The silver lining in the budget crisis

Last week, my school (Cleveland High School) engaged in the first useful PD session of my nine year career. A teacher sent an open letter to the staff asking why we were allowing budget cuts to destroy our school. She argued that discipline had decreased and garbage levels (messes left after nutrition and lunch) increased because most teachers had given up on our school. She demanded that we take back our school and set high standards for student behavior, achievement and cooperativeness. More teachers began responding, and our PD committee took action by forming groups to tackle specific issues within our control.

Our teachers are not waiting for Superman. We realize that we only lose power when we refuse to speak up and take action. I salute that brave teacher for inspiring all of us to take back our campus for the sake of our students and ourselves. Without the budget cuts, we probably would not have been shaken out of our slumber. At times, we need a crisis to wake us up and make us realize how much power we have to make changes to our school environment.


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Utilizing What I Found On Twitter Today

http://edutraining.googleapps.com/

This is a great site for introducing teachers and students to Google Docs. I need to utilize this for PD and for group assignments for Phil and Art History. I need to make these available for students on my wiki for each class.

http://www.emergingedtech.com/2009/04/10-internet-technologies-that-educators-should-be-informed-about/

This is a great article that I need to utilize in PD. I need to discuss the most important Ed tech and get teachers involved with it. This needs to be one of my initial PDs of the year.


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/world/27powerpoint.html?_r=1&hp

This is a great article about the real world impact of overusing PPT. I thought it was both funny and sad. If PPT makes the military more stupid, what is it doing to our students? I need to use the article as a springboard into discussions about other presentation tools.


http://edudemic.com/2010/06/the-ultimate-twitter-guidebook/

This is an amazing set of resources for PDs about Twitter. I will also use it when I introduce Twitter in my Art History class.

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Using rubrics more to judge learning

I need to have the students create and utilize rubrics more often to judge their own work and the work of classmates. This will keep the students more engaged and accountale during group projects.

The first assignment I want to use this on is ethical dilemmas. The 3 can score the other group members because they need to be persuaded by one person or group. They are in the best position to judge the arguments of others.

Action- I need to create a group discussion rubric and explain it to the students. I will then sharbthe rubric with the class and allow them to criticize and improve the rubric.

I can also use a survey to gather data about the effectiveness of the group projects and improve how they are conducted.

Getting More From Web2.0

As I am reading the book, Teaching For Understanding With Technology, I found this quote that distinguishes what technology does versus what it can do. Wiske and Franz state, "A further complication in defining educational goals is that pressure to implement new technologies may obscure the importance of using these tools to teach and learn important subject matter. Teachers may believe that simply engaging students with modern tools is worthwhile (to increase student motivation, develop students' technical expertise and twenty-first-century skills, or demonstrate up-to-date classroom practices), even if the technology is not helping students learn core curriculum topics. Teachers may incorporate technology into lessons in ways that provide some catchy entertainment with little or no contribution to learning." I know that I have fallen into this trap. I use technology because I like it or think it is exciting, but I don't really focus on big learning objectives and ensure that the use of technology leads to greater levels of learning.

The authors continue to explain what the goals of technology use should be. They state, "New technologies are most beneficial, however, when they support and deepen students' understanding of important educational subject matter. In order to apply technology this way, teachers often need to reflect on their goals and become more explicit about exactly what they hope students will learn. Educational objectives, whether they deal with academic or technology issues, may reflect a teacher's deeper purposes, core values, and ultimate hopes for the students." For the upcoming year, I will give greater planning time to understanding the learning goals for which I am aiming, and then choose technology that fulfills that role.

When trying new technologies, I think it is important to just get your hands dirty and learn the capabilities of what the tools can do. However, after that initial stage, the teacher must begin to target specific technologies to help students learn key concepts in a deeper and more meaningful way.

On my wiki, I am creating a list of technology tools with tutorials to help students create content. I am also developing rubrics for each tool so that I can give students quick feedback on their performance. The rubrics contain a component for demonstrating knowledge of the core subject matter being discussed in class. I am not sure if this is the complete solution, but it does help me to focus on the learning objectives and to tie the most appropriate web2.0 tool(s) to each learning objective.

Please comment if you can think of ways that I can improve the wiki or the focus of applying technology to content mastery.

Being More Analytical With Technology

In the past, I have utilized technology in the classroom simply because I love it and because the students are engaged while using it. I need to make more of an effort to be systematic in my thinking and really plan how to implement technology and what are my goals.

In the book, Teaching For Understanding Technology With Martha Stone Wiske offers a method that I am planning to adopt for integrating technology into my curriculum this year. She states:

Educators might being by asking, "What do our students always struggle with that is really essential for their success?" That my reveal some targets of difficulty that could be alleviated by incorporating new technologies into lessons. Another strategy is to ask, "What are students fascinated by that might suggest a way into some of the material they need to learn?" Teachers might also formulate generative topics by reflecting on their own interests and expertise, knowing that their capacity and motivation to design inventive lessons will be enhanced by their own passionate engagement. The teachers' own hobbies or areas of deep knowledge may indicate a generative approach to an important curriculum topic.

These are the three questions I will be asking before implementing technology this year:

1. What is the most important curriculum for each unit of study?
   
2. What do my students struggle to learn?
3. Which technology engages the students in the curriculum to the best extent?

These will be the questions that drive my integration of technology this year.

I want to complete a daily summary of the top three web links that I find on Twitter. Today's top 3:

1. Top 50 ipad apps - http://bit.ly/dsvIno - Gives some great ideas for apps to download. I need to conduct a PD on this for Cleveland, and I need to offer it as a session at the CLHS conference.
2. 10 Ways to declutter your digital life - http://bit.ly/9rsCq3 - Great ideas for making life easier and neater.
   

Blog Carnival

I am in the process of contributing to my first blog carnival as an activity in the #30 Goals challenge by Shelly Terrell. An article that I love is 7 Habits of Highly Effective Internet Using Educators at http://www.fi.edu/fellows/fellow6/may99/May%20Project/covey.html. It takes the concepts of Steven Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and applies it to the ed tech world. It is a short but powerful article.

First post of 2010

I am writing this post as a part of the 30 goals challenge that I saw on Twitter.

Because I saw it on Twitter, I was encouraged to find a iPhone app for blogger and post from my phone. This will make posting easier And more convenient.

I am working on the curriculum for my Digital Imaging (my attempt to show students web2.0 tools). The students and I had fun using and learning the tools in the Fall semester, but I want the class to have greater focus and utility for the Spring.

In order to increase it's relevance and utility, I returned to my notes when I conceived the class. I wanted the students to learn to use tools and help teachers build more interesting and hands-on curriculum for our students. I want to return to this mission for the Spring semester.

This goal is reachable because I have exceptional students, who are primary members of our school's humanities magnet program. I will have the students in the Digital Imaging class googlize and web2.0 the curriculum for their magnet classes. They will utilize google and web2.0 tools to show the teachers what is possible with web2.0, build tutorials for them to expand their curriculum and build sample projects for the teachers to evaluate and critic.

This provides focus and real world application for the digital imaging students. I am hoping they can start a movement to challenge and improve the wY we teach. Regardless of the outcome, it should be a fun and illuminating adventure.


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Finding My Way In The Web2.0 Universe

This year has been successful and inspiring. It was my dream last year to teach a class about web2.0 tools. I wanted to show off the abilities of the web and get students involved with tools that could help them with their classes. I was fairly successful with this endeavor. The students have created wikis in which they have embedded projects from 10 different web2.0 tools that we have sampled throughout this semester. We hit a few bumps in the road, but for the most part, the students and I learned a great deal and have enjoyed the process.

For 2010, I want to be more focused in my teaching approach. I want the students to utilize tools to help their teachers get more involved with web2.0 tools. The students and I are going to "googlize" and "web2.0" the curriculum of several teachers in our magnet program at Cleveland HS. My goal is to have the students create projects from the materials they have already covered during previous years as students in our magnet. I think the possibilities are literally endless, so staying focused and keeping the students and myself accountable to deadlines and teacher needs will be a must. To do this, I am developing a few ideas.

First, finding great ideas for using web2.0 tools is essential. However, I tend to get overwhelmed with all of the options available. This year, I tried to follow blogs, podcasts, and Twitter feeds about web2.0 tools. Needless to say, it was way too much. I became overwhelmed and I think my teaching and student experiences were less than optimal because I could not choose what tools to use and how to use them. My first step in focusing my curriculum and my own exploration of web2.0 is to look at fewer items. I have cut my blog feeds down to 3. I have cut my podcasts down to 1. I have utilized Twitter over holiday break and have found over 200 tweets that will keep me more than busy next semester. I will continue to look into other forums from time to time, but I am forcing myself to stay focused on these items for now.

Second, I found a great blog post at "Life Feast" - http://lifefeast.blogspot.com/2009/12/what-comes-first-methodology-or.html. This post blew me away with its simplicity and directness. It lists seven simple questions we should ask ourselves whenever we decide to use web2.0 in the classroom. By using these questions, we can keep the focus on educating the students and realizing the benefits of the new technology.

Third, Tami Brass offered some great ideas in this blog post (http://tech4teaching.org/wpblog/?p=721) about how web2.0 is typically used in the classroom. I am planning to uses these ideas as a springboard for getting other teachers excited about web2.0 projects for their classrooms. Here list offers six great ideas for utilizing Google Documents and wikis in the classroom. Google docs is such a great place to start because many teachers already have Google accounts, the tools are free, there are tons of great tutorials for them, and the Google engineers made them very intuitive.

With these ideas in mind, I am so excited about the Spring semester. My students and I will create fantastic lesson ideas for our teachers and build tutorials for them to study over summer break and be prepared to come to school implementing them in the Fall. I know these projects will inspire more teachers to get involved with web2.0 tools!!

Weird Al Yankovic - White & Nerdy

Weird Al Yankovic - White & Nerdy

Can We Become Masters Of New Things

Today, I was wondering if I could make screencasts of the information that I have shared in professional development sessions. I had always been afraid of trying to screencast. I thought it would be too difficult, but it simply is not. I used Jing to create it and it was incredibly easy.

This is a testiment to what I am reading about in "The Element". We are never too old to learn anything if we really have a passion for it.

This is the link for my first screencast Zamzar Demonstration

It shows someone how to upload and convert a video using Zamzar.com.

How Are You Intelligent?

I was listening to "The Element" again this morning while exercising (I works perfectly now, so I think fate was leading me back to listening to it again). Ken Robinson make an interesting distinction between asking, "How intelligent are you?" and "How are you intelligent?". The first question assumes that there are limits to intelligence and that they can and should be quantified. The second assumes that everyone has intelligence and does not make any assumptions about limits. I plan to ask the first question about intelligence on my first day of my web development class. I want the students to begin to question the assumption about how we discuss, measure and limit the intelligence of others. Then, I want to use the entire year, to help them find their own intelligence and express it in beautiful ways. Is that utopian? Maybe, nevertheless, it is a goal worth pursuing.

How This Blog Began

I am creating this blog because of an error I kept getting on my iPod. I had downloaded "The Element" by Sir Ken Robinson as an audiobook. Every time I tried to listen to it, the book would start over after about 20 minutes. This became increasingly frustrating, and I decided to stop listening to the book.

However, today I decided to start listening from the beginning of the book to see if there was "anything that I had missed". That is what is changing everything. The book begins with the story of three people who found their passion in life by finding "their element". All three stories showed how school was actually an impediment to people finding their element.

I am teaching a new class in the Fall 2009 called web development, but it should really be entitled, "Find Your Element Using Web2.0 Tools". I plan to make the entire class about helping students discover their passions and then using web2.0 tools to unleash the talents associated with those passions. Along the way, I hope to use their discoveries to help other teachers understand the value of web2.0 tools and their ability to transform education into a more dynamic and joyous adventure for their students and themselves.