Mega Bites and Messages

Does anyone besides me remember a campaign promise to get ride of NCLB? The Republican’s promised us accountablility and reform with NCLB-we got additional paperwork-teachers forced to teach to tests and Science and History losing out to increase Math and Reading scores.

The only thing I can agree with Sec. Duncan on is the need to increase the number of days in the school year. Let’s get honest this has not been done because there is an entire industry build on tourism, camps, and lessons that some people can afford to purchase. IN some districts this has been addressed by adding intersessions. The interesting thing about the intercessions is that they allow teachers to teach like they used to-using creativity. Teachers love them and so do the kids. Follow ups on this type of project based learning shows BETTER retenion.

It is interesting to note ” Republicans were among the first U.S. politicians to propose significant federal aid for education. But by the 20th century, the party had shifted its position to a general skepticism that at times gave way to limited support. Even at the times when backing limited aid, though, the party retained its stipulation that in administering the aid, the federal government must in no way interfere with state and local control of schools. ” These were the days I was a republican.

Then in 1985, after Reagan’s first Secretary of Education, Terrel Bell, resigned, conservative William J. Bennett took his place. Bennett announced that he would use the post as a “bully pulpit” to push conservative policies and values. Bennett argued for a Western Civilization-based core curriculum and against multicultural programs. Suddenly the influx of religion-I am Catholic-and it was clear it was HIS religious views! The first Bush advocated institutional competition among schools and adequate training for entering the job market. President Bush also renewed the call for a tuition tax credit. Ok it seemed like we were back in the realm of reality…

Then the elections of 1994. Republicans gained control of Congress, and quickly set out to slash funds from various education programs, arguing that the government’s deficit necessitates cutbacks. Republican Representative Newt Gingrich’s “Contract With America” further targeted education and job training for budget reductions as Congress and the Clinton administration fought over balancing the budget. Now the far religious right seemed to be in firm control. Education regained a bit of funding under Clinton but was left in the dust as he focused on saving his own job. Enter the second Bush (Did I mention I liked his father better) and real person in charge his VP. No Child Left Behind fully entrenched the governent into the education process taking away any sense of local control and basically assumes that all children were alike everywhere! The party of limited governent became the party Of BIG HUGE GOVERNENT and BIG BROTHER. This for me was the last bullet I was going to bite and left the party. Okay there was the Patroit Act and failure to grant civil rights that also pushed me out of the party.So here I am a girl who lives in the town that gave us Gerald R Ford now a Democrat. I never thought I would see the day that the Republican party was all about more government!

Now we have a newly elected Sec of Education who agains wants to increase the role of the Federal Government. Sec Duncan…wake up!!!!! Everything you are suggesting has been done under the Republicans and failed.

Here’s a new approach-Let’s get rid of all the huge administrations in public schools. Let’s run them more like the private schools who do not have all the layers. Have a few teachers do double duty as the curriculum experts, bump their pay and get rid of the overpaid leaders who sit in offices, hold meetings, go to conferences and issue orders from on high. Teachers are not Mommies-we are professionals. We need discipline restored to the schools. Since more testing and more restrictions has not worked-how about letting the teachers take a crack at fixing things???

Today is the second day of my summer vacation…and my thoughts turn to education. Okay, maybe I’m a teaching junkie. Without a classroom of kids-how do I get my fix? Trust me it is not going to happen watching the Board of Education Meetings. There is no place where teachers seem to be so completely devalued right now as in the district I work for. Can you believe they are actually replacing Alt. Ed teachers with Novanet? A board member actually said that the software is “high qualified.” hmmm….It is Not reading the Education Secretaries cluess drivel. Instead I turn to my PLN and check out the twitter tweets to read, reflect and ponder.

A few realities-teaching will never get me a bonus check…not an end of the year thank you gift-heck this year I was not even handed a copy of the yearbook that I produced! Frankly with my computer skills there are jobs where I could make much more money with my computer skills. Still I teach…Still I plan…I ponder…I explore…I dream! I guess as a teaching junkie it is simply a part of me.
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Summer is a chance to actually think about how I would change education-or given a clean slate what would I like to see education look like. My thoughts turn not to the new technologies I love instead I reflect back on the one-room school house. By its very nature the multi-age nature of the room required collaboration. The world was their classroom-projects abounded-by the very nature of classroom/school instruction had to be differentiated. What I dream of is a school/learning center where content rich instruction is a spring board to help teach kids to be problem solvers, and to frankly construct big questions. Less about tests-and more about learning. Replacing entitlement thinking with service based pnderings. To become more child centered we must also become more honest with parents. Bullying, and bad behavior has no place in a learning environment. We do the children no favor when we make excuses for them! Praise is earned through efforts. Too often we deal with those children we want to save, and the many we fail to see-are lost. In many districts it is these children that leave us-because we have failed to meet their needs. How much time do we spend with each student? Let’s shift our thinking-equal time for all.

Living in Michigan and watching Detroit die- it is clear that the work world of the future will provide very little stability, and very few will hold one job for 30 plus years. What will work look like in the light of this huge shift ? From a manufacturing base to and informational society? Can we incorporate the new technologies to help us or will end up digitally connect yet alone? I read the Time article with a mixture of anticipation and fear.”According to consulting giant McKinsey & Co., nearly 85% of new jobs created between 1998 and 2006 involved complex “knowledge work” like problem-solving and concocting corporate strategy. Job opportunities in mathematics and across the sciences are also expected to expand. The U.S. Department of Labor spotlights network systems and data communications as well as computer-software engineering among the occupations projected to grow most explosively by 2016. Over the next seven years, the number of jobs in the information-technology sector is expected to swell 24% — a figure more than twice the overall job-growth rate. ”

In this new society is there a place for everyone? Let us not develop a society of geeks verses service clerks. In this picture where are the artists, the musicain, the writers-those people who add to the texture and beauty of the society. To this end I propose a more open ended view of learning. Yes we must engage students and challenge their minds-but we must also impart that everything will not be entertaining nor easy. Multiply choice tests that students store in short term memory simply do not help built the cognitive schema needed. Not all students are internally motivated, there are indeed conditions that educators cannot control that impact learning. There is no one size fits all system for education and learning. This is why tests fail to give us a good measurement picture. Instead, a project, a work of art, something constructed, planned built-give us insights. I found that allowing students to actually construct test questions lead to better retention that any one student who took the test. The schema behind what they choose as important, the reasoning behind the answer choices-the place where intellect lives. Just as animals adapt to their enviroment we to much adapt our instruction, our learning, and our visions.

Digital Storytelling is sometimes described as the practice of using computer animation tools to tell stories. Just as we do with traditional writing activities, digital stories can focus on a specific topic, point of view and/or purpose, Digital stories are engaging to students because they mix cartoon-like pictures, with the added attributes of music, sound and text. Kids love them because their stories literally come to life. You can call them digital stories, mini movies, or animated tales-they all allow children to create and think.

Find more videos like this on MACUL Space

For primary students allowing them to mess about with animation software teaches characters, setting, and plot in a visual way. Children can easily identify the character if they have drawn, created, or picked it out of the available clip art choices. Drawing or choosing the background scene illustrates the stories setting. Animating their characters allows students to create the “actions” for the plot of their story. After exploring animation students seem to be able to fill out a story mountains, story maps, and other graphic organizers with a bit more detail.

I like to follow up the animated story by having the students write about the animation they created. Linking digital stories to more traditional writing activities allow student to see the connections between the written word and the digital world of virtual reality.

For older students (in perhaps year four) a more traditional planning approach may be in order to Create a Digital Story
•Decideon the topic-researching, note taking
• Collect images
• Plan,-outlining, and storyboarding ,author purpose, point of view
• Draft: Write a script
• Choose your animation Site or Software
• Revise: modifying images and organization
• Edit: timing, images, and narration
Publish the final product

Digital stories can vary in length, but my student last between 10 seconds for a clay animation- up to around 10 minutes. And the topics that are used in Digital Storytelling range from recounting of historical events in clay, describing life cycles, understanding our community to creating a simple adventure a n animal might have. Most stories that primary children write are well suited to the digital domain of animation. There are so many wonderful sites to use for Digital Storytelling I am sure you will find one that suits your needs. The following site does a wonderful job of explaining the educational benefits of digital story telling http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/index.html

Here is a list of my favorites sites and the tools I use with my primary students:

My Life; Cell based animation- make the elephant dance. My 4and 5 year olds love this, and giggle and giggle.

Fluxtine Animation; Can be used online or downloaded This is a real favorite with my 7 year olds. They are especially taken with the space background and objects. It doesn’t offer sound-but that doesn’t seem to matter as my kids seem to make the sound effects for their story.

Shidonni - Creative fun for kids, bring your sketch pets to life www.shidonni.com/ Children draw an animal in a simple paint program on line and the animal comes to life. They draw the background (setting), and even create food the pet eats. My 6 year olds got help from my older students to “write” the story that went with their movie. For weeks after using this one whenever we used an image they volunteered the setting and character they saw!

Moovl; Moovl is a unique online tool which teachers and pupils can use to draw, animate and apply physical properties to objects in order to bring their pictures and words to life. I love this one because it ads science into the story writing process:

Me and My Movie- Super simple animation movie maker- Just drag and drop clips for a fast mashup.

Wild Life Film maker- Make a custom nature film with animal clips. Another great Mash-up

Digital Films- Make your digital film for free! Choose a background scene, characters, animated actions,
dialog, introduction, and ending credits. Put your name as the producer and email the movie to your friends! You can also signup for free. I suggest using those temporary email accounts for your class.

Animasher-Create a short movie on line

Movie Blender -3d animation

Junior Movie Maker-make a movie with animated stickers

Kerploff-super simple story writer.

Zimmer Twins- Animation make a movie

Fuzzwuch-has two programs Minivid is dead simple animation. It’s never been easier to put your thoughts into motion Currently in very private beta, the Animator is a complete online animation studio, with powerful features and the freedom to let you flex your expressive muscles.

Dvolver Movie Maker -Dvolver’s Movie Maker helps you make a movie in a few simple steps. When completed you can send it to a friend., post it to your website, or use Cam Studio to do a screen capture.

Aniboom- spaceshifter create animation right on Line This is a bit more complete but well suited to the primary student IMHO.
and of course Photostory

Check out the list of Animated sites on the side bar.

During a time when the phrase 21st Century Learner is so over used we are left wondering what it all means. Taking a long hard look at education today we are forced to acknowledge that while the world has changed at a record pace; businesses are forced to retool and rethink; our classroom have remain very much the same. We do many things well in education: We teach children how to memorize, we do a fair job in helping them research and report but what we are lacking in, is challenging them to think, create, rethink and problem solve. Let’s face it- they are used to being spoon fed and everything in their life, is delivered in an instant!.

Enter brand new Web Cam’s. With no regard for directions my 8th grade digital natives plug them in and are surprised when they don’t work. “What have you tried?” I ask.

“I plugged it in and it didn’t come on. This thing is junk!” replies the teenager who is accustomed to instant everything.

“Perhaps you need to read the directions, install the software?” I offer as advice.

Before the sentence is completed they are putting the software in and amazed when it doesn’t auto install. After asking them what drive the disk was put in, inquiring as to how they could access that drive, , and finally asking them which icon did they think would install the software (The Install icon). They are finally off and running. Now I fully realize it would have been far easier to install the software for the Web Cam’s myself. The kids would have been happier, my lesson would have proceeded quicker-BUT…what would they do next time they encountered a problem? Too often we do things for the children instead of allowing them to struggle and then succeed. Now I am not advocating for letting them sit there frustrated. I am advocating not doing everything for them-instead asking them questions that make them think, and make connections that will serve them far better in the future, than any project I ever teach.

How many times have students visited a website and before the page is done loading -their hand is in the air asking what to do next? There are days I cannot finish two sentences without hearing students blurt out…”What if…?” Too often we simply give them the quick answer- we want to move on.( My gosh they are only here for 40 short minutes.)  I am here to advocate for processing time. Time to think! Thinking is a good thing!  Embrace a few moments of silence. I call it power thinling with my 1st-4th graders.

The rule in my room is read, try, check with your neighbor and then raise your hand for help. By using this system, by the time I managed to starting moving around from workstation to work station, half the hands go down and I am left with a much more manageable 10-12 kids to help. I praise, the kids who take chances and try, instead of waiting for their individual, private, personal help! It takes me a good couple of months in the computer lab to turn their thinking on (I only see them twice a week). It takes even longer to get them to actually read the information on the website. But the effort is worth it because I do not spend so much time pointing to icons they need to click, walking over an pointing at the directions and restating the same directions over and over again!

How do I put it all together???
Here is an example of 2nd Grade Mixing the World of Digital Storytelling with Writing –stir twice for good measure-screen capture and print. The children created a story on Shidonni drawing the character, setting (background), and the animal animates. (They especially love drawing the food that the animal later eats.) I encourage them to talk-walk around and ask each other questions about what their animal is doing. The last ten minutes of class the 6th graders arrive. They type the stories the children dictate. If the second grader is stuck-the 6th grader asks them questions to get them thinking. While this processing is going on I run around and use Cam Studio to capture their animated movie. The result- An Animated movie that teaches character, setting and plot, and a written account of their movie which we lovingly call the script! The bonus…that would be the 6th graders having to ask questions in order to get the 2nd graders to put together a story.

Now about those Web Cam’s?????

The Right Tool for each Learner

• Mind Mapping
• Charting and Diagrams
• Videos and Photos

Auditory Learners

• Podcasts
• Presentation Tools
• Audio Tools
• Text Readers
• Audio Books

Kinesthetic Learners

• Note Taking Tools
• Bookmarking
• Ineraction
• Collaboration

Teacher’s seem to be born with a unique skill set, or tool box that they use to manage, teach, and motivate students. The best of us know when to push a student, give them space and where that line lies in middle. This skill set is the most valuable when it is combined with best teaching practices that integrate technology. As we shift our thinking to include the uses of technology as tools for organization, communication, research, and problem-solving, we also need to examine our thoughts about content. I cannot think of a single job where employees are routinely given 2 quizzes and 1 test each week. Workers in today’s most successful companies are collaborative, innovative, and have outstanding communication skills.

I am not suggesting throwing the baby out with the bath water. Of course we teach content, study history and even memorize computation facts. I am suggesting that we do this AND move beyond those constraints. Integrating technology allows us to use content as a springboard for higher level thinking skills and including “what if… statements. Can we conclude a PowerPoint on the respiratory system with some thought provoking questions? What if oxygen levels were depleted/? What would happen to the brain? How is human respiration similar to fish??? What is we took a digital camera and took close-up pictures of parts of the human body-could students identify and knowing the function figure out how the design helps the function be accomplished?

At it’s simplest form I am suggesting a marriage of integrated information skills designed around collaborative projects. Units and lessons can incorporate technology tools to help student be more productive, create a safe environment to “simulate and test ideas”, expand content, and provide authentic publications. The computer cannot be an electronic workbook-lets face it workbooks are cheaper. It isn’t just a research tool for reports-we’ve had encyclopedias for years. Let’s use technology to do the things we couldn’t do before. For example instead or reading about medieval times and writing a report can we consider….

Experiencing history by using our avatar to visit Medieval England. (Once Second Life is secure for students) Let’s fly to England on Google Earth and look at castle ruins. How about playing the Art of Chivalry – Medieval Knight Game, to role play what life is like in that time period. Finally can we predict, research and then discover what games we play today came from that era? Is any of the architecture found in that time period reproduced today. Perhaps we could design a village using Sketch up Did they read and write? Can we locate writing from that time period? What occupations practiced back then are no longer jobs? What jobs do we have today that may not be needed in the future?

Technology should allow us to stretch-do more thinking-more producing. Let’s not just think outside the box- but consider what the box even is?

The lists at the side are teacher approved websites organized by topic. In other words these are all sites I have used with children from k-8th grade. Not all sites are appropriate for all age levels which is why I will beginning adding lists by age as well.

You should always review a site before ever using it with students as sites change daily!