Start with a Question

Click here to listen the the segments. For adults this fast-paced tech-rich world can be intimidating. And yet, children are the focus of my work. Imagine how overwhelming this world can look to them! While many dismiss that perspective and argue that they are "digital natives" for whom navigating our tech-rich world is easier, I know first hand that is it not. Children are the focus of my work in 3 ways: I'm the mother of 2 young girls who are eager to explore the media and opportunities of the online world. My profession is educator and I work with teachers and students in grade 6 through 12 at St. John's Prep . We are focused on how to make the world a better place today and in the future. I have a passion for advocacy of digital citizenship, literacy, and safety through writing, speaking, and organizing with the non-profit ConnectSafely.org . Often, when certain events occur – like President Trump's tweets yesterday that focused on insults rat...

Often connected educators advise their new-to-the- PLN (personal learning network) colleagues to create a separate Twitter/Instagram/Facebook account for professional purposes. While most are already connected to family and friends on social media, many are not yet using social media as a means to professional learning and growth. Dipping their toes into using social media for professional purposes is less intimidating if they get to start fresh with a brand new online identity, one that is separate from already existing personal accounts. But this is a myth. Make no mistake, a separate professional online identity might be a good place to start. It helps rookie connected educators learn the general etiquette and norms around sharing information, asking for feedback, and building a PLN. They can do all of this without feeling as though their personal life is suddenly public. The purpose of this post is not to discourage that practice. Crossing a Social Media Threshold The ...

This week I had the honor of working with my colleague, Julie Cremin , to facilitate our school's in-house summer EdTech conference. It is meant to help inspire teachers at our school to set new goals for engagement and tech integration in their classrooms. My intro to the PLN session. The thing is, although teachers know technology has the potential to change the way students learn, many do not know that it can change the way they develop as professional educators. Our teachers spend much of their time putting their students first, so Julie and I felt strongly that part of teacher EdTech training should be about the educators. After all, the students would benefit from their teachers' growth in the end, right? Near the end of our 3 day conference, the final session I facilitated was about the power of building a PLN (Professional Learning Network) through social media. First I defined PLN for the teachers who joined the conversation. The group of people a learner in...

As educators, we become accustomed to both operating as experts in solitude and collaborating with colleagues. In what is surely among the top collaborations of my career, I had the good fortune to talk and think and laugh and write with Larry Magid , CEO of ConnectSafely and established technology journalist with CBS News, Huffington Post,  San Jose Mercury News , and several others. He brought his expertise with the latest in privacy policy and the functional possibilities of the tools. I brought my experience from the classroom and how social media can connect students and teachers with the world outside their classroom like never before possible. The result is this comprehensive guide: Click to see the full text pdf of the guide. Educators can feel confident that the guide covers everything from communication with parents, to posting images and videos, to online harassment, to building a professional network. It is all in this easily-accessible document that is free. ...

Tonight I had the pleasure of chatting once again with Dr. Will .  This time we talked about the benefits of being a connected educator.   Check out the complete post on his blog .  Watch the video podcast below.

The reason I believe so much in the importance of tech integration in education has little to do with the tech itself. Instead, it has everything to do with the communication and relationship-building that tech makes possible. Recently I wrote a post for Smarter Schools Project on this topic. Click here to read it.

I have been co-presenting with 6 of my students over the past few months at various conferences on the paperless classroom.  There are a few questions that are consistently brought up either with raised hands, on the backchannel during the session, or afterwards when attendees want to ask me face to face.  Most of them are clarifying questions around how a paperless classroom fits into teaching and learning pedagogy.  After our most recent workshop at MassCUE , I thought that these questions are asked so often it would be worth publishing 1. Why do you hate paper so much? Ok, so no one has asked me this to my face at a conference.  But my colleagues and a few students have.  I've made an effort to preempt this question when I share at professional conferences by using this comical advertisement. Funny, right?  No, I don't hate paper. It has an important place in our lives and in our education system.  In fact, although students don't have ...

Some educators from my amazing PLN from #BFC530 created an off-shoot group called Student Connect . We have a Voxer group that allows our students to leave messages for one another from across the country.   Lisa 's 11th and 12th graders in Pennsylvania can talk to my 9th and 10th graders in Massachusetts can talk to Scott 's 7th graders in New Jersey can talk to Sarah 's 7th and 8th graders in Georgia can talk to Becca 's K through 5 students in Texas. We come up with the question for each day and the kids talk to each other about their answers.  They LOVE listening to voices of kids from all around the country thank to Voxer.  They laughed together when eating waffles was mentioned as a fun weekend activity.  They shook their heads together when the stress of the PSATs was mentioned.  One of my sophomores said, " It's nice to know they're the same as us ." Day 1 Question: What do all kids want every teacher to know? Becca used a table as a ...

Five of my freshmen and sophomores chose to spend their third day of summer break in school with me. It wasn't our school, but it was a high school . They weren't the students, they were the teachers. We collaborated in person and from home on a Google Doc to design an experiential workshop for the CPS Educational Excellence Institute in which teachers heard why they preferred to learn and produce unique media based projects with their mobile devices.  On the right side of the screenshot of our initial brainstorm you can see that all of us were editing and creating on the same document.  I found that the more I let them drive the content, the more detailed the list became. The result was this presentation, which we also created collaboratively using Google Drive. Click here to see the whole presentation! During the actual event, in addition to explaining the reasons they liked a paperless history class this year and demonstrating some of their favorite tools, t...

Learning is not, and should not be, limited to what goes on within the four walls of classrooms.  Students are constantly learning and usually new questions are sparked when that learning happens. How can we encourage our students to ask their questions? Without a way to communicate their ideas and inquiries when they occur, will our millennials develop the inquisitiveness that is necessary for them to become the innovators of tomorrow ? Here are 4 ways you can encourage your students to share their thoughts and questions when you aren't together in the classroom: Google Drive My students submit their multimedia creations and lesson reflections on public blogs, but what about work that is in the draft phases? How can they submit that to me paperlessly and still get the feedback they need? Google Drive has been the answer to that question for my students this year.  Students make me an editor on their notes, outlines, and drafts. Then I can go in and comment on their work...

Image credit: Susan Cain Last night I participated in a #BYOTchat moderated by Steve Hayes  and Nathan Stevens about introvert students. It was based largely on the work of Susan Cain, the author of Quiet .  She also gave an incredible TED Talk on the Power of Introverts .  The chat questions focused on the strengths of introverts, misconceptions about them as students, and how teachers and schools can better serve introverts. The chat got me thinking about how my students use their own technology (smartphones, tablets, and laptops) to participate in class. Although we still do sometimes have traditional discussions that require them to raise their hands, much of our collaborative work happens via technology. The former is unnatural to the introvert students. Volunteering to share their inner thoughts and insights with others to gain notice and credit is uncomfortable.  The latter, sharing via technology, is more comfortable. Everyone is sharing and int...

My students and I have tried a lot of different discussion formats in my class: Socratic Seminar, informal Q & A, bean bag toss, and everything else I could think of over the years. Some were too formal and students were almost too nervous to participate. Others were in groups that were too large and not everyone was heard as much as they would have liked.  Sometimes the success depended on the time of day: morning classes were super quiet while afternoon classes were hard to control.  In all cases, discussion was framed around teacher goals and not around student inquiry. We recently tried the EdCafe model.  EdCafe solves all of these problems. Here's how to get started: Learn About Being an EdCafe Facilitator The ultimate authority on EdCafe is  Katrina Kennett , she is the creator of the  What is an EdCafe?  website.  Within the website there is a guide for teachers and a guide for students.  There area also contributions from other...

Here goes... 1. I spend way more time communicating with students, parents, and community members outside of the school allotted conference time than within it.  Those communications happen when the students really need them, too, instead of when the school has deemed communication appropriate.  They are more constructive, build more relationships, and are a better way for me to get to know my students and their families than the artificial 10 minute presentation I give on Back to School Night or the rushed 10 minute one-on-one meetings on Parent Conference Day each December.  The natural communication that happens through nearly weekly grade updates, emails, and phone calls are more relevant, more timely, and more personal.  They show that I'm in touch because I want to be, not because I have to be.  Nearly every teacher I know communicates with families in this way as well.  Forced Parent Conference Days seem unnatural, impersonal, and kind of pointless...

I have the best students on the planet.  They come to my classroom every day and make me laugh.  They energize me and show real fascination when I tell them stories from history.  Plus, every day they do fantastic things for one another.  They deserve to be recognized. I've started a new tag on Twitter: #thankateenager Here a few of my earliest posts. Amazing performances by Color Guard and Cheerleaders! #RMHS #thankateenager https://t.co/gnLlVGjXI4 — Kerry Gallagher (@KerryHawk02) November 27, 2013 Nick and Ian, seniors and former students, stopped by this morning just to say hi and get me psyched up for pep rally! #thankateenager — Kerry Gallagher (@KerryHawk02) November 27, 2013 S/O to Doug in History 9 who helped a classmate download @evernote onto his @surface in class today! #thankateenager #gallagherhistory — Kerry Gallagher (@KerryHawk02) November 26, 2013 My awesome students made the #RMHS homepage! Good looking crew, right? #t...

My little family is fortunate this week because we are all still working.  Even though the 94% "non-essential" federal workers are furloughed, everyone we know personally who works for the federal government is considered "essential" and is still working and earning a paycheck.  That doesn't mean, however, that I'm not feeling the far-reaching effects of this giant Congressional tantrum. Day 1 of Shutdown First, on Monday, October 1 I tried to get onto the Library of Congress website to do some research for an upcoming lesson.  When I was faced with a government shutdown message, I tweeted out my frustrations. The #shutdown prevents me from researching historical information for the high school students I teach. #ebtl2 pic.twitter.com/7Q01uVNZAm — Kerry Gallagher (@KerryHawk02) October 1, 2013 To my delight, I got a few retweets from sympathizing teachers and a new follower.  Darin Johnston ( @AnIowaTeacher ) certainly isn't anyone I've...