Week 12: The Last Hurrah!

Welcome to the last week of Learn and Earn! Brandon and I have thoroughly enjoyed working with you over the course of the past three months. Each week we continued to be impressed with the insightful and thorough comments you offered in response to the assignment and in response to each other. Your engagement in this effort really exemplifies Tahoma teachers as lifelong learners and risk takers. We hope it has been a worthwhile experience for you.

A couple housekeeping issues:
For those of you taking this class for clock hours, soon we will be sending out the paperwork for you to fill out and return.

Also, don’t forget, this Thursday from 3:30-5:30 we’ll be hosting a fact-to-face session in the Teaching and Learning Library. Just drop by for as long as you want to get help with a project, make up a missing “assignment,” etc. Yes, there will be after school snacks.

This week, for your last “assignment” we’re asking two things:
1. Go back to one or two previous posts and take a look at your classmates’ comments. Choose one or two of these comments to respond to by answering someone’s question, providing your perspective on someone’s idea, offering a suggestion, etc.

2. Provide your feedback about the class using the form below.

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Great Idea! Put It On a Post-It Note

Wallwisher is a website which allows users to post messages on an electronic bulletin board. This website gives you the ability to post a question and easily get feedback from your co-workers or students. It works just like whiteboard hanging from your refridgerator: you write a question, then you receive a responses all over that board, in no particular order.

Here are some suggestions for using Wallwisher:

• Brainstorm ideas before a unit (What do you know about Electricity and Magnetism?)
• Get ideas from staff about best teaching practices.
• Kids could post “sticky notes” recommending their favorite book.
• Answer a specific question: What types of mammals live in Washington State?

Your task for this week is to create a Wallwisher board (once in the site, click on "Build a Wall" and simply follow the instructions). You may choose adults or students to respond to the wall that you create. If you want your students or parents to add/respond to the wall you create, you will need to post the link you create on your SWIFT site. If you want other adults to respond you could simply email them the link.


Assignment: In your comment below, please post the URL of your Wallwisher board along with any ideas or comments you might have regarding use of this tool.

Voice Data

When meeting with parents during conferences, it can sometimes be challenging to explain their child's reading grade by simply showing them written data. This is a tricky area because unlike math and writing, reading grades require the teacher to listen to the student and take formal or informal notes. Parents then rely on these teacher notes and try to apply necessary changes at home in order to have their child improve in their reading ability. Isn't there an easier way to communicate student reading ability with parents? Well....

OneNote is a Microsoft program we have had on our computers for some time. A few of us use it to organize files and notes, but most of us go running for the hills whenever they hear anyone utter "OneNote." But there is an easy and effective way to use this program: voice recordings! Instead of sitting down with a parent to discuss notes about their child's reading, how about letting them hear how their child reads while you analyze and offer suggestions. This post is to allow you the opportunity to see if it might be worth your time.

First, we need to open up Microsoft OneNote. Then we need to set up a folder to hold student voice recordings. Then we need to record and label. That's it! Take a look at this brief tutorial for help, then give it a try yourself!

After you have tried a few recordings yourself and played them back, here is what I would like for you to do: Please tell me if this is something that might be useful at all to you; either with reading or any other activity/lesson in which voice recording might be beneficial. Also, during parent conference time, do you present student information in any unique way? (perhaps through video, having the student work on a quick task in front of the parent, computer projects, etc.). Don't worry if you do not do anything out of the ordinary; I know I am still thinking of different ways to present information during conferences, but have not yet put them into practice.

Connecting With Your Students

"As a teacher, you can make progress effectively and much quicker if the student feels a connection; something tangible that shows the student you care."

We have all heard something along these lines before, and most of the time it holds true. Think about yourself (in or outside of the teaching profession). Are you more apt to listen to someone you have a personal relationship with, or are you more likely to carry out orders from a stranger who starts making demands?

Connecting with Twenty-first century students, truly understanding what motivates them and what their interests are, can be challenging and perplexing; especially if you do not have children of your own around that age (ahem, me). We need to work harder to find out their interests, as they change as quickly as technology has been advancing. However, The Teacher Chronicles, a site for teachers that puts out online articles, addresses some basic steps you can take to begin to understand where most of your students are coming from in terms of the world in which they are growing up. This particular article addresses basic steps teachers can take in order to better relate to the students they teach. My personal favorite is #18: "Get a new mobile phone. Your phone from 2006 is too old." Until recently, most of my fifth (and third graders last year) had better phones than me.

I also stumbled across a very interesting artcle from Edutopia that addresses the difference of how today's students brains have been trained the intake of information, and subsequently what teachers around the country are doing to tap into that learning style. It is a long article, but worth the read.

You have two options for this week's post (you can address option 1 or option 2 or both).

Option 1:
Read the article from

The Teacher Chronicles and tell us which step(s) you would like to try in order to become a "2.0 teacher." If you have completed all of the steps listed, then which ones did you find to be most beneficial for you as a teacher relating to your students?

Option 2:
Read the article from Edutopia and tell us about something interesting you learned from the article and how it might impact your teaching style and/or how you relate to your students.

Student Computer Lab and Netbook Time

Wow, is it computer lab again already?! Well, what should the class do? Let's see, last week they spent the whole time on google images; some of them actually researched for their animal report. The week before that we did Dance Mat Typing. Maybe I'll send them to play some math games on learning links.

If you have ever gone through this type of though process when it is your class' turn to go to the lab or use the netbooks, you're not alone! Although we know it is much more beneficial to integrate technology as a device that enhances a lesson or unit, there just isn't enough time to plan this out ahead of time. Hopefully this post will help you find meaningful ways for your students to use computers without several extra hours of planning.

ReadWriteThink.org is a website with specific student-friendly programs and organizational tools. I stumbled across this site when I was looking for a way for my class to effectively organize a persuasive writing piece. I wanted this organizational tool to be something the students can access on the computer, since they are doing most of their research on computers. This site had the perfect program I was looking for! Now my class can research and organize at the same time on their computers without having to go back and forth between paper and computer.

This website has several applications for all major elementary (and beyond) subjects. To find student-friendly programs that fit your grade level and topic, simply click on your grade level on the left side of the screen. If you know specifically what type of program you are looking for, just type it into the "search" box in the upper left hand corner of the site. To find the program my class has been using I simply typed in "persuasive writing." That's it!

Your task this week is to explore the website and try to find an application that your students could use together as a class. In your response this week, let us know what program you found and how you plan to use it. If you cannot find a program you would use with your class, tell us about one way you currently use your computer lab/netbook time.

"Enemy of the State" Anyone?

If you haven't checked out Google Street View yet, the time has come. You’d be surprised where you and your class can go. Reading a book set in Iowa? Might as well “drive” down Temple Ave. in Shell Rock so that students can get a glimpse of the vast terrain. Or maybe “drive” by the Guggenheim on 5th Ave. in New York City. Or if those options are too luxurious for you, you can also walk to Starbucks from Lake Wilderness. It’s easy—just visit Google Maps, plug in an address or just zoom in on an area you wish to “visit.” Look for the little yellow guy and drag him over to one of the street views that are available in that area (available streets will be highlighted in blue).


This week, tell us how you might use Google Street View in your classroom. Be creative! It’s not just a mapping OR If there isn't a way you could use Street View, visit the Google for Educators page or the Google blog (side note: it's really amazing what Google offers beyond search) to to learn about some of the other great resources Google offers that might be useful to you and your students. Let us know what you find and how you might use it. Oh, standing in the middle of the Maple Valley Highway staring at the 76 station probably doesn't have too many classroom applicatoins. Oh, and as for the title, you should definitely check out the movie "Enemy of the State;" way ahead of its time.

Week 6: Halfway There!

Well, we're at the halfway point. How is it going? For this week's assignment, I'm asking you to do three things:

1. Provide a little bit of information about your experience so far by answering these questions:

2. Revisit the previous two blog posts (find access to the archived posts in the lower right corner hand of this page), and read through folks' comments. Find at least one thing to comment on and "reply" to that comment by clicking "reply" and leaving an insight, answer, or suggestion to that comment. One of the benefits of blogging is the conversation it allows for. Imagine if we had done this class via email. I could have sent you each week's post in an email and you could have responded to me with a reply to that email. However, notice how much richer it is to see and respond to each other's thinking using the blog instead.

3. Leave a comment to this post with your "mid-term" reflection. Anything you want to share is fine, but here a few questions you might want to consider: How is this set up working for you? How does learning this way stack up next to more traditional ways of learning? Have you learned anything about the way you learn that might impact how you teach? Any suggestions for the second half of the class? Remember--commenting on someone else's post counts.


Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bybri/2604493952/

Why Re-create the Wheel? (Due March 15)

Hello Bloggers,

There are times when I come to a lesson and think one of two things: 1) How can I make this lesson more relevant for this group of students or 2) I have taught this lesson roughly five gabillion (yes, that's number) times and I want to change it up a little before I go insane. In an attempt to remedy one, or both, of these dilemmas I often get on the web and open up Google. I always think I can scour the web for a quick addition to a lesson plan, but more often than not this consumes much more time than than originally allotted. This leads us to the focus for this week.

Teachers First is a teacher resource site that can eliminate the pain and agony of investing a great deal of time trying to figure out how to spice up a lesson. The resources found on this site are endless; from entire grade and subject-specific lesson plans to the "websites of the week" section, this is a website that should be on your favorites list. In fact, earlier today I was curious if this site had student-friendly games related to electricity (my current science unit). From the home page I just scrolled over "classroom" at the top. Next, I clicked on "by keyword." Then I typed in Electricity. Bingo! Several suggested sites popped up, each with their own description. Before long I found a site dedicated to electricity games. This is a link I can email my parents so they can play the game together with their child at home.

Your assignment for this week is to check out the website and post about a tool, lesson plan or idea from the site you found useful or that you could possibly use in the future.

Seek and Ye Shall Find (a Threaded Discussion Add-on for Your Blog)

Some of you are using the discussion feature on your SWIFT site to communicate with parents. (If you want to learn more about using the discussion feature of SWIFT, see page nine of the SWIFT User Guide.) However, one of the limitations of the SWIFT discussion feature is that the discussions aren’t threaded. This means that as parents post comments, the comments simply appear in chronological order, making it difficult for the teacher to respond to a particular comment that may have appeared early on in the discussion. Threaded discussions allow people to respond to particular comments; they allow the conversation to branch off into different directions. Specifically, your reply to a particular comment appears directly below that comment, tabbed over.

Unfortunately, Blogger (the tool we’re using for this class/blog) also doesn’t offer threaded discussions, making it difficult for me (or you) to reply directly to someone’s comment. However, a solution has been found! I have added a program to our blog that will now allow for threaded commenting from this point forward on the blog. Sweet. You’ll notice when you comment this week that the interface looks a little different—but fear not, all you’ll need to do is type in your name and email address when you post your comment. (And, if you see someone else’s comment you’d like to comment on, go ahead—that can count as your comment.)

So this week’s lesson has two themes (see below). Chose one to comment on this week (each theme has two prompts to choose from).

Theme 1: Using online discussions (SWIFT or other tool) with students or parents
a. If you have experience with online discussions, what tips do you have to share? What have been the benefits?
OR
b. What might be some ways you could incorporate online discussions into your class? If you’re new to this tool, what questions do you have for those who already use it?

Theme 2: If you believe it should be possible, it probably is—all you have to do is look.
(Back story: I knew Blogger didn’t offer threaded discussions, but I figured that I’m not the only person who wished it did, so I Googled “adding threaded discussion to Blogger.” That led me to a blog post about third party applications I could add to the blog to increase interactivity. That’s where I learned about Intense Debate—the application I’m using to provide threaded discussion for our class on this blog. The rest, my friends, is history.

I offer this as evidence that there is a solution out there for most of our challenges if we look and are willing to invest in a little risk taking. If I had seen this issue as a problem, I might have just begrudgingly accepted my plight (no threaded commenting) and would not have investigated further. However, I felt comfortable taking matters into my own hands and did some self-directed learning—something I think we (and our students) are going to be expected to do more and more of in this new digital world. In my role, I am confronted by this reality day after day, yet every time I am amazed and delighted. What about you?

a. Share a time you went online with a question/challenge and “taught” yourself how to do something new.
OR
b. Do it now . . . what’s a question/challenge you have in your class right now? Go online and look for your solution. How did it go?

What's Better Than a Field Trip? A Virtual Field Trip! (Due March 2)

A virtual field trip is a guided exploration through the web that organizes a collection of pre-screened, thematically based web pages into a structured online learning experience. It is an inter-related collection of images, supporting text and/or other media, delivered electronically via the World Wide Web, in a format that can be professionally presented to relate the essence of a visit to a time or place. The virtual experience becomes a unique part of the participants' life experience. (Nix, 1999)

It's always easier to use someone else's definition than to come up with one of my own. We have been hearing the importance of incorporating technology into lessons in order to make them more engaging for students. However, this can prove to be a difficult, time-consuming task, often leaving one foaming at the mouth shouting expletive deleteds at the computer. Virtual field trips can help curb this anger.

Virtual field trips can look quite different, depending on their creator. There are virtual field trips that create a 360 degree atmosphere where you can navigate the page, almost like you are walking on the Great Wall of China. Then there are virtual field trips that are several pages, much like a powerpoint presentation, that incorprate pictures, words, sounds and/or videos.

The assignment for this week is to take a look at one or both of these websites (http://oops.bizland.com/vtours.htm www.theteachersguide.com/virtualtours.html). These websites contain several virtual field trips.

Your blog post for this week should answer the following questions: How easy/difficult would it be for you to incorporate a virtual field trip into one of your units/lessons? Did you find a particular virtual field trip that you might use in the future?

The Best Classroom Blogs

Greetings fellow bloggers! Your posts made for an interesting and informative reading session at Starbucks over the weekend (after I finished reading The Blind Side of course). It is exciting that we are now underway with discovering ways to funnel technology into use in the classroom.

Many of you stated that you would like to either a) learn about the benefits of setting up a classroom blog or b) how to improve the classroom blog you already have in place. This common curiosity leads us to the focus for this week. Edublogs.com is a website designed specifically for educators who are interested in incorporating technology into communication with students and parents. Each year they choose the top blogs for several different categories, such as best student

blog and best teacher blog.

For those wanting to know more about the benefits of blogging, you should check out the top ten reasons to use blogs to teach. Technically, this link will lead you to the top reasons to use “edublog” to teach, but they are applicable to any blog you may create from any site. Also, you don't have to search far and wide to find good blogs; just take a look at what our very own Christine Thurston has created for her first grade class at Shadow Lake.

After looking over these reasons, check out the awards for the top teacher blogs for 2009. For the post this week, please tell us about which teacher blog you found to be your favorite and why. In your post, please include the link to that blog. Before you post your comment, please be sure your first and last name is on your post or your first name with your last initial. This immensely helps the process of making sure you get checked off for class credit.

Although the discussion for this class takes place on a blog, the primary focus for this class, ironically, is not blogging; we are merely using this blog to foster discussion and unearth new technologies that may be useful in your classroom. If there is enough interest, there may be a separate class in the future that focuses primarily on blogging. If you currently have or are planning to create a classroom blog, please take a look at these helpful hints, guidelines and other policies through sharepoint: https://owa.tahomasd.us/owa/redir.aspx?C=5e4e8dd7441749f08be4ef7bbe4d057d&URL=http%3a%2f%2fintranet%2fcentraloffice%2fTL%2ftechnology%2fTeacher%2520Tech%2520Resources%2fblogging%2fdefault.aspx

Welcome to the Elementary Learn and Earn Class!

Welcome, everyone! Over the course of the next 12 weeks (excluding breaks, of course), I'll be sharing a variety of technology tools and resources with you. I'll be using this blogging format to post a new "lesson" each week (on Tuesdays). Along with reading and following the directions in each week's post, I'll prompt you to offer a comment related to that week's lesson. Since we're using a blog for this class, this week's lesson is intended to help you become familiar with how blogs work. Begin by watching this short video from the geniuses (I think) at Common Craft:If you liked the way the Common Craft folks explain things, check out their other Explainations in Plain English; you'll be glad you did. (I particularly like Zombies in Plain English, but I digress.) As mentioned in the video, one of the perks of blogging is the community it creates. One way we'll be taking advatage of that feature is through commenting. Commenting on a blog is easy. Simply look for the comment link at the bottom of a post. Click on it to leave your comment. After you've typed in your comment, you will be asked to identify yourself. For our purposes it is important that you DO NOT identify yourself as "Anonymous." Either create and use a Google account that idetifies you accurrately (if your username is iluvsoccer72, we won't know who you are) or select the Name/URL option and type in your name.

So there you have it! This week's lesson is nearly complete. But before we're done, you need to post a comment. Since we're just getting started I'd like your comment to introduce yourself. Include why you're taking this class and what you're hoping to learn. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them. Just a reminder, comments are due by Monday morning, 8:00 a.m. Have a great week!