Have a Good Life

I sold my car the other day so I could buy a new computer. I decided that I could make a better living by working on my own business from home, and so I decided to quit my job, effective immediately. Since I no longer had a car, my friend had to drive me to buy this new computer. It's icy out there...That is the premise for the movie I made a couple weeks ago. I made it to enter it into a contest online. There are not that many other movies, and the best 9 movies will be chosen from the top 20 as the winners. Judging by my competition, I think I have a pretty good shot. Here is the video, watch it, sign up for an account, and vote on my video. There is a good privacy policy, so you don't have to worry about them selling your information.



Mozy is the company that is sponsoring this contest. I use the company for my online backup. They provide 2 GB of free backup for anyone on their home computer. It is automated, so you tell it what folders or files you want backed up, and it will upload them to the backup servers every night. I like that because I have all my work and grad school files backed up, and then I don't have to worry about losing them. If my hard drive fails, I won't lose all those documents. Here is a referral link, click on the free 2 GB link on the right side of the page, and you will get 256 MB free on top of your 2 GB.

The above video clip is a public service announcement about the Digital TV transition that will take place in February, 2009. Since the clip is from Hulu, I don't think you can view it if you live outside the US.

I can't say I know how that woman feels, but I have seen this problem a hundred times.

Have a Good Life.

In the last post, Lynda asked a bunch of questions about the iPods. I want to answer them here, because it will help me reflect more.

1) How many students are sharing these 3 iPods?
The students are arranged into guided reading groups of 5 or 6. They rotate to different stations around the room, and they use the iPods and share them during that station. So, two people share an iPod.

2) What apps are loaded on the ipods?
eReader - an e-book reader app.
Stanza - another e-book reader app.
Wurdle - A Yatzhee-type of word game.
Word Whirl - You get seven letters and you have to make words that are from 3 to 7 letter long.
World Wiki - A wiki for every country in the world.
American Heritage Desk Dictionary - Apparently a pretty popular dictionary. Who knew?
Declaration and Constitution - Some historical documents that most people feel are pretty important.
iFlipr Lite - Flashcard app.
Flashcards - A good flashcard app that allows you to add pictures and photos to the flashcards. Very much worth the $2.99
Kid Book Envi - This is a cool app that allows you to read kids' books. Very cool.
There are a lot of great apps and I will probably buy more, because there are so many neat things.

3) How long is an ipod "session"?
They get 10 minutes at each station, so 10 minutes on the iPods.

4) How do you decide who uses the ipod? Is there a schedule? Is it time-based, or project-based?
That is, does a slower student get more time than a quicker student?
This is a good question, and I think that the students feel the best about the situation when they all get equal time on the iPods. One of the apps on there is a book reading app, and I may use that more in the future with the guided reading.

5) Is time on the ipod used as a perk or reward?
This is a touchy area of using technology. Technology is a privilege, not a right. I really want to use technology, and it is easier and more enjoyable for me, and so I try to not take it away. Well, these guided reading groups are not really easier, but they are worth it. I have had to take away the reading groups from one class, and I made that the punishment, not taking away the iPods.

6) What is the ideal ratio of students per iPod?
Ideally, I would want to have 1 student per iPod, but I don't think that is the best way to do it. I think having 2 kids on each iPod is good because they keep each other on task.

7) Does the student do work on the iPod? On a computer? On paper?
They do work on all three. Most of the work on the iPods have been watching instructional videos, where I am teaching something that I recorded previously and loaded onto the iPod.

8) Do you download podcasts from the iTunes store?
I have downloaded a movies from iTunesU that relate to the book that we are reading, Freak the Mighty. There are a lot of useful things from the iTunesU K-12 section that I will use, I am sure.

9) Are the students creating their own podcasts? If so, are they audio only? Video?
They eventually will create some sort of podcast, but that probably won't be done on the iPods unless I can get some microphones that work.

I hope these answers are satisfactory for you. If anybody has any ideas, feel free to let me know.

Have a Good Life.

Due to a grant by our PTSA, I was able to purchase 3 iPod Touches for use in my classroom. I was going to do some unboxing pics, but I was too busy watching Heroes last night to worry about totally geeking out. But, I did get a chance to snap a picture of the three iPods.

Last school year, I talked about my dream of having these in the classroom. I still think it is a good idea, and I think that it will be beneficial for my students.

I bought a bunch of applications, though most of them were free. I have a few that I have been thinking of writing myself (shh, don't tell my wife, she thinks I have too much on my plate already) but I probably won't ever get to it, because it takes so much time to learn something so new to me.

The cool thing is that the kids love it. They would do any assignment I asked of them, just because it is on an iPod. So, where does that leave me?

Here is my philosophy: I don't know what it is yet.

I am bouncing around a few things.

1. Students should use technology to do things that they would do anyways. For example, my students do a quickwrite every so often. Today, they entered their quickwrites in a form on our wiki and all their stories are in a spreadsheet on Google Docs.
2. Students should use technology to do new things that they haven't done before. In other words, this should change the way I teach and the way they learn. For example, I made a video and put it on the iTouches for them to watch, and they received instruction by watching a video so that they could perform their next task.
   
3. Students should use technology so that they are engaged and that is the only reason why.
   

I am amazed at how my students have reacted to the technology in our classroom. They love it. They are much more willing to do what I ask when they get to use technology.

I enjoy their enthusiasm for the technology, because it is something I share, also.

Will you help me clarify my philosophy about technology?

Have a Good Life.

As part of the Engaged Classroom project that our district is sponsoring, we got a sweet document camera, the AverVision 300AF+.







It is perhaps the best piece of technology that I have added to my classroom. Here is why:

1. It is easy to use
2. Everyone can use it at the same time (by looking at it, not directly touching/using it)
3. It allows me to model
4. I can record videos
5. I can take pictures of what the camera is seeing
6. The students know exactly what they need to write down at each stage of an assignment
7. Students (in Language Arts class) can receive immediate feedback from all students on their work
8. It is easier for students to keep up and stay engaged in the lesson
   

If you go to my school website, you can see some videos that I have made of reading strategies. They are pretty boring to watch, but my kids love it when I am doing it live.

I did a small, very unscientific test, to see how well using this worked. In one class, I just gave instructions on an assignment with the document camera, and the students understood, had fewer questions, and paid attention for the entire time. With the other class, I delivered the same instruction, but didn't turn on the document camera. That class was more distracted, had more questions, and did the assignment at a lower quality.

The document camera is a simple thing, but it makes a big difference in student understanding.

Anybody else use a document camera? How do you use it? How can I use mine better?

Have a Good Life.

After two long years of slipping undergrad courses in with my graduate classes*, I have finally obtained my Utah Educator's Level I License. As Staci says, I don't need a piece of paper to show that I am a good teacher. (While that may be true, I do need a piece of paper to keep my job, not necessarily good teaching skills. Is that backwards? Yes.)

Anyway, I am glad to have my license, so only three more years of evaluations and I will be able to be a "career" teacher. Yippee for job security, if I make it that long!

*For those of you who don't know, I graduated with my Bachelor's degree in English, with an emphasis in professional writing, and a minor in Russian. After graduating, I decided that I wanted to be a teacher, and so I went through Alternative Routes to Licensure. The program lets me take a bunch of classes while still having a real teaching job. Personally, I learned far more on the job than I ever learned in the classrooms, and I think I am a better teacher for it. Someday, I'll give my ideas for what a real teacher preparation program should look like.

Dang! I can't discredit this excuse anymore. 10 months old and she is full after just 1/4 of a paper.