Reflections of a Techie

Big Hearts Launch the Service Drive

  Painting posters today and the hallways were filled with so much excitement.  Our 1st hour classes adopt  a child from a group or foster home.  Today we worked on creating the hallway bulletin boards to announce what every child needs and some of their special "wants".  We made posters to encourage students to participate and join in the fun.

 Each hour is given a big red trash bag to fill with presents including new coats, boots, gloves, bedding, tolietries, toys, books and games.  We have a long list of possible gifts to fill the bag and students love to sign up for what they'll bring.  If the "want" is too big, they go in together and pool their money and resources.

Students were asked to come up with slogans for the drive...here were the winners from a multitude of choices....."Fill a Bag, Fill a Heart"  and the "Fill a Bag with Love".  Aren't those great slogans?

Wish we had our storytelling microstudio operational.  This would make a perfect starting project for the studio. 

Diigo conversations push kids deeper

I'm having a blast doing an enrichment project with about a dozen students.  We are following a scientific research vessel that is exploring the Canterbury Basin and documenting what they are doing via blog entries.  Each day I have my students work on reading those blogs and harvesting out the most relevant information using Diigo annotations.

The blog entries give a pretty simple to understand description of the science they are doing...as they are doing it.  With a Teacher at Sea, we get glimpses into the processes by which they study the crust of the earth in search for answers about all sorts of things.

Imagine my kids excitment when they read about the current project being conducted at Canterbury Basin which is on a transform boundary.  We just finished studying about plate boundaries and I don't think they thought they'd ever use that info much.  Heck I don't use it very much either.  But sure enough it is that boundary that produces enough sediment that the rising/falling of the sea level can be studied at his location.

The other evolving part of this project is the use of Diigo.  Now I haven't worked out all the bugs...and as Bill Ferritier likes to say, I'm being digitally resilient...ie I am using multiple work arounds.  But I have to tell you that despite all the pain in my neck this has been, I'm LOVING Diigo.  We are annotating the blogs as we read them and then dissecting what they mean.  Now imagine my little kids (6th graders you know) trying to understand that the geochemistry of this sediment can tell scientist about the cycling of sea levels...and this cycling is important to the coastal cities survival throughout the world.  We're just at the most basic places, but they are digging through...asking me questions and pulling out info they think is relevant.

I have them write summaries and email those summaries from Diigo to me each weekend.  OK...not all are great.  But most of these kids "get it" and are pretty interested in the science being conducted.  I think they are also grooving on the conversation we get from highlighting important things from the blogs and then chatting (via the annotation commenting feature) about why it's important and what are the next things we should look for.

Believe me when I say I don't know what I'm doing.  But I think we're doing some good stuff...and I know this is a perfect enrichment project for those kids that are super motivated, want to do something beyond the routine class stuff and will follow through with minimal teacher hand holding.

This is the kind of thing that puts me in the zone of a perfect teaching situation.  I love it because they are excited and interacting with stuff well beyond my skimpy set of science skills.  I know NOTHING about geochemistry or micro palentology or ____________________.  I don't have to because there are 60 scientists that know everything...I just have to facilitate the conversation!!!!  Isn't this the best?

Image copied from "All Hands on Core" blog post from the JR Resolution 11.18.09  http://joidesresolution.org/node/896

SmartBoard Recorder--First Attempts at Math Tutorials

We are working on making tutorials for different kinds of math procedures.  This was one of our first attempts to use the SmartBoard video recorder to make the movie.

Mulitplying Decimals from Marsha Ratzel on Vimeo.

What I learned is....

• You can't show them too many examples before your start.  This way the product they create has a better chance of quality than if they don't know what you expect.
• It is going to take several tries.
• Encourage them, require them to make a script or storyboard...but the best lesson is letting them try it without that and they will immediately see how they fumble around.  Then they ASK to go and write the script.
• Do in-class consultations...ask the other students to offer suggestions for ways it could be improved next time.  Calling it a consultation makes the critiquers feel important and makes the creator feel less threatened with their suggestions.
• Movies will get better and better...the more we do, the better they get.  This first attempt is pretty lame, but it's a great start.

The techie stuff I found out...

• The file type that the SmartBoard recorder uses is not friendly for blog posting.  I had to use Zamzar to convert the file to an mp4.  Maybe I don't know what I'm doing (that happens quite a bit) so it's something I will work on finding out for sure.

Microloans can make a difference

Kiva is now 4 years old and it is one of the greatest things in my life.  What is Kiva?  It's a microloan website that allows me to make small loans to people in other countries.

What is the best is that a loan is probably made from at least a dozen people...maybe more if the loan amount is larger.  All these random people who don't know each other, read the loan need, decide to fund part of it, are combined with other people who felt the same way, and the loan is made.

I took a screenshot of a loan I made to a women in Peru who needed money to help her farm the land her folks had left to her.  Bacilla needed money for fertilizer and seeds..promising to repay the loan within 8 months.  True to her word, the entire loan amount was repaid within 7 months.  I can't tell you how it makes me feel to help someone who has very little...hopefully making a difference.

Look at where the microloaners came from.

They came from all parts of the world.  If I look at the Google Maps of my other loans it's the exact same story again and again.  People like me who have only $20 or $30 to offer periodically can make a difference in the world.

I started adding to my Kiva accounts when I was frustrated that the world was in the dumper and I could do nothing.  I'm not famous.  I'm not rich.  I'm incapable of going anywhere and doing anything.  I don't trust large organizations to do what they say they will do.  And then I found Kiva...they ask for donations whenever you make a loan to help pay their overhead expenses and the rest of the money you send goes directly to the person.

So far I have made 13 loans.  I try to add $30 to my account as often as possible...once the loan is repaid I have that money to relend.  My goal is to leave my children and future grandchildren as big of an account as I can so they will carry on my dream of helping others from around the world.

OK 13 loans isn't that many.  But it is 13 more people than I had helped when I started 2 1/2 years ago.  And that is what counts...I'm not powerless.  I can make a difference and I am doing it.

How about you?

Can you draw with a temperature probe?

It's such a busy few class days...on Friday we had our first temperature probe lab.  This one is mostly about getting them to start learning how to use the probes.  I think it's quite brilliant of the lab designers to have students manipulate how the graph looks by dunking the probe in warm and cold water.  It's a totally engaging learning activity because students love to make a "M" on their graph or a "N".  It's funny..they beg to try it again and make their letter look better.  Almost immediately they begin to internalize how to make the graph line rise or fall.

Our only problem was that we couldn't get it all done in the 43 minutes.  I have to wait 4 days until I can get the laptop cart signed out again to finish the lab.

Students have asked me over and over again....can we do that again?  when are we going to finish our lab?  What I love is that they understand why the graphs move in the ways that they do.  This is something that I used to never be able to achieve with days of instruction and tons of worksheets.  Now I hook up the probes and in about 2 class periods, they are "pros".  This is tech integration at its finest.

Help!!! NBCT Recertification...brainstormers needed!!!

My life is overwhelming right now...too much to do and the pressure is huge.  It's the start of my two year window to renew my National Board Certification...and I just didn't know if I had enough energy to do it.  Luckily for me, I have a great group of folks from which to take my inspiration.  I read through the Teacher Leader Network posts on doing renewal.  Sounds like everyone pretty much felt like me before they started.

So I'm putting aside all my fears and just going for it.  I've tried to read through the directions and have no idea what I do that would even qualify as a Professional Growth Experience...but I'm sure it will come to me.  Hopefully my virtual community can continue to help me struggle through this experience.

The thing about is this....I know I have the essence of a National Board teacher but to take the time to sit down to write about it in a coherent way is frightening.  I know I can do but I only remember the amazing amount of time it took me to do the initial certification.  I know that I don't have that in me...but I think this one is easier.  I just need a mentor...someone who knows what is going on and that can help me brainstorm.  If I could get a plan in mind, I know I can execute it.

So anyone out there that thinks they would like to help me, I'm open to all suggestions and help.

Good tidings abound in my halls

I think I must be on a roll because usually I write about assessment or technology...today I have more than those usual topics to write about.  I have to tell you what a cool bunch of colleagues I teach with.

My mother is old, 87 years young right now.  She fell about 3 weeks ago and she's in pain.  More pain everyday and it is heartbreaking watching her get worse and worse.  Over the weekend, I found in her a state when I checked on her early Saturday morning...a state better left to one's imagination.  I knew I had to get her seen by a physician.

Early Monday morning (my first day of school at the middle school and in teaching my grad school classes), I called to get her an appointment...first time they could see was today at 2pm.  So on the 2nd day of school, I had to get a half day sub.  Normally I am never absent.  I'm the one everyone else asks for favors.

Today I had to ask others for favors.  Boy did they respond.  instead of having to write out sub plans, they told me to combine my class with theirs and they'd take care of it.  I couldn't have appreciated it more and it relieved my fears that while I was taking care of my mom, my students would be lost with a sub.  Mind you, we're still at the critical phase where they tend to cry because they're overwhelmed with starting in a new school.

Cutiest story of the day...one of my little guys didn't show up for class.  We looked for him in the hall and in others classes and he wasn't anywhere.  We were going to the pod to combine with another class so we weren't in our classroom.  When I went back in about 20 minutes later, there he sat.  Big crockodile tears in his eyes because he didn't know where we were or what to do.  So he sat very quietly in the back of the room, hoping someone would eventually come back for him.  he had gone to PE instead of my class because they are alternate day classes.  He was so relieved to see me, I thought he might hug me.  So sweet they are in this first week of school.

So sweet are my teammates who helped me out and saved my kids from the dreaded substitute video lesson plan!!!!

Lifelong learning is a personal responsibility....

My dear friend Bill Ferriter is writing about another one of my hot topics!!!  Go Bill.  His wondering is about how we will change our profession into lifelong learners.  I have to say that this is a topic that is very close to my heart...probably because I really believe in the whole idea of lifelong learner and how it keeps me young and curious....

Also this fall I am teaching another grad school class on Teaching and Learning with Technology.  My introductory unit is all about Lifelong Learning.  I make the case for it by citing some pretty well known stats....only 7% of teachers who use technology use it effectively (ie seamlessly and appropriate for the learning target).  Parker Palmer says it so well.....“good teaching is rather more than technique: 'good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher'.  This is where we find the push to be better than we are today...when it comes from our identity and the integrity of finding out who we are as a teacher.  That is the heart of the reflection process and that I learned during my National Board process almost 10 years ago.  The folks in these grad school classes, for the most part, are very motivated, committed individuals...they are smart and have developed a good sense of their cohort community.  I think they are really helpful to each other although they are mostly online, virtual classmates.  Their discussion forums last summer were inspiring, so I'm excited to see what they do with this kind of challenge.

I am going to be bold in this class I'm teaching.  I designed a learning activity where my grad students will have to join a virtual community.  I picked Classroom 2.0 because it fits the wide range of content areas and age groups that are reflected in my class demographics...and because it offers something for the beginning to the experienced user.  What is bold is that they must pick one aspect of the community to investigate each week and then use a reflection blog to record what they learned.  Many may believe this is too much to do...many may believe I should be more directive...and I'm hoping that many will enjoy the freedom to define for themselves what it is they want to learn while....many will benefit from the requirement to reflectively blog.  I'm not "grading" the blog so we'll see how many will do it.... 
For 6 weeks they'll investigate, try things out and write about it...then we'll post our individual conclusions and do an online discussion to try and generalize the experience beyond what each person found out by themselves.

I think if we gave teachers more learning experiences like this, we might begin to develop more independence.  Yes, they'll hate that it's not more defined and prescriptive.  But as we do more and more like this...places where we can't really fail or there isn't one single path to follow, we can develop a culture that embraces this kind of learning.  How many PD experiences have you attended where this open-ended, long term learning is the target or objective?  I can tell you I haven't been to many.

Great question Bill.  I'll let you know how my 6 week experiment goes.

Amping up the efficiency of creating enhanced podcasts

All day I've been making enhanced podcasts...you know the kind with the audio file and slides at the same time.  I use GarageBand and it's really pretty simple to use.  I've taken a bunch of lessons using my One-to-One training at the Apple Store.  (If you haven't taken advantage of this inexpensive way to get tons of lessons..look at the possibilities.  For $99 a year, they'll give you one-on-one training and you can sign up pretty much every 10 days.  I've taken in partially done projects where I'm stuck and need a bit of help...all the way to them teaching me toolbars.  My only reservation is that if you have a project where you need help ASAP, the wait can be too long to really help.)

The tip I want to share with anyone who is interested is this...I've tried a couple of ways to make this a more time efficient process.  Sometimes I've recorded all the audio, then gone back and put markers into where the pictures/slides should go...and sometimes I've recorded the audio one slide at a time and inserted the pictures/slides as I go along.

I have to say that my very unscientific experimentation shows that recording the audio one slide and inserting the image then is more time efficient.  By almost 15%.  I think it's all the doubling back I have to do when I record all the audio and then I have to go back through to put in the markers and then back through again to drop in the images.

I'm sure that someone who is much more schooled in this technology can see all the flaws in both my methods.   I think this is where if someone wanted to do some real educational research you'd probably discover that self taught folks have ways of doing things, but that formally trained folks have better, more efficient ways of doing things.  Just a guess and I don't know either to be true.

Did you feel the spirit of the 4th of July? I did!!!!

Yesterday I had the good fortune to stumble across a pre-Fourth of July parade.  I happened to be in Oceanside, California which is just outside the gates of Fort Pendleton...a huge Marine base.  Oceanside seems like city of contrasts...there's a big dose of surfer types, another big dose of tourists and a huge chunk of Marines.  An interesting mix, huh?

This parade was like so many I've been to or when I was in the marching band.  Yet it had such a different feel.  I think it was the presence of Marine families and Marines in uniform standing along the parade route.  I stood near an Iraq war vet who had 2 hearing aides in because of an injury who was in his uniform.  I haven't stood near many Marines recently and let me tell you....they are a presence...take up a lot of space both physically and psychologically.

As the parade went on and the twirlers had passed by along with the beauty queens and city council members....car loads of veterans started.  This section of the parade was dedicated to Pearl Harbor Survivors, WWII vets, Korea vets, VFW members, Desert Storm vets, and Iraq and Afghanistan vets.  As each group came by, the Marine captain next to me would snap to attention and yell out Semper Fi.  If there was another Marine in the car, that person would yell "hoo ra" back.  Other people in the crowd would applaud and yell out "thanks".  This parade made me remember my Daddy.  He served as an artillary spotter in the Army Air Force before there was a separate branch of the service.  I know, in small chunks, how he changed from what he went through in those two wars.  It was a good thing and a burden to carry...but he felt like it was his priviledge and duty to protect our country and his family.  I felt that same sense of things while I was watching.

I was reduced to tears.  The spirit of brotherhood that went back and forth between the captain and vets...well, it was special.  The unity of people standing and thanking these vets for their service and sacrifices was humbling.  I am so glad I happenstanced upon this parade.  It was a blessing in my life and one I won't forget....ever.