Make every day Digital Learning Day

Honest learning exposes our vulnerabilities. We have to admit that we do not know everything. If we are further along on our journey, we might accept that we know very little compared to all that there is to know. For educators grappling with all of the curricula and testing mandates, learning how to focus on the skills and content our students actually need is a daunting task. Without being connected to other educators, and accepting that we need to have those deep connections with others in the trenches to trade ideas and customize them for our classrooms, we are not fully servicing our students.

The one area where teachers across the world are looking to share exemplars of practice is in incorporating educational technology. In my teaching career, I was fortunate to have been supported by administrators and other educators who not only provided professional development on tools, but also helped everyone see WHY the shift was taking place. In visiting other schools and speaking with other teachers, I realized that not everyone was as progressive and many craved the support I received.

Luckily, should you want to find vetted resources and lesson ideas for long-term infusion of technology, one click on the Digital Learning Day website(link is external) provides access to an impressive array of tools. Here anyone can search for resources and interactive lesson planning ideas to help move forward. There are several teachers, schools and districts ahead of the curve. These exemplars have been sought out and are featured on the DLD site. We can all learn from what they have to share. Review the lessons, take what works for you and make it your own.

Want to feel even more inspired to take an edtech risk? Check out all of the celebrations and digital learning taking place on Digital Learning Day on February 5th! You can sign up to watch the events live from the Library of Congress as experts and dignitaries work to make digital learning happen each and every day. Take the pledge(link is external), become involved and make digital learning a common occurrence in your classroom. Serve as a role model for your peers and pay it forward! Make a commitment to yourself, your colleagues and your students to keep learning and trying new things.

We are all vulnerable in this brave new world, but we are also all here to help our students succeed. See you February 5th!

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Rebecca McLelland-Crawley

Through a series of events and medical awesomeness, I became the mother of two amazing, creative children who love to build. They are makers. Perhaps it is my science background mixed with their father's carpentry skills, but my kids love to create. Maybe they attended one too many Odyssey of the Mind meetings with my students as babies and caught the bug before being vaccinated. I also put them in art class before they could talk, so that might have played a role in their development and uncanny ability to recite all of the color choices in the 64 pack. I believe the biggest factor in this whole game is that making is fun. They fail, they mess up, but they start all over again and get better. In this maker world of theirs, they learn and become masters.

They started young stacking cans as soon as they could crawl. We have bins full of Kinex and Legos and most nights involve creating something new. Do you have any idea how much those pieces hurt when stepped on in the middle of the night? I often trip over the ramps and tracks for the car races going through our little home and I firmly believe my son has redefined, at lease in his school, the term Angry Bird. The phrase evolved into Angry Birding and, as his structures involved real projectiles, it was quickly banned at school. At home, we use Amazon cardboard boxes, plush Angry Bird toys, and exercise elastic bands for outdoor Angry Birding.

My 3 and 5 year old are exploring the world of  littlebits, Makey Makey, and SnapCircuits. In this whole new world, I am learning alongside my children. Sure, I studied physics in college, but I majored in and taught biology. I never used circuits in my teaching. I didn't even begin to think about these things until my little ones came along. Learning this stuff is hard and takes effort. Then, all of a sudden, my professional world and my personal life collided. I shifted from a classroom teacher with a more narrow view to a curriculum supervisor with a district view of science education. I saw the connection between what my children were doing and what the students in our classrooms were not. I saw the joy of creating something new and the pride in making and knew that I had to advocate for students to have the same experiences. All students should be creating, tinkering, building, and making. They should be collaborating, communicating their ideas, thinking critically, and above all else, being CREATIVE!

These experiences are the ones that will propel our students into the readiness category for careers and college and I know that many of students do not have enough making in their day. So now I am tasked with a mission to create minions who see the value in making as well so our students can build, fail, learn, and succeed. If you are a momma, or a poppa, ask your child's principal what type of maker spaces or design programs they are promoting in schools. If you are a teacher, do your research and invent creative spaces in your classroom based on the 4 Cs (http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/4csposter.pdf). Let's build something awesome for the future, together.

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Rebecca McLelland-Crawley

We know that we need problem solvers. How can we better develop them in our schools? We cannot believe that standardized testing will be the mechanism for producing the next line of innovators. How can we find ways to integrate creative problem solving and student-directed learning to ensure our kids are prepared for the jobs that do not even exist? 

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Rebecca McLelland-Crawley