Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Animal Project Update
The project isn't finished, but the kids and I have learned enough to this point to make it worth posting.
The 4th graders learned to access the server. The pattern was familiar. The fist time they accessed it was a little on the painful side. Students were having a great deal of difficulty with the idea of Lastname, Firstname. Students were very focused on accurately capitalizing their names, but failed to properly capitalize passwords (names are not case sensitive on our system.) After saving files, they were a little overwhelmed at the idea of dragging and dropping to the "my files" folder (they have a my files, a drop box, and a message board--private, drop box, public, respectively). The very first day, it took the entire class period just to get them all signed in and save one file.
Progress was quick, since we were meeting every day. Students got into the habit of logging in. By the third day, "log into the server" was a single direction instead of a series of steps.
Students learned to rename files. At Valley we save to the desktop and then drag to the location. So, I had students renaming files on the desktop and dragging to the server.
The one mistake I had was having 4th grade students name files based on the date. Students working on a "physical characteristics of" inspiration file would then name it "physical characteristics of 2.17." That was a mistake. Later down the line, if a student spent more time on a file, his would be 2.23, while another student was only 2.21. And the idea of "open the most recent" was lost on them.
In retrospect, I will use 1, 2, 3, etc. with that young of a student. I think it is much easier to say "open the highest number."
At the beginning of the project, I spent time explaining what a server is and why we saved to it. I had to repeat this often, as students would save to the desk top, and think it was alright to "trash" the files right away (my policy is to always keep a public desktop--physical or virtual--the way you found it--so we always trash our files). I'm still not sure that all students understand the importance of the multi-step process. But, one of the nice things about being a specials teacher is I can reinforce for the rest of the year, and revisit the same topic with the same students next year when they are older and wiser.
Despite sometimes cursory understanding of the server and school procedures, the students did remarkably well. Only three students "lost" files (later recovered from the trash) and only one student had a total loss.
Inspiration was a very easy program for the kids to master. I took about three minutes with some how tos, and they spent a great deal of independent time getting it done. The biggest obstacle was (amazingly at this age) students who wanted to talk instead of work.
Students who finished quickly were able to explore changing shapes and colors on their maps. Most students, again, needed to be shown the basics and were able to run with it. A few who weren't able to start right away needed some extra help. This gave me the opportunity to let some of the students be teachers.
I strongly feel that students need to build confidence in their skills. Part of this is giving them exploratory time to teach themselves. Part of this is allowing them to share skills and teach one another. And, allowing them to teach one another also allows them to see that other kids their own age have something of value to share.
Surprisingly, toggling the diagrams into outlines and printing them out was a challenge. In retrospect, it had been several weeks since the students had printed. And, since it wasn't really very fun or engaging, it was a class where a lot of time was spent on refocusing the students. It has been a process all year demonstrating the process of printing for students and having them complete it themselves. It was probably very short sited of me to let them go for so long without printing.
In retrospect, I will change the labeling/numbering system for files. I will make sure to more clearly explain, and continue reinforcing, the concepts of saving on a server and why we are saving twice. And, I will print provide class time on three different occasions to print the three different diagrams so that a) we are not doing all of it at once b) I don't end up dedicating an entire class to printing and c)students continue to have practice and reinforcement of printing through the project and I don't risk some student forgetting this process.
The 4th graders learned to access the server. The pattern was familiar. The fist time they accessed it was a little on the painful side. Students were having a great deal of difficulty with the idea of Lastname, Firstname. Students were very focused on accurately capitalizing their names, but failed to properly capitalize passwords (names are not case sensitive on our system.) After saving files, they were a little overwhelmed at the idea of dragging and dropping to the "my files" folder (they have a my files, a drop box, and a message board--private, drop box, public, respectively). The very first day, it took the entire class period just to get them all signed in and save one file.
Progress was quick, since we were meeting every day. Students got into the habit of logging in. By the third day, "log into the server" was a single direction instead of a series of steps.
Students learned to rename files. At Valley we save to the desktop and then drag to the location. So, I had students renaming files on the desktop and dragging to the server.
The one mistake I had was having 4th grade students name files based on the date. Students working on a "physical characteristics of" inspiration file would then name it "physical characteristics of 2.17." That was a mistake. Later down the line, if a student spent more time on a file, his would be 2.23, while another student was only 2.21. And the idea of "open the most recent" was lost on them.
In retrospect, I will use 1, 2, 3, etc. with that young of a student. I think it is much easier to say "open the highest number."
At the beginning of the project, I spent time explaining what a server is and why we saved to it. I had to repeat this often, as students would save to the desk top, and think it was alright to "trash" the files right away (my policy is to always keep a public desktop--physical or virtual--the way you found it--so we always trash our files). I'm still not sure that all students understand the importance of the multi-step process. But, one of the nice things about being a specials teacher is I can reinforce for the rest of the year, and revisit the same topic with the same students next year when they are older and wiser.
Despite sometimes cursory understanding of the server and school procedures, the students did remarkably well. Only three students "lost" files (later recovered from the trash) and only one student had a total loss.
Inspiration was a very easy program for the kids to master. I took about three minutes with some how tos, and they spent a great deal of independent time getting it done. The biggest obstacle was (amazingly at this age) students who wanted to talk instead of work.
Students who finished quickly were able to explore changing shapes and colors on their maps. Most students, again, needed to be shown the basics and were able to run with it. A few who weren't able to start right away needed some extra help. This gave me the opportunity to let some of the students be teachers.
I strongly feel that students need to build confidence in their skills. Part of this is giving them exploratory time to teach themselves. Part of this is allowing them to share skills and teach one another. And, allowing them to teach one another also allows them to see that other kids their own age have something of value to share.
Surprisingly, toggling the diagrams into outlines and printing them out was a challenge. In retrospect, it had been several weeks since the students had printed. And, since it wasn't really very fun or engaging, it was a class where a lot of time was spent on refocusing the students. It has been a process all year demonstrating the process of printing for students and having them complete it themselves. It was probably very short sited of me to let them go for so long without printing.
In retrospect, I will change the labeling/numbering system for files. I will make sure to more clearly explain, and continue reinforcing, the concepts of saving on a server and why we are saving twice. And, I will print provide class time on three different occasions to print the three different diagrams so that a) we are not doing all of it at once b) I don't end up dedicating an entire class to printing and c)students continue to have practice and reinforcement of printing through the project and I don't risk some student forgetting this process.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Deciding on a new classroom technology
I was approached by a teacher asking to learn about wikis.
Of course, I'm always excited when approached by any teacher to learn anything. But I'm also cautious.
We set up a meeting (and such meetings always go exactly as planned, don't they?). And the first question I asked was "What do you want to use this for?"
Its not about the tool. I think that one of the hardest things for an educational technologist (is that a real word?) is to over come the general teacher conception that "I have to use more tools in my class room."
Tools are just that. They are tools. The most amazing earth shattering web 2.0 tool is completely useless if you don't have an educational goal to match it. And my personal goal for myself is to never match a teacher to a tool for the sake of the tool.
And in this particular case, I wasn't really sure what the best way to go was. The teacher wants to be able to post information, and have students post information. She wants the students to research systems and create a discussion on what systems are the most important in the body (which in my opinion sounds like a really fun idea--I vote for digestive because none of the other systems let me eat chocolate).
In the end we decided to go with wiki after all. It seemed the most flexible to me. Time will tell if I'm wrong, but I think even if she doesn't need everything a wiki can do, a wiki can do everything she needs. And, the 5th grade group she wants to do this project with is currently working in computer class with me on editing a wiki to post information on revolutionary war heroes with the view of having a class discussion in Social Studies on who were the true heroes. It seemed pretty clear to both of us that if they are already learning a certain skill set, we might as well double dip. This option will also allow me to work with her as a teacher, and probably with the students, on tagging, which is a very important skill in my opinion. And I look forward to now going further than I was planning, and teaching the students to embed content, upload files, and create links.
Of course, I'm always excited when approached by any teacher to learn anything. But I'm also cautious.
We set up a meeting (and such meetings always go exactly as planned, don't they?). And the first question I asked was "What do you want to use this for?"
Its not about the tool. I think that one of the hardest things for an educational technologist (is that a real word?) is to over come the general teacher conception that "I have to use more tools in my class room."
Tools are just that. They are tools. The most amazing earth shattering web 2.0 tool is completely useless if you don't have an educational goal to match it. And my personal goal for myself is to never match a teacher to a tool for the sake of the tool.
And in this particular case, I wasn't really sure what the best way to go was. The teacher wants to be able to post information, and have students post information. She wants the students to research systems and create a discussion on what systems are the most important in the body (which in my opinion sounds like a really fun idea--I vote for digestive because none of the other systems let me eat chocolate).
In the end we decided to go with wiki after all. It seemed the most flexible to me. Time will tell if I'm wrong, but I think even if she doesn't need everything a wiki can do, a wiki can do everything she needs. And, the 5th grade group she wants to do this project with is currently working in computer class with me on editing a wiki to post information on revolutionary war heroes with the view of having a class discussion in Social Studies on who were the true heroes. It seemed pretty clear to both of us that if they are already learning a certain skill set, we might as well double dip. This option will also allow me to work with her as a teacher, and probably with the students, on tagging, which is a very important skill in my opinion. And I look forward to now going further than I was planning, and teaching the students to embed content, upload files, and create links.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
2nd grae scratch
I haven't posted in several days. Probably not a good habit to get into.
This week I decided to start teaching the second graders to use Scratch. I wasn't sure exactly how it would go, and in a lot of ways it went better than expected.
When I approach a new program, I think students should be given basics of functionality, and then time to work with the functions they have seen in order to solidify "how to." And, it also gives the more curious a chance to "play" with other buttons and see what happens.
And that is largely how scratch went.
And, like in most of my classes, there will be a small handful of students who figure out some very "fun" or "cool" functionality, and I'll have to reign the class in and demonstrate that as well.
The problem I find is that some students get so caught up in trying to discover new things, that they completely ignore what has been taught and "jump ahead." Those students then end up being the most frustrated. Nothing works. They don't understand. And when I work with them one on one I find that they did not at any point use any of the functions taught in class--even in the follow along phase--and therefore cannot remember the basics, and have not been able to figure out the more advanced (its really not surprising that a student who has not worked with the basics is having trouble with advanced functions).
And on the same day I saw the exact same scenario played out in an upper school elective.
Some students are very curious, and overly confident in the ability. I don't want to diminish the confidence of any student, but at the same time I have to work to create a way to reach those students and let them know that they have to work with the basics for a few minutes or they may end up confused, frustrated, and not enjoying a process that the rest of the class really wants to spend more time on.
This week I decided to start teaching the second graders to use Scratch. I wasn't sure exactly how it would go, and in a lot of ways it went better than expected.
When I approach a new program, I think students should be given basics of functionality, and then time to work with the functions they have seen in order to solidify "how to." And, it also gives the more curious a chance to "play" with other buttons and see what happens.
And that is largely how scratch went.
And, like in most of my classes, there will be a small handful of students who figure out some very "fun" or "cool" functionality, and I'll have to reign the class in and demonstrate that as well.
The problem I find is that some students get so caught up in trying to discover new things, that they completely ignore what has been taught and "jump ahead." Those students then end up being the most frustrated. Nothing works. They don't understand. And when I work with them one on one I find that they did not at any point use any of the functions taught in class--even in the follow along phase--and therefore cannot remember the basics, and have not been able to figure out the more advanced (its really not surprising that a student who has not worked with the basics is having trouble with advanced functions).
And on the same day I saw the exact same scenario played out in an upper school elective.
Some students are very curious, and overly confident in the ability. I don't want to diminish the confidence of any student, but at the same time I have to work to create a way to reach those students and let them know that they have to work with the basics for a few minutes or they may end up confused, frustrated, and not enjoying a process that the rest of the class really wants to spend more time on.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Benefits of Blogging
A colleague of mine has been following some blogs. A few weeks ago I showed her how to follow blogs using google reader, and sent her a few suggestions. I'm hoping some of them are useful. It was a challenge for me, because her subject area is Foreign Language, which is not something I'm great at.
Last week, she told me she found a great idea on one of hose blogs. She'd been finding a lot of pay activities, but this was the first free activity she'd been really interested in. She tried the program--a site that had a song about conjugation (I'm bad at languages and conjugation is so far out of my depth its not even funny).
It went really well in class. She came up to me at lunch and told me the kids had really enjoyed it (it was popular music, with educational lyrics) and she could tell they were actually finally getting some of the concepts to click with it.
She thanked me.
Its always great to feel appreciated, but I told her I didn't need thanked.
She'd been following blogs. Its not always easy as a teacher to make the time for extra reading.
She'd stepped up to try an activity from another teacher in her own classroom--taking a step towards breaking down the classroom walls.
It's exciting for me to see a colleague getting a benefit out of some of the technology I'm trying to spread. Professional satisfaction :)
Last week, she told me she found a great idea on one of hose blogs. She'd been finding a lot of pay activities, but this was the first free activity she'd been really interested in. She tried the program--a site that had a song about conjugation (I'm bad at languages and conjugation is so far out of my depth its not even funny).
It went really well in class. She came up to me at lunch and told me the kids had really enjoyed it (it was popular music, with educational lyrics) and she could tell they were actually finally getting some of the concepts to click with it.
She thanked me.
Its always great to feel appreciated, but I told her I didn't need thanked.
She'd been following blogs. Its not always easy as a teacher to make the time for extra reading.
She'd stepped up to try an activity from another teacher in her own classroom--taking a step towards breaking down the classroom walls.
It's exciting for me to see a colleague getting a benefit out of some of the technology I'm trying to spread. Professional satisfaction :)
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Survey Monkey in the Classroom
I like to use survey monkey in the classroom.
For me it is a great way to get feedback, get input from students, make formal and informal assessments of student learning, and give students an opportunity to answer questions/voice an opinion without having to speak to the whole class.
I occasionally share answer with the class, especially in the older classes (a lot of time the students really want to see what other had to say--I typically don't show names, though).
I used it with third grade today to review/reinforce some of the terms we've been learning. And, sixth grade used it to come up with some really good rules for posting on the class website.
I've use it a little to touch base with faculty, and I really should be using it that way more than I currently do.
For me it is a great way to get feedback, get input from students, make formal and informal assessments of student learning, and give students an opportunity to answer questions/voice an opinion without having to speak to the whole class.
I occasionally share answer with the class, especially in the older classes (a lot of time the students really want to see what other had to say--I typically don't show names, though).
I used it with third grade today to review/reinforce some of the terms we've been learning. And, sixth grade used it to come up with some really good rules for posting on the class website.
I've use it a little to touch base with faculty, and I really should be using it that way more than I currently do.
Monday, February 7, 2011
3rd Grade Patriotic Symbols
I'm staring on a cross curricular project in 3rd grade.
The project is going to incorporate using the internet, reading, writing, social studies, and possibly sound recording. It also incorporates the class website I use with my classes as well as the one created by the 3rd grade teachers.
Students will use a jog the web (link posted on the computer class wiki website). The students will find the definitions for "patriotic" and "symbol" and be prepared to discuss what a patriotic symbol is.
The jog will then take them to the 3rd grade class site, where they will each be responsible for looking up one of the patriotic symbols--these are listed on the site, and are pictured on the classroom rug.
Each student will take a five question quiz about their symbol. They will be able to check their answers online. Once they have all the answers correct, they will record the correct answers to three of the questions on a worksheet.
In Language Arts class, the 3rd grade teacher is going to have students turn their questions (some are multiple choice, some are matching) into sentences. The students will then write a short writing piece. During the next computer class or two they will practice Word Processing--typing, saving, retrieving a file, etc.
Then, depending on time, the 3rd grade teacher and I will work to get each student to record him or herself reading their piece. Pictures will be taken of the symbols, and I hope to put the student audio files with the pictures and create a short movie from it--that can be posted on both sites to be shared with parents.
I'm pretty excited about this. I think at this point the biggest obstacle might be students missing class from the flu.
The project is going to incorporate using the internet, reading, writing, social studies, and possibly sound recording. It also incorporates the class website I use with my classes as well as the one created by the 3rd grade teachers.
Students will use a jog the web (link posted on the computer class wiki website). The students will find the definitions for "patriotic" and "symbol" and be prepared to discuss what a patriotic symbol is.
The jog will then take them to the 3rd grade class site, where they will each be responsible for looking up one of the patriotic symbols--these are listed on the site, and are pictured on the classroom rug.
Each student will take a five question quiz about their symbol. They will be able to check their answers online. Once they have all the answers correct, they will record the correct answers to three of the questions on a worksheet.
In Language Arts class, the 3rd grade teacher is going to have students turn their questions (some are multiple choice, some are matching) into sentences. The students will then write a short writing piece. During the next computer class or two they will practice Word Processing--typing, saving, retrieving a file, etc.
Then, depending on time, the 3rd grade teacher and I will work to get each student to record him or herself reading their piece. Pictures will be taken of the symbols, and I hope to put the student audio files with the pictures and create a short movie from it--that can be posted on both sites to be shared with parents.
I'm pretty excited about this. I think at this point the biggest obstacle might be students missing class from the flu.
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