Fusion

Fakebook Profiles

2011-11-02T10:50:00.001-04:00

In the past, I have used a simple PowerPoint template to make a quasi-Facebook profile for a project with the Explorer Unit in my World History class. Its a decent project, but doesn't really require a lot from the students. This year, one of my students found a website that creates a Facebook Profile. The tool, called Fakebook, is part of the ClassTools.Net suite of online tools that are available for teachers. The website is ad supported, but does offer premium subscriptions (a bit pricey unless you truly think you'll use everything on-line... I cannot because we don't have that much computer access available). An additional drawback is that most of the tools on ClassTools are Flash, and so will not work on most mobile devices (even those that say they support flash often don't support much more than games or movies!). This year, not only did we complete profiles for Explorers, but my social skills class also created profiles for "paper bag people". Our paper bag people came from Trader Joe's grocery store bags, because the drawings on the bag are very unique and creative. The students can be very creative with these, and for my students with autism using a fake person was easier than having to research a historical character.Here are a few of the social skills projects, just click on "View Full Screen" to get the full page. We're having a bit of a motivational problem in getting things done in the World History class.

View Fullscreen | Create your own

3D Game Lab: IRL Quest-Let's Make A Meal

2011-08-21T20:27:00.000-04:00

I made a turkey breast in my slow cooker for the Cooking 1 & 2 Quests. I then added risotto, frozen chopped broccoli, cream of corn soup and some Parmesan cheese to turn it into turkey, broccoli and rice "casserole". Right now I'm only allowed to eat pureed or liquid foods because of some health issues, so I'm afraid the picture isn't very appetizing...

This was quite good, one of the better meals I've made since I started the puree/liquid diet at the advice of the dietician I see. I wouldn't make this if you don't like Parmesan cheese or turkey. I love broccoli, but was disappointed that was it was all chopped together, I couldn't taste or crunch it. Oh well.

3D Game Lab: IRL Quest-Cooking 2

2011-08-21T19:55:00.001-04:00

I had already been to the store for the necessary ingredients and started cooking before I came back to this quest... so I took the picture in the kitchen.

If you look closely, you may see the tip of a tail, which is the kitten being on the counters where he is NOT supposed to be.

The meal would be savvy saver: Although the ingredients were expensive since I buy mostly organic and unprocessed items, the turkey breast will make at least 4 meals. Tonight is turkey & rice. Tomorrow is cream of turkey corn rice soup with broccoli. Tuesday is turkey salad for lunch or leftover soup, with turkey salad for dinner.

And easy clean up, too!

3D Game Lab: IRL Quest-Cooking 1

2011-08-21T19:18:00.000-04:00

Slow Cooker Thanksgiving Turkey

I chose this recipe because I had a turkey breast in the freezer that needed to be prepared. Unfortunately, I have to be very careful what I eat, so finding a plain way to prepare the turkey so it was useable in multiple meals throughout the week was necessary. I think I would have preferred something a bit more interesting, but that's not possible right now...
I also chose it because, originally, I was supposed to be working with another teacher on a project. I just never made it over to her house because of technology issues and lots of storms.

Tools And Gadgets
Crockpot with lid

Ingredient List
1 (5 1/2 pound) bone-in turkey breast, skin removed
1/2 teaspoon garlic pepper
1 (10.5 ounce) can turkey gravy
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon dried sage

3D Game Lab: Mechanics of Game Based Learning

2011-08-21T16:18:00.000-04:00

How might a teacher apply even ONE characteristic of games and game environments (choice, progress bars, etc.) to a typical unit or module of instruction?

As I've gone forward with this, albeit with much frustration on my part, I have thought about how to gamify my classroom in a better fashion. I already do some choice in the classroom, but I think I am going to add more options via a project selection board. I will give the students options on how they can show me what they have learned, including the option to take a test.

I will do this at the start of each unit using a choice board model, and I think I can streamline a lot of the activities including taking a test using various online options. We'll see how this works: it might allow me to do what I love about teaching, which is encouraging the students to be engaged and exploratory while minimizing the amount of time students spend stuffed into chairs and taking notes while I lecture. I hate that version of the classroom even more than I hate all the paperwork that goes along with teaching.

(The above picture is a sample choice board for a math unit from http://daretodifferentiate.wikispaces.com)

4G iTouches

2011-03-13T18:28:00.000-04:00

In December, we received 2 4G iTouches from another Donor's Choose grant. I'm so grateful for the people that continue to provide funding to allow my students access to technology! This time, most of the donors were local people or non-profits, which is a huge leap forward in my mind; as much as I love my friends who donate money to my classroom, seeing that there are community foundations donating to us is just fantastic. Our thanks to the Piedmont Community Foundation, and the other donors (most of whom choose to remain anonymous, which fine!) for the new technology we have to use.
We had also achieved open-access filtered wifi in our classroom provided by the school district for awhile... About 6 weeks. And then the district shut it down because people were using it to stream video which caused the system to crash. The administrative offices decided to limit access to the open filtered wifi system to outside of school hours. Of course, I don't know all of the decision making that went into the decision making, but it seems that if the issue were students & teachers streaming video, you could block it. You could have principals tell staff that this is not an appropriate use of the system.
It just seems counterproductive given budget issues not allowing for purchases of technology, and district policies that do not allow grant-purchased items (items that belong to the school only, and not to the district) to be on the network which prevents Internet access. In this day and age, with so many things depending on the cloud (some of which are FREE), it'd be nice to be able to use these tools with my students. Despite the income level, most of my students have a cell phone that can use apps, and are either Droid or iOS (more iTouches than iPhones), which have options to make reading & writing easier for my students.

Spring into Summer

2010-07-17T16:32:00.000-04:00

I have just realized that there haven't been any posts since our February blizzard! And there was definitely technology going on to share... We blogged about different independent living topics, although many of my students treated it like torture. They didn't like blogging any better than they like writing with a pen, and several students chose not to do it at all.
We used The Sims 2 to "practice" independent living skills we were learning about... although we had some interesting issues with the Sim characters. The overriding desire for the Sims to be social led to some unique situations, and I think setting up each computer to host 4-5 Sims may have overtaxed the random event generator. We had lots of fighting going on between the Sims, and in one case, a team burned their house down.
A separate issue was convincing those watching this that the students were not just playing a video game, but instead actually learning... I'd like to do more things like this, but we continue to be hampered by a lack of available Internet connections on the grant-funded laptops.
I haven't been able to get any additional technology via a grant, though I tried to get some iTouches with hopes of using them as mini-word processors and book readers for the students. I'll have to look at that again later, perhaps. A lot of grants for individual teachers are being vetted on Facebook now, and your friends have to "vote" for your grant... And this only works if you have parents with Internet connections, Facebook, etc.

Snow, Snow, Go Away!

2010-02-21T18:45:00.002-05:00

There isn't very much to report on the technology in the classroom front because, well, we haven't BEEN in the classroom! We had 3 feet of snow fall between February 5 & February 10. All of the snow put us out of the classroom from February 5 through February 15, with an additional snow day on February 3. We were back last week, but we had an hour delay each day due to the conditions of the roads and sidewalks.

I reorganized groups in all of the classes to accommodate new students added to the rosters. We have restarted having the students work on their amusement parks, but this time I am requiring them to follow just my rubric, and to work in the Sandbox mode of the software. This gives them unlimited money while eliminating most of the complaints from the peeps.

Another apparent issue is not remembering how to make the various roller coasters, and getting frustrated when the rules of physics kick in during the game (yes, Rollercoaster Tycoon follows the rules of physics for their rides!). I'm trying to fix this by making short tutorial videos on the different coasters which the students can then watch as often as necessary. I'm using CamStudio, which is an open source screen recording package. It is the same as Camtasia, but free.

We are all hoping that there will not be any more snow for the rest of this school year.

Disappointment

2010-02-01T20:42:00.002-05:00

I have to say that I'm very disappointed in the quality of projects that my students turned in for the last quarter. With the exception of a few, there was very little effort or thought put into the final versions of the games. One group actually attempted to turn in a hand-drawn board that was done in pencil 10 minutes before the final version was due. Another group traced their board, but didn't bother to use a ruler. In all, I only received 5 games total, and none of them included the required typed directions.
I'm not sure what went wrong... I've tried dissecting the problem, and have decided that at least there was some confusion since they were doing both an amusement park in the RCT3 software, and a game board of their own design based on an amusement park they chose. Clearly, the RCT3 activity was more popular than the game board. I was also out of the classroom more than is typical for me between jury duty, some family issues, and LOTS of meetings. But, the students still had 9 weeks with lots and lots of notice about projects, lots of checkpoints where they were told what still needed to be accomplished.
I have decided to let them finish their RCT3 parks for the first part of this quarter, because none of them have anything to present. And, I'm trying to decide how (and if!) I want to let them do anything with The Sims. I'd love to have enough computers to let them each do their own project.

Donor's Choose

2010-01-31T18:52:00.001-05:00

Right around the time of semester exams, I was notified that my Donor's Choose grant was fully funded! For those who aren't familiar, Donor's Choose is a website that allows teachers to post ideas for projects they would like to do in their classroom, but for which they do not have funding. It was started by a New York City Public School teacher and initially was only open to teachers from that district. In the years since, it has grown, and been recognized as a great resource for teachers. It is really designed for the teachers in moderate or high poverty schools to try and get materials they need that can't be provided by their school or school district for whatever reason.
In September, when I started my new position teaching students with autism spectrum disorders (those who are in the academic program), I realized that my classroom probably wasn't as friendly as we would like. It was VERY bright due to the fluorescent lighting with the white cinder block walls, and a white linoleum floor. It also had no windows, which meant the room was very dark if we turned off the lights so the students could see our interactive whiteboard. The size of the room meant there really wasn't anywhere for the students to go to cool down if they needed. I decided to ask for some lamps, lightbulbs and a carpet. With the help of some friends, and some people that I've never met, and probably never will meet, we now have ALL of these items... plus the district found funding for an exercise ball, some weighted aromatherapy animals, a weighted lap pad, several different kinds of stress balls, and some curriculum materials.
We're still kind of hoping to find a loveseat or small couch to put back there, and I'll likely have to buy more of the aromatherapy animals because even my students with "just a learning disability" want to use them!

The Sims 2: In MY Classroom?

2009-12-25T19:42:00.002-05:00

I teach high school students with a wide-range of special needs from learning disabilities to autism. I've used RollerCoaster Tycoon in all its variations (we're using Gold/Platinum editions of version 3 right now) for several years in many ways. I make my own materials for the RCT units, including tutorials that the students have to go through before they can actually start the project. The students also get rubrics and have checkpoints where they have to show progress; at the end they fill out a reflection paper and do a presentation. My students have enjoyed it, and started campaigning to get me to use the Sims for the next project. I was hesitant---we have 3 laptops, so the students have to work in groups of 2 or 3, and the laptops can't connect to the school network for Internet access. Price is always a factor, so we definitely won't be using Sims 3. I've purchased Sims 2 to try out.
If I do wind up creating a unit based around the software, I will be shuffling groups (I do each quarter anyway), and I will be making each student responsible for a specific section of the tutorials. All students will fill in all questions, but each packet will have a letter or number that codes to questions they are required to do. I think this might prevent some of the "lazy man" I see, and the lack of actual team work in some groups. I know there are some this won't help, but we'll see if this is a step in the right direction.
Now to see if the download code has shown up and to begin the search for materials...

Reading for Information: Amusement Parks & Board Games

2009-12-22T14:26:00.002-05:00

The 2nd quarter project for Basic Skills involves a reincarnation of my amusement park unit. Instead of a PowerPoint project, the students have to create a game board based on the amusement park they've chosen and researched. You can find the worksheets here, and some of them are fillable and savable in Adobe Reader.

The groups also have to create an amusement park in Rollercoaster Tycoon 3. We have several licenses of the software installed on laptops we received 2 years ago from Best Buy's Te@ch grant program. A note: If you own the original copy of RCT 3, you cannot purchase the expansion packs for the water parks or zoo. The expansion packs do not install properly. We had to purchase RCT 3: Gold, and RCT 3: Platinum. The Gold & Platinum versions install and run well.

At the wiki link above, you can find tutorial worksheets for RCT 3. I did not make the worksheets fillable, because it would be too hard to fill them out on the laptop while engaging in the software. The tutorials for RCT 3 require significant reading ability, which is something that most of my students have this year, but if your students do not have a 4-6th grade reading ability, you would be better off doing the tutorials as a group. You can do this by hooking a laptop to a TV with an S-Video output, an interactive whiteboard (if you're lucky enough to have one!), or an LCD Projector to a screen. I plan to give the game a shot on our interactive whiteboard, just because it seems like a really cool way to play.

The worksheets also include a rubric for the amusement parks, and the game boards. I allowed the students to choose the kind of game; many chose a Monopoly-style game, although 2 groups chose PowerPoint games: Jeopardy and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. The last thing that is now available is a PowerPoint webquest for students to complete. The new version has added questions, and a box at the bottom of the page to put the link where they find the picture or text. It also has a project reflection sheet included. My students will likely be using this for their mid-term exams if I can get laptops.

Commercial Advertising Projects

2009-11-15T14:14:00.001-05:00

In early November, my students wrapped up their commercial advertising projects. Several of the groups REALLY got the concept, and created an actual advertisement for their products. Overall, it was a success, but there are some things I would do differently. I've implemented some of the changes for the 2nd quarter projects (now almost over... the fall has been chock-full of emergencies and bad news), which I'll detail in another post.
In the meantime, here are some of the best of the group videos:

The Smart Guitar: A guitar that comes preloaded with songs, all you have to do is pretend to strum!

Flavored Air in A Can: The solution for decidedly smoggy, polluted city air!

Flava Flava: Custom sodas for your enjoyment. The soda version of Coldstone Creamery!

The Suit: Clothing that grows with you!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Commerical Advertising-Classroom 2.0 Style!

2009-09-29T18:52:00.002-04:00

Over the last few weeks, my students and I have been closely examining both television commercials, and print ads. The students have used a form for responding to the commercials they have viewed, and also to print ads. You can find all of the materials for the project (and as fillable/saveable PDFs, no less!)here.
The final project for the unit has the students inventing a product (they can use a basic one already created, a soda perhaps, but there must be something unique about their item) and then using Animoto to create a commercial. Animoto does have educational accounts available so you can use the full site without paying.

We started off with each student individually watching commercials and using the television response sheet. All of the commercials are from YouTube, and I downloaded them ahead of time to avoid school computer issues. I found a variety of old and new commercials. After that, in groups, students used computers to examine print advertisements with a response worksheet. The print ads were mostly from Flickr's Creative Commons.

Students have truly been engaged in the project: the group work has been amazing, and the discussions have ranged from defending a choice of product, and to how things have changed in TV & print ads since the students were children, and since the teachers were children. One group has decided their product is "flavored air"... how often do you get that kind of creativity?

Project Red, White & Food

2009-09-11T21:52:00.003-04:00

I've already shared many times that I'm an active volunteer with the Red Cross, and last year on 9/11, I shared my story from that day... and the weeks that followed as I served at the Pentagon with the national Disaster Relief Operation. Last year was also the first year that community service club I co-sponsor created an activity for this day.
This year, in recognition of the 9/11 Day of Service and Remembrance, club students created Project Red, White And Food. Our school colors are red, white & blue, so the name was both recognition of the school and of our chosen project. We chose to make sandwiches to donate to the DC Central Kitchen.
The club set up stations during all of the school lunch shifts, and each student had the opportunity to make a sandwich. Everybody that made a sandwich received a foam sticker in the shape of a piece of food as a thank-you. We made 374 sandwiches before running out of lunch meat, but we were able to donate the additional gloves, hand sanitizer, and bread to the Kitchen, along with some fresh produce.
At the end of the school day, we had a pep rally, and the students ran relay races where they have to put together sandwiches made from one of the play food kits. The senior class showed their class spirit by making the most sandwiches, and winning the relay race at the pep rally.
The project would not have been possible without support from Whole Foods-Reston, Wegmans-Sterling, and Giant Food-Sterling. Thank-you!

Coming Up Next: A New Year

2009-09-06T16:54:00.005-04:00

I've dived into the deep end this year... Somebody should remind me to look next time! This year will probably be hectic, and interesting. I'm not sure yet if interesting is a good thing or a bad thing, but give me a few weeks and I'll see if I can't figure it out.

I have two new roles this year at my school: autism resource & team-taught history. My school has had some success integrating the principals of Universal Design into science classes, and so now they would like to try history. Its not exactly a secret that I have a laptop welded to my back while at school, but I wasn't aware anybody knew about my secret passion for non-fiction documentary-style books and movies, especially 20th Century history. Or that I worked at a Renaissance Faire, and minored in history in college. Guess I need to hide that weakness a little better...
The autism resource is also really not a surprise: I worked as an autism teacher for an extended school year program when I started teaching, have always had at least one student in my classes who had an autism spectrum disability, and spent 3 years working at place known for their work with kids with autism.

School opens for students on Tuesday, and so I've been creating materials for Basic Skills this weekend, and trying to help the general education teachers I'm teaming with adapt materials for history. The students who have had me for Basic Skills before know that I like to do projects... This has not changed. Our first project will have them invent a product, research a real version of the product using Wikipedia. Side note: Do NOT twit at me about using Wikipedia in school; if we don't show the students how to use it properly, how will they ever learn? Just like we need to teach students about advertising, we need to teach how to use other media resources! The last part will have them create a commercial for their product. Originally, I was going to have them make a commercial of themselves, but decided to do the group thing. And, while I have access to a video camera, I'm not sure if doing that first thing in the school year is a good idea... Thanks to the UD Tech Toolkit I found a cool site called Animoto. There is a version of Animoto for schools to use, but I created this in about 5 minutes using the regular site. Very, very cool. So, I may use this for their commercials. It is a lot more structured, and much easier to use than actually creating a video themselves.

Donor's Choose

2009-09-06T01:15:00.000-04:00

Donor's Choose is a website that lets teachers post needs for their classroom and request funding. Its kind of like a mini-grant application and social networking all rolled into one. The website was started in 2000 by a teacher from New York City; at first, only schools in NYC were eligible to participate. I've kept it on my radar, but really didn't have anything that would fit the bill until last year. I've always done pretty well with grants for technology, and purchased or created most of my own instructional materials. And that would be why I'm paying for a storage locker because of all the functional materials... I really should try to sell some of them, but then what if I need them? Ah, the mantra of a teacher. I think most teachers are closet hoarders. Anyway...
Last year I went looking to see if I could do anything about transportation for the service club I co-sponsor, but discovered that you can't do a field trip request as your first action on Donor's Choose. I reluctantly shelved the idea, because I didn't really need things for my classroom at that time. One of the nice things about doing a lot of functional teaching is that I have not had to buy things for awhile.
But, this is a new year with a new classroom (more about that in another post). I'll be teaching kids with autism. My room is rather bright and echo-y: cinder block, linoleum, and fluorescent lights. Not exactly the ideal setting for kids with autism spectrum disabilities. And I remembered Donor's Choose!
In a very few minutes, I was able to find a decent sized rug, some floor lamps and light bulbs. I wrote up my request, and we were on the way! The project went live yesterday, and a dear friend has already contributed toward the request. No, this is not an advertisement for my project (but I won't object if you'd like to help fund it!), but Donor's Choose is a great idea. Check it out!

What I Learned...

2009-07-25T22:10:00.002-04:00

If I had to sum up what I discovered while reading teacher blogs, and really, other blogs, is that blogging isn't always easy. Its hard to keep it fresh and interesting. If you do not post often, people won't read your blog. In fact, they make become actively annoyed if it isn't updated regularly.
I see the lack of updating often on other Red Cross chapter blogs, and when we started blogging for the chapter, I had to promise our Chapter Exec that we would have at least one post per week. In the beginning, it was a struggle... My partner and I have a list of "back up blogs" should there be a week when nothing is happening at the chapter. The topics are like our very first blog post which was an "interview" with the chapter and include ideas like favorite disaster books or movies, disaster foods, etc. The same is true of Twitter: I try very hard to tweet at least one update daily from the chapter's account.
Last week, we used mobile Read/Write Web tools to post about our trip to Kings Dominion. Every hour or so, I used TwitPic to send a picture taken with my cell phone's camera... the links to the photos were posted to Twitter & our Facebook status. I was truly surprised at the number of comments we received when I got home later. People really wanted to see this stuff!!!
I must admit that I'm having trouble coming up with a specific unit, mostly because I know that I can't blog with my students... I'm thinking about doing something with community service/service learning, maybe. I know I want to encourage writing, but beyond that? I don't know.

Summer Classes

2009-07-12T21:27:00.003-04:00

This summer, I decided to take two on-line classes that explore using digital portfolios and Web 2.0 (Read/Write Web) tools. Arguably, I'm already using Web 2.0 in my classroom, but I am hoping there are some positive suggestions on how I can incorporate the tools in a more structured fashion. The students enjoy doing it, but I think the quality of some of their projects leaves a bit to be desired. I'd also like to be able to use the tools without feeling like I'm being sneaky. Logically, I know that I'm not doing anything wrong as long as we don't publish anything, but still... It seems a shame that my students can post and get feedback.
I'm not talking SecondLife here, or Facebook, but blogging would be really nice. So many of my students need to work on writing, and they hate it. I might get more response to vocabulary activities or summaries or resumes or job research if the students could post to a blog and then get feedback.

I've also become heavily involved in my Red Cross chapter's social media efforts, and regularly blog about events the chapter has participated in. We have everything connected through Facebook, and I have another volunteer & friend helping with the tools. We also have a volunteer that goes to the scenes and takes photographs for us to include. I see this as a good way to show the citizens of our county what the chapter does, and how we provide services. I'd like to step it up a bit, too, though, add a little spice to some of the posts.

And, of course, coming up with a way to incorporate the digital portfolios. I really think these would be a fantastic way for my students to have input at their IEP meetings, but the goal of most of the meetings is to get done as soon as possible. I have some problems with that, although I do understand why getting them done & over is important. But I really bought into the self-determination thing when I was in grad school for transition planning.

Ideas are, as always, welcome!

Flat Stanley: Flying Back

2009-04-07T22:00:00.001-04:00

Dear Friends,

I had to get up very early this morning (and it was tough because we were at Disney until 1:00 a.m.!) to catch our plane back to Baltimore. I almost got left behind at the hotel, but fortunately one of the teachers with the group found me. It would have been a very long walk from Orlando to Baltimore.

It was cold this morning in Florida. Our flight left Orlando very late, and so we missed our connection in Atlanta. We did not get back to Baltimore until after 4:00 p.m., so everybody was very tired by the time the Red Cross picked us up at BWI. We saw snow flurries on the way back (and its APRIL!).

When we made it back to the high school, the group had a present for the Red Cross staff that picked us up: a Mickey Mouse light saber. How cool! It even lights up in rainbow colors.

As soon as the teachers have all the pictures of me done, they are going to send me home. I can't wait!

Flat Stanley: Walt Disney World

2009-04-06T23:23:00.000-04:00

Dear Friends:

Today, we went to Walt Disney World Resort. Walt Disney World has many different parks to visit. My group went to Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Magic Kingdom. The other students also went to Typhoon Lagoon, which is a water park.

At Magic Kingdom, we went on a lot of rides. We went on Space Mountain, and the Tea Cup ride. We also took pictures of the fireworks and Cinderella's Castle at night.

At Animal Kingdom, we went on the safari and saw lots of animals, including a tiger, hippopotamus, and an ostrich.

We ate dinner at Hollywood Studios at the Vine restaurant, and then went on Terror of Terror, and shopped at the Star Wars store to get a Jedi Mickey light saber for a friend.

The students who went to Typhoon Lagoon went on the lazy river, lots of water slides, and the wave pool. They also snorkeled with sharks.

Flat Stanley: Fondue!

2009-04-05T23:45:00.000-04:00

Dear Friends:

Tonight, I went to dinner with the students from Extra Mile. They went to a fondue restaurant. This is a restaurant where you cook your food at your table. They started with cheese fondue. You dip bread, apples or vegetables in the melted cheese. Or, I guess anything you might want, but the restaurant gave us bread, apples and vegetables. Then, we got hot broth to cook the main dish in. One girl at my table only eats vegetables, so I got to try eggplant, and spinach tortellini, along with steak and shrimp. The last course was chocolate fondue with marshmallows, brownies and cheesecake to dip in the chocolate.

After dinner, we took a group picture around the fountain, and headed for Downtown Disney to visit DisneyQuest and
do some shopping. We are going to Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios tomorrow. I am not going to Typhoon Lagoon with the group because I don't like water very much.

Flat Stanley: National Youth Institute

2009-04-05T00:30:00.000-04:00

Dear Friends:

Today we spent all day in workshops learning about how the Red Cross does different activities. One of the highlights was the lunch session: there were 5 different groups from the same area as the Extra Mile club students who are hosting me. This was really amazing to see all of these teens working to make their communities better. They ate lunch together and got to know each other a little bit. There was also a slide show that the students from Extra Mile were in because they worked at the Presidential Inauguration!

After dinner, we had a birthday surprise because two of the students had birthdays. The local Red Cross chapter helped the Extra Mile group get a birthday cake. Then, we went to the dance. I must say, I looked stylin' in my neon bracelets!! Some of the students investigated the hotel swimming pool... but I don't like water very much!

---Flat Stanley

Flat Stanley: Flying to Florida

2009-04-03T20:56:00.000-04:00

Dear Friends:

I flew to Florida today with some of the students from the Extra Mile Club. Half of the group went on a different flight, but the students I traveled with stopped in Cincinnati, Ohio before getting on another plane to go to Orlando. I'm waiting impatiently for the pictures, so I can post them here.

We had a storm delay, but finally got to Florida and found the other group. We had some problems with a car rental, and so didn't get to the hotel until really late. We had to miss our trip to NASA because of that. How sad: I've always wanted to go in a rocket!

Tonight we did conference activities, and then we went to Magic Kingdom at Disney World. Tomorrow, we are at the conference all day long.

---Flat Stanley

Flat Stanley: Arriving in Virginia

2009-04-01T20:45:00.001-04:00

Dear friends,

Today I arrived in Sterling, Virginia. I'm being hosted by the Extra Mile Club from Park View High School. The students in the club do community service activities. Some of the activities that they have done this year include ringing the bell for the Salvation Army, working at the Presidential Inauguration, and making/sorting cards for veterans.
The club is going to Florida tomorrow to attend a Red Cross Conference for Youth. They are also going to go to Disney World, and a fondue restaurant.

---Flat Stanley

Guest Blogger

2009-03-31T20:57:00.004-04:00

Starting on Thursday, April 2, ITC Fusion will be hosting Flat Stanley as a guest blogger on the site. Flat Stanley lives with A & his family. Flat Stanley has come to visit us because the students in the Extra Mile club (the community service club I co-sponsor)are going to Florida.
We'll be attending the National Youth Institute, which is co-sponsored by the Red Cross, visiting Kennedy Space Center, and Walt Disney World. It should be an interesting trip...

But, we'll let Stanley tell you about it as he experiences it. We will also take pictures of Stanley (and the students!) while in Florida! :)

North Dakota

2009-03-27T18:16:00.002-04:00

For those that do read this blog, you're aware that besides teaching, my other major activity is serving with Red Cross Disaster Services. I work locally, and when I'm available, nationally. The Red Cross is a grassroots, community-based charitable organization. The majority of the people who provide assistance during a disaster are volunteers, with other jobs, just like me. Please consider helping your local chapter right now: it may not seem like much, by an hour answering the phones is a huge deal!

With that said, I also wanted to share that I am so pleased to see that the Red Cross is automatically doing videos & pictures and making those available as they post news & updates about national disasters. There are so many people in this country who either cannot read English, or have difficulties with reading, that getting the information out in so many ways is important. Kudos to them for embracing new technology that makes getting the word out to ALL people.

Long Overdue

2009-03-01T16:30:00.002-05:00

I haven't updated the blog as often as I should have in the last few months... I was feeling a bit guilty because we have been doing some interesting activities. One group completed all of their This I Believe essays, and have moved on to working on a recipe project. Students were instructed to find a recipe that meant something to their culture or their family. They were then required to complete a worksheet about the recipe, and a research worksheet that asked why the recipe was chosen. For the research worksheet, students also had to use websites to find the origins of at least 3 foods. The food origins was harder than it should have been; I will need to find better websites for the students to use for this portion if I want to do this activity again. I've included a link to the worksheets on my wiki. All of these projects are easier to do with the grant we received from Best Buy last year.

In another class, students are working on identifying deductions and earned income, fixed and flexible expenses. For years we did this activity using a postboard with velcro and "pieces" that attached. This year, I've updated the activity so it works on Classroom Suite, and I might also do a version that will work in ActivStudio on the Promethean Board. Of course, to do that part I really need to get the software installed on my laptop. Right now there are also worksheets to reinforce the concepts learned in the hands-on activity on my wiki.

The students in the club have been busy as well, and we had 9 students work the 2009 Inaugural, and 12 students completed training in order to serve. We have 8 students going to the National Youth Institute in Florida in a month, so we have been fund raising like mad. We were very fortunate to get some local corporate and individual sponsors that enabled us to get the students to the conference! Just last week one of our students spoke about what we have done this year, and what volunteering and being in the club has meant to her to the Disaster Action Team in our county. We showed an incredibly cheese video I made of their activities after her speech.

The Extra Mile Goes Farther

2008-12-13T16:10:00.004-05:00

I probably couldn't have come up with a cheesier title for this entry if I'd tried. And the only excuse I can think of right now is that my brain is frozen... even if it is for a good reason.
The last 3 weekends have had the students in the club providing lots of service to our community. On Black Friday, 3 students and my co-sponsor gave up their post-Turkey Day shopping to ring bells for the Salvation Army in front of a local grocery store. On December 6th, some students helped at an elementary school's holiday party, and others went to Red Cross National Headquarters to sort cards for Holiday Mail For Heroes. Today, students spent another 4 hours ringing for the Salvation Army, even though the temperature today didn't get much above freezing, and had a wind chill of about 20 (degree F).
While all of this is going on, the students are also trying to raise funds so they can attend the National Youth Institute this year. A local Uno's Pizzeria is going to host 3 separate restaurant fund raisers for us. The first is this Thursday, December 18. If you live near Dulles Town Center, please consider helping the students in Extra Mile get more training, so they can keep helping just as they have been. You'll need to take this ticket with you to the restaurant:

Grant Equipment

2008-11-13T20:05:00.000-05:00

At long last, we can use the technology that we received with the Best Buy Grant! Oh, we have been using it, but its been a piece at a time, and not the whole class/group engagement I had been hoping to see. Without an easy way to move the equipment around, and no place to leave it set up permanently, I had to get creative. After much discussion and angst on my part, I finally chose 2 different duffel bags on wheels, and our library-media specialist helped measure the equipment. We bought a red luggage duffel on wheels, and 3 permanent laptop sleeves (they stay on the computers). Two of the laptops live in the bottom "drop" of the bag, with our 4 digital cameras (also in previously purchased padded cases). The main compartment has our wireless printer/scanner and the 3rd laptop. The outer zipper pockets have all the cords for the equipment, and all the media (DVDs, USB flash). Other pockets store printer ink, mice, and digital audio recorders.
So far, so good. The bag is heavy, but the students are very careful with it, and it seems to be working. The best part was that once the students could see the equipment, and see the student who had been using items earlier they gained enthusiasm! I went from grumbling and growling over the current project, and a number of students not wanting to use technology to do the assignment to 100% using technology and true excitement.

This I Believe

2008-11-10T20:12:00.000-05:00

At the beginning of the school year, I was looking for some engaging writing projects (that use technology, of course!) with my students. I found "This I Believe". It is a program from National Public Radio that encourages people to write about their beliefs. There are many samples posted on their website, and a curriculum for using it in the classroom. I decided to have my students write an essay on what they believe in, and then create a presentation. I left the parameters open because I hadn't taught most of these students before, and I didn't want to scare them off... !
When we started, I read them several essays about things that people believed in, and this was also when we did the goal setting & vocabulary wordle activities. I also found a few videos that fit the format of the program.
All of my students have now finished the essay, and several are nearly finished with their multimedia presentations.

Politics Aside...

2008-11-05T20:00:00.002-05:00

So, it should come as no surprise that I (and probably every other teacher in the world!) did something with the election today in class. I found a chart at Microsoft Office on-line. Then I went looking for a good map that showed the results. We resized everything so it fit, and using our interactive white board, students filled in the chart with information from the map. Technology issues aside (I somehow turned on Microsoft ActivMark in our Board software, so the pen wouldn't work... I felt like an idiot!), the activity went quite well. The students were involved through the whole thing, and showed a great knowledge of the geography of the United States. The chart has the full name of the state, but the CNN map only had the postal abbreviations. The class handled it with nary a stumble!

Some information about the activity:
We have also discovered that the activity works best in Microsoft Excel 2002 and higher. Earlier versions of Excel seem to get stuck on the chart, and won't load. Last note: If you can see alternate text that says, "Group Box ###", just ignore it. It doesn't go away when you remove the alternate text for a web browser, and deleting the text messes up the macros. And, if you're looking at this well after the election, be aware that the CNN map link may not work...

Tar Heel Reader

2008-10-25T19:44:00.005-04:00

Several weeks ago, I finally got around to asking for a password to create books in Tar Heel Reader. I received the little push I needed from the teachers that I've been writing grants with, because they thought it might be a good activity to add to the project for at least one of the grants we submitted. I created one book, and a student in one of the reading classes has been slowly working on a book of his own. I can't get the Flash version of the book to embed, but I'll try again later.
And here are some directions that I made with screen shots. The screen shots are small,because I didn't want to go put it on too many pieces of paper when printed.

My next plans are to do a book about the Red Cross, and to have the students make a few.

Fund Raising

2008-10-11T18:01:00.006-04:00

For anybody who might be mostly interested in this for what we do in the classroom, you can probably skip this...
A local Bob Evans restaurant is hosting a fund raising night for the Red Cross chapter that I volunteer with on Monday 10/13 2008(Columbus Day). They will donate 20% of their proceeds between 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. to anybody who presents the flyer. You can grab the flyer here, and print it out if you'd like to support our local chapter's disaster response efforts.

Extra Mile Updates

2008-10-06T23:21:00.003-04:00

We are off to a huge start this year. In September, during the 2nd week of school, we raised money for the National 9/11 Memorial in NYC. We raised enough to allow the club to purchase a paver stone for the Memorial area, and are looking forward to getting the paperwork filled in for that purchase.

Last Saturday, we participated in the Loudoun County Red Cross' Ride for the Red. Ride for the Red is a motorcycle ride, and has become a very popular fund-raiser for many chapters. The students attending helped register more than 100 bikers, and the estimated total looks to be about $13,000! This is a huge amount, and very much needed for our chapter disaster response!

And we're heading straight for Make A Difference Day, starting this Friday night at our Homecoming. Can Man is coming (as you can see from the photo, he's actually already here!), and only our students can bring him. Our goal is to raise enough money for 6 $10 gift cards for family food baskets, and at least 3 baskets with food for the food bank by 10/28.

Making Brownies

2008-09-23T09:05:00.004-04:00

For the last 2 Fridays, I have asked people to support the staff at the Red Cross call center by making a baked item. The first Friday, we had brownies made by the Gourmet Foods students, and last Friday, the students in my Functional Academic class baked. And of course, the teacher in me just couldn't pass up the opportunity to make this more of a learning experience. And so, I created a "How Many Different Kinds of Brownies" can you make activity. We've done some logic charts, and solved a few word problems based on the same concept.
The worksheets for the lesson are on the wiki. Scroll down to "Logic", because that seemed to fit best as a topic header.
One worksheet has the problem (You have 2 brownie mixes, 1 kind of icing, 2 kinds of add-ins... How many different kinds of brownies can you make?). The other set of worksheets is a data recording sheet, and a data collection mat with manipulatives. We cut out the manipulatives (pictures of the items they can use to make the brownies), and put them in the slots on the data chart, then recorded the information on the data sheet. It worked fairly well, and I think the concept has some possibilities.

Today

2008-09-11T14:02:00.002-04:00

Today is 9/11. 7 years and four and a half hours ago, I was sitting at a computer in a small room in a school. Today, I am again sitting at a computer in a small room in a school. It is a different school, and I am definitely not the same person I was then.

Within hours of the disaster, I was in a Red Cross Shelter helping keep watch over children who had parents working in DC. Many of them were unable to get home at their normal hour because of the events. On 9/12, I was assigned to the Pentagon as an administrative assistant to one of the job directors. I did whatever needed doing: rolling socks in the Mass Care tents, hanging up cards, poems & pictures from students and families around the world, and getting food for those that couldn't leave their duty stations. I was there for just under 3 weeks; I taught every day, and worked at the Pentagon at night.

Today, I spoke to a small group of students at my current school about my experiences working at the Pentagon, and helped the students in the community service club I run sell red, white & blue braided strands in rememberance of those that not only lost their lives, but those that worked so hard to help everybody pick them up again.

And tonight, before I go home, I will put on the gray & white Disaster Services vest I wore at the Pentagon, and go answer phone calls from people evacuating because of Hurricane Ike. I am proud to be part of the American Red Cross for the last 22 years.

Goal Setting

2008-09-09T18:30:00.000-04:00

I mentioned in an earlier post that the students would do another project related to their portfolios after finishing the license plates. We've done those, and so I decided to have the students set some goals. The message I want to send to them is that life takes planning. Live your dream, but be sure you plan how to make it work. To that end, I had them take the goals they had written, and use a thesauraus (we used Merriam-Webster's on-line) to look up words that mean the same things as their goals. Not only was this a good vocabulary exercise, but they were able to see words that betetr shaped their desires in life. After they had a list of words, we copied them into Wordle, and created "Goal Wordles". Here are a few that we've created:

License Plates

2008-09-08T13:51:00.000-04:00

This school year, I am teaching a supervised study session. It is a 90 minute block period that is designed to provide students with special needs support and time to complete homework. Parents are not always able to help students, and in some cases, the materials that a student needs to complete a project may not be available. My school decided that this year, since the class is graded and earns an elective credit, we would have the students create portfolios. For those that have known me for awhile, you probably already know that I have my classes make portfolios or scrapbooks frequently! I am also excited because we have the technology to do the portfolios electronically.
So far, we have done a license plate and we'll start another activity during the next class. The instructions for the license plates were to find pictures using Flickr Creative Commons, and use 6 letters or numbers to describe who you are. Here are some of the license plates that we did:

Just in time for a new year...

2008-08-31T23:21:00.002-04:00

I really thought I had broken the pattern last year. You see, since 1997 (my second full year of teaching), there have been major disasters every 2 years that have impacted the attendance area of my school in some fashion. I don't remember what happened in 1997, but here's a list from 1999 forward: Hurricane Floyd, 9/11, Hurricane Isabel, and ending with Hurricane Katrina. And so, last August I started biting my nails. I was wondering if I would be teaching during the day, and doing Red Cross work in the evenings as I have done for most of these events. I waited... I just knew something was going to happen... And nothing did. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I went to the Innovative Teacher conference in Seattle, and came back. Still nothing. Woo hoo! The pattern was broken.

And then Gustav showed up. With his friend Hanna. I guess they think that since we didn't have anything last summer, we need a double dose this year.

School opens on Tuesday. Gustav is scheduled to arrive on Monday. Fortunately, I think I'm prepared for the first day.

I am also hoping and praying that Gustav gets bored and decides that New Orleans and that whole area isn't worth visiting. I hope the residents there have been evacuated safely... I've heard from one set of friends, who are safe and outside the area. One last wish, and then back to planning for the start of school: If you've been evacuated from the area, and not been able to reach family & loved ones, please make sure you register with Red Cross Safe & Well so your family and friends can find you.

Wordle

2008-07-31T19:12:00.003-04:00

A few weeks ago another teacher shared a site called Wordle. I had tried it at that point and put it aside as something that my students would probably enjoy doing, and that would a decent first day of school activity. This evening, there was a mention of the site on the Red Cross blog, so I went back and did some more exploring.
Wordle allows you to enter your own text to create a "cloud", or an amorphous collection of random things. Del.ici.ous, the social bookmarking site, and others, allow viewing of tags as clouds too. Other options for Wordle include creating a cloud from tags at a social bookmarking site, or as I did tonight, from a blog or any website with an RSS or Atom feed. You can change colors, layout, font, or how you list the words. I see some interesting possibilities for this in the classroom.
Here's the one I made this evening...

Awesome Achievements

2008-06-06T20:08:00.004-04:00

There are times that I wonder why I ever decided to become a teacher. Its usually after I've been flipped the bird, or had a string of curse words describe my family & parentage. The feeling also shows up at times with administrators. Its hard not to take those things personally, even though I logically know I should not. And there are other times where I know exactly why I made the choice I did.

Last evening, I was privileged to watch several members of the senior class receive scholarships & academic awards from community groups. At the evening ceremony, I used the camcorder we purchased with the Best Buy grant to video tape the events. This morning, I watched more of those seniors receive awards for participation in clubs, academic & sporting success. A few of the highlights from this morning's ceremony that stuck in my mind: Almost all of the seniors from the functional academic program participated in the senior processional. This particular group was the first class I taught at my current school, and they did a wonderful job. I was able to watch several members of the community service club I've co-sponsored receive awards, including one student receiving the bronze level Presidential Volunteer Service Award.
Today was the last day for most of our seniors, and although the students from the functional academic program will return next year as post-graduates to work on campus and continue their education, its not really the same. Prom is tomorrow evening, and I am sure that, as with the last 2 years, I'll need those extra tissues that I always forget to shove in my purse. I'll probably also need them next Friday at the club's end of year gathering, and at graduation a few days later.

Masters of Disaster---LIVE!

2008-06-04T19:35:00.000-04:00

Hm... Okay, maybe that headline is a bit kitschy even for me, but I couldn't resist. This afternoon we had a tornado warning while we were at school. To help make that a little more understandable: A tornado WATCH means the conditions could possibly produce a tornado, and the National Weather Service is keeping an eye out. A tornado WARNING, however, means that a tornado has been spotted, either on the ground or in the sky near you.
We were puttering around in the classroom, packing things up for the summer. I have one student that enjoys looking at the weather, and often does this if he has the opportunity. He was doing that while I was looking up something for another student, so he leans over to me and points at the scrolling bar on the Weather Channel homepage. And I see it: bright red, scrolling slowly, TORNADO WARNING. He has seen it too, and wants to talk about it, but I needed to stop him so the other students wouldn't get scared. I simply said, "If it was for this area, we would be in the safe room, in the position that we practiced." He nodded, lost interest, and went forward. I can honestly say it wasn't more than 3 minutes later that one of our assistant principals came on the PA system and said, "All instruction will cease." I never thought I would hear those words out of the mouth of a principal! He requested that all students & staff report to their assigned safety locations, and then the school lost all power. Now, our school is a Red Cross shelter site, and has generators (I know this because, 3 years ago, before I ever knew I was teaching at this school, I did the shelter survey... it was one of the first things I did for the Loudoun Chapter!), so the hallways had lights as did some classrooms. We stayed in the room for about an hour, and ultimately dismissed all students by 4:15 p.m.
But, I was very proud of my students... they knew exactly what to do, and although they were scared and had some high-pitched voices going on, they did what they were told to do. I have to attribute at least SOME of the ability to what we've talked about in class with the MoD adaptations.

Masters of Disaster Adaptations

2008-06-03T19:01:00.002-04:00

For those who heard about the MoD adaptations that were created by myself & the Loudoun County, Virginia Red Cross can look here for the Intellitools Classroom Suite files. The first module, Disaster Safety & Preparedness are available here.
Please note: The current Classroom Suite files are in Version 3. They are compatible for version 4, but once saved in version 4 they will no longer work in version 3. I hope to have time this summer to port the older activities to Version 4 over the summer as well as create the activities for the Fire Safety module.

If you are interested in print activities, and can provide proof that you have purchased a kit (or several kits) for either your chapter or schools & other groups in your area, I'm happy to email you the PDF files. If you would prefer to receive a CD of the print activities along with the IntelliTools activities, please contact me. There will likely be a minimal cost for the purchase of CDs and shipping.
I'm choosing to require proof of purchase for the paper activities in order to protect the copyright on the MoD kit. Groups that use the computer-based activities will typically have students that cannot access the print kit at all and so need more assistance to get this important information to their students & clients.

I would also like to thank the parents who previewed the activities for me before they were released, IntelliTools, Inc. for hosting the files in their activity exchange, and Mayer-Johnson, Inc. for allowing us to use the Boardmaker-PCS symbols in the activities without charge.

National Youth Institute---Day 3

2008-06-02T19:13:00.001-04:00

It was really hard to get up this morning after being awake so late for the dance. We were definitely not the only group that was super tired. It seemed like a number of people left early because of travel, but there were still enough there for things to happen. We missed the social media session on Sunday morning (could this be where they showed the videos? I never did see them!) because there was just no way we were getting up at 6:30 for a 7:15 session. After breakfast, we checked out and headed to the conference hotel and our second session.
We spent 4 hours working on our action plans for next year's birthday party project. I'm afraid that I was so brain dead at this point that when the groups started explaining their projects, I became lost. I thought everybody was talking about their clubs, even though I knew from yesterday that most of the people didn't have active clubs! I got some nasty looks from the other groups, which I definitely deserved. I am pretty sure that my brain oozed out of my ears at that point.
When it was our turn to present, I made the youth do it. It seemed to go well, and we had fleshed out some of the ideas we had from the previous work period including specific places to get donations from for the project, and how to present it to our principal.
The only real downside to the presentations was that one of the people in the room was very gung-ho on us being a complete Red Cross club, and felt that she really needed to explain to us how the Red Cross did things. Since this was similar to the problems we had with another service organization, we were all less than thrilled at what we were hearing. I've never really experienced another Red Cross volunteer pushing Red Cross on me, especially not in youth services! I've always run a general community service club, and while the students do things with the Red Cross because I'm active, they aren't required to participate. I was a probably little snotty when I held up my ID badge to explain to the commenter that I was a Red Cross volunteer on my own. I was pretty annoyed, although some of that was purely being tired. I'm still minorly annoyed, as you can tell, since I'm blogging about it... I hope that everything will settle out, since one of the students who came with me expressed an interest in doing things at the chapter as well over the summer the previous evening. Overall, though, the conference was well done. I think we are going to try and go there next year, especially if the price stays at $75. It would be nice if it was a little closer; then we could drive and take more students.

Pictures from NYI Day 3--6/1/08

National Youth Institute---Day 2

2008-06-01T09:15:00.005-04:00

In the morning, I went to a conference on writing grants and exchanged some ideas with other youth advisers. One of the better ideas I heard was Tommy the Safety Cat, so we're going to see if the other club members like the idea of teaching the information to students at our local elementary schools. The students went to a workshop on creating and marketing an idea. We had a general afternoon session about writing an action plan, and then spent the rest of the afternoon working in groups to develop a plan. We were one of the only groups that was already an established school club with connections to both school & chapter, so we created a plan for an activity. Many of the other groups seemed to be making plans on how to get more club members. While this is certainly something we need to work on, the decision to find an activity that was recurring and on-going seemed a better to do it, at least for our group. The idea was to have birthday parties for children who are in emergency shelters (not for a disaster). After the workshop was over, there was much discussion and planning on how to handle that evening: there was a strong desire to swim, so we grabbed swim suits, got back over to the conference hotel... and wound up swimming inside because there was another thunderstorm. Then we found dinner, went back to the hotel to eat and change for the dance. The dance was enjoyed by all... especially all of the costumes that people brought with them!!

Pictures of NYI Day 2
Saturday evening, of course, was the dance.

National Youth Institute---Day 1

2008-05-30T23:30:00.004-04:00

Today was packed. We all managed to get up and out of the Marriott by 9:00. And, that means that we were late getting to our activities at the Arch, but I'm getting ahead of myself. We left our luggage at the hotel, and our shuttle driver from last night brought it to us at the airport when we were finished.

After we made it to the Metro, we found out that they were only running one track due to construction, and so it took us about 45 minutes to get downtown. We enjoyed the scenery in the park on our walk over to the Arch. I have to admit here that I am totally scared of heights, and really didn't want to go up... But, I figured I probably couldn't let the students go up by themselves, and so I went. After clinging to the side of the arch near the windows for about 5 minutes, I did manage to look out one or two windows before going back down.
When we left the Arch, it was really hot & humid, so we opted for a cab back to the airport and caught the shuttle to the conference hotel. The first order of business after check-in? Taking a shower!!
Then we went over to the conference center, and made it just in time for the opening session and dinner. The students went to a workshop called Spark the Wave, and the advisers went to a reception. We met back up for the swap meet, ice cream social, and one of St. Louis' infamous thunderstorms. The conference center sprung a leak, and had about 53 gallons of water in the front lobby!
Pictures from the Arch
NYI---Friday 5/30/08

National Youth Institute---Day 0 (Traveling to/from)

2008-05-29T00:00:00.009-04:00

Update!
The flights home were a little more eventful than the flights out. I was pulled for extra screening in St. Louis. Okay, so that's not a big surprise, but they didn't even accept my letter from TSA this time! As it turned out, there had been an incident of some type at Lambert recently, and they stepped up their screenings. One of the agents did make a comment after I explained that the way we book travel for disaster assignments was how I wound up on the list, and how I knew I was on the list. I was wearing a very obvious Red Cross t-shirt, and he says, "Gee. I guess getting searched like this on your way to help people makes you feel appreciated!". I had to laugh, although he does have a point. The extra screening almost made us miss the flight, but we made it. We almost missed the flight in Minneapolis, too, because the gate agent told us the flight was leaving out of C7, but it was really out of C15. An electric cart driver got us where we needed to go. On the flights back we played Monopoly on my Palm pilot...
Here are all of the pictures from the flights.

Traveling to St. Louis
After a brief delay at Dulles, we finally made it to St. Louis! The delay was because of a traffic control hold at La Guardia & Newark, which caused late planes at gates in Dulles. The only comment on the plane was how SMALL it is...

The Marriott Courtyard is very nice, and the staff was really super helpful! We were especially pleased with our shuttle driver, who helped us find a restaurant when we arrived!
Tomorrow: Visiting the arch, seeing the movie about building the arch, and then on to NYI.

We published a book!

2008-05-26T12:35:00.000-04:00

A few months ago, my students started making a book. We actually made two: One as a concluding project for our amusement park research, and another about when we made ice cream during class. Originally, we were going to try and add translations of our English writing with the help of our advanced ESOL classes, but we ran out of time because of state testing. If we had waited, the students would not have been able to see their printed books, and since we have some seniors who helped, I decided that we could always add translations at another time.
We paid $12.99 for each book; I bought one copy of the set, and the librarians bought one copy of the set. The set the library purchased will be available for students to check out. I've also posted them to the blog, using a rather nice feature that MixBook does in creating a version using Flash. I will note that there is an issue with the ice cream book; perhaps the Flash version has a limit to the number of pages it can view. I don't know, but the pages about different ice cream flavors (licorice and bacon & egg with toast!) and how ice cream can be served are missing in this version. They do appear in the print copies we purchased.

Mixbook Dos

2008-05-26T12:17:00.002-04:00

| View More | Create a Photobook

Mixbook Uno

2008-05-26T12:09:00.001-04:00

| View More | Create a Photobook

National Youth Institute

2008-05-20T21:47:00.003-04:00

The youth conference that I've been yammering about for the last 3 or 4 months is next week. I'm taking two students half-way across the country, by plane. We even have to change planes! On the flight out, we're flying to Cleveland, and then to St. Louis. On our return, we're stopping in Minneapolis before heading back to Virginia!

It seems that one of the interesting activities will be getting to see "commercials" created by the other participants. We decided to go ahead and make one with an America's Next Top Model theme. The two students attending the conference liked the idea, but had to run off so they could go on the band's spring trip to... CLEVELAND (no, I'm not joking!). And so, two of our underclassmen club members, along with a few other students, a guidance counselor and 2 teachers did our best to put this video together... Just ignore the random students in the hallway, and make sure to turn up your volume. I haven't quite figured out the volume control on the new camcorder yet!

Technology Updates

2008-05-16T22:49:00.006-04:00

Well, I've certainly been remiss in posting lately! This isn't to say that there aren't very cool technology things going on, but maybe that there are too many really cool technology things going on?

The students just finished their Trip Planning projects. Lessons that I've learned from this? Assign a date for the travel, and the amount of money they have to spend. Don't ask them to find prices for one-way fares, because most of the travel websites default to round-trip, and the frustration isn't worth it. If you need one way, divide the round trip price by 2. Remember that if your students choose a country that doesn't speak English, you will have to find menus they can read so they can plan their meals... The same holds true is they pick a place that isn't using the US Dollar as their currency, because this will make their numbers seem incorrect. And lastly, make sure that they know WHERE they are going... Is it Paris, France, or Paris, Texas? No, its NOT Paris Hilton! And we're not visiting the new Hooter's Bar & Casino in Las Vegas, either!

In the middle of this, we took a break to make brownies for the community service club's Concession Stand sales. You'll find the brownie video here....

My group, the girl's Lacrosse team, and our Band & Chorus groups sold pizza, snacks, soda and baked goods when our school hosted the Odyssey of the Mind competition in April. This was the statewide tournament, and I'm pleased to say that after all the bills were paid, we cleared $450! That's not bad for 6 hours (not counting all the time we spent baking!). Some of the money was used as a donation from the club to the local March of Dimes Walk-A-Thon, and some for our upcoming trip. This year, we were able to give the March of Dimes nearly $200 between walk pledges, selling awareness ribbon keychains, and the concession sale stands. We also had 12 walkers on the day of the event, despite the nasty weather.
We also managed to raise enough money for 2 students to go to the National Youth Institute Conference in St. Louis at the end of this month!

Meme: Passion Quilt

2008-04-06T20:44:00.004-04:00

Several weeks ago, Miguel Guhlin shared a meme for a Passion Quilt on a listserv that I read. I think the request was made in February, but between the trip to Texas, the broken wrist, and my computer being in for repair for nearly 3 weeks, my quilt did not get finished. I actually just finished it now, while I was thinking about some recent problems with a colleague. I tend to be rather protective of things that are important to me, and while there are few things that truly upset me, one thing that inevitably does is something that hits one of my passions. I really don't have that many... technology, volunteer work, reading, and swimming. Some may note that I left off "family", but really, my family is interwoven in all of this because most of my passions came from my family as I grew up. I am also thankful for a supportive note I received from a friend when I asked for some help in figuring out the direction that I wanted to go.
Here's the Quilt:

To the best of my knowledge, all of these pictures are public domain, from Creative Commons or taken by myself or students.

Red Cross Convention

2008-03-27T19:22:00.004-04:00

By now most anybody that actually reads this blog will realize that after teaching using technology, the other activity I delight in is volunteering with the Red Cross. I've said before that I've always considered myself lucky that my local chapters have been willing to accept my students along with me, because I haven't always been that fortunate with other volunteer organizations.
And, I am absolutely delighted to see that the Red Cross has joined the 21st Century during the 2008 National Convention. They are live blogging, posting updates via Twitter.

Best Buy Grant

2008-03-26T20:31:00.002-04:00

I guess its probably time for me to make a blog entry about the Best Buy Grant. Back in September, I filled in the application, and figured "why not?". A lot of the grant was actually completed in the Seattle-Tacoma airport just before & on the flight back from the Microsoft Conference. I sent it in with mere hours to spare. The website said we'd hear in February....

Fast forward to Februrary, and I flew to Texas for the Red Cross training (see: Austin Texas-RMC. Due to weather, the flights landed considerably later than expected, and so I did not check my email until late that evening. I was sitting in the hotel lobby with a few other Red Cross folks and just squealed. Literally. One of the volunteers asked me what was wrong, and I read the email out loud. The next morning, I called my high school before we went into the session, and my supervising principal had just read the email as well.

We received a $2000 grant that will allow me to add audio, and digital video to the student projects that we've been doing all year. I'm still working on coming up with a buy list of hardware; we are definitely going to be purchasing some digital camcorders and digital voice recorders along with some consumable media (CDs, DVDs, etc). The rest is a bit up in the air... we were considering a computer station, but it turns out the school has an XP multimedia machine that we can have, and since they've installed the Promeathean Boards, I should be getting one of the now extra LCD projectors. Those were my two big ticket items, so we'll see. I wish Best Buy sold the interactive whiteboards... I would love to find one that would fit in my room!

If it's good for you, it's good for me-- -- Part Two

2008-03-11T21:29:00.003-04:00

In the continuing saga of the issues with my wrist, I've discovered that it's nearly impossible to keep up on all of the teacher required paperwork. When you cannot type and you have trouble writing. Out of desperation, I stopped at Best Buy on Monday evening and purchase Dragon NaturallySpeaking preferred version 9. This was after spending most of Sunday trying to figure out how to use the built-in speech recognition that comes with Vista. Although others have managed to get Vista's speech recognition to work with many programs, all I was ever to able to do was use WordPad, Windows mail, and commands to navigate. I don't think it was my microphone, because the command features worked beautifully. Dragon, however, was not real fond of the microphone I used with Vista, either. Since getting Dragon on Monday. I have written an entire IEP(not without some frustration and not appropriate for public language), since many e-mails, and even managed to move some text boxes around in Microsoft Word. We still have several glitches to work out, but fortunately, I can mouse with my left hand. I don't think that I have the skill to do any kind of photo editing or graphic work, but we'll see later.
As I said in the other posts where I talked about using Word prediction to help my typing. I can definitely see some of the frustration that my students have when they have to use technology to help them. But they don't know how to use the technology yet. There is a definite learning curve when it comes to using these tools. I wonder if we would be better off teaching the students to use the tools before we expect them to use them for academic work?

Challenge Day

2008-03-09T14:56:00.004-04:00

The Red Cross chapter that I volunteer with was invited to attend the local Fire & Rescue station's Challenge Day. I have been inside a burn building (a structure that the fire companies use for training; it is a building that typically won't burn down but still allows the firefighters to practice inside a building) when we piloted a different version of the disaster assessment class with another Red Cross chapter. But, this was an opportunity to see things as they unfolded. Despite the rain, and discovering that you really do need two hands (see: If it's good for you, it's good for me) to climb into a passenger van, and to take pictures, it was good to see. I wish I had been able to attend the whole event. Thanks to those that helped with the pictures!
If you would prefer to see just the pictures, they can be found on Flickr, here. We discovered that to see the different sizes, you do need a Flickr account, and the photos are too large to send via email.
Here's the slide show and, I don't think we need to play Guess the Theme Song this time; its probably obvious!

If it's good for you, it's good for me

2008-03-04T19:01:00.004-05:00

As a teacher, I often find myself in the position of having to recommend tools that I think would make learning and work easier. And an equal number of times, the student complains, usually because the learning curve makes the learning temporarily more difficult since they are learning 2 new things instead of just 1.
Well, as it turns out, I have an opportunity to use a word prediction program. While I was in Texas, it seems that I broke my wrist. My right wrist.
The pluses: By using standard accessibility features in Windows, I have fewer problems. I am using Mouse Keys, and Sticky Keys. For typing I am getting some assistance from WordQ version 2. Its definitely not as fast as I usually am, but it does make things easier for longer writing, and my students were encouraged by seeing me use tools similar to what I recommend for them. It doesn't necessarily ease the learning curves, or the frustration of looking different, but it might help a little.

Iron Chef meets High School

2008-03-03T21:04:00.003-05:00

Last week, not only did my school host a version of American Idol, complete with versions of Simon & Paula, but we engaged in a little Iron Chef action too. Each year the school hosts an award ceremony near Spring. It is a little different from many award ceremonies, in that teachers nominate 1 or 2 students, and then the students have the opportunity to nominate one teacher that has changed their life. Students can nominate a teacher from any grade, and school. If the school is part of our system, the teacher gets an email invitation. If not, the school makes reasonable effort to find the teacher. The evening also includes a multicultural dinner. Each grade brings a dish, having been assigned the type; IE, 9th grade brings a vegetable dish, while the 11th grade nominees bring an entree.
Each year, the students I teach make 1 dish, and a dessert. This year, we took pictures, and of course, made a movie!

Austin, Texas & RMC

2008-02-27T07:09:00.006-05:00

Last week, I spent some time doing training for the Red Cross. Before I left, my students asked me if I would take pictures for them the way I did in Seattle, and send them. I did, but unfortunately, only managed to get one set of pictures into the slide show and sent off. I've put the whole thing together now, so I thought I would share it with everybody. The bulk of the pictures are from our tour of the Response Maintenance Center. The RMC is where all of the technology that the Red Cross deploys for a disaster assignment come from, and go back to. We have satellite dishes, satphones, antennas, and more radios than you'd ever want to know about! See... I can make EVERYTHING into technology! We're also going to play "guess the soundtrack song". If you know it, leave a comment. :)

RCT 3

2008-02-17T20:00:00.004-05:00

Two of my students have started working on RCT 3 parks with me, and one student is using RCT 2 on his own. The parks in RCT 3 are working very well, although I am controlling the mouse in order to reduce the possibilities of information overload. As I said, the hardest part is getting the paths laid correctly. One student has made it all the way to the Tycoon level challenge in Vanilla Fields (the starter park), and another has made it to that section in the Splash-Water Park expansion. I asked the one student do to Splash because his research is on Sea World. We've also had some trouble connecting the slides to the pool complexes, but I don't know why. I think it might be the terrain being uneven. We'll keep working at it.
I will post some screen shots of the parks in a week or so; I neglected to bring the CD home with me this weekend, so I can't run the game.

Technology to Make the Job Easier

2008-02-05T20:29:00.001-05:00

I have Mary Poppins singing "A Spoonful of Sugar" going through my head right now. Last week, the job coach that works with a lot of our students had the idea to label the shelves in the cafeteria kitchen so that the students could be sent to get something when they are working. She wondered if we could do it on the computer. And, as I mentioned, my duty this year is to provide tech support to the special education department. We looked at different label templates available in Word, and then the job coach and a student went back over to measure the front of the shelf.
The next day, the student came down with a list of items they had found by inventorying the shelves. I set up the template for him, and he started typing. The student already knew how to find clip art, and digital pictures, so only needed minimal assistance for that. In fact, he was able to get about 15 done in the period, with pictures, and ready to print. He only needed help when the picture wasn't clear.
The benefit to this, beyond the students being more independent, is that a lot of our cafeteria staff are not native English speakers. It will also help keep things organized on the shelves. Oh... and the student also learned a very valuable skill which he is starting to generalize to other areas.

Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 & Camtasia

2008-01-29T20:35:00.000-05:00

Back in November, TechSmith was offering Camtasia 3.3 to teachers for free. Unfortunately, the offer is no longer available. I see lots of possibilities for Camtasia, though I could wish it was just a little easier to use. I think one of my problems is that I have a wide screen laptop, so when the software tries to set a region automatically, the measurements are off.
I then used Camtasia to record my screen while I played with RCT 3. I've never been really happy with the tutorials in the software, because they are very limiting, and in this version, require a lot of text to be read. It is hard to go back if you miss something, and there is no audio. In the past, I've tried to record the action on the screen using an S-Video hook-up to a TV with VCR, but it didn't work as well as I had hoped. I was able to produce a basic video that shows how to place a "ready made" ride, and some facilities. The version here is of low quality so it won't take forever to load: the original is 1 GB without audio. I just figured out how to do the audio, and so will probably try that next. Now, if only getting RCT 3 learned was that easy; as with the other versions, the thing I find hardest is placing the paths.

Pizza Crust!

2008-01-24T22:10:00.000-05:00

I am still working on the more accessible tutorials for RollerCoaster Tycoon III, I decided to post our pizza making session today.
When the students chose the kind of bread that they wanted to research, I told them that as they finished, we could make each kind. I already posted, either here or on the wiki, or maybe both, the videos for pita bread (unleavened bread) and leavened bread. Today, we made pizza crust. I admit that we cheated a bit and used the Pillsbury refrigerated crusts... But, I don't think that really changed the experience of making the bread. After all, we measured and mixed and kneaded for the other two kinds of bread. We'll measure and knead when we make pretzels later... I think we'll do those in 2 or 3 weeks, because pretzels are a food you can easily find in an amusement park.
As usual, we took pictures. I did the work on the movie this time without help from the students since they dismissed due to exams.

Amusement Parks

2008-01-22T21:04:00.000-05:00

Somewhere around 1999-2000, a video game called RollerCoaster Tycoon showed up. I remember first seeing it at an "educational" toy store that sold mostly videos and computer software. I purchased a copy, but found it too slow and too difficult for the students I had at that time to use. A year or so later, and I find myself covering for the 7/8th grade science teacher at my middle school who is on maternity leave. It was after state testing, and the 8th graders were antsy. In a few weeks, they were going on the annual trip to Six Flags for Physics in the Park, so I thought having them explore the science behind the rides might grab their attention. It did... We had two different software packages, a roller coaster simulator, and RollerCoaster Tycoon. I was surprised at some of the work that was turned in, and ultimately turned in the unit plan as the subject aligned lesson plan that my school required. Fast forward another year, and I was teaching technology education. On a cart. In 2 buildings. I decided to have the students do a unit using the software, and purchased 5 licenses of RollerCoaster Tycoon II. I created tutorials for the software, purchased several videos that showcased both the science around the rides, and why people went to the amusement parks. The students also had to create a PowerPoint presentation about a theme park they chose to research. Overall, the project was a huge success, and one group of students had the opportunity to present their projects at a student technology conference. Since that point, I have done at least one part of the project (usually the PowerPoint) with my students each year. The class is currently completing a webquest to find different things about amusement parks on-line, which we will turn into a simple slide show. Then, students will work on the research for an amusement park they've chosen (this year's parks are: Dollywood, King's Dominion, Six Flags, and Walt Disney World), and finish by creating parks in RollerCoaster Tycoon.
We'll be using 2 versions of the software: RCT II, and RCT III. For II, we have both expansion packs, and for RCT III, we have the waterpark expansion. Both groups of students have tried out RCT II on our older laptop, and we'll be doing RCT III together since it is only available on my laptop. I'll post a few of the files over on the wiki, feel free to take a look and/or use. The files that I've posted tutorials and such for are older versions and all matched to RCT II. I hope to get things created for RCT III soon.
Check out another post (in a few days) on an idea I had for making the tutorials more accessible to my students...

More Community Service

2008-01-16T21:17:00.000-05:00

As I've shared before, I am one of three sponsors for my high school's Key/Community Service Club. We partner with a local Kiwanis group, and the local Red Cross (of course: how could I do any kind of volunteer work with students and not get them involved with the Red Cross???). We are trying to raise money to attend conferences. As of right now, we have the funds and permission for 3 students plus one advisor (likely me) to attend the Red Cross National convention in Baltimore. We are hoping to come up with funding for 5-8 students to attend the Key Club District convention, and for students to attend a Red Cross Youth Leadership seminar in May. This last one is going to be tough as it is in St. Louis and will require buying plane tickets. Plane tickets are really expensive, especially to the parents of a high school student!
Our local Red Cross has supported this effort by giving us things to put in the Exam Kits that we are selling. Exam kits are little bags that have some junk food, candy, a little stress-reliever, a pen & pencil, and a bottle of water. The local Red Cross provided the water to us, and then also threw in some very nice CD cases that we had been given as a promotional item. Students in the club stayed after school to finish the bags. We're also selling candy bars.
Mind, now, selling junk food really does go against my better judgment, and I've never allowed students to sell candy before, so I feel a little guilty about furthering the bad eating habits of some teens. Hopefully, the guilt will be worth it as the students get a chance to attend training sessions and network with other teen volunteers.

Masters of Disaster, Part 2

2008-01-07T15:25:00.001-05:00

The Masters of Disaster activities that were uploaded to the IntelliTools Activity Exchange seem to be popular. I must admit that the more popular activities are the ones that are generalized to teach other skills, such as AM/PM Sorting or Peanut Butter Sequencing. I am hopeful that some of the more disaster-safety specific activities will continue to be downloaded (and they have been, just not at the same rate as the others). After several requests, I have also posted the ZIP files for the IntelliTools activities to my wiki. If I get permission from the Red Cross, I will post the paper-based activities as well.

Masters of Disaster

2007-12-29T22:34:00.000-05:00

Last year, I learned that most of my students had no idea what to do in a disaster! Soon after that conversation, I read an email written by a parent of a kindergarten-aged son who uses both a wheelchair and a voice-output device. His class was studying fire safety, and she was worried that he would feel unsafe and left out as the class practiced "stop drop and roll", but gave him no opportunity to truly participate. What to do???? How do we get this information out? I decided that the easiest way to do it would be to adapt and modify or add activities to the Masters of Disaster curriculum.
And so, all last summer for several hours a week, I took up table space at my local chapter and worked on creating activities. Overall, we spent about 25-30 hours at the chapter creating activities, with another large amount at home researching. We created activities that could be done on paper, and also a number of activities for IntelliTools' Classroom Suite. Toward the end of the summer, I asked a group of parents who had children using Classroom Suite to examine the activities for me. These parents deserve a special thanks for taking time to look through the activities, and suggest changes or improvements. In addition, thanks go to a teacher at my school who was kind enough to look over the paper-based activities for me and the staff at my local chapter who gave me space to work. The activities are targeted at students with significant disabilities at the middle and high school level, or regular education & students with special needs in grades K-4.
Unfortunately, around this time, I had some computer issues that resulted in an upgrade to Vista. This has meant the project was shelved in fall as we decided how to approach this problem, as well as the release of Classroom Suite 4. It was decided to post the completed activities and then to go forward using Classroom Suite 4.
You can find the IntelliTools Activities in the Exchange by searching for Masters of Disaster. You can get more information about the Masters of Disaster curriculum at the Red Cross website.

Year In Review

2007-12-20T10:43:00.000-05:00

Another post that does not have a whole lot to do with technology, except to point out that this is a wonderful example of the power of photography to help us tell our stories.

Images of Hope and Help: The Year in Pictures

Bread All Around Us: Leavened Bread

2007-11-16T14:47:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, my students made leavened bread. We were lucky enough to be able to use a bread machine that our Family & Consumer Science department has available. The teacher for that class has been very supportive of the efforts we make to teach the students cooking skills; she has had several of my students in class, and always works to make sure they understand everything.
As with our unleavened bread, we took pictures, and so have a movie of the process. I thought it was much easier to make the bread this time, but I have no doubt that is because of the bread machine. There was so much less mess to clean up!
I am hoping that the students remember the differences between the two types of bread on Monday, because we'll play "Best Guess" as our drill, and finish our sentences for the first bread podcast. With luck, we'll get it recorded too!

Google My Maps

2007-11-11T16:26:00.000-05:00

One of the last of my projects for my graduate class is a group work on a Google Tool. Each group had to choose any Google Tool, explore how to use it, and then come up with ways to use it in the classroom. My group is rather diverse: myself, a special education teacher, a librarian at an inner city school, and a guitar/history teacher in Southern Maryland. Given our unique make-up, it was a little tough to find a tool we would all benefit from... And then, somebody posted a website that was created to explore the assigned challenge of telling the same story 50 different ways. The website included a story that used Google's My Maps. I was convinced this was it, and fortunately, the others in the group agreed! I've spent the last few days learning how to create my own maps. The first one is rather dull, being just a list of places that I've visited over the years; the only interesting bits there are the few sites I included articles on, or photographs. But, my second map is far more exciting (at least to me!), and shows pictures of my trip to Seattle. I used the hybrid settings on My Maps to create a tour of Seattle using the pictures I took, and some wikipedia articles. I was even able to find a YouTube video about the Pigs On Parade. I can just imagine how this could help my students see and learn about places in the United States, or other countries. It gives the hook to get their interest, but also teaches to their strengths by providing visual and kinesthetic opportunities. My only issues are that, as near as I can tell, the Map program doesn't work with assistive technology such as screen readers, and text-to-speech, and I didn't really see a way to add a caption to photos I embedded. It is also rather time consuming to pull all the media files and articles onto the map. I think that for some large units, its worth the effort. It would certainly be a good project for students to complete to show off what they've learned. Here is a quick video about how to make a Google My Map of your own:

Unleavened Bread

2007-11-08T11:59:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, we played Best Guess and then made unleavened bread in class. The bread was supposed to come out as "crisps", but even though we flattened the bread out pretty well, it wound up more like pita bread, soft and kind of chewy. I thought it was okay with butter, but not all of the students enjoyed tasting it. I was again reminded that cooking requires that the students use all of their skills to make a finished product: we read the recipe, we did math when we measured, and set the timer on the oven, and we have already been talking about how different cultures make different kinds of bread. Last year, we had done some hands-on work with equivalent fractions, and 3 of the students were able to tell me what we could use if I lost the 1 cup measuring cup: we could use 3 of the 1/3, 2 of the 1/2, and 4 of the 1/4. They didn't necessarily SAY it that way, but they picked up the correct cup when given a choice, so I think that means they know it! One of the students was the official photographer, and followed instructions beautifully when told to just take pictures of hands, not faces or bodies. Since she did such a nice job, I was able to put together a very quick slide show. Enjoy!

Best Guess!

2007-11-07T13:58:00.000-05:00

I am always looking for ways to encourage my students to guess. Guessing is a very hard thing for them to do, because they do not ever want to appear wrong. And yet, guessing is something that we always have to do, because there is no way to always be correct. To encourage this, and sneak a bit of science into our classroom, I made a "game" called "Best Guess!". It was really simple.
I used 2 sheets of inkjet magnets from Avery (see a this post for where to buy the sheets). On one sheet, I made 2x4 sized name tags for each student, along with the two choices for today's round. On another sheet, I made a question prompt (today's is: The bread we made is ___________________), and a cut-out star shape with "BEST GUESS!" written on it. The directions were printed on a sheet of card stock. The directions were pretty simple: choose one of the words and put it next to your name. If you're right at the end of the block, you get 2 extra tickets in our weekly drawing (which is how they earn money to buy rewards at our classroom store).
Today's drill tells the students to look on the back of the door to find the game.
We'll see how it goes...

Bake Sale!

2007-10-29T21:41:00.000-04:00

I'm afraid this is another post that doesn't have a whole lot to do with technology, although I will post some picture recipes that I've made to use with my students. There is an explanation of the recipe format with the recipes as well as links to two very good cooking in the special education classroom resources. I have loads of cook books, including Emeril and Rachel Ray cooking with children books, Better Homes & Gardens, but the ones I've listed were specifically designed for special education.

I've always run a community service club of some type at the school where I teach. I have already shared my belief that volunteering in the community you live and work in is incredibly important, but I actually think it might be just a little more important for students who receive special education support. Often, students have low self-esteem, or problems with social skills. Volunteering is a good way to improve all of these skills, plus get some good experience for job applications, college essays, etc. But, beyond that, it gives the volunteer a sense of ownership and pride. The something to point to that makes the other things we do that aren't so fun possible. A sense of pride for these accomplishments can go a long way with students.

Anyway... I am one of 3 sponsors for the Key Club/Community Service club at my high school. We are having our first fund-raiser this year for the club on Wednesday. The club officers decided that Halloween was the perfect day to have a bake sale. I have always enjoyed cooking and baking, but I can't eat most baked good anymore, and so I don't bother. This gave me a chance to go a little wild...
3 pans of brownies: plain, white chocolate & mint, and white chocolate
12 pumpkin raisin/cherry/white chocolate muffins
12 plain date muffins
1.5 loaves of banana oatmeal cinnamon bread (I was a little shy on the batter for some reason, hence the "half a loaf".)
20 mini-star shaped Funfetti (the Pillsbury mix stuff) cakes

I hope it all sells so the Key Club students can attend the division conference in April, and the Red Cross Convention/Roll Call in March. I've never been to a Key Club conference, or the Red Cross Conventions, but I know the latter has a lot of networking opportunities for youth volunteers. For those that can't make it to the bake sale, here's a picture...

Expectations

2007-10-28T00:00:00.000-04:00

I had to go over to the public library this afternoon to pick up our books for the Bread All Around Us project. I had worked with my school librarian to find the books, then to make my life easier, just did a reserve request at the library near where I live. I made it to the check-out desk with one minute to spare. The librarian found the books, and as she brought them over, she commented on the quantity. I explained that my class was studying different kinds of bread as part of our History/Geography unit this year, and that they were going to produce a podcast. Then, I shared I taught high school students with significant special needs, and so that was why the books were of a much lower reading level. In fact, many of the books were picture books. The librarian wondered if, maybe, I was expecting too much from my students. I told her that I didn't think so, and explained about the digital camera project (This Is My Life) from last year, and that the project was incredibly successful. More so than any of the staff that helped with the grant and project would have thought. I also told her about going to Microsoft.
So, are my expectations for my students too high? Maybe. But, they are living up to my expectations with the material they are producing. I see so much growth, and more independence in some of the students, particularly in using technology. I don't think my expectations are too high; what do others think?

Connecting Outside the Classroom

2007-10-26T23:55:00.000-04:00

In a previous post, I shared that I was an active volunteer for Red Cross Disaster Services. I have always, in some way, involved my school & my students in that part of my life which takes place outside of school hours and the building. Last year, my students worked at the local chapter one day a week, mostly doing office tasks, but also getting involved with disaster services. All of my students formed a good working relationship with the staff at the chapter, especially with our disaster services staff member. The students that I have this year ask about the people at the chapter frequently. This has also led to more awareness of what is going on and how those events can change lives. So, it was really no surprise today when they asked me whether or not anybody from our chapter was in San Diego. One student asked me if I were going to go (even though he knows I won't go during the school year, he always asks!). After we talked about people we knew who were going out there with the Red Cross (only one from our local chapter, but there were several from other area chapters), we looked at the KPBS Google Map. We counted the number of shelters, and talked about how wildfires spread. We figured out about how far our classroom was from San Diego, and we talked about things that we can do to make a difference (that was our classroom theme last year; this year's theme seems to be "Sharing Who We Are", which also lends itself nicely to community involvement!).
We definitely did not get any work done on Bread All Around Us, even though my students made sure tell me that they knew the Red Cross was giving out bread... But, for today, my students were connected with the millions of other people who are looking at the fire coverage and they were able to get, understand and share information at a level that allowed them to comprehend what was happening. Amazing, truly...

Google Images to the Rescue

2007-10-24T19:25:00.000-04:00

I think I may have mentioned that my class is learning about the foods of different cultures. Today, as we were taking notes, we reached the part about yeast making bread rise through leavening. At this point, I think I made the mistake of trying to help the students understand how bread rises by asking them if they knew about carbonation One of my students throws her hand in the air, and says, "Oh! Yes! I know that bread has carbonation because its on the back of the label!" It was extremely difficult to keep a straight face, and I'm afraid to admit that I didn't manage it very well. It took lots of explaining with pictures at Google images, plus shaking up some left over diet soda in a bottle before they understood that carbohydrates and carbonation were different! But, I know that every time I look at the nutrition label on food packages, I'll think "carbonation" instead of "carbohydrate"!
I've put a few of the supporting files for the first part of this project. In fact, the project now has a name thanks to one of my students: Bread All Around Us.

Changes

2007-10-17T20:59:00.000-04:00

The other day, I asked one of my students if they had ever seen a cassette tape, because I was trying to explain about how magnets can erase data. She could not recall ever having seen one. And that had me thinking: We still had records when I was growing up, and 8-track tapes came out then. One of my favorite toys was called 2XL, which was a talking robot that used 8-track tapes for questions. You answered by punching a button on the body of the robot, and the tapes had little cards that went over the standard buttons. There were lots of choices, including an exercise tape!
But, even before I was in elementary school, we had cassette tapes.
In any case, today's Baby Blues Cartoon is very appropriate to this topic:

Podcasting Project

2007-10-17T13:54:00.000-04:00

Podcasting and video are two elements of Web 2.0 that I haven't fully explored. With video, there are issues with student images and also equipment. I know that you can do video with a webcam (thanks to my email friends who reminded me of this!), and we can do video clips with our digital cameras. Of course, there is the old standby of digital still photographs in PhotoStory... And, I just learned today that you can take pictures that are in the Windows Photo Gallery (a Vista feature) and there is a "Make Movie" button on the screen. And so, I've decided to explore podcasting with my students.
My first step was to get the district policies, which also required assurance on my part that I knew how to use Audacity. My second step was to find a topic that might hook my students enough for them to get through the much more difficult pre-work and research before they get to put together the project. Since most of my students are teenage boys, and 3 of them are taking Gourmet Foods right now as an elective, I decided to have them explore food. My initial idea was exploring foods in different regions of the United States, but I'm worried that might be too broad. And then I remembered a wonderful project that the Family & Consumer Science teacher at a middle school I worked at did with the students (I helped my students with the project) on bread. Each culture, everywhere in the world has bread. Pita, white bread, matzoh, naan, pancakes, crackers, tortillas.
Now, I need to come up with how I want them to do the projects. As I looked at podcasting, I realized that the all of the poetry projects they completed could be considered 'screencasts' or 'videoblogs'. That really makes me want to come up with a way to have the students do this without the "picture" (screen, video etc). I'm just not sure how to make that happen.

Bookmarking

2007-10-16T20:42:00.000-04:00

My students always have problems getting to a website that I want them to use for a class. We have tried using a variety of on-line sites and lists in Microsoft Word. Last year, I was introduced to a site called PortaPortal, which I liked because it was available at school (not blocked!) and because I could set up categories to put the bookmarks in. By using categories like this, my students can find "pictures" and look for the specific link, or "free time" and choose a game without my help. The only thing that would make it better is if the bookmarks had pictures! I've considered using del.icio.us as well, but I am worried it might be too complicated. Today, I discovered that I could export the PortaPortal links, by category, to a document which will then open in IE! I can now send my students to our global drive, and they can just find the link instead of having to retype it.
When I have, I think I'll add some Boardmaker pictures to ease the reading requirements, which then adds the pictures that I figured would make it better. You can look at the text list here
On other fronts, just about everybody has finished their Illustrated Poems, and I'm looking forward to introducing the next unit & project. The students surprised me today when I told them we'd be moving forward on Thursday by wanting to know NOW what the next project would be!

Independent Computer Use

2007-10-16T13:55:00.000-04:00

Since the students that I work with have difficulties with organization, language and short-term memory, it is very difficult for them to use the computer independently.
One of my priorities in my classroom, and a wish that I have for all of my students is that they are able to work as independently as possible, and be successful as adults. Obviously, successful as a goal means different things for different people, but for most jobs computers & technology are important. If my students can learn some basic computer skills, including some of the creative skills like scanning items, using a digital camera, and PowerPoint, they are that much farther. It is even better if they are able to use the tools on their own without additional live support.
In my classroom, I often require that they ask a peer, and retry before they ask me or our teaching assistant (if there is one). To this end, I've created a set of Computer How To files that students can refer to in order to use the computer on their own.
There are how-to pages for logging on the school network, saving to a flash drive, printing a digital photograph, and posting to their blogs. Here is a link to the computer howto files on my wiki: Computer How To's

AAC Awareness Poems

2007-10-03T20:34:00.000-04:00

A few days ago, Samuel Sennott posted a request to the QIAT listserv with an idea about creating "electronic" poems in PowerPoint, IntelliTools Classroom Suite, Clicker or another similar program. The idea was to choose a public domain poem available from Project Gutenberg or Google's Public Domain books, and illustrate it using pictures from Flickr's Creative Commons.
A truly intriguing idea, at least to me... so I signed up. I created two poems, both by Robert Louis Stevenson, and from his A Child's Garden of Verses. I grew up with a battered copy of that book covered in some kind of red fabric, so reading it again to choose poems was like visiting an old friend. Here are the two I made:

And, I discovered that I liked the idea so much, I wanted to try it with my students. For those that have been reading this, you'll know that we participated in the Salute to Seuss project from Jen Wagner, and created People Poems AKA 'To Think I Met Them On Park View Street'. This project seemed a perfect way to wrap up our unit on Poetry before moving forward... We did not use public domain poetry, instead we used classic Shel Silverstein (students chose: Sick, Eighteen Flavors, and Dancing Pants), and one Robert Frost (a rather ghoulish poem about a boy who gets his hand cut off). I've posted the student checklists and rubrics on my wiki here

Microsoft Forum, Scrapblog

2007-09-28T15:14:00.000-04:00

Okay...

This looks like something that I was hunting for earlier this season (see the posts on 'All About Me' and videos from august). In any case, this was an assignment for one of my graduate classes. I think I may update it... It worked fairly well despite a steep learning curve.

Enjoy.

Microsoft Forum

2007-09-27T11:37:00.001-04:00

I will come back and add some descriptions, but for now, here are pictures...
Microsoft Forum Pictures on Flickr

All of the pictures are now posted, and tagged in Flickr. If you don't want to look at individual pictures, feel free to look at the post after this and enjoy the scrapblog.

I'm still behind in actually posting details from the Forum, because I managed to get the cold that was being passed around... I might get to that this weekend.

To Think I Met Them On...

2007-09-19T21:26:00.000-04:00

Well... we've posted the first short video for our Salute to Seuss project. These projects are tied to the book, "To Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street", and became "To Think I Met Them On Park View Street". The students have, for the most part, done a quality job with these. I'm pretty impressed since this is the first time that we've gone through the whole process at all... Last year, I did a lot of the editing and putting things into PowerPoint for them, but this year, they're doing it. And not badly. I just wish we had more than 2 computers that could really run the projects. My old laptop is just so slow at this point that the student that is using that one gets frustrated and winds up just waiting for one of the desktops to be available.
Oh well, I can wish... its a practical wish since we're working on a grant for more hardware to do this kind of activity.

Integrating Web 2.0

2007-09-15T22:50:00.000-04:00

We are starting the school year doing the Geography of the United States. One reason for this was to do some cross-themed programming with our English units for the Salute to Seuss project, but another reason was to give the students plenty of opportunity to explore what blogs were and how they were used.
We have a clustrmap on our classroom blog page, and we also have a huge US map hanging on our bulletin board. We're using Avery's 1/4" clear, removable dots to track people who visit our blog. We're not changing sizes or colors the way Clustrmaps does. At some point, we might add a world map to the bulletin board, but for now, I think the US Map is a good way to start.
This unit is also giving me the opportunity to help my students understand time differences, and learn a little about other places in the United States. We're starting with the West Coast, because of my trip to Redmond in about a week. As I mentioned in the last blog, I've left work for my students to do that relates to my trip. I've also promised to post pictures and details. I will actually post pictures and details here as well, although the classroom blog will have top priority for me.
In any case, if you're interested in looking at one of the activities the students will do while I'm gone, you can go over to my wiki and find this activity: Track A Flight.

The amazing power of web 2.0...

2007-09-13T13:01:00.000-04:00

I had a revelation a few days ago when I was writing lessons plans for the substitutes who will be with my students when I go to the Microsoft Teacher Forum at the end of this month. The flash came when I realized that I could leave assignments for my students to do that connected with my absence from the classroom...
My students are aware and involved, because, after all, the project we submitted for the Forum was their work with the digital cameras last year!
The lesson plans that I left for the substitutes have the students answering 2 questions on each of the two days that they would have seen me: The Day 1 questions are:
What do you think Ms. Shepley will pack in her suitcase to take with her to Seattle?; How long do you think it will take Ms. Shepley to fly to Seattle? and Day 2: What 2 questions do you think Ms. Shepley should ask Microsoft while she is there?; Name 3 things that you have learned about Microsoft. The students will also be doing some other activities with our problem solving posters, some math, and working on memos and fax cover sheets.
It took a little explaining for them to understand about the time differences, but not as much as I thought it would. I might get an extra clock for the room and set it for Seattle time for them. We also had to talk about how I could access the Internet from where I would be, and be able to read what they wrote. In exchange for what they are posting, I'm going to try and post pictures of the events and some summaries about what we have done on our classroom blog page. This will be a first,

Low-Tech & Simple

2007-09-10T20:56:00.000-04:00

I've always wanted a word-wall in my classroom for my students to refer to, in order to make them more independent. This way, they can check the word-wall for spelling before they ask me. The problem has always been organization, coordination, and space. I know that there are a few other special education teachers at my school who would also like vocabulary walls, but because they travel from room to room, they would need words for each room they were in OR a way to quickly pull down and hang up a set.
Enter: Magnet sheets! Woo hoo! I've been looking at these in Staples for years, and trying to find a way to use them for something. Staples, and other office supply stores, along with Borders, are my preferred shopping locations! I love colored pens, too. ;)
Anyway, I used my favorite label template in Microsoft Word. Using a 2x4 shipping label template, I can make 10 vocabulary magnets per sheet, and 50 per package. The package of magnet sheets was about $12 from Staples, but I did find it cheaper at some other on-line stores. I was able to use a nice font at about 36-40 point, and include a picture of the word to help with comprehension, and with the visual learners who remember pictures better than words. And, of course, you could make the magnet any size you want up to 8.5 x 11. It worked really well, and should be fairly portable. I'm thinking that teachers that move classrooms could store them in a coupon box or index card box sorted by letter (or topic). Hanging back up again could be part of a drill/bell-ringer activity for a lot of different concepts: alphabetizing, categorizing, synonym/antonym, etc. Here's a picture of the one in my classroom:

Off & Running

2007-09-09T20:34:00.001-04:00

We're off and running as of last Friday! I went over rubrics with my students, and was pleased to realize that some of them remembered what they were from last year and could give examples. That kind of synthesis and application is usually really hard for my students, so to have them be able to associate the word 'rubric' with how I graded their scrapbooks and their end-of-year science projects was a good feeling.
We had a few technical difficulties: I was bitten by the "linked media file" in PowerPoint, but fortunately, I had a version of the file that I had printed to a PDF using Acrobat 8 Professional. I've been using Acrobat since version 5, and love the freedom it gives me in making materials for my students! Acrobat 8 allows you to embed media files, and so I was able to pull up that file and show the students the very short clip about rubrics I downloaded from unitedstreaming.
Our other technological issue was one of those ancient jokes that tech support people trade in their down time... "Didja hear the one about the teacher who couldn't get the computer speakers to work because they weren't plugged in??". I wish I were kidding. I had no idea that was the problem because the speakers were providing sound, albeit at a very, very low volume. I figured it was an issue with the line into the computer.
And of course, the tech issues had me running late through the lesson again. I did get it explained to the students, briefly, and had time to show two of them their Blogmeister accounts. We had two students log in and post very brief messages, but it was really a moment! At least for me.
After seeing that the log-in was a bit complicated for my students, I made a cue sheet for posting to the blog, just like several of the "computer how-tos" I've made. I posted a general one here.
I was also discovered a feature that makes all of the effort of blogging worth it: Blogmeister runs the student posts through the Flesch-Kincaid Readability test. It also gives a grade equivalence for student writing, which I think will be a valuable hook.
I shared the information with the Dean of our special education department at school, and she suggested I present the information as a mini-inservice at a staff meeting for our department. I'm not sure I really want to do that... I'm always worried I'm going to step on toes or have other teachers say that this is a stupid idea and not worth the time and effort.

Ride for the Red

2007-09-09T16:19:00.000-04:00

This post does not have a whole lot to do with assistive or instructional technology, and is only attached to curriculum & education in the loosest of fashions. People who know me are aware that, outside of my classroom, my two biggest time sinks are being a disaster services volunteer for the American Red Cross, and swimming. And this particular post has to do with the Red Cross.

I volunteer with the Loudoun County chapter in Northern Virginia. I serve as one of 4 disaster team managers. We rotate on-call service every 3 months (my team works in April, August & December, for example). Each team serves for one month, give or take a few days. While we're on-call, the teams respond to local disasters in Loudoun County. The local responses are usually fires at single family homes, but we have also responded to apartment fires which effect multiple families, or water main breaks that make buildings unsafe to live in. All of this costs money.

On October 13, the Loudoun County chapter will be hosting the inaugural Ride For The Red. This will be one of the largest fund raisers for the chapter during this year. Please consider joining us, either as a rider or a volunteer for the event. All of the services that the Red Cross provides are only possible with help.

Project-Based Learning...

2007-09-06T19:05:00.000-04:00

I've met with my the students in my classroom once now. I'll see them again tomorrow at the end of the day. During our first class, we had our first fire drill of the school year... and that was interesting because due to our new security system, we go out one door, but must come in at another. And all of the students that are in that one area go through that door. Tomorrow, we'll have our first pep rally and senior processional of the year; I have 3 seniors in my class.
In any case, we've gone through the Internet Safety lesson, and all of my students passed the quick quiz I gave them on the first try! I was so proud of them, because it was a lot of material to take in, and quickly because we were running out of time because of the fire drill. There was a very humorous discussion regarding the author of The Cat In The Hat. As most people know, the book was written by Dr. Seuss. As it turns out, our head principal also has a doctorate degree, and several students shouted out her name when I asked for the author of Cat.
We also went over the rules for handling the digital cameras, and the battery chargers are plugged in. I'm waiting on the surge protector and the power cord for the scanner to set up my old laptop as a workstation for them. All forms went home for signature, too... WE should be able to to hit the ground running tomorrow after we go over our rubrics. With luck, we'll be posting our first projects next Tuesday!

Replies to Comments

2007-09-06T18:56:00.001-04:00

I am doing this because I really cannot find a place on Blogger that allows me to respond to comments. I know it is there somewhere, because I've seen other bloggers do it, but I sure can't find it!

Good evening, Regan!
Thank-you for the comment. I am not sure about any liabilities within Precision Teaching. I do have some concerns about using it at the high school level because I really think that students as this level should be doing more problem-solving & higher-order thinking skills. These are skills that are much in demand from businesses, and have been noted as being something that many students do not have when leaving school. You can look at the SCANS report to get more specific detail on how businesses look at education. If we are needing to teach these students fluency and direct instruction in this fashion, I worry that they aren't getting the skills they'll need for later.
My school did listen to that, and accepted my view, which I found incredibly refreshing. I will look to see if students who improve fluency also improve in their ability to synthesize knowledge. Have you seen that increase as well?

SueJ:
You're probably right. I am new at the professional blogger thing. I had my students due some blogging briefly last year, but it wasn't something that was a total success. We had bandwidth issues. I've changed the provider that we're using for blogging this year, and also provided each student in my functional academic class with their own. I'm looking forward to getting them on-line, and hope to do it tomorrow when I see them. I'd like to give them all a "homework" assignment to have them go to their blogs and log in to make a small "Hi, how are you" type post... But, quite a number of my students do not have access at home, and of those students, only one of them ever makes an attempt to go to the school library or community library and log-in.
We will have initial projects based around the Salute for Seuss project that we're participating in by sometime next week. I'm actually going to go make a post about that in a few minutes.

Interesting Conundrum

2007-09-01T16:54:00.001-04:00

Well, call me confounded. Or at least stunned.
The only blog posts that are getting comments here are the ones where I've expressed my uncertainty about being the Precision Teacher at my school this year. I admit to being rather surprised by this yesterday afternoon when I first discovered it.
I wasn't surprised to note that all of the comments were heavily in support of the idea behind Precision Teaching, with lots of suggestions on how I could share data, find support, and use it with the students. And, of course, I can't be annoyed, even though I would really like to be... I should probably point out, however, that the program is being used to boost fluency in students who have not passed and are at risk for not passing our state tests. I will see about 18 students every 2 days (about 6 per 90 block period, for 3 periods). I will likely work with students in groups of 3. Once students have mastered a particular weak spot, they are dismissed and return to the class they were pulled from. At that point, I look for new students to enter the program. This particular format doesn't lend itself well to most of my passions, but particularly those that involve teaching writing using technology and project-based learning. It may well be that the program works well with project-based learning in other locations; I don't know that.
I was going to use this post to specifically answer the comments that were posted, but then decided that I would sound snooty if I did that, so I won't. But, I will ask that people not post comments professing their love for precision teaching. I noted that I respect the fact that the trainer who did our session finds Precision Teaching to be one of her passions; I would like to ask for that same respect.
Thank-you.

New School Year Update

2007-08-30T21:14:00.000-04:00

I worked this morning with my supervising principal, and the Dean of our special education department to get my schedule straight. I will be doing the Precision Teaching gig half time (3 periods per cycle; 2 on one day, and 1 on another). I have one block of Functional Academics the last period of the day every other day.
That left 3 periods... Imagine my surprise when my principal said that he, our Dean, and head principal were thinking about having me create materials and work with other teachers to integrate technology within the special education department!! I will get to spend one block, every other day, doing that exact thing.
I think it was here a few days ago (or not, as I don't see it) that I said that I didn't know of any jobs that would let me work with students, give me time to create materials, and attend conferences. I am totally happy to settle for 2 out of 3 of those, especially since I will get to attend a conference this year!
I am already looking at ways to make this work... I had thought about working with our AT person on another grant opportunity, as well as submitting a continuation grant (This Is My Life: Kicked Up!) to the Loudoun Educational Foundation (LEF). LEF was the organization that provided the grant for our digital camera project (This Is My Life: Using Digital Media To Increase Literacy Skills) in the 2006-2007 school year. We haven't decided yet, but we're looking at either podcasting or video as the addition to the project this year.
I've also been talking about my own ideas for this year, and some of the other teachers were interested.
One of the goals for my school this year is to increase the use of data collection to determine outcomes for students. I think that we could make our lives a little easier for some types of data collection if we use Web 2.0 tools like blogs, wikis and photo sharing. The students could respond to various prompts in blogs, thus allowing us to collect running writing samples for the whole year. They could post materials created on their wiki, and demonstrate all kinds of skills this way, and with photo sharing. Teachers benefit, because they could literally look at student work ANYWHERE, and not have to lug home 80 folders full of writing.
We may also use a wiki and blog to communicate information about Key Club to members. I offered to give space over at my classroom blog, and also on the classroom wiki.
Lastly, but certainly not least, we have received all the information from Microsoft for the Innovative Teacher Forums. I just set up my personal space on the Forum, and linked back here, and to my professional wiki.

Bridging the Gap with Digital Media

2007-08-29T20:09:00.002-04:00

I had posted at the beginning of this week about two of the in-service sessions that I was particularly looking forward to attending: Echoes and Reflections, and Reading in the Reel World, with John Golden. I was not disappointed with either session, and took away a whole lot of information and ideas on using digital media with my students!

In Reading in the Reel World, we were shown various techniques for having our students use documentaries as they would a textbook. We were shown specific things to help our students use the digital media appropriately, and to encourage critical thinking about media... Part of that process was a discussion on whether or not documentaries are always completely non-fiction, and how things are sometimes done to enhance the mood of the watcher, which may or may not necessarily have been how the event really happened. This is similar to teaching students to be wary about advertisements they see, or using material from the Internet as fact. The other piece that I found most useful was where Mr. Golden shared how he had his students make their own documentary about school. He had a student use a digital camera to take pictures in the classroom for a whole period, then dumped the pictures onto an accessible area on the school network. Students worked in PowerPoint, and added a music clip that fit their pictures. Each documentary was less than 3 minutes long, but the messages they conveyed were real. It was very interesting to see students using the same pictures as peers, but with completely different ideas and music, and therefore a completely different message.

The Echoes & Reflections session was also well worth attending, and we did receive complete copies of the curriculum for our use. I don't know how much of the lesson plans I'll be able to use, but I might be able to use some of the digital media clips and the photographs they provided us with. The curriculum includes a DVD of about 21 short clips that were done with the Shoah Foundation at the University of Southern California.

The message here, at least for me, is that using digital media helps our students learn about events, and then connect the events to things in their own lives. And that is truly comprehension: without that connection, there is no point in the information. I'm a lover of trivia, but that cannot be our goal in teaching. Our goal has to be that students will understand what we share with them. If we do not make that effort, we may find problems later on in our lives. Okay, enough doom & gloom...

2007-08-26T22:39:00.000-04:00

Last Wednesday was the first day back for teachers in my district. Our students come back the Tuesday after Labor Day. I've been in this district for 3 years, and, call me strange, but I actually enjoy the way that my district structures the professional development. We spend several days in our school, and have 2 or 3 days where we have some sessions that we can choose from. This year, I have 2 sessions I'm particularly looking forward to: one is Connecting Generations, which explores (and hopefully gives us pieces of!) the new curriculum that deals with the Holocaust from USC Shoah Foundation, and the other is with John Golden, the author of 'Reading in the Reel World: Teaching Documentaries and other Nonfiction Texts. I'm excited about both of them because they reflect how I teach.
Last Saturday, I also attended the required training session for new Precision Teachers. I wish I were as excited about Precision Teaching as I am about the possibilities for the other two sessions.
The facilitator for our Precision Teaching training described it as an intervention that can be used to teach any kind of information. People who are familiar with the traditional ABA and TEACCH programs used with children with autism will recognize a lot of similarities in Precision Teaching. I won't insult anybody by saying the program is bad, and doesn't work: it does work, and works very well for some students. Our facilitator described Precision Teaching as one of her passions, and I respect that. How could I not, given that I often feel like I'm the odd one out in what I believe and in how I teach?
To continue this thought: I was surfing the web earlier this evening and looking at various materials, resources and comments for Precision Teaching. I found a lot of sites for worksheets and ways to make new worksheets, including a technology tool that I've used for years, and absolutely love: Schoolhouse Technologies worksheet generators. I've been using their products forever, and have participated in many beta testing sessions. You can even find a few of my word lists here.
But, there wasn't a whole lot in the list that excited me, and I was really worried by a few of the things I read, including a video I saw about various math education methods. There are always people who are more enthusiastic about things than others, so I need to remind myself to take some of what I saw with a grain of salt.
But, after I stopped looking at Precision Teaching materials, I went looking for something that was more, well, me. It didn't take me long to find what I was looking for in a blog attached to WOW2.0.
The very first blog I read discussed using a podcast from Business Week about the future of employment and jobs. It explained that students need to understand why we want them to learn and use something, and how it fits into the real world. It seemed to insist on problem solving as a method (something a few of the more evangelistic Precision Teaching sites decried as really, really bad). This, clearly, is one of my passions...
So, how do I meet the requirement for 50% of my job this year, which requires precision teaching, and still be a teacher that integrates technology, web 2.0, and creativity? I have to do 3 periods of precision teaching, which only leaves me 2 periods of other kinds of teaching. Suggestions are welcome...

Information About Me

2007-08-23T00:34:00.000-04:00

As a part of one of my graduate classes from this past summer, I learned how to use various tools for multimedia presentations. Like many graduate classes, you're required to develop a project that proves you've learned the material (Lovers of standardized tests take note: requiring people to show you that they've learned something is a higher order thinking skill than just bubbling in a test sheet).
I decided to create a project for my students to do that was tied to our history and English units. We were going to do this at the beginning of the year, but then I remembered that I really wanted to sign my class up for Salute to Seuss from Jennifer Wagner. We did the Lucky Charms graphing last year, and I know that my students learned a whole lot about data collection and graphing from the project. I know it because they were able to use the skills from the project later, and talk about data collection via Lucky Charms in a logical fashion. So... we'll likely get to this second quarter, because we'll be doing a similar project for Seuss. And that might be a good thing, because we can do a group project for Seuss and have everybody learn what to do, then do this one.
I also want to point out that this didn't start as a video. It started in PowerPoint. I exported the slides using 'save as picture' (PPT 2003 and above), then dropped them in PhotoStory 3 (free software for XP from Microsoft). That was the easy part. The soundtrack was a lot harder and not entirely what I was looking for. I'll have to find a better way to retain the sounds in a PowerPoint or just remember to record the sounds directly into the slide show software.
Here's the video...

I'll put the supporting materials here: All About Me Materials
The checklist that is on the page is adapted from one created by Attainment Publications, and can be found the 'Building Life Skills Portfolios' book.

Enjoy!

Blogfolios, Take 2

2007-08-22T23:03:00.000-04:00

I redid a bit of the blogfolio presentation and wanted to repost it. I am still not quite sure where the extra "clouds" are coming from on some of the pages, but at least the text shows up in all the right ones now.
I really would like some comments about the plausibility of this idea. I'd also love to hear about any tools that people think would be useful for this other than what I've already listed.

My first effort at making an entry for the blogfolio has been difficult, and not at all as easy as I thought it was. Creating the PowerPoint was dead easy. Recording the sound bites was easy. Attaching the sounds to the PowerPoint slide, also easy. The problem came when I tried to turn the PowerPoint with its slides into something that I could post in a blog! Its been a huge time sink (remember the other post I made today, where I said anybody who knows me could vouch for a few things? Another one of those things is that I'm a perfectionist; I just can't bear the thought of turning in a project that didn't come out the way I wanted!). Right now it looks like I'm going to have to burn it to a CD to turn in for my graduate class tomorrow night...
Magi

We're baaack... Part 2

2007-08-22T20:41:00.001-04:00

Apparently, our overall "fun theme" for the year will be based on The Simpsons. When the show started, I definitely wasn't a fan. I can't say that I watch it glued to the TV now (actually, I don't think I watch much of anything glued to the TV screen!), but I do appreciate more of the humor. And, in my own personal form of 'preja vu' (deja vu that happens before you knew about it being deja vu), I named the blog that my students will use 'Doughnut Drive'. That's the name of the hallway where our classroom is... and on one side of our blog is a great picture of Homer Simpson trying to eat this huge doughnut! I just loved that!
Okay, so right about now you're waiting for me to tell you how all of this ties into web 2.0...
The videos, the homer simpson tie-in, are all available to people to use because of web 2.0! Schools have always shown "inspiring videos" during in-services. But, in the not-so-distant past, those videos were put together by people who were assigned this as a job. People who were usually in marketing or PR, maybe an AV department. An ordinary teacher, person, parent could not have done this just 5 years ago!
I love the amount of information that is out there and available. I like being able to go to Google and type in a few words and find all of this information. I love being able to go to the website for my University, and looking at the entire selection of journals that is available without ever leaving my futon and my cat. I've been attending Johns Hopkins in various forms (with some breaks) since 1999. My first master's degree is from Hopkins in transition planning & severe disabilities. With luck, I'll finish a second degree (Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study, another 30 credits) in curriculum design and assistive technology at the end of Fall semester. I've never set foot in the Eisenhower library on the Homewood campus. Not one time. I used to go to a closer community college library, but now I don't even have to do that. I just load up my VPN software, type in my password, and convince the library's computer that I am really in the library.
Lovely. Absolutely lovely. And now, I'm going to go fix a slideshow in Slide Share, and then finish & post the final project for my graduate class this semester.