Sorry seems to be the hardest word.

My momma raised me to be honest in spite of what it might do to me.. so here goes. I didn't do the best job I would. Whew, there, I said it, Out loud- here for millions and billions of people to see ( or maybe only my 5 followers) I came to all the sessions. Listened to the instructors, took all I learned to heart, but I didn't blog as much as I was supposed to nor did I share with my students all I could have.

Now that I admitted it, you probably wonder what I am going to do about it. Here's my plan, in 12 easy steps.

1. Put in for some summer money to actually embed this into my curriculum now that I have some down time.
2. Meet with my fellow Anwatin partners in crime to actually talk about and document for years to come, what we are teaching the students at each grade level. Sort of like standards- yeah- standards.
3. Continue the MILI thing next year, if they let me.
4. Put this as the focus of my PDP next year.


That said, I appreciate all the organizers and instructors. I really do. I think most of the time my frustration was with myself and the fact that I thought, " Wow- this is such great stuff!" Now what am I going to do with it? So I did learn a lot of stuff. I really did. And I plan to continue my learning. If you'll have me.

Ciao'

Facebook yay!!!

Ok- I can't get in to Facebook with this computer. Is there any way the district could lift the "ban" on all those horrible web sites like You Tube and Facebook for us? There are some great videos on You Tube and there is quite the network of MPS teachers on Facebook too. Although I can't imagine how any of those sites could be used in class. I guess it's more of a networking thing for teachers right?

Maybe I will try that Ning site...

http://www.allyoucanread.com/

2 minutes and I already found something really useful! Check out this web site. Great for current events or anything else for that matter. You can choose to look at papers from any major US city or go outside the US too. I spent some time right now with the Japan Times- an english language paper I used to read every day when I was an exchange students in Japan many years ago! Pretty interesting. You can also see what is advertised in the different nations. I clicked on a link for a Disco Career Agent.

The only bad thing is, I tried to go to the Amalfi paper to read about where I would travel this summer, and I can't read Italian!! I need that tool where it turns what you are reading to English!

But this is something I could definately use in class. Even right away!

What we learned last month.

Giving the students the chance to communicate/chat with each other in class? And giving them a grade for it? I would be the most popular teacher ever! I must admit, I haven't quite gotten around to trying that out yet. Our tech guy has this cool thing where you can watch what your students are doing my pulling up their screen. As soon as I have access to that, I might think about piloting this with one class. Probably my smallest class.

I don't know when I turned into al old fuddy-duddy teacher that hate it when the kids socialize instead of work. But I can't stand it! I should probably just let go and let natural consequences take their course. Giving them the chance to do what we did last month in class would be great. All those shy, quiet students I have that never get to talk would have a chance to contribute to the learning.

So maybe before the end of this year... I'll put it on my "To Do List" and see how that goes1

Notetaking

"Please be warned: teaching summarizing is no small undertaking. It's one of the hardest strategies for students to grasp, and one of the hardest strategies for you to teach. You have to repeatedly model it and give your students ample time and opportunities to practice it. But it is such a valuable strategy and competency. Can you imagine your students succeeding in school without being able to break down content into manageable small succinct pieces? "

This is one of my major struggles as a teacher. The dilemma is three fold; when to give notes, how to give notes and how much to expect from the students as far as their skills level. When is come time to actually taking notes during something like a movie, students like having choices. If I give them specific questions to answer they seem to get frustrated faster. I usually give them choices in terms of doing Cornell notes or just writing a hodge podge or facts and questions.

When they were taking notes during History Day, I gave them topics and suggested (quite firmly) that they take notes using the Cornell Notes Style- which most of them are familiar with due to their AVID Class. (Yay) I still ran into the issue that they would write things down word for word and not have a clue as to how to summarize.

So I guess my next step, to avoid a class full or plagiarists, is to work with our wonderful language teacher on how to help them do that.

Breathe

Now that History Day is done, I have time to actually do that teacher thing and reflect on the whole process. I asked my students to write letters to next years 8th grade class to give them advice about how History Day worked or did not work for them. I actually got some usable feedback from them. They were happy with the different internet tools that were available and the ways to access them. They had an easier time finding Primary Sources then my students last year did (Thanks MILI).

In terms of things they did not like, they found it difficult to communicate with each other when taking notes and finding answers to all the questions on the History Day Steps. If I would have been comfortable using Google Docs, I think that would have solved many of those issues.

KartOO

Yet another kid friendly search place! I went there and typed in something for a student who had been searching for days for something new and within seconds I found 8 new pieces of information they could use. I also liked it because when you scroll over the icon, it shows on the left what the web page looks like.

It's user friendly for both adults and kids and has everything from Wikapedia to Primary sources. There are also tabs at the top for videos and images.

http://www.kartoo.com

Love this "Thing"

Librarians’ Internet Index: Here you’ll be connected to quality, authoritative sites. Search by keyword or narrow down your search by browsing categories like business, government, media, health, computers, or the arts and humanities.

http://www.lii.org/

LOVE IT!

As one of those "computer lab obsessed" Humanities teachers, I am always trying to find the next best thing for students to enhance their searching. This web site was awesome for history day research! Students are forever asking me if a certain web site is valid and we spend so much time trying to decipher one site that we miss out on so many more. This web site takes all that away. The only thing I would add is something like what nettrekker has. The readability piece is also so important for the students.

In spite of that, almost all of the students had success finding helpful primary sources on this site. They could actually break things down from History to US History to an exact topic. And it was fast! Which as we all know, 14 year olds appreciate that quick fix!

How to communicate with students

Myspace, facebook, twitter, teacher web pages... All ways to communicate electronically with students.  There seems to be a debate over which one is best.  To be honest I stink at keeping up with my web page.  MySpace is all too much for me.  Facebook is more for my own pleasure than for my students.  And Twitter is unfamiliar to me.

Students and parents e-mail and call me often to communicate and ask questions, but even that seems so old school.  It would be more user friendly to have a place for students to go that they go to anyway- like MySpace.  But I have already eliminated that option.

I am looking for someone with advice on what they do that wouldn't take up too much time, but is beneficial to all parties.

Thankful for Maureen!

Nothing in this profession should be done in isolation.  In these days of budget cuts and layoffs, I am delighted to have a knowledgeable and helpful Media Specialist at Anwatin.  When students want to do certain things for History Day, I find myself in a bind.  Yes- I took the classes on I-Movie but it was one of those things if I didn't have to actually do anything after the class, the paperwork went into a folder and is collecting dust on my desk!

Not only does Maureen help in the 2-3 hours she actually has free, she puts very helpful links on the Anwatin Home Page for the students to follow.

This year she has helped with the technology piece and resource part by not just encouraging the students to search out of "google" and Wikapedia, but she shows them the great things they can find when they use these different tools.

I wish every school could be so lucky!

Not reinventing the wheel

So I discovered this past month that I am about 2 years behind in terms of what I learn and what I implement in my classes for my students.  A few years ago at a History Day workshop, I learned about all the resources the MPS website and the library site had to offer my students in terms of research.  

This year I finally "made" the students go to these sites and try to find things that would help them in their research. I am proud to say that almost all students found helpful things on Proquest and the New York Times sites that assisted them in their projects.  Sometimes all it takes is a gentle push and turning it into an actual assignment instead of an add on.

Next- I tackle google docs and delicious.com!

History Day Hullaballoo

It's here.... History Day starts in full swing for me Monday and I am not quite prepared.  I did type up a usage sheet so the students can wean themselves from google and wikipedia.  I used many of the resources I learned about in this class.  My next goal is to get them ready for Google docs.  I know GP has had his students use them and I hope to have a "cheat sheet" for them next week.  I'm the type of person who needs to identify the bugs in something before I give it to the students.  So I am trying to come up with all the "issues" I think the students may have before I introduce it.  I know nothing ever really goes as planned- but I want at least all students introduced to the concept and then hopefully they will have time to play with it and find a "happy zone" in which they can learn some content AND something new that will help them research smarter!