Communicating and Commenting

September 25, 2011 at 7:00 am | Posted in 21st Century, Collaboration, Literacy, Shift | Leave a comment

By definition, comment can be defined as “A statement of fact or opinion, especially a remark that expresses a personal reaction or attitude.”

The ability to comment well, whether face to face or in writing is a basic, daily communication skill we can always reflect on and improve. During our literacy practice we work to communicate well through explicit lessons and modeling and in student-to-student reading and writing conferences. As in any classroom, there is a need for ongoing discussion to resolve hurt feelings and slights and to stop and talk about what led up to an incident and how each party contributed to events. In the words of Cool Hand Luke, the problem is usually “failure to communicate.”

During our upcoming global collaboration, Read Across the Globe, we will go outside our classroom and campus to strengthen our literacy and communication skills. Using Edmodo to communicate, students from the US, China, Canada and Prague will work in groups to discuss a self-selected topic and share what they learn about how our geography, climate, religion and customs shape our daily lives. I plan to open the discussion of online, collaborative commenting with an awesome video made by Linda Yollis’ students in California on how to compose quality comments. Actually, the tips in Mrs Yollis’ video are applicable to any written or oral communication.

In two weeks we will greet our new friends using Edmodo and students will be ready to do this based on their experiences in literacy, through interaction during the school day, and from commenting on each other’s writing on our class blog. As I’ve seen in past global class collaborations, sharing with others outside our classroom increases my students’ motivation and efforts to listen and comment more clearly. This experience is an important piece of our literacy and interpersonal daily practice as well as providing an added, relevant opportunity to explore topics related to content area study.

The power of an authentic, global audience

May 14, 2011 at 10:47 am | Posted in 21st Century, Collaboration, Global Collaboration, Shift, Tech Integration | 1 Comment
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I’ll start with my inspiration for this post, a comment about From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg from one of my grade 3 students:

“Hi Peter.it’s Cole.My favorite character is also Claudia but my favorite part is when they go to the Egyptian exhibit because James asks the tour guide how much did it cost to be a mummy.And after the tour guide tells him her answer Claudia scolds him for drawing attention to himself and she wants to go away but then she sees the next exhibit with all that golden jewelery that also had jewels.I liked the part when Jamie described his sister “as still as the statue of the cat that she was standing next to.”That made me laugh a tiny bit but I still did laugh.I also liked the part when Jamie was trying to make Claudia bored so they could go back to their house so he chose the Italian Renaissance because it sounded important and boring but going their just made his chances of going back home even worse by a lot because his sister saw a statue of such beauty that she wouldn’t leave without knowing who made it but that was something that even baffled the experts.It was something nobody knew but it was also something that lots and lots and lots and lots of people were trying to find out!Any way I think I’m like Claudia because I like mysteries and she likes mysteries.”

And another comment about Beverly Cleary’s The Mouse and the Motorcycle:

“What I really like is the boy is treating the mouse in a nice way and he lets the mouse out of the trash can and lets him ride the motor bike and he goes really fast as fast as I can ride my bike at full speed and the boy tells the mouse to hold his tale so it does not get stuck in the wheel because it got to hurt if your tale gets stuck in a wheel.”

There were many other comments that showed my students’ thinking and writing about the books they were reading at a higher level than I had seen all year. Here is the story behind one of my best Fridays ever in school- and it was Friday the 13th as well!

Matt McGuire, a teacher in Fredericton, NB, Canada, and I have been collaborating on and off this year. We talked on skype last month throwing around ideas for a simple, end of year collaborative activity and the idea of book group discussions came up. I had used Edmodo last fall for participation in the A Week in the Life elementary pilot Flat Classroom Project and we thought that would be a good place for our students to discuss books together. Edmodo is a closed environment for students to have discussions and submit assignments assigned by the teacher. It’s free, students can be placed in groups and students don’t need an email address to establish an account.

We then compared book titles we had multiple copies of and found a few matching titles and put students into groups based on the book they would be reading. During the first week I shared the idea with Heather in Beijing, a colleague from A Week in the Life and our current online Flat Classroom certified teacher course. She was ready to jump in and found a few copies of each book for her students. We now had “reading groups” of students in Beijing, Canada and Prague.

Starting a little before Matt and Heather, I tried out the assignment feature in Edmodo and gave my students reading assignments based on the first few chapters while also meeting face to face in groups in the classroom. But on Friday morning I announced that they had students from Mr McGuire’s class in Canada and Ms Davis’s class in Beijing and a new discussion prompt to respond to in their group in Edmodo. The room was silent as they read and responded to the prompt. A few students also added comments welcoming the other students to their Edmodo group. At the end of our reading time I started to read their comments and was grinning from ear to ear. Nearly every student wrote reflections from the heart that showed deeper thinking than I had previously seen.

Matt and Heather said they were seeing the same thing in their classrooms. I also shared with our Principal and she was impressed with their comments as well. When she asked one student about the experience later that day, asking how this experience is helping her learning, Nicole replied that she shares ideas with other kids not just in our class and that will give her more ideas. I also told my students after reading many posts how impressed I was with what they shared and asked why sharing in this environment promoted deeper reflection and more thoughtful writing. They said that they liked writing on the laptops more than on stickies and on paper and that having other kids read what they wrote made them more careful and want to share more. There was also an appreciation for Spellcheck expressed.

This is not a grand project or idea. The online sharing environment provides students with a larger audience and more opportunity to share- there is simply not enough time in the school day for everyone to share every day with their book group, and then they are limited to me and the other students in their group as an audience. I also love it because I’m building friendships with Matt and Heather- they inspire me and I can see our collaboration growing in the future as well. Matt and Heather have also added groups to the mix based on other books their students are interested in- books my students are already interested in. I can see this evolving to a more fluid, book-sharing environment that we can start on the first day of school next year based on what we are doing right now.

A Week in the Life

October 30, 2010 at 8:05 am | Posted in 21st Century, Collaboration, Digital Citizenship, Global Collaboration, Learning is Messy, Shift, Web2.0 | 2 Comments
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This post was first contributed to a collaborative blog for the pilot elementary Flat Classroom Project, A Week in the Life at http://elementaryflatclassroom.wordpress.com/

The first official week is finished and I’m beginning to feel that I can manage this project, and I am still excited about the possibilities and opportunities that are ahead. Granted, I have told myself that this is a pilot and I’m in my first year at my new school and I will do the best I can. But that’s not an excuse; it allows me stay focused on the project’s purpose, the present and not evaluate myself daily against the “big picture” or enormous possibilities in my mind. Reflection occurs, not judgment.

This week we established student user accounts and began writing and reading to share about ourselves and begin conversing with other students. Students learned how to use Edmodo, comment thoughtfully and many students began using proper punctuation and attempted correct spelling more than in daily classroom writing.

I also introduced the project and what they would be doing in groups with students around the world. I think some students grasped the idea, but most will have to understand what the project is about as we go along. (My students are 8 and 9 years old.) We also have a collaboration going with classes in Japan and Canada, and because it’s a year-long project we will also collaborate with them over the next 7 weeks to maintain and nurture that friendship. It is one more challenge for my students though, to sort out who we are working with and when- but I believe they will be able to manage that. I’m planning to set up bulletin boards for each collaboration this weekend to hopefully provide visual anchors.

This coming week I plan to introduce the students to the wiki, have them gain individual access to the wiki and establish the groups with discussion of each group’s focus. I decided to provide a group notebook for each group with essential questions, project timeline and empty pages for notes and diagrams during group work discussions. I realize this is low-tech, but I think it’s a scaffold that will allow them to focus on the group task and communication more. It may also provide a tangible bridge to a digital collaboration. Baby steps.

In reflecting on our first week, I’ve observed students eager to connect with other students in Edmodo by reading and commenting. In group reading, we had great discussions about similarities and differences between the book characters, settings and events and our lives. As mentioned above, I saw students beginning to attend more to the mechanics and message of their writing in comments. We also discussed and practiced digital citizenship.

One of the biggest benefits during these first weeks is connecting with other teachers in the project by sharing ideas and answering each other’s questions. I loved the GoogleEarth tour created by and shared from a teacher in India. It travels to all the schools in the project and being able to use it has saved me time creating my own.

I remain enthused about participating in this project and awed with the implications of what we are trying and all we can learn from this. If I can remain focused on the core and purpose of the project and stay patient with my skill-level and learning my students and I will benefit immensely!

Passion and Wants vs. Needs

May 23, 2010 at 11:12 am | Posted in Collaboration, Learning is Messy, Links, Planning, Professional Development, Shift | 5 Comments

Here’s a scenario you may be able to relate to: you read an article or book or just observe a daily event and then you get a great idea that addresses something in your life or work you want to change or resolve. Well I sit with the idea for a little bit and then I want to share it! Sometimes I share and the person gets it right away and wants to join me to develop the idea further. More often, the reaction is not negative but there are questions, What do you mean about this aspect? How does it look in action? and so on. Here is where the generator of the passionate idea can do one of two things. She can be discouraged because she feels the recipient didn’t understand or they don’t like the idea, if they had they would be equally excited. Or, she can take those questions and continue to work on the idea so it can become more fully developed and realistic and also better communicated.

As an elementary teacher, I have “taught” Wants vs. Needs as part of the social studies curriculum (although there are informal lessons on that every day.) As a technology integration specialist the last 3 years, I have needed to develop my adult communication and presentation skills because I currently work with teachers more than students. My apologies in advance, but children are more fun, flexible-minded and enthusiastic than adults. As a result of this experience, I’m going to be a stronger teacher next year, but I will also be a better colleague.

Teachers tend to do their own thing and each teacher becomes known according to her/his own passions and strengths, but this is unfair to the student population because it creates an environment of inequality. Ideally, teachers share their talents, strengths and special views to strengthen the whole school so all children benefit. I’m not faulting teachers, there is usually no time for sharing and there are other built-in school practices that discourage collaboration.

Strafford School Foreign Language committee (most of us)

Many of my proudest contributions as a teacher in realizing initiatives that benefited all students and that are still in effect at the school, have resulted from working with a group of like-minded teachers, administrators and parents. But that group is not often easily or naturally created. If you don’t have a group form naturally around an idea, you are left to drop the idea or keep it to yourself within the four walls of your classroom. But there’s a third alternative, it’s not easy and involves risk and possibly putting yourself out on a ledge.

Last week I read a post by Peggy George on her blog My Web2.0 Adventures.  It was a tipping point for me. Peggy lays out steps to develop an idea before pushing it out. (If it’a been a snake, it’a bit me.) How many times could I have been more effective if only I had sat with my ideas a bit longer, worked longer with the pros and cons to further develop and then communicate an idea better? Marco Torres says that we need to “stay with the questions” and that also means stay with the solutions to get it right.

Also, while I haven’t read it yet, I have listened to Seth Godin share ideas from his new book, Linchpin. From listening to Godin, I began to explore the idea of going above and beyond the initial ideas (what I want to do) to ask what is needed- and to push into those initial ideas to develop them into ideas and practices that can be clearly communicated.

What we want is unconditional acceptance and excitement about our ideas and initiatives but what we need is to question, incubate and develop those ideas further. When met with resistance, stay with the idea (if it still looks like a good one) and develop it so you can communicate why it’s a good path to follow and build a group that will allow the ideas to become a reality.

Other links that inspired this post:
Shelly Terrell’s blog Teacher Reboot Camp post How do we nurture passion?
Another video of Seth Godin speaking about Linchpin
Video: Seth Godin speaking about Education
Daniel Pink’s 2 questions that can change your life
Rolling Stones, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” (And if you try sometime you find you get what you need)

Sparks

April 17, 2010 at 12:12 pm | Posted in 21st Century, Collaboration, Games-based learning, Links, Planning, Professional Development, Resources, Shift | 1 Comment

It’s been my feeling and thought for a long time that we need to change the way we do schooling. Back in the early 90s while visiting friends in West Hollywood and driving with these friends and my daughter in a convertible through the hills, I was day-dreaming about moving there and establishing my own school for the children of wealthy Hollywood artists (they have money and are progressive thinkers, right?) Regardless, Hollywood is a ripe place for encouraging daydreams. My school would have many elements of a Montessori school and also contain the most current technology, which was relatively limited compared to what I use and imagine these days. Yesterday I was reminded of that daydream  after two of the best days in recent years at work. I thought about and discussed with colleagues why the past two days were so inspiring and fulfilling and we concluded that it was because we had time to discuss and imagine how our already good school could grow and improve.

The problem is that it was an isolated event, and not just at this school, but rare in every school I have taught and worked in. It was successful because:

  • The “workshops” were led by our consultant from Rubicon Atlas, Stephane Keller. Stephane didn’t run through a planned presentation lock-step. He had a plan but was responsive to going off in directions that the group needed and did it with grace and style. Like a good teacher, he helped us see what we are doing well and where we want to go next, where our challenges are and how begin to meet those challenges.
  • The 2 days were set up to allow teams of teachers to come in during regular school days for hour blocks. It would have been better to have more time, but I also think that sometimes those days in school without students present are great for idea generation, but those ideas often stayed locked away in that day. Having these sessions occurring during our school day promoted keeping the students and reality of our school days present in mind.
  • The core curriculum team met each morning before the hour sessions began and at the end of the day. Being part of this team allowed me to have discussions with colleagues that I often don’t get time to talk with. It seems we need to plan the time and topics to allow these discussions to begin. As a tech facilitation specialist many people get caught on the word “technology” and can’t see my position as that of a learning specialist who can facilitate use of technology tools for student and professional learning and creativity.

The key to continue generating sparks and get a fire glowing will be preventing the ideas and conversations to stay locked in the past and to continue to facilitate those conversations, keep them alive.

Here are my favorite visions of the direction we need to go to recreate schools from:
Bob Sprankle and his BLC09 Presentation

Kim Cofino and ISB’s 21st Century Learning Wiki

Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis Flat Classroom Conference

Scotland’s exploration of games-based learning and Ollie Bray and Ewan McIntosh

Stephen Heppell

Apple’s Challenge Based Learning

Heidi Hayes Jacob’s Curriculum21

Silvia Tolisano’s blog Langwitches

In conclusion, one key element of my dream school is to build in time and place for the educators in a school to meet and share ideas and, most importantly, develop and realize those ideas.

John Couch / final thoughts

April 10, 2010 at 4:04 pm | Posted in 21st Century, Apple, Conference, Presentations, Professional Development, Shift, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Stay in the question(s): Reflections from the Apple Leadership Conference2010 (Part 6/6) 

Apple’s VP of Education, John Couch closed the conference by discussing the challenges that we face in creating change and growth in education:

  • Our current mode in education is like a steam engine pulling horse carriages
  • Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower. (Steve Jobs)
  • Technology as a tool v. technology as environment
  • Substitution v. transformation

Whenever I feel homesick and miss my family and lifelong friends, I remind myself of the opportunities that I have had since becoming an overseas educator. This conference was one of those opportunities. The participation of students, infusion of learning through the music/arts, brilliant presenters and the location in a beautiful, enchanting city and a school that has a vision for the future made it one of the most valuable learning experiences I’ve had.

My questions to keep in mind:

  • How can I assist and challenge each student to learn and grow?
  • How can I assist in transforming schools?
  • How can I inspire and help other educators to learn and grow?

Inspiration from Clay Shirky and ISP students

April 10, 2010 at 1:40 pm | Posted in 21st Century, Blogging, Conference, Global Collaboration, Presentations, Professional Development, Project-based Learning, Shift | Leave a comment

Stay in the question(s): Reflections from the Apple Leadership Conference2010 (Part 2/6)

I re-read Clay Shirky’s book, Here Comes Everybody, when I saw he would be appearing at the conference. During his presentation he shared that when trying to create change and growth, try many small things and if they fail, they are small failures. Then go with  the ones that succeed, build on those and don’t sweat small failures. Don’t try to enact a big plan that may fail big. He cited Ewan McIntosh’s efforts in East Lothian, Scotland as shown on the community site, edubuzz.org. To me, Ewan McIntosh has always been right up there with Marco Torres.

Clay also met with the students who presented on Friday evening and discussed with them their learning and thoughts on school, the classroom and learning. He then sat on stage with them our last day and held a panel discussion that we could listen to and participate in. Clay was able to elicit valuable, sometimes funny, responses from the students (grades 5-12).

Student thoughts:

  • Doing small projects on one big topic stick in your mind better
  • Teachers can show us rather than tell us everything, Let us do things to learn.
  • Prefer when work is connected to real life, teachers facilitate, freedom to choose tool to express ourselves and show our learning
  • We like ISPrague because of the tools available to us, not just tech but the teachers as tools also.  One student said, “I feel taken seriously here.”
  • In a group project we usually have to use more than one app, everyone has their specialty and we help each other.
  • Math- it would be better if there were many ways to learn, some absorb it and others need to learn differently. Split us up by how we learn and choose to learn. Connect the learning to real life more.
  • Allow situations where students can learn from one another, share what they know and what they learned from the subject, rather than the teacher always teaching- sometimes it’s easier to learn from another student.
  • Sometimes your teacher tells you to try one way, and you don’t want to try it because it sounds too easy or obvious, then you try it and it works and you get annoyed because they were right.

Inspiration from Marco Torres

April 10, 2010 at 1:28 pm | Posted in 21st Century, Conference, Presentations, Professional Development, Shift | 1 Comment

Stay in the question(s): Reflections from the Apple Leadership Conference2010 (Part 2/6)

Marco Torres, was another highlight of the conference. This was not a surprise as I attended 2 of his workshops at BLC09 last summer and soaked up his ideas and attitude. Marco is an educator with an open mind; when faced with roadblocks or reluctant students he stays in the question of what can be done to improve this situation, how can we allow this student to learn and grow?  Further, at BLC09 Marco brought along some of his students, who co-presented with him.

I can’t hide how brilliant I find Marco Torres. But it’s more than his ideas. He is still working with students, he’s not an “expert presenter” even though his presentations are 100% useful and inspiring and he shares anecdotes where solutions are found for students who are at a dead end and now flourishing due to simple, obvious solutions.

Here are a few of his statements that keep rolling around in my mind:

  • Stay in the question.
  • International used to be a sexy thing, now it’s mandatory.
  • Do you love what you do? You have to.
  • Question for teachers, Could I have looked up everything you told me in Google?
  • Nouns v. Verbs- schools need to be more about verbs
  • Never ask questions you can look up. (Einstein)
  • Traits of Innovators: see, associate, inquire, collaborate, take risks
  • What kind of learner are you? More important is what type of producer are you?
  • Include Who we love into our learning.
  • An educated person is someone who is resourceful and connected

Learning From Students

March 21, 2010 at 11:20 am | Posted in 21st Century, Collaboration, Global Collaboration, Project-based Learning, Shift | Leave a comment
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Will, Beatrice, Jeongmin, Arjun aren’t “my” students but I collaborated with them a month ago when participating virtually in a Flat Classroom Mini-conference in Mumbai. I was participating via Skype, etherpad and Ustream from my apartment in Madrid. I enjoyed this collaboration and was very impressed with their ability to work together and think on their feet, coming up with a fantastic idea, Project IMPACT. Here is the video describing Project IMPACT…

They didn’t leave the project behind in Mumbai but continue to work together using a wiki and twitter account to keep the momentum and pursue this idea from a distance and from one team member’s campus. I was recently learning about Challenge Based Learning and immediately thought of ProjectIMPACT as an excellent example of this type of learning- these students are taking an activity and continuing with it based on their desire to improve our world with a socially beneficial, life enriching and achievable idea.

Project IMPACT has caught my interest and enthusiasm and I plan to help in any way I can, but mainly stay out of the way regarding the project development and their vision. Is there a way you could help or support making ProjectIMPACT a reality?

Links:

Flat Classroom Team 6 wiki page
Fundraising ideas sketch
New ProjectIMPACT wiki page
Twitter @IMPACTeam

My First Flat Classroom Conference Experience

February 28, 2010 at 12:27 pm | Posted in 21st Century, Collaboration, Conference, Presentations, Shift, Web2.0 | Leave a comment

From my table by my apartment window in Madrid I virtually participated in a conference this week that was held in Mumbai where I met and interacted with educators and students attending there as well as other virtual participants. I am not new to global collaborations and communicating with other classes via video conference but this experience transcended those with the depth and quality of the experience. The Flat Classroom Conference (part of Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis’s Flat Classroom Project) is not just students and educators from around the world gathering virtually and physically to collaborate and share. It transcends that wonderful experience with the depth and importance of the tasks at hand. This year’s theme was Opening Up Education “… a chance to explore what is happening in education globally and for participants to debate/create new solutions based on exposure and interaction with other ideas, particularly influenced by the circumstances in India.”  

I felt fortunate to be working with Team6. I missed their work on the first day  due to my actual work schedule but on the second day I jumped in and they shared their pitch slideshow which they were completing and asked for feedback. I was so impressed with their “first draft” in terms of the quality of the idea, how they presented it, the comprehensive coverage of their idea in the presentation and that four students who had met 24 hours before for the first time could collaborate so well. Beatrice, JeongMin, Will and Arjun shared how they were also surprised with how well they worked together- they thought it was “destiny.” They also asked me to contribute by recording a description of the manifestation of their project in the world as a very short story. I was surprised and pleased with this invitation and later, when watching their presentation live in Mumbai via uStream, I felt firsthand the excitement of this project when I heard my recording (that I recorded and sent 3 hours earlier) in a presentation given in Mumbai.

During those few hours working with this group I learned some new technical skills related to collaborating in real time with someone far away, but more importantly how exciting it can be to work with engaged, intelligent, altruistic young people. (As an elementary educator I know how rewarding working with younger children is but haven’t worked this closely with teens before.) We collaborated through Skype chat and file transfer, Etherpad for the working script document, and email. Their project was chosen as one of the top three requiring them to create a video presentation of their idea the next day.

This was truly one of those experiences that engages and challenges a person and left me feeling excited, connected, and inspired. Also, immediately after the closing of the conference I was left with the questions, how can I infuse the spirit and purpose of this conference at the elementary level? How can this transfer to ongoing learning experiences in an elementary classroom? I will first pose these questions to Will, Beatrice, JeongMin and Arjun 🙂

Lastly, at one point in the conference Julie stated, “I’m tired of talk about change” and went on to say that the Flat Classroom Conference is creating and exploring change. I couldn’t agree more.

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