Sunday, July 29, 2007
Still Trying Out New Tools...
I have spent time today searching for new links and tools for an upcoming course I plan to teach. Right now I am looking deeper into Technorati. While searching there I was asked to post this on my blog: Technorati Profile.There isn't much there, as I am still exploring. I am not even sure what one does with Technorati ;-). I love that the learning process never ends!
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Preparations....
I spent a good part of my day working with a team of teachers and administrators on revising our current Kindergarten curriculum. We are working hard to meet the deadline of rolling it out in August. The biggest hurdle is not so much the content, but the delivery method. We are moving from a papers-in-HUGE-binders format, to a DVD-online version. We ran into issues because no one could really lay a hand on the original files which meant nearly all the documents had to be retyped and or scanned. (not fun!)
We looked at State Standards, the District Roadmap, academic vocabulary and other areas to be sure everything is in sync. It's a lot of work, and we are really trying to get it done to the best of our abilities. Teachers will need to understand that it's a work in progress. Balancing what we know is developmentally appropriate with expectations from the State and others is rather challenging!
It seems we will have only the first part of this ready to roll out in August, with the rest to follow later.
I am excited at the prospect of the final project, which, when I think about it, will never REALLY reach a final step. The use of online resources, tools and websites, will keep it a living, breathing document...which is great. It will keep us all alert and in touch with the changes as they occur.
Or I am thinking it SHOULD!
For some, this new format will mean small steps toward easing into the idea of integrating technology....for others it will be a huge leap! We have to do what we can to ensure that we're all on board. I imagine it won't be easy, it's hard to let go of things within our comfort zone, but the time has come....we need to embrace what is out there and share what we find with our students. We can't keep using the excuses..."I don't know how...." or "My students don't have access outside of class"...or "We can never get to the computer lab"....and other such reasons to keep ourselves from moving forward.
It is our jobs as educators to share the tools with the students, let them explore the tools, work with them, make mistakes and learn from the mistakes as well as the successes. This means teachers will need to take the time to become familiar with what the tools are, how they work and where the power lies within them. FEAR is not an option.
There will be in-service and support provided, we won't leave teachers out there on their own to try to make sense of it all....but they will have to TRY!
Thinking out loud......I can only hope all goes well. ;-)
We looked at State Standards, the District Roadmap, academic vocabulary and other areas to be sure everything is in sync. It's a lot of work, and we are really trying to get it done to the best of our abilities. Teachers will need to understand that it's a work in progress. Balancing what we know is developmentally appropriate with expectations from the State and others is rather challenging!
It seems we will have only the first part of this ready to roll out in August, with the rest to follow later.
I am excited at the prospect of the final project, which, when I think about it, will never REALLY reach a final step. The use of online resources, tools and websites, will keep it a living, breathing document...which is great. It will keep us all alert and in touch with the changes as they occur.
Or I am thinking it SHOULD!
For some, this new format will mean small steps toward easing into the idea of integrating technology....for others it will be a huge leap! We have to do what we can to ensure that we're all on board. I imagine it won't be easy, it's hard to let go of things within our comfort zone, but the time has come....we need to embrace what is out there and share what we find with our students. We can't keep using the excuses..."I don't know how...." or "My students don't have access outside of class"...or "We can never get to the computer lab"....and other such reasons to keep ourselves from moving forward.
It is our jobs as educators to share the tools with the students, let them explore the tools, work with them, make mistakes and learn from the mistakes as well as the successes. This means teachers will need to take the time to become familiar with what the tools are, how they work and where the power lies within them. FEAR is not an option.
There will be in-service and support provided, we won't leave teachers out there on their own to try to make sense of it all....but they will have to TRY!
Thinking out loud......I can only hope all goes well. ;-)
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Just under a month to go...
Today I spent time updating some links on my Teacher Resources page. I added a set of Back-to-School links in anticipation that some of the teachers from my classes/workshops might check out the site to see what's new and find some online resources that take them one step closer to using tech tools on a daily basis.
As school approaches I am trying to think through the details of the blog that Katie, Sara and I will share with our students. I am wondering how to begin the year with it...how to explain it all to a group of 5 & 6 year old students.? How do we get the kids motivated and interested?
I remember last spring my afternoon class went WILD because we received an Email from a teacher in New Mexico that happened upon our site and liked our page on Tangrams. They were thrilled that someone outside of our class/school knew we were learning about them. It was an excellent opportunity to share with them just how broad the Internet can be. A great time to (re)explain that if we put something out there...anyone in the world can see our work.
They were confused by "New Mexico" and wondered if the people there "spoke English". ;-) (Gotta love those little K's) I took this as yet another learning opportunity. We pulled down the U.S. map and found New Mexico. I assured them it was in the U.S., but that even if it were outside the country, others could still see it. They thought Albuquerque was the funniest word they heard all week. They repeated it over and over for several minutes...giggling the whole time. They wanted to know if we could send an Email back; which of course we did! The kids helped me compose the Email. We sounded out the words together and came up with questions we had about the readers on the other end. One big question was "How did you find us?" They wondered how many kids were in the class, what units of study they were on, etc. It was great! The kids ran in the door first thing the next day wondering if we had gotten Email back. The class in New Mexico was going on Spring Break. My kids wanted to send more emails to them while they were away along with photos of our class. We did all of that...but alas we never really heard back from the class in New Mexico. The last we heard, the teacher was going to work on learning how to take a picture and send it in an Email. The kids were disappointed...but there wasn't much we could do.
This year it should work out better for us. I am excited because Katie and Sara have good Tech skills and are both interested in following up with some dialogue between the classes. I want to share with pictures, blogs, podcasts and the like. It should be fun!
My head is spinning with thoughts of ways we can connect our kids for learning!
As school approaches I am trying to think through the details of the blog that Katie, Sara and I will share with our students. I am wondering how to begin the year with it...how to explain it all to a group of 5 & 6 year old students.? How do we get the kids motivated and interested?
I remember last spring my afternoon class went WILD because we received an Email from a teacher in New Mexico that happened upon our site and liked our page on Tangrams. They were thrilled that someone outside of our class/school knew we were learning about them. It was an excellent opportunity to share with them just how broad the Internet can be. A great time to (re)explain that if we put something out there...anyone in the world can see our work.
They were confused by "New Mexico" and wondered if the people there "spoke English". ;-) (Gotta love those little K's) I took this as yet another learning opportunity. We pulled down the U.S. map and found New Mexico. I assured them it was in the U.S., but that even if it were outside the country, others could still see it. They thought Albuquerque was the funniest word they heard all week. They repeated it over and over for several minutes...giggling the whole time. They wanted to know if we could send an Email back; which of course we did! The kids helped me compose the Email. We sounded out the words together and came up with questions we had about the readers on the other end. One big question was "How did you find us?" They wondered how many kids were in the class, what units of study they were on, etc. It was great! The kids ran in the door first thing the next day wondering if we had gotten Email back. The class in New Mexico was going on Spring Break. My kids wanted to send more emails to them while they were away along with photos of our class. We did all of that...but alas we never really heard back from the class in New Mexico. The last we heard, the teacher was going to work on learning how to take a picture and send it in an Email. The kids were disappointed...but there wasn't much we could do.
This year it should work out better for us. I am excited because Katie and Sara have good Tech skills and are both interested in following up with some dialogue between the classes. I want to share with pictures, blogs, podcasts and the like. It should be fun!
My head is spinning with thoughts of ways we can connect our kids for learning!
Monday, July 16, 2007
So many sites....so little time!
I have been a very busy bee over the last few days gathering web sites and adjusting my web pages to include my latest findings. I edited my Wiki page to include tutorials and sites that may be of interest to PreK-2nd grade teachers. The tutorials include some that were originally on the front page (tutorials by David Jakes, TeacherTube , myself and others). There are so many interesting and exciting tools and sites, I can hardly decide which ones to try and which to save for later. I have been trying out the "links for you" portion of Delicious to share sites with my colleagues. I hope to get them motivated to use Delicious and to share their findings with one another. My eyes are getting weary...and yet I continue to surf! Never mind there are things to do here at the house. ;-) I'll get to them later. I am on a roll right now!!!
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Testing out NEW things!
Yesterday and today I spent time working with podcasting. I am trying to stay on task with what I learned in class with David Jakes in that I want to use this technology to extend student learning outside of the walls of the classroom. I couldn't recall the name of the program David shared with us in class (Luke demonstrated it for us), so I went with Gcast.com. I telephoned in my comments and with the push of a button, the comments were posted! How easy is that??
It was a tad more complicated than that because I HATE the sound of my voice. ;-) I started over several times and posted and re-posted. One thing about Gcast is I couldn't find a "HELP" link, so I was flying solo. If anyone has done podcasting there, or at a similar site I have a few questions. One is, once someone subscribes to the podcast, can they see ALL of the files, including the errors? It seems they were all showing up in my RSS reader. That could be rather embarassing! ;-)
And I am also looking for any TIPS and TRICKS you may have to share with me regarding podcasting.
Cindy
It was a tad more complicated than that because I HATE the sound of my voice. ;-) I started over several times and posted and re-posted. One thing about Gcast is I couldn't find a "HELP" link, so I was flying solo. If anyone has done podcasting there, or at a similar site I have a few questions. One is, once someone subscribes to the podcast, can they see ALL of the files, including the errors? It seems they were all showing up in my RSS reader. That could be rather embarassing! ;-)
And I am also looking for any TIPS and TRICKS you may have to share with me regarding podcasting.
Cindy
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