I had heard this news on morning television. I do remember writing my valentine cards in elementary schooland enclosing just the right candy heart. I guess this was inevitable. :)
Isn't there a new word of the year voted on? I think this year's had to do with technology...Good thing we took this course so we'll know what they will use next year..."Ning Me, Blog me, have your voki call my voki"

My Reading Classroom

Welcome to the Reading Zone. Students must "engage minds before entering." Lamps, tapestries and tables help to create this reading environment. Oh, and the foosball table is fun, too!

Voicethreads

A VoiceThread is an online media album that can hold essentially any type of media (images, documents and videos) and allows people to make comments in 5 different ways - using voice (with a microphone or telephone), text, audio file, or video (with a webcam) - and share them with anyone they wish. A VoiceThread allows group conversations to be collected and shared in one place, from anywhere in the world.
I found two sites that are helpful. This first one is an introduction and shows you how to navigate through the tool. http://voicethread.com/#home.b409.i3129. The second I signed up through my wiki and it shows 100 ways to use voicethreads in education. http://voicethread4education.wikispaces.com/ In music, students could present different types of music, play samples, and students could then comment. For social studies, students could research places and bring in different photos for students to comment on. In studio art, students could post their image(s) and others could critique their work. An English teacher could put up a picture and students could brainstorm essay topics and ideas to use in a group project. Students could also use voicethread to begin a story with a segment and students could add to it. The teacher could require students to use current vocabulary terms for practice. A kindergarten teacher had her students comment on the story The Polar Express.
Voicethreads could also be used in professional development to show Web 2.0 features and permit teachers to leave comments and questions. They can also be used to give presentations and lessons.
Both sites are helpful. Check them out and let me know how you could use this tool in your classroom.

Middle School Literacy

Middle School Wordle

Kim Cofino's Going Global Online Conference

I just thought I would share a few thoughts about her presentation as I plan to go into more depth in my learning summary. After viewing this conference, I wish I had seen this at the beginning of the course. She presents three issues that would serve as a worthwile introduction to see what it is, how we get through it, and how to participate in it.

She is speaking not only to us as teachers but I felt the same experiences as the students are, experiencing culture shock, trying to acquire convergence skills, and learning how to delve into the future of education. I too identify with the shock of going global but I also see the need as a teacher to help students through it too. I also realize the essential skills of flexibility, confidence, independence, an appreciation of others will help me adapt to my own growth of global collaboration and communication. Lastly, I now see what Dennis Richards was having us do from the start-from the first class-to build our own learning community. To use RSS Reader, to join social networds, start our own blog, attend online conferences, and use twitter to build our network and to expand our interests to make real time connections with other educators across the world.

LAN: Learning is Social! Online Conference

To "lead the change," Bryan Hughes presented a new way to "breathe new life into professional development." As teachers and presenters, we are always looking for novel ideas to make inservices and conferences more engaging. He liked Kim Cofino's idea of educators sitting around with laptops, engaged in discussion so he instituted a variation at his school entitled "LAN." The teachers prefer to say it stands for "Learning at Night" Party but it is actually an acronym for "Local Area Network." It is a meanss to introduce real networking within the school, district, and around the world. Three key ingredients to make LAN parties successful are conversation, idea, and food. Teachers would meet from 5-7PM at the school. Sessions would be offered and teachers could pick the presentation they wanted to view. Following their sessions, teachers would reconvene, eat, and discuss what they learned. These sessions would enable teachers to see and talk what educators are doing around the world. When possible, teachers could even talk with presenters using Skype. Thus, teachers would be providing their own professional development and would be able to integrate ideas into their teaching right away. Their professional learning communities would be established and in place to contine their collaboration. Thus, treat teachers as guests, allow them to select their session, and provide a wonderful (pot luck) meal in a festive atmosphere ( thematic decorations-Chinese for the New Year, Taco night for CincoDe Mayo, etc.).

Engaging Our Youngest Minds: Ignite the "Wow" in Students Online Conference

Angela Maiers emphasized her point that student engagement and learning in the digital age must include passion. That is, find the passion in your students and that is what will drive them to use the technological tools-not the tools themselves. Simple concept but I believe she's right. She quoted Hegel's philosophy stated in 1832, "Nothing great in this world has been accomplished without passion." She questions whether technology integration is enough to cultivate this passion or whether we need to lead student to find their own. Ms. Maiers suggests to keep students' inborn sense of wonder alive, their talents and their uniqueness, teachers need to tap into student interest, maintain high standards, and use new technology. Thus, their learning can be transformed but passion is the most integral part. By providing experiences, resources, and tools, teachers and students can use technology as a platform to share their voices with the world. They can use technology to research, play, publish, and collaborate with others. To find the "wow." notice what they're engaged in and ignite the passion within.

The Virtual Heroic Journey Online Conference

Kevin Hodgson spoke on how to "kick it up a notch" in his 6th grade ELA classroom. He had his students use Google Maps and Google Earth to create a fictional heroic journey story. This unit was tied to literature (The Odyssey, The Lightning Thief), writing, and use of technology. To model this process Mr. Hodgson and his students read the graphic novel ofOdysseus's escape of Poseidon's curse to illustrate the heroic journey and plot device. They then read The Lightning Thief (excellent series I too am reading and one I would highly recommend for use in a Mythology class or unit) to follow Percy Jackson in his quest to return Zeus's stolen lightning bolt. They then used the tools to plot this quest. The students were then ready to create their own heroic journey to include three encounters with creatures marking places on Google Map where the hero enounctered the monsters on their journey home. Students had to type their text (story) and embed images of monsters (from his Picassa folder). Mr. Hodgson created two web sites to view their work. To view student work you would go to http://sites.google.com/sites/heroicjourneymaps. The second site is a slide show showing step by step how to use googe maps, google earth, and Picassa: http://tinyurl.com/heroicjourney. Once again, I like learning how I can incorporate the technological tools into the classroom and to help students expand their literacies.

Keeping the Literacy in 21st Century LIteracies

This was one of the online conferences I selected to view because of the issue of literacy. Drew Schrader is an ELA high school English teacher and spoke about incorportating the technology tools and reading and writing strategies for a more successful experience in English. He referred to Chris Tovanni's book I Read It But I Don't Get It and the importance of thinking or metacognating about their reading and that the following tools can be used to this purpose. The three tools and strategies are using Screentoaster for Think Alouds, Diigo to create Annotated Text, and Prezi for Mind Mapping. To use screentoaster, the teacher would read the novel aloud and stop and do a think aloud on screentoaster for the student to replay. Modeling what good readers think about it important to make visible to students and this tool would help both struggling readers and successful readers. A second tool to use in Enlish is Diigo. Mr. Schrader is concerned about students making use of text conventions and by modeling once again what good readers are thinking while reading, he would provide an annotated text to guide students on Diigo. Like Del.icio.us, Diigo allows the user to highlight text and add sticky notes to make their thoughts visible. His final connection was to use mind mapping with Prezi. Students need to organize their ideas before writing and this tool makes that possible. I would encourage all teachers to view his conference to see how to incorporate these tools into our classrooms.