Hello, Audioboo (with a response and a podcast poem)

by dogtrax

Yesterday, I began the wave goodbye to Cinch, my podcasting platform of choice, and today, I say hello to Audioboo. The two platforms have many similarities, and as I explore Audioboo (on the web, with the app, and with the call-in phone number), I find it might meet the needs of my classroom. My students regularly podcast on our iTouch, and Cinch was our favorite site (for ease of use). I am hoping Audioboo can take its place now that Cinch is closing up shop.

First, here is a podcast that I recorded yesterday, as a comment response to Bill Ferriter’s great piece about whether kids really are motivated by technology (or whether they are more intrigued by the social aspects). I agree with Bill, but argue, too, that we have in fact noticed increased motivation by our struggling writers, in particular, when technology tools are in the mix.

listen to ‘Responding to Bill: Tech Motivations’ on Audioboo

Then, I downloaded the Audioboo app on my iTouch to give it a try. I was writing a poem about the end of summer, and decided to podcast it out.

listen to ‘Summer slips away poem’ on Audioboo

Here is the poem:

Summer Slips Away

I’m trying not to flinch
as my own kids get antsy about what could only be called
the inevitable march towards the end of summer,
so we’re doing our best to:
tape down the calendar so that August never ends and September never arrives;
cram our days with biking, running, hiking, jumping, playing;
absorb warm summer rays on the baseball fields;
read the last few chapters of the last great beach book;
but still .. but still …
my teacher mind that never really sleeps wakes me up now in the middle of night
with calls of lesson plans, project ideas,
and the purposeful pacing of that first morning just days away now where I will meet
with my students,
and they, with me,
and together we will begin the first steps of our adventure and inquiry
even as the last bits of summer slip away from us
with the leaves already turning yellow from the cool night air.

Peace (in the podcast),
Kevin
PS – One thing I don’t see with Audioboo is the quick link to download the file as an MP3, which Cinch allowed, and which was very convenient for me to collect student work as audio files. But I found a workaround in the forums. So that’s good.

 

So Long, Cinch

by dogtrax

http://castabigger.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/cinch-logo.png

I was saddened to see that one of my favorite podcasting sites — Cinch.fm — is shutting down. I guess I can’t be too surprised. It was free, and in the end, free sites run the risk of slowly being put out to pasture by companies. Still, Cinch worked nicely for me, as a writer and as a teacher. One of the things I loved is how Cinch could be accessed across multiple platforms, so my students used the Cinch App on our iPod touches to do podcasting while I often shared the audio from the Cinch website onto our classroom blog. I also called into Cinch more than a few times from my cell phone to podcast reflections from conferences.

And it was free.

But this is what they emailed me, and what is posted on their website:

Dear Cinch.FM Users,

We’re sorry to announce that the Cinch.FM web site and iPhone application will be shutting down on August 20, 2012.

After this date, no new content will be accepted, and your iPhone application will cease to function. Also, no new Cinch.FM accounts will be allowed after the 20th.

Those of you with Cinch.FM accounts will be able to download your content by logging into your account. The content will be available for you to download for two months, until October 20, 2012. Any Cinch.FM players you’ve published on your blog or other web site will continue to function during this time, and the RSS feeds will also continue to work.

After October 20, 2012, all Cinch.FM content and services will be terminated. You must download your content before this date, or it will be lost!

- Cinch.FM

I’m now going to have go see what I want to download and save from my personal and classroom Cinch sites, and then begin the research of finding an alternative for my classroom, in particular. Any ideas? I want to find something easy to use, that has an app and web version, and is free. That’s not too much to ask, is it?

So long, Cinch. I really enjoyed you as a platform for getting my voice, and my students’ voices, out into the world.

Peace (in the podcast),
Kevin

Book Review: Calico Joe

by dogtrax

It’s been years since I have cracked open the pages of a John Grisham novel (although I have been intrigued by his new youth series about a kid detective. Theodore Boone). But the theme of baseball never ends in our house of three boys, and with our family trip to the beach last week, I grabbed and packed Calico Joe as part of my mix of reading. I remembered why I have not cracked a Grisham novel in a while (the writing) but I also remembered what makes Grisham so popular — he’s a decent storyteller.

Calico Joe follows the aftermath of an event years in the past when the narrator’s father, a professional baseball pitcher with a mean streak at home and on the mound, may or may not have intentionally beaned the best prospect coming into baseball in generation, ending Calico Joe’s career and creating a whirlwind of controversy that the narrator (Paul) seeks to resolve. It felt like I was watching a movie, such as The Natural, as I read the book, and I finished it in a single day. (And in fact, the story is inspired by the real events of the death of Ray Chapman, the only major league player to be killed by a pitch)

I liked how baseball and personal history came together in this novel, even if the writing itself wasn’t necessarily my style. I was hoping for something with little more substance, even though the relationship between Paul, the son and narrator, and Warren, the father, is complicated. But it’s complicated in a conventional way, you know? Still, it’s hard to argue with a fast-paced, quick read at times, and Calico Joe is just that. I would just wait for the paperback version, that’s all. Maybe next summer.

Peace (on the field),
Kevin

 

Graphic Novel Review: Steve Jobs (Genius by Design)

by dogtrax

As someone who reviews graphic novels, I saw my fair share of Steve Jobs biographies get churned out when the Apple co-founder passed away and Walter Isaacson’s book about Jobs hit the best-seller list. This one — Steve Jobs: Genius by Design — by Campfire Books (which puts out a lot of interesting graphic novels based on popular and obscure myths and stories) is nicely done, and could easily pique the interest of students who know a bit about Jobs but not enough to understand him as an innovator who suffered lots of failure before success.

The book follows Isaacson’s story closely, it seems to me, and the publishers are right to start out with a lengthy disclaimer, acknowledging that they were piecing together the story of Jobs’ life through multiple sources in a hopes “to celebrate his legacy.” And the book nicely balances the pros (Jobs’ much celebrated ability to see technology through the lens of design and use his gut instinct for development of ideas and products) and the cons (his early abandonment of his daughter and harsh treatments of employees and friends). As with other pieces, this book shows the complicated person Jobs was to the public (and probably even more complicated to those he was close to in private).

Campfire also has posted a preview of the book, which is handy for teachers when considering the purchase.

Peace (in the graphic novel),
Kevin

 

Examining the PARCC Initial Set of Test Items and Tasks

by dogtrax

I’ve been keeping an eye on PARCC (as you should, if you are a Common Core state moving into a PARCC assessment). The group recently released what it is calling “Initial Set of Test Items and Task Prototypes). It’s important to note that the information flowing now from PARCC are not necessarily test items of record, but merely examples to demonstrate what PARCC is shaping up to look like for our students (and for us, since let’s face it, we need to know how our students are going to be assessed).

View the Test Items/Prototypes page at PARCC

I started in the sixth grade area, of course (since that is what I teach). My initial observations are that the resources are handy. I appreciate at least how PARCC. For example, if you look at the link for the Grade 6 Narrative Task, you can see two questions from a piece of reading from a real novel (in this case, Julie of the Wolves), and if you click on the link for more specific information, the PDF shows how the answer would be scored, the rationale for the score, and how it connects to the Common Core frameworks. That at least takes some mystery out of the development of the assessment. (for now, anyway. Who knows what changes are still in store?)

Another link took me to a “constructed response” to the reading, and this turns out to be a task in which students are asked to write a short story that extends their thinking around the text they have read. Their fictional story should use a character from the reading but also demonstrate understanding of the original author and use evidence from that story to inform their own story. I like that idea, and it at least shows PARCC has some focus on narrative, fiction writing.

I’d also suggest you check out the expanded (draft) PARCC rubric around narrative and analytic writing, as it is a helpful guide. I noticed many alignments already for our own school writing rubric.

And finally, PARCC has released an updated Model Content Frameworks. If you are a PARCC state, you should check that out.

Overall, I appreciate the information. The more I can get, the better I feel. I’m still worried, of course, and the lack of real information about or PARCC so far has increased my concerns (given that the timetable for implementation in our state is as early as next year for PARCC). I still need more time to read, absorb, and think about what PARCC has put on the table, and I welcome your thoughts, too. Whether we buy into Common Core and PARCC (or Smarter Balance, if that is you), the shifts are here and in front of us. Information is what need. This may be a trickle, but at least it’s a start.

Peace (understanding PARCC),
Kevin

 

Book Review: Capture the Flag

by dogtrax

Kate Messner’s Capture the Flag intrigued me mostly on the issue of setting. How do you use an airport locked down in a snowstorm as the entire setting for a mystery story? Messner shows how, as her three young protagonists work frantically to discover a stolen flag (of great national and historical importance) before the storm clears and their flights leave. I was reminded a bit of Agatha Christie, for some reason. Not so much for the writing — their styles are very different — but for the claustrophobic nature of the setting, and of course, the wily intelligence and persistence of the detectives.

In this novel for middle school readers, Messner brings together three young people — Anna, José, and Henry — who begin as strangers sitting together at a gathering in Washington DC with respective relatives yapping it up with other adults, and end up teaming up in the airport after they learn that the flag in question has been stolen. The three kids suspect the thieves are not only in the airport, but so is the flag. The story unfolds at a quick pace, with its fair share of red herrings and dangerous situations, and Messner weaves in themes of politics, immigration and secret societies to fill the pages. She even leaves open the very real possibility of a sequel — a wise move for these three kids who have proven their worth when the flag gets recovered and the thieves exposed.

Oh, and can I just say: the cover to this book is very cool and intriguing.

Peace (in the stars and stripes forever),
Kevin

 

What Teachers Make: Paying it Forward with the Gift of a Book

by dogtrax

Before the end of the school year in June, I had read Taylor Mali’s What Teachers Make (in praise of the greatest job in the world) book of essays about education, which is like an extended riff off his very famous poem about teachers. It was one of those books that did not deserve a place in my bookcase. No, it deserved to be in the hands of another teacher. So, I wrote a little note in the inside cover, asking the person who got the book to read it, and pass it along to another teacher. (I think Bud Hunt gave me this idea of passing the book forward. ).

As it turned out, one of the participants in a workshops I gave over the summer around Common Core was the teacher in whose mailbox at school I had put What Teachers Make. She’s a colleague in a grade below me, and I figured she would enjoy Mali. She sure did, gushing about the essays and thanking me for turning her on to Mali, and then I asked her the question that was on my mind: Did you pass it on?

She did, and now I wonder if the book will make its way through various networks in our school district, and as I consider that, I think: that surely was a good investment that takes advantage of the physical network of teachers that I am part of. I love that idea of a book of inspiring essays slowly making the rounds, and I hope the book doesn’t fall into the hands of someone who just files it away. That book is meant to be read, and appreciated, by teachers. And it would be different if our principal or superintendent had given us that for a reading assignment, don’t you think? There is something in the power of grassroots connections among teachers, and we don’t always figure out how to use those connections to our advantage.

Maybe someday, the book will drop in your hands, too. If so, read it and pass it on, won’t you?

Peace (in the story),
Kevin

PS — here is Taylor Mali, slamming his poem that inspired the book:

 

 

Book Review: Middle School Get Me Out of Here

by dogtrax

Middle School: Get Me Out of Here is the second graphic-infused novel by James Patterson (he, of many many books) with writer Chris Tebbets and illustrator Laura Parks about the middle school life of Rafe Khatchadorian, a budding artist with an incredibly imagination matched by an incredible ability to get himself into extreme trouble. Here, Rafe is starting seventh grade at an arts magnet school but his family is in upheaval, as the diner where his single mom works has burned down and mom has lost her job. So Rafe, his sister and his mom need to move in with his grandmother in the city, and start anew.

Perhaps it was because I already knew Rafe (from Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life), but I liked this book better than the first. And as with the first, the illustrations by Parks are wonderfully detailed, and provide a great partner to the written story, too. The pictures don’t just complement the text; they advance the story, and bring the reader into the mind of Rafe, with all of his quirks and imaginative ideas brought forth on the page. So, even as the story advances along linear lines, the illustrations provide various jumping off points for the reader. Here is a perfect example of a book that would not hold up without the illustrations.

I won’t give the story away, but suffice it to say that like the first book (where we slowly learn that Rafe had a twin brother who passed away when they were both three years old), this book has a family story that slowly unfolds, opening a window into the heart of Rafe and allowing him to see the world, and his own place in it, a little differently. I appreciate that in a book. The setting of middle school, particularly the seventh grade, gives Patterson and Tebbetts plenty of room for Rafe to feel isolated and connected and confused about a lot of things that come with the pre-teen years. It is Rafe’s art, and Parks’ illustrations, that give him, and us, balance.

Peace (in middle school),
Kevin