iTunes – some days I really do not like you.

In a meeting yesterday looking at some data. The data wasn’t about student achievement but technology usage. I was reminded of one of the most important things, stop reacting and look deeper.

It seems like we really want to jump into solution mode, find what we think is the issue and then tell someone how to solve it.

Our tech director is pretty much a genius. I fear the day he retires.

As we all looked and started to offer reasons, excuses and ideas, he stopped us. Our redirected attention was to think about what people were using instead of some interactive software we saw lower usage numbers on.

We thought back ten years and how the classrooms teaching looked now. We talked about what we saw in the classrooms today. Much of what we saw then was a lot of whole class instruction around an interactive board. Today we see a lot of small group, centers and such.

I think if we would have jumped into solution mode we might have pushed teachers into a direction we don’t want them to go.

I read this article a few weeks ago about about asking the right questions. This was a great reminder to me to look a little deeper and not to react too quickly.

Epic day.
Lunch with my daughter.
The restaurant was totally full so we had to take it to go.
A huge cookie was worth it!

Her favorite pass time is reading. Not kidding, she read one of those books and part of another in less than three hours.

When did we stop having fun in the classroom? 

Someone once told me that I must have a super messy mind as my desk is, in their words, a disaster. The image does not do my desk justice. There is stuff under it, tons of junk all over it and above it isn’t any better.

There was a time in my life that my set up was identical with everyone around me. What was in my left breast pocket was exactly the same as everyone else. Open up my top drawer and theirs, exactly the same contents. Under our beds had the exact same set up, black boots, jungle boots, go fasters (tennis shoes) and then shower shoes. In that order. In that exact order.

I sometimes wonder if my desk organization has anything to do with my past where everything was hyper organized.

Makes me think of that idea that everyone you meet is dealing with a lot more than you ever see. I wonder how many of the behaviors we encounter, the ones that might annoy us, are the result of something in the past. Wouldn’t we be more tolerant if we somehow knew that backstory?

Now how do we get the backstory without prying?

We are deep into creating some classes for our teachers this summer. What I want to do is create some fun while learning at the same time.

This is something that was on a series of Post-Its and in my paper notebook. Trying to get the wording just right. This just a draft.

Photography
  Have you ever seen a picture someone took and it just spoke to you? You try to recreate it but struggle to find that original spark. It is almost as if the photographer has some kind of magical formula.
  Join us as we discover the art of cell phone photography. We will learn how to set up that right shot, edit it and share you new creation. You will learn the techniques to make your shots as memorable as the professionals.
  These techniques can be applied when you add images to your Facebook pages and blogs. The ideas can also be quickly taught to your students to help them create images that will bring their projects to life.
Install these free apps on your mobile device:

• Google photos
• Snapseed
• picmonkey

I was getting gas and really struggled with these new pumps. I saw the little image of how to insert the card but it just wasn’t making sense. After two tries the pump locked me out! I was perplexed. My primary role is all things technology, how could this pump defeat me?

This tiny little lesson made me think of how many of our teachers and students experience this level of frustration daily from the tech they use. Time is short and the pressure is high. When things don’t go right it is much easier to just turn around and do it the way it has always been done.

At the gas station I almost paid cash, I almost sent my kids in with my card to pay but I pressed on. It was only a matter of time before I figured it out.

This gets me thinking about the times when we offered some Appy Hours before and after school. This allowed the teachers time to meet up at a local St. Louis Bread Company and talk about the latest apps they were using. A low to no stress environment that allowed for the conversation to wander from apps to lessons to their own children.

These learning opportunities might just be what some need to explore new areas and bring something back to the classroom.

Was reading about all the websites that were down the other day. It appears someone at Amazon typed in in incorrect letter or symbol which resulted in many websites inaccessible.

I looked up AWS and it appears they have a 99% up time. 99% of the time everything is perfect. I wish I had that level of amazingness.

Reminds me a little of that awards show. Someone made a small error and they are now fired.

Both of these were human errors. As far as I know no one lost a life. Maybe some were disappointed in not winning or accessing some website.

Certain elements of the media were all over these mistakes. How do we keep pushing our teachers and students if the general public seems to celebrate the negative sides of failure?

I’m confident that Amazon will create a new solution to prevent this mistake from happening again. They will learn from the mistake. I think that is what we need to report on and investigate.

Someone told me it wasn’t how many times you fall down, you just need to keep getting up.