Wanted: A Writing/Tech Teacher

As schools look at staffing for the next school year I am very excited that we have combined our writing teacher's position with the technology teacher. Basically what I am trying to say is that the writing teacher will also be the tech teacher. This will allow for several advantages.   First of all, we will have a writing teacher for each grade level.  This will help when teachers are collaborating on projects.  Writing teachers can also focus on one grade level.  Right now one writing teacher teaches two grade levels and that can be a daunting task when it comes to planning and grading.  This move will also allow for the writing teacher to have access to the lab when it comes to revision and research.  We have a strong focus on high quality work and this will help in that.  I also hope that working hand in hand we as a team can produce some amazing products!  Great move, now we need the teacher that fits the bill.

Digital Citizenship

Today we had to remove a student off of our wiki for using the wiki to bully another student.  While we as teachers have set very clear expectations of what is appropriate and what is not, this student still made the choice to engage in behavior that was not acceptable.  This brings to the light to need to explicitly teach digital citizenship.  Below are the standards around Digital Citizenship and I don’t want to lose sight of those as we continue forward in using technology.
    Students understand human, culturally, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior.  Students:
a.    Advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology.
b.    Exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning and productivity
   In the end we hope that this student can learn a life lesson early before the cost is too high.  For now, they are denied access to the wiki and trust needs to be earned back.

Misconceptions

As I have been completing my principal internship I have been considering what school structures need to be in place to foster project based leanring and teaching.  I also have loved the chance to visit other schools to see how they operate.  One idea that I came away with is that part of the shared leadership in one building its that they have a PBL team.  This is a project based learning team is made up of teachers and parents who are interested.  Part of this team job is review projects and serve as a think tank to enhance the project.

Misconceptions
    I found this article out of the “Project Based Learning Toolkit Series” and I really enjoyed the simple way it laid out what project-based learning is and what it is not. Here are my favorite highlights.

Project Based Learning is NOT the dessert it is the main course.

Project Based Learning is NOT a string of activities tied together under a theme, concept, time period, culture, etc- it is a set of learning experiences and tasks that guide students in inquiry toward answering a central question, solving a problem, or meeting a challenge.

Project Based Learning is NOT the same as “making something” or “hands-on learning or “doing an activity”- it is often focused on creating physical artifacts, but not always.  It must involve other intellectually challengeing tasks and products focues on research, reading, writing, discussion and oral presentation.

More Heads are Better than One...

As I have been completing my principal internship I have been considering what school structures need to be in place to foster project based leanring and teaching.  I also have loved the chance to visit other schools to see how they operate.  One idea that I came away with is that part of the shared leadership in one building its that they have a PBL team.  This is a project based learning team is made up of teachers and parents who are interested.  Part of this team job is review projects and serve as a think tank to enhance the project.  I really liked the idea for quality control, more head generating more ideas around the project and the collaboration it would build.  We have done something similiar on our staff with our expeditions and several people have mentioned the power of doing something like that again.

Facebooks and Schools?

I have been thinking about how it would look to have a facebook page for our school.  With so many people using this site- what a great way to blast out announcements and upcoming events using this social networking site.  So with my curiosity peaked a bit I am going to do a bit of research on what that would really look like.  I think a “fan page” would be the best and offer control over what is put on the page.  Still not sure but it is worth looking into and bouncing the idea off of others.

The Buck Institute

I stumbled upon a great resource for anything Project Based.  The Buck Institute provides resources and professional development for schools and teachers who are interested in project-based learning.  I really like the introductory video that explains project-based learning.   Not only does this site provide video links but it has a great search engine to look up resources, documents to help create projects, and overall tips.  It is worth checking out.

5th Grade Self-Advocate

Today I was able to visit a school in which all 4th and 5th graders all had Netbooks.  It was amazing to watch how student maneuvered around the applications and checked their own e-mails.  The one memory that will remain for me forever is watching a 5th grade boy who is mute and in his group he was assigned the task of creating a press release for their groups project.  The class I observed he had gotten out his netbook and he had logged onto his e-mail to request some advice and tips from his speech therapist on how best he could complete his job.  I was so thrilled to witness this self-advocacy in a 5th grader.  It was apparent that these students are self-reflective learners and willing to do what it takes to get a job done.  Very impressive!

Moving Teachers Towards Technology

Noel and I had the honor to present at the Expeditionary Learning National Conference in Portland, Oregon.  Along with attending some great sessions we presented on how teachers can use Sternberg’s three intelligences to differentiate products.  As part of our presentation we asked for participants to bring their laptops with them and we also brought along some of our ipods.  In reflecting on our session I was surprised to see the level of anxiety when we asked participants to use the iPods or log onto Today’s Meet.  I know that I get anxiety around some technology but that isn’t going to stop me from trying to learn so I can reach students who are eager to use what they already know to enhance their learning.  I also started to think about the training we need to do for our teachers to bring them into the 21st century.  Many teachers that are already interested will continue to use technology.  For others we must provide time and meaningful training to bring them into the 21st century.

First Time for Everything

I am so excited I just finished my first podcast.  So, what prompted me to do a podcast?  Well, because our motto is “it is about curriculum, not the tool” Noel and I have a primary source document from 1894 that we want our students to be able to read and do some work with.  The text is high level and we already know that many of our kids will need some help with it, more than just the basic pre-reading skills and schema building activities that we will do.  Many kids need to be able to listen to the text being read by a fluent reader.  In the past we have offered as the teacher to take a group and read it aloud for whoever wants or need that.  Now that we are fortunate enough to have a set of ipod touches I went on a mission to see how I could use the tool to get to the curriculum.  At first I thought about using the voice recording tool on the ipod touches but then I remembered thinking about the world of podcasts.  So, I got on garage band, watched the tutorial, and before I knew it was I sitting in my bedroom, door closed to escape the noise of my two small children to read the text into computer.  Now students will have the option of listening to me reading in my best recorded books type of voice as they follow along with the text.

Gotta Love You Tube!

I have to say more than ever I have started to use online tutorials for various types of technology.  Some are definitely more professionally created and user friendly than others.  That is part of the fun for me to be able to watch different people’s creation and how they introduce different topics.  So far I have used You Tube to find tutorials for learning how to podcast, create voice threads, excel spreadsheet tips, and how to sync a podcast.  I love that I can do the tutorial from the comfort from my own home and at my own pace.  This is something that I am so glad I was introduced to!

CC also know as Creative Commons

I enjoyed today’s class on copy right and feel like I know the core issues surrounding copyright. 

Some good tips that I walked away with were: 
*What is the purpose of my project? 
*Who is the target audience? 
*What/Why am I using copyrighted material, and did my work transform the material taken from the copyrighted work by using if for a different purpose than that of the original?
*Did I use the amount need to accomplish my purpose?