Classroom III

And yet another summer passes sans attending the mega ed tech conference NECC.

No, I will not be bummed out by not have the seeming unlimited funds of districts around the our nation. Districts that sent hordes of eager participants to this years bash at San Antonio. I will not get any cheese with my whine. On the positive side, I have been lapping up the scraps and crumbs of leftovers from NECC. I have found streaming video http://www.kzowebcasting.com/necc/ and the best part is that I could fast forward through the presenters crowd warm-ups, self-promos, shout-outs, and even parts without audio. Would I pay for this? No. Would I recommend it to others. Absolutely! The chat feature is wonderful. Send you fellow teachers a link to the site on Twitter or IM or Plurk, or Pownce and have them comment and give feedback while viewing a particular presentation. Now, I have been a fan of David Warlick for many years and always love to listen to his presentations. Here is how I see sharing these videos with my fellow teachers in my school.

Set up a Professional Development schedule. Maybe call it NECC via Distance Learning, or Converge, Connect, and Transform Learning. Then, using our email server, set up a group of teachers interested in earning credits in technology. From this group of names, have them create a Pownce account. The reason for using Pownce, is that users can setup Events. When the time for the training comes, send the group a link to one of the NECC webcasts and ask the participants to post their comments and questions in the chat room. I have been impressed with backdoor chat. Our teachers would be using MacBooks, so we could launch iChat with Bonjour to connect the laptops. Now, will our wifi handle the streaming or will we encounter buffering issues? That may be the “$24,000 Question”.

Other cool “take-aways” that I have picked up include Edtags.org. Edtags.org is a social bookmarking site for educators. Diigo and Del.icio.us are great bookmarking site that I use all the time, but they are blocked by our content filter at school. Edtags.org is unblocked and is now high on my personal list of sites to use. I lacks lots of the numbers of users that the other great social bookmarking sites have, and that is fine. I have been busy adding my bookmarks in Edtags.org and marking them for use by my friends only. This way, I can add teachers in my school as users and add them as my friend so they can access my educational bookmarks and add another tool to our learning community.

Mogulus.com is really exciting. However, it does not make the cut of the content filter in our district. It is also flagged for inappropriate content.

I will not be so bold as to consider this to be a master list of tools for the classroom. Hopefully, I will be able to find time to post additional resources.

• Google Reader -JB’s shared items

  tags: sharing

• EDTECH: Focus On K-12 - Unleash Your Digital Natives

  “Lesson Description:

  Students will create their own multimedia presentation. During this lesson, students can choose from a variety of video or sound sources online or they can use audio provided by the teacher. Students will use a software editing program to capture the sound and export it as a WAV file. Then they will identify and look for visual images (about one per every five seconds) to compliment the content. Once they have all the images and video, they can join them with the audio to create movies.”

  tags: 1 to 1 Learning, edtech, technology, teaching

• EDTECH: Focus On K-12 - Reel Projectiles

  Students use slow-motion movies to help understand the principles of physics.

  tags: physics, physical science

• NEA: Podcast Powerhouse

  tags: podcasting

  • fifth graders struggle with reading and have poor oral language. While working toward her master’s degree in instructional technology, Beebe learned to create podcasts with the software GarageBand. Combining her newfound skill at making podcasts with her desire to provide an authentic way to address reading fluency, Beebe began recording her students?

• Teach Digital: Curriculum by Wes Fryer wiki / voicethread

  tags: voicethread

• How To: Get Students to Use New Skills | Edutopia

  tags: no_tag

  • Identify the core questions of your
    subject area
  • let students
    create their own labs to test hypotheses
  • Integrate lots of
    interviewing into a history curriculum and have students
    compare stories they hear. Add a five-minute reading component
    to journal-writing time, emphasizing to students that
    real authors share their writing and need to have a sense of
    their audience.
  • Performances, presentations, displays,
    publications, and entries into contests are essential for student
    buy-in. ULS’s hula class spends the semester gearing up for a
    final performance, and Hamilton’s seventh graders forget how
    hard they’re working on their writing when they focus on creating
    podcasts. “When I tell students they are going to create a
    podcast of their own stories, they get excited,” she says. “This
    buy-in from the students gives them a purpose to learn new
    skills and a reason to come to school.”

• Timer for Mac OS X - Freeware stopwatch, alarm clock and countdown utility for Mac

  tags: stopwatch, all_teachers, math, science

• TeachClever | Tips, Tricks, and Hacks for Becoming a More Productive Teacher

  tags: teachclever, classroom management, Productivity

• ABC News: 3-Day Weekend: Schools Out for Gas Prices

  tags: 3day

• NEA: Technology Not Being Used Effectively In Schools

  tags: no_tag
  

  • “Access, Adequacy, and Equity in Education Technology recommends that education policymakers and advocates increase access to technology in the classroom and outside of school by providing more wireless and portable technology and increasing access to high-speed Internet service.  Other proposals include establishing standards for student usage in order to integrate technology deeper into the school curriculum.”

• staysafe.org Toolbox In the News Week of June 8, 2008

  tags: staysafe.org

  • To see what controls are available from the major cellphone companies, click to “What Mobile carriers need to do for kids” (see also ConnectSafely’s “Cell-Phone Safety Tips“). [See also the New York Times on how 3G or smartphones are taking off and how 71% of women make the decision about their family's wireless choices, including phones and service plans.]
  • Why do teens post online? “Just because they crave attention? Why do teens post such personal information online for all the world to see?”
  • “Mimi Ito, one of the principal investigators of the Digital Youth project. Of particular interest to parents concerned about teen social networkers’ safety are findings by C.J. Pascoe mentioned by Dr. Ito, for example that: “Contrary to common fears, flirting and dating are almost always initiated offline in the traditional settings where teens get together and extended online. Her work clearly shows there’s a strong social norm among teens that the online space isn’t a place to find new romantic partners, but a place to deepen and explore existing offline relationships.” Exceptions: marginalized teens “whose romantic partners are restricted for cultural or religious reasons” and gay and lesbian teens (the latter are “not reaching out online for random social encounters but using the expanded possibilities online selectively to overcome limitations they’re facing” in their offline social networks); and the very small percentage of teens most at risk of sexual exploitation.”

• staysafe.org Educators

  tags: staysafe

• Teacher tracking “The UNC system is working on a new database that officials hope will help them get a better grasp on the state’s teaching shortage. The data are culled from Department of Public Instruction files and uses characteristics such as race, sex, salary, SAT scores and other factors to determine whether a public school teacher is more or less likely to leave the profession.”                (Jim Morrill of The Charlotte Observer contributed to this report. )

• Instructify » Blog Archive » Blog at Conferences Like a Pro

  Reading Blog at Conferences Like a Pro

  tags: instructify

• The benefits of podcasting

  “This video is a version of the results of Andrew’s experimentation with the use of iPods and Podcasting during early 2006 for a DE&T Knowledge Bank Rich Picture Case Study.”

  tags: podcasting, science classroom

• The NC 1:1 Learning Collaborative » 1to1 Webinars Great Site!
  

  tags: 1to1

• AT&T’s iPhone 3G Data Plan and No Longer Revenue Sharing - Mac Rumors

  tags: no_tag wow!  iPhone’s 3G only works for me in North Carolina in Raleigh . - post by blakej

• Durff’s Blog: Write a first-rate blog post!

  tags: no_tag

  • 1. The posts (or comments) are well written.  Oh well I can’t spell and have terrible grammar.
    2. The posts (or comments) are responsive. They respond to other people’s ideas – whether it is a post by a teacher, a comment by a student, or an idea elsewhere on the Internet. The power of blogs is in connections – they are connected to a larger community of ideas. Participate in that community. Uh, whine time?
    3. The posts (or comments) include textual references to support opinions. Adding quotes or links to other works strengthens your post. Check.
    4. To be part of the dialogue, part of the conversation, you have to participate fully, consistently and often. Often? darn, this means I suck again…
    5. Your posts (or comments) are respectful of others. It’s okay to disagree; it’s not okay to be disagreeable. Be respectful of others and their opinions, and be civil when you disagree. Do you know that if you post comments, that some bloggers refer to you as a Troll? I guess I live under a bridge, I have been called worse!
    6. Your posts include at least 3 technorati tags. What? I am not writing for Technorati tags. That is anal!
    7. Your posts speak to visual literacy by carefully choosing an image to include. The image should refer to what is written.  Pretty image==>

• YouTube - Creating a Blog List with Blogger - Tech Tip.

• tags: no_tag

Where did all the time go?

Well, first of all, I have no real excuse. But looking back at the school year, many factors contributed to not using blogs. One key difference this past year was Twitter. Instead of spending time thinking and writing, I constantly found myself glued to mini blog posts. I have never enjoyed writing. I am a horrible craftsman of language. My writing teachers always told me I wrote like I talk. This was nice way of telling me that in their opinion, anyone from eastern North Carolina is dumb. I feel confident that all my formal writing teachers are either dead, or tucked away in a nursing home by now.

I have also spend considerable time with my students learning to use Google Sites. I set up an account for my classroom which required students over the age of 13 to use their school email account. I had several students over 18 years old and they used their personal accounts from Yahoo or AOL. I did not use it at all with my under 13 y.o. students.

I liked using Google Sites for one major reason- Google Docs. The Google Site Google Docs feature is really nice with high school students. I was able to post PowerPoint, Word Docs, and spreadsheets. If we were studying cell processes, and I found a document I wanted them to read, I uploaded it the the Google Doc site and “shared” them with the students. They could work in teams or individually on projects.

When it came time for students to write their term paper, I had a hard time convincing my students to use Google Docs. They did not like having to log in to Google and uploading and then when they needed their doc, logging in downloading their document and remembering to upload it again. My students did not like the way Google Doc reformatted their documents. So, I will not try that again for term papers. The best tip I learned from this experience- tell the students to buy a cheap thumb drive and story their term paper on it. I loaned two of my thumb drives and the students never returned them. I should have gotten them to leave their cell phone with me until they returned my thumb drives. Oh well, maybe it was worth it.

It is summer time, time to recharge my batteries. Time to turn off the computer and take some walks outside. Gas is too high to ride around…have a good summer!

Reading the post in this blog from last September, I am ashamed of not having posted a single blog post all year. What happened? Where did all the time go? Why did I not use this great tool?

Well, first of all, I have no real excuse. But looking back at the school year, many factors contributed to not using blogs. One key difference this past year was Twitter. Instead of spending time thinking and writing, I constantly found myself glued to mini blog posts. I have never enjoyed writing. I am a horrible craftsman of language. My writing teachers always told me I wrote like I talk. This was nice way of telling me that in their opinion, anyone from eastern North Carolina is dumb. I feel confident that all my formal writing teachers are either dead, or tucked away in a nursing home by now.

I have also spend considerable time with my students learning to use Google Sites. I set up an account for my classroom which required students over the age of 13 to use their school email account. I had several students over 18 years old and they used their personal accounts from Yahoo or AOL. I did not use it at all with my under 13 y.o. students.

I liked using Google Sites for one major reason- Google Docs. The Google Site Google Docs feature is really nice with high school students. I was able to post PowerPoint, Word Docs, and spreadsheets. If we were studying cell processes, and I found a document I wanted them to read, I uploaded it the the Google Doc site and “shared” them with the students. They could work in teams or individually on projects.

When it came time for students to write their term paper, I had a hard time convincing my students to use Google Docs. They did not like having to log in to Google and uploading and then when they needed their doc, logging in downloading their document and remembering to upload it again. My students did not like the way Google Doc reformatted their documents. So, I will not try that again for term papers. The best tip I learned from this experience- tell the students to buy a cheap thumb drive and story their term paper on it. I loaned two of my thumb drives and the students never returned them. I should have gotten them to leave their cell phone with me until they returned my thumb drives. Oh well, maybe it was worth it.

It is summer time, time to recharge my batteries. Time to turn off the computer and take some walks outside. Gas is too high to ride around…have a good summer!

DSC07084, originally uploaded by Classroom III.

My students are busy wrapping up this school year. It is difficult for students and teachers to stay on task. Each day, I have been photographing my student’s plant grow projects. The reason I have been doing the photography myself is because many of my students are attending math and/or reading remediation. After uploading this image to our classroom Flickr account, I received a comment from a Flickr user. It was a nice comment.

• Flickr: Classroom III’s Photostream

  Mr. Blake’s classroom photos

  tags: photostream

• Barnes & Noble.com - Books: Ten Easy Ways to Use Technology in the English Classrooms, by Hilve Firek, Paperback

  tags: no_tag

• Lesson Plans for Creating Media-Rich Classrooms

  tags: mediarich

  • Lesson Plans for Creating Media-Rich Classrooms
• Refdesk.com … Reference, Facts, News … Free and Family-friendly Resources

  tags: search

• SL-Science-Center » home

  Wiki site devoted virtual worlds. It’s a sort of umbrella group for all the science-related things in SL.

  tags: science, sl

• CSI: The Experience - Web Adventures | Online Activities

  Found this activity I want to try this week with my students

  tags: observations, activity

• Wiimote Whiteboard | uweschmidt.org

  tags: Wiimote, Whiteboard

• Random Name Picker

  tags: teaching, classroom, whiteboard

• Columbus County, North Carolina NC, - ePodunk

  tags: Columbus County

• Google Earth Lessons

  tags: Learning, professional, development

It has been a long time since I have taken the time to attend an event like last night. I have been invited to this annual wild game cooking party, but something has always kept me from attending. When my father, 83, visited our family doctor this week he got invited again. The doctor is one of the main hosts of the event. He extended an invitation to me as well.

The weather was absolutely perfect. Cool enough so that the charcoal grilled venison steaks, grilled air-dried country sausage, (real) buffalo chilly, fried catfish, herb broiled quail, Eastern North Carolina chopped pork barbecue, baked yams, and my favorite- original recipe seafood gumbo. It was truly a feast to behold. The food was prepared by local businesses that sell products to farmers and landowners in our area. For example, the seafood gumbo was provided by a famous cabinet and construction company from Whiteville. I have know the owners since high school some 34 or so years. Mike, one of the owners of the cabinet shop, flew out to the mid west and killed the buffalo. He purchased a custom built rifle just for the hunt. If Mike had to put a price on the kettle full of buffalo chilly, he would have had to charge $1,000 per plate to come close to breaking even. Everyone was crazy about the gumbo. I noticed a local independent restaurant owner critiquing the steaming hot bowl of gumbo. I overheard him comment that he knew that a pot that large had to have cost over six hundred dollars to prepare. I immediately got another bowl full. Peanut butter sandwiches inhaled in my ten minutes of lunch time pales in comparison to the wild game cooked to perfection I eat Friday night.

As for those present, I will not try to list those that in attendance. However, I only saw two other teachers there. One was my future son-in-law. The other was a coach that is an avid outdoorsman. I did see a retired high school coach in the crowd. It was a real who’s who of movers and shakers from our rural county. Our NC State Senator made a brief appearance, As did our current Sheriff and several NC Highway Patrolmen, some off duty and some on-duty. Those on-duty officers eat and ran. They probably stopped to ask that we move all those four wheel drive pickup trucks off the shoulder of the road. I parked very close to the food so my father did not have to walk far.

The best part of the evening was shaking hands and getting caught up with all my old friends. I chatted with people I had not seen in 15 years. It was like a homecoming. The funny thing is that none of the men there has a blog, none of them have a wiki, none of them could tell you the difference between Facebook or MySpace. I would be willing to bet that less than 5 of them use email. Yet, they all are making a living, have sent kids to college, could buy and sell most any thing they want, and hunted everywhere in the world, have boats, lake front, river front, or beach or mountain vacation homes. Technology is not part of their lives. Sure they have cell phones so their kids and wives and keep up with them. I did not see a single one of them with a cell phone stuck in their ear. The doctors there left their pagers/cell phones at home. The judges walking around with plates of catfish and cups full of their favorite beverage, could care less about answering text messages or if iPhones will have push email in July.

Social networking still is all about face to face personal contact. I am not going to miss another one of those events. It has been too long since I have been to a pig picking/wild game cooking. Blogging compared to wild game cook offs are a waste of my time. No one reads what I blog anyway. Who cares what a small town school teacher has to say.

I ran across Poll Everywhere and signed up for a free account. In a recent email, the folks at Condense, Inc, recently changed from offering prepaid blocks of votes to monthly subscription plans.  Since I had registered for 100 free votes to try it out, they’ve transitioned me to their free plan which includes 1000 free votes every month, up to 30 votes per poll.  They
wanted to make a useful product that is free for K-12 educators (schools today pay over $1000/room for hardware clicker systems).  They’re providing an audience/classroom response system over ten times cheaper than buying hardware!

Brainstorming how to best use this tool to enhance learning, I am considering trying to use it to ask students to come up with their own Power Point Polls. I need a resource on how to write poll questions. I do not want the polls to be “do you like Rap?” However, it could be interesting if we could have all our students create their own poll and students vote. I do not think our polls will exceed 30 votes per poll. If they do, then our school may invest in Poll Everywhere. Free is good.