Learning as a Way of Teaching

My ClustMap was archived and I lost all my little red dots. Sure, there were not a lot of red dots, but they made me happy. Ever since I added it to my blog, I have enjoyed seeing all the different places my blog has been read. I try not to be sad when it shows no hits in a few days. Kind of like the answering machine in college that showed no messages. “No one liked me enough to call me today.”

I rarely get comments on my posts, so I depend on my ClustrMap to tell me that I do have a small audience.  At any rate, it is time to create some traffic, get my name out there, and build up some red dots.

It doesn’t happen everyday.  Every now and then I get to hang out in a classroom.  When I do, inspiration strikes.  Sometimes it leads to system changes, philosophy changes.  And sometimes, it leads to the following.

The “feel” of this video was inspired from an SNL short film and my favorite web video team Barats and Bereta. While B&B’s content is not for all viewers, they make me laugh until I hurt.

Here’s how it went down.  Mrs. Maly’s class was learning how to use a protractor.  I thought it would be fun to measure angles around school.  Bingo!  The video storm began.

The storm swept through the library where a group of tennis players were spending their athletic period due to inclement weather.

Me:  ”You know how to run a video camera?”

Unsuspecting student I randomly chose:  ”Kind of.”

Me:  ”Come here.  Look through this window and tell me if you can see me.  Push this button when I tell you to.”

As the storm swept through the halls of my school, open classroom doors and teachers on their conference periods were sucked into the vortex of creativity.

School receptionist:  ”Why is Mr. James running around with a camera like a chicken with his head cut off?”

Fellow teacher:  ”Who knows.”

I discovered that the video practically shot itself.  All I had to do was point the camera in the right direction and go from there.  Walking into a crowded cafeteria during lunch with a camera in hand really caused instant “student engagement.”

Me:  ”What are you having for lunch?”

The first student I saw:  ”A cheesburger and some fries.”

Me:  ”Perfect.  I am going to stick a fork in your burger.  Talk to your friends and ignore me and the camera.”

Student:  ”Uuuh.  Okay.”

Me to second student:  ”You know how to run a video camera?”

Student at the table who made the mistake of making eye contact: “Kind of.”

Me: “Perfect.  Hold the camera like this.  Look through that window.  Push the button when I tell you to.”

The hardest part was the graphics.  The rest was easy.  Feel free to leave a comment or two.

I have played with the idea of stop motion animation for quite some time.  I have had a hard time punching through the creative barrier and making that first video.  Please consider the following as my first attempts.  The content is not strong, yet.  I am just putting something out there to get the creative juices flowing.

Luigi Meets Snakeagewea

Luigi Learns He is Meriweather Lewis

The latest buzzword for our disctrict is RTI.  Of course, it is not new to a lot of educators.  We are still catching on.  Two collegues joined me for a day of staff development with an RTI guru.  It sounds to me like we are making RTI harder than it has to be.  Instead of seeing it as a means to qualify students for Special Education, we should be seeing it as better teaching.  Why shouldn’t we work in a scientific manner to identify those students who need more small group instruction and track their progress?  Seems like a simple process.  So, what am I missing?

I came across a middle school math teacher who makes his own music videos to teach math concepts in the classroom. Talk about keeping your students engaged. My question is, how does a teacher have that kind of time to put something like this together? I know it takes the right combination of talent, time, and technology. Kudos to those who have that winning combination.

I have recently acquired 3 Sony Stereo IC Recorders.  Here are my ideas for implementation:

Podcasting

• Podcasters could interview faculty members around school
• Families can be a part of podcasts as they record their family history
• Interviewing community leaders would be within reach
• Reporting “live” on field trips, capturing the sounds of what they are seeing

In the classroom

• Students recording themselves reading and then playing back.
• Teachers can recite spelling words for students to practice (listening with the included earphones)
• Centers can have a recorder to playback instructions for that activity

Communication

• Students can take home recorded messages from teachers (in English or Spanish)
• Co-Teachers can record thoughts to share with collaborating partners
• Content Mastery Teachers can get detailed messages about assignments coming from General Ed teachers

These are just a few of the ideas running through my brain.  What are your thoughts?

Our campus has a new wireless laptop cart to use in our classrooms.  I am currently sitting in the training to use the cart, minding my own business writing this post.  The cart is equipped with 30 laptops, a dedicated laser printer, and extra batteries.  The laptops are made by Dell and they will behave just like our wired labs.

I can think of half a dozen projects that I would like to see done with this cart.  We will be limited to what is available on the laptops as far as software, but we can use all the online apps that are not blocked.  A wiki project, student created web pages, and blogging are just a few things rattling around my brain.  We also have played with Oracle’s Smart.com that we should revisit now that we have this kind of access.  It is a secure social network that is totally monitored.

I am looking forward to breaking this new cart in and pushing students to their educational limits.  The hard part is deciding what to do first.

Arrington on the Air is a new podcast by Mrs. Arrington’s second grade class.   Their first episode was published today on her blog.  You could tell from their expressive voices that they had a good time putting this first episode together.  Check it out and give these young podcasters a boost of confidence as they begin their digital journey.

In an effort to practice what I preach, I am co-teaching a unit on the Industrial Revolution with one of our 8th grade history teachers.  She is the content expert and I am the media expert.  Students are working together to present the IR with multimedia.  Most groups chose to make a 3 minute video and one project will be in the form of a podcast.

Things that I have learned about the facilitating of this project, but it was too late:

1.  Students focus so much on the medium they are using, they are forgetting the content.  They need to be handed the content until they are fluent in the creative process.

2.  They need better developed parameters.  I should not have used the phrase, “Do whatever you can think of.”  The time and resources we have for this endeavor greatly diminishes their creativity.  I need to reign them in just a little bit so we can get the project done in a timely manner.

3.  I need to provide better examples of what I am looking for in their final productions.

I have to remind myself that this is the first time any of us have tried student created video in the classroom.  We have learned a lot about how to facilitate this project and will do better next time.

I’m out of the blogging evangelism game.

Over the past several weeks, I have looked at the Web 2.0 tools that I enjoy and can implement in my current teaching assignment.  The one tool that I am not happy at all with the outcome is student blogging.  Edublogs has helped me with the decision by changing their service plans.  I came to the conclusion that if I am not willing to fork over a few dollars to keep some of the features I was enjoying for free, then I apparently don’t need them.

I do not have my own class of students to work with every day.  Even the classes that I work with only have one day a week or less to spend in a lab, so it is impossible to gain any momentum.

So from here on, I plan to throw my efforts into implementing iPods and using video in the classroom.  It will be an interesting journey that I will continue to chronicle on this blog.  I will use blogs for my personal development, but trying to bring classes and other teachers into the edublogosphere is just not for me any more.