Things I will miss:

• The students. Sure, there will be students at the new building, But I feel this way every time I lose a building. This doesn’t get easier through repetition.
• The staff. With some exceptions, the staff (and not just the teachers!) in all of my buildings were joys to work with.
• Getting my hands dirty. There’s nothing like a good ceramics project. Or painting project. Or any media that requires a sink.
• The local community. The town surrounding my base school is on my top 10 list of places to live.
• The mobility. As an itinerant teacher I got to visit 60+ classrooms a year. For all its drawbacks, that was a great opportunity to observe vastly different learning styles and take the best from each. I am certain it has made me a better teacher.

Things I won’t miss:

• Waking up in the morning and wondering, in my state of “not quite awake”-ness if I’m at the 7 AM building today, and therefore late, or the 8 AM building, and therefore will get there on time. (Then usually I would look at my clock and realize it was 2 AM and I should really go back to sleep.)
• Being required to make other teachers complete certain tasks without the authority to make them complete those tasks. I will not go into details here.
• Only seeing my students four or five times a year.
• Having my office / storage area consist of half the conference room, separated by a temporary wall that blocked no sound whatsoever. (I wore headphones for multiple reasons.)

• Spend lots of time blogging.
• Go to technology conferences.
• Spend lots of time with my PLN.

What I did do:

• Unplugged and spent quality time with the wife.
• Plugged back in to play video games … with the wife.
• Got a job offer for an art/tech position where I will have my own computer lab and see my students much more often than once or twice a quarter. It’s in a new K-8 school opening this year in the county.
• Had an interview the next day.
• Offered the job on the same day.
• Asked what the administration’s take was on blogging.
• Convinced administration that I could teach blogging to students in a responsible way.
• Accepted the job.
• Missed my exit on the way home from the interview.  Twice.

Those that know me will understand this was a decision that I was ready to make, but it still won’t be easy.  There are a lot of staff and students in my previous buildings (dang, it’s still feels odd typing that) that I’m really going to miss.  Most of them I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to.

I think I’m going to let this sink in for a day or two.

Scott Kinney, Vice President at Discovery Education, at a hearing regarding the Future of Learning: How Technology is Transforming Public Schools on June 16, 2009.

Yeah, you can say I’m a stickler about some things.  It’s genetic, I think.  Just try ending a sentence with a preposition when my sister’s around.

I’m critical about this because one of the things we teach in school (according to our curriculum, at least) is how to communicate well.  People who speak “properly” are more likely to do well in interviews and score higher paying and/or better quality careers.

But it’s not the only way people speak.  I dare you to turn on a radio and count how many times the word “ain’t” is used in one hour’s worth of song lyrics.  There, it’s acceptable.  In school, it’s not.

It gets worse when you head online, where sentences like “LOL school is teh suxxorz I hav a gud job even wit low gradez.” are easily understood and not criticized for grammar or spelling … in some circles.

“In some circles” is apparently the key phrase here.  In art we need to know our target audience, and we use our works, whether they’re visual, auditory, or something else, to communicate something.  I’m not likely to use Modernism to illustrate a children’s story about a young boy’s first week at school.

But online we have a wide variety of audiences with which we can participate, and the language norms can be incredibly different in each tab of our browser.  Several people I follow on Plurk and Twitter are fans of some strangely talking cats, but you still won’t see us posting things like “I can has Summer vacation!” or “Invisible budget” in our Professional Learning Networks.

So, if you remember how I started this post it’s safe to say I’m not in favor of students handing in essays written in 1337 or LoLspeak, even though I’m capable of communicating in both.  But I’m not so quick to dismiss these offshoots of the English language.  They were created by a generation that found themselves understanding the new technology far better than most of their teachers, so they built their own rules around it.

And if you look at it that way, it kinda roxxorz.

Whether or not it happens, I have been thinking a bit about my little corner of the internet and its effects on my chances of getting hired.  I know some bloggers use assumed names so they just don’t ave to worry about that.  Too late for me, since last I checked googling the quite common name of “Aaron Smith” got me this result.

It is my hope, my dream, that schools with the right idea about both the arts and technology will see my ramblings here and think I am someone worth keeping in their employ.

I am also hopeful (though slightly less so) that the opposite is true – that schools with the wrong attitude towards the arts and technology will look upon my works and despair (sorry, couldn’t resist the literary reference) write me off as someone they wouldn’t want.  But then, somehow I doubt those kinds of schools would bother looking at my website in the first place.

But mostly, I’m hoping that I don’t have to look for a job in the first place.  It is a big scary world out there and I’ve yet to recieve my renewed teaching certificate (completed the last requirement in December) in the mail.  I know I was thinking of changing careers, but for some reason now does not seem the time for risk taking.

“Self, you don’t have enough accounts on web 2.0 type websites. You should go find another.”

So I went and started a Tumblr page.

OK, that’s not true.

The real reason was because on a semi-recent (actually kinda old … I’m a little behind) episode of Net @ Nite it was mentioned that Tumblr allowed you to use your phone to call in audio that would be posted directly to your Tumblr page.

Sound familiar?  Yeah, it’s what Gcast lets you do, only unlike Gcast they haven’t started charging for that feature yet.

Well … I was underimpressed, to say the least.

There was no option to hear your recording before posting it live to the internet.  I’m someone who usually needs at least one do-over when it comes to recording anything, and I see how this could go very, very wrong.

Also, I know phone calls are by default low quality audio, but I think they may have compressed the file even beyond that.  I assume this was in the name of conserving as much bandwidth as possible, and considering Tumblr’s popularity I understand that could be a big issue.

Unfortunately, the final nail in the coffin was that the resulting RSS feed didn’t have an enclosure.  That’s geek-speak for “It may be audio on the web, but iTunes will never let it be a podcast.”  Except for certain thinking-outside-the-box uses, this is not a Gcast replacement.

The rest of Tumblr was a collection of ups and downs.  The service is a miniblog, as it allows more than microblogs like Twitter but it’s not nearly as full-featured as WordPress.  They have multiple posting methods, whether from their web interface dashboard (seen above) a variety of apps via their API, or their bookmarklet, which I have to say is one of the slickest (and ironically, feature rich) ones I’ve seen so far.  Still, nothing they had really jumped out at me as being better than the other services I was already using.

And then I decided to search through the Tumblr community to see what I could find in the way of educators, and I discovered that I’m not likely to recommend this service any time soon.  At least, not until they include a Google-like safe search feature.  I found too much that I would be embarrassed to have to explain if a student showed it to me in class, and that was while looking for teachers!

My final take?  If all of your friends are using Tumblr go ahead and make an account.  If you want a free blog?  There’s plenty that are better.  Want a microblog PLN?  Go with Plurk or Twitter.  Picture posting?  Flickr.  Cool links?  Del.icio.us or Diigo.

But don’t bother with Tumblr, it really doesn’t seem to be worth it yet.

Having survived my 4th consecutive year presenting at MICCA & a few other places, I think it’s safe for me to say I know one or two things about it.  At least, I’ve yet to have a session that ended emptier than when it started, so I’ve got that going for me.

So here’s a list of 10 things that, if done correctly, will help your audience stay engaged and secure in the fact that you know what you’re talking about.  (Or at the very least, they’ll help you fake it.)

They’re numbered, but the order could be changed.  I’m not giving much thought to that part.

10. Market yourself. Don’t spend too much time on this, but your audience should know why you’re worth listening to on this subject.  Are you a DEN Star?  Google Certified?  Do you have 20 years experience working with Web 2.0 technology?  (OK, maybe in dog years…)  Spend 30 seconds telling them why you’re special.  Letting them know how to contact you if they have more questions later is good, too.

9. Don’t sit down. Some people can get away with it, but most of us can’t.  An enthusiastic presenter is more likely to capture an audience, and you can show your enthusiasm better while up and moving.

8. Podiums are walls. Even if they aren’t the big, bulky, “This could stop a truck and still be usable” podiums, they create a barrier between you and your audience.  Don’t hide behind one unless you audience scares you.  (In fact, don’t use one then, either.  Audiences can smell fear.)

7. PowerPoint is there to back you up. Not the other way around.  Substitute “PowerPoint” for “Keynote,” “Prezi,” “Google Presentation,” or whatever you intend to use.  If all you’re doing is reading your slides, you’re wasting space, time, and potentially oxygen.

6. Limit yourself. Just because a product or service can do 53,781 different things does not mean you have to cover all of them.  Tying in with #7: Just because PowerPoint has a plethora of transitions does not mean you should try to use all of them in a single session.  “Random” is the worst possible transition choice ever.  In both cases, you should pick your favorites and stick with those.

5. Ask questions. Your audience is full of intelligent people.  (Granted they’re listening to you, but there’s no reason to let them know that’s a strike against them!)  The questions you ask could be ones that just check to see if they’re paying attention or ones that change the course of your discussion topic, but they should have some way of knowing that you’re acknowledging their presence.

4. Don’t print your PowerPoint. I’m not just saying that because as I type this it’s Earth Day.  I’m saying this because paper is made of matter.  The science geeks out there (including me) will be happy to tell you that means it has mass and volume, and that means 2 reasons why your audience will resent your 10 page printout once it’s added to all the other printouts they’ve collected at that conference.  It adds up and shoulder pain is serious business.  Do them and yourself a favor and make a wiki with all the useful information on it.  Share the link at the beginning and end of your presentation and everyone will be happier for it.

3. Don’t admit mistakes that don’t mater, but admit the ones that do. So you wanted to cover 21 different Web 2.0 sites and skipped #17?  Forget about it.  If you have a wiki (you read #5, right?) they’ll be able to find ay small points you missed on there.  But remember that with the exception of my 2nd grade teacher, we’re all human.  Breathe deep, correct it if you can, acknowledge it if you can’t, and move on.  Your audience will respect you more or it, trust me.

2. Have a backup. PowerPoint will crash.  The network will go down.  Something will go horribly wrong if you don’t have a plan B.  When I’m talking about websites I’ll usually have screen captures of all the features I want to showcase, just in case.  I learned this lesson the hard way.  I will not share that story.

1. Your presentation will never be finished. I’ve seen keynote speakers changing slides shortly before they presented.  I myself have redone a presentation several times, then scrapped the whole thing to start over again because I wasn’t satisfied.  Leonardo da Vinci reportedly said “Art is never finished, only abandoned.”  That you want to keep making it better is admirable, but don’t stress out that you’re not “done.”

Another option would be to check out Selena Ward’s Plurk log of my Session 3 and someone else’s Session 4 (She didn’t attend mine because she’s already a PLN master).  Good stuff, there.

theartguy MICCA Session 2: “Gaming: How do I get Started?” with Dr. BJ Gallagher

• April 21, 2009 at 11:28 theartguy says Slight delay while scrounging for a laptop.
• April 21, 2009 at 11:30 theartguy says Handout is a wiki: begingaming.pbwiki.com/
• April 21, 2009 at 11:31 theartguy says Came up with using games in education while working with special needs kids.
• April 21, 2009 at 11:33 theartguy says Most games are “Drill & Practice,” others are a little more adventurous.
• April 21, 2009 at 11:34 theartguy says “Complex Games” are the way to go, though there is a learning curve for some.
• April 21, 2009 at 11:36 theartguy says “If a student’s in a wheelchair, they can pick an avatar that can get up and move!”
• April 21, 2009 at 11:37 theartguy says Mention of Runescape – she was cooking shrimp in the game and fought a troll. Heh.
• April 21, 2009 at 11:39 theartguy “If you want to get started find yourself a middle schooler. Not a high schooler they know too much.”
• April 21, 2009 at 11:41 theartguy Somewhat brief mention of MMORPGs while looking at Wikipedia article on gaming.
• April 21, 2009 at 11:43 theartguy says I’m somewhat confused – not about the gaming, but about the presenter’s enthusiasm. She seems enthusiastic … but not.
• April 21, 2009 at 11:44 theartguy says Universal Design for Learning, Differentiated Instruction, games can be used to support these systems.
• April 21, 2009 at 11:48 theartguy says “How are our games perceived around the world?” A good point is made here, some of our games don’t fit well with other cultures.
• April 21, 2009 at 11:49 theartguy says World of Warcraft removed a character based on a panda because China didn’t think it was a positive image.
• April 21, 2009 at 11:52 theartguy says I see how gaming can be used to assist education, but she could be making the connections better than “Here’s some links on some sites.”
• April 21, 2009 at 12:31 Tim Holt says keep these updates coming!
• April 21, 2009 at 12:38 theartguy says Next two sessions are mine – think my audience will mind if I stop to Plurk?

theartguy Session 1 is What Google Can Do For You by thetechtiger! Woot!

• April 21, 2009 at 10:11 theartguy says im.textthemob.com/id751
• April 21, 2009 at 10:32 miz mercer Back to being artguy I see
• April 21, 2009 at 10:38 theartguy says For now at least – don’t want to confuse the people I introduce to PLNs today.
• April 21, 2009 at 10:39 theartguy says Currently explaining Gmail & Gchat
• April 21, 2009 at 10:43 theartguy says It’s all a quick overview of everything right now. Cal, Docs, Maps, Earth
• April 21, 2009 at 10:44 bethmharvey says I love the site “text the mob” I have never seen that. Good luck on your presentation. Our teachers are most interested in Google Docs
• April 21, 2009 at 10:45 theartguy says “If you can use Office, you can use Google to make web pages.” So true
• April 21, 2009 at 10:47 theartguy says Best part about Google Docs is no more thumb drives to transfer documents. IMHO
• April 21, 2009 at 10:47 theartguy says Side note – this isn’t a PowerPoint. WHole thing is in prezi.com/
• April 21, 2009 at 10:49 theartguy says Google Groups – discussion boards. Can be public or private. Lots of good ones already exist.
• April 21, 2009 at 10:52 theartguy says iGoogle
• April 21, 2009 at 10:56 theartguy says Overview done, now for the nitty gritty!
• April 21, 2009 at 11:02 theartguy says Form – create a web based survey (or quiz or test!) and all answers are placed in a spreadsheet! I use this all the time and it’s awesome.

• theartguy says Web 1.0: Watch Tv and try to understand commercials.
• April 21, 2009 at 09:15 theartguy says Web 2.0: Produce media
• April 21, 2009 at 09:17 theartguy says “Get out of the notion of giving kids something to do every 20 minutes.” They need to manage their own time.
• April 21, 2009 at 09:18 theartguy says “When you want to learn something new, what do you do?”
• April 21, 2009 at 09:22 theartguy says Showed a video of a 10 yr old video blogger. Kid mentioned a JoCo song. Nice
• April 21, 2009 at 09:22 techtiger I really liked that kids are the CEO of their own brand
• April 21, 2009 at 09:24 theartguy says Enabling trends: Mobility – 24/7 access & user created content.
• April 21, 2009 at 09:26 theartguy says Indeed, thetechtiger – It was rather “permanent record”-ish, but in a good way.
• April 21, 2009 at 09:27 theartguy says Also enabling: Social Interactions for Learning. Social interactions are PROMOTING learning.
• April 21, 2009 at 09:34 theartguy says And just got a link from timholt about being a Keynote speaker.

1. I’ve been Plurking my experiences of the keynotes and sessions.  I’ll be moving them over to this blog for the sake of those who don’t use Plurk but still want to comment or whatever.
2. 3rd year in a row that I’ve been stopped by someone – this time it was just because he thought since registration doesn’t open ’till 7:30am today that no one was allowed in until then.  (But if I’m not in the parking garage before 7 I don’t get the early bird special and save $20.)  Simple misunderstanding.
3. In addition to the Plurk logs, I’ve got a new blog post half-written in my head already.  Maybe two.  Expect more from me soon.
4. Same gentleman is now stopping everyone who walks past.  Odd that he’s stationed in the middle of the conference center and not at the front door.  (The guy at the front door just told me good morning and waved me through.)  I’m sure he means well.
5. I left two things in my car – My MICCA badge (which I went back and retrieved before entering the building) and my soda (which I forgot even when I wsa back at my car).  Looks like I’m drinking water today.  Eh, that’s healthier for me anyway.
6. As you can see from the above picture, Baltimore Convention Center is full of triangles.  I love this place.

For the 4th year in a row, I will be presenting at MICCA.

For the 1st time (for this conference, at least…), I will be presenting twice.

And as usual, I’m opening my handouts up to everyone who wants to add in their two cents.  I feel they’re ready to go as-is, but that doesn’t mean I’m the only person who knows what he’s talking about!  (I’m hoping for supplementary information, not for someone to do the work for me.)

My presentations are as follows.  Click the links to see, edit, and/or add to my wikis:

Art 2.0

…how art lessons in the computer lab can reinforce other subjects.

Paper, pencils, and paints are good, but there are also plenty of free art projects that reinforce other subjects and can be taught using just computers. This session will showcase some tools, tips, and tricks that any teacher can use.

Personal Learning Networks

…how microblogs and more can make you a better teacher.

Personal learning networks (also called professional learning networks) are a quick, easy, and free way to continue your professional growth as an educator using web 2.0. This session will explain PLNs in more detail and show a variety of free sites that can be used to build your own.

Of course I had no idea what to do with them, so I snapped a quick picture with my BlackBerry and used Flickr to post the photo and my description/question to this blog.  The whole process took less than 5 minutes, but the responses were nice enough that I ended up using the same post as a warm-up for my Art Club.

Part 2 was a similar situation, except that the source was waste scrap paper that was just too small for most of the projects I’ve done with my students.  Again, 5 minutes of work yielded some awesome responses from both the followers of this blog and my Art Club.

So … I think I’m going to keep this up.  As I find new, unusual, unorthodox, or just plain industrial waste materials, I’ll post a picture and brief description and ask for your insights.

Creativity can be an awesome thing.  It can be even more awesome in a group setting.

What do I do with these? (Part 2),
originally uploaded by TheArtGuy.

They are scraps from old manilla folders. They measure 2.5" x 1". I have enough to supply a whole grade level with several or a single class with a lot more. (I could always cut more if needed.)

I have a few ideas, but would like to hear yours first.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Garbage never looked so good.

I handed colored pencils to my 1st graders today.

This was not too surprizing, as I did the same thing last week.  What I have noticed, however, is that most of my teachers with younger students don’t let them sharpen their own pencils whenever they need to.

I, however, do.  I would much rather see a student raise their hand because they’re having difficulty with a portion of their composition  than because their colored stick isn’t pointy enough.  As a result I usually announce in the beginning of the lesson that if the pencil needs sharpening, they can just get up and sharpen it.  I even go so far as to explain when a pencil needs sharpening and how to sharpen it so that it doesn’t disappear forever in a pile of shavings.  (Colored pencils are much softer than the 2B kind.)

You know what happens next…

Stampeeeeeede!

That’s right, any student who found a colored pencil that was not ready to vanquish a vampire was at the sharpener ready to go! This included those who had white colored pencils.  Did I mention this was a lesson where they used white paper?  Well it was.

This is the point when the classroom teacher looks at me with a patronizing expression that says “That’s why I don’t let them do that.”

And I look at them with a nervous smile that says “Eheheheh … I’ll be right back.”

The next minute or so is spent turning kinds away that don’t really need to sharpen pencils, as well as enforcing the “Turn it 3 times then check” rule of sharpening.

And you know what?  That’s it.

Occasionally a student will have a relapse, but for the most part they know my rules and what’s expected of them.  They’re fine with that because they’re getting a cool reward in the process – an awesome art project.

In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the initial stampede was in fact because they wanted to revel in the idea that they could go and sharpen any pencil that needed it.

So how does this relate to technology integration?

You have to ask?

A new tool is a new tool, and new freedoms are promptly exercised.  There will be chaos, but if you stay alert it will at least be organized chaos and learning will still be accomplished.  Eventually, the chaos will be replaced with something better – a class full of students who are able to learn without raising their hands to ask permission for each step.

Nowadays whenever my Art Club meets I send them to the art club website.  In my infinite wisdom I used my academicaesthetic.com domain name to host the club’s blog, which as the year comes to a close is still causing issues due to students having trouble spelling “aesthetic.”  (To be honest if I wasn’t an art teacher I’d have problems with that word as well.)

There are many ways to solve this problem.  For me, I gave them cards with the URL written out.  If half of them can spell “aesthetic” by the end of the year I’ll be very happy.

Fluid would have been another possibility too.  The app you download does nothing more than create other apps, each of which is a minimalistic web browser.  What’s the big deal, you ask?

The big deal is that there’s a ton of cool websites out there that are applications in and of themselves.  SUMOpaint, Google Docs, and more are all as good as or better than applications you can run on your computer.  If I create a SUMOpaint app, Twitter app, or whatever using Fluid, I can have a new icon in my dock that with a single click takes me right to that tool.

Not convinced this is a good thing?  Neither was I, at first.  But because Fluid apps are very minimalistic, they’re also kinda light on the system requirements.  If I’m running something that’s kind of resuource heavy on my computer, say… World of Warcraft, do I really want to open up a full browser just to check wowwiki.com?

If I have a Twitter account of my own and manage another Twitter account for a community, do I want to open up a whole other browser just to keep from logging in and out of multiple accounts?  Yeah, I could use one of many twitter apps, but I kinda like the background I have on my Twitter page.  I’d like to see that.

I won’t be so enthusiastic as to say Fluid’s posibilities are endless.  Clearly it has some limitations, but I see those same limitations as its strengths.

If you have another use for Fluid, why not post it as a comment?

This is something you could very well expect to see in any art class that has a good teacher, since in art you will often find three or four (or more) opinions about composition, color choices, techniques, or even the definition of “art” itself.  We can’t give a single answer because there isn’t one.  We’re kind of forced into the scenario of not giving an answer at the end of the lesson that students can expect to see on the final.

Mr. Meyer, however, is a math teacher.  There are very concrete answers that can be figured out when encountering math problems.  Two plus two has an answer.  If solving for X yields more than one possibility, you can graph them to show the whole range.

Sometimes the conversation, the act of sorting things out with your peers and learning for yourselves what the right questions are is more important than coming to a specific teacher-sanctioned conclusion.

Giving an answer at the end can disguise that simple fact.  I’m glad he’s realized this so early – I know more than one teacher twice his age who’s yet to have that sink in.