Do you work with Barney Fife? I think we all do.

Good old Barney Fife… He was my favorite character from The Andy Griffith Show. He was passionate about everything, and tried so hard to impress everyone that he failed miserably every time. Barney followed protocol to the letter, but in the town of Mayberry, his overreactions caused more problems than they helped. Just because he knew everything about the law, did not make him the best law enforcement officer. I started to think about what it would be like to work with Barney. This thought led me to The Mayberry Continuum.

My role as a coach involves instructional technology, but the type of coaching is irrelevant in The Mayberry Continuum. This model's focus is on understanding learners, regardless of content. In Mayberry, a fishing trip with Andy would surely provide insight about all the characters. This analogy reflects my experiences as a coach so far.

The Fishing Trip in Mayberry
Barney, having never fished before in his life, showed up dressed from head to toe in fishing gear. After reading about fishing, he bought every piece of fishing equipment the sales clerk showed him, sure to catch all the fish in the stream.
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Gomer appeared without any gear-- not even a pole. He has been catching fish with his bare hands since he was a kid. His grandpa showed him that method, and it's the only way to fish, according to Gomer.

Opie brought his pole, a little tackle box with a few supplies, and a can of bait. His dad, Andy, was by his side, ready to teach him how to fish for the first time.

After a few hours of fishing, Barney grew frustrated because he did not catch one fish. He followed every procedure in his fishing manual. At one point, all of his gear threw him off balance and he fell into the stream. Other than that, he followed protocol to the letter. He had no idea why he was unsuccessful.

Gomer caught a few fish. He was soaked from being in the water all day, and fell asleep under a tree because he was so tired from all the hard work of catching fish with his bare hands. He woke up to a screaming Barney Fife who fell headfirst into the stream.

When Gomer pulled Barney out of the water, he made fun of the equipment Barney bought. He said, "That is why I never used a fishing pole, or any of that other new-fangled gear!" They both blamed the equipment for everything that went wrong that day. Barney later tried to fish with his bare hands like Gomer, but after a few minutes, they both had to just sit down and rest as Opie and Andy continued to fish.

Opie caught a dozen fish, and he still had energy to continue. Andy did most of the work when they got the first fish, but Opie caught the last six fish all by himself. Now Andy was only there to give advice as Opie needed it.
Gomer and Barney ignored them at first, but as they saw all the success Opie was having, they started to talk about it. Gomer took Barney's net and waders and headed up stream. Barney walked along a lot easier without those heavy waders, and he used some of Andy's tips as he put his pole in the water. Before they knew it, Barney and Gomer had both caught a few fish. Sure, Barney hit himself in the head with the fish a few times, but with each success came more confidence. They even asked Andy for a few more of his fishing secrets before they left, but Opie was the one to share them.

By the end, they were all successful at fishing. Individual fishing styles were respected, and they all had the tools needed to be the most effective. Those waders made Barney unsteady but were just what Gomer needed. Sure, there were some failures, but someone coached them along the way so they could learn, persevere, and thrive!

That is The Mayberry Continuum, and coaching Mayberry-style can bring out the best in everyone.

The Gomers - They have experience and wisdom that should be respected. The methods or tools that are new can sometimes insult the way they effectively taught in the past. These individuals should be shown how new tools and strategies complement their wisdom, but they should never feel like they need to leave their experience behind. In fact, they should be encouraged to share it!

The Barneys - They think they need to use every new tool or strategy every day, with all students, at all times. These people get overwhelmed easily. They may say, "One more thing we have to fit into our days!" These individuals benefit from discussions about their classroom needs. It helps to talk through which tools or strategies work best for different situations, so the focus is always on the learning.

The Opies - They are excited to try new things, and they ask for help when they need it. It is fun to work with these people because they love learning from others and have a balanced focus on content, pedagogy, and technology integration. Helping others and sharing will build confidence, so we should encourage that.

Sometimes Gomers and Barneys work surprisingly well together, as long as they can leave negative judgements behind. A coach can help people see the value in others so they feel comfortable working and learning together. Some people never want to ask for help, but they observe others trying new things. Just as Gomer and Barney learned fishing tips from Opie, people will learn from each other. Patience, coaching, and collaboration make all the difference. ​

​Giddy - adj. a feeling of elation brought on by students exceeding expectations because they want to.
In my role as a technology coordinator this year, I have had the pleasure of working with teachers across grade levels and subjects.  When I meet with teachers, a consistent request is to use technology to raise the bar for students.  Our student population is top-notch, and teachers recognize the need to increase rigor and responsibility in an authentic way.  I am giddy because of all the successes I have witnessed this year.  This post only highlights one small example of many thrilling learning experiences.   

Rigor. Responsibility. Authenticity.
With so much rigidity in education these days, several teachers made a decision that student-created videos would provide a much needed authentic experience. I expected teachers to use the videos as a culminating project at the end of units.  However, throughout the course of the school year, they used video creation before learning (to build background knowledge), in the middle of units (as formative assessment), as well as for final projects.  Another blog post is coming soon about integrating student-created videos effectively.  For this post, I will focus on one main project.

More Learning, More Questions, Repeat
Let's follow a group of sixth grade students.  At the beginning of the year, they used the green screen and video to create weather forecasts as a culminating project in science.  It was pretty straightforward.  Students used one or two backgrounds and recorded forecasts.  Most of them stood in front of the green screen like typical meteorologists.  After filming, students used basic editing skills in MovieMaker: simple video trimming, adding titles and captions, and creating scrolling credits.  One or two groups added creative twists, and in the hallway after the video screening, I overheard students asking each other about how various effects were achieved either in filming or in editing. 

Fast forward to a mid-year ELA project.  That same group of students worked in groups to create summaries for sections of a novel.  Then, they pieced all the movies into one large movie based on the book.  As the technology coordinator, I worked with the team of teachers in a similar process as the forecasts.  However, this experience was NOTHING like the first project.  The teachers' plans were similar, and so were mine.  The STUDENTS changed!  We never thought to limit the students, because most of the time these same students generally try to do the bare minimum to get "the A" on the project.  In this case, the top rating on the rubric turned into the basic guideline.

Each group wrote a script for a section of the book and rehearsed it.  As students arrived on filming day, several of them were carrying things that were out of the ordinary for a normal school day.  A bowl of fruit, a little wagon, suits, coat hangers, flags, cardboard creations, banana bunches, wigs, pillows, blankets, doctor's bags, and brief cases.  When the first group came down to my room to film, I realized all of those strange items from the morning were props!  The students even dressed in character.  It was amazing how much preparation students did outside of school!  Filming was an even crazier affair.  Some groups planned for twelve or more background changes using the green screen effect.  They even did creative photo editing to make the backgrounds fit the scenes more accurately!  All of those background changes meant that the set had to be adjusted before each scene was shot.    I actually felt like I had lost control at certain points in filming, and that was scary.  One group created a clothes rack "in a department store" by tipping desks upside down and sideways; another knew exactly how the chairs needed to be arranged so they would look like a crib.  I didn't always see their visions, but I decided to trust them.  They were so passionate about the story telling, and the group "directors" knew exactly what was going on.  At the end of the day, I had an iPad full of short clips that were somehow going to retell the story of Letters from Rifka.  I watched a few of the clips, just to review what was accomplished in that whirlwind of a day.  Again I was overtaken with fear.  Those individual clips made no sense. I went and apologized to the teachers for not guiding students as much as I probably should have.  They also seemed a little worried, but they decided to trust the students and allow them to see the project through to the editing phase.  I transferred all the files to the network, and in one "lab" period, most of the groups had their sections pieced together.  Trimming video clips seemed as effortless for them as cutting a piece of paper, and those amazing kids needed very little help from me!  I mainly existed to address questions that began with, "Is it possible to…"  The more students knew, the more questions they asked! What an awesome, natural cycle of learning!  Their visions took shape, and I was impressed. 

Oftentimes when a novel is read, students get the opportunity to compare it to the movie version.  In this case, the students created the movies.  We put all four sections together to tell the entire story.  It was about 20 minutes long.  Since the team of three classes all did the same project, there were three versions of the story.  They all were similar, but there were many differences worth discussing.  That led to deep debates about why some groups chose to emphasize certain scenes over others.  They passionately and respectfully spoke to each other.  Their movies made sense, and they were entertaining!  It wasn't like the never-ending class period of monotonous presentations or reports.  The students laughed or reacted as if they were watching a regular movie!  They were proud of themselves, and the teachers were speechless.  It was clear that the students understood the book in its entirety-- because they wanted to. 

Technology-Enhanced
A friend of mine played devil's advocate with  me one day.  She wondered why we need any technology in schools. "Why can't you just do good old-fashioned skits like when we were in school?"  In her child's school, she has heard a lot about "the devices" alone, but has not seen the direct student benefits.  Unfortunately, that is a common concern among any school stakeholders, with good reasons, I'm sure.  But any tool (even the simple pencil) has the potential to enhance learning or create a negative distraction.  Technology can be a very powerful tool when used effectively!

In this scenario, students took the project more seriously than a typical assignment.  They knew it was going to be saved.  It wasn't just something they stood up and did once.  It wasn't a worksheet that only the teacher would see.  It was valued, even treasured, by students.  It was clear that the students OWNED their "real" assignments.  Groups wanted their projects to be unique.  More importantly, they wanted their videos to be memorable for their classmates.  Students naturally dove deeper into the content.  Of course they did, because they cared.

Secondly, the shyer students flourished!  With a traditional class skit, shy student oftentimes choose the smallest part, and they mumble.  For this video project, those shy students were not threatened.  There were only a few students in the room during filming, and it was more like a practice.  They knew if they made a mistake, it could be "trimmed" during the editing phase.  They were willing to take risks and dramatically act out the parts!  During the movie screening, teachers commented about how they were surprised by the animated performance of some of the most quiet individuals!  Those students were able to gain confidence when they saw the positive reactions from their classmates, too. 

Lastly, it was not about the devices. It was about the learning.  The teachers had the ideas for learning, and I helped by integrating the technology.  In fact, in this school year, my single iPad with a green screen app was used for every project.  Scheduling and sharing was a bit of a juggling act, but it was worth it! Over 200 students created a video for this particular novel, and over 400 student shared my iPad for other green screen projects throughout the year.  For editing, students used a free program that runs on even our most ancient machines.

It is not about the devices, but we do make the most out of the resources we have.  We use them to help our students deepen understanding, ignite passion for learning, and trigger them to ask more questions so that learning in the classroom is only the beginning of an exponential learning process that extends beyond our school walls.

Problem 1: Keeping up with #ISTE2015 on twitter
Problem 2: Managing QR codes scanned from busy poster sessions

PROBLEM SOLVER #1: Recently I learned of a website ifttt.com where you create “recipes” made up of if/then actions. Thanks @mcleod for this! I first heard of it so I could keep up and organize the tweets from the ISTE conference (#ISTE2015 and #ISTE15). After I created the account and linked my GoogleDrive and Twitter, I found “recipes” that automatically take tweets with a given hashtag and put them into a google sheet for me. I was amazed, and it was easy to make my recipe.  You can make them yourself, but we found one already made here: https://ifttt.com/recipes/search?q=%23ISTE2015&ac=false.  You can do this all via the web, but I went ahead and got the free app, and of course I started to think about the power of this new tool.  I always look to the problems technology will solve, and QR code organization was a big problem for me last year. 

Poster Sessions are filled with so many treasure-filled QR codes to scan.  Last year was my first ISTE conference, and I was caught off guard. I started out scanning with my phone's QR scanner, but that did not save my links. I then took pictures of the QR codes and saved them in EVERNOTE so that I could look at them later.  This didn’t work well either. Maybe I was missing the easy part of scanning QR codes, but I went home with random QR code collections, and it was overwhelming.

Over the last 24 hours, I finally made sense of how to do it. 

PROBLEM SOLVER #2: Now I can scan QR codes at the poster sessions (or anywhere), and they’ll go into my GoogleSheet as links.  They’re organized by date and time.  The setup process for this is not quite as simple as the twitter process.  It also is NOT free, but I thought $2.99 was worth it since I paid all the money to come to ISTE.  I want to easily access all of those resources well after the conference ends!

To make this work on your iPhone, you will need:

• An account with  https://ifttt.com/ (and optionally, the free “IF” app)

• Google Account (linked to the ifttt.com account)
• Launch Center Pro $2.99 (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/launch-center-pro/id532016360?mt=8) Download and create your account.
• Get the recipe “Scan QR Code to Google Sheets” here: https://ifttt.com/recipes/265160?z=6267944 and click the Add button (be sure you have the link on the screen first, or see below).
• This is the step that I skipped (that took hours to figure out): Where it says Install this Launch Center Pro action to trigger this Recipe: https://launchcenterpro.com/34l7k3 BE SURE YOU CLICK THAT LINK AND INSTALL TO YOUR PHONE.  It’s the magic that makes it all work.  The Launch Center Pro app will then ask you where you want to put the tile in the app.  Once it is there, you’ll click it, and it will bring up your QR scanner.  After you scan, a line will be added to your Google Sheet.  You’ll find the completed sheet in your Google Drive in the IFTTT folder (unless you changed settings).

I know it is complicated, and I would love to make a video sometime.  But if you can make it work, I think it will be a handy tool!

Good luck, and have fun at the conference!
I'm @duqcolleen on Twitter! :)