I was struggling with a way to gather up links and resources for an upcoming day of presentations at a local elementary school. I remembered Livebinder, so that’s where I have collected much of my resource links now and I will be sharing the Technology Presentation binder with the school when I am done.
Peace (in the collection),
Kevin
Later this week, I am going to be spending the day with another elementary school in the region, working with students in some classrooms while teachers observe and then presenting to the whole staff later in the day. My presentation is about digital storytelling, which is a great theme for an entire school to adopt, and about how digital storytelling builds on much of the learning already underway and connects to our new state curriculum standards (ie, Common Core).
Here is a version of my presentation.
Do you notice any glaring holes? Any suggestions? Input?
Peace (in the sharing),
Kevin
I’m going to be showing how to use Storybird to create picture book stories with some first and second grade teachers (and a classroom of students) next week, so I figured, I better get back over to the site and remember how it works. It works like a charm, of course, and is so easy — which is why I think it will be a good interactive use of technology for the lower grades.
I also rediscovered some stories that I created on Storybird, particularly during a Picture Book Challenge a few years ago. This one —Writing is An Adventure — got a lot of reads and nice comments.
Writing is An Adventure by dogtrax on Storybird
Peace (in the story and the bird),
Kevin
I saw this and thought about some recent posts I had around Facebook and my sixth grade students. The results here seem to coincide with my own surveys with my 11 and 12 year old students. I also notice that concerns over “sharing too much” by parents of children on Facebook also is in line with my own perceptions after talking to parents (and being a parent myself).
from: http://www.minormonitor.com/infographic/kids-on-facebook/
Peace (in the network),
Kevin
A few months ago, I had the pleasure of chatting with my friend, Franki Sibberson, about ways that technology is changing our conceptions of writing workshop. Franki (of A Year of Reading, where she writes with Mary Lee) is doing various interviews for Choice Literacy and she asked if I would try to articulate how my own classroom has changed over the years with the use of technology. (Actually, we did two interviews, so another one may be coming sometime later on)
You can read the interview transcript and listen to the podcast conversation here. Ignore the “ummms,” please. (The Wordle above is a representations of the written transcript. I was curious to see what topics I ended up talking about. I’m glad to see “writing” in big letters.)
Go to Choice Literacy to listen and read
or
You can access the library of Choice Literacy podcasts through the iTunes store
Peace (in the talking),
Kevin
I’ve had Facebook on my mind for a few days now, I’m sad to say. It began with some incidents with my students at school, but then shifted when my band –Duke Rushmore – launched our own site on the social network as a way to let friends and fans (!) know when and where we are playing in the coming months. Another bandmate is in charge of our FB page (I am the webmaster of our Duke Rushmore website). And then, the other day, I was working on our Western Massachusetts Writing Project Facebook site, too.
You should know that I am no fan of Facebook for a variety of reasons (mostly on privacy issues). Now, after spending more time there, I am even less of a fan. Is there anyone at Facebook who knows a thing about design or what? I have come away with the feeling that Facebook has to be one of the ugliest sites on the Internet (I know this isn’t true but …) and is slowly coming to resemble MySpace with its ads, and its clutter, and more (and may very well someday hit the trash heap like MySpace.)
Given the huge cash flow at the company, why aren’t they investing in some designers? I look at a typical FB page and find it difficult to navigate, get quickly tired of that standard blue, and my eyes don’t know where to even begin to focus to find what I want to find. It’s a mess. This year, I have been teaching a lot about design principles with my sixth graders and it seems to me that if they were in charge, they would come up with something cleaner and easier to use/read than what Zuckerberg and company have put out there for the world.
Why don’t people revolt? Seriously. Why, in this day and age, don’t people demand excellence in design when it comes to the web? It’s not like good design is difficult to do. (OK, so people don’t revolt because FB has momentum, and now comfort, and people will put with bad design for ease of use.)
What I realize is that Facebook knows all of this (of course they do) but doesn’t give a damn. They see the money flowing and why change a thing (the timeline design? ugly. The new banner picture? very ugly. Horrible, in fact) when millions of people are content to write their lives onto an ugly page that is difficult to manage (I am still trying to figure out how to make our WMWP Facebook page public to the world outside of Facebook. I spent a lot of time yesterday trying … and failing, and thinking, what the heck … this should be easy).
I won’t argue with my band against Facebook, either. It still is a way to get folks to follow us to our shows. But I don’t have to like it.
Peace (with good design),
Kevin
If you have an interactive board, use these two stories at Draw A Stickman (the second episode is fairly new) to get kids up at the board, drawing and talking about the stories that unfold. It’s a great activity, and you will have a class of fully engaged students, for sure. I’ve used the sites to talk about protagonist and antagonist, foreshadowing and story arc. I guess there are Apps, too (and a student said it had a different ending) of the activity.
Have you used The Story of Stuff in your classroom? You should. It’s a video series about the world of consumable goods, and the impact of the “throw away” philosophy of the modern world has on the environment and our health. Earlier this week, I shared this video — The Story of Electronics — with my students as we begin to move our way into an environmental inquiry theme for the remainder of the school year.
A couple of observations:
I also want to note that my Western Massachusetts Writing Project colleagues (and fellow editors of Teaching the New Writing) Charlie Moran and Anne Herrington put together a fascinating collection of resources around the topic of the “true cost of technology” (particularly around the issue of energy use) over at the National Writing Project’s Digital Is site. It’s a worth a visit.
Peace (in the stuff),
Kevin
I’m in the third day of writing about an event at our school that began on Facebook and spilled into our school. (See the first post about the event and then the second post about my note to families). Yesterday, I wrote about the informational email I wrote that we sent home to all of our sixth grade parents. So far, the response from families back to us has been overwhelmingly positive, thanking us for the guidance and the resource links to help them guide their children in the networking space.
Here are a few comments that parents sent to us:
“…. although I did not agree with Facebook, my husband and I talked and I allowed it with stipulations. My husband and I are friends with him on Facebook but more than that, 13 or not, it is so important to not only be friended but also to have their username AND password. This way you can see what’s posted to people you are not friends with.”
“Thank you for sending out this very insightful message, and thank you for looking out for our children. I feel very strongly about children and social websites and I am grateful to you, Mr. Hodgson and the sixth grade team for addressing this issue.”
“We are very strict about media in our family, including tv and computer usage; (our child) certainly is not ready to be surfing the web or using social media outlets, but I realize that others may not see the threat to innocence…”
There were a few more simple “thank yous,” too. My hope with the note home is that we would hit a nerve with families and allow them a reason to get proactive with their children in the online spaces they inhabit. My wife and I are doing the same thing at home right now with our son (luckily, no problems) and so I understand how difficult it can be, and time consuming, too, but also, crucially important.
Check out this quote that came through my RSS reader this morning. Does it not have implications for this entire discussion and issue?
Words are to be taken seriously. I try to take seriously acts of language. Words set things in motion. I’ve seen them doing it. Words set up atmospheres, electrical fields, charges. I’ve felt them doing it. Words conjure. I try not to be careless about what I utter, write, sing. I’m careful about what I give voice to.
TONI CADE BAMBARA
Peace (in this space and beyond),
Kevin
Yesterday, I wrote about an incident with my students that began on Facebook and filtered onto the recess grounds. I have been quite humbled by the number of responses that readers left and it shows how difficult it is for us teachers to grapple with the power of social media in the lives our students. There is only so much we can control, only so much we can teach.
(And I should add an ancillary note: I am not an opponent of Facebook because it allows kids to speak trash that leads to larger things in the real world. That can happen on any online site, and as one commenter reminded me, it can happen in the neighborhood, offline, too, or on the bus on the way home. I am an opponent of Facebook because of severe privacy concerns and who owns the content put there — not you. Facebook owns it. And sells it.)
Anyway, I want to make sure parents and families have information about how to help their children in social media sites, too. Part of educating our students about social media is also educating our parents, and providing some framework for their role in it all. They can’t be bystanders. It occurred to us, after talking to a parent yesterday, that most likely many of our parents do not monitor their children’s FB accounts and may not be fully aware of the reasons for doing so.
In an effort to help them along, and to remind them of the “13 year old” age restriction that my students are clearly in violation of, we are sending this email note home to all of our sixth grade families. (In a survey I did a few weeks ago, 40 percent of my sixth grasde students said they have a Facebook account.) You’ll note that I urge parents to hold off on Facebook with their children if they are not already on the site. I thought about suggesting they delete FB altogether for their children, but that seemed to be pushing it a bit too far. My role is a teacher, not another parent.
Dear parents,As some of you may know, sixth graders in Mr. Hodgson’s ELA class just finished up a comprehensive unit around Digital Life. In class and in activities, students learned about how to protect their online reputation, how to guard against cyberbullying activities (and what to do if it happens), how to protect your privacy and more. One thing that emerged from discussions is the high use of Facebook among Norris sixth graders, and also, a general lack of their understanding of how to effectively and positively use social networking. It should be noted that Facebook and other sites have a 13-year and older policy, which is based on some federal guidelines around young people and technology. The 13-year-old mark is considered a time when young people are developmentally ready for using social networking sites because they can better grasp how their writing and sharing impacts their lives and others.But we also know the reality.We want to share this resource with parents and families around how to best monitor the use of Facebook in young people and how to best support your children if they are on the site. We hope the resources might be helpful for you and your family. Much research has shown that when parents are involved and monitoring the spaces where young people are involved with, the experiences are mostly positive. If your child is on Facebook, we suggest you “friend” them and be part of their inner circle. If they are not on Facebook, we suggest you consider waiting a few years.The Parents Guide to FacebookThe CommonSense Media Guide for Parents to FacebookSincerely,The Sixth Grade Team
I’d be curious to know if you have been in a similar situation (involving Facebook and/or other social media) and what steps you have taken to address the issue with families. Any advice? Suggestions?
Peace (in words and deeds),
Kevin
