Tech Talks Episode 2: Photo Slideshow for a Google Site

This week's episode shows teachers how to create a Google Slideshow for photos so they can have a photo slideshow on their website. Remember to check in with the office to make sure that all students in the photos have parent permission to be represented on your classroom website.

As promised last week, watch for a short episode about how to slow down or speed up a YouTube video as you watch it.

Again, if you need one-on-one assistance, just ask.

How Cool Is That?!

photo by John Langley

Wow! What an amazing experience!

Towards the end of a meeting packed week that also included finalizing senior grades and assisting seniors with their graduation slideshow as well as a successful Student Summit for the NetGenEd 2011 project and a photography/art show at the PPHS Ice Cream Social (a fine arts festival), I was running out of steam. I was so worn out tonight that I was wishing that I could call in sick tomorrow, knowing that I could not because there is too much to do.

What rejuvenated me was a chance look at Facebook where I noticed a post that two English students were working on their Post-Modernism Final Exam Project and were streaming the session live on Ustream with the assistance of one of their friends. How could I resist? Shortly after I started viewing the live stream, they got excited that they had a viewer, and I commented on Facebook that it was me. I watched and commented for a while. The students even discussed setting up a regularly scheduled live show - how cool is that?!

I am so thankful that I was able to be an observer of learning outside the classroom. It fired me up again. I don't feel the weight of everything on my "to do" list now. I feel refreshed and ready to go! I could see that the students were excited that I was watching them work and that I was interacting with them during their live performance. Their creativity and ability to make "work" into "play" made me forget about the work I have been doing. One of my personal goals as a teacher has always been to make learning fun, and another has been to create a culture of creativity and problem-solving. These students hit the mark, and I was priviledged to be able to participate.

I also began to reflect on the "work" of one of my colleagues, who posted a song on Soundcloud this week. Ms. McGovern posted "Words for the Wise" to her seniors and "Rockin Guitar Class" among others. How cool is that?!

What about that Student Summit? Students presented in a web conference of a global project while Flat Classroom Project co-founder Julie Lindsay attended from the other side of the globe - how cool is that?!

Students and parents viewed the award winning photography that was on display during the Ice Cream Social - students were eager to show off their work to their family and friends. The choir and band sounded amazing! I actually got the tingling chills that you get when music is so good that it becomes an emotional experience instead of just an auditory experience. How cool is that?!

How do I cap off this week? I get to present a PPEA scholarship to an amazing student at graduation this weekend. How cool is that?!

How do you avoid burn-out? What keeps you fired up and motivated? Leave comments.

How students want to be taught

I have often throughout my teaching career striven to teach students the way that they learn. I take pride in providing a fun and engaging education for students. While I often guess or ask a select few students for their opinions on projects (and luckily have been correct in the past), this time, after having students read an excerpt from Don Tapscott's Grown Up Digital for their NetGenEd project, I decided to have students blog about it. Students consistently mentioned in their blogs that teachers who teach the way that they were taught should rethink their methods. Following are some passages from student blogs regarding education:

"This topic is something i feel very strongly about. After reading about Tapscott's 8 norms, i really realized teachers I come in contact with every day need to change the way they teach. We are in the 21st century in the year 2011. This is the future! So i have to wonder, why are they still teaching the way they did 20 years ago? School is about the STUDENTS. If that means changing up the way you teach to actually get the students involved and interested, then do it. There shouldn't be a question about it. We are bored in the classes that are still using worksheets from 15 to 20 years ago. Everything is evolving in the way we live, so why isn't our education, the most important thing, not doing the same? Interaction is key."

"The first things that teachers must realize is that instead of being angry for our push for complete freedom in the classroom, teachers should embrace the fact that we enjoy taking charge of our own situations and put that into their classrooms."

"Lessons should be entertaining, fast, and collaborative."

"For several years teachers have been using the same teaching techniques. They stand in front of a classroom and lecture about the given topic. Students are supposed to write down and take notes of what the teacher is saying. They give you heavy books and handout worksheets for you to read a[nd] fill out. What theses teachers need to understand is that although this an effective method, times have changed and students learn in a different way now. I believe that with the use of technology we can improve education greatly. This a more modern and effective way than just the old lecture and book work. Give the students something they are familiar with, and something that they will want to use. . . . If we can get teachers to upgrade their lesson plans and teaching styles we can prepare our students better for the future."

"Teachers should try to use the internet for some topics when they're teaching. If they find a video on YouTube, let's say, then they can show their students the related video and get them involved more."

"The importance of personalizing a students education could be the difference from someone graduating and dropping out."

Having honest discussions about Education with students is critical. We need to keep in touch with How students learn as well as what peeks their interests. Lessons need to prepare students for the 21st Century Skills so they are prepared for the next stage in life.

Wiki-Wiki-What? Magic!

"Why isn't this course counted as a computer credit?"

That's a great question . . . I am certified to teach English, but not business/computers.

"Can we ask Mr. Ward [the high school principal] or Mrs. Brandon [the high school guidance counselor] to allow your English class to be counted as computer credit?  We do as much with technology in this class than we do in computer classes."

That's true . . . Mr. Ward checked into that a couple of years ago.  According to the Regional Office of Education, since I am not certified in business or computer technology, I am not regarded as a highly qualified teacher in computer technology.

"But . . ."

Yeah, I know.

While this conversation occurs between students and myself multiple times a year, it doesn't hinder our lessons and projects, nor my style of teaching - geared to prepare students for their futures.  Students just completed the project portion of their semester exam this weekend, analyses of American Romanticism on the PPHS English 332 Wiki.  In striving to create assessments that will realistically test the students over the material and skills that were covered throughout the semester, I decided a continuation of the Wiki created by last year's English students, analyzing American Modernism, was the logical choice for 3/4 of the semester exam grade.  The other 1/4 will be determined from a grammar test on the designated semester exam day.

Perfect!  In the Wiki project, student's will be able to show proficiency in analyzing, evaluating, and writing as well as collaborating and offering constructive criticism.  In the grammar test, students will be able to show proficiency in identifying parts of speech, phrases, clauses, parts of the sentence and in determining words that are being modified by phrases or clauses.

Following are the project expectations:

Project Expectations of American Romanticism Project (3/4 of Semester Exam grade)
Using the Literature Book and additional credible, authoritative sources (no dictionary, encyclopedia, wikipedia-type sites, or spark-note/e-note-type sites), define all Aspects of American Romanticism. Everyone is required to post the Aspects of American Romanticism page. Each student will sign up to analyze one Romanticism short story and one Romanticism poem. Mr. Langley will create pages for each work of literature as students sign up. Students will post their essay assignments and video assignments to the wiki page corresponding to the work of literature they are analyzing.

All work on the wiki is due no later than 12:00 p.m. (noon) on Saturday, December 11, 2010.

Failure to use citations, using citations incorrectly, or claiming another’s work as one’s own is plagiarism and will result in a zero grade for that portion of the assignment.

Reports that are missing components or not formatted properly will not be scored. Be sure to complete all components of the assignment. Late or incomplete reports will not be accepted.
Scoring
The project is worth 300 points of the Semester Exam with the following breakdown (The remaining 100 points of the Semester Exam will come from the Grammar Test on Semester Exam day):

Using Classroom time - up to 25 points (points will be logged each class period)
Posting to the Aspects of American Romanticism page - up to 25 points
Essays:
Each essay (2 essays) - up to 100 points each (Rubric) = 200 possible
Post honest, helpful, and respectful criticisms on the Discussions Tab of 10 of the Romanticism Works pages - up to 50 points



The Following assignment will be on each page created for the work of literature:

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Create a video presentation summarizing your report on each author and embed it into the page

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Delete this text and replace it with your embed code for your video - be sure to use MLA parenthetical citations and place your Works Cited list at the bottom of the page



Write an essay discussing the following points:

1. Thoroughly show how the work of literature fits the definition of Romanticism.
2. Show how the writer’s life affected his/her work.
3. Show how the work compares in style, character, theme, etc. to other works by the author and to your other assigned work.

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Delete this text and replace it with your answer - be sure to use MLA parenthetical citations and place your Works Cited list at the bottom of the page

Once again, the level of writing has made me gush with excitement.  The comments on the discussion tabs have also demonstrated that students are aware of the style rules of formal writing.  The fact that the wiki is a real world product, a research venue for others on the internet with material cited from credible sources, make the learning magic even more powerful.  I love magic!

Writing for a Global Audience - Classroom goes Real World

Students are energized after finding out that their writing is being read globally.

It just got real . . . Real World!  "Canadians love me!" and "Look, Latvia is reading my blog!" and "Wow, they found my blog by searching for Thoreau and Gandhi!" bounced around the classroom.  Today, students were introduced to the Stats tab of their blogs.  It was eye-opening and became a competition for bragging rights for the blog with the most countries viewing it.

Doing their summer reading journals on a blog for their Accelerated English classes (A4 and B1, this group of students have been blogging for me since June.  When school started back up in late August, the blogs evolved into a creative writing journals as well as a means to publish literary analysis assignments.

Students were told from the beginning that having their writing online meant that the world would see their writing.  Writing this year has been much better than in years past when the writing was just between the student and myself.  There are still some minor grammar mistakes and some typos here and there, but the work is considerably more polished than the work that was stuffed in the "in box" organizer of the past.

Now that the students have realized that people are reading their blogs, they are more attentive to their writing.  Some were confused that people were reading their blogs but were not commenting.  They have heard of  "lurkers" before, and we discussed how most people are comfortable reading the blogs, but not so comfortable adding a comment to a blog of someone that they do not know.  I told them that it is a matter of time before they start seeing comments from people that they do not know.

Because the quality of writing and analysis has been increasing, I also announced that I will be choosing a Student Highlight a few days each week.  I will tweet out a student's blog on #edchat and #engchat.  I will announce the blog as a Student Highlight and will ask for comments.  As page views increase, I am confident that the writing will continue to improve.

The audience just went from "public" to "scholars" in a matter of moments.  While they are excited to see their published writing being viewed, I am ecstatic to see them so excited about their writing!  The energy in the classroom is amazing!  Throughout my teaching career I have been striving to bring bits of the Real World into the classroom - now, bits of the classroom are being taken to the Real World.

YouTube Lesson

The logic was that I was not going to be at school, and I wanted to cover an Introduction to Argumentative Writing lesson with the English class.  I used CamStudio to record a narrated PowerPoint presentation that I would have presented if I were there.  I posted the video to YouTube and embedded it in Mr. Langley's Digital Classroom in the Video Lessons page with specific instructions about how to connect up a laptop to both the projector and the auxiliary cable running to the stereo.   I felt pretty good that I would not "lose" a day because I couldn't be there.  Unfortunately, the sub accidentally bypassed that part of the lesson, for whatever reason - I'm assuming that it was because she was nervous (from what the class relayed to me).  Anyway, I assigned the video for homework after I found that the class did not know what I was talking about when I started discussing the next step of argumentative writing.  Following is the video: