My Confrence Thoughts.

Most of you know that my first response to this conference was jealousy and anger because of my districts lack of technology (hardware and software). However, I did get more out of this conference than something to debate about with my principal. I also have to admit something that I am a bit embarrassed about.....when Dr. Royer said that there would be workshops about "emerging technology" I was really excited!! It never occurred to me until I was sitting in the conference that it would be about emerging technology on handhelds. DUH.....I'm at the Handheld Conference. After lunch I realized that just because I don't have a handheld, YET, didn't mean that I couldn't still use a lot of these tools. That is when my wheels started to spin. How can I use what was modeled to me in my classroom, as soon as I get a projector??

One of the cool things that I picked up was how to use Outlook (the e-mail program), that is wasting space on my computer, as a vocabulary/dictionary area. It was a very simple use of software most of us have installed but aren't using. You simply put your vocabulary word as the last name and the definition in the address section. You could even rename a field to synonym or Antonym and include those with your vocabulary word.

Another cool idea was using Power Point slides to create flash cards. An example of this was Tony's US State, capital and postal code flashcards. Also he created the "Spin to Win" Power Points that were then downloaded to his iPod. This is how he randomly selected the prize that I won in that workshop. Oh yeah, I didn't mention that I won a prize. It is a connector that hooks an iPod, that I don't have, to a computer via USB port. *smile* I showed it to my husband and informed him that now I must go get an iPod to hook it too. Wish me luck on that one. *smile*

Tony also showed us iQuiz Maker. This can be used on my PC, as long as it is not filtered out. If so, I'll be calling the IT Department to unlock it. This is a great way for kids to practice new skills in all subjects. The teacher creates the tests and the answer choices. This is one of those things that I want to share with my team on our wiki. If the 4 of us each make one iQuiz than we can all share them on different days.

Karen Engleman and Patti Weeg, from Wicomico County, shared some great hardware and software that they use in 11 elementary schools. They discussed: TurningPoint, eBeam, Interwrite, Interwrite SchoolPad and a Document Camera. Turning Point is a student response system that works within Power Point. Each child gets a "clicker" that allows them to answer a question that the teach creates to go along with a lesson. "TurningPoint lets every single pupil in the room have their learning needs individually tested and assessed without fear of embarrassment or influence from their peers." eBeam turns any surface into an interactive space. They modeled on a chalkboard with white butcher's paper over it. Interwrite and Interwrite SchoolPad gives the teacher the ability to teach their interactive lessons from anywhere in the classroom. The Document Camera takes the place of an overhead in the classroom. It is used along with a computer and a projector for students to see the manipulative, books and even overheads (with paper under them).

Carrie Lewis's workshop "Vocabulary - What can the PALM do for you?" was also very helpful to me. She also suggested using the contacts program to do vocabulary or sight words. She also used a PALM program called Cells to make a matching activity for vocab. words to their definitions or vocab. words to their synonyms and/or antonyms. I could do the same thing using Excel. The best thing she shared with us was 5 websites to find FREE resources.

• Shareware.com


• Softpeida.com


• Learninginhand.com


• K12handhelds.com


• Enchantedlearning.com

For me, I think that Karen Fasimpaur gave me the most ideas to take back to my classroom. Although based on all the Google tools that she suggested she must have stock in Google. *smile* I really liked the iGoogle. It is a lot like Pageflakes but my husband like the fact that it looked like the regular Google homepage. He didn't like the way the Pageflakes looked. Any way, I loved Google SMS. I'm a text messaging person so I tried it right there in the auditorium a couple times. That was GREAT!! I also like to travel and I've added Wikitravel to my Del.icio.us page. Now that is a wiki that I would add my two cents on without any fear. I love to find "great finds" when I'm traveling. So, getting opinions from others in a controlled environment that is free is wonderful. Another Google item that I thought was great was Google Docs. I really like the way that the space looks like a word document and I like the revision control. This is something that I will definitely be using in my classroom. I'm always looking for a new graphic organizer. She suggested Bubbl and Gliffy. I can't wait to see which I like better. What kid doesn't want to see their photos turned into a movie? She suggested using Jumpcut to do this. It look simple enough. At the end of the summer I like to make a movie of the things we did that were captured on photos and turn it into a DVD. This program will make things a little easier. She also discussed the website that Tony spoke of that allows you to download You Tube videos. The website is called vixy.net. This is a really great way to get around a school filter, download it on your computer at home and burn it to disk or put it on your thumb drive. Then you don't need to access You Tube from school. This is very useful to all of us who are dealing with filters.

Finally one of the last things that I got out of the conference was ebooks. Mike Curtis had a session about creating ebooks. We created our own ebooks in that workshop. It was extremely easy to do. I did this at home. I created my book in Microsoft Word, then downloaded Microsoft Reader and then downloaded the Microsoft Reader Add-in to add a reader icon to Microsoft Word toolbar. It saves the file as a ".lit" file. That's your ebook. It is amazing how easy it is. I plan on having kids write their own books, type them in word and I'll transfer them to e-books. We can put our e-books on our wiki and they can blog about them. I'm thrilled about this. On Karen Fasimpaur's k12Handheld website she has a list of free and commercial e-books.

As you can tell, I got a lot out of this conference. I am really glad that I went both days and took advantage of the entire day of workshops. I sure hope that I get an invite to come back next year. This conference along with this class have definitely inspired me to use technology in my classroom in so many different ways. I just hope that I can inspire others to get our school headed on the right technology track and moving forward to CREATE students that will be successful.

Why did I decide to blog about the conference? Well, we did a lot of different workshops and I figure that if I tell about the most important things that I learned then others might learn something new, even if they didn't attend at that workshop. I hope that everyone that reads this will get something new from it.

Issue: Sharing Ideas and Emerging Technology

Jeanell

Ten Things Everyone Needs to Learn

I found an interesting article in Education World that really doesn't include any technology but I it got me thinking. It talks about the things that people need to learn in "order to be successful, either in business or life." So, how can we as educators help teach these things and what technology could we use to teach them?

1. HOW TO PREDICT CONSEQUENCES -- "It is essentially the ability to create a mental model imaging the sequence of events that would follow, "what would likely happen if...?"

I think that this is something that you have to grow into learning. Of course we can reinforce this and model this kind of thinking in our classroom but it is an internal skill that people in general do when they are "thinking" about their behavior. The problem is that many people do impulsive things. This means that they didn't think about consequences for their behavior. At my school, my Principal's motto is (like Dr. Phil) "You choose the Behavior, You choose the Consequence."

2. HOW TO READ -- "Oddly, by this I do not mean 'literacy' in the traditional sense, but rather, how to look at some text and to understand, in a deep way, what is being asserted"

This is where I think writing blogs would be extremely helpful. A blog would be a useful tool for students and teachers to show their "understanding" of what they read by summarizing and commenting about the text, while linking to background knowledge. This is a lot like what we are doing with our blogs. We are reading with a purpose and showing our understandings of what we read in our blogs, just like we would ask our students to do.

3. HOW TO DISTINGUISH TRUTH FROM FICTION -- "The first thing to learn is to actually question what you are told, what you read, and what you see on television. Do not simply accept what you are told. Always ask, how can you know that this is true? What evidence would lead you to believe that it is false?"

This is one of the hardest skills that I teach kids because they still have their imaginations working and can see how things that are fictional could possibly happen. I think that if we started having our kids question truth and fiction in real life situations that it might help them understand things better. Student's could create a Truth or Fiction discussion, where they can post a question or bit of information that they heard out in the real world and then in a safe environment they would be able to work on this skill.

4. HOW TO EMPATHIZE -- "This is best done by imagining that you are the other person, and then placing yourself into a situation."

This is a skill that we could work on when creating our rules for our blogs and discussions. We would want to be sure that we said things to others that wouldn't make you feel bad if they were said to you.

5. HOW TO BE CREATIVE -- "Genuine creativity is almost always a response to something."

Think of how creative your students can be while involved in a discussion, writing a blog about something you learn or read today or even working on a class wiki. This three tools really hits most learning modalities. There is so much that you can do using these tools to show your creativity and luckily for me, and you, it doesn't mean I have to be able draw something. *smile* Creativity is often linked to Art and Music but lets start letting kids be use technology more to express their creativity. I found a website called Creativity Workshop. "We believe that creativity is best served in a playful, nurturing, and non-competitive environment where freedom and focus go hand in hand." Isn't that the environment that we want our discussion and blogs to have.

6. HOW TO COMMUNICATE CLEARLY -- "Communicating clearly is most of all a matter of knowing what you want to say, and then employing some simple tools in order to say it."

Having students write daily or weekly blogs would allow them to practice writing with a purpose and an audience, other than just you (the teacher). This gives students a little some more to work towards and to be sure that they are writing what they mean. They start to take ownership of their words and thus communicating clearly.

7. HOW TO LEARN -- "When you learn, you are trying to create patterns of connectivity in your brain. You are trying to connect neurons together, and to strengthen that connection. This is accomplished by repeating sets of behaviours or experiences. Learning is a matter of practice and repetition."

Most teachers are aware of their students different learning modalities. "Most people have one predominant modality, but some have a balance between two or even all three. Many students are aware of their preference, which helps them approach their own learning more efficiently." My thought is that we need to share the modalities with the kids. Although "many students" are aware of their preference not all of them are. Wouldn't be nice if all the kids in your classroom knew their own predominant learning modality? I've never thought before to teach my kids about these modalities and ask them which way they learn best. Another thought for this up coming year.

8. HOW TO STAY HEALTHY -- "As a matter of practical consideration, the maintenance of your health involves two major components: minimizing exposure to disease or toxins, and maintenance of the physical body."

This is where I want to put Internet Safety. Students are hearing about how to stay healthy and safe from our DARE officer at school but Internet safety isn't pushed. I have come across a program that can help keep our kids Healthy on the Internet. It's called iKeepSafe. "The website uses an animated icon/mascot named Faux Paw the Techno Cat to teach children the importance of protecting personal information and avoiding inappropriate places on the Internet." This is when we would create a list of do's and dont's for the Internet. There are even videos for parents. There is a Welcome video, one on Social Networking Sites and Cyber-Bullies. This informs parents about the sites that their kids might be using and how to help keep them safe. This is going to be a big teaching area for me this year.

9. HOW TO VALUE YOURSELF -- "You can have all the knowledge and skills in the world, but they are meaningless if you do not feel personally empowered to use them."

It is amazing to me the amount of students, in my 4th grade class that lack confidence. They do no believe in themselves enough to trust what they know to be right. Some of this we can help them realize but they have to realize this on their own. The article suggests doing this to help you value yourself. "Tell yourself that you are smart, you are cool, you are strong, you are good, and whatever else you want to be. Say it out loud, in the morning -- hidden in the noise of the shower, if need be, but say it. Then, practice these attributes." I think having kids actively involved in their education will help build their value of self. Just knowing that the teacher/principal/anyone who reads their blog is really going to listen to what you have to say makes them feel important/valuable.

10. HOW TO LIVE MEANINGFULLY -- "Living meaningfully is actually a combination of several things. It is, in one sense, your dedication to some purpose or goal. But it is also your sense of appreciation and dedication to the here and now. And finally, it is the realization that your place in the world, your meaningfulness, is something you must create for yourself."

Setting goals, sticking to them, achieving their goals and then making new goals.....these are skills that most kids don't have. The teacher across the hall has a poster that says "Don't wish for it, Work for it!" I walked past it every day and I started to live by that motto. I challenged my kids often to stop wishing for it but to work for it. This year I want to be a better model of this motto. I want to help my students set goals, stick to them, achieve their goals and make new ones. To me this is how to teach how to live meaningfully. Students have got to see how your doing it before they want to try to do it themselves. I'm going to try to be a better role model to my kids. Letting them see the human side of me allows them to feel empathy for me and allows them to open up to me more in their blogs and discussions.

I am so glad that I found this article that had nothing to do with technology. I have found out that I am learning "how to read" more and more. Looking for the deeper understand of how technology and education can be made better. This class has made me think about my own practices and how I can make them better with just a few Web 2.0 tools.

Issue: Integrating Technology into education and every day life.

J

Student blogging...by: Jeanell

I came across this video that gives many great reasons to let students blog. The video was created by a teacher in New Zealand who teaches 2nd and 3rd graders and has only been blogging for 2 years.

"I now teach a class of students that are highly motivated and enthusiastic when it comes to I.T., they understand more about the world around them and they feel like their ideas, thought, opinions and learning are truly valued by others (I could go on and on here...)."

What a great feeling that must be, to know that you have contributed to those students future success? Don't get me wrong, I feel like that when I see a student's light bulb come on and they understand the math problem that we are working on or they finally are able to sound out a word and the story now makes more sense. BUT.......When those kids grow up are they going to thinking of those small milestones as link that to them as what is driving them to be a successful person? OR Are they going to think about the person that gave them passion for something that earns them a career and money? Although a few may find a passion with Math or Reading, they are life skills, whereas technology is a skill that can open doors into everything.

Rachel's school also has a Wiki. Check it out! I am so impressed. I immediately noticed the "Our Blogging Rules" section. Here the students have created their own list of rules for blogging and posted them for everyone. Each class has their own list and these are Rachel's classes rules for blogging.

We will:

• Only use our FIRST name when writing
• Only use SENSIBLE and KIND words
• Not write any of our DETAILS - this includes phone number, address and personal email address
• Be careful when putting PHOTOS on (we have permission slips signed by parents)
• Ask PERMISSION when putting on other people's photos - tell them what you are going to do with the photos
• Only display nice photos of other people (we don't want people to be embarrassed)
• Try our hardest to get our SPELLING right
• Be RESPONSIBLE when using and writing on our blog.

Right above this list of rules the students stated, "Rachel had always had rules for us and we have talked about it lots, but today we took ownership and made our OWN!" We all know that students respect rules more when they had a part in making the rules.

BTW, Guess who one of Rachel's "My blogging workshop links" is: Kathy Cassidy's classroom blog. She also links to a weblog video that she says that she uses in her workshops. I clicked on it and who did I find is the main speaker, Will Richardson. Will Richardson's blog has video links.

It truly is amazing to see how blogs can inter-connect people around the world. Again I can't wait to get my kids connected and start them into this network of successful people that are sharing their knowledge with one another.

I am pretty sure that my kids interesest in writing and reading will increase after I introduce them to blogs. After reading, Lynelle's blog called Why Blog? I see how others are struggling with using such an important tool in their classrooms. She also touches on the how to grade these blogs. I really like the way that Rachel Boyd allowed the kids to come how with their own rules. Maybe we could do the same thing in setting up a rubric that the students felt were fair. I can really see where this one tool can really open the lines of communication between students and teachers. Yeah, Blogs!!

Issue: Student blogging

J