I tend to be a "big idea" type teacher.  After working on the enduring impacts of Ancient Greece and how they play out in American Society, it was clear kids got the big picture.  However, I was unsure they understood the "timeline" of how certain events changed the course of History.   This became clear to me when we were talking about the Persian War.  I wanted them to understand the impact of this war on the later world--allowing the enduring impacts to live on.  I realized they needed a visual (40-50% of our students are visual learners) and decided it was time to use some software to build a interactive timeline.  

I ended up using www.dipity.com for building this one. Others you might want to take a look at (my diigo on this topic): This list is from Richard Byrne website.  

• Meograph offers  a nice way to create narrated map-based and timeline-based stories.
  
  
• Dipity is  a great timeline creation tool that allows users to incorporate text,  images, and videos into each entry on their timeline.
  
• myHistro is  a timeline builder and map creation tool rolled into one nice package.  On myHistro you can build a personal timeline or build a timeline about a  theme or event in history. Each event that you place on your timeline  can be geolocated using Google Maps. myHistrotimelines can be created  online or you can use the free iPad app to create events on your  timeline.
  
• I like XTimeline because I find it to be a great service that is very accessible to high school students. Using XTimeline students can collaborate, just as they would when making a wiki, to build a multimedia timeline.
  
• TimeGlider offers  some nicer layout features compared to XTimeline, but is not quite as  intuitive to use as XTimeline.
  
• Time Toast is  easy to learn to use. To add events to a timeline simply click on the  inconspicuous "add an event" button and a simple event box pops up in  which you can enter enter text, place a link, or add a picture.
  

So in 30-40 minutes I built the following timeline to help students understand what might have been lost if Greece had fallen to the Persians.   You will have to zoom in see the timeline on Ancient Greece.  Be sure to click the "flipbook" and "list" view.    

VideoNot.es is a free google app that runs on the Chrome browser. On Tuesday, I tweeted out for some good apps while at a PD day for my district. Devin Schoening, @dschoening, from Iowa and I sent back and forth a few messages about what he is using in his school.  Within two minutes I had added VideoNot.es to my chrome browser and was taking notes on a youtube about the Greeks.  

If you follow me through this blog or Twitter, you may have noticed the absence of recent posts.  Three weeks ago I began a new job as a technology integration trainer for Nort2h.  Nort2h is the technology department for the Lorain County Educational Services Center.  But Nort2h is also a strong presence in schools throughout Lorain, Cuyahoga and Lake county.  The mission of Nort2h is to provide continued support, professional development and consultation for schools looking to make their integration of technology have real meaning.  Our goal is to change teaching and learning.  This was a rather sudden switch for me, but everything seemed right for me to take the leap.  

Because of the timing, I had already begun the school year teaching when I learned about the job posting at Nort2h.  After a few days of consulting all sorts of people; wife, dad, mom, Garth and other teachers in my rather extensive PLN, I decided that this was a position I needed to go after.  

There were a lot of professional and emotional things for me to consider in this move.  Professionally it meant shaking the hand of my new superintendent, then asking him how to get out of my contract.  It also meant walking away from seven years of innovation and grassroots action implementing technology in my school.  In the back of my mind was also the comfort of job security.  I was a tenured teacher, at the top of my game.  Why give all this up and move from teaching kids to teaching teachers?  That’s a complicated question and I don’t know if I can really fully answer it.  Part of it had to do with feeling that there was nothing more to achieve at my school, for lots of different reasons (failed levies, lack of technology, lack of time).  There is also the myriad of new initiatives, testing and evaluations being created in Ohio making damn near impossible to create the type of environment that will help students at anything but information memorization.  Constructivist theory, problem-based learning, student-owned learning, etc is much harder to achieve when you have to worry about four or five different types of standardized assessment.  Not to mention the hours need to prepare for the new evaluations, which (according to the rubric) leave very little room to be considered a good teacher doing the afore mentioned concepts.

Emotionally it meant even more to me.  I was giving up my first job.  The place that let me, become me.  My coworkers and friends that have always been there to hold me up and/or shut me up when I needed it.  The place where I knew who I was.  A place where people depended on me.  I don’t really see the emotions connected to my teaching job as negative and positive, they were just intense.  In seven years I have been a part of nearly every situation (good and bad) that you could image in a public school.  The death of parents, my own near death (not at school), students whom confided in me about attempted suicide and abuse, the birth of coworkers babies, marriages, divorce, firing, right-to-work union issues, rumors and truths and of course a school shooting.  I don’t want to over-emphasize the effect of February 27, 2012 on me as a teacher and father, but I would be remiss not to mention it.  I remember reading a statics that within three years of a school shootings most districts loose about 60% of their staff.  That amazed me, I couldn’t believe a number like that.  Then I started to work in a district dealing with the aftermath of such an event.  It’s hard.  Very hard.  It changes your focus, not always for the best and it blurs the lines of teaching and caring and helping and moving on and changing and pushing and giving in.  There was also all the emotional baggage connected with being the guy that was teaching and fixing things and trying to change things.  Not everything I think and do works.  That is easy to admit, but hard to live with when some people want you to fail, to just go away and let them teach.  It is also hard to live with those new teachers that start pushing for change too.  I always used to say that life would be easier if more people joined the cause with me.  In reality, it isn’t easier.  It’s messy and complicated.  I found myself needing to do more and more outside of my work day.  That meant my family was getting less and less of me.  That’s just not right. 

I just read a great blog post by my friend, John Schinker concerning ilearnohio.  What struck me about John’s post were some truths that he hit on that were really at the cause of my leaving the classroom.  I couldn’t focus on the true purpose of being a teacher.  I was worrying about upkeep and maintenance of so many digital products that it was effecting my ability to create meaningful content for my students.  I imagine that my teaching career would have been very different had I worked in a district where the support was there.  If a machine broke, someone would come fix/replace it. Something blocked, one email fixes that. Here is a free device/service/software try it with your kids if you can.  Those things didn't happened to me. EVER.  

I had to make a choice, continue the struggle to maintain what my students and I had created while trying to stay innovative, or change careers and focus.  I changed because at the root of everything I believe as a teacher revolves around creating meaningful educational experiences that inspire learning.  For me, this is accomplished using technology.  My new path allows me to share my passion for teaching and technology with hundreds of other teachers.  Hopefully, influencing thousands of kids and the education they receive.  My legacy is important to me and it is important to have the most impact possible.  Stay tuned for more posts from me that revolve around what I see happening in education throughout Northeast Ohio.  I will share all the inspirational people the I have already found in four short weeks and all those teachers to come.