Living On The Edge of Chaos

We have an 8th grade language arts teacher conducting a project right now around digital footprints. As students are navigating their way through their project I was asked to be interviewed by four students for their project. Their project is focused on helping to educate 5th graders about social media. During the interview I decided to flip the this run of the mill interview into a conversation. I love social media and I share and discuss my ideas and opinions on social media all the time whether it is here on this site, other channels, or at school. After talking with the students I realized that this conversation needed to be shared. Not because we have answers, but because this chat opens up a conversation that needs to be had. I love talking to students about social media. When you listen to the podcast you will gain a sense that the students were not sure how answer some of the questions or perhaps were not sure how they felt on the topic. I hope that as I flipped their interview into a chat we spark a movement. I am so excited to see what they develop for their project. Yes, I will be sharing what they create, but in the meantime I hope you reach out. What are your thoughts to these questions? What is your opinion abot social media? I would like to open this conversation up to other educators and students. I would love to run a Google Hangout and explore this in more depth. This podcast is the start, the catalyst. The rest of you are the ones that can keep the fire going. We look forward to hearing from you. I will share their work. While we wait what are other things they should consider? The more perspective the stronger their work will become. I guess in many ways this whole podcast is a social media test and campaign itself. Let us take a listen. Shownotes and Credits Music created by 8th grade student Dennibro Additionally, if you would like to be on the podcast and talk about this topic please let me know as I will be creating a follow up podcast on this topic. As always, I welcome all ideas and feedback. Follow and Subscribe to my podcast on iTunes I finally made it to Stitcher so please follow here if you use Stitcher I recently read a book about social media with teens by Danah Boyd Coffeechug Reads It's Complicated by Danah Boyd http://wp.me/p4covo-NV

http://coffeeforthebrain.com/coffeechug-cafe/   Our school has implemented project based learning throughout all grades 6-8 this year where we have asked teachers to develop and come up with four projects this year. As we have worked through the many ups and downs of changing a culture and mindset of learners we have started to see the true value in what we are trying to achieve. Coming up in a few weeks we will host three exhibition nights where we will be celebrating the hard work and learning of students. As we continue to promote their learning we realize that we need to help express what exactly this night is all about. It is something different for parents and community members. We want them to come to these nights excited. Even more important we want the audience to engage with our students. This podcast is designed to help provide some insights into what these nights are all about. We hope we share ideas that spark new ideas, new thoughts, questions, and excitement. As you listen if you have questions, want more information, etc. please reach out to us. We are planning on making a series of podcasts on PBL based on our experiences. Enjoy and we look forward to reaching out to you. We will be posting video and images of our exhibition nights in the next few weeks to follow up with this podcast. Please stay tuned.   Here are the teachers who spoke on the podcast. Feel free to reach out to them or you can reach out to me at aarmau@gmail.com Here is a link to our school website: http://bms.bettendorf.k12.ia.us/ Beth Laughbaum 6th Grade blaughbaum@bettendorf.k12.ia.us Kevin Roling 6th Grade kroling@bettendorf.k12.ia.us Susan Owen 6th Grade sowen@bettendorf.k12.ia.us Connie Jeschke 6th Grade cjeschke@bettendorf.k12.ia.us I leave you with the following questions to answer after listening to this podcast

I am so excited and proud to share with the world this podcast. I was pumped when I introduced everyone to Dennibro a few weeks back to help showcase the power of students and sharing the stories of students who have the courage to chart their own path. This episode is amazing and not because I am involved. It is amazing because this student continues to inspire me as I follow her journey. Today I share with the world the AWESOMESAUCE Frankie Ballard who is a high school student currently on work on her third book. What is amazing is that I never directly taught Frankie in my class, but she has been part of my blogging world when it first began and we connected that way as a Teacher - Student. Through my book reviews and various other things I would share on the blog and things I would offer in school it felt like she was in my class at some point. I still have my NANOWRIMO coffee mug that I sip my coffee from weekly. I had a chance to catch up with her to have her share some insights into the mindset of a young writer. Her story inspires me to get going and finally publish my book I have been working on for years. The goal of this podcast series is to bring more exposure to the students who are doing amazing things outside of the classroom. These might be the students that go unnoticed at school. They might not get straight A's. They might not have perfect handwriting. They might not fill in every blank on a worksheet. Frankie is exceptional. She actually does many of the things mentioned above, but what I love about her and students like her is the ability to be their own person and not for attention, but because they are strong in character and mind to see above the artificial world that exists as we try to figure out who we are. But what they do have is a skill set. What they do have is a mind that can take them places. I view them as entrepreneurs who have the world at their fingertips. As this continues I would love to chat and interview students from all over the world. If you have a student in mind I would love to have the chance to share their story on this podcast. You can reach out to Frankie through her Twitter https://twitter.com/frankiesername And you can check out the book referenced in the podcast that she has published on Amazon. You will read the book and  not believe it was written by a student! Rebecca                   Additionally, if you would like to be on the podcast and talk about this topic please let me know as I will be creating a follow up podcast on this topic. As always, I welcome all ideas and feedback. Follow and Subscribe to my podcast on iTunes I finally made it to Stitcher so please follow here if you use Stitcher

As I continue to push forward with the job of instructional coach at a school that has morphed into a PBL building I am looking for new ways to help out educators. One of the things I did to help my staff is give a short little survey asking two questions: What is something that you would like help with for this year? What is something that you would like help with to plan and prepare for next year? I received some really thoughtful replies from the staff. One of the ideas that came up several times was the need for teachers to see and hear from other teachers in our building about their projects, how they put it together, resources, etc. I know that to get a variety of staff together is very hard to do with our schedule. I opened up my podcast equipment and asked for volunteers to come in and record an episode. Stephanie Cleveland, 8th grade language arts teacher, was kind enough to give up a prep period to record an episode. Stephanie discusses her Fear Factor project. I hope you find the episode helpful. She has provided a ton of resources below to go along with the episode. If you want to know more or have questions contact me or reach out to Stephanie. I would like to continue to document PBL to continue to help educators learn from one another. If you would be interested in sharing your PBL please let me know. The more we have the better we can all help one another. Shownotes To get in contact with Stephanie Cleveland Blog: http://sclevela.wordpress.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsclevelandbms Below are some novel movie posters, trailers, and a few public service announcement links from the project.......... http://hndamewood.wix.com/child-abuse http://130306.wix.com/zweifel-westerkamp#!psas/aboutPage http://schizophrenia-depression.tumblr.com/ http://131834.wix.com/arrivealive http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO2Cke869BY&feature=youtu.be http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA4yBH_-iGY&feature=youtu.be    

I am so excited and proud to share with the world this podcast. I have wanted to add more student voice to the Living on the Edge of Chaos podcast series. I cannot be more proud to introduce to you Dennis Davis or as he is known on YouTube Dennibro.  I have had the honor to work/teach Dennis for the last five years as part of our ELP program and as of the last few years as a member of our robotics team. The goal of this podcast series is to bring more exposure to the students who are doing amazing things outside of the classroom. These might be the students that go unnoticed at school. They might not get straight A's. They might not have perfect handwriting. They might not fill in every blank on a worksheet. But what they do have is a skill set. What they do have is a mind that can take them places. I view them as entrepreneurs who have the world at their fingertips. As this continues I would love to chat and interview students from all over the world. If you have a student in mind I would love to have the chance to share their story on this podcast. Now it is time to go back to Dennis. I hope you enjoy this interview. He offers some really insightful ideas that I don't think he even realizes. I won't spoil it all, but I would love to hear some feedback to share back with him. I hope you enjoy this podcast. I hope you check out his YouTube Channel and like his music and if you feel like it, be sure to leave him feedback over on his channel as well. Dennis has made me the intro that you hear for my podcasts as well as several other little intros for some upcoming audio projects we have in production. Here is the link to the song he suggested on the podcast for you to check out   Additionally, if you would like to be on the podcast and talk about this topic please let me know as I will be creating a follow up podcast on this topic. As always, I welcome all ideas and feedback. Follow and Subscribe to my podcast on iTunes I finally made it to Stitcher so please follow here if you use Stitcher

This is the first episode in a new podcast series operated by Coffeechug where we will be interviewing and sharing out information related to bald eagles and in particular two eagles, Liberty and Justice. Eagle Eye To The World – This is one of my favorite projects as it is my first big global project that I helped to create and operate. It is like my own little baby. We follow the journey of two bald eagles, Liberty and Justice, as they live life along the Mississippi River, lay eggs, and work to keep them alive. We have a lot going on and you can stay updated with the Eagle Blog. This is the first episode using new audio equipment in the Coffeechug Cafe. In this first episode we chat with John Riches who is the man behind the cameras at ALCOA. We welcome feedback and questions. Enjoy! Don't forget to check out the site - http://www.alcoa.com/locations/usa_davenport/en/info_page/eaglecam.asp

This is audio pulled from a video I made using my Google Glass where I talk about the importance of teachers and educators have the confidence and self esteem to share out their excellence. You can watch the video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoP2u1Xf5O0

Welcome to the second season of Living on the Edge of Chaos. I am kicking off this season talking about goals, systems, and resolutions. It is that time of year where everyone is jumping on board to create plans and goals to accomplish great things in 2014. However, many people fail at these goals within a month or two. This podcast is discussing what exactly is effective at attaining goals and systems. As I post this podcast I am developing a system to accomplish great things in 2014. I am trying to stay away from "goals" in the sense that they are end all, be all. Listen to the podcast and let me know what you have found to be successful. Additionally, if you would like to be on the podcast and talk about this topic please let me know as I will be creating a follow up podcast on this topic. As always, I welcome all ideas and feedback. Show Notes Michael Hyatt Best Year Ever Program - http://bestyearever.me/register/ - I have not paid for this system, but I have used his other work and it was great. If you use this let me know I would love to know what you think. I will be reading up on James Clear http://jamesclear.com/ In particular you can read http://jamesclear.com/goals-systems I will also be tracking down content from John Maxwell http://www.johnmaxwell.com/ Quote from Scott Adams can be found in his book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big. You can more on his blog http://www.dilbert.com/blog/ Here is a post based on the quote http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/systems/

  Todd Henry is the author of two great books - The Accidental Creative and his latest release Die Empty. You can check out his website http://www.accidentalcreative.com/ where you can find his podcasts and all social media links.  I read Accidental Creative a few months back and absolutely fell in love with this book and his work. http://coffeeforthebrain.blogspot.com/search?q=todd+henry I then pre ordered Die Empty and absorbed that book even more so. I liked it even more than Accidental Creative. The basis of the book is to help people, companies, businesses, and organizations do their most important work. As I read this book I could relate almost all of it to education and to the many ideas that I am striving for within my own job in education. I sent Todd an email about chatting with me on this podcast and I jumped for joy when he said yes.  Here is the link to his latest book, Die Empty: Unleash Your Best Work Everyday Show Notes Follow this podcast on iTunes and please feedback and ratings.If you would like to watch the Google Hangout you can watch it on YouTube All Social Media for Todd Henry - Please follow and learn from one of the best! Twitter:  https://twitter.com/toddhenry Websites http://www.toddhenry.com/ http://dieempty.com/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/toddhenry.ac All Social Media for Coffeechug - I would love to have you join my PLN MY BLOG http://coffeeforthebrain.blogspot.com/ ABOUT ME http://coffeeforthebrain.blogspot.com/p/coffee-for-brain-book-swap.html TWITTER https://twitter.com/coffeechugbooks GOOGLE + https://plus.google.com/u/0/113960577497815089175/posts Subscribe to my weekly newsletter(right sidebar on blog) Links to items mentioned in the podcast Steven Pressfield - War of Art Alec Baldwin Podcast Here's The Thing Google Glass for Bettendorf Middle School Students http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/google-glass-for-bms-students-and-teachers/x/5714753  

Holy Cow! Did I just type in the title that I chatted with the write and author Clive Thompson? The writer for New York Times, my favorite article in every issues of Wired magazine, and author of my favorite read of the year Smarter Than You Think: How Technology is Changing Our Minds For The Better       Yes, I did just name drop that. Clive took time out of his busy schedule to chat with me for about 45 minutes today to talk about how the new literacies and emerging technologies are shaping our world with a lens on education.   I feel quite honored to be able to present this podcast.   It was a chat that left me tweeting   Just had a great conversation with @pomeranian99 for upcoming podcast. He melted my brain and has opened my eye to new thought. — Aaron Maurer (@coffeechugbooks) November 26, 2013   Go ahead and give it a listen, leave me some feedback on iTunes and let me know what you thought of the conversation. I did have some audio recording feedback so my last question where I ask Clive to speak about predictive technologies was lost. That is a bummer as he gave such an awesome answer. I think the rest of the podcast will leave your brain full!     Show Notes Follow this podcast on iTunes and please feedback and ratings.Listen to podcast on Podomatic.com MY BLOG http://coffeeforthebrain.blogspot.com/ ABOUT ME http://coffeeforthebrain.blogspot.com/p/coffee-for-brain-book-swap.html TWITTER https://twitter.com/coffeechugbooks GOOGLE + https://plus.google.com/u/0/113960577497815089175/posts All Social Media for Clive Thompson Twitter: https://twitter.com/pomeranian99 Websites http://www.collisiondetection.net/ http://clivethompson.tumblr.com/