Rest well, Jonny. Ignite is amazing!! Looking ahead.

(Picture from the Boulder Adventure Film Festival website.) Summer's off to a really rough start. Today I found out that my friend, Jonny Copp, was killed in an avalanche while climbing in China. I'd known Jonny since 2004, just before the showing of his movie, Splitter. We'd been good friends since, getting together and talking about everything from rock climbing to teaching to adoption to whatever was on our minds at the time. He possessed a warmth, sincerity and joy that was incredibly infectious and seeing him always brought a smile to my face and heart. I will miss him always.

This time of year is typically my time to look back on the school year and reflect on things I thought went well as well as identify areas of growth for me. I incorporated a great deal of technology in my classes this year, which was falls into both categories. I still have some growing to do and kinks to iron out, but I definitely did a lot more experimentation in my classes than I have in the past. In addition to the technology piece, I did a great deal more group work than I ever have. Typically, I've found group work to be a bit of a management nightmare, especially when working with freshmen, but this year I bit the bullet and pushed myself to let go a little bit and let my students take the lead. I'm glad I did. The live blog collaborative sessions revealed a great deal about my students and their capabilities, and their presentations went quite well.







Which brings me to my next point. Ignite is an amazing format for student presentations, especially for students who aren't used to doing presentations. The 15 second time frame for each slide really discourages the reading of slides, and sticking to the 20 slide/five minute format definitely ensures that students will reach the time allotted. Sticking to the 15 second per slide format also means that those students who would normally rely on videos to fill time aren't able to, and it keeps the more... verbose... students to a reasonable time frame as well. I will definitely continue to use it, especially for underclassmen. We even got an invitation to join IgniteDenver, which is pretty cool. I plan to check out a few presentations on my own first, then open the door to my students to attend and present at an event. Here's a great blog entry that I'm going to share with my students on how to put together an Ignite presentation.

Other things I will continue to use next year: Google Docs, TurnItIn.com, blogs, podcasting, Google Sites, Ning, Edmodo, CoverItLive, TextTheMob. I want to add: OpenZine, PhotoStory, MovieMaker. I'm sure there's more I'll end up using, especially with the Global Learners' trainings coming up this week and in August. Should be fun!!

Coveritlive reflections

Today was another enjoyable day using coveritlive.This site has some interesting implications to it for the classroom, not the least of which being the ability to capture class discussions as well as being able to engage others outside the classroom to be a part of the conversation. I am considering setting up another blog specifically for the block 2 class and running a coveritlive session for every class discussion. It's a class of (mostly) highly engaged juniors and seniors, and being able to connect outside the walls would be a highly purposeful and useful activity for them.

(Update) I've now created the blog for the Epistemology class. The link to it is right here.

So freaking cool!

Today was easily one of the coolest days to be a teacher, ever. In my 2nd block epistemology class, we had a conversation around the goal of education. I really wanted others involved in it, so I sent out an invitation to the rest of the staff inviting anyone that had that period free to join in. One of my colleagues couldn't make it, so asked me to use coveritlive.com, which I had totally forgotten about. I signed up and set up a conversation in less than two minutes, then we went live. I had one of the students transcribing things for us while I was recording for podcast, and two faculty members and one guest joined us online. It was so great and so much fun; yes, I totally and completely geeked out. The transcript of the coveritlive conversation is below; yeah, it looks like it's in Latin, but once you click on it, it goes to English. The only downside is that the right side of it doesn't show up, so you can't see the comments by the others who joined us... I'm going to see if I can fix that for tomorrow. If you want to hear the podcast, it's here (the December 17th podcast). Chances are I'm going to make this a decently regular part of the class now; it was a great way to involve others outside the room. In fact, we didn't finish the conversation, so we plan to continue it tomorrow. Join us here at 8:45 (Mountain Time) if you'd like to be a part.

Random collection of thoughts

Hard to believe that the second trimester has already started; one third of the year has already come and gone. Yeesh.

Tried out texthemob last week, with mixed results. Turns out quite a few of the kids have Cricket, and so weren't able to send a text to the site, so they had to go to the internet on their phones before they could register their vote. Good to know for future reference.

One of the great disadvantages of blogging is the guilt associated when one doesn't regularly update said blog. For some reason I've decided that I needed to update this blog on a weekly basis. Don't ask me why. I have no idea. At any rate, here I am again, wondering what I could possibly write about this time.

Really, though, setting aside a time to write on a regular basis is said to be a good thing, though sometimes it feels a bit like taking cod liver oil; not that I ever did, but from what I'm told, I'm lucky to have escaped that little fate.

So here we are towards the end of November with one marking period behind me and what have I learned? Well, getting students to embrace technology is a bit more difficult than I'd originally anticipated, for one. I figured I'd offer them the chance to blog and such and off they'd run. Not so. I had more students than I thought I would completely bypass blogging for the entire term, for a variety of reasons, and though I was given a wide range of whys and wherefores, I think part of it simply came down to a lack of confidence in their own writing ability combined with a self-consciousness that the world would see them and even see through them; a fear shared not only by many students, but many adults as well.

That's a lot of what writing is, really. The laying bare of the soul. Even the most mundane entry says something about the writer, and it is for this reason most people seem to fear putting their thoughts down anywhere, let alone on a public forum like a blog.

So how will I combat this with my students? I'm not sure, really. A few of my students read my blog, and so they get to see my writing, warts and all, but there must be another way to encourage them to step beyond their boundaries, their comfort zones, and step into the world of writing. I'm not sure what those strategies are yet, but I'm open to suggestions.

Global learning... at least into a district next door

I was talking with my son's best friend last night about an assignment he has for one of his classes in which he is being asked to make a collage using pictures and quotes. I offered to help him out with finding what he needed online, and he replied, "I can't... I'm supposed to use magazines." I asked him how much technology they were using in his school, and turns out that they aren't using much, which is particularly frustrating for him since he hears me talking about what my students are doing in my class and what my son is doing in his classes, and basically he wants in on the action, so to speak. Furthering his desire is his intent to attend CSU after graduation, and so between the higher use of technology in our district and our partnership with CSU, which has taken serious steps towards going green, including having students hand in all work electronically, he is considering transferring to ACHS in his sophomore or junior year.

He also talked with me about becoming more tech-savvy in regards to his schoolwork, so I've agreed to tutor him in the use of technology, ranging from Power Point to blogging to Google Docs. His first "assignment" was to get his teachers' email addresses and talk with them about handing in his work electronically. He was wondering how he'd be able to "make his mark" at his high school... he may have just found it. :-)

Woohoo!

I've been able to accomplish one of my goals: my reluctant colleague has just set up a blog and has started blogging for her classes. I'm pretty excited for her, and for her students. The next step is to get her to create a webpage for her class, which she wants to do as soon as we can find the time. Yay!

Goals met (at least partially) and Smart Board reflections

Got up early this morning and really wanted to go on a bike ride, so I pumped up the Cannondale, got in the saddle and off I went. It was an absolutely perfect morning for a bike ride. I headed north and found myself on highway 7 before long, then I headed west. Next thing I knew, I saw a sign that said "Lafayette 6; Boulder 17." I smiled and decided to make the trip to Lafayette. It didn't take me anywhere near as long as I thought it might; an hour or so after I left my house, and I was in Old Town Lafayette. I hung out for a while, then made the trip back for a total of 28 miles in roughly two hours. I was pretty psyched, and it's most of the way towards my goal of riding my bike to Boulder. Since I was roughly 10 miles from Boulder, I definitely know that it's within my reach to finish it out to Boulder. I have to admit that I was glad I turned myself around, even though I was tempted to finish it out to Boulder. I like to finish out the last half-mile or so to my house on a dead sprint, but that just wasn't going to happen today. About five seconds into the sprint, my legs gave me a very firm "Nope, not gonna happen, buddy" response, and I decided instead to do a nice, easy warm down ride instead. Heh.

I've been using the Smart Board quite a lot now, and it's been working out fantastically. We were working on the 11-sentence paragraph in class last week, and what could have been dry and boring ended up being a lot of fun. We spent some time filling out the graphic organizer together on the Smart Board, and I had 100% engagement for 100% of the time in all of my classes; not bad for a Friday afternoon before a long weekend.

I think I've actually perfected the podcasting, too. I recorded each of my classes on Friday, and I'll be uploading and linking them on my class website later on today. (I also plan to upload and link the Power Point presentations I used, though I will likely upload them as .pdf files since not everyone may have Power Point or even Microsoft Word, but Adobe Acrobat Reader is free.) Initially I was going to do all sorts of editing of the podcasts and only upload the "best," but the principal encouraged me to just upload them as they are and let the students fast forward through them as they need to.

Of course, there are some definite implications around doing that, not the least of which is that my classroom walls are definitely going to disappear and there will be full transparency, particularly since not only my students can listen to the podcasts, but their parents can as well. I told my students not to worry... I know how brilliant they are, and now their parents can hear it as well. :-) I do plan on emailing the link to as many parents as I have email addresses for, and while it seems a little scary to open myself up like this, I don't see it as a bad thing at all. I'm really excited about it.

I've gotten most of the students logged on and blogging already, and that has been a fantastic experience so far. The students have the option of blogging or reading during independent reading time, and it's not unusual to have a line of students four to six deep waiting to blog. So far I only have two desktops in my room, though I'm trying to get more put in. If you go to the class website, I've linked to the students' blogs there, so anyone interested can read and comment on their blogs. There is still some tweaking to do around the blogs, but they've gotten started, so the biggest part is done. I'm planning on working with my reluctant colleague after professional development this week and want to have her up and blogging as well.

I hit upon a bit of a flash as well around sub plans. What I hope to do on days when I know I'm going to be out is to upload my lessons as Power Points and record what I want to say in advance, along with a notesheet for my students to fill out and email back to me, then email links to the Power Point and podcast to my students, along with the notesheet to fill out. Then, on the day(s) when I know I'm going to be out, I simply reserve the computer lab for my students, the sub takes them down there, where they then log in, and can watch the presentation, listen to the podcast, and do the work there. Chances are I'll let them work collaboratively, but certainly any student that wants to work alone could... I guess it will depend on the nature of the assignment. I can even check in on them while I'm wherever I am and address issues/questions as needed. They really CAN have class 24/7! Of course, making sure I have access will be an issue, but I think it's one I can resolve (I hope).

The implications for all of this on my teaching is mind boggling. How on earth did I get anything done in the classroom before?? ;-)

Goals for the year

I'm going to be giving my students weekly blog topics to write about, and I will be writing my own entries along with them... after all, that's only fair, really.

This week's question is: What are your goals for this year both as a student and in general? Well, since I'm not a student this year, I will instead address my goals from a professional point of view as well as a more personal one.

Professionally, I have several goals, really. First, I want to become much more adept at the use of technology in my classroom. I am working on a few lessons involving the Smart Board in my room, but I haven't actually used it yet, and I feel a little guilty about that. I haven't nailed the podcast thing yet, which is fairly disappointing, but I'm working on putting up a podcast/PowerPoint for my students on how to get their blogs set up, and my goal for that is to have it done by the end of the week. I'm thinking of recording tomorrow's lesson on the 11 sentence paragraph as well, so that should also be available soon. I would also like to attend an IB Extended Essay training this year, so that I can be fully up and running for everything I'm going to be teaching once we are an official IB World School.

On the coaching side, my goal is to continue to build and strengthen the program. We had a great veterans' meeting yesterday, and the students continue to push themselves even higher than previous students have. I'm very encouraged by what I'm seeing, and I think this year promises to be an amazing year for the team.

Of course, there is also the book club for the students and faculty that I want to start up, and I need to get the cycling program moving again as well.

Personally... hmm. This one's always a little tougher in some ways. First, I want to become more adept at cooking Tibetan and Vietnamese foods. I've cooked a few things from the Tibetan cookbook I picked up, but I haven't hit up the Vietnamese one yet; I need to get moving on that.

It's also a goal of mine to be able to keep up not just with this blog, but also with the Elephant Journal blog entries and reviews that I've been doing. I really enjoy doing the reviews and working with the magazine, though I haven't published an article in a while... I would like to get at least one more article in print in addition to the online reviews and blogs.

In general, though, I want to continue to learn about as much as I can about as many different topics as I can. I really love to learn new things, and I see learning as a celebration of life and what it has to offer. I haven't picked out my next book yet, but as I certainly have plenty to choose from, I don't see that as a problem... except knowing which one to choose, of course!

Oh yeah... another personal goal: I really want to get more consistent with both my meditation and yoga practices. Both of these really help to keep me centered, and I can always feel it when I start to drift. I didn't do a great job of that this summer, and so I need to put more effort into that.

Wow... I have several goals, which isn't a bad thing, I don't think. Of course, these will continue to grow and change as some get met and new ones develop, but I think that's a good start.

Nothing accomplished yet... or did we?

First day of the first full week of school. I took my classes to the library today to get their blogs set up. It took quite a bit longer than I thought it would... the whole period, actually. Most of the students, except for first block, got their blogs set up. First block got caught by time. I figured most of them were familiar with blogging, so we'd breeze through it, and I had them read independently for the first bit of class. Bad idea. By the time we got down there and got things going, we didn't have anywhere near the amount of time I thought we'd have. Looks like I'll be working with them in the classroom tomorrow since I'm not sure how much library time I'll be able to get this week. Perhaps while I'm working with a few students, the rest can work on the district pre-writing assessment, and I can kill two birds with one stone. The first blog entries are due by the end of class this Friday, so I've really got to get moving on it.

I learned a few things today. First, don't assume that every student is a "digital native." There are far fewer of them than one might think, at least when it comes to things like blogging. Secondly, it is going to take some time to explain to the students how the blog is to be used. I had a few students that wanted to push the limits around the school acceptability. I had to remind them more than once that this wasn't MySpace, that it was for classwork, not play.

Speaking of MySpace, it truly is the bane of my existence as a teacher. So many of them just wanted to log into that or to YouTube and play... and not just the freshmen, either. My juniors were just as bad. For many of them, the internet is a place of entertainment, and that's about as far as it goes. It's a bit surprising in some respects. Not as many view it as a source of information as I might have expected, but then again, unless someone has taught them that, how else might they have known it? It's going to be a very interesting year. I'm looking forward to it.

And we're off!

Freshman day today. I think it's going to be a good year. It's a little strange, though. It's weird getting back into the swing of things with freshmen. We had some planning time during the department meeting today, and I had a few of those "Oh yeah! I have to teach them that, don't I?" moments, especially around the 11-sentence paragraph and the five paragraph essay... with having sophomores last year, I'd forgotten that I had to teach that material again. Woops... ha ha!

I'm already proud of one achievement. One of my colleagues was initially dead set against blogging with her students, and after talking with her, I have been able to get her to at least think about doing it, and has agreed to let me sit down and show her. I'm really excited to show her how to do it: I really enjoy this type of thing, and she's a good teacher, so I'm looking forward to giving her one more tool to use with her students.

First full day tomorrow. I didn't get through everything today, so I have that to do already, plus the things I wanted to do tomorrow.

In another "Oh wow" moment. I was talking with one of my classes about how fast high school flies, and did a quick demonstration on the board. We figured out that a high school student only actually has about 720 school days in his or her high school career. We subtracted one day for the day that we were finishing up, leaving them with 719 days left. A few of the students had a "Wow, that's not a lot of time, and we've already lost a day" reaction. (And so did I.)

Something like that only increases my sense of urgency. Only 720 days, and then they are done. It's absolutely amazing that we get as far as we do considering how little time we have.

Time to plan for tomorrow.

Found Will Richardson's blog tonight (he's the author of the book we were given at training, just in case you forgot: Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for the Classroom). The link to it is here. His entry from a couple of days ago resonates with me a bit... he makes the point that education is fairly slow to respond to the changing technology, and I think that for the most part, that statement is true, and it's a real problem. Education should be on the forefront of these changes, not bringing up the rear and only because we are being dragged kicking and screaming into doing so. I can think of more than a few of my colleagues (and not just teachers within the district) who are downright Luddite when it comes to the most basic technology, even email. We are in a society where that is no longer acceptable. Ultimately, I feel that our job is to prepare young people for successful lives beyond high school, regardless of how that looks, and if we do not do so, then we are failing our students, their parents, and ourselves. The world of the 21st century is technology based and technology driven. If we don't embrace it, we are dooming our children to be left far, far behind.

(Cross posted to the Global Learner blog.)

The word of the day is "unicycle"

Today was my first "official" day of summer vacation, even though I still spent a good part of it discussing Global Learners and figuring out more ways to incorporate the technology into my classes. I figure that I'll take a "break" (I never really take a complete break from teaching... I spent part of my day today reading Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson) for a couple of days, then plunge back into the technology I've recently been given and explore some of the sites I found during the training. I have a few lesson plans forming that I need to get down, and I'm thinking of going through donorschoose.org for my own set of clickers, though we'll see about that. I'm more interested in the possibilities represented by WiziQ, blogs, podcasts, Smart Boards and Google docs. I'm thinking that I'll probably focus on those and make those my area of "expertise" at least for this year.

The big news was the new toy I picked up, courtesy of craigslist and $10... a spiffy unicycle. I have to admit that it's actually much harder to ride than I thought it might be, and definitely is going to help me work on my core strength. That being said, the thing is FUN. I actually was able to get going on it... for about six feet, which is my record so far.

A pretty fun way to start my summer.



Yeah, I look GOOD... well, I did for about six feet anyway.



















The Matrix... unicycle style!