Reflecting on Change - Part 4

This is the fourth in a series of posts I started for Middleweb. You can read the first parts of our story here, here and here. This fourth post is being published here on Teach 'n' Life for the first time.

Brighter Skies

In some ways the middle point of the school year can seem very much like the beginning of the new year. While the floors aren’t sparkling and you already have a tremendous amount of knowledge about your kids, there’s still something special. Maybe it’s that the kids have finally started to trust us, maybe it’s the fact that things are finally starting to “click” for them. Whatever the reason, I find the middle of the year to be a really exciting time because I’m anticipating all of the growth that can happen and the goals that can be achieved over the next 4.5 months.

Even as we’ve been teaching, the three of us have each spent a great deal of time researching ideas about how we could do things differently in our classrooms and what we could do to transform learning for our students. Some of these ideas have been tremendously successful, and some have been epic failures. But even in those failures we’ve been able to pick up the pieces, learn from what didn’t work, and prepare even better ideas for “the next time we try this” whether that’s this year or during the 2013-2014 school year.

And yet, even with all of the successes we’ve had this year and even though so much time has passed, the clouds are still here, and the thunder still rumbles.

We’ve been labeled by some. You’re “the low team” and “nothing good is going to happen when parents figure that out,” they say. They can talk all they want. My teammates and I took on this issue head on at our Parent Night in August. We explained why our team looked different, and our feelings about why the other type of team set-up didn’t work well for all students. One point that we made is that our team was not just about academic levels; students were also placed on our team because their third grade teachers felt they could benefit from fewer transitions or opportunities to be positive leaders. We tried to fight fire with fire, and by being open and honest with the parents about our team and the many reasons students were on it, we took the rumor-mongering power away from the nay-sayers.

There’s anger from those who teaching assignments were changed and disdain from individuals who wanted to stay in the same place but now have to work with “those people.” This can be especially frustrating, because as you’ve read, we wanted teachers to have a voice. Our co-workers chose not to speak up and left the assignments to the administrators. We’ve grown to accept their anger and unkind words. We’ve found our own spot to each lunch, we spend time with those who are positive and avoid those who are negative, and most importantly, we focus on the kids. Truly these angry people are simply looking for attention and by not giving it to them, we come out on top.

In addition to the clouds and the thunder, there is some rain. We’re officially on school improvement due to the scores of our subgroups, and this label coupled with our district’s stated focus on having a growth mindset has presented presents numerous challenges in terms of instruction, intervention, and reporting.

• Here - look at the test results from last year’s state tests, see what areas your kids need to work on, and create an instructional growth plan to meet those areas of weakness.
• But here’s the new progress report with the skills greyed out in certain marking period. So no matter what your instructional growth plan said, here’s what you’ll be teaching each marking period.
• This year we’re all going to have a growth mindset about our students and our learning. We’re going to focus on student strengths and how we can help them be successful.
• But wait, your students will be grouped based on single sets of test scores. And here are the tests that your students won’t pass, but they need to take them anyway even if it makes them cry. Oh, and they’re required to graph their scores so they can see how they do. Don’t worry if they only get 7 or 8 right and that upsets them. If their scores go up 4 points total on reading and math, we’ll give them a pencil and that will make everything all better.

While there is a tremendous focus on test scores and our hands are seemingly tied, we have chosen to continue to make our priority the emotional well-being and growth of our kids. It can be fairly risky to fly in the face of guidelines to use specific scripted programs for guided reading groups, but we have the data to show that our students’ needs are beyond the needs of those scripted programs. And we also have the data to show what we are doing, strategy and skill based groups, is allowing our students to make progress with both their fluency, decoding, and comprehension.

In addition to all of the outside storms we are weathering, we’re creating a few of our own clouds. Because we know people are waiting (hoping?) for us to fail, we realize that we are putting a lot of pressure on our own shoulders. The realization that you’ve asked to work with the most struggling learners during these times of warning lists and evaluation by student achievement is a scary prospect. But scarier than that is knowing the situations from which these kids come from. Some sad, sad situations. The thought of creating a loving, caring, growth focused environment for a student who has never known one is far more daunting than making sure they pass the test. We want to do what’s best for the kids, and we want to show all of those people who’ve doubted us that they were wrong. That our kids CAN be successful when given the opportunity to do so. Using a strength based approach to planning has really helped the three of us share those pressures, and since “All of us are always better than one of us,” we have been able to share insight about the kids so we can come up with plans that will meet all of our students’ needs.

Despite the fact that I seem to be sharing a lot of challenges, there is blue sky filled with white, puffy, fair-weather clouds. And sunlight. These are our kids. Kids who refused to try at the beginning of the year are running up to the board to solve problems, even if they aren’t sure they actually have the right answer. These are the kids who are raising their hands, sharing their thoughts, and taking risks even when their ideas are different from others. And these are the families. Consistent, open lines of communication have allowed us to develop relationships with parents and guardians to help the kids complete homework, address concerns, and talk through problems. We’ve also got several parents coming in and volunteering their time in the classroom to make the students’ learning experiences even better.

And it’s the three of us becoming better teachers. We are constantly questioning what we are doing, why we are doing it, and if there’s a different strategy or tool we could us to help our students make connections and apply the information they’re learning.

I think this meme I found on Facebook really sums up the crazy “weather” we’ve had these last 5 months:

Just like the actual weather, we know there will be bright beautiful days, and there will be challenging stormy days as the year goes on. In the end, if we continue to focus on the kids, work with their parents as partners in learning, and continue to be open and honest with our communication with our team we will be able to hold our heads high and be proud of what we have accomplished for our kids.

A Letter to Mom

I don't usually make a big deal about making Mother's Day presents. It's not that I don't think the kids should do something special for their moms. With so many different circumstances in families we spend a lot of time throughout the year thinking of and recognizing my students' caregivers so it's not so difficult on that one day for my kids who don't have moms or aren't allowed to live with their moms.

Today we had a variety of projects going on: some students were working on writing pieces, some on Google presentations, some on Social Studies research - it was the usual organized chaos of my room. A neighboring teacher dropped off a "Letter to My Mother" paper so I told the kids if they were finished with their required assignments they could work on a letter for their mom if they wanted. I also offered to edit if anybody needed help.

About 15 minutes later Mr. B. walked up to me. Mr. B told me in his dry sense of humor, very early in the year, that he was "not a writer" and has stuck with that despite the great pieces he has written throughout the year.

So I was all ready to edit his piece and send him on my way. I read his letter. And fought back the tears. And showed it to my teammates and the TSS across the hall. This young man, who was adopted at birth wrote the most beautiful letter to his mom that I have ever read in my entire life.

Part of me wishes I had made a copy for myself so I could reread the amazing way how he described how thankful he was that she took him into her arms and promised to love him and take care of him and laugh with him. How he treasures her and is thankful she is his mom. And then the other part of me is glad that the two of them have that letter to share just between the two of them forever.

For somebody who is "not a writer" this sweet and caring young man put the most eloquent words onto paper to show his mom how much he loves her.

It was the perfect ending to teacher appreciation week. I don't teach so my kids do well on tests. THIS is why I teach.

Reflecting on Change - Part 3

This is the third in a series of posts I started for Middleweb. You can read the first parts of our story here and here. This is part three that originally appeared on Middleweb.

Change in the Forecast

When my two teammates and I made the original proposal to our administrative team and our grade level team, the key to our proposal was that teachers would have a voice. We really wanted all the fourth grade teachers to look at their strengths and weaknesses and come up with a teaming plan that matched teachers with those students they felt best prepared to teach.

It’s well documented how challenging the change process can be for some people at every organizational level. But it was an eye-opening experience to live through it first hand. We could not understand why everything was being done so secretively at the decision-making levels, and we really weren’t sure which stories or which people to believe. Our plan for teachers having a voice backfired, and it seemed that the same thing was happening with our desire for open and honest communication.

As the 2012-13 school year came to a close, my teammates and I still didn’t know if our suggested plan was actually going to be acted upon in some way, with or without teacher voice. We didn’t know what our teaching assignments were going to be; we didn’t know if 4th grade teacher teams would be reorganized, and we didn’t know how our students would be placed on teams.

It was only after a confrontational discussion that we finally found out that the three of us would be teaching all four subjects as we requested in our proposal. And while the intent behind the changes was never officially announced to all of the fourth grade teachers, our administration did take the step to reassign teams and the subjects some were teaching in order to make the proposal work.

People are angry

As school started this fall, it was clear that people were angry about that. People are also angry that we shoved our fourth-grade teacher community out of its happy place and into rough and murky waters. And I know people are chomping at the bit for us to fail this year so they can say, “See, I TOLD you that would never work!” All of this is simply motivating us to work harder to make a successful year for our students.

Change will never happen unless people are willing to take all of the wonderful discussions happening among teachers in the virtual world, bring them into face-to-face settings and start putting them into practice in real classrooms. After reading this you’re probably wondering, “Why? Why would any teacher continue forward trying to lead change in his or her school after going through these experiences?” Two words: THE KIDS.

Some lessons we’re learning
We have to be strong enough to stand up and do what is right, even though it may make us unpopular. Our kids deserve that much. If you relate in some way to our story — and you probably do if you’ve stuck with this narrative to this point — then you might be looking for ideas or advice about pushing for change in your building. Here are some of the lessons we have learned. And we’re still learning!

• Make sure you put the kids’ best interests first and keep coming back to that commitment when the going gets stormy.

• Research, research, research. Make sure there is a substantial amount of support for (or a lack of research against) your proposal for change. People need to see that you are truly prepared and are not just coming to them with a random idea that you think sounds good.

• Ask for opposing viewpoints and actually listen to them. Change what doesn’t work and advocate for the points about which you feel strongly. Do this very early and at a personal level. If you’ve read our story, you know that we could have done this sooner.

• Be willing to compromise. While you may love your idea, it might be improved. It may be too big a step for your organization. A baby step is better than no step at all.

• Develop a tough skin and be prepared for some storming. It’s inevitable when you suggest pushing people out of their comfort zones. Some “colleagues” will insult you, your idea and your teaching style. The good news: most will grow over time and continue to move through the process. If your change proposal is sound, many will come to see its wisdom.

• Continue to seek out those who haven’t been willing to change and push them to be open and honest about their concerns. If they don’t have any foundation for their negative behaviors, calling them on it repeated times will bring most of it to a stop.

• Finally, and this is a hard one, if your organization is so strongly entrenched in the old ways of doing things or in always putting adult interests ahead of children’s needs, then it may be time to find a place to work that’s a better fit for you.

Weathering the storms

My teammates and I have had some really awful days. We have often questioned why we think we can make a difference. But each time these doubts creep into our minds, we focus on the real reason for this change. A little more than a month into the new arrangement and the new school year, our 4th graders are already benefiting tremendously from the changes we’ve pushed for. The kids are the ones who matter. That’s why we are here. That’s why this school is here.

For the past month, we’ve encouraged our grade-level team to move forward — to realize that every meaningful change process includes a storming phase. We continue to assure them that the storms produced by climate shift will help us all grow and become more focused on our students’ successes academically, emotionally and socially.

Reflecting on Change - Part 2

This is the second in a series of posts I started for Middleweb. You can read the first part of our story here. This is part two that originally appeared on Middleweb.

Stormy Weather Ahead

After getting the administration on board with our teaming idea, our next step was to go to our grade level team and get them involved in the conversation. We were very excited to share our ideas with them. While the 12 classroom teachers and six itinerant teachers had never worked together prior to this year, we had come together pretty nicely. Sure, there were some philosophical differences that had yet to be hashed out, but if you accept Tuckman’s stages of group development, we had formed quite nicely. And we believed that people would be very open to talking about our teaming proposal and how it would benefit kids and adults.

We felt our proposal was a win-win situation for all. Students would be working with teachers whose instructional and management strengths matched both student needs and the subjects they would be asked to teach. Some students would also have fewer transitions and fewer teachers throughout the day, helping them feel more comfortable and confident.

After years of not having a voice, the adults would be in a better position to evaluate their teaching strengths and weaknesses and work with a team and students they felt were a good fit for them. Parents of the most challenged learners would have one contact person rather than three or four.

And the same would be true for our push-in teachers: Our ELL teacher, our math enrichment instructor, our autistic support teacher and our gifted teacher. Instead of having children scattered across all three teams, these teachers would have one team with whom they would work.

Even with all of these positives, we decided to first talk to our teammates individually or in small groups. Every group has more vocal individuals, and we wanted to make sure that each team member had the chance to listen as we shared all of our information. We also wanted to make sure that people who were not as comfortable speaking in large groups had the chance to ask questions or make comments.

So early one morning, with our main idea points neatly copied, the three of us headed out to talk to our respective groups and make plans for a large group discussion. The responses were not exactly what we had expected. I suppose Tuckman would say that we were beginning the “storming phase” for our group.

Our initial contact with our fourth grade teacher colleagues gave us a mixed bag of responses. Some people loved the idea. Some people really didn’t say much of anything. And some people got very, very angry. We assured each teacher that we were just introducing a possibility and that there would be group discussions about it so everybody could have a voice. Our goal was an open, honest conversation about strength-based assignments and what would work best for the kids.

“Open and honest” is not exactly what happened in the wake of our first sit-down chats. Stormy discussions, to which we were not invited, took place. The conversation often stopped as we walked into the room. We were blamed for “ruining” the positive spirit and the good year that our team was having. Our teaching methods were questioned in meetings where we were not in attendance.

All of this was terribly frustrating because we felt we’d done nothing wrong. Some  people accused us of going behind their backs to administration. That was the furtherest thing from our minds. We simply believed there was no reason to bring the idea before the whole group and have everybody invest time and energy mulling it over IF there was no way any change could even happen.

Some other teachers felt that we were criticizing their teaching ability. How could we? Sadly, we don’t get to see each other teach, so we have no right and no basis for saying that anybody was a good, bad or mediocre teacher. And even if we were lucky enough to learn from each other through visitations, we would never judge our coworkers based on our time in their classrooms.

In response to many negative comments, each of us, individually, went and talked to people in an attempt to have open and honest communication. We apologized for making people feel as though we went around them to higher-ups — or that their abilities were being judged. We might have handled that better, we said. But that is all that we apologized for. We were acting in what we deeply believed was the best interest of the most vulnerable kids in our new school, and that is what we constantly reminded ourselves as we went through the remainder of a suddenly very prickly school year.

Additional meetings were held with our entire grade-level team and the original administrative team that we’d met with. People were not open and honest in the meetings, and at some meetings insults flew. It also seemed like very little got accomplished for a variety of reasons — the biggest one being a fear of change.

While our grade-level team could agree that groups of identified students should be on one team to best meet their needs — and to make things a bit easier for the teachers providing special services — little else got accomplished.

Even though it was evident to all involved that there were teachers working with identified students who didn’t have the skill set to best meet their needs, nobody would volunteer to move. “But I love my team!” “My team works so well together!” they said. Our mantra was: “It’s not about the adults, it’s about what’s best for the kids.”

As the end of the year rolled around, we still hadn’t made it through Tuckman’s storming stage. Even though we wanted teachers to have a voice, that didn’t end up happening because people at all levels struggled with and sometimes openly resisted the change process.

Reflecting on Change - Part 1

A lot of you may be wondering about what you can do to make a change for the better in your school. I'll let you in on a secret - it's not easy (probably the opposite of easy), but when you see your kids happy and successful you'll know it's worth it in the end.

I started this as a series of posts for MiddleWeb. You can read the original three posts there or I'll be posting them, along with the remainder of the series, here so you can see what happens when three elementary teachers try to do what's right even when a lot of others think it's wrong.

Last school year was a big year for my coworkers and me. We were pulled together from teaching jobs in five  elementaries and one middle school to staff a new intermediate school with grades 4-6. While the transition was challenging, I felt that it went extremely well. When you move to an existing school, you don’t really grasp how much is already in place in terms of procedure and culture. When you help open a new school that has no history or traditions, you have your cultural aha moment!

With everything that could have gone wrong in such a situation, much went right in our new building. But one thing that didn’t go well, at least in the minds of three of us, was how we as a building were meeting the needs of our youngest learners and students identified with specific learning disabilities. We felt our new school and its new structure was creating a volatile climate shift for some kids.

In all three grade levels, teachers were assigned to teams of four. In 4th and 5th grades there were two humanities teachers (teaching communication/language arts and social studies) and two STEM teachers (teaching science and math), with the understanding that reading in the content areas would be the responsibility of all four teachers. Additional teachers worked with each grade to conduct reading and math clinics for remediation or enrichment. This meant some students could have up to four different teachers each day: Humanities, math, science, and clinic. For some kids this setup worked out fine, but for others — especially 4th graders — it was just too much. Add four different teachers to a new building and a new structure, and you’ve got some confusing times for kids and their parents.

Students with identified special needs were spread out across all three of the 4th grade-level teams, making it challenging for our itinerant learning support teacher (ILST) to meet the Specially Designed Instruction (SDI) planof all of the students in her caseload. We had some teachers who had little experience working with identified students. We also encountered some “philosophical challenges” in regards to adaptations and accommodations for various learners.

Ourproposedsolution

Concerned about all these issues, two of my fourth grade teammates and I spent a lot of time researching an alternate method of teaming that might better meet the needs of all of our students as they transitioned from smaller, neighborhood-based primary schools to our larger, districtwide intermediate school. Our proposal, after a great deal of research, suggested that our identified learners and other average-ability students likely to have difficulty with the transition between schools be assigned to a classroom with two regular ed teachers and the ILST for the whole day.

We initially presented this idea of one large, co-taught class to a team of administrators and met with a tremendous amount of pushback from some of them. The biggest area of concern was separating all of the identified students from the other teams. While we were more focused on the idea of a strength-based, community approach for these students, we listened to and heard the concerns of the administrators.

Another meeting was scheduled. We used a Google doc to collect questions, concerns and suggestions, and we continued to search the Web for other research and success stories about teaming and grouping. After a few weeks we came back with a second proposal. This one had all of the identified students on one team of five teachers: the ILST, one Humanities specialist, one STEM specialist, and two teachers who taught all four subjects. Under this plan, the identified students would be part of a larger group of mixed ability students, but they would still have fewer transitions between teachers each day because two of us would resume teaching all four subjects in the traditional manner.

Thiscouldbethekey?

It took quite a while to get people to really understand this set-up, but a majority of the administrative team was open to the idea. They agreed that this might be the key to helping our students transition easier and find more success in 4th grade.

After gaining the support of the administration, our next step was to talk to our co-workers. My teammates and I were adamant about the fact that we wanted to be the ones to present this idea to our fellow 4th grade teachers, and we were granted the opportunity.

Little did we know what would be waiting for us when we talked to our teammates.

Why I DESPISE Standardized Tests

(A caveat before you begin reading. Usually if I have a complaint I will vent my concerns, and then I will try to offer solutions. There's none of that in this post. I am fired up. But more than that, I am sad. I am sad about what I'm about to do to my students, and I feel like I have no way out. Because if I don't do it, then somebody else will.  And if the poor kids have to do it, I'd rather they at least have a friendly, caring face there with them. So - proceed with caution. This is just me, angry and upset, about what teaching and education have become.)

I push the limits a lot with what I do in my classroom, and I'm very thankful for the support I have to do what's best for my kids. But I'm pretty sure that I'm as close as I've ever been to getting in B-I-G trouble at work, and to be quite honest, I'm not even so sure that I care. After all, what is being written up or sent home without a few days' pay compared to the torture I'm forced to put my students through over the next three week?

I'm talking about the PSSAs. The Pennsylvania high stakes, bull crap, one snapshot picture of my students. The tests that are used to judge my school, used to label my kids, and next year they'll also be used to judge me. Let me tell you why I am SO fired up this evening.

1. I had to waste 45 minutes of my life, 45 that could have been better spent on planning or prepping for my students, to watch a video and take a test about administering the tests. I can't make this up. The ridiculousness of the video is almost difficult to put into words, but I can tell you that if I had heard the narrator say, "Be sure your students have 2 sharpened number 2 pencils with good erasers," one more time I would have used said pencils to poke my own eyes out.

2. Then, because the 45-minute "webinars" weren't bad enough, we had to have an additional meeting. During this meeting our administrators had to teach us what to do if children had cell phones in their pockets, how to do a fire drill if test books were still in rooms, what to do with disruptive students, how to summon a nurse, and .... my favorite.... what to do if a student pukes on a book. We also got to hear answers to amazing questions like, "Can students use post-its to mark their spots on the scantron sheet?" (Because we are not allowed to help our 9, 10 and 11 year olds track such a thing. That would be cheating.) "What about if a kid has a terrible bathroom emergency?" (You are allowed to let them go, and you may actually tell them what number to start working on when they come back if they ask.) And, "So can kids use calculators?" (honestly - not evening touching that one) Again, 45 minutes of my teaching life that I will never get back.

As annoying and ridiculous as that all is, it gets even better.

3. According to the PSSA information there are several accommodations available to ALL students. One of those accommodations is that students may have any of the tests, with the exception of reading, read aloud to them. But wait.... there's a catch. Even though every student has the right to have this accommodation, the only ones who will get it are the ones who ASK for it. If one of my special ed students, who is reading on a 1st or 2nd grade level, can't read a question I cannot simply read it for them even though this accommodation is included in the legally binding IEP we *must* follow. I have to wait for them to raise their hand and ASK me to read it or I can't provide this accommodation.

Riddle me this. If it says that reading the math test is an accommodation for all kids, why does ANYBODY have to ask for it??? If I want to read to my students, why can't I just read to them?

Oh, and riddle me this. If this is supposed to be a test of my students' abilities how in the WORLD are we getting an accurate measure of their math abilities when they aren't getting the accommodations allowed?

4. Many of our students are also legally guaranteed to receive small group testing. Just out of curiosity, how many of you think 17 is a small group? Or even 11? How about 10 or 9? Personally, I thought small group meant 5 or 6. I thought wrong.

5. We received notification that our reading clinics (Tier 2 and Tier 3 instruction for those of you RTII fans) will be cancelled on testing days, but the expectation is that we will use those 30 minutes for test-taking strategy review, skill review, class meetings, or class work. It is not to be used as a study hall or <GASP> any sort of free time where I students may actually be able to talk, relax or act their age after being force to sit still and quiet for 2.5 hours.

I'm upset. I'm angry.

My teammates and I have worked hard all year to help our students, no matter what their challenges, realize that they can be successful at anything they put their minds to. And to be honest, they are finally starting to believe it.  But guess what - everything about these tests sets them up for failure. They aren't getting the testing settings they need and deserve. They are not getting the support and accommodations they are legally required to get. If even one of my kids cries.........

The worst part? There is nothing I can do about it because, "Our hands are tied." Because, "It's not us, it's the state." Because, "That's just the way it is and there's nothing we can do about it."

At what point will we finally put an end to this madness?

Mystery Skype 2.0

Two years ago when I was new to this whole blogging, PLN, connected learning thing, I joined in a group of teachers for something new called Mystery Skype. For those that don't know, a Mystery Skype connects your class with one somewhere in the US and by asking up to 10 yes or no questions you try and figure out each others' location.

For my first three sessions, I rearranged my classroom so that my one computer and one projector could show my whole class. We had our set little arrangement of questions, and we were pretty excited to meet other kids. Our Mystery Skypes were fun, but they just weren't as engaging as I had hoped. Chalk it up to something new and different, I thought.

Last year I moved to our new school, and as I thought back on my experience doing Mystery Skype it was kind of .... well, meh. Just meh. I wasn't sure how to make it better, and I wasn't sure how to make it work with my crazy schedule so Mystery Skype went on the back burner last year.

This year I went back to a more traditional teaching schedule with one class of students for most of the day. As I was planning for our study of the US Regions I knew I had to give Mystery Skype a try again;  I knew my kids deserved the chance to connect with other students like I was connecting with their teachers. So I thought about giving it a try, but there was nothing set in stone... until last Tuesday. That's when I got a request from a teacher in Illinois and I thought, "What the heck!" and said yes! We were in!

At about the same time, I had the great opportunity to watch the amazing Patti Grayson model the TPACK framework using Mystery Skype. As I was watching her video, I had an epiphany... Mystery Skypes aren't supposed to be pretty and organized. They aren't supposed to be about your whole class getting the chance to be on screen. They aren't supposed to be a predetermined list of questions. So what ARE Mystery Skypes supposed to be?

• They are kids working together in teams.
• They are kids using inductive and deductive reasoning.
• They are kids using geography skills.
• They are kids using communication skills.
• They are kids using listening skills.
• They are teachers running around making sure the tech is working and not even thinking twice about the kids because they are just doing it.
• They are kids feeling excited because they have accomplished something.
• They are kids using technology to talk to others, tweet to others, and discover others.

And that's just to name a few of the things Mystery Skypes are.

What was really cool for me was to see how my kids, once again, just took off. Having developed background knowledge (about Mystery Skypes, about physical features and about map skills) and had many opportunities to work in teams, my kids once again took what they knew and applied it to a brand new situation. As Mr. A. said to me after we ended our call, "I was a little nervous at first, but then I realized I really knew what I was doing, and it was a lot of fun!"

Thanks to Patti and her class we understood the possibilities of what a Mystery Skype could be, and today we ran with it. It was a positive learning experience for all of us, and I know my kids are ready to give it another try!