Every new beginning ...

Moving on is hard. Change is hard. Leaving is hard. I am someone who enjoys consistency and a sense of familiarity. I like digging into someone, growing roots, so that whatever I am doing, where I am, whoever I am with, means something. I become socially, emotionally, and even physically invested with my whole being. 

For the past seven years, I have been growing my roots deep in Green Brook Township Public Schools, first as a teacher and the last two as Technology Coordinator and Supervisor of Instruction. These roots have dug deep as I have had the chance to personally teach over 500 students in that time, work with nearly 100 teachers, help improve the learning and education of nearly 1000 students and be involved in a fantastic small community. I have gone through many life changes here that I will never forget - marriage, home ownership, the arrival of my two children, rescuing a few pets along the way, finding out I wasn't that good at soccer (you get the picture). 

As the start of school is right around the corner, I cannot help but think about new beginnings, fresh starts, and the eagerness that I know I hold dear to my heart about this time of year and the good feelings it brings along with it. I think about new teachers, new students, and returning educators and the excitement they bring each and every day.

I am excited to start the school year off with my Green Brook family one last time but it is bittersweet knowing that it is my last one. Writing an email to my Green Brook family to let them know I has resigned as Supervisor of Instruction and Technology to accept a position in Princeton Public Schools as a Supervisor of Social Studies and Global Education was, and will always be, the hardest task I have had to do in my years there. 

I don't like saying goodbye - I don't like "uprooting" or "removing" my roots. I am thinking of this as a chance to plant new roots, but never forgetting to water my old ones as well. My family in Green Brook will never, ever, leave my heart and mind. I have made some near and dear friends that will be with me the rest of my life. 

New beginnings happen because something ended – it’s like that band Semisonic’s line “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.”

Thank you, Green Brook for the journey we took together, through all the ups, downs, laughs, and cries we shared together. 

So while this journey may be coming to an end, I am excited to start a new one in Princeton Public Schools come this October. 

Timothy J. Charleston

BYOD and a tale of being connected...

Last night, I held my first summit meeting for the Bring Your Own Device initiative at my school district, Green Brook Township Public Schools. The summit was created to invite parents, students, staff, and community members in to learn more about what BYOD was, why we wanted to go to it, and what it could do for our students and teachers. It was also a chance for people to ask questions, give their thoughts, and express their hopes, fears, and joys. The summit was the first in a series of meetings that are dedicated to the BYOD push. 

I have been planning BYOD for over a year now and our pilot only encompasses the 8th grade to start with. I am going SLOW for a reason. I want people to truly understand what we are doing. I want them to be a part of it. I want to be able to plan, plan, and plan. I want this to succeed. 

When I created the event, I knew in my mind that I wanted some help from people who have blazed the trails already. From Twitter and other social media sites, I have connected with so many of those educators. These are people who I consider colleagues but there is a stronger bond that connects us. While I have never met some of these people in person, I trust them, respect them, and would do anything at the drop of the hat for them if they needed it. 

I let the public know about what our plans were and I then I turned it over to some great educators:

+Alex Podchaski 

+Sharon Plante 

+Elissa Malespina 

+JD Ferries-Rowe 

+Sandra Paul 

They gave their testimonials, answered questions, and debated why BYOD is the right push for their schools. They were awesome! +Alex Podchaski even showed up IN PERSON to help me out. I was floored. Shocked even. 

Driving home that night, telling my wife how the event went, I told her I couldn't have been happier. These people stepped up, some on short notice, the others with wrong Google Hangout invites (that one's on me!), and helped me out. 

One thing I learned from doing this - don't stop because of fear. Just because some people may have opposition to what you want to accomplish doesn't mean you shouldn't go out and try. I WANT to bring in those naysayers and have a conversation with them. I WANT them to engage in discussion. The only way to do that is to bring them in.

In the AIR tonight...

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been thinking of ways to bridge the gap between what people want and what we have. Its a tricky situation at times. For one, we have tons of iPads and iPod touches in the district but people also want document cameras and the like. 

I don't want to buy tech for the sake of buying tech (as some districts and people do). You know that person. The person who will wait inline for the new launch of something (hey, I've done it before. I'm not proud of it but I have done it).

After going to some Apple seminars and visiting the Apple store with our G&T students on a field trip, my mind began to spin with some new ideas. The Apple iOS devices are much more than just app-filled devices. The basic functions of it can be used by all teachers as a camera, recording machine, sharing and creation device. 

How could we stream what is on our iPads onto our SmartBoards? Currently, some teachers were using 30Pin to VGA connectors but that kept the iPad and teacher in the same location. I didn't want to do that anymore; plus, the cords and cables were expensive. Could we buy Apple TV's for each classroom? Sure we could, but at $99.99 a pop, money could have been spent better elsewhere. I couldn't figure this one out. 

So... as I do with many questions I can't answer, I turned to my collegiate friends and Twitter PLN. Thanks to my friend +Susan M. Bearden, I was able to get the answer I was looking for: AIRSERVER via Airplay. 

  No, not the 80's soft-rock band. AirPlay is something that gives us the ability to use all the technology in our classes concurrently to create a seamless class with endless possibilities for student-student create and interaction, as well as excelled lesson plans and ideas. 

Apple summarizes:


AirPlay Mirroring lets you show exactly what’s on your Mac, iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch screen to everyone in the room.2 Show web pages, games, photos, videos, spreadsheets, class material, and more on your HDTV via Apple TV. Zoom in and out and pause for applause. Rotate from portrait to landscape and your audience sees that, too. AirPlay does it all wirelessly, so you can work the room or sit comfortably among the crowd. If you see it, so can they.

Using a product called AirServer, which was about $3.99 a license for commerical and educational use, we will be able to give this great product to all our teachers who have staff laptops. This means that a teacher is no longer tethered to a certain spot in the room. It also means that they can use their SmartBoard while mirroring to their PC. It also means that they can use the iPad as a Document Camera, video camera, or picture editor. 

This has so many possibilities in the classroom. Mr. G summarizes quite nicely just some of the ways we can use this function:

• An ELA classroom where students can share their notes, collaboratively write paragraphs, edit shared texts and compare choices, or share drafts for others to read to feedback on, with the writer making real time changes as the feedback comes.

• In Math, where multiple strategies created by the students are shared simultaneously and discussed.

• Multiple videos showing different views of the same event or object.

• A music classroom using Garageband with children combining different instruments at the same time to create a digital orchestra,combine parts of the same song for harmonies or multitrack experimentation or simply share their individual creations wirelessly.

• A Science classroom where different observations, diagrams, videos of experiments are shared and compared.

• A video and text can be played simultaneously to compare and contrast how a particular part of the story is portrayed in different media.

• Ideas can be shared concurrently instead of waiting for turns, allowing students and teachers to focus on a specific point of their choice rather than waiting for turns.

• Collaborative teams presenting the work without having to spend time cobbling all their individual efforts together into a single PowerPoint/Prezi etc. Each student can just mirror their iPad on the screen at the same time and control a video, audio clip, slideshow, comic strip, ebook, themselves. 

Not all devices can connect to AirPlay or use AirServer. Here is a list of supported devices.

• iPad 2, 3, 4 or mini
• iPhone 4S or 5
• iPod Touch 5

This is going to change how we use tech and what learning will take place with it... and that truly is the most important thing we need. 

"Its not about the technology, its about the learning that can take place from it." - +Tom Murray 

Are you are "Connection" Educator?

I for one, will not, and will never, bash an educator for not being on a certain program or doing a certain thing. That's just not sound leadership. Telling everyone that they need to be doing something for afar may be effective in the short term but in the long term, what is lost?

The same can be said when it comes to connected-educators and those who are not (let's call them, non-connected educators). Telling everyone that they need to be on Social Media is not sound leadership. But all too often, I have seen it recently.

It goes something like this:

Connected-Educator - " I don't get why more people aren't on such and such, they need to be or they will get fired." (BTW, that was said on Twitter, in a tweet).

Non-Connected Educator - "I don't get or have the time to go on these sites. I have all the resources I need and my school will provide me with everything I need." (Said in Lunchroom).


So you have these two sides nuking it out in forums where their only audiences are those who have similar feelings and interests. Its like an echo chamber. No one can reach the other side because we are speaking in places where they aren't.

Instead of doing that, we need to be leaders and we need to be CONNECTION Educators. These are people who connect with one another is many different areas, in person, online, in small groups and in large groups. They know how important face-to-face interactions are. They know and understand that PD opportunities happen all the time, whether LIVE, Recorded, or archived.

They reach across the aisle to both sides and bridge the gap. They are CONNECTION Educators. They make the connections with staff on all fronts. They share the wealth on information they have, instead of keeping it to themselves or re-posting it in a place where only those who know the info already are. When presented with two extremes, the middle is often the best bet and most reliable option.

Let's be that for our colleagues. Let's be that for our staff. Let's be that for our students.


FYI - Just in case you do want to join an online chat, check out this list of hashtags!

List of Twitter Hashtags For Students and Teachers - EdTechReview: List of Twitter Hashtags for Students and Teachers. As monitoring the hashtags and getting the needed information easily, is simply a gift in the age of knowledge bombardement.