Holy freaking cow!! WAY too cool!!

Social networking as a form of class discussion?

Recently wrote a post on the Global Learner blog around Purdue University's "Hotseat" program, a form of social networking as a means of class discussion. There is some very interesting potential here, if implemented correctly, for real-time student collaboration and opportunity to work with and assist in teaching one another. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this... anyone use anything like this?

Hello from October!

Lots happening these days, and not anywhere near enough time.

There are plenty of silver linings amongst the storm clouds of life lately. Recently I received my first ever invitation to a Quinceanera! I'm super excited about it, and I've asked a few of my male students who have been to one to help me out with what I need to know and do so I don't make a complete fool of myself. I have always enjoyed taking part in others' cultural experiences; I can't wait to see what a Quinceanera is like. I'm sincerely honored to be asked.

Not too long ago, I attended a talk and book signing by Anyen Rinpoche who was there promoting his new book, Momentary Buddhahood. I really enjoyed hearing him speak, and I was given quite a bit to think about. I took a few moments to browse the store afterwards (of course), and happily came across Brom's new book, The Child Thief. It now sits on my bookshelf, waiting to be read once I finish Kristin Cashore's Graceling.

Slowly but surely, my students are grasping the use of, and acclimating to, the various technology tools I use in my classes. They've realized that Edmodo is one of my favorite tools for getting them information, including notes. When a student is out and comes back, my stock response is "Check your Edmodo account" when I'm asked for notes. I've gotten into the habit of turning my class notes, Power Points, and so forth into pdf files and then firing the pdf file out on Edmodo. I've generally preferred the conversion to pdf since not every student has Microsoft Word, Power Point, etc at home, yet Acrobat Reader is free; thanks to pdf995, I didn't have to spring the mega-bucks for Adobe Acrobat, thank goodness. Blogging, using Google docs, even taking notes electronically is rapidly becoming routine in my classes. I actually just a few minutes ago read a post on Twitter by a teacher in British Columbia who is sick at home yet ran his classes online. Now THAT is just amazingly cool.

Earlier, I came across the SmithTeens Six-Word Memoirs site and used it with my freshmen classes, who are in the process of writing their own memoirs. I used the site to help them develop their thesis for their memoirs, which proved to be pretty effective. For those who were looking for a greater challenge, I had them use Squeaker, which reduced their thesis statements to 14 characters. They weren't required to actually post anything to either site, but they did compose their posts on the sites so they could "play by the rules." Both were great (and fun) mini lessons in the importance of word choice and even punctuation.

Hmmm.... oh yes!! Happy Halloween!!!

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.

Here we go!

Another year has started! This makes year #22 for me, which is still weird when I think about it. This is the first year in new building, and aside from pretty sketchy wifi, it's been really exciting to be in it at last. It's also our first year in Academies and with a new dress code, both of which seem to be going decently well, at least in the I.B. Academy, anyway. We even made the news, which was kind of neat. I was particularly pleased that I didn't walk into the lcd monitor or trip over anything while on camera, so I'm taking that as a good omen for the year. (ha ha!)

This week was a hectic week for my students. On Monday we took a reading inventory so I would have a decent sense of where my students' reading levels were, then spent Tuesday giving a basic IB1o1 to my students. Yesterday and today we were in the library getting familiar with some of the various tools we'll be using this year: the class webpage, the class blogs, our class and Academy Ning pages, Edmodo, and Coveritlive. My goal was to address some ISTE NETS standards this week, so I focused on collaborative and communication tools.

The only real disappointments came when I received some emails this week that essentially asked me to set aside what I had planned in favor of someone else's agenda; particularly aggravating when those other people don't even deal with my students on a day to day basis. I am certainly flexible and willing to roll with changes, but when those changes are essentially dropped in my lap and the message (intended or otherwise) is "Yes, thank you for planning out your lessons so carefully, but we need you to do THIS right now," I tend to react negatively. A little heads up would be nice. Ah, well. Such is the nature of education sometimes, regardless of how frustrating it is.

Still and all, a good week and an auspicious start!!

The reality is even better than the idea

Tonight's dessert: grilled peaches a la mode with Bhakti Chai chip ice cream and fresh, homemade whipped cream. Tastes even better than it sounds. Wow.

Tomorrow is the final day of Global Learners training. I'm really excited about the new group of Global Learners. They are really enthusiastic about the program and all they are learning, even if they are a little overwhelmed right now, much like I was a year ago.

One week from today is Freshman Day. Wow. I'm looking forward to it, though. Yes, the year will be replete with its bumps and bruises, but I do think it will be a good year anyway.

It's over... new beginnings

The summer is over for me now. I attended part of new teacher induction today, and tomorrow I will be back full time with Global Learners training. This was a really intense summer for me, so I'm not sad that it has come to an end. Added to that is the opening of the brand new, beautiful and exciting high school building, with all four Academies in place and ready to go. While I'm taking a break from the climbing program this year, my plate will not be empty. (The program needs to be reset due to the demise of the Denver Climbing League and Paradise Rock Gym, so the students and I are going to take some time to figure out what that will look like for the 2010-2011 school year and beyond.) Instead, this year I will have two mentees in Global Learners, a student teacher until December break, a few senior adoptees to get ready for graduation, and as senior class sponsor, I have graduation to help out with. The only extracurricular I have planned for this year will be the book club, though there are a few teachers and I who want to put together a triathlon event for the spring. In addition, with the authorization of the full IB program, we have to get that up and running as well. Like I said, my plate will still be decently full.

Last night I attended a book signing and teaching with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, author of The Joy of Living and Joyful Wisdom. I've been to a few such teachings/book signings, two with Tibetan writers/teachers (this is my second of such). The event was both entertaining as well as educational: I learned a great deal, and took quite a lot home for me to sort through. It was a really nice way for me to end my summer and to begin a new year. I'm looking forward to it now more than I was before.