Ninja Skills of teaching online: Relationships #mlearning #k12online

Relationships:
The Myth: Kids online disappear. They go online and you never hear from them again.

What ninja online teacher knows:

• Those welcome phone calls began a relationship with the student that is personal. 
• Student will open up more on the phone than in front of 30 other peers. 
• Conversations between the online teacher and the student are 1:1 not 1:30. 
• There's always that kid in the back of the room that hid and did engage in the discussion. They used the herd to hid in. That's gone in the 1:1 conversations online. 

Reflections

• As an online teacher, I may not know each students' face as well but I know their brain better.
• Overall I know each student deeper because in the one on one relationship, you cannot hide in teh herd. 
• I know a greater number of my parents because they have a stronger role in their child's education when it happens at home.  
• Word of mouth and personal recommendations are the the strongest ways to increase enrollment. Teachers are the one that build those relationships. 
• Always remember your teachers are the greatest tech you have. 

Ninja Strategies

• Relationships are the key in online learning. Motivation and communication are personal. Discovery that students passions. Find that one thing about each student - their passion pr talent. Ask them about it again and again. 
• Make your avatar a picture of you. Encourage the students to do the same. 
• In your cell phone contacts, include a picture of the student, the phonetic pronunciation of their name, and their parents name. 
• Send random text or message just saying hi.
• Send message with good news. 

PD addressing the needs of your learners #michEd #edleadership

One of the interesting challenges of developing PD for teachers is meeting the needs of your leaners.

Let's remember back to when I was in a classroom. One year I taught second grade. While the learning styles of my students will vary all these students are about first to third grade developmentally. They are all being raised in the current year and in the same community. Planning lessons andlearning opportunities   for this group has a lot of commonalities. 

Now consider planning for a teaching staff. The staff I am thinking of has teachers born from 1960 to 1987. Their digital competencies vary greatly. They were raised in different states in different socioeconomic groups.

 Some of these teacher just need to be give a clue and they are off mastering the concept. These are the high flyers. Some teachers need step by step instructions that guide them through. They want a handout to refer to later. These are the lego learners. Some teachers are the elbow learners. They need you at their elbow giving them the information at their speed following their directions. 

All of these groups present challenges. The high flyers are ahead of the group, asking questions before the group gets there and sometimes misses important policy information. Often these high flyers get caught in their own gulf stream wind and land far off course. The lego group needs the directions emailed to them often. Putting them out on the Google Drive is not at hand enough for them. The elbow learner often try the hardest but are the most frustrated in the mixed group lelarning. 

All of these groups offer something to the team. The high flyers will often find new solutions to share with the group. The lego group asks for directions where the whole team is struggling. The elbow leaners are the detail catchers that will find ways to improve the instructions. 

Designing professional development for adult learners requires us to consider a greater range of learners' needs. A challenge I enjoy. 

how to force a copy of a google doc via a link. #gafe #edmch #google

I just followed a link to a google doc and got this:

Pretty Cool Huh?

Here's how make that happen:
Grab the link of the doc, sheet, slide or drawing–the one you see when you are editing. (Hint: this link has the word “edit” at the end.) Then simply replace the word EDIT with the word COPY! The user will then be prompted to make a copy of the file. Once they click the “Make a Copy,” button, it will make a copy of the file and add it to their Google Drive. AWESOME!
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