It’s kind of funny to think that I have spent the past four weeks attending Area 3 Writing Project’s Summer Invitational, yet I haven’t blogged at all during that time!  Believe me, though, I was writing…constantly.  If you ever have the opportunity to join your local National Writing Project affiliate, do it!  As a matter of fact, take a moment to find yours.

Our final meeting occurred on Thursday and since that time I have been trying to process the entire experience.  Reflecting on all of my professional learning workshops, I can honestly say that the Summer Invitational has been the most rewarding and fulfilling experience of my career.  For four weeks I worked with 20 other colleagues representing 2^nd grade through college on becoming a better writer.  During that time these individuals coached me on a variety of topics including writing poetry, using sensory details to access memories, and bringing text alive with metaphors and personification.  Working closely with three other peers I created four very personal pieces of writing for our anthology.  My writing group was by my side the entire time, asking critical questions, helping me find the perfect words to express my ideas.

On our final day we met at a local restaurant and ended the summer invitational by reading one piece aloud to each other.  Through the laughter and tears I realized that the Summer Invitational is only the beginning of my National Writing Project career.  I look forward to continuing my relationship with NWP and A3WP through teacher research, inquiry groups, and delving into the topic of defining digital writing.

As we delved into the latest thinking on 21^st century writers, I also saw that helping students become passionate, independent writers will be key to effectively integrating technology in the classroom.  We must help our students become active producers of digital content rather than just passive consumers and writing instruction will ultimately be the foundation for making this happen.  I think many teachers are not ready for this for three reasons.

1. They believe that since they don’t teach Language Arts, they don’t teach writing.
2. Even if they do teach writing, many teachers don’t have a strong understanding of writing pedagogy and where technology can support those practices.
3. Teachers are scared of technology

Keeping this third reason in mind, below you will find one of my pieces from the anthology.  Click on the “Click to Continue” link below to read Fearless Explorer.  Over the next few weeks I plan on posting more from the Summer Invitational, so check back periodically.

Joe

Photo: Writing, Writing, Writing by dbdbrobot on Flickr

Fearless Explorer

Joe Wood

Believe it or not, I wouldn’t consider myself a very techie person.  I can’t set up a server, can barely understand the wireless network in our house, and have enough blackened sockets to know I should never be trusted with any electrical handy work.  However, friends, family, and colleagues often call me for computer or cell phone technical support.  No longer can I attend a family function without spending some time working on a computer problem.  Recently, I purchased an iPad just because so many people were asking for help and yet I had never played with one for longer than five minutes at the Apple Store.  Rather than calling myself a “techie,” I tend to think of myself as a “fearless explorer.”

How did this happen?  Well, I blame the Federal Government.  After all, they’re always the “bad guys,” right?  In my case, the techiness started with an Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) Grant.  In 2005 I decided to search for a job in a school district closer to home.  While perusing EdJoin, I stumbled across a science position at a middle school right in my neighborhood.  At the last minute I decided to apply and was offered the job.  A few weeks later, after getting my classroom set up and meeting students and colleagues, my principal sent me over to the District Office to pick up my “computer stuff.”  I wondered what might this “stuff” be?  A laptop?  Maybe one of those new LCD projectors?  My previous school site had purchased one and since twenty-seven teachers shared it I was able to use it once to show my students a virtual frog dissection website.  It was amazing!

When I arrived at the district office I met John, the Director of Technology Services, someone who would quickly become my mentor – whether he wanted to or not.  John explained that the school district had been awarded an EETT grant, placing technology in every 7th and 8th grade science and social studies classroom.  The goal of the grant was to use this technology to increase academic performance, while at the same time improving both student and teacher technology proficiency.  Like a magician with a really deep hat, John started pulling out all of the hardware I would receive as participating teacher.  I walked out of his office with a new laptop, a document camera, a LCD projector, and a wireless tablet.  He also informed me that the following week fifteen student laptops, a printer, and a wireless access point would appear in my classroom.  John tried his best to explain how each of these devices worked, but all I really heard was “flux capacitors” and “1.21 gigawatts.”  It was as if Doc Brown from Back to the Future was talking to me himself.

Keep in mind, at this point in my life, I wasn’t totally clueless about technology.  I had been using email for almost a decade, was quite adept at shopping on Amazon, and had successfully made it through college with Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint as my close, personal friends.  However, I decided that the only way I would be successful at using this gear with a bunch of pre-pubescent adolescents was if I took it home and fearlessly explored.  I also had an inkling that when those fifteen student laptops appeared that everything in my classroom might change and I would need to be a little more technology proficient.

I remember that first night quite vividly.  I laid out all of my digital gifts on our large kitchen table.  Once the laptop, projector, document camera, and wireless tablet were all neatly organized in a perfectly symmetrical manner, accompanied by their collection of cables and adaptors, I just stood there and stared.  What do I do now?  I started with the projector.  Surely, hooking it up to the laptop couldn’t be that hard.  I looked at the back of the projector and decided to begin with the power cable.  That was easy.  Digging into the recesses of my mind from the one other time I had used a LCD projector at my former school, I scanned the back of the projector, as well as the back of the laptop.  “Hmm, there is a blue outlet on the back of the projector that matches the blue outlet on the back of the laptop,” I thought to myself, “I wonder if there is a cable that will connect these two?”  Sure enough I found one that had two blue ends matching the outlets and it seemed to work.  I played until midnight that evening piecing things together like a giant puzzle.  Around 12:15am, when I finally had all of my technology connected, it dawned on me that I would have to reconstruct this mess in my classroom tomorrow!  Doing the only smart thing I could think of, I used masking tape and a sharpie to label all of the ports and their corresponding cords, and gently packed them away.

The next morning I arrived at school just before 6:30 and amazingly it only took me 45 minutes to hook everything back up.  Naturally, a couple of the pieces of tape had fallen off, I somehow ended up with an extra cable, and the wireless tablet only wanted to occasionally connect to its Bluetooth adapter.  Regardless, I was up and running right around the same time my students started pouring into the room.  Since I had spent nearly all night figuring out how to plug everything in, my lesson was a little less than stellar.  Honestly, I can’t even remember what I actually taught that day.  However, what I do remember was the look on every single kid’s face as they entered the classroom.  It was that look of pure imagination and curiosity.  In every period there was a palpable vibe of excitement emanating from the students.

“Whoa!  Look at that Mr. Wood!  We can see your desktop.  What are you going to show us today?”

“Hey, since you have your computer set up, does this mean we are going to start using the student laptops soon?”

“My friends said they started using them last week in science.  They sound cool.”

The following week the student computers did arrive and we completed our first technology project – a PowerPoint presentation about cells.  Naturally, since this was our first computer project, not everything went as planned.  One computer crashed, two refused to connect to the wireless network (I later discovered each computer had a wireless on/off switch), and nearly every PowerPoint presentation demonstrated that one could insert too many animations.  However, during this project I witnessed the future of my teaching.  As I walked around the room, I observed students who were completely excited, engaged, and enthralled by technology-infused learning.  I noticed tables of students working in pairs, debating the best way to display a nucleus or cell wall and engrossed in scientific conversations about the difference between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells.  I watched students reflect, collaborate, solve problems, and search for information without any prompting from me.  At the same time my students saw their teacher as a learner – as someone who didn’t have all the answers, but a person who was willing to be a fearless explorer and discover the solution with them.

PowerPoint was only the beginning.  Since that day my students and I have fearlessly explored the use of blogs, wikis, cell phones, and even a virtual electron microscope.  Some things worked out flawlessly, while other resources were only used during first period and then quickly abandoned for an alternative by the time second period students appeared.  Teaching in an EETT classroom was a transformational experience in my career.  Through the integration of technology, my classroom moved from a teacher-centered system to a student-centered learning environment.  Along the way, I learned that computer expertise is not the secret to integrating technology – it’s simply a willingness to play, discover, and explore.  Also, it never hurts to have some masking tape and a sharpie close by.

Another great article from: JoeWoodOnline.com

Reflecting on Writing Project

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Yesterday was the first day of the Area 3 Writing Project Summer Invitational and we focused on developing a writing community.  As I mentioned in an earlier post the morning started off with artifact sharing.  This activity allowed every person to share amazingly personal and passionate stories that led to our first moment of sacred writing time.  For 45 minutes we did nothing but find a quiet space and write.  It was awesome.  How often to each of us simply have time to go and write just to write?  I’m talking about no deadline, no predetermined audience, no professional connection – just time to write.  I highly recommend it.  (Yesterday’s post was the product of this sacred writing time.)

The writing each of us produced led to the part of the Summer Invitational I had been a little concerned about – meeting in a writing group.  Each day we meet in teams of four to share and discuss our writing.  In a collaborative and constructive manner each team works together to help the members grow as writers.  This can be a little daunting since writing can be both so personal and a measure of professional effectiveness.  While I am sure all of the writing groups are great, I think I’m fortunate to have the best one.    Actually, everyone claimed that after our initial meeting, so I think just the mere fact we have the opportunity to meet in writing groups is a rewarding experience for each of us.  In my group as each person shared their story I realized the intensely intimate connection writing has to emotion.  More than once my writing group took a very personal turn as our writing lead to stories about family, friends, and loved ones.  In the next few weeks I think meeting in writing groups might become my favorite part of the Summer Invitational – kind of ironic since I initially found the thought a little daunting.

Later in the afternoon the entire group took some time to discuss Because Writing Matters.  During our conversation one particular paragraph connected my experience working in writing groups to the work we’re currently doing at school.

“In many schools, English teachers have the main responsibility for teaching writing.  But districts and schools that have made writing an overarching curricular aim have done so by declaring it the job of all faculty and by providing ongoing professional development focused on writing.  A key element in such systemic change is finding a core group of teachers who write and are enthusiastic about teaching it.”

As my district transitions into a culture of writing, what are we doing to facilitate the development of a community of  writers – a community that includes both adults and students?

Joe

Another great article from: JoeWoodOnline.com

Creating Our Writing Community – A3WP Day 1

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This morning the Summer Invitational started off with storytelling.  Each of us were was asked to bring an artifact – something that represents us and tells a story.  People brought photos, wind chimes, a dog leash, a Schrader/Presta bicycle tire adapter, and lots of books.  Considering this is the Writing Project, I guess it isn’t too surprising that we brought a lot of books.  Many of us love to write and therefore it makes sense that we would also love to read.  Individuals shared cookbooks, mystery novels, and even some historical fiction.

In my case I brought two things – my iPad and a cookbook.  I brought these objects because each of them in their own way demonstrated my own personal love of reading.  At the moment my iPad has over 40 books on it ranging from the Global Achievement Gap by Tony Wagner to the complete Sookie Stackhouse collection by Charlene Harris.  The cookbook I brought with me, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, is actually the toughest book I’ve ever tried to read for personal pleasure – and I’m still not done.  However, it was one of my introductions to the connection between science, history, and food.

Its quite ironic that I am writing this blog post from the courtyard of Voorhies Hall at UC Davis because this is the place where I fell in love with reading for the second time.  Needing to fill my schedule with a few extra units, my junior year of college I took a SciFi literature class in this very building.  I don’t remember much about the class other than the fact that we read the Red Mars/Green Mars/Blue Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson and that I discovered a genre I found quite interesting.  Science fiction fit well with the other classes I was taking as part of a Biochemistry degree and because I understood the science taking place in the book I found it believable.

I mentioned that this particular class kindled my love for reading the second time.  I actually don’t remember the moment I fell in love with reading the first time, but I grew up surrounded by books.  Whether it was Dr. Suess, Clifford, the Berenstein Bears, Highlights for Children or even an encyclopedia, I fondly remember a childhood where I was always reading.  I read Sideways Stories from Wayside School and pretty much everything by Louis Sachar .  I even loved the Bradbury’s engagingly bizarre Something Wicked This Way Comes.  However, it all ended with The Hobbit in junior high – that damn book.  I still hate it and any related movies!  My teacher at the time was helping us work on making inferences.  She kept saying, “read between the lines.”  Convinced that meant squinting really hard at the clear space between lines of text until extra words popped out, I became really frustrated.  Why she was telling us to do this?  It never worked, I had no idea what she was talking about, and I kept getting all of the inference-based comprehension questions wrong.  Since this was a gifted and talented class that carried with it certain social cache, I was terrified to ask for help.  So from that point on I never really read another book until my SciFi literature class.  Its amazing how well one can get by with Cliff Notes in high school!

SciFi Literature was only the beginning.  After taking that class I enrolled in Gay and Lesbian Literature, the Bible as Literature (Old and New Testament), and Shakespearean Literature.  Each of these classes were very different, but they all held one thing in common – I was immersed in literature and content that was completely new to me.  As I look though my book collection today, whether it be the print based texts on my book shelf or the digital ones on my iPad I notice a pattern – that I love to books because each of them is a gateway into a new and novel world.

Joe

Note: This is just my first of many Area 3 Writing Project entries.  While I am posting each one here publicly, please know that ultimately they are just a draft and that I might come back and edit periodically.

Photo: iPad iBooks in Stacks at LA Library by Steve Garfield on Flickr

Another great article from: JoeWoodOnline.com

The Power of Books

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Tomorrow is the first day of summer vacation and the first day of the Invitational Summer Institute at Area 3 Writing Project.  Back in February, I applied to join the Summer Invitational based on the recommendations of friends who had participated during previous summers.  My friend Brian, a Great Valley Writing Project graduate and phenomenal writer, explained to me, “I didn’t really know how to write until I attended Summer Institute – it will be an amazing experience, you’ll love every moment.”

Initially, I did not consider myself a writing teacher, so I wasn’t sure if I was a fit for the Summer Invitational.  I’ve taught science and technology to both students and adults, but I’ve never really taught writing.  Heck, I’m not even really sure if I know how you are supposed to teach writing.  When I’ve helped former students with research projects, lab reports, or digital stories I just kind of went with what made sense based on my own experience as a writer.  Interestingly, I’ve learned through my first few initial meetings and assigned reading that I’m hardly alone.  Many teachers have received almost no instruction on how to effectively teach writing and all of us are writing instructors whether we realize it or not.  I think this quote from a principal in Because Writing Matters does a great job of describing what most of us have experienced in the classroom.

“Only writing teachers are expected to teach writing across all subject areas.  The science teachers may expect a well-researched, grammatically correct paper from new students, not realizing that for the six years before they got a particular child she never learned how to do that.  So their whole perception of the childs’ writing and ability changes when they get those first works and they blame the writing teachers, who, in turn, blame the earlier teachers.  Every teacher who interacts with children has a responsibility for the student’s development in writing as it applies to their subject area.”

Over the next four weeks I will study literacy and writing instruction with a great group of educators from throughout the Sacramento area.  The Summer Institute also has the core belief that improvements in writing instruction are directly linked to improvements in a teacher’s writing ability.  So as Brian described, I look forward to leaving this experience as a stronger, more effective writer – its my own little intellectual writing vacation.

Joe

Photo: Write on Flicker by Spaceamoeba

Another great article from: JoeWoodOnline.com

The Intellectual Writing Vacation Begins

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If you have not seen this video, the title alone makes it worth watching.

However, if you are like me and sometimes a 16 minute video can seem like too much of a commitment (BTW, I feel the same way about retrieving voicemail), then skim the transcript by clicking here.  I posted the first few paragraphs below to give you a sense of how it starts…

“This is bullshit.

Why should you be sitting there listening to me? To paraphrase Dan Gillmor, you know more than I do. Will Richardson should be up here instead of me. And to paraphrase Jay Rosen, you should be the people formerly known as the audience.

But right now, you’re the audience and I’m lecturing.

That’s bullshit.

What does this remind of us of? The classroom, of course, and the entire structure of an educational system built for the industrial age, turning out students all the same, convincing them that there is one right answer — and that answer springs from the lecturn. If they veer from it they’re wrong; they fail.”

Another great article from: JoeWoodOnline.com

TEDxNYed: Jeff Jarvis

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As we prepared for this week’s ActivInspire Summer Institute one of my team’s goals was to start developing a common language of multimedia instruction by to reviewing current literature and the work of our Promethean action research group.  My team and I took a look at books from various authors including:

• Multimedia Learning by Richard Mayer
• Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds
• Slide:ology by Nancy Duarte

However, my favorite text happened to be the one with the least catchy (in my opinion) title – The Non-Designer’s Presentation Book by Robin Williams.  While I have previously read Presentation Zen and modeled many of my presentations after Reynolds’ work, I loved the very practical and somewhat witty nature in which Williams writes.  Right from the beginning Williams starts off with the idea that your presentation is not about PowerPoint vs. Keynote vs. ActivInspire – its about you and your story.

“Although this book focuses on the design of your computer presentation, the primary thing to remember is that your presentation is not merely the computer file – its you.  YOU give the presentation and your computer file simply helps you in that task…All the graphics and animation and audio and video that go into your project are held together and presented by you.  You are the star.”

Williams’ idea, that its not about the file – its about what you have to say and how the file will help you deliver your message, made me reflect back to a summer read from a few years ago – The Influencer: The Power to Change Anything.  In nut shell this book deals with the idea that the power to change minds and attitudes is often starts with compelling narrative.  Quite often when any of us are asked to give a presentation, we’re usually trying to change some minds – whether it be a school board meeting, staff meeting, technology workshop, or classroom lesson.  Each of these examples has audiences with varying degrees of preconceived notions (or false information that needs to be unlearned) depending on the topic.  However in the end, the presenter teacher has a short period of time to facilitate a lesson or presentation based upon compelling and engaging story.  Technology and presentation software has the ability to make that story even more powerful and memorable.

While she goes on to provide very practical tips for constructing effective PowerPoint and Keynote presentations (including some awesome screenshots of various advanced menus in each program), Williams never steers from her message – that its about the story.  For me this hit home the most during the chapters on Animation and Plot.  Inherently I have always know that an effective presentation, just like an engaging story, has a compelling plot.  Similarly, animations and transitions are only useful when they act like literary devices, helping the presenter tell their story.  While I have know this idea, I have also had a difficult time verbalizing it to others.  In The Non-Designer’s Presentation Book, Robin Williams has helped me (and my team) verbalize some of the key concepts in order to develop a common language for multimedia instruction.  If you are looking for a good book to improve your own presentations, I suggest checking it out.

Joe

Another great article from: JoeWoodOnline.com

The Non-Designer’s Presentation Book – Summer Read

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Free TV Show from Ustream

As I mentioned yesterday, this week my team and I are working with a group of teachers at the ActivInspire Summer Institute.  This afternoon my colleague, Jon, is delivering a workshop on effective multimedia instruction.  We’re Ustreaming the session if you’re interested in checking it out.  Later on I will post a link to Jon’s actual ActivInspire file.

Joe

Another great article from: JoeWoodOnline.com

Multimedia Learning with Jon Leister

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One of the projects my team and I have been working during this Summer of Learning is the ActivInspire Summer Institute.  Currently, we have around 600 Promethean Interactive Whiteboards in the district.  Last year Promethean released the newest version of their software, ActivInspire.  Since the switch from ActivStudio (the previous version) to ActivInspire is a fairly large jump, we’ve waited until this summer to make our migration.  Starting tomorrow teachers from across the district will attend a week-long institute to learn all the ins-and-outs of ActivInspire.  Since we have an engaged and interested audience we also plan to spend some time discussing multimedia instruction and for me, this is where things get really exciting.

Last school year my team worked with a group of teachers and administrators from four different school sites, representing elementary through high school, and Dr. Debra Pickering from the Marzano Research Laboratory.  The focus of our work targeted the creation of a language of instruction for the effective use of IWBs (and eventually other technology) in the classroom.  Using texts, such as Multimedia Learning, Presentation Zen and Slide:ology, combined with study findings from Marzano Research Laboratory our group created a rubric affectionately known as “Its Not About the Bling” where the first letter of each word stands for a section of the rubric.

• I: Interactions with knowledge and people
• N: Non-Linguistic Representations complementing the text
• A: Assessments to measure and improve learning
• T: Thinking Skills for deepening, and meaningful use of, knowledge
• B: Build understanding and proficiency

Before any of you dismiss this work as not being applicable because you don’t use an interactive whiteboard I suggest reviewing the rubric.  Go ahead, click on the link.  I’ll wait.  As you can see, if you currently use PowerPoint, Keynote, or any other presentation software the information in this rubric can help you and your teachers create more effective and powerful multimedia lessons.  The document is a work in progress, however over the next few days we’ll be honing in on the Non Linguistic Representations portion.  Take a moment to look over the handout for this week’s institute to learn more.  There you will also find some nice summary documents for Multimedia Learning, Presentation Zen, Slide:ology, and the Non-Designer’s Presentation Book.

Joe

Another great article from: JoeWoodOnline.com

ActivInspire Summer Institute

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Wow!  Has it really been two months since I last wrote?!?  My how time flies. I also noticed I’ve recently received quite a few comments that somehow got stuck in the WordPress spam filter.

Well, since it’s the third Friday in June that can only mean one thing – the first week of summer vacation is over! Then again I’m working all summer, so I guess that doesn’t really matter.  This will be the first summer I have worked the entire time without a large chunk of down time.  It’s a little strange and now I really understand how much I cherished that time off – not because (contrary to popular belief) I sat on the couch all summer catching up on trash TV.  I love summer vacation because it is a time to refresh, renew, and recharge my brain.  Its my time of inquiry and exploration.  Therefore in spite of the fact I’m working, I am determined to make this a summer of learning and I have a few items on the agenda so far:

• Area 3 Writing Project Summer Invitational
• Area 3 Writing Project LSRI Grant Work – the topic is digital writing, so stay tuned
• Reading – lots and lots of it – my summer stack is growing.
• iPad Exploration – I finally caved and my very own iPad arrived last week, so I have lots of things to discover.
• A few other items I can’t make public yet – makes you want to check back doesn’t it?

So stay tuned, you might see an interesting post or two.

Joe

Photo: Reading on the Beach by cmcough

Another great article from: JoeWoodOnline.com

Summer of Learning

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This evening I had the opportunity to start a great and timely new book.  Last month I ordered a copy of The Socially Networked Classroom – Teaching in the New Media Age by William Kist after seeing it on my Amazon Recommends List.  For a couple of weeks its been sitting on the book shelf in my office, but tonight I cracked it open. I’m only 30 or so pages in and I already love it!  Truthfully, I was captivated by the end of the first paragraph.  Kylene Beers opens The Socially Networked Classroom with a foreward in which she describes asking a principal “What type of student will not do well in this school?”  This insightful and unusual question leads to the principal admitting that the students who will struggle most in his school are those preparing for a 21st century career.

“We’re creating another generation of students who know how to consume information, when what we need to be nurturing is a generation that knows how produce new ideas.”

In The Socially Networked Classroom, Kist describes how we can prepare students for the 21st century by linking together literacy, technology, and social media.  Through this process we will create a generation of students who can not only produce new ideas, but also effectively consume information as well.  In the second chapter Kist writes,

“Now we face an age in which we are shifting to a screen-based society (Kress, 2003) in which much of our reading will be from a screen, and therefore reading will not only encompass print but also images, sound, and motion as well.  Visual literacy skills should be included if we truly want to prepare students for this new kind of reading.” pg. 25

Loaded with tons of classroom activities and provocative questions the book is highly practical.  However towards the middle of the first chapter Kist asks three main questions he seems to cycle back to throughout the portion of the text I’ve read so far:

1. How do new forms (of text) transform writing?
2. Who is the audience for our writing in the new media age?
3. How do we form communities?

All three questions are very interesting to me, however the third one really has me pondering because I’m starting to see that Kist is really asking – How do we form communities both face-to-face and online?  What does it mean to “write” in each of these communities?  For example, if you have a Facebook page just take a moment to look at what you have posted.  Would you have said or shared the same things in real life?  My bookmark is currently sitting on my favorite question so far.  In the context of posting things online via blogs, social networks, wikis, or collaborative word processors like Google Docs Kist asks, “What does literacy mean when its increasingly public and collaborative?”

I can’t wait to discover the answer…

Joe

Another great article from: JoeWoodOnline.com

The Socially Networked Classroom

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