Speak Blog Update

The snow day has altered everyone's schedule.

I checked in with the English teacher, assuming that the dates we had down would have changed. Fortunately, they have. If not, I would have been double booked between that blog project, and the Reading project I am finishing.

The English teacher finished putting directions up on the site. I'm going to copy and paste them here.

Welcome to 9th grade's on-line discussion board for the Third and Fourth Marking Period of Speak. As it has become evident, this novel is one that teenagers can relate to, even if they have not been in the exact situation that Melinda was in. Speak is a very common novel that discussions center around because many, varying opinions can be brought forth.
As we always say in English class, you are entitled to your opinion, but for it to be valued, it must be supported with examples, experiences, and facts.

1. Click on your period's page.

2. Click on the "Discussion" tab and then on "Question" 1 and post your response. Each response must be at least five complete, detailed sentences written in standard, school-appropriate English. (Do not let the online version fool you! You are not texting, instant messaging, or leaving a message on a My-Space wall. This is an English class assignment.) Your response MUST have examples directly from the novel, i.e. "On page 102, Melinda says....".
3. Proceed through the rest of the questions following the above directions.

4. For questions 1-3, you will respond to your assigned partner. A response can follow different paths, for example:

• I agree/disagree with you because...
• You bring up a good point I never thought about which is.....This makes me think about....

Your response must be at least 2 sentences. You will recieve extra credit if the original person responds to the response.

• TO RESPOND, IN THE SUBJECT LINE, AFTER RE: DELTE "QUESTION 1" AND WRITE THE PERSON'S SCREEN-NAME.

5. For questions 4-6, you can choose any post to respond to; however you may not respond to an original post that already has two responses.

NOTICE: As everyone begins posting, it will be very obvious to me whether you have written an original post or you have picked out ideas to use from other posts.

There are some really good points here.

She begins by explaining the purpose of the project "As it has become evident, this novel is one that teenagers can relate to, even if they have not been in the exact situation that Melinda was in. Speak is a very common novel that discussions center around because many, varying opinions can be brought forth."

The directions are very clear. She is starting by having them respond to an assigned partner. That will get them into the habit of the project. After the first three questions, they will be free to respond to comments that they want to respond to, within limits.

She makes it very clear that students don't have to agree with one another to comment. Also, she clearly puts forth the expectation that students are to be original, but that they have to have information from the book to back them up.

I'm going to be working with the class next week on Friday to help everyone sign up for a username and password, and to get oriented to the site.

Reading Project--Day Eight

And it has been a long 8 days. The Reading teacher is beginning to feel that this project is dragging on interminably. I worry that that fact will possible lessen the likelyhood that she'll want to do another project. Part of the problem was two snow days, followed by a 2 hr delayed, coupled with one of the classes being skipped for a school assembly. Now, we just found out there will be a fire drill during that class tomorrow.

One of the problems with this project is having the students modify their articles. Many of them don't really understand the concept. They don't know how to make an article flow. When offered suggestions, they are inclined to ask you to repeat it word for word so they can copy it down.

This is partly because a lack of comprehension. I already blogged about why they are not really comprehending the articles clearly, so I won't repeat that here. But, because they are not comprehending them, they are not able to make meaningful or logical transitions, opening lines, or sign offs. If they don't know what they are talking about, they can't react to it or summarize it.

I kept thinking today that one thing I might do differently in the future is provide the students with a handful of report-ready articles. Then, the students could just browse through them and sign up. This would help speed up the project because a) students would pick an article more quickly because they would want to sign up before anyone took their article and b) students would not have to modify the articles at all. Those were probably the two most time consuming aspects of this assignment.

The Reading teacher seems optimistic that tomorrow will go better. They will be doing a paired reading tomorrow. In that activity, students will work in pairs and take turns. One partner will read from the teleprompter while the other reads along with a hard copy of the report and marks errors. This will give the students meaningful practice, and they will at least have a respite from typing and modifying (which has become frustrating for the teacher and the students).

Reading Project--Day Seven

Its so easy to let this blog slip on a snow day, and we've now had two. Day seven was actually Monday, and I neglected to post at the end of the day.

I think one of the down sides of this project specifically is the deadlines. Because the students can't easily send files home, and we cannot assume that even most students have access to computers or internet at home, we have to allow class time. It really isn't realistic to say, "If you don't finish part one today in class, do it for homework." As a result, we have different kids at different points. I think it gives the students who get ahead more downtime. It also gives this project a sense of dragging. This is a problem in general that needs to be addressed. It is hard to be a CFF school, or to have teachers try to infuse technology, or to try to take school outside of the classroom walls, when students are limited by lack of access. However, that is a battle for another day. For now, part of my job, as I see it, is to help teachers to plan projects in such a way as to work around that barrier instead of giving up and being limited by it.

Another problem is with engagement. We had students pick articles that we hoped would interest them and therefore lend themselves to engagement. However, the skill being addressed by this project is reading out loud. That requires practice. Based on the construct of the class, we are working with students who are not strong in this area. Like all students, when they are not strong at something, they don't want to do it over and over again, even though that is a great way to build up a skill.

As a result, students do not want to practice their readings. We encourage them and provide time. We've provided incentive in the form of having something interesting to read, and having to read it in front of an audience. However, those incentives do not seem to be enough for some of the students.

Something I need to reflect further on is how to engage students and make them want to practice doing something when they know that they are not strong at it. I know that most un-athletic kids won't practice football drills over and over because they feel they won't ever be good at football, and don't see a point. Perhaps this project needed more emphasis on a point--why do these students need to be adept at reading out loud. Also, going back to the idea of assessing them on improvement, I think many of them would benefit from a concrete goal. Its hard to be motivated by just "doing well." I think "doing better than last time in a measurable way" would work better.

I've finally had a chance to read through the reflections that the students wrote. I see what the Reading teacher meant by vague. Many of the comments are along the lines of "my pace was good" or "my pace was medium" or "I messed up a few words" or "I will improve by reading through the report next time."

At first I was inclined, as past posts indicate, to say that students were not taking advantage of this reflection. However, after reading the reflections, I don't really think that is the whole case. Once again, I've fallen into the "well they should know how to do that" mind frame. They are freshmen. They don't really know how to reflect, and they don't know how to self evaluate. In the future, I would like to see this project being with the class doing a group reflection. The teacher could play back an anonymous reading. Then, the whole class could critique it, point out what was done well, what needed work, and how the reader could improve. The teacher could record comments on the board, move them into categories, and then have students discuss if they are specific enough and how to improve the comments for a reflective paper.

Edit: 3:00 pm 1/29
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcn3kbwp_19dmzfcrcn
I've transferred three student reflections into a google document as an example

Reading Project--Day Six

Today was the due date for all students to have selected an article to read off of the teleprompter.

After finding an article, they have to modify it. They have to include a greeting, a sign off, and change around any words or wording that don't work for a spoken report. I have a few concerns.

Some of the students who finished early didn't want to take the extra time to practice. They will have in class practice time. But, they could have started practicing today. Some did. Others decided it was free "play on the internet time."

I see two possibilities for improving this in the future. 1) Give the students a chance to record and here themselves read this article. Either have the first recording be after finding and modifying an article, or tell students who finish early to record this in Audacity. That way, students could hear this article. They would have a better grasp on words they don't know how to pronounce, or awkward phrasing. 2) Put more of a premium on improvement. If students could use their reflections as a sort of check list, their practice would be more focused than just "read well." It would be "read so that you can work on these three specific things."

Another concern is that students are not even silently reading the articles. Many are. Some are skimming or picking articles with interesting topics. I think that for some, they will not fully read the article until the in class practice day. On the one hand, it will hopefully give them some concept of consequences for slacking. On the other, it will possibly hurt their confidence. I'm expecting some reactions of "this is too hard," or "this is pointless" from some students, not because its too hard, but because they did not take the steps to make it doable.

I came to the conclusion of not reading based on some things I saw. A few students did paste their articles into the teleprompter, making the text large enough for me to read from behind them. Some of the things I saw were phrases in parenthesis that made for awkward sentences, and large, often technical words.

Now that I think of it, some of that does come from a lack of thorough reading. Some of it probably comes form a lack of comprehension. Its not that the students are slacking (not all of them) and not trying to read. It is that they are so focused on reading aloud that they are missing meaning. They don't realize that something sounds awkward because they don't realize how it sounds at all. It is a string of words, and their goal is to get all of the words, not the sentence.

I talked to the Reading teacher about adding a component to the grade that reflected improvement on the specifics that students put in the reflection. She agreed that it was a good idea. However, she commented that most of the reflections are still very vague. They don't have specifics that students could work on. Also, she said that the things that students would need to be working on are often the things that they just don't do--perhaps things that they don't even realize they need to work on.

So, the students, by the sound of it, did not necessarily take full advantage of the reflection assignment. For me, the next thing I want to reflect on, is how to get students to take fuller advantage of that--in this or any other class.

Reading Project--Day Five

Just got back from my last class of the day with the reading project.

Something that struck me very early on, and that the Reading teacher said before we started, and that every teacher knows is true every year, is that the different classes have very different personalities as a group. And, that effects how quickly students work through assignments.

The Reading teacher, being more familiar with the kids, does phrase things differently, and handles distractions differently in each class. I think as a coach, I'm at a disadvantage that disadvantages my teachers. As a teacher, I knew what to expect from classes--not always, but I had a feel for them. I knew when something would need to be presented a little differently, or which student I needed to win over at the beginning to prevent half of the class from declaring a project a failure before giving it a chance.

As a coach, I walk into each new class blind. Certainly b the end of a project, I have a better feel for classes. And, if I do a second or third project with a teacher, I won't have that same initial speed bump.

I would like to, in the future, ask teachers to let me come in and watch and/or interact with a class for a day or two before getting down to the last stages of planning. I think most teachers will understand where I'm coming from. And, if a teacher is already letting me come in to work together on a project, he/she probably won't mind letting me get my feet wet first.

As far as the project today, one of the things we are dealing with is students working at very different paces. Partly this is do to ability level. Because the second part of the project was writing a reflection, some students zipped through it because they did not reflect very seriously. Others went very slowly because they were being more methodical. Some were able to work quickly because of typing skills. Others were held up because they only know the hunt and peck method (although I wonder if speed could have been improved by allowing them to type it all out on a phone with their thumbs.) Some write slowly because it is not a strength. Other write quickly because it is.

Differing speeds are also due to absences and, of course, schedule disruptions. Ideally, I would like to have the ability to allow students to work on this at home. But, students don't have access to email to send files home, and we can't expect every student to bring a jump drive to school. And, we can't expect every student to have access to a computer at home.

I still haven't had time to read any student reflections, so it's still too early to decide if students made use of the first part of the assignment. However, I did have one idea I would like to incorporate if we do this project again. We had students reflect on what areas of their reading need improvement and what they need to do to improve, but we are not specifically evaluating if they improve those areas. I think, in the future, I would like to see some part of the evaluation of the second reading based on their reflections from the first reading.

About half of the students moved on to finding articles to read for the taped, cueprompter reading. Many of them were unsure if reading about a crime was going to be school appropriate. The Reading teacher took it on a case by case basis.

I was also happy to see that, in addition to practice with reading and writing, and reflecting on their skills, some of the students were also gaining exposure to current events. Most of the students were very interested in the articles they selected since we told them to find something that interested them. Several students found current events articles that engaged them.

New Blog Project--Speak

I'm now working with the English teacher from earlier in the year. We tried to create a wiki project, but it didn't make it off the ground.

We're now doing a composite wiki/blog project. I would loved this to have been a ning project. I would also have liked to have looked into embedding a blog into a wiki. However, the ning project would require students to verify membership through a link in email for homework, and the teacher didn't want to bank on that happening in a timely fashion. And, I didn't want to risk not having this project up and ready to go--or having her think it wouldn't be--by saying "give me a day or two to figure out embedding a blog in a wiki."

So, we are using a wiki discussion board for the book Speak. This is very similar to the Kite Runner project, except with a different book. Also, it is planned out to be an 8 question project from the beginning.

We are using wikispaces instead of pbwiki. I liked pbwiki's format of putting comments directly on the page for this project, but pbwiki refused to acknowledge this teacher existed. So, rather than waste time trying to trouble shoot a problem I couldn't understand, I suggested wiki spaces. She ended up liking the ability to put multiple discussion threads on one page, so it worked out for the best.

I helped the teacher create a wiki. On the first day of the project we are going to have the students sign up for the wiki using mailinator addresses. Because of issues in the Science teacher's class, I suggested, and the English teacher agrees, she should tell the students that every time they forget their username/password, they will loose 10 points (it's a high point class, so that is not as bad as it sounds.)

She is going to have one wiki. The main page will be directions. Each class will have a page linked from the main page. The class's page will direct students to click on the discussion link at the top of the page, and to click on the appropriate discussion. From there, students will have to reply to the teacher's question.

She is working out what requirements she wants for the discussion. She wants to make sure every student gets responded to, and is considering having students assigned a classmate to respond to. However, she is also thinkking of just letting students respond to whoever they want. I suggested that, since she plans on doing 8 questions, she could try it both ways and see how each works. As long as she takes the time to fully explain any new rules for each question, she can try a variety of different methods. She might even find that method A works well with one class and fails in another.

We talked, as I did with the other English teacher, about how students don't really interact with one another in class. Even with open ended questions, those who want to respond or discuss, will only talk directly with the teacher. I'm hoping these projects will help teachers to help their students understand that they can learn from one another and that they can learn through debate, discussion, disagreement, and defending their own points of view.

One thing I seem to see is that some teachers, who are very competent, and very confident in what they teach, feel that they need to take a back seat to my opinion just because we are infusing technology into a lesson plan. In a way it's flattering that they value my opinion. For the most part, I try to redirect and ask leading questions to find out what they teacher's goal is for an assignment. After all, I could easily try to accomplish my own goals, but these aren't my classes. I hope that experience using the tech will show the teachers that they have every reason to be as confident because they are as competent.

Reading Project--Day Four

Day three was largely the same as day two. I oversaw the last of the students recording their reports. The students back in the Reading teacher's room continued to listen and work on their reflections.

Today I was back in the classroom to help students map their printers. This is a hassle, that has to be done for every student in every class, because the laptop images do not include it. The most serious part of the issue is that many of the machines will freeze during the process.

I also, for various reasons, was only able to use the LCD projector in one class. However, I think things went as smoothly as possible.

Class began with the Reading teacher passing out directions for the second part of the assignment while students logged on. This made the most logistical sense, but might not have been the best idea from a classroom management perspective. Students did pay attention to directions while waiting for their computers to boot up (they were very good about holding technical questions until she had finished speaking), but towards the end of class, as some students finished with the first part of the project, they didn't remember the directions for the second part (despite having handouts in front of them). However, had we waited until later in the class, there would have been five or so minutes of completely wasted downtime while we waited for computers to start up. Also, there would never have been a good stopping time, since students finished with the reflection at different times.

I walked the entire class through the mapping process as a group. i did it step by step, making sure to stress that if they did not follow directions, or if they tried to jump ahead, they would freeze their computers. In the first class, no one froze. It was a complete success.

In the second class, things did not go as smoothly. About a half dozen students ended up freezing and having to restart. Two students had restarted three times and were still not mapped by the end of class. However, based on experience, I knew that they could work on their reflections in word while waiting to see if the mapping would work or not. Basically, just the printer properties froze, but everything else was functioning. They would work for five minutes, check, and if the printer properties had frozen, I made them restart. For most students, this was successful--after a few minutes the printer was mapped. As I said, for two students, this didn't work.

The last class of the day was a bit more daunting. No one mapped successfully. The Reading teacher and I decided to save all of reports to my thumb drive and print them ourselves. This worked very well for a last second plan B. A few students left the mapping running in the background, and about five minutes before the bell, were getting the printers mapped successfully. The Reading teacher suggested that the delay might have been because of our distance to the printer.

I think this was one of those classes where the technology interferes with the learning. Having students stop to map a printer, or check on its progress, breaks the flow and concentration. However, it is a tech skill that they probably should have. I know several of the students will be able to map a printer without help in the future.

I've talked to the tech director and, over the summer, the school plans on having this added to the student image.

I look forward to reading over some of the student reflections and reflecting on the success of this project.

Reading Project--Day Two

Day one went well. We didn’t get as many students recorded as we would have preferred.

By the end of day two, most of the students had been recorded. A few absent students will have to be recorded later, as well as about three who did not have time to be recorded.

Unfortunately, since I have been mostly supervising students in my room while they recorded, I have not had the opportunity to observe the students listening to themselves and working on their reflections. I hope to have a chance to do so once school begins again. I will have to work with the few students who have yet to record, but I have been told by the Reading teacher that she has not yet had the opportunity to work with the students in Word before, so I will have to be present to make sure everything goes smoothly as far as saving documents, and helping students who are not familiar with 2007.

Again, I hope that the students take advantage of the opportunity they are given for reflection in this activity. After spending a few days with the classes, and the activity, I’m beginning to think that, given the chance to do this or a similar activity again, I would avoid the word reflection with the students. It has a somewhat bad connotation with them—they think it’s a joke and/or don’t really understand what it means. I would keep the directions the same, but I would come up with a different word to replace reflection.

The students are doing well with the technology. A few have had technical difficulties, but most of those are related to students playing with the program before recording themselves and accidently changing the settings. They are also being relatively mature about using it. A few have recorded the teacher while she was giving directions, but most listened to directions and waited to record themselves. Several were very nervous about recording themselves and had to deal with “the giggles” before starting. Quite a few required a countdown to get started. However, I only had one student who was being deliberately disruptive. He was sent back to class where the Reading teacher dealt with him. He was reassigned to the final recording group and, his second time around, was as well behaved as the rest of the students.

The second part of the project is unfortunately becoming a scheduling issue. We had a vague timeline established for it. But, we had two snow days in one week, and will now not see the students until Tuesday of next week (the day we had hoped to begin the video recording). I will have to meet with the Reading teacher and figure out how we want to proceed. I am hopeful that she will not decide to forget the rest of the project because of time. She is very excited about it.

I did have the chance to look through her directions for the rest of the project. She divided the overall project into tasks with due dates: find an article, adapt the article, save the article, practice and record yourself reading the article.

At the moment, she has the students saving the webpage where they had the article posted to the teleprompter. I’m not completely sure that that will work the way she anticipates, and I will have to check on that before meeting with her. I’m also going to recommend that she has all of the students print out their adapted article so that anyone without computer access can practice from the typed article while not having to individually admit that they don’t have internet access.

Kite Runner Blog--Day One

I began the "blog" project with the English teacher yesterday (and didn't have time to blog about it). It quickly became a wiki project.

I had created a plan B--a pbwiki--just in case. First thing in the morning, I was very happy to see that the plan B wouldn't be needed, as the blog had been unblocked. I quickly checked to make sure, and it was unblocked.

I went to the lab first period. I explained the project to the kids--what we were doing, why, and how. That all went relatively well. I was having the students write their responses in Word originally. The idea was that, since the question was multi-part, they would be able to save as they went, just in case.

I walked the students through setting up google accounts using mailinator so that their names were recognizable for the teacher. There were a few bumps, but nothing I didn't expect.

And then, about five minutes after letting the students start, many started complaining that they couldn't post. Upon closer inspection I saw that even though the blog had been unblocked, the students were still blocked from posting comments. It was not something I had even considered.

I quickly shifted the plan. In order to have the students have accountability, I had to give them user names, and therefore passwords, for the wiki. I didn't do this in the best possible way. I had the kids come up one at a time to pick them.

By the end of class, all of the students had user names, but no time to sign in and post. School was canceled today, so the English teacher and I have yet to decide what to do as our next step.

The later classes went much more smoothly. I started the class by having students write down user name/password. I then sent them to the blog to begin working on their answers in Word. It took about five minutes to sign up all of the students. At that point, I stopped class, sent everyone to the wiki, and was able to trouble-shoot specific sign ins as they became issues. Everyone was able to post twice successfully.

I was a little disappointed to be using the wiki. Students were not able to reply directly to one another's comments, so they had to just put another student's name in their comment. However, this did address privacy issues.

My original thought, that students would not see the value, and would therefore do the bare minimum of two comments and not focus on engaging conversation, were right. I think, even had some been inclined to try for better conversation, the peer pressure would have probably prevented them from doing so. However, I am still inclined to think that, with continued exposure, positive feedback, interaction with the teacher, and access to resources, the students could start finding a project like this interesting.

PodCasting

Received an email this afternoon from an AP teacher interested in creating podcasts of lectures.

That gave me the push I needed to finally figure out how to convert an audacity file into an mp3. That was not nearly as daunting as I had anticipated. The needed file was already installed, so I didn't have to have the tech guy install it. Once I had located the file I was able to export as an mp3.

I then created a gcast account. I know there are other programs out there, but that is the one I am most familiar with, so it is the one I will be using. I found it to be very easy to use.

I now just need to find a time to meet with the teacher to go over how to use audacity and gcast, and to discuss whether to embed the podcast in a wiki or a blog.

Kite Runner Blog Project--set up

We've hammered out the last of the details to go with the Kite Runner blog project.

Unfortunately, I now have to make sure that at least the four blogs being used are unblocked by tomorrow. I had forgotten that students cannot access blogs. I find that fact frustrating, yet understandable (our current fair use policy is in the process of being re-written). I've come up with plan B and am working on a plan C. Hopefully neither is needed.

We hammered out the details of the initial project. Each student has to respond to the teacher and at least one other student. The question is a multi-parter, so the initial response has to be five sentences. "Additional discussion is encouraged."

I'm going to walk the kids through signing up with google. Then, I will remind them that all in school conduct/behavioral rules (including language and bullying) rules apply. Then I will remind them to post twice (using a mock entry that I will mock respond to). After that, I will strongly encourage students to write their response in Word (where it can be saved often). Then, I will direct them to the blog in question.

The English teacher has said she wants to have at least one more blog entry for this project. She's taking a wait and see approach before deciding if this is a two entry project, a once a week entry project, etc. We discussed having students blog in the lab again, or having them responsible for blogging within a given time frame.

I agree with her decision to not decide until she sees how tomorrow goes. I hope it goes well. I anticipate the mechanics going well, and I hope that the students are able to generate engaging discourse.

Reading Project--Day One

I got into the classroom with the reading project for the first time today. All in all I think things went really well.

As the teacher said, each of her classes has a very different personality.

The project, in my opinion, is really worthwhile. And that is largely because of the reflective element that the reading teacher based it off of.

Yesterday, the students did a pair reading. They listened to one another and gave each other feedback. Based on the feedback, they had to reflect on APE (the things you need to not sound like an ape when you read)--accuracy, pacing, and expression.

She wasn't entirely pleased with their reflections from yesterday. She revisited what directions they had been given and created a writing assignment for today. After the students recorded themselves, they had to listen to themselves at least twice. While listening, they had to read the article and find miscues and errors. Then, taking that information, they had to reflect on APE. She gave students specific directions. For each letter, they had to find two things they did well, two things that need improvement, and two ways they can work on improving them. They have to find specifics from their recordings.

This is of course in preparation for the next project where everyone will hear them read. This way they get a chance to hear themselves and a) realize how important it is to practice and b) figure out what they need to work on.

We didn't get as many kids recorded as I had hoped. However, that was largely do to some house keeping that needed to be taken care of. We'll still be able to finish most if not all of the recordings tomorrow. My biggest worried--the microphones picking up too much background noise from other kids reading--was not a large problem. Its low level buzz, but students can still make themselves out clearly on their own recordings.

I think the teacher is currently pleased with how the project is going. She also said that, especially now that it is started, she's very happy to have a second person.

I am anxious to see how much the students improve between the first round of recordings and the second. In other words, I'm anxious to see if the students are taking advantage of the reflection and learning from the work they do.

Kite Runner Blog Project

So excited, another project.

Before break, I had a teacher ask me a question about the online course I facilitate. While I was in her room helping her, we somehow got on the topic of blogging.

She didn't know what it was, exactly. So I explained it and showed her a few examples. Her kids were in the room, so I did a quick, informal survey of how many blogged or read blogs. Not many hands. But quite a few when I asked about myspace.

After so follow up conversation, she decided she wants to do a blog for the kids for their current book, The Kite Runner.

We're going to use blogger because it is what I'm most familiar with. I tried to encourage her to use a ning, but she really seemed more comfortable with blogger. That being the case, I didn't want to scare her off by pushing ning. So, we're going with blogger. That is probably easier all around since I'm more familiar with it. It also tells me I ought to set up a ning so teachers see that as a viable option in the future.

On Wednesday we'll be in the computer lab. I'm going to walk her kids through setting up a google account (most probably don't have one). The current plan is to have an initial start up question already on the blog so that the kids can start commenting right away.

The project has a fairly simple structure. She will maintain four blogs (one for each class). That is logistically easier for her to keep track of since the students will have a requirement for commenting at least x number of times per post. We also talked about having her participate in the discussions in the comments, and she seemed to like the idea. After all, a teacher doesn't start a conversation in class and then leave.

I asked her if the kids tend to interact with each othe in class discussions. They don't. She told me it is mostly her asking a question and then one student responding, and no one responding to that student. I'm hoping this project will create more dynamic discussions. I predict that at first, students will be annoyed with the posting requirements and try to get all two or three out of the way at the same time. But, since this will be an on-going assignment throughout the book, I'm hoping that the conversations will have a bit more back and forth as the book progresses. That will be most likely to happen with more engaging questions.

We haven't talked about assessing the project yet. I'm a fan of rubistar, though, and will most likely suggest that.

One of the other important parts of the project will be online citizenship. I don't think I'll use those words. I'll just point out to students that all school rules about language, conduct, bullying, etc., apply online. And, with the teacher involved in the discussion, she will most likely be able to redirect if things get too off topic.

Reading Project Update

I think working with the English teacher on the reading project is one of the easiest to manage. Because I share an office with her, it is really easy to find time to collaborate.

We made a few more tweaks to the project and have set down a timeline. To give the kids practice using cueprompter, she is giving them a pre-project reading. Every kid will have the same article, will have time in and out of class to practice reading out loud, and will be recorded with audacity. Then the kids will have to listen to their own recording and do a reflective activity. Basically, the teacher feels that the kids are unlikely to actually take her seriously when she tells them they won't do well if they don't practice. She wants them A) to have more than one out loud reading and B) listen to themselves with the first reading and realize they really are going to be embarrassed reading in front of the whole class if they don't practice. I thought it was a brilliant plan.

Also, this will help her determine about how long the final project articles ought to be. She wants the kids to read for a significant amount of time--3-5 minutes I think. But, she doesn't know how much they need to fill up that time. So, we're going to look at how long the recordings are and make length requirements for the articles based on that.

Instead of having kids loose on the internet looking up articles about vague, broad topics, we decided to confine them to four broad topics and point them in the direction of some resources. I created a very basic wiki with links to new sources and to sample articles. This way, the students have an idea of where to search, and the sample articles can give them a visual of about how long we want the articles to be.

I wanted to get the entire site set up for the teacher to see, so I did that yesterday. I let her know that I can swap out the articles easily. That way, if the ones I picked are too short/too long, we can fix that. Also, she can look through them and let me know if they are at an appropriate reading level. The students are allowed to use the samples, but I didn't go out of my way to find the most interesting articles (although some of them are pretty interesting.) That way, students are encouraged to find their own. Either way, students will have to read a few articles to find one that they want to read.

An Unexpected Project

I share my "office" with the reading and study skills teacher. She's not a CFF teacher, but I tend to share useful tools and articles with her all the time. And she will often tell me how classes went or what she's working on--thinking aloud while making lesson plans.

Just through conversation, we started talking about what to do after Christmas. She planned on having the students practice reading out loud. I tried to convince her to have them record themselves on audacity so they could hear what they sounded like. She was pretty wary of the logistical issues of trying to pull it off.

And then I found an online teleprompter, cueprompter. She thought it looked really neat, and I saw her typing things into it from time to time. She saw potential for it in her class.

And so we're going to do a project.

She's decided she wants to have the students read from the teleprompter, record themselves, listen to themselves, and look for miscues. I'm very excited.

And this really was a joint effort at creating the project. I got as far as read "something." That isn't nearly good enough. She decided that they are going to pretend to be news reporters--for news, sports, celebrity gossip, or anything they want. That is much more of a hook.

At first she was going to have the kids write their own script, but then decided, since the focus of the project is on reading, and time is an issue, she's going to have the kids look up a script. They do plenty of writing activities in class, so I think not using the writing aspect this year will not be a detriment to the project. Then, if it goes well and she wants to do it next year, she has to option of setting aside extra time so the students can write a script.

She's asked me to find resources for the students based on what type of news they want to do--she'll have them sign up for that in the next few days. I think I am going to suggest having them go to a related news site (e.g kids wanting to do a sports story will find an article on SI.com, kids interested in reporting on celebrity gossip can go to the entertainment section of cnn.com). That way, there is one more step in the reading. Students will have to read through the article and see if it is something they want to read (no one here will pick an article about how the Steelers will be out after the first playoff game) and if it is something they can read (someone doing the project without a partner shouldn't be reading an interview).

She also suggested that if we give the students the recording on a CD, many of them will be proud of their work and maybe even post it to youtube.

PLN

My current goal is to get my teachers--or at least some of them--involved in a PLN.

I would like to see my teachers using Twitter and/or Shout'em. Both are valuable communication and networking programs with different advantages. I'm not sure how many of my teachers would be willing to juggle two networks at the moment. And, if each teacher was only willing to use one, I'm not sure which would be the better choice.

I am personally a fan of Twitter because I find it to be a dynamic PLN. I have for some time been following blogs of other educational professionals and finding a plethora of information, resources, and ideas. However, I find that I'm more likely to contribute via Twitter. I'm more likely to post to my micro blog than comment on someone else's blog. Its simple and, I think, non threatening, even for the least tech savy. It's very user-friendly.

Another tool I have recently come across shout'em.com. It is similar to twitter in form and function, but it is a micro blog where an administrator (in this case me) can set up a private community. This tool would be useful in different ways than twitter. For one thing, it would be private, which might be more encouraging to some of the teachers. However, it would lack access to the huge pool of teachers on twitter.

On Twitter, teachers would likely find and talk with others who teach similar classes to create and share ideas. They would be able to find resources and share what they know. On Shout'em, they would be in a community with other teachers within the school that they know and see on a daily basis. By being able to see and read all of the communication--from science, social studies, math, and English teachers--they could start conversations, that might take place online or offline. By creating a community in which all of the teachers could communicate in a forum, as frequently or infrequently as they want, teachers who are eager to create 21st Century classrooms could inspire and learn from one another, and teachers who are slower to move forward could sit back, read what others are doing, and come into it at their own pace.

I would like to see the teachers use both, but I know that for some (perhaps many) that might seem too overwhelming. I would like to present both as options for all, and help anyone interested set up one or both.