Preparing Students for Middle School?

Assemblies are pretty common in our school. We have everything from musical assemblies to book presentations to holiday celebrations. I have always been someone who spends time before assemblies talking to the students about how to behave. Be sure you clap, never boo. Pay attention and show the presenter that you are interested and listening. Be polite and respectful to all those around you. And, for the most part, the students are great audience members.

Today, our assembly was a science assembly. It was loud and exciting. The presenter was enthusiastic and engaging. And the students were totally enthralled by every minute. But I observed something interesting with them.

You see, in our classroom, Christine and I work to make sure that all of our students know how to be active learners. They are expected to do what they need to do in order to stay focused, be productive, and remain engaged. That means that they sometimes move around the room. Sometimes they grab a laptop in the middle of a lesson. Sometimes they get reference books or a Franklin Speller. There are fidget toys and highlighters, a Relaxation Station and a water fountain. Whatever they need to do to learn, they do. Without asking. Without disturbing everyone else. Without making a scene.

So back to the assembly. There we are, sitting in the gym with the rest of the fourth and fifth graders. We got into the room last so we were sitting in the back. And once the assembly began, the children began to take care of themselves. Some of them moved to the very back and knelt so they could see. Some students actually stood in the back of the room. Two students were video taping the whole assembly so they were moving around the edge of the room throughout the presentation. One student ran back to the room for his glasses. Two students started a very quiet conversation about energy while they were learning. I am sitting behind all of the students watching. And I am feeling proud. They are engaged. They are excited. They are learning. And they are doing what they need to do without disturbing the other students or the presenter. And then I saw the shocked faces of the other teachers in the room. And I realized that our students no longer fit into the "school mold."

We have gotten our students to be active learners. We have taught them the importance of advocating for their education. But now we are going to send them off to middle school where there might be teachers who find their behavior insubordinate. And I'm not sure how I feel about that. Do we stop teaching them to learn, regardless of what it takes? Do we spend the rest of the year teaching them to fit back into the "school mold"? Or do we just hope that they can teach their teachers next year that, just because they are standing in the back of the room or playing with a fidget toy, does not mean they are not learning? What do you think?

Images: 'Guess the shape'
www.flickr.com/photos/12612676@N00/280742617

The Celebration of Teaching and Learning

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending a local tri-state area conference called The Celebration of Teaching and Learning. This conference, which takes place in Manhattan, is run by our local PBS station, Channel 13/WNET, WLIW21. It has major sponsorship in Chase, National Education Association, New York State United Teachers, SMART Technologies, and United Federation of Teachers. They describe themselves this way:

"What is the Celebration of Teaching & Learning? One prominent educator has dubbed it the “World’s Fair of Education.” We try to make it the place where the best thinkers and practitioners come together to play a role in shaping the future of schools. From that perspective, then, the Celebration is where knowledge meets inspiration."

This is my third year attending. In past years I have had the honor of hearing Al Gore, Tim Russert, Margaret Spelling, Majora Carter, Jean Michel Cousteau, and Jane Goodall, to name a few. I have also learned from Will Richardson, Alan November, David Warlick, and many other people from the educational technology arena.

So this year I was quite excited to attend. And to add to my enthusiasm, I was able to share the conference with Christine Southard, Karen Janowski, Ann Oro, and some other school colleagues. Always makes a conference more exciting to share.

Here are some of my highlights from the conference.

The Electric Company:
It's back and it's catchy. While the cast entertained us, a little girl of about 9 sat in front of us singing all the songs and bopping to the music. It obviously reached her.

Marco Torres:
"Quit, Complain or Innovate"
Marco showed us how using GarageBand to create songs can visually demonstrate fractions to the students. I really must get a Mac for my classroom.

Favorite ideas:

• "The student is either the recipient of information or the producer of information. Let's make them the producers."
• "Video is a tool for liberation."
• "Ask yourself, 'What is an educated person?' and strive to teach to that."
• "Nouns vs. Verbs - The Thing vs. The Purpose of the Thing - Teach Verbs not Nouns"

Sir Kenneth Robinson
"How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything"
At our second plenary session, Sir Kenneth blew me away. He has such an entertaining way of delivering a message. If you haven't seen his TedTalk yet, you must. This speech hit me so hard we did our Conversations show all about it this week. Look for it on ettconversations.blogspot.com.

Favorite Ideas:

• "Schools are killing creativity."
• "Start making teaching creativity most important."
• "Our students use technology differently than we do and it's time to start understanding how." (The example he gave for this was wearing a watch. Children don't wear watches because the time is all around them - phones, IPods, tv, computers, etc.)
  

Governer David Patterson
He was a last minute addition to the schedule. His speech was given totally from memory.

Temple Grandin
"Developing Strengths and Abilities in People on the Autism Spectrum"

Favorite Ideas

• "Use the obsession children with autism have and expand that obsession to expand their horizons." (The example she gave was take an obsession with drawing horses and expand it to drawing the barn and the other animals and...)
• "There needs to be much more emphasis on developing a child's area of strength instead of just hammering away at the deficits."
  

Danica McKellar
Yes, seeing Winnie Cooper from the Wonder Years was exciting. But she has written math resource books aimed at middle school girls and she has a powerful message for them. Check out Math Doesn't Suck and Kiss My Math.

Favorite Ideas:

• "Smart is sexy."
• "One teacher is all it takes to turn a child around."
• "We don't see beautiful girls as math experts. We need to be aware of our stereotypes of the math nerd in order to bring girls into the math world."

Bill Gates, Sr.
He spoke about the need to equalize education.

Favorite Ideas:

• "Prepare every child for college, even if they choose not to go."
• "Bring collaboration into the school setting so teachers and administrators can work together to help each child succeed."

Alan Alda
He introduced his new PBS show, The Human Spark. This show asks the question, "What makes us human?" Follow Alan Alda as he asks experts in many fields this question.

Favorite Ideas:

• "Be a learner in your classroom. Show the children you are interested in learning."
• "Enjoy what you do."
  

Other Big Excitement from the Conference

• I am a shameless fan of famous people. I didn't really know that about myself but I had two (yes two) conversations with Meredith Brokaw (Tom's wife). She's a lovely, gracious lady who willingly talked with me. I am still excited by that. I also spoke with Neil Shapiro, Danica McKellar, and Marco Torres. Be still my heart.
• Christine and I got to spend time with Ann Oro (first time meeting f2f), Karen Janowksi, and Lucy Gray. Saturday was a great lunch.
• Each plenary session started with an Adobe Youth Voices video. Love those videos.
• Our students came on Saturday. We won The Chase Multimedia in the Classroom Award so they got tickets to come. They heard Temple Grandin, got their picture taken for the Google Blog, and were generally excited by the whole event. This was a day they will never forget.
• I met some other twitter friends. I love meeting people face to face.

All in all, this conference was eye opening, reaffirming, exciting. I highly recommend it to all next year. Even though it is run by a NYS PBS station, it is open to everyone. In fact, we were told there were people from all 50 states of the United States and some provinces in Canada. Hopefully, I will see you there next year.

The Transformation of a 21st Century Classroom

My co-teacher, Christine Southard, and I speak each day on the phone as we drive into work. We both have long commutes and use the time to plan, wake each other up, make to-do lists, and just talk. We often think we should be recording these conversations and creating podcasts. Over time, we have solved all the education problems, found motivators for every unmotivated child, and figured out what each administrator needs to do to create the perfect school environment. Of course, we then get to school and forget all our great ideas. Sigh.

But last week, I got so excited by one conversation we had that I was determined to blog about it so it could be saved for posterity. Or at least saved for longer than it takes to walk from my car to my classroom. So here is the great thinking.

Christine and I have worked together for over three years. But three years ago we really began the transformation of our classroom. It was three years ago that we learned about Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, rss feeds, and delicious. And it was then that we began to spread our wings. So how have we transformed?

The Beginning

At first, we were excited by the tools. We started a blog for no other reason than we thought it was a cool idea. There was no great plan to integrate this idea into our curriculum. We didn't consider even coordinating blogging with our writing lessons. It was a total extra. Ditto for other fun tools such as mixbook, gcast, and adding widgets to our site. We already had a website, thanks to our district. Now we could add...a clustrmap, podcasts, a voki, video! Let's have the students create avatars for their blogsite. Let's play around with... Well, you get the idea. Tools were fun. Tools were cool. Tools excited the students. But there was no learning involved.

The Middle

Year two began a move toward putting technology into our curriculum. So our class went something like this. Teach a unit - maybe geometry. Use our cool SmartBoard to liven up the lessons. Maybe add a BrainPop video or Discovery Streaming video to the unit. Then find a way to have the students use a fun tool, such as VoiceThread, to demonstrate their knowledge.

So in year two, the tool still came first. We learned about a new tool and thought about a lesson we could do to incorporate that tool into our curriculum. And as for our teaching, it was still very much teacher directed. Assessments were often project based assessments but the learning was all about us.

There were some positives, though. We learned about a huge amount of tools, built up our PLN, and even won some awards for our projects. We were proud of our accomplishments.

The Big Transformation

So if we were happy, why did anything change? First, let me tell you what started the conversation Christine and I were having. I pointed out that we really don't "teach" much anymore. And that, to a stranger coming into the room, it must look like we aren't doing anything. We both sit with our computers on most of the day. We sit at tables and have students come to us with their work, usually on a laptop or flash drive. While we wait for students to come to us, we are editing blogs, loading videos, adding podcasts to our site, updating website pages, and much more. Or we walk around and talk to groups of students, finding out what they are working on and where they might need some guidance. Or we're monitoring a live blog session. Rarely are we in front of the room talking. And rarely are the students in their seats all at the same time. A colleague recently said that every time she walks by, the students are at their computers working quietly. We laughed, saying we felt the class was a pretty noisy group. They love to talk with each other and we are just grateful that at least they are on topic when they are talking.

How did we get to this level? At some point, over the summer, we realized that we needed to step away from the front of the room. And that technology could help us do just that. We wanted to move from project based assessment to project based learning. So we planned lessons where we posted information for the students online. Videos, audio clips, websites, book lists, all available as needed. And we demonstrated a variety of tools the students could use to share their knowledge. And we (gasp) handed out our toys to the kids. We gave them our cameras, our digital recorders, the flipcam. And now they even use our laptops when editing material. This was huge. We lost control. And gained a class full of learners. We trusted them with the tools and they haven't let us down yet.

So here we are, nearing the end of year three. Feeling proud, still winning awards. I wonder what year four will bring to us.

CoverItLive and Our Social Studies Lesson

Yesterday, we attempted something new in class and it worked so well I wanted to share. I should start by saying that usually, for social studies, we have our fifth graders working on projects. We have textbooks but primarily use them as reference books. There are two exceptions - chapter 14 and chapter 15.

There are two reasons for this. One is that, by the time we get to these units (government and Westward Expansion of the United States), we are usually way behind the other fifth grade classes. The other reason is that the background information given in the textbook is really laid out very nicely.

This year, we scrapped the government chapter for a PBL unit that took four weeks. Ordinarily, this chapter takes one week to cover. The projects were phenomenal, the children learned a great deal about the Constitution (even recognizing parts of it in President Obama's speech), and the students were quite engaged in social studies. You can see the projects here.

So here we are in January and now we are even further behind than normal. So, before starting our big pioneer simulation (check out Interact for some great simulation projects), we need to give the students the background information in chapter 15. And we need to do it relatively quickly. So I spend some time creating a SmartBoard presentation that will at least give the students more visuals than the textbook and we plan to pull out the textbooks.

Christine (my co-teacher) and I speak everyday on the phone while commuting to school. We use this time to celebrate successes, gripe about failures, plan and revamp lessons. Yesterday morning we talked about how boring the social studies unit was going to be. And we discussed our CoverItLive session we held during the Inauguration. The children were engaged, excited, and learning the whole day. Why couldn't we do that during social studies?

So we created and embedded a quick CoverItLive session on our website, chose three students who did a great job conversing during the inauguration and three more students who weren't bad. We sat them in the back of the room with computers and told them to log on. We instructed the three who were experts to pair up with the other three and teach them how to have a conversation in a chat room. Christine sat in back with them moderating the chat room. I stood in front and ran a teacher directed lesson right out of the text book with the rest of the class.

What happened was amazing. The six students who were blogging were extremely focused on the lesson because they were instructed to capture all the information for our site. The other 16 students were engaged in our discussion because it was a smaller, more intimate group. And they were motivated to be chosen to blog on the second day. The conversation that came out of the blog clearly shows a skill in recapping a lesson and will be useful for any students who missed the lesson or need reinforcement. You can see the conversation here. Scroll to the bottom of the page to find it.

Each time we use technology in a new way, I get excited once again. We have decided that we will use chapter 15 to teach the students how to properly and intelligently use CoverItLive. After that, we can offer computers to students during all our lessons. Some will love to have that "voice" and others, I am sure, will pass, preferring instead the live interaction between teacher and student. Either way, we have introduced one more way students can be successful in class. It was a good day.

7 Things Meme

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach tagged me for this meme. You share 7 things about yourself that would be unknown to your readers. I love the idea although, since I tend to be someone who tells all, finding 7 things to share that haven't been shared before is somewhat difficult.

1. I truly believe that everything happens for a reason. I don't think we always find out right away what those reasons are, but changes, choices, people who move through our lives all touch us for some reason - usually a positive one.

2. I hated high school so much that I desperately wanted to drop out when I was 16. It was my plan to get my equivalency diploma and head off to college. My mother refused to let me. Instead, I spent two more miserable years in high school and went off to college. I transferred colleges after one year, went to Oneonta and met my husband on day one. Had I dropped out of high school two years early, my husband and I would never have met and Ali would never have been born. (See #1)

3. My favorite job when I was in high school was the summer job I held working in a gas station. I loved walking into the hot sun in my short shorts and halter top to pump gas. The guys always looked so surprised to see a girl doing this task. I loved breaking the mold.

4. I originally went to college to be a special ed teacher. In high school, I interned in a special school and loved it. When I looked into getting my degree, I found out that I had to get my Master's in order to receive my license. So I chose to go for a Bachelor's in elementary ed and a Master's in special ed. But while getting my Bachelor's, I loved student teaching and, although I did get my Master's in special ed, I remained a regular ed teacher.

5. I am unbelievably unathletic and, yet, I ski. I have been skiing since I was 5 and didn't know I could die skiing. I ski double black diamond trails although I will not jump off cliffs. I also am extremely spoiled and will only ski in the west.

6. I had laser surgery a few years ago. I went from being legally blind without glasses/contact lenses to having 20/20 vision. As scary as it was, I would do it again in a second.

7. I had plastic surgery (rhinoplasty) when I was in college. Now I don't look Jewish. This is one surgery I would not do again. I changed who I was by changing my nose. I wish now I looked more like the person I was born to look like. I only hope my daughter heeds my advice. She has my former nose and she looks beautiful with it.

I tag:
Christine Southard
Colleen King
Alice Mercer
Lisa Durff
Martha Thornburgh
Michael Smith
Ann Oro

The Movies - Spoiler Alert!

This blog strays a bit from my usual topics but I have to vent. Just a warning before you continue reading: I will be discussing both Twilight and 7 Pounds. If you don't want to know information about either movie, don't read on.

I should tell you I rarely go to movies. I have a Netflix account, HBO on my satellite and streaming off my PlayStation 3 system. So when I do choose to go, it is usually because either Ali wants to see a movie or I have a burning desire to view a movie everyone is talking about. Both of these situations arose recently.

Ali has been reading the Twilight series. When I first saw the book about 3 years ago, I read the back of the book and told her she could not read it. I thought it sounded too racy for a fifth grader. But by 8th grade, all her friends had already read the books and she was curious. So I did what I shouldn't have - I let her read the series without reading it first. Then we went to the movie.

You should know that, at this time, I still haven't read any of the books. It is on my to-do list but I will tell you my thoughts after seeing the movie. I came out of this movie extremely disappointed. This was basically a story about obsessive love between two teens. The girl was helpless and desperate for attention. The boy was protective and secretive. This seems like the perfect situation for an abusive relationship. My concern with this movie was that teenage girls, my own included, will watch this movie and think that is what love is really all about. Find a guy who will protect you at all costs, keep your relationship secret, don't clue your parents into anything. Ah yes...the perfect love.

Naturally, Ali and I spent much time talking afterwards. I don't want her to believe in love like this. And I only hope that the relationship she sees each day between her father and me will be a better model for her than the one in Twilight.

Next movie: 7 Pounds. Wow. I was so excited to see this movie. It was being hyped on tv, people were talking about it online, it got great reviews.

So imagine my dismay when I realized what this movie was really about. It plays as a story about a noble man, played by Will Smith, one of my favorite actors, trying hard to make peoples' lives better. And he does - 7 lives, as a matter of fact.

But here is the real story. This man caused an accident where 7 people died. So he decides to commit suicide. He plans it out very methodically. In the process, he gives away his house (person number one is helped) and then donates body parts he can live without (bone marrow, lung part, etc.). Finally, he puts himself into a bathtub full of ice (have to maintain the body parts he cannot live without) and kills himself. His eyes and heart then go to the other people he chose to help. So very noble. The last scene is one where the heart recipient and the eye recipient meet and both are so happy. Music swells. Hearts soar. The End.

I sat in the theater with my jaw hanging opened. How could this movie have been made? Let's make suicide more noble. Unhappy with your life? Feel guilty about a terrible event? Don't live on and make life better. Kill yourself but be sure to donate your body parts so others can be happy.

Maybe I just missed the message. But I was so disappointed with what I came out with. Ali and I had another long discussion after this one. "Imagine," I said to her, "how many people he could have helped had he chosen to live and help others." This is the message the movie should have given.

I hope that the next movie I choose will have a better message for me and my family.

Slow Processing Does Not Mean Unintelligent

My daughter, Ali, is in 8th grade in a public school. She is in both math and science honors classes, in the Junior Honor Society, and has always been a good student. Now, I don't tell you this to brag because, as anyone who follows me at all knows, Ali is struggling in some of her classes this year. Since she has always been in enrichment classes and honors classes, I couldn't understand her poor test grades. At first, I chalked it up to a poor attitude and harrassed her into studying more. Okay, really all I did was make her cry every night.

Finally, I decided to try a different tact. I got her a tutor for math and was pleased to see progress. Her review sheets and homeworks were all receiving A's and she was feeling better about her skills. Last week she took her first test since getting the tutor. She was well prepared and looking forward to success. She got a 75%.

How did this happen? She got an A on the review sheet, her tutor said she was ready. What went wrong? I looked at the test and noticed that, on a four page test (yes, four pages!), she got everything correct on the first three pages. On page four, she got everything wrong.

It turns out that Ali is a slow processor. Okay, this is really nothing new. She has always needed time, after hearing a direction, to actually begin the task. She needs lots of wait time during discussions. We have always just dealt with this at home. In school, it never affected her before because tests were never timed or were never so long. She was always the last one finished with a test, but managed to do well. She understood, as I do, that speed has NOTHING to do with intelligence and skill.

So I emailed her teacher and asked if it would be possible, as it was in 7th grade, for Ali to complete the tests during lunch. I didn't want her to get extra help. I just wanted her to feel proud of her capabilities and being timed was not working for her. The response I got was an emphatic no. "Honors students never get extra time for tests. They don't need it. Only children with IEPs get extra time." Translation - if Ali needs extra time, she does not belong in the honors class.

Frustrated, I discussed this situation with my co-teacher, Christine, and my aide, who has two classified children of her own. It started a discussion about the children in school who are not classified. In our classroom, we give every child what he/she needs. Who decided that only classified students need extra time or computers to type stories or fidget toys to play with or breaks during lessons? Why have we allowed ourselves to cater only to classified children in this way? Why is it acceptable?

It is my belief that every child has special needs. Some are obvious and those students usually have IEPs. But some are not. Do you have a student who is capable of being successful on a test if he/she just had ten more minutes to finish? Do you have a student who understands a complicated book if it is read to him/her? Do you have a student who starts to fade halfway through your lesson? Do you have a student who can explain content verbally better than in writing? Why not give all of these students what they need, even if you don't have a piece of paper telling you you need to do so? Shouldn't every child have the opportunity to be successful?

It is time to really embrace differentiated instruction. Stop waiting for a piece of paper to tell you you need to offer services. Look around. What do you see? How can you help your children be successful in all areas? In the end, you will have those "fall through the cracks" students succeeding like never before, the classified students not feeling so obvious about their disabilities, and the top students finding that they have skills they didn't even know existed. Shouldn't we all want this?

Pictures:

*Time* Ticking away...' www.flickr.com/photos/15734079@N00/1032525361

'Day in the Life: 3pm' www.flickr.com/photos/37115417@N00/2484450557

BA 020' http://www.flickr.com/photos/80522246@N00/441579809

'Just Keep Walking' www.flickr.com/photos/51035677132@N01/1416909158

The Perfect Storm?

As anyone who has read my blog knows, I am a co-teacher in an inclusion classroom. Christine Southard, the special ed part of the program, and I are in our third year together, second full time. We have many successes to speak of, are often complimented by our colleagues for how well our students are doing, and hear very positive comments from our parents. We are frequently asked how we run our program...why we have such success. And Christine and I disagree about whether or not our program can be duplicated. Our assistant superintendent called us "The Perfect Storm." She is not so sure our program can be repeated by different teachers. I am not so sure I agree with her. I do believe that our program can and should be duplicated. But I do think certain factors have to be set in place.

1. Philosophy

Christine and I share a very important philosophy. It is one in which we believe that all the children in our class are part of the class. I know that sounds basic but what it really means is that we have the same expectations for all our students. And we give all students what they need to meet those expectations. We differentiate instruction, provide tools, give additional help...all within the setting of a regular education classroom. And we both provide this service. Christine and I do not have my students and her students. We are both responsible for all the children.

Now it is true that we came by this philosophy ourselves. And not all co-teachers have this philosophy but I do believe this idea can come top down. If an administrator set up a program following this set up, the teachers would have to work under these constrictions. And the children would benefit.

2. UDL Helps Inclusion

Christine and I understand that certain children learn better using tools. One might need a slant board to eleviate writing fatigue, another might need voice activation on a computer, a third might benefit from using a digital recorder to get thoughts down. By making these tools available to all children, the children who need them don't stand out quite so much. If four different children pick up a digital recorder during writing time, the one that needs it won't feel so uncomfortable using it. Now it is true that some children need tools that cannot be offered to others, such as a wheelchair or hearing aides. Then it is important to speak openly about the situation. Let the child using the tool explain to the class how it helps. Make this assistive technology understandable instead of unusual.

How can this work for other teachers? Don't make technology available for only small parts of the day. Keep baskets of fidget toys, allow children to move around the room as needed to see better or be more comfortable, make computers available whenever possible. Teach children how to figure out how they learn best. Then allow all the students the freedom to use what tools are necessary to meet their needs. Don't just focus on the children who have been labeled. Give all the students the responsibility for their own learning.

3. PBL Also Supports Inclusion

While much has been written about using Project Based Learning to help children better engage in content and have deeper understanding, Christine and I have found that PBL also helps all of our students meet with success. The child who struggles with writing can create a fabulous video demonstrating knowledge. The one who cannot yet read on grade level can be read to or can watch videos to learn the information that another can learn in a textbook. And the child who loves talking can create podcasts of information his classmates can use to learn content. By allowing all students choices in how they learn, the child who struggles in a particular area does not stand out so much for not reading well or writing well. This child, who normally fits into the bottom of the class, has an opportunity to shine and be the expert reporter, producer, or editor.

Administrators should spend staff development time and money to help teachers learn how to use PBL in their classrooms. Once again, when the top says do PBL, the bottom will do it. Maybe not happily at first but hopefully the administrators know how to encourage teachers so they will understand the benefits and want to try it out.

4. Children Work Better in Smaller Groups

Christine and I create groups for almost all subjects. We have leveled groups in math, reading, writing, and language arts. We preassess for skills and provide small group instruction to assist students who need support with these skills. We have found that often children move in and out of need groups as the skills change. The child that struggles with spelling might not need the punctuation group. By moving children in and out of groups, they begin to see that all of us need help in some areas and none of us need help in every area. Children get comfortable understanding that they are getting what they need, when they need it. We don't have "dummies" and "smarties" in the class. Just children who are learning.

There are three reasons this is easy for us to accomplish - so administrators take note. First, we are together full time. Christine is with me every day, all day. When we worked together only part time, it was much harder to have consistency with small groups. Second, we have a separate room into which we can move a group. This allows us to both teach at the same time. We don't always pull kids to the "break out room" but when the groups are large enough, it is easier to move down the hall then it is to move to a back table. We also take turns moving to the "break out room." It is not just the special ed room. And the third reason is that we work hard to avoid having students pulled out for extra help. We support our math, reading and writing resource students in class. Sometimes, a resource teacher will push in to the room, sometimes we provide the services ourselves. Keeping them in the room makes scheduling small group instruction much easier.

Do other factors come into play?

We both work very hard to make our classroom engaging, fun, and supportive. We spend a great deal of time teaching the children acceptance and respect for each other.

We both are capable of showing our students that we are learners, too, and as such, have our own struggles to overcome.

We both believe in telling children the truth. We want them to understand their struggles so they can compensate. And so they can understand that others might also have the same struggles.

And we are very different types of learners and, therefore, different types of teachers. While Christine, the Queen of the Graphic Organizer, is demonstrating how a graphic organizer can assist the students with their writing, I, who cannot work with graphic organizers, am supporting those who find them confusing by showing them how I organize my writing. This allows the students to see more than one way to tackle a situation.

Do I think these factors help create the Perfect Storm? Well if they do, then maybe our program can't be duplicated. But I am still an idealist. I see how our students thrive. And I want that for all students. So I want to believe that it can be duplicated. And I want to believe it is relatively easy. So when people ask how, I want to keep telling them. But I also want to make sure Christine and I stay together for as long as we are both teaching. I don't want to take any chances.

Photos
'rayo 3'
www.flickr.com/photos/48926078@N00/2176941958
' Jeff Bezos'
www.flickr.com/photos/12426416@N00/134671943
'Fellow Commuter Enjoying Adam Curry's Podcast'
www.flickr.com/photos/44124452748@N01/22423994
'Fernando explaining something'
www.flickr.com/photos/90151774@N00/2703679047

The Power of the Internet - An Open Letter to My Students

The internet is a powerful place. Using its power, you can divide people and encourage hatred or you can inspire people and encourage peace. You get to choose which you will do.

Regardless of how you feel about our President-Elect Barack Obama, he understands the power of the internet. He was able to collect millions of dollars for his campaign by setting up an easy donation spot online that allowed people to donate $5 or $10 a piece. He used email to connect with his constituents. He used online communication tools like Facebook and Twitter to keep people informed about his ideas. And, as president, he is planning to deliver a weekly YouTube address to the world. That is power. You can read more about this in Robert Wanderman’s blog.

President-Elect Obama is not the only person to understand the power of the internet. Laura Stockman also understands its power. She is a middle school student who, when she was 10 years old, set up a blog to change the world. Laura created a site called Twenty-Five Days to Make a Difference. She decided to raise money to donate to a charity of her choosing. Through the power of the internet, she was able to reach 10s of thousands of people and collected more money than she ever thought possible. She has kept the blog going and now donates the money the way her readers want her to.
There are, unfortunately, just as many examples of people using the power of the internet for bad instead of good. One of the first sites you can find when searching for information on Martin Luther King, Jr. is martinlutherkingjr.org. This site seems to have factual information. But when you look further, you find it was created by a group called Stormfront. Stormfront is a white supremist organization whose goal is to create an all white United States. They use the power of the internet to spread misinformation about various races. And many people believe them.
So what kind of message do you want to send to the world? Every time you post a comment to a blog, every time you write your own blog, every time
you send out an email, a text, an instant message, you are harnessing the power. How are you going to use this power? To spread hope and peace or hatred? Think carefully before you post.

'Obey Obama?' www.flickr.com/photos/51035583134@N01/2236022136
'Day 78 - Peace' www.flickr.com/photos/7900943@N06/2344345771
'Web 2.0' www.flickr.com/photos/29931767@N00/146865077'Orange Glow' www.flickr.com/photos/86891211@N00/72224228

A Magic Wand

On Thursday, Teachers are Talking hosted David Warlick as our guest. He answered questions about changes he's seen in the classroom, a bit about politics, and a great deal about the future of education. And then he posed a question of his own. "If you had a magic wand," he said, "no obstacles...what would you make happen for all teachers?"

Now this is a powerful question. The question really asks one to think about sweeping changes, huge reform, major differences in education. So I wave my wand and what happens?

First, my wand would eliminate state testing caused by NCLB. I have watched, over my 20+ years of teaching, some amazing teachers move from making learning fun to making learning all about preparing for a test. Now I don't believe things have to be this way and I don't think they are in my classroom but, even in my own classroom, we talk "test". And I hate taking time out of learning to talk "test". I do believe we need to be held accountable for our students learning but there has to be a better way than using a test that doesn't really measure learning.

Second, my wand would put two educators in each classroom. And let's throw in an aide also. This is the setting I work in right now. There is a regular educator (with a special ed. background) and a special educator in the room full time. And we have a full time aide, there to support children and help with the classroom minutiae. This setting is ideal. We teach ALL children on their level, giving all students the support and enrichment they need for every subject. Having a second teacher in the room allows for small group and individual instruction to occur all day, not just when I have a moment.

Third, technology would be available and working all day. One to one laptops would be on hand at all times, the interactive whiteboard would be running, no sites would be blocked - enabling us to use any tool available online, the cameras and digital recorders would have charged batteries, with extras in the charger, and the webcam would be on and accessible.

Fourth, there would be ample time every day to plan with my co-teacher, meet with parents, post podcasts, edit videos, etc. David suggested 3-4 hours a day. I am not sure I need that much time. But one day a week with no students would cover it. Or an hour long prep each day with an hour long duty free lunch would be great. I have now an hour long duty free lunch and a 35 - 45 minute prep each day. It is almost enough time.

Fifth, all teachers would have to set up a PBL classroom. No more using textbooks and worksheets, no more having students sit at desks for hours listening to lectures. Children will be engaged and energized working in cooperative groups to create - and demonstrate their knowledge. And it would be great if those cooperative groups could be outside the four walls of the classroom.

So there are my "magic wand" wishes. The reality is that I have a pretty ideal classroom situation. While there are things I would love to change, most of it I just love. And so do the children. So my magic wand would offer what I have to all of you. Can you create the ideal classroom? Have you?

Image: 'The truth brings no answers sometimes.' www.flickr.com/photos/70213268@N00/315842577

Image: 'Four heads are better than one' www.flickr.com/photos/26406919@N00/279625345

K12 Online Conference

A little more than a year ago, I started down this road...or perhaps down this rabbit hole...into the world of networking, collaboration, and high speed learning. One of the first people I met on my journey was Lisa Durff. Durff, as I came to know her, is welcoming, encouraging, and inspirational. She is also a person of vast knowledge of the goings-on online. It was she who steered me in the direction of the K12 Online Conference in 2007.

When I came into the conference last year, I was confused about the workings. Luckily, there were so many people to help out. I quickly learned two important things: 1. It was free and 2. All of the presentations were online as videos or podcasts. That meant the learning happened on my time.

The first video I watched: Lisa Durff's, of course. I then moved on to presentations by people I had never heard of before. Why did I choose them? Sometimes the title of the presentation grabbed me. Sometimes it was because they were being talked about in twitter or in the live Elluminate sessions during the conference. One that stood out for me was Dean Shareski's. I had never heard of him before (I was, afterall, a true noob) but learned a great deal. And later, when I decided to try what he was discussing, I (gulp) contacted him for some help. And, guess what?! He gave me some of his time. Now that's true professional development.

So here I am one year later. As you know, much has changed for me. I have a larger network and know most of the people presenting at this year's conference. Dean actually says hello to me if we meet in person and I am honored to say I know who he is. I am one of the presenters at the conference this year. In fact, I should be editing my video now. ;) And I am on the public relations committee.

I like being on the public relations committee. I love this conference. I love that it's free. I love that all the presentations are videos which can be accessed at my own convenience. I love that there are live events that I can join in and connect with others about various presentations. Mostly, though, I love learning.

October is coming. The conference officially begins the week of October 13th. But teasers have been up for a few weeks. These are nice little ads for each presentation. The excitement is building. Are you going to join in? If this is your first time, there is a link on the site for "first timers". It's very helpful. Check out the schedule and try to attend at least one live event. Maybe we will meet there. See you soon.

Bullying

As many of you know, my almost 13 year old daughter has a situation with a "mean girl" in her middle school. The situation came to a head this summer and I ended up at school yesterday talking to her guidance counselor and the assistant principal. (More on this later.)

This issue with bullying has really made me start to think or rethink how we deal with bullying in the classroom. There are, unfortunately, countless stories of bully victims committing suidice or coming into schools with guns. And all of us, as educators, want to be sure this doesn't happen to our students. So we set in place bully programs and even create laws regarding safe schools. But here I am wondering how much of it really works.

Now I know, already, that many of my comments to this blog will tell me how fabulous your district's bully program is. Go ahead..tell me all about it. But I still doubt its success. You see, what I realized through all of this, what I have known for years anyway, was that bullying has nothing to do with the bully and everything to do with the victim.

When I am faced with a bullying situation in the classroom, I deal with both the bully and the victim. I am sincere and firm and caring and supportive. I do all the right things, say what I am supposed to say, and watch the incidences disappear before my eyes. I am brilliant. But now I think about my daughter and about Ryan Halligan.

Ryan Halligan was 13 year old boy dealing with bullies. He and his dad worked out some methods for handling the bullies and dad thought all was well. Especially since Ryan stopped talking about the issue. Turns out all was not well and Ryan ended up committing suicide.

Now I am not saying my daughter is heading in that direction. She talks to me all the time, has friends, laughs, enjoys life. But I also know how horrible school can be when one is a victim, having been there myself. And I really thought I would build my own child up enough that she would never be a victim herself. So what happened?

One of the reasons I was such an easy target in school is that I could never take a joke. Never. If someone teased me about anything, I cried. At home, at school, with family or friends. Eventually, I just walked around assuming I was being attacked. In fact, most of the pictures I have of me as a young child is one in which I am sulking. It amazes me that this was allowed to go on but parents then didn't quite get it. I was told to stop sulking. Okay, problem fixed.

Cut to adulthood and I realize that, even today, I hate to be teased. I take it all so personally. Sometimes I can handle it but most often I can't. And Ali has watched me not handle it her whole life. Because, you see, my husband loves to joke around. He is great at taking it. He laughs and sends it back. But I can't take it and most of the time end up insulted. So I started watching Ali and I see she is the same. Damn. And that is what makes her the perfect victim.

So now I have met with her guidance counselor and assistant principal. They made sure Ali is not in any classes with her nemesis. They assured me they would watch in the cafeteria and notify her teachers to keep an eye out for any signs of bullying.

But mostly we talked about how to get Ali to be more assertive. To learn to stand up for herself. To learn to handle it. And I have started at home. My husband and I do role playing with her. He's very good at this. I am not so. I have to fight with myself not to get hurt while we are role playing. Old habits are difficult to break. We also play games like telling "Your Momma" jokes. We make them up in the car. We change to "You're so stupid" jokes. She laughs, I laugh. She's very good at making them up. We are both learning.

Turns out bullying isn't about the bully. There will always be people who need to make others feel bad in order to make themselves feel better. It seems that in order to prevent bullying, we need to work with the victims. Maybe some social groups where the children just sit around insulting each other and coming back with zingers. I am hoping it works for my daughter.

Pictures:

www.flickr.com/photos/64937321@N00/200168929

www.flickr.com/photos/16750212@N07/2074945342

www.flickr.com/photos/33632522@N00/248920216

Lee Baber

We often have conversations about how close we really are when we know each other only online. If all we know of each other is what we teach or what we plurk or tweet, then how much do we know of each other at all?

Two nights ago, I found out that Lee Baber had been hospitalized due to lung cancer. What I didn't know was that she had been battling cancer for four months. And this morning, I heard that she passed away last night. Quite soon after the news of her passing, the EdTechTalk community moved into action. News spread quickly throughout the community. People who were offline were notified, a collection was taken for her family, a memorial page was put up on the front page of the EdTechTalk site, a memorial broadcast was scheduled, and her family was contacted to participate.

The broadcast was wonderful. It occurred tonight and many people stopped by to listen, participate, pay their respects. I heard stories about Lee that taught me things about her I never knew. I didn't know she played the banjo. I didn't know she lived in the south. I didn't know she had a sister. I didn't know she wanted to act. I didn't know she took some time after high school before attending more than a community college.

So how well did I actually know Lee? I knew that she cared a great deal about people. I knew that, if I ever needed assistance with broadcasting (and this was quite often), that she was available, willing, and most knowledgeable to help. I knew that she was the go-to technical person in the EdTech community, if Jeff wasn't available. I knew that she had a soft, calming voice when talking me through a particularly tricky situation. I knew she loved her Mac but knew so much about how to get my PC working.

This isn't a lot of personal information. And, I guess, I never really got to know Lee as a friend or companion. But I am really glad I got to know her at all. She was a huge part of EdTechTalk. She cared about making it successful. She will be missed.