Thing 3 - Extra, Extra, Blog All About It

Blogs are usually reflective.  In order to blog, you have to read.  You read, in order to blog.  Make sense?  The language of blogging seems to be one of reflective thoughts and ideas about something in particular (usually someone else's blog, article, ideas, etc.).  Good blogs require research and links.  Exploring some different blogs helped me develop a better understanding of them and their language.  Those that interested me most were the ones that were more reflective and less straight research or stated facts.  While those blogs had good information too, I liked reading the ones that I could tell had a human point of view attached.

My favorite that I read was by Dan Meyer entitled "Why I Don't Assign Homework".  Mr. Meyer lays out his reasons for why he feels that homework is not an effective way of practice for students and why he chooses not to give it.  I could see where he was coming from and have often had a similar opinion.  However, when reading through the comments on his page, I could see why the people who disagreed with him had valid points in favor of homework.  Mr. Meyer later says that he does give some homework now, but not a lot and nothing that is not worth the effort. This is a great example of how the feedback on blogs can "potentially teach us more" through the "connective writing" as stated by Will Richardson (Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Tools for Classrooms. Corwin, 2010).

The two blogs I read that directly involved student writing on the blogs were fun to read.  The third grade blog had students writing to an author and asking very insightful questions about her book. The author wrote back and gave genuine feedback that I can imagine the kids loved and appreciated.  The second grade blog was interesting.  It had students responding to a real picture and story of a mama duck at their school.  One day the duck wasn't there anymore, but the eggs were still in her nest.  The teacher had the students write about what they thought may have happened to the duck. The second grade teacher left the inventive spelling of her students, which made me smile and connect since my first graders will be writing in a similar way.  I love the authenticity of the project and the creativity shown in the students' stories.  These two blogs provide an example where "students become part of the and writing and learning process"(Richardson, 2010). These blogs were inspiring to me as an example of what young elementary students can do.  

The last two blogs I read were more informative.  One talked about technology building student spies as students use their phones to record and video teachers for entertainment purposes which put teachers in an awkward position and a poor light.  This blog was very informative and a little scary.  I love the way the author, Vicki Davis (aka Cool Cat Teacher), writes.  She has a style that draws you in a provides great information, while also having a context that appeals to me.  She has been added to my RSS feed.  The blog by Anne Davis, was also very informative, but seemed dry and to the point.  I appreciated all the ways she provided that weblogs can be used for education, and can definitely use it as an excellent resource. That leads me to a very important point - there are so many blogs that you have to be careful with what information you deem to be trustworthy.  Not all blogs provide accurate information and you may have to do some additional research in order to find the most accurate source if you are looking specifically for information to quote as true.  

Thing 2 - Giving Everyone a Voice

I can not even express how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE the grad program I am in.  Seriously!  One of the reasons I am so excited at the moment is because of a new tech tool I just learned about called "Voice Thread" (www.voicethread.com).  After being introduced and reading through all the info and tutorials I had to show it off to someone, and my husband was the lucky one since he was the only one around.  I thought his explanation of it was pretty good when he said,"it's kind of like a blog you can hear".

Voice Thread allows you the ability to upload pictures, text, and videos.  It then allows you the ability to record your voice to go along with what you have uploaded.  The coolest feature is when several people log in and respond to the same picture, text, videos.  Our professor made a slide and then all the people in class logged in to that same slide and recorded reflections.  You can also text your ideas and opinions, but that was pretty common.  

While browsing the site, I found one made by a second grade student who used the story of the three little pigs.  She served as the narrator and she had someone else read the parts of the pigs.  I thought this would be so much fun for my first graders.  I think having them come up with a story and then drawing pictures to be uploaded would really add to the authenticity of the project.  Adding their voices as characters in the story for a Reader's Theater type assignment would really get them involved.  I also found a presentation with an addition number sentence and three students were sharing the different ways they solved the problem. This was great because they all got the correct answer, but had different strategies to find the solution.  This would be very inspiring for my little ones to see and then participate in for themselves.  Right now we are studying about Harriet Tubman and I think it would be neat to have each of them share their thoughts and feelings about her experience and bravery.  The ideas are really flowing and I could go on and on. 

I love that Voice Thread can give my first graders a chance to participate in something pretty high tech without having to type.  They are learning keyboarding skills, but the pecking at the keyboard takes quite a while when a lot of words is necessary, plus the inventive spelling may be hard to understand unless you are seasoned in reading it.  This will allow them to respond in their own voice.  I can't wait to try it.

I did check it out at school, and thankfully, it is not a blocked site.  I  know we do not have headphones with microphones at school, so I need to take my one set or find another way to accommodate the recordings.  Also, someone mentioned that only 3 people are allowed to respond unless you have a paid account, so I'll need to check that out as well. 

Discussion and Exploration of Video Sharing

Description:  During this field experience, two of my fellow first grade teachers and I discussed and reviewed what video sharing technology was best for posting on our blogs.

Standards:  TF-II.C (Planning and Designing Learning Environments and Experiences)

Semester:  Spring 2011

Hours: 1 hour

Population:  First Grade Teachers

Reflection: We discussed School Tube, Smilebox, and Rock You.  One of the teachers said that she had had trouble with Smilebox because of some ads that had popped up at one time.  She said that it was a while back when this had happened, but that she had not used it since.  I explained that I use it all the time.  I especially like that I can use my pictures and video in the same scrapbook-like pages or slideshows.  Rock You was also mentioned, but I said that I had not used it with video before so I was going to check back to see if that was a possibility.  I use School Tube a lot too and embed the code into my blog, but I am fortunate because I am one of the people on file to publish the videos.  Since the other teachers I talked to are not, it makes it difficult to get the videos when you want them.  We decided to continue to explore and report back what we found.

Video Lesson on Money

Description:  This field experience was done with my co-teacher.  She and I decided to post a video on our blog showing parents the strategy we use at school to help teach our students how to count mixed change.  We discussed what was important to mention during the video and how we would show the parents.  Then I videoed as she taught the lesson.  I posted the video in School Tube and then embedded the code into our blog for parents to view at home.  

Standards: TF-V.C and D. (Productivity and Professional Practice)

Semester: Spring 2011

Hours:  1 hr.

Population:  First Grade Co-Teacher and Class Parents

Reflection:  My co-teacher and I had ordered Flip recorders to use in class.  We decided that we would use them first to video a demonstration of a strategy we were using at school to help teach parents how we were teaching the kids at school to count mixed change.  Upon completion and post of this video, we were thrilled with the results.  The video is short so that it doesn't become a burden to watch.  The strategy seems clear based on the visuals and description.  We shared it with class parents via our blog. We also shared it with the principal and assistant principal.  Our assistant principal happened to be at a conference where she shared our video as a demonstration on how some of her teachers were using technology.  The principal shared our video with the other teachers at school.  This has good and bad repercussions. Some of the teachers on our team were upset with us because they viewed it as though we were showing off and had not told them that we were planning to do this.  We had no intentions of that at all.  We simply had an idea and went with it immediately.  We've talked about these kind of situations in grad classes on several occasions.  

A Scrapbooker's View on Web Design

One of the things I am most interested in learning about in this class is how to design a web page.  I think of myself as a crafty and creative person.  I have several scrapbooks and photo albums that have been embellished.  Once I was introduced to Shutterfly, I began making/designing my own photo books to look similar to the scrapbooks I had always done that took soooooo much time.  All of that being said, when we were told that we had to have a class blog at school, I told my friend, who was helping in the design and implementation, that I was excited to do it, but it had to be cute.  I needed to envision it as a continuous scrapbook page.  I was intrigued by the process as my friend had me find a graphic I wanted to use as the background and then she used the html code to put it on my page. I wanted to be involved in the overall appearance with font, color scheme, and usability.  The way she worked to put together my title, tabs, headers, etc.  was way beyond my reach - but I wanted to know more so I could design myself, just like making a scrapbook page.

Having the opportunity now to learn how to do this myself is pretty empowering.  Seriously!  You see, my friend is "in charge" of the master site that holds all the blogs of our school.  She is one of only three people that can go in and make changes to the class blogs.  She is a teacher leader in technology.  Now I have no desire to go into this site and make changes to anyone's page, but the fact that I COULD if I wanted because of having the understanding of how it all works would be empowering.

Knowing how all the codes work and having the ability to help other teachers at school, just like my friend did, is what I want.  I'm extremely excited to learn, but I'm concerned that all those codes and symbols are going to be terribly overwhelming.  Looks like I'll know more very soon.

Thing One - Web 2.0

Reading David Warlic's article "A Day in the Life of Web 2.0" was eye-opening.  I am constantly in awe of all the ways students and teachers could be using technology to bring learning to life.  The fact that the use of blogs, wikis, social sites, etc. could be used to make an assignment more than just an assignment really excites me.  Unfortunately, Warlic's model setting that he describes seems so out of reach for what I see at my school.  I teach at an elementary school, so I realize that some of the experiences would not be quite as advanced as the ones that are described in the 8th grade scenario used.  But, the part of the teachers and administration could definitely be simulated. The problem I see is that the teachers I know are not as tech savvy as they need to be to put these applications to good use. Don't get me wrong, they have been exposed to blogs and use them to send information to the parents regarding the goings-on in class, class assignments, and general school news, but that is the extent that I mainly see.

Incorporating Web 2.0 tools in the classroom is important for engaged learning.  It allows students to really participate in their school work.  The kids are definitely on board, but not all of the teachers are.  My excitement about all these tools and their incorporation into the assignments and learning can be contagious.  My team always gets to hear about the new things I've learned in my grad classes and how we can begin to incorporate them into what we are teaching, but that doesn't mean they then go and do it themselves.  So, how can I entice them enough to use/incorporate the tools themselves?  How can I spread that even further into the other classes in my building?  How can my administrators push the issue that we all have to change our teaching styles somewhat to make this happen without causing a school-wide revolt?  These are the questions and scenarios I see that are holding us back.

I'm excited to dive further into learning these tools that are available.  I'm excited to think about how I can incorporate them into my 1st grade classroom.  Yes, I'm sure even my 1st graders can use these tools in some capacity and I'm anxious to see how.  I'll keep you posted on our learning.