All of the groups did an outstanding job presenting, but one that struck me in particular was "C What Teachers Can Do." They put it in a Wordle, but then handed it to me in a mission statement form:

Cool!

Chalk Talk Friday represents conversations and brilliance I've discovered traversing my way through the Blogosphere.  From professional to personal development, these are the posts and links have in some way touched my head or my heart!

• Time lines and TV- great way to make learning history come alive! 
• Stupeflix- another tool to take your photos and turn them into professional looking video productions.
• Children, Learning, and Music- this fantastic site combines three of my favorite things. Wonderful resources for enhancing instruction with our youngest learners with music, rythm, and fun!
• Wordle, Wordle, Wordle- I can never get enough Wordle. This fantastic presentation combines ideas from teachers and they pull together the best strategies and applications for Wordle in their classroom. Bravo! 
• Pixton - An interactive comic strip generator. Very easy to use and great for both writing and visual learning.
  

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  A few questions:

1. What is RSS?
2. Why Should I Care?
3. How Can I Use RSS in a Classroom?

Great questions!

What is RSS?
RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication. It's a way that new information published online gets distributed to various content aggregators.

You probably already use RSS, receiving updates through email, a home page like iGoogle or MyYahoo, or possibly with a feed aggregator.

It's a great way to collect information from blogs and other sites without having to visit them every day to see if they updated. There are also sites like Alltop.com that help gather great content into a single space. And they do it with and because of the power of RSS.

Why Should I Care?
By not having to visit web pages to see IF they update, subscribing via RSS allows the content you want delivered to you -- in any fashion you wish. Email, Aggregator, Mobile...whatever -- so you save time.

A lot of folks who subscribe to this blog do so via email. Though that's one way, I wonder if it would be more productive for folks under a heavy email load to try out Google Reader (a web-based RSS aggregator) or GreatNews (a desktop application).

You can also use RSS to subscribe to various searches. If you're doing research on a topic, you can subscribe to the RSS feed of Google News or a Google Blog Search. You can also subscribe to a topic or name on YouTube or Twitter (using TweetScan). As Mike Sansone says, "Search Once and Subscribe."

How Can I Use RSS in a Classroom?
Well, we already mentioned the fantastic research possibilities above, but there are other ways. Will Richardson has a great document for educators who want a quick start to RSS.

One way I've used RSS is with my grad students. We create a wiki for the class and allow the discussion and collaborate to exist outside classroom walls. In fact, the wikis I've used still exist and are being used even thought the classes are finished.

Want to give it a try? Subscribe to my blog's RSS feed by some other fashion than email. I'd suggest GoogleReader. Then, go to Alltop and subscribe to a few other blogs or news sites.  In a few days, you'll find you're receiving more information, in less time -- without spam.

RSS - I appreciate you!

Also on this site: The Power of RSS Feeds

Related Videos:
RSS in Plain English
How to Use Google Reader

Frankly, I'm starting to hate the word reform. It directs focus on the past rather than the future, on those sitting in the class without addressing those standing in the front. It seems, in context, it's leaning towards "re-do" instead of "re-form." What? Have we been doing it wrong all these years? Probably not the case -- though I hope complacency doesn't set in either.

During the summer season, I work with teachers from all over the country who invest their own personal time not in a re-do, but in a do-better, a do-whatever-it-takes habitude style of operation. Together, we are working on ways to reform transform education. Yes!  That's what we're working towards. Transfomation!

Knowledge used to be received alone. The old "Hear it and Hold it" method. A one-way transmission. Top down. Nothing was contextual. It was about sequence and order. Here's what we did yesterday, here's what we're doing today. Sequence and order ruled over context and experience. 

Does this old "transfer" of knowledge work well in the long-term? Not so much. There's a lot of blame game still going on from one grade level to the previous level. The "Hear it and Hold it" might serve short term testing, standards, and assessments well - but it falls way short of serving the most important people in the room -- the learners.

Now, collaboration is a key skill.  Differentiation and Equity have important roles in curriculum design and classroom experience. And we'll examine some of the differences between the old "reform" and the ne "transform" soon. Put your thinking caps on, kids:-)  We'll learn from this together. 

We can sooo do this.

• A Drama
• A Comedy
• A Hero's Journey
• An Inspirational Tale
• A Tragedy

 This may seem like an odd question to pose, but  it came to mind as I was preparing this post for a global discussion on Educational Leadership; a challenge from my colleague Scott McLeod.

Scott encouraged educators around the blogosphere to contribute advice and insight about the role technology plays in teaching and learning in hopes to help the leaders of our schools guide their students and staff  in finding ways to utilize its power more efficiently and effectively.

So what does a Hollywood movie have to do with this? Everything!  We are not moved and motivated by statistics and factual data.  We are driven to action and empowerment by hearing stories of people who have overcome and turned those hurdles into triumphs. Yet that is not the story being told.

Right now the story of technology and education is one of disruption, change, fear and destruction. We are broadcasting this story to teachers, members of the community , and most importantly the children we serve. Our belief in this story deepens as the messages we convey is one of loss for the good ole days and  worries for the future. Soon enough we will find ourselves playing the lead roles in the horror we have been describing and predicting.

What we often fail to recognize is that we have more control than we think. We create the setting, we choose the lead characters, and we have the power to design the script. Just as a director of a movie utilizes different perspectives, camera angles, and colors to create a look and feel of a movie, we too can redefine the experience of school with new perspectives and actions that could change everything.

I want to encourage our 21st Century leaders to tell this new story. Tell the stories of how technology is allowing millions of students to connect like never before. Of how teachers are collaborating globally. And how together, teachers and students are changing the world in big and small ways

Check out the roster of Leadership Day 2009 in the comments section of Scott's call for Leadership Day.

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Chalk Talk Friday represents conversations and brilliance I've discovered traversing my way through the Blogosphere.  From professional to personal development, these are the posts and links have in some way touched my head or my heart!

• Images –Comp fight + Flickr storm  These are two must have tools for searching images. You can look for related tags, related photos,customize and refine your images searches with amazing efficiency. I love them both!
• Cover It Live - is a live Blogging tool that allows you to broadcast live commentary to your readers.Everything that is typed into the event is recorded in a chat room for continued use and reflection.
• Fur.ly  This great tool allows you to create one URL from a bunch of links by entering your desirable choices, and fur.ly will do the rest. Super slick!
• Issuu.com- Now you can turn your  document and  into an online book. Great addition to a wiki or blog. The pages turn just like a book!
• Twoogle -Love it- Twoogle provides an easy way to search Twitter and Google imultaneously, from the same site, displaying its results side by side. Just type in something and get google result and twitter result on same page

This morning I tweeted a special collection of TED videos pertinent to the conversations we are having in education. Imagine what we could be talking about and better yet doing as a community of learners and leaders after viewing brilliant examples of possibilities like this one from Patti Maes at MIT Labs(Which had not made the list, but is a MUST SEE for all!)

For the past year or so, I have been hearing my Edublogger and Twitter friends speak about NECC. It did not take me long to conclude that NECC has become the MUST attend event. For years, conferences have been an exciting part of my professional growth. I have looked forward and have been enriched by the learning that has come form my attendance at IRA, NCTE, and ASCD.

But this conference was like no other on so many levels. Unlike past conference experiences, where I had a one shot chance to see and hear from the great voices and experts who have inluenced my work; I was meeting my network of influencers. Many whom I now consider my colleagues, mentors, and friends. It was like a family reunion. The relationships that have developed are hard to explain, even make sense of at times. When I shared with my husband that I would be sharing a room with two ladies that I had never met in person, I must admit it seemed strange to describe out loud. "Honey...you don't understand. It really is okay. She is coolcatteacher- trust me, I am safe" .  I knew that I was not meeting strangers. I was more than safe. I felt immediately welcomed by friends to a family that I am so amazed and honored to belong to.

 Rarely am I at a loss for words. Talking about teaching, learning, and education is like breathing to me, yet I have sat in front of a blank computer screen for three days trying to find the exact words to represent what this experience has been like for me and why this matters for you; especially if you were unable to attend.

First, I believe that every learner, every human being needs to feel this supported and valued. Life is too short to go through the trials and tribulations without a "network" of amazing individuals that take the journey with you. I have talked about the importance of having a PLN, but not near enough. Knowing you are a part of something bigger, knowing that you have a place to ask questions, be challenged, collaborate, and learn risk free is priceless. We have the power and the tools available for EVERY teacher to experience this kind of learning in this kind of community.

Second, I could not help thinking about how school would change for kids if they had an opportunity every day to connect with other like minded learners, share ideas, offer support, and share that work with a bigger audience in both formal and informal ways. Again, we have the power and the tools to make that happen.

Learning in this way is exhilarating, enlightening, challenging, and contagious. This conference to me was not about the tools, even though I enjoyed hearing about the latest and greatest gizmos and gagets, it was unequivocally about the people.

The power to transform schools is about harnessing this feeling, and creating conditions in our classrooms where ALL learners (that includes the teacher) can't wait to wake up in the morning and do not want to go to bed at night because they do not want to miss a second of a conversation, an experience, or an opportunity to learn and grow from another. Learning so powerful that you would and could give up sleep (and I soooo love my sleep), forgo shopping (and you know I love my shoes), and even miss a meals because  the learning experience is more delicious that all that combined!! This got me wondering...

• When is the last time you described a learning experience in this way?
• When is the last time your students described learning to be like this?
• When was the last time you felt valued by your contributions to someone else's learning?
• When was the last time you felt challenged, motivated, excited, and ready to change the world?

I hope you said yesterday! If not, that is a problem that is far greater than lack of technology or sub-par curriculum. If we do not see learning as transformational, life altering, passionately exciting...how are we going to expect that our kids will see learning differently?

There is still lots to process about the "content" of the three days. I will share the tools, the wise words, and some projects that I am pondering to bring learning like this directly to our classrooms. But for now...I am going to bask in the learning joy.

Two words for me: UNBELIEVABLE  UNBELIEVABLE!

Chalk Talk Friday represents conversations and brilliance I've discovered traversing my way through the Blogosphere.  From professional to personal development, these are the posts and links have in some way touched my head or my heart!

More on ISTE's NECC09 and EduBloggerCon (my head is still processing all the great info, my heart remembering the great friendships forged!  Hope to see you all in Denver for #ISTE10)

• Twitter Search on #NECC09 - all the chatter and so many links to posts, pics, and videos
• Flickr Photo Album - A photo album of NECC by and with Flickr members at NECC
• Google Blog Search for all posts on NECC
  
• NECC09 presentations uploaded to SlideShare
  
• ISTE Connects - a post-event online program

I went directly from NECC to two days with Omaha Public Schools ELL/ESL teachers (a great group of leaders!). I look forward to talking more about both events next week!  Have a wonderful holiday weekend.