alliance – iLearn Technology

Do you want to form an alliance with me? (Version 3.0)

January 5, 2020January 5, 2020Kelly Tenkely1 Comment201592 views

“Do you…want to form an alliance…with me? “

It was January 3, 2010, that I first created a blog post of this title. It was initially inspired by a blog post that I came across on Problogger titled, “Let Me Show You Inside a Secret Blogging Alliance.” Of course, any time I heard the word “alliance,” this moment from The Office immediately came to mind (clearly a blog title too good to ignore).

I had no idea that those words, penned a decade ago, would absolutely and forever change me and the trajectory of my life. It was in 2010 that I invited educational bloggers to form an alliance with me (no need for secrecy). This Alliance was a group of edubloggers who were committed to working together for the mutual benefit of all members of the Alliance. The goals were pretty humble in hindsight:

To encourage educators in their blogging endeavors, whether they be new, established, or otherwise.
To create a united network of educators working toward a larger goal of being heard by those not in education. I wanted the general public to know us for the highly qualified professionals that we are.

That was it. Humble beginnings. The edublogger Alliance irrevocably changed my life in all of the best ways possible. I was introduced to incredible educators and bloggers who challenged my thinking, encouraged me, inspired me, and mentored me. They became friends and the voices I still seek out before any others on all matters of education.

They say that you become a compilation of the six people you surround yourself with, choose wisely. The stars had to be aligned in 2010 because overnight, 50 of the most exceptional educators surrounded me sharing their voice, their gifts, and their inspiration regularly.

The person I am today is a direct result of these beautiful souls who decided to jump with both feet into a crazy idea thrown out there in blog form.

Without the 2010 blog alliance, I wouldn’t have started a school (it was their mentoring and inspiration that had me believing impossible things). Without the Alliance, I wouldn’t still be running a school (it was their encouragement that kept me going). Without them, I wouldn’t have conceived of The Learning Genome Project. The conversations, playful curiosity, challenging discussions, and camaraderie have meant so much to me. To my original alliance members: I cannot thank you enough for answering the call and shaping me so profoundly! I’m forever grateful to you!

With the dawn of a new decade, I thought that it might be time to launch a new sort of education alliance — this one with a slight twist. Before we get to that, a little background on where I find myself in 2020 (friends who have been with me the last ten years, please feel free to scroll):

2010 was a big year for me personally and professionally. I started hanging question marks on all those things I had taken for granted in education. I started asking questions and challenging my own thinking. It was also the year that I had to leave the classroom for health reasons. In that year of questioning and reflection, I created The Learning Genome Project. If I couldn’t change education from within the classroom because of my health, perhaps this would be the way!

The Learning Genome Project was an idea that came to me while talking with some of my edublog alliance members over a Twitter chat. I was listening to Pandora (remember when it felt so magical to have technology create a playlist based on one song and get it right?!), and I was having a real geek-out moment about this phenomenon. I kept thinking if technology can predict something that feels as personal as a song and gets it right, why couldn’t we use technology to create customized learning playlists for kids? Why were we still stuck in a system of the boxed, one-size-fits-all curriculum? I couldn’t let the idea go. I started digging into the back end of Pandora and discovered it was called The Music Genome Project, based on the Human Genome Project (the one that maps DNA). The Music Genome Project took a similar approach to music, mapping it based on 400+ attributes of music and then having music “experts” tag each piece of music with its attributes.

*Cue my light bulb moment!*

Learning has attributes, what if we could tag curriculum (not the boxed stuff but real learning experiences and resources) with those attributes? If we knew who a student was, we could create customized learning opportunities for every student. I went to work building out a wireframe of this technology, talking with schools and investors about the possibilities. After a few months, I faced down a painful truth: we do not have an education system designed to see students as individuals. No matter how incredible I made this technology unless we change the model of education, it just wouldn’t work.

I started blogging ideas of what this model could look like on my other blog, Dreams of Education. One day the family of a student who I used to teach called me out of the blue with the words, “I heard you are starting a school!” I had joked often with my edublog alliance friends that we should start a school, with our collective intelligence, it would be incredible! But no, I had zero plans for actually starting a school…because that is terrifying!! Also, who am I to do such a thing?

Famous last words.

In August of 2011, I opened Anastasis Academy with five teachers (one of whom I had met because of the original alliance!) and 54 students.

It became evident pretty quickly that we were on to something with this new model that we were innovating as we went. By year 3 of Anastasis, we had hundreds of educators visiting us each year to see what we were up to. In 2014 we decided that we needed a better way to share and started the 5Sigma Education Conference. Our goal was to share what was happening at Anastasis, to give people a behind the scenes view of our process. More than that, we wanted to expose others to those who have inspired us along the way. To share the people who have been so instrumental in our thinking.

5Sigma is in its 6th year this year. Which brings me back to an invitation for you: Do you…want to form an alliance…with me (us)?

We want to expand 5Sigma beyond a conference. Into an alliance, a consortium if you will.

Education conferences are wonderful; they are inspiring; they connect you to a network of learners; they promote change and innovation. 5Sigma has had no shortage of all of these moments. There is only one problem (and it’s glaring): they are fleeting. Those incredible conversations, the idea synergy, the innovation tend to end with the conference. Back in the classroom, the daily demands creep back in, and it all ends up on the back burner of “someday.”

Like you, I want learning to be better. More meaningful. More creative. More intentional. More fun. 5Sigma was born with the desire to bring together educators with world-changing thinkers and innovators (not unlike my original Alliance) and start conversations that would transform the educational landscape.

The 5Sigma Consortium will be a network of educational change makers. In addition to our February conference, the 5Sigma Consortium will offer access to year-round inspiration, conversations, studio sessions, and the tools that promote change and innovation in real-time. The Consortium will be limited to the first 50 applicants (not because we wouldn’t love for EVERYONE to be involved, but because I have to be realistic about my own bandwidth to take this on!).

So, what does this Consortium/Alliance look like? We are envisioning three levels of participation options.

A ticket to the 5Sigma Education Conference- included in every level is one ticket to attend the 5Sigma Education Conference held in February (this year is February 21-22).

Access to the 5Sigma Consortium Facebook Group- Conferences are a great time to meet other world changers and start transformational conversations. We want to keep those important conversations going all year long in this closed Facebook group for those in our Alliance. Each month, we’ll share a new topic to keep the ideas flowing and reflection going all year long.

25% discount on any Learning Genome Project Products- Although the full technology of the Learning Genome Project got moved to the back burner as I started Anastasis, it lives on in a series of products that are crucial to the Anastasis model. The product line increases every year.

Learning Genome Genius Hub Sites- Inside access to the ever-growing Learning Genome Genius hub sites where we share the resources we are using for learning at Anastasis, easily searched, and implemented.

5Sigma Studio Sessions- Quarterly studio sessions where we will gather in-person to learn, discuss, and innovate together throughout the year.

Book of Choice- Choose from our library of books from the authors that keep our curiosity alive!

So, the next iteration of the Alliance is born. The question stands, do you want to form an alliance with me? This is a first-come, first-serve situation for the first 50. If you are in, raise your hand by filling out this form.

Let’s join together, making our voices louder through a shared vision and mission; let’s make this year a year of radical change for learners everywhere!

iLearn Technology Edublogger Alliance #2

June 14, 2010June 14, 2010Kelly Tenkely8 Comments3670 views

Setting a deadline at the end of the school year was a BAD idea. It seemed feasible when I set the deadline but soon I was packing away 7 years of classroom… stuff, and sorting through 7 years of digital mess. Alas, the release of the second edublogger alliance is a little later than I had hoped. Better late than never, right? (If you joined the alliance and didn’t receive an email from me today, I have an email address from you that is invalid. Send me an email through my contact form with your correct email address so that I can re-send that email.)

As I compiled the second alliance and sorted through blogs, I was again reminded of the greatness I am surrounded by in the educational blogger community. Every time I read your blogs, I am overwhelmed with a sense of hope that together we can solve the problems of the educational system. With amazing educators like you there is nothing stopping us!

If you aren’t currently reading and following educational blogs, I highly recommend it. Nothing will boost your learning, enthusiasm, and professional development like subscribing to some good educational blogs. To subscribe, simply click on the link below and then choose the “subscribe” button. The blogs will be added to your Google Reader account.

Edublogger Alliance #2

The Original Edublogger Alliance

If you are new to Google Reader, here are some great keyboard shortcuts that will have you navigating quickly through those blogs in no time:

n- view the next post

p- view the previous post

v- view the original post (this is helpful when you want to comment on the post)

s- stars an item for your favorites

shift d- share the item with a note

r- refresh

a- add a subscription

If you come across a blog that is in another language, you can easily have Google Reader translate the subscription so that each time you get a new feed, it is automatically translated. To translate a blog, click on “Feed Settings” and choose “Translate into my language”. Easy!

Finally, the educators who participate in the educators blogging alliance are also great Tweeters. You can follow the educators who participate in the alliance by following these Twitter Lists

edublogger alliance 2

edublogger alliance

Thank you for all who are participating and to those who join us as readers. If you are wondering how you can encourage an educational blogger, there is no higher praise than Tweeting about our posts or leaving us a comment!

Pass it On…

May 10, 2010Kelly Tenkely5 Comments15699 views

Last week I was presented with a blog award from Emily Starr who writes the Interactive Content Corner blog. The award is meant to honor blogs that we personally hold in high regard by spreading the word about them and sharing them with others. I didn’t act fast enough in passing my award on and got awarded again by Maggie Hos-McGrane who writes Tech Transformation, Michael Zimmer who writes The Pursuit of Technology Integration Happiness Nicholas Provenzano who Writes The Nerdy Teacher and Vanessa Cassie who writes Sharp. Thank you all, I am humbled to be included in your lists. Now I am faced with a problem, in my procrastination you all have nominated some of my very favorite blogs and I must work on passing on to someone who hasn’t already been nominated!

I relish the idea of paying it forward and spreading the word about excellent education blogs. There are so many talented and brilliant educators who have joined the blogosphere and added their voices to help shine a light on education, it is time that they got recognized for what they do and encouraged to keep doing it!

The rules of the award are as follows:

1- Copy and display the picture of the award given to you;

2- Link back to the blog that nominated you;

3- Nominate 10 different blogs yourself;

4- Inform the people you nominated, so they can in turn, continue the chain and spread the word about other great blogs out there.

So, without further ado, here are my nominations- in no particular order (and yes, I did dress up for this occasion) 🙂

1. Suzanne’s Blog– Suzanne Whitlow writes an excellent blog for her teaching staff at Shady Grove, Twin Hickory, Ridge, and Ratcliffe….little does she know how much what she writes ends up in classrooms around the world! Suzanne shares lessons, templates, and reflections on education. All of the ideas she shares are innovative and special.

2. The Learning Blog– Todd Wandio shares his often humorous take on learning, literacy, and the classroom of the 21st century as he wades through a sea of middle school students. His posts are always insightful and thought provoking.

3. Teacher Toys– John Fladd is the teacher I wish I had in school. The original goal of the blog was to share classroom technology finds but the blog has become so much more. John shares his wealth of knowledge on every subject and gives us glimpses of his classroom through lessons that he teaches, and learning interactions with students. Any teacher who has a project titled “Destiny & Diarrhea” and uses the old Sears Catalog to teach students is aces in my book.

4. Bright Ideas Blog– Judith Way writes a blog by the School Library Association of Victoria. She writes extensively about Web 2.0 tools in the library and offers inspiration for any librarian or classroom teacher. I have learned so much from Judith, she shares a wealth of knowledge and resources.

5. It’s Elementary– Tamra Lanning is a teacher who obviously loves what she does. She shares ideas for using technology successfully in the elementary classroom. I learn a little bit of everything from Tamra but especially appreciate her posts about what is happening with technology in her school…they do such neat projects!

6. Son of a Teacher Man– Geoff writes about his journey into education, he gives an honest look at education through the eyes of a first year teacher. I appreciate his vulnerability and willing to tell it like it is.

7. TechnoTIC– Raul writes from Spain where he shares about everything technology. I appreciate his unique perspective and his always helpful tips about “presentation zen.” The showcase of tools Raul offers for secondary classrooms is impressive.

8. Thinking Outside the Box– Sarah Major creates solutions for learning. I am truly amazed at her ability to understand children and the learning process. She offers daily inspiration and solutions for students who learn differently (don’t all children learn differently?). I especially appreciate the visual aids that Sarah shares that help students understand difficult concepts.

9. This Week in Ed Tech- Buzz Garwood has a great tag line “On the Paper-Cutting Edge of Educational Technology”. Buzz shares technology integration stories and resources, they are usually resources and ideas I haven’t seen elsewhere. Each post is well thought out and through, he does all the heavy lifting for you!

10. John Spencer writes three blogs that I can’t get enough of. All are excellent and thought provoking:

Adventures in Pencil Integration– This is a fictional blog that takes place in the 19th century. The blog posts may be fictional but the content couldn’t ring more true. The premise of the blog is a 19th century teacher who is leading an initiative for one pencil per child. The blog makes me think and rethink my stance on technology integration, makes me laugh out loud, and entertains me.

Musings From a Not-So-Master Teacher– This is the blog where John takes us on a journey of authentic learning and thinking. He readily admits that he doesn’t have all the answers, but I enjoy journeying with him as he explores education, teaching, and learning. John also has a collection of visual musings (cartoons and sketches) that are a must see.

Ditch That Word– John doesn’t offer a vocabulary boosting word-a-day, instead he aims at helping us ditch the words that have watered down our language and twisted it into something unrecognizable or cliche. Ditch that word makes me laugh out loud and groan in realization of how often I use those words in my own daily language. John is usually right on about words to ditch. Now I must figure out how to weed them out of my vocabulary 🙂

Only naming 10 is an exercise in restraint for me. I read so many incredible blogs every day, I am surrounded by greatness! If you are interested in jumping into blogging or encouraging other educational bloggers, consider joining the edublogger alliance.

Do you-want to form an alliance-with me?

January 3, 2010January 18, 2010Kelly Tenkely56 Comments47987 views

Happy new year! 2009 proved to be a productive year of learning, sharing, and conversing. I thank you all for being a part of that and look forward to doing it again in 2010!

(iLearn Technology’s blog graph)

A few days ago I came across a blog post on Problogger titled “Let me Show You Inside a Secret Blogging Alliance.” The idea of an alliance between bloggers intrigued me. To fully understand why I was so intrigued by the idea of an alliance, let me give you a little background about the slow beginning of iLearn Technology, and an article that made me angry enough to long for change.

The Beginning…

My degree is not in educational technology. I started my teaching career as a second grade teacher. I had two old computers (circa 1997) in my classroom and had stumbled on Starfall, Book Adventure, and Read Write Think.org. We had no computer lab in our building, so I used these sites as center activities during my literacy block. My students asked to use these sites constantly, loving when it was their day for the computer centers.

It was completely by accident that I became a computer teacher the following year. I was looking for a change in schools and had applied to CHC for one of their classroom teacher positions. I got a call from our office assistant informing me that both classroom teacher positions had been filled quickly. She followed with, “I know this is a long shot, but we need a computer teacher to teach kindergarten through second grade. I noticed that you have used computers with students and wondered if you might be interested?” My first thought was “no way, I can’t do it. I’m not qualified.” What I told her was that I would think about it and get back to her. I called my husband to tell him about this ridiculous job I had just been offered. He didn’t seem to think it was so ridiculous. We were newly married and could use the money, even if it was only part time. It was getting late in the year to be hired as a classroom teacher. I wasn’t looking forward to the subbing circuit. My attitude about the ridiculous job offer began to change. “Maybe I can do this. It is only part time, I can used my days off to do research, surely I know more about computers than a second grader.” I called the office assistant the next day to tell her I would take the job.

My hunt for lesson plans and websites was on. I started a notebook (the paper kind) where I would jot down site addresses that I found, along with a few sentences about the site and ideas I had for using it in the classroom. I barely made it through that first year, always staying just two steps ahead of my students. It was in my second year that I started my first website. I used FrontPage to create pages of links that were easily organized for students to access. (I was tired of adding every new site I found to the bookmark bar of each computer.) My notebook of web addresses had turned into three and I started using iKeepBookmarks to organize all of the sites I had found. At the beginning of my computer lab teaching career, it was nearly impossible to hunt down a list of good educational links. I was finding amazing websites but couldn’t find any one person who had collected, organized, and shared them all in one place.

I woke up one morning with an email from my husband (@jtenkely) in my inbox. A single sentence stared back at me, “You should start a blog about technology in education.” Attached was a link to Tasty Blog Snack by @ijustine (not an education blog). Although what @ijustine does is not easy, she made it look easy, it was just the push I needed to start blogging. I would be the one to collect, organize, and share education links in one place. But I didn’t want it to just be a list of links…I had found pages of links with no explanation as to what they were. Teachers need it to be easier, they need to be able to see, at a glance, if a site will meet the needs of their students. They also need an idea of what using the site would actually look like in the classroom setting. This would be my blog. I anticipated it being useful for the teachers that I taught alongside, they were my target audience. In my mind, even if they never read it, it would still be a useful way for me to organize my ideas about the websites I was finding.

I had no idea what I was doing. I would type up a blog post, publish it, and hope that someone, somewhere, was reading it. I had no way of tracking or finding out if anyone was actually viewing any of my ideas. I needed some direction and decided to find out if there were any other educators who were blogging (I was naive enough to think I might be the first one!). I found TechnoSpud (now Jenuine Tech) by @jenwagner and 2Cents Worth by @davidwarlick. They were big. They were well known. I was nobody. I started finding other educators who blogged through the blog rolls on TechnoSpud and 2Cents Worth. I have never felt so small. Here were a group of educators who “knew” each other and had debates and conversations about education on a regular basis. I tried to join in the conversation but got discouraged when my comments weren’t responded to.

iLearn Technology exists today for one reason: I am stubborn. I believed that I was doing something worthwhile and decided that I didn’t care if no one seemed to notice. Blogging did something else for me, it made me a better teacher. I understood the learning process better because I was engaged in it on a daily basis. Even though I didn’t consider myself “one of them” I started reading other education blogs religiously. I would occasionally engage in the conversation but for the most part I was happy to sit on the sidelines and watch.

It was around this time that I started Tweeting (@ijustine was Tweeting, I should too). I had NO idea that educators were Twittering. I was there to keep up with @jtenkely‘s funny observations, keep track of @iJustine, and keep a watch out for new Apple products that were coming. I started following @davidwarlick and @jenwagner and a few other edubloggers that I was reading. I can’t pinpoint when it happened, but suddenly I was getting comments on iLearn Technology, I had regular readers, I was getting emails asking for advice, I was involved in the conversation. I was a real blogger.

It isn’t easy to become a blogger, there is a habit that needs to be formed, a commitment to stick with. It is really hard when you are the newb, the nobody. It is hard to keep that commitment when you are painfully aware that you are the sole reader of your writing. @janwebb21 reminded me of this as she told me about her own blog. She has been at it for about a month, has had a few visitors and a comment or two. But it is a slow process. I would have given anything for the PLN, ideas, and resources I have now when I started teaching.

And Now For Something Completely Different…

Since joining Twitter, I have enjoyed conversations with people from all walks of life. I have been introduced to new ideas, resources, and have been forced to think in new ways. I have developed a PLN (Personal Learning Network) and have engaged in numerous discussions about education, technology, and learning. I have been surrounded by greatness and others who are passionate about learning and teaching others to do the same. I have become convinced that those educators that I connect with virtually are among the smartest, most innovative people on the planet.

On Friday I clicked on a link that someone shared on Twitter, it was a story about the use of iPods in Education (I always want to read more when Apple products are mentioned in the same sentence as education, my inner geek comes pouring out.) The article was okay, basically just a short story about how a school is using the iPod Touch in education. What stopped me in my tracks were the comments left in response to the article. Most were negative comments about the state of education and what a waste of money iPods are for the classroom. The comment that really made my blood boil was, “Teachers get to press the learn button, kick back, and think about their next week long vacation.” It became increasingly clear to me that the general public has NO idea what we as educators do. We are not seen as professionals. We are viewed as babysitters with a cushy job. My knee jerk reaction was to respond to each and every one of these misinformed individuals and inform them. Instead I posted the following on Twitter, knowing that you all would be equally enraged by the comments: “Getting all fired up reading the comments after this article http://bit.ly/51RJsk general public doesn’t understand education even a little.” The comments regarding education made me want to stand up and shout about the brilliance that is my PLN. I wanted the misinformed to understand just how misinformed they are. I kept thinking of how different education could look if we were louder.

The Alliance…

After reading the alliance article an idea began to take shape. What if we, educational bloggers, were to form an alliance. No need for the secrecy. This alliance would be a group of educational bloggers who are committed to working together for the mutual benefit of all the members in the alliance. We all have something valuable to add to the conversation of education and learning. Each of us has a unique voice, outlook, approach, skills, strengths, and focuses.

The goal of the alliance is two fold:

1. To encourage educators in their blogging endeavors whether they be new, established, or otherwise. There are so many valuable additions to the conversation that are being overlooked.

2. To create a united network of educators working toward the larger goal of being heard by those not in education. It is time for the general public to see us for the highly qualified professionals that we are.

How the Alliance could work…

1. Commenting on each others blogs– in the Problogger article, those in the alliance committed to commenting on each others blogs at least once every week day. The comments should stimulate interesting discussions, and encourage those involved that someone, is indeed, reading their blog.

2. Linking to One Another- This could be linking to related posts on another educational bloggers website, adding them to your blog roll, or naturally as a result of subscribing to one another’s blogs.

3. Social Bookmarking and Tweeting- This is my personal favorite suggestion, Twitter has done wonders for iLearn Technology as my PLN passes on my posts to others. Promoting posts on Twitter, Digg, Delicious, and StumbleUpon increases awareness of what educators around the world are doing that works. It also connects those new to educational blogging.

4. Guest Posts- Guest posting could be an opt-in option for the alliance. I know that it isn’t always possible to find time to write a blog post for your blog, let alone polish it enough for someone else’s blog.

5. Thank You Page Promotions- When someone signs up to receive your RSS feed, they are generally taken to a page thanking them for subscribing. This Thank You Page could also be used to promote other education blogs. For example: “If you like iLearn Technology, you should also be sure to check out blog A, B, C, and D.”

Do you-want to form an alliance- with me?

So the question stands, do you want to form an alliance? If you are interested, leave a comment linking to your blog with your first name (or Twitter username), and a short description of your blog. Please also fill out this short form so that I can be in contact with you. Lets make our voices louder through a shared vision and mission, lets encourage each other in our blogging and teaching endeavors, lets make this year a year of real change.

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