I have spent the day attending the K12 Online Conference. I am finding a little bit for everyone. I am most taken with the Basic/Advance training category. There are great presentations on how to use and integrate web tools in the classroom. These presentations include movies and resources. I wish these resources were available to me when I began my navigation of the read/write web, I must say I have learned a great deal today and hope to share this…
“Here’s a quick way to tell if you are machine or human focused (as an AV director in Iowa once suggested to me): If someone comes up to you saying his computer doesn’t work, is your first thought: There is a problem in the chair. or There is problem on the desk. If you assumption that the problem is SUD, you better grab one of Norman’s books.” (SUD-Stupid User Dysfunction) Doug Johnson’s Blue Skunk Blog – Blue Skunk Blog –…
I am currently taking a course on using Moodle, developing a professional development course to run on Moodle and helping a variety of teachers create their own Moodle courses. I am excited about the possibilities of extending the classroom experience with Moodle, as well as, developing a 100% online class. As I build my course I find myself thinking about the curriculum and its presentation very differently then when I taught face-2-face. In all educational experiences, learning takes place as…
In my last entry I commented that what they [students] needed were options. As teachers we need lots of options as well. We can not create all the options. We need to collaborate, share and communicate. We need to do this together. We need to be members of the learning community. We can not work in isolation. We need to model how knowledge is created, a sharing and building of ideas in community. Whether we talk face-to-face or through the…
It is getting to that time of year again when it feels like school is coming to an end. I know there are still three months to go, but with MCAS testing, and schools looking at staffing needs for next year, well the end is in sight. This is the time of year I start looking over my successes and failures. What units went well, what topics seemed to drag on? Was there a unit I dreaded teaching and one…
I met with an English teacher, earlier today, who is a bit of a hero of mine. We used to team teach, she knows so much about kids. I admire her for a host of reasons. She is passionate about what she does. She wants her kids to succeed and will work within the system or around the system if necessary to get it done. But most importantly to me is she sees the possibilities. She sees the possibilities in…
I once had a principal who would begin his weekly meetings with individual teachers with “How are things going? What do you need, how can I help?” His focus, as well as, that of the school(Seoul Foreign School, Seoul, Korea) was helping teachers, teach. Education/learning is about what happens within a student. The person in a school system who has the greatest influence on a child’s learning is the classroom teacher. All of a school district’s attention should be focused…