MUST READ: TESTS: Teaching Everyone Some Terrible Stuff

I know ED Tech is over but you should really read this about testing and by extension strict grading.

I'd like to hear your reaction.

The Innovative Educator: TESTS: Teaching Everyone Some Terrible Stuff (Part...: Vickie Bergman blogs about education and parenting at Demand Euphoria .  If you are required to take one test or quiz every week of your ...

The Innovative Educator: Related to Smartboards discussion.

The Innovative Educator: Microsoft big says stop doing 1:1 technology progr...: You might be surprised that when Anthony Salcito , VP of education for Microsoft speaks with educators around the world and asks them wh...

The Innovative Educator: mobile Devices

The Innovative Educator: 6 considerations for addressing the “what” and “ho...: Learning is increasingly online and mobile, anytime and anywhere. It happens by watching a video or reading an article, then sharing it, th...

How ‘collaborative learning’ is transforming higher education

Baby steps in our Masterpiece Project... and you invented it!

How ‘collaborative learning’ is transforming higher education | eCampus News:

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Graduate Programs Embracing Games

I'm not sure if I've recommended We Are Teachers... it's a newsletter/website with stuff for teachers.  Subscribe for periodic updates on interesting and sometimes useful education news and resources.  Endorsed by Dave, I approve of this message.

WAT Bulletin: Graduate Programs Embracing Games:

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ED Tech 2300 Final Project

Note: This assignement is for ED Tech 2300 students only

ED Tech 2300 Masterpiece Project

Assignment:

Overview: 

As a team, create a multimedia presentation that showcases what you have learned and discovered this term in ED Tech and perhaps have applied or connected to other classes.  The purpose of this project is to consolidate your experiences into a ‘package’ that adds meaning to your classroom experiences and translates into knowledge that will benefit your teaching prowess.

This is a team experience and all members of the team are expected to add value to the final product.

Specifics:

Create a 15 minute (depending on the size of your team… figure 3 to 5 minutes per team member) multimedia presentation that showcases what you have experienced in ED Tech.  Topics such as blogging, website construction, wikis might be mentioned.  Tools such as Xtranormal, Prezi, Jing, Animoto could be used as part of the presentation.  Still photos, video, screenshots, screencasting are all sources of material that might be used in your team’s presentation.

Your Audience:  Teachers and future teachers

Process suggestion:  Choose a single team member who will coordinate efforts and set up communications between team members.

Step 1.

The team chooses one specific topic from the list below (and be sure to make the specific topic clear to your audience).

1.    A subject area such as math, language arts, science, social studies.

a.     First choose a subject area, then each team member choose a subsection.

b.     Each team member could then be responsible for a subsection of the subject area.

c.      For example:   Social studies is chosen as the subject area.  Then each team member chooses a topic in social studies.  One member may choose first grade and a neighborhood study, another member may choose forth grade Ohio History, etc.

2.    A grade level. 

a.     Choose a specific grade level: First, second, third, etc.

b.     Then each team member prepares examples of tech related tools and materials related to and appropriate for that grade level.  Content could include activities, tools, websites that are age appropriate for students in the chosen grade.

3.    A multidisciplinary unit of study

a.     Define a unit of study that might not be grade level specific but could be used across grade levels and involve multiple subject areas. 

b.     For example:  “Inventions’ could be a multidisciplinary study that would be appropriate for many grade levels.  The study would have social studies, math, science, reading and writing components.

Step 2.

Each team member chooses or is assigned to a portion of the chosen topic.

For example:  The Team topic is multidisciplinary unit on inventions; Team member #1 chooses to showcase appropriate tech resources for introducing an ‘Inventions’ study to second graders.

Step 3.

The team puts it all together. 

Each team member’s contribution is put into a presentation that will be shown to the class.  The team as a whole will create an introduction to the project that explains the topic, the name of team members and what each person has contributed to the project.  The team will also create a concluding statement/event/demonstration that makes the case for using what the team has created with elementary students.  There will be a question and answer period after each presentation.

When it is all due: 

On 0ur last class is Wednesday December 5.  All team members must be present and participate in the presentation.

Wiki.com

This is a cool Wiki Site  take a look


Wiki.com:

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Pinterest Tutorial - YouTube

A Pinterest tutorial if you are interested... you'll find some teaching ideas on Pinterest.

Pinterest Tutorial - YouTube:

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Blog Prompt 11.6.12

Technology and Creativity

When I taught sixth grade in a galaxy and time far, far away we always did lots of projects…often building objects, large and small, for science, social studies, literature, even math.  One of theprojects we did at the end of the year for several years was math related.  The challenge was to design and build a model dream home given lots of specific directions related to procedures, scale, materials, tools, etc.  Teachers supplied materials and even an Exacto knife (can you imagine giving 25 squirrelly 11 year olds box cutters and turning them loose in a classroom today?). Some of the images I hold in my mind of those times are of kids who had the grandest ideas of what they believe they could build and what that project could do and look like when they finished it. The finished products, especially those that were not heavily ‘coached’ by parents fell quite short of what children envisioned.  Sometimes the student reactions were especially palpable resulting in half-done models destroyed in frustration or finished houses left behind in the classroom at the end of the school year because the builder was embarrassed to take the project home.   This particular project was done by all sixth graders in the school where I taught and was a ‘tradition’ with lots of instructions and limits on creativity. It was not my favorite project (in part because it was not MY project).

MY favorite project integrated literature, scale and ratio as well as artistic, engineering and presentation skills.  The project involved creating a “wax museum” to retell the story of the Hobbit a book that we read in class.  Instead of using wax we created paper maché life-size characters from the book and placed them in tableaus throughout the classroom.  We invited other classes to tour our room as each team of students told the portion of the Hobbit their tableau represented.   The project was always messy, somewhat dangerous (chicken wire, wire cutters, dragon suspended from the ceiling, etc.) but wildly successful, even if I do say so myself.  Part of the success of this project was due to high peer expectations and the availability of age appropriate tools and materials.  The expectations were simple… as a team build a scene that tells an assigned piece of the Hobbit story using an appropriate scale and tools that did not require a lot of fine motor coordination (unlike the precise drawing, cutting and gluing required in the house building project).  The products of the projects were the creations of teams of students.  Each individual on the team was able to contribute according to his/her skill, interests and talent.  All felt pride ofownership and accomplishment.

Where am I going with this story?  In MY projects we were lucky not to have any serious injuries except for some wire punctures(no lost eyes) and there was that time that a candle making project resulted inan electrical fire and some spilled hot wax (fire department not called and no skin grafts were required).  The key concept in the first paragraph of this post is that kids have great taste when it comes to projects… it’s the execution of the vision that often fails them.  The lack of motor skill, the inaccessibility of materials and tools, the constraining directions all contribute all too often to a sense of disappointment if not failure. 

Finally, my point:  Technology enables kids to do what they dream and practice leads to perfection.  The perfect poster:  Glogster.  The perfect 3-D fly-through drawing: Google Sketchup.  An animation: XtraNormal.  A professional grade presentation: Animoto, Prezi, Powerpoint.  A movie: MovieMaker, iMovie.  When schools get around to ordering them: 3-D printers, MakerBotis now available and not too expensive, it will allow kids to make three dimensional models of just about any thing they can dream up.  

Also, where do good ideas come from, anyway?

The blog prompt:  First, click on and review the above links.  Then riff on the connections between and among the topics of teaching, project based learning, educational technology and creativity. Draw on your own experiences as a student or as a professional participant in schools.  A paragraph or so in your blog should do it, longer if you wish. 

Do it before our next class, please.

Finally, comment to this post with your name so that I can see that you read it.

Your Blog Prompt for this week

What do you think about the Flipped Classroom based on what you have seen and read... and maybe heard from other sources?

THE PROMPTS:
a.Blog entry...Your list of pros and cons about flipping?
or
b.Blog entry... your analysis based on your current state of skill, interest, subject/grade level.  Would you, could you do some flipping? What would be your most favored role (performing, planning, coaching)?
Why/why not.  

More on Flipping

Just to be clear, here are expectations for the 'virtual class' the week of October 15:
1. Comment on this post so I know you read it.  Comment with your name.
2. Watch the Salman Kahn video on the TED website.  Click on the Symbaloo button
3. Read//watch the content linked to the other 6 white Symbaloo buttons at the bottom right of my Symbaloo.
4. Be prepared to discuss and write about the Flipped Classroom (pros and cons) when we meet again.
5. See you next time... don't forget to email or text if you will be absent.

Flipped Classroom

Buzz words, especially in education, are sometimes just a gadfly zipping in one ear and out the other. Sometimes however, the buzz turns into a whine and then a roar.  I'm not sure what stage of noise 'flipped classroom' has reached but it deserves a look and a listen.  Check out this link and then look at my Symbaloo for more links to 'flipping'.  The Symbaloo buttons are in the lower right side.  Check them all out and watch the 20 minute Ted talk by Salman Kahn.

Flipped Classroom:

The flipped classroom will be the basis for our virtual classes on October 15 and 17 (remember no classes in Roush 204 those days)  You are on your own to study the 'Flipped Classroom'.

Jing, screenshot and screencast software from TechSmith

Want to show someone how to do something on the internet or with a piece of software?  Jing captures screen videos and voice and puts everything into a video format that can be shared with others.  Try adding a simple 'how-to' video to your blog or choose Jing to make a screencast to present your favorite teacher tool.

Jing, screenshot and screencast software from TechSmith:

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Reflections on a Technical Breakdown

In class on Wednesday I suffered (and I mean that quite literally) a breakdown of the technology that I am supposed to be teaching about.  I couldn’t get the Google Docs presentation that I had carefully prepared and that worked just fine at home, to work right.  The presentation mode wouldn’t present and the links only opened blank pages.  From my point of view it was a total disaster.  In the old days when I went out to do a workshop or presentation I carried my computer and a raft of adapters to fit every conceivable projection device AND I printed transparencies of my talk so that if all else failed I could use an overhead projector which every school and office had at that time.  It’s been several years since I’ve printed transparencies and cables have been standardized to the point where I can be assured that all I need is a VGA adaptor for my Mac.

Yesterday brought back near disasters of the past… not only did the presentation and demonstrations not work but, I felt that I didn’t have an adequate backup plan… nothing analogous to those transparencies I used to carry.  I talked and suggested things to do with the computers everyone had in front of them but it was not the same as the screencasts I had prepared and the YouTube videos I’d planned to show.  I was embarrassed, to say the least.

Right or wrong I owned up to the situation and said I was embarrassed.  It would have been better of course if I had a ‘plan B’ ready to implement but I didn’t.  As I reflect on the situation I am still struggling to decide what I could have or should have done.  Even with 40 plus years of teaching and presenting experience behind me I was flustered and fumbling.  Should I always have a ‘plan B’?  Should I have dismissed class with a lame excuse that an “emergency had arisen”?  Was fumbling through with only verbal instructions and not enough content to fill the time available the right or only thing to do?  I still don’t know… I’ve got to process some more.

What this means to you as a prospective teacher is: there will always be days or classes that don’t go as they should and you can’t be prepared with a ‘plan B’ for all situations.  However, you can be mentally and psychologically prepared for your own goofs and the glitches that are bound to occur.  If you kind of expect that someday the projector bulb will burn out or that the test copies you were sure were in your bag disappear without a trace you will not totally panic.   Further, you may be prepared to do some self-evaluation to decide what, if anything, you can do to avoid encountering the same situation again.  Also, and most importantly, be prepared to cut yourself a break and put the situation behind you… we all fail from time to time it’s called “Being Human”.

I think this post falls under the heading, “Experience Speaks”.  File it whereever it fits in your schema of teaching advice.

15 Grammatical Errors that Make You Look Silly | Copyblogger

I don't want to be a nag but I can't overemphasize the importance of correct spelling and grammar in what you write at school.  This 'poster' and article helps you (and your students) avoid the most common grammatical transgressions.  This is a keeper.

15 Grammatical Errors that Make You Look Silly | Copyblogger:

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Confession:  I have always struggled with spelling and grammar myself so I am super-vigilant about my own shortcomings... and my wife is the spelling and grammar nazi.

The Many Hats of a Teacher

Jillian Bradley (ED Tech 2100) found this site... her search inspired, I hope, by my reference to the many hats teachers wear.  This author is so much more elegant in his praise of the multifaceted nature of teaching than I am.  Notice that 'computer expert' is the only reference to technology that I've found.


School of Education at Johns Hopkins University-The Many Hats of a Teacher:

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Urban Legends Reference Pages

I think most people know about Snopes.com but just in case here's the link.  This is a reliable link to those annoying emails that you suspect are not really true but could be.  The folks at Snopes do the research to trace the history of the legends and give them a true/not true rating or sometime a unverifiable rating.  As a teacher you may hear an urban legend from your kids and this is place to trace its veracity.

snopes.com: Urban Legends Reference Pages:

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FInternet 4 Classrooms

List of sites that offer teacher tools... sift and sort, find the most useful.  I found this one by using the  Bing search engine.

Free Internet Tools for Teachers at Internet 4 Classrooms:

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Free tools in the classroom

Here's a Microsoft site that offer free tools for teachers... some for instruction, some for teacher use.  Take a look to see if anything looks useful.

Free tools in the classroom:

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Ten Tips for Classroom Management | Edutopia

Edutopia is a trusted site for Education tips and information... here's an example:

Ten Tips for Classroom Management | Edutopia:

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How YouTube Can Enhance Young Children’s Learning

This post is mostly for EDUC 2300 students but your 2100ers can check it out tool.  I did a Google search with this phrase "what young children learn on youtube" to find this link.  The article links to other sites and discusses the power of multimedia in teaching young children.  Watch the video and add some interesting buttons to your Symbaloo from the links you find.

How YouTube Can Enhance Young Children’s Learning | Socyberty:

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Don't forget to comment on this post.

Old but Still Funny

It just occurred to me that all of you are probably about as old as the internet, at least the popular, available internet.  You may have seen this cartoon drawn by Peter Steiner and published in the New Yorker in 1993*.  It's sort of a corollary to what I say about 'nothing you say on the internet is ever erased'.  In this case, 'what and who you see on the internet is not necessarily what or who you really get'.  What this means for teachers is that contrary to older traditional sources of information (text books, encyclopedias, references books) current sources are not limited to trusted and supposedly well vetted sources.  Today the internet is a vast sea of information, much of which is fresh and well reasoned but at least an equal amount of information is bogus and misleading.

The question becomes how do we as individuals and as teachers discern the wheat from the chaff?  For our students how do we help them sift the good stuff from the not so good stuff without snuffing their quest for knowledge?  In a previous post I asked you to posit the role of the teacher in the post-information age.  Perhaps this is a hint of the new set of responsibilities for teachers.  I'd like to know your thoughts on this riff on 'No one knows you are a dog...'.  Comment here or do a twofer on your blog. 

Just in case you are wondering: This is a blog prompt.

*The above cartoon by Peter Steiner has been reproduced from page 61 of July 5, 1993 issue of The New Yorker, (Vol.69 (LXIX) no. 20)only for academic discussion, evaluation, research and complies with the copyright law of the United States as defined and stipulated under Title 17 U. S. Code.

---

I've enjoyed reading your comments on my blog posts.  The comments that seem most common are the ones responding to what I said about teachers not having all the answers and teachers being co-learners with their students.  Got lots of agreement on these points and even more support from those of you who wrote about what you learned from your favorite teachers.  This set me to thinking about other roles of the teacher, other than being a co-learner with students and not acting like your know all the answers.  We all know that teaching is a multifaceted profession... a job of many hats.  I'd like to know your thoughts on what the teacher brings to the business of teaching an learning, specifically in classroom interaction with kids. 

Right now I'm thinking about teaching from the perspective of 'big picture', the view from 30,000 feet rather than from the trenches.  My response to this inquire might be something like this: "The teacher is the organizer-in-chief, blah, blah, blah."  The 'blah's being the explanation of what I mean by 'organizer-in-chief' and some examples.  Since this course is ED Tech try to incorporate how technology might be incorporated in the teacher's role.  

This is a blog prompt for the third class meeting, that is, respond in your own blog before our next meeting.  Just comment to this post by entering your name as a comment, thus accomplishing a twofer.

Tools for Teachers

As prospective teachers you should be interested in the Ohio Deparment of Education because the ODE sets curriculum standards, teacher education standards, teachers evaluation standards, and offers learning opportunities for teachers of all stripes.  Why not add this button to your Symbaloo?

Tools for Teachers:

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You may want to comment on this issue of Tools for Teachers, feel free.

Link to other websites - Blogger Help

Learn to insert links to other websites in your blog (without showing a huge and distracting URL in your post).  Show me that you can do it in your next post.

Link to other websites - Blogger Help:

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Bread Crumbs and the Sands of Time

Symbaloo and other places to scatter bread crumbs on the internet. 


What the heck does 'bread crumbs on the internet' mean anyway?  Ever get a phrase caught in your mind... like a song lyric, or a motto, or a piece of headline, or a fragment of movie dialogue?  Happens to me all the time and I will probably infect you with my mind clogging disease, at least expose you to the germ, this semester.  The other night I was thinking about the dynamic nature of the internet and technology in general and how this state of flux impacts teaching and learning.  It came to me in a dream (well not exactly a dream, that sounds too spiritual), more like a thought balloon in a cartoon.  Hansel and Gretel, the fairy tale about kids who marked their path through the woods with bread crumbs only to have their escape route wiped out by a bunch of hungry birds (or was that Angry Birds) has come into the language as a metaphor for something temporary and not to be relied upon.  Symbaloo, and indeed all of the internet, is a vast collection of bread crumb trails that are constantly being either wiped out or scattered to the four winds.


Does this mean that places to store links to useful sites are meaningless?  I don't think so.  It means that our bookmarks and links need constant tending to remain current, to be useful, to not prove  to be dead ends that discourage usage by our students.  So, finally point number 1.  As a teacher or prospective teacher tend your Symbaloo garden by checking the validity of your links.  Some of my links right now are acting a bit funky... the link to my blog takes me to a place that wants me to sign on to Google+ and I'm not sure that's where it takes you.  I've got to check that out.

Point number 2.  In the bigger picture of teaching and learning what does 'remain current' mean?  Certainly it means being up-to-date in your knowledge of subject matter, but beyond that what is currency?  To me it means learning from students what they know an honoring this knowledge by implementing elements of their world in lessons and teaching techniques.  Kids of all ages know a lot of stuff, some of it is a jumble of hearsay, TV talk, parent misinformation, and real wisdom.  One of the really big jobs of a teacher is to provide a method of filtering and categorizing kid information into reliable and testable cubbies where the information can be called on to make sense of the world of school.  For example, a child may come to school having observed certain insect behaviors... bees make honey, ants invade kitchens.  A good teacher will help a child place this knowledge into a cubby that includes social behavior of certain insects and further, the value of cooperative effort.

One of the characteristics I saw in a teaching career was the opportunity to be spontaneous and to follow the flow of ideas that come out of each day in the classroom.  It is possible to ignore this flow and to have a career in teaching but can you truly call this 'teaching'?

Well, I've strayed from Symbaloo and bread crumbs but the idea is that as teachers we must tend our own garden of ideas daily and respect and nurture what grows in the gardens of our students.  Blindly attempting to follow an old trail of bread crumbs probably will not result in a true teaching career.

We'll look at some other ways to drop internet bread crumbs knowing that the crumbs we drop are but temporary footprints on the sands of time.

I'd like to know your thoughts on teaching as a career... please comment.

A couple of things:
1) Follow my blog by entering your email address in the line below the blog title... this will let you know via email when I enter a new post.
2) If you have not already done so email the URL for your blog to dheigle@otterbein.edu so I may follow your bog.

Thanks

Some thoughts on 'comments' to a blog... specifically my blog.  Be sure to read my blog before each class meeting and leave a marker that shows you've been there. Here are some ideas:  use symbols to show quickly your reaction to the blog entry, for example:

• + for "I like this thought/idea"
• - for "I disagree/don't think this is quite right"
• ? for "I'm not sure, I have some questions about this".  

After the symbol add a few words to explain your symbol... like:

• "- this is not how I plan to teach because I think teachers always need to be in charge and be able to answer all student questions?"

OK, now click on the 'comments' word below and leave a symbol and your name to show you have read and understand this post.

For my first ED Tech post I'll give you an introduction to some of what I believe about teaching and learning.  The first rule of teaching and learning is that the students always outnumber the teachers.  If you view the education process as an "us versus them" activity (and I strongly advise you not the view the process this way) you should immediately be warned that the teacher will not win with fear and force alone... think General Custer at Little Big Horn.  Therefore, other methods of survival in the classroom must be developed.  I am an advocate of using your strengths to overcome your weaknesses.  We all have both.  If you a funny person, use humor, if you a quiet person use guile and stealth, if you bluster temper your attitude with kindness.  More to the point of this course if you are not a techie become a co-learner with students.  Although tradition has it that teachers have all the answers this truism turns out to be an old wives tale.  Teachers do not have all the answers now nor did they in the good old days when you were in school.  Kids have always known stuff that teachers did not and neither teacher nor student have all the answers.  Sometimes it takes a classroom to find an answer.

I will post random thoughts on technology, teaching and learning every week on this blog.  I encourage your reactions, thoughts, comments, agree/disagree votes by clicking on the blue no comments/comments word(s) below and leaving me a message.