OK, overload!

I am feeling the pinch of time as the new school year approaches, Parent Orientation is coming up, and the Summer Learning Series (#SummerLS) is winding down(this is week 8) even though I am still on Week 6!

Overwhelmed! Breathe, breathe….big sigh. I'm better. After traveling to some required training tomorrow I am sure I will have a renewed spirit to accomplish my summer goals and successfully prepare for the school year.

Hopefully, a calmer ME will return next post.

PLN: eLearning Take-aways

My eLearning course is coming to an end, and it is a little nerve-racking because I am going to be on my own to continue learning and growing my PLN. However, the awesome group of educators I've communicated with over the past 6 weeks have given me ideas and confidence to forge ahead. I thank each and everyone of them for allowing me to look over their shoulders.

My take-aways from this course have to include podcasting using Audioboo. This tool has impacted me the most because I immediately saw quick and easy ways to fit it into communications with faculty and parents. I have been given the duty of keeping our school webpage up-to-date so I hope adding podcasts will quickly become a habit for me.

Another take-away is to keep blogging. I started my blog last year after attending an AETC session in Birmingham led by Dr. Frank Buck (@DrFrankBuck on Twitter and http://www.frankbuck.org/blog/) but as the school year started the blog slid off my To-Do list to make room for activities I felt were more important. Now I realize I must take time to reflect on events, activities, strategies, etc. and I do this best when I write. I have published several posts this summer--both professional and personal matters--to represent time spent away from school. It has been inspiring to tweet links to my blog and get feedback from my extended PLN.

MY PLN has grown from being just my faculty and admin team plus a few educators I followed on Twitter to now over 100 I'm following and 50 that are following me. More than this, the information I have gained has grown exponentially. I plan to continue growing my learning network by blogging about relevant education issues and then tweeting the links to targeted audiences using hashtags. I have found more people to follow by doing this and they follow me, too. I hope to contribute to encourage my principal to use these tools as she sees my tweets, podcasts, and blog entries.

For my course mates, here is my action plan for using 2.0 tools this year in school:

GENERAL INFORMATION
1. Name of Organization: Kitty Stone Elementary
2. Project Title: Growing & Modeling My PLN
3. Project Location: Jacksonville, AL
4. Contact Person: Rhonda Tinker
5. Contact Information: 115 College Street SW, Jacksonville, AL 256-782-5191
rtinker@jcsboe.org
6. Project Timeline: 2014-15 school year
7. Amount Required: None
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Provide a brief overview and summary of the project. It should provide a credible statement that describes your organization and establish the significance of the project
In my elementary school of approximately 825 students, communication is not always clear or timely in nature. The faculty has assumed our communications to stakeholders are adequate but through this eLearning course I have realized we fall short of communicating in the preferred ways of our parents/families. Using Web 2.0 tools will allow families and community to get information in a much more timely fashion.
PROBLEM STATEMENT:
State the challenges identified, the rationale/need to address these challenges and the conditions to be changed by the project
The main challenge of this project will be my dedication to continue using these 2.0 tools in a variety of communications. Since these tools are still relatively new to me I must remain diligent so I will not fall back on more familiar, comfortable means of communicating. By modeling podcasts, tweets, and blog posts in my communications with teachers I hope to change their methods of communicating with students and parents.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES:
The objectives should describe the intended outcome of the project and should be SMART (Simple, Measurable, Accurate, Realistic and Time Bound)
During the 2014-15 school year I will use Web 2.0 tools, podcasting, tweeting, and blogging to communicate with teachers, students, and parents. My actions will:

1.    provide timely information to school and community stakeholders,

2.    model for teachers how these tools can be used, and

3.    encourage stakeholders to engage in events/activities of the school.

I plan to post podcasts on the school website and also provide links to my blog when there is a post of importance to students and parents. I will tweet links to the school website and/or my blog to point stakeholders to the information of interest to them.
Indicate how the objectives will contribute to the achievement of the project, what difference the project will make and the time frame during which this will happen.
By the end of the school year I will poll teachers to find out their opinions about my communications and also how many of them used these same 2.0 tools in their communications with students/parents. Gathering this data will help me evaluate the effectiveness of this project.
PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION AND MANAGEMENT PLAN:
Describe the project activities indicating how the objectives will be accomplished, what will be done, who will do it, who are the implementers, partners and beneficiaries and when it will be done. Describe how the project will be sustainable after the funding period.

1.    Several “Back to School” podcasts will be posted by me on the school website to give students and parents information/reminders to begin the year smoothly.

2.    I will post my facebook, twitter, and blog information during the first faculty meeting and request teachers to follow me on each one, as well as send me their info so I can do the same for them. I will explain I will be using these means throughout the year to improve communication.

3.    I will create a weekly or bi-weekly podcast to teachers which will include timely information of upcoming events, reminders, etc. These podcasts will be tweeted, emailed, and/or embedded in my blog to ensure all faculty members receive them.

4.    Any items with more details will be posted on my blog so teachers. Students, or parents will have a complete picture of a topic.

PROJECT MONITORING AND EVALUATION:
Describe how you are going to monitor and evaluate the project so as to assess progress during implementation and improve the project efficiency as the project moves along.
Comments will always be encouraged so stakeholders will have input throughout the school year. This will help me tweak my practices to more accurately meet their needs. Also, I will poll teachers at the end of the year (as mentioned above) and survey the other stakeholders by posting/tweeting a SurveyMonkey link.
DOCUMENTATION AND SHARING RESULTS :
Describe how you are going to document the progress of your project during and after implementation. State how you will document and share your results and let others know of your purpose, methods and achievements.
The comments stakeholders share will serve as documentation during the project. I will also elicit informal feedback from teachers. At the conclusion of the project the poll and survey will provide the documentation I need. I plan to share my results with teachers at the end of the school year faculty meeting. This may include asking any teachers who began using the same tool(s) to share their results as well.

PROJECT BUDGET: No Cost.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation: PLN!

If my summer “break” had a theme, it would be PLN. I didn't start out in June looking to learn about...let alone grow…my PLN (Personal Learning Network), but I am so glad I did! Here's why:

1. familiarity--I came to realize I have had a PLN for a long time. It just wasn't named or in the newest form. When I began my teaching career my network was mainly my coworkers. However, I was fortunate to teach a "new" class we called Readiness, which gave students who weren't "ready" to be successful in first grade an extra year to build their skills. This opportunity expanded my network to include all the Readiness teachers in the school system. When the internet arrived in my school and home, I joined a listserv of 2nd grade teachers which opened my PLN to new collaborators from across the country and a few from other countries. My inbox was constantly full and I chomped at the bit to get home and get new ideas. Now my network is evolving again with Twitter, Pinterest, and blogs. The more important difference this time is I have instant access to authors, pioneers, and experts in the related fields of education.
2. awareness--Realizing “PLN” just gave my support network a title, the next thing that became clear was I had disconnected myself from my established system. Once I moved into administration I desperately needed mentors who could help me be a successful leader. 
3. comfort--Familiarity and awareness combined with the training I got from eLearning and Todd Nesloney’s Summer Learning Series challenges gave me confidence that I could form a quick habit of growing, connecting with, and learning from my “new” network.
4. connectedness--Now I can connect with educators from all over the world at any time to see what’s trending, ask for help, offer my experience, or get ideas for interacting with staff, students, and community.

I’d love to have more people join my network! If you’re interested, please follow me on Twitter @rtinkerap. Or click the Follow button at the top of my Twitter feed here on my blog (in the right column). 

Please comment with how you use your PLNs and/or what resources you have found helps you grow your PLNs.

Growing my PLN using Web 2.0

Last week's Summer Learning Series challenge and this week's lesson in my elearning class are about podcasting. The challenge was to listen to at least 3 podcasts and tweet about each one. I am in the process of completing these, but I did take time off for vacation. Thank GOD for vacations!
My class assignment was to research podcasts, then create my own. So after much procrastination and dreading to hear my own voice, here it is:

listen to ‘Starting the New Year--On the Bus’ on Audioboo

I thought it would be nice to call attention to the bus drivers' efforts. Students, and parents, like all of us, need to be reminded that each person they come into contact with is working for their benefit. After all, would we even have bus drivers if the students weren't there to ride? So why would anyone choose to drive a bus? To ensure children's safety, that's why. So thank them for it.

For my own learning, I found that using Audioboo to record podcasts (even though my macbook has a podcast app already on it) was quick and painless. And after some going back and forth in both Audioboo's Help section and googling "how to embed an Audioboo podcast into a Blogger post," I successfully embedded my first podcast into this blog (see above)! I gave myself some Dr. Jean's fireworks!! (Kinder teachers know what I'm talking about.)

**If you'd like to read more and maybe even join Tedd Nesloney's Summer Learning Series challenges, you will find it here.

And here's a great footnote to growing my PLN:
Tonight I tweeted Tedd Nesloney (the very same) to thank him for his willingness to help those of us who have been slow to jump on this 2.0 rocket and included a link to my July 8 blog post.

Great post!! “@rtinkerap: Building my PLN http://t.co/eeWYA8kSTA”
— Todd Nesloney (@TechNinjaTodd) July 16, 2014

Immediately, not only did Tedd graciously favorite, reply, and retweet it, I had several others-- his followers--do one or more of the same!! My blog went from a dead 1 or 2 pageviews here and there to 83 just tonight! I know that isn't much in the grand scheme of things, but it made my day. More than knowing people saw my post and maybe read to the end, this quick action validated what I heard at ISTE in Atlanta and what I've been reading about in my Twitter feed: it isn't enough to write the blog posts, you have to advertise them by tweeting links, putting them on Facebook, etc. I believed what I read but I didn't have faith it would happen for me…until tonight. I am honored and humbled by the other educators that took time from their evenings to check out what I had to say. Awesome!!

Building my PLN

PLN, the new buzzword in education, stands for Personal Learning Network. I believe some might argue the P stands for Professional…whatever, "a rose by any other name…." Building my PLN became my focus this summer possibly by accident. I needed to complete a PLU (professional learning unit) to keep my administration certificate current, and I enrolled in an online course offered by
e-Learning for Educators in Alabama. This 6-week course is helping me explore the educational value of using Twitter, notification apps, podcasting, and blogging.

While exploring Twitter a couple of weeks ago I discovered Todd Nesloney's (@TechNinjaTodd) Summer Learning Series activities. He and some of his PLN are helping others of us learn more about how Twitter and other Web 2.0 tools can help us grow our own PLNs and allow us to promote our school to parents and the community.

The two of these are inadvertently working hand in hand to help me get more familiar with the tools and give me ideas for using them during the school year. My preliminary plans are to:

1. Blog about news, events, reminders, deadlines, etc. for parents.
2. Podcast info and details to teachers.
3. Tweet, using candid photos, when I visit classrooms.

If I accomplish these three I will feel successful!

ISTE 2014

I've just returned from my first International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference. I've been to other national/international conferences but this one is by far the best!!!

Tell me more, you say…well...

I attended the first Keynote session with Ashley Judd.

I won two tickets to hear Levar Burton tell his story, sat in the second row--up close--and got a selfie with him!

He shared how his mother single-handedly raised him with the goal of providing the absolute best education possible for him every step of the way. Imagine: she put her children's needs first! It's a concept that is quickly disappearing these days…. He considers himself an educator, and he is. His work with Reading Rainbow--he took over the brand when it was taken off the air during the No Child Left Behind days--has proven to be some of the best work out there to promote the enjoyment and lifelong desire for reading.


I talked my way in to a dinner at the Beluga exhibit of Georgia Aquarium and listened to my PLN mentor, Eric Sheninger @principalspage, tell his story.

He shared how his school cannot afford a 1:1 digital device initiative, which was an eye-opener for me because he, his faculty, students, parents, and community have piled up mountains of accomplishments in as many areas as you could probably imagine. And they have proved it's not the number of devices a school has available; it's the mindset you have as you use them. "Give up control and let the kids have the freedom." Then stand back, 'cause the learning is going to blow up!


I was the last person to be allowed in the #YouMatter session with Twitter PLN, Todd Nesloney @TechNinjaTodd, and made new connections with Steve Mesler (U.S. Gold Medalist in Bobsled, btw, and now heads an organization which gets athletes and other experts to mentor children) and Brad Waid @TechBrad.


This "You Matter" message is the same as the one Dr. Tommy Bice, our state Superintendent, said 3 weeks ago at the JSU CORE Academy: develop a relationship with the students. Sounds simple, but if you are a teacher you know it is not. We let too many other pressures--important, yes--get in the way of the most important…our personal relationship with our students. This connection is not one of friendship. It is one of trust. When students trust you they will risk failure. But children won't trust people they don't know. After all, what do we teach them from the time they can walk and talk? DON'T TRUST STRANGERS!

All this in just the first two days of the conference, and there's more to come….

Groceries or Paint? Groceries won.

(This post was actually begun on June 26 and I had planned to post that night. However, my macbook and internet connections had other ideas! So I finished it by adding the last pic and published it today.)

I am in the process of painting my youngest daughter's room (pics of this to follow soon) and it is taking me several days because I am painting over wallpaper for the first time ever. This morning I asked my daughter--who could have been starving from the choices she perceived as very poor to nonexistent when choosing her meals for the day--"Should I go shopping first, then paint, or paint first, then go shopping?" My daughter is smart and offered aloud what I was thinking, "Go shopping first because you'll probably get messy when you paint." She knows me too well.

So, I headed out. Two stores and two hours later I returned, and my sweet daughter helped me put the groceries away. Then I decided I better go ahead and cook one of the BOGO roasts I had picked up. So I went straight to the macbook, to Pinterest, and searched "roast recipes." Here's the one I chose:

Spoonful.com : Cook it Slow & Tender-20 Easy Slow Cooker Recipes

And this is the recipe I chose: (#2 of 21--I didn't spend a lot of time looking 'cause I knew I needed to get the roast on fast!)

Crock Pot Roast with Gravy

I'll admit I chose it because it had just a few ingredients and was quick to put together. Surely, having just come home from the grocery store would have the 6 ingredients needed…. WRONG! No cans of Cream of Mushroom soup! I always have cans of Cream of Mushroom soup. But not today.

Now what to do?

I had a can of Cream of CHICKEN-Mushroom soup (don't know how I ended up with that), a packet of Onion-Mushroom soup mix, half a packet of Onion soup mix, and a packet of Mushroom gravy mix. So I improvised.

I mixed the soup mixes, canned soup, and about half a can of water in the bottom of the slow cooker. The original recipe said not to add any liquid, but since I was using a lot of dry mix I thought, why not?

I added pepper and Cavenders' Greek Seasoning--L  U  V  it--to the meat and placed it on the "gravy."

And I put the cooker on LOW for 6 hours.

Now all I had to do was wait.

(Side note: I decided I would blog this meal since I am trying to form a habit of blogging more often. My daughter came in to the kitchen as I was taking the photos above and asked why I would do something like that. I explained how I had committed to myself to blog more, and that I had noticed others who blog their recipes include photos. I told you she was smart: she said, "Mom, I think it would be better to take a photo at the end. I don't think anyone wants to see what this looks like now!" I agree. But what can I do? I think the Blog Code requires it.)

Six hours later (the recipe said cook for 9-10 hours, but hey! my husband couldn't wait…and neither could I), it was done.

And here it is:

Don't worry, the roast didn't shrink. My hubby and son got to it before I could get a pic! And, if I do say myself…it was delicious! Not too salty and the gravy was perfect.

So…good. for. me.