Hope for the Best But Prepare for the Worst

A few years ago I attended conference sessions hosted by Federal and South Carolina health officials discussing the need for schools and teachers to prepare for keeping students engaged in learning incase of long-term school closures. The reason for health officials' concern about student learning is when and not if the next pandemic such as the Spanish Influenza Epidemic of 1918 or the Bubonic Plague of the Middle Ages occurs. Health officials predict such disease outbreaks will halt normal life as people will be quarantined in their homes to prevent deadly diseases from spreading. This includes school closures as well.

While deadly disease outbreaks should be a concern for school officials and teachers, weather events are more probable reasons for extended school closures. Hurricane Matthew and closed schools for weeks in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina last year. Houston area schools were out when citizens were picking up the pieces after Hurricane Harvey struck earlier this school year. Hurricane Iris caused schools to close in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina this year. And the hurricane season is not yet over.

Last year's Hurricane Matthew caught me by surprise because it was announced at the end of a school day, leaving me with no time to prepare my students. I was better prepared for the school closure for Hurricane Iris because of more lead-time in forewarning in announcing the school closure. This time allowed me to discuss my expectations for what students should do during the closure. Students were told to take their school tablets with them and to check Google Classroom daily during the time out. I also gave students an assignment to prepare them for an upcoming project that could be done while they were not in class. During the weather timeout I did make posts reminding students of what they were expected to do and letting them know I hoped they were safe. 

My instructions to students before they left for an evacuation also led me to think about other lessons I would share with students if the evacuation lasted longer than the two and a half days we were out. First, I have started creating video lessons connecting (hopefully) what students learn in class with what they see in their communities. Two, I started making sure students were set up with Flocabulary and EdPuzzle so they could participate in any assignments using these educational sites. Finally, I told students strategies they could use to connect to the Internet while they may be traveling out of harm's way. 

Teachers need to start planning for ways to engage students incase of prolonged school closure. Pandemics and hurricanes are not the only problems. Tornados have closed schools throughout the Southeast and Midwest. Flooding also forces school closures. Finally, there is always snow and ice that closes schools, especially in areas not used to getting any large amounts of snow such as the Southeast. This means teachers should develop a plan and make preparations. Also, students need to be briefed on what to do whenever there is prolonged school closures. Make sure to select the technology tools and make sure students are able to sign-in and use these tools. With proper planning and execution learning does not have to stop during prolonged school closures. 

Website Updates

This is probably a bad time to discuss changes to this website and this blog but I might as well get it over. First off, I am progressing in my dissertation process that has kept me from keeping up with this blog. Second, I have been setting up a blog to create announcements for parents and students although the main class content will be found on Google Classroom. Third, I have started creating videos again. The videos I have started creating will be about content for Sixth Grade Social Studies students but occasionally other subjects as well. My desire is to create content demonstrating curriculum and real world connections. There will also be activities found on Teachers Pay Teachers for teachers who use my videos for their classes. Finally, I have also reawakened my passion for photography so I have created a page of what I believe is my best photographs. Other photos and videos may be shared on this blog in the future as well. 

Hopefully, it won't be years before I post again. 

Futures Planning and Curriculum Objectives

This a my discussion post for my Investigations in Curriculum Change class this week. I thought this would be appropriate since I wrote it at ISTE 2014. The topic was to identify learning objectives that meet the future needs of today's students for the purpose of futures planning.

According to Parkay, Hass, & Anctil (2010) futures planning “is the process of conceptualizing the future as a set of possibilities and then taking steps to create the future we want” (60). This means we must imagine and compare the different possibilities based on where we think current trends will take us then hopefully select the correct possibility. For school planners, trying to predict the future can be scary because a wrong guess could potentially cost millions of dollars. For example, Schools designed and constructed today may have to last up to 100 years. Should valuable square footage be used for lockers when every student may have all their instructional materials on one device?  Are interactive whiteboards needed if teachers’  wireless tablets are connect to devices that project the tablet’s image on monitors and students’ devices?  

Curriculum planners face the same futures planning challenges in attempting to select what curriculum will best suit the children's needs of a community. Everyone in the educational process must see themselves as futurists if instruction will meet students’ future needs. Another important thing to remember for futures planning is to bring in all stakeholders into conversations and planning about curriculum that prepares students for the future. Schools are part of and reflect the communities they serve so it is important to include people outside of education such parents, students, along with community and business leaders to determine what curriculum changes would best serve the needs of the community.

Once a direction has been determined, curriculum planners must determine educational objectives emphasizing preparing students for the future. This challenge makes it difficult to prepare students because society is changing so rapidly. Making students life-long learners is the best way to meet futures planning and learning objectives. Students need the ability to retrain themselves when faced with career options not thought of when they were in school.

There are five learning objectives that make students life-long learners that will ensure their ability to meet any future challenges. Research skills is the first learning objective students because they to be able to find new information preparing for whatever challenge awaits them. Students need to know where and how to access critical information quickly so they can prepare for new careers before competitors beat them to it. Next, students need media literacy skills so they may understand the information they have researched. Information today comes from other sources other than books such as television, Internet, music, and movies. Like books, each of these media sources have messages students must recognize and determine the validity and importance of these messages. After students gathering and processing information from different sources, they must analyze the information to compile important parts to meet students’ needs. Communication skills are needed to put the information into an understandable form so it may be shared with others. Finally, students need to learn to use social media such as Twitter or Edmodo so they can build a network of expertise from they can constantly learn from (November, 2014). With these five skills used as curriculum objectives students are well prepared for their respective futures.

References:

November, A. (2014, July). Learn to learn: First 5 days of school. Interactive lecture presented at ISTE 2014, Atlanta, GA

Parkay, F.W., Hass, G., & Anctil, E.J. (2010). Curriculum leadership: Readings for developing quality educational programs (9th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Engaging in Thought Provoking Discussions

My first official day at ISTE 2014 started with a session on education gaming. I really want to like gaming in the classroom but the research so far says it engages students but really does nothing for achievement. So I hoped this session would give me hope. We reviewed Changegamer.ca, a site with cloud-based site of various educational games students can play with lesson plans and activities teachers can use. While the site did have some games that could be used in lesson plans, they will not provide tangible evidence of student achievement gaming needs to become widespread in education.

After my time with gaming, I attended a session about using newspapers to study World War I. We looked at a site that aggregated newspapers chronicling major events of World War I. This session reminded me teachers need to use primary resources whenever possible and practical because they can give students a perspective on historical events they well never get in a textbook. The session also described National History Day and how important for students to engage in this activity designed to get students to engage in real historical research and share their finding in creative ways. 

The last two sessions were the most thought provoking sessions I have ever attended. Both sessions centered around educational research. The first was a presentation highlighting a dissertation about the role of social media in professional development. The discussions talked about how more teachers need to build personal learning communities so they can access professional development to meet the unique needs of individual teachers. The discussion then went to how can teacher participation in social media for professional development purposes can count for professional development credit. It was a fascinating session. The last session was a discussion about educational research. Some of the things is teachers need more access to research because reading it does help teachers become better in the classroom. There was also another discussion about the need to conduct research so teachers can gain better insight into what is going on in their classes. Finally, the thought of showing students how real researchers do their research and write their papers might connect what students are doing in class to the real world. 

If the rest of ISTE 2014 is this challenging then the next two days should be awesome!

Meeting You For the First TIme All Over Again

A couple of weeks ago I attended the Curriculum Studies Summer Collaborative in Savannah, Georgia presented by Georgia Southern University. One of the attendees was William Schubert from the University of Illinois-Chicago and a leader in curriculum studies. Dr. Schubert and I had an amusing conversation about writing dissertations in the 1970's and today. The very next week an assignment required we read an article about four curriculum traditions and write an analysis of them. The author of the article is the same Dr. Schubert I talked with earlier at the CSSC. Usually, I see the authors as faceless, abstract people who live on another plane of existence. However, after meeting Dr. Schubert I can appreciate the article because I have witnessed his personality he put into his writing. 

Flash forward a couple weeks, I am actually blogging at the world famous Blogger's Cafe at the ISTE Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, so I can scratch that off my bucket list. For the last couple of days I have been reconnecting with old friends but also making new friends, which is one of the best reasons to come to ISTE. Like meeting Dr. Schubert in Savanna, I am meeting Twitter friends I have known for years for the first time ever. Yes, this is my first ISTE conference which is why I finally can put real people to @Twitter handles I have interacted with for years. Some of these guys are rock stars with huge followings. Just a few minutes ago I was sitting with one well-known education technology expert I have interacted for years when a couple of fellow South Carolinian educators came up to the guy wanting their picture made with my old/new friend. After this conference I am sure I will have a better appreciation because I actually know even more of my Twitter friends.

Farewell B-108! My Students and I Thank You

In August, 2010 I wrote about my brand new classroom, B-108, at the new Bluffton Middle School. In that post I speculated on what would take place in that room when the students came in. I can say after four years of teaching in B-108 everything I predicted did happen, especially students learning about how to use computer technology in their other classes and learn they did. After four years, a South Carolina Technology Innovative Program award (my second but who's counting), and hundreds of students crossing into the threshold (not all on time either) it is time to say goodbye to the room. The computer technology program is being replaced by another STEM program and my Computer Technology position is being eliminated. 

While my position has been eliminated don't start shedding tears for me just yet. I will be moving down the hall next year as I move back to teaching social studies. This is something I have been patiently waiting for for at least two years. My certification has always been in social studies and my love of history, government, and economics led me to choosing teaching as my vocation. However, I have been in technology so long there are few people who knew I was a social studies teacher in a prior life. I wish I had a dollar for everytime I had to explain to people that I have a BA degree in history, my M.Ed. focused on social studies, and I taught the subject for 14 years at the high school level. I might actually retire. 

While I am happy to moving a few doors down the hall, I realize I have some challenges awaiting me. First, it has been awhile since I taught world history and I have stocked my reading list with books to refresh me on the content and classroom practices. Second, I will be teaching world history to seventh graders which will be a new experience. I do have experience teaching seventh graders computer technology and there are some great social studies teachers who I can seek out whenever I need advice. Third, I went to social studies content meetings every chance I got so I am familiar with what is going on with social studies today. Finally, I have spent the last few years reinventing myself as Teacher 2.0 with what I have learned from technology integration and my doctoral studies. I am eager to put some theories to the test and see what happens. 

No matter what happens in the future, I am sure it will be an even better adventure than teaching computer technology. I hope whoever takes over B-108 will have the great experience I had over the last four years. 

Game On

Next week I will be returning to Liberty University for my second intensive class. These classes run for five days with some pre and post course work for three hours of credit. Based on my experience last summer intensive is the proper term for this experience. Yet, these are fun because I get to meet and work with new people in a traditional classroom setting. The class I am taking next week is Technology Practice for Instructional Improvement, which should be an interesting one for me.

One of the pre-course assignments is to select a team for a literature review based on the following topics: augmented reality, game-based learning, mobile devices and apps, and personal learning environments. While Personal Learning Environments looked interesting, I selected Game-based Learning because the topic intrigued me since I first heard about it a few years back. I was told games, especially electronic ones, have certain characteristics. One, a player must learn a new skill or demonstrate a skill to progress to a new level. Achieving new levels take practice and critical thinking skills we desire in our classrooms. Two, players naturally collaborate in working towards new levels. One experienced player passes on skills to other players or multiple players work together to solve the problem needed to progress. Again, another desired trait we wish all students showed in the classroom. The best part is players (usually their parents) pay for this engagement and do it willingly.

When I was in the army we used computerized battle simulations for the Bradley Fighting Vehicle to great success. We also played role-playing games which helped in teaching various tactics needed on the battlefield. I casually observed my son playing video games over the last few years I noticed how he had to problem solve and collaborate to enjoy his games. When we played the Nintendo DS game Animal Crossing together I got to see first hand how he wanted to collaborate with me so I could learn what I needed to succeed so I would have fun playing with him. I also noticed how he could channel his creativity to enhance his game-play experience.

While not every lesson should become a game, there could be benefits to Incorporating both traditional card or board games or electronic games on a computer or massive multiplayer online (MMO) games into some lessons for potential maximization of engagement. It is going to be about two to three years before game-based learning achieves any real potential as their quality begins to match consumer-oriented games. The idea of game-based learning should not be rejected as unrealistic either. I am looking forward to learning how game-based learning can help students become better learners. Stay tuned.

Implied Curriculum in an Online Course

This past semester I learned a new term that describes about lessons learned that are not part of the official curriculum. That term is implied curriculum. An implied curriculum recently learned in my Curriculum Theory class is there are right ways and wrong ways in designing online courses. One thing I do miss in my online classes is some for me real-time student-teacher interaction. Nothing beats being face-to-face chats and questioning with instructors and I would at least attempt this using Skype or Google Hangouts if I ever need to create an online class. It could help facilitate this interaction.

This past sub term I saw how asynchronous communications in an online class can be a hindrance to an educational experience. It should be a cardinal rule when creating online courses to remember students cannot ask clarifying questions about assignments because of the asynchronous of an online environment. Online assignments must be as self-contained and self-explanatory as possible so students can clearly understand what they need to do. One assignment this past sub term serves as an example of this need for clarity. The assignment was to conduct an evaluation of a textbook using a provided chart in the assignment instructions. These instructions stated questions at the bottom of the chart needed to be answered. When I looked at the chart there were no questions at the bottom. I figured the chart was an updated version with the questions built-in to the other parts of the chart. Wrong! The questions I needed to answer were not on the chart but in the assignment instructions and it was not clear these were the questions to answer in the chart. This would have been quickly cleared up in a traditional classroom because either the instructor or one of the students would have raised this concern about no questions at the bottom of the chart.

In an online environment, students sometimes must make judgment calls regarding the parameters of an assignment. This means course designers must take student independence and asynchronous communications into account when creating assignments. Why did I not email the instructor? I know to do this now but I had never experienced such a situation before. Also, it may take a day or more to receive a reply depending on how often an instructor checks email or needs to get clarification from third-party course designers. Also, other students might miss out on this important communication because of a missed email or the instructor only replies to the individual student. In the assignment I described I may not have been the only student with this problem because the instructor sent an email telling the class one assignment can be revised for full credit. Knowing what I had to do, my textbook evaluation grade went from 75 points (due to unclear instructions) to 100 points! Even with this experience I am still enjoying my online educational experience. Thanks to implied curriculum about online course design I got a bonus lesson out of deal.

Philosophical Heritage

Whenever I see the word philosophy in the title of a course I must prepare myself to look deep within myself and wrap my head around some mind-bending topics. I am thinking about my first writing assignment for my Curriculum Philosophy class which asks me to reflect back on what I perceived the philosophical positions of three former teachers. These three teachers must come from my elementary, secondary, and college educations. Two of the first three are going to be easy because they influenced my desire in studying and later teaching history. My history teacher at Spartanburg High School showed history can be a wonderful and interesting story if told right. One of my professors at USC-Spartanburg showed how researching history makes it come alive as it becomes an investigation of a mystery to be solved instead of just the memorization of dates and facts. It is the teacher from my elementary days that has me really thinking. I can remember who these incredible ladies are and what they taught me to some extent or I would not be writing this now. However, to think of their philosophical positions is something one never really thinks of because one never thinks of their elementary teachers in that light or at least I never did. As I am thinking about it two teachers come to the surface, my first grade teacher and my sixth grade teacher (sixth grade was in elementary schools when I was growing up). This should be an interesting intellectual exercise.

Protecting Students with a Cybersafety Plan

A vast majority of teens are online on a daily basis with most of them using their mobile phones or tablets to access the Internet. Combine this with schools pushing out one-to-one initiatives at a rapid pace. It is no wonder cyberbullying and sexting are most often done through mobile technology with this amount of mobile technology in the hands of teens. While most cybersafety incidents happen outside of school, they often start in school. This means school districts and their schools need to create cybersafety programs to counter these threats to the learning process. 

For a cybersafety program to be effective a school districts must:

• Survey students yearly using an instrument such as Hinduja & Patchin's Cyberbullying &Online Aggression Survey (2009). 
• Select programs for individual schools based on data from the cybersafety surveys and input from the students it is supposed to help.
• Provide professional development for faculty and staff on implementing cybersafety education programs.
• Adequate budgeting for cybersafety programs.
• Provide necessary materials to schools.
• Provide instruction to parents on research-based methods on keeping their children safe online.
• Appoint a cybersafety coordinator to assist schools with developing cybersafety education programs, develop appropriate consequences for cybersafety violations, train staff involved in cybersafety programs, research the latest trends in cybersafety issues, works with parents, law enforcement, and the media on cybersafety issues.

Schools should do the following for cybersafety effectiveness:

• Insert cybersafety instruction into the most appropriate courses all students are mandated to participate in. Not all students may take technology courses every year.
• Create a school cybersafety response team consisting of an administrator and guidance counselor specially trained to handle cybersafety incidents.
• Ensure all faculty and staff understand how to handle cybersafety incidents and properly report them to the cybersafety response team.
• Provide an annual presentation to parents and the community on cybersafety concerns based on survey data, explain the dangers of cybersafety violations, explain school cybersafety initiatives, and explain what can be done to promote cybersafety in the home.

If school districts and schools fail to develop comprehensive cybersafety plans they run the risk of having the education process disrupted due to fallout from cybersafety incidents. These incidents could also expose school districts and schools to legal accountability if the school does not adequately respond to cybersafety incidents. Finally, schools may lose E-Rate discounts if they do not provide cybersafety education stipulated in the Children's Internet Protection Act of 2012.

For more information on this plan to protect students from cybersafety incidents click the link below: 

 Comprehensive District Cybersafety Plan

District Cybersafety Program John Woodring from John Woodring

Santa Brought You An iPad, Now What?

Right before the holidays a teacher friend told me about an iPad she received through Donors Choose and now wants to know what apps to get for the classroom. Well here is my response (with my friend's blessing). Listed below are the iPads Apps I find most useful as a teacher. Please note these apps are general for teachers of any subject and/or grade. You will need to learn how to navigate the App Store if you want these or subject specific apps. Also, for those who found an Android tablet under the tree please consult Google Play for these or similar apps. Now on to the list (in alphabetical order):

Display Recorder: This app is a must for teachers interested in flipping the classroom or just recording lessons. It is easy to use and you can export movies to the Photo Roll for editing in other apps.

Dropbox: Most teachers I know create files across different platforms. Now that you have an iPad you will find yourself creating documents, presentations, movies, and other files you will want on your school computer. Dropbox allows you to store files in the cloud and on folders you place on every computer you wish to use. The files will then sync across all the devices. No more looking for that flash drive.

Edmodo: This is the social network for the classroom. Students and teachers can communicate and share files securely over this network. The iPad app closely resembles the website except the app allows access to your Camera Roll so you can post pictures and videos.

Educreations: This app is a whiteboard you can scribble on while you record your explanations and more. One creative teacher uses it to create presentations by adding photos and text.

Evernote: Probably the best note taking app hands down. You can review your notes across any platform and on the cloud. Other features are taking pictures, creating links to websites, and many apps and hardware import information into Evernote. This is one of the few apps I pay for annually.

Genius Scan+: For the times I need to go from hard copy to digital copy Genius Scan+ does what I want. I just snap a photo of the document and Genius Scan+ turns the document into a PDF file which I send to Dropbox.

Google Drive: If you have an Edmodo account then you need a Google account to create and share documents with your students easily. Photos and videos can also be added to Google Drive. This is a good compliment to Dropbox.

iBooks: One day iBooks may actually be useful for reading books but for now I mainly use it for storing PDF documents downloaded from the Internet.

iMovie: Whenever I need to create a quick and simple multimedia video iMovie is where I go. Just drop in your photos or videos, add titles and music then share it. Say good bye to Live Movie Maker's complicated process for making a movie.

Keynote: This is probably what all presentation should be, simple but elegant. Easy to use but there are powerful tools that will make your presentations come alive. One pleasant surprise was adding video to a presentation and have it play. Now Keynotes can be saved as PowerPoints straight from the iPad.

Lesson Plans: Need to submit or post lesson plans? This app creates detailed lesson plans easily which can be printed or emailed. The fields can be customized to whatever format you need (mine is set for GANAG with a couple of more fields). Also, lesson plans can be copied if you need to modify a plan for differentiation or other needs.

Pages: Another easy to use iWork app by Apple. This word processor can do just about anything you need on paper and now you can save files as Microsoft Word documents.

Skitch: There are times photos need to be marked up and Skitich allows you to do just that.

Snapseed: While iPhoto is a good app for editing photos, Snapseed does the same and more with photos for free.

Team Shake: Need to quickly create teams for group assignments? Add the names of your students then figure out how many teams you need then let Team Shake do the rest.

If you plan on showing any of your creations to your students on the projector then you will need to invest in a VGA adaptor for your iPad.

Let me know if there is an app you believe should be included in this list. I hope you enjoy using your new iPads or other tablets in the coming year.

Welcome to the Big Leagues Meat!

If you wondered where I have been the last several weeks, I recently completed my first course in my doctoral program. The title of the course was Theories and Research in Educational Psychology but it easily could have been Let's See What You Got 101 or You Really Think You Can Write? 101. While I never claimed to be the world's greatest writer I did consider myself better than the average bear. Notice I wrote did instead of do in that last sentence. My first couple of course writings left me wondering if this doctoral thing was a huge mistake. I expected comments such as poor paragraph transitions and a tendency for wordiness. Comments about lacking a vocabulary and "you should read the APA Guidebook" that left me reeling. It was like looking at my A- Master's thesis after announcing I was going to present it to World War II symposium: bleeding like a stuck pig with all the red ink on it.

After reading the professor's comments I took my dejected self to our school's high-speed, low-drag, often imitated but never duplicated Literacy Coach. This is the woman who taught me how to teach middle school students when I started the Computer Technology program. After crying about how my life was over, she peers at me over her reading glasses and tells me "It seems like this professor wants to see if you have what it takes to go to the next level." In all of the years of her giving me advice I never expected that. She also told me to read my work to myself and quit whining. Great, now I have two people kicking me in the seat of my pants.

After my pep talk, I figured I needed to do something because regardless of the outcome I still must repay the student loan. I took my friend's advice and worked at improving my writing. Needless to say my writing and grades improved along with the professor's comments each week. Now I have the confidence to move forward. Another big help in improving my writing started in 2006 when I started a blog called "Teacherbytes". That experience has been invaluable because I kept practicing my writing. So if you should be thinking about going back to school after a few years do yourself a favor and start writing a blog because the practice will payoff. Imagine what might have happened if I had not blogged over the last few years.

Curriculum Neutrality

I am starting a Theories and Research in Educational Psychology class and one of the first assignments is to discuss whether there can be curriculum neutrality in education. The idea of curriculum neutrality is when the teacher attempts to not to place any of his or her personal, political, religious, or moral beliefs when developing curriculum for their classes. This poses two interesting questions:

1. Is curriculum neutrality possible?

2. If curriculum neutrality is possible, is it desirable? 

Personally, I say no to the first question. Curriculum will always reflect the values of the teacher, school, and community. Watch what happens whenever mentions teaching sex education at a school board or PTO meeting and you get my meaning. On the second question, if the teacher does not go overboard then yes. I have always tried to be a moral compass for my students so they would have an example to follow. All of the teachers i know always want their students to do the right thing. Sometimes it is the teacher who is the only one to provide that moral grounding and that is unfortunate.

How would you answer these two questions? Discuss!

Crossing Over

The past couple of weeks I took my first steps in reaching out to other teachers for the purpose of doing a Cross-Curricular project. The group I identified was the sixth grade Math teachers. My plan was simple, teams of students would create instructional videos demonstrating how to solve a type of math problem chosen by their Math teacher. The videos would be the Paper Slide because they are simple and quick to create. Next, I met with each teacher to explain the project and see what problem they wanted see their students to explain. Once I had the problems, it was time to organize the students into teams and give them their assignment. I grouped my students in class according to the team they are on to make this organization easier. All I had to do was use Team Shaker on my iPad to pick the teams at random. Once I informed the students of their teams and task to perform they were off. 

Imagine my surprise when our school's Math Coach, Kim, stopped me in the hallway telling me she heard about my project and offered her help which I readily accepted. Was I glad for her help because I have trouble adding 2+2 (three right?) and even more grateful when she answered my students' questions I would have had trouble with. 

The teams were given storyboard templates for them to design the slides they would use for their video. Kim and I moved around the students offering bits of advice about both the math and design of the slides. The students were also encouraged to show their storyboards to their math teachers to make sure they were correct. The students were very enthusiastic about the project and I had very little trouble keeping them on task. The biggest problem I saw, like their presentations, is they wanted to write every instruction down on the slides. I had to keep reminding them to just pick a problem and write the individual steps in solving the problem on each slide. I further explained one of the team members would explain what is going on while another team member was videotaping and another was working the slides. 

My students are almost finished with this project. Once a team tells me they have finished a video to my specifications (it has to be sharable), I come look at it. If there are any problems then I explain that the team needs to try again with the corrections I suggested. When I am satisfied, the videos are to be sent to their Math teachers via Edmodo for their evaluation and I enter my grade in the books. Once we are finished, I plan on going back to the Math teachers to see how things went and how this project could be done better next time. 

Was this project effective? One student came up to Kim and I to tell us this project was harder than she thought it would be. We asked why and she replied that that she had to know more to explain how to do a problem than just solving the problem like she normally would. Kim and I looked at each other and smiled. Mission accomplished!

Here is a video on how to create a Paper Slide Video.

Hello 911? What Tech Do I Need For a House Fire?

Hello, 911? My house is on fire. I had to make this dreaded phone call right before Memorial Day. Fortunately for my wife's sweet tooth I spotted the blaze in our garage on my way out for ice cream. After getting everyone one out of the house and calling 911, I had the presence of mind or stupidity of grabbing both my MacBook Pro and iPad as we were leaving. I figured I would need the devices to communicate with the insurance company, family and friends, and others as we picked up the pieces. A note on safety: Both devices happened to be close at hand and I did not grab the chargers. Do not stay in a burning building to collect valuables, get out immediately! They can be replaced, you cannot. Hours later, the American Red Cross put us up in a hotel for a few days to give us time to start working out the claim with our insurance company. The first thing I did was to get on the computer and start the claims process. It turned out this was the first of technology needs I would have in the three months my family was out of the house as it was being repaired. Here are the technology items I found useful:

Laptop Computer: This was the key piece of equipment I needed to communicate with my insurance company. Emails to claims adjusters and scans of receipts and other documents had to go through my MacBook Pro. Also, it helped in communicating with concerned family and friends through email and Facebook. The photos I uploaded to my website of the fire damage and repair progress also had to be done on my laptop. The family was staying in hotels so the ability to watch videos on Netflix and Amazon Instant Video saved our sanity when there was nothing on the regular television.

iPad: The iPad came in handy in taking notes about repairs and replacing items. We had the document of items that were to be replaced and the values loaded so we could reference it whenever we were in a store. Sometimes we took pictures of damage, repairs, and items were were considering purchasing but not too often. I did come to like using iPhoto to process photos that were taken with other cameras. A sketch app came in handy when drawing what various rooms looked like and how new furniture could be placed. When it was bedtime, the White Noise app helped us drift off to sleep. Finally, when the MacBook was in use or impractical, we could watch video and communicate via email or Facebook.

iPhone: We had to temporarily suspend our account with our telephone service so the iPhones were our means of telephone communications. The cameras on the phones were also very handy for taking necessary photos as well as using Facebook.

Handheld Scanner: Insurance companies love their documentation so a handheld scanner is a must. We purchased a VuPoint Solutions Magic Wand but I wished I could have shopped around a little more. The Magic Wand was inexpensive but it only scans JPEG files so information from receipts could not be transferred to a spreadsheet app. There are scanners that can transfer this information and it will save you lots of time in the long-run. However, for what it does, the Magic Wand does it very well.

Camera: Again, documentation is key when working with insurance companies so a camera is another must. While I did take majority of photos with my iPhone, several were taken using a Nikon D5100 DSLR. The photo detail is better and the zoom lenses do a better job than the iPhone. Also, become familiar with photo enhancing apps such as iPhoto. We realized a mistake when my son claimed his new car stereo was not on the inventory of lost items. Fortunately, we found a picture that included the stereo and forwarded it, along with an enlargement, to our adjuster.

Other Items: I mentioned a sketching app that we used to help pick out furniture. If you can actually get an app that helps draw rooms to scale it would be helpful. Also, learn how to create a screenshot on the iPhone or iPad by simultaneously pressing the home button at the bottom of the screen and the on/off button at the top. I noticed some crown molding was off so I used a level app to check. Sure enough it was off by about 1.8 degrees. I was wondering how to prove this to the contractor when I saw the bubble could be frozen and I took a screenshot. When I emailed the photo to the contractor, I was imagining all of the curses he would say when he saw the email. Later, when I asked him about this, he told me he actually thought it was cool and downloaded the app for himself. Finally, we used Awesome Note to create a folder so we could note down information on items such as ceiling fans and blinds so the contractor could purchase them. Awesome Note allows users to email out notes directly from the app which was another handy time saver. My Livescribe pen was useful in recording notes taken during various conversations and allowing me to keep a digital record or share the information.

I hope you never have to go through the experience my family went through this past summer. However, it pays to be prepared for things such as fires, tornados, floods, hurricanes, and other means to destroy your home. As I have learned, it pays to make sure technology is part of your preparation plans. At least, you can point to my experience whenever students ask, "When will we ever need to use this stuff?"

Computer Tech in a Common Core and iPad World

The start of the 2012-2013 school year seemed to be more hectic than ever. First, my family was finishing picking up the pieces of a house fire that happened in late May. It was not fun living in hotel rooms over the summer except for that week we spent in Florida. Bluffton Middle School got a new principal because our former principal was promoted to be the district's new Chief Instructional Support Officer. While she has not made too many changes, she is naturally curious about what our school does and Computer Technology is no exception. The state of South Carolina is making changes as it moves toward the Common Core State Standards and a new way to evaluate students, teachers, and schools so the No Child Left Behind requirements may be waived. The biggest news of all is our school's core academic teachers are receiving iPad carts for students to use this year. All of this means big changes in the focus of Computer Technology but I had been moving toward this since last year because I saw it coming. 

First, we all knew about state's shift towards Common Core which is required to get out from under No Child Left Behind. The features I like best about Common Core is how it requires students to be able to think about problems and seek solutions. This includes being able to seek information to help solve those problems. Anything that requires students to research information and then present the results of that research is always welcome to this Social Studies (yes, that's right) teacher. The other aspect of Common Core is how it encourages teachers to create cross-curricular projects. This is something I have wanted to do with Computer Technology from when it was created. So far I have had some great discussions with the academic teachers about how we can do joint projects and I am excited by their enthusiasm so far. There will be fits and starts but once the kinks are worked it out it will be a great experience for everyone involved. Another thing is that I have my students do research on effective presentations and cyber safety then present their findings. As I explain to them I could do a whole group lecture but it would not mean as much as to have them learn it then give a whole group lecture. 

Second, while our school is getting iPads, I was put on notice that the only iPad I will even get a sniff at is the one I bought recently and carry to work everyday. Students will not be allowed to bring the Apple tablets due to security and logistical concerns. The iPads will not be allowed to go home with the students. Hopefully, as the district gains experience and confidence this will change. For now it poses a problem for me. How do I teach students how to create technology projects using iPads when I only have PC's? Believe it or not this problem is actually simple: I teach students the basics of design. This means instead of teaching PowerPoint, I teach students how to design presentations that can be effective using PowerPoint, Keynote, Google Presentation or any other presentation application. The same goes with video, photos, audio, documents, etc.... I teach enough of any application for students to create that basic project. My students still want to throw everything into a project but the kitchen sink but I keep after them to keep things simple as I explain they will not have time to do this in their other classes. There is a lot of bad habits they have picked up over time and most of it done by teachers who do not know how to design presentations for an audience. As students are working on projects they are slowly getting the idea that products are for other people and not themselves which is an important step. My students will not have the iPads forever and they won't have them at home either. This means students should learn how to use the devices he or she has at home because that can be depended on throughout their days in school and beyond.

There are other minor changes that I have made that show promise and I may write about over the course of the year. It is safe to say that so far I am mostly pleased with the way things are going and I hope it stays that way. 

The start of the 2012-2013 school year seemed to be more hectic than ever. First, my family was finishing picking up the pieces of a house fire that happened in late May. It was not fun living in hotel rooms over the summer except for that week we spent in Florida. Bluffton Middle School got a new principal because our former principal was promoted to be the district's new Chief Instructional Support Officer. While she has not made too many changes, she is naturally curious about what our school does and Computer Technology is no exception. The state of South Carolina is making changes as it moves toward the Common Core State Standards and a new way to evaluate students, teachers, and schools so the No Child Left Behind requirements may be waived. The biggest news of all is our school's core academic teachers are receiving iPad carts for students to use this year. All of this means big changes in the focus of Computer Technology but I had been moving toward this since last year because I saw it coming. 
First, we all knew about state's shift towards Common Core which is required to get out from under No Child Left Behind. The features I like best about Common Core is how it requires students to be able to think about problems and seek solutions. This includes being able to seek information to help solve those problems. Anything that requires students to research information and then present the results of that research is always welcome to this Social Studies (yes, that's right) teacher. The other aspect of Common Core is how it encourages teachers to create cross-curricular projects. This is something I have wanted to do with Computer Technology from when it was created. So far I have had some great discussions with the academic teachers about how we can do joint projects and I am excited by their enthusiasm so far. There will be fits and starts but once the kinks are worked it out it will be a great experience for everyone involved. Another thing is that I have my students do research on effective presentations and cyber safety then present their findings. As I explain to them I could do a whole group lecture but it would not mean as much as to have them learn it then give a whole group lecture. 

Second, while our school is getting iPads, I was put on notice that the only iPad I will even get a sniff at is the one I bought recently and carry to work everyday. Students will not be allowed to bring the Apple tablets due to security and logistical concerns. The iPads will not be allowed to go home with the students. Hopefully, as the district gains experience and confidence this will change. For now it poses a problem for me. How do I teach students how to create technology projects using iPads when I only have PC's? Believe it or not this problem is actually simple: I teach students the basics of design. This means instead of teaching PowerPoint, I teach students how to design presentations that can be effective using PowerPoint, Keynote, Google Presentation or any other presentation application. The same goes with video, photos, audio, documents, etc.... I teach enough of any application for students to create that basic project. My students still want to throw everything into a project but the kitchen sink but I keep after them to keep things simple as I explain they will not have time to do this in their other classes. There is a lot of bad habits they have picked up over time and most of it done by teachers who do not know how to design presentations for an audience. As students are working on projects they are slowly getting the idea that products are for other people and not themselves which is an important step. My students will not have the iPads forever and they won't have them at home either. This means students should learn how to use the devices he or she has at home because that can be depended on throughout their days in school and beyond.

There are other minor changes that I have made that show promise and I may write about over the course of the year. It is safe to say that so far I am mostly pleased with the way things are going and I hope it stays that way. 

21st Century Classroom?

I just saw this infographic on Google+ from the Australian-based online course company Open Colleges, shared this infographic about what the classroom of the 21st Century should look like. I like the way students are potrayed as bringing their own mobile devices or laptops engaged in a lesson at the front. However, there are a couple of things that strike me as very 20th Century. First, look at where the teacher is located. She should be viewed as walking around the students with a connected tablet instead of being chained to her desk at the front of the room. Teachers need to break away and move around their students to observe the work being done. Next, the students are shown in their individual desks in nice, neat 20th Century type rows. There seems to be no collaboration amongst themselves with teacher guidance. Maybe they are taking notes on what is being shown on the projector at the front of the room. Yet, should these students not already have the notes or video on their devices? Finally, a student or group of students should be giving the presentation. This infographic is a start but the artist who conceived this picture should do a little more homework.

http://gettingsmart.com/blog/2012/07/infographic-components-21st-century-classroom/

From my iPhone.

What Do We Choose Now?

During my recent tr​ip to Florida I stopped to see the Kennedy Space Center for the fourth time. The first three of my tours the NASA center was engaged in our manned exploration of space with either the Apollo Moon missions or the Space Shuttle. One could the feel the excitement as tour guides discussed upcoming manned missions to space and what we could expect from them. This last trip there was a different feel about the place. It was like an old, washed-up athlete sitting around telling stories of his or he past glorious accomplishments because there was nothing else the athlete could talk about. 

During the tour, every stop was someplace that once had importance during the manned missions into space. Now that there are no more American human spaceflight​s in the foreseeable future, these buildings had a snackbar and a giftshop stuck on the ends and became tour stops. The giftshops had all kinds of memorabilia about the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle missions. In fact the Space Shuttle was called "The Pride of America." I guess calling the now seemingly ancient Apollo Moon missions the pride of America would be too much to stomach even if I thought those were more exciting than a "flying truck." The biggest thing discussed was the addition of the retired Space Shuttle Atlantis, a reusable rocket to launch satellites into space, and a new vehicle to explore Mars. These are all good things but it does not bring to me the excitement that sending humans back to the Moon or to Mars would bring.

​When I was growing up, the astronauts were real-life heros to me. I would follow each mission on television with great interest. Other people followed the manned space missions because we were in a competition with the Soviet Union to see who could get to the Moon first. Later, I would tell my history students that our race to the Moon proved to ourselves and the rest of the world that again Americans could accomplish anything it sets its collective mind to. One day we woke up and decided to go to the Moon and actually did it in about eight years. It was this same determination to do something that scared the Soviet Union into spending itself out of existence when President Ronald Reagan proposed a missel defense system to do the unthinkable, make a nuclear war winnable. Could such a system be built? Who knows but based on past history the Soviets could not take that chance and started spending money on defense and neglecting the needs of its people to the point it could not sustain itself and collapsed. We need a national goal such as going to Mars to inspire today's students to take up challenges that have always defined America in the past. 

Solving a Mystery

On a recent trip to Orlando, Florida my wife and I decided to try out Sleuths Mystery Dinner Show. At Sleuths the guests try to figure out a mystery that was portrayed by a group of actors while dinning. The actors setup the mystery with a skit that introduces the characters and any relationships they have with a crime at the end of the skit (we had a murder). While we dined, the actors encouraged guests at each table to discuss the mystery and come up with a question to ask the suspects. After dinner, each group had a spokesperson ask the question the group came up with. While we ate desert we were supposed to write down who did the dastardly deed and the motive for the crime. Once the desert dishes were cleared, the actors revealed the murderer and asked who in the audience solved the crime. Those who fingered the criminal and the motive for the crime received a small prize.

As the night went on I thought this is how a flipped class should operate. The skit that setup the problem could be done with a video. The actors wanted the guests, randomly grouped by table, to engage in collaborative discussion about who may have committed the crime to come up with at least two questions (in case yours was asked by another group) to ask the suspects. Finally, a formative assessment was given when the actors wanted the guests to write down who did the crime and, more importantly, why he or she did it. In other words it was a critical thinking exercise to come up with a possible solution based on using available information and group discussion. To top it off we paid $55.95 plus tax (take off $6.00 with coupon) per person for the experience. 

It was great fun that my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed. If you or someone you know wants to know how a flipped class with critical thinking exercises looks like and are headed to Orlando, Florida then I urge you to spend an evening at Sleuths Mystery Dinner Shows. Not going to Orlando? The actors did tell us they take their act on the road too.

Why Do We Do It?

 

Last week was the Beaufort County School District's Summer Institute. This our school district way to bring the conference experience to teachers every year and save money as teachers get some great professional development. The theme for this year's institute revolves around the 4 C's of 21st century learning. This concept comes from the Partnership of 21st Century Skills, a national group whose goal is to prepare our students for the 21st Century world by fusing the "3 R's" with the "4 C's." The 4 C's identified are:

-Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
-Communication
-Collaboration
-Creativity and Innovation

It should be clear these elements will make students stand out from tasks that can be routinely done by machines. Add Common Core standards (another two C's) and we will have students that can tackle any future problem they will encounter. Since we have no clue what will be required in the future as far as careers are concerned it is safe to say there will be many problems. All of the sessions at the Summer Institute touched on all of these themes including my session on the Flipped Classroom.

While I did the Flipped Classroom in Greenville earlier this summer, I was given more time in Beaufort to actually work with teachers and let them experiment. After defining what the Flipped Classroom was and its possible benefits followed by a question and answer session, participants grouped by subject area created lessons and video them using the Paper Slide method I learned in Greenville. Later, each participant went on to create their own flipped lesson. I was struck by the fact that almost all of them worked together to share information and techniques even though it was an individual activity. The 4 C's in action and everyone learned something.

One of the great things I really like about conferences is the chance to see friends I have made at such conferences over the years and the conversations we have. Probably because we know we don't have much time we get down to business discussing educational issues. One such discussion was about the Flipped Classroom that I advocate. One friend said he could not grasp the flipped concept and pressed me hard on its merits because he felt it would eventually take away jobs from teachers. My friend later apologized for, in his perspective, upsetting me. There was no apology needed because my looks were actually me thinking about his questions and trying to formulate intelligent answers. If if my friend annoyed or upset me I should not take it personally. It is these type of questions that educators should always be asking each other because if we cannot adequately defend our classroom techniques then why are we doing them and even worse trying to get others to do them too. Too often we fail to ask the hard questions to each other out of fear of upsetting other friends and colleagues. If we wish to raise our standards and incorporate the 4C's in teaching students then we should be willing to use them amongst ourselves. If not then why are we doing it?