A New Move to Carlaarena.com

Dear readers,

I have some roots, those things that are hard to let go. Even if some might think I'm brave enough, there are certain strings to what is known and comfortable that are hard to get rid of. It's been some months now that I've been organizing and tweaking a new space for the conversations and connections with educators.

I've always blogged in English, never in my mother tongue Portuguese, but I always felt the urge to amplify and share what I've learned not only with my English teachers' community, but also with the educators in general, and mainly Brazilians, some of whom might be missing interesting approaches to education because they don't know English or don't have the time to look for interesting resources and ideas for their classrooms. So, why not hone in on my English skills and passion for Ed tech to include my fellow Brazilian teachers in the equation?

So, amplification, personalization and new challenges were my drive to move on to an even better place, especially prepared to blend and intersect in areas that are part of my life, Ed Tech, English and Portuguese. I hope my roots are substituted by a more dandelion-carefree-style. It is not just changing places, it is really about creating a new vision, a new approach to sharing and connecting to others. So, please, join me there at http://carlaarena.com 

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The Magic of Professional Development Claims for a Growth Mindset

For years I've been training teachers and coaching them to integrate technology into the classroom.
The changes I've seen around throughout those years vary from none to new, reinvigorated professionals. How does the move happen?

Change will take many different shapes, from reframing an activity the teacher has already tried out to taking the leap into the unknown and thinking of the transformative power of new technologies in the classroom.

The pace is also varied. Some just jump in, others need a "marinading" period to let things sink in and  make sense of what's going on.

However, transformation has its commonalities from what I've noticed. Educators who embrace change:

- are optimists by heart (even when they seem wary of new situations, deep down there they believe change can be good)
- believe in their own power to change direction, even if they feel insecure at first
- are not considering if the professional development opportunities are paid hours or not (though we shouldn't be working for free, educators with an innovator mindset know that these hours will be paid back in other forms in the future)
- do not count their efforts in time spent, but how their effort transformed their practices
- do not give the same old excuse of lack of time; even in some minutes they can learn something new and apply to their classes
- like the adrenaline rush that comes with new findings
- still believe in the transformative power of education
- enjoy being in class with their students
- have, above all, a growth mindset.

And here's a passage from HBR Blog Network that gives a quick overview of a growth mindset as opposed to a fixed one:

"In her 2006 book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Stanford Professor Carol Dweck distinguishes two extremes of the mindsets people tend to have about their basic qualities:

• In a fixed mindset, "your qualities are carved in stone." Whatever skills, talents, and capabilities you have are predetermined and finite. Whatever you lack, you will continue to lack. This fixed mindset applies not just to your own qualities, but to the qualities of others.

• In a growth mindset, "your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts...everyone can change and grow through application and experience." Qualities like intelligence are a starting point, but success comes as a result of effort, learning, and persistence."

There's certainly no formula to change and I might be a little too simplistic about what I see happening to the educators who take a leap of faith and move on, but in all these years the main traits I see in the ones who transform their classes and themselves are those of optimism, passion, eagerness to learn and attunement to their learners' worlds.

Do you fit in this category of educator who embrace professional development and change as part of your job? Or is it time to rethink what you are doing and how you face things?


If you are interested in the topic of change, you might enjoy reading Becky Bair's post "Changing Our ‘Stuff’ Is Not Enough"

From Inertia to Editing Teaching - A Challenge

Many times we are trapped in our own routines, hectic lives and infinite tasks. It is hard sometimes even to breathe. Inertia takes over, and we see our personal and professional lives as if it were part of a film.

I know there are many challenges around for teachers, and I could name a few that you could follow for 30 days to make our lives more bearable and pleasant, but what if we set TWO WEEKS at first not to make revolutionary changes, but just small ones.

Our brains love surprises. The unexpected, unpredictable hooks us up, grabs our attention, so how about very simple changes that won't be radical at first, but could cause some tectonic shifts in the long run in terms of our pleasure in teaching our classes and our students' joy to be in class, connected, absorbed, hyped.

What if you invited your co-workers to join us for TWO WEEKS and take action, move and shake a bit? So, here I am making it public the idea of the EDIT TEACHING movement.

For the next two weeks, I'll blog every single day - which is already part of my own call for action - about a very simple idea that we can do in class to EDIT our TEACHING a bit, to make those changes that in the long run can ignite us to keep in the loop to continuously seek for the new experience, crossing the boundaries of our daily inertia, making us effervescent, upbeat, lighthearted educators.

THE FIRST #EDITTEACHING IDEA

Start your next class with a very simple question to your students, "What's in your playlist?" Give them five minutes to talk to each other about it, to see what they have in common and something new they learned about a song, singer or band. I'm sure that they will have something to say and you will connect in a more personal level with them!


Our twitter tag will be #editteaching . I'd love to hear from educators if they try this idea out for the next  TWO WEEKS! Ready to edit your teaching routine to smile and connect more often?

Thinking and Re-imagining Education

This video is a call. A call for reflection and action.

 I agree with much that it is said, but we need to find a balanced view to education. It is not just moving from a controlled, Prussian model of education to an utopian school. We can achieve student engagement, motivation and passion for learning depending on the way we view your pedagogical role as an educator, but there is no one way, but many possibilities if we think of approaches to our classes that tap into the challenge of giving support to our students to develop their competencies that are essential ones for their lives now and in the near future, like creativity, communication, collaboration, critical thinking. Let us help our students connect, dialogue, question, learn and direct their learning efforts throughout their lives. 

My call is for passion and connection. This video is a shaker in the sense of giving us a broad view of what happens in many schools around the globe. It is worth watching it as a starting point for re-imagining our classes. And, yes, this is how change happens, from the small movement we make within our own classes.

Surfing the Waves of Change in Education: No Action is not a Possibility

Serendipity is one of the strengths of a hyperlinked world in which the network is always providing us with learning moments and reflective checkpoints. As I was browsing my wonderful Pinterest network, I came across, by chance, this clean, unpretentious blog http://thingsigrab.wordpress.com/, and I couldn't help but start browsing it, scrolling down, with my eyes glued in interest for the variety of topics and simple interestingness. Powerful.

All of a sudden, a click on the video Surfing Waves of Change, which is mainly about socio-economic change. However, the message is totally applicable to our changing roles as educators and the daily challenges and stages of change we face every single day.

The video zooms in to the need of our being resilient to become catalysts of change. It evokes the power of communities and networks to overcome the hurdles we are challenged with. All with the surfer's metaphor that learns by doing, by getting into action, learning to go with the flow and understanding the waves movements, all relying on how own guts and other surfers for information, support and learning. The main message: a surfer cannot learn how to surf if it isn't by doing, falling, and standing on the surfboard again. It is not about being taught how to be resilient, how to change and become an active player, but getting there and doing it, connecting, collaborating, experimenting...Then, we can become catalysts of change. No action is not a possibility.

This is a video worth sharing, watching together and deciding for ways in which we can catalyze change in our own communities of learning.

4 simple steps to join the mRevolution

For long, we've been talking in our circles of students as producers, not simply audience, and students finding their own voice. Educators know how important it is to move from our classrooms industrial production-like type of education. We've realized that there's much more potential in networking, in giving back to students the control of their own learning. We do know, however, that this is much easier said than done.

students in charge

This is a time of production, way beyond the passive-receptive mode of education. For some time now, we've had powerful tech tools around for the shift, but new devices, which are smaller, portable and in the hands of our learners are bound to give us the support we need for this active, exciting passionate movement towards meaningful learning. The world is more MOBILE than ever before. And we should grab this opportunity to make the move, to experiment, to learn with our students and to give a step forward.

So, here's what I've been doing that might give you some hints of what you could do to start an mRevolution:

1. Give your students a chance to teach you new trick using those portable devices. They are experts! They know cool apps, they are into cool features that you don't even imagine they are there in cellphones, cameras, tablets, netbooks.
2. Don't ask your students to turn off their devices. Ask yourself how you could use them to have exciting, dynamic lessons that tap into students' creativity and make students smile and enjoy themselves while learning. 
3. I've been reading as crazy about mLearning, downloading apps to my tablet and cellphone, testing things out. The most important thing in this first step is to keep a record of all that, using a very visual curation tool, Scoop.it: http://www.scoop.it/t/elearning-mlearning and being closer, interacting with educators interested in the topic:
4. I've been fearlessly trying mPossibilities in my classroom, which requires a lot of planning, but it is totally awesome when you see the positive results and the students' excitement. I had an adult group last year, and I tried different activities with them using the power of what they had in their pockets: cellphones. I had the idea that if they, who were not so aware or comfortable using those gadgets for learning, could profit from the experience, imagine the younger gang! The most important aspect of the trial part is reflecting upon it and keeping a record. So, blogging was an essential part of the process: http://collablogatorium.blogspot.com/search/label/mlearning

This is just the beginning of an exhilarating world of new possibilities in which our learners are truly in charge of producing something meaningful, of becoming active participants in their own learning process. 

What would you add to your mRevolution list?

In the meantime, here's a show I'd recommend following:

Listen to internet radio with Techchef4u on Blog Talk Radio

Make it Small, Move Slowly, Make it Big

Still on what I had mentioned for New Year's with my no-wish-list statement, I just came across a very enjoyable read that is inspiring and plain simple.

Mitch Joel, in his post "The Deception os Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin and Gary Vaynerchuk" (no wonder I'm a huge fan of these guys!) mentions the power of taking a step of a time, making things a habit and giving you some time to change. In fact, many people think that any move is about taking a big decision and just going for it. Wrong. All the big decisions in life have a maturation time, a period to settle in and become part of your mindset. Just then, it becomes an A-Ha moment. We might thing that it happens overnight, but it doesn't. We just need to have an open mind and the willingness to give a different perspective to our thoughts, actions and habits.

So, instead of big promises with huge moves, what if we made a very small change in our routine that can become a major impacting change in the near future? No wish lists, no promises, but one small change. I've already decided for mine. Let's see how it works. How about you?

Abundance x Scarcity - Digital Literacy in the Equation

In my presentation about how educators have been collaborating in our school, sharing resources, ideas, connecting, interacting, my first slide is about abundant and scarce resources in our workplace.

First answer from the audience about scarcity in an educational setting? TIME.
For me? INITIATIVE!

Some people are willing to follow, but not to start a movement, for action means having to deal with failure/success.

Also, most resist. Resist bravely. Reasons for not changing?

I guess the main point has to do with our own limitations, weaknesses. When there's change, we'll be dealing with the unpredictable, the moving sands until we get to solid ground. It's about touching the unknown.

For some, it means excitement, the feeling of a fresh start, some rain after dry season to start a blooming season.

For others, a shake in the building blocks of our fixed ideas and values. Change in the status quo, in the rules of the game. Much more so when we are talking about change that brings abundance through social media.

Not long ago, there was much more institutional control over the handouts, exercises, materials teachers were producing. Even because of physical constraints, there was a limit to what teachers could produce and share. Now, with our online shared space, a wiki, thousands of files have been produced. The scarcity X abundance balance is disrupted. We now capitalize in our scarce resource TIME, for many educators are producing and sharing resources that would be done individually in the past. However, it is argued that quality is sacrificed in the name of abundance. True up to a certain point. Surely the resources have different levels of quality in terms of content and design. But, haven't we always produced content for the classroom? In the past, nobody would see it, now there's a social control of these shared educational resources in an online collaborative space.

Our challenge now is to keep moving forward in this new digital paradigm shift and understand that the resources that are shared is the group's shared effort. Thus, these resources should be improved, remixed, re-purposed to be made even more useful and appropriate to our learners.

Now we're talking about another issue in the mix - digital literacy. Digital is totally abundant, literacy is still the scarce part of the equation, for it involves not only the development of the functional/technical expertise in relation to the digital world, but also the critical view on the use of digital educational resources, which certainly takes time. It is a process that will add the equilibrium to the equation of abundance of digital resources x their quality once educators enhance their digital literacy skills.Also, it will give another mindset to the new users/producers of content in the sense of understanding that there's no problem to get somebody's work and remix it for a different group of students with specific needs and unique interests. What's there is not MINE, it's OURS. Let's make this social construct even more exciting.

...And we're back again to the scarcity of INITIATIVE...
No problem! I don't give up and keep trying to inspire my colleagues to move on. Nowadays in a much more one-to-one, minimalist, subtle way than in the past of one-size-fits-all type of teacher training. The way we share has changed into a much more abundant, non-linear way, so has the approach we should take to teacher training and the development of everyone's digital literacy skills.

Our 2011 Overture

There is a blog and blogger that keep surprising me and just bringing joy to my daily life. Mission Amy is pure inspiration that brings people together, always with a mission.

Amy published yesterday a 2011 collaborative overture. Compelling. Exhilarating.


The 2011 Overture: in 25 short movements from Amy Krouse Rosenthal on Vimeo.

My 2011 overture asks for action.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/datruss/5216340720/in/pool-858082@N25/


How about yours? What's your 2011 motto?

Summer Makeover

In Brazil, before it is summer time, people start preparing for it. Gyms get packed. We try the latest diet, we go on a bikini project. Well, it is summer in the southern hemisphere and my makeover has just started!

Time to take a closer look at what has been taken for granted for a while. As the teacher challenge advances, I keep checking blogs, commenting and learning that there is always a lot to learn about blogging and the blogosphere. Here's my take on the the pages makeover, or must, I say, creation? For, when I decided to move my other blog in a wordpress platform to blogger in the direction of simplifying the blogging act, I simply ignored the pages feature in Blogger. I had a profile text that didn't tell the readers much about me, who I am, my drives, what I do. So, this was my chance, first to learn how to use the Pages feature. Then, to carefully built upon useful content for the readers. It was well-worth spend the whole morning on the summer makeover project.

Some of the highlights were:

• bumping into Photovisi, shared by Kirby. Photovisi gave the looks I needed to my About Page. I could easily create a photo collage to give a better sense of who I really was. Plus, her About Page was one of a very creative touch that shows how enticing it can be.
• Joe Mcleay's idea of having a lifechanging links page gave me the idea of an Inspiration Page.
• There was also another blogger who totally called my attention. She confessed having a boring About page and even posted how it looked before. The new one is just an incredible lively upgrade. Now, we can really see who she is, her passion, her life. Totally exciting Page now. So many places I've been to that I can't get hold of the blog, but will!

All in all, this is a reflective process of making a visual revamp that will certainly affect content and give meaning to what I've been doing for so long. It is a call for action, movement. Plus, it is a plead to make us reflect upon our professional lives and our persona.


I gladly present my three new Pages!
Contact
About
Inspiration

Always a work in progress as it always is our Brazilian Summer Makeover...

No Helplessness in the Trenches - Take Action!

Funny thing happened this morning.

My oldest son is a night owl, not morning person at all. He studies in the afternoon. Yes, in Brazil, there are two school shifts, and kids can study either in the morning or afternoon. Even so, my kids have morning extra activities, like sports and English classes. Well, every morning I feel I'm in the trenches trying to get those soldiers to stand, get up for the activities. Many words, sometimes even threats, to see if there will be something convincing in my action to make them stand and go. It's almost like losing a battle every single time my day begins. I tried all the strategies, really, from kindness to tickles, some drops of water, fun stuff, even madness. Again, a lost battle just not totally lost because at the end, the little ones wake up. Not in a good mood. Sometimes that cranky look, others tearful moaning an groaning.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4140/4900125242_caa6036e19.jpg

With an impotent feeling of helplessness, sometimes I even considered giving up, meaning just to cancel all the extra activities. Many times, in fact, I've thought about it. But, reconsidered it. No. I can't just give up on the kids' present and future. I, from my own background, know the difference it makes when you try out different sports, when you are outdoors, when you learn another language, when you meet new people, a world even bigger than the school environment, where kids learn tons.

Well, we say in Brazil that if you can't change it, just go with the flow. So, today, and I don't know why I haven't thought of that before (!), I simply had a slightly different approach to the whole situation. Not even bright, but sometimes you're so into things you don't notice that very simple changes can have a high impact of surprise. Well, I got my kids' cellphone, set up the alarm, and bang. When I got home after my tennis classes to pick up the kids for their sports activities, they were sitting in the living room, totally ready to leave. I couldn't help myself, but laugh. Such an unpretentious act had such an impact in the whole family environment...Yeah, not brilliant, creative, but just plain, simple shift of perspective. Life was more resplendent today.

All that kept me thinking of our own classrooms. I remember a teen group I had it was almost unbearable. It was the same kind of situation I felt helpless and burnt out after two hours with them. It seems I was trying to manage the unmanageable just to realize that the problem might not have been with those wonderful kids, but the way I was approaching things. With small changes to help us connect, at the end of the semester I was in love with all of them, sad to let them go, and I know they felt at ease in class, as well. We had established a wonderful camaraderie-type of relationship due to the shifts I made to my own lesson plan that really tapped into their interests and my own attitude towards them.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3389/3489968302_ba91328856.jpg

How about you? When was the last time you had an issue in which from just a few adjustments and some action things changed to the positive uplifting side? What are the kinds of situation that are bothering you that YOU could make a change with ever-lasting impact on the outcomes?

Value your DNA - Keep Passion Alive

I've just started reading a very pleasant book. Nothing new, but simply painfully true. Gary Vaynerchuck's "Crush it" talks about being true to our DNA in the beginning of his book.

For me, being true to our DNA is rescuing our roots and reminding ourselves what really makes it all worth it. I've been talking more and more, or even preaching, about the power of passion in everything we do. I've seen many educators with their passionate instincts dormant, just burnout, stressed out, lifeless...They even forget why they've started. They forget how fiery they once were about teaching, learning, the classroom....

I'd say that we need to start a Rescue your DNA program, in which inspiring people, professionals, educators find inspiration in what they believe in and who they are. What ticks them? How can they match their passions they once had and are latent into vibrant forces that are conducive to self-fulfillment, effective teaching and on-going learning?  What is the balance of keeping up with our routine, but not keep our drives simply inactive. We all need action, movement, transpiration, passion in our lives. We need to be true to our DNA. We need to find understanding and truth in what we do to be multipliers of powerful inspirational sourced to the ones around us. We need to transform or reform ourselves to be agents of change in society.

How should we start regaining passion in what we do and who we are?

Language Teaching - Tools Worth Checking

Our presentation at the Braz-TESOL Conference and CTJ TEFL (Casa Thomas Jefferson - Brasília) went well with many teachers showing interest in the topic and wanting to make the change necessary to make the learning experience even more exciting.

Here's the slideshow for the presentation. Just click on the images and you'll be taken to the tools and their examples:

Braz tesol2010 cool-tools4theclassroom_presentation

View more presentations from Casa Thomas Jefferson.

We also had the chance to present in the CTJ Electronic Village, a reduced, but highly effective version of TESOL's Electronic Village. The Ed Tech Team shared some resources and hands-on ideas for the language classroom.
http://ctjelectronicvillage.pbworks.com/2010


Still on the topic of effective tools for the classroom,I just came across this list compiled by the Nerdy Teacher, whom I highly recommend the following.

Top 20 Websites No Teacher Should Start the 2010-2011 Year Without via kwout

Related Resources:
http://brazilbridges.pbworks.com/Cool-Tools
http://collablogatorium.blogspot.com/search/label/cooltool

Say NO to Change

Why bother?
Why leave the comfort zone for the unknown?
Why seek emotion and a bit more of fun into our dull lives?
Why should one work harder just for the sake of changing?
Why even consider the transformation if all things seem to fall into place?
Why innovate if someone else will get the credit?
Why do something different if everything seems to work the way it is now?
Why alter the state of our classrooms if the students are learning for centuries this way, but just seem "a bit bored"?
Why transition to a more proactive view of professional development if I won't get a raise?
Why spend my precious time studying, searching, planning for better teaching if I won't get more recognition from my superiors?
Why the shift?
Why the move?

That's why most of us keep saying NO to the inevitable passages in life, when we have to transition from our well-known, safe routine to a new "unpredictable" mode of thought and act. Though we might question ourselves the WHY, and this is healthy when it doesn't block the possibilities ahead, innovating, moving towards a new direction, finding a more appropriate perspective to learning and teaching is simply part of our own evolution as human beings, as educators.

The word CHANGE is part of my daily job. Every day, there's something new that makes me change the way I see things, a new tool to do things more efficiently. Though resistant at times, I've learned to listen to opposite views, to ponder, and to come to the conclusion when change might be beneficial to the collective.

Say YES.
Innovate.
Surprise.
Give a new sense to your own life.
Bring life to your classroom.
Make it lively.
Laugh, dance with your students, sing a song, create one.
Let breadth and new light enligthen your educational practices.
Learn with your students.
Don't expect recognition, except your own perception of how engaged, motivated your students are.
Consider your own small rewards when you see a sparkling eye, a curious soul.
Laugh again.
Teach with passion. Teach with soul and intuition. Find magic in the small details.
Add bits of tech before you can call yourself a true innovator.
Keep daring.

Are you still considering saying NO to change? Well, you might use 100 lame excuses to avoid becoming a more adventurous, happier educator. Or you might start considering making small innovative changes that will make a difference in your and your learners' lives pretty soon.

Say YES to your very simple changing acts.
Try it.
It can be really powerful!
Let's start right now a Say YES movement.

I'd love to hear what you've done to substitute inertia for hard-hitting transformation.

Carpe Diem

"

Carpe Diem: Poems for Making the Most of Time - Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More via kwout

"

As we prepare for a New Year, which can be any time you decide it to be, not the 1st of January, but any time you decide to seize your day - It could even be a single New Day - appropriate yourself of your own time, make every minute count for you, for your life, for the ones around you. Make a small difference that might have a big impact in someone or in many.

photo by http://flickr.com/photos/kkimpel/2272175542/

Seize the day, the hour. Carpe Diem.

Moving Physically and Digitally

I'm moving. Physically and digitally.

I'll be back home to Brazil soon. I thought. This is an opportunity for reshaping, resizing things in my life. Here's the plan. I'll make the change not just physically, but also digitally with one single motto. Simplicity.

Though I love my Explorations blog, and could still write stuff there, it takes me a great deal of effort to blog there because of bugs, layout that doesn't follow my commands... I'm never satisfied. I have the great support of the guy behind Bloxi, Gary, and I've been faithful, loyal to him for his invaluable and prompt help. However, at this point, I need to be realistic with myself.

My life will change drastically when I go back to Brazil in terms of schedules, free time to blog and do other stuff that I love. So, simplicity and quality of life are key.

That's why I'm starting this new blog, fresh, blank, simple, from the beginning again. I have no idea where it will take me, but that's what I want now. Simplicity, quality of life, meaningful connections with myself and others. Moving back home and forward, physically, mentally and digitally.

How about you? What do you want for 2009?