Learning, Teaching & Technology

I had an opportunity this past week to share some of my thinking with the faculty during a Monday afternoon meeting. I had been working on a presentation since I first returned from NECC 2007. I updated it to include the ISTE standards for students and teachers and some of the conversations we have been having as a district technology team about our next Technology Plan 2009-2012.

The timing of the session coincided with the publication of the Literacy 2.0 edition of Educational Leadership. We started the meeting by reading the Perspectives introduction to the article. I asked the faculty to use the prompts of, “What are you noting as you read?” and “What do you want to read more of?” I chose this as the group reading because it mentions bits of several of the articles in the issue and it also makes the point that our students need the literacies of reading and writing more than ever in our world of expanding literacies. After the reading I asked the faculty to turn and talk to each other.

We followed this introduction with a slideshow I had prepared with several breaks for more conversation. Listening to the conversations I heard many questions and explanations about various explorations teachers are doing with their studensts. In all I was pleased that the information I was sharing seemed to be welcomed and there were many teachers who were excited to talk about the topic.

The presentation I used is posted on slideshare.net.

These are the professional development courses and workshops I have participated in since 2005:

Professional Development Activity, Date, Credits/Hours, Documentation
ACTEM Conference (Presenter), October 06, 8 hours, Certificate
NECC Conference, Atlanta, June 2007, 36 hours, Certificate
ACTEM Conference (Presenter), October 07, 8 hours, Certificate
ACTEM Conference, October 08, 8 hours, Certificate
USM Course: The Read/Write Web, July 07, 3 graduate credits, Transcript
K-12 Online Conference07, 10/07-8/08, 3 graduate credits, Transcript
Yarmouth Writing Course, 07-08, 3 credits, Certificate
NH Tech. Education Conference, 12-08, 20 hours, Certificate

I plan to attend:

NECC Conference, Washington, D.C.,  June 2009, 36 hours, Certificate
ACTEM Conference (Presenter), October 09, 8 hours, Certificate

Also, courses I taught each summer at USM and in the Yarmouth School District.

Over the past year there have been many changes in the software we use and the ways we can access the Internet at Y.E.S. Each week I work with each teacher and class to provide a learning experience that connects to classroom learning. While I collaborate with the teacher in the planning, this year I am finding that there are so many new possibilities that I am often introducing tools and lessons that didn’t exist a year or two ago. During their weekly team meetings grade level teams share the new adventures with each other and often there is interest across a grade level for an interaction or project. I participate in nings, listen to edtechtalk shows online, and read educator blogs as I spend hours each week corresponding with other integrators. This collaborative professional development and attending state and national conferences are both important to ways for me to find ideas, support and learning for myself.

There are abundant examples of our students engaging in activities indicated by the NETS•S in grades 2 through 4 at Y.E.S. I find that we don’t need to spend time on the standards technology operations and concepts as they are best learned as part of using technology tools for expression. I introduce 2nd graders to the computer environment via. drawing programs so that they start off as creators of content. We then add writing, often accompanied by illustrating (esp. using Clicker 5 & Clicker Paint). After a few weeks of using the computer to create we begin to use interactive Internet sites in support of language arts and math skills being learned in the classroom (Educational Resources). Some classes have used voicethread.com to record aloud the text of books they have created and illustrated. These books have been posted online for comments by parents. Now at midyear 2nd graders are accessing information about the Arctic online and using various sources to create text and pictures describing the adaptations of an animal. They are beginning to address the areas under the standards research and information fluency and critical thinking, problem-solving and decision making as they use digital tools and resources.

Students in 3rd and 4th grades expand on the skills learned in 2nd grade. This year they have:

• interacted with entomologists manipulating an electron microscope online using “bugscope“
• recorded folk tale puppet shows on voicethread.com
• planted tulips as part of Journey North
• recorded
  Download as geologists
• posted videos of class plays online
• added content to a “100th day” wiki,
• created class blogs to review books they have read
• presented a Class Mystery on voicethread.com
• created multimedia group slideshows using ezedia
• accessed encyclopedias online
• used “safe-search” tools
• learned Internet safety guidelines as digital citizens

In addition to accessing information students are analyzing and making meaning of their own learning. A challenge is to explore taking part in international collaborations for classes learning about culture in other continents and to increase awareness of our global community. In the last year there has been a huge increase in the tools for sharing online and these may support new ways for us to or communicate and collaborate with other classes anywhere in the world.

A Labor Day note on a glorious, sunny 80+ degree day on the coast of Maine. The rhythm of the year has already gone to a much faster pace as teachers returned last week. We buffer the beginning by having a short week then a four day weekend before the students return. After working on my own for much of the summer I know that the great thing about having the teachers and students return is that my work becomes immediate and responsive instead of the list that goes on and on of what I could do.

What will be the focus of my time this year? As the integrator, facilitator, coach and instigator of all that might be connected with computer technology it is always a challenge to sort the priorities when the rush of the year begins.

Goals:

1. To use this blog as my professional reflection portfolio as a part of my professional growth process and to connect to the disparate areas of my teaching and collaborating.

2. To initiate web2.0 tools in a few classrooms and teams as exciting ways for students to share their work and collaborate with other K-4 classrooms.

3. To keep the focus on teachers as the ones who make it happen for students.

4. To work closely with my K-12 team of integrators as they are each dynamic contributors to our work.