I did a quick survey of my students. Got responses from about 75% of my students. Of those students 18% are not allowed to take their laptops home. When asking about internet access outside of school 69% have high-speed and another 3% have dial-up. 12% go somewhere other than home to use the internet, like a relatives, neighbor's, or library. I also asked what they had for computer access aside from the MLTI laptop. 82% have a computer at home they can use. 5% go elsewhere and 13% have no computer access without the laptop.

So I guess Susan's estimates are not far off. I teach in a rural district, but we are not far from Bangor or the Waterville/Augusta. We have quite a cross-section as far as income and educational level go.

I posted this response as a response to Susan's post. I wasn't sure if people would see it there, so I'm reposting it here.

WICKED Cool Website

Look at this great website for teenage writers, just reviewed by the New York Times!

(Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/books/06figment.html?_r=2&ref=education)

“Figment.com will be unveiled on Monday as an experiment in online literature, a free platform for young people to read and write fiction, both on their computers and on their cellphones. Users are invited to write novels, short stories and poems, collaborate with other writers and give and receive feedback on the work posted on the site.”

http://figment.com/


How COOL IS THIS?!?!??!?!

I am so excited, I can’t even tell you. I would have died for a site like this when I was in middle school and writing my post nuclear devastated world novels. Ha.

I feel like this is just what we need, too! To get our kids motivated OUTSIDE of school to write.

Turning Google Doc forms into charts, graphs, etc

Hi all,

I know I saw this questions a while back; in interest of time, I thought I'd just create a new post.

Google Doc forms (surveys) can be turned into graphs and charts very easily. When you open the spreadsheet with responses on it, go to "FORMS" then down to "SUMMARY OF RESPONSES". A variety of charts, etc come up.

Hope this helps the person who had the question and anyone else who was curious!

My Google Docs update

ok, so I have been out flat with this bad back and it is not getting better very fast. Sitting hurts, standing hurts, and getting off the toilet is hell!! However, I am plugging away here. I have done pretty well with using some portions of Google docs while others still floor me. I cannot figure out how to organize my files, which drives me crazy. I tried making folders but somehow, something I am doing is not working right. Can't figure it out. I would love to have a folder for each student rather than 1000 writing pieces that I can't sort...ah, yes, sort. Is there a way to FIND things? I haven't figured out that yet either.

I think the editing part works well, but I struggle with figuring out what happens after I edit. Do they get a notice that I worked on it so they know to check? I can't figure that out either. They say to me, "Oh I didn't know" and I am not sure if they are just not paying attention, blowing me off or totally confused. Hmmm...

I like the revision history part a lot; that is great to have. Sometimes I wish there was a way to look at two docs at the same time. Is there? Oh man, I still feel like I am on a steep learning curve. Rosemarie

Saturday in SWH

Sitting here, dry but not overly warm, I have been pondering the aspects of equity I encounter among students at my school. It occurs to me that one of the issues I stumble against is my own blindness of assumptions. It inspires the same criticism we have heard in terms of race, gender, and economics: If you are on the winning side (white, male, and rich) you can't see the obstacles others, who aren't you, face. Here are some of the assumptions about students I need to remind myself just ain't so:

• They are kids; they know how computers work.

• There is a spell checker on the word processor; they'll use it.

• They are on Facebook all the time.

• They have access to the internet.

• They have a school issued computer.

• They know how to keyboard.

• Their computers all work at the same speed.

• Their computers won't break.

• They know the difference between casual and professional email.

• That alarming tag line after their signature is one they chose for themselves.

• They know how to follow directions.

• They are going to save their work for later use and reference.

• They are able to mimic me in parallel as I do something while displaying it on the overhead.

• What the media portrays as the savvy 5 year old able to make a wonderful powerpoint with her wonderful IBM / Microsoft Cloud setup is nearly a fairy tale.

Our school is working in a trimester system, so we get new students every 11-12 weeks. We've just started a new round of classes. I have polled both my old and new students about access to the internet. About 20% say they have none at all. They are unable to get to a library (remember going to a library to study with pals – or was that just Disney?) to access the internet, nor are they able to steal band width from neighbors. With a well organized thumb drive, or remembering to download needed files before leaving school, this shouldn't matter; but it does. This doesn't include students who a) still haven't been issued a loptop; b) have broken their laptop and are without a loaner; c) have parents who can't / won't sign the agreement form. Some of these students behave brashly “What are you going to do about me? You can't just post that essay. I'll never be able to read it.” “Well, your going to have to accept my paper hand written.” So I find myself printing off copies and fighting with students about the need to do revisions.

Isaac, for a variety of reasons, had no laptop and was hand writing a comparison essay. He had pretty much omitted anything in the line of illustrations of the points he was trying to make and I said that he really needed to add those. He pulled out a giant eraser and began to erase what he had written. I gacked, and offered him the opportunity to go down to the library to type there. “No, I'll just erase it and start over.” “Well, if you're going to start over anyway, why not keep this copy and start a new draft?” “That would be a lot of work.” More work than erasing it and redoing all the paragraphs? I pointed out that was one reason to make use of the computer so he wouldn't have to re-write his essay multiple times. Thus enters another of my own prejudices – I remember, with loathing, having to retype, or worse re-write, papers through multiple drafts, cutting them apart and pasting them on new paper so I could add paragraphs to a 3^rd of 4^th draft. I thought about sharing that with Isaac, but cringed that he would perceive me as one of those walking-through-blizzards-uphill-both-ways adults.

This doesn't even touch the hardware differences, even among school issued computers. MLTI computers are not set up to be gracefully mum when they don't have a network connection, regularly stopping everything to poll the neighborhood for a link. Software is, bizarrely, not installed correctly on some computers, or files have become corrupted. Batteries die even when plugged in and shut everything down. Sarah and Brandan each had computers that would spontaneously shut down. Sarah's problem was her email program and Brandan's a dicey battery. The swap bank of batteries that is supposed to reside in the library hasn't been set up.

So, where am I going now? I am going to find out from MLTI what they perceive is the percent of student homes that has no internet connectivity. I wonder if you could do a straw poll of your students to give me an idea if my 20% is real or off kilter. There is a series of articles in the New York Times on computers and brains that I'm working through for myself and with my Non-Fiction and AP Language classes. I'm also using the “Your child left behind” article from the recent Atlantic Monthly. I'll have some student reactions to those as well as my own reflections.

Saturday at Maple Hill Farm

I'm writing this while sitting here at the conference, so the day has is not over yet, however, it feels like a good time to reflect. I feel like the workshop space provided me with a really critical jump start. Teaching is exhausting, but coming here today has spurned me with a much need injection of motivation, and so like a hamster, I somehow managed to get into my wheel and keep spinning even on a Saturday. I hope this doesn't seem like a negative analogy - I really do feel a renewed sense of purpose and vigor. Being a relatively new teacher (third year on the job) I still feel like I am always reacting in my class room - not thinking ahead (beyond a vague notion of where we're going) more than a day or so. Today has given me a much clearer idea of what I need to do to complete and publish this project, and it has also given me a much clearer way to see ahead and plan this educational experience for my students.

Specifically, today I learned how to create an online survey using google docs forms, and also how to analyze the data. I plan to have my students respond to the survey before and after the project to see if we can get a clearer picture as to how effective this project is.

I also made an outline for each page of my "book" for the digital Is website and began fomenting my thoughts for the writing piece of each page.

I also developed ideas for video clips to create for each page - I would like to augment the survey with video interviews of students while we do the project - to hear their voices on digital writing and their reflections on the "process" of the project, and I would also like to include video created by students - not sure what the content will be yet for these...

So...it was a good day!

Updated blog journal...

Hi Everyone,

I have been updating my blog (albeit sporadically) with my inquiry progress. If you'd like to visit it, click here.

Help me with a survey!

Please visit this survey link and see if it worked! Thanks for your help.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dHlvdEl2bXMtZ21Na1J1b1E1LXpRMEE6MQ

These weeks since our meeting have been a blur. OHCHS has been going through the accreditation process and the NEASC committee visited November 14-17. This required a Sunday at school for presentations and interviews and we've had several extra staff and committee meetings due to the finalizing reports and receiving the follow-up preliminary report. Our school is in a precarious position for several reasons, and I've been preoccupied and remiss in posting blogs.

But, my inquiry has continued, so here is an update.

I am feeling much more comfortable using Google Docs and am particularly liking the fact that students can no longer give me the excuses for missing assignments like, “My printer is broken” or ‘My computer crashed and I lost my entire project.” The students have lost the ability to make these excuses; if they did the work, we can access it from any computer. If they forgot their login information (which rarely happens now) I have the sealed envelops that they gave to me with this information on the day of our account set up for my for the team.

The science teacher on my team lost his infant daughter just before school opened and he was out on bereavement leave for the first month of school. He came back just after I had gotten all of our students set up with accounts and he was very enthusiastic to try it too. He’s a bit more tech savvy than I am, so he has helped me with some issues. The other day he showed me how to “Hide” assignments after they’ve been graded and filed.

I created folders for each class and inside each class folder I add a folder for each assignment. I was placing assignments into folders by using the drop down menu, but last week realized that I can just open a folder in the left column and drag and drop assignments into the correct inside folder much faster.

A friend was visiting while I was grading some papers on irony in short stories. I felt like I kept writing the same comments over and over, like “Always name your assignment so it so doesn’t show up as “Untitled”, and “Titles of short stories are in quotations as opposed to titles of books that are underlined or italicized.” I was grumbling, “I wish this program had canned comments so that I could just click on the comment and it would be inserted instead of writing the same thing over and over. He suggested that I create a Google Doc with common comments and to star it so that I could find it easily when grading assignments. Still, he commented that Google could probably put a feature in for inserting canned comments.

I am finding that with the features of inserting comments, using strike-throughs and being able to color code text, I am actually spending more time on individual writing and discovering each student’s personal idiosyncracies as a writer. Some common examples are failure to place ones’ self last in a sentence like “Me and my friend always hang out together on weekends“, not knowing when to use and apostrophe and where in singular and plural possessives, not capitalizing appropriately, or just listing details instead of using and example and supporting it with the correct details.

What is not going so well is getting students to go back into documents and revise them based on my suggestions. I am going to have to do a demonstration on that soon and will have to encourage them to make revisions ASAP when they see that I have commented and made suggestions or see that an assignment remains “Incomplete” in their portal and has a comment, “Needs revision for a grade”.

Another feature that is missing is the ability to comment on presentations. I can insert speaker notes only and that’s not what the Speaker Notes feature is for, so students wouldn’t see my comment unless they clicked on the Speaker Notes button. What I have done is share the presentation back to the creator(s) and send an attached message with my comments. It would be nice to be able to insert comments on individual slides just as I am able to comment on text documents.

I am so pleased to not be carrying tons of paperwork home on a regular basis! I also like the search feature where I can search a student’s name or the title of an assignment and everything written by that student pops up or every assignment with that title is all in one place to either file or correct.

Free flash sites!!!

A colleague jut showed me a great new site he is working on for his class. He used a new (to me) free web site creator that lets you create flash based websites. Very cool. The site is www.wix.com

Right now I use freewebs for my three class sites, but this flash site is really tempting. It's much more visually interesting, and it lets you create little animations, so that when you rollover objects they change, get bigger, alter color etc.

To see his site go to:

www.wix.com/snailor/shakespearepages

Making progress

We spent a crazy few days before Thanksgiving break creating poetry bags. In the weeks before that we spent much time exploring winter themes, literary devices and a few poetry formats. Some of the bags will be shared with senior citizens at a holiday concert; the rest will be sent in care packages to troops in Afghanistan. We plan to send a recording of the poems to the troops. We are now in the process of recording with Garage Band. We've had a bit of trouble saving the recordings. Students haven't been able to remember all the steps. I struggled with this a bit then it occurred to me I could try my hand at screencasting. I used the site Screencast-O-Matic that Bailey showed us. It was relatively easy to use, but I had a little trouble at first getting my desktop in perspective. I did a few takes. I'm not totally satisfied with the final result, but I think it will serve the purpose.

Much of my time Saturday will be spent mixing the recordings to create a burnable product.

Digital Poster

I have been working with a fifth grade class this past month.
They just finished a "traditional"poster board book report. We have had discussions on the benefits and struggles that come with doing a poster board to express what you have learned, and what information to share.
I shared with them a Gloster Digital Poster I did. I have taught them how to navigate the site Glogster.com they enjoy the website, because it is fun and they can be creative, create and edit when they are at home, as well as at school.
Our next step is for them to create their own digital poster.
I plan to document their progress and what they find to be advantages of doing a digital poster and disadvantages, if any.

Assessment

So - I just finished my first round with Freshman research papers. We're ready (for the most oat) to move to the next step and do research to create the group websites. So, before we begin I'd like to spend some of my time this Saturday in developing a before and after assessment to gauge what they get out of it when we're done. I'll need to figure out what questions to ask, how to ask them, and what method to use. I have done paper questionnaires in the past, but I know that there are on line ways of doing this. I'd love to somehow turn the info into graphs or something so that we can get a better handle on the data.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

Dowloadable Resources

There are some resources you might find helpful, particularly in digital storytelling and movie-related projects. You'll find them on this wiki:

http://maineresources.wikispaces.com/

Am I getting anywhere?

So I now have 98% of my students using Google Docs and it has certainly helped my ability to edit. It has other challenges to it...getting accounts, getting access, and getting them familiar with how to use it. One funny thing happened was that I was on one night, late, and a student came on to the same document. That was pretty cool...although it was hard to figure out WHERE to have our conversation.

I am learning...they are learning..or at least that is my hope/goal. Small...but a goal!

A Steep Learning Curve

Since our last gathering I have been working toward launching two new initiatives in my classes that has challenged my own technological skills. I may be trying to do too much at once, but it's exciting for me, so I'm determined to keep going. First of all, I have created a blog to use for Virtual Literature Circles (http://jfdsbooktalks.wordpress.com/), an idea I read about in an article in Educational Leadership. I have 4 titles (The Outsiders, Speak, Shattering Glass, & The Hunger Games) that students in my 2 classes of at-risk students (16 students total) have chosen to read. They will meet face to face tomorrow to plan their meetings, and I will review the requirements. My plan is to initially provide the prompts to begin discussions, but I am hoping they will use this as an opportunity to construct meaning as a group. I will work on helping them write questions that elicit rich responses. There is also a page called "Making Connections" for students to respond to what I call the BIG QUESTIONS. For example, these titles have many themes in common including the concept of power. One class began a discussion about the use and abuse of power that we will continue tomorrow.

At the same time, I am preparing to launch a Digital Writing Workshop. In the spirit of collaborative learning, I planned to use the wiki resource on Moodle, but after much work and frustration, I have decided to work outside of that forum. Since I've used both wikispaces and pbwiki before, I plan to use one or the other for student writing. That's my weekend project!

In case anyone missed it, the May 2010 issue of English Journal is about social networking/collaboration. I've referred back to it several times.

Digital Is

The National Writing Project's website that we're all creating resources for, Digital Is, has officially launched.

When you visit the site, try the log-on you've already created and see if you are still a member. In some of the final revisions to the site, a number of existing accounts were wiped out, so check and see if yours if still active. If it's not, create a new one. Explore some of the resources, get a sense for what these resources and collections look like, and if some idea hits you, create and upload a resource. You'll see a huge variety of possibilities.

While you're in there, feel free to start some discussions on the resources you're looking at. The hope is that over time, this becomes a live, dynamic site, not so much where people go for lesson plans and tips, but to talk about teaching and learning with digital writing and all that entails.

The site is likely to be quiet for just a little bit; it's being touted in the new book, Because Digital Writing Matters, which has just been released. I've ordered copies for all of you (wow, a course that pays you and buys your books!) and we should have them by the December meeting. No, it's not a required read, and there won't be a quiz, but you might find it useful in light of your participation in this program.

You'll see Digital Is getting some national press - the MacArthur Foundation, the primary funder for the site (and this program) featured the work of one of my students in their announcement of the site, and I expect other media sources to start writing about Digital is in the coming weeks.

Locations...

We're leaving Orono and heading south. Our next two meetings, Saturday, December 4, and Saturday, March 5, will be held at the Maple Hill Bed and Breakfast in Hallowell, just a couple of miles off 95 in Augusta. We'll provide coffee in the a.m., wireless Internet, and a lovely lunch. The final session for the program, the Writing Ourselves event, takes place at the same location on Saturday, April 2.

Click here for directions.

update

Seth and I are working to create a community of writers between his students and mine. We are experimenting with digital storytelling, and skype to engage my 3rd grade writers in production, revising, editing, and sharing of work. I'm working on a rubric and feedback form that will allow Seth's high school students to offer praise and polish to my 3rd grade writers, as well as an authentic destination for their work. I'm also working to incorporate my students management of our blog, hoping that they will become the facilitators of this digital piece as we work through the school year. I appreciated the help with the digital storytelling and look forward to sharing what we've done when we meet on the 4th.

I've begun my work on poetry with my students. Most have taken the survey I developed at our last group work day. I'm still looking at the results. Some students are enthusiastic about the work, others, not so much. I notice that a lot feel like they're floundering, so I guess I have my work cut out for me.

video games for education

In the spirit of sharing - here are a couple video games that I have my juniors play. First they get a lecture on the Battle of Hastings and that whole deal - then for a fun homework assignment I have them play these two games and answer some open ended questions about them.

The first is a simple game that can be played in a few minutes. The second is very complex and takes hours to actually complete.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/games/hastings/index_embed.shtml

http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/0-9/1066/game/index.html

If anyone else teaches Brit Lit, perhaps you'll find this fun.

After 1066 we discuss the French impact on English which leads to Thomas Becket, Magna Carta and then Chaucer...

common core

We just had a lovely (...) staff day this past week discussing the coming tsunami that is the common core interstate standards.

I guess my tone is pretty snarky here, so I should say that in principle I think the "idea" of standards is fine. What I am skeptical about is the implementation. Recalling all the hoopla around Maine's failed attempt to institute the learning results and the accompanying set of assessments, I am apprehensive that this new process will be any more successful.

Anyone else dealing with this in their school? Any insights on how to weather the transition smoothly? Any implications for writing?

I actually printed out the common core writing standards and started highlighting. I highlighted in green the kinds of writing I already do, and in orange what I don't so much. That's not to suggest that writing is an all or nothing thing - this was just to give me a rough idea of how my approach lines up with the core. Not surprisingly, I found that I'm very much in line with the core, except that I don't have students do any writing that is solely geared towards describing a process or reporting/ summarizing an idea. I lump those kinds of explication in with other writing I suppose, in the sense that students need to summarize certain points before they move to argument or analysis, but I always thought that summary on it's own wasn't terribly useful a skill to develop. Anyone else taking a look at these standards???

i have posted my ideas on digital is website. am i also to post on the blog?

More on newspapers

Last week I had the editor of a local 'rag' come to talk to my English Language Learners about writing in general, and what it takes to write for a newspaper. He emphasized the ability to be "digitally saavy" and gave them new information about both the qualifications of a reporter as well as the idea behind what good news means (right now, today, after this election...I am not quite sure! Sorry...my own viewpoint is showing here!). It was a great lesson all around for them.

Have you checked it out??!

Hey Everyone!

What do you think about the Digital IS website? I just took a quick look and am so excited-it seems like an amazing resource. I can't wait to dive into it some more, I think there is a ton of great stuff I can show my teachers. What are your thoughts? Find anything useful?

The next 20 years....

Interested in the future? curious about the present....?

I recommend watching this guy, Chris martenson -- a scientist and former fortune 500 ceo -- he quit his job and now works exclusively on something he calls his "crash course" -- it's an insightful, apolitical, and dispassionate accounting of our economy, energy, and the environment. It's split into 20 parts on youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/ChrisMartensondotcom

all are worth watching, but if you're forced to choose, start with Peak Oil (chap 17, I think) and make sure to watch chapters 18 and 19 -- that's where he finally distills the subsequent chapters into a cogent, measured, but still alarming hypothesis.

Dave can you post...

Hi Dave-can you post the wesbites you shared for fair use songs and pictures? I put them in a document on my school laptop and don't have it here! Thanks!

Blog journal address...

Hi Everyone,

I have begun a blog and have just written about how Saturday went for me...here is the link if you'd like to follow me or just check it out.

Newspaper writing

I struggle most with what LABEL to use here and not sure this is the right one; however, I was guided to not create new ones so I will just go with assignments for now.

I am doing a project with my college English Language Learners (ELL) on Letters to the Editor. It is a digital project, in that they must do it online for it to be sent to the paper. It is fascinating to see how hard this is for them...not the digital part but the Writing to Persuade/Give opinion part. As students from many countries where this is NOT common, they really wonder, "Is it OK to write these things?"

Fascinating lesson in history, democracy, and writing all at once. Anyone who has ideas how to combine these issues, I welcome it. Very interesting to do this, and it happens every semester.

Saturday

Hey all - that was a great workshop day. I really enjoyed the chance to sit down and work on my stuff for a number of hours. It's not a luxury I can enjoy at work or at home these days, so it's great to have a dedicated time and space devoted not to grading or similar "book keeping" but to doing something that will make my teaching better!
I also learned some cool new tech stuff. I really enjoyed Dave's tutorial on imovie. Getting a handful of tips on how to make use of the program was great (which will certainly snaz up my home videos of Ellie...) but I really liked seeing how he places an emphasis in his classes on intellectual property rights. It's a fascinating topic, and one that I realize I should think more about. I showed the website "creative commons" to my wife, who does research in a law firm, and she was excited because they are always looking for pics and what not that they can use without violating copyright restrictions. Educating my students about IP can provide them with a great real world skill as well as an increased sensitivity to a serious 21st century concern.

Thanks Dave!

New Saturday learning

Today I learned some cool stuff on Google Docs and am ready to get my students to open accounts. I am convinced this can enhance my editing time with students. Can't wait...

Two Cool New Resources!!

These are the resources I modeled at the beginning of our work session!

http://screencast-o-matic.com/

This website records what you're doing on your screen! It is a great tool to show kids how to do anything electronic, how to do a bibliography, etc. You could also use it to guide kiddos when you have a substitute, or to differentiate for certain kids who did not get your lesson the first time around!

http://www.wallwisher.com

This website is a wonderful discussion forum to use with your students. Your students all post a "sticky note" of 150 characters or less, and all stickies appear on the screen. A teacher I know uses it as an admit or exit slip.

Digital Writing and Reluctant Middle School Writers

I am really excited about my inquiry project, although before I go much further, I want to gather more data about my students. On Saturday, I plan to work on developing a better Writing Survey to determine students' current attitudes toward and beliefs about writing. I will later have them complete a similar survey after writing and creating digitally in order to document change. I also saved samples of writing from the early weeks of school before laptops were issued.

Fortunately, we have many opportunities to write in a digital format. I am using Moodle for journaling, online discussions, and reading responses. We also have a school blog where students can talk about books. Many of my students have contributed to this, and find it highly engaging. I've also tried having them read an online article and submit a comment. The work ahead of me is in helping students to expand their writing. The type of writing we are doing digitally tends to be off the cuff, first draft kinds of writing. I am interested in learning how to best apply the writing process to digital writing, so I have ordered Troy Hicks' book The Digital Writing Workshop. I have also gathered lots of articles about engaging reluctant writers and digital writing in general.

I'm looking forward to gathering new ideas and tips when we convene on Saturday. See you then.

Saturday

Hi All!

I know I sent this in an email, but just in case you didn't get it...

We're meeting Saturday the 23rd at 9am on the UMO campus, Room 202 Shibles. Coffee will be provided :). We'll have two wonderful tech coaches joining us! You will be working, self directed, on your inquiry question for a full 6 hours- make sure you bring everything you'll need. If you have any questions, please shoot an email back to me!

Progress to Date

It is hard to believe that our first quarter ends October 29th! Our entire student population received Netbooks about three weeks ago and I have been learning about Google Docs, slowly. So far I am very impressed with the program, though I still have lots to learn.

I started by taking each of my classes to the library computers because that way I had the aid of staff members and the library computers were a little more reliable for all students. My son, Logan, and I had set up a Google Docs account and composed instructions. This also required all students having a First Class account and that proved to be the first challenge, since I have several students who are new to our school district this year. Students set up their Google Docs accounts and put all necessary passwords in sealed envelopes in case passwords were forgotten. Those envelopes have been lifesavers on several occasion already!

The first assignment was to send me a document with research on the author, Shirley Jackson. Then I gave each student one of our vocabulary words and they had to set up a three-slide slideshow and share that with me.

From there I realized I had a huge mess. A document and a slideshow from nearly all of my 85 students. Thankfully a colleague helped me to create folders for each of my classes and in each folder is a separate folder for each assignment. This organization works wonderfully and I am already realizing how much more organized Google Docs is going to make me - let alone how much less paperwork I am hauling around!

Yesterday and today I paired students up to collaborate on a slideshow presentation, and they are getting the hang of how the sharing works! Last year it was the Netbooks that put all of my students, the haves and the have nots, on the same page as far as being able to word process documents, conduct Internet research and create slideshows. Now students are able to collaborate using Google Docs and there won't be excuses about losing work or their computer crashing as these documents can be accessed via Google Docs from any computer.

I still have so much to learn, but I'm very pleased by how well things have gone so far. I'm also pleased that the students are buying into the use of Google Docs and its features.

RESEARCH JOURNAL

Thanks to Dave and Kim I've created a blog to help me keep track as I work this year on my inquiry question. Here's the address if you want to check it out, be kind, it's in the infancy stage!

http://thedigitalproject.blogspot.com/

Give us an update!

Hi Everyone!

Now that we're a month and 1/2 into school-let's hear an update on your inquiry project! I loved reading about Kim's problems/progress! I think if everyone posts what is going well and what is slowing you down, we could really learn from each other.

Also, Dave has two fabulous tech savvy coaches for us! Seth Mitchell and Denyell Suomi- Seth currently works with older writers and Denyell teaches grades 1-2. There won't be formal workshops, but lots of small group and 1:1 work depending on what you need. Considering our conference is only 8 days away (October 23rd) make sure you start gathering anything you'll need to work for a full 7 or so hours on your inquiry project. Please let me know if you have any questions or a snack preference :)

Blog

Dave suggested creating a blog to track progress on our inquiry project. I decided to give it a go. As Kate Kennedy says, "I just wrote this!" So...I will try to post each week with an update of how it's going. I still have to post my most recent digital lesson. You'll see the first week didn't go as planned and was a bit frustrating. I have better news for week 2!
http://mwpdigitalinquiry.blogspot.com/

A Great Read

I read an interesting book this weekend - The Thoreau You Don't Know: What The Prophet Of Environmentalism Really Meant. While the title might suggest to some that the author, Robert Sullivan, is interested in presenting Thoreau as someone other than the "profit of environmentalism", what the book is really about is Sullivan's argument that Thoreau's Walden is not exactly the book we think we remember from high school/ college. While most people - including myself- recall Thoreau as a cranky hermit, Sullivan argues that Walden is not a rural book at all, but an urban one, by which he means that the primary focus of Walden is not seclusion but community. Fascinating read. It prompted me to dig out my copy of Walden and read it all over again - this time from a fresh perspective...

New Promethean Board!

It was like Christmas Thursday morning when I entered my classroom and my new Promethean board (an interactive white board similar to a Smart Board) had been installed. I was one of 4 teachers in the school lucky enough to get one with funds from who knows where, but now I have yet another technological tool to learn about. I'm impatient when it comes to this stuff. I want to skip the apprentice stage and use it to its full capacity. I can plug it in and turn it on, but so far I have only used it as a glorified LCD projector. Training will be forthcoming, but you know how those things go. I've also investigated resources on-line, but most of the "lessons" strike me as nothing more than worksheets on steroids, if you know what I mean. SO... anybody out there who uses an interactive white board for writing instruction? Would love to hear from you.

Really cool website!

Check out this article!

http://thejournal.com/articles/2010/10/06/action-student-generated-video-web-site-teaches-visual-communications-skills.aspx

This website has a some great virtual stuff-and is dubbed "NPR" for kids. It has a collection of virtual field trips where students can meet "fascinating people from all over the world." What I love is that it has a video collection of YA book reviews done by students. Your kids can send in video book reviews (on cd through snail mail) and if its chosen to be on the website your student gets a $25 gift certificate to amazon. The site also has video podcasting lessons. This website seems to be k-8.

Here is the website directly:
http://www.meetmeatthecorner.org/

Valid Websites

I really appreciated Jon's latest blog because while it is important to criticize technology so we can better understand and use it-its always nice to remember how it can be such a powerful tool.

The key is how to get our students to navigate the internet effectively. I'm sure you've all done lesson plans on checking the validity of websites. I once saw a candidate for Maine teacher of the year give a lesson plan on exactly this using this website (and it has become my favorite to use!):

http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/

This website on the "tree octopus" looks 100% legitimate. It has links, its scientific name, a "FAQs" page...and of course, it is all a huge hoax and a great tool to show kids how using multiple resources is so important. (Wikipedia even has a page about it! Try googling it.)

Inquiry Approaches and Ideas

I was thinking about what might help all of you folks, and my thoughts went to the end, that project that you'll be sharing in April both in person and online. We all have different approaches, but one thing I thought of was the potential value of keeping a research journal (or blog) as your work unfolds. Sure, it's valuable to help guide and keep track of thinking, but it's also valuable for producing a project. Imagine being able to draw on the quotes you can pull from observation notes and journal entries as you've been going through this work.

So if you're not keeping a journal - be it on paper, blog, or nifty iPad, then think about it. It might be worth it.

Here's a link for all to some NWP articles on teacher research:
http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource_topic/teacher_research_inquiry

Journaling gets a number of mentions.

Equity in access

This was a response (comment) to the post with the same name - but it was too big, so I'm making it a post.

This is a promising thread! Sarah asks:

"So there is the issue of equity to access of documents. Kids without computers, or who chronically forget them, or refuse to learn to use them, are at a serious disadvantage. There is also, however, the equity of entrance into the conversation."


Way back when the internet first emerged, a number of savvy forward thinking types predicted that the internet would be a democratizing force. They couldn't have been more correct. The internet has accomplished this in a number of ways including:

1. Access to intellectual information
2. Access to data- especially in the context of current politics
3. By providing a forum for the views of everyone to have the potential to be weighted equally

There's more, but this could turn into a manifesto quickly, so let's think about these three ways as they relate to education.

1. Access to intellectual information. When I was in High School I really wanted to know a lot of stuff. One day I asked my civics teacher how the Roman Empire fell. He said, laconically, "barbarians...barbarians overran the empire." Although I nagged him about this topic, he never gave me much more than that, and in the pre-internet age, my trail of inquiry ended there. I had already read the school's encyclopedia entry about the fall of the empire, so I was at a loss. I didn't understand how barbarians could have overrun such a powerful empire, but what was I to do? This was the case with most info , and I totally accepted the idea that I just wasn't going to know certain things - not without amazing amounts of work. Either I could read The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, or I could move on. Now, of course that info couldn't be easier to gain. I've noticed that my students access this kind of information on a daily basis. Many of them know a lot about stuff - often topics that are only tangential to the school curriculum - but if you think about it this is a kind of democratization in and of itself. The internet has superseded the school's once mighty strangle hold on information. Even, if like Texas, we wished to rewrite our history texts to reflect various "realities" the counter "realities" would be just as assessable to students. For myself, this democratization has ramifications for my students, and I see it as part of my job to encourage them to explore the information they are interested in.

2. Access to data can be powerful, and I think we have a responsibility to teach our students how the internet has empowered the citizenry of the world. Before the internet, when a politician told the masses something, the vast majority of people had only two options - believe it, or maintain an uniformed skepticism. There was often no way for the average person to verify the validity of the actions or statements of public figures. Now that reality has completely changed. We no longer have any excuse for remaining passive consumers of political information. Where, before the internet, a politician could hide a duplicitous piece of legislation behind a misleading euphemism (clear skies initiative anyone!) now we can simply read that legislation for ourselves. The goal for my AP language students is - among other things - to become critical consumers of information. In the past that meant developing a sensitivity to the whiles of rhetoric - now we can add virtual information savvy to rhetoric as another weapon that our citizens can arm themselves with against the misinformation and manipulations bombarding us on a daily basis. This new reality has ramifications for "what" and "how" we teach.

3. Self expression has never been more powerful. While youtube is cool as a way for average people to steal some lime light from Hollywood, the Internet's greatest contribution is that it provides a forum for the ideas, arguments, and expressions of anyone. Before the internet the TV and press media were the only forum for ideas - and both forums were rigidly controlled. This is perhaps the most powerful expression of the democratizing force of the internet as it literally democratizes ideas themselves. In my view then it is absolutely essential that we educate students with the mindset that their ideas matter - not just in the abstract (as in the past) but in literal reality. More than ever before, every one of us possesses a voice that can be heard. For the first time we each have an equal potential to step forward and enter "the conversation" that up until now has been closed to a very small and select few. I think that we are fortunate to live in such an empowered age.

Inquiry Question

I am challenged by what to try to accomplish because I have students for ONE semester and then it changes. My thought is that I need to become proficient in the first semester, do some trial runs and then teach THEM to be proficient when I have a new group in January. I don't know...it is all I can dare to accomplish. My question is this:

Will the use of GOOGLE DOCS ultimately improve writing output by doing the following: allow greater ability to dialogue/conference about their writing, allow a chance to edit with them, make comments and help them to really zero in on their writing, thus allowing me to use the classrooom time for direct instruction?

WHAT DO I NEED? I need to learn Google Docs...I know nothing! I need a Docs Coach...desperately.

WHAT IS MY PLAN OF EXECUTION? First, I need to learn Google docs, then get my class set up with accounts to use it with me. My hope/goal would be to end THIS semester with using this format to edit/conference with them on at least ONE final paper and then determine if this has relieved me of classroom conferencing time to allow more direct instruction.

Equity in access to electronic material.

Dave asked: "I am wondering how equity plays into the issue. Is that question, perhaps, more geared toward access - both to materials and non-teacher sources, when digital, especially hyperlinked texts come into play" in response to my question about equity of access to education.

Here I am thinking of two things. First, as Dave suggests, there is the presence of materials. Because of the current nature of online libraries, we have nearly immediate access to all sorts of written media, not just current, but past as well. For example, we were reading The Moon is Down, by John Steinbeck, in a Sophomore class. The question came up, did people "way back then" (in the 1940s) recognize propaganda for what it was?" I remembered Google News Archives and a quick search brought up newspapers from the era with articles on propaganda. Next time we read this book (in January) I'll start there and have students looking at Steinbeck's context before we start reading. There was also a lengthy review in the Canadian Jewish Chronicle and multiple commentaries in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

This spawned other questions, but it also brought to light a surprising issue. Many, not all, of my students have a really muddled sense of time. It was is if seeing this in print, on the computer, made the issues contemporary to them, not a thing of the past. Pointing out the advertising in the papers helped somewhat with this, but not entirely.

So there is the issue of equity to access of documents. Kids without computers, or who chronically forget them, or refuse to learn to use them, are at a serious disadvantage. There is also, however, the equity of entrance into the conversation. This has two aspects (at least - Why can things never have just one aspect???) Clearest is that if the discussion of the document is online, then non-tech ready students can't participate. Certainly in this Jon is right to be hesitant in requiring online discussions. The second aspect, however, is one I noticed in having students annotate documents using Preview. The three students who needed paper copies because they had either not been given their computers yet (or they couldn't access my file repository and claimed they didn't have email either) did far less in annotating than did the ones using Preview. I had noticed this last year when doing an activity looking at analysis of poetry. One of the teachers in my department during a show and tell commented that the depth of annotations I was getting from my "regular" students was similar to what she got from her AP students. So this other aspect of equity has to do with which students have the richer experience in interacting with text - those who do it digitally, or those who use paper and pencils? Or are the students willing to delve into the digital the ones who have the richer experience to begin with.

MWP

I'm sitting here at the Effective Practices Conference waiting for the keynote address to start. It's always energizing to be around so many educators who are committed to making a difference for our students. Can't help but think of the fact that the next few weeks my entire school will be involved in testing, not teaching. It seems we could make better use of our time. So opposite to what today is all about.

problem solving

Just now I observed an email exchange between a number of colleagues. One teacher is trying to put together a school store with a group of students, and to help them determine what to stock he set up an online survey. His email set off a flurry of responses - all from teachers complaining that when they clicked on the link it didn't work. He then apologized and sent out a new email. However, one teacher wrote back and pointed out that the link could work - all you had to do was copy/ paste it into your url. The interesting thing for me was that no one else who responded to the message seemed to have figured out this simple work around. It brought home something that I have observed with my students time and again - people know how to do all sorts of stuff with computers, but few of them are good at solving problems. If things don't work as they are supposed to, they tend to give up, rather than try to work around the issue. What we seem to have is a serious lack of problem solving skills.

I had an experience with this just this past Monday - a student came up to me and said that she didn't have her homework because her printer was broken. (Assuming that was true) I asked her why she didn't problem solve (I actually did use these words) - she could have emailed it to herself and printed it at school - she could have bounced it to a stick drive - she could have emailed it to me.

It seems obvious that we should think about teaching problem solving skills while we also teach specific computer applications. But then, if you start thinking about this seriously, you realize that problem solving on a computer is hard to directly teach. What do you do - show kids every possible problem that could occur with any given app, and then how to solve it? That would be an exercise in futility...

Therefore it seems more sensible to simply teach problem solving skills themselves - and not necessarily married to the computer. Kids don't need so much to have a battery of problems and fixes memorized in their heads as they need to learn to attack new problems and look for any possible solutions. Now that would a real skill worth developing....

REALLY Reluctant Writers

I am certain that I want to focus on the effects of digital writing on reluctant writers, but I may need to tweak my question. As it stands now, it's a little vague: How does digital writing affect reluctant writers? To be more specific, I certainly want to improve my students' attitudes toward writing, but I, of course, ultimately want to make them better writers. So, how about this: How can digital writing improve students' attitudes toward writing and improve the quality of the writing?

I have several plans in mind. First, I have established Moodle courses for each class and intend to become more Moodle savvy. In fact, I attended a workshop last week and have a group of colleagues at school who are meeting to help one another. Moodle became available to us last year, but I never used it to its full capacity.

So today I launched my first attempt to write digitally using the forum option on Moodle. As a reading activity, I had my students (the class I'm focusing on for this inquiry) read an article about banning books since it's Banned Books Week. I then posted a question and began a forum (online discussion) about what they believed about the issue. Every student pecked away fervently for what seemed like hours, but when responses were posted, I realized they were spending more time playing with fonts and text color than composing pithy statements. BUT, they were certainly engaged. Here's an example: i agree with what you say. i think banning books is stupid.

So, this is what I'm wondering: What kinds of parameters or expectations should I establish for online discussions? Should I allow the type of writing we use when texting? Does this eventually lead to better writing? The opportunities for digital writing seem endless, but it's still new, unchartered territory.

New Inquiry Question

New Inquiry Question:

How does the use of digital media foster students writing and motivation as they work to create a yearlong timeline of their learning?

My Vision (My Plan):

• I will create templates for each month on Impress that will be shared on each student’s computer.
• I will take pictures/video of students working in the classroom and upload them for students to choose from.
• Students will learn to open a saved file in Impress each lab session.
• Students will learn how to choose photos so they can write about one photo a month and tell what they learned/liked about that lesson.
• Students will learn how to keyboard well enough to tell a story. I will teach how to capitalize letters, how to punctuate sentences and how to spell check.
• I will document my work on my laptop. Entries will include lessons taught as well as problems and successes!

What Help do I Need at October Meeting:

• I need to learn how to use Impress well enough to teach it. I know it is similar to PowerPoint and I have a basic understanding of that.
• Is Impress the best program to use for this work?
• How do I create templates that can be sent to all kids’ computers?
• I don’t know how to download pictures onto our computers (Thin Clients). Hopefully someone is going to show me this week.
• I want to learn how to share movies on Impress so students can have the movies we create in their yearly timeline.
• I need to learn how to podcast so clips can be added to the timeline.
• These timelines will be shared with families-haven’t decided on the format yet.

Problems I may encounter:

• The server is often down. What will I do if I am not able to have the kids do this work because of the server??

Multimedia Help

I just came across the step-by-step narrated slideshow tutorial for iMovie users. I'm using it with my students, and of course driving home the point that everything comes down to the writing in the end.

And for those of you considering creating MP3s with kids for any kind of multimedia, this is an interesting - and quite cool - text to speech program.

http://vozme.com

The male voice is good for pretending you're a robot. The female voice is a little better.

Inquiry change,

I have changed my Inquiry from when to put down the pen to

How is digital media affecting the way preschool age children learn? I realize this is a broad question. I plan on narrowing it down to maybe the following.

As i interview teachers and get a better feel for what is currently being used in shcools i feel it will become more focused.

1. How does digital media affect the way preschool children learn to read?
2. What specific programs are local Maine schools using in their pre-k /kindergarten classrooms.
3. How much time is spent using digital media to teach preschool age students in local Maine Schools .
4. How do local teachers feel about digital media use in the preschool / kindergarten setting?

My Plan of Execution:


Read / Research books/articles written on this topic.

Observe and Document the time and different digital media programs my two daughters are using at home.

Interview local pre-school teachers. What digital media are they using, if any. How much time is spent per child/per digital media etc. How has teaching/learning changed when digital media is used. What are the benefits/detriments of digital media?

Interview parents of preschool age children, what type of digital media are they exposing their children to, if any.

What I need for help/October

Input of what fellow classmates know about what is being used in their schools and households.

Try out programs available, especially ones that are being used in local classrooms. Research these programs online.

*Discuss options with an early childhood Literacy Specialist/reading recovery person/ etc. One that is schooled in Early childhood literacy and would have information about how digital media effects preschool age children.

Inquiry Questions

Jonathan York’s Action Research Plan

Question: How can I explore, make use of, and learn about digital media options to enrich and expand my student’s experience with writing? I am at a place where I need to collect as many ideas as possible and see what can be done.

Plan of execution: The plan is to gather new ideas and implement as many as possible while simultaneously developing my own, and/ or synthesizing ideas from other sources. I have already spent the last several weeks with my Freshman preparing an autobiography assignment, which offered my students an array of options – some digital – some more traditional for them to explore. I heard my first class today as they read their work in small groups, and when several students read for the whole class. They were the best ones that I have received thus far, so I think I am getting better at supporting and facilitating this activity so that my students can be increasingly more successful.

With both my Freshman and Juniors I plan on expanding the research projects that I started last year. The project had students create web pages as a group. Students researched their topics in the traditional way, creating works cited pages etc. But instead of writing the standard research paper, they each wrote multiple articles for their web pages – covering different angles of their over arching topic. This year I want to expand this project to include more varied types of media presentation – such as video. I also will be searching for ideas to use and expand upon.

What I will need: More than anything I will need ideas, ideas, ideas! I also will need a good sounding board to bounce ideas off of. This forum has already provided that service, and I benefitted quite a bit from earlier discussion leading up to my Freshman’s autobiographies.

I also need ideas about creative ways to handle SAT prep, and boost scores/ readiness. I use the SAT online course with my students, but more is always required.

My Query - Reading: The other end of literacy

Questions:
How does a transition from carrying around paper and ink books to digital sources affect student engagement? How does this add to the mix of equity in terms of access to education? What specific skills do students need to work with electronic written work?

Rationale:
Literacy is clearly a thing of two parts: writing and reading. Everybody is extolling the virtues of going green and we hear a lot about paperless classrooms and workplaces. Most of the focus is on producing reports, memos, and data that never see ink. Many of these are probably printed out on local printers rather than printed and then mailed. Certainly paper is saved, but, I suspect, most of the saving is in ease of transporting the documents to the place they will be ultimately printed.

We heard about the reading side of paperless classrooms when Cushing Academy made news last year by announcing that it was replacing its stacks with a cappuccino machine and the books themselves with Kindles. Major text book companies are increasingly offering books online, or on CD. These certainly cut down on textbook loss, but they raise questions of equity of access. Do all students have computers and internet available to them? Is reading online the same as reading paper and ink? What are the issues around annotating digital text?

I agree with people who have commented that we seem to assume that today's youth live and breathe digital communication. It is cliche to say "Ask a teen" if you don't know how to do something with a computer. Kids are pretty good at communicating what they know, but are often pitiful when it comes to inferring information not explicit in instructions. Sometimes they don't even deal with instructions. Experience in the classroom suggests that editing skills are not consistent in terms of acquiring, manipulating, or creating digital text.

I would like to examine the skills and strategies used to deal with finding and reading digital texts. How are they different from those used with paper texts? What do students need to know in order to be successful readers of these texts? How is equity of access to education reflected in this debate?

My Question

Here is my question:

How will the move toward going paperless change my classroom environment and impact my students’ writing, particularly through the use of Google Docs?


Here is my plan of execution:

Recently I’ve had a couple of dreams where I panic because class is about to start and I discover that there is no chalk in my classroom. We now have to requisition supplies from our office and have them delivered and the dream has me in dread of appearing to be unprepared in front of my students!

I plan to become familiar with Google Docs and use its many tools with my students including the creation of documents to share, having students create and share all of their assignments through GoogleDocs, and using the Forms and Presentation features. A colleague has done this very successfully for a couple of years and claims that the lost work, broken printer and other excuses have all gone away. All of our students now have Netbooks and our paper and printer supplies budgets have of course been cut. Going paperless makes sense in 2010 and beyond.

My son and I set up accounts on Google Docs and wrote down directions for creating accounts.
I have watched YouTube tutorials about Google Docs.
I have received some support from colleagues in how Google Docs works, but have not had enough time to work with it and begin to feel comfortable. I hate to keep asking the same questions!
I will start to create documents which I plan to share with students on GoogleDocs.


Here is what I need for help at our next meeting (coaches, next meeting, etc.)

I need to learn how to use this tool effectively and some ways to make it work with all of my students from those with special needs to my Honors Challenge students. Before our next meeting I hope that all of my students will have accounts and will start becoming familiar with creating and sharing documents. I need someone to help me to organize my five classes (85 students total) and assignments in each of our standards: Writing, Reading/Interpretation of Literature, Presentation, Research and Behaviors That Support Learning.

Inquiry

I've decided to go with an inquiry involving poetry.
My questions is: How does the use of digital media affect student engagement in reading and writing poetry.

My plan is to have my students complete a survey of their feelings about poetry. I already have their initial responses to "Nothing Gold Can Stay" from our first few days together. I'll be using this as a baseline. As we work through this year together we will incorporate digital media in to our study of poetry. I envision some projects involving Garage Band and/or iMovie. We traditionally create poetry bags (a different take on a project done in the Naples area) for the Winter Concert put on buy the high school for senior citizens. A few years ago we created a disc of students reading their poems to add to the bags. While this was a nice idea, it turned out to be kind of a rush job. I'd like to give this another go, giving the students more responsibility for the mixing, etc. We have a school web site which could be a venue for students to share their work. We also have a morning broadcast where students can show case their work.

What I need is some help with Garage Band and iMovie. I've used both of these programs, but I use them so infrequently, I am always relearning them. I also need some ideas about websites where students can get free access to music and pictures. I'm open to other suggestions about digital media and poetry.

Living and Learning with new media...

Although this packet contains the views of many different individuals, for the most part all of these educators, researchers, and policy makers assume a common understanding: that digital media is THE way that youth communicate with the world, each other, and their learning. Obviously, the rise of digital media has changed much, and has opened new avenues of expression to today's youth (and adults..), but I always get uncomfortable anytime anyone - especially educators - make blanket generalizations. While many students do appear to engage with this technology on a daily basis, not all students prefer it. In my classes I always have a student or two who just isn't into computers. Last year I had a pair of girls who make their own clothes, didn't have facebook accounts, and vocally expressed their disdain for everything "computer." While in the midst of doing an online research project and creating their own webpages, one girl said to me," can't we just make a poster - what ever happened to paint, markers, and paper - something to touch..." Now, I'm not suggesting that a digital change is not taking place, I just believe in using caution, and listening to young people. Anytime any one suggests that "this, or that"is the answer for all students, I get skeptical.

OK - that said, one area in this packet the readings that fascinates me is the idea of new moral implications that have arisen thanks to digital media. The writer includes concerns for privacy, safety (think the myspace killer!!!), as well as new ideas concerning intellectual property rights. This becomes a weird issue for teachers as well. For the last two years, I have run a myspace group with my Academic Decathlon team. But then I started getting nervous, especially as other kids in my classes began "friending" me. Recently I decided to close my account, and transfer the group administration off to one of the team's top students. It just makes one think about how to balance the possibilities with the pitfalls of all this enhanced communication.

New Inquiry Idea

I've been thinking over my "paperless" idea and believe that Dave is right-- I already sort of know what will happen with this inquiry. I have been thinking in the last few days of differentiation and how digital media may help me differentiate more widely and across different sections of my ELA classes. I have little to no idea how this inquiry will "end up"...and I feel like that is how I should feel

For example, I recently set-up a blog for five of my "top" students to discuss Lord of the Flies while the rest of the 8th grade reads The Hunger Games. These 5 students are in 3 different sections of ELA and would never be able to get together to discuss the book in school hours. They all read The Hunger Games last year, and while they enjoyed it (who wouldn't??), they do need a challenge. I also failed my "top" student miserably last year....they just did not get the challenge they needed. Hence, the blog...we'll see how it works.

Anyway, this has all lead me to think that there has to be other ways that I can use digital resources to give all students what they need when they need it.

New tentative inquiry question: What happens when digital literacy/tech integration is used to differentiate in the 8th grade ELA classroom?...or something of the sort.

What I need from coaches and peers is: A) feedback on my question, B) ideas of other programs or applications out there that may contribute to this inquiry....C) anything else that anyone else can think of!

Inquiry Question

It’s been a great couple of weeks getting to know my new classroom community. I have a small class this year, only fifteen 3^rd graders who range in age from 7-8 years old. They have a wide variety of strengths and weaknesses, and I can already envision the growth that many of them will make, specifically in the area of literacy development.

I’ve made initial assessments, and have discovered that I have a number of reluctant writers, mostly boys. Our district is in its second year of implementing the Lucy Calkins Units of Study, which focuses on 90 minutes of targeted instruction and independent practice through the Writing Workshop five days a week. That’s a lot of writing for this age, which had led me to my inquiry question.

Here is my question:

How will incorporating a variety of digital media opportunities enhance a “canned curriculum” for 3rd grade writers?

Plan of Action/Execution:

I plan to begin by gathering data on my 3^rd grade writers including the amount of time they are able to sustain their own writing, (right now it’s about 4 minutes) collect mentor text in order for them to immerse themselves in quality writing, identify topics/genres that my 3^rd graders are interested in writing about, explore what types of digital media programs we can use with ease, with a focus on peer to peer learning, and development of digital skills. I would then share samples of programs with the students, allowing them to select the digital media that interests them. I envision students working collaboratively in a variety of programs, sharing with each other the possibilities for social destinations for their writing, as well as creating a kind of mentorship community as they share technical skills with each other.

My goal is to improve the core competencies of reading and writing through a supportive digital community in the classroom. I hope that with improved stamina for writing, these young author’s will be engaged and self motivated to improve their writer’s craft.

Here is what I need for help at our next meeting:

1. Suggestions/feedback maybe to help narrow my inquiry/action research.

2. What programs would we use in 3^rd grade( 7 and 8 year olds) to offer students the opportunity to become independent as they create a digital library of their writing to include movies, digital storytelling, picture collage, keynote/power point, with a focus on quality social destinations?

3. What is the best way to receive and share feedback in order to cultivate full participation and a community of writers?

Inquiry Question/ Assignment

It’s been a great couple of weeks getting to know my new classroom community. I have a small class this year, only fifteen 3^rd graders who range in age from 7-8 years old. They have a wide variety of strengths and weaknesses, and I can already envision the growth that many of them will make, specifically in the area of literacy development.

I’ve made initial assessments, and have discovered that I have a number of reluctant writers, mostly boys. Our district is in its second year of implementing the Lucy Calkins Units of Study, which focuses on 90 minutes of targeted instruction and independent practice through the Writing Workshop five days a week. That’s a lot of writing for this age, which had led me to my inquiry question.

Here is my question:

How will incorporating a variety of digital media opportunities enhance a “canned curriculum” for 3rd grade writers?

Plan of Action/Execution:

I plan to begin by gathering data on my 3^rd grade writers including the amount of time they are able to sustain their own writing, (right now it’s about 4 minutes) collect mentor text in order for them to immerse themselves in quality writing, identify topics/genres that my 3^rd graders are interested in writing about, explore what types of digital media programs we can use with ease, with a focus on peer to peer learning, and development of digital skills. I would then share samples of programs with the students, allowing them to select the digital media that interests them. I envision students working collaboratively in a variety of programs, sharing with each other the possibilities for social destinations for their writing, as well as creating a kind of mentorship community as they share technical skills with each other.

My goal is to improve the core competencies of reading and writing through a supportive digital community in the classroom. I hope that with improved stamina for writing, these young author’s will be engaged and self motivated to improve their writer’s craft.

Here is what I need for help at our next meeting:

1. Suggestions/feedback maybe to help narrow my inquiry/action research.

2. What programs would we use in 3^rd grade( 7 and 8 year olds) to offer students the opportunity to become independent as they create a digital library of their writing to include movies, digital storytelling, picture collage, keynote/power point, with a focus on quality social destinations?

3. What is the best way to receive and share feedback in order to cultivate full participation and a community of writers?

Reluctant Writers

Before committing to an inquiry question, I wanted to get a feel for my classes and frame my question in such a way that I would be meeting the needs of my students. This is an unusual year for me. For 13 years I have taught Grade 8 ELA, 2 accelerated classes and 3 heterogeneous classes. Due to an unusually small 8th grade class, we had an opportunity this year to target at-risk students by providing small classes with extended literacy instruction. I have two of these groups of students this year in addition to my 2 accelerated classes.

A word about our school, the James F. Doughty School in Bangor: We are one of two middle schools in the city, but our demographics are vastly different. Last year 68% of our students qualified for free or reduced lunch. This year we believe we'll surpass 70%. I'm sure many of you are teaching similar populations. BUT, we have a lot to be proud of. For the past 5 or 6 years we have worked hard to create a culture of literacy by instituting new programs to get kids reading. Our reading scores have climbed every year (and as an aside, we were just named last week one of 2 Blue Ribbon Schools in the state), but I feel that our writing curriculum has suffered as a result. Of the 15 students in my 2 "alternative" classes, I would label 12 of them as reluctant writers based on a survey about writing I had them complete as well as an initial writing assignment. (Ugh!) The good news is that they are nearly ALL readers, so my goal is to turn them onto writing. Some of my goals include using Moodle for e-journaling and blogging, allowing more collaborative writing (wikis), writing for an authentic audience, creating multi-media presentations, and allowing more student choice.

So, here's a stab at my question: HOW DOES DIGITAL WRITING AFFECT RELUCTANT WRITERS?

I have a lot to work on! I need to become more comfortable with Moodle (any experts out there?), investigate safe on-line publishing options for students (such as Fan Fiction), and learn much more about digital story telling, creating comics, podcasts, etc.

I'm really excited to be working with these 2 groups of students. They were carefully chosen and grouped so that they would feel safe and connected to school. They are trying to stay in school and do well against all odds. Any and all advice is welcomed!

Timeline

Here's my idea for my inquiry. Thanks for feedback!

Inquiry Question:

Can I learn to use Open Office software for word processing and presentations well enough to teach my second grade students so they can create a yearly timeline of their learning using Impress while uploading it to Google Docs for previewing and sharing with families. (I’m also considering tracking one student throughout. I have already noticed an unmotivated writer in my room and wonder if he will become more motivated if he’s composing on the computer).

Why would I want to learn to use Openoffice?

§ My school has completely changed over to a Linux operating system. I need to learn how to use the applications so I can effectively teach them to my students.

§ In the past, my students have kept a monthly time-line on paper, which ended up as a collection for an end of the year record of all they had learned. We create several movies each year, and it would be interesting to have all their learning in one place (Impress).

§ Students will be expected to learn to use Openoffice throughout their schooling in Orono. By learning the applications at a young age, they will be prepared for the future.

§ Some students are not motivated to write with a pencil/paper. Their motivation may increase as they compose on the computer.

§ This will make my teaching in the computer lab more focused as I usually plan a lesson from week to week that doesn’t teach them about the applications-usually we explore a website to learn about a concept in our current theme. It’s important for students to understand how to use the applications in Open Office.

My Vision (My Plan):

§ I will create templates for each month on Impress that will be shared on each student’s computer.

§ I will take pictures/video of students working in the classroom and upload them for students to choose from.

§ Students will learn to open a saved file in Impress each lab session.

§ Students will learn how to choose photos so they can write about one photo a month and tell what they learned/liked about that lesson.

§ Students will learn how to keyboard well enough to tell a story. I will teach how to capitalize letters, put one space after each word, how to punctuate sentences, and how to spell check.

§ I will document my work on my laptop. Entries will include lessons taught as well as problems and successes! I will also compare the one student's in-class writing with his computer work.

What Help do I Need at October Meeting:

§ I need to learn how to use Impress well enough to teach it. I know it is similar to PowerPoint and I have a basic understanding of that.

§ Is Impress the best program to use for this work?

§ How do I create templates that can be sent to all kids’ computers?

§ I don’t know how to download pictures onto our computers-where do I put them to make it easy for kids to access them? (Thin Clients).

§ I want to learn how to share movies on Impress so students can have the movies we create in their yearly timeline.

§ I need to learn how to podcast so clips can be added to the timeline.

§ I’m not sure if I will put these on Google Docs for parents. I don’t have the capability to burn discs on our computers, but I want parents to have access to their child’s work. If I do go with Google Docs, I need to learn how to use it. Maybe there’s a better application for this? I don’t know.

Problems I may encounter:

§ The server is often down. What will I do if I am not able to have the kids do this work because of the server??

§ I’m not sure how I will go about editing student work to make sure the pieces have correct spelling, punctuation, etc. I'm hoping because the writing is monthly, I can keep up with it.