Thinking about Social Media and FERPA...

Okay, so this has been on my mind for a while. I am genuinely curious, and would LOVE responses on this topic, because I really want to understand all sides of this, and really need to work to figure out where I draw the line. I also want to apologize if this seems rambly or not as succinct as it could, or should be. This is basically a stream of consciousness, think-aloud about this topic, inspired by something I observed on facebook tonight, as well as other instances around social media.

As teachers, we all know (or should!) all about FERPA. We all know that our students, and their families, have legal rights to expect that their privacy, and the privacy of their child, is respected. So, where does that leave us as teachers on social media?

I've seen conversations of late where "anonymous" teacher questions were posted (teachers submit their question, another teacher posts it on her social media, and other teachers respond), but then the teacher who submitted the question has made public acknowledgement that it was her question, along with sharing details about the situation. Is that a violation of FERPA? To me, it would be. Do I know who that child is? No. Would other teachers who work in that building? Maybe. Would other parents from that building? Maybe. And that parent? Oh, that parent, seeing that conversation online, would certainly know to whom it was referring. That child and family have, in my mind, just had their FERPA rights violated. Just because we leave off names, it does not mean we aren't breaking FERPA.

I've read blog posts from teachers I think do a fabulous job, where they write about their students who struggle with behavior. I know we need a place and a way to vent. I know we should be able to write and blog about our lives and our experiences in the classroom. However, if you are a well-known (or even a totally unknown) teacher blogger, and a parent visits your website, and sees you going on about how you were doing such great things in your classroom, but then this nameless child went off, throwing things, etc, how is that parent going to feel knowing that it was his or her child? How do other parents feel when they read these summaries of life in your classroom? Is it a reality of teaching? Yes. Children aren't perfect. Some kiddos are struggling emotionally and academically, and don't have the skills or ability to manage their frustrations. Is it overwhelming for us as teachers? Yes. Do we have the right to publicly air our issues in social media? I don't think so. We CAN address things by asking questions, such as "what have you done when...", without giving details about the situation of a specific child in your classroom...if it is a question that can be generalized across many children, many experiences, without a specific story or example attached, I'm cool with that. I'm not cool with "here's this specific story that has just happened to me, what would you do?"

I'm not saying we need to paint a picture of teaching as sunshine, rainbows and unicorns. That's not useful for anyone. I am saying that we, as teachers, and as participants in social media, really need to remember that everything we put out there is visible to someone else...and that "someone else" may be one of our parents, grandparents, friend of a family, someone who loves that child, someone who may be embarrassed to see their challenges and frustrations put out in public for all to see. We don't need to agree with all parents, and we certainly need to be able to seek help when we need it, we just need to be thoughtful when we post, and remember, as frustrated as we can get, it is never okay to publicize private conversations.

As I said, this is really just my reflection on what I am seeing happening in social media...any thoughts and ideas would be appreciated!

Thanks!
Becca

Yikes! Blogging is Hard!

Hi!

Okay...

Yes. I am not the best blogger out there. No, I have not posted since September. Yes, that is bad. However...here's a bit of why!

Well, I think any teachers reading this know just how hard the start of the school year is. And when you aren't a solid blogger to begin with, it's one of the first things to fly out the window. Added to the start of the year crazy was the whole finishing-my-practicum for my masters thing. That took me until Christmas, and holy cow, was it a LOT of work!

Well, a month after Christmas, and here I am, back to give blogging another go! Here is what I am up to lately...

Lots and lots of SNOW. Yep, I live in Michigan, and we've gotten lots of the frozen white stuff this year. It's meant lots of days off from school (today included, and tomorrow highly likely).

Sewing :) I started sewing rather unexpectedly about two years ago, when I dove in head first making a doll for my niece. Two years later, my three daughters all now have new dolls (which 2/3 of them requested two years ago). I am finishing up the quilt for my youngest daughter's doll, as well as handsewing three little inchworms for my girls. I am finding it really relaxing!

Being a dance/tumbling mom. It's not much compared to many parents, but two nights a week at the dance studio is a lot for me.

Spending time with my family. This has been the nicest side effect of being done with "school"...I can close my computer, and BE with my family. My husband and I have been watching movies, Sherlock, Doctor Who, etc. So nice to spend time together.

But wait...this is a teaching blog, not a personal life blog! So...what have I been up to as a teacher?

Trying to adjust to our new method of providing interventions to our at-risk students. This has been hugely challenging for me. Not that I don't know how to reach them, but making the groupings work, managing the rest of class while I (and my assistant) are working with groups. This has been HUGELY challenging for me, and I have been brainstorming ways to improve what I am doing. It helps that my practicum is over, and now I can try to address student needs in the ways *I* think are appropriate, rather than to fit into a pre-outlined plan of intervention.

I am super excited because I have been asked to speak for TWO sessions at the MACUL conference here in Michigan. MACUL is the Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning, and I have gone to the conference for the past five years. I LOVE it, and always come back SO fired up for teaching with and learning from technology. I get to give the two presentations I have posted in my last post, and I can't wait! I am going to be busy over the next month polishing those presentations up, adding information, removing unnecessary "stuff" and so on. Very excited, but also very, very nervous to present! Plus, Erin Klein (who is amazing) is presenting at the conference as well, and ALSO speaking on Pinterest in Education...no pressure there!!! Yikes!

We also just found out that our district has been selected to pilot the new K-2 Common Core assessment. We are all working to keep a positive attitude about this (more assessment?), and keeping the point of view that we get to give honest, brutal feedback about how the whole process goes. It's a little overwhelming, but we'll figure it out!

Our principal softened the blow by sharing the news that our building is FINALLY catching up with others in the district in terms of technology! We are going to get more netbooks for our students to use, new (refurbished) computers for staff, and 2 iPads for every classroom! WOW!!! (May I just say...the teachers in my building have NEVER had "new" computers...we have always gotten hand-me-downs from other buildings, with Do Not Resuscitate notices attached (well, not really, but the tech guys all know...if a computer in our building breaks, don't waste your time fixing it), so this is a HUGE deal!!! We thought we were hot stuff finally getting upgraded from Microsoft Office 2003 earlier this year!).

Hmmm...Have I blathered on enough? I am excited to be blogging again, to be able to use this blog as a place to reflect, share, and build my PLN. Thanks for stopping by to read, I'm off to catch up on some blog reading of my own!

Becca

Prezis

So, I used Prezi, like, really USED Prezi, for the first time to create my presentations for our RESD wide PD day. I think they look pretty cool, I just pray they will work properly tomorrow!

Presentation One

Presentation Two

Tomorrow...

I am presenting at a Professional Development day for the first time. It's a bit nerve wracking. I'm a bit overwhelmed. And....due to my extreme talent at procrastination, I have spent the past 24 hours (well, 29 or so) putting together my presentations. I used Prezi...for the first time ever. Now that I know how to do it, it is not so bad, and I really kind of dig how the presentations came out.

Also...I replied to a tweet of Kevin Honeycutt's, and he is following me now! I know he follows a lot of people, but it's still pretty cool! Plus, I tweeted that I was excited to listen to him tomorrow afternoon (I AM!!! He was so fabulous to listen to at the MACUL conference!), but that I was nervous about presenting...and he tweeted me back. Ack...

I am going to post my Prezis on the bloggie here in just a minute...as an extra "back-up" of "let's be sure they are where I need them when I need them. Giving these presentations tomorrow is going to be quite a trip. I am really hoping they are the length they need to be. Though the first one may be a bit short, and the second a bit long...who knows? I guess we shall see tomorrow. Wish me luck, bloggie land!

--Becca

Wow!

Okay, so the first three weeks of school have kicked my behind! How about all of you?

I've been busy with all of the beginning of the year stuff, and have been keeping up the blog for my classroom/students/parents better than I have this one!

Anyway...I thought I'd share some of the highs and lows of the first few weeks of kindergarten with all of you, who, I am sure, have gone through many of the same things.

Let's start with the lows, and get those bad boys out of the way...

The first one, and the biggest, is the amount of assessment I've had to do in the first three weeks of school. It is overwhelming, and it bugs me. I have to do: rote count, letter names, letter sounds (yes, letter sounds in the first three weeks of K), rhyme choice, rhyme supply, DIBELS Initial Sound Fluency and Letter Naming Fluency, and a writing sample, scored with a complex rubric (basically, all of my K students are guaranteed to NOT meet the criteria for success on this rubric). Oh, and we also had to spend time doing the online Early Star Literacy test. On top of this, I am supposed to be doing shapes, colors, and just taking stock of where my students are in general. I have spent the past three weeks feeling overwhelmed by assessment. I want to spend the beginning of the school year getting to know my students, getting to spend time with them, to put routines and procedures into place, and, more than anything else, to build relationships with my students, and to help them build relationships with one another. We've worked toward that, but we've also been bursting with assessments. Sigh.

Second...our new math series. We moved to My Math, by McGraw Hill, a Singapore math based program. I will say, in the interest of clarity, that I was one of the individuals who selected the program. I will also say...we were moving to Singapore math regardless of my choice, and My Math seemed like the best of the three programs we were presented with. That said...it is taking a crazy amount of time to do math lessons that I really believe my students could "get" better in different ways. However, we are implementing with fidelity this year...I love the sequence of it--our first few lessons were understanding what counting is, and being able to count and write the numbers 1, 2, 3. We are now working on 4 and 5. My problem is that trying to do this program in whole group is highly ineffective. My students who are on or above level are spending time sitting while I try to get my students who are struggling caught up. I think I need to do the math in small groups, but I have no idea where or how to structure it. I am NOT the best workshop or center-based learning teacher...and so this is killing me. I have to figure it out.

Speaking of center-based learning...we are being required to use Daily Five/literacy center based time during our "Panther Prowl" this year. This is the time when we deliver our interventions to students. We were given six weeks to implement Daily Five in our classrooms. I'm three weeks in, and I've implemented read to self...kind of. My students don't have book boxes/bags/bins, and have barely begun being allowed to select their own texts. I am overwhelmed by it all. To top it all off, I bought the D5 book two years ago, on my Kindle, and I somehow switched kindle accounts, and have no access to the actual book. WHAT? It's driving me crazy, but we are doing the best we can. On the plus side, my kinders built their stamina for read to self to almost seven minutes the other day. Then we had to take some time off to do Early Star during our D5 time, and THEN I had to break from D5 to finish assessments (and I still need to do so again tomorrow). Anyway...I have to work on building Read to Self more, and begin to introduce and implement the other parts of D5 I am going to do this year. We will do read with a partner, and word work, for sure. Work on Writing may come later in the year, as well as listen to reading. Listen to reading SOUNDS easy, but when you have NO books on tape/CD, and no way to really build a listening center...it's quite challenging.

The final "low"...just remembering how tough the management is at the beginning of the year. I LOVED doing Whole Brain Teaching last year, but I either haven't implemented it well this year, or it just isn't gelling with this class. I am keeping with it, and hoping it will work. I had an amazing class last year. This year's class is wonderful, but the personalities are very different from last year's group. Not in a bad way, just in a way that has different needs, so what worked last year may not be successful this year...which is what makes teaching an amazing challenge.


Now, really... there are highs this year, too!

First...I've been keeping up with blogging on our classroom blog! Yay! This is a big deal. There are other things I need to do better with it, but I've had a new blog post each week, which is amazing for me!

Second...I have two "new" paraprofessionals for our Title I time, and I feel like we will (sooner than later) work together well. I felt much better about my school day once I really went to using my Title I time the way it "should" be used.

Third...We really are getting into a routine, and learning our procedures more and more. Thank goodness! I'm getting that structure back together, and we are making progress.

Fourth...We have worked out many of our beginning of the year kinks. Yay!

Okay...my highs are kinda weak right now. They will strengthen and grow over the next few weeks, I know. Oh, and here is a HIGH. I have a GREAT group of students! They are going to be wonderful this year!!!

One final thought...I have been really inspired by the social media I follow...the teachers who are out there, sharing and creating, amaze me regularly. and keep me inspired to keep trying, even when things get hard, and the lows feel bigger than the highs. They also give me new places to go to read, learn, and build my strategies. Awesome!

Hope you all are having a good start of the year (or maybe you are already two months in, and feeling like things are FINALLY settling in). We always tell parents to give their child six weeks to adjust. I suppose I really need to give myself the same leeway! Wish me luck!

Becca

September Currently

I loved doing "Currently" for the first time last month. This monthly party is hosted by the amazing Farley...check it out if you haven't before...and check out my September Currently...(oh, btw, I love the artwork she used for this month's currently card...I have had this element pack of Kate Hadfield's on my wishlist at The LilyPad forEVER. I need to buy it. Hmmm...maybe that should have been my "need"...LOL!)

So, anyway...there I was...LOL. Yeah, you may not get that...but I was typing, and literally thinking, "So, anyway", because that's totally how I speak, and then it transitioned into the lyrics of the song I've been listening to on loop for the past 15 minutes. First off, I LOVE Beth Orton. One of my all-time favorite artists. If you have never heard of her...man, you should. I'd suggest Central Reservation as a great entrance point, though I came in earlier in her career, at Trailer Park, and both of those albums are complete favorites of mine. The song Sweetest Decline is off Central Reservation, and I adore it. I "like" Beth on Facebook, and tonight she (or whomever manages her FB, I have no idea), posted a link to this great cover Ryan Adams did of her song. I love it. I will admit I do not know Ryan Adams well, other than to know he's quite popular (yes, I'm one of those people who doesn't really follow "new" music anymore...I have what I love, and I stick to that..I'm lame, I know!). So, anyway, there I was...just listening to Ryan and doing...Farley's Currently...LOL.

Loving...this was an easy one today. From Friday evening till early this afternoon, I spent the most time I have in YEARS in my mom's hometown. I've gone every year, but haven't stayed overnight in almost three years, and that was in November, for my grandmother's funeral...so, while a meaningful and wonderful event, not really a happy, let's go hang at the beach kind of getaway. The hubs and kids and I spent our Labor Day weekend in a small house I share with my cousins (we are very blessed to have been given this gift by our auntie). This was "our" weekend, postponed from the weekend before (courtesy of car problems). The house is 3 blocks from the beach, and we had a perfect beach weekend--high 70s, low 80s and sunny! My kids LOVED the beach, and the water was warm enough to swim comfortably...any of you who have been to Lake Michigan know that is a rare thing! We walked all over town, did the tourist-y thing, visited the shop/pharmacy my grandpa used to own, and showed the girls his picture, still hanging on the wall...I think some other tourists thought I was crazy, standing in MacDonald's Pharmacy, tears in my eyes, as I told my kids that the man up there is your great-grandpa...but it was meaningful to me. Really, an amazing, great weekend. Yeah. Even herding the four and two year old everywhere for three days, it was worth it.

Thinking...school starts tomorrow. TO MOR ROW. No, really. Tomorrow. What the heck??? How did that happen? I am so not READY. And my baby...my little peanut...is a FIRST grader. We are now in to uncharted territory. Last year was easy. I know K inside and out. First grade??? What the heck are we doing? I don't know what happens in FIRST grade!!!

Wanting...Day One to be a breeze. We are doing a"transitional" day for students, coming for half a day. Parents have the option to stay, but do not HAVE to. This could get interesting. Plus, making that good first impression on parents, while working to build trust with students. It's a fine line to walk, and will be interesting. The kids come first, no matter what, so that's where my focus will be. I think we'll do well...it's just a bit overwhelming!

Needing...to go to bed...but first, to figure out what I am wearing tomorrow...and let's not think about the fact that I did not do much healthy eating over the weekend, and I think I gained about 47 pounds (my husband assures me this is not possible. I am questioning his sanity). Yeah. Picking out clothes. As soon as I get off the computer...

Which brings me to those goals...#1 unplug more regularly. While I want to be connected, and I am working to build my professional learning network, through this blog, through twitter, and instagram, and all the social media out there, I need to take more time to just be with my family. Another gift this past weekend gave me! This is going to be a challenge, because my online courses start up again in a couple of weeks, and balancing grad work with family is HARD for me. I will be very ready when December comes and I am DONE and really CAN turn off the computer whenever I want, because I don't HAVE to do anything!

Goal #2 will culminate at the end of September. I am signed up to lead not one but TWO presentations at an RESD-wide PD day at the end of the month. This is terrifying. First, because I've never done it before, and, like many of you, put me in front of a group of 50 five year olds, and I'm fine. A room full of my peers? You have got to be kidding. Second, because I don't feel like an expert at this! I feel like I am just keeping my head above water, or just learning to dog paddle in the shallow end. And I know there are people in the RESD who are WAY ahead of me at this. But I guess, then, the reality is that my session won't be for them, they'll go to something else. I'll be there to help the newbies, the people who are scared to death of all this tech, those who, like me, come with the desire, but not the knowledge of how to dive in, and I can just encourage them to do that, because, hey, I've done it. And it's not as scary as it seems. Really.

Sigh. I could add a #3 on there. And really, I need to...so let's pretend there was room, and I wrote "goal #3" on my currently card. Let's pretend it says Eat Better and Get in Shape...or at least START. Yep. I will admit, it was a bad weekend, I didn't drink as much water as I should, and I sure did not eat healthy foods...add some hormonal shifts over the weekend, and, well, let's just say it was an adventure prying my wedding ring off earlier today, and I have not yet tried to put it back on...So, yeah.

That's it. That's my September Currently. If I was good, I'd give ya a lot more photos. Yep. But I'm lazy, and hey, I still need to go pick out my clothes for tomorrow, so I guess I'll be off...and try to be back tomorrow with an update on the first day of school!

--Becca

(p.s. I'll be doing my love-leaving on three blogs tomorrow...there is no way I can focus tonight...but if you are one of those three blogs, don't worry! I haven't forgotten you, and you are certainly on my must-visit list!)

Slant Box Awesomeness!

I apologize in advance if this post ends up garbled. we have been on a mini-va.cy all weekend!  atg tnd I am doing this post from the car...and mobile blogger does not seem to leave spaces...and I am really unsure of how images will go...wish me luck!

Anyway...I participated in the Inaugeral month of the SLANT boxes educator exchange. I was paired up with two other teachers, one for whom I created a gift box, and one who created a gift box for me! I mailed my box on Friday, to an awesome first grade teacher named Tami. I am really hoping she loves her box...there were only a few items, but I tried to make them good ones!! I love the handmade item I did for her, and already have requests to do similar items for others-yay!

I got my box on Saturday (my hubs brought it to me from home). My partner, Tracy, is a fantastic third grade teacher. She sent me some great stuff!  Tracy, no worries, you did an awesome job!!!

Okay, so I can't figure out how to put the images in where I want them...I may just be posting, then fixing this post later, when I am on a real computer!   At any rate, the first image attached is the whole box. Looks great...and there is lots od turquoise, which is the main "color pop" in my classroom.

The second and third photos are my super cute journal and pen! Love them...the pen even writes in turquoise! 

A very pretty card...sorry that it is sideways...

Tracey also sent me some cute stickers, and one of my favorite candy bars (and a  coupon on it to use for another one!).

she also sent me a great set of sticky notes--labeled for every day of the week!

Tracey also sent my some cute zebra and chevron labels that match my room and a cute to-do notepad.

She also personalized this magnetic whiteboard for me- and these cute bottlecap magnets!!! That's my SlantBox! Thanks for stopping by!