Sharing & Reflecting = Learning & Growing
Archive for December, 2011
Bigger is not always better
Dec 15th
I have recently started tutoring for Rocket Learning and I accomplished more in 1 hour with those students than I have all week in my regular class.
Why?
Well, my guess would be that it is a lot easier to have productive lessons and meaningful conversations with 5 students than it is with 34 students. Hmm, anyone else agree?
This is really not an earth shattering notion but I have been thinking about it since yesterday. We read and discussed a nonfiction article and we were able to identify story elements, main idea, make inferences and compare the main character’s life to each of our own.
Rocket Leaning uses a similar lesson plan layout to the one I use in class (although I don’t use these cool rocket related terms):
- Ignite: Anticipatory Set (Music, Poems)
- In-Flight Writing (Pre/Draft/Edit/Publish) or Prepare for Liftoff (Phonemic awareness/ Phonics/Vocabulary/Fluency)
- Refueling – Test Prep/Practice
I know more about these kids than some of the ones who have been in my class for 16 weeks. I learned who the shy one is, who the jokester is and who the ringer is (I call bright kids who make sure that they correct your mistakes, answer all questions with depth and share often with the class, ringers.)
Size does make a difference and whoever said that it didn;t wasn’t being honest. … With a smaller group, we have the opportunity to make connections that aren’t possible in larger classes. Who said that bigger is better? No one in a classroom of 35, that is for sure.
Smaller is better and leads to conversations while bigger is … just plain harder.
Season’s Greetings to my PLN
Dec 11th
These educators, organizations, news providers, administrators, forward thinkers, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, sons, and daughters are a part of my PLN and I want to wish each and everyone of them a Happy and Safe Holiday Season.
Thank you for your words of wisdom, support and resources.
I am glad to call you friends.
Be a part of the AfterGlow
Dec 10th
Please mark your calendars and adjust your schedules to join presenters, participants, and organizers of the 2011 K-12 Online Conference in an “AfterGlow” Closing Live Event on Monday, December 12th at 6:00pm PT / 7:00pm MT / 8:00pm CT / 9:00pm ET. If you’re located outside North American timezones, please use this timeanddate.com link (2:00 AM Tuesday, December 13 GMT) to determine the event time in your local area. “The Afterglow” is a fun, celebratory event held in Blackboard Collaborate. It will provide opportunities for presenters to share the stories behind their presentations as well as give participants a chance to ask questions of the presenters. The Blackboard Collaborate session link is: http://tinyurl.com/cr20live. This link may be shared with others on Twitter, Plurk, blogs, etc. Please cross-post this information on your own blog, if possible, so we can amplify this live event and draw a big crowd of educators! (HTML code to cross-post is available.)
The MC for the event will be Susan van Gelder, who will ask the questions of the panel members and facilitate the conversations among presenters and participants. The panel will consist of all of the keynote presenters for the conference, but all presenters are encouraged to join us and come prepared to “raise your hand to take the mic” during the session if desired. Everyone can contribute actively in the chat conversation. The webinar will be an hour long and not every presenter may have an opportunity to share. There is a possibility the conversation may continue after the ‘formal’ closing of the webinar into a post-show. Participation of the presenters is optional during post show as we know everyone’s time is limited.
In addition to joining our upcoming live event, we invite you to check out and comment on a special “backstories of the 2011 K-12 Online Conference” Voicethread. Several of our presenters have already chimed in. Please add your voice and commentary!
Organizers of the 2011 K-12 Online Conference wish to express appreciation to Steve Hargadon and the Classroom 2.0 Live community for providing the “virtual meeting room” for our Afterglow live event. We hope to “see you” virtually in Blackboard Collaborate Monday night! (Use this link for times if you’re outside North America) Please invite other educators you know to join us too!
Tools to create, produce and publish
Dec 10th
I lost a student Wednesday
Dec 10th
Wednesday night, I lost a student. He did not drop out, he did not move to another city or state, he did not transfer to another school, he was not suspended, he was not expelled – he was shot and killed not far from his house.
He was a 9th grader, he was 16, he was opinionated, he was immature, he was a class clown and disruptor.
He was also a son, cousin, nephew, student and a child.
His death is a reminder to me to take the students as they come and love them, nurture them, redirect them, discipline them, teach them, be a role model for them, cry for them and pray for them.
We have no control over what happens outside of our classrooms, so we must make the most of the time that we spend with them. Tuesday I told him that he had to record a poem for me and asked him what he would say if someone handed him a microphone and gave him an audience. He thought for a minute and then he tried to take the computer to start recording. I told him that he had to plan it out first. I told him to keep it clean and he did the best that he could: he paused for a curse word and he used screw instead of the other word he wanted to use. The lyrics are hard to understand but the gist is: life is hard, girls are looking for baby wipes for their babies, he hears the clink of handcuffs and people are doing wrong instead of doing right. He rapped about what he knew and I let him record it. I let him record it because it was the only assignment that he wanted to do in weeks. I took advantage of his engagement and pushed him to complete the assignment.
I made him write out the rap, revise the rap and practice saying the rap. And he did because he felt as though he had a story to tell. It was important to him so I let him tell it. He composed this: Mike’s Tales from the Hood.
That was Tuesday and Wednesday he was gone. Who knew it would be the last story that he would tell me. I am glad that I gave him the mic.
My Scholars are..
Are you online yet?
Dec 9th
My presentation will demonstrate how to use a variety of tools for teachers to help engage students and for the students to produce creative work. We will examine the uses of:
1. Google Docs for collaboration, Google Forms to gather information
2. Weebly.com for ePortfolios and easy websites
3. Wordle.net for avatars, presentations and prior knowledge assessment
4. Kidblog.org for student blogs
5. WordPress.com for an assignment blog
6. Edublogs.org for a class blog
7. Photopeach.com for photomovies
8. Audacity for podcasts
9. Screenr.com for how to videos
10. Twitter.com for updates
11. PBWorks.com to create on online classroom
12. Wallwisher.com to gather ideas and other online tools
Create, Produce and Publish
Dec 7th
This post contains links to resources related to my presentation.
I enjoyed presenting some of my favorite Tech Tools to the online K12 Conference Audience and I hope that everyone gets a chance to play with at least one of the toys (tools).
Some of the tools that I talked about are ones that I use on a daily basis. I hope that you too will find a use for some, if not all of them. If you are not familiar with any of them, take the time and investigate one of them a week. Investigate the uses for yourself and/or for your students.
It is only by playing with a new toy that we get proficient at using it.
Being able to share what I love is a great way to push myself to do more and learn more. So thank you for helping me to be better. You all are members of my Personal Learning Network and I am happy to share with you some of the things that I find to be important resources.
TWITTER.COM
View more presentations from VR Burton
PBWORKS.COM
PHOTOPEACH.COM
Thanks for comments