A New Online Textbook

The Senior British Literature/ Composition class at my school has an excellent literature book, but it does not have a section specifically dedicated to grammar. There is a short section in the back of the book that can assist students with questions, but nothing as expansive as I was looking to use this year. To solve the problem, I tried something in class that is working very well.

Each student was given a concept or group of concepts to research on the internet. He/ she had to define their concept, give two examples of each concept, find five links for additional information, and finally find two PowerPoint presentations online to help other students with the concept. The students put the information on a wikipage that I made within my wiki. I opened up the wikispace for about a week to editors and all students were able to create their own ‘chapter’ of our online textbook.

I considered assigning each student to create a PowerPoint, but thought that it was not necessary. The concepts that we are reviewing in class have been taught many times before to them and they should have a solid understanding of them as Seniors. Also, the underlying technology aspect of this lesson was to teach the students how to use a wiki, not to create a PowerPoint. While at a collaboration course last week, I learned that First Graders at our school are creating PowerPoints. The Seniors can be working on more in-depth technology lessons. To find the PowerPoints online I also took a moment and we reviewed the Google Advanced Search method with the students.

Here are the links to the online textbooks that the students created. For the most part, they turned out very well.

http://tinyurl.com/ybbbdjw

http://tinyurl.com/yja5kjo

I have been gone… but I’m back with endless possibilities!

Although I have not kept up posting for a long time, I just was forwarded a website from one of our fabulous ‘tech guys’ at school that originally got me excited about Math! As an English teacher, I often joke about my (in)ability to work math equations effectively. In high school I had to work really hard to do well in my math classes, but this website actually makes working math equations sound like a lot of fun. I won’t hold you in suspense any longer, click below… and then come back.

http://www.wolframalpha.com

The first goal listed in their about section is also very intriguing:

“Wolfram|Alpha’s long-term goal is to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone. We aim to collect and curate all objective data; implement every known model, method, and algorithm; and make it possible to compute whatever can be computed about anything. Our goal is to build on the achievements of science and other systematizations of knowledge to provide a single source that can be relied on by everyone for definitive answers to factual queries.”

Not only will wolframalpha aid you in equations, but it does it by giving you some plain English explanations, as well as additional information! Something as simple as typing in your birthdate will give you facts, figures, and a plethora of fascinating information about the day you were born.

I have actually only been playing on the site for about 20 minutes, but it looks like it may have endless possibilities. Not to mention, it will surely have classroom applicability– especially in English and research. As I delve deeper into the site, I find that it actually not really about Math, but rather what is deemed computational knowledge. It sounds extremely interesting and I cannot wait to look further.

Senior Term Papers for Posterity

No two other words in the English language are able to insight fear and dread into a high school Senior English Class such as the words “Term Paper”. I have alluded toward how the Social Studies teacher, Heather, and I have worked to create this into a project, as opposed to just a paper. We have turned it into a project-based learning assignment that combines both Senior Economics/ Government classes and Senior English.

The idea that I will use this year to help raise the level of concern for students is to create a book of our papers. This is not going to be just a photocopied and stapled version, but rather after the papers have been graded and final copies remade, we will publish an actual book of papers. Again we will be looking at term papers and the writing process differently. The students will have to work through their term papers a final time to create not the final copy, but rather a ‘publish copy’. That I will store in my room for future years.

The students may possibly have an option for earning some extra credit by designing a creative cover, and a copy of that year’s assignment will be the cover page. The process by which we will be able to do this is an online service called LULU. At lulu.com, everybody is able to create their own book. (I am sure that good ‘ol Gutenburg never thought that this would have been possible.) The papers will be sent to a final student editor, saved as a pdf, and then uploaded to lulu. We can create a paperback or hardcover, and decide on the binding. We can also allow others to purchase our book when we are done.

I am also considering a final chapter to the book which will include student opinions about the project and what they learned. (That is where I get to learn and grow as a teacher as well.) This will be a great way to keep the ideas fresh for future years as well. I made a decision as I sat down the first time I assigned term papers that I will never assign a “normal term paper”, but rather create a project-based, interdisciplinary activity for students. These books will serve as reminders to me as well, to never become complacent and strive to always try to be one step ahead. These books may not only be for students’ posterity, but mine as a developing teacher as well.

Grammar Checker

As I spoke of previously, I had a phenomenal group of teachers to learn from when at the MTA in Sioux Falls. One of which was Reva Potter of Belle Fourche Middle School. Reva teaches Middle School English and has explored Grammar Checker. You know Grammar Checker, even if you think you don’t. The little squiggly lines below your words, phrases, or even entire paragraphs because you did something wrong– as defined by the higher authority. Well, it was great to listen to Reva talk about Grammar Checker (and numerous other teaching strategies- THANK YOU!).

I have had my own personal beef with Grammar Checker and semicolons. Cory over at Madville Times posted about suitable semicolon usage about a year ago, and it pushed me to write a special unit simply on colon and semicolon usage for my Senior English class. I often find it hard to believe that a senior term paper that ranges in length from 10- 12 pages should contain 15 semicolons. There are more effective ways of writing that make it less haughty, but that is just my rant. It seems as though, when in doubt about sentence structure, Grammar Checker just inserts a semicolon. And, as most of my students cannot wait to get through the term paper, they right click and go to the top ‘fix’ that Grammar Checker recommends.

While working with the National Writing Project, Reva worked with Education Professor Dorothy Fuller to write about the newest English teacher in every classroom. Potter and Fuller Article pdf

One of the main points that Reva stressed was that our most commonly used Grammar Checker is actually about 40 percent correct. FORTY PERCENT! That is failing on any grading scale that I have ever used or have been subjected to. Students automatically fall back to the fact that the computer is always correct, and that is not always true, as stated by Reva. I remember after the first ‘Character Analysis Essay’ that I assigned during my first year of teaching. A highly talented Senior was upset that I had deducted points from her scoring rubric for marking a comma usage as incorrect. She brought her computer up to me, showed me the paper, and explained that, “Well, the computer does not say that it is incorrect– how could you mark it wrong?” I directed her to a grammar handbook, but she still wasn’t buying it. It was a difficult situation for me to work through and I really did not know what I was going to do. I grew up with computers and trusted computers too. I do not actually remember what we did to resolve the conflict (I think we split the difference on the rubric), but it was a gut-wrenching, stomach jump into my throat moment that I will not soon forget. Everything that I knew what being counted wrong– on the first paper assignment! (By the way, this senior is going to school to be an English teacher now, and I know she will be fantastic!)

The theoretical lightbulb gleamed at full wattage as I heard Reva talk about Grammar Checker– again, thank you Reva! The concept of looking at Grammar Checker as a tool and not the end-all-be-all of grammar education is great approach. I think that this year I will do as Reva did in her research project and look at essays in both grammar checked and non-checked form. We will also partner up and then evaluate the differences.

So next time you are conflicted with Grammar Checker, look at it again from this new view…

It just gets better…

Working in the world of education, we take for granted that everybody knows that world is full of people with different learning styles and abilities. While I was at the Master Teacher Academy in Sioux Falls, Rebecca Rittenour of Hitchcock-Tulare High School showed me a great website that will help me to target more learning styles and abilities.

Librivox is an organization that was formed in August 2005 and since has grown to seven highly ambitious individuals who work to create mp3 recordings of works that are in the public domain. This is a great idea! As you already know, I have sent you to check out Google’s great library of books that are in the public domain, and Librivox takes it one step further to make an excellent resource for educators.

Before I even thought of the implications in my classroom, I thought about my 11-year-old neighbor. He is considered legally blind, because he was born prematurely and the pressures in his corneas were not correct. I really do not know a lot about this condition, but I do know that when his little sister was born this past December they were very concerned and monitored these pressures closely. And, by the way, she is doing beautifully now and her sight is not impaired. I just thought of the great things that he could listen to. Endearingly known around the neighborhood as the ‘question boy’, he is always wanting to learn. When I told his Mom about the website, she was elated. She has already downloaded some Bible stories for him to listen to.

In the classroom, I plan to link these recordings from my website so that my students can have the option to ‘listen along’ as they read. Listening aloud may be the way to improve reading comprehension for some students. With many novels, we just do not have the time to read the entirety of the novel in class. The students could also look at the catalog that they have and consider contributing to it, by reading short stories, poetry, or novels from the public domain to add to the library.

The recordings are also available in numerous languages which may benefit foreign language teachers too.

As we are also able to download these recordings to my iPod, I think that I will download some of the classics to my iPod to listen to. As I have also told you before, I will be able to listen to them on my commute to work by hooking it up to my Saturn Vue.

I am very exited about the possibilities that Librivox.org can offer my classroom and can’t wait to try it! I will let you know how it works.

Google in the Classroom

I have written about Google before and have to bring it up again. In Boulder, Colorado on August 5th there is a great teacher academy that I wish I would be around to attend. It is a free one day workshop for 50 selected applicants. Following the workshop, the teachers have a few requirements about integrating Google into the clasroom.

The link is below and the deadline to apply is swiftly appoaching. If you have a chance to apply, I would highly reccomend it. Though I have not attended, I love using Google in my classroom and would love to find out what advice the Google trainers could offer. The link to apply is below:

http://www.google.com/educators/gta.html

How many times have you heard this?

Did I Miss Anything?

Tom Wayman

Nothing. When we realized you weren’t here
we sat with our hands folded on our desks
in silence, for the full two hours

     Everything. I gave an exam worth
     40 percent of the grade for this term
     and assigned some reading due today
     on which I’m about to hand out a quiz
     worth 50 percent

Nothing. None of the content of this course
has value or meaning
Take as many days off as you like:
any activities we undertake as a class
I assure you will not matter either to you or me
and are without purpose

     Everything. A few minutes after we began last time
     a shaft of light suddenly descended and an angel
     or other heavenly being appeared
     and revealed to us what each woman or man must do
     to attain divine wisdom in this life and
     the hereafter
     This is the last time the class will meet
     before we disperse to bring the good news to all people
          on earth.

Nothing. When you are not present
how could something significant occur?

     Everything. Contained in this classroom
     is a microcosm of human experience
     assembled for you to query and examine and ponder
     This is not the only place such an opportunity has been
          gathered

     but it was one place

     And you weren’t here

Courtesy of http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/013.html 

Tech Standards

Today at the 21st Century Skills Master Teacher Academy we looked at a lot of information, but most notably would be the Educational Technology Standards (which are available on the South Dakota DOE Website).  

The lesson plans that each of the participants of the Academy are required to create and subsequently post online are required to include these Ed Tech Standards as well. From just visiting with my advisory group, I know that there are going to be some great lessons available (not to mention that I am really excited about a lesson plan I heard about across the room that another high school English teacher is planning on Beowulf). 

The whole idea of standards is to install some sort of consistency in our teaching throughout the state. And, as I posted before, there is now a 46- state push to create national standards in English, Math, and Science. We seem too often to be inundated with standards and as I am trained in both Social Studies and Language Arts, I have really critically looked at a great deal of the standards that have been created for secondary students. I think that these standards may not seem as difficult to approach. 

Do I agree with standards? Yes and no. Do I want the Secretary of the Department of Education to tell me exactly what to teach in my classroom? Absolutely not. Do I want all students entering my Senior British Literature class (from any school district) to be prepared to read at grade level and understand difficult text, not to mention be able to write effectively? Of course I do! 

Standards are overall a very practical way to lay out a curriculum, but like most educators I know, I don’t want to be told exactly how to teach in every lesson in my classroom. The educational technology standards for high school seem to be very broadly written. They also seem to allow a lot of liberty for teachers to approach these standards as they see to best fit into their classrooms. As I have not yet aligned these standards to my curriculum, I resist the tendency to say that they will be easily integrated. 

 Most of these standards seem easily attainable for my classroom and for my peers’ classrooms in my district. They all do a lot of really amazing things in their classrooms with technology. This is something that we can do because of the resources that are available. The 1:1 Laptops, Promethean Boards, wireless projectors, and soon iPod Touches have made technological literacy in our district more easily attainable. I actually think that most of these standards most of our high school teachers already assess regularly through regular classroom projects. 

I invite you to check it out for yourself and rate your own proficiency on these standards– how well would you do? 

 

uGoogle? iGoogle!

There are so many web tools that you can try and they are always changing. I think that one of the best tools that you can use is actually one of the most common words ever spoken in any high school classroom across the U.S.– Google! This afternoon during the 21st Century Skills Master Teacher Academy this tool was brought up a few times. One of the tools that I have used in class is Google Docs. Google Docs allows all people with a Google Account (not necessarily g-mail, but just an account) to create and share documents with any other Google Account owner. There are many rights and privileges that you can give to each collaborator or viewer of the document. The possibilities for the classroom are endless. I think that as educators we need to look at these tools of online collaboration as a primary way of working in a group. 

For example, my Seniors’ final English unit was a partner project in which a student in 2nd Hour partnered with a student in 4th hour to work on the same assignment. The assignment was very research instense and displayed many of the general recall, writing, research, and collaborative skills that they learned throughout the school year. Each group worked to create a properly cited research paper and multimedia presentation that they delivered individually. I directed the students by sharingcertain research guides that were necessary to complete and also provided the students with clear deadlines and grading rubrics for each step of the process. When I first explained this unit to my peers, some of them thought I was nuts, and rightly so, but (you know what?) it worked! It worked really well. The students could present from their Google account or download it to a Power Point and present it that way as well. (All of the documents created can be downloaded in more familiar forms to your computer.) 

One way to make projects like this work is to give students some more information to make it relevant. For this project, I likened this project to students working in New York City as a site manager and their company having a branch in Los Angeles. The company was introducing a new product and both you and the LA branch manager both need to present about the benefits of this new product to your entire company. Why should you both make independent presentations? It is not necessary in the age of technology. By using something like Google Docs and sharing the document with their counterpart in LA, both of the site managers can save time and money for the company. 

Google Docs is just one way that you can use some of the Google tools available. You need to open a new tab on your browser today and go to Google. From your basic white Google page, click in the upper right hand corner on the iGoogle link and create your own account. You can also set your browser to your own iGoogle homepage. Add fun widgets about the weather, news, You Tube favorites, photos, other email accounts, and even an Einstein Quote of the Day if it tickles your fancy! There is a widget for just about everything you could imagine. I invite you to explore it for yourself and see some of the apps that are available to you.

Give it Here!

We have all seen the student looking at their lap, with their hands below the table, not paying attention, and ask them to, “give it here.” The student begrudgingly hands over their hot-pink-plated latest version of the cellular technology to the teacher, only to be picked up at the end of the day. And, most likely, you’ll hear a depressing ‘ughhh…’ from the student (and her friends). Even at one point in time during my student teaching, when my cooperating teacher was out of the room, I had confiscated at least seven cell phones!! Now, that I think I have a little more control of my classroom, this does not happen as often, but it is a serious issue. 

Now, I think that I have at least figured out a lot of the of the questions when it comes to teaching– and that is really where I need to start. One question that constantly keeps coming up is about cell phones. Cell phones in the classroom is a scary thought for most teachers, and I readily admit that I am guilty of this same thought. I immediately think of all the bad things that could possibly happen; quiz answers scooting from second hour to fourth hour, pointless and distracting rumor mills, and cheating of all sorts! But, how different are any of these actions from the “old-fashioned” note passing I did in high school? I think that I want to let my students loose, but we have (as a faculty) decided to crack down on cell phones in the classroom and just take them away at all cost. We have even gone as far as to rewrite the high school policy book to make the policy even more hard-lined.

When it comes to rules, I know we need to be consistent, but I don’t want to take away from their ability to use the tools in their world around them. I call a cell phone a tool now, as we can do so many knew things with cell phones. As stated in the video embedded above, students are walking around with very powerful computers in their pockets (albeit hidden and nonetheless forbidden in most districts).  What rules can I develop in my classroom in regard to cell phones? Is it possible to reign the students in and have them use their pocket computers effectively without losing complete control of my classroom? 

 I think that this upcoming year will involve some sort of allowable cell phone usage in the classroom, but we will not be texting answers or calling friends. Rather, I will allow usage of some of the (using a Mac term in honor of my new iPod) ‘apps’ to benefit classroom projects. Students could use their super-compact-super-accessible mini computers as microphones to integrate recorded voice into the classroom, snap pictures when we don’t have access to a camera, and use ringtones as background in our movies, commercials or multimedia presentations. I say these ideas, as I know that the majority of my students are all cell-phone equip. 

Hopefully allowing this will help  me to use their cell phone as a tool, as opposed to a vice to hide from instructors. What do you think?

Edit: I just found another tool to use student cell phones in class. On Voicethread,  students can use a generated toll free phone number (after hitting comment on a created Voicethread) and can call that number to add voice to your presentation.