I am a teacher et cetera

Motivate Me?

2009-11-10T12:18:00.005-05:00

I finished my application and video for the upcoming Google Teacher Academy. Just in time, too. It was due by midnight last night. I submitted mine at 11:30 pm. Those that know me, know that this if fairly typical. I realized a long time ago that my procrastination acts as a bit of a defense mechanism. If I fail, I have a built in excuse - I should have failed. I didn't give myself enough time. It takes the pressure off. If I succeed, well, it is a happy bit of coincidence. However, my husband's voice has been ringing in my head recently, asking me to spend some time reflecting on this bad habit. Frustrated with my procrastination, he asked me to imagine what I could accomplish if I gave myself and my endeavors the time they deserve. But once again, I found myself leaving my work to nearly the last minute. Perhaps, I'm just not motivated.

Coincidentally, motivation was the theme of the video I put together for my Google application. Applicants were asked to put together a one minute video on either Innovation and Teaching or on Learning and Motivation. I decided to focus on motivation.

Surprisingly enough, I did start my application long before last night. A few weeks ago, I put together a survey and asked my students to think about what motivated them to learn. I shared a link to that survey with high school students around the world via my Twitter PLN. As of today, I've heard from 66 students from Pennsylvania, Oregon, and China. I also went searching through my bookcases. What had others written about motivation? And between the students' responses and what others have written, he here's what I discovered:

I hate the word motivation.

When educators use this word, it is usually in the form of - "What can we do to motivate our students?" Translation: "What can we do to force our students to do what we want them to do?" Motivation is the wrong word. Reading through the plethora of educational philosophy texts on motivation and countless education blogs, I feel that what most educators are concerned with is coercion. Not motivation. And it is no wonder. With the public and the government knocking down the doors of our schools, clamoring on about standards and grades and outcomes, teachers are in a mad dash to force our students into compliance. In fact, in Pennsylvania that seems to be the language we are using to talk about how schools have performed on state mandated exams - are schools in compliance? When did learning become about compliance?

So I found myself flipping back through the works of writers like Alfie Kohn, Paulo Freire, and John Dewey last night. And I am reminded that real learning is often times undermined by the attempt to quantify it. Alfie Kohn writes in Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes,

"We want students to become rigorous thinkers, accomplished readers and writers and problem solvers who can make connections and distinctions between ideas. But the most reliable guide to a process that is promoting these things is not grades or test scores: it is the student's level of interest" (146).

In fact, we know this about even our tiniest learners. The best predictor for intelligence in toddlers is not how well or how fast they learn particular actions or achieve set milestones. Instead, one of the predictors for intelligence is a child's curiosity and interest in exploring his environment. An intelligent child is the interested child. And children want to learn. Kohn goes on to write,

"...children do not need to be motivated. From the beginning they are hungry to make sense of their world. Given an environment in which they don't feel controlled and in which they are encouraged to think about what they are doing (rather than how well they are doing it), students of any age will generally exhibit an abundance of motivation and a healthy appetite for challenge" (198-9).

I know this to be true. I see it daily in my son.

He eats up the world. Gathers it in his tiny hands, rolls it over, considers it carefully. I do not have to "motivate" him to try new things, to learn. He is curious, ready to experience the world on his own. And when I try to force him to practice this or that milestone, let's try walking today, he resists. But he will pull himself up on anything and everything, cruise along any piece of furniture that is just over two foot tall. I do not grade his progress. I do not "motivate" his learning with some intangible reward. Instead, I set him in the middle of the floor with books and shiny objects, with new toys and old, and let him discover what something is, how it works, and how he can manipulate it. I facilitate his learning by creating a learning environment. Which is what as a teacher, I should be doing in my classroom.

Kohn writes,

"The job of educators is neither to make students motivated nor to sit passively; it is to set up the conditions that make learning possible. The challenge...is not to wait 'until an individual is interest...[but to offer] a stimulating environment that can be perceived by students as [presenting] vivid and valued options which can lead to successful learning and performance'" (199).

I am a facilitator of learning, not a dictator of knowledge. I do not motivate learning. I facilitate it.

What Motivates Learning?

2009-11-05T10:40:00.004-05:00

I'm motivated to learn more about motivation.

What motivates students to learn, to engage in our content, to apply their knowledge in unique and meaningful ways? Are you a high school student? Help me learn more about what motivates learning. I'm asking high school students to take a moment to complete this quick survey. You'll be able to see a summary of the results after you submit your completed survey. I'll then compile the results, share them here in a blog post, and use them to inform how I teach. And hopefully, as other educators access this site, it will start a conversation about how, what, and why we teach what we teach.

CLICK HERE for the survey.

Today's Interesting Links

2009-11-03T19:02:00.005-05:00

Mapping the Holocaust
The Museum is using Google Earth to map key Holocaust sites with historic content from its collections, powerfully illustrating the enormous scope and impact of the Holocaust.
educationalwikis - Articles and Resources
All sorts of wonderful information on using wikis in the classroom
Public Domain Photos and Wallpapers
This is a place for free public domain photos and desktop wallpapers. Large collection of High Resolution photos and wallpapers, Thousands of high quality public domain pictures, easy to search.
100 Best Blogs for Those Who Want to Change the World | Best Universities
The world is full of students and visionaries and people who want to make a difference in the world, and many of those people share their knowledge online through their blogs. Whether you want to change the world through environment, humanitarianism, business, or any other way, there's a blog out there that can offer you guidance and inspiration. Read on, and you'll find 100 blogs that can help you change the world.
Tools for Reading, Writing, & Thinking
These tools should be used to help students engage in rigorous thinking, organize complex ideas, and scaffold their interactions with texts.
Google Wave Use Cases
Wave in Class After searching some public 'waves,' we came across an educational wave. Entitled 'Wave in Class,' this wave was started by Loren Baum (a self-described "collaborative learning enthusiast" and graduate student at Ben Gurion University) and Sam Boland (a Politics student and "Tech Enthusiast" at Occidental College, Los Angeles). The wave was started to explore concepts like "Collaborative Note Taking" and "Wave as a Debate Host." Nearly 100 people are included in the wave, ranging from teachers to PhD students to IT professionals to high school students.
How to Address Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom | Edutopia
Multiple-intelligences theory can provide a flexible approach to good teaching, say teachers and administrators at the Enota Multiple Intelligences Academy, in Gainesville, Georgia. Tailoring classroom activities to individual students' needs, interests, and strengths makes sense -- and, at this school, it has proved extremely effective. Whether you're interested in starting an MI-themed school or incorporating some of the MI philosophy into classroom activities, here are a few tips and resources that work at Enota.

Links for Writing Teachers

2009-10-30T07:04:00.000-04:00

MAGPI
K12 students and teachers are creating unprecedented opportunities for inquiry-based learning by expanding the geographic boundaries of their classrooms - - virtually and cost effectively. K12 schools on the MAGPI network participate in interactive video exchanges in real-time - - with their students' peers, content providers or experts from anywhere in the world. They have access to more than 100 MAGPI-produced interactive video programs each year. Students and teachers take advantage of multimedia files and learning objects through digital library repositories, create their own virtual words and use remote scientific instruments - - all without leaving their classrooms.

The Fischbowl: This I Believe Goes Global - We Want You!
For the past three years, I have had my classes write their versions of National Public Radio's "This I Believe" segment. I was introduced to this idea by a colleague and have been always impressed by what my students hold as their personal values and beliefs. Writing these essays has allowed for them to do something they don't get to do all that often at school - express their heartfelt beliefs. After writing the essays the first year, we submitted them to NPR, but we also decided to podcast them ourselves – no need to wait to see if NPR might choose to broadcast them. The writing was good at expressing their values, but once their voice was added to their written expression, WOW, it simply transformed that personal essay. Instead of the words simply being words, the words conveyed deeply held emotions. Now, this is the standard.

ReadWriteThink: Lesson Plan: Weekly Writer's Blogs: Building a ...
In this digital rethinking of the traditional weekly writer's logs, students analyze example writer's blog entries then begin the habit of writing their own weekly entries, which focus on the writing that they have done over the past seven days. These reflective assignments ask students to think about their progress on writing activities and to project how they will continue their work in the future.

Personal and Professional Development Links

2009-10-29T16:30:00.001-04:00

A Teacher's Guide To Web 2.0 at School
great tool for introducing web 2.0 tools to teachers
Where do you find the time? Shirky's Answer " Moving at the Speed of ...
This past Thursday night, I was delighted to be a guest on the Seedlings' show on EdTechTalk, hosted by Alice Barr, Bob Sprankle, and Cheryl Oakes. My daughter, Sarah, joined us for the conversation and chimed in with both her ideas and questions for other participants. Near the end of the show, Bob asked me a question I've been asked a few times in the past: How do you find all the time to publish what you share? I fumbled around for an answer, and ended up saying something about MarsEdit (my favorite offline blogging software) and the value of creating and sharing for my own learning, long term memory, and digital archive of ideas (this blog.) I don't think that was a very good answer. A better answer, and much shorter one, would have been similar to the message of Clay Shirky at the Web 2.0 Expo in April 2008. The answer I SHOULD have given to Bob was this: I don't watch much television.
Blooms Taxonomy Tutorial FLASH - CCCS Faculty Wiki
The tutorials were created as interactive adaptations of the three Tutorial References listed on this page. If you cannot view/use the tutorials, please consult the references instead- Churches (2008) is especially useful as it includes in-depth information about the revised taxonomy and numerous activity examples and rubrics for evaluation of those activities. This page focuses exclusively on the cognitive domain of learning, but there are taxonomies for the affective and psychomotor domains. To learn more about these, see the Clark (2007) resource listed in the Tutorial References section of this page. There are also Other Resources to explore.
Google For Educators
The Google Teacher Academy is a FREE professional development experience designed to help K-12 educators get the most from innovative technologies. Each Academy is an intensive, one-day event where participants get hands-on experience with Google's free products and other technologies, learn about innovative instructional strategies, receive resources to share with colleagues, and immerse themselves in an innovative corporate environment. Upon completion, Academy participants become Google Certified Teachers who share what they learn with other K-12 educators in their local region.
What is Web 3.0? Semantic Web & other Web 3.0 Concepts Explained in Plain English
Web 1.0 – That Geocities & Hotmail era was all about read-only content and static HTML websites. People preferred navigating the web through link directories of Yahoo! and dmoz. Web 2.0 – This is about user-generated content and the read-write web. People are consuming as well as contributing information through blogs or sites like Flickr, YouTube, Digg, etc. The line dividing a consumer and content publisher is increasingly getting blurred in the Web 2.0 era. Web 3.0 – This will be about semantic web (or the meaning of data), personalization (e.g. iGoogle), intelligent search and behavioral advertising among other things. If that sounds confusing, check out some of these excellent presentations that help you understand Web 3.0 in simple English. Each takes a different approach to explain Web 3.0 and the last presentation uses an example of a "postage stamp" to explain the "semantic web".

Today's Interesting Links

2009-10-12T17:00:00.000-04:00

Promoting Literacy Skills and a Love of Reading | Literacy Connections
Literacy Connections provides a wealth of information on reading, teaching and tutoring techniques, ESL literacy, and adult literacy. We recommend resources that are useful for teachers, volunteers, and directors of literacy programs. Topics include the language experience approach, phonics, word study, and the best in children's literature.
Son of Citation Machine
Citation machine is designed to help student and professional researchers to properly credit the sources used. Its primary goal is to make it so easy for student researchers to cite their information sources, that there is virtually no reason not to -- because... SOMEDAY THE INFORMATION THAT SOMEONE ELSE WANTS TO USE -- WILL BE YOURS!
Silva Rhetoricae: The Forest of Rhetoric
This online rhetoric, provided by Dr. Gideon Burton of Brigham Young University, is a guide to the terms of classical and renaissance rhetoric. Sometimes it is difficult to see the forest (the big picture) of rhetoric because of the trees (the hundreds of Greek and Latin terms naming figures of speech, etc.) within rhetoric. This site is intended to help beginners, as well as experts, make sense of rhetoric, both on the small scale (definitions and examples of specific terms) and on the large scale (the purposes of rhetoric, the patterns into which it has fallen historically as it has been taught and practiced for 2000+ years).
Concept to Classroom: Course Menu
Welcome to Concept to Classroom! We've got a new look with the same great workshops. The site features a series of FREE, self-paced workshops covering a wide variety of hot topics in education. Some of the workshops are based in theory, some are based in methodology - but all of the workshops include plenty of tips and strategies for making classrooms work. Access the workshops in the menu below or visit the About the Series section to learn how you can apply these workshops toward professional development credit.
100 Twitter Feeds To Make You a Better Teacher - Online Courses
New technology is not only unavioidable, it's a crucial part of education today. That's why so many teachers are Tweeting, and many others are following close behind. After you set up your account at Twitter.com, be sure to check out some of these great education feeds. Who knows? You might even learn a thing or two.

Links to Summer Reading Book Reviews and More

2009-09-09T19:02:00.003-04:00

Assessment Cyberguide for Learning Goals and Outcomes
Although Bloom's Taxonomy proved useful to teachers and students alike, recent decades gave rise to numerous criticisms, implying that the model was out of date. These criticisms included concerns with setting applicability, contemporary language, and process conceptualization. More recently, Anderson and Krathwohl (2001) have adapted Bloom's model to fit the needs of today's classroom by employing more outcome-oriented language, workable objectives, and changing nouns to active verbs (see "stairs" below). Most notably, knowledge has been converted to remember. In addition, the highest level of development is create rather than evaluate.
Marzano - How Classroom Teachers Approach the Teaching of Thinking
The Innovative Educator: Ten Ideas for Getting Started with 21st Century Teaching and Learning
I'm often asked for advice on how to get started with using 21st century tools to enhance teaching and learning. The mistake some people make is believing educators instantly need to become producers of websites, blogs, wikis, podcasts, social networks etc. Most educators need to become comfortable and familiar as participants in these environments before they can feel successful as creators in these areas. To follow are ideas that educators who want to get started with educating innovatively can explore.
Review: Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace… One School at a Time « Books on the Brain
So let me save all of you a few precious hours of your life and just give you the condensed version of Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace… One School At A Time by Greg Mortenson and David Relin. I wish someone had done that for me! There's this big dorky American who climbs mountains, but not that well...
She Is Too Fond Of Books … » Blog Archive » Book Review: Three Cups of Tea
There were two obstacles in my way as I tried to enjoy reading Three Cups of Tea, both involve the way the story is conveyed, not the underlying message. The first lies in the almost hero-like worship Relin bestows upon Mortenson , allowing perhaps a generous amount of artistic license taken with the details, which Relin acknowledges fully in the opening pages, confirming for example that Mortenson seems to work with a very fluid sense of time.
Of Beetles and Angels: a Boy's Remarkable Journey from a Refugee Camp to Harvard - Book Review | Black Issues Book Review | Find Articles at BNET
Asgedom employs elegant, uncluttered prose to tell of his struggle, surviving both the daily battles of the Sudanese camps, and the more insidious battles during his acculturation into the lily-white Chicago suburbs where he lands upon his arrival.
The Labyrinth Library: Review 27: Three Cups of Tea
Podcast of this review is also available. It's a great book, which opens a vivid window into a part of the world that most Westerners greatly misunderstand. It illustrates the wide variety of cultures and peoples that live in Central Asia, and the cultural history that has given rise to such a potential for conflict. The writing is very engaging, and there were a few points where I thought that the landscape descriptions were worthy of Tolkien - high praise indeed, I should think.
Of Beetles and Angels | Bookstove
Student review: If you had to leave America, move to another country, and without knowing the language, the people, or anything about the land how would you feel? Would you expect to be treated nicely by the native people? In the book Of Beetles & Angels a family from Ethiopia, moved to America and had to survive in America.
"A Conversation with Mawi Asgedom" by Bella Stander
Sometimes you meet the best people-and read the best books-by accident. Of course, there's a greater probability of such accidents happening if you attend the publishing industry's enormous trade show, BookExpo America. At the end of a long day last June, I was crammed into a ballroom with hundreds of other weary conventioneers, and fell into conversation with a slim young man standing next to me. His name was Mawi Asgedom, he said, and he was at BEA for the first time because he'd written and self-published a memoir, Of Beetles and Angels: A True Story of the American Dream.
One journey, one book, one school
Asgedom's first book was selected by the leadership team at Mckinley because it fit the goal of applied interest across age levels and reading ability. Students in grades six through eight read the book during April and May. Asgedom will visit the school today to discuss his journey from Ethiopia, to graduation from Harvard in 1999, to his life today as an author, speaker and American success story.
Coded Inspiration: A Conversation with Mawi Asgedom by mikeOne < feature | Abesha.com
As individuals, we are by definition unique. Bottled within each and everyone of us, is a life unlike any other, full of its own laughs and tears; joys and heartache; triumphs and trials. The one constant is the journey in time we all, willing or otherwise, embark on. For people in the diaspora the journey is both literal and figurative. Along with the steady tides of time, we brave new shores in search of that elusive betterment. Whether we find what we seek is both subjective and immaterial.
Building schools in Afghanistan | PRI.ORG
Greg Mortenson, co-author of the mega-bestseller Three Cups of Tea, has his own version of the debate over guns versus butter. How much a society spends on military needs versus civilian needs comes down to bombs versus books, or as Mortenson puts it, peace through literacy.
YouTube - Loco Book Review - Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't enjoy reading this book - it's full of adventure, heartwarming relationships, a rollercoaster of emotions, exciting culture, and downright goodness.

Links for Teaching Literary Criticism

2009-09-05T19:06:00.004-04:00

John Lye's Courses and Sources Pages
"Meaning" is a difficult issue, and what I have to say here only scratches the surface of a complex and contested area. How do we know what a work of literature is 'supposed'; to mean, or what its 'real' meaning is? There are several ways to approach this: * that meaning is what is intended by the author ; * that meaning is created by and contained in the text itself ; * that meaning is created by the reader.
Department of English Languages and Literature - Courses
Professor John Lye explores: -What is the Nature of and What Are the Functions of Literature? -What is the Nature of the Subject? -Who is the Reader? -What is the Relation of the Author to the Text? -What are the Relations of the Author and the Text to Society? -Where (and How) Does 'Reality' Exist? -What is Representation (Mimesis)? -What is the Nature and Status of Language? -What is the Relation of "Form" and "Art" to Meaning? -Where is Meaning?
Brock University - Department of English Language and Literature
Professor John Lye's page on literary theory.

What Teachers (and Students) Should Know About Facebook Privacy Settings

2009-08-13T21:00:00.003-04:00

Did you know that a Google search can pull up photos you post to Facebook? Did you know that college admissions offices are now using services like Pipl to see what potential candidates are posting to social networking sites? Below are links to number of blog posts and websites that go into more detail about what both teachers and students should know when it comes to Facebook's privacy settings. Are you protecting yourself, your images, and your content? You should be.

Beyond Social Networking: Building Toward Learning Communities -- THE Journal
Web 2.0 tools have critically elevated the social networking activity and skills of individuals. Not only are young people highly active in social networks, but older individuals are also showing a huge increase in their use of these tools. The attraction of older age groups is, of course, social connection and community building among professional and casual peers and friends.
FACEBOOK FAIL: How to Use Facebook Privacy Settings and Avoid Disaster
The beauty of Facebook’s many features is that now you can choose what you show and to what type of people. By using friend lists and playing with your privacy settings, you can create different views for each segment of your life.
Langwitches » Teacher Code of Conduct… Revisited
I am wondering if there is a necessity to create a guideline or code of conduct how teachers are to present themselves in their private online network places profiles? Does the administration at school or the district have the right (duty) to bring the subject up for discussion and in the end to make rules? Is it their business or not?
Facebook in the Classroom
A good PDF resource for teachers on how to use Facebook with students.
Facebook Strategies For The Classroom
This presentation explores the potential uses of Facebook for teaching and motivating collaboration between students. Issues of privacy and intellectual property will also be covered, as well as advantages and pitfalls of social networks.
Facebook Privacy for Teachers « Megan Golding
I’m a Facebook user AND a teacher. Here’s how I locked down my profile so that I can have a social life and not worry that the world is watching over my shoulder.
10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know
All Facebook users should know this.
NetSmartz Workshop | Facebook

A good place to start for talking with students and staff about privacy issues on social networking sites like Facebook.

Resources for Teaching The Kite Runner

2009-08-12T20:06:00.003-04:00

I'll be teaching Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner for the first time this fall. To prepare, I've spent the last few days gathering resources and thinking about how I might frame this story when I present it to students. I teach a tenth grade World Literatures course, where students study fiction, non-fiction, and creative texts from the non-western world. As we read the various texts, we hone in on perspective - What perspective does the narrator represent/present? What perspective do we as readers from particular backgrounds and with particular experiences bring to a text? What perspective do other readers and writers offer on this text? So in thinking about how I might bring this theme into our reading of The Kite Runner, I'm considering presenting the students the basics of literary criticism to help frame the reading of the text.

I've taught students literary criticism basics in the past. We've discussed the foundations of historical, formalist, feminist/gender studies, psychoanalytical, and reader response theories as a type of lens that a reader might don to help understand the particulars of a text. By teaching literary criticism as a lens, I have found it also helps students understand some related literary tropes and devices. In the past, students have completed a WebQuest activity to help introduce the various theories.

The Kite Runner could prove fruitful for this type of study. However, I worry that using this type of frame might reduce the story to nothing more than its devices and context. I suppose this is the danger when teaching literary criticism in general. I'd love your thoughts and feedback on anything I should consider as I work on this curriculum unit.

In the meantime, I thought I would share some of the resources that I found online that might help others as they consider teaching this text.

Kite Runner book.pdf (application/pdf Object)
Kite Runner was selected as one of the "One Book, One Bucks County" project. This document includes a wealth of resources listed by grade-level.
literature_kite_runner_p12_p17.pdf (application/pdf Object)
This document contains an excerpt from the novel, background information, and follow-up activities, including a narrative based on an incident in the reader's childhood.
kiterunnerhigh.pdf (application/pdf Object)
I want to thank the Human Rights Education Program at Amnesty International USA for this comprehensive guide to The Kite Runner film. I think they have done a terrific service to the students, and I am grateful to them for bringing to light the nuances and many complexities of Afghan society and Afghan life via this guide.
n00020_tg.pdf (application/pdf Object)
As the Table of Contents shows, this Study Guide is organized into sections corresponding to the requirements any teacher might consider - pre-, during and post-reading activities. One of the virtues of this novel is that it unequivocally places the reader inside the narrator's experience of the Pastun culture. At the same time, this quality may create barriers for younger readers. This guide includes writing and reading activities to familiarize students with the background, history, and culture of Afghanistan.
The Kite Runner Connects the English and History Classrooms
Promote Independent Thinking with "The Kite Runner" Article by ATag A Curriculum unit that includes discussion questions and links to a WebQuests and unit plans.
Search Result: kite runner - TeachersPayTeachers.com
Haven't used TeachersPayTeachers before? Check it out! Registration is free. Teachers post lesson plans for just about anything you can think of, some for free, some for minimal cost. This is a link to all the lessons on the site for The Kite Runner.
The Kite Runner Summary at WikiSummaries: Free Book Summaries
Just found this. Apparently, WikiSummaries is similar to Sparknotes with chapter-by-chapter summaries.
Reading Across Rhode Island Resources
A huge selection of resources on The Kite Runner from Rhode Island's "One Book, One State" program.
"The Kite Runner" Banned In Afghanistan - CBS News
The Afghan government banned the film more than a month ago because of a rape scene of a young boy and the ethnic tensions that the film highlights, said Din Mohammad Rashed Mubarez, the deputy minister of the Ministry of Information and Culture. Shops selling the movie would be closed, he said.
Room 222 | Teacher Handouts for The Kite Runner
A final assessment for reading The Kit Runner. Use the links on the left side of the page to also access the teacher's materials for teaching this book.
Mrs. Murphy - Class Info
Scroll down the page to find Mrs. Murphy's links to her Kite Runner teaching materials.

Today's Interesting Links

2009-08-11T15:30:00.001-04:00

movingforward - Education Blogs by Discipline
This is a place to list subject-specific, P-12-oriented blogs that are worth sharing with others. Only list really good ones, please!
TakingITGlobal - Organizations - Research Journalism Initiative
The Research Journalism Initiative (RJI) helps American high school students relate personally to international conflict issues by bringing perspectives from regions of conflict directly into their classrooms. RJI is dedicated to developing new tools for students learning about global conflict...
By Sarah Fine -- Why I Left Teaching Behind - washingtonpost.com
Four years later, the question I encounter is equally thorny: Why leave teaching? It's not just a question about how I'll pay my rent. Reformers have big plans to transform failing urban schools, and their work hinges on finding a way to keep strong teachers in the classroom. By throwing in the towel, I have become one more teacher abandoning her students.
Flickr: Creative Commons- Free Pictures
This group is for sharing images to use in your work with a creative commons license
Flickriver: Most interesting photos from Creative Commons- Free Pictures pool
Looking for a Unique Gift for an Administrator? Give ‘em a PLN! | Nebraska Change Agent
How exactly do you give a PLN to someone? Several suggestions have been made today, but the one you pick depends on your relationship with your administrator. Instead of signing up for a Twitter account for them I am going to offer to help them set up one up. I will have a profile picture of them ready to go and I will have some suggestions for their biography. I will also show them how to manage and share the information that they find valuable so they can become an asset to their PLN.
The LoTi Connection
This year marks the 15th anniversary of the LoTi Framework. Since its inception in 1994, the LoTi Framework has been used as a statewide technology use survey, a district school improvement model, and a classroom walkthrough tool impacting thousands of schools nationally. Today, the LoTi project has grown beyond classroom technology use and has become synonymous with innovative teaching practices.
FRONTLINE: digital nation: blog/news: A chat with Obama's new Secretary of Education | PBS
I knew that Duncan was a big believer in standardized assessments, but those didn't come up in our conversation. He came off as solidly on the side of those who think that schools need to move with kids instead of against them, and that means using the toys kids love--games and cellphones--to teach them, inside and outside the classroom walls.

Today's Interesting Links

2009-07-19T07:02:00.000-04:00

Teacher Training Videos created by Russell Stannard
Click on this simple intro to find out how to use the videos. These videos were created for teachers to help them to incorporate technology into their teaching. Just click and a video will open and take you through how to use that technology. To start now, just click on any of the links on the left. My own background is in teaching English, so if you scroll down you will see a special section of ELT videos which are grouped separately.
Information Literacy: Building Blocks of Research: Overview
What is Information Literacy? Information Literacy is a transformational process in which the learner needs to find, understand, evaluate, and use information in various forms to create for personal, social or global purposes. Information Literacy shares a fundamental set of core thinking- and problem-solving meta-skills with other disciplines. Authentic cross-disciplinary problems which include observation and inference, analysis of symbols and models, comparison of perspectives, and assessment of the rhetorical context, engage students in developing mastery information literacy over time.
Technology and Education - Box of Tricks
Latest update July 16th 2009 These are some of the best free internet resources for education. This page is constantly updated; every time I come across a new piece of software or an exciting website, I list it here. You might also want to take a look at my Diigo or Delicious accounts for more links. This list is not exhaustive in any way. In fact, if you think there is a tool or application for use in education that should be added to this list, please don't hesitate to get in touch and suggest it!
Beyond Social Networking: Building Toward Learning Communities -- THE Journal
Web 2.0 tools have critically elevated the social networking activity and skills of individuals. Not only are young people highly active in social networks, but older individuals are also showing a huge increase in their use of these tools. The attraction of older age groups is, of course, social connection and community building among professional and casual peers and friends.

Online Learning

2009-07-16T09:50:00.004-04:00

I'm almost finished with my 4th week of this summer's PB Works Summer Camp for Teachers where I've been able to connect with other educators who are interested in finding ways to use collaborative technologies in their classrooms. Not only has it been great to revise and refine my wiki, but it has been incredibly helpful to learn and connect with other teachers interested in opening up their classrooms using wikis. And the number of teachers participating in this year's online camp is astonishing - over 1,000 elementary, secondary, and higher-education teachers! I've connected with teachers not just through the PB Works page but also through the PB Works Educator Forum and through Twitter using the #pbwcamp hashtag.

In addition to the PB Works course, I also just started a five week summer course with TiGed. The course is part of the Pennsylvania Classrooms for the Future (CFF) Summer Virtual Camps and is open to all CFF coaches and teachers. This will be a bit of a different experience for me. Unlike the PB Works online summer camp, I know next to nothing about TiGed. I've had my PB wiki for over a year so this year's camp was a bit of a review. TiGed is all new to me. But having used multiple different avenues to connect my students who those elsewhere in the world (Facebook, wikis, web pages, Nings, PTPi), I'm looking forward to finding one service that might help me to streamline some of those connections and collaborations. My goal is to find more ways to engage my English students in producing written works and products for authentic audiences. I see wikis and TiGed as ways to encourage those authentic opportunities.

As part of the first class, our TiGed instructor shared Scott McLeod and Karl Fisch's updated "Did You Know." So now, I'm sharing it with you!

Today's Interesting Links

2009-07-16T07:01:00.000-04:00

What Else? / Wiki Etiquette For Students
Wiki Etiquette for Students 1. Be safe: If you are a student you must use your code name. Follow and remember our netiquette (this page). Reveal no personally identifying information. 2. Be kind: Be overly friendly and positive; you must refrain from any profane, sarcastic, or unkind responses. 3. Be respectful: Since our writing work is schoolwork, school rules and expectations apply when making any references on or to this site. 4. Be productive: Make sure you communicate clearly and intelligently (no text message wording please) on a relevant topic. Remember your purpose and audience. 5. If the above criteria are met, your posts may be published; if the above criteria are not met, your posts may not be published.
eduportal-resources-wikietiquette
Best Practices: Workspace Etiquette for Students What workspace advice do you have? Add your thoughts here. Keep safe. Never post your personal information or information about someone else. DO NOT put things like ages, addresses, phone numbers, names of towns, on the Internet. Remember that information on the internet, especially embarrassing information, may still be around after you've deleted it. So don't ever put up anything personal or inappropriate! Check out http://www.ikeepsafe.org/iksc_kids/ for more information.
Screen Capture Tools: 40+ Free Tools and Techniques | Tools
Screen capture, or print screen is perhaps the most efficient way to share whatever appears on your desktop. They help tech users like us to share and communicate better with friends and peers. Major operating systems today comes with basic screen capture and print screen function, but if these can't fulfill what you need from a screen capture then you are probably looking for a screen capturing tool. Screen capturing tools do what the basic tool don't. What these tools could do varies, including the ability to include sketches and text, instantly upload image online, audio capturing, dimension-specific capturing and more. Make your screen capture and sharing experience more interesting, here's a showcase of 40+ Free Screen Capturing Tools and Related Techniques. Full list after jump.
YouTube - Detailed Tutorial on Glogster EDU

Today's Interesting Links

2009-07-13T19:02:00.001-04:00

Links for Nings and More!

Remote Access: Ning Leaders
One thing that has been interesting to watch in the first few days of our classroom work with ning is the emergence of a few online leaders.
Remote Access: Starting (and Ending) with Ning
Reflections on using a Ning with students.
WNY Education Associates » Summer Projects: Getting Started With Ning
A number of teachers that I know plan to spend at least a part of this summer getting themselves acquainted with Ning in an effort to extend their own learning opportunities or those of their students. I belong to several networks myself, and although my participation in them tends to wax and wane depending on my schedule, there are several that top my personal favorites list, including the English Companion Ning and Working Together to Make a Difference.
Skype an Author Into Your Library or Classroom - Skype An Author Network
Wouldn't it be great to invite authors into your classroom or library to video chat with students before, during, and/or after you've read their books? We are growing a list of authors who want to make that connection with you. See the alphabetical list in the scrolling author box on the left. Read on to find out just how easy it is!
Common Core
I for one have heard quite enough about the 21st century skills that are sweeping the nation. Now, for the first time, children will be taught to think critically (never heard a word about that in the 20th century, did you?), to work in groups (I remember getting a grade on that very skill when I was in third grade a century ago), to solve problems (a brand new idea in education), and so on.Let me suggest that it is time to be done with this unnecessary conflict about 21st century skills. Let us agree that we need all those forenamed skills, plus lots others, in addition to a deep understanding of history, literature, the arts, geography, civics, the sciences, and foreign languages.

Writing for the World

2009-07-12T12:00:00.001-04:00

Notebooks and backpacks are already on the racks in seasonal store displays. Summer is speeding toward the start of a new school year. With summer quickly coming to a close, literature and writing teachers around the country are busy putting together lesson plans for the coming school year. Then, as quickly as the semester begins, it will close, and as teachers we hope that we have prepared our students well for the task ahead – writing well for their next new teacher. However, our ultimate goal as language and literature teachers is not merely showing our students how to ace an essay test or how to quickly complete a research assignment; it’s not even to prepare them for the work force or college. Instead, as writer and teacher Lesley Roessing suggests, when we teach literature and writing, we are helping our students find connections to the larger world. As Roessing so eloquently states, it is through their writing that students discover “there is seldom them; it is more commonly us.” Therefore, the teaching of writing and reading should call us to put our greatest energies into the endeavor of helping our students understand themselves and their relation to the world around them through writing. This is especially critical in a World Literatures classroom like the one in which I teach. The language arts classroom is one in which students discover and shape who they are. This process begins with appreciating literature and extends to writing it.

As teachers we do not enter the practice of teaching writing as the formality of handing down some sort of “expert” knowledge to our young students. After all, there is no one correct way of learning to read or to write as evidenced by the hundreds of books written on the theory of writing, each one either contradicting or adding to the last. Instead, we must help our students see themselves as writers from the beginning and provide for them a safe place in which to bring their personal understandings and expressions into the classroom. As Pamela Gay suggests in her text Developing Writers: A Dialogic Approach, as teachers we must create opportunities for our students to be writers at work instead of victims of their prior writing instruction and backgrounds. She goes on to suggest that as teachers we must encourage our students to “play an active role in their own development by first locating themselves historically as writers.” We need to help our students think about their personal writing histories in order for them to continue to grow and learn from their writing experiences. We must enable our students to first think of themselves as writers.

In the coming weeks, this is a theme that I would like to explore more in depth and welcome your thoughts and feedback. How do we create authentic writing experiences for our students? How do we encourage students to explore and find their voice in writing? How do we encourage students to think of themselves as writers?

Bringing the World into Your Classroom with Skype

2009-07-11T09:00:00.004-04:00

It can sometimes be quite costly to bring a speaker into the classroom. Depending upon the presenter, teachers sometimes need to cover the cost of transportation, lodging, as well as an honorarium for the speaker. Field trips can be a logistical nightmare. From organizing the venue, collecting permissions slips and ticket money, to arranging for transportation, getting a classroom full of students organized for an outing can leave a teacher at wits end. Which is too bad since these authentic learning experiences are often times the ones that stick with students. An alternative? Bring the speaker or field trip to you using Skype.

Skype is a free application that allows users to make free audio and video calls through their internet connection. Skype is a type of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) application, which uses your dial-up or broadband connection to make free calls over the internet. You can use Skype to connect with one person or a group. It features a chat function, file sharing, audio and video connections, and so much more. Teachers are using Skype to connect their students with classrooms on the other side of the world, to collaborate on projects, and to share materials.

WHY USE SKYPE?

Check out this wonderful post by Silvia Tolisano, an edublogger who writes at Langwitches. In it, she outlines not only how she has used Skype but why Skype is such a great resource for teachers.
Not convinced? Watch this. Brian Crosby's fourth grade class connects to a classmate via Skype.

USING SKYPE IN THE CLASSROOM:
Below you will find examples of how teachers have used Skype with their students. Their reflections offer insights on the benefits as well as the complications encountered when they opened up their classroom doors.

On an e-jourey with Generation Y is a blog by Australian teacher Anne Mirtschin. She reflects on why using Skype was one of her students' most memorable moments in her class.
Check out the amazing ways that teachers have been using Skype. Scroll down to read the "Comments" section of this wiki page.
Don't be a dummy, check out this Skype for teachers Dummies page.
The School Library Journal also featured an article about using Skype in the Classroom.
Neil Stephenson writes about the Many Roles of Skype in his middle school classroom.
How can you use Skype? Try one of these ideas:

Connect your class to virtual pen pals	Help students hear native speakers when learning a foreign language	Collaborate with another class on a joint research project
Bring authors into your classroom via a Skype	Learn about another culture by connecting students to a classroom from that culture	Learn about geography from students living in an area you are studying
Bring professionals from your content area to "speak" in your classroom	Conduct interviews	Create pod- and screencasts with students from other parts of the world
Study the same book with another class and hold web book talks	Have students in your class create virtual presentations for students in other schools	Attend a webinar with your students

GETTING STARTED WITH SKYPE:

You'll find a number of free video tutorials to help you start using Skype at Tutorpipes.
If you would rather print out directions for setting up your Skype account, click on this link to Eric Curts document on Skype.
So, go to Skype and download the application and create an account.
Sue Waters is The Edublogger and offers Quick Start Up Tips for New Skype Users
And, you can always find help through Skype's Help page.

TOOLS FOR SKYPE:

The Skype in Schools page offers a good list of Skype add-ons.
Skype has a cool list of applications made with teachers in mind. Download them today!
Recorder for Skype - Collaborating with another school on a project and want to record your Skype call so you can replay the audio later? Use the Skype Call Recorder to create podcasts of your calls.

MAKING CONNECTIONS:
Use these links to find other teachers and classroom projects to connect to

Sue Waters at The Edublogger has put together this list of teachers interested in using Skype in their classroom. It is organized by country and subject area.
This is an excellent directory of teachers organized by state. Add you information if you are interested in connecting with other classrooms.
Also, check out the resources that I've collected through my Delicious account.

RESOURCES:

Skype in Schools is a wonderful wikipage with links to directories, potentially collaboration opportunities, and tutorials galore.
Brian Crosby has used Skype as a way to conduct virtual field trips. Check out these examples and resources.
Wes Fryer is an advocate for Teaching Digital

For Shame!

2009-07-10T10:34:00.003-04:00

I've been neglectful. It has been awhile, okay many months, since I've written a real blog post. Instead, I've been content to let my Delicious links clutter my blog, masquerding as an entry. You and I both know I'm not fooling anyone. I've been neglecting my writing.

I started this blog a little over two years ago as a way to reflect on my classroom practices, share my insights and my pitfalls with other teachers. It has been a wonderful tool not only for honing my reflection and writing practices but also for connecting with other teachers around the world. Unfortunately, I've let life's daily distractions pull me away from my writing. Which truly is a shame since reflecting and writing about teaching, education, and technology energizes me. When I get into a daily practice of writing, I have more time. Because writing gives me a focus, I feel more productive in other areas of my life. I get more done. I have more time during the day. So you think this would be a no-brainer - I need to write more. However, once I've fallen off the writing wagon, it is so hard to climb back on. I think this is true of many things - exercise, meditation, eating well - those lifestyle changes that we know we should make, but find it so much easier to indulge in the distractions.

So this is me publicly recommitting myself to writing, to posting actual entries and not merely links. I'm climbing back on the writing wagon. Now if only I could climb back on a few of those other wagons - especially that wagon hauling the treadmill. He's been circling for a while now.

Today's Interesting Links

2009-07-10T10:00:00.000-04:00

Links for Teachers

A Teacher’s Guide to Twitter « Once a Teacher….
Most people start off in a rocky relationship with Twitter. It doesn't seem to be as easy or as useful as everyone has said, it takes awhile before you find your niche, and there is an overwhelming amount of information to deal with. But, just hang on – it'll be worth it!!! This is a guide to help teachers, or anyone for that matter, have a smoother and more enjoyable experience. It is, by no means, the most comprehensive list of tips but hopefully it'll be helpful.
Ditch the Backpack: 100 Essential Web Tools for Virtual Students | eLearning Gurus
While learning at home offers great opportunities for working on your own time and schedule, it can also offer drawbacks when it comes to working with others or getting immediate help on a problem. Whether you need help, collaboration, or just want a little extra knowledge when completing your assignments, these web tools will help you find what you need. From note taking to researching to staying organized, the following resources will have you making top grades in your classes.
Creating a Personal Learning Network with Web 2.0 Tools ‎(Building a PLN)‎
How do educators keep current with the ever changing world of technology? How can Web 2.0 tools be used to communicate and collaborate with peers across the hall and around the world? This session will focus on some of the newest tools teachers are using to support their own professional learning goals. Find links to each of us in the sidebar to the left and look below for more suggested PLN resources and interesting links. We look forward to learning with you!
NECC 2009 Attendees | ISTE/NECC Communities | Blogging NECC
Follow NECC through your Colleagues' Blogs Join the chatter by adding your information to the list of your fellow colleagues who are blogging about NECC. Last year we had nearly 80 bloggers submit their info to us! It's a great way to get familiar with NECC activities and events pre-NECC, stay connected during the conference, and to share experiences when you go back home.
Comics in the Classroom: 100 Tips, Tools, and Resources for Teachers | Teaching Degree.org
Gone are the days of children sneaking comics past diligent parents and teachers watching out for sub-par literature. The comics of today not only have plenty to offer, they are gaining well-deserved recognition and awards. Take advantage of the natural affinity children have for comics and use them as a powerful teaching tool in your classroom. The following tips, tools, and resources will get you started.
100 Terrific Cheat Sheets for K-12 Teachers | Teaching Degree.org
Cheat sheets have a bad rap as a way for students to succeed on tests without actually knowing the information, but now it's time for them to have a more positive place in education. Cheat sheets can offer a succinct way for students to study their lessons and provide an excellent boost to what you are already teaching them in class. Cheat sheets can provide helpful information for teachers too. Browse through this selection to find cheat sheets for a variety of subjects.
National Educational Technology Plan » NECC Brainstorming
The National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) is the largest educational technology conference in the world, convening 13,000 education technology professionals from around the United States and the world. On June 28, 2009, over 300 leading administrators, teachers, technology coordinators, policymakers, and researchers gathered at the ISTE Leadership Symposium to give input into the development of the National Educational Technology Plan. Small teams provided advice regarding opportunities and critical barriers regarding the use of technology to address 5 key focus areas. The teams generated the five statements on this web site in 90-minute breakout groups. The statements are the first step in an ongoing effort to gather ideas and opinions from the education community
tbyresources / FrontPage
This wiki contains resources to assist educators in creating wikis and other web materials. The wiki is an on-going task - all input regarding organization and content is welcome.

Today's Interesting Links - Professional Development Sites

2009-06-05T10:00:00.001-04:00

Links for 2009-06-03 [del.icio.us]

TEDTalks as of 05.11.09
Google spreadsheet of TED Talks with links, presenter, title and summary information.
www.weareteachers.com - P21 Cyber Summit - About
Be Heard and Participate Online in the Cyber Summit on 21st Century Skills, June 1st-12th Since the National Summit is a live-and-in-person "by invitation only" event—yet the subject matter so important to a nation-wide audience—the Partnership for 21st Century Skills has produced the 2009 Cyber Summit on 21st Century Skills, free and open to all for participation from June 1st through June 12th.
Rick’s Café Canadien » Blog Archive » Educational Technology and Related Education Conferences, July – December 2009
This is a regular and welcome update to the list that has been maintained by Dr. Clayton R. Wright, crwr77@gmail.com for a number of years. This list of selected events focuses primarily on the use of technology in educational settings and on teaching and learning. Only listings from July to December 2009 are complete as dates, locations, or URLs are not available for a number of events after December 2009.
Ultimate Guide to Delicious Social Bookmarking
A very comprehensive collection of tutorials, advice, resources, tips and tools to help you use Delicious to enhance your marketing, research and other business objectives. There's a special section just for marketers.
SAS® Curriculum Pathways® Home Page
This resource is your online partner for teaching the core curriculum: - English, history, science, mathematics, Spanish - Learner-centered tools, lessons, and resources with measurable outcomes - Interactive components that foster higher-order thinking skills - Twenty-first century skills integrated into content As part of the SAS Education Practice, we're not only developing web-based curriculum resources, we're also helping educators assess school effectiveness and manage data in ways that promote efficiency.
Intel® Teach Program
Intel® Teach is the most successful teacher professional development program of its kind, with over 5 million teachers trained in more than 40 countries. Teachers learn from other teachers how, when and where to incorporate technology into their lesson plans, with a focus on developing students' higher-order thinking skills. They experience new approaches to create assessment tools and align lessons with educational learning goals and state and national standards.
p21setdaistepaper.pdf (application/pdf Object)
Maximizing the Impact: The pivotal role of technology in a 21st century education system. A report compiled by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, ISTE, and SETDA
le_white_paper-1.pdf (application/pdf Object)
Partnership for 21st Century Learning - The White Paper on Learning Environments This purpose of this paper is to offer a descriptive view of the places, tools, people, and policies that make up 21st century learning environments and, we hope, inspire its readers to work towards their realization.

Today's Interesting Links

2009-06-02T19:04:00.004-04:00

Links for 2009-06-02 [del.icio.us]

Web 3.0 or Not, There's Something Different About 2009 - ReadWriteWeb
The presentation is embedded below. I gave the term 'Web 3.0' a bit of a ribbing. But my overall theme was that there is indeed a difference in the products we're seeing in 2009, compared to the ones we saw at the height of 'Web 2.0' (2005-08).
21 Things for the 21st Century Educator - Home
The purpose of this course is to provide "Just in Time" training through an online interface for K-12 educators based on the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T). These standards are the basic technology skills every educator should possess. In the process, educators will develop their own skills and discover what students need in order to meet the NETS for Students, as well as the new MMC Online Experience requirement. Participants who fulfill all of the requirements have the opportunity to earn SBCEU's.
Partnership Learning
Partnership is coming to be regarding as an empowering alternative to more common patriarchal models of human interaction. Today, in disciplines as diverse as anthropology, organizational theory, philosophy of science, and educational theory, theorists are constructing a new partnership mindset as an alternative to the traditional partriarchy model. Running through the writing in numerous disciplines are principles representing the foundation of a partnership world view. Those principles, described below, are also the foundation of the Partnership Learning approach to staff development:
Instructional Coaching
This page contains material that will be available to download for free.
Or Is It About the Technology? « Keeping Kids First
A few weeks ago, James Beatti published a series of his thoughts on 21st century learning and teaching in a post titled "It's Not About the Technology." For a tech integrator and enthusiast, it was almost uncomfortable to articulate these ideas independent of technology. The main points were that educators must focus on the skills of problem solving, addressing the needs of individual students and learning, as opposed to teaching. This week, Ben Grey posted a thought-provoking article to "Tech & Learning" titled "Why Technology?" As ed tech positions across the United States are losing funding for their departments, and even their positions, Ben Grey's questions are all the more pressing.
Glogster Tutorial
A glogster tutorial for teachers!
Best Sites to Find Public Domain Images and Sounds for Student Projects | audio public-domain reference images photos | Making Teachers Nerdy
Now that more and more classrooms are publishing student work for digital storytelling, podcasting, or through wikis and blogs it is becoming increasingly critical students follow the copyright and fair use guidelines. To help you and your students, I've created another freebie post – free images and sounds for student projects. Yes, there are multiple websites out there for public domain images and sounds, but I tried to pull those that are safe for student searching. You will find glorious photo landscapes, character illustrations of fairy tale characters, tornado sound effects, and more. In addition, the links do have suggested curriculum units that could be supported through the use of the websites. Hopefully, that will guide your search.
Why Our Current Education System Is Failing
So many students fail to realize their potential because a simple grade tells them they have none. They receive a D and thus feel they are worthless and have nothing to contribute to this world. This defeats the whole purpose of education. Education is meant to build not destroy.
Use Twitter in PowerPoint | Poll Everywhere
How do you draw them into your presentation? By asking for their opinion, and displaying their tweets directly in your slides. With Poll Everywhere, you can invite people to tweet a short comment directly to your slide in real-time, while still blocking inappropriate or off-topic tweets. You can also ask multiple choice questions and watch a graph evolve as people vote.
New project-based tech literacy curriculum - TechYES TLC « Generation YES Blog
TechYES TLC is all online, with nothing to install or download. It's completely new and (we hope) the best, most engaging project-based technology literacy curriculum out there. It's geared towards middle school, just like our TechYES Student Technology Literacy Certification model, but it goes deeper than just certification.
Clive Thompson on the Future of Reading in a Digital World
Is this the future of reading? "You're far more likely to hear about a book if a friend has highlighted a couple brilliant sentences in a Facebook update—and if you hear about it, you're far more likely to buy it in print. Yes, in print: The few authors who have experimented with giving away digital copies (mostly in sci-fi) have found that they end up selling more print copies, because their books are discovered by more people."
The Right to Read
Roughly one-fifth of the world's adult population cannot read or write. This figure has been linked to many, more troublesome, areas of society: Illiteracy can drive extreme poverty, gender inequality and even environmental instability.

Today's Interesting Links

2009-05-12T19:02:00.001-04:00

Links for [del.icio.us]

Special Olympics: Soeren Palumbo
Soeren Palumbo's courage to say what he believed in front of his entire school was inspired by the love between a brother and sister.
Online University Reviews : 100 Most Inspiring and Innovative Blogs for Educators
Being a teacher is a difficult and often thankless job. Between lesson plans, unengaged students, and new emerging technologies, teachers need help now more than ever. By visiting the 100 blogs below, they will find answers to all their questions, as well as valuable teaching resources.
The Power of Project Learning | Scholastic.com
Project-based learning can be traced back to John Dewey and it has come and gone since the early 20th century. As a pedagogical method, it often meets resistance since it doesn't fit the skill-and-drill model that typically dominates education. But today, it is enjoying a comeback as cutting-edge schools demonstrate just how effectively it imparts the skills students need in today's workforce.
6 Ways to Publish Your Own Book
Online self-publishing services have given users the tools they need to create, publish and promote their work. These sites allow authors to bypass the process of finding an agent and pitching to publishing houses, a venture that can take months, if not years. Here are six great sites that will help you publish your work, guaranteeing you a published book that can be sold via different outlets, such as Amazon.
The Edurati Review: A Missing Piece of the Professional Development Puzzle
We often approach professional development without all the pieces in place. We schedule a training event rather than strategizing how to support the changes we want to see in our classrooms. As a result, the training becomes a memory rather than a springboard. A good coach can carry the professional growth from the training event into the classrooms. With coaching, a great training event becomes a launching pad for greater instructional excellence. Why? What does a coach do that aids professional growth?
Bedford Bits » Blog Archive » Ten Ways to Use Twitter with Colleagues
In my last post, I shared Ten How-To Resources that explain how to use Twitter, and if that's not enough, here are thirty more Twitter tutorials. There's no end to the number of Web pages that explain the technical how-tos of using Twitter. You'll also find quite a few sites that explain how companies are using Twitter for marketing, customer support, and more. But how are language arts and college English teachers using Twitter?
Photosynth
Photosynth creates an amazing new experience with nothing more than a bunch of photos. Creating a synth allows you to share the places and things you love using the cinematic quality of a movie, the control of a video game, and the mind-blowing detail of the real world.
ISTE Classroom Observation Tool
The ISTE Classroom Observation Tool (ICOT®) is a FREE online tool that provides a set of questions to guide classroom observations of a number of key components of technology integration.
Skype Other Classrooms! | The Edublogger
This page has been set up to help you make connections with classes in other countries who are interesting in having Skype conversations with other classes. You can contact each person by clicking on their name.
TECSIG TV on USTREAM: Live from the TECSIG meeting in Austin Texas. TecSig is the Technology Directors Special Interest Group of the Texas Computer Education
Will Richardson talks about making connections through RSS feeds. Live from the TECSIG meeting in Austin Texas. TecSig is the Technology Directors Special Interest Group of the Texas Computer Education Association.
tecsigmay2009 / FrontPage
Will Richardson's presentation on RSS feeds.

Today's Interesting Links

2009-05-11T19:01:00.001-04:00

Teaching Internet Safety [del.icio.us]

i-SAFE Inc.
i-SAFE Inc. is the worldwide leader in Internet safety education. Founded in 1998 and endorsed by the U.S. Congress, i-SAFE is a non-profit foundation dedicated to protecting the online experiences of youth everywhere. i-SAFE incorporates classroom curriculum with dynamic community outreach to empower students, teachers, parents, law enforcement, and concerned adults to make the Internet a safer place. Please join us today in the fight to safeguard our children's online experience.
CyberSmart! Student Curriculum
Free to educators, the CyberSmart! Student Curriculum empowers students to use the Internet safely, responsibly, and effectively.
NetSmartz.org
A wealth of resources to help students learn to use Web 2.0 tools safely.
Internet Safety CFF/MVSD / FrontPage
The Classrooms for the Future initiative at Moshannon Valley High School recognizes the hazards to your children posed by the Internet. Though your children may seem wise to the ways of the Web, they still need to be guided and monitored by you, their parents. In order to help you fulfill this crucial responsibility, CFF/MV is providing this resource of information concerning child safety on the Internet. The Web is a world of information, communication, and entertainment beyond belief, but like any powerful entity, it needs to be handled wisely and safely.
Real Life Stories - "Cyberbullying: You Can't Take it Back"
A teen regrets his participation on a web site created to rate others at his school.
internetsafety - Michelle Krill on Diigo
Michelle Krill has put together a great list of resources on internet safety and cyber bullying.
Pew Internet & American Life Project
This presentation pulls together Pew Internet Project research about teenagers' online activities, their behavior on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, and their Web 2.0 content creation activities. It covers the threats posed by cyberbullying, and stranger contact on the internet. and suggests that a new kind of competence we call "self literacy" is useful in the digital age.
YouTube - Childnet International - Cyber Bullying
This video illustrates the dangers of cyber bullying and offers solutions to the problem.
YouTube - Merciless {Gay Slurs} Bullying Leads to Child's Suicide
CNN's Anderson Cooper Reports: On April 6, 2007 - Sirdeaner Walker came home, walked up the stairs to the second floor of her home, and saw her son suspended from a support beam in the stairwell, swaying slightly in the air, an extension cord wrapped around his neck, according to police. He apologized in a suicide note, told his mother that he loved her, and left his video games to his brother. Walker said her son had been the victim of bullying since the beginning of the school year, and that she had been calling the school since September, complaining that her son was mercilessly teased. He played football, baseball, and was a boy scout, but a group of classmates called him gay and teased him about the way he dressed.

A Vision of Digital Literacy

2009-05-06T13:13:00.003-04:00

I spent some time last week walking the halls, finding teachers and staff to talk with about digital literacy. I’ve been wondering about how students learn the soft skills of working with Web 2.0. I’m not talking about how to use this application or that piece of software. Instead, I wonder about where, when, and how students are learning better internet research skills, safety when creating internet profiles, issues involving cyber-bullying, and internet etiquette, to name just a few topics. Unfortunately, teachers are overwhelmed and isolated, two pressures working against promoting a vision of digital literacy in our schools.

It can be the trap of the traditional high school. High school teachers get engrossed in content. As a high school English teacher, I know. I love what I teach. If you start talking with me about non-western memoirs and their value in the secondary literature classroom, I will go on and on. We sometimes get trapped in the mindset of needing to cover the curriculum, of “getting it all in.” With so many demands on our curriculum, with so much more to “cover,” digital literacy can feel like just one more thing to teach. Just one more thing to cover.

Added to this pressure, a number of teachers I spoke with expressed feelings of isolation. We are working with the doors of our classroom closed, and we are working hard. Many teachers are not just finding critical and creative ways to teach their content, but they are also finding ways to integrate and teach digital literacy skills. I’ve been in classrooms with teachers using wiki pages to encourage student collaboration. I’ve seen students excitedly respond to a text using a Ning. Teachers are using so many Web 2.0 tools to engage and collaborate with their students. Unfortunately, many of our high school teachers are not working together. We are not sharing our success with others in our building. As a result, the lessons on digital literacy are not consistent. Teachers are creating lessons using this or that application but with no vision of what we are teaching and why.

With technology exponentially changing the educational landscape, teachers and administrators have had a difficult time keeping up. "Integrating technology throughout a school system is, in itself, significant systemic reform. We have a wealth of evidence attesting to the importance of leadership in implementing and sustaining systemic reform in schools. It is critical, therefore, that we attend seriously to leadership for technology in schools, " writes Don Knezek of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). Unfortunately, many of us get caught up in learning about this or that application that we forget to reflect on the skills that are being developed. And the skills are what we should be focused on. The skills are transferrable from one application to the next. Ultimately, applications will come and go, but digital literacy skills, like traditional literacy skills, should remain relevant beyond a particular web page. We need to find ways to build a cohesive vision of what, why, and how we teach our students 21st century digital literacy skills.

1) What is our vision?
Schools need to establish a vision for how, when, and who teaches digital literacy to their particular students. What are the skills our students should leave our school knowing? We need to establish a vision for what it is that we need our 21st century students to know, understand, and do when it comes to digital literacy. When do we teach students about internet safety? Who teaches students effective research skills? How do we teach copyright issues? Having a document that sequentially lays out these digital skills gives our whole community a shared vision. It should be a vision that students, teachers, and administrators develop together.

2) How do we share our vision with teachers?
What sorts of professional development opportunities do we offer to teachers? What are the models for engaging teachers in learning and sharing digital literacy skills? Professional development is an integral component of sharing our digital literacy vision. It is something that teachers must help to develop, build, and present in order for there to be buy-in.

3) How do we share our vision with students?
Do we create required digital literacy classes? Do we find ways to use our homeroom/advisory programs to help teach students digital literacy skills? Do we make sure particular skills/issues are embedded in particular courses? Do core courses have final projects that address particular digital literacy skills? How are other schools are teaching digital literacy? What are the models for educating students on issues of internet safety and appropriateness, effective research skills, copyright concerns, among other skills.

How does your school teach digital literacy?

Today's Interesting Links

2009-05-03T21:00:00.001-04:00

Links [del.icio.us]

XHTML live chat based on the XMLHttpRequest Object
This chat tool has been refined for purposes of collaborative and conversational learning. You are here not only to learn, but to share and teach. Each participant is asked to pose questions, comments, and additional ideas and resources. The transcript of this chat canl be transferred into a wiki page where participants and presenter will be able to continue the conversation by inserting additional content -- growing a document of learning and exploration. Knitter is an experiment in the use of backchanneling in instructional settings. It was developed by David Warlick, using opensource code created by Alexander Kohihofer. Knitter may be released in the future of a limited number of educators. Please stay tuned here and David Warlick's blog, 2¢ Worth.
Best Embeds for Educational Wikis and Blogs | Making Teachers Nerdy
Now that you and/or your students are using wikis and blogs, are you curious what could be added to them? From animated slideshows to collaborative documents to interactive review games, many great (and free) tools are available. As a follow up to my previous post "What Teachers Should and Should Not Be Posting on their Classroom Webpages", I've pulled a master list of embedding options that will hopefully spark your imagination.
eduwikius - home
Welcome to the Eduwiki.us Project - Dedicated to Building a Better Learning Community A wealthy of resources with subject specific wiki pages full of ideas and lesson plans.
Education - Change.org: How to Write Timed Essays That aren't Crap
Nowhere does it exist except in classrooms, AP exams, and SATs. Most horribly, students get the idea that this mechanical form is good essay writing generally, even for take-home papers. To me, it's the job of the high school teacher to unteach the mechanical form, and grow students into the organic approach.
Training Resources & Links - Twitter for Teachers
A collaborate effort to teach teachers about Twitter
FACEBOOK FAIL: How to Use Facebook Privacy Settings and Avoid Disaster
The beauty of Facebook's many features is that now you can choose what you show and to what type of people. By using friend lists and playing with your privacy settings, you can create different views for each segment of your life.
Powerful Learning Practice, LLC
Powerful Learning Practice offers a unique opportunity for educators to participate in a long-term, job-embedded professional development program that immerses them in 21st Century learning environments. The PLP model is currently enabling hundreds of educators around the country to experience the transformative potential of social Web tools to build global learning communities and re-envision their own personal learning practice.
Cool Cat Teacher Blog: 122 For You: Cool Cat Teacher's Favorite Apps, Software, and Sites
A wonderful collection of applications and sites organized by type and annotated.
Personal Learning Networks Adoption Within Schools: Impact on Learning & Challenges Faced
Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) when used effectively extend our learning, increases our reflection while enabling us to learn together as part of a global community. Unfortunately it's hard to make people new to social networking appreciate the importance of developing a PLN because they need to experience its impact themselves. This is a wonderful archived session.

I am a teacher et cetera

Motivate Me?

What Motivates Learning?

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Personal and Professional Development Links

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Beyond Social Networking: Building Toward Learning Communities -- THE Journal

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Facebook in the Classroom

Facebook Strategies For The Classroom

Facebook Privacy for Teachers « Megan Golding

10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know

Resources for Teaching The Kite Runner

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Online Learning

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Writing for the World

Bringing the World into Your Classroom with Skype

For Shame!

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Today's Interesting Links - Professional Development Sites

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A Vision of Digital Literacy

Today's Interesting Links