Category Archives: my classroom

Day One of Glogging: It’s all about Play

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Yesterday, my students dove into Glogster — the online virtual poster site — and boy, were they having fun. The night before, they had homework that included reading through a short tutorial of how to use the site. The rest of the homework was writing about Three Cups of Tea, which is the basis for the project that they will begin today in earnest.

I decided to hold back on letting them begin the project so that they could have a chunk of time to just play. I have to keep reminding myself how important this is — this play time with technology is not a waste of time but a valuable space for exploration. Too often, we just have kids jump right in. You know, though, that they are going to explore, so why not give them time to do it?

And the sharing and communication that goes on during these times is quite fascinating. They really do rely on each other as much as me, and what they now know about the site (which is free and allows a teacher to set up a “classroom” of students) will help them with their projects. They are designing a Three Things about Three Cups of Tea poster, with a podcast book review.

The most difficult part of yesterday was making sure they read their Glogster-generated username (called a nickname) and password. Both are a random string of letters and numbers. I had tiny slips of paper with their information to hand out to them (I wonder if I will need to go through all that again today?)

They were clearly frustrated to learn that they could not change their user names and make their glog site their own, but I explained that we in the virtual class could see who they were (they added first name last initial to their profiles and when you are logged into the class, you can see those names — but only if you are a member of the class) but the random user names gave a nice protective shield from the outside world. They understood and it was another lesson in protecting your identity when online.

Here is a glog that a student did, in the 20 minutes they had to work. I know that I will have to keep talking about design with them and repeat my mantra: “just because you can do does not always mean you should do it.”

Peace (on the glog),

Kevin

Three Things about Three Cups of Tea

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I decided that I will move ahead with the school-based Glogster this week with my students as we finish up Three Cups of Tea. I’m excited about it and I think the students are going to love the experience. One of my reservations about messaging among students is not an issue (thanks, Gail) as Glogster has shut down that option for students to message anyone other than their teacher. I also imagine the most difficult thing will be getting all the students logged in with their Glogster-created user names and passwords, but I created a spreadsheet with all that information and have printed out slips of paper for them to use.

Here the assignment they will be getting for homework that will form the basis of the Glog they will create. The book review will actually be done in the form of  a podcast (I hope):

Three Things about Three Cups of Tea

I also worked up a rubric to help keep them focused on the work, adding in an important design element to the rubric.

Peace (on the journey),
Kevin

Considering Glogster

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I’m considering bringing my students onto the educational arm of Glogster this coming week to create a book review of Three Cups of Tea (I’ll share the assignment later but it has to do with a series of Three Questions …) I set up a teacher account and created 80 student accounts and have started to build a database of names, usernames, passwords, etc. It’s all free!

I’m a little nervous about the messaging element of the site, though, and wish I could push a button and remove that option. I only want them to focus in on creating a poster review of the book and not get lost in sending messages (which I know happens).

So, my dilemma: does the positives of creating an online poster showing knowledge of the book that they are supposed to be finishing up this week outweigh my concerns about messaging?

I’ll let you know what I eventually decide.

But here is a sample book poster that I created for Peter and the Sword of Mercy, just to show some possibilities. I love how easy it is to make and how easy it is to embed a Glogster. I could see making up a site of all of the Three Cups of Tea posters.

Peace (in the poster),
Kevin

Bringing the Koran into Class

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I’ve been trying to share my adventure in teaching the young reader’s version of Three Cups of Tea to my sixth graders. For the most part, they are enjoying it (and don’t seem as stymied by the relatively poor writing craft as I am) and it has brought up interesting topics and discussions around cultural divides, doing the right thing at the right moment, and survival.

Yesterday, for example, we read the chapter where Greg Mortenson gets kidnapped and held captive for seven days in a small room. On the floor is an old Time Magazine, with a cover story about the Iran Hostage Crisis. Remember that? Remember how every day for more than a year the headline on the newspapers (remember them?) had stories about the Americans in Iran?

My students had never heard of it, and I had to launch into a drive through my memory banks about that time and what itstill means for the global political world today (ie, the leaders of that Iranian Revolution are still in power today and still distrust the United States.) The other day, I had to give a flash history lesson about the creation of Pakistan as it was carved out of India (thanks a lot, Great Britain, you really messed that one up) and in the chapter they are now reading, the issue of Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan comes up.

I bring this up, too, because the religion of Islam is new to most of my students, but not all. I have a student who has come to us from Turkey and he has been a spirited voice in reading the book (and he is an ESL student making great progress but still struggling … but this book has engaged him). Yesterday, my student brought in his Koran, which Greg asks for while he is being held captive. It is artistically beautiful, and written entirely in Arabic, which allowed us to talk about different languages in the world — from alphabetic to symbolic.

I made a photocopy of the first page for all of my students and they were completely taken over by it, trying to sound out the symbols, and we talked about the role of the Koran to the Muslim world. I am so happy that my student took it upon himself to bring part of his world into our classroom, and allowed for some open discussions. I am trying to make sure he doesn’t feel like the spotlight is on him — you know, the one African-American in the room when you talk about racism syndrome — but I appreciate whatever views of the Middle East that he can bring to the discussions, too.

We also want to take action. Our school has been part of the Pennies for Peace initiative, and now, a few students and I are beginning to plan a Rock and Roll Concert for late January to raise more money for the school-building foundation and also, to collect book donations to send down to New Orleans schools that continue to struggle.

Peace (in the world),
Kevin

Using Webspiration for Brainstorming

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There are plenty of mindmapping sites now out there, but yesterday, I decided that my students would use Webspiration, the online companion to the very popular Inspiration software. Webspiration is wonderful and I sing its praises. It’s free (yeah). It’s easy to use (yeah). And you can share and embed the concept maps that you create on other websites (yeah).

I wonder why it is free since it does much of what Inspiration can do, although I guess the newest versions of the software has a lot of bells, whistles and possibilities. I just wanted a site for some collective brainstorming and Webspiration sure fit the bill.

Here’s what we were doing: As we are reading Three Cups of Tea, we are talking deep about the theme of the book — how a character is faced with challenges and then overcomes those challenges. In this book, as most people know by now, the protagonist — Greg Mortenson — wants to build a school in Pakistan but runs into roadblocks every step of the way.

Next week, my students will be writing in-depth about the challenges to building a school, so we worked on a concept map to help them think through the challenges.

Here is what one class came up with (by the way — if you are in Google Reader or some RSS, you may not see the embed so here is a direct link to the Webspiration map):

Peace (in the map),
Kevin

Writing Prompts for Techno Kids

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I came across this post by Sharon at TeacherlyTech in my RSS and it had me thinking. She explains how she tries to develop writing prompts that speak to the interests of her students, with slants towards technology. I love that idea. Here is what she shared as a few possibilities:

(1) What’s in your iPod? What do your playlists say about you as a person?
(2) What are the rights and wrongs of text messaging during class?
(3) Should you friend your teachers, employers, or other authority figures on social networking sites?
(4) What are the worst Facebook/MySpace faux pas your friends should be warned against?
(5) What was the most significant TV show (or video game or pop star or other media presence) of your childhood? How did it influence your life?

I wonder what I might add? Here are a few off the top of my head.

  • What would the html source code look like if you were a webpage?
  • Design and label a personal computing device that will be on the market in 10 years.
  • Explain in steps something (a concept or a piece of equipment) about technology that you understand but which your parents do not.
  • If you were the teacher, what technology would you allow students to use for learning and why?
  • Write a persuasive paragraph that argues for me (your teacher) showing you a certain tool of technology that we don’t already use (but which you use outside of the school).
  • Write a short story in which the main character is a minor character from one of the video games that you play (or know about).
  • Imagine you are going to produce a video for Youtube and you can earn $1 for every view it gets. What will your video be about and what would you need to make it happen?

Thanks, Sharon, for the inspiration. I wonder if other folks have suggestions, too?

Peace (in the prompts),
Kevin

Wallwisher and the UN Declaration of HUman Rights

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I am experimenting here with a site called Wallwisher, which I learned about from the Little Kids, Big Possibilities presentation by Kelly Hines at the K12 Online Conference, which launched this week. Wallwisher is a sort of brainstorming wall and I want to see if I can use it today with my students as we talk about Article 26 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the focus on educating young people. We are reading Three Cups of Tea and Greg Mortenson references the UN document in his opening.
I want to use Wallwisher to have each class brainstorm what young people have a right to in this world, including education.

SO, let’s see if Wallwisher will embed in Edublogs:

Peace (on the wall),

Kevin

Prepping the kids for Three Cups of Tea

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Next week, I begin teaching the young readers’ edition of Three Cups of Tea to my sixth graders. It’s a fantastic story of one man trying to change the world by building schools and connections in Pakistan and Afghanistan. I wish the writing in the book was as inspirational as the story – I find the language wooden and choppy. So I will stick to the craft of the story more than the craft of the writing with this one (as opposed to reading such novels as Tuck Everlasting or True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle or Watsons Go to Birmingham, where the writing just soars).

I’ve been trying to find resources for pre-reading — things that will help situate my students to the story before we crack the book. I thought it would be easier, but I must be looking in all the wrong places. Luckily, a recent Time for Kids magazine article was centered all around building schools for girls in developing nations (the article focused on Africa but we extended the discussions to Pakistan and Afghanistan) that will segue nicely into Three Cups of Tea.

So, I turned to my classroom and realized that in terms of at least one facet of the story — climbing mountains – I had an expert right in front of me: my paraprofressional, John M.

Yesterday, John brought in a ton of climbing gear and gave presentations to all four of my classes about the art of climbing mountains, the science of it (thin air, types of mountains, air speed, elevation, etc.) and an overview of the dangerous beauty of the K2 Mountain that starts the book.

Although John had prepared a simple powerpoint, I encourage him to let me work with him on a Prezi version, and he agreed. He was very impressed with Prezi and it worked nicely on the Promethean interactive board I have in my room. He had kids climbing into sleeping bags, helping use ropes to navigate a “climber” through the treacherous terrain of the classroom and pretending to use special boots with massive spikes to go up a mountain of ice in winter. It was great experiential learning within the confines of the classroom.


We also showed the students a few videos of climbers up on K2 and yet again, YouTube has shown itself to be a valuable resource for us as teachers. Where else would you get such stunning footage of climbers reaching the summit of K2 and views of the Himalayan mountains.

Afterwards, we showed them this interview with Greg Mortenson and his daughter about the Three Cups of Tea book and the Pennies for Peace project (which our fifth grade class has been sponsoring, after they read the book earlier this year).

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So, I think we are ready to get on with the book itself.

Peace (in the mountains),
Kevin