Webinar 7/29/11

This afternoon I participated in my first live webinar. http://www.nmc.org/connect/2011/July/29  I decided to participate in this webinar, after Patti posted the details on Edmodo. I participated in PLP last school year, under the leadership of Will Richardson and Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach. Last year was the first that I had been formally 'taught' about the influence of the digital age to the classroom setting. Will Richardson has some great thoughts about the future of our schools and he is out there trying to make a difference. When I hear him speak, I often wish he was a leader in the U.S. education system and philosophies. His ideas need to be heard and implemented.

I signed on a few minutes late (you can't plan everything perfectly with young children :), and listened for some time to Will Richardson speak about education and the changes that are desperately needed. After listening for some time, I began to participate in the side channel chat on the side. I appreciated that my ideas and questions were responded to, and I felt like I was welcomed into the room.  I thoroughly enjoyed this time, and look forward to participating again.

Here are some quotes and notes from the webinar. 

• Kids are out there on the internet, finding things they are interested in - - - no one is teaching them how to do it well right now.
• We need to create a laser focus – how do we learn with access?
• Inquiry based education = higher motivation
• Teachers need to have students’ paths (their passions/interest learning) meet objectives/standards from state and school district curriculum.
• The easy way is for everyone to be approached the same way. This is why we have implemented standardized testing. Standardized testing is the easiest way to make sure everyone is achieving. 
• We do not trust our teachers to make assessments.
• Classrooms are moving towards using social tools through the curriculum. Teacher is co-learner. Teacher aligns learning to expectations we all have for students to meet.  This is much more beneficial.
• Students being pushed through a curriculum is not the best way to serve students in today's society, when we have the access to the information.
• Teacher needs to be perceived as a learner. Will asks students, “How smart is your teacher?” Students have opinion right away, which is evidenced by their responses on sites such as Ratemyteachers.com Will asks, “How does your teacher learn?” They are clueless. Students don’t see adults in the room as a learner who is connected.This needs to change. 

Tools to use in the classroom for Students to CREATE

Following I have outlined some new programs that I would like to implement this next school year as well as "old" ones that I have used in the past and plan to use again.  

New ideas for projects in the classroom:

Bit Strips: http://www.bitstrips.com/landing Comic Strips for the Classroom...awesome.

https://bubbl.us/ looks like a great site to engage brainstorming activities. It can be shared, uploaded, printed, etc. 

Wordpress:  Our district has purchased subscription to WordPress. I am excited about using this new tool, however it will take a little bit of work to grasp how to use it, and what other things I have been using that it will replace. I really wish we had our log-in information so we could explore in the summer! 

Blabberize: cute program that allows you to animate a drawn picture. I could see using this program in language arts when studying different types of sentences, etc., etc.. 

My e-book: http://www.myebook.com/  Create an e-book for free, students can publish.This may be a better choice for my age level: Story Jumper - students create a book and then parents can purchase if they choose.  http://www.storyjumper.com/

I love the example Eric (Nicole :) posted on Museum Box.  This could be used in many ways in the classroom and would be a neat virtual activity. This activity could be done in the classroom using a shoe box, but it would not be nearly as cool as creating a virtual one! 

I have seen, but never used Picnik http://www.picnik.com/ The special effects on Picnick would be a nice alternative to what I tried to do via Microsoft Word and Google Draw tools. 

Scriblink looks awesome! A colleague of mine used a program similar to this to collaborate with a different school. They used a program specific to SmartBoard...I should have known there was a program out there for me to use as well!

My Fake Wall - I'd like my students to create a Fake Wall this year.  MyFakeWall.com is a fake Facebook page. On the site, are friends and conversation that "could be true".   I really think that this site challenges students to think about the lifestyle, friends, and environment of a person. 

My Maps within Google: Using the example shown here, I plan to use Google Maps in sixth grade to have students give a tour of the country they study through our World Regions unit.  Students would do something similar to what is shown here on this tutorial. I used Google Maps in the classroom last year, for the first time. I'm excited to use My Maps in correlation to our study. 

Examples of projects I did in the classroom, for the first time, this past school year:

Glogster: Students used Glogster to create a story map of a book that they read. Students also used Glogster to create a poster about themselves. Many students enjoyed these projects and made ones at home in their free time as well. 

Prezi: Studying famous people, presidents and places, I completed a student choice project where students choose from a list (or justified a different person/place of interest), researched, and presented to the class via Prezi, Glogster, or PowerPoint.Students uploaded YouTube videos to their Prezi, as well as photographs and links.

MyFakeWall.com - I introduced this briefly to the students by showing them examples of fake walls. Students could use these fake walls to explore some of the famous people/places we studied.  I would LOVE to have my students create a Fake Wall, in grade six. I did not feel like it was age appropriate when I taught grade three last year. I'm looking forward to being able to push my students further in their tech use.  

Little Bird Tales - We used Little Bird Tales to publish students stories. Students could read their stories, and display their hand drawn pictures.  

Animoto - used in the classroom to display photographs. 

Google Forms - students created a Google Form to send out to their classmates. Students created questionnaires for data analysis, and also a form that served as a peer check when they presented to the class a project.  

Google Maps - I used Google Maps in the classroom this past year, to zoom in on different areas of the world that our classmates and their families visited during the school year. We learned about different cultures and the students were able to see firsthand a variety of places around the United States and world such as; Florida, Tennessee, Iowa, Louisiana , China, England, India, and Ethiopia.

VoiceThread: as a third grade team, we purchased a subscription to VoiceThread. We used it for a variety of projects throughout the year. One of the best uses was for students to post and/or answer questions about a chapter book they were assigned to read. 

Stixy/Wallwisher: I used this tool in the classroom when we studied Landforms. As a homework assignment and to introduce my lesson, students created a Stixy page where they uploaded pictures of landforms and named the type of landform.  We invited others through Twitter to join us, and our principal posted a pictures with some clues of where she was. Students needed to use the clues to identify the landform.

Wordle: I used wordle several times throughout the year to create word splashes on unit vocabulary, and presidential speeches. 

(Mis) Communicating with Parents

One of my greatest strengths and greatest weaknesses is communicating with parents. 

I communicate in a variety of ways with parents through the classroom website, bi-monthly newsletters outlining all subjects, etc., parents volunteering in the classroom, and as a community member. I spend many weeks at the beginning of the year purposefully building a relationship with parents.  The combination of their child "enjoying my class" and them being able to "openly communicate" with me builds the foundation for a successful year.  I don't share with many that there are several nights (sometimes in a week), that I stay up late to respond thoroughly to parents questions or comments to share my thoughts, work with them, and make sure they understand where I am coming from. 

That being said, this past year was a year that I did several of the mentioned above, but I had VERY few e-mails from individual parents.  That was number one, to make me feel disconnected from parents. Although I had many conversations with parents, it just didn't "feel right" this year.  Beginning, middle, and end, I felt like something was missing.  I spent a lot of time at the end of the year and much of the summer weeks thinking about why it didn't "feel right" this year.

I have thought of several reasons...

1) I was overwhelmed. I have two young children, and my husband works very long hours. I get them up, to the sitter, go to work, pick up from sitter, play, bed, schoolwork...every night.

2) I started the year with a student teacher 

3) Through PLP I was working very hard to try new ideas in the classroom. The first year of a new idea is not the smoothest. And, I was implementing "new" ideas in the classroom that a few parents didn't seem too happy about. They wanted to see traditional. 

4) Many plugged in parents felt the need to judge "Public School" as a whole, and felt that the school, as a whole, wasn't "up to par" with what they would want for their child's education.  They were disappointed in the system, not necessarily me.

5) I started to see weaknesses in the "system" as I reflected on where the state is/was taking us, and where I thought education needed to go.

So, other than that... :)

All of these things together equaled what I felt was my "worst year ever" in terms of how I felt about my relationship with my parents. Even though I had the support of my boss, and many colleagues, I didn't feel confident in what I was doing. Was it because I didn't teach from the "cookie cutter" manual? Yes. Was it because I wasn't as worried about students' grades because I saw a bigger picture? Yes.  Was it because I was questioning what I was doing? Yes.  Am I being to critical of myself? Yes. I would say a majority of my parents didn't think there was a problem at all. Which is a good thing. But there was. Whether it was in my head, or some parents saw a glimpse of it. It was there.  

Has anyone else ever felt this way?
What coping mechanisms would you offer?
How do you balance traditional vs. new ideas?
How have you been successful communicating non-traditional projects to your parents (especially those who are teachers, themselves and do not agree with your philosophy)?