Dena’s Blog

Wow, I feel as though I need to go back to the beginning and start again. I felt the same way when I finished my dissertation — Now that I know what the heck I’m doing, I’d like to go back and do it right.

I consider myself fairly computer-literate and technologically savvy, but I have learned so much about what’s out there that I never knew before. Luckily, I also found some tools that will help me keep up with new developments. Now if only I can use some of these tools before I retire.

I think Classroom 2.0 could be an entire professional learning class all by itself. There is just so much information there, it’s hard to process it all. When I found a tool I thought would be useful (WiziQ, Edmodo, and Moodle, for example), I found that they only opened up many ADDITIONAL layers of “things” to learn. Whew. How do I pick? How do I know which ones to incorporate into what I already use? What to scrap? How much can feasibly do before next semester, and how much do I need to wait until next school year for? And lastly, will I ever catch up with all of this before I retire in 3 years, 5 months, and 16 days?

I must confess that I don’t keep up with my Google reader as much as I should. If it weren’t for these regularly-spaced blog topics, I would forget all about it. So at least thanks for the gentle reminder if nothing else.

In perusing my reader today, however, I stumbled across an interesting post by The Tempered Radical about posting standards/objectives/essential questions on the board for students. While I no longer have to abide by such silly rules as what and how to post on my board, I do remember working at a school where it was just becoming popular. Evidently we were becoming a “Learning-Focused School” because someone had paid someone else thousands of dollars to teach us how to do that, and between the stress of working on the yearbook and working on my doctorate while I taught full-time, needless to say I got in a ton of trouble for asking aloud, “So what have we been BEFORE?”

I was frequently a smart-aleck but not rebel enough to buck the system, which makes me admire this post by The Tempered Radical even more. His school insisted that teachers post objectives in the form of “Students will be able to…..” and he resisted the edict until he was called on the carpet for it. With his principal’s permission, he researched the concept and learned that the form in which the objectives were written was IRRELEVANT. So he worked on his own state standards to create “I can” statements, with the student at the center.

What a concept.

Posting “Students will be able to….” statements on the board is like talking about them as if they aren’t in the room. Turning the objectives into “I can” statements puts the onus on the students, where it should be. And this guy was teaching sixth grade.

He admits that he has spent the better part of two years on this project. It would have been much easier if he had just gone along with the rules and posted the objectives as he was asked to, but he resisted because the rule didn’t make sense. And he made it better for himself and the students.

What a concept.

I really, really like pageflakes. I could play with it all day. I keep finding stuff to include….. “oooo, oooo, this is neat. I’ll put it on my pageflake.”

Problem is, I’m not really sure how I could use this in the classroom. I mean I can use it personally, especially the calendar, to-do list, etc. all in one place. And I know it’s different from a wiki. But HOW? Would I put a wiki on a pageflake? Or a pageflake on a wiki? How much overlap is there?

I’m thinking aloud (or typing, whatever) here:

I’m thinking back to the examples of pageflakes with common themes. I think that could be used in a literature classroom, especially American Lit and British Lit where different time periods have different themes, stylistic devices, political influences, images, music, etc.

Maybe I could also use it as a classroom organizer. Students could check assignments on the pageflake and go to the wiki for the actual assignments themselves. I like the fact that you can include a message board on the pageflake. I tried a chat box on my school wiki, but it was only useful for students who were online at that moment.

I have published my pageflake, after spending an inordinate amount of time trying to pick out the perfect theme. And being disappointed that while there was one for the University of Tennessee, and Texas, there wasn’t one for UGA. Maybe that’ll be my next “stretch” task. Ha ha

It’s a combination of mostly personal and a little educational material.

I don’t remember how I was introduced to Google docs, but we use it in our school every day to record attendance. Before Google docs, we met every Thursday to discuss students who had excessive absences. Once we started using Google docs, however, all we have to do is enter our attendance each period, and we have a formula to total up absences. We have a separate sheet for each class period and an additional sheet for excessive absences and action taken. It has been a real time-saver for us, and it has relieved some pressure as well. Prior to Google docs, we each had to count up absences for each student in each period and email excessive absences to one staff member. Invariably Thursday afternoon slipped up on me (and probably others), and she would come looking for my absences when it was least convenient to stop and produce them. It’s sooooooooooooooooooooooo much better not to have to count those silly things every single week.

I use another spreadsheet to communicate with our field operations specialist, who comes around every few weeks and asks, “How many students are doing senior projects? What are their topics? Where do they stand as far as progress?” I got so tired of answering the same questions every single time. So I uploaded my spreadsheet to Google docs, and the last time she came in with her list of questions, I said, “Give me your email address.” Now she can access the spreadsheet anytime she wants to, and she doesn’t have to ask me. Yay! Now all I have to do is justify why I won’t do the projects THEIR way, but that’s fodder for another post.

We are also in the process of developing a parent/teacher/student agreement that parents will have to sign before students are interviewed for our program. Having it online allows each of us to make changes without sending countless emails to a single person.

I can also see the value of Google docs for students to collaborate on presentations. I haven’t used it this way myself, but I think on group projects it would be very useful. The problem is getting students signed up for a Google account, because they can’t access email at school. Grrrrr……

Like podcasting, I had been introduced to Teacher Tube through my online teaching job. I found a couple of neat videos related to teaching English. There weren’t a whole lot of videos related to poetry and literature, though, and I found that somewhat surprising. I am thinking that next semester I can use my video camera and Windows Movie Maker to have students create videos of their own that teach literary terms and similar concepts, particularly those that are found on the Georgia High School Graduation Test. I think they will be able to handle a relatively simple video, and part of their assignment will be to critique videos created by other students. That way they get exposed to more of the concepts, and maybe because it’s a technology-related activity, they might not realize they’re learning. Ha!

When I did a search on You Tube with “English teaching” as my search term, I came up with many videos that were related to teaching English to speakers of other languages. Then I tried “literature teaching,” and that gave me a few more results, two of which I have included above. I posted the one about Maya Angelou because I think students might more easily relate to poetry if they can see poets as “real people” and not just a bunch of words in a textbook (or website).

I had recently been introduced to the concept of podcasting through my “other” job, teaching online with Georgia Virtual School. I’m excited about the possibilities that podcasting may present both to me and my students. For example, in my Contemporary Literature course I like to have students read poetry aloud. But none of them have microphones, so even when we are “live” online together, they can’t talk to me. They can only type their questions and answers. I think I can find some ways for them to produce podcasts of their own and present both published and original poetry using that format. I think they will be excited by the “coolness” of the technology (at least I hope they will) and maybe they will go to the trouble ti acquire a microphone for that purpose, because they surely haven’t been interested in getting oen to use in our weekly discussion sessions.

I think podcasting will also give me an opportunity to “demonstrate” things that I can’t usually put into words very easily. Sentence diagramming (if anyone did that anymore) comes to mind, as well as showing students how to use a particular program, like Movie Maker. I wouldn’t have to repeat the lesson as students show up for the lesson; I could podcast it and they could watch it at their convenience.

There were several useful podcast series for English teachers. One was “Grammar Girl,” where she takes a simple concept each episode and gives an explanation of which is correct. For example, one that I listened to dealt with when to say someone was the “first woman _______” as opposd to the “first female _________.” I hadn’t even thought to wonder about that!

I also thought I might be able to use Authors on Tour – Live! to let students hear contemporary authors read from their own work. Students tend to be so much more auditory than I am (or at least they THINK they are), and I think they might enjoy hearing poetry read more than they enjoy reading it. The Poetic Voice was a site that seemed engaging and diverse in poetry types.

I had already subscribed to a couple of podcasts (CNN Headline News, UGA Gymnastics), but I must admit that I’m terrible about keeping up with them. I love Robin Meade on CNN Headline News, and I love her podcasts. But I fee obligated to catch up with ALL of her podcasts after I’ve missed a few. Silly me.

I already had a Library Thing account, but I didn’t know of all its uses. I saw it on someone else’s blog when I started my personal blog, and I embedded it because I thought it was cool.

I didn’t know about groups, etc, so my first thought was that Library Thing wasn’t useful for much more than letting people know what kinds of books I had in my personal library.

Having explored the site a little more fully, however, I have done two additional activities. I’m not sure they apply to my classroom use, but personally I found them exciting.

I joined the 50-book challenge, beginning with the book I am reading now, The Last Lecture. This book was recommended by one of my students, and it’s a short and easy read. I come across so few students who are readers by choice that I feel compelled to read what interests them……sometimes.

I also joined the Early Reviewers on Library Thing. I don’t know what the odds are that I’ll actually be chosen to review any book(s), but the chance to have FREE BOOKS was just too much for me to turn down. If I have to do a little bit of homework after reading a book, I consider it a trade-off.

I came across an article in my Google reader from TechLearning called “Seven Tips for Technological Late-Bloomers.” Although I don’t consider myself necessarily a late bloomer, I do have a hard time keeping up with technology. Part of the reason is that I get comfortable with something and I don’t want to give it up for the “next best thing.” Another part is just the whole issue of TIME.

Here are my comments on each of the Seven Tips and what I need to work on.

1. Assess your own level of skill and apprehension toward using technology. I don’t think I have apprehension per se, but the bullet went on to say you have to decide how much time and energy you’re willing to invest in gaining new skills. It’s not that I’m not WILLING to invest the time; it’s that same old problem of not HAVING the time. If I’m spending time gaining new skills, then there is automatically something else I’m not doing.
2. Find what learning resources are available. I don’t have a problem with this one. I consider it a personal victory when I find the answer to a question or a problem. I like to “win.”
3. Plan ahead. Give yourself time to process the skills. Uh oh. This is a doozy for me. I like to jump in the water before I’ve even changed into my swimsuit. (Terrible analogy, but the best I could do.) I don’t plan ahead very well. I want to start using things NOW!
4. Start small. This goes along with the one above. I find something that is cool and interesting, and I want to make it work immediately with EVERY SINGLE ACTIVITY I TEACH. Well not really, but I have to rein myself in.
5. Consider the audience. I don’t have a problem with this most of the time, since my students for the most part have access to technology.
6. Have a backup plan. Being a literature teacher, I can always resort to old-fashioned books.
7. Have a way to measure your success. You mean I have to do this? I’m not successful just because it worked? It has to mean something too? Ha ha

Wow, so many toys to play with! Don’t make me pick!

I played around with Mnemograph because I thought it would be useful for an assignment dealing with timelines. I didn’t explore it fully, but I found it a little frustrating. Maybe with more time. I like the fact that students could link timeline activities to images, but the size limitations might frustrate them also.

One that I really could spend a lot of time with is Wordle. This cool little tool allows you to enter a bunch of words and then make sort of a “word cloud” with many options. It can look semi-serious (never my favorite), or it can look wacky (closer to what I would choose). I can see this as an option especially in a creative writing course as an example of an abstract poem. Or it could be used as a way to encourage concise writing, asking students to use only 10 adjectives to describe a main character and put them into a Wordle cloud. Very neat!

I also want to take a look at Quizlet, because my friend Lynn has already seen how cool this one is.