The newest chapter and exciting opportunities for growth

Well, after a false start with one district (long story I won't get into here), this fall I will be teaching at a charter school for gifted and talented children. I'm pretty excited about it. On the technological front, my classroom will be equipped with a laptop (for me), a SMART board, document camera, and 1:1 laptops for my students. I'll be teaching 3rd and 4th grade, with one 6th and 7th grade English class.

Aside from substitute teaching, I've never worked in an elementary school setting, so I'm really looking forward to the opportunity for growth that my new job is offering. I've been told that my 6th and 7th graders read at an average of at least a high school to college level, which opens up some really unique opportunities for me as well.

The school where I'm working bases much of its philosophy on the work of Joseph Renzulli and his "Three Ring Conception of Giftedness," which I think represents a unique view of the gifted/talented spectrum that goes beyond merely how a student performs on a test or series of tests. While I've worked with gifted/talented students before and I do extremely well with them, I've never worked exclusively with G/T students before, so this also represents more growth.

It's been a while since I've been presented with so many multiple opportunities for personal and professional growth at one time... in some ways, I feel like a brand new teacher again, which is not a bad thing at all... the Beginner's Mind indeed!

Ch-ch-ch-changes (with apologies to David Bowie)

Another school year is rapidly drawing to a close, marking the completion of my 22nd year as an educator. For a variety of reasons, it's been one of the longest and most difficult years of my career, and one that is most notably marked by a change in employment. Next year I will find myself in another school district at a whole different grade level: for the first time in a long time I'll be teaching middle school again. Come next fall, I'll be standing in front of a group of sixth grade IB students. While I am saddened by leaving the students and faculty where I currently am employed, and I will miss them terribly, at the same time, I am very excited to meet my new students and co-workers.

The new challenges will be a great opportunity for me to grow as a professional and as a person. The advantage for my students is that since I've taught at the high school level, and having taught IB at the high school level, I know where they are headed and what is in store for them, and so I can help to get them ready for that transition. I've already downloaded sixth grade vocabulary and book lists, and have been running through potential lessons and scenarios in my mind.

I've certainly enjoyed my time as a high school educator. I've worked with some outstanding young men and women (and some outstanding not so young men and women... heh), and I've learned quite a lot. For a while, I resisted the change; there is comfort in familiarity, change represents real risk and is scary. Yet everything kept pointing me in that direction, and the harder I pushed against it, the harder I was pushed toward it. And yet when I think back on my previous years as a junior high/middle school teacher, it is almost always with a smile and a bit of warmth: I genuinely like working with middle school students and find them to be quite a lot of fun.

The other challenge will be figuring out which technological tools will be useful for my students and which ones won't. There are some that in the past I neglected since they were "too young" for my 9th, 10th, and 11th grade students that I will now likely find very useful. I will look at others to see if they are "too old" for my 6th graders or if they can be adapted for use within the middle school classroom. Of course, this is assuming I'll have at least semi-regular access to technology.

So many questions as I venture forth into new and uncharted horizons, yet I'm filled with a sense of adventure and excitement. This year will end bittersweet for me, but the next year is filled with promise and excitement. My next big adventure awaits!

You know you're teaching in the 21st century when...

My son was out last Friday, and asked if I could stay home with him; since he rarely asks me to do that when he's not feeling well, I decided to honor his request.

The interesting thing about the whole process was how the whole day was set up. I put in for the sub via a website, then sent a text messages to colleagues on my team notifying them that I would be out and was going to email them the lesson plans for the day.  I wrote out the lesson plans and emailed them out. Since the Theory of Knowledge class is so seminar based, I set up a class discussion about the meaning of history on CoverItLive and class continued as normal.

This definitely has some interesting potential for education and how it is delivered. There are an increasing number of online programs and sites available where teachers can post and deliver instruction online. However, there is much to be said for face to face interaction, especially when it comes to delivering instruction. While it did enable me to continue instruction on a day when I was out, I would not want to give up the spontaneity and energy of actually being in a classroom, interacting on a more personal and intimate level. Human relationships are affected by online interactions, and I definitely don't think the class would have gone as well had I not previously built those unique relationships via classroom instruction and the simple human interaction that comes from teaching. The idea that teachers are far more than simple deliverers of material isn't exactly a news flash: the duties and responsibilities of an educator go far, far beyond that of simple subject matter... and these "soft skills" that don't get measured on any standardized test are just as important, if not more so, to the development of a student and to their success (or failure) as an adult.

As a supplement to classroom instruction or as an adjunct to instruction on days when a teacher is out but has access to technology, online discussions are the way to go... but as an acceptable substitute for instruction? Never. Education is far more important than that.

Last live blog of the year: transitions

Had our last live blog session for the school year. Our topic was the transition from 8th to 9th grade, with the idea that my students would offer their words of wisdom to the incoming freshmen next year. We had a few technical issues here and there, but the day went well over all, with the exception that no eighth grade students actually joined us. The students and I were pretty disappointed about that, but perhaps we can do this again next year and get a better response. The advantage is that the conversation is still there and so can be accessed by the class of 2013 over the summer and next year as well.

The other up side of the day was that students who struggled with live blogging before "got it" this time, and so the level of participation for the students went up quite a bit. When these same students use this next year, it will be a bit less direct instruction I will have to do aside from a review of sorts. Certainly next year will be interesting from a technology standpoint. This is the first year I've used tech as much as I have, and next year I'll have about half of the students up to speed with the other half being brought in. I'm pretty excited about it, and I plan to find and learn how to use as many new tech "toys" as I can over the summer.

Global Learner Year One Reflections

The conclusion of my first year as a member of the Global Learners program is rapidly drawing to a close. I can comfortably say that in many ways this has been one of the most exciting years I've had as a teacher in quite a while. Not only did I choose to take on collaboration/group work as a norm of the class, but I integrated technology into my teaching far beyond what I thought I would. (Quote of the day from one of my juniors as he is typing his final: "Mr.... how do you spell 'miracles'?") Ning, Edmodo, Twitter, CoverItLive, YouTube, TextTheMob, Power Point, Google docs, TurnItIn.com, and the like played far more of a role in my classes and in my instruction than I initially believed they could, to the point that they became as much of the classroom culture as a whiteboard or a textbook. There are some that I've introduced my students to but haven't really dug into yet, like RSS feeds (I use them, but haven't spent a lot of classroom time on them yet), podcasting, videocasting, OpenZine, and so forth. I used blogs this year, and will continue those as well. I'm sure there are other educational technologies that I've not even heard of, but will seek out and utilize as much as I can.

On the one hand, it does mean a good bit of extra time and work for me, at least initially, but when schools in other countries are making it a part of their regular curriculum, then it becomes a given that my students need to be made aware of these tools as well; under no circumstances will my students be given the opportunity to be left out of the conversation. There are plenty who disagree and feel that social networking and the like have no place in the classroom; I and many others respectfully disagree. The bottom line is that the technology is here to stay and as educators we can either adapt or be left behind. The tragedy of that is if we choose to become Luddites, we drag our students down with us and so disenable their ability to stay involved and connected to the world that they can, do, and will live in.

Edmodo, Twitter, and Web 2.0

Last week I found out about, and signed my students up for, Edmodo; basically Twitter for teachers and their students. (FYI, I am on Twitter as well... feel free to follow me!) It took me a little while to get the hang of it, but now that I'm catching on, I'm really enjoying it and finding it far more useful than I thought. I can send just about anything to my students and/or to the groups I set up within it. Best of all, it's extraordinarily safe: students need a code just to sign up to use it... very nice.

Along those same lines, students in the UK are now going to be required to be technologically literate by the time they leave the primary grades. The new requirements include the ability to utilize not just basic skills but also skills with social networking, blogging, podcasts, Twitter, and so forth. I'm only vaguely surprised to see these skills being formally incorporated into school curricula; not too long ago we had a rather interesting (read: vaguely heated) conversation around the idea that as English teachers our job had moved from the traditional role to more of that of a communications teacher, and as such, we were to accomplish three tasks: teach our students to read well, communicate effectively, and to think. After the initial eyebrow raising, at least some of my colleagues began to see the logic in this... and then the conversation turned to technology. Why is it so many teachers have such an intensely phobic reaction to the incorporation of technology in the classroom? There are times when I wonder how on earth I was able to get anything done before the advent of the digital age.

And yet, there certainly are risks to the uses and abuses of technology; it's not the panacea to learning as this Irish student was so effectively able to demonstrate. Like anything, technology is a tool, one that we should be using effectively instead of allowing it to use us. It's easy to get lazy about this: I see it in both students and teachers all the time. Using technology effectively takes work; it's not for the faint of heart, yet it is here and as Will Richardson so eloquently put it in this blog entry, it is crucial that our students become fluent in the language and be able to truly communicate their ideas effectively in a variety of mediums (and media). Are the days of reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn over? Hardly. But what is over are the days when we could complacently expect our students to read literature and spit back what we asked them to memorize facts and information on a paper test. It's time for our students to really be able to show us what they've learned and are learning, and it's time for us as professionals to be open to the possibilities.

A Vision of K-12 Students Today

I don't think I posted this before, but it's a spinoff/variant of the original "Vision of K-12 Students Today" done by the KSU students. It's a GREAT video and very worth watching.

IB authorization, Farmers Market, live blogs, and audio/video blogs!

It's that time of year again! The first Boulder County Farmers Market was this past Saturday, and I attended of course, in spite of the snow. The turnout was pretty light, for both the farmers and the customers, which was understandable considering that the forecast had called for a huge blizzard. It was great to see the farmers again, many of whom I consider friends of a sort.

Life in the classroom continues to take interesting and cool twists and turns. A student in my epistemology class asked if he could record his blog entries as a podcast and upload them or post the link to the class blog site; it then became an overall discussion, and it was agreed that a 3-5 minute podcast or video would be appropriate for the blog entries. I was impressed with the students' initiative and since oral presentations are a part of the class anyway, it wasn't hard to get me to go along with the idea.

The first live blogging session for the epistemology class is today. Topic: What's wrong with modern man? Should be interesting.

I've rescheduled the live blogging session for my MYP classes. The new date is Thursday, April 16. The times are:
Block 2: 8:30 a.m. -9:15 a.m.
Block 3: 9:30 a.m. -10:20 a.m.
Block 4: 11:15 a.m. -12:05 p.m.
Block 5: 12:20 p.m. - 1:10 p.m.

The topic: Within the realms of food, transportation, and housing, what have you done or what are you doing to lessen your impact on the planet and what goals do you have along those same lines?

The epistemology class will also be live blogging on April 16 at 1:30 p.m. (Mountain Time; GMT-7) for our next live blog. Topic: “In order to find out how things really are, one must understand the filters through which one perceives the world.” Discuss and evaluate this claim. The link for this blog is here.

If you can/want to join us, simply click on the class period to be taken directly to the page.

In other very cool news, the school where I work has been authorized for the IB DP program. That means that we can now offer the full MYP/DP sequence here at the high school, and it means that our district is one of the few in the world to offer the full K-12 IB program. Pretty sweet.

Live blog: What Are You Doing?

On Friday, March 27, my classes will be participating in a live blog session discussing the topic: Within the realms of food, transportation, and housing, what have you done or what are you doing to prevent or slow climate change, especially in the face of peak oil and a diminishing oil supply, and what goals do you have along those same lines?

The times for the sessions are as follows (just click on the class period link to be taken to the blog site):Please note that all times are Mountain Time in the United States (GMT-7):

Block 2: 8:30-9:15 a.m.
Block 3: 9:30-10:20 a.m.
Block 4: 11:15 a.m. - 12:05 p.m.
Block 5: 12:20-1:10 p.m.

It would be great to have people join us for our discussion!

This blog has been postponed due to a snow day... it will be rescheduled for April 16th.

Education in the 21st Century: Teachers Without Borders

(Teachers Without Borders provided the logo exclusively for educational purposes and is not an endorsement of comments or opinions on site.)

I recently joined Teachers Without Borders (TWB), an organization of teachers committed to enacting global change through education. TWB goes a bit beyond professional networking sites like the Global Education Collaborative and Classroom 2.0 in that Teachers Without Borders offers opportunities for professional development and even mentorship on an international level, and it possesses the ability to identify and support educational leaders who are willing to put the effort in to making a difference. It’s interesting to see the number of organizations that have developed around international collaboration between educators and students. Teachers Without Borders promises to take training and collaboration to a level beyond mere networking. Like Doctors Without Borders, Teachers Without Borders is a nonprofit dedicated to bridging cultural and geographic gaps for the betterment of humankind; unlike Doctors Without Borders, which is a centralized organization, TWB is decentralized and more driven by its members. It’s also one of the few organizations whose focus is the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, and recognizes that teachers are on the front line of world change. Going beyond mere networking, TWB has specific goals and a plan for affecting change through education. (Best part is that membership is free!) For the rest of this entry, please go here.

More implications of technology

The other night I received a text message from an alumni attending one of the state colleges asking me to sign on to my Yahoo Messenger because he needed help with an essay; I let him know that I would do so after dinner. Shortly after I'd finished eating, I signed on and sent him a text telling him that I had gotten online. He joined me a few minutes later, and we began to work on his essay. He would send it to me over Yahoo Messenger, I'd look it over, make my comments, then send it back. We continued like this for some time until I'd gone from my intial 60+ comments and suggestions down to two.

There are a number of ways we could have done this same thing, including Google Docs and so forth, but more importantly was what this represented. Z is about an hour's drive away, so not too long ago, he would have been pretty much on his own when it came to his essay, or at least his access to me would have been all but cut off, especially since I'm a visual learner and need to see it in front of me in order to work on it; additionally, unless he were to read the punctuation marks to me, I'd have no way to assess that unless I saw it.

This only reinforces the importance that the internet and technology in general has gained to both educators and students. An exchange of text messages, then the sending back and forth of an essay with comments added and subtracted from it, and a student is able to access a resource and get help with an essay.

While this may seem like no big deal, at the same time, these changes have occurred within the span of half of my teaching career, which is pretty remarkable, really. It wasn't a problem to help him, though I kept "geeking out" over the ability to work with him as if he was next to me in spite of being an hour away. It brings me back to an observation made by a student in my epistemology class that it wouldn't be long before he might not have to show up to class at all... that it would all eventually be online. And while this is certainly a possibility, at the same time, I hope that it doesn't come to pass; there is too much to be gained from human interaction and too much to be lost by the lack of it.

Back at work and back at live blogging

We had another live blogging session in my epistemology class today. The kids have really gotten into it; it's definitely become a part of the classroom culture. Actually, yesterday we had a brief moment of panic when I said we were going to discuss the blog topic but not have an online conversation. The kids misunderstood and thought that I was saying that we weren't going to use coveritlive anymore, and I almost had a mutiny on my hands. Today's conversation was "What is the goal of science?" Before we started the conversation, I asked the students to take out their phones and turn them on. There were a few sheepish looks from the students who already had them on, and general confusion all around. One student looked at me, laughed, and said, "You know they're waiting for the snatch and grab, don't you?" Once the phones were on, I had them send text messages to as many people as they wanted to (preferably not other students), asking those people what they thought the goal of science was. It was pretty amazing... I think many of the students were a bit surprised to be using their cell phones and sending text messages as part of class work, but they certainly weren't complaining. As messages came in, we added them to our class discussion on coveritlive, where John Albright and someone named Angel had joined us.

I love the fact that the students have taken to this so readily and have really become much more active participants in class discussions; it's even bringing out the "wall flowers," especially when they could incorporate text messaging. My only wish now is to get more people participating in the live blog that are not only outside of the building, but outside of the district (and not just through text messaging); I've begun posting the links and notifications on Twitter, Facebook, The Global Education Collaborative, and even MySpace, but we haven't quite gotten the response I've been hoping for, at least not yet. Then again, it's new, so I'm not really discouraged, either... I figure once I make this a more regular thing, I'll get more outside participation.

(Cross posted to the Global Learner blog.)

The next step

I've figured out a way to take the class discussions to the next level. When we get back, I'm going to ask the students in my epistemology class to take out their phones at the beginning of the discussion and turn them on. At that point, I will ask them to text one person not in the building and ask them the question of the day; the responses will go on the live blog and be used as a discussion point. I can't wait!!

Better and better

Today's class discussion was amazing. The students and I are getting the hang of coveritlive, which helps for sure; in addition, we had two other teachers in the room with us, a third teacher joined us via coveritlive, and a student that was absent from school logged in and participated from home. (Prompting another student to ask: "Is he getting participation points for this?" Me: "Ummm.... yes, actually, why not? He's here, sort of." Student: "Sweet! I may never have to come to class again!" Me: "No, no... you still have to be here if you want full points!") :-)

I called the absent student and talked with him a bit about the experience of being "on the other end" as it were. He said he liked it, but also knew that he was missing out on what we were saying, knowing that we were only posting summaries of what was actually being discussed, which led us to an exploration of the idea of being able to add a live broadcast in which I would simultaneously record and broadcast class discussions in addition to the live blogging... the only thing missing would be the images (which I could actually take care of via my laptop's webcam, and post the video later). The possibilities and implications of this are just staggering. I would encourage reading today's discussion, posted here; the podcast is posted here. (Dec. 19)

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.

What is the goal of education?

Education in the 21st century, pt. 2

I just posted part two in my series on education in the 21st century to the Elephant Journal website. In case you missed it, here is part one, and there is more to come. Feel free to link to it and pass it along!

Week of tech reflections

(Cross posted on the Global Learners blog.)

Happy International Day of Peace, everyone! I read an article in the paper reporting on how various factions that have been involved in armed conflict have agreed to not fight at all out of respect for the day, which begs the question, if they can do it for one day, why can't they do it permanently?? *sigh*

We had the laptops in my classroom for the entire week, which should have been great, right? Yeah, well.... *ahem*.

The biggest frustration was students who couldn't remember their passwords for their blogs and/or their school email accounts (even more so the ones who'd forgotten them from the day before). I expected that the first day would be refreshing memories, but we ended up losing two days to that, and even more for some students. Add to that the various technical difficulties, including Google not publishing posts on blogs even though I watched the student write the blog and click "publish now," and it made for a very interesting adventure, to be sure. There were times when I felt like just saying "forget it, let's just use paper and pen or pencil," but then I remembered that for some students, this technology is completely new to them, and as such, require a certain amount of patience from me. Just because this generation has been called "digital natives" doesn't mean all of them were born in the same technological land (figuratively speaking). The digital divide was very prevalent in the room, and I almost blinked and didn't see it.

I think that by and large, the week was a success. Yes, there were some students who in spite of my watching over them and giving and paying as much attention as I could still managed to slip through the cracks, but most of the students took advantage of the opportunity, so I'm pleased.

This week we go back to the "regular" world of not having instant access to all of the technology we need. I have six desktops in my room now so up to six students can blog or work on their essays at a time, though, so I expect we'll still get a lot done; maybe even more since I only need to watch six instead of twenty-six or so.

I've started reading over some of the personal narratives, and there are some really amazing pieces of writing there. There are some structural issues and the like, but last week was about getting the words down; this week is about making them better. I'm looking forward to the finished product, and I am thinking of asking some students about posting their work to the web, and since Google docs has that as an option, it will be really easy to do, and I can put the link on the class webpage... yet another way to make the writing more "real world." (479)

Link and new geekiness

I published an article about the digital classroom on Elephant Journal a couple of days ago that I'm rather proud of, and it's gotten some nice feedback. If you're interested in reading/commenting on it, you can find it here.

I've also found a new and cool way to get info to my students without paper. I found an excerpt from a book that I wanted to use with my students, and so I asked the publisher of the book if I could copy it to use. I got permission, scanned it, and saved it as a pdf to a flash drive... but then couldn't decide what to do with it. I wanted them to read it tomorrow in class, but then there was the whole digital vs paper thing that has become something of a block for me now. I ended up emailing them the excerpt. (Yeah, I know.... obvious solution. I really do need to apply Occam's Razor much more often than I do.) Nonetheless, I am still rather pleased with the idea that each of the students in the class already has the excerpt waiting for them in their inboxes. Tomorrow in class, I am going to have them log into their email accounts and read the excerpt. We have the laptop cart tomorrow, so each can use their own, but this still wouldn't be that much of an issue if I have them do this same task in their Learning Teams of three, one team per computer; the principle is the same.

I definitely want to use this as often as possible. Best part is that a student can't claim to have lost the handout or leave it in class... all they need to do is log in at home and there it is! I can and will still print it out for students without internet access, unless they have a flash drive and a computer at home, in which case they can simply load it onto their flash drive, again saving paper.

I so love this whole technology thing. :-)



Oh! Speaking of technology, it's possible to search the 'net and be eco-friendly at the same time! I recently came across Ecoogler, a search engine that uses Yahoo technology and for every 10,000 searches done, they will plant a tree in the Amazon rainforest. To date, they've planted 2,290 trees and counting. So.... bookmark 'em and use it frequently! (Click on their logo or the link to get to their site.)
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