I was just getting ready to call it a night and started thinking about serendipity...a happy coincidence. My son would tell me, "That was random", but it really isn't.
I Began with a Plan
I knew, almost a year ahead of time, that I would be teaching in my current position. I probably killed a tree (slang for printed A LOT) with all the research I did for Kindergarten through eighth grade classes. It took me till this year - seven years later - to finally admit it needed to be recycled.
It's almost as if I needed to do all that research, look at all those static web pages, and try things out on my own before I got to where I am today. I'm pretty satisfied with the work I accomplish with my students. My original plan for the first year was to have K-3 work on similar tasks with some over lap in 3-5 and 5-8. The second year, I filled in new work for the even numbered grades and continued to bump it up year after year.
Here's Where Serendipity Works
I have a set of skills that I expect my students to achieve at each grade level, but I don't have to have the same project year after year. In previous years, I would have Kindergarten students draw any Christmas picture in December. The first graders drew an advent wreath. The third graders drew a Christmas card. This year, I had them do the same work, but the output is very different. Instead of a single printed page that came home in the backpack ... possibly crumpled up ... probably thrown in the garbage or at best recycled, we showed our work to students in other schools.
I arrived at this project as the result of a happy accident. I am a statistics junkie. I like to know how this blog posts I write are found. I've established several wikis with different educational content. I keep track of those pages, too. One day, I noticed someone came via elementarytechteachers.ning.com so I stopped by. I was delighted by what I found. The site quickly became a daily stop. When I first found the site in September, I wrote that there were over 100 educators. Today there are 255 and counting.
I didn't plan these Winter Wonderland movies for Kindergarten, first, and third. The follow up lessons to creating the movies have all been serendipitous events.
Today's Gem
I stop by Twitter often during the day for a few minutes here and there. I share a comment, offer a hand, or otherwise connect with my network. Silvia Tolisano shared the following message: Please help my elementary school "Go Around The World with 80 Schools" http://tinyurl.com/7xxx9x Please retweet. Thanks
I went to the Langwitches blog and filled in the Google Form. We'll see where it leads my students and I. My sixth graders enjoyed a Skype experience last year. It was tied into a math project. My Kindergarten students enjoyed a Skype call in December. Whatever class (or classes) participate will come away excited. It's a quick in/ quick out type project. I will post information about the outcome after we participate.
Everything Happens for a Reason
This all ties into what Lisa Parisi shared as item number one on her list following the "Seven Things" meme. Everything happens for a reason. I don't know why I chose to type the search term into Google that led me to see my first wiki. Even preceding that, it was the way our school's secretary answered the phone that led me to enroll my son at Saint Michael. His enrollment, led to my joining the Home and School Association which in turn led to my job.
So, be on the lookout. The seemingly random choice you make today may have a ring of serendipity several months or years from now. Happy New Year and be open to the possibilities.
Image Citation:
Screen capture of my Statcounter page. I highly recommend their service!
Here comes one of those holiday posts. Currently going around the educational blog circles is a meme called "Seven Things". I was tagged by Cathy Nelson, Lisa Parisi, Patti Harju, and Marie at The Learning Curve blog. In the spirit of vacation, I'm going to share seven things I wouldn't normally blog about.
1. I like to sing at home. My family has been treated to whatever is on my mind - forever. If we're going to a show it could be tunes from the show. When they were babies it was endless nursery songs or old-fashioned tunes like "A You're Adorable".
2. I like to make up my own songs, too. They are mostly just silly rhymes. A favorite this week is for my dog. It starts: Shadow the dog from outer space. Shadow he has a furry face. You don't need me to go on any further - it's just self entertainment. My youngest son and I can go on for quite a while in this vein. We sort of feed off each other.
3. I am the family finance queen. My annual budget is waiting on the computer to my right - this is more fun.
4. I like to cross stitch, but I haven't done in it years. My husband used to tease me about several half finished projects. One of the older women in church heard the teasing one day and told him it's called "pick-up work". I guess some day I'll pick it up and finish it.
5. I love taking driving vacations. We've driven from NJ south to Charleston, South Carolina. On another trip, we've driven west through Pennsylvania and over to the National Air Force Museum in Ohio. When my first was about ten months old we drove northeast through Connecticut into Massachusetts. Two years ago, we drove northwest to Niagara Falls and then west to Vermont and New Hampshire. We usually take two full weeks for each trip.
6. I really enjoy trips to Disney World. Every time we go, I tell my family, "Ok - that's it - I'm done with Disney", but then a couple of years pass and I'm ready to go again. There is no place on Earth that I can pack my bags and leave my worries behind. We've gone for as few as four days and as long as ten. My current favorite ride there is Toy Story Mania. We just found the Whispering Canyon Café. It has taken over Ohana's as our favorite restaurant there. We've stayed at the Caribbean Beach resort (which I really didn't like), Port Orleans French Quarter (which was great), and Pop Century (which is really the best for us - we don't mind the room size because we're never in the room - it's a great value for us).
7. I finally got my ten-speed bicycle out of the garage after about fifteen long years. It's an old Zebra Kenko model that is not manufactured any more. The family had two or three short runs. On our first long run, the bicycle chain broke and I had to walk it back a good few miles. I'm planning on getting a new chain in the spring.
Ok - that's it for now.
I never know who to tag and this one is really going around full steam. I'm looking forward to reading other missives.
Michelle Russell
Vicky Sedgwick
Nedra Isenberg
Christy Tvarok Green
Dianne Krause
Jan Smith
Melanie Holtsman
Image Citations:
"money: quicken." Mars Hill Church Seattle's photostream. 2007 May 16. 2009 Jan 1.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/229/501177165_9044b7c5b0.jpg?v=0
"Golden Sports Zebra Kenko." Joey Mac's photostream. 2007 Sep 25. 2009 Jan 1.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1343/1437082783_cc769687a7.jpg?v=0
A couple of weeks ago, I went to Kean University’s Going Global conference. One of the new things I learned was an interesting method to use an Activboard. I stopped by for a session offered by the Promethean company. I picked up a tip from one of the presenter’s named Rob. While it is specifically useful for the Activstudio software, the idea could be adapted using Word and the highlighter option.I learned how to use the Activstudio software by taking their online tutorial. This tutorial was very good as far as learning how to operate the software. The piece I am missing is seeing how outstanding teachers use the board and software with their students.
Activstudio, Text, and the Paint Bucket
I learned that when I am using Activstudio, I could prepare a block of text on a page. Once the text is on the page, the paint bucket will color a full word when it is clicked. Rob gave me an example of having students find all the nouns (or other parts of grammar) within the text block.
Activstudio and Monster Project Preparation
I decided to give this method a try with my second grade students. I wanted to introduce the Monster Project that I will be working on with Anna Baralt and other teachers. Since this is the second time I will be drawing monsters collaboratively, I have work online to show the students.I began the project by reading the book Many Luscious Lollipops to the students to get them focused on adjectives. After reading the book, I brought my wiki up on the projector with last year’s projects. Last year, I completed the project with second and third grade students. Many of my current second grade students have brothers, sisters, or friends the grade ahead. They enjoyed looking at the original drawings and the redrawn images. Next I found a description written by one of the student’s sisters.
1. My monster has a round, blue body that's outlined in gray.2. It has six eyes. There are two black, two pink, orange, and blue with pink glasses.3. It has a pig-snout nose, a small yellow smile, and orange wings on its bottom.4. It has a black crown.
5. It is plump and short.
6. There are crazy ears (and stubby hair) coming out of its blue ears.7. It has no arms, but stubby blue, short legs.8. It lives in a pink area.
9. There is an angry sun with yellow eyes and mouth.
We sat in a circle around the Activboard. Each student took turns looking for adjectives and using the paint bucket to choose a color and click on the word. Each student had at least three turns since the description had so many adjectives. I stayed at the computer behind the projector. As each word was clicked, I asked the students if they thought it was or was not an adjective and why. If the word was not an adjective, I clicked Edit – Undo to reset the word to black. This is the end result.
One of the second graders told me that this is a great way to learn grammar and that their teacher should learn to use the board, too.
Extensions to the Lesson
So far, we have followed the first lesson with a second lesson using Kidspiration. We are currently using version 2. The Science category has an Explore with Senses template. The students learned to use Kidspiration for the first time. I taught them the basics of selecting a category – Food and Health. They learned to use the blue arrows to move between the Foods, Fruits and Veggies, and Treats categories.
Once they dragged their favorite food to the center of the chart, they attempted to type five descriptive words for each of the five senses.
When we return from vacation, we will look at the student's work and try to find out which words are adjectives that can be used to describe the student's favorite food.
I hadn't completed these preparatory activities first last year, we dove right into drawing monsters and writing descriptions. I know they will be prepared for better descriptive sentences this year.
Most of my classes are connecting with at least one class somewhere in our country or around the world. I wanted a way to show all those connections in one place.
The Map Outside My Room
I've been doing a lot of cleaning and tossing of things at home. We are working on selling our house. At the beginning of September I found a National Geographic world map. I had the principal laminate it and I hung it outside the computer lab.
It was a pretty lonely map for most of September and October. I had joined a project with Lisa Parisi called Time Zone Experiences. We had a dot on Long Island, New York and another in West London, England. Next, I joined a Winter Wonderland project. My Kindergarten, first, and third graders created some movies with winter images created in Kid Pix. We have been viewing projects from other classes and leaving comments on the discussion tab on the wiki.
New Opportunities
This past week, I needed a couple of quick projects for my fourth and seventh graders. Over on the Elementary Tech Teacher's ning, I saw a message from Vicky saying that her fourth grade students created some Christmas tongue twisters in Voicethread. This was a great opportunity to show the fourth grade what a Voicethread was and how they could contribute. It really didn't take too long to explain how to choose their identity from a list I had preset in my ed.voicethread account. I set up a ten dollar education account last year so that I might have an easier time showing the site at public schools. Now I understand that this may be the only way to sign multiple students on through the same account at the same time.
As a follow up activity, I'm going to have the fourth grade create an image for their avatar in Kid Pix.
Old Opportunities
I used Voicethead with the current seventh grade when they were in my sixth grade math class last year. They already had avatars and identities. This year, I just had to remind them how to make a comment. They added to Silvia Tolisano's What Could It Mean Voicethread. It was a great activity for Christmas week. They left their ideas on what the images could mean if they lived in a different country or a different part of our country. When we return from vacation, I will assign each image to a group of students. They will have to decide which answer of all the responses could best describe the image. Finally, we'll review the actual answer.
Math Connections
Finally, our sixth grade students will be joining Linda Nitsche's students on a math collaboration. I found it via Lucy Gray's Global Education Collaborative ning's project database. Having taught middle school math for four years, I know there is never enough time to do all you would like with getting students to talk about math. This project will give us four opportunities over the course of the year to work on a data analysis, geometry, number operation, and measurement challenges.
Monster Project
This leaves two grades waiting for collaborations. My eighth grade students do not have a project in the works as of this time. My second grade students will be participating in a monster exchange. It is on the monsterproject.wikispaces.com site that Anna Baralt and I worked on last year. I am really looking forward to the project this year as I do more work in advance on adjectives in the second grade. If you'd like to join us this year, please let me know. We'd be happy to include your second or third grade class.
Image Citation:Ann Oro 23 December 2008.
Every time I work on a collaborative project I learn more. Through the magic of the Elementary Tech Teacher's ning I found out about the Winter Wonderland wiki project. Each time I work on a project, I learn new ways to challenge myself and my students.
Many of the projects I work on still leave me wishing for more contact and understanding between my students and those of other classes. The three teachers leading this collaboration have certainly tried to bring more contact between the students. This project is for Kindergarten through grade three.
For Students - High Points in My Mind
There were two Google Form questionnaires for the project. One focused on the student's favorite winter holiday. The other focused on travel plans in December. I had my third grade students answer the questions on their own. I called the first grade students to my computer one at a time to answer the questions. I want to take the student data and make some comparison charts between the participating classes and my students.
For Teachers - High Points in My Mind
There are a large number of teachers signed up for the project. This is fantastic because even if many drop from the project, there are still going to be several participating classes. Early on in the project, teachers started using the discussion tab to ask each other questions and receive answers.
For Students - Areas to Improve
In all these types of projects, the teachers have huge buy in due to the amount of work they do. The students (in my case) drew one picture and sang a song. I had to make sure all the images were gathered, the song was recorded, the movie was created to merge the images and song. Once the movie was created and exported into Quicktime, I loaded it up on Vimeo. Finally, I embedded the movie on our wiki. I repeated the steps for two kindergarten, two first, and two third grade groups. I've been watching the number of class participants grow. I have the RSS connection to page edits and discussions in my reader and see the conversations taking place.
Here's the key area I need to improve: the students do not get the same build-up and involvement. I only see them once per week for forty-two minutes. I know, as I sit here reflecting, that I have to take more time to explain the projects I become involved in with the student's classroom teacher. I need to somehow allow the excitement to build within their classes. It's going to be hard because most of the computers are still running OS 9 in the building. For PC readers, it means there is a lack of ability to view some types of data on the Internet. If I can manage to upgrade at least one machine per classroom to OS X next year, I can ask the teachers to give the students access to checking on their partners over the course of the week.
By the time the students get to my class, they should be more excited to work on their own projects.
Built-in Excitement
We live in New Jersey. Some parts of our country just sound more exciting to my students. In the first and third grades, the students couldn't wait to see what was created in Hawaii and Alaska. It was really fun because they recorded their songs in their native tongue.
I tried to show the variety of projects to the students. My first graders were amazed by a project made by students in Alabama. Mrs. Coggin used a Smilebox template with Santa holding a laptop. The laptop reveals the student project.
The class in Hawaii really kicked it up a notch. They had a song about Alfie the Elf. Their teacher assigned a sentence from to song to each students. It made for a really fun viewable project that told a story.
Since we do not live in a high interest state like Hawaii, I have to make my projects that more interesting and attractive to the student audience.
For Next Time
I have to do what I know in my heart. When I create a project for students/ with students, it is not enough to just get it technically correct. It needs to tell a story. Big surprise? Not really, but I'm refocusing myself. I read the book Made to Stick over the summer. I have to read it again and apply those principals to the projects we create for other classes.
Was It a Waste of Time
I am confident that this is not a waste of time.
They are creating images for a bigger purpose than the forty-two minutes of one class period.
They are beginning to see that other people are responding to their creations.
They are getting the idea that they can see someone else's work and leave a message as a class.
They are learning that other people will answer their questions.
They are taking first steps to bigger, more personal connections with other students.
I look back at the first wiki I created in March 2007. It is a baby step along the way to some very rich material we have on the wiki today. I look forward to my students work on our wiki in March 2011. Each lesson I learn along the way marks the path to a more personal and involved experience in the future.
I was just getting ready to call it a night and started thinking about serendipity...a happy coincidence. My son would tell me, "That was random", but it really isn't.
