21st Century Learners

This has been around for a while but I like to watch it now and again to remind myself why I'm doing what I'm doing. Enjoy!

4th Period Experiment

Tony, Alejandro, Juan, Henry, Tyler and Jose get their feet wet. Their first try with some random shots from my iPhoto. 

Stumbling

So the good news is that StumbleUpon is the coolest site ever. The bad news is that it is really hard to get up at 6am when you've been stumbling 'til 12:30am. Oh, when will I learn moderation?!?! BTW Stumble is a great place to beef up your Delicious.

Been pretty tech busy this week. At home I've been stumbling as previously stated and trying to keep up with everyone's blogs and delicious and assorted quiktopics. There's so much I want to read and contribute to, so I'm trying to learn how to "dance" as Bette put it. So far...two left feet but I keep plugging. As I tell my students, practice makes almost perfect and that's plenty good enough. It's the process that counts. Right?

In school I have my kids doing things on Amimoto and they are amazing. We've had some great laughs and some great learning. I also have them reading into Garageband and listening to and gently critiquing each other. Since they are struggling readers I'm hoping this makes them more conscious of their fluency. They love doing it and always want to try again to make it sound better. It's also opened their eyes to the importance of punctuation in reading - something I have heretofore been unsuccessful in convincing them of. (Please pardon the dangling preposition. That sentence had me in knots.)

I also started a digital storytelling project with one group. May have bitten off a little too much here. They want to tell the history of the world in three minutes. Always a problem with young writers - choosing a small topic and writing in detail. They want to tell their whole life story rather than choose one small event, person, place, etc and really speak from the heart about their connection. Live and learn. I'll keep you posted. 

I stumble on. Literally and figuratively. It's fun!

I Had a Dream

Woke up in a cold sweat the other night after dreaming about doing my mini-presentation. It was the classic what-the-heck-am-I-doing-in-this-class scenario. Think this has been on my mind much? It made me really consider what the purpose and desired outcome of these mini-p's are. I think I was intimidated by some of the really great presentations we've had so far. People were presenting technologies with which they seemed so comfortable and familiar. While there are applications that I feel comfortable and familiar with I wanted to learn something new and present that. I've decided that my mini-p doesn't have to be fabulous but that something "quick and dirty" would be fine as long it was useful to my colleagues and students. I will go with my original choice - Animoto. I love it and my students have been playing with it this week.

One of the things that was causing me tsuris was the fact that I couldn't think how to apply it in a class. I did what I've been trying to do more of this year. That is - I asked the kids how they thought they might use it to support their reading. They came up with a great idea; story boarded it and are in the process of producing their 30 second "video". 

Something that was giving me nightmares (literally) became a real joy when I let my students lead the way. Lesson learned. Sleep tight.  

Tech Thoughts

Just came from a District Technology Committee meeting. We're discussing a district one-to-one laptop initiative. From all I hear at TEAM from the people whose districts or classrooms have implemented such a program I think they are definitely the way to go. I said at the meeting that I believed it was simply a matter of when. The idea of every student having some sort of electronic "notebook" strikes me as inevitable. Committee member's concerns are (understandably at this time) financial. We will study some existing models - Fort Collins, CO, Maine and we will visit Westhampton (can't wait). My concerns have mainly to do with professional development. I hope we do right by staff who are intimidated by introducing technology into their teaching repertoire. After all, we can't all be TEAM members ;-)  Lots to think about. Seems pretty far down the road at this point, though. everyone's waiting to hear what the state giveth and what the state taketh away.  

Audio and random pix, oh my!

 

After hours of frustration, Perri finally talked me down off the ledge and led me through down(up?)loading a video to a blog. I had to add some random unrelated pix (my grandson's obsession with Photobooth continues) in order to use iMovie. I think. Anyway, I'll keep experimenting. I have some videos that I've been shooting with my little Flip. Think I'll see what I can do with those. In the meanwhile I'm enjoying posting all these first attempts. Hope to document some progress.

Images

It's been a tech intensive weekend and, unplanned, my focus seems to have been on images. I've been practicing uploading, downloading and generally moving images around. I've also explored some image sites recommended on our class site. Joined Photoshop.com mainly, I think, because I was influenced by the intriguing use of images on their site. I want that. I want to be able to communicate my message using images. They are so powerful.

As an educator I think this idea of images as communication is particularly pertinent. We are all visual learners. I have always been envious of teachers who put up spectacular and information rich bulletin boards. I have no facility for this. To me my room and materials always look bare compared to some teachers who hit just the right note with visual displays and eye catching handouts. Maybe technology is just the thing that can turn this around for me.

I'm wondering how I can use images to be a better teacher and how can I guide my students to use them to better communicate what and if they are learning.   

The Gregmobile!

One of my students stopped by on a Saturday to show me the invention he had been talking about in class. WOW!  This is what comes from not having a TV. 

BTW I teach "remedial" reading. This was a great reminder that not all talents are nourished in school. Clearly this boy, while he may be a struggling reader, has strengths that far outweigh any deficits he may have. Wish his kind of mind was celebrated more in traditional schools.