http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/05/using-ipods-in-classroom.html I was fortunate yesterday to attend and to present at the ICTEV conference (see session notes for some workshops here). One of the sessions I went to was this one by Richelle Hollis from Bendigo Senior Secondary College. After reminding us of what researchers have told us about Generation Y (those born in the 1980s and 90s) referring to studies by Peter Sheahan and Mark McCrindle, Richelle showed some podcasts including Douchy’s Biology Podcast.

Richelle showed us some fabulous work by Year 12 German Language students, one of whom had composed and sung his own work on what it was like to live in Australia in German!. He had then sent this mp3 file to his German host family to critique and then improved it. This really showed the power of podcasting in the classroom. Richelle also told us about a program called Breakfast bytes, which was a program for teachers in her school to learn about podcasting over a (catered) breakfast which worked so well that she ran it twice. One feature of this was that she sent out the invitations to the staff by a sound file she had recorded.

Richelle demonstrated how simple it was to record podcasts using an iPod (or any mp3player) with a Micro Memo recorder to plug in to the iPod. There were lots more ideas such as when students are on an excursion they can record their impressions of what they are seeing to later turn into a podcast summarising their learning.

One idea I got from this session that I want to try is getting my Year 7 students to make a radio show, writing the scripts in pairs on things that interest them that they have done some research on (or possibly interviews with friends or family) and recording them. I still need to think some more about how to do this.

I also want to introduce the concept to my Year 12s in the next week, as they are doing their orals outside of class time and preparing to write an essay on one of the two texts they have studied so far. I would like them to work in pairs on their chosen text and interview each other on aspects of the text, record these and put them up as podcasts which would be useful for revision at the end of the year.

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/05/alphabet-graffiti.html I have just been using one of the ideas that I heard about in Lessons plans by the Yarra. We have been studying Macbeth and though it was an interrupted session due to injections we managed to enact the murder of King Duncan (as I did last year) and Alphabet Graffiti.

It was great to hear the students around the room saying, “What did you get for q? “What about ambition for A?”, having students both ask and answer the questions of each other. To produce a useful list for revision was a really collaborative effort and I loved using it. It might have helped that we were in the computer room and could perform a search of the play script online.

This activity both surfaced knowledge the students already had and created new knowledge for the students. A worthwhile activity on many counts. Thanks to Graham and his colleagues. (I just heard one say, "Use 'yearn'," and the response: “how do you spell that?”) Most of the students are now back from the injections and we will now continue to read the play.

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/05/extendng-workshop.html Tonight several of the participants in the IBO Language A workshop that I attended in China met together online in a skype conference (Language A is the best language of the students and is often the language of instruction, so in my case English). So there was Tony from Adelaide, Paul from Osaka, Japan, Sheila and her colleague Jeff from Hong Kong, and Jacqui and me from Melbourne. We spent an hour chatting about various aspects of teaching and assessing Language A, texts to help students gain intercultural awareness, approaches like Elsie Belger’s education for human rights resources, how to arrange things so that there is enough meeting time for shared planning and ideas for interdisciplinary study. It is a helpful way to extend the conference, since as I mentioned before there wasn’t much reflection time in the busy schedule of the workshop and these subsequent meetings can give us that.

A most interesting idea that I came away with from the workshop was the idea of the Learner Profile (click here to see a short video on this concept.) The attributes and descriptors of the learner profile define the type of learner the IBO hopes to develop through its programs. It is concerned with the education of the whole person, emphasizing intellectual, personal, emotional and social growth through all domains of knowledge and can be summarized in just ten words. People who are: inquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers , communicators, principled, open-minded, caring, risk-takers, balanced, and reflective. We talked about ways to work towards this, which would mean ways to change the thinking of teachers in some cases. We talked a bit about this tonight as well and I look forward to learning more about it and enacting it in my school.

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/05/lesson-plans-by-yarra.html
Image: 'Melbourne City Panorama'
www.flickr.com/photos/27158819@N00/102024316

Last night I went to my first edubloggers meetup. I met Graham Wegner in Melbourne when he and five other teachers from his school came over from Adelaide for the Teachers at Work conference with Jay McTighe. When Graham contacted me about a possible meetup I was very excited, and so we spent some time together having a meal and discussing common experiences and, of course, the conference. Towards the end of the evening when I was reluctantly talking about going home to prepare for the next days lessons, Graham and his colleagues, Annabel, Rebecca, Maria and Nancy came out with several alternative ideas I could use, all from the conference experience they had that day, hence the title of this blog post (thanks, Graham).

One of these was The Little Book made from a folded sheet of A4 paper that reminded me of the Literature Pocketmod made by The Reflective Teacher a while back. This one makes a 6 page little book with front and back covers that may be appealing for students to make and use. It could be used for example, to plan an essay or to summarise the characters in a text – one to a page. (I used mine to record the rest of the ideas that were flowing swiftly round the table.) Another idea was to get the students to make a sociogram of the characters in the text we are studying and have them show the impact the characters have on each other (very relevant for the text my year 11s are studying right now – Macbeth).

Another idea was to have students write the names of the characters or events in the text and work in groups to decide the rank from most important to least important and then present to the class, justifying their decision. Yet another idea was ABC graffiti. Students write the letters of the alphabet and brainstorm in groups a phrase or a word for each letter of the alphabet relating to their text. When brainstorming the idea is not to think too much about the word or phrase but to try to access the notable thing about the text that comes to mind first for that letter. The students could then use the list later to help summarise and revise the text.

Other ideas that the group remembered included the One Minute Write where students write in one minute all they can about a prompt, without lifting the pen from the page. They count up the number of words written and the number of three syllable words. Write down the score. Then the students could set themselves a goal to increase the number of complex words they are using, in other words to improve their vocabulary. They could discuss possible strategies to achieve the goal. . Of course as Graham pointed out, good writing in not always about the number of three syllable words used, but I think that focusing on a broader vocabulary in general would be a good thing. And finally, the memorable quote idea. Take a quote that people know: e.g. “Ask not what your country can do for you….” and rewrite it: e.g. “ask not what your class can do for you… etc”, in order to broaden perspective.

As you can see, the discussion was lively and enjoyable. I did not bring my camera and my iriver was had a flat battery, unfortunately, otherwise I could have given you all a multisensory account of our experience. Oh well, there’s always next time.

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/05/student-writes.html Every year when I start blogging with my classes I get some students who are natural born writers and who show this in the blog entries. And every year they are different sorts of writers. Like this student, Miranda, the blog that they do in my class is often not their only outlet for writing. Miranda writes:

"But, first of all I wanted to talk about writing. I absolutely love writing, and it’s what I spend most of my time doing –I write to penpals, epals, people I know, myself; I keep several blogs, a journal, several folders full of random ramblings, poetry, songs, fanfiction, stories, characters… And after all this, I still don’t know what career I’m going to choose. I’d love to be something to do with writing, but my problem is I don’t know what, or even if I’m good enough… All I know is that I really love writing."

"…And I will shut up about my story and Cael. I could go on forever, and I doubt anyone is reading this. X)"

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/05/myp-parent-information-evening.

Last night our school hosted a Year 7 Parent Information night for parents at our school, to explain the Middle Years Program (MYP) which we are doing for the first time this year. there will end up being four of these nights (one per term) and, given my new found passion for this program, I thought I'd go along and see what happened. (It is optional for staff to be there.) It was a great night. First Peter had photocopied some of the essays one of the Year 7 classes had done (with no names) along with the task sheet and the rubric for assessment that the students were given. The parents were then asked to assess them. A great discussion followed about teacher accountability and the use of rubrics as a teaching tool. I definitely think that the parents got to see another side of teaching.

Then Daisy, one of the Maths teachers, taught a class on Fibonacci numbers and Pascal’s triangle as if they, the parents, were her Year 7 class. It was very informative, and definitely a highlight of the night. The parents I spoke to felt that they had learned something. Then Peter showed the report formats that the parents will be getting in June and the criteria that students are assessed and reported on in the MYP. Finally there was a bit of a presentation on homework and how the parents could be involved in helping students organise their time.

I think about the advice I have given students in years past about planning ahead and doing a bit at a time and so on, and I recognise that in my work I don't do that. I leave things to the last minute and feel I do creative work under the pressure of adrenaline. When I try to do it ahead, it feels less powerful and not so motivating. Of course, at the time I am doing it I hate it and wish I had done it earlier. But the students maybe find that sort of pressure too much. It was great to see the parents as creative learners and problem solvers at this meeting and discuss the work we do, and I think there was some mutual understanding built.

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/05/reflections-on-travel.html Having come back from my workshop in China on Monday, it is now Wednesday and I haven't written about my experiences on this blog. And I so much wanted to, as attending the workshop, meeting new people, visiting a new country has been quite amazing for me. We were only there for three days with most of a day travelling to, and from the workshop. It is a very short time to pack so much in. And there was no reflection time during the workshop. We worked in our small groups from 8.30 to 4 each day and then went to dinner and a concert on the first night, and shopping in downtown Guangzhou on the second night. When we were free, I was twittering, IMing students back at school (a really fun and new experience for me) and looking up resources mentioned during the workshop. (Not to mention keeping up with emails from family and friends). During meals I took the opportunity to interview various people on their experience of the workshops on my new iriver, but haven't had a chance to process these into a podcast yet. But at least something was captured then. I kept wanting time to sit down on my own and be reflective but it wasn't going to happen without missing out on some other amazing experience.

Since I've been back I've been dealing with my photos (here are just some of them) and emailing some of my new friends in China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan and Australia with photos I took of them. And getting back into teaching. When the students found I'd been to China and only missed a maximum of two (or one) lesson(s) with them, they said "But what are you doing back at school? Surely you have jet lag!" But I don't. I'm still on a high and took the opportunity to tell the students that I couldn't bear to be away from them any longer ;) . The content of the workshop is going to really affect my teaching and practice in the classroom, I know. But that is the subject of another post. And right now, I getting up early to get ready to take Lachlan to the airport (again to the airport! I've spent too much time in airports lately) so that he can finally go on his long awaited trip to Norway to work and study. He is only 18 and has never been away from home, but since he was 14 he has been working and saving money for this. He has spent a number of years learning Norwegian with a native speaker, and is finally all packed and ready to go. I must admit to feeling teary as this child goes off as well (Emily is in Ireland doing the same thing), and am now down to two children at home. There is a lot going on in my head at the moment, and I am glad to be able to reflect on it here. Till next time

http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/04/on-way-to-china.html I have stopped here in Hong Kong for a few hours to wait for connecting flight to Guangzhou and thought I'd keep in touch with my online world. And how important that's become to me just recently. I think it's Twitter that's done it. It's so lovely to hear what Judy O'Connell is up to as well as hearing how Vicki Davis has celebrated her birthday and what everyone else is doing. The travel, the work, the fun, the family life, the frustrations, the conferences, it's all there, a slice of many lives. I'm really looking forward to spending a long weekend with other educators at the workshop I am attending, talking about what makes learning come alive, people from all over the Asia Pacific region, people who have the students at the centre of the educational experience. I want to process it a bit as it happens so I want to record my reflections in the hope of posting them as podcasts and perhaps interview some teachers if that happens to work out as well. I am inspired by others who have done similar things, so we'll see how we go. Till next time.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/21apples/~3/117316001/the-real-truth

For the past few years I have been educating students, teachers, administrators and parents about the “realities” of online social networks (Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, etc). For the past few years, I have been wrong. Well, somewhat wrong, anyway. At the encouragement of law enforcement, the media, and other responsible adults, I have feared for the safety of the young women I educate. I was concerned that the details they were sharing online put them at risk for predation and victimization. My main concern was never really their physical safety, as that was such a minute possibility. I was mainly concerned about their futures, their college admissions, their job opportunities, but mainly, the possible humiliation they faced by the wrong people viewing their profiles. In that way, I was right.

Last week, before Congress, the four foremost experts in the country testified to the reality of online youth victimization. Every law enforcement person I’ve heard, and most educators I’ve heard have been wrong. The truth, according to the experts: 1) teens who post information online are no more likely to be victims of sex crimes than those who don’t 2) of all the statuatory rape in the U.S. last year, 7% of victims met the perpetrators online, the rest offline 3) parent education does not work.

There are many more important facts pointed out, so watch the hour and twenty minute testimony. It is the most important professional development I have had in the last few years. I can’t recommend it any more strongly. Original video here, transcript here, or YouTube video below. A post to follow will be on what type of education we need to do for/with our students. Your suggestions would be much appreciated.

technorati tags:MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, Bebo, safety, online, education, students, teachers, parents, danah boyd, David Finkelhor, Michele Ybarra, Amanda Lenhart, Tim Lordan, Congress, victimization, myths

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http://www.learning-blog.org/2007/05/16/leadership-and-technology-ca

A few weeks I wrote about school leaders needing to ‘get’ technology. Scott McLeod seems to be the epicenter of this movement. He is directly involved in UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE) which,

“was created to help address the critical nationwide shortage of administrators who can effectively facilitate the implementation of technology in schools and school districts. CASTLE is widely recognized as the nation’s leading authority on the technology needs of K-12 school leaders.”

They go on to descripe,

“CASTLE’s School Technology Leadership graduate certificate program is the only academic curriculum in the country that comprehensively covers ISTE’s National Educational Technology Standards for Administrators (NETS-A). The graduate certificate program has been found by the American Institutes for Research to have positive, statistically significant impacts on participants’ school technology leadership knowledge, skills, and abilities and has been acclaimed for its innovative incorporation of technology into its coursework.”

CASTLE has also created LeaderTalk, a blog from School Administrators, for School Administrators. This has quickly become my must read of the day.

I want to personally thank Scott McLeod for all he has done to bring the relationship between technology and leadership to the forefront.

This seems to be the beginning of what I was looking for during my first post on leaders and technology.

http://vvrotny.edublogs.org/2007/05/14/when-students-are-empowered-

Every Monday and Wednesday mornings, all 550+ students, faculty, administration, and staff, enter our theater to participate in Morning Exercise, or better known on campus as Morning Ex. Historically, this was the headmaster’s class and when originated, calisthenics were part of this curriculum. Today, we are treated to presentations from teachers sharing their passions, to a class presentation, show previews, and occasionally an outside speaker.

Today’s Morning Ex was a powerful example of what can happen when students are empowered to change the world. We had several student led presentations about the situation in Darfur and then attendees were challenged to get involved. The presentation began with the reading the story of a young woman, Clemantine Wamariya, who attended the school two years ago as a freshman. Clementine was a Rwandan refuge whose story is quite powerful and moving. The story still brings tears to my eyes as I try to imagine what it would have been like to be uprooted, watching family and friends get killed. I cannot fathom it. Clemantine was featured on Oprah’s 50 Young People in May 2006, where she was reunited with her mother, father, and sister, and two brothers that she had not met, who Clemantine thought had died.

Three eighth graders then proceeded to inform us about the situation in Darfur, which is the service learning project that they chose at the beginning of the year by eighth grade teacher Natalie Sept. The presentation was shocking, moving, and powerful all at the same time. With the permission of Natalie, I am sharing the show, which you can download from SlideShare.net, to use.

At the end of the Morning Ex, both the eighth graders and Upper School students challenged us to get involved. This can be as simple as writing your congressman or participating in a fund raising event. Both our Middle School and Upper School students are holding t-shirt sales to raise monies, a group of freshman are hosting a 3 v 3 basketball tournament, and a group of Upper School students are hosting a benefit this Wednesday.

Today’s Morning Ex once again showed how thoughtful and powerful student’s voices can be when given a chance to speak.

http://vvrotny.edublogs.org/2007/05/13/mothers-day-reflections/

I enjoyed a wonderful Mother’s Day, honoring the wife of my two girls, by waking up with the dog at 6:00 a.m. and then after just dozing off, waking up with my youngest to start “her” Mother’s Day breakfast, which I ended up doing most of the work. After breakfast, I did the dishes and then went on a nice bike ride with my wife to the Botanic Gardens. In the evening, I drove to the airport to pick up my mother and father-in-law, who were traveling home from a funeral service.

This is the fourth Mother’s Day since my mother passed away. She was one of my strongest supporters, who helped model and set the stage for my present success. After my younger sister went to school, she went back to work. Her first job was as a volunteer librarian in the school that I went to. With this, she supported my love of reading by bringing the new books home to catalog (three cards, author, title, and subject) and letting me read them before they were first shelved. With several moves, she began her successful career as a Tupperware lady in 1974, where she empowered and taught women how to become salespeople. She nurtured thousands of people and for a time was one of the top 5 Tupperware ladies in the United States. In 1979, she appeared in both print ads and on a commercial. She always encouraged me to follow my heart and I am sure that she continues to be proud of who I have become.

I wish all a Happy Mother’s Day.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/21apples/~3/116410136/9th-graders-di

After reading Seeing No Progress, Some Schools Drop Laptops in the New York Times on May 4th, I decided to use it as a discussion piece with my technology classes. I teach in a K-12 girls school in New York City with a 1:1 laptop program in grades 8-12. I wanted the students to respond to the article using their own experiences as students in a laptop school. A colleague at another school, Bill Campbell, suggested I record this discussion. The audio below is 1 class of my 9th grade answering a series of questions from me. As you will hear, I did not suggest any particular answers, but asked them to speak freely.

If you wish to use this audio, please let me know. Since it is a broadcast of a school class, I would like to let me school know where it is being used. Contact me at arvind [at] 21apples.org.

technorati tags:laptop, 1:1, New York Times, Seeing No Progress, Some Schools Drop Laptops, article, schools, education, technology, podcast, audio, students

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