A new homework policy…but what to do about reading homework

New homework policies have been “turned in” from all grade levels. I have read various drafts of them and I think they are well done.

We do have one lingering issue….or at least I have on lingering issue.

How do we handle nightly reading as homework? Currently we ask kids to read 20 minutes per night. Most teachers have the kids keep a record of some sort indicating what was read. Parents sign off on the form as a sign of validation.

We know that perhaps the best way to improve reading skills is to read. We know that the best way to increase vocabulary is to read. We know that the best way to build background knowledge on various content areas is to read. Because we believe in the importance of reading we make it homework to ensure that all kids read for fear that if we didn’t make it homework kids might not read and then the skill development we are seeking (as well as love of reading) might go by wayside.

But grading students for their at home reading seems a little backwards especially since we are aiming for intrinsic motivation to those big lifelong goals we have four kids. Yet we impose an external motivator or sometimes punishment if they don’t work on that lifelong goal of becoming a lover of reading.

I’m torn on the subject as there are some people will say we are doing a disservice in punishing kids for not reading or at least giving the appearance that we will. The disciplinarians in us are afraid that if we don’t impose some type of “accountability system” that students will not do their reading. When actually I think some of us realize those same kids can just as easily avoid reading and forge the calendar or whatever final type of form they have to fill out.

Is our time spent developing and enforcing a compliance system of reading homework doing harm to those kids that are voracious readers (and we certainly have lots of those)? Do adults keep lists of pages read and answer questions to open ended questions about the books they read? Of course they don’t, so why do we expect kids to do it? Can’t those “system” actually interfere with their enjoyment of the reading?

Social Networking....how will education respond?

http://wcbstv.com/technology/facebook.social.networking.2.1662565.html

I'm not sure how all educators and more importantly education leaders (because they get to make the rules) but at least one principal in New Jersey wants nothing to do with social networking and is telling parents to get their kids off of it.

The article says parents are supportive of the principal. I'm not completed surprised by this, but am guessing not all communities would lean that way. Also wondering if the parents are also against social networking or just generally supportive of their child's principal.

Perhaps both.

I'm not saying I am rushing out to get my kids on social tools (they aren't old enough) but I do realize it is something I want to teach them to use responsibly. It doesn't appear to be going away. If you can't beat it...at least educate the heck out of it!

Social Media Revolution

Thought provoking video inspired by "Did You Know"...however this one features data nuggets related to Social Media (ex. Facebook).  The numbers are staggering....the real question is "how will education harness the power of this tool" or will we do what we usually do as the school system (look away or bury or head in the sand or simply think it doesn't apply to us)?

Is "Boring" okay?

So I finally had a few minutes to finish my word association tally project that I was doing to see what students thought about school.  I had students do associations about other topics such as summer, sports, family etc.  However, this is the only one that seems appropriate for this blog.  This is the results of the grade 4 students that I completed the activity with.  Don't get me wrong there are some good words in there that are fairly large....learn, fun, friends.  However, what hits you in the face is "BORING" big and bold right in the middle.  I was expecting a "happier" graph from this group of students which leads me to my question.

Is school by definition "boring" for students?  No matter what we do are the majority of students going to be bored?  And what responsibility do we as teachers have in making it as "un-boring" as possible short of free for all game play not related to school?

How does a teacher balance content and boredom?  How does a school keep a student engaged and interested (ie not bored) for 7 hours a day?  Is it an unrealistic expectation?

Thoughts, please.....

Microsoft Mouse Mischief

Perfect timing for our class, right. Microsoft has released a new (and free) tool call Mouse Mischief. It allows a teacher to share control of a Powerpoint presentation with their students using mice. It allows teachers to create and administer Powerpoint using the same mice. Checkout the site (http://www.microsoft.com/multipoint/mouse-mischief/learn-more.aspx) to get more details and get a download.

It will work with our version of Powerpoint but it only supports 5 mice on XP.  Having Vista or Windows 2010 will support more users.  I have to think the clicker folks are looking for ways to make their products better since much is what clickers give you for a price, Microsoft is now giving you for free.

21st Century School

Great video showing where all schools need to headed....but are we moving there fast enough?!

Kerry's Web 2.0 Resources from OneNote

Presentation Tools 
 http://web2010.discoveryeducation.com/web20tools-presentation.cfm
- SlideShare
- 280Slides
- Prezi
- Picsviewr

Video Tools 
http://web2010.discoveryeducation.com/web20tools-video.cfm
- Animoto
- Gizmoz
- XtraNormal

Mobile Tools 
http://web2010.discoveryeducation.com/web20tools-mobile.cfm
- PollEverywhere
- Drop.io
- Phone.io
- Jott

Community Tools
http://web2010.discoveryeducation.com/web20tools-community.cfm
- Edmodo
- Google Docs
- Wikispaces
- PBWorks
- Ning
- Classroom2.0
- ThinkQuest
- Yugma
- SMART Board Revolution
- CreativeCommons

Best of the Rest
http://web2010.discoveryeducation.com/web20tools-related.cfm
- Wordle
- Glogster
- VoiceThread
- SmileBox
- MakeBeliefsComix
- Class Blogmeister
- Dabbleboard
- WiZiq

Other suggestions:

- Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
§ Free audio editor
- TimeToast http://www.timetoast.com/
§ Online timeline creator
- Obsurvey http://obsurvey.com/default.aspx
§ Online survey creator
- Jing http://www.jingproject.com/
capture anything you see on your computer screen and share it instantly...as an image or short movie.

Almost Too Painful to Watch

Opposites Attract?

This video brings together a love of mine (the Beatles) and something I detest (informercials).  Enjoy!

Online Quizzing Tools.....Data Collection

Last week we talked about the software we had in-house that we could use to assess learning and gather data for formative assessment purposes.

There are plenty of free online tools available for you to try out and see what you like best.

Obviously we can't show them all to you, but we do hope you play and find something that you can use.

**PollEverywhere
ThatQuiz
SurveyMonkey
**GoogleForms
QEDOC
QuizStar
MyStudiyo
ProProfs Quiz Maker
ClassMarker
Quibblo
Obsurvey


Not all of these tools will give you student by student break downs.  Each has their advantages and disadvantages.  If I need instant results then GoogleForms and PollEverywhere are my best option.  If I want to "by student" results then my best bet is GoogleForms (with some report working), ThatQuiz, Respondus/Blackboard, or the TurningPoint clickers.  As far as each of use it is hard to beat GoogleForms.  Can you tell I'm a bit enamored by GoogleForms' potential.

Obsurvey

A new survey tool (that is free for now at least) is Obsurvey.  From what I have seen I really like it.  Pulls results fast and nice reporting options.  Check out my demo survey.

http://obsurvey.com/S.aspx?id=1fe9e737-4967-4ee9-9aea-15321a7ef752

Sample Google Forms Quiz

Several weeks ago I asked my 5th graders as part of a collaborative typing assignment to list words they associated with school.  Needless to see the results were not shocking but still made me sad.  Part of me wants to dismiss this and say that kids need to suck it up and work hard to ensure they get the best education possible. While another part of me wants to say that we as teachers need to take a hard look at how kids see school.  For  grade 3 students homework is what they associate with school.  Recess and gym are also big concepts for them.  Fortunately so is math.  Again boring is large, although not as large as for 5th grade.  Can I make a jump here and say that students in this grade might benefit from active learning.  Recess and gym (both active) are big concepts.  Perhaps active learning will mean less boredom for our students.  And I'm not sure if it is a pipedream, but can we do something with homework to make it more active.  From my Wordle I can't make necessarily associate negative feelings with "homework" as that wasn't part of my survey.

We had been working on defining a vision and procedures for homework in our building.  However, the work is slow and does not show any sign of being complete in the very near future.  We've done all the reading on homework that we can put our hands on and we still can't come to agreement on the purpose, value, and best use of homework.  All I keep thinking is that if homework takes two years (plus) then grading will take many more years.

Tech TuneUP class update 4.23.10

Kerry and I met after school today to talk about the rest of class.

The end of class is really coming up quickly and we realized that we simply did not get done what we had hoped to do.  Chalk it up to an overly ambitious plan ;)

Several people have asked for an update on requirements related to successful completion of the class.

We will publish this post in email, OneNote, the TechTuneUp blog (techtuneup.blogspot.com)

We meet next week (April 27^th) and at that time will go over several other formative assessment tools that are available online.  Kerry will demonstrate how to use Poll Everywhere, an online survey tool that can be completed by the computer or a cell phone.  I will show how to use Google Forms as a way to administer quizzes and gather formative data.

The remainder of the April 27^th class will be used for work time. 

We had hoped to do some work with Excel and analyzing gathered data from your formative assessments but think that is practical with the limited amount of time we have remaining.  However, if you gather some data and would like to take a shot at the analysis please feel free to bring to one of the remaining classes. 

Then on May 4^th we have our last session.  We will allocate plenty for project work and then end the class by sharing our projects with each other.  Since we have 25 people in the class, we know that sitting through even a 5 minute presentation by each person might not be the best use of class time we are looking at doing more of an open house where people rotate through a number of projects at any one time.  That should allow us to both get the information on the projects in which we are most interested and get us headed home before dark.

As far as assignments we have assigned the following:

1)      Identify and make progress on a significant project of your choosing that is beneficial to both you and your students. 

2)      Subscribe to a number of feeds in Google Reader, create a blog and post several posts each week during class to share your new learning.  By the end of class we would have had this assignment in place for about 5 weeks so 10-15 posts seems reasonable.  Remember, we are trying to building new PD habits and posting 12 times the night before the last class doesn’t really accomplish the intent of the assignment.

3)      Experiment with on assessment technology tool we studied in class (or one you’ve found).

4)      Proudly share what you’ve learned in this class and accomplished on your personal project during the last class.

Kerry and I are so pleased with all the work and great discussions that are happening in this class.  At the same time we realize that we are not meeting the needs of all participants as well as we would have hoped.  We will certainly try our best in the remaining classes.

Like the rest of the world, education continues to change and keeping pace with new information, techniques, and tech tools is a challenging task.  Our hope is this class has helped you grow.  If you are interested in learning more and continuing on this type of work I expect to be having our regular tech tuneup class this summer during the week of August 2^nd and hope that you can join us.  The pacing of a 2 semester class is quite different than the one hour class and allows people to tackle multiple projects as well as delve into the latest state data.  More information should be coming out about that opportunity in the next week or so.

Mark and Kerry

Poster for My Thoughts

I love my inspirational (or un-inspirational) posters.

You Can't Hide from the Future....it is already here.

Digital Disconnect

Since I'm on record as liking the EdTech plan released a few weeks ago I thought I would voice just one of the concerns I have with it.  I'm not sure the people in the ed tech section of the building are speaking with the people in the accountability and testing department.

The EdTech plan is a radical departure from the sit and get, test and punish policies that are NCLB.  However, we now have a new EdTech plan and NCLB in place.  The two simply do not relate.

I understand NCLB will be revamped or changed in at least some way but my guess is that we will still test mostly lower level factual/content area knowledge.  And because this is what teachers are accountable for why will they teach with the techniques described in the EdTech plan.  There is no enforcement of that plan....so why do if you can spend one more day getting ready for the test.  The test has become the curriculum.

Earlier this week I saw a sheet in the copy room with the lyrics to a song I can only the children will be singing as test prep since next week is the BIG week.  The song was about RSQ (restate the question).  RSQ is a test taking strategy that reminds kids to write in complete sentences by including most of the text of the original question.

RSQ=21st Century.....I don't think so.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/04/13/educators-reflect-on-national-ed-tech-plan/?




image from http://bluefinch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Head_Scratch_Final_2.jpg

National Education Technology Plan

A little more than a month ago the US Dept. of Education released the National Education Technology Plan. While I have only skimmed it, I certainly liked what I've seen so far. From scanning the bloglines it appears that the experts generally agree with the contents of the plan and are really like what they are reading. However (as others have put it, including Will Richardson) saying and doing are two VERY things. The plan is just the beginning of the conversation....

I wonder when (if) our district will take a look at the plan. My guess is that until the State Dept of Ed. releases their take on the report (ie an updated state plan) our district may take a look at it. Until then I'll just be satisfied with the Wordle I made of the executive summary of the plan.

http://www.ed.gov/technology/netp-2010

Google May Be On to Something Here..... ;)

Wow....those engineers at Google have done it again ;)


More animals translations....

My Philosophy of Education.....

We all need to be here....teachers have signed a contract and the students really have no choice.  Can we change impressions of school by the same things we need to do (ie curriculum) in a more fun way?

We need more of this.....



More fun ideas found at:
http://www.thefuntheory.com/

Fun=Participation=Engagement

There was a time in our nation that formal schooling was a privilege or an optional activities for the children of our country.  In the late 1800s the leaders of our nation decided in order to continue growing our nation's future workforce and citizens needed to be universally educated.  I won't go on about how much of the curricular ideas drafted in the late 1800s are still in place today (not to mention our agrarian school calendar).

School is required by law...unfortunately an engaging learning environment is not.  While I think most teachers strive to make their teaching environment an engaging (or even fun) environment I'm not sure students see it that way.

Last week I did a highly unscientific thought association activity with about 100 students.  I was demonstrating http://typewith.me/.me and http://www.wordle.net/.

I wanted students to do a brief collaborative writing activity.  I ask them to generate words they associate with summer and then I asked them to generate words they associate with school.

The results left me a bit sad.....