It's time for MERIT 2016

At this time last year, I was filling out my application for MERIT 2015. As a former MERIT teacher herself, Lisa Highfill (PUSD Instructional Tech, YouTube Guru, and all around Fabulous Person) helped me become a part of the 2015 MERIT program. Little did I know that I was about to become part of something that would completely change the way I think about my teaching. 

For anyone interested in applying this year, you need to know that MERIT is a yearlong professional learning program taught by dynamic classroom instructional leaders who know the insides and outsides of EdTech integration for every grade level and content area. I am half way through the program and have found this to be the most transformative professional development program I have encountered in my career. 

MERIT takes place at Foothill College in Los Altos. People used to tease me about the commute. They find it weird when I tell them that on the days of my MERIT classes, I wake up early, I get myself ready, and I find I am so excited for class that the long commute never even crosses my mind. We are typically there for 6 hours, but it feels like 2. It's the first training I've ever been to where I actually get depressed when we get to the end. I want it to keep going on!

Since I spent almost 10 years in the Tech Sector before I started teaching, I have always believed that technology and education should be intertwined to create the most productive classroom experience. I began MERIT hoping for training in educational technology so that I could be a better teacher for my students, but what I found was a program that also promoted diversity and multi-cultural competency as part of everyday teaching. MERIT is all about making education relevant and interactive through technology, but the true beauty of the program is the way that it promotes learning for everyone. MERIT teaches teachers how to use technology to promote learning for all, indiscriminate of a student’s age, gender, sexual orientation, race, class, etc. 

Making Connections Using a Tool Box

After teaching seniors for over 10 years, I came to an important realization last year.  I had spent every year teaching my students all of these great reading and writing strategies that they could take with them to college to help ensure they were successful in their classes. BUT- few of my students were actually making the connection and realizing they had learned strategies they could use later. They just looked at the lessons like they were regular, boring 'class busywork' assignments.

It was then that it hit me. "Hey dummy-- either help these kids make the connection, or continue wasting your time every year!" Many of my students get so submerged in test taking and busy work, that sometimes they just need help figuring out what is really useful, and what is not.

So last year I made sure that every time I introduced a new strategy,  I pointed out:
1. that this was an actual strategy I was teaching them
2. how they could use the strategy in the future
3. that they should  plan to use this strategy in the future

At the end of the year, I checked in with my students and found that many of them were beginning to 'get it'. Great, some success! But there were still others that needed just a little bit more help. So on to Step 2. Learning is a process, and I'm not just talking about my students. Good teachers try to learn everyday. We love learning-- that's why we became teachers! We learn how to be better teachers and we learn how to reach more students.

I had learned that my students needed more help to make the connection that these strategies were imperative if they were going to be successful in college and the workplace. So, I needed to move on to Step 2. I decided to create a handout (graphic organizer) to help the students remember the strategies. This was the birth of the "Strategies Tool Box" handout.

The Manifesto

As I began this year, I found myself trying to recreate almost every lesson I had to try to create this 21st century classroom using more tech and focusing on skills rather than content.

Problem #1: After teaching for 14 years, I found myself as exhausted as a 1st year teacher and burnt out by the end of September.

Problem #2: I had underestimated the quality of my past lessons. I didn't need to rework everything because I had created some great lessons that really only needed some tweaking.

Problems #3: The biggest problem that I had was that I underestimated my students. I think sometimes we tend to think our students need more hand holding than they really do.

The assignment that helped make me aware of these problems was a project I created called The Manifesto Project.