Langwitches Blog » Search Results » elementary+web+resources http://langwitches.org/blog The Magic of Learning Wed, 23 May 2012 19:11:06 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Wondering About Hyperlinked Writing http://langwitches.org/blog/2012/03/31/wondering-about-hyperlinked-writing/ http://langwitches.org/blog/2012/03/31/wondering-about-hyperlinked-writing/#comments Sat, 31 Mar 2012 21:03:04 +0000 Silvia Tolisano http://langwitches.org/blog/?p=10020

Almost 4 years ago, I wrote a post on Langwitches titled Teaching Hyperlinked Writing and Reading. 4 years later, many (most?) teachers have not heard, let alone are teaching and coaching their students in the use of hyperlinked writing. The word “hyperlinked” is still being underlined in red as I am typing the word, indicating that it must be somehow misspelled or that the word does not exist.

Wes Fryer, in his post The Ethic of the Link, Hyperlinked Writing and Mainstream Media Link Hangups, states that

Hyperlinked writing is one of the most important topics we can address, share, and encourage educators to learn ABOUT and how to DO personally today.”

I agree with Wes and feel that there is very little headway being made to address the issue in Professional Development and in the classroom with our students. Again, I believe that teachers can’t teach, model and coach their students in something they have little or no experience in.

What are we waiting for? Linked reading and writing is not going away…These are skills our students need…

Bud Hunt, in a post titled Ruminations on Implications: Notes from the Thesis, also notices, in the case of classroom and student blogs, that there is merely a “substitution” of the traditional writing going on. His concern is that we are simply replacing traditional writing with digital writing without tapping into the transformational potential it holds.

The kind of writing that’s being asked of students in these spaces?  Well, it’s interesting – I can break it down into three types – daily summaries, written collectively by elementary school classes; reflective essays about various topics; and responses to teacher questions.  Lots of it is writing that doesn’t require a blog.  And it’s writing that involves very, very, very little source material.  Very few quotes.  Very few links.  And the links, when they’re present, are not  embedded in the text.  They lie naked and open in the text.  And that seems problematic to me

In another post, Thinking ’bout Linking, Bud wonders about

teaching “blogging” vs. “writing with blogs

I think Bud makes a very important distinction here. There is a difference between the two which expresses beautifully the next step I want to take in helping students become quality blog writers. It is not about substituting traditional writing, but it is about amplifying it.

I am asking:

How do we help bring hyperlinked writing (and reading) as an important genre into the classroom?

I had a brief interaction with Terry Heick on Twitter (please read in reverse order) and really was thankful for the perspective he shared.

Terry calls it “layered writing”, I have heard it called

  • connected writing
  • linked writing
  • hyperlinked writing
  • non-linear writing

and I would like to add:

  • amplified writing

Please share your experience with hyperlinked writing.

  • Any thoughts on how you feel about it?
  • Are the links distracting to you?
  • Do links empower you as the writer and reader of the digital text?
  • Do no links in a digital text make you cringe?
  • Feel restricted?
  • How have you incorporated hyperlinked writing int your classroom?
  • How are your students learning to express themselves via linked writing?
  • Does linking come natural to you/them?

We can create a hyperlinked context around “Teaching Hyperlinked Writing,  if you leave a comment with a link on this post or leave a pingback from a reflection on your own blog or resources you have found valuable.

Now…on from the wondering, theory and resources…to the practice in the classroom. Stay tuned for an upcoming blog post where I share what I learned with and from students.

Further Resources:

]]> http://langwitches.org/blog/2012/03/31/wondering-about-hyperlinked-writing/feed/ 6 Walking the Walk: Action Research http://langwitches.org/blog/2012/01/23/walking-the-walk-action-research/ http://langwitches.org/blog/2012/01/23/walking-the-walk-action-research/#comments Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:20:15 +0000 Silvia Tolisano http://langwitches.org/blog/?p=9874

I have been blogging for 6 years now…

I have written extensively about blogging (131 posts categorized “blogging” on Langwitches)

I have shared two guides for teachers to start blogging with their students

It is time to walk the walk…

Let me walk the path of Action Research…. to find out if blogging:

  • teachers, who are “actively” learning about and participating in the blogging process (beyond attending a workshop or reading “about” blogging), are setting the stage and building a solid platform for their own ongoing professional development and life long learning?
  • educators, who are blogging with their students,  can (are) learn(ing) to teach through a 21st century lens (skills & literacies)?
  • improves students’ writing skills?
  • motivates and engages students?
  • touches on multiple 21st century skills and literacies, as well as contribute and support learning fluency.
  • amplifies curriculum content, objectives and skills?

As you can see from my questions above, I am looking for answers on three levels. One is about the benefit and learning process for the educator, another is on a student level and a the third level is from the curriculum point of view.

Action Research is defined on Wikipedia:

Action research – is a reflective process of progressive problem solving led by individuals working with others in teams or as part of a “community of practice” to improve the way they address issues and solve problems.

Over the last few years, I have figured out that I learn better COLLABORATIVELY. My immediate reaction to “Where do I start?, was to connect and to surround myself with other educators to walk together down the path. I have also learned that collaborating or working as a group (especially with group members scattered across the globe) could be hard, frustrating and often fizzled out.

In order to move forward and to set my Action Research proposal up for success, I needed to connect with passionate, committed and dedicated educators. I wanted the framework of the research to take on the shape of  Quad Blogging.

Quad blogging, defined on quadblogging.net is a way:

To deliver electrical energy of a global audience to the heart of a blog to allow a rhythm of excitement to kick via the blog’s widening global audience.

Quad blogging meant to find and connect 4 educators to collaborate and conduct action research with their students.

 

I was able to put together four amazing Action Research teams, ready to start the process towards the end of February. We have:

Team USA (Martin J. Gottlieb Day School) with Andrea Hernandez (21st Century Learning Specialist),  Stephanie Teitelbaum (4th grade teacher) and myself.

Team Czech Republic (International School of Prague) with Nancy von Wahlde (3rd grade teacher)

Team Thailand (International School of Bangkok) spear headed by  Chrissy Hellyer (Technology Coordinator) and Stacie Melhorn (5th Grade Teacher)

Team Switzerland (International School of Zug and Luzern) with Maggie Hos-McGrane (Technology Coordinator) and Dave Secomb (4th Grade Teacher)

We will be planning via a Google Doc and Skype, disseminating and connect our research findings via our respective professional blogs.

Here are some of my preliminary thoughts:

Pre-Planning to include:

  • Pre-planning Skype meeting
  • Collaborative Google Doc
  • Identify Goals & Objectives
  • Identify Obstacles/Problems
  • Identify Strategies
  • Discuss Solutions
  • Share resources and Materials
  • Data Collection:
    • Pre-assessment (writing & commenting rubric)
  • Action Research Assessment and Evaluation:
    • How will we measure success?
    • How will we know if we have succeeded?
    • What will we accept as evidence of success?

During

  • Monitoring of students writing and commenting
  • Coaching, mentoring and guiding students writing
  • Anecdotal records
  • Record student observations and behavior

Post-Planning to include:

  • Debriefing Skype call
  • Post-assessment
  • Student interviews?
  • Self-assessment (students record audio of video reflection?)
  • Analyze, interpret and share results
  • Was Action Research successful?
  • What has been learned, gained and what needs improvement?
  • Reflective post on professional blogs

Maggie Hos-McGrane  wrote about Teachers as Leaders. She referred to the Teacher Leader Model Standards that have been developed by the Teacher Leadership Exploratory Consortium. One of them being Accessing and using research to improve practice and student learning.

How about joining us in doing Action Research on your own, as you are blogging with your students! Find out what works and what does not and (maybe) most importantly SHARE your findings.  It’s about being active, reflective and transparent learners as we are teaching.

 

]]> http://langwitches.org/blog/2012/01/23/walking-the-walk-action-research/feed/ 4 Learning About Blogs FOR Your Students- Part I: Reading http://langwitches.org/blog/2011/10/29/learning-about-blogs-for-your-students-part-i-reading/ http://langwitches.org/blog/2011/10/29/learning-about-blogs-for-your-students-part-i-reading/#comments Sat, 29 Oct 2011 12:30:27 +0000 Silvia Tolisano http://langwitches.org/blog/?p=9468

When thinking about “BLOGGING” , the untrained eye (in regards to blogging) of an educator usually will think of “Technology Integration”. When digging a little deeper he/she might recognize that blogging is more about WRITING than technology. But let’s roll blogging back even a little further and we will discover that blogging starts with READING!

Part I- Reading

Becoming an avid blog reader of a variety of blogs is the first step for a teacher contemplating blogging with his/her students. Reading blogs with metacognitive analysis in mind, will help expose teachers to the potential blogging holds in relationship to LEARNING.

Will Richardson in his book “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful We Tools for Classrooms” (Corwin Press 2006) states about blogging:

Connective writing is, for the most part expository writing, but the process starts with reading [...] But more than just reading, bloggers that write in this way learn to read critically because as they read, they look or important ideas to write about. It is an important first step, for as Samuel Johnson said, “I hate to read a writer who has written more than he has read”.

We need to formulate and address intended learning outcomes for our students when blogging. These outcomes need to go BEYOND checking off “technology integration” on our lesson plans.

As teachers read blogs regularly, the better they will become in

  • RECOGNIZING learning opportunities via a blogging platform
  • FORMULATING learning outcome for their own students as they see quality examples of other blogs
  • IDENTIFYING curriculum learning outcome and match them to blogging
  • UPGRADING and REPLACING blogging can replace traditional assessment
  • GAUGING the quality (or lack) of blogs they read, but also the quality of their own students’ blog (relevant to their age group)
  • GETTING USED to the new genre of digital reading and writing
  • RECOGNIZING that writing is changing (thank you Terry Heick). The writing process used to end with the last period in the last paragraph. Hitting the publish button on a blog, might just be the beginning, not the end of writing.
  • UNDERSTANDING the grammar of social/networked writing. How ideas are linked, connected, expanded, influenced, etc. (thank you Alec Couros)
  • EXPERIENCING the culture of sharing (Alec Couros)
  • BROADENING their horizon by being EXPOSED to an array of content (Alec Couros) and global points of view
  • ENGAGING in reflective practice (thank you Mike Gwaltney)
  • being AWARE that there is a Global Learning Community out there and available to them anytime/anywhere (thank you Akevy Greenblatt)
  • LEARNING and CONNECTING in their own professional journey (thank you Dean Shareski)
  • REALIZING that blogs are self-designed, self-directed, and interdependent with all other media forms. (Terry Heick)
  • OBSERVING the ability of blogs  (over time) to function as a tool to curate learning (Terry Heick).

Dean Shareski, on his blog post Student and Teacher Blogging that Succeeds, expresses the obvious, but sometimes hidden truth for the novice blogging teacher:

Blogging is about writing, but it begins with reading. [...] Teachers recognize that in order to be a good writer you have to read good writing. Yet when it comes to blogging, most want to write immediately and sit back and wait for the world to pay attention. It won’t happen. Provide as much time for your students to read blogs as write.

I wholeheartedly agree with Dean, but would like to “remix” his statement with the following:

Blogging is about writing, but it begins with reading. Teachers recognize that in order to teach about blogs, they have to read good blogs. Most want to jump immediately in and have their students start blogging, sit back and expect students to write quality blogs. It won’t happen. Teachers need to take time in reading other blogs, before they expect to be able to lead their students in quality blogging.

So let’s take a look at READING blogs. Where does the novice blogging teacher start?

There are literally millions of blogs out there:

  • some of very poor quality
  • some of topics that holds no interest to you
  • written in a voice that offends you
  • some expertly written that you can’t believe you get to read them for free
  • some that will change the way you view the world forever
  • some from which you will learn everytime you just think about them :)

Start with your PASSION! Passion is what will make you read when you are too tired or have too many other things to do.

Make a commitment to:

  • Read at least 4 blogs regularly (Thank you to Chic Foote for suggestion)
  • Add them to your RSS Reader (ex. Google Reader) or add them to an iPad app (ex. Flipboard ).
    Make it as easy as possible for yourself to have access to your chosen reading material.
  • Set aside a few minutes EVERY day to read them.
    Like every other routine, you have to practice to make it a habit.
  • Metacognitive analysis
    ( Merrian Webster’s Online Dictionary defines metacognition as “awareness or analysis of one’s own learning or thinking processes”. )
    Be aware of your own learning as you are reading.
  • Take notes (yes, with a notebook and pencil is ok!)
  • Read the comment section of the posts as well to get a feel for the conversation style and learn to recognize quality commenting
    Start to practice commenting on your chosen blogs to become part of the conversation

As you are reading, keep the following in mind:

  • What do you like about the blog writing? Style, visuals, content, language, author’s voice?
  • What don’t you like about the blog writing?
  • Do you recognize techniques that extend the traditional forms of writing?
  • Be always conscious about your own learning as you are reading.

Here are links to sample blogs for different grade levels and subject areas to give teachers a head start in finding quality examples. You want to choose a variety of blogs. A classroom blog, a professional blog, a student blog, etc. Some are part of my own RSS feed (with my own recommendations), in addition to links and recommendations contributed by others in response to a previous blog post.  If you have other QUALITY blogs to share, please add the links and a short recommendation in the comment section.

Elementary School

Linda Yollis’ Classroom Blog

Recommendation:

This blog is a wonderful example of how to showcase authentic learning experiences in the classroom. Linda also engages her students and readers to comment and contribute content throughout the year.

Miriam’s Magical Moments (Student Blog)

Recommendation:

•  Quality student blog (She earned her blog last year as a third grader, she continues to publish as a fourth grader.)
• Variety of subject matter
• Integration of digital images
• Comments back to all visitors/Great blogging etiquette

Librarian/Media Specialist

Jenny Luca’s Intercepting the Web

Recommendation:

Jenny is Head of Information Services at a school in Australia. She blogs regularly on a variety of subjects, among them 21st century learning, libraries, and information literacy. I enjoy Jenny’s blogging style very much, because her thoughts are outlined clearly and supported with quality links (leading to interesting resources or an older, related blog post) or relevant embedded media (images or video).

Castilleja Library Site

Recommendation:

This site has won the 2010 Edublog Awards in the Library Category. The site does a wonderful job in exemplifying the extension of a physical space into a virtual space. Student work, book reports are being showcased, as well as images videos and other “Cool Stuff”. Links to further resources and to online databases are easily accessible. The design of the sites complements the information it shares and is invites visitors to explore more.

 Technology in Education

Rodd Lucier’s The Clever Sheep

Recommendation:

The blog’s title is intriguing enough to start reading Rodd’s blog, but it is the tag line that makes me come back and look forward to his posts: “Leading in a new Direction”. In his own words he is “on the lookout for opportunities to engage in meaningful conversations with others who see themselves as learners.” On his blog you will find ideas and resources to upgrade your traditionally taught lessons to the 21st century. As a teacher and consultant, Rodd shares specific examples, illustrated with images, to broaden his readers’ horizon and to start them THINKING about ” leading in a new direction”.

Maggie Hos-McGrane’s TechTransformation

Recommendation:

Maggie is a fabulous writer. Her voice comes through on every post. I especially like how I can follow her train of thought as she reads books and connects ideas to her own experience and thoughts. Maggie also shares great practical tips as she coaches and supports teachers in technology integration, teaching and learning in general. Her advice is backed up by research and her own extensive experience as an international educator.

Education (Teaching/Learning/Pedagogy)

Bill Ferriter’s Tempered Radical

Recommendation:

Bill writes with a very honest and clear style about topics that will be immediately relevant to any classroom teacher K-12. He uses his blog to reflect on his practice, establishes networks, lesson successes and failures, and anything else related to the practice of teaching. His blog seems to be for him to make sense of his own experience more than any kind of a public soapbox. A blog is simply a means to express. It doesn’t have to be heavily editorialized, chock full of great tools, or connected to every other blog on the planet. If you speak clearly about something you’re interested in, chances are you’ll find an audience. And even if you don’t, a blog is an easy way to document the progression of your own thinking as you develop as a professional.

Andrea Hernandez’ EdtechWorkshop

Recommendation:

Andrea has been blogging for almost 4 years. It is an interesting read to follow her journey from a computer lab teacher to a 21st century learning specialist. No matter where she was/is on her journey her voice as a “I AM A TEACHER FIRST” comes through. Andrea is extremely reflective and does not shy away from asking herself and her readers some tough questions. She does not jump on every bandwagon because it has the word “technology” attached, but continues to probe deeper, if it can/could/will make a difference in the kind of teacher she is/can be and to her students’ learning.I have also enjoyed very much how Andrea has grown in her  strategical use of  visuals in her posts.

Terry Heick’s TeachThough

Recommendation:

TeachThought covers an existing (and perhaps saturated) topic (education) from new and interesting perspectives (culture, media, and technology).

It also has a combination of thorough editorials, easy-to-read digital essays, news, and helpful tools and multimedia for all stakeholders in education. Among other things, blogging is about serving others with through your passion and expertise. It also features guest posts from other related blogs to expand its reach.

Mathematics

Dan Meyer’s dy/dan

Recommendation:

Dan has figured out how to not only write about his own learning journey, but how to share lesson plans, resources and anecdotes from the classroom at the same time His use of videos and images to break up his posts and are enriching by visualizing a concept or lesson.

 Science

David Wetzel’s Teaching Science and Math

Recommendation:

As the tagline of David’s blog states, he shares ” Resources and Strategies for the Science and Math Classroom”, in a very straight forward way. His posts are direct and to the point. The use of sprinkled bullets and sub-titles in the post appeal to my “stepy-by-step” and “list making” brain.

STEM

Max Goldstein’s Dethorning STEM

Recommendation:

Max is a Sophomore at Tufts University, but don’t let that fool you. He has an incredible insight in how the STEM subjects sh(c)ould be taught in schools. He writes about an array of subjects related to STEM and education including his own experiences as a student. The insight of the way he sees the world around him is refreshing. His blog is a true gem, considering that traditionally (as a generalization), not all “logical-mathematical” brains enjoy or can write well at the same time. Max’s enjoyment of writing is evident in reading his blog.

Language Art

Kelly Jordan’s Teaching Literacy in the Early Years

Recommendation:

Kelly Jordan is a Literacy Coordinator at a school in Australia. Kelly’s focus on her blog is LITERACY. She explores different tools and methods as she is implementing these with her students. Her blog is backed up by real experiences from the classroom, which she describes beautifully in text and images. There are many student samples to look at to support her lesson implementation. Every blog post is ended with questions she poses to her readers in order to gain new perspectives, resources and advice.

Art

Hillary Andrik and Theresa McGee’s The Teaching Palette

Recommendation:

The blog focuses mainly on posts in the following categories: classroom management, music + art integration and teacher-authored product reviews. I like the clean professional look of the blog. No wonder that the visuals/images used on the blog are not generic images or clipart, but specifically taken or created to support the content of the post.  The owners of the blog are doing a terrific job in inviting their audience to contribute content via guest blogs, reviews, recommendations and image submissions.

Music

Gareth Ritter’s Ask a Music Teacher

Recommendation:

Gareth is a music teacher from the UK. He has student video tutorials and audio examples to share, which help make his blog real, not theoretical. As the title of the blog already gives away, Gareth encourages his readers to ask questions, especially in  “around the topic of innovative teaching and the use of technology in the classroom, particularly within music.”

World Languages & ESL

Greta Sandler’s About a Teacher

Recommendation:

Greta is originally from Argentina. She is an English teacher in Buenos Aires and in love of being a teacher. This love shines through in her blog posts. Following her blog, will give you an insight how technology has/is connecting so many global educators who all share the love of teaching.

Lauren Beversdorf’s Be The Change

Recommendation:

Lauren is a K-8 Spanish teacher. On her blog, Be The Change, she not only explores teaching a language to her students, but also how she can make a difference in their lives. As a relatively new blogger, she is embedding media into her writing and her voice shines through.

Lissa Laymann’s Te(a)ch French

Recommendation:

Although a brand new blog, Lissa not only shares examples how she is integrating technology in her world language classroom, but also makes room for reflection (**Notes) throughout the posts. She embeds Google forms as well as video into her posts.

Administration

Connected Principals

Recommendation:

The Connected Principals site is a group blog. Principals from different school communities share openly and transparent their trials and errors, successes and thoughts around education and leadership. You will find different writing styles on many topics of interest to administrators.

Miscellaneous

Maria Popova’s Brain Pickings

Recommendation:

The diversity of content, use of images to fill out content, linking to other blogs (very important part of blogging), and, perhaps most of all, it covers an interesting topic with passion and consistency.

MacKenzie Smith’s Grilled Cheese Social

Recommendation:

While there are a lot of great educational blogs, I think it’s great for teachers and students to look at the breadth of the landscape of informational text that blogs can provide. (This is specifically related to Common Core reading and writing standards as informational text, but also opportunities to fulfill the capacities of the College and Career Ready Student.)  That said, I like this blog as a source of informational text about my favorite food: Grilled Cheese.  I like the way the author gives step by step directions, visuals, and commentary on her artful creations. It would be a great model for someone to emulate as they start their own blog, no matter the topic, and no matter whether they are student or teacher!  Take a look at the comments (but perhaps overlook some of the colorful language…). These are not just touchy-feely remarks…people are articulating WHY the post mattered to them. Metacognition and connections are what we want from these online interactions!

]]> http://langwitches.org/blog/2011/10/29/learning-about-blogs-for-your-students-part-i-reading/feed/ 12 Students Becoming Curators of Information? http://langwitches.org/blog/2011/06/12/students-becoming-curators-of-information/ http://langwitches.org/blog/2011/06/12/students-becoming-curators-of-information/#comments Mon, 13 Jun 2011 01:03:54 +0000 Silvia Tolisano http://langwitches.org/blog/?p=8679

Images like the following ones, visualize for me the urgency for all of us to become information literate to wade through the incredible, ever increasing, amount of information being created and shared with the world.

information hydrant

licesed under CC by will-lion

information overload

Lincensed under CC by verbeeldingskr8

We are with no doubt in the age of information overload and IN DIRE NEED of knowing how to filter in order to get to the information we need. Think about Clay Shirky’s quote below.

Clay Shirky

Information Overload

In comes the idea of becoming a Curator of Information.

“Curating” is defined in the Merriam Webster Dictionary as:

Select, organize, and look after the items in (a collection or exhibition).

Digital Curation, Curated Learning & Collective Curation?

I have started hearing and reading about the terms “Digital Curation”, “Curated Learning” and “Collective Curation” as well. Naturally it intrigued me. What does that mean? How can I bring it into the classroom? How can “curated learning” be connected to the idea of teachers and students creating their own textbooks?

Digital Curation is defined in Wikipedia as:

the selection, preservation, maintenance, collection and archiving of digital assets. Digital curation is generally referred to the process of establishing and developing long term repositories of digital assets for current and future reference by researchers, scientists, historians, and scholars.

In a fabulous article, Jeff Cobb, on his blog Mission to Learn asks Who Are Your Curators? (Thank you to Mike Amante for pointing me to the description of the ISTE panel discussion he will be participating in at the end of the month and all the included resources)

The idea behind curators and content curation is that there is such a flood of new content pouring through the Internet pipes these days that being aware of all of it and sorting it out in meaningful ways is simply not possible. Curators are people or organizations that do the hard work of sifting through the content within a particular topic area or “meme” and pulling out the things that seem to make most sense. This effort involves significantly more than finding and regurgitating links, though.

Cobb continues by pointing out two opportunities for the life long learner. The first one is to FIND great curators and the second one is to BE a great curator.

Curated Learning

How can this concept of “curation” of information be brought into the “classroom” (however you define the classrooms of the present/future and how it should/could look like)? If we can use Cobb’s suggestion and teach/coach our students to Number 1) find and connect to great curators and Number 2) be great curators for their own network, then we have moved closer to understanding Shirky’s warning about information overload and filter failure. “Quality” curation takes higher level thinking skills. It requires responsibility towards your network who rely on you to filter information on a specific topic. Curation requires the ability to organize, categorize, tag and know how to make the content available to others and to be able to format and disseminate it via various platforms.

How can we take advantage of  Collective Curation?

Here is a short video clip explaining the concept of Collective Curation

I think the following questions are worthwhile exploring for the learner in ourselves, but also for our students (elementary school and up). Facilitating the role of being a curator fits in perfectly with the role of “researcher”, Alan November suggests in his Digital Learning Farm model.

  • What tools do I use to curate?
  • How can I use my network to filter and find quality information?
  • How can/do I contribute and become the filter for others?

Tools that Support and Facilitate Curation of Information:

  • RSS Readers
    • Google Reader
      subscribe
      bundles
  • We based Curation Tools
    • ScoopIt
      Be The Curator of Your Favorite Topic!
      Create your topic-centric media by collecting gems among relevant streams
      Publish it to your favorite social media or to your blog
    • CuratedBy
      A growing collection of topics & interest edited, organized and curated by everyone. Follow the topics you are interested in or create and share your own topics with everyone else.
    • PaperLi
      Create your newspaper. Today. Turn Twitter and Facebook into online newspapers in just a few clicks.Treat your readers to fresh news daily.
    • Bundlr
      Bundlr is a new and free tool for online curation: clipping, aggregation and sharing web content easily.With Bundlr you can create bundles of any kind of content: articles, photos, videos, tweets and links. Cover real-time breaking news from your sources. Wrap up an event with a collection of online feedback. Build a page where you pick the most relevant content on your area of expertise.
    • PearlTrees
      Pearltrees is the social curation community. It’s the place where you can organize, discover and share the stuff you like on the web.
    • LiveBinders
      Your 3-ring binder for the Web. Collect your resources. Organize them neatly and easily. Present them
  • Social Bookmarking
  • Blogs
    • categories
    • tags

Further Resources:

 

 

]]> http://langwitches.org/blog/2011/06/12/students-becoming-curators-of-information/feed/ 11 Do Student Jobs in the Classrom Affect Learning? http://langwitches.org/blog/2011/05/30/do-student-jobs-in-the-classrom-affect-learning/ http://langwitches.org/blog/2011/05/30/do-student-jobs-in-the-classrom-affect-learning/#comments Mon, 30 May 2011 22:43:19 +0000 Silvia Tolisano http://langwitches.org/blog/?p=8570

As I discussed in a previous post What is…will be obsolete in Second Grade?, I am taking a closer look at student jobs and responsibilities in the classroom in relationship to 21st century skills, literacies and “The Digital Learning Farm“, a term coined by Alan November.

A few months ago, I sent out the request to contribute to a survey about Classroom Job and Responsibility Assignments. I asked for help…

As I am collaborating with teachers to create classroom job responsibilities that allow their students to make meaningful contributions, I wonder:

  • What kind of jobs, responsibilities or contributions do YOU allow your students in your classroom?
  • Are younger students (lower elementary) as capable as older students to be contributors to a classroom learning community?
  • What is the difference between “classroom management” jobs (ex. pencil sharpener, line leader, attendance taker, etc.) and “learning management” jobs (ex. official scribe, tutorial designers, collaboration coordinator)?
  • Do these responsibilities/contribution make a difference in your students’ learning?

Here are some of the results:

I received 18 contributions from educators teaching at the following levels:

Survey participants teach at the following levels

What kind of jobs, responsibilities or contributions do YOU allow your students in your classroom?

 

What jobs do you assign in your classroom?

It looks like that the “traditional” jobs ( I refer to them as classroom management assignments), such as teacher’s assistant, pencil sharpener, door holder and table captain, are the ones who in comparison to the “learning management” jobs are more regular classroom responsibilities.

What other kind of job duties/ responsibilities do you assign in your class?

  • Line Leader, Prayer Leader, Calendar & Weather Man
    Each of my classes decides what jobs we need and who will fill those jobs. Typically, we update the jobs at the beginning of each month.
  • “Photographer, Videographer, Blogger, Secretary, Librarian, Scorekeeper. Facility Manager”
  • “Documentation of class learning. Rotate different documenters each week. Start the next week with a report on the class learning from the previous week, ie. how and when the class learned. Photographer, Reporter (for audio recording), Recorder (for graphing, drawing, etc.)”
  • “Locker of classroom door after lunch, attendance taker. homework completion checklist”
  • “Job Boss-makes sure all jobs get accomplished, Cleaning Boss-makes sure no one leaves any thing behind and all chairs are pushed in, dismisses students when their area is clean, Homework writer-writes daily assignment on dry erase homework calendar
    Pass out/back papers-passes out papers from “”to give back”" box (although this job is becoming obsolete with google docs and all web 2.0 tools
    Peso writer-person to write number of pesos paid to teacher when Engish is used in class
    Euro counter-counts class euros toward class party and adds some to bank each day
    Smart board person-this person explains our daily agenda”
  • “Rotational leader in opening exercise : writes up agenda and date, leads the choral reading of positive affirming statements.”
  • When we are reviewing for our math enrichment activities time, I have a student leader at each center. This leader is responsible for knowing and enforcing the rules for the game assigned to their center. Also, I have a remediation center where students pretend to be the teacher and help/coach their classmates solve word problems.
  • Teacher’s Helper, Paper Collector, Paper Passer, Morning Opening Leader, Line Leader, & our new Bloggers! I have eliminated Door Holder and Pencil Sharpener.
  • “Line Leader
    Read in the “”pond”"
    Photographer
    Gardener/ Fish feeder (depending on the year and what we have in the classroom)”
  • “Line Leader
    Weather Person
    Calendar Person
    Errands Person”
  • This is a great way to get teacher feedback. I too am a big believer in student responsibility. It’s the teacher’s job to provide some boundaries, and the students are generally quite good about staying within them and working well. Some things I do: I do duplicate posts of my assignments on facebook (since 95% of my students are on it), and there are a couple students that have admin priveleges and can also upload these assignments and other announcements to our group.  Another idea is that I’m big on allowing students to move around (especially boys), and I have bathroom passes that double for “I need to move around” passes, which students just grab and go. Only one boy and one girl can leave at a time. For the last two years I haven’t had a student abuse this privilege (that I know of). I hope this helps!
  • Line leader, snack tub carrier, messengers, paper passer, paper collector, sweeper, board cleaner, library organizers, substitute, overhead set-up/screen puller, and computer start-up/shut-down.
  • Attendance/lunch

What about the “Learning Management” style job assignments?

  • “These specific roles have a limited role currently but I like the idea! Our bloggers, videographers, photographers, etc. help put technology into the hands of the students and allow them to practice new skills.”
  • “They involve kids more in real roles where they’re responsible for learning–not for make-work–and make group collaboration smoother.  For example–a 3rd grade group did a science / math project where they designed small rubber-band-powered machines. Photographers recorded the process, reporters recorded predictions and results on Audacity, data kids measured & recorded their machines’ performance, etc. Each group collaboratively ended up with a narrated slideshow of the design process, their thought process, and their evaluation of the whole experiment.  (I handed out pencils as needed.)
    older students come in to assist students with their work – helps build community in the school    note-taker for students with severe arthritis, poor vision – same effect – develops empathy.
    Students learn to work together while managing each other. No one is boss or in charge (even though two of my jobs have the word “boss” in them)  They kindly remind each other of their jobs and are rewarded by the teacher if they get them accomplished.”
  • “Very early in my teaching I coveted collaborative learning.  I truly believe in learning through sharing. This would be the greatest influence on my learning practice.”
  • “With learning management responsibilities make students think about their learning and puts them in charge of their learning. Instead of being passive participants in a group, they have designated roles that they can contribute.”
  • “This is my ninth year of teaching, and my first one where I began using 21st century learning techniques. The students act as “scribes” by blogging about a specific subject area: Reading, Spelling, Grammar, Wordly Wise, and Social Studies/Science. This technique pushes them to reflect on what we have learned as a class, and what they have learned as an individual, during that particular week. I am considering adding “class researcher” to my job rotation in the future.
    The photographer can take the camera at any time and take photos of peers who are on-task. This gives me a great record, they love to take pictures and I don’t forget to do it! I print these pictures for the students’ portfolios. I would like to use them more for discussion in class…”
  • “We are just beginning this in my classroom, and it has been a learning experience. My students are both eager to do the job and they struggling with it.”

Additional thoughts from survey…

  • “Student ownership of learning is so important to create lifelong learners, meta-cognition, foster goal setting and create a collaborative environment.”
  • “Teachers should also not spend their time doing tasks that the TEAM can complete, this time can be used for individual instruction, guiding small groups and preparing and supporting lesson resources.”
  • “We have a saying posted in our room: “”The one with the primary responsibility to your future is YOU”.”
  • “This year I finally did student-led conferences and these were the most authentic, effective, meaningful and inspiring conferences with families that I have ever been a part of.”
  • “I created these jobs based on the things that I was constantly doing 10 years ago during my first year of teaching. My students helped me create these jobs because they wanted to help me. By 8th grade they usually “forget” to do their jobs, but they are the ones who neoprene create them in the first place.”
  • “My classroom is not very visible other than physically looking into the room. I have just started to develop a more global network.  I am not overly confident in my ability to create a global collaborative classroom.  Just exploring and trying a few things at a time.”
  • “Student jobs build classroom community. It teaches students that they can help in running the classroom as well as gives them the opportunity to contribute to their learning and learning among their peers.”
  • “Even as a child myself, I remember having classroom jobs that we were expected to do. The two I recall the clearest are chalkboard cleaner and the person who cleaned the chalk out of the erasers! I remember the cloud of chalk dust that would appear around me as I clapped the erasers together! It was a messy job, but one that I took pride in. Those may not have been 21st century learning responsibilities, yet we still contributed to our positive classroom environment. When I imagine a class where students are not given any jobs, and are not accountable for even small things, I see a teacher who is more of a dictator and students who are less motivated and excited to learn. Just like the old-fashioned farm jobs, I believe that kids need to participate, contribute, and be validated for putting some of “themselves” into their class and their school.
    Years ago I worked with grade 2 teachers who have had a different student add to a class journal at home each evening. This allowed parents to see what had been happening in class and created a nice record of the year from the point of view of the students. I suppose that nowadays a blog could achieve this!”
  • “Student contributions are essential no matter what age or population you teach. They are critical with high poverty populations, which is where I teach.
    It teaches them about responsibility and gives them pride in their learning environment.”

Do these responsibilities/contribution make a difference in students’ learning?


I wish I had included this direct question in the survey. Since I did not, I am going to ask YOU, my blog readers, to answer it. Do you believe (have you observed) an increase in student learning due to classroom jobs that allow the learner to contribute in a meaningful way to a learning community?

I will answer that question in my next blog post with a review of “The Digital Learning Farm” examples from this past school year.

]]> http://langwitches.org/blog/2011/05/30/do-student-jobs-in-the-classrom-affect-learning/feed/ 1 Super Book of Web Tools for Educators http://langwitches.org/blog/2010/12/13/super-book-of-web-tools-for-educators/ http://langwitches.org/blog/2010/12/13/super-book-of-web-tools-for-educators/#comments Mon, 13 Dec 2010 22:53:30 +0000 Silvia Tolisano http://langwitches.org/blog/?p=7685

I was honored when Richard Byrne, from FreeTech4Teachers,  asked me to contribute to his latest project: a collaborative Super Book of Web Tools for Educators. I am fascinated by the production power of teachers who collaboratively are creating work to help other educators. I am fascinated by their willingness to donate time, expertise and share resources.

Here is the list of contributors to The Super Book of Web Tools for Educators:

You will find chapters about:

  • An Administrator’s View
  • Elementary School Tools
  • Middle School Tools
  • High School Tools
  • ESL/ELL
  • Teaching Online
  • Connect Via Skype
  • Elementary School Blogging
  • Alternative Ed Tech
  • Social Media for Educators

The Super Book of Web Tools for Educators- A comprehensive introduction to technology in all K-12 classrooms.

There are teachers around the world who want to use technology in their classrooms, but they’re just not sure where to start. That’s why eleven prominent bloggers, teachers, and school administrators got together to create this free book.

Except where noted, all content is the property of the respective authors. you may read, download, print, and distribute this work in its entirety under the following conditions:

  • You cannot charge for access to The Super Book of Web Tools for Educators.
  • You cannot use The Super Book of Web Tools for Educators as a “free gift” connected to a workshop, training, book, or other services or product for which you are charging a fee.
  • Unless granted permission for the author(s) you cannot use excerpts from The Super Book of Web Tools for Educators for inclusion in another electronic or printed book.

Super Book Educators Web Tools

]]> http://langwitches.org/blog/2010/12/13/super-book-of-web-tools-for-educators/feed/ 2 Web Literacy and Differentiated Teacher Blogs http://langwitches.org/blog/2010/09/09/web-literacy-and-differentiated-teacher-blogs/ http://langwitches.org/blog/2010/09/09/web-literacy-and-differentiated-teacher-blogs/#comments Thu, 09 Sep 2010 13:50:45 +0000 Silvia Tolisano http://langwitches.org/blog/?p=7083

According to Technorati, who published the 2009 State of the Blogosphere there are more than 133,000,000 blogs. In my Google Reader, I am subscribed to  and read over 500 blogs, on Twitter I receive hundreds of daily recommendations to read a this blog post or another. I am comfortable in reading and writing in a medium that I did not grow up with, nor I even have heard of 10 years ago.

But… we can’t assume…

In my recent blog post What Does It Mean To Be Literate, I wrote

We can’t just assume that every teacher is web “literate”. Before we start talking about how blogging can support 21st Century skills for their students, we need to step back and make sure that the teachers are literate (enough) to be able to read and write through this medium called a blog!

We cannot assume either…

…that parents are able to find and navigate a classroom site built on a blogging platform (reverse chronological order, categories, tags, etc) nor understand the pedagogical reasons behind blogging (beyond just using the latest buzzword of mainstream media). The lack of parent literacy in new media forms was what inspired me to write Dear Parents: Moving to a Classroom Blog.

Red Flag

As I was reading Will Richardson’s post “Reading Screens, Writing Screens, Teaching Screens” a red flag went up for me as he asks:

Are reading and writing changing in these linkable, screen centered environments? If so, does the way we think about reading and writing literacy have to change to embrace these shifts? If so, what are we doing about that?

Right now, I think the answer in most schools is “not much.” In fact, I’m not sure many even realize the extent to which this shift is occurring.

The sentence, I honed in on,  is the last one “I’m not sure many even realize the extent to which this shift is occurring“. I agree that many schools, teachers and parents are not realizing the gap that is widening in terms of reading and writing literacy. If a teacher is not aware of the shift occurring, nor is “literate in these new environments”, then how can we ask him/or to blog?

Can we “push” him/her into using a blog platform as a two way communication tool and global communication center and expect the platform to be more than simply replacing the papers in the “Friday Folder” or the static one way school website?

Richardson asks “What are we doing about this shift in reading and writing literacy”?

For the last weeks/months, I have been involved in addressing the BASICS of maneuvering a blog

  • setting up classroom blogs, adding users, entering titles and taglines
  • doing workshops for teachers on the Nuts & Bolts of logging in, posting and editing
  • explaining the difference between posts and pages
  • initiating some teachers in the world of widgets (and even a little HTML)

I am looking at my Langwitches Blog and its categories and am realizing that the “Blogging” category has the most postings (Over 100!). Part of these posts  is a “Blogging with your Students” unit to make it easier for classroom teachers to get started. Among them you will find post titles such as:

I am also realizing that these posts are intended for teachers to get their students blogging. I have neglected to address the needs of the teachers to learn about

  • Basic Vocabulary (addressed partly in What Does It Mean To Be Literate)
  • A new writing genre
  • Blogging Etiquette
  • Online Safety
  • Blogs as communication platform
  • Blogs as information/material/resource hub for parents and students
  • Blogs as global communication centers

What am I doing about bridging the gap of paper based reading and writing in our school towards the shift of digital, hyperlinked, connected and collaborative writing?

After having a thought provoking conversation about this topic this past week with the new Head of School, I am realizing that I need to take a step back, as a PD leader, and articulate a plan to guide teachers in their own journey. We need to differentiate Professional Development and individualize goals for steadily moving towards becoming literate in new forms of digital reading and writing and how this applies to instructional practice.

Image licensed under Creative Commons by Emilio Labrador

Image licensed under CC by Emilio Labrador

I can’t put the cart before the horse and throw teachers into blogging and expect them to use the “tool” beyond their own literacy.

Differentiated PD might have to “lower” the expectations (for some) of using a blog to its fullest instructional potential (right away). It is a process…The idea is that everyone is moving in the right direction.

Differentiated Teacher Blogging PD

  • Using blogs might mean for one teacher to learn how to log in and update weekly homework assignments, upcoming class events, important information.
  • It might mean to subscribe to and read, via an RSS Reader, other classroom blogs.
  • Some teachers might be ready to extend the resources available in the classroom to pre-select links to outside curriculum related sites, activities and content.
  • It might mean for another teacher to learn how to create and embed multimedia on the blog to include photo slideshows, VoiceThread, student created videos or podcasts.
  • Yet another teacher might be ready to allow a two way communication to open on her blog, where teacher and students have a conversation and students are contributing to the academic content to their online classroom learning community.
  • Maybe one teacher is ready to make their blog a global communication center that invites global voices to contribute multiple perspectives and encourages healthy discussion beyond the physical classroom walls.

I would like to hear your ideas and thoughts regarding Will’s questions:

What are we doing about this shift in reading and writing literacy”?

and what is your reaction to my statement “I can’t put the cart before the horse and throw teachers into blogging and expect them to use the “tool” beyond their own literacy.”

What are you already doing? Where do we start?

]]> http://langwitches.org/blog/2010/09/09/web-literacy-and-differentiated-teacher-blogs/feed/ 8 Wrapping my Mind Around Digital Portfolios http://langwitches.org/blog/2010/08/04/wrapping-my-mind-around-digital-portfolios/ http://langwitches.org/blog/2010/08/04/wrapping-my-mind-around-digital-portfolios/#comments Wed, 04 Aug 2010 15:41:23 +0000 Silvia Tolisano http://langwitches.org/blog/?p=6727

image licensed under CC by "Boogies With Fish"

Digital Portfolios have intrigued me for a while. I had a preconceived notion about what a portfolio was, an accumulation of work that demonstrated accomplishments, an analogy to a photographer’s photo album which showcased his best images…

Here are two other blog posts I have written about Digital Portfolios:

Web 2.0 Cloud

The digital part of the term “Digital Portfolio” was the most interesting part for me, since it meant I could implement and use all the different technology tools to create, organize and embed these accomplishments in a central location somewhere  in the “cloud”.

Artifact Accumulation

The digital part was fascinating, because it meant a portfolio was accessible anytime and anywhere compared to the traditional paper portfolios that were more physical and static in nature.

What I had not wrapped my mind around yet was the “reflection” part of portfolio equation. A Digital portfolio is according to Dr. Helen Barrett a combination of

Process & Product

Part of that process includes the important reflection part.

David Niguidula, in his chapter “Digital Portfolios and Curriculum Maps” of the book Curriculum21 by Heidi Hayes Jacobs (ASCD, 2010) says:

The process of collecting, selecting, and reflecting on the work in a portfolio is what makes it powerful. The portfolio is a representation of what students know and are able to do, and the opportunity to present that work to an audience of peers, parents, and teachers shows that the world can take the students’ work seriously.

Chrissy Hellyer, a 21st Century Learning Coach and former 5th grade teacher at the International School of Bangkok, is in my opinion one of the pioneers of digging deep into using digital portfolios with her elementary school students. Her blog posts Journey into the World of E-Portfolios and step-by-step guide to Using VoiceThread as a Digital Portfolio are an invaluable resource. I based the following visual on her Portfolio Prompts for Elementary School students.

Valuable resources I have looked at along the way:

Here are the visuals I created that help me make sense of what I am learning. They are based on the work, resources and presentations mentioned above who helped me construct my own understanding.

Digital Portfolios as a Story of Learning

A transcript shows letters & numbers, a portfolio shows knowledge and achievement.

There are three levels of Digital Portfolios:

Three Levels of Developing a Digital Portfolio

Tools to Create Digital Portfolios

Media used to create and include Artifacts

Dr. Helen Barrett, dubbed as the grandmother of E-Portfolios by some, gave an inspiring presentation at the American School of Bombay about the blending of Social Media and E-Portfolios (see video below) . You cannot conduct research about e-portfolios without running into Dr. Barrett’s name and work. Especially her Electronic Portfolio Site is a gold mine of resources and information.

Another audio recording of one of Dr. Barrett’s presentation on “Balancing The Two Faces of E-Portfolios.

]]> http://langwitches.org/blog/2010/08/04/wrapping-my-mind-around-digital-portfolios/feed/ 14 links for 2010-08-01 http://langwitches.org/blog/2010/08/01/links-for-2010-08-01/ http://langwitches.org/blog/2010/08/01/links-for-2010-08-01/#comments Sun, 01 Aug 2010 10:02:02 +0000 Silvia Tolisano http://langwitches.org/blog/2010/08/01/links-for-2010-08-01/

  • How One Teacher Uses Twitter in the Classroom
    Teachers are always trying to combat student apathy and University of Texas at Dallas History Professor, Monica Rankin, has found an interesting way to do it using Twitter in the classroom.
    (tags: twitter education classroom)
  • BackChanneling with your Classroom
    from Cybraryman Internet Catalogue
    (tags: backchannel resources)
  • Backwards Story Writing:
    Using Today’s Meet for writing | Kevin's Meandering Mind
    (tags: backchannel)
  • Langwitches Blog » Backchanneling with Elementary School Students
    Chatrooms have acquired a bad reputation. Children are being warned that entering a chatroom will get them kidnapped, abused and possibly killed.

    As with everything, if you use scare tactics and simply tell children “not to do it” , they will automatically been drawn to whatever you are trying to keep them away from.

    My philosophy, instead of shutting tools such as chatrooms completely out, is to use them in a safe environment, engage students and use teachable moments to talk about safety and etiquette.

    (tags: backchannel elementary langwitches)
  • Backchannel Gone Right
    (tags: backchannel collaboration classroom)
  • Educators’ Perceptions of Uses, Constraints, and Successful Practices of Backchanneling | in education
    This qualitative study sought to explore participants’ perceptions of the impact of web-based backchanneling conversations in a variety of learning environments. Backchannels, forms of instant message conversations, take place during synchronous learning sessions. Online interviews with educators from Canada and the United States revealed their perceptions of the uses, constraints, and successful practices of backchanneling. Educators in the study saw backchanneling as a non-disruptive, non-subversive, collaborative activity that expanded participation and interactions; an approach applied with intentionality to enhance learning. Six themes emerged from the data: backchanneling for professional development and networking; backchanneling for engagement; constraints of backchanneling; changes in teacher and/or learner perspectives; examples of backchanneling in educational settings; and suggestions for successful backchanneling.
    (tags: backchannel)
  • Backchanneling « Mrs. D's Flight Plan
    Backchanneling is a learning strategy you can use to keep students effectively engaged in a lesson. Similar to a chatroom, students have a continuing “chat” alongside various formats (lecture, video). After reading various blogs by a primary, intermediate and high-school teacher, I noticed the comments regarding the value of the process were similar. As students backchannel, they collaborate, communicate, and connect to each other and their thinking. Students who are reluctant hand-raisers are more apt to participate.
    (tags: backchannel)
  • Support Blogging! -
    Links to School Bloggers
    (tags: blogging resources education blogs)
  • Bling Your Blog
    In the beginning, you are getting yourself organized, and making sure that it is easy to follow. In this section you will find tutorials to help you: add media, keep parents involved, create a static home page, adding links to images, organizing categories, learn what G Cast is, & discover the Text Widget!
    (tags: blogging)
  • Word Cloud Resource List
    (tags: wordle wordcloud visualization)
]]> http://langwitches.org/blog/2010/08/01/links-for-2010-08-01/feed/ 0 links for 2010-07-09 http://langwitches.org/blog/2010/07/09/links-for-2010-07-09/ http://langwitches.org/blog/2010/07/09/links-for-2010-07-09/#comments Fri, 09 Jul 2010 10:03:39 +0000 Silvia Tolisano http://langwitches.org/blog/2010/07/09/links-for-2010-07-09/

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