Pre-Practicum Musings: Parts 3 and 4

Lots of snow days and February vacation prevented me from updating my last pre-practicum visit, so in the spirit of being concise, figured I'd give a two-for-one with today's blog post. 

Between the two visits, I had a good mix of library admin and classroom observation, so I'll organize my report along those same lines.

Library Admin

I had a few tasks related to processing donations, as well as making decisions on books to weed. From the donation standpoint, I will never just blindly drop off a box of books at a school library! It is actually a lot of work to process just one new book, let alone a whole box full. And, I hate to say it, but often times the books that are donated, while well-intentioned, are donated without thought to what a school or its population actually needs. I just did the initial processing - adding the barcode and entering it into the online catalog - I've already been promised that the next time I come, I'll get to complete the process, which includes adding the spine label and covering it for extra protection. Like I said earlier, not the most glamorous of jobs, but part of the job nonetheless!

I also had a chance to help weed through some books. Some of them are no-brainers - you know, solar system books that still list Pluto as a planet, or ancient fiction titles that have pages falling out of them - but some of them are harder to make the decision on. As a book lover, it's hard to take the hard line and say "this book is no good" but given the time it takes to get a new book in the shelves (see above), it's definitely something that needs to be done.

Classroom Observation

One of the challenges of being a 21st century LMS is not only keeping on top of all the new tools that come out, but figuring out which ones will be of greatest use to your students and teachers, and then effectively training them on how to use said tools. One of the new tools that is being introduced to students this year is NoodleTools, an online academic research platform. With successful integration of a tool like this, students have a handy place to access all their research (hello, no more note cards!), and teachers have a way to regularly check in to assess their progress and offer help or suggestions along the way. Plus, it's just pretty cool.

The LMS I am working with only purchased a trial subscription so she could test it with a few classes before committing the big bucks, but from my observation, it's working pretty well. There were a few hiccups with the first class that tried it, but the LMS and the content area teacher were able to tweak their approach the next time they introduced it to a new class. Today, I was able to witness the same assignment being conducted in both the "old school" (read: notecards) and "new school" (read: NoodleTools) methods. While both classes seemed to be similarly focused and productive in the research process, I give a slight edge to the NoodleTools method, primarily for the ease with which teachers can provide feedback and the less paper students need to keep track of. Having the ability to check in on individual students prior to them coming to class certainly helps class time be more productive.

Weeks 3 and 4 hours: 4.5

Total hours: 9.5

10 Things Every Teacher Should Know About Technology

As previewed in my last post...

1. It’s never too late to start!
2. You don’t need to know everything…ask for help from others (students and teachers at your school, virtually, over social networks) that you know have successfully used a new technology
3. You don’t need to do everything all at once – make a goal to try one new thing each month (or semester, or year), while tweaking/optimizing the things you are already doing
4. Don’t introduce an app or technology just for the sake of doing something “technological”– (Alternative wording found from the original blog post we read: "Use technology only when it makes rich, real and relevant curriculum richer, more real and more relevant”)
5. Share what you do with other teachers – it’s the best way to get new ideas and get input to make your lessons even better. Corollary: Find a champion, that teacher who is most open to collaboration, and work together to create a knock-out finished product. Then, promote the heck out that success to encourage other teachers to utilize the library as a resource
6. Think about what your end goal is and then find the technology solution that will accomplish your goal (vs. asking yourself “How do I use this technology?”)
7. Have a backup plan (or two)
8. Think outside the teacher box – use the experiences of friends/family in other professions to uncover technologies you might not have otherwise thought of
9. Be organized! Create a system that will work for you to stay on top of new trends, tools, technologies, and best practices
10. Have fun!

What's Old Is New...

This is my last "assigned" blog post for this course...crazy how fast time flies! Overall, it's been a really great experience having this blog to organize my thoughts about what I've learned over the course of the semester, and one that I hope to continue as I make my way through the program.

Our very first assignment back in January was to provide our own list of the "10 Things Every Teacher Need to Know About Technology." For this final blog post, we've been asked to revisit our list and add/edit/update as we see fit, based on what we've learned in this course. As I look back at my list, there's not a huge change for my v2.0, mostly just a few tweaks here and there and some reordering.

I did take exchange one tip completely, replacing "Understand how to differentiate for all skill levels..." with "Be organized..." Not that I don't think differentiating is unimportant, but I think, for today's students especially, technology is a more level playing field than other subject areas, and so much of student learning comes from simply working with and experimenting with a new tool (much as we did in this class). So while I think having an understanding of how to introduce a new tool, provide tutorials, etc. for different types of learners, I don't think it cracks my top 10. On the contrary, without having some sort of mechanism for organizing your online "world," you will never have a chance of taking advantage of all the resources out there, or remembering, weeks or months down the road, something that you wanted to use in a certain setting. Using tools like Twitter and RSS to connect/learn from other LBS professionals and Diigo or Delicious to organize the useful links you do find are paramount to staying on top of the ever-changing world of technology in education.

In the spirit of not making this blog post too long, I'll give my v2.0 it's very own post, but here's my original version with the tracked changes. 

Week 10 - Internet Safety

This week we are looking at the issue of internet safety and how to best teach kids to be responsible digital citizens. Our assignment is to create a presentation for any audience we choose related to internet security. In doing some of my initial research, one thing that struck me was how early we need to be having these conversations (a 2013 study by Common Sense Media showed that 72% of children under age 8 have used a mobile device to view some type of media, compared to 38% only 2 years earlier. Crazy!).

With my own 5 year old starting kindergarten in the fall, I wanted to explore this further with my assignment and put together a presentation that could be used at her preschool. She is definitely part of the 72%, as she has access to the family iPad and occasionally our phones, but so far she hasn't figured how to buy apps, or necessarily what the internet is (though she does know that the PBS Kids app needs internet access in order to work). But it's only a matter of time, and I now realize I need to be proactively thinking of how to start this education with her.

In no particular order, I have included some of the best sources I found while doing research for my presentation:

More Flipping of the Classroom

Our goal this week was to create a Professional Development (PD) opportunity that would be relevant to teachers in our chosen age range. I was so interested in flipping the classroom following my work last week that I thought I would try to create a module that would introduce this idea to teachers, and provide them an opportunity to get started with a flipped lesson of their own.

I found a lot of great videos explaining the theory behind the flipped classroom as well the benefits, but this twosome really stood out to me. Enjoy this TEDx talk from Lodge McCammon, PhD and Katie Gimbar, a middle school math teacher who has wholly embraced the flipped classroom model. Very interesting and inspiring!

Week 8: Technology Integrated Unit

This assignment was pretty comprehensive. We were asked to create a unit in the subject of our choice, for the grade level of our choice incorporating 10 of the applications, tools, or formats we have learned about thus far.

One thing I have learned (sometimes the hard way, as evidenced by the trouble I had finding podcasts that related to women's suffrage!) is to do a little pre-research to make sure that the subject area I choose will have enough "meat" for the given assignment. This time around I chose to create a poetry unit, which for the most part wasn't too difficult to think of ways to incorporate various online tools and application. 

The cornerstone of my unit was a tool called Blendspace, which was introduced to me by the library media specialist that I volunteer for once a week. She had helped a history teacher put together a flipped classroom model using this tool, so I thought I would give it a whirl myself. The concept of a flipped classroom is still pretty new to me, so it may not be a perfect representation of the idea, but I had some fun playing around with it. From a student perspective, I think it's a great way to aggregate resources and assignments, and also to have them engage in specific work outside the classroom, so that they are better prepared for the next day's class. 

Without further ado, the Blendspace for my Poetry Unit assignment:

Week 6: Online Digital Media (part 2)

Had some technical difficulties with my formatting of the 2nd part of my last blog post, so why not start a new post? It is my blog and all.

The second part of this week's assignment was to create my own digital media. I think it goes without saying that I didn't choose a podcast! I used the same tool, Animoto, that I experimented with last week, but this time did a 30-second book review of one of the recent books I've read. This was a really fun way to think about being concise, yet still capturing the essence of the book. I think this could definitely be an application for this tool that could be used across many grade levels.

Week 6: Online Digital Media (part 1)

This week's assignment centered on online digital media - a combination incorporating audio and video in the classroom and also creating your own digital media. 

I really struggled with this assignment! We were to choose a standard from the MA frameworks and find 5 videos and 3 podcasts that could support this in the classroom. Maybe I just chose a bad topic (women's suffrage and the passing of the 19th Amendment), but it was very hard for me to find sources that I would actually recommend.

I was able to find good, relevant, interesting videos much more easily than any audio sources. After conducting search after search, I have concluded that part of my struggle is that I just don't really like podcasts. I am way too easily distracted and way too much of a visual learner to really dig in and enjoy getting material this way (makes sense that I also am not an NPR listener!). 

My two favorite videos (very different!):

• Woman’s Suffrage Crash Course #31 - A really nice series of 10 minute or so courses on topics in history, the sciences and literature. I will definitely keep the "Crash Course" series in mind the next time I need a refresher on something I should have learned in school
• Bad Romance: Woman's Suffrage - A cool parody of Lady Gaga's Bad Romance video. I like the way it successfully juxtaposes modern pop culture with an issue that was so pivotal at the time and which matters to all women today (Fun bonus video: Behind the Scenes)

Week 5: Web 2.0 Tools in the Classroom

Well, this week was a welcome change in that I was actually familiar with 4 of the 13 tools we were tasked with working with this week. I was starting to fear I was just too old (gasp!) to try to jump into a new career.

Our list of tools to explore included: Flickr, Big Huge Labs, Dumpr, Glogster, Google Drive, Zamzar, Survey Monkey, Doodle, StumbleUpon, BubblUs, Voki, Jing and Animoto.

Of this list, I had prior experience with Flickr, Doodle, Survey Monkey, and Google Drive (all in either my personal life, or my prior corporate life, but all in which I can see applications in education as well). I hadn't used Flickr personally, only on behalf of one of my clients, so it was fun to set up my Photostream and map my pictures (I intentionally only chose travel photos so my map would look more exotic!). It also made me very envious of some of our pre-kid travel!

A few other results of my exploration:

Animoto- Birthday wishes for my mom
BubblUs - Brainstorm on what the heck I'm going to do when I grow up
Voki - See my previous post...

In short, I could see applications in education to nearly all of these. I must confess that it was a stretch for Dumpr (plus the name is awfully unfortunate) - while I had some fun on this site, it was harder to think of a clear educational use.

I think the other thing to keep in mind - as with any web 2.0 tool - is to guard against style over substance. There's no use in a flashy tool if the content stinks. Two of these applications in particular - BubblUs and Glogster - reminded me of things I did back in the dark ages, just with a healthy dose of fun and cool sprinkled in, which is how it should be (in my humble opinion of course).

Fun with Voki

I'm working on the "exploration" part of this week's assignment, which is basically playing around with a bunch of web apps that I've never even heard of. It was a long day with the 5 year old who is on school vacation, and I think I am having a little too much fun with this one. For your viewing pleasure...

Revisiting Wikis

After copping to being a little OCD in my Diigo post, it pains me to break my linear flow to go back in time and revisit Week 3 but it must be done.

Our assignment last week was to explore a few wiki sites, and then create our own. I spent a good several days trying to figure out what the heck I was going to start a wiki about. Our professor gave us leeway that it didn't have to be education-related, which helped, but I was still floundering a bit.

I took a first pass using Wikispaces to create a travel wiki for Outer Cape Cod but really struggled with inserting pictures appropriately, and then got frustrated with the topic altogether.

I abandoned that one and decided to try PB Works next. To my surprise, I already had an account set up - I had completely forgotten that the final project for the LBS class I took in the fall of 2010 was to set up a wiki that could be used in a school library. It was helpful to look back on what I had done, but for this assignment, I wanted to start fresh and do something totally different, so I created a wiki for my book club who does things the exact opposite way as is recommended in this excellent Common Craft video on wikis.

Week 4: Online Organizational Tools (part 2)

The 2nd part of this week's assignment was to experiment with social bookmarking and social reading sites.

Social Bookmarking

For someone who once worked in marketing (for a company with a strong online presence, no less!), I am kind of embarrassed that social bookmarking was a pretty new concept for me. It definitely makes sense, especially the idea of having your bookmarks "follow" you to whatever device you happen to be using vs. being stuck on one machine. So I jumped in to add a few of my favorite sites and see which of the 2 sites we were advised to start with - Delicious and Diigo - might better serve my needs.

Week 4: Online Organizational Tools (part 1)

No, you're not counting wrong. I haven't blogged about Week 3 (wikis) just yet but it's coming.

But for now, onward and upward, to week 4. Our focus this week is on various online organizational tools, including RSS feeders, social bookmarking and book organization sites.

Part 1 of my assignment for this week is to evaluate an RSS reader and share my findings with the rest of the class. I chose Feedly and loosely used this rubric to help focus my evaluation.

I am not new to Feedly, but I had only previously used it on my iPhone and have not been too impressed. I always seem to be overwhelmed when I access the app, and many of the features don't seem clear in that setting.

It was a completely different experience using the desktop version. Using the core categories from the rubric, and ranking them on a scale of 1 to 5, my recommendation after setting up my RSS feed on Feedly follows after the jump: 

Drinking and Tweeting

Just kidding, but had to give a nod to one of my guilty pleasures (RHOBH, anyone?)

In addition to exploring blogs in the classroom, I started to dabble a bit with Twitter this week. I worked in Marketing in my past life, so I'm familiar with it, and would send out tweets on behalf of one of my clients but I've never felt the need to use it for my personal use (a. no one needs more than daily updates on my comings and goings, and Facebook fills that need, and b. I don't need any additional time wasters that would inevitably come from following any celebrities!).

But, in the name of scholarship, I decided to follow a few notable Teacher Librarians, to get a feel for how it could benefit someone professionally. The most useful hashtag I've found so far is #tlchat as it provides perspective from a much wider pool than me trying to figure out who are the most useful people to follow and managing my stream that way.

In doing so, I found this.

And this.

And this.

Suffice it to say, I'm convinced. In just 5 minutes, I found 3 thought-provoking, useful pieces of information that I otherwise would not have found in my daily web use.

Now, I'm still not sending my own tweets but soon. And I'll tell you all about it. 

Week 2: Blogging in the Classroom

Our key focus this week is blogging, and how teachers can use classroom blogs to enhance collaboration, communication, and transparency among students, parents, and really anyone who has an interest in what is going on in the classroom.

One of the most interesting places I visited as part of this week's exploration was the 2013 Edublog Award winners. I particularly liked the winner for the Best Library/Librarian blog, as it's such a great example of the value that a Media Specialist can bring to teachers among all subject areas and grade levels.

We were also asked to experiment with Twitter and how it could be used in a school setting and I came across a classroom blog of a 1st grade teacher in Canada.  In addition to having a very inviting, engaging blog, I thought it was interesting how her students interact with other classrooms across the world using Twitter and Skype (just in January, they've worked with other 1st graders in England and Italy). While they could certainly learn the same concepts without collaborating with the other classes, I think it's so cool that, at age 6, they are "meeting" people from different countries/cultures. It also makes future lessons much more meaningful - for example, if they are learning about Italy in a social studies context, they now have a personal connection that can only make them more interested and invested in the lesson.