I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends

I am not a creative person.  At least that's what I've been telling myself my whole life.  I don't draw well, paint, color.  I don't quite know how to decorate my house.  I don't have a vision for my gardens - in fact, I hate gardening - love looking, hate gardening.  I don't even wrap presents well.  Gift bags were the greatest invention ever!


But lately, I've been coming up with ideas and I'm starting to think that this is my creativity.  I am an idea person. I don't always know how to implement these ideas but I have many.  Of course, they all seem to center around teaching.  That is, after all, where my brain seems to be most focused.  And one of the great things about teaching is, I don't do it alone.  I might not know how to get it going, but I know who to turn to for help.


Case in point:
Yesterday, my class took a trip with the art teacher, Maria Monda, to the Heckscher Museum in Huntington.  This is a trip we take each year and, therefore, we see the same paintings in the collection each year.  One of them is George Grosz' Eclipse of the Sun.  This painting was done during the Symbolism period in the 1920's.  The museum liaison spends time with the kids picking out the symbols in the painting.  While the kids were listening, I had a brainstorm.  The creative me came out and turned to Maria, saying, "Why don't we do that with the kids?  Make a symbolic picture?"  We talked later about it and now I have just finished planning the project.  I am introducing symbolism in poetry and literature.  Then we will discuss social issues we face today.  Kids will chose one and work with the art teacher in the computer lab creating a symbolic picture about their chosen issue.


Point 2:
Our science program is in the process of being completely revamped.  What that means for me is I was given about 16 more weeks of science to teach.  Go ahead...ask me if anything was removed.  I know you know the answer to that one.  So, as a result, for the first time in 25 years of teaching, I feel it is literally impossible to teach all of my curriculum.  At first, my solution was to complain...to my co-teacher, to my husband, to my science coordinator, to my principal, to my union reps. Guess where that got me.  Exactly.  So I went back to my science coordinator, Sharon Judge.  You should know Sharon is the new science coordinator.  She has been a classroom teacher in the district as long as I have so we have a history together.  This makes it so much easier to work with her.  Back to our meeting.  She spent time telling me she would help me out in any way she could but I still needed to cover everything.  I looked and looked at the list of topics and a brainstorm hit!  Four of the units are about energy: light, natural resources, simple machines, and plant tropisms.  So Sharon and I began to talk about my idea.  Next year, I am going to teach one large unit on energy.  Children will work in groups on different topics and create....not sure yet.  But when all is done, they will know about energy through simple machines, plants, light, natural resources, and then some.  PBL comes into play and I will have 16 weeks worth of science done in about 6.  Voila!


Point 3:
I have two chapters to cover in social studies before I can move on to my next project.  It is the only time of the year the social studies textbooks come out.  These two chapters are so full of information that it would take too long to teach each event one at a time.  So we use the books.  It lays the groundwork for our Westward Expansion project.  Last year we had the idea of using CoverItLive to engage the students in the textbook.  It worked well but I really wanted to get away from direct instruction this year.  So Christine and I talked and, you got it, brainstorm!  We took all the topics in the two chapters, broke them into four main categories: politics, geography, people, and events.  We then made four groups of 6, with each student responsible for researching one topic in a category.  Once the research is complete, the larger group of 6 will be creating a timeline and a picture book about their category.  The children have mostly completed the research and are now working on the project.  When it is all done, they will present to the class.  We will have covered the background information needed to move on and the kids are having a ball learning history.  


So how does my creativity rely on others? Without Maria Monda, the art teacher, I would never be able to bring the symbolism idea to fruition.  Without Sharon Judge, the science coordinator, (who, incidentally taught my light unit this week), I would not have made the connection to energy and would not have come up with a way to consolidate my science units.  Without Christine and the librarian, Anne Brusca, I would not have been able to coordinate and implement the history project.  I've also gone to the band teacher for music support, the speech teacher for VoiceThread response support, the reading teacher for book ideas...the list goes on and on.  And, of course, my PLN is invaluable for assistance in how to implement my ideas. 


I can no longer work alone.  Teaching used to be a very solitary field.  But, for me, not any more.  My ideas are so much better when I have support to implement them.  And for that, I am grateful to you all.


Image: 'blythe - floral bag packaging' 
Image: 'Driving into the future' 
Image: 'Day #2: Back to the grind' 
Image: '3d people partner.' 

An Interesting Vacation

Tomorrow is the last day of my vacation.  This was a long one, running from December 24th to January 4th.  I had every minute planned out and was really looking forward to the vacation.  And then reality hit.


We were supposed to head to Florida on the 24th, spending most of the vacation visiting my sister in Weston and my mother-in-law in Margate.  I haven't seen my sister or my five year old nephew, Henry, in about a year and haven't seen my 90 year old mother-in-law in about 2 years.  My brother-in-law and his wife were also coming, as were my husband's nephew with his three teenage boys.  The last time we saw this nephew, he was a teenager himself.  It's been quite a while.  So we bought Christmas gifts, spoke on the phone about all the arrangements for our big Christmas get together, hooked up on Facebook, and began to get excited.  


The plan was we were staying with my sister, who would pick us up at the airport on Thursday night.  Friday, Christmas day, we would head over to my MIL's early and see the Parisi clan, bringing my Jewish sister, her husband, and my nephew along for a big Christmas day. (I love mixing the holidays.)  

We had a few days to spend with the Parisis before Frank's brother headed back to Arizona and his nephew headed back to Texas.  We were going to go fishing, parasailing, and boating.  We were going to sit around the house and talk.  We were going to laugh and hug and catch up.  Ali, my daughter, would meet her cousins and hang out with three teenage boys! Once the Parisis all left, we would spend more time with my sister and nephew, taking them to the beach, going off to play tennis. Ali and Henry were going to spend a day at tennis camp while my sister and I took my MIL shopping.  


On the last day of my trip, I was going to hook up with Lee Kolbert, having lunch, sunning at the beach, hanging out.  I would come back tanned and relaxed, with four days left to do school work, laundry, and shopping before school started.  Ahhhhh!

So what happened?  First, we left our New York airport 15 minutes late.  This brought us to our connecting airport, Philadelphia, too late to catch our plane.  Remember the huge snow storm that brought my house 25 inches of snow?  That backed up flying so much that the airlines were very quick to give away our seats early.  And the soonest they could get us on another flight was Monday.  That's Thursday to Monday.  By Monday, we would have missed the whole Parisi clan.  So we turned around and came home.


On the way home, with Ali crying, me crying, my sister crying on the phone, we tried to find the silver lining.  Maybe we could go skiing instead.  Maybe we could head into the city to some museums.  Maybe we could find some new restaurants to try, go to some movies, etc.  But, on the way home, my throat started....

Well, by the time we got home, I had a lovely cough.  In fact, it was so bad that I couldn't sleep through the night.  I was exhausted waking up at 3 in the morning.  Then the lightheadedness and runny nose started.  Before I knew it, I was flat on my back in bed for the week. So we didn't go skiing, or to the museums, or to new restaurants.  We did go to the movies twice, me fully stocked with cough drops to make it through. After each one, we headed home so I could go back to bed.


This morning, Saturday, I woke up with the realization that I had slept through the whole night without coughing.  It took the entire vacation.  This should be the crummiest vacation ever.  But it wasn't.  

I certainly rested enough.  And, while I really hated being sick and coughing and blowing my nose, it was kind of nice to have a reason to stay in bed all day.  I really think I needed to do that.  And, I spent some great time with my family at home.  We pulled out all the old movies of Ali.  Hours of us staring at an infant (why did we think that was so exciting when she was born?), hours of her funny jokes and conversations, great moments of her explanations as to why she was crying.  (My favorite one - "Why are you crying?"  "Daddy sent me to my room." "Why did he send you to your room?  What did you do?" "I climbed on the dishwasher." "And what did Daddy say?" "He said, No climbing on the dishwasher." "So what did you do?" "I climbed on the dishwasher.") We also did lots of cooking together: two trays of cookies, an apple pie, chicken stew, and spaghetti sauce.  And the best part of that was I wasn't allowed to really touch the food since I was germy so I just hung out and watched.  We shopped, using up all my holiday gift cards.  I connected with quite a few online friends, had a great meeting with Paul Bogush, Karen Janowski, and Christine Southard about our Educon 2.2 presentation, and worked quite a bit on the book I am writing with Brian Crosby.

So silver lining?  Had we made it to Florida, I would have loved seeing everyone but it would have been hectic trying to see my MIL and my sister all at the same time.  I would have been in my sister's house keeping everyone awake with my coughing. There would have been no time to relax, which is what I really needed to do after the first half of this school year.  And my husband, daughter, and I, who have all been overly busy since September, wouldn't have had so much time to bond with each other.


It did take me until now to see the silver lining.  I did spend quite a bit of time feeling sorry for myself.  But I know now that I am rested, happy, and ready to go back to work.  And that is what vacation is all about - a time for renewal.


I think my New Year's Resolution is going to be to search harder for the silver lining when a gray cloud comes into my life.  There always is one.  And it's time to stop wallowing and start enjoying whatever life brings. Don't you agree?


Happy New Year!







Image: 
'We're a little bit behind schedule...' 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/20715319@N07/4215767192
'happy christmas everybody!' 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31493432@N08/3131341442
'Have a splash this year' 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13774211@N00/2154937296
'i hate jetblue' 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/81513646@N00/854483426
'Anti-Cough.' 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25754408@N00/363043497
'silver lining' 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/66994844@N00/237327475
'A Toast to the New Year!' 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/61963330@N00/2168022622

On the Road with the South Paris Collaborative

Christine Southard and I recorded our conversation on our way home from NECC09. We speak each morning on the way to school, while we each drive long distances to get to work. We often think we should be recording these conversations. We will figure out a way soon. In the meantime, this conversation was recorded because we drove home together from Washington DC back to New York.

Enjoy!





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Leveling the Playing Field

Christine Southard and I presented at NECC 09. Our presentation gave several ways to differentiate instruction using technology. Enjoy!

Leveling the Playing Field

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by LisaParisi | Upload your own presentation

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 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.

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

My Summer To-Do List

I find it rather ironic that I spend my school year feeling overworked and stressed about the projects I am planning, the committees I am working on, the shows I am hosting, the classes I am teaching, etc. But here it is summer, where I have two months of vacation, and all I can think about is the work I need to do. And, I have no energy to do any of it. And, really, none of it is that important anyway or at least there aren't major deadlines to get any of it done. But I've always known that I am someone who needs to be doing. So, in order to help me break this ennui, I have decided to post my to-do list here. Perhaps putting it into words will help me actually get things accomplished.


1. Work on Collaborative TimeZone Wiki

This was an idea that was conceived at NECC when Jo McLeay (from Australia), Christine Southard, and I started talking about how to work together next year. We were trying to figure out if there would be any time that we could work synchronously. We struggled to figure out the time differences and realized that we needed a resource to help us. We decided to have the students create just such a resource. How wonderful it would be for them to work on this together and how great it would be to have this tool for future use.
What do I need to do? Plan the project. What will the students actually do, beyond adding their actually times to a GMT time chart? What will they research, beyond what timezones are? Is that enough? How will they demonstrate their knowledge? At this point, I have such a small picture of the project that I can't even figure out the questions yet.

What have I done so far? I set up the wiki with the basic chart. I contacted Jo and Christine about the ideas. So much more to do.


2. Set Up a Moodle to Use in Class Next Year

This one is an idea hatched on the plane on the way home from NECC. I was listening to an old podcast with Laurie Kort, author of Moodle Magic. She happened to mention that moodles would be good as online portfolios. I had been dismayed by the idea that our students leave our room with nothing because no other teachers are picking up their blogs, etc. Perhaps I could set up an online portfolio. At least they'd have that. And then I heard Laurie talk about the simplicity of moodles. So this summer, I want to learn how to set up a moodle and have each child use it as a portfolio. Activities could be put in, projects could be assigned, etc. I only have to look into it. I did receive, thanks to ISTE, a free year of Atomic Learning. And there are many moodle tutorials on Atomic Learning. I just have to get moving on this one. I haven't done anything more than think about it.


3. Planning an Online Professional Development Class

This was another plane ride idea. For various reasons, I have been looking into teaching classes outside of my district teacher's center. Next year I am teaching a course for our local BOCES. But I would love to teach an online course. And I would love this course to be open to everyone. So it would be free for those who just want to show up each week. But those who are willing to do more, can receive credit for the class.
The topic? Project Based Learning. The idea? Participants would follow guidelines to take a unit they already teach and turn it into a project based unit, adding appropriate technology as warranted. This five week class would cover the basics of PBL but would require some individualized work, too.
What do I need to do? Plan the class. Find a sponsor - preferably one who would be willing to pay me. Find a venue to hold the class so we could have conversations. I have already contacted Robin Ellis to see if she was interested in joining me. I have left messages with BOCES and a local university. We'll see what happens.


4. Get Moving

I need to get back into healthy eating and exercising. I said that this summer was going to be it. Watch what I eat, mostly eliminating sugar and white flour. And move every day for at least an hour. So far, I have lasted through breakfast each morning and keep blowing it after that. As for moving...I swam a few times, played tennis a few times. That's it. Nothing regular, nothing healthy. What did I do for this? I signed up for Liz Davis' new Motivate Me wiki. I haven't added my page yet but it's a start, right?

So I guess that's it. I was going to add the new EdTechTalk show I was planning with Maria Knee but we actually planned it, scheduled it, created a google doc to work on it, and have our first topic. Come join us on Conversations, Sunday, July 20th at 11:30 EDT to discuss intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in the classroom. Colleen King will be there.


If you have any ideas about how I can get moving on any of these projects, I would love to hear it. I really need the help.

Dog by Jamelah on flickr
Clocks by Leo Reynolds on flickr
Moodle by Scholz on flickr
Computers by Old Shoe Woman on flickr

The Successful Inclusion Program

Recently, my co-teacher, Christine Southard, and I found out that all of our AIS reading students tested out of reading for next year. Each one of them! I have been teaching for 23 years and have never had that happen. In addition, 2 classified students improved reading scores so much that comprehension skills are no longer a part of their IEPs. When we tested the class ourselves with IRIs, using the Fountas and Pinnell levels, we found each child made at least a year's progress but most made much more. And 17 out of 24 students leveled out of the test, achieving an equivalent comprehension score of grade 6 or higher (level X or higher).

So this, of course, begs the question - How did this happen? What was it about our program that enabled these students to improve to such a large extent?

First, I need to tell you that I have been an inclusion teacher for many years. Although I teach regulary education, I do have my Masters' in Special Ed and have always believed in differentiating instruction to help all students succeed. I truly believe that a perfect classroom is one in which two teachers work toward a common goal. So I have had many co-teaching situations. Two have been quite successful, most have been very unsuccessful.

In examining the successful ones, I realize it all has to do with philosophy. And certain rules need to be followed.

Some co-teachers (both regular and special ed) believe that "you have your students and I have mine." I have worked with a teacher like this. She would come to the room and say, "Ok, my students come with me." I would then watch as the children, with mortified looks in their eyes, would slink out of the room.

Rule #1: Do not separate the children. They should not stand out for being classified. Remember: inclusion means to be included, not separated.

There's also that belief that we should be so private as to not speak about the needs of the children. Don't embarrass Johnny by telling him to put on his glasses, hearing aids, etc. Don't make Susie feel bad by handing her a fidget toy to play with so she can pay attention. In our classroom, fidget toys are in a box for all the children, glasses are mentioned frequently, students are encouraged to move to the front of the room, grab a spell checker, use the computer or alphasmart, pull out the E.Z.C. Readers, etc. The difference? These tools are demonstrated to and available for everyone. (Well, not glasses or hearing aids but you get the point.) So when a lesson begins, up jumps the classified student along with the gifted student. They both gather tools they need to be successful. So..

Rule #2: Don't hide special needs. Point out that we all need assistance at times. Make it available to everyone.

Then there's the idea that a special educator is only there to work with the special ed children. This leaves a lot of other children behind and makes the classified children really stand out. We believe that we both are there to teach all of the students. We group children for various subjects and rotate who teaches the groups. When class tests are given, volunteers leave the room with one of us to go to a more quiet setting or to have tests read to them. Amazingly, the children, all of them, really do choose what they need. Some leave the room for the novelty but most choose the setting in which they work best.

Rule #3: Mix the teachers up and allow students to choose their style of learning.

This year, we also eliminated reading pull-outs. Students remained in class during reading and ended up receiving much more reading service time than they would have in the pull-out program. And keeping students in the classroom as much as possible is helpful for having them not miss content. Next year, we are going to do the same for math pull-outs. Note: This was not an easy goal to achieve. Reading and resource room teachers may feel it threatens their jobs. If necessary, try to make your pull-outs push-ins instead.

Rule #4: Keep students in the classroom as much as possible. Eliminate as many pull-outs as you can.

Of course, other aspects of our program have not been mentioned here. Christine and I spend a great deal of time reading and writing in all subjects. With blogging as a large part of our program, it was inevitable that progress would be made. We also believe in a project-based learning program. This method of differentiating instruction allows all of our students to find success. But I really believe it was a combination of the technology and the philosophy that made it all work. I can't wait for next year!

The Harris Burdick Writing Project and What I've Learned

Approximately two months ago I embarked on an adventure that has taught me more than I ever anticipated.

We have been blogging in our classroom for a year now. One year ago, Christine Southard and I learned about blogging and set out to find a site we could use with our students. We came upon David Warlick's Class Blogmeister site and found it very user friendly. So we set up a blog and got our students engaged and excited. This year, we started up in September and have seen great strides in our students' writing and communicating abilities through the site.

One of the great things about Class Blogmeister is the ability to connect with other blogging classes. We frequently have our students comment to other classes and we often find comments from students outside of our room. One class in particular kept showing up. We started looking into this fifth grade class and discovered the Learning is Messy blog of Brian Crosby's fifth graders in Nevada. After much commenting back and forth, we finally emailed Brian to discuss the comments and have him assist us in improving the comment skills of our students, while we helped his. Of course, at this point, I also started following Brian on Twitter - increasing my network even more.

Eventually, Brian and I decided it was time to consider doing a project together. Our students had sort of gotten to know each other so there was a motivation, we enjoyed communicating through email and twitter, and we both had fifth graders. Brian came up with the idea of doing something with the book, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, by Chris van Allsburg. This is a very open-ended book begging for a writing piece to accompany it. So we set up a date to Skype and discuss the idea.

During our Skype call, I told Brian about Google docs (Christine and I use them all the time to plan units). We decided this was the perfect venue for writing the collaborative stories. We then decided to link everything onto my already-existing Classroom Booktalk wiki. And, then, just to add to the excitement, we decided to open it up to other teachers. Brian and I both sent out twitter invitations and Christine blogged about it in the NY DEN blog. 12 other teachers signed up.

By now, the project is almost completed. Our students will be editing on Monday and Tuesday, Brian, Christine, and I will do final edits during the week, and the stories will be linked into the wiki next week, along with VoiceThreads to allow them to compare and contrast stories. Other groups are in various stages of progression but most should be finished within two weeks.

So what did I learn from all of this?

1. Setting up a collaborative project with 14 classes is confusing and time-consuming.

I had to create a Google doc carefully explaining the process. When Christine and I work together, we just talk. This wasn't possible with so many teachers. Hence, the need for the document. And the multitude of emails that preceeded and followed the document. And the dealings with technology problems that arose (blocked Google docs, blocked emails, no Skyping experience, etc.). And dealing with teachers that say they want to join, then don't respond to my emails. This took up a great deal of time. I didn't anticipate this when we started. It wouldn't have stopped me, I just was surprised.

2. This was more a lesson in learning to collaborate than learning to become better writers.

The children faced many issues with learning to work with partners with which they couldn't directly communicate. Sometimes, their partners changed the story without discussing it first. Sometimes their partners took a long time to respond to questions. Sometimes they were confused by what their partners were writing. All of these problems were answered when they Skyped but they forgot to continue having these conversations in the Google docs. Or they didn't like the waiting in the docs.

They also needed to learn how to handle these situations. Sometimes, their way of handling it was to delete whole parts of the story. Thank goodness for revision history in Google docs. Sometimes, they handled it by writing their own story, without their partner. That took some intervention from the teachers. Sometimes, their response was to stop writing. Again, teacher intervention.

We spent much time brainstorming solutions. And, in all, I think it was a pretty positive experience.

3. The more our students use technology, the less the technology excites them.

I truly believed that the excitement of using Google docs, collaborating with a class in Nevada, and Skyping would be enough to entice them. And, at first, it was. Then they settled down and realized this wasn't such an easy project. There was actually work involved. Hard work, thinking, creating, writing. And they had to learn to collaborate which, as many of us know, is really not always so easy.

So it was up to us as teachers to...um...teach. Do what we do best. Forget the technology and teach them how to work together, how to improve their stories, how to complete this project.

So my final thoughts.

Overall, this really was beneficial to the students. Once they got into it, they found they are writing some incredible stories and they are proud of their work. And they've made connections with students in Brian's class. They go to their blogs first to comment. They discuss what their partners are writing about.

Also, I am already thinking about next year. The timing was no good...too many teachers on different vacations. October, November might be a better time. And we want to add a chat box into the Google docs. This will allow them the communication they need when they are not Skyping.

Networking is an issue with children. Once they connected, they wanted to make more of a connection. Comments in the blogsite asked for Xbox ids and email addresses. We had to put a stop to this. But it opens up the bigger issue of the power of networking. I can no longer function without my network. I truly rely on others to give me ideas, tips, links, and pep talks. But we had to shut down the fifth graders networks...too dangerous to give out personal information. Keep it in the classroom until...oh yeah, until June when it all shuts down. Sorry. I am actually hosting a round table discussion about this on our May 1st Teachers are Talking webcast. Come listen and add to the discussion.

And next year, join the project. We will have all the kinks worked out and I will, by then, have some sort of sign up sheet so I can avoid the confusion I faced this year. Watch for twits. It was well worth it.

Meme: Passion Quilt

My network friend, Martha Thornburgh, tagged me for this meme. And how appropriate that I found out about this from someone I have never met face to face but have communicated with through projects, twitter, and email.

The rules are simple. Think about what you are passionate about teaching your students. My passion? Collaboration. I truly believe if we don't start teaching our children how to collaborate with each other both in and out of the classroom, we will never know a better, kinder planet. And I really want to live in a better, kinder world. So I do my part, one class at a time. And with today's technology, it is easier than ever to collaborate with others around the world. It's hard to fight a country where your friends are living.

These students from our classroom work together to create amazing projects and link up with other classes through various sites. And they enjoy doing so. Can you see the future taking shape?

3 Simple Meme Rules:

1. Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about...and give your picture a short title.

2. Title your blog post "Meme: Passion Quilt" and link back to this blog entry.

3. Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.

So now to my tags:

Christine Southard - the ultimate collaborator

Lisa Durff - my first out of classroom connection

Alice Mercer - can't wait to see her passion

Cathy Nelson - my most helpful twitter friend

Cheryl Lykowski - because she needs a fun break from her thesis

Enjoy!

Random Thoughts

I've had some ideas floating for awhile that have cropped up during the course of my day. I thought I might share them. You should know that I am someone who believes that everything happens for a reason. We are supposed to learn. So I am trying to figure out what my learning was supposed to be.

1. A struggling student was learning how to do long division. She couldn't keep all the steps together, didn't know her math facts, and generally just couldn't grasp the idea. She handed in some examples, all done incorrectly, and we went through them again. Then I sent her off to try one on her own. She came to me later with them all done correctly! "What did you do?" I asked her. Her response, "I learned from my mistakes!"

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all be so brave as to admit we made a mistake and then learn from it? This is a hard one for me. I am not happy admitting to error. (Christine, stop laughing.) While I do learn, it takes time for me to admit to myself and others that the mistake was mine to begin with. So I thank my student for reminding me, once again, that step one is to admit you made a mistake.

2. Our school's lead teacher is out of the country right now. She is anxious to Skype with someone from the school. She tried me but I did not have my account opened at the time. So she sent a simple email to the principal with one line, "Want to Skype?" Now I love my principal. She loves everything we do with technology and supports us anyway she can. But she really doesn't understand much about it all. So she forwards this email to me with only three characters on it. "???" She had no idea what the lead teacher wanted and missed an opportunity to speak to her in the Philippines.

Language is important. Sometimes the simplest ideas and lessons are lost because we use the wrong language. I often forget that most of the teachers and administrators I work with are not as tech saavy as me. And it is even more difficult to remember that when I have a co-teacher who is right there with me and a husband who was my initial tech teacher. I must remember to use simple language when teaching new ideas or discussing old ones.

3. Sickness has been running rampant in the classroom. Last Monday and Tuesday, we had 8 children out! That's a third of the class. It began with one child and Christine Southard, my co-teacher. Due to her illness and her daughter's, she missed a few days of school. We were lucky enough to have been given a substitute to replace her for those days. Usually they don't put anyone else in the room. So for a few days, I got to see the room through an outsider's eyes. Interesting.

Stretched across the back of the room is the mess known as skit props for the Tall Tale skits the children are creating. On the side we have a pile of poster boards for the Geometry Towns we are working on. In the front is the stack of books we have read or shared in the past few weeks. Drawers don't close, the closet overflows into the classroom, and the children themselves are a bit dishelveled. They talk without raising their hands. They don't often sit in their seats while working. They sprawl on the carpet, spread out in the hallway, and push desks and chairs around the room at will. This was all a bit shocking for the substitute. Also, the computer teacher wants us to use the laptops while the children on sitting at desks. She doesn't like them balancing the computers on their laps (having, of course, missed the whole point of the name entirely).

As one of my favorite bloggers, Brian Crosby, likes to say, "Learning is Messy." I am learning to embrace the mess, the clutter, the noise because the children are engaged and learning. And isn't that what school is all about. One girl, when I mentioned how messy the room was, said, "I like it this way. It shows we are busy." How true.

4. My mother is moving in with me in a couple of weeks. She is not very old (only 65) but is not in the best of health and I can no longer feel good about her living alone. So we have been working on fixing up an apartment for her in our house. It has taken a tremendous amount of time and money. I have essentially stopped doing everything else for the past two months or so just to get the apartment finished on time. This means that I have pulled back from my network - not really using Twitter, not turning on my Skype chats, not blogging or reading blogs, etc.

Two ideas came from this. One - sometimes you need to pull out for awhile. I was feeling very overwhelmed by what others were doing that I wasn't. I wanted to learn and try and just didn't have the time. This respite from my network has given me time to reflect on what I am doing and have done. And I am proud of all of my accomplishments, especially since I know it has really only been since April of last year.
The second lesson that I needed to learn is that my network is still there. I was concerned that, by not contributing for so long, my network would sort of fade away. There have been a couple of very important network friends that had faded from my online life prior to my leave and I wasn't really sure why. But mostly, everyone is still there, still learning and growing, and still happy to have me come along for the ride. How wonderful to know that.

5. Part of my curriculum for fifth grade is to compare the US with Canada and Latin America. Each year the children are assigned a place and must research that place, comparing it to what we learn in class about our country. So this summer, when I started building my network, I thought it would be wonderful to hook up with teachers in all these areas and connect them to the students. Talk about your resources. But it never happened. The teachers volunteered but nothing really came of it. In fact, the whole research project is sort of being pushed aside for other learning going on in the classroom. The children keep coming up with ideas and questions and research projects of their own. And it all takes time away from our curriculum.

What am I learning from this? Children no longer want to do the contrived projects. They are much more excited by their own choices. Even if we start the project and then let them choose. A perfect example is research we are now doing on the 1950s to celebrate the 50th anniversary of our school. We told them we were doing this research but they came up with the initial list of topics and each child chose which topic to focus on. They are very excited about doing the research and excited by their findings. Perhaps next year, we will allow them to choose their country or region. Maybe then they will be more involved.
What else did I learn? The best collaboration is unplanned. During a class discussion on hemispheres, the children said they heard toilet water spins in the opposite direction in the southern hemisphere. We immediately contacted a friend in New Zealand to ask if it was true. Chrissy Hellyer graciously agreed to find out. This question led to more and we ended up creating a collaborative wiki with another friend in New Zealand - Allanah King. (Chrissy didn't have a class on the same level as us.) This unplanned, uncontrived wiki just won the Chase Multimedia in the Classroom Award. This was not in our curriculum but the skills used to create, research, and connect are invaluable for the students. Great learning can occur when you give up control of the curriculum for awhile and let the children lead.

I feel as if I have learned a great deal. Now I just need to remember it all.

A Shift in Thinking

This blog has been brewing in my brain for quite some time. I'm not sure why it took so long to finally make its way to paper (computer) but I think it has something to do with the fact that my shift was still underway. You see, I have come to realize that I have gone through some drastic rethinking in the past few weeks and am just ready now to start thinking about why.

I have shifted from trying to find ways to use technology in the class to embedding technology so thoroughly into my teaching that I didn't even recognize how much a part of our day it really is. Christine, my co-teacher, had to point it out to me just this week, in fact.

I have been spending a great deal of my time thinking about how hard it is to "keep up". My network, which is so new that I just started building it 8 months ago, is filled with innovative, amazing educational technology leaders. I spend my time in constant awe over what is being done "out there" and wondering how they have the time, the energy, or the knowledge to accomplish so much. I shut down often now, simply because my brain is so filled with new ideas that I just cannot hold anything else. And I live much of my time feeling like I will never be able to live up to the standards that are being set. When I go to school and my colleagues say that about me, I feel like a fraud. If only they knew what everyone else was doing.

But somewhere along the way, while I worried about keeping up with the Jones (or Kings or Wagners or Cofinos or Shareskis or Drapers or...you get the point), my students kept learning. And I kept introducing them to more and more tools that would assist them in whatever they were endeavoring to accomplish. And, while I wondered how these people who talk about embedding technology into their classrooms actually do that, I did it. Christine and I have created a classroom where technology is a seamless part of every day, every subject, almost every lesson.

The SMARTBoard is rarely off, the class uses the blogsite daily, podcasting is happening a few times a week, screencasts are being created, wikis are used, digital stories are being produced...the list keeps growing. We learned about digital stories (Thank you, David Jakes) and immediately thought of the stories we were already writing about our favorite teachers. What great digital stories they would make. No extra time needed...we were already working on that. I listened to other people's podcasts and realized that I didn't always have to set up a podcast situation...I just had to turn on a mic. I introduced Salute to Seuss to the children, gave them free rein to create what they wanted, and they used technology naturally and easily. Problem solving in math turned into a screencast...turn on the recorder in SMART tools and go. Questions in health? Let's each take one and research it. You have 20 minutes. Then teach the rest of the class. We'll podcast your answers. Technology is now so much a part of our daily school day that the laptops have found a semi-permanent home parked outside our classroom. The children gravitate toward them.

So back to my shift from trying to use technology to actually using it. I now realize that what I needed, more than anything, was time. Time to let my new learning settle in, time to play, time to move back and forth from old teaching to new.

And, as I think about how to bring other teachers into the 21st century, I realize that they don't need to be wowed (Sorry Women of the Web - no offense meant - I do so love your show). Being wowed almost turned me off completely. I can't keep up with all the wows. And my colleagues don't need to see what I am doing in my classroom. It's too overwhelming to go from almost no technology use to almost constant use. What they need, what I needed but somehow worked through on my own, is for someone to show them how to take what they are already doing and use technology to make it...what?...easier, more engaging, prettier .... yeah, maybe just prettier. And before they realize what is happening, they will be using technology all the time. Just like me.

At least that's what I think.