Just Julie http://www.julieacunningham.com Sun, 26 Feb 2012 23:35:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 JulieACunninghamhttp://feedburner.google.com Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-02-26 http://www.julieacunningham.com/2012/02/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2012-02-26/ http://www.julieacunningham.com/2012/02/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2012-02-26/#comments Sun, 26 Feb 2012 23:35:00 +0000 Julie Cunningham http://www.julieacunningham.com/2012/02/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2012-02-26/

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]]> http://www.julieacunningham.com/2012/02/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2012-02-26/feed/ 0 Text Communication with Younger Children http://www.julieacunningham.com/2012/02/text-communication-with-younger-children/ http://www.julieacunningham.com/2012/02/text-communication-with-younger-children/#comments Thu, 23 Feb 2012 21:23:47 +0000 Julie Cunningham http://www.julieacunningham.com/?p=624

To those who say that technology detracts from our ability to communicate:

Who says we can’t convey our feelings through digital media? I read her loud and clear, and I’m sure you did too!

My 8 year old daughter recently received her sister’s iP*d after we purchased a new phone for Dad.  In our house, rank hath it’s privileges, and the underlings reap the benefits. That new phone was purchased in order to get a phone for our 6th grader…. but she didn’t want to give up her iTouch in order to get a phone, so we waited a bit longer to get her an iPh*ne when Dad could upgrade. He’s now mocking me with his 4S, but I know how this Apple game is played…. I’ll be able to get the 5 later this year.

I have a friend who shared how she texted regularly with her teen daughters in the house.  At the time, I truly didn’t understand and viewed it as a very impersonal way to communicate.  Texting is rather like speaking a foreign language.

Can you imagine a classroom full of  students, an iPod Touch on every desk? Once the new wears off, it becomes just another communication method. I can do some classroom management via text. (In the Computer Lab, I did this regularly using Apple Remote Desktop to send a quick note to get a student back on track.) Of course there is a balance with this- if the tool is keeping you from real life, then it’s managing you.  But if it’s used positively it can be an unexpected boon. This year, we’ve been able to creatively handle some behavioral issues by texting between teachers. A simple heads up to a co-worker allows for some cooperation, and the situations are less messy and less embarrassing to those involved and their peers.

]]> http://www.julieacunningham.com/2012/02/text-communication-with-younger-children/feed/ 0 Teamwork Isn’t Easy http://www.julieacunningham.com/2012/02/teamwork-isnt-easy/ http://www.julieacunningham.com/2012/02/teamwork-isnt-easy/#comments Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:25:41 +0000 Julie Cunningham http://www.julieacunningham.com/?p=681

by fisserman on Flickr

Last week, my students came face to face with an undeniable fact…. teamwork isn’t easy. Now, these students have been incredible until the day in question in the maturity and flexibility they have shown while working on their project.  Guess what? They are human, and had a bit of a communication breakdown.

I’ll let them speak for themselves on the topic of collaboration…

Today was hard  our team fell apart. We leaned something special  today be kind to team talk it out first. Don’t  fight  about  it. When your team falls apart read my blog and learn what we leaned today.

- Abby C.

Today we learned that working in a group is not as easy as it sounds, at all! We decided to work on our presentation and we got pretty much no where so we stopped and we will continue tomorrow.

- Tuscany S.

Most of the time its easy to work with friends, but not always with me. I’m a VERY emotional girl, and very sensitive. But when working with others I tend to want to do a certain part by myself, which, doesn’t always happen. Today we ran into a few problems with our PBL, and most of us did some pretty stupid things and most of us vented into a chat box, which hurt people more than was intended.

- Emily C.

I was impressed with their level of self-awareness and ability to reflect honestly on the experience.1

  1. I’m sure they’d love to hear from you… their names are linked to their posts.
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After just one week of focusing on project-based learning in our small class group, I can say that the biggest challenge for these students will be learning to learn… by themselves.

They want to be spoon fed.  We taught them that.

They want the right answer. We taught them that.

They don’t want to think too hard. We taught them that.

Last week, @joebower started off #sschat with the comment that “education should always be pleasantly frustrating.”  This has really held true for our first week here.

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]]> http://www.julieacunningham.com/2012/02/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2012-02-05/feed/ 0 Permission to Plan! http://www.julieacunningham.com/2012/02/permission-to-plan/ http://www.julieacunningham.com/2012/02/permission-to-plan/#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:38:57 +0000 Julie Cunningham http://www.julieacunningham.com/?p=672

This morning, my children were home sick and so we Skyped in with the Student Center to open the letter from our landlord. It also occurs to me that the students should be posting this stuff on our very neglected class blog…. I’ll have to see what they think.

My favorite part of the letter is when he says he thinks this is a “worthwhile project”. <happy sigh> (Jing video below, in theory… it hasn’t been embedding properly.)

http://screencast.com/t/XD6Zbl3oV7G

]]> http://www.julieacunningham.com/2012/02/permission-to-plan/feed/ 0 Day 2 Reflections http://www.julieacunningham.com/2012/02/day-2-reflections/ http://www.julieacunningham.com/2012/02/day-2-reflections/#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 03:59:22 +0000 Julie Cunningham http://www.julieacunningham.com/?p=671

(Fair warning…. Emily waxes very poetic about her 12 year molars in this reflection piece. The last 10 seconds is AMAZING. Skip to there if you tire of the tooth saga.)

(As usual, Tuscany’s will be up tomorrow!)

]]> http://www.julieacunningham.com/2012/02/day-2-reflections/feed/ 0 PBL, Day 2 http://www.julieacunningham.com/2012/02/pbl-day-2/ http://www.julieacunningham.com/2012/02/pbl-day-2/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:00:31 +0000 Julie Cunningham http://www.julieacunningham.com/?p=666

This morning, we began to reconstruct our days. Yesterday, we spent all day on our bird playground project with little interruption or break. I’m not certain that is sustainable for them, but am going with it. Borrowing from Lyn Hilt’s session on Innovation: Elementary Edition at Educon, I placed a quick “keep/lose/need/has potential” chart on the table. They filled in a few things, and then we set it aside to continue with over the rest of the week.  (Knock me over with a feather, but they LOVE the spelling we have been using because they construct their own games and projects with their words… so we’ll keep it.) On the back, we are beginning to construct a schedule. So far, they just have three things: mini-meeting, lunch, and video reflection.

I’m not certain this bird playground was the best project choice, but it’s a start and they are excited.  I’m doing a lot of reading and learning at BIE and learning as much as I can about PBL and studying the student interaction and learning process.

Today’s learning highlights:

  • Sourcing the last name of the landlord (using reverse phone lookup, brainstorming, visiting neighbor company)
  • Researching proposal formats (found a pertinent one, compared with essay structure, collaborative writing in Google docs)
  • Understanding litter prevention
  • Learning how to draw birds
  • Practicing phone etiquette and communication skills
  • Reading about 12 year molars, pain, and medicine

As far as the meat of the day goes, today was a struggle. Several of them were not feeling the best today (see above). Beyond that, what they needed to accomplish was beyond their ability level. It was a challenge. Today was about writing, revising, and delivering a business proposal for their bird park to our landlord. It was hard for them, but they stuck through the writing process because it had a meaningful purpose. They wanted that permission bad enough to learn to write a business letter, edit it, edit it, edit it, and then deliver it.

Here is the end product:

Dear Mr. Cobb,

We are a 3rd – 6th grade class at Desiderata School working by doing project-based learning. Project-based learning is where a class or group does projects to learn. Our first project is building a bird park. We want you to allow us to use the landscaping areas west of our student center for the bird park. We will make a beautiful bird park that tantalizes the eye.

Benefits of Bird Park:

  1. We will be responsible for litter/maintenance in the area.
  2. The birds at the bird park will be beautifying the property.
  3. There will be no cigarette butts or hazards.
  4. The area will seem lively with all the birds frolicking around.
  5. There will be noise or music that isn’t the train.
  6. The birds will attract people come to shop and lease in the area.
  7. The bird park won’t be permanent and can be moved if needed.

The funding will be from Desiderata School classroom budget and material donations. The park will make the lot look beautiful and much more pleasing to the eye. It will be such a bright place for the ‘whole’ block, imagine, noise that isn’t the train! We will make it blend into the architecture  so it will not stand out too much, but will attract birds and most people like birds. We will also try not to attract raccoons,mice,or ants.

Please grant us permission to plan a bird park in the two landscaping areas to the northwest of our student center. We will schedule an appointment to present to you the final plans of our bird park, and gain your complete consent before we build.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Tuscany,Abby,Caleb,and Emily
Desiderata School

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