Author: Alicia Ray

Time Tracker Test

/ Alicia Ray / Leave a comment

RainbowUmbrellaMJ

Last night I really struggled with some internal battles. I should have been on cloud nine as this has been an incredibly fulfilling week. My school rocked our first Teach Like A Pirate Day (more on that in a separate blog later), our Community Game Night was a success, and I got to co-facilitate two terrific #BreakoutEDU games, one for every 7th grade science class and the other for every 6th grade social studies class!

There were a few setbacks; I felt pretty rough Monday night and Tuesday and my youngest daughter had the stomach bug Thursday night. My daughters are excited about Christmas which means they are a bit wild(er than normal). Combine that with getting less than ideal amounts of sleep, I was operating on a short fuse at home.

However, none of that was enough to make me feel as melancholy as I was feeling last night. I even tweeted about it – which I VERY rarely do. Typically my tweets are insanely positive, but last night, I just couldn’t help myself. I had to share my thoughts.

Of course, my amazing PLN responded with love and kindness.

I just kept trying to figure out what was getting under my skin though. Reflecting on the week, I began thinking about self-care and balance. That’s when I remembered that my Balance Like A Pirate implementation for #DBCBookBlogs was to track what I did every 30-60 minutes and determine which quadrant (professional, personal, passion, and positional) those activities belonged in.

I may have cheated a bit because I didn’t do this throughout the week as I had intended, but by thinking backward through my week I was able to account for each of the major things I did this week. I used this spreadsheet to write down my activities (feel free to make a copy of your own). The results were pretty much what I expected.

Out of the 168 hours in a week, I spent a little over 50 hours sleeping. Subtracting that time, because it doesn’t really fit into one of the quadrants as it’s a necessity, I was left with roughly 115 waking hours this week.

Positional

My Positional responsibilities ate up over half of this time this week. The Positional quadrant includes my role at my job; it’s what “pays the bills”, as the authors of Balance Like A Pirate, Sarah, Jessica and Jessica say. This doesn’t always take up over half of my week. This coming week, for example, I am blessed to be able to spend the week with my family for Christmas break. However, in the past week, I spent over 52 hours physically at work, over 7 hours working from home, approximately 10 hours commuting (including running my daughters to practice, etc) and nearly 7 hours showering and getting ready for work. If I did the math right, that leaves me with less than 40 hours in my week. (This is easily an example of why teachers advocate for a higher salary and summers off. I worked over 60 hours this week.)

Professional

Our professional responsibilities are how we continue to learn and grow in our ability to serve our students and staff. This week, I spent less time in this quadrant than usual. Normally, I spend over an hour on Twitter chats nightly, connecting with educators from across the globe to improve my practices and revisit my educational philosophies. I also did not read a professional book this week (odd, I know!) and this is my only blog post this week. I was able to connect with my PLN on Sunday night for two of my favorite chats, #teachpos and #BeKindEDU, Monday night was an incredible #tlap conversation, and this morning I enjoyed the #LeadLAP chat. I have also been taking an online course and spent some time today revisiting and learning about self-care from the one and only, Dan Tricarico (author of The Zen Teacher AND nearly released Sanctuaries).

I highly recommend diving into Dan’s courses, in addition to his books. I finished his first course, which is an introduction of sorts to self-care called Self-Care Starter Kit. I am currently nearing the halfway point of another of his courses, Self-Care 101, and am enjoying the breathing exercises and mantras he takes you through. I really appreciate that he gives us permission to take care of ourselves. Dan reminds us that it’s okay to be idle; we must schedule this time for ourselves. He says that self-care isn’ t meant to be something extra, something added to your schedule. It’s actually about subtracting, about taking things away to make time for yourself. Carve out some time in your schedule to go through one of Dan’s courses! You can go to zenprocourses.com for more information. He breaks the courses into 5-7 minute videos, so it’s easy to take bite-sized pieces. Trust me, it’s good stuff. This week I’ve spent around 9 hours in the professional quadrant.

Personal

So the personal quadrant is all about who you are outside of your job. It’s about all of the others titles you hold. For me, these include Believer, mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend, niece, aunt, cousin, nursery volunteer, dog mom to our almost 11 year old shih-tzu, etc. Some of the personal quadrant is a joy. Others, however, are not so much fun. I spent nearly 10 hours this week doing “chores” (I miss getting an allowance for these things, don’t you?!). We do a ridiculous amount of laundry, and with our youngest daughter being a newly-diagnosed type 1 diabetic, we spend a lot of time packing lunch and counting carbohydrates as we continue to get used to managing her blood sugar.

Checking homework and cleaning the house and the car are also among chores I don’t enjoy. Finally, with both my youngest daughter and I being sick this week, I didn’t waste any time taking the trash off. We had to do some last minute shopping this week for the holidays  in addition to our normal grocery store visit.

However, there are many parts of my personal quadrant that I greatly enjoy! These are times when my daughters and I are laughing together doing karaoke in the car line at school, or when our family enjoys Christmas movies lounging on one another on our sectional. (We got two movies in this week!) We spent about 7 hours eating meals as a family this week, while other meal times were spent at work/school or on demand. Throughout the week, we spent about an hour tucking our kids in bed. We spent a little over 2 hours at church on Sunday. I am a volunteer in our church nursery, so I loved on the babies during one service and attended the next one. During that service, our oldest daughter Bailey was baptized based on her profession of faith, which was a huge celebration in our family.

The last few hours (only about five hours this week) were spent reflecting as I lay in bed at night before I fall asleep, playing games on my phone, watching TV, and just relaxing.

Passion

So where does that leave room for my quadrant of passion? According to Balance Like A Pirate, our passion quadrant includes that which gets us out of bed every morning. I am incredibly lucky in that my profession, my position, and my family are all passions of mine. Sure there are parts of my position that I’m not passionate about, and those chores I don’t enjoy. However, I typically can find joy in most of what I do.

So why was I have such a tough night last night? Why did I feel as if the rainbow on the umbrella in the image drawn by my student (isn’t it beautiful?!?!) was being erased rather than being exposed?

I’m still not sure, to be honest. Part of those same feelings from last night are still lingering today, but blogging is really helping. I am in the middle of writing my story, my implementation from Stories from Webb and Run Like A Pirate. I wasn’t able to take any time this week to write part of that, so perhaps that is what is bothering me. I am expecting to finish the writing of my story during Christmas break, so hopefully that will lift a weight off my shoulders. It’s been on my mind incessantly since this spring, so having it “out of my head” and “onto paper” (errrr, Google Doc) should free up some headspace. (Possibly? I’ve never done this before so we’ll see if that really happens, ha!)

So back to my Balance Like A Pirate implementation. Passion is embedded within my other three quadrants, so based on this week my positional quadrant took two-thirds of my waking hours, while the personal quadrant was given about 25% of my waking hours. The remainder (less than 10%) was spent in the professional quadrant. I was surprised to see the professional quadrant being so limited, and perhaps that is the real reason I felt so off-kilter last night. I have devoted so much time to professional growth in 2018, that maybe I felt as if I was neglecting that this week.

Either way, the most important thing to remember is that there is no such thing as perfect balance. It’s just not going to happen. Instead, we will constantly fluctuate between our quadrants based on our needs that week, that day, even within that hour. It’s about finding joy and having an attitude of gratitude. It’s about making the time to take care of ourselves and acknowledging those moments like I had last night. I truly feel like it’s important to share those moments with others, because we all have them. It’s equally as important to pick yourself back up and move forward, so others can see perseverance and determination. I’m picking myself back up and am determined to have a tremendous week with my family during this holiday season.

 

#DBCBookBlogs: Stop. Right. Now.

/ Alicia Ray / 1 Comment

It’s been a minute and I have missed writing #DBCBookBlogs posts! I am so thankful that book 59 was released last week and mine came in quicker than I expected. As soon as I received my Amazon notification that it was delivered, I knew what I’d be doing tonight! Dave Burgess, President of Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc, best-selling author of Teach Like A Pirate, and co-author (with his wife and fellow educator, Shelley) of P is for Pirate, tweeted earlier today:

Boy, was he right!!! My toes were stepped on, I questioned some of the things the authors suggest to stop, and I whole-heartedly agreed with others! My feathers got ruffled a few times. I’ll be the first to say that I don’t agree with every word in this book; however, I put my big girl undies on and enjoyed reading the educational conversation about each point. With that being said, you don’t have to agree with everything they share to find something that you have within your power to Stop. Right. Now. Jump in with Jimmy Casas and Jeff Zoul (co-authors of Start. Right. Now. with Todd Whitaker) to discover the 39 things they believe we should stop in order to make schools better.

stoprightnow

Here’s my completely raw, wide-open, honest, I-just-finished-this-book reflection. I had several moments where my toes were stepped on and I was convicted because I knew I did those things. I also had several moments where I literally said out loud, “Do whaaat? Oh, no, they didn’t!” There were moments that I would love to watch people with WAY more educational experience and research-based statistics go head to head arguing about the merit of that particular stop… all while I pull up a big bowl of kettle corn (way better than popcorn anyday) and a Big Gulp of Sprite! It would be the ultimate version of Celebrity Death Match minus the whole death part (yeah, I used to watch that on MTV – embarrassing).

With all of that bias and judgment in mind, this book was another incredible addition to the Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc line. Even the stops I didn’t agree with were met with valuable explanations of their opinions. I could follow their line of thought. There were some that I eventually joined their line of thought even though I was vehemently against it when I read the title of that chapter. There were FAR more stops that I agree with than those I didn’t agree with, and making those stops (ahem, right now, ahem) will certainly change education for the better!

The book is organized by stops written as chapters. I loved that each chapter was written in the same format. I knew what to expect. They started with what “it” was that we needed to stop, why we need to stop doing it, and how we can do better as educators. Each of the stops can be put into one (or more) of five areas. Each area begins with a P – Practices, Programs, Processes, Philosophies, and People. These stops are not organized in any order throughout the book, but I’m an organizer (it’s a blessing and a curse), so I created a quick graphic with the stops under the most prominent category (understanding that some stops easily lend themselves to more than one area).

StopRightNow (1)

Click here for StopRightNow PDF.

A few that stood out to me were Saying I Hate Change, Preparing Students for the Next Level, and Relying on the Same People to Lead.

I am 110% guilty of saying that I hate change. The reality is that I don’t really hate change, but I hate feeling out of control. If I am in control of whatever the change is, I wonder what the problem is of those who aren’t getting on board. Ironic, right? I should know exactly what their problem is, because it’s my problem every time I’m in their shoes. I tend to get a bit bent out of shape when I don’t know what’s coming. Many times, change goes hand-in-hand with the unknown. So rather than saying I hate change, I should be confronting what’s really bothering me… a lack of control and the unknown.

I taught fifth grade for over seven years before beginning my role as a media coordinator. Every year around Christmas, I would stop checking planners for students. I expected the students to bring me notes from home if they had one. What was my defense every time a parent complained that their child didn’t have their homework written down or that I didn’t receive their note? I’m getting them ready for middle school. Looking back, what a ridiculous thought that was. They weren’t ready for me to release that responsibility to them all at once. I needed to focus on preparing them for right then.

I was reading a blog post from Dave Burgess earlier today very similar to this very thing!  In it, he says he “gets a bit confrontational when asked, ‘Don’t you worry about the fact that you are making school so engaging and fun that when they get to their college classes or to a real job they won’t be prepared?’

His response:

“So what people are saying when they ask this is basically, ‘Okay…since life is going to suck for these kids later, shouldn’t we make it suck now, too, so they’ll be ready for it?’ I don’t buy it, at all.”

My middle schoolers are middle schoolers. Just because my eighth graders will be freshmen next year doesn’t mean that I should treat them like freshmen now. They are still eighth graders! What’s ironic about this whole thing is that when our sixth graders come to us in the fall, we commonly say, “Well, they’re really still just like fifth graders”… the irony is that those fifth grade teachers have been trying to get them ready to be sixth graders (I know, because I was one of those teachers). I love Jeff & Jimmy’s thoughts on this so much that I created a graphic for it and tweeted it this evening. “Prepare them thoroughly at their current level,” they say.

There is so much truth to that! If we prepare them for RIGHT NOW, they will be prepared for the next level coming at them by default.

Finally, selecting the same people to lead stood out to me. It did so because I’ve been on both sides of this argument. I was the one who desperately wanted to go to our state technology conference. The only way we were able to attend was to be chosen by our district OR to submit a proposal and be accepted to present. Well, I wasn’t about to submit a proposal – I wanted to learn, not teach! I didn’t feel “ready” to present at a state conference when I had never even presented within my own school or district! I was never chosen by my district as it was the same people always asked to attend and I was so frustrated by that! The professional jealousy was real, y’all. Now, I’m completely on the other side; I’m asked to do so much that I’m stretched too thin as times. Thankfully my director has been preaching this exact same thing for years, so he really makes it a point to purposefully select others to step up and he builds leadership capacity in them. This has allowed me to step back into my role at my school, as well as have time to do things like #DBC50Summer and create my own professional growth opportunities. I’ve gotten over the insecurities that went with not being chosen for this conference or that event or this committee. It’s awfully nice to have that weight lifted; I’ve got to be perfectly honest about that.

My implementation? I’m going to focus on the Gots rather than the Nots! What are people doing rather than what they are not doing! It’s so easy to get pulled into the frustration and negativity when I’m busting my tail to be the very best educator I can be and do all I can do for my students and teachers while seeing others run in the school at the last minute and dash out the door the second they can leave. Instead of being aggravated, I choose to focus on the positive. I will assume the best of others and focus on what the strengths of others are, rather than breathing life into the things that drive me crazy.

There is so much to love about Stop. Right. Now! As I type, it’s the number 1 new release in Experimental Education Methods on Amazon and for good reason. Even the parts I didn’t agree with, I enjoyed reading and I love that it challenged my thinking as I read. Now I’m reconsidering some of my own philosophies, which can only strengthen my educational practices! I love books and conversations that make me do that! This was one of those books that made me wonder how I even felt about a topic so I could form an opinion before continuing the chapter. I had no idea how I felt about professional dress code; I’d never even stopped to consider it. Now, I have a philosophy on dress code (and no worries, Jeff and Jimmy – I won’t be complaining about it).

Definitely take the time to grab a copy of the latest addition to the DBC collection! Book 59 won’t disappoint! It’s a pretty quick read and is full of thought-provoking conversation starters! Be sure to hop on over the Flipgrid (it’s still available) to share your thoughts! The question relates to school calendar, but feel free to share any reflections you have on the book! Check out the amazing website for DBC to find information about each of the Pirate Authors and how to connect with them on social media. The book says to use #StopRightNow to discuss ideas from the book, but I’ve also seen (and used) #StopRightNow39 as a way to differentiate between the book and the popular phrase.

I’m so excited to see which books ends up being Book 60. Several folks are posting on social media about upcoming books with DBC including Dan Tricarico‘s Sanctuaries, Tamara Letter‘s A Passion for Kindness, and Lisa Johnson‘s book Creatively Productive. It looks like 2019 is going to be another amazing year for DBC, which means tons of #DBCBookBlogs posts! I can’t wait to see what the new year has in store for us!

Rumor has it… Teach Like A Pirate will be out on audiobook soon!!! And BONUS: it’s read by the Captain himself! <squeeee> How do I know that? Easy! I’m signed up for the DBC eNewsletter! With that I get the #SundaySeven with tidbits from DBC and their authors and a monthly newsletter that lets the DBC readers know what’s coming up soon! If you aren’t signed up, click the link here and sign up where it says Subscribe to the DBCI eNews on the side!

Stained Glass and Snowflakes

/ Alicia Ray / Leave a comment

Stations. The best unkept secret in education.

Snowflakes are hexagonal… perhaps the best kept secret in advertising.

macro photography of snowflake

Photo by Egor Kamelev on Pexels.com

During #DBC50Summer, I followed every author from Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc on Twitter and love being connected to them! One of the funniest authors is easily Denis Sheeran, author of Instant Relevance. His sense of humor pulled me into his book and now I get to enjoy his wit through social media. He created a hashtag to serve as a Public Service Announcement. Snowflakes are hexagons. Really! #Snowflakesarehexagons

The poetry written to the companies along with the photos of his own version of “false advertisement” cracks me up! With those posts, do you know what he did? He made me stop and count the dang sides of every. single. snowflake. in every. single. ad. I see.

Our amazing 8th grade math teachers, Ms. Luce & Mrs. Hawks, and I had already planned to do an extension of a PBL in MinecraftEDU. The students had learned about how linear functions are used to create stained glass windows. They had a guest speaker a few weeks ago who actually showed them how she creates stained glass and students have been creating their own stained glass (by coloring) and figuring out the linear function in slope-intercept form of each line. In MinecraftEDU, students could create a stained glass of their choosing. This could be done by modifying the one they created with linear functions to be “blocky” so it could be built in the game, they could create anything from scratch, or they could look up pixel art and use stained glass blocks or wool to create it.

This gave us two stations in our classes, but we needed a third. I had just discovered that Sprite had six-pointed snowflakes on their product (thanks to Denis’s Twitter PSA) and thought students might have fun discovering which products had “the right snowflakes” on them.

Our third station was a huge hit!

First, students searched for snowflakes in advertising and shared an image they found on a Padlet. Bonus for me: I get to talk about digital citizenship next week and have students determine if this was best practice for using images! (Hint: No, no it was not.)

After finding an image, they read one of the three articles referenced in Denis’s blog post Snowflakes are Hexagons. They were to secretly tell me how many sides every snowflake has and why it has that many sides based on their research.

Upon giving me the correct answer, the students did exactly as Denis suggests in his blog… they created paper snowflakes. There were a lot of octagons, decagons, quadrilaterals, and circles, until finally someone used their resources and googled “How to make a six-sided snowflake.” HA! My principal suggested taking it up a notch further. These paper snowflakes (with the correct number of sides, of course) will be used as decorations for their Winter Dance in December.

Check out a few of their creations that I tweeted out! There are dozens and dozens of hexagonal snowflakes in our media center now!

 

Then, this morning, this kid blew me away!

The MinecraftEDU station turned out pretty fantastic, too! I am currently working to upload the file on my YouTube channel and will embed here when finished, but for now, check out this link to a walkthrough on my Google Drive. (There is no sound.) I was so impressed with what they built in the 25-30 minutes they had available to create. Several came before and after school as well as during their lunch to finish their stained glass pixel art and more have asked to return this week. Students showed one another how to “light up” their windows using glowstone, so when the world turns to night it glows in the most beautiful colors!

I am so proud of the students I serve, and the teachers were blown away by both their stained glass creations and their unique snowflakes. This was one of those times that we got it right. Thank you, Denis for inspiring a way to make learning relevant for our students! This definitely serves as one implementation (I’m sure there will be many more to come) for my #DBC50Summer post on Instant Relevance! I am honored that our 8th grade math teachers trusted me to help create this PBL extension and spur-of-the-moment lesson on snowflakes. I’m looking forward to more lessons like this!