# data[].attributes.headline
How might this link with #GOT be helpful in your classroom?

# data[].attributes.subject
How might this link with #GOT be helpful in your classroom?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Game of Thrones is secretly all about climate change

# data[].attributes.headline
Get lost in Lynda Barry's blog and tell us what the best thing you found was...

# data[].attributes.subject
Get lost in Lynda Barry's blog and tell us what the best thing you found was...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
For and by the students in Lynda Barry's comics classes at the UW-Madison and elsewhere. For inquiries about arranging speaking engagements, please contact the Steven Barclay Agency,...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
I started last school year with a watch that had a dead battery.

All day long, my watch showed it was 11:11.

I told myself I'd get it fixed. It wouldn't take much time. It wouldn't cost a lot of money. It's not even terribly inconvenient. What would stop me from fixing that which I knew to be broken?

I made plenty of trips to and from places that could have fixed my watch for me. And still my watch does not have a new battery.

So why, a full year later, am I still looking at this watch that has yet to have a new battery installed?

In short- It's a lot easier to realize something is broken than it is to change in response to that realization. (That's even true with something as small as a watch battery.)

The watch isn't the way I tell time anymore. I'm rarely away from my phone (that's another post, but not the focus for today), and there are clocks in most every meeting room is be in otherwise. My watch no longer serves its original purpose.

It looks right, but it's broken. I was able to wear my watch every single day for an entire school year without actually needing it. What's more, nobody else noticed it was broken either.
WHAT IS YOUR WATCH?
I wonder if there are other things like that for us. Things that look right, but with a closer look, might actually be broken. Maybe they don't need to be tossed out, but they're no longer serving they're original purpose.

A few things spring to mind, but I'd love to hear from you: As you prepare for the new school year, ask yourself this: What isn't serving its purpose anymore? When you have a few answers, what will you do with those things? What are the biggest changes you feel you can make in these areas?

( For this post, don't say testing. There's plenty to say about testing, but standardized testing is here for another year. It's certainly something worth thinking through, but I don't want us to miss the things that are closer to us, the things we have much more power to change.)
WHAT DO WE DO NOW?
I'm still wearing my watch (and I still haven't replaced the battery). Past the fact that it was a gift from my wife and I just like it, that watch has become a reminder for me of our need to be routinely reflecting on what's working, what's not, and what's giving a false appearance that may be fooling us.

I'd like you to think through what your "watch" might be before you go. Think through these questions and consider what you can do to identify your watches as the new school year begins.

Sometimes things look like they work until we take a closer look. What isn't working like it should? Is there anything that is still taking up your time that no longer serves its purpose?

The routines we adopt as the year begins will stick with us throughout the year. What do you need to add to your routine to make this a great year? What needs to be removed from your routine? What do you need to keep telling yourself throughout the year? What do you need to stop telling yourself this year? Where is there rest built into your weekly school routine?

We educate in a world that is rapidly changing. Norms from long ago are not always the norm today. What are you doing this year that you weren't doing 5 years ago? 3 years ago? Last year? What are you doing to challenge yourself to move past what you've always done?

I hope you spend a few minutes reflecting on your practice with these questions. I wish you nothing but the best of luck as you begin the new school year!

If you like what you're reading here, consider checking out my book, Shattering the Perfect Teacher Myth. The book highlights six truths that will help you THRIVE as an educator, including one-Imagine It Better-that discusses how we can and should disrupt the status quo in education. Read more about the book here or find the book on Amazon.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What is Your Watch? #TeacherMyth - Leading, Learning, Questioning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I started last school year with a watch that had a dead battery. All day long, my watch showed it was 11:11. I told myself I'd get it fixed. It wouldn't take much time. It wouldn't cost a lot of money. It's not even terribly inconvenient.

# data[].attributes.headline
What's the best 'learning in the real world' experience you've seen?

# data[].attributes.subject
What's the best 'learning in the real world' experience you've seen?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
School should take place in the real world | Trevor Muir | TEDxSanAntonio

# data[].attributes.headline
#UWCday: for teachers/students of UWCs everywhere. 

# data[].attributes.subject
#UWCday: for teachers/students of UWCs everywhere. 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This might be a question you think about often, for UWC Day we want you to share your answer with UWC students and teachers from around the world.

How do I share?

Using a blog, please post your response as a photo essay, in a video, through a song, in text, or in a mixture of all of those text types. Your share can be as long or as brief as you'd like. You can also buddy-post: team up with a peer and share your thoughts together.

When do I share?

Anytime Sept 19-21st. We will curate all of the posts for you to read and comment on.

Where do I share?

Once your post is ready to share, please link it in on this form.

Why do I share?

That's what fast-growing, important organizations do.

Making stuff is great.

Making connections is even better. (Seth Godin)

If you have questions or would like help getting set up, please leave a comment below.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Using a blog, please post your response as a photo essay, in a video, through a song, in text, or in a mixture of all of those text types. Your share can be as long or as brief as you'd like. You can also buddy-post: team up with a peer and share your thoughts together.

# data[].attributes.headline
Write a manifesto for your workflow, and explain how boredom will be a better part of it this year

# data[].attributes.subject
Write a manifesto for your workflow, and explain how boredom will be a better part of it this year

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Our series about getting bored and creative is back in time to optimize your summer. Plus, Manoush has a special announcement.

# data[].attributes.headline
How is this video useful in your context? Why?

# data[].attributes.subject
How is this video useful in your context? Why?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Creative Process | Ep. 6 | Future Starts Here

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Failing big is part of the creative process for Tiffany Shlain. Through behind-the-scenes footage of her acclaimed feature documentary Connected, Tiffany shares the creative process she has developed over the years -- the hunch, the darkness, the breakthroughs, and everything in between.

# data[].attributes.headline
How will you prevent your blog from becoming a zombie blog?

# data[].attributes.subject
How will you prevent your blog from becoming a zombie blog?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
CC0 Public Domain, Pixabay

We all know that a blog is a powerful tool that allows people to broadcast their ideas, thoughts and opinions online daily, weekly or even monthly. In fact, we are more likely to read blog posts on a variety of topics today than traditional news and media magazine outlets. According to Wordpress, more than 409 million online users are consuming approximately 22.7 billion blog pages each month. I myself currently subscribe to dozens of blogs on a variety of topics, especially those regarding Design and EdTech.

In many schools, blogging is a classic platform for displaying K-12 student learning which is accessible to local school and global community members. However, a recent search of international school blogging systems reveals poorly utilized or mismanaged blogs that are little more than shells, or what I refer to as 'zombie' blogs. These are blogs that might have one or all of the following afflictions:

1. Very few posts or only one set of posts on the same topic

2. Lack of recent posts within the last 6 months

3. Text only entry with less than 5 sentences and/or unfinished posts

4. No reference to information resources

5. Limited or no use of media (audio, video, images/illustrations)

6. No organizational structure (categories, tags)

7. No comments or audience interaction

Why has this apparent atrophy of such an essential platform occurred?
Lack of Hype
One possibility is that as we live in an age of rapid technological advancements the 'classics' are often deemed irrelevant in favor of new apps and platforms for no other reason than...well...age. Business Professors Rahul Kapoor (Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania) and Ron Adner (Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College) studied emerging technologies in various industries and the probability of their adoption. They explain that adopting new technologies without considering the effect on the overall 'ecosystem' is a common mistake, "...you see quite often overly optimistic, aggressive expectations about new technologies. Some people refer to it as the 'hype cycle'."

"You see quite often overly optimistic, aggressive expectations about new technologies. Some people refer to it as the 'hype cycle'."

They go on to explain that best approach when adopting new technologies is to "...look at both the new technology ecosystem and the old technology ecosystem. It's really bringing these two ecosystems together as an analytical framework that can generate a lot more valuable insights, in our view."

​In the Education industry, the ecosystem is anything that supports the learning; the educator, the classroom, even the tools. Does the new technology truly replace the ecosystem support of a blog? Perhaps combining this new technology with the blogging platform is the best solution through embedding. Embedding in this case, is when you add another technology tool 'inside' of another. Blogs have a feature that is labeled either 'embed code' or 'html' which allow you to insert another piece of software via coded instructions. Here are a few examples: For more tools see this excellent list from Edublogs.

​ Lack of Training
Another possibility is that since blogs are considered 'old' technology, no new materials for training are being created. It seems as if it is assumed that everyone already knows how to use blogs - but do they know how to use them fully?

Here are a few resources to get you off on the right track:

What is a Blog? video by Edublogs

What is a Blog? video by Edublogs

2. Blog Anatomy Outline by Jennifer Simon (click on image to download)

3. How to Start a Blog by Wordpress (click image below to go to site)

Lack of Purpose
Or perhaps the issue lies in not fully understanding how blogs enrich student learning. The blog structure is an excellent tool for enabling Connectivist learning. Let's take a closer look.

What is Connectivism?
Connectivism is a learning theory for the digital age created by Stephan Downes and George Siemens in which knowledge is obtained through a network outside of the learner via technologies that facilitate the collection and organization of information.

Connectivism is a learning theory for the digital age created by Stephan Downes and George Siemens in which knowledge is obtained through a network outside of the learner via technologies that facilitate the collection and storage of information.

Connectivism features 8 Principles that can guide you in helping your learners:

1. Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions.

2. Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.

3. Learning may reside in non-human appliances.

4. Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known.​

5. Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.

6. Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.

7. Currency is the intent of all connectivist learning activities.

8. Decision-making is itself a learning process.

​
In the image below Madeleine Brookes, Educational Technology Coordinator and Co-Founder of Learning 2, illustrates the connection between these principles and blogging features:

How Does Connectivism Work?
With teacher guidance regarding the 8 principles, students decide upon a topic and then Aggregate, Remix, Repurpose, and Feed Forward (ARRFF) this information in the form of new ideas and thoughts which they then share with a global audience via blog posts; and (hopefully) elicit feedback sparking a new pass through the four phases listed again in more detail below:

Aggregate - to collect information from a variety of resources

Remix - to make connections between all of the resources collected

Repurpose - to form new thoughts and ideas relevant to these connections

Feed Forward - share these new thoughts and ideas with others and engage with the audience either through comments or by encouraging readers to spread your ideas on social media

Through blogging the four-phase process is completed providing a resource for others in which a new exchange of ideas can begin anew. Presented with these ideas and resources, would you still give up on that 'zombie' blog or would you take action and give it new life? Please leave a comment and/or share this post with others.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Blogging Dead: Infuse New Life into 'Zombie' Blogs

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
CC0 Public Domain, Pixabay We all know that a blog is a powerful tool that allows people to broadcast their ideas, thoughts and opinions online daily, weekly or even monthly. In fact, we are more likely to read blog posts on a variety of topics today than traditional news and media magazine outlets.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
25 Things You Should Know About Becoming a Teacher

# data[].attributes.headline
How can you build it into your workflow? Can you make it easier for your colleagues to keep blogging?

# data[].attributes.subject
How can you build it into your workflow? Can you make it easier for your colleagues to keep blogging?

# data[].attributes.headline
What is the one best thing you learned from failure?

# data[].attributes.subject
What is the one best thing you learned from failure?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
My class once did a project where the students used a set of content standards to create board games that would be played by kids at a local elementary school. Judging by the unique ideas and artistic creations, I thought my students had excellent pieces of work to present to their target audience- which was little kids. However, when we brought the games to a cafeteria at the nearby school to be played by the elementary students, it was a complete disaster.

The kids were bored of the games in a matter of minutes, and actually started begging their teachers to go back to class. I paced around the room trying to coax the children to engage in my students' games, but it was all to no avail. These board games were not interesting to them, and so they would not play. Their boredom in this open space soon turned to pandemonium, and game pieces started flying across the room as the third graders grew more and more restless. Their teachers began yelling at them as the volume in the room rose higher. My students, untrained in how to deal with young kids, started yelling at them as well in their frustration for them to stop ruining their stuff.

Third graders began to cry. Some of my students began to cry.

The principal stomped through the cafeteria doors to ask one of the lead elementary teachers what all of the commotion was, and she immediately turned to me and said that this was not what she expected and asked if we could cut our time short

My students and I felt dejected. A month of hard work they put into creating these games felt wasted, and only served as a distraction for some third graders for about five minutes that morning. Being that we still had fifty minutes left of our planned field trip (remember, we got kicked out of the school), I took them outside to sit in the grass to talk about what just happened.

My sensitive students cried from the feeling of rejection. My emotional students were angry with the grade school kids for not giving their games a chance. Some students were mad at me for not preparing them more for this authentic presentation. And almost all of the students sat on the grass with nothing in their hands, as most of them stuffed their game boards in the trash cans on the way out of the cafeteria (I went back and fished them out later on).

I let it all air out on the lawn next to the elementary school parking lot. When they were done lamenting this experience, I asked them what they have learned so far from it. The first response was, "What do you mean learn from it? This sucks!"

"Yes I agree this was not fun. But what are we learning from it?"

After about a minute of silence, one student suggested that maybe the games we created were not suited for elementary students, and more for high schoolers. Another suggested that they perhaps should have introduced themselves to the students and "broke the ice" before they started playing the games. I suggested that I probably should have asked the elementary teachers what kind of games their students liked to play with before we started creating games for them.

The tension was releasing in that open space, and only twenty minutes after the event, the power of positive failure was starting to have an effect.

For the next project in my class, my students used a set of content standards to create lesson plans for college students to use. They were very aware of who their professional audience was, and ensured the products they created were tailored to them. When we went to present the project at a local college, my students brought coffee and cookies with them to the presentation to "break the ice" before the lessons. I contacted the professors and asked what their needs were.

My students and I learned from our failure. We did not let it live as a negative experience in the back of our minds the rest of that school year. Instead we embraced and viewed it as an instance where we tried to create something incredible and did not succeed. And that was okay, because this failure shaped us as learners and people, and did more to shape us as characters than an hour of third graders playing board games ever could have.

The key to innovation is vulnerability. Creativity and innovation always involves risk. Risk of failure. Risk of rejection. Risk of judgment. There is a potential for all of these to happen when something new is created.

This leaves the creator vulnerable.

But when vulnerability is embraced, and there is no shame in failure, students have a potential for brilliance. I was able to witness my students have brilliant achievements following that morning at the elementary school, which is why I am more than okay with the fact that we failed.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
My class once did a project where the students used a set of content standards to create board games that would be played by kids at a local elementary school.