Reading Comprehension 101: Five Strategies for Scaffolding Challenging Texts for Not-English Teachers

Welcome, Teachers!

A few weeks ago, our instructional coach Val Hoose asked me to help her plan and run a professional development session on reading comprehension for teachers who teach math, science, social studies, and various electives, as well as for new and experienced English language arts teachers. I readily agreed.

Below, you’ll find all of the information from our professional development session, as well as links to various resources you may share with your colleagues. You may also participate in our professional development session from the comfort of your own home! Just follow the directions below!

Quills and Thrills: Writing Prompt Week Two

Greetings, Quillers and Thrillers!

Welcome back to Quills and Thrills: Creative Writing for the Google Generation! If you were here last week, I hope you got your Ten Commandments of Digital Citizenship pledge and permission form signed by your parents because this week’s prompt is all about building your online presence!

If you are new to Quills and Thrills this week, welcome! You can check out last week’s prompt here, or just jump right into this week’s. Before you start building your online presence, however, you need to review the Ten Commandments of Digital Citizenship pledge and permission form with your parents and turn it in as soon as possible.

Dont have your Ten Commandments of Digital Citizenship permission form signed yet? No worries, you can still create the tools needed to build your online presence and set them aside until you get that permission form signed.

Figurative Language Throw Down Challenge

Prime your mind for creative thinking every week with the Figurative Language Throw Down Challenge! Check out the rules for the weekly challenge before playing.

Without appealing to sense of sight, describe fire. Also forbidden: hot, heat, warm, & smoke. #QuillsandThrillsFLTD https://t.co/9tdjqfkgJ5

— Ms. Hayes (@mskellyhayes) November 11, 2015

Submit your weekly entry to Twitter using #QuillsandThrillsFLTD!

New Experience: Chewing Cotton Balls!

A small percentage of writing happens with a pen in your hand or a keyboard under your fingers. In fact, the bulk of writing happens through new experiences both profound and mundane. After all, how can you write about exciting new adventures without having a few adventures yourself? 

Have you heard about Quills and Thrills yet?

Want to know more? Read all about it at What is Quills and Thrills?

Ready to start the first writing prompt? Check it out at Quills and Thrills: Writing Prompt Week One!

Download a printable version of the Ten Commandments of Digital Citizenship Pledge and Permission Form today!

Quills and Thrills: Writing Prompt Week One

Good afternoon, Thrillers!

Welcome to Quills and Thrills: Creative Writing for the Google Generation! Not sure what Quills and Thrills is?  Find out here!

Figurative Language Throw Down Challenge

Prime your mind for creative thinking every week with the Figurative Language Throw Down Challenge! Check out the rules for the weekly challenge before playing.

Thanks to @SSMindSchool for this week’s challenge!

Describe the taste of mint without using the words "blue,""green,""cool" or "fresh."No, you can't use "minty"either. https://t.co/a1jn55u3QX

— SS Mind School (@SSMindSchool) November 8, 2015

Five Minute Burn

Your first writing prompt will require pre-writing using a nifty method I like to call a “five-minute burn.” Here’s how it works: I’ll set a timer for five minutes. As soon as I say go, you will start writing without stopping until the five minutes are up. If you run out of things to write about, simply write “IDK IDK IDK” over and over again until something comes to you. The trick is to keep your pencil moving. Don’t worry about erasing errors or scratching out mistakes. Just ignore them and KEEP WRITING!

Ready for your prompt? Here it is: How would you define writing and why is it important to you?

If you’re following along at home, use the video below to keep track of your time.

Time is up! How did you do? Take a moment to reread your burn. If you come across a phrase or word that you really like, underline it.

Now, we’re going to revise our burn to be a publishable piece of writing. Here’s your new prompt: Use imagery and figurative language to define the importance of writing in your life.

Before you start revising your burn, check out two tricks of the writing trade below to help you jazz up your writing a bit.

Professional Development 2.0

Greetings, dear reader! I have a question for you. How many professional development (PD) workshops, seminars, classes, trips, etc. have you attended this summer? Zero? One? Two? Or are you crazy like me and working on your fifth? Here’s another question for you: how many times have you attended a hyped-up workshop only to not change your own practice? It’s okay. We’ve all done it.

I attended a Promethean training earlier this week, and half way through I had an AHA moment (pun intended – go Jags!):

Project-based professional development workshops are much more effective than traditional, lecture-based professional development seminars.

How do I know? Because I was halfway through a traditional, lecture-based Promethean workshop, and I was bored to tears. Instead of learning strategy, I was stuck listening to a long, drawn out explanation of what a paint bucket does in ActivInspire. All I really wanted were ideas on how my Promethean Board could improve my teaching and deepen student understanding, but my idea factory was experiencing a forced furlough due to paint buckets and shape tools.

Two weeks ago I started the SAMR EdTech Series as a way to cope with the overwhelming amount of ideas threatening to consume my soul. Where did these ideas come from? My district’s Teacher Summer Tech Camp, of course! It was the best PD I’d ever attended. Instead of learning about tools, we learned about strategies, and in learning the strategy we learned the tool.

AppSmash! Teaching Perspective with ChatterPix, Tellagami, and iMovie

One such breakout session required us to create a perspective video using ChatterPix, Tellagami, and iMovie on iPads. Initially, I wasn’t sold. When I was asked to download ChatterPix and Tellagami, I knew this lesson would be geared toward elementary audiences. Nevertheless, I decided to stick around and give it a shot.

First, we watched a sample video in which an elementary student used ChatterPix and Tellagami to create an informative newscast on zoos. The news anchor was an avatar created through Tellagami. She interviewed different zoo animals – created through Google images and ChatterPix – about their experiences living in a zoo. The animals explained why zoos were bad from a first person perspective. They each responded in different voices (with lots of sass), and their mouths actually moved as they spoke! It was very cute.

After watching the sample video, we were asked to create our own. The instructors quickly walked us through the basic process of creating an avatar on Tellagami before giving us time to record footage for our own perspective videos. Then, we repeated the process with ChatterPix. Finally, we squished the videos from the two apps together using iMovie.

Why did it work? Because the focus was on what we could do with the tool, not on the tool itself. Since we spent most of the session time creating our own videos, the instructors were free to help individuals struggling with the programming while the rest of us were absorbed in our own projects. They understood that many of us would be able to figure out how to use the tool on our own, so they didn’t force us to listen to a remedial lesson on shape tools and paint buckets unless we needed it.

My AppSmash video is below. It’s a little creepy and a lot cheesy, but you get the idea.

While the I initially thought this would only work for elementary students, creating my video made it clear that secondary students can learn a lot from this activity as well. By having different characters from different books interact with each other, the students can explore how different texts explore similar themes, compare and contrast characterization techniques, and have a lot of fun in the process.

Using Keynote and iMovie to Reflect on Learning

I also attended a couple of breakout sessions on Keynote and iMovie. Initially, I didn’t have high expectations for these sessions. What can I say, I’m a tech snob. Keynote? Psh. I know how to use Keynote in the classroom: to make slide shows! Duh! And iMovie? Easy. There were limited breakout options though so I attend the sessions anyway. I figured I might learn something.

Learn something I did.

Like the AppSmash lesson, these sessions didn’t focus on iMovie or Keynote. They focused on strategies, specifically science labs.

Documenting Water Tension with Keynote

For the Keynote lesson, we were each given a cup of water, a water dropper, a paper towel, and four coins. We were told that we were going to experiment with water tension and document our findings using Keynote.

Apparently, Keynote can be used for more than slideshows. Who knew?

Curious? Check out my partially completed presentation lab notes in the video below.

Parachute Building: A Documentary

For the iMove lesson, we were given a coffee filter, four pieces of twine, a paper clip, and a binder clip. We were then told that we had five minutes to build a parachute. We were to use our iPads to take pictures and videos of our progress. We had another five minutes to test our parachute outside. When we finished experimenting, we used iMovie to create a documentary of our parachute experience.

My parachute video is below.

EdTech Speed Dating

Finally, after two days of breakout sessions we were given four or five hours to create something to use with our students. The instructors stayed on site to assist us if necessary. Camp ended with “speed dating,” which is exactly what it sounds like but from an EdTech perspective. We rotated from person to person and showed off our lovely techy creations. It was fun to see other teachers talk about flipping their lessons and putting more technology into kids’ hands. That’s where I learned about Aurasma (it is SO FREAKING COOL!), which I will write about next.

Why did speed dating work? Because we were able to collect more ideas, network with other tech savvy teachers in our district, and most importantly own the tool. Even though we weren’t given explicit instruction on how to use every feature every tool had to offer, we figured it out our own because we were motivated to do so. The tools were necessary to bring our great ideas to fruition and show them off to other teachers.

Final Thoughts

I keep reading posts about how difficult it is to actually get teachers to use available technology or to be innovative, and change is difficult and it takes time. A possible solution? Design PD that utilizes best practices. Ideas come from experiences, not lectures, so don’t give a lecture on how to teach without lecturing. Instead, provide teacher-centered PD that models new learning opportunities from a student perspective.

I created a handy-dandy chart highlighting the differences between traditional EdTech PD (Professional Development 1.0) and modern EdTech PD (Professional Development 2.0). Check it out below.

That’s all I’ve got for you today! If you want to read more about strategies using technology and the SAMR Model, check out my post on using Animoto in the classroom or my post on EDpuzzle. You can also read the first post in this series here.

Check out my next post on practical tips for flipping your classroom!

Poll Where? Everywhere!

Two days ago I wrote about some of the basic concepts necessary for authentically integrating technology into the classroom. Today’s post is about a nifty web 2.0 tool you can use to enhance learning in your classroom. Introducing PollEverywhere!

PollEverywhere is a polling website that allows you to ask multiple users a question or a set of questions. On the surface, it is similar to other audience response systems such as Socrative and Kahoot, but dig a little deeper and you’ll discover a much sleeker program.

The First Day of School

Picture this: your freshmen walk into class on their first day of high school. You decide to use PollEverywhere as both an icebreaker and as an easy way to assess the students’ needs. The kids take out their SMS-enabled phones (flip-phones work too), you project a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation with directions for accessing the survey on the board, and they all take out their cell phones (you should probably have a conversation about appropriate cell phone use in the classroom first).

The first question pops up: “Which middle school did you attend last year?” The students use their cell phones to answer the question, and then the image on the board seamlessly changes to represent student responses in real-time. Cool, right?

Perhaps you also want the students to collaboratively create class norms. Just ask a short answer question, and PollEverywhere will then automatically sort their answers into a word cloud, making it extremely easy for students to see what is most important to their peers. No more typing student responses into Wordle after school! 

Flip Your Classroom!

I’ve always wanted to try flipping some of my lessons, but the idea has always intimidated me a bit. How would I know if my students watched the video before coming to class? What do I do with the students who didn’t watch the video before coming to class? What programs do I use to make the videos?

I’ll write more about flipped classrooms later, but PollEverywhere has inspired me to actually try it this year. After assigning a video, I can have the students post questions to PollEverywhere before coming to class, or as a bell-ringer at the beginning of the period. If necessary, I can adjust my lesson for the day to reflect the students questions from the night before.

PollEverywhere and SAMR

So, how do my ideas for PollEverywhere fare against the SAMR Model? I’m not sure. PollEverywhere definitely passes the substitution stage because it acts as a direct substitute for having the students turn in their questions on a sheet of paper. PollEverywhere’s slick way of organizing and presenting data easily bumps it up to the augmentation stage, because it is much more functional and efficient than traditional paper polling. But does it “allow for significant task redesign” required to reach the Modification stage? I’m not sure. All I know is PollEverywhere will streamline assessment, giving teachers more time to adjust instruction to meet students’ needs.

Check out my post on using Animoto in the classroom! You can also check out my post on how the SAMR model can help you rock evaluative observations.

Pinterest 101

Only the cool kids are invited…

Like many people, I didn’t really feel the need to jump on the Pinterest bandwagon, but then I had to do a presentation on how to use social networking in the classroom. Pinterest is the third most popular social networking site behind Facebook and Twitter, and so, for the sake of research, I joined Pinterest. But here’s the thing: you can’t just join Pinterest because you want to join Pinterest. You have to be invited. I was slightly annoyed that I had to wait to start pinning stuff, especially because I had to wait only two weeks after requesting an invite. Good grief.

While setting up my Pinterest account I was pleased to see that I could link the account to either my Facebook or Twitter account. One less username and password combination to remember sounded great to me (although I usually use the same ones over and over again. Shh, don’t tell). I decided to go with my Facebook account since I am still getting used to Twitter, but Facebook and Pinterest must be in cahoots with one another because that dang Pinterest tricked me into getting Facebook’s timeline profile. Grumble grumble.

Regardless of the initial inconveniences, Pinterest is my new addiction. Before joining Pinterest I had seen an eCard that mentioned drinking wine while looking at Pinterest all day, so for the sake of research, I decided to pour myself a glass of Pinot Noir before diving into the world of Pinterest. Two hours and three glasses of wine later, I realized I had to stop wasting time on Pinterest and take care of my big girl responsibilities like doing the dishes and feeding the cat.

How it works

Basically, Pinterest gives people the ability to “pin” things they find on the internet to different boards. Think of these Pinterest boards as being digital bulletin boards, and you can have multiple boards to help you to organize your pins. Initially, I didn’t know what the topics of my boards should be, but Pinterest is nice enough to give you some ideas as soon as you sign up.

My Pinterest Boards

I now have a board for classroom stuff, a board for workout ideas, a board for literary references (this is currently my largest board, full of entertaining images referring to Harry Potter, The Hunger Games Trilogy, and The Outlander Series. I also have a few random book covers in there for good measure), and a board that I call “Bumper Stickers”. You may or may not remember when Facebook had a bumper sticker application about three years ago; this is basically the same idea. The great thing about boards is that you can do whatever you want with them. Get creative!

My “Literary References” Board

Stalk me on Pinterest!

Like Twitter you “follow” people on Pinterest instead of “friend” them. I had no clue as to whom l should follow when I signed up, but Pinterest was nice enough to suggest people to follow based on what I marked as my interests. This made my initial pinning experience a bit worldlier since I could see the pins of people I had never met. Soon after, I learned that since my Pinterest account was linked with my Facebook account, I could automatically follow all of my Facebook friends who also had a Pinterest account.

Pinterest Home Screen

If you follow someone on Pinterest, their pins automatically pop up on your home screen, much like posts on a wall on Facebook. You can “like” someone’s pin, or you can leave a comment on someone’s pin, however I’ve noticed that simply repinning a pin is the most common method of recognition.

So…what’s the point?

The purpose of Pinterest is not to share witty thoughts about everyday occurrences, nor is its purpose to share photos and news articles to document the events of an individual’s life. Instead, Pinterest aims to share various types of media such as photos, videos, websites, infographics, and more, with people who have similar interests. And I wonder sometimes if Pinterest aims to take over the world by distracting its users from their personal responsibilities in life…kind of like this Hulu commercial.

Teachers Can Use Pinterest for the Classroom

While I just sold Pinterest as an entertaining way to spend uneventful evenings, it does hold some potential for education. Teachers are using it to find ideas for their classrooms, but students are also using it as an instructional scaffold or as a form of assessment. As a language arts teacher, I am particularly interested in using Pinterest while teaching a novel. I imagine my students creating boards for the protagonist and the antagonist(s) of a novel and a board for the setting. Perhaps we could have a class board for the different books my students are reading independently, or a board for atrocious grammar mistakes the students see around town. The possibilities are only as limited as your creativity. To help inspire some new ideas, I have included this great infographic about how other teachers are using Pinterest.

 

Want to read more about how teachers can use Pinterest professionally? Check out this awesome post by Donna Miller Fry.

Eleven Quotes About Social Networking For Educators

As you may already know, my school district has recently adopted a web-based program called My Big Campus, which is essentially a social networking site for the classroom. You can read more about in my earlier post, Teacher, Meet Technology. Since incorporating the program into my classroom, I’ve began to realize the value of social networking to education. Below are eleven quotes about social networking that I would like to share with fellow educators.

Why teachers need to embrace social networking in the classroom and why administrators should embrace social networking as a professional development tool

1) “More companies are discovering that an über-connected workplace is not just about implementing a new set of tools – it is also about embracing a cultural shift to create an open environment where employees are encouraged to share, innovate, and collaborate virtually.” – Karie Willyerd & Jeanne C. Meister, Harvardbusiness.org

2) “It’s natural online to go to the place where people are already consuming media. It’s less effort than to ask people to leave an environment they’re already in.” – Cheryl Calverley, U.K.’s Senior Global Manager for Axe Skin

3) “Social media is about sociology and psychology more than technology.” – Brian Solis, Principal of FutureWorks

4) “Innovation needs to be part of your culture. Consumers are transforming faster than we are, and if we don’t catch up, we’re in trouble.” – Ian Schafer, CEO of Deep Focus

5) “To ignore social networking would be like early man ignoring fire.” – Barry Ross

Social networking and professionalism

6) “You can be professional while also ‘keeping it real’ with your customers. By interacting with customers in a less formal way, you’ll build a strong human connection that helps build brand loyalty.” – David Hauser

7) “How can you squander even one more day not taking advantage of the greatest shifts of our generation? How dare you settle for less when the world has made it so easy for you to be remarkable?” – Seth Godin, Seth’s Blog

How social networking can help you (and your students) succeed

8) “In the long history of humankind, those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.” – Charles Darwin

9) “Twitter represents a collective collaboration that manifests our ability to unconsciously connect kindred voices though the experiences that move us. As such, Twitter is a human seismograph.” – Brian Solis, Principal of FutureWorks

Why social networking isn’t a “quick fix” – you need to know how to use it

10) “Social Media can be an enabler and an accelerator of existing core capabilities, values, attributes, and plans. It can even be a catalyst for change. But it can’t magically create what doesn’t exist.” – Denise Zimmerman, President of NetPlus Marketing

11) “Social media is just a buzzword until you come up with a plan.” – Zach Dunn

 

iTube? No…YouTube!

I love YouTube. I am not the type of person who uses it every day or spends hours watching different videos, but I love how easy it is to find great videos and share them with my friends. Usually, I will get to YouTube videos through Facebook or Google, but once I am there I will watch a few of the recommended videos and post them to my Facebook page. However, I do try to be selective with what I share.

According to Zwiers and Crawford in Academic Conversations, “popular modes of communication, such as video, podcasts, written texts, music, and images are mostly ‘one-way.’” (2011) They argue that these types of videos have a static message that cannot be adjusted after conversations, so to speak, with their viewers. I originally expressed my disagreement with this statement in my blog, which you can read here.

Needless to say, I was thrilled when I read Prensky’s article, which states “Perhaps the thing about You Tube that is least understood by people who do not use it regularly is that it is not just one way, or one-to-many, communication; it is designed to be, and very much is, two-way…Many users post ideas and opinions, looking for feedback, and many get large numbers of responses to their clips.”

Well, well, well! Take that Zwiers and Crawford!

One trendy video topic is Sh*t (Social Groups) Say. I first saw one of these videos, “Sh*t Girls Say”, when visiting a couple of my friends. They could not stop laughing and joking about it, so they showed me the video. I thought it was funny, but I wasn’t as amused by it as they were. I didn’t think about it again until earlier this week when a friend from college posted “Sh*t Burqueños Say” on her Facebook wall. As a “Burqueña” I decided to watch the video.

I watched the video on Tuesday, and I loved it – not only because my students say this stuff all the time, but because I say it too. I linked the video to my Facebook wall, and by the next day the video had over 150,000 hits and forty-eight pages of comments. When I had first watched the video, it had less than one hundred hits. Now, according to my super-secret source, part two is in the works.

I think that one of the fallacies in Zwiers and Crawford’s argument is that they are looking at communication as being between two or more people, with one of the communicators being the original creator of the content. Their argument, simply put, is that the person who created the video, podcast, or blog must be engaged in the subsequent conversations – but this isn’t actually what happens.

Instead, the subsequent conversations occur between completely different people. The content creator (or facilitator) may chime in occasionally by responding to comments or posting a follow-up video, but most of the communication happens between the viewers. In the world of YouTube, the viewer’s respond through published means such as comments, similar videos, Facebook and Twitter shares, blog mentions, and more, but they also respond through unpublished means such as face-to-face conversations with friends, family, and co-workers.

Isn’t this what we want to happen both in and out of the classroom? The students, sparked by the teacher, drive the conversations while the teacher sits back and listens and silently assesses, only intervening when beneficial to the students. The important thing is that the students are talking about and responding to information that is read, heard, and viewed (and yes, that is a direct quote from the New Mexico ELA Content Standards).

Perhaps now I need to make a video titled “Sh*t Teachers Say.”Oh, never-mind, it already exists.

*Disclaimer*

I am not suggesting that we show these particular videos in schools. I am merely thinking about the sociological and educational implications of these videos. That said, it would be interesting to have students create a video of this nature about what characters say in a novel or story as a lesson on characterization.

You can watch some of these videos below (but keep in mind, some of them are stereotypical and offensive).

Sh*t Brides Say: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut8kwaKvZc0

Sh*t New Yorkers Say: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRvJylbSg7o

Sh*t People Say on Facebook: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVQeB_LlmRI

Sh*t Burqueños Say: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IucBp1yrr7A&feature=share

Sh*t New Mexicans Don’t Say: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndbjEvN8AtM&feature=related

Sh*t Teachers Say: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLXfwvaBXLc

Teacher, Meet Technology: One Week Later

One week has passed since the first My Big Campus Workshop, and the response from the staff has been encouraging – especially since it opened up new lines of communication. Several staff members have since raised valid questions, misconceptions, and concerns – some of which I was able to address right away, and others required more time.

One of the leading concerns was the absence of computers in other classrooms. My class is only one of two with the Building Blocks Grant. The other teachers only have between three and six computers for the students to use in class. Because of this, many teachers could not see the value of MBC (My Big Campus) to their instruction with limited computer access.

At first I was slightly annoyed by these concerns. I wanted to tell the teachers to be resourceful and get creative, but that probably wouldn’t have been a good sales pitch. Instead, I gave them a couple of ideas, but realized that I needed to find some teachers who were willing to experiment.

I decided to ask the other teachers on my team if they would be willing to help me. Both Ms. Newton and Ms. Galilei (the math teacher and science teacher on my team, respectively) were thrilled to help. The only person who would be difficult to convince was Mr. Lee, the social studies teacher.

Remember Mr. Lee? He was one of the leading characters in my first Teacher, Meet Technology post.

You may be wondering why I am so determined to get Mr. Lee to use My Big Campus. Perhaps it is because I am stubborn and he ticked me off, but I like to think that my determination comes from my passion for teaching and doing what’s best for the kids. Truthfully, I think it is a combination of both. But, before I jump into my story about Mr. Lee, I think you should know that I am naturally a very optimistic, albeit bossy, person. When combined, these two qualities can lead to bouts of passive aggressive manipulation – but this works for me. Sometimes.

The Plan

Mr. Lee’s attitude about My Big Campus was very negative. So, obviously I spent the rest of the week and the following weekend plotting my next move. Since I knew that the other two teachers on my team were sold on MBC, I decided to recruit them in my mission to get Mr. Lee to log on. They readily agreed.

Our plan was to meet as a team on Tuesday to discuss different ways to increase students’ agenda use. After throwing out a couple of ideas not related to technology, I would bring up MBC as a tool for posting our agendas all in one place. In order for this to be effective, we would need to have consistency across the team. Mr. Lee would have to agree…right?

The Meeting

We met informally on Tuesday in Ms. Newton’s room, and Mr. Lee was adamant that the plan to post our weekly agendas on MBC would not work.  Our debate lasted for forty-five minutes, and tempers were hot. Mr. Lee just could not see the point in posting his weekly agenda online when it was already posted in his class.

He was also concerned that he would have to spend hours learning how to use MBC, just to have it taken away by the district in a year or two. Apparently this happens often, and, as a new teacher, it was an issue that had never crossed my mind. While he has a valid point, I doubt the district would take away the program if many teachers use it; especially since MBC doesn’t cost anything.

In the end, Mr. Lee agreed to post his agenda on MBC, but he made it clear that he did not see the point in doing so. I invited him to the second MBC workshop after school the next day, but he couldn’t attend that one. I agreed to work with him individually after school.

One on one with Mr. Lee

We met in his room after school, and I walked him through the program. Initially I planned to only show him how to log on, create groups, and post his weekly schedule, but he kept asking questions about the other features of MBC. Our meeting turned into a crash course on all things My Big Campus.

Working with Mr. Lee was an interesting experience. He argued with me every step of the way, but he also asked new questions. It was almost as if there are two different sides to Mr. Lee: the side that wants to learn more about how to use technology in his classroom, and the fearful side that is afraid to experiment with something new. While I appreciate his efforts, the two hours I spent trying to introduce him to MBC was exhausting.

I was right about Mr. Lee being a digital immigrant – but unlike most digital immigrants, Mr. Lee is fresh off the boat. He constantly second guessed whether or not he should click on something, as if the computer would explode if he clicked on the wrong button.

We played the “what if” game with every new thing that I showed him. Some of his “what ifs” were valid, but others were a bit far-fetched. You can see a few snippets of his what-ifs below:

Snippet Number One:

Me: So you just log in by using the same log in and password as your email.

Mr. Lee: But is that safe?

Me: What do you mean?

Mr. Lee: Once I put in that information, anybody from My Big Campus can see my information.

Me: No they can’t…

Mr. Lee: But they will have my password. I can get in trouble with the district for giving them this information.

Me: Well, the district set up the account for you. I don’t think you will get in trouble for using the account they set up for you.

Mr. Lee: Ok, but if I get in trouble I am telling them that you told me to do it this way.

Me: Of course, just send them my way.

Snippet Number Two:

Mr. Lee: What if I post my schedule on My Big Campus on Monday, but then I have to change it by Wednesday?

Me: Then you can easily log in and change it, like this.

Mr. Lee: But what if a parent sees it on Monday, and then questions why I had to change it on Wednesday?

Me: …Then you can explain to that parent why you had to change it.

Mr. Lee: But what if that parent gets angry because I changed it?

Me: Then we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

Snippet Number Three:

Mr. Lee: What if a student posts something inappropriate to My Big Campus?

Me: Oh, let me show you the reports button…

Mr. Lee: But what if a student posts something not nice about a teacher?

Me: Well, if it is inappropriate we can see it through the reports, and take action from there.

Mr. Lee: But then other students will see it, and think poorly of that teacher.

Me: Well…they do that anyway by talking to each other, so…

Needless to say, Mr. Lee depleted my patience jar for the week.

It was clear to me after our meeting just how much I take for granted. I have an inherent trust in many of these online programs (don’t worry, I am also cautious). Mr. Lee on the other hand is very nervous around something that he doesn’t understand, especially if his students understand it better than he does.

Regardless, I was very excited by the end of the meeting. Despite his hesitance, Mr. Lee actually posted a video for his students to watch on their own time, and he liked the fact that he could make his videos available to the students outside of class.

I don’t know how much Mr. Lee will actually use MBC, but I do know that he is now familiar with what it can offer – and that is a step in the right direction.