This is My Brain on Evernote

So now I have all of this wonderful information funneling into my world through my coursework, professional development, fellow teachers and other resources.  The information is wonderful, yet if I stuff one more piece of information directly into my brain I will forget something important like my children's names or my mother's phone number.  With my limited capacity in mind, I began to explore Evernote.

     Evernote has web clippers available for my smart phone, my laptop and my tablet.  If I read something interesting, I can clip it, place it in a folder and tag it from any device and it shares across all devices.  The number of tags a user can create is unlimited.  The number of folders a user can create is large, but not unlimited.  I have many tags but only two folders.  My "bagged and tagged" folder holds information I have read and tagged.  My "first folder" serves as a to do list calling up anything I think might be interesting, but have not had the opportunity to read and tag.  I will occasionally create a folder for a specific project, specifically when sharing group work.

     Designing your Evernote account from scratch begins with a considerable amount of personal reflection.  I needed to create an online storage source that mirrors my thought process as a teacher. The information I create or find online, in class and through Twitter converges account in three important ways:  Curriculum, literary canon and professional resources.  I created an Evernote infrastructure that reflects my own divergent thought process and can grow as my resources develop. 

      I began my curricular organization using Inspiration 9 software to create a detailed map of the ELA Common Core Standards. This is a map of each path I need to cover within my teaching year.

     The Common Core Standards for ELA are layered across four methods of communication used in English; writing, reading, speaking/listening and language.  There is a considerable amount of concept repetition among the standards.  For example, assessing the credibility of written material is very similar to assessing the credibility of spoken material.  I combined any similar standards and created a list of each individual concept.  From this list I created my first type of tag:  Curriculum.  Here is a sample tag:

     My tag list counts the number of notes with a particular tag, making it possible to use my tag list to assess my curriculum for weak areas.  For example, I currently have a large number of resources for vocabulary. However, I have very few tags with regard to informational writing making that my next area of research. 

     My second type of tag is a straightforward reflection of literary canon.  It contains the author and title of the a piece of literature.   I also file informational text about the life and times of a particular author in a general file under the author’s name.  For example:

Lit.Twain.TomSawyer

Lit.Shakespeare.general

     I can use my literary tags in the same way to determine my balance of fiction and non-fiction writing.  I can also cross tag my literature and curriculum resources.  For example, instead of using only Edgar Alan Poe to discuss mood and tone, I can search my Evernote for "Mood" and the results will include any mentor text I've encountered to help teach the concept.  This feature adds variety to my lesson planning and is particularly helpful when trying to personalize learning across a large number of students. 

     My third type of tag revolves around research, best practices and professional development.  There are any number of outside influences affecting my work within a classroom.  My “PD” tags organize the girth of information and resources flooding a teacher’s world every day.  I began my PD tags with units of study in each of my graduate courses; their expansion reflects my interests, the professional development opportunities I have enjoyed and more.    Here are examples of my assessment tags:

Pd.assess.MC

Pd.assess.Formative

Pd.assess.standard

     I will need to ground my teaching in solid practices and methodology in order to serve my students and fellow teachers well.   This segment of my tag population is built to grow in order to include curated information about new trends, ideas or current issues in education. 

   I have an enormous box in my dining room filled with lesson plans, book lists, and other information I have gleaned from my mentor teachers.  With Evernote I am able to scan those resources digitally enabling me to build a working resource base and to once again have guests over for dinner.  I also look forward to scanning and compiling student work to incorporate into my planning. 

     Evernote also gives you the ability to annotate documents and PDF's.  I anticipate using Evernote to teach annotation and evidence gathering within my classroom activities.  To do so will enable each of my students to design a personal knowledge base, cataloging their research across multiple grade levels as they dig deeper into each concept.  But that is another blog for when I have my own classroom.  

     Meanwhile, Evernote is an important part of my growth and reflection as a teacher.  

My Current and Ever Expanding Tag List

Curricular Resources Based on CCSS.

Curr.argument.context, 

Curr.argument.evidence, 

Curr.argument.POV, 

Curr.argument.reasoning, 

curr.booklists, 

Curr.colab.groupdiscussion, 

Curr.colab.listening, 

Curr.colab.persuasive, 

Curr.colab.showknow, 

Curr.collab.ideas,

curr.figurative, 

curr.figurative.aliteration, 

Curr.info.analysis,

 curr.info.comprehension,

 Curr.info.integration, 

Curr.info.organization, 

curr.info.planning, 

Curr.info.research, 

curr.info.text, 

Curr.Lit.games, 

Curr.Lit.Tech, 

Curr.media.interp, 

Curr.Media.use, 

Curr.narrative.characters, 

Curr.narrative.context, 

Curr.narrative.events, 

Curr.narrative.POV, 

Curr.narrative.structure, 

Curr.narrative.theme, 

curr.poetry, 

curr.rich.general, 

curr.shortstory, 

Curr.Speaking.group,

Curr.Speech, 

Curr.Speech.graduation, 

Curr.theater,

Curr.vocab.etymology, 

Curr.vocab.figurative, 

Curr.vocab.linguistics, 

Curr.vocab.nuanced, 

Curr.vocab.phrases, 

Curr.vocab.reference, 

Curr.vocab.words, 

curr.wp, 

Curr.WProcess.development, 

Curr.WProcess.planning, 

Curr.WProcess.prompts, 

Curr.WProcess.structure, 

Curr.WProcess.style, 

Curr.WProduct.context, 

Curr.WProduct.editing, 

Curr.WProduct.grammar, 

Curr.WProduct.publishing, 

Curr.WProduct.rewriting, 

Curr.WProduct.wordchoice, 

Curr.Writing.tech

Literary Resources/Mentor Texts

Lit.Auden.Funeralblues,

Lit.Austin.general,

lit.Bierce.Devilsdisctionary,

lit.bradbury.dandelion,

lit.bradbury.general,

lit.bradbury.wicked,

lit.bukowski,

lit.cabrera.rudy,

Lit.cervantes.Quixote,

Lit.Chaucer.General,

Lit.Collins.HungerGames,

Lit.Conrad.Heartdarkness,

Lit.Dante.DivineComedy,

lit.doyle.baskerville,

Lit.Dubois.letters,

Lit.Einstien.letters,

Lit.eliot.lovesongprufrock,

Lit.Elliot.AncientMariner,

Lit.Fable,

lit.ferlinghetti.11,

Lit.Fitzgerald.Gatsby,

lit.frost.roadnottaken,

lit.gaiman,

Lit.general,

Lit.Gibran.Autumnleaves,

Lit.Gibson,

lit.gray.churchyard,

Lit.GreekMythology,

Lit.Hemingway.general,

Lit.Jones.Marshall.touchscreen,

Lit.Kafka.general,

lit.kaplan.lincoln,

Lit.Kivi.SevenBrothers,

Lit.Lee.Mockingbird,

Lit.Lewis.General,

lit.lovecraft.general,

Lit.Lowry.Giver,

Lit.mcmanus.grasshoppertrap

Lit.Melville.Mobydick,

lit.miller.crucible,

Lit.mythology,

Lit.Nash.Isabel,

Lit.Nietche,

Lit.Orwell.Animalfarm,

Lit.Parody,

lit.plato.republic,

Lit.Poe.CaskAmontillado,

Lit.Poe.General,

Lit.Poe.Raven, Lit.Poe.Telltale,

lit.rand.general,

lit.scifi,

Lit.Seuss.GreenEggs,

Lit.Shakespeare.general,

Lit.Shakespeare.Hamlet,

Lit.Shakespeare.JuliusCasear,

Lit.Shakespeare.MacBeth,

Lit.Shakespeare.MuchAdo,

Lit.Shakespeare.RomeoJuliet,
Lit.Shakespeare.Tempest,

lit.Shelley.Frankenstein,

Lit.Silverstein,

Lit.Stockton.LadyTiger,

 Lit.Thoreau.Walden,

Lit.Tolkein.LOTR,

lit.turing,

Lit.Twain.general,

Lit.Twain.HuckFinn,

lit.urban.johncougar,

lit.verne.80days,

lit.waites,

lit.wallace.general,

Lit.Watterson.CalvinHobbes,

lit.whitman.captain

Professional Development Topics

pd.accom,

PD.accom.ADHD,

PD.accom.aut, 

PD.Accom.dislexia,

 PD.accom.ELL,

PD.accom.gifted,

PD.accom.loss,

PD.accom.OG,

PD.assess.essay,

PD.assess.MC,

PD.assess.project, 

PD.assess.stand,

PD.assess.tech, 

PD.assessment.data, 

PD.Authentic,

PD.blended,

PD.booklists, 

PD.Civicengagement, 

PD.class.culture, 

PD.class.culture.bullying, 

PD.class.culture.character, 

pd.class.culture.cheating,

PD.class.culture.conflict, 

PD.class.culture.grit, 

PD.class.decor, 

PD.class.discipline, 

PD.class.man.tech, 

PD.class.managementplan, 

PD.class.organization,

PD.clipart, 

PD.collaboration.strategy, 

PD.collaboration.tech, 

PD.communication, 

pd.crossover.history, 

PD.Crossover.Math,

pd.decor,

Pd.engagement, 

PD.freeresources,

Pd.gaming,

PD.innovation,

Pd.inquiry, 

PD.lessonpan.strategies,

PD.lessonplan.graphorg, 

PD.lessonplan.ideas, 

PD.lessonplan.search, 

PD.lessonplan.tech, 

PD.lessonplan.tech.flipped, 

PD.opensource.resources, 

pd.personalized,

pd.projectbased, 

PD.reading.strategies, 

PD.reading.tech,

PD.reflection,

PD.RTI,

pd.tech.blended,

pd.tech.blog, 

Pd.tech.digitalcitizenship, 

Pd.tech.resources,

pd.tech.video,

Pd.tech.webdesign

Selective Listening

Excuses are the antithesis of opportunity.

     As a teacher I find it easy to fall into the trap of "He is a _________, so he won't be able to do it", instead of "He is a _____________ so I need to _____________", When I feel myself slipping, when my balance is off, I remember my friend Frank. 

      Students like Frank, today, are considered morbidly obese. It was that day in PE we all dreaded, Frank most of all. We needed to make the mile run. Students would run, jog, walk or meander through the task with little in the way of thought or effort. For most teachers, most years, looking at Frank was the only wordless excuse necessary. He would never finish. He had never finished. This year was different. 

      As Frank began to struggle, our teacher dropped his clipboard and started running the mile next to him. Step by step, they ran through the class period. They ran through the bell. They ran as long as Frank needed. I do not know which excruciating footfall had the greatest impact for Frank, but a quiet moment came when he changed.

      Two days later Frank approached the PE teacher and asked to join our Cross Country team. His running stats were five to ten times longer than those of his teammates, but he finished. He listened to his peers complain about bringing down their average, but he finished. He got sick at every meet, but he finished. Sometimes it was after the awards ceremony started, but he finished.

      Eventually, the team realized what was happening with Frank was bigger than all of us. His teammates would finish their race, find Frank and finish their race again by his side. Frank became the heart of our Cross Country team because his teacher heard his excuses and taught him how to finish the race. 

      Hearing an excuse and accepting an excuse are two different things. Frank's teacher created a " No Excuses" environment without ever losing sight of Frank. He saw his student's excuse and met that excuse with understanding, scaffolding his teaching to meet Frank's need. Rue Ratray said something similar, "The very best teachers aren't just No Excuses. The Know Excuses. They don't accept them. But they know them and manage them." 

      Motherhood has convinced me of the importance of "selective listening," the art of processing a child's excuses by throwing away obstacles and using the rest as a teaching tool. Frank, his teacher and their perseverance guide me reaction to a student's excuses and continue to help me find the right balance within my own classroom.

All that Twitters is not Gold

    

     As I move from my coursework at the University of Rhode Island out into the professional teaching world my personal knowledge acquisition moves from knowledge hand delivered from books and professors to information I must seek out and evaluate on my own.  The university resources I have saved over the last year provide an excellent metric for credible and usable materials.   A teacher is only as strong as his or her ability to seek, acquire and organize resources.  Graduation will be upon me before I know it, making it important for me to expand my horizons and create a similar metric with which to find and vet new information about the education environment. 

     One of my many channels for remaining connected with great people, great energy and great tools is Twitter.  I have not mastered Twitter as a sales and marketing tool.   However, I am an avid Twitter stalker.  As such, several of my peers have asked about the secret art of the Twitter ninja.  What I do is pretty simple; I clip therefore I am.
   I use Twitter to create a funnel through which I can sift information into my personal knowledge base. 

My Ninja Twitter Funnel of Silent and Deadly Awesomeness.

    My Twitter funnel is based on credibility of source and practical application.  For example, in the outer layer of “everyone on earth”, I do not follow @JustinBeiber because he adds little to the quality of my life.  However, I do follow certain authors or characters, like @Frank_Underwood, Geoffrey Chaucer, @TheMarkTwain and @PopShakespeare.  While it can be disconcerting when fictional or dead people follow you back on Twitter, these accounts post fun pieces of information that add depth and spunk to my lesson planning.  I was able to watch Geoffrey Chaucer and Mark Twain on a cross country road trip last year and as a Twitter Ninja, I have the ability to direct message @God. 

      The second layer of my Twitter funnel concerns people, foundations and companies with a purpose parallel to my needs as a teacher.  These organizations frequently post materials that add to my depth of knowledge professionally.  They are often a way to learn of the latest and greatest in the way of technology or best practices.  However, the second tier of Tweeters generally come with an agenda that affects their credibility.  If there products are worth their salt, the will sprinkle down into my third Twitter layer.

     The final layer I reserve for teachers and administrators, many of whom I know personally.  Through the list function in Twitter, I can view just the ideas hailing from or used by teachers every day in a classroom.  While I clip things from each layer of my Twitter funnel, the information I glean from the “boots on the ground” teachers is often most valuable. I also use my teacher friends as a great source for farming #hashtags.  The Q. or A. in front of a tweet indicates participation in a dedicated conversation between teachers and admins.  I frequently seek out and mine these specific conversations for reliable resources.

     The information I find online, in class and through Twitter converges into my personal knowledge base.  To organize this information I use an Evernote account reflecting my own divergent thought process and growing as my resources develop.  Stay tuned next time for my long promised and eagerly awaited blog on designing an Evernote to reflect the Common Core Standards for English.  

Until next time, here's to hoping we all teach better tomorrow. 

Being Able

     My classroom teacher “pushes in” or shares time with an English Language Learner (ELL) class during the day and where she goes, I learn.  The English Language Learners are a part of her regular classroom, but they spend some time every day in a classroom specifically designed for those learning English.  The ELL support was divided into four levels by ability instead of grade level.  For example, my classroom teacher’s ELL class consisted of third level learners in grades six, seven and eight.

     It was in this ELL classroom I was able to work with a boy named we will call Able.  Able was struggling to write a biography about the life of Eminem.  He was flipping through his book, brow wrinkled, staring at the empty page in front of him.  As I walked by, he refused to look up.  I squatted next to him in order to make eye contact.   I began our conversation by asking about his biography topic.  From there we patiently worked through his outline adding detail and discussing parts of Eminem’s life and why they were important.  We worked hard to communicate with one another at times.  There were moments in which I forgot I was talking to an ELL learner and probably should have approached our task differently.  Yet, once he opened up, Able was engaged and engaging.  It took both time and effort, but his outline had more detail and I could see he was proud of what he was able to accomplish. 

     I can speak to the use of media to engage diverse learners or about respecting and appreciating the diversity in or school.  Yet, echoing the usual headline is not the same as making headway as a new teacher. After reflecting on my day, the lesson shaping me as a teacher comes directly from Able’s parents.  When he was born, his parents held him in their arms and named him “Able.”  They named him not because of what he did, he was probably no more than minutes old.  Their focus was on what he will do because of what he is “able”.  His parents believed in him.  His classroom teacher believes in him.  With a little help, Able believed in himself.   Supporting diverse learners begins with understanding each student as "Able" and empowering students like Able to find and believe in what they are able to do.

It may be easier for the parents to see hope for their newborn because their child has no past.  My challenge is to begin teaching each day with that rocking chair moment; seeing my students as small, fragile and full of future.