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K12 Online Conference Is Off And Running!!!

k12badge.jpgThe K12 Online Conference will probably have started by the time you read this – with David Warlick’s keynote. From the conference web site:

“The K-12 Online Conference invites participation from educators around the world interested in innovative ways Web 2.0 tools and technologies can be used to improve learning. This FREE conference is run by volunteers and open to everyone. The 2007 conference theme is “Playing with Boundaries”. This year’s conference begins with a pre-conference keynote the week of October 8, 2007. The following two weeks, October 15-19 and October 22-26, forty presentations will be posted online to the conference blog (this website) for participants to download and view. Live Events in the form of three “Fireside Chats” and a culminating “When Night Falls” event will be announced. Everyone is encouraged to participate in both live events during the conference as well as asynchronous conversations.”

So go and engage! My keynote, which is coming together at a snail’s pace, happens in the 2nd week … it will be done and hopefully engaging. I taped part of it today (Sunday) in my classroom with the help of another teacher that was nuts enough to be at school on a Sunday (we weren’t the only ones).

Learning is messy!

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Skype Sharing

Lee Baber’s eighth graders and my fifth graders shared experiences and ideas for about 40 minutes today. My class in Sparks, Nevada and her class in Virginia are pictured above projected on my ActivBoard. We shared how we have used Skype and technology to support our learning and how we might do so in the future. My students were shy and it was hard to get many to share their thinking or experiences. Lee had just about as much difficulty with her students that are early in their learning curve on using these tools. We both videotaped in our classrooms, so after editing we will post vidcasts of the session. When I have more time I will post more info about what was discussed. We debriefed afterwards and from those notes we will post to our blogs too.

Learning Is Mesy!

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It’s Just One Of Those Busy Times

This is one of those … “I know I haven’t been blogging much…” posts. Well I haven’t,  but you may have picked up here and there that I have been unusually busy. If you’re a classroom teacher you know how it can be.

Today a number of my students were informed they would no longer be in my classroom … it was tough … tomorrow may be tougher. I thought about keeping everyone (not that it is really my choice), but I had 7 more students than I was supposed to, and it showed. Our classroom is just full of bodies. On the one hand because my students this year are a great group (14 from last years class) you feel like what the heck I’ll just keep them. But, is that really what is best for all involved? When 2 or 3 or 4 or more students show up later … all of a sudden it’s not such a great idea. The other upshot was it gave me more students than I have laptops for 1:1,  so it was agreed it was a good thing. Tomorrow is our last day with everyone there, and we just so happen to be doing a video-Skype session with Lee Baber’s kids out in Virginia. We will both record, so it should be available as a podcast and maybe a vidcast later.

Next week I’m off to a conference about kids in poverty and how to understand their situation and help them, then I am back and having a film crew from New York come in to archive some of the things we are doing – I’ll fill you in later. In the meantime I’m getting ready for a sub and trying to make a video “Keynote” for the K12 Online Conference that at least won’t be embarrassing, and maybe will be helpful to some … we’ll see. I also have a 1 unit tech class for teachers coming up that always keeps me busy … oh and then there’s my family … : ). Once I have the keynote done that will take a lot off my plate and my mind (I love doing it, but I have to work at not letting it take over), so then I should be back to posting more often here and hopefully over at In Practice which all involved agree was tough to start up at the start of the school year, but we did it!

Learning Is Messy!

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It’s Getting Ugly, Scary For Some

INS agents raided all the McDonald’s in the greater Reno area today and arrested numerous employees for being in the country illegally. At my school a number of parents came and removed their kids from school so that police would not come and get them – or so that the students wouldn’t go home and get picked up at their homes by waiting INS agents (a rumor being spread). At my daughter’s high school – announcements were made by administration asking for teachers to volunteer to spend the night at school so students whose parents were arrested would have a place to stay.

I wonder how many times “Sorry kids, but we can’t spend time discussing this, we have to be ready for the test.” will be uttered by teachers tomorrow?

Learning is messy!

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Hear Ye! Hear Ye! The K12 Online Conference Is Coming!


Click on the image above to get a page size printable flyer to put up at your school or place of employment. Also note the conference web site:
http://www.k12onlineconference.org/ As the flyer states … the conference is FREE, Flexible (participate when you have the time) and Forward Thinking. As a bonus you can check out my keynote on Obstacles to Opportunities and see if I manage to pull it off or not. I’ve been planning and writing feverishly whenever I get time … but I have a ways to go. PASS THE WORD!!!

Conferencing is messy!

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First Post At “In Practice”

Just made my first post over at “In Practice.” A group of us that teach in Title 1 schools (children of poverty) have started it up, mainly thanks to Alice Mercer who set the blog up and kept on those of us that expressed interest to follow through.

From the blog description:

 We find ourselves bridging many divides between cultures, between technology have-nots and the digital world that is coming, and between theory and actual practice.

When you have a chance, check it out.

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“She will now”

Each new school year one of the routines is to get signed releases on all my students so that work they do on web pages, wikis, videos, blogs and so on, can be published. This year the releases came back pretty quickly … except for 4 students. Excuses ranged from “I forgot again,” to my mom doesn’t want to sign it. Yesterday we took a tour of our class blog. I had added the names of new students that had signed releases and there was a buzz of excitement from the “newbies.” The “veterans” (returning students from last year), were tour guides and showed the others around. We also checked out a few other schools’ blogs.

As we were getting ready to leave at the end of the day I had to chuckle as one by one the 4 students without releases came to see me about getting another copy of the release. I said to one student who had told me in no uncertain terms earlier in the week that his mom was not going to sign, “I thought you said your mom wouldn’t sign.” “Ummm … she will now,” (smiles that “you caught me” smile), “I think she didn’t understand what we’ll be doing.”
“OK, … great, bring it back when you can.”

Learning is messy!

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Every Piece Of The Puzzle Is Important

As both an introduction “Getting To Know You” piece … and a way to introduce simple computer skills (download a photo, word process and print) and introduce project skills (cutting, trimming, using glue) – my fifth graders did this “Puzzle” project. I still have some students not finished so there are more pieces to come.

We read several books about talents and had discussions about how boring it would be if everyone was good at the same stuff. Then each student brainstormed skills and knowledge they bring to school that when they work in a group enhance the work of the team. When each student printed out their work it was amazing to watch the students that were not part of our class last year. Many had never printed something before and just doing that was exciting. I had these puzzle people shapes my wife and I bought at a teacher store and the kids loved them. Students chose a color to make their piece, then glued everything down and we put them up. We’ve already had some great discussions sparked by the different skills students have.

Learning is messy

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The Bear, The Broom and The Brave

silverlake.jpg

I’ve been off the grid this Labor Day Weekend camping 2 hours south of Reno in the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains near Silver Lake. Friday night I got up about 1am to walk our fidgety, demanding Australian Shepherd. No big deal, found a good spot for a dog to do their thing, but apparently there was no thing that needed to happen, so we headed back to camp.

Now you have to understand this was at the end of an especially busy first week of school. I was exhausted. I plunked back down in bed and was out. At 3:00am I was awakened abruptly by my alarmed wife and kids telling me that there was a noise outside. “Something’s outside! – it might be a bear!   go outside and check it out!” In my early morning fog, as I opened the door of the in-laws RV, that is exactly what I heard them say.

Of course what they actually said was, “Check it out, but don’t go outside – it might be a bear!” This registered in my brain about the time the opening door struck the bear in the side of the head while simultaneously causing the broom leaning against the RV to slide into the opening doorway making it impossible to close the door. The bear’s head turned toward me and made kind of a gurgling sound just as I managed to flick the metal broom handle the other way which made a clanging noise against the side of the RV and then the ground scaring the bejeebers out of the bear which flinched and then began to run away just as the door clicked shut.

Of course I turned to my family with that confident, “You can applaud now, I have everything under control, I scared the bear away,” look on my face. I was met with opened mouth stares, and then, – WHAT WERE YOU DOING? WE TOLD YOU NOT TO OPEN THE DOOR THAT THERE WAS A BEAR OUTSIDE!

Awhile later the bear returned briefly to get a drink from our dog’s water dish and eat the melons we had on ice in a cooler outside the door just for him (not really!).

Mission accomplished – it was exciting, no one was hurt, and again I’ve given my family a great story to tell at my expense.

Learning is messy!

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Video-conferencing Video for News Story Needed

I have been contacted by a major broadcast network news organization over the phone and by follow-up email about a story they want to do. They are looking for video that shows both sides of an internet conversation. From the email I recieved:

“So, to reiterate, we are looking for webcam, Vlog and video footage that shows the communication (need video from both parties) between two people as a result of the internet for a September 11th segment on our ( ) news magazine, ( ). We want to showcase how the internet ties people together (via video footage) and we are building our story around the circle of life idea — birth, friendship, love, illness and death. Please let me know if you have any questions and if you can send me links and contact information, I’d be grateful.”

So if you have any video that meets their requirements let me know RIGHT AWAY and I’ll pass it on. Just leave me a comment.

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