Back to the world of technology!

After various delays, I was able to get my students back online today, much to our collective excitement. My sophomore classes participated in a live blog with the other sophomore-level classes in a conversation in reaction to an essay by Richard Rodriguez. It was quite an experience to have roughly 80-100 students participating in a Coveritlive conversation at the same time. Fortunately, the other teachers in their classrooms were able to help me manage the discussion, so I wasn't too overwhelmed (for the most part).

Live blogging has several useful components to it. While it is true that spelling and syntactical errors appear, as does text message spelling, the writing itself is raw and unedited, and for some, more real. The level of engagement goes just about through the roof since the students are involved in conversations in a medium in which they (mostly) feel comfortable. One student remarked that he wished they could live blog every day because he was enjoying it and learning quite a lot.

For second language learners, live blogging enables them to participate in the conversation at their own pace and rhythm. Being able to scroll up and down the screen to review others' postings and comment on previous observations opens the doors for them in a manner in which traditional classroom conversations may not enable. This also holds true for students that are generally shy and even for those who process information more slowly. In many ways, live blogging is one of the more valuable classroom tools that I possess.

The next cool thing I'm working on is an author event with Kristin Cashore, hosted by the Boulder Bookstore and the bookclub, which I'm starting back up next week. I'm taking the year off from the climbing program simply due to time constraints; fortunately the bookclub isn't quite as time intensive.

Things are starting to settle in to (more or less of) a routine for me, which is always nice. Helps when I know what to expect on a day to day basis for sure.

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.

Fate or Freewill?

My epistemology students will be engaging in the classic philosophical conversation of fate vs. freewill today (April 30) at 1:30 Mountain Time (GMT-7):

Are fate and freewill mutually exclusive or can you have some combination of the two?

What is freewill? Does it exist or is it all determined in advance (destiny/fate)?

The link to join us is here.

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.

From participant to parent

On Thursday, I attended Kyle's first swim meet. It's been a long time since I was at a swim meet; 26 years in fact. He definitely shows some real potential, but then again, he's a pretty athletic kid, so I'm not surprised. It was pretty fun being on the parent side of a swim meet. Interesting how things change yet remain the same.

My classes have started working with Plan B 3.0, including a page on Ning to allow for cross-class collaboration. I've never done anything like this before, but I see some real potential for some very cool things to happen, so while I'm a little nervous about how it could turn out (or not), at the same time, I'm more excited about what this represents for my students in general and for me as an educator. I also want to combine this with some live blogging. I got pretty good with it last marking period, so now I want to pilot it out to more of my classes.

In other news, I've been invited to work with on another Elephant Journal event, this time with the Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. Very, very cool. It's not until May, but I will be starting work on it this week. I'm really excited about it... stay tuned, there's more on that to follow!

Authors, ethics, and random thoughts

On Monday evening, I had the unique pleasure of meeting Joseph M. Marshall III, author of Walking With Grandfather and The Power of Four (among other works). He did an appearance at the Boulder Bookstore do to a talk and book signing. He was interesting to listen to, and he had a quiet, confident energy about him that lent even more power to his words. One of the many advantages to living in this area is the ability to meet so many people like him.

In other news, I have discovered that leaving a wireless microphone on for several hours is a sure-fire way to absolutely kill the rechargeable battery inside it. Oh, and rechargeable 9-volt batteries are not inexpensive.

I've really been enjoying the live blogging that we've been doing in the epistemology class, but have definitely found that it doesn't work as well when/if others don't log on from anywhere. I still need to work on that; perhaps more lead time to discussions would be good... maybe pick a day of the week to be a regularly scheduled live blog day or something like that. This week (and the next few) should prove interesting... we're going to begin a discussion of ethics. I'm sure that there are several in the class who will have some pretty strong opinions about things along ethical lines; it should be fun, or at least interesting.

I had an interesting conversation with Phil, the owner of Rocky Plains Meat not too long ago. For some time now I've noticed that while the food I've been eating in some ways costs more per pound, I'm eating less of it. That's not to say I'm going hungry at all; in fact, quite the opposite- that the food I'm eating satisfies me sooner due to the higher nutrient content in it since it's both organic and local. Combine that with my more mindful eating habits, and my meals have taken on a much different "feel" to them, and I've suspected that I'm actually saving money rather than spending more. Phil and I talked about that, and he told me about a couple who shop with him as well. The woman of the couple does the budget for their household, and she noticed that they were spending less money and eating less food since they made a similar switch in their diet as to what I have done. Proof at last! Of course, I've since then been talking with people about that concept; that if you really want to save money, then buy and eat local/organic as much as possible. Yeah, I do still cheat a little (e.g. coffee, chocolate, bananas), but I still try to eat seasonally. Bananas are currently in season, for example, so for the next couple of months, I'll be chowing down on bananas. Not only do I feel better and have reduced, if not eliminated, my chances of being subject to food recalls, but I'm actually saving money. Kind of nice, really.

Live blogging improvement

We continued our discussion on the goal of science today, and started an interesting conversation around genetic engineering which led to the use of antibiotics and growth hormones in food (especially meat). In addition to another teacher in the building, we had a former teacher join us as well as one a former student of mine who is now a teacher in Boston. I'm pretty excited since this is exactly what I was hoping to do... branch out beyond the district. I've also joined Classroom 2.0, and I'm hoping that between that and the Global Education Collaborative that I'll be able to start hooking in with other classrooms as well. I think posting it on Facebook and the like helped, and I'm also going to post an invitation on the IB website. I think it's great to be able to reach out like I'm able to. Now I just have to get others to join us!

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)