Bubbl.us-Organize & Diagram Tool

Cool new tool-try Bubbl.us.  Story writing, graphic organizing, anything with order and diagramming would be perfect application for this site.  It's easier than inspiration or similar software in my opinion.  Here's my quick creation.

Kids are Blogging!

OK, I've been a bit behind on blogging.  Not that I don't always have excuses, but this time my biggest excuse is legit- my students are now blogging so I am keeping up with them, or trying to anyways. We have a class blog on kidblog.org.  It's completely private (only students and teacher can see blog) and you can control what to allow to post.  Right now I let students post blogs and I look them over later (despite me wanting to correct spelling and grammar every line::cringe)  I do approve comments. 

The Lowdown:
We started the first week of school. Before open house, I go over blogging rules and expectations, privacy issues about posting anything like  pics, last names, town info,  football teams, etc. with the kids.  At open house, I ask the parents to review the rules and return a signed slip. I have it as part of my classroom job rotation to keep posting current.  One reading blogger, math blogger, and other things blogger that will write about what they're learning about in that subject, or what they really liked this week, etc.  Then after a few weeks,  the whole class went to the computer lab to post a blog  on one of their writing journal entries.  The kids who HATE writing, LOVE posting their writing and thoughts.  Set-up is super easy and you can choose their display names and passwords. 
 I even have a super blogger who has posted a comment to anyone's and everyone's comment from our class.  I think she eats, sleeps, and breathes blogging. Entertains the inner tech geek in me.

Did I mention I love KIDBLOG.org?

New School Year, New Objectives

The current trend is teaching to the new core standards as well as creating differentiated lessons.  These standards will force us and our students to learn the essentials, not memorize useless facts.  Research projects will take center stage. Real world applications will mean problem solving and critical thinking skills needed for the job market, while also utilizing technology.

I can't wait to start this year with my Technology Theme.  My TECHSTERS will be utilizing Blogging and many computer based activities for language arts, science, and social studies.  Reading and Math will be pushed beyond the intro movie or background knowledge builder to apply all their learning into a tech created project that showcases their learning.  Flashdrives will be a welcomed school supply this year for saving and finishing homework started in school, and finalizing at home.  The goal will be like a kids teaching kids creation for future classes. 

Can all kids handle it?  Sure; they are all at their own levels of learning, even when using technology.  Some are using it constantly when they come home from school, going online, gaming, emailing, etc.  Some have not been exposed to technology or are not allowed to access it. Let's find a happy medium and use it regularly as a tool in the classroom.  The kids that want to take it to the next level will add and explore the extra features of the technological tool, while the kids that are new to it, will still have created a sound project.  All levels of learners will be proud of their new accomplishments.

Hollywood Classroom Theme Ideas & Decor

Here is a tour of the classroom from 2009-2011 with the Hollywood Theme.

• VIP Entrance from 2009

• BackStage Pass Entrance from 2010

• Star Bios for Open House

• Red Carpet Behavior- Students had to move down to Take 1,2, or 3 or up to Emmy, Golden Globe or Oscar status. 

• Oscar status has an Oscar statuette on their desk for a day!

• Show TimeSchedule- Student's would pick this for their weekly job, hang up elapsed time cards, then write the subject.

• Casting Call-Job Chart

• Close-Up of  Job Chart
  

Display projects & activities throughout the year, like paparazzi

• Bravo Wall- Diaplay A+ work

• Reading Center & Guided Reading Wall

RSA 5- We're not in Kansas anymore- we're behind them.

Online Source: http://www.techlearning.com/article/7396

Our readings this week focus on quality professional development plans for educators and how teachers should be teaching and learning with technology.  Teachers need support and collaboration with teachers to best adapt, use, and implement into their curriculum.  If teachers aren’t directly involved in the subject area or outcome, the professional development offered won’t be worth much to them.   Quality professional development plans (PDPs) should include focusing on content knowledge, integrating the school’s current goals, and collaborating measures amongst staff.  (AERA, 2005) The collaboration is one that many teachers are not welcoming.  Can you believe teachers, have to learn how to work together to create meaningful lessons?  It follows the age old saying of “two heads are better than one”.   Even President Obama’s proposals call for “collaborative professional development” (Islas, M.R. 2010, p. 14). Since we teach our students to be collaborative, we should welcome the same when we are learning to teach best practices.

The article I am sharing showcases a district in Kansas who did exactly that.  They collaborated by sharing, pooling together, and housing all of their resources so all can access them.  How did they accomplish this?  TECHNOLOGY, of course!  The shared a network space to post files and resources, which was useful when grade level shifts to new buildings.  These teachers also had staff development workshops they called “staff academies”  with consultants who took current lessons and modeled how to adapt them with technology in mind.  Now, the teachers can find, share, or create resources to go along with skills they were already teaching.  (Goodvin S. & Kern, J. 2007)

Overall, the benefits of using technology behoove both teacher and student, since student achievement will improve.  Teachers need professional development opportunities in order for tech to have a chance to change in the classroom.  Plopping a new gizmo in the room is not enough, even for the tech savvy.  Instead, give us workshops and time to explore how to use the gizmo and be more comfortable with it; It will be more beneficial to not only the teachers, but also the real benefactors being the students.  Professional development is the only way.        

References

American Educational Research Association (AERA). (2005). Teaching teachers: Professional development to improve student achievement. Research Points Essential Information for Education Policy, 3(1), 1-4. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED491587.pdf

Goodvin, S., & Kern, J. (June 2007).  Teachers leaning on teachers.  Educators’ Ezine.  Retreived from http://www.techlearning.com/article/7396

Islas, M. R. (December, 2010). The federal policy landscape: A look at how legislation affects professional development. JSD. 31(6), 11-14. Retrieved from http://www.learningforward.org/news/getDocument.cfm?articleID=2166

RSA #4 Online Learning VS. Hybrid Learning Vs. Traditional Classroom

Online Source: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3890/is_201010/ai_n56442679/

With online learning gaining popularity, over traditional learning taking place in the classroom, which method of instruction is truly better? According to our reading this week, online learning is successful because of the person who facilitates the learning.  This person could have a background in technology and teaching.  Maybe there are two facilitators, one tech expert and one expert teacher, who work in tandem to create a successful online course.  In either case, the instructor(s) of online learning communities are flexible and “maintain an attitude of being in the together [with] a willingness to adapt and adjust.” (Palloff & Pratt, 2007, pg. 124.)  Teachers of today, also have to be flexible in the classrooms with various learning styles.  The text also uses findings from Rovai’s and Jordan’s (2004) research to say, students perform better with online communities that meet face to face, because of “reduced sense of isolation” and [appealing]to more dependent learners who rely on direct instructor contact to support their learning process.”  (as cited in Palloff & Pratt, 2007, p. 125)  This study focused on the graduate level learners, and did not compare to younger elementary learners. 

After reading the survey results, online learning is duplicating at a fast rate.  Research states that “about 25% of K-12 schools offer some form of e-learning to virtual school instruction” and that using online learning will help attract math, science, and foreign language teachers to both rural and urban school districts (Picciano & Seaman, 2007, p.17).  The main focus is on blended or hybrid instruction which by definition means “30 to 79% of the content delivered online and blends online and face-to-face delivery. Substantial proportion of the content is delivered online, sometimes uses online discussions, typically has few face-to-face meetings" (Picciano & Seaman, 2007, from chart in Appendix).  This blended delivery supports social development vital to a younger child’s learning and other participants who thrive with human interaction through face to face meetings.  Additionally, blended online learning sways those against the quality of online learning, those who argue student readiness, and for those who need to ease into it for professional development.   

McGown states advantages and disadvantages to hybrid learning in the online article.  Among the many advantages is online collaboration, use of web 2.0 tools, and that the learner is “self-motivated” and “disciplined” (2010 p.2).  The biggest disadvantage mentioned is course management.  Setting up an online community is the biggest challenge for both facilitator and students.  The same can be said for class management in a traditional classroom, which is best learned from experience. 

The Champion: Hybrid Learning
All three readings PRO-HYBRID, which means research not only supports online learning, but truly feels the hybrid model provides the best of both worlds: a traditional classroom meets the online classroom.  Perhaps, educators need to tap into this education model for K-12 for hybrid education. 

References

Palloff R. & Pratt, K. (2007). Building Online Learning Communities: Effective Strategies for the Virtual

Classroom, (2nd ed.). San Franciso: Jossey-Bass.

McCown, L. (2010) Blended Courses: The Best of Online and Traditional Formats,  Clinical Laboratory

Science, [Retrieved from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3890/is_201010/ai_n56442679/?tag=content;col1]

 Picciano, A and Seaman PhD., J (2007) K–12 ONLINE LEARNING: A SURVEY OF U.S.SCHOOL DISTRICT

ADMINISTRATORS Sloan Consortium. USA:Sloan-C.  [http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/survey/pdf/K-12_Online_Learning.pdf]

Rovai, A.P. and Jordan, H. “Blended Learning and a Sense of Community: A Comparative Analysis with

Traditional and Fully Online Graduate Courses, The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 5(2), 2004. [http://www.irrodl.org]

Survey for building social presence-Take It!

Social presence allows others to share socially and emotionally in an online environment.  Online tools like facebook, twitter, and blogging offer a means to maintain that social presence.  People need to update their status update in order to feel they are special.  Using online resources, one can share their successes or moodiness by a quick tweet or new profile picture.   Overall, the common thread to having a successful social presence is to communicate.  Online technology presents a different mode to get the same information across in a faster and equally effective rate.

In order for social presence to work for an online classroom,  the teacher needs to create that human interaction through technology.  One way to create social presence is by an “introduction/ getting to know you” activity.    Each teacher could take the online favorites survey.  Each has to copy or link their favorite and comment on similarities to each other.

Here’s a SAMPLE:

Answer this survey using pictures or links to pictures. Copy and paste this in your reply, then add the answers.
1. Favorite science course (life, physics, earth, chemistry, space, etc.)

2. What’s your favorite scent?

3. Describe a delicious meal?

4. Where is your dream vacation?

5. Put something random- anything else we should know about you?

You learn a lot about each other, maybe more than you would have learned in the teacher’s lounge.  You can use that to build future colleague relationships, learn each other’s strengths, and divvy up responsibility using your choice online tool (email, skype, blackboard, google docs, etc.), for collaboration.

Here's my answers to the survey:

1. Favorite science area (life, physics, earth, chemistry, space, etc.)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmHxYE_vDBs2. What’s your favorite scent?
http://www.ilovegain.com/home.do

3. Describe a delicious meal?
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/robin-miller/turkey-shepherds-pie-with-leftover-mashed-potatoes-recipe/index.html

4. Where is your dream vacation?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIgjnmDmTBA&feature=related

5. Put something random- anything else we should know about you?
http://weddings.theknot.com/pwp/pwp2/view/MemberPage.aspx?coupleid=7828109532620132&pid=10183670

RSA 3:Recontexualizing Community: Social Presence Online

Online Source: Social Presence: The Secret Behind Online Collaboration  By Mary Beth Lakin

http://www.acenet.edu/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=11811

Our reading this week, brings up many negatives of having such a large variety of online communities.  People are less likely to develop that human thread that connects us to having relationships with other people.  Online communities need to establish social presence and a feeling of belonging.  In addition, younger people who are born with handheld technologies available are becoming overwhelmed with the constant updating of their lives.  When academic opportunities for online communities mesh  “too much sharing of personal information online on a daily basis is becoming exhausting [to young people]” (as cited in Palloff p. 35).  Overall, social presence has to be introduced and maintained if it is to overcome these obstacles. 

As for the American Council for Education(ACE) article, they believe the key to the best online learning is the human interaction that’s associated with it. Here they examine how both a global telecommunications company and a military school create a sense of community through virtual means. Emails and conference calls are the normal collaborative tools for the company.  The school uses a virtual homeroom to view online photos of classmates, before they meet face to face for two sessions out of their 40 week program. Both examples are building a community with technological communication that otherwies take place face to face.. 

Both sources respond to social presence in community.  The reading critiques the undesirable aspects of virtual learning. Some may prefer knowing the drawbacks upfront, then they know what they are getting into.    The ACE article is more positive about using collaborative communities and the good it is doing for our global community.  As my blog title hints, community is beyond the four walled classroom.  Community is beyond our neighborhoods of driveways, sidewalks, and mailboxes.  Communities and neighborhoods are now both virtual and actual, both global and local (Palloff, 35). Finding unlimited communities in these networks, can be very good for business and education.  Is a bigger community a bad thing? We have a variety of resources, some valid and most garbage.   Even companies like BING are saying our community is too vast with their “What has Search Overload done to us?” motto.  Do you think search overload has broadened our communities too wide for our own good? Explain.


References:

Palloff, Rena M. and Pratt, Keith. (2007). Building online learning communities: Effective strategies for  the virtual classroom (pp. 3-65). San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Lakin, M.B.  (2011).Social Presence:The Secret Behind Online Collaboration. American Council on Education,  Retrieved fromhttp://www.acenet.edu/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=11811

  

RSA 2- Using PLCs for RtI

While learning more about professional learning communities and a successful model for PLCs, I began researching how Response to Intervention (RtI) planning is best promoted using a professional learning community model.  When used together, it’s a natural process.  Not only is this better for teachers, but it gives maximum results to our students.   Students’ data is reviewed and best practices for interventions are collaborated upon with staff in an organized and effective structure, not as two separate meetings.  However, one meeting per year is not going to accomplish this.  This process is ongoing and tweaked for each student’s need throughout the school year. These communities differ as the workload differs. “The work of professional learning communities is as varied as its membership”(Martin-Kniep 77).  In my school, we have success with two layers of meetings.  One within our smaller team, and one that meets at a building level with our grade level representative, the interventionists and administration team.       

Mattos and Buffum, authors of the Pyramid Response to Intervention, are interviewed about how PLCs should be used in conjunction with intervention problem solving.  One concern Mattos states is how he fears schools will toss out their working PLCs and switch their attention to RtI problem solving models.  They don’t have to since they should “be embraced and validated with what you’re already doing.” It’s a perfect melding” and “the book would be a way to show people it’s the same work, not two different things.” Mattos states.

In addition a key focus is on the response piece. Buffum asks  “When kids aren’t learning, how do we respond?”  In our school, teachers use interventions for kid’s needs and provide data from those interventions. He agrees “We use that data to make decisions to help [kids] learn.  We don’t give up on kids.” The work we do to help kids succeed is what good teachers have done in the past and are doing presently.  The only difference is schools have to prove it and collaborate to achieve it.

Here is a helpful list of alignment questions to help organize and rate your needs for your professional learning community. (Martin-Kniep 83) Respond to 1 or all and comment.

Alignment of Organizational Work and Needs

1.       What do you we want our organization to be like or have achieved ten years from now? Five years from now?

2.       What is my place in this system, and how do I related to and function with others in and outside of this organization?

3.       How does my perspective and that of others influence how I view and what I can do in this organization?

4.       What are my organizational qualities, needs, and problems?

5.       How can I best influence and support my organization?

References

Martin-Kniep, G. (2008). Communities that learn, lead, and last: Building and sustaining educational expertise (pp. 77-109). San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Solution Tree (2008, October 8) Solution Tree: Interview With Mike Mattos and Austin Buffum [video] You Tube. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2clk3JT1Cg

RSA #1 Professional Learning Communities: What Are They And Why Are They Important?: Introduction

Online Source: Professional Learning Communities: What Are They and Why Are They Important?

Professional Learning Communities  (PLCs) are evolving to enhance collaboration and problem solving within schools.    Martin-Kniep creates a breakdown of each person's role in the learning community as "participants".  These participants are one of five roles: learner, reflective practitioner, researcher, designer-author, and presenter-facilitator that encompass all staff titles and community members.  Isn’t a quality teacher, already a combination of these 5 roles?  Now schools have to prove that they have these quality teachers or interventions in place for the best results and practices.  A student’s learning is not resting on one person’s shoulder; it’s resting on the whole school districts. School district’s need a plan to follow and by creating professional learning communities the school, staff, and students will all benefit. 

Author Shirley M. Hold’s  research about PLCs was found through The Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL).  Her stance, still  the ideal over 10 years later, argues the need to change to current teaching practices.  In her research, direct teaching in isolation of subjects is not the best way for students to learn.  They compared teachers around the globe and found in the countries where “teachers teach fewer classes and use a greater portion of their time to plan, confer with colleagues, work with students individually, visit other classrooms, and engage in other professional development activities” the students’ outcomes increased ( Hord 1997),.   These communities have to evolve over time as society and educational practices change. We have started to progress with learning based centers K-8, and collaboration among staff during weekly and monthly meetings and institutes.  To further evolve, why not create professional learning communities using technology?  Instead of a typical meeting in a principal’s office, lounge, or classroom, PLC’s can use online technologies to share and collaborate ideas even when teachers don’t have common plan time. 

Besides both being a great resource for facilitating and creating a lasting Professional Learning Community, they have different focuses in mind.  One of the main differences is that assessment and feedback are given greater depth in Martin-Kniep.  Constructive criticism is an important factor for creating a PLC that works.  SEDLs focus is on structure and teaching practices should evolve with the learning community.  If the professional learning community uses feedback to develop their best practices, it would be a perfect, all encompassing, PLC. 

References

Hord,  Shirley M. (1997) Professional Learning Communities: What Are They and Why Are They Important?: Issues About Change, Volume 6, Number 1 Retrieved from: http://www.sedl.org/pubs/catalog/items/cha35.html

Martin-Kniep, Giselle O. (2008). Communities that learn, lead, and last. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, Inc

The Southwest Educational Developmental Laboratory (2011) SEDL:Advancing Research Improving Education;  Retrieved from: http://www.sedl.org/