I didn’t go to Educon 2.2 but I followed from afar. This video — which was a link in a tweet — is an interview with students at the conference. We need more student voices in the mix.
Peace (in the insights),
Kevin
I didn’t go to Educon 2.2 but I followed from afar. This video — which was a link in a tweet — is an interview with students at the conference. We need more student voices in the mix.
Peace (in the insights),
Kevin
Sometimes, you just stumble upon a gem and that was the case this week with the book written by Kate Klise and i llustrated by M. Sarah Klise called Regarding the Fountain. I found it on a shelf in our library, thinking it might be right for one of my students, but during some quiet reading times in class, I opened it up and was hooked.
The subhead gives you a clue as to what is in store: “A Tale in Letters, of Liars and Leaks.” Yes, the book is full of puns, so be warned.
The book tells the story of a town where the main river dried up thirty years prior when a new school was constructed. In the current time, the school water fountain has gone kaput and the principal wants to hire someone to design and install a new water fountain. He gets more than he bargains for when he contacts Florence Waters, who has a spirit and vision all of her own, and she enlists a fifth grade class to help her. Meanwhile, the kids uncover a mystery about what happened to the river.
And the entire novel is told entirely through letters, memos and notes.
I loved how Klise makes you read between so many lines (just when you think the teacher is proposing marriage to Waters, you learn this is not the case at all, and that makes you chuckle at your own assumptions), and infer what is happening that has not been written. She injects so much humor, too (the communications between Waters the designer and the principal are priceless). And she empowers the kids at the school, who write an opera, dress up in elaborate costumes and play with the two pet monkeys she has sent them from Africa. There’s more, but you get the point.
This small book (check out part of it at Google Books) is a great example of non-traditional text and as we think about ways to use digital media to tell stories — through hyperlinks, videos, audio tracks, etc. — it is useful to be reminded that words in a linear sentence is not the only way to tell a story and engage a reader.
It reminds me of a story I once wrote that was told exclusively through the concept of canceled checks. You leave out as much as you put in, hoping that the reader can fill in the gaps of the story.
I see that Klise also has other books like this one out, including Regarding the Trees: A Splintered Saga Rooted in Secrets and Regarding the Bathrooms: a Privy to the Past.
Don’t you just love coming across a new book series or author? That makes my day. I might need to create a glog about this book for my students.
Peace (in the fountain),
Kevin
Bill Zimmerman’s Make Beliefs Comix site is one that I suggest teachers use if they are interested in having their students create webcomics. It is a site that is easy to use, is cute and kids get it right away. Bill just added a handful of new characters to the site and also added objects to be used in the comics.
And I want to point out that the site is also a good resource for Second Language or ELL instruction, as you can compose in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, German or French. Pretty neat.
Peace (in the strip),
Kevin
I wrote a few weeks ago about a meeting that some of us had in our school district around angling technology towards the center of the identity of our school district. I kept thinking about it and worried that if no one followed up on the meeting, the whole idea would just sputter out to nothing. There is still that possibilities, but I wrote down my own ideas for the school district administration and shared them this week on an Etherpad document, urging the principals and superintendents to collaborate on it (nothing yet).
Here were some of my main points of my manifesto:
Goals: How we do make our use of technology in the Hampshire Regional Schools more visible to the public (inside and outside of Hampshire Regional) and continue to integrate meaningful technology into the classrooms?
Rationale: We have invested, and continue to invest, significant funds into technology purchases in our school district. We “earn” significant money from School of Choice students electing to come here but we also lose significant funds from our students going elsewhere, too. By branding our district as one that is infused with technology and innovation, we have the opportunity to create an identity as a district that is preparing students for the world of the future. Beyond the marketing concept, the creation of this identity might help more teachers take the first steps into using technology in meaningful ways because they want to identify with the goals of the district. Finally, this shift might open the door for more grant opportunities for our district, as most organizations want to see the groundwork already in place before handing out money.
Audience: the public
Audience: the staff
Ideas to keep in mind:
What am I missing here? Is there something your district does that makes a difference in creating a sense of technology integration?
Peace (in the sharing),
Kevin
This is a fascinating look at data about the Internet as compiled by Focus, using data from a variety of sources (including the Pew organization). Thanks to Free Tech for Teachers for the link my RSS.
Peace (in the info),
Kevin
Hello. I want to invite you all to join us for this week’s Day in a Sentence, with an alliterative twist. Please boil down your week or a day in your week to a single sentence, but use some fun alliteration with your words. Be creative and be reflective!
To participate, just add your alliterative day in a sentence to the comment section of this blog post. I will collect the sentences during the next few days and then release them to the wild on Sunday.
I look forward to reading your sentences. Every0ne is invited to participate. Come join the fun.
My sentence (and as podcast in Vocaroo):
We’re wandering around the world of words this week as we probe the origins of our laughingly liquid English language.
Peace (in the perspectives of all you people),
Kevin
Our physical education teacher was able to get about 25 pedometers donated to our school as part of a data-gathering exercise challenge. He has handed off the pedometers to us teachers, asking that we record how many steps we take for each day, over four days, while in school. Later, the sixth graders in math will use the data in Excel spreadsheets to talk about mean, median and mode, I think.
So, of course, this new pedometer strapped on my belt provided a nice morning activity.
First, I asked the kids about the word “pedometer” and we broke the word down into its parts (root and suffix) and began making new words from “ped” and “-meter”, which dovetails nicely with our work in Language Arts this week around the Origins of Words.
Then, I asked my students to estimate how many steps I would take before the end of the school day. I did give them a hint, as I had already been wearing the device for 30 minutes before they arrived. Some, not all, used that information to think about the hours of the school day and base their number on that information.
We wrote all of the estimates down and in the afternoon, I announced my step count — roughly 4,000 steps — and we all cheered the winner. A lot of students asked when they can get a pedometer (that’s is phase two, I think). I’ll be putting the pedometer on again today as I teach.
According to some websites that I found, approximately 2,000 steps equals a mile. That all depends on your foot size and your stride, but I am about a size 12 and I think I have a normal stride.
So that means that during the course of my school day, I amble about the classroom and hallways (mostly the classroom) for about two miles per day. Interesting …
How far do you walk?
Peace (on the peds),
Kevin
I’ve been trying to learn some bass lines for a few songs that I am playing in an upcoming Benefit Concert (to get books for New Orleans and donations for Pennies for Peace). I am the bass player in a quickly-formed band that includes a colleague, a drummer, two former students (one on guitar and the other on vocals) and a daughter of a teacher at our school (we named the band after her since she has such a wonderful voice).
I like the bass, but I haven’t played it much. Ever. It’s a whole different view of a song and I keep resisting the urge to get fancy. Keep it simple and keep it solid, I keep telling myself, and let the vocals be up front. I think my mindset as a sax player is to jump in front of the sound. And of course, hitting the right notes is always a good thing.
The other day, guitarist Steve set up his portable recorder and grabbed these from practice. The concert is next week and we are hoping to get the crowd singing along with the Fireflies song. They certainly all know it — I hear the melody down the hallways.
Collide (by Howie Day)
Fireflies (by Owl City)
The third song we will be doing is an original song written by some former students, but we didn’t record it that day. The song is called Hourglass.
Peace (in the muse),
Kevin
I wrote a few weeks ago about my invitation to play with some musicians of high caliber for a jazz-infused service at our church. I was nervous because I was out of my league with these guys.
Yesterday morning was the service and, although I screwed up a few beginnings, I think I held my ground and kept up with the group as we made our way through about five songs, including God Bless the Child, When the Saints Go Marching In, A Child is Born and We Three Kings. I could feel that real intense concentration in my brain and I tried to remember where I needed to come in, what notes to transpose to the key of my saxophone, where to not play, where to play and more.
I’m glad I did it but I am also glad that it is is over.
Again, I am reminded of those student we put into a position of expectation but still need a support structure. We know they can do something, even if it right now beyond them, but we can’t just let them sink or swim. We need to be there to help. I would not have done as well as I did without guidance from our piano player, who gave me visual cues and coaxed me along in some of the songs. I looked to him for that help, even though I was on my own when the song began and my saxophone was in my hands. It helps, too, that our church is so supportive. You could not find a better audience.
The best part? My wife is in the choir, and we got to stand near each other and play a few songs together when the jazz group provided the music for a few hymns.
Peace (in the church),
Kevin
Now that most of our Three Cups of Tea glogs are done (a few still need more work by the students to clean them up with proofreading), I decided to create a space where they could all be collected together for viewing by the world (and parents and family). I know a number of people are using wikis for embedding glogs, but I decided to try out Yola.com — which allows you to construct five free websites and it is built on using widgets.
If you are wondering about this process of creating a website for these kinds of projects, here are some brief steps:
If my description doesn’t help, you can also view this video tutorial someone made about embedding a glog into a Google Site website, which is pretty close to using Yola.
But please take a few minutes to check out the glogs of my students — I am pretty impressed with what they were able to accomplish.
Peace (in the sharing of tea),
Kevin