Regular readers of this blog (and even the irregular readers: } ) know about our “on a shoestring” 1:1 laptop program using old iBooks and equally old Apple Airport hubs (these are the original Airport hubs). We even run our 36 HP laptops off these old hubs and until recently they were doing OK unless we got every computer going. They have really started to show their age the last few months though, and anytime we have more than about 8 computers online at once (depending what sites they are on) we slow to a crawl.

Well, things got much worse today. You might remember a month ago my classroom was broken into (as were other rooms). Over the Holidays another part of the school was broken into, and besides a few laptops and a projector one of the victims was one of our 2 working Airport hubs. This doesn’t absolutely scuttle our mission, but it sure throws a monkey-wrench into things. Blogging will probably work pretty well, but having the class access the net at the same time will be very problematic with only one working hub.

The real issue with the hub is that our IT department really isn’t thrilled that we have wireless connectivity. The education side of the IT department has advised us not to push too hard for getting the new Cisco hubs they install now because they come with lots of blocks and issues too numerous to go into right now. We “get away” with being able to access the net in ways others don’t for reasons I only partially understand because we have these older hubs that were “grandfathered” in to the network … getting new ones brings all the “safeguards” the IT department installs. I do have one more of the older Apple Airport hubs but we are not very optimistic that the IT department will give it “permission” to be on the network – and like I said we were already creeping along.
It just seems a shame that this little 1:1program that has accomplished I think a lot, and could do much more isn’t supported more … its just “tolerated.”

I’ve been given the job of “making our case” to get our hubs replaced with hopefully a better solution that will actually support our wireless needs … I’ll keep you updated on what happens.

Learning is messy!

Blogged with Flock

Tags: 1:1, wireless,

I posted a new piece over at “In Practice” … How Much Better Could It Be With Collaboration? I really believe making a journey like our 1:1 laptop program, or any “new” teaching or learning you are trying, with collaboration of some kind is key. Key to motivation, key to getting constructive feedback, others to help “plow the field” the first time, etc. I push having students do much of their learning in groups … only makes sense it would be good for me (and you).

Learning is messy!

Blogged with Flock

Tags: collaborative, collaboration

David Warlick posted today about how Circuit City (a US electronics store) laid off its most experienced sales people to “save money” and now that has “surprisingly” (absolute sarcasm intended here) lead to a drop in business because their service quality diminished. This immediately hit home with me because of what is happening here in the state of Nevada.

As background I have mentioned before that Nevada annually comes in last or close to last in per pupil funding of schools and yet has a relatively high standard of living. We actually moved up to 47th this last year (from 49th – out of 50) and had a little money to try some new things including an investment in technology. Our governor who initially said that education funding was sacrosanct abruptly changed his mind at the last minute, days before Christmas … the cut to my school district alone is $18 million.

The Nevada legislature only meets every other year so they have to set budgets for 2 years at a time. This last session it was decided that “to save money” teachers would no longer have their medical benefits partially paid for when they retire. This will be “grandfathered-in” next October. You must retire before then or lose your medical benefits when you retire. This will save money by not having to pay health benefits, but also by having the teachers that get paid the most leave. So guess what? Teachers with the most experience are going to retire in droves this year.

Now superimpose this against the fact that fewer and fewer people are becoming teachers. I get asked to sit on interview teams for new teachers quite frequently. It used to be you would interview 5 to 10 prospects and come away with 3 or 4 people that you would hire in a minute. For the last few years this has not been the case. We usually end interviews by asking who else we can interview (no one) and settling on the best of the rejects. In Las Vegas where they open a new school almost every month they have subs running many classrooms full time. They hire people over the phone if they claim they can pass the “fingerprint test” (no criminal background) and pay a signing bonus.

So we are short teachers … lets force a bunch more to retire early … we’ll save money and the quality of teaching won’t suffer. Obviously counterintuitive … just not to the right people.

Learning is messy!

Blogged with Flock

Students watch as their gifts are wrapped in our Santa Store

Every year we run a “Santa Store” at my school. We are between 80% and 90% free lunch so we are a very “at risk” school. We ask around for donations from local business and several of our more affluent schools (my wife’s for one) have families clean out their garages … we get a ton of stuff. Then we close our library for a week ( yeah, I know we close the library, Ugg!), because its the only room we have large enough. We also “volunteer” most of our support staff to work there for the week.

Teacher conversations just before and during that week often question using these resources in this way. Then your class gets to go … and then you remember why we use these resources this way.

The idea of the Santa Store is to offer the chance for students to shop for Christmas gifts for their families at “fire sale” prices. All they buy is also gift wrapped and tagged on the spot so students can take them home and they are ready. Students go to the Santa Store during their usual library time that week. Friday was my classes’ turn.

When I announce we are about to go quarters, dimes and nickels appear from pockets and back packs as well as balled up dollar bills and even a few fives and tens. When we enter students are given a “tour” of the store. Prices are explained and then the shopping starts. For some students their favorite part is watching their gifts get wrapped. Others walk around and around the tables overflowing with candles, kitchenware, alarm clocks, ornaments, and every knick-knack you can imagine.

Some fumble money in their hands while juggling their purchases doing the math in their heads to be sure they have enough. Some approach classmates that are done purchasing to see if they have the dime or whatever they are short to complete their purchase … most share gladly. Students that are finished gather by the door and feel the bows and shiny paper their gifts are wrapped in. I feel the warm glow of Christmas and remember why we do Santa Store every year and give up our library … and know it is worth it.

Learning is messy! Merry Christmas! and Happy Holidays!

Blogged with Flock

Tags: SantaStore, messy learning,

Teaching my students to be CAREFUL proofreaders is always a struggle. Most of my students are second language learners so they already struggle with proper English and English syntax and all that goes with that. So I emphasize with them that they have to catch the mistakes that they actually know better than to make. They all know they are to capitalize the first word in a sentence or names, but that doesn’t always happen. So I’ve been teaching lessons on catching as many errors as possible – especially since we have the 5th grade writing test looming ahead of us right after we get back from break.

We have put our fingers on every first word in a sentence … and then every name. We have read “one word at a time” to catch words without s’s that need them and so forth. So after they have supposedly proofread their work completely I have them use their “phones” to make a last check. Of course their phones are really PVC pipe and elbow joints pieced together. But they work incredibly well. When you talk into them like a phone you are forced to whisper or your ear is blasted with the sound of your voice. So every student in class can be reading their writing aloud at the same time and it makes about as much noise as a herd of earthworms crawling across your lawn.

I gave a sample writing test this week and had the students treat it like it was real. “You have to catch those mistakes you really know better than to make!!!” I admonished them. We went through the entire writing process and proofread their pieces profusely. Students were sure they had caught every mistake they could. Then I had them read their pieces with their phones. I asked, How many of you found mistakes you missed before?” Every hand went up. “You notice things you missed when you read with the phone,” several students shared. It is amazing how when they experience their work “auditorally” as well as visually, they pick up things they miss otherwise. My students that have a hard time figuring out where periods go do better when they “phone in” their work too.

My wife and I each made sets of phones several years ago. I believe the parts cost us about $12 each at a home store to make 30 phones for both our classes. Now the question is will they allow us to use them during the writing test? I doubt it.

I should add that PVC pipe phones are not my original idea … but I don’t remember where I got it from or I would cite the source. I’m just passing on my experience with them because they work so well. I also take them home and run them through the dishwasher every so often to sanitize them.

Learning is messy!

Blogged with Flock

Tags: studentwriting, proofreading skills,

We continued working on our blog video today. Each group shot their different scenes based on the storyboards and dialog they wrote. I used large index cards for the storyboards so they could draw the scene on one side and the dialog that went with it on the other. Then it was easy to have a group shoot their scenes because I could see if what they planned made sense right away.

After all their scenes were shot I had each group bring over a laptop and we downloaded their video into iMovie2 and saved it. Next I reviewed what we had learned about editing earlier in the week and set them loose to put their clips in order, do some basic “clean-up” editing and delete the sound since they will be doing voice-over narration.

Learning is messy!

Blogged with Flock

Tags: blogging, iMovie, editing video, messy video

I had my 5th graders blog about our classroom and school being broken into this week. I got to school and the police car was already their – one of my classroom’s windows was smashed in (and another classroom experienced the same fate in another wing), and there was some damage to our world globe and glass was everywhere as well as that feeling of being violated. It really got my emotions flaring and with encouragement from my principal and others I decided that I would have my students write about the experience.

My thinking was that they would be emotional about their classroom being invaded and we would channel that into their writing. Before the mess was cleaned up I quickly ran around and took photos so students could see what it had really looked like. I met them outside the room before they entered and explained what had happened and then using the photos and other pieces of evidence (broken globe, the rock that had smashed the glass and glass still present on our carpet) I walked them through what probably had happened. I involved them like detectives as we looked at the clues and had them help come up with a plausible sequence of events.

Next we took notes about what different things “looked like” … a student offered a description of the pile of broken glass outside our room as “…blue ice broken from a puddle,” for example. Most students had a page and a half of notes about what they saw, how they felt about the situation and some words we had brainstormed on the board. They were well prepared to write and I set them to their task of drafting, editing, word processing and eventually posting a blog post about their experience. Boy, was I good or what? This was going to be great!

Instead, it was only OK. Everyone got right to drafting and editing – they were all on task … they seemed to be working hard – but as they got far enough along that there was something to look at I noted their writing was not as full of emotion as I had expected.

After lunch I was missing about a third of my class thanks to lunch helper duty and a Read 180 class. So I took that time to question the students in the room about the day’s events. With the exception of 3 students they didn’t perceive the break-in as a big deal. “Nothing important was taken.” “Our laptops are all still here.” A digital camera was missing in one room and a teachers PDA was gone in another but “big deal” was the overall attitude of the vast majority.

Then I asked them to raise their hand if they had ever had the police come to their house, or if they had ever watched the police arrest someone outside their house. EVERY HAND WENT UP. I said, “Keep your hand up if this happened more than once.” 2 hands went down. “More than 2 times,” 2 more hands went down. Then students started sharing all their “arrest experiences.” I had to cut that off because what they were sharing was a bit too personal. UPDATE: My wife asked her middle to high socio-economic 4th graders how many of them had seen the police arrest someone at or near their home. 3 raised their hands. Food for thought.

I told them that the windows that were broken would probably cost close to and probably more than $1,000 to fix and that this was not something that they should put up with … that even if they just came in and walked around and left (without breaking a window) it was wrong.

They hadn’t thought about it that way … NOW they were all riled up wanting to discuss things … and a few made changes to what they wrote earlier reflecting their new found disdain for the whole thing.

But, I screwed up by not having THAT discussion earlier. I don’t feel I exactly “hurried”, we pre-wrote for an hour and discussed things some, but obviously I didn’t have THE STUDENTS express themselves verbally enough before they wrote.

And that is why … Learning Is Messy!

Blogged with Flock