Nostalgia

The end of the year is quickly approaching, and it's time to start retrieving my stuff out of my old classroom.  I left a lot of my belongings in the room for my long-term sub to use this semester, but she'll be teaching in another division next year and won't need them.  I'll still be teaching computers and living in an office while not teaching so I won't need a lot of them either.

I started with my student book library boxing up books that I will probably never use again, but I'm saving them till we see where my wife's career will take her once our daughter goes to school full time.  

As I started grabbing dusty books off the shelves and putting them in boxes, I couldn't help to be nostalgic. There is the Shel Silverstein book a student bought for me when she wore out my original copy. Oh, and a book I read as a boy. There is that book I read to my first class ever.  And, I think I'll bring this one home for my daughter... and ... well, you get the idea.

Long before I was the local technonerd, I was a language arts teacher and a lover of books. I spent many hours and many dollars building a massive classroom library for kids to read in their free time.  I love books!

I rarely read a physical book anymore.  Even my Bible is on my iPad now... but today made me nostalgic for the real deal again.  

Something about a bunch of pixels forming text that doesn't conjure up great memories like my stroll down the lane this afternoon. 

Tourism Projects

Sometimes I steal ideas.  When I read this post about tourism in English speaking cities, I knew I had a winner I could modify for my seventh graders. 

I broke my class into six groups of three and let them choose one of the top ten most populated cities in the world to research.  However, instead of merely researching and reporting on the city, we added a twist.  Groups had to present this as a tourism sales pitch trying to convince us to visit this city.  

I also gave the students a voice in what the project would look like.  They gave me tons of input about what should be involved, how long it should be, and even the due date.  

Overall, I was very pleased with the final outcome.  They did a great job creating presentations and web sites, mashing in videos and pics, and even bringing in non-techie items (including yummy food!).  Well done!

You can see the presentations below.  (I think one of them is not shared publicly.  Sorry.)

• Delhi, India
• Manila, Philippines
• New York, USA
• Seoul, South Korea
• Shanghai, China
• Tokyo, Japan

One interesting note about this project. I always give kids a range of time a presentation ought to be. Normally, most students squeak in at the bare minimum time. Not this time. I had a number of groups go over the time range until I had to press the hurry button on the last couple groups.

In case you're wondering about the rest of the procedures, here are the instructions I gave the students along the way.

• Initial Instructions
• Day Two Instructions
• Questionnaire
• Due Date? (Oops! I forgot that in the above questions.)
• Final Instructions and Rubric (based on student input)

#edtechex Chat Archives 5-6-13

Here are the archives for our first #edtechex chat. Thanks for joining us!  See you next week! (Mondays 11:30-12:30 EST)

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B63-r4uLf6eDeTB5cFp0ZXprbkE/edit

Thanks to Alex for creating the archive.

Lessons from the Parent Side of the Team Meeting

The evaluation came home the day before the scheduled team meeting.  We just about fell through the floor.  Our four-year old daughter was listed as "at risk" in areas such as hyperactivity and aggression.  While I'll be the first to admit there is a dark side to our adorable, cute, loving, and generally obedient little girl, I would never classify her as an ADHD-induced bully either.

I spent significant time with our resource room teacher the next morning trying to get ammunition to help us in this battle.  She produced paperwork about ADHD in young children, how giftedness can present itself as hyperactivity, how students with communication issues can sometimes show negative behavior.  We talked extensively about adoption, ethnicity, and family illness.  (My daughter was adopted from South Korea and is the only minority in her class.  I was sick the bulk of 2012-2013 school year with a rare neurological disease that...well... I don't like the details at all.)

Friday afternoon, we sat down in the meeting with her teacher and speech therapist, the school psychiatrist, and assistant principal.  I was friendly but questioned everything.  I know what it's like to be on that side of the table but was willing to fight for my little girl.

Then it came to that "at risk" section of the evaluation.  When I asked about that, all the school employees mentioned there was no need for concern.  A handful of "at risks" is nothing to worry about.  "Clinically significant" (or some such language) was the issue for concern.  Ohhhh.... So, this isn't what we think it's going to be? My wife and I laughed a nervous laugh and sat back for the rest of the ride.

In the end, we found that our daughter no longer needs speech therapy.  In fact, she no longer has any developmental delays...and...sadly... she no longer qualifies for public preschool education in the state of Kentucky.  

We need to find a private preschool option for next year.  (That's a different story.  I'm hoping we can scrape together enough tuition money.)

As the shock wore off,  I couldn't help wondering about the evaluation process.  How could we be so far off base? How could we have missed the cues?  We went in thinking it was going to be a battle for our daughter only to find out that she's a model student, so good that she's graduated out of the program.

My wife and I are both educators with roughly 34 years teaching experience combined.  The large bulk of that is in upper elementary, but we do know our stuff.  If we misread the evaluation (with its "at risk" and missing key background information) how would a layman parent read it?

I'm stinking proud of my little girl.  She has done an amazing job overcoming a ton of stuff in the three years she's been in our home. In one year, she has gone from talking in 2-3 word phrases to talking nonstop for 10 minutes (which can give me a headache, but I love it).  I'm happy for the great ending.

I just wish the evaluation had been a bit more clear to Mommy and Daddy.

#edtechex Reboot

It finally happened.  After trying to get other people involved in #edtechex, I finally had someone else post my blog on it. Nicely done, Leah.  I just about gave up!

As you can see in the conversation above, we're trying to breathe new life into #edtechex. 

Here's the basic plan.

1.  Blog a great example of educational technology use.

2.  Tweet it out, and use the hashtag #edtechex.

3.  OR... Pull a Leah move and tweet someone else's example on #edtechex.
4.  Spread the #edtechex love by sharing the hashtag with another awesome teacher.

I would love to start up a regular Tweetchat time where we can share things we've done and things we're learning.   Obviously, with summer coming, schedules will change and our focus will be elsewhere, but it's still good to gather ideas throughout those crazy hot months.

For the month of May, we will gather at #edtechex 11:30 till 12:30 (Eastern time) on Mondays -- excluding Memorial Day, of course.  Once we hit June, we'll try to come up with another time.

See you there!

Tinkerbox -- An Intergrade Level Collaboration Effort

As the computer teacher I like to try to integrate my lessons with the regular classroom units.  So, I'll periodically send out emails to see what's going on out there.  When our second grade teacher told me they were looking at motion and force, I knew we hit a gold mine.

My seventh graders (who I see every day) recently did an app test drive on Tinkerbox, so I knew they could help me out.  Having a roomful of second graders on Tinkerbox with only one adult would be a headache for the teacher.  Having a roomful of seventh graders helping the roomful of second graders makes life easier and is great for older/younger student interaction.

During my middle school time slot today, I brought the seventh graders to second grade to show them how to play Tinkerbox.  It was great to see students clustered in groups learning how to use the app and exploring the different levels. 

We need to do this again.

New to Tinkerbox? Each level requires you to move various balls or boxes to different places on the screen. It's your job to place elements on the screen in such a way to achieve your goal.  It's totally a game, but the scientific elements are real enough.  For instance, look at the screenshot below.  The pendulum swings back and forth to hit the switch.  The switch dictates the direction of the conveyor belts. You have three balls, and each one goes in a different tube.  The pendulum acts like a real pendulum; each swing has a lower arc than the swing before. (By the way, I'm stuck on this level.  Can you help me out? Thanks.)

Paper Bloggin'

I don't remember when I first saw this idea, nor do I know where I saw it... but I've wanted to do it forever. To give my 6th grade students a visual indicator of what blogging looks like, you do it with paper, tape, and a wall.  I'll be the first to admit that a tree or two died in the midst of this lesson -- and I apologize for it.  Fortunately it wasn't ON Earth Day.

Here's what we did:

Step 1:

• Each student was instructed to type a story and print it out.  There were no instructions on content or length just that they evidence effort.  
• Grab some tape and tape it to a wall in the room

Step 2:

• Read someone else's story.
• Go back to your computer and type a multi-sentence response.  You have to be nice.
• Print it.  Grab some tape. Tape it under the story.

Step 3:

• Either repeat Step 2 or...
• Read someone's comment about your story.
• Go back to you computer and type a multi-sentence response to their response. You have to be nice.
• Print it.  Grab some tape. Tape it under their comment.

There was much enthusiasm and enjoyment.  Kids were eager to share their writing and to read what others had to say.  I think they had fun.

Unfortunately, they had a grumpy teacher.  That normally happens when what I think are awesome instructions are misunderstood or bent.  It was hard to keep a lid on the goofy chit-chat.  

If I do this activity again, I'll tweak the instructions and be a bit more proactive about classroom management. :)

Click here for instructions.

Enjoy the pictures of the paper blogs.