I bought myself a TShirt from ThinkGeek .  Part of my growing collection of Nerd Shirts. It got a lot of comments, from staff and students alike– but none more so than when in the staff room at lunch we discovered that not only did the shirt detect WiFi, it also detected Microwaves.

Now, I have always made it clear that although I am very techy now, I am late to the game, and there are so many holes in my knowledge.

Reading this cartoon, coupled with my WiFi-shirt experience filled in one more gap in my knowledge.

xkcd explains wifi

http://xkcd.com/654/

I have an opportunity to facilitate a class –one that I took in my own graduate studies.  It was one of my favourite classes, as it gets right to the point of what the Internet means to me:  Building online Community.  So, here is a little glimpse of how this opportunity is taking shape.  This course is always co-facilitated, and the opportunity to do so for the next enrollment was offered to myself and 2 other Alumni. In conversation with the one who will end up co-facilitating with me, I suggested that while I liked Blogs and Wikis, I would very much like to incorporate Twitter as well.  My colleague’s reply was: “Well, you’ll have to sell me on Twitter.”

Normally, this would shock me, but I am learning that 1) not everyone feels the same way about any given topic as I do; and 2) Just because their opinion is different than mine, it doesn’t automatically presume they are wrong.

However.

I am genuinely stumped by statements like: “I don’t really use email”.  Now, I can think of some living situations and some lifestyles where, indeed, this would be an acceptable attitude. Being that my field is Education, and we are (attempting to be) teaching the “Digital Natives” or “Generation Y-the Plugged in generation”, this statement from another teacher makes me want to say something snarky, like “Yeah, it’s probably a passing fad”; or “Yeah, I don’t cotton much to the Telephone myself”.  But I do try to cut the Luddites some slack, given that I myself only got online less than 10 years ago.

Still……when asked “Why would you use Twitter as a teaching tool?”, my first inclination is to respond: “Wow….why on earth wouldn’t you!?”

I can’t wait to see if can “entweet” this person over to my  way of thinking!

@LisaRead

Some days, it all just comes together….I’ve presented this workshop twice before, and each time I’ve worked out kinks, tweaked it, added good stuff, took out bad stuff, but today— third time lucky.  I was presenting in the deadly 2:30 to 4:pm on Friday time zone, and had a group of almost 100.  I figured at the very worst, even if half of them walked out, it would still be an improvement  over the last time (when half of 7 people walk out,  it’s pretty hard to justify carrying on).

Long story short, Tech it Up is held on Campus at Thompson Rivers University –which is beautiful, the organizers of the conference have done an amazing job, my accommodations are breathtaking, and at the end of my session one of the participants told me my session was the best she had attended so far.   Does it honestly get better than that?

I know!  I’m as shocked as anyone!  A few years back, my district started doing these: Choose the current Flavour of the Month or Bandwagon, and spend a whole day, with all the employees together in one place, talking about it.  So, for a few years it was Barry Bennett and Beyond Monet, prior to that it was Rick Dufour and Professional Learning Communities, and we’ve also done several Literacy and Numeracy days.  In the past, the days usually required the Jetting in from Afar the Expert of choice, but a lot of that went by the wayside with the last change of Super.  This New Guy seems to keep repeating that the experts are our colleagues and peers, and we should have time to talk to each other, not listen to The Outsiders.  (I wonder if he has been reading my blog….!!) By and large I think he means it, and he seems genuine enough.

So, today we were carrying on the “conversation”‘ about Assessment For Learning.  The Old AFL. Not to be confused with Assessment Of Learning (the Old AOL….not to be confused with the New AOL…..)

We gathered together en masse balancing muffins and bad coffee and listened to the occasionally painful PowerPoint opening remarks.  (Cracks me up, incidentally, that Micro$oft products are TOTALLY verboten in our labs and classrooms now– we should all be using iLife Suite–but all of the Senior Admin presentations were done on PowerPoint. It was awesome. *rolls eyes*)  After the intro, more coffee and muffins, then off to small groups, where we gathered with Similar Teachers and compared notes. Meh.  I always like talking to other teachers, but I very much dislike the artifice of days like this, so I wasn’t very focused in the morning.  Lunch was ok, then back to afternoon Break Out sessions.

That’s when it got good.

During the lunch time, I connected with another IT teacher and we exchanged some war stories. It was then determined that I should come to his small group in the afternoon, and we should do some brainstorming about some of our Issues. Well, this guy got accomplished in one 2 hour session what I’ve been trying to do for 4 years. In a nutshell, he got the IT Curriculum Coordinator to agree to find more support for Middle/Secondary schools, and he got the Prince of IT to agree to install the latest version of Moodle on the District Server for all the use. FINALLY. The Prince started talking about the “cost of release time” for us to set stuff up, and we fairly shrieked at him that if he would just GIVE us the tools, we would put the time in to create the goods.  It was a total Win-Win, and I can’t believe how well the day ended.

Yay! I love collaborating with teachers– I wish they would encourage more of that, and less of the prescribed Lesson Of the Day, but….baby steps.

My school district is on the small side- around 9, 000 students, and about 600 teachers. The district surrounds a smallish town on a Vancouver Island.  So, yes, in some ways, we are like a Colonial outpost, but only geographically.  My colleagues are well read, attend professional development and are up on all the latest trends (or bandwagons).

However.  Despite our collective expertise, when the Board Office decides it’s time for a change, their first impulse is to look for an expert who can be flown in, at great expense, and School us in what it is we should be doing in our classrooms. One such expert was Dr. Rick Dufour, a well known name in Education.  His name jumped out at me as author on thei article about “Merit Pay”: http://www.allthingsplc.info/wordpress/?p=226

It was about 7 or 8 years ago when he was booked for a 3 day-blitz up here– a couple of days with Admin and a day addressing the 600 employees.  His talk to us was great– he was inspiring and funny and all of his ideas seemed eminently sensible and do-able.  Of course, we knew that any suggestion that cost money (ie, extra assistants, early dismissal days, extra resources) would never happen.  Why?  Because of the blessed perversity of our great district. The tally?  They spent $10, 000 to bring him up and make recommendations, not one of which was ever followed through.

*sigh*

But they will do the same thing all over again when the next band wagon rolls by.

Colleague of mine came in the other day very concerned about a FaceBook issue.  We work in a grade 7,8,9 Middle School, and the day prior one of his grade 8’s came flying up to say how excited he was about being friended on my buddy’s FaceBook.  My friend had to explain to the student that he hadn’t friended him, and in fact he didn’t have a FaceBook account. The kid insisted it WAS him, and that other kids from the school were friended as well, and that it had the teacher’s picture on it.

Now, this all alarmed my co-worker (and me) for a few reasons–it seemed someone had assumed his identity (alarming), that they were adding our students to the page (double alarming) and because the account was set to Private, we couldn’t peek in and see what messages were being sent from the Fake teacher (BIG alarming).  On top of which, we had been told by our professional association that it was not appropriate for us to FaceBook-Friend our students. 

There wasn’t much recourse. I couldn’t check into the page at school (because, of course, it’s blocked and the IT department has spent all summer cranking up the filters so I couldn’t even find a proxy or https workaround–and yes, I made sure to get in a comment about yet another lost opportunity to actually teach the kids something meaningful…but as always that falls on deaf ears.)  

When I got home that night, I found the page and sent a Friend request (which, if the kid who assumed the teacher’s identity is as smart as I think s/he is, they will be smart enough to not friend the IT teacher….hard to say). Because the page was set to not allow the non-friended to view the page, I couldn’t see what discussion was happening.  I could view the (then) 38  friends, all of whom are our students.  I also reported the page to FaceBook, explaining what the situation was, and the potential for Bad Outcomes, given that minors are involved.  I can’t imagine FaceBook acting too quickly, if at all.

The Prince contacted the RCMP and the head of our district’s IT Department. The RCMP were concerned, but honest in that they really wouldn’t be able to invest time in this sort of a situation. No other action has taken place yet.  My recommendation to the Prince was to call all the “friends” of the Fake Teacher together and grill them until someone cracked–because I am certain that one of the Friends is also the inventor of the account, and friended themselves as the teacher, in order to set up what would appear to be a communication. 

I’m worried for my friend, but given that he is a popular teacher and a nice guy, I think this is more mischief than malice, but it sure highlights a “What Could Potentially Happen” scenario.  Scary.  And a reflection of how comfortable our kids are in this medium….and how uncomfortable lots of us still are….

I’ve been steaming about this experience for a few weeks now, but really don’t like writing “negative” posts. I mean, we all have stuff to complain about, and sure it feels good to get it off your chest, but no one likes a whiner. To that end, I decided to turn my experience into a Helpful Post.

Here’s the back story…..I had the opportunity to attend two different conferences in one week.  One as a presenter and one as a participant.  Both conferences had their merits, and both their downfalls.  Here then, in Positive Terms, are my bitlets of advice for conference organizers of the future.

If you are going to bill yourself as a Technology conference, ensure you use some form of electronic registration more current than the Fax Machine.

Make sure the website for your conference 1) Exists 2) is easy to find in a Google search and 3) is a website that is pleasing to the eye, with buttons that work, and links that take you to actual pages, not down-loadable PDFs.  Not only are there still some people on this planet using dial-up, there are even more people using mobile devices who don’t care to clog the memories of their iPhones with your PDF keepsakes.   Here’s a clue- find someone in your district/town/club/organization who likes web design and would be willing to create a site for you for free. Here’s another clue- don’t assume, just because you are organizing a conference that you are good at EVERY job– that’s why you are the organizer, so that you can organize OTHER people to do things they are good at.  Trust me, they will be only to happy to be asked, and they will do a bang-up job because you entrusted them with it.

Here are some Do’s for the conference itself.

Do have lots of signs up, and repeat them in lots of places.  People attending your conference may have various levels of vertical achievement and may not be able to see the one set of maps you posted by the muffins.  Spread ‘em around.

Do have something to hand out at the door.  I am all for the “new green” and my ultimate vision is to One Day hand out all the conference “stuff” on a (reusable) USB drive. Until that time, I appreciate that organizers are doing their part to limit carbon emissions by giving out less paper in more recyclable or reusable forms. Name tags are still nice, and can be reused– it helps the presenters, too, to have names to reference.  Maybe the really vital information for your conference could be organized onto a bookmark or a folded business or invitation-size card.  People like to feel, when they arrive at the registration desk, that someone was expecting them and has a little token of “thanks for coming to our conference!”.  At the same time, no one wants to lug around a plastic bag full of tripe (not literal tripe) on a hot day. Even a cold day.

Do thank your presenters, and mean it. We all know that when the presenter is introduced, the poor sap introducing them was roped into the gig by the conference organizer, but that is still about a million times better than some nervous presenter standing up, looking around, clearing their throat, and saying: “Uh……well……if you are all here, I guess we’ll begin….”  And you know, a little packet of wildflower seeds, a gift card to Starbucks or even a coffee mug or fridge magnet is a cheap way of expressing thanks, and that’s all we are expecting. A conference I presented at last spring gave presenters a gift bag with a bottle of wine, a pound of free-trade coffee and mini-box of chocolates as a gift– HELLO!  any one of those things would have been a billion times better than what I got at my last presentation (that would be….nothing, not even a card– and I did twice as many sessions!)

Do have prizes. However, Door or Draw prizes= Good Plan.  Interrupting sessions twice to collect tickets and then draw tickets and then give prize? = Bad Plan.  Also, we all know why you wait until the very last minute of the very last day to give out the good stuff, but once in awhile, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to award someone for been the 10th person to arrive at the Keynote, or the first person to arrive at the session, or even just picked at random for no reason other than just being there. Door prizes are meant to raise the fun and excitement level, not be some form of punishment to naughty attendees.

Here’s some advice about food–if you are going to bill the conferences as “Lunch Provided”, don’t run out.  Now, there are a couple of ways to ensure you don’t run out. Don’t feed your participants like they are heading out on a marathon/dogsled race. Really, some fruit, muffins, cheese and crackers, maybe some veggies will stretch your food budget.  If you feel strongly about having sandwiches, well, go ahead, but someone is going to be disappointed that there are no more deviled egg, the tops will fall off of the ham and beef, and no one will eat the dry tops, though they might eat the naked bottoms, depending on whether or not you run out of all the good kinds. No one wants cold chicken wings, and only eat sausage rolls to be polite.  Same with mini-quiches.  If you put on a lavish spread, people will look and think…”Oh, so this is why the conference cost $X.00″.  If you put on a lavish spread AND run out of food, people will think even less charitable thoughts. Also, consider that people may end up snacking throughout the day.  Cold beverages and crackers and cheese, maybe a few cookies and an urn of coffee, and you will keep most people happy for most of the day.  Tell them “Light Snacks will be provided” and they will be happy, and you won’t run out of food.  Trust me.

Finally, make sure your volunteers and support people actually know how to help presenters and participants, and don’t interrupt a session to, for example, argue with the presenter about why the Internet is not working.  If your wireless is passworded, also make sure that the password is well advertised.  If that means your IT Department has to change the password right after the conference, make it so.  They like doing that kind of stuff.  That’s why they are geeks.

Those are kind of the main points, although anyone who has organized a conference before knows there are a myriad of other details to be considered.  That’s why most conferences have Committees. Offer a few free registrations, and you will get all the help you need.  Some of those people will have good ideas, too, and some of those ideas will be even better than yours….as much as that hurts to admit.

Grade 7 Social Studies.  I haven’t looked at the content for it since I was in Grade 7 myself, but I find myself teaching it this year.  Along with my Grade 7, 8 and 9 Info Tech classes, I have one academic block.  Last year it was Math 8 (*shudder*), but this year….I feel like I’ve won the lottery.

Primitive Man

Ancient Greece

Rome

Mesopotamia

Egypt

Ancient China

I cannot wait! My plan, since I’ll be teaching in my lab, is to integrate a lot of media– I’ve already found some great stuff on the Lascaux cave paintings, and since it’s an Olympics year (and by fluke, right in my back yard) the Ancient Greece unit should really come alive.  But more than that–much more–I want to engage their brains to the fullest.  To that end, they are going to have passports (our first project will be to create them) and we will employ the use of Time Travel to get where we are going.  By the end of the year, their “passports” will have become a travel diary, filled with memories of our travels together.

I’ve already spent more money than I ought at Amazon on a collection of terrific (I hope!) read-aloud books. We don’t have windows in our room, and there aren’t any captivating posters or engaging displays up on the walls or hanging from the ceiling….but this is going to be a year of fantastic flights of fancy….. I cannot wait!  (And they pay me for this!!)

I won’t make it through all of these books, I know, but here are my read-aloud selections:

The Wadjet Eye

Galen: My Life in Imperial Rome

Dar and the Spear-thrower

The Story of Ancient China

The Golden Bull

In Search of a Homeland: The Story of the Aeneid

The Wanderings Of Odysseus: The Story Of the Odyssey

A question on Twitter this morning from @jmcconville1000 regarding how teacher-librarians might find ways to use blogs in the classroom.  I was going to reply, but knew this was a topic I could not handle in 160 characters or less.  I can’t even imagine covering it in 160 words, come to that!

I can’t say I have taken to blogging with quite the duck-to-water-ness that I did email or online discussion forums or even Facebook, but while it hasn’t been “a biggie” for me, I do see the value. Given that words are my medium (and my weapon) I have given this topic a lot of cogitation, thought, rumination, meditation….

Blogging as an Observer

A very basic activity would be to open a blog page or post for a specific novel you are studying in class. This would work especially well if you are doing Literature Circles.  Students are given a specific topic or question per day or week, or per chapter or section– however the teacher wants to organize it.  Students can be directed to reply only to the teacher’s post, or to create a comment and a question for another student to answer.  They could be given parameters such as “Post one comment and reply to at least 2 other comments”. (I would caution this approach, unless the students are really engrossed in the novel– you don’t want them to focus on quantity over quality). Another approach is to consider how many topics will be posted for the novel, and tell students they are responsible for replying to X posts.  This will encourage them to chose carefully the topics they are most interested in. (The difficulty with this one is you don’t want to release all the topics before the students have read that far, and you don’t want the Procrastinators “waiting for a good topic”).

Finally, for a less teacher-driven model, especially in a Literature-Circle model, the students can work as a team to create a blog for their novel. Each day, a different student could take on a different task– writing a capsule update, posting an “interview”, uploading a mind map or word web, or a research piece.  This could be an interesting project to try if the groups were going to cycle through some of the same books. Later groups could post follow-up comments or reflections, or post alternate assignments.

Blogging in Character

Another thought I had around blogging that would really draw the students into the works would be to blog in-role. Particularly for works written with passive voice, the student would really need to draw on their own creative interpretations. An example would be writing from the point of view of the main character of the book (Stanley Yelnats in “Holes” or Danny in “Danny’s Run”)   vs writing as a secondary or even non-appearing character (Stanley’s mom or Danny’s friend).  Students could be given guided topics, or write freely. The students will need to be coached in how t write “in voice”.  A wonderful and easy-to-read (about grade 6/7 level) novel that delves deeply into both point of view and character is “The Fruit Bowl Project” By Sarah Durkee. Students could also be tasked with replying to one another’s posts as other characters from the novel. Think of this as  “WWJD”. (What Would Juliet Do?)

Blogs for other Text

Poetry blogs would allow for more “gentle” sharing. Students could post their own works and comment on others, or post sound files of them reciting their own works or others works they have found in a particular genre or on a particular topic.

A Poetry Slam blog would be kind of fun too– students are given a timed-free-for-all to post on a topic.

A scaffolded approach would be for students to write the next line.  The prompts could be written by the teacher, or as extensions for advanced students.

I think I have more ideas, but have to cut this off for now.  Comments welcome, as always!

Maybe it’s my age, maybe it’s the numbers of years I’ve been in public ed, maybe it’s just that I’ve become inured enough to the “system” that I now question policy I disagree with. Whatever the reason, here is my longest-running *beef*.

One of the things I feel passionately about teaching to kids is Ethics. I work in a Middle School. 12, 13 and 14 year olds are more than capable of understanding, and practicing,  ethical behaviour, beyond the basics of “right and wrong”.  Aside from the fact that blocking YouTube and FaceBook and Yahoo causes me some inconvenience (embedded YouTube clips in my Moodle pages won’t play, kids can’t use Yahoo search or Answer pages….etc….)  I have a bigger grievance with this practice. I talk to my students about topics like Identity Theft, protecting digital privacy, and CyberBullying.  It would make so much sense to pull up a site (like FaceBook) and go over things like the TOU and EULA.  For example, I had a number of grade 7’s last year who had FaceBook accounts. Even ones who were younger than 13 (FaceBook’s minimum age).  A valuable discussion to have….not possible with the site blocked.

I also talked to my students about what it means to have a work ethic, and how to use good judgment in viewing Internet content, what and when certain things are appropriate….no real examples can be given.

The beautiful irony is, of course, my students all know how to use proxies (or Ninjas) to bypass the network blocks. They try to get me to use them too, because they know how frustrated I get, but that is the only lesson in ethicacy I have left: “I won’t purposely bypass the filters, because we are not supposed to be accessing those sites, that’s why they’re blocked”.  Ending with a sarcastic: “I’m sure we can find some real rad videos on Teacher Tube, though, guys!!!!!”

At Educational Technology.ca, Dr. Alex Couros recently wrote a blog on this topic, where he has approached the dilemma from quite the opposite direction.  Maybe I need to adjust my attitude on this one….

http://educationaltechnology.ca/couros/656

Update:  here is an excellent read on this topic: http://www.evenfromhere.org/?p=1072&cpage=1#comment-150