Tis the Season to Count Your Blessings and Remember Others

I come from a military family. My husband and I spent 20 years with the Air Force, and among our children we have two more military families, one Army, one Air Force.
As you count your blessings this Christmas, please say a prayer for those whose families must endure separation as a father or a mother, son or daughter, brother or sister, serves our country.

Weathering the Weather

Virtually all of our area suffered through winter weather last week. A huge ice storm, which felled trees and power poles, was followed up by a snow storm a few days later. At my own little home in the country, my husband and a friend are spending yet another day today with the tractor, trying to pile up the felled trees and limbs. We were lucky as we got power back in about 78 hours. As of today, there are still over twenty-five thousand homes and businesses in Kansas without power, and some school districts will end up with two weeks of 'clock hours' to make up next semester.
Funny, isn't it? In this day and age, we still measure learning by clock hours. Sometimes I wonder if we will ever move to true measures of learning. I used to be more optimistic about that. But we don't measure performance on the job with any better methods. Educators are often measured by the time they are physically present on the job. I am, are you? Most of my colleagues find that the extra time they put in, whether at their laptops at home in the evening or on weekends, the research time they put in, the coaching, counseling, paper-grading, the think time - none of that is evaluated, compensated, or taken into consideration in any way. Every once in a while, a supervisor might tell you how much they appreciate your extra effort. But that's about it.
That's where your ownership of your own learning, and your commitment to the success of others, comes into play. Educators are among the most committed of all workers, in my opinion. When it comes down to it, most of us do what we need to do to help others learn. Period. Those who can, not only teach, they LEARN!

Researching Resources

Today's topic - 21st Century Skills for Educators and Students. Here are some web resources for you to use, now and in the future. Of course, it is not all-inclusive, but these resources are all recommended by various professionals in the field.
This is a public Google Notebook that I will keep updated as I find new resources; feel free to share this with other teachers and with your students!
Internet Research Resources

Manage this?

I wish I knew how to better manage time and resources. I've been using lots of new Web 2.0 tools - Google Tools (Notebooks, Shared docs, spreadsheets, and slides), Google Earth, SketchUp; social bookmarking like De.licio.us and Trailmarkers; several Ning social networking sites; photo sharing sites like Flickr and Picassa; video sharing sites like YouTube and TeacherTube; then there is SlideShare and some fun online apps like VoiceThreads, YakPak, and Blabberize (for the young and crazy at heart); and I have so many blogs feeding into my RSS reader I can't keep up on the reading. The more people I try to help, the more things I find, the more disorganized I seem to get! It's exciting and frustrating all at the same time.
If there must be a certain amount of frustration for learning to stick, then those of us who are in the midst of this love/hate relationship with the web must be learning a lot!

Ancora Imparo – I am still learning!

Dr. Tony Karrer said on his blog at elearningtech.blogspot.com, “I hate to generalize, but the thing that seems to be missing from most of my conversations with classroom teachers and administrators is a willingness to even try to re-envision their own learning, not just their students.” Isn't this a sad commentary for educators - that we are often unwilling to own our learning?
Whats your PLE? Your Personal Learning Environment? Eight to four, five days a week, routine. Maybe check out a web site or two, sometimes read a book related to education?
Not going to make it in today’s world! Face it – we have to be willing to become engaged, self-directed, learners – go find a source, go get connected – just go get going!
Don't be among the unwilling! Step up, step out, try some new things! Adopt this as your motto: Ancora Imparo – I am still learning!

Wow! Student Project with Impact

Two of 'my' teachers at one school never cease to amaze me, and they've done it again. These two are cooperating sixth grade teachers, and from the outside you might think they were a mis-match. The older one has taught way past his 'retirement' date, but he should never retire in my book. He always exhibits a genuine concern for all students. The other is thirty-some years younger, very active and passionate about student learning. Together, they make a great force for student learning, and are always looking for ways to help the learning stick.
Yesterday, they showed me a new student video project. Social studies, reading, writing, technology standards all met inside the video.
Students wrote a 'Dear Parents' letter, talking about the need for their parents to talk to them about bigotry and violence, about racism and hate, and how much their parents' example set the tone for their own behaviors.
Students from fourth grade through sixth grade were each videoed against a black curtain reciting the letter. Then they clipped it up tightly, so each student reads just a phrase or two, and it flows from one child to the next, you see several more than once, and so on.
I know you'll have to see it, and when the link goes up on the website, I'll post it here.

'Cache' Up

We did it! I did some geocaching with two groups of teachers last week from two different schools, and took some people from my team along with one of them. It was a great experience. One teacher told teachers from his home building that it was the 'best inservice' he'd been to in a long time!
Teachers worked on lessons to do with their students that involve geocaching, matched up the standards, and talked about learning implications with these activities. A good couple of days!

Cache This!

Geocaching is, well, fun! My husband and I have recently tried this "sport"; downloading coordinates to a handheld GPS, following the hints left on the website at geocaching.com, and traveling the local area looking for caches. We've gone out twice so far, once with a four-year old grandson, and once with a grandson who is almost fourteen! Both enjoyed it! The older one was put in charge of the GPS and deciphering the the clues.
The results? Learning! The name of the game. Both boys, young and old(er) learned something about place and geography, both had fun, both stayed engaged for hours. Both even told their parents about it!
This Friday, I'm taking it to the field. I have set up a new public google notebook with links about geocaching, including videos and podcast as well as articles and websites. (See that link below in the right navigation bar.) I have six secondary teachers who are going to go on a mini-geocaching expedition that I'm setting up Thursday night. They don't know this yet, but they are about to be hooked into a learning experience that they will want to take to the classroom! I'm excited!
:) L.

Learning for US!

The K12 Online Conference is so compelling, I can't imagine not making the time to download and listen to at least part of it. No need to watch and/or listen according to the schedule found at: http://k12onlineconference.org/docs/k12online2007schedule.html

Everything is available for download after broadcast - the videos and podcasts, as well as all the supporting materials! It stays archived so one can go back and get these great resources from some of the world’s most knowledgeable technology and learning specialists at any time.

PLEASE TAKE A LOOK! Pick something and commit to your own learning! You can check out ‘teasers’ - short video ads for the presentations – at: http://k12onlineconference.org/?cat=15

And pass this information on to your teachers and your administrators. Maybe think about handing out or hanging up a copy of the downloadable k12Online Conference Flyer. Someone might take up my challenge!

http://k12onlineconference.org

:) Linda

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Smile - You Are Out of the Box!

This note went out from a teacher at one of my project schools to another one this past Friday:
"To realize what happened with the kids during this project is awesome. Now I understand - the light has dawned. I did less work and kids did more work without complaining and learned more than I would have ever dreamed possible - on so many levels. Okay; now I am hooked - teach me how to use this stuff."

I was so lucky to see this unfold in her classes on Thursday. Students (Junior Classes) were presenting their projects, and while I was enjoying seeing their demonstrations of learning (which were quite phenomenal, BTW), what really made me excited was watching this teacher as she watched the students! You could see the light bulbs literally going off for her. She would nod to herself, smile a little, look between the students and the screen, and I just knew that she had it. Her first true "Out of the Box Experience". No stopping this teacher now. She has become a true believer in student-led, project-based, REAL Learning!

Nothing makes me smile more than this! I T - it's ALL about the LEARNING!

Pecha What?

I was told about the most incredible discussion among sixth graders today. A teacher friend asked some of his students if they were willing to try out a new project: "Pecha Kucha" projects in PowerPoint. (If you're not familiar with this, check out the wikipedia explanation. These are not your typical PowerPoint presentations!)

We had discussed these Pecha Kucha projects in our last team meeting, and wondered how students would react to creating these. Well, the answer to our wondering is, with LEARNING!

Student pairs are working together to create projects over World History assignments, and instead of the typical cut and paste, bullet points, cool backgrounds, etc. we are getting students having heated discussions that go something like this:

"Why did you put that slide before this one? Didn't this person influence that to happen? And so the slide with the picture of him should be first; we should discuss his impact first!"

And, "Which event caused the other one to take place? Which one is more important? Why? I think this event caused the revolt, but you think the revolt caused this event..." And so on....

Listening in to students who were given minimal instructions discuss this - WOW! IT really is ALL about the LEARNING!

Voki - Virtual Characters

I just created a 'Voki', an animated character of myself that I've posted here. Fun stuff. I expect I ought to change her comment from time to time in order to test the water and see if it is useful for learning. But I guess, since I've learned something new, that it is!
Try one for yourself! You don't have to post it to create it - just sign up and follow the easy directions. I used the 'Text to Speech' feature rather than recording my own voice in order to test that option. Next time, I'll replace it with a recording of my own voice recording a tech tip.
:) cheers for learning!
L.

Stuck?

The Grumpy Old Teacher Blog on August 16, 2007, mentions a motto he has posted on his classroom wall:

"Are you stuck? Good, now you can get down to some REAL learning!"

In today's school environment, all learners, students and teachers alike, often just want the answers. We don't like to take the time to struggle with information, to search out deep answers, to try to figure things out on our own. We want it the first time through, spelled out, with complete, detailed directions. Problem solving? We want the steps! We are sometimes the victims of our 'gold-star' past, when as good little students we earned the gold stars on all of our papers.

"If at first you don't succeed..." What? Ask for better directions? Heaven forbid if we ask others to "Try, Try Again!" I sometimes find myself frustrated with others who want students to become independent learners, but want detailed, step-by-step directions before trying something new themselves.

So, are you stuck? Good! Now YOU can get down to some REAL LEARNING!

:) L.

Commenting on Comments!

I've had trouble with this blog since I set it up. Since I was a novice, I was a little scared, I admit; putting my opinions out there and worried how inexperienced I would sound! So I started out without comments 'enabled' and now I can't seem to get the blog setting correct so I can get comments. I have two other blog sites, also on Blogger, that do allow comments and I have not had any problems with them. The setting are the same on all three sites. Go figure...
So, for those of you out there who wish they could give me their opinion on this blog, here's an e-mail address you can use:
lloutback@gmail.com
If I ever get this figured out, I'll delete this blog entry!
:) L.L.

The More Things Change . . .

The inevitable - Change.
Change is a sign of progress and the future. Change can also be a sign of the past.
Watch this video clip, and then reflect on the changes we've seen in just the past few years as we've worked to integrate technology into learning. What is your reaction to change?

"Funny Teacher Rant" from:
www.wavelengthinc.com/conference.htm
Found on YouTube!

Does it count as IT?

Maybe. I love learning something new, so now I’m trying out geocaching. My husband and I purchased a Magellan eXplorist 500LE this weekend, installed an SD card and after several fits and starts, I finally have a folder of about a dozen caches located within ten miles from home loaded up. Going to take a short tour of the area this evening and try our luck at following coordinates and tiny onscreen maps. We decided to try this during the time of year that we are unlikely to have small people (the grandkids) joining us with their thousand and one questions! So maybe, just maybe, by the time they come for stayovers again, we might have a clue what we’re doing!
Looks to be fun! What have you tried out lately that was new to you? Take up the challenge – discover a new way to use technology in your “real” life, not just your school/work life!

What's the Perception?

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons

I've been reading over some notes I made to myself last year when I was preparing to start working with a 'new' group of teachers; 'new' meaning new to using technology to improve learning in the classroom, not necessarily new to teaching. I was thinking about Senge's Mental Models, and I wrote down how necessary it it to take into account what other's perceptions are. Senge notes that, "Before you open your eyes in the morning, 80% of what your going to see is already encoded in your brain."

When we approach learning something new, we have encoded a perception of what we think the learning is going to entail, and these perceptions must not be de-valued. If I want others to learn, I need to take their perceptions seriously. Easing them into the experience is what enabling the learners is all about. I have to pay attention! The perceptions of all the learners - teacher learners and student learners - are important, and reveal where I need to start.

"Information Artisans"

Today, I am actually IN with some time to research! And e-mails have been flying out of my box as I forward some links and articles to some of you. I'm so happy to be reading things that support our program!

Part of my reading is involving catching up on the blogs I make sometimes feeble attempts to follow. Here's a great quote for you from David Warlick's blog, 2cents Worth, August 6th:

"In most classrooms, we have done an excellent job, for many years, in teaching our children to be good consumers of content — good readers and learners. I believe that we must now become just as successful in teaching our children to become good and responsible producers of content, writers, artists, composers, etc. — good communicators. In the information age, it is information with which we will work, to fashion content products that have value, that entertains and teaches.

Rather than just making students information consumers, make them information artisans." (http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/, August 6th, 2007)

Wow. Information Artisans - I love the sound of that! True Learning. Can we become Information Artisans? Can we enable our students to do this?

Is Learning Conversation?

just re-read a blog post by John Pederson (about six times!), and I want you to read it, too. If you have never read "The Cluetrain Manifesto", there is a link to it at the beginning of his post.
I printed that Cluetrain Manifesto out eight years ago and posted it on my cubie wall; read it rather religiously when fighting the systemic battles with others about doing things the way they've always been done.
Pederson has hit it squarely with his re-write in this blog entry entitled "Learning is Conversation - Revisited". I'm glad he re-visited this, I missed it the first time around!
Read it yourself - I guarantee you will be challenged!


"Learning Is Conversation"

Teaching "Brain-Friendly"

I just read this blog entry on the Teacher in Development blog, and it really got me thinking. And I'm on vacation! You should read it, too.

I've spent a couple of weeks with grandkids this summer, and am about to spend one more with them. Watching what catches their attention, I'm finding that it really isn't a lot different than what gets my attention. Reading a boring book or listening to a lecture is NOT it! And it's definitely not lectures that get the children's attention - even when the lecture is from their favorite grandparents. :)

What gets their attention - and mine - is hands on, engaging, active; it uses sound, color, and it encites thinking!


http://teacherindevelopment.blogsome.com/2007/06/14/brain-friendly-grammar/

All About Copyright!

Here's a short, easy-to-understand, video explanation of current copyright issues, created by Bucknell Professor Eric Faden for the Stanford Fair Use Project. And it's great entertainment, to boot!

Technology for Thinking

This video will tell you all about some of the learning theory we need to understand in order to effectively use technology to improve learning in our classrooms.

Shift Happens

This powerpoint presentation was just named as the world's best presentation on Slideshare.net. Take a look, and think about the implications!

Situational Awareness

My husband is a retired Air Force Master Sergeant, and even though we’re a few years out from living that wild, wonderful, crazy existence of being in the military, we have children in the military now and still try to follow what is going on in that world.

One thing that never changes is the use of Jargon. No one does it better than the United States Military. A recent quote in the newspaper, from a Major (whom we know personally) talking about a bombing error by a pilot that resulted in a B-52 dropping a payload of 500-pound (non-explosive) test bombs on a local reservoir, points this out vividly.

Instead of saying the pilot and crew of this mission made a huge mistake, the Major said the crew, “lost situational awareness.” He didn’t say SNAFUED this one – but that’s another jargon story…..

At any rate, this terminology, “lost situational awareness” struck me. Happens to me all the time! I get to reading something on the web, it leads me to something else, which gives me another idea, and I try something else, which takes me on to several other links and videos, and podcasts, and illustrations, and I get another brainstorm about what to do with another set of students, and on and on and on and time goes away before I know what happened! I think that, for better or worse, my brain likes hypertext mode.

I see this happening with our students all the time, and I see how their teachers struggle with it. We want students to pay attention to the subject, topic, question at hand, and they get off on a tangent, following one link, one topic, to another – flying around and making whatever sense they can out of the bits and pieces they find. It’s like one huge smorgasbord of information, pictures, video, sound, and you can just get so much and get off on a tangent so easily!

So tell me, when I lose ‘situational awareness’ and get off on one of those hypertext brain trips, am I not still learning?

Outside or Inside?

"Think outside the box, but be sure you know where the box is, and what's inside it." - copied from Grumpy Old Teacher blog at http://ict-grump.blogspot.com/

Could be reflective of what we're doing! We spent a day stormin' and normin', trying to begin to get a handle on the future. Is that even possible when things change so fast? Well, we do know what's INSIDE our box - doing things that we've always done, but doing some of them in a different way.

Are we ready to start thinking about doing NEW things in a new way? That will be the key this dilemma. Are you going to join in this conversation?

Here's another video - can you tell I'm become a short-video addict? They can carry a big punch! :)

This one comes recommended by Susan Brooks-Young on the Classroom 2.0 network. It was produced by the MacArthur Foundation. Are kids different due to digital media?

The 'New' Literacy

We hear a lot from various authors and speakers about the 'new literacy'. Sometimes that worries me, as if we're replacing the 'old' with the 'new'; almost like we used to judge people from other times or other places as being 'ignorant'.

I once heard a speaker talking about 'illiteracy' vs. 'alliteracy'; illiterate being unable to read and write, and alliterate being able to read and write but chosing not to. Which would be worse?

What defines literacy? Is it truly 'reading and writing'? or is it... understanding? Is the better student, the one who gives correct answers to all of those standardized test questions: tells the main idea, the plot, lists the main characters and identifies the problem, the solution or the resolution of the story? Or is it the one who can identify with and become immersed in the story; feels sad when the main character is hurt, or rejoices when the protagonist triumphs? Isn't the better student really the one who continues to ask Why? and How? when often all we ask them to respond to is Who, What, When, and Where?

Thomas Armstrong asks if we as educators are, “going to teach literacy skills in such a way that the words lie dead there on the page for so many students, or, conversely, are we going to take positive steps toward the ultimate goal of making the words come alive for all students?”

I am convinced that our success in integrating technology into learning across the curriculum is going to result in students who are truly literate in every sense of the idea of 21st century literacy. I think we are on the verge of some really wonderful, truly innovative approaches to having all people become truly literate. Are we really using what we're doing to help all learners become literate?

Where Education Is

Are we educating our students for their world - or ours? What do you think?

Are we killing creativity?

Please take the time to watch this. I guarantee you will find it well worth the thought you will put in to this discussion. Are we 'educating creativity' right out of our children?

Hyper World

This video tells it all - what a great commentary on Web 2.0!

I could also take this as a visual of what my life is - the more I learn, the more I know I don't know, the more my brain goes into 'hypertext mode'! What an exciting time to be in education!

Google This!

Google Earth - there is soooooo much to this! Here are a couple of videos that will help you.


Google Earth from Harvard University



Google Earth - The Grand Tour (NOTE: long video!)




Using Google Earth in the Classroom