Variety is the spice of life

I have been exploring  many blogs this past week as I work to create my reading list. The majority of the blogs I have on my list are education and technology related such as Dangerously Irrelevant, eSchool News, Free Technology for Teachers, The 21st Century Principal, and Cool Cat Teacher Blog. These are all excellent blogs on education with posts that deal with many different topics covered, from classroom management to technology integration. All of them provide me with relevant information about my profession  and good ideas and tools that I can explore. I have gained a great deal of knowledge from all of these sources. I don't always agree with everything I read but it gets  me thinking about what I do believe and how I can make change for the better in my educational setting. With  this said the one blog that I go to first is lifehacker.com. I like this blog because it has a wide variety of subjects that it covers that range from DIY projects to simple tips on ways to make your life easier and more organized. When reading the same subject the majority of the time it is nice to take a mental break and read posts that go beyond ed/tech. There are a lot of posts each day to this blog but I scroll through I can pick and choose what I want to read about, I can then begin an adventure of leaning about many new topics. Curiosity didn't kill the at it just opened a whole new world of knowledge.

New Beginnings and a Giggle

As I work my way through the beginning of the school year both as a teacher and a student I find the best way to survive is to find a way to laugh. The following video cracks me up, it is just way to funny. But if you start to think about the two roles being played out here it makes you think, is this how some of our students feel? Does it all come to fast even though you have people telling you that it is so simple and basic?  Do I have this much impatience with my students when they just are not getting something?
I am making an effort this year to look at things in a positive way. Not to get sucked into the negative grumblings of co-workers and above all to find joy and humor in each day and to thank God for all that I have.
So watch the video maybe it will make you giggle and smile. Have a great year!

Technology new to me that has classroom applications

I have just begun using Twitter in the past month. It is an interesting bit of technology. At first I really didn't see what was so great about it; I just wasn't getting much from the tweets I had selected to follow. When I talked with my daughter about this she suggested so other tweets for me and I can now see that the problem wasn't that Twitter was useless, I had just not found out how to use it to my advantage.



In saying this I can see how twitter could be a fun and effective tool to use in a high school classroom. You can get immediate responses from your students, students do not have to have a cell phone to use it since you can tweet from your phone or a computer so it can be done right there in the classroom. If you wanted a response to a video or reading in the class you could have students tweet their response. If you then had a tweet deck set up you could display the tweets as they come in, also students can respond to others tweets as well. I know that this can also be done in a discussion thread, which are also somewhat new to me, and blogs but the tweets are quick and something that students are using right now.



Also, tweeting could be used for students asking questions about assignments. When they are working and don't understand something or just need a little clarification they could tweet their teacher to ask their question or they can tweet each other when they are working collaboratively but not in the same locations. I see many possibilities for this in upper level classrooms; it could be a lot of fun for both the students and the teachers.



Now in saying all of that we must keep in mind that we as teachers would have to teach proper tweeting etiquette to be sure that students were not misusing the technology. Lessons would have to be taught and boundaries and expectations would have to be made very clear from the very beginning and be restated throughout the class. Consequences for miss use would have to be made very clear right from the beginning.

Software review

I have spent some time today with Professor Garfield. He is an interesting little dude that has some possibilities for classroom use. Professor Garfield is a free web site that has educational content for classroom and home use. There is a teacher’s lounge where they have lesson plans, printables and other information for parents and teachers.

This site has drill and practice games that students can play to reinforce concepts in social studies, math, science and reading. There are also areas to learn about creating music and art. The one are where student’s get the chance to create content is in the comic labs. They can choose from many different pictures and element to put in their strips and then they write the stories in the comics. This could be done individually or in small groups. The strips can then be saved as a jpg file or printed out.

Not the most engaging program, mostly just point and click but there are questions in the games that will make kids use skills they have learned in the classroom.

This program has reviews and content standards available on the teacher page.

Here is a sample of the types of strips that can be made, this one took me about 5 minutes. It was fun to work with and easy to move through the steps to create the comic. There is a tutorial at the beginning but I skipped that and went right into creating.

I think the only part that could be used in a lesson plan would be the comic strip creator, but the other areas are fun for drill and practice options.

The URL for this site is: http://www.professorgarfield.org/ The image above is the Professor Garfield comic creator page.

Assistive Technology

I was intrigued by the writing programs that are available for students. I have had a few students over the years that have had problems with writing skills, not the ideas but the actual physical activity of writing. One student had fine motor skill development problems and the other two I am not sure why but their writing was not readable. The word predictions software would have been very helpful for all of these students. I know that these students have problems just completing the simple daily oral language activities because they would have to concentrate so hard on the actual writing that they would make mistakes in the sentences or they would concentrate on the sentence and the teacher would not be able to read what they had wrote. The one student would write so large that he would run out of room on most of his worksheets so he would just go back to the beginning of the line and write over the top of the first part of his answer. Our special education consultants have been working with him and he now has raised line paper to write out his answers from the worksheets and any other writing that he has to do. His handwriting lessons are also completed on the raised line paper. It has helped him quite a bit to use this resource. I can see where the word prediction software would help him when he was writing stories and longer pieces, he wouldn’t have to worry about spelling and handwriting he would be free to just think about the context of his work. As he gains confidence his reliance on the program should subside.


I read quite a bit more about the speech to text and word prediction software. These could be used for note taking when the students get into the upper grades because it would be much faster. The students wouldn’t have to think so much about what they were typing because the software would help them with the words they may not know right away. Typing in text speak would also help these kids take notes quickly so just having the computer available to them in class would be a great asset to them. They would then translate their text speak to standard English when they were using the information to complete assignments.

One web site that I looked at to review different types of tools for writing was http://www.techmatrix.org/Home

This is a site that lets you look at reviews of the products and links you to articles and other resources to help find the right tool for your student. Also the AEA has many tools that can be used. I have serve on our school Student Assistance Team along with our AEA special education representative and we have talked a great deal about tools that be used to help students be successful in the classroom and what is available through our local office.

AEA Resource Review

I had never looked at the AEA's online resources before today. I found Culture Grams today and really liked what I found out about them. They have information about 22 different countries around the world and include videos and links that can be explored. I have taught a social studies lesson called A Trip Around the World to lower elementary students in the past.  They love to learn about different cultures and compared them to the world around them. It would take me hours to search and find videos, recipes, local games, information about schools, traditions and what ever else I could come up with to make it interesting and fun for the students.  Much of what I found in the Culture Grams combines much of this information all in one place. I would still look for other resources to be sure that I had a good variety of information but this would be sure a good starting point. I am excited about all the resourses that will soon be available through our AEA and plan to use these resources next year. We are extremely lucky to have our AEA's in this state, when I have gone to the National Lutheran Educators Conference I have talked with teachers that have nothing that would compare to this available in their states and the are amazed when I explain to them all that we have at our finger tips through our state Educatioin Agencies. Iowa is truly a great state in which to teach.

Wikipedia in the Classroom

Margaret Santori, (in the Literacy 2.0 book) demonstrates Wikipedia to her students. Most school do not allow Wikipedia to be used. Would you use Wikipedia like Margaret Santori with your students? Why?

I would use wikipedia like Margaret Santori did with her students. This is a site that students are very familiar with and will go to almost right away when they are doing research.  I would model using it like she did in the text because this shows studetns how to check the content of entries for accuracy or to see if the content has been challenged. I agree with what she said about it being a good starting point but to no rely on it as the only search that they would use. If they are going to use this as a resource they should learn how to use it in an effective manner.


If three dimensional reading and writing books with technology (sound, hyperlinks, videos, etc) are our present, what do you think is the future of the written word?

At some point printed books may no longer be available but I personally will think that it will be a sad day. I love to walk through a book store and flip through the pages of the books, and children really need that interaction with the page to connect with the story, it just isn't the same when it is on a screen. There are some great things about the electronic books and I can see where they have their place, text books will be awesome with the videos built right in and the links that will take you to more information. I believe that something special happens when  you read smell the new book smell and look at the cover art and hear the crack of the binding when you open a brand new book, it is like your invitation to a new adventure.