It’s been a while since I made a contribution to the blogosphere. After taking August off to refresh and spend time connecting in other ways, I returned to the classroom for the first time in three years in September.  Then my dad passed away, so my first couple of weeks were befuddled.  But now we are back in the groove and transitioning from my previous position as a Technology Learning Mentor to a classroom teacher.

Being back to the classroom and working directly with kids has been tremendously exciting. I have landed in a great spot. While it’s officially called “Middle School Technology Education” or MSTE for short, I prefer to call it creativity class.

At Nashwaaksis Middle School, the “computer technology” program is quite a bit less structured than most classroom learning spaces, or even most computer labs. I was lucky to inherit this well developed, student-centered, module based program that promotes learner creativity and content creation. Two colleagues that understood that students really learn through producing authentic content, not by memorizing facts, have developed this program over the course of many years.

Our MSTE program is part of a larger PRA (Practical Related Arts), with other rotations including woodworking, art, music and guidance. I get each class for 8, 9 or 12 weeks. Students are able to choose one or two modules, walk themselves through the process of using a tool, design their own project and create content. With about a 50/50 mixture of Macs and PCs, they can choose from standards like video production, stop motion animation, digital photography and photoshop to less traditional modules like Lego robotics and flight simulation.

I haven’t done much with the program yet, preferring to sit for a couple of rotations and assess it’s strengths and weaknesses, but I have done one major shift. The modules used to be Intranet-based, available only within the school. They are now web based, accessible to students and the community, with a connection through the school website. It’s still a work in progress – some modules are not up yet – but I am a firm believer that the web offers us many opportunities to extend our classrooms to connect with students in a way they see as valuable.

There are two elements and ideas, however, which I already know I want to develop further. First off, one thing I found as a classroom teacher was that what students did in one room wasn’t transferred or connected to learning in another. I am looking at ways to encourage teachers to use MSTE time for applications to their classroom learning. Secondly, all the modules are currently centered on computer-based tools. I will be looking to develop and implement modules that use web-based tools (kids are already using them in class already).

It really is a great place to be. Many might say that I “teach” very little, and in the traditional sense I guess they are right, but that the kids are learning a lot.

Technorati tags: technology, education, whipple, learning

Image: Learning to Fly, Uploaded by Jeff Bauche._.·´¯)

This is my fourth time in Memphis attending Lausanne Collegiate’s Laptop Institute conference.  The first time I came with one other teacher, the second time I came alone.  Last year I was able to convince school and district admin that more teachers needed this experience, and we ended up with nine staff members attending.

This year is special however.  Last fall I received an invitation for Nashwaaksis Middle School to be the 2009 Spotlight School at LI.  This would mean a lot of commitment – both financial and human – from our admin and staff.  We gladly accepted.  It’s a $20,000 ticket for our school, with funding coming from a variety of sources – to whom we are very grateful.  But more than that, our teachers made a huge professional commitment to prepare presentation proposals, make arrangements, get their presentations together and deliver the goods here in Memphis.

As we start day 2 of Laptop Institute, I couldn’t be more proud of our staff.  I’ve been doing this conference presentation gig for quite a while now, but I do recognize that, for many teachers, there’s nothing more scary than laying yourself on the line to your colleagues.  Many were nervous – very nervous. But from everything I heard and saw yesterday, they rocked – absolutely hit a home run!

Like a proud dad, I am just as excited about what this will mean for them and, by extension our school and, most importantly, our kids!  Their professional growth as learning leaders will be incredible.  While I would have stacked our staff up with anybody, anywhere, I can already see another huge shift in ideas, motivation and skills. I can’t wait to get back to school.

Touch em all guys! Just a few more innings to go today.

Technorati tags: technology, education, whipple, learning, laptopinstitute, laptopinstitute09

I am back in Memphis again for Lausanne Collegiate School’s Laptop Institute.  This conference is a special place for me for many reasons, not the least of which it is the spot where I experienced a revelation of sorts during my first visit here.

You see, I was a laptop teacher for two years and was experimenting with digitizing practice and some other ideas, but hadn’t really been exposed to the powerful opportunities of 1:1 and the idea that it wasn’t about the efficiencies of technology, but the fact that it gives us an opportunity to fundamentally change how we teach and, more importantly, learn in our classrooms.

I still remember the moment my story of learning was interrupted and changed forever.  David Warlick was the opening keynote that year.  Not to bore you with the details, but his message blew me away.  His ideas of literacy and learning were like a shot of adrenalin that jump started my passion for change. Later, I had a chance to chat with David on the bus to the hotel.  I began reading his blog. He challenged us to start blogging.  I did.  The rest is history.

I am excited to be back.  As a veteran I am happy to say that that initial trip or two alone has led to 10 staff coming last year and this year we have 14 staff attending.  Not only that, Nasis Middle is this years Laptop Institute School Spotlight Award winner.  Our staff are pumped as they get set to present sessions on the great stuff they do in their classrooms.  I am so proud of them.

More to come from Memphis!

Technorati tags: technology, education, whipple, learning, laptopinstitute, laptopinstitute09

One thing I have learned quickly in my relatively short career as an educator is that many things can change in a very short time.

Three years ago this coming August I was going about getting set to return to my classroom the next week.  I shared this classroom with another teacher and sixty wonderful students.  For those of you who haven’t thought about the opportunities afforded by team teaching believe me when I tell you that the collegiality, flexibility, support and collaboration makes it the only way I would want to create a learning community.

One evening I received a call from the District’s Technology Learning Specialist. He was offering a position as a Technology Mentor, where I would be supporting teachers and students in leveraging technology for learning.  This was to be an acting – or temporary – position.  After a day of reflection, I accepted the position.  It wasn’t an easy decision.  I loved my teaching partner and the students.  But I felt like I was being given an opportunity to continue my advocacy work for school change.

As I write, I am wrapping up my third year in this temporary spot, having enjoyed every minute of the opportunity to learn and share with many colleagues.  But I always felt like there was something left unfinished in my classroom experience.

Now comes word of budget cuts, and my lack of seniority means I am heading back to the classroom.  Despite the never ending expressions of sympathy about this turn of events from colleagues, I am excited about this change.  I do know some mentor-teachers who are fearful about any possible return to the classroom, but I am not one of them.  I enjoy spending time exploring with students, connecting as co-learners, to each other and the world.

The biggest question was where I would choose to be placed.  I was asked about a variety of interests, but it really came down to two assignments.  One is in a small, K-8 rural school where I started my career.  I absolutely love this place.  It is everything a learning community should be; open, collaborative (grades are multi-age), innovative. The 6-8 middle school is all in one huge space with three teachers and around 65 kids.  There are no limitations on schedule or space.  Frankly, it’s ideal.  The only drawback is that it has, like all too many school, a serious lack of connectivity.

The other choice was to return to Nashwaaksis Middle School.  “Nasis” is a large, urban middle school (~800 students).  The administration here, like KRS, is tremendous.  However, it, like many large schools, is beholden to the beast of sheer size.  While some gains have been made in terms of flexibility, scheduling and space remain constant struggles.  But, and this is HUGE, it has a 1:1 program in Grades 7 and 8.  From experience, I can attest to the opportunities this can create.  I have been given no commitments regarding grade, subject, etc, but I do know that I want my students to have access to the global learning community.  Without the tools, I would feel like I am cheating my kids.

After several days, even much agonizing that the ones I spent three years ago, I have chosen to return to Nashwaaksis Middle.  I have roots in both schools, but my commitment to, and belief in, having kids connect to each other on a global basis for learning was the tipping point.

It’s not about the technology.  Having laptops for all my students was not the issue.  It came down to a decision where I felt like I wanted to see just how having kids connected with other learners can change the narrative.

I have learned a lot about telling a new story of learning in the past three years.  I am excited to put those new ideas and knowledge into practice.

Call it unfinished business.

Technorati tags: technology, education, whipple, learning

Photo Credit:  Unfinished Business, Uploaded to Flickr on March 5, 2009 by Giara

A good idea is always worth stealing – and modifying.  Take last Thursday as a case in point.

We always struggle to make professional development days at school engaging.  Too many times we have been reminded as teachers of the sheer torture we put students through each and every day by having a “sit and get” style of presentation, where one person who has been identified as an expert makes a presentation to the whole group on something they might deem as important. Rarely is it engaging, much less relevant.

As we pondered a couple of weeks ago about how to approach this upcoming day, I was reminded by my colleague Kim Cofino at the International School of Bangkok that there are many experts in our midst.  She wrote recently about their staff’s recent experiences with “speed-geeking”, where teachers were exposed to a variety of strategies and tools from a number of staff members over a short period of time.

We decided to take that approach one step further. We based a part of Thursday’s PD sessions on the “speed-dating” model now being used across the globe as a means of meeting potential partners.  It is often said that you can tell pretty quick whether someone is worth the effort.  We were interested if the same could be said for new teaching strategies, tools and projects.

Not having and first-hand knowledge of speed-dating, our model was based purely on perception of a process.  That being said, it worked out pretty well.

We started with Chris Lehmann’s  “Schools We Need” presentation from the IgnitePhilly series.  This was meant to generate some mental juices surrounding the idea of school change and what it could really look like.

Teachers were then broken into groups of two.  A timer was put on the SMART Board and set at six minutes.  Teachers were told they had three minutes to show their partner one new practice, project, assessment, etc. that they have introduced into their classroom in the past year.  They then had three minutes to listen to their colleague’s idea.  Then one rotated to the next table while one stayed.

Teachers were not expected to focus on technology-based ideas.  In fact, they were told that innovation did not have to be centered on their laptops.  That being said, most of the new practices were made possible by teacher laptops and student 1:1 programs.

This was not meant to dig deep into the process or practice.  We felt that, like speed-dating, one would be able to assess pretty quickly if there was anything of interest there for them.  They could follow up at a later date if they wanted more details.  We were looking for two outcomes; teachers would be exposed to six new ideas (we did six rounds in 45 minutes) and teachers received an implicit message that they should be looking at new practices on a continual basis.

Thanks Kim.  I know you won’t mind the remodel.

Technorati tags: technology, education, whipple, learning, Kim Cofino

Photo: img_4042, Uploaded to Flickr on September 7, 2006 by Urban Mixer

Of all the web tools, wikis are by far the most powerful, serving as a platform for pulling together text, images, audio, video in a tremendously rich environment.  Of all the wiki platforms available – and with apologies to Wetpaint and PB Wiki – I just don’t think you can beat Wikispaces.

I support and promote wikispaces for three reasons; the ease of use of the interface, the upload space of 2GB with each free K12 space and, most importantly, their tremendous support!

Every month we have seen new and improved features in wikispaces.  Late last year it was improved text formatting, then the abilty to create your own accounts for students and the ability to protect pages within a wiki.

Now comes a whole new slew of templates.  It used to be that wikis were pretty limited on being pretty, but now the design team has introduced a whole new suite to their look and feel department, and it’s being met with open arms by teachers and students.  The new designs give a range of looks that allow learners to tweak their wiki to better serve their learning objectives.

To check out the new templates on your space, go to the “Manage Wiki” link, select “Look and Feel” and “Change or Make a New Theme“.  Play around with the new themes knowing that you can always revert back to the original.

Another cool feature – that has actually been around for a while, ] is the ability to pimp your space.  With just a little bit of html knowledge (if I can do it, anyone can) your wikispace can be individualized in many ways.

In my world, wiki’s rock!

Technorati tags: technology, education, whipple, learning, wikispaces

Last week I had the opportunity to support two groups of learners as they broke down the walls of their classrooms and connected virtually – although I might suggest that for our young people the term virtual holds different meaning that with us – with students from different areas of the world.

For the second year in a row, some of our Grade 8 french students were involved in a student project with students at the American School of Bombay in Mumbai.  The project involved enticing the students to improve their french second langauge skills to connect and share stories with students in Mumbai.  They chatted about various aspects of culture and generally connected in many ways.  The primary project tool was a wiki, but Thursday morning (late afternoon in Mumbai) our students hooked up via skype, connected with each other and opened the gift boxes sent by their counterparts.

Then, on Friday, I was able to participate in the opening salvo of a new french language project between students at NMS and Carey Pohanka’s class at Fredericksburg Academy in Virginia.  They have exchanged ambassadors  – which will be unveiled next week – and will begin a month long “visit” which will be documented and shared back to the other class in video format, all narrated en francais.  Again, a project wiki will serve as the primary tool.  You can see a video montage here.

Teacher and student reaction is positive.  Not only do they practice french, it’s for a real purpose.  They also learn much about the world and their role as connected learners in the new global environment.

This is good stuff!

Technorati tags: technology, education, whipple, learning

Here we go again with another exciting round of this global student writing workshop!

The 1001 Flat World Tales project was initiated by Clay Burell in Korea over three years ago and has been going strong ever since.  No matter what grade level you’re working with, this is a great, easy to implement, collaborative writing project that students love!

This year I am working with Kim Cofino to coordinate the Elementary School section and I am joining with Ann Oro to coordinate the Middle School section.We are looking for someone to take on the high school workshop if you might be interested.

As Kim writes on her blog…

We are looking for classrooms at all levels to participate in this writing workshop. The project will last about a month and we’ll set up small grade-level based groups to create collaborative groups for our peer editing process (following the planning process we started last year). If the suggested time frame doesn’t work for you, feel free to start your own workshop later or earlier in the year – our goal is to bring together teachers that would like to embed collaborative writing and authentic audience into their classroom experiences.

As part of the project, students will:

• experience writing for an authentic audience
• work collaboratively with peer reviewers around the world
• follow the writing process to build an understanding of your selected style of writing
• create and embed multimedia elements to bring a story to life
• understand how to connect information through hyperlinks
• utilize a wiki for writing, editing, forum discussion, and revision history

Here in New Brunswick, I’ll be working with Diane MacLeod, a Grade 4 teacher at Keswick Ridge School, in the elementary workshop.

We would absolutely love to have you join this project with your class! Fill out the online form and you’re in! All materials, resources, rubrics and related information can be found on the wiki. Feel free to leave questions here or on the discussion tab of the wiki.

Tags : 1001 Tales, 1001flatworldtales, collaboration, Elementary School, ES 1001 Flat World Tales, es1001flatworldtales

Thanks – I think – to my friend Page Lennig for tagging me in the seven things meme.  The idea is you get tagged, you share seven things people are unlikely to know about you, and then you tag others to share their secrets.

So…here goes!

1. I am an international fastpitch softball official – and have traveled around the globe to work three world championships.
2. My favorite place in the whole world is Matthew’s Head in Fundy National Park (see photo).
3. I was once on a flight between Dublin and London and sat just behind Bono of U2.  He’s quite short.
4. I have undergraduate degrees in Geological Engineering and Education.  I came to teaching at the ripe old age of 39!
5. My family is half a Brady Bunch – my wife and I have each contributed two kids to the mix.
6. Nobody should ever confuse me with a mechanic or a handyman!
7. I used to manage a public radio station, and did some summer DJing at my hometown station.

Hmmm.  Now, who to tag?  How about…

• Mark Bates
• Kendra Haines
• Wendy Thomas
• Jeff Holder
• Erica Wilson
• Jennifer Cronk
• Vinny Vrotny

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