So I Know the Other One Counts as My Grade, but...

If you're just here to watch, please try this one. It's much larger than the one Dr. Bishop requested, filesizewise anyways. I got the sound issues worked out and I'm trying a larger compression to see if that helps with the quality.

CDLP: Imagination

The film you are about to watch is a collection of the films and television that have captured my imagination over the years. I have always been fascinated by the imagination, this place inside our minds where anything we want could happen, where we could make the world exactly as we wanted it. As a child, I sought out the stories that would capture my imagination and inspire me in my own storytelling. My imagination was my most portable toy, and as an only child, I think that it served me well. Now that I am older, I still seek out the things that will allow me an escape, the things that show me what the world could be or might one day be. I don't want to give up on my flights of fancy, because without them, the world would be a dreadfully boring place.

Please enjoy, and turn up your volume as some of my sound files were not working properly.

I Fail at Deadlines

Yes, so I forgot about doing this last night. I have no other excuse except that I am burned out and forgetful. I'm sorry.

Digital Literacy: It's Not Just for Fanboys and Fangirls Anymore

A couple of years ago my husband and I went out and bought a video camera. One of the fancy ones that has it's own little hard drive--no need for tapes or discs or anything like that. Why did we do this? I'm not sure, really. We'd become disciples of a couple of vlogs, particularly Brotherhood 2.0, a daily vlog by a YA author and his brother. Although Trent and I had no intentions of vlogging ourselves, we really wanted a camera to play with.

Anyway, we took this camera home and our niece and nephew, who were 7 and 4 at the time, were delighted. We made a little movie, did a little old school movie magic where we made my nephew "disappear," and then used MovieMaker to edit it and add titles and music. Brielle was fascinated. She sat with me for an hour, helping me edit and get everything just right. She and Jacob both were so proud of what we had created.

All that's to say one thing, really: kids love this sort of stuff.

I love the idea of digital storytelling. It's such a great way for kids to express themselves. Our world is ever changing which means that our literacy is changing and kids have to be able to keep up. Some of them are going to learn it whether we teach them or not.

To me, though, it's not as much about them knowing how to use the technology, but getting to see that there are so many ways to tell our stories. This article emphasizes photography, but there is so much kids can do, from video to digital music to websites to digital artwork, the list goes on and on. Maybe a kid's not a writer--that doesn't mean he's not a storyteller. I think the idea here is that we all have to find the best way to tell our story.

Many of us were taught that words are the sole purpose of language arts...but if we look at the words themselves, there is no mention of the written word. There's only language and art. To me, this means that we shouldn't only focus on reading and writing in our classrooms. We should focus on all aspects of language and we should continually relate it back to art. Digital literacy is a great way to do this.

I cannot wait to get into the classroom and start putting some of these ideas into action. Kids are more clever than we are and I can't wait to see what my students come up with.

Developing Content Area Writers

Early on in this chapter, one of the sections deeply resonated with me. The section I'm referring to is the one that addresses the different demands of high school and college writing. If you spend enough time with me, you'll eventually hear me whine about my high school teachers and how they didn't teach me how to write. I spent four years of high school in AP classes, earning A's like nobody's business, only to come to university and find myself making C's in the honors college. I'm usually the type to put the blame on myself, but this discrepancy wasn't my fault. Luckily, I had some amazing professors who taught me how to write.

My own experience, my clinical experience, and this chapter got me to thinking. We don't spend nearly enough time teaching students how to write. Sure, I wrote in school and the kids at my practicum write, but the writing isn't really meaningful. It doesn't prepare you for university and it doesn't prepare you for life. It's a hollow sort of writing, the type of writing where you make sure that you have x number of sentences/paragraphs/pages to get your grade. I have actually watched kids cut things out of their planning so that they don't have to include it in their final paragraphs; they were more concerned with how much they had to write as opposed to write a solid essay. I like to think that I'm going to be the type of teacher who gives my students "important" writing assignments, the kind where they get so involved in what they are doing that they forget about word counts and all that, the kind of assignment where my students feel they have something important to tell and they don't put down their pens until it's done. And if things work out well, they will develop the strategies they need to write whatever they must in life.

Another section that struck me in this chapter concerns the way that technology is changing so fast that we really don't know how or what or students will be writing in the future. In my own school career, my teachers never talked much about writing in real life. My 7-year old brain never imagined a day when I could write things that the whole world would have access to. And yet, here we are. The thing about kids is, they adjust well to new technology. We all know this. I watch my nephew play video games and my niece surf the internet and my baby niece talk on a cell phone. Likewise, I have (repeatedly) taught my parents to use the internet and watched my grandmother give up using her cell phone. I think that as long as we teach our kids to be good, strong writers, to embrace quality over quantity, and to never take shortcuts, the skills they learn will serve them well no matter where technology takes us.

All Those Screen Things That You Can Touch

Totally forgot to post this during class today...

I have a bit of experience with a Promethean Board. We learned how to use one in Doctor Foxworth's class, I used one during a substituting experience, and I have played on my sister-in-law's Interwrite Board (which is pretty much the same thing). They are so great for playing Pictionary.

I've been around Smartboards, but I've never actually gotten to use one. I'm quite fascinated by the pens, although I'm sure they won't be much different than the one for the Promethean Board. Fingers crossed, though.

Both of these tools have so much potential for classroom use. As motivators alone, you couldn't ask for much more. Think about it: kids usually love to write on the board. If writing on the board is going to the fair, writing on the Smart Board is a two-week trip to Disney World. Okay, it's not that great. I'd take a trip to Disney World over playing on a Smart Board anydayoftheweek. But still, it's more fun than doing a worksheet.

These things do have a lot of potential; it's sad to see that teacher's aren't using them in innovative ways. I mean, come on, when you use it just to display a Power Point, that's just depressing. Teachers could use these things to make lessons interactive, to play some cool games. Yet some teachers see the new technology that is given to them as a curse. I'd be thrilled to have one. And if anyone gets one and doesn't intend to use it, send it my way.

(This posting is reason #382 why I shouldn't do things while I'm sleepy. Ah well, you all know I'm a bit off.)

Chapter 7: Activating Prior Knowledge and Increasing Motivation

I hope you will all forgive me, because I am going to go on a bit of a tangent here. And it's probably going to be incoherent. You've been forewarned.

I had a bit of an epiphany the other day, whilst I was doing my social studies unit plan. I chose the topic of economics because it seemed like it would be easier than any of the other choices. That's probably not the best reason to choose a topic, but time was winding down and I had to pick something. To be honest, I have no real interest in economics. Sure, I'm worried about the economic crisis, but if you say "economics" to me, you're not going to get the same reaction that you'd get with say, "Jane Austen" or "Harry Potter." In the former case, my eyes are likely to glaze over, but in the latter I can become quite animated.

And yet, something interesting happened as I was doing my project. I got interested. I mean, really interested. I cared about the lessons I was planning, I wanted to make them fun, and I even had a bit of fun myself. I read about Free Trade and wanted to know more (do not dare ask me about it, because I don't know much). I had fun planning my culminating assessment. Sure, it was work, and I would have rather been watching television or reading, but it wasn't the worst thing I've done.

And here's what I realized: I've always been like this. Over my school career, I've managed to get interested in many things I never thought I would have liked, usually because the right project sparked my interest. This made me wonder if this is a particular trait of mine, or if this could work for all learners.

I like to think that it could work for all learners. I hope that by giving my students the right projects and using the right strategies to activate their prior knowledge and spark their interest, that they can have the same experiences as me: deep motivation and pride in something I've enjoyed and done well.

I particularly liked the CORI strategy in the book (although the acronym is horrible). I like the idea of project-based learning and culminating projects. I am all for anything that makes the students feel like what they are doing is important, things that feel more like real life and less like school.

I think motivation is a huge issue with teachers. In many of my observations, I've watched teachers teach a lesson, never once trying to get the students interested or explain to them why they are learning a particular skill or topic. If we as teachers reflect on our own likes and dislikes, we will realize that we don't like every topic we teach. How can we expect our students to be any different. And let's be honest: if we don't like something, or are even just apathetic about it, meaningful learning is not going to occur. Sometimes no learning at all will occur. Our students have to be motivated, and we have to do everything in our power to make even the most boring topic interesting.

General Patton FTW!

So I've been doing some incredibly geeky things online tonight, and I found this brilliant quote by George S. Patton of all people. It's a weird reference, I know, but it really seems to sum up what we've been learning about for the past few years.

"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity."

Just some food for thought.

Lesson Plan: Magnets

National Standards:
Physical Science-Light, heat, electricity, and magnetism

State Frameworks:
2. Apply an understanding of properties of objects and materials, position and motion of objects, and properties of magnetism.
c. Describe observable effects of forces, including buoyancy, gravity, and magnetism.
d. Classify materials that are or are not attracted to magnets and cite examples of useful
magnetic tools in everyday living (e.g., can opener, compass, refrigerator door seal.)

Objectives:
· Construct a compass using needle magnet, corks, and water
· Write a journal entry that demonstrates the use of a compass

Big Ideas:
· There are many forces that affect objects on earth. Magnetism is one of these forces and it has an effect on certain types of metal.
· Magnets are a naturally occurring force, but humans have harnessed their power to make life easier.

Preparation:
1. The teacher will read the book What Makes a Magnet? By Franklyn M. Branley
2. She will engage students by asking them questions about magnets.
a. What are some magnets you find in your house?
b. What are some interesting things you’ve discovered about magnets?
c. How did people in the past use magnets?
d. What are some ways we use magnets today?
3. After reading the book, she will go back and reread pages 12-13 and 16-18 that describes how to make a magnet using a needle and then how to use the needle to make a compass.
4. Students will work in groups and follow the directions in the book to make a magnet and then a compass. Each group should have copies of the necessary pages.
5. Once students have made their compasses, the class will return to whole group discussion.
6. The teacher will remind students of a social studies lesson where they learned the cardinal directions. She will ask students to explain the directions.
7. The teacher will explain that the needle became a magnet, because it has a very weak magnetic force and when we rub it against a magnet, it makes the magnetic force stronger. Basically, it is like “turning on” the needle’s magnetic force.
8. The teacher will explain that the compass is a magnet because earth can be thought of as a big magnet, and the magnet in our compass is attracted to the northern magnet.
9. The teacher will then reread pages 22-24.
10. She will ask students to imagine what it would have been like to live long ago and how they could use compass to find directions.

Guidance:
1. The teacher will read the text, stopping at appropriate places to ask questions. The text is not difficult, but there is new vocabulary such as pole, compass, etc. The teacher will explain these new words, and some new concepts such as polarity.
2. The teacher asks questions both about how magnetic forces work and how people use magnets.
3. The teacher observes the group activity, and helps students with the needles when needed. The teacher may also have to stick the needle into the corks so that students do not get hurt.
4. The teacher reiterates important passages about how people use magnets.
5. The teacher accompanies students on their compass walk and assesses whether students are using their compasses correctly.


Application:
1. Students will go on a walk through the school and use their compass to tell them which way they are going. Students may be told to go west, for example, and will have to walk in that direction.


Assessment:
1. Students will write a journal entry pretending they are using their magnet to find directions. They must include some of the information they read about in their journal entry.

Subject Area Text

I wasn't sure if we were supposed to post this here, or print it out and bring it to class, so I figured I'd better do both.

Content Area Used: Science

Frameworks:
1. Develop abilities necessary to conduct scientific investigations.
a. Formulate questions about objects and organisms and predict outcomes in order
to conduct a simple investigation. (DOK 2)
2. Apply an understanding of properties of objects and materials, position
and motion of objects, and properties of magnetism.
c. Describe observable effects of forces, including buoyancy, gravity, and
magnetism. (DOK1)
d. Classify materials that are or are not attracted to magnets and cite examples of
useful magnetic tools in everyday living (e.g., can opener, compass, refrigerator
door seal). (DOK 2)

Big Ideas:
There are several big ideas within these frameworks. First is the concept of scientific inquiry. Students need to learn how to set up scientific investigations. They need to do this by asking questions, making predictions, and experimenting. Second is the concept of relationships and how forces affect objects. Third is the idea of magnets as not only a force of nature, but something we have utilized to make our lives better.

Text:
Branley, F.M., & Kelley, T. (1996). What makes a magnet?. New York: HarperCollins
Publishers.

Audience: 2nd graders

Suitability to Develop Understanding:
This text not only explains the properties of magnets; it encourages students to conduct their own experiments with magnets and suggests ideas to try. Throughout the book, it gives examples of how magnets are used in our lives. This text could not be used as the sole teaching tool when doing a lesson on magnets, but it could serve as a great introduction and a reference tool during later investigations.

Complexity:
Using the FLIP Readability Assessment, this text seems like it would work well with the chosen audience. The pictures are colorful and actually enhance the text as opposed to serving as mere illustration. The text itself is easy to read and there is rarely more than four or five sentences per page. The book has a clear purpose: the introduce students to the properties of magnets and how we use them in our world. Most of the language is words that students would already know, but some vocabulary may need to be discussed, such as compass, cardinal directions, direction, magnetite, lodestone, and repel. Students should find the book interesting because it is colorful, it is interactive, and magnets are a high-interest subject with students. Students need some prior knowledge about magnets, but not much. They need to know what they are and what they do. This text will also be easier if students know their cardinal directions and the uses of a compass.

Interest/Motivation:
From my experience, children love science, especially when they get to figure things out and do their own experiments. Further, magnets are usually of high interest to children; magnets are easy to manipulate and are fun to play with. Most children have some experience with magnets from playing with the ones found on their refrigerators at home. This text could be highly interesting to students if it is used along with appropriate inquiry based learning tasks. If students get to do some of the experiments found in this book, they will be likely to enjoy reading the text both before and after their experiments.

A Good Website for My Student

I searched around the National Geographic Kids site, because my student loves animals, especially dogs, and wants to be a veterinarian. When asked what she would do with $1,000,000, she said that she would open an animal shelter. How can you not love that?

Anyway, I found this site about the different types of work dogs do, and I thought she might find this interesting. If she loves dogs, then she probably already knows a lot about them, but this article may give her some new information.

There is an article, a link to a game about working dogs, and links to organizations that train these animals.

Check out the site here: Working Like a Dog.

This Blog is Made of Awesome

I chose Information Overloaded partially because I thought the title was cool. When I got to the blog, I saw that the blogger has tons of awesome information on her site. On the first page alone, she has tons of links for sites that would be great to use in the classroom. One link goes to a website that has videos for all the elements on the periodic chart, another links to a site for making Wordles, which kids will love. Check out this site if you're looking for something fresh to do in your classroom.

Chapter 5: Understanding and Using Texts

Using texts in the classroom involves so much more than choosing which pages your students will read from the textbook. Teachers have a variety of texts to choose from in any content area, and should use all forms of text in the classroom. We live in a world where students will need to be familiar with all types of texts. Teachers must take many factors into account when choosing texts including student movitvation and subject matter familiarity, readability, and the complexity of the task that goes along with the text.

One of the factors that interested me the most is student motivation. I have always been a reader, but there is a bit of a disclaimer: I read voraciously, but I only read what I like. So, while I may love to read, I am not going to tear my way through my biology textbook just because I love the written word. I think there are three levels of reading (there are probably more, but this is a Lisa-ism, so you have to take it as it is): reading with no understanding, reading, and engaging with the text. Reading with no understanding is pretty self-explanatory. This is the reading where you call the words or you read while thinking of something else and remember none of it. Regular old reading is what you do when you've got that biology exam (why am I picking on bio?) and you've got to understand chapters 3-8; you'd much rather be doing something else, but you need that B (or A depending on how much of a perfectionist you are). And finally there is engaging with the text. This is the type of reading where your mom has told you to go to bed, but you sneak a flashlight under the covers and finish that Harry Potter because you have to know what happens. This is the type of reading where you devour that book on string theory because it is so interesting. This is the type of reading where you analyze every word of an e-mail or love note to suss out how your other half feels about you. And this is the type of reading you want your students to experience, because this is the text they are going to remember when they're telling stories at the nursing home.

I think that getting students motivated, getting them engaged with the text, involves a lot of other factors mentioned in this chapter. First, students need to be familiar with the material. I only became interested in string theory and black holes once I got into science fiction and time travel; before that, I wouldn't touch the stuff. Likewise, students are going to have a hard time caring about something they know nothing about. Give them as much background as possible, relate it to their lives, and do what you can to make it fascinating. Second, students need stuff they can read. If it's too hard or too easy, they are going to get bored or frustrated, neither of which lend themselves to motivation. Finally, reading and tasks need to be balanced. If the students have a complicated task, such as DOK 4 analysis, then don't ask them to read 400 pages of Faulknerian sentences on their first go at this type of complex task. Sure they can get there, but you've got to build them up. Imagine if you'd been asked to write one of Mrs. Beaver's lesson plans before you even hit Intro Block. I know that I would have dropped out then and there. Finally, give students strategies for the text they are reading. Show them how to interact with it; tell them what you do when you read that kind of text.

Note: Thank you if you made it to the end of this, for soldiering on through my rambling paragraphs and abundant use of paragraphs. It's late and I'm tired.

Chapter Four: Ongoing Assessment

Assessment is so much more than the spelling tests you take every Friday or those standardized test where you bubble, bubble, bubble and pray that you're not marking C too many times. There are many types of assessments, from formal to informal, from personal to content-based. A teacher must recognize that assessment is much, much more than pencil-and-paper tests. Assessment can tkae many forms. It can be something as simple as watching a student perform a task and deciding whether or not he/she needs further assistance or has achieved proficiency. It can be a comprehensive exam taken at the end of the year. It can be just about anything that measures student performance.

When used correctly, assessment is one of the most important parts of instruction. Good assessments can tell a teacher what a student knows and what a student needs to know; it guides instruction. Assessment should be ongoing, meaning that it should not just be something that occurs at a lessons end. A teacher can use assessment throughout a lesson to let him or her know when adjustments need to be made. If done properly, assessments can save a lot of time.

One of the most interesting topics to me in this chapter is authentic assessment. I am big on the idea of preparing students for the real world. Authentic assessment is a great way to do this, because it gives students a chance to do something that is similar to what they might one day do outside of school. I like authentic assessment, too, because it can help students begin to identify their interests. A student my find social studies boring if all he/she does is take notes, answers questions, and take pencil-paper tests. But if a student participates in a simulated archaeological dig, then he/she might discover a true passion.

Lingering Questions:
-How does a teacher find time to keep track of ongoing assessments? Is it something you get better at over time?

-Is there any way that we could restructure education so that standardized tests don't have so much influence over the way school is run?

Principles p. 75-76

3. Motivation and self-directed learning, which includes building motivation to read and learn and providing students with the instruction and supports needed for independent learning tasks they will face after graduation.

Students need to learn how to learn. As teachers, we do not want to merely supply our students with knowledge; we want to teach them the strategies to get any knowledge they need. We are guiding students along the path to becoming successful adults. In the world after school, students will not have information fed to them. If they want or need to know something, they will be responsible for finding it themselves. Thus, we need to teach students many different routes and strategies for finding information and learning new things, and then teach them how to synthesize what they find. With the technology available today, it is likely that students may find several sources, and they need to be instructed on evaluating these sources and picking out what will be helpful to them.

Another important factor raised by this principle, perhaps one of the most important topics in education, is that of motivation. As the old adage goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. We can have the best strategies available, but if our students don't want to learn, none of that matters. Thus, it is important that we make school interesting, fun, and challenging for our students. It is an outdated notion that school should feel like work. No one wants a job that they hate, so why should we make school that way for students? If students enjoy their work and feel that it has meaning, they will be much more inclined to do their work, just like adults. As teachers, we have to make school fun for our students. This does not mean that we have to play all day, but we can give students projects that feel like real-world work, which will create a sense of purpose in them.

Chapter Three: Pursuing High Expectations in an Era of Accountability

One of the most important issues any teacher faces is the necessity to have high expectations for our students. Our students are only going to give as much as we expect from them. Thus, we should set high, but achievable goals for every student in the classroom. We cannot only expect the high achievers to do well. This sort of expectation will give the teacher a mindset to encourage all students to do their best.

Furthermore, school is becoming a place where students learn how to learn as opposed to filling their brains with as much content as possible. It's more important that students come away from their education with the ability to find out anything they need to know. Students need to know concepts, not necessarily content. Actually, when concepts are taught correctly, the content will follow, both naturally and meaningfully. We want to create lifelong learners, people who can problem solve and synthesize information, allowing them to be successful in any path they choose.

Here are the main points I got from this chapter:

• All students must improve, not just the school overall.
• We must teach Big Ideas and look to the standards for our curriculum. The textbook alone is not enough.
• Good literacy skills are necessary for learning in a Standards-Based Big Ideas curriculum.
• Students must be assessed on Big Ideas.
• Assessment should guide instruction--teach where the students are.
• Teaching strategies used should be backed up with scientific research.
• Students must be taught comprehension strategies.
• Set high expectations for ALL learners.
• We don't read every text in the same way.
• Try to connect the lesson with the students' lives so that it becomes meaningful for them.
• It's important to teach students how to learn (learning strategies) and not just the content.

Lingering Questions:

• How do we teach the Big Ideas in a school where the curriculum is focused on the textbook and direct instruction?
• Where are some good places to find research-based teaching strategies?