People think I'm geeky. I guess calling this blog, "GeekyMomma's Blog" perpetuates that perception. The truth is though, I'm one of those people who is geeky on one level (social networking and using apps, services and tools in the classroom for example) but definitely not on a technical level. I don't know (or really want to know) WHY things aren't working, I just want it all to work. Is that wrong?
Ask me where certain wires go or why the DVD isn't playing through the projector and I have no idea. Ask me to hook up your printer and computer to your wireless router and I'll be using the manual. I think if you want to rise to true Geek status, then (at the very least) you have to understand where the yellow and red wires go (the first time you try).
So, when I'm hanging around my UberGeeky friends from EdTech and other PLN members, I need to keep this website handy. Too bad there's no App for that!
Next time I hear "The problem is intermittent, bidirectional comms," I'll still not know what the conversation is about but at least I can respond with, "must be a virtual, replicated parity destabilization issue."
Cartoon by Daryl Cagle http://blog.cagle.com/2010/04/21/teachers-in-1960-and-2010/
I saw this thanks to a social networking post by Joe Brennan today and I thought it was blog-worthy. The cartoon definitely depicts the atmosphere in my school. I mean, we have to require that every single assignment that has a grade is signed by a parent and returned (and I have to keep them). We must document every move we make because its not uncommon to be challenged with such nonsense as, "My child never took that test," or "My child says you never taught this."
I got a recent angry note from a parent right before Spring Break about the amount of homework I'd been giving. Turns out there was only one HW assignment (and 3 tests) the entire month. After I responded with an explanation in an email, I never heard back from the parent. I asked for clarification because I was confused at the source of his concern. I offered to make it better, if he could just clarify what the actual problem was. No response.
Really? Does every single thought need to be said? Would our parents have ever behaved in such a childish manner? Do parents today honestly think we are "out to get" their kids? I mean, I LOVE these kids. It's the brightest part of my day when I see them come in first thing in the morning! I spend hours every day thinking of ways to do special things with their children.
Why is this happening and what can we do about it? Are the parents of the students you teach obsessively defensive about their children as well?
The following is a guest post by Earth Day Network, an environmental non- profit based in D.C.
Forty years ago, on April 22, 1970, more than 20 million people converged in small towns and major cities across the United States to help launch the modern environmental movement. That first Earth Day was part teach-in, part call-to-action and part celebration. At Earth Day Network, our Education program continues a successful history of environmental education initiatives dating back to the first Earth Day in 1970. We are continuing this tradition for the upcoming 40th anniversary of the first Earth Day on Thursday April 22, 2010. We have hundreds of resources to help go green and get involved in Earth Day.
Here’s a list of fun activities you can do with your kids to teach them about the environment.
·Pull out invasive plants and replace them with native species.
Janna and Chelsea, a couple of students from Dean Shareski's class at The University of Regina, created these videos for my students. The videos are just a few minutes long and follow the fun theme of "Jay Leno meets Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" The girls ask random university students some basic questions that focus on our science standards, "Can you name the planets?" and "Why do we have seasons?"
We will soon begin our unit on Earth and space science and it will be good for my students to see how well some university students know some of the same concepts they will be expected to understand. I plan to share these videos with my kids and then challenge them to create a project that will explain the concepts to others. This will be a great way to kick off our unit and will give my students a good sense of purpose while working on their projects.
Thanks to Janna and Chelsea for their hard work! Thanks also to Dean for connecting Janna and Chelsea with my class.
Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com, after J. Howard Miller
If you're a teacher who blogs you might want to consider bringing your students in on the action. Why should we have all the fun? Although I have a class blog where I post on behalf of my class, and at times will post student work, that is the space where I control the content.
My students blog over here at my Kidblog site. It's on their own blogs that they control the content and have the ability to manage their own posts and comments. I have my class set up so that I moderate all posts and comments prior to them becoming public. This is an option. Although you can turn this feature off, you can only do it for your entire class, not individual students. There are lots of features that make Kidblog perfect for young bloggers. Some middle school students and probably all high school students would probably feel Kidblog.org is too primary for them. Wouldn't it be great if all students started with something like Kidblog.org in elementary school and by the time they graduated to middle school, they would be ready for the real world of blogging outside the Kidblog space? Here are some reasons why Kidblog is such a good blogging solution for young bloggers:
Simple Wordpress interface - Your students will learn to work in a real blogging environment (Wordpress) but a very simplified version.
Usernames & Passwords- You give the students usernames and when they're ready to log in, they choose their username from a drop-down window. They don't have to remember their usernames (and the usernames do not need to be unique to the Kidblog system - Kidblog takes care of that on the back-end). They WILL need to remember their passwords. Students can't change these, but you can.
Normally on regular blogs, when a new comment is received, the blogger gets an email from the service. On Kidblog however, students don't have email set up, so in order for the students to acknowledge new comments they (up until recently) had to go back and manually check older posts. Now thanks to a recent Kidblog upgrade, when students log in, they can see new comments on their sidebar. This is great for kids who may not remember to go back to older posts to check for comments.
Comments - With a simple checkbox, people can send private comments to the blogger. Teachers can also comment to the blogger without publishing the post. This is important if you want the student to make changes to the post before you publish it. Providing feedback in this manner, really helps students take ownership of their blogs. You can also set the option so that only certain users can comment. Setting it so that only logged in users can comment makes everyone accountable and gives your students a chance to learn how to be a good blogger and commenter. On the other hand, if you are moderating comments and in frequent conversations with your students, you may not feel the need for such tight controls. Either way, these granular controls are nice options to have.
Privacy Options - You can make the blogs as private as you choose. You can even make the posts so private, that only the teacher can read the posts. This might be useful if your students are competing against each other, for example on an essay contest, and you didn't want them to see each other's posts until all submissions are posted.
With the new Wordpress App for the iPhone, you can approve your students posts and comments on the go! I love this. Be sure to enable XML-RPC (required for publishing via iPhone). This is a setting found on your Kidblog dashboard.
You can read about the recent upgrades here and you can watch my (and one of my student's) recent review of kidblog on PalmBreezeCAFE below. My kids enjoy the independence that comes with having their own blogs and their parents feel comfortable knowing that I'm carefully moderating everything that gets posted.
Will we be able to keep our blogs next year?
The latest question from my students is, "Will we be able to keep our blogs next year?" This is something I am struggling with. These are the thoughts that have been running through my head:
They will no longer be my students so it would not be appropriate for me to host/moderate their blogs.
Will next year's teachers be willing to set up something similar and encourage them as have I?
How do I stop them from creating new posts while preserving the current content? Do I just stop approving new posts? Change their passwords?
How do I create a new class space "Mrs. Kolbert's Class" while the old class space is there without breaking the links? (... and so it all makes sense and is easy to navigate.)
How do teachers who blog with their students every year move their students along?
I'm looking forward to your suggestions in the comments. Thanks!
