a few ways I plan to use it this year:

• Review instructional specialist updates with my leadership team and grade level teams
• Review updated digital data walls
• Review data before coaching conversations in person
• Coaching teachers on effective guided reading or mini-lesson videos (I can pause model lesson videos and put in my teaching points)
• Teaching small tech tool integration (like Flipgrid and Seesaw)
• Communicating with staff members on how to use G-suite tools
• Training teachers how to film videos for STUDENTS to use Google Classroom, Flipgrid, or Seesaw
• Reviewing student work and writing samples
• Conferring with students on their work when I'm not available to meet with each of them
• Helping parents understand how to use our online tools

Do you use Screencastify?  I'd love to hear more ideas of how YOU incorporate it!

Thanks for reading!

Staying Connected over School Breaks

Hey friends, if you're anything like me, you LOVE your breaks away from work, but you continue to do what you do only at home (in your pajamas) because teaching/education is just in your blood.  You continue your Twitter chats, you continue to comb Instagram for the latest crafty ideas, and you still check that Target dollar spot weekly just so you don't miss anything else.  The truth is - you aren't alone.  Not only do all teachers find it hard to let that teaching gene go during the holidays, the students and families miss the regular day too.  

So I thought... 

How could I keep our school community connected over the holiday break and encourage students and families to read daily?  

From there I created the:

I modeled the program after the infamous Hurricane Harvey Book Club that was a hit sensation during the two-week period where Hurricane Harvey hit our area and closed our schools for two weeks.  I wanted something easy to do (because I knew if it was hard, I'd never see it through) and I wanted to reach the maximum number of families (students).  

Without further ado, here are the steps I took to create an easy 2-week read-aloud series featuring our teachers reading to students, posted on our social media outlet(s).

Step 1: Where Are the Parents?

I work in an elementary school, so parents are who we reach.  For middle and high schools, I'd recommend reflecting on where you'll reach students, since their technology access is a bit more sufficient.  We know most of our parents are on our Facebook page.  Therefore, we chose to post there.  We advertised a bit on our Twitter page, but I found this was harder to double post at this time.  (In 2018, I'm hoping to learn more about posting to multiple outlets with one click.)  Teachers may choose to connect with their students on Instagram (stories), Seesaw, Flipgrid, etc. but this year I wanted to build upon the work we've been doing on Facebook.

Step 2: Staff Sign Ups

Goal 1: My main goal was to include staff from every facet of the building - from the physical ed teachers, to the choir director, the paraprofessionals, administration, and even some district administrators.  My plan included tweeting out to the district and tagging members from the district and board to read to our students as well.  It really was as simple as reading a book and having someone else hold your cell phone.  I wanted to include as many teachers and staff members as I could so that students and parents could see how much they mean to us.

Goal 2: I wanted to showcase the different languages of our school community.  When I advertised the program I had two columns set up - one for English and one for a different language.  As many of our population speaks Spanish, especially many parents who attend our event, and participate on Facebook, I wanted to be as inclusive as possible.  

So I created a simple Google doc to organize our daily read-alouds and had the principal send to our entire school email group.  You can see my sample here: Sample!

Step 3: Recording Videos

Many of the teachers at our school videotaped themselves reading in front of their Promethean board with the live fire scene.  This was a really neat addition!  I used SnapChat to record my principal reading Twas the Night Before Christmas with reindeer ears, and I used my iPhone/iMove app to record my own personal video.  There's a multitude of ways to do it!  My favorite is definitely the first grade team who videoed each other on their cell phones so that they could show the reader and the pages.  When I self recorded the pages weren't as clear.  

  

Ms. Garza and Mrs. Ybarra were a huge reason why this program worked!  They got their entire team to read!  
Check them out on Twitter @msgarza1st and @MrsYbarra1st

Hint: I recorded my video during the break but I definitely recommend prerecording them during school hours and having all staff members just texting them to you.  Having an iPhone, I did a lot of Air Dropping with the teachers who had Apple.  That was nice!  Having the videos on your cell phone makes it much easier to upload to a Facebook post.

Step 4: Posting the Videos

What I learned: 

• Set an alarm on your cell phone to remind you!  You may have teachers post their own videos, but a friendly text that morning (I did at 12:00PM) will make sure they have enough time to get it done if they're running behind.  
• Make sure all staff members have your cell phone number in case things aren't loading properly or they are having trouble.
• Again, I found it easier just to have all the videos on my phone and to share on my own since I'm an administrator for our school Facebook page.  If you're going to operate from a Facebook Business page, ask for admin rights from your school.  They can always take you off after the program.  
• Caution: This does take a daily responsibility during a break.  However, I found it to be very minimal and the parent feedback, daily, was really exciting to see!

Next Time/Next Year: Rather than have teachers and staff members read their books only, I'd like to encourage our students to read just as often and post their videos.  I might even have some of our student council members or student leaders record themselves before the break.   

I'm also hoping to do this program over Spring Break and even during the SUMMER!  What a feat that might be (probably just a once-a-week posting).  

I'd also like to post a link to some related activities - maybe from Pinterest - that parents and families could do after listening to the stories.  Perhaps the teachers could add these to their videos if it's their second time to participate.

The bottom line is: Our students were exposed to their favorite teachers reading...just a few minutes out of the day but my hope is that some of our students saw a friendly face and felt encouraged to read on their own.  Perhaps a parent or two saw the post and read to their child that day, or even that night as the child(ren) went to bed.  

We never know how far our impact is on social media.  However, I know that a teacher reading his/her favorite book far outweighs many of the other things posted on the internet over our two-week break.  I hope our parents and community feel how much we value them and how much we value literacy.  

How do you see this working on your campus?  How can you make it better?  I'd love your feedback in the comments below!

Meet Me!

Hi everyone! Welcome to my 2018 blog, Leading Literacy and Learning.  My intentions are to share strategies and activities to lead literacy initiatives on your campus or in your district. 

Join me daily over on my social media accounts:

Instragram: BrandysBookWorld 

Twitter: @ReaderLeaderBSA

Education:  I earned my Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Students (Elementary Education) from the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas in 2006.  I earned my Masters of Education Administration with a specialization in Education Policy and Planning from the University of Texas at Austin in 2015.  I did my principal certification program through Region IV, Inspire Texas in 2017.

Background: I taught for 7 years in an elementary school in Northwest Houston.  During that time I taught 2nd and 3rd grade.  I then worked for a small time at the Texas Public Policy Foundation in the Education Policy office and attended the University of Texas at Austin as a full-time graduate student.   Upon graduation, I moved back to the Houston area and began my work as a Literacy Specialist for 2 years.  I am currently an Instructional Specialist for the ELA department for an elementary school in Cypress, Texas.

Conferences I Have Presented At: 

• Harris County Department of Education Early Childhood Conference (2017, 2018)
• Technology and Curriculum Conference of Aldine (2012, 2017)
• Texas Association of Literacy Education (2018)

Hobbies: My hobbies include reading voraciously, writing, traveling the world, helping others attain their dreams, sports, music, movies, and spending time with friends and family.