Flu Trends Around the World

Google has developed a tool that can yield surprisingly accurate results sooner than the CDC:
- click "Learn More" on the page link below to get an explanation of what's going on here.

http://www.google.org/flutrends/

(Note: The site is google.ORG, not .COM!)

Would it be a fun learning exercise to have your class make guesses as to the terms that might indicate some kind of trend?
How might some one be misled if they didn't understand the data or have enough data amassed to make certain conclusions?
What type of people in various careers would use this? Medical, Sociology, Statisticians, Mathematicians, Scientists, the list goes on...

Interesting stuff!

Homework Day with Wolfram Alpha

October 21^st is a day that the new search tool Wolfram Alpha will be hosting a special live event to promote answering tough homework questions for K-12 and beyond. Why not see if Wolfram Alpha can answer a question that stumped your class? It starts at 10am MST  and will run all day long.

 

For more details visit this site: http://homeworkday.wolframalpha.com/

 

Regards,

Mason

 

 

Science IS Interesting!

I've started listening to a NPR Podcast about "making science more interesting" and it's an enjoyable listen so I encourage you teachers to listen to it. Though I've not finished the entire podcast I'm left with a couple of thoughts at this point.

0. I like the statement that "a teacher's passion for a subject" is really what comes through to students and that (more than anything) is what will engage students.

1. It seems like more and more it's EXPECTED that teachers HAVE TO make their lessons interesting or they fail somehow as teachers.

Here's the link - have a listen and then please throw in your comments to this post.

http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/200909253

Useful Webtools for Teachers

Here's a list of useful webtools for teachers. All of them are free of charge. (Some require you to create an account and log in, but the basic tools on these sites are free.) I know many of you already have lesson plans in place, while others may be looking for extra material to direct towards our students. I encourage you to investigate them and use as you see fit.

Library of Congress: Check out the teacher page. This one is completely free! A related site is on flickr (teacher override required) with historical photographs with no known copyrights making it a great source for students and teachers.

For Language Arts and History: shmoop It looks real cool and not just for you, but also with your students. Description: Oh, just look at the website for a good description... no point in me restating what they are all about.

With all those netbooks out there in out LA classes how about a web-based quiz program and instant grading system? Have the results emailed to you instantly. Give ClassMarker a try. Upgrades cost $24.95/year, but the entry-level quiz taker should be fine for most of us.

Concerned with plagiarism? Are kids just copying and pasting text from Google then calling it their own? Use the DOCCOP, a powerful engine that will flag plagiarized student work. Easy to use and totally free!

Lastly, just for students take a gander at these 15 tools. I like #10 etherpad, could be real cool with our netbooks! I've not tested if all of these are filtered from school, but you're only one click away from discovering that so just give it a try and pass them along to our students.

WEB Leadership - Name Tag Scavenger Hunt

Yesterday we met with our 8th grade WEB leaders for the first time since the start of school. We gathered in our official WEB leader room and quickly assigned them the task of finding all of their 6th grade "webbies" in the cafe during lunch. It was sort of a scavenger hunt in that the WEB leaders had to connect and obtain a name tag from each of their 6th graders.

We specifically gave few instructions to the WEB leaders and wanted to see how they would perform in this quick task. Who among them would rise to the task? How would they connect with the 6th grade students and create a feeling of belonging in our school?

Meanwhile the 6th graders had no idea what was about to happen during lunch. All they knew was that they had to wear their special name tags that they made earlier and that "someone" might be contacting them in the lunch room.

So the race was on, and the excited 8th graders quickly started tracking down their "webbies". What strategies would they use to find them? How were they to connect with each student in this sea of students, lunch-time enthusiasm and the excitement of the scavenger hunt?

With little time on their hands the 8th grade WEB leaders rose to the task. During a debrief with the WEB leaders we learned that they connected with the "webbies" and got smiles, laughter and good eye contact. They felt that the exercise was fun and that in many cases they "connected" with their 6th grade WEB students. Sure, we had a few glitches and the process was hard to complete in such short timeframe.


We did have fun and there was a general feeling of connection in the lunch room. We hope this and future WEB projects continue with this theme of connection and belonging in our school.

Netbook Launch

Tomorrow (Thursday August 27th) is the launch day for our Inspired Learning project with 6th graders. We will hand out netbooks to each 6th grade student in two of our Language Arts classes. The project has involved a great deal of work this summer for everyone involved and this will be a big moment.

From the enormous support by our district IT people down to each teacher readying their lesson plans we've created something very exciting that I'm proud to be a part of.

I'll be commenting tomorrow about how it goes. Stay tuned!

Twitter - What if?

I know we are no where near doing this at Euclid. There's a lot of unknowns with this new communication method. I'm not real comfortable with the privacy issues around Twitter yet myself and since it's blocked at work I'd have to do all my twittering from elsewhere (or my iPhone). So instead of being super abrasive and pushing the envelope I though I'd just sort of mention it and leave you all with something to consider - for when the time is right.


Still, I thought I could stir things up a bit by just mentioning that Twitter is starting to be used at schools (quite a few in Texas where they tend to "set the tone" for a lot of curriculum for the rest of the nation). The link below will take you to a discussion about Twitter in public schools - enough said. Have a look and let me know what you think. Are we ready for this at LPS?

http://macmomma.blogspot.com/2009/07/twitter-in-schools-what-does-it-really.html

Creating a Voice

I'm up at TIE - Copper Mountain - this week and having a great time. There's a lot of learning going on, tons of smart people that care about learning, and it's a wonderful experience to be attending this conference.

Back in April I posted about leadership at all levels with our school walls and came to the conclusion that every student can and should be a leader. Now I've hit upon a bit of a snag in this idea and it's what I want to discuss in this blog post.

The problem I'm having with this fine idea is HOW to you get kids to create their voice? How do we as educators get a student to be a self-leader?How do you get them to care about their education and life-long learning?

Maybe I'm missing something? Perhaps our students are already "there" and just waiting for an opportunity to prove themselves to us? It actually wouldn't surprise me and it might be an approach to address this question of mine - just let them show us basically. What tools (tech tools?) can enable this style of learning for our students?

So rather than asking more questions I'm hoping a few of you who are reading this post will comment back and let me know what you think...

Day 1 with Netbooks

Our district is rolling out a plan to introduce Netbooks to all 5th, 6th and 9th grade Language Arts students in the fall. Today we started a week long course that introduces the Netbooks we will be using to our staff. It was wonderful that we will be able to use these tools next fall and that our district has given our staff the Netbook to use for the summer.

What better way to get the adults up to speed?

I'm anxious to see how this will evolve over this week as we learn together how to use the Netbooks. Stay tuned.

Summer Plans

I thought I'd write a post to let any readers out there that I'll be posting a bit less over the summer. On June 1st I'll be at a 5-day district training for Language Arts that incorporates literacy, writing and Netbooks all togethe. Near the end of June I'll be attending TIE (Technology in Education) at Copper Mountain Resort in Colorado.

I may have some insights that I will blog about here during the summer months, but mostly I'll be trying to ride my new Giant OCR3 road bike or my mountain bike in the mountains!

Web-olution --> Wolfram Alpha

Get ready to be stunned! Wolfram Alpha will be brought online later today: May 15th, 2009.

Please watch this 13 minute introduction of Wolfram Alpha in action and you'll get a glimpse of a different way we will be using the web to learn and question. Could this be a research tool, YES? I can't wait to start using it. How would you cite it? One thought and concern I'm having about the information it returns is that it might be different over time if you are researching something that's not changing.

With tools like Wolfram Alpha, Wikipedia, Google, and other search engines available what are the essential tools you need to be able to learn from them? If these are in your toolkit are you ready to use them with these essential skills?

• Good spelling ability,(does that even matter anymore?)
  
• ability to come up with essential questions,
• a desire to learn,
• thirst for knowledge...

So do you have any student prodigies, Stephen Wolframs in the making, in your classroom now? Can you forsee a future product they might create one day?

Some background - I remember back in the 1980's a very cool math program called Mathematica. It was available on the Apple Macintosh (maybe other platforms too) and it could do so many mind-blowing things graphically to represent data. I only played with it a small bit on a friend's computer, but I was impressed. The author of that program was none other than Stephen Wolfram.

I titled this post "web-olution" because I thought it captured the BIG STEP that Stephen Wolfram has taken with his project Wolfram Alpha. It's using the information on the web in a way that is quite evolutionary; thus, webolution! (I considered wevolution, but it sounds too much like Elmer Fudd - hehehehe).

MAPS Reports Reveal?

I'll give this post another title: "Summer Braindeath"

Each spring and fall our students take the MAP test. The MAP test is a computer-based testing system developed by the non-profit NWEA. MAPS stands for Measures of Academic Progress. It is a series of state-aligned computerized adaptive tests that accurately reflect the instructional level of each student and measures growth over time.

It's actually a pretty cool system in that it increases the level of difficulty (grade-level) of questions just to the point where students are able no longer able to correctly answer questions. Using this adaptive approach towards leveling off the questions the program determines the actual grade-level that a student is currently learning.

We completed our school-wide MAP testing for the spring and I was able to view some reports that our Media Specialist, Carol, generated. The particular report I looked at was for reading and it revealed something that is obvious to most of us, but it reinforces something that is good to consider as we head towards our out-of-school summertime... Our students at Euclid showed excellent growth in reading from fall to spring each year, but the progress they make during the school year is lost during the summer months. It's almost like starting over with kids when they return to school. Sure the students are one year older so they should be challenged with harder material than in the spring - I get that, but the number of kids that are considered advanced and/or proficient falls off each year after summer break.

I have a son with autism. He attends a year-round school. For him it is paramount that he receive a steady and uninterrupted stream of instruction year-round. His rate of learning is consistent, but slow. I have to think that our regular education students (and all students) would be better served by a year-round school - if one is to consider the rate of learning only. But of course many people before me have suggested this approach. I'll just start rambling and ranting if I continue with this point, so I'll leave you all with this urgent suggestion and the lesson learned from the MAP test.

Make sure you and your kids are engaged in some kind of reading over the summer. Read a book, go to the library, read magazines, read a newspaper (remember them?), read to your kids, do anything to try to stave off what happens each summer with the gains they made in the past year. The lesson here is that each of us is responsible for our own learning. If we invest some time in the summer months (when it's not "REQUIRED") reading we become active learners. Our minds become engaged in the process and we ourselves start to take responsibility for our own learning. Isn't that what it's all about anyway?

Elementary Laptop Visit

It's been several weeks since our visit to three elementary schools. The purpose of the visit was to get a first-hand glimpse of the pilot schools where 5th grade students were given netbooks to enhance their language arts skills.

Well, there's a lot more to it than that. It's not as if the netbooks were just plopped down without guidance, support and training for the staff and their students. I'll not dwell on that part of the task, but sufficed to say that the students and teachers are showing proficiency and expertise. There seems to be a general enthusiasm for the tools and the expanded emphasis on writing for these students.

We were able to chat with students at each school and observe their writing. It was a fantastic opportunity for our 6th grade LA teachers to get an advance look at the project AND the students who will be attending our school in the fall. I found the trip to be rewarding for many reasons. It got us talking together as a team about the netbook project, it gave us an opportunity to see it in action, and it helped our teachers to bond with other teachers who have been doing this and paving the way. In a way it showed our teachers, who are already doing a lot with their smartboards, other ways in which LPS is making 21st Century Learning a possibility for all students.

Here's a few pics taken during our visit. If you click on them, they will get bigger.

Vision

On my bike ride yesterday I stopped along the Platte River at a bench and saw the following sign on a rock. I snapped a photo with my cell phone, emailed it to me work account and went on my way. This rock seemed to be telling me something with the sign and I'm glad I saw it when I did. The message on the rock is: "Vision without action is merely a dream".

I believe the message on the rock was meant as a follow-on message to my prior post on this blog about our Mission at EMS. As our plans for the fall solidify we definitely have a mission and a vision for where we want to be in years that follow.

Have you ever had something cosmic like this happen? A coincidence that seems like it's more than just happenstance. That's how it felt when I leaned back on the bench and saw this rock.

Finally, I'll ask the obvious question: What is your vision for education in this 21st Century?

The Mission - Future is Now

This post is all about the mission defined by our district, Littleton Public Schools, and how technology supports and helps make that mission possible. I have had a fair amount of experience with mission and vision statements. I'm a founder for a successful web-based start-up, I've led teams in quality-driven corporations where understanding the corporate mission is vital to success, and I've held numerous positions as 'leader' throughout my life.

As an employee of LPS and a proud parent of students here I believe in our Mission - stated below.

The District Mission is defined as:

To educate all students for the future by challenging every individual to
continuously learn, achieve, and act with purpose and compassion.

LPS' Information Technology Department's Mission is defined as:

To define the 21st Century Learning Space, to assure Universal Access to that space, for all learners to master new frontiers in communications, information and literacy.

and IT's vision is:

LPS will support the necessary technology for world-class student learning and professional practice.

I believe these missions and visions are in alignment. They are all forward-looking. They have great potential for everyone involved and "on board" with our Mission. These phrases aren't just words, they are a call to action to all staff and students. We are in a time of rapid change. We are embracing that change in a positive way if we execute our mission. It is my belief that everyone needs to be part of this mission or make way for those who are. The time is now!

The three statements are all forward looking as I mentioned earlier. They all have as their end-game a focus on the future. But as we are aware the future is just out of our reach, but it's the 'carrot' that is dangling outin front of us and it moves us forward. All we have is the present to grasp and deal with. We must focus our immediate energies towards in the present. So I ask you staff and students: What are you doing today to make the Mission as success?

How does the district ensure success? Our district leaders must "walk the talk". The mission must be communicated clearly. The district leaders (at all levels) must not just say the words. They must also embrace them in their actions and they must convey a sense of urgency to everyone.

Who are the leaders in a public school district? I answer this question by stating that everyone is a leader at some level.

• Naturally, we have a superintendent of schools and the school board who are leaders at the highest level.
• We have building principals and the administrative staff that establish school vision and lead the school to success.
• We have teachers who lead their students every day in the classroom.
• And we have students leaders as student-body presidents, classroom leaders and squad leaders on sporting teams.
• Each student must self-lead in their learning - -they are responsible to themselves for their learning too.

So what I'm saying is that everyone is a leader and a responsible team member in the Mission. I think this is THE most exciting time in our school district. The future is now!

Long Now Foundation, Time and a Book

I read the book Anathem by Neal Stephenson awhile back. It's long, very long at over 900 pages. Once I got a handle of the tweaked language he was using I found myself falling into the book and his writing style. I loved the story and concept of living in a "Mathic world" where one could devote their life to the study of math and philosophy. And I thought that would be the end of it, but then here's where fiction meets reality...

People here on Earth are actually doing and thinking about stuff like this. They have founded an organization to ponder life with long-term thinking in mind. Here's a piece of the real clock design being built in a remote area of Eastern Nevada. It is based upon the designs mentioned in the fictional world of the aforementioned book.



So I mentioned that there is an organization founded upon the principle of long-term thinking and its name is the Long Now Project. Much of what the book discusses is being thought about for this group and I think that's pretty cool. Reality meet Fiction meets Reality!

I just happen to have been interested in this artist Brian Eno for MANY years now and have followed his music, seen some of his art exhibits and enjoyed much of what he does. He has worked with U2, David Bowie and many music artists over the years. And not to my surprise he's involved in this foundation too. How weird is it when all these different pieces of one's life (some even fictional) meet together as one?

The Age of Composition

I don't think I can add much insight to this post by Jeff Utretch. If you have time read both his post and the NCTE article that is linked there/here. I think they both hit the target with what we're talking about at Euclid with writing, netbooks and our plans for 6th grade LA in the fall. BULLSEYE

We can talk about it more if you like, but it seems to combine where I think our vision is taking us WITH what we value at Euclid.



I love the notion of "The Age of Composition" in the 21st Century. It feels like a renaissance is taking place in our lifetime. Jump on board and enjoy the ride! I think this is going to be fun...

[Okay, so I did add a little]...

Language Arts 6th Grade

Yesterday was PLC day and I met with the 6th Grade Language Arts team to discuss some preliminary plans for next year. The district has a proposal that will be presented to the Board tonight. The proposal is called the Educational Technology and Information Literacy Plan (ETIL).

The plan calls for embedding netbooks (Asus eee PCs) in every 5th, 6th and 9th grade Language Arts class next fall with follow on plans for grades 7 & 8 in future years and the high school grades too.

The team seemed real excited with where this is going and very open to taking the next steps. We have arranged for a field trip next week to see the process in action at three elementary schools where the 5th grade class has been piloting this project this year. I know there have been successes at Hopkins and East and we will be visiting a third school too. It will be wonderful to see how classroom management is handeled, how productive the kids are and to tap into the teachers experiences after using the netbooks for the past year.

This is a great opportunity for our students and I feel encouraged with how our teachers are showing interest in how to tackle this new opportunity for next fall.

So teachers, how does this roll into your plans for next year and beyond as these netbook-enabled students (focused on writing) begin to fill your classes?

What follows are some links to the 5th grade pilot programs and samples of what they students have been producing.
East Elementary
Moody Elementary Class Blog
Hopkins Class Blog
Hopkins Class Web page

How Technology is Used in other Schools - Part 2

In this post I've listed two additional innovative uses of technology - both from Heritage. At Euclid we are not currently doing anything like this - it's neat to see how others are solving problems through the use of technology. The first example involves a conversational Spanish class at high school.

Unsatisfied with student performance on a written assignment involving students interviewing a famous person and asking them about their vacation, Miss Mary Kay Cummings Spanish Teacher for Heritage High showed the committee how she increased student proficiency and enthusiasm for learning by using the Eee-Pc webcam feature. Miss Cummings had students record and video tape conversational Spanish dialog in teams of two acting as famous people using puppets. The exercise was very entertaining and provided a great way for students to learn and have fun. Miss Cummings was able to upload the performances to her website and Wiki where students could view them giving them authorship. Student progress in conversational Spanish was notably improved.

This second example involves distance learing - I wonder if we'll ever have all our course content on-line and teach kids who are at home or in a remote location? My daughter was in this Physics classroom last semester. She didn't seem at all bothered by the fact that some students were watching the class and interacting via Skype.

Through Dim-Dim, a Smartboard and some Eee computers, Mr. Mike Rudolph Physics teacher showed how he can conduct a Physics class not just for students within the Heritage High School walls but also includes 5 students in Center Colorado who are distance learning with him. This method of communication is called Skype. The students in Center Colorado are able to see Mr. Rudolph as he conducts experiments and writes on the Smartboard. This is great way to fill out seats in a partially filled classroom and can be used to generate revenue.

How Technology is Used in other Schools - Part 1

I've decided to write a few posts about how technology is being used in other schools around the district. At Euclid I am keenly aware of the uses of technology, but I wanted to look outside the box and see what's going on elsewhere - maybe it will give us a few ideas to try there in addition to what we already do.

My first post is about the use of technology at HHS in their music department. Here's a quote from the ETAC presentation given back in Sept. 2008.

"Who thought technology could be used in so many clever ways to enhance H.S. marching bands and orchestral group participation! But Kevin Keena Band Director showed a number of ingenious ways technology has improved both the student learning curve and provided an integrated participation both in and outside the music classroom. Kevin embedded a beautiful audio of the wind ensemble band he conducted as background music on his website. For parents, the website contains announcements, schedules, answers to frequently asked questions and required forms. There are links to LHS and AHS high school band sites and links for every instrument used in the program to aid students who are having difficulty with fingering techniques, or rhythmic issue. Kevin makes use of an MP3 player to record band rehearsals, students upload the rehearsal, listen to themselves practice, and then provide feedback on how they thought they performed and what could be improved. Finally, Kevin incorporates a link that can illustrate animated drills for the marching band so students can more easily see where they need to be on the field and why.

I like that they use the HHS website for communicating to parents - we do this with our site too - our music teachers post all the upcoming evening performances for the year and provide a lot of additional detail for parents too - how to obtain instruments, expectation for students and much, much more.

Euclid's website

I've been scanning the use of our website by our staff. I'm pleased to point out that many (most) of the teachers have started using their own teacher page to communicate homework, project due dates and share general information with their students and parent community.

Isn't this a better way to communicate with students than using Homework Hotline? I'm wondering if by the fall that we couldn't do away with Homework Hotline? I know that some of you are still experimenting with using your webpage to announce your homework, but by next fall you'll probably be ready to "go live".

I think that parents would welcome this approach if you were to announce in Back to School night that this is the main method of communicating homework, field trips and other communications to them.

Good job everyone!

What do you think - should we do away with Homework Hotline next year?

Incoming 5th grade students

Hi,

I think you’ll  find this interesting – especially you 6^th grade LA teachers. Intrigued are you? Well read on…

 

So what is this all about?

What follows in this email discusses the 5^th grade students that are part of a pilot project called: “Powered Up Writing”. The project is being held in five LPS schools: Whitman, Hopkins, East, Field, and Moody. From that pilot we know of approximately 120 students that will be attending our school next year – that’s half of the incoming 6^th grade students next year!

 

I encourage you to read some of the responses from these 5^th grade students. Parents and staff  have chimed in too. As of this email there were 75 responses mostly from the kids! Click this to read Dan’s post. (From the time I started writing this email, the number of comments went from 64 up to 75 responses! Yikes.)

 

Background: Last week I commented on a blog posting written by Dan Maas – LPS’s CIO. His blog post included some questions about the “Powered up Writing” pilot project.  It seems that we’ve created a minor stir amongst these students in 5^th grade. The students (particularly East Elem.) have responded to my and Dan’s questions and given passionate responses. Their comments are well-written, cohesive and LONG. Who knew a young 5^th grade student could write so much and with such passion?

 

So where is all this going?

• In a few weeks I’ll be visiting these students at East Elementary. I’ll be going with Dan and a few LPS board members to meet the students and get a feel for the classroom environment. I also have a meeting to see the pilot classrooms at Hopkins too. I’ll get a first-hand glimpse of how they are learning with their laptops in Language Arts classes. (They use them every day – that’s part of the project). I’ve already visited Newton and saw how they are using eee’s there, but this is different. These 5^th grade students use their laptops nearly every day of the week and they use them for their other subjects too – science, math, social studies, and beyond. (They take spelling tests on them too - which speeds grading!)

 

• Perhaps you’ll want to take your PLC over to visit one of these classrooms too. After all, next year you’ll have these students in your classes. Judging from their writing, they will be hungry to continue writing – especially on a laptop or PC. I think that’s a great formula for success.

 

• Next fall would it be possible to conduct your daily LA classes using laptops too? How do you think this would facilitate learning? What would you need to be successful? (Go ahead and dream!)

 

• Do you think our future students will come to expect this level of technology? They seem to really love writing!

 

• Keep reading Dan’s blog. It will keep you up to date with the direction our district is headed with regard to technology and he’s a pretty good writer too!

Pi Day

One of our Math teachers, Mr. Otte (that's him wearing the Pi shirt standing next to the Pi image on his Smartboard) is really into Pi! Each year the students in his classes join together to celebrate Pi Day - which occurs each year on or around March 14th (3.14). The students complete worksheets, learn about Pi watching United Streaming videos and get to experience pi in all sizes and flavors (Pie! - Yumm!)

Here's a few photos of the big round day in Mr. Otte's classes.

Astronomy - the United Streaming Way

These 7th grade students are learning about Astronomy. But instead of being force-fed a single video about our solar system by their teacher they were directed to explore on United Streaming.



Back in class the students were engaged and sharing what they had learned. One student had learned that Venus had no moon and the class pondered why this inner planet lacked a moon. The teacher allowed the discussion to gather steam and generate more questions... Other students who examined different US videos offered that the outer planets had moons. Hmmmm.

So the class as a whole had gained bits of knowledge that they could share. No one student could have learned ALL the facts about our solar system from a single video, but the combined class-wide knowledge led the class to insights about our solar system that happened because the teacher allowed the students to learn and research independently from a reliable source. AND the students are learning a valuable team skill of listening to their peers and bringing their knowledge together.

Just a few years ago our school district network could not have supported the task of having 30 students watching streaming video in a computer lab. It's wonderful to have the infrastructure and United Streaming service available for our student community to use. I'm glad our teachers are finding innovative ways to use it! Thank you Mr. Coll for empowering your science students with this tool.

The Networked Student 2.0 aka "Collective Intelligence"

Okay now. This youtube video rocks for several reasons. While I don't suggest we have our middle school students ONLY using tools like this, I do think it is vital that we start preparing them for this kind of life. Today's successful college student needs to have these skills available to them - believe me I took a Chemistry course last semester and I was using these tools to extend my mastery of the chapters we were covering.



It is within our "charter" to get our kids started on this journey. I believe that middle school is not too early to get started in modeling their skills. For example, a 7th grade LA curriculum requirement is to write a research paper: how many middle school students even know how to validate a web source? Do they know how to write a research paper using web sources - ones that are valid?

At about 4:25 seconds into this video you'll see how you, teacher, can assist in this learning process - even at the young, tender age of our middle school students.

Now the one thing that I struggle with is that our students often lack the rudimentary skills to even form a sentence (subject-verb, capitalization, tense, topic sentences... the list goes on!) That's the focus of your teaching because it's part of what's handed to you, but now there's good reason to teach those basic skills within a 21st Century framework - use blogs, wikis, the web to reinforce those skills and you'll be prepping the students for what comes next while your teaching and honing the LA skills that they should have learned before even entering our school.

[Rant follows] And yes, I'm getting really tired of the whole "web2.0" tag. A better term is "collective intelligence" - one that's used in the more refined circles of elite intelligentsia. Oh yes, there's a "web3.0" term that's been tossed around for several years too. It's also called the "Semantic Web" - something my wife has centered much of her research around as a PhD at UCD. Ok, I'm done ranting!

Does This Describe You?

I like this video by Kathy Schrock (you’ll need to use the filter override to watch if you are at school). It describes us adults as “digital pioneers” as opposed to the term that’s been tossed around a bit more: “digital immigrant”. The “digital pioneer” term more accurately describes the staff here at Euclid Middle School. And I’m proud to see how it plays out each day in your classrooms. Now that this term has been pointed out to me I find the term “immigrant” somewhat debilitating. I like “pioneer” so much better! (Other words that come to mind all with “digital” tacked on in front are “journeyman”, “coach”, “guru”, “teacher”, “professional”).

 

It’s a short video that you’ll enjoy. Also in case it didn’t dawn on you I am pretty sure the animated sequence is from Second Life – a free virtual world – that this person has created a character, log cabin and pioneer environment in. Could you imagine a digital version of Euclid Middle School made in a virtual space where you could meet with your students – all on computer? That aside, I think the animated video is pretty awesome for an old immigrant turned pioneer – thanks Kathy Schrock!

 

Heading West - the non-tech way?

I dropped in on Rondinelli's 8th Grade Social Studies to see their mini-plays (melo-dramas) about taming the west. Each group of three or four students had to create a mini-production about life in "pioneer" times. Among the groups were the 49ers, Mountain Men, Pioneer Women, Mormons, you get the idea.


While the productions were decidedly not high-tech I think it made perfect sense to me that they were so. Given that there was no technology like we have back in the day the students faithfully created productions that were educational and engaging. It seemed that one way to bring the audience into the story was to have them be the sound-effects when needed. The audience was queued for the needed sound effect and it made for an enjoyable time and kept us engaged in the story.

While I'm not a historian I vaguely remember that this was one way that melodramas were made - having the audience be active members by creating the sound effects.

Now the students did quite likely use technology - computers, the internet, WWW, printers, etcetera to create their production and acquire the knowledge and background for their story, but their actual production was all non-tech. Sure the students could have used voicethread, photostory or some other digital application, but that would have taken away from the melodramatic effect of being involved in the actual play for the audience.

I guess that the point I am making is that what is important is the content and engagement - how one teacher delivers it may be different than another.

Livescribe Pulse Pen

Our librarian Carolyn Mast came across a neat product while looking through one of her periodicals. The product is the Pulse Pen made by Livescribe. This pen has a built-in audio recorder and infrared camera.

Using paper you can download from their site for free (or you can buy it too) you can record your audio along with notes you take on paper. Then later you can click anywhere on the notes you took and playback what was being said. It's great for note-taking or lectures. If you like you may also download and share the notes/audio on the web.

We used it in Sue Lloyd's Language Arts class to tie into the student discussion that was supposed to happen afterwards as homework. Students were assigned to comment on topics that their peers introduced in class that day. They were to make posts on the teacher's weblog regarding the discussion. They could listen to the actual discussion if they needed additional detail. Here's the link to the classroom discussion. It's sort of like a built-in podcosting device with real-time note taking added on.

Online learning

In ESchool news today an article was released about online learning. Now online learning is available in most colleges and universities. There are a few high shcools offering online classes too. Did you know that Heritage High School offers an online physics course that students in remote parts of Colorado "attend"?

What if all instruction for secondary schools was done on-line? What if your classes were offered online? How would you adapt your teaching style to it?

(You may read the first page of this article without registering, but to read the remainder you'll need to register - it's free).

Another note: The article mentions Digital Equipment Corporation in the article. In my past life as an IT director and 'techie' I used their products extensively. I loved the old VAX/VMS Operating System architecture. It helped to make me a logical thinker!

Wordle used in Language Arts

I've seem some teachers find novel uses of Wordle. Wordle can be a great tool for anyone to use. It's free and easy to use. Here are Euclid we have used Wordle to compare literature, analyze presidential speeches or just find out more about yourself or your own writing style.


You'll enjoy this post from a LA teacher at AHS.

SMARTBoard Hardware Help

Carol and I created a blog a few years ago to contain helpful posts to typical problems that occur with smartboards and projectors from time to time.

Have a look here if you run into a smart board problem.