Finding Common Ground

Talking Education (& Technology)

Trade offs

January24

Around the holidays, I talked with my mom about holiday cards. She was talking about the time it takes her to sign and address the cards she would be sending. A few years ago, I switched to making cards with photographs from online sites, as it seemed everyone else was doing it – so it must be a good idea! Made at mixbook.com

I talked about the labels I print to stick on the envelopes and my mom said she was not going to use labels and I, being defensive as I am, thought maybe I was being too impersonal with cards and not spending enough time on them. But then I thought about the time I invested in choosing ‘just the right’ photos for the card and the formatting time so it would be ‘just so’.

This got me to thinking about the trade-offs we all make for the different tasks we do. These are a personal choice and, in the end, it is best to appreciate everyone for their own way of doing things.  I enjoyed the labeled photo cards and the handwritten cards and made sure I took the time to think about the investment each person had made with the method they chose for their holiday cards.

I am keeping a list of trade offs that we make and assessing each one for its value. Are you making trade offs? Are they worth it?

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Terminology

January24

Today at school, I heard a teacher say something like, “You won’t get that one wrong, right?” to a group of students.

This got me thinking about the messages we send with the words we use. Would it be more meaningful to ask something along the lines of, “How will you recall this information?”

After teaching a graduate class about human learning, I have really been thinking about how the main job of a teacher is not just to transmit knowledge, but to help students make connections between bits of information and then how to get that information organized.

Storage and organization of information in our memory will lead to better recall and application. The next time I ask students to remember something, I will work hard to help them figure out HOW they will remember it and recall it later. What connections did they make? How does the information make sense to them?

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Elem Sites (weekly)

January22

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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QR Codes: Activate!

December14
Today I helped oversee an activity involving QR Codes. The high school social studies teacher organized a scavenger hunt around the building. Students were organized into groups, given a prompt paper, and set off to scan codes and respond to prompts about the Civil Rights era.
I was impressed with the participation and cooperation between the students as they roamed the halls using clues to locate the codes around the building. One student in each group used their own technology device and a QR code scanner to unlock the website and respond to the prompt from the teacher. The first group back to class with complete and accurate responses was declared the “winner”.
I stayed for the rest of class and could see how the activating work built background knowledge so the students were better equipped to participate in class discussion.
They were actually all winners!
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edcamp Empowerment

October24

The edcamp Harrisburg organizer team discussed a possible theme for the November 12th event. We tossed around a few ideas, but in the end settled on empowerment.

 

  • What does empowerment mean to you?
  • Are you seeking empowerment on a daily basis?
  • Do you help others feel empowered?

A definition of empowerment from Wikipedia reads:

Empowerment refers to increasing the spiritual, political, social, or economic strength of individuals and communities. It often involves the empowered developing confidence in their own capacities.

The edcamp events embody this notion of empowerment in that the organizers are volunteers working to put on a great event to empower others. The participants are educators and other folks that come together to share and gain knowledge, thereby empowering others as well as themselves. Educators must feel empowered to do the very best job they can do ~ we owe it to ourselves and to our students.

Come to edcamp Harrisburg for inspiration and empowerment!

 


Microsoft Image

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Elem Sites (weekly)

October23

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Write at the Purple Teapot!

October3

A friend of mine has a blog for elementary students to share their comments and practice good writing skills. She posts a new post every Monday and asks that students respond in the comments using only their first name. If they wish, they may add the name or initials of their school.

What a fun, easy way to get students communicating with a wider audience. The prompt for this week is about World Teacher Day and asks students to share about how a teacher has helped them and/or is important to them.

See what is brewing at the Purple Teapot!

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iPods in Grade 1

September20

I really love getting emails from teachers like this one:

My ladibug document camera is here.  I was so excited…I put the iPod under and demonstrated how to record stories!!!   And we practiced successfully today!!!  Tomorrow the students pick their own book to record.  Attached I have shared two photos!!!!
Sadly, then, I must send the pods back to their owner……It was so fun!  I so am continuing to WISH for my own set !!!!
Thanks for listening!!! W-
I hope we can obtain some devices for her to continue this type of reading fluency activity. In the meantime, I showed her how to use Audacity on our district netbooks so students can keep it up!
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Internet archive shows Sept. 11 coverage

September6

The Internet Archive, a California-based organization that collects audio, moving images and Web pages for historical purposes, has put together a television news archive of that day’s coverage.

More than 20 channels were recorded with more than 3,000 hours of television. Besides major U.S. networks like ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC, the Internet Archive has posted online TV recordings from Moscow, Paris, London, Baghdad, Tokyo, Ottawa and elsewhere.

The site is available at http://www.archive.org/details/911/day. Read more from AP News: http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_15996/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=dJOyfBQq


Image Citation: http://www.flickr.com/photos/spam/4418972629/sizes/s/in/photostream/

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Elem Sites (weekly)

September4

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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