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Update: Our High Hopes High Altitude Balloon Project

Thursday we launched our balloon. It reached an altitude of over 107,800 feet, the flight lasted about 90 minutes, the coldest temperature encountered was -80F, our camera took almost 500 pictures.

My 4th grade students have each already posted on their blogs, pieces that share a bit about the launch and a “Wordless Photo Essay” about the day. We are still working on stories where each student has to tell the story of the flight from the point of view of the balloon. They will be able to illustrate their stories with photos we have already posted on our class Flickr page (check them out – way cool – especially these taken by our class onboard camera). We hope to make multi-media presentations that combine the story from preparation through recovery using iPhoto, iMovie and Garage Band.

One of the photos taken at over 100,000 feet on the way down.

On the science side, we are learning how to edit Wiki pages while making a supporting page for the project – The High Hopes High Altitude Balloon Project wiki will have pages that share links to the science behind the project as well as links to the Flickr photos, blogs, videos and multi-media projects we are producing. Note the link on the main page to a map that shows the path, time, altitude and more of the flight. If you click on the red dots they display the statistics for that point in the trip – we were able to follow the journey live using the map.

One of the highlights of the project was developing and sharing our “High Hopes” for our school, community and the world. The students all wrote their own. We took a photo of each student against a sky background and using FD’s Flickr Toys each student made what we called a “StratoCard” (because the balloon would make it into the stratosphere) and we sent these up with the balloon as a keepsake. In addition the students used their blogs to solicit “High Hopes” from around the world. We burned these to a CD and sent the world’s high hopes aloft as well. We received “Hopes” from England, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and across the US. Perhaps the most poignant however, were the “Hopes” we received from Bangkok, Thailand, where rioting and violence have been issues of  late. Students there shared their hopes that people would stop starting fires, stop releasing pets into the streets as they flee, and in general promote peace.

I just wish we had more than 6 days of school left – there is so much we could do with all these experiences and I haven’t even mentioned the temperature and other data we collected. And on that note I should mention that The UNR scientists that ran the project from their end, Dr. Jeffrey C. LaCombe, Associate Professor, Chemical & Metallurgical Engineering and Dr. Eric L. Wang, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering – want to do this again next school year! I have “High Hopes” that we will!

Learning is messy!

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Update: Our “High Hopes” High Altitude Balloon Project

Travis Fields, a graduate student in mechanical engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno, and the scientist leading our high altitude balloon project visited our school today to talk to our 4th graders.  He explained some of the science that they work on. Things like they are required (yes required) in some classes to design high tech dune buggies, race cars and more (see photo) They are graded on their design, explanation on why it will work and then construction and testing.

vehicles
Very few of our students have family members that have attended college, so this was a great opportunity for them to see the possibilities. Many were confused at first that you could actually take classes in this kind of thing … priceless!
Next Travis showed them a video clip they made exploding a balloon containing hydrogen gas … we had to watch it twice. They are filling our balloon with hydrogen because it is much cheaper than helium … helium has to be mined and the deposits are running out, so the price has skyrocketed.
He explained that the research they are doing with balloons is mainly about stabilizing the payloads during flight so that certain kinds of data and samples can be obtained without the constant movement that happens now. Balloon flight is very cheap … no, very, very cheap compared to rockets, so figuring out how to do this would be huge.
He also informed us that they have decided to use a 3,000 gram balloon instead of the 1200, so that means we were wrong when we claimed that the balloon would get at least 80,000 feet. Now it should make 100,000 feet+. They are trying out a new balloon release system during our flight that will … well … release the balloon after it bursts and the parachute deploys so that it isn’t hanging below the parachute flopping and banging into the payloads and causing havoc.

He showed how we will track the balloon online during it’s flight and explained that sometimes it takes 6 hours or more to find the balloon after it’s 2 hour flight – about 90 minutes up and 30 minutes down. He checked out our payload design and said it was basically sound … gave us a few tips on attaching a back-up line in case something happens to our rigging.

If you are interested we are still taking “High Hopes” comments to send up with the balloon … now even higher.
Learning is messy!
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Come Join Our “High Hopes” High Altitude Balloon Project

With the help of  Dr. Jeffrey C. LaCombe, University of Nevada, Reno faculty member in Materials Science & Engineering, my students and two other fourth grades at my school are designing and building “payloads” that will be launched on a high altitude balloon that will reach (if there are no complications) at least 80,000 feet. As part of the camera, temperature and other data gathering instruments our payload will contain, my students are writing their “High Hopes” for their school, community and the world. We want to include yours’ too! Here is how it is explained on our class blog along with links to the other parts of our project. Please comment on our class blog if you and/or your students are interested in joining in:

We have “High Hopes” for our school, community and the world. We also are part of a project to send a high altitude balloon that will include a “payload” we get to build with a camera that will snap a photo every 5 seconds for the over 2 hours it will take to float up to over 80,000 feet. That is over 15 miles! We will also monitor temperature and other readings.

We thought it would be cool to include our “High Hopes” as part of the payload so they really will be “High Hopes!” It turns out we have room to include everyones’ “High Hopes” and we want to include YOUR “High Hopes” too!

Just before we launch our balloon on May 27, 2010, we will copy all the comments you leave on this post with your own “High Hopes” to a CD or DVD and send them up with ours. That way your “High Hopes” will actually be raised up really, really high too!

We are doing other activities too. We are learning about lighter than air balloons, air pressure, the atmosphere and more. We have already written blog posts on this blog that include videos we produced about the science involved in balloon flight. In addition we have a wiki page we are designing to share our learning and news about our project. – Here is a link. We also have photos from our classroom learning and will include photos from the balloon flight on our class Flickr page.

We want to thank – teachers and students from The University of Nevada, Reno, for supporting and helping us with this project.

So if you or your class would like to participate, just leave your “High Hopes” in the comments on this blog post. We will do the rest.

 

Leave your comment in a form something like this:

I live in (Your City and Country) and my “High Hopes” for my school, community and the world are …..

So click the comment link on this blog post and send us your “High Hopes” right away!

Here are some samples of our own “High Hopes” to give you some examples:

I live in Sparks, Nevada, USA and my High Hope for the world is to keep the world safe and a better place to live.

I live in Sparks, Nevada and my High Hope for the world is education for the kids that don’t have a school to learn in.

 

I live in Sparks, Nevada and my “High Hopes” for the world include all people to stop violence and live in peace. But my Highest Hope for the world is to stop hunger and give people food.

I live in Sparks, Nevada, and My “High Hopes” for school include graduating high school and working hard to improve my grades. But my Highest Hope for school is to graduate college and get a good job that I like.

I live in Sparks, Nevada, and my “High Hopes” for my community include police because they keep us safe, hospitals because they can heal and fix the injuried and schools so we can graduate school.

I live in Sparks, Nevada and my High Hope for the world is ending homelessness because it’s kind of sad that someone has no roof over their head.

Learning is messy!

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Make Their Day!

My 4th graders are mostly second language learners and on IEP’s so they need lots of practice using correct English, punctuation and spelling. Since we blog, Skype, make wiki pages and more, I believe constantly exposing them to the ethics, safety and respect that having a presence online demands. To that end I devised a new blogging activity for them to participate in.

Kids like to help out. That’s just the way they are. So I chose a 1st grade class that blogs and explained to my students that being “older” they could “Make The Day” for these younger students by leaving them some positive, supportive comments. We even discussed any experiences they had being included in a game or activity when they were “young” by older kids and what that was like for them.

So far they have taken to this idea very enthusiastically! Here is the activity description from our class blog:

“This week we are going to practice making positive, supportive comments and make the day for younger bloggers at the same time! First, go to the first grade blog linked on our class wiki page. Then find a blog post that you make a connection with. You might have to deal with “invented spelling” that you have to decipher. EXAMPLE: It is a post about a cat and you have a cat too.

Next, say something positive about what they wrote or the picture that might accompany the post, like: “I like how you described your cat. I have one too.”

Then ask them a question like: “My cat is white, what color is your cat?”

Leave it fairly simple like that, after-all they are 1st graders.

Edit it and post it to their site.

Have fun and MAKE THEIR DAY!”

Learning is messy!

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New Report Finds That Writing Can Be Powerful Driver for Improving Reading Skills

Some will say this is so obvious that it goes without saying … and I would tend to agree, but I think it’s one of those studies that allows us something to point at with authority to those that don’t get it.

From the National Writing Project web site:

New Report Finds That Writing Can Be Powerful Driver for Improving Reading Skills

From the NWP web site:

“The majority of American students still do not read or write well enough to meet grade-level demands, and poor literacy skills play a role in why many students do not complete high school.

To help reverse that trend, the authors of Writing to Read: Evidence for How Writing Can Improve Reading (PDF) call for writing to complement reading instruction because each type of practice supports and strengthens the other.

The report provides practitioners with research-supported information about how writing improves reading while making the case for researchers and policymakers to place greater emphasis on writing instruction as an integral part of school curriculum.”

(Link to the PDF of the report) Writing to Read: Evidence for How Writing Can Improve Reading, a new report from Carnegie Corporation of New York published by the Alliance for Excellent Education.

From the report:

“Writing practices cannot take the place of effective reading practices. Instead, writing practices complement reading practices and should always be used in conjunction, with each type of practice supporting and strengthening the other.

This study shows that students’ reading abilities are improved by writing about texts they have read; by receiving explicit instruction in spelling, in writing sentences, in writing paragraphs, in text structure, and in the basic processes of composition; and by increasing how much and how frequently they write. Our evidence shows that these writing activities improved students’ comprehension of text over and above the improvements gained from traditional reading activities such as reading text, reading and rereading text, reading and discussing text, and receiving explicit reading instruction.”

Learning is messy!


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Part of the Problem?

Talking to teachers at my school today about how we could raise our test scores gave me some further insight into why change doesn’t happen. They tend to jump into solving “the problem” by doing what comes naturally to them. They focus on attacking the problem they are given – Getting our students to do much better on the very testing that they have some, to many issues with. But they don’t make the jump then to speaking up about that they have huge issues with the testing and trying to get our students to do well on the current type and format of testing … that the testing is a disconnect from the learning our students should be involved in.

They totally get the vast disconnect and the implications … but they don’t even think for a second about questioning that. It doesn’t enter their mind to question it … because we just don’t do that … we do what we are told … and/or that’s never entered their minds, that what they believe and have come to through their education, experience and common sense has any value or should be considered. They have years of experience and a masters degree and tons of training … but who are they to use that to make decisions about student learning?

That is administrations role (they have been told). If I or someone else raises those issues they totally agree … if they are told we should be bringing up these issues they totally agree … as long (pretty much) as it isn’t them that brings it up. This is partly their fault, and partly what has happened after 8 years of being told what we think is not under consideration, just do the program … don’t question it, it is “research based” (and the university profs don’t help here mostly in the classes teachers take from them they reinforce it).

Just do what we are told. Deal with the problem we are given … not what we believe is the real problem.

Learning is messy!

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A Conversation About “The BluePrint”

Massie Ritsch http://twitter.com/ED_Outreach (link to his appearance on The Colbert Report) with the US Department of Education, and a teacher on special assignment named Jose Rodriguez, contacted me through Twitter after I made a few comments about the ESEA “Blueprint” We talked for close to an hour and they allowed me to dump most of my concerns and issues on them.

They were very respectful and supportive and allowed me to carry on and on (as I’m known to do) about the issues … dang I start out slow and get rolling along and become an avalanche about a third of the way through … I just get way too fired up. I know that’s mostly a good thing, but afterwards I always figure I’m way too over the top.

Massie and Jose explained that one of the changes I would probably like is that if a student demonstrates progress (say a 4th grader moves from high 1st grade level in reading to third) then not only would the school not be sanctioned but possibly rewarded. Definitely a positive change. They also feel the grants for science and the arts and other long neglected subjects that states CAN apply for might help alleviate the very narrowed curriculum students of poverty endure.

I pointed out that one of my major concerns was the wording. When the document says that states MAY apply, then we are probably right back to a narrowed curriculum because the people that make decisions at the state, school board and district / administration level will too often not value those education pieces for our at risk students, or fall prey to the politics and bad assumption that kids need to have mastered the “basics” first without understanding that when they miss all that schema development, reading becomes a boring chore instead of a window on the world. BTW – “states may choose / school districts may decide” was the same kind of wording that was in NCLB that infuriated so many of us (because mostly they didn’t decide to do those things).

I said the same about innovation … don’t give us 4 “models” to fit into that are narrow charter models obviously designed by the Broad and Gates people that have infiltrated positions in the Ed Department, give us REAL opportunities to innovate. I’ve mentioned often that the “Programs” pushed by the textbook companies are not making teachers more accountable, they are giving teachers cover. “I followed the research based reading and math programs to the letter. My principal observed me doing so and has copies of my lesson plans that follow the program to the letter. Oh, our test scores are too low? Don’t look at me, I followed the ‘research based’ program. Talk to admin and the school board that chose the program and requires us to follow it.”

They had me describe how I use 21st century tools in my teaching and said they were impressed … but I mentioned that much of what I do I have to “get away with” (sort of) … isn’t really the “program” I am supposed to be using. I have to get the required pieces out of the way so I can get to the meaty stuff. Therefore how can that be a model for others?

We also discussed the “all education problems would be solved if we just had good teachers” message that runs throughout. They claim that they realize that is harsh language, but that they understand that there are many other contributing factors. I suspect that this is another of those, “let’s appear to be tough to get the legislation passed pieces.”

In the end I mentioned I hope this wasn’t just a “let them vent and maybe they’ll feel better session.” That issues and concerns they are gleaning from these talks might REALLY be considered. They said they took notes, they assured me that Arne Duncan was listening and is aware that there are concerns.

The upshot I think is that educators, coming off the last 10 years of NCLB disconnects and disappointments, were and are caught up in that “Yes We Can!” attitude and expecting great and profound changes in “schooling”. So many see so much potential, need and opportunity for change and how a new pedagogy could transform education for all … and this legislation just isn’t going to get us there, or even a good chunk of the way there anytime soon.

It is an improvement, but political realities, societal understandings (or misunderstandings) and the difficulty humans have with change are not going to bring us fulfillment through this bill … but to put a positive spin on the situation, at least maybe the process (after the healthcare mess is over?), will bring at least a modicum of national focus and discourse as the “ESEA blueprint” moves up the agenda?

Learning is messy!

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Our Blog Post of the Week Award!

From our class blog:

We are each reading other students’ blogs this week to find  well written, interesting blog posts. When we find one we think might be a winner we cut and paste the URL into a Word page, write a short description and save it. Each day this week we will add to our list of nominees and then on Friday we will decide which one will be our winner. We have put a template for a possible post you might write to your winner. So let’s find some really great posts and make someone’s day by making them our winner!

Winners name here

Congratulations! You are my blog post of the week award winner!

I have been looking for great student blog posts all week. I found several good ones, but I decided yours was the best!

_____________________________________

The reason I chose this post was …

I also liked …

My favorite part of this post is …

I really liked how you …

__________________________________________

Again, congratulations for being my winner this week!

Your first name

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Thoughts On The New Elementary and Secondary Education Act “Blueprint”

Some quick thoughts / reactions about the new ESEA “Blueprint” that just came out. Note that my thoughts are shaded deeply by the fact that I teach elementary school:

Innovation is not just taking a “proven” or “promising” already tried technique or program (i.e. KIPP) and tweaking it a bit. Innovation often comes from doing something really differently and having the time to continue what works, and change what doesn’t until, hopefully, you develop a working model. The ESEA Blueprint seems to support mostly the current charter schools that are already in place and basically allows tweaking them a bit and calls that “innovation.” Unfortunately many of the charters that have been given great notoriety have also been found to have great issues, or are not all they’ve been pumped up to be by those with vast amounts of money that are promoting them. Rich people that have no real education experience outside of their own (and didn’t Gates drop out?). Certainly the Gate’s and Broad’s  can have a voice, but the Billionaire Boys Club’s voices are too greatly amplified by their wealth and too often take on smug, demeaning tones. They drown out and get precedence over those of us in that work day to day with students … and actually have degrees and experience in teaching.

How about part of the funding being earmarked for truly different approaches? Approaches that may expand the day, but do so by providing daily art, physical education, field studies (zoos, art, science and history museums, outdoor education), sports programs that include everyone. Schools that build schema by doing, instead of just building schema by looking at pictures and reading about it. But other models too. Why restrict ourselves if we are really looking to innovate and find what works for as many students as possible? (see bold print below)*

Professional Development – how about funding for PD? LOTS of PD. PD that teachers use to plan and design and discuss what their school will do, what materials and methods they will use, what assessments they will use to guide them and more. Then give them time (see above about trying different models) to work through things. But this PD money has to give teachers time before the school year (a week or 2 would be good, but maybe 3 weeks or more the first year to have time since they would be starting from scratch – oh and hold teachers accountable for what they do during this time – make them get the plan down and share it). This should include funding and time for training (as part of the PD, training that the teachers choose to support their plan – experts they bring in and so forth). (see bold print below)*

Then there needs to be more days throughout the year to re-visit and re-evaluate during the year, not waiting until after the year is up. Do these things –  and now you can hold education professionals that were trained to do just this kind of work accountable because it is their plan, methods, materials and changes they direct over time (5 years might be a fair amount of time to prove your plan) that either work or don’t work. Teachers that don’t like what the entire staff has designed will be more apt to leave on their own accord because the philosophy and pedagogy will be obvious, and built by the entire staff not dictated to them from above (Top-Down … isn’t that supposed to be avoided?). Teachers will find a school that fits their philosophy and pedagogy or not, at least that’s the idea. (see bold print below)*

This is the bold print referred to above:

Oh, and don’t give me the, “Your state / district / school could decide to do any of the above,” meme –

Might as well say NO you can’t do that. If I had a dollar for every time we heard during the last 10 years of NCLB, “If your state didn’t decide to do this or that, or if they decided to do that testing or whatever, that’s not the fault of NCLB, you should have pushed that at your state. That’s your union’s fault, state education systems fault, school board’s fault, admins fault, …” Again, you are really saying, “No, you can’t do that,” by throwing the decision to multiple layers of bureaucracy and washing your hands of the whole issue. Make it clear that all or most of these and other ideas are mandatory right in the legislation, or its all just fluff.

Don’t tell us that children’s healthcare, nutrition and general well being are essential if they are going to be successful in school and then not provide that …  but make us accountable. If it is essential then it is essential … hold us accountable after it is in place and ongoing. Yes I know there is a plan for healthcare in the works (maybe), but much of it gets phased in over time …

Just a start, more later … I hope, add your thoughts.

Learning is messy!

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National Writing Project Funding Threatened!

That’s right … and maybe worse – that puts funding for the incredible WritingFix web site in jeopardy too! I’m a Writing Project Consultant, and in fact I’m teaching a class right now for the Northern Nevada Writing Project. These are programs and resources that have proved invaluable over time.

Link to National Writing Project web site.

Link to National Writing Project’s Ning.

From the WritingFix web site:

WritingFix is in real danger of disappearing. The National Writing Project–the most successful and effective national professional development organization in the history of our country–is in true danger of losing its funding. The NWP’s annual funding to our Northern Nevada Writing Project could very well go away, which means this website would no longer be available; in addition, thousands of other NWP-sponsored projects all over the country would disappear. Click here to read details about this frightening budget development. If you, your colleagues, and your students value this website, we urge you to send a letter to any of our nation’s legislators, asking them to sign George Miller’s Dear Colleague Letter in support of the NWP. These letters must be received by March 12. Please don’t delay. Even a short letter will do. As this website has tried to prove since 2001, writing is powerful. Writing a letter today could save this website and a powerful national organization that has supported teachers for over thirty years.

In addition check out this post over at Bud Hunt’s blog where he lays out a bit more information. Zac Chase also has a post that includes links to studies that show the effectiveness of the NWP HERE.

Please contact you representatives!

Learning is messy!!!