Sparking the Creative Side of Teachers

pencil
For the past few summers, a group of teachers at our school have gone off to a professional development seminar at the University of Connecticut entitled “Confratute” — which is a mix of conference, fraternity and institute. The whole concept of the Confratute is built around creative thinking and gifted learners, and it is an institute I have mulled over but have not yet gone to.

Yesterday, during a half-day professional development, the principal turned the afternoon for upper elementary teachers over to our colleagues who have gone to Confratute, and they, in turn, gave us a bit of a taste of the activities that can push the classroom in creative directions.  It’s interesting to note that in these times of high-stakes testing, Massachusetts has new legislation that will require evidence of creativity going on in classrooms, too.  The state is now forming a “creativity index” for schools.

Yesterday, our large gathering was broken down into several smaller groups, which were then broken down further for activities. My own group was one of three that was given a Scavenger Hunt.

Using a digital camera, our task was to document, as creatively as possible, such things as “something that has not changed in 100 years” (we photographed a flute, whose design has remained constant), “something important people would not consider beautiful” (a compost pile), and more. The pictures here are answers to the questions of “something that is larger than life” (the big pencil) and “something that would inspire a rap song ( Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? book).”

rap
We then came back together and all of the groups on the hunt shared their own visual interpretations of the questions. That was fascinating to see what others saw through their lens as we saw it through our slightly distorted lens, too. (By the way, one other larger group had to use recycled products to create an “invention to help a teacher or principal” while another had to build a paper Yeti based only on the dimensions of its footprint).

It was fun and informative professional development, and I stored away some of those ideas for my classroom. Plus, I won a lottery drawing from the session and came away with a book of interesting picture puzzles from Tin Man Press. (It’s hard to explain, so check it out.)

It’s a reminder that the best professional development sessions:

  • are active experiences;
  • engage the teachers creativity;
  • allow for collaboration;
  • and provide time for reflection.

Peace (in the creative sparks),
Kevin

Whitewater Rafting: The Case for Experiental Learning

I know there are schools whose entire themes and philosophy is built on the concept of outdoor adventure and experiential learning. They work year-long curriculum around the idea of students engaging in nature. I wish we could do more of that, but really, our main attempt is our annual Whitewater Rafting trip on the Deerfield River, which took place yesterday.

We began doing this trip eight years ago now (wow!) when another event (Nature’s Classroom) ended for us, and I wanted to find some way for our students to come together as a group at the end of the year, push them in unknown directions, and have a lot of fun that would spill out into the months ahead. So we went rafting.

It’s a 10-mile rafting trip with one area of Class III rapids (the Zoar Gap) and lots of places for cooperative games and activities, and even swimming (it’s too cold for me, even with the wet suits). The kids on the rafts have to work together to get through the various rapids, and they have to listen and communicate. These are critical learning skills.

There’s plenty to talk about on the river, from nature (we saw flocks of geese, the leaves in the midst of Autumn change, beaver dams and even an Osprey flew over us in search of lunch) and history. The river flows by the legendary Hoosic Tunnel, which was once one of the longest man-made tunnels in the country, and is considered haunted (the kids love that).

What I love to see are the informal friendships that begin to form on the rafts and the giddy excitement when we all come together for lunch, and the confidence even the most timid student seems to have when we finally get off the river. There are plenty of nervous students, but this kind of structured event allows them to confront those fears and deal with them with support of others.

Today, we’ll probably do some writing about the rafting trip, and there will be pictures floating in over the next few weeks as cameras gets developed, but we teachers know (from talking to former students) that the memories of rafting on the river for a day is a memory they will cherish for a long time to come. I know the group of kids on my raft came together as tight team, naming themselves the “River Ninjas” and inventing a chant for rowing and then remixing some popular songs to celebrate our raft. At one point, their singing voices were echoing off the banks of the river and all I could do was smile.

Peace (like a river),
Kevin

Bassman Webcomics: Inspired by John Cage

In college, where I was a music minor (and an English major and always wanted those two to flip), I had a professor who was deep into the New York avante garde scene of composition. John Cage was a god to these guys. The other day, I read an interesting profile of Cage in New Yorker and thought I might bring his ideas into my Bassman webcomic.
Here’s what I got so far:
Bassman22
Bassman23
Bassman24
You can peruse the entire Bassman collection (if you dare) here.

Peace (in the silence),
Kevin

US Senate Resolution: National Day on Writing

The second annual National Day on Writing is coming up on October 20th. It’s an event sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) to celebrate and make visible the importance of writing in our lives. There are events and celebrations that take place across the country, and there is an online gallery for submitting writing into an archive.It’s a great way to write, get published and join the festivities around writing.

The United States Senate got into the act and recently passed a Resolution, supporting the National Day on Writing.

RESOLUTION

Expressing support for the designation of October 20, 2010, as the `National Day on Writing’.

Whereas people in the 21 st century are writing more than ever before for personal, professional, and civic purposes;

Whereas the social nature of writing invites people of every age, profession, and walk of life to create meaning through composing;

Whereas more and more people in every occupation deem writing as essential and influential in their work;

Whereas writers continue to learn how to write for different purposes, audiences, and occasions throughout their lifetimes;

Whereas developing digital technologies expand the possibilities for composing in multiple media at a faster pace than ever before;

Whereas young people are leading the way in developing new forms of composing by using different forms of digital media;

Whereas effective communication contributes to building a global economy and a global community;

Whereas the National Council of Teachers of English, in conjunction with its many national and local partners, honors and celebrates the importance of writing through the National Day on Writing;

Whereas the National Day on Writing celebrates the foundational place of writing in the personal, professional, and civic lives of the people of the United States;

Whereas the National Day on Writing provides an opportunity for individuals across the United States to share and exhibit their written works through the National Gallery of Writing;

Whereas the National Day on Writing highlights the importance of writing instruction and practice at every educational level and in every subject area;

Whereas the National Day on Writing emphasizes the lifelong process of learning to write and compose for different audiences, purposes, and occasions;

Whereas the National Day on Writing honors the use of the full range of media for composing, from traditional tools like print, audio, and video, to Web 2.0 tools like blogs, wikis, and podcasts; and

Whereas the National Day on Writing encourages all people of the United States to write, as well as to enjoy and learn from the writing of others: Now, therefore, be it

    Resolved, That the Senate–
    • (1) supports the designation of October 20, 2010, as the `National Day on Writing’;
    • (2) strongly affirms the purposes of the National Day on Writing;
    • (3) encourages participation in the National Galley of Writing, which serves as an exemplary living archive of the centrality of writing in the lives of the people of the United States; and
    • (4) encourages educational institutions, businesses, community and civic associations, and other organizations to promote awareness of the National Day on Writing and celebrate the writing of the members those organizations through individual submissions to the National Gallery of Writing.

It’s nice to see references to the influence of digital media in our lives in the resolution.

I am working with my friend, Bonnie, to gather up writing from National Writing Project teachers at our iAnthology site around “writing that we don’t often think about” — the various ways we use writing through the day.

But I am still mulling over if I can do something at my school, too. Last year, we did a HUGE comic strip that students from all over the school wrote on, answering the question: what do you like to write?

What will you do?

Peace (in the writing),
Kevin

On Language and Power: a WMWP Keynote Address

Dr. Floris Wilma Ortiz-Marrero gave a powerful keynote address to the Western Massachusetts Writing Project on Saturday on the topic of language, power, and teaching to all students, particularly those whose second language is English. Wilma is the 2010 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year and a fearless and tireless advocate for English Language Learner students. She is also a longtime leader in the National Writing Project’s ELL Network.

Here, Wilma advocated for recognizing the authenticity of the cultural values and languages that students bring to the classroom, and use those understands as the underpinning for learning. Wilma urges all of us to open our eyes to possibilities, and even shares a few anecdotes of her own stumbles in the classroom (including a funny exchange in which she wanted her students to talk about what makes a good “speaker” but one of her students assumed she meant music speakers, not human speakers.)

Peace (in the sharing),
Kevin

Some Words about the Writing Project

One of my mentors in the early years of teaching and in the National Writing Project, Bruce Penniman, received the 2010 Pat Hunter Award at our Western Massachusetts Writing Project event this weekend. To say that Bruce nurtured WMWP during his tenure as site director would be a vast understatement. And although retired from teaching, Bruce continues to be a force in education to be reckoned with. (See his book, Building the English Classroom: Foundations, Support and Success, which was published last year)

Bruce instills leadership in those he works with by instilling trust of ideas and the confidence that the person can get things done. Although I did not know Patricia Hunter, who helped found the WMWP, she apparently had the same qualities.

Peace (in the sharing),
Kevin

The Glogster Session at WMWP

glogster website
(Go to my Glogster Website Resource)

Yesterday morning, as part of our annual Best Practices event with Western Massachusetts Writing Project, I presented a session on using Glogster.edu in the classroom. I had about 25 people in the session and guess what? The technology worked! They all had computers to work on, the site was not blocked by the University, and they had plenty of time to play around with creating a project and reflecting on the use of Glogster in their classroom.

Yea!

The things that I emphasized in the workshop were:

  • Teaching the elements of design principles
  • Copyright issues
  • Using multimedia for composition
  • The difference between regular Glogster and Glogster.edu
  • Technology being a learning tool for all curriculum areas
  • The importance of writing before technology (ie, planning, drafting, revising)
  • Advertising on websites and some strategies for avoiding it

Then, I set them up with accounts in my Glogster account, and let them have about 50 minutes (more than half the session) in playtime, which they all greatly appreciated. You can talk and talk about Glogster, but this is one tool that you have to experience to really begin to understand it.

As the Exit Slip, I had them use Wallwisher to leave a note on how they might envision using Glogster in their classroom:

Peace (in the sharing),
Kevin

Fare thee well, Bloglines (old friend)

There was a time when I had no idea what RSS was, or had any clue as to what an aggregator might do for me, or had more than a limited notion of the concept of “pull” when it comes to bringing information to you. And that time wasn’t really all that long ago. I still remember the meeting where my National Writing Project friend Christina Cantrill said the word “Bloglines” to me, and explained how it would “aggregate” my “feeds” and it was as if she were speaking a foreign language to me. I had no idea what she was even talking about, although I probably nodded my head “yes” as if I did. (I’m good at that)

Christina was speaking another language (tech tongue?), really, and yet I needed to know what she was telling me because we were in the midst of a pretty large blogging project with multiple sites and, as the project leader, I was having to go to each site to check up on updates. That was a lot of surfing. I didn’t immediately catch what Christina was telling me. It too some time to sink in, to wrap my head around it, but soon I went to a RSS Aggregator called Bloglines, and I was hooked. It also helped that at the time, I was reading Will Richardon’s book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for the Classroom and Richardson was clear that RSS was a game changer for gathering tools to transform the classroom.

I used Bloglines for a long stretch of time, and loved it. Except it kept breaking down on me. There were times when I would not get updates when I knew there were updates. I have patience with technology but there was a point when I finally said “enough” and moved over to Google Reader, which I love.

I learned the other day that Bloglines is now dead.  I’m sorry to see it go, even though I wasn’t using it anymore. Bloglines brought me into the Web 2.0 world like nothing else had, and opened up doors for connecting with other teachers and learning from others, and stealing their ideas (I admit it). I’m grateful for that, old friend. I’m sorry you could not keep up with the sweeping changes, and sorry I had to abandon you.

Peace (in the feeds),
Kevin

Voicethread, Tech Troubles, and Student Voice


(see the voicethread)
It was too late yesterday when I suddenly remembered an old blog post from my kindergarten colleague, Gail, about her difficulties last year with using Voicethread in the classroom with all the laptops up and running. And so, I found out what Gail had earlier discovered: the wireless “pipes” soon became overloaded with data flows as my four classes of 21 students podcasted their voice into our Voicethreads of Vehicles of the Future. The browsers had trouble loading, and to top it off, our Microsoft virus/spyware protection was downloading updates in the background.

We survived, by adapting. I channeled students to my two computers, and when one of the laptops was working, we shuffled students around. I had a secondary activity waiting for them, so mostly, they all had something to do even if they were waiting. But I was running to and fro like a madman teacher, fixing problems and helping students with Voicethread, which they had never used before but liked it.

The result is that MOST of the students in three of the classes were able to complete their podcasts on Voicethread, and the remaining ones I will find a way to get to today, I hope.

The funny, and good, thing is that they didn’t seem too flustered with all the problems. I kept my calm demeanor (sort of), and came up with solutions as needed, and they mostly just went right with it. In the past, I have used Voicethread by having students come up to me and podcast with me working the computer. I didn’t want that for this project. I wanted the tools in their hands.

(On a sidenote for teachers considering voicethread: I used my teacher account to create the four voicethreads — for four classes — and then had a secondary Voicethread account for students to use. I did this so they could not edit the thread beyond adding voice or text, and because we don’t have student email. I then embedded the thread at our blog, which is where they worked from. This system seemed to work fine.)

Next time, I am going to do things a bit differently. I will have them pair up on a single computer, alternating, so that we can reduce the flow of data on our wireless server. Yes, there will be a “next time,” because I try real hard not to let the technical difficulties get in the way of using a tool that brings out the creative voice in my students. We’ll figure it out.

Peace (in the threads),

Kevin

What vehicles may look like …


We’re moving towards the end of our Vehicles of the Future project, in which my students are envisioning a time when we move beyond fossil fuels to power our transportation vehicles. Later today (fingers crossed), I will be showing each of my four classes how to use Voicethread, and they will be adding a podcast descriptive paragraph to each of their illustrations of their vehicles. They’ve been working on the pictures on and off for a few days now, and yesterday, I said: that’s it! Everyone is done today!

And they were, except for about three students who had been out of school for a day or two in the last week and were a bit far behind.

As luck would have it, in my mailbox yesterday afternoon was the latest issue of Time for Kids magazine, and the cover story is all about the world of electric cars. Yep — another perfect fit with Time for Kids (a few weeks ago, just as I was about to talk about our work with Voices on the Gulf, TFK ran a cover story about the recovery efforts in the Gulf.) And I see there is a cool timeline of invention of the electric car, which is a nice touch for our work around informational text. (Now it makes me think: could I create a timeline of when my students’ imaginary cars would be released to the public? How would I go about doing that? Hmmm.)

The Voicethread projects will also be for Voices on the Gulf but I will try to share out how it went here.

Peace (in the future),
Kevin