Cool Cat Teacher Blog is at coolcatteacher.com

There is a short, three letter hop from leading to misleading. Having a position of leadership is a very important calling in life. You have a lot of responsibility. It is hard to be a leader but the truth is,as flawed humans, most of us who lead in anything have a very short step to being a misleader. Here's how. You become a misleader when you mistake popularity for an inability to make mistakes. No leader is always right. Yesterday someone pointed out to a critic of mine on Twitter that I was better because I had more followers and he had 6. No! Never do this. Everyone is important as a human being. Listen but then make up your own mind but never let the number of followers someone has make up your mind for you. You become a misleader when your become mislead by your own audience. Pride will kill you faster than a poison blowgun dart in a rainforest. If you look at many of the great falls of history, they came quickly to those who had believed the flattery that the au...

Improve Your Learning and Memory.: Your Kid May Be Smart. Just Don’t Tell Him So Too Often Every kd isn't smart but every kid (and adult) needs a "growth mindset." Please read this article. "Research by Carol Dweck and colleagues at Stanford demonstrated that the students who are most likely to learn from their mistakes are those who don’t think of themselves as smart as such but smart enough to get smarter. They have a “growth mindset,” a belief system that they can get better if they will just invest the time and effort." "In one of the group’s experiments, half of the students were repeatedly praised for “being smart,” and these students were not good at learning from mistakes. It is not clear why. Maybe they thought the problem was in the learning material, not in them. The other half of students were praised for effort and improvement and these students got better and made fewer mistakes. Several months later, al...

I wrote this at halftime last night. Here was my view. Sometimes teaching is like basketball. When you are hot... All net. You can't miss. Things are clicking. Everyone is learning. Everyone is behaving. You've got it together. And sometimes. Air ball. Literally. The paper is flying at the trash can, at each other...at you. The kids are disruptive. Every time you turn your back -whoosh someone disappears from his seat. Not a good day. The goal is to have more excellent days....to get more net than air. To score learning. The principals know who their star players are. The teachers who consistently get results. They also known their inconsistent players who really need more practice before hitting the court in a game. Therein comes the big difference between basketball and teaching. Everyone starts. Everyone. All full time teachers are starters because every full time teacher is a student's only chance to learn that topic. This is why having the best team possibl...

Some teachers are tempted to be babysitters during the holidays when, in fact, you can get some powerful teaching moments in your classroom. Take time to be creative and integrate holiday-themed teaching into your classroom. Please share what you like to do in the comments. 1 - Have a Social media activity relating to topics you're learning Two of my most tweeted things from last week were the Facebook template and Twitter template that you can download and use in Microsoft Word. This is a great alternative for those of you who cannot use the online Fakebook template from Classtools.net. Our AP Literature teacher has had students create a Facebook profile for their term paper author. They have to add at least 8 "friends" who are contemporaries of the author, a certain number of status updates with comments from friends. All of it must be believable. It is a lot of fun because students have to research their person, figure out the contemporaries and understand aspe...

As team captains, Julie and I were asked to bring forth our comments about leading global collaborative projects and we have some very current comments on what we're doing now in there. Look forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback. Presenters: Vicki Davis, Julie Lindsay with Curt Bonk, Anne Mirtschin, Judy O'Connell, Dean Shareski, Don Tapscott, David Warlick , Flat Classroom conference students - Doha Qatar, Suffern Middle School (Peggy Sheehy and Marianne Malmstrom), Mt. Carmel High School (Suzie Nestico), Phoenix School (Betsye Sargent), West Tisbury (Valerie Becker), and Flat Classroom Students Description: Students are the greatest textbook ever written for each other, yet, many schools close the book on learning outside classroom walls. After five years of global collaborative classroom excellence, this presentation first uses voices from the keynoters, students, and teachers around the world that have been part of the Flat Classroom projects and con...

Social media has added to my life because there are incredible people in my sphere of socializing.What you get out of your time engaged with social media is directly proportional to the number and kind of people you socialize with online. I've seen teachers get on Twitter and follow no one and say, "I don't get Twitter." That's because Twitter isn't solo. Find the people who are using Twitter, like Jerry Blumengarten ( @cybraryman1 ) and Angela Maiers ( @angelamaiers ), and you'll learn a lot from them. If you don't get Google+ (and I don't really... yet, but I will) then follow people like Peter Vogel  or Chris Porter who do. If you don't understand Facebook, I've really found that Mari Smith has helped me get it. And in the last month or two, I've been enjoying my twice daily visits to Facebook. (5:45 am and 7 pm ;-) These people help us understand how to have effective conversations. Cool Teacher Conversations on ...

F.L.A.T.s will officially launch tomorrow. Our teachers have been talking about the fact that we need ongoing online pd and sharing of best practices. Also, that many webinars are sort of long. We want to have bit sized presentations with time to ask questions. Our first FLAT will be tomorrow and features two of our certified teachers presenting their take on developing a global project. Join us! On Thursday October 27, 2011 at 8:00pm Eastern USA [time where you are - http://www.timeanddate.com/ worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg= Developing+a+global+project+F. L.A.T.s+with+Amy+Jambor+and+ Sheri+Edwards&iso=20111027T20& p1=861 ] Amy Jambor and Sheri Williams will present “Developing a global project” as a Flat Action Talk.   Please join us at http://tinyurl.com/ FlatActionTalk

Room in My Classroom When frowns are down and people are milling around... It's time to hide in your room. When people are tired and with caffeine over-wired It's time to hide in your room. When no one has slept and some negativity has crept It's time to hide in your room. You see, doom and gloom may loom but not in your room. Your classroom is your room, your creation, your loom, you can do a lot in your room. The most important attitude that walks in your door is the one you bring into your room. Protect your attitude with a shield of stone, keep the negative out don't let it in your room. Schools go up, schools go down, but insulate the learning in your room. Students must learn every day, it cannot fluctuate with ebb and sway keep things consistently positive in your room. My mom was a teacher and she taught me true one of the only places in this world that is yours is your classroom. Own it. Love it. Nourish it. Protect it, even from...

"Should jailbreaking cell phones be part of my research project, 'Miss' Vicki?" said the eager Digiteen student as if a light bulb had just gone on.  "Tons of people are starting to jailbreak phones and I'm not sure if they understand if they should or what the impact is. I think it should be part of our recommendations."  "Is jailbreaking a phone part of legal, copyright, and fair use?" he said, quoting his subtopic on the project. In just a few short sentences I was whirled away on a new inquiry and cutting edge issue of students today. I remember several years a go when some students came to me concerned that too many teens were sleeping with their cell phone in hand or under their pillow. They said it at least six months before news media outlets picked it up. Cyberbullying was on their radar at least five years  ago when the project first started including text bombing. This is why students should be at the forefront of digital ci...

This is the view from where I sit right now. I am taking up money at the softball gate in 90 something degree weather in the hot blazing sun. Or I was a minute a go. A Little Umbrella  Another teacher came by and she gave me her umbrella.  It means a lot because now I can read, grade papers on my iPad, and blog!  You can see the umbrella there in the picture looking out on the field where our 16-0 football team is practicing. (3-0 on this season) If you look hard, you might just see our headmaster / head football coach, Ross Worsham, out there working. I mention him because he did a little thing on Monday in our faculty meeting. Except it meant a lot. A Little Question   that was a Big Deal Ross read our devotional made 3 announcements and then he said, "I want to hear from you. Is there anything I need to notice or be aware of even if it is little, I want to know." So the teachers told him a few little things - noise in the hall after middle scho...

Sorry my PC was a slow boot and the ISTE wifi won't connect to my laptop, so it took a moment to take notes.  This session is with Mike Muir , Cyndi Danner-Kuhn , and Sam Farsali. Moderated by Alice Owen. 1:1 Laptop Implementation Mike - "Do not do workshops around hardware and software training.  The research is clear if you train teachers how to do spreadsheets -- if you teach them how to analyze data - they go back and teach kids how to analyze data and do spreadsheets." Cyndi - "Get rid of the network nazi's -- people who are IT people with no background in curriculum or education have no business making curriculum decisions."  (Those who have heard me speak know I agree with this.) Mike- Leadership is everything - 4 characteristics of places where successful things are happen 1) Built a common vision together with the staff -- future looking - a student you care about now, what will they be doing? 2) Positive pressure and support 3) Provide...

The first day of school was today and it was crazy for me -- as a teacher, 5 classes and 1 homeroom - with my IT hat - making sure all 100 computers and 3 servers were running, the new PowerLunch program went well and the upgraded gradebook to PowerTeacher was running smoothly.  Actually, it went very well (considering) today. But, it was most exciting to me when I hit Computer Science first and second period. The first objective is to understand the digital revolution , and with some summer reading I had done this summer on EMP ( electromagnetic pulse weapons and natural phenomenon) we started there. If a nuclear device goes off in our upper atmosphere, the radiation that falls to earth will not kill us - instead it will knock out anything with a microprocessor.  It is pretty scary to think what could happen - but it hit me -- what better way to understand the impact of the digital revolution than to extricate everything digital from our lives to understand where an EMP ...

Why don't you jump on over to In Need of a Base Case blog by Leigh Ann Sudol and answer her question about computer science education (Hat tip to my favorite Microsoft Blogger Alfred Thompson ): "So my question to you, my readers as well as to myself over the next few days is - how can I measure what my students think is important and relevant? I am considering some kind of electronic survey (so I can get a diverse sample) and I am wondering if I can somehow “narrow in” on particular topics (the way your eye doctor asks you lens1 or lens2?). Keeping in mind that I want to highlight particular aspects of computer science (see last post) I need to really think about what kinds of questions I would ask in order to get really interesting results." Leigh Ann is reflecting on another great article from Joanna Goode from the November 2008 issue of Communications of the ACM:  " Reprogramming College Preparatory Computer Science ."  I just urge her to realize that...

VYonkers had such a great reply to the Post about Tony Wagner's Redefining Rigor that I had to share what she said. I particularly love what she said about her son being allowed to come up with a "theory of war." Wow! I have been looking for something like this for a while. As an undergraduate business and communication teacher and a graduate education teacher, I have seen my role becoming even more critical over the last decade. I have had to teach all of these skills in my class as students do not come into school prepared with these skills. I don't blame the teachers or students, but rather the policy makers who want to simplify and quantify learning. Like you, I have found international projects as ideal since the assumptions we are taught through our educational system (there is one way to do things--compare how math is done in China and the US; facts do not change--ask a European or Latin American how many continents there are) are blown out of the water whe...

Simulpost with techlearning Perhaps the first trial for a virtual world murder is going to happen in Japan.  (Technically it is for hacking as the crime.)  The article Japanese Woman Arrested for Virtual-World 'Murder ' tells the story: " A 43-year-old Japanese woman whose sudden divorce in a virtual game world made her so angry that she killed her online husband's digital persona has been arrested on suspicion of hacking, police said Thursday. The woman, who is jailed on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data, used his identification and password to log onto popular interactive game "Maple Story" to carry out the virtual murder in mid-May, a police official in northern Sapporo said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy." To me, this comes back to the emphasis of WHAT we should be teaching students: Online behavior has offline consequences.  If we can teach them in small things, then hacki...

Recently, I talked with a close friend who is a teacher in a local public school.  She discussed budget cuts and all of the things happening that have made the classroom a bit stressful, and then she threw out something I've heard before: "The toughest things about cutting back is that some administrative positions are just unnecessary and have been made for people who can do nothing else.  Here we are cutting a hundred dollars here and there and these one or two people represent at least 60,000 a piece and offer no direct benefit to the classroom." To me, times are lean and mean.  The classroom should be like a well maintained car and administration should be like the pit crew.   They should give the classroom the tools they need, encouragement, a mission, and quick "pit stops" to improve and keep them going. What is happening instead is that some of the pit crew are opening up the trunk and piling in lead weights.  Others are siphoning off gas as teacher ti...

Another conversation between Tom Harrison , from Delaware, and I as he embarks on using wikis in the classroom.  You can follow all of the "letters" in this conversation by going to the Tag for " Tom Harrison " on this blog. " Vicki, Thanks again for the prompt and remarkedly thorough response to my questions.  Had I taken the time (or thought of it!) I could have looked into the "members" section under "Manage Space" and seen that I am set up as administrator and the rest of my students are just members.  One worry resolved.  I also found a Wikispace warranty (permission slip) somewhere on the web that I have modified and printed out.  Tough punishment for first offenders will send a message. Hey, I'd love the link for the permission slip to share with others.  And yes, whether you can use  a wiki long term is determined on the FIRST day.  Mom always said, you can never be tougher than you are on the first day of class, and the sa...