Posts by lhoogland:
Read, Write, Think: Flip Book
July 13th, 2010Many of our South Dakota educators utilize Thinkfinity resources and here is another great one for our students. Read, Write, Think now has a flip book creator. Students are able to write and illustrate their own 10 page book online and print it upon completion. This tool allows students to move away from paper and pencil if they so choose and create their book completely online. If they want to change something they simply erase and move on and no extra paper has been used. Definately a great resource to check out as the school year begins next month!
Students Solving Global Problems
July 1st, 2010What a great ISTE 2010 Conference. Throughout the 4 days I definitely felt that the theme “Exploring Excellence” resonated throughout the sessions and keynotes as we looked at how to revolutionize student learning to impact global problems. Sunday night Jean-François Rischard laid out 20 global problems that we are facing and the importance of needing to find solutions to those problems. One problem How are we going to address the issue of “needing to increase the worlds food supply by 75% in the next 30 years” is a great question? What are we having our students do, to address such an issue? What projects could we develop to guide our students work to impact the world in a positive manner?
Tuesday the panel including Mr. Rischard reiterated how students are growing up in a global world. Shaun Koh, the student panelist from Singapore offered a great insight when he said “I was educated in Singapore but I grew up on the internet”. But did he grow up on the internet at school or at home? We need to tap into this technology to meet our students technology love and to connect them with other students. Taking a global problem such as food shortage and developing a related project for our not only our students but students globally we will begin to find solutions. Through these projects we can connect our students with “living experts” instead of guiding them through a textbook while still meeting our academic standards.
Jeff Piontek closed out the conference with reminding us that we need to create “competent and confident learners.” How would we best go about this? We need to be certain that we give our students problems to solve instead of giving them “answers to remember.” By giving them problems to solve we are making certain that “what we’re doing in school relates to what is outside of school.” Our students will not only take an equation and solve a specific problem but they will figure out how the equation relates to wider, global problems that need solutions, their solutions.
Are You a Part of the 1%?
April 27th, 2010If you weren’t able to attend the TIE Conference last week in Sioux Falls, Angela Maiers gave a great keynote Tuesday morning speaking of the importance that we as educators be web contributors and teach our students to be web contributors.
Through her keynote and breakout she gave two great acronyms:
FLUENT: Filter, Learn, Unlearn, Engage, Network and Trust – The keys to thriving in changing times
BREATHE: Basics, RSS, Extend, Attitude, Tools, Have a Plan, Enjoy the Ride – Keys to thriving on the web.
These are definitely keys to the web and also keys to teaching in general that we can use to transform our schools into places for 21st Century Learners.
Currently, only 1% of the world’s population contributes information to the internet. The web is constantly changing so we need to be FLUENT and BREATHE in order to navigate the digital world that we live in. Through our online communities our students and us can be honored, celebrated and shown worth. We can receive great information from people that can be found quickly and spread quickly thus allowing for greater, concentrated learning.
But we must be ready to “relinquish control, to be open and transparent, vulnerable, give up your position of power, ready to adapt, learn to be wrong and globally collaborate” in order to become a part of web contribution.
Are you ready to become a part of web contribution so we can expand to 2%?
Going Paperless
March 23rd, 2010I was introduced to a new blog today Teach Paperless: Seeking Social Solutions to the Mysteries of 21st Century Teaching and Learning by Shelly Blake-Plock. She is challenging teachers to commit now to going paperless on Earth Day, April 22nd and so far she has over 825 teachers committed to not using any paper for one day. What a great idea for all of us to commit to not using any paper for one day! Mr. Byrne who blogs on Free Technology for Teachers gives further ideas on how to go paperless on his site that are also shared here. Many of you already use these and with our privilege of having many 1:1 schools in South Dakota these strategies are easy but they can also be expanded to schools who are not 1:1 but want to incorporate 21st century technology into student learning.
1. Get your students using Google Docs to write their essays. Students can share essays with you and you can grade them without printing.
2. Try using Drop.io to collect your students’ work online.
3. Compare the articles in your textbooks with articles on Wikipedia about the same topic. Similarly, get your students started building a wiki of reliable articles that can replace your older textbooks and periodicals.
4. If you’re in the habit of sending newsletters home, start an email list or better yet a blog to replace that newsletter. 5. If you’re teaching in a 1:1 environment, stop printing assignments and just post them online.
Creating Collaborative Teams Day 2
March 15th, 2010Our second day of collaboration was once again a great learning experience. The focus was on processes for meetings and conflict along with roles within a team.
We were able to watch a data team work through a five step process of looking at student data throughout the school year.
1. Collect and Chart Data
2. Analyze Strengths and Needs
3. Establish short-term SMART goals
4. Select Instructional Strategies
5. Determine Results Indicators
Seeing a team work through this process with a common assessment was a great learning tool. We also thought about ways to utilize this method for vertical teams working on the same standard.
There were also several Process tools to help guide instructional strategy, data or personnel discussions. Then we moved into looking at two different processes for dealing with conflict within a group. Working with a team of three we practiced these conflict tools so that individuals can either resolve the conflict or at least move forward in a positive manner from the conflict.
Lastly, we looked at roles within teams, how they can change from one meeting to the next or even during meetings along with revisiting of team norms when determining what the roles are.
Overall the learning was great over the two days and we are excited to continue our planning for the SDI+ Summer Insitute so we can share this great information with all of our schools.
Creating Collaborative Teams Day 1
March 12th, 2010Susan Sparks has been a great facilitator thus far for our Creating Collaborative Teams seminar. Today our goals were focus, structure and relationships.
Focus for team meetings, team expectations and team goals.
Structure: Identifying the differences between a group and a team from the start today. Many times in schools we look at teams and groups in the same manner but the semantics are important to realize that a team follows these steps:
1. Focuses on Learning
2. Establish Norms
3. Schedules a time to Collaborate
4. Focuses on Critical Questions
5. Makes Products
6. Pursues Team Goals
7. Have Frequent Access to Relevant Information
We also had the chance to watch a collaborative team in action to see what all collaborative teams should do. There is definitely no better way to learn than seeing a great example!
Relationships: Trust is the most important aspect of every team and without it no team can move forward. To understand trust and true team function one must look at the 5 dysfunctions that teams encounter:
1. Absence of Trust
2. Fear of Conflict
3. Lack of Commitment
4. Avoidance of Accountability
5. Inattention to Results
Building trust and then working towards the other four will help any team become more collaborative. Once trust is present collaboration can be followed with these seven norms.
1. Pausing
2. Paraphrasing
3. Putting Inquiry at the Center
4. Probing for Specificity
5. Placing Ideas on the Table
6. Paying Attention to Self and Others
7. Presuming Positive Intention
There may have been 12 points to remember but putting remembering they are tied to 3 big ideas of Focus, Structure and Relationships make the 12 more doable. A definite framework for collaborative teams has been laid and day 2 looks exiting.
Lewis and Clark Were Here
March 9th, 2010A colleague shared this information with me and I can’t help but pass it on to you. Lewis and Clark Were Here is the title of an expedition by Maureen Oliver and Tony Fernandez in which they will be following the Lewis and Clark trail from the Pacific Northwest to St. Louis. They anticipate that their foot journey slated to begin in May will be completed in November. Thus I would estimate the South Dakota Portion of their trek to be in the fall. They will be documenting their trip with video, via facebook, their website (linked above) and twitter. This may be a great way for students to remain engaged with learning over the summer and perhaps a great field trip for those of you close to the Missouri River. I would bet Maureen and Tony would be more than willing to chat with students for a little while about their expedition and the similarities and differences between them and the Lewis and Clark expedition.
How Millennial are You?
February 26th, 2010Do you feel connected to the students you work with, your teenagers or any millennial that you come in contact with? The Pew Research Center has developed a How Millennial Are You quiz, the 14 question quiz is simple but quickly shows you a difference in generations. Looking at the questions parallels how the world is flat and how technology invades the lives of millennials. Take two minutes, check it out and see how your millennial results compare to your coworkers, students and teenagers!
Wikipedia a Reliable Source? Yes…
February 8th, 2010While reading another blog this morning I came across a great post from a teacher who is using Wikipedia in the classroom. Oh no we may say, “Wikipedia isn’t a reliable source “and trust me I was that teacher especially after some students told me that Greek Orthodoxy was based off the ancient Greek gods at least according to Wikipedia. But the assignment I found is a great source of comparing sources and can be a first step into a research paper.
Mr. Byrne’s students were asked to compare a Wikipedia articles to three different topics discussed in their textbook, The Sand Creek Massacre, The Battle of Little Big Horn and The Fort Laramie Treaties. Then they were to find primary resources to go along with the articles. For a full briefing of what Mr. Byrne was having his students complete check out his blog complete with the outline he used for his class and encourages others to use.
This is a great assignment because Mr. Byrne moves his students from the Knowledge and Comprehension of the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy Model and pushes them to Analysis and Synthesis. Truly a 21st century lesson.
Memorize.com
December 18th, 2009I discovered Memorize.com today and I find that it is quite useful. The site allows you to memorize thousands of items either through matching answers, multiple choice questions or answering the question in your head, having them reveal the answer and then self correct. Thousands of categories that individuals have already created to assist in memorizing some being, states & capitals, countries & capitals, elements from the periodic tables, foreign languages etc. If flash cards aren’t your learning style when you scroll to the bottom of Memorize’s homepage you will see their interactive diagram section which is perfect for map activities.
I took my last post about Digital Dialect and created some German/English flash cards focused on fruits and vegetables. A great aspect of memorize is that I didn’t have to set up an account to create my flash cards! After I created my account it did assign my computer a username the site remembers but I only had to enter in the cryptic Human Verification Message we’re all accustomed to when creating accounts, no personal information was needed. You can click on the username they assign you and create a personalized one if you so desired. Once you’ve created your flash cards there is a share feature on the right hand side of the page.
You can also copy and paste the hyperlink to an email, share via Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, or several other networking sites. If you have students that continually make note cards for learning they may love this site and if their phone has internet access they will access to their flashcards at all times. Definitely a handy tool!
