Effective and Ineffective Elementary Teachers

Thank you Jamie Lynn and Corey for the interview, and Dr. Giles for the topic.

My Sentence... A work in progress

Instructions for Using Screentoaster to Record Skype

The Allure of the "Traditional Approach"

In Carey's post, she states that in Utah, online classes weren't cutting it. Here at South, neither are traditional classes. What is lacking in these situations? Stephen and I come to some conclusions in the video below. Please feel free to check it out, and more importantly, join in on the conversation! How can you relate to Carey? Is reverting to what's comfortable the best solution? How can we improve online-class or in-class experiences? HELP US SOLVE THE MYSTERY!




Check out Carey's Blog by clicking here!

Mini Reflection

This is a result for a reflective rant drawing from my experiences with EDM310 during the summer course and the last couple weeks of Fall.

From working for Dr. Strange with EDM 310 students, I have learned couple valuable lessons about myself which relate to your comment. The first is this-- I enjoy the struggle to find new information most days. I have not always been that way, but I am now. Many students do not know what it means to be confident in their struggle. It is important to let them DISCOVER the value in the battle to find an answer/solution/reason to their problem. You said that you to appreciate learning things by "doing research for yourself"-- I wonder how many people in EDM would honestly agree.

The second thing I have learned, is that it IS A CHALLENGE, not to just do something for a student in need. After you have explained something five times-- its easy to kneel down, go through the motions in 2.5 minutes and say, "okay, now you try." Instead, I should begin by asking, "what have you tried so far? Why hasn't it worked? What are you going to try next?"

This little reflection has set me on a mission to evolve, I hope you're ready for the change!

practice

Beyond the content...

Before the content within a blog, there is layout. I think these two related blogs have lot to say before you even begin to read the incredible posts. Check out the layout, and see how blog formats like these could enhance your viewers navigational experience through your materials.

Social Voice




Spencer's Scratch Pad

Just in case you didn't see it elsewhere...

Check out Mr. Brian Crosby breaking expectations...



By the way... Does anyone know why this video is longer than 10 minutes?

Thank You

This post is a special thank you to Mr. Chamberlain and Dr. Strange (and their families) for being so supportive and encouraging throughout my educational and now, career experience. I am a proud and grateful recipient of the Hadley Herrington Strange Scholarship and the William Chamberlain Award. Both of your helping hands have been inspiration enough for me to WANT to do and learn more, and your financial support certainly plays a large role in making that my WANT to's easier to DO. Thanks again Doc and Mr. Bill.

Also, thank you EDM 310 students of Summer 2010 for helping me make them think I was necessary. Y'all did a PHENOMENAL job this summer. Some of the work you produced has completely altered my ideas of expectations and feasibility. I can't tell you how many times I have forwarded links to my family (and a few friends who will tolerate it) to brag on y'all. Don't let your journey end with this semester, keep up the good work indefinitely!)

Finding Your Motivation

I have heard time and time again how insightful your class has been this summer. EDM310 is growing and producing faster and more boldly than ever before. Some of you are using the tools y'all have learned about in your professional lives, some of you are already teaching these tools to schools and teachers out of the state, some of you are researching tools that we have yet to explore as a class, and others of you are making masterpiece productions of your assignments. Congratulations to you all. It is amazing to see the team work effort between y'all as a class.

Now I ask you all this: Why? Why are you so motivated? Why are you excelling so profoundly? Why is it harder for others of you to keep up? What have you noticed about the habits of classmates that are struggling? What have you noticed about the strategies of classroom bar-setters?

These are a few questions that fall under the umbrella of a little research I am doing on educational motivation. Any answers or comments y'all have will go a LONG way in helping me draw some meaningful conclusions.

Here's a little quote by Sir Ken Robinson that was published to CNN that got me thinking...

"Facilitating learning is like gardening. You cannot make a plant grow. It grows itself. What gardeners know is that there are certain conditions under which that will happen, and if the conditions aren't right-- nothing will grow. If the conditions are good everything grows. Great teachers know that. Their job is to create the conditions under which people will grow. Those conditions include: understanding the nature of talent and motivation, the need to feed people's spirits and energies." Sir Ken Robinson

Life in Perspective

This morning I walked into the lab to be greeted by Steven and Dr. Strange. As I was preparing for my day, Dr. Strange coolly says, "Where should I begin? I have 7,000 emails to read." I thought I would share this with you guys because before this morning, I used to complain about the now, seemingly minimal junk mail that the Jaguar system sends me-- I now have a new appreciation for my 10-20 emails I am responsible for reading each day.

Before the invention of Email:


And after his great influx emails:


I hope y'all have a good day full of gratitude!

P.s. Follow the source tag on the young Dr. Strange picture to get a glimpse into his roots.

Reflecting on Reflections...

This week, I was afforded an awesome opportunity to gain some insight. Two students asked me to film their Smartboard presentation and I was happy and eager to do so because these two ladies always have such an uplifting, giggly persona about them. At the end of the filming process, as I was about to take my leave, one of them asked for feedback. Knowing that Student A would appreciate honesty and frankness, I responded rather bluntly to her question, "Was it good?". I bluntly said, "no". First lesson learned...

1.) Know your audience and always consider everyone in the room. Although Student A could appreciate and possibly prefer the brutal honesty, I could tell by the expression on Student B's face that she needed a little more "constructive" in my criticism.

After I said no, I asked them if they could tell me why I might say that. I then asked them to think about the purpose of the video, which was to demonstrate how the Smartboard can enhance the learning experience. We decided that although their presentation was full of good content, it poorly met the project objective because they make use of Smartboard potential.

We continued to discuss what the project was lacking, which lead me to my next thought... Why? They informed me that they spent a fair amount of time looking for lessons and eventually settled for the one they created. They concluded that although Smartboards are great for certain subjects with young elementary students-- it was not effective as a tool for more mature minds. Having heard their thoughts, I shared what their presentation did demonstrate: Smartboards are not practical tools for upper level learning environments. Mistake number 2...

2.) When encouraging the reflection process, trim back the conclusions and encourage students to come up with their own restored purpose. I suggested that they add a reflection piece to their presentation and publish it as an argument as to why they feel Smartboards are ineffective for their area of study. If I had pushed them to trouble shoot more independently-- who knows what they would have come up with-- they may have even decided giving Smartboards another shot was easier than spinning their flop into a valuable production.

So now that I have written down my own reflection about this experience, I am left wondering, "How could I have directed them towards reflection without leading them to the product that I have in mind?" I don't want to lead them to my vision because theirs might be more creative, and WILL definitely offer insight into their own minds and capabilities. What do you think?

Today in EDM...

I learned the the iPhone 4 weighs approximately 137 grams, which is equivalent to about 3 tasty chicken eggs. The iPhone 3GS is a whopping 8 grams heavier, which is about the size of one brown spotted turquoise quail egg. So next time you cook up breakfast, let your mind wander to the wonderful world of Apple.




Also, Google recognized Ms. Frida Kahlo for her artistic contribution to Mexican culture with her surrealist paintings. Enjoy her lovely ladies and their unibrows!

Gina Teaches My Sister Wordle

Yesterday, I brought my 13 year old sister Christina into class with me. In an effort to make use of a good opportunity for someone to teach what they have learned, I recruited Gina to choose what she wanted to teach AND teach it. I think choosing was the hardest part.

Gina did a great job teaching and taught me and Jamie Lynn a few things we had forgotten along the way. In every experience these is always something to learn. I had no expectation to learn the big lessons that I learned yesterday.

1.) The hardest part of teaching is finding a means to motivate. I think the easiest solution is to be enthusiastic-- make it known that you LOVE what you have to share. As far as I can tell, this is the only way to motivate unless you know something about your students. Which leads me to my second point...

2.) Be attentive. Paying attention to everything your students reveal about themselves can help make their experience relevant to their lives-- yet another means for motivating. Knowing your students will also help you gauge what kind of direction you should provide.

3.) Direction and instruction ARE different. Direction means developing goals and providing the tools necessary for your students to discover resources and paths to achieve them.
--Instruction is a step by step process with little room for creativity and lots of room for error. With that said, limit instruction and INCREASE DIRECTION!

The last and (I hope to be the most lasting) lesson I have learned is that learning can happen from any source and so can teaching-- age and experience are merely secondary factors in regards to learning exchanges.

Thank you Gina and Christina for the lesson, and of course, Jamie Lynn your presence made it that much more fun.

You can lead 'em to water, but you can't stop 'em from peein' in it-- Barry Gartman

Here's proof that y'all didn't pee in the drinking water-- below is a compilation of the best resources that I have found by fishing through the EDM pool of knowledge. You might explore a few and add it to your PLE (personal learning environment).

feed://primarytech.globalteacher.org.au/feed/

Resources from Mrs. McGeady Helps elementary teachers integrate technology into the classroom.

http://web.nmc.org/5cardstory/play.php?suit=5card

Five Card Story gives you five random pictures that serve as prompts for student created storylines.

http://www.smories.com/

Smories is a movie database of stories that have been created by Five Card Draw prompts.

http://bubbl.us

Brainstorm online-- it's not as easy as it could be, but you can embed it, edit it, and print it.

Glogster: Check it OUT!

Imagine what you could do with this production tool. Say goodbye to trifold English reports, Science projects, and History displays and say HELLO to glogger. Here is one that I created as an example from my trip to Colorado earlier this summer.



Be sure to also check out Glogster EDU where you can see great examples of students work!

Sara's Findings on SMARTboards

Sara Hendrix wrote a post about SMARTboards that like the rest of EDM310, summarized the posts that Dr. Strange linked you to: Why Smart Boards Are a Dumb Initiative and Why I Hate Interactive Whiteboards. However, she discovered a GREAT site for teachers who want to learn the positives of SMARTboards and how you can use them called Teachers Love SMARTboards and linked us to a blog post about SMARTboards and the Tips-and-Tricks Phenomenon. Here she, and later I, watched a slideshow with all kinds of "Tip-and Tricks" as shown below.

I am still not wholly convinced that SMARTboards are the best investment for our education tax dollars, but since so many of the classrooms that we will be teaching in are going to have them... I am thrilled to have this slideshow filled with all sorts of information and inspiration. Check it out!

A Great Kick Off for Creating Your PLN!

How to get started with your PLN:

Leave comments on teachers, and students blogs. If you find them particularly interesting look them up, read what they have to say, and contact them using these sites:

Twitter, RSS Feeds, Blogging, Podcasts, Classmates, Teachers, Email, Youtube, Delicious, Evernote, Glogster, and Skype

Never be afraid to google a topic, which may lead you to a site, classroom, or person that you can add to your PLN.

Watch this Youtube video made by a 7th grader in Wendy Drexler's class. She calls her has a PLE (Personal Learning Environment), which not only encompasses the people in her PLN, but also research and production resources.

*I recommend watching it in full screen so you don't miss out on the details!




Here are some great resources for finding teachers to follow...

FreeTech4Teachers

Larry Ferlazzo EduBlog

Beth Still EduBlog

Connected Teachers on Google Docs

Instructions for Assignment 6 Number 2

Disregard the email that I sent about the podcast assignment. These are the instructions that have been confirmed by Dr. Strange. Because the media world is leaning towards youtube, versus iTunes podcasts (very debate-able, Dr. Strange wants you to create a collaborative movie on one of the topics listed in the Spreadsheet that he shared with you. Sign up, you MUST do this with at least one partner-- It can be informative, debate format, interview format, etc. As long as it is collaborative, you are in the clear. You can even create your movies separately, combine them into one production and publish to your blog (If you do this, keep in mind that they should sound like ONE project with ONE goal).

The assignment IS DUE BY SUNDAY JUNE 20, however, this date is very flexible so do not panic. Find a partner, get together when you can-- brainstorm your topic, develop a script/storyline, produce, and publish. Remember, the purpose of this assignment is to give you further practice with producing and publishing movies. Be creative with your topic and production style, and be excited about the opportunity to learn! I promise it will help you feel less overwhelmed.

Stephen Teaches Response Summary Image Link

A link to the written instructions that will get you through the first part of this video can be found by clicking here.