Thinking About Learning

It’s pretty amazing to think of all the changes that have taken place in the past 5 years in my district.  Five years ago at this time, I was working with my TIS to plan a pilot 5^th grade class that would have a laptop for each student along with all the other basic equipment necessary to implement a technology-infused learning environment.  Our “21^st Century Classroom” was the first of its kind in our district.  I taught in that class for 4 years and loved every minute of it!  It invigorated my teaching life and provided some incredible opportunities for both professional and personal growth.  Now I am a TIS myself and working in a different school.  My district is within a year of completing a  five year technology equipment roll-out plan that will put a laptop, projector, and SMART Board or Airliner in every classroom.  District personnel are now contemplating a new five year technology plan.  Some of the things I hope will be included are multi-layer filtering for Internet access so teachers can have greater access than students, a specific technology staff development plan for teachers, and a greater emphasis on the use of Web 2.0 tools in the classroom.

As I think about my own school, I see a great need for the development of a school-wide shared vision regarding the integration of technology as a seamless embedded component of  instruction.  Are there any tools or websites out there that provide a guide to facilitate this sort of visioning process?  Some of the questions that need to be answered are:

• What are our broader school goals?
• How can the use of technology help us accomplish these goals?
• What strategies will we use?
• What tools do we need?
• What training do we need?
• How will we  monitor/evaluate our progress?

I need to find some resources to help with this visioning process and identify a small core of teachers who will be willing to assist with the process.  It will be a huge undertaking in a setting where teachers feel so overwhelmed already with more responsibilities than is humanly possible to manage.  I’m always hesitant to add “one more thing” to anyone’s plate, but I think we are at a critical juncture.  Real progress requires a plan, because “without a vision, the people perish!”

As I have been catching up on my professional development blog reading, I have noticed a common thread. First I read David Warlick’s excellent post, “A Path to Becoming a Literate Educator.” It was affirming to realize that my own personal professional growth matched up well with his suggestions. As I continued to read through my Google Reader, I noticed a transition from personal growth to a collective consciousness.

Weblogg-ed » Changing Ourselves, Changing our Culture
I think Will hit it right on the head. For several years, the question for me has been, “How can I get more teachers interested in using Web 2.0 tools with their students?” Now I’m beginning to see that the question needs to be much larger. In order for real change to occur, there needs to be a buy-in from a larger audience such as a school or district.

My friend, Ron, recently attended 2008 Learning Summit: Learning By Doing. In his latest blog post, A Real Shift is Happening, he says, “Since that time as a school we have started to have some really good conversations about the purpose of our school and the direction we want the school to go and some action has started to take place. One of the best things that has happened is that teachers are starting to truly collaborate and use each other as a valuable resource….It is funny how all of us have come to the realization (it seems so obvious now!) that working together makes us more effective teachers and holds great potential for impacting the learning of ALL students.”

As I sort through all these thoughts, I have come to the conclusion that it will take both components: a personal commitment to continued professional development and a collaborative environment where teachers hold a common vision, share, grow together, and support one another. We CAN make a difference, and I think it’s well worth a long-term investment.

I love new experiences! Over the weekend I participated in a walking half marathon at Myrtle Beach. Before my friend, Valerie, talked me into doing this with her, I didn’t even know there was such an event. I love to hike and walk, but in the past several years 4 or 5 miles was the most I had done in one stretch. Val and I trained together by walking about 45 minutes 3 times a week. That was some serious training, huh? We had big intentions, but between schedules, after-school meetings, and illnesses, we never got quite as in-depth with our training as we had planned. Even still, steady and persistent, we successfully completed the half marathon in 3 hours and 39 minutes. Our knees and hip joints were aching, but we were quite proud of ourselves!

Being a lover of metaphor, I couldn’t resist this one. Sometimes we have the greatest intentions at school to plan and create ideal lessons, but there are always things that get in the way: meetings, phone calls with parents, behavior issues, paperwork, more meetings. When we find ourselves overwhelmed, we have to just make the best of the circumstances at hand. High expectations are necessary, but beating ourselves up over unmet expectations is very counter-productive. Often we must simply just take our best shot and do the best we can within the circumstances that surround us. Determination can carry us a long way as we seek to give our best to our students.

Curriculum Connections:
Literacy: Poetry links; study poetry and poets; write poetry; podcast student poems, post them on blogs, or make digital poetry books.

Last night was PTO Literacy night. Teachers from each grade were conducting sessions on different aspects of balanced literacy. I had been asked to share some online literacy activities that parents could access at home. After a little thought, I decided to take the opportunity to do a little educating about the changing definition of literacy. I went back and revisited David Warlick’s awesome Redefining Literacy presentation and also read “The New Literacies” from District Administration. I also found some great TeacherTube videos on Internet safety from Mike King. Ultimately I ended up doing a brief overview of digital literacy, cyber safety, the value of blogging and social bookmarking. We had a small parent turnout, but my sessions went well…20 minutes of exposure to digital literacy and 20 minutes to explore the literacy games bookmarked on our school Diigo page. Very basic stuff, but I think it was just what my audience needed.

In the midst of my personal PD in preparing for Literacy Night, I came across a really cool global writing project. I first heard it mentioned on twitter!

Curriculum Connections:
Literacy: 1001 Tales is a global writing project. Students work online together to tell stories, edit, and improve their writing skills. I would love to get a class involved with this!

I am fortunate to work in a district that embraces technology. Several years ago we passed an additional penny sales tax to fund a laptop, projector, and SMART Board for every classroom. My school is at the end of the roll-out plan, but it’s finally our turn. My teachers now have their laptops and projectors. Their SMART Boards arrived before Christmas, but they’re still in boxes locked in a storage room. I CAN’T STAND THIS! The company doing the mounting of projectors is way behind schedule, but those boards need to be in classrooms where teachers can use them now.
It’s time to get creative, so I’m borrowing SMART Board stands from a TIS friend at another school who already got his boards mounted. I got 4 set up on Wednesday, and those teachers acted like I had just given them a million dollars! I plan to get 5 more set up on Monday. My teachers are hungry to use their technology tools!

I posted a 2 minute video on TeacherTube to give students some reminders about taking care of the SMART boards in their classrooms.

Download Video: Posted by ffoxworth at TeacherTube.com.

My school is in the midst of a blogging revolution!  It all began with one 5th grade teacher who was willing to try something new, (thanks, Emily!) and now it’s the latest craze.  The students in all six 5th grade classes, four 4th grade classes, and even one 3rd grade class have their own blogs.  That’s over 220 blogs in our school!  The goal is to blog at least once a week.  The students love it because it’s fun.  They stop me in the hall in the mornings to ask if today is their day to blog.  Teachers love it because it motivates their students to write, it ties directly into their curriculum, it builds literacy, it improves technology skills, and it provides a great way for students to reflect and share what they’ve learned.

I’ve put together a wiki with some good blogging resources that I hope will be useful.

Curriculum Connection:

All subject areas: Digital books are a great way to express learning.  I have used PhotoStory 3 to do make digital books in the past, but I discovered a really awesome digital class book created by some 5th grade students in Georgia with KeeBoo software.  Check this out: Our ABC Book on Blogging .

What a week! Have you ever worked on a project where turn after turn you encountered a roadblock? That is exactly what happened to me this week. I have a 4th grade teacher who is working on National Board Certification. She asked me to videotape a small group discussion lesson for her. As I have previously mentioned, I don’t have a digital video camera. When I inquired about using the school news team’s camera that had been recently dropped and broken, I was assured that it would work sufficiently for the task. I went and video-taped a superb lesson, but when I tried to capture the video to my computer, the screen showed up with 1/3 of the area blue, and there was a file error message. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper!

I shared my troubles with my principal, who authorized me to purchase a new camera. I was encouraged to buy one with built-in hard drive memory. Okay, I admit, there are lots of things I just don’t know a lot about. Turns out that HD cameras have their own file type that isn’t compatible with Movie Maker. (Now you tell me!) Also, the cameras in my price range don’t have an external mike jack. I bought what I thought was a decent camera for the money, and taped this teacher again. Great video…terrible audio quality.

Being the perfectionist that I am, I was fairly peeved by this point! I called my former partner, Ron, from the Global Horizons class to borrow the old Sony camera(which I knew had an external mike), and I scheduled a time for a 3rd videotape session.  FINALLY I was able to get a video with quality audio, and the lesson was superb! My next challenge is to learn how to effectively use my new hard drive video camera.  I’m going to need a DVD burner next!

Curriculum Connections:

Literacy: One of my 5th grade teachers found this great lesson on learning to write details in descriptive writing: Looking for Details? It’s a fabulous lesson for teaching sensory imagery.  Her students posted their writing on their blogs.  Check out this great student work sample: A Snowy Day.