There is great debate in schools as to whether or not students should be allowed to use personal electronic devices (cell phones) in school. And, some are questioning the value of social networking sites such as Facebook. In the last couple of weeks I’ve spent more time than usual at Birdville High School. One thing I noticed immediately was that during passing periods many students are using their cell phones, texting, emailing, checking Facebook, listening to music, etc. They have the devices here, they insist on using them, BISD allows use of personal devices, so some teachers are putting these devices to good use. Below is an informal interview with BHS Math teacher, Eileen Fuller on how she is using Facebook with her students.
I can’t take credit for this awesome video but it’s definitely worth the watch!
Have you ever considered how much of life is spent waiting? Waiting ‘til I have more time, waiting ‘til I have more money, waiting ‘til I lose some weight, waiting ‘til I have a different group of students, waiting ‘til I get some new piece of technology, waiting ‘til I … (you fill in the blank here). It’s time to stop waiting and start living!
Embrace today, and all of the joys and challenges that come with it, and live in the moment!
My challenge to you is that during the last six weeks of the 2009-10 school year is that you stop waiting and starting utilizing the technology resources that you have. Don’t wait ‘til next school year begins to try something new, do it now! And the added bonus, you will already have tried a new strategy or two and be ready to successfully implement that strategy on day one of the 2010-11 school year!
A few suggestions:
-Skype another teacher and give students an opportunity to collaborate and share with others
-Use video or digital cameras to document a learning experience and allow students to reflect on the experience via an audio recording or blog post
-Explore a new Web 2.0 tool such as Voicethread or Storybird to demonstrate learning or creativity
-Allow students to produce audio podcasts reflecting on each day’s learning
Whatever options you choose, the reward will be engaged students creating their own future!
A few weeks ago I invited Kindergarten and First Grade teachers to participate in celebrating Dr. Seuss’ Birthday by connecting via Skype with a class at a different BISD campus to match rhyming word partners. The following is the note sent to teachers to solicit participation:
March 2nd is Dr. Seuss’ birthday and a great time to celebrate the study of rhyming. Each class will read and discuss many of Dr. Seuss books such as “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish,” “Cat in the Hat,” and “Hop on Pop.” The classes will talk about what makes a word that rhymes and practice generating rhyming words.
Prior to the videoconference:
*The teachers will generate a set of rhyming pairs or groups.
*The words will be divided between the classes. (A student at one location would have the word “cat” and a student at another location would have the word “hat”.)
*Each student will create a drawing of his/her rhyming word.During the conference:
*The children will introduce themselves and say their word. The partner from the other class will recognize the word that rhymes and say, “I have a rhyme! My word is ______ that rhymes with_______.”
* The classes will take turns finding their partner’s rhyming word.
Today, Ms. Farrow’s class at Watauga connected with Ms. Hay’s class at Holiday Heights. The students were so excited about the connection and were completely engaged in listening in order to identify their rhyming partner. All of the students had an opportunity to be on camera and share their rhyming word and illustration. This activity was a great assessment showing if the students did indeed recognize the rhymes.
Not only were the students 100% successful but the Skype connection between the campuses was as well. I believe all involved had a great experience and would be willing to participate in this type of learning opportunity again.
The USTREAM of Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss can be viewed at the following site: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/cheryl-live (password: bisd).
One last note, before leaving the classroom at Watauga, the students were already brainstorming ideas of future connections to practice other skills such as letter/sound recognition, shapes, and counting. It is as they say; if you let the kids be involved in creating the learning experience it will be much more meaningful! Kudos to all!
In a previous blog post I mentioned Flockdraw (you can scroll down to read more about it). Since then I have discovered more collaborative drawing tools that you can easily incorporate into your instruction. What I am finding is that each new tools seems to add more “bells and whistles” and provides a more stable collaborative environment.
Dabbleboard is an online collaboration application that’s centered around the whiteboard. With a new type of drawing interface that’s actually easy and fun to use, Dabbleboard gets out of your way and just lets you draw. Finally the whiteboard enters the digital age!
CoSketch is a multi-user online whiteboard designed to give you the ability to quickly visualize and share your ideas as images.
http://www.imaginationcubed.com/
ImaginationCubed is a very simple drawing environment with limited tools, but very useful for early learners.
Think of Stixy as your online bulletin board. Create as many Stixyboards as you like, one for each project. Use Stixy to easily organize and share:
- Your family’s schedule
- Projects at work
- An upcoming holiday with your friends
- Your photos from your last bike trip
- Or share a file or two with a friend
Wallwisher is an online NOTICE BOARD maker, ideal for making announcements, wishing people, keeping notes, and things you can do with Post-its, and more!
Twitter – Google – Internet – Facebook ……and I’m glad it’s Friday!
As you celebrate the end of another week and look forward to a glorious weekend, please take a moment to think about Twitter, Google, Internet, and Facebook, and how they can be used as educational and communicative tools.
Twitter is commonly called a micro blog. With a free online account you can post brief updates of any information you wish to share with followers. For more information check out this You Tube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o
Google is so much more than a search engine. With a free Google account you can create and share documents online, accessible from any computer with Internet access. You can create quizzes and surveys, and results are immediately complied in a spreadsheet. Along with the free Gmail account you can have access to a whole host of other applications – Alerts, Blogs, Calendar, Dictionary, Earth, Finance, iGoogle, Images, Maps, Picassa, Reader, SketchUp, Talk, Translate, and more! With Google, you don’t need much more!
Internet safety is important at any level! Not only do you need to make sure you keep your computer free from virus, you also need to keep all passwords and online identities secure. It is also imperative that students begin learning Internet safety from the moment they begin using computers. Here is a short video clip to introduce students to Digital Citizenship: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX0aycyAAJA. Additionally, you can find multiple resources at NetSmartz, GetNetWise, and CyberSmart.
Facebook can be much more than your personal social network. Create a fan page for your class, subject, or organization and then parents and students can follow your posts to always be up-to-date on the current happenings. A Facebook Fan Page will help you keep your personal and professional lives separate while using a familiar tool that many parents and students are already accessing. You can learn more about the benefits of and how to create a Facebook Fan Page on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igLDVCywlls.
Twitter, Google, Internet, and Facebook are all becoming easier to access with the use of Smart Phones. Begin using your computer and/or smart phone today to deepen both communication and collaboration!
And TGIF!
I’m really not into making New Year’s resolutions but this is a good time to reflect on the past and make plans for the future or make changes, so here are some ideas for your classroom along that line…
1. Take a picture of your class once a week engaged in some type of learning activity; post it to a blog and describe. Solicit comments from students about what they liked/disliked or what else they would like to know about the topic.
2. Have one student each week record an audio podcast of something that was learned, an announcement of upcoming events, or even a public service type of announcement and post to your website.
3. Create a USTREAM account and broadcast one lesson per week.
4. Expand your teaching resources by setting up a SKYPE account and contacting one outside source per week.
5. Pick the top 5 challenges on TAKS. Divided you class into small groups, and then have each group make a TAKS review video and present to the class. Videos can be posted online and shared with other classes.
If you have more ideas please share in the comments, and let me know if you need help with any of the New Year’s Celebration events above!
Just this week I became friends with a few more former students on Facebook. Now I’m hearing about the things they remember most from Kindergarten. Things like my reaction to turtle’s colored purple and getting their name in my black book. Yikes – that’s not what I hoped they would remember. I know their comments have all been in fun, and honestly the one that made me laugh the most was someone wondering if I was still alive!
I’ve never been one to say, “If only…” or “If I could do ___ again…” so I’m not even going there now! But what I do want to say is that I have absolutely loved the profession I chose to enter the day I enrolled in college, immediately after high school. Being an educator has been very rewarding. I may have made a few mistakes along the way and am still learning, but I love this life and all relationships that I have developed because of my career choice. I have had the opportunity to meet many wonderful kids and their families that I still care deeply about today. I have had the opportunity to work with some pretty awesome people too. Overall my life has been very blessed. So to all of my former students, I still want to celebrate your successes with you and will even share a tear at your sorrows, just like I promised in that letter I sent home with you on the last day of school. To all my friends old and new, I love the way technology lets us stay connected through Facebook, email, and blogs.
I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and is looking forward to a fantastic 2010!
This site is really cool. Click Start Drawing and then your site has a unique letter/number combination added to the end of the URL. If you share that URL with a friend they can join you on your drawing page from any computer in the world!
This site would be very useful for demonstrating how to solve a problem, sharing thoughts/ideas, or playing online games such as Pictionary. I’m sure you can think of other ways to use as well!
You can also embed a Flockdraw page into your website by accessing the embed code available on each page.
Just for fun I did a screen capture every few minutes and saved this images to see the progression of an activity where I asked friends to help me decorate my Christmas tree. You can check it out here!
I read an article this morning that you may find interesting/thought provoking….
quick version
http://www.techlearning.com/article/25352
more detail
http://electriceducator.blogspot.com/2009/11/google-proof-questioning-new-use-for.html#comments
