Adele Never Gets Old...

As I was preparing to leave the states just a few short weeks ago, Adele's "Hello" came on the radio and someone I was near said immediately, "ohmygod I hate this song, change it!" I'm not sure how anyone can hate anything that came from Adele's mouth.  She's down to earth, pleasant, generous, humble and extremely talented.  But that's neither here nor there.

I just got home from my first official day today.   Today was the first time leaving my new apartment crossing my fingers that I had everything I needed.  It was my first time navigating my way to the school on my own.  First time packing a lunch for school in a singular building since 2014. First time reporting to a new team when all of us were there together.  First time in a full faculty meeting with entirely new faces since 2008.  First time navigating a school cafeteria in many years.  First time logging into new technologies I have not experienced yet.  You get the point.  It was an exciting, exhausting day.

I got myself home on the bus - (albeit with several other staff members, so we definitely weren't going to die on the bus) walked myself to the CrossFit that is near me and spoke with a coach there about joining their facility.  I stopped at the other grocery store near me to check it out and compare selection to the first one I went to.  I got home, cleaned a bit and started making dinner.

I'm finally at a point where all of my suitcases are unpacked, the place is mostly cleaned to my liking, and I was able to relax and read before bed last night.  Yes, there is still a ton to do, but I'm settling in. My Apple TV is hooked up, and I decided today that while I was making dinner, I'd listen to the radio instead of "watching" Netflix since I'd not be able to see the screen.

As I prepared to make dinner, I navigated my way through the channels and such on the Apple TV and I chose a station.  I sat on the couch, thinking about this new life when the first song came on the tv.  It was, you guessed it, "Hello" by Adele.

I'm not usually one for signs, but this hit me, and hit me hard.  It was as if it was a sign from home that I had made the right choice.  You see (many of you experienced this live at the TIES Conference last year) we wrote a spoof of "Hello" for the opening videos for our winter conference last year.  I happen to be the singer voicing the song for my oh-so-talented colleagues who were the dramatic beauties on screen.  (click here to re-live the delightful opening video - and if you have some time, watch the whole thing- my team was pretty awesome)  Hearing "Hello" today as I was just getting into my routine of this new normal here in Poland was a reminder of my team at home, and of the great work we did there.

Without that experience at TIES, I would not have been prepared to enter this world I'm in today. I learned more than I taught, and grew as a teacher as the result of the excellent work my peers do there.  Without the conversations we had, the collaboration we did, the growing pains that come with instructional technology(at any level), the events, coaching and workshops we put on, I would not have been equipped to take on this role.  I relied on the gentle leadership of Caroline, the patient teaming of Kari, the technical expertise of Troy, the knowledgable and humor-filled instruction of Mary, the organizational skills of Cara, the tech perspective and experience of Kate, and the positivity and open-mindedness of Ashley.  Without these folks, I would not have grown, changed and matured as an instructor.

Thank you to these great colleagues, not to mention Amanda, Connie, Dorothy, Floyd, Deb, Chris, Danielle, Scott, Mike and all the others who helped me to spread my wings a bit further so I could take on day one in Poland with success.

Day One - #Nailedit

We had our first day as a full staff today.  It was great to begin to see the staff in it's entirety, though I'm sure I learned a bajillion names today which I will never remember.  We began with a delicious breakfast of pizza, fruit, muffins and yogurt cups.  Most of the newbies stuck to each other - which is expected I suppose - and it's only the first day.  Give us a break :)

The pizzas and breakfast spread!

Panorama of the staff enjoying breakfast

Opening slide of the Head of School's presentation

The Head of School welcoming all staff

It's so interesting to me to be in the situation I'm in right now.  It's been two school years since I have been in a building, and eight years since I taught in Hungary.  It has been quite a while since I was a "newbie" in a building as I was in Burnsville for 13 years.  Admittedly I was a newbie in Hungary, but since everything was in Hungarian, I had no idea what was going on so I always kind of functioned in a cloud.  Here, it's as if we are an independent school in the states, but when you leave everything around you is in Polish.  Don't get me wrong, there are Polish faculty, staff and students, but for all intents and purposes, things are status quo - in terms of schools - here. 

There was a welcome breakfast - with different offerings than I remember in my last district, but still the same.  People catching up, asking about their summer vacation with perhaps slightly different answers- "did you go anywhere? Oh, Greece, huh?  How was that?"  People groggy from the first alarm since the summer began, but their excitement to return and get going again is palpable in the room of staff.  PE teachers and chemistry teachers look like PE and chemistry teachers the world over.  We gathered in the theater (no food or drink allowed) and kicked off with a welcome from the Head of School.  Status Quo.  Until John (Head of School) started talking.  Today, as at the newbie welcome, he gave us permission to fail.  He recanted that there were great things which happened last school year, and did not dodge the topic of shortcomings of the last year.  He has been here three weeks after a somewhat mysterious end to the last Head of School's tenure.  

Regardless of what went down last year, he convinced us that we are all in this together.  He stressed that ALL students are OUR students, and that we need to connect behind our mission and values as we move into a brand new year.  He also included in his talk an image that I posted on my Facebook page earlier this week:

                                            

"It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do: we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do" ~Steve Jobs 

Many of us "newbies" agreed to come to this school based on conversations we had with the former head of school.  I will say though, that this guy, who is only two weeks more veteran to me, has managed to say the right things, and convince me that there is something special happening here at ASW.  As for right now, I like his approach - he identified himself as a 'servant leader' and one who was here to be involved and make ASW the best it could possibly be.  It was a great start to the day.  

We had some other smaller department and team meetings, but I wanted to share about the Middle School/ High School meeting we had.  As a staff, we are separate in terms of elementary, middle and high school.  The principal for the middle school is the same guy as the high school however, so there will be some joint meetings to deliver information and things of the nature.  We met the vice principals and did some quick info stuff.  Then he had us write on a piece of paper, one thing that a teacher did for us as a student that we remember.  Once we had our statements written, we 'chose our method of delivery' (some were crumpled into balls, I folded mine into a weak as heck airplane) and we threw them.  We were tasked to read at least three people's statements - re-crumpling and re throwing in between statements.  He managed not only to get us up and moving, but had us partake in a quick, meaningful reflection, and allowed us to read about the small things other teachers did to help students.  Some I read included information about supporting students, a smile after a tough day from a teacher, a note home about something small.  One stuck out to me that talked about how a teacher held her hand as she puked on the stairs of the school after a play she was in.  While it seems a bit trivial to participate in an activity like this, it allowed us to stop and remember that the small things matter.  Truly.  Each and every day we can do something small to make a difference - teacher or not.  

So while the day seemed status quo on a lot of levels, I am pleased to be part of a team who believes in their teachers, in their students, and in the power of each and every person in the room to contribute to the betterment of the lives of others.  Cheers to a new year! 

No Longer Homeless

Well, it wasn't an easy process, but I am no longer homeless!!  It was quite an ordeal, but I have finally signed the contract and will move into my apartment on Saturday.

Admittedly, I was hired late in the game here at the American School of Warsaw.  Having said that, I'm doing my darndest to get caught up in all of the procedural things that have to take place to make the transition successful.  Finding housing is one of those things.  From the first time I heard that we would be working with a realtor, I thought it would be easy peasy.  They sent us a questionnaire and we gave them our preferences: # of rooms, size, special requests, location and the days we were available to see them once we got here.  

The location piece was difficult because even though I've been here in Warsaw before, I had no recollection of the neighborhoods, or their pros and cons.  I didn't know if I wanted to live in the hopping city center, or nearer to school to ease the commute.  I sought out and found an episode of "House Hunters International" which featured a different teacher from ASW on her journey of apartment hunting for school.  We were even lucky enough to have a Google map of different teachers' homes and videos and pictures of the areas they were in.  Even with all this legwork, I still was a bit frought about where I wanted to live and what I was looking for.  

I knew initially I preferred two bedrooms - ripe with room for people to visit when they decide to. My big thing that I wanted was a shower with a mounted shower head at standing height.  Not really that much to ask, but a terrible inconvenience if not available.  Yeah, it's possible to roll it around your body and clean yourself with the shower head in hand, but really - how annoying.  Granted that it is way up there on the list of first world problems, but it's what I want.  I was interested in a balcony for Boo, and a spacious area to make it feel comfortable and like home.  I also decided that I wanted to be in one of two areas that were not in the direct center of the city, but were kind of mid-way between downtown and school.  I communicated a few times with the realtor (Alicja) and she sent me a list of 10 different offerings.  I dutifully mapped them out, made pro and con lists, and narrowed down which ones I would like to tour upon arrival.  I thought I was set.  Well, the joke was on me.  The offerings I was sent were all "examples."  None of them were actually ones I was interested in.  

Back to square one.  I emailed her and said after talking with some to-be colleagues, I shifted the location I wanted a bit.  Still mid-way, but maybe a bit closer to the happening places in town.  She said she would put together some more options and we would tour them when I got to Poland.  

On Saturday afternoon (my first day here) I got an email (along with another teacher here) indicating that we were going to tour apartments the next day starting at 2 pm.  I emailed back right away and told her that would be great.  Less than 30 minutes later, we got an email cancelling the appointments for the following day.  She asked if we were free the next day to see some in the morning - and she sent some apartments to look at.  This is where it took a quick downward turn.  Not only were the apartments not what I was looking for, they were tiny (32 square meters) and out of my price range (or shall I say the school's price range since they are giving us a housing stipend).  Really?  What were the questionnaire and emails for if she wasn't going to show me what I was looking for?  Additionally, we were at school the following morning (a schedule she had had since July) so NO, I was not available to look at apartments tomorrow.  Keep in mind, that the other teacher hadn't been told that the afternoon appointments were cancelled - thank goodness I was there to tell her.  

She told me her colleague would contact me the next morning and we could see some the next day. When her colleague finally emailed me back - at 1pm - we settled on that afternoon to look at some. At the assigned time I was to go look at apartments, there were three other teachers waiting in the lobby for the same real estate agent.  Wait, what?  I was going apartment hunting with three other teachers all looking for the same thing?  How is that good?  Were we to arm wrastle for the one we wanted?  Ugh.... so we piled in this tiny car and set out to see four apartments.  One was not in an area ANY of us were looking, one was WAY over our budget, one was nice, but farther out than we wanted and one was nice and in a good location- it just didn't fit my taste.  So now what?  What were the next steps?  Alicja's colleague would find some more offers, and take us out again.  

I definitely wrote an email to Alicja stating my disappointment in the offerings as they did not match my criterion, and in the fact that we went in a group of four.  In the mean time, I had discussed real estate agents with several other teachers at the opening dinner and first days, and as it turns out, Alicja with a J was not doing well by other clients as well.  So I reached out to a different agent and decided to tag along on another teachers series of visits the next day.  The apartments she was to see ended up getting jumbled because the owner of one had the wrong meeting time, and so we decided to go out to a different one and come back to that one.  Well the one we went to was greatly different than the pictures, and was quite far out in terms of convenience to either the city center or school.  We had to return to the first one, but by that time I had to meet my tech team for dinner.  At any rate, THAT agent (not Alicja) told me she would search for some apartments, but to remember that so many people were unhappy that they all contacted this agent and she was quite overwhelmed.  I told her I had patience and could wait a bit since I was an add on.  Keep in mind that there are teachers here who have very small children, who also are not getting housing or help from their agent.  It's been quite a mess.  

After getting back from the second set of bum visits, I talked with some other teachers.  they toured one that they thought I might like, and that they didn't want, so I contacted the landlord.  Turns out, I had already been emailing the landlord herself from a posting that was sent earlier in the summer.  A teacher from the school lived there earlier and he liked the apartment quite a bit.  So I arranged to get myself to her - no agent involved - and see the place.  

Turns out it was perfect.  Two bedrooms, two baths, two balconies, large living space, nice kitchen and location 50 meters from a metro station and the bus depot.  I can take one bus directly to school.  Genius.  Turns out I'm a better real estate agent than anyone in Poland.  JK.  Here are some pictures: 

second bedroom with pullout couch

Living area - kitchen on the left, patio out the doors

kitchen - freezer door is open on left, fridge is above it.  There is a dishwasher and oven, and the washing machine is in the cabinet to the left of the oven 

bedroom with balcony

bathroom with shower

bathroom with tub

one side of the patio

other side of the patio

living room

I decided yesterday after visiting that it indeed was the place for me, and emailed her that I would take it.  I returned today to sign the contract and finalize things with a walk through to see what worked and what didn't.  She is going to buy a television and (maybe) a new couch - I'm not sure if it will happen because we had a bit of a miscommunication on this but we'll see.  

Here she is going through the contract with me

paying my deposit and first month's rent

here she is editing the contract - the one I signed... 

I mean penciling things in is legit, right? 

I don't know if it's an advantage or disadvantage to not have an agent, but I don't tend to sit back for long when I have something to do or that I want.  I took care of business.  She seems nice, and the last teacher lived there for six years, so I'm going to give it a go.  

You should come visit and check it out for yourself!  

It's 9:30. Do you know where your grandparents are?

The other night we were able to enjoy a wonderful touristy/traditional meal near the Warsaw Old Town.  I went into the Old Town area a bit early and poked around - refreshing my memory of the area.  I wandered until I found the hostel that we stayed at when I was here four years ago.  It was nice to wander and think about the fact that I didn't have to rush, and wasn't looking for tourist gifts or things to purchase. I am going to be here a while, and that is nice to think about.  Though I wasn't in search of souvenirs at this point, I was tempted by ice cream several times.  

As we finished up dinner, I opted to take the bus home.  Though still new to the area, I feel good about navigating the area at this point, and I know it'll only get better with time.  I waited for the bus with an older man, and when we got on the bus, I felt as if I was one of the younger people riding.  This struck me because it was 9:45 at night.  There was a slew of blue hairs chatting, laughing and enjoying themselves - even this late at night.   

I am excited to be in a city with life - even if that means that MY life is the equivalent of people twice + my age.  

The clothes make the man...?

One of the things that I find to be quite interesting in Europe is the fashion.  I knew transitioning from my plane in Paris that I wasn't in Kansas anymore.  The men in capri pants crack me up, ladies and their high heeled shoes, nylons with shorts, see through shirts, it's all fascinating to me.  Though in the grand scheme of things, who am I to judge?

image source

Well, actually, I'm one of the biggest people watching judgers of clothing the world has probably seen.  In my head I make up stories about where the people come from, what they do for a living, why they bought that outfit, and where they are in route to.  While in Hungary I learned that literally anything goes in Europe.  AN-Y-THING.  But that isn't always bad.

Upon arrival to Poland, I was walking through the exit of the customs area to where I was to meet my ride, and I saw an American? burst with joy as he met his family? waiting for him at the exit.  The man had on dress pants, nice shoes, a collared button down shirt - looked very business class American.  He was talking to his travel partner on his way out of the customs area... in flawless accent-less English.  When he saw his family (three of whom were men wearing capri pants) his register switched immediately without a hitch to Polish.  I thought to myself how impressive and awesome it was that he in some ways had a dual life he was living.  I showed up to Poland wearing jeans, a t-shirt that announced that I was from Minnesota, flip flops and a crossfit sweatshirt.  And when I met my ride, though equally joyful since I actually made it, and made it alive, I continued to speak in English.


I spend quite a bit of time thinking not only of this upcoming presidential election, but of the makeup and fabric of our country as a whole regarding immigration.  I was lucky enough to teach many classes in Burnsville which not only were explicitly ESL - full of students from many different countries, but I also had multiple countries represented in mainstream classes.  When I was interviewing for this job, it stuck out to some at ASW that I had taught at a Hungarian school, but they were all Hungarians.  There was a concern that I had not taught in an international environment - for many reasons - not least of which was that I had no experience juggling the multitude of cultures they have in one building.  After the conversation I began to reflect on that a bit and I thought to myself, "shit, I had that many cultures in one class in Burnsville" which allowed me to grow in ways I had never envisioned as a teacher.  

At any rate, I have a great admiration and a large amount of envy for people who possess the ability to return "home" to their culture which they tend to be immensely proud of.  As an American am I proud of what our country is?  Definitely.  Am I concerned at the way immigrants are treated?  You bet.  I don't know if I will ever be able to blend in here in Poland like the American in the airport did, but I am going to give it my all.  How can we learn to better balance the beauty and contributions of others who move to our country?  How can we as Americans reach out and better connect to those who have dual "homes" or cultures which infuse their lives?

I know that there are people reading this thinking about those who have gotten to America illegally, perhaps overstayed their visas or for whatever reason did not enter legally and I don't know how to solve that problem.  I do know however, that I am incredibly impressed with the multitude of folks who move to another country, take on the culture and language, and contribute to society in a meaningful and productive way.  I hope to be one of those people in Poland- who will return to my family out of the customs area in the airport with joy and switch from Polish to English upon arrival.  Wish me luck in this endeavor!

Here we go again!

Welcome aboard a new adventure.  I have just moved to Warsaw, Poland to begin work as a Co-Director of Digital Learning a the American School of Warsaw.  It is never an easy decision to move abroad and start a new chapter in life, but I am thrilled I took the leap and hope you will enjoy living along side me through this blog.  If you missed my Hungarian adventures, you can check out that blog here.  It was a great way to communicate the things I was experiencing to people around the world.  I hope to do the same in this space.

I first learned about this position opening from a friend (Amy K.) on Facebook.  It seemed like the pairing of two things I love, Eastern Europe and tech integration - a perfect position for me.  I applied, interviewed with two admins and the team I'd be joining and sat back and waited.  It so happened that at the same time I was in the midst of two additional job offers which was surprising and wonderful at the same time.  It's always nice to realize that there are folks out there who appreciate your skill set and abilities- and to be recognized for that.  When offered the job at ASW, I had to think about it as compared to the other two offers I had, and it just seemed like the best fit.  I am excited about the team I am joining- four of us doing digital learning coaching in one K-12 building? That is unheard of in my experience.

So I am here now, not without some blips in the process, but I am here.  I arrived yesterday afternoon and was able to attend a welcome dinner at the Middle School/High School Principals home.

Emily the orientation leader greeting us

a great spread of sushi - I didn't eat any of it, but it looked amazing!

It was a group of new to the school teachers coming from the US, Switzerland, Spain, China, India, Venezuela, Turkey, the Caribbean and so many more places.  What a wealth of experience we all bring.  I noticed when talking with teachers that there are a lot of support positions at this school as well.  Not only the technology aspect that I bring, but reading and learning specialists on top of support staff for all levels.  Everyone is very excited to be joining ASW and we all seem cool, so we've at least got that going for us.


Today we went to the mall to get sim cards for our phones and took a driving tour of Warsaw with Emily, one of the orientation leaders.  We're all in the midst of trying to secure housing, which has been no easy task so far.  There are cultural things that come into play here, but that's a different post :)

EdTech conferences drive me into an uncomfortable place, but I go anyway.

In the last week, I have had the opportunity to attend and participate in two different instructional technology conferences.  The Ed Tech Team MN Summit featuring Google Apps for Education at Fridley High School in MN and the Ed Tech Teacher Summit in San Diego.  While drawing in similar crowds of attendees, both experiences had a distinct feel and both were awesome!

I began the weekend with the opportunity to facilitate some sessions around the growing concept of Breakout EDU.  Breakout EDU is the brain child of some of the most fascinating people in the world of education (in my opinion.)  To paraphrase the story, the genesis of this came from the idea of the breakout rooms which are growing in popularity worldwide.  If you're unfamiliar with the breakout or escape room concept, enjoy this clip:

Essentially, the idea is that participants collaborate to solve problems that will allow them to "breakout" of the box.  The creators of Breakout EDU took the escape room concept and worked to modularize it so it could be replicated for the classroom.  The experience involves making gaming in the classroom meaningful using critical thinking, collaboration and creativity - and is useful in a k-12 student situation as well as with adults.  One of the founders James Sanders (@jamestsanders) explains it much better than I can:   

I facilitated two sessions using the "Dr. Johnson's Lab" game.  The clues and pieces of the game were set up before participants arrived in anticipation of conference goers experiencing something quite different than many of the other sessions.  I was fortunate enough to be able to pull in the student technology helpers from Fridley High School into the game as well, adding a different level of uncomfort to the room.  Going through the process is invigorating, frustrating, humbling and exciting all at the same time.  Facilitating other people doing a Breakout EDU game is where I get out of my comfort zone though.  

As a teacher, I've wanted the kids to get the right answer, and to not have to struggle through the material.  This experience embodies the exact opposite of that. While I'm encouraging the attendees to get out of their comfort zone and explore, aim for new ideas that might result in failure, I have to remember to do the same thing.  I am in an uncomfortable place as I sit back and watch this all go down.  Participants can use "hint" cards when they get stuck, but it is hard to sit on my hands and not prod them while they try to uncover the clues.  It's a wonderfully uncomfortable session to facilitate as I am equally excited as the participants while they uncover each clue and begin to put together the pieces.  In these particular sessions where we mixed students and teachers, the students ended up solving some of the clutch clues were able to really thrive in the experience.  In terms of a social experiment, it was fascinating to watch.

I ended the session by stating, and believing in my heart of hearts, that this is where effective education will be going.  We need to provide these experiences for our students so they can break away from the text book and truly incorporate some of these soft skills of communication, collaboration and creative thinking in order for them to be truly real world ready.  

If you haven't jumped on board yet, you can learn more on the Breakout EDU website and in the Breakout EDU Facebook group.       

The GAFE Summits are some of the most invigorating professional development experiences one can be involved in.  They leave you armed with the knowledge and tools to implement new best practice lessons using a myriad of the Google apps.  For more information on the GAFE and iOS Summits put on by the Ed Tech Team (@edtechteam), visit their website.  

 

Following the summit in Fridley, MN I hopped a plane to San Diego.  No offense to my homeland of Minnesota, but everything is better in San Diego :)  Maybe not everything, but February weather sure is.

I tend to thrive in environments that both Ed Tech Teacher and Ed Tech Team provide, which is weird as a self-proclaimed introvert.  I am introverted by nature, but extroverted by profession if that makes sense.  I've heard people say it before, but it's true - this is my tribe.  At conferences like both of these, I like to be an observer and take in as much as I can to improve what I do as an educator.  I engage digitally, and when forced, in person.  It's funny because I'm a front row sitter, an eager beaver and love to be in command of my classroom.  However, when it comes to situations like these, I'm a bit more shy at first and generally wait until someone addresses me before seeking out new EdTech friends.  At any rate, both environments were safe and welcoming and I took home a wealth of information...

One of the interesting pieces that I got to experience at the Ed Tech Teacher Summit was meeting Amy Burvall.  I spent 13 years as a secondary social studies teachers and used video quite a bit in my classroom - (go ahead and judge- showing Gandhi was one of my favorite weeks of the school year, but this is in reference to shorter video clips to show in class).  I knew Amy Burvall from the interwebs, but didn't know her name until San Diego.  She has created several creative history videos (historyteachers is their YouTube channel) that I used in class, my favorite being this French Revolution one:

Before my arrival in San Diego, I decided to attend a session titled "Image is Everything: Exploring Critical Thinking with Visual Literacies" and Amy Burvall was the presenter.  It wasn't until partway through the intro that I realized that she was the creative behind the awesome history videos. She gave us a wealth of resources to encourage and drive visual literacy and using images to spark critical thinking.  This is just one of the awesome sessions I was able to soak in while in San Diego - not to mention the vitamin D :)

Ed Tech Teacher provides professional development and online resources that are a great resource for any level of educator out there.  Check out their other offerings on their website.


SO - the moral of my blog post is this:  If you are an introvert, it's okay to lurk at these conferences.  Its okay to see one of your teaching icons and tweet her, rather than engage with her in person.

BUT, as I'm becoming more and more comfortable attending conferences like these, I've found it's in your best interest to get out of your comfort zone and meet people.  Get out of your comfort zone and learn new things - just as you want your students to get out of their comfort zones in order to grow. Get out there and do it.  Who knows the connections you will make when you do!