The Tower Pulse

 

Many people have wondered where I have been the past few weeks. I've been slacking when it comes to obscure pop-culture references and overall tomfoolery. Besides school starting, I've been working on creating an online companion piece to our school's award winning student newspaper The Tower. My friend, who is the adviser for the student paper, asked me if I would be interested in setting up something for an online edition. That was pretty much the outline I was given last May. A Senior student was really excited about the idea and we communicated over the summer about our wants and needs to do something very different. The Tower Pulse is what we created.

We decided to use WordPress to host The Pulse because it was very simple for us to use, but it would also be very simple to teach other students who wanted to work for The Pulse. We purchased a theme that would focus on a visual on the cover page and link to feature stories. We really like the front picture and the scroll. Once we had settled on a template, all we needed to do was decide on content.

The Tower is a weekly student newspaper that has won many state and national awards. It is rare to find weekly school publications because of the amount of effort it takes to produce a top notch paper four times a month. One of the things The Pulse was going to focus on was content that is not in the hard copy of the paper. The Pulse needed to be something different and more relevant to the student body and the community as a whole. With a weekly newspaper, there is only so much space that can be given to sports, clubs and entertainment. The kids felt these were the areas that the Pulse should focus. The kids knew right away that The Pulse should focus on those areas, but use different media to tell the story. Needless to say, it was music to my ears. We settled on Entertainment, Sports, Clubs and Features. We were finally heading in the right direction.

The school was very lucky to have hired a new English teacher this year that has a background in journalism and yearbook. By school, I mean me. Kelli has been amazing since she came on board and has really helped make the content easier to handle. I'm very lucky to split the workload with her. She takes care of the Entertainment and Features and I handle the Sports and Clubs. After we selected the editors for each section, we established a chain of command.

• Editors assign the story to the writer. 

• Writer writes the story and gives it to the section editor for a first overview and gets it back.

• After making corrections, the writer turns it back into the editor who reviews and uploads to the web. 

• The editor notifies their section's adviser for one last review. 

• Once the adviser makes any last corrections, the editor can upload the content so it is ready for launch date.

We decided that the New Features would be uploaded once a week on Wednesdays when the hard copy comes out. The kids want to link the paper's editorial to our site and have a poll where information can be gathered and shard in the paper the next week. We want to create a cycle of information where the paper can send readers to The Pulse for more information on a topic. The Pulse can tease stories online for the paper edition. Our goal is not to compete for readers, but share readers and send them to the information.

Sports, Clubs and Entertainment will be uploaded on Mondays and Fridays. If a big sporting event happens on Wednesday, the paper will not have the information until the following week. The Pulse will allow up to date information on school events to be published the next day or two for the readers to see and comment. The kids are really excited about doing movie, song, TV and video game reviews. There just was no room in the paper for these things in the past, so The Pulse is offering something to kids who are really excited writing abut things that interest them.

Another big focus of The Pulse is going to be video and pictures. We want the students to take camera everywhere they go and document the events as they unfold. That is what is going to truly seperate The Pulse from The Tower. I've let the kids use the Flip Cam I won at ISTE from @SimpleK12 for filming short interviews and they have loved it. We need to work on camera angles and avoiding the site of people's pores, but I know it will get better over time.

One thing we told our first time editors was that they could do anything they wanted. They have the freedom to share The Pulse into anything they want because it is a clean slate. Every idea is worth a try. Every attempt might become a new tradition. They are creating a reputation. It sounds scary, but it is very exciting. One student has an idea for archiving photos of class events and saving them for their four years in high school. By the time they are Seniors, they will have a huge page dedicated to their four years at Grosse Pointe South High School. Not only would that be cool for the students, but the parents will love it. We have binder full of ideas that the kids are excited to try and I can't wait to see.

I've been contacted by the Art Department because they were wondering if we had an art editor for The Pulse. Currently, we do not, but that is something we are thinking about once we lock down what we have so far. The Video Club has expressed interest in working with us in the future as well. We have a Twitter feed linked to the site that will allow updates to sporting events and other important school events. Soon, we will have the site set up so students can post articles to Facebook and Tweet them to their friends. This would be a big first step for social media in our school district and I couldn't be happier.

One last thing about the site I wanted to mention was advertising. In a month or so, we will be selling ad space to local businesses. We will charge based on the traffic the site receives during the course of the month. The exciting part about the ad space is that it will not cost us money to edit and upload images for ads. The ad revenue will be a big money maker for the newspaper and we will be able to use that to update or very old computers and software systems. The editors think that iPads would be very helpful as the go around and do their work in the school. I think they might be on to something.

The Pulse is something that took a ton of work to get off the ground, but with the right kids, it should run itself. Journalism is shifting into the online realm and I think journalism teachers or paper advisers should think about over the next few years. I'm not saying that paper editions of newspapers should be abandoned. The Tower has been going strong for 81 years and it is not near retirement. The Pulse is going to be an exciting new option for students in the years to come.

Take a look and let me know what you think. www.TheTowerPulse.net

- @TheNerdyTeacher

Mentoring: Whose Job Is It Anyway?

The first few weeks of school have passed and I have been very busy. As I started my 10th year in education, I knew it was going to be busy. I have some new projects starting this year with blogging, I'm organizing #edcampDetroit, doing a weekly tech guide for my district, #ProjectPLN, creating a online student newspaper, working on my Masters in Educational Technology and a few other things. Needless to say, I've been very busy, but not as busy as the new teachers in my department.

My district has a mentoring program. It's not bad. Veteran teaches are paired with rookies and help them with problems they encounter. They are supposed to meet n a regular basis and keep a log so teachers can receive credit for the hours they meet. I met rarely with my mentor teacher when I was a new kid on the block. Most of the time, the meetings were brief and sometimes I would spend my time sharing my lessons or helping with tech issues. I received most of my mentoring from other teachers I sought out for guidance or teachers that seemed to go out of their way to take me under their wing. For them, I'm eternally grateful.

I see myself doing the same thing now. Some of the new teachers have been stressing over the new curriculum, failing technology, crazy students and parents among other things. I feel it is my job to go out of my way and check in on these teachers to make sure they are doing ok. In my department, new teachers are very lucky because many of use veterans go out of our way to make sure they are doing well. In others departments across education, I hear about too many new teachers being left to fend for themselves. I think that is unacceptable. Fifteen or Twenty minutes of my time to listen to a teacher vent is not going to destroy my day. After being surrounded by teenagers all day, sometimes teachers just need to vent to another teacher. We get so wrapped up in our lives as teachers, we forget that we are all a part of an entire school. We are only as strong as are weakest teachers. If we are not there for each other, who will be?

There will never be enough time in the day as they continue to pack students in our rooms, but we need to look out for one another. Dragging these new teachers out of their rooms to join the group for lunch is one of many ways you can truly save a new teacher's sanity. Make some time at the end of the day to see how the new kids are doing in their room. Do you have any extra posters they could use in their room? Drop them off in their room. Leave a flashdrive with some of your best lessons in their mailbox. Small gestures like this can make the difference in a teacher's life.

Let's not forget the veteran teachers. As schools move toward integrating more technology into the classroom, there are going to be some teachers that have a hard time adjusting to the new tech. If you are a tech savvy teacher, look to adopt a teacher that is not as tech friendly. Find some time and show them some quick and easy tricks to make their life a little easier. A small tip once in a while could make a real difference in their classroom and it will make a huge impact on the students as well.

We are all in this together. If your school has a mentor program, try to get involved. If you have a teacher you work with, try and share the love around if possible. Look to veteran teachers who might need some attention with specific tech needs and see how you can help them during the school year. As I watch the Twitter stream more and more, people are starting to realize that teaches cannot wait for government or administrators to solve the problems in education. We need to support each other and make sure we have a great work environment. It might be the districts job to set up mentoring, but it really is the responsibility of every capable teacher out there to look out for other teachers.

Try and help out a teacher next week.

- @TheNerdyTeacher

#VMGPS - Knocking Down Walls

Have you ever met some very cool people at a conference and talked about teaching and different lessons you use in class? I think that is something we have all had some experience with at some point. One of the normal ways that those conversations end is with a, "We should connect and do something together. That would be great." More often than not, that connection never takes place. We end up too busy and trying to connect two teachers in a building can be tough, much less connecting teachers in different buildings or time zones. It seems impossible right?

Welcome to #VMGPS! In June, I had a few conversations with the amazing people of Van Meter, Iowa while attending ISTE in Denver. We complimented each other on how awesome we thought the other was and shared some ideas about connecting students from around the country. At the end of the conversation, I told @shannonmmiller that it would be great if we could work together on something in the future. Well, I learned very quickly that you cannot suggest something to Shannon without her going at it like a Van Meter Bulldog. Within a few weeks, she had connected me to @ShawnHyerVM, an English Teacher at Van Meter. @JohnCCarver contacted my Principal and Superintendent to talk about connecting our schools and hopefully say a nice thing about me. :-) I cannot thank all of the people of Van Meter for being so nice and working with me to make a connection with my students. That brings us to the main part of this post.

After months of planning, Skype meetings (I have another with Sean in a couple of hours) and many emails, #VMGPS is finally up and running and I'm super excited. Here is what we have set up so far.

We created Lit Circle Blogs using KidBlog.org. We created unique logins for each student and placed them in groups named after American Authors. Their first assignment is to write a post about themselves and connect with the other students in their group. Next week, we are going to have the students start discussing short stories. As time progresses, we will move the students to different groups so they will have the chance to meet other students and share new ideas.

I had Back to School Night on Wednesday and I was worried what some of the parents might say about the project. I was very happy to see how excited the parents were. they said their kids were excited about meeting new kids from Iowa and they loved the idea of expanding the horizons of a traditional English class. I've seen the excitement on the faces of my students. It truly makes me feel like a half-way decent teacher when I seem them that excited. ;-) I hope to create a guest log in for you to use to be a fly on the wall of the Lit Circle Blogs. After a couple of weeks, I'm sure I will be anxious to show of the awesomeness taking place.

As the school year moves forward, we are looking forward to discussing larger books (Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mocking Bird, Black Boy) and work on Research Papers together. Most things are still in the early planning stages, but I have a good feeling about where this project is going. Do you know that feeling when you have created a lesson at home and you just KNOW that it is going to be awesome? That is what I feel about working with Van Meter.

After most of the year working together, we are planning on our students doing a joint production of Romeo and Juliet. There are still plenty of details to work out, but the kids are pumped! They want to start working on the play right now. The students are seeing the potential of working with new students and learning abut them as they create new ideas and do things no other students have ever done before.

I want to leave you with one last thing, 

This afternoon, I was talking to the students about connecting with the Van Meter students and getting to know them using the blog. They had questions about the blog and we traded ideas about how it was going to work. One girl raised her hand and asked the question that I was hoping would be asked.

"We're allowed to talk to them about non-school stuff right? I mean, I can be Facebook friends and Skype with them right?"

#VMGPS - Knocking Down Walls

Class Blogging: Take Two

Well, there is nothing like changing the game plan after 1 day of blogging. Ugh. The entire process was successful, but I don't like the way that it looks. When the students are live blogging the class, they are posting it in the comments portion of a dated post I set up. In theory, it was an easy way for kids and parents to access the blog and see what was going on. However, students cannot adjust the format of the post at all. Look at this example,

The "post" has all of the information that was covered in class. However, the information is really hard to sort through. The vocab word is at the top and the homework is at the bottom, but the important class information is jumbled in the middle. It's just too much for parents and students to sift through on a daily basis. I needed to change the game to get the most out of this project before it got away from me.

I decided to switch the class blogging over to KidBlog.org. I had started using KidBlog.org with my students to create Lit Circle Blogs with the students of Van Meter, Iowa. (There will be a blog post about this adventure next week!) I figured that since the kids were already using the site, it only made sense to consolidate the blogging experience. I created three class blogs and added the students names to each blog. They will now be able to create a post themselves and adjust the format to suit their needs. I posted this on my blog,

I have decided to move the class blog to kidblog.org because of the formatting issues. The school website clumps all of the text together which makes it hard to read. The kids are limited to the commenting portion only and that really restricts their ability to post some materials. I also think it might be easier to have all of the blogging in one spot so students and parents do not have go from one site to the other. I only want the best for these students and I learned plenty from just one day of in class blogging. The idea worked well, it just needs to be tweaked. 
 

Parents - To make the blogging easier for your students and allow them the chance to show some creativity, you will need to log in to KidBlog.org  to view the days work. No worried though! I created a simple Login and Password for all Parents. It allows you to view the work posted by the students.

Login - GPSParent

Password - password (This is case sensitive)

I'm sorry for the confusion, but this will be better for the students in the long run. 

- Mr. Provenzano

I created a parent account that allows them to to view the blog. Sadly, it does require them to go an extra step to see the work, but I really think it is best for the students. They can see daily assignments on the Twitter feed I posted on my school site. If they only want to see homework, they can quickly check it out there. If they want to see a little more information they need to go to the blog site and log in.


New ideas are going to encounter some problems along the way. I told this to the parents and the kids when this entire project was announced. I think this is a small hiccup on the way to something great for the students.

After the first class, I asked the first two students what they thought of the process and they said they loved it. One girl actually called it "fun"! That made my day. Despite the annoying formatting problems, it seems like this is going to good for my students.

I will keep everyone posted on how the blogging goes in class. I hope you enjoy the ride and I promise I will fill you in on the great Grosse Pointe/Van Meter Lit Circle Experiment.

 - @TheNerdyTeacher