Reflections of a Techie

I've gone a little wiki

I've been taking the Summer Camp from pbwiki...loved all the things that were taught.  Especially the sense of humor that our leader, Kristine, has shown in the webinars over the weeks.  Very cool idea to record and archive the ideas, so if you can't attend the live session...you can listen to it later when you have the time.  In fact I've gone back and listened to some of them twice.

We're in the final stretch...week five.  I've learned how to create student accounts without having to figure out how to get kids safe email addresses!!!!  I've learned how to use page securities to really customize my class' experience to just what I need.

So many things to list, I can't mention everything that is flowing through my head.

Now I'm off to work on the Back to School Challenge.  Stop by if you think this is something you'd like to and just need some friends to help you.

Meme: Five Things Policymakers Ought to Know

My dear friend Nancy Flanagan has tagged me to reflect on the 5 things policymakers ought to know about my classroom.  This is my first experience with this kind of online collaboration.

1. Teachers should be included in decision making...often we are treated like children; like we know very little.  In fact, many of us know quite a bit and could help avoid many implementation problems if they'd just ask us. 
2. Locally....school board members should insist that professional development for teachers be differentiated for their teachers.  They insist on it for their students, but not for teachers.  Instead of sitting through the same, old _______ 101 Course...many experienced teachers could move forward by having a chance to learn new information.  I know that it will require lots more work, but we're not all at the beginning stage of our teaching careers.
3. State board members....you need more teacher input on standards.  So often the standards microscopically focus on tidbits of knowledge.  While these are important, it is so much more important for those factoids to be in the context of the bigger idea.  You should be concentrating on creating curriculums that teach students to think using the factoids.
4. #3 brings me to #4.   I know that NCLB forces us into testing that is easy to administer and grade...but have you really looked at the questions they ask.  For example, "When was the last time Lee was in the North?".  Why would anyone think that's an important thing to know?  Wouldn't it be much more important for our future if students focused on the causes of the Civil War and where those same forces are causing civil wars to occur today?  If we're going to have to invest so much time here, then be bold...make it worth the investment.
5. Teaching is complicated.  Especially if you want professionals who focus more on the art of teaching than the science of teaching.  By this I mean, if you want teachers who are more than robots reading a scripted instruction manual to kids, then you have to create policies that promote that behavior.  The bottom line is probably that it will require an infusion of lots more money....because you have to start attracting top quality college graduates.  Right now we aren't able to recruit the best and brightest OR retain them because salaries are in a pitiful place.  OK, I know money is tight.  So be creative and find other kinds of financial incentives.  Forgiveness of college loans, subsidizing home loans, underwrite the cost of buying computers, etc. 

Jing---add a little zing to my wiki page

I know I've been writing about my summer camp experience...well, I just made my first Jing.  For many people that's really no big deal because they are probably Jing masters.  But not me.  I downloaded it and it worked pretty well the first time.

I have to work on getting the audio volume turned up a bit, but I thought it accomplished the goal of introducing students to the assignment and showing them simple navigation tips.

Jing is a free service from the publishers of Camtasia...I had a copy of this years ago and will admit that I never learned to fully utilize all the features of it.

I have high hopes for Jing...I think it's easy enough that students can learn to make their own screencasts.  Some of my ideas for using Jing include

• learning how to navigate and save to a student's network folder
• learning how to utilize the district's library page; find the research databases and the citation pages
• give info on how to log onto United Streaming and take an online quiz
• tutorial on how to access the classroom webpage and find the evening's homework

As we go along, I think my students will become proficient enough with using these Jing tutorials to start creating their own FAQ Jing resource folder.  I'll bet they will have quite a few suggestions on what might make useful content for Jing videos.

Classroom Wiki

I've been participating in PB Wiki's Summer Camp.  It's been great and I've learned so much.  The webinars have helped me think in new ways about wikis.

For my summer camp project, I'm creating a Lab Safety assignment.  OK>>>>> let's be honest.  Lab Safety is a pretty big yawn right at the beginning of school....right when we're suppose to be catching their attention.  So I thought adding this wiki component will create some buzz about an otherwise boring assignment.

My idea is to partner students in different hours...they will write rationales for each rule and illustrate the rule being used correctly.  This way students will learn how to create content and upload a file onto a wiki page.  The intent behind having students in different hours is to let them use the wiki to communicate with each other...and find ways of collaborating online.

I'm hoping this will be a good introduction to both Lab Safety AND online learning.

Photo provided by Deej-d from Flickr, licenced as Creative Commons.

Tools to amp up kids' thinking

I've been working all week on scientific argumentation...trying to distill the parts of what makes a scientific argument and then how to teach those parts to my 6th graders.  It is a daunting task.

One thing I know for sure is that I need constructs or models for how they should think when approaching a task.  I know that it will mean that they must also know when to apply the strategy, but I think it won't leave them so flat footed if they have a bag 'o tricks from which to pull.

My Google Reader brought me a very interesting post by Dave Gray on something he called Q-Tools.   Dave Gray » Q-tools: An approach for discovery and knowledge work.  He has a set of very insightful pictures that capture the thinking strategy that will be applied to a particular setting.

THIS is what I am hoping to create for scientific arugmentation.  I wonder if it's better to first think up the final product (something like making a claim) or if it's better to think up pictures to define the filters that you must apply to your thinking (evaluating the claim for evidence--stuff like data, facts, opinions or theories).  Probably doesn't matter.

I'm going to hang out a bit more with Mr Gray's piece and see what I can come up with about my own thinking structures/filters.  But thank you for the great seed of an idea!!!!