Before you freak, hear me out. I'm just so tired of conferences. I go to these things and I spend most of my time learning and sharing, learning and sharing. It is exhausting. I feel like there is only so much sharing and learning a person can do. Your idea and my idea, your idea and my idea. What's the point?
Conferences are a huge tease. They seem to say, "Come over and we can hang out and have a great time. I will show you amazing thing that will revolutionize your classroom" When I get there, they do show me some amazing things. I get very excited at what I see. Then, I realize I can' have it. My district isn't set up for this, school policy doesn't allow for that or my department would burn me in effigy. I'm not sure I can handle listening to the amazing things happening in Iowa, New Jersey, Philly, etc. without going crazy. I'm all for new ideas, but why do people need to rub in our faces. What's the point?
The only thing that keeps me going is the concept that frustration can breed innovation. Is all of this frustration I face on a regular basis going to prepare me for the next big idea? I just want tea change to be a little easier. This frustration seems to cause more pain than innovation. What's the point?
Wouldn't it be easier to just shut my classroom door and bury my head in lessons? Why endure a barrage of great ideas that will never happen for me or my students? Why spend hours discussing what I want with people who already have? What's the point?
All of this knowledge is just breeding frustration. I want what is best for my students and I need to walk them through a mine field of bad ideas and policy to get it. What's the point?
What is the point?
Oh, I'm an educator and I give a damn.
That's the point.
See you at the next conference. :-)
- @TheNerdyTeacher
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
#EduCon - Prologue
The hour approaches where I will be boarding a plane and heading to another conference. I will not be presenting at this one, despite m best efforts, and I’m kind of glad. I feel like I will have a better time learning from others. I will not have to worry about my presentation, my tech needs or if my fly is down.
I’m excited to see my friends and share stories that are hard to pass along on Twitter. I look forward to meeting new educators that share my passion for learning and change. The think I like most about these education conferences is that it is what I make of it. I know I will learn because I want to learn. Even if I have trouble finding a great conversation to attend, highly unlikely, I know that I will be surrounded by others that have loads of information to share.
I truly believe that teachers are a rare breed. We have something that connects us no matter what grade, country, state or subject we teach. Our passion for learning and growth is unmatched by any other profession as far as I am concerned. We are a group of Nation Builders. #Educon is another avenue to fine tune my skills to help me prepare my students for the world ahead. I can’t wait to get down to Philly, have a cheese steak and learn.
Look out Philly!
- @TheNerdyTeacher
P.S. – A new post in my Everything I Learned series is coming soon. Keep an eye out for it. It is very Nerdy.
I’m excited to see my friends and share stories that are hard to pass along on Twitter. I look forward to meeting new educators that share my passion for learning and change. The think I like most about these education conferences is that it is what I make of it. I know I will learn because I want to learn. Even if I have trouble finding a great conversation to attend, highly unlikely, I know that I will be surrounded by others that have loads of information to share.
I truly believe that teachers are a rare breed. We have something that connects us no matter what grade, country, state or subject we teach. Our passion for learning and growth is unmatched by any other profession as far as I am concerned. We are a group of Nation Builders. #Educon is another avenue to fine tune my skills to help me prepare my students for the world ahead. I can’t wait to get down to Philly, have a cheese steak and learn.
Look out Philly!
- @TheNerdyTeacher
P.S. – A new post in my Everything I Learned series is coming soon. Keep an eye out for it. It is very Nerdy.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Storybook Web
Storybook Web is great collection of activities for young children aged 5-8. The site uses popular stories by authors Scoular Anderson, Debi Glioro, Mairi Hedderwick and Frank Rodgers. There are many interactive activities that parents can do with their children as they watch and listen to authors read parts of their books and answer questions on how they are inspired to write. The site has writing activities for students that really allows them to connect to the story and the author.
Storybook Web is a great site for parents to use with their children to support their love of reading and writing. More and more computer sites are becoming interactive because kids want to play and learn at the same time. Storybook Web does a great job of combining these two elements into one site. This site is worth saving in your bookmarks for hours of reading fun with your kids.
Thanks to iLearnTechnology for the find.
- @TheNerdyTeacher
Saturday, January 22, 2011
The Blogger's Cafe: One Semester Later
Friday marked the end on the first semester at my high school. With next week Final exams and EduCon, I thought now would be a good time to reflect on my Blogger's Cafe.
You can find my initial posts on the Blogger's Cafe here. I'm going to approach this reflection in a couple of ways. First, I want to think about how the students used the blogs. Second, I want to think about how I used the blogs. Looking at both of these things will really allow me to see if the Blogger's Cafe is worth continuing.
I was very happy with the way students took to the Blogger's Cafe. A students convinced their parents to donate some comfy chairs for students to use and a student promise to bring a mini fridge for snacks and drinks for the bloggers of the day. Kids were excited to blog and looked forward to their turn. That was true during the first week of the semester and during the last week of the semester.
I really liked the fact that the kids did not request grades for blogging. From the first day I told them it was a class expectation to blog when it was their turn and that was that. I think it was easy because they are Freshmen and do know any different. I think that is good in some respect. Start with the Freshmen and build up over the next few years. This scaffolding could pay of in the long run as students become more proficient in using tech tools.
There are some students that struggled with blogging at first and has some trouble accessing the Kidblog and posting in the right spot, but their partners would help them out and they improved over time. It was great to see other students take active role in helping their peers who were having trouble with blogging. It created a good learning environment for the classroom.
I did have one parent that expressed some concern over the regular class blogging. Her child has some difficulty with spelling and some sentence structure. The parent wanted me to excuse the student from blogging because the student might be embarrassed by their poor spelling and grammar. I thought about it, but considered how much more harm not blogging could do. I assured the parent that the student could always use spell check and edit posts at home if they felt there were too many errors. It would actually help the student in the areas they struggle in. The parent never responded to my email, but the student kept blogging and improved over time.
Overall, I think the students took to the blogging and the responsibility of maintaining the blog for students who missed class and needed notes. From this perspective, I feel the Blogger's Cafe was a success. How I used the blogs in class is another issue.
The blogs were set up to allow students to take class notes and share them on their hour's designated Kidblog. The setup doesn't allow for much flexibility. Kids type and I talk. It feels very bland. From a communication standpoint, it was a success. Absent students and curious parents had a place to go and keep up with class. Besides that, I feel I haven't explored the uses as well as I would have liked.
I think it would be cool to offer student the chance to do some video blogging. Having students recap the week in video form and posting that on the site would be interesting. I'm not thinking about grading the students for this. I just need to make it part of the class expectations. I think kids could have a ton of fun with this project. Besides that, I'm not sure where I can go with in class blogging. It will be a focus of mine for the second semester.
When I thought about the Blogger's Cafe for the first time, I wasn't sure where it was going to go. It had the potential to be a catastrophic failure, but I had great support from my Admin staff and a terrific group of students with supportive parents that made all of this possible. Although the Blogger's Cafe has not been perfected, it is worth trying in your classroom.
I'll keep you posted on any changes I make with the Cafe and I hope you will share suggestions on how I can get the most out my idea.
-@TheNerdyTeacher
The Nerdy Teacher Tracking Code
You can find my initial posts on the Blogger's Cafe here. I'm going to approach this reflection in a couple of ways. First, I want to think about how the students used the blogs. Second, I want to think about how I used the blogs. Looking at both of these things will really allow me to see if the Blogger's Cafe is worth continuing.
I was very happy with the way students took to the Blogger's Cafe. A students convinced their parents to donate some comfy chairs for students to use and a student promise to bring a mini fridge for snacks and drinks for the bloggers of the day. Kids were excited to blog and looked forward to their turn. That was true during the first week of the semester and during the last week of the semester.
I really liked the fact that the kids did not request grades for blogging. From the first day I told them it was a class expectation to blog when it was their turn and that was that. I think it was easy because they are Freshmen and do know any different. I think that is good in some respect. Start with the Freshmen and build up over the next few years. This scaffolding could pay of in the long run as students become more proficient in using tech tools.
There are some students that struggled with blogging at first and has some trouble accessing the Kidblog and posting in the right spot, but their partners would help them out and they improved over time. It was great to see other students take active role in helping their peers who were having trouble with blogging. It created a good learning environment for the classroom.
I did have one parent that expressed some concern over the regular class blogging. Her child has some difficulty with spelling and some sentence structure. The parent wanted me to excuse the student from blogging because the student might be embarrassed by their poor spelling and grammar. I thought about it, but considered how much more harm not blogging could do. I assured the parent that the student could always use spell check and edit posts at home if they felt there were too many errors. It would actually help the student in the areas they struggle in. The parent never responded to my email, but the student kept blogging and improved over time.
Overall, I think the students took to the blogging and the responsibility of maintaining the blog for students who missed class and needed notes. From this perspective, I feel the Blogger's Cafe was a success. How I used the blogs in class is another issue.
The blogs were set up to allow students to take class notes and share them on their hour's designated Kidblog. The setup doesn't allow for much flexibility. Kids type and I talk. It feels very bland. From a communication standpoint, it was a success. Absent students and curious parents had a place to go and keep up with class. Besides that, I feel I haven't explored the uses as well as I would have liked.
I think it would be cool to offer student the chance to do some video blogging. Having students recap the week in video form and posting that on the site would be interesting. I'm not thinking about grading the students for this. I just need to make it part of the class expectations. I think kids could have a ton of fun with this project. Besides that, I'm not sure where I can go with in class blogging. It will be a focus of mine for the second semester.
When I thought about the Blogger's Cafe for the first time, I wasn't sure where it was going to go. It had the potential to be a catastrophic failure, but I had great support from my Admin staff and a terrific group of students with supportive parents that made all of this possible. Although the Blogger's Cafe has not been perfected, it is worth trying in your classroom.
I'll keep you posted on any changes I make with the Cafe and I hope you will share suggestions on how I can get the most out my idea.
-@TheNerdyTeacher
The Nerdy Teacher Tracking Code
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)