Week One 555

This week's investigation of online portfolios as well as mission and vision statements helped to remind me why I love teaching. At this time of year when life seems to grow a bit more hectic and the children in the classroom grow distracted by snow and approaching holidays, it was refreshing to review what drew me to the classroom as well as what keeps me there.

Searching for quality examples of online portfolios representative of my professional interests was like finding a needle in a haystack. Nonetheless, I was please with my results and the clarity the investigation provided me as far as what I want my portfolio to NOT look like. I found more non-examples than examples. One of my group members shared this link to scaffolding for an ePortfolio based on NETS. At this point, I think I am going to build my portfolio around the Wisconsin Educator Standards. My mind is in high speed, already contemplating what pieces of evidence I have to support the standards, what lessons I can tweak, what I need to dig up, etc.

The investigation of mission and vision statements was enlightening. I was inspired by the vision statement found here. I ran across oodles of sites like this that offer examples and tips as to how to construct mission and vision statements. I wonder how many places of business, including schools, follow their vision and mission statements...whether they're ever discussed or addressed...Or are they just writing on the wall? Tackling the fluency and word choice in both my personal statements while balancing clearly communicating my intentions and not sounding cheesy is more challenging then I thought it would be. I'm anxious to get feedback from classmates next week!

(Sigh...)Final Post for 550

I'm actually going to miss this course! The class was engaging, organized and applicable to my teaching life. The instructors were models of terrific facilitators.

My students are gaining 21st century skills by working collaboratively and exploring technology which has them problem-solving, communicating, and developing a sense of personal responsibility and time management. In my literature classes, students are using technology (VoiceThread, Glogster EDU, MovieMaker, Dvolver, etc.) to create booktalks. Students work collaboratively in Google docs and Google presentations. All of these tools force students to problem solve as they explore ways tech tools can meet their needs and develop a product.

I understand the Virtual Schools Legislation in Wisconsin and am concerned that people who develop the legislation don't fully comprehend what occurs in our Wisconsin schools and how teaching "works." Those creating the legislation are not in the "trenches." I'm concerned they truly don't understand technology and online education. I'm also concerned that only those involved with technology are aware of and/or concerned about virtual schools. I also find it scary that the cap on the number of students allowed to enroll in online charter schools is less than one percent of Wisconsin's students; ,students are placed on a waiting list each year! Why should there be a barrier to allowing children access to a way of learning that may keep them in our school systems all the way through graduation!? I ran across the Wisconsin Coalition of Virtual School Families website and was intrigued...some great information and articles!

My district involvement in online learning involves NOTHING. I have HUGE concerns but am going to choose to keep them under wraps as, after all, my blog is on the web!

During this module, I was excited to be responsible for an asynchronous discussion. I looked forward to reading classmates' replies and what new resources they'd share. It was exciting to see people respond directly to something I had placed in our LMS.

550 Week 5

This week was challenging...time-wise and brain-wise! As I worked to finalize the lesson I'll be teaching on Monday during class, I also attempted to be a contributory team member to our group presentation and finish up the individual week's work.

My experiences with online communities has been positive for the most part. I've been extremely lucky to travel through the world of online learning with a motivated, hard-working, high-achieving cohort with the shared objective to finish (and survive?) this program. As the "community" for all my classes has stayed constant for the most part, I've grown to know what to expect from classmates in terms of support, feedback, etc. The asynchronous portion of our learning community has at times been the most educational as it's an opportunity for me to peruse other classmate's thoughts and contributions at my own pace and peruse more in-depth the topics of personal interest. The constant provided by the cohort has helped me to grow comfortable and confident. Once I leave the online community I'm comfortable with--the one provided by this cohort, I'm sure my experience base will broaden, my investment will change, and I will learn differently.

Twitter is another online community I'm a part of but not invested as readily as there's no extrinsic motivation to keep up-to-date on my Tweets--reading or creating...The same with Facebook...I hope once I complete this program and feel like I can breathe again...I'm able to invest myself in some online communities that not only strengthen me as a teacher, mother, and person in general.

I believe the greatest benefit of collaborative groups is the ability to share and combine experiences, education, and know-how peer-to-peer. This sharing is where I truly believe the greatest learning takes place whether it be in a cohort collaborative group or in my classroom of 7th graders.

I believe the greatest challenge of collaborative groups, relevant to our cohort experiences, is being able to carve group time that fits all of our schedules. Knowing others are dependent upon you regardless of the hectic nature of the week, especially a holiday week, creates added pressure and challenge to effective collaboration.

My thoughts regarding the social development and socialization issues have been broadened. I was extremely narrow-minded and almost prejudice in a sense when it came to socialization and online learning. I incorrectly believed that the socialization skills of online students were/are far below that of students who learn in a traditional classroom. I was so WRONG! The video helped give me a clear and convincing picture of how a middle school student's socialization is affected and shaped by online learning.

550 Week 4

This week reminded me how my students feel when they complain about being overwhelmed with the amount of work they're responsible for in an evening's time or a week's time. I don't often assign homework in the classes I teach but will continue to work diligently to make my assessments authentic to insure my focus is on the STUDENTS. It's good to empathize with our students!! In reflecting on my teaching experiences to date, I would say that the proportion of teacher centered versus student centered lessons has been too much teacher-centered the past year or so (as this program sucks the living marrow from my bones). I strive to create student-centered lessons that allow for real-life, performance tasks and opportunities for students to construct and apply based upon what we've learned. Some of my frustration the past year-and-a-half has resulted from our school's movement toward semester tests. At times, I get hung up on covering content to reach the mid-year and end-year milestones so that students are prepared to fill in bubbles to show their mastery...Ughhgh! This weeks work was a fabulous exercise in refocusing what I should be doing in the classroom.

I was able to identify more than one authentic assessment to measure mastery of a single concept lesson when I guide students through our poetry unit in spring. Anchor activities keep students independently and collaboratively engaged while offering opportunities to apply their knowledge in a variety of ways as they perform tasks. If only all my teaching was so engaging! In due time...baby steps...

The rubric I created for my lesson clearly defined expectations and scoring for my Differentiated Mode Investigation lesson so that my students could reference the rubric as a place to find straightforward expectations as well as easy to understand information. Looking at the rubric, students can see how they will demonstrate their skills learned in the lesson. Prior to working much beyond my thoughts for the switch from a teacher-centered to a student-centered lesson, I sketched out the rubric. Knowing what was being assessed helped clarify the direction of my lesson.

While working on this module I had success while doing something new involving changing a teacher-centered lesson to a student-centered lesson while focusing on authentic assessment as well as ways to differentiate. I encountered some difficulties in the process, but the end product is something I'm proud of.

550 Week 3

Wow! This week has sent my wheels a spinnin' as I attempted to plan my first asynchronous and synchronous discussion. As I have never taught an online class or course, I think planning would truly be the greatest hurdle to overcome. Just as I struggled with planning for classroom lessons in my early years of teaching, I found myself going over and over and over (you get the idea) the synchronous portion of our assignment. Do I have enough for 15 minutes? To much for the time frame? Will my classmates participate? Will I stutter and stumble? Is my lesson idea ridiculous? Is there any sort of engagement for my classmates whom I'm facilitating? I am working on making a list of ideas that fit with my prompts for the lesson as well as a list of questions I can ask my classmates to help encourage critical thinking and/or participation if necessary. I hope that being prepared helps to alleviate my nerves as well as assists with the fluency of my lesson. Some things that I feel are really important to consider about synchronous and asynchronous facilitation as I prepare to facilitate my threaded and web conference discussions are what questions I can ask to jump-start thinking, what I can use as an anticipatory set to begin the lesson, and ways to allow my classmates to interact during lesson with each other and the whiteboard.

I chose my discussion topic--Skills and Strategies Online Facilitators Should Possess in Order to Meet the Needs of Students and Parents--in order to satisfy my own curiosities about online teaching. I'm quite confident in my abilities as a classroom teacher and am interested how much of what make and effective classroom teacher crosses into the land of online facilitation. Additionally, upon uncovering what skills and strategies are necessary as an online facilitator, I'm hoping to re-energize my classroom teaching practices as well as be better prepared to teach online should the opportunity ever present itself.

Developing the rubrics for the asynchronous and synchronous portions of my lesson were probably the easiest for me as I have a lot of experience building rubrics and feel pretty confident in my ability to do so. As I developed the rubric for the asynchronous portion of my lesson, I included a conventions and fluency value. As an English teacher, I couldn't let it go... As a result of making that choice, I weighted the contributions column double that of the conventions/fluency column. The synchronous rubric was more difficult to construct than the asynchronous. It seems strange that that was the case, but how do you determine criteria that's general enough to cover the specifics of participation? The big question I kept in mind the entire time was "What objectives am I assessing?"

Fictitious Course Ideas and Initial Contact (Week 2)

I created a fictitious online Advanced Literature course--wish it were real! Two synchronous tools that would support learning in this course would be Elluminate and Skype. Both would allow one-on-one as well as group interaction. This course would rely heavily upon interacting in regard to the books we're reading, and both these tools would allow us to share our ideas. Two asynchronous tools that would support learning in this course would be a class wiki as well as e-mail. The wiki would allow the course syllabus, class expectations, etc. to exist in one spot along with our student work which will help foster informal conversations, interaction and participation through threads and discussions. The second tool would be e-mail as this would be vital to communication with students and/or their parents.

In my vision of the Advanced Lit. course, I'd plan the following activities.

1. Small group book discussions which could take place in TokBox.
2. Independent and/or group work with identifying skills and/or strategies covered in class which would be completed and then posted in the appropriate folder of our class wiki. For example, if we discussed the idea of authors creating a Utopian society, students would identify proof of this in the book they're reading.
3. Upon entering the Elluminate room, I would have an activity on the whiteboard for students to complete. The activity might be to post an image that most clearly represents their reading for the week, an example of our last mini lesson from their current reading, or a list of overarching (fact) statements for students to peruse and then comment on in the chat area.
4. Upon completion of the books, students will create a digital book talk of one. Students could us GlogsterEDU, Animoto (Education edition), or VoiceThread. (I would supply each of my students with a GlogsterEDU and Animoto account.)

I was pretty pleased with the first draft of my initial contact. After some helpful suggestions from classmates, I was even more pleased with it. I think I conveyed my enthusiasm as well as being warm and inviting. Inviting parents to contact me helps communicate my interest in involving family in education. I think it would have been easier to create if I had an actual course outline, objectives, etc. rather than simply a vision of a course. I think I would add more color and possibly a few images to an initial contact in the future.

Additionally, my initial contact was pretty clear and concise. I made it clearer by adding the due date for all Pre-Class Expectations right in the sub-heading line. In order for the initial contact to be clear and concise, I think the instructor needs to include sub-headings to promote clearer comprehension of the communication and make it user-friendly. I also think color can aid in clarity as can screen shots of directions, if applicable.

550 Week One

I can relate the examples of online learning to my own experience in the following way. . .

The examples of online learning that most engaged me were the ones that allowed me to interact with the screen rather than just read and answer questions, so to speak. The Ancient Arcade's drag and drop interaction allowed me to make mistakes without penalty or feeling "stupid." The "Get a Hint" feature was appreciated, as I could help myself. The interactiveness of this particular activity drove me to succeed and kept me clicking. The Lord of the Flies activity's interactiveness engaged me. One activity kept me guessing as I tried to match quotes and key objects to four characters as they sat around a fire. Each activity stems from an island map that leads you from activity to activity; you must fully complete each activity in order to move to a new "x" (new activity) on the map. These types of online learning experiences are the ones I do best with as they bring out my competitive side and call to my need cross the finish line (complete the exercise).

These are some problems I had navigating the course management system and utilizing the discussion boards, can you help me with . . .

I haven't encountered any problems with navigating the course management system. The only thing that concerns me is once I've submitted my work to the Assignments and Assessments Submission folders, I can't double-check that I've done so. (Or can I?)

I can imagine using Elluminate Live! for a web conference in order to . . .

Elluminate Live! would be a terrific place to meet with a student who's been absent for an extended amount of time due to illness or a student who is learning from home as a result of a surgery or something similar.

I tried something new while working on this module and it made me think that . . .

Attempting to moderate a web conference in Elluminate last Monday evening made me realize that I need to PRACTICE! I've been on the learner side of Elluminate for months but never on the moderator side. I was overwhelmed in the few minutes we had in our groups and know I need to spend more time there exploring.

540 Last Post

Wowser, this course put my brain in overload! I think at moments steam probably escaped from my ears as my brain worked harder than it has in a while. I'm pleased to have gained some knowledge regarding data sets and how to turn data into graphs and tables.

Our final assignment--looking at sites that support datasets as well as locating a couple of datasets on my own--was interesting. The amount of information available on the web is staggering. I haven't pinpointed a set of data to use in my classroom or how I'd use the information from this class with my students. I hope if an opportunity presents itself during our research unit, I will be able to challenge some of my students to compile and represent data to support their research. I think this may be a good way to challenge some of my high-achieving students.

Week 5: Are you Trendy?

This week, we investigated Google Trends in our groups. It's an interesting tool but I am bothered by the statement I found in the About pages of Trends which said: "hope you find the service interesting and entertaining." It's unreal how many people and companies use Trends to make their company profitable. Although, if you're interested in using Trends for this to try to corner the market on a particular product, for instance, you have to have time to follow the trends and analyze the data. You have to monitor the graphs and watch for peaks and valleys, etc. Bloggers can use Trends to identify key terms they should use to draw attention to their blogs. Although Google seems to be a household name, web searchers using Yahoo or Bing and news stories from these search engines are not accounted for in Trends. YouTube hosts more than 500 videos for "Google Trends" ranging from how to use Trends as a research tool to making a Hollywood blockbuster to boosting income. Using Google Trends to Make a Hollywood Blockbuster by Ashley Ringrose, Ep7 provides a unique look at Google Trends. (Beware of language and content!!)

Week Four

This week's assignments revolved around the investigation of Hitwise and Bill Tancer. I groaned at first thinking, "Yuck! A company and a guy...how boring." I was wrong. Bill Tancer's Authors@Google video was surprisingly engaging. Tancer's an interesting speaker although peculiar in his fascination with data! His passion for what he does is enviable.

Hitwise amazed me! What the company offers to clients is surreal. It's products and services supply all the help a company could ever need to expand its business and become more profitable. I especially enjoyed perusing the Data Center where I could view current Internet statistics.

This week we also wrapped up our Survey assignment from Week 3. The survey process is interesting but not something I enjoy. The process has helped me feel more confident as I think about analyzing data gathered from our benchmark tests at school. This process has also reinforced to me the value of surveys in the classroom. I have yet to survey or poll my students electronically, but am hoping as I learn to use Clickers this year I will be charting and analyzing data to benefit the classroom. (I also like this article about Clickers.)

Week 3

This week our group worked collaboratively in TypeWith.Me to plan and create a survey. The tool worked beautifully for our purposes. We started by brainstorming ideas and then worked to clarify our purpose and the intent of our survey. I found the process challenging as I like to ask questions of interest to me! There's no room for that in surveying as all questions should have value to the purpose of the survey. We paid careful attention to our questions and whether they were relevant to our purpose as well as clearly worded and easily understood. This was a tedious task. We decided after some discussion and looking at Survey Monkey to use Zommerang. (A group member has an account.) Zoomerang allowed us to use the number of questions we needed and vary the type of questions and responses to match our needs as well as compile the data in a variety of charts and graphs. We pretested the survey and will meet soon to finalize it prior to asking others to participate.

I attempted to wade through Part 3 of the PowerPoints in order to complete the accompanying worksheet...I say ATTEMPTED. I might as well have been reading something written for a rocket scientist. I'm hoping in this week's class z-scores will be explained, and we'll have an opportunity to go through the worksheets from the previous week.

Week 2: Working with Data and Survey Tools

I think my title for this week's blog post would more appropriately be titled "Attempting to Work with Data..." I feel as thought I'm blindly leading myself through trying to upload data into a spreadsheet for analysis. The Descriptive Report Assignment has so frustrated me that I'm to the point of just ignoring that I have to do it...Shameful, I know.

I enjoyed wading through Wikipedia searching for a deeper understanding of statistics and such. The more I use Wikipedia, the more fond I grow of it as a tool to guide my learning and thinking. The background information I gained through that search was information I may have gained via textbook reading. But, searching the web provides higher engagement. Must be the clicking of keys and use of the mouse!

Capterra is a fascinating site! I have yet to encounter a need for survey software, etc., but if I am ever in a position that calls for such a need, I will return to Capterra. Looking at the great variety of Survey Software available for our Survey Tool Comparison assignment was interesting. I'm amazed at what's out there as well as the HUGE cost differences in survey tools. I wonder, on average, how much time, energy and footwork companies place into searching for the right tool(s) for their need(s)???

I feel as thought I'm going through the motions for class but not learning as much as I "should" be...I also feel too self-directed...maybe it's just me.

Off to crunch numbers!

Mean, Median, Mode, Standard Deviation, Skew...EEEEEEWWWW!

I have to say that I am quite frustrated with the classwork that involves viewing a few PowerPoints from which we're to complete worksheets. I'm hoping this feeling of trying to find a needle in a haystack disappears after Class Session 2.

Upon searching for how to determine SD (standard deviation), I ran across the Standard Deviation Calculator which helped immensely!! I'm aware I can use Excel to determine SD, but I don't have Excel on my computer. Wikipedia was hugely helpful in assisting with my understanding of skew but not in how to calculate it.

I am excited to see what this class will do for me in regard to analyzing test results. This year we're giving literature and English January and June Benchmark test...the force behind data-driven assessment. We've been directed to analyze the data but have not been given any assistance in regard to how to effectively and efficiently do this.

535 - Week 5

This week seemed like a blur as I tried to successfully wrap up our Twitter assignment, explore Web 2.0 applications we've not covered in class, create an Eyejot (which was actually quite easy), and finish my Google Sites webpage (not so easy).

I'm still tossing around my feelings about Twitter. I don't enjoy Tweeting but am growing to like the endless array of resources and ideas that arrive throughout the course of the day.

In my search for a Web 2.0 tool I'd actually put to use in the classroom, I was amazed at the free tools out there. I think I could devote a month to simply investigating all of them! I invesitgated Weblist the most in-depth and created my own which I've linked to my webpage. This tool will definitely come in handy personally as I try to keep track of suggested resources that colleagues send my way! Students will most assuredly find a use for this free tool as well! Twiducate also piqued my interest. As the school year sets itself in motion, this is something I may try! I've already set up a free account. My next step will be to enter my students. Blabberize is a fun tool I ran across that allows users to make their photos appear to talk! (You really need to check out the talking llama!) Another of interest was Dipity which allows users to create interactive timelines.

I'm excited to add the finishing touches to my webpage. Adding images and photos is not going well...but hopefully all will get ironed out as I think the webpage will prove to be a useful classroom tool!

535 Week 4

This week my wheels have really been turning in an attempt to churn an idea for a screencast or podcast! I spent some time surfing the web for ideas but wasn't impressed with what I found or didn't feel it was something I'd have my students do in the classroom. Some of the ideas I came up with I needed access to my files at school which I don't have from home. Finally the lightning bolt struck and I am in the process of finishing a screencast of how to use Novelist to create a reading list. Some of the ideas I have for using podcasting and/or screencasting in the classroom include: how to do an effective Internet search (screencast), how to apply before, during and after reading strategies (screencast), how to use classroom resources to aid in success in literature and/or English (screencast), podcast examples/models of various assignments such as our "Where I'm from" parallel structure poem, how to collaborate and share docs in Google docs (screencast), etc. The opportunities are endless. I'm excited to give this a try this school year. As I teach my classes two and three times per day, podcasting and screencasting will help alleviate my feeling of repeating myself (yes, I am!) and keeping consistent in how things are presented in all of my classes. Additionally, the other literature and English teachers and I could collaborate on these screencasts and podcasts and use them in all of our classrooms. There's some great potential here!
I've been working as diligently as possible to keep up with Tweeting and my RSS feeds. I'm good throughout the course of the week, but weekends tend to be difficult as I'm always on the go with my family. I'm still not sold on Twitter although I do love the information that gets shared with me! RSS feeds continue to excite me as I build a library of resources. Check out my Google Reader!
I started building my classroom webpage in Google Sites. I'm scared and excited at the same time. At this point, it looks like a webpage, but I have a lot of work to do in the next week as well as a lot of resources to share. I can definitely see the benefits of having a classroom webpage that keeps parents up-to-date on what we're working on, provides resources for further practice, offers book suggestions, etc. I'm struggling a bit with inserting images and a picture (uggh!) of me, so I hope to iron that out soon.

CEdO 535 Photos

Facilitating Collaboration - Week 3

Setting up a Google Reader account this week was simple and rewarding. I love that I have a place to go where I know what I view will be relevant, engaging, stimulating, and/or timely. It takes me minutes on daily basis to sift through my feeds for ideas that will benefit me professionally and personally. I'm excited to propose that I spend time with my feeds as my PPDP (personal professional development) hours this school year. As what I find relevant can be shared, I will be able to SHOW administration as well as colleagues what's out there that will benefit our classrooms and our schools. I've already this week created a list of ideas for the upcoming school year and tagged all items of interest in my Reader for easy location at a later date. I can't wait to play with Cloud Canvas and Answer Garden. Search Credible will excite students as much as it's excited me!!

Facilitating Collaboration - Week 2

This week's class was chock full of useful tools for the classroom! I'm growing warmer toward the idea of blogging with my students as my vision clears to what it can empower my students to do--collaborate, create, problem-solve, evaluate, etc.

Searching through wikis (blogs?) was and continues to be eye-opening; I am amazed at the number of interesting, educational blogs out there! Paging through the blogs has been motivational as well as rewarding as I find places I can visit with the click of a button to gain some very valuable knowledge from the "trenches." It's also exciting to ponder which colleagues I can share the blogs I located with!

I think the photo sharing sites will benefit me more personally than professionally. As of late I use Walgreens' on-line photo service as it's convenient. Prior to that I was a Snapfish addict...creating books on-line, sharing my albums with family, etc. I think I may start moving to Picasa as I'm consistently pleased with Google's tools. My daughter is addicted to Picnik (which I have not had a chance to toy with), and I must say that many of the photos she's edited there are pretty sweet! I take very few photos in the classroom so the sites we looked through this week will benefit me personally and I'm sure some way professionally, eventually!

And then there's Twitter. I truthfully don't think I'll ever warm to the idea of this. Tweeting is something I'm not interested in. It was fun to play with and scour through the ways to personalize and such, but my amusement quickly ran dry!

This class thus far has been one of my faves in the program! I'm looking forward to our remaining classes.

Facilitating Collaboration using Web Tools: Week One

I'm excited thus far about what I've learned about blogging. Truthfully, I've put off starting a blog for my classroom for the past couple of years simply because I didn't have the time to investigate the ins and outs of what's out there. Along comes this class...I feel much more confident in starting a classroom blog and blogging with my students. Reading Richardson's chapters on blogging were just the motivation and hand-holding I needed to get my butt in gear! Since the beginning of my teaching days, colleagues and I have often discussed the importance of students writing for an authentic audience. Enter blogging!!! Why have I been dragging my feet?!?

A couple of blogs I want to spend some extended time with are iLearn Technology, Free Technology for Teachers, and EduDemic. These three blogs totally distracted me as well as provided me some some terrific food for thought as well as a few ideas I can instantly use in the classroom in fall. I was so excited to find in Free Tech 4 Teachers the idea of creating video substitue plans! OMG, I can't believe that thought never crossed my mind!

This class has further extended my to check-out list after just the first session. I have a long list of blogs to view, a Bloglines account to set up, and further investigation into a free blog host to use in the classroom that fits what I'd use it for to complete.

Week 5 - Digital Storytelling

I am completely overwhelmed. The Pecha Kucha, which I thought would become easier to work with and more exciting, simply is not my thing. I've felt a lot of frustration throughout this program, but this particular assignment has tipped me over the edge.

The articles we read this week on what to look for when purchasing cameras, camcorders, etc. were a bit redundant in spots but interesting in their own rights. When we purchase a digital camcorder in the next few months, I can do so more confidently.

I enjoyed our group assignment to look at the Flip and the Nano. Hopefully I can obtain both these tools for my classroom next year. The Flip would be a huge benefit to my students. I'd love to have a Nano in my pocket daily to snap photos and video at a moments notice.

The rubric portion of this week's assignments was probably the easiest for me as I have a lot of experience with rubrics. It was good to feel confident with an assignment.

Digital Storytelling Week 4

"I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma." --Eartha Kitt

So, my blog this week is late, but better late than never I guess. Sometimes life gets in the way of learning...by providing a different kind of learning.

Today, at the Dane County Farmer's Market I noticed a woman taking pictures of various things around the square. I looked very closely to insure it wasn't a classmate; then chuckled wondering if she too was taking pictures for her posterous site!

Prezi seems user-friendly. I am extremely impressed with the vast information provided on the Prezi site regarding how to do everything in Prezi. The explanations are visual and written in such a manner that I wasn't left with a "huh" feeling at any point. I'd like to use Prezi next year as an introduction to a new unit in literature or book club books; there are some very positive classroom applications. Choosing photos to use for the Prezi for Monday is probably the most difficult task. My pictures don't seem to meet the requirements of how to take great pictures.

Pecha Kucha is frustrating. I'm not one for rules or boxes, so the 20/20 format aggravates me. I also feel like I'm forcing the end product, so I guess I'll just have to wait and see how the end product turns out. I do like the graphic organizer that we used to storyboard though.

The last chapters of PresentationZen were great! I especially enjoyed the outtakes at the end of this last video. I was thoroughly impressed with this text! The last chapter of DigiTales provided me with a lot to think about as well as a lot in regard to things I need to learn about including creating a voiceover and working with music and sound from the Internet.

Digital Storytelling Week 3

VoiceThread scared me at first but is truly exciting to work with. I cannot wait to use it in my classroom next year as it holds such great potential. I'd like to get my 7th grade, red house teammates (colleagues) on board to create a beginning of year presentation in VoiceThread to play at Open House (for the school year). Putting our four voices together to create an informational VoiceThread for parents and students would be very powerful.

The idea of creating an Animoto video to provide my students with an introduction to my classes and me (at year's beginning) is a great idea. I'm anxious to get my video "perfected." I also think Animoto videos hold great potential as background builders/anticipatory sets in the classroom. Equally exciting, I loved the Animoto videos that were created based upon "The Red Wheelbarrow." That particular activity would be very applicable in our poetry unit; I cannot wait to try it with my students!

I most like that what we're doing in class is forcing me to rethink and replan lessons for my classroom. VoiceThread, Animoto, the ideas from Digi Tales, and PresentationZen have reinforced the importance of providing images to support learning and present the BIG picture to students. The ease of VoiceThread and Animoto make the idea of making my lessons more visual un-scary!

Digital Storytelling Week 2

This week's class provided a lot to ponder and a laundry list of things I need to improve for my students, mainly presentations.

I am thoroughly enjoying Presentation Zen. This weeks reading assignment got my wheels turning by providing concrete ways to create and improve presentations. The six key principles will prove to be very useful, and I love the terminology in the book--like slideumentation and stickyness.

VoiceThread isn't as scary as I originally thought it would be. I am anxious to create my first VoiceThread and to share this tool with my students. I have a couple of colleagues excited about VoiceThread as well. This summer we hope to join our excitement via VoiceThread!

Looking at the standards for my subject areas (English and Literature) as well as technology, I was a bit disheartened by the gaps that are apparent in my students' technological education. While updating our curriculum there was no discussion as to adding technology standards to our curricular areas. I was surprised by that and continue to be surprised by some basic things that students aren't being taught. For the past two years, students have been given a technology survey at the beginning of the school year, and teachers have been surveyed as to what we cover technology-wise in our classrooms. What's done with this data? What a great question!

Okay, to the point. How can I use digital stories in what I teach? I feel strongly that digital stories, such as august, 1977, will spark student interest. We're also discussing the possibility of students creating their own digital stories in lieu of writing their memoirs. One portion of our memoir unit focuses on students writing "Where I'm From" poems which lays their "story" parallel to a parent's or grandparent's. How cool would it be to turn these poems into digital stories and allow the option of bringing the parent or grandparent into the story as well!?

Digital Storytelling: What do I Hope to Learn?

In one word: Oodles.

Digital storytelling has fascinated me for quite some time--since I was introduced to it at a conference a few years ago. Now that I have to immerse myself in this form of storytelling, I am genuinely excited.

I hope to find ways to integrate digital storytelling into my classroom. I have loads of ideas floating but need to ground them in something concrete. I hope to excite my students to the point they digitally storytell beyond the walls of the classroom. I hope to capture that level of excitement from this class and pass it on.

I hope to find free, simple resources to assist in my journey with integrating digital storytelling into our memoir unit next year. (Lo and behold an e-mail altering me to a free e-book entitled Tell a Story, Become a Lifelong Learner from Scholastic arrived in my mailbox today!) I hope to learn how to make do with one classroom computer and one video camera. I hope to uncover creative ideas for making digital storytelling a reality in the classroom.

I hope to learn how to move beyond my sarcastic, outgoing self to the "real" me who I usually keep hidden from students so as to model how to successfully digitally storytell.

My hopes for learning truly revolve around making digital storytelling a reality in my classroom next year.

After Monday's class I felt hopeful yet a bit nervous about moving forward with this class. Digital storytelling can obviously be very personal, which in truth, makes my skin crawl a bit. Both course texts are terrific thus far; I am excited to immediately connect with their applicability in the classroom.

Week 5 525

This week's strategies, identifying similarities and differences, homework and practice, and generating and testing hypotheses, hold great purpose in the classroom as students practice, review, and apply their learning.

When students identify similarities and differences, we are asking them to place their learning in a new structure that communicates their level of understanding; it requires them to actually USE their knowledge. Asking students to identify similarities and differences allows teachers to gauge students' level(s) of comprehension as students strive to make connections. Some of my favorite moments in the classroom stem from when a student makes a connection by identifying a similarity to prior knowledge, content, etc.! I quite frequently facilitate small and large groups discussions during which I ask students to create metaphors for our new learning. Asking students to identify similarities and differences in this fashion allows students to place learning in a context at their level that they can truly grasp and hold onto. Inspiration is a great tool for vocabulary word sort activities students complete in literature. It allows my students to create categories for the vocabulary and manipulate them in an engaging environment.

The purpose of asking students to complete homework and practice activities is to provide students opportunities to review and apply their learning and me opportunities to monitor and assess their understanding AND provide me with the opportunity to provide them with individual, meaningful feedback. In the rush of the day and getting things done, it's all to easy to write great job, exemplary work, or lacking effort the top of the paper, but these comments do not help students see what they did and/or did not do well, understand completely, etc. Homework and practice allow me to have personal, written conversation with my students. BrainPop is one of my favorite quick assessment tools for practice.

The purpose of asking students to generate and test hypotheses is for students to extend and enhance their learning. I find that early in the school year my students look at my like I'm crazy when I ask them to predict or hypothesize what will happen to the meaning of a sentence if we place or move a particular word, for example. I think sometimes we associate predicting and hypothesizing with scientific processes. I find as students become more comfortable with hypothesizing in the language classroom, their language use grows and their learning grows by leaps and bounds.

Techie on TED Videos

Both videos were intriguing but the second which tackled our changing media landscape was moreso. Nonetheless, the first video tackled the idea of Institution vs. Collaboration. As I viewed the video, I tried to consider how it was analogous to education. That being said, there was discussion of how institutions are prearranged with a certain structure of organized goals including whose in charge, how things will work, etc. Undoubtedly, education is an institution. My mind automatically wandered away from the video and into thoughts of: If we are to collaborate in our school building, why is it still run with a prearranged structure that never seems to budge? If collaboration is so important amongst students, why isn't that importance communicated and modeled amongst staff and administrators...When my thoughts returned to the video, I was struck by this: "Average and middle aren't the same." I'm still chewing on this profound statement.

The second video didn't attack something new, but I did enjoy the pointed discussion of our global (changing) media landscape. It is not at all surprising that we are amidst the largest increase in creative expression in human history. Prior to viewing the video I had not considered how the Internet has taken all previous forms of communication and offered them up in a complete package...amazing when you take the time to ponder how the Internet has become not just an information source but a source of coordination where anyone can be a producer not just a consumer, where anyone can talk back, where everyone can be connected. My challenge as an educator has to be how to make the best use of available media.

What a media landscape our children are learning and growing up in!

Enhancing Learning Materials through Technology: Comparison and Contrast of Bubbl.us, Webspiration, and MindMeister

Online tools, such as those offered at Bubbl.us, Webspiration, and MindMeister, offer students opportunities to plan, web, outline, and/or collaborate online for free.

Although all three tools are easy to use and navigate, Bubbl.us is the most simplistic of the three and probably one I would not use in my classroom but would introduce to students as a tool for them to use on their own. For each bubble in a web there are a variety of options: you can create a sibling or a new child (bubble), set the color of the bubble and text, click and drag a bubble to connect with a directional line, move it, or delete it. The web can be exported in a variety of formats as well. Although users are supposed to be able to send a read only link or embed a link to share with others, I couldn't get this feature to work.

The second tool, MindMeister, is a collaborative tool that allows users to work collaboratively. MindMeister promotes users abilities to initiate a Skype call from a brainstorming session. Maps can be shared with others to view or modify. MindMeister also allows the history of maps to be tracked. You can zero in on who modified what on the map and when. When collaborating on a map, individual collaborators are assigned a color. Like Bubbl.us, MindMeister has a drag and drop feature. Icons can be added to the web to customize its look. Images can also be added in one of two fashions: 1. MindMeister will automatically choose a Google image for you that matches the idea, concept, etc. in your map or 2. Images can be manually inserted. Attachments can be added to individual map ideas. Also, the maps can be exported in a variety of formats including Word (rtf) and PDF.

The final tool, Webspiration, is a collaborative tool like the others. Webspiration offers a chat feature that allows users to instant message while working on a map collaboratively. Webs can be shared with others in a couple of manners: collaborator and viewer. One feature that would be especially beneficial to educators is the distribute copies options that allows for users to be provided with their own copy of an existing document. Like MindMeister, images can be inserted in the web. Users can use their own images or use one or more of the 600 plus Webspiration graphics. One unique feature of Webspiration is the ability to transform a web into an outline at the touch of a button or visa versa. Webspiration allows users to view and resort to previous versions of Webspiration work if necessary. Webspiration work can be downloaded to Inspiration which is an additionally nice feature as students can work on webbing and outlining at home and download the work into Inspiration at school if that would be necessary. On top of all this, Webspiration is chock full of templates.

Overall, all three tools offer students many features that are easy to use. All three tools allow users to simply place shapes and text and link those shapes and text in a super simple fashion. All three programs offer easily accessible and easy to understand help features. The click and drag features in all three programs allow users to easily manipulate their information.

Week Two of Enhancing Learning Materials Through Technology

The three stratgies we studied this week--setting objectives, providing recognition, and providign feedback--provided me with much food for thought especially as these are areas I do not make a habit of enhancing with technology. My main goal was considering the technologies available in my school district and on the web.

Inspiration is a tool available and something I had not considered, prior to this week, to help students set objectives. I was able this week to explore the Planning folder to take a peek at the Goal Plan template. As we delve into our next long-term unit (poetry), I'd like to secure lab time to have students map out their learning goals based on benchmarks (instructed and assessed) and the tools and centers available in the classroom during the unit. I think this will help provide organization, direction and focus, especially during the self-directed, center times. I know that my obsessive-self does too much of the objective setting in the classroom. I would also like to use a data collection tool like Survey Monkey to inform our classroom goal setting as well as group creation especially during shared inquiry projects.

Providing recognition is not something I spend a whole lot of time on. Much of classroom recognition comes in the form of group applause, verbal recognition, work posted on classroom walls, etc. I never print certificates but distribute stickers. I know I need to make recognition part of the weekly routine beyond the weekly drawing all red house teachers do on Friday's in each of their classrooms. I did a ton more as far as recognition as a fourth grade teacher than i do as a 7th grade teacher. I think time is the factor that affects this the most.

The final strategy for this week, feedback, is something I manage to provide in a timely manner but need to continue to work on as mentioned in my reaction to the "Feedback that Fit" article.

The article "Feedback that Fits" was excellent especially as it comes on the heels of us studying the strategy of providing feedback this week. The article's discussion of feedback was concise and clear and helped me to see even clearer the necessity of continuing to work toward providing students with communication that matters and feedback that is effective. In my attempts to keep up on "paperwork," I too often don't provide usable feedback or feedback that is thorough enough. I need to take more time to comment on where students are in relation to meeting benchmarks/learning targets. I need to more often put myself in my students shoes and consider what I what like to hear from my teacher in the form of comments. The article points out the importance of using different types of feedback--written, oral and visual/demonstration. I think I do a good job of offering these types of feedback on a regular basis to students. I also provide feedback at all stages of students' progress during assignments which is also important for students. I plan to share the article with colleagues.

Principles of Teaching and Learning Reflection

Herbert Simon's quote, "Learning results from what the student does and thinks and only from what the student does and thinks. The teacher can advance learning only by influencing what the student does to learn," jumped off the page to grab my attention with its simple truth. I think this quote needs to find a place on my classroom desk to act as a daily gentle reminder to what my "job" is.

The teaching and learning principles motivated me to spend some time reflecting upon my daily practices.

Learning Principles
Sometimes I forget the importance of feedback to students as I'm so intent upon guiding students to our goals. In the hustle and bustle of rewriting curriculum, writing semester tests, etc., I have cutback on the time I spend providing feedback in small groups as well as one-on-one in my rush toward the metaphoric goal. Number 6's discussion of students' developmental level affecting their learning made me chuckle. Teaching 7th grade, sometimes our social level is that of kindergartners with the emotional level of a toddler who can't find his/her blankie added to the hormonal, yet intellectual, climate of the classroom...and I wonder why some days it's so difficult for my students to learn! Number 7 was a nice reminder in regard to the necessity of educators to model strong "intellectual habits."

Teaching Principles
The portion of the teaching principles that spoke most loudly to me was the "expert blind spots." Sometimes, I think my comfort level with the curriculum and my content areas cause me to have some blind spots. I usually catch myself when I seem to set the cruise control in the classroom and then reverse toward being more methodic in walking through the steps of what we're learning, exploring, etc. If I don't catch myself, one of my students will undoubtedly say, "Hold up Mrs. Zimmel! What!?"

CEdO520 Week 3

WOW! I grow more and more amazed as we progress through this program at the number of tools available for use in the classroom. I wish there were 48 hours in a day, so I could complete some in-depth exploration of the tools we've been investigating. I am excited at the prospect of these tools helping me to increase the rigor and relevance of my classroom content!

Google Custom Search Engines offers some great potential for the classroom. I plan to set up GCSEs for a variety of units in the classroom with links to resources and articles for students. Google Alerts, which I have shared with numerous colleagues, will provide students with a nice base of information to work with when we're researching or participating in shared inquiry. As an educator, I look forward to using Google Alerts to help me in planning lessons. NoodleBib is another tool with great classroom potential in that it promotes critical thinking and creativity for student researchers. I am excited to try Buzzword with my students and compare their feelings about it as a learning tool in comparison to Google docs. Undoubtedly, all these tools offer high engagement for our students.

This week I enjoyed looking at Wimba and Elluminate. Although we held a few of our 515 classes in an Elluminate room, I hadn't considered it from an educator's (teaching) perspective. Thinking about conducting a 7th grade English or Literature class in either of these virtual classrooms seems extremely bizarre. I know technology is engaging to students, but I truly cannot imagine holding my 7th graders attention in that sort of classroom setting.

CEdO520--Week 1 Post

As I currently spend the majority of 3rd quarter guiding students through a research unit, my first thoughts regarding the course were, Couldn't this course have been four weeks earlier? There's so much that appears to be beneficial to my students! Yearly, I tweak and revamp the research unit in conjunction with colleagues and am looking forward to applying what I gain in this course next year during the research unit. Nonetheless, in looking through the course's syllabus, I am confident that this course is going to enhance all aspects of my teaching--lesson delivery, student investigation, enhancement of content, etc.

I am looking forward to working in depth with a software evaluation tool and creating a student-friendly one. The skill of discernment, as discussed in our course syllabus, is something I strive to help students develop. Currently, students apply RADCAB prior to using a website (or any information source). There are oodles of evaluation tools available online* such as those found at Thinkfinity--Website Evaluation Form (for students) and Evaluation Form (for teachers). Not only are evaluating information sources of utmost importance BUT the quality of the tools used are also important.

*Just for "fun" I ran a sample search in Bing--evaluating online resources (no quotes, no +); 6 million+ results were returned!

Google Presentations

Watching my students collaborate via Google docs last week in literature on their Shared Inquiry topics was unbelievably exciting! The kids were truly engaged and worked sooooo hard! I thoroughly enjoyed having quick, immediate access to students' presentations and being able to leave students useful, timely feedback!



This week students present their slide shows! I can't wait!

Technology Tools Wrap-Up

I found many of the things we discussed and learned in class to be immensely helpful to me as an educator and beneficial to my students as well. I find myself being more reflective and attempting to look at curriculum in new ways--from different perspectives--asking myself, Where and how can I use technology to enhance this content?

In the past five weeks or so I have made a more concerted effort to include technology to enhance the curriculum. The time we spent focusing on collaboration and cooperation has caused me to think about how I design lessons and alter activities to be more collaborative. I revamped a shared inquiry mini-unit that we begin this week to include small groups of students working collaboratively in Google docs to create a presentation in Literature. Students are excited but also a bit apprehensive about doing something new but excited about working collaboratively "live."

I'm looking forward to using my TLP to reach the goals of my PPDP (Personal Professional Development Plan). The TLP is attainable and measurable, something that I am motivated to complete as such.

The software evaluation work caused me to spend time with software that I use with my students numerous times each school year but had not taken the time to truly get to know. I am aware of all the options the software can offer my students and am excited to introduce my new found knowledge to my students!

I think one of the most important things that I'm taking from the class is the need to include more authentic audiences for the products students complete. I'm brainstorming with colleagues in the same subject areas to help with this.

Toward the end of this month, I will be using some of my new found knowledge in regard to researching with students. Due to this class I introduced Bing and Exalead to my students already. It's good to see students searching somewhere other than Google!

I am also trying to consider how my one teacher computer can be a more productive tool in the classroom. I use it frequently as it's hooked to a projector, but I think there are many more ways I could use it. Just this week I shared a three minute Muhammed Ali YouTube video with students to spark their interest in Ali and boxing prior to reading an informational text about boxing in literature. Students reponse to the text was much more positive than in the past as a result.

All in all, I think CEdO515 was hugely beneficial as it's cuased me to be more thoughtful and reflective in my planning and teaching. I love how many useful websites I'm leaving the class with!

Tech. Learning Plans and Software Evals.

I found creating a technology learning plan for myself and investigating various software evaluations useful and informative.

Creating my technology learning plan, with the aid of the Learning with Technology Learning Profile Tool, provided me with information that reinforced that many of the things I am currently doing in the classroom are beneficial, worthwhile, and academically sound as well as food for thought in regard to how I might tweak some things I am doing to strengthen their value in the classroom. These types of tools/activities cause me to be more reflective as I make choices in regard to how I am going to use technology in the classroom as well as where I can use technology to enhance the content, for instance.

The software evaluation investigation was interesting; I especially like the evaluations offered online. Prior to this course and this particuluar assignment I may not have placed any (in-depth) thought into evaluating the software provided to me as a teacher or as to how I might go about evaluating new software that I'd consider for use in the classroom. The tool (Vital Knowledge Online Software Evalution Form) our group decided was the best is easy to use and thorough. I liked the simplistic, yet thorough, format; I look forward to using it more in the future as well as sharing it with colleagues.

As far as our reading this week, I think I am going to post the term "digital natives" somewhere in my classroom as a constant reminder of my audience.

Googling with Excitement

My students get to sign up for school gmail accounts with parental permission. I am ecstatic for the opportunities we can now take advantage of in the classroom!