Brandi J. Clark

WOW! What a week! I love to present but after my Crazy-Palooza this week…I was exhausted. But exhaustion often follows trying out new ideas. When we are used to the same things, so are our bodies, which perhaps isn’t always a good thing.

So my new “thing” was exercising my LiveBinder muscle.

I saw a book on the public library shelf.

The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less by Barry Schwartz

“We normally assume in America that more options (“easy fit” or “relaxed fit”?) will make us happier, but Schwartz shows the opposite is true, arguing that having all these choices actually goes so far as to erode our psychological well-being.”

This is the image I had in mind, Friar Tuck from Rocket Robin Hood.

Anyway…it gave me a lot of “food for thought”.

The goal of my sessions was to reduce the amount of new resources and instead bring out what we already know. When we find that we already know some things, we tend to discover what we don’t, and that is where you can access more resources.

I designed the LiveBinders to focus the teachers back on two things,
the Curriculum and their students…not a resource.

My thinking dates back to my childhood, when I consumed way to many episodes of Little House on the Prairie.
How did they teach with a couple of readers and a few slates?

I think it is because the teachers knew their goals (curriculum) and what their students needed (through assessment). The rest was filling in the blanks with what was available and facilitating inquiry projects ….(remember when they created the school bell by collecting and melting metal)

Sometimes I think we need to trust ourselves as a powerful human resource and go from there…

Until Next Time,
Lit Maven Out!

Other Posts on this Topic.
Want Best Practices to Go Viral?…Use a LiveBinder
Flipped Classroom? Use a LiveBinder
Building a LiveBinder…Include Tagxedo
Digital Textbooks…Like Putting Lipstick on a Pig
Digital Textbooks…It’s a Matter of Definition
Building a Textbook From Scratch…5 Reasons to Try LiveBinder
5 Tips for Starting Your Own LiveBinder
Need Videos for Your LiveBinder…Top 5 Sources
Need Images for Your LiveBinder…Top 5 Sources
Building a LiveBinder…Brick by Brick
Building a LiveBinder…Let it Bloom With These Tools

Well…I am back with great news about my LiveBinder experiment. Remember I was worried about feeling like Sheldon..

I shouldn’t have! An hour into the inservice I was told that I reminded them of Amy Farrah Fowler

Should I Laugh…or cry…

Well anyway here’s what I learned…

1. Teachers want to share!
No surprise there but the teachers were very excited at the possibilities…

The possibilities to share information with staff.

The possibilities to create their own LiveBinders.

The possibilities of trying something new!

2. Teachers appreciated the LiveBinders in advance of the session.

I did have a fear they would judge the session by the LiveBinder…or feel, “What’s the point of going…it’s all here.” Nope! Instead the LiveBinders created excitement and by sending it in advance there was a sense of familiarity.

3. Teachers appreciated the facilitating nature of the presentation.
This presentation was no “sit and git” or listen to the “talking head”. Instead I was able to select tabs in the binder based on the flow and needs of the teachers. In addition, I gave teachers access to Netbooks! Not all of them took the offer but most appreciated that they could “follow along” and use the links during table talk and work processing time.

Overall, I think it was a success! I am curious to see how many views the LiveBinders gets overtime. I put the settings on private but I plan to do some public ones in the future. LiveBinders continue to lure me in ways that I have yet to try
…oh no!!!

I do sound like her!

Until Next Time,
Lit Maven Out!

Other Posts on this Topic.
Flipped Classroom? Use a LiveBinder
Building a LiveBinder…Include Tagxedo
Digital Textbooks…Like Putting Lipstick on a Pig
Digital Textbooks…It’s a Matter of Definition
Building a Textbook From Scratch…5 Reasons to Try LiveBinder
5 Tips for Starting Your Own LiveBinder
Need Videos for Your LiveBinder…Top 5 Sources
Need Images for Your LiveBinder…Top 5 Sources
Building a LiveBinder…Brick by Brick
Building a LiveBinder…Let it Bloom With These Tools