Learning in Progress Just another COETAIL site

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Overall thoughts about the project:

   I really enjoyed working on the AUP project for many reasons:

1. I had the opportunity to work with colleagues from other grade levels (Grant Rolls, 3rd grade teacher and Dan Stevens, 5th Grade teacher )

2.  Researching other schools AUP policies gave me a better understanding of the importance of this policy and a look at the various  forms it can come in.

3.  It was great to work on something that could eventually be put to use at our school…the project was meaningful and purposeful.

Background information:

I worked with two other teachers from my school to develop a K-3 AUP.  We began the project by taking a look at what our 5th grade teachers had developed this year.   Their AUP is tailored more towards the 1:1 program so we knew from the start that we were going to have to change the wording to fit more of our K-3 needs, plus the language of the AUP needed to be K-3 friendly.  We kept the four BIG headings (Respectful, Safe, Responsible, and Honest) that 5th grade had developed because we wanted the policy to be consistent.  However, we did change the definitions under each heading in order for students, as young as five, to be able to understand.  After changing the definitions, we also decided that students need examples or prompts to help them understand whether or not they are following the “rules.”  This lead us to develop 2-3 prompts under each heading for the students to ask themselves when using the Internet, programs, etc.  Again, we wrote these in very kid-friendly language so even the youngest students at our school could use and understand them.  As we wrote these definitions and prompts, we also knew they would lead to further discussions within the classroom.

Luckily I was able to work with Dan Stevens, a fifth grade teacher at ASIJ.  He provided us with vertical alignment and issues that he saw throughout this year while piloting 1:1 with iPads and MacBooks.  Also, Dan was willing to have his students create iMovies that expressed examples of each of the BIG Four to better help the younger kids understand what was expected of them.  We did have to make sure the iMovies didn’t focus on the use of email because our Grade 5 is the only grade at the moment using email accounts.  We wanted the focus to be more on online identity.  Before deciding to have the 5th grade students create videos, we searched for possible videos clips online to aid with understanding.  We did find a few, but the majority of the clips we found started off at a level the K-3 students could understand, but quickly jumped up several levels, and we knew the students would easily become overwhelmed with all the information being flashed at them.

How will we share this with students?

We brainstormed several ideas:

1.  Add it to our curriculum links on our school website after administration approval

2.  Share as part of instructional technology in our classrooms

3.  Share with colleagues during PD days so they can use it within their classrooms

4. Posters around our ES building

Before any sharing can begin, we will need the approval from our administrators. Our goal is that we would like to see this become a part of our classroom program like our Student Learning Outcomes.

Please see below the AUP Grant, Dan, and I created for grades K-3 with the help of the 5th Grade AUP already in place.

Some rights reserved by Grant MacDonald

I have recently started to use more hyperlinks in my blogs and feel pretty comfortable doing so.  However, I have  learned as a reader of other blogs, articles, etc. that there can be such a thing as too many hyperlinks.  In my opinion, I notice when I read a certain piece online that contains several, meaning maybe 5 or more, the text is tiresome to read.  I find myself clicking on all the links to find out more information and the next thing I know I have ten windows open and can’t remember where I started.  This is just in some cases, other times I find hyperlinks very useful and I end up finding more information/connections on a particular topic that I originally thought I would never find.  So….I am a fan of hyperlinks, most of the time, but  can you have too many hyperlinks?  Is there a magic number out there that we should all stick with?

Here are some interesting articles I read on blog and hyperlink etiquette. I found them to be useful and easy to read.  Oh, here is one more on link etiquette.  Enjoy!

Ok, I think I have hit my limit of hyperlinks.

Thought I would share this YouTube video with you.  Enjoy!

http://www.erikjheels.com/803.html

I began searching the Internet looking for a kid-friendly definition of “copyright” so I could discuss this with my second graders.  I found the following one to be best suited for this age level:

“Copyright is a law that gives you ownership over the things you create.”

My second graders have a pretty good sense of what “ownership” and “create” mean, so I took it a step further and asked them about their thoughts on what a” law” is.  After our wonderful discussion, we found there were some misconceptions and accurate knowledge on this topic amongst the sixteen of us, including me.  This discussion raised some interesting questions and led me to do even more research on the topic of copyright. 

While searching for more information, I came across this quiz.  I took the quiz first before reading the article by Hall Davidson, and Ididn’t pass with flying colors like I was hoping.  I then read the article and took the quiz over….much better results.  I highly recommend taking this quiz to test your knowledge.  Good luck!

Between my students’ questions, the quiz, and the articles I have read, I now feel like I have a better understanding and respect for copyright, and can now pass that onto my students….and my colleagues. 

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During Week 2 of Course 2, I began researching and reading articles regarding Online Privacy.   I came across many, as you can imagine.  It took me awhile to get my head wrapped around everything, but  I found one article particularly interesting. It was written about a year ago on this topic and one statement in the article caught my attention.

1) “Personal Privacy is no longer an individual thing.”  I am beginning to realize how true this is.  I look at the social networks I am involved with and I am no longer the only person in control of what is being seen by others about me.  Just this past weekend, while coaching a HS track meet, a picture of me was taken and was posted, with my name attached to it, on Facebook without my permission.  Now this picture was harmless, but I had no control over it being posted.  The funny thing was I found out about it through another friend who had seen it.  I did end up hunting down the picture just to see it, and it was truly harmless, but then again here is an example of my photo being out there for all to see and I had no control over that.

A second article I read had some interesting statistics that could rattle you a bit before you got to the actual article/information at the bottom.  However, it did give me the opportunity to become more knowledgeable about the new 2012 Google Privacy Policy.  It was interesting to read that even though this new policy does not allow the search engine to collect more information than before, it does allow Google to do more with that information.  There are  ways around this, but as the article also mentioned, the privacy setting for many sites are well hidden and difficult to manage.  I know I spent some time making sure my Facebook page was hidden to the public, and only accessible to my friends….but then again is it?  When will websites, search engines, and etc. begin advertising their privacy settings instead of making it so difficult for us?  I would rather see this type of advertising than the many different advertisements that line the right side of a particular webpage/website.

Online privacy hasn’t been easy up to this point, and after reading many articles this past week, my conclusion is that it’s only going to get harder.  I’m just hoping we can find a solution before things seem to get out of hand….our hands, that is.

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After reading the recommended articles suggested for Week 1, I find myself torn between having a digital footprint as a good thing and  something that can be life-ruining as well.  Perosnally, I feel I have left a pretty clean digital footprint up to this point in my life.  I have even gone through the process of searching for my name numerous times, and even though there are a thousand ”Jennifer Browns” out there, we have all come up pretty clean.  However, I have another side to my thinking which involves a dear friend of mine who hasn’t been so lucky.  Unfortunately she continues to pay for a mistake that happened nearly 15 years ago. I won’t get into much detail regarding the mistake, but I will say it didn’t involve any jail time or for that matter the police at all.  At the most, it involved seeking some counseling at the discretion of my friend.

She has gone through all the steps to get this particular piece of information off the Internet, but at best, it is now on the second page when you google her name.  Even though she has a job currently, this piece of information haunts her and prevents her from seeking other employment because she is in fear of never getting hired again.  Even at her current job, the issue comes up from time to time, which leads her to having to continuously defend herself and retell the story to her employer and new co-workers.   I have known this person for most of my life, and to see the hurt and burden that this little piece of information has done to my friend. It saddens me deeply to where I have been willing to help her pay the thousands of dollars to get it completely removed from the Internet.  However, the question she and I both have is, when will people begin to look at her for the person she has become over the last 15 years, and the wonderful things she has done for others, instead of focusing on a mistake that she regrets, and at the end, has made her who she is today?

In a nutshell, my concern is will our digital footprint become so important to employers, friends, students, etc. that one issue or mistake can lead to living a life of never getting a second chance of having a “clean” slate ?

Note:  I hope this didn’t sound too much like a “on-my-soap-box” blog.  If so, thanks for listening.

Lesson Background: I decided to use the SonicPics lesson I recently tried with my class for a few reasons.  One reason being, I taught this lesson differently this year because of this COETAIL Program.  The articles and blogs I read throughout this first course really pushed me to teach in a different way and try some new strategies.  Secondly, the lesson is fresh in my mind and seems like the best choice for me at this point.  Plus, I was so pleased with how well the project turned out I wanted to make sure I documented the plan for future use.

Summary of Lesson: The lesson began with two trips to our school computer lab where the students had the opportunity to ”dabble” on the website called “Kids Web Japan” (http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/).  During this time the students had the chance to search the site and browse the different topics on Japan.  At the same time, they were choosing their top 3 choices of the topics they wished to do further research on.  After the first day the students were asked to make their choice of the ONE topic they wanted to create a “report” on.  Students were not allow to double up on topics because the main purpose of the project was to show the many different ways Japan is unique.  Thus, that’s why they had three choices ready in case their first choice was taken. 

The second trip to the computer lab involved the note-taking portion of the project.  The students used the website mentioned above to find facts on their chosen topic.  They were given a note-taking sheet with 12 boxes, and their goal was to fill as many boxes with key words/facts that represented why their particular topic showed why Japan is unique.  Prior to going to the lab, the students were taught, through mini lessons, how to take notes and choose the most important facts.  I did a small review of he directions and then the kids were off to begin their note-taking.  They had approximately 30-40 minutes to do this, and by the end more than half the class had 6 or more boxes filled with meaningful facts….I was very impressed.  The note-taking continued one more day for those that needed it, and for those that finished, they became helpers/fact finders for the other students.

The third part of the lesson involved the introduction to the iPad application called SonicPics.  Please see my previous Blog post called “It Worked!!” for details of this part of the lesson.  A quick summary of that lesson:  I gave the students the complete freedom to explore, mess around, dabble, etc. etc. on SonicPics without giving them step-by-step directions on what or what not to do.  By the end of the 40 minute block of time that I gave them to explore, each student was able to upload images, record their voices, delete unwanted material, insert text,  and their confidence level and sense of ownership towards their learning was off the charts!

The next day was the BIG test, could they apply and transfer what they just learned the day before to create their project of “Why Japan is unique?”  I was hopeful and confident they could….my students proved me right.  The fourth day of this project started off very differently then in the past.  I no longer felt the pressure of having to teach the lesson step-by-step while making students wait for other students to finish before they could go on to the next step.  The students were in the driver’s seat and were able to move through the project with ease and with very little help from me because of how familiar they were with SonicPics…thanks to the previous lesson of giving them the freedom to explore.

The last steps (all completed on their iPads) to the project were: 1) Find and save five images from Google that connected to their facts on their chosen topic. 2) Upload those images into SonicPics in the order that best suited the student’s facts. 3) Take their facts and combine them to create five sentences identifying the uniqueness of Japan.  4) Type their sentences into SonicPics under the appropriate image. 5) Create a title for each image 6) Record themselves reading each sentence. 7) Preview and save their slideshow. 8)Share slideshow with classmates 9) Write a reflection on their thoughts of the process, what they learned, and in a sentence or two write a closing statement of “Why Japan is Unique?”

The final project was a slide show of the students facts, images and voices explaining why their particular topic makes Japan unique and a wonderful country for people to visit.  At the end, we celebrated with a “Share Out”.  The students will also share this with their parents during our Portfolio Sharing Day.  At the end, I will be able to send parents a copy of their child’s project which they can keep forever and send to relatives.  I’m hoping this will be much easier to save than the piles of papers they’ve been receiving since their child was in kindergarten….save a few trees as well.

Here’s the link just in case:  https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=17h0hpP4y4fSvyZtuOWPydrkeMiujT54opI_YO9HRZdw

I just finished a lesson where my students were in the driver’s seat and…..it went great!  I wrote a blog recently “Need to Loosen Up” and that’s just what I did.  I was hesitant at first and went back and forth between whether or not I should just go with my lesson plan I worked so hard to develop.  After seeing my students today, I am so glad I decided to go with allowing them to explore the new program on their own. 

They were so excited and they actually looked at me with a surprise face at first.  As if to say, “You’re really going to let us figure this out on our own?”  Some students were nervous they would delete or “mess” up the program if they tapped on the wrong button, but I reassured them they wouldn’t.  After reassuring them, I sent them back to their desks, each with an iPad , and off they went, exploring every button and feature of SonicPics. 

By the end, the students learned how to incorporate their images they just saved from Google, record their voices, insert text under images, delete unwanted text, and so much more, without step-by-step instructions.  They not only taught themselves, but they taught each other.  Students were sharing ideas and their findings for a full 40 minutes….completely engaged the whole time.  Some students would get frustrated that they could not perform a certain task, but it was great to see other students take them under their wings and guide them through the program. 

Bottom line, I am so glad I gave my students this opportunity to discover the different features of this program on their own.  I could really see and hear a sense of ownership and pride from all of my students as we ended the lesson by sharing what they learned.

After reading the selection titled “Messing Around” I began to take a closer look at my teaching practices, and as much as I would like to think I do, I really don’t allow my students the opportunity to explore or “mess around” with technology.  As a second grade teacher my lessons are very structured with step-by-step directions until we reach the end product.  As I was thinking about this, I asked myself, why don’t I allow the kids to explore technology and the programs before making them follow my step-by-step lesson plan?  Am I afraid they will fail or my lesson will?  Is it because the busy school day does not allow for this type of exploration?  I think the answer is a mix of both.  In the past when I have given the students the opportunity to explore Math games on the iPads, it was amazing to hear the conversations and the “shout outs” from across the room telling another student  “You gotta try this!  This is so cool!”  I got excited right along with them.  However, when it comes to creating a project or end product using a specific program I don’t allow for this exploration.  I have a prescribed lesson plan from beginning to end, not allowing any time for messing around.

What are my next steps? Hmmmm, that’s a great question.  I realized I have a perfect opportunity to allow my students to mess around right in front of me.  We are studying Japan at the moment and each student chose a topic that represents Japan as being a unique country.  The students are involved in some note-taking at the moment using several websites.  Our next step will be finding images that go along with each topic.  At the end, the students will create a slide show using “Sonic Pix,” a new program we’re using for the first time with the second graders.  So…..here’s my chance to let them mess around.  I have the step-by-step lesson plan ready to go to show them how to use this program, but I am going to throw this aside and allow them to explore this program on their own or together as a class.  I want this to be a time where I hear more of those discovery ”shout outs” of how cool something is, instead of a time where my students are following me through planned steps.  I am excited to see how our projects will develop, and what we can learn together as we are messing around. Most likely by the end, my second graders will be teaching me a thing or two about Sonic Pix..

As I enjoyed a beautiful long run around the Tokyo area yesterday, I found myself thinking about the several articles we were assigned to read.  I was undecided about what I should reflect on, but by the end of my run, here is what chose…

After reading the article, Disrupting Class: Student-Centric Education is the Future, one thing hit home right away.

In the the article it states that the answer to turning our classrooms into places where the students are engaged in interactive learning with computers or other devices is not by buying more or the most recent and most expensive software or technology. I agree with this in one respect.  I sit here in my classroom with four average desktop computers and four iPads (twenty total as a grade level) at my disposal and to be honest with you, I haven’t used them once this week.  To be really honest with you, I haven’t used the desktop computers this entire month…maybe even longer than that.  Now why, you might ask?  It is not because I am against the idea or don’t know how to use them, but I haven’t had the opportunity to sit down and come up with ideas/lessons to use them in my classroom and incorporate them into the existing curriculum.  As a teacher of second grade, the demands of the day: parent emails, meetings, meetings after meetings, teaching the curriculum, and managing a group of lovely children throughout a busy day, doesn’t leave time for me to stop and think, “How can I use my iPads today to teach a math lesson on perimeter?”  With limited time, I tend to go with what I am most familiar with.  It really does frustrate me that the majority of my days/lessons are like this.  I feel as if I am neglecting my students of opportunities they deserve, but at the same time I am still getting the concept across.

I know this is not all this article talks about, but what hit home the most was that “…investing more in computer equipment and technology for schools” isn’t the answer to moving towards a 21st Century Classroom.  I believe there should be more time in the school year where time is devoted to teachers first learning about the new software/equipment, followed by time to really sit down and think how can we apply what we just learned to our classroom/curriculum.  I feel too many times equipment and software are thrown at us, and we are told to learn about it as quickly as we can, incorporate into our curriculum as much as we can, and as fast as we can.  For many of us this can be scary and at the same time exciting, but the excitement often loses at the end because teachers are not given enough time to familiarize themselves with the new technology before being asked to implement it into our classroom.  Now don’t get me wrong, my school provides us with some workshops on how to use our latest MacBooks and iPads, but the collaboration amongst teachers to really think of ways to use  these in the classroom is lacking.  It would be nice to just sit down for a full day, without interruptions, and develop ways to use our new resources with our already existing curriculum, and really come up with meaningful lessons.  Also, I know some of you might be saying, well just use your time at home and spend hours doing your own research/exploring, but for me this would lead to a “burned out” teacher who then begins to reject the thought of working towards the “new” classroom…where students are engaged in interactive learning through a variety of technology.

Bottom line, I feel teachers need more time to: 1. Plan, meet with other teachers, etc. in order to feel comfortable with using the devices/software we already have and 2. Develop classroom experiences/lessons that will be truly meaningful to the students.