Category Archives: Brian Crosby

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On My Way – NASA Tweetup/sts-134-launch

I’m writing quickly from the airport in Salt Lake City, Utah. I’m soon to catch the second in a trilogy of flights that will end in Orlando, Florida, at 6:00am Thursday morning (how much sleep will I get???), and from there I will rush out to Cape Canaveral to be one of many lucky folks chosen by NASA to be part of their “Tweet-up” for the launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour. I haven’t written much about this here because I was never sure I was REALLY going to make the trip until the last few days. Things fell into place mainly because friends would not allow me to not go.

My school district has frozen all budgets, so even though this trip has huge educational possibilities there were just no funds available. But my colleagues at Powerful Learning Practice passed the hat (Thanks a ton guys!!!) and Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach used her precious air-miles to cover my flight – a true angel! An anonymous contributor also kicked in and by that time I couldn’t say no.

I’ve spent the last few school days preparing my students to work through their blogs and Flickr and more to participate with me as much as possible … I would have Skyped with them or even Streamed video out, but no one at my school could help support that, and non of the substitutes I know that could pull that off were available. So we will be working together some now … but much more when I’m back. As Dr. Cannon at the University of Nevada, Reno always says, “activity before content!”

In addition, when I get back we launch a high altitude balloon … well really 3 at once … 2 using hydrogen gas and 1 (at my school) using helium. We are going to coordinate the launches so they are simutaneous. We are printing out the “High Hopes” people are sending us on “fortune cookie size” strips of paper and sticking them inside the balloons so when the balloon bursts the worlds “high hopes” will flutter down and become one with the Earth (it’s all very symbolic – and we are using a paper that will degrade very quickly). Well they are calling my flight … on to Los Angeles!

Learning is messy!

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My TEDxNYED Talk – Posted

Several weeks ago I had the honor of taking the stage on the 40th floor of  7 World Trade Center in New York to participate in TEDxNYED,  “…  an all-day conference focusing on empowering innovation in education, … being held in New York City on Saturday, March 5, 2011.”

I’d like to thank the organizers that brought me there, they were an incredible group that saw to it that things ran smoothly: Karen Blumberg, Co-Curator The School at Columbia University – Basil Kolani, Co-Curator The Dwight School – Dan Agins Pawcatuck Middle School – Sean Freese Lawrence Woodmere Academy – Kiersten Jennings Chou Independent Curriculum Consultant – Tamara McKenna The Elisabeth Morrow School – Erin Mumford – Nightingale-Bamford School – Jeff Weitz Horace Mann School

As I watched the presenters the themes that were reverberating were change, student centered learning, creativity. Find them here.

I’m afraid I went over my allotted time, a minor glitch with the timer, my fault for not noticing as I started, I take solace in that I’m not the first to do so.  : )

Learning is messy!

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Shuttle Launch Experience – What Are The Possibilities For Student Learning?

In my last post I shared that I have this fantastic opportunity to watch the Space Shuttle Endeavour launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida next month. One of the ways this new pedagogy changes things is in how my students can be included in my trip.

If I really manage to go (at best a 50-50 possibility because of budget freezes here) my students would learn about the Space Shuttle program, Cape Canaveral and other topics associated with the trip before I ever left. We would travel there through photos, but also via Google Earth – Where is this place? – why did they choose the eastern Florida coast to launch spacecraft from? We drop right down on the roof of our classroom and travel to locations and back when we Skype to build those geography skills and schema, so we would do that for this trip too. My students all have their own blogs, so I can post photos, videos, blog posts about what I am learning, topics for them to do research on. I will be able to post all my photos and even video on our class Flickr page (often within minutes of taking them) – the students could be asked to make a slideshow – write captions for the photos or any number or possible writing projects or research projects.

NASA is asking me to be there to use Twitter to report out what I am doing, seeing and learning. But I would blog about it and would hope to Skype back to my class to share with them, answer questions and maybe do on-the-spot interviews with some of the people I am supposed to meet there. My students are used to taking notes during Skype-conferences and when we have guests in our class, and this would be no different. I could have it set-up with my substitute that I would call the school and let them know to get on Skype and expect a call.

Students could even have pre-written questions to ask – what would they like to know if they get to interview an astronaut or scientist or anyone else that works there? If NASA would allow it I could use a video streaming application like USTREAM to broadcast out so other classrooms could take part … later they could even share blog posts and comments about what they learned with the classes we connect with all the time. All those students have access to our Flickr pages as well – so they could utilize our photos for their learning.

The point is, my students would not be waiting for me to return to find out what happened during the trip – to learn during the trip … they would participate before, during and after. I can comment on their blogs (even grade them), think of new assignments to give them while I am still in Florida, and my students are learning about a place they can only imagine about now. There are so many other possible ways to include them (and feel free to think out loud in the comments). And we do these things often, so this is not pie-in-the-sky – this is what we do as a big part of our learning. Things really have changed since we went to school haven’t they?

Learning is messy!

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I Might Be Going To Launch Of The Space Shuttle Endeavour

NASA informed me Yesterday that I had been chosen to attend the launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour on April 19, 2011 as part of their @NASATweetup program. I get to go and Tweet out my experience … and according to their website:

“The Tweetup will provide @NASA followers with the opportunity to tour the center, view the shuttle launch and speak with NASA managers, astronauts, shuttle technicians and engineers. The event also will provide participants the opportunity to meet fellow tweeps and NASA’s social media team.”

Too cool huh!!? The downsides are that I have to pay my own way (although I’m trying hard to get funding – probably won’t make it otherwise). And of course launch delays are not uncommon … so reservations need to be soft and you know things might happen after you’ve gotten there, but it’s all worth it!

And I won’t be alone, also according to the NASA site:

” … 150 of its Twitter followers on April 18-19 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Space shuttle Endeavour is targeted to launch at 7:48 p.m. EDT on April 19, on its STS-134 mission to the International Space Station.

I informed my students today of my possible trip by having them spend 15 minutes researching the Space Shuttle Endeavour (which I managed to mis-spell “Endeavor” … which they happily informed me as their search began). Once they had learned a bit I explained what might be happening. They were pumped!

This will be the last journey of the Endeavour, as the Space Shuttles are being retired after these last hurrahs. Commander Mark Kelly (Congresswoman Giffords husband) along with his crew will head off to the International Space Station:

“… will deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) and spare parts including two S-band communications antennas, a high-pressure gas tank, additional spare parts for Dextre and micrometeoroid debris shields.”

Here’s hoping things work out and I get to make the trip!

Learning is messy!

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How did you begin your technology journey?

A reader named Diane left these questions for me on a recent post and I thought I’d answer her here too. I wonder if others should post their experiences on their own blogs … and in more depth than I did here because of time, if that would help others somehow? Just a thought. Here are her questions and my short version answer:

How did you begin your technology journey? I would love to have access to equipment for my students to use, any suggestions on where to go to begin the process?

Hi Diane – I doubt you really want me to go all the way back to my Apple II+ days, and everyone else will be happier if I don’t : ) Most of my experiences have been chronicled here amongst all these posts. But basically I’ve been at the right spot at the right time when, because sadly so few have much experience using technology in education, my very limited experience  was enough to make me the go to person. 25 years ago my class got 4 Apple II-E computers because literally in a staff meeting I raised my hand when we were asked if anyone had any experience with them and I said I used one once for a week 3 years before. It’s been like that ever since.

My classes’ 1:1 laptop experience came about because my school was getting new HP laptops and no one else wanted anything to do with our 6 or 7 year old Apple iBooks (or really even the new HP’s which to this day are used rarely by more than 1 or 2 teachers- they use them a lot though) so I explained to my principal at that time that for the price of new batteries ($3000 for 30 batteries) we could have the only 1:1 laptop class in the entire school district of 60,000 students. She had the money and we went from there. Then because we did a few things (blogs and the like) a rare time when there was some money to try out new things, our class was named the school district’s model tech class (they had to designate a classroom because a grant required that). We got an interactive whiteboard, some cameras and a few other pieces AND permission to try things out – that’s the key right there.

It’s a much longer story than that, but that’s the gist of it. Hope that helps.

Learning is messy!

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The Tightwad Tech – The Interview

A few weeks ago, after many attempts trying to find a time we could all make, Mark and Shawn at The Tightwad Tech managed to coral Lisa Parisi and myself across timezones long enough to interview us about how we utilize a changed pedagogy utilizing tech (usually for free – hence the “tightwad” connection). Here is a link to the podcast. We had a great time. Give it a listen … and Thanks to Mark and Shawn for inviting us!

Learning is messy!

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Loma Prieta Earthquake 20th Anniversary

20 years ago today I was living with my wife of all of 2 months in the San Francisco Bay Area. I had just gotten home from school and settled on the couch to watch the Giants / A’s World Series when the place started shaking and the power went out. I glanced out the window as a “tidal wave” rolled back and forth in the apartment pool emptying the top fourth of it on the surrounding concrete deck. The shaking continued and the light fixture over our dining table danced and swayed as dishes rattled and clanked in the kitchen cupboards.

When the shaking stopped I ran down to the garage, jumped in my car and turned on the radio to find out just how bad things were. My initial thoughts were that it “Hadn’t been that bad,” but then I realized that depended just how far away the epicenter was. As I was finding radio stations still on the air, the garage light came on and I dashed back to the living room to see what TV might tell me. None of the stations were transmitting yet, so I grabbed a new video tape, slammed it into our VCR and pushed record, when channel 5 in SF came back on the air 5 minutes later I captured their next 5 hours of coverage, a tape I still have.

Meantime, my wife was on the 38th floor of the office building where she worked in downtown San Francisco. She was well trained and found herself hanging on while standing in the door frame of her office. Later building engineers would inform them that the building swayed 6 feet in both directions (as designed) during the quake. The power went out, and so she made her way down 38 flights of stairs lighted only by battery powered emergency lights. When she emerged from the building she found the street littered with chunks of concrete fascia from the Southern Pacific Building. The Bay Bridge had been damaged and BART (rapid transit train) was not running so she was stuck in San Francisco for the night.

I didn’t hear from her for about 3 hours when I managed to get a dial tone and called her at her sister’s apartment. She was holed up there with no power or water for the night. The darkness was only broken by the lights from National Guard helicopters that were landing and taking off from the park next to the apartment. She managed to get home the next day on a ferry and bus trip.

I was teaching sixth grade and the next day found out that one of my student’s father, who was an Oakland fireman, had not been heard from. 2 or 3 days later the family found out he was fine, but working non stop trying to save people trapped in the Nimitz Freeway collapse.

There is so much more of the story, but that’s all I have time to share right now.

Learning is messy!

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OK!

Me to one of my 4th grade students:
    “Hey, you’ve been out for 3 days, did you have the flu?”

Student:
    “No, that’s what we thought at first, but I just had a fever, was throwing up, achy, and had a sore throat.”

Me:
    “OK, glad you’re back.”

Learning is messy!

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Shaken Not Stirred

Seismograph – University of Nevada, Reno, 11:45PM last night

Reported to be a 5.0 quake

 

UPDATE: Quake now said to have been 4.7 … cracked some house walls in northwest Reno, busted some sprinkler pipes, busted the flume used to bring lumber down to Reno from Lake Tahoe in the 1800’s … now used to bring water to the Chalk Bluff Water Treatment plant.

We’ve had numerous earthquakes in the Reno, Nevada, area this week. Mainly a cluster of them in the northeastern part of town. Most of course are 2.0 on the Richter Scale or less, which means few even feel them, to some in the 4.0 range which are good jolts. Right after watching the local news coverage about them last night the strongest one yet hit at 11:40PM – a 5.0. Shook for 3 to 5 seconds at our house and you could hear windows rattle some. Haven’t heard yet whether there was any damage anywhere … wouldn’t be surprised to see stores with stuff spilled on the floor from shelves though.

My wife and I lived in the San Francisco area during the 1989 quake during the World Series between the Giants and A’s. I was in the East Bay and got shaken really well, but my wife was on the 38th floor of an office building in downtown San Francisco. Power went out. No elevators. Had to walk down 38 flights of stairs. The engineers later told them the building tipped 6 feet in each direction during the quake, which is what they are designed to do to absorb the movement.

Earthquakes are messy!

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