PLN – i ❤ edu

My 2017 Wrap-Up: Expect the Unexpected

Meagan Kelly — Sat, 30 Dec 2017 20:41:19 +0000

As 2017 comes to a close, I find myself reflecting on the amazing and life-changing year that has occurred. 2017 marked my first full year of being on Twitter, blogging, and interacting with educators all over the world. It is the year where I presented at my first conferences and summits and became a Google Trainer and Innovator. It is the year where I developed my blog and wrote on a weekly basis.

It was a year of…so many unexpected adventures and opportunities. I truly feel blessed to have had the experiences I have had in 2017 and I am excited to share some of these experiences with you.onal

2017: My Goals

At the beginning of the year, I set five goals for 2017:

Goal #1: Blog Once a Week

Personally, I find my biggest accomplishment to be blogging once a week for the entire year. It was a great challenge but it really encouraged me to create more lessons/projects, find and share resources, and be self-reflective. I will admit that it could often be a challenge but I felt like I grew so as an educator from this experience. It’s also a goal that I plan to keep for many years to come!

Goal #2: Increase Math Literacy

While I feel like I made great strides towards this goal, I think that it will always be something I need to improve upon in my Math classroom. Although my Math students are Honors students, they still struggle when it comes to decoding problems and understanding the language in Math. However, I do feel like I was more aware of this need and implemented more activities to support them in this area, such as using Frayer models, implementing performance tasks, and using AVID tutorials.

Goal #3: Create an Inquiry-Based and Organized Genius Hour Project

Currently, my Spartan Tech Squad students spend every Friday working on their 20Time projects. I am really excited to see how these projects are developing. I feel like the projects are more attainable and organized this year after I developed a series of activities and lessons to help students organize and plan for their 20Time Projects. Learn more from my post “Getting Going with 20Time Projects“.

Goal #4: Collaborate with Classes Across the Country/World

Unfortunately, this is one goal that I did not meet this year. I have an idea/dream to have one of my classes collaborate with another classroom beyond our own district. While I did not reach this goal this year, I do feel like I established a lot of strong relationships with teachers all over the world to support this goal in the upcoming year.

Goal #5: Develop a PLN Beyond the Borders of My School

Last, but certainly not least, I developed a Professional Learning Network (PLN) of educators beyond my school and district. As much as blogging was my biggest accomplishment, I feel like this goal was the most important. Teaching is an amazing profession but it can also be very lonely. Over the last couple of years, I have found myself feeling a bit more like an outsider in some areas of my professional life…until I found my PLN. I have a handful of educators all over the world that I talk to on a daily/weekly basis and they are amazing, inspirational, and supportive. Every day I am so thankful to have these people in my life.

2017: My Highlights

Here are just a few of my highlights from this year:

Blogging on a weekly basis.
Presenting at my first conferences and summits.
Becoming a Google Trainer and Innovator.
Developing BoostEDU – my Google Innovator Project.
Developing a PLN and connecting with educators all over the world.

While there is so much more to share, I want to keep it short and sweet. These were the things that I will remember for years to come and had a great impact on where I am as a person and as an educator.

2017: My Top Posts

Throughout the year, I wrote over 52 blog posts. The top posts were:

My Big Takeaway….

As I look back on all of the things that have occurred in this year, there is one phrase that comes to my mind:

Expect the unexpected.

I would never have thought that I would be where I am at today or have had the experiences that I have had in the last year. It’s completely transformed who I am as a person and as an educator.

More importantly, it has brought something to my mind that I never thought I would say:

I have no idea what I want to do or where I will be in the next five years.

As someone who is quite the planner, this can be a terrifying statement. It’s not that I don’t plan on being in education – I love education. I truly believe I could never leave the field of education because I am so deeply invested in it. It’s not even that I don’t have goals because I do. There are many things that I want to accomplish, as small blogging weekly to releasing my Innovator Project. Instead, it’s that I don’t know where life will take me or where my path might go in my educational career. All I know is that I love what I do and I know that I am in the right career.

In fact, there is something absolutely exciting and exhilarating in not knowing where your path will take you and being completely open to any opportunities or adventures that might be presented. As strange as it sounds, I feel truly content in doing what I love and seeing where life will take me.

Keep a look out for my upcoming post on my 2018 Educational Goals – and, as always, thank you for reading.

Getting Going with Blogging

Meagan Kelly — Sun, 03 Dec 2017 04:21:21 +0000

One year ago, I set a goal for myself. It is a goal that has challenged and pushed me more than any other goal I have ever set. It is a goal that has taken time, planning, and dedication. What was this goal? It was simple:

I will blog once a week for an entire year.

Although that statement sounds simple, there is a lot of work and effort that went into it. However, it has been one of the most beneficial experiences of my career. It has challenged me to share ]resources and ideas with other educators. It has challenged me to create new lessons, activities, and projects for my students. It has challenged me to be self-reflective on my teaching practices and openly transparent with other educators. It has challenged me in more than I can count – and I don’t regret it for a minute.

Although this year is nearly over, I plan to continue with this goal throughout the next year. Every week that I blog, it becomes easier and more beneficial. So…here is my challenge to you – if you haven’t already created a blog, it’s time!

Three Simple Steps to Begin Blogging

#1: Select a format for your blog.

Before you begin blogging, it is important for you to determine the format for your blog. Did you know that blogging can extend beyond a traditional website blog post? These days, blogging could include any of the following:

Traditional Blog Post – A blog post that is written on a website and/or blogging platform.
Microblogs – Mini-blog post with short passages and more pictures.
Podcast – An audio file that is made available online.
Vlogs – A video blog.

Although there are many more ways you could share your ideas online, these are a few to get you started. A blog does not have to be traditional – it can be anything you want!

#2: Discover the vision for your blog.

Even before your first blog post, itis important to determine the vision and goal of your blog. It might be helpful to ask these questions:

What is your intention and purpose of blogging?
Who is your targeted audience?
What topics will you be writing about?

For myself, I wanted my blog to be about education and I did not want to limit myself to any particular subject. Originally, my blog was called “My Math Heart” but that limited me to only sharing about Math. Pretty quickly, I changed it to I Heart EDU which allowed me to write about anything that related to education without confusing my audience and/or pigeonholing myself into a specific domain. As you start to discover your vision for your blog, review those three questions to help you narrow your focus.

#3: Create a blogging goal.

Although I started blogging several years ago, I was not a consistent blogger until the last year. I could give you a million reasons why I was not blogging regularly but none of them are very good. For me, I needed a “blogging goal”. I am an extremely goal oriented person. If I set a goal for myself, then I will do everything within my physical power to meet that goal. While you might not be quite this goal-oriented, I still believe that creating a goal creates a sense of accountability – even if it is just with yourself.

The blogging goal could be anything – once a week, biweekly, monthly, etc. There is no limit, just create a goal and do your best to stick with it!

#4: Share via social media

Once your blog is created, I encourage you to share it on social media. One reason I fell in love with blogging was due to the feedback I was receiving from educators. I loved hearing from these educators and starting conversations on how to improve our teaching practices. It connected me with other educators all over the world who have inspired me in numerous ways.

Pro-Tips for Blogging

While the above steps will help you get your blog started, I have created a few pro-tips to assist you:

Create a Google Keep list to store any ideas for future blog posts. This will help you have ideas for future blog posts without losing good ideas or feeling rushed to meet your blogging goal.
Instead of typing, use the “Voice Record” feature on Google Docs to “record” your ideas via voice text. This is a great way to get your ideas out, rather than succumbing to writer’s block. Talk about your blog post, then go back and clean it up into a real blog post.
Find co-authors to help you run your blog. If you feel like running a blog on your own is intimidating, it might be a good idea to find some educators that could help run the blog with you. By doing this, the workload is shared between multiple people and will allow multiple viewpoints.
Schedule time in your calendar to blog. If you find yourself struggling with blogging, it might be beneficial to schedule time in Google Calendar (or whatever calendar method you use) to blog. You could block out an hour every Wednesday or two hours on a Saturday morning – just find time in your schedule where you can consistently create your posts.

Blogging is essential for educators. It creates opportunities to learn, share, and reflect with educators all over the world. Yes, it can be a lot of work and can seem very intimidating but is completely worth it. Just go for it!

As always, I love hearing from other educators on their thoughts on this blog post. Do you write a blog? What are some of the steps you took to write your blog and/or any pro-tips to help other educators?

Share in the comments below!

A Year on Twitter and…Some Thank You’s

Meagan Kelly — Sun, 24 Sep 2017 04:18:13 +0000

One year ago, I attended the High Desert EdTechTeam Summit which was hosted by my district, Hesperia Unified School District. It was during this summit that I was inspired to create a professional learning network through social media. As I’ve mentioned before, this summit changed my life – both professionally and personally. Today, I am attending and presenting at the same EdTechTeam Summit and it’s hard to believe that a year has already passed. More importantly, it’s amazing to look back and see the phenomenal impact that one summit had on my life.

A year ago today, I was in a very different place. I had never used Twitter for professional development. In fact, my Twitter account consisted of a few followers (my family) and a few tweets on ComicCon. I had created a blog but, much like my Twitter account, it was pretty much dead. I had never connected with teachers outside of my district. I had never presented at a conference or summit. I had never heard of the Google certifications for educators.

It’s amazing what a year can do. I could tell you about the number of tweets or followers that I have. I could tell you about my blog and how many posts I’ve written. I could tell you about the summits and conferences I’ve attended or the Google certifications I have obtained. But…none of that matters. The thing that truly matters is the relationships that I have made while becoming actively involved with a professional learning network. The people I have met that have changed my life, as a teacher and a person, are what truly matters.

As I think about all of the phenomenal educators I’ve met in the last year, I’ve realized that they all have one common attribute: They truly love what they do. They love being educators. Being surrounded by a group of passionate educators like this is inspiring and life-changing.

So, I wanted to write some “thank you’s” to these educators. I’m not going to name them by name because they know who they are – but thank you…

Thank you for inspiring me to think about teaching in new ways and introducing me to educational practices, strategies, and technology to support student learning.
Thank you for always focusing on the pedagogy – not just the shiny, new technology that often bombards us in education.
Thank you for being passionate educators and always focusing on what is best for students.
Thank you for inspiring, challenging, and supporting me as an educator beyond my classroom.
Thank you for your words of encouragement on my blog posts that motivate me to continue sharing.
Thank you for encouraging me to me to go outside of my comfort zone and present at conferences and summits.
Thank you for teaching me about the importance of work/life balance and offering me useful strategies for creating a balanced life.
Thank you for being people that I can talk to about the victories and struggles of education.
Thank you for showing me that the world is filled with other “lone nuts” – just like me.

Finally…Thank you for an amazing year. Here’s to many more years to come!

Work, Work, Work…What about Life?

Meagan Kelly — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 03:31:11 +0000

This post is cross-posted on Mari, Meagan, & Aubrey’s blogs.
Mari is a middle school Science & AVID teacher and Blended Learning Specialist in San Diego, CA.
Meagan is a middle school Math, AVID, & Technology teacher and the Team Technology Leader in Hesperia, CA.
Aubrey has been a music teacher & Summer Learning principal, and is currently an Educational Technology Specialist in Boulder, CO.

Teach kids all day, then bring grading and lesson planning home at night. Does this sound familiar? If you asked a room full of teachers, I’m sure nearly every head would be nodding – this is the story of our lives! According to an NPR article, “Attrition is high, and enrollment in teacher preparation programs has fallen some 35 percent over the past five years — a decrease of nearly 240,000 teachers in all.” Budget cuts, paperwork, behavior challenges, and ever-increasing demands add extra stress to our already stressful jobs.

Work/life balance has always been struggle for all three of us. We have this tendency to work many hours past the required hours of our teaching days. It’s very common for us to get into work early, leave an hour after our days finish, and spend a large portion of our nights working on lesson planning, grading, blogging, or various side projects. If you’re thinking this sounds like some “Woe is me” story – it isn’t.

In the end, the underlying issue is that we love what we do. We love being teachers, working with students, developing lessons and, yes, even grading and reviewing their work. Education has never been just a “job” to us – it’s a major part of our identity. It’s our passion. And we spend a large portion of our days working on various projects because we enjoy it. However, we began to realize that it isn’t healthy for our work/life balance or the relationships with those around us to work the majority of the week.

Enter the idea of Work Rules. We each began to create boundaries for ourselves, unique to our specific situations, and write them down. We were amazed (and horrified) at how challenging it was for us to try to define some limits to our work! We also included reminders of what we could do instead of work [behavioral therapy concepts – you can’t just extinguish a behavior without developing a replacement behavior] and why we were doing this in the first place. Then we gave permission to hold each other accountable, which has been key to changing our habits.

Aubrey: I’ll be honest, there is no silver bullet to finding and maintaining balance. I still bring more work home than I would like and don’t always follow my “work rules”. That being said, I have noticed a definite difference in my mindset as we’ve gone through this journey. A night without work is becoming something to be celebrated, rather than a reason to feel guilty. I find myself asking, “Does this really need to be done at home, or could it wait until tomorrow?” more often. And I am slowly getting better at setting limits for myself, such as only bringing one project home (instead of everything that needs to be done) or setting a timer for how long I work (once it goes off, no more work for me)! The accountability and camaraderie has been huge – for picking me up when I am struggling, for spurring me on to do better, and sometimes just to have a place to share how hard this is! In this ongoing journey of living LIFE to the fullest, I am grateful for friends who are not afraid to ask the tough questions and provide gentle reminders when needed. It’s not always easy…but it is worth it!

Meagan: A couple of months ago, I really began to reflect on my work/life balance. Around this time, Aubrey and Mari shared their idea for “work rules” and…it was amazing! I quickly began to develop my own set of rules in hopes of developing some balance in my life. As Aubrey mentions above, I still struggle with maintaining balance and following these rules but I can tell that there has been a definite shift in my mindset. Although I have always been a good time manager, I’ve started to balance when I will do “work-work” (site/district) and when I will do my “side work” (blogging, presenting, etc). I’ve been able to use much of my time at school to finish my lesson planning, grading, and projects which has opened opportunities to work on my “side work” projects at home. Before, I was doing both and it was clear that this would not last forever. I have also tried to set aside one day of the week where I do not do any “work-work” and at least one night where I do not do any work related to education. I’ve definitely broken these rules several times but it has been helpful to have friends who check-in and encourage me to keep with these goals. I still have a long ways to go on truly creating a work/life balance but…you have to start somewhere, right?

Mari: It’s been a constant battle for me to find the right work/life balance because teaching is both my passion and my job. However, I began realizing that in order to be the best teacher for my students, I also need to take care of myself. Prior to creating the Work Rules with Aubrey and Meagan, I felt guilty if I didn’t work all weekend and most weeknights. That pace was neither sustainable nor healthy for me. Now, I give myself all of Sunday off from anything education-related, and use this time to recharge, relax, and pursue fun things (like napping!). As both Aubrey and Meagan said, there are times the rules have been bent or broken; while I’m routinely committed to my Sundays off, I haven’t always given myself a few work-free weeknights due to school commitments or interruptions/distractions during my prep period. I’m so grateful for our group. Not only do they keep me accountable to my work/life balance commitments, but also they encourage and push me to be a better person!

We are on a journey together – far from perfect, yet always growing. Frequently just before or after work, we check in with each other to see what the day looks like and what our work/no-work plans are for the day. This keeps us centered throughout the day and into the evening.

What steps are you taking to balance work and life?

TweetDeck: Maximize Your Twitter Experience

Meagan Kelly — Sat, 05 Aug 2017 19:08:15 +0000

In the last few months, I have led several sessions (in and outside of my district) on the benefits of using Twitter for professional development. (Here is a link to my session.) Usually, there are two types of educators in this session: 1.) Educators who have a Twitter account but rarely use it; and 2.) Educators who do not have a Twitter account. However, both types of educators tend to have on thing in common:

They have never heard of TweetDeck.

Obviously, this is not the case for all educators but I would say that it is true for most of them. Personally, I was not familiar with TweetDeck until last September. When I was introduced to TweetDeck at an EdTechTeam Summit, I will say that it changed my Twitter experience forever. It made my Twitter experience more personalized and easy to use. It enhanced the experience, simplified it, and made it easy to sort through the thousands of information that come through my Twitter feed a day.

If you are not currently using TweetDeck, I can promise you that (after reading this blog post) you will never use Twitter the same again.

TweetDeck Overview

What is Tweetdeck?

TweetDeck is a personalized browser for viewing Twitter. It offers a more convenient experience by allowing you to see multiple timelines at once, such as the Home feed, personalized lists, notifications, messages, and more.

How do I begin using TweetDeck?

Simply go to www.tweetdeck.com and log in to your account! I have recorded several short videos below to walk you through the layout and features of TweetDeck.

Why should I use TweetDeck?

TweetDeck allows you to personalize the information on your Twitter account to better support your professional development needs. In the last half of this blog post, I will list some specific ways in which you can use TweetDeck to personalize your learning.

Benefits for Teachers & Students

#1: Quickly View Feeds, Notifications, Messages, & More

When you first look at TweetDeck, it may look overwhelming and confusing. However, once you begin using it, you will see that it makes it easy to sort through information. Watch the video below to see an overview of TweetDeck: