prestonhickert

Word of the Year: Intentional.

August 14, 2018

On the eve of a new school year (my second), my thoughts have swelled around what the next year will look like. My PLN is filled with literally thousands of ideas I could try. Dozens of books fill my Amazon “teacher books” list. And my planbook is currently sitting open to a blank calendar, ready to be filled.

I intentionally spent the first part of summer reflecting on my first year of teaching. I made it out alive, so I hereby declare that it is a success. *cue to confetti*

As I started to look towards what I wanted to do the next year, I kept coming back to the “small things” that are part of our job -- those tiny details that help our students find success. I thought about how I could bring more inquiry into my classroom and offer more choice for my students. I read a lot of books about inquiry. I thought about how to empower my students in their learning. I read a lot about visible learning. Do you see the pattern?

When the end of July popped up on the calendar, I started to focus on what my “word” of the 2018-2019 school year would be (I suppose that’s just my STUCO brain at work because I love a good theme). I decided that my word would be INTENTIONAL.

There are a lot of things that I want to be “intentional” about, but really that word represents slowing down (as much as possible) and focusing on my students as living, breathing humans.

So, the areas that I want to be more intentional:

INTENTIONAL ABOUT INQUIRY. Let’s ask more questions and then chase down those answers. Maybe we can share out what we find along the way?

INTENTIONAL ABOUT STRUCTURE. Let’s develop assessment capable learners, who can drive their own learning and see how they can get better on their own. Let’s develop (and stick with 😅) routines that help our classroom run smoothly.

INTENTIONAL ABOUT KINDNESS. This is the battle I will always take up arms for.

INTENTIONAL ABOUT CELEBRATING. Learning is F-U-N! Making progress is fun! Let’s celebrate when students grow, and let’s celebrate how awesome our teammates are.

Ah, I feel an incredible year ahead. I’m excited to meet my new 405 crew and see where the year takes us. What's your word for the new school year? What are you focusing on?

Mindsets: Castles and Kingdoms

June 26, 2018

In 2011, I arrived on the campus of a small (and unknown) college campus in Missouri. Our car drove up this long drive towards a building that looked like an oversized golf-ball had crash-landed on a green. There were these older kids wearing funny hats and matching shirts screaming at us, and at one point trying to open the car door for a Chinese Fire Drill (keyword there is trying, I had all of my weight on the lock so it would not open).

Fast forward eight years, and I’ve seen this “red carpet” welcome rolled out for hundreds of student leaders year after year at our Summer Leadership Workshop. I admit, sometimes it still makes me uncomfortable.

It is so necessary. Why? We are building the next generation of student leaders and we need to set the tone from day one -- this is no ordinary place, you are welcomed, and we are so glad that you are here.

A few months ago, I read a book by a genius of a man, Bob Goff. Over a few pages, he spells out this mindset of building castles and kingdoms. Let me explain.

To start with, you have to know this important detail: we are constantly building castles and kingdoms, every day and every moment.

Building a Castle vs Kingdom

Have you ever seen a classic, old-time, Hollywood castle? The one with the moat? That’s the one I want you to picture.

When we build castles, we are only letting certain people in. As Bob says, “castles have moats to keep the creepy people out.”

When we are kingdom-minded, we let the bridges down and let everyone in. In our kingdom, everyone is accepted and everyone is welcome.

What are you building?

Houston Kraft gave an extraordinary presentation to our advisors at our State Convention this past spring. He asked us three simple questions: How do we want our students to feel? How do we want our staff to feel? How do we want our people to feel?

I say we lower the gates and bring in our people.

I recently picked up a copy of Richard Parkhouse’s, Building the World’s Greatest High School. Think about this quote: “To see belief systems at work at your school, you don’t have to look very far. For example, if you look at the way that freshman students are greeted on their orientation day, you’ll see the school’s beliefs about the value of these students in crystal clear detail… Are they brought into the gym with much fanfare, music moving, barbecue blazing, and students cheering? Or, are they greeted by an administrator in a suit and tie preparing to talk to them about the dress code?” Are we building castles or kingdoms?

How are we welcoming students and staff back to school in August? Are we lowering the gates and celebrating them? Are we saying “we’re glad you are here”?

Are we building castles or kingdoms?

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Shoutout to these awesome books (I’m not getting paid if you by them, by the way, I’m just a big fan):

Everybody Always, by Bob Goff.

Building the World’s Greatest High School, by Richard Parkhouse.

IMMOOC: Technology to Empower

March 12, 2018

This post is part of my journey in the fourth season of the Innovator’s Mindset #IMMOOC with George Couros. This week, we were challenged to respond to this question: Why do you believe that schools needs to change, and what are the opportunities that lay in front of us?

I love technology.

I spend hours on Twitter. I love formatting Google Docs (yes, I know). I love making designs on Google Drawings or Canva.

In my graduate class last semester, my professor loaned me a copy of Catlin Tucker’s Blended Learning book. #LOVE.

But learning technology is deeper than the latest app or online tool. S/O to @AliceKeeler who preaches this from her mountain of followers on Twitter.

I loathe this problem that we face on the daily in our classrooms: “One-to-one technology ratios woo students and impress the administration and teachers at neighboring schools. Inside too many of these tech-equipped schools are many uninspired students who believe traditional education is irrelevant” (“Innovator’s Mindset,” p. 3).

I don’t know the magic answer to solve this problem. I think some of it has to do with engagement, part of it might be our (sad) push to “digitize” worksheets, but most of it has to do with the fear-driven conditioning that we have subjected students to since kindergarten when they get their first device.

Technology introduced me to John Spencer’s YouTube channel. I went down the YouTube rabbit hole one day just watching all of the awesome animated videos that he has created. Technology can help us deliver content to students in a creative, engaging and beautiful way.

Technology is an incredible tool for creating. But technology is also one of the best tools to amplify our voice -- that includes the voices of our students.

Trust me, I wrestle daily with the games. I hate taking away technology. But I believe, that we have to teach, model, and give a ton of grace until students learn the power of technology and that it is not just a toy (#firstyearteacheridealism).

I am incredibly blessed to be able to work with and support an organization called #ICANHELP. Kim Karr and Matt Soeth both preach about student empowerment across the country. What’s their message?

Students can make a difference because they have a voice and can take action.

I’ve never heard Kim or Matt rely on fear to scare students away from social media. Are they honest? Yes. They are very real about the fact that bad decisions can impact your future. But they spend so much time breaking down the “stay off social media” walls (trust me, those are solid, reinforced concrete walls) and introducing them to the “you can help change this” pasture.

“We are spending so much time telling our students about what they can’t do that we have lost focus on what we can do” (“Innovator’s Mindset,” p. 7).

I’ll leave you with this thought: how can education empower students with technology?

IMMOOC: To Wonder. To Explore. To Create.

March 01, 2018

This post is part of my journey in the fourth season of the Innovator’s Mindset #IMMOOC with George Couros. This week, we were challenged to respond to this question: Why do you believe that schools needs to change, and what are the opportunities that lay in front of us?

“If students leave school less curious than when they started, we have failed them.”

When I was in elementary school, I loved building things. The absolute best gift I could ever receive was a pack of LEGO® bricks. Most of the time, I would put the pieces together without reading the instructions -- I would just look at the box and figure it out.

Do you remember the storage cubes that had the wire pieces that you could shape and stack in different arrangements? I would spend hours tinkering, building cubes, taking cubes apart, creating new structures.

One time, my brother and I built chairs out of the cubes. We even included pillows for padding (disclaimer: we were young, small, and could comfortably fit on a less than 12” seat). I think when we finally sold the cubes in a garage sale they were actually curved because we had spent so much time sitting on them instead of storing things on them.

We didn’t use the cubes for the right purpose. We didn’t even have a set of instructions. We just followed our curiosity and created something new.

I love the word curious. I feel a sense of empowerment when my mind wanders off and I am able to explore something new. I’m one of those people who can’t eat until I find the answer to a question (what you are thinking is probably right: I am not good at the whole balance thing).

To me, education is about helping students develop the tools and skills to chase down their passions to answer the questions that pop into their brains. It’s not necessarily about learning how to fill out a worksheet, but how to think and think critically.

At a recent district PD day, a pair of eighth-grade social studies teachers from my building presented on Visible Thinking Strategies. During the workshop, one of the teachers said, “Visible Thinking Strategies are not about tasks. It is about building thinking routines that students can use wherever they are.”

GENIUS.

As we move further into the 21st century, learning must be about empowering students to think (critically). To wonder. To create.

“The goal isn’t to change for the sake of change but to make changes that allow us to empower our teachers and students to thrive.” (“Innovator's Mindset,” p. 7).

BUT, like George Couros, AJ Juliani and Katie Martin discussed in the #IMMOOC Week 1 YouTube video, there is still a place for “being compliant” in education. There is also, duh, a place for learning content (and there has to be a time and place to learn content in a concrete way before we apply it).

I love thinking about PBL, dreaming up projects, and reading research on how to make it better.

I am notorious for saying, “What if…” and throwing a wrench into a good plan. But I think some of the best ideas start out with, “Hey, I’d like to try this thing...”

Rubrics + Google Classroom

September 28, 2017

We Are All Connected

August 17, 2017

It's the first week of school -- the perfect time to start building the classroom culture that you want.

First off, I saw this tweet and totally LOVED the idea of connecting all of my students somehow. So HUGE S/O to Michelle (@Michelle4EDU) for the idea!

Connecting together on a Saturday! Thank you, @michelle4edu! #PassionateTeachers #HCPSteach @HillsboroughSch pic.twitter.com/44wPA4Ghp9
— LaVonna (@LaVonnaRoth) August 5, 2017

So.

As I enter my first year of teaching, I wanted to spend the first week(s) of school being intentional about building community and trust. During preservice, my principal said something that really got me thinking. He said, "Our students are most worried about where they fit in and who cares about them."

"Students at this age are most worried about where they fit in and who cares about them -- even above eating and sleeping." #truth
— 𝙿𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚗 𝙷𝚒𝚌𝚔𝚎𝚛𝚝 (@prestonhickert) August 8, 2017

I knew that I wanted to start building that sense of belonging and connecting in the first week.

Today, we did an activity I've labeled as "We are all connected." It was about creating "connections" (AKA matching interests between students) in our classroom and the other students who visit my room during the day.

[Disclaimer: I'm probably making this sound way more polished and like it went a lot smoother than it actually did.]

Here's how our day went:

To start our day (for our warm-up) I had students answer 10 questions about their "Favorite Things" (cue Oprah).
We started at our tables (groups of 3-4) and tried to find a common connection there (our essential question for the day was "How do I fit into our community?"). I explained that we wanted to find things we shared in common with the people we are sitting with.
After a couple of minutes, and after students started looking around the room, I challenged my students to get up and walk around to find other connections throughout our classroom.
After a few more minutes, I started asking the pairs of students closest to the whiteboard if they wanted to add their notecards to the board. I explained that after they found a spot to tape their card, they had to make a connection with another notecard -- that was already taped -- and draw a line to connect them. Then they had to label their line with what the connection was.
After all of the notecards were taped and connected we read Edward the Emu. We discussed why it is important to stay true to yourself but that you can still belong even if you are a little bit different, or have your own unique favorite things.

Overall, I hope my students feel more connected and part of our 405 community (the "405 squad"). We have the rest of the school year to build on the foundation that we are building during these first few days of school!

Happy new school year! And good luck to all my fellow first year teachers!

"We are ALL connected!" Today we connected all of the Ss in 405 through our favorite things. 🤝 #heritagems #hms6 #lpsleads pic.twitter.com/Y3rqEu7fL0
— 𝙿𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚗 𝙷𝚒𝚌𝚔𝚎𝚛𝚝 (@prestonhickert) August 17, 2017

Amplify: Rethinking Your Social Strategy

July 22, 2017

The world of social media is ever changing. Things seem to be moving at an increasingly fast pace and it seems like we are living in the "here and now" more and more often. Snapchat and Instagram Stories have seemingly replaced Twitter and Facebook, although a few will still tell you they are Twitter regulars.

This summer I noticed a shift in how student leaders engaged with us on social media during summer leadership workshops. Students seemed to be moving to Instagram, where there was higher engagement and impressions on posts and rarely published tweets with our dedicated hashtag.

This got me thinking, do we need to change how we approach social media? Instead of focusing on Twitter AND Instagram AND Snapchat, do we need to focus on one in particular? What do we do with Facebook?

This is a good place for a disclaimer: by no means am I an expert, I'm just making observations and connecting them with simple things schools, student councils and other youth focused organizations can use.

So, here's a hot take: if we want to reach the students in our schools and organizations, we need to put more focus on centering our efforts on Instagram.

And here's why: Instagram can automatically share to Facebook without more work. Instagram can share to Twitter, both as a native photo with IFTTT and as an Instagram link (more on that later). PLUS, you can use Instagram Stories (hereafter called IG Story) a lot like Snapchat, but with more control.

Instagram Stories (IG Stories)

Probably one of my favorite "new" features on Instagram (or any social media lately) is the new IG Stories. Albeit very similar to Snapchat, IG Stories are incredibly easy to use, controllable and just beautiful.

It functions just like a Snapchat Story. You post a photo and it is visible to your followers for 24 hours. But you can also upload to your story, giving you more control and usability for your marketing efforts. Plus as long as you are logged into to your student council account, you have the ability to post to the IG Story.

One very very cool feature is the annotation tools. Not only are there different options, but there is also something in the code that makes your doodles look way more artistic than they probably are (I'm speaking from my experience here). Take a look at some of the IG Stories that I posted while at CADA Camps this summer.

There are some seriously talented people working with IG Stories and I often find myself following accounts solely to see what they post to their story.

I also discovered that certain hashtags can have their own IG Stories. When you search for a hashtag, the Stories ring will pop up and indicate that there are multiple story posts that have tagged that hashtag. Same with locations.

Instagram + Everything Else

What is awesome about Instagram is that you can automatically share to the other major social networks. Instagram allows you to connect your Facebook and Twitter (and Tumblr) accounts in order to quickly share over your posts. This is a great way to consistently post on Facebook, which will help your content show up in the Feed more (cc: the algorithm, or something).

When you create and connect an If This Then That (IFTTT) account, you can search for Instagram and then create an applet to automatically share your Instagram posts as native photos (that means no link to the Instagram photo AND it shows up in the tweet). Click HERE to go to that applet and start using it.

Instagram Business Profile

A relatively new feature for Instagram is the option to switch your account to a business profile. After you have created a Facebook page for your student council and connect it to Instagram, you can change from a "personal" to a "business" profile. This gives you access to way more insight into your followers, impressions and statistics about your efforts.