Online Options

We are testing out Study Island as an online option both for skill reinforcement and for curriculum support in our Lower School (1st-8th). I like that it is already aligned to state standards and has lessons as well as games and instructional notes. We intend to use it with classroom support as many of our students require more interaction and strategy development than would be available through online only interaction.

Math Online

This week, someone shared with me some great (free!) online spots for math:

www.hippocampus.org
Hippocampus has all kinds of multimedia lessons for a range of subjects including Algebra and Calculus! It includes tutorials, information for teachers and was created by the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education.

www.thefutureschannel.com
The Futures Channel connects learning to the real world. It includes activities and movies in a lot of areas including Algebra and Mathematics!

The Futures Channel was founded in 1999 with the goal of using new media technologies to create a channel between the scientists, engineers, explorers and visionaries who are shaping the future, and today’s learners who will one day succeed them.

It looks like you can upgrade from the free service to include bookmarking, more video selections and more for $35 per year.

Do Weebles Wobble?

I can't seem to get the "Weebles wobble but don't fall down" song out of my head for some reason . . . . . .

No, really, I received an email recently to check out a weebly. Naturally, I thought, WHAT?

Turns out, weebly is "the easiest way to create and publish a website online". You can create a blog and add pages which reminds me of edublogs. I tend to run into glitches consistently on edublogs so I do wonder if weebly would be easier in that fashion. I have not checked it out yet, but friends of mine used a weebly to create a website for a Models of RTI Profiency. It was a collection of presenters who collaborated from various locations, in fact one or more is from Canada and the others are from areas in Michigan. Not only was their presentation created, but it remains as a resource for others at a later date.

I'm going to allow a weebly as an option for my careers class's final project. They can choose a weebly, a blog or a wiki and they will design one as a resource for learning about the global workforce.

We are looking at portfolio assessment pieces for our students. A weebly could be one form of an electronic portfolio they could develop.

Thing #23: CELEBRATION!

Danger
Originally uploaded by claireyfairy

A Bittersweet time - these extra Things I need to think about are over, but this focused venture into fun is then over too.

Such a journey can be marked with pitfalls or missteps, but it's still worth the journey. How have I learned during this journey and what have I taken away? I think I can come up with 23 Things that happened :):


1) I realized that Web 2.0 is a generic term, not some new kind of software I'd have to download or purchase.

2) Blogging has created a positive outlet for all of my natural tendencies for chatter!

3) I developed a private blog for our staff and the education committee on our Board to foster communication and promote professional communications but also supports all of our processing speeds and interests. It also promotes the direction I would like to see our school move into: the 21st century!

4) Flickr, flickr, flickr. I've learned how to insert some great visuals into blogs, etc.. and passed that info on to some of our staff. Right now our upper el and junior high students are working on a digital photography lab, so I forwarded the trading card app and Flickr info to the teacher. Our students now have an account (a private account) that they and their parents can access to view and keep their photos if they would like.

5) Our secretary/business manager and I like to promote positive pranking/expression among our staff and students. I also forwarded the trading card app URL to her and we have some plans in the works for staff birthdays, etc...

6) RSS feeders.. finally learned what they really are and how to keep up with news in the sp ed law and what in the news for LD other than what has been picked by NCLD.

7) Also with RSS feeders, I've been able to post to our staff blog to give them a place they can find up to date info if they want to as well; without them having to find time in their already crammed schedules to search, etc..

8) Wikis! I could go on and on about wikis probably, but the big one from this particular journey is that for the wiki I had to design we have created a whole new journey that is crossing state boundaries. We now have a collaborative wiki with a past student teacher who is now teaching in Iowa. Her students needed some other folks to chat about books with and we now have a few of our reading labs and her students on a private wiki discussing different aspects of literacy!

9) Through this journey, I have had to create assignments and then passed them on to my staff and we are now reducing the "gap" between our more chronologically advanced staff and the new teacher(s) as well as changes in their classrooms.

10) Productivity anywhere has us thinking about how to best use these applications to our advantage, cost effectiveness and access. Our largest questions remain how to assist our students in organizing all this information like usernames, site addresses, what's where, etc... and how to maintain our equipment so the access is consistent..... the dialogue has begun!

11) We're also looking at how some of those applications can assist the communication among staff, and in particular our administrative staff without compromising confidentiality, etc...

12) I found Slide (and just remembered I found Slide) which is a great way to create easy slideshows.

13) Podcasting. What a great way to scaffold written and oral expression! I found the LDPodcast! and the Educators Podcast Network.

14) Speaking of finds, I found TED: Inspired talks by the world's greatest thinkers and doers!

15) I ran across that always-evening-effect: the Fritz. Even though I downloaded all the "stuff" one of the video sites decided that I needed an Apple version, which would not jive with my PC components. Hey, we're educators, we improvise and work with what we've got all the time!

16) I recognized Ron's name at the Curriculum Council meeting and got to meet him in person!

17) I learned about Curriculum Crafter and could set up a link and some info on our staff blog.

18) I realized that I had to do some extra work with Curriculum Crafter for our staff to be able to use it.... technology is great......

19) I got marked with del.icio.us.

20) I twittered.

21) I got to visit blogs of others along the same learning journey and I became intrigued and inspired by their ideas.

22) I got to teach my husband, the software engineer, a thing or two online!

23) I learned that flickr is attached to a Yahoo! account because one of our teachers took up one of the ideas in this class and was trying to use it with our digital photography classes.

Oooooh, I can come up with 24 Things!!! Because not only did I learn along this journey, but I had fun!! The dialogue has begun!!

Thing #16: Revisited

I still couldn't view the first two clips, but I could watch Sir Ken Robinson and his TED talk. I know how challenged regular education teachers are, but I could not help but be inspired by Sir Ken. Why do we insist that all students do things the same when they will never be required to do so in real life? I work consistently with kids who are creative thinkers, though they do need to learn how to focus their creativity often. When they come to us as junior high or high school students they have lost any recognition of the value of that creativity. They are more frustrated by not being like everyone else. They do not recognize that differences are necessary or that their talents have any value as they do not often fall in the traditionally valued skills in education: reading, writing, spelling and completing math problems.

This is in no way intended to be a criticism of teachers. I have taught in a public school reg ed classroom and was so overwhelmed I left teaching for a year. This is a criticism of the education system. Most public school teachers are restricted by specific requirements and lack of materials to support variety in the development of lesson plans. It can be done however. It does take time and support particularly because many students and parents do not understand. They are used to what school is "supposed to" look like and feel like. Progress is "fluffier" to see for parents and students and can appear subjective when not structured clearly. It's the structuring to leave supports for creativity that is the daunting task.

Here however is one example: what if Ron had to read all the papers and keep track of all the paper (waste) that came from all of these tasks as we all worked toward CEU's. He would then have to cart all those papers somewhere, he would have to read them and write comments, etc... we might have to re-write/edit and we might also have to (gasp) meet with him periodically or actually attend the class vs. spending time with our learning while we're in our fuzzy slippers. We would not be likely to see what each other's ideas, unless we were 1) cheating or 2) peer assessing/editing. We would also be less likely to ever view an assignment again after completing it. Assessment-wise, our growth was visible and we had to evaluate ourselves and our own growth periodically in an authentic format; we could at times even forget Ron and the 23 Things Gurus even existed (just kidding Ron!). The public format added a layer to our final product since it was going to more than just our "teacher" and we could work collaboratively and at our own pace. Now, for those who need a little more contact, you could e-mail, post comments or call the Gurus. There's also a computer lab at the ISD if you needed to go in somewhere to work or ask for help - I don't know how much that was put out to us, but it was there. The benefits for learning were that more than likely, we got out of these assignments what we were willing to put into them. If we weren't sure that we had the time to put into it, most of these were tasks that could be worked into any class and even learned with students at times. Again, this can depend on your class size, access to tech, etc... but to keep up with this ever changing world, we need to expand our thinking too...

Learning can depend on how much is put into it. We believe this of our students all the time. It is also true that they will only learn as much as we are willing to put into it too. Kudos for all of us for seeking out ways to add that creativity Sir Ken was talking about back into our schools and classrooms!

Thing #22: Online Video

YouTube
We don't have YouTube banned in our building, though our students do have restricted access (though not physical blocking). Many of our teachers use it for tutorials or illustrations. There was a man in California who we followed for a bit as he had a campaign to raise awareness for learning disabilities:

Paul Sanchez and his 8 Wishes Campaign

Last Spring, my junior high reading class was reading The Killing Sea. As we started, I realized that these three could not image this part of the world let alone a tsunami and what that would really look like, so we went to YouTube and searched for tsunamis. We were able to watch footage from the tsunami we were reading about which helped them comprehend the novel much better as we went along.

School Tube
When we create videos at school, we post them on our podcast site because we're not ready to use YouTube as of yet. I like the idea of School Tube due to the more secure arena, but I also like the Voter's Choice idea within an education culture and the contests for scholarship, etc.. Recently (as my wanderings as part of one of the Things), I read a posting on David Truss:: A Pair-a-dimes for Your Thoughts. His posting, Facing Facebook, discusses the current day conundrum of educators on Facebook. He raises the point of teachers needing to be on Facebook in some capacity so we can better teach our students how to communicate responsibly in modern day communication venues. I like School Tube for this reason; it's similar to the scaffolding Truss suggests: scaffolding students for real world tools and skills.

Loved this one for Science Scales:


TED
Oooooh, TED is a new area for exploration for me!! I am finding this to be a rich resource for professional development discussions. Our school is a non-profit and operates on quite limited funds for many areas and these resources fit that budget perfectly: free! Also, they are short enough for pre-viewing or shared viewing and then discussion for program improvement. This evening, I found a video/talk of Alan Kay sharing some thoughts on teaching and software tools for understanding math and science. I couldn't get it to embed correctly, so click here to view the talk.

Last Thoughts
I don't think a week goes by when I don't get some reference to a YouTube, a link to a YouTube or have someone show me a YouTube they found. Our students are out there already; shouldn't we be making sure they learn some skills to be out there responsibly and effectively?

Thing #21: Twitter

Will Richardson had a posting about Twitter on Weblogg-ed: What I Hate About Twitter. This may have set me up to have a negative reaction to Twitter; I don't really know. I do know that I found just enough to take up time, but not enough to want to go back soon. I have to admit that the more I do online, the less I pick up a phone or write a letter. I find e-mail as a way of keeping in tough regularly to lack depth now that my family and friends are on Facebook. I am a visual person and I like the photos aspect, I like the snippets, I like the conversation without kids screaming in the background or thoughts that I can send whenever they come to me... I like being able to play games with family and friends without having to schedule a time, etc...

I also wonder how I would ever have time to update Twitter between emails and facebook, online arenas, getting kids ready for school and creating video and scrapbooks from pictures.... If I moved to another city though, these applications would be wonderful for helping me stay connected to loved ones, I'd just still worry about how much time may be taken away from real-life interactions....