Thinking of Comics (yeah, I know, surprise surprise)

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I found this interesting resource: Comics created by the Government for their own purposes, such as information against the drug trade and health issues (makes for a possible discussion about rhetoric and genre, doesn’t it?). The ones I looked at seemed kind of odd and boring, but you never know what might be there. And just the fact that someone has collected them here …. the wonder of the online world, right?

My friend, Chris (of The Graphic Classroom), just published his master’s thesis that looks at using comics for reading in the elementary level. I have to go through it and absorb his ideas, but the conclusion he reaches for his particular study seems to be that his use of comics did not impact the reading of his students. I imagine that must be disappointing for him, even if there were other benefits for him as a new teacher.

And finally, here is today’s Boolean Squared, which was inspired by a rather dull and lifeless Professional Development session I was in a few months back in which the presenter droned on and on, and I noticed a few of my students smiling through the room’s windows at all of us. It was a perfect Boolean moment.

(click on image to get bigger one)
Finally, my wife and son grabbed me a collection of free comics on Saturday during Free Comic Day. How about you?
Peace (on the funny pages),
Kevin

Day in a Sentence and all that

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Greetings!

Here are this week’s Days in a Sentence:

I guess I will start with myself. I am off in Denver this weekend with another retreat with the National Writing Project. But at home, we have a new family member (not two-legged). So:

I’m in Denver, thinking about the web, while back home, a Duke the dog has joined our household, no doubt thinking about food.

Art is already seeing something down the road … is it the light? Uh oh.

As the year begins to draw to a close, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Lynn was hoping to lighten the mood a bit — seriousness followed by fun.

Test prep has cooked us all – it’s time for some Friday games!

wait a sec … is sara playing football? sara?

is it bad that my own football coaches have asked me to buy armpads to lessen the panopoly of bruises i’ve collected?

Summer poked its head into New England last week … hot hot hot …. and Mary saw its effects on her students.

This week’s weather has been a rollercoaster ride of 900 one day and 600 the next, which sapped the energy of our most active students.

Spring’s push forward brought some reflective moments for Eric. Our thoughts are with you. Keep the memories of good times with you, friend.

Despite the trees joining the spring revolution with their blooming leaf flowers, this is a sad week for me as I celebrate my no longer here mom’s birthday.

Mary Lee uses a good metaphor to catch the season and its pace.

May approaches ever so slowly (snail style)…then WHOOSHES past (gazelle style) before we can process the fact that it is finally here!

It sounds like Matt is sitting in an intriguing position.

I’ve gone from no options to too many.

Bonnie has returned from her annual sojourn to Israel and quickly got back into the teaching.

I’m back from Israel, embracing jet lag and deal with my no service Iphone before I hit the road to Dover Middle School for lots of 6th grader digital stories to push to the finish line. I’m exhausted just writing into my day, but it’s good to be home, no matter what!

Larry sounds a bit like me. And you?

State testing — ugh!

Barb, like so many of us, is looking ahead and balancing the calendar with tasks and finding one comes up a bit short.

Wondering how everything is supposed to fit before the end of the school year, trying to compact and compile, dealing with antsy students taking the Indiana achievement testing again for the third time this year, I finally got my PGP for teacher evaluation summarized last week and I am beginning to see the “light at the end of the tunnel”. Oh, beautiful spring!

Gail P. is making the adjustment back. Somewhat.

Mind and body are lagging after a wonderful week in the American Southwest.

Hmmm. Now, Paul has an interesting question. Very interesting. (I say, give her her space and withdraw as a follower, but that’s just me)

Wondering if I should stop following my fall student teacher on twitter when she starts to give her a place to ask questions and complain about me without having to worry about my reaction?

April conjures up Rod Serling (cue: theme song and odd plot twists)

Not one single meeting after school hours this week; have I entered the Twilight Zone?

Anne M. had a special moment — a special connection with her son recently.

As I teach in a small prep to year 12 school, I have taught all of my children, but how special it has been to actually teach with my son on the same staff for four months whilst he was home in Australia. (Sadly he has just flown back to London)

Ken and I have been writing poems all of April over at Bud the Teacher’s blog. So, I can feel for him with his sentence:

It’s been a long week finishing April;
While I’m not averse to verse I’m versed out.

And Cynthia brings a smile to my face (as usual) with her devious plans for sweet revenge.

The seniors skipped school Friday, but do I have a surprise for them when they return to English class Monday: we will be together two periods in a row because I’ve agreed to help out a teacher who’s wife is having surgery and we will finish Macbeth before the fifth hour bell rings.

Peace (in your days, too),
Kevin

PS — Ken will be the host for Day in a Sentence this coming week.

A Visual Metaphor of WMWP

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Here in Denver, as I work on the visioning process for redesigning the website of the Western Massachusetts Writing Project (now projected to be a year-long inquiry collaborative endeavor and not a solo journey), we were asked to create a visual metaphor of the work of our writing project site.

I turned to music and thought of our site as its own musical composition, with different elements of our site (outreach, continuity programs, inservice opportunities) working together to create a piece of Theme and Variation (ie, writing is at the heart of how we learn), but the door remains open for innovation and new elements of the composition.

The DJ here is a new teacher, with new ideas, and how they can help keep us fresh and informed and invigorated with new sounds.

Peace (in the hippity hoppity world of writing),

Kevin

PS — I had a fun time out and about in Denver last night with Bud the Teacher and a few other new friends. We went bowling (!) in a place with huge video screens showing modern art, played pool and talked on a range of topics from digital identity (hmmm .. Boolean Squared material) to leadership and advocacy in schools to the possible changing face of education towards virtual schools.

Considering Web Presence

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I flew to Denver, Colorado, yesterday (impression: it seems flatter than I imagined) for a weekend visioning retreat in which a number of us from various sites of the National Writing Project are working to consider how an organization presents itself on the Web in a coherent, inclusive and relevant way for its audience (for us, teachers) and the general public.

Our aim is to do inquiry this weekend into our organizations (mine is the Western Massachusetts Writing Project), work through some essential questions and then map out a plan for collaborative planning around the content and design/redesign of websites that will better reflect our sites.

We began last night with prewriting and discussions. Among the things we were asked to do was to brainstorm what “web presence” means to us and then work on coming up with a visual metaphor for this understanding. I pitched the idea of a Talent Show, in which the public sees a variety of different concepts and ideas but behind the scenes, there are a lot of people collaborating on the show. In the end, our group chose the metaphor of a huge eye, with the eye representing “vision” and also a list of “i” words such as a inquiry, inviting, insightful, inclusive, etc. That worked for me, too.

At the other tables, the metaphors included: an interconnected table of people, holding hands and connected through many nodes (think a modern version of King Arthur’s Roundtable, with no king); a portable children’s museum that has exhibits that invite participation (not a static museum where you can’t touch anything); and a metaphorical walk through the woods, with trees and the road representing elements of inclusiveness.

It’s all very fascinating, particularly if you push these ideas into digital identity of people (as one person said last night, we’re all cool on the Internet) and consider audience, design, and more.

More to come later …

Peace (on the Net, where no one knows you’re the dog),
Kevin

Storyboards with Digital Science Picture Books

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I have found that pre-writing is a key to quality of work from my sixth graders. They have to have time and a means to brainstorm and organize their thoughts before they rush into the actual writing. And when you add technology to the mix, this is even more important — otherwise, they get so deep into the technology, they forget to pay attention to the story.

This week, as my students work on the start of a Digital Picture Book on Cell Mitosis, they are hard at work with two pre-writing strategies.

First, they have to map out the storyline from beginning, middle and end. This plot design (in the form of a concept map tool) is something we work with a lot during the year, so it is now natural for them to “see” the whole story as it might unfold. I say “might” because I remind them that stories may change as they start the actual writing and better ideas come along or if they get a burst of new inspiration. The draft is not super-glue for the idea, just velco (hmmmm, not sure if that metaphor works, but I will keep it there for now).

Next, they work on storyboards for their books, showing the sequence of events with both visual and written descriptions. This is not a time for all of the details that will go into the books, but it is a time for seeing the possibilities. I like storyboarding because it allows me to have a good conversation with my students in a way that allows us to follow the story development visually.

Here is one of the storyboards — they will explain the phases of mitosis in much greater scientific detail in the final book:

I can’t wait to see this one as a final book.

Peace (in the digital world),
Kevin

Using a Complex Science Concept for Writing

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This week, as my sixth graders move forward with planning out a digital picture book that uses the concepts of a fictional journey/adventure story while also explaining the phases of Cellular Mitosis, I have to admit I was worried that the complexity of the science would overwhelm the writing of the story.

I guess I was wrong. Yesterday, after looking at some digital books from past years and a few other mitosis-related works (see this fun music video and also this voicethread sent to me by my friend, Maureen), they were incredibly excited about getting started. The air was buzzing with ideas and storyboards began to take shape.

What are some of the ideas?

  • A mad scientist uses an invention to shrink characters, who enter into a cell and must experience the phases of mitosis;
  • Contestants on a game show have to not only answer questions about mitosis, but they also get zapped into a cell to experience it, and only a few contestants make it out alive — kind of like Mitosis Survivor;
  • One team is doing a Mitosis Musical, based on Grease, High School Musical and some other movie and they are going to write songs for each page of the book;
  • A few stories revolve around a boring teacher blabbing on and on about mitosis so that the character snoozes and dreams they are in a cell and that’s where they learn from experience, only to “ace” the test when they wake back up in class;
  • and more … much more.

Wow! I was pretty impressed, and these are just a few of the ideas. The storyboards will be done in the next day or so, and then they get to work on the laptops, designing their own art, writing the story first in Word and then, after mini-lessons with animation and other interesting things in Powerpoint, moving to construct their story as a digital document.

If you are interested, you can view the project overview, the project checklist and the scoring rubric that we are using for the project.

More to come next week …

Peace (in cell division and creation),
Kevin

Free Comics for you!

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This Saturday is Free Comic Day, which means that if you have a comic book store in your area, they will probably have a boatload of free comics to give you when you walk in the door. No catch. Just free comics. Now, to be honest, they’re not usually the best comics out there, and often, they have short story lines and agonizing cliffhangers. BUT, for teachers, it is a way to get free comics for your classroom and most stores will sort them out for appropriateness of age level (mine does, anyway).

Last year, I grabbed about 25 comics and used them for lessons around figurative language and use of dialogue with my sixth graders. They ate them up!

The Free Comic Book day is another reminder that graphics and words can be a powerful incentive for young readers. (see The Graphic Classroom for reviews on graphic novels for the classroom — I am one of the reviewers there, keeping a focus on appropriateness for age levels).

And, just to make it exciting, here is Hugh Jackman in support of comics (and also promoting the Wolverine movie, of course, so really, just watch the first 30 seconds or so if you are not interested in the movie):

Peace (in free comics!),
Kevin

Day in Sentence, traditional-style

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Please consider joining us with Day in a Sentence this week. Here is how it works:

  • Reflect on a single day or your entire week;
  • Boil that reflection down into a single sentence;
  • Use the comment on this blog post to submit your sentence;
  • I moderate all of the submissions and collect them and publish them together sometime this weekend (or Monday, as I am out of town this week)
  • Be part of the group! Everyone is welcome!

Peace (in days),

Kevin

A Policy Brief from NWP: Teaching in a Digital Age

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The National Writing Project provides a wealth of information and experience and connections and this policy briefing/report just got published on the NWP site. It is a research briefing from a company hired by NWP to look at data from technology work at sites within the NWP. (A disclosure: our Western Massachusetts Writing Project site was one of the sites included in this study of a project known as the Technology Initiative).

You can read the full report — entitled “Keeping the Promise of the 21st Century: Bringing Classroom Teaching into the Digital Age” — here but I thought I would share out some of the findings, in my own words:

  • Teachers learn best from other teachers who are using technology, not from some canned professional development;
  • It takes time for teachers to think about and integrate technology, so one-shot professional development is less effective than long-term supportive work;
  • Technology is best used and most effective when students are engaged in real classroom projects with authentic learning standards;
  • Teachers who effectively use technology are engaging and motivating their students;
  • Access to technology is a real issue – either to the equipment or through “firewalls” set up by school districts;
  • Students in poorer school districts often have the least access to technology and technology-inspired curriculum, although they may need it the most;
  • State and federal standardized mandates offer little incentive for teachers to engage in use of technology.

The report also adds some “policy implications” for its findings:

  • Teachers have to be the leaders and demand more professional development and access to technology for their students. It can’t rest with administrators;
  • K-12 teachers should connect more with Universities and other institutions for access to technology and expertise;
  • Teachers need hands-on experiences using technology themselves and then time to consider the implications of the classroom;
  • Provide students in underserved communities with access to technology and related curriculum opportunities;

And more …

This report is worth the read and it once again makes me proud to be part of the NWP, as it moves to think about writing in new ways that engage our young learners and makes writing relevant in their lives.

Or, as the report notes:

NWP is distinctive among professional development providers. It is a network of teachers who build leadership and knowledge of teaching and learning from systematic study of their own classroom practices and the practices of colleagues, as well as from research. These leading teachers—called teacher-consultants—share their professional knowledge and practices with other teachers through local NWP professional development programs. . . .

Peace (in-between the numbers),

Kevin

An Easy Webpage Creation Tool

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This resource comes via Larry Ferlazzo (I get a lot of ideas from Larry and you should, too): this site will convert an uploaded file into a static webpage and then host it. I like the concept because I sometimes struggle with how to get my students’ work online when they don’t have email (we don’t provide email for them in our school). I have used Google Docs and also Weebly, but it always such an administrative headache for me.

This site — called File2.ws (catchy, eh?) — allows you to upload without any registration, and then it converts your material into a static page and gives you the web address. I experimented this morning with one of the poems I am doing with Bud the Teacher this month and it worked pretty easily. I created a Word file, added my poem and the picture from Bud’s site, and uploaded and within 20 seconds, I had a webpage created with my poem.

Take a look at my Hope Flower poem on the web

When we get to poetry, I can see this as an easy tool for my students to use to publish their own work.

That said, I read through the FAQ of the site and note that there does not seem to be advertising (but that may change, so that is something we should keep an eye on) and that if a site does not get enough hits (not sure what the sweet number is), the page can be automatically taken down to make room for other pages on the site. So, this may be just a temporary home for writing, which is fine if you view it that way, right?

Peace (in publishing),

Kevin