Feb
7
links for 2010-02-07
February 7, 2010 | | Leave a Comment
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I’ve got to start this post with a disclaimer: During the course of my sixteen year teaching career, I’ve worked with a ton of GREAT media specialists.
In fact, one of the thinkers that I admire the most in my own school district is a high school media specialist named Kerri Brown-Parker who is doing great things to support teachers interested in integrating technology into their instructional practices. And the media specialists in my current school are both wonderful women who work hard with classroom teachers and students alike. They are thoughtful and innovative—and well-respected by everyone as a result.
I also believe that media specialists can play an important role in any school community. When they’re skilled, they teach students to manage information fluently and how to judge the reliability of sources.
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I was reading through the week's posted blogs in my Google Reader and came upon one of Jim Burke's that really made me stop and think. We've all participated in "get to know you" ice-breakers when the session facilitator asks you to tell about yourself in one sentence, a certain number of words, etc. And, we've engaged in those conversations where you were to come up with an epitaph for your tombstone. Jim presented the video, Two Questions that Can Change Your Life by Daniel Pink.
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As much as I hate writing, I am writing and almost starting to enjoy it. (Thanks Bill for the confident booster)If am going to live the life of a blogger I need to find my passion. Yes I could write about school or education because they are my passions but I need to write about something else. I live and breathe school so, I am going to take a break from writing about it.
Feb
6
links for 2010-02-06
February 6, 2010 | | Leave a Comment
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Each week for six weeks we’re giving you a new task, with how-to info, to help you with your class blogging.
Here’s the previous tasks:
1. Week 1 – Create A Class Blog
2. Week 2: Set Up Your Blogging Rules and Guidelines
3. Week 3 – Add A Visitor Tracking Widget To Your Blog Sidebar
4. Week 4 – Add your student blogs to your blogroll -
In this story of Maya Angelou, I really enjoyed reading it. It mostly tells you about how this elegant woman, Mrs. Flowers, had a big impact in her life. I like how the author goes in detail about the appearance and vibe you would get from Mrs.Flowers. Its almost like you know how she looks personally. In this story though it seems as though Marguerite mother had nothing in common woth Mrs. Flowers. Her mother was non literate when it came to manners and their personalities differ. Mrs. Flowers seemed as the more educated and upper class women, and her mother was low class. I wonder if her mother felt lesser than that of Mrs. Flowers? Through this selection of reading, I learned that it's better to speak up and be known because you never know who's watching you. It's also better to be known of and respected of as a person/ human being.
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Hi guys! This is the space where you will post your writing. Click on the post title and add your original writing to the comment box. Then, be sure to respond and provide positive feedback to something your peers have written as well. Address your peers by name when discussing what they have written so they know the feedback is meant for them. Remember, pieces you bring to workshop must have been posted on the blog page first. I can't wait to read your awesome pieces!
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One thing that always opens my heart is to be creative. Yesterday I got to make a poster for my best friend’s birthday party. It’s an old west poker theme, so I got online, looked at old west fonts, picked a few favorites and combined them into lettering I drew freehand on the poster. After coloring it, I knew it needed something more, so I burned a hole in it to look like a bullet had passed through and then stained the whole poster with tea bags to make it look old. It was so much fun that I’m going to make a few more today. I always feel so fulfilled when I am creative, even moreso when I get to use that creativity for someone I love! There are so many ways to be creative, yet sometimes I don’t slow down enough to explore this world. My heart needs this creative side. I need to make it a priority, not just for those I love, but for myself, for my soul.
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My kids have been blogging in English 101 for the last two weeks. They seem to really like the process and are doing a good job with the assignments. This has also cut down on the amount of valuable class time we would have previously spent going over and picking apart homework readings. This is certainly a plus.
I'm still working the kinks out of the blog posts for my Creative Writing class. They didn't really seem to get it the first time, especially the importance of the peer feedback. They were more than willing to share their original pieces, but they did not take much time to respond to each other's writing. We are practicing a workshop approach to revise and improve some of their original pieces this week, and their second blog post is due Friday. I think that after participating in workshop, they will have a better understanding and appreciation for peer feedback. At least, that's what I hope.
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Today, I just had to take a moment and chuckle at my students when they told me that I was not going to have too much fun this weekend since I had to do some reading/blogging for my Digital Class and would also have to read their second drafts of their Frankenstein essays!
Feb
6
21st Century Social Studies: one picture of the puzzle
February 6, 2010 | Tagged historical thinking, primary sources, social studies, Teaching, WWII | Leave a Comment
Today I sat in awe while I watched a fifth grade teacher incorporate primary source documents into a lesson on WWII. The lesson was in progress when I entered the room. Mrs. A was giving book introductions to all the historical fiction novels she was recommending for her students to read. She went through her bucket of books one by one and speaking honestly about two of the books she had not read but she told passionately about what her students have said about the book. She gave a brief overview of each book and spoke with passion about her favorites. I was hooked as well and wanted to read several. Books ranged from World War II to the Holocaust.
Primary Source Documents:
She had several front page copies of the NY Times. She introduced each and passed one to each group. She gave them paper to write their most intersting facts they learned from their investigation. Every student in the room was engaged and cooperating. I walked around and they were actually looking and making notes about all the headlines. You could tell these kids had moved to the next level as learners. They were hooked and they started asking questions in their group and to the teacher. I moved around the room and listened to their conversations.
Sharing:
Students returned to their seats and they started sharing out what they had learned. I was more impressed with what they had noticed. They were making inferences. They were thinking like historians. They were sharing their understandings from their point of view about this era and then the conversation turned to “I have a grandma who live during that time.” “I have a great uncle that fought in WWII.”
21st Century:
I was not in typical social studies classroom and it looked far different from the classroom I sat in when I was a fifth grader. Kids were thinking like historian- making inferences, asking questions, drawing conclusions. Everyone had the opportunity to participate as some level.
Feb
4
Google Reader
February 4, 2010 | | 4 Comments
Google Reader is one my single most important tools for reading content on-line. I am not sure I could function on-line with out it. Many of you know I am teaching Writing in the Digital Classroom to 22 teachers. In this writing I will attempt reflect about the value of Google Reader.
Google Reader(GR) actually serves as the fourth textbook. Actually it is tool that brings together, syndicates all the blogs each person is reading. It is is our eReader that allows content from blogs and other website to syndicate to GR once new content is available. It does this by subscribing from a link from a website that sets the subscription up autamically or you can add the subsricption manual by clicking on “add subscription”, pasting the URL, and clicking Okay. Easy enough! GR allows you to put all the content you care about in one place. It is easy to follow and read. “Mark read” when you have read and it disappears.
(Google Reader Tutorial: http://screencast.com/t/ZDhjMTAyM2
I can group the content into folder. I have folder set for “Writing in the Digital Classroom.” It is where I look daily for the new content that each participant has produced. If I did not have GR or if content was not syndicated, I would have go to 22 different websites almost daily to look for new content. It makes my life easier. It simplifies my life.
I deliberately read everthing everyone is writing in the “Writing in the Digital Classroom,” and I am making every effort to leave a comment behind. When I make a comment, I have to leave GR and go directly to the website to write the comment.
Normal cirumstances, when life gets really busy, I just don’t have the time, and I have 569 unread posts, I simply click “mark as read and start all over again.” But most of the time I will trudge through all the many unreads. I skim and I read closely when something grabs my attention. If it grabs my attention, I may bookmark it and tag in in Delicious, or I may got to the author’s blog and leave a comment.
GR has its classroom benefits. If we follow Kajders examples and delve into the students reading life, we could help them find syndicated content on the Internet and help them set up account in Google Reader (GR). (If they are not all ready using GR or some other RSS feed reader.) You could use RSS feeds to spark the reader’s interest in your classrooms.
If your require your students to have blogs, you could set up each of their blog in your GR. Then you have one place to go to do read.
I know there are many more advantages of using GR in the classroom and in years to come it we will discover other relevent uses. Please share your ideas about GR and the implications in your life and in the classroom.
And one final thought to the bloggers in “Writing in the Digital Classroom”, add subscriptions to all 22 blogs including mine into your GR.
Feb
3
links for 2010-02-03
February 3, 2010 | | Leave a Comment
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I’ve enjoyed reading the reflections post-Educon2.2. There’s been much food for thought. So much that I couldn’t quite pin point what my big take-away from the weekend was. I had Tweeted on Saturday that “mentoring, leadership and individualized learning” seemed as if they were going to be big themes on Saturday, but when I opened my little notebook today,
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When schools face financial difficulties it’s easy to get bogged down.
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ChildrenOnline.org offers innovative and comprehensive workshops on Internet safety and online education to students, parents, faculty and administrators. Our approach, unique in the field of Internet safety, combines a thorough understanding of Internet technologies, child development and counseling, to focus on the impact of the internet on the social, emotional and language development of young people.
Feb
3
Don’t give up on Skype!
February 3, 2010 | Tagged skype | 6 Comments
What a blunder Sunday night’s conference was! I should have been more
prepared. Hindsight only helps in planning for the future. A little
research might have helped our experience.
Here is my thinking about how we could have made it work. 23 people in
a conference call via the Internet require a lot of bandwidth especially
when everyone has a mic. I should have had everyone to mute his mics. I
think this would have enhanced the quality of hearing. I could have if
you wanted to speak to raise your hand in the chat room and then when
called on you then turn your mic on to talk. I have used Skype many
times for one on one conferencing with video and have had awesome
experiences. I have even met with small groups up to 8 and the same
experience- good quality.
And you can’t beat the price! Free…
Benefits of Skype in the Classroom!
I know your minds have been thinking but here are some of my thoughts.
If you have more, please share with us in the comment section;
· Partner with other classrooms across the country and/or the
globe. Host whole class writing conferences for the purpose of sharing,
inquiry, and revision. Web Cams are cheap and for great affects host see
me-see you conferences. You have the ability to engage learning beyond
the walls of your classroom. Imagine the learning when a student from
another school engages in a writing conference in your classroom.
· Bring experts to your room virtually. Imagine having an author,
writer, or journalist being interviewed by your students.
· Imagine having a guest writer lead a writing workshop in your
classroom from the other side of the world.
What is your thinking and ideas?
Feb
2
Ramblings about blogging
February 2, 2010 | Tagged Blogging, digital writing course | 15 Comments
(transcript of a podcast I created for the Digital Writing Workshop)
We all enter the writing process at different stages. Some of us are more confident writers while others are not. Some have more experience at writing. As writers, we must be readers first. Bloggers realize how critical reading is to writing a blog post and how reading is essential to being a blogger. This is true of professional writers and I remember Pat Conroy telling me how this is so true for him. Reading is the heart of good writing instruction. We can write personal narratives all day long until we just run out of juice or it bores us to death.
In the Digital Writing Workshop (this course) we have learned how to use Google Reader to follow other bloggers in the blogosphere and the new bloggers in this class.
We are busy reading blogs- but four experienced bloggers and at least two or three of your classmates. We are reading the Tech Savy English Teacher and Bringing the Outside In both written by Sarah Kajder. Not only are we reading, we are expected be writers throughout the course as we “live a life as a blogger.” Many of you are using your blogs to capture what you reading and learning.
Reading like a writer/blogger we find ourselves looking closely at the important ideas that we personally make a connections with. We find our selves using these personal connections in your blog posts. These personal connections become ideas for our writing. Without these ideas we would probably lost about what to write. Many times our students find themselves at this place. I have been there- just lost.
For example, I recently wrote three blog posts on blogging. The writing was born from my own personal research from my personal learning network (PLN) including bloggers Will Richardson, Bill Ferriter, David Warlick, and many, many others..
The fifty plus blogs I read constantly serve as mentor text for the writing genre for blogging. Learning and paying attention to other writers becomes mentors for me and serves as models.
Readers know how to find connections with text. Connections stimulate ideas and make the reading enjoyable. What happens when you read something you find difficult paying attention or just don’t make a connection with the text! What do we do when this happens! We abandon it! We find it useless. We run from it! Many times I skim a blog and if I can’t make a connection, I mark it as read and go on.
This course is about you- The Learner. This course is designed for teachers of writing. I know I am preaching to the choir about the strong reading and writing connection. First and foremost, this course is about writing and being a writer. This is being played out as we “live the life of a blogger.” You have been given permission to write reflectively, write from your heart, write fiction, or anything that you are passionate about.
Second, this course is about the technology and the tools for writing, publishing, and learning. The platform that we are using may be something you never choose to use again, but what I want you to take away from this is the implications of writing in a digital world. It is much public and social.
Without a complete understanding of the technology, we still can read and writing using old tools word processing or paper and pencil.
The big “ah hah” I hope everyone has grasped so far is the concept of writing for a much larger audience. Plus writing for an audience that may give you feedback and I hope at this point you have experienced receiving and giving comments to writers.
The blogs we read serve as our writing mentor. Reading different blogs exposes us to voice and writing style that we can use a mentor for our own writing.
I am not a perfect writer, and I have made my number of blunders/embarrassments in my writing at Blogging on the Bay. Grammar is important and it is a big turn off to audience, but the writing- voice, style, and content- may not be at its best- it is the part that matters the most. Bloggers know that their writing is draft quality! It is thrown out to the larger audience be tested, to be critiqued, to be welcomed, to learn. Bloggers welcome someone to “say something.”
When put on our teacher hats and think about this at the classroom level, here are some important thoughts:
- Blogging has allowed me to understand how important the reading and writing process should work together. Students who engage in this process for what ever purpose will see this. You as bloggers will come to see the importance and how they could not stand the alone. Just think how dull our writing would be if we did not have the influx of new ideas. Kajder would agree that we have to find the things our students are passionate about for them to read and write about.
- Students will have the opportunity to learn to read more critically. Students have the opportunity to learn to read for important ideas- just what real readers do. This has to be taught to our students. Most students don’t just learn this and most teachers leave out of the reading process. It is not in our standards!
- Blogs allow our students to writing for bigger audiences. The audience is greater than their family and school community. They have the ability to gauge who their readers are and where they live in the world. I use a cluster map and live feed where my audience is coming from in the world. The audience has the potential to interact in the writing process that will help the writer. Think about how you felt when you received your first comment in a blog post.
- Motivation— nothing else needs to be said…
- Everyone who writes has a voice. And that voice carries responsibilities that are needs to be taught.
- What you write about becomes part of a larger body of information on a topic that will be archived for future learning.
- Facebook and My Space is very social medium. Writing in Facebook is limited to short text, but the writing in a blog post requires a higher quality, a higher thought process of writing compared to Facebook and My Space.
- There are many ways you could use a blog in a classroom, but the big question comes to mind is should everything be assessed in a blog. Would constantly being assigned writing topics make learning look like a worksheet or class assignment? Should every student have a blog?
- Then how are we going to keep the kids safe? How are we going to meet the CIPA requirements? What does our district require? How are you going to teach responsibility in your writing? What measures can you put in place to keep kids safe or writing inappropriately?
- Your experience as “living a life of a blogger” will give you a frame of reference to understand the processes the student may go through. It gives you a chance to understand the process and realize it may be different them.
- Continue to teach the writer and the reader not the writing or the text. We have to turn our students into thinkers and learners. Learning in the 21st century is the key to the future.
Jan
31
links for 2010-01-31
January 31, 2010 | | Leave a Comment
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Regrettably, I am unable to attend Educon 2.2 in Philadelphia this weekend. However, because of the amazing PLN I have built up over the past year and a half I am able to attend virtually. Using Twitter and the Elluminate Rooms that have been created, I do not have to miss a single session.
Since the Tweets come fast and furious and it is nearly impossible to stay caught up, I will archive each day and each session times’ tweets.
My first entry is all of the tweets from Friday evening beginning at 7:30 PM (this is as far back as The Archivist was able to go.)
Tweets from Friday 7:30 PM – 11:59 PM can be found at this Google Doc.
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Today, I have been attending remotely/virtually, Educon2.2 a conference held annually in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania through the support of the Science Leadership Academy led by the Principal Chris Lehmann.
What is Educon you ask? From the conference website comes this explanation.
EduCon 2.2 is both a conversation and a conference. And it is not a technology conference. It is an education conference. It is, hopefully, an innovation conference where we can come together, both in person and virtually, to discuss the future of schools. Every session will be an opportunity to discuss and debate ideas — from the very practical to the big dreams.
Education conference – that means for everyone? If you are not a teacher, you are not likely to attend this conference, nevertheless, there are some important themes running through the conference which apply to everyone.
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A few months ago, I had a discussion with Ben Hazzard about how we might engage educators in producing an e-book to assist and encourage change agents. The result of our efforts was a workshop that took place this afternoon at Educon 2.2.
Instead of providing a 'presentation-style' workshop, our goal was to leverage easy-to-use collaborative web tools and to lead interested co-learners in the creation of practical, shareable content. Teaching by doing, we did our best to model:
1] how to build relationships among project participants;
2] how to contribute to shared documents simultaneously;
2] how to attribute Creative Commons licensed content;
3] how to offer 'choice' to participants;
4] how to take shared responsibility in creating a product;
5] how to engage remote participants in a meaningful way;
6] how to create and distribute a product for a real world audience.
Jan
30
links for 2010-01-30
January 30, 2010 | | Leave a Comment
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Participants were divided into 4 groups, each group brainstormed four different questions and documented conversation on the wiki.
1. How are students different today than they were 20 years ago?
2. How are classrooms and schools today different than they were 20 years ago?
3. How is the world different today than it was 20 years ago? Specifically, what skills and capacities do our students need to be successful contributors in the modern world?
4. How are teachers different than they were 20 years ago? -
Top down support for bottom up ideas
Leadership is to be able to get people on common ground, then move ahead
As a teacher don’t say that you teach “Math” or “Science”, but that you teach students!
Care is a transaction… a give and take…
You can’t bully teachers into caring for their students
Days of top down mandates will never get us to a community of care (trust)
Every good teacher knows how to outlive a mandate
Jan
30
Educon 2.2
January 30, 2010 | Tagged Educon 2.2, transforming education | Leave a Comment
Unfortunately, I am not at Educon 2.2 in Philly this weekend. This year this conversation falls on two important people’s birthdays in my life: my wife and 10 year old daughter. Other than that it would be worth my time and money from my pocket to be there. The conversation continues as 500 plus educators come together to discuss and make sense of learning and teaching in the 21st century. The guiding principles of the conversation are the following:
2) Our schools must be about co-creating — together with our students — the 21st Century Citizen
3) Technology must serve pedagogy, not the other way around.
4) Technology must enable students to research, create, communicate and collaborate
5) Learning can — and must — be networked.
I have had little time to follow the conversations but I have been following the #educon conversation in Twitter and the thinking is quiet incredible. Below I have captured some and hopeful capture more.
“We need to stop doing things to students and start doing things with students.”
“The best things teachers can do is help our students to out-grow us” @chrislehmann
1) is it good for the kids? 2) do you have a plan? 3) how can I help? <= powerful, empowering leadership
Marilyn Perez reminds us that the personal is political. And that our stories matter.
teachers must understand the power of their words! #educon
Do we value equity of opportunity for ALL students?
Teach with rigor and high expectations. Teach them as if they are able to think.
Relevant
“Order is important in the lives of all children”
Organization and order is important for many children, esp if they don’t have it in their homes
Advisory system- taking the time to listen to the students
“An attitude of servitude” -
High ethics for caring
Education can transform the quality of life for our children
Courage to challenge the system- we are doing enough for all children
Need to be compassionate
Challenge your system.
Teaching should be fun! But learning should be fun also! – #educon ” It is not our job to judge -it’s our job to educate”
