Hop on the Bus with Rosa Parks!

Do you know why we celebrate Rosa Parks on December 1? Do your students?

Rosa Parks was not born on December 1, but she did something on December 1 for which she is remembered.

If you need any ideas for things to use in the classroom, check out the available resources from these instructional sites:

• Scholastic.com shares information: Rosa Parks: How I fought for Civil Rights.
• The Library of Congress shares an American Memory of Dec. 1, 1955: Today in History: Dec. 1.
• The My Hero Project has information on a Freedom Hero: Rosa Parks.

Here are some resources I found from searching in Thinkfinity:

• On the calendar of information on EDSITEment, December 1 features information, lessons, and resources to learn about Rosa Parks.
• Rosa Parks is also featured in the Eyes on the Prize series by PBS.
• Wonder-of-the-Day #241 on Wonderopolis: "What does it mean to stand for something?" highlights Rosa Parks.

Here are some videos from Learn360:

• Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights Movement (2004, Mazzzarella Media)
• Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights Movement (2000, Sunburst Visual Media)
• Famous Americans: Rosa Parks (Mother of Civil Rights) (2008, Worldwide Academics)
• Stand Up For Freedom: The Civil Rights Movement in America (2008, Mazzarella Media)
• Daily Almanac: December 1 (2009, Slim Goodbody)

Here are some resources I found from searching in netTrekker:

• Rosa Parks: The Woman Who Changed a Nation (provides biographical information on civil rights activitist, Rosa Parks, along with updates of services that she continued to perform until her death in 2005)
• Spartacus Educational: Rosa Parks (provides biographical information on the story of Rosa Parks as well as an interview from 1977 in which Ms. Parks remembers the bus incident)
• Henry Ford Musuem: Rosa Parks Bus (an absolutely fascinating tale of the actual bus that Rosa Parks was riding in that sparked the Civil Rights Movement) 

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Lumens DC 190 Part II

In looking at the software for the new Lumens DC 190 document camera (doc cam), you do not see any changes to the 3 by 3 or 4 by 4 grid.  The software itself has been updated to v.1.0.9 for Ladibug and there have been a few updates and improvements to it for use with your computer.  Again the software is available on both PC and Mac, however I did not see on the website the availability for Linux for this new version as of yet.  All of the buttons here work just like they have in the past with one new item.  If you click the Light bulb Icon you are able to toggle back and forth between the regular lamp and the LED light on the head unit.  If both lamps are off the sequence is as follows as you click the icon; lamp, lamp and LED, LED, off.  Again the addition of the LED lamp is a nice feature because it gives you just enough light and is not as overpowering at the lamp. 

Before I go in any further I have to add in that one of the best new features that I have seen is that if you press the Menu button on the Remote Control you are able to see it in the viewing area after you have clicked the Display live images button.  And it is fully functional so there is no need to have the doc cam hooked up as a pass-through device were you are forced to toggle the source back and forth so you can make Menu changes for the doc cam hardware.

Nothing has changed in the button options when you click the Advance button.  The Capture still images, Record video and Time Lapse capture have not changed.  The Camera Settings button has changed slightly in the way that it looks for users.

I mentioned it in my first post but there are a new feature button changes, one is the PIP button which allows you to see the static images that are stored in the doc cam base along with the live image in the bottom left hand corner of the view screen.  Now a bonus is that you can use the arrow keys on the remote to move the live image around on the screen if it is needed.  Press one time to get in and select the static image and to get out you have to press it again and then the Menu button to get back to the full screen live image.  Another new button is Pan which is just a name change from the old Book button.  Nice thing is that it is a one click in and a one click out.  The Capture and Record buttons here will store the media in the built in hard drive in the base of the doc cam and not on the computer like the buttons do on the 4 by 4 grid. 

Now for what I think is the best new upgrade is that the Arrow and Menu buttons on the right side of the panel are now fully functional.  This is a big leap over previous versions where they seemed to be just ornamental and were waiting for technology and coding to catch up with them so they would work properly.

And now you that have my thoughts on the new DC 190 you can take a look for yourself to find what you think the best features are that work in your classroom situation.  If you find anything else that you like or think can add to my general overview please share your comments through the blog.

images provided by Lumens Ladibug software.

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What's Wrong If Google Tells Me Everything?

The topic of Critical Thinking and Google Searches seems to poke it's head out via various discussions and conversations every now and then. Even a recent #edchat topic centered around moving kids away from thinking Google has all the answers to thinking critically.

First let me clarify. I use the term Google Searches loosely. That has come to mean all searches but there are obviously other search engines out there (Like Bing and Yahoo) that are still relevant and used in schools. But by far, Google is the most popular search engine around.

So my question is, what's wrong with the fact that Google is able to tell me everything I need to know?

I am having trouble remembering what I did before search online. I imagine it involved a trip to my local library (which I still enjoy doing) and spending hours and hours of research to find the simplest of facts or answers. I still remember using a card catalog, pulling out the long drawer of dusty and musty 3x5 cards, in an attempt to find the population of New Zealand in 1975.

So what would have taken 5 (or 65) minutes of searching, now takes seconds. Granted, it doesn't seem like all that much but still, when doing massive amounts of research, spending time in search engine land is a life saver, travel saver, money saver, etc. I use search everyday for all sorts of things. And Google searches especially because of the shortcuts that are available.

So I ask whats wrong with Google (or any other search engine) telling me the answers I seek?

The argument seems to be, in the classroom, that if a question is asked that Google can answer, then there is something wrong with the question. I'm not so sure about that. Yes, I want students to be at the top of Blooms Taxonomy and be evaluators and creators. But having some factual knowledge is important too.

I don't think there is anything wrong with asking questions search engines can answer. After all that is what they are there for. What is wrong is when the question is the end of the lesson. And often times it is. Lessons will end with the facts when really that is just a beginning. If we are asking questions of kids that search engines can answer and not asking them to think about the quality of the information or where that information comes from then why bother?

Any Joe on the street can type some words into a search box and get results. But, we are headed down a road where we are graduating groups of students who don't think critically about the information they receive (and who think The Onion has real news.)

Sure we need to spend time teaching kids on how to do quality searches, using key terms and wildcards. But that is a lesson over a day or two. What needs to be woven into our curriculum is what Howard Rheingold calls Crap Detection. The premise is that even adults have a very difficult time filtering out the junk of what is online. So if adults are having a hard time how can we be teaching critical thinking to kids? It's ok for kids to get their information online and from search engines but if we are not having longer conversations about the evaluation of the resources we are using then we are just reinforcing what people already believe; that is we simply cramming facts into the brains of our students.

Need an example of fact checking? Check out this website about Explorers.The first time I saw it, I will admit, I was fooled. I thought it was a great site for information about Explorers. I sent it to a teacher without looking at the entire site and comparing the information found there to other sources. Only later did I find out that it was set up to teach kids (and people like me) about fact checking and critical thinking on the web.

So if we are asking questions that Google or any other search engine can answer, that's cool with me. But, if we aren't taking the next steps and having kids explain the choices of the sources of our information then we aren't moving up Blooms, which is what we should be doing. Check out a wiki Howard set up about Critical Thinking that is full of great information how to teach it, understand it and use it. And you can use this guide from Microsoft that aims to help kids improve their search skills and gives some lessons to use in the classroom.

What do you think? Is it wrong for Google to be able to tell us everything? How do you teach critical thinking about web resources in your classroom. Leave some ideas below.

Image from Ari on Flickr CC

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Organization Is Not A Nasty Word

Last week I wrote about my favorite go-to web sites in my blog post "Where Do I Go?". This week I am going to talk about how I organize my resources in order to share them.

The first thing that I do when I find a resource is save to my Diigo account. Diigo is a social bookmarking site that allows me to access my web resources wherever I go and whatever computer I am on. Steven Anderson wrote about "Why Diigo rocks" several weeks ago. After saving to my Diigo account, I then start thinking about how I want to organize my web resources. I think about who I plan to share them with, and the best way to share the resources.

Two of the places I like to go to organize my resources is Symbaloo and LiveBinders.

1. Symbaloo:  Another way to bookmark web resources and access from any internet enabled computer. This link takes you to the education site. Their bookmarks are called webmixes. You create tiles within a web mix. Each web resources becomes a tile. For instance, I have created a Digital Storytelling webmix and an IWB webmix. Symbaloo is free to use and you can add other people's webmixes to yours. Someone had created a webmix for Blooms, and I was able to add it to my list. You can also make the webmix be your homepage.
   
   How can it be used in the classroom? If you were studying Holiday's Around the World or Animals and their Habitats (or something like that), you could create a webmix that would include only those resources. Then you could embed (using an embed code from Symbaloo) the webmix onto your web page for your students to use. This would be a safe way for them to search web sites and not go out all over the web.
   
2. LiveBinders: A way to organize your resources in an online 3-ring binder. It actually looks like a notebook with tabs and sub tabs "inside" of the notebook. You can add images, videos, web pages, and pdf files (Adobe Acrobat files). You can embed the LiveBinders into your web page. LiveBinders is free and you can make them public or private. You can search LiveBinders by author, Education Category, etc. I have created LiveBinders as a place to store resources and share with the elementary school teachers in my district. I can embed one LiveBinder, or I can embed my entire shelf. Here is a sample of where I have embedded my entire shelf under Elementary Resources.
   
   How can it be used in the classroom? The exact same way that I used in the example above. Whatever you are going to be studying in your classroom, you can create a LiveBinder with all the resources you want your students to use. Then, you can embed the LiveBinder on your web page so that students can just click on it to open it up. That way, students are not traveling all over the internet, but only the web pages you researched.

I hope you enjoy these organizational resources. Why not create one?

Creative Commons Image: 'Gotta get organized' http://www.flickr.com/photos/19517696@N00/2005932

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What is the matter?

Here are some ideas I had for using videos and activities to help students identify properties of the three forms of matter (solid, liquid, and gas) and use movement to demonstrate the distinct properties of each state of matter (movement of molecules):

Brainstorm Introduction: Open class by asking questions and have students record responses on something like WallWisher, Bubbl.us, or chart paper ( for the beginning of a KWL Chart):

• What do we know about a Solid? a Liquid? a Gas?
• Can we think of some examples?
• Can we hold a Solid? a Liquid? a Gas?
• Can we touch a Solid? a Liquid? a Gas?
• Can we feel a Solid? a Liquid? a Gas?
• Can we see a Solid? a Liquid? a Gas?
• Can we taste a Solid? a Liquid? a Gas?
• Do we have any ideas about how these are made?

Video Introduction

• Direct students to look for examples of Solids, Liquids, Gases that we can add to the chart
• States of Matter Video
• Ask students about things they noticed in the video and think should be added to the Primary Wall chart (examples, qualities, interesting facts ….). Save the Primary Wall chart for later use. Students can also add questions they have about the states of matter to the Primary Wall chart.

Video/Song/Movement

• Ask students what they remember about solids, liquids, and gases. Show the chart to help refresh memories.
• Today we are going to look at some other ways these three states of matter are different.
• Tell students: “Everybody stand up. When I count to 3, I want you to move and shake while still at your desk.” Have students move around
• Questions: Did we all move the same way? Did we all move at the same speed? Do you think the molecules in solids, liquids, and gases move the same way and at the same speed?
• Direct students to look and listen for things about states of matter that can be added to the Primary Wall chart, especially things about the way the molecules move
• View What is Matter Video
• Discuss movement of molecules in 3 states of matter and have students demonstrate how they differ  (highlight the vocabulary words throughout the discussions)
• Whole Class Movement Activity: students move faster or slower depending on which state of matter you call out (liquid, solid, gas)
• Discuss what causes the change from one state of matter to the other
• Whole Class Movement Activity: students are molecules and then speed up or slow down related to evaporation or condensation
• Listen to Song : http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/studyjams/matter_states/
• Show words while song is playing (possibly have printouts)
• Play song again and encourage students to sing along
• Have students add a few of the things learned to the chart created at the beginning of the unit. Students can also add questions they have about the states of matter to the chart, as well as look at the the questions added previously to see if any have been answered.

During these activities, students will be encouraged to discover information about the specific topic rather than just being told the information by the teacher. This will be done by involving students in the watching, listening, and discussing the videos, songs, and activities. Instead of the teacher providing notes for the students to copy, the students will be involved in creating the class notes by brainstorming things to add to the chart all along the way. The focus of the lessons in this unit is on the content that is being learned and not on the technology that is being used (videos and primary wall). The visual, kinesthetic, and auditory learning styles of students are each addressed in the activities in this unit.

The videos and technology tools used in this unit were chosen based on the way they could be used to address the content. I am not sure that using three videos is necessarily the best way to integrate technology to meet all student needs to cover one standard. I chose to break apart the videos into three distinct times/days with activities and/or questions to go along with each video. Just showing videos to students is no guarantee of learning.

image source

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Lumens DC 190 Document Camera

Finally I have recently gotten to really sit down and take a look at the new (well almost new) Lumens DC 190 document camera(doc cam) that has recently replaced the DC 166 that hit is EOL cycle.We have been using the DC 166 model for a couple of years in our school district and will now be transitioning over to the newer design model.

At first glance you do not see anything different in the look and design of the doc cam, it is their termed "Ladibug" design series.  Upon further inspection there are two noticeable items that are different in this design over earlier versions.  One is that there is a USB plug-in  instead of the SanDisk port of the earlier 166 model.  The other difference is that there is a microphone built in the front of the base now so that you can include sound with your video recordings in the camera only(presenter) mode.

Another big change in the DC 190 over its predecessors is the redesign of the remote control.  Now you still have the standard buttons on the base of the doc cam; Capture, Playback, Zoom +/-, Power and Menu.  However there is a new look to the remote.  They have gone back to the basic black color design, which is great for those who are color blind (like me) because it makes the buttons and names stand out.  There are a couple of changes on the remote control that need to be mentioned so that you know where to look now versus earlier models.  The Source button is now located below the Power button, a big departure from having it in the top left which is now the Freeze button.  The Menu button flips over to the opposite side of its current row.  The Book button has now been replaced by Pan, which is a more appropriate name to describe the action that is associated with the buttons actions.  It still works the same way, you press it once to get into the Pan mode and then again to exit.  A huge step ahead of it previous version is what use to be the PBP button which is now PIP.  Yes it should sound familiar because it is Picture in Picture.  You have the live image in the background and then the static image in the bottom corner that you can choose from by using the selector (arrow) buttons to view the available images.  There is a new edition to the remote and that is the Mask button which similar to how you placed a piece of paper over your old overheads.  About 3/4 of the screen is darkened out on the first click, the second then puts a veil over the whole page except for a square in the middle of the screen.  You can then use the arrow keys to move the square around on the screen similar to a spotlight feature or move to reveal.

Another nice feature of the DC 190 is that there is now an LED light that is under the Head unit.  Now depending on the ambient room light you only had the option to either have the light source on or off.  Now you can select the LED light so that you still have an additional light source that is not as bright as the normal lamp light that has been on the Ladibug design for years.  The LED light source is just below the lens unit when you raise the head up at straight.  You can toggle between the modes using the Lamp option button in the Ladibug software.


Expect lots of new fun things to do with the new DC 190's in your classroom and don't forget that you can always find out more about how to use your document camera from my LiveBinder.

Document Cameras

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It's All About The Hashtag

If you remember, in my 3 part series on Twitter, I wrote about how I completely changed the way I do professional development on Twitter. In a nutshell, I no longer start with signing up and tweeting the first day. I always show how to use Twitter without ever signing up. I believe it's important to establish the value in using it rather than using it and attempting to find the value.

What a lot of people don't realize that Twitter is a very powerful search engine. Just like Google, if you know how to use the search effectively you can find pretty much anything. And one of those effective ways is leveraging the power of hashtags.

What is a hashtag you ask?

From The Twitter Fan Wiki: Hashtags are a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets. They're like tags on Flickr, only added inline to your post. You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol.

Basically, its a tag in your post so that you or someone else can find it later or track it as it is happening. For example, lets say you are watching the Super Bowl. You want to hear what other folks are saying about the game. You can do a search (on search.twitter.com) for the hashtag #SuperBowl and see what others talking about. Many TV shows, events, companies, and more are creating hashtags to monitor conversations and just generally engage with other followers.

Right, but how does this help you find stuff for your classroom?

Well, there are loads of great educational hashtags that have been created that you can search out and see what folks are posting. Are you a Social Studies teacher or need history resources? Check out #sschat. Maybe English is your thing. So there is #engchat. Perhaps you are looking for just general education resources. Then you should do a search for #edchat.

There are so many more educational hashtags out there. Lucky for all of us we have CybraryMan. Jerry (his real name) has collected several pages of hashtags for all of us to enjoy.

You may notice that many of the EDU hashtags include the word "chat" in them. There are some great chats on Twitter around various issues in education. (I wrote about this a while back.) Jerry also has a great page of how to take part in the EDU Chats and the times of various chats as well.

Oh and I get asked a lot how  to create a hashtag. Simple my friends, simple. You just create it! There isn't a special form or permission you need in order to make a hashtag you just make one. My advice is, however, do a search on Twitter for the hashtag you want to use, just to make sure other stuff isn't posted to it already. (That can save a lot of time and embarrassment later.) Once you have it in mind, start using it. This can be great for schools/districts or classrooms to create tags to allow other members of the community to see whats being said to follow along with events, games, etc.

The point of all this is that while you may be a connected educator or you use Twitter regularly, there may be some educators around you who just don't see the point. Or they say they don't want to use Twitter. Well, the hashtag provides a way for anyone, no matter who, to reap the rewards of the information that flows across the Twitterverse and have it delivered to you when ever you need it.

What are some of your favorite hashtags to follow? Leave some comments below.

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Technology use in the classroom

I must confess that I grew up in the 80’s and was a teenager during the 90’s. The necessities to life as a teen in the 90’s included Aquanet hairspray, Guess jeans, and a sophisticated taste for the fine selection of 90’s music.  Smart phones, social networks, and e-mail were not part of our daily lives.

Fast forward “several” years down the road and a life without such technologies would seem foreign to most of our teenagers.  As I read this interesting article about teenage cell phone usage, I was taken back to my own years as a teenager and how the social norms have changed since that time.

Our students, both children and teens, are using technology on a daily basis. They use it to socialize and to find entertainment. Our jobs as educators is to simply harness that interest to teach students how to use those same technologies in a manner that will be productive when they enter the workforce.

Photo by Wesley Fry, Creative Commons License

Technology in the classroom should be seamlessly integrated. Teachers should focus on planning with the curriculum in mind first and then find ways that the technology can support the student’s learning.

Lastly, technology use within the classroom should be aimed towards teaching students how to adapt the abilities they currently possess to help them learn new technologies.  Our students will not benefit from simply learning how to use a singular program. Rather, teaching students how the skills they learn can be applied to learning new or more advanced skills. This ability to adapt will ensure our students are able to master the technology that they will encounter as a productive citizen.

The social norms that our students face today are more complex than the love ballads of the 90’s. As educators, we can use the current trends in technology usage to equip our students with a valuable skill set that will ensure they are successful in the workforce. Technology use in the classroom is a necessity to prepare our students for the global market.

Guest post by: M. Fulton 

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Technology in the Classroom: Do you get the Picture?

Hello WSFCS.  My name is Marty Creech and I have been given the opportunity to guest blog on the InTouch blog.  Thanks to the WSFCS DIT for allowing me to share my perspective on what technology integration looks like in the classroom and in schools.  I currently teach 6^th grade science and social studies.

(Photo by Intul using Wikimedia Commons License)

The old adage of a picture being worth a million words could never be truer in the case of technology integration in the classroom.  As you read through this entry notice the pictures of the technologies being used in schools around the world.  Each picture is very different as should be the case with technology integration.  

(photo by Carla of OPLC using Wikmedia Commons license)

In an attempt to promote technology integration, my school district installed a SmartBoard in every classroom.  Did it provide publicity and initiate the rhetoric of technology integration in our county? Yes.  Were teachers excited about this new technology? Yes.  Was this the best technology investment for each classroom? Maybe.  See, when we discuss what technology in the classroom looks like there is no one size fits all technologies out there.  The K-12 curriculum spans from learning the alphabet to advanced Calculus and so on.  The teacher in each of these classrooms would give you a completely different answer on technologies that were needed in their classrooms. The curriculum and student needs should drive what technologies are used in each classroom.

When I first set out on my journey of incorporating technology I wanted anything and everything.  My kids were exposed to podcasts, wikis, blogs, Skype, Quest Atlantis, webquests, and many interactive games.  My students were learning a lot of different technologies.  They were learning many different skills that will indeed help them in their future.  I was doing all these things with no regard to the curriculum I was hired to teach.  Technology guided my curriculum.  My practice was wrong.  I was wrong.  With this realization of my mistakes and their acceptance, I could now grow as a professional.    

(photo by Lft using Wikimedia Commons License)

So, if that isn’t what technology integration looks like in a 6^th grade classroom then what does it look like.  First and foremost, my curriculum drives my instruction, my students drive my methods.  Technology enhances and supplements my instruction and helps me meet the diversity of student needs.  My students are all signed up on Edmodo the first week of school.  We use Edmodo as a collaboration tool.  When my students are researching they use it to share resources and ask questions.  This enables my students to learn on their own and learn from others.  It is a line of communication that we can have once our hour of class time is up.  We can continue our discussions and share our knowledge using Edmodo.  Students without internet access are paired up with a buddy they can call to post their questions or comments.  In a dream world I would love for each of my students to have an internet capable device.  With budgets and finances currently this is not possible.  I would love however to have an internet capable device at each of my lab tables.  This would enable students to blog with their groups daily, record in real time data that can be analyzed easily, create back channel discussions with other groups, and would allow us to have a deeper discussion when challenging questions arise and the internet is needed.  This is what some of technology integration would look like in my room.  A whole new picture of technology integration would be painted if you walked in to a math class or a music class.  What does technology integration look like in your classroom?  Is it identical, similar or completely different?

                                          (photo by: Terrance T.S. Tam through Creative Commons License)

I could continue to list off technology after technology but true technology integration is having teachers that are 1) knowledgeable about the technologies available and 2) have the confidence to give them a try.  If each teacher in a school possessed these two skills then technology would be integrated innately and with purpose.  These skills don’t come easy.  It should be a goal of administrators and central office staff to groom teachers to the possibilities of technology integration.

Then when asked to describe technology integration in a school of 30 classrooms it would take 30 million words.  Personally, I prefer the pictures.

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Importing Lessons or Tests from Other Databases

It’s a good idea to create and share tests among co-workers. Why should each teacher create their own work and not share it with others. This is very easy to do in CPS. However, be sure you are working from your single database and share it with one shared database. If you are working with too many databases, you will start to get confused and loose tests. Remember, it’s best to keep your database on the C drive of your computer. The shared database can be stored on a school file server or in the cloud somewhere that all teachers involved has access to. When you import the tests to your database or the shared database, it works best if you copy the shared database to your C drive. Just remember to keep the shared database on the file server (or cloud) current.


Be sure the CPS version you are using is at least 6.70. It is also very important that everyone who is sharing items all have the same version of CPS.

So let’s say someone has imported a test to the shared database and you want to add it to your CPS database. Open your database and click on the “prepare” tab and “lessons and assessments” sub tab. Click “import”. Select the shared database that you copied to your C drive. Click on the plus sign to the left of the shared database name. You will see all the lessons or tests in that database. Put a check in the tests you want to import and click “ok”. You will see the test you imported at the bottom of the list.



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Just Press Enter...

I've done a lot of looking around lately. I've worked in the business world, and I've worked in education for quite some time. What I've seen as I've stopped, and sometimes stared, are people using their smartphones, laptops, desktop computers and now tablet devices to be productive in their jobs, communicate, and make collaborative decisions about work and family life.

People live their mobile lives connected to mobile devices and mobile people. That's how we all work, play, and learn. If that is how we work, play and learn the question truly becomes why should technology not be integrated into the classroom? Why should it not mirror business so students can become work-ready, and mirror society, so students can become active civic participants?

I fully understand in tough economic times that technology in the hands of students are equity and money issues, but look around away from your schools and you'll see students from elementary ages through adulthood already using devices of their own, working and participating in online endeavors, living online lives. Like any other tool, technology in the classroom has to be integrated from not just a functional perspective, but also a safety and ethical perspective. Otherwise, the issue becomes a double-edged sword. It can be an avenue to truly engaging learning experiences, or a trail leading down some very negative paths with potentially some very serious consequences.

A research report entitled "Teens Kindness and Cruelty on Social Network Sites" released November 9th by The Pew Internet and American Life Project stated "95% of all teens ages 12-17 are now online, and 80% of those online teens are users of social media sites." Students are weaving their way through the world wide web wilderness with or without guidance or education about safety, ethical, and health issues. Knowing this, we cannot afford to stick our heads in the sand.

Our students need to come out of schools not only knowing how to use technologies, but also how to participate appropriately as informed global digital citizens who can filter the masses of information with which they are bombarded. Media literacy is essential so it should be woven into every lesson using any type of researched resource.

So what does technology integration look like in a well-functioning classroom? As I see it, technology offers three exceptional benefits - the ability to explore, the ability to inform and reform thoughts, and the ability to create responses to what is explored and learned. It's a reciprocal relationship centered around the content. The tools just become part and parcel of the content we are teaching.

Tools will change as technology changes, but the ability to use it to acquire and manipulate information quickly, prompt to think, rethink, analyze, synthesize, and create will always be part of the human experience. We are curious and social by nature, and technology has tapped into those human drives. Successfully integrated technology into classroom learning experiences doesn't make the devices invisible, but they're not the centerpiece of the learning experience. (Photo by Brad Flickinger via a creative commons license)

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What do you want to do?

The basic goal of education has not changed,  we are preparing students for life-long learning and success in a changing society. The tools and instructional methods used to achieve these goals have advanced dramatically.

Technology is changing the way we live and work since has the power to enhance the teaching and learning process. By stimulating creativity and self-discovery, technology is providing new ways for teachers and students to communicate, collaborate, and create.

I want to develop, support, and encourage creative and critical thinking skills in students using art, music, books, games, drama, technology, and whatever is needed to accomplish that goal. 

When you think critically about something, you have to step outside the box and look at the situation from many perspectives while realizing the impact those could have on your interpretation. When you thinking creatively about something, you also have to step away from the box to look at the situation and identify possibilities, even the ones that may not be apparent to everyone.

What do you want to do? 

image source

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Where Do I Go?

While working in schools, teachers ask me to find resources for them to help enrich their lessons. When I went back to the office I was talking about finding some really great resources and what some of my "go to" sites are with my co-worker Melissa Edwards. She suggested that this should go into a blog.

First stop on the "go to" places that I automatically look at when a teacher asks for help finding resources are: Learning Village; Thinkfinity (and the partner sites); and netTrekker. 

1. Learning Village is a repository of information for teachers in WSFCS schools. Teachers can find just about everything in Learning Village. There are blackline masters, week by week essentials, pacing guides, lesson plan ideas, and many more things for teachers.
   
   
2. Thinkfinity (which I have written about many times before), consists of several partner sites that teachers can find great resources. There is math, science, language arts, history, humanities, arts, and foreign language lessons that can be found within the Thinkfinity community. Thinkfinity is free and teachers everywhere can access lesson plans from there.
   
   
3. netTrekker is a database that teachers can search for web sites. Teachers can search by subject area, grade level, or keyword. Just in the past few weeks, I have found resources for rocks and minerals, water cycle, and soil. Some of these are web sites, others are interactives teachers can use on their IWB or have students work on using the computers.
   

 Some other places I find resources are:  reading educator blogs to find out what other teachers are doing in their classroom. I know that everyone is busy and they say they don't have "time" for anything else; especially reading someone's blog post! If you just choose a couple of blogs that you really like and read those, I feel that you will become hooked and look for more blogs. One of the blogs that I get a lot of resources from is "Free Technology for Teachers" by Richard Byrne. He always has some great resources and he always says how they could be used in education.

I follow some great educators on Twitter, along with following the #elemchat stream. Twitter is where educators can quickly share resources with each other or ask if anyone has a resource for a particular item they are getting ready to study. Another resource I use is my Skype group. We have a group of North Carolina educators that chat regularly about resources and helping each other with problems. It is a great group.

You can also find great resources. Next blog I will write about how I organize my resources. Join me, won't you?

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Technology Advice For Administrators

There is so much pressure on school leadership in this day and age. School budgets are growing tighter and tighter. More, now than ever, schools and districts are facing the real possibility of laying off teachers and not having enough in funds to to even keep the doors open to some schools. The vast majority of districts across this country have had to make hard decisions regarding budgets; many of them deciding to make drastic, but necessary cuts in order to save jobs and still give students the best possible education.

There is pressure from state and federal mandates on testing. I see it all the time in the schools that I visit; administrators staring in to computer screens, pouring over spreadsheets, trying to figure out where their students are and where they need to be in terms of testing. Many spend late nights in their offices in April and May thinking of ways to give their students the edge they need to pass the test.

With all of these external pressures there is little time for school leadership to encourage teachers to take risks in their classroom and be creative in terms of technology. However, I believe there are 5 simple things that school leadership can do to help teachers as they transition their classrooms to Web 2.0 learning.

1) Why do we even need to be having this conversation? Why do we need to change? Watch Did You Know 4.0 to understand what will happen if we do nothing. There is a great wiki that goes with the video, well worth your time to check out as well.  (Also check out this post on the best TED Talks for School Leaders.)



2) What do good school leaders do? Check out this short presentation from 2 of the best and most connected administrators in education. Which qualities do you exhibit? Which do you need to work on to support technology in your school or district?

Connected Principals (Classroom 2.0 Presentation)

View more presentations from George Couros

3) Become familiar with the NETS for Administrators- The National Education Technology Standards (NETS) for Administrators have been around since 2009. According to the NETS website: "The NETS for Administrators enable us to define what administrators need to know and be able to do in order to discharge their responsibility as leaders in the effective use of technology in our schools." The NETS provide guidance to school leadership on everything from learning culture to professional practice to digital citizenship. Many of the Standards only require the encouragement, vision and assurance from the administration to ensure that technology is being used to re-shape learning in their buildings.

4) Grow your PLN- Just like teachers, administrators and school leadership need a Professional Learning Network (PLN). Your PLN is there for you to share ideas with, listen to your problems but most of all help you grow ideas you have. Your PLN consists of people who are just like you, that you can turn to when you need that point of view you can't get from anywhere else. One of the best and easiest ways to create a PLN is to join Twitter. There are 100's of school administrators there right now waiting to network. Check out the Principals page on Twitter4Teachers to start. There is also a wonderful hashtag, #cpchat, that many social media using administrators use. (Oh, and if you need more information on how to get the most out of Twitter or how it works, visit my Twitter Livebinder, with over 150 resources.) There are other groups too like Classroom 2.0 on Ning and groups on LinkedIn. The point here is that you are not alone. Learning does not take place in isolation. Reach out and learn and share with others.

5) Provide Time and Encouragement-This is the one that inevitably will be the hardest to do. School leaders have to provide teachers (and themselves) the time and opportunity to learn about new tools and techniques for their classroom. I have already documented all of the pressures on school leaders but in order for our students to be successful we have to understand that the face of education is changing. The way the students learn is changing. Most teachers are not going to be able to make the drastic changes needed overnight. They are going to need time to learn. It is vital that school leaders provide the time needed. More over, and I believe, more important, school leaders must provide an environment in their school for teachers to take risks and encourage teachers to make the change in their teaching. Teachers are not going to make a change or take a risk if there isn't support from their school leadership.


Lastly, check out my most recent post from Leadership Day 2011. And ask yourself, are you a Lone Nut Leader?

Administrators and school leaders need to be agents of change. It should not be the teachers who have to fight for change in their classroom. They should be able to walk hand-in-hand with their administrators to make strides in changing our classrooms from the 18th century to the 21st.


What other suggestions do you have? Leave some comments below. 

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Ah Ha Moments - Using Student Response Systems with Websites

In one of my workshops we were viewing, testing, and working with lots of online resources trying to find more ways to integrate a technology piece into vocabulary curriculum. The freerice.com website brought about a lively discussion; each spoken idea sparked another way to use the site in all subject areas.

Free Rice is a site that can be viewed in English, Spanish, Italian, French, and Chinese. Everything on the site changes into the chosen language. What a way to practice another language! It appeals to those who want to help others, make a difference in someone else's life, and just have fun learning new words and their meanings or the multiplication tables or Chemical symbols. For each correct answer, the United Nations World Food Programme donates 10 grains of rice to help end hunger. The teachers quickly figured out ways they could find time for the students to participate and even set up a "challenge" to see which class could help contribute the most for this non-profit organization.

As we discussed the possibilities for the freerice.com site to be incorporated with Social Studies, one of the teachers shared an idea of how she was going to use her student response system with the site. She is going to create a questionnaire with A, B, C, D responses to choose from for the students to respond to as she marks their answers on the website. They all will be able to participate, learn new vocabulary and help end hunger. Some of the teachers were going to create vocabulary questions, using the terms from their studies, and have the students do quick assessments with the response systems. They felt the students become more engaged when using the technology.

It was so much fun to see the "Ah Ha" moments of how to use the websites with the technology available to the teachers and students. Maybe you could share one of your "Ah Ha" moments - the more, the merrier!

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Everyday Should Be Science Friday!

Today as I was looking for resources for some middle school Science teachers, I came across some great sites that intrigued me. I admit, Science was never my strongest subject in school. However, if I had a website like Science Friday to peak my interest, perhaps I'd be more prone to do some of my own exploring.

Science Friday is a weekly Science talk show on NPR each week. Each week the show focuses on Science topics that are being discussed in the news. Their goal is to "bring an educated, balanced discussion to bear on the scientific issues at hand." The Science Friday website has engaging videos and tutorials that will have your students talking about Science. One of my favorite videos is "Where's the Octopus?" Can you find the octopus?


For more videos, check out the Science Friday video library.

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Picture Books for All!!

Since November 2011 has been declared Picture Book Month by a group of authors and illustrators (see my previous post: Instructional Resources and Picture Books!! for more information), I want to share a few more things I have found related to picture books!

Here are some great quotes about picture books that I found in Strategies That Work: Teaching comprehension for understanding and engagement by S. Harvey and A. Goudis:

• "There is a picture book for every reader and a reader for every reader."
• "The wide range of themes, issues, words, and ideas reach out into classrooms like tentacles drawing in each member, regardless of the different learning styles, ages, reading levels, or prior experiences."
• "We need to think about all  the students who can benefit from these books." 
• "Picture books offer certain unique advantages when we deliver instruction."
• "Readers are more likely to comprehend material that interests them and that is written in a compelling way."
• According to C.S. Lewis, "No book is worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally (and often far more) worth reading at the age of fifty."

I found these resources when I did a search for picture book on netTrekker:

• New York Public Library: 100 Picture Books  
  This website, provided by the New York Public Library, alpabetically lists 100 children's picture books that "Everyone should know."
• Picture Book: directory of children's illustrations This website provides resources for the illustrators and publishers of children's books. Here, fans of children's books can view several art portfolios and artists can create and manage their own online galleries.
• Children's Literature in Mathematics  
  Excellent resource for using children's literature in your math lesson. Books are listed by topic groupings and are linked to related resources. 

There is also a hashtag on twitter being used to share great information about picture book month. Check out #picturebookmonth for other great resources related to picture books from all over.

photo source

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A New Take on History

If you are a fourth grade teacher and have not been to the North Carolina History Project web page you might just be missing out on some new and interesting facts about North Carolina.  You might be asking how can this site benefit me?  Here is how they describe it. "... an edited, evolving, and free online encyclopedia of North Carolina that also includes commentaries, lesson plans, and a community calendar."

To me the site offers a lot about North Carolina that has been broken down into multiple categories and listing so that it makes it easier on the researcher to locate topics for discussion, reports, conversations an other information.

The site homepage is laid out well to offer the visitor a quick glance at what is available but to also provide the most amount of searching power in a few short clicks.  On the website you have scrolling image set of people, places and things inherent to North Carolina that you can click on and read more information about.  Across the top of the page you have an alphabetical list so you can perform a broad topic search just like an Encyclopedia by just clicking on the letter you want.  There is a Featured entry of the day section in the bottom middle of the page that offers you a one click link to read more information about the topic.  You can also browse through the Category dropdown menu on the right side of the page to filter information about specific topics.  Categories like Colonial North Carolina, Places, Document, etc.  Then in the bottom right corner of the page lists out the latest information that has been added to the site.  So far in just a few days of researching the site I have been able to find lots of information quickly and easily through the different search options available on the site

The North Carolina History Project site is funded by the John Locke Foundation and they are currently offering a Citizens' Constitutional Workshop from the link on the left banner.  This link takes you off of the site to the John Locke Foundation website for further information.

There is a separate Educators Corner on the site that offers some research and lesson plan information that has been shared with the site through user created content.  Currently there are not many user lesson plans available but there is a call to share on the site where if you create lesson plans from the content on the site you can share it with them and they will review and post the information for others to use.

If you are teaching North Carolina History whether in Elementary or Middle School this is a site that you just might want to add to your resource list not only for your use but for your students as well.

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