Pam Hubler
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The Lies We Tell Ourselves as Educators

1/31/2021

2 Comments

 

Girl, Wash Your Face!

Over the summer, I listened  to a book by Rachel Hollis called: Girl, Wash Your Face. It's such a great book! If you are a guy and you are reading this, just pass the recommendation on to your wife, mom, sister, or girl friend. :) As I was listening, it got me thinking of how this relates to us as educators. We wear a lot of hats! Which means, the lies that run through our heads causing doubt and burn out, are very real.  Rachel mentions the lies we tell ourselves through negative self-talk, then touches on how to get out of that mind trap.  

The Lies...

Some of the lies she mentions in the book really go hand-in-hand with our lives as educators.
  • "Something Else Will Make You Happy" ... this is hard, I'll never be happy doing this.  
  • "I'll Start Tomorrow"  ... that's a lot of work, I just can't ... today. 
  • "I'm Not Good Enough" ... I don't know enough, I'm not experienced enough, etc. 
  • "I'm Better Than You" ... my class/school runs like a well oiled machine, no need to change.
  • "No Is the Final Answer" ... I tried something big, but got shot down, so I guess that's it.
  • "I Should Be Further Along by Now" ... those big plans I had,  passed me by somehow.
  • "I'm a Terrible Writer" ...  I want to write a book/start a blog, but I'm not a writer.
  • "I'll Never Get Past This" ... I messed up, I may as well quit while I'm ahead. 
  • "There's Only One Right Way to Be" ... If I was like Mrs. Jones, I'd be the perfect teacher.
You may not have all these thoughts running through your head, but I'm sure at least one strikes a cord with you. 
​

My Life Long Lie...

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One more I'd like to add is very personal, and I hesitate to even mention it, but I can't be the only one that feels this way sometimes. It stems from growing up with a lot of negative comments from my dad because of how I was as a student . Really, I didn't put ANY effort into my educational experiences between 3rd grade and my senior year of high school.  One day, I'll write a book to get into that full story.  
  • "I'm Not Smart Enough"
Now that I'm 47 years old and have been an educator for 23 years, it's not something I tell myself as much as I used to, but the phrase does try to rear its ugly head when I'm starting a new endeavour or stepping out of my comfort zone.   

Rewriting Those Lies! 

I wouldn't do Rachel's witty humor justice by summarizing them, so check out the book if you want to hear her thoughts on rewriting those lies.  I have been gathering some quotes and resources to keep that negative self-talk at bay and focus on what really matters. I hope you find them helpful too!   Check out our conversation on Twitter as well. 
​

Blog Posts: 
14 Confidence Quotes to Help You Beat Self-Doubt and Achieve Your Goals

Planning Resources: 
Cultivate What Matters #Powersheets Goal Planner - walks you through a VERY in depth reflection process to get to the bottom of your goals based on what matters most to you right now.  Powersheets start at the beginning of the year, but there are other great planners available year round. 
Passion Planner - a journal that has a unique reflection process, including space after each month to reflect on how things are going and what you might want to change for the next month. 
DBCInc. Journal #JournalLAP - a journal filled with inspirational quotes from your favorite DBCInc. books to help you reflect through out the year. 


Books: 
I find a lot of books to be inspirational, but here are my top 2 that I refer to often as an educator! 

 1. Tara Martin's Be Real "In Be REAL, BookSnaps creator, Tara Martin, encourages you to share your unique talents and passions as an educator. Through her personal and engaging stories, you’ll learn the power of being true to yourself and find the courage to “cannonball” into the adventures life offers." - It's a wonderful book that I plan on reading again over the summer to get my head in the right place before starting a new school year in a new position.  
​Get your copy here! 


2. Dan Tricarico's The Zen Teacher "In The Zen Teacher, educator, blogger, and speaker Dan Tricarico provides practical, easy-to-use techniques to help teachers slow down and create a sense of focus, simplicity, and tranquility in the classroom - and in life. As a teacher, you have incredible power to influence, even improve, the future..." 
​Get your copy here! 

I could add more, but I think that's a good place to stop and share more later. This subject is more than one blog post for sure! 
​

Twitter conversations on the topic...

@msrachelhollis's book, "Girl, Wash Your Face" got me thinking... what lies do we tell ourselves as educators? What dialogue runs through your head that keeps you from trying new things or staying in EDU?#REALedu #leadlap @burgess_shelley @TaraMartinEDU @BethHouf @ShakeUpLearning

— ᑭᗩᗰ ᕼᑌᗷᒪᗴᖇ (@specialtechie) May 17, 2020
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​You can also check out this Wakelet collection from our #pd4uandme chat on 1/30/2021 to hear from some of our educator friends on the lies that they have to over come just like you.  Then come back soon for more on this topic. I've found myself having this conversation with educators a lot recently because of our current pandemic situation and it really makes me want to help!
​In the meantime, please take care of yourselves! ~Pam

2 Comments

Google Sites Keeps Getting Better!

1/18/2021

0 Comments

 

🖊️​ Fonts are here! 

Google Sites has been the best tool to use with students because of the ease of access and drag and drop features. The one thing that has kept me from using it outside my hub for teacher resources is the lack of creative choices native to Google Sites. 
The wait is over! You can now change your fonts inside Google Sites!
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Google Workspace Updates: Google Sites December '20

Looking for more updates, check out this Workspace post.  Making font changes to your entire site is coming, but it's not here yet.   I'll take this in the meantime! 
​

📢​ Announcement Banner

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Another feature I missed somehow is the announcement banner.  To add this to your current site, click the settings wheel and toggle on the "show banner" option. You can personalize it from there depending on if you want the banner on all pages or just the home page.

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Example: I'd use it to guide educators to my blog since I use my Google Site as a resource hub for teachers in my school.  The directions for adding this to your site can be found here (only available in the new Google Sites). ​

⬇️​ Collapsible Text

The last feature I was super excited to find is a collapsible text box! Again... not sure how I missed this update! Some of my pages have a tendency to get a little long, but I don't necessarily want the content to be on another page in the drop down menu. This is the perfect solution!   Here's an example using content standards. Detailed directions for using  this feature can be found here. 
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🎨​ Have fun with your Google Site! 

Now, I have some updating to do! I hope this will give you the push you needed to give Google Sites a try if you haven't already. 
I'd love to know how you use Google Sites.  Please tag me (@specialtechie) on Twitter with your thoughts and/or creations.  I love learning from you too! 
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Choice Boards for the Win!

10/4/2020

2 Comments

 

Choice Boards

Choice Boards aren't new, but they have become a life saver since education changed drastically last March due to Covid-19! 
The current trend for a lot of the teachers I work with or follow through social media is to create digital Choice Boards so students can have some options in the activities they do from home based on a certain topic or subject area.
  Kasey Bell from Shake Up Learning calls them Interactive Learning Menus, which gives you a better idea of the purpose. Check out some of her free templates here!
​ 

Video Tutorial - Quick version! 

There are many beautiful templates our there for teachers to download for free to create their own Choice Boards. My favorites are from Paula at Slidesmania! You have to check out her resources if you are in search of some educational Google Slides or Powerpoint templates.
I created the video below to share with my teachers as a quick-start guide, so Ithought I'd write a quick blog post to share it with you too!  I didn't want to get too geeky, because that's when we start losing track of the time (which we don't have a lot of these days)!
So here's a 10 minute video on how you can use Google Slides to create a clickable Choice Board to help students choose what activities they work through each week. 

Free Slides Templates

In the video above, I created a weekly choice Board on the go, so it isn't overly complicated or pretty. ​ It's an easy place to start if you've never created one before though! The second template is to help teachers incorporate writing remotely.  Both of these templates are just a starting point, so have fun!
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Resources to make you own! 

Besides my favorites mentioned above, here are some more helpful links. ​
  • Catlin Tucker - Choice Boards
  • Matt Miller -Ditch That Textbook - Math Choice Boards
  • Using Digital Choice Boards - Hello Teacher Lady
  • Jake Miller - Choice Boards Presentation
  • Choice Boards for Professional Development - Spedtechgeek (ME!)
  • Choice Board for Coaching -TeachBoost (also ME) ​​
It really just depends on your purpose and how much time you want to spend creating Choice Boards/ Learning Menus. Have fun and remember to not stress yourself out by trying to make it Teachers Pay Teachers or Pinterest perfect! Remember, the purpose is to give your students choice and be able to differentiate whenever possible.
Happy creating and please tag me on your favorite social media platform with your creations! 
~Pam
2 Comments

Planning For A Year Like No Other!

8/23/2020

2 Comments

 
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Planning for the 20-21 School Year

One thing we all have in common right now is that we have NO IDEA how to plan for this year.  While chatting with some educator friends last week, we decided it's a no-checklist kind of year.  Don't get me wrong, we'll have tons on our to-do list, but there isn't a checklist to follow to make back to school easy because no one has done it before!
​So here's my attempt at making this year less painful...
​
As a coach, I'm trying my hardest to gather things that will help my teachers through an interesting mix of face-to-face and virual learning. They were just getting the hang of the virtual part, then we had to throw in the face-to-face part. That's out of our control, so we are going to try to make the best of it! My first thought was to help them create a workflow to their day so they aren't "live" all day, but they can include their virtual students during the most important times. Below are some guiding questions I found from NIET that might help with the planning process. In our school, we'll also be setting up a clickable schedule where teachers and students can click on the link they need at the right time to join a live meeting with their class. To start with, we'll be setting up a morning, mid-day, and afternoon time that's required. The rest of the live times (since you can't always plan the best teachable moments) will be linked in Google Classroom for easy acces. I'll be posting more after we officially start school to try it out. 

Guiding Questions for Planning Virtual Lessons

✅​ Helpful Resources:

Google has been sharing a ton of resources to help educators make the best of our current situation and new trends that have surfaced to meet the needs of our students.  Here are a few that can be shared with families since they will be in this with us.  I'm thinking these would be great to share in your first newsletter or virtual introduction for the year. 
Google Junior Training Series
Tech Tool Kit for Families/Guardians
Family Engagement Best Practices
If you are a GSuite district, there are tons of tools you can use to help make your instruction easy to navigate whether or not you are face-to-face, virtual, or a mix of both. Here are the tools & Extentions I have found really useful since last March when all this started. 
​

📅​ Google Calendar

Google Calendar can be a life saver for you when you are working in a digital enviroment.  Using calendar events with a Google Meet link can make it much easier to keep track of time. I have notifications settings for anywhere from 15 to 5 minutes before an event to make sure I stay on schedule.  Here are a few posts and resources that might help you if this sounds like something that will help your workflow (including a link to my post on surviving remote learning). 
Google Tips for Coaches: Shake Up Learning
Google Calendar Help
Screenshot from one of my posts
Screenshot from my post "5 Rules for Surviving Remote Learning"

🎥​ Google Meet

There's a few different ways to use Google Meet. Right now, the safest way to use it with students is to either go to meet.google.com and create a nicknamed meet from there, or use the Google Meet link in Google Classroom (which also serves as a nicknamed meet where students can't join without the teacher). Below I've linked Eric Curts Google Meet series so you can choose what you need to know. 
Google Meet & Google Classroom
Google Meet : Eric Curts
Google Meet Tips for Educators

🖼️ Google Slides 

Google Slides is one of my favorite Google tools! It's not just about making presentations pretty, but making them effective and engaging.
Some of the ways you can use Google Slides to help you teach right now can include:
  • Lesson Plan "Hub" -Slidesmania Templates FREE & amazing! 
  • Hyperdocs -Hyperdocs.co  
  • Student Portfolios -Google Slides Template Gallery
  • Student Blogs - #ditchbook style
  • Self-Paced Formative Assessment -How to Create a Quiz in Google Slides
  • Chose your own adventure - Choice Stories, Choose Your Own Adventure
I could go on, but that might give you some ideas on how to use Google Slides differently than you may have used it before. Each one is linked to a resource that can help you get started! 
​​

👩‍💻​ Google Classroom

I won't even try to create my own resources for Google Classroom tutorials when I have access to Kasey Bell's resources! Check out all that she has to offer here.  Also, she has an amazing Google Classroom Master class (that I've taken myself) that includes EVERYTHING you would need to know, and then some.    If you are new to Google Classroom, do yourself a favor and take this course (which is on sale right now, because she's awesome like that)! 
Here's the link to the course if the free resources linked above isn't enough for you. 

Another thing I'd recommend is to listen to her latest Podcast on "How to Create Google Classroom Blended Learning Lessons" (part 3 of a great back-to-school series).


🖱️Extensions

Some of my favorite extensions to use with the apps mentions above are linked below.  
  • Google Meet Grid View
  • Google Meet Attendance
  • Mote: Voice notes & feedback
  • Screencastify
  • Add to Google Classroom
  • Add to Wakelet
  • Classwork Zoom for Google Classroom  *Paid service, free extension
  • Extensity *MUST have to keep your computer from running too slow with lots of active extensions. You can turn them on and off easily as you need them! ​

🔗​ Wakelet, Edpuzzle, SeeSaw, and Flipgrid

These aren't Google tools, but they are sites we will be using a lot this year! As I've mentioned before, I use Wakelet for my #PottyPD and our school newsletter. We also started using it as a "hub" for lesson plans. Here's a post on some of the many ways you can use Wakelet. 

Flipgrid is an amazing tool to keep your kids engaged and seeing each other even if they aren't in the school building with you. One of my favorite app smashing ideas is to start your Wakelet off with a Flipgrid short (embeded in Wakelet alread) to add your personality into your Wakelet collections. Want to know more about Flipgrid? You can check out the tons of resources already created for educators here.

SeeSaw! I haven't used SeeSaw myself much, but I know our K-2 teachers LOVE it! We bought a subscription for our teachers to use this year and they are super excited! I'll be able to share more on how we use it soon.  In the meantime, check out their resources for educators here.   
​

💡​It's about the instruction & pedagogy, not just the tool!

As with any technology integration, you have to think about the purpose before you pick the tool.  Here's a Toolkit from Shake Up Learning that will help you plan engaging lessons regardless of the tools you choose to support "Dynamic Learning" in your classroom. Just make sure to not overwhelm yourself and keep self-care on your calendar.  I'd also love to hear what you are doing to try to keep yourself same this year.  Tag me on Twitter or comment below with you thoughts! ~Pam 
2 Comments

Google Challenges for Teachers

7/13/2020

4 Comments

 
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Shake Up Learning Guest Blog Post!

I've been busy this summer working on virtual trainings for teacher assistants in my district, so I figured the resources might be helpful for teachers too.  
We’re experiencing a shift in education right now, which has forced educators to use technology creatively to continue to do our jobs. I think it will be a good thing in the end, but now, education is experiencing some major growing pains.  Summer is a great time to practice your GSuite skills to prepare (especially if remote learning continues) for the fall!  

​
Check out the blog post here and download your free template. ​ If you are already on my email list, no worries, fill out the form anyway to download your copy (you won't get more emails). 
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    I'm an Instructional Coach at Daniel Island School in Berkeley County South Carolina and a Google Certified Trainer.  
    I have experience teaching K-8 special ed. and General Ed. as well as instructional & technology coaching.  Since I enjoy technology more than some, I started this blog for educators who love it too. Thanks for visiting! 

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Pam Hubler ~ Instructional Coach, Daniel Island School, Berkeley County School District ~ @specialtechie
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