North Dakota

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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.