This website has a wonderful PDF to download with really great resources about online safety as well as cell phone safety. Advice for parents, how to talk to kids, socializing online, communicating online, mobile phones, protecting your computer, parental controls etc.
This project was done by Cassie, who just got a computer 3 weeks ago. How wonderfully creative of her to complete this project about biomes(ecosystems). I love it! It was engaging, technologically sound and the content was presented amazingly well! Why not give our students the choice to present their project in any way they feel works best for them. I know our science teacher loves to have her students present projects in many different ways. How about you? Are you willing to dabble and allow your students to stop making that poster and start creating using some of blooms digital taxonomy?
In the classroom, so much of the bullying happens covertly and is tough to see -
According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2007), about one-third of middle and high school students reported that they’d been bullied in the last six months.
The American Medical Association estimates that two-thirds of students think that schools don’t respond well to bullying. That same study found that 25% of teachers think that bullying is normal behavior and just 4% intervene on behalf of students.
Bullying victims are sick more often. They suffer from the common cold, from stomach cramps, headaches, sore throats, and sleep problems (Journal of the American Medical Association)
Bullying victims miss school. According to the National Education Association, 160,000 students stay home every day because they’re too afraid to come to class.
Students who bully in elementary school keep the bullying pattern throughout their school years. (Scientific American Special Edition)
Bullies don’t suffer from low self-esteem. They’re usually dominant kids and pretty popular, too. They rise to the top of the social order by picking on others. (Scientific American Special Edition)
Bullying hurts. Bullying can take many forms. We all need to do our part to watch for it and stop it at all costs. This is a very important part of our digital citizenship lessons we teach our students. Our kids are connected and using technology more than ever. Children today are now able to bully each other through many online technologies. Whether it is through a text message, an email, an instant message, a comment on a social networking site or another medium, the ease of cyber bullying is scary. There are no face to face interactions between the children, so it is so easy to gang up on other students. It is a lot easier to tease someone or send nasty messages when you do not have to see the other persons reaction.
I encourage you all to please have these conversations with your students, your own children if you have them. Let them know it is OK to tell an adult, a teacher, or a trusted friend. It is nothing to be ashamed of. These children should not have to live with this burden.
Educate them. Tell the kids in your lives that it is not OK to call people names, send inappropriate messages, forward inappropriate messages, taunt someone, gang up on another child, etc. There should be serious consequences for these behaviors.
Read this interesting interview with Jodee Blanco who was bullied her entire life and decided after Columbine, she would become an anti-bullying activist.
Take a minute to read Jeff Utecht's blog posting about what his school is doing with Web2.0 tools. I am sure the children are so excited to get to class each day to work on their learning projects. A flip camera has to be one of the greatest inventions so far. I have only been using mine for a couple of weeks, and I must say, the usability factor is amazing. So easy, anyone can do it, if they can plug in a cord into a USB port. Wa-La, downloaded mini videos or .jpg files ready to edit or use. I hope this is what we want our students looking forward to each day when they come to our schools... fun, exciting, learning environments, where they are free to share with others and collaborate. Do you agree?
Did you know half of Americans use social networks????
Who are the largest population adopting this practice you ask?? Adults 35-54 years of age, where participation has grown by 60%! Read the USA Today blurb.
Snack Culture World- Thoughts of David Kirkpatrick - "Soon the audiences may be more than audiences. Movies may become more "participatory" and the ones who decide what movies will be made, which ones live or die, are us... the people. It will no longer be the movie makers who make the decisions on which movie is sent out to the big screen. "
Bob Sprankle did a podcast about David Kirkpatrick's talk at the BLC09.
Bob Sprankle created this unique and creative video for the BLC09 that is a must see! What would your schools look like if we did not know what schools looked like? Sounds funny, but think about it!
Here is the slideshare presentation from the BLC09 that Bob created.
Lisa Thumann and Liz Davis (both who I wanted to meet, but they left the presentation I was in before I had a chance to introduce myself, actually I chickened out somewhat too!) created this wonderful slideshare of 25 Education Tech Leaders to follow, for the BLC09 conference. This was just one of the many, many, many wonderful presentations going on at the Building Learning Communities 2009 Conference held at the beautiful Park Plaza hotel in downtown Boston last week. I was fortunate to attend one day of the three. I wish I had the money to attend all of the days. I feel like I missed out on so much. There were so many of the wonderful people I follow on twitter and read their blogs who were presenting, but I was unable to see them all. I did introduce myself to a few though! Thank you to David Jakes and David Truss for not thinking I was a weirdo! It always feels so strange to say, "Hello, I love reading your blog and your twitter comments!" Hee - Hee... The best part was to finally meet my web2.0 mentor and teacher, Jeff Utecht, face to face! Very fun! Here is a podcast of Jeff's presentation at BLC09, thank you to Bob Sprankle!
Today I came across this blog post on my Google Reader - Blogush. Isn't this what we want from our students? When watching this video, my first thought was, "How safe the environment must be there for her to take such a huge chance." Don't we all want to create that safe learning environment, which truly let's the children know they are loved, appreciated and truly safe. The environment that fosters learning and taking chances. Where the learning is part of their choice? Wouldn't they be more invested in their learning with some choice? Thank you Paul for a wonderful example of how you taught engagement and provided student choice assessment. Wonderful. PS - My daughter is a dancer, so this is even more touching to me. Maybe I will tell her to try something like this at her school! :)
Well, it is over. It was so close to me this year! Just a mere 480 miles from my home here in NH. I really wanted to go. I just never know how to arrange it, as to have someone other than myself pay for it! Maybe next year I will try to arrange some type of grant money. I would love to go with a colleague as well. Now that would be fun! So take a look around the NECC website and see what was...
Here are just a few things I am going to check out: (A link leads to a million other links.. that is the beauty of the internet!)
As another school year ends today, I look back and think of what I accomplished this year. Did I make a difference? Did I do what I set out to do? Did I teach my students that technology matters in this world and they are a part of something big? Isn't that what it is all about? It is not about me, that is for sure, it is about them. Those impressionable, funny, silly, naughty, middle school kids I love to teach. It is about showing them the way. Teaching them that technology is not just about texting and IMing their friends, but it is a way of life. It is their future. They are just beginning to learn what that all means. I was a small part of that. I hope.
While reading today, I came upon this article by Ben Grey. (Who I admire a lot for his wonderful technology writing and super great blog!) Making A Difference: By Ben Grey, was just what I needed to read about on my very last day of work. I know today, what I do every day; fighting the fight, feeling defeated at times, having people not understand, is all part of the job I call teaching with technology. I am not going to lie to you. It is heartbreaking, sad at times, and down right discouraging to hear the words "no" over and over again without reason. But, what is it all about? It is about the kids. It is about those students who are disadvantaged, do not have the means to own computers, the one's who do not have the best role models, the ones who need us the most. That is why I do what I do. I teach children. I may teach technology, but I teach life lessons. I teach "real" life lessons that matter to them.
But then there are the moments of perspective. The moments when hope glimmers, and we once again remember why it is we fight for the change we believe in. This past week, I was reminded once again why I believe we should continue pursuing student-centered, relevant, technology-rich experiences for our students. I was reminded by Abel Real, a student at East Carolina University, as he spoke before the Committee on Education and Labor. Take the short five minutes and twenty five seconds to watch his story. It's worth every second. ~ Ben Grey - Making a Difference
If this does not make you believe in 21st century skills, I do not know what would! Please take a few minutes to watch this inspirational story.
Where has the time gone. I say I am going to be better about posting to my blog and here I am .. 3 months have passed, and I am finally getting here! Well, since that time, a lot has happened, and I have some neat stuff to share. One of my students, Dylan, was featured on the edutopia.org website as part of the Digital Generation Project. What a great honor for Dylan. What a great kid!
I first knew of Dylan three years ago when he was only a 6th grader at my school, Gilbert H. Hood Middle School, in Derry, NH. One of my colleague's taught Dylan in his computer class and showed me the amazing website projects he was working on called the lil MDG's. I was blown away by the sophistication and creativity they displayed at such a young age. The global collaboration he displayed at such a young age is so inspiring to me. What also amazed me was the social conscience Dylan displayed. Truly inspiring! You have got to check out his website!
So, fast forward to January of this year. I was approached by a film producer and an employee of edutopia (Which is funded by the George Lucas Foundation), to be part of the filming with Dylan. I teach HTML website design and Dylan was in my class this trimester. Sure, this would be fun, I thought. What a neat experience! It was a real live movie scene, with lights, screens, and even a sound man holding a "boom"!
Take a look at the video. I think it came out pretty cool if I do say so my self. I can not be happier to be part of such an amazing student's display of humanitarianism and global concern. Dylan is truly a very special boy who is a wonderful role model for young and old alike!
Today while I was researching information for my first graduate level course that I will begin teaching in July, I came upon this amazing video produced by Peggy Sheehy, Suffern Middle School. This was posted in response to the Net Gen Education Challenge Ning. I have to say, I could not stop smiling while I was watching it. It truly embodies all of the ISTE 21st century skills we can only hope to instill in ALL of our students. This video was posted on the Cool Cat Teacher Blog. ( I love the amazing projects Vicki does with her students and I can only hope to do more meaningful work with my students in the future.) Take a look at this video and tell me what you think!
As I was digging around today, looking through a diigo update email. (love that I am part of a group of fine educators who selflessly post to their diigo accounts to share important readings with me!) I came upon this post from Kevin Jarrett's blog site. "Every educator must watch". Of course I had to do what they were telling me to do and I watched! What a truly inspirational and motivating speech! How amazing for such a young child to capture an audience of 20,000 people. Truly amazing. I then began to read over the comments. Was this student coached and taught to "act" out this speech? Was this a speech written by adults and this student was just the "messenger"? I say yes to both. Was this speech touching and did it make the point? I have to say yes to this question as well. At the heart of it all, it is a small child's voice that we are hearing, telling us something very important. Do not lose sight of what is important to us as educators. We are there for the children. We are there because we chose to do this noble profession. We are truly important to the kids we teach, even if we reach just one of them in our lifetime. We can not lose sight of who we are. We also need to not lose sight of our colleagues and respect them for choosing this noble profession. They may not do things the same as we do, they may not like the way we do things, but we should respect each other and know we are all here for the same reason... to change a child's life. Every educator should watch. Not through a critical and cynical eye, but just because it is a wonderful reminder and affirmation of what we do each and every day.
If youtube is not working, try this link to their site in Dallas.
Thanks so much Jen for the great blog piece about this video. I love it! A great discussion between the great Will Richardson and Howard Rheingold. I think anyone who wants or "needs" to understand what Web2.0 and new technology is all about, should take the hour to view this video. It really makes a lot of sense to me, and really validates my passion for teaching children using web2.0 tools in main stream education.
I was reading Kim Cofino's blog today, and noticed she wrote about Wordle. I am considering myself tagged, and will put my wordle in here to show everyone!
I just finished up a great project with my 7th graders. We wrote an "I Am" poem about themselves, and used all of the words from the poem to create a "visual" poem. It was a lot of fun and really engaged the students. Some even told me they went home and used wordle. Now that is what I like to see! Here is my wordle from my diigo account tags.
