Manifestos

While browsing the web I happened upon "Manifesto for 21st Century Teacher Librarians." by Joyce Kasman Valenza. It's a long one but well-thought out. I particularly like how the author mentions promoting student created materials and working to bridge the digital divide. So tell me what you think. What did she leave out? This quote might just be my favorite: "You unpack the good stuff you carried from your 20th century trunk. Rigor, and inquiry, and high expectations, and information and media fluency matter no matter what the medium. So do excitement, engagement, and enthusiasm." Those three e's can certainly lead to rigor, inquiry and high expectations. Tell me, what would your manifesto look like?

Getting by with a little help from my friends, The Justice League

The other day I noticed one of my first graders reading a Justice League graphic novel. I had purchased it for the 3rd grade so I was interested to see what she thought of it. She read me a page and there were quite a few tricky words. After chatting about the book, I gave her a sticky note and asked her to record any words she wondered about so we could talk about them next time. Today her list was full of words but unfortunately my plan took away context. We talked about the words and made a new plan to use tiny arrow notes to point to words so we could use context clues. I was impressed by her grit to keep going and she was able to still understand. The Justice League has motivated her to read a tough book and I'm quite proud.

Privacy in Social Media

Have you posted to Facebook lately? I've become a FB window shopper these days. I don't post much but I continue to be surprised by what other people post. It makes me wonder what my nieces and nephews will post when they have their own account. Just one ill-thought out picture can ruin a person's life. What steps do you take to inform your students about the dangers of social media? How do you keep yourself safe? Do you rely heavily on privacy settings or limit your friends?

What is your favorite subject?

Do you remember your favorite subject in 2nd grade? I would guess that mine was music. My teacher loved to play the piano and his class was more than willing to sing about the headless horseman or one of the many Christmas songs we knew. I know that math was NOT my favorite, by far. Math was boring page after page of math facts. With this in mind, I was surprised when I overheard my class discussing their favorite subject. The majority of the 2nd graders favored math. At first, I attributed this to the class correcting their papers together in small groups. That may be part of it, but I think the game Sumdog has had an effect on their motivation, too. This class has learned their math facts quite quick. Lately, the new material presented is greeted with comments of "oh, yeah I've done this on Sumdog" Have you tried out the free version? Our class is using the subscription version this year. If you have it, how do you use the teacher dashboard?

Thoughts on my Digital Community

Last week I flew to Omaha to meet with my cohorts. During the full day of keynotes I looked around at the other teachers cheering "Good job! Good job! Good Job Good Job! G double o. D, J-O-B, Good Job, Good Job!" and thought, yep these are my people. I prefer the term cohorts to 'tribe.' I remember conjugating the word during Latin 9 in high school. It really resonates with me because we had a group of four of us who supported each other. We worked in a group and each person had their job. We were a latin cohort. My cohorts are the people who get me and together we encourage each other to learn. After reading the articles written by Goins I immediately related to the person who cut their tribe way down. I prefer a few quality contributors to my blog comments or Instagram feed as opposed to a legion of followers. I think the best way to grow your following is to lead by example. If I am an active contributor of meaningful comments I am adding to my community. What about you, do you want a big tribe or a few quality followers?

Twitter PD

Last week I was in Omaha for a teachers' conference. Working in a small school, I miss out on collaboration and I always look forward to hobnobbing with my kindred spirits. But, we only get together once a year. Twitter is a great way to quickly connect. I am most likely to crowd-source ideas with twitter. How would you use twitter?

Kahoot!

Last week I stumbled upon Kahoot! If you haven't heard of it, Kahoot is an web based program for every student response and is device universal. My class tested it with a Social Studies review. I split the class into multi-age groups. I set the timer for two minutes to encourage scholarly peer discussions. Each student participated. Each student discussed with their peers. The class had a great chance to review when they talked to each other. Twitter reminded me of other great uses for Kahoot including flashcards and vocabulary review. Kahoot is a great classroom tool that I hope will stick around.

Audible in Elementary

Do you remember listening to books on tape when you were younger? My classrooms never had listening centers but I found an old listening center complete with gigantic blue headphones for my first classroom. The center was well loved but being tethered to the center made it tough for all the listeners to read along with the book.

Now, that my students are older I've found Audible.com to be a great resource. One of the best parts of Audible is the availability of chapter books. The class has read along to Junie B., Jack and Annie, and many other famous titles. They improve fluency and can move about the room with their own headphones and an ipod or mp3 player. Audible is a great 21st century update to the cassette tape listening centers. 

Adapter:A media conversion review

One warm Colorado day this past summer, I recorded over two hours worth of audio for my classroom. I was so proud. It would save precious instructional time by allowing my 3's to listen to their assignment freeing me up for small group instruction with the 1's or 2's. My dreams were crushed when multiple audio hosting sites didn't work out. I eventually ended up burning the audio to a cd. It worked but the skipping ahead and going back options were less than optimal. And then I met Adapter.

Adapter converts audio files quickly. All I had to do was drag and drop my files. I converted my wma files into mp3 and then dropped the files into my class iPods. Now the 3's are all set to complete their dictation assignments independently. 

What Ramona Quimby can teach us about VoiceThread

Our class has been reading about Henry Huggins and his pesky neighbor Ramona Quimby. In the latest chapter, Ramona's tv idol, Sheriff Bud, said her name on air and told her to stop pestering Henry. The class was as shocked as Ramona. Sheriff Bud said her name! So what does that have to do with VoiceThread? VoiceThread is a site that allows users to post a file and comment on it. Comments can be audio or video. The file can then be shared and those users can also comment on it. While sharing this site with my PLC someone made the recommendation for book reports to be done this way. When kids need to find a new book, they can look and listen through the Voice Threads and hear recommendations, plus add their own comments. Sheriff Bud endorsed products every day on his program and Ramona told her mom to purchase those products. Voice Thread book reports would make great recommendations too.

Podcasting Readers Theatre

The Best is Yet to Come

We've passed our second Mid-Quarter mark. Since I'm headed right for the holiday rush I'd like to take a step back and look at what we have accomplished in 2014. This year the second graders have collaborated in Google Docs to build background knowledge before reading a story. They created an online KWL chart too. They made an ebook for Language Arts. The class has learned how to navigate audiobooks on the Kindle and Evernote to record themselves reading. During calendar time they have picked up the skills of rotating and resizing an image. They can use qr codes to hear directions and play games. But the best skill they have honed is determination. They've waited with me when Notebook crashes or the building's internet goes down. They've toughed it out and they know the Smartboard isn't as smart as they are. Technology is an awesome tool but it is just that, a tool. It is not a substitute for pedagogy and planning.

I Like to Move It, Move It...

Have you heard that Halloween is on Friday? I think I was asked some form of this question about twelve times this last week. The kids were antsy. SO antsy! It was time for some movement. I taped a life size e on the floor and we practiced walking the steps. "Hit the ball, run around the bases," I said as I slipped on my sparkly gold handwriting shoes. It was a big hit.
How were these kids who just swooned over masking tape on a floor going to manage to learn anything from sitting at a computer for an hour. YouTube. I googled my favorite school singer, Shari Sloane and checked out some Jean Feldman tunes too. Ah yes, practicing letter sounds while doing karate moves is a great way to review with interleaving. Each of my modules has one of those brain breaks incorporated. Moving and learning are, to me, the perfect partners. 

Retaining Knowledge: Making it Stick

In the first chapter of Making in Stick, Peter C. Brown et al, stress that rereading text, highlighting and taking notes is not an effective way to learn. He states that delayed quizzes seem to have the most impact on knowedge retention. Then is Chapter 3 he cites a study of kids in a PE class who throw bean bags. The children who varied their practice did better than the ones who only practiced from 3 feet. How can I put this to use in my modules?
My plan is to use existing online games and then quizzes made in Google Drive.
A few hours of searching turned up a jackpot of early learning resources.
https://sites.google.com/site/onlineactivities4dibels/
While sketching out my modules I focus on varied repetition. Other sites that I like are:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/alphablocks/
http://www.tvokids.com/games/amazingspellingfleas
sumdog.com
http://www.tvokids.com/games/amazingspellingfleas

Have you found any great sites for literacy?

Hangry Henry and Summer School

My nephew is hangry. When I would pick him up from school everything was a chore. The sooner he was fed the better for everyone. Once fed he wanted to do anything but homework. He'd go outside and play for awhile, then it was time for dinner, stories and bedtime. When was he to get his homework done?
I've been teaching for a decade now, and more than before I hear "we just don't have time." I understand how demanding life is these days so I was struggling with how I could implement my module.Flipping the classroom works, only if your students have time to complete the work at home.
While researching another project I stumbled upon a list of "Use of Technology in Education and Learning" published by the U.S. Dept of Ed. The list mentions a school that uses online learning for credit recovery (summer school.) That is my answer. At the end of this school year I plan on sending my module to the kids that will be in my class the next year. Sure, not everyone will follow through but those who do will be a step ahead at the beginning of the year. This is also the answer to a question I frequently hear "what should I have my child do over the summer?" Now that I see another use for my module I am even more excited to start putting it together.
I should mention that Henry did get to attend Camp Invention this year for summer school and loved every minute of it. Is your module strictly for use on the job or during class time? If it is for outside of the workplace, how do you suggest people fit the time in?

TEDx: Your Brain n Technology

While working through my readings this week I kept thinking of a presentation I saw about a year ago "Your Brain on Technology" by Joe Du Fore. I found a TEDx talk he did on the same subject about a year before that. The readings discussed Congnitve Load and comparing pedagogy to digital pedagogy. I zeroed in on the part of the Tedx talk that talked about the brain making connections to other learners and learning and how connections help the brain grow.
I got to thinking of a discussion I was having with my sister about curriculum being pushed down and how many kids are missing out on just being Kindergarteners. I wonder how online schools educate Kindergarten kids? Do they miss out on finger painting and dancing like different animals? Do they get to negotiate with other kids about which one gets to play the waitress in the class play kitchen? Do they ever get to see their neighbor sneaking a taste of the Elmer's paste? If children miss out on early learning experiences like these, how different will their schema be? Will online modules of today be able to teach the online kindergartener in 20 years when she is working?

QR codes: Saving a Few Steps

So this is how I've been working smarter with the help of qr codes. One day last summer I read all 135 math worksheets for the year to my phone. I uploaded each to Sound Cloud and filed under the lesson number. Last year I'd email 5 links for the week to my struggling readers and they'd listen to the directions while completing their homework. It worked well but mostly because one particular student (I call him Tornado and if you are/were a teacher you know who I mean) took the job of finding the link very serious and it was the perfect outlet for his energy.
But my kiddos this year aren't quite as driven and I'd love to not have to remember to cut and paste those web links every week. Enter qr codes. This year each week as I am preparing my lesson plans, I grab the links, drop them in a qr creator and paste the link on my lesson folder. Next year, the qr code that links to the audio lesson will be ready to go for every lesson. My struggling readers take the ipod to the lesson folder, snap a pic of the code and the ultra wordy math lesson is read to them.
I also plan on using qr codes for game directions, sentence dictation, artist statements, book reports, lesson review and sight word bingo.
How does this fit with online learning? Using a qr code format is much more basic than logging a 6 year old into Blackboard. The next time I send home extra practice games, I can just send qr codes. All of my students have access to a Smartphone so I don't even need to send the technology home. If you haven't tried qr codes you should. How will you use them with your learners? Could it link to a google form that asks questions about a work setting?

Evaluation

This week while reading through a few discussion threads a common theme of evaluation came out. A few learners mentioned the lack of timely feedback, others being graded on the final product rather than the process. As I relate this to my young learners I immediately think of their favorite game "Teach Your Monster to Read." This game like most edutainment provides Assessment AS Learning. So if the student chooses the wrong consonant they have an immediate chance to learn from their mistake. One of my biggest challenges in my analog classroom is teaching sight words. The class practices with a variety of games but unless I am playing with them, they receive no feedback as to whether they read the word correctly or not. In my module I plan on creating games that provided immediate feedback to the learner so they can learn the word correctly.

Back to Schoolx2

Last week marked the beginning of two school years for me. In room 1-2 we have a new projector and Smartboard. Online I'll be learning about designing online modules and the trend in ILT.