A bit of my classroom from March 2013...

The Use of Cellphones in the Classroom

CEDO 599 - Post #3

Alas, I believe I've finally reached the Emerald City! (See my second post where I was on the Yellow Brick Road...) At the beginning of 599 it felt like I could see the city in the distance but it still seemed so far away. Now here at my last post, I've come to realize how much I am able to do with technology and my classroom. Not only that, but it's helped me develop more patience and tolerance for the little issues that arrive. I was looking back over my blog from the very beginning and I sounded pretty pathetic, complaining about access and speed issues and I realize that I was using those problems as excuses as I really attempted to resist the change and shift necessary to embrace technology and all it has to offer.
Just last night, my husband came home with a flash drive that contained 3 videos of he and two co-workers getting "tasered" at a taser training. The video format wouldn't open on either the mac or pc - all we could get was the audio. A year and a half ago, I would have blamed the technology and gotten upset, but now I was able to problem solve and figure out how to change the format so that the videos were able to be viewed. My husband was pretty impressed (so was I with the fact that in a full 5 second taser blast, he didn't utter a sound!) that I could find a way around the technology "issue". So instead of coming to the Emerald City to see if the Wizard could magically fix my problems, I'm able to rely on myself for most work-arounds. I get less frustrated, knowing that there is usually a way to get around the issues rather than be stymied by them.
So with my last post, I'd like to thank the cohort and all of the instructors for sticking with it and with me to see this through to the end! The last thing I'll ask of you is to check out my teacher training site and help me spot check all of the links to be sure they're working and you have access to all of the pages and links! THANKS!!!

Screencasting Embedding and Hotlinking

To learn a little bit more about social bookmarking, please watch this short video clip or click here.

CEDO 599 - Post #2

So I've been thinking about the portfolios and last post I had asked for other tools to create websites (thanks Ryan A and Melissa!). I just had a kind of "aha" moment. I can create the tutorials I need for GoogleSites and create the training tool in GoogleSites but that doesn't have to be the tool students choose to use. I'm planning on an annotated list of great tools to use in the classroom so why can't I just give the options to the students and let them decide? I figure that the students who are least comfortable may stick with GoogleSites as a fallback but I'd bet there are many in my district who would be willing to go out on a limb and try other creation/editing tools like blogs, wikis, Weebly etc. to create their portfolio. I mean, isn't that the whole idea? Get them using the digital tools... why predetermine what they have to use? The one drawback I can see right away is the lack of formatting or templating that using the same tool could provide to the reviewers of the portfolios. It may be a bit taxing on some of those individuals who don't have the experience or comfort in the digital setting to have to search around 20 different kinds of portfolios to determine if required elements have been met- in that case, sticking with one tool may be very beneficial. Hmmmm... any one want to weigh in on this one?

CEDO 599 - Post #1

So tonight I spent some more time working on my final project. I'm working to implement e-portfolios at the high school level and needed to see how my plans correlated with a piece of software that has been adopted by the school district. The schools are using Career Crusing to manage a number of guidance related tasks like education planning, potential career evaluation and the like. A few members from the guidance department at the high school also belong to the staff development group working on the e-portfolios so it came down to me to see if the two programs could utilize the software and make it dual purpose as students can house portfolios on this site.
While investigating, I was astonished at the multitude of resources available to students. They can access and search jobs, find schools, complete career aptitude tests, keep personal journals, be assigned tasks by an advisor etc. It made me think of it as content management software on steroids because of the reference materials and ready made links and information. The only aspect of the software that I wasn't impressed by was the method for students to collect and catalog artifacts for reflection within the portfolio section. Students are provided with two options - keeping a file cabinet with artifacts or linking to external web pages. Now, while this is probably a fairly well organized system and it prevents students from uploading tons of content into Career Cruiser, it won't allow students to really get the feel for working to create a portfolio that is unique and individual to each. They will also not get the opportunity to learn, use and practice skills like creating hotlinks or embedding elements - both skills that are required by the portfolio groups' plans. Frankly, I think the portfolio portion is completely canned... which means that at a minimum students would house links and files but will more likely mean that we'll have to use some other type of software, like GoogleSites for example, that allows great flexibility in creation yet remains extremely user friendly. Can anyone give me additional resources/tools that would allow students to create their own websites? Free? Without tons of issues due to restriction of email access?

CEDO565 - Final Blog

How has your definition of leadership altered or been reinforced? Your definition of teacher leadership?
My definition of leadership for the most part has really been reinforced by the text and class discussions. I've always believed that anyone can step up to the plate and take charge in some respects and with my involvement in the Leadership Team for the district and the high school quite a few of us (this year we sent 15 staff and 5 administrators) have begun to assert ourselves more in the planning and implementation of ideas.
Has your opinion of your leadership potential changed?
I think that my leadership potential has changed in that I am more able to take a step back from what is occurring in the school and district in order to better accomplish our goals and initiatives. The systems change game really gave me great insight and I've already been scratching out a preliminary social network for the high school staff so I can think about who to approach strategically when I'd like to start talking about implementation of the eportfolio project.
Do you agree with our textbook's assertion about "improving education from within"? If so, what will you do to help?
I do believe that it is within my power (and everyone else's for that matter) to improve education in their own classroom, department, school and district. I think that if we attempt to change the world in one fell swoop, you're bound for disappointment but if we look at small steps and small changes, then the change will help to improve education from within.

CEDO565 - Session Five

So I've spent my last two days and this morning in Madison at the Wisconsin School Leadership Academy and although I'm not wishing summer away, I am recharged for this upcoming fall and really implementing some new initiatives both in my classroom and throughout the high school and district. As I mentioned last post, the change game we've been playing has really opened my eyes to the necessity of paying attention to the political realms when attempting to make change in schools. The conference reinforced many of the topics and ideas that we've been talking about in class lately but first I want to chat about this amazing presenter this morning!
David Warlick presented on the 21st Century classroom and how the millennial as a student must force a change in how we deal with information and that it's more than just using technology. What I loved about his seminar is that he practiced what he was about to preach. The first things he did were to show us how to "KnitterChat" (much like tweeting - its called backchanneling, I'd post the link to our actual transcript but it's not posted yet) about the seminar while he was presenting, then he directed us to his blog, his wiki, and his second life file cabinet before using two Prezis to really begin his talk. This was the second half:

Cracking the 'Native' Information Experience on Prezi

I was shocked at first because he started out showing us the half a dozen ways that we could get "off task" during his presentation. He truly was a facilitator of information and did not require his audience to be staring up at him with their eyes glued as he delivered content to us for 2 hours. Not only that, all through his talk, he showed and demonstrated many tools to illustrate the difference in how students access information in the digital age. DoodleBuzz was one of my favs and he also explained the QR codes that can be printed anywhere so that individuals with smart phones can point the phone at the barcode and automatically receive downloads of the materials - his was linked to all of his presentation handouts. As you can see there was tons of great info and materials.
So how do I apply this information to my instruction? My leadership? First and foremost, I've already begun a discussion with my principal about allowing students to use their cell phones in my classroom. The discussion is necessary as this goes against current school policy, although last fall the policy about digital devices was modified, phones are banned from the classroom. A close colleague and I also began revamping our grading structure and brainstorming new methods for classroom instruction in addition to planning for writing some new curriculum. (See why I can't have the summer go too fast - I've got way too much to do!) I really plan to use some of the strategies from the changes game we played - most notably talking to key individuals and getting them on board for the changes I'd like to see implemented with my portfolio project in the high school. Previously I would have had everything ready for the great "reveal" and then become frustrated when teachers didn't jump at the chance to use something that was all set and ready to go. I've realized it's much more than that - all of the talk about teacher buy-in has started getting through my thick skull. This also lead my colleague and I to want to set up some very informal professional development mini-seminars for any interested teachers to begin a culture of sharing classroom ideas among all high school teachers in a very non-threatening way and without the push of a condescending this-is-the-way-it-should-be mentality. Rather, we'd like to present tools of the trade and allow teachers to pick and choose things they'd like to see, try, modify and steal.
I just figure that I'll need to work 40 hours a week this summer on all of my ideas in order to have them ready to go by September 1st. Hmmmm..... not likely so I'd better get to prioritizing!