My wife was correcting a math page done by her 4th graders. She finds one where the print is “grainy” … not like the rest. Why? Turns out one student lost their page … calls friend who has already completed problems … so the friend makes a copy and “whites out” the answers and the work they did, then faxes new “blank” page to classmate.
Is this what we mean by 21st century skills??? Part of me says yes,
and part ….
Learning is messy.
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Tags: 21stcentury skills
If you read my last post then you know we had a bit of a scare this week when suddenly access to our class blog was blocked at school. It turned out that the IT department was upgrading or tweaking the “filter” and Blogmeister accidentally was added to the block file – we had access again that evening. You might think this was a bit of an over-reaction on my part, but when I have conversations with the “higher-ups” in our school district IT department about how we blog .. and make and use wiki pages and Skype and such they always smile and say, “That’s great, but don’t talk about that too much. Just be happy you are able to do that NOW.” Not exactly a confidence builder. So when our blog access was suddenly blocked I thought, “Here it comes!”
We were just about to Skype with a class in Saskatchewan, Canada via Dean Shareski when I first noticed this, so I was slightly seething when we were Skyping.
Afterwards, I shared what had happened with the class and we discussed it for a few minutes. They were a bit upset, but that changed when I said, “What if this is it? What if we can’t blog anymore!?” I paused and let that sink in a minute as I scanned their faces looking for a reaction. You could see the gears turning in their heads and kind of a group realization thing happened.
We decided to blog about the situation … I explained that if nothing else we could post their writing the next day via my wireless card and modem. I’ve cut and pasted a few of their posts below without editing. Remember these are 5th graders, almost all “Second Language Learners” and children of poverty. Most hear nothing but Spanish or Vietnamese at home. You can tell by some of their wording and syntax errors … but these are their words. I’ve written before about how others will read these posts and wonder why you would post student writing that has errors? … but I know from whence these students come. I am blown away by the improvement. It used to take 4 to 10 re-writes and conferences with individual students to get to this point that they get to now on their own. I should just let them speak for themselves. You can read more on our class blog.
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Have you guys ever lost something? Well we lost something that we care about and that is our blog. If you guys take our blog away I would be really disappointed and angry about it.
I like blogging because I like to share my stories with other people in the world and I like learning new things too.
I have improved so many things just by blogging like my English mistakes, spelling and writing mistakes too. I have also learned how to edit my stories and that has help me a lot with my learning too.
Students should blog because it’s an amazing experience and it could help them with many things in school like their punctuation, capitalization and other types of mistakes too. That’s why you shouldn’t take our blogs away.
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How would you feel if you couldn’t blog no more? Well I would feel sad because I love to blog. Let me tell you how I feel about blogging.
If I couldn’t blog I would feel sad and shocked because we can’t be blogging no more.
What I like about blogging is that we can read better and understand more than before. Also we learn how to write better and learn our mistakes.
Students should blog because there are amazing stories around the world.
I also learn how to understand english, type faster and read better. I really enjoy blogging and I don’t want to stop.
My favorite thing about blogging is going around the world reading stories. Also reading comments from around the world.
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I REALLY ENJOY BLOGGING!!!!!
I love to blog! Blogging is chatting with people on the internet.
You put a story on the internet and people read it on the internet, and then they could leave comments too!!
My favorite part about blogging is that people leave me comments.
I think students should blog because they could get better at reading, writing and typing.
But guess what? They have just blocked my classes blogs! Can you believe it? Well I do! I thought that it was just so cruel! Well I hope they put it back on because, I LOVE TO BLOG!
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Bad News For Us
Have you ever felt upset for something like this? Well let me tell you how I feel about not blogging any more. I would feel bad about not blogging because I like blogging and because blogging taught my class how to edit our post. I would also be mad because it is cool and we get to meet other people when we comment them. What we learn about this is how to fix our mistakes on our stories. Since I’ve been blogging I have got better in reading books and editing my blog post.
Students should blog because it teaches how to write stories, put it in beginning middle and end, rereading it, finding correct English, finding mistakes and how to type faster. I am doing this because our school district blocked our blogging. Blogging is very cool for me!!!
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No More Blogging?
If we were not able to blog anymore I would feel really upset. I would feel that way because it is my first year blogging and I want to experience it some more.
Blogging is good because you improve in lots of things like I have improved in reading, writing and spelling. I have improved in reading because we always check our blog for comments and read them over and over. I have improved in spelling because I always spell check my stories and reread them carefully for spelling errors.
I think other students should blog because it is something kids could have fun with and still be learning. Kids also express them selves and enjoy writing stories. Kids also learn alot more things that they did not know.
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If I couldn’t blog anymore I would feel sad and angry because most schools can’t blog. I think every student should have the privilege to blog because you learn a lot about blogging. You learn to write better story’s, correct mistakes and you can learn how to read better.
I like blogging because you can leave comments. You leave comments to tell people how you feel about there writing and if your comment is inappropriate your teacher won’t let it go on.
Students should blog because they can tell people what happens at there school and outside of school. If anyone takes the privilege of blogging away from students. I will fight for blogging until we get it back.
Learning is messy!
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Tags: studentblogging
<>blockedblog.JPG <>Originally uploaded by BCrosby
UPDATE: IT has informed me this evening that this was a “filter issue” and that it has been repaired and they do not plan on blocking blogs. YEAH!!!!
This was the message we got today when we tried to log-in to our class blog.
“Website denied based on WCSD Internet acceptable use policy”
Blocked URL: http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=65078
I contacted the “powers-that-be” in the school district right away … and its possible this is a mistake and will be rectified … but if not my students have already drafted posts and letters explaining why this is unacceptable. I’ll keep you posted.
Hmmm…. we are studying the American Revolution right now. What could we dump instead of tea?
Learning is messy!
So it would seem to me that at NECC 2007 Twitter was the buzz, but not adopted yet by enough to be truly powerful. I was, AGAIN, just so busy this weekend I was not able to be involved much in all the Ustreams and Twitter conversations and more going on … but Saturday evening I sat down for about 20 minutes to check email and the like and I was checking Twitter and in just 2 windows I gleaned the following twits from various attendees:
I would say that Twitter has come into its own.
I also saw the end of about 4 presos being Ustreamed and could feel the energy. It reminded me of the energy in the Blogger’s Cafe and the EdBloggerCon before NECC 2007 … except this one lasted a weekend instead of one day.
Since it is looking like I might be able to attend NECC this year too, I can’t wait to see how the bloggercon evolves.
Learning is messy.
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Tags: EduCon2.0
Today I picked up a wireless modem card and service. I’m using it for the first time to make this post. I’m excited about the possibilities this provides. Now I can be online from anywhere I can get cell service … and it is respectably fast. Imagine being able to Skype or Ustream field trips and other experiences even when you are away from your network. And the best part is … someone else is paying for it for a year!!! How cool is that!
I wonder if any other teachers have used a set-up like this to connect remotely? I think I’m going to have a great time thinking up powerful ways to use this as a learning tool.
Learning is messy!
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Tags: Wirelessmodem card
Miguel had a post today about this research on tech use in schools and I just felt I needed to help spread the news (The Influence of Teachers’ Technology Use on Instructional Practices – Glenda C. Rakes, Valerie S. Fields, Karee E. Cox ). For those of you that want to be able to cite research in support of technology use and constructivist teaching download this PDF file of the study. From Miguel’s post:
Thanks Miguel!!!
Learning is messy!
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Tags: research, educational technology
With EduCon 2.0 taking place this weekend in Philadelphia and poor me not able to go, I thought I would share an idea that perhaps the attendees could rattle around.
The host of EduCon, Chris Lehmann, explained what its about this way:
We “edubloggers†complain about and bemoan how slow change is, how difficult it is to get the word out or show best practice examples of what could be, so that others might understand and come aboard. Well, here’s a thought.
We all revel in this great Web 2.0 connectivity and communication, and lately, how powerful the network is. Many of the same people involved in pulling off the K12 Online Conference, which was a perfect example of using all these great communication tools to educate others without having to be in the same locale, are involved one way or the other with EduCon.
Why not use all these great communicators and communication tools (You know … “The Network” … our network) – Ustream, Skype. Elluminate, YouTube, TeacherTube, blogs, wikis, … to put on an online event. Maybe a one day coordinated (or maybe only sort-of coordinated) event where we showcase all these tools and teaching methods with best practice examples from around the world. Who would the audience be? The media, general public … anyone we can induce to “Pay Attentionâ€.
What better way to explain / demonstrate why all these tools could make a difference in education than by using them to educate those that could make a difference? We could have Ustreamed lessons – or even short pre-recorded clips of lessons and student and teacher reactions that others would be invited to watch live. We could record all the day’s events and send DVD’s after the fact to media outlets that didn’t bother to watch. We are good at this kind of stuff … we could do this … if the network wanted it to. Just a thought.
Learning is messy
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Tags: EduCon2.0.
A year ago today was a special day in the lives of my students and I suspect many others. Why? January 24th just after lunch was the first time we video-Skyped Celest, a classmate with leukemia who could not attend school, into our class. Ironically, Celest (who is well enough now to attend school) won’t be in class today because she is in for a check-up and some testing related to her cancer treatment. I’ve re-posted below my account of that day and you can click HERE to see the award winning video my students produced last year showing how we Skyped her – it includes a short clip showing the first time we connected. I have been telling people that our video has been downloaded over 100,000 times, but last week I found out that isn’t entirely true. Upon checking the stats (which obviously I don’t do very often) I found out it has now been downloaded over half-a-million-times (500,000).
Wednesday, January 24, 2007 Skyping Celest – Day One – The Whole Story
We couldn’t begin first thing in the morning because we had the NAEP test to do – one last obstacle to get over before we could try our grand experiment. The plan was to wait until after lunch and then connect-up (Skype-up?) for the first time. Fortunately, I had Celest ring us up as soon as the class went to lunch – this turned out to be one smart move because when we clicked on our video buttons our image came up right away but the image from her end was black. I tried the few things I could think of, all the time repeating to myself, “but it worked flawlessly twice last night!!!â€
I had 25 minutes before eager students would return from lunch, so after checking out with administration I zipped over to her house. The problem? There were at least ten applications open. Windows … their only experience was with Windows … and I hadn’t had a chance to brief them about everything the night before. They closed applications by clicking the windows closed not realizing that that did not close the application on a Mac. I restarted the computer and made the return trip.
At 12:30 video cameras were revved up to catch the event from 2 angles. Students tried hard to settle, but most were on their knees in their chairs hardly able to contain themselves. To begin I projected the image onto our Whiteboard. A ring sounded, I clicked the green phone icon and then the video button and in a matter of seconds Celest, who had shown up on my daily attendance since October, entered our classroom for the first time.
Hellos and waves were exchanged all around – I pivoted the web cam around to each table in the room so all could be introduced. Faces beamed. Now what?
I disconnected the laptop from the Activboard and moved it and the web cam I had taped to the top of a tripod to the front table – the students there gladly made room for their new classmate. I pointed the web cam at the board and had paper distributed all around (including Celest) – Yes I know – why are we using paper when we have laptops and Celest obviously has a computer to work on? Composing on a computer takes some getting used to, we will get there, but we’re not there yet.
I connected my Mac to the ActivBoard and started a pre-write brainstorm about our experience. I adjusted the camera angle once so Celest could see clearly and she followed along with the session easily. After the brainstorm we all wrote a rough draft and then word processed them on our computers. At one point Celest got my attention and wondered if it was OK if she went to the bathroom – how cool is that, she felt like she was at school! I reluctantly allowed her to go (couldn’t she have done that during lunch? : ) Our school counselor, Ann Marlow, who made most of the calls that made this happen – including making the connection that got us the new iMac, walked through and said her hellos and noted the writing everyone was doing – she was both relieved and thrilled this was finally happening.
When Celest let me know she was done typing I talked her through spell checking and some other editing pieces, and then led her through emailing her file to me at school. This became her first post on our blog.
About then it was time for us to go to the library, so we said goodbye to Celest since library would take us to the end of the day. And, after many goodbyes of course, and the photo below, our first Video Skype experience was over.
Thursday, Celest attended for a bit more than an hour – she practiced her multiplication facts online with the rest of us and did some reading before she went off for chemo. She paid us a quick visit on her way home just before dismissal – mask on, no wig – she couldn’t make it today – we understand why. Monday will be a fresh day … except that we have ITBS testing all morning – all week, so it will be afternoons only.
We storyboarded our video about our experience today using the Flipchart software in ActivStudio, we will try to finish shooting it and editing it next week with Celest’s help – if so I will post the video for all to see. The students came up with some great ideas.
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As happens multiple times on Twitter each day someone needed some help and the following request was “Tweetedâ€:
I thought of an example and sent the link, as did others, but soon 2 clarification “Twits†appeared:
And:
BTW – my first thought was actually … Wow! .. how many students K-12 does this describe? I hope more than I think!
I immediately realized the example I had sent was absolutely nothing like what was actually required. In addition, I knew we had no examples that fit that description … but I sure wish we did!
That description is where I want my students to be, but we are not there yet. I mentioned this very thing in my K12 Online Keynote … and this Twittered request was a kick in the pants to remind me where we are going. So why aren’t we there yet?
Lots of groundwork has been necessary to make my students proficient at the nuts and bolts of not only publishing on a blog, but all the care and editing it takes to prepare a writing piece for publishing. The good news is we have come a looooong way.
Second, whether I agree with it or not, one of the hurdles we have had to clear is that our blogging is supposed to prove its worth by improving our writing test scores (fifth grade is the only grade that takes this test in elementary, and our entire school is judged by how our fifth graders do). I suspect it will help, but that has meant that up to this point in the year (we took the writing test last week) our focus has been preparing for that test … which has not been all bad.
One of our biggest weaknesses has been caring enough to really do our best. We have learned multiple proofreading strategies, worked very hard on proper English, “showing not telling”, how to check spelling with a dictionary that cannot have any example sentences that show the meaning of the word in the sentence (we used “spell check” sparingly the last 2 weeks because I wanted them to be used to checking spelling other ways) and wrote and wrote and wrote.
Blogging and commenting consistently has really impacted that “wanting to do quality work” part, and I see that only getting better. The writing test is always a narrative piece so we have only been writing narrative pieces for the most part.
But now the test is over. We have the rest of this year and their 6th grade year to start embedding blogging into the curriculum in more significant ways. Now ALL I have to do is be the teacher that can help my students become: “… a student who is reading, writing, linking back to reading, reflecting, synthesizing, understanding how blogging connects.” I love a challenge!
Learning is messy!!!
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Tags: Twitter, 5th grade writing test, blogging
I have vivid memories about when I first started teaching of having to focus so much on my lesson plan that sometimes my delivery was stilted and prodding and well, boring, or at least hard to follow. Within a few weeks I relaxed and I quickly became much less self conscious about my delivery. However, I was observed so much in my early years (which was mainly a good thing) I think I was focused on a perfectly delivered lesson – which beyond teaching effectively in my mind somehow involved “not making mistakes” in the delivery. The lesson was flawed if I made a mistake no matter that the students learned what they were supposed to.
If I was demonstrating how to add and was computing a column of numbers and accidentally got the wrong answer (which happens to us all from time to time) then I was at least moderately embarrassed and my reaction taught students that mistakes were BAD. In addition, depending on who was observing, that mistake would be brought up in the post conference as one of the pieces of the lesson that went wrong.
I also remember other teachers, when sharing about an observed lesson, mentioning those little mistakes and being upset by them. Teaching was obviously as much a performance as anything else, and we tended to discuss them like actors.
This attitude did not lend itself to transparency in teaching and learning. If something went wrong, often I would ask for patience from the students while I turned my back on them and quickly re-worked the problem as quickly as possible and then showed them the right answer.
Ted McCain, in his book – Teaching for Tomorrow: Teaching Content and Problem-Solving Skills, relates just such a scenario. He then goes on to talk about how much better a lesson it would have been for his students if he had explained what his thinking was as he tried to find his error, what he was doing, how he was doing it and why he was doing that.
Years ago I came to that realization myself, and I think I do at least a pretty good job of making my teaching transparent. One important part of that is stepping aside when I make a mistake ( sometimes even trivial mistakes), or if we observe a performer at an assembly for example make a mistake, and debriefing that a mistake was made and noting the reaction. Did I throw a fit or look like I was devastated? How did the performer handle that?
When I have a new class of students and I share a mistake the first several times and why it wasn’t the end of the world I see students have those aha! moments. “Hey I didn’t even notice he made a mistake. And he’s not all upset and embarrassed, maybe its OK.” The more I have explained my mistakes or noted when a piece of equipment didn’t do what was expected , “it was nobodies mistake,” the more at ease and willing to try things my students become. Oh! And I make sure they see when I make careless mistakes – I’m trying to do something too quickly and point that out to them too. We note how characters in books and movies react to mistakes also.
We are currently in the process of producing a video about blogging. Each group shot their scenes for the video and then we downloaded the raw footage onto each group’s laptop so that that group would edit their piece and then later we will put all the pieces together.
I originally wanted to have the students do all the voiceover work and editing, but this week I realized that we don’t have time for their learning curve on that right now – so to speed things up I am pushing the buttons on the laptop to record their narration and doing the work to line the audio up to the clip so it matches. However, I also explain everything I do to each group mainly to share my thinking about how I am deciding what is working or not, and even having them notice when a piece is not easily understood and when it is much better, and they really light up. “Listen to this clip – and now this one. Any difference?” Then if they don’t pick it up I ask them if they notice how even just one word was pronounced better or the enthusiasm in their voice makes it better. They really get it and understand why that is important.
Many of my students speak English with an accent and that accent really shows up when they are concentrating hard on reading the narration. They are amazed how some of the accent goes away when they have practiced some and are more confident. It also gives me a chance to pick up on letters students totally mispronounce and clarify and correct it with them. In other words because I’m involved so closely with their narration I am diagnosing language issues – “ hmmm, and I thought this was a tech project : ).
To sum this up – have transparency in your teaching, point out your mistakes and how you react to them. Students see it is normal, even when you are trying to be careful, to make mistakes and that makes it easier for them to receive “coaching” about their weaknesses and errors. This is an essential part of “messy” learning.
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