#LybeckVacayMode and PicCollage Unite Equaling #VacayAwesomeness

It's been a hot minute since I've posted anything. My post from February was a pretty emotional one for me to write that tugged on a far deeper, more personal level. After hitting publish, I just didn't feel like I had the content or motivation to write anything for a couple of months. A couple of months turned into more months. Truth be told, there was plenty to write about. I even started several posts, but they haven't seen the light of the web just yet....maybe I'll publish them at a later time...maybe not. 

Instead, this post is taking a different route, a much less serious post. One that begins and ends with #LybeckVacayMode and using an app called PicCollage.  But first, a little backstory is needed to answer the question of why I would take a vacation during the school year. 

I am a 12 month contract employee. When my friends are vacationing in June and July posting those glorious beach and trip pictures on Facebook and Instagram, my time is spent focused on summer professional development, creating online courses, getting our #nsdnewbie boot camp ready, planning for the upcoming year, etc. Additionally, my hubby sells farm & lawn equipment, so the summer is crazy busy time for him too. The summer months are no bueno for any lengthy vacay away. 

Truth be told, after being a 12 monther for a full year, it's hard to imagine going back to an 11 month contract. The summer time seems to be just as crazy as the time during the year. This past May, June, and July, I didn't really take much of any vacation. A few onesie/twosie days here and there, but that was it. I could tell I was needing some time away. A break to reset my mind, body, and soul. Don't get me wrong, I love my job and the people I work with. But, I was in desperate need of some rest and relaxation.  (Note to self: using days like that doesn't really cut it for me...I need at least one longer break.) 

Around July or August, I saw this post on Twitter. Ann Kozma posted about using PicCollage as a microblog. I favorited the post thinking I need to do this when I have some "good content."  I've used PicCollage as a way to be creative with pics and used it in the classroom with my students. However, the post kept surfacing in my mind on the list of things I wanted to try. Using it more in depth as a microblog intrigued me. I really wanted to have some quality content to give it a go. Enter #LybeckVacayMode of 2017! If our vacation wasn't quality content, I didn't know what was. 

At the end of October, my hubby and I traveled to one of our fave places, Perdido Key, Florida to spend the week for our vacation/Anniversary/my birthday. Using Kozma's post as inspiration, I created a collage and documented our activities and of course, food. (Part of the fun for us is dining at restaurants we can't find around here.) #Foodie #HubbyIsPickyButI'mNot

 

I really enjoyed using the app to recap our adventures and can see myself using it again. I relate it to a digital scrapbook. Once I started, I couldn't stop with just one day and ended up creating one for each day of our vacay. Kozma's blog post highlights some key things for you to think about. It really is up to the creator and the possibilities are pretty endless in design. It would be super awesome if you could add video clips into the collage...maybe some day. #AppGoals

I don't know about you, but have a ton of photo apps downloaded on my phone because some offer different features, clipart or filters. #PhotoAppHoarder  PicCollage has been there from the start of my photo app obsession (in fact, it may have been the first one I downloaded). I think it will continue to be a go to app for a while, especially with the ease of using it as a microblog. I encourage you to create your own microblog with PicCollage. 


Check out the Teacher's Corner on the PicCollage blog for classroom ideas and inspiration. 
Download PicCollage for iOS
PicCollage for Kids Download here for iOS. 

Download PicCollage for Android

What If Innovation Can Begin with a Small Step? #MakeADifferenceNow

A few days ago, my fellow innovation teammate, Curt White and I sat working on our presentation for an administrator's book study we are leading on Innovator's Mindset by George Couros. We've been blessed to hear him speak and love his book (aka our edubible). He has a way of pulling on the audience's heart strings and we've been working to be intentional and include moments in our presentations to "Couros them" as we like to call it.

In preparation for the book study, we began to dig through touching videos. Those who know me well or even around me much at all know that I can get pretty teary over happy things, sad things, small animals, babies, commercials...pretty much anything.  My husband refers to these instances as my "Weepy Wendy" or "waterworks" moments. They happen...a lot. I try to reign them in and sometimes I'm more successful than others. Disclaimer: I've read a few posts online (so you know it's true 😊) that people who cry easily are more empathetic, generous, and social. So, that's my story...and I'm sticking to it. But I digress. 

On this particular Friday, Curt found one of "those videos." A video of a boy struggling with stammering and how a teacher stepped up and outside his comfort zone to find a way to help the boy. Through redefining the purpose and role of a resource, innovation within the boy's life occurred and his life was forever impacted.

Needless to say, this was a "waterworks" moment for sure. As I sat trying to wipe the tears away without ruining my make-up and trying not to have puffy eyes (#girlprobs), I made an immediate connection to a video I'd viewed on Facebook a few weeks earlier. A very personal connection.  Since we are leading the book study and I know myself well enough to know there's not a chance that will be able to articulate what I want to say surrounding this connection without tears (and I'm not even sure I won't have tears anyway), I opted to write the story of the impact of the connection I'd made. 

Meet my granddad, a hard-working blue collar WWII Veteran who spent a portion of his life running a family owned gas station in Hume, Missouri. After selling the gas station, he moved his family (my grandmother, aunt, and dad) to Ft. Scott, Kansas where he worked as a Auto Parts Salesman for Ray Shepard Motors by day  and by night, he spent his evenings working with his hands in some way, shape, or form. He was not ever one to sit idle watching TV, unless it was Sunday evening for the show 60 Minutes. In fact, he'd be asleep within minutes if he sat down for very long. So, he moved, constantly. He would always be out "tinkering in the garage" building shelves, bird houses, coin banks, etc. These creations were often rudimentary in design, but functional in purpose. He was not into designing intricate things as those were seen as being frivolous. Practicality and functionality were his jam. If not working, eating, sleeping, or Sunday church day, he was in the garage. 

Along his Earthly journey, he was diagnosed with cancer in 1993 and not given a very good prognosis. Parts or all of 5 organs were removed at one point. Things looked bleak. He refused chemo and had to undergo dialysis as one of his kidneys was removed with the cancer. Subsequently, the other shut down due to use of too much dye to verify its function. 

However, he defied the odds and "this will probably be your granddad's last Christmas" turned into more and more years of Christmases. In fact, twenty-one more years. Another layer of his journey involved a diagnosis of Atypical Parkinson's disease in 2002. He didn't have the tremors and shaking of traditional Parkinson's. He began to lose the function of arms and legs. His lower limbs were the first affected and he experienced a lot of balance issues which then continued throughout the years to frequent falls...through walls, in the bathtub, anywhere and everywhere. His mind would say go and his body would say no. He soon went from tinkering in the garage and cycled from walker and then to wheelchair where he had difficulties even sitting up straight, feeding himself, and talking.


In Shaw family stubbornness, he was a resilient man who still continued to defy the odds. However, the once stoic man full of orneriness and constant energy who had to keep moving so he didn't fall asleep on the couch was now in a wheelchair with limited movement in his extremities. As a result, he truthfully spent the last several years without much quality of life. After watching the video of the young boy, I knew I had to play the video below for Curt and explain my thoughts (while trying not to cry...unsuccessfully) as to how this connected to our book study presentation. Here is the video so you can understand my connection and the impact it had.

So, as you can imagine, there I sat trying to gather myself from not one but two moments where we'd "Couros'ed" ourselves.  Innovation and my granddad were two words unlikely to be in the same sentence. After all, he was a simple man. But, something had been triggered deep within my soul. An immediate connection happened for my heart and mind. 

My hope in sharing this story is that it connected something for you.  I watch the video and I think "what if" this would have worked for my granddad.  As Couros states, "innovating in our schools requires a different type of thinking, one that doesn't focus on ideas that are "outside the box", but those that allow us to be innovative despite budgetary constraints." This therapist took a look at her reality and the patient's reality and created something new, an experience with a direct impact upon the life of her patient. 

What if there would have been some years mixed between walker and wheelchair for my granddad where taking a tool like a cell phone and playing music could have transformed his state of being for a while? Just think of the impact it would have had on my granddad and even my family by providing one more walk down the hallway together. Sounds like a simple thing, right? One more walk. But for someone imprisoned inside his own body, this would have been liberating, even if for just a few more trips down the hall.

The challenge to myself and to you is to start small, start simple, start big...but please just start...start with an open, growth oriented mindset using the tools and resources you have within your box and then build upon that. Don't wait for next year or think it's something for when our students graduate. Innovation isn't necessarily the newest or most expensive tool. Sometimes, it's about utilizing the tools and resources you have available to transform the experiences for your students...or patients like my granddad. Embrace it now so you can realize and recognize the possibilities in the moments of today before it's too late.

We've got the #power...in our hands!

via GIPHY

Yesterday morning, we had our Apple reps present the options available with iPads to our 3rd and 4th grade teachers. Throughout the hour and a half, our rep Jeff, shared some pretty amazing content and snippets of the possibilities with iPads. One particular video he showed grabbed ahold of me and left me pondering several things. The video was created by Apple as a thank you to their developers and was centered around the impact of technology on business and innovation. There were some stunning statistics concerning the number of apps each person has downloaded, the number of apps downloaded to date, the number of apps available for download, as well as, several inspiring clips of how innovation has changed people's lives. Not going to lie, while watching and listening, all the warm tech fuzzies started to build. It is astounding the information and capabilities we have in our pockets or backpacks with our phones and mobile computing devices. It's one of the things that gets me excited to do my job and to work with learners of all ages to embrace the awesomeness. Then, while relishing in the thoughts of what could be.....a clip from JJ Abrams hit me like a ton of bricks. To say it spoke to me is an understatement. More like tech fuzzies on steroids mixed with goosebumps.

JJ Abrams commented,

"We have before us an incredible generation of film-makers and storytellers."

A simple, short sentence which hold such implications for our roles as educators. It fills me with excitement, wonder, and even chills to think of the power we all harness within our hands.

Prior to mobile technology and video creation apps/websites, creating a video was much more laborsome and difficult. I remember the hundreds of hours throughout several months my dad spent creating a video highlight reel of my AAU basketball team ::ahem, eek:: in the early 90's. After recording our games on a huge VHS recorder, he basically hibernated in my parent's bedroom working two tedious machines to dub the tapes off, watch the videos, then find clips to splice together. Once the video was created, he started working to time the music to the actions of the video. The music was on cassette tapes or CD's...no digital effects, no digital music, no digital features to reduce the creation time or offer options. #SoManyHours

Now, with a few taps on a screen, you can create an iMovie with original music or your favorite recorded song, add text and effects....all within a few hours. Shoot, there are some apps which will take your photos and automatically create a video. It's amazing!

Last year, a breakout hit at the Sundance Film Festival in Cannes, France was created almost entirely with an iPhone 5s, an $8 app, and a couple of extras like a Steadicam Rig (to help stabilize the iPhone since they are handheld and lightweight.) A whole film showcased and created with an iPhone...#MindBlown. The further implication is that I hold even more power in my hand since my personal device is an iPhone 6s (an upgrade from a 5s) to record and publish something that thousands, even millions, of people could view. If that doesn't blow your mind a tiny bit, then I'm not sure what will.

Which got me to thinking. What are we doing in our classrooms to provide opportunities for learners to digitally create? How are we channeling the power of possibilities for our learners? Are we afraid of taking a risk and failing...worrying about what might happen and then choosing not to provide voice and choice for creation because it's something we've never done before? Are we not sure where to start so stuck in paralysis by analysis mode?

For perspective's sake:

• Our current high schoolers (born in 2001) know nothing of a time without information at their fingertips through Google. iPods were their "new technology." 
• Our current middle schoolers (born in 2004) can't envision a time without portable music devices and Google...their new thing: social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. 
• Our primary schoolers (born in 2010) can't imagine a time without Google and social media (iPods already starting to become outdated). Their new technology are iPads/tablets. 
• All of these groups now have the capacity to use smart phones. Thinking ahead, what will the next technology be for our future learners?!? Holy possibilities, Batman!

In reflecting upon Abram's statement, there are a couple of questions plaguing me. How can I help provide opportunities for educators to develop confidence and the skills necessary to provide avenues for their learners to digitally create? How will educators in the classroom provide opportunities to develop those skills for their learners?

Right now, we have learners in our classrooms who could be the next Sundance film festival award winner by using their phone. Or, not to put limits and shooting for the moon, Academy award winners!?! Right now, we have learners who could create apps or technologies which will forever transform the lives of others. Right now, we have learners who are yearning for that opportunity...to create, to design, to share out their work with others, not just after they graduate.

Do you hear that tick, tick, tick? What can be accomplished with the time we have?

Dandelions, wishes, and change! #IMMOOC

When you look at this picture, what do you see? A weed? Or an opportunity for a wish? 

In starting this #IMMOOC journey, I am thrilled at the opportunity to unite and learn with others who look at this picture and see the potential as a wish. (Not going to lie, I'm a little anxious at the idea of exposing my thoughts and reflections out for potentially so many to see since it's tied to the #IMMOOC hashtag and not one of my few random posts....but it's game time, so let's go. Full disclosure, I was nearly late to church this morning as I had a thought I wanted to get into my notes for this post. I don't know about you all, but I feel like I'm at church when I listen to @gcouros or @burgessdave speak. Can I get an Amen?!?)

Have you heard any of these comments?

"Why should I take the time to learn this when it will change in a couple of months?"

"Oh great, something else to learn...I'm just going to sit this one out and let everyone else figure it out."

"Here's something new, but another one will come along so I'm just going to stick with what I know." 

Whether brand-new-out-of-college or a veteran teacher, I'd be shocked if you hadn't heard one or all of these things muttered at some point during recess duty, in the teacher's lounge, a PLC meeting, or throughout the course of the day. 

This left me wondering why are people so hesitant to change. Is it the unknown? Is it the loss of control? Do you not feel supported by peers or administration throughout the experience? Is it easier to do what you've done because you are comfortable with that routine? 

Is it the fact people focus on what they have to give up, instead of what they have to gain? I can and do empathize completely with feeling that the learning curve is constantly changing. And, I can't help but reflect on my personal journey and how I've responded to change throughout my years in education. How effective would I be if I didn't embrace change on the daily? 

Twelve years ago, I started a Master's program in Educational Technology. Ten and half years ago, I graduated with my edtech degree. Let's flashback for a moment to put things in perspective:

• Facebook and YouTube hadn't launched
• iPads and tablets were still FOUR years from being released
• MySpace was the most popular social networking site
• Google Drive didn't launch until 6 years AFTER 
• Twitter first unveiled its PLN goodness 7 years AFTER (::gasp::)

I don't know about you, but I use EACH one of the items (but one) in the above list nearly every day and multiple times throughout the day. Just to clarify in case you are wondering, haha, I couldn't tell you my login and password to MySpace if I had to. (I actually tried while typing this blog post...and no dice.) It's long become an irrelevant option. 

So, what are you doing to keep relevant in your classroom, your role in education? Are you slowly becoming like MySpace and becoming outdated? What if I'd stayed stuck in the rut of how I learned to teach technology 10 to 12 years ago when I started my edtech master's? 

Believe me, I get it! There is something to constantly learn, something to constantly figure out how to integrate into your daily educational life. Some is in fact garbage and not appropriate. But, for those things that are wonderful nuggets, but may require you to get a little messy, are you open to that change?

What if I wasn't open to evolving in my role and sunk my feet into the belief that I should continue to teach the way I'd been taught in my edtech master's program? Kodak EasyShare cameras were all the rage and I remember having an evening class where we checked out a camera and went about the campus learning how to use it. For another assignment, I created a resource for new students to our school. It was a paper flip book with pictures of our school personnel and their respective role. When I say flip book, I don't mean the app either. I mean I printed each page on the color printer and bound it together by a spiral binding machine. Another memory is having to drive 30 minutes to campus to turn in a 3-ring binder which had my "ideal" classroom design and my portfolio. Truth be told, I tried to shuffle through the boxes of old papers (yes, I tend to hoard things) to find my projects and share some snapshots of my work, but to no avail...maybe later in this IMMOOC. 

In the moment, I didn't feel slighted or that I wasn't provided the best experience possible. My college program prepared me for my degree the best they could with the learning exposures to which they had access. I felt current and relevant in that moment. However, can our students say that now? With the explosion over the last ten years of options, our learners are the ones who suffer if we stay stuck. Stepping to the challenge and meeting them with learning options which will prepare them for TODAY, not just tomorrow is imperative. Why play a chess match waiting out our learners because our mindset isn't open to change? Moments are lost, time is lost, and our learners are ill prepared for the cliche "real-world." If we aren't growing and changing, we are preparing them for a world that once was, not for what is or what will be. 

Whether you have more of a mindset to cannonball into the pool of change or you are more cautious and dip your toe in the water little by little, my hope for our learners is that you aren't sitting in the car outside the pool, looking at the dandelions, and wishing you had some weed spray. 

It all started with the word #whistle.

The word "whistle"... a noun ... a verb ... a pretty simple word recently took on a new role. Suddenly this week, on an unassuming Tuesday, following a day of connecting and collaborating at #edcampldrmo, the word whistle became the kerosene needed to ignite a slow starting fire into a roaring blaze. A fire of creativity, of excitement, of anticipation, of rejuvenation.

As I'm typing, I'm realizing I may be getting the cart before the horse and in order for this all to make sense, I need to back up a bit and set the stage.

via GIPHY

Over the last two years as an Instructional Technology Specialist, I've inadvertently allowed myself to become further removed from the reason I love my job and distracted by the extra stuff. The first year, I spent time connecting and establishing relationships, working with PLC groups, and of course, providing professional development. I spent time tapping into my creative side and worked with teachers to create usable materials. I spent time researching innovative ideas and determining how to best support the teachers with those ideas. Most impactfully, I found myself working with kids and in classrooms helping teachers. Carrying out the role for which I was blessed to be hired.

Enter year two, something began to change. A huge focus surfaced as we worked to roll out @canvas and figure out how to make that work seamlessly. I was able to do things from year one, BUUUUTTT, I found myself being bogged down with the back-end side of things. I found myself setting up accounts, trouble-shooting issues (above my knowledge base), resetting passwords, and asking lots of questions to make sure what I was presenting on was going to work correctly. 

#TruthTime - there are few things I like less than standing before teachers (or kids) and having problems due to something which could have been avoided. Technology fails, no doubt about it. Wifi can be splotchy for no apparent reason. However, when the issues stem from something avoidable, if completed correctly in the beginning, I cringe with frustration and brace myself for the lynching by the angry mob. This became more of my focus...away from tech integration and attempting to try and guess, plan, question every possible issue to avoid the mob. Okay, a bit dramatic, I know. No angry mobs occurred, but with enough things that could go wrong from human and technology errors, I focused on attempting to eliminate as many ahead of time as possible. 

Time at work which should have been spent researching, creating, investigating, sharing, became infiltrated with the list of other things. I'd spend time at home creating and researching. But not to the amount I'd like and then the work/home balance began to suffer. It was a vicious cycle.

I began the year with a humungo list of dream ideas...things I'd wanted to do with and for the school district. Yet, sadly at the end of year two, I found few crossed off the wish list. 

#TooBoggedDown 

I felt defeated and I'd let myself/others down. I WAS working like a maniac trying to keep up...however, on things you really couldn't see. I wanted to be working on the learner driven things, tapping into the creative side, but found myself distracted by the other stuff. If I'm truly reflective, we did roll out with our Learning Management System, @Canvas, which was a big task, worked to emphasize the importance of connecting with a PLN, and accomplished lots of other things...but not to the magnitude I'd wanted.

Now that you have a background, enter the end of May of this year and planning for the new year started to roll at a frantic pace. My mindset started changing as we began to look at creative ways to house curriculum, plan for professional development, new teacher technology bootcamp, etc. Attending ISTE was a huge refueling opportunity for me. The ability to connect, be inspired, and be amazed at the possibilities. I found myself with goosebumps listening to some of the options. Then, enter #edcampldrmo this week and a session title Get Your Leadership Freak On. (Truthfully, part of me attended the session because I was curious of the title.) In the session, I listened to various ideas of how various district leaders were being creative with their learning spaces, administrative center spaces, and building their culture. They were speaking my language through thematic activities, team building, etc. I started tossing some general ideas around in my head on the way home. And, then enter the whistle...

While explaining the session to our newly hired Instructional Technology Specialist, (thankfully, I have someone to divide and conquer the workload!!), I mentioned I'd like to do a theme for our boot camp and threw around the idea of having some snacks which matched the theme, maybe make it a little more relaxed. A little something to help the transition to a new district and ease some anxiety by having an uptight, formal environment. I threw out an example of cheese balls which would be "beach balls." From there he said the word, whistle (referencing our "boot camp") and whammo! The creative juices started flowing. What started out being a simple Pinterest search for a couple of food ideas transformed into a 3-day learning adventure surrounding a theme, snacks, giveaways, scavenger hunt, and will provide a connection which will explain our role and how we can help the teachers. All from the word whistle. #MindBlown

I left Tuesday afternoon and on my 30 minute drive home, I was more excited and pumped than I'd been in a long time. I ate dinner and then spent more hours surfing the net for ideas and learning activities we could modify. We need to model the type of instructional leader we are asking our teachers to be. I was inspired to take action on those risks we encourage our teachers to do.  Again, all from the word whistle.

I'm anxiously awaiting the start of our boot camp at the end of this month. I'll be sure to share the good, the bad, the ugly. I don't want to share out all the goodies now in case the newbies would see this post. All I know is, for the first time in a while, I'm almost obsessed with how excited I am (and my hubby is nearing his max capacity of listening to me talk about it). Let's get this party started! #AllFromTheWordWhistle

The #Trifecta - Blogging, Sketchnoting, and ISTE

"Setting goals is the first step in turning the 
invisible into the visible." ~ Tony Robbins

Last year was the first year I had the opportunity and privilege of attending the mother of edtech (or I even venture to say educational) conferences, #ISTE2015. Walking into the Philadelphia Convention Center as a brand, spankin' newbie left me speechless with excitement and feelings of sheer overwhelmedness. What to do? Where to look? What sessions to attend? Will my Fitbit explode from the number of steps in a day? 

The conference exceeded any expectations I could have had. I left a changed person. Even though pre-ISTE, one of my passions is educational technology, I found an even greater appreciation and love and looked to share the awesomeness with anyone who would/will listen. I left a person who connected with a vast amount of people from across the US and the world. I left invigorated, yet mentally and physically exhausted, while thirsty for more.

An added bonus which made my heart happy was watching my fellow Neosho School District colleagues transform their thinking and their classrooms. @librarystar puts it perfectly, "ISTE is a life-changing experience." I can't agree more! 

Following my arrival back home, a goal of mine was to write a blog post. While scanning through my Twitter timeline, I saw a request for guest bloggers. I gathered up some courage and soon posted my first blog which can be found here...

... and then life and work happened. The mantra soon became..."I'll blog tomorrow." "I don't have time for the extras like blogging." Sadly, my goal of  "a blog post" became my reality.... "A" blogpost. That was it...nothing more, nothing less.

Fast forward a year, I was fortunate to experience #ISTE2016 in Denver, Colorado. Year two was no chump either!  From the opening IGNITE sessions to the closing sessions, to say I found my tribe is an understatement. Connections made all over the US and world.

When 20,000 educators from all 50 states and 70 countries come together, mind-blowing awesomeness occurs. From selfies with #eduheroes

@alicekeeler

@ronclarkacademy

@kathyschrock

@sylviaduckworth

@coolcatteacher

to combatting my nerves and presenting a poster session, I laughed, I cried (more than one should in a 50 minute session, thanks @gcouros), I shared, I collaborated, I connected, I bonded with others on a like mission...and that is the greatness of ISTE.

BUT, wait! There's more...now for the trifecta...

• attended #ISTE2016 - check
• created a blog and posted - check (by the time you read this)
• created my first #sketchnote - check

One of the last sessions I attended was a phenom panel of @coolcatteacher, @sylviaduckworth, @kathyschrock and @heckawesome (whom I didn't score a pic with...bummer!) on sketchnoting.
I've been admiring from the sidelines and wanting to attend a session to learn more. This was one of the best sessions I attended. I left inspired, pumped, and eager to try my hand (pun intended) at sketchnoting. Upon returning from our roadtrip, I hopped off the sidelines and headed to gather supplies from the wonderfulness that is +Hobby Lobby  to create the old-school way before venturing into digital sketchnoting. I decided to take key ideas (I ran out of room on my page or there would be more!) from each day to create a visual representation. Without further ado....here's my 1st sketchnote...

Thank you to the panel and guest speakers for the encouragement. I'm excited for this sketchnoting journey, as well as, my intentional goal of sharing ideas, thoughts, and reflections through this blog.
The old mantras are being replaced by a new mantra stems from @gcouros session. "Make the positives so loud, the negatives are impossible to hear." One goal heading into #ISTE2017 is to look back and say, "Wowzers! I went from a single guest blog post to ihaveahashtagforthat.blogspot.com becoming a go-to forum of mine for sharing the goodness around me." That, my friends, will be #ISTEMagic