The Possibility of More

Jeff Krause is an excellent Language Arts teacher in my school who is trying to get even better. Who can resist a post that starts with this sentence?

As with all crazy ideas, it occurred at approximately 3 a.m. � the time when you can convince yourself that just about anything will work.

Jeff has three posts about something he's trying in his American Literature class that are worth your time (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3).

This I Believe Goes Global

[cross-posted on Learning and Laptops - the "I" in this post is Anne Smith]

For the past two years, I have had my classes write their versions of National Public Radio�s �This I Believe� segment. I was introduced to this idea by a colleague and have been always impressed by what my students hold as their personal values and beliefs. Writing these essays has allowed for them to do something they don�t get to do all that often at school - express their heartfelt beliefs. After writing the essays the first year, we submitted them to NPR, but we also decided to podcast them ourselves � no need to wait to see if NPR might choose to broadcast them. The writing was good at expressing their values, but once their voice was added to their written expression, WOW, it simply transformed that personal essay. Instead of the words simply being words, the words conveyed deeply held emotions. Now, this is the standard.

Previous class examples:

Period 2 06-07
Period 5 06-07
Period 3 06-07
Period 2 07-08
Period 5 07-08
Period 3 07-08

We are approaching that time of year, when I am going to start the kids on this writing adventure, but this year I wanted to add a little twist with the help of you out there in the blog-o-sphere. I want �This I Believe� to go global. I want my students to benefit not only from knowing what their peers believe, or what the other AHS classes believe, but to hear and see what the world values. What do kids elsewhere in the U.S. believe in? What do kids elsewhere in the world believe in? What do some of the learned professionals that I know believe in? I want my students to walk away from this experience realizing the power they have as professional writers as well as connecting to other teenagers and adults from around the world. I want to see them exchange ideas, foster relationships, and appreciate the variety of perspectives.

So, how do we accomplish this? Karl Fisch, of course, is willing to be my master facilitator. He has set up a wiki (still a work in progress) that will provide the guidelines for the classes to follow. I am making Maura Moritz�s classes join us in this experience, too, so there will be four classes (ninth grade, 14 and 15 years old) from AHS writing and podcasting their essays: Moritz 3, Moritz 4, Smith 2, and Smith 5. We are hoping to attract at least three other classes from around the world, one each to pair up with each of our four classes. If we get more than four classes that are interested, then we will try to pair up any additional classes with another class somewhere in the world. If your class(es) are interested, email Karl with some basic information (your name, school name, location, grade level(s)/ages, how many classes, and time frame that you�d like to do this) so we can setup those partnerships. (Our thinking is that pairing one class with one class will keep this from becoming too overwhelming for the students, although of course anyone can read/listen/comment to any of the essays on any of the wiki pages).

We will create a wiki page for each set of paired classes and each student will upload their written essay as well as their podcast (the podcast can either be uploaded directly to the wiki, or you can use a variety of other services for that and then link to them). Each pair of classes will be in charge of their own wiki page and we�ll use the discussion tabs on each page to give feedback to the students. If you are an adult interested in writing a piece yourself, simply add them to the �adults� page on the wiki. I am hoping to get some notable edubloggers as well as my superintendent, CIO, and others to participate. It would also be helpful to include a brief bio so the kids can know who they are reading about.

Obviously you don�t have to do this with us or on our wiki, you can create your own. But we thought it might be interesting and helpful to have one wiki that aggregated all these essays/podcasts, one place that students (and others) could visit to learn about beliefs all over the world.

Wondering where to start? NPR has a number of education friendly links to help you along the process:

For Educators
For Students
Essay writing tips
How to contribute an essay to NPR

Timeline: For our classes we are going to start writing our essays, November 6th with a final due date of November 14th. The following week they will begin podcasting their essays. The paired classes don�t have to match this timeline exactly (although that would be great), but we�re hoping they can have theirs completed by the first week of December so that the students can start commenting on each other�s essays/podcasts.

But for other pairings you can set whatever time frame works best for you � that�s the beauty of the wiki, it�s a living document with no �end� to the assignment (although that�s why we need you to include your time frame when you email us so that we can try to match folks up). We would really appreciate any feedback (now or as this progresses) to make this an experience that is truly relevant and meaningful for these kids.

"I Already Have"

Just a quick post to point out this blog post by Terry Sale:

On many Fridays, for our warm up, I give the class what I call a poetry song. Today the song was Vertical Horizon�s �Everything You Want,� which I like to use because its ambiguity usually sparks some discussion. Today the class stared at the lyrics mystified for a long time. Nothing. I finally asked, what sort of song is this � is it about politics? Relationships? Sports? A couple of brave souls ventured guesses: yes, it�s about a relationship. Maybe it�s about God. A brief discussion, then more silence. I asked, How could we figure this out? Their answer: Google. Meanwhile, I had a Macbeth assignment for them to work on, so I said, Maybe we can google this later in the class.

And then, from the back of the room came the voice of Steve saying, �I already have.�

Steve had fired up his iPhone or equivalent and searched for the song. He said he only found a couple of comments, and they just seemed to be someone�s opinion, not a definitive answer (such as, say, the band itself revealing what they really meant).

Read the rest of the post for some of Terry's thoughts on the matter. I also love the comment on the post by Steve himself:

Wow, that was quick! Strangely enough, I read that with my iPhone during the passing period (I subscribe to this blog on Google Reader).

VoiceThread Examples

We used VoiceThread for the first time just before spring break so I thought I�d share these examples. We still have a lot to learn about how to use it well, but I think these are a good start. Anne Smith describes several different poetry projects some of our freshmen completed - you should read the descriptions of the different types of poems as well as follow the links to some of the projects they created using various tools. Here are direct links to the VoiceThread examples in Anne and Maura Moritz�s classes:

Smith Period 2

Moritz Period 3

Moritz Period 4

Smith Period 5

As always, constructive criticism is welcomed, either on Anne�s post or � even better � leave a comment on some of the VoiceThreads.

Thinking Creatively

To go along with our AWNM project, I thought this post by Anthony over on Students 2.0 was worth passing along to our students discussing these ideas.

Twenty-first century education won�t be defined by any new technology. It won�t be defined by 1:1 laptop programs or tech-intensive projects. Twenty-first century education will, however, be defined by a fundamental shift in what we are teaching�a shift towards learner-centered education and creating creative thinkers. Today�s world is no longer content with students who can simply apply the knowledge they learned in school: our generation will be asked to think and operate in ways that traditional education has not, and can not, prepare us for.

So, students in Mrs. Smith's and Mrs. Moritz's classes, is Anthony right? (Make sure you read the entire post.) You probably want to comment on his post or, of course, you're welcome to comment here. (Or both!)

Live Blogging AWNM � Round One

As I mentioned in a previous post, four sections of our ninth graders are reading and discussing Daniel Pink�s A Whole New Mind, including live blogging and a videoconference with the author. They are also live blogging with various folks from my learning network as they discuss the six senses that Mr. Pink believes are critical for success in the 21st century.

Last Friday was our first attempt to bring in those outside live bloggers and � for the most part - it worked very well. In the spirit of sharing what works � and what we struggled with � here�s a quick summary.

What Went Well
The technology worked surprisingly well. Sometimes when we�ve done live blogging previously (just the students in the class), Blogger has blocked our IP address after awhile because they thought we were spamming comments (sometimes 200+ comments in 50 minutes that are coming from one IP address). Thankfully, that didn�t happen.

MeBeam worked pretty well, with the only problems being a software update that messed a few folks up, as well as some firewall issues (more on that below). We used MeBeam to stream the audio/video of the inner circle discussion out to the live bloggers. That way they not only followed the comments on the blog, but were able to hear the conversation in the classroom. For those that hooked up their own webcams, it also allowed the students to see what they looked like. (We decided not to bring their audio in, figuring the students had enough to concentrate on.) We used a Logitech webcam for the video, and a Blue Snowball microphone for the audio, with the Snowball pulled into the middle of the discussion using a 15-foot USB extension cable.

As usual, the students did a really nice job with the both the in-class discussion and the live blogging discussion (with one exception that I�ll talk about below). Our remote bloggers were incredible. Thanks to Dean Shareski, Darren Draper, Julie Lindsay, Jeff Whipple, Sharon Peters, James Folkestad, Sylvia Martinez, Karen Janowski and Tim Stahmer for your participation, your probing questions, and your willingness to devote time to this. We - and our students - really appreciate it.

What Didn�t Go Well
MeBeam updated their software a couple of days before we did this. As part of that upgrade, they implemented a �motion detection� system so that people didn�t use up their bandwidth with a webcam pointed at a wall or something. If it doesn�t sense any motion for about 10 seconds, it kicks you out of the room. But that meant that if folks trying to tune in to the MeBeam broadcast didn�t have a webcam connected, it booted them out. Luckily MeBeam still has their �original style� available that works without the motion detection system. I found that out the day before, but didn�t get that communicated to everyone in time. Since the feedback from the remote bloggers is that hearing the in-class discussion was really helpful, that was not ideal for those folks that couldn�t connect. Hopefully this week we�ll do better. Also, at least one remote blogger had firewall issues that wouldn�t allow him to connect to MeBeam. MeBeam uses Flash and a pretty standard port, but apparently not standard enough.

While for the most part the student discussion was really good, they did get off-topic a little more than I expected. From previous fishbowl discussions I�ve seen them conduct, they usually do an excellent job of staying on topic. I think the difference was mostly because it was a non-fiction book, and that threw them a little bit. I wanted them to focus mostly on the concept of Design, but they spent more of their time on right brain/left brain issues. I still think it was a great discussion in all four sections, but that�s something we can hopefully improve on this week (focusing on Story this week).

What I Still Wonder About
Sylvia gave us some thoughtful feedback asking if we had thought about exploring the science of right brain/left brain a little bit more, since the extreme dichotomy of �the left brain does this, the right brain that� has been somewhat discredited. (My reading of the science is that each hemisphere is still �specialized� and operates differently, but that the interplay is very complex.) To be honest, I was more focused on the six senses and not the science, and wasn�t that worried about the science because Pink was using it as a metaphor, not a scientific �fact.� For me (and this is just me), I want to explore the usefulness and applicability of the six senses to today�s students, both in a school setting and beyond. I feel like schools are pretty �L-directed� (to use Pink�s term where he tries to avoid the �left brain� idea) and that we need to incorporate more �R-directed� activities and even policies into our schools. Not everyone agrees that that is the case, of course, but I think it�s worth exploring. But Sylvia�s comments make me question whether we should�ve expanded this project even more to include the science, and I wonder how we could�ve done that effectively (or possibly could do it effectively in the future). So if folks have suggestions � or links to good resources that explore this further � please leave a comment.

You can read Anne Smith�s and Maura Moritz�s reflection on how last week went, as well as posts by Darren, Julie and Sharon with their thoughts. If you�d like to read through the live blog posts, here are the four sections (Period 2, Period 3, Period 4, Period 5). And Dan Pink has chimed in with a question for our students (on Anne�s class blog, on Maura�s class blog).

Overall, I think it was a very successful start to the project. We�re hoping that with some tweaks to the process (like sending better MeBeam instructions to the remote bloggers) and a reminder to the students to stay more on the topic of the particular chapter they are discussing, that this week will be even better. This week we�re looking forward to hearing from two of our school board members, Dan Maas (our CIO), Kristin Hokanson, Miguel Guhlin, Ben Wilkoff, Lori Soifer (a school board trustee in Michigan), Christian Long and Jim Gates.

Think Pink: A Whole New Learning Experience

Maura Moritz and Anne Smith have just begun an interesting project with four sections of their ninth grade honors language arts students (Maura's class blog, Anne's class blog.) The students are reading Daniel Pink�s A Whole New Mind, discussing it in class, and then writing a thesis driven persuasive essay built around one of Pink�s six senses (Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play, or Meaning).

As part of their discussions in class, the students will participate in a fishbowl discussion with live blogging. This is something they�ve done previously (although this is the first time with a non-fiction book), but this time they�ll have some additional participants in their live blogging � including the author. When the students discuss and live blog Chapter 7 (Empathy), Daniel Pink will be live blogging it with them. In addition, after finishing the entire book, the students will participate in a live videoconference with Mr. Pink.

Since Mr. Pink is presumably a very busy guy, he will only be live blogging that one chapter with the students. So we�ve invited a few other folks to live blog the other �Sense� chapters with the students. This includes local folks like our superintendent, our CIO, and two of our school board members, but also includes a variety of folks from around the world that are members of my personal learning network. (Thanks to everyone who agreed to participate. We didn�t want too many and tried to get gender balance and at least some geographic distribution, but of course time zone differences cause some problems there.)

As the students progress through their study of the book and its related concepts, they will also keep a Personal Learning Journal (some will do it online, others will keep it more private). They will:

reflect on the process of reading AWNM, relate the book to your own personal lives through a variety of reactions, reflect on your brain assessments, the AWNM video, as well as try one suggested activity within each Sense�s portfolio (Design, Story Symphony, Empathy, Play, Meaning). Also, we will ask you to reflect on how each Sense applies to you personally through your classes and life.

For those of you who haven�t read the book, at the end of each "Sense" chapter Mr. Pink includes some suggested activities that help the reader explore and/or develop that sense further. The students will each choose one of those activities for each chapter, complete it, and then reflect upon it.

When it comes time to write their persuasive essay about one of the Senses, the students will complete a "Wikified Research Paper." They will:

publish your paper in a wiki format, allowing you to use links in your argumentative paper to your actual research and go beyond the limits of the usual typed paper. Students could add data, photos, audio and video links, etc.

The students will also use the wiki for the entire writing process.

I, of course, love this idea, and am excited to see how it goes. As always the first time you try something, I expect there will be glitches along the way, but I still anticipate this being a wonderful learning experience for our students. Whether you particularly like Pink�s book and agree with his arguments or not, I think most folks would agree that these are important concepts for today�s learners to think about. This project will allow them to think much more deeply about these ideas and hear a variety of viewpoints from around the globe � I commend Maura and Anne for taking this on. I particularly like how they close their description of the Wikified Research Paper:

Before you submit your paper, think about this. Normally you would turn your paper in to your teacher and your teacher would provide the commentary and grade your paper. This paper is different. You are producing this paper for the world. Is it good enough for the world to read? Did you submit your best work?

Even More This I Believe Podcasts

Now Maura's ninth graders have posted their This I Believe podcasts. As always, constructive comments on their podcasts are welcome (please comment on Maura's post, not this one).

I Have the Best Job

Maura reminds us of one of the reasons we continue to do what we do.

Staff Development - Cross Curricular Suggestions for 12-17 Session

This post is primarily for the folks in our staff development, to solicit some ideas for a future session.

As we mentioned in the session this week, for our December 17th session (that's a Monday in the afternoon after finals) we are going to spend some time on cross-curricular discussions (C1 and C2 together). We will be focusing on cross-curricular teaching, which could be anything from a particular topic, an entire unit, or entire teamed classes.

While we have some ideas of how we could structure this time, we really wanted to hear your ideas of what would work best for you. Please leave a comment below.

Personal Learning Network Presentations

I�ve blogged previously about our forays into the world of Personal Learning Networks. Anne Smith blogs over on Learning and Laptops about the first presentations her ninth graders gave about their personal learning networks.

Last Friday, I had our first group of students present on their personal learning network. I used this rubric to evaluate their presentation as well as had the class access the student blog he/she was referencing to leave real time comments about the presentation (we pulled up the blog and had it appear via our overhead projectors). While the student was speaking, the class reacted to the presentation. The instantaneous feedback the students provided was valuable to the presenter. If a classmate did not feel comfortable offering oral feedback in our class debriefing, the evaluator could reference his/her blog and see what reactions the class had to the presentation.

She then goes on to provide some examples of the feedback from the students � you should check it out.

In a subsequent post, she also links to the audio of some of the students' presentations (recorded with an iPod and an XtremeMac MicroMemo). These were their first attempts at this, so please only offer constructive criticism.

Update: Jessie Comp just posted about her experiences as well.

Sharing Our Staff Development � Session 3

Last week both cohorts met for their third session of the year. Our goals for the session were:

1. Write a 21C mission (worked on by all 3 groups)


2. Start working on a 21C Vision.


3. Learn from their colleagues by observing their classes and then debriefing.


4. PLN Time: Read. Think. Write. Reflect. Repeat.

Here is the mission statement they came up with:

The 21C Collaborative Learning Community exists to model continuous learning and to encourage innovative use of technology by using constructivist teaching techniques.

Note that this is a mission statement for our staff development group, not for our school as a whole. It focused on why our 21C staff development group exists. Also, please note that I am very carefully using the term �they� � this is their mission statement, not mine. And I don�t mean that in a negative way.

When we started this two years ago, our group was driven somewhat by my vision (along with my planning team�s vision). That was somewhat by necessity and somewhat by design. We made the decision as a planning team not to have the whole mission/vision/values/goals discussion at the start of our staff development, but to go ahead and jump in with readings/discussions/arguments/technology. We felt we really needed to get into all this, the theory and the practice, the technology and the �shifts,� the reflecting and the soul-searching. I don�t know if that was the right decision or not, but it certainly seemed to work out okay. The first year for both cohorts seemed to follow the same pattern. A lot of excitement, then a fair amount of push back, frustration, and even anger, then the groups came together and � while we certainly don�t all agree about everything � there seems to be a general consensus on many things.

Now comes the problem. Now we need to define where we want to go from here. I am really trying to step back and turn control over to the participants in the staff development � that�s why it�s �their� mission statement, not mine. I�ve probably been a little bit too controlling up to this point, wanting to share so many different ideas and resources, and wanting to make sure they find each three-hour session worth their time. It�s tough for me to step back because I think I�m genetically programmed to open my mouth and voice my opinion on just about every topic conceivable, but I think I�ve done a reasonably good job the last few sessions of not doing that (21C folks, you�re welcome to disabuse me of that notion in the comments). But I think we�ve struggled a little bit with this (certainly the second year for Cohort 1 was not as �productive� as the first). We still have a limited amount of time (and energy) to do this and � just like it is for our students � it�s easier if someone is telling you what to do (even if you sometimes think that someone is a little bit nuts). That�s why I think this mission/vision/values/goals discussion is so critical for us right now, because it�s going to determine whether we (as a 21C group) continue to act as a force to improve the teaching and learning at our school, or not. As I try to remove myself more from the process I wonder a lot what my role should be.

Anyway, back to the session description. We also took time during the session to observe one of our colleagues. Since we have three separate sessions (cohort 1 on one day, cohort 2 split into a morning and afternoon group on another day), each group got the opportunity to observe a different teacher for an entire period. This is something that we are always encouraged to do in our school, but it�s hard to find time for. Our focus was on observing different approaches/methods relating to constructivist teaching and/or the use of technology in their classrooms. Technology use was not a requirement, although all three did use some technology in their lessons. We then debriefed immediately following the class with the teacher that was observed present and participating in the debrief. We used a protocol based on Diane Sweeney�s work to guide our debrief. This is not an area that I have any particular expertise in, but it seemed to work fairly well. The feedback on both the usefulness and the process was positive, so we�ll be doing this again in the future.

Finally, we had some Personal Learning Network time � time for folks to read, think, write, reflect and repeat. As usual, we didn�t have enough time to do this well in two of the three sessions, so that�s something we still need to work on.

Their �homework� for next time includes watching the Creativity Panel Presentation (Elizabeth Streb, Michael McCauley, Mary Cullinane, and Francesco Pedro - moderated by Andrew Zolli) from NECC, and doing some more thinking about the vision statement for 21C.

Speaking From The Soul

It�s no secret that I sometimes get frustrated with the pace of change in schools, including in my own building. But hopefully it�s also no secret that I work with an amazing bunch of folks at my school. Whether it�s the faculty dance at an assembly, innovative uses of technology in the classroom, or thoughtful discussions about teaching and learning, the staff at my school is always looking for ways to meet the needs of our students.

Karen Gerlich is one of those amazing staff members. From her latest blog post:

Now I'm no wallflower, but I don't necessarily enjoy sharing my writing--writing for me is like a window on my soul--perhaps that's why I'm a reluctant blogger. But, I figured if 9th graders could share their writing, if Lary could do birdcalls, I could take a chance and share my poem. So I did. Even for a seasoned professional (or, ancient veteran teacher), I found it hard to recite my poem in front of the kids. Eye contact was hard to make and my stomach lurched, but I did it. Then Lary challenged me to put it on my blog. So I am. No eye contact, but my stomach is lurching...

I thought about quoting her poem here, but instead I really, really, really recommend you visit her blog and read it yourself. Karen leads by example. By sharing herself with her students, she helps build those relationships and those common experiences that are a huge part of learning. It�s nothing less than inspiring.

College Essays On Google Groups

Michele, Lauren and Anne each teach a senior level English Literature class. As part of that class, students work on their college essays. But this year that looked a little different:

We wanted them to connect with one another and see what their peers were saying. Last year, Michele had used Google Groups with her seniors to submit their essays online so that their classmates would be able to provide valuable feedback to the posted work. After discussing how to do this, we came up with the following criteria so that our combined 5 sections of seniors could upload, comment, and read their peers' work. We had some basic criteria in completing this assignment:

Post one final essay

Students can choose to post anonymously. We actually came up with a coding system of the teacher�s last name followed by a number (Smith 4).

Students could choose to use their names to post, but no last names. (Anne S)

All students needed to post their essay by the same date.

Students need to give constructive criticism and valuable feedback to at least 5 other essays. (These essays need to be students in other classes)

Constructive criticism needs to be memorable and helpful. Try not to comment on essays that have already received feedback. If an essay has received 3 comments, move on to another essay.

While it certainly didn�t go perfectly, all three teachers felt like it went pretty well and they learned a lot about what they would like to do differently next time.

From Anne:

Some suggestions that we need to think about next time we do this: What does constructive criticism look like? Some kids received valuable feedback while others had no comments. Clearer identification of who is in what class. Do we want to open up the essays to a larger audience?

From Michele:

I would like to have 3-4 things for the students to critique in particular: voice, narrative, word choice, and getting to know the student. Students, for the most part, were specific with their comments, but I think it could be more focused.

From Lauren:

For next year, I will have students comment on three essays instead of five so the feedback is more authentic; several students felt like five comments were too many and that peer readers started getting lazy with their feedback. In addition, I would spend a class period talking about how to give good, specific constructive criticism based on the final rubric on which their essays were graded. Another student suggested that teachers comment on the essays of students who are not in their classes so writers not only receive feedback of students outside of their class, but also receive the opinion of another teacher.

Feel free to check out their essays and leave your own constructive comments, or leave comments and suggestions on the blog post.

Creating Personal Learning Networks: Part 2

Earlier I posted about our nascent efforts to help our students create Personal Learning Networks. I thought I�d take a few minutes and update everyone on our progress so far.

But first I wanted to address some things that came up in the comments on that earlier post. As usual, the comments were excellent and helped us refine our thinking. First, Michele suggested and others agreed that perhaps we had it backwards. Instead of starting with some �seeded� feeds from us and then moving into personal feeds, we should do it the other way around (more of a �personal� learning network). While on the one hand I don�t disagree, I responded with:

I've struggled a lot with this and, as a result of your comments, will revisit it again and struggle some more, but let me give a few of the reasons that � at least at this point � this is the way we've decided to go.

1. This gives them a chance to get used to the idea, the tools and the process before really going after it on their own.

2. These are incoming freshmen and they often need some more concrete direction to get started. If it's too open-ended, many of them will struggle mightily. While that�s not always a bad thing, we do have a limited amount of time in class to do this (and help them), so we wanted to provide some structure up front.

3. Please note that they do have choice from the beginning. We have limited their choice to three categories (education, local news, world news), but they choose the feeds from within those categories. We'll give them a list of suggested feeds to choose from, but they can decide whether they want to read David Warlick or Will Richardson or somebody else they find that fits in the education category. And they will choose which feed to read from our local newspapers (or some other source), and so on.

4. Finally, there's the practical/political aspect of all this. It's much easier to "sell" this to stakeholders if students are reading feeds about education, local news and world news. It's much tougher if we start with their personal interests and one student chooses skateboarding, another chooses 90's grunge rockers, and a third one chooses swimsuit fashions. Please note that I'm not saying that those aren't legitimate interests for those students to pursue, I'm just saying it's tougher to convince folks that we should be doing this in school if that's the case. Our hope is that by starting with more "traditional" or "school-worthy" categories and feeds, both the students and the community will begin to see the value and power of this. Then it will be much easier to make the case for pursuing personal interests alongside those more "school-worthy" topics, and the case for Personal Learning Networks in general.

Patrick Higgins then asked if it�s possible to do this in a school that�s not 1:1. We are not 1:1, although Anne Smith does have laptops in her classroom so is sort of 1:1 (since the laptops stay in the room and the kids don�t have them 24/7, I don�t think it�s truly 1:1). Certainly a 1:1 situation makes this much easier, but I think it can be done without it, as long as there is a decent amount of access at both school and home. I have at least two other teachers exploring this, and neither one has laptops in all their classes. We are lucky enough to have very few kids without access at home (and most of those with broadband access) � and a large number of computers at school for kids to use. For me, this is another argument for figuring out a way to provide access to all kids 24/7/365.

So, what have we done so far? I have at least three teachers (Anne Smith, Jessie Comp and Michele Davis) that have begun exploring how to do this. (These are all Language Arts teachers, but Barbara Stahlhut � a math teacher � is beginning to look into this as well). I will briefly link to some of what Anne has done, but Michele and Jessie feel free to jump in with some additional description/links.

Anne describes her initial thinking in this post, and then shares some sample entries from students in this one. (Interesting, one on a post by David Warlick, one by Will Richardson, and two by me � home field advantage, I guess). Also, if you take a look at the right side of Learning and Laptops, you�ll see a blogroll of the student�s blogs (Smith 9th PLN). You might take a few minutes and look through some of their posts and offer constructive comments if you wish. On the technical side, one thing we did was create an OPML file of the feeds for the student blogs so that students could easily import all those in without having to add them one by one. They did/will learn how to add feeds as well, but this helped get them started so that they could easily track/access each other�s blogs.

One other thing that I forgot to mention in the previous post was my attempts to make this more visible to our larger community. Starting last January I switched to Google Reader mainly for one feature � the Shared Items feature. That allowed me to easily share items I read and then � using Javascript that Google provides � display the titles (and links) of the last ten things I�ve shared (you can change the number of items you want). In January I just put those items on the initial page that our web browsers start up on when staff are logged in (we have one local page that browsers start up on for staff, a different local page that browsers start up on for students). This was to try to help spread the conversation to staff members not in my staff development (and, frankly, to many of those in my staff development that weren�t actively participating). I titled it �Join the conversation . . .� and hoped the increased visibility would help. Then, in early May I added that to the student start page as well, to try to bring them into the conversations more. Finally, this summer our district began migrating to a new web page platform (DotNetNuke � open source software) so I had to move our website over. So I took that opportunity to create a Learning Network tab on our website to try to bring our entire community into the conversations.

The majority of the items I share are from the blogs of my teachers in staff development, but I also share other items that come through my aggregator. (Right now it�s almost exclusively from our school blogs because I just haven�t had time to read anything else � my Google Reader is embarrassingly full.) I don�t know whether any of this has been tremendously successful or not - I haven�t seen an upsurge in comments from new folks - but I thought it was worth sharing.

So, how are we doing? I think it�s a good start. The feedback I�ve heard from Anne, Jessie and Michele is positive and promising. The key will be, however, if it lasts and then if the students really take charge of finding their own feeds, build and maintain their own PLN�s, contribute to the conversations themselves, and � of course � learn and grow.

Blogging 1984 - with Parents

Both Maura Moritz and Anne Smith have their ninth grade honors classes (Maura's class blog, Anne's class blog) blogging about 1984. I think that�s good � and a little ironic � in and of itself, but the really cool thing is that they invited the parents to read the novel and blog along with them. The reactions from parents were interesting. Some were very supportive and excited, others were, well, defensive I guess (�I don�t have time�, etc.). Both Maura and Anne made it clear that this was optional on the part of parents, but they highly encouraged them to participate if they could. Both to get a better idea of what their students were learning about, but also to be able to provide a different perspective for these students, most of whom were born in 1991 or 1992. Keep in mind that not only was that over forty years after 1984 was written, and seven-plus years after the year 1984, but they were born after the Berlin Wall came down.

Maura and Anne started out by having the students watch Apple�s 1984 commercial, then watching the Hillary Clinton 1984 attack ad on YouTube. It was very interesting to read the students� take on these (pretty unaware of the context of both of them), and then have some parents chime in with more information. It will be interesting to see how the parents who have chosen to participate keep up over the course of the unit.

I also like how the students provided some blogging expectations for their parents. The students are also doing some nice scribe posting for this unit.


Image Citation: 1984, originally uploaded by Mushroom and Rooster.

Not A Novel Approach?

Terry Sale is a Language Arts teacher in my building who always makes me think. His latest post is no exception. He's responding to an article by Cory Doctorow (of Boing Boing fame - currently the second most popular blog on the planet according to Technorati):

. . . it rekindled in my mind an old debate I have with myself about teaching language arts . . .

All this got me thinking about the fact that most of our language arts classes center around literature in books. Traditionally, we require our students to read and pretend to appreciate stories and novels. Yet the novel, along with being an �invention,� as Doctorow suggests, is an art form. We don�t require all students to take art appreciation classes, or study music theory, or attend the ballet. But aren�t those forms as viable and important as literature? I tout novels as explorations of the human condition and windows into other eras and cultures�but don�t paintings and operas and films do that too? Is reading The Kite Runner any more enlightening than watching Babel?

. . . In the language arts area, it may be time to shift our paradigm from literature-centered classes to reading-centered classes . . .

Now, don't judge a post by its excerpt. I would highly recommend you go read the entire post (as well as Doctorow's article) as there was no way I could excerpt it and do it justice unless I copied the whole thing. Terry does some really good thinking and takes some time to explore this idea further. I left a fairly long comment on the post, so I won't add any more here - you'll just have to head over there to check it out - and maybe leave a comment of your own.

I really only have one complaint with Terry's blogging - he doesn't do it frequently enough.

More Poetry Podcasts

Previously I blogged about Anne's classes posting podcasts of their poetry, and now Maura's classes have posted as well. Head over and take a listen to Period 1 or Period 6 and give them some constructive feedback.

Podcasting En Espa�ol - El D�a de San Valent�n y A.P.

We talked a little bit about podcasting with Cohort 2 last Tuesday. Jenny gets the award for quickest to implement a technology she just learned about � she started with her students that afternoon. This wasn�t a case of, �Ooh, cool new technology, let�s use it.� She had a purpose, and asked the students what they thought. Several volunteered, and now she has two sets of podcasts up.

In second and third year Spanish:

Students in 2nd and 3rd year Spanish classes wrote poems, odes, or letters to someone or something that they love and presented them in class on Valentine's Day.

And in A.P. Spanish: (also check out the AP Spanish blog )

When my class found out about this task last week, they were nervous to say the least. They had to read a paragraph, then listen to a minute long excerpt (all full of challenging vocabulary), and then present orally for two minutes comparing/contrasting/relating to the two sources. Here is the product of their first formal oral presentation.

This was their first attempt at this, so we�ll get better at the technical aspects. So, if you speak Spanish and have a moment, please stop by and give them some constructive criticism.