A trip to the zoo

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

A trip to the zoo

View more presentations from dforcht.

Another Use for Digital Storytelling

My father passed away unexpectedly in January. As a result, I received a photo album full of pictures, many from days before I was born or when I was very young. My mother passed when I was only 21, so there are photos from the early days of those, as well.

I have been scanning these photos, a little at a time, and I was just going to burn them to a disc for each of the kids, my sister's kids, and my brother's. But now I'm thinking I should use photo story and narrate some of them with family history that I do know.

My nana is 83, and I would love to sit down with her and record family history and lay that audio under some of the photos as well. This will preserve her voice, her memories, and the photos for generations to come.

Thoughts...

As the beginning of the next school year approaches, and our site visit slated for October, I am wondering about my library curriculum and how I can best go about improving the offerings for students, particularly at the high school. I know a big key is getting the high school teachers to collaborate, but they are so resistant, I am unsure how to proceed.

Thinking back to when I was teaching, I did tend to fly solo a lot. But I also don't remember anyone reaching out to me. I did make an effort to co-teach with the art teacher in a unit called "Poems on Paintings." And I tried to encourage my students to bring up issues or examples they were discussing in other classes in order to make those cross-curricular connections that are crucial to a well-rounded education and critical thinking. But, finding teachers who really wanted to team teach or work collaboratively was so much work, that it was just easier to keep doing it on my own.

These are all issues I shall continue to ponder as I strive to encourage more collaboration and team work at all grade levels.

Reading: Window and Mirror

I keep coming back to the ideas that we talked about in Curriculum and in Administration about the essential questions that are crucial to our work as teacher librarians. It seems to me that the importance of early literacy is even more crucial now that there are so many ways to read.

If a student wants to follow blogs or post on Facebook or participate in the digital revolution, it seems more urgent than ever that we as educators find ways to ensure that students master learning to read so that they can better read to learn.

I feel inadequately trained in teaching reading because I was a secondary teacher before coming to the library. I realize that elementary teachers are truly amazing in all the things they have to help students master, and the more I read about early literacy, the more it seems to me that this nation needs to get on board with preschool programs and other efforts to help our children become the readers they will need to be.

If illiteracy is hard in the traditional classroom setting, the difficulties that must be overcome in the digital world may become insurmountable for students who may struggle with manipulating a tool that is predicated on a literate user. You can only surf videos and via point-and-click for so long before needing to digest the information. And though we have assistive technology, having the computer read everything to you robs the information of voice, context, and interpretation by the reader.

We cannot allow the digital divide to grow from a trough to a canyon, stranding a significant portion of our student population on one side. The future depends upon our ability to see forward and reflect back.

Blogging in the Classroom

Warschauer, Mark. (Feb 2010). Invited commentary: New tools for teaching writing. Language, Learning, and Technology. 14 (1).

This article discusses the value and differences of using wikis, blogs, and netbooks for teaching writing with both general ed students and ESL students. There are many articles out there that discuss specifics, but Warschauer provides a basic overview of the technology and its use.

I did not realize that the development of blogs and the blogosphere had increased the amount of writing so much, but I guess that's because I'm not an active blogger. (I heard an article on NPR about the evolution of the word "blog" and the guy who first coined it hates the word!)

Beyond that, I am thinking about ways to make teacher-student writing/editing/grading and student-student peer editing more user-friendly. Regardless of which method we choose, whether it's a blog or Google docs, it is imperative to introduce the technology to teachers first, and get them comfortable using it so that they can then use it with students.

So much to do! So little time. :/

What I'm Reading...

I admire Carol Ann and many of the other teacher librarians who spend their summers reading the Iowa Children's Choice Award books or other books on lists of note. I realize that this would be an easy fit for the summer (if I didn't have classes) but I really enjoy reading OTHER stuff in the summer.

Believe me, I have a stack of OUGHT TO READ, and a list of NEED TO READ, but on my night stand is the stack of what I WANT TO READ. This summer, I've read Half-Broke Horses by the author of The Glass Castle, U is for Undertow which was actually very good, Feed which creeped me out, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (I'm actually reading this aloud to my husband as we do our driving--LOVE IT!), and I am currently trying to choke down James Patterson's The Fifth Horseman. It's awful. I don't know why I continue, but I kind of feel like a bad book is like a bad movie...you have to get through the whole thing so you can REALLY trash it later.

I also have a book about professional portfolios that I picked up on the free table at AEA 267. I didn't really want this book, but I felt like it would be wise to grab it. And apparently, it's a good thing, because even though I find the "professional portfolio" to be an exercise in busy work, it's going to be a driving force in the new education reform movement. I recognize how it could be a great reflection tool, but mostly it's used as a checklist item. And there's nothing tied to it--no raise, no incentive, just a slap on the wrist if you don't get it done.

However, we also have to have one to graduate from the UNI program, not just for the Automation class, so I'm starting to think about how I want that to look. I'm still not thrilled about it, finding it just another hoop to jump through; but, I'll do it. Sometimes it's just easier to go along than ask "why?" and "for what?"

Beyond all that, I have given my husband two books by Cory Doctorow. I think that I will have to read them when he's done. Doctorow wrote Little Brother, which I loved, and my husband liked it, too. His writing is well-researched and plausible enough to be a bit frightening.

And I discovered some new books for my kids...Spoon, Yes! Day, the Ladybug Girl series, and Suzanne Collins' Gregor the Overlander series. I can't wait for my copy of Mockingjay to arrive! And I think my husband may offer to go finish typing up the fourth book in the Inheritance series by Christopher Paolini.

So much to read; so little time!

Balancing Time and Technology

Paula brought up a great point about how teachers frequently complain about the time factor when technology is in use. I must agree that at our middle school, the bandwidth is so low that no one wants to use the wireless laptop labs. And in the hardwired lab, it seems like the connection is so slow that students become easily frustrated. We are actually taking advantage of the Microsoft Settlement money to use it for hardware purchases that we were planning for anyway, and diverting district resources to upgrading the whole shebang. We'll see if it works.

I just wish that many of my colleagues were less interested in covering everything--in order--in an effort to get through the textbook. I have repeatedly tried to convince my colleagues that the textbook is a tool, not the rule. I guess I have the advantage of having to teach subjects that didn't really have a textbook, so I have always had to develop my curriculum and create my own materials. And as a result, I began using online chat to work with students after hours as they wrote debate cases or as a group if we wanted to try and think on a topic brought up in class and then work through it later that evening at home.

I have coached students using Skype (which I don't care for) and I have used Google Talk and Video chat to make contact as well. But again, we're back to time. Technology is the perpetual double-edged sword. It cuts us a break, making us more productive and allowing us to work smarter, and it cuts back at us, demanding more of our precious time, making the work day extend from our traditional 8 am to 4 pm to a seeming 4 am to 11 pm.

Finding a balance is going to be important.

Cognitive Strategies

I was intrigued by articles that Elaine suggested concerning Cognitive Apprenticeships, and as I read, I discovered the underlying basis behind think aloud strategies. I use these with all levels of students as I walk them through processes that I am trying to teach. For instance, for a collaborative research project on historical fiction with the 7th grade Language Arts teacher, I also researched and wrote the paper. I then used my work as an example of the process I went through to generate an idea, create an outline, locate research, develop an essay, and writing the works cited page. This actually worked better than I anticipated, and I think the students enjoyed the process.

At the elementary, our teachers utilize CGI or cognitively guided instruction to teach students the fundamentals of math. I must confess this process drives me insane because I actually like rote memorization when it comes to math. I don't have to "think" about how much 9 X 8 equals. I just know. It works for me. I memorized all the formulas in geometry and algebra and chemistry. And I knew when to use them. And at the time, I knew how to use them. Of course those brain cells were destroyed by atrophy because I don't teach math, but every once in awhile, I can dredge up the necessary knowledge to calculate how much tile I need for a bathroom floor or how much paint I need for a room. But I couldn't use a graphing calculator to save my life--unless I can throw it at the threat creating a distraction for my escape!

I must admit that I do find the constructivist approach to knowledge and learning to be an attractive alternative to the drill and kill strategy. And learning by doing is great, as long as what you're learning to do has value outside of the classroom environment. I do believe that students create their knowledge base, and part of our role as educators is to help them make sure that base is a wide, solid platform, and not a spindly, rickety table upon which to build the rest of their house of knowledge. We must bridge the gaps for those students who have not had much exposure and for those students who believe they know everything.

Documentary Storytelling

I am a fan of documentary film. I know that some might cast me into the tree-hugging, hippie lot because I have watched the work of Michael Moore, and maybe I am. But I think the best thing about Michael Moore and other documentary film is it makes me think. I don't always like the things it makes me think about, but nonetheless, my values and belief systems are challenged.

One of the most liberating things about social media and the accessibility of mobile video is that everyone can become a storyteller. Sometimes those stories are the goofy work of my 13-year-old making little movies about his action figures using his cell phone (and many of us have seen those works posted on YouTube.) And sometimes those stories are live or recorded broadcasts of social justice or injustice, like the activists assembling to protest in Egypt or Iran on the prompt of a Twitter feed, or the capture of police brutality on a street in Chicago, New York, or Los Angeles.

This is actually one of the most frightening things about accessible social media. Suddenly, everyone is potentially a subject. There are stories of teachers being recorded ranting at students, individuals taping themselves in illegal acts or inappropriate activities, and kids bullying other kids no matter the location. The voyeurs find themselves captivated by reality broadcasts, the morally righteous find justification for their outrage and the need to dictate behavior, the morally repugnant find an audience of like-minded sympathizers, and the list can go on and on.

But as it is with everything, tools like these are the instruments of good or evil depending upon who wields them.

However, there is perhaps a lesson for us to consider as educators. How do we teach students to be intelligent critical consumers of social media, television, advertising, and other targeted marketing? And how do we do it without inflaming that segment of the population that already believes that schools are tools of the left, instruments of the secular humanists, out to brainwash their kids into being ...(insert evil music)...Democrats!

I don't like to think about the implications of social media tools becoming a way of controlling behavior, a big brother-esque movement to quash inappropriate behavior or to promote some insidious groupthink. But I always fall back onto the notion that the answer to bad speech is not no speech, it's MORE speech. As long as regulators, whether governmental, parental, social, or institutional, don't shut down the means of production or the people who have thoughts from which we could really benefit don't self-censor and fail to share.

New Puppies!

Not sure what we're thinking! We went for one, and ended up with two. They are pretty and sweet boys, and Daddy says they should only weigh about 60 pounds...each.

These guys are Gandalf (8 lbs) and Kalypso (7 lb 1 oz). They're still very much babies, and potty-training is very hard!

Narrative Theory

I've been thinking about the concept of "story" and the study of narrative theory as it pertains to educational opportunities. When I taught Advanced Placement Psychology, one of the items on the test was a section about all the old, dead people who were the philosophers, scientists, sociologists, and doctors that developed the discipline. I found a book called The Story of Psychology and I chose to read little snippets in conjunctions with presentations I had students do on each of the biggies, like Freud, Pavlov, Descartes, Locke, Jung, James, Skinner...(you get the idea.)

My students really enjoyed this aspect of learning about the people, because they didn't just have to memorize information for regurgitation on a timeline. The interrelationship of these people to the discipline, their historical context, and the impact on our current understanding of psychology is fascinating when the people are brought to life and not just a list of data.

It also created fascinating conversations about what they were learning in history, science, math, and literature. I made a pointed effort to connect what we learned in AP Psych to what they were doing in other classes, because I wanted them to understand the value of a broad based education. In order to understand why YOU do what YOU do, you need to understand yourself, as well as why other people do what they do. And then you can understand why you feel what you feel, think what you think, and then you can know WHO YOU ARE.

A Trip to the Zoo 7 minute version.wmv

Digital Storytelling Experience

As I thought about this project and all the stories I wanted to tell, I was presented with a great opportunity. My daughter wanted to take her baby brother to the zoo! I decided that I would take pictures as we went along and see if I could turn it into a story for both of them to remember the day.

The hard part has been taking over 120 photos, and cutting it down to a reasonable size. Additionally, I think the music and pictures convey the story well, and my narration adds little to the overall effect...except maybe for outside viewers.

This version is 7 minutes long, and I think it also might be useful to prepare our 1st graders (who take a zoo trip every May) for their trip to the zoo, if they've never been.

TeacherTube.com

TeacherTube.com

Technology Thursday!

Wow! Today we had an amazing introduction to a variety of tech resources, both hardware and software. What a varied and talented group of people we have in our class to demo all this technology. We should go on the road as a trade show. If only we could get the product sponsors to pay us to do it!

The exposure to these new products is great, but the hard part is using it. It's overwhelming to try and know how to use all the different products available--for instance, all the presentation software from PowerPoint to Keynote to Animoto; but it seems that as teacher librarians, we are expected to know...or at least figure out how to help people figure out how to use if for themselves.

There just aren't enough hours in the day!

Storytelling

One of my favorite things to do is listen to stories. I own a complete collection of the works of Celestial Navigations, a group devoted to creating original stories and setting them to music. Geoffrey Lewis, an actor you know when you see him, is the storyteller, and there are musicians who frame the story as he tells it with music and sound.

I am also a big fan of National Public Radio. I particularly enjoy listening to programs, like Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion or This American Life, where I can listen and imagine.

I also think one of the best parts of being a teacher librarian is having the opportunity to read great stories to kids, and adults. In fact, on occasion I show up in the office with a book and read to the secretaries and the nurse. (It's a great way to engender support for the library program!)

Getting Started

There are so many options for tweaking the blog! I think the idea of an online journal is fine, but it's not something that I find I will dedicate my time. I can barely keep my Shelfari account updated!