English Teacher 2.0

World Lit., Here We Come!

2009-08-10T09:09:00.003-04:00

I am making progress on the year-long plan for SILSA Honors World Literature. In terms of the literature we read, world lit. is such a hodge-podge. In order to align with the Civics and Economics class, we begin with early Native American literature, Colonial American literature, and slave narratives. Then we read literature from the American Civil Rights Movement. It takes a couple of months before we move into the world beyond America.

Each world lit. unit this year has a conceptual lens: utopia/dystopia, justice, the hero archetype, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic literature, poverty, gender, etc. I am writing essential questions for each unit, too. By the end of the year last year, I had decided that my essential questions were too broad. I hope that this year's questions will generate more lively discussions.

Like most world lit. students in North Carolina, my students will read Night by Elie Wiesel. This year we will read at least excerpts from Cormac McCarthy's The Road when we do so. I mentioned this to someone recently who balked a bit at the idea of 10th and 11th graders reading The Road. I do not understand her objection. Isn't Night even more horrific than The Road? Does Night seem more suitable for high school students only because it has been a part of the high school literary canon for twenty years? I think The Road will help students connect better with Night. In this unit we will also read excerpts from Dante's The Inferno. I just hope the soon-to-be released film version of The Road will not ruin my students experience with the book. I have seen the trailer for the film, and my first two complaints are that there is too much of mother in the movie and that the child, especially, is not nearly as thin as he should be. If the child and his father are not malnourished, then the movie will not be nearly as desperate as the book is.

We begin our SILSA retreat in one week. I need to finish my year-long plan first, then I need to work on my electronic presence. Our school district moved from SharePoint 2003 to SharePoint 2007 this summer, and my website isn't ready yet. I am also allowed to pilot Moodle, but those sites aren't available yet, either. I hope both will be available before the start of school.

Homework for Online Book Group

2009-07-16T06:58:00.004-04:00

I am unable to embed homework for my online book group in the Moodle we are using. Therefore, I will ask my classmates to view it here.

Reflections on Homework by travlnc | Make Your Own At www.toondoo.com

Online Book Group

2009-07-07T10:56:00.003-04:00

I've been participating in an online book group for Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works. I was already familiar with the Marzano text, and I had owned this new book for almost a year. I will take away from this experience some powerful and exciting tools that I know will change my teaching and my students' learning for the better when I am able to implement them.

What I like about this book is that it shows us how to use technology with many of the teaching/learning strategies that we already use in our classrooms: KWLs, thought webs, newsletters, and bulletin boards. I am excited to learn that I can use some technology tools to expedite feedback for my students. This is an area that I struggle with as an English teacher. I believe I can use email and online tools for one-on-one "conferencing" with students. I am also excited about creating an Excel version of our school-wide writing rubric that would allow me to (perhaps) provide better feedback.

I am encouraged by the tools I could use on my computer with the LCD projector. I believe that most of these strategies will work best only when all of our students and their parents have Internet access at home. I was frustrated by how often the authors expected some students to complete assignments at the library if they didn't have Internet access at home. I believe the digital divide is the root of today's achievement gap.

Using Blogs for Reciprocal Teaching
The authors describe using a blog for reciprocal teaching. Technology plays a supporting role in the classroom during this lesson. Students watch a BrainPOP movie as an introduction to the unit. One student engages in reciprocal teaching, leading the class discussion while creating a blog on the big screen. This blog serves a record of the lesson, accessed later by the students and easily shared with other classes or parents.

I think it would be incredibly powerful for any student to enjoy the focus of the class for a couple of days. In this secondary role, the technology facilitates students’ learning from one another. The structure of the reciprocal teaching strategy keeps the students focused on higher-level thinking. I think it would be easy for the teacher to provide a blog template for this lesson.

My Next Big Project Is About Essay Writing
I want to develop a multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank survey that collects data from students as they turn in an essay:

Rate your interest in this topic.
What sort of brainstorming activity did you use?
How long did you brainstorm?
What kind of prewriting did you use?
How long did you prewrite?
What sorts of editing did you do?
Did anyone help you edit this essay?
What is this essay's Lexile level?
According to the AutoSummarize tool, what is the thesis statement?
Is this correct?
ETC.

Then students will complete a follow-up survey when they receive their graded essay:

How many spelling errors did you make in this essay?
How many subject-verb agreement errors?
How many pronoun-antecedent agreement errors?
How many run-on sentences?
How many sentence fragments?
What was your Ideas and Content score?
Organization score?
Word Choice score?
Sentence Fluency score?
Conventions score?
Citing Sources score?
ETC.

All of this data will go into a spreadsheet where students can track their own growth as writers and learn the importance of adequate time and thoughtfulness and editing. I will also be able to collect class data about students' success with various prompts and their needs for Conventions lessons or editing lessons.

In the past, I have tried to do a very limited version of this using paper and pen, but the technology version will be much better. I hope the students will think it's more fun and easier, and I hope that I will be able to track individual student's needs, class needs, and grade-level needs more effectively.

Now, if this were a perfect world, an energetic graduate student would swoop in to save my day!!

World Literature: Where's the Groove?

2009-07-05T08:47:00.004-04:00

I didn't let myself think about next year's SILSA World Literature class until June 12, my last day of school. My new student teacher Melissa met with me all morning that day, and we started to think about what we might teach and how. I have limited experience teaching world literature, but teaching in a small school means I teach all the English classes at some point. It's easier for me to teach American literature. My heart, my soul, my body, my voice, all of those personal elements move to an American beat. As I consider this world literature class to come, I wonder, "Where's the groove?"

SILSA World Literature is paired with Civics and Economics. The Civics and Economics curriculum includes colonial American history, the Constitution, the American Civil Rights movement, and economics. Last time I taught World lit., the first half of the class focused on American literature that reflected the social studies curriculum. It was quite difficult to find the groove.

Another minor complication to curriculum development is that students in this class will be working for either English II or English III credit. The NC Standard Course of Study for English Language Arts is, thankfully, skills-based, so the goals and objectives for the two classes articulate quite well. In one high school class, I cannot do a survey of World Literature, so I have just a few weeks to find a groove that we can enjoy for the year, a groove that lets us experience some World literature selections in a way that feels coherent, not scattered, pleasant, not discordant. It seems easiest to consider a thematic approach.

Brendan, the Civics and Economics teacher, and I talked about my class beginning with a utopian/distopian novel. When I taught this before we used Lord of the Flies to discuss the role of government in society. We don't have copies enough for all of the students to read most of the following novels, but I am considering lit. circles: Lord of the Flies, Brave New World, 1984, The Handmaid's Tale, The Giver, Gulliver's Travels, The Crucible. We might set the stage for The Crucible with some selections from Puritan American literature, all read/perform The Crucible together, as students read one of four of those novels listed. Also, I have considered (given SILSA's science theme, my love of science fiction, the thematic nature of the class, and the need for more contemporary "texts" but no money available for buying books) beginning each new thematic unit with a science fiction film. We don't have any copies of The Handmaid's Tale, so we might start with that distopian film. What lovely connections I could make to the Taliban and reviews of the contemporary work The 19th Wife, among others! When I think of it all this way, then I begin to feel a groove.

On that last day of school, Chad showed me a book by H. Lynn Erickson, Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction for the Thinking Classroom. He has met with her when he did some work in Raleigh on some new approaches to social studies curriculum development. I had forgotten about his recommendation until this morning, as I have been wrestling with the bigger framework for this world lit. class. I ordered the book. I am hoping it will add to my understanding of essential questions and will help me build this class. I hope Lynn Erickson will help me find the groove.

_Spore_ Is Biology

2008-09-14T10:11:00.002-04:00

I wanted to upload a picture from my iPhone of my brother-in-law playing Spore with my nine year-old niece and my seven year-old son eagerly looking on. I know little about Spore, but, from my vantage point, I am hearing tons of great biology. My little guy worried about a creature with tusks eating another. "But tusks aren't for eating!" said my b-i-l. I hear lots of conversation about the advantages of being herbivores or carnivores. There was a discussion of the benefits of having a carnivore in the group for protection against other creatures but an acknowledgement that the carnivore might pose a threat within the group. Of course, I also hear all of the problem-solving associated with being in a new world and discovering the rules of that world while they are trying to survive in it. Wow!! Can my kids please play this game in school, as a part of science class?

"Like a Patient Etherized upon a Table"

2008-08-16T07:19:00.002-04:00

This blog. Soon this blog will be "like a patient etherized upon a table." I enjoy blogging here during the summer, but I haven't yet been able to keep it up during the school year. I have too many other things to do, like memorize the first few stanzas of T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock."

PhotoStory and the Faculty Retreat

2008-07-30T18:38:00.005-04:00

Yesterday and today I have been immersed in PhotoStory. This application, preloaded on the student laptops at SILSA, seems like a good introduction to digital publishing for our students. I have finished two stories, one about the NSP Conference in Winston and one about NECC 2008.

The NECC 2008 story is much longer, and I worked on it almost continuously from 7:00 am to 3:00 pm today. I would have finished much sooner, but I lost more than an hour's productivity by being slack about saving my work. Now I know that PhotoStory doesn't autosave.

I will use both stories during the staff development April and I are preparing for the SILSA Faculty Retreat. We are charged with sharing what we learned at NECC 2008 with the other staff members for a full day on Tuesday, August 12. Greg asked that we do as many hands-on activities as possible.

I am considering creating a folder of SILSA photos for each staff member and having each of them create a PhotoStory. We might be able to use those stories later at potlucks or recruitment events.

I will also present information from the Primary Sources workshop I attended at NECC. I want to make sure others know about the resources available at the Library of Congress website.

Finally, I want to discuss teaching students how to use InspireData to keep track of their progress in their classes a la Robert Marzano. I think Greg is going to order each of us a copy of Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works for professional development this year. Without reading the book, I have only a vague idea about how this might work.

We are leaving on Saturday for a final beach camping trip before school starts. We won't return until August 10, so I am trying to do as much as possible right now. I say, "Good luck!"

iPhone!

2008-07-26T18:39:00.002-04:00

blogging from iphone is hard but cool. Drove to charlotte. For once we are early adopters!

EduCon 2.1

2008-07-21T22:17:00.004-04:00

Chris Lehmann just posted some information about EduCon 2.1 on his blog. I want to go!

In some fairly superficial ways, the Science Leadership Academy reminds me of my own SILSA. The EduCon Axioms would sound familiar to my school's students, parents, teachers:

The Axioms / Guiding Principles:
1) Our schools must be inquiry-driven, project-based and empowering for all members. (Honestly, I'm beginning to look for something more meaningful than "project-based..." I don't think it speaks to the deep-level we want to get to. Inquiry does, Understanding does, Empowering does. Dunno.)
2) Our schools must be about co-creating -- together with our students -- the 21st Century Citizen
3) Technology must serve pedagogy, not the other way around.
4) Technology must enable students to research, create, communicate and collaborate
5) Learning can -- and must -- be networked.
(Retrieved from http://educon20.wikispaces.com/planning on July 21, 2008.)

If I make it, I will need to do it under my own steam. (I wonder if I could write a grant for this?!?) If I can't go to Philly in January, maybe I can visit EduCon2.1 in Second Life. Gives me a good reason to get off Orientation Island, huh?

Working on attaching a file!

2008-07-20T10:16:00.002-04:00

I know you can't read my diagram. I am trying to learn how to put the file on the blog. Any ideas?

Technology in the Classroom

2008-07-20T10:06:00.003-04:00

I hope you can read my Inspiration tree about how we might use technology in the classroom. I worked on this draft this morning. I know it isn't complete. Please feel free to remind me of ways to use technology in the classroom that I have forgotten.

Three Weeks? Just three weeks?

2008-07-20T06:25:00.004-04:00

Someone said to me yesterday, "I bet you dread going back to school." NO, I am extremely excited about going back to school. BUT, I am beginning to feel a bit frantic about all the projects I need to complete before then.

In the summer I love taking my kids to the pool, biking around the neighborhood, reading novels, camping at the beach. I am thankful, though, that our family schedule also allows me a few uninterrupted hours of schoolwork most days. Since my kids adjust their summer schedule to maximize time with Dad, they don't usually go to sleep until he does at 10:30 or 11:30 pm. Then they sleep in until 9:00 or 10:00 am, and I have three or four hours for schoolwork.

As a teacher, the summer is my most creative work time. Next year I will teach American Lit for the first time in 11 years. I began the summer with no plan, but I will have mapped out the entire school year for this class before August 20th. Will we go chronologically or thematically? What novels are available for my students to use? How much of the textbook will I use? What online resources are worthy of our attention? How much collaboration can the American History teacher stand? How will school-wide PBLs affect my curriculum and our schedule? I am creating a new curriculum from almost nothing, and the sheer creativity involved tingles my brain.

Sometimes I can't make myself sleep until 6:00 am. Sometimes I have get up at 5:00. Sometimes it's 4:30, and I will myself back to sleep.

I am also trying to assemble a coursepack/textbook for Survivor, our study skills PLUS class for ninth graders. Most of the textbook is just a compilation of resources we use regularly in SILSA, but there are a few pages that require me to write a few paragraphs. I am sure this will be a very helpful tool when it is finished, but I this work is dragging for me a bit.

Much of this summer has been spent thinking about how I can be more successful with integrating technology into my classes. There are so many possibilities to consider. I would like to have my students working online as much as possible. At the district level, we are still trying to determine which resources are the best fit for our schools and our students. Of course I would prefer to know sooner rather than later. I would like to be able to set up the groups before school starts. I would like to use the tools myself before I need to teach my students how to use them.

We finished our WNC IMPACT workshop on Thursday by presenting our implementation and evaluation plans to the group. I was very pleased by how much we had accomplished in the two and a half days. In the coming year we will focus on using instructional technology to build our professional community and to help our students grow as learners. The SILSA faculty will use technology tools for our own work, so that we can become more knowledgeable, proficient and efficient. We will also use the technology in our classrooms with our students. We made some specific plans for this work and determined how we would measure whether or not it had been done.

We will present all of our summer work to the rest of the faculty at our SILSA Faculty Retreat beginning on August 11th. I have three weeks to finish several projects. Just three weeks?

Western NC IMPACT Academy

2008-07-16T07:06:00.003-04:00

Day one of IMPACT Academy saw us develop two IMPACT goals for SILSA for the coming year. We created a Logic Map that illustrated the links among those two goals and their related strategies and measures.

Our first IMPACT goal describes using technology to build our professional community, and our second IMPACT goal speaks to using technology to facilitate our students' growth as learners. I was quite pleased that we incorporated verbatim two of our SILSA Learning Outcomes for Graduates into our IMPACT goal about students. How much easier will it be to work toward IMPACT goals that are directly tied to our NSP goals?

Today we will develop an evaluation plan. I am looking forward to the work.

Another Visit to Orientation Island

2008-07-14T10:56:00.006-04:00

I returned to Orientation Island this morning. On the NECC 2008 ning, I read a post by a fellow teacher who also lamented (as I often have) about wanting to check out Second Life but not being able to do anything but fly around Orientation Island. A wonderful fellow told her he would be happy to help her and any others who were stuck there.

Just knowing that someone else was struggling like I did, just knowing that one successful Second Life person would help, rather than make fun of me, gave me the confidence to try again.

I am still on Orientation Island, but now I know how to fly and how to use a Segueway and a car. I know how to use a torch and put on a different shirt. I know how to read a notecard. I am making progress.

As insanely stupid as it sounds, my overriding desire is the same as it was when I tried this a year ago. As soon as I get off Orientation Island, I am going to go straight to Diagon Alley. I can't wait! And who knows where else I might go? What if there is Ender's Battle School or, more importantly, what if I could visit those piggies on Lusitania?

And I wouldn't mind trying to find out where those SL edtech people are hanging out.

In Second Life the stories will be happening in real time, and I will be a character in the story who is helping write the story.

I am such a reader and such a geek. I can't even stand myself.

NECCst Time, or Social Networking is Cool!

2008-07-14T10:55:00.000-04:00

When I go to Washington, DC, for NECC 2009, I will be so much better prepared. Yesterday, 10 days after returning from San Antonio, I finally joined the NECC 2008 Ning. Wow! It would have been nice to have done that while at the conference. And it was on my list of things to do. In nearly every workshop, I wrote "Join ning" at the top of a page in my notebook.

I knew I wanted to join the ning, but I had no idea what it was. Now I am in it, and I am learning what it is. I've been thinking that I wanted to blog with my students, but the ning seems more organized than that. The ning is a social network, right? It is very colorful and easy to use.

(I acknowledge I am ignorant about this.) The ning seems like what we have been trying to do at my school with the school intranet using SharePoint 2003 (?). But the school intranet is hard to navigate, and there are no pictures on the pages. When I try to use it, it feels like having to write code, or it feels like the first networking class Haig and I took at Haywood Tech in 1997-- all trees and forests and a constant struggle just to figure out where you are and where to put your "object".

I don't do My Space or a Facebook. I recently read a post by another teacher who thought that teachers may not use those sites much because they don't feel "right." That's why I don't have a Facebook page. Despite the fact that I am trying to be a person of integrity, trying to make sure the teacher, the mother, the wife, the friends, and the neighbor are all the same person, I don't want to give any impression that I am open to being online in anything other than a very professional way

I like the idea of a "closed" social network. (I'm sure I'll soon learn the correct terminology.) I think the teachers at SILSA would use the intranet more if it felt more like the ning and less like the SharePoint site that's so difficult to use. I can see great benefit in having something like this for teachers only at school.

I can also see that it would be very nice to have such a place for classes. I know lots of teachers and other edtech folk blog, and this is how they engage in discourse online. But the problem with that is that the discussion is sometimes very disjointed. Conversely, easy-to-navigate forums would allow all the conversation about a single topic to happen in one place. Wouldn't that be easier? What if I could post a question in an online forum to all 70 of my English II/III students next year and then they could read all of the responses?

In what ways is this better than conversations and groupings in real life? I think it's an obvious question I need to be able to answer. There's much to think about.

iPhone DENIED!

2008-07-11T10:59:00.002-04:00

Our whole family made it to the AT&T store on Patton just before 8:00. There was no parking, and there were about 30 people in line. The store on Hendersonville Rd is a little bigger. We were there by 8:20. There were at least 40 people in line outside and about 20 already in the store. The Seventh Customer came out with a new iPhone. He had arrived at the store at 5:35. There were only 4o iPhones in the store, but you could stand in line to pay today and they would call you when your phone arrived.

We left.

Haig "needs" a new iPhone to test for work. I have been using a phone from the junk drawer for over two years. I don't need anything, but I do think I would learn how to use an iPhone more quickly if I got one when Haig did.

Haig's current work plan doesn't allow him to receive texts, so we were missing out on a good communication tool. He can receive email on his Blackberry, but I'm not always at my computer. I like emailing or texting him because it's less intrusive than calling. I've tried Twitter. I really like it, but there was no one who could/would receive my twits, so what's the point? Now I think I can post my twits to my blog. That might be cool, just for fun. (They do call them twits, don't they? Right now, all I can think of is the book by Roald Dahl.)

Haig's company is moving over to providing some reimbursement credit for employees' cell phones, rather than providing and supporting them. Now he can have texting! But if we have iPhones, I guess we can email. The possibilities are overwhelming.

We will have to wait a while, though!

In the Blogosphere, But Not of the Blogosphere

2008-07-09T08:43:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I got lost in the tech ed blogosphere and ignored all other responsibilities until after lunchtime. I spent two hours trying to compose a comment to a post I disagreed with. When I mistakenly hit the wrong key and the post was gone forever, I took it as a sign that I should back off. Then I made the mistake of reading a comment to another post that made me feel like a total dork which sent me into a mad funk. The post made fun of teachers at NECC who were starstruck at meeting ed tech consultants who author widely-read blogs and books on ed tech topics. The post also made some dig about teachers who blog about blogging. [I didn't meet any bloggers at NECC, but I did blog about how cool it was to be there with them.]

I had hoped that I would some day feel a part of the ed tech online community. That's not going to happen. There are too many Senators and not enough constituents at that table. I don't have time for anything that's so disconnected from all the work I am doing right here in my own community.

So, if I am not blogging so I can enter the ed tech blogosphere and if no one I know reads my blog, why do it? I don't know. Maybe because I hope that one day some of my colleagues will begin to blog. Maybe because I like to write while thinking. Maybe because I want to share some of my ideas with anyone who might drop by from my website. So far, this is working for me.

Creative Summer Days!

2008-07-09T07:50:00.003-04:00

I will not be able to blog about each of the other workshops I attended. My energy is being directed in other ways. I woke up this morning with several items for my To Do list. I found my Getting Things Done-style notebook and tried to write everything down. (And now I need to go consult the GTD book because I can't remember what's an "Action List" and what's a "Project/Goal.")

I love being a teacher in the summer. I feel extraordinarily creative. Next school year is a blank slate, and the possibilities are endless. Most every day, I spend hours thinking about what I might do with my students and how I can help make SILSA a more successful school. And I am not doing this because I feel like I should do it; this is truly how I like to spend my time.

I try to limit myself to just a few hours of schoolwork in the morning. In the summer, my kids love staying up late and sleeping in. I am fine with this because I think they are naturally adjusting their schedule so they can spend more time with Dad. If I wake up at 6:00, I can have three or maybe four quiet hours for work.

New Schools Project Summer Institute 2008

2008-07-08T09:58:00.003-04:00

I just spent 48 minutes in an interview with a writer for The Innovator, The New Schools Project's email resource. I appreciated the opportunity to think about the great work we did in Winston-Salem a couple of weeks ago. I hope I was articulate and accurate.

During the SILSA Faculty Retreat August 11-13, those of us who were at the Summer Institute will present our list of Learning Outcomes for SILSA Graduates. I am so proud of this document. We spent several hours thinking about the five to seven outcomes that SILSA should focus on. We were charged with deciding on outcomes with specific measurements and with beginning to list the supports that we would use to help our students achieve those outcomes.

Our NSP Summer Institute binder included several exceptional examples of other schools' graduate outcomes. These models were helpful as we began our work. But it was very important to us, especially to me, that our list be tailored to our students and our school.

We worked very hard to ensure that all of our voices were heard during our work sessions. Our group's facilitator Heidi Lyne encouraged us and helped us meet our goals for our time together. I am extraordinarily pleased with the document we created. In particular, I am thankful that we were willing to step up and make some promises to our students and their parents, and I am thankful that our document is written simply, without a lot of educational jargon. When we all reach consensus, we will have a list of Graduate Outcomes that are easy to remember and to articulate to others. I can't wait to share our list here.

I can't do that, yet, though. Those of us who were at the Summer Institute will present our work to the entire faculty in a month. When we've reached consensus as a faculty, then we will bring the document to the SILSA SPMT. It's crucial that all of the SILSA stakeholders work together on these outcomes since they will serve as the common vision from which decisions about our school are made.

I love my work.

Reflecting on Teaching with Primary Sources

2008-07-07T07:51:00.002-04:00

On Sunday, 06/29/08, I attended Cheryl Lederie-Ensign and Danna Bell-Russell's workshop on "Teaching with Primary Sources." Both women are educational outreach specialists with the Library of Congress. I learned so much in the workshop, and then I went to their booth in the Exhibit Hall and Cheryl taught me even more!

I have explored the American Memory project in the past. I used the incredible lesson "To Kill a Mockingbird: A Historical Perspective" two years ago. I modified it a bit in order to differentiate assignments, since all of our freshmen attend the same honors English I class. Since then, I have used photographs from the American Memory project as I teach.

I have struggled with the Library of Congress's website. I find it difficult to find what I am looking for sometimes. Cheryl and Danna gave me so many great search tips and wonderful lessons about how to use the primary source documents in my own classroom.

At one point, Cheryl said, "Texbooks give answers. Primary sources give questions." Because SILSA focuses on inquiry-based education, I was very excited about using primary sources to generate questions and to try to construct meaning from several sources.

In groups, we completed a Primary Source Investigation. Each group had maybe four to six manila folders, each with a copy of a different artifact. All of the artifacts pointed to a single person, place, or event. As my group examined and discussed the artifacts, each group member filled in boxes on a sheet for "I see," "I think that," and "I wonder." My group examined a picture of an Easter card, a picture of a man holding an Easter card like the first, a picture of a page from a poet's journal, a copy of a proof page of "O Captain, My Captain," and a letter to a mother during the Civil War. In the letter, Walt Whitman described to his mother the joy of finding his brother alive after they thought he might have died during a battle. The activity was extremely engaging, and I can't wait to put some of these together for my students!

We also discussed point of view and the importance of knowing about an artifact: who created it? what was happening when it was created? when was it created? and for what purpose was it created? We examined a political document that was a fake ad for Abraham Lincoln, a document about immigrantion statistics that was published by an anti-immigrant group, a filmed re-enactment of a firing squad, two films about the San Francisco earthquake and fire (one fake, one real), a picture of an African-American in which his satchel had been replaced by a watermelon, and several pictures of Billie Holiday. Through all of it, we were carefully examining to the documents in order to determine who created them and why.

Gail Petri, a colleague of Cheryl and Danna, stopped in to share her work with books and primary source documents. She has developed sets of primary sources documents to accompany different picture books and novels. As she reads a book, she notes dates, names, events, places, etc. Later she locates primary sources that correspond to those.

We also talked about how to navigate the Library of Congress website. There are several different areas that have great information for teachers. If you are having trouble locating some information, then use the Ask a Librarian.

(I realize that I refer to these women by their first names and to Konrad Glogowski by his last name in an earlier post. I believe I have done so because Cheryl and Danna were my teachers, and I spent the morning talking with them and learning from them. Konrad Glogowski presented a lecture I attended, so I wasn't introduced to him, and I didn't speak with him.)

Revised List of Workshops I Attended at NECC 2008

2008-07-06T08:06:00.002-04:00

So here is a final list of workshops I attended at NECC 2008. I will work on sharing some of the best of these through this blog.

Teaching with Primary Sources
Blogging Communities in the Classroom
Differentiating Instruction in Reading and Writing Using Readily-Accessible Technologies
21st Century Poetry Slam: Student Poetry Collaborations
The Ripple Effect: 21st Century Innovations That Matter
Technology and Differentiated Instruction
Podcasting as the Curriculum: A New Paradigm
Youth Media Programs for Developing Digital Literacies
GIS, Google Maps and More for Literacy Projects
Audio is Great! Video is Cool! iPods Can Do More!
Digital Investigators: Using Digital Media for Project-Based Learning

In San Antonio I quickly reached a point of saturation, when I had too many cool new things to think about, when I could barely process any more new information. Several seasoned NECC attendees said I should pace myself by spending some time on the exhibition floor or by hanging out at the Bloggers' Cafe.

I was afraid to miss any workshop opportunities, though. Most of the presentations were of extremely high quality. Chris Shamburg, who wrote a book about using technology in the English classroom, taught one of my sessions. (I have a copy of his book; it's fantastic!) I was in a workshop that the creator of Google Lit Trips Jerome Burg also attended, and I spoke with him briefly afterward. I didn't realize until later that Will Richardson, whose blog I read, was the one who Ustreamed Konrad Glogowski's presentation just a few feet in front of me. AND, I am quite sure I saw David Warlick in the lobby of my hotel. I saw him and couldn't help but give him a huge grin and a jovial, "Good Morning!" Only later did I realize that the instant sense of familiarity I felt when I saw him was because I read his blog and admire him so. All that to prove that in San Antonio I walked among the giants of Ed Tech, and I was afraid to miss any opportunity to hear them speak.

So, I sat in every workshop I could, even if I was beyond thinking well, and I dutifully took pages of notes thinking that I might spend the rest of the summer reading through them and processing them as I am able. I chose workshops that seemed like they might be immediately useful to the work I am doing right now at SILSA. (I missed cool workshops on things like teaching and learning in Second Life because that's just so far ahead of where I am currently.) Even still, I don't know if six more weeks will be enough time study my notes and make sense of what I can incorporate in August.

On the plane I began a To Do list. I will continue to work on that here next time.

High School Students Want to Be in Third Place

2008-07-04T07:44:00.005-04:00

I am still thinking about Konrad Glogowski's "Blogging Communities in the Classroom" workshop at NECC 2008 (06/30/08). Of all the workshops I attended, his was the most immediately relevant and, therefore, the most thought-provoking. I can't wait to share what I learned with my colleagues.

As accurately I can manage from my notes, Konrad Glogowski is a middle school language arts teacher in London, Ontario. He began blogging with his students in 2002. He just completed his PhD dissertation on blogging communities in middle school through the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. He is a terrific teacher/presenter!

Glogowski says there are three steps for creating a successful online classroom community:

Create a community.

Extend the classroom discourse.

Redefine your presence.

I am stuck on Glogowski's step 1. At SILSA, "relationship" is one of our New 3 R's, and we have felt quite successful with our school community. I think I have a much better handle on why we have good relationships with students, and the workshop has made me think about ways that we might improve what we already have.

Glogowski taught me about Ray Oldenburg's idea of the Third Place, the informal, public place for socializing, working, being with others. (Home is the First Place, and Work/School is the Second Place.) You can read more about this at the Project for Public Spaces website. Both physically and virtually, the classroom should be a Third Place, says Glogowski.

I have a much better understanding of why we have good relationships among SILSA faculty and students today than I did before Glogowski's workshop. Now I believe that it is in the Third Place that human beings move from childhood to adulthood. Too many students today do not have access to healthy Third Places, and school must, therefore, begin to provide them. At home adults tell kids what to do and how to think; in school adults tell kids what to do and how to think. By definition, people think for themselves in the Third Place. By definition, there is honest, unstructured, and not proscribed discourse in the Third Place. By practicing thinking for themselves and speaking for themselves, kids grow up.

Students and their families are drawn to SILSA because our small school provides greater opportunities for experiencing Third Place. We provide more opportunities for students, teachers and families to interact with one another in less formal ways. Our potlucks are Third Places. Our extended advisory events are Third Places. Our Turkey Day Feast (Thanks, Fleck, old friend) is a Third Place.

And, now I know that students want to go on field trips, in part, because they provide a Third Place experience during the school day. Field trips are less structured experiences. Teachers, students, and parent chaperons participate on field trips on a level of greater equality. When we go on the Ropes Course, I am no expert. My fear and my excitement are genuine. I ask students for help and am thankful when I receive it. Our cheers for one another are heartfelt. I love to go to Purchase Knob because I get to study biology and ecology along with my students. I don't wear "teacher clothes;" I marvel at every salamander, and we all eat lunch together.

A clarification: I am not AT ALL advocating that teachers and students begin socializing outside of school as friends. Because of our profession, we teachers must be careful to respect the boundaries of the formal relationship we have with our students.

Our schools, though, must intentionally create opportunities for teachers, students, and their families to interact in a Third Place. At one time schools were small because they existed within a geographically small community. These schools functioned as Third Places because their auditoriums provided community meeting spaces and their lobbies or libraries served as voting locations. In such schools, students, parents, and teachers enjoyed less-structured discourse. Students conversed with adults more spontaneously about a wide range of topics. Our small, redesigned high school should re-create the school space as a community Third Place.

We should have regular, monthly potlucks during which we showcase student work. We should have at least one field trip on a Saturday, with school transportation, where students and teachers bring their families for a shared learning experience. I understand that, in Year 1, all of the SILSA community read one book and discussed it together. We should do it again. We should have some more movie nights. Also, we need to begin thinking about how our small community will celebrate our first graduates in June.

Of course, Glogowski's presentation wasn't about potlucks, field trips, and book clubs. He spoke about online learning communities and how he made a Third Place for his students in the blogosphere. I have described his lecture as life-changing. I am sure that I will continue to reference it for a long time. (Note: He did not mention how he addresses issues around the Digital Divide. I intend to email him to ask about that.)

I am excited about SILSA's future online community. I intend to spend much of the rest of the summer thinking about how I can use Web 2.0 tools to achieve greater success for my students in all of the New 3 R's: rigor, relevance, and relationships. I had these same intentions last summer and was not able to implement much at all this last school year. I am confident, though, that this next year will be better. I am privileged to work with some fantastic people who will help me begin to realize my vision.

Titles of NECC Workshops I Have Attended

2008-07-02T10:09:00.002-04:00

For now, this is the best I can manage, a list of titles:

Teaching with Primary Sources
Blogging Communities in the Classroom
Differentiating Instruction in Reading and Writing Using Readily-Accessible Technologies
21st Century Poetry Slam: Student Poetry Collaborations
The Ripple Effect: 21st Century Innovations That Matter
Technology and Differentiated Instruction
Podcasting as the Curriculum: A New Paradigm
Youth Media Programs for Developing Digital Literacies

I am having a great time, still.

I will try to add more soon.

Greetings from San Antonio!

2008-07-01T09:40:00.001-04:00

(I sent this email to the SILSA faculty yesterday morning from NECC 2008.)

Greetings from San Antonio!

My workshop on Sunday was fantastic! I learned a great deal about the Library of Congress's American Memory Project. I discovered connections to science, math, as well as the easy English and history ones. The three presenters were all educational outreach specialists for the Library of Congress, so I was learning from PRIMARY SOURCES. So much excellent information about inquiry and bias and paying attention. i can't wait to share it all with you. One of the presenters was Martha Geitner's soul sister. Her Book Hooks are phenomenal, just like what Geitner does with lots of links to primary sources at the LOC. I will try to send links soon.

(I am writing from a conference room that has already closed for the 11:00 session. I got in a few minutes ago and thought to check email and send word to you all while I waited. The room is full and no one will be allowed in now.)

But what I really wanted to tell you about was the lecture I attended this morning. It was life-changing. The presenter is a middle school language arts teacher who just submitted his PhD dissertation about online blogging communities and their impact on students. He spoke the truth, eloquently and passionately. I don't want to wait any longer to blog with my students. The bulk of his lecture was about COMMUNITY and RELATIONSHIPS and how to foster those in an online community. Of course, I wanted to ask him about the Digital Divide, but he was surrounded by admirers afterward. I will not forget to email or something about that. (I am too distracted here to write well about it, and it's all so fresh and new that I am still processing it. I do want to do a better job of telling you about it soon.)

April and I are taking lots of pictures, but I forgot my cable, so you will have to wait for my PhotoStory at the SILSA retreat. Can you imagine 18,000 teachers in one place? It is mind-boggling! I feel like such a newbie here.

The thing that intrigues me most, on a personal level, is Second Life. Due to the work of hundreds of volunteers, this conference is also happening in Second Life. Do you know about this? For example, last night there was an Opening Night Hoe Down after the keynote speaker. As the band played on the stage, a GIGANTIC screen to the left of the stage projected a scene of the band playing in front of the Alamo, all virtual, happening in real-time in Second Life. To the right of the stage was a raised platform with eight people sitting in front of laptops watching the show and controlling the avatars of the band members. I barely understand this, but it feels EXCITING to me. That is the new frontier.

Even the lecture this morning was happening in Second Life. I sat behind one of the guys who was making it happen. I wish you could have seen it.

WHEW!

Well, my lecture here is ramping up. This one is on using technology for differentiation in reading and writing.

I will write when I can. If I were cooler, I would be blogging!

Love to all of you,
Theda

SUMMER BREAK!

2008-07-01T09:36:00.002-04:00

(I posted this on my webpage, but now I am trying to get my blog going again, thanks to NECC 2008).

06/16/08
SUMMER BREAK!

My schedule includes a couple of weeks of beach camping with my family, four days in Winston-Salem for the New Schools Project Summer Conference, four days in San Antonio for the National Education Computing Conference, an Asheville City Schools technology conference, and the SILSA faculty retreat.

I am also enjoying more time for reading! So far, I have re-read Stephenie Meyer's Twilight. Since my daughter is reading New Moon, I am currently in the middle of Eclipse. (I will go back to New Moon when she is finished, but it was my least favorite of the three.) Of course, I am re-reading the series in anticipation of the August 2nd release of Breaking Dawn. Surely this time Bella will finally become a vampire and marry Edward! (I devoured Meyer's newest book Host right before school ended. The sci-fi geek in me loved it.)

I have also read The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. I cared for Mary and despised Anne just as I was meant to do. Some of it was too graphic for my tastes, but I appreciated the opportunity to think about life for women of the court in 16th century England. I might read some of the others.

Commenting

2007-08-26T08:40:00.000-04:00

[I submitted this comment to a post at David Warlick's 2¢ Worth blog: http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/2007/08/25/in-defense-of-education-blogs/. Mr. Warlick suggested that his daughter might ask her new professors if they read any blogs and which ones. Some readers took offense at placing any importance on whether teachers and/or professors read blogs.] Here's my response:

I am a high school English teacher, and when I was a teacher of content (literature and compositions about literature), it didn't matter to my students whether or not I was technologically savvy. I was teaching them the past, so they expected me to use my own college texts and notes. Those printed texts were vessels of Truth about my subject area, and I shared that Truth with my students.

But now, I am a teacher of skills (literacy, research, communication), and my students need me to help prepare them for the future. Do I have any credibility with my students if I am not part of the great (internet-based) public discourse? My students and I know that the act of publishing does not guarantee Truth, and we must critically read any text. Our school library provides so much more texts electronically than physically. When my students publish their own papers, they can publish to an audience of one (me) or they can share their work with many. I am learning with my students, and they know that I am highly motivated to move forward into the 21st century with them.

I began my Web 2.0 journey just this summer, and my school, SILSA, the School of Inquiry & Life Sciences at Asheville, just began its first year of IMPACT model implementation. I look forward to the support that this model will afford me as an educator.

Everything I know about any of this I have learned from reading a blog. My mentors are classroom teachers who blog, and, even though I have never met them, they have taught me much. From the big dogs like David Warlick, I get inspiration and encouragement. From all of them, I get a sense of belonging.

I'm just waiting to be able to add an RSS feed from a blog written by a teacher at my school. That will be cool!

Who Has Time to Blog?

2007-08-26T07:19:00.001-04:00

Between lesson planning, assessing student work, blogging on mrsrudd.net, and all the rest, I just haven't had any time to blog here. I admire teachers who can do all they do and keep a professional blog. I'm struggling.

I will report, though, that I attended my first MTAC meeting on Thursday. Our MTAC group serves both SILSA and Asheville High. I came away from the meeting feeling especially thankful for some of my technology, especially my LCD projector. I have been using my projector every class period. In fact, I make an inelegant PowerPoint which serves as a visual lesson plan. So far, the PowerPoints are completely bare-bones, just black text on the white screen, but I appreciate not having to write the same notes over and over. I also appreciate how easy it is to share a day with a student who missed it and to develop CLOZE notes for students who can't do all the transferring or writing for themselves.

The MTAC meeting highlighted all the exciting things that are happening with learning and collaborating and integrating technology on our campus. We are going to have access to ePals, and I signed up to pilot the blogging feature for SILSA. I can't believe that blogging is now within reach for my students and me. It's so basic, but so powerful. My students and I will be able to offer written feedback to one another's work fairly effortlessly. There will also be email for students which I think will be helpful for kids since they aren't allowed to use thumb drives on school computers. For my part, though, I am much more interested in the public discourse.

I am somewhat puzzled by a comment that I hear repeatedly from various school leaders that IMPACT is about teaching not about technology. They really seem to want to downplay the tecnology component. I think I understand the point, that the IMPACT model is about collaboration between teachers, media specialists, literacy coaches, and writing coaches. I know that it's about collaboration, but, since we are getting a huge grant for technology, then I think it's obvious, to all parties, that access to technology will facilitate collaboration and innovation in teaching and learning. I don't know if the comment hopes to soften the blow for those who won't receive an LCD projector the first go-round or what.

My mission is clear. I must do all I can with what I have.

Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze?

2007-08-08T06:45:00.000-04:00

What squeeze?

I should have live-blogged the conversation. Yesterday was the first day of our SILSA retreat. After lunch we had a lively conversation about technology in the classroom. Apparently not everyone is as eager to push Web 2.0 into the classroom as I am. Some people may think that others of us might be using technology egregiously, technology just for the sake of technology. Others seem to worry that teachers may devote too much instructional time to teaching how to use the technology, rather than spending those instructional minutes on subject-specific content.

I am afraid I became rather bombastic. At least I was among friends! For example, I accused one friend of being a Luddite. (He is a history teacher friend, so he then attempted to teach me about the mills and why they were dismantled in the first place.) At another point, I responded to a friend by saying, "Well, we could have them write on slates or use quill and ink!"

Our tech facilitator/lead teacher sensibly suggested that we should all incorporate technology at a level with which we feel comfortable.

As always, I wasn't nearly as eloquent as I wished I were. I was surprised to find myself on the defensive. I wasn't the enthusiastic, well-versed English Teacher 2.0 that I hope to be. I have much work to do!

From Theory to Practice

2007-08-04T07:50:00.000-04:00

Now, this is the tricky part! All summer I have been learning and dreaming and researching and thinking. I enjoy all of those tasks immensely, and summer break is such a welcome opportunity to reconnect with the theories of education. Also, I love being in the classroom with my students, never a dull moment. But, this transitional part is hard for me. I have one and a half weeks until the First Day of School. Out of all of that enjoyable learning and dreaming, what will get translated into practice in my classroom this year?

Right now I must make important decisions about year-long planning and assessment and classroom design and what to say the first fifteen minutes. And, in the spirit of digital literacy issues, the concern is an abundance of information, not a scarcity of information. Out of all of this sound educational research, what makes most sense to me? What resonates with me so perfectly that I can seamlessly integrate it into my own teaching? What gives me such anxiety that I know it is an issue I must tackle in my own practice?

Our school's retreat begins on Tuesday. We will meet from 8:30-3:00 in the media center. Afterward, in pairs, we will go and visit the homes of our new students. I admit that, on some level, I felt closer to the students whose homes I visited last year. When I looked at them, I knew exactly where they came from. And, I know that their families felt more comfortable contacting me because they had spent some time with me in their space. It takes some extra effort to have home visits, but I think the benefits are substantial.

A Great Introductory Article

2007-08-03T09:22:00.001-04:00

In GLEF's recent Technology in Education Newsletter, there's an article by Josh McHugh called "Synching Up with the iKid: Educators Must Work to Understand and Motivate a New Kind of Digital Learner." McHugh offers a thorough explanation of how today's often media-saturated students need technology-rich learning environments. This article also presents information about current classroom technologies. It's a good introduction to current educational technology issues. I plan to link to this article from my website so students and parents may understand more about my own ed tech goals. (The image is credited to David Julian.)

On Your Mark, Get Set!

2007-08-01T09:00:00.000-04:00

This morning I read some great reminders about starting the school year off right at the Cool Cat Teacher Blog. I have about four educational technology blogs that I am currently reading. They are listed on this page. I LOVE my real life teacher friends, but I am also really diggin' reading blogs from teachers in other places.

I just learned yesterday that I will have an additional preparation this year. I am extremely excited about the opportunities for the Student Leadership Academy class, but am also feeling just a bit overwhelmed. I think that adding more technology to my teaching will make some things easier this year.

I am very eager to get started with it all.

Whew!

2007-07-30T07:44:00.000-04:00

A whole lotta help is on the way for my students and me, and I am feeling so reassured and energized! I decided to go looking for those digital literacy standards, and then I remembered a big word from school administrators last year: IMPACT. Now, IMPACT hadn't made its way into the classrooms much, but I knew there was great buzz about it among administrators, tech facilitators, and librarians. So I went looking and this is what I found:

If you don't know about NC's implementation of the IMPACT model, click on this picture!!

Last year, my school principal attended several meetings about this program, and my school has been awarded an IMPACT grant. We begin implementing the model this school year. WOW! Please follow the link to learn more, if you want.

That reminded me that there were a group of people I hadn't told about my summer study of Web 2.0, my school librarians. I emailed one, and she emailed right back with lots of encouragement and good news about how IMPACT would help make my dreams a reality. I feel so very reassured. I also asked her if I could serve on the MTAC committee (Media and Technology Advisory Committee). It is quite clear to me that educational technology is a real passion for me.

(Have I mentioned yet that I am married to a Manager of Engineering Services?)

Oh, I can't wait to share with all my dear readers (currently there are none) how I grow as a learner and teacher with Web 2.0!

Digital Literacy Diagnostic Assessment

2007-07-28T09:02:00.000-04:00

The goals and objectives for digital literacy aren't in my English standard course of study. I have a feeling that some organization has already published these. Maybe there is already a pre-assessment. I am going to look for that, and then come back here and try to work this out.

What do I want students to be able to do with a computer and an internet connection by the end of the school year? How can I assesss those skills at the beginning of the year? What is the essential vocabulary of digital literacy?

I would appreciate your comments.

Meeting with the Technology Facilitator

2007-07-27T06:46:00.000-04:00

I did it! I met with the technology facilitator briefly yesterday afternoon. I went to school to drop off something, and she was there working. I described what I wanted to do with blogs, wikis, and podcasts. I assured her that I had safety concerns that I knew we would need to address, but I thought the right person would know how we could handle those concerns. She made good notes and said she would speak to the central office person who would know how to proceed! A victory!

I know that some teachers manage these new technologies for themselves, and I absolutely admire their determination and pioneer spirit. In my district, though, we have a clearly defined Instructional Technology organization. Usually technology integration happens when technology facilitators present new technologies to teachers.

I must acknowledge that I am going through this process almost backwards. I am sure that the person just above my own technology facilitator has spent a good bit of time thinking about Web 2.0 in the classroom. That's why I am so glad my technology facilitator made notes and said she would put in a call. And, while all of this may seem very cumbersome, as a teacher I absolutely appreciate our Instructional Technology structure. I am not a technologist. I appreciate that this structure means I won't set off on a virtual field trip to SL's Globe Theatre without someone else making sure this is a safe Internet use for teachers and students.

As soon as I get another paycheck, there are a few things I am going to buy. I want a copy of David Warlick's book:

and I would like to join ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education). There may be a few other things I add to my wish list as I learn more, but, for now, those seem like the two must-haves.

[Added 07/28/07: a digital camera. I desperately need to add photos to my blog and website!]

I wished I already had a copy of Warlick's book yesterday. I would have given it to my technology facilitator, and I am sure it would have described what I am hoping to accomplish much more eloquently than I did.

PS Sometimes the paragraph spacing in my posts changes without my asking it to do so. For the sake of clarity, I am not trying to emphasize certain passages with my spacing! ;-)

What Do I Teach?, Part III

2007-07-24T07:14:00.000-04:00

It's three weeks before school starts, and we are still working out the teaching schedule! I left a meeting at school on Thursday of last week having learned about the third proposal. It was ambitious, and it seems now that we will probably revert to the second plan. Ah, the second plan, I had actually begun some thinking about that one!

The reality of teaching at a small start-up school is that few people must wear many hats. This year our enrollment is such that we have three grades and only two teachers per discipline. We will each work with an enviable number of students, but, with electives, some teachers will have a different prep every period. That isn't ideal.

I feel confident about the content part of what I teach. I have a good understanding of my discipline, and I hope and expect to learn new things along with my students. I don't seem so bothered about these changes in the schedule, and that's because my summer efforts have focused on the "how" of teaching, not the "what."

After eight and a half years at home, though, it was the "how" that seemed different last year. I didn't know about tri-fold vocabulary and Cornell notes. Even though I feel behind, I am so pleased to work with colleagues who know current educational research and whose teaching is driven by the best practices this current research highlights. As summer began, I read or re-read books by Marzano, Wiggins, McTighe, Tomlinson and books about project-based learning. I wanted to be more confident with the "how" of my teaching.

So, I am very happy that I spent the remainder of my summer learning more about Web 2.0. What I have learned will map to whatever I am teaching this year.

There are lots of uncertainties. I don't know if our network's SharePoint will easily allow us to create wikis. I would like students to start the year with their own blogs, but I haven't heard that this is possible. I wonder how long it will take to make these technolgies a reality for my students? I have wonderful support from my technology facilitator and my principal, but it seems like I might be the first at my school to use Web 2.0, and it may take a while.

In the meantime, I am a Web 2.0 learner which is a great thing to be.

Second Life

2007-07-22T10:43:00.000-04:00

I have heard that some people are learning and teaching through Second Life. But, I hadn't paid much attention to Second Life until I found a blog entry that showed me a picture of Second Life's Globe Theatre and its Leaky Cauldron. Wow! Wow! WOW!! So, I considered trying to determine how I might take my students there on a virtual field trip.

I signed up for a Second Life account and installed the software. Then, I spent the next hour trying to learn how to make my SL avatar look like me in real life and then debating whether or not she needed to look like me. Then I wandered around for an hour trying to learn how to fly and get myself off of orientation island. I don't think I have enough time to learn how to live in a foreign country with no money, no guidebook, and no friends!

Instantly I ruled OUT Second Life as a viable learning tool for my students. Until I know more about it, I am not taking anyone there on a virtual field trip. There were lots of strangers walking and flying around. What if one of those folks flashed me or said something lewd? Maybe I expected to type in "Globe Theater," to appear there instantly, and to visit it as I pleased without having to interract with others. I am pretty sure that experience is called, "Watch a Filmstrip!"

Over and over again I am coming back to the same basic safety concerns. I am reminded of Maslo's Hierarchy of Student Needs. My students and I won't feel comfortable with this new learning environment until our basic needs are met. So, I am stuck on the second tier. I don't feel that I know what to do to ensure student safety and security.

When I think about Web 2.0, I try to reference my questions against how I would handle those same situations in real life. I know how I will handle inappropriate language in blogs, the same way I do in other classroom writing. I know how I will handle plagiarism in wikis, the same way I do in research papers.

And, while I can't prevent a stranger walking into my classroom and saying or doing something horrible, we have all considered that possibility and have done our best to prevent it. We have School Resource Officers who monitor the entrances to our school. We have staff and students who are trained at spotting something unusual and reporting it. We have lock-down drills and evacuation drills. So something horrible might happen at my school in real life, but I have been taught how to respond, and I have even practiced doing so. And, my students' parents know that we are doing our best to keep their kids safe.

I need to know that we have all of this in place for our work online as well. We have a good acceptable use policy. I need to review that and see if it answers all of my questions. I need to think about how I can include parents in what we are doing so that they see the benefits for their kids. I need to know that I have been trained well in how to use these tools in my classroom.

It feels like everyone else in ed tech has moved beyond this. Is that accurate? I will go looking and report back!

What Do I Teach?, Part Deux

2007-07-22T08:32:00.000-04:00

Writing! Web 2.0 makes high school writing so much COOLER! Now my students will have an authentic, broad audience. Now my students will receive timely and varied feedback on their writing. Now writing can be ever more about communicating ideas and ever less about doing an assignment for a grade.

Last year we began English I with a look at communication in the 21st Century. We read an article from Wired, "The Blogs of War," and explored the blogs of soldiers stationed in Iraq. We didn't have a way to blog online, so I created a worksheet and we did "Blogging on Paper." My students were as adventuresome and as easygoing as ever. They chose cool blogging names and blogged and posted comments. Some students already had a username, and some students created their own username for the first time. We all hoped that we would soon have a chance to blog for real. Our school considered one blogging program?platform?, but there were some security issues we couldn't adequately address.

I have been looking at many different school and teacher websites this summer, and I still have lots of safety-related questions. I don't know how other teachers and administrators have moved past these issues. I am afraid to email any of the educational technology leaders whose blogs I am reading. What if my concerns are so newbie, and what if a true English Teacher 2.0 wouldn't ask such naive questions?

But, this is my blog, and I will post my questions here. Then I will go in search of the answers and report back to you, dear reader (which is me only at this point, since I am quite sure no one else is reading my blog!).

Isn't it illegal for me to publish a student's name on the Internet?
Isn't there a concern that students will be targeted by predators?
Am I responsible if students are using our classroom blog to write about illegal activities?
How do I teach about, discourage, and discipline cyber bullying?

I guess I need to find an educational technology forum. I do plan to join ISTE as soon as I get another paycheck. I bet they have forums on their website.

Leaving the safety questions for a minute, I would like to dream about how I would use Web 2.0 in my classroom. First, every student would have her own blog and would use it to write reflectively about her experiences in the classroom. Students would also be expected to post comments to one another's blogs. Hey, if each student had his own website, then he could have a different page for each subject and publish his work there and then link to his blog for reflection! Aren't blogs mostly reflective writing, with a more thoughtful, less authoritative tone, while a website is a place to publish major work? That's how I think of it, at least.

Also, I would like to create a wiki for each unit we study. I might make individual or small group assignments for different sections of the wiki. Then, perhaps, each section would have specialists in each of those areas, so that students could experience having the wiki created across space and time. We could share our wikis with other classes, maybe even invite them to edit them, too. I think we may be able to use our school SharePoint to make wikis. I have done some research on wikis, but I am still unclear about how to create a wiki.

Also, I want us to use podcasting in the classroom. First, I want to have podcasts of me reading difficult texts, so that some students can listen as they read or study. Also, I want to use podcasting on my website for mini-lectures that only some students might need. Then, I want students to explore podcasting as a means of sharing what they know with others. Finally, how hard would it be to podcast a lesson, so that students who were absent could hear what they had missed? (Again, security issues. What if someone said someone's whole name by mistake?) Incidently, I wonder if students would be any less spontaneous if they knew that an audio of the class was archived online?

There are a few books about educational technology that I would like to get, and I am quite sure that either they debunk some of my ideas about how to use Web 2.0 in the classroom, or they offer answers, not just suppositions. Still, this is the record of where I am on my journey as English Teacher 2.0.

What Do I Teach?

2007-07-22T07:24:00.000-04:00

I teach students, of course! But, I identify myself as English Teacher 2.0, so it's clear that we still make those discipline distinctions in high school. Last year I was asked to help make a video for the New Schools Project, an introduction to our work to share with state legislators, universities, and the like. In that video, I said that I was more a teacher of skills than of content. That statement's still true for me, but all summer, as I have studied Web 2.0, I have continued to ask the question, "What do I teach?"

The North Carolina Standard Course of Study eloquently describes the skills my students should master at each grade level. Our most recent Language Arts NCSCOS was approved in 2004, and it is very well-written. I appreciate the hard work that went into preparing it, and I find it very helpful as I begin to teach an unfamiliar class. I also appreciate that it is skills-based and, thus, gives me a great deal of freedom as a teacher to find literature and writing prompts that my students will find engaging. So, I teach communication skills: reading, writing, and speaking. Of course, these are the skills students need to confidently engage with others using Web 2.0.

The reading skills my students need for Web 2.0 are, in some ways, different from the reading skills I focused on with students in 1998. First, let me clarify: I define text broadly to mean not just written words, but also words spoken or performed and visual images in film and art. Today it is crucial that I teach students to identify credible sources of information on the web. Research is so much different when it happens in the Internet. I must teach students to validate texts for themselves, and to backtrack information to more valid sources when possible. Therefore, I am responsible for helping my students acquire a general knowledge of my discipline, so that that they may read critically the information they encounter on their own.

It remains important for me to model reading for my students by reading aloud in the classroom. I think individual students need me to help them learn how to read certain texts. In doing so, I am responsible for teaching the essential vocabulary of English class. And, I must expose my students to a variety of texts, so that they may identify their own passions as readers. Also, we must read different texts to ensure that students have a broad sense of the history of literature and the evolution of the art of writing through the ages, to help students organize their knowledge of literature. So, I still think there is something very valuable about the teacher who shares her own passion for learning by modeling for her students.

I have only thought about reading this morning. I hope to discuss the impact of Web 2.0 on teaching writing later.

Catching Up

2007-07-21T10:20:00.000-04:00

I want to bring myself and my teaching into the world of Web 2.0. I plan to chronicle my journey in this blog.

I left teaching in 1998 to start a family. I returned to teaching with a half-time English position in August, 2006. I will be a full-time English teacher this year. I teach at the School of Inquiry and Life Sciences at Asheville (SILSA). I am incredibly proud of my school district, my school, and my administrators and colleagues. SILSA begins its third year next month. We are in the first cohort of redesigned high schools with the North Carolina New Schools Project. I feel incredibly lucky to have this position.

Last year my students and I shared a wireless, mobile laptop lab with six other classes. This year, we are adding two teachers and another mobile lab, so only four classes will share a lab. Last year our faculty talked about Web 2.0, but safety issues prevented us from implementing any tools. This summer I am studying how other schools are using Web 2.0. I still have concerns, but I am asking for help creating wikis, blogs, and podcasts. I would like to begin with publishing only to our classmates within our secure school network.

I have created a very simple website for my students and their families. You can find it at http://www.mrsrudd.net/. In the classroom, we used the website as a starting point when we accessed specific sites for specific units. I also posted information about long-term projects and uploaded pdf's of my handouts there. I linked to sites I thought my students might find helpful.

I teach some students who are immersed in technology wherever they are. I teach other students who have little access to personal technology outside of our school. I must help prepare every one of them for a future I can't even imagine. Daunting? Yes. Exciting? Incredibly!!

Getting Started

2007-07-19T08:06:00.000-04:00

I am going step-by-step through the 23 Things website from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Library to learn more about Web 2.0. This is step 3, creating a blog.