Getting Tech to the Classroom

Business Plan Project--Day Three

2009-05-27T12:49:00.004-04:00

I'm a bit behind in blogging.

Friday was the last day of the Business Plan project.

As had become very predictable on Thursday (and even to some extent on Wednesday) almost every group needed a turn on the camera.

It wasn't as bad as I had originally predicted. There were some definite conflicts, with students having nothing to do but wait while another group used the camera. I hope that some of those students made the connection that, if they had done the requirements of the project in a different order, they could have been recording on an earlier day instead of sitting around idle, waiting on a camera, and worrying about failing the project.

The largest disappointment was that hardly any students actually edited the video. One group, that had taken the initiative to stay after school and record on Thursday, was able to edit. They added some color filters, a title, and some scrolling credits. And, they were able to edit out mistakes. I was very proud of this group. But I was very disappointed that out of five classes, only one group accomplished this.

A few students with access to equipment, or who had stayed after, were completely finished at the beginning or part way through class. This was a great convenience for me, because I was able to use them as assistants to help classmates with the camera and the software. It was a shame though, that they were able to help with very little editing since no one was editing.

Most of the students did the best they could in a single take, and saved that as a movie.

I think I would approach this project slightly differently in the future. Part of the point was the put some responsibility on the students. And, from what the teacher said, this is not the first long term out of class project in which most of the students put everything off until the last few days of in class time. I think, if it were my class, I might take a page from one of the Science teacher's books. During the creek project, the science teacher left the students to do the large project outside of class time. However, about half way through, she had a check up day where all of the students had to prove some sort of progress.

These are freshman students. I am a firm believer in teaching responsibility by placing responsibility on students. I think, in my own classroom, I might take a half way approach between the Science teacher and the Social Studies teacher. In earlier long term projects, I would have check up points, either half way through or even more frequently, when students had to turn in proof of progress for a grade. As the year progressed, I would continue providing students with time lines, but have fewer check ups. This would hopefully at least give students another tool for organizing their project and managing their time, while placing gradually more responsibility on the students without the incentive of "points."

Business Plan Project--Day Two

2009-05-26T07:30:00.003-04:00

Day two of the project was very similar to day one. Out of five classes I think only two groups filmed anything. That does not bode very well for everyone finishing by the end of day three.

After day one, I was a little surprised at how little progress some students seemed to have made. I was under the impression that they had had class time on Monday to get started, and yet it seemed that a large number of groups were just starting on the background work on Wednesday when I joined the class. I was beginning to think there must have been some other part to this project that they had already done that had taken up the class time on Monday.

I asked the teacher about this because I wanted to know about any other parts of the project. It would make for a more complete blog, and probably give me ideas to help out other teachers. I was very surprised by his answer.

All the students have to do is what I was already aware of: decide what type of company they are running, name it, give it a slogan and a logo, research start up and recurring costs, write up a summary and proposal of what the business, costs, and profits are, create a floor plan, and create promotional materials including a commercial.

But, they have had a month.

The only class time they had was Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. But they have had a month. Last year, with the same project, the teacher said some student were turning in complete projects a week after it was assigned. This year, no students worked on it at all outside of class, and therefore had nothing done at all before they were given class time. Presumably, students were still debating on types of companies and names for a large part of class on Monday. They had not even done that much outside of school. The teacher attributes the change to just the overall differences of his students between last year and this year. Last years students were a bit more motivated to take initiative and work outside of class. This years students rely more heavily on having in class time.

I have a better understanding now of why he is sticking so strictly to the due date. The students could have borrowed the camera and started on the video at any time prior to this week. The students could have even more easily accomplished a lot of the other aspects of the projects and had all this week to create and edit videos. Instead, they are all trying to cram what is essentially a month long project into four days.

A lot of the business plans are actually very interesting, so it is a shame that there was so much put off to the last minute.

Mostly in class today I was helping students with programs other than Movie Maker. I helped out with a lot of Word and Excel questions.

Another lesson in this project is the very authentic and very real world concept of time management, which is something I tried very hard all day to reinforce. Students have a limited amount of time in which to accomplish several tasks. They can work over the weekend, but they will not have video equipment and they may not be able to easily meet in person. I was trying very hard all day to convince groups to work on some of the other parts of the project--figuring that researching costs and drawing floor plans can easily be done from home and easily collaborated on over the internet--and work on the video in class. I was not at all successful.

Possible project--Science Presentations

2009-05-26T07:25:00.003-04:00

While working with the Social Studies teacher on his Business Plan project, I got an email from one of the Science teachers. She was having blue tooth issues--which is unfortunately not something I'm that good at helping with.

While I was trouble shooting, we got to talking. Her students are currently working on presentations for infectious diseases. She wanted to be able to video tape all of the students and put each presentation on a CD. While we were talking, we started throwing around ideas, and got to the idea of allowing the students to edit their presentation videos in Movie Maker. That way, they could edit out long pauses or such.

I told her I was doing something similar with the Social Studies teacher, and invited her to stop down and check out how things were going if she had time. I also said that I would try to estimate, based on that project, how long she would want to give her students for editing.

She seems to like the idea. It gives another dimension to the project, and it gives the kids a chance to basically give themselves a second chance if their presentations don't go off perfectly.

Business Plan Project--Day One

2009-05-21T14:41:00.000-04:00

On Tuesday, we had a district wide inservice day.

I had a great opportunity to present to the fifth grade teachers. By the end of the year, each fifth grade classroom in the district will be equiped with a Promethean board and ActiveStudio.

I downloaded a good presentation from promethean planet that showcased how teachers can use ActiveStudio to create a better learning environment by making lessons interactive, adding some pop to the normal, using the board to improve classroom management, and doing neat and unexpected things. After that, I went through the basic tools on the tool bar and the power tools.

I only had 45 minutes to present (and might have gone over by about 15, actually). On one level, I was really excited, because that is the longest space I've been given to officially present ActiveStudio to any teachers. At the same time, I was a bit worried. No teachers had laptops, and I was not able to give any time for processing or practicing. I know that some of the teachers were very overwhelmed by the presentation. It was a lot of information to squeeze into just 60 minutes.

I was a little disappointed to reflect that, even though this presentation went well and was a great opportunity, I have not been able to give this level of training to the high school teachers I am supposed to be supporting. The longest I have been given for any training on ActiveStudio at the high school has been twenty minutes. I've had a few one on one opportunities to go through some of the functions, but that is generally on a teacher's planning period, where they can't really give me the full 45 minutes.

I'm hoping that the fifth grade teachers will provide positive feedback about the training. If the fifth grade teachers do more to use the boards effectively in the classroom, it will hopefully send a message that this type of training, and more, is needed even at the high school level.

I gave all of my contact information to the fifth grade teachers, and hope to hear back from some of them. Most of them do not have the program installed yet, and therefore are not needing an support for technical or integration issues. I'm planning on sending out a follow up email in the next few days, though. It is important to stay in touch with teachers, especially those who might feel that, because I am supposed to work at the high school, their questions are a bother to me.

I think that this was one of the most important professional development opportunities I have had so far at my school. Hopefully progress will come from it.

Presentation to 5th Grade teachers

2009-05-21T14:38:00.003-04:00

On Tuesday, we had a district wide in-service day.

I had a great opportunity to present to the fifth grade teachers. By the end of the year, each fifth grade classroom in the district will be equipped with a Promethean board and ActiveStudio.

I downloaded a good presentation from Promethean planet that showcased how teachers can use ActiveStudio to create a better learning environment by making lessons interactive, adding some pop to the normal, using the board to improve classroom management, and doing neat and unexpected things. After that, I went through the basic tools on the tool bar and the power tools.

I only had 45 minutes to present (and might have gone over by about 15, actually). On one level, I was really excited, because that is the longest space I've been given to officially present ActiveStudio to any teachers. At the same time, I was a bit worried. No teachers had laptops, and I was not able to give any time for processing or practicing. I know that some of the teachers were very overwhelmed by the presentation. It was a lot of information to squeeze into just 60 minutes.

I was a little disappointed to reflect that, even though this presentation went well and was a great opportunity, I have not been able to give this level of training to the high school teachers I am supposed to be supporting. The longest I have been given for any training on ActiveStudio at the high school has been twenty minutes. I've had a few one on one opportunities to go through some of the functions, but that is generally on a teacher's planning period, where they can't really give me the full 45 minutes.

I'm hoping that the fifth grade teachers will provide positive feedback about the training. If the fifth grade teachers do more to use the boards effectively in the classroom, it will hopefully send a message that this type of training, and more, is needed even at the high school level.

I gave all of my contact information to the fifth grade teachers, and hope to hear back from some of them. Most of them do not have the program installed yet, and therefore are not needing an support for technical or integration issues. I'm planning on sending out a follow up email in the next few days, though. It is important to stay in touch with teachers, especially those who might feel that, because I am supposed to work at the high school, their questions are a bother to me.

I think that this was one of the most important professional development opportunities I have had so far at my school. Hopefully progress will come from it.

PD for Social Studies.

2009-05-21T10:13:00.006-04:00

One of the biggest challenges I have faced as a CFF coach has been a general lack of time for professional development.

Last Friday I was able to act somewhat proactively and find time with some of my teachers.

There was a scheduled in-service day on Friday. The, because of a quirk in the schedule, it was closely followed by a second in-service day the following Tuesday. I heard through the grape vine that because of this, the first day had a large amount of time allotted to department meetings. My school does not have regular department meetings, so I rarely have the opportunity to speak to a large group at once.

Taking some initiative, I sent out an email to all of the department chairs, offering to give some professional development--on any topic or program, for any length of time. I figured that being flexible would make the offer more attractive. If a department head only had fifteen minutes to fill, and was afraid I was asking for an hour, it would have been a missed chance.

I heard back from both the Math and the Social Studies departments. Math later had to cancel because they had to focus more on curriculum, and, as the department chair told me, they had a rare, engaging, and productive dialogue going on.

Social Studies offered me a two hour block in which to present whatever I wanted.

I had to sit down and give this some thought. I wanted to present something useful, and something fun that would grab their attention and help them see me as someone who can help enliven the classroom and not just someone who drone on and on about technical issues. I decided to go with Photo Story and xtranormal, and to end with a demonstration of the new ActiveInspire software that we are hopefully adding to the computer images over the summer.

Photo Story did not go well. I had originally anticipated having about a half dozen high school teachers with teacher CFF laptops. I knew that about half had Photo Story and about half did not. That was a decent mix, because I was planning on having teachers work in pairs to create a short story. I gathered pictures for me to use to make a presentation while demonstrating, and another set of pictures for them to use to make their own. That way, I we could save time but not having teachers have to search for pictures. Unfortunately, my plans were for nought. When i arrived, there were about a dozen teachers, from the middle school and the high school, and two of the teacher with Photo Story were not able to attend. So, almost everyone needed to use a student laptop, but those had been recently re-imaged and no longer had Photo Story. I did a very quick presentation, that even I knew was getting dull and boring, because no one could follow along. All they could do was watch. I kept it to about ten minutes, and showed just the very basic buttons. I also showed parts of two student generated Photo Stories as examples of what students can create in a limited time. The examples were by far the best part of the presentation, and I was glad I had thought to bring them.

I very quickly moved on to xtranormal. This was a program I chose because I knew most of the computers had updated flash, so most of the computers could run the program. Also, I know that it is always a big hit. It is fun, easy to use, and most educators can envision ways for either themselves or their students to use it in the classroom. About half the computers did not have the latest flash, so mostly everyone worked with a partner, but even that went well.

I started by showing a demo video I had made. In it, a British Ninja and an Australian judge discuss how easy xtranormal is to use. I then pointing everyone to the website and had them sign up. I then walked them through selecting characters, voices, and a setting. As a group, we came up with a few lines of dialogue. I demonstrated switching between characters, adding camera angles, and adding actions. As I was doing this, everyone was able to follow along and add their own actions, angles, and lines.

When I finished the short demo, I gave an assignment. Each group had to create a movie with at least six lines, two actions, two camera angles, and, for "extra credit" two looks at the cameras, two facial expressions, and one point.

It went well. Everyone completed a movie. I don't know if everyone met every requirement, though. I really only used those as guides to encourage exploration and creativity.

And most importantly, they had fun doing it. Everyone was laughing, and sharing their movies as they worked. And they were talking about making movies for their classes, or having students do them. All in all it was a great success.

I then demonstrated tinyurl as a way to easily get a link to everyone's finished video to share with the group.

In the end, we didn't have time for the ActiveInspire demo. But I think that this was time well spent. Several teachers were exposed to a tool they didn't know they had. Several were inspired to see how easy some technology is. And, I hope, a few saw the value of working with me to show them these tools so they can use them to reach their classroom goals.

Business Plan Project

2009-05-20T14:50:00.004-04:00

I started working with one of the Social Studies teachers last week on a video project. It was part of a larger project that, at the beginning, I didn't know much about.

The larger project was for students to create a business plan. The video part of the project is for students to create a commercial.

I began by going back and getting a better handle on movie maker. I haven't looked at it in a very long time, and I've never really used it. I felt it was my first duty to know the program in question. I took an afternoon to look at the connections, how to transfer files, what the file types were, and how to work with the video. It was pretty easy.

I next managed to find a few minutes with the teacher to go over how the program works. He didn't seem to think it was too difficult, either.

I then created a set of directions for students. I ran them by the teacher, and made a few changes. We then started talking about turning the projects in. In the past, the teacher had not known anything about video editing. Students had just had to rewind and re-shoot any mistakes. Then, the teacher simply uploaded all of the videos to his own computer. He wanted the directions to include saving to his computer, but I pointed out that that would mean having each group use his computer to edit. That would have been a large logistical nightmare.

In the end, we decided to contact the tech department and set up a teacher workspace folder for him. This is a folder that all students and the teacher can access. In this way, it pretty much fills the function of a drop box. There is less security, but I don't think most students would think of it that way. I had the teacher go through and set up a folder for each class under his workspace folder.

Now, each group will be able to record their video, edit out any mistakes without hogging the camera, edit it on their own computer, and share it with the teacher easily.

One of the important aspects about being a coach, in my opinion, is having the experience and the mind set, to be able to foresee issues, and see a way around them.

Creek Connections Symposium

2009-05-20T14:36:00.004-04:00

I haven't been able to blog for a good long while.

A few weeks back, I went with the Science teacher to the Creek Connections Symposium. This was the culmination of the Creek Project the students have been working on.

The best projects--the ones that did the best job of asking and answering a question relating to fresh water in Western Pennsylvania--were invited to attend. The Science teacher made an observation that was a little disheartening. She mostly invited students that had done computer based projects. Of those who were invited that did not use a computer, none chose to attend. That was a little bit upsetting.

It could have simply been a matter of coincidence. Many students who were invited could not attend because of conflicting schedule (specifically a track meet that day). And, many of the students who did not use computers were more unwilling to make the suggested corrections that they needed to actually attend.

The symposium itself was a great experience. Our students, as freshmen, were amongst the oldest there. There were quite a few "billboard" projects on display. Not many of our students had turned in projects that did nothing more than list facts because of repeated warnings not to, and because of the frequent check up the teacher did to keep them on track.

There were a few excellent and interactive projects, too.

We were the only school that had any technology at all. That did not make us a better school, nor did it make our projects better. I think we were an impressive school. We were also a resource heavy school and had barely enough outlets to run all of the laptops.

I think we were also a brave school. Because of having the computers, I opted out of one of the afternoon activities to pack up and generally keep an eye on things. This was the first time we had been allowed to take the laptops out of school, and I was very invested in making sure things went well.

I did have a chance to do one of the afternoon hands on sessions. These were a series of workshops held by environmental and other science majors of the sponsoring college. It was a great way to make learning more fun. The sessions were hands on, interactive, and, best of all, outside.

Things overall went very well. Our students were well behaved, and may have taken something away from the symposium. Hopefully, they took away that a) hard work has its rewards and b) creating a more interesting project will make it more likely to generate that authentic audience that makes it all worth while.

Foreign Language Department Meeting

2009-03-27T13:32:00.003-04:00

About an hour before the department meeting with Foreign Language, I was in a bit of a panic. The entire network was down. Suddenly, with no reason (and no later explanation since, and I'm writing this about three days after the fact) there was simply no internet.

That was problematic since I was intending to show the teachers some tools and then discuss how they might be used for instructions.

Fortunately, about fifteen minutes before the meeting, the network just as suddenly and mysteriously decided to function again.

The meeting went relatively well. In prep, I had added a page for foreign language to my wiki. I mostly used tools I was already aware of that I felt had foreign language applications. I showed the teachers my wiki, and the list of tools I thought would be of use.

I was hoping to discuss more curriculum and/or standards. But, as is often the case with tech enthused teachers, they were very focused on the tools. Even so, while looking at the various tools, they did talk about HOW they could use them. They talked about how they could replace something less functional that they already used. They talked about specific lessons where these tools would engage students. At first, I was starting these conversations, but by the end of the meeting, I was just sitting back and listening to them.

I think this meeting was a very good start. I showed them voice thread, voki, audacity, and wordle.

Audacity was probably the least favorite, because it looks intimidating. They liked voice thread, but are a little wary of having to pay for the edu version, or of risking students stumbling across inappropriate content or comments. Also, I think trying to use the mouse to annotate images was frustrating for them. Voki was by far the favorite. The teachers were able to quickly figure it out, and saw the potential for having students be very engaged by it. They liked audacity for the idea of having students listen to themselves speaking a foreign language, but liked voki better. Students could still listen to themselves, and re-record as many times as they like. And, students could still share work with one another. But, the interface is more engaging (a talking cat is just better to look at than a big grey box) and less intimidating. The time limit of 60 seconds is also not likely to be an issues. And, as time moves on and the teachers become more comfortable with some technologies, they might be more willing to give audacity another try. I'm of the opinion that in the meantime I should look for something similar that scares people less.

They also had a chance for a better intro to the student laptops. Because they do not have teacher laptops, I decided to bring student laptops to the meeting so that everyone could have a computer. It did make trying to keep everyone on the same page a challenge. One teacher had an exceptionally hard time with the red mouse button. and, the teacher whose room we used wanted to sit at her desk, so it was harder for me to notice if she had missed something.

This was an intro--to the computers, to using technology, and to working with me--and as an intro it went very well. I think that I will have opportunities to collaborate with the foreign language department in the future.

Creek Project--Update Three

2009-03-27T12:25:00.003-04:00

This post is going up very late. I haven't had a lot of time to get to it.

Monday was the first day of presenting projects for the Creek Project. The Biology Teacher and I weren't 100% sure what to expect. The projects today were all from her honors students.

There were some very well done ones. One student recreated a salamander habitat (using craft store eyes as eggs). It was not the most engaging presentation, because the information was put on posters around the scene, but it was visually appealing. And, based on the info, it was clear that the students had learned something about the salamanders.

Students did infuse technology into their projects. One group wrote an original song. The execution was not great--the audio was poor quality (fortunately they provided a lyrics sheet for listeners to read along), and their refrain was a bit long. But, they lyrics showed a good understanding of their question, and the animations that went with it were an engaging mix of scientific and funny. One group did their project in the form of an episode of "House." In it, a fix owner brings in a fish that was harmed by pollutants in the creek, and Dr. House has to diagnose what the pollutants were, based on the fish's symptoms, in order to create a treatment to save the fish. The teacher eventually had to ask for their script because some parts the audio was good, and others it was bad. Another group did a series of sketches with a "water safetey lass" (basically a friendly eco cop) explaining to different people in different scenarios how what they were doing was having a negative effect on creek water.

One of the big concerns was the Photo Story projects. A lot of these students had done Photo Stories for the Helen Keller 3 Days of Sight project. So, feeling comfortable with that program, used it again. However, with laptops were reimaged, and Photo Story was removed. Fortunately, the students were easily able to access non-reimaged laptops to use. However, some of them did not remember the step to convert from a Photo Story to a WMV file. It was easy enough to deal with because the teacher still had Photo Story and I was able to help students convert during the period. I am more concerned because I would like to see student retaining more of the tech skills I am trying to impart. That being said, I did see improved file management.

Another concern was that some of the projects got more caught up in trying to be impressive or interactive, and strayed from the overall idea of teaching something and answering a question. Several of the games did a good job of testing knowledge but a poor job of presenting that knowledge ahead of time. Other projects simply presented research, with no context of an overall question.

We had discussed the idea previously, and came back to it again. The Biology teacher and I both felt that, if the students had been given more structure--been responsible for first coming up with a question, and then doing research, and then being introduced to the idea of being able to display their research/learning in a way of their choosing--more of the projects would have retained focus.

It was encouraging, though, to see students being creative. A lot of them used programs that they were not formally introduced to in school. Others used programs that we had taught them, but were able to discover and use some of the more advanced functions. And, so students who did not use a lot of technology did some very creative low tech things. Next year, going about this project in a more structured way, and still allowing for that creativity, will create even better results.

Foreign Language Dept

2009-03-11T18:19:00.004-04:00

I finally had a meeting with the non CFF teachers today. I had been unsure if this was going to happen, but, as they are now allowed to use the laptop carts, I strongly felt it was needed.

I wasn't sure what to expect. I had a larger turnout than I'd anticipated. I was on my own--no one from admin or the tech department was able to make the meeting. Still, things went really well. I almost forgot to print a meeting agenda, but I managed to pull one together about fifteen minutes before the meeting, and I had a cart to demonstrate with. I didn't have access to the internet, which meant I wasn't able to show any of the image files I wanted (I couldn't log onto the computer because it was not connected to the network, and I don't have a local logon for the room I was using).

When I took questions at the end of the meeting, I got a lot from the two Foreign Language teachers. Since the work day was over, I eventually thanked everyone for coming and asked the FL teachers if they wanted to stick around and go over some things (I also wanted to lock the laptop cart up before its storage room was locked for the night).

They are very eager to use the laptops. Their first thought was using the laptops to access their online text books. Previously, they had had to have students do this as homework, and even that was not an ideal situation since some students did not have access to the internet. As we talked, we discussed using the laptops with headphones for listening activities. I mentioned the Audacity activity I had done for reading fluency, and they liked the idea of doing something similar. We also talked about having students make and record vokis and use muchobeets flashcards. I hope to also bring up the idea of collaborating or communicating with native speakers. This will be more difficult without student emails, but doable with tools such as blogs, wikis, nings, skype, etc.

One of the teachers I was talking to was the dept. chair. At one point, she said she wanted to share and talk about some of these ideas with other teachers in her department, and I told her that, if she wanted to have a dept. meeting, I would be more than happy to come and talk with them.

I'm glad that, even though foreign language wasn't included in CFF at my school at the beginning, I will have the chance to work with them now. I'm really looking forward to it.

White Board in the English Classroom--Peer Review

2009-03-11T14:08:00.002-04:00

I met with one of the English teachers to work on ActivStudio today.

I learn a lot from the questions that teachers ask me. I don't always anticipate the questions, problems, or misconceptions that people have. But, I do know that a lot of them are shared.

She asked if, in order to project a Word document, she had to convert it to a flip chart file.

Again, I'm better at showing than telling. So, we turned on her projector, and I showed her how everything on the computer gets projected. That part she had already figured out, and so I realized that she wanted to know about writing on the Word document. So, like I did with the Calculus teacher, I showed her the options of using the Desktop Annotation tool, and the Word Marker tool. As I anticipated, the Marker tool met her needs better--she wanted to be able to project a student paper, and peer review it with the class while marking up suggestions and corrections. (I find it a little easier to work with Social Studies and English teachers on the White Boards because I can anticipate what they really want a little better than Science and Math.)

After that, she asked about scanning documents. This was not as easy a question to answer. She had practice PSSA essays that she wants to peer review. I think it's a great idea. However, they are in pencil. Only the freshman teachers have scanners, but we were able to use one of those. The pencil essays were very light, and took awhile to scan. We only had time to practice with one. Later, we projected the one scan on the board, and it was very hard to read from the back of the room.

The teacher is eager to use the whiteboard, because her students are eager, too. And, she doesn't like wasting paper. She really wants to do this peer review project on the board on Friday. Unfortunately, I won't even be around to help her scan, because I'll be at a training tomorrow. After some conversation, she decided to take some of the papers home and scan them there (I gave her some tricks for darkening the text), and if that doesn't work, she'll do printouts as a back up.

I hope that this activity works. Its encouraging to see teachers eager to use the technology, and success will only encourage them more.

CFF teacher Meeting

2009-03-11T13:51:00.003-04:00

Over the past two days, I have met with the new CFF teachers.

Meeting with CFF teachers can actually be a trick at my school. Unfortunately, just because of the way we set up the program, it isn't really all that possible to bring in subs to cover classes. And, because of time issues, there's really only a 30 minute (20 minute after waiting for students to get out of the halls and teachers to pack up for the day) window after school when all teachers must be in the building. I've tried making meetings before school, but a lot of teachers don't have time--they don't show up on time, or they have to prep for the days classes. And, we can't make teachers stay any later--even offering to allow them to leave early the following day isn't much of an incentive for most. And, most of the time, meetings can't be mandatory--I don't have that authority.

So, after a great deal of emailing, my principal finally did make a mandatory CFF meeting for new CFF teachers. I didn't get exactly what I wanted--a meeting for all teachers, CFF and non, new and old--but life is about compromise.

The meetings were identical, but divided into two groups to make sure that a) everyone had a chance to attend and b) keep attendance small (this was when I was still expecting more teachers) so that the Tech Director and I could answer questions without them getting out of hand.

The agenda was simple: real basic intro to your laptops, whiteboards, and projectors. Laptops came first. The basic rules were, know where your cart is housed (up to six teachers are now sharing each cart, and each cart has a permanent home) keep the carts plugged in, make sure students remove and replace laptops carefully and plug them in, and report tech issue to the tech department, not the person keeping the cart. I of course also emphasized that there was to be no eating or drinking while students used the computers. The whiteboard/projector intro was equally basic: how to turn it on, open ActivStudio, plug in all the wires, shut it down, flip between computer and video. The Tech Director also emphasized not turning the projectors on and off too frequently to lengthen the life of the bulb.

So all that was lacking was...any sort of mention of integration. Again, compromise. I'd been hoping to have a longer meeting (or two--one for laptops, and one for projectors). But in a school, time is not something easily come by.

I've created a sort of sign up sheet for my teachers. In some ways, I think one on one instruction/conversation about HOW to use the technology--not just how to make it function, but how to integrate it and make it meaningful--is going to work better than large group instruction. To that end, I created and shared a google doc with all of the teachers, so they can sign up for when they want to meet with me.

I probably could have done better, and maybe even thought the entire process through a little more. Since I won't have a chance to meet with teachers face to face to introduce google docs and walk them through the set up, I emailed them directions on how to set up a google account and access the shared document. Then, all they had to do was type their name into the cell on the chart for the day/period that they wanted to meet with me. It seemed simple.

But, I forgot about the verification email that google sent out. Its sometimes hard to remember these things, when I signed up for this or that program so long ago. The verification email from google had a list of links to google apps that teachers now have access to. That tripped some up. I sent out another email that had the original link to my shared document, hoping that that would be enough to keep frustration levels low, but I fear that teachers just don't have time to be patient with a mistake like that.

For now, I'm hoping that, if I wait til Monday, and send out another email with all the directions (better directions that explain that the links in the verification email will not lead to my document) teachers will forgive and forget.

Even with the sign up issues, I've still had the chance to work with three teachers one on one so far. Working one on one allows me to go at their pace, address their questions, and gives each teacher time to use the equipment--instead of doing a one size fits all group training.

And, even though I had trouble getting folks to sign up for google docs, one of the "cart keepers" decided to create a google docs sign out sheet. I swung by to help her set it up and share it. Most of my advice revolved around giving clear instructions on how the set up process worked. I hope that she has better luck than me.

Creek Project--Update Two

2009-03-06T12:58:00.005-05:00

I visited the Biology Class again today. The teacher was introducing the Creek Project to the non-honors students.

With the honors students, kids were introduced to the project, given ideas of what to do for the project, and then allowed to start research and planning, all on the same day. As a result, as we discussed, a lot of students were skimping on the research in favor of coming up with "great" ideas.

For the non-honors, the students were assigned to come up with a questions and do research on it in class. Then, today, after two and a half days of research, they were introduced to the project. The teacher and I went through some of the possibilities--dressing up in character to teach about your topic, creating a game, creating a Photo Story, creating a web site. Like the honors classes, these students will also be allowed to come up with their own project if they get it approved. A lot of these kids also just did the Photo Story in their English class, so this could be a chance for them to shine, by using a program they already know, and being able to make it better from having had practice (and now more time). I also showed them how to link between pages of a ppt, so that they can make clickable interactive games/presentations. Several students also decided to make wiki websites, since they already know how to use wikis from the cell "my space" pages earlier in the year.

On the back of their directions sheet was a worksheet that had to be filled out by Monday--name of partner, topic, question (all of which had already been established prior to today) and how they are going to teach about it. She asked them to be detailed, and not just say "game" or "website." At the bottom was a calendar showing the midpoint date, when they had to present evidence of their progress, and the due date. I told her it was a really good idea. She said that she got the idea from me, when I commented that a lot of the honors students didn't take this seriously yet because they think they have more time than they do--the assignment was given in February, with all the due dates being in March, making it feel like nothing had to be done for "over a month." I fear I was only able to make this observation because my mind works in similar ways at time, and my first reaction to all of the due dates was "wow, they have a long time to do this." Because I'd pointed that out, she decided to give the non-honors class a very clear visual representation (calendar) of how much time they had. It made me feel useful. She's also thinking about putting up a daily count down for the honors kids. I don't think that that's a bad idea at all.

Sight Project--Assessment Day Four

2009-03-06T12:23:00.005-05:00

Final day of this project.

It didn't take us long to finish up the grades. We had to watch two more movies that hadn't been played in class because the creators had been absent that day.

After finishing grading, we talked a little about doing the project next year. She wants to do it again, which made me happy. Then, because its a real possibility, I asked her if the grant ran out and there was no coach next year, if she'd still do it again. She thought for a minute, but said she would. She decided the program is easy enough that she could guide kids through it, and, even though grading by herself might take longer, she could get it done. After all, next year she'd have a rubric ready to go at the beginning, and a better idea of what to expect.

I told her how much I liked the idea of having the kids offer feedback. I don' think enough teachers do that, and I know I didn't do it enough in the classroom.

One of the ideas that they shared with CFF coaches at boot camp was the idea that conversations can lead to being able to work with teachers. And here was the progress of that. While talking with her about the feedback, I remembered, and commented on her really unresponsive 7th period class. And we talked about how it was a problem, because without feedback, she wouldn't necessarily know where to go or what the class needed. And, you could never be sure if it was a matter of kids not wanting to talk, kids being shy about talking in front of the class, kids not getting it, or kids just being lazy. So I suggested a blogging project--where kids could think out and write out their answers before sharing.

She seemed to like the idea and asked how it would work. So, I told her about the other "blog" projects I'd done. I gave her the example of the Social Studies teacher who had the kids blog outside of class, and the English teacher who blogged in class (and I was honest about how horribly that went) and the other English teacher who blogged in class and assigned kids to respond to comments by other students. She seemed to like that there were a lot of ways to go with it.

She then said there were going to be starting Greek Myths soon, and she wanted to have them do something with writing their own "journey" story. I was tempted to say they could do a Photo Story, but decided she might be ready to be done with Photo Story for a least a little while. Instead, I suggested doing something like the 1001 Flat World Tales. Then, the students could work with a partner, write their story, have a partner leave comments for editing suggestions, read and make comments on their partners' stories, and edit.

She seemed to like both ideas. And, she really liked that I could offer to show her examples of each.

Sight Project--Assessment Day Three

2009-03-06T12:16:00.003-05:00

After viewing all of the remaining photo stories in a straight run of three classes, the English teacher called it a day.

So, we reconvened the next morning to compare our notes/rubric scores for the kids. It started going a bit faster after awhile. No more looking back to see what a certain commented had translated to grade wise on another paper--we could just remember. The same comments seemed to pop up on a majority of papers. Words like "why" and "speak up" and "don't read your captions."

I think some of my suggestions will get implemented next year. She definitely plans to start the photo/image gathering at the beginning of the play. And, I think she's thinking about having it be about what students would show Helen Keller--especially since some students had commented that they did not really see a connection between this project and "the Miracle Worker."

It was fairly tedious task, but we got most of the projects finished. We stopped with about twenty left when we ran out of rubrics.

White Board on Observation Day

2009-03-06T08:18:00.007-05:00

One of the English teachers is being observed today. I haven't worked with her a lot, but I have had the chance to chat with her from time to time. She tends to have a lot of connection issues with her blue tooth (I am so glad that the new boards aren't blue tooth).

Yesterday, she came down to my room. She said she wanted to use the white board for the lesson she was being observed during. She wanted to project a worksheet in word and fill it in. She wanted to know the best way to do it. I'm a fan of showing rather than telling with technology, mostly because I'm not sure I tell all that well (never sure what level of terminology is going to offend or confuse, and easily travel into tangents). Besides, showing gives the learner a chance to try it for themselves right away, which helps them remember. If they don't try it until they go back to their room, they are more likely to forget, and a lot of egos won't let abide by having the same thing explained again. So, we went back to her room.

The first problem, of course, was getting the entire word document to show at once. Fortunately, I'd just figured out where that button was in Word 2007. So, I explained where to click while she did it. I did the same thing to show her how to get ActivStudio to allow her to annotate over the desktop. This seemed a better option than using the Word Marker because she didn't want to save the annotations, and, with this being an observation, I didn't want her to have to deal with the same difficulties as the Calc teacher did--learning to wait for the program to scan the annotation, and having to remember to switch back to the marker.

After walking her through it, I closed everything down and had her try again without my help. I sometimes worry that teachers might feel that this is a bit condescending, but I find it effective. I set them up for success and let them succeed. If they can't get it without help, we start over. I try to not go too many steps without a pause for practice--that isn't going to help "set them up for success." I think that's a bit difficult for someone used to searching for the button that seems to make sense and just trying it. I can get ahead of myself if I'm not careful--and that is only going to confuse and frustrate the teachers. So I try to limit it to four or five mouse clicks in a row, then practice.

So, after getting it right, I left and let the teacher practice on her own. I promised that I would swing by right before the observation and make sure she still remembered everything and see if she needed anything else. And, I assured her, that if I was there observing, too "just in case" it wouldn't seem out of place to the Principal--the coach is supposed to observe.

This morning, about an hour before I was due to visit her, the English teacher showed up in my room with another question. She said that she had everything down, but wanted to know if there was a way to have students fill out the same form, one group at a time. I think I'm also better with being shown than told. I've found (and this is going back to when I worked at the help desk in grad school) that people who are having problems with technology don't always explain it in a way that I follow, and sometimes miss details. So, to avoid frustration on both ends, I've taken to the habit of cutting to the chase and asking them to show me, before I start trying to fix the wrong problem.

So we went back to her room. What she wanted was to put up the desktop annotation screen, write on it, minimize it, bring up a new blank one, and have the students write on it, minimize it, bring up another one, and have a different group write on it. Ok. Not a question I was actually able to answer right away. So I tried it with minimizing. Didn't seem to work--when I tried to start a new one, it just brought the minimized one back up. So, I went with save, close, open a new one. That seemed to be exactly what she had in mind.

I offered again to hang around. She decided she was nervous enough with one person observing. So, I told her I'd make sure to hang around my office and, should she need me, to just send a kid. I'll catch up with her after the observation and see how it went.

Sight Project--Assessment Day Two

2009-03-06T07:14:00.006-05:00

Day two went a little more smoothly for me at least.

I checked in with the teacher at the beginning of the day, and she hadn't been happy with any of the grids she'd typed up, even though we had the rubric more or less finished. I offered to type it up for her and make copies. We then used the new grid to revisit our notes from watching the videos.

It was slow going at first, with a lot of second guessing. The teacher was unhappy that the students hadn't had a rubric to begin with. It was a big problem. It wasn't an oversight--we both knew at the beginning that not having a rubric was not a good idea--so much as planning/logistic/experience issue. In the end, we decided to grade the projects according to the rubric, and then give a 2% curve.

As far as the experience issue here, I think it would be good for both the teacher and the students to have experience. Of course, experience with projects, not just the same project multiple years, will help the teacher feel more confident in making a rubric ahead of time, and give her a better idea of what to look for. And, it will give the students more time to get better with the tech so that the tech is not detracting from the skills and content of the class. And it will help them to know how they are going to be graded--not just because they'll have a rubric, but they will be used to having this teacher grade them with similar rubrics (and used to having their classmates as an audience).

After getting through most of the already viewed stories, I decided to bring up some of the ideas that I'd had. For some reason I'm always nervous about that part of working with teachers. I don't want them to feel that I'm being pushy, or criticizing. And I don't want to step on toes.

I started by suggesting she introduce the background work for the project sooner--have students collecting pictures for the length of the unit. This would give them more in class time to work with the videos, and make it more likely that they would take time to find images that interested them, and not just images they had on hand. She definitely liked that idea. Then I suggested that since they would be doing it during the play, she could tie it more to the play by having it be about what students would show Helen Keller, and why, instead of just what they wanted to see. I couldn't tell how she felt about that, though.

The bell schedule was normal for day two. We watched the videos with rubrics in hand. I used the back to take notes to compare with the teacher later. I then circled what I felt were appropriate scores in each category. I'd say the hardest part was quickly getting student names on the papers so I would know which comments went with which students.

I saw a lot of the same patterns that had emerged on the first viewing day. Students often felt like they missed or lost the point of "sight" vs. dying. There were long meaningless stretches of photos with no narration, no captions, no explanation, and no music. And, several stories had sections that just felt insincere. I really believed that some students wanted to see Paris. Others, I had a hard time buying that they would ever go to Italy to see Venice "and other sighs." For the most part, though, everyone had several good elements to their story.

At the end of each class she did something that I wasn't expecting, but was really pleased to see. She just asked for feedback on the project. Apparently she does this for every project. I did this from time to time when I taught, but not nearly enough. It was very informal, too. She just asked, and kids raised their hands to comment.

Fortunately, I happened to have my computer on me and just took notes (for my own reflective benefit, and for this blog). (The computer is a good thing because I type faster than I can write neatly).

Predictably, the conversation took a pretty similar course in all of her classes. The first two offered their comments with little extra prodding. The last class was hesitant to speak at all, though. They did come to many of the same conclusions as the first too, but it took some leading questions to get them anywhere. It reminded me of the first day I'd been in that class and, as this group of girls came through the door talking a mile a minute, the teacher told me "if you ask them to talk, you get stares. If you let them talk, they won't shut up."

The most common comment from students was that they needed more time. Going a long with that, several agreed that if they had been able to work on it from home it wouldn't have been so bad. Or, they would have been able to work more efficiently (my word) if they had had more time ahead of time to learn and get used to the program. (It makes me feel like I'm doing a decent job of reflecting that I was able to anticipate this before hearing the student feedback). Some other criticism were that a lot of the projects were too similar to one another and not enough were original; the computers themselves froze or didn't connect properly which wasted a lot of in-class work time for some students; some people didn't have access to cameras so they didn't have access to personal pictures; some people had so many pictures they didn't know how to fit them all in or what to do with them; the background noise of the class made recording hard; they were embarrassed to show them; and some students (mostly the same that had been making this complain since day one) didn't see a point in having to record themselves talk. One student said she didn't see a point to the project at all, and another said she didn't really see how it was related to Helen Keller.

A lot of these problems could actually be fixed with more time, more explanation in the beginnig, and now having a few projects to show as examples. More time will let them learn the program, give them more time to plan out thier story, allow us teachers to make accomodations for small groups to record outside of the classroom, and give students time to really fine tune their projects for a better finished product. I would say that, using the analogy of an essay assignment, students did some prewriting and a first draft, but some didn't have time for much, if any, editing.

One thing I didn't anticipate was the a lot of students didn't know how (or didn't want) to limit their pictures of friends. They wanted to use every picture on their camera. Next time when I explain about not over using transitions and making the story flow and using music that makes sense, I will a) better explain what I mean about music making sense and b) explain that sometimes less is more and using too many pictures that have nothing new to add to the story will bore the audience. I would also like to add an audience grade component to the project. I don't know how many teachers would be willing to use this as part of the grade, or how heavily they would weigh it, but I think allowing students to critique one another, with their feedback being worth something, it would encourage them to a) do better on their own projects, b) feel a little empowered in class, and c) if they were allowed to critique their own projects, too, help them learn to be more reflective.

Only one comment really bothered me. One student said that she didn't see a point in using the computers for the project. She liked the idea of what they were doing, but would have prefered to just make a scrap book. I know that this particular students had a good deal of trouble with getting the laptop to boot up properly and connect to the network. And, she missed a day, and therefore missed in class time to work. I think perhaps we need to do a better job of explaining to students that they need to learn how to figure out how to do things. I hope that, even though she was complaining in class, she actually did get something out of the project, even if she doesn't realize it yet. I hope that she didn't just learn a little about Photo Story, but that she was able to reflect on herself, and to pick up a few tricks about learning something new.

There were some good comments too. I just like saving the posititves for last. Students called the project unique. Some said that, given more time, they could have really gotten into it ("I could have talked for days about what I really wanted to see.) Some enjoyed working on the project, and even used the word fun. And, my favorite comments, were the students who wanted to do it again, and felt that they could do so much better next time.

Fortunately, a lot of these same students are working on the bio project, and will have the chance, if they choose, to use a Photo Story for the creek project.

Sight Project--Assessment Day One

2009-03-05T13:12:00.004-05:00

Even though the schedule was a bit tight, the English teacher wanted to show everyone's Photo Story in Class. Monday, the first day of watching the videos, was short because of a 2 hour delay. We didn't get through as many as she would have liked. But, we both understood that it was important for the students to have an audience for this project. Part of the incentive we had given them to do well was the idea of sharing these projects with the class.

Unfortunately, we didn't make a rubric until the project was underway. We didn't even finalize it until after watching the first round of videos.

Being that this was the first time through the project, watching the videos, and critiquing them (we both took notes for later use) helped us put together a rubric.

After watching videos in all three classes, we worked through her study hall finalizing the rubric. We re-arranged some categories, and played with point values. By the end, we had a web-like drawing with numbers all over it. We then experimented with one project. We both determined what we thought the grade should be, then graded it using the rubric, and compared.

The one thing we were both most dissapointed with was that we had told students that they did not have to use music. After viewing finished projects, though, we found that some students had long stretches of video that were just pictures of friends. It was boring. But, since we had told kids that they didn't have to have music, we didn't feel that we could make "use of music" a catagory. Instead, we settled on including it as part of flow. Most stories that lacked music had less of a flow.

And even though we reminded students of it several times, some still lost focus and made stories that seemed like they were dying, not going blind. We covered that in a catagory called focus. Most students did a decent job of remembering for most of the story that this was about sight. Some just failed to explain why some of their choices would be things they wanted to see rather than do. The worst catagory for this was family and friends. Most students had an entire section about wanting to spend time with family and friends. Very few remembered to explain that they wanted to see--to rememeber what their friends looked like, or memorize mom's face. Another common area that this came up was in reading, movies, and tv shows. I think a casual observer might have thought some of these stories were about the last days of life.

At the end of study hall, we had agreed on the final catagories and points values for our rubric. The English teacher had another class, and was a bit weary of grading projects. So, she planned to type it out and let me make copies, and we would meet up again to compare the first round of coments with the rubrics, and grade the projects.

I'm hoping to be able to put some student projects up on my student project wiki. I'm not sure how many I will be able to use, though, since most of them contain pictures of friends and family, and most have student names as part of the footage. I'll have to talk with the teacher about that. For now, though, I am posting the rubric we used. Any suggestions are welcome.

Presidential My Space--Assessments

2009-03-04T14:18:00.003-05:00

I offered to help the Social Studies teacher grade the wiki project when we were finished. I fear I wasn't that helpful. I only managed to help with a small handful. He was pretty well finished by the third day of grading, and I just wasn't moving as fast. I did get a chance to look at most of them, and even leave a few comments for him/the students.

Some of the projects turned out really well. Students were creative, and found resources online to make things more interesting.

A few students disappointed by plagiarizing. Only one went so far as to copy another student's project. No one, at least, sabotaged anyone else or defaced a page that did not belong to them.

For the most part, though, it wasn't plagiarizing as much as a lack of summarizing skills that plagued the students. As a result, the teacher even went so far as to give the plagiarizing/badly summarizing students the chance to redo the project instead of loosing credit.

So, the Social Studies teacher and I talked about the lack of summarizing skills. A lot of students think that copying and pasting an article, and removing or replacing a certain number of words, is the same as rephrasing. They also think that picking out key phrases or sentences, and copying them word for word, is summarizing. The English teacher from that team happened to stop in during this conversation and said that, although she does teach summarizing, she hasn't gotten to that part of her curriculum yet.

First of all, this made me wonder if it would be a good idea to have the teams sit down, looked at shared skills, who is teaching them, and when they are being taught. After all, it would be really good practice and reinforcement for students to learn summarizing in English, and then have a summarizing project/assignment in Social Studies the following week. And, it would save the Social Studies teacher a good deal of aggravation if he held the summarizing project until after the topic was covered in Social Studies.

Summarizing happened to come up as a topic on twitter just a few hours later, and I was able to pass this resource along. There were some interesting ideas. I also made the suggestion of giving the students an article, and having them write a "text message" to a friend explaining it. I do think most of these kids can summarize--they just don't have the skills to make a connection between how they "give the short version" to friend and what teachers want out of them in a writing assignment.

By permission of the teacher, I've copied a few of these wikis over, and removed student names from them, so I can show some samples. I picked a few at random from each class, and then copied the ones I liked best as examples. Check them out here.

Creek Project--Update One

2009-03-03T16:12:00.005-05:00

I'm not going to track the Creek Project on a daily basis. Some days very little if anything happens with it. And some days, something happens, but not enough to prompt a blog entry.

We are closing in on the midway checkpoint. On March 9, 7 days from now, the students will have to turn "evidence" into the Biology teacher. All of them have so far turned in their project sheets--detailing their questions, and their projects.

I have only worked with a few students. I showed one group how to create a voki, or use gizmoz (which tends to work a little better on student computers). I was a little disappointed because the student computers do not all have flash up to date, so neither of these programs were running properly.

I worked with another group to show them how to remove lyrics from an MP3 using Audacity. That way, they will be able to record themselves singing their new lyrics over the music. They plan on working on this from home, though, where they have garage band. Being a PC user at home and school, I'm not as familiar with garage band, and don't know if they will be able to do the same thing. However, I am optimistic. I didn't just show them how to do it. I knew there was a tutorial on youtube, so I did a search, explaining to them what I was searching for and how. After finding the tutorial, I made the students follow it. They had to watch what was happening and read the captions. After a successful run, I made the students repeat the process without the aid of the tutorial. I feel confident that they will remember how to do it in Audacity, and will be able to figure out how to do it in another program.

Today, I touched bases with the Biology teacher again. She is in the process of introducing the project to her non-honors class this week. Yesterday she had them pick a question, and yesterday and today they worked on researching their topic. This way, they are more focused on what the purpose of the project is than on the technology or "product" part of it. Then, once they have gathered their research, she is going to introduce the project. She is still deliberating on how much in class time to give students to work on it. These students do not have a study hall like the honors students, and many of them will not have the ability to work on their projects at home. She has also decided to limit their project choices. They will be able to do a Photo Story, game, poster, or design another project (and get approval). This leaves the students free to be creative with their project design, but it also focuses students who might be overwhelmed with too many choices.

She regrets the order she did things in with the honors classes. Because she introduced the project all at once, a lot of students focused on what they were doing instead of why. Students had decided to do a Photo Story or a web site before deciding what question they were answering. Because of this, the projects might end up not fitting the objectives of the students. One example is a group of students that decided to do a website on fish--but they had no clear idea of what the purpose or function of the website was, or what information would be on it, or how to make it an interesting, engaging site that people would want to visit. I think we both agree, in the future, it would be a good idea to assign students to pick a question before introducing the project. For honors, at least, I still feel that it might be reasonable to have them responsible for doing research while putting together their projects. It would force the students to make intelligent use of their time, and redirect both the project and research based on one another.

Promethean Boards and ActivStudio--Calculus Classroom

2009-03-03T16:01:00.003-05:00

A few days ago, one of the new CFF teachers, a calculus teacher, got his equipment installed. He was very eager to get started.

His first question was how he could use the board to fill out a worksheet in MS Word in a way that, when he scrolled thought the document, the new drawings would move with the board. I went down to visit his classroom. I showed him how to use the Word Marker. He practiced a lot while I was there.

What he wants to do is use this to give students notes. I believe he is going to give the worksheet to students, and then fill it in with them--for their notes. There were pros and cons to using the board this way. Ultimately, it did what he wanted. It wasn't text recognition, which worked better--it allowed the students to clearly see the different between the pre-printed worksheet and the added notes. However, he found in very annoying that, once he paused in annotating, he had to wait for the program to scan his notes as images. Then, he was frustrated that he had to reselected the pen tool. And, we found out the hard way that trying to use the pen for anything while the program was trying to scan the annotations was a bad idea.

However, with practice, he got used to the steps he had to take. He later told me that he started using the board with classes that very day.

Yesterday, I got an email from him about ActivStudio again. This time, he was recording his flip charts and wanted to post them to his websites for students to review. However, he was concerned that students without ActivStudio at home would not be able to view the flipcharts. His fear was correct. I looked into the recordings, and at first recommended that he export them as swf files. I planned to see him at the beginning of the day today to show him how.

By the time I got there, he had not only figured it out for himself, but had also found that they wree not posting correctly to his website. When he clicked on the swf files, they didn't do anything. I was about to start trouble shooting, when he saw that he could export them as ppt. Since he was not concerned with the students following each pen stroke as an action, but was more interested in them being able to see the end product, this worked very well for him.

I was really impressed with this teacher for taking initiative, and learning by doing. This is the sort of skill that we want students to have. I think this teacher could be among the leaders in the school moving towards 21st century education.

Sight Project--Day Five

2009-03-02T13:16:00.004-05:00

There really wasn't supposed to be a day five. But, the English teacher set aside the last twenty minutes of class for students to begin silent reading on their new novel. She decided to give students the option of using that time to finish up and save their Photo Stories since most students would have to read at home one way or the other.

The bulk of my job for the last day of this project was saving projects to my jump drive. Photo Stories take a very long time to save. They take even longer when students decide that having five or six different music tracks is a good idea. I'm curious to see some of the ones that took so long to save. I often lament at the general lack of aesthetic sense among students. I somehow imagine I will be lamenting again soon.

But, hodgepodge of poorly selected and erractic music aside, I think most students had fun with this project. We are showing them in class tomorrow. I've offered to help the teacher work on a rubric, and have sent her a link for rubistar. I don't want to step on toes or be too pushy, so I'm not going to be any more insistant that I be let in on the rubric. But I do worry. A lot of teachers are still in the "oh wow" factor when it comes to grading digital stories. I hope that she includes the use of the technology--making it flow, having good design--as part of the rubric. After all, a student essay with no flow or logical organization would not get a high grade, so why should a Photo Story?

And, that goes back to my point from my last post. If students were working with this same project on multiple projects, they would get used to it. They would get used to having an audience. And, they would get used to being an audience. The students would develop a sense of connoisseurism and would start to differentiate between what they thought was good or bad. That might help them to determine if their own stories were well put together, interesting, and well designed. And, with enough time to get past the bells and whistles, and time to figure out how long doing certain things takes, they would be able to make stronger stories.

Sight Project--Day Four

2009-02-27T07:42:00.007-05:00

Day four was much better than day three. I was really impressed by how well the students from the class that had all of the issues got over it. I've seen in the past that if something goes wrong with a project, students can write that project off all together and adopt a very negative attitude. But, at the beginning of class, they all got out their computers and started working. This is either a resilient class, or a class that really likes this project.

There were significantly less technical issues overall. That made the creating process go much more smoothly. And, I was better prepared to deal with the few issues that did come up.

I was impressed by students awareness of one another. After it was clear that some students were beginning to record, everyone automatically switched in to careful whisper mode without being told. A few students preferred to be out in the hallway to record (probably more from being embarrassed about talking to themselves in class than concerned about background noise.) And I was pleased to see students helping one another out. A few kids did figure out some parts of the program I hadn't shown them and, not only did they use them, they helped other students figure them out as well.

There were varying degrees of planning for narration. A few of them used the notes section on the recording page to plan out their narration. Some of them wrote scripts. A few decided to ignore all advice and wing it. I am curious to see how the presentations compare.

And that idea also ties in with something I overheard later in the day. I'll come back to that.

This was the last time the students had inclass time to work on their projects. As a result, a lot of extra kids showed up to the study hall later in the day. It was so packed that kids were sitting on the floor. Quite a few students even elected to stay afterschool to work on the program.

The teacher and I both stayed about a half hour past our contract hours. I don't know if this was something she was upset about or if she was okay with it. She didn't seem particularly put out, though. I was very tired by the end of the day, but more than happy to stay and help the kids out. I knew that, to some extent, they didn't get enough class time for the project. If I knew that all of the kids had access to Photo Story at home, and could have planned out their narration while watching their videos, even if they couldn't record, I would feel differently. But, I know that for most students, they weren't able to work on it at all outside of class. So I was happy to stay and give them the extra time they needed.

I was a little dissapointed by one comment I overheard. A student had just finished the narration for one slide--describing what she would do with her very last day of sight--and turned to the girl beside her and said, "not that I'd actually do that." I felt that she had missed a large part of the point. This project was supposed to be about her, and she just made it about the pictures she happened to have on her camera at the time.

In the future, I would like to introduce this project to students earlier, and give them time, outside of class, to collect pictures of things they would miss if they went blind. I might start having them do this at then beggining of readin "The Miracle Worker." That way, they would have time to think about what was important to them, and to find pictures of it. I might even start encouraging them to find and download internet pictures of things they couldn't acutally take pictures of. That way, studnets would be better prepared for the project, and it would have more of a connection with Helen Keller.

Another interesting twist might be to have them collecting these photos and images while reading the play, but with a different objective. Instead of collecting what they would want to see with three days of sight, they could collect what they would want to show Helen if she got her three days to see. That way, the students would not only have a personal connection with the project, but with the play, and would have to reflect on themselves in a different way. I'll have to share that thought with the teacher. The idea of more prep work ahead of time will probably appeal to her. I'm not sure how she'll feel about alterin the purpose of the project though.

And now back to the comment I over heard. This was either afterschool or in study hall--for some reason I can't remember which. One student basically said that the had really disliked this project, but now thought Photo Story was really cool. He wants to use it for a project he's doing in his bio class.

The reason seems fairly simple. Students don't know how to use these programs. They get frustrated. They want someone to take them by the hand and give them all the answers. But, if forced to figure some things out--or led through some problem solving--they will slowly get it. Once they get it, then they can focus on the project and not the tech.

I've been eager to get teachers to use tech in an appropriate way--in a way that supports their learning goals. I'm rethinking. I shouldn't focus on "which tech can achieve this for you" but on "how can the tech your students are familiar with achieve this for you." I would like to see teachers doing more projects, using the tech more frequently. If they started the year with an easier project--a learning goal that was simpler for students to achieve--the students could focus on learning the tech without loosing sight of the context of the project. As it stands, some students lost this project while trying to make Photo Story work.

For the rest of the year, and next year, I will beging talking with my teachers about this idea. I hope that they will see it and understand. I think it will also help with the teachers learning the tech. As much as I enjoy being in the classroom with the students, I know that the teachers are not becoming as comfortable with the tech as I want them to be. I we focused on one or two programs, and made them fit the learning goals, then the students and the teacher would have time to learn the programs and become comfortable with them. Then, by the time harder projects came around, the teacher wouldn't even need me any more.

Hmmm...a very smart man once said to me that his goal was to be obsolete. Funny. Guess it took me this long to really understand what he was saying. We had different learning objectives for our students, but the same goal for ourselves.

Sight Project--Day Three

2009-02-26T10:00:00.003-05:00

I think yesterday might have been one of the most hectic in classroom days I've had in a while. It just felt like everything that could go wrong did. But really, it was only one class out of three.

The first and third classes went fine. There were a few issues here and there, but nothing major. The middle class was a nightmare.

In all of the classes, the students were left to their own devices to continue working on the project. The teacher went back on her plan and told them at the beginning of class they would have one more day to finish. This hurt the hoped for sense of urgency. But, students still did work continuously for the most part. Some wasted valuable class time trying to edit music to add to the stories. Some who did not construct a good plan were still hunting up images. But most kids were working on editing and arranging images. A few tried out recording themselves, but very few had anything keepable by the end of class.

The middle class had its fair share of problems throughout. An inexplicably high number of students had to keep restarting because they could not connect to their student drives. This took up a lot of valuable work time. Then, several students were having trouble saving their work. It didn't take me long to realize it was students who had imported images straight from memory sticks or jump drives. The easy fix was to make sure the sources was in the computer before saving, so the file could be accessed. However, this was a problem for students who used multiple memory sticks--since only one could be in the computer at a time. I had to have kids drag and drop the images to a folder in their personal drive, delete the images, and then reimport them. This was horrible, because I had to walk each kid through it one by one. It was one of those days when it seems that the students just didn't have the ability to follow directions without me over their shoulders. And I was sympathetic. I think for most people this would be considered a complicated problem.

To make matters even worse, at the end of class, some students suddenly lost their network connections and couldn't save to their student drives. Once again I attempted to give general directions for this: save to your desktop, restart, move to your personal drive. But, I kept getting students raising their hands with the same question. I was becoming frustrated with the technology, my inability to effectively address all of the students at once (students who didn't yet realize they had this problem were still working and not paying any attention despite my telling everyone that I had something very important to say), and the impatience of students who seemed to think they took precidence over someone I was already helping because they were suddenly having problems, too. Massive problems in the last five minutes of class are exponentially more frustrating than massive problems at any other time.

Needless to say, I started the last class of the day explaining, once again, to save frequently. Saving frequently will not only prevent the loss of ALL work in the case of some failure, but it will also alert students to network issues earlier. I explained that, in the last five minutes of class I would not be able to help everyone, so if everyone had an issue at then end of class, most of them would lose work. It was not the best or most helpful tone to take, and it was largely colored by my multiple frustrations from earlier.

Many students do not have basic trouble shooting, or problem solving skills when it comes to technology. They encounter a problem, and thier first and only reaction is to shout to anyone who knows how to use computers. (I eventually told students that those politely raising their hands would probably get my attention sooner than those shouting my name). They do not have the ability to assess the causes or work through possible solutions to a problem. Quite a few needed help saving to their own jump drives. I'm not entirely sure that they weren't capable of doing it. After all, they had saved images to the drive to bring them to school. But, at school, they only saved to their personal drives. I fear that yesterday, in my frustration, I fell back into the trap of enabling learned helplessness.

I was very focused on technical issues yesterday. My reflection doesn't seem to have anything but them. That's a shame.

Sight Project--Day Two

2009-02-25T10:29:00.004-05:00

Day two was a very productive work day for the kids.

A few kids needed some technical help. A few kids have decided to make collages in paint and transfer them into Photo Story. Some students still needed help with figuring out how to save files to a specific place, figuring out why they couldn't just paste a picture into the insert picture dialogue box, or selecting multiple pictures at once. For the most part students worked diligently throughout the class period finding and importing pictures. No one has started narrating yet.

I am a little worried about the three day timeline. Students were not given any set limit to how many or how few pictures they need, and so some have about thirty. I wouldn't be as concerned if the program was internet based. As it is, though, we gave students the url where they could download Photo Story, but not everyone has internet access, and not every parent is going to let kids randomly install software.

I talked with the teacher about the time. She asked my opinion. I told her that the kids were making good use of the time (better on day two than on day one), and that I didn't think most of them would get finished in time. The projects are due Friday, so they will have two days to work on them outside of class, but not everyone will have access to the software at home (and most probably don't have microphones). She agreed. She decided to continue telling students that they only have one more work day, but to give them a fourth day. That way, the will continue to work during day three, believing its their last chance, but they will have the needed fourth day.

Most students are still in the process of finding and importing pictures. Some have started to plan or put their actual stories together--thinking about what they want to say. I find that they want to get instant feed back before committing to anything. But they aren't looking for teacher feed back. They are looking for peer feedback. Its been a noisy project, but most of the conversations are about what they picked and why. I don't think most of them realize that these conversations are part of the planning process. By explaining what and why to classmates, they are preparing to record those same thoughts.

Presidential My Space--Day Three

2009-02-24T09:06:00.003-05:00

Last day of the project.

Projects are not due til the following day, so students can work on them from home, or stay after school.

One of the benefits of this project was that students could easily access their work from anywhere. There was no saving of files involved. At the same time, it was not a public web space, so student privacy was maintained. This is probably the #1 reason I'm such a big fan of wikis.

I was in and out of the class today, because I was starting a project with another teacher. For the most part, students made good use of their time, and worked throughout.

One thing I saw was that honors students, who had to follow the general rubric, as well as extra directions that were posted on their class page, were forgetting the extra directions. In the past, when a teacher has divided a wiki into classes, I have them post all of the directions on each classes' page. Its redundant, but I think it helps the students stay organized. I think in this case especially, it would have been a very good idea.

As the project went on, and, as is common, a lot of student were more concerned with how things looked than the content, the teacher and I came up with the idea of using the directions/rubric as a check sheet. We suggested to students to print it out, and check off requirements as they were met. Quite a few students took the suggestion. I think I'll remember that for similar projects in the future, and encourage teachers to either do directions in more of list form, or to have a list version of the directions. Its easier to check off items on a list than in a paragraph.

Towards the end of one of the classes, I asked the teacher about grading the project. He seemed pleased to have someone to help him grade, and suggested that I go through the projects, make grade suggestions, and he'd either take the suggestions or not. Part of me regrets the offer, because its more work. Most of me knows that I haven't assessed anything in a long time. It will be good to get back into it. Also, being useful to teachers helps build those relationships. If another teacher asks me to help put together a project for the simple reason that he/she thinks I'll do all the grading, than that is a great opportunity to introduce yet another teacher to using tech in the classroom.

The projects look very good. It seems that most of the students included most of the required content. I don't know how many students went outside of their comfort zone and had fun being creative, though. I probably won't get to assessing anything today. I'll have to update on how the finished projects are, once I've been through some of them--I even got permission to post some examples once I remove student names.

Sight Project--Day One

2009-02-24T08:12:00.000-05:00

The sight project got off to a slightly rocky start. The teacher and I weren't on exactly the same page about the path the project was going to take.

Students have to decide what things that want to see with their last three days of sight. I was under the impression that students had already been told to start gathering pictures (bringing them from home) and thinking about what they wanted. The teacher was under the impression that students would start planning out their projects on the first day in class.

Basically, the first class was instructed on how to use Photo Story, and then told to start planning things out before going on a hodge podge truck through google images, searching for anything that popped into their minds. So, they rather predictably put aside paper and pencil that were meant for planning, and started going searching and saving, and importing photos. During class, I wrote an "order of operations" for the project on the board:

1. Plan
2. Find
3. Import
4. Create

I can't say that I'm 100% satisfied with that order of operations. Again, though, it comes down to not necessarily knowing the class as well as I would like. For some students, especially less organized students, this is probably great structure. For others, its going to be restrictive. I don't think kids need to find ALL pictures before importing, but it might help them stay organized. I don't think that all students need to import ALL pictures before creating--creating covering all aspects of using the program, including scripting, ordering, etc. I think for some kids, it would be good if they felt that they could do a little--write a note or a caption, befor they forget some good idea they had.

I do think, however, that some students will do things in their own order despite what was on the board. So, again, I think that the organization will help some students, and I hope that it won't hinder others. I do agree with the teacher that having kids plan out WHAT they want before beginning an image search will prevent them from being wasteful with their time. However, I hope that students who have an idea or two know that they can still go back and add it, even if the've moved on to import or create.

For the rest of the classes, I went through the "order of operations," as I for some reason insisted on calling it, before showing them how to use Photo Story.

I was rather pleased with how my intro went. I think Photo Story is very easy to use, and most students could have picked up on it without much help. However, I took the opurtunity to go over some other computer basics. I stressed the importance of checking for network drives before beginning any work. I don't know if it is a laptop issue or a wireless issue, but frequently, students cannot connect to their network drives. They work half the class, and then can't save. Sometimes they end up saving to the desktop without telling anyone, and lose their work. So I stressed that, if they do work, they deserve to have something to show for it.

Then, when going over saving photos, I went over file organization. I talked about putting things in folders, putting things where you will remember them, and naming things with some amount of logic. I'm sure a few kids already knew what I was talking about, but my experience tells me that most of them didn't. I think we live in a world where kids have always had the latest technology, and we assume they can use it. Largely that is true. But that doesn't mean that we don't have to take a minute to teach them old time skills like organization. Most teachers know student folders end up a mess, with papers sticking out, for a majority of students. I don't think its safe to assume their computer folders look any different. I probably didn't win any converts to the cause of hyper organization, but I think I opened a few eyes to the idea that they don't have to have one giant folder full of files they can't recognize.

I also focused on the idea of this being a story telling project. I talked about how, if they scripted themselves, they would sound better. I talked about giving the narration some interest. I tend to get a little sarcastic in front of classes. So to demonstrate what I wanted, I demonstrated what I didn't want. I started with "this is a...um...a picture of my friend Janet. I would want to see her...uh...be-uh-cause...she's my friend...and, uh, yeh...that would be good to see." Then, in a monotone: "This is the ocean. It's pretty. This is a flower. It's pretty. This is my mom. She's pretty." The kids laughed--which was the point--but I think they got it. Modeling is important. A lot of times things seem obvious to teachers, and we are frustrated by students who "don't have any motivation." But, I've found that modeling will improve student outcomes significantly. Just because its obvious to a teacher, doesn't mean its as obvious to a 14 year old who is going to be a bit less self aware. And, humor sticks with people better. I think just showing them a well put together example would have been good, if I'd had one (this is the first time doing this project, so I don't), but showing them what not to do--and making it funny--is also helpful in terms of modeling.

After going through the intro, I let students get started on the project. A few kids have photobucket accounts and were looking through them for photos. Others pulled out cameras. Many went straight to google images.

I did see a few lists started. The teacher instructed students to break their project into 3 days, since it is the last three days of sight. They have to specify what they will see on day one, day two, and day three. For the most part, I saw lists for day one. This is not exactly the amount of planning the teacher wanted--she wanted full lists that could be divided by days later--but at least it is something.

One thing I noticed during class was that a few students had lists that made it look like they were going to die, not go blind. I told the teacher, who laughed, and said she'd make a small announcement tomorrow.

Since the students didn't have a full day to work, most of them focused on pictures that came easily to mind--friends and family. I'm curious what they will think of after they get past the familiar.

Presidential My Space--Day Two

2009-02-20T14:44:00.000-05:00

Day two had a lot more work get done.

The first class of the day was the honors class. I was very disappointed with some of the students by the end of class. Most did not make very good or wise use of their time. Very little in the way of content was added. A lot of students spent class making their text look better, or trying to edit the background, or coming up with cute or funny comments to put on the pages. A few did get work done. Many started working in word--they seemed to have an easier time working with text in word (makes sense). So, even those who did a lot of work don't have much to show on the wikis.

The rest of the classes made much better use of time. This did surprise me, since they were non honors classes. A lot of students started having fun with it. The teacher was very good about allowing students to use "slang" and phrasing that would get them kicked out of an English class. He told me its hard for him to read Lincoln saying "yo yo yo, I like country cause we didn have none a dat hippity hop", but he's letting the kids do it anyways. And I'm very glad he is. The kids, despite their word choices, are using accurate info. It did occur to me part way through the day that kids who are being very conservative and straight laced with the language are having a much harder time putting it in their own words. Kids who are "my spacing it up" are actually having an easier time summarizing (that is something I will have to remember).

Also, kids who are having more fun with the language are having more fun with the project, and putting more work into it. The teacher commented more than once that a few kids surprised him. Students who don't usually do well because they are not strong academically--or because they are not motivated to put in effort--are doing well (not all of them, but quite a few). And, again, even though George Washington would roll over in his grave at the way he's now "talking," he's not saying anything that's not true.

A few students didn't make the best use of their time. And a few are still having trouble navigating pages, or dealing with going back and forth between multiple pages. However, its getting better. That makes me happy. I'm glad we did a project that requires a skill that a lot of students lack. It has been a little frustrating for all involved, but the students are getting stronger at a skill that everyone will expect them to have.

And I think the teacher is seeing the value in creativity. Because the kids are able to enjoy the project--and let themselves show through the project--they are doing better. Its not true of all kids. And some are more interested in how things look and being funny than in being accurate (or even substantial). But by letting go of something like standard English (as a Social Studies teacher myself, I can sympathize, but as someone younger, I'm taking it better) he's allowing students to be more engaged. Some students even worked on the projects from home, and have done some amazing things with layout, and using different internet tools.

Presidential My Space--Day One

2009-02-20T12:02:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we started the Presidential My Space Pages.

One of the common complaints, of course, is that we aren't using real My Space pages. I should probably rethink/rename this project so that kids are not left thinking that they would rather do real My Space pages.

For the most part, the teacher went through directions with students. As a time saver, he went through how to navigate through the page to the student pages while kids were still booting up their laptops. Since the student laptops do take so long, I agreed with this decsion. However, a lot of students didn't pay attention. It led to problems later. I had to help about half the students 1-on-1 to find their pages. I had to explain to many students that there was already a page, and not to create one. And, one students edited the front page, and another deleted and edited over the rubric.

The rubric is fairly simple:

For this project, you will create a mock 'My Space' page for one of the former Presidents. You may choose any former President you wish. Barack Obama is not a former President. You will create this page as if you are that President, living today. That means you should write in the first person, using 'I' instead of 'George Washington said...'. The page should contain mainly biographical information about that President. You should include at least the following sections:

Title: 'George Washington's page' The title should include the name of the President. (3 pts.)

Pictures: Include at least two pictures of the President on the main page. (2 pts.)

Background: Include Dates of birth and death, and dates the President served. Include place of birth. (5 pts.)

Biography: This should be 2-3 paragraphs about the President's life, from birth until they became President. You can include information from 'Background' instead of making a separate section for it. Be throrough. Include educational background, military experience, and any previous political experience. Talk about why these experiences prepared the man for the Presidency. (15 pts.)

Presidency: Include 2-3 paragraphs about what happened while this person was President. Include any important events, wars, scandals, etc. You can talk about what life in America was like during this Presidency. Remember, write as if you are this person. If something negative happened, try to explain why. Include at least 2 events and how the President handled that problem. (15 pts.)

Retirement: Include a brief description of the President's life after the Presidency. (5 pts.)

Creativity: A more creative page will receive additional points. (5 pts.)

Total points: 50

When picking your President, be careful to look at when they served. Picking a President who died after 2 days in office is a bad idea. You don't have to pick a famous President, like Washington or Lincoln, but skim through the bios to find someone who did something interesting, or served during an interesting period of history. Remember to make this a first person account, and use your own words. DO NOT COPY AND PASTE. That is plagarism, and will result in a zero for the entire project. This project is due Tuesday, February 24.

Most students didn't have much trouble navigating to their pages. A few got confused because, although I had provided links, they still had to click on a "create page" button after clicking the link. Many students immediately went to the "create a page" button from the home page, and started creating and editing pages there were not linked from anywhere. It was pretty easy to find and correct those students (they would loose their pages, since they weren't linked from the home page) and have them copy and paste their work onto the appropriate page. In later classes, I made every watch as showed the difference between the "create page" and "create a page" buttons. I think this should have been a more predictable problem.

The teacher has even provided three approved web sources for researching info (although a small handful of students went directly to google anyways.)

Students only worked on the project for about half of class for the first day. Everyone had picked a president, and most had a picture and a little bit of info by the end of class. Some only had a picture.

There is definately a large varience of comfort and ability when doing web based projects. Some students understood right away when I suggested they open the rubric in a seperate tab or window, so they didn't have to keep using the back arrow. Others were very confused and needed to be shown multiple times. Others needed to be shown only once before catching on.
And some students have trouble just navigating a single web page.

I was able to teach students the short cut key for pasting (ctrl + v) because the right click they are used to doesn't work in a pb wiki. One thing almost all students seemed very good at was finding a google image.

Sight Project

2009-02-20T08:43:00.000-05:00

Another new English Project.

I always complain about my "office" having the only printer on the hall. I should stop complaining about that. I think this is the third project I've gotten by talking to a teacher who was waiting for something to print.

I was just making small talk, and the teacher was leaving. But, I had been working on a wiki that was up on my screen. She actually started to leave, and then said that she wanted to ask me something.

Her kids have been reading about Helen Keller. One of the things the read was what Keller said she would want to see if she could have three days of sight. The teacher than was going to have the students put together a poster/scrap book page about what they would want to see if they only had three days of sight left. She wanted to know if there were any programs like that.

Of course I instantly thought of glogster. But, I wasn't 100% sure about if students could make their glogs private. And, I think we were both a little leary about having the kids have to give the teacher permission to see the project. And, the teacher was not that comfortable with putting pictures of students online (most will likely use pictures of family as part of this project.)

I then thought of Photo Story as a possible offline option. I explained that it was very easy to use. Also, I had just made printable directions at the request of another teacher. She decided that Photo Story fit her needs well.

The students will bring in photos and/or search for photos online. I will show the class the basics of using Photo Story. Students will then create Photo Stories using their pictures, describing them, and explaining why they are significant things and why they would want to see these things if they only had three days of sight left. This allows students to work at their own pace. Those who learn Photo Story more quickly will have the oppurtunity to use more advanced features, or use photo editing software to make their stories more visually interesting. At the end of the project, students will share their projects with the class.

I like this project because it allows students to connect with the class content in a meaningful way. They will also have chance to not only be creative, but show something about themselves. I believe that students do want to feel like they matter as people in school. This project gives them the chance to show who they are to their teacher and their classmates. It will also force them into self reflection. They won't have to write a formal reflection, but they will have to consider what is important to them and why, and what life would be like without sight.

Creek Project

2009-02-18T12:09:00.001-05:00

One of the science teachers is having students create a creek project.

This is based on year long research that the students do in this class. The collect data on the creek, and do research based on it.

In April, students from all over the state meet to share and discuss their data, research, projects, and experiments. The Science teacher takes several of her classes every year.

This year, she wants to have the students have a little more freedom in what types of projects they do. She has given them the option of creating a photo story, running an experiment, creating and recording music, making a website, or coming up with their own project.

I like this project a lot because it involves creativity and student choice. It also has a ready made audience that students know they will be sharing their work with.

I'm starting working with the teacher today. I will be visiting her classes at the end of the period today, after she has given the assignment. Students will be working with their groups and discussing what types of projects they want to do. By being on hand, I'll be able to help students come up with ideas, understand the work involved in using certain tools, and recommend tools that they might not be familiar with.

This is a long term project that students will mostly be doing outside of class. Because of that, I will not be working with the students much during class. However, the teacher asked if I would work with them during their study hall. I feel that I'm supposed to be working more with the teacher than the students, but this is a way to help students strengthen their tech skills. Also, because there will be so many different tools being used, I'm hoping for the chance to work with the teacher, so she will have a better grasp of those tools, and how to assess these projects.

Presidential My Space

2009-02-18T12:00:00.000-05:00

This is a project that has two teachers.

The first teachers was a bit more independent about using it. He wanted me to help him learn the technology, and I helped do some of the time consuming behind the scenes stuff to help set up. After that, he was more content to conduct the project himself. He sent one student to me with a technical issues, but did not ask for any help other than that.

Another teacher is starting this same project tomorrow. He is comfortable with the technology, but also more than happy to have an extra person around the room to help students out with the project.

We worked for the last two days on the same pre-project set up that I did with the first social studies teacher. The wiki in use is set up almost the same way. The teacher created a class wiki that he will create pages on for each project. Each project will be divided by period, and each student will be given his own page.

The teacher posted directions for what information must be contained on the page. Then, students are free to arrange the layout, and add "fun" elements such as friends, interests, heroes, etc. This sort of project seems to help in research type assignments. Students are not overwhelmed with having to write a paper. And, because they get to do something more engaging with the information, they are more willing to find it. However, as all the teachers I've worked with know, it is a fight to keep a balance between letting students be creative, and making sure they accurately, and sufficiently, produce the subject-related material needed. After all, many students would be happy to create a my space page with all sorts of funny friends, music, and movies for George Washington (and most of it would be funny because it would be based on something real) without ever caring to do the biography section.

I'm going to be in the classroom to help with the project tomorrow. Mostly, the teacher is concerned that he won't be able to answer questions that the students have about using wiki spaces. I personally think he would be fine, but part of my job is building relationships. I think it is a far better idea to think he'd be fine, but to help him as much as I can, than to send him out on his own.

Independant Novel Project

2009-02-18T11:44:00.000-05:00

I'm very excited about this project, because it involves a lot more student choice than anything I've been involved with yet.

One of the English teachers has her students select a novel to read for class. Each student picks his own novel. Then, instead of having them do book reports, she wants to have them do projects to show that they have read and understand the main points of the book.

We worked together to bring some of her projects into the 21st centurty. By the end, we had a list of about ten options. This seemed a bit much--too many choices will overwhelm some students, and it certainly would have made grading far more difficult and time consuming. So, the teacher too my suggestions into consideration, and narrowed the list down to five projects that the students can do. This way, students have a chance to play to their strengths and be creative, while being as out there or as conservative with the assignment as they want.

As part of making this assignment more 21st Century, the teacher wanted to let students use web 2.0 and other technology tools. I showed her some options. Some of these tools are things she is very unfamiliar with. Others she is more comfortable with. I suggested that students who know these tools, or feel comfortable learning them on their own, have the option to choose them. She is a little more conservative, and does not want students to be left to their own devices of learning these tools as they go. However, it would have been unreasonable to have me take as much class time as I would have needed to show all of these tools, when kids will be using only one or two at most. As a compromise, I am providing typed overviews with images that will help students learn the basics (I used word and screen captures to create these). My hope is that students who are ambitious or creative will be able to take the basic instructions I provide and then discover some of the more advanced functions of the programs.

The current five projects are:

*Storyboard: You will choose three different, important scenes
throughout the novel that represent your story. You can either take
still-life pictures or create still-life photos in an online program
called bitstrips (like a comic-strip) to show the progress of the
action. You will then write two paragraphs why you chose those scenes
and their significance. The other paragraph will be a reflection on the
process.

*Day-in-the-Life: You will pretend you are the protagonist in the book
in the situations that he/she encounters by creating a "My-Space" type
website. One section will be posted journal entries in the perspective
of that character. You will also include necessary "wall updates" to
show the protagonist's experiences.
The written component will be a two-paragraph "extra ending" or "where
are they now" to your novel.

*Event Location Map: You will use the Inspiration program to represent
the different, essential locations and events in the novel. You should
have ten-twelve selections. You will choose images and labels with a 3-4
sentence description about the location/event.

*Brown Bag: You will choose eight to ten "items" to place in the bag to
represent significant events, situations or characters from the book.
You can use either PhotoStory in which you can take pictures or use
stock images or Jog the Web in which you would select web-sites/images
online. You will provide a 3-4 sentence description of the objects.

*Interview: You will write and record an interview with the protagonist
in your story. It must have ten-twelve in depth questions/answers to
demonstrate all of his/her major situations and experiences. You can
complete this with audio or video.

Reading Project--End

2009-02-18T11:31:00.000-05:00

I haven't had a chance to update on this project.

With snow days, conferences, and trainings, I was out of the building for the very end of the project. The Reading teacher told me that she had very little trouble finishing up the recordings. She had a few absent kids that she had to record after the official end of the project. She had one student who refused to read in front of the class, but agreed to be recorded after school.

We had some time to discuss the assessment for the project. Most of that was decided early on, because she had to give the students a rubric. The whole project was 75 points, with 5 points each given for meeting deadlines along the way. Twenty points were given for creativity in selecting the article and modifying it for speaking. And, 15 points each were given for accuracy, pace, and emotion. So, the bulk of what was assessed was the three main goals that she had for the read aloud. We were a little worried about having so many points for the creativity with the assignment, but it did end up being a large part of the WORK involved. The teacher took notes while the students read live, and then used the recordings to be able to revisit and look at specifics. So even grading this assignment turned into a large time commitment for her.

Throughout this assignment, we've talked about changes that we would like to make for next year. After having started the recordings, I was made aware that several teachers have actual video cameras, so I would like to use those next year. Also, we talked about using monologues that would be performance ready, to cut down on the prep time and frustration for students, and allow the project to be more clearly focused on reading out loud. I think this year, the students could very easily come away from this project feeling like it was an internet search and writing project. We are still not in agreement about having the same reading being used for the initial recording/reflection and the second recording, or having part of the grade based on the improvements listed in the reflection. i think it is important for me to try to be practical. These are not my classes, and I am not ultimately responsible for grading their assignments. Partly, I think this might be a matter of not having high expectations--the Reading teacher does not feel that the students are able to write good reflections and therefore to get much out of them. My main goal for next year will be to get the teacher to model writing a good reflection. If the reflections improve, perhaps she will see value in adding that as an assessment component in the future.

All in all I think this project was successful. The students all had to read aloud in front of the class, focusing on accuracy, pace, and emotion. There are aspect of the assignment that can, and hopefully will, be improved upon to allow the students to learn more from it in the future.

Taking Oppurtunities

2009-02-13T13:08:00.000-05:00

I had some unexpected visitors to my room today.

I had no idea why they where there to begin with. I share my room with another teacher, who suddenly showed up with 4 students. They didn't seem to be her students (because she had to ask each of them their names.) At first I thought it was some sort of in school detention (I had to hope my room was not suddenly suitable for in school suspension). But then the students started talking among themselves, which I didn't think the other teacher would have permitted in a detention setting.

I didn't want to embarrass anyone, or provoke anything, so I didn't want to ask the other teacher the obvious question: who are these kids? So I sent her an email. Sure enough she checked it and got back to me quickly. She was supposed to be covering their class, but the room was locked when she got there. Since there were so few of them, and we have enough space, she brought them back. Probably the best decision in the situation.

So, four kids with forty minutes, and nothing to do. There probably is a sub plan, but its locked away in the classroom for now.

So I went to my bag of web 2.0 tricks and thought about what to pick. I wanted to give the kids a tool they might be able to use, and something that would keep them engaged for at least most of the period.

I settled on voki. It is simple to use. It can be used for school or merely entertainment. Its interactive, audio, and visual. In short, perfect for this impromptu lesson.

My pitch, "who wants to see something cool on the computer." Ok, so that could have been better. Two of the four came over. I walked them through it. I asked which character to use, and what clothes, accessories, and background to use. We ended up with a Turkey in a Santa suite with a pilgrim hat in a night club.

At that point I decided the students had had enough instruction. The best way for most of us to learn is by doing, or by showing. I let those two each create their own. I then invited the other two, who were by now laughing at the silly things being said by odd looking talking faces, to make one. Instead of going through my instructions again, I asked one of the first two students to show them how. I think one student out of the four was the most interested in the website. I made sure to have him repeat it to me on the way out, so that he'll have it at his use in the future.

I don't know if I advanced the education of anyone today. But I introduced four students, with nothing to do, to web 2.0. They now at least know they can make talking cartoons. Maybe they will want to add them to a future school project. Maybe they will find a personal use for them. Maybe they will wonder what else they can do so easily on the web. Or maybe, hopefully, they will realize that a lot of these "web tools" are really easy to use if you take two minutes to try them out.

Reading Project--Day Eleven

2009-02-03T14:33:00.000-05:00

Day two of recording in most classrooms.

I think the shift into full time recording is letting the Reading teacher see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Recordings went much better today. There were quite a few absences, that for now I'm attributing to the Steelers Victory Parade instead of students skipping school to get out of this. That being said, we still made good progress and got most of the students recorded. We were even able to re-record the students I missed in the first class.

Because I won't be here for the next two days (hopefully the last two days of the project) the Reading teacher did a lot of my job. She did the recordings so she would know what to do tomorrow. I also showed her how to clear the memory cards to make room. In the process of that, I showed her how to make folders to organize her personal drive.

Even though it feels like this project has dragged, it has been very enlightening. I think both I and the Reading teacher have learned from it. And, we are planning as we go for the modifications we'll make next year. Her quote today "this will go like 9 million times smoother next year" was really promising. She wants to do it again, even though there were major bumps in the road. She's planned changes that will make it fit more with her timeline (not in January when it can be plagued with snow days) and she's going to focus on just the out loud reading, not the writing.

I hope that she does well tomorrow, since I won't be here. I think I'll shoot her an email to make sure she has my cell #.

Social Studies Project--Presidential Wikis

2009-02-03T12:13:00.000-05:00

A Social Studies teacher approached me and wanted some ideas on a few lessons he is covering. He wanted to slightly alter some of what he is doing.

One suggestion that I gave, that I don't think he took, was for the presidential cabinets. He usually has students work in groups to research one cabinet office, and then do a round robin to share the info. I suggested having the groups create poems/song lyrics/raps, etc. I figured it would be more engaging, and easier to remember. I'm not sure if he went with that or not. He seemed to like the idea, but he was covering the lesson in the very near future. I hope that either he, or someone else, can use that idea for some topic.

He also has the students do a project every year where each student researches one President. They usually do a poster or a powerpoint. This year, I suggested, he does the projects in the "my space" wiki format. He really liked the idea.

He's not the sort that wants a great deal of help. He's very confident with the technology. So, I showed him how to set up the wiki. He, unlike a lot of teachers, was more comfortable with doing multiple layers of links and not having everything linked from a list on the side. Most teachers were overwhelmed at the concept, and therefore set up multiple pages--one per class per project. This Social Studies Teacher was happier with the idea of one massive wiki--knowing he could keep track of the links--thank managing multiple wikis. I have to say that I'm of the same opinion.

We discussed having the students sign up during class, or manually creating accounts. He decided not to waste class time with students signing up, and had them create user names and passwords for homework. I showed him how to input those, and did several of them to save him some time (its tedious).

Other than help with the mechanics, he does not want any help in the classroom. Once in awhile he will send a student and a laptop down to me with a specific issue, but he does not want to have me in the room on hand "just in case." It does worry me that this is the attitude of shutting the door that we want to break down with expanding learning beyond the classroom. But, it could just be a sense of wanting me to be more available to help teachers who are less confident with the technology. Either way, I think it is important to allow teachers to move at their own pace. If he is not ready to have another teacher in his space, then I won't push. If I do, he might never be willing.

Reading Project--Day Ten

2009-02-03T12:08:00.000-05:00

We started recording on Monday. It was not the most oppurtune day to begin recording. We had a two hour delay because of the Super Bowl.

Because of the shortened time, we only managed to record two groups in the first class and one group in the second class.

This did not go as well as planned. In the first class, I did not properly start the camera, and missed a significant chunk of the student presentation. I will say that this might have been at least partly because we started, stopped, and restarted several times. One of the students was struggling with a mixture of stage fright and a lack of practice with the teleprompter. Since this was the very first student to read, we allowed him to restart once. The second time, he happened to want to restart right after another teacher walked in front of the camera and made a lot of noise, so I let them restart again.

Other than that, there we no problems with recording. However, upon going back to the room, the Reading teacher and I looked at the videos. The sound quality is abysmal. We plan to place the camera much closer to the students in the future.

Reading Project--Day Nine

2009-02-02T09:24:00.000-05:00

Once again, I'm blogging late about this.

On Friday, we made good progress in all of the classes.

In the first class, all of the students have printed a rough draft. Most of the students received that draft back with teacher recommendations and made adjustments. In the second class, everyone is on target and has finished making teacher recommended adjustments and is ready to record. On Monday (today) students will begin recording. At the very beginning of class, everyone will practice reading aloud together (even though they are reading different things) as a warm-up. Then, then will be recorded reading one at a time or with a partner. Those with partner will sit together in front of the class, and transition to one another during the report, but everyone has to read his or her report alone.

In the third class, the last period of the day, we are a bit further behind. However, it is not that far behind considering how much class time has been missed over the last two weeks. By the end of class, everyone had printed a first draft. Next class, they will get them back with comments and will have to finish the final copy by the end of class. We will begin recording on Tuesday.

The Reading teacher and I have been discussing how this project has dragged. A few things came to mind. One, the Reading teacher seems to have decided to not do any more long term projects in the middle of January. She's not against long term projects, she just doesn't want them to be made longer by snow days and snow delays. Also, we talked about having the kids have something to read that did not need to be modified.

After doing some searching, we both decided that using news transcripts would not work for this project because they include too many people talking (which does not translate well into the teleprompter) and they include too many references to videos and images. I did a little more thinking and searching, and found a site with teen monologues. They are a great length, and would shorten the process of this project significantly. Students would be able to choose a reading quickly because they will not have to find one. Also, they will not have to modify it, which is something they did not necessarily understand how to do (many of them do not make a regular habit of watching news, and therefore don't know what types of things reporters say to transition or end a report). I think using the monologues would take a lot of pressure off of the students, and remove a lot of stress from the teacher.

Speak Blog Update

2009-01-30T13:28:00.000-05:00

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

2009-01-29T14:38:00.000-05:00

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

2009-01-29T10:39:00.000-05:00

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

2009-01-23T12:44:00.001-05:00

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

2009-01-22T14:34:00.000-05:00

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

2009-01-22T09:48:00.000-05:00

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

2009-01-21T14:42:00.000-05:00

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

2009-01-16T08:59:00.000-05:00

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

2009-01-15T10:35:00.000-05:00

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

2009-01-13T13:40:00.000-05:00

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

2009-01-13T13:26:00.000-05:00

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

2009-01-13T13:12:00.000-05:00

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

2009-01-09T10:09:00.000-05:00

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

2009-01-09T09:38:00.000-05:00

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

2009-01-07T08:18:00.000-05:00

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

2009-01-06T08:16:00.000-05:00

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.

Projects Update

2008-12-22T10:18:00.000-05:00

The famous Americans project was redirected because of curriculum concerns. In order to fill a curriculum requirement, the teacher has to have the students give a speech. I remain optimistic, though, that another project will happen with that teacher.

The blog project is moving ahead. The teacher involved is being more independent of me than others. He is also having students do most of the work outside of class. I helped him set up the initial structure. The students will be presenting in class as usual, and blogging about it outside of class. I will keep in touch and discuss how to evaluate the blog entries, but I think he has a pretty good idea of what he wants for that as well. I am most curious to get his feedback after the project is complete/once it has gotten started (the structure is set up but the first blog entry probably won't happen til after the break). In past years, students have given feedback to the presentations via a worksheet. I am curious if they will find this method more engaging, and if they will participate in more back and forth as a result of the more interactive nature of the medium. I am inclined to think that they might not, being that they are given only a 24 hour window in which to comment. I plan to suggest that in the future the teacher requires students to comment within 24 hours but gives some motivation (aka extra credit or such) for students to continue the conversation after the first day.

Creating Relationships

2008-12-22T10:09:00.000-05:00

Part of the job of a CFF coach is forging relationships. It's a challenge when I've only been at the school for three months. I have found that it really is the small five minute conversations that do best for making those relationships. Even those are a challenge at times. Many of the teachers see me as the Tech Coach, and assume all I have to talk about is computers or making them do projects. I need to recreate their image of me as someone who is a teacher and also happens to be a coach.

I have also found it's a benefit to be of help whenever possible. A few times teachers have wanted to do projects with short notice and no time to prepare for them. I think that jumping in and doing what I can will show that I'm reliable and, if it helps the project go well, will encourage that teacher--and other who hear of the success and how I can be helpful--to do more CFF projects.

I just need to make sure to keep a balance between being useful to help build those relationships and not becoming a crutch for teachers who will remain afraid of the technology.

Managing Resources

2008-12-16T08:27:00.000-05:00

So I've finally decided to copy all of the resources from my other wiki and create a new wiki that will be organized in similar fashion.

My first wiki was set up as a private space for my teachers to have access to resources while being free to collaborate, experiment, and discuss without feeling they were being watched. That way, they will be able to more freely brainstorm and more accurately discuss what has and has not worked wand why. It's important for us to be able to fail so we can learn from it, after all. However, that put the depository of all of the resources I have found behind a password. A few CFF colleagues asked for access, so reposting everything in a public spot seemed to be the best solution. My teachers still have a private workspace, and I can share the resources I'm gathering. I haven't been able to use even a small fraction of these resources yet, and I haven't even been able to fully evaluate a significant chunk. But there's a lot here that can probably meet the needs of a variety of people.

Cell Project--Day Five

2008-12-12T12:53:00.001-05:00

I really was going to post about the project every day--but I got busy with actually doing stuff. I haven't gone through all of the finished wikis yet, so its too soon to say if this was a success or not. So I'll just talk about things that went well and things that need to be improved.

This was my first large scale wiki project. So a predictable problem was that I didn't have all of the answers. Not that much of an issue in my opinion. The teacher gets to see that I don't know everything--which hopefully is encouraging (in that all this stuff if learnable). Also, the kids had to see me work through things. I tried as often as I could to let them actually do as I thought (although I'd say I did all the doing more often than not). But I would try to at least explain what I was doing, or why, or why something would or wouldn't work the way they wanted.

The project went better in some classes than others. I think that's always the case. Children did work on dividing up work and working collaboratively. They had to deal with issues of finding information and media resources. I'm not sure how well they did on review or evaluating media resources, though.

We hit some massive snags along the way--including the wireless going down and wikispaces going down.

The teacher and I both have thoughts on what to do differently next time. She thinks it would be a good idea to provide key words that kids have to include--because they didn't really come across them all in their research. She wants to add more structure to the project.

I want it to be more interactive. Students were "posting comment" on the "my space" page by editing their own pages and pretending to be multiple parts of the cell. I think it would be good to have groups post to one anothers pages--that way you have to know your own part well enough to be it, and read someone else's page and learn their cell well enough to talk to it. I think I understand logistically why we didn't do that. Maybe next time, maybe not.

We had to pull together a PBwiki for one of the classes when wikispaces went down. The commenting feature would have been great for the groups to interact, but they cluttered it up with nonsense before the teacher and I had time to regroup and replan.

Cell Project--Day One

2008-12-08T14:23:00.000-05:00

I went down to the Bio class for day one of the cell project. Some of it didn't go well, some of it did.

An overview of the project--we are having students create "my space" type pages using a wiki. Each group will create a page for a certain part of the cell. They will have to include bffs (the student names) hangouts (where its found in the cell) links (resources used) pictures, etc.

Today the kids signed on and began basic editing. In the first class for some reason creating pages didn't go very well. I would have liked to have tried a different method of page creation, but the teacher said she wanted to create the pages. It didn't take long to do. I think that had I been the teacher, that is the route I'd have taken, too. The first failure was a hassle, although we did overcome it. However, in that situation, with limited time, the last thing you want is to waste more time in another class trying to do the same thing in a slightly different way that might also fail when you have a perfectly valid fool-proof alternative.

I spoke with the teacher who is a little of the opinion that the children are more focused on editing things to make them look nice than on the actual research and info involved in the project.

Its a valid concern.

I've done projects with a fun or "irrelevant" element to them. I think I've found that even though kids will focus on the fun bits, they will get to the information and "meat and potatoes" of it. They just do the fun eye catching stuff first.

She has expressed that she originally wanted to have the students do the research--with old fashioned pen and paper--and then have them create the wiki from it. She has also said that perhaps next year she would have them fill in a pre-created format--with the information--and then let them play with and edit the visuals.

I also think that the "irrelevant" part of this project is not so irrelevant. Teamwork, collaboration, communication, basic computer literacy skills such as editing text and saving often, introduction to wikis, taking responsibility for their own learning, multitasking. None of this trumps the actual biology, but is it on the same level?

And more importantly, is this helping? Is anyone going to get anything out of this project? Are any of the above skills going to be taught or strengthened by this project. Will the biology info be conveyed? Will it be conveyed more effectively, or will children learn it any better, or even at an equal level, than if it had been done in the form of notes?

A Few Classroom Projects

2008-12-05T09:21:00.000-05:00

I am currently working on three projects with three teachers.

Two of them are very similar.

English--One of the English teachers wanted to update a project that ends with a speech on a famous American. Students spend several days in the library learning research skills and finding information about a famous American. The project usually ends with every student giving a speech. Instead of having students sit through speeches, they are going to take their research and create "MySpace" pages for their Americans in a wiki. They will have to give a bio including what the American did that was significant, and why they are still important today. We are going to include some fun categories that will require some creative thinking from students--blurbs, friends, favorites, etc. After creating the wikis, students will then have to read three classmate's wikis and, in first person of their own American, "post" to the other person's "wall." This will require them again to be creative and decide how people from different time periods who never met might have reacted to one another.

Science--somewhat similar to English. Instead of famous Americans, we are having students create "MySpace" pages for parts of the cell. This project is replacing a poster/PowerPoint assignment. They will again have to use real research and information. They will have to be creative in coming up with favorites. Students will have to collect pictures and create a gallery, and will have to link to their online info sources. They will be required to write one blurb about a cell they met that was lacking their part --i.e the nuclues groups has to write about meeting a cell without a nuclues and what that cell was like. Hopefully, they will also be posting to one another's walls.

Social Studies--this teacher came to me wanted to add a blog for a reflective part of a project. Students have to research a country, and then create and deliver an inclass presentation trying to sell that country. In the past, they have been required to also create a worksheet for others to follow along. At the end of the worksheet, the students in their seats had to explain why they wouldn't buy the country. Now, instead of filling out a worksheet, the students will have to blog about why they wouldn't buy the country. They will have one day after the presentation to post. This gives students more time to reflect, and hopefully the chance to actually interact with one another. We are using a wiki discussion board because a) the teacher liked the organization of doing each country with its own page and b) I'm more familiar with wikis, so I was able to give him more info on how they work and function, etc.

I'm very excited. I'll post updates as they go.

Science is next week
English is the following week
Social Studies is sometime after the break.

So I have a blog now

2008-12-04T13:51:00.000-05:00

Its not that I avoided blogging for fear or lack of knowledge. I just don't think I'm particularly interesting. I guess its just my opinion that if you have nothing interesting to say, don't blog.

But I'm a CFF coach and one of my teachers wants to use a blog in an assignment. I figure its my job to feel my way around for functionality. Blogger seems to be very popular (or at least all the blogs I find useful tend to be on blogger), so I'm starting here.

I suppose now that I've had a reason to start a blog, I'll try to use it. I seem to have a lot of resources that other CFF coaches thought looked neat, so I'll try to post those. Maybe I'll share some stories (and woes) if they seem interesting enough.