What kind of teacher do you want for your child?

Earlier this week I was at Walmart, one of my least favorite places on the planet. Sorry Walmart! I was eager to get home after a long day, but the checkouts were backed up. I randomly picked a line since they were all busy. But this time I picked the right one. Before I knew it I was on my way home. The clerk in the line I picked was giving great effort. It was noticeable she was putting forth great effort, not just putting in her time.

When it was almost my turn to checkout, I applauded the clerk's service to the customer in front of me, "Wow, she really knows how to make a line disappear." The customer smiled and agreed. I added, "She's really a hard worker."

The clerk then replied with these magical words, "I love my job." She proceeded to double bag all of my cold items, rush around to help load bags of groceries into my cart, and even made a suggestion about a type of potato chips she liked that were similar to the ones I bought.

On my way home, I called Walmart and asked for the store manager, explaining that I had just received amazing service and wanted to commend the employee for her outstanding job. The store manager was not available, but I did talk with a shift manager and shared my story, referring to the employee personally since I took note of her name badge. The manager was very appreciative of the phone call and said she would share the complement in their store meeting.

This experience got me thinking about several things.

1. Isn't it great when people go above and beyond for a job well-done? We all appreciate having excellent service provided, whether it is in the drive-thru, the doctor's office, or the check-out line.

2. Each of us gets to choose our attitude about our work each day. I once knew someone who worked as a checkout clerk at Walmart and complained nonstop about her job. Each time I would see her at her station she barely moved a muscle, wore a frown, and said little to any of the customers. Her attitude was a choice, just like the clerk who chose to share with me, "I love my job."

3. Everyone matters. Every job matters. And I am thankful I was taught to respect hard work and to respect people regardless of their level of education, how much money they have, or what kind of job they do.

4. Even though every job matters, I think our work as educators is especially important. We work with children everyday, and we have the opportunity to help shape their future. Every word and every deed makes an impact and can be used to build up or tear down a child's dreams.

5. Since our work is so significant in the life of a child, we owe it to him or her and to her parents, to be our very best every day. We have to be all in 100% or we are doing a disservice to our profession and to the future of a child.

6. So what kind of teacher do you want for your child? I bet you want one who goes above and beyond to do a great job every day, even when it's not easy.

Using RiseVision and Animoto for DIY digital signage

A couple of years ago we wrote a grant with the Walmart Community Foundation to purchase three large flat screen TVs for our commons area. The plan was to use the TVs as digital signage to celebrate student success, communicate important information, and promote upcoming events.

After trying a few options for displaying content on the screens, we are now using RiseVision.com as our platform. It requires a PC or signage player be connected to your screens, but it is easy to use and currently is completely free. In the future, there may be in-app purchases for storage of files or extra features. We currently have two PCs driving our three TVs.

Although RiseVision has many templates available and the ability to create custom screens from scratch, I've found that can be time consuming, especially if you are trying to keep fresh content on the TVs. But since RiseVision has the ability to stream video, I am trying a new solution.

Using Animoto, a video creation app available for PC or mobile device, I am quickly tossing together awesome videos that look great but take little time to create. Animoto will automatically create polished videos from the photos and video clips you select. In just a few steps, you can create a video start to finish.

Animoto also allows for text to be added in the video, and so I am including a few announcements within the video. Because of the convenience of Animoto, I hope to have a new video each week for our students to enjoy. I will also highlight a few building announcements in each of these.

I tested this new workflow today, and it worked great. The video I created uploaded to RiseVision and streamed perfectly in 720p. I would love 1080p but Animoto requires a PRO account for this feature.

In search of better thinking, not right answers

I shared the following Tweet recently because the embedded paragraph below really encapsulates much of what I believe to be true about what students really need from today's schools. We cannot ignore that the world is a very different place than it was for previous generations. As a result, schools need to think about preparing students not just for today, but for what they will need in the future.

Knowing right answers is not enough. The #future will demand problem solving, and adaptability. http://t.co/OkUvbgrkEw #satchat #satchatwc
— David Geurin (@DavidGeurin) August 30, 2014

While the argument could be made for completely rethinking the structure and format of our learning systems, that is outside the scope of what most educators feel they control. What is in our control is what happens in our classrooms each day. We can do relatively simple things to cause deeper thinking and help students develop skills as questioners and problem solvers, skills that will be very useful to meet challenges of the future.

Steve Wyborney, who by the way was 2005 Oregon Teacher of the Year, shared this strategy in response to my Tweet. This simple idea doesn't require completely retooling how school works, it can be applied in the traditional classroom.

@DavidGeurin @MESPrincipal_ Wade, David, take a look at this strat, providing answer at same time as question http://t.co/XklxpoaSk7
— Steve Wyborney (@SteveWyborney) August 30, 2014

Here is an excerpt from the article Steve authored explaining this strategy.

Taking the answer out of the equation

Steve Wyborney June 27th, 2014

In the quest to promote deep student thinking, sometimes the answer is the problem.

In the classroom, we can launch a beautiful, rich question only to see students reach the answer – and reach the end of their thinking. After all, why would they think beyond the answer? Isn’t the purpose of a question to lead to an answer? Isn’t the answer also the conclusion? Isn’t the answer the end of the journey of discovery?

No, it’s not.

The purpose of a question is not always to launch a journey toward a single answer. The purpose is often to give students an opportunity to think, to stretch, to learn strategies which they can apply to a wider range of scenarios. When students regard the answer as the end of the journey, they may miss those very growth opportunities. But how can we cause students to reach for deeper thinking when they are accustomed to ending the journey at the point of reaching an answer? A simple solution is to take the answer out of the equation. In other words, when you ask a question, give the students the answer to the question and change their task. Ask them to find as many connections as possible between the question and the answer. Click here to read the entire article on Frizzle.