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Reno Bike Project Winding Up!

We still have a few minor loose ends to finish up, but today we finally can say we have completed our Reno Bike Project, project. Amazing what we got done when we got some consistent time to work the last two weeks (although we took three required assessment tests this week). As I’ve mentioned in my last 2 posts, I turned the responsibility for the last 6 web pages over to each of the six groups in my room with minimum direction (each group was given one of the pages to do randomly – they had to do the page they got). At the end of the day Tuesday the pages were pretty sad and I was afraid maybe they weren’t ready to take this on. But Wednesday we looked at each page as a class and brainstormed ideas and I saw major improvement. Thursday we looked at some professionally made pages and things really improved, and today they just went nuts. The wikis really came out well, with only “consulting” duties on my part, mainly at the request of the students … “does this look better or should we do it like this?”

We also put the final touches on our PSA (video) which had to be re-edited to change the URL it references. So today we burned multiple DVD copies to send to local TV stations.

So what went into doing this project?

*We had a class meeting when this opportunity first came up to decide whether or not to take on the project in the first place.
*We took a field trip to the Reno Bike Project where we shot video and took many of the digital photos we archived on our Flickr accounts.
*We had guests visit our classroom and talk to us about the Reno Bike Project, bicycle racing and the health benefits of bicycling.

*We researched on the web for information for all the wiki pages we designed and to learn more about the science curriculum that was much of the basis for this project.

*We used our Diigo account to archive and annotate much of our research.
*Maggie Tsai from Diigo visited our classroom and taught students about Diigo and encouraged them about the work they were doing.

*We storyboarded, wrote (as a whole class shared writing) the script for our PSA.
*We had numerous discussions about the order of scenes and wording and which clips made the most impact.
*We practiced and then recorded the voiceovers for the video.
*We designed posters, one of the loose ends we need to finish … we have to change the URL on those before we publish them … will probably put some on our Flickr account later.
*We peer edited each others’ work over and over checking writing style and content and whether or not links worked correctly or whether someone could be understood on the video.
Students set up various photos to use in class and outside and took them themselves.
*We Skyped in Will Richardson to talk about healthy eating habits, specifically being a vegetarian.
*We blogged about various aspects of the project.
*Students designed graphics for the PSA and for images on their wikis and posters.
*Students designed the layouts for their wiki pages.
*Students noted “experts” (classmates) at certain aspects of getting the formatting of their wikis to look “right” or import a photo and would enlist their help … which was fun to watch. “Why is she over in your group?” … “Because she knows how to get this photo to show up on the right part of the page with the caption under it and she’s showing us how.”
*Lots of collaboration, planned and not (see above).
*Lots of “messy” learning … mostly NOT planned. : )

*I’m sure I left out lots, but it’s getting late.

Learning is messy!

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Messy Wikis – Update

So if you saw my post yesterday about setting my students loose on designing our latest wikis that support our Reno Bike Project, project you might want to check them out again today. They have already changed, and mostly, improved. We re-visited them today, discussed making them better, looked at other similar web sites and then I set them loose again. We will continue that process … so check back and note our progress.

Learning is messy!

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Messy Wikis

So my students have been making wikis for awhile and I decided to make the last 6 we needed for our Reno Bike Project, project  by having them demonstrate what they’ve learned. We brainstormed as a class what information each wiki page should have and then I gave each group of 3 to 4 students one of the pages to make without any other guidance from me.

We are under a time crunch (9 days of school left) so this was hard for me to watch as the clock was ticking, and mostly the messy side of things happened. What’s going to be fun is watching these pages evolve in the next few days. We will review them as a class, in groups, and individually … and tweak them continually.

I do think I designed the brainstorming session today poorly and that made it harder for students to do their jobs than it should have been, so we will re-visit that tomorrow and go from there. If you’d like to watch the fun ensue here is a link to the main page (that is one of the pages one group is in charge of btw) that contains all the links to the pages the students have already made and are in the process of making now.

Learning is messy!

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CNN Asking For Viewer’s Opinions On The State Of Education In This Country

I received the following email today. Thought it might be a good way to voice your vision of education:

Hi Brian,

I’m working with CNN, who is asking its viewers to help them report on the state of primary education in the U.S. during Campbell Brown’s show No Bias. No Bull.

To do so, they are inviting their viewers to submit a video that articulates their point of view on the state of our nation’s educational system – whether it uncovers problems or shortcomings in the community, highlights success stories or proposes solutions. (emphasis added)

You understand the power of using technology to teach and learn, so we’d love to hear and see you use that power to share your thoughts on primary education.

To submit a video, please go to www.iReport.com/ClassProject . The website will take any kind of video format; all you have to do is tag it “education”.

So here is your big chance – check out the website.

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Twitter Having Its 15 Minutes of Fame?

Twitter is all over the news, magazine and online articles, the talk shows, comes up in the plots of various TV shows, now Apple is rumored to be buying it. Now that Twitter has gone “Mainstream” (or more mainstream?) I get about 5 pieces of “Twitter-spam” a day. Nefarious characters that want to follow me (that I block), to companies or representatives that follow me because something about them appears in a Tweet. “So-and-so please Skype me about that,”…. and 5 mintes later 3 people with some kind of tie to Skype are following me. Does this bode well for Twitter? Is this like a sports star getting the photo on the cover of Sports Illustrated and then having a spate of hard times? I guess we’ll find out.

Learning is messy!

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So How Could I Still Teach My Students If School Was Cancelled?

NOTE: This post is really from a comment I left on my own post over at “In Practice“.

Think of all the learning time being lost by those students already on leave because of the H1N1 flu issue. What if this did become more widespread and we did have many students out of school for a week or more? My school district has already informed us that if even 1 student is diagnosed at our school with H1N1 then they would close that school for 5 to 7 days AND those days don’t have to be made up at the end of the school year. That’s a lot of lost learning time AND lots of free time on the hands of kids that may lead to other issues.

My students are at a bit of a disadvantage over others simply because not all of them are connected at home, but if I had time I could probably make this work for 60 to 80% of them if they were sent home due to a flu outbreak or other reason in the future. My wife’s students are 100% online at home, so think of this in terms of whatever your situation might be.

What could I make work? I could make school happen for my students from home. How?

Well first all my students blog, so I could leave them assignments on our class blog for them to research, write about and then submit to me to check and even comment back to them about. In fact just using their blog I could carry on a conversation about their work on almost any topic. I could even post math problems for them to do, science, social studies … really almost any subject. I could post photos on our Flickr account (and elsewhere), videos for them to watch, links to web pages of all kinds on any subject for them to read or interact with and then report to me about their learning in a way where I can interact with them about it. Oh, and they could do the same, posting video or photos they’ve taken (maybe just with their or a parents cell phone), to demonstrate learning or to build content to present online to the rest of us. And “US” doesn’t just have to be our class, others could join in or at least view and comment on our work.

I could even provide a field trip or guest speaker from anywhere in the world via Ustream or Mogulus and they could interact about it in the chat – ask questions, and then write about it afterwards and even have discussions.

Using Google Docs I could even enter a document with a student or even a group of students to work on or ask questions about or get feedback about.

Also we could collaborate on any of the above activities along with other students anywhere in the world.

Using the links we already have on our class wiki page I can have them visit different free online math, language, science, social studies activities and more … and add new ones as needed.

All for free, using tools students already know how to use. And understand, we could do this easily – including collaborating with other students because we already do this, we already have the contacts and network with other students and teachers set-up. We already blog and use Google Docs and Skype and wikis and more with students all over the world. We are ready to go.

Now I have just scratched the surface here, applications like Ning,  Moodle, Elluminate and so many more could further facilitate what I described above.

So time spent at home instead of school could be just about as productive as being in school – I assume I’d still be getting paid even if school has been closed for the flu (or other reason), students have something productive to do, aren’t spreading germs, do you see a downside? – I’m not.

I hope others will further elaborate how they see this working  as comments. I really held back on ALL that is possible here so have at it!

Too bad school couldn’t be more like this all the time!

Learning is messy!

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My New Challenge

My school, which was built on the cheap in the early sixties, is about to get a major overhaul this summer. Part of that is going to include a new state-of-the-art wireless internet system. That’s great news. However (don’t you hate howevers?), I’ve been informed that our 9 year old iBooks probably won’t be able to access the system because they don’t have the correct security software (I believe it’s a WEP thing). I do have 11 newer Macbooks, but that sinks any hope of 1:1 for next year. In reality things weren’t looking good anyhow. I’m really down to about 22 or so working laptops (2 – 4 more sort of work) and the folksy-ness of using 9 year old computers, which worked well for a long time, is starting to wear thin. They are finally showing their age in major ways.

This of course coincides with the economic crash and my state being last in funding education … our governor announced yesterday that he wants to cut education even more now. Therefore funding isn’t looking good. So my newest challenge is to come up with 19 new Macbooks (BTW netbooks are out, our IT dept. doesn’t allow them, yet) or HP’s (certain models only). I’ll have to do a bunch of my own “messy” learning to come up with a way to make this work.

Learning is messy!

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Change

This whole economic crisis and change in government since the election has me thinking about education’s slow progress.

Businesses are having to deal with change, and are being demanded on to make change quickly for the good of the economy and the well being of our country. Businesses, especially the ones most effected by the economic crisis can’t change fast enough …  and we better notice that change! … it better be REAL change! How can we get society to think that way about education?

Not only do schools have the same disdain for change as any other body, but deep down our customers don’t want us to change much because their advantage, or their kids advantage is lost otherwise, they think, because if they don’t understand the system explicitly, they can’t game the system for their child as easily and they don’t feel as “in control” of  their child’s education. Which is understandable enough, but ultimately it damns our schools with change that happens excruciatingly slow, much too slow, to keep up with the realities of the world. Then we all wonder why our schools aren’t better. Better at being places of learning for all students. Better at motivating. Better at being places students want to be more of the time.

Just a few Sunday morning thoughts.

Learning is messy!

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Extra Time In School? If Done Right, I’m For It!

Note this is a crosspost from the In Practice Blog.

David Warlick and others have jumped on Arne Duncan (who probably should be jumped on about a few things) about his statement that students should spend more time in school. David disagrees vehemently, and the points he makes are good, but I think he leaves out some important considerations involving “At Risk” students and elementary students in general.

Extra time IS a bad idea, a really bad idea,  if it is just more time and intensity of what is being done now. (David’s main point)

As I’ve said over and over,  the lack of experience with sports, the arts (including dance, drama and music), scouting and other outdoor education, attending camp, and the like have major detrimental effects on the overall education of students of poverty.

So if the extra time Duncan refers to is spent on these areas (and a few others) then I believe he is on the right track and I would support him.

After-school activities like sports and arts programs started to be whittled away from budgets 30 years ago (and cut almost completely from elementary school). The upshot is that parents have had to spend more money and time enrolling their kids in these programs elsewhere … guess whose kids DON’T get enrolled and aren’t driven all over town to practices and  special clinics and tournaments? And think about all the wasted gas and time and extra air pollution caused by all those miles when kids could have just stayed after-school, and participated there.

Students in our primary grades are well schooled in phonics, word attack skills and other required reading skills. However when they reach upper elementary and are required to be independent readers they are so lacking in schema that reading is boring and they struggle to engage with it and fall behind again … worse they learn reading is not relevant to them.

My students go home right after school each day and because they live in an area of poverty and high crime they spend little or no time outside even playing games like tag and dodge ball … so sportsmanship and being a member of a team and an emphasis on physical fitness are not in their experience.

The kinds of “language intense” activities technology has allowed my students to participate in that are highly engaging (usually), is one huge step in the right direction. Since our schools tend to be severely segregated still by socio-economics, technology is one way to get kids exposed and collaborating with students from other experiences across the city, state, country and world.

At Risk students come to us woefully behind in language, math and learning skills the moment they hit kindergarten. We often hear the “2,000 hours” statistic … students require about 2,000 hours of quality language experience BEFORE kindergarten to be successful readers. Activities such as being read to, storytelling about family history, experiences and just … well.. stories .. and having conversations about how things work and why they are and a base vocabulary. The problem is making up that 2,000 hours AFTER a student hits kindergarten. Our current system assumes those hours are in place and so doesn’t leave any room to make them up in the regular school day, especially the way it is structured now. Spend more time on these endeavors, especially in K – 2 years and I’m for that extra time again.

If this “extra-time” in school included more time and funding for field trips and field trips that come to you … like when someone brings their collection of snakes or a science show or activity in your auditorium,  and art experiences and a strong PE program starting in Kindergarten, well then I’m for it again, because for my students I don’t know where else they would or could get those experiences. The elementary schools tend to be neighborhood schools more than middle or high schools are so transportation is much less an issue.

If the extra time included regular science and social studies and art classes, since for years now I “break the rules” to teach those subjects outside of embedding them in Reading (which is OK if you are integrating, but not good if that IS your science and social studies program), I’m for it too.

Extra time in and at school? If done well … sign me up!!!

Learning is messy!

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