Listen to me read this.

On this the first day of classes, I'm thinking about what a mixture there is of old and new in my classes. I had my first "New Journalism" classes with 9th graders, 10th graders, and a combined class of 11th and 12th graders, plus a small advisory. I don't think there was a new face in any of my classes. This is my fifth year of teaching technology classes at East Side Community High School, and it's rewarding to see the same students over and over. One student, an 11th grader who I've had in class since she was in 8th grade greeted me with her hand out. "Hello, are you Paul Allison?" she began in mock formality, "My name is Nichole, and I'll be your student this semester." Even the students who I haven't had before were surrounded by their peers who I have had, and the new students were quickly acculturated into the ways of Room 214. Also, they were probably told what to watch out for from me, and what they could get away with.

I started each class by making sure that every student had a log in to our Windows network. Then they were to go to our eChalk school web site, and write an email to me and their advisory teacher about their goals for the year. This gave me some flex time to deal with any of the new students, and the students who needed to get a new password, but there was surprisingly little of this. Students were busy with this typical writing assignment, this time in a new bottle of actually explaining themselves to an advisor, with whom they were trying to make a good first impression.

Next, I asked students to log in or register at Writely, a process that went smoothly for all students. This is both an easy to use, basic tool, and one that later will allow us to do collaborative writing, integrate images, and publish to the web and to blogs. I asked students to freewrite. Once again, I was aware of the theme of "old meeting new," as I was reaching back to Peter Elbow's Writing Without Teachers (pp. 19-22. 1973, 1998) and forward to Writely.

Finally, I quickly explained Gcast to students, and I encouraged some who had finished to phone in their freewrites. In the afternoon, it took me about 20 minutes to put a few of these together from two of the classes, and put these on a map that several of us who plan in the Mapping community of this elgg have decided to use: "Personal Learning Maps: Entry Points."

Thursday, I start with new 6th, 7th, and semi-new 8th graders. How do I begin with them so that they end up ready to bring the old and find the new when they go into high school? Everything is harder with this group, from logistics (They don't have usernames yet.) to keeping their interest. (Addicting Games are only a click away)  

Take a look at a high school version of what we are doing in this elgg: YouthVoices.net. Hosted by our friends, Dave Cormier and Jeff Lebow at World Bridges, this community of high school blggers and podcasters, promises to be pretty exciting!

Know of a high school teacher who might want to join us? Registration is open, and individual teachers can be made administrators if you let us know.

 Also, join some of us discussing "Youth Voices" and "Personal Learning Space," our Middle School sibling on the EdTechTalk Webcast, "Teachers Teaching Teachers" at 9:00 PM Eastern this Wednesday... (and every Wednesday for that matter).

 

Take a look at a high school version of what we are doing in this elgg: YouthVoices.net. Hosted by our friends, Dave Cormier and Jeff Lebow at World Bridges, this community of high school blggers and podcasters, promises to be pretty exciting!

Know of a high school teacher who might want to join us? Registration is open, and individual teachers can be made administrators if you let us know.

 Also, join some of us discussing "Youth Voices" and "Personal Learning Space," our Middle School sibling on the EdTechTalk Webcast, "Teachers Teaching Teachers" at 9:00 PM Eastern this Wednesday... (and every Wednesday for that matter).

 

I was impressed tonight with how valuable "meet ups" can be. We had our first Tech Thursday of the year tonight, and I really enjoyed being in the room with Ken, Lorraine, Madeline, Richard, Sandy, Seth, Susan -- and Dave, via Skype. Yes it wasn't all face-to-face. We introduced the Youth Voices, Personal Learning Space and EducationBridges elggs to folks, and it was interesting to watch folks find a corner for themselves in the EducationBridges elgg.

Now we have to figure out how to make groups and communiities and how these work. 

http://paulrallison.livejournal.com/1303.html

6th, 7th, and 8th Graders at East Side Community High School. A few "snapshots" from my classroom on September 22, 2006. The students are working to post to their blog in an elgg, "PersonalLearningSpace.com" Here's the routine that I introduced to them. The hope is that this will become routine as soon as possible. 1. In Writely, freewrite for 10 minutes about anything from your life, not school.
2. Focused Sentence -- one sentence that restates the entire freewrite, but in an precise way that could be argued with.
3. More freewriting, this time beginning with the focused sentence.
4. Copy and paste into Microsoft Word to check spelling and grammar. Also edit and revise.
5. Paste back to Writely and copy again. Add five tags.
6. Copy from Writely to your Blog. Be sure to have a good title, 5 keywords or tags. Make it "public."

http://paulrallison.livejournal.com/1544.html

On this ride in Palisades Park, NJ, I do some "first draft" thinking about my classes. First I think about how I want to establish some writing process norms with my middle schools students, and I also want them to post a well crafted marker on our collaborative map in Community Walk, "Entry Points." Second I talk about introducing the high school students to pocasting in such a way that involves them in doing some research into a topic or question that is imporant to them. This finally leads me to consider the best way to involve students with podcasting. Is it by producing short podcasts or by listening to them?

http://paulrallison.livejournal.com/1829.html

I asked students to make two lists, one a list of questions about "self," the other a list of questions about the "world." Then they were to come up with a tag or keyword for each of these 20 questions. These keywords were then spell-checked before they were added to each of the student's profiles in an elgg. They were to put their keywords in the "Interests" box. If anybody matches their interests, this causes that word to become hyperlinked to that other user. Finally students started to write a post answering one of their questions.