THERE IS NOTHING WRONG HERE

I have been working this weekend to get ready for my turn to do the Web 2.0 online training. I am worried that the 7 session format will not be enough to get teachers started with some Web 2.0 applications. I have sent emails to EDC and DOE about following up with more support and more direct workshop on blogging, wikis, podcasting, etc.

Maybe just getting some teachers to read and write personal blogs will be a start. After a year of my own edtech journey I have come to think that reading and blogging for a couple of months would be a good idea. Edtech has been picking up steam over the last year and newbies would benefit from joining a Virtual Learning Network.

I think I will start by having “students” get a del.icio.us account and joining each others network. Then just read three bloggers and set up Bloglines or Google reader. They need two weeks to complete each assignment, one week is not enough to reflect and absorb all the new information being thrown at them.

I signed up for a class blog at 21classes.com and at classesblogmiester.com. I need to get the PREP program blogging and to have some familiarity with at least 2 blogging platforms before I try to teach.

My wiki is also being updated so that I can use it as a teaching tool with the ETLO class. I need to transfer the wiki class I made for the LPVEC wiki to my wiki so I can share it.

While reading several edtech journals I was struck by the images of students setting in rows behind computer monitors, while at the same time reading articles about how technology is changing education. When a school has desktop boxes and CRT’s there may not be a better choice when you are teaching computer applications. In my classroom there are 6 desktop with CRT’s, and my aid and I each have a computer. They are set against the wall and all networked. I struggle weekly to use the computers as just another tool, like a calculator or pencil, in delivery of the curriculum. There are not enough computers for every student so I have them work in teams.

The last project was using the scientific method, they had to determine which of three paper towels was the most absorbent. I created a classroom wiki with the directions, an outline, and a rubric. Each student had an account to access the wiki and they worked in teams of 3 or 4. These are special ed high school students in a vocational school and they had developed sense of learned helplessness over their years in the  special ed classrooms. I wanted them to begin to take charge of their own learning so other than the directions on the wiki I gave them very little direction. They had to email me or contact me though the discussion function of the wiki. During this time I was in New Mexico for a week and kept in touch through the wiki discussion.

For the first 2 days they just sat at the computers and waited for myself or the aid to help, we just went about our business. When the students would ask specific questions I would answer. They finally finished the project, I had to give them an extra week, and now I want to use some photos I took when they were doing the experiment to make a PowerPoint.

The school does have a computer lab, but I don’t believe the students could have had the same experience their. For one thing just scheduling time in the lab is always a problem. In the classroom I just make the time.  If students had laptops they would always have access to the curriculum, each other, and the world. A few students actually did work on the wiki at home, which is what I encouraged them all to do.

So I guess the computer lab is a first step to integrate technology into the curriculum and I hope it is not the last.

We had to put our Hannah dog to sleep today. Sleep is a good description for her because she has been sleeping 20 hours a day. Hannah would have been 16 years old in February and she was really feeling her age. As happens to many dogs her rear hips were going and it was getting more and more difficult for her to walk much less stand. She was only about 35 pounds so we could carry her up the stairs. She so wanted to go for a walk, but to the mail box and back was enough for her. She has always been a picky eater, but she had stopped eating and was getting thin.

We have had Hannah since she was a puppy. She was a Chow/Lab and had the best of each breed. She really enjoyed being with other dogs and could never figure out why some dogs just wanted to fight. When we went camping she became the guardian of the camp site and watched the woods for any threats. She enjoyed going on trips and made friends where ever we went. Hannah loved going cross country skiing and would come home with snowballs stuck in her fur. She tolerated our cats, her best friend was our cat Nellie who will miss Hannah as we all will.

The emotional release has been interesting. Nena and I feel deep sadness mixed with a sense of relief that something is completed. For the last year Hannah has been like living with an elderly aunt. We could never leave her alone for long and trying to find a food she could eat and would eat was a constant worry. As every responsible dog owner knows, they are not far from your thoughts everyday. If you can not take your dog with you, even for a day, it limits your options. Nena and I have had a lot of dogs and it seems like the last one we had was the best.

One more week of a 10 week online workshop until I am a certified Web 2.0 trainer. Five states, NY, MA, VA, MD, ME received grant money from AT&T to train 5 teachers in each state to become online trainers of Web 2.0 tools. The training was provided by Educational Development Center.

One aspect of the training that I enjoyed was the virtual meeting of other teachers involved with ed-tech. Many school school systems only have one technology teacher who is so busy they don’t have time to connect with others. I wish I had been able to do more online chatting, but the timing was off. It would have been fun to set up a Skype video cast and practice using some of Skype’s tools.

The training helped us get ready for using online tools for teaching, but there was no training of the use of Web 2.0 tools, it was assumed we were all proficient, which some were not. Even though I have been using web 2.0 for over a year I am continuing to learn. Working with a seasoned blogger would be a great learning experience. Maybe some of the experienced education bloggers could mentor other bloggers who are still learning the craft.

I just hope that school systems and the state DOE continues to support teachers after they complete the initial introduction workshop we will be teaching.

Remember when Christmas used to be fun? We were children and we did not have to worry about what to get our co-workers or aunt Mary. But, when we gage our national financial health by Black Friday and how well Wal-Mart does, times have changed. Everyone complains about the Christmas shopping madness, still we keep walking like consumer zombies to the malls. Who are we trying to please. That child of the past who still got excited about Christmas morning? Is this a yearly effort to relive childhood fantasies? Christmas at its heart is a religious holiday. Does Santa represent a more accessible God?  Could we change this madness, most adults complain about the commercialization of Christmas and its loss of religious significance. So why do we keep doing what we say we don’t want to do?

The photo is of Nena, my wife, and her brother Gary.

During the Bodhisara Sunday meeting it occurred to that sitting gets me ready to learn when I am not meditating. After several years of meditating on and off I have not had any insights or enlightenment experiences while sitting. Any insights I have had have come when running, driving, listening to music, reading, or talking with friends.

So maybe for me, meditation gets me ready to deeply listen to myself and others. I do feel more open and less closed to experiences when ever they happen.

I went to the Christa McAuliffe Tech Conference yesterday for the first time. I usually go to the MassCUE tech conference, but I was in NM at the time. Will Richardson was the keynote and I have to admit I am a bit of a groupie. I don’t know where he gets the energy, traveling from workshop to conference must be tiring. With each workshop I have with Will I come away with a deeper connection with technology and education.

The ETLO workshops will be over soon and the real work of signing up and training other teachers will start. As I was communicating through the wiki with other members of the MA team I felt I was working on an island and wanted more personal connection with other edtech teachers. maybe we can get together this summer for a technology “camp” and emerse ourselves in tool and content. I feel like I am always wanting more time to sit and really work through ideas/connections/tools/curriculum so that it becomes second nature. That is the problem with the Edtech conferences, I get an hour with Will, he touches on a few basic concepts and I have a few notes with ideas, the next time I get real time to set with the ideas and tools may be a month later.

At least it is grist for the blog.

may all being find peace

Sandia Mts. from Rio Grande River

Visited my family in New Mexico two weeks ago (parents and 4 brothers). I was able to record my mom and dad as they told stories about growing up in the ‘20 and 30’s. New Mexico was still the wild west then. I hope to edit and then post some of their stories on this blog, they will enjoy it.

Albuquerque keeps growing and is becoming a mini-LA. Neither Nena or I want to move back there, we enjoy New England too much, give me a blizzard any day over a forest fire and drought.

I tried to contact the edtech teacher at my old high school, Manzano, but he never returned my call or email. They have a connection to a super computer at Los Alamos and it would be fun to see what they are doing with technology.

I successfully completed a Skype video connection with my classroom in MA from NM. The ease of setting up Skype and the webcam is scary. Now the hard part, how to use this technology in the curriculum. A place to start would be to connect classroom within the Collab.

As we work on curriculum development we can identify teachers who have a “best practice” lesson already developed. As we all know , especially in SPED, trying to be an expert in all the curriculum areas is impossible. With Web 2.0 tools we can teach to our strengths and share them with students not in our classroom.

I started this blog post a month ago so I want to finish it and start blogging regularly again. 

The days fly by when 43 high school students come and go through your classroom in a day. At the middle school the regular ed teachers would congratulate me on my ability to work with 8 difficult students. I have always admired teachers who can work with a 100 students a day.

I was able to get rid of the desks in my room and replace them with tables. What a radical idea. The desks were these large metal and plastic traps that gave the room a somber feeling. They were not inviting at all.

The most challenging aspect so far has been to try and meet the individual needs of all the students. Alison, Melinda and I re-shuffled the students into more homogeneous groups and that has made it a little easier. I also decided that most of the students need to develop their basic math skills before moving on. There is a basic math textbook in the classroom, but there are only 10, and it does not include enough repetition for real learning to take place. I have a math series that breaks down basic skills and has plenty of practice. Most of the class has moved through division and is now working on fractions, a few students are still learning their multiplication facts. Three students are “testing out” and moving onto algebra.

Keep moving forward.