Blog Junkie

I really like Google. Except for the ads now appearing on my blog!  I know I am not using it to near its potential so I took a Knowschools course on it to increase my Google knowledge.  It was an amazing 5 days of  learning in a well presented on-line course.  Sharon Betts did an amazing job.  (As I visited her site I was sidetracked into her blog on her solar home. For those interested in solar energy see here.)  As usual in these courses I ended up with a degree of information overload, but managed to pull back and figure out what was important for me.

1.  Google calendar - I almost managed to miss my registration for the final semester of TLITE!  Far too close for comfort.  This little tool should be very helpful since my 2 luddite day planners and 1 desk calendar do not seem to be doing the trick!

2.  Google search and custom search - I did not know how to search efficiently at all and I am holding a postion of a Teacher-Librarian.  This was actually the top of my list of reasons to take the course.  Not being proficient at this is not acceptable to me considering my new teaching position.  I learned to use things from quotation marks, to site searches.  This was incredibly valuable and should make searching for educational research papers much more effective than in the past.  I also added a custom search into my Book Bin Blog.  Custom searches limit the search for more exact topics, in the case of The Book Bin, books reviews and soon other great library blog sites.  I thought this search would be very valuable to use with my research groups at school.

3.  Google Docs – I have used this myself only once this past summer as part of a co-operative mini research project on cyberbullying.  It was an interesting experience, and Sharon’s activity gave me an idea for my last action research project – using Google Docs with one of my research classes.  Listening to other course participants discuss their classes using this was exciting.  Co-operative learning is a big part of my classroom teaching and finding a way back to it for prep relief teaching with technology was great.  The students are able to work on a research paper collaboratively and simultaneously, email it to each other, share their ideas/knowledge and really own their own learning.  I thought this was an incredibly powerful learning tool for teaching.  Explore:  http://googledocs.blogspot.com

4.  Google Notebook – I really saw the power in this for myself as I work through another action research project and another research readings summary.  This Google tool allows you to collect notes, browse, clip and organize information online.  A great way to organize my reading notes.  Also a great way to keep track of blogging posts that push me to write a post on.  This tool allows you to create, manage, tag, export, share and bookmark the notebook.  If this appeals to you here are some helpful links:

http://googlenotebookblog.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=how+to+use+google+notebook&emb=0&aq=f#

http://michelemartin.typepad.com/thebambooprojectblog//2008/04/using-google-no.html

What did I learn this week?  Was the learning of any value?  Is it worth continuing with Twitter?

Three weeks ago when I began this challenge – Twitter for a month – I was not to sure that Twitter had any real value to be honest.  I have had my epiphany!

Twitter in Review:

I challenged myself to increase my tweets.  This was difficult, but I’m up to 48!  Still feels like butting into a conversation.  Stuck to safe topics: the weather, offered to send boxcars of snow to others.  Silly, safe.  No educational value at all. There are many technical tweets that I cannot follow as my technology skills are still at the “twit” level, but then …

Of value: Here’s what I learned on Twitter this week.

From mscofino I discovered TweetDeck.  I think I really like TweetDeck better than Whirl although I have not switched yet.

From bookminder a research paper on assessment for and as http://www.bctf.ca/uploadedFiles/Publications/TeacherInquirer/archive/2008-09/2008-10/Moore-Maps%20for%20Improvement-edited.pdf as well as this great site from Africa which has live video stream 24 hours a day from the African bush http://www.wildearth.tv/home – hmm won’t link. Sorry about that.

I just happen to be taking a course from Knowschools called 5 Days of Google and from Bryan Hughes:http://mashable.com/2008/12/07/how-to-use-google-reader/

From Coolcatteacher a teacher group at twittgroup.  That was really great and I found a few more people to follow.

From Dean Shareski the video of your students was wonderful.  It made me wish that TLITE had been structured in a similar manner. Keeping the mustache growing suggestion on the back burner!  Glad you went to Twilight! Now you need to read the series! I have a Facebook account for that very reason!

There were various pictures posted that people shared of family and that was really nice as you begin to know these people and begin to feel connected to them.

Finally, datruss had a blog post on the eddie nominations and from that I discovered some amazing library blogs, teacher blogs, and voted for my favorites.  If I hadn’t found this I would not have known who was nominated or would have voted.  Congratulations to the people I have run into either in Twitter or blogging on their nominations:  datruss, michelle martin, sue waters, dan meyers,  and jan smith.  You can see all the nominees and vote here.  Good luck to you all!

The epiphany?  This PLN community I have been building has provided amazing and unexpected support.  I can post a tweet about a new blog post and some people on my Twitter PLN will actually read it.  But more importantly they will leave a comment.  Through those comments they share their ideas, opinions and thoughts.  It does not matter if they agree with my ideas, reflections, opinions or thoughts.  What matters is that they have taken the time to share.  I appreciate and value those comments immensely as I continue on my technology journey of discovery and learning.  Thank you.

Is it worth continuing on Twitter?  Definitely, YES.

The mind once stretched by a new idea never returns to its original dimension – Ralph Waldo Emmerson

I have been grinding the glacier over some issues around my instructional practices.  I left a private school system for the public system because I felt like I was teaching in a box.  A box that was becoming smaller and tighter each year. I was the outfielder standing alone in left field waiting for someone to throw a new ball my way:  differentiated lessons, co-operative learning, professional dialogue, anything.  I stood alone until I finally quit the game. Now I feel like I’m miles behind everyone.

I’ve discovered I can stop fighting with my big picture learning style, honour it and teach with it. I can provide my students with the “big picture” of the lesson, from objectives to work/project examples and return to it at the end of the lesson. Did you meet the objective? This was a very huge realization for me as I’ve fought against my own learning style since I started teaching.  It always seemed that I figured out how to do something right or better after I finished doing it.  How embarrassing to “get it” in June instead of September!

I have been working on solidifying some ideas around relinquishing control of the information and letting the students own it, of relinquishing my teacher power to control the discussions and/or avoid uneasy topics or questions and to replace this with language of least power.  It’s time to roll with the students.  But I still have to do this within a guided framework as I’m not in complete agreement with the constructivist theories of education.

My research groups do not need to work on a project.  They need to work on the skills needed to do a research project.  I do not need to feel pressured into producing some elaborate end result with them, we need to work on the process in a manner that allows them to own their own learning and for me to own my teaching.

I have not refined these new ideas yet, but that will come with the process.

What drives your instructional practice?

Week 2 actually just ended, Week 3 just started, confused, me too!

Did the noob twit tweet more?  Nah, I was too busy being stressed out, finishing that field study, report card marks no one cared about and starting a new research project with the wild ones!  Who had time to tweet!

Oh, but what did I learn in the 3 days I did lurk around Twitter, you ask?  Sharing time!

Who gave me Dean Shareski’s blog to follow?  I owe you some fierce chocolate!  Dean, you rock! Thank you from this teacher who taught art from grs 4-7, hosted an art show with a colleague, did Speech Arts – choric drama division for 5 years and ran teams in the local book battle. Ms. Rhee needs to come visit me.

There was more. Finishing that field study did not release my stress.  I decided to spin into a professional funk.  Matter-of-fact, I decided to have down right pity-party.  I was going to spin down deep and revel in some self-indulgent, attention-getting funk.  With my tea in hand I headed off to read blogs and to hell with teaching, technology and the rest of the world.  I needed my Dan Meyer fix.  What do I find on his blog – the rule of least power, then I remember Phil Macoun’s post about teacher power and jeez, there goes my funk, I’ve got a challenge!  The glacier starts grinding.  I look up Claire Thompson’s blog and she is discussing controlling the information students are given!  Ok, you guys, thanks for blowing my funk out the window! I had such a good plan for that! BTW – these guys are all on Twitter, well not sure about Phil.

Had a great small group research lesson today, I let go of the teacher power, the info control and worked on the rule of least power concept.  Great time, except, in true me style – I don’t have enough info for these kids to do the research they want! HA!  Murphy’s cloud has found me yet again! (Point is, you realize, I had enough info until I let go of the control of it!)

Next wonderful learning experience from Twitter came from none other than the amazing Sue Waters of Edubloggers.  Notice the images in my last post.  Yep, thanks millions, Sue!  That just opened up a whole new world of blogging. Discovered that teachers down under are just as reluctant to embrace technology as those up top!

And lastly to bookminder who post a pic of North Van that made me remember how much I LOVE visiting Vancouver, and realize how much more I like this. (Sue, you so rule!)

I guess I’ll stick around for another week and see what it brings and revisit that tweet challenge.

Were the research questions answered?  What was the result?

I looked at three research questions:

1. What impact does the use of a computer-based graphic organzier for note-taking have on increasing student retention of factual information?
2. What does the use of a computer-based graphic organizer do to enhance skills such as developing and organizing ideas; seeing relationships and categorizing concepts?
3. How does the use of graphic organizers support cognitive learning theories such as dual-coding theory?

I created a research project on Nepal with the students for two reasons: one students enjoy learning about other countries and I felt it was a country they knew very little about. I conducted the Nepal research on two classes of gr 6/7’s – 58 students total.  To create a baseline to record prior knowledge I gave them a ten question pre-test about Nepal.  Both class averages were 1/10 demonstrating they knew little about Nepal.

Britannica On-line encyclopedia was used as our information source.  Students took notes on paper using a key-word note-taking system. They created an Inspiration web using version 7.5.  The nodes were coloured coded and linked together with some students decided to use shapes as well as colour.

Some used coloured backgrounds and linear webs.

Some students used a more clustered web, no coloured backgrounds.  Each student seemed to have his/her own preference.

I gave the students a post-test of 14 questions on Nepal based on the research subtopics.  First class average was 9/14 and the second class average was 12/14.  This supported the factual recall claim by Inspiration Software.

I repeated the process with new subtopics and made instructional changes.  I changed from on-line reading to reading on paper, added words to the links, demonstrated this on a paper web, changed note-taking to a phrase system instead of the key-word system. First class received the instructional change, second class missed a class and did not receive the instructional change. Second post-test administered.  Results: first class average dropped to 8/14 and second class average dropped to 10/14.  Most information recalled  was from information from first set of subtopics researched.  Most new information was not recalled.

After pondering on this in the usual glacier manner as well as surviving considerable stress over the entire matter and then reading more research articles I concluded that the drop in recall was due to several variables.  One: moved too quickly and hurried the students, Two: no time given for editing  the web, Three: words needed to be added to the links, Four: good instruction was lost in time crunch.

I firmly believe that had I not run out of time, kept to my modified instructional plan, recall would have increased or remained a the previous level.  I think that changing the note-taking system was a mistake. It appeared that students understood what the key words were, but did not comprehend what they read.  Now I’m not sure that is true.

The students’ abilities to use the software to organize and categorize information is apparent in the webs. The final project given to the each class involves synthesizing the information into either a formal essay or a visual poster about Nepal.  The students writing the formal report were easily able to write their paragraphs using the web clusters (rather the the outline feature).  Most interesting was working with the a student from one of the classes who is on an adapted program.  The student was able to use the web to write a topic sentence, create supporting details using the web nodes and write a “clincher” at the end without either my assistance or that of the teacher-aide who works with the class.  Impressive.  Supports the claims and research I read about Inspiration concept webs being valuable and successful with students who have learning disabilities.

Did Inspiration Software support the dual-coding theory? I believe it did, but it is too long to post.

I believe Inspiration Software holds up to its claims for recall and I think it is a valuable tool for students with learning disabilities.  If I was a classroom teacher I would most definitely be using this program consistently for Social Studies, Science and Lang. Arts.   I would absolutely be using it with all LD students/struggling students.  Its easy editing features are great.

What is the “noob Twit” up to now?

I get to do all the fun stuff.  I get to be the fun teacher!  If the students are going to come to me once a week for research, it might as well be FUN research.  So I get a brilliant idea (look out, my brilliant ideas usually end up with me asking someone to shoot me the next time I get a brilliant idea), that the next project will be Extreme Environments! HA!  How cool would that be?!  But I want a hook, something to fire up my students to my brilliant idea.  A PowerPoint!

Why a PowerPoint?  Well I spent last Friday in a seminar learning how to make one.  Now I’m not just a “noob twit” out there in Twitterland.  I happen to be a “noob” out here in techieland too.  Last year at this time I was thinking I was all that when I finished learning to use WORD! In Jan of last year I first heard about Web 2.0 and had no clue about what it was.  Its been a journey.

Back to the PowerPoint. Three days later I have forgotten how the Master Slide thing works, my seminar was shown on PP 2003 and I have 2007.  Hmm, things are not starting off  great.  But perseverance pays off and I manage to get titles, animated text and pictures.  Looked for the best of the google images I could get.  I even had an explosion going off for the volcano picture!  Impressive! I added music from a sound track.  HA!  Noob managed to get that right after about 4 attempts.  All in all this 17 slide show took 4 hours to complete! Jeez!

At school I set up the laptop, projector and even have the screen down!  I have discovered there is a plug in in the floor so I don’t need the 4km extension cord any more.  Noob has a serious headache today.  Thinking is worse than usual and all noise is a major issue.  Head thinks it is a bowling ball in a 10 pin alley.  Students come in and are sweet and quiet for Noob’s headache.  Press F5 to play PP – notice I know this shortcut.  No sound!  Have absolutely no clue how to connect the sound system up to the laptop.  Good thing the students quickly point out the class techno man.  Our resident 10 year old who could work at Future Shop as a techie works at the sound problem.  We played that PP part way two times before we got the sound!  It was a hit as big as Twilight and I’m going into the movie making business!

In all seriousness, the 4 hours spent making the PP to show 4 classes was worth it.  The images really helped the kids pick an environment that had a strong appeal to them.  Who can resist images of penguins, baby polar bears, exploding volcanoes and the inside of the International Space Station?  The hydrothermal vent initiated a lot of discussion, especially the seaworms. I had images I hoped would appeal to both genders and it appeared I managed that.  They were excited to get their hands on the books and look and share the information they discovered.  It was a good day.  Next time that PP will only take 2 hours! I am learning and expanding my beliefs about technology and education as well as my skills in using the technology in a networked school environment compared to at home.

What have I learned in the Twitter challenge to-date?  What do I think of Twitter now?

It has been a week since I started this Twitter challenge so what happened out there in Twitterland?  I am now following 31 people and have 23 followers.  An improvement over the initial blog report!

I was given Dean Shareski’s blog as one to follow.  The initial post I read was about sharing.  Dean challenged people to:

Here’s an idea: put a sticky note on your desk that says, “What do you want to share today?” I’m not kidding. Then, if anything interesting comes your way: Share It!

I read his “about” page as I became very curious about a man who wrote such a post.  Surprise, surprise, he is a prairie man.  Go figure.  If you ever get lost out there, you can have a 45 min conversation with a stranger, get invited to their house for supper, then get the directions you need!  I ADORE the prairies.  So Dean, nice to meet you, I’m sharing!

I also was sent some great links:

http://theedublogger.edublogs.org/2008/04/02/are-you-twittering-heres-how-i-use-twitter/ by Sue Waters, of course, on the value of using Twitter.

http://thecleversheep.blogspot.com/2008/11/top-ten-types-of-tweets.html from Rodd Lucier on types of communication within Twitter and also http://thecleversheep.blogspot.com/2008/07/to-tweet-or-not-to-tweet.html where there is a discussion on Rodd’s blog about the value of Twitter.

I found a grade 5/6 class blog just when I needed it! http://56c2008.edublogs.org/

I have learned to use, well sort of learned to use, Twhirl.  I have used direct messages and I have managed to put a toe out into the conversations.  I find that not so easy.  It feels like barging into a conversation at a party that you may not have been invited to. I tend to learn by “lurking” and “delurking” is rather a challenge.  So that will be the new challenge for the upcoming week: send out more tweets!

Now here are the more interesting things I’ve learned this week:

This Week’s Twitter in Review…

• chocolate lava cakes are worth moaning about – well chocolate is a food group on the food pyramid ya know!
• cats should not be machine washed http://icanhascheezburger.com/2008/11/18/funny-pictures-told-u-not-masheen-washabul/
• baby showers have developed some unusual games since my hosting days!
• I’m not the only one waiting to see the Twilight movie! – Was great and I always said it should have been Jacob and Bella!
• this game causes people to stay up all night, nope it isn’t WOW! http://www.casualcollective.com/games/DesktopTD No, I did not try it.  There is a limit to my new geekiness!

What do I think of Twitter now?  I’ll stick around for another week.  Lord knows what I might learn!

Decided to accept Betty’s challenge to try Twitter for one month.  So now I am following 16 people (who I sniped from Betty and Claire), 3 are following me and I’m still trying to figure out what I am doing!  I still do not understand why I want to do this.  It is suppose to be a great way to develop a PLE (personal learning environment), but I’m still lost in the fog!  Nothing new there:  think at glacial speed and all. It seems I am a new “twit”! HA! The truth is out!  I should probably figure this out in a month or more and have no followers!

Well, well, I managed to add Twitter to this blog!  It’s getting rather cluttered on those sidebars as I learn about and add new widgets!  Impressive!    Hmm, I guess I will have to keep posting about this new little side journey as well as the TLITE journey.  Hop on and join me if you wish!

I have just spent an amazing week at Knowschools taking an on-line class on blogging and blogging with students.  It was engaging, informative, supportive and, as usual with Knowschools, I came away with a great deal more knowledge than I came in with.

What I liked most from the session were the readings on blogging and the forums on issues around blogging that came up.  The resources provided in this class were practical and useful.  Some of my favorites are:

http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2005/08/29/learning-about-blogging-and-how-to-blog/

http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/nbReader.asp?ArticleId=18945

http://lorelle.wordpress.com/books/blogging-tips/

http://knowledgetree.flexiblelearning.net.au/edition04/pdf/Blogging_to_Learn.pdf

These readings enhanced my knowledge of my own blogging, especially reinforcing the idea that the reason I blog is for critical reflection and any comments provide concrete feedback.

What I gained from the class is much needed information, mostly positive, but some negative, about using blogs with students.  I have yet to embark on that endeavor although I certain have plans to!  The forums were both eye-opening (I hate surprises when I am involved in something new) and encouraging.

I came away from the class with a much stronger sense of the educational value of blogging with students and the need to use blogs to teach students the skills needed for on-line social relationships. This just happens to be an important issue to me. I also discovered the strong sense of community that blogging creates which surprised me. I picked up a few skills regarding working within Edublogs.  I believe I finally have the issue of screen shots solved!  Many thanks!

So now what? Well, I have approached a colleague about creating a joint blog.  I am both excited and absolutely terrified to begin this journey with the students, but working with someone else who is more tech savvy than me and an administrator who is currently supportive this should make this an interesting adventure!  As well I’m becoming curious about Twitter.  I know very little about it, except that maybe it involves a cell phone?  My hatred of cell phones is well known so I’m not sure about me and this Twitter thing!

Could I have found a better blog post?!

After stressing about my responsibilities for report card marks for the research classes I teach, I finally went to my principal for some clarification.  She managed to relieve my 2 weeks of stress in five minutes and gave me hope beyond hope that there are some administrators out there who actively seek to destroy the “martyrdom” syndrome in their staff while still maintaining high expectations of “good” teaching.  AND I had a colleague come to me to ask for help for several of her students because “the kids connect really well with you.”  Thank you for making my day.

All of this got me obsessing on this topic again.  Bopped back to Dan Meyer’s blog and re-read the comments on his post about this issue.  I came across Chris Lehmann’s post here .  On Chris’s blog I find this great post by another seemingly amazing principal.  On this blog I am reading about “making Faustian bargains” (don’t even want to know how many of those I’ve made), working 10 – 12 hrs/day (I actually drove 200km/day to teach and spent around 14 hrs/day working/commuting for 10 months!), “reducing authentic assessment to its simplest form” and “teaching from textbooks…” (all I ever did).

In my former school system teaching was considered a “calling”.  That was used to reinforce the insane notion of martyrdom and minimal pay.  Now I work for a principal with similar thinking to Chris Lehmann.  I can go to work without having to constantly challenge the notion that I chose to teach because I was called to it by God.  Oh yeah, Dan, I received one hell of a pay hike over this system change and it is awesome.