Joy

Some thoughts on incorporating Joy into your classroom. This post was brought on by Dean Shareski's Keynote at the Clark County Connected Conference, where I got to hang with some really cool people. 

Read More

Say Yes

I was honored to be a part of the TLTConference. I learned a ton and here are some of my thoughts.

Read More

Color Theory 10 Commandments

How often do you think about the colors you use in your assignments, slides, presentations, Google Doc Assignments? Do you know that colors mean a lot to students? You should check out this graphic and see how you can use it to enhance learning in your classroom. 

Full Link Here

Read More

After the Fireworks

It was dark now. Only a couple of lights left on still at the Fish Fry. The fireworks were done. Everyone was leaving. My own kids were playing on a tractor that had been parked out in the open.

My wife looks to me, "Do you know the girl that is walking this way?" I look one way. No one there. I look another. No one there. I turn all the way around and hear, "Mr. Miller?"

"Yes," I say.
"Do you remember me?"
"Of course. Hi, Natalie! How are you?"
(She looked amazed that I remembered something from almost three years ago and then broke out into a familiar smile that I remembered.)
"Good," she says. "Nervous about going into high school, but I think every freshman is," she continues.
I tell her, "Well, I remember your work ethic in 6th grade, and I think you'll be okay."
I ask, "What are you doing here?" (I wouldn't have expected to see any students from my old district at this event.)
"I just came with my family," she says as she points across the way.
I look over, and wave to them all. They are all smiling.
She replied in a very sincere almost thankful-like, "I miss you."
I replied that I missed her as well and thanked her for coming up to see me because it had truly made my summer so far.
Just like that, we said our goodbyes, and she went on her way smiling.

This interaction, although small and lasted a couple of minutes, will hang with me awhile. Perhaps years.

She didn't come up to ask me if I remember the reading projects she did in 6th grade, although I do. She didn't come up to tell me that she got an A on a math assignment in 7th grade (she probably did). She didn't come up to tell me she just got a new iPad (no idea if she did or not.)

Our subject area (math, reading, etc...) shouldn't be the first thing that students remember about us or our classes.  Our class projects should not be what's most important. Our daily objectives shouldn't even be remembered by our students.

Developing relationships is what's most important.

Students don't come up to you later on in life and thank you for making them write a five paragraph essay.

I'm so happy that Natalie came up and talked to me. It has been the highlight so far this summer.

(This is not written to sound arrogant or anything like that. It's just an observation that most teachers understand and it needs to be communicated more, I think. I also am going to tell you that there are a lot of students who I fail to make good relationships with while they are with me. I'm still learning, as well.)

Read More

This Is Why I Teach

I could go into a long soliloquy about why I teach. A student can say it better. 

Read More

Bring an Art Museum into Your Classroom

We went on a field trip to the Indianapolis Museum of Art last week. A docent took us on a small tour of some of the artworks inside the museum.  Besides looking at the artwork and trying to make sure that none of the students wandered off to other parts of the exhibit, I found myself thinking about how art museums display a piece of art.

• It is Simply Displayed Simply - Typically, each piece is displayed by itself and free from other influences. 
• Surrounded by White or Black - Art is usually enveloped by white or black walls and rooms.
• Open  - An art museum has a lot of space to move around the works of art. It has room to look up closely and to take a step back and observe at a different angle.  It provides you with the best viewpoint to view the artwork. (Except for this Fault in Our Stars reference that was there.) 
• Focused - There is always only one "topic" per display. You will see themes in pieces of work. You will see links between works. You will see whole rooms of an artist's works. You will not ever see a hodge-podge of randomness in an art museum. There is a ton of calculation that goes into the display of artwork. It must be done exactly how the artist had imagined it all fitting together. 
• Thoughtful Ponderings - Our docent was all about asking us what "sensations" or "feelings" the art gave us. She was looking for us to interact with the art. To think about the art. To look beyond a glance at something. She wanted my students to become the art. 
• Lighting - They put a great deal of thought into illuminating what is the most important. They don't light up the walls. They light up the artwork. They don't light up the floor. They light up the artwork. They don't light up the ceiling. They light up the artwork. 

As an educator with a background in graphic design, I see lots of potential for aspects of the design world to filter into the school culture. Teachers need to effectively communicate their material to their students and their parents and community.  

As we are ending school and reflecting on the school year and how we can get better, thinking about how museums display artwork can have a major impact on how you design your assignments/ projects/units and how you design your classroom in the future. 

Keep it simple. Keep it focused. Illuminate what's important.  

A couple shot from our day. 

Read More

Consuming Greatly

If you thought the title was about eating, I commend you. I like BBQ also. I'm talking about a different consuming.

After you read William and John's thoughts on this ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................I'm waiting for you to read theirs ....................................................................................................................................................................

Ok. Now that you've had enough time to read theirs, I'll tell you how I came to the same conclusion.

It was odd. I read John's post the same day that I was grading a bunch of assignments. This was the assignment. I wasn't really reading anything that was knocking my socks off. Honestly, I was a little bored reading their responses.

Then, I read one that knocked my socks off, figuratively speaking, of course. After I was done assessing it, I went to her the next day and asked her about it. I just asked her questions about her learning process. Where did you get your ideas? Where did you get your information? What were you thinking? Comparing to?

She said that she checked out all my links. She took individual notes over the videos. She looked up more websites on her own.  She watched more YouTube videos than what I had given her. She took some time to plan her responses. Finally, she put it all together.

It showed great thought.

This huge lightbulb went off above me. It's not that I didn't already know that the more you consume, the better your creation will be. It's that my students didn't know. Well, except this one girl.

So the next day, I printed off John's post and read it to my classes. I used her as an example for other students. I told them of the difference between what she did, and what others did and how much higher quality her end piece was because she took the time to invest in her consuming and garnering of information on the topic.

They just didn't know that to create something great, one must greatly consume first. 

The examples in John's post really made sense to the other students, especially the music one.

In William's post, he mentions that we, educators, are putting too much emphasis on the maker/creation part. I agree. Any time that I have done something where the students will end up creating something (Here's an example) I try to put the emphasis on the consuming aspect. Do I always do a good job of it? Probably not.

I'm a "focus on the process" coach on the basketball court. I'm big on taking care of the little things first. Once those are taken care of, then the game takes care of itself.

For the next assignment, I added more content to the assignment sheet.

Consuming is a little thing, but without it, your creation can't be big. Place your focus on consuming and the creation will take care of itself. 

Read More

I Sat Down To Write

I sat down to write.




I thought.




I thought about something to write.




Nothing came to me.




Well, some things did come to mind, but they weren't interesting. So I thought some more.








But still nothing that I thought would be worthwhile to an audience.





An audience?







Do I write for an audience?






I'm not sure. I don't write enough to have an audience. Is what I say worthwhile? Is it emerging? engaging? interesting? innovative?






Why do I write then?





Why do you write?




I need a topic. I don't "see" topics throughout the day. Should I? Is that what makes me a good blogger? To "see" my topics throughout the day?




I see my day as simple: Plan lessons that kids want to attend if they had an option. Have fun. Assess a little bit. Repeat.



Isn't that it? Isn't that what I'm supposed to do?




Why don't I "see" deeper into my content? my students? my delivery style? my classroom management? my organization methods? my integration of technology? my ways I let students access content? my ways of allowing choice? my interactive notebooks? my how to make a digital notebook? my how I transformed my teaching this year to go 1:1? my almost ditching of the textbook? why I choose to use humor and puns to start the day? my weird props? my weird clothes? my walls that are covered in student work? why I have bucket seats? my student feedback forms? why I'm thinking of doing podcasts? why it would be cool to present at conferences? what would I present at conferences? my thoughts on innovation? my thoughts on consuming content? ....



Why don't I see these as topics for blog posts?




Why do I see them as just a part of me and simply as a "you don't care about this" topic?




I don't know,...




...but I did sit down to write.

Read More

Low Tech Learning

At the root of all learning theories, there is inevitably, always, something about how more learning takes place when there is doing. There is no denying that. The more you do, think, and create; the more you learn.

When technology is added to the mix, there seems to be a notion that tech is the answer to all the problems. While getting a device in everyone's hands great, there are also times when teachers and students need to do some lo-tech tasks/projects/etc.

Doing the same thing day in and day out (especially if all the students' teachers are using technology all day long) can lead to students being bored with the work.

There is still a need to accomplish things with your hands.

Just because you have technology, doesn't mean it's the best tool in your toolbox to use. Sometimes, paper and pencil is good. Sometimes, the good old, tried and true, turn-to-your-neighbor still works wonders. Sometimes, just asking questions and having the students answer them is acceptable. Sometimes, not moving around the room and staying at a desk is needed. Sometimes, scissors and glue, is the best thing since sliced bread. Sometimes, creating using your entire hands and not just the pads of your fingers is just what the doctor ordered. Sometimes, students need a break from tech. Sometimes, students still need to experience learning in a hands-on way.

Make sure you get back to your roots occasionally. It helps with understanding where you came from. 

Renaissance Printing Press. It helps to understand the computer today.

I love tech, but there also is a need to create with your hands. Renaissance Printing press #edtech #sschat #sstlap pic.twitter.com/XUkVGxOTXH
— Matt Miller (@dropstepdunk) February 17, 2015

Read More

Makin' Holes For Others

I'm currently watching the Big Ten Network's "The Journey." They are doing a segment on Shavon Shields of Nebraska. Will Shields, former Hall of Fame NFL offensive lineman, is his father. He had an interesting quote in the article. I am going to paraphrase because I can't remember it exactly. It went something like:

"All I do is make holes for others so they can reach greatness." 

We all know that offensive lineman are the most unselfish athletes, but what a great quote.  As I was watching the show, all I could think about was the connection to education. How appropriate is it to teachers?!

The last project that I did (here)  just finished up today. I haven't done a project like this with these students yet this year. I was inspired after reading #PureGeniusBook by Don Wettrick to do a little more innovation in my room. I have done #GeniusHour before (I called it Passion Projects), but I wanted to try and do a little innovation within my social studies class. I let them really be in charge of their learning. They were responsible for coming up with questions to guide their research. They started with some basic understanding of the Renaissance questions and then found those answers. Then, they needed to come up with an "UnGoogle-Able" question. I determined if it was UnGoogle-Able if you could find the answer in under a couple of minutes.

Some students really struggled with coming up with these questions. I tried to steer them a little with my words and actions. I also gave them some flipbooks that really lay out what type of question they needed. , think Evaluation and Creation levels of Bloom's.

I was pleased with most of their efforts on this. Of course, some students didn't take things as serious as they should and waited around until the last minute, or they didn't put forth as much effort as needed to do well, or they didn't really take my advice when they asked, or they told me they were confused after their presentation was given (even though I checked in with them regularly and gave them suggestions that they didn't really take or listen to), or because they don't usually have to "think" as hard as this, they gave up.

What blew me away were the types of things that the students created because of the freedom available to them to be creative. Yes, of course, not all the students liked having to actually create things, but the ones that "grew" as learners loved it. They had complete autonomy to dive in. Fail. Get back up. Try again.

You have to be willing to fail, in order to be willing to be successful. 

Some of the things that the students used were - here

All of this leads back to the original quote from Will Shields - "All I do is make holes for others so they can reach greatness."

Every facilitator of student learning experiences should have this as their motto. It's about opening up the learning so our students can reach their greatness. It's about designing learning experiences with an element of creation involved and having our students showcase their talents. It's about being prepared with lessons that motivate learners. It's about guiding students to look beyond their potential ceiling and then breaking through.

It's about opening up holes for others to achieve greatness. 

Go out and help others achieve greatness. 

Read More