Suppl_eMINTS

Some Weekend Thoughts

As you enter the weekend, I have some thoughts to inspire you for the weeks to come.

After reading David Warlick’s post on engagement versus empowerment, I couldn’t help but think about how this idea fits with the eMINTS program, inquiry-based learning, and technology. Basically, engagement isn’t enough anymore. We want students to feel empowered. Engagement hints at a certain amount of passivity, but when you empower your students, they take ownership of their learning. This is not easy to accomplish. We have make our lessons student-centered, building off their interests. Tasks should be authentic so that they can see how the skills and content we provide them apply in the real world.

On the tech side of things, I read at Lifehacker that Google Docs can now handle any type of upload. I know that some have hesitated to utilize the tools offered FOR FREE by Google due to compatibility. Now, you pretty much upload any file for collaborative, online activity. That and you can do a little hack with your Google account to add “dummy” (I prefer “smarty”) usernames.

Finally, Will Richardson wrote a short response to the Kaiser Foundation report on how student media use is dramatically on the rise. Richardson’s take is that we as teachers are educating a generation where it is not an option to not use technology effectively and efficiently. Older generations have the choice of pen and paper versus more electronic forms of production. Today’s student does not exist in this context. If they want to succeed, they have to be able to use the tools of our times. No excuses.

Winter Conference!

I realize that I have neglected this blog lately, but there are good reasons. One of those reasons is that I have been posting updates on the 2010 eMINTS Winter Conference blog. My latest post details all you have to do to get registered and join in on the fun. The content from that post is below (in case you don’t feel like clicking through…

Registration for the 2010 eMINTS Winter Conference is here. The sooner you register, the better as some of the more popular sessions fill up fast!

In related Winter Conference news, the following message from Winter Conference Committee member and eIS Chris Lohman crossed my “desk” today…

The eMINTS Winter Conference 2010 committee would like for teachers and students to be part of our 10th anniversary celebration by submitting a brief (no more than 5 slides) presentation that shows how eMINTS has impacted teaching and learning. Learn more at:
http://www.emints.org/events/winter2010/studentpres.shtml

Also…attend the pre-conference workshops and the 10th Anniversary Dinner to be held on Wednesday. We would like to get as many veteran teachers as possible to attend these events…

Start the Winter Conference off right with four exciting hands-on workshops! Whether you have interest in learning more about Google Tools for Educators, Classroom Management, Claymation or SMART Technologies, these workshops will get you rockin’ and rollin’! Learn more at:
http://www.emints.org/events/winter2010/workshops.shtml

Five Things: Processing

Maybe the most important but most forgotten component of cooperative learning and/or community-building activities is the processing of what was learned. We’re all guilty of wanting to move on to the next activity or topic without sufficiently processing the previous content. Sometimes, we try to process the information quickly, hoping our students will just throw out the important ideas. This approach (or lack of) often leads to less reflective responses and students not listening to their peers.

Just like anything else we do in our classrooms, we need strategies to insure that proper processing occurs. If there’s a lesson worth learning, we have to plan structures to insure it’s actually reflected upon. So, here are five things you can do to insure valuable processing at the conclusion of your cooperative and/or community-building activities.

1. Write it down.
Sometimes the best way to get quiet, introspective reflection from your students is to have them write their thoughts on paper or typed on a computer. This sort of writing could be as open-ended as a journal entry with no guidelines or highly structured. “Two Stars and a Wish” is one format that asks students to list two great things they learned or experienced plus a wish for making the experience better. Students could use the strategy known as PMI, or Plus-Minus-Interesting, where they list a positive, a negative, and something interesting. The key is to collect all the writing in order to hold students accountable and to demonstrate the importance of such reflection. I’d suggest that sharing aloud with the group be optional since the words we write are often more personal than what we speak.

2. The Talking Stick
The “Talking Stick” (or ball or Teddy Bear or whatever) is a physical signal for the students to know who is speaking and to whom they should listen. As the teacher or facilitator, you can require the Talking Stick to pass through you or allow students to pass the stick to a peer with a raised hand. This strategy insures that only one person is talking at a time and that students keep their attention on that speaker. Foam balls, stuffed animals, or bean bags also make great Talking Sticks.

3. Think-Pair-Share
Sometimes the biggest problem with group processing is that everyone wants to share…or that no one is wants to share. “Think-Pair-Share” is a cooperative learning strategy that works well in solving both issues. First, the students are given time (~one minute) to think up a response to a question posed to the group. Second, they turn to a partner and discuss their thinking. Third, students are called on to share with the group. Teachers can ask for volunteers or call on whomever since every student has had time to think up and discuss a possible response. Also, even those who really wanted to share at least had a chance to share with her partner.

4. Concept Mapping
Typically, we use concept mapping to access background knowledge before covering a topic, but when used after an activity, concept maps or webs are great ways to organize student thinking. Concept maps can be drawn on white boards, chart paper, or interactive white boards for the whole class. Alternatively, individuals or small groups could create their own to turn in and/or share with the class. There are a few free online concept-mapping sites out there including bubbl.us, MindMeister, and Mindomo. Also, there is offline software that can make concept-mapping easier such as FreeMind, SMART Ideas ($), and Inspiration ($).

5. Sentence Stems
There are times when a classroom discussion goes nowhere because the students don’t know where to start and so the teacher must take over the conversation, leaving little room for students to think for themselves or internalize the meaning of the activity. A great strategy is to give the students a few sentence stems to use in their discussion. Teachers should then refrain from participating in the discussion. Three is a good number of stems to provide. A few examples are…

• I understand what (name) is saying, but I wonder…
• Here’s my thought(s) on that question…what do you think?
• That’s an interesting perspective…I wonder…

Whether one uses these strategies or not, it’s important to remember a few additional points. Setting norms for discussion don’t just have to happen at the beginning of the school year. Ask your students what should be expected from them during a class discussion in regards to participation and listening. Make these the norms for the reflection. Above all, the most important rule should be that all involved should listen and take turns speaking. Seating or positioning your students in a circle or “U” shape is the best configuration for them to interact as a whole group, . As facilitator, resist the urge to ask simple, lower-level, yes-no questions. Take your class’s discussion to a higher level. And finally, have a little fun. Learning about each other and collaborating can be the best part of being a part of a classroom community. Don’t forget that!

Image Source

Getting the Most out of Internet Resources

Where would you look for resources on building classroom community?

Five Things: Working with Authentic Data

Tonight we focus on working with authentic data. The software we’ll focus on is Microsoft Excel. This might be one of the scariest pieces of software to use. However, I’m confident you will find excellent applications for this great tool.

Anyway, here are my five things concerning authentic data and spreadsheets:

1. Authenticity is the key. – Like much of what we do in our trainings, the authenticity of our content and teaching methods is maybe the most important factor in getting through to our students. They want to know how they can use this in the real world or why it’s important to know at all. By using authentic data, students are better able to connect data collection and analysis to their lives outside of school.
2. Excel (and other spreadsheet software) is your friend. – Spreadsheets are there to help you make sense of data. They help organize data so that it’s easier to analyze. Luckily, software like Excel does most of the organization for us. Remember when no one knew how to use Word or PowerPoint? Give it time. Excel will make your life easier.
3. Use online templates. – Sometimes software like Excel can frustrate us by not doing exactly what we want it to do. Don’t worry. Find a template that already contains the formatting for which you’re looking. Microsoft even provides a few templates here or you can always do a Google search for “Excel templates“.
4. Use the Help. – When in doubt, always use the help menu for Excel. Also, I have had a lot of luck searching for tricks and tips on using Exel by simply doing Internet searches.
5. There are alternatives to Excel. – We are using a Google spreadsheet in order to keep records on classroom visits and training sessions. A Google spreadsheet makes collaboration possible and I can embed the sheet directly into the Moodle. Another collaborative spreadsheet can be found at Zoho. The best part of these spreadsheets is that you can work on them collaboratively and transfer the data directly onto an Excel spreadsheet either through download or by simply copying and pasting. Here’s a list of almost all the spreadsheet programs out there.

Hopefully, after we spend an evening with Excel, you will find applications for you and your students.

Image Source: http://xkcd.com/373/

Five Things: Classroom Management/Website Enhancement

My original goal was to post in time for training sessions. However, with my crazy summer workload, this did not happen. So, I’ll promise to post something here right before or right after we meet.

Classroom Management
We cover this topic at the beginning of the year because it’s the most important thing to establish at the beginning of a school year. I know it’s cliched, but it’s true. Whatever sort of expectations, norms, or procedures you set in August and September will either carry you through the year or make you want to quit. So consider your management strategies carefully.

Five Things:

1. The difference between norms and rules – Norms are long-term behaviors that you want from your students. These are the practices that will make learning possible throughout the year and possibly beyond. Norms are what students should do. Rules, on the other hand, are typically restrictions handed down from a higher authority; in this case, it’s you. Norms help students know what they should do while rules restrict students with few options.
2. Students help set norms. – You can set the norms in your classroom by giving one or two that are very important to you. Then, let the students determine the rest of the norms. They might just surprise you and they’ll feel more ownership.
3. Spend a lot of time on procedures. – Spending a considerable amount of class time in the beginning on procedure will make it possible to spend more time on learning as the year moves along. Plan simple lessons or even games where students perform class procedures for no other reason than to make them more efficient, leaving more time for learning later on.
4. Read Alfie Kohn. – Be sure to read the Alfie Kohn articles if you did not get a chance yesterday. They are extremely valuable in providing a theoretical framework to classroom discipline. The three articles can be found here, here, and here.
5. Don’t forget community-building. – Team and community building often get confused. Team building is the work you do to get teamwork out of small groups. Building community involves getting the whole class to work together with learning as the goal. There are several great resources for these kinds of activities in the online resources or there are a few on my Delicious account.

Website Enhancement
You all spent a lot of time working on your websites last year, but now that a new school year is upon us, there’s more work to be done.

Five Things:

1. Content, content, content – More important than anything is your website’s content. The most basic looking websites can still be the most useful if they have good content.
2. Update and maintain – It’s super important that your website is updated. Students and teachers won’t pay it much attention if the “last updated” message is from last school year.
3. Consistent Design – Just because we spent time enhancing websites does not mean you should adds lots of bells and whistles or mix in multiple fonts. Keep the colors and design elements consistent throughout your website in order to show cohesion of ideas.
4. Contrast – If you have a dark background, use a light color for your text. If the background is white, use black text.
5. Utilize Web 2.0 Tools – It’s really hard to make a website interactive or easy to update. Consider using a blog for your newsletter or announcements. Google Calendar can easily replace bulky, made-from-scratch calendars on Dreamweaver.

Again, don’t forget the resources in the Moodle and keep working at updating that website. See if you can find ways to best utilize your website to enhance classroom management.

See you all at the next session when we cover Excel and how to use authentic data in the classroom.

Image Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ijames/ / CC BY 2.0

Blog-diggity

This post is for a presentation at the Central Missouri Summer Institute held at Centralia’s new Intermediate School on August 4, 2009. The presentation is embedded below.

The following are some of the resources I find most helpful in classroom and professional blogging:

“Blog” on Wikipedia

Blog Hosting Sites:
Blogger – This is one of the two most popular sites for blogging. It’s super easy to use, but it has that pesky navigation bar.
WordPress – There is the blog host site and the open source software. Both are relatively easy to use and give you plenty of options for posting.
Edublogs – Edublogs provides a built-in community of educational bloggers. The site uses WordPress software, but one has to pay in order to avoid ads.
More

Blogging 101:
25 Basic Styles of Blogging – Need a purpose for your blog? Here are 25 great ideas.
We-Blog, Tree-Blog – This is my Winter Conference ‘09 presentation. It’s a great resource for getting started.
Reluctant Bloggers – Scared to blog? Read this article.
Web 2.0 for Newbies
Blog Basics – …for teachers.

Participate & Network
One Comment A Day – Here’s an interesting idea on how to get involved in the edu-blogosphere.
Best Teacher Blogs – This is a list of the best blogs for and by teachers.
23 Elements of Sharable Blog Posts – Give the people something to link.
Twitter – Microblogging at its finest. Also, here are some great resources and articles on Twitter.
RSS in Plain English – Need RSS explained in an engaging and memorable YouTube video? Well, here it is.

Blog Extras
Top 10 Google Gadgets
50 Great Widgets from Mashable
Widgetbox – Make your own widgets for your blog.

Safety and Other Teaching Resources
Safe Blogging for Teens
10 Ways to Use Your Edublog to Teach – These ideas will work for most any blogging site.
eThemes – It would be silly of me not to mention resources from eMINTS.
Using Blogs to Promote Authentic Learning in the Classroom – Someone has done the research for us.
Ideas from David Warlick

Now what?

Now, you will continue this conversation. Click below to leave a comment or question. The conversation doesn’t have to end because my time is up. Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

From the Edu-Blogosphere

I realize many of you do not want to think about next year at this very moment. I also realize that many of you can’t help but to think about next year. So, with these things in-mind, I thought I’d share some things that have crossed my Google Reader and Twitter feed.

David Warlick asked his readers, “When you return to your classroom (or other edu-workplace), what do you wish will be there that wasn’t there this school year?” Folks then posted their wishes on Twitter with the hashtag #classwish. I wished for online presentation software could be collaborative and had non-linear possibilities. Today, Warlick compiled his results.

How would you answer David Warlick’s question? What do you wish for next year that wasn’t there this year? Really think outside the school box on this one. Who knows, we might be able to make it happen. I found the presentation software I was looking for in Zoho.

Over at Weblogg-ed, Will Richardson writes about a Time article in which the future of work is pondered. The article states, among other things, “We will see a more flexible, more freelance, more collaborative and far less secure work world. It will be run by a generation with new values–and women will increasingly be at the controls.” Richardson then wonders…

Which would seem to me to suggest that we need to create a more flexible, more freelance, more collaborative learning experience for my kids, right? If as the article states fully 40% of the US workforce is predicted to be independent contractors by 2019, shouldn’t we be rethinking what it means to prepare them for that?

How do these ideas change what you do in your classroom? My hope is that what we do in eMINTS supports this shift in education and the workplace. What do you think?

In conjuntion with the news that California (read “Cal-ee-fornia”) is dumping the textbook in favor of internet sources, I stumbled upon the blog TeachPaperless. While it claims to mainly provide educators with ideas for going paperless, the blog also gives its readers president for going tree-friendly in their classrooms. Even if you don’t care for the political slant, it’s an interesting read.

In my personal network, a friend who teaches high school English in Lincoln, NE mentions on his blog that his team of teachers is meeting to deal with plagiarism. It seems that several students have figured out how to copy and paste content from online sources onto their own papers, trying to pass the work off as their own. Have you considered this possibility in your own class? Do you have a plagiarism policy? Are you aware of ways to teach about and discover plagiarized work?

My partner sees this a lot as an English professor at the university. It’s easiest to deal with plagiarism when papers are turned in electronically. She copies the suspect content, pastes it into a Google search box, and up pops the original work. Sometimes it’s that easy; sometimes she has to search for a while.

As far as teaching about plagiarism, I have a few resources that may help:

• For you Wikipedia fans out there, there is a page with specific directions for citing the online encyclopedia of the people. Besides citation instructions, the page also offers advice such as “As with any source, especially one of unknown authorship, you should be wary and independently verify the accuracy of Wikipedia information if possible.”
• Plagiarism.com does the Google searching for you. Just enter the offending text in the box and hit “search”. You can even set up a Google alert as soon as the same text pops up anywhere on the Internet.
• The Citation Machine takes the guessing out as it will help your students generate citations for the work they ethically use within their writing.
• Excellent guides for teaching plagiarism can be found from Colorado State University, Web English Teacher, and Bedford/St. Martin’s.

Look for me to continue updating this blog about once a week this summer with more ideas to get your next year with eMINTS off to a great start!

Picture Source

Top 10 Learning Tools

Boy, I have really neglected this blog. Luckily, Jane Hart at the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies gave me a reason to get this blog going again. Anyway, this is my list of top 10 tools for 2009…

1. Google Docs -I recently moved all my training session plans from my own Word files to Google Docs in order to more easily share them with my supervisor and other trainers. Additionally, I plan to begin keeping classroom visits and status reports so as to make me more mobile. The best part is that I can access my plans on my iPhone in order to keep with my pledge of going paperless.

2. Google Calendar – I don’t mean to make this a Google-specific list, but I can’t deny the value of this tool to my work as an instructional specialist. I share calendars with co-workers, teachers I train, and even my wife (is busy enough with her tenure-track, research 1 job at a large, state university). The embedding has allowed me to post my calendar in my Moodle space for my trainees. Also, Google Calendar’s ability to synch with my work calendar makes my whereabouts known to those who need to know.

3. Delicious – I’ve used Delicious for a long time now. In fact, I used it when it was known as Del.ico.us back in the day. The difference now is that I use the networking features to harvest the best content and tools from the Internet. I’ve even subscribed to my network’s feed to make harvesting easier than ever before.

4. Twitter -This is the reason for my lack of blogging, but that’s not exactly a bad thing. This Web 2.0 tool has expanded my networks ten-fold. There is a constant stream of information coming to me from my Twitter network and at <140 characters a pop, it’s very efficient.

5. Google Reader – Actually, any RSS reader will do, but this happens to be the one I go to. I don’t go to the information anymore; it comes to me. Now, I don’t miss a post from my favorite blogs and I’m able to keep up with my many networks (such as Twitter and Delicious) with little effort.

6. Prezi – This is one tool I have not really used yet, but I plan to master it over the summer and utilize it next school year. As one of the contributors to Hart’s list put it, “This should be the death of PowerPoint…” Prezi moves beyond the limited scope of a linear PowerPoint presentation, something I’ve struggled to convey to my trainees. I figure that if I can master Prezi, it will revolutionize my training sessions.

7. TwitterFox -The effectiveness (and addiction to) my Twitter network has never been better stronger since I downloaded this Firefox add-on. Now, instead of heading over to Twitter, filling up my Google Reader, or wasting time on TweetDeck, I can simply look to the lower right-hand corner in order to keep up with my Tweeps.

8. Elluminate – Working for an organization that has personel scattered all over the state, there is no way to have regular team or staff meetings. Additionally, gas prices (and our concern for the environment) have caused us to cut back on travel. An online tool for meetings was needed. Enter Elluminate. With its shared work space and file-sharing capabilities, it’s almost as good as meeting in the same room. Although it costs money to have the full availability of Elluminate, there is a “Three-For_Free” feature for those smaller get-togethers.

9. Moodle – As far as training teachers goes, this is the one tool I use the most for course organization and learning facilitation. Every schedule, resource, and link is there for my teachers and I’m able to password protect our copy-written materials and curriculum.

10. iPhone – Let me first say that I am not a phone person. Before I bought my iPhone, I used the work cell for everything, paying for only the minutes I used. After purchasing this tool, I quickly wondered how I ever lived without it. This gadget makes me completely mobile without having to haul a laptop or search out wifi while traveling all over central Missouri. I manage email, calendars, Twitter, Google Reader, and Google Docs just to name a few. The plan is to use it for record keeping of classroom visits next year. I won’t go anywhere without my iPhone.

So that’s my list. For more lists, go here and ready those Delicious bookmarks.

Picture Source: Wikimedia Commons

The Fear of Blogging

This blog is turning into “What Will Richardson/David Warlick Said,” but when folks have good ideas, I have to recognize them and hopefully expand those ideas.

Anyway, Richardson had a great post today about the difficulty of blogging. He states:

While the successes are many and impressive, a good number of people still find the thought of publishing to an audience, even a relatively small, private audience of like-minded souls, to be too daunting. It’s just way outside their comfort zone, and they just believe that their contributions would either not be relevant, interesting or useful.

He goes on to get at the core of the argument:

…no matter how you slice it, blogging is a risk. And it’s a risk not just because you are putting yourself out there for the world, but because unlike many other types of writing that we do, it’s unfinished. At least that’s the way it feels for me. I don’t KNOW very much for certain. But blogging isn’t about what I know as much as it’s about what I think I know, and I find that to be a crucial distinction.

I think this has been an issue for me. I talk and talk in training sessions and classroom visits about the wonders for blogging. However, when it comes to my own professional blogging, it’s sporadic at best. On the other hand, when I blog about my non-professional interests, I find it to be easy. I’m afraid someone with way more expertise will come along and completely wipe out my ideas about education. It can be very intimidating.

Even if you’re not blogging professionally or with your students, the web can be a menacing audience. It’s what keeps us from blogging, starting wikis, writing WebQuests, or updating our websites. How do we get over that fear?

I know that reading other blogs has always helped spark ideas. Today (and yesterday) on this blog is no different. It’s helping me to blog by accessing my own personal learning network (PLN) through RSS feeds and Twitter. Now, if I could just come up with a few of my own ideas…

(Image “Blogging for Dummies” by Somewhat Frank.)