noredink.com


Calling all English educators, this innovative new site certainly has potential.  It is definitely worth a try.  Let's be honest, very few teachers of English go into the profession salivating to instruct grammar.  Well, this new tool in our tool belt just make the prospect a little more inviting.  Though the webinar got off to a dreadfully slow start, moderator Jeff eventually got into the good stuff and introduced us to the site.  One of the coolest aspects about it is that it summons names from your facebook (if you allow access) and interests.  This is done with the intent of making the sentences that the students will correct a tad more compelling.  Instructors can make quizzes based on the whole gambit of grammar problems and the site will record student scores in several very comprehensive and meaningful ways.  The site seemed so useful that I'm excited to introduce my mentor teacher to it.  I wonder how he will receive it.  Earlier in the year, he discovered Edmodo and took it and kept going.  I wonder if he'll have the same experience with this site.

The webinar was all and all run very well minus the very slow process of webinar population --who are we all -- questions at the beginning.  Comically, participants continued and continued and continued to clap when they were asked to raise their hands.  Some people never learn some things.  Noredink.com aims to make grammar not one of them.

The Last Dance

And so it happens . . .

The last post of the term.

But do not fear, fearful ones . . .

The Digital Hall Pass will return . . .

Maybe.

Depending on whether I am curricularly forced into maintaining it.

But for now . . .

It will make one last final dance of the summer . . . and a glorious last dance it will be. 

(Whenever I saved this blog post, I was forced to think of Julia Stiles).


Sooo, I was reading Abby G's post and something she said about one of the former sMACers going to Ghana reminded me of something else she said.

She said that one of the things she learned while in Ghana was that you don't need much to be an effective teacher.  This is something I also believe and I imagine will always believe.  Now, this is no bash against technology - as it create possibilities for learning opportunities that otherwise would be missed . . . But basically, I believe it is superfluous - however it is a superfluosity that should be used as often as it can enhance learning.  And it can enhance learning - greatly.  It just isn't necessary for highly effective teaching.  I suggest all who are interested more deeply in my thoughts along these lines to check out my podcast.  It speaks to my belief in human relationships and their importance in the classroom.  I state that one of the main benefits of technology is how it can connect people.

But people can still make connections without technology, clearly.  We haven't yet reached the world of surrogates.

I don't believe that high tech savvyness is not extremely high on the list of desirable teacher traits.  I think creativity is high up there and a creative teacher can make connections and get their point across through several different means - including potentially through the use of tech.


Speaking on the second part of class, let me just say that  I fully trust Jeff and Kristin to guide our class and the content that we cover. I'm happy to have learned what I have and I feel confident that what I haven't learned is because class time was spent covering what two ed tech experts have deemed to me more important.

I don't know about you, but I've definitely enjoyed 504.  J & K 4eva.

Edublogging Molly

So, after having read Abby G's post and recommendation of Ewan McInosh's blog, I decided to check it out.   (This was after browsing through a couple of other blogs, mostly english teacher blogs from ladies - they did not catch my interest.  Huff English didn't seem to have a lot of thought recent provoking content)  I started to catch the edublogging fever and found a couple of super interesting sites - Ewan's as mentioned and also Bill Ferriter and Lauren Fardig - the previous MACer.  I advise everyone to check these sites out.

At McIntosh I watched a short video on his home page created at an international education conference.  It was really cool to see that people from all over the world can get together to try to work on these problems. I then explored a little and found my way to a TEDx talk that McIntosh had done.  TEDx is not the same as TED, basically the x indicates it is an unofficial event.  Though unofficial, he still had a substantial audience, clearly this guy is quite prominent in some circles.

His talk was about striving to produce students that are "problem finders" instead of "problem learners."  He argues that when kids can decide their own problems they have a vested interest and are therefore more involved.  He mentions that many problems that we ask students to solve are problems that they have no vested interest in.  For most cases, this seems to be true.  This type of practice had been performed in a classroom and he states that the students were so involved in solving these problems that they were standing up and cheering for each other.  Clearly, this type of learning is desirable however he makes no mention of how to control what content they learn.  If the students are deciding, then the students are deciding.

Would this practice mean the elimination of a practice altogether??

More to come . . .

So I also browsed through Bill Ferriter's blog and I must admit, aspects of it were somewhat depressing.  He speaks to being bogged down by curriculum standards and teaching for the test rather than encouraging real creative student thought like he used to.  He says he had to change because his students were scoring too low.  I won't completely understand this situation until I become more familiar with the tests my students will be taking and how what I think is good practice either does or does not translate to these texts.

For example, promoting intellectual character is one thing that I really value.  Will this show up on any test?  Likely, no.  This is a pretty discouraging notion.  Even in my own studies, I've never been someone that values achievement -  I value learning. I realize that they are closely linked.  I hope this link will show up on the tests.

Google Reader Glitchtastic??

Soooo, Rayhan and I are in the same blogging cohort as is Matt Pierson.  When Kristin was showing us Google Reader we decided to subscribe to all of the people's blogs in our cohort.  Rayhan was then checking out the content from her subscription on google reader and when she went over the stuff from Matt Pierson's blog she found some stuff that wasn't on his blog.  When she clicked the link to it it took her to Pierson's blog but had a date of 2010 (well before he created his blog) and it said content not available.  The mystery content were drawings of little green neighborhoods and people with pumpkin heads.  Just silly stuff.

I asked Matt P and he said he had no idea what that stuff was.  SOooo, I figured that there must have been a blogspot with the same domain name as his that existed before his but was since deleted.  Somehow, Google reader can still summon this content.  

I'm not really sure how I feel about this.  Actually I am sure.  That shouldn't be happening.  I wonder if Google reader is aware of this.  Probably they are.

Just goes to show the world wide web is a crazy place and sometimes things happen that shouldn't.  Mysteries abound.  Glitches happen.  Just thought it was interesting.

P.S.  If you're interested in seeing the pumpkin people, simply subscribe to Matt Pierson's blog on google reader . . .

My Toolbar (Tool belt) is getting heavy.

First things first . . . lyrics to the Jukebox Hero parody, Dropbox Hero . . .

If you're feeling adventurous, you can listen to the song while you read the new lyrics and replace them . . .

Standing in the rain, with his head hung low
Couldn't find a seat, it was a sold out 504
Heard the roar of the crowd, he could picture the scene
Put his ear to the wall, then like a distant scream
He heard of one new tool, just blew him away
He saw stars in his eyes, and the very next day

Went to dropbox.com, having files to store
Didn't know how to use it, but he knew for sure
That one new tool, felt good on his Mac, didn't take long, to understand
Just one dropbox, icon down low
Was a one way ticket, only one way to go
So he started droppin', ain't never gonna stop
Gotta keep on droppin', someday gonna make it to the top

. . . and be a DROPBOX hero, got stars in his eyes, he's a DROPBOX hero!

I shared this with my organizing your online life team.  I'm not too sure they got a kick out of it.  I did, though.

We learned about Diigo, Dropbox, Evernote, and Skype.  

I had never used the first three and I use Skype every day.  My sister and brother-in-law live in Germany and my girlfriend is in Russia.  Skype is awesome.  

Dropbox seems to be overlapped considerably in its functionality by other tools/devices.   Their website also opens with a horribly boring tutorial video.  I'm sorry, but if you can't whip up some better marketing than that, I'm not sure if your free product even warrants my time.  Having said my two cents, I do understand why a person might use it.   If a person is constantly skipping from device to device it seems like it could be a great tool.  One of the coolest things is the easy sharing.  

I should emphasize easy.  Because what dropbox does is not terribly more than what email or a USB can do, it really aims to persuade users with its ease.   It does what you already can do.  Maybe it makes it a little easier.

I'm sure there are lots of dropbox heroes out there.  I'm sure it saves them some time.  Maybe I will go this route when I have more devices.  For now, everything is on my laptop, USB, and email.  So far, so good.

Diigo seems really cool!!!!   More on this later . . .      


I'm back . . .


So if I actually get on the Diigo horse I feel like it has the potential to revolutionize how I organize how the information in my online life.  I think I will have to change the settings to make it not so invasive.  I want to have it available when I want it, but I do not want it to bother me when I'm trying to do other stuff.  I know it is vying for my attention but like a clingy girlfriend, people will be driven away.  People need their space.  It sent me an email and also popped up when I was googling stuff . . . so I turned it off and haven't turned it back on.  I think I will some time after my life slows down.  Or maybe when I have an expansive research project.  Actually, I think it might be better to use it for some sort of fun application first so I get used to its functionality stuff.  We'll see.   


I'm definitely thankful for the introduction to all these new tools.  Really cool stuff))))




Onward.

Learning Stuff

I really enjoy the practical tech skills that we learn every class.  The pinnacle moment of Friday's session was when I linked to my blog and embedded my aviary audio file on my new online portfolio/website.  The key now is to not lose knowledge of these skills.  I hope to keep refreshing them by working with these tools in a few creative projects.

What new creative projects should I partake in?  Feel free to chime in, blogosphere . . .

I think there is a good chance I will employ the use of online websites/portfolios during my teaching career.  I was surprised at how easy it was.  The wide world web is really a place full of wonder . . . as long as you can avoid the spider.  The most problematic thing seems to be the bit about posting student work online.  I guess I work make it optional but just highly recommend it.  As I commented on another blog, this online portfolio would have definitely motivated my adolescent self.  I hardly ever showed my parents any of my work.  If I was made to put it all online in a cool looking, sleek web portfolio, I would happily send my parental units the link.  It's actually a reason for them to look at it.  I'm sure many of you had different experiences, but thinking about mine, an online portfolio would definitely enhance my parent's interest and involvement in my work.


The presentation from the former sMACer, Tom  (was that his name?), was cool.  The real question that it brought up was how much time are you willing to sacrifice to actually make a lesson interesting . . . ?   A teacher always needs to be mindful of the curriculum but simultaneously mindful of how much droning a student can take before they die of boredom.  In 10th grade, I used to walk into my American Democratic Society class (Civics) and say to my buddy, "what are we going to do today, brain?"   And he'd say, "the same we do every day pinky . . . vocab and busy work."  

The kids in Tom's classroom are going to remember their lesson on parabolic equations years from now.  How much else will they remember?  Probably not a whole lot.

Aiming for Gaming, TED talk girl Button Mashing with the best of them . . .

Hmmm.  A video game designer tells me that the secret is video games and one of her main arguing points is about extremely circumstantial/unreliable historical data that semi-relates.  She draws hugely unfound conclusions (in my opinion).   BUT, her boots are cool.

The idea, nonetheless, is still worth discussing.  This along with the text by the baby boomer James Gee shared similar enthusiasm for the gaming - learning equation but I think envisioned slightly different applications.

Here is Gee:


""So the suggestion I leave you with is not “use games in school”—though that’s a
good idea—but: How can we make learning in and out of school, with or without using
games, more game-like in the sense of using the sorts of learning principles young people
see in good games every day when and if they are playing these games reflectively and
strategically?""

This is a good question.  Games don't increase learning, the types of things that they supply like intrinsic motivation promote learning.   I'm very interested in this discussion of increasing ownership and incentives beyond just a grade perspective.

I've actually worked quite a but with games and learning and I'm not speaking of video games.  I know these games not being video games gets away from not being technology but it still informs the discussion.

I've learned that with K-6 you can pretty much make a game out of anything.  Make the rules of the game, enforce the rules of the game, add motivation for them to be successful, and hoila.

For example, when working as a counselor when I first started working at Camp Ohiyesa, I informed my cabin campers that whenever I saw trash on the ground, I would start making a nuclear noise and point to it and they had five seconds to pick it up or else we had to walk back a short distance and go through the area again and "do it the right way."  You could not imagine how much excitement this created and how effective at picking up trash it was.

Furthermore, it is common at camp to award the cleanest cabin award.  Human beings love to compete.  It doesn't take much to get their juices flowing in this regard.  If I established myself as someone they looked up to and how important their task was, they would buy into anything.  I told them they were the best cabin and they were going to prove it to the camp every day by winning the cleanest cabin award everyday.  And they did.  Those floors were squeaky clean.  Remember, we're talking about 15 young boys squeezed into a building in the woods.  Squeaky Clean Floors.  Anything can be made into a game.  You just have to be creative.  And I mean "creative" in a whole different way than many educators talk about.  Game designers are highly creative people.  Are teachers?  Are they even allowed to be?