Monthly Archives: January 2010

#NonEduCon v/s #EduCon: What My Educon Envy Taught Me

Today is the last day of EduCon 2.2. Everyone is packing up and flying out. Starting last Thursday my envy began. By Friday I was green. Why should I care? How the heck did I even know about this conference going on in Philly? Let me explain.

When I first signed up for twitter I didn’t know what what I was doing or who to follow. @SuzanBrandt was always raving about what she learned on there. So one Sunday afternoon I sat down and decided to “steal” the people she followed. I started following them. During that day I noticed that a lot of the people she followed were putting #educon on their tweets. I clicked the #educon link and it showed more even tweets. These tweets were linking to blog posts or reflections of the weekend. Reflections I agreed with. The more I read the more I followed. I was addicted to this stream. From that moment on I was hooked to twitter. At that “Ah-Ah” moment I saw what Suzan had been talking about the whole time. I could learn so much from this social networking tool!!

SO this year I have been looking forward to EduCon. I could not wait to read the back channeling, the blog posts, and the twitter stream.  I was ready to live vicariously though my PLN. Which brings me to why by Friday night I was green with envy. Over the past year I have developed this relationship with people I have never met in real life – some of my PLN even work 15 minutes from me and still have never met! But there is the groups of teachers out there who I can relate to, who say just the right things when I’m passing out worksheets because I’m ready to scream. Teachers who have the same visions of the future of education as I. People who help when I need help with curriculum or have a google doc questions. Its this entire community that I take pride in being a member of.

I regressed, well not really that is part of my point – more like I rambled! So by Friday night I wanted to be there. I wanted to be in a room full of these people. I learn so much from these people in 140 characters or less, how awesome would it be to meet face to face. Then I see this tweet come through from @unklar about being at #noneducon. Hillarious! That’s the other thing I love about my PLN, they always make me laugh exactly when I need it! So I decided to contribute to #noneducon since I was feeling the love. If you read the #noneducon I’m sure you will agree we did get carried away, but I LOVE been part of joke! The best part is that I started following people they were attending (or not attending) #noneducon. My PLN has grown once again because of #noneducon I even met @cfanch (is that good? He said he wouldn’t read my post unless mentioned). Why did I follow people people who were not attending a conference? Because if they took the time to tweet about #noneducon, they were feeling the disappointment of not attending, which means they cared as well. They first of all knew about educon (which is reason enough) but that means they probably feel the same way about education as I.

Did I learn from all the post about #educon? Of course! I loved reading post as simple as discussion on how lighting the the classroom makes a difference to the discussions about no need for IWBs ( I thought @j_allen was going to have a coronary with that one!). As the week continues I plan on reading and learning more. SO many great minds in one place, I hope they continue to share their ideas with the world!

One more thing I want to add, if you do not have a PLN of educators, you need to get one fast! Cannot tell you what a difference they have made in my teaching career and my life! My teaching is constantly changing and I have them to mostly thank.

Prezi: One Step Closer to Killing PowerPoint

Those who know me, know this: I HATE POWERPOINT! I just do. There are too many wonderful programs out there that allow kids to be more creative. I think PowerPoint will be a thing of the past by the time my students enter the workforce.  OK maybe not, but that would be awesome – no more PowerPoint lectures!!! No one reading from the screen! What a dream world! No more teachers giving assignments that begin with “The students will make a PowerPoint…”and calling it technology integration! Prezi is one of the many PowerPointGoAway-ators (If you watch Phineas & Ferb you got that, right?).

Last winter I tried Prezi for the first time. I remember the first time I tried it, it literally kicked my butt! It was tough.  Everytime I use it, I feel like it was a new learning experience.  Thanks to my nemsis PowerPoint I think linear. Prezi is outside the box! It turns, it zooms, there is no order until you put it there.  Its a geometric plane. A large surface, everything on one level. You choose the order. YOU choose!

Not long after discovering Prezi I had a teacher in my school ask me to help with her student’s projects.  She told me that she wanted to do more than PowerPoint (yes she knew of my hatred toward it) and wanted some Web 2.0 projects.  So I put together a list of presentation websites on a wiki. http://tinyurl.com/yjjowfj On the list was Prezi. I traded classes with this teacher one day and gave brief descriptions and explanations of the sites listed.  The kids then were given the opportunity to choose their presentation method. I knew how hard Prezi could be at first and was very curious to see how the kids did, or if they even chose it.  They made AMAZING Prezis. They embedded videos, pictures, links, etc. I was surprised!! When I asked the students if they thought it was hard, they acted as if I was crazy for asking. Then I asked the “lightbulb” question, “Was it easier to use then PowerPoint?” Here’s the shocking part, ready? The answer most of the time was “I don’t know, I’ve never used PowerPoint that much” No wonder they did not have such a hard time, their brains were not trained to think in the PowerPoint – straightline – linear – format. They were fresh! There was no previous knowledge to draw from because Prezi was so new, but there was also nothing to compare it to.

Yes, Prezi is difficult to learn the first time you sit down with it, but for these students there was not much of a learning curve.

This past weekend Prezi launched a EDU license for teachers and students.  This is great! It now allows teachers and students to keep their projects private or viewable by certain individuals.  That is HUGE! It also give 500 MB verses the 100 you could receive on the public free account.  I am excited about this upgrade and cannot wait to use it with students in the future!

Why on Earth would you use a PowerPoint when you can use Prezi?!!

A

Google Earth – Back to Basics

I love Google Earth! I have since the time I first discovered it. Google Earth has change a lot of the past years. More clearer images, 3D views of cities, putting photos on certain spots, etc.

I have used this program for four years now.  I first used GE in the classroom 4 years ago when I taught 3rd grade.  We used it to learn about mountains, continents, and the world.  We even looked at our houses when learning about neighborhoods (don’t recommend this because I found may out of zone). We used it for the basics.

Over the years, teaching 6th grade I have upped the way it is used. When taught math we zoomed in to Fenway and used scales. I could go on forever the ways I have used it to teach my Earth Science course.

But last week I used Google Earth for exactly what is is, satellite pictures.  My class was learning about the floor of the ocean.  I put up on the projector the Google Earth zoomed in on the Caribbean, Bahamas, and some of Atlantic Ocean.  We looked at trenches, the continental shelf, mountains, etc.  I zoomed out just a little and a few started asking where Haiti was on the map.  I showed them and the discussion turned in to THEM pointing out places on ocean floor that could have caused earthquake.  I just stepped aside and let them share their theories.  It was so cool watching them take charge of this lesson and use their past knowledge.

I think so many times I (and other educators) want to use technologies to teach with, to show, not to let the kids discover.  This goes back to the whole new pedagogy teachers have with technology. Technology is not here just to get kids knowledge of 21st century skills, it here to take learning to a new level.  A level that could not have been accomplished with me lecturing or the text book drawings.

a

On the Wall

I’m teaching biomes right now. Could be fun, I guess.  It is a standard we must teach but is not supported by the textbooks.  Even though I rarely use the texts, I have parents who rant and rave when I test on things not in the book.  This always leaves me stuck.  Usually I just make sure I cover the important “facts” from the book to pacify. This standard not being there has left me in a pickle.

When I think my about class I rarely even think about my class’s assessment. My test are just basic facts and I spend the 90 minute class time working on more advanced cognitive skills like reasoning, problem solving, etc.  I have found when I do put these skills on a test, the kids blank, skip the problem, or give a one word answer. Wow I digressed, but I wanted let you know where I was coming from.

So no TEST assessment for biomes. Now what? My students are 6th graders,  they are in the transition stage from elementary and middle school. We are learning to learn.  Learning to learn independently to be specific.  SO after watching a United Streaming video wtih me stopping it after each biome giving more in depth explanations and answering questions, the students were given links to a specific biome. The students now read the sites and collected information (they were not allowed to start writing until at least 5 minutes on site)

NOW I need a way for students to post what they know about biomes.  I would love for the kids to create an actual website. With time restrictions that I MUST follow, that’s not gonna happen. So after thinking about it I decided to use Wall Wishers. Its this great little site that lets you put sticky note on a blank web page.  I set up the pages, which probably took me maybe30 minutes to do, one for each biome.  On Tuesday the students are required to post 2 unique facts on the biome they were assigned. This of course will be more difficult for my last block, they were warned and seemed very prepared. On Thursday (our next class) I will project the “wall” and we will discuss the information on the biomes.

I hope this is successful. I like the fact the students are in charge of sharing with each other. I like that a student will learn something new, not because I told them, but because a classmate did or they found it themselves.

Links to biome pages. They are open, so I ask you do not edit or delete my kids work. They did a good job!

Freshwater: http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/freshwater

Marine: http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/marine

Desert: http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/desertbiomes

Forest: http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/forest

Grassland: http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/grasslands

Tundra: http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/tundrabiomes