Digital Story About Salmon Life Cycle
After our two day workshop on Digital Storytelling with Dr. Helen Barrett and Erin Barrett a group of Chimacum High and Middle School teachers create digital stories. I really enjoyed and appreciate the idea of creating digital stories that are narrated by the author. They are much more personal that way and sound great. Most of the teachers at the workshop created incredible stories about their families, tributes, and stories about who they are so they can introduce themselves and digital storytelling to their students. It was very powerful. And now that we know how to make our own it will be that much easier to show our students how to start so they can take off and create their own digital stories. I chose to make mine about the salmon life cycle because it seemed like a fun way to introduce salmon to my 6th graders when we study freshwater ecology. Before taking this workshop I attempted what could be a digital story to show my advisory group how they could make one for their electronic portfolio for student-led conferences but I didn’t do as much narrating as was recommended in our workshop. I created a video of my dreams as a teacher and my students create dream books while a few actually tried to create dream videos like mine.
Here is the salmon life cycle:
Dr. Barrett has a Digital Storytelling site full of resources for having students create their own digital stories. Creating digital stories are a valuable component of electronic portfolios as well. What a great way to get ready for school. I’m excited to try this with my students.
Office2 HD
This is another cross post I wrote for IEAR.
I was reading a post from Adventures in Teaching and Learning by Mr. Keenan, Why the iPad IS for Content Creation in Education {iPads in Education, Mobile Learning, 21st Century Learning} and I splurged and bought one of the featured apps in that article, Office2 HD.
I decided to buy it for one main reason that I just couldn’t resist: it allows you to edit your Google Docs documents! Not just edit, you can create a document and save it as a Google Doc! I was already resigning myself to have my students create written content on their iPads and then either email them to the desktop computers or use Dropbox to get the documents to the desktop where the documents could then be uploaded to Google Docs. Now we don’t have to! The one shortfall I have come across so far is that I can’t find where or how to view comments left on a Google Doc on Office2. I’m still working on figuring that one out but I can’t find anything. It doesn’t help that when I add “comments” into my search I get mostly hits on blog comments. Maybe people haven’t noticed the problem or maybe it’s just me.
[Addition: I found the comments! While re-reading a google doc on Office2 HD I scrolled all the way down past the end of the document and voila! I found the comments!! So it does work. Two thumbs up from me!]
While searching to see if anyone else has noticed that you can’t view comments or if someone has figured out how to view comments I came across this blog that describes Office2 very well and gives tips on how to set it up to view your Google Docs documents and spreadsheets as well as your Dropbox files. Viewing and editing those files has been working very well for me. The blog is Editing Google Docs with Office2 HD, from MobileContent Today. It’s worth the read if you plan on buying this app.
This app was definitely a good purchase.
Classroom Management & Communication
I’ve been getting quite a few pointers from the Smart Classroom Management blog. If you don’t subscribe to it, do so. It’s worth it. And check out their blogs, they have strategies and tips for everything you’ll need to make your class a fun place to be and learn.
The best tools I have for classroom management are to be proactive, right? In a perfect world Science is so much fun that students will forget all of their problems and never act out. That being said I do my best to ensure that my classroom is safe, engaging, fun and relevant. Safe by keeping bullying and put downs out of our school and by knowing and practicing that’s it’s okay to be wrong and make mistakes to learn. Engaging by studying exciting Science topics around questions and problems facing our world. Fun by doing labs and using current, 21st Century tech tools. Relevant by actually having my students learn.
I try to keep my rules simple. For my incoming 6th graders the rules are
- Respect the rights and property of others.
- Do not interfere with others’ rights to learn.
- Come to class prepared and on time
I’m also teaching two of our three 8th grade classes. Most of the 8th graders were with me in 6th grade and many of my returning 8th graders were with me last year in 7th grade. With them them the rules are even simpler. Show respect. I don’t spend a lot of time telling students the rules or talking about rules. Once we’ve determined what we want out our Science class I go from there.
From the Smart Classroom Management blog I got a great idea for consequences. I used to have all these leveled consequences until I finally gave up on writing down and sending home consequences. I used think time and contacted parents when I needed to and that took care of most problems. For the recurring or serious problems I send kids to the principal. This year I’m going to try the following consequences:
1st time a rule is broken: Warning
2nd time a rule is broken: Time-Out (for us this is Think Time)
3rd time a rule is broken: Letter Home
This is the half sheet letter I’ll send home with students if get to step 3:
This letter was adapted from what a now retired teacher in my school, Nancy Wyatt, used as a “Yellow Plan” to send home with students who needed to tell their parents something.
The letter sent home is to communicate with parents so they know what is going on in class. I’m hoping that negative behaviors won’t go past this step. Beyond this step moves the problem into the building discipline plan. According to the Smart Classroom Management blog if you treat the rules/consequences as a contract and follow it consistently it will work to change student behavior. That is after all what I want, to show all my students which behaviors contribute to the flow of learning in our classroom.
Another idea I got from the Smart Classroom Management blog that I’m going to implement this year is the No-Go Restroom Policy. I have about 50 minutes a day with my students to learn and do Science. Raising hands to use the restroom during a riveting class discussion is annoying so the rule is that there is no using of the restroom during class time. Yeah, yeah, I’m horrible. But wait. There’s a secret loophole. Yes. It’s the Jumping Jack Loophole. If a student can’t hold it until the next class (remembering that we have a 15/10 rule where the all students are to be in class the first 15 and last 10 minutes of each period) then all that student has to do is stand in my line of sight and make sure I see him or her. Then he or she needs to do five energetic jumping jacks and go sign out to use the restroom. Sounds crazy, right? Just crazy enough for me to try it! They say it works remarkably well. We’ll see. 
Class Syllabi and Intro Letters
I finally have some rough drafts done after much toiling and procrastinating for days. I’ll need to read over them again and make changes but at least I’ve got something to start with. The reason I’m toiling and stressing is because there is so much I want parents and students to know. I want to give them the right ideas regarding going gradeless and show how it’s in the best interest of their children. I want them to get excited about technology integration because even though it’s not about the technology, the tech is still a great hook.
I tend to write too much because narration is much easier for me than bulleting items or making some other easier to read format. I got a lot of what I wanted to say and there are many pages. So far I’ve copied some sections word for word on my 6th and 8th grades syllabi. I started with the 6th grade and was too tired to think of a better way to say for my 8th graders so I just copied it because I want them to know that too.
Both 8th graders and 6th graders will get a two page syllabus/class intro letter, plus a two page standards letter, plus a two page blogging letter. So each parent will get six pages from me. Ugh, I know. I was wondering about staggering them but since we leave for Camp Cispus the second week of school from Tuesday to Friday (yeah, I know) I need to get these off right away and at the time when parents are most likely to read them.
A lot of paper. Am I setting myself up to annoying parents? What should I cut out? I just don’t know. It’s like when you write something and then you have cut but you can’t part with any of it!
My 6th grade syllabus and intro letter:
6th grade Standards:
I also send home the following to get both my 6th grade and 8th grade students blogging:
For my 8th grade classes I am still working on the following:
And here are the 8th grade standards:
This is a letter I have on file to send home when parents ask for work while they take their child away from school for an extended time. If you keep track of what you do on the web and upload files there’s no reason a student should miss much (well, except for all the learning that takes place interacting with their peers that is).
Should I cut or keep?
iPad’s Promise and How to Use it Now
This is another cross post I wrote on the IEAR website.
Zemanta’s August 13 post regarding, “What do teachers really want in an ‘Educational App?’” has hit the nail on the head. Ever since I bought my first iPhone back in 2008 and since then seeing kids use their iPod Touch I wanted more than what most of the educational apps I was finding were providing. Then the iPad came out and I knew that, with all its promise, it would be a while before it could deliver completely. Zemanta’s post received a great comment from an app developer. I can understand the problems that developers are facing and I believe they will overcome many of those problems and that Apple will reach a balance whereby we can get educational apps that can be used for more than just drill-n-kill. Does it help us now? Not really. I also believe that the iPad will someday have cameras like the iPhone or maybe even the iPhone 4 and that we’ll be able to maybe even film videos and edit them like on the iPhone. But it’s not that way yet. My problem with that? I have grant money to buy a set of iPads this Fall. When iPads improve I won’t be able to get them. Life’s tough, I know, at least I will have a set of iPads. I’m not realy complaining, I’m just saying it would be great to have them fully functional now.
I’ve been thinking of the ways my students will use the iPads I’m getting the way I’m getting them. My principal was able to purchase me an iPad to try out over the summer so I’ve been trying out different apps. Another helpful blog I read was David Warlick’s Technology for 21st Century Learning: Part 1. In his blog article David impels us to make sure we’re not adopting new technologies becasue they’re new or gadgety. He too writes about the iPad in education and how it’s not at its full potential yet. He also writes, “21st century leaning has nothing to do with iPads, iPod Touches, or any piece of technology. The only thing that is one to one that we should be concerned with is equitable access to rigorous, relevant, and irresistible learning experiences that reflect and harness the times, environment, and ultimate goals of the learning.” That got me thinking again about how I plan to have my students use the iPads and other assorted machines I have for students in a 1:1 environment.
My goals for integrating technology into my middle school Science courses is to have my students Create, Connect and Collaborate. From the simple, lower bloom’s taxonomy activities to the higher level activities students will hopefully be motivated by having “their” technologies available in school. Of course having “their” tech in school and not allowing them to use the tech in the ways they are accustomed to is not enough. So here are some ideas for using iPads in a middle school Science classroom:
- To read. Students can read websites for research or pdf files that we load onto iBooks. I plan to have students try out the VoiceOver feature if they struggle with reading or prefer being read to. With a 1:1 all students can read at their own pace. Annotating and note-taking is possible right on the iPad even with the Notes app or using an app like Documents2.
- Once reading is done students can access their blogs from the iPad and write about their reading. By writing and reflecting on blogs students can comment on each other’s thoughts. This helps students both Create and Connect. For writing blogs or taking notes students can try the Dictation app to speak their ideas right onto the iPad.
- By working on webquests or project/problem-based-learning activities and labs students can Collaborate to come up with a solution. Using their iPad students can use Idea Sketch or Adobe Ideas or Sundry Notes to brainstorm how they will share their solution with the rest of the class. If they plan to use Prezi, Xtranormal or some other Flash based web 2.0 tool to share they can send their ideas to the team’s desktop computer or netbook via Dropbox or email. I also have CloudBrowse to see if they can use something like Prezi and Create right on their iPad.
- Let’s also not forget YouTube. My students use YouTube often to find videos to share with the class to show what they’ve learned as well as to learn.
- Using Documents2 to write notes students can get those notes to the team’s google docs using again Dropbox or email. Students will have the option of taking their notes individually since they have enough machines. I used to have two to three students using one computer and while one typed away the others were often unengaged. Having all my students blog and/or take notes at the same time is exciting and we don’t even have to go to the computer lab!
- Using Dropbox, email, or Flickr students can get pictures they take in class and then with PhotoPad they can edit their images.
- To Create images for their blogs or other products students can draw with DrawFree, iDraft or Comic Touch.
- For backchanneling class discussions and answering questions we will use Twitter with Twitbird Pro. This gives all students a voice while allowing them to Connect and Collaborate in class.
I do have some exciting Science apps for students to use but I expect that once the novelty wears out they won’t be used as much. Those apps will be much more useful when we actually have a reason to use them, for example when studying the effects of nitrates in our creek, NO3, students can use the The Elements app to look at nitrogen and oxygen up close and personal. The Elements is an example of an app that is absolutely gorgeous. The best way I have seen to view and learn about elements. As a novelty item, with no purpose, kids may ooh and ahh at first but soon will lose interest and move on to something else. I don’t have that many reasons to use a periodic table because I don’t teach chemistry but I still had to have that app for those few times I could use it. It is just stunning.
So having my students read, annotate, take notes, learn, write, communicate, share and comment with few or many apps I think will be the bread and butter of how we will use the iPads in my class. Moving files from and to the iPad will be essential especially since we will be using google docs to Collaborate. Besides using the flashy apps, what else can we do with our iPads?
My Concerns as an Educator
Many of the blogs I’ve been reading, twitter conversations I’ve been reading or participating in, twitter chats I’ve been participating in, and guest blogs I’ve been writing and reading have been bringing back a nagging concern I have for our students. I think I’ve also read the response in the same tweets and blogs that brought it to mind in the first place but I feel the need to put it out there and see what others think about it.
My dilemma centers around this whole idea of making learning engaging, exciting, accessible, easy. Before I go on let me just say that I’m all for making learning engaging and relevant for my students. I’m the first to try a new tech tool if I feel it will make learning the same old content new and exciting. But I still worry that in this age of way too much tech, where even our words are finished for us so we barely have to learn to spell, that we might be giving our students the wrong message. That there’s an easy way to get through learning and life. That less effort is the way to go.
I could be wrong but in my limited experience it seems that the most successful people, the ones we all hear about and the ones we all know, work their collective butts off. Time and again I keep hearing, reading or watching that it’s not how much natural talent you have or how good you are at something but how hard you work at it. Thinking of this I had to watch the movie Rudy again on Netflix because it’s so inspiring. How many great people, who have made incredible contributions to our world, did so in spite of repeated and consistent failure? It’s mind boggling.
So how do we inspire, convince, encourage or otherwise help our students realize that it’s their hard work, their effort, and not any notions of intelligence or talent or gift that will allow them to succeed and realize their full potential in life? Sir Ken Robinson writes and talks at length on this very topic. Finding our passions will help us enjoy what we do so that we will do it more so that we may realize our potential!
But is that enough? We need to encourage, not discourage, our students to explore so they can find their passions while not squashing any passion they have at the moment. We need to develop or nurture in ourselves a belief in the growth mindset (vs fixed mindset) so we don’t judge our students by their test scores and make up our minds about their abilities or intelligence. We also need to rethink how we assess our students, which is why I joined Joe Bower’s Grading Moratorium. In my PLN there has been so much talk about grades and assessment. What is truly great isn’t whether or not every teacher abolishes grading completely but that we are having these discussions, that we are challenging the way we do things and that we aren’t doing things just because it’s the way things have always been done or because that’s what way it was done to us. The fact that teacher’s are looking for ways to improve the way they help their students learn is what needs to be done.
We also need to watch what we praise when we work to encourage our students. Studies show that by praising achievement or intelligence students are less likely to take risks because they stand to lose more. They become unintelligent, which is too much to bear. While praising effort does the opposite. When it’s your hard work that is your goal then failure is just seen as a stepping stone to success. Risk taking is okay because the harder you work, the more effort you put in, the better you do. It has nothing to do with your intelligence or talent. You want to get better at basketball, practice every day. You want to learn more math, practice everyday. It makes so much sense. Nothing is more depressing to me than hearing a young 6th grader tell me that he or she is not good at math or not good at science. My thought is, “What? So soon? You’ve barely started your life and your educational career and you’ve already given up?” We all need to be lifelong learners so we can’t somehow convince our students that they can’t do something!
So yes, as an educator I am concerned that something I do might indicate that the easy road is the way to go. Is it okay to sometimes have to do unappealing work to later get good at something. I read somewhere that basics aren’t necessary anymore or shouldn’t be taught anymore. Is that true? Are we shying away from teaching kids certain things because they are “boring.” I tell my students that I’d rather not hear that word. I hate that word. It’s an excuse to not do something. I have students who it find it boring to read or write. It’s still a necessary way to learn so even if you have a hard time reading or writing you should still learn and practice to get better at it. I love my job but not all facets of it are engaging and exciting. And what ever happened to learning a discipline or being an apprentice or intern? They have to do the less appealing parts of their profession before they can be the one giving the orders. I guess I’m having a hard time defining what is truly 21st century and where 20th century (or 19th even) ideals need to give way.
Is it time for grunt work to go? Is it time for basics to give way entirely? Is it okay to sometimes do “boring” work? Wow, I guess I started ranting. It’s good to think about what we are having our students do. We have to look at what our students are doing and ask ourselves if it’s worth having then do so they can learn or get better at something. Sports have drills so why can’t content areas? Of course you can’t do drills all the time without actually using those skills. I guess it all boils down to balance. If our students are consistently doing engaging, relevant, fun work then they won’t be so turned off by having to do tedious work every once in a while.
Blogs as Electronic Portfolios
Image used under Creative Commons from Zeusandhera, some rights reserved.
I’ve been having my students blog in my Science classes for years using David Warlick’s ClassBlogmeister. It was only this summer that I thought, “why not use those blogs as electronic portfolios?” Our school has been part of WA state’s Navigation 101 program and we are beginning to delve into electronic portfolios. Once a student has a blog account that student can customize his or her blog space, within limits. Adding widgets is a fun way to personalize blogs but students also have the freedom to blog about anything they want in between Science blog assignments. By taking photos of work students can showcase anything on their blog and have a one stop URL to share with parents on Student-Led Conference day or any day they want.
I was excited again about giving students the option of using their blogs as their electronic portfolio after this week’s Edchat discussion on student blogging.
Take this student blog for instance. She has a collection of Science reflections, including a couple of glogs. But her most recent article is one she just wrote to share something she’s interested in. That was cool! She’s been in my Science class for two years now and if I have her again next year she’ll be able to continue adding to her blog.
This student is going to be a sophomore in the Fall yet her blog still exists here. She had me for Science for all three years of middle school so by scrolling to the bottom of her blog and clicking Previous Entry you can see all the blog entries she wrote in that time. She was adept at placing pictures in her blogs, something I need to work on with all my students. If she wanted to share this blog as part of her high school electronic portfolio, she could.
This student really enjoyed making glogs so you can see a few more prominent glogs on his blog. I don’t mind if students write posts from other classes. I’m hoping they do those posts outside of my class though
One teacher in the edchat asked about having students blog for homework. I tried that for years. I’d start by having students blog in class so they could see how to do it and try it out. Then I’d assign certain blogs for homework. Year after year I had only a handful of students actually complete their blogs for homework. I didn’t have them blog in class more than a few assignments because I had ten computers for them to use. Ten computers are great for teams of two or three to work collaboratively on something but for individual assignments or reflections two and three was a crowd. I’ve always had a hard time coming up with engaging seat work to rotate students through the computers. Paper and pencil seat work in Science just didn’t seem right to me (even though I have done it).
Last year I stopped assigning blogs as homework because I was saddened by how many students weren’t blogging at all and more students blogged and we got some good commenting going with a few other classes. This fall I’m hoping to have students blog more because I’ll have one machine of some sort for each student. I’m excited about that. I’ll see if they get into their blogs more if they will do more at home.
So what do you think about having students use blogs as an electronic portfolio? Anyone doing that? I’m thinking at least as an option and if students use something else I will still expect them to link to their blogs so they can share those at their conferences at least.
Star Walk iPad App Review
This year’s Olympic Math & Science Partnership (OMSP) summer program was again held at the gorgeous Olympic Park Institute (OPI) at Lake Crescent. For four days Math and Science teachers met to learn more Math and Science. I brought my iPad and one app in particular made a huge impression on many teachers: Star Walk. (I wrote this review for IEAR as another cross post.)
At $4.99 it’s well worth it if you’re into watching stars.
We would start by the lake facing west. As the Sun set we’d bring out the iPad and launch Star Walk.
The first screen to pop up gives you rising and setting times for the Sun, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn plus Moon phase info in a visually stunning format as seen below.
By clicking the X in bottom right hand corner you are brought to the view of the skies. The picture below shows the western horizon as viewed by people in WA state. You can a dotted line which shows the ecliptic or path of the Sun. Since this screen shot was taken at 10:14pm (PST) the Sun is below the horizon and out of our view. You can see where the planets are and as you move the screen view different constellations come into view. We were lucky enough to have a green laser to point at the stars so we could easily see which stars we were pointing at. Green lasers can be a bit pricy, I got mine for about $80, but if you’re a star watcher and will be watching with other people I highly recommend getting one. I just checked the site where I ordered my green laser pointer and they’re down in price. You can get one as low as $49 from Z-Bolt (and no, I don’t work for them). Without a green laser it’s difficult figuring out which star people are pointing to. With the laser you can actually see a green beam of light extend up into the sky to use as a sky pointer!
Each night we’d go out and enjoy pointing out the stars as the iPad was passed around with the green laser. And all this with no Wifi signal whatsoever (not a 3G iPad)! Great summer fun!
iPad App Reviews
iPad App Reviews for IEAR
After writing my iPads in Science blog article I received a comment from Scott Meech from the I Educational Apps Review (IEAR) website. He asked me to cross post my article on the IEAR website. How cool! So I copied my article, with slight re-editing, and now it’s posted on the IEAR site! Check it out.
This has been a fun summer for writing blogs. I’m enjoying writing my thoughts on this blogs because writing is very helpful for me. It’s how I learn sometimes and it’s great for reflection. Try it. Start your own blog today.
My 2nd Guest Blog Post!
The Grading Moratorium
Joe Bower’s blog, for the Love of Learning, was a big help and support for me while I was researching going grade-less. His section on Abolishing Grades has many posts that he’s written throughout his time teaching with no grades. He’s been doing it longer than most of us so it’s nice to read his ideas. So when invited teachers to join his Grading Moratorium I wrote up a post for it. Here’s my addition to the Grading Moratorium. Teachers who join the Grading Moratorium write up their story to share with other teachers who are interested in abolishing grades to create an atmosphere conducive to learning in their classrooms. So check out my story and leave me a comment there or here with some feedback! (Get it, feedback?)
