It’s A Jungle In Here

It is time to nominate my favorite blogs for the 2010 Edublog Awards.  This will be my first experience at nominating, but I so appreciate the wonderful blogs I learn so much from, I wanted to show my support for their incredible efforts.

Best Resource Sharing Blog – FreeTech4Teachers – All I can say about this blog is WOW! Richard Byrne has pointed me to SO MANY useful resources.  I look forward to the new sites he highlights on a daily basis.  There is no way I could check them all out, but my students benefit weekly from the resources he shares with me.

Best Group Blog  – Coconnections – This blog is absolutely one of my all-time favorites. It is hosted by two co-teachers who have given their students a truly global perspective by going above and beyond what most teachers do. You will find such a variety of posts and subjects here. If it is your first time to visit, don’t neglect the archive of past posts.

Best Class Blog – Coconnections - I would also have to nominate Coconnections for the best class blog. Although this blog is not a “traditional” classroom blog, the students are fully involved in the posting, comments and activities you find on this blog. When you realize these students have to overcome obstacles most students do not have to struggle with, it becomes apparent how truly significant this blog is.

I returned from my second annual TCEA conference in Austin last week.  What a great opportunity to see what other teachers from across the state and nation are doing with the use of technology in their classrooms. I, along with two of my co-workers, had the profound privilege of presenting at the TATN event held on Tuesday, February 9th. My presentation was on using Glogster EDU for integrating technology in any subject area.  You can see the presentation done entirely in Glogster posters at http://ninapeery.edu.glogster.com/tatn-11 (follow the arrows).  Jennifer Saccoccio, a 2nd grade teacher, showed participants how she is making her classroom global with twitter, skype, and her blog.  You can view her presentation at http://www.slideshare.net/jsaccoccio/small-world. Pam Cranford, TCEA 2009 Classroom Teacher of the Year,  presented a workshop on Moodle and made all her Moodle lessons available.  You can view her presentation at http://www.slideshare.net/cranfordp/stuck-in-moodle-tatn. To view White Oak Intermediate Schools Moodle courses, go to http://www.woisd.net/view.  You can log in as a teacher and view the lessons. You may not, however, register for the courses.

This was my second year to attend TCEA in Austin.  I came away from the conference this year with some clearly defined goals for this next year.  As the technology teacher for the White Oak Intermediate School, I will develop an Internet Safety course using Moodle and other online tools that meets the requirements for districts who receiver EPACK money.  I attended a workshop on iSafe.org and a workshop on Good Citizens that proved to be invaluable for the development of my course. I will also work closely with the fifteen classroom teachers in grades 3 through 5 to help them integrate technology in their lessons.  Over the summer, I would like to create some technology professional development lessons for the staff at my school using Moodle. I am very  excited for the future of my school!

Below is the animoto created using the snapshots and video taken during the TCEA Conference. Enjoy!

I just created my first Smilebox and wanted to see how easy it was to embed it in a blog post. We are hosting our second AHH (After Hours Help) meeting for the year tomorrow afternoon, and several teachers were interested in using Smilebox. After Hours Help is a non-mandatory meeting after school where teachers can gather and work on tech stuff with the help of fellow teachers. It is a great opportunity to spend time together learning and creating using our computer lab. It’s always a good idea to try something on your own before letting students or teachers jump in to it. I really enjoyed reliving the memories of our great summer vacation in Orange Beach, Alabama as I created this.  I hope you enjoy it. My husband, the photographer, was so impressed, he’s going to purchase a Club Smilebox membership. YEAH!



Make a Smilebox scrapbook

(Created at www.wordle.net in conjunction with Corel Paint Shop Pro)

The Area 7 TCEA Conference is scheduled at the White Oak Middle School on Friday, June12th, and I am really looking forward to it.  I attended my very first area conference last summer in Bullard, Texas, and picked up some great ideas.  I know this year’s conference is going to be “knock your socks off” good, because I personally know the guys who are organizing it, and they do not do anything half way. I also have the profound priviledge of presenting a session (it is required by all those who attended the TCEA Conference in Austin).  I will be presenting the lesson I completed with my classes this year using Wordle, EtherPad, and Blockposters.  I thought it would be a good idea to create a wordle of all the presenters that will be at the conference this year.  Look closely at the wordle.  If you are from White Oak, you may notice something peculiar.  What is it? The first person to comment on the this post with the correct response will receive a prize from me!!!  Next week I plan on posting about all the great ideas I bring home.  I hope everyone within driving distance will be able to attend-it promises to be well worth your while! Click on the picture above for more information.

(Photo found at http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotos-g309236-Arenal_Volcano_National_Park_Province_of_Alajuela.html}

I really do not know how to begin this post.  I just felt the need to blog about how I’m feeling right now, and that can probably be a dangerous prospect, especially since writing is not one of my strengths.  School has been out for seven days now, if you count the weekend.  I feel pressure building to explore the tech world.  Nothing I do seems to lessen the pressure. It seems the more time I spend on the computer, searching for all the right tools and all the right answers from all the right places and reading all the right blogs leaves me even more convinced that I will never arrive where I need to be when I need to be there. Sound confusing?   I believe the pressure has increased since the start of summer vacation, because now I have no excuse for not using all the resources available to me to discover all the wonderful tools and gadgets on the net that are just waiting to be discovered and implemented in a meaningful way to make my life more connected and to make me a more effective teacher.  Whew! I might have to go take a nap before I can even finish this post. I mean, while school was in session, I could honestly say I did not have the time to chase that rabbit or hunt that deer.  I find myself putting other worthwhile projects, like painting my kitchen or digging that hole in the back yard so I can put that trampoline flush with the ground or replacing the carpet with wood laminate, on hold because I haven’t arrived in my quest for tech. I so desperately want to be in a position to help other teachers in my district get on board with technology, but it’s like trying to stop a moving train to get on board.  Sometimes I think other teachers must feel like they are standing at the depot waiting to board the train; they see the train approaching, but it doesn’t stop at the depot.  They must risk jumping on while it is moving.  I feel like I caught the last handle on the outside of the last car, and I’m holding on for dear life.  My hope was to move inside the train to the comfort car where the java is flowing and the conversation is satisfying, but the train is moving faster and faster, and instead of moving forward, I’m getting tired of holding on.  I know this is just a symptom of information overload.  I know (or at least hope) it is a temporary feeling, and I will overcome it. I say “I” will overcome it, when what I really mean is I must allow God to set my priorities so that I do not become overwhelmed.  I know He will lead me down the information path I need to take for my sake and the sake of my students, because He cares about all of us.

One of my twitter buddies (sorry, but I can not remember which one), posted a link to this video.  I thought it was worth sharing here. Enjoy!

I can hardly believe that just two months ago, I didn’t know what a PLN (personal learning network) was, and now I’m being taken over by it.  I discover so many wonderful tools and ideas from my twitter buds and the blogs I subscribe to, but time management has become a real issue.  Then there is the time it takes to check email and my own blogs to see if any red dots have been added to my clustr map from outside my own little area.  I was so proud when the first red dot appeared outside of the U.S., but my husband said it could just be a “crawler.”  I realized he was probably right, because I cannot tell you how many spam comments I have had to delete before I finally added the Askimet plugin.  I find myself wondering if I missed something crucial because I did not have the time to check this or read that.  Then, just in time, I received the Personal Network Member Bill of Rights and Responsiblities from an email Scott Floyd sent me off of Doug Johnson’s The Blue Skunk Blog.  I decided to repost it here so I could be easily reminded of “my rights”.

Personal Network Member Bill of Rights and Responsibilities

1. I have the right not to be social 24/7 – either online or in person.
2. I have the right to time for reflection and responsibility for doing so.
3. I have the right to use only the tools that suit my learning style.
4. I have the right to stop using a tool when it is no longer useful.
5. I have the right to not be on the cutting edge all the time or feel I need to always know all there is to know.
6. I have the right to choose those with whom I learn in my personal learning network and responsibility to learn from those with whom I don’t always agree.
7. I have the right and responsibility to disagree and the responsibility to do it professionally.
8. I have the responsibility to become familiar with a tool before sharing it with others.
9. I have the responsibility to share my knowledge with others in my network.
10. I have the right and responsibility to not let online activities keep me from my friends, my family, my workplace, or my community.

An idea ran across my mind this morning while discussing plans for our first ever technology summer camp.  I briefly mentioned the possible use of a pilot keyboarding program.  After a short discussion, a comment about the need for teaching keyboarding, and cursive writing for that matter, was made.  The comment was brief, and we continued our plans for this summer.  After I left the meeting, I began thinking about the comment that was made.  I began to ask myself the question, do we need to be teaching keyboarding to this generation of digital natives?  I quickly did a google search asking why teach keyboarding.  It does not seem the question is being raised.  I found many sites that ask when should keyboarding instruction begin and who should be teaching keyboarding, but all the sites I looked at implied keyboarding MUST be taught.  Don’t get me wrong.  I LOVE KEYBOARDING!  I know it may seem strange, but the thought of keyboarding brings back fond memories for me.  I can remember being five years old and watching my Dad pecking out “Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country” on a manual typewriter while sitting at the kitchen table.  He was teaching himself to type.  I was in awe of how he could look away from the typewriter and find the correct letters.  I love the power I feel when I can place my fingers on the home row and key in the letters without looking down.  I love the amazed look in my students’ eyes and the WOW factor when they see the letters quickly appear on the screen.  I love explaining the whole process and emphasizing the need to practice, practice, practice, but I began to wonder what the instrument  will look like we will use to produce content in five or ten years.  Everything tech seems to be shrinking in size.  Will the keyboard we use today be replaced tomorrow by some smaller device?  Will proper keyboard technique become a lost art? If you have an opinion on the subject, feel free to share it.