It was and is awesome! Day 2 went well too. Picture now – 1000 words soon. (after report cards)
Category Archives: Change
Inclusion Via Skype – We’re Almost Completely There!!!
This post refers to previous postings (here and here) about a fourth grade student in my class – that because of Luekemia and the chemo/radiation treatments she is receiving cannot attend school.
We’re almost there! After more obstacles and issues than you would believe, today I installed a brand new iMac computer, DSL line and Skype connection at Celest’s house. The chemo and radiation have taken their toll on her hair, but she absolutely glowed when Doug Taylor (sixth grade teacher who helped me set things up and then returned to school for the trial run – THANKS DOUG!) answered her Skype call from my classroom (see photo) and we made the connection for the first time. A little later we hung-up, I left and returned to school, and then so she could practice making the connection herself we tried it again. My principal was sitting there when we made the connection again.
We will repeat the process again after lunch tomorrow (we have to take the NAEP test in the morning) and officially make her an attending member of a class she has been enrolled in since October for the first time. Hallelujah!
I will be posting a vidcast when we get it done.
Paper, Pencils and Books May Not Boost Student Achievement – Reprised
Ron Canuel has a post in “The Pulse” today where he questions the research on using pencils and pens in school. It reminded me of one of my own from April 14th, 2006, so I am reprinting it here:
Paper, pencils and books have been used in schools in America for more than a hundred years, probably for more than 200 years, lets just say for a long time. This concerns me because It appears to me that they may not boost student achievement. Sure, some students seem to do well using them, but our testing continues to show that many students continue to struggle and more schools are added to the list of those not meeting adequate yearly progress every year. Some of these schools use paper, pencils and books to the exclusion of almost any other teaching and learning tool.
I’ve been doing some of my own research in my own classroom and my findings seem to bear this out. This year I was determined to use paper, pencils and books as much as possible hoping that they would make a greater impact on my students’ learning. I have them use paper and pencils to copy things from the internet, I integrate books into PE by using them as bases during kickball, I’ve even integrated them into lunch by using them as trays in the cafeteria. We use paper and pencils to word process, participate in our drawing program and sometimes we trace pictures from books.
I use the “extra” problems in the back of the math book for lots and lots of math drill and practice, and starting in our primary grades we use books to teach reading and math and some of our students still aren’t performing well, in fact the longer students use paper, pencils and books the lower some score on standardized tests. I have a file cabinet full of reading worksheets that stress comprehension and vocabulary so this year I’ve used those with my students a lot. They seem to help a few kids, and they were excited about them at first but now some of them groan when I pass them out. I just don’t get why the kids aren’t doing better. I’m using paper and pencils and books constantly. I’ve even started having kids write over and over, “I will write and spell better,” but that hasn’t seemed to help either.
My school district spent literally millions of dollars on a new reading series this year and on math a few years ago. Frankly it seems like money down a rat hole to continue to invest precious tax dollars into tools that have hundreds of years of trial and seem to not boost student achievement.
Is anyone doing research on the use of these tools to see if they should continue to be used?
What? Maybe I haven’t been using paper, pencils and books correctly to support student learning? Maybe I’m using them to meet the needs of the industrial age when we aren’t in the industrial age any more? Maybe I need training in their effective use and my learning curve might take more than 2 or 3 years? Isn’t that kind of like the study that just came out about computers may not boost student achievement?
Oh! never mind.
GRRRRRRRR! #%#**#@#!!!!– But Its OK … We Will Still Make It Happen! Online Inclusion Update 3
This is an update of some earlier posts.
I got back from my trip to Houston this morning and immediately touched base to see if phone line installation, DSL hook-up and modem delivery had happened. It was confirmed – everything was finally in place – all I had to do was go and do the installation of modem, computer and train my student how to make things work. I even dragged Doug Taylor, a sixth grade teacher, along who knows more about IT than I ever will in case what should be a no-brainer install ran into problems. Plus, once we had things running Doug was going to drive back to school and test the Skype connection from the school end so we could be sure things would work.
Well, we ran into problems … but nothing Doug could help with. NO MODEM had been delivered after all. After a few quick calls we determined it just wasn’t going to happen today UUUUUURRRRRRRRGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!! So we packed up everything and left.
The upside is that I did finally meet my student in the flesh for the first time. She showed me some of her Christmas presents and I tried not to breathe my germs anywhere near her. Her wig (because of the chemo and radiation) looked good and she is really looking forward to getting this going. We will try again tomorrow if the modem is located – but she will only be around for a few days next week because of another procedure she has to have done. All the more reason we need to make this happen ASAP!
Learning is messy!!!!
Digital Video Class Just Adds To My Recent Optimism
30 minutes after Elizabeth’s presentation ended at 3:30 I was co-hosting a 4 hour class on digital video that will meet a total of 4 times. One area my school district has consistently tried to put tech into teachers’ and students’ hands has been digital video and photography. 7 years ago I took a digital video class that included a camera for everyone attending, and I have been hooked ever since. It is really what drove my principal to originally help write the grant that got us 30 firewire iBooks when they first hit the market. They are the ones that my fourth graders are using right now in our 1:1 laptop program.
On a side note, I felt my students were comfortable enough with basic use of their laptops that I have them using them with a substitute teacher in the room for 3 days – I know yesterday went well because I was actually onsite during our training so I touched base with both teacher and students and things went smoothly : ).
I’ve taught this digital video class 4 times before, and one of my misgivings has always been that after the class ends, how much have the teachers used the camera in their classroom with their students? Unfortunately, I’m afraid, not much. Only a very few teachers that I know that have gotten cameras that I have spoken to afterwards has ever told me about something they have done with students. But again, this group seems different. My cohort picked up on this too. This group was excited, asking questions, commenting on example videos we showed, and when we did a simple activity that involved them using their cameras for the first time they couldn’t get enough. They left class jazzed about showing up next week with some video shot that we can teach them how to edit. Several stayed behind to shake our hands and repeat how thrilled they are that they were given this opportunity!
Pinch me!
Mcrel Training
I’m writing this from 30,000 feet over the snow-dusted white peaks and red-brown valleys of the Great Basin Desert of Nevada on my way to Phoenix and then to Houston for the Promethean ActivBoard Conference there Tuesday and Wednesday.
I’ve blogged recently about how I am optimistic that attitudes are changing positively about how “school†is done and the role of technology and problem-based learning in education. Friday my school was visited by Elizabeth Hubbell from Mcrel, in-the-flesh, as opposed to online via Marratech and a web cam. Elizabeth presented to our “Focus Group†of 12 teachers that have ActivBoards installed in their classrooms, for a morning session, and then our entire staff for the afternoon. Her focus was on sharing how Marzano’s research supports using technology in schools and some resources to support doing that.
I’ve mentioned in the past how most teachers at my school (and district) have been lukewarm at best about technology. Most struggle with basic email skills such as attachments or downloading a digital camera. When they have been in-serviced about using tech it has often been done by me or the one other teacher on our staff that is skilled at integrating technology – so after awhile the message becomes too “inbred†and loses its punch. So having an “outsider†here with a new story to tell supported by Marzano’s research was a breath of fresh air.
One of the breakthroughs for many was that we could put a wireless laptop into their hands so that as Elizabeth shared sites and activities, teachers experienced them and discussed them immediately. Knowing who the “reluctant adopters†were in the audience gave me further optimism as I observed them make connections with what Elizabeth was showing them and their own perspectives on how this might impact their classrooms and the realization that we have two sets now of wireless laptops that can move around the school – RIGHT NOW – so they could actually do these things with their students next week.
We’ll see how it goes.
Students Today …
Do these sound like excuses you’ve heard the last few years?
Thanks to Sheldon Brown and Judy Brown for these:
UPDATE 1-2-06: Via Karl Fisch – These quotes are from David Thornburg’s book Edutrends 2010: Restructuring, Technology and the Future of Education (1992). I don’t have the book handy, but I believe he got them from a professor somewhere that had done the research. If you’re interested, I used them in this presentation, adding some of my own more recent experiences.
Students today can’t prepare bark to calculate their problems. They depend on their slates which are more expensive. What will they do when their slate is dropped and it breaks? They will be unable to write!”
Teachers Conference, 1703
Students today depend upon paper too much. They don’t know how to write on slate without chalk dust all over themselves. They can’t clean a slate properly. What will they do when they run out of paper?”
Principal’s Association, 1815
Students today depend too much upon ink. They don’t know how to use a pen knife to sharpen a pencil. Pen and ink will never replace the pencil.”
National Association of Teachers, 1907
Students today depend upon store-bought ink. They don’t know how to make their own. When they run out of ink they will be unable to write words of ciphers until their next trip to the settlement. This is a sad commentary on modern education.”
The Rural American Teacher, 1929
Students today depend upon these expensive fountain pens. They can no longer write with a straight pen and nib (not to mention sharpening their own quills). We parents must not allow them to wallow in such luxury to the detriment of learning how to cope in the real business world, which is not so extravagant.”
PTA Gazette, 1941
Ball point pens will be the ruin of education in our country. Students use these devices and then throw them away. The American virtues of thrift and frugality are being discarded. Business and banks will never allow such expensive luxuries.”
Federal Teacher, 1950
A New Horizon?
Dave and Will and others have recently posted about sensing a new attitude towards education. They experience that change while mainly talking to large groups attending conferences – conferences that are going to draw folks that probably already share their outlook. I’m seeing that resurgence too, but from a different population. I mentioned my feelings about that just last night.
What is important here is that I am experiencing that change at the local and even building level. Teachers in my school – the ones least likely to embrace new ways of thinking about learning are the ones giving me the most encouragement. Admittedly, some, if not a lot of that change has come about because we have acquired digital whiteboards, laptops, cameras and more just this school year. And some of these reluctant integrators have had a new digital whiteboard screwed into the wall literally covering-up their old whiteboard forcing them to at least try using technology. Our principal also built into our budget about $175 per teacher for field trips this year – it helped pay for our fourth grade trip up the mountain at Squaw Valley this fall.
So, yes, an influx of actual tech at your site can help – although we’ve had 30 wireless laptops available here for 7 years – and cameras and scanners and more, and they have rarely been used – most have never used them even though we have had trainings and encouragement from administration that it was OK to use it even when the heat from NCLB was the hottest.
So what has changed? Maybe the few of us pounding away has helped. Certainly more teachers have their own home computers and high-speed access. More teachers at my school have young children now (we’ve experienced a baby-boom of our own the last few years), are they seeing the light based on seeing their own kids’ futures? My principal has been pushing integrating tech (even though she is a novice – she is trying hard to learn) and experiential teaching and making connections hard. Maybe … probably it is all these things.
But I am also seeing it from teachers that have attended classes and workshops I’ve taught recently from other schools – even from schools where they tell me that their day is TOTALLY pre-scheduled by their principal. That when their principal walks through their room if it is not VERY obvious that they are employing one of several “programs of learning†they have in place, they are questioned and even reprimanded. Some of these teachers have started to work tech-as-a-tool for learning into these lessons to avoid suspicion. Others work it into their mandated half hour or 45 minute once a week computer lab time.
I also am hearing from some that they miss the creativeness of planning and implementing lessons totally designed by them. I feel this might actually be one of the biggest motivators for some. Learning and teaching as creative processes (what a concept!).
The point is that I’m seeing a change – and it has infused me with vigor and encouragement. Maybe we are seeing a new horizon – a new visual to pilot towards!
Happy 2007!
2006 is gone and a new year with new promise is staring us in the face. I’ve mentioned in several posts over the last few months that I sense a real change in attitude about education. Here is hoping that I’m right and that a year from now we will be discussing making further positive progress in the New Year ahead.
Have a good one! Happy New Year from Learning Is Messy!
If I have Limited Access to Computers, How Do I Have My Students Blog?
A third grade teacher in my district emailed me the following queries about blogging with her third graders:
“I established the blog with blogger.com and have been using it as part of my students 30 minutes/week in the computer lab. Unfortunately, I do not have access to the computers any other time during the week. If I did the students would be using the computer much more than they are. I have posted two items each week on the blog. One is related to the current HM story and it asks them to respond to the question that is posed. I have been using this for the students to get used to typing on the computer and being able to form reasonable sentences
I am having trouble with blogger, the computer assistant maintaining the computer lab says that it is their server that is causing the problem. The students try to post and it won’t accept their post, very frustrating. I hoped to move the students into having their own blog and then writing to each other in January. Third grade standards indicate that students need to know how to write a friendly letter and I thought this would be a fun way to write to each other and practice the skill. Any suggestions?
Also, do you have any other suggestions about how to use the blog in an entertaining/educational way since my students have limited access to computers?”
I have some ideas … but thought it would help to ask the experts. Any ideas?