Reflections of a Techie

Links for 2009-12-06 [del.icio.us]

2009-12-07T00:00:00-08:00

Describing the Core | JOIDES Resolution - Ocean Drilling Research Vessel
"t this location, we are drilling on the continental slope - this is the part of the continental crust that starts to slope down to the deepest parts of the ocean - the abyssal plains. "
This Week's Hidden Treasure - History.com
Gems of the LOC.

Links for 2009-12-03 [del.icio.us]

2009-12-04T00:00:00-08:00

Links for 2009-12-02 [del.icio.us]

2009-12-03T00:00:00-08:00

Technology Assessments - List | Diigo
Great list of assessment techniques using tech.

What Changes Crystal Growth? Millions of Ideas to Test

2009-12-02T16:20:52-06:00

Students are getting focused and excited as their crystal gardens are growing amazing salt and sugar crystals. They are trying all sorts of different variables to see what changes the way a crystal grows. One group wanted to test out the amount of sugar that was added to the recipe. You can see the accumulation on the bottom of the far jar.

Another group, after reading part of the textbook, decided that heat was the biggest thing they could control. They believed it would be the thing that would change the way a crystal grew...but it took them a LONG time to figure out how they could safely test out this idea at school. Finally we agreed to using a heating pad set on "low" with two glass fishbowls. I figured it would be pretty difficult to set something on fire using a heating pad with glass.

You wouldn't believe the crazy things we're testing. What I like the most is that they are journaling their observations and keeping pretty good track of what they're doing. I'm using a notebook setup so they can jot their ideas for future labs in another color...that way if we have time, they can reformulate their testable question and give it another go. I don't know for sure if we'll have time before the winter break.

What I was super excited to hear today...from a group that thought their idea was "failing"....they weren't going to give up. They had a multitude of ideas of how to "fix it" and wanted to restart right away. Since the crystals have only be in process for 36 hours, I told them to hold off until Friday. But isn't it cool to think they are actually thinking like scientists...wondering about the next thing to try and how to try it. I really like this kind of science.

Links for 2009-11-30 [del.icio.us]

2009-12-01T00:00:00-08:00

Synthesis of Thought--copied vs original
Captures the difference between thinking that is copied and that which sparkles with originality." Annotated link http://www.diigo.com/bookmark/http%3A%2F%2Ffno.org%2Fnov09%2Fflickring.html
Education Innovation: Be More Than A School Administrator...Be An Innovation Coach
"What we need is some principals, directors, managers, and superintendents who encourage and support innovation. If change or improvement is what we seek, then changing what we do or how we do it should be encouraged not discouraged. "
The Window: Why Instructional Time Matters
"Educators frequently talk about the concept, discussing “time-on-task,” school start and end times, and the length of the school year. What’s behind this preoccupation with instructional time? Does it matter if the school day is interrupted for pep rallies, award assemblies, announcements from the office, and the like?"

Education Innovation: Be More Than A School Administrator...Be An Innovation Coach

2009-11-30T19:06:47-06:00

I always wonder what it will take to inspire administrators to trust teachers. What vision must they catch hold of in order to maximize professionalism of the teachers in their building? This blog entry has some wonderful advice..... Education Innovation: Be More Than A School Administrator...Be An Innovation Coach.

It talks about the attitude that must surround innovation if it is to flourish and to be drawn out. Administrators must meet innovation with the spirit of "OK, let's get this done" vs "I'm sorry these are rough financial times, just can't see how we can do that." They must also trust their teachers enough to allow them to try new things...even if some of the innovations will fail.

I just ran into one of my daughter's 5th grade teacher. We were talking about that little neighborhood elementary school...probably THE best school I've seen. It was small but extremely focused. Focused on getting better; promoting student learning; empowering both teacher and students along the way. Why? One reason---the principal, Cindy Anderson. Probably the best principal I've watched in action. She knew her kids, she knew her teachers and she managed parents (of which I was one) to support and stay out of the way. When my kids enrolled almost 1/2 of the students were free, reduced lunch and yet it ranked in the top 3 elementaries out of more than 40.

This article could have been written about Cindy Anderson's way of running an innovation, creative student friendly place to learn and grow it. I'm not sure how it would have fared under No Child Left Behind. I can tell you that the room she gave to the teachers to innovation impacted my three children as they went through that wonderful little school...to this very day they use what they learned. My oldest daughter just used what her 5th grade teacher taught about Bloom's to construct more effective genetics lectures for first year grad students and my son the "sloppy copy vs final copy" editing he learned in K-1 that will get this master's thesis written this year. Such longterm impact these teachers had when the principal trusted them to innovate and be excellent. We should all have the chance to work in these kinds of buildings.

Links for 2009-11-25 [del.icio.us]

2009-11-26T00:00:00-08:00

Educational Leadership:Multiple Measures:The Quest for Quality
No new news here, but good summary of 5 keys presentation.
Let's Book It with Tech'Knowledge'y - Making Books - Vicki Blackwell's Internet Guide for Educators
Takes the Dinah Zike idea and puts it into PPT directions that students can follow. I wish she had the mini science fair backboard you make out of construction paper.
PowerPoint Books
What a cool and easy way to use PPT slide handouts to make simple books.
TipLine - Gates' Computer Tips
Start of digital conversation

Improving the Diigo Setup

2009-11-25T15:05:51-06:00

Jim at the TipLine blog had a great idea that I'm going to pass along to my IT and district office people. Diigo student accounts should really be created by a source that will be present in student's lives beyond one school year. He says,

Why? Because, if I create the student accounts, they're not visible to other teachers. So, each teacher would have to upload their own list of students, causing them to have multiple accounts and causing their bookmarks to be scattered across those multiple accounts. A student should have the same account the entire time they're in that building, beit middle or high school.

Isn't this right on target? I hadn't thought of this but it's something worth considering. Right now my problem is that I'm one of the only teachers in my district that is attempting to use something like Diigo. No one else is really using it beyond their personal account??? and when I tell them about the cool possibilities I get answers like "Well, that is good for your kids because you are so techie, I would never do anything like that" or "Why would you invest so much time in this. I'm not doing anything until the IT people figure it out, then maybe I'd consider it".

It's one of the reason why I think it's important that a district have digital innovators down in the trenches. If you wait for an innovation to be embraced by district office people, it will be "deployed" as anything but innovative and will turn into a cookie cutter roll out. Now I get that it's good to have those for the masses of teachers who (embarassingly) pronounce their resistance to anything new or anything technological. I wouldn't even mind the cookie cutter rollout if it could happen in less than....5 years of investigation, research, planning and implementation. My students will be mid-way through HS before they figure out if it's a good thing to do!!!! I get it...but I'm saying there has to be more than the one mass model...allow for innovation around the edges and support that, too.

It's why I wish district deciders would figure out that they need to help us with these innovations and be more responsive when we don't know if it's the web application or our network...and not always assume it is the "other" guy. Who cares who's fault it is...it isn't about fault...it's about getting it to work so the kids can be invested and learn.

The reason why I'm investing this time is so that my kids can really interact with scientists and so they can use 21st century tools that are so embedded that it isn't about the technology. It's about the conversation around the science. I don't think my kids would even realize they are using some new fangled technology because it's just the way we started and done it from the beginning of school. we just had a protracted conversation about not giving up...why these scientists are willing to keep trying to make it work. My kids couldn't figure out why they hadn't given up...I guess pack up their stuff and sail home....and slowly they are beginning to realize that it's hard work. You have to hang in there if you want something badly enough. That you have to keep trying even if it's not working the first time, the second time and so on. This is not a lesson that they've encountered before and it's definitely not something with which they are familiar.

so many lessons from one activity...science, virtue of perseverance and oh yeah, technology.

My newest Kiva loan--Marie Kiki from Benin

2009-11-25T10:31:24-06:00

Just made a new Kiva loan. I'm thankful for all that I have so I'm celebrating my making another microloan to Marie Kiki from Benin. I'll freely admit that I had no idea where Benin was...so I looked it up and it is a country in West Africa. This brave woman helps to support her husband and family by tailoring. She makes and sells clothing. The loan profile says she has already received 2 loans which were fully repaid. (I think this is a fear that some people have that microloans won't be repaid...Marie's case is a perfect example of how these folks DO repay and on time.)

I wish everyone in the Kansas or the US would become some kind of microloaner. Imagine how the foreign policy statement that would make and how much the world would change through people helping people. As I scan the Kiva website it tells me that over 21,000 microloans were made this week and overall they have a 98% payment rate. Isn't that amazing? Isn't a shot in the arm when you feel like there's nothing you can do to make the world a better place than something like this where you know you are helping people.

Can you find $25 to get started or to add to what you're already doing?

Update: In the 10 minutes or so it took me to write this original post, 5 more people joined in helping get the entire $250 that Marie Kiki will need to have a fully funded loan. None of know each other but we are now a little band of people from the US, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Canada. When I first made my contribution she needed $190 more dollars and when I just left, she was only $50 away from being funded. Can you wrap your mind around that? I can't.

Thank you Kiva for creating this internet platform that allows us to come together and change the world.

Update Two: Just got the notification that all of this loan has been fully funded. It really does humble to stop and think how I can take my disposable income, combine with other people who have some disposable $$, too, and together we can help another person halfway around the world. It's empowering. It makes me feel like I did when I was in my 20's and thought I could conquer the world!!!

Links for 2009-11-24 [del.icio.us]

2009-11-25T00:00:00-08:00

A really useful Wordle trick
thanks to Larry Ferralezo's tip...using phrases with Wordle.
iRubric: Home of free rubric tools: RCampus.com
Need to check this out when I have a moment...maybe it would be something for my Assessment course

A really useful Wordle trick

2009-11-24T08:25:08-06:00

Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo's tip, I found this blog's advice on how to use Wordle to include phrases. This will definitely help in science and math.

I use Wordle quite a bit and thought this tip was very useful.

If you look at the above word cloud, you can see that there are three other phrases/collocations included in Sylvie’s word cloud: “Lesson plans”, “Body language”, and “Young learners”.

Sylvie showed me that the answer lies with the tilde sign (~). Whenever you are pasting text into the “Paste in a bunch of text” window, insert that character between any words that you want to keep together

Thanks to both Larry for finding it and Jamie for posting it. I've already sent it out to several colleagues who responded with great enthusaism.

Links for 2009-11-23 [del.icio.us]

2009-11-24T00:00:00-08:00

http://www.nirmaltv.com/2009/11/23/record-skype-conversations-with-ifree-skype-recorder/
Great new tool to record Skype conversations and interviews.