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Social Media saving lives – two words at the time | UNSPOKEN ~ Social Media
I am asking everyone to read this post by my new friend Jure Klepic. This is what we're doing with the #choose2matter campaign. PLEASE read, understand, and watch. I must say that Jure took 5 minutes to answer a few questions for me about social media and helped me profoundly. It is hard to fathom that before he watched Angela's talk that he wondered if he mattered. He's talented, smart, and seems to have the world at his feet. You never know who feels like they don't matter. As a teacher, this is your job - #choose2matter don't just settle to show up. Let's be more and do more for all the Christopher and Jure's out there.
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Anne Fox shares her reflections n the digital handshake, an important aspect of getting to know people.
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Teaching Cross-Cultural Communication in a Connected World | Powerful Learning Practice
Fascinating blog post about how misunderstanding the "pound sign" caused a project not to happen. The US school said to press the pound sign (#) but the UK school was looking for the british pound sign - they call the # the number sign. This is a great point about communication and overcoming. It makes me sad they couldn't figure it out and work it out, but great that these conversations keep happening.
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Connecting and Communicating « Mark Patrick Meyers
A reflection on Digiteen by @meywong
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Book Review: “Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds” « EdTech Innovations
A wonderful book review for the Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds book cross posted on Technology and Learning
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EdTechSandyK: Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds With @CoolCatTeacher & @JulieLindsay
Sandy created an overview of a webinar a while back we did overviewing the Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds book. She gave a nice overview of the discussion with Steve Hargadon, who always brings out great points that need to be discussed.
Sunday, 19 August 2012
Saturday, 18 August 2012
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| Jim Courier of the United States wipes sweat away from his eyes with a towel during a Men's Singles match at the U.S.Open Tennis Championship on 6th September 1995 at the USTA National Tennis Center in the Flushing neighbourhood of Queens in New York, United States. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife) |
In an interview last week, someone asked me about the last thing that made me laugh. I collect sayings. I love them. For example, the Dukes of Hazzard's Roscoe P. Coletrain gave me:
"He's fightin' like the third monkey on Noah's gang plank."
I often use that one to talk about a desperate situation where I'm struggling to hang on.
When students are whining, I also have:
"Call the Waaaambulance." or
"Call 9 waa waa"
While not all times and places are right for these comments, I have a sign in my room that says "no whining." If it is whining - even if I'm doing it, I'll say,
"Oh I guess I should call the waambulance" and then I move on.
I was listening to a movie on the TV and the bad guy was on the cell phone trying to make the good guy do something he didn't want to do. Finally, the good guy blurts out:
"Sure. I'll meet you at the corner of 'ne' and 'ver.""
Sweet! Another saying. I love it.
Maybe it is because I work with teenagers combined with the fact that I'm completely unable to ever have a 'comeback' to anything. I don't banter well and usually avoid it, but these little zingers can make everyone smile and also are used to underscore one of my common messages to students.
S is for Sweat
I saw a study sometime back that the top 10% of performers DO NOT have the top 10% IQ scores but rather, have the top 10% of WORK ETHIC. (See Self Discipline Outdoes IQ in predicting Academic performance of adolescents)Attitude is the most important A in my classroom.
- Do we work hard on the assigned task the whole 53 minutes of class?
- Do we find ways to overcome obstacles?
- Do we take ownership of our attitude and response to stressful situations?
- Do we apologize when we mess up?
- Do we follow the golden rule and treat others as we want to be treated?
- Are the 'smarter' kids being bossy or learning to pull in the views and opinions of all students?
- Do we ask good questions and know how to find answers?
- Do we realize when we have a knowledge gap and know what to do to fill it without having to ask the teacher?
I teach students how to live life well as much as I teach them to master technology. Both are important in today's world.
What are you teaching in your classroom?
Friday, 17 August 2012
Flattening the classroom is removing the classroom walls as students connect outside the classroom to authentically co-create with a variety of people. As co-founder of Flat Classroom Projects, we have students from kindergarten to college connecting with one another daily as they co-create and work together. Students are the greatest textbook ever written for each other. The Flat Classroom doesn’t talk to the world or at the world but becomes project based with teachers and other students around the world as co-creators and travelers on the journey of learning.
Some think flattening the classroom is just about connecting with other countries. This is overly simplistic. While it is an exciting part of flattening the classroom, there’s more. Julie Lindsay, co-founder of Flat Classroom Projects, and I think there are five areas of connection planning: information, location, generation, communication and time.
Information
Traditionally the textbook and teacher were the two sources of information for students with a library visit or encyclopedia thrown in a few times a month for report writing. Students should be taught how to construct a personal learning network. Teachers should help students learn how to build a PLN using the devices they own to connect beyond the textbook to the people, communities, and current events happening around their topics of study.
Students may have technology in their hands, but many are sadly lacking in the ability to connect it with their heads using advanced search, RSS, and the location of appropriate communities and hashtags where discussions happen. When my students are working on their personal passion projects, one of the first things I have them identify are the hashtags and active communities conversing about their topics. It is harder than it sounds.
Location
You can’t have a world-class education without connecting with the world, but this doesn’t preclude local connections. Some argue against global collaboration because kids aren’t connecting locally, but I believe kids need both local, regional, and global connections to be well-rounded learners.
Students should have strong connections to their “inner circle” including their homes, classrooms, districts, school, neighborhood and city. Involvement in meaningful work and discussions with people in these locations are important. But it doesn’t stop at the city gates, they should also connect within their state, nation, and to diverse places around the world.
For example, the project “When Mizzoula Was Young” from Flat Classroom-certified teacher Cindy Shultz had students select local townspeople from headstones in the the local cemetery while working with the historical society to document and learn about their lives. It is also like the Digiteen Project where students study digital citizenship and are partnered with students from other classrooms to research it and then create local action projects. Connecting outside the local classroom can free students from face-to-face stereotypes and unlock hidden talents that lay unnoticed in their own classroom.
Generation
Students should connect across generations to grandparents and ancestors all the way down to their own children and descendants. Our parents buried time capsules, but with digital technologies cross-generational connections are much easier than that. Students should be learning history from their grandparents and the older generation as they video, document, and capture stories. They should be connecting to future generations as they create electronic archives of modern culture, art and learning.
With electronic technologies, students can create a yearly time capsule to keep electronically and review in the future. Powerful mentoring experiences can happen with properly trained multi-age experiences.
Communication
Now we have electronic communications and the emergence of “technopersonal” skills where technology is the communication channel linking students. Technopersonal skills can be as important as interpersonal face-to-face skills as students learn the nuances of online synchronous and asynchronous communications. My students present several times a year to online audiences, and learn to connect with other students through wikis, multimedia and blogging because these are vital ways to communicate in the 21st century.
Students must master synchronous and asynchronous communication methods so they can collaborate and build connections.
Connecting with Yourself (Time)
Intrapersonal skills are an essential part of self esteem as is the self-talk that helps students problem solve and stay motivated in the midst of struggle. The misguided practice of unearned praise has caused this generation to distrust the awards and recognition of many well-intended organizations meant to serve youth. Perhaps this is why they are attracted to games that are impartial and only give badges and awards when earned and after much struggle.
I tell my students I am mining for gold – and the mine is in each of them. We’ll find the gold, but it won’t look like it. We’ll work together to polish and enhance their innate talents and abilities so that when I’m done with their time with me that they will come out shining. This requires personalizing learning and a constant search for the authentic talents of each child.
Our actions should add meaning to our student’s lives. It is completely irresponsible, in my opinion, to delete electronic student work each year without giving students the opportunity to save and archive their work. Students should graduate from high school and be able to look back on the memories and learning journey with a digital portfolio spanning years.
It is time to connect ourselves and our students.
Connections add meaning to life and the classroom. Flattening the classroom is about connecting outside the classroom in powerful ways. The thriving massive open online courses — MOOCs — are proof that people want to connect around common topics. So are our thriving Flat Classroom projects where students connect from grades kindergarten through college.
Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) is a full-time teacher, author of the award-winning Cool Cat Teacher Blog and co-founder of the Flat Classroom projects. For a more in-depth discussion of this topic, check out “Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds,” which Davis co-authored with Julie Lindsay. It’s available from publisher Pearson.
This post originally appeared on the SmartBlog for Education.
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Free Technology for Teachers: A Quick Start Guide for Using YouTube's Editing Tools
Another cool tutorial by Richard Byrne over at Free Tech for Teachers, a website I highly recommend.
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A running theme that the only thing that matters is test scores | Dangerously Irrelevant
If it is the right thing to do , it doesn't matter. It only matters if it can be linked to test scores. I find this kind of thinking offensive and ridiculous. As the southern farmer down the street would say "that's bass ackwards." This article turns my stomach.I
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HASTAC Wins NSF Grant to Study Its Own Social Network | HASTAC
Educational networks are here to stay, but do we really understand them? This grant is a clear sign to me that we don't or that we don't think social media rules apply here.
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A Sign of How MOOCs Will Impact Colleges ~ Stephen's Web
I believe we'll see a MOOC in K12 in the next 6 months and maybe sooner. Some great thoughts from Stephen Downes linking to a nice article on the topic.
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Haptic systems stimulate (or simulate) the sense of touch. It is the type of technology that will enable holodeck like experiences (coupled with 3D generated images). Don't think this sort of thing isn't going to happen. Haptics are a big part of the future of how we use computers and the entertainment of the future.
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Once you go flat you never go back SmartBlogs
An article I wrote for smartblogs about all the ways to connect.
Thursday, 16 August 2012
Conversation around the connected educator month has largely been that it is the same educators connecting. How can we get more people connecting?
Let's show them how, specifically, how they can connect. The Flat Classroom Projects and Taking IT Global are sponsored a free and open "Connected Educator Challenge" modeled after the K12 Online Wiki Challenge of 2006 where Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis first met and founded their Flat Classroom projects.
See our Wiki: http://connectededucators.wikispaces.com/Home (to sign up and read what has been written.)
Note: IF you're an organization that connects people and you want to invite your members to participate and help write this wiki book, then let us know and we can co-list you as a sponsor. We want to include everybody in creating a great free resource to help people to connect, so when they are ready, they can get started.
We'll also work on sharing best practices in writing wikis and collaborating to help you learn how to take your connection skills to the next level. We know it is the start of school, but take 10 minutes and help write the book on connecting. If we all contribute, it can be powerful! You'll see what it is like to participate in a truly collaborative, organic, open experience (like a wikipedia) with the pros and cons so that we can have a meaningful discussion about building community of practice for such projects when we're done.
Take the challenge? Are you able?
Join and do as much or as little as you are able.
Connected Educators Collaboration Challenge
Join with educators from around the world and take the Connected Educators Collaboration Challenge. You and your new friends will be writing a wiki book about all of the ways to connect online. This living wiki book will help other educators get started and see up-to-date information about how educators around the world are connecting today.
What Will You Do?
If you take the challenge, you'll be assigned to a team to write about one of the many ways that educators can collaborate. You'll have a week to work with your partners and write the most up to date information about how you can connect. This is being modeled after theK12 Online 2006 wiki project where Julie Lindsay (@julielindsay) and Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) met and after the innovative, grassroots practices and work ethic shared by Taking IT Global and the Flat Classroom Projects. We'll host a connection celebration where we share what we've learned and recognize excellence.
Kickoff: August 16 4:30 - 5:30 pm EDT (CEM info online for meeting location)
Dates for Editing: August 16-August 23, 2012
Celebration: August 30 4:30 - 5:30pm EDT
This is part of Connected Educator Month Celebration for August 2012 and any educator can join in! The first step to "flatten" your classroom (as shared inFlattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds) is to CONNECTyourself. Flat Classroom® and TakingITGlobal are two organizations who are passionate about helping educators connect with each other!
What Will You Do?
If you take the challenge, you'll be assigned to a team to write about one of the many ways that educators can collaborate. You'll have a week to work with your partners and write the most up to date information about how you can connect. This is being modeled after theK12 Online 2006 wiki project where Julie Lindsay (@julielindsay) and Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) met and after the innovative, grassroots practices and work ethic shared by Taking IT Global and the Flat Classroom Projects. We'll host a connection celebration where we share what we've learned and recognize excellence.
Kickoff: August 16 4:30 - 5:30 pm EDT (CEM info online for meeting location)
Dates for Editing: August 16-August 23, 2012
Celebration: August 30 4:30 - 5:30pm EDT
This is part of Connected Educator Month Celebration for August 2012 and any educator can join in! The first step to "flatten" your classroom (as shared inFlattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds) is to CONNECTyourself. Flat Classroom® and TakingITGlobal are two organizations who are passionate about helping educators connect with each other!
When educator Yvonne Fojtasek at Alvin Dunn Elementary in San Marcos, California emailed me her "Big Three" after ISTE 12 this year, I asked if she'd share her plans with the world. This one transformational practice has changed my life and can change yours. I have a list of the next 3 things I want to do after every conference and on an ongoing basis. What are your "big 3?" Feel free to email them to me at vicki at coolcatteacher dot com. You might just be next. "We can't have a world-class education without the world",
began Vicki Davis at her presentation on the Wonderful World of Wikis at ISTE 2012 in San Diego, California. She had me hooked.
This was my very first time attending ISTE, and I was eager to learn as much as possible about providing a world class education for the students I serve in the San Marcos Unified School District in San Diego County, California. I was looking forward to taking my first steps in establishing those global connections, and I knew Vicki to be one of the great trail-blazers in establishing those global connections by flattening the classroom walls for herself and her students by utilizing the "3 R's" of global collaboration, receiving, reading, responding and using technology as the vehicle for this process.
Throughout the presentation, we had the opportunity to learn about the tools and strategies of utilizing wikis as a collaborative tool. Of particular interest to me, was learning about discussion tabs, the means of articulating the thinking behind the construction of the content, truly a concrete example of making thinking visible.
At the conclunsion of the session, Vicki also challenged us to consider our "Big Three", the next things we would like to learn.
My "Big Three"
Our school, Alvin Dunn Elementary, has just been accepted as an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Candidate School. Because I will be serving as the coordinator, one of my goals is to continue working on our wiki which will be a resource for staff, parents, students, and the community as we transition to becoming an IB Primary Years School.
http://alvindunn.wikispaces.com/Staff+Resources
Second, I want to continually put into practice the attributes of the international Baccalaureate learner profile myself including being a risk-taker, and for me that means making a commitment to writing in my own blog more often and then responding to other's blogs that I subscribe to in order to establish great connections with others. Putting my thoughts out there for others to see means making myself vulnerable, but I can't thing of any better way of truly connecting with others than this willingness to be vulnerable and learn.
Third, as part of the International Baccalaureate philosophy, want to be proactive in establishing global connections personally through various projects as well as encouraging my colleagues at Alvin Dunn and the teachers participating in theAmerican History Grant Project, which I also coordinate, to begin making those connections as well, do the resources that you and Vicki Davis and Julie have shared in their book, Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds, and website will be quite valuable. I am excited there are numerous opportunities for our students to work collaboratively with others on authentic projects to flatten the classroom walls such as the "A Week in the Life" project.
Yvonne Fojtasek
@yfojtasek
Blog: http://ahffojtasek.blogspot.com/
Interntional Baccalaureate Primary Years Coordinator, Alvin Dunn Elementary
American History Grant Coordinator, San Marcos Unified School District
San Marcos, CA
- Are we putting too many non-content related grades in our marking systems that are causing disorganized children to think they aren't college material and to cause entitlement among those who do homework and turn things in thinking that just because they work hard that they deserve a good grade? This family circle article coupled with some of the entitlement research has me thinking. Read: Making the Grade: When Do Kids Deserve A's It is also an argument for standards based assessment. Take a read.
- There are some fascinating things you can do with Kinect in the classroom. You can download these files and hook up a Kinect to your computer to allow motion capture (against a greenscreen), painting with gestures, and all kinds of things. There are people using kinect in powerful ways with special needs children as well. Here's the official webpage for Kinect in Education.
- Here's a listing of our current projects. Follow the link to apply. Flat Classroom Project - Deadline September 1, 2012 APPLY NOW! Digiteen Project - Deadline September 15, 2012 APPLY NOW! 'A Week in the Life...' - Deadline September 1, 2012 APPLY NOW! NetGenEd - Project based on the Horizon Report published in January each year - Deadline February 1, 2013 - APPLY NOW! K-2 'Building Bridges to Tomorrow' Project - Deadline September 15, 2012 - APPLY NOW! Eracism - Information and Applications available August 15, 2012
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