Reflections of a Techie

How do you help students improving the quality of their questions?

Practice and processing of that practice....is the simple answer.

We practice it a lot. 

We take a topic and start thinking about questions that are interesting...and then they start brainstorming a big list.  Topics trend up and down...and the longer the brainstorming goes the better the questions get.  Students hear a good idea and use that good idea in building their question.

We process a lot.

Once we have a pretty long list and everyone is just repeating, we start processing.  I ask them what are questions that are easily Googled and which ones are ones that will require more thought.  It's a simple filter...but a good one.  It's actually a skill that is sort of invisible but very useful if you stop and think about it.

Ususally the processing ends up with min-conversations about what they think or where they'll go to find out more.  I believe it's a great way to incorporate vocabulary development....just slipping the words that I know as their teacher that are relevant to the topics.  Sometimes we leave it there. 

Sometimes we save the list because we use it throughout the set of lessons.  Answering them.  Keeping them on the unanswered list.  Using them for inquiry projects.

Practice and process.  The simple keys to getting better at asking quality questions.

 

From reporting riots to exchanging ideas...tools like AudioBoo help

I've been working with Twitter and learning how to follow real-time events. Text can be limiting, though and I'm just beginning to understand the subtleties of this.

The London riots have exposed me to another way to get the same info as Twitter but in a more human way...Audio Boo.  It's a simple application to make a recording from your computer or iPhone or iTouch.  Somehow the human voice transforms an already tragic situation into something that grips you emotionally.                                        

                                                                                       http://www.flickr.com/photos/beaconradio/6015648177/sizes/m/in/photostream/

 

 

 

Listen to RadioKate's heartbreaking account of events.

This is the raw power of the Internet and it's ability to let us hear first hand what's happening in the world.  Such a simple to use piece of software makes it possible to create high quality audio files that are easy to share.

Another colleague has been using AudioBoo to record his ideas and to share them with the rest of our working group.  When we hear his voice explaining his thinking, again those non-verbal cues are there. 

A conclusion I'm coming to is this....unlike the sterileness of text, hearing the human voice adds more information to the exchange and I understand more.  What are the implications of knowing that?  Where and when should I use the human voice to interject more cues into the communication?

Changing classroom roles--21st century literacy takes over

Trying to get students more involved in the classroom conversation...so I've been thinking about re-defining student jobs/roles.

I don't see that students feel attached to the class or to each other, so I'm going to test out this role

Social Chairperson-- person(s) who is in charge of making sure everyone in the group feels comfortable, participates in the conversations, is in charge of introductions, and publicizing who is in your group.   There are also mingling responsibilities that include finding ways for people to get to know each other, thinking of conversation starters and planning activities for everyone to get to know each other.

I'm not going to define it very clearly so that students help me really craft a better picture of what they need and want.

Reporter---person(s) summarizes what the group has learned that day and at the end of the week.  They will post this information on the class blog as part of their homework.  At designated times, the reporter will take photographs which they must upload onto the class blog.  Finally, the reporter is responsible for maintaining a shared calendar for their group that also links to the class calendar.

I'm wanting to do a better job keeping parents in the loop and creating a digital footprint for our class.   This role will be one way in which to do that....students being the ones to do the work with me in the background managing it.  Again they'll help me refine/improve these ideas.  This is also where I plan on embedding mini-lessons about Google Doc functions---teaching them how to create/share documents and calendars.  Hopefully they won't even know that a 21st century tool just hit them!!!

Twittererererer---person(s) responsible for tweeting each day about what has been learned.  The Twittererererer may coordinate with the reporter.  The Twitter must also read tweets/blogs to find out what other groups have posted and report back to the group.  Our class Twitter account is @ratzel66

I love the title.  Much like the reporter but a different medium.  We'll do it first using the classroom door so they can develop their tweeting skills....then they'll graduate to the real deal.

Next I want to emphasize with a classroom role that students are in charge of looking up information....acquiring those precious literacy skills and critical thinking skills.  Here's where I'll embed the social bookmarking mini-lessons using Diigo.

Researcher--- person(s) that keeps track of anything that needs to be Googled by creating social bookmarks and lists of other resources that were used by anyone in the group.  The Researcher develops and manages the group project.  They start any team document and teaches the group members how to use software and websites, especially Twitter, Google and Diigo.

 

I think the roles will change over time...but this is my starting point.  As I move into more content based stuff, the roles will adjust to be more aligned to science.

Choice and student ownership: Takeaways from gaming & passion-based learning

Why are students so busy learning things at home?  They are huge into video games, basketball, clothing and so many other things.  They are what Sheryl Nuessbam-Beach calls passion based learning.  I've always wondered how a student can remember the millionth level of ___________ name the most recent video game.  They can map every twist and turn of how to get to the "nth" level and they will know everything they need to have in order to magically open the door.

So why can't students remember their math facts?

There's a huge gap between what I want them to learn and what they want to learn.  Duh. 

One of my biggest ah-ha's of thinking about gaming is that it keeps kids constantly challenged with rewards they've picked that are just out of reach.  They need to learn something in order to gain that reward.  I know part of it is choice...they picked the reward not me.

So that's a big question with which I need to wrestle.  How to use this idea of passion-based learning and what I think I sort of know about gaming....and merge them into designing units and lessons which gives students ownership and choice...and pushes them to more rigorous places of learning.  So they'll know the "nth level" of earthquakes and density and convection currents.

Check out how Constance Steinkuher talks about the pedagogy of gaming.  It's amazing.  I loved the way she thinks that "teaching should be more like community organizing".  Right on.

 

 

Online Games and Interest-Driven Learning are Transformative for Today's Young Learners from DML Research Hub on Vimeo.

Roadkill? Or jump into learning? My choice.

Several topics have been the focus of my own summer learning...online learning, PBL, photography and infographics to name them.  Here's something that confirmed what I've already been thinking...online learning is quietly (to some ears) becoming HUGE.

 

Via: OnlineEducation.net

So am I going to be a casualty of not seeing this coming and become roadkill.  Or am I willing to engage in the idea, make it my own and become the change that I want?  My choice.

One unselfish act changed everything for me

I am one of the luckiest people on earth.  Why you might ask?

Because more than 50 years ago, William B Harding sacrificed everything so that I could have a family.  Happy flying in the newly formed Army Air Force, he loved the military....all the spit and polish, the order, the camaraderie, the honor to serve his country and lead other men.  

He was also married to someone that made his world light up... my mom. 

Yep...pretty much my dad was content to be in the Army, travel the world and love my mom.  Well that is until they decided they wanted children.  The hard news that children were not biological possible dealt them a hard blow and somehow later they decided to adopt. 

One problem.

Men serving in the military weren't deemed "suitable" for adopting a child.  What a stupid policy.  How is it that he couldn't fly and we couldn't be a family if he was in the Army?   I understand the thinking behind the policy and I know the 1950s can only be characterized as a decades where appearances was everything.  A tragic policy that must have negatively impacted hundreds and thousands of lives.

He went into insurance...re-insurance in fact.  And he was very good at it and rose to the top of his company.  He traveled the world again insuring the insurance companies against the risk of natural disasters.  I don't imagine, though, that it replaced flying and the Army.  But he never said a word to make me think this, it's just what I've surmised reading his journals that described how much he loved what he was doing.  Maybe serving in both World War II and Korea changed it his mind....he was shot down numerous time and tells of the terror he felt trying to find his way back thru enemy territory.  I don't know how he decided.  But............... he adopted me. 

Me.  I never knew how much it cost him to do that.  I grew up thinking he was the lucky one....that I completed his life....that he always dreamed of the life he'd have with me.  Daddys are like that.  They tell their daughters things and we believe them...100%.  Thank goodness because that power changes us and makes us feel loved, secure and confident.

Could you find a bigger contrast in professions? I think he felt it was a fair trade, though.  Little stuff makes me think that.  For example,  when he came home and I was waiting for him on the front porch (hey, it was the 50s and we did stuff like that), he was thrilled to see me there.  Everyday he found something at the office to bring me....a cool stamp from a letter he had gotten in correspondence, a stick of gum, a paperclip he bent around in some goofy shape, maybe some old envelopes they didn't want anymore so I could lick and seal them, a penny he found on the sidewalk in downtown KC.  You never knew which pocket and  you never knew what cool tidbit it would be.  He would laugh and laugh as I searched all his pockets until I found where he hid the surprise, he'd put his Fedora on my head and we'd walk up to the house together.  Who does that if they're not happy?

He died in 1976 after a horrific battle with Pick's Disease.  A disease that robs you of your cognitive powers and drags you down in the most agonizingly slow death.  I hate that disease.

Going on 40 years he's been gone and I still miss him and I still love him.  He's my Daddy and everyday I wish I could crawl up on the sofa beside him and talk away the hours about what he'd done that day and how my day went. We shared our love of reading and telling each other about our newest book.  wouldn't it be wonderful to share adult titles....I wonder what you'd be reading today?  When I got divorced, I ached to have him hold me and tell me everything was going to be OK. Nothing could have made me better except to  have my Daddy help me walk thru those bleak and desperate days.

I believe he's just waiting for me and that someday we'll have all those walks and talks and I'll get to be near him again.

I hope that I can tell him that I know how much he gave up and thank him. 

So Daddy....until then, I love you with all my heart and try every single day to live up to model of unconditional love in the way I treat my children.  I try, as best I can, to keep you alive in the spirit of how I live my life and what a gift that's been. You're still parenting me and I can know in my heart of hearts what's the right thing to do when I think back to what you'd say...what a moral compass you set for me.

 You were, are and will always be the best daddy a girl could ever want.  Happy Father's Day.

 

Tornadoes, bunkers and lessons learned

Spending time in the tornado  shelter (or bunker as my California friend calls it) with my 600 or so middle schoolers, gives you a chance to use different teaching skills than you usually use. We were watching the Weather Channel at the start of 5th hour and saw these severe weather patterns developing off to the southwest of where our school is located.  Then the loudspeaker intercom said..."Students and teachers this is not a drill.  Please move students to the basement immediately."  And about the same time, the tornado sirens started blasting outside the school.

We went to the basement and sat waiting for any word of what was happening.  On my side of the basement, I had lots of the wiggley kids but they quickly realized that they better sit still as the adults were striding around and acting very serious.  Somber is an understatement.

Right there and then I could feel tens and then hundreds of eyes looking to me for what to do and how to react.  They were scared.

I walked up and down between the rows of kids smiling and telling them their job was to "breath in and out".  Relax and stay calm.  The principal and AP get paid all the big bucks to worry and they had special radios that the district provides to a special weather report.  I thought this would help them relax because they knew their cell phones weren't working....remember we were in the  basement...under lots of feet of concrete so signals weren't getting through.  A lighthearted, casual attitude conveyed to them that we were going to be OK and not to worry.

One student asked me about her big brother who had just come home from college.  She was crying because she knew he wouldn't hear the sirens thru the music he loved to play so loudly.  I told her if her mom was like me...nothing would stop me from making sure my son was safe.  I was sure her mom was no different and her mom would do what was best for him.  She gave me a big hug.

Some girls started to tear up.  It was my job to comfort them and re-arrange people so they were near someone who would be a comfort to them as I was walking around.  I would just walk by and tell them to look at me and to remember that we were safe and someone was in control....we were in the safest place for miles around.  They just needed me to bend down, smile at them and give them a little pat on the back.

Trying to get everyone stablized, I would get them to  smile at me and ask them if they could be brave for another minute or two so I could go and check on someone else. They would nod and let me go.  So brave when I knew what they wanted to do was to sob and just dissolve into a puddle.

And for my wigglers....I had to do something with them.  They are big blabber mouths and 60 minutes of silence is brutal on them.  So I tried to show them what they could do to be active in a quiet way...thumb war and rock, paper, scissors.  Even doing that in a quiet way is tough...so they had lots to learn about being "subtle"...learning to play in such a way that not everyone in the whole room was watching them.  Hard to believe that's what they learned while we were in our bunker....but it was what they needed.

Lastly were those pesky 8th graders...usually they are slippery and very reluctant to rise to the  occasion.  But I whispered to them that I would be counting on them if the lights went out.   They were going to have to step it up and lead the way...not scream, be calm and show the littler kids how to stay safe.  I told them that I would need them and that I meant it.  And they rose to the occasion and they were everything they should be....calm and set excellent examples.   Finally we were told, we could come up and that things looked much improved.  Little did we know that Joplin was blown away.  We knew we might have to go back, so we hurried back to our room and watched the weather updates.  We were never in serious danger.  The real damage happened miles from my school but it was scary.

And fortunately....as we looked out the window, the sun came out and everyone in my 5th hour class cheered.  We all felt better and greatly relieved.  I learned so much from those 60 minutes.  I have brave little souls who will rise up to meet the challenges and I will miss them terribly when the graduate and go onto 7th grade.

 

 

pictures are CC licensed from http://www.flickr.com/photos/derohlsen/, http://www.flickr.com/photos/aussiegall/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/robnwatkins/

Reduce that summer learning slump with just five!!! Kids got it!!!

Don't be a chump, Avoid the slump...Read just 5!!!

You can be a leader, find good ones and read 'em!!!

Go for sky...find your five!!!!

Take the dive and read your five, and then another five and another five...you can jive.

Students had a blast this week designing bookmarks for their summer reading.  Having shared the news my good friend Donalyn Miller @donalynbooks gave us during #titletalk last month that if students would read only 5 titles over the summer they could help reduce their summer slump.  I challenged them to come up with catchy slogans and bookmarks that we could reproduce and distribute.  See what you think of some of the ones that have been submitted so far.

 

 

They have so many ideas.  But you can tell that swimming is a huge theme for them no matter what else they do this summer.

 
While others appreciated the idea that they wouldn't lose the ground they just fought so hard to gain during this past school year.

The original artwork from some students was amazing, although not everyone can be this artistic...we agreed that everyone can and should read.

My overwhelming impression from these bookmarks is that students do love to read and they can be enthusiastic readers if we help them see the upside of their efforts.  They just don't fall in love with reading in a world where there are so many choices...many of which are "easier".   You know where I'm taking this next don't you....for the last three weeks I'm asking them......

So what's your five?

I've got mine in mind.  Get yours.

Phones+Science=Video that explains what students are learning

My students have always learned so much.  But we're experimenting with how to share that learning with others.  Most recently we've been capturing what they're doing with phone videos and then editing those into short movies that explain what they're learning.  Here's one pair's explanation of Newton's Law.  I think the girls did a great job.

 

Newton's First Law from Marsha Ratzel on Vimeo.

 

 

 

 

The learning really expanded as they examined the video clip.  When they had the movie in the editing software and were able to see it slow motion, they could see the car stop while the washer continues.  This was pretty exciting to them. 

Now I know that this isn't some new revelation to the science world...it's been done again and again.  But it's new to this age student and to these students...and they are doing the learning for themselves.  Instead of watching a movie that someone else made, they have made the movie themselves.

What I've learned is that phones are pretty darn powerful tools.  Most kids have them and suprisingly almost all of them have video capabilities and they already know how to take video and how to download it.  So it's a matter of finding ways to download the video to some common place and then getting it into a format that the editing software can read and manipulate. 

 

 

Let the "31 Day Game" Begin!!! Wanna have fun & learn too???

via thecleversheep.blogspot.com

I'm just at the point where I'm learning from my PLN, so imagine my delight when this strange Tweet came up about the 31 Day Challenge.  What in the heck is that?

Who plays that?  I thought I'd seen this as a math game...but how would it be a PD activity using Twitter? 

As part of my continuing commitment to try all things and just see how they go, I am testing the waters for this idea.  The newest game just starts today and I couldn't be more excited.  The first question was to examine the ideas behind a jigsaw or a graffatti instructional tool and decide which one is the better cooperative learning strategy in your classroom.

Each strategy was hyperlinked with a resource to read which reminds you of how that strategy can be used and then I read thru the Twitter feed to see what other people had been saying.

  

 

 

 

I'm sure you get the idea.  So now, I had to decide for myself.

Well actually it wasn't that hard.  I love the way that the graffatti appeals to middle schoolers, how it is to implement and how versitle it is.  I'm going to vote for that strategy.  There's a whole website devoted to housing the information and strategies from this learning.

What a wonderful...and relatively quick review of things I knew but hadn't recently thought about applying my classroom.  What a nonthreatening way to ask for help from colleagues and to build my twittterverse up with other practitioners who are thinking about how to improve.  I think this could be winner application of Twitter for me.

The last tip I thought was useful was to bookmark the search results for this so I could easily come back to it everyday (plus this was another tips from one of the game organizers).  I love it that the organizers are helping everyone and even a newbie like me doesn't feel overwhelmed or like it's too much.  Learning can be so much fun and finding structures like this are the best of traditional learning and the online world.