Professionally Speaking

I love going on social outings with my teaching colleagues. When we typically spend our professional conversations around tables sized for ~ 7-year-olds, there seems to stand a little more than just elbow room when we gather around a table on a saturday afternoon for brunch.

Some conversations led to the evolution of technology where some complained about contraptions I had definitely never set eyes on. One comment led to me explaining the perks of Google Applications.

The teacher in questions was organizing order's for the entire school to order t-shirts for our upcoming FIeld Day event. She explained her frantic organization of what seemed like thousands of papers screaming shirt sizes and quantities at her with names and class numbers spitting in her eye.

"Google Apps!" I said, "Would be the answer to your prayers."

She was compelled when I explained she could create one sheet to share with others and receive the information back automatically.

"I'll have to explore this," she said.

"Yes," I replied, "And you'll have to come to my chat about it on June 9th."

;)

A Gamer is as a Gamer Does

This weekend marked the first days of spring break for public schools in the city, which automatically meant I was flying home to California as soon as I could.

Being that I reached the Golden State last night, I was able to blissfully enjoy reading two articles by James Paul Gee about the educational impacts of video games on learners. Both Good Video Games and Good Learning and Welcome to Our Virtual Worlds offered valuable examples of how gaming has possitivley impacted student learning and picks apart the skills and challengers players learn and overcome.

Gee emphasizes that the playing of video games inherantly teaches problem solving skills, interaction and collaboprtation opportunites as well as multiple chances to take risks and learn from mistakes.
I've considered the value of video games in the classroom and would like to try and find games that would be appropriate for students in the elementary grades. I know as a young learner myself I had the chance to travel the Oregan Trail and definitely learned the hardships that travelers were up against. In my own experience I'm sure a broken arm led to a fever led to pnemonia led to dysenteri and a bear attack. It's amazing anyone made it to the West at all judging by how long it took my pixelated wagon to get across my computer screen!

As a continued gamer through my life I have experienced the triumphs and tribulations of the learning experiences that video games bring.

I agreed with the articles right away as, just last night, I turned on my parents' Wii and inserted their newset game: Michael Jackson The Experience.

Right away you are thrown into the midst of a Michael Jackson classic, challenged to follw his sparkling glove and jerk your hips and limbs matching his grace. I definitely looked afool at first, but as I started to hit his golden moves I earned mini Dance School videos to learn from :)

My trial and error and mishaps earned me the chance to learn more. Maybe by the end of my trip in California I'll be practiced enough to bust a sweet groove when Muchale bumps through near-by speakers.




One of the most profound points in Gee's articles I considered was in the article Welcome to Our Virtual Worlds. In it he explained how many individuals can be consdier ed "Pro-Ams", or professional amateurs - ones that have learned compitancies from their own interest based learning from whatever source they may find.

In the end it seems that Gee is challenging the 21st Century educator to find ways for students to guide their own learning in ways that are interesting to them - be it in a video game or elsewhere :)

No Convincing Necessary

I love interactive whiteboards!

I've been working with a Promethean Board in my classroom now for 3 years running and have gained added gadgets to make the engagement of the class even more exhilarating! Not only is an interactive whiteboard a big deal for kids and (can be)a quick learn for teachers, added tools like document cameras and polling devices make the boards even more inclusive. The next thing on my list is a wireless slate and surround sound... then I'll be set (for a while).

I'm a big proponent for Promethean but have had my chance to work with Smart technology in the past. This week one of my classes has been focusing on the benefits of these kinds of tools in our classrooms.

Did I mention I love my Promethean?

I've downloaded the Smart  program and have done a little bit of browsing on their lesson exchange. Promethean offers the same kind of lesson sharing in their own Promethean Planet. You can also use Smart lessons on the Promethean software - Can you do the opposite?

Anyway- I downloaded a lesson about Figurative Language from the Smart exchange and found the information very... informative.


Interactive, however, was not the best way I could describe this lesson.

There were however plenty of other options to preview and weed through to find a great deal of information and activities to involve students in their own learning through these interactive whiteboard tools. It's great to have these kinds of things at your fingertips - though, to me, it's even more fun creating the lessons myself!!!

:)

Here are some screen shots from parts of a geometry lesson I made (on Promethean) with my third graders:

Wipe away shapes with hidden geometric language to reveal - ooooooo!
We highlighted angles, equal and parallel sides with 24 colors to choose from 

Guess My Shape! Each shape is erasable to eliminate shapes one by one through a 20 questions type game.
And it's reset-able :)

Claps for a good fit :)

Open Sources!!!

This week I was introduced to OpenSources Apps - free downloadable programs developed and written by various Internet Communities of program writers.

After searching around SourceForge.net, I ran into a few programs I was interested in. My initial hunt took me on a search for a program that would allow the recording of speech and an ability to transcribe that speech into text. Thinking of one of my students in particular I thought this would be an awesome find - but I only would up finding the opposite abilities - text-to-speech... Maybe another day...

One app I downloaded was called Books for Mac. This app basically allowed you to create your own computer based database of books. It is a tool I was considering to make our classroom library a little more like a real public library or bookstore. After a long series of input (a whole library full of books), you can search for books based on whatever criteria you want to input. I was starting with Titles, Authors, Reading Level, Borrowed By and Owner (since my own purchased books are mingled in with books owned by the school (;). The downside was that the program kept quitting on me :(

In choosing the Books  app I was envisioning an even more interactive and independent way for students to obtain books for independent reading where they could  not only search shelves for a good book, but also a database much like they would in everyday, adult living.


After trying out Books, I went on to try out my Professor's recommendation of Photo Gimp. If you were a big fan of Paint "way back when", you'll love this as much.

Here's a screen shot:

I wasn't trying to be impressive with this work... but there's no end to the creativity that could come out of this app in the classroom and out!

Picture, Picture

I have small, self taught experiences that revolve around photo editing. It's an entertaining creative task to manipulate an image or more and turn it into something completely new.

I hadn't really thought of applying my own limited expertise of the medium to the classroom until I came across the blog of Kelly Walsh, an information and technology expert from The College of Westchester.

In one post he focuses on a variety of FREE internet based or downloadable photo editing programs. Not only does he offer some ideas for how to incorporate the technology in the classroom and teaching he also includes a YouTube video that he created to model the functions of 5 different sites' programs.

It's nice to know there are other options out there that can make photo editing feel less coveted - since full editing software tends to run at prices in the hundreds (and even thousands -whaaaaat?!??!?!??).

Using photo editing in the classroom could open up another creative outlet to prove understanding from subject matter (pictures for writing and projects, timelines, collages, poster, build scenes or characters out of a variety of pictures, etc.)

It may also be fun for teachers to change photographs for teaching purposes. To develop oral language students may describe the changes made to a photograph. You could talk about different moods photos may give based on how they are edited.

It's also just fun.

I remember in high school my physics teacher maintained a website for different class information we could access. A special link he added was titled "Morph Mr. P".  When clicked you were taken to a site with a picture of Mr. P that you could stretch pinch and pull to turn into some other version of our science teacher.

So, if nothing else, free photo editing may at least be good for a laugh :)

Follow The Google-Bricked Road

Waking up in Kansas (Brooklyn) I found it a little bit easier to get to Oz than Dorothy did when she rode the skies in a cyclone.

Google offers gentler landings Over the Rainbow - though can still take you on a surprising journey.

Following my Google-Bricked road (Reader) through Education Land I wound up in a very stunning Emerald City.

With some ha ha ha's - ho ho ho's - and a couple 'a tra la la's - I merrily read the day away and found special delight in these Ruby Slippers...

A flashy video and well written article by Barnett Berry outline the ideas he and his team have published to help guide us in a good direction towards the future of education, technology and all :)

Pressures revolved around educational reform may be especially felt these days because of the need for fast change rather than thoughtful change.  The article, Teaching 2030,  seems to idealize the chance for teachers to not only have room to breath, but also have room to spread their wings to a point where we will see "blurring (of) lines between those who teach in schools and those who lead them."

Thank you for the recognition, Great and Powerful Oz.

Humans and Machines

While I was reading this article, about the reformation of standardized testing that the Common Core Standards should bring, I could not help but giggle every time they referred to the involvement of "humans" and "artificial intelligences" that will be integrated into the future of the test. It put me in a sci-fi state of mind, envisioning a bunch of little Spocks poking at glowing, transparent screens aboard a starship that revolves around the sun... But I guess all that can't happen by 2014.

Apparently what can be happening by 2014 is a full integration of computer based standardized state tests... Hmmmmmmmmm - I don't think so.

When it comes to Earth, New York City and the NOW, it will be a tough change to make considering the efforts it would take to not only teach students a certain amount of fluency in the technologies and programs they will face, but there will also be a considerable amount of effort revolved around the teaching of teachers a fluency that will enable them to teach the students in the first place. In fact, the teacher will probably be a more challenging student in the subject area.

We have come to a point in time where the kids in schools do not know what it is like to not have contact with a computer, but the teachers in the schools can - and might not have even learned how to use one at all. It's been evident in some of the teaching experience I have already had while helping out my fellow educators as they tackle technology for the first time. While one could be learning how to turn a computer on, another may need to understand that a spacebar is a universal key and is used the same on a PC and Mac (where a vocabulary lesson may have to immediately follow to define the terms: PC, and Mac). It's like teaching a new language.


Maybe Rosetta Stone should make a Tech Language edition... It may be our only hope.

Publishing Writers

I was much more of a writer when I was in third grade. Probably because then, in my heart, I knew one day I would be one. Though I'm not published in the larger market, I think my younger self would be glad to know I've now authored three separate books available exclusively in my classroom library.

I remember spending a great deal of time devoted to publishing and reproducing my work at my father's work place. I sat in a corner of his secretary's office in front of a great, electric typewriter. As Regina tapped the keys of her new computer keyboard, I tapped out the stories of a kangaroo named Hopper and his forest pals... slightly more letter-by-letter. Upon the completion of a one page story (in all capitals), I would take my paper upstairs to the copy machine. I decided on some number and hit the big round button. In a matter of hours I was published and ready for distribution.

It was as instant as my publishing could get.

Yesterday in my own third grade classroom (this time with me as the teacher and my 15 students as the writers) I showed them how instant their own publishing can be with BLOGS :) I expected them to be excited (they were), but I didn't expect how speedy and truly autonomous they would be with this form of publishing and distribution.

We took a tour of my own Blogging interactions, looking into my personal art blog and that of our school librarian. I talked about my "Reading List" and we explored the make up and set up of the two blogs. Then the kids talked to each other about what other things they imagined could go into someone's personal Blog. When they decided you can write about things in your Blogs we turned to an example I received in my Standards Based Technology course.

You could tell the fire was lit when we found a list of kids' names to click on to see what he or she had written. We found another Nick in the world ("Not the one in our class, though!" they said). We read what he wrote and they discovered the link to his "Comments". They read the compliments from his classmates and Nick's own mother ("not the Nick from our class"). When we started to give Nick our own compliment, filling out the criteria for our post: name, email, website.... At website we stopped (dramatically because it's more fun that way) and I ranted about how cool it would be if we, 3-206, had our own website - or better yet - our own BLOG!!

The kids cheered, my partner teacher hoorah-ed, I said "WOOOOO... we already have one." And took us to the start of our own blog site.

The kids planned and wrote short articles about Ancient Egypt (the final project to a social studies investigation). When the first partnership published over my laptop, one of them typed as the other jumped up and down with glee, reading their work to the other as their writing glowed over our interactive whiteboard. The whole class clapped when the first post was made - then continued feverishly to finish their own to type in their own entry space. The next group typed brilliantly!!! And located the blue "Publish" button on their own when they were done. By the end of the day half of the students had published - with a solid promise to finish on Monday.

Afterwards my partner teacher told me she wished the day were longer so she could even learn more about our new blogosphere. One student said he "thought we were going to make our own. Can I at home?" It felt great to have all that excitement!!

School lets out on a Friday at 2:40 at our school. Arriving at home by 3:45 I checked my email when my home computer finished booting up. Already in my in-box was a comment from a parent to moderate :)