Reflections of a Techie

Teacher's Wishlist for 2008--Colleagues and 2.0 Tools

As I sit at my desk trying to create units for my math and science students, instead of New Year's Resolutions I thought about my wishlist for 2008.

1. Colleagues who want to collaborate.  By that I mean want to share the load of both thinking and creating really cool things.  My solution is to be a better social networker.  Clearly there aren't people within my own building that share my passion but I know there are people out there.
2. Which brings me to this wish....which is actually more of an action item.  Get busy and find those colleagues.
3. Infuse more technology into lessons.  I ventured out a bit during the latter half of the semester.  But now I need to think beyond....all the way to the 2.0 tools that are out there.
4. Get this streaming video TV channel off the ground in the 3rd quarter.  Finally got all the media releases in place, so I think we're good to go with legal considerations.  I think I probably need to get a parent informational letter out, too.
5. Create letter that will not only let them know what's happening but invite them to "do it" with us.  That participatory call to action.
6. Beyond just having it work, create some connections with our TV channel that will improve the science experience.  Find some collaborating classrooms.  Find parents who want to participate and who will log in...either to be cheerleaders and/or lend their expertise.

A model for permeable classrooms

I think the notion that teachers are the critical element in building the 21st Century classroom is right on. Permeablity is a great catch phrase for this notion. So many of us are afraid that by incorporating or allowing the outside within our 4 walls, that we will be diminished.  Maybe eliminated.

That seems to be an illogical conclusion to me.  It seems that the more open a classroom becomes, the more important the role of the teacher.

Not that our role won't change.  If you think you've already become a facilitator, I think the revolution in that direction has just begun.  How utterly exciting to think that you could ask other teachers to join your classroom in order to provide a better explanation of something....better than you yourself could do.  I wouldn't have to feel like an expert in so many areas.

I think I would have to learn how to cast a wide net in order to find the perfect resources to supplement my curriculum.  That would probably require a working knowledge of social networking so that I can find people who are doing the same things and figure out how to get them involved in my class.

I think the possibliites are exciting and limitless.

Puzzles with hexatiles

I'm always on the prowl for new kinds of puzzles...especially those that help my kids develop number sense and computational vision.  Today we used Hexa-Tile math puzzles and worked on order of operations. 

At first my kids were stumped and didn't like them at all.  Then as we worked through a sample or two, they picked up momentum.  By the time I hit #4, they loved these.

Since I just started using a SmartBoard a couple of months ago, it was one of the first times you can see the power of interacting with the numbers.  With four pen colors and knowing how to  vertically tile the pages, we were able to try out our possibilities...do some "figuring" on the notebook page next to the puzzle....and the size/scale of the puzzle was perfect.

Definitely I could imagine how kids would have given up before....and using the SB made all the difference in the world with keeping them where the class thinking was...and these puzzles were accessible by my 6th graders (once they got the hang of it). 

Both classes made me promise that we can work these everyday for this pre-break week.  It's a great thing when kids beg you to work on order of operations!!!!!!

PS....you can subscribe and you get a new one each day in your emailbox.  What a bonus.

Incorporating 21st Century Skills in Science Class Research

I decided I had to branch out beyond the typical lesson and incorporate more tools.  Yet I didn't really know how I was going to do that given that my students don't have much tech training.  Our school receives students from two feeder elementary schools...one of which doesn't little to nothing with tech and the other where the teachers do the tech and the kids watch.

So I decided to create a Powerpoint shell that gave the directions on each slide.  Then they had to fill in the slide with their research information.  I knew that would be solid enough to get them headed in the right direction.  Then I broke them into 5 subgroups and they each had to do their own research.

Here's one example.

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She's done a fantastic job of taking the topics and making them come alive for our classmates.

Another student, who is more adventuresome and has a few more techie skills, decided to create some animations within PowerPoint.  Oh, if we'd only had access to MicroWorlds the things he could have done.  Still all in all, it's a great presentation of the information.

I'll have to come back and post that in a bit.

We learned quite a bit.  I got everyone up to speed on PowerPoint, how to scan pictures, and using Citation Machine to give credit for the things they used in their research.  Almost everyone learned how to do Google Earth.  We'll take our next big step in the next project as soon as I learn how!!!!

Science class TV Show

My colleague, Sheryl Nuessbaum-Beach , has me psyched to try a streaming video TV broadcast of our science class.   She suggested that I use UStream TV .  So I've gone ahead and created a science class shell.  I wasn't sure how I felt about this until I learned that I can create a space that's dedicated to our class and is behind a password. 

Tomorrow I have to check the media releases for my students...making sure that it's OK to broadcast our classroom feed.  If I get all that cleared, then I'll try a simple broadcast the end of each science class tomorrow or the next day.

I think this might be a fantastic way for my students to share what we're doing in science class with their parents.  How cool would it be for their folks to log into our TV show and see what we are doing with our stream tables.  Using the chat window, they could type messages to us and I thought I might be able to display that chat window onto our SmartBoard.  Everyone could see the messages as they come through!!!!

I have no idea how well this will work.   I always feel like what we have to say isn't that insightful or deep.  I guess that's not the point, though.  It's building a way that our class can communicate what we're learning with others.

http://www.ustream.tv/

Google Maps--First Steps into Science Classroom

I've just finished my first big experiment with Google Maps.  My students, who were studying weathering and erosion, could pick the option to use Google Maps to present their research.  The research was to cover how erosion changes the surface of the earth.

Here is one of our first attempts.... Sarah's 8th Hour Map 

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Yes there is much we still need to learn and master.  We'll get there.  (If the map is fussy with you, use the hand tool to move the map to one side and you'll be able to close the placemark annotation.)

They would have to identify 6 places on the earth where they could see evidence of one of the processes described in their written research.  They had to insert a pushpin into the map and then write a placemark annotation that explained what they had learned.

• I'd say 100% of the kids learned how to do GMs.
• I'd say 80% of those had the idea of integrating their science information into the map.
• I'd say about 50% of that 80% were a teacher's dream come true.

It wasn't perfection, but a real step for all of us towards integrating 21st Century Tools into the curriculum in such a way that it isn't an add-on...it's a real help.

During one of the presentations, the GM showed an alluival fan.  Now I don't know about you, but I'm not an expert on them.  Sure enough, though....as the student zoomed in closer and closer to the pushpin...you could see the shape of an alluvial fan appearing.  Right in the middle of Death Valley.  Not where I would have expected it...at all.

Probability and SmartBoards

Working along with probablility, it became apparent that virtual manipualtaives would definitely be the way to go.  We started out with the traditional coin flipping exercise where I used the Coin Toss from National Virtual Manipulative Library.  Students engaged right off the bat...so instead of chasing bouncing coins all over the room, looking for that darn penny that rolled under someone's desk....we flipped a coin 30 times as quick as whistle.

Using the SmartBoard makes it even more kid-friendly.  Instead of boring old me running the computer, they just march up to the SB, hit the flip button, and then record the result of their flip on the datasheet I have vertically tiled.  Once the lesson was over, my SB helper for the day, saves the file into our Share folder on the network and then posts a .pdf image of our datasheet to the classroom homework website.

Now we had time to consider new questions.  What if we flipped it 50 times?  When would enough flips get us with a cumulative percentage that looks like the theoretical probability?

That's the beauty of virtual manipulatives in this case.  It was equally if not way more engaging...and it freed us up to advance our classroom conversation well beyond what time would have allowed otherwise.

The homework that I sent with them that night included a coin flipping problem.  At least a half dozen kids begged me to share the web address of the coin flip.  They wanted to use it at home!!!!  So I posted it to my Homework Central website!!! and they did the problem and then extended it to bigger number of flips (just like we'd done in class).