Week 5-Why Reinvent the Wheel?

Hello Bloggers,

There are times when I come to a lesson and think one of two things: 1) How can I make this lesson more relevant for this year's group of students or 2) I have taught this lesson roughly five million times and I want to change it up a little. In an attempt to remedy one, or both, of these dilemmas I often get on the web and open up Google. I always think I can quickly search the web for a simple addition to a lesson plan, but more often than not this consumes much more time than originally planned. This leads us to the focus for this week.

Teachers First is a teacher resource site that can eliminate the pain and agony of investing a great deal of time trying to figure out how to spice up a lesson. The resources found on this site are endless; from entire grade and subject-specific lesson plans to the "websites of the week" section. This is a website that should be on your favorites list.


Your assignment for this week is to check out the website and post about a tool, lesson plan or idea from the site you found useful or that you could possibly use in the future.

Week 4-Seek and Ye Shall Find (a Threaded Discussion Add-on for Your Blog)

Some of you may be using the discussion feature on your SWIFT site to communicate with parents and/or students. (If you want to learn more about using the discussion feature of SWIFT, see page nine of the SWIFT User Guide.) However, one of the limitations of the SWIFT discussion feature is that the discussions aren’t threaded. This means that as parents/students post comments, the comments simply appear in chronological order, making it difficult for the teacher to respond to a particular comment that may have appeared early on in the discussion. Threaded discussions allow people to respond to particular comments; they allow the conversation to branch off into different directions. Specifically, your reply to a particular comment appears directly below that comment, tabbed over.

Unfortunately, Blogger (the tool we’re using for this class/blog) also doesn’t offer threaded discussions, making it difficult for me (or you) to reply directly to someone’s comment. (See image on top right) However, a solution was found! Last year, Kimberly added a program to the blog that allowed for threaded commenting. (See image on bottom right.) We are using it this year. (If during our class you see someone else’s comment you’d like to comment on, go ahead—that can count as your comment.)

So this week’s lesson has two themes (see below). Chose one to comment on this week (each theme has two prompts to choose from).

Theme 1: Using online discussions (SWIFT or other tool) with students or parents
a. If you have experience with online discussions, what tips do you have to share? What have been the benefits?
OR
b. What might be some ways you could incorporate online discussions into your class? If you’re new to this tool, what questions do you have for those who already use it?

Theme 2: If you believe it should be possible, it probably is—all you have to do is look.
(Back story: Kimberly knew Blogger didn’t offer threaded discussions, but she figured that she was not the only person who wished it did, so she Googled “adding threaded discussion to Blogger.” That led her to a blog post about third party applications she could add to the blog to increase interactivity. That’s where she learned about Intense Debate—the application we're using to provide threaded discussion for our class on this blog.)

There is a solution out there for most of our challenges if we look and are willing to invest in a little risk taking. If Kimberly had seen this issue as a problem, she may have just accepted it (no threaded commenting) and would not have investigated further. However, she felt comfortable taking matters into her own hands and did some self-directed learning—something I think we (and our students) are going to be expected to do more and more of in this new digital world. In my role (as a teacher, TTTL and now as a tech coach), I am confronted by this day after day. I can't tell you how many times I have started a Google search with "How do I..." With that said...

a. Share a time you went online with a question/challenge and “taught” yourself how to do something new.
OR
b. Do it now . . . what’s a question/challenge you have in your class right now? Go online and look for your solution. How did it go?

Week 3-What's Better Than a Field Trip? A Virtual Field Trip!

A virtual field trip is a guided exploration through the web that organizes a collection of pre-screened, thematically based web pages into a structured online learning experience. It is an inter-related collection of images, supporting text and/or other media, delivered electronically via the World Wide Web, in a format that can be professionally presented to relate the essence of a visit to a time or place. The virtual experience becomes a unique part of the participants' life experience. (Nix, 1999)

It's always easier to use someone else's definition than to come up with one of your own. We have been hearing the importance of incorporating technology into lessons in order to make them more engaging for students. However, this can prove to be a difficult, time-consuming task, often leaving one foaming at the mouth shouting expletive deleteds at the computer. Virtual field trips can help curb this anger.

Virtual field trips can look quite different, depending on their creator. There are virtual field trips that create a 360 degree atmosphere where you can navigate the page, almost like you are walking on the Great Wall of China. Then there are virtual field trips that are several pages, much like a powerpoint presentation, that incorprate pictures, words, sounds and/or videos.


The assignment for this week is to take a look at one or all three of these websites (http://oops.bizland.com/vtours.htm http://toursfromabove.com/ www.theteachersguide.com/virtualtours.html). These websites contain several virtual field trips.

Your blog post for this week should answer the following questions: How easy/difficult would it be for you to incorporate a virtual field trip into one of your units/lessons? Did you find a particular virtual field trip that you might use in the future?

Week 2-The Best Classroom Blogs

Hello Bloggers!

Some of you may be wondering either a) what are the benefits of setting up a classroom blog or b) how you can improve the classroom blog you already have in place. Edublogs.com is a website designed specifically for educators who are interested in using technology as a tool to communicate with students and parents. Each year they choose the top blogs for several different categories, such as best student blog and best teacher blog.

For those wanting to know more about the benefits of blogging, you should check out the top 10 ways to use blogs to teach. Technically, this link will lead you to the top reasons to use “edublogs” to teach, but they are applicable to any blog you may create from any site. Also, you don't have to search far and wide to find good blogs; just take a look at what our very own Melissa Morlock has created for her fourth grade class at Lake Wilderness.

After looking over these reasons, check out the awards for the top teacher blogs for 2009. For the post this week, please tell us about which teachder blog you found to be your favorite and why. In your post, please include the link to that blog. Before you post your comment, please be sure your first and last name is on your post or your first name with your last initial. This immensely helps the process of making sure you get checked off for class credit.

Although the discussion for this class takes place on a blog, the primary focus for this class, ironically, is not blogging; we are merely using this blog to foster discussion and unearth new technologies that may be useful in your classroom. If you currently have or are planning to create a classroom blog, please take a look at these helpful hints, guidelines and other policies through sharepoint: Intranet, Teaching and Learning, Technology, Teacher Technology Resources, Blogging.

Week 1-Welcome to the Elementary Learn and Earn Class!

Welcome, everyone!

Over the course of the next 10 weeks (excluding breaks, of course), I'll be sharing a variety of technology tools and resources with you. I'll be using this blogging format to post a new "lesson" each week (on Tuesdays). Along with reading and following the directions in each week's post, I'll prompt you to offer a comment related to that week's lesson.

Since we're using a blog for this class, this week's lesson is intended to help you become familiar with how blogs work. Begin by watching this short video from the geniuses (I think) at Common Craft:


If you liked the way the Common Craft folks explain things, check out their other Explainations in Plain English; you'll be glad you did. (I particularly like Zombies in Plain English, but I digress.)

As mentioned in the video, one of the perks of blogging is the community it creates. One way we'll be taking advatage of that feature is through commenting. Commenting on a blog is easy. Simply look for the comment link at the bottom of a post. Click on it to leave your comment. After you've typed in your comment, you will be asked to identify yourself. This video shows you how:

Posting a Comment to the Learn and Earn Blog from 10Tech on Vimeo.

So there you have it! This week's lesson is nearly complete. But before we're done, you need to post a comment. Since we're just getting started I'd like your comment to introduce yourself. Include why you're taking this class and what you're hoping to learn. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them.

Just a reminder, comments are due by Tuesday morning, 8:00 a.m. NO LATE WORK. (However, I do know that sometimes life gets in the way of even the most interesting of blog posts, so during the week of Thanksgiving and again during the winter break, I'll post an optional prompt. These two posts will not be required required for clock hours UNLESS you have "make up" work to do because you missed responding to a post (or two).) Have a great week!