Teach Like A Pirate – T.R.U.E. G.R.I.T.

Domain 1: Planning and Preparation, Domain 2: Classroom Environment, Domain 3: Instruction, Domain 4: Professional Responsibilities, Personal Learning

Hidden Faces Behind Innovation

March 21, 2018March 21, 2018 nankr1120

Innovation is magical! It is the face of change! As George Couros , author of Innovator’s Mindset would say, “An opportunity to do something AMAZING!” It comes in many forms and around many bends in life. Do you see it? Do you hear it? I do!

Where are you looking when you are trying to make change? When you are trying to move forward in an EDUworld that thrives on comfort and consistency. Sometimes it is hidden in the conversations I have with my own children. Other times it is hidden in a sidebar conversation with friends. Often, it is there… hidden behind the faces right in front of me. The question is am I looking?

Look right into the eyes of a child… and like a switch that flips, your ears will perk up to the words they are speaking.

Did you ever notice that eyes sparkle and dance when change is for the better? I love to see dancing in my children’s eyes.

My 15 year old son Trent sat down with me to have small talk. That talk ended up changing everything for me as a mom and an educator. “Mom, I love Mrs. Steff.” (His former ELA teacher in Junior High). I said, “Wow, that is pretty awesome… tell me why?” He went on to tell me she fought for him (tears as I type). When he wasn’t interested in the required readings she had given, she did everything in her power to open up the rubric so that he could connect to his passions of fishing and the outdoors. It was a game changer. His attitude towards work looked different. He was enjoying the game of learning. Yes, this is powerful! Change for the better… behind the scenes, yet not forgotten by my son.

My 11 year old son Jack said, “Mom, I love Mrs. Shadish (His former 5th grade teacher).” “I see that Jack… tell me why?” He went on to tell me “she got him.” She understood what made him tick. He needed to move about the room and she let him. He needed to be trusted and she did. He needed options and she was willing to make this happen. She built a relationship with him that fostered learning. His growth was outstanding. He went from proficient to advanced in his area of “weakness” on the state assessment. The response that came from him when he received his scores shattered my heart… “See mom, I’m not dumb.” Mind you he is an intelligent little guy that qualified for gifted and special education (for a “thought to be” learning disability in reading) all in the same evaluation.

We are creating our own legacy with the children we share our lives with… yes, sharing our lives! Making a lifetime impact that gives a child reason to believe in themselves and in learning. Innovator’s make this happen every day. As Dave Burgess, author of Teach Like A Pirate and President of DBC, INC, would say… “hook them”

How do innovators make this happen? They…

Build Relationships
Dig Deeper
Trust and gift it
Are Passionate
Create Experiences
Empower
“Sell Dreams, not products“, as Steve Jobs’ said.

What hidden faces can you bring to the forefront so others can be inspired? Here are a few magical innovator’s that have impacted my life and the life of my students:

Jason McKenna– ‎Director of Educational Strategy – ‎Robomatter
Dr. Sam Fecich– Professor at Grove City College
Elizabeth Merce– Kindergarten Teacher

Spread the wealth… Share this post and tag a few hidden faces of innovation that have inspired you!

Domain 4: Professional Responsibilities

Be the Million Dollar Decision

January 16, 2018January 16, 2018 nankr1120

I remember my hiring day vividly. Jubilation for me and feelings of betrayal to the small community that did not get the teacher they had hoped for… the one that they nurtured through the district as a child, the one that learned from them, tackled hours in the classrooms with them, and was hand picked to complete a long term sub position that very spring. I was the new girl in town. The unknown. The crazy redhead ready to take on the world with one very big smile. The one who wore a pale pink suit with matching shoes to my interview to stand out from the traditional black. The one who didn’t know a single teacher to lean on or to have a glimmer into the mindset of a school not yet connected to technology.

I was not from the district… not from the county. This was NOT common practice. I was the Junie B. Jones, the Clementine, the Outsider.

Fast forward to 2016… the hiring process was about to begin and the buzz among the teachers was intense. Each had their own connections and experiences with whom they felt would best serve…

Ummmm…

well that is where I stop and question. Best serve… who?

students?

or them as teachers?

See the perfect sub kept the ball rolling. The perfect sub completed the task left by the teacher. The perfect sub kept children quiet and out of trouble. The perfect sub was compliant and maintained perfectly compliant learners. So what’s wrong with that? Who wouldn’t want to return from an absence to the work completed and no behavioral reports?

I was with several of my colleagues when an intense discussion unfolded… one that included our then new Assistant Superintendent Dr. Jacie Maslyk. Teachers started asking about the possible new hires and with all due respect Jacie just listened and did not comment. Then one teacher decided to throw out their pitch to have a particular substitute hired, which then opened the door to other names of “future ready colleagues”. This is when it happened…

With confidence like no other, without hesitation and very matter of fact, Jacie said,

“You need to understand that every hire is a Million Dollar Decision!”

Mic Drop! or was that a pin?

Silence settled over the room. Their eyes told a story. Were they thinking what I was thinking? Were they wondering the same thing as me in that very moment?

I sat there wondering, after 21 years of teaching… if I were interviewed today… WOULD I BE THE MILLION DOLLAR DECISION? I immediately knew the answer… NO! I was sick to my stomach. What had happened to me? Why wasn’t I good enough anymore? (This was not a pity party… this was legit!) More importantly, what on earth was I going to do to be BETTER?

PERSONAL CALL TO ACTION! I believe You must DO BETTER to BE BETTER! (spin on Maya Angelou) Where would I start? Who do I ask?

I started in-house by taking Jacie up on whatever she had to offer. Summer PD, opportunity to visit other classrooms, visit other schools, be a part of a team of teachers within the county striving for innovation, reading her book STEAMMakers, and yes, I joined twitter as Jacie had challenged each of us to do.

Now find time. I hadn’t read a book in years! GOALS! I was going to read this book… her book! I became engaged in the material… the words were jumping off the page because they reminded me of my childhood… I was a maker, as all children should be. My game changer with that book came when I was looking for a bookmark. I glanced at a dollar bill that I had laying on the table next to me. That was it… The Million Dollar Moment! I quickly snatched it up, folded in in half, and placed it in the book. That dollar became my reminder. My incentive. My mirror… if I were interviewed today, would I be the Million Dollar Decision?

I wasn’t in that moment, but I was determined to be.

Joining Twitter: CLICK HERE to connect with me

Why was joining twitter the biggest game changer? Well for one, I was as good as I was nurtured to be within my district, and this one is on me. (I own it because I was waiting for others to impact my learning when I could have been empowering myself all along to be better). I always took on new initiatives, I always volunteered, and I always tried new things. So why wasn’t this enough?

Simple… there was SO MUCH MORE OUT THERE! Twitter gave me a connection to discussion on NEW topics, opportunities to connect with others that opened doors to my learning, EdCamps galore, and an array of conferences that would fit me. Twitter helped me build relationships. These relationships opened my eyes to new ways that I could learn by reading life changing books such as Innovator’s Mindset by George Couros, Teach Like A Pirate by Dave Burgess, EMPOWER by A.J. Juliani and Jon Spencer, and so many more. It gave me a chance to find EDUrelevance behind SnapChat by creating BookSnaps with Tara Martin. It encouraged me to join learning platforms such as IMMOOC, DitchSUMMIT, and personal Voxer Chats with an array of educators. Twitter connected me with society… entrepreneurs, universities, and businesses.

My journey over the last year and a half has set me on the right path… the one that takes me from hire to retire. The one that helped me point my EDUcompass in the right direction.

Do you want to be the MILLION DOLLAR DECISION for your students? What questions are you asking yourself to fulfill that vision, that goal, that EDUresponsibility? After inquiring as to what questions may come into play with hiring today, I was left struck by the following:

How do you use technology to enhance your instruction? Not add to instruction, but infuse. Not what YOU use it to instruct, but how your STUDENTS use it to create.
How do you collaborate with others… beyond the four walls of your building?
What is your digital-footprint? If your name was googled what would the world find? What would it tell the world about you as a person and educator?
What are you reading? How has it impacted you? your teaching?

I was hired by the Hopewell Area School District on a beautiful sun shiny day in 1997. Why did I get hired? I believe on that day, I was the Million Dollar Decision.

Today, I am ready for another interview, are you?

Domain 1: Planning and Preparation, Domain 3: Instruction, Domain 4: Professional Responsibilities

Creating Change Agents

November 28, 2017December 31, 2017 nankr1120

Most often people choose teaching as a profession because they want to create change… change for the better! Some will even tell you that their own experience was so negative they felt compelled to become “the change” that children need in the classroom.

Do you feel our children deserve more… do they need more? If so the question is… are we delivering instruction in a way that will create this opportunity?

I often wonder why so many graduates are cramming for interviews. Literally, I have witnessed interviewees grab hold of books such as Innovator’s Mindset (George Couros), Teach Like A Pirate (Dave Burgess) and STEAMMakers (Jacie Maslyk) right before interviews in order to gain the edge on hiring.

Why are they cramming?

Do you feel our future teachers continue to prepare the same way as teachers did 5… 10… even 50+ years ago? Are we helping to create change or are we still teaching and learning in a way that is no longer relevant in today’s society?

If we are given the opportunity to create change in education why wait until teachers are graduated and in the trenches to fire them up with incredible learning opportunities?

Let’s look at what current educators are doing to move the world of education forward and in turn pass this practice down to our future educators.

Let’s connect with future teachers.

Let’s make change.

Dave and Shelley Burgess of Dave Burgess Consulting Inc. have gifted education with a platform that works as a springboard for innovative teaching. Are these revolutionary resources accessible to every college student preparing to be a teacher?

If not, we must ask ourselves a very important question… Why are we preparing our future with the same mindset we are trying to alter?

Are we creating experiences for our students? Are we still using the traditional checklist that no longer reflects the future of our students or better yet the future of the work force!?

What is guiding our future teaching practices?

In my opinion, you cannot advance a student’s depth of knowledge with a five day death march of a story that was taken from the required/chosen anthology.

Has anyone asked their students? Do students really want to read the same story over and over for mastery? Mastery of what? Who needs skill when you can memorize the central idea of a story by reading and rereading day after day?

Don’t get me wrong, we are all in tune with Bloom’s Taxonomy and how to embed higher level thinking into the traditional way of learning, but that is simply not good enough anymore! Our children deserve more… they need more and we must deliver our instruction differently to serve them the best possible way. Our children need to be engaged in their learning where by they are empowered to move their education forward by choice and not through compliance.

It is not a free for all… there is accountability for all of us. There is definitely a place and purpose for philosophy, domains, and pedagogy. But who ever said that it had to come from the same mindset and discipline that was used all those years ago. We must have accountability to change with the times! As George Couros of Innovator’s Mindset so eloquently states,

“Change is an opportunity to do something AMAZING!”

Over the last two school years, I have had the privilege of being a virtual cooperating teacher for future educators of Grove City College in Grove City, Pennsylvania. Education majors are required to take a technology course their freshman year. One of the professors is Dr. Sam Fecich and she is a change agent! She is connecting our future teachers to classrooms while instilling skills for both the future leaders in education as well as the current classroom teacher. Her students are building their PLN (Professional Learning Network) on twitter and engaging in meaningful learning with a variety of resources including books posted above. Dr. Sam, along with the education department of GCC, is making change in current practice… investing in our future!

If we really want to educate future teachers to be AMAZING CHANGE AGENTS we need to communicate at all levels. Colleges, universities, public and private school systems, along with the community and work force… we must sit down at the same table and break bread together. We need to share in the same meal, prepared by the same hands, and with immense compassion and understanding have the conversation that WE share in the responsibility to MAKE CHANGE FOR THE BETTER!

Why?

Because…

When you know better, you do better!

Domain 1: Planning and Preparation, Domain 3: Instruction

Don’t Agree With Me! it stunts my growth

November 10, 2017December 31, 2017 nankr1120

My growth mindset is perpetually developing to the point that it becomes a relentless voice in my head. I find myself rereading books and blogs, buying more books, listening intently to keynotes and conversations, and connecting with others outside my experience. Still, I sit wondering about the unknown. The unknown that creates an excitement of learning something new!

The excitement is what intrigues me about

others,

teaching,

students,

LIFE!

A growth mindset requires thinking beyond isolation. Collaborating is essential… if done correctly. It is not a matter of grouping a handful of people together and assuming there is balance. It takes action. Action on the part of those facilitating and those collaborating. Empowering the collaborators to bring their game… contribute, listen, question, and create.

col·lab·o·ra·tion
[kəˌlabəˈrāSH(ə)n]

NOUN
the action of working with someone to produce or create something:

So when others agree with me, I cringe. Not so much if it is a give and take conversation, but more so when I throw an idea out and it is jumped on without hesitation. Taken and run with as if there is no room to grow.

It is simply a thought… an idea… a lightbulb moment! It is one raindrop in a very big puddle. One small fish and in a very big sea. One crayon in the Ultimate 152 Pack! So why are we just going with it? Let’s create a rainbow of colors. Let’s create a collage of ideas!

This is where my frustration gets the best of me. Where I shut down and don’t want to give. Not because I am the educational hoarder that must sign my name to every idea so that others give me credit, or worse yet don’t get to use at all (Not that I have ever been around that type… sigh). Oh no, I am the giver of ideas. I want to make things happen together. I want others to toss their idea into the ring, grab my hand, and take me along for the ride! I want to create life changing experiences together!

As Dave Burgess, author of Teach Like A Pirate, would say,

“I want to bring it!”

I am an idea generator. My mind accumulates ideas faster than I can write them down. I am not the best refiner by nature. Execution of plans becomes a hot mess of moments that fall apart if I don’t stay on top of my game. I NEED OTHERS! I need balance and I NEED GROWTH!

Bottom line is…

Our classrooms are no different. We need to remember that we have all types of learners and they all need to grow. There are the idea generators, the makers and creators, the refiners, and the executors. Collaborating is at the forefront because it creates a better overall learner. Collaboration isn’t about one type of learner tossing an idea into the ring and the group takes off without feedback, discussion, and questioning. Students would have little success being wrapped up in an isolated idea that simply needs more!

I am a student.

We are all students.

We need one another to grow!

Domain 1: Planning and Preparation, Domain 4: Professional Responsibilities

Your Passion is Your Power: The Impact of Dave Burgess #tlap

October 28, 2017December 31, 2017 nankr1120

When one hears that Dave Burgess, New York Times Best Selling author of Teach Like a Pirate, is coming to your hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (#KDPconvo17), the only possible option is: BE THERE! There is absolutely no option 2… simply stated. #tlap

I immediately felt the fire burning inside me… the burning that told me my life as an educator would never be the same. The one that told me if I was actually going to go and see this amazing keynote, that I was now signing on to the Dave Burgess commitment to “create an experience” for every child, every day! “A contract”, in my eyes, to be 100% committed to this “life changing business” as Dave so eloquently calls it.

Well, I’m there! I’m committed! Bring it on Pirate!

To be so bold and make a statement about the power of Dave Burgess seems almost impossible… close to unnatural or maybe better said as not worthy of me to do. To possibly sum up the impact that he had on me, let alone the hundreds of educators in one room, once again feels close to impossible.

But let me give it all I have and lay it out there in a way that you may just be able to wrap your head around his amazing influence on my life.

“The most powerful force on earth is the human soul on fire” -unknown

If you did not see into Dave Burgess’s soul when he “spoke” (a mile a minute might I add) well, you simply did not have a heartbeat. If you did not laugh, feel a slight tinge of embarrassment, want to jump up and say “AMEN”, or for some like myself… cry, you were not present emotionally.

My face literally hurt from smiling 90 minutes straight. My heart beat 1,000 beats/minute… I forgot there was anyone else in the room. I was convinced he was speaking only to me! Like a preacher, preaching to his congregation, I was a believer! His passion behind every word was his power!

WOW, isn’t that how our students should feel? Do I do that for my students? #impact

Dave tossed up shocking posters for us to view. Did it have an impact, YES!

He put humor around every bend… did it work? Yes, it did!

Dave NEVER stopped moving… did it keep my eyes on him? Yes!

Did he bring energy to the room? YES!

Were his words of wisdom practical so that every single educator could walk away feeling empowered to make a difference? YES!

He continued to tease us with hooks left and right. Did it work, YES!

Did Dave “PIMP HIS LESSON”? YES!

“We are in a life changing business” –Dave Burgess

“You need to make life-changing lessons” –Dave Burgess

Dave Burgess gifted me an experience. He took 90 minutes and created feelings inside of me that left me with wanting more… yes, after a full day of work, and sitting through 2 hours of professional development, all I wanted was more…

More time with my students!

More opportunities to create experiences!

More moments to change lives!

More opportunities to “preheat my grill!”

More everything! Twenty-one years into education and all I want is MORE TIME TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE! I want to be the teacher that “could sell tickets to my lesson!”

Dave Burgess made a difference in me… in many. He paid forward a gift to every child through creating an experience for every educator in the room! #grateful

“At some point in your career you have to decide if you care more about teaching to tests or teaching kids. My decision was made a long time ago. I teach kids.”
― Dave Burgess, Teach Like a PIRATE: Increase Student Engagement, Boost Your Creativity, and Transform Your Life as an Educator

#WeTeachKids

Domain 4: Professional Responsibilities

#IMMOOC Week 5+: When You Know Better… You Do Better

October 28, 2017December 31, 2017 nankr1120

When you know better, do you actually do better? Or do you tell yourself that somehow, some way you have been given this gift that supersedes all knowledge and experience of others in your path? Who is it that you imagine will show you a better way? Is that person older, wiser with age or experience? Are they new to the scene? Do you have an image of better in your mind whereby all others are unable to get in?

Do you allow all creators of “better” into your world?

Do you let others break you down?

Better yet, are you willing to break yourself down in order to build a better you? To repair with gold or silver knowledge and experience.

I look back at the last year of my life and I sit in awe! The people that have come into my life are absolutely remarkable! Let me rephrase… the people I opened my life up to are remarkable! Professionally, I have connected with over 700 other educators through twitter alone. But let’s get real, they weren’t knocking down my door… I was pounding on theirs! I wanted more! I wanted better! I needed them in order to find the better me!

I have read over 10 books affiliated with education in one year. May not seem like a lot to an avid reader, but for me, 10 books is like producing, filming and starring in my own movie! It takes time!

That wasn’t enough though… I have built an in-house PD platform for colleagues to borrow books from me. I am leading my first book study on #tlap in 10 short days for my district. This study will once again connect me with educators to help create the gold glue of knowledge that fills my better person.

I took the leap from lurker to full fledge #IMMOOC member with leading educator in innovation and author of Innovator’s Mindset George Couros! I have read, reread, chatted, tweeted, blogged, and found myself in passionate conversations about this life-changing experience. I have colleagues that have turned into friends… ones that have pushed me to push myself.

“Get R.E.A.L. … tell your Kristen Nan story!”, said Tara Martin

This gave me the desire to look for conferences that could connect me to my #IMMOOC #tlap family. Which takes me to the most incredible, powerful, unforgettable, “better me” transformation I could have asked for… yes, my last 2 unforgettable days with New York’s Time’s best-selling author of Teach Like A Pirate, DAVE BURGESS!

Let me tell you about this POWERFUL experience…

in my next blog! #hooks