Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Thing #?? and Then Some
I received a feed today from TechLearning that discusses Wii's being used in music classes. I was a amazed, TALK ABOUT EDUCATION 2.0. It's a short, but interesting read, just thought I'd share.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Thing #7
I'm partially biased when it comes to commenting. I have to admit I was pulled into the "Myspace" craze and created one of my own a few years back. My experiences there, correlate with the Ten Commandments of Commenting so well!!
It makes sense that we would need Read what's going on before we write to it. Number three reminds us that we need to smile. I think that I would be the most guilty of overusing this one. :) I smile often! I find Commandment 4 very difficult for me, as much as I love to have comments, and feel sad if I don't, I do not do a very good idea of commenting to others. I need to work on this! I agree, I think it's awesome to be funny, when people take themselves too seriously, I find it hard to take them seriously!! Commandment Ten tells us that we should visit frequently, this is something that I can definitely do!! I'm an internet addict! :P
I also really enjoyed the Blue Skunk article called Your Comments? This made me ah-ha. Our comments aren't really our comments. These are for the benefit of our poster, our readers, and then finally ourselves. These articles helped me to realize how important it is to comment on others blogs etc., and to make sure that it's meaningful and contributes to the "conversation."
Happy commenting............ : 0 )
Thing #6
I heart Google Reader, I'm addicted!!! :) Like I said in my last post, I've been feeding my Reader since day 1. I've been Reading quite a bit about Children's books, and it's been very informative in working towards my Master's degree. I'm working towards a Library Information Sciences Degree. This feed keeps me up-to-date on what books are coming out, what reviews are saying, and what books are receiving awards etc. I've also been Reading from Braingle quite often. Braingle updates several times daily. Every day I get a Brain Teaser, a Trivia Question, a Vocabulary Word, A Creativity post and A Memory post. I've gotten the most benefit so far from the Creativity and Memory posts. I've found so many ideas that I have been able to take and find ways to adapt to my classroom!! I'm so excited, they work as good fillers and morning work/bell ringers! For example, on February 1st, and at several times prior to that, they gave the idea of working on familiar family words. It states that we should come up with 26 words (one for each letter of the alphabet) for each of a certain category. Ex. Animals (Ant, Bear, Cat, ....) Jobs (Artist, Baker, ...). I already make an "ABC" book at the end of the year, over what we've learned. But, it's was a refreshing reminder that I can do it quickly, with a small time frame, and a familiar topic as a motivator, or a transition etc. Another, of MANY, idea that I liked was called Superhero. In Superhero, it's all about creativity! You are supossed to pretend that you are in charge of comingup with a new superhero for a comic book. You give the student 5 minutes and come up with as many unique creative names as you can for this superhero. Then tell what their super-power is. The goal is to see who can come up with the most, truly unique. I have also been receiving daily posts about quotations. I love using quotations as inspirational techniques in my classroom, as anecdotes to awkward situations, and as transitions. I've found lots of quotes that I like, but not so many that I can use in my classroom. Rotten Tomatoes has been sending my daily updates, however I'm not too sure if I will be keeping this "feed". Even though, I enjoy my information on movies etc., I've been finding some of what they have to say somewhat annoying. Not the last of my feeds, but the last for today is a feed from Google News that I specified to my "needs". My father's cousin, Dana Rohrabacher, is a representative for the state of California. I subscribed to this feed so that I can stay up to date on what's going on in his life, and give me a better excuse to stay up-to-date on political news. I usually tend to fall behind on what's going on. ........... More to come later!
Saturday, January 31, 2009
OMG i'm OCD
So, I just realized exactly how bad my OCD is!! I had to literally stop myself from going back and adding in a Thing #3 because it bothered me that it wasn't there. Scary..................
Thing #5
Wow, I am loving my Google Reader! As soon as this course started, I previewed what we were going to be learning about. Immediately upon opening my Gmail account I started subscribing to feeds for my Reader. I am in love!!! There is no possible way that I could have imagined enjoying this so much, at first I looked at it with the opinion, "oh great, more spam mail." But, on the contrary.............
For now I'll keep my commenting to the feeds that I have more recently added. A favorite that I subscribed to is the feed 2 cents. In that feed I received an article called 21st Century School Continued. This article was amazing in how David Warlick expresses his ideas on what our 21st Century Schools should be looking like. He refers to the need for a teacher to not be a 'teacher' but to become a 'learning consultant'. This is amazing in concept, scary, yet amazing. In the article Mr. Warlick goes on to quote John Beck in his comparison of a teacher to a 'level boss' that our new gamer generation may view us as. Beck 'suggested that a boss (or teacher) who acts like a boss may not appear so much to be a leader to a video game generation of workers (or learners). He or she may, instead, look more like a barrier. He suggested that the boss (or teacher) might get further by acting like a strategy guide, the book that video gamers buy that publishes strategies and cheats for navigating the game.' This thought really made me have an "aha" moment. WOW!! When I sit and listen to the conversations of my students, they focus on what game is hot at the time, what codes they can use to beat levels etc. What a concept, to approach our teaching in this same way.........
For now I'll keep my commenting to the feeds that I have more recently added. A favorite that I subscribed to is the feed 2 cents. In that feed I received an article called 21st Century School Continued. This article was amazing in how David Warlick expresses his ideas on what our 21st Century Schools should be looking like. He refers to the need for a teacher to not be a 'teacher' but to become a 'learning consultant'. This is amazing in concept, scary, yet amazing. In the article Mr. Warlick goes on to quote John Beck in his comparison of a teacher to a 'level boss' that our new gamer generation may view us as. Beck 'suggested that a boss (or teacher) who acts like a boss may not appear so much to be a leader to a video game generation of workers (or learners). He or she may, instead, look more like a barrier. He suggested that the boss (or teacher) might get further by acting like a strategy guide, the book that video gamers buy that publishes strategies and cheats for navigating the game.' This thought really made me have an "aha" moment. WOW!! When I sit and listen to the conversations of my students, they focus on what game is hot at the time, what codes they can use to beat levels etc. What a concept, to approach our teaching in this same way.........
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Thing # 4
After starting our blogs last week, I found myself wanting to do it more. I've had some experience on networking sites, but this is so different. It's more reflective then some I've done in the past. I found my self wanting to write so frequently, but stopped myself. Then on our "snow day" yesterday, I wanted to write this blog, but had left my notes on my keyboard at school, should have used my Writeboard. Oh, technology, what would we do without it?
Blog writing in general is so much more informal than any other form of writing we encounter, especially in our life-long learning process. In school, we are taught that the English language has rules, and that these rules must be followed. All sentences, must begin with a capital letter, they can not and should not have contractions, our punctuations should be used sparingly and get our point across. We should not be too concise or too wordy....... etc. Oh yeah, no abbreviations. Now, with blog writing, the process, or should I say ART, of writing has become much more personal. A person can express what they truly have to say. They can be as wordy as they want, or express themselves in one word. Finally! In blogs we can show our emotions with Emoticons :) :( :P or our anger with ALL CAPS. We have even in a new sense created a new language the IM/Text language. LOL! :) As we come into our own process we are expected to follow these same procedures in our own profession, and if that profession is teaching, we then pass on a life-time of rules to these new, young up-and-comers. We then scorn and reprimand them from using the language that they have grown up with. The blog writing/texting/im-ing era is upon us.
I love blog reading, and I especially loved what the article SSR 2.0 had to say. This article made me have an "ah-ha". We have our D.E.A.R. time daily, usually while I'm accelearating a "small" group of kids, but we strive for it. Reading is so integral, I try to instill this in my students, however for some of them, it's difficult, not quite stimulating enough. This article made me realize that it's not the books, or the lack of wanting to read, it's the act of reading. They have one source to keep their attention, that book. In SSR 2.0, the teacher allowed their class to do their reading on-line, in blogs. What a wonderful idea! : - O Where was I on this one? After reading this blog, my mind was racing. Blog reading allows the participant to consume their content, not only create it (SSR 2.0). Consuming content creates a symbiotic realtionship, the reader is learning and personalizing what they are reading, as the writer is sharing their experiences, what a novel idea! But in the same sense, as we are consuming this, we are practicing our much needed skills. We are scanning our text for important pieces of information, we are summarizing to ourselves what we've just read, we are making connections with things we have already read, or with things we could possible read through links. WOW!
The blog How to Prevent Another Leonardo da Vinci scared me to be quite honest. The notes I wrote for myself were... WOW! I couldn't have summed it up any better. To think, that in our trying to "help" our students, we are actually hindering them from becoming everything that they could. WOW! Davinci, one of the greats, and we aren't allowing our kids to get to their creativity, how can we tell our selves that we are truly educating our future? For example, in the blog by a young 5th grade student named Patrick, he states "the main thing I'm passionate about is passing fifth grade. The only reasons are because my brother said I'm going to faill all the grades. I plan to get smarter. So now I am planning to pass every grade..." As educators, our first response is how sad, oh look at his grammar, he's obviously not on grade level. But let's think, by allowing him to post this blog, he's enabling himself, creating self-confidence. His educators are allowing him to see that he can do anything, and creating that drive in him. That educator is also modeling the correct grammar responses through their responses. English is being taught on a computer not out of a book. When reading his responses Patrick can see what verb tense, or pronouns are appropriate where, how to correctly punctuate a sentence etc. What an amazing concept! By commenting on his blog, that instructor showed Patrick, that what he had to say mattered, and it allowed a "teachable moment" without "instruction". Amazing. This punctuates with me like the Why I Don't Assign Homework article did as well. His views are so controversial, but make so much sense. Yes, practice is good, but if it's not perfect practice, it's just a waste of time. We should be using our class time more effectively. For example, not requiring students to create a set number of powerpoint slides, and snowballing them into reading word for word off of them. How amazing of an idea, to sum up as much as possible, in as little words as possible, sort of like blog writing!?
BLOGS!? Hmm.......
Blog writing in general is so much more informal than any other form of writing we encounter, especially in our life-long learning process. In school, we are taught that the English language has rules, and that these rules must be followed. All sentences, must begin with a capital letter, they can not and should not have contractions, our punctuations should be used sparingly and get our point across. We should not be too concise or too wordy....... etc. Oh yeah, no abbreviations. Now, with blog writing, the process, or should I say ART, of writing has become much more personal. A person can express what they truly have to say. They can be as wordy as they want, or express themselves in one word. Finally! In blogs we can show our emotions with Emoticons :) :( :P or our anger with ALL CAPS. We have even in a new sense created a new language the IM/Text language. LOL! :) As we come into our own process we are expected to follow these same procedures in our own profession, and if that profession is teaching, we then pass on a life-time of rules to these new, young up-and-comers. We then scorn and reprimand them from using the language that they have grown up with. The blog writing/texting/im-ing era is upon us.
I love blog reading, and I especially loved what the article SSR 2.0 had to say. This article made me have an "ah-ha". We have our D.E.A.R. time daily, usually while I'm accelearating a "small" group of kids, but we strive for it. Reading is so integral, I try to instill this in my students, however for some of them, it's difficult, not quite stimulating enough. This article made me realize that it's not the books, or the lack of wanting to read, it's the act of reading. They have one source to keep their attention, that book. In SSR 2.0, the teacher allowed their class to do their reading on-line, in blogs. What a wonderful idea! : - O Where was I on this one? After reading this blog, my mind was racing. Blog reading allows the participant to consume their content, not only create it (SSR 2.0). Consuming content creates a symbiotic realtionship, the reader is learning and personalizing what they are reading, as the writer is sharing their experiences, what a novel idea! But in the same sense, as we are consuming this, we are practicing our much needed skills. We are scanning our text for important pieces of information, we are summarizing to ourselves what we've just read, we are making connections with things we have already read, or with things we could possible read through links. WOW!
The blog How to Prevent Another Leonardo da Vinci scared me to be quite honest. The notes I wrote for myself were... WOW! I couldn't have summed it up any better. To think, that in our trying to "help" our students, we are actually hindering them from becoming everything that they could. WOW! Davinci, one of the greats, and we aren't allowing our kids to get to their creativity, how can we tell our selves that we are truly educating our future? For example, in the blog by a young 5th grade student named Patrick, he states "the main thing I'm passionate about is passing fifth grade. The only reasons are because my brother said I'm going to faill all the grades. I plan to get smarter. So now I am planning to pass every grade..." As educators, our first response is how sad, oh look at his grammar, he's obviously not on grade level. But let's think, by allowing him to post this blog, he's enabling himself, creating self-confidence. His educators are allowing him to see that he can do anything, and creating that drive in him. That educator is also modeling the correct grammar responses through their responses. English is being taught on a computer not out of a book. When reading his responses Patrick can see what verb tense, or pronouns are appropriate where, how to correctly punctuate a sentence etc. What an amazing concept! By commenting on his blog, that instructor showed Patrick, that what he had to say mattered, and it allowed a "teachable moment" without "instruction". Amazing. This punctuates with me like the Why I Don't Assign Homework article did as well. His views are so controversial, but make so much sense. Yes, practice is good, but if it's not perfect practice, it's just a waste of time. We should be using our class time more effectively. For example, not requiring students to create a set number of powerpoint slides, and snowballing them into reading word for word off of them. How amazing of an idea, to sum up as much as possible, in as little words as possible, sort of like blog writing!?
BLOGS!? Hmm.......
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Thing #2
After watching the provided You Tube videos on Web 2.0, I was filled with possibilities and doubts. I have had the privilege of getting to see the Shift Happens video once before, and it moved me to tears, both times. I can see myself utilizing Web 2.0 in the future, not because I want to, not because I have to, but because I need to, and my students need me to. Web 2.0 is full of all sorts of possibilities. Yes, there are so many chances for misuse by our students, but that just requires us, as professionals, to stay on top of what our goal for ourselves and our students is. Yet, on the same note, how can we, or our district, even define what "misuse" is, or what an unauthorized site its. Yes, we may not always necessarily agree with ALL of the content being offered on that site, or it's appropriateness, but what about the useful and helpful content, why should we then filter that? I think that in a perfect, economy where teachers were given and provided everything that we needed, Web 2.0 would be THE way of learning, however that simply is not the case. We as teachers need to find avenues and ways of utilizing what we already have, to provide those same opportunities to our students. The videos do an amazing job of showing us that books simply aren't the way of learning for most kids these days, they don't go to the library and find a book to check out and research a topic, they Google pictures, they look on Wikipedia for information. We NEED to be providing those same opportunities in our classrooms. Just today, my husband and I wanted to rent movies, but didn't want to drive to Blockbuster and not find something we wanted, so we "Googled" new releases and found movies we wanted, BEFORE we went. We had our "end in mind" (Habit #1), we researched it ourselves (Habit #2), we responded to the problem of wasted time, and solved it (Habit #3), we had confidence in ourselves (we were sitting at the dinner table, and I jumped up, "I'll Google New Releases", Michael looked at me crazy, and "You do that. (with doubt)" was my response. 10 minutes later we are checking out with our movies. Habit #4) I used my toolbox: internet, paper, car (Habit #5) we used our computer to our advantage (Habit #6) and now, I'm sharing with you (Habit #7). All in 15 minutes time. Isn't it amazing how technology is affecting our learning!?
So is the case with our students, they know what they want, and need to learn, and how they need to learn, without our pushing. They are inquisitive in their own nature. It is in our, and our student's benefit to 2.0 teach to our students. Our world is changing, they will be provided and will use these technologies when out in the real-world, why not start with them now? Let's make them knowledgeable, inquisitive, and technologically savvy now!! Isn't education our job? We should educate them in all aspects of leaning, not just BOOKS!
So is the case with our students, they know what they want, and need to learn, and how they need to learn, without our pushing. They are inquisitive in their own nature. It is in our, and our student's benefit to 2.0 teach to our students. Our world is changing, they will be provided and will use these technologies when out in the real-world, why not start with them now? Let's make them knowledgeable, inquisitive, and technologically savvy now!! Isn't education our job? We should educate them in all aspects of leaning, not just BOOKS!
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