Technology for Teachers Wrap-up

This course had forced me to face my fears about technology in the classroom; there are so many options available if the classroom has the hardware and Internet connections in place. I had my share of frustrations and computer-induced brickwalls (like this afternoon when my name and account at QuestGarden was deleted) but I also feel like I can talk techno-speak better than I could back in August when this course began. My blog was a great forum for me to get my thoughts out of my head and I liked the lesson plan possibilities I explored (as surfer and creator). It gives me courage to play more with my new laptop and become more familiar with the tools that can be an asset to me if I give them a chance.

WebQuest Lesson Plan: Aloha Hawaii

Check out our social studies lesson titled "Aloha Hawaii" for 5th graders at
http://questgarden.com/73/92/1/081121075235/index.htm

My friends Lyn Manning and Kelli Valdez and I compiled a fun lesson for 5th grade students to learn about Hawaii using the WebQuest site. It is a jigsaw activity where first the students research websites on their assigned topic (climate and geography and tourist attractions were mine, as well as the teacher resources section on student created sites on geography), then they are reassigned with TOPIC EXPERTS from other groups to create a travel brochure. On presentation day the students board a plane, listen to ukelele music and hear climate & geography information as they fly into the airport. The tourist attraction group then shares favorite sites to visit, ambassadors greet and share state history and state symbols. Then they enjoy a luau to appreciate the Hawaiian culture, and on the return trip the students as an extension activity make a postcard of their favorite parts of the adventure.

We spent five separate occasions (several hours) together setting up our accounts, sharing websites, refining the process and tasks, refining and changing links some more, and getting it ready to post. We got nervous when the grade level measurement feature was high (due to word volume on a page?) and tried to whittle down our text where we could without sacrificing web links. This afternoon as we pushed the Publish button (after Kelli lost her hula links and other frustrations when we were trying to add things to the lesson from different computers at the same time), my name was dropped from the lesson entirely. None of us knew what we had done to bring that about and were unsuccessful at trying to get my name as collaborating author back on the lesson plan. This project reminds me that I am a digital immigrant who is trying to use cool new techno-gadgets but ends up IN TEARS when it does something I don't even know how to fix.

I enjoyed viewing other lessons on WebQuest and will try to find ways to utilize these interactive lessons in my classroom. I enjoyed especially my surfing for tourist sites and volcano sites; I really liked finding the student authored sites about natural disasters, pele, and wayfinding. I'm sure students would be interested in exploring these as extensions to the lesson we created, and then create their own about features here in Cache Valley.

My favorite part about this activity was working with two women I admire. They are moms like me with chaotic lives (you wouldn't believe if I told you) and still manage to be at the top of the class in an extremely competitive group of courses. I learned a lot working with them about making our lesson language appropriate for our target audience and how to find "gif" sites for animated cliparts (we loved but couldn't get to work on our lesson pages). Group projects really are a way for students to teach each other and pool talents and expertise to produce a meaningful end product.

Interactive on-line tutor

I got to be an elementary school student this morning learning about cause-and-effect sentences and order of operations math concepts using interactive computer lessons. The lessons were
www.create.usu.edu/practice_reading/reading.cfm and
www.create.usu.edu/practice_open/numberoperations.cfm
In the reading lesson I chose to work with the female (classmates said to avoid the robot persona) taking about preparing to run a marathon. She "stood" at the left side of each screen teaching me about what a cause is, what an effect is, and how they work together in sentences using clue words like "because" or "so". Just last week in my 5th grade practicum class we did boring worksheets about this very topic, and judging from their enthusiasm for interactive math lessons, I'm sure they would have learned just as much and had more FUN logging on to this lesson. I noticed as I was the student that this experience with the personal tutor would have caught more of the individual problems and questions certain students had (they have learned that if they just keep looking down at their worksheet someone else will provide the answer out loud or they can make a guess in the blank and get SOME points). This program makes you get it right before you can move on. I liked the audio that had a 5th grade female student's voice and the "hip" comments like "You're awesome!" that is great for making the student stay motivated and optimistic about learning the topic.

The math lesson was really boring and over-kill on the problems. I chose as my persona a Hispanic female and that was cool because she had an accent when she talked. I didn't like that I didn't have a scratchpad to do the complicated math problems (I'm not very great at calculating in my head!) but I did like that often she connected math knowledge to real-life applications ("go goggle to see how knowing math helps you get a good job"). I didn't know until much later that I could click to skip through the instruction screens; I would've done that sooner. I think students would want a shorter chunk of lessons because my brain got tired after a while.

I think this could be an effective extension of class work but I'm not sure I'd use these online tutors to teach the concepts. My post-test scores didn't show improvement and I didn't feel a greater love for math because of playing math games online. My practicum experience in 5th grade showed me that students love to use interactive games but consider them as games: I could see some of the boys from my class not taking this very seriously without some accountability (post-test scores for grades, for example). When I got some answers wrong (according to the computer) I didn't know why: the computer just made me "stab at the dark" again until I got the math problem right or the right wording of sentences.

Instructional Architect (ia.usu.edu)

This week in class I explored lesson plan helps on Instructional Architect. First I logged in as a student using a class password and compared two lessons: Earthquakes and Volcanoes vs. Adventures in the Desert. Earthquakes and Volcanoes was just a jumble of links to what felt like "card catalog" site information (not live links that directed the student directly to the page). The Adventures in the Desert was much more user-friendly lesson with tasks written at a child's level. The process subheading offered several helpful live links to web pages about desert animals kids would love. There were lots of additional links for further research, rubric for evaluation, and a conclusion. This comparison exercise emphasized the need for interactive lessons to be at the appropriate level (web links to highly-technical, scientific research sites will just frustrate a child) and offer links that are current (not expired as the first one I visited was). One of the cool things about Instructional Architect is that I can set up a class account for students to access from home hassle-free and fee-free a variety of curriculum-relevant interactive lessons (science, history, math, literature, . . .). Kids can log on at home to complete an assignment or learn more about a certain topic, and (this is exciting) involve parents and siblings in their learning by directing them to the lesson on the web too.

There are teacher benefits as well. Logging on as a teacher, you can browse hundreds of existing lesson plans or web links sorted by grade, subject, and topic. Our instructor explained the evaluation process: only "vetted" lessons are posted here, so teachers can trust that these lessons are high-quality and current (similar to a "stamp of approval"). Sharing lessons frees teachers from the "reinvent the wheel" syndrome. I practiced creating a lesson using my actual group lesson topic that is due in a few weeks focused on Hawaii. I found cool links to "After the Day of Infamy" memories of Pearl Harbor survivors (www.memory.loc.gov) and several great kids sites for research and photographs that will be useful as we create our Hawaii travel brochure lesson plan. I felt like my class time was productive for my project as well as give me an alternative lesson plan site (that I think I like better than WebQuest's WebGarden). The downside is that with IA you need to use some html codes, so I'd give it lower marks for user-friendliness.

My mentor teacher used several interactive math lessons on the web this month. I was able to teach fractions and prime/composite numbers using the SmartBoard in our classroom. The kids really liked the Tony's Pizza Shop game because it was a lesson but felt like a game. I see the value in spicing math lessons with technology because the students can't help but be glued to the screen or fighting for a turn to DO MATH. How cool if they could log on at home to a lesson created specifically for them that would enrich the day's lesson FOR FUN! I am liking technology in the classroom more and more as I become more familiar with (and less frightened of) it!

Digital Photography

This morning my friend Jessica and I wandered around the Education building (it was a rainy 7:30 a.m. morning so we didn't venture outside) looking for geometric shapes to capture with a Nikon digital camera we checked out from the department. We were on a scavenger hunt I'm sure elementary school students would love, and when we had all our photos, we came back to download on iPhoto and play with our pix on Comic Life. We had to jump right into the software with little instruction, using trial and error to get our files to fit in the boxes of the comic strip templates. We had three pictures of four shapes: a smoke alarm, a ceiling fire extinguisher, and a door lock, for example. There are speech bubbles we inserted to each shape and a text box to provide the geometric shape definitions.

I remember the American West Heritage Center fieldtrip our life skills/special ed. class took a few years ago. We took a digital camera along and snapped pictures of the kids with the pygmy goats, riding the hay wagon, and entering the indian teepee. Back in class the next month each student selected favorite digital photos from the day, narrated his/her favorite memories, and created a digital scrapbook. A major highlight was the picture of me and the duckling that had just pooped in my hand; the kids all loved my surprised/disgusted face. It trumped all the other farm animal pictures of that day but something about which each child had MUCH to say (with just as much laughter!). We worked for hours on these CDs and the students received a copy to take home for the summer. Parents said that these programs were more popular than any cartoon. That project was just one of many that featured digital photographs in and out of the classroom, and I am sure that my digital camera will be a primary feature in my future classroom. Pictures taken by my students as well as myself could be inserted in class newsletters and blog, bulletin boards, and lesson enrichment activities (as this geometry project was).

One of my "beefs" with using technology in the classroom is the time wasted when the technology tools experience glitches. It seems that often the computer connections are down, as it was in our class today, or as in my practicum classroom, the network connection is so slow the kids are bored before the exciting interactive site loads. Just as Jessica and I were ready to snap the first shot, the camera "shouted" that the memory card was full and the batteries were dead. So we spent our time going back to the classroom to get a new set of batteries and deleting existing photos on the camera. Using digital cameras in the classroom demands that these problems be avoided so the students will taste success rather than frustration. Again, technology can enhance the classroom experience if I challenge myself to be proficient and excited about it.

Website Evaluations

Class today was focused on surfing the Web as teachers and elementary school students, looking for specific sites to evaluate using web site evaluation forms.

The first task was to find an elementary school web site. At first I was frustrated because, as often happens when I try to log on as a parent of students in this district, the Cache County School District web sites were down and unavailable. I used the web site for Ellis Elementary School, the first school I thought of here in Cache Valley that is in Logan's district . . . and it worked! The site is standard as far as home page with school address and contact info, staff directory, lunch menu, community and PTA council notes, and calendar. It also had links to several sites like Discovery Kids.com, FunBrain.com, and their own Ellis Elementary library. I really like the FAQ page that explained why school start time is 8:00 a.m. instead of 9:00, what being a Title I school means, and statistics about average teaching experience and various additional degrees/endorsements are held by teachers on staff. The web evaluation form I used for this site, from www.bv229.k12.ks.us, didn't really fit well with this site: it basically wants to know what links are tied to this site. The other questions were about accuracy and currency but didn't seem to be major focuses of the web site I chose.

Next I was to find a lesson plan site as a teacher. I found www.atozteacherstuff.com that has all kinds of lesson plans by grade level and subject, as well as other tools like word wall words and wordsearch worksheet creation. It is packed with advertising and pop-ups, but I really liked some of the lesson plans I read. It was easy to navigate and have hundreds of directory listings for thematic units, printables, other teacher tips on attention-getters, homework, etc. I used the evaulation form "Critical Evaluation of a Web Site Elementary School Level" from school.discoveryeducation.com and I really liked this as a rubric for elementary students. It has large space for write-ins, has easy-to-read parts (how does it look? what did you learn?) with yes/no blanks, and, my favorite part, a summary that asks to use the other parts to write a summary paragraph determining whether this site was helpful or not, and why.

The next job was to find an informational web site that gives basic information about an elementary level topic, so I looked for something a child would like. I googled "volcanoes" and found from the list the web site "www.learner.org/interactives/volcanoes" that would also help with developing my group's lesson plan II assignment we are developing for this course. I loved this site as a teacher and as a student: the introduction and detailed pages were written on a child's level and explained well the scientific principles involved in a way that made sense. The opening was exciting: famous volcanoes, dates, and how many people perished in eruptions, and the question: "can we predict volcanic eruptions?" The links to videos were cool: I got to see in color video lava flowing from volcanoes in Hawaii. I liked the navigation buttons at the bottom of the screen and the related resources links. This site is awesome for teaching science and other subjects (found on the "interactives" ribbon at the top of the page). I used the Midlink Magazine web page evaluation form for this site: it has a 0-4 rating system for areas of navigation/presentation, content, appropriateness, scope/validity, and a rubric using the points (excellent, good, fair, poor) as well as a space for comments. I really liked this evaluation form because it offered detailed questions to look for and an easy way to see how multiple web sites would measure up.

The final task was to find an interactive web site that students can use to practice a specific skill written on an elementary level. I googled "interactive elementary science" and found several great sites listed on the T4.jordan.k12.ut.us site. I chose "www.renaissanceconnection.org" for middle school-aged students (and teachers) and really had fun playing with the quizzes on various art innovations, various artists, and history using famous Renaissance art from the Allentown Art Museum. The site is developed to enhance the Pennsylvania curriculum but would be a great addition to a study of history with 37 artwork images all in one place. Fun quiz games! I used the web evaluation from www.cyberguide that has areas for first look, info providers, info currency, info quality, and further info; the final rating question asks to rate this site as "very useful for my needs," "worth bookmarking for future reference," and "not worth coming back to." This form was set up with columns of Yes, No, or N/A. This form was written using a little more advanced language compared to the others, so I would probably use those for students before I would use this one.

What evaluation form did I like best? The Midlink Magazine evaluation form was user-friendly and a strong tool for rating several sites. Students as well as teachers could understand and use this form while visiting web sites.
What evaluation form did I like least? The www.bv229.k12.ks.us evaluation form, I felt, was not as easy to use and could have been formatted better. The dialogue boxes indicate to me that this form may be like the on-line survey I created last week and offers space to make notes, but it lacks the detailed evaluation prompts the others have.
What hidden secrets did I find by using evaluation forms? Current, clear, verifiable information is the goal, but sometimes it is difficult to easily identify on the website when the information was updated last and how it can be verified. Advertisements signal to me that I should be wary of the motivation of the website: can I trust it is the best information out there on the web or just posted by the company with a large budget for online advertising.
What is the value of this web site evaluation process? I noticed how important navigation tools are on a web site and how helpful it is to provide trusted resource sites that will back-up the information I post.
What times would I not use a formal site evaluation form? I got so caught up in playing the games on the interactive sites that I wasn't so concerned about the information provided, BUT I should have been. If the information was not accurate, a student may accept that misinformation over correct information presented in class or in the textbook. I probably wouldn't use a formal evaluation form as I visited these interactive lesson sites and sites like the elementary school's site (assuming I can trust a credible author posted the information on it). Having thought about the questions provided on the evaluation forms, though, I think I will consider them mentally as I search sites for my future students.

Google Doc Forms Survey

Today we focused on spreadsheets and how they can simplify a teacher's job. We started with Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and then played with Google Docs. I made a survey about Halloween: find it at http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pZRHEGaiEeRRhPzsDS7Ieb

I have never used spreadsheets enough to become familiar, let alone efficient, with any functions beyond inserting labels in the cells. Our assignment on Excel in class was to create a gradebook with student names, assignments, and point values. I can do that without too much frustration (my computer guru friend Chris sitting next to me might not agree?) until the instructor had me work with the functions (calculating percentages and class averages). I know that I will have to spend MUCH time honing these skills because I can see how time-saving they will be once I get it in my brain. I see my practicum mentor teacher, Mr. Allen (5th grade), uses a similar district spreadsheet on PowerSchool to tally grades from assignments I corrected last week. He allowed me to look over his shoulder while he did this (and showed a little frustration too; might be he was just frazzled from parent-teacher conferences preparation but he claimed the program was, to him, not very user-friendly) but this week I hope to get my hands on it myself. I'm sure I'll quickly become familiar with the few calculating functions that I'll need by actually using them in the "real world." This would be helpful with parent-teacher conferences or any other communication with parents AND can be a great avenue for students (getting-to-know-you questionnaires and evaluations) to give feedback to me as a teacher in a forum that they would like (using the Internet rather than paper/pencil or face-to-face perhaps).

The cool thing about Google Doc, again, is that I can access my files from anywhere because they are saved on the Web universe. That means I wouldn't need to rely on having my laptop or my thumbdrive for a gradebook on the go (assuming I'd be thinking about doing teacher stuff without these at my side). My instructor suggested, however, how convenient it would be to have students submit their exams and quizzes through a form similar to my Halloween survey. The results appear on my email and there is a compiled survey sheet that puts all my survey results for me in a spreadsheet! Now that might be something to think about!!

Again my digital immigrant-ness is rearing its head as I struggle to become proficient with the technological tools that will simplify my teaching. I think it is just a matter of giving it some time and I'll someday say "I don't know how I ever lived without it!"

Word Processing

Today in class we explored off-line and on-line word processing, beginning by opening Microsoft Word and writing a story title and a first sentence (mine was "The Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" with first sentence "It was a dark and stormy morning."). Then we did round-robin writing with small groups to continue the story; each person inserting her own creative plot-moving sentence. After the story took on a life of its own, we turned to the "track changes" feature and edited our story. I am sure this exercise is currently being done in classrooms everywhere because it incorporates keyboarding skills, group collaboration, proofreading and editing, as well as creative writing. Students will love coming up with off-the-wall plots and juicy details in a story not all their own, and learn editing etiquette and strategies. Teachers will be able to monitor the story as well as introduced editing changes (and edit the edits if necessary). Compared with the old-fashioned way of producing several paper drafts with messy margin-scribbled edits, this method is clean, legible, and reflects amount of work put forth by each group member (accountability in black and white). I am familiar with reading marked-up manuscripts using this method in my freelance college textbook editing job, and have found the benefits of clean text highlighted with changes and authors chronicled in the margin pop-up tabs.

Next we worked as partners to create a story from a funny picture on National Geographic Kids site using Google Docs. The video of the neighborhood newspaper editor struggling to compile dozens of email attachment submissions with multiple versions all over the place was funny with all the paper cartoons but really illustrated how much cleaner it would be to have only one main document with multiple authors. My partner and I wrote a story called "Oh What a Watermelon" about a lady gulping mouthfuls from a 4-foot-long watermelon slice at a county fair watermelon eating contest. We enabled ourselves as collaborators and our instructor as viewer. I was often frustrated as I wrote a sentence that got trumped when my partner saved the accompanying photo (the program rejected my great sentence and I would have to start over). Because both authors were live at the same time we weren't as effective with our time in those instances. My partner used the comment feature to write notes to me about to-do items attached to the story so I got her messages instantly (a much better way than seeing them through email messages on another window). This is one step ahead of the ftp system of manuscripts and drafts we use in my editing job, but I see the benefits of both. The idea here is multiple users across distances can access the same document on the Web, making email attachment communication almost obsolete. I see how group projects can be much easier using this tool because all group members can access the latest draft at any time.

I admit that I am warming up to the electronic workflow in my editing, although I miss my dusty red pens and yellow sticky notes of the old way. Electronic documents on the Web has allowed me to continue working now that the local textbook composition company has been closed and has been replaced by project managers in Chennai, India. The world is different than it was 10 years ago and I am the one who has to adapt or move aside.

Webquest.org

This week in class we stepped into the role of students in small groups browsing the learning projects offered on Webquest.org. These project-based, problem-based, and/or inquiry-based lessons are categorized by grade and integrated subjects but involve no lecture or textbook: all the information the students need to successfully complete the lesson comes from the Web. The students with a common interest form groups, divide tasks or research topics, and experience navigating the Web to find the information they need and use other technological tools (software, etc.) to create a final project. The goal here is to go beyond lecture and rote regurgitation of facts to "learn it when you need it." Today's students want to be involved in deciding what they want to learn about, work with others to learn it, and demonstrate what they have learned in relevant, "real-life" projects. We all know that there is a difference between filling-in a worksheet about erosion and actually getting dirty and wet with an erosion model or experiencing an erosional riverbank site. Each Webquest lesson includes an introduction, task, process, resources (websites that provide the needed information), evaluation rubric, teacher page, and additional "just for fun" exploration.

For the first few minutes we were to browse the available lessons based on our selected grade level and subject. I searched the listings for literature and early elementary (1st grade). One lesson, based on the picture book "Stellaluna" by Janell Cannon: the task is to write a letter telling Stellaluna reasons why she should be proud to be a bat. The student researches the amazing facts about megabats and synthesize that information in a way that the fruit bat Stellaluna will find pride in herself and her heritage. I chose to discard this lesson as a suggestion for my group, however, because the supplied links to researching megabats led to unavailabe websites: as a student I was quickly frustrated that I couldn't find what I needed in the time allotted.

My partner and I selected a Webquest lesson about ancient Egypt, and although we couldn't timewarp ourselves there, we were able to jump around on the Web finding textual information and visuals available to us from the British Museum and other sites. Our task, as creators of a travel brochure, was to convince Flibberwiggle Martians to visit ancient Egypt because of our reports on a variety of highlights. I volunteered to research the geographical features and the pharoahs, find out ways to excite a tourist from Mars to want to select my destination over others, and present it incorporated in a brochure with my partner's topics too. I used the Internet to find information and illustrations about how the pharoahs were both political and religious leaders of both the fertile Black Lands and mineral-rich barren desert Red Lands of ancient Egypt. This lesson for me involved geography, history, science, and creative and informational writing. But it also involved groupwork dynamics, Web navigation, time management, and oral presentation. I was struck by the variety of projects discussed by other groups; I really liked the chart evaluating possible state insects for Nevada?/Arizona? project. These projects incorporate several integrated curriculum subjects in a cooperative group setting using technology and giving the students control over their learning in a "real-life" scenario.

So often we hear about teachers feeling hampered by No Child Left Behind; "I wish I had time to let my students explore creative learning projects but we have just too much to cover," some say. The video clip we watched in class from Edutopia showcased several examples of students taking ownership in their learning in ways that are relevant and educational: the students using geometry to create kites, other students researching cystic fibrosis because they wanted to understand their peer's health situation better, and other students sitting at the edge of a pond taking water samples and charting the results as part of a larger project (she talked enthusiastically about how the pond was her classroom). Children are passionate about learning until that passion is extinguished by endless worksheet packets. I am hopeful that there is time in the day to incorporate project-based learning within NCLB goals and constraints. Last week I completed my kindergarten practicum and this week I jump headfirst into 5th grade. Will I find us experiencing these kinds of higher-level cognition lessons there? I certainly hope so!

YETC Resources fieldtrip

Today I once again felt like the digital immigrant I am. As we surfed through YouTube selections and Celestia, a really cool simulation of the universe, my head was swimming and often I couldn't get Jupiter to spin the way I wanted it to go. I felt like an ESL student who isn't speaking the same language! It is obvious to me that I need to assign myself some homework to spend a few hours a week surfing through all this stuff and learning how to access it!

The resources available online in general and specifically in the collection at the YETC are seemingly without number. I really wish I knew more what grades I will be teaching so that I can be stockpiling podcasts. My peers shared experiences in their practicum classrooms how they are using smart boards and other teaching tools, but the only technology we've used so far is the CD player for the "Days of the Week" song and the standard overhead projector to direct-teach how to fill in the "Ll"s on the Saxon paper worksheets.

I loved the discussion of how best to teach the Civil War: the difference in student attention from a teacher saying "Now, class, open your textbook to page 758" to "Now, class, log on to this website that offers a virtual simulation of what it was like for a young Confederate soldier on the battlefield." I also recognize that being able to manipulate the rotation of the planets and their position in the solar system is much more relevant and exciting than reading about it and creating a written report. The time-honored coat hanger mobile of construction paper circles no longer creates the enthusiasm for students that spending a few minutes on the Celestia site will.

I am excited to go home and show my children some of the sites we visited today and let them show me how to use them. I know they will be able to get me over my techno-stupidity and gain a better appreciation for what is available to me beyond just the "push the planet number and the Gkey (for go there)" commands I used today in the lab. I plan to glance through the core curriculum topics for the upper elementary grades to refresh my memory of what the students in the grades I want to teach are studying in science, for example. That will give me a roadmap of the sorts of resources I should revisit in the YETC lab as I begin my stockpile.

I appreciate this course for FORCING me to dig into this stuff. One of my reasons for going back to school to be a teacher was to translate my enthusiasm for learning into a career and I can't be "dumber" than my students when it comes to technology. I am overwhelmed with the resources available to me at no cost and will on longer accept the common excuse I hear that "if we just had more money, we could do some really great things in the classroom." So now I need to go home this afternoon and open that new laptop that has been sitting in the box downstairs "daring me to come open it." James, my son asked me this morning when we can play with it. I hate to admit that it intimidates me. But I'm getting up the courage .....

UEN Lesson Plan idea: The Black Snowman

Interdisciplinary units always seem to catch my eye when I am searching on UEN.org. I found an intriguing lesson idea to be taught during Black History Month (February). It claims to cover seven standards from the Utah State Core Curriculum for 6th grade Language Arts.

"The Black Snowman, An Interdisciplinary Unit" is the lesson plan title.
The link is http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/preview.cgi?LPid=13696 .

I like this lesson because it has ideas for teaching oral language, concepts of print, spelling, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing as well as the main curriculum tie: Develop language through listening and speaking. The focus book, The Black Snowman, is written by Phil Mendez and illustrated by Carole Byard. It is about an African-American boy and his family, a dirty snowman, and a magic Kente cloth from Africa. The lesson suggests students create a PowerPoint presentation about a famous African American, but I also think some of the writing prompts that become essays could be generated on electronic student journals I'd call student blogs. I also found some very interesting and colorful websites about the Kente cloth, such as http://art-smart.ci.manchester.ct.us/fiber-kente/kente.html , and other creative winter weaving lesson ideas at http://kids-learn.org/winterwonderland/central.htm.

This lesson emphasizes a multicultural perspective and is more complex than just teaching about Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. during Black History Month. It also touches on family history and self-esteem. I admit I've never read this book but I plan to check it out!

My Public Page is http://my.uen.org/212817

Today I created a public page on my.uen.org, a site students and parents can access for detailed reminders, calendars, and homework help from me. This tool could really streamline communication between teacher and parents: remind the student to wear a jacket and bug spray for the day's field trip to Logan Canyon, for example. If the parents and students habitually checked this page I could avoid copying notes and stuffing backpacks for a classroom full of students, saving time and paper. This way parents could still see announcements in the event that papers are misplaced between class and home. As a parent I have to sift through piles of various notes from each of my four children's teachers and it often takes 30 minutes or more every afternoon. Then my trash can is full!

My daughter Jessica's 6th grade Language Arts teacher has created a similar site with email reminders to visit it often: at any time we can see what happened in class and what is due tomorrow. If she stays home sick one day, we can look up what she missed and be prepared when she returns to class with makeup work. He has assigned that we visit the site at least once a week and respond by email (Jessica gets points for "my homework" as a parent). As a "digital immigrant" I was at first frustrated that I would have to take the time to log on and check it out, but more than other class she has, I feel like I know what she is learning and never worry that there will be surprises at parent-teacher conferences. I love that we are working as team and saving trees in the process by eliminating all the paper notes back and forth. My attitude is slowly evolving from technology being a hassle to technology being a powerful tool linking parents, students, and teachers as a community.

Blogging in a classroom

I think daily journaling is important for students of all ages. My son James had several teachers who used journals as daily self-starts and HE HATED IT. He doesn't like to write and his handwriting is, he admits, illegible. He would only write sentences like, "Yesterday was fun." I am sure that if, instead of paper and pencil, he was instructed to post on his blog, he would write a lot more. He is in 8th grade now, still hates writing, but has two blogs and a website AND HE WRITES ALL THE TIME ON THEM! I hope I have the technology available in my classroom to be able to have daily blogging for my students.

Hello Blog World

I wrote this in response to an in-class reading assignment during the week following August 25, 2008:

I love using my kids as guinea pigs and I have to admit that as the article "Synching Up with the iKid: Connecting to the Twenty-First-Century Student" (http://www.edutopia.org/ikid-digital-learner) points out, kids today are not at all the kid I was 25 years ago. I remember watching The Jetsons cartoon on Saturday mornings (we didn't have cable so that was the only time all week that cartoons were on, except for one night a week when Wonderful World of Disney was on--that's when you got to see Mickey and 101 Dalmations because VCRs were just coming out and nobody owned a zillion Disney moview on VHS) and being fascinated by robots vacuuming and talking to your boss via TV screen. I remember my dad (a mechanical engineer) bringing home a computer from work (nobody we knew actually had one in their home) to show us this cool game: on the eery green screen would appear this prompt: "Guess the number between 1 and 100"; you typed "8" and ENTER and it would type "Higher" so you typed "99" and ENTER and it typed "Lower" until you guessed the computer's number. Our whole family was mesmerized; then a few years later we thought Space Invaders on the ATARI was the coolest thing ever invented. I grew up actually swimming at the pool, not sitting in the lawn chair next to the pool texting my friend who is sitting right next to me.

Last night my 13-year-old was texting on his cell phone at lightning speed while listening to his iPod while searching the Internet on one of our family's three computers for resources for his 8th grade current event paper on global warming on one window and MSN-ing other friends on another window while eating a burrito and flipping between the Republican National Convention, Channel 5 news, and some dirt bike race on ESPN. When everyone's homework was done, we played Wii Rockband (and as usual, my vocals got me boo-ed off the stage).

Earlier this week I talked with my kids about this article and they agreed that I am definitely a digital immigrant. Sometimes my first thought when they have a research assignment is to drive over to the neighborhood community library because that is how I did it growing up. We looked in encyclopedias and card catalogs (index cards in an actual card file). I resist the latest digital scrapbooking craze because I like holding the pictures and books in my hand. We talk about doint their best legible cursive handwriting and one says, "Why? Typing is ten times faster and the teacher can actually read it!"

They brought up my college textbook editing job. For 13 years as they were growing up, I worked as a freelance editor/proofer for a local textbook composition company. Weekly I brought home manuscript piles taller than I am and used probably millions of yellow sticky-notes and red ink pens. So, last year the company closed its doors because it has been bought out by a larger company on the East Coast who later was bought out by a larger company in India. This company asked me to continue to freelance but it would suddenly be all-electronic workflow. That meant I needed a new computer with super-high speed Internet connections, new editing software, and a monitor that would display both manuscript and folios so I could read it and mark it up. I struggled with this for months because my eyes, my neck, my brain couldn't adjust. For one job I actually did print the files out (two reams of paper) so I could do it my old-fashioned way, which is still a lot faster for me! I'll never meet my project managers or co-workers face-to-face. The textbook industry is changing to because more professors are going electronic.

I saw more computer use at Back-to-School night last week at my kids' elementary school than ever before. Each teacher had a PowerPoint presentation of class rules, explanation of improved Reading Counts school-wide book computer quiz program, and every week I'm supposed to look up on PowerSchool their grades (no more grade reports on paper!).

One thing I've noticed in my son's writing (and a few instances in the responses to the article cited above), having the eye of a print editor, is that the abbreviations used in email and texting are creeping into writing for all purposes. "Y" means "Why". I am not fluent in the new language so I don't automatically get it. When I get the cell phone bill and see that my son wrote 4051 texts in two days, I realize that his brain thinks in abbreviations because they are faster to type and read, and why spell "why" when "Y" works? It reminds me of the Newspeak described in George Orwell's "1984". I guess I still use Oldspeak.

After I click "Publish Post", I am going to log onto my on-line Psychology course to listen to an 0n-line recorded lecture of my professor in Denver (again, someone I'll never meet face-to-face), follow along with his PowerPoint slides and accompanying lecture notes, and then post my responses to my course peers (who abbreviate too) on Blackboard, and then take a test on-line about it all. I remember reading a science fiction story in 2nd grade about a boy who did his homework on a little typewriter box that had a brain and he did all his learning at home; he never stepped foot in a classroom, never held a book in his hands, never wrote with a number 2 pencil. Now I am that little boy.