Thursday, May 31, 2012

PD in your PJs Virtual Conference



I'm excited to announce that I have been selected as one of eighteen educators to present at the PD in your PJs Online Conference hosted by The State of Tech podcast on Saturday, June 16th from noon to 5pm EST. The conference will include 28 sessions on topics ranging from Google apps to tablet integration to BYOD deployment. Here's the cool part - the conference is completely free and will stream live for all the world to see. If you would like to watch, simply click on the live stream link on June 16th.

My presentation is titled Managing Your Online Footprint and will focus on the importance of maintaining a positive online identity. Complete presentation details are available here. In addition to watching the presentation, 9 lucky folks can join me in the video chat and contribute to the event. If you're interested, you can sign up here. Act fast - spots are limited!

See you on the 16th!


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Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Holocaust Survivor Lesson Plan and Resources

I don't know why I didn't do this sooner.

Back in 2006, I worked with the Holocaust Resource Center of Buffalo to bring Holocaust survivor Mr. Joe Diamond in to speak with 8th grade students at my school. I had the foresight to recognize that stories like Mr. Diamond's deserved to be documented, so I set up a few cameras and a small audio recording rig. I'm grateful that I did this, because I have been able to share his story with every student to pass through my door in the past six years. Other teachers have also asked for copies so they could use it with their classes too.

For some reason, I never thought to upload the video. Duh.

It's a bit delayed, but below is the complete presentation by Mr. Joe Diamond from February 23rd, 2006. Hearing firsthand accounts of discrimination, hardships, and murder coming directly from his mouth is far more impacting than from any textbook.


If you'd like to use my pre-viewing assignment, it is available here.

If you'd like to use my post-viewing assignment, it is available here. 

 "The only way I can get even is to educate and speak to students like yourself. Because you’re the future, and we want to make sure that these things don’t reoccur."  
                    - Joe Diamond


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Tuesday, May 29, 2012

A "Cool" Science Experiment - DIY Air Conditioning

My house is about 60 years old. This means the attic is poorly ventilated, the walls are thin, and what little insulation that may have once existed has probably turned to clumpy wads of structural detritus. The result is that our house is consistently in the mid 80s throughout the summer. My wife and I have discussed central air a few times but there are some other home improvements that are higher priorities. So until I check a few things off my list, I'm stuck sweating it out.

Today I was looking around Instructables (which my sister-in-law accurately describes as "Pinterest for guys") and I spotted this tutorial on how to build a DIY air conditioner using a box fan, copper tubing, and an outdoor fountain pump. It was just too cool not to try. 


Here is the finished project. I zip-tied the copper tubing to the fan and then carefully attached the pump inside the styrofoam cooler. We already had the box fan, so the whole project only cost about $40. 



Before adding ice, I checked the air temperature with the fan on. Yes, that's a meat thermometer. I'm an English teacher, not a scientist. Give me a break. 



Add ice. I remember learning once that salt water has a lower freezing point, so I imagine that experimenting with that could improve the air conditioner's performance.



3.3 degrees cooler after running the pump for about 5 minutes! Ok, maybe that's not a lot, but I'd like to think of it as a starting point. I bet with some tweaks, this baby could hit the 5 degree mark.


Realistically, my homemade contraption would last about 6 minutes in a house with three kids under the age of five, so I'm taking it to school for the final days before summer recess. Not only will my students appreciate the (slightly) cooler classroom, but my DIY air conditioner practically comes with a pre-installed teachable moment about conductors/insulators, air temperature, and freezing point. What a "cool" way to review for the science final exam. 


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Friday, May 25, 2012

Using QR Codes to Make an Interactive Yearbook

About a year ago, I wrote a post proclaiming my excitement about QR codes in the classroom. Since that time, the little square anomalies have blown up and now appear pretty much everywhere (last weekend I even spotted one taped to the door of the place where I go to get my hair cut).

My school, too, has made strides in using QR codes. One now appears on our official school letterhead, and one is prominently displayed in the main lobby that links to a supplemental video for our online book clubs. Most notably, however, is the sudden appearance of them in this year's student yearbook.

I have worked with our art teacher and yearbook coordinator to include embedded videos in QR code form that correspond with the events that are memorialized on the pages of the yearbook. It's a way to make the yearbook a more accurate snapshot of what life was like throughout the year.

Our efforts did not go unnoticed. Local news channel, WIVB, heard about our yearbooks and did a quick segment on our use of technology to connect the physical and digital worlds. You can read their news story here or watch the story below.

 

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10 Professional Development Books for Teachers

I have a colleague whose husband is working his way through the interview process for a middle school science position at a nearby school. He caught word from a friend who is also working there that the principal just loves to ask candidates about the last book they read relating to education. My colleague came to me for advice on what her hubby should read, and since only a few titles came to mind, I turned to my Twitter followers for help. Special thanks to @AngelaStockman, @marlawitkowski, @thor_winnipeg, and @vickyloras for suggestions. Extra special thanks to @newtechnetwork for the idea to post the results of my little survey.

Visible Learning for Teachers
By John Hatte


Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland? 
By Pasi Shalberg


The Answer is in the Room: How Effective Schools Scale Up Student Success
 By Alan M. Blankstein


Driven by Data: A Practical Guide to Improve Instruction
 by Paul Bambrick-Santoyo


Teach Like a Champion: 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College 
 by Doug Lemov and Norman Atkins


Changing the Way You Teach: Improving the Way Students Learn
By Giselle Martin-Kniep and Joanne Picone-Zocchia


Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds: Move to Global Collaboration One Step at a Time 
 by Vicki Davis Julie Lindsay


The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective, and Powerful Ways To Use Social Media to Drive Social Change by Jennifer Aaker, Andy Smith, Dan Ariely and Chip Heath


When Kids Can't Read: What Teachers Can Do: A Guide for Teachers 6-12 
 by Kylene Beers


The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education 
 by Diane Ravitch


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Thursday, May 24, 2012

An Evening with Spence Rogers




I had the pleasure last week to attend a workshop with notable author and educator Spence Rogers on his unique and somewhat unorthodox approach to creating assessments. Rogers has been teaching for longer than I have been alive and the three hour workshop hardly scratched the surface of his expertise. To attempt to summarize the depth of his work here would certainly result in gross generalities and inaccuracies, but I thought I’d share a few of the highlights from the experience.

Hold Students Accountable for Each Other 

How many minutes each day do teachers spend waiting for students to come into class and take out the necessary materials? In my class, the bell rings, I give the all-call for what they need, and then wait and repeat the request to the molasses kids. They are masters of avoidance and realize a sheet of paper and a pencil can easily eat up a minute or two. Cumulatively, that’s more than a week’s worth of instruction spent waiting for students to get ready for class! Rogers suggests remedying this problem by changing the way requests are made. Rather than ask, “Please take out a piece of paper and a pencil,” instead phrase it, “Please make sure everyone around you has a piece of paper and a pencil.” This small shift makes students accountable for each other and uses positive peer pressure to get the job done.

Test the Hard Stuff 

Much of the workshop was spent discussing assessments and how to make them more meaningful. Rogers suggests a method that could loosely be described as a spiraled curriculum (although for a complete explanation, I would suggest picking up a copy of his book, Teaching for Excellence, that integrates assessments throughout rather as a milestone as the end of a unit. By continuing review and reinforcement (Rogers emphasizes that a student needs 28 interactions for real learning to take place), the easier concrete questions can be eliminated from assessments. Students will perform higher on assessments that are more difficult.

Total Response Questioning 

Total Response Questioning was a simple strategy that guarantees that all students in the class can answer a question correctly. The teacher asks the entire class to answer a question in a complete sentence and to continue repeating the answer until told to stop. From the front of the room, the teacher can monitor that all students are engaged, and it also forces every kid to answer the question (while also accumulating those 28 interactions). The result is the room erupting into a cacophony of voices. It’s a bit hokey, but it works.

 Assessment vs. Evaluation 

According to Rogers, assessments discover what students know and how lessons can be adjusted as necessary. Evaluations are used to document what students know. Interesting – In a world of high stakes student assessments and a new teacher evaluation system, it seems some high-ups in New York State could benefit from an evening with Spence Rogers.



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