Learning in Progress

Students started back to school on Wednesday, and this year it has been a crazy ride.   Over the summer, our very unique library was renovated.   An extremely hard working summer crew and custodial staff fixed walls, painted, installed new windows, black out shades and carpet.   Two days before school Two days before school started new shelving and tables were delivered.   That meant, the day before school started was spent trying to get books unpacked from boxes and shelved in the right space.   Yup, the day before school We didn’t finish. I guess many people would be in a total panic about this, but for me it’s easier to focus on what is essential: making sure the kids could come in and sit down safely and making sure that I could convey to them the information I needed to explain.    I wasn’t involved in the planning of the space because I wasn’t hired until after, but this is what I’ve learned from the experience so far: · ...

A few weeks ago I decided to venture into the world of avatar creation.   I think that using avatars may create interest in presentations and on my website, and with some thought and planning, I think they could be used to spark storytelling creativity in students and provide me with ways to help teach cybersafety. The only real experience I had with avatars was creating a Wii Mii on the Wii and Madmen Yourself (which probably isn’t appropriate for elementary kids).   In surfing around for information about creating avatars, I knew that I wanted them to be kid friendly and free! In the beginning, I didn’t have much time to browse for avatar creators.   I did find a fairly helpful eHow article, which warned to be wary of unfamiliar programs that required you to download things (viruses!).   For my first attempt, I did play around with Otaku Avatar Maker .   This site is pretty cool, and although I’m not an expert, it seems to me that the avatars you can m...

Clip art from Microsoft Sometimes I’m ashamed of how poorly I pay attention to big events – especially the cool scientific ones. This morning was such a day.   “How in the world did I miss the fact that a new land rover, landed on Mars?” I asked myself.   I had to learn about it from my 15 year old cousin’s Facebook status!   I guess in my defense, I could claim ignorance as a result of the Olympics – which, by the way, have taken over my life these past few weeks. When I got the chance, I looked up this new land rover - Curiosity.   And I have to say, I felt immediate geek crush, so much so, that I’m not following it on Facebook , and I kind of want a miniature replica for my desk (I looked it up, Hot Wheels is going to be making one).   But, I think what I really dig about it, is it reminds me of Number 5 – who growing up in the 80’s didn’t get a kick out of Short Circuit? What is awesome about Curiosity is the Mars Science Laboratory that NAS...

This summer I took an education and law class, and in it I wrote a paper about an educator’s rights and responsibilities when it comes to social media.   In an age where, for many educators social media is a major source of fear, and where a social media blunder or a lapse of judgment can ruin a career, I thought it might be a good idea to share some of what I learned from my research.  Above all, it just reaffirmed to me that when online, the "Mema Rule" is the best policy. Laws, Rulings and Standards that Apply Many teachers would argue that when it comes to expressing opinions in a social media forum, that they are protected, like everyone else, by the First Amendment.   While we do have a right to free speech, we need to take into consideration the Supreme Court’s findings in the Pickering case. In short, this case explored a teacher’s right to publish editorial remarks in the newspaper in regards to school policy.   The Supreme Court found that a t...

I love PowerPoint.   As a high school English teacher, I used it daily and challenged my students to create incredible Illuminated Texts –engaging higher order thinking - using advanced features.   With the Illuminated Text, the combination of the movement, images, audio and timing helped to create fluid and powerful messages.   As an elementary librarian, I got the chance to work with a group of struggling readers to create simplified Illuminated Texts that included one quote, an image and an explanation for why the quote was so important to the text.   They only “illuminated” the quote slide with different effects and features- but the results were incredible.   The elementary aged students really picked up the advanced PowerPoint skills I showed them quickly, but the process is still very time consuming and a student can get easily frustrated and bogged down in applying effects and especially in establishing the timing of it all. In making a move to t...