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.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
Reflecting on Teaching with Primary Sources
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.)
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.)
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Revised List of Workshops I Attended at NECC 2008
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.
Friday, July 4, 2008
High School Students Want to Be in Third Place
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:
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.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Titles of NECC Workshops I Have Attended
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.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Greetings from San Antonio!
(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
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!
(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.
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.
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